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Open Thread September 14, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:59 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 142023

Yesterday, the sun shone, and the temperature barely broke 70, so the yard got done. Mitt Romney announced he will not run for re-election. Liz Cheney had some choice words for what she calls “the Putin wing of the Republican Party” (AKA the Sedition Caucus.) In Pennsylvania, they found and captured the escaped prisoner. And I picked two ery different short takes from very different sources, and – surprise, surprise! – They’re both on Substack. So crank up your mouse to click on “continue reading.” Everyone on Substack whom I have seen talk about it is very happy to be there – it’s easy for authors to use, and it saves them a lot of money compared to other venues. So I don’t see any of them moving away from it any time soon.

In case you noticed Nameless missing a few days, he’s healthy, but tied up with taxes, in his own state and in the state in which a relative lived from whom he received an inheritance. He’s on an extension, but the date for that is getting closer faster than he would like

Cartoon – On 14 September 1867 —

Short Takes –

Robert Reich – Who’s most responsible for the monopolization of America?
Quote – Yet the federal courts have been reluctant to do anything about this and are pushing back against the Biden administration’s efforts. Why? Because of a man named Robert Bork…. I first met Bork in September 1971, when I took his class on antitrust at Yale Law School. I recall him as a large, imposing man, with a red beard and a perpetual scowl…. We kept challenging his view that the only legitimate purpose of antitrust law was to lower consumer prices…. Even in our mid-20s, we knew this was bullshit.
Click through for history. If you didn’t already know, you will learn why “borked” is now a synonym for “inoperable,” chaotic,” or even “SNAFU.”

Wonkette – Lauren Boebert Kicked Out Of Theater For Acting Too Lauren Boebert-y
Quote – U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert was escorted out of a Sunday night performance of the “Beetlejuice” musical in downtown Denver, accused by venue officials of vaping, singing, recording and “causing a disturbance” during the performance. VAPING. The woman was VAPING. The paper says they got warned during intermission that others around them were complaining (LMAO), so clearly it was time to shape up and sit nicely with our hands folded in front of us, even though it is a fun show like Beetlejuice. We can go to Chuck E. Cheese afterward, OK? The incident report states that after receiving the intermission warning, about five minutes into the second act security officials received “another complaint about the patrons being loud and at the time (they) were recording.” Taking pictures or recording is not permitted at shows. Tacky.
Click through to read embarrassing details and see optional surveillance footage. The part in italics is direct quotes from the Denver Post.

Food For Thought

Open Thread September 13, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:02 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 132023

Yesterday, it rained, and I do not want anyone out in my yard with an electric weed whacker in the rain. So we are trying for today instead. Qevin McQarthy opened an impeachment investigation into Joe Biden. The New Yorker is doing reruns of Name Drop this week – Monday’s was from February 2022 and I blew itboth times. Yesterday’s was from May 2023 and I got it on the second clue – in May, it took me till the third clue to get it. If I’d remembered just a littlemoreI might have jumped 2 clues.

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Short Takes –

The Hartmann Report – SCOTUS Has Placed Itself Above Congress, the Constitution, and the Founders
Quote – The author of the Declaration of Independence and America’s third president predicted today’s Supreme Court corruption. Congress should have been listening then; it must listen now. If Democrats can retake the House and hold the Senate and White House in 2024, they must hit the ground running in 2025 with legislation to limit the corruption and powers of the Supreme Court. Which means they need to get started now. Here’s the backstory, and what needs to be done.
Click through for the backstory and what needs to be done. I don’t subscribe to Hartmann (yet), but it is Substack so you’ll need to click. I cannot argue with a single word.

Newsweek via MSN – Russian General Admits Ukraine Just a ‘Stepping Stone’ to Invade Europe
Quote – “I think there’s still plenty of time to spend. It is pointless to talk about a specified period. If we are talking about Eastern Europe, which we will have to, of course then it will be longer,” the general said. “Ukraine is only a stepping stone?” the interviewer then asked. “Yes, absolutely. It is only the beginning,” Mordvichev responded, who went on to say that the war “will not stop here.” Newsweek reached out to the Russian embassy via email for comment.
Click through for story. Newsweek and MSN can usually be relied on for accuracy. Russian generals, not so much. But the bigger question is, why say it? It won’t scare NATO off – it will only make the West more determined to crush this aggression. Russians need to wake up and realize they are no longer Vikings.

Food For Thought

Open Thread September 12, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:04 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 122023

Yesterday, Talking Points Memo’s newsletter included an update on a lawsuit in Colorado which I don’t think I have mentioned here, although I was vaguely aware of it. The Citizens for Reponsibility and Ethics in Washington (acronym CREW) has filed a lawsuit in Colorado’s State courts seeking to disqualify Donald Trump** from the Presidential ballot here. (And you know that whatever happens here will not just stay here. It will go up and up.) I’m not sure why the Emperor of Delay decided to do something which would only speed it up, but the accused filed a motion to remove the case to Federal Court. Here are the reasons given in a CREW motion to countermand: “1. lack of Article III standing for plaintiffs in federal court. 2. Lack of required consent by a codefendant.” I don’t know who the codefendant(s) would be in this case – Heaven knows there are plenty of possibiities, indicted and unindicted, elsewhere – but yeah, that second one is pretty clear, even to a non-lawyer. If that’s required and he doesn’t have it, his moton is a non-starter. Today, I’m expecting my BFF’s son to come work on my yard, so, if the threads are short tomorrow, that will be why.

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Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – House Freedom Caucus Has Surprise Foe: The US Senate
Quote – Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington … [and] Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who together lead the Appropriations Committee, announced Wednesday that they have reached a deal on a spending package that will include funding for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; Transportation; Housing and Urban Development; Agriculture, Rural Development, and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as agencies under those larger umbrellas…. To get these bills considered quickly, they’ll have to be advanced by unanimous consent…. Any single senator… could derail that with a simple objection. So far, however, there hasn’t been much in the way of government-shutdown cheerleading from the usual [sosp]ects in the Republican Senate conference.
Click through for article. The avoidance of a shtdown is the point here, but these two are not the only senators who have been quietly helpng to get stuff done.

Wonkette – ‘Radical’ DA Charges Cop With Murder For Shooting Man, Lying His Ass Off About It
Quote – As Larry Krasner, the Philadelphia district attorney, said at a Friday news conference, “The videos speak for themselves. Firing six consecutive shots at close range at a vital part of the body of a person, under the law, is strongly supportive, together with other evidence, of all of these charges.”… Investigators did find two knives in Irizarry’s car — a kitchen knife and a serrated folding knife. Irizarry’s sister told the Times that he always carried a pocketknife with him but “always as a tool, not as a weapon.” Guns are obviously more lethal weapons than knives and, in many parts of the US, just as easily accessible. But I’m sure that Dill’s defense will make a big deal about the knives.
Click through for details. Larry Krasner is the one progressive DA who is nationally known and has managed to keep his position in the face of frenzied Republican efforts to remove him. They are going to be trying again. If I come across any petitons in support of him, I will certainly sign them and share them here.

Food For Thought

Open Thread September 11, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:58 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 112023

Yesterday, I was able to see Virgil. When I went over to the game cabinet to see what was avaiable, my jaw about hit the floor – there was a brand new deck of standard cards. It’s amazing how much easier it is to concentrate on, and have fun with, a game of cards when none of them stick together, and none are creased in half to the point of falling apart. When I left, I told the offcer who was supervising, “I don’t know who came up with the new deck of cards, but please tell them they get to go to heaven without doing anything else.” (As usual, that got a smile.) I needed the air conditioning on in the car on the way down, but coming back, it was cooler, and there was even a little rain, so I didn’t. I had to stop for gas on the way home, and yes, it’s pricey here too, but when a single tank lasts me two months I really don’t have a lot to gripe about. As usual, I was exhausted upon return. I think what is going on is that, even when I don’t realize I am, I get nervous about everything that could go wrong – and after it’s all gone fine, and there’s nothing more that could go wrong, I melt with relief.

Also, I did finish the last 2 cartoons in September and was able to look at October. TC made only 2 cartoons in October 2015, for the 30th and 31st, and they were both personal medical mayhem topics. So I’ll need a bunch. There are some images which could be made into cartoons with a frame and a watermark, and I’ll start by doing something with those. I didn’t count them. I did notice that Nameless uploaded images for an exquisite fall foliage post around the 16th. I didn’t look to see whether any were gifs or slideshows – but the images were lovely just by themselves.

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Short Takes –

Projest On Government Oversight – Routine Disqualification: Every State Has Kept Ineligible Candidates Off the Ballot, and Trump Could Be Next
Quote – In addition to the disqualification clause, the U.S. Constitution imposes several qualifications for federal elected offices. Representatives, senators, and presidents must meet minimum age requirements (ranging from 25 to 35 years of age); must be United States citizens (natural-born for presidents); and must live in the state they represent (or in the case of presidents, must have lived in the country for at least 14 years). In addition, the 22nd Amendment prohibits individuals who have already been elected to two terms as president or served more than one and a half terms from being elected president again, and the 12th Amendment prohibits a president and vice president from residing in the same state. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that these qualifications are exclusive; Congress and the states cannot create additional qualifications for these federal offices. However, as will be discussed in this report, states do have the authority to ensure that candidates for federal office meet the Constitution’s requirements.
Click through for full article. This could have been titled “Everything you wanted to know about disqualification but didn’t know enough to ask.” In addition to general rules, the article includes case studies in several states of diqualification for different offices. Some of them it’s challenging to believe that a candidate not intelligent enough to realize they were unqualified would even apply for candidacy, or challenge the Secretary of State when exceluded.

HuffPost – 6 Things To Know About Biden’s Bad Polling
Quote – 2. The anti-bedwetting brigade is out in full force, and mostly correct. “I don’t worry about any polls a year and a half before the election,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told HuffPost. While his timeline was not entirely accurate, he’s correct to say the predictive value of polls this far out is essentially nil. Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton both came back for clear victories after trailing the leading GOP contenders at similar points in their presidencies.
Click through for all six. Yes, another article on polling. There are two potential negative consequences to overreacting to polls. One can get overdonfident, on the one hand. And, on the other, one can get discouraged enough to fail to vote. In 2024, we can’t afford for any of us to make either mistake. We need to find middle ground. If this doesn’t help, don’t get hung up on it.

Food For Thought

Open Thread September 10, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:51 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 102023

Yesterday, the radio opera was “The Ballad of the Canal” by Yin Qing. It is not a “Chinese Opera” which is a genre all its own. It is a western style opera in Chinese, with Chinese subject matter and roots in Chinese folk music. It does borrow some from the Chinese Opera genre, but that is but one element among others such as bel canto and singspiel. It centers around life during the Ming Dynasty around the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the longest canal in the world (and, at 1104 miles, likely to remain so). There is a main plot, but the opera is hughly episodic, and thus can juxtapose characters from various social classes effectively. IIRC, when I was in school, this format was referred to as “a slice of life.” The performance was recorded in 2022. It was very easy to listen to, and not all that hard to follow. The brief interviews with the performers about their characters before it started and during intermission helped.

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Short Takes –

Wonkette – Fani Willis Roasts Jim Jordan’s D**k Over Open Fire
Quote – We are going to resist the temptation to share every hilariously shady comment, every time she just brutalizes Jim Jordan…. Quoting established case law, Willis writes that Jordan’s subpoenas are only valid if related to a real task of Congress, and investigations only for the aggrandizement of the investigators, or to punish those being investigated, are indefensible. “This unprecedented action serves no legitimate legislative purpose and would set a dangerous precedent for future Congresses… the American people deserve better,” she wrote, quoting directly from a letter written by [checks notes] Jim Jordan to Bennie Thompson, chair of the House January 6 Select Committee, back in 2022. That’ll set the tone for you. But it gets so much nastier.
Click through for full (NSFW) article. I doubt whether Jordan will ever learn not to leave himself wide open like that. Not if he hasn’t learned by now. (Oh yes, and it’s Substack now.)

The Daily Beast – How ‘Free Speech’ Warrior RFK Tried to Bully a DailyKos Blogger
Quote – “In truth, Mr. Kennedy gave a speech for peace and freedom in Berlin on Aug. 29, 2020, initiated by the group Querdenken—a democratic movement whose name means ‘lateral thinking’ and who vehemently oppose all forms of fascism and extremism,” the Barnes-written document reads, referring to Kennedy’s rant about Bill Gates and 5G. “Despite requests from Mr. Kennedy, Defendants have failed and refused to take down the Defamatory Article.” The problem with this argument is that The Daily Beast and numerous other organizations have extensively documented Querdenken’s extremist affinities and associations. Not only does it indulge in QAnon conspiracies and fawn over Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, but the U.S. State Department has highlighted its “anti-Semitic rhetoric and views,” and a top police official in the German city of Bremen has described it as “a serious threat to public security.”
Click through for details. “DowneastDem,” IMO, is entitled to wear this as a badge of honor. Kennedy’s siblings all (publicly) disagree with his claim not to be or associate with Nazis. (As do I – but I don’t have the standing.)

Food For Thought
I’d save this for a day when TFG is testifying – except that I’m not crazy enough to believe he will ever testify.

Open Thread September 9, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:07 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 092023

Yesterday, the sealed Special Grand Jury report from Georgia was released, and woo-hee! It’s not surprising that clickbait-headlining Meidas Touch calls it a bombshell, but when Glenn Kirschner also uses the word bombshell, that’s noteworthy. By the time you read this, it’s probably all ove the place, with names like “Lindsay Graham” and “Michael Flynn” being screamed. But I had to look around to find the fullest version with the least patwall and the most respect. I chose PBS, and here you are. I assume this news has completely overshadowed Nancy Pelosi’s announcemnt that she will run for another two-year term. However,t the Federal Judge denied Mark Meadows’s motion to remove his Georgia indictment to Federal Court was denied, and that mayhave seeped through.

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Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – This Gloria Johnson Ad Should Make Sen. Blackburn Very Nervous
Quote – But Johnson is running on more than just gun reform. The ad continues with her saying that she had to sleep in the hallway as a child to avoid being shot because her father “brought the KKK to justice.” She goes on to note that politicians don’t like her much “because I speak my mind. And when it’s bullsh*t, I call it bullsh*t.”… Tennessee is so ruby red that it hasn’t elected a Democrat for statewide office in nearly 20 years. But I think this is the kind of message that just might do the job.
Click through for article. It’s mostly a video, much of which is quoted in the text, and in which keywords are shown in large type, so it’s not tough to follow. We surely could use her in the Senate – and, given what we’ve seen in the Tennessee State House this year, I’m not worried that she might not be replaced there by another Democrat.

Robert Reich: Election season has come. Here’s what you need to do to stop Trump from winning

Robert Reich: The Terrifying Road Ahead (same article, different link)
Quote – This particular week after Labor Day also marks the start of a terrifyingly high-stakes ride for America — five months until the beginning of the primaries, eight until Trump’s trial for seeking to overturn the 2020 election, 10 until the Republican convention in which Trump is almost certain to be nominated, 14 until the presidential election of 2024. All the while, Trump and House Republicans will be throwing up every conceivable distraction and roadblock — threatening to or actually closing the government, impeaching Joe Biden, and holding more hearings on “woke” capitalism, Hunter Biden, the alleged “weaponization” of the Justice Department and the FBI.
Click either one for full opinion. The second link is to Substack so you’ll need to click. The first is at The Guardian, kindly sent me by Evelyn B. IIRC the Guardian has a paywall but not on the first visit within whatever their timeframe is. So – your choice. (The Wall Street Journal poll he alludes to is the one I mentioned yesterday which Trump** helped pay for).

Food For Thought

Open Thread September 8, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:06 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 082023

Yesterday, Peter Navarro was found guilty of contempt of Congress. Yay! Now we just need a decent sentence. Numerous other stuff happened in various court filings in multiple cases also. I won’t even try to list them all. If I find a comprehesive list, i’ll definitely pass it on.

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Short Takes –

Robert Hubbell – One more time with feeling: Ignore the polls!
Quote – [M]ajor media outlets and respected commentators treat the polls as if they are meaningful and predictive. They are neither. Instead, they are clickbait wrapped in statistics that misleads by confusing precision and truth. If someone tells you that the universe will end in 3,198,642,971.25 years, that is a “precise” prediction. Whether the prediction is “true” is a different question entirely. So, too, with the polling…. For those of you tired of reading my response to such polls, I apologize for the repetition. You may want to set aside this newsletter and start afresh with tomorrow’s newsletter. To those of you who need reassurance, read on! Because we will see many similar polls over the next fourteen months, I will use the WSJ poll as an example of how pollsters can distort the truth and why we should generally ignore the polls.
Click through for article. It appears that the stakes just keep getting higher and higher, which makes it very tempting to follow polls closely. But he makes good points. Also, it’s not really possible to think productively or do the things that need to be done, and that’s even if the polls are in good faith. I recently saw a story about a poll published by the Wall Street Journal hich came up with a low approval rate for Biden. What the publication did not include, and that the author of the article critiquing it did, was that the participants included two Republicans for every Democrat polled (and a sample size of only about 1,000.) Remember this poll for tomorrow’s OT. This is Substack so you’ll need to do a little clicking to read it all.

HuffPost – A 2024 Trump-Biden Rematch Isn’t Boring. It’s Something Entirely New.
Quote – The likely 2024 Biden-Trump contest should be viewed less as a rerun and more as the rare reboot that actually ups the stakes: Compared with each man’s first successful run for the presidency, both are taking positions that repudiate past governing commitments of the American state in ways that we probably haven’t seen before. In pursuit of a national hand in economic policymaking, Biden is rhetorically attacking the neoliberal paradigm that has dominated American domestic and foreign policy for the past 40 years. His Democratic predecessors Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did so too at times, but Biden is also enacting actual policies that turn the page on this era. Trump, on the other hand, is running to turn the presidency into something akin to a monarchy. He has deemphasized the old conservative “tax and spend” discourse in favor of an all-out attack on government depth. Yes, he still embraces cutting taxes for the rich and slashing government spending. But the policy that he and his allies are emphasizing most in pursuit of conservative aims is placing the administrative state and its 2 million-plus workers, including law enforcement and investigatory bodies, under his direct control by gutting civil service protections and the independence of agencies. If you can’t cut the size of government, you can at least make it bend to your wishes, or so the thinking goes.
Click through for (IMO well-founded) opinion. The thought that an election, or any other event, upon which one’s life depends, could possibly considered boring, simply boggles my mind. But here we are.

Food For Thought

Open Thread September 7, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:56 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 072023

Yesterday, I ran across an article in the Colorado Public Radio newsletter about a fish in the Denver Zoo who was successfully treated for enteritis. I would put a story like this in the Video Thread, but there is no video. So I mention it here so that those who cherish the animal rescue videos will see it. We all should have access to health care that well thought out. Also, I did manage to get my trash and recycling carts out. Doing so raised my pulse from Tranquillo to Allegretto, but that was not as bad as taking the stuff to the carts the day before, which pushed me all the way up to Allegro.

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Short Takes –

CNN – ‘Let’s give it a try,’ recalls Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine in his military helicopter
Quote – The pilot, named by Ukrainian officials as Maxim Kuzminov, explained in the interview how he planned his defection and why he felt compelled to do so. “I contacted representatives of Ukrainian intelligence, explained my situation, to which they offered this option: ‘Come on, we guarantee your safety, guarantee new documents, guarantee monetary compensation, a reward,’” the pilot said, in a recording released Monday. The head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, Kyrolo Budanov, revealed in August how Ukrainian officials had been able to help the pilot to defect.
Click through for story. As W. S. Gilbert pointed out in “Iolanthe, “Every boy and every gal/who’s born into this world alive/Is either a little Liberal/or else a little Conservative.” And that does not appear to be genetic – look at all the families divided over this breach. So, attractive as the idea is, getting all of one to live in one part of the world and all the other in another part, that would not last a generation. Somehow, we need to find ways to live together. But there will likely still be times when defection becomes inevitable

KGET.com – What was inside the illegal medical lab found in California? Photos show blood vials, disease samples
Quote – According to court documents, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested what they could and determined that at least 20 potentially infectious viral, bacterial, and parasitic agents were present, including E. coli, malaria, and the virus that causes COVID-19. For the first half of 2023, the process of cleaning the Reedley location was stuck in court. Electrical issues were highlighted, including adding outlets for running refrigerators and freezers. There were also unmarked, highly-flammable chemicals being stored there. Officials were worried about the risk of a possible explosion, which prompted Reedley Fire Chief Jerry Isaak to send a letter to Zieba.
Click through for details, such as they are. This would be Devin Nunes’s former district. I can certainly understand not wanting something like this in one’s backyard.

Food For Thought

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