Open Thread for January 22, 2022

 Posted by at 11:31 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 222022
 

Yesterday, Friday, I was still dragging some. But I managed to put in a grocery order to be delivered today. I hope there’s not too much missing.

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Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Oath Keeper Returned to Capitol Morning After Riot to ‘Probe Defense Line,’ Prosecutors Say
Quote – In a court filing late Tuesday calling for Vallejo to be detained ahead of trial, prosecutors say he continued to plot against the federal government even after the violence of Jan. 6 ended. The next morning, he allegedly messaged other members of the group in a Signal chat: “We are going to probe their defense line right now 6 am they should let us in. We’ll see.” He and other members of a “quick reaction force” he led were apparently also prepared to wage battle in the city for weeks.
Click through for details. This is another of those recently charged with “seditious conspiracy.” The “quick reaction forces” or QRFs – and, yes, that’s plural – there were somewhere between “several” and “many” – we will probably hear more about as time psses.

Democratic Underground (LENNY0229) – Dems Won Four Special Elections Last Week
Quote – We won special election in Maine for Maine House (suburban district that could have gone red), Massachusetts for Massachusetts House (a FLIP from Red to Blue – No Dem had held this seat since the mid 1800’s), Virginia for Virginia House, and Florida for U.S. House. Again, one of these was a FLIP and one (the one in my home state of Maine) could very welll have gone red. There were no guarantees. In ALL cases, the Dems won by BIG margins.
Click through. Good news is always welcome, and he goes on to provide some analysis ans suggestions.

Politico – Read the never-issued Trump order that would have seized voting machines
Quote – It’s not clear who wrote either document. But the draft executive order is dated Dec. 16, 2020, and is consistent with proposals that lawyer Sidney Powell made to the then-president. On Dec. 18, 2020, Powell, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump administration lawyer Emily Newman, and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne met with Trump in the Oval Office. In that meeting, Powell urged Trump to seize voting machines and to appointher as a special counsel to investigate the election, according to Axios.
Click through to read the complete order, or just for more detail. This document (along with the draft of an unmade speech) is one of those from the National Archives being held until the Supreme Court ruled.

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Open Thread for January 21, 2022

 Posted by at 6:37 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 212022
 

Yesterday, the day after my booster, I felt pretty good. A little drowsy. The injection site was a little (almost unnoticeably) sore, but it wasn’t hot or even warmer than the other arm. I waited until today to say anything, because I am such a delayed reactor – but if I were going to react, I would have felt something by then. So drowsiness is it – and that may not even be a reaction to the shot but from stress. I admit to being a worrywart.

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Short Takes –

HuffPost – Both DOJ And Jan. 6 Committee Closing In On Trump And His Family, New Filings Show
Quote – In a federal court filing Tuesday, lawyer Bilal Essayli said prosecutors asked his client, Jan. 6 defendant Brandon Straka, about his connections to Trump personally. “The government was focused on establishing an organized conspiracy between defendant, President Donald J. Trump, and allies of the former president, to disrupt the joint session of Congress on January 6,” Essayli wrote.
Click through for more. This is where leaks come from (and I doubt the prosecutors will be pleased about it.)

Press Watch – Where are the interviews with regular Americans terrified for our democracy?
Quote – It’s all highly reminiscent of what amounted to a near-boycott of Biden-supporter coverage before the 2020 election. New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote in July 2019 that “anti-Trump voters are practically invisible in recent mainstream political coverage” – even though they represented the majority of Americans. It didn’t get any better in the ensuing 16 months.
Click through for OpEd. Press Watch is a non-profit dedicated to keeping all of the media honest – or as honest as pissible. Someone at DU posted a link to and a quote from this article … and it really struck a chord. I have now subscribed to their newsletter.

The Daily Beast – Capitol Rioter’s Bail Revoked After Cops Find AR-15 in His Car During DUI Arrest
Quote – In his car, the cops found an AR-15, 60 rounds of ammunition, and combat fatigues. Conditions of his bail as he awaits trial for allegedly assaulting a police officer on Jan. 6 prohibited firearm possession, excessive drinking, and drug use, leading the Justice Department to request he be remanded into custody.
Cick through for details, although the headline pretty much covers it. Outrageous as this is, it’s pretty much what one has to do to get bail revoked if one is white.

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Open Thread for January 20, 2022

 Posted by at 7:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 202022
 

Yesterday, I got boosted – yippee! There was virtually no snow on the ground. but there was a lot of ice on the glass, and between the windows steaming up and my glasses steaming up, it was terrible. If they decide on another booster, or if they come up with a universal vaccine, I surely hope it is in the summer.

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Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Colleyville’s Synagogue Hostage Crisis And White Supremacy
Quote – The fact that millions of Jews watch in horror, generational trauma triggered, the oldest bigotry still raging, as four innocent Jews are held captive by someone we recognize we’ll need to protect once it is over — even while it is going on — is a mind-f*ck of epic proportions.
Click through. Every person in the United States needs to read this.

Huff Post Fringe – How Hatred Of Women Is Fueling The Far-Right
Quote – McLeod’s case is an example of the ties between misogyny and easy access to guns that Everytown for Gun Safety highlights in a new report this week, which was shared with HuffPost ahead of its publication. The group documents at least six high-profile misogyny-driven mass shootings in the U.S. since 2014, and the ways that guns and hatred of women have served as a unifying tie for many far-right groups online.
Click through for more. We, at least we on the left, have figured out that pointing out that racism exists is not itself racist. But we don’t seem to have figured out that pointing out that misgyny exists is not itself misogynistic. Well, we need to. Because misgyny is even more prevalent than racism, has a much larger persentage of the marginalized who buy into it themselves, and will destroy the country if we try to elect a woman President before the nation is ready, even if she walks on water.

Medium – Restoring the Senate to Protect the Freedom to Vote {Op-Ed)
Quote – If the Senate cannot even begin to debate and vote on something as foundational as voting rights, we must reform Senate rules and restore the chamber to its rightful place as “the world’s greatest deliberative body.”
Protecting the freedom to vote should not be a partisan issue. In 2006, for example, the Senate voted 98–0 to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. The Help America Vote Act passed 98–2 in the wake of the chaos of the 2000 election. One of its primary proponents was Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
Click through for full letter. Nine former Senators have signed it, including Doug Jones (who sent it to me) and Mark Udall (IMO the best Senator Colorado has ever had – at least since I have lived here.)

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Open Thread for January 19, 2022

 Posted by at 6:49 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 192022
 

Yesterday, I spent some time figuring out what to wear today. In this case, it’s not a matter of appearance. I’m getting my booster today, and I need to come up with clothing which will keep me warm enough in below freezing temperatiures (a high of 30 is predicted) yet still nake it easy to accesss my deltoid without indecency, while at the same time, protecting me as much as possible from airborne droplets. That is not something which is immediately obvious – or at least not to me. So thought is required.

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Short Takes –

Letters from an American (Heather Cox Richardson) – Januaty 17, 2022
Quote – In this moment of struggle over voting rights in America, it is important to distinguish between voter fraud, which is vanishingly rare and has not affected the outcome of elections, and election fraud, which is coming to characterize a number of our important elections.
Voter fraud is about an individual breaking the law and is almost always caught. It is not a threat to democracy.
Election fraud means that people in power have rigged the system so that the will of the voters is overturned. When it happens, it threatens to destroy our nation.
Click through for full letter. She puts some things together. (I would point out that by no means of them are  proven to the point of being ready to go to court.) But she is no dummy. Her newletter is free to subscribe.

The 19th – Black women in Martin Luther King Jr.’s neighborhood will soon receive monthly cash payments
Quote – That work that In Her Hands will do in the coming two years will build on that established by other programs like Magnolia Mother’s Trust, the first privately-run guaranteed income program in the country. Launched in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2018, it gave 20 Black mothers $1,000 a month for a year, growing to cover 110 in its 2020-2021 year and another 100 in the most recent cohort, which will wrap up this March. All were living 200 percent below the federal poverty line and in subsidized housing. Most are working.
Click through for details and information on the successes of previous programs. Republicans are committed to the idea that people won’t work unless they are reduced to bare subsistence level, and that then they will work for pennies. That may seem intuitive, but these programs demonstrate it isn’t reality.

Crooks and Liars – Crockett And Lake Are Poster Children For GOP Harassment And Extremism
Quote – (in a tweet from Patriot Takes) Kari Lake supporter Ethan Schmidt: “I just love harassing people, especially cancer patients because they’re weak and vulnerable and easy targets.” Kari Lake is running for Arizona Governor and appeared in one of Ethan’s videos. Lake refuses to denounce Ethan Schmidt.
Click through for story. C&L republished this from “No More Mr. Nice Blog,” which I have provisionally added to the Blogroll. He does have other things to say. And he certainly has a point in this column.

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Video Thread 1/18/2022

 Posted by at 11:46 am  Open Thread, Politics
Jan 182022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Short: Trump’s Foot Soldiers are Indicted. Now It’s Time to Indict the Command Structure.

The Lincoln Project – Tribute

politicsrus – Betrayal

Rebel HQ – US Army Offers $50K Bonus To New Recruits

MSNBC – ‘Part Of A Much Larger Conspiracy’: Investigation Into 16 Michigan Republicans

Liberal Redneck – President Sinema?? (Naw)

Beau – Let’s talk about political and military wings again….

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Open Thread for January 18, 2022

 Posted by at 6:35 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 182022
 

Yesterday was pretty quiet, as can be expected of a holiday, I suppose.We look to be expecting snow on Wednesday and a little more Friday – I”ll expect it when I see it.

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Short Takes –

Daily Kos (Kerry Eleveld) – Democrats’ Case Against GOP Extremism Gains Momentum
Quote – But the White House has made an overt shift from the behind the scenes inside game it worked for a solid year to a very public campaign against the saboteurs of our democracy. “I’ve been having these quiet conversations with the members of Congress for the last two months,” Biden said. “I’m tired of being quiet!” he added, pounding the lectern.
Click through for story. I have said since before the election that Biden would come to this point. Yes, he’s a consensus builder. But he’s not stupid. He may have resisted, but he can see that sometimes you have to fight for the right, and this is one of those times.

Raw Story – ‘Smoking guns all around’: Conservative connects dots showing Trump ‘election fraud on a massive scale’
Quote – In his weekend wrap-up, conservative Bulwark founder Charlie Sykes makes the case that there is more than enough proof that Donald Trump and his inner circle made a provable attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election through fraud. Jumping right into it, Sykes pointed to a CNN report that stated, “…then-President Donald Trump’s allies sent fake certificates to the National Archives declaring that Trump won seven states that he actually lost,” which have also been labeled forgeries.
Click through for more from the thread, which became a conversation. No new information here – the news is in who is saying it. But don’t expect the Qrazies to pay attention.

Common Dreams – Progressives Counter Cherry-Picked Quotes With MLK’s True Legacy
Quote – As the FBI, right-wing political figures, and others came under fire Monday for engaging in the annual trend of dishonoring Martin Luther King Jr. by sanitizing his beliefs, progressives in Congress worked to honor his legacy of fighting for a more just society…. {Per Ayanna Pres;ey. “T]he truth is Dr. King was a radical dreamer with a bold vision for revolutionary change. A disruptive movement builder seeking to upend an unjust status quo.”
Click through. Anyone seeking real change must be radical about it – I don’t mean extremist – radical means “pretsining to the root.” Change which does not begin in and grow from the root may spring up quickly, but then will wither away, like the plants in the parable.

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Open Thread for January 17, 2022

 Posted by at 6:43 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 172022
 

Yesterday, I worked on getting my meds together, which I should have done Saturday. But that’s why I keep extras around. So yesterday worked. I also did a little knottong. Broke a needle (which is one reason I like to own multiples of essentially the exact same needle.) In this case, I didn’t have a duplicate.so, after picking up dropped stitches as best I could, I decided my best bet was to finish with one size smaller, since I was in a decreasinf pattern, so I did – finished that project – ordered two new ones to replace the broken one. I have a second similar project, but I think I’ll wait until the broken one is replaced to finish it, since there’s no ruch. I checked the DOC website, which now says in-person visitation is now suspended until Fenruary 1. So I set a pop-up reminder to check again the end of the month. And, I found an animal rescue near me (specializing in cats) that I believe is the right place for me to do the #BettyWhiteChallenge today.

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Short Takes –

AP News – US names intelligence official to counter election threats
Quote – The appointment comes amid stalled efforts to create a new intelligence center preventing foreign interference in American democracy. While experts and intelligence officials say the proposed Foreign Malign Influence Center is needed, a proposal to create the center is stalled amid disagreements over the center’s size and budget.
Click through for story. I woud not want that job, but I’m uncommonly glad that someone is doing it.

The Hill – Who has the guts to resist authoritarian rule?
Quote – I asked the group a key question — why did they stay rather than trying to flee their country for the West? Their response was inspiring. They said that they always believed that the communist system would eventually fail and their country would be free though it took many years to happen. But stay they did. Most of us in the West thought these countries were gone to authoritarian communism forever.
Click through. The Hill classifies this as an opinion piece, but I’d call it a history piece – written by some one who helped make that history.

Daily Kos (David Neiwert) – While FBI offers up flimsy reasons for being unprepared on Jan. 6, its record tells the real story
Quote – Jason Paladino at Grid recently examined all of the FBI’s rationales for its failure to adequately prepare for the siege against Congress, and concluded correctly that all of them fail the sniff test. The only reasonable conclusion—particularly as the evidence is assembled for public viewing—is that federal law enforcement’s cozy relationship with these right-wing extremists blinded them to the reality of the nature of the beast they thought they could use as an ally.
Click through for details. I hope and pray this becomes so widely known that Kevin McCarthy cones to rue the day he said, “The real question is why were they so unprepared.”

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Open Thread for January 16, 2022

 Posted by at 6:48 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 162022
 

Yesterday, The Opera was “The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart. It’s based on the second of three plays by Pierre Beaumarchais, kown as the Figaro plays. All three have been made into operas – The first play, The Barber of Seville, by Rossini in 1816. The second, The Marriage of Figaro, by Mozart in 1786. The third, The Guilty Mother, by many composers, including John Corigliano, completed in 1991, and very different in that the source play is treated as a play within a play, and there is not a living person in the whole thing. These days it’s not obvious why all three were so controversial when new, particularly the plays, but they were. Beaumarchais was an American sympathizer who raised money for the Revolution before France sent actual military aid with LaFayette, and there are hints of that in the plays (fewer in the operas). But things have changed enough so that is not obvious to us today. Human nature, however, has not changed much if at all, and there’s plenty of that in all of them.

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Short Takes –

Huff Post – Major Student Loan Processor Cancels $1.7 Billion In Debt
Quote – Most of the loans being canceled are “subprime loans” that were given to students attending for-profit colleges, which often had graduation rates below 50%. That made it unlikely students would ever be able to pay the loans back.
Click through for background. This does not apply to all student loans, but it does apply to the most vulnerable. And there is another suit still going forward.

Reuters – DirecTV to drop far-right channel OAN from its service
Quote – OAN, which rose to prominence amid the triumph and tumult of the administration of then-President Donald Trump, has been criticized for spreading conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 election. “We informed Herring Networks that, following a routine internal review, we do not plan to enter into a new contract when our current agreement expires,” a DirecTV spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Click through for more. In a related article, Reuters estimates OAN’s revenue from DirecTV to be in the neighborhood of 90% of its total revenue.

The Guardian – Police and FBI respond to synagogue hostage situation in Texas
Quote – The incident took place during an online livestream of the Shabbat service at the synagogue in Colleyville, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. The livestream cut off at about 2pm local time…. “Colleyville Police Sgt Dara Nelson said negotiators have made contact with somebody inside the synagogue who they believe is a suspect,” the Dallas Morning News said.
Click through – They had better respond! This is clear domestic terrorism.  UPDATE:  All hostages safe, hostage taker dead.

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