Cartoon – Page 82 – Politics Plus

Open Thread for January 15, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:10 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 152022

Yesterday, I managed to order a prescription renewal shipped to me, and also made the appointment for my booster – next Wednesday. And did a little knitting It’s amazing how much more I can acomplish when the internet works and the phone is back on all the handsets. (If I wanted to carry a phone around wherever I go in my own house, I’d use a cell.)

Cartoon – This is historical fact, but I suspect it’s also a provate joke between TC and Nameless.

Short Takes –

“Seditious Conspiracy” Charges Against Oath Keepers Mark a Major Advance in January 6 Investigation
Quote – [Oath Keepers founder Stewart] Rhodes was taken into custody in Granbury, Texas, according to his lawyer, Jonathon Moseley, who said he was on the phone with Rhodes about plans for him to be interviewed by the House select committee investigating January 6, when the FBI called. “The FBI special agent said they were outside and he needed to come out with his hands up and be arrested,” Moseley said.
Click through. I’m sure y’all know about the arrests, but there are some details herer.

Wonkette – Hmmm Why Would Republicans Be HOLY SH*TBALLS SO MAD About New DOJ Domestic Terrorism Unit?
Quote – “We face an elevated threat from domestic violent extremists — that is, individuals in the United States who seek to commit violent criminal acts in furtherance of domestic social or political goals,” [Assistant Attorney General Matthew] Olsen said [in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee]. “Domestic violent extremists are often motivated by a mix of ideologies and personal grievances. We have seen a growing threat from those who are motivated by racial animus, as well as those who ascribe to extremist anti-government and anti-authority ideologies.”
Click through for more, including snark. The answer to the question in the headline is “Because they know who they are.”

Crooks and Liars – Steve Bannon Mocks Michelle Obama: ‘This Is The Rise Of Fascism’
Quote – “Remember, there are no coincidences. Michelle Obama who has floated above this thing at 60,000 feet with Barack Obama, floating above it because they’re national heroes, according to some people, over the weekend, what did she say she was going to do? … She’s going to lead an effort to sign up one million new voters for progressives. How many of those are going to be citizens?”
Click through for more, including video (Barf Bag Alert.)

Just a short note about the #BettyWhiteChallenge – Monday (1/17) would have been her 100th birthday, nd the challenge is to give $5 to some animal charity (preferably alocal one near you) in her memory. I realize not everyone can do that.

Food For Thought:

Open Thread for January 14, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:33 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 142022

Yesterday, while still taking things slowly, I worked ahead a little bit. That pretty much gave nme the evening free, and I appreciated it. Incidentally a good phrase for today might be “superseding indictments. Some Oath Keepers are going to get those now that their leader has been arrested for Seditious Conspiracy.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Huff Post – Voters Challenge Madison Cawthorn’s Reelection Bid On Constitutional Grounds
Quote – The nonprofit Free Speech For People filed a challenge with the North Carolina State Board of Elections on behalf of 11 North Carolina voters, stating that Cawthorn has violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Section 3 says that no person may hold political office “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress … shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” The section was initially aimed at lawmakers who had plotted or battled against the U.S. government during the Civil War.
Click through for details. After reading this, I sent an email to Colorado’s Secretary of State, Who is up for reelection in 2022, cited this article, told her I trust her and am proud of her, and remindng her of some things Lamborn has doe – like taking Lauren Boebert for a tour of the Pueblo Chemical Depot and accepting a decoration from Viktor Orban – which, far from trying to keep secret, he has bragged abot in emails. I don’t know whether any of that will help, but hey, nothing ventured …

Crooks and Liars – Blackburn Goes Out Of Her Way To Humiliate Black Judicial Appointee
Quote – Tennessee’s Senator Marsha Blackburn decided to try to make a Black judicial appointee, Andre B. Mathis, look like a criminal when she said he had a “rap sheet.”… What was on this alleged rap sheet? Breaking and entering? Kidnapping? Murder? Grand Larceny? None of these. Mathis had 3 unpaid speeding tickets, one of them for driving five miles over the speeding limit.
Click through for context. I’ve often pointed out, usually in connection with immigration, that anyone who has ever had a speeding ticket (or even earned one and not gotten it) has absolutely no right to whine that undocumented immigrants “broke the law.” I wonder how many tickets Blackburn has earned, and how recently.

Columbia Dispatch – Redistricting: Ohio Supreme Court strikes down state House and Senate maps
Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor (R) was the key vote, breaking with her party to rule against the maps. O’Connor, a Republican, joined the court’s three Democratic justices and the three GOP justices dissented. O’Connor, who has served in statewide office for 24 years, suggested an alternative to the commission, which she called out for its partisanship.
Click through for some good news. Ohio elects its judges – I hope Justice O’Connor is prepared to be primaried

Food For Thought:

Open Thread for January 13, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 132022

Yesterday, like the day before, I tried to be laid back (and pretty well succeeded.) Sometimes, I just need to do that for a few days when I’ve had too many things to think about, so the mental spinning has a chance to stop, or at least slow down. But I did make the FFT (I want to stress that when I have to insert something that isn’t square, I’m not terribly good at it. I think if I had something more like a pen and less like a mouse to hold, I might do better – but maybe not.) At least it gets the point across.

Cartoon – 13 Dreyfus Loaded

Short Takes –

Comic Sands (a George Takei site) – Houston High School Teacher Charged After Infected Son Is Found In Trunk Of Car At Testing Site
Quote – [41-year-old Sarah] Beam reportedly kept her son in the car because he had tested positive for Covid-19. Beam wanted to isolate herself from him on the way to the testing site where she was planning on having him get tested again. The high school educator decided the trunk was the best place to put her son.
Click through for more. Yes, you read that right. SMH.

PolitiZoom – WATCH: Eric Trump, Trump Lawyer Run To Fox and Newsmax Right After Maddow Bombshell. What Do They Know That We Don’t?
Quote: Here’s what happened in just a few hours on Monday the 10th. Come, let us reason together, as LBJ used to say. First, Rachel Maddow announced that Donald Trump’s lawyers have met in person with the District Attorney of Fulton County, Georgia. Then Trump’s lawyer showed up on Newsmax and her villain du jour is Letitia James [NY], not Fani Willis [Fulton County]..
Click through for more backgrounsd and even a couple of videos. Rachel reminds us Of TFG’s December 18 rant, calling Democrats in the juducial systems, state and Federal, “thugs who just want to lock people up.” She postulates That that rant and the meeting of his lawyers with Fulton County are related. She may well be right.

The 19th – Lawsuits, complaints and protests are upending sexist school dress codes
Quote – “All of those girls are being framed as dangerous and as disruptive to the ‘peaceful’ learning environment,” said Shauna Pomerantz, author of “Girls, Style and School Identities: Dressing the Part” and associate professor of child and youth studies at Brock University in Ontario, Canada. “It’s a ridiculous idea to think that [editing] these pictures is going to somehow change the culture of the school. If anything, that kind of action is going to enhance rape culture in any school, and it’s going to give people the message that girls are asking for trouble if they show their cleavage.”
Click through for details and more examples.. “Dress codes” are generally written with the underlying assumptions that “boys will be boys” so girls have to hide their bodies to prevent rape But many dress codea are also racist. Natural black hair is often prohibited, and some articles of clothing which are fashionable in the black community are assumed to be “gang symbols.” This may not be the most obvious issue in a country which ia at risk of losing democracy, but it is an issue which dehumanizes people (some people, rather, at the expense of others) and does not lead to the most hmentally healthy adults.

Food For Thought:

Open Thread for January 12, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:46 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 122022

Yesterday, I did take some time to disengageshort sessions with a couple of games just to relax. And deal with a package. And even to stream a movie (“The Canterville Ghost” with Patrick Stewart.) It’s a wonder I got both posts up.

Cartoon – (I’m pretty sure no one ever too TC up on this offer.)

Short Takes –

Here’s where election-denying candidates are running to control voting
Quote – An NPR analysis of 2022 secretary of state races across the country found at least 15 Republican candidates running who question the legitimacy of President Biden’s 2020 win, even though no evidence of widespread fraud has been uncovered about the race over the last 14 months. In fact, claims of any sort of fraud that swung the election have been explicitly refuted in state after state, including those run by Republicans.
Click through for states and names. These may be the most important elections of 2022. As Beau says, “If you live in one of these dtates, and you have ever desired to get interested in electoral politics, now is your time.” (Pass it on.)

Mother Jones – The Jan. 6 Insurrectionists Begging for Pardons Sound an Awful Lot Like Confederate Soldiers
Quote – Radical Republicans feared Lincoln’s 10 percent plan was too lenient. They were proved right when, after Lincoln’s assassination, President Andrew Johnson—who not a year earlier gave a speech saying, “I am for a white man’s government, and in favor of free white qualified voters controlling this country, without regard to negroes”—began undermining Reconstruction. He started by pardoning high-ranking Confederates. Among them was Harry T. Hayes, a former Confederate general who led the rebels at Gettysburg.
Click through for full story. I truly hope we can learn from their mistakes.

The Guardian – Why is so little known about the 1930s coup attempt against FDR?
Quote – The putsch called for [retired US Marine Corps Maj Gen Smedley Darlington Butler] to lead a massive army of veterans – funded by $30m from Wall Street titans and with weapons supplied by Remington Arms – to march on Washington, oust Roosevelt and the entire line of succession, and establish a fascist dictatorship backed by a private army of 500,000 former soldiers.
Click through for details. Those who follow the video thread know that Beau of the Fifth Column has spoken about the United States’ long history of choosing to “protect the Office of the Presidency,” and I expect that had a hand in hiding this history, though of course the rich and powerful were also prime movers. In my view, the best way to protect the Office of the Presidency is to ensure that anyone who defules that Office is held accountable.

Food For Thought:

Open Thread for January 11, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:11 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 112022

Yesterday, I was more or less back into routine. Although I was still waiting, after 6:00 pm, for an email that the phone outage had been resolved.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

PolitiZoom – GOPers Hit New Low, Protesting Harry Reid’s Funeral In Las Vegas
Quote – [Candidate for Congress Noah] Melgeri [who took part in the “protest”] is pure MAGA. He says COVID was “an intentional act” and that General Milley should be executed, on live television no less. His wife appears at the local school board meetings and spews anti-vaxx drivel. Pure performance art out of the Greene/Gaetz/Gosar school of political theater.
Click through. People take part in protests because they want change. What change did these people want? Did they want the Senator’s body to rot above ground? Or did they just want him cremated? They didn’t say. This was not a protest, but merely a public nuisance.

Democratic Underground (bigtree) – Yes, the boat hit the iceberg, but putting children in lifeboats is destructive to their psyche
Quote – Look, I too want to survive this sinking, but I look at how people insist on wearing constrictive life-vests and taking to life boats and I sympathize with those who wants to spend their time drilling holes in the hull. Better to show this ocean we don’t fear it than to cower.
Click through for fuller analogy – This is an unspooled (translation: readable) Twitter thread with an extended analogy comparing CoViD to the Titanic. I fear it won’t reach those for whom it is intended, but it’s very creative,

Medium – What Do We Do Now?
Quote – Building the kind of movement needed to win won’t be comfortable. It means working with imperfect allies and getting outside our comfort zones. It means being open to tactics we wouldn’t have been previously. It means, for many of us, putting our personal safety at risk against an opposition that’s more than willing to engage in violence against their opponents. But we can’t win without a common purpose and a willingness to let go of what’s no longer working in favor of something new. And we can’t win without thinking, and doing bigger things — outside of the systems and institutions currently failing us.
Click through for complete opinion. Medium has a paywall, but you get 3 free articles per month. This one is scary, but I believe accurate. Of course one can only do what one can do. But one can do that, whatever it is.

Food For Thought:

Open Thread for January 10, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:21 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 102022

Yesterday, I didn’t get much done. I did some clearing of my desk, but you wouldn’t know it to look at it. I lost some time because there was a phone outage, and I thought I must have done something wrong witth the modem, and it took me a while to realize it wasn’t me. So I ended up staying up a bit late. Oh, well.

Cartoon (also applies to today’s GOp platform) –

Short Takes –

Daily Kos (Aysha Qamar) ‘Huge loss for the community’: Police say Planned Parenthood building fire was intentional
Quote – The fire comes after another incident of hate toward the center in January 2021 during which someone fired a shotgun at the doors of the clinic, shattering the glass and peppering the reception area with holes, the Associated Press reported. In that incident too, the clinic was closed and unoccupied. What’s worse is the incident took place on the anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade case. The recent arson incident comes at a time when the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case that could possibly overturn the landmark precedent.
Click through for full story. Or at least, as full as it can be. There is no suspect yet.

New Mexico – State prisons outsource personal mail to inmates to Florida firm, causing concern for some
Quote – Eric Harrison, public information officer for the Department of Corrections, told NM Political Report turnaround time is currently 48 hours for inmates to receive personal mail that the correction facility currently inspects for contraband. He said that when the incoming mail becomes outsourced to Securus Technologies in February, the incoming mail will still be given to inmates in “the same time frame we’re seeing now.”
Click through for differing views. I can tell you the reason they are doing this – it’s the same reason all rules exist – it’s bedause there are always jerks who ruin things for the rest of us. There are jerks who would happily soak paper in drugs befor writing on it and mailing it, so that an inmate can swallow pieces of it and get high. Heck, I’d bet my last pension payment that there are people who would cough on their letters before sending them — even if they knew they had CoViD – in the name of “personal contact.” Even a lipsticked lip print on a letter could be dangerous. Cruel I grant that it is. Ridiculous it is not.

Washinton Post – New York fire that killed 19 likely began with space heater, fire chief says
Quote – Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), who represents the Bronx, said that the country has a “crisis” in housing maintenance and that many of the buildings in his area lack basic fire safety equipment, such as fire alarms in every apartment and stairwells with self-closing doors. City housing code requires self-closing doors to slow the spread of fire and smoke from one unit to the rest of an apartment. “There is often a disconnect between the requirements of the law and the actual living conditions of these buildings,” Torres said.
Click through if you aren’t paywalled out. I really don’t have words. I believe Toeers is a caring person. I can’t help but wonder what hice voice sounded like as he used the word “disconnect.”

Food For Thought:

Open Thread for January 9, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:26 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 092022

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Fire Shut Up In My Bones” by Terrence Blanchard. It certainly took the Met long enough to present an opera by a black composer (it’s not as if there weren’t any – Anthony Davis has written more than one, including “Amistad” which Chicago Lyric broadcast so long that I have a cassette tape of it which I made from the broadcast), but I must say when they finally did, they did it handsomely. Stunning cast, and premiered on opening might so it could not be ignored. I often think and sometimes say, “Not like opera? It has sex, violence, betrayal, revenge – what’s not to like?” and this is no exception. A black boy – a boy “of peculiar grace” – coming of age in the South (Louisiana) – in the seventies – when Jim Crow was not legal but still seething – and all that implies, and more. OK, it’s not pretty, but as Latonia Moore (who sings Charles’s mother) said, “It shows what you can overcome if you are honest with yourself.”

Also, I got the modem set up by quarter after six. It would have been faster has I not had to crawl under the desk and untangle a plethora of cords. But it’s done, and it works.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Nib – “Beyond the Scope”
Quote – A battery researcher’s work is supported by a hidden supply chain. In order to store power, batteries convert electrical energy into chemical energy. these reactions require a material sourcee, extracted from … somewhere.
Click through. It is, of course, a graphic. But you’d have to look hard to find the same information elsewhere, and then it would not be from the same perspective.

The 19th – The 19th Explains: What older people and caregivers need to know about omicron
Quote – Vaccinated older adults have significantly better outcomes than unvaccinated seniors, but the vaccine does not make people bulletproof. COVID-19 is still a threat to older adults, who are at higher risk of severe illness and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Click through. None of us is getting any younger. And there’s been a lot of talk about Omicron’s symptoms being mild … sometimes.

Daily Kos – Cyber Ninjas hit with $50,000/day fine for not turning over public records
Quote – Cyber Ninjas says the firm has shut down and Doug Logan is now the “former” CEO and all workers have been let go. The firm’s lawyer even tried to resign during today’s 2-hour hearing, since he says he hasn’t been paid. Maricopa Superior Court Judge John Hannah was having none of it; Cyber Ninjas is sitting on records that the public is entitled to, and they can’t escape their responsibilities by simply saying they’re out of business.
Click through for story. Lots of poetic justice here.

Bonus – There’s a virtual event coming up which should be – ah- interesting. The Conversation is hosting a webinar with the originator of, and fomer winner of, the IgNobel Prize on the subkect of “Physics and psychology of cats – an (Improbable) Conversation.” This will take place on Thirsday, Januaty 20, at 4-5 pm EST/1/2 pm PST and corresponding times between. Registration is here, and they say it is limited (I’m not sure why, but that’s what they said), although it appears to be free.

Food For Thought:

Open Thread for January 8, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:22 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 082022

Yesterday, the new modem arrived. I didn’t install it because I read the directions (what kind ofperson does that, for heaven’s sake?) and they said it would not be activated until 5 pm today. So, I figured better slow internet than none at all. I still managed to gt two posts up for today and Erinyes ready to post tomorrow with two clicks.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Daily Beast – Liz Cheney Torches Trump on Fox News
Quote – After praising speeches marking the anniversary from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris earlier in the day, Cheney quickly pivoted to attacking Trump. “This was a mob that was summoned by and provoked by the president of the United States in an effort to stop the counting of electoral votes, which is a Constitutional process,” she said, explaining how the events of January 6 were different from the outside threats that hit America in the cases of 9/11 or Pearl Harbor.
Click through for more, including a video. I think that the Committee is doing thiings exactly right, and that includes Liz. No Republican will listen to a Democrat, not will they listen to Kinzinger, who is leaving Congress (redistricted out.) But Liz is not going anywhere, and she can always trot out her dad, to demonstrate even an old-school war criminal Republican approves of her stand, as she did at the Capitol Thursday. [She and Dick were the only two Republicans present.]

Mother Jones – Merrick Garland Issues Dire Warning About Voting Rights on Eve of January 6
Quote – In his speech, Garland referenced the Supreme Court’s decision in the 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act and eliminated the provision barring historically discriminatory jurisdictions from altering voting laws without preclearing those changes with the DOJ. Without new legislation to restore those powers, Garland implied, the department lacks the proper tools to protect the right of every American to vote.
Click through for story. So far, Noah and I appear to be the only ones who actually grasped that warning. Given what Republicans are doing, we could win every Congressional, Senatorial, and Gubernatorial race by a margin of 75-25, and still have all the races in red states overturned. And if that happens, it’s game over.

CNN – Manhattan district attorney announces he won’t prosecute certain crimes
Quote – His office will focus on accountability, he said, not sentence length. “Research is clear that, after a certain length, longer sentences do not deter crime or result in greater community safety,” he said, adding that his department will expand its use of “restorative justice programming.”
Click through, with the caveat that CNN is not impressed, and the police and the police union are losing their solid waste. Mr. Bragg has the right priorites. At least the mayor is kinds sorta behind him. All Bragg is saying is “We’re going to treat people of color like white people (and LBGTQ like we treat cis peole, etc.” And that’s what has all those panties in a knot.

Food For Thought:

Older Entries Newer Entries