Open Thread September 17 2024

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

Sep 172024

Yesterday, I was still tidying up. I have been known to make the same mstake twice, but hopefully not in a two-day period, so this should be on time. Also, the New Mexico Political Report announced a week starting today of articles discussing exactly what impact Project 2025 would have in New Mexico specifically. I realize that probably none of us live in New Mexico, but even if your state has zip in common with it, seeing it applied to a particular state could get us thinking about how it would apply to our own. I’m providing a link to the introduction, which has more details. While there , I went to the home page by clicking on the logo in the upper left, and saw two stories already on how Project 2025 will affect the climate in New Mexico. The New Mexico Political Report is (or used to be and I hope still is) a creative commons site, which means that as long as you follow their rules, you can repost complete articles and not violate copyright. And then there’s this (watch the embed here – don’t go to YouTube – it is censoring VoteVets

TomCat referred to the Reichstag fire often, as I’m sure everyone recalls. The first “assissination attempt” may have been actually an intended attempt, but I still do not believe it as a bullet which caused his ear to bleed (my vote goes to shattered glass “shrapnel.”) But this really does look ridiculous to anyone with a functioning brain. Not that that precludes it from being very dangerous, as Rober Reich has also remarked.

This is a report from the Project on Government Oversight on what happens in one state – Texas – when the Census is not conducted to count every head. NOte that Texas deliberately conducted the 2020 Census so as to undercount its population. WEll, it cost them a lot of money to do that. Not that they care about that. Red states are states which turn down Federal money even if the count is correct.

Belle 18 mos

Cat

Open Thread October 6, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:55 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 062023

Yesterday, Colorado Public Radio reported that it’s mating season for tarantulas in southeastern Colorado – way southeastern – a good hundred miles from where I live. In and around La Junta, which is holding a Tarantula Festival. Before they started moving Virgil around last year, I used to drive through La Junta to see him, but I never saw a tarantula. Don’t click the link if you don’t like spiders, but if you can tolerate them, it’s kind of cute. I wonder whether they feature tarantella bands. Nah, probably not. Also, I received a grocery order.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Lauren Wilson – The Immigration Situation – It’s Nuts!
Quote – Before September 21st, an asylum seeker could not get a work visa for 6 months. In my mind, that has to be the dumbest law imaginable. These people want to work. They want to find homes, become a part of society, take care of their families. They are not happy to live in tents and shelters in NYC when it is about to get cold. Although this is the law and only Congress can change it, Biden has circumvented the law to allow the Venezuelan asylum seekers to immediately apply for work visas. It is hoped that this will address the problem in New York City. But it does nothing for the Cubans, Nicaraguans, or Haitians. To say that immigration is going to be a major platform issue in the 2024 presidential election is an understatement. Republicans are already pressuring Biden to \”Close the Border\” and there are Democrats who agree. But those of us who are humanitarians want to find other solutions. Immigrants are people, not problems. If the policies are problems, let’s figure out how to fix them.
Click through for article. Lauren is a DU’er who is looking to expand her personal blog’s readership. With articles like this, she should be able to, if people just know where to look. It’s clear she is a competent researcher of both history and current events.

National Public Radio – The growing racial gap in U.S. census results is raising an expert panel’s concerns
Quote – “There’s always going to be error in a census,” says Teresa Sullivan, a sociology professor and former president of the University of Virginia, who chaired the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine panel that was commissioned by the Census Bureau. Still, the panel’s report, released Tuesday, urged the bureau to take steps to learn from the shortfalls of the 2020 census and improve on the next constitutionally required count. Those statistics are set to be used to determine each state’s share of congressional seats and Electoral College votes, as well as redraw voting districts for every level of government and guide more than $2.8 trillion a year in federal money for public services across the country.
Click through for details. Yes, there is always going to be honest error in the census. But, though it may be possible to avoid some dishonest error, some of thet is also going to creep in. I do beieve we can cut down on it, but not without having some kind of ethics qualification for Census workers – specifically the ones who only work as temps for one Census. Don’t get me started on my own experience as one.

Food For Thought

Open Thread for August 14, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:36 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 142021

So yesterday I attempted to get my new noise generator up and running … and coudn’t get a peep outof it. So I fired off an email to customer service. In the eantime, the travel size works just fine. As far as weather – we’ve been hotter – but our air quality is the pits. We are a large, smoke-filled room. I’m staying in, thanks.

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Short Takes –

The Hill – Census shows US growth driven by minorities; white pop falls under 60 percent
Quote – A part of that decrease comes as a result of a new effort by the Census Bureau to measure the number of people who identify as multiracial, a population that skyrocketed over the last decade. But much of the drop in the white population, experts and demographers said, stems from an aging demographic that is producing fewer children later in life. “Whites, no matter how you count them, declined since 2010,” said William Frey, a senior demographer at the Brookings Institution.
Click through for exact numbers and ramifications. I consider this to be excellent news, but you know you can hear RWNJ heads exploding all over.

HuffPost – 3 Former Cops Charged In Wrongful Conviction That Sent A Man To Prison For 25 Years
Quote – It is exceedingly rare for law enforcement officials to face criminal prosecution in relation to their roles in wrongful convictions. But reviewing wrongful convictions has been a key agenda item for Krasner, one of the leaders of the progressive prosecutor movement. In 2018, his office created the Conviction Integrity Unit, which has helped secure exonerations for 22 people. At least 18 of the exonerated were Black men. The detectives charged on Friday worked on at least four of the cases that the Conviction Integrity Unit has helped overturn.
Click through for details, including (trigger warning) description of initial interrogation and also the Grand Jury findings document. This is why I actually sent money to Krasner’s campaign. Not much, but some. Oh, and there’s a little video too.

Reuters – U.S. Homeland Security warns fresh COVID-19 restrictions could spark violent attacks
Quote – In an interview with CNN, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said his department considered domestic violent extremists to constitute “the greatest terrorist-related threat to our homeland.” He said the Department was seeing expressions of extremism fueled by “false narratives” and “ideologies of hate.” U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, welcomed the DHS warning but said it was “troubling that the terrorism threat increasingly is based on grievance-based violence and conspiracy theories, especially related to the election and former President Trump.”
Click through. Dam right they “could” (read “will.” They won’t be happy unless they can kill all of us – but they’ll settle for any of us (and even some of themselves.) Here’s just one example.

Food for Thought –

Open Thread for August 7, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:07 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 072021

Yesterday it unbelievably sstayed fairly cool. Also, I may be in that golden period where, after it gets so hot, the same temps which led up to that and felt hot at the time don’t feel as hot now as they did them. Whatever it is, it’s pleasant.

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Short Takes

DATA GEMS: How to Download the Complete Set of 2020 Census Redistricting Files for Your State
Quote: In this Data Gem, you will learn about where to find and download the complete P.L.94-171 Redistricting Data Files from the 2020 Census for your state using the Census Bureau’s File Transfer Protocol site. This is a great resource for users looking to download large data files to use with software such as Microsoft Access, SAS, SQL, Sqlite, Oracle, Tableau, ArcGIS, and more. You will also learn about some of the critical resources that will enable you to successfully work with these data.
Click through if interested. Colorado is s state which requires an independent commission to draw the districs, and it has a history of being as fair as it can be – based on the data it is given. So I won’t be looking. But it anyone does need or want to know amore about this, well – the horse’s mouth.

The Independent – ‘Occupy’ leader claims police ‘dragged’ him out of Kevin McCarthy presser for asking about Capitol riot commission
Quote – “I tried to ask @GOPLeader McCarthy a question after he decried Cuban police pickup up (sic) people in the streets,” Mr Stern tweeted. “Why does he oppose the bipartisan #January6thCommission? A Congressional staffer had four cops pick me up and drag me from the room. I still asked the question.”
Click through for deets. Despite the quotes around “dragged,” this did happen. There’s more on PolitiZoom, but not everyone can see that site.

CNN – House select committee begins taking over January 6 investigation from other committee
Quote – The newly formed House select committee is taking the lead on investigating January 6 going forward, consolidating the investigation, as other committees looking into the matter begin handing over their work, according to a multiple sources familiar with the matter. That includes interviews with key figures related to that day that were already scheduled to meet with other committees but were postponed.
Click through for story. This is a normal thing to happen – Benghazi is just one example – but the kerfuffle about the committee selection, which resulted in the Republicans on the Select Committee being the only two who are committed to finding the truth, makes it different. Republicans on Oversight might have obstructed. Now they can’t. And the same is true for any other regular committee which has any knowledge or evidence. GlennKirschner will go even farther in his video in today’s Video Thread.

Food for Thought – I’ve used this before in the gif version), but it fits today with the census date information.

Open Thread for July 16, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:44 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 162021

Yesterday I got a grocery order delivered and put away (which I did just manage to get in on the previous night.) And I made an appointment for my annual checkup which would normally have happened last November but was delayed by the pandemic. And that is just about all I accomplished. Incidentally, I probably will be phasing out Samantha Bee and Bill Maher (if somebody else wants to do them I’ll gladly help), but that’s not why there are none this week. There are no new vids on her channel, and he is still on vacation for another week or two.

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Short Takes –

Above the Fray: Changing the Stakes of Supreme Court Selection and Enhancing Legitimacy
This is a readable but also a searchable report from the Project on Government Oversight which is a real keeper. I seldom agree with POGO on every single point and I’m sure this is no exception. But I can’t fault their research
Click through for the full report. IMO it’s a keeper.

Reuters – AG revives immigration judges’ power to postpone deportation cases
Quote – Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a ruling on Thursday restoring the ability of immigration judges to postpone deportation cases while awaiting rulings in related proceedings, which had been eliminated by Trump-era AG Jeff Sessions.
Click through for details (somewhat technical.) Bottom line: People are rightly complaining that immigrants are still being ill-treated. Still having Trumpian regulations on the books is one big reason why. Getting rid of those regulations is a good thing.

AP News – Biden’s Census nominee promises independence, transparency
Quote – President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the U.S. Census Bureau told a Senate committee on Thursday that he would bring transparency and independence to the nation’s largest statistical agency, which was challenged by the pandemic, natural disasters and attempts at political interference while carrying out the 2020 census.
Click through for story. I hope it’s not too late.

Food for Thought:

Samantha Bee from up to 6/30/2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 9:43 pm Politics

Jun 302021

New York’s Feeling the Consequences of the 2020 Census

The Weight Loss Industry is Attacking Our Post–Pandemic Bodies Part I
The Weight Loss Industry is Attacking Our Post–Pandemic Bodies Part II

Sam’s New Body Double–June Diane Raphael!

Sam’s Virtual Reality Tour of Akagera National Park

Sam Leaves the House and Heads to… Rwanda?

Open Thread – 8/5/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 052020

It’s a routine day here in the CatBox. I’m running a bit late, because I had to eat breakfast slowly, and I took a cat nap to rest my back. Happy Hump Day!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:59 (average 5:06). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0805TrumpVirusMap

US Cases: 4,920,917
US Deaths: 160,372

Short Takes:

From AlterNet: The Daily Caller has taken tens of thousands of dollars to help Republican campaigns raise money while performing political fact-check services for Facebook.

Federal election filings from the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee show that the two organizations rented email lists from the publication this year, paying $40,213.75 and $18,171.40, respectively.

The Caller, a right-wing publication co-founded by Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, has also since 2016 sent dozens of emails “paid for by Trump Make America Great Again Committee,” a joint fundraising vehicle shared by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, according to Media Matters.

Media Matters also revealed that The Daily Caller has sent sponsored emails on behalf of a number of Republican candidates this year. Media Matters posted screenshots of the emails, from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C; Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; the Senate Conservatives Fund; and the Bikers for the President PAC.

Their association with The Daily Caller, which is published excrement, hideously co-founded by Fucker Carlson, make this clear. With Fakebook, the only way to win is not to play! UNPLUG!! RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Ending The Census Early Could Have Huge Political Consequences

The poorer people are, the more difficult they are to count and the more likely they are to vote blue. This is nothing more than a criminal attempt by the Republican Reich to skew representation in favor of the Nazi Republican Party for the next ten tears. We must defeat this scam! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast of protest): Bruce Springsteen – The Rising (official video)

Kudos to the left-wing demonstrators! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!