Video Thread 3/26/2023

 Posted by at 12:18 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Mar 262023
 

Talking Feds with Harry Litman – Former Prosecutor Decodes the Manhattan DA’s TRUMP INDICTMENT Plans (long, but very nuts and bolts – and Glenn skipped a day.)

MSNBC – Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg receives threatening letter with white powder

Farron Balanced – Fox Host Whines About Democrats Making Conservatives Look Like Idiots

Afroman – Will You Help Me Repair My Door? (This is funny [and the CC is not bad], but the incident was not at all funny.} https://www.wonkette.com/humiliated-cops-sue-afroman

Bulldog Obsessed With His Skateboard Hates When His Parents Try To Take It Away From Him

Beau – Let’s talk about the permafrost zombie virus….

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Video Thread 3/24/2023

 Posted by at 11:54 am  Open Thread, Politics
Mar 242023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Judge ORDERS Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran to testify AGAINST Trump, and appellate court agrees!

Thom Hartmann – Fascist Bullies Don’t Stop… Unless We Stop Them

Ring of Fire – Trump’s Biggest Legal Problem Isn’t Getting Enough Attention

MSNBC – Supreme Court hears case on Navajo Nation water dispute

Abandoned Puppies Are All Grown Up And Looking For Their Forever Homes

Beau – Let’s talk about the water situation out west…. (Most of the snowpacks are above normal. There is ONE which is at only 80%. It is the one that feeds the arkansas River. The Ark is rhe river I would drive along after turning left at Pueblo when Virgil was in Las Animas. I feel like Rick – “Of all the basins feeding all the rivers, the one that is below normal is mine.”)

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Open Thread March 7, 2023

 Posted by at 6:53 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 072023
 

Yesterday, I got the email that my prescription is ready, and the verdict from my doctor that (he doesn’t know either, and the) I should stop by an urgent care facility and have them look. So today I will be doing that. So, today, I have a couple of unusual articles, and tomorrow, there may be only a personal update, or maybe a personal updant and a video thread – those are a little easier to put together than the Open Threads. Oh, and I also got the confirmation to visit Virgil this coming Sunday.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Mother Jones – Finally, a Peek Into the Arctic Seed Vault That Could Save Humanity
Quote – The Global Seed Vault in the Norwegian Arctic, which opened in 2008, is closed to the public and shrouded in mystery, the subject of numerous internet doomsday conspiracy theories. Now, to celebrate the vault’s 15th anniversary, everyone is invited on a virtual tour to see inside the vast collection of tubers, rice, grains, and other seeds buried deep in the mountain behind five sets of metal doors. The deep-freeze, designed to last forever, is co-managed by the Norwegian government, the Crop Trust and NordGen, the genebank of the Nordic countries. The seeds could hold answers to agricultural challenges posed by climate crisis, invasive species, pests, changes in rainfall patterns and rampant biodiversity loss are studied, and it opens three times a year to accept new deposits from other seed banks around the world. Scientists say they hope people will learn more about their work through the virtual tour—without running the risk of falling prey to a polar bear.
Click through for story, and for the link to the tour, which is over the words “invited on a virtual tour to see inside the vast” – not highlighted, but there is a thin red underline.

Justice News – Readout of Attorney General Merrick B. Garland’s Trip to Ukraine
Quote – At the Opening Session of the conference, the Attorney General provided remarks in which he discussed, among other things, the Justice Department’s role in collaborating with the Ukrainian Prosecutor General and the moral and personal responsibility he feels in pursuing accountability. “Just over twelve months ago, invading Russian forces began committing atrocities at the largest scale in any armed conflict since the Second World War. We are here today in Ukraine to speak clearly, and with one voice: the perpetrators of those crimes will not get away with them,” said Attorney General Garland.
Click through for this news. I had no idea this happened while it was happening (not that anyone did outside of those with a need to know), but I’m glad it did. The meing included Ukrainian and Polish law enforcement, and possibly others. The print is very small – instead of using the magnifier, since there was so much of it, I copied the text ans pasted it into a blank document where I could adjust the font size.

Food For Thought

From 2021, but very pertinent

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Open Thread February 21, 2023

 Posted by at 7:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 212023
 

Yesterday, I saw that snow for Wednesday the 22nd, which was predicted a week ago and then not predicted for several days, is now back on the agenda. As far as I know, I’m not going anywhere, so that’s fine. And – I learned that President Joe was in Ukraine “to reaffirm our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.” Who besides me is grateful for him? And speaking of Ukraine, the Met Opera is putting on and broadcasting another Concert for Ukraine this Friday. Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Fifth, and a piece by a contemporary Ukrainian composer, all very accessible (classical term of art for “easy listening.”) My local radio station is broadcasting it at 5:00 p.m. MST Friday. I expect anyone who wants to hear it will be able to find a way to do so.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Robert Reich – Jimmy Carter and the end of democratic capitalism
Quote – For years, the rap on President Carter has been that his presidency failed yet his post-presidency was the best in modern history. This is way too simplistic. During Carter’s term of office, the OPEC oil cartel raised oil prices from $13 a barrel to over $34, resulting in double-digit price increases across the economy. Paul Volcker, Carter’s appointee as Fed chair, was determined to “break the back of inflation” by hiking interest rates to nearly 20 percent by 1981, bringing on a deep recession and causing millions of people to lose their jobs — including Carter.
Click through for full argument. It wasn’t just the Federal Reserve – that might have been enough, but we’ll never know, because there was also the Iran hostage crisis, despicably and corruptly used by the GOP. The Reich on the left, as usual, is right, though, to implicate corporate backlash. I don’t know why we haven’t learned to forestall backlash. We’ll need to if we are ever going to make real progress.

The 19th – Mothers of the movement: Black environmental justice activists reflect on the women who have paved the way
Quote – The communities exposed to human-made environmental hazards were and still are largely Black. Race is one of the strongest predictors of the location of hazardous waste sites, which are consistently located near Black and low-income neighborhoods, according to a study by the United Church of Christ. For Black History Month, The 19th spoke with current leaders in the environmental and climate justice movements, including [Leah] Thomas, about the trailblazing Black women in their own lives who have inspired and shaped their work.
Click through for article. Granted that there is no category of humans who are all perfect, and Black women are no exception to that – I still feel that Black women are an underappreciated Nationa Treasure.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 2/16/2023

 Posted by at 11:57 am  Open Thread, Politics
Feb 162023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Mike Pence will fight a grand jury subpoena to testify about Trump’s election crimes, & he will lose

Twitter – Shannon Watts. It was just a matter of time before there was a two-time survivor.

Thom Hartmann – Biden’s Shocking Net Worth Revealed!

Liberal Redneck – Ohio Train Derailment and Corporate Greed

Brent Terhune – Chinese Spy Balloon

Pittie Begs His Mom To Keep A Pittie Puppy Half His Size

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump’s laptop problem….

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Video Thread 2/6/2023

 Posted by at 12:10 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Feb 062023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Pence conceals Trump crimes then profits off them in book; the need to reform ethics in government (It’s likely called misprision because that word, which originally meant just “take wrongly,” was from its inception mostly applied to actions of government officials. For the rest of is, there’s “aiding and abetting” and “accessory before/after the fact.”)

Meidas Touch – Jan 6 Insurrectionist gets BRUTAL sentence and COLLAPSES in Court (as a former Marine myself, I say it’s a step in the right direction. It probably includes concurrent service. Consecutive would have been better.)

Politics Girl – Fund the IRS (Like me, you probably learned this at your mother’s knee. Yet there are still peole who don’t get it.)

Armageddon Update – Really?

Woman Pulls “Aggressive” Dog From The Shelter Minutes Before It’s Too Late

Beau – Let’s talk about the Colorado River and deals….

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Open Thread January 25, 2023

 Posted by at 6:52 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 252023
 

Yesterday, though it was pretty cold, I took out some recyclables – not to the curb, just so the polycart. I hadn’t done so for a while, and I needed the space. The speed and the degree with which my hands bounced back to warm after coming back in is actually more revealing to me of just how cold it was than looking up the actual temperature. Fortunately, that’s something I don’t need to do all that often. Also, I received confirmation to see Virgil Sunday, so I guess my change in phraseology worked.

I imagine everyone has noticed that some classified documents have now been found at the home of Mike Pence. Even before that, Democratic Underground had some thoughts… (I say Democratinc Underground rather than the original poster because comments.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Mother Jones – Can $25 Million Preserve an Alaskan Town Sinking Into the Tundra?
Quote – From a distance, not much seems amiss, but a stroll through the community, almost 500 miles west of Anchorage, reveals a myriad of health and safety problems. Climate warming has severely degraded the permafrost, so buildings are sinking into the tundra. The Ninglick River, which flows past the village, is rapidly devouring large swaths of land, taking with it buildings and homes during periods of high water.
Click through for details. The short answer is “not even close.” And you know the town did not get to thispoint from the actions of residents alone. It took a lot of bad actions from around the world to melt the tundra to this degree.

Southern Poverty Law Center – ‘Willing to Fight’: Residents rise up against development that could erase historic Florida town’s rich Black heritage
Quote – At stake is the fate of the Robert Hungerford Preparatory School property, where the leaders of Eatonville established a school in 1897 on about 300 acres. The school was modeled on Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now Tuskegee University, in Alabama. Attracting Black students from up and down the Eastern Seaboard, it was for generations the beating heart of a community where, in an era of Jim Crow and lynching, Black citizens managed to build, govern and maintain their own Black-majority town.
Click through for story. Some livability issues are climeate-related. Some are white-supremancy-related. Still others are related to greed. Somehow they all seem to be related to Republican policies, though.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread January 14, 2023

 Posted by at 7:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 142023
 

Yesterday, I got confirmation to visit Virgil tomorrow. This is the second visit in a row I’ve had to follow up on my request, but it pays off not to get upset, and I think they are rotating assignments or something because the name in the “signature” was new to me. So I think I’ll just start adding “Thanks in advance for your confirmation” or the like to my emails. It’s easy to do, it’s not insulting, and it could save a whole lot of grief on both ends. I also heard from a friend in California, one town up from where I grew up (but we had to join the Marines and be stationed in North Carolina to meet) letting me know that the rains had been heavy, but that she is fine. That area is separated from the ocean by what they call “the foothills,” although they aren’t at the foot of any mountains, they are just there. They are tall enough that a couple of inches, or even a couple of feet in sea level rise is not going to affect the area, but of course rain is another story. I’ll have to start paying more attention to the weather, beyond my own weather and the big headline storms.

Cartoon – (So many of TomCat’s cartoons were  clairvoyant.  This one is from January 2015.)

Short Takes –

Wonkette – Oh Sh*t, Ohio Student Noticed Top Secret Anti-Racist Message Of ‘The Sneetches’
Quote – This is where we are: You can’t read The Sneetches because a kid might notice discrimination is wrong. And that’s exactly what red state governors and legislators have been accomplishing. She added that the school district is “really not about suppressing any viewpoints or dialogues,” which it did, actually. In addition, so everyone will have something to groan about, she also insisted “We do not ban any books,” which is true, because all she did was ban a teacher from reading one. Congratulations, rightwing hoax-panic over “critical race theory.”
Click through for story. Children, like adults, differ, and not all of them have brains that fit the “tabula rasa” theory. Some are quite intelligent.  So, while I of course would not call any kind of censorship healthy, no matter how hard they try, some facts are going to get through.

Robert Reich – What to do about America’s “labor shortage?” Easy. Pay people more.
Quote – The reason people aren’t working is that work doesn’t pay them enough, given declining wages and the increasing costs of childcare, eldercare, and transportation. Both the Fed’s solution (slow the economy so employers can find the workers they need without raising wages) and the Republican corporate solution (slash safety nets so people are so desperate they have to take any job available) are cruel. They would impose huge burdens on many of the most vulnerable people in our society. If we want more people to take jobs and we wish to live in a decent society, the answer is to pay people more.
Click through for details. I don’t get it. Is it because Reich’s background is technically in the field of labor, not economics, that “serious economists” don’t take him seriously? He is right on this, he is virtually always right, and he has cold, hard facts to back him up.

Food For Thought (Our system can handle gifs, but not, for some reason, this one.  But uyou can see it in moton here.)

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