Glenn Kirschner – New evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump committed felony obstruction of justice
Meidas Touch – MAGA Republicans repeat BLATANT RACISM at Arizona Trump Rally
The Lincoln Project – America or MAGA
MSNBC – Maddow: Humans Have A Muscle For Authoritarian, Fascist, Anti-Semitic, Racist Wedge Politics
Armageddon Update – Death Walker of Democracy
Beau – Let’s talk about DOD changing the cars you see….
Yesterday, I went to see Virgil. I set my alarm a bit earlier than I had been on days I was going to see him, and that turned out to be a mistake. We live and learn. So I’ll switch it back (after I set it for Thursday’s hearing, of course.) Virgil appreciates and returns all your greetings. The weather was fine and the drive both ways was uneventful. Also, I thought I had enough sleep Saturday night. However, I still felt pretty tired upon return. Oh, yes, and Happy Indigenous Peoples Day.
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HuffPost – What The Weird Conservative Fixation On Electric Vehicles Says About Their Politics
Quote – The Biden administration has made support for EVs a top priority. The Inflation Reduction Act, the spending bill that Biden signed over the summer, included new tax credits for people who purchase EVs as well as businesses that open up charging stations. Greene has been critical of this effort from the get-go, and in February posted a 21-part tweetstorm calling the Biden plan ― which, at that point, was still under discussion ― “a one way ticket to hell.” Greene isn’t alone in making these sorts of arguments. On the contrary, the list of Republican officials who have attacked the Biden administration’s EV agenda in similar terms is long and includes everybody from Florida Sen. Rick Scott to Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw.
Click through for three reasons why anyone with a functioning brain and who doesn’t hate Democrats could be expected to be ebthusiastic about EVs. But, Republicans … What do you want to bet that20 or even 10 years from now they will be all in favors of EVs, and will never admit they weren’t always.
CPR News – As the reparations debate continues nationally, some Denver organizations are stepping up now
Quote – Risë Jones is walking around TeaLee’s, her three-year-old tea shop in Denver’s historically Black Five Points neighborhood. Soft jazz plays in the main seating area with about 10 tables, and in the basement is a bookstore with some hard-to-find titles by Black authors…. Jones is among several Black business owners in Denver who have received grants from groups raising private funds to pay reparations for the centuries of abuse of Blacks forced into slavery…. Jones received an $8,500 reparations grant to open the shop, one of several that have been distributed…. There are several organizations that do precisely that kind of work. One of them is BRIC (Black Resilience in Colorado) a non-profit organization that officially opened on Juneteeth (June 19) of 2020.
Click through and scroll down for the article – it’s below a podcast and the picture. Hey, they’re a radio outfit, of course they like podcasts. But they like articles too. There is so much in it for me as a Coloradan to be proud of (and that TomCat would have loved.)
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – This would have been the monthly recap, so I have substituted this from MSNBC
Meidas Touch – Navy Vet RESPONDS to Ben Shapiro’s PATHETIC ATTACK on the US Military
The Lincoln Project – DJ Trump (Wilmington Remix)
Vote Vets – Rep. Elissa Slotkin Rebukes Republicans Who Want To Ban Abortions For Veterans Who Are Rape Victims
Hyperobject Industries – Chevron Ad (Yeah, I want more too, but this is their first video – no idea when or if they’ll make another.)
Beau – Let’s talk about Ian and being overtaken by events….
Yesterday, Joyce Vance posted “The Week Ahead” in her Substack column, “Civil Discourse,” and it is packed. Joyce is to lawyers what Heather Cox Richardson is to historians – you may have seen her as a consultant on mainstream media. She doesn’t post every day, and when she does, she sometimes digresses into silky chickens (which she raises) and knitting; I love both, so that’s fine with me, but I wouldn’t wish it on y’all. This column, however, is jampacked with five sections, each on something current and earthshaking. It’s too much for a short take, but if you have a little time (not necessarily all at once, since it is sectioned) I highly recommeend it.
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The New Yorker – The Supreme Court’s Big New Term
Quote – If Roberts is still confused, he could, for guidance, look to comments that Justices Sonia Sotomayor and, especially, Elena Kagan have made since the Dobbs ruling. In late September, at Salve Regina University, in Rhode Island, Kagan noted that people are right to worry about “the whole legal system being kind of up for grabs” after a change to the composition of the Court, with decisions that seem driven by ideology and divorced from legal principles. “It just doesn’t look like law when, you know, the new judges appointed by a new President come in and just start tossing out the old stuff,” she said.
Click through for, among other things, examples of cases which are coming up this term and which, even the ones that seem simple, could be incredibly destructive.
CNN – This 100% solar community endured Hurricane Ian with no loss of power and minimal damage
Quote – Babcock Ranch calls itself “America’s first solar-powered town.”… The streets in this meticulously planned neighborhood were designed to flood so houses don’t. Native landscaping along roads helps control storm water. Power and internet lines are buried to avoid wind damage. This is all in addition to being built to Florida’s robust building codes. Some residents, like Grande, installed more solar panels on their roofs and added battery systems as an extra layer of protection from power outages. Many drive electric vehicles, taking full advantage of solar energy in the Sunshine State.
Click through for story – One would think this would be convincing evidenve. Except that Republicans don’t believe in spending money to save money. They only believe in spending money to make the rich righer.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, putting this post together, I realized I had picked two good news stories. I didn’t set out to do that. It was just, having read so much legal-judicial stuff, I was looking for something new and different, and these jumped out. Besides being good news, the two have something else in common – both hark back to the Obama administration in some way.
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The 19th – 53 years ago, the White House sought to end hunger. Now it’s trying again.
Quote – “This conference is engaging all sectors — the public sector, the private sector, community-based organizations — all around shifting the conversation from just getting food into people’s hands to also making sure that we get healthy food into people’s hands and that it is seen as a public health issue, rather than just an emergency food issue,” said Jason Wilson, vice president of marketing and development for the Partnership for a Healthier America, a nonprofit organization created in conjunction with former First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign.
Click through for details. Fifty-three years ago most Republicans were human beings, and only a few were fascist monsters. Now, it’s the other way around. I widh the conference alll the luck in the world.
Wonkette -Schools Go Solar, Save Millions On Energy, Upgrade Classrooms, Pay Teachers More — Yes, In The USA
Quote – It’s been another crazy exasperating week, so we bet you could do with some really cool news about public schools that are switching to clean solar energy, saving millions of dollars in some cases, and using the savings to improve the schools and even their communities. This isn’t a proposal in some position paper about how we might create a wonderful clean energy future, either — it’s been going on for a while now, as the New York Times recently reported [There is a free gift link in the article but it’s too long to reproduce here]. The story notes that one in 10 US public and private schools in the US was using solar energy by early 2022, according to a report from clean energy nonprofit Generation 180 — twice as many as in 2015. That’s one more benefit of the rapid decline in the cost of solar panels in the last couple decades. Hey, if you’d like to say “Thanks, Obama,” you certainly could, since clean energy investments in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act helped jumpstart the widespread adoption of renewable energy and the resulting reductions in solar energy costs.
Click through for story – stories actually. It’s happening in states you would not ecpect. Amazing.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, the plumber came around 9:00 and was finished before 10:00. I had two separate small problems, one in the bathroom sink and one in the stool. That was a good thing – because with both stopped up, I was afraid there was one problem, farther out, that would require expensive digging. At least I dodged that bullet.
Some information I have come across recently I think is interesting, though it may not mean anything (but it is suggestive.) The area which is now Russia had indigenous peole in the Middle Ages, and was invaded by Vikings – whom the indigenous people called “the Rus.” Those people actually asked the Vikings to stay and rule over them, because the Vikings appeared to be more organized than they were. (Incidentally the Vikings were not an ethniv group – it was more like a career choice – there were Vikings of many ethnicities.) The name “Russia” comes from their name for the Vikings. Ukrainians, however, are descended from Cossacks (if their national anthem is to be believed.) The Cossacks were an ethnic group’ They were semi-nomadic. Groups of them settled in varioua eastern nations, making a deal that they would providwe military service to those nations in return for being allowed self-government – which was mostly democratic. Don’t be discouraged by the length of this video on the Vikings – you only need to listen about a minute and a half to get the content. And this article is on the Cossacks. Those are my sources.
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Letters from an American – September 24, 2022
Quote – In Arizona, Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson has restored a law put into effect by Arizona’s Territorial legislature in 1864 and then reworked in 1901 that has been widely interpreted as a ban on all abortions except to save a woman’s life. Oddly, I know quite a bit about the 1864 Arizona Territorial legislature, and its story matters as we think about the attempt to impose its will in modern America. In fact, the Civil War era law seems not particularly concerned with women handling their own reproductive care—it actually seems to ignore that practice entirely. The laws for this territory, chaotic and still at war in 1864, appear to reflect the need to rein in a lawless population of men.
Click through for story. I believe I see a huge Plan B loophole in the way this law is worded – provided the user orders it from, or buys it in person, out of state (i.e., receives it from a person not under Arizona’s jurisdiction.)
ABC News [Australian Broadcasting Company] – Indigenous activists condemn New York Times obituary of Uncle Jack Charles as offensive 
Lona
Quote – The lede paragraph of the New York Times story initially read: “MELBOURNE, Australia — Jack Charles, one of Australia’s leading Indigenous actors, who has been called the “grandfather of Aboriginal theatre” but whose heroin addiction and penchant for burglary landed him in and out of jail throughout his life, died on September 13 in Melbourne. He was 79.” It was updated to read: “MELBOURNE, Australia — Jack Charles, one of Australia’s leading Indigenous actors and activists, who has been called the “grandfather of Aboriginal theatre” and who spent years in prison for burglaries that he saw as acts of reparations, died on September 13 in Melbourne. He was 79.”
Click through for story (I had no trouble so I assume y’all can see it – if not I’ll be happy to “print” it and sent a pdf) The ironic thing is that the Old Gray Lady is supposedly trying to be more sensitive in obituaries. Apparently, that only aqpplies to Americans.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, when I opened up Weather Underground to record the times of sunrise and sunset (I want to have a full year), I noticed two things. The first one I couldn’t have missed, becausethe first thing that shows up id a 10-day graph of local weather conditions with the temperatiure in red – and yesterday, showing that Wednesday and Thursday are going to be cold. Most people might not think so, but for me, highs in the high fifties and lows in the low forties are “bundle up, or spend the day sneezing” weather. But the other thing I noticed was that California is due for some much-needed rain. I hope it goes into all the places that need it the most, and doesn’t flood too much. I expect Colleen will keep us up to date – hopefully her home will not flood.
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Civil Discourse – Will the 11th Circuit Trump Trump?
Quote – By now, we all know that DOJ executed a lawful search warrant at Mar-a-Lago after Trump spent months haggling over the return of papers that belonged to the government. Ultimately one of his lawyers signed a document certifying that all of the materials were returned. This was a lie. Numerous records including approximately one hundred classified documents were found when DOJ executed its search warrant. Some folders that should have contained classified material were empty. Nothing is publicly known about the fate of those documents.
Click through. This is a great summry of how we got to where we are in the documents investigation (and they are not all that easy to keep straight.)
Justice News – Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Administers the Oath of Allegiance and Delivers Congratulatory Remarks at Ellis Island Ceremony in Celebration of Constitution Week and Citizenship Day
Quote – Like [the authors of the Constitution], each of you has now made a commitment not only to this nation and your fellow Americans, but to the generations of Americans who will come after you. In that commitment, you have given your posterity – and the posterity of all of us – a precious gift. I know how valuable that gift is because it is the same one my grandparents gave my family and me…. Of course, we still have work to do to make a more perfect union. Although the Rule of Law has always been our guiding light, we have not always been faithful to it. The Rule of Law is not assured. It is fragile. It demands constant effort and vigilance.
Click through for the full speech. Yes, this is a feel-good article. We sometimes need (at least I do) to allow ourselves to feel good, even though what we are feeling good about may not be perfct.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, I received an email from the Holocaust Museum – not unusual. Sometimes I can handle reading some of the stories, sometimes not so much. But this one was only one story – about a survivor, David Bayer, who is also a museum volunteer, and is about to celebrate his 100th birthday. I signed an electronic birthday card for him, and you can too if you wish to. I really wonder – so many flat-earthers, and Holocaust deniers, and now election deniers – David has reached many people – but what will we do when he is gone? (Quote from the letter: “I’ve had many Museum visitors tell me it is firsthand experiences with survivors such as David that create a personal connection to Holocaust history.”
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Letters from an American – September 16, 2022
Quote – As Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo says, none of it adds up. None of it, that is, except the politics. DeSantis apparently dispatched the migrants with a videographer to take images of them arriving, entirely unexpectedly, on the upscale island, presumably in an attempt to present the image that Democratic areas can’t handle immigrants (in fact, more than 12% of the island’s 17,000 full-time residents were born in foreign countries, and 22% of the residents are non-white). But the residents of the island greeted the migrants; found beds, food, and medical care; and worked with authorities to move them back to the mainland where there are support services and housing. In the meantime, there are questions about the legality of DeSantis chartering planes to move migrants from state to state.
Click through for full letter. She fills in the DeSantis travesty with background on Martha’s Vineyard and the truth about immigration and immigration policy.
Crooks & Liars – Lindell’s Subpoena Reveals ‘Subjects’ Of [election tampering] Investigation
Quote – The subpoena covers “all records and information” on Lindell’s phone that constitutes as evidence against seven named individuals or any other unnamed co-conspirators. It details several areas of interest for investigators related to Dominion voting systems and any efforts to damage or access them. Two of the individuals, Belinda Knisley and Sandra Brown, were Peters’ deputies in the Mesa County elections office and were charged in the Colorado state case earlier this year.
Click through for more. I added “election tampering” to the title because there are so many investigation it’s hard to keep them straight.
Food For Thought
