Apr 272022
 

Yesterday, I finished putting together today’s posts at a little after 4:30. That was an hour earlier than they guarantee the information, but I looked it up anyway, and a lot of information was already there. There wass a group of 211 jurors ordered to report by 8:00 a.m. today, and another group of 286 standby jurors ordered to check in around 11:30 and be prepared to come in within the hour. Of that 268, I would be the 248th person to be called. On Tuesday they released 380 standby jurors, and on Monday they released 404. So I was figuring I can pretty well expect to be off the hook. But of course I don’t take that for granted.

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Short Takes –

Common Dreams – EU Enacts Landmark Social Media Law to End Self-Regulation by Big Tech
Quote – “The law aims to end an era of self-regulation in which tech companies set their own policies about what content could stay up or be taken down,” the newspaper noted. “It stands out from other regulatory attempts by addressing online speech, an area that is largely off-limits in the United States because of First Amendment protections.” Calling the legislation a “major milestone for E.U. citizens,” Thierry Breton, the bloc’s internal market commissioner, said that “the time of big online platforms behaving like they are ‘too big to care’ is coming to an end.”
Click through for details. Yes, free speech. And yes, this is going to be a pain in the butt for them to administer, even without the FirstAmendment. But the way social media currently act will nevitably destroy democracy.

Crooks and Liars – Climate Activist Dies After Setting Himself On Fire At SCOTUS
Quote – And so Wynn Bruce had set himself on fire in front of the Supreme Court at about 6:30 p.m. on Friday, and we didn’t pay any attention to that, either. I thought I’d remind you, so he didn’t die in vain.
Click through for story. CPR reported the incident but not the reason. You may have seen the report somewhere (but probably not the reason.) I’m afraod he did indeed die in vain.

The Daily Beast – U.S. Vietnam War Insiders: Russia Is Making the Same Damn Fool Mistakes in Ukraine That We Did
Quote – “The Americans got run out of Vietnam, and the Russians are going to get run out of Ukraine,” William Taylor, ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009 and again, for seven months, from June 2019 to January 2020, told The Daily Beast. “The U.S. didn’t understand Vietnam, and the Russians didn’t understand Ukraine.” … Although comparisons are inexact, he finds an eerie parallel between the American failure in Vietnam and Russia’s violent campaign in Ukraine. “We didn’t understand there’s a nationalism about the Vietnamese,” he said. “The Vietnamese pushed us out,” and “the Ukrainians will push out the Russians.”
Click through for the reasoning. I was certainly not an insider then, but those who were have good reason to know mistakes were made. I hope their conclusion is accurate.

Food For Thought

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Apr 252022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Lordy there are Cheney-McCarthy tapes! And they prove Kevin McCarthy is a coward AND a liar.

Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to leaked Kevin McCarthy Tapes!

The Lincoln Project – Ron DeSantis: Bad for business

Ring of Fire – Judge Hits Capitol Rioter With Longer Sentence Due To Pathetic Defense

Really American – Dr. Oz Shady History With Foreign Dictators EXPOSED

Robert Reich – The Solutions to the Climate Crisis No One is Talking About

Beau – Let’s talk about new tools in Ukraine….

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Apr 242022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Don Jr. to meet w/J6 committee; Alex Jones wants to talk to DOJ prosecutors BUT demands immunity

Meidas Touch – Judge STORMS OFF after Rudy Guiliani unveiled as The Masked Singer

The Lincoln Project – Kevin McCarthy is a Liar

Farron Balanced – Florida CRT Math Book Panic Based On Fake Image From Twitter (Of course that isn’t really why. The real reason is a sweetheart deal between DeSantis and the approved books’ publisher But this is quite believable if you ddn’t know about the money.)

Really American – Marjorie Taylor Greene PANICS about ‘Nasty’ Press Allowed to Cover Her in Court

Robert Reich – How We Stand Up to Putin and Stop Climate Catastrophe

Beau – Let’s talk about a new law Tennessee about homelessness….

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Apr 102022
 

Glenn Kirschner – NY DA Bragg tries to double-talk his way out of his decision to end the Trump criminal investigation

Ring of Fire – Conservatives Have Complete Meltdown Over Oreo Cookies

MSNBC: “Extraordinarily Disgraceful” that American Officials would Support Putin, says Spanberger

Rebel HQ – Richard Ojeda SHREDS Moscow Mitch’s Lack Of Morals

Ths tweet is from Steve Schmidt of the Lincoln Project, and yes.

Mrs Betty Bowers – Schooling Ron DeSantis https://youtu.be/aUEnTcpLvV0

Beau – Let’s talk about West Virginia, solar, and stranded assets….

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Apr 062022
 

Yesterday, our spring winds started. So did the spring fund drive of my reguar radio station (I’m sure there’s no connection), so I switched over to the one in Denver. Colorado Springs is not seeing any precipitation, nor is Denver (which, though it’s not warm, is having a red flag fire danger day, while up in the mountains there is a winter storm warning, and about 50 miles north a ski area is closed. At least out governor is well aware that climate change is a thing, but there is a limit to what he can do, and so much damage has already been done. Sure, at this altitude we don’t have o worry about sea level rise, but that is far from the only consequence.

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Short Takes –

Robert Reich – Why Biden’s plan to tax the super rich is moving from unlikely to likely, and why it’s really really important
Quote – Last week Joe Biden unveiled two tax proposals that would revive Teddy Roosevelt’s original vision, and could possibly slow or even reverse America’s march toward oligarchy: (1) a minimum income tax that Biden calls a billionaire tax but would in reality apply to households with a net worth of $100 million or more, and (2) a separate tax at death on gains from appreciated assets, even if the assets are not sold. The odds are growing that at least one of these proposals will get through the Senate in April or May via “reconciliation” requiring only a bare majority (i.e., all fifty Democratic senators plus the vice president). I’m told Joe Manchin is mostly on board (which means the other Democratic holdout, Kyrsten Sinema, will sign on as well).
Click through for the full essay, including some cartoons. I do hope his analysis is correct (not his analysis of the economy, we know that’s correct, but his analysis of the bills’ chances.)

Crooks and Liars – Fox Viewers Paid To Watch CNN Changed Their Minds After 30 Days
Quote – The results: Not only did CNN and Fox cover different things during the September 2020 survey period, but the audience of committed Fox viewers, which started the month with conservative predispositions, changed their minds on many issues.
Click through for methodology and result numbers, as well as a link to the Washington Post story. This may be the absolute best news of the year.  Now if we can only figure out how to use it.

Mother Jones – What Can Indigenous Worldviews Bring to Space Exploration? As It Turns Out, a Lot.
Quote – Language and thought have influenced SETI and science writ large, said Rebecca Charbonneau, a historian at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. During Europe’s Scientific Revolution, the philosopher Francis Bacon described nature as something to be subjugated, she said: “a thing for mankind, in his words, to control. And that’s kind of formed the basis for the way we think about science.”
Click through for thoughtful analysis. If there is carbon-based life (and/or non-carbon-based life – possibly even more important) anywhere we are likely to reach. this kind of thinking is an absolute necessity As good as we are at self-sabotage, however, I’m not convinced we can get there.

Food For Thought:

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Apr 052022
 

Glenn Kirschner – NYT: President Biden says Trump is “a Danger to Democracy” and “Should be Prosecuted”

The Lincoln Project – Genocide

Meidas Touch – Trump’s Fake News Rally FACT-CHECKED in real time!

American Bridge – Ron DeSanits: At War with the LGBTQ Community

Ojeda Live – Republicans and Their Aversion to Education

SNL Cold Open 4/2/22

Beau – Let’s talk about some good climate news….

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Apr 042022
 

Yesterday, I actually managed to place a grocery order in themorning and schedule it for this evening.  And it actually came a little after six (I asked fror a window from 6-8) and by 8 I hadeverything that neded to be put away, put awat.  And no substitutes.  A couple of things missing or shorted, and the dishwashing liquid leaked over a bunch of things, but didn’t actually destroy anything, just made them icky to put away.

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Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Fortenberry, Convicted Liar And Thin-skinned Bully, Resigns
Quote – Nebraska Republican Congressman Jeff Fortenberry is a convicted liar who has now resigned. Good. But he has never been held accountable for abusing the power of his office to hunt down and threaten the jobs of people who criticized him with a joke. You might remember his Chief of Staff made national news for threatening a state university professor for LIKING a Facebook post of a sign calling him Fartenberry.
Click through for more. While he heeds to be held accountable (and probably won’t) for his bullying, this is still good news. One down, 193 (or thereabouts) to go.

Letters from an American – March 31, 2022
Quote – Today, Judge Mark E. Walker of the Federal District Court in Tallahassee, Florida, struck down much of the new elections law passed by the Florida legislature after the 2020 election. This is the first time a federal court has sought to overrule the recent attempts of Republican-dominated state legislatures to rig the vote, and Walker made thorough work of it…. “This case is about our sacred right to vote,” Walker wrote, “won at great cost in blood and treasure. Courts have long recognized that, because “the right to exercise the franchise in a free and unimpaired manner is preservative of other basic civil and political rights, any alleged infringement of the right of citizens to vote must be carefully and meticulously scrutinized.”
Click through for story and sources. While we can’t depend on this not being appeales, not on keeping the ground gained if it’s appealed, it is still hopeful. Heather, BTW, has been on a roll. I’ll be sharing more of her in the next few days.

CPR – CU Boulder to host UN human rights summit on climate change
Quote – The University of Colorado Boulder will host a global climate summit in partnership with UN Human Rights. Thought leaders attending the gathering will examine climate change as a human rights crisis. CU Chancellor Phil DiStefano talked about the “Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit” in front of alumni and students in Washington, D.C. earlier this week. The idea for the summit came out of the UN climate change conference that took place in Glasgow last year.
Click through for story. This kind of thing is why Colorado MAGAts refer to the city of Boulder as “the People’s Republic of Boulder,” which certainly says at least as much about them as it does about Bloulder.

Food For Thought:

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Mar 192022
 

Yesterday, I had not slept terribly well, and kept nodding off. I did accomplish a little knitting, but not much, and not much else either.

Cartoon 

Short Takes –

Rolling Stone – Manchin’s Coal Corruption Is So Much Worse Than You Knew
Quote – At this point in human evolution, burning coal for power is one of the stupidest things humans do. Coal plants are engines of destruction, not progress. Thanks to the rapid evolution of clean energy, there are many better, cheaper, cleaner ways to power our lives. The only reason anyone still burns coal today is because of the enormous political power and inertia that the industry has acquired since the 19th century. In America, that power and inertia is embodied in the cruel and cartoonish character of West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who, paradoxically, may have more control over the trajectory of the climate crisis than any other person on the planet right now
Click through for details – lots of details and links to more. But right now we really don’t have a choice. This is why it is SO important to gain a REAL majority in the Senate as soon as possible.

The New Yorker (Jill Lepore) – Why the School Wars Still Rage
Quote – A century later, the battle over public education that afflicted the nineteen-twenties has started up again, this time over the teaching of American history. Since 2020, with the murder of George Floyd and the advance of the Black Lives Matter movement, seventeen states have made efforts to expand the teaching of one sort of history, sometimes called anti-racist history, while thirty-six states have made efforts to restrict that very same kind of instruction…. While all this has been happening, I’ve been working on a U.S.-history textbook, so it’s been weird to watch lawmakers try their hands at writing American history, and horrible to see what the ferment is doing to public-school teachers.
Click through for story. Besides the “new” stuff, evolution is still a bone of contention. Teachers in the line of fire are very visible – but my biggest worry is what will happen to America whenit becomes a nation whose citizens know noththing of real history.

Women’s History – Wikipedia – Christine de Pizan
Quote – Venetian by birth, Christine served as a court writer in medieval France after the death of her husband. Christine’s patrons included dukes Louis I of Orleans, Philip the Bold of Burgundy, and his son John the Fearless. Considered to be some of the earliest feminist writings, her work includes novels, poetry, and biography, and she also penned literary, historical, philosophical, political, and religious reviews and analysis. Her best known works include The Book of the City of Ladies and The Treasure of the City of Ladies, both written when she worked for John the Fearless of Burgundy.
Click through for bio. Not only did she write and get published in her own name … but she made a living doing it. That was a first for a woman, as far as we know.

Food For Thought:

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