Confederate Monuments – Politics Plus

Open Thread January 4, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:17 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 042023

Yesterday, I decided, with everthing else here quiet, to give you an update on the mailbox for tomcat@politicsplus.org. After getting it cleaned out initially, I’ve been trying to check it every week, or at least every other week. I tried at one point to close his Twitter account, but was not successful. However, this last week he did not get any emails from Twitter … so maybe Elon Musk suspended him for something (non-payment of the new feea?) I’ll just hope there aren’t any more. I did manage to close his account at Fantasy Pros – the fantasy football site. I don’t think there is enough interest for it, and in any case, I would be incompetent to run it. I am only aware of football when something horrible happens, such as the Bengals-Bills game this week. I certainly hope Hamlin survives, but the longer he has to stay in intensive care, the less likely it is that he will ever be able to play again (in fact he may already be past that point) and that will certainly be hard on him emotionally. Back to TC’s inbox, at this point everything that is coming is is emails from WordPress or their partners such as updates or expirations, many of which I already know about because alerts on the Dashboard have advised me. Besides that, there is only spam, and there really is no way to get rid of that.

These articles are not old news yet, since after 3 failed ballots they adjourned. Anyway, one has to take the Schadenfreude where one can get it.
Black Woman – Beforre Noon – Round 1 – Chaos

Cartoon – 04 0104Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Zelenskyy Delivers Most Powerful Speech Yet To Ukraine
Quote – “Of course it was hard to celebrate fully because we understand that our soldiers can’t be with their family,” Evheniya Shulzhenko said while sitting with her husband on a park bench overlooking the city. But a “really powerful” end-of-year speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on New Year’s Eve lifted her spirits and made her proud to be Ukrainian, Shulzhenko said.
Click through. The full video in the headline has a voiced-over English translation, but no CC. But the Twitter clip in the body does have CC. And it’s pretty powerful by itself. I’m not sure I could take much more without melting into a puddle.

Washington Post (no paywall) – White contractors wouldn’t remove Confederate statues. So a Black man did it.
Quote – As a small group of Confederate heritage defenders assembled nearby — at least one of them armed — city safety coordinator Miles Jones lectured the work crew on wearing hard hats and eye protection. And who, he asked, would be the site supervisor? A bearded man in Ray-Ban sunglasses and a Norfolk State University sweatshirt stepped forward. “What’s your name, sir?” Jones asked. “Devon Henry.” “Devon Hen—” Jones began, then dropped his voice respectfully. “Oh, Mr. Henry. Of course.”
Click through for story. This mixes my emotions. Sadness because so many wypipo are so bitter and small minded, but happiness that the statues are coming down and that Devon Green exists.

Food For Thought

Friday Fun: PSA, Monuments & A Poem

Posted by SoINeedAName at 9:06 am Politics

Jul 032020

I’ll start with a PSA that some might not consider all that “Fun”. But hopefully it’s at least informative. It’s a COVID-19 Risk Calculator.

It’s only takes a minute or two to complete, and I have no idea how accurate it is. Although they do provide a VERY detailed analysis of how they made their calculations. (It is a math site, after all.) And their FAQ section seems very straightforward and informative to me.

I scored a disappointing 53 on mine. But keeping the same parameters except for shaving 15 years off my age, I dropped down to 31. So apparently age is fairly heavily weighted score.

Covid-19 Risk Calculator:

https://19andme.covid19.mathematica.org/

On a lighter note, Davram Stiefler and Jason Selvig decided that with all the Confederate statues being taken down, two prominent contemporary politicians should each actually have new ones raised in their honor. So they took it upon themselves to get the job done.

Your initial shock that the two pols are Donald Trump and Steve King will be leavened by some levity on further inspection.

Did I fail to mention that these are Confederate Monuments? Given their longstanding history of racist bigotry, I guess I just assumed you’d conclude that. Sorry.

Trump’s Confederate Monument is prominently placed near the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain in Central Park. And while the statue is not large (apparently gold is not as cheap as they had hoped), its white marble plinth is quite handsome.

And wanting to reflect the magnitude of Trump’s historical importance by the Monument’s size, I think this picture will provide us with some much-needed perspective:

[Please Note: If you look closely at the second photo, you’ll see it actually sits in the basin of a cement birdbath – so at least it’ll be useful.]

It’s always been a toss-up between Louie “Cast No Aspersions on My Asparagus” Gohmert and Steve “Cantaloupe Calves” King on who is the DUMBEST Representative in Congress. The fact that King lost his primary and will be leaving us soon gave him the boost he needed to edge out Gohmert for the Monument selection.

King’s Confederate Monument sits on its granite plinth in a prominent location: The West Capitol Terrace in front of Iowa’s state capitol in Des Moines.

King’s Monument was the first to be installed back in February. Maybe it was a dry run to see what the two pranksters could get away with. Trump’s didn’t go up until March.

Resource:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-confederate-monument-the-good-liars_n_5e624383c5b601904ea93314?guccounter=1

BONUS

Before we get too far removed from Trump’s dainty dance sprint down the West Point ramp, I want to share a fun poem by fellow Kossack Runyonr memorializing Trump’s slip-sliding away:

The Penguin Creep

The slippery ramp was long and steep.

So slowly did the Penguin creep

You could tell his health is failing,

Then he complained there was no railing

And nearly fell flat on his ass.

He needs two hands to raise a glass

Because his head cannot tilt back.

There’s clearly something out of whack.

But on one thing he can rely:

That he still has the power to lie.

At that the Penguin is a champ:

That’s what’s slippery, not the ramp.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/14/1953120/-The-Penguin-Creep?utm_campaign=recent

BIG Mouth Awards

Every 1,000th Comment
20 – Infidel – 7/6/2011
21 – SoINeedAName – 7/25/2011
22 – SoINeedAName – 8/17/2011
23 – Maria – 9/7/2011
24 – Phyllis – 9/29/2011
25 – Tom – 10/22/2011
26 – Lynn Squance – 11/25/2011
27 – Deborah – 12/29/2011
28 – Patty – 1/19/2012
29 – Lynn Squance – 2/8/2012
30 – Jolly Roger – 3/8/2012
31 – Patty – 5/4/2012
32 – Marva Dasef – 6/8/2012
33 – Patty – 7/8//2012
34 – Edith Belcher – 8/12//2012
35 – Patty – 9/17/2012
36 – Tasunka – 10/12/2012
37 – Lynn Squance – 11/6/2012
38 – SoINeedAName – 11/29/2012
39 – Lynn Squance – 1/11/2013
40 – Lynn Squance – 2/17/2013
41 – Patty – 3/23/2013
42 – Edith Belcher – 5/29/2013
43 – Jim Phillips – 6/29/2013
44 – Patty – 7/27/2013
45- Lynn Squance – 8/21/2013
46 – Rixar13 – 9/12/2013
47 – Rixar13 – 10/4/2013
48- Lynn Squance – 10/25/2013
49 – Patty – 11/27/2013
50 – Lynn Squance – 1/13/2014
51 – Patty – 3/7/2014
52 – Yvonne White – 4/16/2014
53 – Edie – 5/20/2014
54 – Jerry Critter – 6/23/2014
55 – Lynn Squance – 7/29/2014
56 – Joanne D – 9/5/2014
57 – Patty – 10/19/2014
58 – Arielle – 11/16/2014
59 – Pat A – 12/26/2014
60 – SoINeedAName – 1/24/2015
61 – Lynn Squance – 2/18/2015
62 – Joanne D – 3/21/2015
63 – Vivian B – 4/23/2015
64 – Joanne D – 5/23/2015
65 – Yvonne White – 6/22/2015
66 – SoINeedAName – 7/16/2015
67 – Lona Goudswaard – 8/6/2015
68 – Mamabear – 8/25/2015
72 – Judi Angell – 11/27/2015
74 – Judi Angell – 1/18/2016
75 – Jerry Critter – 1/2/2016
76 – Lona Goudswaard – 3/11/2016
77 – Lona Goudswaard – 4/4/2016
78 – Pat B – 5/5/2016
79 – Mitch D – 6/5/2016
80 – Joanne D – 7/3/2016
81 – Lona Goudswaard – 7/30/2016
82 – Mitch D – 9/2/2016
83 – Joanne D – 10/6/2016
84 – Pat A – 11/10/2016
85 – Pat B – 12/11/2016
86 – Pat A – 1/14/2017
87 – Lynn Squance – 2/18/2017
88 – Vivian Birdwell – 4/5/2017
89 – Vivian Birdwell – 5/16/2017
90 – Lona Goudswaard – 6/23/2017
91 – SoINeedAName – 7/30/2017
92 – Joanne D – 9/4/2017
93 – Pat B – 10/12/2017
94 – SoINeedAName – 11/20/2017
95 – Jerry Critter – 12/31/2017
96 – Joanne D – 2/12/2018
97 – Pat B – 3/27/2018
98 – Richard A – 5/5/2018
99 – Lynn Squance – 6/12/2018
100 – Mitch D – 7/20/2018
101 – Pat B – 8/30/2018
102 – Pat B – 10/5/2018
103 – Joanne D – 11/9/2018
104 – Animae – 12/18/2018
105 – Animae – 1/25/2019
106 – Colleen – 3/2/2019
107 – Joanne D – 4/11/2019
108 – Animae – 6/1/2019
109 – Pat B – 8/9/2019
110- Angelflowers – 09/20/2019
111 – Colleen – 11/5/2019
112 – Pat B – 12/25/2019
113 – None – My Bad
114 – Pat B – 3/24/2020
115 – Freya – 5/24/2020
116 – JL – 7/4/2020
117 – Colleen – 8/13/2020