Donald Trump** – Page 2

Open Thread November 7 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 072024

Yesterday, it appeared that Nameless and I were caught together in the shrinking gap between winter storm Anya and Hurricane Rafael. And, yes, I did receive some snow – about an inch and a half, which by afternoon had melted on the asphalt but was still clinking to the unpaved ground. They’r predicting 4″ more today and just under that tomorrow, with mostly sun on Saturday and sun all day Sunday. It’s a good thng for Trinette that she works from home, though. Many people, including people who have been born here, have not grasped that Colorado Springs does not have a climate, but a bundle of microclimates. I could tell you stories. Once I went from needing chains to dry road in the space of one interstate exit. And a coworker of mime when I worked on north Academy who then lived roughly where I live now (but at the time I lived a little north f downtown) setout for work, and at the time it was also dry on North Academy. But across the middle of town therer was asnow so thick and fast it was literally impassible. Anyway, I expect to be fine, and they don’t seem to expect Rafael to go as far west as Nameless. But I surely wish people would pay more attention. This video from Parody Project is much more fun than the Weather Unferground video. And it looks as though we’ll need some fun just in order to stay off of hard drugs

This from what used to be Twitter via Democratic Undergound could help

I recently read, I think it was at Democratic Underground, that it is easier to get to sleep if you go to bed thinking about three good things that happened during the day. They don’t need to be huge good things. Just something which is positive. I won’t go so far as to say it works, but I have tried it, and it does help. Accordingly, here are this, this, and this.

Open Thread November 2 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 022024

Yesterday, I picked up a Randy Rainbow for us – a bit late, but i did manage to remove the advertisinf and the tracing as well – I checked the link of course, and it sode work. I have nothing against Ground News – it apparently works very well too – but as long as I’m paying off the new water heater I really don’t need another paid subscription (I cancellted what i already had), even 50% off. I do wish we’d had this one months ago – OK, some of th details are newer than that, but like six months ago he could already have done a great job with everything we already knew. But better late than never. Also, per the Washington Post, the kids who survived Sandy Hook as first graders will all be voting for the first time this year. But please – there are better ways toachieve full participation in democracy.

Mary Trump nails it. Not that that’s unusual or in any way unexpected. But it does leave me without much if anything to add.

Much as it turns my stomach to even think about it, Hickenlooper is in the right. But I’ afraid his advice to Republicand will fall on deaf ears and blind eyes – if they haven’t detached themselves yet, they’re not going to do it by January.

Not only is it next to impossible for people with the attention span of a gnat to remember all the horrors of the Trump** administratin, it’s probably also impossible for them to stick with Robert Reich long enough to get through a list of just some of them. But I applaud him for trying.

Belle Red Mirage

Dog

Open Thread October 13 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:54 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 132024

Yesterday, the radio opera was “La Clemenza de Tito” by Mozart. He wrote 22 operas in so many genres (and mixing them up) so that people are still arguing about what genre some of them are in. But at least some people would say he wrote four “opera seria” (“serious opera”) and this is one of them. Opera began with Monteverdi as an attempt to recreate Greek tragedy (which may or may not have included singing), and opera seria generally are based on ancient Greek or Roman plots. This one is centered on the emperor Titus, who ruled from 79-81 CE. The plot is an “idiot plot” which is generally taken to mean that if there were just one character who wasn’t an idiot, there wouldn’t have been a story. So I won’t go into it. Mozart wrote it at the same time as he was writing “The Magic FLute,” and those were his last two operas, so the music is some of his finest.

https://www.marytrump.org/p/what-it-costs-us
Every now and then, when something which will help everyone is being discussed and Republicans are asking “where will the money come from?” someone with an IQ of 100 or higher will ask, “What will it cost us not to do it?” Of course no Republican ever answers, because if they even treated it as a real question, people might learn that the answer is invariablty “a whole lot more than it costs to do it.” The people I have heard asking it include Robert Reich, Beau (and probably now Belle, though the topic hasn’t come up yet, or I’ve missed it), and now Mary Trump, all of whom have IQs which are clearly above 130. She mentions more than one project, although it’s child care which inspired the question.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-9-2024
I’m sure everyone here has heard this by now, but this is the most detail I have seen on it (outside of Woodward’s book, and it may even surpass that.)

https://steveschmidt.substack.com/p/what-trump-is-calling-for-is-fascism
Steve Schmidt is getting real (pun intended.) And unfortunately he’s right. It’s not enough to cite fascism. Too many people have no idea what that implies. It needs to be spelled out.

Open Thread May 14 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:43 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 142024

Yesterday, I took in a grocery order – posted it in and received it the same day. I have been doing some baking for the first time in years, using spelt flour. Spelt is technically a wheat, but it’s a wheat like blue corn is a corn, in that people with those allergies can often tolerate them Celiac I am not sure about, but I can tell y’all that it’s definitely got less gluten than other wheats, as anyone can see who compares a piece of commercially baked spelt white bread to a slice of commercially baked white wheat bread. I say compare, but to me there’s no comparison. The spelt bread is rough textured and chunks break off easily to the point that it can be hard, or even messy, just to try to eat a sandwich made with it. It’s better toasted, but still not the same. I’m not trying to bake bread, just cookies and muffins. I did finish a batch of chocolate cookies (with walnuts and white chocolate chips), and they are very tasty.

This is a great reminder, both of how successful Biden is and has been, and also how wrong Trump**’s predictions – all of them – are – always.

Andy has been saving much of his best work on substack for paid subscribers, and I don’t blame him for an instant. The New Yorker certainly hasn’t been paying him for some time now. But this free article is as good as anything he’s ever done.

Open Thread October 2, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 022023

Yesterday was National Coffee Day. I couldn’t help remembering that some believe that Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze” was originally written for his “Coffee Cantata” as a metaphor for patriarchy – “God is our shepherd and I, your father, am your shepherd, and as your shepherd, I am telling you, my daughter, to stop drinking coffee!” I’m not sure that that’s true, and if it is, it might have been intended as satire of the pearl-clutchers of the time – there have always been some, and they have always been loud – but it does make a good story. I was also reminded I have a brand new coffee mug – so I made a point of using it. Yesterday was also Jimmy Carter’s birthday (although they held the party Saturday, just in case there was a shutdown, which would have kind of rained on the parade.) It was also Julie Andrews’s birthday (she’s 88), which I would have forgotten had it not been for Wonkette.

Today’s cartoon is the first of four I’ll be introducing over the month. After the fourth, I hope to get opinions on which one is the most effective – and/or if it would be more effective to use an element from one with an element from another.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Common Dreams – Democratic Senators Sound Alarm Over Koch-Backed Plot to ‘Eviscerate’ Regulatory State
Quote – Hours before ProPublica revealed new details about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ relationship with the Koch network, a group of Democratic senators filed a brief on Thursday warning that Koch-backed entities are closely involved in an upcoming case that could further gut the federal government’s regulatory power—and enhance the strength of the conservative-dominated high court. The case in question is Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which stems from a New Jersey-based fishing company’s challenge to a law requiring certain fishing boats to carry federal compliance monitors to enforce regulations.
Click through for article. I’m glad these Senators are on this. I will concede that it is possible to over-regulate, but it’s clear that, as long as one person is being hurt by under-regulation or unenforced regulation, we are not even close to over-regulation. (Off topic, but I think that’s the first picture I have ever seen of Charles without the you-know-what-eating grin. If that means he is less happy – good.)

London Daily – British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read
Quote – “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”… [W]hile Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Click through for every last detail. I have seen this before – I think most recently during the actual Trump** administration – but it is very detailed and every detail worth savoring, so it’s time to re-share it.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 8/28/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:04 pm Open Thread, Politics

Aug 282023

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s co-defendant, Meadows, wants his case moved to Fed Court. Here’s why his claim should fail.

The Lincoln Project – Tucker & Trump

PoliticsGirl – Come On, Man

Armageddon Update – The 4 Horsemen Of The TRUMPOCALYPSE!

Orangutan Babysits Tiger Cubs

Beau – Let’s talk about leopards, opportunity, and a likely underreported story….

Open Thread June 14, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:54 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 142023

Yesterday, I was astonished to receive a “Tuesday Trivia” email from Ken Jennings. He stopped doing those years ago (after having done 800 of them.) But this one is because he has a new book. And I have to think that this is a terrific marketing strategy – emails to a list of people who followed you for 800 weeks (that’s more than 15 years.) If you are curious about the book, the trivia, or both, you can see the questions and answers here (I got two- Mahler and Marley – which is IIRC about average for me, and I don’t remember ever getting a Question 7.) The book is a compendium of everything anyone has ever believed about the afterlife, through history and across cultures, and down at the bottom of the page there is a left arrow (much like the ones under our comment sections) to the book’s main page.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The New Yorker – Will the Judge in Trump’s Case Recuse Herself—or Be Forced To?
Quote – Someone has to win the lottery, right? [On Saturday, just after we spoke, the Southern District confirmed to the Times that Cannon was randomly chosen, stating, “Normal procedures were followed.” Because the judge was chosen based, in part, on proximity to West Palm Beach, Cannon was one of seven active judges and three senior judges in the pool for the random draw.]
Click through for more speculation. I have used two videos, one in Sunday’s video thread and one in yesterday’s, made by Michael Popok for Meidas Touch. He lives and has worked in the Southern District of Florida, and is the only attorney I have found who points out that Cannon is in the Palm Beach Division, whereas the grand jury and the indictment and the arraignment (and presumably the trial itself) are in the Miami Division – not only a separate Division, but als a 200-mile round trip if it comes to that. He is also the only one to notice that the Magistrate Judge assigned is from the Miami Divison. This is going to have to be addressed. A 200 mile round trip is four hours – and that’s in Colorado, which is much less highly populated than southern Florida. It’s not reasonable to expect that of anyone. I am expecting less bickering than many experts are expecting.

HuffPost – Donald Trump Becomes First U.S. President To Be Formally Charged With Federal Crimes
Quote – Trump lawyer Todd Blanche entered the plea on Trump’s behalf shortly after 3 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman, according to reporters in the room. Trump spent much of the time stonefaced, arms crossed, as the proceeding unfolded over the course of an hour. The judge released both Trump and co-defendant Walt Nauta, a personal aide to Trump, without bail and travel restrictions. Trump was, however, ordered not to contact or speak with witnesses about the case, including Nauta, who continues to work for him.
Click through for story. As expected, the presiding judge was a Magiatrate Judge, not a District Judge, and specifically, one from the Miami Division (also specifically, not Judge Reinhart.) I’m going to avoid as much as possible even mentioning Judge Cannon, unless something comes up that is factual in nature and well-substantiated, because – to quote C. S. Lewis quoting an inagined afterlife spirit of George MacDonald, “all answers deceive.”

The Nib (Kay Sohini) – Breathless
Quote – I grew up in a sleepy little suburb parallel to the Ganges, and we were forever privy to a vast expanse of sky stretching from the shore. On the weekends after dinner, my grandfather woud take us stargazing. We only had to walk up to the roof. When I moved to Calcutta for college,… I could not see the stars. And I could not breathe.
Click through for graphic essay. This is the last one I have been sitting on, but I don’t rule out using another if one comes up.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 6/13/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:56 am Open Thread, Politics

Jun 132023

Yes, Glenn posted, but i am still usig this Meidas Touch/Legal AF with Michael Popok (despite the commercial in the misddle) because heis actually in the Southern District, even in the Miami Division, and knows what is specifically usual in the Miami Division as well as when things are different from the usual.

The Lincoln Project – Trump’s Federal Indictment

Thom Hartmann – Alarming New U.N. Report Proves Feminists Right – Want to Know What Men REALLY Think About Women??? (Other 79 countries – don’t get smug.)