Video Thread 5/4/22

 Posted by at 11:39 am  Open Thread, Politics
May 042022
 

Glenn Kirschner – From a corrupt Supreme Court justice to upcoming J6 public hearings: Legal Recap for April 2022

The Lincoln Project – Truth Matters

Meidas Touch – Michael Cohen REACTS to Georgia Trump Grand Jury

WHCD – Trevor Noah on Fox (but his best line was addressed to Chuck Todd – “I’d ask you a follow-up, but I know you don’t know what that is.”

Liberal Redneck – SCOTUS Overturning Roe v Wade

Puppet Regime – Zelensky Visits the Big Apple

Beau – Let’s talk about how Russia could do things differently…. (I love this… I didn’t see it coming – but now I’ve said that, you likely will.)

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Video Thread 4/27/22

 Posted by at 11:44 am  Open Thread, Politics
Apr 272022
 

Glenn Kirschner – How to best disqualify Marjorie Taylor Greene & other insurrectionists in Congress? Prosecutor them.

The Lincoln Project – This Woman Votes

(Meidas Touch is starting a series on “reactions”)
Meidas Founder REACTS to Elon Musk Twitter Takeover!

Thom Hartmann – Here’s What The Dems Have Done – Did You Know?

RepresentUs – Former CIA officer explains how partisanship makes us weak (He rcommends ranked choice voting … which Florida just outlawed.)

Rebel HQ – TikToker EXPOSES How ‘Granola Logic’ Can Trick You

Beau – Let’s talk about sympathy for President Reagan….

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Open Thread April 27, 2022

 Posted by at 6:36 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
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.

Cartoon –

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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Video Thread 4/13/22

 Posted by at 12:27 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Apr 132022
 

Glenn Kirschner – J6 Committee Has the Goods on Trump But Debates Timing of Criminal Referral to DOJ for Prosecution

The Lincoln Project – Doctored

Ring of Fire – Ron DeSantis Caught LYING About School Changing A Child’s Gender

Thom Hartmann – How Will America React to Trump’s Crimes (My concerns are quite different from those of the New York Times, as I expressed in the Open Thread.)

Robert Reich – The Best Year to be Born

Liberal Redneck – Herschel Walker and Georgia Politics

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump’s really bad day….

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Open Thread April 13, 2022

 Posted by at 7:19 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 132022
 

Yesterday was pretty quiet. Which was definitely fine with me!

Cartoon

Short Takes –

Second Nexus – Devout Fox News Viewers Were Paid to Switch to CNN for a Month and the Results Have People Surprised
Quote – “Despite regular Fox viewers being largely strong partisans, we found manifold effects of changing the slant of their media diets on their factual beliefs, attitudes, perceptions of issues’ importance, and overall political views. We show that these effects stem in part from a bias we call partisan coverage filtering, wherein partisan outlets selectively report information, leading viewers to learn a biased set of facts. Consistent with this, treated participants concluded that Fox concealed negative information about President Trump. Partisan media does not only present its side an electoral advantage—it may present a challenge for democratic accountability.”
Click through for story. You may have seen this elsewhere; this is one of George Takei’s sites. To me the jaw-dropping part is that it only took one month to get significant change.

Cheney: Plenty Of Evidence To Make Criminal Referral For Trump
Quote – “But now, with the Justice Department appearing to ramp up a wide-ranging investigation, some Democrats are questioning whether there is any need to make a referral — and whether doing so would saddle a criminal case with further partisan baggage at a time when Mr. Trump is openly flirting with running again in 2024.” … Cheney downplayed the notion that there’s a “dispute” and told Tapper she was confident they’d come to an agreement soon.
Click through for more pros and cons. I’ve been wondering about the optics myself … and also whether a criminal referral by Congress (particularly at t time when the DOJ says it is 100 or 131 prosecutors short – and I absolutely believe that) might (and of course this is pure speculation) would push the DOJ into going to court without the best possible case, and/or without the best possible staff.

Daily Beast – The Obscure Law NY Prosecutors Could Use to Charge Trump Years From Now
Quote – Law enforcement in New York has five years from the date of an alleged crime to officially file charges for most felonies, but under New York law § 30.10(4)(a)(i), that clock stops for up to five more years when a defendant is outside the state. That 10-year grace period means Trump’s time in the White House and his post-presidential political exile at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida may be gifting prosecutors much-needed extra time.
Click through for details. Does Trump** know about this? I have no clue.

Food For Thought:

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Open Thread April 6, 2022

 Posted by at 7:30 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
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.

Cartoon 06 0406Cartoon.jpg

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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Video Thread 4/5/22

 Posted by at 11:42 am  Open Thread, Politics
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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Open Thread March 24, 2022

 Posted by at 6:46 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 242022
 

Yesterday, I had a grocery order coming – or, at least, I thought I did. When there was just a half hour left in the delivery window, I refreshed the tracking page and it said it had been cancelled. It appears to have been rescheduled for today in the same window – of course I will do my best to confirm that. Good thing I always try to order well ahead of need.

Cartoon

Short Takes –

No More Mister Nice Blog – Republicans Live In A Disinformation Bubble Just Like Russians
Quote – In the same way that we’ve come to realize, with astonishment, that Russians simply weren’t told that their troops had invaded Ukraine, and didn’t believe there was a war, Republican voters, I’m sure, don’t believe President Biden is doing anything effective on Ukraine’s behalf, and that only Republicans could save Ukraine. Russian citizens have an excuse for their ignorance: Media outlets that don’t toe the Kremlin line are suppressed. In America, it’s purely voluntary:
Click through for full post. From last week, but timeless – and putting information and disinformatin side by side does help us see what we are up against.

The New Yorker – The Shaming-Industrial Complex
Quote – Owen Flanagan, a professor of philosophy and neurobiology at Duke University, suggests that our tense political climate is the product of poor emotional regulation…. [T]he data-scientist-cum-journalist Cathy O’Neil suggests that shaming is structural: its ubiquity is the fault not of individual vigilantes but, rather, of the many industries that manufacture and exploit mortification for profit. At the heart of these diverging perspectives is an ambiguity built into the very concept at issue. Shame is an emotion—a person can suffer from its bilious bite, as Sacco did—but it is also a state of affairs.
Click through for full article. There’s no solution here, but lots think about. I’ll add a few thoughts of mine to the brew: Emotions cannot be controlled, but our actions in response to them can. People who shame others may need to be shamed for it, as it may be the only language they understand (however, the shameless cannot be shamed.) And anger is in itself not only a bad thing, but the only motivation for change – it’s all in how one uses it.

A military veteran knows why your employees are leaving
Quote – It has been an intense period full of unknowns. It’s hard to be self-aware enough to see the full impact of all these changes. I redeployed five times, and I got better at reintegrating each time. I had the benefit of practice, which allowed me to acknowledge what I was feeling, understand it better, and move forward. But the pandemic is a one-time thing, and most people never got a briefing from their chaplain about what to expect.
Click through for article. This is addressed to busines leaders, and it’s a couple of months old. But it has life lessons whichare far from stale. It’s sort of like a different kind of PTSD – one to which the pandemic made everyone vulnerable.

Food For Thought:

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