Video Thread 10/4/2023

 Posted by at 12:02 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Oct 042023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s NY fraud trial: more dangerous attacks by Trump, and foolish arguments by Trump’s lawyers

The Lincoln Project – 2nd GOP Debate in 90 Seconds

Farron Balanced – Trump’s Mental Problems Exposed In Terrifying New Video

Patrick Fitzgerald – Big Bad Don

I’ve been avoiding Xitter, having seen others having difficulty with the embed function. But I just had to go for this. (In case it doesn’t work well for you – https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181892231

Beau – Let’s talk about the 2nd GOP debate….

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Open Thread May 27, 2023

 Posted by at 5:56 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 272023
 

Yesterday, the subject line on the HuffPost newsletter was “Republicans keep forgetting you’re NOT supposed to say the quiet part out loud.” I think they’re wrong about that. I think they have discivered, and that it’s Deoctats who keep forgetting, that today’s Republican voters will not recoli from an elected official or a candidate for same who openly takes hostages (or whatever the “quiet part” is in any given incident.) Instead they will embrace him (or, surprisngly, her) for what they wtongly believe is “alpha male” behavior but is actually just being a jerk.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Just 11 People Filed Most Book Bans Across The Country
Quote – A small number of people were responsible for most of the book challenges, The Post found. Individuals who filed 10 or more complaints were responsible for two-thirds of all challenges. In some cases, these serial filers relied on a network of volunteers gathered together under the aegis of conservative parents’ groups such as Moms for Liberty…. The majority of the 1,000-plus book challenges analyzed by The Post were filed by just 11 people.
Click through for details – but not the eleven names, unless the Post has them and C&L just didn’t pick them up. I don’t subscribe and I don’t have a gift link so I can’t say.

Democratic Underground (bigtree) – Tina’s husband’s selfless act before her death (hanky alert)
Quote – Two things are missing from the obituaries about #TinaTurner: her commitment to Buddhism, which she credited with saving her life, and this story of true abiding love which, imho, should bump all stories of her first husband…. She Married Husband Edwin Bach, The Love Of Her Life For Over 38 Years, At Her Home Adorned With 70,000 Flowers In Switzerland In 2013.
Click through for a potpourri of anecdotes not in the obits, including of course the incident in the title.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread May 26, 2023

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 262023
 

Yesterday, good news (which you probably already know) – Elmer (Stewart Rhodes) was sentenced to 18 years prison. The sentences are getting longer as DOJ works its way up the chain.
I’ve been watching, bit by bit, a history series about native Americans (North, South, and Meso) and their lives before Columbus. Turns out the land isn’t the only thing we stole from them. This episode covered medicine (from aspirin through clotting agents to brain surgery – approximately 70% of their trepanning patients, for instance, survived, which we know because removed and replaced skull bone knit and healed.) But I was really blown away by the information that the concept of the number zero, which I was taught was invented by Arab mathematicians in the 8th century CE was actually known to the Maya, possibly even to the Olmec before them, in the 3rd century BCE – over a thousand years earlier. We had one hell of a nerve calling them savages.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

https://crooksandliars.com/2023/05/prigozhin-laments-fck-knows-how-we-ve
Crooks & Liars – Prigozhin Laments: ‘F*ck Knows How, But We’ve Militarized Ukraine!’
Quote – The leader of Russia’s Wagner private mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says Moscow’s plan to “demilitarize” Ukraine failed and that the invasion of its neighbor “turned Ukraine’s army into one of the most powerful in the world.” In an interview with pro-Kremlin political observer Konstantin Dolgov, the full version of which was published on May 24, Prigozhin said Russia’s aggression made Ukrainians “a nation known to the entire world.”
Click through for more of interview. Let’s not get overconfident. Putin is just as good at rejecting reality as any MAGAt, and who knows what destruction he could cause just for the sake of destruction, But much of what Prigozhin says is objectively true.

Washington Post (no paywall – hanky alert) – A burger chain fed a homeless teen. Years later, she got married there.
Quote – West said she grew up in Arizona and was put into the state’s foster-care system when she was 4 because her parents struggled and could not care for her. “Over eight years, I was in and out of 94 foster homes — some of them were really abusive and neglectful,” she said. “When I was 12-and-a-half, I finally climbed out a bathroom window to run away, and I got good at hiding.”
Click through for full story. This was made possible by thegoodness of many people … and also by Jamie’s gratitude.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread April 15, 2023

 Posted by at 7:13 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 152023
 

Yesterday, as you may already know (but if not will be happy to learn) the Supreme Court told the crazy judge in Texas that he cannot tell the FDA what to do with their special professional knowledge. This is only a temporary stay … but it was written by Alito, which to me looks promising. In other news, it snowed in Denver. It hadn’t here yet, but by today it’s supposed to. It’s not a weekend that I need to go anywhere, so I may not pay attention.

Cartoon –

Actually we have till the 18th this year (and I really don’t regard the IRS the way TC did)

Short Takes –

Daily Beast – Moms for Liberty Leader Allegedly Hijacked Dead Woman’s Facebook Page to Harass Foes
Quote – Pennsylvania mom Libby Leonard had been dead for a year and a half when her Facebook page began attacking another mother. “EVERYONE…Say Hi to a real DUMB worst word you can call a woman (because she earned it),” the March 14 post begins. “Can’t wait for her to meet her KARMA…It’s already beginning, but until then I think a taste of her own medicine is amusing. However, I will be sharing legally and EVERYWHERE.” Of course Libby didn’t write this. She was stabbed to death by her children’s babysitter in 2021. Instead, the post appears to have been authored by Nicole Prussman, a local leader of the right-wing group “Moms for Liberty” who had inserted herself in Libby’s life and marriage before her tragic demise.
Click through for story. Why is it that when Republicans (and American “Libertarians”) talk about “Liberty” and/or “Freedom,” they always mean taking away someone else’s?

Sentinel – BACK IN THE SADDLE: Second Chance bikes rides again
Quote – The redevelopment of Aurora’s East Bank Shopping Center had forced the nonprofit project to relocate, but at the time of his passing, Ernie was struggling to find a new spot for the shop that offered free bikes to children, homeless people and others in need. After Ernie’s death, [his daughter] Betty told the Sentinel how she promised her father that she would help carry on his legacy “come hell or high water.” Now, she’s making good on her promise and says Second Chance is gearing up to reopen out of a new storefront in Centennial.
Click through for more. Not the biggest story in the world, but a feel-good one to offset that first one.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread May 30, 2022

 Posted by at 7:29 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 302022
 

Yesterday, I finished framing and watermarking cartoons for between June 11 – June 20. Five more down. Ten days and five more new ones to go. My computers are’t networked, but Yahoo provides an app for notes which then remain online, and I’ve started using it for what’s going on with cartoons so I can access cartoon information on either computer and update it on both at the same time. The picture in progess I can always email to myself and get the same result … or put them on a thumb drive. That way I can grab spare seconds to work them. Also, Nameless informs me he will have a post for Memorial Day up sometime today – when I see it I’ll send a second email, because not everyone who gets the emails reads every day.

Cartoon – 30 Memorial-Day.jpg

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Uvalde Police Have Never Dealt With This Kind Of Public Scrutiny
Quote – Of course, politicians look the other way. That’s the agreement. And even the good politicians are afraid of the cops, since motivated cops think nothing of digging up dirt on their perceived enemies. (As their exes can verify.)
Click through for the implications. It looks like we are about to get proof of everything we’ve always known about police corruption.

Washington Post – A Jewish teen put her baby up for adoption in WWII. They just reunited.
Quote – When Sonya Grist entered the room, she was shaking. “My stomach was in a knot,” she said. “It was a bit of a shock to the system.” But as she embraced her mother for the first time, “there was an immediate bond,” she said. “I haven’t come down to earth yet.” The feeling was mutual: “She is a little bit of me,” Cole said between tears. Seeing her daughter again, “was definitely the best thing that has happened to me.”
Click through for very touching story. It’s a slow news day … and we can all use good news. My cousein sent me the (gift) link (so no paywall.)

Crooks and Liars – Tiffany Cross: White Replacement Theory Is ‘Gangsta’
Quote – Starting with a clip of Tucker Carlson cackling like a deranged hyena at critics of his white supremacy, Cross told viewers, her tongue somewhat in cheek, “Well, this might be a surprise to many of you, but I actually think that white replacement theory is very legitimate. It is absolutely something to fear.” But not at all for the reasons any of us might have been thinking. Because beginning with the Indian Removal Act, which forced relocation of thousands of Native Americans, also known as the Trail of Tears, whites saw people of color as “in the way” of fertile land they wanted for themselves. So they forced native peoples off their own land, then replaced them with white settlers.
Click through for full transcript (and video if you like.) I try not to get more than one story a day from the same source… but as I said, it’s slow. And Tiffany is SO right about the projection.

Food For Thought

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