Sep 282022
 

Glenn Kirschner – NY judge tells Rudy Giuliani to pay up or get locked up; Ginni Thomas to testify to J6 committee

Meidas Touch – MAGA Republicans MOCK Marco Rubio in new MEGAVIRAL Supercut by MeidasTouch

The Lincoln Project – Kevin’s Plan

MSNBC – The Rachel Maddow Show 9/26/22 Part 1 and Part 2of the fascism segments

Liberal Redneck – Stacey Abrams, Heartbeats, and Georgia

Beau – Let’s talk about the Electoral Count Act of 1887 being clarified….

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Sep 202022
 

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ appeals Judge Cannon’s ruling that FBI may not investigate Trump’s classified documents crimes

Meidas Touch – Former Trump Aide’s EXPLOSIVE ADMISSION will come back to haunt Trump in Mar-A-Lago investigation

The Lincoln Project – Elections Matter

MSNBC – ‘Outrageous’ ‘Untethered’: DOJ Vets Slam Judge’s Ruling On Trump’s Stolen Docs

Parody Project – THE CRIMES THEY ARE ARRANGING

Beau – Let’s talk about red state statistics….

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Sep 122022
 

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ appeals Judge Cannon’s ruling in Trump’s theft of classified documents case (Sound is better – still a bit soft, but no echo)

Meidas Touch – Beto RALLY brings FORMER REPUBLICAN to tears in POWERFUL video

The Lincoln Project – DJ Trump

DOJ – This Week at Justice – September 9, 2022

Armageddon Update | The Bourne Stupidly

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump’s nuclear documents….

Added after posting because it is brand new and potentially very important:

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Sep 082022
 

Yesterday, I got to thinking about Eyam village in Dorsetshire England, a village known in England and among tourists to England as “The Plague Village.” Of course it wan’t alone in having experienced the Black Death when is steamrolled through Europe, but it was unique in that it voluntarily decided to self-quarantine the entire village for a full year, at the end of which many of course had died, but there were also a substantial number of survivors, and also a group of residents who had never (apparently) become infected – at least they had never had symptoms. Of course everyone would have loved to know why. In 2002, an American geneticist had a theory and came to Eyam to investigate it. Because it was a small village, where most folk remained through the generations, and it wasn’t that difficult to trace throuh Church of England records those who had moved away, he was able to identify descendants of the survivors, and to obtain DNA samples. He found a gene (a mutation) and was also able to identify the mechanism through which the bodies of people who had this mutation were able to prevent the bacteria from getting to the places in the body where they could produce symptoms. Because of this mechanism, he and colleagues began to wonder whether the same mutation might also provide protection against AIDS. He believes he found some evidence that it could and did. Yes, I know a bacterium is not a virus. But the mechanism appears to work similarly on both, unlike anti-bacterial and anti-viral drugs. Since watching the documentary, I have been wondering what our medical professionals and science geeks here would say about this – so I’ll share both the link to the documentary and also a link to a PHD thesis on the village. The documentary CC is quite good excwept for British names, especially the name of the village itself, which sounds like “Eem.” The documentary is over 45 minutes and the dissertation is over 200 pages so I’m not expecting to hear from any of y’all very quickly. But i am curious what y’all make of it.

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Short Takes –

HuffPost – In Jackson, Mississippi, It’s Easy To Go Missing When No One Is Looking For You
Quote – But Jackson’s water crisis is what happens when a largely Black city, which also happens to be largely Democratic, needs funding from a Republican-controlled legislature. Jackson is what happens when people ignore those who need their help. Jackson’s failure to fix what has been a problem for years falls squarely on the shoulders of people who don’t care. That’s not hyperbolic.
Click through for article. Technically, this is an opinion piece. But it’s definitely full of facts.

Raw Story – Expert: Dems need to expand Supreme Court to counter the conservative assault on democracy
Quote – Most of the political scientists who study the degradation of democracy will tell you that the Republican Party has become a radical quasi-fascist authoritarian party over the last 20 years, and the problem is not Trump. I mean Trump may exacerbate it, but he’s a symptom, at least as much as he’s a cause. The problem is the voters, however many percent of people who are Christian white nationalists who think the country is losing its Christian identity and its white majority. They see their world as being existentially threatened. Trump has come along and said, “follow me,” but those people had to be ripe for it. There’s no way. Donald Trump could have been successful 15 or 20 years ago. The Republican Party has been engaging in extreme voter suppression measures and attacking labor unions for the past 20 past years and it’s a recognition that by 2024, white Christians will not be a majority of the electorate.
Click through for interview. Raw Story and AlterNet (I forget which one owns the other) have a lot of stories which are derivative, so I don’t often post from either. This one seems to be original. I must point out that it’s another reason we need a landslide in the midterms – or, at the very least, to gain seats in both houses. Because we don’t have the moxie to do this now. But if we don’t get it done before 2024, there will never be another free and fair election.

Food For Thought

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Sep 012022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s demand for Special Master moot? DOJ already reviewed the evidence of crime seized from Trump

Meidas Touch – Biden goes FULL DARK BRANDON, BLASTS Republicans in Speech of the Year ( haven’t nbeen sharing or talking about “Dark Brandon” memes, because I kind of think they’re silly. But I do get that it’s both necessary and nice for Joe [and all out leaders] to call our MAGAts with facts and truth.)

Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party 8/30/22

Farron Balanced – Trump’s Legal Team Has No Idea What They’re Doing

Armageddon Update – Airlines Auger In

Beau – Let’s talk about Ukraine, Russia, and DOD naming it….

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Aug 252022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Lindsey Graham is running out of rope & likely will soon find himself in the GA grand jury hot seat (BTW, I guessed right.)

Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Fox host who SHOCKED colleagues by calling out their LIES

Lincoln Project – Fire the Feds

Really American – GOP Secretary of State Candidate: “I Don’t Know” Who I Voted For

The Riccardis – The Ballad of Marjorie Taylor Greene-O

Beau – Let’s talk about Dems, Trump, and the boy who cried wolf….

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Aug 252022
 

Yesterday, I managed to getnine 30-gallon plastic bags out to the porch, all labeled with the initials of the charity they are getting picked up by.  After that, I moved the car out of the driveway and took the recyclables to the edge of the driveway by the street – two actions which between tehm pretty much cleared the drive way.  I did this because the charity is “Vietnam Veterans of America,” nd although I don’t remember seeing much, one occupation which puts people int higher jeopardy of becoming an amputee is “combat vet.”  And the instruction included the request that everything be capable of bing lifted with one hand (not all at once, of course; that would be silly.)  So I just wanted to make it as easy as possible and I figured shortening the distance couldn’t hurt.  After all that, my shoulders, back, and knee were still in comparatively good shape.

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Short Takes –

Letters from an American – August 22, 2022
Quote – Today’s big news is an eye-popping $1.6 billion donation to a right-wing nonprofit organized in May 2020. This is the largest known single donation made to a political influence organization. The money came from Barre Seid, a 90-year-old electronics company executive, and the new organization, Marble Freedom Trust, is controlled by Leonard A. Leo, the co-chair of the Federalist Society, who has been behind the right-wing takeover of the Supreme Court. Leo has also been prominent in challenges to abortion rights, voting rights, climate change action, and so on. He announced in early 2020 that he was stepping back from the Federalist Society to remake politics at every level, but information about the massive grant and the new organization was broken today by Kenneth P. Vogel and Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times.
Click through for details. Everyone has this story – but I saw it first here – and Heather always has receipts (and insights.)

Daily Beast – Cops Love Immunity—Until They’re the Ones Abused by Police
Quote – Six months after the incident, Burk filed a civil rights lawsuit against the acting officers from the Columbus Division of Police. Predictably, Burk now finds himself on the wrong end of a judge-made doctrine called “qualified immunity.” The doctrine, which the U.S. Supreme Court invented in 1982, shields government employees from accountability for unreasonable actions—unless victims can point to a prior case in the same jurisdiction that clearly establishes the behavior as unconstitutional. The irony of this case is that law enforcement officers like Burk normally love qualified immunity.
Click through for this opinion piece with backup facts. I would hate to think that the only, or even just the fastest, way to get rid of “qualified immunity” is for cops to beat up enough cops.

Food For Thought

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Aug 142022
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Almira” by Georg Friedrich Händel. It was his first, and he was so young when he wrote it that the libretto was in German (which is why I used the German spelling of his name – He was in fact 19), with recitatives in Italian (because he was at the time in Italy, studying Italian opera). The Early Music Society of Boston presented it in Bremen. It was 4 hours 30 munites long (in 1705 they didn’t have many other forms of entertainment to choose from or take up their time.) It’s about three couples, where the men are in love with the wrong women, and it’s complicated by Almira’s father’s dying wish, but everything gets sorted out at the end, through a twist much like Figaro’s birthmark. The music seems quite mature. The human brain may not fully develop until about the age of 25, but it appears that talent and creativity develop faster than logic and reason. If that’s an excuse for poor choices made by our ancestors, particularly in the areas of politics and gocernment, it should be no excuse for us. We live longer, and know better. But I digress. In 1712 Handel arrived in London, preceding George I by two years, where he remained the rest of his life, becoming a naturalized British citizen as George Frederick Handel. King George I latched on to him (as had Queen Anne) – though he had 6 opera coompanies, he also did a lot of work for the throne. There was a popular little verse abou him (similar to being a subjet of a meme today): “Some say compared to Bononcini that Mynheer Handel’s but a ninny. Other aver that he to Handel is scarcely fit to hold a candle. Strange that such difference should be twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee.” As you see, it had a more lasting impact on the languange than most such verses Also (burying the lede), I got an email response confirming my visit to Virgil who is now in Pueblo (much closer).  So I’ll be late commenting.

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Short Takes –

Robert Reich – The Worst Memo in American History
Quote – We almost take for granted big corporate money in American politics. But it started with the Powell memo. In 1971, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked Lewis Powell, then an attorney in Richmond, Virginia (and future Supreme Court justice) to report on the political activities of the Left. Richard Nixon was still president, but the Chamber (along with some prominent Republicans like Powell) worried about the Left’s effects on “free enterprise.” … Powell urged businesses to mobilize for political combat.
Click through for what and why. The United States Chamber of Commerce is not your friend. This was the start of the path to Citizens United.

The New Yorker – State Legislatures Are Torching Democracy
Quote – Longtime Ohio politicians have been shocked by the state’s transformation into a center of extremist legislation, not just on abortion but on such divisive issues as guns and transgender rights. Ted Strickland, a Democrat who served as governor between 2007 and 2011, told me, “The legislature is as barbaric, primitive, and Neanderthal as any in the country. It’s really troubling.” When he was governor, he recalled, the two parties worked reasonably well together, but politics in Ohio “has changed.”
Click through for full reporting. Jane Mayer is very good at this, and in fact Steve Schmidt recommended this article. The trend may not surprise you, but how far it has come and how fast may.

Food For Thought

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