GOP Insanity – Page 53 – Politics Plus

Video Thread 4/12/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:29 pm Open Thread, Politics

Apr 122022

Glenn Kirschner – Don Jr.’s Deeply Treasonous Texts Make him a Charter Member of his Father’s Election Conspiracy

Meidas Touch – Trump lies at NC rally FACT-CHECKED in real time

The Lincoln Project – Truth Social vs Twitter

Ring of Fire – Capitol Rioter Lawyer DISBARRED For His Behavior

MSNBC – McFaul: The Battle Of Kyiv Will Go Down In History As One Of Great Defeats Of Russian Army

New John Deere commercial

Beau – Let’s talk about CPAC leaving the US and Republicans leaving democracy….

Open Thread April 12, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:05 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 122022

Yesterday, I pretty much caught up. At least I have two full posts today, and I have thrown a little PSA at the bottom of this one. A couple of people remarked about my “mask extender” project, and since knitting them is like eating potato chips – you can’t stop at one (or two. or six. or more) – I thought I’d make some available.

Cartoon

Short Takes –

Mother Jones – Exclusive: Leaked Messages Reveal the Origins of the Most Vile Hunter Biden Smear
Quote – Late in the 2020 presidential campaign, trailing in the polls, Donald Trump and his allies worked to make a campaign issue out of a trove of files on a laptop that his opponent’s son, Hunter Biden, had apparently abandoned at a Delaware repair shop. The effort to publicize compromising emails, images, and videos from the device involved prominent Trump confidants including Rudy Giuliani and Steven Bannon. But it also featured an unexpected player: Guo Wengui, a fugitive Chinese tycoon who was working with Bannon to build a small empire of Chinese-language media outlets, nonprofits, and other ventures.
Click through. It never ceases to grab my attention how Republicans are so ready to give America away to anyone in exchange for criminal actions – while they won’t give a dime to American people who are starving, or homeless, or drowning in debt.

Crooks and Liars – Germans Intercept Russian Radio Traffic Discussing Murdering Civilians In Bucha
Quote – The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence service, has acquired gruesome new insights into the atrocities committed by Russian military forces in the town of Bucha near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. DER SPIEGEL has learned that the BND intercepted Russian military radio traffic in which the murder of civilians in Bucha was discussed. Some of the intercepted radio traffic can apparently be directly linked to dead bodies that have been photographed in Bucha.
Click through for details. This may be all I have to say about atrocities. I’m not crazy about gory details. do like solid evidence.

PolitiZoom – Trump Flips Out On Manhattan D.A. After It’s Revealed They Made A New Demand On Trump Org
Quote – Maybe Donald Trump knows something that we don’t, because the New York Times article quoting Alvin Bragg on the current state of the Trump investigation in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office was bland at best. All Bragg said, in essence, was that he had shelved nothing and that he was looking into every aspect of the Trump case. It was also mentioned that a new demand had been sent to the Trump Organization, but that it was a follow up of previous requests. You know how Trump doesn’t respond to discovery requests. That’s why he’s got the state attorney general asking a judge to sanction the hell out of him for every day he delays with respect to that case. So that is what is publicly known as of the past 24 hours. Is that, and that alone, sufficient to trigger this harebrained, maudlin ramble?
Click through for Trump**’s rant. This is getting overripe for speculation – and very interesting.

Food For Thought:

PSA: Here is information on the mask extenders (some call them “ear savers”). They look like this:

The link is here. Download is free, though they will want an email and a password (possibly a name I know they jave my name – and address – becouase I occasionally order.) But no money and no commitment.
There is also a crochet pattern, but it isn’t free. However, it’s so simple I could write you a pattern from the picture. If you’d like that, or if you just want the knit pattern and don’t want to register, email me and let me know which you want and I’ll email it. Or if you want one but don’t want to make one, I can send one of those Heaven knows I’ve made enough – and if you want to put on your own buttons I can send one without buttons even easier. I will need a mailing addreess (PO boxes are fine.)

Open Thread April 11, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:31 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 112022

Yesterday, I sent the weekly email, went and saw Virgil, got home, and then sent a second one because columns went up while I was gone. Virgil, BTW, returns all greetings. Yes, he was ecstatic. They didn’t have masks and we got to sit as close to each other as we did before the pandemic – but we were socially distanced from other tables. The warden, whi is not brand new, but new within the last six months or so, has for now expanded visitation to 7 days a week. That doesn’tmean I can visit any time, because they have divided the population into 2 groups (which they are referring to as “pods”) and they are assigned alternate days. So, if that holds, I can expect to visit every other Sunday until the next variant hits. Yes, the traffic was probably the best I’ve ever seen it – there was some, but I never felt that I had too little space in case someone did something crazy. And what more can I ask?

I had a bunch of articles collected for Short Takes, and you will see three below picked almost randomly (News of the Weird?) But I am going to skip the Video Thread today. I’ll have more time later in the day to go searching for videos, so I’ll be back on schedule tomorrow.

Cartoon

Short Takes –

PolitiZoom – Have Patience. The DOJ Is Doing Its Job
Quote – Please, people. For the last 4 long years, you have become used to a DOJ that blatantly released salaciou details of investigations into people they had no chance of arresting and convicting. But Biden has restored a presidential hands off policy for the DOJ, And Attorney General Merrick Garland has it functioning just the way it always did. Patience, Grasshopper. Or to quote A Bugs Bunny movie line, Patience is a virtue, patience brings good luck. It is seldom found in humans, and never in a duck!
Click through for his reasoning. You can also read the knock-down-drag-out battle in the comments. I would certainly recommend that those who are the most frustrated (and, yes, that includes me) support Garland’s request for funding for over 100 additional prosecutors. (Although additional judges – of whom there are many nominated and not confirmed – would also help.) But all those prosecutors could at least get indictments, if not trial dates and convictions, before the midterms.

Anti-Abortion Terrorists Explain Those Five Fetuses In The Freezer
Quote – Remember our old pal, Lauren Handy, who was arrested by the FBI for terrorizing abortion clinics and patients, and who kept five fetuses in their home that had to be removed by the DC Police? Well, your C&L gal here has a little update. I want you all to rest assured that they did not keep five fetuses at her home. I promise. Completely untrue. They kept 115 fetuses at their home. One-hundred-fifteen. Fetuses.
Click through for details. Feel free to express yourself with expletives.

Democratic Underground (babsbunny) – Ran across this today
Quote – Someone shared a quote on Twitter: Yuri Bezmenov says that only 15% of KGB (now the FSB) work is in espionage. The other 85% attempts to undermine the U.S.A. via “ideological subversion,” which sets about to change our citizens’ perception of a reality where no sensible conclusions can be made.
Click through for the links they found to back this short quote up. It figures

Food For Thought:

Video Thread 4/10/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:38 am Open Thread, Politics

Apr 102022

Glenn Kirschner – NY DA Bragg tries to double-talk his way out of his decision to end the Trump criminal investigation

Ring of Fire – Conservatives Have Complete Meltdown Over Oreo Cookies

MSNBC: “Extraordinarily Disgraceful” that American Officials would Support Putin, says Spanberger

Rebel HQ – Richard Ojeda SHREDS Moscow Mitch’s Lack Of Morals

Ths tweet is from Steve Schmidt of the Lincoln Project, and yes.

I’m begging people to watch and share this exchange between two of the finest Public Servants serving the American people in the United States Congress. This is the choice. It is as simple as @RepRaskin and @RepLizCheney have laid out. https://t.co/2dB6YpG0ez

— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) April 8, 2022

Mrs Betty Bowers – Schooling Ron DeSantis https://youtu.be/aUEnTcpLvV0

Beau – Let’s talk about West Virginia, solar, and stranded assets….

Video Thread 4/8/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:25 pm Open Thread, Politics

Apr 082022

Glenn Kirschner – Ivanka Trump testifies to Jan. 6 committee. If truthful, her testimony would incriminate her father

Meidas Touch – Republican SHAMED for most racist campaign ad to date!!

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party

MSNBC – GOP Smears Political Opponents As ‘Pro-Pedophile’: The QAnon Part Out Loud

Robert Reich – Full Testimony Regarding Corporate Profits and Inflation to Senate Budget Committee (Yes, this is long for this thread. But it is under 20 minutes, and the circumsytances are special.)

Stray Labrador Won’t Let Rescuers Near Her Puppies

Beau – Let’s talk about crime and peacekeepers in Ukraine….

Open Thread April 8, 2022

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

Apr 082022

Yesterday, I took out a 30 gal trash bag, and then ran the car for about 20 minutes. It started right up this time. Once I’m seeing Virgil regularly, I won’t have to worry between trips, since that is plentty driving to charge it for two weeks. even three. Also, while browsing the web, I found a (free) pattern for what the designer calls a “mask extender.” It’s just a little strip of knittine abour 3.5″ x 1.25 ” (which of course can be adjusted to the size of one’s head, and also stretches a little) with a button at each end, and it doesn’t actually extend anything – it just takes the elastic off the ears. Since I wear glasses, the mask elastic on the N95 really does annoy my ears. I don’t know whether they will allow me to take one in to see Virgil, but I intend to try.

Cartoon

Short Takes –

Daily Beast – DOJ Moves to Investigate Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Stash of Presidential Documents, Report Says
Quote – Sources close to the matter told The Washington Post that the procedures had just begun. The decision to investigate follows Chair of the House Oversight Committee Carolyn B. Maloney’s call for the DOJ to either act or allow the National Archives to disclose an inventory of the boxes so that her investigation into the incident can move forward.
Click through for abbreviated story. The full story (such as it is at this point) is in the Washington Post so I’m paywalled out.

CNN – UN suspends Russia from Human Rights Council
Quote – “The General Assembly has sent a crystal-clear message to Russia’s leadership that a government whose military is routinely committing horrific rights violations has no business on the UN Human Rights Council,” Charbonneau said. “Gruesome images from Bucha have shocked people around the world. Victims and their families deserve to see those responsible held to account. Investigators from the UN and International Criminal Court should set the wheels of justice in motion by moving swiftly to gather and preserve evidence of war crimes.”
Click through for story… which is being updated as necessary. Of course the ambassador from Russia objected. (Anyone know the Russian for “Karen”?)

Robert Reich – Why Republicans are obsessed with pedophilia, gender identity, gay people, and abortion
Quote – Most importantly, a culture war over sex allows Republicans to sound faux populist without having to talk about the real sources of populist anger — corporate-induced inflation at a time of record corporate profits, profiteering and price gouging, monopolization, stagnant wages, union busting, soaring CEO pay, billionaires who have amassed $1.7 trillion during the pandemic but who pay a lower tax rate than the working class, and the flow of big money into the political campaigns of lawmakers who oblige by lowering taxes on the wealthy and big corporations and doling out corporate welfare.
Click through for column and podcast. Would it hurt to start calling them on it?

Food For Thought: