Glenn Kirschner – Jim Jordan, who criminally defied a congressional subpoena, is now chairman of judiciary committee?
The Lincoln Project – Trump’s Instincts
MSNBC – Simply couldn’t be part of it’: Fmr. prosecutor breaks silence on quitting Trump-Russia probe
Farron Balanced – 2 Librarians Fired After Republicans Mistake Autism Symbol For Pride Display
Mystery dog kept showing up at nursing home. So naturally they did this.
Beau – Let’s talk about McCarthy math….
Yesterday, I learned, because Talking Points Memo had an opinion I felt was both too accurate and too scary not to share, that TPM is also on Substack – along with Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, Robert Reich, Robert Hubbell, Mary Trump, Margaret Atwood, and Wonkette, to name only a few. I predict that more and more of our best minds will be migrating to Substack, and this is why: “Since we transferred our shit over to substack, we’ve had a twenty-percent increase in paid subscribers. I haven’t cried about payroll ONCE, particularly since three (? math!) months later, I still have two months worth of payroll in the bank. When’s the last time I had two months of payroll in the bank? Oh, it’s been a long, long time.” That’s from one of Wonkette’s latest newsletters. I realize that scrolling and clicking to continue can be annoying. But I don’t want to quit sharing what I consider to be the best. So first, I promise you, I will never use paywalled content from Substack – I can’t see any of that myself, not being a paying subscriber to any of those I subscribe to. And second, if anyone really has difficulty accessing Substack artcles, let me know – with an email address. There are ways I can send Substack articles to you directly.
Cartoon – 22 block
Short Takes –
Crooks and Liars – It’s Time For A ‘Rural New Deal’
Quote – While “gerrymandering is a huge problem,” polarization is also an issue, as “rural voters are increasingly trending more to the right, and urban voters more to the left,” the Fix Our House report says. Members of Congress elected in uncompetitive districts fear primaries, so they focus on their voting base and refrain from working with “the enemy.” RUBI director Anthony Flaccavento said Tuesday that “the extreme political divide in our country robs rural communities of the resources and opportunities they need, while making it nearly impossible to address the biggest problems we face as a nation.”
Click through for article. Remember the New Deal? Remember the CCC? Maybe not from experience, but possibly from history, including oral history from parents. But thePeace Corps? That you may remember. The RND is being proposed at the same time as Joe’s and Kamala’s ACC (American Climate Corps). I think both are needed. Because it’s not just the economy which needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up and the middle out. Faith in Democracy needs the same makeover.
Talking Points Memo – House GOP Launders Disinformation Through Its Public Hearings – No Good Solutions To This Problem
Quote – Instead, the committee hearings give members the chance to inject the worst of the conspiracizing and crazy talk directly into the public record and into widespread media coverage – and the media still acts as if its powerless to stop participating in it. I could share with you the inane questions that Garland faced, where his face would contort with confusion over what whack-a-doodle premise was framing the question. Or Buttigieg’s exasperation with having to unpack all the lies and presumptions built into the questions he faced about EVs or his personal travel. But to do so would be to further mainline the disinformation. You get it.
Click through for full explanation of the problem (TPM is on Substack.) This is a big reason we need both of the programs in the first short take – and more. What these – people – are doing is poisoning the well. It reminds me of the incident in Willa Cather’s “Song of the Lark” – a tramp infected with typhoid is forced to leave town. He does – by jumping into the town well. He drowns, of course, but his act avenges his own death many times over. Many people wiser than I are saying the GOP is committing suicide with its irrational ideas and behavior. But if it is, it is also taking much of the nation down with it. Somehow we must address that.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s long-time executive assistant, Molly Michael, directly incriminates Trump on documents
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – September 19, 2023
Farron Balanced – Trump Hires Rookie Lawyer Who Immediately Gets Humiliated By Judge
Patrick Fitzgerald – The Big Rock Candy Mountains
This Woman Swears She Won’t Adopt Her Blind Foster Puppy
Beau – Let’s talk about Seattle and low value….
Glenn Kirschner – Even Trump’s own appointee, Judge Cannon, is now ruling against him. Can it get much worse for Trump
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – September 12, 2023
PoliticsGirl – Georgia Indictment
Thom Hartmann – Can This Really Stop The Billionaires? w/ Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Little Old Man Dog Was Shaking Like A Leaf Until…
Beau – Let’s talk about a tale of 3 impeachments….
Yesterday, the sun shone, and the temperature barely broke 70, so the yard got done. Mitt Romney announced he will not run for re-election. Liz Cheney had some choice words for what she calls “the Putin wing of the Republican Party” (AKA the Sedition Caucus.) In Pennsylvania, they found and captured the escaped prisoner. And I picked two ery different short takes from very different sources, and – surprise, surprise! – They’re both on Substack. So crank up your mouse to click on “continue reading.” Everyone on Substack whom I have seen talk about it is very happy to be there – it’s easy for authors to use, and it saves them a lot of money compared to other venues. So I don’t see any of them moving away from it any time soon.
In case you noticed Nameless missing a few days, he’s healthy, but tied up with taxes, in his own state and in the state in which a relative lived from whom he received an inheritance. He’s on an extension, but the date for that is getting closer faster than he would like
Cartoon – On 14 September 1867 —
Short Takes –
Robert Reich – Who’s most responsible for the monopolization of America?
Quote – Yet the federal courts have been reluctant to do anything about this and are pushing back against the Biden administration’s efforts. Why? Because of a man named Robert Bork…. I first met Bork in September 1971, when I took his class on antitrust at Yale Law School. I recall him as a large, imposing man, with a red beard and a perpetual scowl…. We kept challenging his view that the only legitimate purpose of antitrust law was to lower consumer prices…. Even in our mid-20s, we knew this was bullshit.
Click through for history. If you didn’t already know, you will learn why “borked” is now a synonym for “inoperable,” chaotic,” or even “SNAFU.”
Wonkette – Lauren Boebert Kicked Out Of Theater For Acting Too Lauren Boebert-y
Quote – U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert was escorted out of a Sunday night performance of the “Beetlejuice” musical in downtown Denver, accused by venue officials of vaping, singing, recording and “causing a disturbance” during the performance. VAPING. The woman was VAPING. The paper says they got warned during intermission that others around them were complaining (LMAO), so clearly it was time to shape up and sit nicely with our hands folded in front of us, even though it is a fun show like Beetlejuice. We can go to Chuck E. Cheese afterward, OK? The incident report states that after receiving the intermission warning, about five minutes into the second act security officials received “another complaint about the patrons being loud and at the time (they) were recording.” Taking pictures or recording is not permitted at shows. Tacky.
Click through to read embarrassing details and see optional surveillance footage. The part in italics is direct quotes from the Denver Post.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, the radio opera was “The Ballad of the Canal” by Yin Qing. It is not a “Chinese Opera” which is a genre all its own. It is a western style opera in Chinese, with Chinese subject matter and roots in Chinese folk music. It does borrow some from the Chinese Opera genre, but that is but one element among others such as bel canto and singspiel. It centers around life during the Ming Dynasty around the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the longest canal in the world (and, at 1104 miles, likely to remain so). There is a main plot, but the opera is hughly episodic, and thus can juxtapose characters from various social classes effectively. IIRC, when I was in school, this format was referred to as “a slice of life.” The performance was recorded in 2022. It was very easy to listen to, and not all that hard to follow. The brief interviews with the performers about their characters before it started and during intermission helped.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Wonkette – Fani Willis Roasts Jim Jordan’s D**k Over Open Fire
Quote – We are going to resist the temptation to share every hilariously shady comment, every time she just brutalizes Jim Jordan…. Quoting established case law, Willis writes that Jordan’s subpoenas are only valid if related to a real task of Congress, and investigations only for the aggrandizement of the investigators, or to punish those being investigated, are indefensible. “This unprecedented action serves no legitimate legislative purpose and would set a dangerous precedent for future Congresses… the American people deserve better,” she wrote, quoting directly from a letter written by [checks notes] Jim Jordan to Bennie Thompson, chair of the House January 6 Select Committee, back in 2022. That’ll set the tone for you. But it gets so much nastier.
Click through for full (NSFW) article. I doubt whether Jordan will ever learn not to leave himself wide open like that. Not if he hasn’t learned by now. (Oh yes, and it’s Substack now.)
The Daily Beast – How ‘Free Speech’ Warrior RFK Tried to Bully a DailyKos Blogger
Quote – “In truth, Mr. Kennedy gave a speech for peace and freedom in Berlin on Aug. 29, 2020, initiated by the group Querdenken—a democratic movement whose name means ‘lateral thinking’ and who vehemently oppose all forms of fascism and extremism,” the Barnes-written document reads, referring to Kennedy’s rant about Bill Gates and 5G. “Despite requests from Mr. Kennedy, Defendants have failed and refused to take down the Defamatory Article.” The problem with this argument is that The Daily Beast and numerous other organizations have extensively documented Querdenken’s extremist affinities and associations. Not only does it indulge in QAnon conspiracies and fawn over Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, but the U.S. State Department has highlighted its “anti-Semitic rhetoric and views,” and a top police official in the German city of Bremen has described it as “a serious threat to public security.”
Click through for details. “DowneastDem,” IMO, is entitled to wear this as a badge of honor. Kennedy’s siblings all (publicly) disagree with his claim not to be or associate with Nazis. (As do I – but I don’t have the standing.)
Food For Thought
I’d save this for a day when TFG is testifying – except that I’m not crazy enough to believe he will ever testify.
Glenn Kirschner – More & more defendants are pointing the finger at Trump, & the flipping WILL begin accelerating
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – September 5, 2023
MSNBC – Trump tells Republicans to impeach Biden or ‘fade into oblivion’
Patrick Fitzgerald – The Donald Called Down To Georgia –
Hungry Cat Went to a Store with a Leaf to Buy Fish, Then the Seller Did Something Unbelievable! (hanky alert)
Beau – Let’s talk about the Treasury report and you….
Glenn Kirschner – Judge Chutkan sets speedy trial – March 2024 – in Trump’s trial for trying to overturn 2020 election
Thom Hartmann – GOP’s Bizarre Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theory Targets…Beyonce?!
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – August 29, 2023
Liberal Redneck – The battle for White votes in the South
Mangey Street Puppy Completely Transforms
Beau – Let’s talk about FEMA, Hawaii, and hotels….