Video Thread 10/16/2021

 Posted by at 12:20 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Oct 162021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Steve Bannon Headed for Prosecution for Criminal Contempt. Here’s What Congress Should Tackle Next.

Meidas Touch – Ivermectin-pushing doctor cited by far right EXPOSED as a fraud

The Lincoln Project – Dragon of Budapest

MSNBC – Rep. Raskin: ‘Steve Bannon Committed A Crime Today’

Ring of Fire – Lauren Boebert Ripped To Shreds Over Misspelled ‘Imeach Biden’ Effort

Police Scotland – “Don’t be That Guy”

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump’s message to the GOP….

Share

Video Thread 10/15/2021

 Posted by at 12:06 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Oct 152021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Bannon to Appear Before Congress on 10/14. When he doesn’t show, Congress Should Use Contempt x 2

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party

MSNBC – Original Victims Of Havana Syndrome Reveal Identifies, Describe ‘Painful Symptoms’

Really American – I wanted to put this up yesterday, but it was age restricted. I hope that hasn’t happened again.

Liberal Redneck – Making Fun of Madison Cawthorn (Excerpt)

Lonely Baby Rhino Starts Wrestling With A Goat

Beau – Let’s talk about the new Superman and the supermad….

Share

Video Thread 10/13/2021

 Posted by at 11:40 am  Open Thread, Politics
Oct 132021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Reason for Optimism: Biden Rejects Trump’s Executive Privilege Claim, Trump “Subverted” Constitution

The Lincoln Project – Not for Sale –

Ring of Fire – MyPillow CEO Says He’s Found People 850 Years Old Who Voted In 2020 Election

Robert Reich has emailed a free link to his documentary “Inequality for All.” It’s over an hour and a half, but apparently it’s normally PPV (and actually have times when I want to turn off hte rdio for an hour or more and want something else to listen to or watch.) Here it is if anyone wants to save it.
https://tubitv.com/movies/587315/inequality-for-all

MSNBC – Republican Threat To Wisconsin Elections No Laughing Matter

Puppet Regime – COVID Family Reputation on the Brink

Beau – Let’s talk about Biden’s monumental move….

Share

Video Thread 10/12/2021

 Posted by at 12:25 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Oct 122021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s Iowa Rally, DOJ’s Inaction & the Implications for the 2022 Midterm Elections

The Lincoln Project – Package Deal

Thom Hartmann – The National Debt Lie Debunked

Ring of Fire – Cyber Ninjas CEO Says No More Audits After Getting Death Threats From Trump Supporters

Really American – Bannon And Others Defy Subpoenas: LOCK THEM UP

If cryptocurrency was [sic] honest

Beau – Let’s talk about the jobs report, early unemployment, and wages…. exactly the same as Robert Reich, in slightly different words.

Share

Open Thread for October 12, 2021

 Posted by at 6:41 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 122021
 

Yesterday, My glue had cured and I was able to get back to that last project. And I finished it.  This petition came in yesterday also, so it’s a day late for the day, but still important.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The New Yorker – The Moral Bankruptcy of Facebook
Quote – In any kind of church—not to mention a multilevel-marketing scheme, or a doomsday cult—there are true believers. If you start to get the creeping feeling that your church’s core ideology is indefensible, you have two options. You can do whatever it takes to defend the indefensible, or you can leave. For most true believers, though, the latter option—choosing apostasy, which is a kind of self-exile—is not really an option at all. If this is the dilemma that binds a follower, how much more strongly does it bind the church’s founding pastor, or its prophet?
Click through for full opinion with reasoning. (With which I heartily concur … and there are other people to whom the same reasoning applies.)

Mother Jones – My Neighbor the Tear Gas Factory
Quote – In 1995, CSI built the company’s new headquarters in Jamestown, and the Lauries’ nightmare began. The pond where John and Tom Laurie fished as kids was replaced by CSI’s manufacturing plant and a firing range. The peace and quiet the Lauries had prized was now interrupted by loud and repeated explosions, by ominous smoke floating in their direction.
Click through for details. No one should be surprised to hear that corporations lie. But this is ridiculous. Dude has receipts.

Business Insider – Capitol rioter suspected of stealing laptop from Nancy Pelosi’s office is charged. Her plot to sell it to Russian spies is still being investigated, says report.
Quote – Williams’ involvement in the Capitol riot came to light partly through a tip-off from an ex-boyfriend, according to a January affidavit…. The boyfriend claimed she had told people she intended to send the stolen laptop to a friend in Russia, who would then sell it on to its foreign intelligence service…. The laptop has still not been recovered.
Click through for more. I imagine we can expect a superseding indictment in this case. At least I hope so.

Food for Thought –

Share

Open Thread for October 9, 2021

 Posted by at 6:35 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 092021
 

Yesterday, I realized I am starting to run ahead on news stories. I’ve had times when I was running ahead on videos (and I am that too now, but only a little bit), but haven’t seen this may good stories all at once since I started. And I hate to cut most of them out. So I hope you’ll be tolerant of the stories getting posted a bit late, and if there’s breaking news that you think we shouldn’t have to wait for, please feel free to put it in a comment.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Wonkette – Please Watch Frances Haugen’s ‘60 Minutes’ Interview Before Logging Onto Facebook Again
Quote – Facebook recruited Haugen in 2019 and she agreed to join only if she could work against disinformation because she’d watched a friend get trapped in the alternate reality of online conspiracy theories. She was assigned to Civic Integrity, a showy bit of PR sleight of hand intended to show that Facebook cared about disinformation during the 2020 election. However, the company pulled the plug once the election was over, which is true in only in the most literal sense. Practically speaking, the Big Lie is actively gaining ground, arguably thanks to Facebook.
Click through. I am putting this here and not in the Video Thread, partly because it’s a little long (at 13:36), but partly so that more people will see it. I know Nameless watched it when it aired, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Colleen also did. But I didn’t, and everyone should.

Center for Media and Democracy – ALEC Leaders Boast About Anti-Abortion, Anti-Trans Bills
Quote – At the 40th anniversary meeting of the Council for National Policy (CNP) in May, ALEC leaders boasted about their extensive efforts to advance state legislation to severely restrict access to abortion and limit the rights of trans students, as well as voter suppression bills. CNP is a secretive network of far-right Christian political figures and donors that works behind the scenes to influence Washington.
Click through for the status of the investigation. It just never ends!

Mother Jones – This Is the Newest Front in Anti-Vaxxers’ War on Instagram Misinfo Controls
Quote – Janny Organically is a person. Or maybe she’s a few people—it’s hard to tell. At any rate, Janny Organically is an Instagram account, and, with 104,000 followers, a decently popular one at that. Fans enjoy stylishly composed memes in fonts and hues that look like they might belong on a tea towel in a hipster souvenir shop, with lightly anti-authoritarian yet vague messaging. Janny Organically might be urging you to try a new yoga class, or fomenting a revolution, it’s not entirely clear. “Be careful not to confuse cowardice with morality,” reads one post in a script that evokes a 1970s romance novel, in front of some softly blurred flowers. Another one is less subtle: against a sepia-filtered photo of a desert road, are the words, “Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not.”
Click through for story. This is the nightmare of what happens when people with actual brains and skills get involved in right wing disinformation. It is horrifying.

Food for Thought –

Share

Video Thread 10/8/21

 Posted by at 12:32 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Oct 082021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump & Bannon’s Ongoing Conspiracy: Trump Tells Bannon to Defy Congressional Subpoenas (Have they even served Scavino yet? He’s been hiding from the servers) I have some sympthy for the Justice Department. Indicting them without locking them up would only add fuel to the MAGAt fire. Indicting them and locking them up in a known location would also add fuel to the MAGAt fire. Possibly so would indicting them and locking them up in an unknown location (isn’t that what Guantanamo is for?) If they defy these subpoenas and Congress makes a criminal referral to DOJ, they might be able to lock them up for that without adding too much fuel to the fire, though. And then investigators might have a little slack to gather more evidence for the real charges. Hey, it’s just a thought.

Don Winslow Films – #DeleteZuckerberg

MSNBC – ‘It’s Bad News’: MAGA’s Gaetz Sex Crime Probe Takes New Turn (I post this not because of any interest in Matt Gaetz, but for what it imlies about other investigations.)

The Lincoln Project – Trump or Virginia

Really American – Unvaccinated Destroying Everyone Else’s Life

Liberal Redneck – School Board Terrorists

Beau – Let’s talk about the New York police union and narratives…. (Beau works ahead too, so he had not heard of the guy’s resignation when I saw this. But that still adds no facts to the reasons. By the time you see this, we may all know more.)

Share

Open Thread for October 8, 2021

 Posted by at 6:54 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 082021
 

Yesterday, I went through all the ballot issues I wil be voting on and figured out all the Yesses and Noes. In Colorado, General Elections in odd-numbered years are never for people but only for issues, and are limited to issues involving money. So it’s a drag reading through all of them. I have 3 state issues, one county issue, and one special district issue to vote on. The special district issue was easy – our fire and EMT response times are dire, all due to insufficuent funds. The others were more difficult, and I had to go to Colorado Public Radio for actual English explanations to determine where the Republican shenanigans are hidden (and there certainly are some.) But I have it figured out now. Also yesterday, Mitch and I figured out a way that I can email him the Open Thread (not a link, the actual content) which is simple and easy. And of course he can reply with comments. So we can keep in touch to that extent anyway.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

USPS Testing Out Postal Banking. Thank The Postal Union!
Quote – The USPS got out of the banking business in 1966, but for decades, think tanks and policy geeks have said it would be a great thing to bring back, because there are millions of Americans who don’t use banks, yes in 2021. Instead, far too many Americans are unbanked — about five percent of us — and pay too much to cash their paychecks at payday lenders, (some) grocery stores, or Walmart. Starting last month, the USPS began testing out a new system where people can cash business checks up to $500 and receive the money in the form of a gift card that can be used pretty much anywhere. As David Dayen puts it at the American Prospect, this is a big effing deal: He calls it “the most far-reaching executive action that the Biden administration has taken since Inauguration Day.”
Click through for story. Elizabeth Warren is one who will certainly be happy. This is a pet project of hers (one of many.)

Rise in New Mexico earthquakes likely triggered by oil industry
Quote – There were 146 quakes through June so far this year. Those numbers are just in New Mexico — they are even higher over the border in the Texas portion of the basin. The overwhelming majority of the quakes are small and barely perceptible to people right in the area where they occur. But Dr. Mairi Litherland, the manager of the Seismological Observatory at New Mexico Tech, is paying close attention because, “we have seen that when you start to see more of these smaller events, it can lead to larger events.”
Click through for details (including bad kitty litter). Gee- ya think?

GOP Senate Candidate Seeks Gag Order On His Wife
Quote – And now, true to Trump form, he’s got problems with his treatment of women in his personal life, ahem. “Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Sean Parnell has asked a judge to seal records in his ongoing custody case and to ban his wife and her attorney from talking publicly about past protection-from-abuse orders against him — matters that have stirred political attacks and media scrutiny.”
Click through – This is just the primary. Lots could happen.

Food for Thought –

Share
 Older Entries  Newer Entries