Glenn Kirschner – House Select Committee Hearing Opens w/Testimony of Heroes: Officers Dunn, Fanone, Gonell & Hodges
Meidas Touch – The GOP is about to be EXPOSED as Terrorists
The Lincoln Project – Heroes
RepresentUs – Sarah Silverman calls out billionaires buying elections
Robert Reich – This 1916 Experiment Made Workers Wealthy
VoteVets ‘Axis of Evil’ Ad Featured on MSNBC During The Rachel Maddow Show
Beau – Let’s talk about Summer fun….
Glenn Kirschner – FBI Give Citizen Tips About Kavanaugh to White House Rather Than Investigate Them. What Now?
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – July 19, 2021
politicsrus – Covid 19 Get Vaccinated – Aimed at MAGAts, certainly – and they also have one which only has the Hannity-Trump** portion if you have one or more of those to persueade.
VoteVets update – Rachel Maddow showed their “Abdulla” ad (in yesterday’s thread) on her show and briefly interviewed Tammy.
Tiny Kittens Help Heartbroken Pittie To Live Again (hanky alert)
Beau – Let’s talk about wolves, Wisconsin, and tough guys….
Glenn Kirschner – Will Trump AssociateTom Barrack Cooperate w/Prosecutors Now That He’s Facing 50 Years in Prison
Political Voices Network (Glenn is a guest) – “He Constantly Surrounds Himself With Criminals.”
Meidas Touch – Rep. Swalwell: Fox News LAUGHS at Their “Dumb” Viewers
Now This News – Fox News Loses It Over ‘Secret List’
Robert Reich – Imagine a World Where Workers Have Power
VoteVets – Abdulla
Keith Olbermann – second video – slightly longer than the first one which went up yesterday.
Beau on the January 6 committee – One to save and share, Very, very clear.
Yesterday was quiet enough – in fact it was significantly more quiet than usual because I now have no phone service at all on my land line … so no robocall rings. But the technician supposedly comes today. Hopefully that will provide resolution.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
The Daily Beast – Opinion – Former Murdoch Exec: Fox News Is Poison For America
Quote – Fox News has caused many millions of Americans—most of them Republicans (as my wife and I were for 50 years)—to believe things that simply are not true. For example, Yahoo News reports that 73 percent of Republicans blame “left-wing protesters” for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Of course, that is ludicrous. All one has to do is look at the pictures or videos of the attack to see that the violent mob was comprised of Trump supporters. Similarly, a poll by SSRS in late April found that two-thirds of Republicans either believe or suspect that the election was stolen from Trump—60 percent saying there is “hard evidence” that the election was stolen. As noted above, this ridiculous notion has been thoroughly refuted. But millions of Americans believe these falsehoods because they have been drilled into their minds, night after night, by Fox News.
Click through for more. This is a “Consider the source” story. This dude is in a position to know what he is talking about, even though he gives Rupert too much benefit of the doubt (reminds me of the KMart ads aimed at WalMart claiming Sam would have been ashamed. No, he wouldn’t have.)
The Hill – Eric Adams wins New York City mayoral primary
Quote – “Now we must focus on winning in November so that we can deliver on the promise of this great city for those who are struggling, who are underserved, and who are committed to a safe, fair, affordable future for all New Yorkers,” he said…. The race is the first in which the board sought to implement ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to list five candidates in order of preference.
Click through for some details. I disn’t follow this race, but did follow the Manhattan DA Dem primary, which Alvin Bragg won.Hopefully they will work together well.
Reuters – Judge finds U.S. 60% responsible for 2017 Texas church mass shooting
Quote – In a decision released on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez said the Air Force did not use reasonable care when it failed to enter Devin Patrick Kelley’s plea to domestic violence charges in a database used for background checks for those buying firearms. Rodriguez said the government bore “significant responsibility” for harm to victims of the Nov. 5, 2017 massacre at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, 31 miles (50 km) east of San Antonio.
Click through for background. Even if you remember it, it’s been a while, and a lot has happened in the meantime.
Food for Thought
Link to story in Common Dreams
Glenn Kirschner – NY DA Trump Org Indictment Watch – First Criminal Indictment Expected Soon. Won’t likely be the Last
Now This News – UN Releases Report on Global Systemic Racism (sometimes the word “state” is used where we would say “nation” or “country” – the UN realli is talking world wide.)
Right Wing Watch has been kicked out of YouTube. So I’m going to start looking for them on Vimeo. This one features “prophet” Chuck Pierce (who is pretty clearly delusional.) Update: Yes it’s back already. Overwhelming support. Article tomorrow.)
Rebel HQ – The Deadliest Weather Phenomenon In DECADES!
Pigeon loses ability to fly. He adapts by becoming one of the dogs.
Beau – Let’s talk about how the Trump years impacted capitalism…. – This is priceless.
Glenn Kirschner – Bill Barr’s Shocking Atlantic Interview Reveals Incriminating Evidence of Trump’s Corrupt Intent (Referring to oneself in the third person has a name – it’s called “illeism.” It is not exclusive to marcissists – far from it – but they, monarchs, and toddlers are probably the groups which use it the most.)
Meidas Touch – Joe Tripp – On other words, it’s not right v. left, it’s up v. down. Seriously – see The Political Compass. https://www.politicalcompass.org
CNN – Stelter: I watched Hannity’s show for a week. Here’s what I found. Political amnesia is real. If you don’t think so, that’s because you have it. (It can be slective.)
Rebel HQ – OK, funny, but the message is serious. And there will be people injured – there always are.
A different kind of blast from the past – an interview.
Dodo – Two Orphaned Baby Foxes Go Nuts When They Meet For The First Time
Beau – Let’s talk about DeSantis beating Trump….
I’m trying to get little smarter about finding the news,since letting it come to me is not always enough any more. We’ll see how it goes in the long run. We can be glad Colleen is recovering even though the recovery is not yet complete. I also heard from Carrie B last night, and she has a couple of spots on her face which she worries may be cancerous, and is stalled waiting for a referral to a dermatologist. Prayers for her please.
Cartoon
Short Takes –
Axios – Bill Barr on Trump’s election fraud claims: “It was all bullsh*t”
Quote – Barr said that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had been urging him to speak out against Trump’s false claims since November but would not do so himself. McConnell did not want to upset Trump as he needed Trump to campaign in Georgia. “Look, we need the president in Georgia,” McConnell said, according to Barr. “And so we cannot be frontally attacking him right now. But you’re in a better position to inject some reality into this situation. You are really the only one who can do it.”
Click through for as much of this profile in cowardice as they are willing to print from a book not yet released
Insider – 14 years after a sexual assault in Tampa, a man has been charged with rape because he entered his own DNA into a genealogy database
Quote – DNA evidence was collected at the time but did not find any matches, and the case remained unsolved for more than a decade. In 2020, however, detectives revisited the case and began to search genealogy testing databases, including GEDmatch and FamilyTree, two services often used by people who are researching their ancestry, to find potential matches…. Florida was the first state to establish its own forensic genealogy unit in 2018. Similar units have since been created in California and Utah to solve cold cases.
Click through for more. I believe in giving credit where credit is due, even to Florida.
The Guardian – Rattlesnakes everywhere: the odd consequences of California’s drought
Quote – Surprisingly, disease-carrying mosquitoes, which most people associate with wet times rather than dry, thrive in cities during times of drought when waters recede and grow still. Webb explains that human-made structures like pipes, pits and ponds are prime spots for stagnant water to become a breeding ground for the insects. “Fish and other animals that live in these systems die and the mosquitoes have free rein”.
Click through for details, and a multitude of consequences, obviously, of climate change. And yet, some still deny it.
Food for Thought
It is now possible to hear an opera broadcast on every Saturday all year round, and not just during the Metropolitan Opera’s season. Yesterday’s opera is “Tosca,” by Puccini, which premiered in 1900, based on an 1887 play. In it the political is the personal, and I would ccll it prescient except that, sadly, the struggle between authoritarians and the rest of us has been going on forever. But it does, at least to me, make it more poignant to consider that what happened to Tosca and Mario (and Angelotti) could conceivably happen to any of us at any time if we fail to preserve our democracy.
Cartoon TomCat has run this cartoon every Father’s Day since at least 2010 (probably before that, but I don’t think the prior blog, which was on Blogspot, remains accessible). He always protested strongly that the litter was not his progeny.
Short Takes
INDEOENDENT (UK) – The Republican Party has turned fascist – it is now the most dangerous threat in the world. (And apparently everyone can see it except us.)
Quote: Two strategies, though never entirely absent from Republican behaviour in the past, have become far more central to their approach. One is a greater willingness to use or tolerate violence against their opponents, something that became notorious during the invasion of the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters on 6 January. The other change among Republicans is much less commented on, but is more sinister and significant. This is the systematic Republican takeover of the electoral machinery that oversees elections and makes sure that they are fair. Minor officials in charge of them have suddenly become vital to the future of American democracy. Remember that it was only the refusal of these functionaries to cave in to Trump’s threats and blandishments that stopped him stealing the presidential election last November.
Click through for the full article. Share it if you can.
Crooks and Liars – What’s The ‘Critical Race Theory’ Uproar Really About? Making Enemies For 2022
Quote : The whole campaign against CRT, in fact, appears to be primarily the work of a handful of astroturfing “dark money” right-wing organizations. And its central figure is named Christopher Rufo, a longtime right-wing think tank activist with a history of promoting various kinds of spurious enemy concoctions.
Click through for details. But remember, just because only one person is behind it doesn’t mean it hasn’t already infected multitudes. Donald Trump** ia onlt one person too.
Sad news – Champ has passed. (BTW this looks like a Twitter account worth following if one were on Twitter.)
Our family lost our loving companion Champ today. I will miss him. pic.twitter.com/sePqXBIAsE
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 19, 2021
Food for Thought
