GOP Lies – Page 5 – Politics Plus

Open Thread July 13, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:07 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 132023

Yesterday, The Conversation’s newsletter included an article about what doesn’t work to prtect people from mosquitos – and what does – and if so, how long. If you live where there are mosquitos (and, thanks to climate change, every year there are more places which do) you might want to give it a look.

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Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – GOP Lawmaker Banned From Wikipedia After Self-Editing Spree-
Quote – According to open source Wikipedia records, the edits were all made in 2021, while Lawler was serving as a New York assemblyman. Beyond authoring his self-made jump to his alma mater’s notable alumni, he made several more straightforward changes to his Wikipedia page. Lawler added electoral statistics from his victory in 2020 over a Democratic assembly incumbent, buffed up his resume to note that he “serves as the Ranker of the Government Operations Committee and as a member of the Aging, Banks, Education, and Housing Committees,” and changed his name on the page in one instance from “Mike Lawler” to “Michael V. Lawler.” The “V,” of course, is for Vincent.
Click through for details. I try to donate to Wikipedia yearly, since I use it so much. I think I’ll send them a little extra. Policing isn’t free.

The New Yorker – Reinventing the E.R. for America’s Mental-Health Crisis
Quote – It’s hard to imagine a less therapeutic environment for a person in crisis than an emergency department: crowded and windowless rooms; harsh fluorescent lights; the ceaseless ping of alarms; this patient retching, that one screaming. And yet, for every eight patients who present at an emergency department, one is there for a behavioral crisis such as psychosis, suicidality, mania, aggression, or substance use. Often these conditions have a years-long history and can’t be treated quickly or straightforwardly, in the way that a broken bone or a knife wound might be. In some cases, showing up at an E.R. can make things worse; patients who pose a danger to themselves or others may be sedated or kept in isolation, even tethered to bedside rails so that they cannot move…. The mental-health unit where Mitlyng works is one of only a few dozen Empath units, short for Emergency Psychiatry Assessment, Treatment, and Healing. Such units, which were invented about a decade ago, vary in size, staffing, and design, but the core concept is that, instead of leaving patients to languish in an emergency room, caregivers offer them a calm communal environment where they can receive a comprehensive evaluation, start therapy, and, if needed, receive medication.
Click through for article. It’s jaw-dropping how simple the concept is… and also how badly it is needed everywhere. The author has hospital ER experience themself, incidentally.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 7/12/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:00 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jul 122023

Glenn Kirschner – Special Counsel Jack Smith investigates Trump’s conspiracy to seize state voting machines

Meidas Touch – Former CIA Director BLASTS Trump in POWERFUL New Ad

MSNBC – U.S. attorney contradicts GOP and IRS whistleblower claims in Hunter Biden case

Armageddon Update – HOT BEE SUMMER!!

Cat Likes Dad More Than Mom

Beau – Let’s talk about Rudy, Trump, and a new direction….

Video Thread 7/7/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:00 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jul 072023

Glenn Kirschner – Trump posts dangerous rhetoric involving Jack Smith, proving his ONGOING danger to the community (“Every accusation a confession”)

Thom Hartmann – The Hidden Truth Republicans Desperately Keep from the American People! 🤐

Ring of Fire – First Republican Debate To Happen During Trump’s Criminal Trial

Armageddon Update – Where Are We?

Dog Who Was Feral Her Whole Life Finally Goes For Her First Walk

Beau – Let’s talk about legacy admissions and a meme….

Open Thread June 26, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:52 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 262023

Yesterday, I promised that if I found out anything more about what the heck is going on in Russia I would share. There is no consensus, but I’m going to refer you to two links – Heather Cox Richardson, who spends a few paragraphs on it from an historian’s viewpoint before changing the subject, and the other a video from Beau. Be aware you do NOT have to watch the video to get the content. If you click on the three dots to the right of the Share and Save buttons, you will be offered the opportunity to view a transcript. It won’t be perfect, but it will give you a solid idea. Bottom line is this isn’t over, and no one knows what is next. But we can’t rule out an opportunity to see “Swan Lake” (which is traditionally performed for a regime change.)

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SPLC – Advocates Register Voters after Supreme Court Victory over Gerrymandering
Quote – “I’m gonna go out on a ledge and say over 90% of our students were not registered to vote,” [Monica] Clarke said. “It was this huge wakeup call for me and others who were working with me. We were kind of shocked, kind of scared, kind of surprised – all of the above – and not just that they weren’t registered, but they didn’t even want to register. They had such a negative view of voter registration, of voting, of the government and police.” That was when she became an activist for voting rights, growing the university’s voter registration service into a mission unto itself. And, as the nation notes the 10th anniversary of the Shelby decision this weekend, Clarke sees the same forces that created the need for the Voting Rights Act still threatening people of color.
Click through for article. My BFF, who is black, has worked for the election department (and believe me, she votes) but has troble getting her young adult sons to regiter, so I get it. I don’t like it, but i get it. Maybe the FFT would help?

The Warning – Steve Schmidt – What is No Labels doing?
Quote – No labels lacks basic transparency around its donors, motives and strategy. They are purposely opaque. For example, they decry the imminence of a Biden-Trump rematch as unacceptable without ever being clear whether they measure Biden as similarly unacceptable as Trump. Why the mystery? Would they abandon their plans if Gretchen Whitmer or Gavin Newsom were the Democratic nominee? What exactly is the basis of the emergency? Is it Trump running again? Is it Trump winning again? Is the effort built around the belief that Biden can’t beat Trump? Perhaps the premise is that Biden is fueling demand for Trump? Does No Labels view Biden and Trump as equivalent figures, men, leaders and threats? Shouldn’t they say, or perhaps more importantly, shouldn’t someone ask?
Click through for article. I have said it before, and I will keep saying it whenever I needto, for as long as I need to: NEVER TRUST ANYONE WHO WILL NOT TELL YOU WHERE THEY STAND. I get it that many people are tired of labels (mostly because crooks and liars have achieved that end by design.) I get it that left and right do not fully describe posotions (although if you add up and down to that mix, the result comes much, much closer.) But the very name “No Labels” screams “I will not tell you who I am.”

Washington Post (no paywall) – He wanted to pet dogs for his 100th birthday. Hundreds lined up.
Quote – “We live in a nice little community, and I thought I could get some of my neighbors and friends to come,” said Alison Moore, adding that she planned for her father to sit outside her home with a banner and assemble a small line of dogs for him to admire and cuddle. Human treats and dog treats would be served…. “I was shocked,” said Alison Moore, explaining that some people drove more than 10 miles to attend the celebration.
Click through. I had planned to stop at two, but my cousin sent me this link – and I felt I had to share

Food For Thought

Open Thread June 25, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:14 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 252023

Yesterday, the radio opera (again from Vienna) was Richard Strauss’s “Salome.” The libretto is a translation of the play by Oscar Wilde. if you know the Bible story, you know it’s pretty twisted – and more so in the play – and still more so in the music. John the Baptist, who was the good guy in the Bible story, is depicted as a fire-breathing judgmental pseudo-Christian. He does have has some excuse since Herod, Herodias, and Salome are all depicted as spolied, entitled, and perverted billionaires. The only decent person in it is poor Narraboth, a guard who has as much of a crush on Salome as Herod does, but not the means to even get her to notice him. So why is it still popular, after all this time? I would say, because sometimes people need to look, really look, at evil and depravity, and these great artists do not make it exactly palatable, but they do make it possible. It’s not pretty, because it’s not meant to be. Strauss’s “Elektra,” based on one of the plays in the Oresteia (IIRC the second of the three) is similar in tone and succeeds for the same reasons. After those two, he lightened up some. But he never stopped having things to say about people which are not easy to admit. ALso yessterday, things started to get pretty wild in Russia. There are too many open possibilities for me to start going into it now. But if you see something about Russa onsources which are good at breaking news, like AP News the Guardian, NBC (justa few), you might want to pay attention. And if you see or hear anythig about “Swan Lake,” you difinitely want to pay attention.

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PolitiZoom – GOP ‘Weaponization’ Outrage Due To 3 Words NOT In Title 18 (Federal Crimes)
Quote – Th[e]se three words aren’t in any criminal statute listed in Title 18 of the U.S. Code. As a result conservative’s knickers are in a twist (more like an atomic wedgie) so they have been and will continue to flood public discourse including the news with louder and crazier claims of Democrats “Weaponizing” government. The mashup of irony and hypocrisy is stunning in and of itself and countess things have been written and said about it that include examples of Republicans having done so so often in the past against Democrats. I won’t rehash it here. Instead, since this is about laws, specifically crimes and federal law I want to as actual lawyers would say keep “on point.” And the point is sharp – federal criminal statues don’t include the words “Except for Republicans.”
Click through for story. i almost said “opinion” – but it’s an opinion well founded in facts.

KRCC* – ‘Why are we having to beg?’ Group of Club Q survivors renew call for Colorado Healing Fund to release money
Quote – Some survivors of the attack on Club Q say they are still pleading for funds raised in their name seven months after the deadly shooting. At a press conference Tuesday in front of Colorado Springs City Hall, a small group called on the Colorado Healing Fund (CHF) to release the remaining dollars in its possession. Jerecho Loveall [for example] was shot in the leg at Club Q. He says he lost his job in February when he had a breakdown after trying to work while still coping with his physical and mental injuries. Loveall says he’s had to submit receipts to organizations that channel money from the healing fund for bills and groceries, sometimes waiting weeks for a reimbursement check to come in to feed his three children.
Click through for details. *KRCC is the radio station at Colorado College, a private college in Colorado Springs. The station has been accepted under the umbrella of CPR (which in turn is under the umbrella of NPR) and is editorially independent of the College, so it can break stories like this.

HuffPost – The Dobbs Decision Unleashed An Unapologetic Abortion Rights Movement
Quote – The last year has been devastating for abortion rights in the U.S. since the Supreme Court repealed nearly 50 years of precedent in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling. The suffering that Dobbs has brought is hard to comprehend on a national scale. But from something so terrible, so unthinkable, came a full-blown resistance that centered abortion rights in the national conversation.
Click though for details. I see it too – I see it in smaller, more private ways, but I agree it is real.

Food For Thought

Open Thread June 23, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 232023

Yesterday, I learned about the House voting to censure Adam Schiff for telling the truth. It probably came in the previous night, butit would have been after 10 pm my time, in one of the Substack newsletters. Ten pm is when I check for spam and close my email, even if i’m up later than that. I am actually less angry at the Republicans in the House than I am at the morons who sent them there. Adam’s full speech (a tad over 6 minutes is at his own website and also on YouTube, and one of my Substack sources provided a partial (but substantial) transcript:
“To my Republican colleagues who introduced this resolution, I thank you. You honor me with your enmity. You flatter me with this falsehood. You who are the authors of the big lie about the last election condemn the truth tellers and I stand proudly before you. Your words tell me that I have been affective in the defense of our democracy, and I am grateful.
“Speaker McCarthy would spend the nation’s time on petty political payback, thinking the censure or fine will force Trump’s opposition into submission. But I will not yield. Not one inch. The cost of the Speaker’s delinquency is high, but the cost to Congress of this frivolous and yet dangerous resolution may be even higher as it represents another serious abuse of power.
“I say this to Speaker McCarthy and others who wish to gratify Donald Trump with this act of subservience, try as you might to expel me from Congress or silence me with a $16 million fine, you will not succeed you might as well make it $160 million. The Speaker will never deter me from doing my duty no matter how many false justifications or slanders you level against me. You indict yourselves.
“Why were you silent, afraid, and unwilling to do your ethical, constitutional duty? Why did you cower? And why do you still? Will it be said of you that you lacked the courage to stand up to the most immoral, unlawful, and unethical president in history but consoled yourselves by attacking those who did?
“Today I wear this partisan vote as a badge of honor knowing that I have lived my oath, knowing that I have done my duty to hold a dangerous and out-of-control president accountable and knowing that I would do so again in a heartbeat if the circumstances should ever require it. I thank you, and I yield back.”

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Politico – The sleeper legal strategy that could topple abortion bans
Quote – Revs. Jan Barnes and Krista Taves have logged hundreds of hours standing outside abortion clinics across Missouri and Illinois, going back to the mid-1980s. But unlike other clergy members around the country, they never pleaded with patients to turn back. The sight of the two women in clerical collars holding up messages of love and support for people terminating a pregnancy “so infuriated the anti-abortion protesters that they would heap abuse on us and it drew the abuse away from the women,” recalled Taves, a minister at Eliot Unitarian Chapel in Kirkwood, Missouri, as she sat on a couch at Barnes’ stately church in this quiet suburb of St. Louis.
Click through for details. It seems to me fairly self-evident. MAGA “Christians” could use a mandatory “refresher” course in what religious freedom actually is.

Wonkette – Sam Alito Is Just Humble Fisherman Drinking $1,000 Bottles Of Wine Served By Billionaires
Quote – [Alito:] I stayed for three nights in a modest one-room unit at the King Salmon Lodge, which was a comfortable but rustic facility. As I recall, the meals were homestyle fare. I cannot recall whether the group at the lodge, about 20 people, was served wine, but if there was wine it was certainly not wine that costs $1,000. [Wonkette:] Okay, a) how would Alito know what the wine cost if he wasn’t, as reported by ProPublica, paying for his stay, and b) Sam Alito knows what a $1,000 bottle of wine tastes like, and it does not taste like whatever swill he does not recall drinking in Alaska.
Click through. I figured if anyone could manage to put a more colorful spin on this story, it would be Womkette. They did not let me down.

Food For Thought

Open Thread June 20, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:12 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 202023

Yesterday was Juneteenth – a day to take a victory lap and celebrate one achievement in our history. And therefore today is a day to get back to work. Very few people can say that as well as John Pavlovitz (although the FFT, a cartoon originally published in 1876, is strong.) I hope your Juneteenth was pleasant and refreshing, since we all need to be refreshed periodically.

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John Pavlovitz – Are we there yet?
Quote – Yesterday, a friend who is a rabbi called to tell me that the Black Lives Matter flag in his yard had been ripped down, placed against their family’s car and set on fire. He and his family were of course devastated, but not just for his family but for what acts of violence like this represent and mean. In the fight against the cancer of racism, we are not there yet. But many people, like my friend and his family, people like you aren’t going to rest or be driven off course. We’re awake and alive in this day and that makes us dangerous to those still warring against equity…. Are we there yet? Not yet. Don’t let that truth dishearten you, let it move you.
Clck through for full column. Not much, if anything , I can add.

The 19th – What a teacher’s little red book taught the world about the Tulsa massacre
Quote – “Parrish’s work became a vital primary source for other people’s writings,” journalist Victor Luckerson wrote in his recently released book, “Built From the Fire.” “Yet her life remained unknown, even as the facts that she had gathered — such as several firsthand accounts of airplanes being used to surveil or attack Greenwood — became foundational to the nation’s understanding of the massacre. She was, quite literally, relegated to the footnotes of history.” Parrish’s great-granddaughter Anneliese Bruner is following in her footsteps as a writer and editor but didn’t learn of her connection to Parrish — or the events of Tulsa — until she was in her 30s.
Click through for story. Someone recently said that MAGA Republicans have the minds of toddlers – up to and including an obsession with genitalia. How many violent crimes have been based on lies involving genitalia?

The New Yorker – The Celebration of Juneteenth in Ralph Ellison’s “Juneteenth”
Quote – “We were owned and faced with the awe-inspiring labor of transforming God’s Word into a lantern so that in the darkness we’d know where we were. Oh God hasn’t been easy with us because He always plans for the loooong haul. He’s looking far ahead and this time He wants a well-tested people to work his will. . . . He’s tired of untempered tools and half-blind masons! Therefore, He’s going to keep on testing us against the rocks and in the fires. He’s going to plunge us into the ice-cold water. And each time we come out we’ll be blue and as tough as cold-blue steel! Ah yes! He means for us to be a new kind of human. Maybe we won’t be that people but we’ll be a part of that people, we’ll be an element in them, amen!”
Click through for details. I hope you can stand one more article about Juneteenth. Ralph Ellison is best known for “The Invisible Man.” When he died, he left a good deal of unfinished work, including “Juneteenth,” which was put together by an editor, but most of it is pure Ellison. If you are paywalled out, I’ll send it in an email if you let me know.

Food For Thought