GOP Violence – Page 17 – Politics Plus

Video Thread 2/9/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:10 pm Open Thread, Politics

Feb 092022

Glenn Kirschner – GOP Gives Aid & Comfort to J6 Defendants by Declaring their Conduct “Legitimate Political Discourse”

The Lincoln Project – “Legitimate Political Discourse”

Ring of Fire – Steve Bannon Issues Ominous Warning To Mike Pence For Going Against Trump

Rebel HQ – What Is Trump Hiding In Mar-A-Lago?

MSNBC – Wisconsin Supreme Court Allows Use Of Ballot Drop Boxes In Feb. Spring Primary [for the last time, maybe]

Randy Rainbow – The Tango Vaccine

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump getting convicted….

Open Thread for February 3, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:38 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 032022

Yesterday, I got rid of another thousand emails from TC’s PP Email. Only about 5000 to go. It got me back to the end of August last year. Also, I note that February is Black History Month, and while I don’t plan on ignoring all other news, I will be trying to include at least one Black History story in the Open Thread every day. Incidentally, the Met Opera put up a video which I expected to be like a trailer – but turned out to be just about an hour, featuring full arias and scenes from complete productions, performed by singers from as well known as Leontyne Price down to as little known as Ryan Speedo Green – and completely unrestricted. Incidentally, if you are ever looking for an impressinve story of overcoming obstacles, google “Ryan Speedo Green”

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Huff Post – Bomb Threats Reported At Historically Black Colleges For Second Day
Quote – For the second day in a row, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were the target of bomb threats across the country, with this latest wave coming on the first day of Black History Month. Campuses were shut down and classes moved to remote learning following the threats impacting more than a dozen schools as of Tuesday morning.
Click through for details. This is what American Naziism looks like. I got back to my inbox and saw this just after streaming the hour of operatic black history I mentioned in the intro. What a letdown. But not nearly so much for me as for students whose education is being threatened.

The 19th – The 19th Explains: Biden prepares to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. What’s next?
Quote – There’s a lot we don’t know: who Biden’s choice will be, the speed at which this whole process will work, or what questions will emerge as senators consider the nomination. But we do know this Supreme Court confirmation will largely work the same as others. Here’s a guide on what to expect and what we’ll be looking at for potential nominees and the months ahead.
Click through. If I had to name a group with no lawyers and no politicians which didn’t need this explanation, the readers ot Politics Plus would be that group. But it could come in handy to share with others who are less attentive. Also, it has bckground on some names being floated.

Law and Crime – Trump Impeachment Witness Sues Giuliani, Trump Jr., and White House Officials for Allegedly Violating His Civil Rights
Quote – “This lawsuit seeks long-overdue accountability for unlawful actions,” the document says in its opening salvo. It accuses the defendants of conspiring to help the ex-president “obstruct a constitutional proceeding by intimidating and retaliating against a key witness.”
Click through for story, including the 73 page court filing if you are so inclined. Long overdue indeed – but I’m not sure why just now. Of course it will further complicate their lives (and the lives of their counsel), and that may be at least part of the reasining. In any case, LTC Vindman deserves to see them held accountable.

Food For Thought:

Video Thread 2/2/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:40 am Open Thread, Politics

Feb 022022

Glenn Kirschner – States Refer Fake Electors to DOJ for Investigation States Should Move on Prosecutions as Well

The Lincoln Project – Unlikely

Robert Reich – The Deficit Double Standard

Rebel HQ – Veteran SLAMS Newt Gingrich For Warmongering

Farron Balanced – Georgia Prosecutors Ask For FBI Protection Following Trump’s Weekend Rally

American Bridge – Stephen Colbert sings Ron Johnson’s Campaign Theme Song

Beau – Let’s talk about Deep Goat and releasing the transcript….

Open Thread for January 20, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:04 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 202022

Yesterday, I got boosted – yippee! There was virtually no snow on the ground. but there was a lot of ice on the glass, and between the windows steaming up and my glasses steaming up, it was terrible. If they decide on another booster, or if they come up with a universal vaccine, I surely hope it is in the summer.

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Crooks and Liars – Colleyville’s Synagogue Hostage Crisis And White Supremacy
Quote – The fact that millions of Jews watch in horror, generational trauma triggered, the oldest bigotry still raging, as four innocent Jews are held captive by someone we recognize we’ll need to protect once it is over — even while it is going on — is a mind-f*ck of epic proportions.
Click through. Every person in the United States needs to read this.

Huff Post Fringe – How Hatred Of Women Is Fueling The Far-Right
Quote – McLeod’s case is an example of the ties between misogyny and easy access to guns that Everytown for Gun Safety highlights in a new report this week, which was shared with HuffPost ahead of its publication. The group documents at least six high-profile misogyny-driven mass shootings in the U.S. since 2014, and the ways that guns and hatred of women have served as a unifying tie for many far-right groups online.
Click through for more. We, at least we on the left, have figured out that pointing out that racism exists is not itself racist. But we don’t seem to have figured out that pointing out that misgyny exists is not itself misogynistic. Well, we need to. Because misgyny is even more prevalent than racism, has a much larger persentage of the marginalized who buy into it themselves, and will destroy the country if we try to elect a woman President before the nation is ready, even if she walks on water.

Medium – Restoring the Senate to Protect the Freedom to Vote {Op-Ed)
Quote – If the Senate cannot even begin to debate and vote on something as foundational as voting rights, we must reform Senate rules and restore the chamber to its rightful place as “the world’s greatest deliberative body.”
Protecting the freedom to vote should not be a partisan issue. In 2006, for example, the Senate voted 98–0 to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. The Help America Vote Act passed 98–2 in the wake of the chaos of the 2000 election. One of its primary proponents was Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
Click through for full letter. Nine former Senators have signed it, including Doug Jones (who sent it to me) and Mark Udall (IMO the best Senator Colorado has ever had – at least since I have lived here.)

Food For Thought:

Open Thread for January 19, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:49 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 192022

Yesterday, I spent some time figuring out what to wear today. In this case, it’s not a matter of appearance. I’m getting my booster today, and I need to come up with clothing which will keep me warm enough in below freezing temperatiures (a high of 30 is predicted) yet still nake it easy to accesss my deltoid without indecency, while at the same time, protecting me as much as possible from airborne droplets. That is not something which is immediately obvious – or at least not to me. So thought is required.

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Letters from an American (Heather Cox Richardson) – Januaty 17, 2022
Quote – In this moment of struggle over voting rights in America, it is important to distinguish between voter fraud, which is vanishingly rare and has not affected the outcome of elections, and election fraud, which is coming to characterize a number of our important elections.
Voter fraud is about an individual breaking the law and is almost always caught. It is not a threat to democracy.
Election fraud means that people in power have rigged the system so that the will of the voters is overturned. When it happens, it threatens to destroy our nation.
Click through for full letter. She puts some things together. (I would point out that by no means of them are proven to the point of being ready to go to court.) But she is no dummy. Her newletter is free to subscribe.

The 19th – Black women in Martin Luther King Jr.’s neighborhood will soon receive monthly cash payments
Quote – That work that In Her Hands will do in the coming two years will build on that established by other programs like Magnolia Mother’s Trust, the first privately-run guaranteed income program in the country. Launched in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2018, it gave 20 Black mothers $1,000 a month for a year, growing to cover 110 in its 2020-2021 year and another 100 in the most recent cohort, which will wrap up this March. All were living 200 percent below the federal poverty line and in subsidized housing. Most are working.
Click through for details and information on the successes of previous programs. Republicans are committed to the idea that people won’t work unless they are reduced to bare subsistence level, and that then they will work for pennies. That may seem intuitive, but these programs demonstrate it isn’t reality.

Crooks and Liars – Crockett And Lake Are Poster Children For GOP Harassment And Extremism
Quote – (in a tweet from Patriot Takes) Kari Lake supporter Ethan Schmidt: “I just love harassing people, especially cancer patients because they’re weak and vulnerable and easy targets.” Kari Lake is running for Arizona Governor and appeared in one of Ethan’s videos. Lake refuses to denounce Ethan Schmidt.
Click through for story. C&L republished this from “No More Mr. Nice Blog,” which I have provisionally added to the Blogroll. He does have other things to say. And he certainly has a point in this column.

Food For Thought:

Open Thread for January 11, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:11 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 112022

Yesterday, I was more or less back into routine. Although I was still waiting, after 6:00 pm, for an email that the phone outage had been resolved.

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PolitiZoom – GOPers Hit New Low, Protesting Harry Reid’s Funeral In Las Vegas
Quote – [Candidate for Congress Noah] Melgeri [who took part in the “protest”] is pure MAGA. He says COVID was “an intentional act” and that General Milley should be executed, on live television no less. His wife appears at the local school board meetings and spews anti-vaxx drivel. Pure performance art out of the Greene/Gaetz/Gosar school of political theater.
Click through. People take part in protests because they want change. What change did these people want? Did they want the Senator’s body to rot above ground? Or did they just want him cremated? They didn’t say. This was not a protest, but merely a public nuisance.

Democratic Underground (bigtree) – Yes, the boat hit the iceberg, but putting children in lifeboats is destructive to their psyche
Quote – Look, I too want to survive this sinking, but I look at how people insist on wearing constrictive life-vests and taking to life boats and I sympathize with those who wants to spend their time drilling holes in the hull. Better to show this ocean we don’t fear it than to cower.
Click through for fuller analogy – This is an unspooled (translation: readable) Twitter thread with an extended analogy comparing CoViD to the Titanic. I fear it won’t reach those for whom it is intended, but it’s very creative,

Medium – What Do We Do Now?
Quote – Building the kind of movement needed to win won’t be comfortable. It means working with imperfect allies and getting outside our comfort zones. It means being open to tactics we wouldn’t have been previously. It means, for many of us, putting our personal safety at risk against an opposition that’s more than willing to engage in violence against their opponents. But we can’t win without a common purpose and a willingness to let go of what’s no longer working in favor of something new. And we can’t win without thinking, and doing bigger things — outside of the systems and institutions currently failing us.
Click through for complete opinion. Medium has a paywall, but you get 3 free articles per month. This one is scary, but I believe accurate. Of course one can only do what one can do. But one can do that, whatever it is.

Food For Thought:

Open Thread for January 6, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:13 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 062022

Yesterday, I ran through all the online diagnostics before calling CenturyLink, and I’m glad I did so. I have had my current modem for more than 9 years, and it’s been obsolete for a while now. So I really have no right to complain. I checked out the current models available, and discovered that one of the three newest models is made by the same manufacturer as my old one, and the cord array looks exactly the same, so I can install it easily – no need to brinf a tech to the house in plague time. I’m expected to get it Saturday. Meantime, I have found a flow which will enable me to work faster by moving slower, so I will make it until (probably not without some colorful language in the process, though.)

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The New Yorker (Borowitz – NOT THE NEWS!) Sean Hannity Informs January 6th Panel that Swearing to Tell the Truth Would Violate His Contract with Fox
Quote – In a written statement, Hannity said that taking an oath “to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” would be “a betrayal of the solemn vow I made to Fox. +The members of the committee would no doubt require me to swear on a Bible,” he said. “However, I answer to a higher power: Rupert Murdoch.”
Click through if you aren’t paywalled out. Sounds like straight news to me (but I did LOL.)

Trump called her an ‘incredible woman,’ but Ashli Babbitt was a Q-nut with a violent past
Quote – Norris’ first encounter with Babbitt took place on July 29, 2016, when Norris says Babbitt rammed her SUV in a road-rage incident in Prince Frederick, Maryland. “She pulls up yelling and screaming,” Norris told AP. “It took me a good 30 seconds to figure out who she was. … Just all sorts of expletives, telling me to get out of the car, that she was going to beat my ass.”
Click through for backstory. I don’t say “full” because there is undoubteedly more to be learned. I would also call her incredible – but NOT as a compliment!

Merrick Garland speech – Assuming this would be the major topic everyome would be interested in, I listened to it. Twice. The second time with a YouTube video which has CC and therefore I could download a transcript (how good remains to be seen,) and I will figure out a way to make that available – that one, or a better one if someone beats me to it. But, to summarize, he said –
We are working on it and we won’t stop until we get everyone. If I told you any more, it would jeopardize the investigation (DOJ policy, based on experience and best practices.) We started at the bottom and are working our way up, and that is reflected in sentincing (which by implication will go up with the involvement of the offender – also best practices.) We are also working on voting rights (if the investigation takes too long, we are going to need voting rights as we never have before.) We are also working on death threats, (and you wouldn’e believe how many of those there are, and how many categories of people who have received them.) The time to deal with threats is when they are issued, not after a tragedy. First Amendment rights are important, but “protests” like 1/6 and death threats are not protected. (I thought it was clever of him to quote Scalia to support that instead of a more liberal justice, and it was a good quote.) Bottom line: We know how critical the investigation of 1/6 is for the survival of democracy, and we don’t intend to let anyone skate. We are working as hard as we can, that’s all we can tell you, so please get off our back and let us do our job.

Food For Thought: