Open Thread May 22, 2023

 Posted by at 6:13 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 222023
 

Yesterday, I had an uneventful drive both ways and enjoyed (as I always do) my visit with Virgil. We played Scrabble again – finished three games and almost finished a fourth (which we knew we wouldn’t finish whwn we started it, so we relaxed the rules to save time – accepted foreign words not in common use and some acronyms – I was wishing we’d done that sooner, because at one poit in one of the first three games I had 2 F’s along wirh an A and an O, and oh, how I wanted to use “FAFO.”) Anyway, Virgil returns all greetings. When I got back I noticed I have some deep purple irises blooming in a flowerbox at the far corner of my front yard. I’m supposed to have one more day before it starts raining again, so maybe I can get out there and brng a couple in. Only one iris has showed up in the bed by the porch, and right now it has zero buds, and isn’t very tall, but looks healthy otherwise. I scraped a little dirt away to try to get some sun on the rhizome, which hs necessary for them to bloom. We had had so much rain last week that the earth was still soft, and so much dryness today that I could use my fingers without getting muddy. I don’t know whether I did it soon enough or well enough – we’ll have to wait and see. I do want to share a delightful graduation photo of Mary Trump’s daughter Avary, which she posted oon Twitter and someone shared at DU. Mary Trump’s father was a decent human being,unlike the rest of the family that we know of, so of course she is too and I assume her daughter as well.

Cartoon – 22 abraham-lincoln

Short Takes –

Media Matters – Conservative pundits are increasingly open about who they think should be killed
Quote – The two stories illustrate a growing trend in right-wing media to argue that the deaths of marginalized and criminalized populations are not only justified but actually desirable, whether those killings are carried out by the state or by vigilantes. Bloodlust is nothing new in right-wing media. From the proto-fascist Father Charles Coughlin through Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, conservative pundits and writers frequently fantasize about violence aimed at their political opponents or marginalized people. In 1989, Donald Trump, who was a media personality for decades before entering politics, called for the execution of the wrongly convicted Central Park Five, a group of Black and Latino teenagers railroaded into false confessions by the New York Police Department. The conservative ecosystem made a celebrity of Kyle Rittenhouse — who killed two people and injured a third during an August 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin — and tried to justify the killings of Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, and Eric Garner.
Click through for article. I think I agree that it’s getting worse, but for me it’s just an impression since I, as the saying goes, “don’t watch Fox for the same reason I don’t eat out of the toilet.”

https://crooksandliars.com/2023/05/republicans-take-next-step-book-ban-laws
Crooks & Liars – Republicans Take Next Step In Book Ban Laws: Jailing Librarians
Quote – Terrorizing librarians is the obvious point. If they face terrible consequences from putting any books on shelves that someone might find “harmful,” they’re more likely to avoid any risk of that in the first place. Or to put it another way, the censorship will stop before the material is on the shelf.
Click through for story.  I knw, I know, this has been going on for centuries  And it’s stil awful, and it’s never going to be anythng other than awful.

Food For Thought

Share

Video Thread 5/20/2023

 Posted by at 12:04 pm  Open Thread, Politics
May 202023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Justice Matters interview w/comedian Buddy Winston: using humor to fight for justice (part 1)

PoliticsGirl – Please Don’t Move

Thom Hartmann – GOP: Death Worshipers?

Liberal Redneck – Conservative Cancel Culture Outta Control

Protective Mama Cat Scared Of Humans Falls In Love With Her Foster Mom’s Cat

Beau – Let’s talk about assumptions, perceptions, and silence….(referring to Jordan Neely)

Share

Open Thread May 19, 2023

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 192023
 

Yesterday, I received an email from Right to the City announcing an online course (8 sessions) in “Fascism 101.” It is being streamed, in English, with translations in Spanish and Ameslan. They don’t mention closed captions, but it is on Zoom, which is pretty good with CC, so they may be available. Ir appears to be free. They do want you to have a Zoom account, but that is also free. The link for registration and some information about the presenters is here. In other news, a special election in Pennsylvania allowed Democrats to remain in control in the state House. News like that is always good.  Also, I finally figured out how to make a picture here link to another site.  If you clisk on today’s FFT it will take you (in a new tab!) to the video the quote is from.

Cartoon – 19 0519OilFraud.jpg

Short Takes –

Civil Discourse – A Little Optimism in the Middle of a Lot of Mess
Quote – A First Amendment lawsuit got filed in Florida [Wednesday]. It’s not a First Amendment lawsuit over the new Florida law we discussed earlier this week—the one where Governor Ron DeSantis stripped academic freedom out of the classroom in Florida’s public colleges and universities and banished consideration of diversity. But it’s still a First Amendment lawsuit. Likely not the last one a unit of government in Florida will see this year. The lawsuit was brought against the Escambia County School Board by the publisher Penguin Random House, PEN America, five authors, and two parents after the school district removed books about race and LGBTQ people from shelves. The lawsuit alleges that banning books in school libraries violates the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause.
Click through for full article. It includes a couple of other developments.  I needed a little optimism today. In fact, I could have used more, but it is what it is.

The 19th – ‘They came for blood’: Protesters and witnesses win settlement 7 years after violent clash with police
Quote – The scene looked like a combat zone. It was July 10, 2016. A wall of police officers dressed in riot gear lined East Boulevard at the corner of France Street in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Blair Imani and at least 100 other protesters stood opposite the officers in the front yard of Lisa Batiste, a resident who had invited the demonstrators onto her property for their safety…. Nadia Salazar Sandi, another protester in Batiste’s yard, had seen her fair share of protests working as a grassroots organizer; however, she did not expect the level of aggression she saw from police that day. “I was a police liaison in my work,” Sandi told The 19th. “I could have talked to cops all day and all night because I was trained to help de-escalate situations. But I remember seeing the look in their eyes. They were not willing to negotiate.”
Click through for story. No, this won’t bring anyone back to life, nor will it magicallly erase all the PTSD. It probably won’t even deter future fascists from similar actions. But it is something.

Food For Thought

Share

Open Thread May 17, 2023

 Posted by at 5:53 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 172023
 

Yesterday, Crooks & Liars (probably along with every other news outlet, paper or on line, TV and all kinds of video) published some details of Noelle Dunphy’s lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani. It definitely needs a barf bag warning. She does have receipts too. If only there were a way to know exactly what is missing from these Republicans (and somehow put it into them) that they think they can do anything imaginable (or unimaginable to normal people) with absolutely no consequences whatsoever. Sigh. In the short takes, I am sharing two articles about Jordan Neely, because they are so different in their outlook and details. This was not a case of a bad cop, but I’m not inclined to expect much if any accountability – certainly not without a lot of protesting demanding it.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

New York Magazine “The Cut” – The Cost of White Discomfort
Quote – In the wake of Jordan’s murder, Kenneth Jones’s and Tema Okun’s definition of the “right to comfort” haunts me: “The belief that those with power have a right to emotional and psychological comfort … I have a right to be comfortable, and if I am not, then someone else is to blame.” When Daniel Penny was not comfortable on the F train, he single-handedly decided that Jordan was to blame.
Click through for article. This rage is justified. Is any other white person as humiliated as I am that people with our skin tone are so fragile as to kill out of discomfort – and so privileged to get away with it? White Americans who whine about the excessive privilege of the British royal family need to look in a mirror and see their own. (But they won’t. That would be uncomfortable.)

The New Yorker – The System That Failed Jordan Neely
Quote – There are more than two hundred thousand residents of New York City living with severe mental illness; roughly five per cent of them are homeless. That’s thirteen thousand people with schizophrenia, major depressive and bipolar disorders, or other significant mental- or behavioral-health diagnoses, all of whom regularly spend the night at a shelter, in the subway, on the street. They’re the ones you recognize—the people whom, for the past fifty years, every mayor has either tried to help, harass, or hide from view. Rudy Giuliani’s cops were known to chase people out of midtown, forcing them into the Bronx and Queens. Michael Bloomberg largely avoided public initiatives that addressed mental illness. Bill de Blasio allocated almost a billion dollars for a mental-health plan, but it was criticized for failing to track outcomes or prioritize treatment for those who needed help the most.
Click through for details. What we had before Ronald Reagan became Governor of California (and then President) was far from perfect, but it was better than this. Constantly reading about people, many in disadvantaged groups besides being mentally ill, killed publicly with no consequences – particularly since the disadvantage is often the cause of the illness (e.g. lead in drinking water) and is itself the result of apathy or malice on the part of the demographic doing most of the killing. It’s like beating someone up, and then killing them because their bruises make us uncomfortable.

Food For Thought

Share

Open Thread May 15, 2023

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 152023
 

Yesterday, I had a chance to read the story from Friday about charges having been dropped against Courtney and Nicole Mallery, the black ranchers in the county I live in who were charged with – something – essentially for being the victims of deliberate and premeditated harassment. It took too long, but it has finally happened. I thought y’all would want to know.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Daily Beast – The Texas Mall Shooter’s Radicalization Is No Surprise
Quote – This past Saturday, May 6, a gunman opened fire outside of a mall in Texas, slaughtering eight people, including children. (The shooter was killed by police at the scene.) The sheer brutality of this massacre was captured profoundly in the statement of a witness who tried to find a pulse on a little girl—only to turn her over and reveal that she had no face. This time the shooter wasn’t white. He was a 33-year-old man of Hispanic heritage, which immediately allowed some far-right pundits to play off any suspicions that this might again be related to white supremacist rhetoric. But as should be obvious by now, white supremacy can be upheld by non-white people (just as white nationalists can be superfans of someone who practices Orthodox Judaism, like Ben Shapiro).
Click through for full opinion. He goes back to 2017 (Canada) and examines the phenomenon of non-white white nationalists. The line between delusion and self-hatred is evidently perilously thin.

Southern Poverty Law Center – Buffalo Massacre: A Year Later, White Supremacist Propaganda Continues to Spur Violence
Quote – The “great replacement” theory is a central tenet of white nationalism. Steeped in racist and antisemitic narratives, it falsely asserts there is a concerted and covert effort to replace white populations in white-majority countries with immigrants of color. The conspiracy theory has inspired many other attacks carried out by white extremists against people of color, immigrants, Jewish people and Muslims. Once a fringe idea propagated by hate groups and other extremists – frequently in online message boards – the “great replacement” theory and ideas akin to it have been normalized and dragged into the mainstream, in part, with the help of conservative political figures, media personalities, lawmakers and lobbying groups.
Clicl through for retrospective. To paraphrase Chesterton, sometimes it isn’t news we need so much as to be reminded.

Food For Thought

Share

Open Thread May 7, 2023

 Posted by at 5:50 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 072023
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “La Boheme” by Puccini. That should be no surprise, since I mentioned it Friday. This opera was the first one I ever owned a recording of. I found it in the PX my first year in the service and grabbed it. That was 56 years ago. I bought a second recording of it when Richard Tucker passed away – that would have been maybe 48 years ago. I have seen it on television, and live, and I have streamed it, over the years – different casts and settings of course – I have memorized arias from it and sung them (just for myself – like whe driving between radio stations) – I have sung in the chorus of a concert version of it – I have made costume sketches of it in case I ever got the chance to help stage it – I don’t actually know the entire libretto by heart, but I wouldn’t be araid to bet that if you read me a line from the libretto (in English or in italian) I could tall you who sings it in which act and why. I know I have heard or seen it every year of my life since 1967, in fact more than once each year. Three times a year is probably low for an average, but that would still be 168 times. And i still cry with Rodolfo. In fact, I choke up/tear up just thinking about it. i gather that younger people (and some my age) who have seen/heard “Rent,” which was based on it, feel much the same about that incarnation of it. I can also tell you that it was based on “Scènes de la vie de Bohème” by Henri Murger (my translation: “Episodes from Hippie Life”), and that another composer (I think Leoncavallo, but won’t swear to that) wanted to write it, but Puccini got in first. I can tell you that the characer Musetta in the book got that nickname because her voice was as raspy as a bagpipe (of yourse that’s not how she sounds in the opera.)  I can do all that, but I cannot explain why it never fails. It just never fails.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Good in Us – The Sickness unto Death, Part I
Quote – When the news of the Sandy Hook shooting broke, my daughter was at school. I spent the hours before I had to pick her up agonizing over what to tell her. I didn’t want to say anything. I wanted to pretend nothing had happened. I wanted to protect her from knowing because what use could that terrible knowledge be to a child?… The very fact of Sandy Hook broke something in me. And, if you’re an empathetic human being, it broke something in you, too.
Click through (and click “continue reading.”) Apparently there are some issues with it, especially with the links -if you have any problem, this may help.

Thw 19th – For Native women in power in Minnesota, confronting the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people is personal
Quote – Less than two years since it began operating, the [Office for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives], led by a Native woman, Juliet Rudie, is a key liaison for families navigating the complicated law enforcement system, and pushing for clear data to make sure victims aren’t invisible It is also working to reshape the landscape that has allowed cases to fall through the cracks, including forging new training standards for Minnesota police officers. Every agency in the state has a tribal liaison.
Click through for story. There are a lot more people who know this is a problem than there are people actually working on it. Kudos to Minnesota.

Food For Thought

Share

Open Thread April 18, 2023

 Posted by at 6:50 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 182023
 

Yesterday, I received a “Damn-Giver Dispatch” email from John Pavlovitz. Some of y’all probably did also. But, in case you didn’t, or in case you did but missed this column, I want to link to it: “Yes, I’m A ‘Hateful’ Human Being.” I really like the way he turns things around. It’s the closest we can come to holding a mirror up to the deluded. Some, of course, will never see anything but what they want to see. But – sometimes – we have to try.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Daily Beast – Black Teen Shot in the Head After Ringing the Wrong Doorbell: Family
Quote – The alleged gunman, who has not been identified [to the media], was taken into custody and brought to a police station to give a statement. Placed on a 24-hour hold, he was released pending further investigation, something the chief of the Kansas City Police Department spent much of a short Sunday press conference justifying. “The vast majority of cases to include violent crime involve the suspect being released pending further investigation,” Chief Stacey Graves said. “In this case, the prosecutor requires more information from investigators that would take more than 24 hours to compile throughout the weekend.”
Click through for story. You may have seen it. The killer opened the main door, and there was a glass door which he shot through. There is video of him calmly sweeping up the broken glass. The “right” house was one block over, on a street with the same name except “Terrace” instead of “Street.” The victim is still alive, miraculously. Virgil was 21 when he survived major head injuries (from a car crash). No one ever fully gets back everything lost from injuries like that.

The 19th – A Black Texas couple chose their midwife’s care over a hospital. Now their newborn is in foster care.
Quote – A custody case currently unfolding in Texas has separated a newborn from her parents and highlighted two systemic realities in the United States: the policing of Black families by child welfare systems and the disregard of midwifery expertise by many doctors. It has been 20 days since infant Mila Jackson was taken from her parents by Child Protective Services in Texas after they sought guidance from their licensed midwife to treat a common infant condition rather than following a directive from their pediatrician. Now a court will decide if she’ll be returned to their custody.
Click through for details. With good prenatal care and no complications, a trained midwife is at least as competent as a doctor. Women were having babies assisted by midwives for centuries while doctors thought it was a waste of time to wash their hands between patients and were killing people thereby. Some of these child welfare people need to be tied down and forced to watch all the seasons of PBS’s “Call the Midwife.”

Food For Thought

Share

Open Thread April 14, 2023

 Posted by at 6:51 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 142023
 

Yesterday, a new transaction came out in the Clarence Thomas scandal. Harlan Crow purchsed some property from Thomas. Per ProPublica – “The sale netted the GOP megadonor two vacant lots and the house where Thomas’ mother was living.” You’ve heard the expression “He’d sell his own mother…” Well, here’s someone who actually did. That sale made her a tenant of Harlan Crow.  Apparently Crow remodeled and repaired the place – butshe is still his tenant (assuming she’s still alive) and therefore owes him rent shold he decide to demand any.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Daily Beast – How Ron DeSantis Is Taking a Page Out of Nixon’s Playbook
Quote – [Steven] Jarvis, who has tracked disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories as an off-duty hobby since the 2016 election, said he’s developed a thick skin. But seeing pro-DeSantis accounts, and other apparent bot networks, accusing him of being a pedophile—and posting details of his marriage that could only have been gleaned from direct messages on Facebook, Jarvis said—shattered the barrier between his compartmentalized worlds. It wasn’t an isolated incident. For some who criticize the Florida governor and likely 2024 presidential candidate, a pattern appears to be emerging: attack DeSantis publicly, and risk your personal information posted online by pro-DeSantis accounts.
Click through for specifics. Just what I would expect from a man who laughs at his murder victims as they are dying.

The Bulwark – Jim Jordan Takes His Clown Show on the Road
Quote – Now Jordan has announced that he’s packing up the tent and hitting the road: Next week, the committee will be taking a taxpayer-funded field trip to New York. Why New York? To go after Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, whom Donald Trump, in his patented racist style, has called an “animal” and about whom Trump has screeched that “THE DEMOCRATS HAVE TOTALLY WEAPONIZED LAW ENFORCEMENT IN OUR COUNTRY . . . TO INTERFERE WITH OUR ALREADY UNDER SIEGE ELECTIONS!”
Click through for details. Maybe he’ll do somethiing illegal and get arrested We can hope.

Food For Thought

The Law, paking ticket, Trump indictment, arraignment, history, NYPD, political cartoon

Share
 Older Entries  Newer Entries