Open Thread October 28 2024

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 282024
 

Yesterday, Trinette came by – besides the normal help with mail, trash, and rcyclables, she also helped with hangin up some drapes which I had finally gotten all the stuff preventing access pout of the way, helpedn me get an old fashined monitor (one of the big ones – remember those?) out of a corner so I can tie it up and put a handle on it, and took in for a refund a product which was an unauthorized substitution (and I already have the email that it’s processing)  I’m short of sleep – but I did mange to lie down for six hours las night and get up without being crippled.  Sorry yesterday’s went up so late in the day.  I’m pretty well useless when I’m not getting sleep.

As a child, Robert Reich had the privilege of meeting Henry Wallace (FDR’s VP in his third term.) He was so young at the time that he didn’t appreciate it them. But he does now. It’s interesting how often in history political figures have been put into place because the inseen party powers believed that those figures could be controlled by them – for good and for bad. Sometimes it has worked, and sometimes not.

At eight days before the election, I’m glad this film (64 Days) in Talking Point Memo‘s report has comeout,but hope it isn’t too little, too late.

Belle gotcha

Cat

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Open Thread October 23 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 232024
 

Yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson referenced an article by Rachel Bitcofer (yes, also on Substack.) The article is called “What (Really) Happens If Trump Wins?”, which she believes should be read by every American (and I would add “read aloud to every American who is not able to read and comprehend it.) Cox Richardson herself goes into Dorothy Thompson’s experiences with Hitler. Once he got into power, it didn’t take long (and the first people in the camps – Dachau was the first one – were not [necessarily] Jews or Gypsies or the disabled, but the most powerful among his political rivals.) Perhaps the takeaway from Bitcofer’s article is the last two sentences: “All you need to end a democracy is a leader willing to suspend or end the Constitution and a supporting cast large enough to allow him to do it. Republicans have both.”  Also, I scanned my “I voted” sticker. They held a contest for its design and this won. It’s 2″ in diameter, a bit larger than the old voting stickers, prior to all mail voting, though last year’s was also 2″ but much more boring.

Heather Cox Richardson wrote and posted this late Saturday night. So you have probably heard about TSF’s behavior from Saturday. But then she goes into history for perspective.

Is everyone up for another Atlanta Black Star story? This one is from 2022, but is in the news now because the bodycam info just got released (and immediately went viral.) It’s noteworthy in that the white man went to the trouble of telling elaborate stories in order to put a new spin on calling a black man “boy.”

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Open Thread October 22 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 222024
 

Yesterday, The technician came to install what was necessary for the phone and internet to work.  He arrived exactly at the start of the time window I was given, and I think finished up a little early. So I am actually typing on a windows 10 desktop.  I don’t promise to stay on Windows 10 (not, I suppose, that there’s any difference readers could see), but most of my information is now on both computers (technically, on separate portable hard drive of which each has one, and yes, I did that in advance and it took forever,) so I can start transitioning in earnest.  Also, I received 2 emails from the Election Department – first that my ballot was received, and the second that it had been counted. Yippee:  I can put up that “I voted” sticker now11/

Heather Cox Richardson writes about control of the Senate – why it’s so important, how it is determined, how the 2024 election could affect it, what the Republican Party is doing to influence the election, how events in the 1890’s led to the passage of the 17th Amendment, and why the events of that decade resemble events today.

Recently, I started a subscription to the newsletter of “The F*cking News” whose motto is something like “If you prefer your news delivered with profanity, this is the news for you.” I can take or leave profanity, but I do like the attitudes and world views which lead journalists to use profanity, so I thought I’d give it a go. This report which headlines my first newsletter from them (and also the page to which it links – they are apparently using old print newspapers’ quaint habit of putting multiple unrelated articles on the same page) doesn’t have much profanity but it is chock full of attitude, and presents demonstrable facts from a perspective of the appropriate reaction to them.

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Open Thread October 10 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 102024
 

Yesterday, “Nobody can control the weather” was trending. It needs to be said – but it’s not entirely true. No single person or single group can control the weather. The entire human race working together cannot totally control the weather/ But the entire human race working together has some control over the climate, which means some control over the weather in the long run. We cannot bring down the temperature in any given place today. But over time, if we have raised the temperature in almost ever place, and if we can change our ways and minimize our worst habits, we have a chance of bringing it down, over time – over so much time that I for one will not live to see whether we have done it – or not.

I don’t often cite Steve Schmidt, or at least not a full article, but this one had to be shared. It is as much about morality and pholisophy as it is about politics (which should always be about morality at least, and philosophy if possible.) To make it a bit easier, let me state that he does eventually tell you who Rodney Edmonds was and what he did (and when he starts on the story, you may want a hanky.) Also, “revanchist” means “seeking revenge.” I didn’t know that, and figured therefore not everyone would, and wanted to save y’all a trip to the dictionary.)

This is a referral from Wonkette which I agree is well worth getting wider attention. Most people, including me, tend to think the economy is doing well nationally when we are doing well personally, and when we aren’t, it isn’t. Those who see beyond that are likely to look to the stock ,arket as an economic indicator, which it probably is if you are wealthy, but if not, not. Noahpinion gets us the four real indicators of a strong economy, and that is valuable to know.

FR

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Open Thread September 24 2024

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 242024
 

Yesterday, the defendant in the case of the shooting at the King Soopers in Boulder, CO, was found guilty on 55 felony counts, incluing 10 counts of first-degree murder.  It didn’t even take them a full day to come to that conclusion. I had not been following this story closely enough to have previously seen the names of the victims, but I read it this time, and saw two surnames, both relatively uncommon, which were the same as those of people I had known in Colorado – when I lived in the San Luis Valley. But when I looked then up, there appeared to be no connection in either case. Still, all the victims were known to and kin to and important to someone, and looking that up made the shooting very real to me.

Talking Points Memo’s Morning Memo was hot yesterday. Every time I finished a section and was going to file the email, I’d see the next title and realized I wasn’t ready. I got all the way to the end, in fact. Fortunatel, I can give you a link to the whole thing so you can decide what to skip.

Over the weekend, Heather Cox Richardson reviewed the history of the Electoral College. It’s a history which is little kown, even among people who consider themselves history buffs. And it’s a grand demonstration of how much and in how many ways an institution such as the Electoral College is vulnerable to manipulation – and in how many ways (the Electoral College is the reason we have two Dakotas, for one thing.) I wish that everyone in Amereica, voting age or not, could be forced to read or to listen to it. In whatever language they understand.

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Open Thread September 22 2024

 Posted by at 5:54 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 222024
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Puccini’s “Turandot.” It’s one of the most performed operas in the repertory, so I’ve almost certainly described it before. People who don’t care for opera often cite their feeling that it presents stories so improbable that it makes no sense. On this one they have a point, except that it’s supposed to be a fairy tale, so it’s not supposed to make much sense, if any. It does sweep the listeners and viewers along emotionally with great success, and maybe it’s better to just accept that and not try to make sense of it. Anyay, also yesterday, Steve Schmidt wrote a powerful piece about Ohio. I’ll just link to it, and you can see it for yourselves. Well, off to see Virgil now, and will report my safe return when I’m back, as always.

Heather Cox Richardson starts with (the disgusting) Mark Robinson, but soon swings in to the history of the two-party system, why the founders hated it, why they ended up with it anyway. Reminds me of the quote “Democracy is the worst possible system of government – except for all the other systems.”

This is certainly not news, although the way the word “Patriotism” was defined in 1774 and thereabouts would certainly be news to a lot of Americans today who think they are patriots. I hope on a Sunday you’ll have more leisure to digest it.

Cartoons by Tom the Dancing Bug are generally too large for me to just put them into a post here and still have them legible, and this one is no exception. Sometimes I can reorganize the panels and make it work, but time is tight just now, and I didn’t want to wait with this one. If the last line of the last panel doesn’t have an impact on you, you might want to check your pulse.

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Open Thread September 17 2024

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 172024
 

Yesterday, I was still tidying up. I have been known to make the same mstake twice, but hopefully not in a two-day period, so this should be on time. Also, the New Mexico Political Report announced a week starting today of articles discussing exactly what impact Project 2025 would have in New Mexico specifically. I realize that probably none of us live in New Mexico, but even if your state has zip in common with it, seeing it applied to a particular state could get us thinking about how it would apply to our own. I’m providing a link to the introduction, which has more details. While there , I went to the home page by clicking on the logo in the upper left, and saw two stories already on how Project 2025 will affect the climate in New Mexico. The New Mexico Political Report is (or used to be and I hope still is) a creative commons site, which means that as long as you follow their rules, you can repost complete articles and not violate copyright. And then there’s this (watch the embed here – don’t go to YouTube – it is censoring VoteVets

TomCat referred to the Reichstag fire often, as I’m sure everyone recalls. The first “assissination attempt” may have been actually an intended attempt, but I still do not believe it as a bullet which caused his ear to bleed (my vote goes to shattered glass “shrapnel.”) But this really does look ridiculous to anyone with a functioning brain. Not that that precludes it from being very dangerous, as Rober Reich has also remarked.

This is a report from the Project on Government Oversight on what happens in one state – Texas – when the Census is not conducted to count every head. NOte that Texas deliberately conducted the 2020 Census so as to undercount its population. WEll, it cost them a lot of money to do that. Not that they care about that. Red states are states which turn down Federal money even if the count is correct.

Belle 18 mos

Cat

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Open Thread August 30 2024

 Posted by at 5:53 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 302024
 

Yesterday, I came across a new Randy Rainbow, and this time I can’t cut the ad for Groun News without losing content. But after his last video, I looked it up, and it really isn’t bad. I can see why he and Trey both like it. Even without a subscription, it a lot franker than the MSM. Anyway, here’s the link to Randy

As you can see by her title, Heather Cox Richardson wrote this late on Tuesday (and I saw it Wednesday.) Very little of it was actually news even then. But it’s a nice potpourri of things that happened and what an eventful week it was, even as early as Tuesday. If you haven’t already fastened your psychological seat belts, this might be a good time to do so.

I’m very much not a fan of puppy mills, and I can’t believe that anyone here would be. But murdering a breeder is a couple of bridges too far. And if someone crossed that bridge, and took those puppies, you can bet any important body part that he or she didn’t do it to rescue them.

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