Open Thread September 10 2024

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 102024
 

Yesterday, like pretty much every Monday, was my day to recover from the stress of the weekend, much of it self-induced. At some level that I don’t seem to ba able to reach, I’m a believer in the saying, “Don’t tell me worry doesn’t solve anythin. The things I worry about never happen.” Silly, I know – it’s supposed to be – but I can’t be alone or it wouldn’t be such a classic. Also yesterday, Wonkeette’s last newsletter of the day was titled “Wonkette’s News of the Day Was Stupider Than Usual” and the letter itself proved it. I don’t have space, and you don’t have time to list all of the titles, but WOW. I will be happy to forward the list to anyone who wants it.

Yes, I realize PolitiZoom is hard to read. Even with an ad blocker it’s not that easy – at least not if you have a permanent zoom in your browser, as I do, to make everything bigger – because then the sidebar starts to overlap the text. But I think this one is worth a read. If you really can’t stand it, a trick I have is o select all, copy, and put it in a .txt file like Notepad (and then, if I want to save it, cleaning it up.) Articles that are already pretty clean (elsewhere) I print to a pdf (I use an older program, but Micrisoft I know now has this feature built in. Apple I don’t know about.) Deleting a pdf when one is finished with it doesn’t hurt any trees.

This from Colorado Public Radio isn’t hard to read because of ads. But it is hard to read because of content. Is there any state that is actually addressing this problem at the state level? Because it’s not really appropriate, IMO, for communities to be addressing a problem which is cused by years of Republuan rule at the Federal level. Maybe even the state level isn’t really that appropriate either, but it would be better than leaving it to communities full of NIMBYs.

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Open Thread July 5 2024

 Posted by at 5:55 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 052024
 

Yesterday, because I forgot about the time difference, I livestreamed the final third of a Capitol Fourth. It was fine. I was glad to see a lot of performers of color, including the host. And the cannon in the 1812 overturewould have done Tchaikovsky proud. I personally wold not have programmed “God Bless America,” simply because it annoys me that Christians seem to think it’s a Christian song so they have a monopoly on iy, when in fact it’s a Jewish song, written by Irving Berlin. But they certainly could have done worse.

I’m not sure why this never occurred to me before … but in view of the fact that so many uptight Republicans live in rural areas, it seems odd that they appear tp think they can “protect” children from learning about sex by regulating porn. Kids living on farms and especilly ranches probably see more sex (granted betweem animals) than even the most enterprising city and suburban kids can manage to access on the internet. Do you suppose this isn’t about morals at all, but rather about rural people reproducing more, and the rest of us reproducing less?

I figure we’ll all be talking about this for a while. This article not only discusses the topic, but provides additional reference to knowledgeable people’s responses which could sstart a lot of conversation. I don’t, owever, think we should lose sight of the facts that our number one priority needs to be re-electing Biden, and our number two (a very close two) is giving him the Congress he needs to work with.


The above  is a snapshot. I would not deliberately send y’all to Xitter. The full text is here.

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Open Thread January 19, 2024

 Posted by at 5:37 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 192024
 

Yesterday, I got an email from Carrie B. She mentioned that Barry is having medical issues and could use all the prayeers (or however you communicate with the universe) you can spare. Her own mobility issues are such that she cannot go anywhere without someone driving her, and Barry won’t be driving for a while.

Earlier this week, or maybe last week, I selected a Beau video about the difference between the ICJ, which is currently hearing a genocide case against Israel) and the ICC, which isn’t. Well, The Conversation is interested in this too. Their article doesn’t exactly compare the two, instead going into more detail about the powers of the ICJ.

Sacramento is, of course, the capital city of California. Growing up, I had a great-aunt and a great-uncle living there and from time to time we would visit, which was not really enough to educate me about the city. But when I saw this article fro California Public Radio, I thought, well, apparently, if a group means business, apparently they can do something about homelessness. Of course it took a long time and a chunk of change, but the story might well still have something to say to people working on homelessness in other places. So, if you know of a group near you (or are part of one), this is for you to share.

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Open Thread July 12, 2023

 Posted by at 5:50 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 122023
 

Yesterday, two legal things happened with Trump**, and both Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce Vance addressed both. The first was Trump**’s motion to postpone the documents case trial indefinitely. This is both very Trump** and very ridiculaous (not that there’s much difference), and Glenn (and other legiti,ate attorneys) will tear it to shreds, though it won’t be in today’s Thread. Secondly – for background, the DOJ defended Trump** in E Jean Carroll’s original defamation case – it did so because he was President when he made the original defamatory remarks, and there might have been just the remotest chance that he was acting as President when he made them. But the new defamatory remarks he made last year – he wasn’t, thank God, President then, so no defense from DOJ. He’ll have to get his own lawyers, Honestly, I don’t know whether having DOJ defense the first time around even helped. I think if I had been on the jury, every time I looked at the defense table, those DOJ lawyers would have reminded me that our nation hadd been so misfortunate as to have this lunatic as President – which would not have inclined me to show him an atom of mercy.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

PolitiZoom – Why The Democrats Are Already More Strongly Positioned Than The GOP For 2024
Quote – In 2018, 2020, and 2022, non professional Democratic House candidates out fundraised deeply entrenched GOP incumbents by 4-5 to 1. Mostly by talking in living rooms and kitchens, grocery stores and Starbucks, and holding town halls where they actually listened to constituent concerns, and answered not in political bullsh*t, but in real life solutions. Little wonder they rocked like Bob Seger with Hollywood Nights. And the Democrats, not only the upstart contenders, but even the DNC seem to have gotten the memo.
Click through for opinion. Let me remind you that Murfster has vision issues (I can’t remember now whether it’s glaucoma, cataracts, both, or something else) and really is not able to prrofread to his own satisfaction, let alone anyone else’s. He’s still intelligent, though, and I hope he’s correct here.

The Daily Beast – GOP Board Whipped Up Homeless Hate. Then a Man Was Murdered
Quote – In January, the Board of Commissioners in Flathead County, Montana, proclaimed that the homeless had become a big problem in the little town of Kalispell due to charitable efforts to shelter and feed them. “Providing homeless infrastructure has the predictable consequence of attracting more homeless individuals,” read a preposterous letter signed by the three members, all Republicans. “When a low-barrier shelter opened in our community, we saw a dramatic increase.” The letter progressed from icy hearted to paranoid.
Click through for story. But that’s not how they’d tell it. After all, we are the violent ones coming to get them. Yeah. Right.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread April 21, 2023

 Posted by at 7:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 212023
 

Yesterday, there was an update on the little girl taken from her parents because midwife. She’s going home! Details, including from the family’s attorney, here. In weather news, it’s supposed to snow tomorrow, although very early – it’s to stop by 9:00 am and then warm up. If it does, I”ll be fine with it. I’m to see Virgil Sunday. I hope everyone who celebrates had a lovely 4/20.

Cartoon – 21 0421Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

Daily Beast – Inside Jim Jordan’s ‘Charade’ of a Hearing on Violent Crime in NYC
Quote – Back when Jim Jordan was a collegiate wrestling champion, the strategy would have been called a double misdirection duck under…. In truth, the violent crime rate is declining in Manhattan, with murders down 14 percent, shootings down 17 percent, and robberies down 8 percent. Jordan was just seeking to undermine Bragg and therefore the 34-count indictment he had secured against Trump 13 days before…. To mask the actual crime numbers, Jordan applied a second misdirection, inviting the families of two murder victims, the father of a hate crime, and a Manhattan bodega clerk who was charged with homicide after killing a robber but later deemed to have acted in self-defense.
Click through for full opinion. Yes, it’s an opinion piece. When lies are being peddled as facts, sometimes an opinion piece is the best (or even the only) way to get to the truth. At least Jerry Nadler is there. I know he hates it, but he knows and does his duty.

Denverite – Aloft, Denver’s COVID-era shelter, closes as residents find housing and fear the streets
Quote – (The Salvation Army, the State of Colorado, the City of Denver and activists have found housing for all but two residents) On the second Tuesday in April, older homeless men at high risk of dying from respiratory infections joined members of the housing advocacy group the Housekeys Action Network Denver, or HAND, in a hot downtown parking lot, outside a soon-to-close shelter at the Aloft Hotel…. [D]odging cars, residents tried to figure out where they could go now that the City of Denver and the Salvation Army were shutting down a home that felt permanent, though they knew it never was.
Click through for story (and stories.) The subtitle (in parens) is the good news, and I’m proud of all who have worked on this, but it’s not good enough. A big reason why we can’t have nice things is TABOR.

Bonus: Crooks & Liars – Marge Gets Shut Down At Committee Hearing After She Breaks House Rules
Quote – Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) asked for Greene’s words to be “taken down” because they violated the House rules of decorum…. Still, when asked by Republican Rep. Mark Green if she would withdraw her statement, she declined…. [Rep. Daniel] Goldman noted that the rules prohibit her from continuing. “Point of personal inquiry,” Rep. Sporkfoot said. “There’s no such thing,” Goldman shot back.
Click through – there’s also video. I didn’t put this in the video thread because I figured we could all use a laugh – or at least a smile.

Food For Thought
(Hey, I can dream.)

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Open Thread March 11, 2023

 Posted by at 6:47 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 112023
 

Have you ever heard of Susie King Taylor? Neither had I. Yesterday, I got an email from Theater of War which introduced me. She was the first Black nurse to serve in the Union Army during our Civil War. She wrote a memoir later, describing her experiences then and in the later Jim Crow era, and ToW is doing a presentation of selections from that memoir featuring Samira Wiley. That sounds like it could very well blow the roof off of the venue – except that the venue is Zoom. I also found it interesting that Margaret Atwood, who has played Tiresias a couple of times (“a crabby old prophet who is alwayr right – type casting”), has a Substack newsletter herself. I don’t necessarily want a personal newsletter just because I like the person, but I definitely signed up for hers.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Denverite – Why homelessness solutions aren’t working and what the unhoused need, according to 828 people experiencing homelessness
Quote – In recent political debates, some candidates have speculated that many unhoused people simply don’t want housing. The results of the survey suggest that isn’t true in the vast majority of cases. “Between 93% and 99% of houseless people want some form of housing,” the report states. But four walls and a roof aren’t necessarily enough. People want safety where they’re staying, their freedom and community, according to the report. Housing needs to offer residents the basics: the ability to control the temperature, restrooms with showers and accessible locations.
Click through for story. If you work with the homeless, or know anyone who does, you can follow a link to the group (HAND) which produced this, then to their “2023 report” page, and download the whole thing. It’s 130 pages, but that isn’t all that many bytes – less than 32 MB, in fact, and I doubt whther you can even find a thumb drive any more smaller than 32 MB.

The Nib – The Long Road to Women’s Suffrage
Quote – On January 10, 1878, Republican Senator from California named Aaron A. Sargent introduced the “Anthony Amendment” – 29 words to amend the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and grant American women the right to vote…. It was named after the prominent suffragette, Susan B. Anthony, co-founder of the National Women’s Suffrage Association, an organization of which Senator Sargent’s wife, Ellen Clark Sargent, was treasurer.
Click through for full graphic. It was a long and hard battle – and there’s not really a happy ending. None of the three who worked so hard on this could see past whiteness – and none of them lived to see the 19th Amendment ratified. We all need to continue to grow in what reactionaries would call “wokeness.”

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 1/23/2023

 Posted by at 11:41 am  Open Thread, Politics
Jan 232023
 

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ will resist Jim Jordan’s subpoenas prying into criminal investigation of the insurrection

Robert Reich – The Republican Party’s Worst Nightmare

Farron Balanced – Trump Blames Evangelical ‘Disloyalty’ For All Of His Problems

Armageddon Update – Biden Did It Too! (I can’t wait to tell Virgil that Joe owns a pristine ’67 Corvette.)

Husky Becomes Obsessed With Man Living On The Street In Paris- (different rescue story)

Beau – Let’s talk about “just asking questions”….

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Open Thread for September 22, 2021

 Posted by at 7:28 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 222021
 

Yesterday, I observed that, although a high on 90°F had been forecast, it never actually made it above 66°F. Forecasts for the rest of the week have also been lowered around 10°F. So maybe it will cool off before the end of the month. Not that I’m really mentally ready for that, but it’s not my decision. My next visit is scheduled for October 1, and I’d be happy with cool weather for that day.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Five Oregonians Hospitalized After Taking Ivermectin For COVID
Quote – The Oregon Poison Center has managed 25 cases involving Oregonians intentionally misusing ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19 between Aug. 1 and Sept. 14. Five of those cases involved hospitalization, and two people were so severely ill that they had to be admitted to an intensive care unit. Although the Oregon Poison Center also serves Alaska and Guam, the vast majority of ivermectin cases it has managed this year have come from Oregon.
Click through for stats. Sadly no state – and no county – and no town – and even no nation is idiot-free

The Hill – Five things to watch as Biden heads to the UN
The five are: 1. Do France tensions carry over
2. How does COVID-19 loom over the event
3. Do leaders announce any new climate initiatives
4. What is the Afghanistan fallout?
5. Biden looks for reset on foreign policy priorities
Click through for reasons. The missing question marks on #1 through #3 are The Hill’s omission, not mine.

Tampa Officials Shocked To Learn Evicting Black People For Basically No Reason Miiiiight Be Considered Racist
Quote – So it turns out the Tampa, Florida, police department has been encouraging landlords to evict their [usually Black] tenants, in the name of “crime prevention.” Because, as we all know, making people homeless is a great way to reduce crime.
Click through for complete story, in Wonkette’s inimitable style. You might consider cushioning your head first, since you may feel like hitting it against the wall.

Food for Thought –

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