Glenn Kirschner – Dominion v Fox settles: Fox admits to election lies; pays 3/4 of a billion dollars. Justice? Hardly
CBS New York – 2 arrested for operating illegal police station for Chinese govt. in NYC
Ring of Fire – Trump Made $160 MILLION From Foreign Governments While President
Titus and Bradley – Nightly News with Bob Vale and Annie V
Cat Becomes Totally Obsessed With His ‘Dog Person’ Dad
Beau – Let’s talk about Biden, Ireland, mistakes, and context….
Glenn Kirschner – Trump TROUBLES: NY AG Tish James, Georgia DA Willis, NY DA Bragg ALL breathing down Trump’s neck
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – March 21, 2023
Farron Balanced – Dozens Of Trump Employees Hit With Subpoenas From DOJ
Trae Crowder (Puttin on Airs) – The Ridiculous History of People Putting Animals on Trial
Stray Cat Starts Showing Up At Couple’s New House
Beau – Let’s talk about what happens if Trump gets indicted….
Yesterday, I noticed the high for today should be 69°F – and tommorw, we drop back into the deep freeze for four days. March came in like a lamb here (a geouchy lamb, but still a lamb), which means it’s supposed to go out like a lion. Maybe a tame lion? I’ll just have to wait and see. Incidentally, today is the 55th anniversary of the My Lai massacre, and Steve Schmidt has some thoughts. I don’t know whether a hanky alert or a trigger warning is more appropriate, so I’ll just offer both.
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NM Political Report – Bill to protect LGBTQ individuals from discrimination heads to Guv desk AND Gov. signs safe gun storage bill into law
Quote 1 – The bill updates the language in the Human Rights Act, which was written in the 1970s. The updated language replaces the word “handicap” with “disability,” and updates the definition for sexual orientation and gender identity. It also ensures that public bodies, which receive public dollars, cannot discriminate against LGBTQ individuals. An individual who alleges discrimination would take their grievance to the state Human Rights Commission.
Quote 2 – Supporters have dubbed the bill the “Bennie Hargrove Act,” in honor of the 13-year-old Hargrove, who was shot and killed at Washington Middle School in Albuquerque in August 2021 as he tried to intercede in a bullying incident. Authorities say the boy accused of shooting Hargrove brought his father’s gun to school to commit the crime. “This bill would hold people accountable for their firearms,” Molina said during a news conference held at the Capitol on Tuesday.
Click through for one or both. When Susana Boxwine was Governor, we very seldom got stories about actual legislative accomplishments of any kind. Besides the conten of these two, I’m impressed just at how much they are getting done.
Remembering former Rep. Pat Schroeder in Colorado and beyond
Quote – President Joe Biden said Schroeder “stood up for basic fairness, sensible policy, and women’s equal humanity. “I saw firsthand Pat’s moral compass, legal mind, and political savvy when we worked together on the Violence Against Women Act,” Biden said in a statement. “She was the primary sponsor in the House; I led the charge in the Senate. Together, we got it done. With Pat as my partner, I never doubted that we would.”
Click through for full obit. There’s a lot in it that I didn’t remember, and one or two things maybe missing that I did remember. She was first elected in ’72, I settled in Colorado in ’76, and Focus on the Family was founded in ’77. Would I have come if I had known about that last one? I don’t know. It’s quite possible, certainly.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Trump demands immediate release of insurrectionists. Is he giving aid & comfort to the insurrection?
Senator Warren Calls out Chair Powell for Fed’s Plan to Throw At Least 2 Million People Out of Work
Farron Balanced – Trump’s Lawyers Whine That Prosecutors Have TOO MUCH Evidence Against Him
Robert Reich – The Great Grocery Store Heist
Tiny Puppy Leads Rescuer To Her Siblings
Beau – Let’s talk about things to remember from 2016…. (This is how all of us, anyone, can message.)
Glenn Kirschner – At Proud Boys trial, jury hears that Proud Boys were “jubilant” at Trump “stand by” call to action
The Lincoln Project – Achievement Unlocked
MSNBC – ‘I’m impressed’: Michael Cohen on new Manhattan DA team behind Stormy Daniels hush money probe (I hope he’s right.)
Lehto’s Law – Greatest Story Ever! (Yes, it’s long, but it is a great story, and it looks like it happened either in or very close to Kevin McCarthy’s District)
Cross-Eyed Kitten Takes His Grandma’s House By Storm!
Beau – Let’s talk about the balloon coming down….
Yesterday, after reading about this development in Jackson County, MS, I decided it was time to resurrect and update a joke I first heard in somewhere around 1967. (If anyone has any fine tuning ideas before I start making it into a meme, I’m listening.) Anyway, it seems a brand new college graduate was trying to figure out how to get ahead the fastest, when he came upon an internet ad for BrainZinc, a company selling brains. So he sent off an email to ask what kind of brains were available, and what price range.
From: BrainZinc To: NewGrad Just about any kind of brains. For instance, teachers’ brains are $45.00 a pound.
From: NewGrad To: BrainZinc That sounds reasonable. Do you have small business owners’ brains?
From: BrainZinc To: NewGrad Of course. Those run $90.00 a pound.
From: NewGrad To: BrainZinc Golly. Maybe I can afford something even a little better. Do you carry billionaires’ brains?
From: BrainZinc To: NewGrad Yes. Those run $10,000.00 an ounce.
From: NewGrad To: BrainZinc Ouch. Are they really that much better?
From: BrainZinc To: NewGrad No, it’s just that we have to put so many billionaires together before we come up with an ounce of brains.
A Black History event – the Theater of War presented on Zoom, and recorded, “The Frederick Douglass Project” and it’s now available on YouTube. The presentation portion comprises Keith David performing a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass at the National Convention of Colored Men in Louisville, Kentucky on September 24, 1883. After that there is community discussion, which can also be very revealing, but I’d call it optional. So don’t get scared off by the length. There is CC.
For anyone who plays cards with real cards, Banana Republic Cards has a satirical deck with TFG as the Joker and featuring 52 useful idiots. there’s a discount code, bananas!elPresidente45theflusherking, good for $5 off per pack up to 3 packs, through Thursday 2/16.
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Mother Jones – The Website That Wants You to Kill Yourself—and Won’t Die
Quote – Most websites aren’t known for having a “kill count.” Kiwi Farms is. Its victims reportedly include Julie Terryberry, who in 2016 took her life after being targeted by users of the site. Two years later, after years of harassment from Kiwi Farms trolls, Chloe Sagal lit herself on fire in a public park. In June 2021, an American video game developer based in Japan, named David Ginder, took their life amid a campaign of Kiwi Farms abuse.
Click through for story. The site has been removed from Cloudflare, but it isn’t over.
Civil Discourse – They wanted to take down the power grid. Now they’re facing federal charges.
Quote – There is a long history of domestic terror in this country, much of it centered around white supremacist groups like the KKK that committed acts of violence to preserve what they saw as their way of life. That history includes people like Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who wanted to topple the government and set off the Oklahoma City bomb that killed 168 people, including 19 children, injuring several hundred more. It includes Richard Poplawski, a white supremacist with anti-government leanings, who gunned down three police officers in Pittsburgh. It includes Eric Robert Rudolph, responsible for three bombings in Atlanta, including one at Olympic Park and others at LGBTQ clubs, as well as one at a Birmingham, Alabama, abortion clinic that killed an off-duty policy officer. The shooting deaths of nine people at Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina. The deadly protest in Charlottesville. And it includes hundreds of others, both familiar names and acts, and lesser-known ones. But the point is, domestic terror is a pervasive problem in modern-day America, and instead of treating each crime as a one-off incident, it’s time to address it systemically, in the same way law enforcement attacked foreign terror after 9/11.
Click through for details.This may be the end of this incident, but it’s very likely the start of a trend. Beau of the Fifth Column (whose videos appears on our Video Thread – not all of them as he makes three to four a day) is recommending that everyone in the US – literally everyone – prepare for an nearby attack as one would prepare for a natural disaster – evacuation plans, a bag packed in advance, deciding in advance where to evacuate to, etc.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, Joyce Vance shared this link at the New York Times for the Executive Summary of the January 6 Committee’s Report. This is not the full report, but it is 154 pages, so it still may be a bit long for anyone who has a life. I also placed a grocery order for tomorrow.
Also, the top tentative news was that President Zelenskyy might be in Washington DC today, and if so, may address a joint session of Comgress this evening. Of course, evening in Washington is pretty much afternoon elsewhere. I could not find a specific YouTube channel for Congress as a whole like the one the January 6th Committee has/had. But you can bet if that happens, and if it isn’t classified, everyone will carry it live. So keep an eye out – I certainly will – and I’ll post a link afterwards even if it takes me all day/night to find it.
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PolitiZoom – A British Village Displays Its Feelings For Vladimir Putin In Graphic Terms
Quote – “A penis-headed statue of Vladimir Putin has been erected in the village of Bell End to commemorate him as “Bellend of the Year” in protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”… And it doesn’t stop there. The villagers also gave eggs to passers-by in case they wanted to throw them at the statue.
Click through. There are photos. I personally am speechless. (Correction: there is no village called ‘Bell End’ but there is a Bellend Road, which is where the statue is. ‘Bell end” is British slang for the tip of I’m sure you can guess what)
The Daily Beast – Onetime Friends Lauren Boebert and MTG Go to War Against Each Other
Quote – At Turning Point USA’s winter student conference on Monday, Boebert said that her support for McCarthy isn’t as firm as Greene’s—before ripping into the Georgia Republican over her belief in “Jewish space lasers.” But Greene wasn’t about to let Boebert get the last word, with the 48-year-old firing back at her younger colleague on Monday evening with a trio of tweets accusing Boebert of partaking in “high school drama.”
Click through for story. I never in a million years expected to be saying that it appears Boebert is a little smarter than Marge … but it certainly looks like it. Maybe she just has better advisers. (Anyone know a word which roughly means the same as “disarray” but begins with an “R”?)
Food For Thought
Yesterday, I started the day with Joyce Vance’s newsletter. Sorry I can’t make a link for it that cuts the first part, but you don’t have to scroll far toget to the tird paragraph where she starts on he coming seditious conspiracy trials, including how thwy have been affected by the Rhodes convictions, and then she discusses sentencing – both how it’s decided and why it takes so long. Then she finishes with a (forwarded) tweet which really spoke to me. After having read about the card Virgil got last week and how much it meant, it may speak to you too. I’m using it as today’s FFT, so you don’t even need the link to see it. Also today, Talking Points Memo released a boatload of tweets from Mark Meadows, andI’m sure you’ve heard that, since it’s being shouted from the rooftops. There is way too much for a short tape, and you’d probably rather read it directly anyway.
Cartoon 13 abel tasman RTL
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PolitiZoom – Hottest New Red State Christmas Gift – “The Karen Collection”
Quote – Each and every politically incorrect ™Karen Doll, whether you choose ™Dog-walker Karen, ™Storm the Capitol Karen, ™ QAnon Karen or our most popular item, ™Bar-B-Q Karen (pictured above) is guaranteed to not indoctrinate you child with liberal values such as tolerance and love for all of humanity, but rather instills in them the hatred and narrow world view that you as parent desperately want to pass on to them.
Click through for details. As someone who has made character Barbies, I doff my hat to the creativity, ingenuity, and just plain scavenging that made these possible.
BBC News – Base editing: Revolutionary therapy clears girl’s incurable cancer
Quote – Alyssa, who is 13 and from Leicester, was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in May last year. T-cells are supposed to be the body’s guardians – seeking out and destroying threats – but for Alyssa they had become the danger and were growing out of control. Her cancer was aggressive. Chemotherapy, and then a bone-marrow transplant, were unable to rid it from her body.
Click through for the story. I am amazed and speechless. Doug Hofstadter (who wrote “Gödel, Escher Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid”) once joked about a mainframe which was frequently going down when there were too many users, “We just need to find out where the maximum number of users is stored, and then go in and increase it.” Of course it doesn’t work that way. This appears to me just as magical as his jest.
Food For Thought
