Sep 272022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s secret grand jury litigation to stop aides from incriminating him & why it won’t work

Meidas Touch – BREAKING: Federal Court CITES Trump case and IMMEDIATELY DENIES Mike Lindell Search Warrant Motion (It takes Ben a while to get to the lede, but when he does, it’s delicious)

The Lincoln Project – How a Democracy Falls

Robert Reich – The Truth Behind “Self-Made” Billionaires

Armageddon Update – IMMIGRATION NATION!

Beau – Let’s talk about how Game of Thrones can change the world…. [Call me crazy, but I would recommend detective fiction – not what I would call crime fiction where the focus is on the crimes, but detective fiction where the focus is on analyzing and deducing to restore order.)

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Sep 222022
 

Yesterday, although I’m not really ready to go back to three short takes, there were three stories so different but so connected I could not decide which one to leave out. Also, Tish James’s fraud investigation is now to the point where she can formally file (a civil) suit against Trump** personally, three of his children, and several officers. (The investigation has been done under a filing against the Trump** Organization, not anyone personally, so this is a bigger step than it may sound.)  Also, though it wasn’t all that easy, I did manage to take out trash and recyclables for pickup tomorrow. Which pretty well wore me out for the rest of the evening. I need to post Shirley Serban’s parody of “Let’s do the time warp again,” which she calls “I’m feeling time-worn again,” in the video thread, because it expresses exactly how I so often feel. It won’t be today – I need to address my “Parody Project” backlog first – but maybe tomorrow.

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Short Takes –

Talking Points Memo – The Search for Perla
Quote – [E]ven the barest look at the details we know [about the story of the Venezuelan immigrants shipped off to Martha’s Vineyard] make it very unlikely this was an official or on-the-books government operation. And yet it’s one Gov. Desantis has publicly taken credit for and said was paid for with taxpayer funds from Florida. [Representatives of LULAC, the Latino civil rights organization] went to Martha’s Vineyard on Friday to talk to the asylum-seekers and get more details about what happened. They were able to flesh out the story about “Perla” and her team in San Antonio.
Click through for quite a story. As far as I know, “Perla” has not yet been definitively identified. These people – these MAGAts – just will not stop criming long enough for investigations to make any progress.

Mother Jones – DeSantis Flying Migrants to Martha’s Vineyard Is Part of a 60-Year-Old Segregationist Playbook
Quote – Bell and Williams were among almost 100 people to be shipped under false pretenses to the resort town over the spring and summer of 1962 as part of a white supremacist campaign to send Black people from the South to northern cities. Overall, some 200 people were bused to Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Los Angeles, and other cities in Indiana, Idaho, and New Hampshire. The political ploy was a retaliation for the Freedom Rides from the previous year, when a group of 13 Black and white civil rights activists with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) embarked on southbound buses from Washington, DC, to protest continued segregation in interstate transportation despite the Supreme Court having ruled that it was unconstitutional.
Click through for history. Not only will they not stop criming, they can’t even be bothered to think of anything new.

Daily Kos (Vetwife) – So many executive orders moving DA’s and Judges around in Florida. What is this about?
Quote – I took a look at DeSantis Executive orders and all I see for the most part is soooo much moving District Attorneys (called state attorneys in Florida) and Judges around. Were these people not elected? There are also some Executive orders marked “ Confidential” and you cannot see them. Not clickable anywhere so much for Sunshine State. We need to be looking under every rock this guy is hiding with his pen. God only [knows] what he is doing in secret.
Click through for more. Vetwife is community, not staf, but she is no dummy and has a nose for corruption. She implies that in FLorida both prosecutors and judges are elected. If that is the case, ALL of these executive orders MUST violate SOMETHING – if not the Sate law or Constitution, surely Federal law or the Constitution? IANAL, of course.

Food For Thought

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Sep 192022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Judge Cannon, classified document denier; Governors Abbott & DeSantis & kidnapping by inveiglement

Meidas Touch – MAGA Republicans’ Trafficking Stunt BACKFIRES when Residents Welcome Migrants with Open Arms

The Lincoln Project – Big Problems (This one ends rather oddly – long black screen with music. Not sure what the point is. It’s plenty scary without that.)

MSNBC – Massachusetts AG Candidate Blasts Gov. DeSantis’s ‘Political Stunt’

Liberal Redneck – Immigrant Shipments

Beau – Let’s talk about the GOP needing more time for marriage equality….

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Sep 192022
 

Yesterday, I received an email from the Holocaust Museum – not unusual. Sometimes I can handle reading some of the stories, sometimes not so much. But this one was only one story – about a survivor, David Bayer, who is also a museum volunteer, and is about to celebrate his 100th birthday. I signed an electronic birthday card for him, and you can too if you wish to. I really wonder – so many flat-earthers, and Holocaust deniers, and now election deniers – David has reached many people – but what will we do when he is gone? (Quote from the letter: “I’ve had many Museum visitors tell me it is firsthand experiences with survivors such as David that create a personal connection to Holocaust history.”

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Short Takes –

Letters from an American – September 16, 2022
Quote – As Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo says, none of it adds up. None of it, that is, except the politics. DeSantis apparently dispatched the migrants with a videographer to take images of them arriving, entirely unexpectedly, on the upscale island, presumably in an attempt to present the image that Democratic areas can’t handle immigrants (in fact, more than 12% of the island’s 17,000 full-time residents were born in foreign countries, and 22% of the residents are non-white). But the residents of the island greeted the migrants; found beds, food, and medical care; and worked with authorities to move them back to the mainland where there are support services and housing. In the meantime, there are questions about the legality of DeSantis chartering planes to move migrants from state to state.
Click through for full letter. She fills in the DeSantis travesty with background on Martha’s Vineyard and the truth about immigration and immigration policy.

Crooks & Liars – Lindell’s Subpoena Reveals ‘Subjects’ Of [election tampering] Investigation
Quote – The subpoena covers “all records and information” on Lindell’s phone that constitutes as evidence against seven named individuals or any other unnamed co-conspirators. It details several areas of interest for investigators related to Dominion voting systems and any efforts to damage or access them. Two of the individuals, Belinda Knisley and Sandra Brown, were Peters’ deputies in the Mesa County elections office and were charged in the Colorado state case earlier this year.
Click through for more. I added “election tampering” to the title because there are so many investigation it’s hard to keep them straight.

Food For Thought

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Sep 182022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Georgia DA Willis says prison likely for election criminals; Meadows is subpoenaed by DOJ/grand jury

Meidas Touch – BREAKING: Trump files BIZARRE OBJECTION to DOJ’s Special Master Selections

The Lincoln Project – Raskin Fights Back

Ojeda Live – MAGA-hacks DeSantis and Abbott traffic immigrants like livestock

MSNBC – Joyce Vance: Mar-a-Lago Investigation ‘Just Keeps Getting Worse’ For Trump

Beau – Let’s talk about the Little Mermaid and relatability….

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Sep 182022
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “The Pearl Fishers” by Georges Bizet (who is far better known for “Carmen.”) It is a typical triangle story with an exotic setting (maybe Sri Lanke, or maybe not.) It’s an early work and in some ways uneven, but what makes it stand out is the tenor-baritone duet “Au fond du temple saint,” which as an expression of male friendship in opera is perhaps only rivalled by the one in Verdi’s “Don Carlo” – musically, that is. I saw this streamed from the Met and the host during intermission asked the tenor and the baritone whether performing this famous duet in cotext has informed their interpretations. The tenor replied that he had not known until learning the whole opera that in this duet his every word was a lie (in the “Don Carlo” duet both the tenor and the baritone are in deadly earnest.) I think that’s a bit harsh, but certainly the tenor is not being strictly truthful throughout. It’s still gorgeous. This is the first of four programs which were recorded in China, and it’s sung in French, and the four principals appear to be European, by their names, as is the conductor. Besides the production photos, some photos of the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing were included in the supplemental materials. It is extremely different from, for instance, the Sydney Opera House, but it appears both architects had the same desire to make people say “Wow!” – inside and out.

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Short Takes –

Wonkette – Patagonia Founder Hands Entire Company To The Lorax, For The Trees
Quote – Rather than selling the company or taking it public, Mr. Chouinard, his wife and two adult children have transferred their ownership of Patagonia, valued at about $3 billion, to a specially designed trust and a nonprofit organization. They were created to preserve the company’s independence and ensure that all of its profits — some $100 million a year — are used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land around the globe…. The company will continue to run as a profit-making bidness under the new arrangement, without direct ownership by the Chouinard family; the family will oversee the “Patagonia Purpose Trust” to make sure the company’s values and commitments are maintained, what with all the social and environmental responsibilities and sustainable manufacturing. Patagonia will also continue its existing practice of donating one percent of its sales to grassroots environmental activists.
Click through for story and free NYT link. Good news is always welcome, and this is jawdropping. This is orders of magnitude bigger than a charitable foundation. The closest think I can think of in history to it is Siddhartha Gautama – but he didn’t set up a trust, he simply walked away from the wealth.

HuffPost – GOP Governors Are Escalating Their Use Of Migrants As Political Pawns
Quote – “States like Massachusetts, New York and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden administration’s open border policies,” the communications director for DeSantis said on Thursday. “We’re sending migrants to her backyard to call on the Biden Administration to do its job & secure the border,” Abbott tweeted.
Click through for details. This is so outrageous you have almost certainly read about it by now. But because it’s so outrageous, I didn’t feel I coulf ignore it either.

Food For Thought

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May 232022
 

Yesterday, I woke up before the alarm went off, and just stayed up, since I knew the weather could be problematic. It actually turned out not to be. there was no snow or ice or even frost on the windows – a couple of drops of rain was all. I took my time driving, the roads were almost all dry, and the short spots where they were not (bridges ot dips) were only wet, not icy. Virgil was a litttle short of sleep … and so was I. But we enjoyed each other’s comapny. And I got home as easily as I went down. (However, I wouldn’t be surprised if, when you see this, I am actually still asleep, even if you get to it later than usual.)

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Short Takes –

truthout – Judge Blocks Biden from Ending Title 42 in “Arbitrary, Racist” Ruling
Quote – Human rights advocates say Title 42 forces people legally seeking asylum in the United States into perilous situations in Mexican border cities, where Human Rights First has identified nearly 10,000 violent attacks on migrants. “Beyond the devastating humanitarian impact of Title 42, the court’s ruling also fails to recognize well-established domestic and international law,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. “Seeking asylum is a legal right, and yet this bedrock of the American legal system is quickly eroding at a time of unprecedented need.”
Click through for an explanation at least in part why the immigration authorities at the southern border are still doing such a – (cough) – such a rotten job. It isn’t all on Biden by a long shot (granted that some of it is).

Reuters – Analysis: Australian women unleash new political force on climate, integrity
Quote – Women who left successful careers in business, medicine and media to enter politics as independents were on track to win five seats from Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal party in its affluent urban heartland in Saturday’s general election, as moderate voters abandoned the government…. Personifying the disruptive change were centrists, mostly women, dubbed “teal” candidates because of teal-coloured marketing material used as they targeted seats held by Morrison’s conservative party.
Click through for full analysis. Lona did such a good job of summarizeing the election results in her comment (scroll down) that I thought I’d use this article, since it’s more about something new than general politics.

Crooks and Liars – Cassidy: Our Maternal Death Rates Only Bad If You Include Black Women
Quote – “About a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So, if you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear,” Cassidy said in an interview with POLITICO. “Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality.”
Click through for story. Can you believe this? Not his thinking it, tha’s nrmal for Republicans, but presumably not realizing what kind of blowback he would get from it?

Food For Thought

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Apr 192022
 

Yesterday, after a nice quiet Easter, my inbox kept filling up again after I’d empty it. It wasn’t as bad as it gets at the ends of months (and, even worse, quarters), but it was a smmall annoyance. Obviously, I sirvived (grin). I am still knitting crutch covers. It took me until the fifth one to finally optimize the casting on process … but I learned a lot from that, so it was well worth it.

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Short Takes –

The New Yorker [Jane Mayer] – The Slime Machine Targeting Dozens of Biden Nominees
Quote – [S]ince at least 1987, when President Ronald Reagan unsuccessfully nominated Robert Bork to be a Justice, the fights over Supreme Court nominees have been especially nasty. Yet the A.A.F.’s approach represents a new escalation in partisan warfare, and underscores the growing role that secret spending has played in deepening the polarization in Washington.
Click through for details. Things just seem to get worse and worse sometimes.

POGO – Misconduct at CBP Runs Deep, and Congress Must Address this Systemic Problem
Quote – For years, officers and agents from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the largest law enforcement agency in the country, have faced few consequences for mistreating migrants, even when their assaults were captured on film — even when they killed people. A new investigation from the Project On Government Oversight now shows that this lack of accountability has shielded some CBP agents from being held accountable for other unconscionable behavior as well.
Click through for specifics. In the United States today, any group that does any policing should, sadly, be automatically suspect. That runs deep, and far too few peole are willing to even look at it, let alone do something about it.

Democratic Underground (demmiblue) – A Bowl for Ukraine
Quote – Not only that, he had over 20,000 orders for bowls and chopping boards, which, he calculated, would take him 32yrs to fulfil. And now the press were knocking at the door. It was a lot to take in for a wee lad of 12yrs…. But Gabriel was certain of one thing – he wanted to share the kindness. So instead of carving 20,000 bowls, he would carve just one special one – his #BowlForUkraine
Click through for story. If you needed some hope after those first two … well, I did too.

Food For Thought (crude, yes – but clever)

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