Aug 192024
 

Yesterday, Trinette was by and helped me by bringing the mal in and the trash and recyclables out. I am still “gun-shy” about going out of and back in my front door, having tripped on the threshhold too many times. I can do it, but I really have to concentrate and it isn’t the greatest thing in the world for my blood pressure. So I do so appreciate her help with this. I had found some time this week to work on something i had promised her – to burn some CDs of works by black classical composers. I found enough for 6 CDs, and I have a playlist for the 7th, but I hot my download limit until today (I’, also almost out of blank CDs, but I have more on order). And I have still barely scratched the surface of what’s available. But I am having so much fun doing it – it’s a good thing it’s not illegal.

The article is about the secretly recorded tape made of Russell Vought, a big player on Project 2025. Besides quotes from the undercovers, they also have the video. Watch it if you dare. I doubt I need to say it’s all unconstitutional.

This is regarding fundraisers and volunteering on behalf of Kamala Harris. After that video, I figured we needed some good news badly.

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Jun 042024
 

Yesterday, the Election Department advised me that my primary ballot is in the mail, and CPR advised me who the Deocratic candidates are for the 5th District. i’m not familiar with either name, so I’ll have to look both up. My district is the only one in the state which has never sent a Democrat to Congress, and we may well not get DNC support. However, two things are different this year. First, the District has gotten much smaller because of people moing in – which makes us more urban – and second, there is no incumbent. So it’s not impossible for us to have a chance. I’ll be voting this one with my head rather than my heart.

You may have seen this story – I’ve seen a couple of things on PFAs – but this is not just the story but the investigation details, straight from Pro Publica. When Pro Publica is shocked, the rest of us need to pay attention.

Robert Reich shows how the hard realities of income equality can (and do, and that’s no accident) get lost in statistics. I think of the old adage “Figures don’t lie. But liars do figure.”

Beau France

Cat

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May 102024
 

Yesterday, I got two petitions which I did not sign (along with a bunch of others that I did sign.) Both were from Left Action (I don’t know whether it is a wing of Care2/The Petition Site, that is who hosts its petitions.) The first one I saw (the second I received becaue I read my emails from the top down) was addressed to Judge Merchan and was headed “Don’t let Trump’s lawyers get a mistrial.” The problem is that it is addressed to the judge. Prople not involved in the trial pushing the judge to rule a certain way could be construed as obstruction of justice. The other one was regarding remmoving Aileen Cannon from the Mar-a Lago case. It didn’t specifically say it was addressed to the Citcuit Court (I forget which District that is), but I had to assume that it is, since that’s the only body which can do what is petitioned. I’m not saying no one can petition the courts, but this is not the way. Such a petition would have to come from someone with standing, like a group which had filed an amicus brief. We have all gotten so accustomed to “Don’t like something? Sign/start a petition that we have lost sight of the need to address those petitions to the entity which can actually act on them, and that entity had better not be someone in the justice system for whome the petiton could be construed as obstruction. Judge Merechan has been doing everything he possibly can from the day the case was assigned to him to insure there will be no mistrial. This petition could even conceivably increase the chances of a mistrial, not reduce them, if it is actually delivered and Trump**’s defense team find out about it. Both petitions were from n email address which can apparently be responded to, since i did and haven’t received a non-delivery notice. I hope y’all will consider this concerning these and any other petition involving any court. You can probably petition the prosecutor, maybe even the defense, but please, not the judge.

At least this is good news – if, as Ben said, we can keep it. I can guarantee that, should Trump** win, we cannot. And even if he doesn’t, if enough of his followers get into/stay in Congress, I certainly wouldn’t guarantee being able to keep it.

More proof that it’s not about life, it’s about control. With my age and experience, I probably shouldn’t be – but I was shocked by the sheer volume.

I don’t see how any sane person can fail to be in awe of Volodomyr Zelensky. Eleven assassination attempts and still trucking. Fly high, Ukrainian Guy!

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Aug 052022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Pat Cipollone gets a grand jury subpoena. This spells real trouble for Donald Trump & “Team Crazy.”

Meidas Touch – Burn Pit Victim Exposes HEINOUS Republican Lies about Veterans Bill (yes, it has now been passed, and this is one reason why.)

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party Aug.2, 2022

Thom Hartmann – Why The GOP Thinks We Drink Children’s Blood? Featuring Mike Rothschild

Bear Cub Brothers Separated For Months Can’t Stop Hugging Each Other

Beau – Let’s talk about the wages of freedom….

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May 302022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Kevin McCarthy decides to commit crime of contempt of Congress rather than “snitch” on Donald Trump

Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Lauren Boebert’s Dumbest Statement Yet

Robert Reich – How SCOTUS shapes economic rights for the little guy (a very old video but just posted. He posted 9 Thursday – old, new, long, short – I’ve picked just a couple at this point.)

Mallory McMorrow – The speech Michigan Republicans adjourned the State Senate to avoid hearing (hanky alert)

Mrs. Betty Bowers – CHURCH S_X SCANDALS!

Parody Project – RUSSIAN ARMY NOTABLE

Beau – Let’s talk about cops waiting outside, Rule 303, and the way…. (Wow.)

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May 262022
 

Yesterday, of course, I read up on the latest shooting (at least it was the latest yesterday – by today, who knows.) I won’t be posting Biden’s speech because I am bettimg everupone has either already seen it or decided they can’t bear to. I won’t be posting Beto’s speech for about the same reasons (it is in two parts – before and after he got thrown out of abbott’s press conference.) I am posting some little-known Second Amendment history which needs to be known more sidely, along with what I think is a very powerful meme (both here) and a video with Fred Guttenberg in the Video Thread. And there’s this.  (another detail about the incident is in the comments.) Also, I did manage to get my delivery order placed, though it took two browsers and about an hour of ding other things before I could get from finalizing the products to actually checking out. sometimes that happens. As long as I have something else to do, and don’t have to sit there screaming at the computer, I’m fine with that.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Justice Department Tells Agents They Must Step in to Stop ‘Excessive Force’
Quote – In the first update to its use-of-force policy after a string of killings by police in recent years, the Justice Department has ordered federal agents to step in to “prevent or stop” excessive force by other members of law enforcement, The Washington Post reports. The policy change, the first update to its use-of-force policy since 2004, was spelled out in a memo from Attorney General Merrick Garland that was sent to federal law-enforcement agents.
Click through for quotes frpm the memo. My guess for why this took so long is that agents thought such corrective action might be (or be seen as) “hostile” – but IMO “parental” – is a better description.

Robert Reich – Why unions are coming to the new economy
Quote – A fifth reason is a new appreciation of the importance of power in driving wages, and the fraudulence of the economic idea that “you’re paid what you’re worth.” The old economic mainstay that people are paid what they are “worth” is finally revealing itself to be an ideology grounded in nothing but power. According to this old mythology, minimum wage workers aren’t “worth” more than the $7.25 an hour federal minimum many now receive. If they were worth more, they’d earn more. Any attempt to force employers to pay them more will only kill jobs. According to this same ideology, CEOs of big companies are “worth” their giant compensation packages, now averaging 350 times pay of the typical American worker. They must be worth it or they wouldn’t be paid so much. Any attempt to limit their pay is fruitless because their pay will only take some other form.
Click through for the other four, and for a more complete explanation of this one. IMO there are practical reasons why no one will ever be paid exactly what he or she is “worth,” but we can definitey do better than we are now doing.

Letters from an American – May 24, 2022
Quote – There’s not a lot to go on about what the Framers meant, although in their day, to “bear arms” meant to be part of an organized militia. As the Tennessee Supreme Court wrote in 1840, “A man in the pursuit of deer, elk, and buffaloes might carry his rifle every day for forty years, and yet it would never be said of him that he had borne arms; much less could it be said that a private citizen bears arms because he has a dirk or pistol concealed under his clothes, or a spear in a cane.”
Click through for more history. I haven’t subscribed to this blog for very long, so this history is new to me. It is a history that everyone should learn. All of it. (BTW today’s video thread includes a short conversation with Fred Guttenberg and Nicole Wallace.)

Food For Thought

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May 152022
 

Glenn Kirschner – J6 committee subpoenas McCarthy, other representatives. Here’s what’s at risk if they fail to comply

Meidas Touch – Top Democrat DESTROYS Justice Thomas with speech of the year!

The Lincoln Project – The Crazy Ones

MSNBC – Swalwell: ‘Inference of Guilt’ If GOP Reps Don’t Honor Jan. 6 Subpoenas

CNN – Republican didn’t want the press at his event. So CNN got creative (unfortunately, so did the CC -which is gibberish – and the transcrip is no better. But the chyrons help.)

Shirley Serban – If I Were a Rich Man

Beau – Let’s talk about Quadry Sanders and Oklahoma…. (Wow!) —->> https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-oklahoma-officers-charged-manslaughter-unarmed-mans-death-rcna28032

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