Regulation – Politics Plus

Open Thread January 17, 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:48 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 172024

Yesterday, we received some unsurprising results from the Iowa Republican caucus (which they held on MLK Day, I presume because they don’t recognize it.) Of course the weather was not suchas to encourage participation … but those who think making Election Day a federal holiday will solve all ourtuenout problems might want to rethink that. Otherwise, the news today has for some reason given me this song (introduced by the Kingston Trio) as an earworm:

They’re rioting in Africa, they’re starving in Spain.
There’s hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles.
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch.
And I don’t like anybody very much!

Now here’s something to save and share. Blue Voters Guide is a non-profit which analyzes elections all over the country for you, so that if there’s some candidate you haven’t heard of – or for your friends who are wellintentioned but don’t follow politics – you will always be able to find out who is blue. 41 states have primaries scheduled between now and about June. Right now the guide for Colorado’s March 5 Presidential primary is pretty simple – though you’d be amazed by the length of the list of rag-tag nobodies who are running against Joe Biden. But later in the year we’ll have primaries for candidates for the House of Representatives and possibly for the Colorado House and the Colorado Senate, and who knows what. It probably won’t cover school board elections, which is IMO what we need the most at this time, but with enough support, it might be able to get there. In any case, I’m sure we all know someone (or someones) who could benefit from it. This information is courtesy of Robert Hubbell on Substack, whom I occasionally quote.

Joyce Vance’s “tomorrow” is now “today.” So it’s happening now. And it’s important enough that Robert Reich also addresses it, possibly even more starkly. So I’m providing both links, you can read or skim one or both. I expect eveeryone here can put their mind back to the days when we had rivers burning – and lakes full of dead fish – and that just scratches the surface. I don’t know whether this is accurate, but someone in a comment over at Crooks & Liars said that ancient Sumeria lasted for 3000 years. From the beginning, they had a legal system which protected the poor and weak and there were strict legal punishments for breaking those laws. But, every 300 years or so, the laws had been strayed from, but they had a king who brought the country into line with “the old laws.” We will be celebrating 250 years in just two years. (If it were up to me I would date our existence as a country from April 30, 1789, when George Washington took office and set the Constitution in motion, but no one asked me. And maybe I’m being unfair to the Articles fof Confederation which were the stopgap – but I don’t think so.)

Open Thread October 2, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 022023

Yesterday was National Coffee Day. I couldn’t help remembering that some believe that Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze” was originally written for his “Coffee Cantata” as a metaphor for patriarchy – “God is our shepherd and I, your father, am your shepherd, and as your shepherd, I am telling you, my daughter, to stop drinking coffee!” I’m not sure that that’s true, and if it is, it might have been intended as satire of the pearl-clutchers of the time – there have always been some, and they have always been loud – but it does make a good story. I was also reminded I have a brand new coffee mug – so I made a point of using it. Yesterday was also Jimmy Carter’s birthday (although they held the party Saturday, just in case there was a shutdown, which would have kind of rained on the parade.) It was also Julie Andrews’s birthday (she’s 88), which I would have forgotten had it not been for Wonkette.

Today’s cartoon is the first of four I’ll be introducing over the month. After the fourth, I hope to get opinions on which one is the most effective – and/or if it would be more effective to use an element from one with an element from another.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Common Dreams – Democratic Senators Sound Alarm Over Koch-Backed Plot to ‘Eviscerate’ Regulatory State
Quote – Hours before ProPublica revealed new details about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ relationship with the Koch network, a group of Democratic senators filed a brief on Thursday warning that Koch-backed entities are closely involved in an upcoming case that could further gut the federal government’s regulatory power—and enhance the strength of the conservative-dominated high court. The case in question is Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which stems from a New Jersey-based fishing company’s challenge to a law requiring certain fishing boats to carry federal compliance monitors to enforce regulations.
Click through for article. I’m glad these Senators are on this. I will concede that it is possible to over-regulate, but it’s clear that, as long as one person is being hurt by under-regulation or unenforced regulation, we are not even close to over-regulation. (Off topic, but I think that’s the first picture I have ever seen of Charles without the you-know-what-eating grin. If that means he is less happy – good.)

London Daily – British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read
Quote – “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”… [W]hile Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Click through for every last detail. I have seen this before – I think most recently during the actual Trump** administration – but it is very detailed and every detail worth savoring, so it’s time to re-share it.

Food For Thought

Open Thread September 14, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:59 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 142023

Yesterday, the sun shone, and the temperature barely broke 70, so the yard got done. Mitt Romney announced he will not run for re-election. Liz Cheney had some choice words for what she calls “the Putin wing of the Republican Party” (AKA the Sedition Caucus.) In Pennsylvania, they found and captured the escaped prisoner. And I picked two ery different short takes from very different sources, and – surprise, surprise! – They’re both on Substack. So crank up your mouse to click on “continue reading.” Everyone on Substack whom I have seen talk about it is very happy to be there – it’s easy for authors to use, and it saves them a lot of money compared to other venues. So I don’t see any of them moving away from it any time soon.

In case you noticed Nameless missing a few days, he’s healthy, but tied up with taxes, in his own state and in the state in which a relative lived from whom he received an inheritance. He’s on an extension, but the date for that is getting closer faster than he would like

Cartoon – On 14 September 1867 —

Short Takes –

Robert Reich – Who’s most responsible for the monopolization of America?
Quote – Yet the federal courts have been reluctant to do anything about this and are pushing back against the Biden administration’s efforts. Why? Because of a man named Robert Bork…. I first met Bork in September 1971, when I took his class on antitrust at Yale Law School. I recall him as a large, imposing man, with a red beard and a perpetual scowl…. We kept challenging his view that the only legitimate purpose of antitrust law was to lower consumer prices…. Even in our mid-20s, we knew this was bullshit.
Click through for history. If you didn’t already know, you will learn why “borked” is now a synonym for “inoperable,” chaotic,” or even “SNAFU.”

Wonkette – Lauren Boebert Kicked Out Of Theater For Acting Too Lauren Boebert-y
Quote – U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert was escorted out of a Sunday night performance of the “Beetlejuice” musical in downtown Denver, accused by venue officials of vaping, singing, recording and “causing a disturbance” during the performance. VAPING. The woman was VAPING. The paper says they got warned during intermission that others around them were complaining (LMAO), so clearly it was time to shape up and sit nicely with our hands folded in front of us, even though it is a fun show like Beetlejuice. We can go to Chuck E. Cheese afterward, OK? The incident report states that after receiving the intermission warning, about five minutes into the second act security officials received “another complaint about the patrons being loud and at the time (they) were recording.” Taking pictures or recording is not permitted at shows. Tacky.
Click through to read embarrassing details and see optional surveillance footage. The part in italics is direct quotes from the Denver Post.

Food For Thought

Open Thread July 22, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:56 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 222023

Yesterday, I found a video (and partial transcript) of Jamie Raskin explaining exactly how Hunter Biden received no special treatment from the DOJ. I know everyone here knws this, but in case tou ever need to explain it to anyone else, I’m sharing the link. (Besides, Jamie Raskin is easy to listen to.) Speaking of easy listening, I probably don’t even need to say that Tony Bennett died at 96. Virtually no one missed that story. He was much and very widely loved.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

National Public Radio – ‘Active club’ hate groups are growing in the U.S. — and making themselves seen
Quote – These men, dressed in tactical gear and masks, were members of so-called “active clubs” — a term that may be relatively new to American audiences. They are a strand of the white nationalist movement that has grown quickly during the last three years and that has recently taken their message of hate into more public view. These decentralized cells emphasize mixed martial arts training to ready their members for violence against their perceived enemies…. “These clubs are decentralized and they’re forming on their own,” said Morgan Moon, an investigative researcher at the Anti-Defamation League, which estimates that there are active clubs now in at least 30 states. “We’re starting to see [the active club model] pop up in Europe as well as Canada now.”
Click through (and note they have filed this under “national security.”) To everyone who is counting on “the next generation” or “the younger generain” or “future generations” to end bigotry and misogyny, fuggedaboudit. Bigotry – or the lack thereof – can be taught, but it can’t be programmed. We are all born with a tendency toward, or against, bigotry – and that tendency may or may not match outr parents’ tendencies. If it doesn’t, sooner or later, each of us will find either his or her inner bigot or his or her inner lover of diversity.There are plenty of people like Stephen Miller, and Paul Gosar, and RFK Junior. And these renamed hate clubs are finding them young.

Letters from an American – July 19, 2023
Quote – In the 1980s, government officials threw out that understanding and replaced it with a new line of thinking advanced by former solicitor general of the United States Robert Bork. He claimed that the traditional understanding of antitrust legislation was economically inefficient because it restricted the ways businesses could operate. Instead, he said, consolidation of industries was fine so long as it promoted economic efficiencies that, at least in the short term, cut costs for consumers. While antitrust legislation remained on the books, the understanding of what it meant changed dramatically.
Click through (as always, click continue on the popup). Look at that Bork quote again. You might as well say thzt legislation against murder, rape, theft, and the like is inefficient because it restricts the way individuals can operate.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 3/18/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:03 pm Open Thread, Politics

Mar 182023

Glenn Kirschner – Who will be the FIRST TO INDICT Donald Trump: Georgia DA Fani Willis or NY DA Alvin Bragg?

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – March 14, 2023

Thom Hartmann – Reckless Greed Behind Bank Failures?

Farron Balanced – Capitol Rioters Tell Judges That Tucker Carlson’s Edited Footage Exonerates Them

Weatherman Rescues A Chicken Caught In A Blizzard

Beau – Let’s talk about Pence, history, Trump, and strategy….

Video Thread 3/16/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:55 am Open Thread, Politics

Mar 162023

Glenn Kirschner – Michael Cohen appears before NY grand jury. Here’s why Cohen is the PERFECT WITNESS against Trump

MSNBC – Remembering women’s rights and gender equality trailblazer former Rep. Pat Schroeder (Yes, this is Mrs. Greespan. But the subject is Pat Schroeder, one of my heroes – She came up with the phrase “The Teflon President” for Reagan)

Farron Balanced – Trump Loses Defamation Case After His Lawyers Screw Up Again

Robert Reich – The Big Mistake That Led to Silicon Valley Bank’s Crash

16 Year Old Shelter Dog Starts Galloping Like A Puppy With His Foster Dad

Beau – Let’s talk about 3 debt ceiling scenarios….

Open Thread March 14, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:58 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 142023

A few days ago, the newsletter I get every week from the Project on Government Oversight included a request for me to edit, sign, and send a letter to President Joe asking him to fire the IG of DHS. Most of the time I am not able to add much of anything to the letters that groups draft asking for change. This one was different. I never liked even the idea of a Department of Homeland Security – it seemed too nationalistic to me from the get-go. And the longer it exists, the less I like it. If we must have an agency that combines the functions which come under DHS (as opposed to having those functions split up, as we did before it was formed), then it absolutely needs to be subject to the State Department. Our national security is totally contingent upon our foreign relations, and those are not helped by DHS continually and blatantly breaking international law. I do get it that with the nation so ridiculously divided now may not be the best time to absorb DHS into State. But at the very least, it needs a tough IG of unimpeachable integrity, and Cuffari, the current holder of that post, is exactly the opposite. And I put most of that into the letter before sending it. Here’s the link, and besides the letter, there is some background on Cuffari and his – I’ll be overly generous and call it incompetence (but I absolutely believe there’s also malice there.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Epstein’s Brother: Jeffrey Ran From 45 Because Trump Was A Crook
Quote – According to what Jeffrey’s brother, Mark, told Business Insider, his now-deceased brother distanced himself from Trump because the former President was “a crook.” Imagine being too slimy for a pedophile. And there is unaired footage of an interview by Jeffrey Epstein conducted by Steve Bannon after his brother forwarded it to him in the spring of 2019.
Click through for story – it’s short. Just for the benefit of anyone whose first reaction is, “Mark is his brother. Of course he would try to put Jeffrey in the best light [or in this case the least awful light],” some people’s families do tell the unvarnished truth about them. Stephen Miller. Paul Gosar. That does not necessrily mean I believe Mark, but I won’t just dismiss what he says either.

Robert Reich – The real story behind the Silicon Valley Bank debacle
Quote – The surface story of the Silicon Valley Bank debacle is straightforward. During the pandemic, startups and technology companies enjoyed heady profits, some of which they deposited in the Silicon Valley Bank. Flush with their cash, the bank did what banks do: It kept a fraction on hand and invested the rest — putting a large share into long-dated Treasury bonds that promised good returns when interest rates were low. But then, starting a little more than a year ago, the Fed raised interest rates from near zero to over 4.5 percent. As a result, two things happened. The value of the Silicon Valley Bank’s holdings of Treasury bonds plummeted because newer bonds paid more interest. And, as interest rates rose, the gusher of venture capital funding to startup and tech companies slowed, because venture funds had to pay more to borrow money. As a result, these startup and tech companies had to withdraw more of their money from the bank to meet their payrolls and other expenses.
Click through for details. Responsible parents teach children self – discipline, not only for the sake of society, but to help their children to succeed, because, without self-control, you won’t. Responsible governments regulate – and that’s really for the same reasons. This case may be less egregious than some others we have seen. What will it take to convince people that regulation is NOT a bad thing?

Iterestingly, HEather Cox Richardson also concentrated on the bank failur in he Letter from an American.

Food For Thought

Let’s see them do this with those other constants.