Open Thread January 11 2025

 Posted by at 6:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 112025
 

Yesterday, my attention was drawn to a story which everyone in Las Vegas, NV, probably is aware of but which seems to be going under the radar (literally as well as figuratively) elsewhere. It probably doesn’t help that the name of the company involved, owned by the Boer MuskRat, sounds like someone’s idea of a joke. But it’s pretty much a given that as a result of this project people will die, not to mention the property damage (less important unless one is the property owner, as the entirw population of Los Angeles County would probably tell you if you asked.)

Also yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson quoted from all the eulogies for Jimmy Carter. If you weren’t able to watch it or listen to it, as I wasn’t, you might find that Carter can be as inspiring in death as he was in life.

Joyce Vance explains why the government’s position on the documents case report is a “heads the people win, tails Trump** loses” kind of thing. Not that we really win overall, but both alternatives she discusses will be unsatisfying to the Tangerine Palpatine. Good.

For anyone with a short memory (probably not needed by y’all, but you might know someone who needs reminding), Wonkette has an article which help to refresh that memory – assuming we can get anyone who needs it to read, or listen. Republicans have no clue what they could be getting themselves (and all of us) into, and that goes double for elected and appointed Republicans who think they are untouchable by virtue of their positions and/or their money. The Nuremburg rallies were eventually followed by the Nuremburg trials and people were hanged. But that didn’t happen without a whole lot of destruction in between the two.

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Open Thread August 11 2024

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 112024
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” which takes place in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, and features mostly actual historical figures of very interesting people, not entirely accurately. This one came with lots of pictures, and it must have been beautiful to see. However I would have found it distracting that the tenor singing the title role resembles RFK Jr. (Thatmay be more historically accurate than the libretto, since the real Don Carlo was a real jerk.) But this opera is one of my favorites, and it’s not heard that often, so I was grateful. Also, Steve Schmidt has a new “The Schmidt Storm” up. And now I’m off to see Virgil.
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We all know this in general terms. But the numbers are getting horrifying. I wonder whether we could convince any by arguing that is public schools stopped requiring students to be vaccinated, they would lose their excuse to send the kids to private and charter schools or to home school and would have to send them to public schools. Nah, probably not.

This is also a couple of days old. But it has some information about Project 2025 which will be good to know. (And he shares another astronomical photo. He is no relation to the Hubble telescope – it’s spelled differently. He’s just good at using what he does have.)

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Can You Overdose on Schadenfreude … OR Popcorn?

 Posted by at 2:31 pm  Politics
Jan 092023
 

Is it possible to overdose on schadenfreude?  Asking for over 81 million friends.

Democrats have so enjoyed watching the GQP in such a state of confusion, crisis and chaos (why, I even read they were in “DISARRAY” – a descriptor the MSM has heretofore reserved for Democrats) that Pres. Biden found it necessary to order the release of several metric tons of our nation’s Popcorn Reserves.

There’s no doubt you have all been closely following clownish antics of McCarthy, Gaetz, Boebert and other GQPers, so I’m going to try and find some that might have slipped under your radar.

As seen in this candid photo, it began when Kevin McCarthy first addressed the GQP Caucus as they set out to elect a Speaker for the House:

He appealed to their sense of unity when he closed his opening speech with this plea:

But to no avail.  As you all know, the voting dragged on and on and on and …

It got to the point that sports fans recalling the recent FIFA World Cup felt it was time to go to penalty kicks.

Putting a positive spin on it, other sports fans said that at the rate Kevin was losing round after round of voting, he at least was assured a first-round pick in this year’s NFL Draft.

Others not so sports-minded thought that Rock Paper Scissors would have been a better – and quicker – way to get this done.

But this is what America was stuck with:

(Maybe they should have tried unplugging the House and the plugging it back in again)

Someone was able to procure a list of concessions McCarthy was ready to offer to the Taliban 20 in the Freedom Caucus to get their votes:

Ad while all that was going on, on the other side of the aisle the Democrats demonstrated decorum, decency and dignity.  Why, Rep. Katie Porter even took the time to improve her mind by reading a tome that will undoubtedly prove useful over the next two years.

No, it was NOT this one:

C-Span was able to get a view of her selection:

And then Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries gave the speech that McCarthy should have – but didn’t – literally spelling out from A to Z how a responsible party prioritizes issues.

It won both laughter as well as cheers.  And needless to say, it went viral and has been viewed more than 2.4 MILLION times!

All in all, I think this clip from the Daily Show does more than justice to how Kevin McCarthy’s past week went:

 

But I want to close on a serious note, because THIS is what happens when you have no principles or core beliefs – just blind ambition:

We need to remember that the people blocking McCarthy were also largely the ones named as co-conspirators in the ex-president’s efforts to overthrow our government.  The great majority claim Trump won in 2020, and all but one of them voted against vote certification of the 2020 presidential election.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/01/04/us/politics/house-speaker-republicans-vote-against-mccarthy.html

 

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