Open Thread May 23 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 232024
 

Yesterday, I observed that Donald Trump** is now claiming that Biden ordered him assassinated, specifically on the day of the raid on Mar-a-Lago. Magats are, frankly, to evil to eben be able to imagine a person who just wouldn’t do that, so perhaps we should counter with something like “Democrats get things done. If Joe wanted him assassinated, he’d have been assassinated. He wasn’t. End of story.” Also, among the petitions I signed was one for Thomas and Alito to recude from the Trump** immnity case. Actually, I’d rather leave those to on and have the three he nominated recuse.Knocking out those two still leaves it 4-3, and the best hope we have is for Roberts to do the right thing. But if we knock out Gorsuch, Javanaugh and Barrett, it’s now 3-3. Unless Roberts does the right thing, there’s an unbreakable tie.

I’m going to word my hanky alert differently on this by quoting Shakespeare’s Mark Antony: “If youhave tears, prepare to shed them now.” Yes, I’m preaching to the choir. But sharing it couldn’t hurt.

Just as I’m highly in favor of the National Interstate Popular Vote Compact, because I don’t see any possibility to amend the Constitution without the nation being able to see that the popular vote works, I also don’t see equirable tax reform happening unless people can see it works. That’s why I;m posting this,and enci=ourage sharing it as widely as possible.

And here is yet another article which desperately needs to be widely shared. I’ll try to help on this one with the”Food for Thought” cartoon below.

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Open Thread May 13 2024

 Posted by at 5:57 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 132024
 

Yesterday, I saw another Parody Project production. I’m not sure it’s new, but it is delightful. (The original song is IMO deplorable, but this may redeem it.) Also, Trinette was by (and returns greetings). I had a whole bunch of stuff- trash, recyclables, and charity – which I needed help getting it out. After seeing Virgil, despite coming home exhausted, I had a burst of energy over the week. That helped me with the decision to start making it every other week to see him.

Just in case you needed, or someone you knw needs, yet another reason to do every possible thing to prevent Trump** from returning to the White House…

This site was down yesterday evening, but should be up today .  (And I don’t want to hear a single word about a PhD candidate using a double negative. There’s more to brains than formal grammar.)

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Open Thread May 10 2024

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
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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Open Thread April 25, 2024

 Posted by at 6:14 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 252024
 

Yesterday, the Arizona State House voted to overturn the 1864 abortion law, the one whose author has been so discredited. If it gets through the Senate, the Democratic Governor will, I am sure, sign it. Arizona appears to be on a roll – they also indicted some election conspirators, including Giuliani and Meadows. Also, my radio station was playing Passover music (it’s not till Tuesday night, but this DJ normally only works this station on Wednesdays, so next week would be late. (The rest of the time he works at the sister station whoch features jazz.) That made me think that 613’s Passover piece might be up, and it is. They are a group which makes videos for Jewish holidays, picking an artist to parody and then signing information about the holiday in a nedley of that artist’s works. This year’s is titled “Matza Mia”, parodying Abba (of course).

If you are looking for some really juicy news about what a fiasco Trump’s trial is being (especially on Trump’s side), Mary Trump is your go-to source. This column is dated Wednesday, but looks back to Tuesday

Joyce Vance has links to trial transcripts and documents. This might be a good one to save as a fact-checker reference.

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Open Thread April 6, 2024

 Posted by at 6:25 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 062024
 

Yesterday, I found it refreshing for an earthquake to be newsworthy in some place other than California. (And, since there were no injries, the humor is a nice touch. “The Empire State Building”sent some messages via Xitter: “I am fine.” “I am still fine.” and then another “I am fine.”)  Also I got my lost made of people whom I haven’t yet paid.  There are seven of them, one of them whom I guess I saw twice, so there are eight charges.  When new bills come in they should be easy to find.  Also – the “Phone Call” Robert Hubbell prodived a summary for yesterday – Beau did a video on it  It’s over 10 minutes, so I sdon’t wast to embed it.  But it’s detailed enough i do wany to make it available.  So, here’s the link.

This really is madness. Sadly it’s predictable (and in-character) madness. Russia is not going to be destroyed by migrants. But it very wwell may be destroyed by its own government.

Very often I can’t find a particular story on “Law and Crime,” appaently because there’s so much crime that stories get pushed to the back. This time I found the one I was looking for. A value of $40.000.00 sounds like grand theft to me.

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Open Thread March 31, 2024

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 312024
 

Yesterday, the opera was not an opera, but Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem Mass. It is dramatic certainly (the Dies Irae alone takes 40 minutes to perform, and the whole mass is only an hour and a half), and Verdi was criticized for makng it “too dramatic,” but if you can’t be dramatic about death, what can you be dramatic about?

Three Substack writers this weekend posted articles which are profound, too much so to ignore any of them. Joyce Vance writes about Treump**’s latest threat of violence. Robert Hubbell writes about the real purpose of government, including quoting Lucian Truscott on the subject. And Heather Cox Richardson writes abot Russian disinformation, and how it it Russia’s strongest weapon against Ukraine, and also against us insofar as it affects our electoral process. I hate to be grim on what should be a joyous holiday – but unfortunately we can’t afford to ignore reality.

Senator Ron Wyden (the other Democratic Senator from Oregon) is asking questions which need to be asked – and answered – and that very publicly.

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Open Thread March 7, 2024

 Posted by at 6:25 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 072024
 

Yesterday, the Beau video I have posted for today actually got a “Wow!” out loud from me (right about in the middle.) The Israeli government may be negligent and pidheaded, but the Israeli Armed forces (the IDF) – well, sometimes I wish our military were as smart and as outspoken as the Israeli one is being now.

This is from the New York Times (without the paywall). You know we always put a lot of effort into GOTV efforts, because when we vote we win – we are the majority. Republicans know that no amount of GOTV will give them wins, so they are putting effort into disqualifying legitimate voters .

I’m not sure what to make of this. It’s so crazy it’s funny – but it seems inappropriate to laugh at something so likely to cause so many deaths. (I wonder what Beau will have to say, if anything.)

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Open Thread February 19, 2024

 Posted by at 5:42 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 192024
 

Yesterday, Trinette was over and said “Hi back” to everyone. She brought my ballot in from the mailbox, I filled it out, signed the enveloe, stamped it, and put an ostentatious veteran sticker on the back, which I doubt will be needed, because Trinette took it and will mail it at a Post Office pickup. I forgot to mention that Saturday I started looking for Colleen’s phone number, and actually found it – had to pay $1 for it, which I thought was well worth it. And I did reach her yesterday, and she is safe and well, but the weather has continued to be soggy and windy, which has affected her internet, and on top oof that she had a rare visit from her son and grandson, who are now on their way to Italy. Neither she nor the internet are ready to come back, but she definitely will when she can, and continues to pray for all of us. She says hello to everyone (Then, today, I got a message from my credit card company that they hadhad correctly charged the $1.00 but had also incorrectly separately charged $155.40 – twice yet. So I was also on the phone to them. This is different from every other time I have had unauthorized charges – those were always strangers, so there was no choice but to cancel the card and issue a new one. This time there is a chance the vendor just goofed. I have called them (but at leas on weekends they have  no phone service – the message gave me an email addresss and I have sent an email to them. But one way or another, I will not lose the money.)

Heather Cox Richardson has put together a lesson in (recent) Ukrainian history to include the ups and downs of Paul Manafort, which is pretty revealing.

Canadian Black history … brought to you by who else but Wonkette? (part of Substack so remember to look for and click the “keep reading” button.)

If anyone cares… the ad that came up for me right after this was for a “Trumpinator Bobblehead.” Seriously.

This is not a cartoon today – it is a link to a promotion for Joe Biden made by Harrison Ford, stressing what real Presidents do and don’t do (such as they don’t do thing he did in his role in “Air Force One.” It also contains a complete transcription of his thoughts, so you can skip the clip if you prefer.

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