Open Thread September 8, 2022

 Posted by at 7:25 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 082022
 

Yesterday, I got to thinking about Eyam village in Dorsetshire England, a village known in England and among tourists to England as “The Plague Village.” Of course it wan’t alone in having experienced the Black Death when is steamrolled through Europe, but it was unique in that it voluntarily decided to self-quarantine the entire village for a full year, at the end of which many of course had died, but there were also a substantial number of survivors, and also a group of residents who had never (apparently) become infected – at least they had never had symptoms. Of course everyone would have loved to know why. In 2002, an American geneticist had a theory and came to Eyam to investigate it. Because it was a small village, where most folk remained through the generations, and it wasn’t that difficult to trace throuh Church of England records those who had moved away, he was able to identify descendants of the survivors, and to obtain DNA samples. He found a gene (a mutation) and was also able to identify the mechanism through which the bodies of people who had this mutation were able to prevent the bacteria from getting to the places in the body where they could produce symptoms. Because of this mechanism, he and colleagues began to wonder whether the same mutation might also provide protection against AIDS. He believes he found some evidence that it could and did. Yes, I know a bacterium is not a virus. But the mechanism appears to work similarly on both, unlike anti-bacterial and anti-viral drugs. Since watching the documentary, I have been wondering what our medical professionals and science geeks here would say about this – so I’ll share both the link to the documentary and also a link to a PHD thesis on the village. The documentary CC is quite good excwept for British names, especially the name of the village itself, which sounds like “Eem.” The documentary is over 45 minutes and the dissertation is over 200 pages so I’m not expecting to hear from any of y’all very quickly. But i am curious what y’all make of it.

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Short Takes –

HuffPost – In Jackson, Mississippi, It’s Easy To Go Missing When No One Is Looking For You
Quote – But Jackson’s water crisis is what happens when a largely Black city, which also happens to be largely Democratic, needs funding from a Republican-controlled legislature. Jackson is what happens when people ignore those who need their help. Jackson’s failure to fix what has been a problem for years falls squarely on the shoulders of people who don’t care. That’s not hyperbolic.
Click through for article. Technically, this is an opinion piece. But it’s definitely full of facts.

Raw Story – Expert: Dems need to expand Supreme Court to counter the conservative assault on democracy
Quote – Most of the political scientists who study the degradation of democracy will tell you that the Republican Party has become a radical quasi-fascist authoritarian party over the last 20 years, and the problem is not Trump. I mean Trump may exacerbate it, but he’s a symptom, at least as much as he’s a cause. The problem is the voters, however many percent of people who are Christian white nationalists who think the country is losing its Christian identity and its white majority. They see their world as being existentially threatened. Trump has come along and said, “follow me,” but those people had to be ripe for it. There’s no way. Donald Trump could have been successful 15 or 20 years ago. The Republican Party has been engaging in extreme voter suppression measures and attacking labor unions for the past 20 past years and it’s a recognition that by 2024, white Christians will not be a majority of the electorate.
Click through for interview. Raw Story and AlterNet (I forget which one owns the other) have a lot of stories which are derivative, so I don’t often post from either. This one seems to be original. I must point out that it’s another reason we need a landslide in the midterms – or, at the very least, to gain seats in both houses. Because we don’t have the moxie to do this now. But if we don’t get it done before 2024, there will never be another free and fair election.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 8/4/22

 Posted by at 12:12 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Aug 042022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s lawyers preparing for him to be indicted; looking to blame Trump’s crimes on “fall guys”

Meidas Touch – Tucker Carlson LOSES IT after President Biden Takes out 9/11 Plotter

The Lincoln Project – Weekend

Robert Reich – The Current Plot to Rig U.S. Elections

If Social Media Were Honest | Honest Ads (Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok)

Beau – Let’s talk about the Supreme Court altering football….

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Video Thread 8/1/22

 Posted by at 11:58 am  Open Thread, Politics
Aug 012022
 

Glenn Kirschner – How to disqualify insurrectionists from Congress: interview w/John Bonifaz of Free Speech 4 People

Meidas Touch – SHOCK: Justice Alito disgustingly MOCKS critics of repeal of Roe v. Wade

The Lincoln Project – Trapped

MSNBC – Former Marine Dismantles Right-Wing Arguments On The Second Amendment

Randy Rainbow Re-Run – Clang, Clang, Clang Went Josh Hawley! – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Beau – Let’s talk about Republicans bizarre request of DOD….

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Open Thread 7/31/2022

 Posted by at 7:14 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 312022
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Samson et Dalila” by Saint-Saëns. Since this is another story I think everyone knows (if I’m wrong I hope someone will correct me), I’ll take a couple of sentences to share that the summer season for radi operas has its own web page at WFMT with multiple sub-pages, one of which allows one to download photos from every production, which makes the opera much more intresting, particularly when it’s one I’ve heard but never seen – and that doesn’t have to be a new opera necssarily. I have seen Samson et Dalila in the Met’s streaming library once, but it’s challenging to stage. This production from England doesn’t make any attempt to show authentic period or culture (not that it’s necessary, but the Met’s kind of did – but used colors which literally had not been invented at the time it was supposed to have taken place.) The big famous aria is “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” in which Dalila seduuces Samson by telling him how much his voice turns her on – all the time turning him on with her voice. Yes, sneaky (and diaingenuous. Well, that’s Delilah for you.)

I’ll take yesterday’s poll as 2 yes and 2 abstain, and will put Randy’s Hawley video in tomorrow’s video thread.

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Short Takes –

Wonkette – Anti-Abortion States Worst Places To Get Pregnant And Have Kids. Who Would Have Thought?
Quote – [The states that have either banned or are about to ban abortion] have higher maternal mortality rates, higher infant mortality rates, higher child poverty rates, and more uninsured women and children, and are much less likely to have minimum wages over $7.25, the Medicaid expansion, or paid family leave. In fact, literally none of them have paid family leave. If you have a kid in these states and you do not have a job that gives you paid family leave, you may have to get your ass up out of the delivery room (if you can even afford a delivery room) and get right to your next shift.
Click through for details. Wonkette knows perfectly well that anyone with a brain would have thought. That’s just Wonkette’s trademaek snark.

Mother Jones – Of Course Samuel Alito Is Bragging About It
Quote – High off the fumes of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the constitutional right to an abortion, a beaming Samuel Alito has emerged to try his hand at comedy. It did not go well. More critically, it further exposed an overtly political Supreme Court justice teeming with condescension for his critics.
Click through for story. Its author is understandably – um – irritated (mad as hell actually) – as we all should be.

Food For Thought –

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Open Thread 7/23/2022

 Posted by at 6:42 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 232022
 

Yesterday, I got up and started working on my email inbox while at the same time, in the back of my mind, processing the previous night’s hearing. “The Conversation” newsletter already had an article about it, the title of which caught my eye, and I started musing about how the Committee spent almost three hours – almost minute for minute – on Trump*s timeline during the insurrection riot. When basically he did nothing. That made me think of Seinfeld – which was proudly a show about nothing.  It’s easy get caught in the adage “noting comes from nothing” and not realize how much can sometimes be learned from studying nothing. Particularly when the premise – or the conclusion – is that there ought to have been something. I had to switch from the Committee’s dot gov page to its YouTube page because it started to loop. I found the place just before the loop started, and got the rest of the hearing that way.

There is some misinformation going around (not unusual, but this one appears to have started with Rachel, and that IS unusual) about a DOJ memo. The memo exists, but the interpretation of what it means was way off. The Meidas brothers got it right, and their video on it is in today’s video thread. I am always a bit behind, so Rachel may have already corrected her position by now, but these things are tough to stop once they start, so thought I’d mention it.

Cartoon – 23 0723Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

Teen Vogue – Community Schools: What Are They and How Do They Work? (referred by ITPI)
Quote – The concept of a community school, which has been around for more than a century, is quite simple. Any public school can become a community school if the school board, students, parents, and faculty collectively commit to being involved not only in a child’s education but also in meeting all of a student’s needs. “A community school is a decision that students, families, educators, and community members make about the role they want their neighborhood public school to play within the community and within the lives of the stakeholders that touch the school,” a representative from the National Education Association told Teen Vogue in an email. “Because learning never happens in isolation, community schools focus on what students in the community truly need to succeed — whether it’s free, healthy meals; health care; tutoring; mental health counseling; or other tailored services before, during, and after school.”
Click through for details and examples. No, I don’t read Teen Vogue. But ITPI (In The Public Interest) “wrote the book” on public versus private anything, and if they tell me there is valuable information there, I believe them (and was not disappointed.) Of course I suppose the idea of community schools make right wing heads explode.

The Conversation – The Supreme Court’s ideological rulings are roiling US politics – just as when Lincoln and his Republicans remade the court to fit their agenda
Quote – In the 1860s, President Abraham Lincoln worked with fellow Republicans to shape the Court to carry out his party’s anti-slavery and pro-Union agenda. It was an age in which the court was unabashedly a “partisan creature,” in historian Rachel Shelden’s words. Justice John Catron had advised Democrat James K. Polk’s 1844 presidential campaign, and Justice John McLean was a serial presidential contender in a black robe. And in the 1860s, Republican leaders would change the number of justices and the political balance of the Court to ensure their party’s dominance of its direction.
Click through for the history. It surely looks like a precedent to me. And we are at least as closenow as then to losing democracy forever – personally I think even closer.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread 7/22/2022

 Posted by at 7:16 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 222022
 

Yesterday, reading Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letter” from the 20th, my eyebrows went up when Iread that 100 million Americans were under heat warnings – my thought was, “Dear God, that’s a third of the country!” I think we actually have 330 million people, so that was a slight exaggeration – but still – that’s, shall we say, impressive.  of course I also watched the hearing, but that was late enough that I won’t discuss it here.  I will eventually of course.

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Short Takes –

Robert Reich – Is it time for Democrats to kick Joe Manchin out of the party?
Quote – In fact, the way things are right now, Biden and the Democrats have the worst of both worlds. They look like they control the Senate, as well as the House and the presidency. But they can’t get a damn thing done because Manchin (and his intermittent sidekick Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema) won’t let them. So after almost two years of appearing to run the entire government, Democrats have accomplished almost nothing of what they came to Washington to do…. By kicking Manchin out of the party, Democrats could at least go into the midterms with a more realistic pitch: “It looked like we had control of the Senate, but we didn’t. Now that you know who the real Democrats are, give us the power and we will get it done.”
Click through for argument. I won’t say he sold me, but he did get me to seriously consider it.
Update: I don’t bug Mitch too much (on top of other issues he’s having surprise cataract surgery next week) but he sent out a Daily Kos article on Manchin, so I sent him this one.  His response: “Biden needs to get out on the hustings and PUSH for more Dem. senators…PUSH LOUDLY! If Manchin, and Sinema can be made virtually irrelevant, we might then be able to rejoin the rest of the western democracies.”

The Daily Beast – Liberal Panic Could Help Trump Steal the Next Election
Quote – As both a critic of the theory being advanced in Moore and an advocate of urgently needed reforms to avoid another presidential election crisis, I feel it is important to set the record straight. In defending democracy against the very real threat of Trump-style subversion, we must get the details right. Crucially, we need to be able to distinguish serious conservative legal scholarship and arguments, even when they are wrong, from worst-case scenarios based on fringe crank theories and total lawlessness. The current majority on the Supreme Court might endorse the former, but we should not concede the latter by falsely conflating the two.
Click through for full analysis. Personally, I think the author vastly underestimates the determination and the ingenuity of the criminal GOP. I think this case is more like the head, shoulders, and hump of the camel in the tent. And I don’t see how liberal panic would help Trump** – the more panicked we are, the more likely we are to vote. But I thought (and think) readers here are perfectly capable of drawing their own conclusions, and I though this should be seen.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread July 13, 2022

 Posted by at 6:48 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 132022
 

Yesterday, I of course watched the hearing. It doesn’t appear there will be another this week, but rather probably next week. The last two witnesses today were, I thought, impressive, although who knows what it takes to impress MAGAts. It’s not exactly the Committee’s mission to address political violence in general (as opposed to political violence in the service of Trump**) in the hearings, but I certainly hope it will be addressed as they draft legislation. Political violence at low levels (i.e., without a dominant leader common to the groups involved) can lead to fascismut as surely as a narcissistic ambitious dictator can. Besides the eharing, I didn’t do much else. I did a load of laundry comprising a few sweaters which are machine wash/dry flat and that’s about it.

Cartoon –  This reminds me of an anecdote about a sweet elderly lady who had had massive surgeries bu never lost hersense of humor. She called one of her scars “Market Street.”

Short Takes –

Letters from an American – July 10, 2022
Quote – Democratic president Joe Biden appears to be centering his presidency around the idea of rebuilding the middle class through government investment in ordinary Americans. This is a major shift—a sea change—from the past 40 years of Republican policy saying that the economy would prosper if only the government slashed taxes and regulation, leaving more money and power in the hands of business leaders, those “makers” who would invest in new industries and provide more jobs. Watching the effect of his policies is a window into what works and what doesn’t.
Click through for more, and why ir matters politically.

The 19th – What will happen if Obergefell is overturned? Queer legal experts are scrambling
Quote – A concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that ultimately overturned Roe indicates he wants to reexamine whether other rights based on substantive due process have been interpreted correctly. “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents,” Thomas wrote. Other opinions written by conservative justices show division over how the court should handle similar civil rights issues in the future.
Click through for more legal thinking. Don’t forget Pastor Niemoller’s famous poem – no one is safe.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread July 9, 2022

 Posted by at 6:52 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 092022
 

Yesterday, I was grieved to learn from Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter (it comes in the middle of the night) that Shinzo Abe, former Prime Minister of JJapan, had been shot, and even more grieved to learn he had died from it. I put the news in a comment in yesterda’s OT, adding I had (politically speaking) fallen in love with him upon seeing his reaction to Trump**. I went looking for the picture, and eventually found it, and I reproduce it above the cartoon to refresh everyon’e memories. Later, I received an almost complete grocery delivery – no substitutions, only one item shorted, and I received two of it out of four ordered – so that was a success. I got it mostly put away within an hour.

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Short Takes –

The Conversation – Abortion decision cherry-picks history – when the US Constitution was ratified, women had much more autonomy over abortion decisions than during 19th century
Quote – But in his rather selective forays into history, Alito doesn’t ask what to me, as a historian, constitutes a set of fundamental questions: Why was abortion eventually criminalized during that time? What was the broad cultural and intellectual context of that period? And, more important, is there something peculiar about the 19th century? As far as women’s bodies and abortion are concerned, the 19th century saw a decrease in the trust in, and power of, women themselves.
Click through for history. For most of my life, it appeared to be that someone who had risen to the level of a Justice on the Supreme court may not have known everything, but they did know enough not to discuss, particularly in decisions, anything they knew nothing about.

Crooks & Liars – Trumpers Sure Seem Happy That Georgia Guidestones Were Destroyed
Quote – Part of a mysterious Georgia monument was destroyed by an explosive device on Wednesday, and conservatives seem really happy about that even though it’s an illegal act which prompted an active police investigation in Elberton, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. And now the monument has been leveled.
Click through for more. I had never heard of them either – the last time I was in Georigia was around 1970, and they didn’t go up until 1979-1980. Really, the only mystery is probably who paid for them. They wre for pretty sure supposed to give guidance after a nuclear war destroyed almost everything. Wikipedia has good details and Beau did a video on them. But RWNJ’s never met a conspiracy theory they didn’t love.

Food For Thought

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