Senate – Page 6 – Politics Plus

Video Thread 7/23/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:58 am Open Thread, Politics

Jul 232022

Glenn Kirschner – Steve Bannon loves to run his mouth; tomorrow [Thursday] is his big day as he gets to testify. Will he?

Meidas Touch – What Maddow got WRONG about the ‘Bombshell’ DOJ memo

The Lincoln Project – Tucker Carlson’s Unofficial Presidential Speech (Barf Bag Alert)

Farron Balanced – Legal Scholar Says Dems Should Sue To Prevent Trump From Holding Office Ever Again

MSNBC – Senators Reach Agreement On Bills To Stop Candidates From Stealing Elections

Beau – Let’s talk about Ted Cruz and marriage…

Open Thread 7/22/2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon 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.

Cartoon –

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

Open Thread June 30, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:40 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 302022

Yesterday, the news was filled with testimony from Tuesday’s hearing. And rightly so – I guess a lot of people did not realize, and still don’t, who Trump** so obviously is. Of course he throws dishes against the wall. Of course he tries to do bodily harm to anyone who pisses him off. Of course he’s the last person in the world who shold have the nuclear codes. How did so may people miss that? And I don’t even mean his cultists. I mean how did so may sane people still manage not to see that? It’s not as if Hillary didn’t warn us. At least more people are realizing it now. The other thing that was in the news (at least my news feed) was our primaries. I already reported that Tina Peters, the County Clerk who stole the voting equipment, lost her primary to run for Secretary of State (the bad news is that the winner is almost as bad.) Other bad news is that Boebert won her primary. I had no part in that, but I still apologize on behalf of my state to the entire nation. We can only hope that Democrats and Unaffiliateds combine to oust her. Sadly, that’s merely a hope.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The New Yorker – The “Gap” in the Constitution That Led to January 6th
Quote – Yes, it’s absolutely true that our Presidential-election system in particular has significant vulnerabilities. Some of those vulnerabilities are in the Constitution itself. As long as we retain the constitutional provision for the Electoral College, we won’t be completely out of the woods. State legislatures have the authority to replace a popular vote, to directly appoint the electors for their state. But they can’t do it retroactively. And that gets to what Giuliani and Trump were trying to do.
Click through for full discussion. All communication requires those communicating to share at least some assumptions (there’s a group exercise invilving peanut butter and jelly which brings this point home vividly), and one of those assumptions that we make without realizing it is that we expect our elected officials to act in good faith. For much of my life, though that wasn’t 100% true, there were enough who were that it was safe to assume it. Then came Reagan, Gingrich, and a host of others, and now it is no longer safe to make that assumption.

Robert Reich – The rogue court and the fight ahead
Quote – I keep telling the young people I work with and in the classes I teach that I grew up in an America that expanded constitutional rights, battled racism and protected voting rights, and enlarged the middle class. I tell them that if we did it then, we can do so again. They hear me but I’m not sure they believe me. Their young lives have been marked mostly by public failure. Many were motivated to vote for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2016, and against Trump in 2020, but their patience is wearing thin.
Clivk through for full argument (there’s also a video). I know, voting is not enough, but it has to start with voting. We have to give good leaders some authority – something to work with. If we don’t, their leaders get authority.

Food For Thought – I think this is the first time I have seen a New Yorker cartoon depict a real person, though it’s probably happened.

Video Thread 5/22/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:38 am Open Thread, Politics

May 222022

Glenn Kirschner – Disdain and disregard for the voters of Pennsylvania: Trump’s Election lies in the land of Oz

Meidas Touch – Beto O’Rourke brings THE HOUSE DOWN with EPIC answer on gun control

The Lincoln Project – This Man Votes

Farron Balanced – Lauren Boebert Accidentally Makes A Great Argument For Paid Family Leave

No Dem Left Behind – Meet the Not-So-Radical Left

Armageddon Update – Damn you, Biden!

Beau – Let’s talk about SCOTUS making it easier to buy a Senator….

Open Thread May 19, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:05 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 192022

Yesterday, I watched a Sixty Minutes segment (during that hour I avoid the radio -its only about 27 minutes, so I also watched something else – a documentary about the WWII British equivalent of Tucker Carlson – mildly interesting.) If you watch 60 mnutes you have probably seen the segment. If not, you may want to bookmark this for when you have a spare half hour. It’s the story of a black family who purchase a large home which turns out to have been, not just a plantation, but the plantation on which their ancestors were enslaved. Simply amazing. Here’s the link. I also managed to get trash ans recyclables out to the curb (It only took me about a half hour and a few extra CBD gummies to recover from that.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

CPR News – ‘I’m not giving up’: Sen. Michael Bennet’s drive to make the expanded Child Tax Credit permanent
Quote – The pandemic-relief package, known as the American Rescue Plan, expanded the Child Tax Credit for one year, made it fully refundable, so the poorest families could benefit, and for the last half of 2021, sent it in the form of monthly checks to families, turning it into a reliable income supplement…. Bennet’s frustration that the expanded benefit was not made permanent, or even just extended, is palpable…. “I’m not giving up. And I don’t think we should give up. And I, frankly, I’m not giving up until we have an economy that when it grows, it grows for everybody, not just the people at the very top. And I think we can do that too,”
Click through for story. Colorado would have to be crazy not to re-elect Senator Bennet. (And it’s because part of Colorado IS crazy that I became a – small- monthly donor to the campaign.)

HuffPost – Living With The Far-Right Insurgency In Idaho
Quote – [White nationalist Vincent James Foxx] is one of many far-right activists who have flocked to Idaho in recent years, where a large and growing radical MAGA faction in the state’s Republican Party has openly allied itself with extremists to a shocking extent, even for the Trump era. This faction is accruing more and more power in Boise, the state capital: Imagine a statehouse full of Marjorie Taylor Greenes and Steve Kings. At the local level, they have seized seats on school boards and county commissions at a fast clip.
Click through for details. Idaho is pretty much every bit as LDS as Utah – just not as publicly. I don’t know what the position, or the participation of the LDS Church is in this – but I’ll bet there is some. The church just possibly could surprise us.

The Hill – House passes domestic terrorism bill in mostly party-line vote
Quote – The bill calls for establishing a Domestic Terrorism Unit in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the DHS, which would be tasked with observing and examining domestic terrorism activity, in addition to a Domestic Terrorism Office in the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division of the DOJ, which would look into and prosecute domestic terrorism incidents and communicate with the Civil Right Division about occurrences that may be considered hate crimes.
Click through for discussion and details. This could work, if only the government (federal and atate) would stop assuming that it’s only terrorism if a non-white person does it – when the reverse is closer to the truth.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 5/2/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:16 pm Open Thread, Politics

May 022022

Glenn Kirschner – With Trump’s admission that he alone oversaw Calamari’s compensation, DA Bragg’s action even worse

MSNBC – Lawrence: U.S. Senate Is A Fundamentally, Relentlessly, Permanently Undemocratic Institution

Lincoln Project – The GOP Isn’t Interested

Meidas Touch – Biden ROASTS Trump and Fox News at White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Really American – GOP Lawmaker Says Rape is “Opportunity” For Women

Parody Project – PUTIN TOLD THE RUSSIAN NATION

Beau – Let’s talk about Romney, bribes, and cancelling debt….

Open Thread May 2, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:56 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 022022

Yesterday, I didn’t need the TENS unit for my back. So I jumped in and used it on my shoulders, which have been complaining lately. A couple of hours when I got up, and then I left the pads in place and did another hour in the evening, I don’t often have the luxury to skip the back, so I wanted to get as much as I could (and it’s very awkward to place the pads for where inside the shoulder the pain is, so it makes sense to leave them in place.) I did feel much better. I also got my forms filled out and scanned for requesting to visit Virgil next Sunday. I can’t sent the email till today … but I may just have sent it a little after midnight. I also inventoried and ordered over the counter meds. And I even finished knitting a vest.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

PolitiZoom – Biden Knows Just How To Handle McConnell. And McConnell Hates It
Quote – You can’t work together in a small body like the U,S. Senate as Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell have, and not get to know each other pretty well. As Biden weaves his way through a deadlocked Senate, requiring VP Kamala Harris to cast tie breaking votes, it becomes crystal clear that Biden paid a whole lot closer attention to McConnell than McConnell did to Biden.
Click through for mini-civics-lesson. Murfster is pretty shrewd. Let’s hope he’s right on this one.

Crooks and Liars – DeSantis Ruthlessly Mocked For Idiotic Claim About Old Cartoons
Quote – “Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Pepe LePew cartoons featured bestiality, people (or ducks) getting shot in the face with a shotgun, and stalking/sexual assault.”….“When we were younger, we watched cartoons about a French skunk who raped female cats which was totally fine because he was heterosexual.”
Click through for more examples. All the salacious examples people came up with are from Warner Brothers. But I could argue that Disney’s rigis gender roles did as much damage, if not more. (And neither Snow White not Sleeping Beauty consented to those kises.)

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/paigeskinner/gun-violence-medical-labor-photos
BuzzFeed News – One Bullet Can Kill, But It Takes More Than 100 People To Save A Gunshot Victim’s Life
Quote – More often than not in Philadelphia, it’s a police officer who transports a gunshot victim to the hospital in what’s called a “scoop and run,” which eliminates the time waiting for a paramedic. Gun violence is so prevalent that Sgt. Gregorrio Santiago said he takes part in a scoop and run nearly every day. After “scooping” the gunshot victim into the backseat of a cruiser, police will alert hospital workers to be ready at the entrance to immediately put the victim on a stretcher. Philadelphia’s scoop-and-run program means more gunshot victims make it to the hospital alive, Santiago said.
Click through for – there’s a member at DU who invariabley comments on the daily political cartoons, “Thank you fot this depressingly excellent collection” – a depressingly excellent article.

Food For Thought