Open Thread May 2, 2024

 Posted by at 5:51 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 022024
 

Yesterday, going through my email, I came across this headline at Wonkette: “Does It Count As A ‘Post-Birth Abortion’ When DeSantis Takes Away A Sick Child’s Healthcare?” Good question. It certanly seems like it should, doesn’t it?

Heather Cox Richardson writes about the interview with Trump** in Time magazine. I don’t subscribe to Time, so this is a convenience to me – horrifying as it is. Feel free to share it widely.

Joe Biden is certainly trying to extend humanitarian aid as widely as possible. This is such a difficult situation for anyone wanting to bring peace to the middle east – because the hostilities go back literally thousands of years – and both sides are wrong – and both sides are right. (Well, not Netanyahu – but he is not the whole side. And that’s a big part of the problem.)

Having bought and sold one house in North Carolina, handling my mother’s estate, buying the home i am currently living in anf refinancing it twice or three times, and also having at least signed petitions concerning the difficulty of black voters, especially in the American South, for getting voter ID – so many with no birth certificates – that these situations would have occurred to me as a problem. It didn’t, because privilege. But having now been told about it, I can certainly see the potential for massive Jim Crow abuse.

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Open Thread July 14, 2023

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 142023
 

Yesterday, the Screen Actors Guild announced a strike – its first in 43 years. This also means the motin picture undustry will have two unions on strike at the same time, which has not happened for even longer – 20 years longer, to be precise. The actors (and other personalities) have issues of their own, but they are also supportive of the Writers, who were already on strike. I wish them, and all unions, well.

Cartoon – 14 0714Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

Robert Reich – It’s time to declare victory in the inflation fight
Quote – The consumer price index was at 3% for the month of June, compared to the year before. This is a significant improvement from the May figure, which was 4%. And a major improvement from last year’s peak of 9.1% in June. The last time inflation neared 3% was in March 2021. So will the Fed please now declare victory? Yes, I know, the Fed has an inflation target of 2%, and some Fed officials have recently signaled they’re likely to raise interest rates again at their July 25-26 meeting. But it’s time to stop, because higher rates will slow the economy — and a slower economy will hurt lower-wage workers.
Click through for full argument. No contradiction from me.

HuffPost – Why We Need More Close Interracial Friendships (And Why We’re Bad At Them)
Quote – Developing cross-racial friendships is even more difficult in adulthood. Outside of maybe bonding with a co-worker of a different race, we mostly adhere to our geographic segregation and stay socially segregated, too. The barrier to befriending someone is even higher when the person of color thinks their otherwise friendly white co-worker or neighbor is closed off to learning about what it means to be white in a race-conscious society. “It’s possible to learn some of that in the context of a cross-racial friendship, but it’s easier to become friends with a person of color if some of that work has already been done,” Daniel Tatum said.
Click through for details. I could wish this wasn’t accurate. But I can’t deny any of it. A lot of steps went into developing my relationship with my BFF, but I have not forgotten the very first step – we were co-workers, yes, and one day she said something, I forget what, and I replied, “Oh, fo’ shizzle.”

Food For Thought

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Open Thread February 22, 2023

 Posted by at 6:59 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 222023
 

Yesterday, I learned that over 13,000 people have donated over $500,000 to Adam Frisch, just since he announced a week earlier. (I was one – I didn’t send much, but I’ll be sending it monthly.) A lot of people must hate Boebert. We just need more of them to live in her district. The profile for the current snowstorm looks pretty much like that last one – with the temperature continuing to drop after the snow stops falling, not getting higher than freezing the following day or much above the second day, and then back to the fifties as if nothing happened (sounds Republican, doesn’t it?) And I was hung up for a bit in a back-and-forth with my cousin about some news stories. It did provide me with some material, which I’ll credit when I use it.  Oh, and the cherry on the sundae is that the Virginia special election for a House seat was won by the Deomcrat.  Yeah!

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Daily Beast – Biden’s Trip to Kyiv is the Ultimate Humiliation for Putin—and Trump
Quote – Kennedy and then Reagan in Berlin. Now Biden in Kyiv. Periodically during the past sixty years, American presidents have stood up at the Eastern edge of Europe and looked to Russia to say, “We stand with our allies. Our resolve is unshakeable.” Kennedy said, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev tear down that wall.” Biden, on his surprise President’s Day visit to Kyiv said, “One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands.”
Click through for article. Interesting to put this event into this particular historical context. (Steve Schmidt did so also.)  And there’s more than that.

Sherrilyn’s Newsletter – A Response to Conor Friedersdorf
Quote – This was supposed to be a Twitter thread – a response to the recent newsletter in the Atlantic written by Conor Friedersdorf in which he announces that “the Black Lives Matter approach” to ending police violence against Black people “has largely failed.” But now that the video of the brutal and savage murder of Tyre Nichols in Memphis has also been released, and the 5 officers (all Black) charged, what I have to say cannot be managed in a Twitter thread. Because I suspect that many white people – and perhaps Black people as well – will ask as Friedersdorf does: “What happened to national outrage over police killings?” And perhaps like Friedersdorf they will even take the step to conclude after viewing this latest horror, that the demand to end police violence – “the Black Lives Matter approach” has failed. And this, the willingness to cast the failure of white people to effectively confront and contain the manifestations of violent white supremacy as Black civil rights failure, deserves a strong response.
Click through. Joyce Vance recommends Sherrilyn’s Newsletter, in particular this article. I respect Joyce and, still mourning Gwen, I am always consoled that Sherrilyn, her cousin (their fathers were brothers) is still with us. (Conor Friedersdorf, on the other hand, is apparently a jerk, and, sadly, a very literate one.)

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 2/7/2023

 Posted by at 12:18 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Feb 072023
 

Glenn Kirschner – House Republicans FINALLY focus on what’s important to ordinary Americans – Hunter Biden’s laptop?! (I’ve seen the suggestion that it tells us they are trying to get Hunter to suicide. Let that sink in/))

NBC News – U.S.-China situation isn’t ‘1:1 comparison’ with last Cold War: Buttigieg

Twitter (shared by PoliticsGirl) White Comfort

Farron Balanced – Republicans In Congress Swap Out Flag Lapel Pins For AR 15 Pins

Cat Does The Funniest Thing When His Parents Get Him A New Brother

Beau – Let’s talk about legislation in Massachusetts and ethics….

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