Open Thread June 17, 2022

 Posted by at 7:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 172022
 

Yesterday, I went to see VirgilWe kissed (we are allowed 2, one coming and one going) and hugged (ditto), and we also, as we didn’t do for quite a few years, played some cribbage – for some reason we find that having something to do with out hands stimulates conversation, though it took us years ti realze that.. How the Department of Corrections handles games and game playing during visits wold take a whole column, and I won’t start on thet today. I passed on all greetings you all exprressed to Virgil, and he returns all with thanks.

After getting home, I checked my email inbox whch had hit almost 150 emai and then turned to the hearings. I had pre-written today’s posts except for this introduction, so after getting home and making dinner, I was able to jump into today’s hearing. Again, none of the actual evidence surprised me – even things I didn’t know had happened were so in tune with Republican morals and behavior they were not surprising. But I did get two non-evidential surprises – first, that I can now see why those who are not totally disgusted with his political positions might actually like Mike Pence (I will never understand that about Trump**). Second, I was surprised to learn there is one Republican who has not only actually read goodly chunks of the Bible, but understands it well enough to come up with a whole chapter that is extremely pertinent (it was one of his former attrorneys, a Mr. Jacobs, and the chapter was Daniel 6 [which could be differently numbered in the translation used by Catholics – I know that book has some extra stuff in it which is not in the Bible most Protestants use].) Again, I used the recording from the house.gov link here.  And then I goofed around a little and went to bed exhausted.

And – I almost forgot – the email telling me my ballot had been received came in at 11:34 am and the one saying it has been counted came in at 5:35 pm.

Cartoon – 17 Mahal RTL

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – ‘Pack Your Stuff and Get Out of My House,’ Says Patriot Front Member’s Mom
Quote – Amsden said that after her son was released from jail, he told her he’d continue to stand with the group, so she delivered an ultimatum. “I told him, ‘Well, then you can’t live here. You can choose between Patriot Front and your family.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, I can’t quit Patriot Front.’ I’m like, ‘Well, then you’ve just chosen. So pack your stuff and get out of my house.’”
Click through for background. Old saying: “desperate times require desperate measures.” This must break her heart (I assume he doesn’t have one) – but I don’t see what else she could have done.

Wonkette – CNN’s New Boss Remaking Network Into Centrist Safe Space For Republicans
Quote – Licht will give existing talent “a chance to prove they’re willing to uphold the network’s values so that they don’t tarnish CNN’s journalism brand.” If they can’t adjust, they’ll presumably join Chris Cuomo on the unemployment line. Axios specifically mentions Jim Acosta and Brian Stelter as being under the partisan microscope[.]
Click through for more. Personally, I would trade Chuck Todd for Acosta in a heartbeat – but I’m not in a position to.

Food For Thought

Share

Video Thread 6/14/22

 Posted by at 11:46 am  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 142022
 

Glenn Kirschner -Jarod Kushner’s pardon palooza will be damaging to both Donald Trump and to Kushner himself

Meidas Touch – Furious Texas Paul Reveals TERROR CELL Inside the GOP – Such a sweet, kind offer in such NSFW languague!

Robert Reich – This is How We Help People Fight Inflation at the Gas Pump

VoteVets – ‘The AR-15 Is A Weapon Of War’ – Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Paul Eaton

Liberal Redneck – First January 6 Committee Hearing Takeaways

Beau – Let’s talk about if medical training is worth it…. (and you know this appies to a lot more than medical training.)

Share

Open Thread May 19, 2022

 Posted by 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share

Video Thread 5/16/22

 Posted by at 12:02 pm  Open Thread, Politics
May 162022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Federal prosecutors open grand jury probe into Trump’s removal of top secret docs to Mar-a-Lago

The Lincoln Project – Thank you, Jen.

MSNBC – America ‘Needs To Prepare For’ Insider Threats To Elections

Twitter – CNN – White supremacist terrorism

Politics Girl – Quick Civics

Food-Obsessed Cat Has Taught Himself To Open Containers With His Teeth

Beau – Let’s talk about a cliff analogy….

Share

Video Thread 5/10/22

 Posted by at 12:18 pm  Open Thread, Politics
May 102022
 

Glenn Kirschner – With Supreme Court misconduct from Thomas to Alito, Congress must hold hearings/impeachment inquiry

Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Texas Governor Costing State Billions

MSNBC – Attorney Reacts To Judge Approving Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Re-Election Bid

Robert Reich – Why Republicans are NOT the Party of Freedom

VoteVets – Pete Buttigieg Perfectly Articulates Republican Behavior In 2 Minutes

SNL – Roe v Wade Cold Open

Beau – Let’s talk about why the democrats didn’t codify….

Share

Open Thread March 29, 2022

 Posted by at 6:54 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 292022
 

Yesterday, I made it to the DMV on time and didn’t have to wait more than a couple of minutes for my appointment.  However, they were not satisfied with my documents and gave me an additional one. I don’t, thank God, have o wait another four weeks to come back – I can return today. So, another day I will need patience from you on my comment replies. Sigh.

Cartoon

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Wheels Of Justice Turning In Two Prominent Portland Proud Boy Cases
Quote – On Wednesday, notorious Proud Boys brawler Tusitala “Tiny” Toese was arraigned on multiple felonies related to the violence he led at a Portland rally on Aug. 22, 2021, and order detained without bail. Then on Thursday, the man who opened fire on a group of protesters in a park on Feb. 19 near his residence, killing one person and wounding four others before he was himself shot, was also arraigned in Multnomah County Circuit Court on multiple counts after he was released from his subsequent hospitalization.
Click through for a lttle good news. It contains two of the most beautiful words in the English language – “without bail.” (and if that unusual first name sounds familiar, it was the name given to Robert Louis Stevenson by the Samoan people after he moved there. It means “teller of tales.”)  TC would have been glad for this development.

Denverite – DPD verdict: Protesters awarded $14 million in lawsuit over police response to George Floyd rallies
Quote – “This was, as far as I know, the first case of George Floyd protestors injured by police to go to trial around the country,” said Tim Macdonald, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “So hopefully what police departments will take from this is that a jury of regular citizens took these rights very seriously. And they’re prepared to tell the police what they did to peaceful protestors is not acceptable.” … The verdict is likely to carry weight in future civil rights cases stemming from the protests, including others in Denver, said Jason Williamson, executive director of NYU’s Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, which tracks cases like the one in Denver.
Click through for full story. More good news. Our Declaration of independence states that governmentsmust draw their authority from “the consent of the governed.” Does this not also imply that police should get their authority from “the consent of the policed”?

Wonen’s History – Wikipedia – Mary Anning
Quote – Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) was an English fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist who became known around the world for the discoveries she made in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel at Lyme Regis in the county of Dorset in Southwest England. Anning’s findings contributed to changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth…. Her discoveries included the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton when she was twelve years old.
Click through for bio. Another unsing scientist among women. There’s really nothing that we can’t do.

Food For Thought:

Share

Video Thread 3/17/22

 Posted by at 11:57 am  Open Thread, Politics
Mar 172022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Prosecutor’s Brief in Enrique Tarrio/Proud Boys Case Provides More Evidence of Trump’s Conspiracy

The Lincoln Project – Brent Renaud

Meidas Touch – Corporate America: Pull Out Of Russia

MSNBC – It’s Happening Again’: Lessons From Russian Targeting Of Syrian Civilians

Rebel HQ –  Southerner Racist Logic Will Make You Lose All Hope  (It ain’t just the South – JD)

Brent Terhune – Do your job, Brandon!

Beau – Let’s talk about an injunction in Texas….

Share

Open Thread for January 16, 2022

 Posted by at 6:48 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 162022
 

Yesterday, The Opera was “The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart. It’s based on the second of three plays by Pierre Beaumarchais, kown as the Figaro plays. All three have been made into operas – The first play, The Barber of Seville, by Rossini in 1816. The second, The Marriage of Figaro, by Mozart in 1786. The third, The Guilty Mother, by many composers, including John Corigliano, completed in 1991, and very different in that the source play is treated as a play within a play, and there is not a living person in the whole thing. These days it’s not obvious why all three were so controversial when new, particularly the plays, but they were. Beaumarchais was an American sympathizer who raised money for the Revolution before France sent actual military aid with LaFayette, and there are hints of that in the plays (fewer in the operas). But things have changed enough so that is not obvious to us today. Human nature, however, has not changed much if at all, and there’s plenty of that in all of them.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Huff Post – Major Student Loan Processor Cancels $1.7 Billion In Debt
Quote – Most of the loans being canceled are “subprime loans” that were given to students attending for-profit colleges, which often had graduation rates below 50%. That made it unlikely students would ever be able to pay the loans back.
Click through for background. This does not apply to all student loans, but it does apply to the most vulnerable. And there is another suit still going forward.

Reuters – DirecTV to drop far-right channel OAN from its service
Quote – OAN, which rose to prominence amid the triumph and tumult of the administration of then-President Donald Trump, has been criticized for spreading conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 election. “We informed Herring Networks that, following a routine internal review, we do not plan to enter into a new contract when our current agreement expires,” a DirecTV spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Click through for more. In a related article, Reuters estimates OAN’s revenue from DirecTV to be in the neighborhood of 90% of its total revenue.

The Guardian – Police and FBI respond to synagogue hostage situation in Texas
Quote – The incident took place during an online livestream of the Shabbat service at the synagogue in Colleyville, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. The livestream cut off at about 2pm local time…. “Colleyville Police Sgt Dara Nelson said negotiators have made contact with somebody inside the synagogue who they believe is a suspect,” the Dallas Morning News said.
Click through – They had better respond! This is clear domestic terrorism.  UPDATE:  All hostages safe, hostage taker dead.

Food For Thought:

Share
 Older Entries  Newer Entries