Open Thread August 3, 2022

 Posted by at 6:44 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 032022
 

Yesterday, Virgil called and I was able to reassure him that I’m alive and also let him know I have no idea how long it is going to take to get repairs done. So that’s a relief. As much as I had it under control in that I did get stuff done, all that streaa wore me out. I may be sleeping more than usual for the next few days. Today’s short take are kind of “The Good, the Bad, and theUgly” – the first one is the good, the second is the bad – and the FFT is the ugly. Honestly – people! I was toying with another bad/ugly article but it’s not verified yet so I’ll hold it for a bit.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

DU (crimycarny) – I got a personal call from Jamie Raskin regarding my son’s suicide (hanky alert)
Quote – After I hung up I went downstairs to tell my husband. As I was showing him the number I accidentally hit redial. I hung up right away and I also assumed it was a switchboard type number. Next thing I know a call is coming in from the same number. I pick up and it’s Jamie again! He said “Hi Crimycarny, I saw you just tried to call. Did you need something?” I said no, that it was a mistake redial. He replied “ok, I just wanted to make sure. Well, you have my number if you need anything.”
Click through for full story. We have some great Democrats, but if you can think of anyone who is more “the real deal” than Raskin. I’d love to hear it.

Crooks and Liars – Where Have All The Flowers Gone? Stomped By Russians, Every One
Quote – Look, we get it. He’s losing a war he was assured would take just a few days to win, and it’s day 158 of the Russian invasion, so obviously, he’s mad at some flowers. You can’t make this stuff up…. [T]here is no help for people like the self-entitled man driving with a diplomatic license plate, who got out of his car to kick some children’s flowers, then sped to safety behind the gates.
Click through for story and video. As he kicks the flowers, he yells, “Murderers! Murderers!” Projection much?

Food For Thought (been saving this one for a day when Roger’s name came up. The Lincoln Project video in today’s thread.)-

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Video Thread 7/26/22

 Posted by at 12:13 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jul 262022
 

Glenn Kirschner – With J6 committee revelations, it’s time for DOJ to indict Donald Trump & his co-conspirators

Meidas Touch – BREAKING: Democrats SLAM GOP for voting AGAINST contraception bIll

The Lincoln Project – Josh Hawley Is A B*tch

“Nyet Vladimir” – Ukrainian War Song (The Ukrainian version of the Finnish song “Nyet Molotov.” The Finns wrote the song during the 1939-1940 Winter War they were fighting against the Russians. Sadly, the Ukrainians had to adopt the tune with different lyrics in 2022.)

John Fugelsang – America’s Next President, Ron DeSantis

Beau – Let’s talk about privacy and your cell phone….

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Open Thread July 17, 2022

 Posted by at 6:16 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 172022
 

Yesterday, I had a rather crowded late morning/early afternoon. The radio opera was Vivaldi’s “Bajazet” which I had never heard of, let alone heard, before. However, atthe same time, Theater od War was mounting a Zoom production of Aeschylus’s play “The Suppliant” (an unusual word in English these days – but think “The Refugees”), as a vehicle to jump start a discussion on Ukraine, and with an all-Ukrainian chorus (including a very remarkable 12-year-old girl.) My final decision was to watch the play (and subsequent discussion) but with the opera softly in the background. So I’m not able to share much about the opera. In the end I made the right choice, I think. There was a note that the session was being recoorded – it is not yet posted at their site, but if and when it is I’ll share the link. Also included were three professional actors whose names you migh recognize – David Strathairn (Danaus), Oscar Isaac (Pelasgus), and Willem DaFoe (Aegyptus.)The play dates to the mid-fifth century BCE (450 BCE plus or minus 10) but so much has not changed. One line: “Those who speak in foreign tongues are never fully welcome.) As are all of their productions, it was very moving. On top of all that, I received cinfirmation to visit Virgil today – so I’ll be around even less than usual. But I’ll be in as much as I can.

Cartoon –


I didn’t know who Mola was either. He appears to have been Franco’s Jeff Clark (or Roy Cohn) but he died in an air crash in 1937 and his name disappeared.

Short Takes –

CNN Politics – Why Republicans want to redefine one word in the Constitution
Quote – The Constitution refers specifically to the “legislature” in each state determining the time and manner of federal elections. Backers of the “Independent State Legislature Claim” argue that since the Constitution doesn’t name other parts of state government — including courts — they should have no power to check the legislature on the subject of federal elections. Even if a state’s constitution or laws give power to courts or a governor, the theory argues legislatures should be able to ignore them.
Clck through for full analysis. The case in question is Moore v. Harper. I don’t want to forget that myself, nor do I want any of us to forget it. After it’s decided, we’ll know whether it’s OK to forget it … or whether we eill never forget it, whether we want to or not.

Mother Jones – Don’t Fall into the Collusion Trap on Trump and January 6
Quote – This question is an important one, but it is also a trap. Trump and his comrades have been rather deft at developing a tactic to protect him from charges of profound wrongdoing: They raise the bar. If Trump is caught holding a match outside a burning house, Trump and his defenders will say, “Do you have proof he doused the interior with gasoline? That’s fake news. A hoax.”
Click through for full explanation. Neither the Committee nor prosecutors are IMO likely to fall into this trap, but since public opinion can help or hurt a case, it still matters.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 7/1/22

 Posted by at 11:47 am  Open Thread, Politics
Jul 012022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Even Mick Mulvaney concludes Trump incited an armed riot. So why has there been no accountability?

Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to OAN Anchor’s TOTAL MELTDOWN over Pride Flag

The Lincoln Project – Now We Know the Truth

Twitter – Saw this on DU and had to share. Hanky Alert.

Parody Project – Anthem for the Insurrection

Beau – Let’s talk about pragmatism, unpacking the court, and dealbreakers….

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Video Thread 6/15/22

 Posted by at 11:38 am  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 152022
 

Glenn Kirschner – After enabling Trump’s lawlessness for years, Pence did the bare minimum on 1/6. But he’s no hero

Meidas Touch – Michael Cohen ANNIHILATES Trump after second Jan 6 Committee Hearing

Crooks and Liars – AG Garland Speaks On Jan 6 Committee Hearings

VoteVets – Charity

The Daily Show – Having “The Talk” With Trump Supporters About The Police  (Possibly not what you are expecting.)

Beau – Let’s talk about Ukraine, grain, and Africa….

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Open Thread June 10, 2022

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 102022
 

Yesterday was fairly routine. I did watch the second hour of the hearings – and I have to say I was glad they adjourned – I don’t know how much more I could have withstood. I watched here, so I got no commentary. After looking around afterwards, I started looking for any other sources, especially those which might continue to be available in case anyone else missed anything. The first one I found was PBS (I have set this to start just as the hearing does, so it may be a little choppy.) Meidas Touch also made it avaiabe trough The Tony Michaels podcast. It was still going when I found it, so I didn’t try to look for a starting time. Those commenting there are likely, some of them, to be familiar (Texas Paul is one, but others have also been seen in the Video Thread here.) I did look for MSNBC, but didn’t have a lot of time to look, and only found a clip on it.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Here’s What A Real Expert Has To Say About Active Shooters
Quote – This event isn’t a real team building exercise, however, but a powerful new PSA put out by March For Our Lives, the gun control group that formed in the wake of 2018’s Parkland school shooting. The PSA, titled “Generation Lockdown,” seeks to build support for the passage of a bill in the US Senate that would expand background checks for guns.
Click through for video and article. I put this here rather than in the Video Thread because the article, I believe, adds content. Someone at DU commented that if this doesn’t break your heart, you probably don’t have one. – let that be a hanky alert.

The Daily Beast – Putin’s Favorite Copycat Gears Up in Panicked Wartime Frenzy
Quote – In the past few days Lukashenko and his advisers have made a flurry of announcements about plans to bolster the Belarusian military. First, they announced Belarus was creating a people’s militia to give a boost to the country’s armed forces. Then they announced both a new military unit on the country’s southern border with Ukraine and new military mobilizations exercises.
Click through for details. Frankly, this scares me. Belarus isn’t very big – but then, neither is a straw.

The New Yorker (Daily Shouts) – Racism Outshines Platinum Jubilee
Quote – On Friday, at a service of thanksgiving for Her Majesty at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Racism, attending with its partner, Colonialism, turned things up a notch in haute couture by the House of Anxiety, a dazzling coat composed of thousands of individual boos directed toward Meghan and Harry as they entered the church. When asked about the custom creation, House of Anxiety responded, “White supremacy demands hating the other, and hating the other is the moment.”
Click through for article. “Daily Shouts” is a humor column which often comes very close to realiy because its readers are expected to be alert to satire. But frankly, I think this one is TOO close (Harry and Meghan did not, at least I don’t think so, leave early because of any disrespect to Elizabeth, but because two neo Nazis told Harry to his face that Archie was “an abomination” who ought to be “put down.”)

Food For Thought

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Open Thread June 6, 2022

 Posted by at 7:13 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 062022
 

Yesterday, for reasons I won’t go into, I was late for my visit with Virgil. That is more annoying at this faco;ity than at prior facilities I’ve visited, because of the shuttle bus system. I ca arrive at the facility any time, but I can only get on the bus when it is scheduled. o I was late, arriving at the visiting room about 12:30, and he was also late, having gone to lunch. So the visit was shorter than usual, but still a good one. I’m just as tired as if I had been thre all day – maybe more so – so I’ll probably rest today as much as I can.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The New Torker (Andy) – Biden and Zelensky Reach Agreement to Send Americans’ Four Hundred Million Guns to Ukraine
Quote – In a move that could tip the scales in the war against Russia, U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have reached an agreement to ship Americans’ four hundred million firearms to Ukraine. “The Second Amendment calls for a well-regulated militia necessary to secure a free state,” Biden said. “I can’t think of a better description of what’s going on in Ukraine right now.”
Click through for full humor. This is Andy’s best idea since sending Abbott to Russia to take down Russia’s power grid. In fact, it may be even better!

Comic Sands (George Takei) – Boebert’s Inane ‘Reading Rainbow’ Dig At Randy Rainbow Has Fans Clamoring For A LeVar Burton Collab
Quote –

Click thrugh for lots more opinions – or just wait for it to happen, as you wish.

Dempcratic Underground (Applegrove) – Tweet of the Evening
Quote –


Click through if you like – I’d say the tweet stands alone (Also, all tweets I have quoted today are linked to Twitter, both at my source, and here. Click on the blue bird.)

Food For Thought

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Open Thread May 24, 2022

 Posted by at 6:48 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 242022
 

Yesterday, Colorado Public Radio News published thefirst photo of the first bud (at leasst in eighty years) on the Camp Amache rose. It is pink. I cropped the photo so it would fit here. I was deeply touched.   I’m looking forward to seeing it after it opens.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

CPR News – Why two CPR News journalists are in Europe with Colorado’s National Guard
Quote – Colorado’s Army and Air National Guard units are just some of the 1,200 Guard members from six states — Maryland, which has a state partnership with Estonia, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia — taking part in this exercise. In total, more than 3,400 U.S. military and 5,100 allied service members are spending this month participating in Defender and various other exercises, with names like Swift Response, Iron Wolf, Flaming Thunder and Summer Shield, across Eastern Europe…. Now, the U.S. military will be the first to tell you that Defender is unrelated to what’s happening in Ukraine (and the former Foreign Service officer in me would agree with that). American troops rotate, train and exercise regularly across the region as part of the nation’s relationship with Europe…. Yet, this annual exercise has taken on added significance — to reporters like me, and readers like you, and possibly the people of Estonia too — because of what’s happening in Ukraine.
Click through for story. It’s a good day to be a Coloradan Despite Lauren Boebert (and Doug Lamborn), we have reasons to take pride in our state. (And it has some gorgeous phptps pf Tallinn.)

The Conversation – He’s Australia’s 31st prime minister. So who is Anthony Albanese?
Quote – To continue the slow burn theme, if Albanese is to be believed, his ambition for leadership formed late. Those who reach leadership positions are typically consumed with an aspiration for the top job from early in their parliamentary careers — if not before. They are fuelled by a sense of their own prime-ministerial destiny. Albanese is different. On his telling, it was only in 2013, on the defeat of Rudd’s second government, that he first entertained thoughts of becoming leader. Until then he had contented himself with the role of “counsellor and kingmaker”.
CLick through for background. I won’t promise that this will be my last article on the Australian election – I hadn’t planned having another one, but I think this has merit. I am convinced that the so-called “fire in the belly” which so many pundits say leaders need is actually a bad thing if one wants the best possible leadership.

NM Political Report – In light of drought, NM congresswomen introduce bills focused on water and science
Quote – “We know that our farmers and our communities are struggling to meet their water needs,” U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat representing the state’s 1st Congressional District, said during a press conference on Thursday. “And the pieces of legislation that we introduced this week will be game changers to help address those needs, put resources into the hands of our communities, and to address the long term water security of our communities.”
Click through for details of the proposals.  Of course we all knew that getting the right women into the right offices would be beneficial to everyone.

Food For Thought

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