Open Thread April 3 2025

 Posted by at 5:58 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 032025
 

Yesterday, the Supreme Court election if Wisconsin was called for the Democratic judge. Sadly, we lost both special elections for Congress in Florida. But if we were only going to win one of the three, Wisconsin is the one we wanted to win. I don’t know why it has taken so long for Repubs in Wisconsin to be looking at re-gerrymandering after the 2020 census, but apparently it has, because that is what they campaigned on (and apparently plenty of Democrats heard and came out to vote.) So now he districting will be fair. Bob La Follette can rest easy in his grave for a while (he’s been spinning since Scott Walker was elected Governor.) Joyce Vance has a bit more detail. Also Yesterday, Mallory McMorrow – the Wisconsin State Senator who attracted national attention some time ago with a “no BS” statement, announced a run to be the next Senator from Wisconsin. She’s raising funds through the Defeat Republicans PAC.

Robert Reich addresses the regime’s current war on lawyers (not all lawyers-jus honest and courageous ones.) Many of the founding fathers were lawyers – courageous ones – and I would expect earthquakes up and down the eastern seaboard over this. I don’t think all legislators should be lawyers, but there is a good reason why some should be. Lawyers are trained to be able to write legislation which is enforceable, and in particular enforces what it is intended to enforce. Most of us aren’t (although many of us think we have the ability anyway.😉)

Yes, as Joyce Vance says, the Mango Monster is serious. He can’t run for Vice President (and has enough lawyers that he should know it – read Article I of the Constitution.) He might conceivably somehow get himself elected as Speaker of the House and get in that way, however. I’d keep that quiet – but someone’s bound to think of it eventually. I actually think he’s more likely to just refuse to leave. But whatever his plans, he is dead serious.

Just in case you didn’t see this – it is jaw-dropping. I don’t know whether you’d call it “malevolence tempered by incompetence” or “incompetence tempered by malevolence”. But I think we can agree on “despicable.”

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Open Thread June 7 2024

 Posted by at 6:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 072024
 

Yesterday, When I received an email from Thrater of War announcing that they are doing a performance in Times Square, i must admit my jaw dropped. It’s to be on the Red Steps, which didn’t exist the last ttime I was in NUC around 1970, so I looked it up, and yeah, I guess that’s a venue. But even in the evening I would expect there to be a whole lot of people in and around Times Square who are not there to see a performance. The play is Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People” (which is analogous to the ttrue story of CoViD and Dr. Fauci), and the cast will include Bill Murray. It will be Zoomed (and no, you don’t need to download Zoom to watch. You would if you wanted to comment. I don’t have Zoom, nor do I have awebcam nor a working microphone and I receive their transmissions just fine.) I will tryto watch it – it’s next Wednesday, so if next Thursday’s Open Thread is a bit skimpy, you will know why.  Also yesterday, I came across a new nickname “Rip van Stinkle.”  (It couldn’t have been thought of before the trial.)

Well, clearly they don’t wait until someone’s on the Supreme Court without starting to buy them up. I know, that comes as no surprise.

Also clearly we can look forward to another Senator who pulls no punches. (But I will still miss Katie and Barbara.)

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Open Thread October 24, 2023

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 242023
 

Yesterday, I was exhausted, and slept quite late. So I got busy putting this post together, and at a little before 8 p.m., I received an email informing me Margaret Atwood is having pacemaker surgery tomorrow, Wednesday. The link is to Substack, but if you are interested and don’t mind clicking the popup, you can find out more. She is due to turn 84 next month, and was only 12 whem she experienced her first extrasystole, and also she has a family history of Afib. I did see the episode of Impatient Griselda she alludes to, and no, I had no idea she was having an episode. But I take this seriously, however lightly she speaks of it. Although it’s unavoidable, I hate losing national treasures (even when it’s another nation – in this case, Canada.) And of course the pacemaker may well lenghthen her life significantly, so there’s that. I certainly hope it does.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Axios – Scoop: Marine Corps 3-star general advising Israeli military on Gaza ground operation
Quote – White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at a briefing on Monday that there “are a few U.S. military officers with relevant experience to the operation the Israelis are conducting that are over there to share their perspective and to ask hard questions — the same hard questions we have been asking our Israeli counterparts since the beginning.”
Click through for more. Here’s what I think is going on: Republicans (by whatever name) have much in common with children (particularly toddlers), and one of those commonalities is that, in order to persuade them to do something, you have to be able to get them to think it was their own idea. I could be wrong – but all that brain power looks like it to me.

The 19th – Tammy Baldwin has won big in closely divided Wisconsin. Can she do it again?
Quote – Baldwin is one of the country’s most progressive senators, and she’s running for a third term in what could be the country’s most closely divided state. She played a prominent role mobilizing Democratic voters ahead of a Wisconsin Supreme Court election this year that became a referendum on abortion rights. A lower court ruled this fall that abortions could resume in the state. Democrats believe that 2024 voters will remember the year in which their reproductive rights were in question; Republicans hope the ruling will diminish the issue’s salience next year. Either way, Baldwin also has a formidable track record of appealing to Wisconsin’s more rural, conservative pockets with her economic agenda — and she’s already busy talking to voters and raising money as she waits for a high-profile Republican challenger to enter the race.
Click through for article. I’m old enough to remember when Wisconsin was pretty progressive overall, and I find it actually painful that that has been lost – and so acrimoniously at that. This is Scott Walker’s “legacy.” It needs to go – and I wish Baldwin every success.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 9/22/2023

 Posted by at 12:01 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Sep 222023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Rudy Giuliani gets sued (again), this time for $1.3 million by his own former lawyers! [MAGA – Make Attornies Get Attornies]

The Lincoln Project – Fact Checking

PoliticsGirl – September 13, 2023

Liberal Redneck – Conservatives Trash the Military for Being “Woke” (commercial in the middle)

Disabled cat was about to be euthanized. This woman took her home.

Beau – Let’s talk about Biden, the UAW, and unions….

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Video Thread 9/13/2023

 Posted by at 12:04 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Sep 132023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump continues spewing his jury-pool-poisoning lies. When will prosecutors & judges limit his lies?

Thom Hartmann – If the GOP obstructs…the Dems Plan To Inflict Maximum Political Pain

MSNBC – Velshi: Donald Trump’s ‘banana republic’

Scared Ketchup – The Trump Show Ep 14 PROMO w/cohost MTG (AI PARODY)

Couple brings home a blind pup. Then came the surprise.

Beau – Let’s talk about Wisconsin and the GOP not getting the answer they wanted….

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Video Thread 9/3/2023

 Posted by at 12:07 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Sep 032023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Judge orders that Donald Trump’s Georgia state RICO trial will be televised

The Lincoln Project – Electile Dysfunction

The Ring of Fire – Trump’s Legal Team Gets Scolded Before Judge Rules Against Them

Parody Project – Not You, Ron-Ron – A Parody

Woman Finds Stray Mama Cat And Kittens Outside Her Office

Beau – Let’s talk about impeachment in Wisconsin….

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Video Thread 8/9/2023

 Posted by at 12:03 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Aug 092023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Absurd claim by Trump’s attorney that Trump only “technically” violated the Constitution

The Lincoln Project – Us vs. Trump

Democracy Now – “It’s a Way of Reparations”: Why Henrietta Lacks Settlement Matters for Bioethics & Racial Justice

The Ring of Fire – Trump’s Defense Strategy Could Result In A Very Quick Conviction

Shelter Cat Works At A Museum Now (Let it run all the way to see Indy’s full name)

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

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Open Thread April 5, 2023

 Posted by at 7:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 052023
 

Yesterday, the forecast predicted snow after 8:00 pm. Not unexpected in April ( or even in May), but for most of last week snow had been in the prediction for yesterday, and then for a couple of days it wasn’t predicted, and them it came back at the last minute. Also, within 6 days – next Monday – we’re supposed to expect a high of 80°F. Again, not entirely unexpected in April. As a person who grew up on the San Francisco Peninsula, the weather here continues to surprise me. One of the reasons I wanted to live in Colorado was that I wanted to experience four seasons. I just didn’t expect them to be all in the same week.

 

 

 

Last night NBC projected

Janet Protasiewicz as the winner in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race by a margin of 57.5% to 42.5%. Even if there are some votes out, that is a commanding margin. This means we are on track to get Wisconsin back to the sane side of the aisle. You can breathe again.

Cartoon – 05 veto RTL + Passover

Short Takes –

Axios – Trump pleads not guilty to 34 counts in hush-money case
Quote – Former President Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in a Manhattan criminal court related to 2016 hush money payments…. The historic indictment of the only president to be impeached twice has unified the Republican Party around him. Nearly every Republican in elected office has defended Trump and decried the indictment as politically motivated — with only a few prominent GOP defectors…. While that message is playing well with GOP voters, a new CNN poll indicates that 60% of Americans approve of the indictment.
Click through for more information. Here it is – the story we’ve all been waiting for – and now we can take a deep breath and start waiting for the next thing – whatever that may be. There are many possibilities.

Mother Jones – This Race Could Decide the Fate of Democracy in Wisconsin—and the 2024 Election
Quote – [I]f Daniel Kelly, a former conservative justice who criticized Hagedorn as “supremely unreliable” and was defeated by a liberal justice in April 2020, had still been on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Trump’s effort to overturn the election in Wisconsin likely would have succeeded, plunging the state and the nation into a constitutional crisis. Now Kelly is running again for his old job against Janet Protasiewicz, a progressive judge in Milwaukee County[.]
Click through for details. I’ve written about this before. Yesterday was the day. Robert Reich and Mary Trump also weighed in (with similar views.)

Food For Thought

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