Open Thread March 11, 2022

 Posted by at 6:36 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 112022
 

Yesterday, It snowed again – which was not predicted – and stayed sub-freezing all day – which was predicted. And it felt cold, colder than usual, inside as well. The other day i made a reference to the ki-ki-bird, and I shall now explain it. It was a joke, when I was in service, that at bases like Adak, AK, one migh, when it was sub-zer, hear the call of the ki-ki-bird: “Ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-RIST, it’s cold!” It’s not that cold inside today .. but I’ll bet it is outsode!.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

ProPublica – When Billionaires Don’t Pay Taxes, People “Lose Faith in Democracy”
Quote – [Senator Ron] Wyden’s bill seeks to counteract a technique that the ultrawealthy can use to avoid income taxes: They hold on to their assets and simply avoid the income — and tax — that comes when they sell them. The rich can live lavishly by employing a technique known as “Buy, Borrow, Die,” in which they buy or build assets, borrow against them and then avoid estate and gift taxes when they die.
Click through for details. It seems self-evident to me, but I’m sure some wont believe it without “receipts” (and some won’t believe it regardless of evidence.)

The Hill – FBI agent: Suspects in Whitmer kidnapping plot arrested over ‘real concern’ they might obtain explosives
Quote – This comes as prosecutors allege that the four men, [Adam] Fox, Barry Croft Jr., Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta, plotted the kidnapping of Whitmer due to their frustration of statewide COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. They planned to snatch her from her vacation home and blow up a nearby bridge to slow authorities’ response to the incident.
Click through for story. May the conviction be swift and the sentence appropriate.

Women’s History – Huff Post – Republicans Keep Attacking Biden’s Judicial Nominees For Being Good Lawyers
Quote – It’s been a pretty over-the-top and performative few months for the Judiciary Committee. But cutting through the drama, what’s not amusing is what Republicans have actually been arguing: that poor people charged with crimes don’t deserve any legal representation at all, and lawyers representing them should be ashamed for doing it.
Click through if you can stand to. Cruz and Hawley in particular – it would be a real public service if they could be investiga6ted back to birth. You just know that crimes would be found. And I say that knowing that both hold security clearances.

Food For Thought:

Sorry but I just had to add this:

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Video Thread 3/10/22

 Posted by at 12:10 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Mar 102022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Bill Barr Has Direct Evidence of Trump’s Criminal Intent & Must be Subpoenaed by DOJ for Grand Jury

Thom Hartmann – Did Young People Forget Cold War?

MSNBC – McFaul: Captured Russians Have No Explanation For Why They’re In Ukraine

Rebel HQ – Richard Ojeda RIPS Into The “People’s Convoy”

RepresentUs – Elizabeth Warren Rails Against Dark Money

Women’s History – Armageddon Update – with Mrs. Titus

Beau – Let’s talk about why Lindsey Graham is on Russian TV….

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Open Thread March 10, 2022

 Posted by at 6:47 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 102022
 

Yesterday, more than one newsletter was so hot, I found myself overwhelmed. Just some samples – Headlines from Crooks and Liars: “Indictment of Rand Paul In-Law May Lead to Even Bigger Fish” “Trolling Putin: Street Renamed ‘President Zelensky [sic] Way in Front of Russian Embassy” “FINALLY: Senate Passes Anti-Lynching Bill, 67 Years Later” “Irishman Plows His Truck into Russian Embassy: ‘I’ve Done My Bit, Lads'” Headlines from The 19th: “Raising a transgender child in Texas has been one long political emergency” “2022 elections are important, women say — but a poll suggests they may be too overwhelmed to prioritize politics” Headlines from Wonkette: “You Want A Fugitive Uterus Act? Missouri Will Give You A Fugitive Uterus Act” “Michigan GOP Nominee, World’s Worst Dad Says Truly Vile Sh*t About Rape” “Grisly Murderer Goes All Mean Girls On Joe Biden” Not to mention the breaking news from Colorado Public Radio (i did put this in a comment on yesterday’s Open Thread, but in case you missed it) “Election security breach leads to charges for Mesa Clerk Tina Peters.”

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

NM Political Report – A small Texas-based group urges New Mexico counties to oppose 30×30
Quote – It didn’t take long for a small group founded by the daughter of a couple involved in the 1990s Sagebrush Rebellion to mobilize after President Joe Biden released an executive order in January 2021 that called for conserving 30 percent of the country’s lands and water by 2030. Since then, American Stewards of Liberty have successfully led counties across the United States to pass resolutions opposing the initiative, including five New Mexico counties—Chaves, Otero, Catron, Quay, Lea and Sandoval. San Juan County may pass such a resolution in the future.
Click through for details. Funny how right wing “grassroots” seem to alwats turn out to be well funded PACs.

ProPublica – Billionaire-Backed Group Enlists Trump-Supporting Citizens to Hunt for Voter Fraud Using Discredited Techniques
Quote – “Voter rolls are very, very important to the process,” Florida software and database engineer Jeff O’Donnell told the gathering of 300 in late January in Chippewa Falls, deeming the rolls “the ground zero” of what he called Democratic plots to steal elections. The only way former President Donald Trump could have lost his reelection campaign in 2020, O’Donnell said in an interview, was if voter rolls had been inflated with people who shouldn’t have been able to cast ballots.
Click through for full story. This is so deluded it would be laughable, were it not so dangerous.

Women’s History – The 19th – The only all-Black women’s unit sent to Europe during WWII is awarded a Congressional medal
Quote – Led by Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley, the highest-ranking Black woman officer at the time, the 850-woman battalion departed from New York in 1945 for England and later France. The unit included medics, dining hall workers, police, transportation, administrative and other support service members. Their mission: processing millions of letters and packages that had been backlogged, unopened and collecting dust for months and even years, a crucial task that kept soldiers connected to their families.
Click through for story. I had not known this. Now that I do, I can only say “:About G-D- time.”

Food For Thought:


(If you click on the link, you can see more of Joan)

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Open Thread March 9, 2022

 Posted by at 7:11 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 092022
 

Yesterday, unexpectedly, we had a high temperature above freezing (only 37°F, but still. Definitely too warm to hear the call of the ki-ki-bird.) I did go to the mailbox, because my informed delivery said there was a card or letter from my first cousin. Turned out to be a New Year’s card. Stiil worth getting. I donned a fleece coat and gloves, so I’m fine.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Mother Jones – A Message From an American Fighting in Ukraine
Quote – A week or so ago, Sergey Nevstruyev, a 59-year-old father of four and grandfather of three who owns construction and remodeling businesses in North Carolina, was in his home in Charlotte, watching the horrific images of Vladimir Putin’s illegal attack on Ukraine. Today he is in Kyiv, serving as a major in a Ukrainian brigade commanded by Serhiy Melnychuk, a well-known former member of the Ukrainian parliament and onetime military commander who led a volunteer militia that fought Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Click through for the rest of the story. I’ve long felt that David Corn is Mother Jones’s counterpart to the New Yorker’s David Remnick – just my opinion.

Robert Reich – Five ways Putin’s war could (possibly) make America better but only if we push for them
they are – 1. Help Americans endure higher fuel prices.
2. Move the nation toward green energy.
3. Trim the military-industrial complex.
4. Put democracy and human rights at the center of American foreign policy.
5. Protect and expand voting rights in America.
Click through for amplification.- The Reich on the left is right – as usual (approaching always.) Today’s Republican Party being what it is, I have doubts that pushing hard enough is possible. But that’s no reason not to try. Because if not now, when?

Women’s History – Wikipedia – Maria Mitchell
Quote – Mitchell was the first internationally known woman to work as both a professional astronomer and a professor of astronomy after accepting a position at Vassar College in 1865. She was also the first woman elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Cllick through for bio. I am using Wikipedia in order to be consistent, but I’ve drawn the names from a variety of sources. I had actually heard of Ms. Mitchell, but that was recently and in an obscure place. Anyone who is into astronomy probably knows about her – others, not so much.

Food For Thought:
(Dan Brown is a LinkedIn contact of mine. However, I don’t know his source (yes, the name is there, I just don’t know who he is). So I share this for what it is worth.)

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Video Thread 3/8/22

 Posted by at 12:13 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Mar 082022
 

Glenn Kirschner – House Select Committee Files Court Pleading Saying Evidence Shows Trump committed Crimes Against US

Lincoln Project – Biden’s Response to Tyranny

Meidas Touch – Ukraine Will Win

MSNBC – Lt. Col. (Ret.) Vindman: Putin Is Taking Russia Back To The “Depths Of The Cold War”

Twitter – a statement from “Anonymous” (After watching Beau fpr a while now,  love it that their Twitter handle is “@squad303”)

The Daily Show – Honoring the Fiendish Women in History (I considered using Peggy Arnold myself this month, but decided not to – even before I saw this,)

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump, Eastman, and the committee….

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Open Thread March 8, 2022

 Posted by at 6:57 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 082022
 

Yesterday, most of Sunday’s snow was gone. However, although we are expecting sun today, it won’t warm up to above freezing before Friday. Good thing I like staying inside.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Conversation – How do Russia’s reasons for war stack up? An expert on ‘just war’ explains
Quote – That’s not to say that [philosophers, theologians, politicians and military leaders] always agree on how to apply just war principles to an actual conflict. Given the Kremlin’s attempts to justify its invasion of Ukraine, including its groundless accusations of genocide, it’s worth analyzing Russia’s position through the lens of the just war tradition – the focus of my work as a political scientist who studies the ethics of conflict.
Click through for a crash course in what makes waging war morally acceptable. As she shoud, the author works hard to be fair. This question is not black and white, but multiple shades pf gray.

Great Power – There is no way back. [Part 1] [If we want the war to stay in Ukraine, we have to win it in Ukraine.]
Quote – Since the first boom, Ukrainian strategic decision-making was actually about looking for victory — which technically is what strategy is for; strategy is a theory of success in war — and about creating opportunity for something other than just dying quietly in the mud and the rubble. This has given them an incalculable advantage over Russia. And honestly, over us. We haven’t caught up yet.
Click through for the full article. I am not, of course, on Twitter, but someone at DU who is found this article recommended in a tweet by LTC Vindman.

Women’s History – Wikipedia – Grace Hopper
Quote – Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first linkers. Hopper was the first to devise the theory of machine-independent programming languages.
Click through for bio. How could I possibly do a Women’s History month (and on a blog where Pat B is a prime contributor) without including “Amazing Grace”?

Food For Thought:

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Open Thread March 7, 2022

 Posted by at 6:43 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 072022
 

Yesterday, I took some time to look up interesting women for this month. My collection is rather personal – mostly women I had never hear of myself, but also a few whom I had heard of but who have been forgotten since. Perhaps we can all learn something.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – GOP Senators Ripped For Reckless Tweets During Zelenskyy Zoom Call
Quotes – “The Ukrainian Ambassador very intentionally asked each of us on the zoom to NOT share anything on social media during the meeting to protect the security of President Zelenskyy. Appalling and reckless ignorance by two US Senators.”
“Why the hell would you risk that man’s life by tweeting this in real time when you were specifically asked not to?!”
“Still on the payroll, I see. Couldn’t follow directions on the Zoom call, huh? Is Pootie paying you in crypto now that the ruble has tanked?”
Click through for more. You probably heard that this happened (although Grassley was not included when I first heard it.) And the volcano of fury it stirred up among all decent prople will do nothing to help keep him alive. But ti’s good to know decent prople are out there. (Is there any difference between this and Bo ebert tweeting out Speaker Pelosi’s location on January 6?)

Letters from an American – March 5, 2022
Quote – Aaron Blake of the Washington Post reported on Thursday that after Trump won the 2016 election and we learned that Russia had interfered to help him, Republicans’ approval of Putin jumped from about 14% to 37%. In the Des Moines Register today, columnist Rekha Basu explained how the American right then swung behind Putin because they saw him as a moral crusader, defending religion and “traditional values,” from modern secularism and “decadence,” using a strong hand to silence those who would, for example, defend LGBTQ rights. [emphasis mine]
Click through, and you’ll learn a lot about tha conflict in Ukraine. But it’s the conflict in the United States I wanted to highight. Wingnuts were not brainwashed by Trump**. They were brainwashed in advance to accept Trump**. At least that goes to explain why so many who are now turning on him over vaccines are not letting go of the tiniest fraction of the insanity.

Women’s History – Wikipedia – Hypatia of Alexandria
Quote – Hypatia was renowned in her own lifetime as a great teacher and a wise counselor. She wrote a commentary on Diophantus’s thirteen-volume Arithmetica, which may survive in part, having been interpolated into Diophantus’s original text, and another commentary on Apollonius of Perga’s treatise on conic sections, which has not survived. Many modern scholars also believe that Hypatia may have edited the surviving text of Ptolemy’s Almagest, based on the title of her father Theon’s commentary on Book III of the Almagest.
Click hrough for bio. Her name survived into my lifetime as a decriptive term applied to a woman who was a teacher of, and or inspirational to, some dude (e.g., “His wife iwas his Hypatia.”) But that seems to have dropped out of common use, at least in the U.S.

Food For Thought:

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Open Thread March 6, 2022

 Posted by at 6:55 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 062022
 

Yesterday, the opera was a historic broadcast (next week they will get back to live broadcasts for the rest of the season.) They had a list of around 10 and asked listeners to vote (I didn’t because I didn’t have aa favorite.) The voting went to “Tha Daughter of the Regiment” from 1973, with Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti. What’s primarily historic about it is that it was Pavarotti’s broadcast debut, and includes the aria which gave him the nickname “Monarch of the high C’s.” I’m not a dedicated Pavarotti fan, but there’s no question he deserved that title. Those C’s were beautiful to hear, as well as inspiring to so many tenors who have come after him. (It’s also the opera in which RBG famously played the [speaking] role of the Duchess of Krakenthorpe – but that was not in this production, it was in Washington DC in 2016 – and again in 2021.) in esearching those dates. I also discovered she loved new opereas as much as lder ones, as do I. But this one – and the one written about her and Scalia, must have held special places in her heart.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Vox – The fate of American elections is in Amy Coney Barrett’s hands
Quote – Four members of the Court have already endorsed [the independent state legislature] doctrine, despite the fact that the Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected it over the course of more than a century. Along with Gorsuch, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh all embraced it in lawsuits seeking to alter which rules would govern the 2020 election. Meanwhile, the three liberal justices plus Chief Justice John Roberts have all signaled that they will not overrule the more than 100 years’ worth of Supreme Court decisions rejecting [this] doctrine. So, unless Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, or Kavanaugh has an unexpected change of heart, the fate of American democracy is now in Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s hands.
Click through for details. I sense a possible subtext here, though I may be wrong – if it isn’t just random, if someone decides which justice gets to consider each case, it could be that someone is willing to throw Barrett under the bus if (when) the backlash is overwhelming.

Aeon – The many deaths of liberalism
Quote – Not coincidentally, all of these critics are living, writing and publishing in liberal countries. And they are demonstrating one of liberalism’s most successful features simply by participating in the quintessentially liberal enterprise of dialogue and disagreement under constitutional protections (with liberal limitations). These are, in fact, the only states in which actual competition for power and dissent is not just allowed but fostered. No one living in a totalitarian society has had the luxury of declaring liberalism, let alone totalitarianism, dead.
Click through for essay. There’s very little new information here, but it’s a strong reminder that the fight to make our nation more liberal – closer to the actual ideals of liberalism – will never ne over, by its very nature. So we always need to keep going. And as Samuel Johnson said, human beings do not need to be instructed so much as they need to be reminded

Women’s History – Smithsonian: Women’s Futures Month
Quote – Calling all citizen scientists, do-gooders, plant lovers, activists, advocates, dreamers, and creators! Join us in March 2022, when the Smithsonian shakes up Women’s History Month with a new Women’s Futures Month: a forward-looking celebration of the power of women and girls in STEM to shape a better world.
Click through for background and programs. The Smithsonian wants to focus on the future rather than the past, and that is certainly also useful – not just for women.

Food For Thought:

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