Video Thread 10/18/23

 Posted by at 12:02 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Oct 182023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Judge Chutkan imposes gag order on Donald Trump in DC case to protect witnesses and others.

The Lincoln Project – The Choice is Clear

Thom Hartmann – This Army Aims to Stop Americans From Voting

Patrick Fitzgerald – Jackson (Johnny Cash Song Parody ft Donald Trump, Merrick Garland, and Jack Smith) [The song on which this parody is based, which was a hit for Johnny Cash and June Carter, was not a love song but a marital duel. It was loosely based on “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” If you llook up the lyrics, or watch a Cash/Carter video of “Jackson” you may find this even funnier)]

Guy Shows his Rescue Pittie the Wonders of Fall for the Very First Time

Beau – Let’s talk about much ado about $6 billion….

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Open Thread October 18, 2023

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 182023
 

Yesterday, this paragraph was in the public radio newsletter: “Colorado said the bridge that collapsed near Pueblo in a fatal train derailment was owned by the railroad company, but the company says the state owns it.” It’s going to be a long wait. Sigh. “Photos and videos posted by authorities showed the partially collapsed bridge with the semi-truck caught beneath in the right lane. The images also show a pileup of train cars and wheels scattered across the scene and loads of coal covering a portion of the highway. Thirty-nine cars of the 124 being hauled derailed, the National Transportation Safety Board said.”

Also, my ballot arrived.  I already knew how I wanted to vote on the two issues, but there is also a school board election.  Five candiedates.  Two vacancies.  At least this time Ballotpedia came through on a couple of them (one yes, one no) and another candidate ‘s name was unusual enough that just her name brought up that she’s registered D.  So I had two that I could vote for, and did.  The other two should have filled out the questionnaires.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

John Pavlovitz – The One Place to Stand in The Israel-Palestine Violence
Quote – As a person of faith, morality, and conscience, I don’t know where to stand in times like these—other than with squandered, brutalized life. That means I don’t get off so easy as to be able to make a tidy little declaration and walk away feeling good about myself. It means I have to leave the shallows of ambiguity and into deep waters of nuance and history and human nature. It means I have to read and learn, to listen and reflect, to pray and wrestle. It means I’ll end up with fewer answers and more questions and I might be sick to my stomach. But this place of staring at the ugly unfigureoutable is where I am, where many of us are.
Click through for full secular sermon – which is what I found it to be. Yes, John is a pastor, but he does his best to speak to everyone, and often succeeds. I think he succeeds here.

Colorado Public Radio – Navy honors sailor who helped stop Club Q shooting
Quote – During a ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 5, Rear Adm. Scott Robertson, director of Plans, Policy and Strategy for North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command, presented the medal on behalf of the Navy…. “I myself can only hope that I would channel the courage in our Navy core values like he did,” Robertson said. “But, we don’t have to wait for crisis to apply core values. We can and should apply them every day. That’s what I am taking away from the lessons you taught us all.”
Click through for full story.  This is a week or more old – I saved it until Pat got back. Thank God Tommy Tuberville didn’t have his way before this occurred – it could have been much worse.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 10/16/23

 Posted by at 11:55 am  Open Thread, Politics
Oct 162023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Federal judge “punishes” Rudy Giuliani in defamation suit for “flagrant” violation of court orders

The Lincoln Project – Submission

Thom Hartmann – The Trials of Donald Trump…Will Democracy Be a Victim?

Scared Ketchup – Trump’s Tiny White Balls 2

Pittie Rescued From Highway Finally Wins Over His Cat Brother

Beau – Let’s talk about 2 friends and a question…. (hanky alert)

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Video Thread 10/13/2023

 Posted by at 12:07 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Oct 132023
 

Glenn Kirschner – DA Willis says Jim Jordan is “abusing” his authority & “obstructing” her RICO prosecution of Trump

The Lincoln Project – Good Night America – very soft, and no CC, so here’s transcript:
Mom: Hey, honey –
Child: what, mommy?
M: You asked me to wake you up to tell you the results of the election
C: Who won?
M: Trump. Trump won.
C: You said he could only be President two times.
M: (Whisper) Not any more
Mob chanting: I can’t make it out. It sounds to me like M-R-U or N-R-U but I can’t make sense of that.

Ring of Fire – Furious Sean Hannity Delivers Most Ironic Rant Ever On Fox News

Patrick Fitzgerald – The Longest Time (Donald Trump / Billy Joel Song Parody)

Bunny Thumps At Mom When He’s Mad

Beau – Let’s talk about an update and what we know….

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Open Thread October 12, 2023

 Posted by at 5:59 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 122023
 

Yesterday, a little-known conversation from many years ago (which was recently quoted by Steve Schmidt) popped up in my mind to haunt me. I can’t say it any better then Steve did, so I’ll quote him: “There is an extraordinary account of a late night meeting that took place between FDR and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in the White House from Nigel Hamilton’s “FDR at War“ trilogy. The two leaders talked late into the night. King returned to his room and wrote down the details of the conversation. FDR outlined to King his vision for what would come after victory in World War II. He said something chilling from the perspective of 2023. He said that nothing lasts forever, and that included his vision for the future. He told King that he hoped it would endure for as long as everyone who was alive on the day the war was won was still alive. The youngest of those people are 77 years old today.” Well, I am 78, and I’m still here. So is Mitch, whio is a bit older. The rest of us who think here are younger (as was TC). I wish all of us long lives free of world war. Also yesterday, Steve Scalise defeated Jim Jordan to be the nominee for speaker. We shall see whether Republicans can come together on this or any nominee. Oh, and The New Yorker had an article on dizziness/vertigo in their daily newsletter. I haven’t had any symptoms for months, but I “printed” it anyway (to my C drive for now – I’ll copy to a portable hard drive eventually.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – ‘Violence-Ready’ Militia Group Says Jan. 6’ers are Idiots
Quote – A male-only movement in the U.S. dressed up as a sports club catering to white men is taking over the right-wing social scene—and promising some dangerous results…. The clubs advertise as sporting groups designated for white-only men, but their real objective, Ritzmann tells The New Abnormal, “is to essentially train a white supremacist militia.”… [Ritzmann] says “Day X” could look similar to the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but adds of the rioters, “they have [been] discussed as being a bunch of idiots who don’t know how to storm a building properly. And they discuss this in a, let’s say, indirect way, because they don’t want law enforcement to focus on them.”
Click through for details. The podcast the article references is also on the page,. and I listened to the whole thing so you wouldn’t have to. The part which expands on the artile starts at approximately 18:40 and ends at 36:35. I also encourage anyone who has not seen Rachel Maddow’s podcast “Ultra” to look it up (and everyone who has seen it to refresh their memory.) It was not easy then to bring America together to oppose fascism, and it won’t be easy now. When I said we needed Joe Biden to be another FDR this was not what I had in mind. But apparently, it comes with the territory.

Jeff Tiedrich – holy shit, Donald Trump gave classified Israeli intel to Putin — probably more than once
Quote – let’s take a closer look at a thing I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s post. Donald Trump fucking loves to collude with Russia. Trump desperately wants to be Vladimir’s bestie. he does everything he can to stay in Putin’s good graces. why? is it because Donny dreams of opening a Trump Tower in Moscow? is it something more insidious, like kompromat? in the end, it doesn’t matter. what matters is that Donald Trump is a Russian asset.
Click through for article. Yes, Jeff has a pottymouth, but he tends to be accurate in both facts and interpretation.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread October 11, 2023

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 112023
 

Yesterday, I had calmed down some and thought maybe I was cool enough to address the Middle East war – though still not in my own words. I’m going to give you three articles without comment. One of them appears to be on Substack – it doesn’t exactly say so, but the quote function it uses looks like Substack’s. At least the clicking to continue is not too onerous – certainly less so than YouTube has become. While I was putting it together, my keyboard – um -started pining for the fjords -I tried new batteries, but no luck. So I’ll be getting a new one. I may be able to find a corded one I can use as a temp. The on-screen one is not that much slower, but it obscures part of the screen.   Update – I found it.  It’s laid out a bit funny but it works.  And as a postscript – George Santos was hit with 23 new charges, including identity theft.

Cartoon –  Number 2 of 4.

Short Takes –

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/09/israel-war-hamas-benjamin-netanyahu-government
The Guardian – We feel fear, anger and helplessness: all of Israel is in a state of war. But revenge is not the answer
Quote – Here in Jerusalem, we are trying to hold on to the hope that Hamas won’t launch missiles towards the city due to its proximity to al-Aqsa mosque, but the general anxiety still lingers. Schools have been closed, as have all businesses, and very few people are on the streets. Those who don’t have to, do not leave their homes. On Saturday night, after hours of anxious staring at the television and social media, my daughter was panicked by the fear that Hamas militants, armed and still inside Israeli territory, might make their way to Jerusalem and attack us in our home. Only after a thorough tour of the public shelters in the neighbourhood did she calm down slightly and manage to fall asleep.

https://www.dogshirtdaily.com/p/how-not-to-respond-to-a-terrorist
Dog Shirt Daily – How Not to Respond to a Terrorist Attack
Quote – The reason I don’t write about Israeli-Palestinian matters much is that the more time I have spent with them, the less I think I have anything useful to say on the subject. The process of spending time with the actual conflict has humbled me to the point that I am these days much more interested in asking questions than I am in making pronouncements. I am much more interested in conveying information than I am in telling people what I think—when I even know what I think, which is increasingly infrequent.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-israel-was-duped-hamas-planned-devastating-assault-2023-10-08/
Reuters – How Hamas duped Israel as it planned devastating attack
Quote – A careful campaign of deception ensured Israel was caught off guard when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched its devastating attack, enabling a force using bulldozers, hang gliders and motorbikes to take on the Middle East’s most powerful army. Saturday’s assault, the worst breach in Israel’s defences since Arab armies waged war in 1973, followed two years of subterfuge by Hamas that involved keeping its military plans under wraps and convincing Israel it did not want a fight. While Israel was led to believe it was containing a war-weary Hamas by providing economic incentives to Gazan workers, the group’s fighters were being trained and drilled, often in plain sight, a source close to Hamas said.

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Open Thread October 10, 2023

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 102023
 

Yesterday being a holiday, the courts and everything else were closed, and in any case all eyes were on the Middle East. In that connection, I would say only that, just because a person belongs to a group which has actually, historically, been victimized (as opposed to, say, MAGAts, who who do a lot of whining but are no more victims than, oh, say American police union members) does not mean a person cannot be a jerk. Well, also, that pointing out that something a person is doing is morally questionable at best is not the same thing as calling that person an unmitigated moral degenerate. Screaming insults and accusations does not a conversation make. If I knew how to say that so that a substantial majority of humans would actually hear it, I definitely would. But I don’t. I do want to mention that Pat B.’s family has sustained a loss, and I don’t know, nor does she, how long she will be MIA, but it will be a while.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Wonkette (Substack) – NYTimes Compares Conservatives Annoyed By Unhoused People To Parents Of Trans Kids Being Denied Healthcare
Quote – It’s lovely that they are happy, that they feel safer, and that they are not annoying the good people of Portland with their bullshit. Couldn’t be happier for them! But they’re also entirely ridiculous. Troy is a rural town with a population of 15,000, while Portland is a bustling metropolis with a population of about 641,000. Obviously there would be more crime there. There would also be less crime in any town in Oregon with a population of 15,000, owing to the fact that there are just fewer people to do any crime. That’s just math. In fact, it would likely be a lot more safe, as Missouri has the ninth highest violent crime rate in the nation, while Oregon ranks 36th. Troy is an exurb of St. Louis, the city with the highest crime rate in the United States. Portland? Portland has the 62nd highest crime rate of any city in the United States, even with all them liberal policies what so frightened the Huckinses. Oh, and St. Louis only has about a third of the population of Portland.
Click through for article. Today’s FFT is from this article, and IMO summarizes it well.

Thomas Zimmer (also Substack – sorry) – Why America’s Elites Love to Decry “Polarization”
Quote – In the final third of the book, Klein himself emphasizes that we are not looking at a radicalization on both sides of the political spectrum. He emphasizes the difference between the Right, entirely focused on the interests and sensibilities of white conservatives, and a Democratic coalition that is much more diverse – ideologically, racially and ethnically, and in terms of cultural sensibilities: “Sorting has made Democrats more diverse and Republicans more homogeneous. As a result, appealing to Democrats requires appealing to a lot of different kinds of people with different interests.” (p. 230) As a matter of fact, Klein sees Democrats as extremely resistant to political extremism due to this heterogeneity of their supporters: “Democrats,” the author argues, “have an immune system of diversity and democracy.” (Why We’re Polarized, p. 229)
Click through for full argument. While I certainly feel polarized, in that I feel that MAGA lunacy is the polar opposite of my beliefs, he’s right. True polarization requires both sides to be “the same” but in opposite directions. And both sides are not the same.  Not in any way.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread August 31, 2023

 Posted by at 5:50 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 312023
 

Yesterday, Mitch McConnell froze again, Idalia made landfall in Florida’s “Big Bend” region (which is exactly where you think it would be), our Mitch emailed his list that he and his are in no danger, and, by evening, Idalia was down to a tropical storm.  Late the night before, I read that Fani Willis has asked the judge to  put all the speedy-trial-demanders into a single trial, and therefore on the same date, October 23, if legally possible.  It hadn’t occurred to me that it might not be so I was assuming they would all be tried together (Eastman is number three.)  It’s consederably more complex than I thought.  Harry Litman explains the contingencies, in this vodeo, which has CC and therefore generates a transcript (click the 3 dots tp the right of the up-down-share line and “open trancript”.)  I hope it works out with the minimum number of seperate trials (which i believe would be four – but what do I know.)   Georgia’s doing us all a big favor and should not be required to break the bank to do it.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Family Recalls Jacksonville Shooting Victim’s Last Call With Daughter
Quote – Several other relatives told the Associated Press that Gallion was a devoted father, and though his relationship with the child’s mother didn’t work out, he still had the respect of her family. “He never missed a beat,” Sabrina Rozier, the child’s maternal grandmother, said Sunday at a vigil honoring the victims. “He got her every weekend. As a matter of fact, he was supposed to have her (Saturday).”… “My heart melted for my granddaughter, because she was his world and he was her world. And now we’re trying to figure out how to tell her, because we haven’t told her yet and she’s only 4.”
Click through for more. I do appreciate the Beast telling the story in a respectful way. We don’t always see that.

Robert Reich – Globaloney: Why the Democrats’ love affair with “free trade” is over
Quote – But “globalization” is not a force of nature. How it works and whom it benefits or harms depend on specific, negotiated rules about which assets will be protected and which will not. In most trade deals, the assets of American corporations (including intellectual property) have been protected. If another nation adopts strict climate regulations that reduce the value of U.S. energy assets in that country, the country must compensate the American firms. Wall Street has been granted free rein to move financial assets into and out of our trading partners. But the jobs and wages of American workers have not been protected. Why shouldn’t American corporations that profit from trade be required to compensate American workers for job losses due to trade?
Click through for full assessment. It’s not news that unregulated anything helps only the wealthiest and hurts the reat of us. This does point up that regulation itself needs to be both accurately designed andproperly administered

CPR – [Senator] John Hickenlooper showed up at a SAG-AFTRA rally, and not just as a supporter — he’s paid his dues (literally)
Quote – He was there not just as a supporter, he said, but as a dues-paying member of SAG-AFTRA’s local chapter. That’s because the senator’s cousin, the late filmmaker George Hickenlooper, had a habit of casting him for bit parts. Among them was the film “Casino Jack,” released in 2010 when Hickenlooper was mayor of Denver. He played a U.S. Senator with one big line: “Remove that man.” “My cousin George made me do 28 takes,” Hickenlooper told the crowd near the City Park boathouse.
Click through – I’m not going to be able to keep up three a day, even in a week like this, but I thought this was cute, and I didn’t want to bump anything else for something this light. It was news to me.

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