Open Thread May 10 2024

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 102024
 

Yesterday, I got two petitions which I did not sign (along with a bunch of others that I did sign.) Both were from Left Action (I don’t know whether it is a wing of Care2/The Petition Site, that is who hosts its petitions.) The first one I saw (the second I received becaue I read my emails from the top down) was addressed to Judge Merchan and was headed “Don’t let Trump’s lawyers get a mistrial.” The problem is that it is addressed to the judge. Prople not involved in the trial pushing the judge to rule a certain way could be construed as obstruction of justice. The other one was regarding remmoving Aileen Cannon from the Mar-a Lago case. It didn’t specifically say it was addressed to the Citcuit Court (I forget which District that is), but I had to assume that it is, since that’s the only body which can do what is petitioned. I’m not saying no one can petition the courts, but this is not the way. Such a petition would have to come from someone with standing, like a group which had filed an amicus brief. We have all gotten so accustomed to “Don’t like something? Sign/start a petition that we have lost sight of the need to address those petitions to the entity which can actually act on them, and that entity had better not be someone in the justice system for whome the petiton could be construed as obstruction. Judge Merechan has been doing everything he possibly can from the day the case was assigned to him to insure there will be no mistrial. This petition could even conceivably increase the chances of a mistrial, not reduce them, if it is actually delivered and Trump**’s defense team find out about it. Both petitions were from n email address which can apparently be responded to, since i did and haven’t received a non-delivery notice. I hope y’all will consider this concerning these and any other petition involving any court. You can probably petition the prosecutor, maybe even the defense, but please, not the judge.

At least this is good news – if, as Ben said, we can keep it. I can guarantee that, should Trump** win, we cannot. And even if he doesn’t, if enough of his followers get into/stay in Congress, I certainly wouldn’t guarantee being able to keep it.

More proof that it’s not about life, it’s about control. With my age and experience, I probably shouldn’t be – but I was shocked by the sheer volume.

I don’t see how any sane person can fail to be in awe of Volodomyr Zelensky. Eleven assassination attempts and still trucking. Fly high, Ukrainian Guy!

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Open Thread May 9, 2024

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 092024
 

Yesterday, Douglas County High bowed to community pressure. I had not mentioned this earlier, but the back story is that they thought it would be nice to have their graduation ceremony this year at the Air Force Academy. Douglas County is one of two counties just north of mine; it’s the one that’s mostly mountain, while the other is mostly plains. Still, someone had the brain and spine to point out that if graduation was held at the Academy, undocumented students would not be able to attend their own graduation. (Also non-citizens without passports and family members with a prior felony conviction would not be able to attend.) So they have moved it again, this time to Parker, CO. The letter announcing the change sounds a little grudging to me, but they say actions speak louder than words, so I’ll take it.

If this doesn’t make you angry, I don’t know what will. It would appear Kahn sees Sulzberger the way MAGAs see Trump**. Or maybe the way he sees Trump**. Whatever, it’s not good.

It really is no wonder that Trump** thinks a President can do anything he wants to when so many voters think that Joe Biden can do anything he wants to. I know, I’m the one who put up the meme comparing Joe to wizards, but the fact he is but a decent and law-abiding human being. If he could wave a wand or stomp the floor with a staff or flash a light saber and by doing so achieve peace in the Middle East, I’m sure he would do so (and also in Ukraine.)But he can’t. There are laws and rules he has to respect. Robert Hubbell understands that.

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Open Thread May 7, 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 072024
 

Yesterday, I received an Axios alert emai telling me that Bernie Sanders is running for reelection. Good. I’m not a big fan of Axios editorially, but their alerts are usually the first time a nugget of news hits my inbox. I also received an email from the National Popular Vote Compact that Maine has joined. They are working steadily in other states as well. I wouldnn’t get my hopes up too high, but it’s close enough now that it would not be impossible for us to have enough states by November.

Some details here I haven’t seen elsewhere. Of course that may be just me.

As angry as we all were and are to learn that Clarence Thomas – and other justices – have failed todisclose high-dollar gifts from billionaires, I think we’d rather know about it than not know about it. Certainly the Pulitzer Prize people would.. They have awarded Pro Publica the Gold Medal for Public Service for breaking the story.

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Open Thread May 2, 2024

 Posted by at 5:51 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 022024
 

Yesterday, going through my email, I came across this headline at Wonkette: “Does It Count As A ‘Post-Birth Abortion’ When DeSantis Takes Away A Sick Child’s Healthcare?” Good question. It certanly seems like it should, doesn’t it?

Heather Cox Richardson writes about the interview with Trump** in Time magazine. I don’t subscribe to Time, so this is a convenience to me – horrifying as it is. Feel free to share it widely.

Joe Biden is certainly trying to extend humanitarian aid as widely as possible. This is such a difficult situation for anyone wanting to bring peace to the middle east – because the hostilities go back literally thousands of years – and both sides are wrong – and both sides are right. (Well, not Netanyahu – but he is not the whole side. And that’s a big part of the problem.)

Having bought and sold one house in North Carolina, handling my mother’s estate, buying the home i am currently living in anf refinancing it twice or three times, and also having at least signed petitions concerning the difficulty of black voters, especially in the American South, for getting voter ID – so many with no birth certificates – that these situations would have occurred to me as a problem. It didn’t, because privilege. But having now been told about it, I can certainly see the potential for massive Jim Crow abuse.

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Open Thread May 1, 2024

 Posted by at 6:21 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 012024
 

On Monday, Steve Schmidt’s two related articles got me thinking about the church during my lifetime, in which time there have been 7 popes: Pius XII, John XXIII (the one under whom I became a Catholic), Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and now Francis. Of them, only two IMO were any good: John and Francis (I think John Paul I might have been, but he only lived 30 days after election, so it’s not easy to tell.) “Catholic” is Greek for “universal” or, as we now say, “big tent,” and the bigger the tent, the more likely there will be rogues in it. That’s just a fact. But that’s one of the things the papacy is for – to correct the rogues. Not as was done for so long, by burning them alive, but through counseling. And if that doesn’t work – well, that’s what excomminication is for. Not every Catholic agrees with me on that, and that’s fine – a big tent is supposed to be big. It’s just how I feel, and it may be because I’m more aware of the dangers of – shall we say, allowing poisonous serpents around the house. And stories like this one – well, I’m sure y’all can see where I’m coming from.

Steve Schmidt is pissed, and so am I.  He posted two articles on this, one with more background, the other with more details on this assault.  Grrrr.

I can only hope this “Founders Sing” video (NSFW) about Don Snorleone (AKA the Nodfather) will alleviate some of the sting from the first article.

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Open Thread April 29, 2024

 Posted by at 6:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 292024
 

Yesterday, Trinete was by. She brought in my mail and took out my trash (and recyclables). We (I only helped a little) dismantled a chair which was broken beyond repair (my trash company doesn’t take furniture, but if we dismantle it andsend it out a little at a tim, it gets taken.) She says “Hi!” to all.

Friday night’s letter from Heather Cox Richardson summarized last week. Much of is is familiar, but there are one or two things which, as far as I can tell, flew under the radar.

Steve Schmidt writes about the new movie, “Bad Faith,” about the rise of Christian Nationalism and how dangerous it is. He provides a link to the trailer, as well as the locations where it can be streamed. It’s meant to be frightening, and it is, because Christian Nationalism is – well, I’ll say demonic. You an ake that as a metaphor or however you wish.

Long, but the length is necessary for the topic

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Open Thread April 26, 2024

 Posted by at 6:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 262024
 

Yesterday, catching up on my email, I came across the comment (about Trump**) that “None of his family has showed up to support him.” Not that this is the first time I have seen it, sometimes with the variant “or friends” (he has no friends), but it was the first time it occurred to me that he probably would not consider their showing up to be support at all. He would see it as scene-stealing, and he’d be furious.

This short (2 minutes) video from the Center for Media and Democracy is about the movement on the right to have a new Constitutional Convention. I don’t like scaring people, but fear exists because it has survival value (in this case the survival of democracy.) We don’t need to panic – it’s not helpful – but we do need to be aware of it. The text under the video (I needed to click “more”) provides two links to more information.

After that, I need – and probably you do too – something upbeat. Colorado Public Radio doesn’t always deliver that – but today they came through.

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Open Thread April 25, 2024

 Posted by at 6:14 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 252024
 

Yesterday, the Arizona State House voted to overturn the 1864 abortion law, the one whose author has been so discredited. If it gets through the Senate, the Democratic Governor will, I am sure, sign it. Arizona appears to be on a roll – they also indicted some election conspirators, including Giuliani and Meadows. Also, my radio station was playing Passover music (it’s not till Tuesday night, but this DJ normally only works this station on Wednesdays, so next week would be late. (The rest of the time he works at the sister station whoch features jazz.) That made me think that 613’s Passover piece might be up, and it is. They are a group which makes videos for Jewish holidays, picking an artist to parody and then signing information about the holiday in a nedley of that artist’s works. This year’s is titled “Matza Mia”, parodying Abba (of course).

If you are looking for some really juicy news about what a fiasco Trump’s trial is being (especially on Trump’s side), Mary Trump is your go-to source. This column is dated Wednesday, but looks back to Tuesday

Joyce Vance has links to trial transcripts and documents. This might be a good one to save as a fact-checker reference.

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