Joanne Dixon

Jun 092023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump federally indicted! Here’s what we can expect in the coming days

The Lincoln Project – Our Flag

MSNBC – Jack Smith’s coup probe hits MAGA convict Steve Bannon

Thom Hartmann – You Won’t Believe The Power Behind The Most Corrupt SCOTUS Justice…?

Cat goes WILD for Trader Joe’s ciabatta!

Beau – Let’s talk about Ukraine, Kuwait, and supplies….

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Jun 092023
 

Yesterday, Pat Robertson died. He was 93. “I was always taught never to say anything about the dead unless it’s good. He’s dead. Good.” – Moms Mabley. You can read about it in lots of places (AP is one) but this Wonkette remembrance may be the most – satisfying. Also yesterday, it was dry enough to put the sticker om my car (and of course put a copy of the registration into the glove box). So I did. We’re expecting more rain, so I carped the diem.  And one more thing:  Trump** stated publicly that he has been indicted (in the documents case).

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Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – FL GOPers Panicking As Immigrants Flee Ahead Of New Law
Quote – Florida Republicans concerned about the state’s new anti-immigration law and its potential impacts on Florida’s economy… admit the bill is “100% meant to scare” immigrants and beg the crowd to “urgently” convince “your people” to not leave Florida since folks in the agriculture industry are mad workers are leaving.
Click through for story. Now that the debt ceiling is off the table for a while, the news stream is so fast and furious that I think I’ll have to do three a day for a while to catch up. Just for a while. I won’t be able to keep it up.

HuffPost – DHS Launches Major Effort To Stem Human Trafficking In Indigenous Communities
Quote – One of the “brutal realities” is that Native women command more money from sex traffickers, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who has been a leader in combating violence against Indigenous women, previously told HuffPost. “Native women, because of their looks, can be viewed as more exotic, more Asian, and apparently there is a higher market for women that are of Asian descent,” Murkowski said. “When I heard that, it just … It just sickens me.”
Click through for details. It’s no surprise that people who would profit from, or pay into, human trafficking objectify women. But this certainly brings that fact home.

Civil Discourse . Today in Trump
Quote – Venue, as a legal proposition, is the place or location where conduct that prosecutors want to charge took place—the judicial district where the crime was committed. Sometimes that’s obvious, like in a bank robbery. Other times, it can be more difficult to determine, and there may be more than one possible venue. Imagine a drug-dealing network that operates across a region of the country. There can be more than one proper venue for a case. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 18 provides that “Unless a statute or these rules permit otherwise, the government must prosecute an offense in a district where the offense was committed.[“]
Click through for more explanation and the news which prompted it. As usual, click “no” or “continue” on the popup(s). Venue decisions may be the most important ones that DOJ must make in these cases. I don’t want anyone here to be crying “foul!” if Jack Smith ends up trying the documents cse in Florida. If that happens, it will be because it was legally necessary.

Food For Thought

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Jun 082023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Mark Meadows testifies in grand jury about BOTH the insurrection & Trump’s classified docs crimes

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – June 6, 2023

MSNBC – Lawrence: Mark Meadows could be second White House Chief of Staff convicted of crimes

Thom Hartmann – Are You Scared Of Woke?! Fox News Propaganda Exposed

Tiniest Abandoned Puppy Is Found In A Box On The Curb

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump, wokeness, and branding….

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Jun 082023
 

Yesterday, my re-registration came – two copies, one for the car and one for my files, and the sticker Whew! Well, it should be easier for the next several years, at least. There was a flash flood warning on the radio, but not for me – for “northern” Colorado Springs and points north. Not that it wasn’t raining here – it was – but definitely not flooding (just a little too wet to put the sticker in place).

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Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – TV Host Loses It Over Kids Learning About Deodorant In School
Quote – Real America’s Voice host Karyn Turk argued that children should not learn about deodorant in elementary school lessons preparing children for puberty…. “Not in school!” Turk gasped. “I don’t think they need to learn that in school. Elementary school. They learn that at home?”
Click through for story. There is a video but I didn’t think I could bear to watch it. “Karyn”? Coincidence?

The Nib (Issy Manley) – Not Working
Quote – Today’s CEOs exalting the four-day-week future echo industrialist Henry Ford. Ford famously reduced autoworkers schedules from six- to five-day weeks in the 1920s to maximize productivity AND spending. “Leisure is an indispensible ingredient in a growing consumer market.”
Click through for graphic article. Henry Ford was no angel – far from it – but he was also no dummy. He got it that any business needs customers to survive, let alone prosper – and got it beyond that that a business’s employees are a great potential customer pool. Why can’t today’s owners and CEOs get it? And then there are the climate effects.

Food For Thought

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Jun 072023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s lawyers meet with Jack Smith. Next stop – indictment!

Thom Hartmann – Is This The MOST Terrifying GOP Law For Women YET?

Rebel HQ – Newsom May End DeSantis’s 2024 Run With This

Parody Project – This Fits Him to a T – Parody of I’ll Never Find Another You

Cat Loves Jumping In And Stealing His Mom’s Baths

Beau – Let’s talk about Utah, libraries, and finding out….

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Jun 072023
 

Yesterday, the Southern Poverty Law Center released its 2022 Report on Hate and Extremism. It doesn’t look pretty – not that we all didn’t already know that via gut feelings, but here are the numbers to demonstrate it. Also yesterday, I spent over two hours trying to report a package whuch was supposed to have beenbe delivered Mionday and wasn’t though it showed up in my Informed Delivery as having been delivered, with a delivery time time and everything – only to discover (fortunately before I found an actual person) that it had been delivered last week. The tracking number had not gotten into the system when I actually received it, and they were apparently belatedly trying to account for it. Weird.

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Short Takes –

The New Yorker – How a Fringe Legal Theory Became a Threat to Democracy
Quote – “If you’re used to the powers that be either passively ignoring you or actively screwing you over, for generations, it’s natural to hear about some new nefarious thing they’re up to and think, Same shit, different day,” [Sailor Jones, a democracy activist] said. “The challenge for us, messaging-wise, is to find a way to tell folks, You’re not wrong, but, also, this one really is different.” “This one” was Moore v. Harper, a Supreme Court case that was set to be argued in December and resolved by the end of June…. Even if the apparatus of democracy is not dismantled this year, or next year, it’s worth reckoning with how easily it could be.
Click through for details. I wish this were not important … but it is. Statistically, we actually have, or have the potential for, a majority in enough states that are considered solidly red that if we could only get people registered, turn out the vote, and generally turn up the enthusiasm, we could deal with this. But that is something we are as a group too rational to be really good at. If you are paywalled out, shoot me an email and I will send you the article.

HuffPost [Fringe] – Oklahoma School Board Approves 1st Taxpayer-Funded Religious School In U.S.
Quote – The Archdiocese of Oklahoma said in the “vision and purpose of the organization” section of its application that: “The Catholic school participates in the evangelizing mission of the Church and is the privileged environment in which Christian education is carried out.” Brett Farley, the executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, said: “We are elated that the board agreed with our argument and application for the nation’s first religious charter school.”
Click through for story. I don’t know how far this would get if it were taken to court – and there are asome groups and people who will be taking it there. For one thng, the state’s AG says it is unconstitutional under Oklahoma;s constitution … and Americans United foor Separation of Church and State also appears to be on it.

Food For Thought

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Jun 062023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Tape made by Trump’s attorney, Evan Corcoran, now in hands of prosecutors. Is any of this normal?

MSNBC – Trump’s ‘panic’ on display when asked about docs case audio tape

Farron Balanced – Roger Stone Caught On Tape Explaining How He Manipulates Donald Trump

Robert Reich – What a Vietnam War Riot Says about Today’s Culture Wars

Watch This Sassy Cleft Palate Puppy Argue With His Mom

Beau – Let’s talk about the debt deal and what’s in it…. (Since filming, it has sailed through the Senate and been signed, but the points made are still valid)

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Jun 062023
 

Yesterday, I learned that the Smithsonian has three meerkay pups (aand also that the collective noun for meerkats is “mob.” Boy, does that ever fit!) They don’t have a live cam, but they do have a short (32 seconds) video. The parents are named Frankie and Sadie. The pups won’t be named for a while, because they have not been sexed (hey, this is America) and won’t be for a while because the keepers are staying out of the meerkats’ business. They do offer several photos for download in case anyone is looking for a new wallpaper.

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Short Takes –

The Conversation – US Army Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas’ journey from enslaver to Union officer to civil rights defender
Quote – Hundreds of thousands of African American Southerners supported the Union by escaping slavery and serving in the Union army. But there were thousands of white Southerners who also supported the Union. George H. Thomas, known to history as “the Rock of Chickamauga,” is the most prominent of them…. When the Civil War broke out, nearly all the Southern career officers left the U.S. Army to serve in the Confederacy. But, as his adjutant and first biographer wrote in “The Life of Major-General George H. Thomas,” Thomas viewed his oath as an army officer to defend the Constitution as more binding than his feelings of loyalty to his native state.
Click through for full story.  Transformations like this one are not common, but they do happen – perhaps it’s partly because they are rare that we are drawn to their stories.

New Mexico Political Report – Former GOP candidate faces federal charges for shootings of homes of prominent Dems
Quote – In 2022, [Solomon] Peña ran for the state House District 14 seat against incumbent Democrat Miguel Garcia. Garcia won the race with 74 percent of the vote to Peña’s 26 percent. “Refusing to accept his electoral defeat, Peña organized a shooting spree that targeted the homes of four elected officials and their families,” court records state. The shootings took place between Dec. 4 , and Jan. 3.
Click through for details. From a true-blue hearted General from a red state to a blood-red hearted ex-candidate in a blue state. Democrats, progressives, believe that everyone is a hman being and should be treated as such. But in today’s political climate, sometimes even we forget that – especially when it comes to red and blue states.

Food For Thought

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