Joanne Dixon

Video Thread 6/9/21

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 092021
 

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ Holds Press Conference on Colonial Pipeline Case – Remains Silent on Insurrection Investigation (Glenn’s frustration is showing – not least in that he [I assume accidentally] allowed his ending to also start this video.)

Meidas touch – We saw this ad when it posted to their YouTube channel – I of course included it in this thread at the time. Now push has come to shove.

The Lincoln Project – Trump’s North Carolina Speech In 70 Seconds

Lakota Peoples Law – latset DAPL decision (not good)

Jim Acosta – Mar-a-Lagoville. He does have a way with words.

Rob Rogers – Race Massacres

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump running for the House and the speaker’s bargain….

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Open Thread for June 9, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 092021
 

I checked around and the most promising one which is also the one that clearly shows on the map it serves my area) has a contact me form. I tried on both browsers (some sites don’t like one or the other, and when I still had no answer i called and reached someone. So, 2:00 pm today he will be here and change it. Then I will look into vaccine appointments – not that I haven’t already, and they seem to be available and plentiful. I will keep you posted, of course.

Cartoon

Short Takes

The Hill – New report highlights severe intelligence failures on Jan. 6 Personally, I’m not sure you can call it a “failure” of intelligence when deliberate ignoring is involved, but whatever
Quote: “The failures are obvious. I think to me it was all summed up by one of the things in our report where one of the officers was heard on the radio that day asking the tragically simple question: ‘Does anybody have a plan?’ Sadly, no one did,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), chair of the Senate Rules Committee.
Click through for the rest

Mother Jones – How the 2022 Midterms Could Be Shaped by a Few Easy-to-Ignore Elections This Year I don’t think it’s any too early to be thinking about midtersm.
Quote: Chaz Nuttycombe, the director of Virginia-based election forecaster CNalysis, explains, “Democrats wouldn’t be in the majority in the Virginia House if Trump had lost in 2016.”
Click through for full analysis

BBC News – ANOM: Hundreds arrested in massive global crime sting using messaging app This is makinging all kinds of news – the BBC article is explained the most simply.
Quote: More than 800 suspected criminals have been arrested worldwide after being tricked into using an FBI-run encrypted messaging app, officials say. The operation, jointly conceived by Australia and the FBI, saw devices with the ANOM app secretly distributed among criminals, allowing police to monitor their chats about drug smuggling, money laundering and even murder plots.
Click through for more details

Food for Thought: Are you in need of a new welcome mat for your front door (outside or inside)? John Paclovitz is offering two peaachy-keen ones. My favorite:

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Video Thread 6/8/21

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 082021
 

Glenn Kirschner – a recap of May

Don WInslow Films – Well, he nails Sinema, but I’d rather have her than a Republican 9and no, she isn’t one – she [and Manchin] both vote with the Democratic caucus more often than not. Sadly, the “not” votes are generally more visible.)

The Republican Accountability Project – a coule of weeks old, but aged well – too well.

Ring of Fire – Mo Brooks

RebelHQ – DANGEROUS Trump Speech You Can’t Ignore – good analysis of the need to cover garbage pople who are also dangerous

Beau – I’ve seen him upset before – but not this upset. (And with good reason.)

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Open Thread for June 8, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 082021
 

My mechanic and I (I say “my mechanic,” but it’s actually a team) are in consensus that a new battery was needed, so I am calling and emailing around to find one that can be delivered. I’m ot committed as yet, but it’s still a relief to feel that I know what I need to do and have started doing it.

 

Cartoon

Short Takes

The Borowitz Report – Putin Says He Has No Intention of Reinstating Trump
MOSCOW (The Borowitz Report)—Calling recent speculation “absurd,” Vladimir Putin said that he has “no intention whatsoever” of reinstating Donald J. Trump as President of the United States.
Speaking to reporters, the Russian President bristled at the suggestion that he would reinstall Trump in the White House “this August or any other month, for that matter.”
Click through for details. I certainly hope this is straight news!

MSNBC – The GOP’s base is preparing for a holy war — and Democrats need to pay attention
Yes, another opinion piece – one which it’s hard to disagree with if one is paying attention and is honest. Quote:
The sentiments that these Republicans share differ at times in the particulars — not all believe, for example, that the Democratic Party is a front for blood-drinking, Satanic pedophilia, but many do…. If one believes a priori that one’s opponents are thieves, would-be totalitarians, drinkers of children’s blood, wresting back power becomes in and of itself a moral imperative, regardless of the means.
Click through for the full piece.

The New Yorker – How Nasty Was Nero, Really?
Fake news is not news. It’s been around forever. I’ve been defending Nero for a while now – along with Marie Antoinette, Richard III, and Hillary Clinton. Not one of them was guilty of the arson, murder, incest, or miscellaneous crimes he or she was accused of. Can we hope that Hillary’s reputation will fare any better than that of the other three? Here’s a quote:
Opper told me, “They had a term for it—vituperatio, or ‘vituperation,’ which meant that you could say anything about your opponent. You can really invent all manner of things just to malign that character. And that is exactly the kind of language and stereotypes we find in the source accounts.”
Click through for details. Why is it relevant now? Well, look what Qpublicans are saying about us.

Food for Thought:

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Video Thread 6/7/21

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 072021
 

Glenn Kirschner – “Lawlessness begets lawlessness”

Now This News – Paxton Smith Reflects on Her Viral Abortion Speech

Ring of Fire – Scholars Warn That Republicans Have Launched A Total Assault On Democracy

Thom Hartmann – Is the GOP Insanity Being Driven By Trump or 40 Years of Madness? – Our Tom has been saying this for years.

Rocky Mountain Mike – “Bye Bye Blog”

Beau – Let’s talk about coming together under China and good news….

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Open Thread for June 7, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 072021
 

Well, hail. Yes, that’s what we had yesterday. Oh, yeah, and thunder and lightning too. i did some research on mobile battery replacement, but I also sent off an email to my regular mechanic for advice. (They’ve never steered me wrong.) I will keep everyone posted.

 

Cartoon ( Lona) –

Short Takes

The New Yorker – The Republicans’ Wild Assault on Voting Rights in Texas and Arizona   More and more people are trying to talk about this – you’ll see that in the video thread too. I wish I was confident it would reach the people who need to hear it. Here’s a quote:
Texas was already the most difficult state in which to cast a ballot, according to a recent study by Northern Illinois University. In 2020, voter turnout there was among the lowest in the nation. Even so, with nonwhites making up more than sixty per cent of the population under twenty, Texas is on its way to becoming a swing
Click through for the rest

The Daily Beast is on the same topic too. A quote:
Joe Biden wanted to convene a Summit of Democracies in his first year as president. COVID complicated matters, and the summit won’t happen before next year at the earliest. But even with the great strides the administration has made in taming the pandemic, a new question looms:
By the time the Summit of Democracies takes place, will the United States qualify to attend?
Click through for the full article

Politico is also on the trail … but eschewing sweeping generalzations for concrete specifics.
Republicans want to change state election laws. Here’s how they’re doing it. Here’s a quote –
Together, Texas and Georgia show which areas Republicans are focused on after Trump’s 2020 loss. Texas’ mail voting policies were already very tight, but both states sought to make their absentee policies stricter. Both states specifically targeted new voting policies piloted by big, blue counties in 2020. And Republicans in both states sought to impose new limits on election officials — and expose them to new criminal penalties for wrongdoing.
Click though for the rest.

Food for Thought:

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Video Thread 6/6/21

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 062021
 


Glenn Kirschner with a “Top Five” list o Don McGahn’s testimony

Meidas Touch – More Jason Kande

Armageddon nUpdate – One of Titus’s best. Touching even. It he talks too fast for you, slowing it down to 75% usually helps a lot.

VoteVets now has two ads each aimed at a specific state … and the two states are West Virginia and Arizona. Let me see … what do those twp states have in common?

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump, Facebook, and the future….

Keith – I don’t know who he is talking to that thinks Democrats are afrais to arrest Trump**. I don’t see that at all. I’ve heard things like it in the past (over much less consequential actions0, but I’m not hearing it now. And if too hasty arrest causes any case, or any charges, no matter how small, to be tossed out in the courts, Keith is going to look awfully stupid. I love Keith but some one with more prosecutorial knowledge than I needs to sit him down and have a talk.

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Open Thread for June 6, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 062021
 

Yesterday was too overcast tto play with electricity, but if I can’t get it started today, I’ll rearch tonight and get a battery delivered tomorrow.

 

 

Cartoon –

Short Takes

Lucian Truscott is a sixth great grandson of Thomas and Martha Jefferson. He recently published in his newsletter blog a picture of himself with his sixth cousin, Shannon Lanier, a sixth great grandon of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. You can read the accompanying article at the link. I also took the liberty of adding his newsletter to our blogroll (on the left). You might also enjoy an article there entitled “Court-martial Flynn’s worthless seditious ass.” I certainly did. But there are many others as well.

The Hill – Experienced staff promote effective lawmaking
Yes, this is an opinion piece, but that doesn’t automatically make it fluff. And, yes, it’s a principle that most people who have ever worked at a so-called “low-level” job know intuitively: nothing that gets done is done by those at the top. Important accomplishments are never one-person jobs. It’s a point I’ve alluded to many times, most recently in connection with President Biden’s appoiontments. But it is more broadly applicable. And the authors of this are just the guys who have the facts and the statistics to prove it.
Members of Congress are wrestling with the 97 bipartisan recommendations put forward last year by the newly reestablished Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. Among them are proposals to increase legislative staff pay. Supporters argue that salary increases are needed to recruit and retain the best legislative aides. Yet, the public is skeptical about spending more on Congress, which they judge as not doing a very good job.
At the Center for Effective Lawmaking, we know that with respect to congressional staff, we get what we pay for. We find that retaining experienced legislative staff is crucial to Congress doing its job better, in terms of lawmaking effectiveness.
Click through for more.

This is the 77th anniversary of D-Day. In looking for some kind of retrospective, I discovered that there is a National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA, which is just winding up a three-day commemoration. I don’t think anyone who reads here is close enough to Bedford to vvisit (besides the fact that it’s already 2/3 over), but you can find more information if you click through. And I find it gratifying that it exists.

Food for Thought:

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