Open Thread – Page 117 – Politics Plus

Open Thread October 3, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 032023

Yesterday, Laphonza Butler, the president of Emily’s List, was revealed to be Governor Gavin Newsom’s choice to fill the remainder of Dianne Feinstein’s term in the U.S. Senate. It was not yet official (nothing is official without paperwrok), but it was carried by virtually every news outlet and was not contradicted. Ms. Butler originally entered politics as a labor leader, and is now being described as a “power player.” Of cpurse thre have been complants from the usual suspectssince Newsom announced that he would choose a black woman should there be a vacancy – the term used was “limiting himself.” Yeah. right. What would be really limiting oneself would be looking for a white male, all of whom who are any good are already in ppsotons of power (as are many who areno good at all.) Any minority group will have a good-sixed pool of people who far surpass available white malesbut have never been given a chance to prove it – or have made their own chances with blood, sweat, and tears against all odds. And, of course, that is what white supremacists cannot stand. I’m confident she’ll be fine.

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Short Takes –

[SPLC] SPLC Launches Hate Crimes Awareness Month to Highlight Epidemic of Bias Incidents
Quote – The nation has seen this kind of attack against communities of color and LGBTQ+ people many times in recent years. The Jacksonville murders, in fact, came just weeks after the fourth anniversary of the white supremacist attack in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed in a bias-motivated hate crime. As in numerous other cases, the El Paso gunman was inspired to kill by racist rhetoric based on the false “great replacement” conspiracy theory and what he claimed was a “Hispanic invasion” of the U.S. – harmful extremist ideas that are frequently echoed by mainstream politicians and right-wing media figures…. The FBI’s most recent hate crime report – one that counts only a small fraction of the real number – identified 10,840 hate crime incidents in 2021, the most since the agency began collecting the data in 1991. More than 60% of those were carried out because of hatred toward the victim’s race.
Click through for details. We are living in the 2020s, but for all the hate crimes, we might as well be living in the 1920s. So SPLC has selected October to be Hate Crimes Awareness Month, and plans to mount a campaign every year to raise our knowledge of what is happening. Good.

New Mexico Political Report – Trump supporter shoots someone attending peaceful rally
Quote – One young man continued his efforts to enter the area, and it quickly escalated into a scuffle. One of the people protecting the altar [an empty pedestal which had held a statue of a war criminal] seemingly backed the young man against a wall to prevent him from moving forward…. That’s when the shooter pulled a gun out of his waistband, and shot the person blocking him from moving toward the slab. The man, who identified himself as Ryan Martinez to the Albuquerque Journal, ran immediately after, according to sources at the scene. He was later taken into custody, the Rio Arriba Sheriff’s County Office confirmed.
Click through for story. This did not happen in Albuquerque, or even Santa Fe. This happened in a small town (pop. 10,495 in 2010) in a blue state. New Mexico, like Colorado, has had features named to memorialize war criminals. Both states are trying to clean that up. Not everyone is on board

Food For Thought

Video Thread 10/2/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:03 pm Open Thread, Politics

Oct 022023

Glenn Kirschner – Jack Smith goes hard after gag order; calls out Trump’s lawyers for making “false claims.”

The Lincoln Project – Meeting the Moment

Joe Biden – Delivers | Biden-Harris 2024

Scared Ketchup – Clarence Thomas Shaped Suppository Stops Woke Mind Virus (AI)

Meet The World’s #1 Cat Dad

Beau – Let’s talk about New Orleans, water, and engineers….

Open Thread October 2, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 022023

Yesterday was National Coffee Day. I couldn’t help remembering that some believe that Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze” was originally written for his “Coffee Cantata” as a metaphor for patriarchy – “God is our shepherd and I, your father, am your shepherd, and as your shepherd, I am telling you, my daughter, to stop drinking coffee!” I’m not sure that that’s true, and if it is, it might have been intended as satire of the pearl-clutchers of the time – there have always been some, and they have always been loud – but it does make a good story. I was also reminded I have a brand new coffee mug – so I made a point of using it. Yesterday was also Jimmy Carter’s birthday (although they held the party Saturday, just in case there was a shutdown, which would have kind of rained on the parade.) It was also Julie Andrews’s birthday (she’s 88), which I would have forgotten had it not been for Wonkette.

Today’s cartoon is the first of four I’ll be introducing over the month. After the fourth, I hope to get opinions on which one is the most effective – and/or if it would be more effective to use an element from one with an element from another.

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Short Takes –

Common Dreams – Democratic Senators Sound Alarm Over Koch-Backed Plot to ‘Eviscerate’ Regulatory State
Quote – Hours before ProPublica revealed new details about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ relationship with the Koch network, a group of Democratic senators filed a brief on Thursday warning that Koch-backed entities are closely involved in an upcoming case that could further gut the federal government’s regulatory power—and enhance the strength of the conservative-dominated high court. The case in question is Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which stems from a New Jersey-based fishing company’s challenge to a law requiring certain fishing boats to carry federal compliance monitors to enforce regulations.
Click through for article. I’m glad these Senators are on this. I will concede that it is possible to over-regulate, but it’s clear that, as long as one person is being hurt by under-regulation or unenforced regulation, we are not even close to over-regulation. (Off topic, but I think that’s the first picture I have ever seen of Charles without the you-know-what-eating grin. If that means he is less happy – good.)

London Daily – British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read
Quote – “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”… [W]hile Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Click through for every last detail. I have seen this before – I think most recently during the actual Trump** administration – but it is very detailed and every detail worth savoring, so it’s time to re-share it.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 10/1/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:03 pm Open Thread, Politics

Oct 012023

Glenn Kirschner – One of Donald Trump’s RICO co-defendants in Georgia just FLIPPED and agreed to testify at trial.

Thom Hartmann – Their Politics Is Poison & You’ve Fallen For It

MSNBC – Aide who revealed Nixon recordings sends message to Cassidy Hutchinson [Cassidy is not perfect, nor is Alex, nor for that matter is Lawrence nor I. But this is still a lesson in paying stuff forward – even the weirdest stuff.]

John Fugelsang – Ben Shapiro Vs Barbie

Terrified Pittie Found In The Woods Turns Into A Puppy In His Forever Home

Beau – Let’s talk about Rand Paul and a billboard….

Open Thread October 1, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:04 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 012023

Yesterday, the radio opera was brand spanking new – the world premier (which was recorded, and that’s what we heard) was within the last three months – in July, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. The composer was Sir George Benjamin, and the title is “Picture a Day like This.” The premise is that a woman whose child dies is offered a chance at a miracle if she can find one person who is truly happy and cut a button from that person’s sleeve. I was not familiar with any of the singers, but the composer was, and wrote it specifically for their voices. There is no way of knowing at a premier whether or not an opera is going to “take off” – become part of the repertory – but still, it feels like listening to history – being present when history is made. I found it easy to listen to. It’s in a single act with seven scenes, and runs under an hour and a quarter (the program was almost an hour and a quarter but that includes all the opening summary and credits and closing credits.) It was a good day for the opera to be a short one, because later in the day I was able to watch and listen to Margaret Atwood reading her story “Patient and Impatient Griselda,” loosely based on “Patient Griselda” from the Decameron but told as it should have happened, through a narrator, an alien who looks like an octopus. It was Zoomed thanks to Theater of War productions, as part of their new domestic violence project. So I ended up spending almost three hours chained to internet entertainment after all. (I did get my next 2 weeks of pills bottled, though.) The House also got something done – voted to delay a shutdown for a month and a half. Let’s see how fast the Senate can get it to Joe to sign. I decided to tell “A Tale of Two Jamies” today. I’m very glad Raskin is on our side. Dimon, of course, is on no one’s side but his own.

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Short Takes –

Robert Reich – When Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, phoned me
Quote – So I want to talk about something else that’s brewing that could become an equally large problem: another banking crisis — and how powerful monied interests on Wall Street are opposing attempts to ward it off. When interest rates rise as fast as the Fed has raised them, banks have to pay more for deposits or borrowing. But what the banks earn on their loans and bonds they own hasn’t risen nearly as fast. This is causing a huge squeeze. With the shift to working from home, commercial real estate is a disaster — and another giant headache for the banks. Banks may not have enough capital on hand to weather an economic storm. The near failure of several middle-sized banks last March shows the continued frailty of the financial system.
Click through for narrative. I’m not a banker myself, but the Reich on the left makes it uncomplicated to see what’s going on. I don’t think we should be expected to bail out these jerks – AGAIN – when it can be avoided.

AlterNet – Raskin rips GOP over impeachment inquiry: ‘Flying monkeys on a mission for the wicked witch’
Quote – Congressman Raskin, a former constitutional law professor who served as the lead prosecutor for the second impeachment of Donald Trump, told the Committee, “like flying monkeys on a mission for the Wicked Witch of the West, Trump’s followers in the House now carry his messages out to the world: shut down the government, shutdown the prosecutions. But the cultmaster has another command for his followers, which brings us here today.”
Click through for details. The first rule of insulting effectively is, don’t call them whay you hate most. Call them what they hate most.” That’s no doubt why so many Democrats are picking up on calling MAGA “children” (with or without qualifying adjectives.) I doubt whether “Wicked Witch” and “Flying Monkeys” will do it – but “Cultmaster” might hit hard. The very best insults get picked up and used over and over until eventually they change meaning- “villain” today, for instance, has only a shadow of its original punch when it meant “country bumpkin” – including all the attributes that go with that stereotye: poorly dressed, poorly washed, poorly mannered, and poorly educated.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 9/30/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:51 am Open Thread, Politics

Sep 302023

Glenn Kirschner – Trump loses in NY court, AGAIN! His civil fraud trial on remaining counts to begin on Monday.

The Lincoln Project – Monster Impeachment Extravaganza

Robert Reich – Biden Chooses Workers Over Wall Street

Puppet Regime – Actors strike: Putin and Kim cross the picket line

Senior shelter cat desperately hugs woman for adoption

Beau – Let’s talk about McCarthy, Ukraine, and confusion….

Open Thread September 30, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 302023

Yesterday, arguments about whether DiFi should resign came to an end with her passing. Governor Newsom has said he will make an interim appointment. Even Chuck Grassley said nice things about her. Since I was born and grew up in California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, this feels like the end of an era to me. I have known of her, and of her achievements, for so long – it’s true that at my age when someone who has been a fixture of one’s life for so long, one doesn’t grieve just that person, but also one’s own lost youth. Also, The White House made available online a partial transcript of Joe Biden’s speech at the John McCain Library in Tempe, AZ. There’s also an opportunity at this link to sign up for pratial transcripts whenever anyone in the administration says something significant. Wow. The first plea deal in the Fulton COunty case was sealed. And last (and kind of least compared to the preceding) my Dark Brandon mug came. So I immediately made a cup of coffee. And it works as advertised (what with being carried in a postal vehicle in the sun all day and then stuffed into a hot mailbox, the eyes were actually red when I opened it. The directions advised putting it in the freezer for a few minutes – which worked like a charm.)

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Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Why Are Republicans Playing Politics With Ukraine?
Quote – Over the course of more than 30 interviews with members of Congress, The Daily Beast set out to trace exactly how and why providing aid to Ukraine became such a controversial endeavor among Republicans. To Democrats, the $24 billion package in front of Congress right now is the best money Washington could spend on national defense…. The issue, many Republicans in Congress agree, shouldn’t be partisan. But these Republicans are also keenly aware of the reality—that it is…. The story of how that happened is a case study in the workings of a congressional GOP loyal to Donald Trump, one in which the former president and a small handful of right-wing figures wield immense power to set the agenda of the party base, which in turn commands immense power to shape the actions of lawmakers eager to use uncompromising tactics to achieve their goals.
Click through for full article. One thing that leaps out – if the poll cited is accurate, and 55% of Americans nationally do not support aiding Ukreaine, we need to ne doing a better job of messaging. 62% Democratic support isn’t enough.

Colorado Public Radio – What the impending government shutdown means for Coloradans
Quote – Perhaps the biggest impacts will be felt by the state’s approximately 38,000 federal employees and 12,000 active duty military service members, who will not get a paycheck during a government shutdown. Their first missed payday will be October 13, if the shutdown drags on that long…. Gov. Jared Polis is ordering the Colorado Department of Natural Resources to develop a plan to use state money to keep the parks and other federal land in the state open, although any plan will need a federal sign off…. The governors of Arizona and Utah have also said they’ll use state funds to keep some of their parks open…. States that opened their parks in 2013 were never reimbursed…. When it comes to airport travel, a shutdown could fuel passenger exasperation and worsen staffing challenges at Denver International Airport….
Click through. As promised, here’s the shutdown article. Not every state is going to step in on National Parks (or anything else), and it’s not certain that Colorado is this time. But – like everything else – red states are going to suffer the most. And there’s more. CPR really looked at everything they could. It’s very thorough.

Food For Thought