Open Thread – Page 141 – Politics Plus

Open Thread July 1, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:10 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 012023

Yesterday, three more terrible decisons from the Supreme Court. I hope to heaven this is it for the current year. Yesterday was also the last day of the month, so my inbox was crammed with fundraising emails. Living on Social Security, I’m limited – but it’s clear we need bigger Congressional majorities in both Houses, and also that we need to be able to keep them there. Money alone will not accomplish that – but it also cannot be accomplished without money. ALso yesterday I received an email from Carrie B., whom I expect Care2 people will remember. I won’t go into detail, byt she ans Barry are both experiencing uncomfortable and somewhat disabling health issues. Thoughts and prayers may not stop gun violence, but I’m sure Carrie and Barry would appreciate them anyway.

Cartoon – 01 gettys (&/or Canada Day)

Happy Canada Day

Short Takes –

Colorado Public Radio – [Jefferson County] DA says Edgewater Police Department had culture of retaliation and “bending the rules”
Quote – Jefferson County’s lead prosecutor has asked for state help investigating the Edgewater Police Department after discovering five years of misconduct and incidents where officers violated the constitutional rights of citizens. In a letter sent to Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office this week, Jefferson County District Attorney Alexis King said that in an investigation into a former Edgewater police officer, who faces several felony charges, [she] unearthed a larger picture of problems at the agency between 2016 and 2021. That includes an internal culture “fraught with bullying, retaliation and bending the rules,” King said, in a statement.
Click through for story. I am so grateful to our state’s voters that we currently have an AG who can be trusted with this investigation. We haven’t always.

Civil Discourse – History Rhymes Again.
Quote – In a 1978 case, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the Supreme Court held that college admissions policies that considered race as one of several factors in determining admissions—what we know as affirmative action—were permissible. The justices rejected the argument that these policies violated the constitutional rights of white people and denied them equal educational opportunity. The Supreme Court reaffirmed this precedent in 2003 in Grutter v. Bollinger. Affirmative action is not about unfair advantage. It is about leveling the playing field in the face of historical discrimination.
Click through for article. I would disagree slightly – affirmative action IS about unfair advantage, just not about giving it to minorities. It’a about compensating for the unfair advantage whites have had since white skin existed.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 6/30/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:00 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jun 302023

Glenn Kirschner – Trump NOW claims he LIED about having classified document. Here’s why the “bravado” dog won’t hunt

Thom Hartmann – Right Wing Billionaires Are Slapping SCOTUS in Golden Handcuffs – No Shades of Grey Here..

MSNBC – Neal Katyal’s ‘unforgettable’ argument prevails in SCOTUS case crucial to democracy

Parody Project – Sixteen Tums

Twitter – Flying Squirrel fakes own death, creates crime scene

This flying squirrel faked his own death, and created a whole crime scene…for attention. I think I’m in love. pic.twitter.com/SZfrtNlDI0

— Sarah Bee🐝 (@BirrelleBee) June 3, 2023

Beau – Let’s talk about Putin, Pulp Fiction, and pieces of information….

Open Thread June 30, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:06 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 302023

Well, yesterday, they did it. The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions (but you can bet any important body part you can think of that this applies to any selection process. If not now, it will.) In the interest of avoiding profanity, I’ll stop there. In other news … New York City’s “Free Shakespeare in the Park” is doing “Hamlet” this year. FSitP has never shied away from using the dynamincs of race, and this year is no exception. Hamlet and his relatives are all black – Polonis and his family, white or mixed. They decided not to show the ghost of Hamlet’s father, but instead to represent him by his voice through loudspeakers (which also obscure the direction from which his voice is coming – making it seem to come from anywhere and everywhere. Visual projections add to the effect.) The voice actor is not seen, nor credited. But Daily Beast reveals that the actor is in fact Samuel L. Jackson. Wow. PBS Great Performances featured their “Much Ado” a few years ago. I surely hope they pick this one up.

Cartoon – 30 KBJ RTL

Short Takes –

HuffPost – In Speech On Bidenomics, Biden Tries To Turn The Page On Reagan (And Every President Since)
Quote – Biden embraced the insult the Wall Street Journal Opinion page gave to his economic plans — Bidenomics. “I did not come up with the name,” Biden noted. But he would now embrace it to tout what the White House sees as significant economic achievements and a new vision of economic policy for the country. He denounce[d] the old supply-side economics that have dominated American policy-making since Ronald Reagan put them in place in 1981. But then Biden explained how his policies actually mark a break with this economic model — and while he didn’t say it, how they break with the policies of both Obama and Bill Clinton.
Click through for story. The speech is attracting a lot of attention, as it should. Enough attention? Not yet really possible to tell.

Daily Beast – Inside the Dem Playbook to Stymie GOP Impeachment Efforts
Quote – Lefty groups like the Congressional Integrity Project and Facts First USA were first formed in 2020 and are doing much of the heavy lifting for the White House, as Biden and his staff attempt to stay out of the political fray—at least publicly. “The impeachment efforts are not legitimate,” said David Brock, a longtime Democratic operative who launched Facts First USA. “They’re basically 100 percent driven by the idea that the Republicans believe that the impeachment of Trump hurt him politically. So the fact that they have the power to do it, they’re gonna do it, whether they have the facts on their side or not.” Brock, who was famously a right-wing reporter in the 1990s before converting to the Democratic side, said he’d seen this as a long time coming—a sort of slow onramp of Republican ire against the Biden administration that he only expects to grow ahead of next year’s elections.
Click through for details. I find this reassuring – and unexpected, though i should have expected it. Joe thinks of everything.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 6/29/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:00 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jun 292023

Glenn Kirschner – Trump lashes out at Jack Smith’s understanding of the law. Here’s why Trump is yelling into the void

PoliticsGirl – What we can Learn from the Titan Sub Tragedy

The Lincoln Project – Same Case

Randy Rainbow for President! (2023-2024 Tour Announcement)

Cat Hides From Her Foster Mom For A Year — Then She Does This

Beau – Let’s talk about Biden, the rails, and sick days….

Open Thread June 29, 2023

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

Jun 292023

Yesterday, It was pretty quiet. Hot, but quiet. I did manage to get my carts out to the curb for pickup tpday, but then,I was highly motivated – they pick up trash every week, but recyclables only every other week, and I always have more recycleables than trsh, and if I didn’t get them out yesterday, I’d have had to wait two more weeks, not one. And the contents were starting to push the lid up already.

Cartoon – 28 0628Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

The New Yorker – Does It Matter That Neil Gorsuch Is Committed to Native American Rights?
Quote – In most areas of law, notably those to do with guns and abortion, Gorsuch has been the Justice that conservatives wanted him to be. Not so with tribal law. Adam Liptak, of the Times, recently called him “the fiercest proponent of Native American rights” on the Court. There are various theories about the source of Gorsuch’s commitment, including his childhood in the West, his textualism-based judicial philosophy (if one reads the text of the treaties that the U.S. signed with the tribes, one will find a lot of unkept promises), and his experience dealing with tribal-law cases while a judge on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Colorado. But there are Westerners and textualists who have little time for the tribes, and Gorsuch stood out on the Tenth Circuit, too. (A number of Native American organizations and tribes supported his confirmation.)
Click through for full article. If you are paywalled out, I’ll be happy to email you a copy. I’m sure it will come as no surprise to anyone here that this matters to me – a lot. I”m exceedingly glad to see this article.

US Senate Committee on Homeland Securiy and Governmental Affairs – Planned in Plain Sight
Quote – [Finding of Fact] 6. FBI and I&A failed to follow agency guidelines on the use of open-source intelligence. The Special Agent in Charge of the Intelligence Division at the FBI Washington Field Office on January 6th conflated the Bureau’s standards for what type of information is actionable for further investigation (a higher standard) versus what is merely reportable to partner agencies (a lower standard), and as a result, FBI did not share certain tips and intelligence about January 6th. FBI also did not develop certain tips about January 6th because they were deemed not credible, contrary to FBI policy that requires every tip received to be logged as long as it meets an “authorized purpose” for investigation, regardless of credibility
Click through for full report. It’s a bit over 100 pages, so I don’t expect anyone to read it in full. But both the Executive Statement at the beginning and the Conclusions at the end are packed with facts we suspected. And the Findings of Fact and Recommendations (just after the Executive Summary) are stark and chilling.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 6/28/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:49 am Open Thread, Politics

Jun 282023

Glenn Kirschner – Trump audio recording REVEALED; proves his classified documents crimes AND his declassification lie

The Lincoln Project – When Dems Fight: Ted Lieu

Farron Balanced – Republican House Speaker Held Orgies With People Seeking Political Favors

Rocky Mountain Mike – Runaway Coup (Parody of “Runaround Sue” by Dion)

Training Dogs in Prison Changed This Man’s Life

Beau – Let’s talk about learning from ERCOT’s advice….

Open Thread June 28, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:03 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 282023

Yesterday, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in Counterman v. Colorado – known as “the stalking case” here – which I find upsetting, to say the least. It was not decided along party lines – far from it – so one would presume actual thought went into the decision. But I can’t help but wonder how it would have been decided had the victim been male. On the other hand, SCOTUS also decided Moore v. Harper by rejecting the “Independent State Legislature Theory,” which would have been far more damaging – could have spelled the end of democracy. In personal news, I got an email from my utility company that my rates are going down. Not a whole lot – but any at all is jaw-dropping.

Cartoon – 28 0628Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

The New Yorker – After Affirmative Action Ends
Quote – We have some legal clues from which to piece together what may happen next…. A preview of what such lawsuits will look like came in a recent case about Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (T.J.), a selective magnet school in Fairfax County, Virginia, that is often described as one of the top high schools in the U.S. In 2020, during the national racial reckoning that followed the murder of George Floyd, the Fairfax County school board, frustrated with T.J.’s lack of diversity, considered a number of proposals to change its admissions, in order to increase the enrollment of underrepresented and disadvantaged groups. The board thus resolved to alter T.J.’s racial composition…. The board ultimately decided to eliminate standardized tests and mandated that each public middle school in four Virginia counties and the city of Falls Church would be entitled to send a set percentage of its students to T.J…. The new admissions process was race-neutral in that an applicant’s race was not considered, and, in fact, evaluators were not provided any applicant’s name, race, ethnicity, or sex.
Click through for more. The problem is, whether we are talking about education or government contracts or corporate hiring or almost anything else, any program that works is going to be sued by some B-list or C-list white person with an inflated ego and a victim complex, and we will be at the mercy of the courts.

Robert Reich – Putin, Trump, and the privatization of tyranny
Quote – Why did Putin authorize Prigozhin to lead a private army to attack Ukraine outside the Russian military chain of command in the first place? Presumably because Putin didn’t trust Russian generals to do the job. And he didn’t want to risk that the generals might turn on him…. Throughout history, tyrannical rulers have created their own private operations outside normal chains of command, run by people like Prigozhin, who are personally loyal. This give tyrants flexibility to do what they want without bureaucratic opposition. It protects them against revolt by their subordinates in the chain of command. And it gives them deniability when operations go badly.
Click through for full case. (As always, click “continue reading” on the pop-up.) Heaven only knows what’s going on in Russia – but it’s interesting to realize that it isn’t just good government which is destroyed by privatization. Bad government can also be – ultimately – destroyed by it.

Food For Thought