Open Thread – Page 186 – Politics Plus

Open Thread January 4, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:17 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 042023

Yesterday, I decided, with everthing else here quiet, to give you an update on the mailbox for tomcat@politicsplus.org. After getting it cleaned out initially, I’ve been trying to check it every week, or at least every other week. I tried at one point to close his Twitter account, but was not successful. However, this last week he did not get any emails from Twitter … so maybe Elon Musk suspended him for something (non-payment of the new feea?) I’ll just hope there aren’t any more. I did manage to close his account at Fantasy Pros – the fantasy football site. I don’t think there is enough interest for it, and in any case, I would be incompetent to run it. I am only aware of football when something horrible happens, such as the Bengals-Bills game this week. I certainly hope Hamlin survives, but the longer he has to stay in intensive care, the less likely it is that he will ever be able to play again (in fact he may already be past that point) and that will certainly be hard on him emotionally. Back to TC’s inbox, at this point everything that is coming is is emails from WordPress or their partners such as updates or expirations, many of which I already know about because alerts on the Dashboard have advised me. Besides that, there is only spam, and there really is no way to get rid of that.

These articles are not old news yet, since after 3 failed ballots they adjourned. Anyway, one has to take the Schadenfreude where one can get it.
Black Woman – Beforre Noon – Round 1 – Chaos

Cartoon – 04 0104Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Zelenskyy Delivers Most Powerful Speech Yet To Ukraine
Quote – “Of course it was hard to celebrate fully because we understand that our soldiers can’t be with their family,” Evheniya Shulzhenko said while sitting with her husband on a park bench overlooking the city. But a “really powerful” end-of-year speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on New Year’s Eve lifted her spirits and made her proud to be Ukrainian, Shulzhenko said.
Click through. The full video in the headline has a voiced-over English translation, but no CC. But the Twitter clip in the body does have CC. And it’s pretty powerful by itself. I’m not sure I could take much more without melting into a puddle.

Washington Post (no paywall) – White contractors wouldn’t remove Confederate statues. So a Black man did it.
Quote – As a small group of Confederate heritage defenders assembled nearby — at least one of them armed — city safety coordinator Miles Jones lectured the work crew on wearing hard hats and eye protection. And who, he asked, would be the site supervisor? A bearded man in Ray-Ban sunglasses and a Norfolk State University sweatshirt stepped forward. “What’s your name, sir?” Jones asked. “Devon Henry.” “Devon Hen—” Jones began, then dropped his voice respectfully. “Oh, Mr. Henry. Of course.”
Click through for story. This mixes my emotions. Sadness because so many wypipo are so bitter and small minded, but happiness that the statues are coming down and that Devon Green exists.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 1/3/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:52 am Open Thread, Politics

Jan 032023

Glenn Kirschner – Signs of hope and optimism that 2023 will be the year of accountability

Thom Hartmann – Did Corporate Personhood Turn Democracy Into Fascism?

Ring of Fire – Fox News Tries To Blame Pete Buttigieg For Southwest Airlines Disaster

Shirley Serban – Queen Parody Song for New Year 2023 – Another One Bites the Dust

This Dog Wouldn’t Leave Her Bed Until Her Foster Mom Brought Her Home

Beau – Let’s talk about what is and isn’t history….

Open Thread January 3, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:58 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 032023

Yesterday, It had snowed, and, because the day was overcast, there was still a blanket of it when I got up. But the concrete (like my driveway) was just a lttle damp – except the parts that get no sun at all Those patches always linger. We are heading into a cold snap, so some of the snow.may hang around, but we’ll see There’s no new snow in the 10-day forecast.

I was looking up all the music parody and straight satire people for new stuff. There actually isn’t much – looks like everyone wanted to do something for Christmas and are now taking a break. Rocky Mountain Mike does have a new one, but it’s not a parody, but a straight cover of “Summer Wine.” But he clearly is looking to expand his work visually, because the visuals are a dramatization of the story of the song. It’s mostly black and white – color is used just at the end, and whe it shows up, it’s startling. There’s no CC, but the lyrics are available here (if anyone cares.)

If you haven’t already seen this, it may shock you – it did me! Among the few Republicans who have expressed support for Jamie Raskin is – wait for it – Marjorie Taylor Greene. Who would ever have thought she had it in her?

Finally, today is the day the House votes on the Speaker. I will be surprised, however, if there is any decision made today. In fact, it’s anybody’s guess how long it will take to come up with a compromise which is acceptable to everyone (this is a full house vote – it’s not just Republicans.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Arizona Border Containerpalooza Sale!
Quote – Governor Ducey has agreed to pay AshBritt Management & Logistics $76 million to tear down containers they illegally placed on the southern border of Arizona to keep the brown folks out. The problem, in a nutshell, is that the containers were placed on federal land, and the DOJ has sued Arizona to remove them. So after paying $95 million to install them, they will need to be removed.
Click through for details. This would be funny, were it not such a waste of money – taxpayers money – for which there were thousands of better uses.

New York Times (no paywall) – Opinion: Anthony Fauci Quietly Shocked Us All
Quote – Days after the conference, I found myself in Dr. Fauci’s office, along with the ACT UP members Mark Harrington and Jim Eigo, hammering out the final details of our parallel track program, which would allow thousands of people to obtain experimental drugs outside of traditional clinical trials. Within days, a New York Times front page headline about Dr. Fauci read, “AIDS Researcher Seeks Wide Access to Drugs in Tests.” The F.D.A. quickly fell in line. ACT UP had scored its first major victory, with Dr. Fauci’s help.
Click through for OP. It’s not all sunshine and roses, but on balance, it’s a tribute.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 1/2/2023

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

Jan 022023

Glenn Kirschner – Trump & Kushner’s criminal responsibility for avoidable COVID deaths. New evidence in J6 transcripts

Meidas Touch – Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Stunning Stupidity SHINES BRIGHT in NEW POST

White House Twitter… (accompanied by Offenbach’s “CanCan”

At the end of a historic, productive session of Congress full of bipartisan results, I still have a few bills left to sign.

Take a guess how long it took me to sign a stack of 65 of them. pic.twitter.com/kP1Tc2fV4c

— President Biden (@POTUS) December 29, 2022

Really American – Chip Franklin delivers a BLISTERING takedown of the GOP, which is now DOA.

Half-Pound Kitten Takes Naps Under 130-Pound Dog

Beau – Let’s talk about infrastructure troubles….

Open Thread January 2, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 022023

Yesterday, I visited Virgil. Most of the time I was the ony visitor, but another one came after I got there (and left before I did.) Virgil returns all greetings as usual – this time he went so far as to say he was “thrilled” (his word) by them. On the way down, before getting on the Interstate, I came to a traffic light which turned green while I was approaching, but no one moved. When I got close enough to see why, it was because we were all waiting for a gaggle of Canada geese to finish crossing the road on foot. We do get a lot of them come through, and not just in the winter. Sometimes one only hears them (from a couple of blocks away – they can be quite loud.) Golf course managers detest them but are not allowed to harm them, thankfully. I do sympathize. Goose droppings are not something one wants on a golf course. But they can be so charming (the geese, not the managers)!

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Aeon – Hail the maintainers
Quote – As the pursuit of innovation has inspired technologists and capitalists, it has also provoked critics who suspect that the peddlers of innovation radically overvalue innovation. What happens after innovation, they argue, is more important. Maintenance and repair, the building of infrastructures, the mundane labour that goes into sustaining functioning and efficient infrastructures, simply has more impact on people’s daily lives than the vast majority of technological innovations.
Click through for complete essay. Aeon has Creative Commons, but only for “idea”s, and this is an “essay.” Otherwise I think I moght have used it for a Furies column. It expresses, far better than I could, what was trying to say in last week’s Furies about not everyone in Congress needs to write legislation to be a successful legislator. Also, there are comments (though you need to bring them up), of which one references the Hindu trinity (the Trimurti) very effectively.

Crooks & Liars – Transcripts: Jared Blocked Biden Transition From Covid Planning
Quote – A former Trump administration official, Alyssa Farah Griffin, told the committee that Dr Deborah Birx, who headed the White House’s coronavirus task force under Mr Trump, had in the days after election day, asked if the Biden team should be looped in to plans to combat the pandemic. “Absolutely not,” Ms Griffin said Mr Kushner had told the meeting. She added: “And then we just moved on”.
Click through for story. You may already have seen it. Well, color me nor surprised.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 1/1/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:05 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jan 012023

Glenn Kirschner – Will McCarthy/congressional Republicans abuse the American voters by standing by liar George Santos?

MSNBC – Raskin On Cancer Diagnosis: ‘Totally My Plan To Make It Through This Thing’

Farron Balanced – Mitch McConnell Tells Weakened Trump To SHUT UP And GO AWAY

Real Subtitles? (not real subtitles) – Just Like Peter the Great

Freezing Puppies Found Deep In The Snow

Beau – Let’s talk about George Santos and blame….

Open Thread January 1, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:55 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 012023

Yesterday, the opera wasn’t an opera, but a collection of excerpts from operas previously broadcast, some more or less recently, some way, WAY back. What they had in common was that each was from the Met debut of a singer(/actor/storyteller – plus one conductor) who later became an international star. Kiri Te Kanawa was one, and another was Latonia Moore (you may remember I heard that debut – she stepped in as understudy and I was, like, “Wow!”) Not all, of course, were quite that “A Star Is Born” dramatic – some stars were pretty well established elsewhere before coming to the Met – but some were (Astrid Varnay and Te Kanama). The range was from Moore (2012), the newest, all the way back to Bidu Sayão on February 13, 1937.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

ProPublica – They Called 911 for Help. Police and Prosecutors Used a New Junk Science to Decide They Were Liars.
Quote – Junk science in the justice system is nothing new. But unvarnished correspondence about how prosecutors wield it is hard to come by. It can be next to impossible to see how law enforcement — in league with paid, self-styled “experts” — spreads new, often unproven methods. The system is at its most opaque when prosecutors know evidence is unfit for court but choose to game the rules, hoping judges and juries will believe it and vote to convict.
Click through for details. You thought facial recognition technology was bad? Hold these p[eople’s beer (And I use the term “people” loosely. I questin their humanity.)

National Public Radio – Why scientists dug up the father of genetics, Gregor Mendel, and analyzed his DNA
Quote – Sequencing his DNA revealed genetic variants linked to diabetes, heart problems, and kidney disease. The variant that most intrigued Fairbanks was in a gene that has been associated with epilepsy and neurological issues. “He suffered throughout his life from some sort of a psychological or neurological disorder that caused him to have very severe nervous breakdowns,” says Fairbanks. “That may well have been an inherited condition – and that was a fascinating discovery that these scientists made.”
Click through for story. At first it sounds morbid – but on reflection, I think he would take it in the sirit of homage in which it was done. (He might have even gotten a chuckle out of it.)

Food For Thought