Aug 022022
 

Glenn Kirschner – More missing J6 texts: now its DHS’s Wolf & Cuccinelli. The Remedy? Let it rain subpoenas.

Meidas Touch – Navy Vet SLAMS Republicans as the party of cowards

The Lincoln Project – VA Bill

Farron Balanced – Trump Practices His Defense As He Clearly Panics About DOJ Investigation

Foil Arms and Hogg – The Brexit Song (CC at YouTube in case it doesn’t show up here)

Beau – Let’s talk about an order from Karl Rove to Trump….

Share
Aug 022022
 

Yesterday, I heard from my mechanic in response to the email I sent the previous night. I’m a long-time customer, and they have been known to squeeze me into their schedule if I had an immediate need, so I made sure to include that this time I don’t, and they responded that they can get to it in the next day ot two. Now I just need to hear from Virgil. He must be terrified He should have gotten my note, but I had not heard from him by 7 pm.

Cartoon – 02 HHudson RTL

Short Takes –

CPR – U.S. House passes Neguse-backed wildfire and drought bill addressing firefighter pay, forest health and recovery dollars
Quote – With wildfires and drought becoming increasingly existential problems for Colorado and neighboring states, the House took action Friday, passing a package of nearly 50 bills that Rep. Joe Neguse says “meets the moment for the West.” Neguse is a lead sponsor on the package, known as the Wildfire Response and Drought Resiliency Act, as well as the author of some of its specific provisions. It passed the House on a nearly party-line vote of 218-199…. Among the provisions in the bill are millions of dollars to help Colorado River reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the establishment of centers to focus on best practices for prescribed burns so that these potentially-destructive mitigations are done right, an increase for the base wildland firefighter pay, and steps to address forest health, such as removing underbrush and dead trees.
Click through for details. It appears to cover just about everything. Thankfully, not all our reps are like Boebert. (In a related story, the state has eased fishing restrictions on a cople of reservoirs which are fast losing water – because they’d rather have the fish get caught than suffocate.)

DU (IcyPeas) – Minutes after Guy Reffitt was sentenced to 7 years in Capitol riot case… his daughter calls for “life in prison” for Donald Trump
Quote – Her exact words were “Trump deserves life in prison if my father is to be in prison for this long.”
Click through – the story here is told in tweets. The daughter isn’t wrong.

Food For Thought –

Share
Aug 012022
 

Glenn Kirschner – How to disqualify insurrectionists from Congress: interview w/John Bonifaz of Free Speech 4 People

Meidas Touch – SHOCK: Justice Alito disgustingly MOCKS critics of repeal of Roe v. Wade

The Lincoln Project – Trapped

MSNBC – Former Marine Dismantles Right-Wing Arguments On The Second Amendment

Randy Rainbow Re-Run – Clang, Clang, Clang Went Josh Hawley! – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Beau – Let’s talk about Republicans bizarre request of DOD….

Share
Aug 012022
 

Yesterday, I went to visit Virgil – or tried to – but my car broke down and I had to get a tow and a ride home from my roadside assistance program. That went reasonably smoothly, and I have sent an email to the mechanics (they will have it by the time you read this) and a “JPay letter” to Virgil – that is a message which is electronically transmittied to the facility, printed out, and given to the offender – it’s the fastest means of communication from me to him, since I can’t call him, he has to call me. It is faster than snail mail, but not as much as I would wish at times like this.

Cartoon – 01 O2 RTL

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Louie Gohmert Melts Down After Dem ‘Impugns’ His Lies
Quote – Rep. Cicilline then told Republicans to read the documents and stop making false claims. “Good luck with that,” the chairwoman said. This set Louie Gohmert’s hair on fire. “The gentleman … is not allowed under the rules to impugn false statements by this side,” Gohmert said.
Click through for full extent of – whatever it is. Sometimes one wonders whether they are delusional or just plain dumb. Louie is delusional – but this was just plain dumb. [The meeting chair at that point was Madeleine Dean (D-PA)]

Daily Beast – Dr. Oz’s Turkish Nationalist Pals Living in His Secret N.J. Condo
Quote – Dr. Mehmet Oz owns an undisclosed apartment in New Jersey that houses close associates of his who are linked to groups that have denied the ethnic cleansing which occurred in the formative years of the modern Turkish state. Bergen County records show that since 2006 Oz and his wife have owned the condominium in the borough of Fairview, a seven-minute drive from their mansion overlooking the Hudson River, where the county sent the unit’s property tax bill as recently as this year. Yet this apartment is oddly absent from the otherwise exhaustive disclosure Oz made in April as a candidate for the U.S. senator from Pennsylvania…. What was possible to ascertain is who those tenants are: a pair of apparent longtime friends deeply involved in Turkish nationalist activism and connected to groups that have fought to prevent the United States from recognizing the extermination of Armenians on Turkish territory during World War I—which Oz himself has refused to describe as a genocide, despite a consensus among respected historians.
Click through for more. Yes, Republicans lie, and no, other Republicans don’t care. But this is like denying the Holocaust happened. People like that are dangers to democracy.

Food For Thought –

Share
Jul 312022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Is a federal grand jury criminally investigating Trump? An explainer of how grand juries work

Meidas Touch – Top Democrat STUNS with Speech of the Year SLAMMING Republicans after they Block Veteran Health Bill

The Lincoln Project – VA Bill

Ring of Fire – Fauci Says Bring It On To Republicans Who Want Him Investigated

Twitter – Urban Art

Beau – Let’s talk about VP Harris and that weird introduction…. (possible hanky alert)

Share
Jul 312022
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Samson et Dalila” by Saint-Saëns. Since this is another story I think everyone knows (if I’m wrong I hope someone will correct me), I’ll take a couple of sentences to share that the summer season for radi operas has its own web page at WFMT with multiple sub-pages, one of which allows one to download photos from every production, which makes the opera much more intresting, particularly when it’s one I’ve heard but never seen – and that doesn’t have to be a new opera necssarily. I have seen Samson et Dalila in the Met’s streaming library once, but it’s challenging to stage. This production from England doesn’t make any attempt to show authentic period or culture (not that it’s necessary, but the Met’s kind of did – but used colors which literally had not been invented at the time it was supposed to have taken place.) The big famous aria is “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” in which Dalila seduuces Samson by telling him how much his voice turns her on – all the time turning him on with her voice. Yes, sneaky (and diaingenuous. Well, that’s Delilah for you.)

I’ll take yesterday’s poll as 2 yes and 2 abstain, and will put Randy’s Hawley video in tomorrow’s video thread.

Cartoon – 31 0731Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

Wonkette – Anti-Abortion States Worst Places To Get Pregnant And Have Kids. Who Would Have Thought?
Quote – [The states that have either banned or are about to ban abortion] have higher maternal mortality rates, higher infant mortality rates, higher child poverty rates, and more uninsured women and children, and are much less likely to have minimum wages over $7.25, the Medicaid expansion, or paid family leave. In fact, literally none of them have paid family leave. If you have a kid in these states and you do not have a job that gives you paid family leave, you may have to get your ass up out of the delivery room (if you can even afford a delivery room) and get right to your next shift.
Click through for details. Wonkette knows perfectly well that anyone with a brain would have thought. That’s just Wonkette’s trademaek snark.

Mother Jones – Of Course Samuel Alito Is Bragging About It
Quote – High off the fumes of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the constitutional right to an abortion, a beaming Samuel Alito has emerged to try his hand at comedy. It did not go well. More critically, it further exposed an overtly political Supreme Court justice teeming with condescension for his critics.
Click through for story. Its author is understandably – um – irritated (mad as hell actually) – as we all should be.

Food For Thought –

Share
Jul 302022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Important new data points indicate DOJ does, in fact, have Donald Trump in its criminal sights

Meidas Touch – Rupert Murdoch TURNS ON TRUMP as Criminal Investigations Ramp Up

The Lincoln Project – This Woman Votes

Ojeda Live – Children Suffering in Somalia Thanks to Putin

Puppet Regime – Sing Along: The Really Bad People Song (CC included)

Beau – Let’s talk about Republican voting records….

Share
Jul 302022
 

Yesterday, the Hawley Run for your life video inspired someone on DU to resurrect Randy Rainbow’s song about him … and it certainly stll sounds very current. How about we do an informal poll on bringing some of his older productions back into the Video Thread (starting with that one)? Also, I received a grocery order which included nothing frozen and very little refrigerated . Much easier to put away than usual.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – https://crooksandliars.com/2022/07/fl-republican-may-have-disqualified
Quote – Introduced by state Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, and signed into law last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the new statute requires a candidate vying for a party’s nomination to be a registered party member for 365 days before qualifying for the post begins. Elections supervisor records show that Stark did not re-register as a Republican voter until January 2022.
Click through for story. Not the most important story in the world – but good for a smile anyway. I hope they enforce it. Snit fits should have consequences.

The New Yorker – Will Wisconsin’s Republicans Make Voting Meaningless, or Just Difficult?
Quote – In the time since she’d moved to the [nursing] home, more than a year earlier, no staff member had mentioned voting to her. Three weeks before the April primaries, [Jessica] Nell asked a senior staff member how to change her address in order to vote. The staff member refused to help, according to Nell. “I’m not going to go room to room and tell everybody about voting, because ninety per cent of the people here shouldn’t be able to vote,” she recalled him saying.
Click through for the climate and the stakes. Before is was Fitzwalkerstan, Wisconsin used to be reasonab’e. Them it bacame fascist before fascism was cool. And neighboring Minnesota seems almost equally infected.

Food For Thought –

Share