Glenn Kirschner – Steve Bannon – Guilty; J6 hearing reveals Trump was the leader of the coup on January 6
Meidas Touch – BREAKING NEWS: Merrick Garland POWERFULLY AFFIRMS Trump CAN be prosecuted
The Lincoln Project – What It Was
MSNBC – How The Secret Service Became Not Just A Protecter Of The President’s Body, But His Secrets
Ojeda Live – Ojeda BLASTS Pathological Lying MyPillow Guy in This Video!
Beau – Let’s talk about what Greek statues can teach us about American history…
Yesterday, Despite not having slept all that well, I got the blog posts up and sent the weekly email, but I didn’t do much else. An unexpected but very welcom Sound Off! did go up before the end of the day – don’t miss it.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Psyche (via Aeon) – The power of Langston Hughes’s ‘melancholy citizenship’
Quote – Hughes calls the people ‘humble, hungry, mean … despite the dream’. Whether one is ‘the poor white, fooled and pushed apart’ or ‘the Negro bearing slavery’s scars’, ‘the red man driven from the land’ or ‘the immigrant clutching the hope I seek’, all must live in the space between abstract ideals and the bitter world. To create a world better than the one into which we are born, Hughes urges victims of colonisation and slavery to find ways to discover common ground with beneficiaries of past injustices.
Click through for full idea. Poetry is not scary. It’s mostly the expressions of simple truths in unexpected ways that make people see them as new, even if thet’re actually very old.
Letters From An American – July 23, 2022
Quote – Rising autocrats have declared democracy obsolete. They argue that popular government is too slow to respond to the rapid pace of the modern world, or that liberal democracy’s focus on individual rights undermines the traditional values that hold societies together, values like religion and ethnic or racial similarities. Hungarian president Viktor Orbán, whom the radical right supports so enthusiastically that he is speaking on August 4 in Texas at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), has called for replacing liberal democracy with “illiberal democracy” or “Christian democracy,” which will explicitly not treat everyone equally and will rest power in a single political party.
Click through for full letter. Richardson is not being alarmist. She makes it pellucidly clear what we are up against. This needs to be read or heard by every American, particularly every American who is not already deeply aware of politics.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Bannon Trial, Day 4: Steve Bannon gets his chance to tell his side of the story – and stays quiet
Meidas Touch – Jamie Raskin STUNS Republican with epic 2nd Amendment FACT-CHECK in real time
Meidas Touch – Jamie Raskin STUNS Republican with epic 2nd Amendment FACT-CHECK in real time
The Lincoln Project – Deleted
Senators Reach Agreement On Bills To Stop Candidates From Stealing Elections
Robert Reich – How Amazon, Starbucks, and Other Companies Fight Unions
Parody Project – KETCHUP ON THE WALL – A Parody
Beau – Let’s talk about Trump losing Idaho….
Yesterday, The opera was Macbeth (Verdi). Everyone knows that story, of course. I was not familiar wih the soprano singing Lady MacBeth, but she was excellent. MacBeth and Banquo were sung by two stars who are also known for being drop-dead gorgeous. The baritone (Simon Keenlyside) is not as young as he was, but still very handsome, and the bass, Günther Grossböck, is younger (and generally taller than anyone else on stage.) I have seen both the play and the opera more than once – back to back once, at the Kennedy Center, when I was in the service and they were doing a mini-Shakespeare festival, and I may be the only person in the world who feels this way, but I have always felt that the play never quite worked. There are parts of it which just can’t be played naturally – they are always either underplayed or overplayed. It isn’t really the fault of any of the actors – it’s just written that way. But the opera – all you need for that to it themark is singers who can stand up and hit the notes. With that, it’s a winner every time. All the passion is i the score.
I also managed to finish reading Heather Cox Richardson’s Letter from Thursday night. She quoted an NPR host as saying: “the Democratic chair of the committee just gracefully, and with full confidence, turned over the running of tonight’s hearing to the vice-chair, who happens to be of another party, and they spoke with mutual trust and respect. That’s how it’s supposed to go.” Well, yeah. that struck meat the time also. You might say it isn’t evidence, and it indeed is not evidence regarding the insurrection. But it is evidence that, even now, people who disagree with each other, even violently, can still work together if they have decency, integrity, and courtesy. It’s no wonder Rethuglicans so hate courtesy, and find insulting terms like “political correctness” to describe it. And here we all are. Sigh.
Cartoon –
Short Takes – I’m just going to go with News of the Weird today and be serious again tomorrow.
The Daily Beast – A Judge Pulled a Gun in the Courtroom—and Then It Got Weird
“The whole trial was insane,” said one lawyer, who later reported the weapon-wielding jurist to the FBI.
PolitiZoom – AR Toting Lunatic Spotted in Local Park Threatening to Shoot His Foot Off
Yes, this was Ronny Jackson. Sigh.
Democratic Underground (Nevilledog) – Cops stood by while a woman was terrorized by a stalker in her home for 12 hours and then killed
Seriously? In San Diego?
ProPublica – Pharma Companies Sue for the Right to Buy Blood From Mexicans Along Border
A year after the U.S. barred Mexicans from crossing the border to sell their blood, pharmaceutical companies have acknowledged that those donations provided as much as 10% of the plasma collected nationwide as they seek to have the ban overturned.
Crooks and Liars – Remember That Other Secret Service Scandal?
We all remember that story about the two fake agents who were sucking up to the First Lady’s Secret Service detail. Well, one of them has filed a notification that he will now change his plea to guilty.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Steve Bannon loves to run his mouth; tomorrow [Thursday] is his big day as he gets to testify. Will he?
Meidas Touch – What Maddow got WRONG about the ‘Bombshell’ DOJ memo
The Lincoln Project – Tucker Carlson’s Unofficial Presidential Speech (Barf Bag Alert)
Farron Balanced – Legal Scholar Says Dems Should Sue To Prevent Trump From Holding Office Ever Again
MSNBC – Senators Reach Agreement On Bills To Stop Candidates From Stealing Elections
Beau – Let’s talk about Ted Cruz and marriage…
Yesterday, I got up and started working on my email inbox while at the same time, in the back of my mind, processing the previous night’s hearing. “The Conversation” newsletter already had an article about it, the title of which caught my eye, and I started musing about how the Committee spent almost three hours – almost minute for minute – on Trump*s timeline during the insurrection riot. When basically he did nothing. That made me think of Seinfeld – which was proudly a show about nothing. It’s easy get caught in the adage “noting comes from nothing” and not realize how much can sometimes be learned from studying nothing. Particularly when the premise – or the conclusion – is that there ought to have been something. I had to switch from the Committee’s dot gov page to its YouTube page because it started to loop. I found the place just before the loop started, and got the rest of the hearing that way.
There is some misinformation going around (not unusual, but this one appears to have started with Rachel, and that IS unusual) about a DOJ memo. The memo exists, but the interpretation of what it means was way off. The Meidas brothers got it right, and their video on it is in today’s video thread. I am always a bit behind, so Rachel may have already corrected her position by now, but these things are tough to stop once they start, so thought I’d mention it.
Cartoon – 23 0723Cartoon.jpg
Short Takes –
Teen Vogue – Community Schools: What Are They and How Do They Work? (referred by ITPI)
Quote – The concept of a community school, which has been around for more than a century, is quite simple. Any public school can become a community school if the school board, students, parents, and faculty collectively commit to being involved not only in a child’s education but also in meeting all of a student’s needs. “A community school is a decision that students, families, educators, and community members make about the role they want their neighborhood public school to play within the community and within the lives of the stakeholders that touch the school,” a representative from the National Education Association told Teen Vogue in an email. “Because learning never happens in isolation, community schools focus on what students in the community truly need to succeed — whether it’s free, healthy meals; health care; tutoring; mental health counseling; or other tailored services before, during, and after school.”
Click through for details and examples. No, I don’t read Teen Vogue. But ITPI (In The Public Interest) “wrote the book” on public versus private anything, and if they tell me there is valuable information there, I believe them (and was not disappointed.) Of course I suppose the idea of community schools make right wing heads explode.
The Conversation – The Supreme Court’s ideological rulings are roiling US politics – just as when Lincoln and his Republicans remade the court to fit their agenda
Quote – In the 1860s, President Abraham Lincoln worked with fellow Republicans to shape the Court to carry out his party’s anti-slavery and pro-Union agenda. It was an age in which the court was unabashedly a “partisan creature,” in historian Rachel Shelden’s words. Justice John Catron had advised Democrat James K. Polk’s 1844 presidential campaign, and Justice John McLean was a serial presidential contender in a black robe. And in the 1860s, Republican leaders would change the number of justices and the political balance of the Court to ensure their party’s dominance of its direction.
Click through for the history. It surely looks like a precedent to me. And we are at least as closenow as then to losing democracy forever – personally I think even closer.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Day 2 of Steve Bannon’s contempt of Congress trial: a review of the opening statements
Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Lauren Boebert’s Threat to Imprison Dr. Fauci
The Lincoln Project – Threats
Twitter – Too-good-to-miss anti-z ad
holy shit watch and retweet this ad pic.twitter.com/JIPhxZch7S
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) July 20, 2022
This Guy Stopped Traffic To Save A Kitten In The Road
Beau – Let’s talk about a phone number you need in the US….
Yesterday, reading Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letter” from the 20th, my eyebrows went up when Iread that 100 million Americans were under heat warnings – my thought was, “Dear God, that’s a third of the country!” I think we actually have 330 million people, so that was a slight exaggeration – but still – that’s, shall we say, impressive. of course I also watched the hearing, but that was late enough that I won’t discuss it here. I will eventually of course.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Robert Reich – Is it time for Democrats to kick Joe Manchin out of the party?
Quote – In fact, the way things are right now, Biden and the Democrats have the worst of both worlds. They look like they control the Senate, as well as the House and the presidency. But they can’t get a damn thing done because Manchin (and his intermittent sidekick Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema) won’t let them. So after almost two years of appearing to run the entire government, Democrats have accomplished almost nothing of what they came to Washington to do…. By kicking Manchin out of the party, Democrats could at least go into the midterms with a more realistic pitch: “It looked like we had control of the Senate, but we didn’t. Now that you know who the real Democrats are, give us the power and we will get it done.”
Click through for argument. I won’t say he sold me, but he did get me to seriously consider it.
Update: I don’t bug Mitch too much (on top of other issues he’s having surprise cataract surgery next week) but he sent out a Daily Kos article on Manchin, so I sent him this one. His response: “Biden needs to get out on the hustings and PUSH for more Dem. senators…PUSH LOUDLY! If Manchin, and Sinema can be made virtually irrelevant, we might then be able to rejoin the rest of the western democracies.”
The Daily Beast – Liberal Panic Could Help Trump Steal the Next Election
Quote – As both a critic of the theory being advanced in Moore and an advocate of urgently needed reforms to avoid another presidential election crisis, I feel it is important to set the record straight. In defending democracy against the very real threat of Trump-style subversion, we must get the details right. Crucially, we need to be able to distinguish serious conservative legal scholarship and arguments, even when they are wrong, from worst-case scenarios based on fringe crank theories and total lawlessness. The current majority on the Supreme Court might endorse the former, but we should not concede the latter by falsely conflating the two.
Click through for full analysis. Personally, I think the author vastly underestimates the determination and the ingenuity of the criminal GOP. I think this case is more like the head, shoulders, and hump of the camel in the tent. And I don’t see how liberal panic would help Trump** – the more panicked we are, the more likely we are to vote. But I thought (and think) readers here are perfectly capable of drawing their own conclusions, and I though this should be seen.
Food For Thought
