Jun 112022
 

Glenn Kirschner – With J6 committee public hearings set to begin, we ask: why has DOJ apparently chosen to go second?

Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Republicans Canceling Pizza Hut for Celebrating Pride Month (different tone from usual)

The Lincoln Project – Retire

The Republican Accountability Project – Time for the truth about January 6

MSNBC – The Republican Plot To Overturn The Next Election

Ojeda Live – I’m Back! (He was in Europe)

Beau – Let’s talk about what it means to be a conservative….

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Jun 112022
 

Yesterday, I got my ballot into the mailbox before the mail delivery happened – So I could hear it’s been received as soon as Monday. After that, it’s not longe before I hear that it has been validated and will be counted. And that’s about it. I did a little knitting – I’m working on a shawl. Many people feel that shawls are easier and faster than sweaters because no sleeves, no openings no fitting. And I suppose they don’t actually take any more time than a sweater. But it seems longer, because it’s boring AF. Even with some increases – ans this pattern has some – by the time you get past the first skein, there is so much straight knitting berween them, that if ells like there’s no fitting. I need extra knitting markers not to skip them by just forgetting. But it will get done – and there’s really no hurry.

Cartoon – 11 0611Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

The 19th -Many low-income people are already shut out of IVF. Could abortion bans make it even more expensive?
Quote – Almost 20 years ago, Italy tested what it would look like if embryos were given the same rights as a living person. The country put stringent limits on in vitro fertilization treatments (IVF), banning embryo preservation, limiting the number of embryos created a time to three and mandating that they all be transferred to the uterus. In the years the law was in place, before it was ultimately repealed in full, more IVF treatments failed, more pregnancies resulted in no live births or more multiple births, and IVF became more difficult to access — and more expensive. Italian patients who could afford it traveled to other countries across Europe to receive treatment. Success rates at IVF clinics dropped, high-risk pregnancies increased and doctors had to risk transferring embryos that could lead to medical complications for the pregnant person. Single parents and many LGBTQ+ parents couldn’t access IVF at all because surrogacy and sperm donation were also banned.
Click through. Anti-abortion people talk as if it’s a simple problem – sluts don’t want to be bothered with children. But the woman who desperately wants a child but has an ectopc pregnancy instead and will die without help – and he woman who desperately wants a child and cannot conceive without help – these are not just forgotten, but trashed – proving again, if proof were needed, that it isn’t about abortion at all, just about control.

Pro Publica – In Exclusive Jailhouse Letter, Capitol Riot Defendant Explains Motives, Remains Boastful
Quote – Reffitt went on to describe how the group might be able to disable a social media company’s servers by using a sniper rifle to disable the generators at a nearby Texas facility. According to court records, he said attacking the servers would “make them feel it back” in Washington, D.C. He added: “Then they won’t know we’re coming next time.”
Click through for details. This is what scares me even more than Trump**. This guy is not alone, and he is competent enough to write a coherent letter. This is the guy his son turned in and who threatened to kill his son for doing it.

Thom Hartmann for Common Dreams – These Trump-Led Seditionists Must Be Punished in Court—and at the Ballot Box
Quote – Sedition is a word with which most Americans are not familiar. We haven’t had an American politician or armed group try to commit sedition in the United States since 1861, so it’s not a word that we normally use or see in the media. But sedition is what this is all about. An attempted coup to overthrow our government and replace its duly elected leader, Joe Biden, with Donald Trump.
Click through for full opinion. I looked for non-insurrections stories, but there wasn’t much. That’s probably a good ting as it probably means that an impression was made by the Committee.

Food For Thought

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Jun 102022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump recruits & deploys the Proud Boys on 1/6, making him part of the PB’s seditious conspiracy

Meidas Touch – Harry Litman REVEALS identity of Secret Star Witness for Jan 6 Hearings

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – June 7, 2022

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Dives Into Scapegoating of D.A. Boudin (Of course the recall is over – and, sadly, our side lost – but the opportunty to learn is always present. Incidentally, I could actually agree with Tom Cotton to this degree – there are WAY too many Republicans running around loose.)

CNN – Ex-gun industry insider speaks out about Republicans and NRA

Mini Horse Tries So Hard To Make His Very First Friend

Beau – Let’s talk about an analogy to help people understand the climate….

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Jun 102022
 

Yesterday was fairly routine. I did watch the second hour of the hearings – and I have to say I was glad they adjourned – I don’t know how much more I could have withstood. I watched here, so I got no commentary. After looking around afterwards, I started looking for any other sources, especially those which might continue to be available in case anyone else missed anything. The first one I found was PBS (I have set this to start just as the hearing does, so it may be a little choppy.) Meidas Touch also made it avaiabe trough The Tony Michaels podcast. It was still going when I found it, so I didn’t try to look for a starting time. Those commenting there are likely, some of them, to be familiar (Texas Paul is one, but others have also been seen in the Video Thread here.) I did look for MSNBC, but didn’t have a lot of time to look, and only found a clip on it.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Here’s What A Real Expert Has To Say About Active Shooters
Quote – This event isn’t a real team building exercise, however, but a powerful new PSA put out by March For Our Lives, the gun control group that formed in the wake of 2018’s Parkland school shooting. The PSA, titled “Generation Lockdown,” seeks to build support for the passage of a bill in the US Senate that would expand background checks for guns.
Click through for video and article. I put this here rather than in the Video Thread because the article, I believe, adds content. Someone at DU commented that if this doesn’t break your heart, you probably don’t have one. – let that be a hanky alert.

The Daily Beast – Putin’s Favorite Copycat Gears Up in Panicked Wartime Frenzy
Quote – In the past few days Lukashenko and his advisers have made a flurry of announcements about plans to bolster the Belarusian military. First, they announced Belarus was creating a people’s militia to give a boost to the country’s armed forces. Then they announced both a new military unit on the country’s southern border with Ukraine and new military mobilizations exercises.
Click through for details. Frankly, this scares me. Belarus isn’t very big – but then, neither is a straw.

The New Yorker (Daily Shouts) – Racism Outshines Platinum Jubilee
Quote – On Friday, at a service of thanksgiving for Her Majesty at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Racism, attending with its partner, Colonialism, turned things up a notch in haute couture by the House of Anxiety, a dazzling coat composed of thousands of individual boos directed toward Meghan and Harry as they entered the church. When asked about the custom creation, House of Anxiety responded, “White supremacy demands hating the other, and hating the other is the moment.”
Click through for article. “Daily Shouts” is a humor column which often comes very close to realiy because its readers are expected to be alert to satire. But frankly, I think this one is TOO close (Harry and Meghan did not, at least I don’t think so, leave early because of any disrespect to Elizabeth, but because two neo Nazis told Harry to his face that Archie was “an abomination” who ought to be “put down.”)

Food For Thought

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Jun 092022
 

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ indicts Head Proud Boy Tarrio for seditious conspiracy. Now indict the Proud Boy’s leader -Trump (but see my comment on Rachel below)

Meidas Touch – Michael Cohen EXPOSES Donald Trump’s Strategy for the Jan 6 Hearings

CNN – Bernstein identifies the ‘real sleeper’ of the January 6th hearing

MSNBC Maddow – I’m posting this just for the first 5 minutes. It made me wonder – are the Seditious Conspiracy charges against the Proud Boys and others possibly trial runs (no pun intended) to make sure they get the evidence on the big boys right and get convictions? Tha might also explain a lot of the delay in DOJ going after the big fish.

Al Franken – Potential Jan 6th Hearing Bombshells (Not IMO his funniest, but still Al, and not terribly long)

Guy Tries To Befriend A Stray Cat For Over A Year

Beau – Let’s talk about masculinity and whether it’s toxic….

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Jun 092022
 

Yesterday, CPR News gave me all the information I needd to decide which Democrat to vote for the challenge Douglas Lamborn (or as I generally call him, Duggie Lamebrain.) There wasn’t much diffeence actually. I went with the one who had the stronger resume, who as also the one who got onto the ballot through the state assembly, which means if there is any money at all coming from DCCC, he’s the one who will get it. Of course there may noy be any. My district is +20 Red. Lamebrain himself has two primary challengers, both from the right – but that may turn out to be one too many. Election Day is the 28th, so we’ll know by July.

BTW, I put an Al Franken video into today’s video thread. I can’t claim it’s one of his funniest, but it is timely, and it’s under 8 minutes.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Trump Demands Minions Push Back Against Jan. 6th Hearings
Quote – Instead, some operatives are offering their clients talking points to prepare them for the inevitable questions that will arise around the hearing, but with the goal of steering the conversation back to domestic issues.
Click through for not-very-long but very-revealing story. Seriously, do they think the survival of demicracy itself is not a “domestic” issue?

CPR News – Thousands of Democrats are changing their voter registration in Lauren Boebert’s district ahead of the primary
Quote – Thousands of voters have recently left the Democratic Party in Western Colorado — some as part of a grassroots effort to defeat Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert in her upcoming primary election. Among them is Steven Hallenborg of Montrose. “Well, I’m a lifelong Democrat, and now I’m unaffiliated,” he said. Because he changed his affiliation, he now can vote against Boebert in the June 28 Republican primary.
Click through for numbers. Unaffiliated voters receive two ballots but may only return one – their choice which one. That osn’t a lot of Democrats, but it could be enough to make a difference.

The Daily Beast – Free Gas Cards Are the GOP’s New Campaign Gimmick—and It’s Legal (BBA)
Quote – Lucky drivers pulling up to a packed Chevron gas station south of Atlanta last Saturday finally saw a little relief at the pump, in the form of a $25 gas voucher straight from the goddaughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece. The catch: They had to sit through a pitch for her political candidate of choice—college football hero, Olympic bobsledder, Russian roulette aficionado, and now aspiring Republican senator Herschel Walker.
Click through for details. The thing that leaps out at me is – more proof that it’s impossible to predict the political position of anyone based on the known positions of even their closest family and friends.

Food For Thought

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Jun 082022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Liz Cheney on Trump’s “extremely well-organized conspiracy” while Gohmert wants to lie with impunity

Don Winslow – #RepublicanSchoolDay

CNN – Extraordinary’: NYT reporter says Pence aide gave warning before January 6

Rebel HQ – Uvalde Police Enlist Biker Gangs To Intimidate Media

MSNBC – Deadline White House – “Bug-Eyed Gibberish”

Huge Mastiff Mix Has The BEST Reaction To Getting Adopted

Beau – Let’s talk about when a bee isn’t a bee but a fish…. After the last tewo Beaus I for one needed this one.)

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Jun 082022
 

Yesterday, my shoulder was fine in the morning (not unusual) without having had to do anything for it the night before (unusual lately.) I’m not suggesting that will be the new normal -but if it isn’t, I think I now know exactly where to place the TENS pads to help make it so.  Also, in the afternoon, my primary ballot came.  There’s not much choice on it – the only contested primary is for someone to run against Doug Lamborn, and that’s a lost cause, i fear.  However, I will do the due diligence and pick which one I think is the stronger  In this district, there’s no point in going for the more progesssive one.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Blake Masters Blames Gun Violence on ‘Black People, Frankly’
Quote – Masters boiled the issue down in an April 11 interview on the Jeff Oravits Show podcast, telling the host that “we do have a gun violence problem in this country, and it’s gang violence…. It’s people in Chicago, St. Louis shooting each other. Very often, you know, Black people, frankly,” Masters clarified. “And the Democrats don’t want to do anything about that.”
Click through for article. I swear, I thought he was going to say that black people are JUST SO SCARY that white people JUST HAVE TO shoot them out of panic. Irony is not dead – but apparently you can’t see it unless you’re woke.

Crooks and Liars – Man Just Sitting Around Randomly Shoots And Kills 8-Year-Old
Quote – The sheriff says the shooter was “probably just methed up and has a history.” Maybe people with a “history” of being methed up shouldn’t have guns.
Click through for details if you can stand them, but the quote basicaly tells the story.

Robert Reich – The Week Ahead: Why everything depends on Liz Cheney
Quote – Cheney’s responsibility this week will be similar to Baker’s 49 years ago — to be the steady voice of non-partisan common sense, helping the nation view the hearings as a search for truth rather than a “witch hunt,” as Trump has characterized them. In many ways, though, Cheney’s role will be far more challenging than Baker’s.
Click through; don’t be put off by the headline. He makes a solid point.I honestly hope she reads this and (whether or not she reads this particular iteration – Carl Bernstein is saying much the same) chooses to live up to it.

Food For Thought

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