Open Thread – Page 243 – Politics Plus

Open Thread May 23, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:13 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 232022

Yesterday, I woke up before the alarm went off, and just stayed up, since I knew the weather could be problematic. It actually turned out not to be. there was no snow or ice or even frost on the windows – a couple of drops of rain was all. I took my time driving, the roads were almost all dry, and the short spots where they were not (bridges ot dips) were only wet, not icy. Virgil was a litttle short of sleep … and so was I. But we enjoyed each other’s comapny. And I got home as easily as I went down. (However, I wouldn’t be surprised if, when you see this, I am actually still asleep, even if you get to it later than usual.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

truthout – Judge Blocks Biden from Ending Title 42 in “Arbitrary, Racist” Ruling
Quote – Human rights advocates say Title 42 forces people legally seeking asylum in the United States into perilous situations in Mexican border cities, where Human Rights First has identified nearly 10,000 violent attacks on migrants. “Beyond the devastating humanitarian impact of Title 42, the court’s ruling also fails to recognize well-established domestic and international law,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. “Seeking asylum is a legal right, and yet this bedrock of the American legal system is quickly eroding at a time of unprecedented need.”
Click through for an explanation at least in part why the immigration authorities at the southern border are still doing such a – (cough) – such a rotten job. It isn’t all on Biden by a long shot (granted that some of it is).

Reuters – Analysis: Australian women unleash new political force on climate, integrity
Quote – Women who left successful careers in business, medicine and media to enter politics as independents were on track to win five seats from Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal party in its affluent urban heartland in Saturday’s general election, as moderate voters abandoned the government…. Personifying the disruptive change were centrists, mostly women, dubbed “teal” candidates because of teal-coloured marketing material used as they targeted seats held by Morrison’s conservative party.
Click through for full analysis. Lona did such a good job of summarizeing the election results in her comment (scroll down) that I thought I’d use this article, since it’s more about something new than general politics.

Crooks and Liars – Cassidy: Our Maternal Death Rates Only Bad If You Include Black Women
Quote – “About a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So, if you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear,” Cassidy said in an interview with POLITICO. “Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality.”
Click through for story. Can you believe this? Not his thinking it, tha’s nrmal for Republicans, but presumably not realizing what kind of blowback he would get from it?

Food For Thought

Video Thread 5/22/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:38 am Open Thread, Politics

May 222022

Glenn Kirschner – Disdain and disregard for the voters of Pennsylvania: Trump’s Election lies in the land of Oz

Meidas Touch – Beto O’Rourke brings THE HOUSE DOWN with EPIC answer on gun control

The Lincoln Project – This Man Votes

Farron Balanced – Lauren Boebert Accidentally Makes A Great Argument For Paid Family Leave

No Dem Left Behind – Meet the Not-So-Radical Left

Armageddon Update – Damn you, Biden!

Beau – Let’s talk about SCOTUS making it easier to buy a Senator….

Open Thread May 22, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:27 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 222022

Yesterday, I got up and checked the weather, and discovered we had had some snow, earlier that expected. I had to go out and brush it off before it froze – otherwise I’d never have been able to get it off this morning; But that had to wait until after the radio opera, which was Lucia di Lammermoor. Directors are always looking for new ways to stage this opera, likely because it is heard so often, and is so well written that, like La Boheme, there are some of us who know every note, and they want there to be some surprise. This production (though of course one can’t see it on the radio, but I saw some stills and watched a couple of shot excerpts) is supposed to be set in today’s American “rust belt,” but you wouldn’t go far wrog if you visualized “West Side Story.” But really, any environment with heavy-handed male domination works to conver how a young girl, emotionally (and mentally) fragile and with no allies, could reach the point murdering someone and then going into hallucinatory denial. Hence the “Mad Scene.” 19th century composers loved mad scenes because they were an excuse for highly decorated melidoes which could have nothing to do with anything actually happening (and of course sopranos love them too), and the one in “Lucia” is the best known for good reasons. But they were so prevalent, there is even a short one in the Ring Cycle (though it was only recently I realized that – it’s not presented as one.) Finally, I sent copies to Mitch of all your responses to the update in Thursday’s Open Thread and he wants to thank everyomne.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

George Takei’s Comic Sands – GOP Group That Helped Take Down Cawthorn Now Has Their Sights Set On Boebert—And Critics Can’t Wait
Quote – So the American Muckrakers PAC said they are going after Boebert next with damaging info. Apparently they had a hand in Cawthorn’s demise. This should be fun…. They are starting with her finances. In the fall, it was reported Boebert wrongly used campaign funds to pay for her rent and utility bill. This came about when $6,650 was exchanged via Venmo with the payment labeled “personal expenses.
Click through. This may be the best news I’ve had all week.

HuffPost – Tucker Carlson Asked Hunter Biden For Help With His Son’s Georgetown Application
Quote – “Tucker and I have the greatest respect and admiration for you. Always!” Susie Carlson wrote back. “I can’t thank you enough for writing that letter to Georgetown on Buckley’s behalf,” Tucker Carlson wrote to Biden a day later. “So nice of you. I know it’ll help. Hope you’re great and we can all get dinner soon.” The emails were part of records retrieved from a laptop Biden reportedly left at a Delaware repair shop in 2019, first reported by The New York Post.
Click through for story. To me the biggest story is that tucker ever had enough testosterobe to father a son. DNA testing anyone? And the second biggest surprise is that Tucker once had a decent human being as a friend.

Crooks and Liars – In Case Alex Jones Isn’t Detestable Enough, There’s This
Quote – [Marcel Fontaine] notified Jones that he was not the shooter. They ignored him. When he began to get threats, he notified them again that they were broadcasting a picture of the wrong person. The picture identifying him as the shooter remained on Jones’ website for a full day, visited by hundreds of thousands of people.
Click through for disgusting details. Jones should be held fully accountable for this. But who thinks Ken Pazton is going to prosecute?

Food For Thought

Video Thread 5/21/22

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

May 212022

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ wants the 1000+ transcripts of witness testimony from the Jan. 6 House committee. Here’s why

Meidas Touch – Muslim TV hosts EXPOSE clear DOUBLE STANDARD in recent Buffalo shooting

The Lincoln Project – Doug Mastriano is Dangerous

RepresentUs + Mondaire Jones shares a first-hand account of a failing democracy

Ring of Fire – Marjorie Taylor Greene Says The ‘Real’ Racists Are The Ones Denouncing White Replacement Theory

Armageddon Update – Abort The Court

Beau – Let’s talk about when the wealthy meet climate change….

Open Thread May 21, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:26 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 212022

Yesterday, I woke up and thought, “Oh my God, it’s Saturday!” Fortunately – it wasn’t. But that certainly motivated me to get ready for today – so that I can use today to get ready for tomorrow and to visit Virgil in the snow. We are expecting less than an inch (maybe 17 mm), and that the day before I have to drive – but also very little sun and very low temperatires And I.m not sure what to expect on the road. Of course I will post when I get home but I’ll want to change first, so it may be 5:30 or even later my time.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

PolitiZoom – Never Before Has An S-4 Registration Statement Made For Hilarious Reading But That Was Before Trump
Quote – Shoring up the idea that Trump really wants to make a go of Truth Social is a report of a filing of a document which is required before Trump can take his platform public and sell stock in it. As the Los Angeles Times notes sagaciously, “Some followers of Trumpworld may find that the S-4 registration statement filed Monday in anticipation of the Trump-SPAC merger makes hilarious reading” and this is usually not the case. But then it is usually not the case that somebody with Trump’s track record of bankruptcies, lawsuits, liquidations, you name it, keeps coming back for more, trying to borrow and raise more and more money.
Click through for explanation and examples. The complete S-4 is here, but it’s very long and it all fine print.

Slate – What People Misunderstand About Red-Pilling
Quote – While racism is woven into the fabric of the United States, the daily repetition of white supremacist viewpoints by Fox News and political elites alike is an organized backlash to racial progress. It justifies police violence against people of color, virulent anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant policy, and local campaigns against “critical race theory” that shut down any discussion of race in school. Many of these ideas are workshopped and circulated in extremist spaces before they filter into mainstream political discourse. Understanding how they operate—and how and why extremist beliefs spread—is crucial.
Click through for details. This is why there is starting to be talk of “deprogramming” being needed, and why that idea is getting so much pushback.

The Daily Beast – New York City Officials Are Investigating a Potential Case of Monkeypox
Quote – Monkeypox, which is in the same family as smallpox, is a rare but potentially serious disease. Symptoms typically mirror those of the flu, and can include swollen lymph nodes and a rash throughout the body. If the patient tests positive, the result will be sent to the CDC for confirmation and city epidemiologists will contact individuals who may have come in contact with them during their infectious period. Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan said in a statement that the patient is following all isolation protocols during the investigation. Dr. Celine Gounder, an epidemiologist, told Gothamist that “with this current outbreak, it does seem to also be spreading more easily than what has been our prior experience”
Click through for more. Maybe it’s just me, but this issue of The Daily Beast’s “Cheat Sheet” seemed particularly beastly. Besides this story, there’s Victor Orban, Ginnt Thomas, and Eva the Dog. (The ads look like articles – if you click through and dive deeper, be aware – they are easily scrolled past but still mildly annoying.)

Food For Thought
As inappropriate as this is for the Southeast, it is very appropriate for Colorado just now.)

Video Thread 5/20/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:17 pm Open Thread, Politics

May 202022

Glenn Kirschner – All of gov’t approach to deal w/unrestricted gun access + unrestricted hate speech inciting violence

Meidas Touch – Former Federal Prosecutor REACTS to DOJ request of Jan 6 Committee Transcripts

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – May 17,2022

Robert Reich – This One Thing Is Making Your Life More Expensive

MSNBC – Why We Can’t Keep Ignoring Political Extremism

Ring of Fire – Trump Tells Dr Oz To Just Declare Victory As Votes Are Still Being Counted

Beau – Let’s talk about a problem at an intelligence school….

Open Thread May 20, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:15 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 202022

Yesterday, among other things, I heard from Mitch (our Mitch, I mean, of course – not BBM!) I had passed on a little info from comments about how we all are doing, and he was grateful to know and sends encouragement. He also gave me permission to pass on that he had his first cario rehab (yesterday); and it went well. It was a combination of assessment and workout, and he did more execcise than he had done since the day before the attack, and ended up not feeling not that bad. This coming Monday he will be doing it 3x weekly. He’s not up to commenting yet. He’s grateful for everyone’s concern. Of course I told him to take all the time he needed (where have I heard that before?)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

CPR News – After almost 80 years, roses from Colorado’s Amache internment camp may bloom again
Quote – It was during an archaeological dig that the rosebush was discovered. Bonnie Clark, an archaeologist with the University of Denver, and her team were on-site at Camp Amache when they found the bramble crawling across the remnants of a barracks doorway in 2012. It had survived a dark time in American history and the unforgiving extremes of Colorado’s southeastern plains…. Clark, who leads the DU Amache Research Project and Field School, believes people who were imprisoned at the camp planted the roses. “It’s hard to know which family planted them,” she said. “But most of the people who lived in the block where we found them at Amache were from Los Angeles.”
Click through to learn what all it took to accomplish this. Not only is this good news, but it comes at a time when the White House Rose Garden has just been partially restored and is colorful again.

Robert Reich – What you need to know about the anti-democracy movement
Quote – Peter Thiel, the billionaire tech financier who is among those leading the charge, writes “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Thiel is using his fortune to squelch democracy. He donated $15 million to the successful Republican Ohio senatorial primary campaign of J.D. Vance, who alleges that the 2020 election was stolen and that Biden’s immigration policy has meant “more Democrat voters pouring into this country.” And Thiel has donated at least $10 million to the Arizona Republican primary race of Blake Masters, who also claims Trump won the 2020 election and admires Lee Kuan Yew, the authoritarian founder of modern Singapore.
Click through for more – I suppose, since no one is perfet, there are times when the Reich on the left is not right, but I haven’t seen it yet. This may be the most important thing about our drift to autocracy which has yet been said – that it isn’t a drift, it’s a conscious push.

Crooks and Liars – Katie Porter: Dems Are Actually Doing Something About Inflation
Quote – “We have monopolies today in virtually everything. There is a bread monopoly, there’s a cereal monopoly, beef monopoly. So we need to create this competition. It’s going to help not only consumers, but small businesses wanting to enter these marketplaces. More competition is better for our economy, period. The only people who benefit from monopolies are the monopolists themselves.”
Click through for some details and how to message. This is difficult because it is complex yet the solution is pretty clear – and proven to work (Remember the Sherman Anti-Trust Act?) there’s also a video, if you can stand Joe and Mika for a few minites.

Food For Thought