Open Thread – Page 249 – Politics Plus

Open Thread April 29, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:49 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 292022

Yesterday, I received a grocery order which had NO SUBSTITUTION! Yay! My delivery window was 4-6 pm and by 4:30 I actually had it all put away. Amazing.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

HuffPost – Parents of Trans Kids Don’t Know Where Their Children Can Be Safe
Quote – Many families, including the Morrisons, would be forced to move away if Arizona were to pass a stricter trans youth medical care ban in the future. What makes that reality particularly devastating for their household is that they already had to relocate once to keep Skyler safe: They left Texas in 2017 after lawmakers attempted to force through a bill banning trans youth from using the school restroom that matches their lived gender. The Morrisons hoped Arizona would be a chance to start over.
Click through for the full story. Cuss if you feel like it – I did. (I personally don’t think I would have gone to arizona from Texas for this reason – New Mexico would have been a better bet. But that’s just me.)

Crooks and Liars – Blinken Torches Rand Paul’s Russian Talking Points
Quote – Sen Paul tried to blame the US and other NATO nations for agitating Vladimir Putin to attack Ukraine. Blinken said, “If you look at the countries Russia has attacked over the last years — these are countries not part of NATO. They do not attack NATO countries for probably good reason.” Paul replied, “You could also argue the countries they attacked were part of Russia. Were part of the Soviet Union.” This is Putin’s propaganda, which Sen. Paul gave credibility to.
Click through for full exchange (including video). I get very frustrated that so many people – people in general but also an astonishing number of people who ought to know better – keeptalking as if there is still such a thing as “the Societ Union.” There isn’t. There’s also a misconception that Rissua = Communism, It doesn’t. It is a capitalist oligarchy. It is also extremely authoritarion, as it was under communism (and under Communism in name only), but that’s a different matter. I also see peole using the term “Comrade” in Russian references, which bolsters the falsehoon. If we don’t know what we are up against, we can’t very well oppose it effectively.

Mother Jones – A Wave of Lawsuits Aims to Halt Louis DeJoy’s Gas-Guzzling Postal Fleet
Quote – Sixteen states and two environmental activist groups—Earthjustice and the National Resources Defense Council—are suing USPS to halt its purchase of a fleet of of gas-guzzling mail trucks. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has come under fire in recent months for his decision to move forward with a contract for 165,000 new postal trucks—90 percent of which would run on gas and earn 8.6 miles per gallon.
Click through fir list and details.. I have aleady ranted once today, so I stand mute on this one.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 4/28/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:02 pm Open Thread, Politics

Apr 282022

Glenn Kirschner – Judge holds Trump in contempt of court. Will Trump grift his MAGA base to pay his 10K-a-day fine?

American Bridge is reaching out to voters

Thom Hartmann – Should Ukraine Be rolled Into NATO Now – To Stop the War? (ends with a cliff hanger – I will post the next one though)

Rebel HQ [Texas Paul] – TikToker Roasts ‘Spineless’ Republican Party

Voice of America – US Cabinet Officials Pledge More Military, Diplomatic Assistance to Ukraine

Liberal Redneck – On Elon, Twitter, and our Billionaire Overlords

Beau – Let’s talk about Japanese-Russian relations….

Open Thread April 28, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:11 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 282022

Yesterday, I got up early – didn’t even get dressed right away in case I was going to have to wear something more presentable – shortly after 11:30 checked the website and saw the lovely words “DO NOT REPORT.” Then I disconnected the TENS (eariler than usual, but I didn’t seem to need more), played Wordle to decompress, went and got dressed, and came back to get serious about today’s post – and next month’s cartoons.

Cartoon – “Operation Eagle Pull.” And what a cluster it was. And how many Vietnamese who had worked with us we betrayed.

Short Takes –

House panel to explore impeachment, judicial ethics in wake of Ginni Thomas texts
Quote – The texts from Ginni Thomas to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot have set off a political firestorm in Washington, raising Democratic anger and calls for Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from decisions related to the election and former President Trump. Republicans overwhelmingly have rallied to Clarence Thomas’s defense.
Click through for details. Sure, it may not work, but it needs to be attempted with all the enthusiasm and evidence we can muster.

Crooks and Liars – Chicago Study Proves You Can Reduce Gun Violence Without Arrests
Quote – The recently completed trial tracked some 2,500 men in Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods and found that men who participated in an intensive, 18-month program called READI Chicago were nearly two-thirds less likely to be arrested for a shooting or homicide and nearly 20% less likely to be shot or killed themselves than a similar group of men that weren’t in the program. Those are all significant declines considering a third of participants had been shot at least once before enrolling, and had an average of 17 arrests on their rap sheet.
Click through for more information. This could lead to wonderful results – if it doesn’t get stopped by Republicans.

Mother Jones – Inside the Top-Secret Abortion Underground
Quote – As long as women have had unwanted pregnancies, other women have helped them resolve the problem. After the mid-19th century, when abortion was outlawed, women either found a physician who did it on the sly or turned to traditional helpers, a practice that continued even after the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973. Today, as abortion rights are restricted at an unprecedented rate—between 2011 and 2016, more than 160 clinics closed—this informal network of nonmedical providers is responsible for a small but significant number of abortions nationwide.
Click through for story. The Underground Railroad was formed to help people escape from slavery. Being dinied an abortion isn’t exactly like being a slave = it’s more like being livestock. If this underground system is what it takes, then it is what it is.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 4/27/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:44 am Open Thread, Politics

Apr 272022

Glenn Kirschner – How to best disqualify Marjorie Taylor Greene & other insurrectionists in Congress? Prosecutor them.

The Lincoln Project – This Woman Votes

(Meidas Touch is starting a series on “reactions”)
Meidas Founder REACTS to Elon Musk Twitter Takeover!

Thom Hartmann – Here’s What The Dems Have Done – Did You Know?

RepresentUs – Former CIA officer explains how partisanship makes us weak (He rcommends ranked choice voting … which Florida just outlawed.)

Rebel HQ – TikToker EXPOSES How ‘Granola Logic’ Can Trick You

Beau – Let’s talk about sympathy for President Reagan….

Open Thread April 27, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:36 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 272022

Yesterday, I finished putting together today’s posts at a little after 4:30. That was an hour earlier than they guarantee the information, but I looked it up anyway, and a lot of information was already there. There wass a group of 211 jurors ordered to report by 8:00 a.m. today, and another group of 286 standby jurors ordered to check in around 11:30 and be prepared to come in within the hour. Of that 268, I would be the 248th person to be called. On Tuesday they released 380 standby jurors, and on Monday they released 404. So I was figuring I can pretty well expect to be off the hook. But of course I don’t take that for granted.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Common Dreams – EU Enacts Landmark Social Media Law to End Self-Regulation by Big Tech
Quote – “The law aims to end an era of self-regulation in which tech companies set their own policies about what content could stay up or be taken down,” the newspaper noted. “It stands out from other regulatory attempts by addressing online speech, an area that is largely off-limits in the United States because of First Amendment protections.” Calling the legislation a “major milestone for E.U. citizens,” Thierry Breton, the bloc’s internal market commissioner, said that “the time of big online platforms behaving like they are ‘too big to care’ is coming to an end.”
Click through for details. Yes, free speech. And yes, this is going to be a pain in the butt for them to administer, even without the FirstAmendment. But the way social media currently act will nevitably destroy democracy.

Crooks and Liars – Climate Activist Dies After Setting Himself On Fire At SCOTUS
Quote – And so Wynn Bruce had set himself on fire in front of the Supreme Court at about 6:30 p.m. on Friday, and we didn’t pay any attention to that, either. I thought I’d remind you, so he didn’t die in vain.
Click through for story. CPR reported the incident but not the reason. You may have seen the report somewhere (but probably not the reason.) I’m afraod he did indeed die in vain.

The Daily Beast – U.S. Vietnam War Insiders: Russia Is Making the Same Damn Fool Mistakes in Ukraine That We Did
Quote – “The Americans got run out of Vietnam, and the Russians are going to get run out of Ukraine,” William Taylor, ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009 and again, for seven months, from June 2019 to January 2020, told The Daily Beast. “The U.S. didn’t understand Vietnam, and the Russians didn’t understand Ukraine.” … Although comparisons are inexact, he finds an eerie parallel between the American failure in Vietnam and Russia’s violent campaign in Ukraine. “We didn’t understand there’s a nationalism about the Vietnamese,” he said. “The Vietnamese pushed us out,” and “the Ukrainians will push out the Russians.”
Click through for the reasoning. I was certainly not an insider then, but those who were have good reason to know mistakes were made. I hope their conclusion is accurate.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 4/26/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:45 am Open Thread, Politics

Apr 262022

Glenn Kirschner – Meadows had advance reports of possible violence on Jan 6 yet he & Trump did zip to protect Capitol

Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Shameless Kevin McCarthy Border Stunt!

The Lincoln Project – Former President Obama on Challenges to Democracy

MSNBC – Democrats May Have A New Weapon In The Fight Against The GOP’s Culture War

Cake and war: Ukrainians mark sombre Orthodox Easter (I’ve been to Orthodox Easter services – just Russian and Greek. They are absolutely gorgeous, and a feast for the senses Orthodox Easter is almost never on the same day as it is in the west. This year it was a week after ours.)

Cute Cat Stands Up Like A Person When She Wants Treats

Beau – Let’s talk about Disney and Desantis…. Beau’s take is sound. The branding he describes goes way, way back tobefore Disney World. It was part of Disneyland from its inception. But then Beau’s takes are usually sound.

Open Thread April 26, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:39 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 262022

Yesterday, I got a phone call from Virgil, which means he has been fully checked in (I was told that could take up to 2 weeks, but it only took 6 days.) He says the staff are very good people – I was surely glad to hear that. Anyway, I went to the DOC site to download and print the forms I will need (or may need) including the disability accommodation form. I have never needed to request accommodation at any of the other three places I have visited him, because they all are on one level or have ramps, and I can walk far enough to go therough the metal detector, and I can collapse the wheelchair so that it also goes through (not at the same time that I do.) But getting onto a shuttle bus is a shuttle bus of a different color. So I want to get that done in advance. I had no trouble finding the forms on line and only slight annoyance “printing” the pages I needed to a PDF. Next is to print to paper and fill them out.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Cawthorn Wasn’t In DRAG-Drag, He Was In NORMAL PERSON Drag
Quote – I’ve witnessed this kind of thing firsthand. At my high school every year, there was an assembly in honor of the football team — attendance mandatory. It ended with several players onstage dressed in drag. The message was that these kids were the embodiment of masculinity, so it was funny, get it? Not even remotely gay or transsexual or connected to transvestism!
Click through for details. I could wish this wasn’t correct and that it would hurt Maddy – but I fear that would be incorrect.

The Daily Beast – U.S. Is Now Aiming to Degrade the Russian Military, Says Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin
Quote – Austin, speaking bluntly Monday after a tour of Kyiv on Sunday, said Russia had “already lost a lot of military capability and a lot of its troops, quite frankly, and we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability.” Austin was accompanied by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his trip, which was shrouded in secrecy until President Volodymyr Zelensky blurted out the secret at a Saturday afternoon news conference.
Click through – their source is the New York Times but I’m paywalled out. That trip to Ukraine must have been one impressive trip.

Media Matters – With attack on Twitter, the right shows it has institutionalized Trump’s corrupt use of government power
Quote – “Nice company you’ve got there; be a shame if something happened to it. Maybe you should save yourself some trouble and sell it to our buddy.” That’s the message 18 House Republicans, led by Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan (R-OH), sent on Friday with a letter demanding Twitter’s board of directors preserve all records related to the bid by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to purchase the company.
Click through for article. This certainly sounds like RICO to me. Can we give DOJ enough money to hire 200 prosecutors, please? It looks like they are going to need more than 130 new ones.

Food For Thought