Open Thread – Page 302 – Politics Plus

Open Thread for September 28 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:24 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 282021

Yesterday, I did finish organizing my evening meds. I also placed a grocery order to be delivered today. I even worked a little bit on that front panel I mentioned last week. It rained a little, which is now supposed to continue for a few days.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Hill – Biden administration moves to preserve DACA after court ruling
Quote – A federal district judge in Texas ruled in July that the 2012 DACA program violated the Administrative Procedures Act. The decision left intact the program’s benefits for some 600,000 people otherwise unable to obtain legal status after being brought to the U.S. as children. But it blocked any future applications, leaving thousands of young immigrants in limbo.
Click through for story. The delay from July to now is because it was appealed. But this is good news.

The Daily Beast – Arizona Dems Threaten Sen. Kyrsten Sinema With No-Confidence Vote
Quote – “The Arizonans who did the work to elect Sinema have had enough of her betraying the voters who put her in office. It’s time for her to show the bare minimum of accountability and stop obstructing the agenda that Democrats, including her, campaigned on and were elected to deliver. Sinema is setting her political future on fire. If she doesn’t change course drastically and soon, it will be too late,” Kai Newkirk, a Democratic organizer in Arizona, told The Daily Beast.
Click through if you like – It doesn’t go into the consequences of such a vote.

The Guardian – John Hinckley, who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan, to be freed from restrictions
Quote – The US district court judge, Paul L Friedman, said in Washington during a 90-minute court hearing that he would issue his full ruling this week. “If he hadn’t tried to kill the president, he would have been unconditionally released a long, long, long time ago,” Friedman said. “But everybody is comfortable now after all of the studies, all of the analysis and all of the interviews and all of the experience with Mr Hinckley.”
Click through for details. Actually, he probably was never quite as insane as present-day MAGAts are. But I would still be nervous if I lived nearby.

Food for Thought –

Video Thread 9/27/21

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

Sep 272021

Glenn Kirschner – Bannon’s Attempt to Justify His Seditious “Crib” Statement Produces Deeply Incriminating Admission

Chris Hayes: Tucker Carlson ‘A Lot More Overt’ With His Bigotry Than David Duke

Thom Hartmann – Trump Inspired Bullies Mobilize Authoritarian Psychopaths

Armageddon Update | Dogs, Bruh!

Liberal Redneck – Review of Louie Gohmert Excerpt)

Couple Finds A Tiny Calico Kitten Outside of Starbucks

Beau – Let’s talk about Rudy being banned from Fox….

Open Thread for September 27, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:42 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 272021

Yesterday was fairly quiet. I organized my morning meds for the next two weeks (which I should have done Saturday … but that’s why I keep an extra) and I’ll organize the evening meds today (which I should have done Saturday, but that’s why I keep two extras.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

PoliticusUSA – Sidney Powell Implicates Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, and Justice Alito In Plot To Overturn The Election
Quote – Sidney Powell is not a reliable narrator, but her point, if true, is that the purpose of the 1/6 attack on the Capitol was to buy time so that Justice Alito could intervene and block the certification of the election.
Click through for actual wording. Isn’t this … interesting. And then there’s this.

Crooks and Liars – Biden White House Won’t Assert Executive Privilege To Help Donald Trump
Quote – This was the greatest threat to our democracy since the Civil War and we need answers. Let’s see where this goes….with the subpoenas flying fast, I suspect we will get our answers about Executive Privilege pretty quickly, especially when they start wanting to talk to Donald Trump and his kids directly.
Click through for what details exist. IANAL, but those who are point out that (a) he can claim executive privilege regarding what happened during his administration, and (b) though he can claim it, it is not automatic, as some things are not subject to it, and that is not his decision to make.

AP News – In redistricting, big say for big cities in DC power balance
Quote – Robust growth in the liberal strongholds of New York and metropolitan Chicago are poised to give Democrats an edge as their political maps are redrawn to adjust for changes in population over the past decade. While both New York and Illinois are losing congressional seats, their urban booms mean the newly drawn districts are likely to favor Democrats, adding to the party’s national total and making up for probable losses elsewhere.
Click through for more information. I certainly hope this analysis is on point. (I have hopes for my state as well, but those are unrelted to this.)

Food for Thought –

Video Thread 9/26/21

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:54 am Open Thread, Politics

Sep 262021

Glenn Kirschner – House Investigation of 1/6 Insurrection Issues 4 Subpoenas. Here’s an Overview of the Legal Issues

Really American – Richest Americans Pay Under 9% Taxes

Robert Reich – Democrats Have to Make This Choice

Puppet Regime – Angela Merkel’s Farewell Song

Parody Project/Freedom Toast – NO BUSINESS

Beau – Let’s talk about Missouri, a petition, and critical thought….

Open Thread for September 26, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:04 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 262021

Yesterday, the opera was Pelleas et Melisande by Debussy. The libretto is symbolists, so Debussy was a good choice to complse it. I decided to make one last stab for this year at a cotton knitting project, and started on it. I may end up postponing finishing it until next year, but I hope I can finish the fron panel at least, which is based on the idea of a “Log Cabin” quilt block. The back, collar, cuffs, and hem are plain.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Hill – Executive privilege fight poses hurdles for Trump
Quote – “For example a former president’s privilege claim is deemed much stronger if the current president supports it,” she added. “We’ve never been in a situation where there was a prior claim that was not supported by the incumbent, because presidents, when it comes to their turn to be the former president, they want to be able to do that same thing.”
Click through. To be pellucidly clear, he can claim executive privilege for any douments prio to noon on Jan. 20 But it isn’t a matter of claim and have. Some things are not subject to executive privilege. Like crimes. Someone other than he must look at the documents and determine whether they are subject to executive privilege or not (and most, if not all, won’t be.) And, of course, for anything after noon January 20, executive privilege cannot even be claimed. And President Biden has publicly stated he will not claim or support executive privilege for Trump**. Snicker.

Reuters – Germans vote in close election to decide Merkel successor
Quote – After a domestic-focused election campaign, Berlin’s allies in Europe and beyond may have to wait for months before they can see whether the new German government is ready to engage on foreign issues to the extent they would like. The splintered political landscape means a three-way coalition is likely. Final opinion polls gave the Social Democrats a narrow lead, but the conservatives have reduced the gap in recent days and many voters were still undecided.
Click through for details. We knew she was retiring – and now it’s here. She helped us survive Trump** as much as anyone outside could. I wish her the best in her retirement, as well as a worthy successor.

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-india-mumbai-narendra-modi-da976c8f8aa7ca02c2193b56c3408a08
AP News – Mystery solved: Biden gets proof of family ties to India
Quote – “And although we never admitted it … I’ve found out that there was a Capt. George Biden who was a captain in the East India Tea Company in India,” Biden said. He appeared to be referring to the British East India Company, a commercial power for centuries that controlled trade in colonized India and parts of southeast Asia. Biden, who frequently talks of his Irish ancestry, quipped that the British connection was “hard for an Irishman to admit.” Biden, who has told versions of the anecdote to Indian audiences before, said Capt. Biden “apparently stayed and married an Indian woman” but he’d never been able to nail down further details.
Click through for story (though not complete genealogy.) Nikke Haley and Bobby Jindal, eat your hearts out.

Food for Thought –

Video Thread 9/25/21

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:00 pm Open Thread, Politics

Sep 252021

Glenn Kirschner – Evidence Against Bannon for Seditious Conspiracy Mounts, Superseding Indictments Coming Per Wray

Meidas Touch – John Heilemann DESTROYS Republicans who sold their soul for Trump

Really American – Republicans Try And Block Voting Rights

politicsrus – Debt Ceiling HD

Rocky Mountain Mike – Hidden Valley DNA

Cat Welcomes Home Soldier (awesome)

Beau – Let’s talk about our man in Haiti, Daniel Foote…. EXACTLY!

Open Thread for September 25, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:22 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 252021

Yesterday was another day with the portable heater on. I guess that’s the new normal, so I’ll have to find something else to talk about. Hopefully something less whiney.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Hill – CDC panel authorizes COVID-19 vaccine boosters for high-risk people, those over 65
Quote – The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 15-0 to recommend a booster dose for Americans age 65 and older and people in long term care facilities. ACIP also fully recommended giving a single booster dose to people between the ages of 50 and 64 with certain high-risk conditions, by a vote of 13-2. The panel did not define what the qualifying underlying conditions are, but the CDC is expected to make that determination.
Click through – but some questions are not even being addressed. For instance, if your initial course was Moderna, should you be getting a Pfizer booster? Also, How long should you wait? An article in The Atlantic included a wide range of estimate – just about in the middle was eight months from the first shot. For me, that’s next year. But for those of you who got the first jab in February, that’s coming right up. I’d like to hear something official.

Mother Jones – Inside the Private Facebook Groups Where Anti-Vaxxers Plot to Get Religious Exemptions
Quote – Medical exemptions can be hard to come by—they require a documented diagnosis of one of the very few conditions that prevents someone from getting vaccinated. Religious exemptions are easier: They rarely require proof that an employee belongs to an organized religious group that opposes vaccines. (Few faiths do.) Rather, the onus of explaining the religious beliefs is left to the individual—and the employer must then decide whether the belief they describe is sincere, explained Poonam Lakhani, an employment attorney with the Prinz Law Firm in Chicago. “That’s a really difficult line for the employer to walk.”
Click through for story. If they would mask up (with N95 or stronger) and take dailt rapid CoViD tests (which are actually more uncomfortable than the vaccine), or else stay in quarantine, they could go unvaccinted for all I care. But they won’t. Free-dumb.

Washington National Cathedral – Reimagining the Confederate Windows
Quote – Washington National Cathedral today announced that it will replace its former stained-glass windows featuring Confederate iconography, removed in 2017, with racial-justice themed windows created by world-renowned artist Kerry James Marshall, described by The New Yorker as “a virtuoso of landscape, portraiture, still-life, history painting, and other genres of the Western canon.” The Cathedral’s commission represents Marshall’s first time working with stained-glass as a medium, and the windows are expected to be his first permanent public exhibition anywhere in the country.
Click through for more. I googled his work and I think his style is a natural for stained glass. It appears to be based more on shape than on line. There has also been a poem commissioned for this project.

Food for Thought –