Video Thread 9/8/2021

 Posted by at 11:38 am  Open Thread, Politics
Sep 082021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Here’s Why Courts Should Strike Down Texas Abortion Law Violating Women’s Constitutional Rights. I do think Glenn is wrong on one thing – not a point of law – I wouldnever argue with him on that. But he says “taking away people’s Constitutional rights is not a winning strategy.” On the contrary, it was a winning strategy for Democrats until Lyndon Johnson renounced it, and it has been a winning strategy for Republicans ever since.

Meidas Touch – Mary Trump Says THIS is One of the Most Diabolic Things Her Uncle Donald Did

The Lincoln Project – Ivermectin

Really American – Larry Elder: Slave Owners Deserve Reparations

Liberal Redneck – “Un-American” Vaccine Mandates

Beau – Let’s talk about what the world’s EMT means for DOD….

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Open Thread for September 8, 2021

 Posted by at 7:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 082021
 

Yesterday, the holiday being over, I was happy to find some real stories and cutting edge videos. I mean fluff is nice, but activists cannot live by flull alone. And I don’t mean to imply that today’s posts are completely fluff-free, by any means.  I also made the last few cartoons missing to get us to the end of September.  What I didn’t get done that I wanted to was to change the toner cartridge in my printer.  I’ve had it for 2 years and was still working on the original cartridge that came with it – which was not even a full size.  So I’d say it’s time.  Hopefully today.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Bias, Theocracy, And Lies At The National Prayer Breakfast
Quote – The prayer breakfast is, we’ve been told, an ecumenical, nonpartisan event for leaders of every stripe, run by prayer groups in the House and Senate. None of that is true. The National Prayer Breakfast (NPB) is not run by Congress. The Family controls it, uses the breakfast for its own ends, and can do so thanks to the bipartisan fiction maintained by its remaining Democratic allies…. [T]he breakfast itself is overwhelmingly a production of The Family. The event’s only significant financial backer is a well-known, right-wing theocrat.
Click through for more (not the full story as that is not yet completely known.) It simply boggles my mind that actual people of faith (as opposed to those who use religion as a source of power, successfully or unsuccessfully)do not “get it” that mixing religion and governmen only cheapens both. And probably tarnishes religion even more than it does government.

AP News – It’s a girl, and a boy: Buttigieg celebrates 2 babies
Quote –


Click through if you like. The tweet really says it all.

The 19th – How abortion restrictions like Texas’ push pregnant people into poverty
Quote – About half of people who get an abortion live below the federal poverty level, and the majority of the women who took part in the research, known as the Turnaway Study, were low wage at the start. (No nonbinary people or trans men took part in the study, and there is very limited data on outcomes for the LGBTQ+ community.) The consequences of being denied an abortion plunged those women deeper into poverty, said Foster, the lead author of the study and a professor at the University of California San Francisco.
Click through for more about the study. IMO, the bottom line is that a pregnant person who wants a child, wants to love and nurture it, has the mans to love and nirture it, and has no health issues with her own body no with that of the zygote/empryo/fetus will deliver that baby. But without all of those conditions, forcing the baby to be born is doing no favors to the baby. Nor to the community.

Food for Thought –

 

 

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Video Thread 9/7/2021

 Posted by at 12:10 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Sep 072021
 

Glenn Kirschner – 11 Republican Representatives Join McCarthy’s Obstruction of Congress: Welcome The New Dirty Dozen (I’d call it the “feckless twelve” – “hapless” is too nice, and the original “dirty dozen” ended up accomplishing cleanliness.)

Bonus Glenn: Glenn Kirschner joins Stephanie Miller to talk about the Republican Party. Talk about letting one’s hair down!

Meidas Touch – First Texas… Now Mississippi Set to Deliver DEATH BLOW to Roe v. Wade?!

politicsrus – Texas Abortion

Goose has epic response to humans taking her injured boyfriend0

Update on Arnold – Goose love, in sickness and in health

Beau – Let’s talk about patriotic education, dogs, and civic mindedness….

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Open Thread for September 7, 2021

 Posted by at 7:18 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 072021
 

Yesterday, I piddled around with a bunch of small household tasks. Can’t say as I really accomplished much, but sometimes getting a bunch of little stuff out of the way does feel like accomplishment.

Cartoon – Incidentally, I own a framed copy of the print made from this rendition by Bryan Moon of that occasion.  I love his work.

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Pathetic Arizona Manbabies Cosplay Gomer Pyle At Elementary School
Quote – Now, I could write a normal article, citing The Washington Post and Daily Beast, outlining the absurd and outrageous details of this dangerous nonsense. Frankly, these three don’t deserve the national attention or my resultant rise in blood pressure. Instead, I shall vent my spleen, and open a good, old-fashioned can of Brooklyn whoop-ass on them, as god and my DNA intended.
In case you missed this, click through. The principal is physically fine, as is the other staff member, but both were naturally terrified. Since, she has received so much support from the community, she can’t talk about it without tearing up with gratitude

CNN (H/T Carrie B) – Like Washington and Jefferson, he championed liberty. Unlike the founders, he freed his slaves
Quote – It was 230 years ago Sunday that Robert Carter III, the patriarch of one of the wealthiest families in Virginia, quietly walked into a Northumberland County courthouse and delivered an airtight legal document announcing his intention to free, or manumit, more than 500 slaves. He titled it the “deed of gift.” It was, by far, experts say, the largest liberation of Black people before President Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Emancipation Act and Emancipation Proclamation more than seven decades later.
Click through for the full (and virtually unknown) story. It deserves to be known far and wide. (Without going into detail, it appears possible that Carter Burwell, composer of the music for many films, especially Coen Brothers films, is a descendant.)

Common Dreams – House Dems Introduce Bill to Lower Medicare Age to 60
Quote – Researchers have found that there is a massive increase in the diagnosis of cancer among Americans who reach the age of 65 that could have been detected much earlier if they had access to Medicare.
Click through for some whats, whos, and whys. If we have to do it five years at a time, then that’s the way we will have to do it.

Food for Thought (Good news for mw) –

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Video Thread 9/6/2021

 Posted by at 12:02 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Sep 062021
 

Glenn Kirschner – WAPO Cites Kevin McCarthy’s “Downward Spiral” Culminating in Obstructing Congressional Investigation

Now This News – Remembering the Founder of the Black Panthers

Thom Hartmann – Abortion: Is the Texas GOP the Dog that Caught the Car? (We can hope he’s right – but I personally doubt it.)

Rob Rogers – Exit Strategy

Cat Keeps Stealing Things From The Neighbors

Beau – Let’s talk about a message to Australia from Florida Man….

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Open Thread for September 6, 2021

 Posted by at 6:55 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 062021
 

Yesterday, I dealt with the package from saturday which contained crafting supplies.. No, I didn’t make all the crafts, but I did get stuff put awaw. The other package was a small electronic with which I am still dealing. And rested.

Cartoon –

And, of course, I wish all a

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Democrats Should Be Fighting The Next War, Not The Last One
Quote – Here’s my unpopular opinion: Getting angry at Susan Collins now is a waste of time. Okay, sure, get angry. But don’t fight the last war. We had a chance to defeat Collins in 2020, and we blew it, badly. She won by 9 points. She’s not up for reelection for another five years.
Click through for what do do instead. At least some of it. There’s probebly something in your own state which is also more constructive.

Washington Post – One tactic to stop abortion bounty hunters from demolishing women’s constitutional rights
Quote – When thinking about Texas’s nefarious scheme to deprive women of their constitutional right to seek an abortion, I am reminded of the tactics White segregationists used in the years following the Brown v. Board of Education decision…. In the case of Texas’s antiabortion law, state lawmakers know that Roe v. Wade remains the law of the land, establishing a woman’s right under the 14th Amendment to control her own reproduction. So they came up with the idea to enlist private citizens to rat out women exercising their constitutional rights. They offered these people a bounty of $10,000. Think of them as hiring every Texas resident (and residents outside the state!) on a contract basis to make abortion services virtually impossible to obtain.
Click through to the Washington Post for the full editorial, or click through to Democratic Underground for a larger excerpt. I was paywalled out of the Post myself, so I’m supplying both links.

Law & Crime – Biden Will Declassify FBI Documents on Saudi Arabia’s Role in 9/11 Terrorist Attacks — Here’s What the Order Says
Quote – “When I ran for president, I made a commitment to ensuring transparency regarding the declassification of documents on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America,” a press release announcing the executive order notes. “As we approach the 20th anniversary of that tragic day, I am honoring that commitment.”
Click through for details and context. Another step in the direction of transparency – and something to look forward to.

Food for Thought –

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Video Thread 9/5/2021

 Posted by at 12:29 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Sep 052021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Defendant Jacob Chansley Pleads Guilty; Kevin McCarthy Caught in a Lie Trying to Clear Trump

Armageddon Update – Let’s Rebuild…Again!

Ring of Fire – Anti Maskers Are Terrorizing School Boards Across The Country

Liberal Redneck – Patreon review (excerpt) of Ted Cruz

Abandoned at 17 – new beginning for an elderly cat (hanky alert)

Beau – Let’s talk about something in American politics that needs to stop now…. Oh my goodness! (The places honesty and logic together will take you.)

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Open Thread for September 5, 2021

 Posted by at 7:07 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 052021
 

Yesterday, I tried to rest as much as possible. I brought the trash and recyclables carts up to where they “live” and collected a couple of packages from the mailbox — which required shoes but I think was worth it.

Cartoon –

I simply must add that 300 years later, to the day, was the very first Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy telethon.  I’m sure there’s no connection.

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – If God Wills It
Quote – There is no question that Hurricane Ida was a horrible storm which caused a lot of damage. The suffering will continue for weeks as people are without power and it is sweltering hot. But as a friend of mine always says, you gotta look for the happiness in the crappiness. A clear example is that the offices of James O’Keefe and Project Veritas got wiped out:
Click through for comments. The quote is pretty much the whole story, but you know people who read “Crooks and Liars” are going to be smart-alecky, at least some of them.

The Hill – The Memo: Attacks on democracy seep down to school boards, election offices
Quote – In many places there is fear — fear for the safety of the low- and mid-level officials who do the unglamorous work that keeps democracy knitted together and fear for what happens if they decide it’s just not worth it.
Click through for story. This is important. You’ve heard of people who can’t see the forest for the trees – but in my experience, Democrats, politically are more likely to be unable to see the trees for the forest. School Boards (usually unpaid and elective) and election worker (most volunteer, seasonal, and paid a little, but some employed year round by county offices) are critical to our ability to keep our democracy … which is why Republicans, who see every leaf on every tree, and most of the bugs on the leaves, are systematically undermining them.

“my stateline” – Emails released in FOIA show hundreds of parents thanked Pritzker for issuing school mask mandate
Quote – A House Republican who sought “data, studies, scientific or medical articles, and correspondence” from people advocating in support of school mask mandates got her answer in dramatic fashion on Tuesday. Governor Pritzker’s office responded to an August 10th Freedom of Information Act Request filed by Rep. Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) by sending a staffer to her legislative office in Springfield to hand-deliver 870 pages of studies and letters from parents that supported the mask mandate.
Click through for details. This is priceless. I realize that even multiplied by 10 or 20 (the numbers usually cited to compare those with opinions to those actually writing) 870 is a drop in the bucket in a state the size f Illinois, but it certainly is impressive. Dumb Republicans. (Yeah, I know, I misspelled “Damn.”)

Food for Thought –

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