Open Thread for December 12, 2021

 Posted by at 7:21 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 122021
 

Yesterday, I visited Virgil.The sun wasn’t that bad in the morning, although I think I will start looking at the almanac hor how the time of sunrise moves.  From four weeks ago to two weeks ago, the sunrise got ten minutes earlier.  From two weeks ago to this visi, sunset got a total of two minutes earlier, and all of that was in the first few days – it’s been the same for nine days in a row.  So I’m sort of expecting it to start getting later instead of earlier in a day or two.  The days will still get shorter until the soltice, but all of that will come from the sunrise getting later, and none from the sunset getting earlier.  The visit was good, and Virgil returns all greeting with thanks.

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Short Takes

From an email from Democracy for America:
[On Thursday,] at the direction of Mitch McConnell, Joe Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema moved forward with a one-time exemption to the filibuster to raise the debt ceiling.
That’s right, Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who have both previously stated that they would not support any filibuster exceptions under any circumstances, even to protect voting rights, just made an exception to the filibuster.
If Manchin and Sinema are going to make an exception to the filibuster when McConnell wants to, they should be bending over backwards to make that same exception to protect voting rights.
Join DFA as we tell Manchin, Sinema, and all Senate Democrats: If you’re willing to make an exception to the filibuster in order to raise the debt ceiling, you must make that same exception to protect voting rights.

Law & Crime – Our First Look at Josh Duggar Immediately After Child Porn Conviction and Months Ahead of Sentencing
Quote – Other court records indicate that the jury began deliberations at 12:17 p.m. on Wednesday. They asked for a recording of an interview with Duggar himself to be re-played — and it was, in its entirety — before jurors retired to deliberate once again. Court recessed for the day around 5:00 p.m. The jurors returned for about an hour and a hate Thursday before returning a verdict at 10:07 a.m.
Click through for more. This story just begs for snark, and both Wonkette and Crooka and Liars did not disappoint – but it’s also serious, so I decided to cover it from this source.

HuffPost – Tucker Carlson’s Jan. 6 ‘Agent Provocateur’ Is A Big Tucker Fan And An Amateur Cardinals Mascot
Quote – But the man is no fed. He is mainly known to St. Louis Cardinals fans as “Rally Runner,” HuffPost has learned, and he sprints around the outside of Busch Stadium during home games. Based on the man’s Facebook posts, he appears to have a fairly difficult life and has a tenuous relationship with reality. And he’s a huge Tucker Carlson fan.
Click through for more facts, and, sadly, more insanity (disturbing but valuable to grasp what we are up against.)

Food for Thought –

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Open Thread for December 11, 2021

 Posted by at 6:45 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 112021
 

Yesterday,I did the lst odds and ends of preparing for the drive.I sllao colected  little advance material.  Then I got to bed early.  I will definitely pass greetings to Virgil today, I will drive carefully, and I will let you know I got home safe – it may not be the instant I get in the door  as I’ll be eager to change clothes, but as soon as I get to the computer.

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Short Takes

Wonkette – When Will We Finally Accept That Trumpism Was Never About Economic Anxiety?
Quote – The Tea Party was a white, middle-class movement, and while not overtly violent, it was the product of racist backlash to Obama’s election. Republicans exploited the backlash, tip-toeing around the racism, for their immediate political gain. They cocked the weapon and handed it over to Trump, but we give him too much credit when we assume that if he hadn’t won in 2016, the problem would have gone away. (We can only imagine the violent backlash against Hillary Clinton.) A reported six out of every seven January 6 insurrectionists charged with crimes had no previous affiliations with extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, or the Three Percenters militia. This wasn’t a surprise to University of Chicago historian Kathleen Belew, who told Gellman: “January 6 wasn’t designed as a mass-casualty attack, but rather as a recruitment action.”
Click through for more. I’ve often thought that, had Hillary won, her Presidency would have been much like Obama’s, only with more backlash, because misgyny is deeper and stronger than racism. That doesn’t mean I don’t wish she had won – I do wish that, with all my heart. But it would not have derailed Trump**.

Crooks and Liars – Kelloggs To Permanently Replace 1400 Striking Workers
Quote – The decision follows months of bitter disagreement between the company and the union. The rejected offer would have provided cost of living adjustments in the later years of the deal and preserved the workers’ current healthcare benefits. But workers say they deserve significant raises because they routinely work more than 80 hours a week, and they kept the plants running throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Click through. I don’t knowingly cross a picket line. Thankfully, one of the comments included a link to an article of everything they own.

Mother Jones – Baristas in Buffalo Just Formed the First Starbucks Union in the United States
Quote – In a watershed moment for the recent wave of pandemic-inspired labor organizing, workers at a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, voted [December 9] to form the coffee chain’s first union in the United States. Despite months of opposition from party leadership, 19 workers at the Elmwood location in Buffalo voted in favor of unionizing in the election, conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. Only eight opposed.
Click through for story – If I had had to guess way in advance where this wou;d happen … Buffalo would not have been my first guess. But whatever. More power to them!

Food for Thought –

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Open Thread for December 10, 2021

 Posted by at 6:57 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 102021
 

Yesterday, I got a package of jewelry supplies, checked it against the invoice, and got it all put away. I got my clothes and shoes put together. I think I’m ready, and I still have today in case I think of something undone. Tomorrow I go to see Virgil. Sunset will be, at most, 3 minutes earlier than it was 2 weeks ago. Soon – before the solstice – it will start to get later each day.

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Short Takes

Wonkette – DC National Guard Commanders Aren’t Going To Let Mike Flynn’s Brother Pin This Sh*t On Them
Quote – Walker and Matthews say they begged to deploy the National Guard troops from 2:30 in the afternoon on. According to Walker, who is now the House Sergeant at Arms, the IG Report incorrectly states that Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Mayor Muriel Bowser were on that call, but they were not McCarthy has said he authorized the DCNG to deploy within the hour. But this memo tells a different story, much more like the one Walker told Congress way back in March. It recounts that Mike Flynn’s brother Gen. Charles Flynn, who served as deputy chief of staff for operations on Jan. 6, and Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, the director of Army staff, were against deploying the guard because of “optics,” and counseled Walker to have the guardsmen replace DC cops directing traffic so that only DC police would respond to the riot.
Click through for story. Good for them. I never assume that just because a person is a close family member of a criminal, that they condob=ne the crime, much less participate in it – look at the Gosar family and Mary Trump. But in this case there is evidence. Charles need a Court Martial.

The 19th – The federal government is making a new investment in women-owned small businesses
Quote – The Small Business Administration, the federal agency that supports entrepreneurs, is putting a greater focus on women business owners than ever before in the agency’s history, following two years that have decimated small businesses and brought into stark relief the barriers still facing the fastest-growing group of owners.
Click through for details. Gotta have good news sometimes or we’d all wither up and die.

CBS News – 60 Minutes speaks with ex-NSA contractor Reality Winner about leaking a document to the press
Quote – Reality Winner explained the sequence of events that led to her decision to leak a classified government document to the media, a decision that would go on to cost her four years behind bars. Winner said she was concerned that, “the truth wasn’t true anymore,” and spoke to what she says was an atmosphere of confusion and mistrust that plagued America in early 2017. “The public was being lied to,” Winner explained. She says despite having taken an oath to protect classified material, she had “pledged service to the American people” and wanted to end the perceived “confusion,” about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.
Click through.  All the clips are there, but separately, so if you want to watch the whole thing, you can do so in convenient 15-minute chunks. Spoiler: There really was Russian interference in the 2016 elections, at more levels than you would think.

Food for Thought –

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Open Thread for December 9, 2021

 Posted by at 7:26 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 092021
 

Yesterday, after a week when it was hard to find videos and articles, I found so many that tomorrow’s calumns are practically done already. Well, that’s a good thing for me, since I see Virgil on Saturday, but I hope it won’t result in feeling like old news. If there’s something you don’t see today, it may already be scheduled for tomorrow.

Cartoon – 09 1209Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes

Crooks and Liars – Dana Milbank Proves Biden Coverage Is As Negative As Trump’s
Quote – Yep. Turns out, Biden’s press coverage for the past four months has been as bad as — and for a time worse than — the coverage Trump received for the same four months of 2020. Let that sink in. Joe Biden is being treated the same as Trump, whose criminal behavior was a daily occurrence in plain view.
Click through. You mau not have even realized that this is measurable. But it is.

HuffPost – Explainer: How Unusual To Charge Parents In School Shooting?
Quote – A 2019 assessment by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security found that guns came from the home of a parent or close relative in 76% of school attacks where firearms were used. In about half, the firearms were easily accessible. But laws aimed at restricting gun access are not always enforced and vary in strength, experts say. “Our laws haven’t really adapted to the reality of school shootings, and the closest we have are these child access prevention laws,” said Kris Brown, president of the Brady gun control advocacy group
Click through for multiple examples and rationales.

Wonkette – Fox News Presents Holiday Classic ‘How The Black Lives Matter Stole Christmas’
Quote – Because we know how to look things up for ourselves, we were able to go to the Black Lives Matter website and learn about the Black Christmas campaign, just to see how full of shit Hegseth is. It’s so innocuous, if you’re not a mouthbreathing white racist. It has sections for #BuildBlack and #BuyBlack and #BankBlack, and it indeed encourages people to spend their money with Black-owned businesses and banks, instead of propping up white supremacist systems.
Click through. A news clip about the tree will be in today’s Video Thread.

Food for Thought –

(Nashville  has extra room now after rmoving the caricature og Nathan Bedford Forrest.)

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Open Thread for December 8, 2021

 Posted by at 7:19 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 082021
 

Yesterday still pretty calm.  I did “bite the bullet” and glued and crimped end caps on 20 strands of  very light, very slick, and very thin (about 3/16″) jewelry ribbon for pendants  Because they were so slick, I had to glue them in place and let them dry before crimping, or they would have slipped right out.  Since I didn’t graduate from Hogwarts, I couldn’t temporarily make me smaller, or them larger, so they’d be easier to handle.  But I certainly wished I could.  I did get it done, though.

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Short Takes

Politizoom – Thomas Massie Comes Clean About the Republican Party. We Owe Him
Quote – There was an amusing little dust up on MSNBC [a few] night[s ago]. Bulwark editor Charlie Sykes was asked to comment on Thomas Massie’s egregiously tone deaf Christmas card photo of la famille armed for bear, in light of four children being murdered at school last week in Michigan. Sykes called the display a “dick pic” which caused the host to flutter and respond, “Sorry, everybody, I’m not sure we can say that, Charlie!” This was family hour, after all. But Sykes is spot on in his assertion that, “He’s basically trying to show off. He’s trying to trigger to get the reaction.”
Click through if you like. The analogy is exactly on target.

Stuff That Needs To Be Said – Yes World, It’s That Bad Here in America—and Worse
Quote – But here on the ground this malignant sickness has a face, one that is far too familiar – So yes, it’s the staggering cruelty of those holding the power here—but just as much it’s the people we know and live alongside who are so gladly empowering them.
Click through for the full description. See if it doesn’t resonate with you. It certainly does with me. I may just put the link in my email signature in lieu of Rocky Mountain Mike.

The New Yorker – Should We Believe the Stories of Men Mistaken for Gods?
Quote – Who can make a god is as fascinating a question as who can kill one, and Anna Della Subin tries to answer both in her new book, “Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine” (Macmillan). Setting Cook alongside the likes of Haile Selassie, Hernán Cortés, Prince Philip, General Douglas MacArthur, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and even President Donald Trump, she considers why some men are made into gods, by whom, and—the most interesting of the mysteries about Cook and all of his putatively divine kin—to what ends.
Click through for more, including anecdotes. Without reading the book, I’m pretty sure the correct answer is “No.” Or maybe “Hell, no.” (And reading through did not change my mind.)

Food for Thought (OK, I know it’s silly) –

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Open Thread for December 7, 2021

 Posted by at 6:33 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 072021
 

Yesterday also quiet. Not that I got a whole lot done. I was trying to rest, and more or less did.

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Short Takes

Daily Kos (David Neiwert) – Right-wing so-called ‘journalists’ exploit Waukesha tragedy, drawing neo-Nazis there to protest
Quote – Ngo also disingenuously proffered as evidence a post by Brooks he described as “about how to get away with running people over on the street”—even though the post in question was actually written by an ex-Minneapolis police officer who encouraged drivers to run down BLM protesters, and Brooks had posted it as evidence of violent police attitudes. Of course, there is still zero evidence that Brooks ever participated in any BLM march or engaged in any protest organizing.
Click through for details. I am honestly more sick of fake journalists than I am of fake news itself. And don’t think there aren’t any on the left. We have to be responsible for moderating our confirmation bias … because RWNJs certainly will not moderate theirs.

The Nib – Why Are Everyone’s Catalytic Converters Being Stolen?
Quote – But catalytic converters have been round for nearly 50 years. So why is this happening now? The economic downturn caused by the pandemic might be one factor. Another is the soaring price of the precious metals that put the catalyst in catalytic.
Click through. Yes, this is what you might call a “graphic article.” But try to find a non-graphic one which lays out this information so clearly.

The 19th Explains: Women may soon qualify for the draft. Here’s what you need to know.
Quote – Kara Dixon Vuic, who studies gender and the U.S. military at Texas Christian University, said the passage of this amendment would be “huge, though largely symbolic” when it comes to the fight for women’s rights and gender equity in the military. “Right now, the only legal difference between what men and women do as civilians is men sign up for selective service,” said Vuic, who is currently writing a book on the history of military draft eligibility in the country. “It’s not that women don’t have to; it’s that they can’t.”
Click through for the scoop. I have always felt that if one really wants to be treated equally, then one must accept being treated equally. As obvious as that soounds, it seems to be a difficult concept when it comes to feminism. Perhaps that at least partially explains why misogyny is more powerful than racism (as the 2016 election proved.)

Food for Thought –

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Open Thread for December 6, 2021

 Posted by at 7:08 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 062021
 

Yesterday was quiet, but I got a late start, so didn’t do a whole lot. Which is fine. I did assemble the next two weeks meds (a day late.)

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Short Takes

The Conversation – What the public doesn’t get: Anti-CRT lawmakers are passing pro-CRT laws
Quote – [A Wisconsin] bill … includes a ban against teaching that “[o]ne race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex.” …. Now imagine a 10th grade social studies class begins a unit on corporate America. The teacher opens with basic facts about Fortune 500 CEOs…. In effect, this story suggests that white men are inherently superior – the precise message that Wisconsin’s bill prohibits.
Click through for the complete case. This would be funny if it weren’t so sad. Dunning and Kruger would be facepalming.

The New Yorker – A Son Sends Josephine Baker to the Panthéon
Quote – The panthéonisation was a go, making Baker the sixth woman, and the first woman of color, to be so recognized. Born in St. Louis in 1906, she is also the first American-born person (she became a French citizen in 1937) to be honored alongside the likes of Voltaire and Hugo.
Click through. I thought I had a fair idea of what Baker did for humanity … but I vastly overestimated ny knowledge. She certainly deseerves this honor. If you are paywalled, I’ll be happy to send a pdf.

Crooks and Liars – BOGO: Koch Industries Buys An AZ Senate Candidate’s…Company
Quote – Republican Jim Lamon was the founder and owner of DEPCOM Power, a solar power company headquartered in Arizona. Lamon’s company was acquired by a division of Koch Industries, just in time to give Lamon a huge cash infusion with which to challenge Mark Kelly, who is running for re-election in 2022.
Click through for details. I believe this is called “plausible deniability” – which is seldom, and in this case not, plausible.

Food for Thought –

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Open Thread for December 5, 2021

 Posted by at 6:51 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 052021
 

Yesterday was the first day since the oandemic started that the Metropolitan Opera was able to do a live broadcast over the radio (Last season was all re-runs). It was a new opera, “Eurydice,” which tells (I can’t say re-tells because the story is very far out) the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in the 21st century, from the point of view of Eurydice. It’s very accessible (term of art for “easy to listen to, not a lot of dissonance”). Thatt’s a good thing as just following the plot is plenty challenging.

Cartoon – 05 MCel RTU

Short Takes

NPR – Parents of Michigan school shooting suspect are held on $500,000 bond after manhunt
Quote – “They sought multiple attempts to hide their location and were eventually tracked down after they parked their car somewhere a witness saw it,” said Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald. “These two individuals were found locked somewhere in a room, hiding. These are not people that we can be assured will return to court on their own.”
Click through for details.  I thought this was an update we’d all want to see.

Democratic Underground (Eleanor R) – Heartbreaking (tissue alert)
Quote – McClaren Hospital where Oxford community is gathered to supportthe family of Justin Shillings, one of the four teens killed this week. Justin is an organ donor and the crowd is here so that when his body is moved for surgery his family can look down andsee the love and support.
Click through for picture … and comments. Don’t miss comment #15 by barbtries.

HuffPost – ‘Obscene’ GOP Blockade Stalls Dozens Of Biden Nominees
Quote – Republicans can’t actually block all of Biden’s nominees from being confirmed. But they can use the existing rules of the Senate to drastically slow down their appointments, dragging out the process of filling what have typically been uncontroversial jobs in lower-level positions across the federal government. With the GOP refusing to expedite many of Biden’s nominees, placing so-called “holds” on them at the committee level, Democrats must carry out multiple votes to confirm each one, eating up valuable floor time that could be spent on other legislative business.
Click through for story. Dirty tricks and more dirty tricks. All done to “own the libs,” but really all done to hurt the American people.

Food for Thought –



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