Open Thread for September 11, 2021

 Posted by at 7:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 112021
 

Yesterday, not a lot happened, and what did happen was mostly annoying small stuff.  Plus, it was hot – hotter than it’s been for over a week.  So let’s just all move on from that.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Medium – Statement from Senator Amy Klobuchar
Quote – Of course this has been scary at times, since cancer is the word all of us fear, but at this point my doctors believe that my chances of developing cancer again are no greater than the average person.
Click through for full statement. Pat already TJI’ed the news, but I think it’s worth a repeat (with a picture and an exhortation.)

White House Press Release: President Biden Names Seventh Round of Judicial Nominees
Quote – The President is announcing eight new candidates for the federal bench, all of whom are extraordinarily qualified, experienced, and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution. These choices also continue to fulfill the President’s promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country — both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds.
Click through for a few stats and all 8 names and short bios.

The New Yorker (Borowitz) – Fox News Accuses Biden of Using Federal Government to Improve Country
Quote – “Joe Biden came into office claiming that he wanted to be the President of all the people,” Sean Hannity said. “Now, however, his real agenda has become clear: he wants to increase Americans’ life expectancy. How long one lives should be a personal choice,” Hannity continued. “But not if Joe Stalin-slash-Biden has anything to say about it.”
Click through for what sounds like pretty straight news to me.

Food for Thought –

 

Share

News from WWWendy

 Posted by at 2:19 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 102021
 

I received an email regarding the distribution of TC’s ashes, and forwarded the question to WWWendy.  Of course she responded, and here is her response –

Hi There,

I apologize for not doing this on the blog.  These last few months have been a whirlwind.  I am currently in Spain visiting my son, Cody.  He lives in Castellon on the Mediterrean Sea.  I had laptop issues and was unable to access a computer
I do have Tom at home with me now.  Getting his remains was quite the adventure.  I haven’t even been able to stop working long enough to breathe it seems  I took on a couple more clients to help with my income, had laptop issues, phone issues, mother issues, etc. I will be returning back home on 09/17. I have no issues with anyone wanting some remains.  I can certainly arrange for that for anyone that wants some.
I miss Tom terribly – he has left a hole in my heart and life, I think of him everyday – I am trying very hard to decompress, take care of myself and deal with my grief.  Some days are easy and others days …….. while not so much.  I keep on trucking and I know Tom wouldn’t want any other way.
I hope all is well with everyone – please extend my sincere hello’s – you were all with me during Tom’s final years after his diagnosis and your support during that time meant more than you will ever know.    My sincere gratitude and love for being on that journey with me.  Please pass along my message and I promise I will get on blog upon my return and touch base with everyone.
With love,
WWWendy
I responded to WWWendy that I would figure out a way to get her all the names and mailing addresses of anyone who wanted to participate without compromising anyone’s privacy.  So, wile I’d welcom comments from anyone who wants to say “Yes, please,” I ask that you not put your mailing address here, but sent it to me by email.  Everyone who gets my weekly messages should already have it, and I ask COlleen to feel free to send it to everyone on her list (you probably don’t know who’s on my list, since I guard tose emails, but your recipients will know.  And, in any case, it’s on the website – hiding behind the “Contact me” link on the lower left.
I will make a list of names and addresses and get it to her , probably in a pdf file, possibly by snailmail.
Also, there is no place in Spain that a single picture is going to do justice to.  That said, here is a picture of Castellon de la Plana, the capital of Castellon province.
Share

Open Thread for September 10, 2021

 Posted by at 7:25 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 102021
 

Yesterday, I decided to stay in bed after my alarm went off (I really only use it as a guide anyway.) And I’m very glad I did. I went back to sleep for another hour and a half, and it was in that hour and a half during which I had a dream in which I was able to share a hug with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. What a gift! I don’t remember the other ircumstances of the dream except that they were equally unlikely but also mostly pleasant.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Atlantic – The Next Face of the Democratic Party
Quote – Democratic members of Congress won’t talk about any of this publicly, as if Pelosi might suddenly appear and pull their hearts from their chests. Jeffries, carefully, left it at telling me that growing up in a Black church taught him to respect and value his elders. But none of the two dozen Democratic members of Congress and party insiders I spoke with privately could present a serious alternative to Jeffries. He’d have the support of the Congressional Black Caucus, which is stacked with influential members. He’s popular with his colleagues, even those who grumble that he was too meek to challenge Pelosi earlier—“Hakeem is really good at taking in both ideas but also criticism, and not being defensive about it,” said Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, Jeffries’s close ally in House leadership, who is expected to end up in the No. 2 spot if he’s No. 1. In conversations with colleagues, Clark and Jeffries have said they’re moving forward as a team, determined to avoid the rumbling rivalry Pelosi and Hoyer have had since their days as congressional interns, in 1963.
Click through for the story. The Atlantic has a paywall, but you get a couple of free articles per month, so you may want to “print” it if you are interrupted.  Of course this is pure speculation.

HuffPost – Republicans Already Lying That California’s Recall Election Is ‘Rigged’
Quote – Former President Donald Trump ― who was impeached for inciting the violent Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection with lies about the 2020 presidential election ― weighed in on the Sept. 14 California recall on Tuesday with a complaint about the state’s early vote-by-mail system. “It’s probably rigged,” Trump said during an interview on right-wing cable channel Newsmax. “They’re sending out all ballots ― the ballots are mail-out, mail-in ballots. I guess you even have a case where you can make your own ballot. When that happens nobody’s going to win except these Democrats.”
Click through for details. Of course they are. While that in itself is bad news, it is good news that they are this worried. But it’s not an excuse not to vote.

The Hill – Police brace for Capitol rally defending Jan. 6 mob
Quote – The Capitol Police declined to comment Tuesday on any specific security plans for Sept. 18. But Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said the department is “closely monitoring” the event and expressed confidence that “the work we are doing now will make sure our officers have what they need to keep everyone safe.” The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is also planning an “increased presence around the city” where demonstrations will take place on Sept. 18 and may close off some streets, a spokesperson said.
Click through for what’s known and a few thoughts. I truly hope I am seeing ghostss, but I am concerned that September 18 and September 11 are both Saturdays, and one of those dates has symbolic significance. And Republicans lie. I hope they are also preparing for tomorrow. It never hurts to be prepared.

Food for Thought –

Share

Open Thread for September 9, 2021

 Posted by at 6:57 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 092021
 

Yesterday, I changed the ink cartridge in my printer, wich enabled me to print out instructions to do something else which I hadn’t beeen able to accomplish because I couldn’t see the instructions and the screens I was supposed to be performing them on at the same time. I still haven’t accomplished it … but I’m getting closer. Incidentally, I do apologize for not mentioning Rosh Hashanah until now when it’s over. But for those who celebrate, I do hope it was happy. And there are other occasions coming soon to observe.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

AP News – Shadow docket Supreme Court decisions could affect millions
Quote – Since Aug. 24, that truncated process known as the shadow docket has moved at astronomical speed, producing decisions related to immigration, COVID-19 and evictions and, most recently, abortion. Those three decisions, with the conservative wing of the court in the majority, have the potential to affect millions of people, in a fraction of the time and outside the normal scrutiny signed opinions can bring. “My memory is, typically, if the Supreme Court was acting in July and August, it was really that quintessential emergency appeal, dealing with something like a death penalty situation. It wasn’t like: What is immigration law going to be in our country? It wasn’t: Will tenants have certain rights? It wasn’t the big substantive questions,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School.
Click through for details.

The Hill – Texas abortion law roils businesses
Quote – Still, as of Tuesday afternoon, only a handful of companies have spoken out against the law. Corporate America has mostly remained silent, despite its vocal opposition to Texas’s restrictive voting bill that was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) Tuesday. “It’s not surprising because this is harder than a number of other issues,” said Sandra Sucher, a professor of management at Harvard Business School. “Abortion is particularly contentious because we know that it relates to people’s religious views, which is kind of a no-go zone for companies.”
Click through for full story.

The New Yorker (Borowitz) – Abbott Considering Other Measures to Prevent People from Ever Setting Foot in Texas
Quote – Although he acknowledged that new laws banning most abortions, restricting voting, and allowing citizens to carry a gun without a permit or training would dissuade many from visiting Texas, Abbott said that “there’s more we can do…. Just spitballing here, but what if we mandated that every visitor to Texas got bitten by a dog or poked with a stick of some kind?” he said. “I’ll be damned if that wouldn’t do the trick.”
Click through for the reat. Andy doing straight news again.

Food for Thought –

Share

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 –

 

 

Share

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) –

Share

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 –

Share

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 –

Share
 Older Entries  Newer Entries