Open Thread for June 9, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 092021
 

I checked around and the most promising one which is also the one that clearly shows on the map it serves my area) has a contact me form. I tried on both browsers (some sites don’t like one or the other, and when I still had no answer i called and reached someone. So, 2:00 pm today he will be here and change it. Then I will look into vaccine appointments – not that I haven’t already, and they seem to be available and plentiful. I will keep you posted, of course.

Cartoon

Short Takes

The Hill – New report highlights severe intelligence failures on Jan. 6 Personally, I’m not sure you can call it a “failure” of intelligence when deliberate ignoring is involved, but whatever
Quote: “The failures are obvious. I think to me it was all summed up by one of the things in our report where one of the officers was heard on the radio that day asking the tragically simple question: ‘Does anybody have a plan?’ Sadly, no one did,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), chair of the Senate Rules Committee.
Click through for the rest

Mother Jones – How the 2022 Midterms Could Be Shaped by a Few Easy-to-Ignore Elections This Year I don’t think it’s any too early to be thinking about midtersm.
Quote: Chaz Nuttycombe, the director of Virginia-based election forecaster CNalysis, explains, “Democrats wouldn’t be in the majority in the Virginia House if Trump had lost in 2016.”
Click through for full analysis

BBC News – ANOM: Hundreds arrested in massive global crime sting using messaging app This is makinging all kinds of news – the BBC article is explained the most simply.
Quote: More than 800 suspected criminals have been arrested worldwide after being tricked into using an FBI-run encrypted messaging app, officials say. The operation, jointly conceived by Australia and the FBI, saw devices with the ANOM app secretly distributed among criminals, allowing police to monitor their chats about drug smuggling, money laundering and even murder plots.
Click through for more details

Food for Thought: Are you in need of a new welcome mat for your front door (outside or inside)? John Paclovitz is offering two peaachy-keen ones. My favorite:

Share

Open Thread for June 8, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 082021
 

My mechanic and I (I say “my mechanic,” but it’s actually a team) are in consensus that a new battery was needed, so I am calling and emailing around to find one that can be delivered. I’m ot committed as yet, but it’s still a relief to feel that I know what I need to do and have started doing it.

 

Cartoon

Short Takes

The Borowitz Report – Putin Says He Has No Intention of Reinstating Trump
MOSCOW (The Borowitz Report)—Calling recent speculation “absurd,” Vladimir Putin said that he has “no intention whatsoever” of reinstating Donald J. Trump as President of the United States.
Speaking to reporters, the Russian President bristled at the suggestion that he would reinstall Trump in the White House “this August or any other month, for that matter.”
Click through for details. I certainly hope this is straight news!

MSNBC – The GOP’s base is preparing for a holy war — and Democrats need to pay attention
Yes, another opinion piece – one which it’s hard to disagree with if one is paying attention and is honest. Quote:
The sentiments that these Republicans share differ at times in the particulars — not all believe, for example, that the Democratic Party is a front for blood-drinking, Satanic pedophilia, but many do…. If one believes a priori that one’s opponents are thieves, would-be totalitarians, drinkers of children’s blood, wresting back power becomes in and of itself a moral imperative, regardless of the means.
Click through for the full piece.

The New Yorker – How Nasty Was Nero, Really?
Fake news is not news. It’s been around forever. I’ve been defending Nero for a while now – along with Marie Antoinette, Richard III, and Hillary Clinton. Not one of them was guilty of the arson, murder, incest, or miscellaneous crimes he or she was accused of. Can we hope that Hillary’s reputation will fare any better than that of the other three? Here’s a quote:
Opper told me, “They had a term for it—vituperatio, or ‘vituperation,’ which meant that you could say anything about your opponent. You can really invent all manner of things just to malign that character. And that is exactly the kind of language and stereotypes we find in the source accounts.”
Click through for details. Why is it relevant now? Well, look what Qpublicans are saying about us.

Food for Thought:

Share

Open Thread for June 7, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 072021
 

Well, hail. Yes, that’s what we had yesterday. Oh, yeah, and thunder and lightning too. i did some research on mobile battery replacement, but I also sent off an email to my regular mechanic for advice. (They’ve never steered me wrong.) I will keep everyone posted.

 

Cartoon ( Lona) –

Short Takes

The New Yorker – The Republicans’ Wild Assault on Voting Rights in Texas and Arizona   More and more people are trying to talk about this – you’ll see that in the video thread too. I wish I was confident it would reach the people who need to hear it. Here’s a quote:
Texas was already the most difficult state in which to cast a ballot, according to a recent study by Northern Illinois University. In 2020, voter turnout there was among the lowest in the nation. Even so, with nonwhites making up more than sixty per cent of the population under twenty, Texas is on its way to becoming a swing
Click through for the rest

The Daily Beast is on the same topic too. A quote:
Joe Biden wanted to convene a Summit of Democracies in his first year as president. COVID complicated matters, and the summit won’t happen before next year at the earliest. But even with the great strides the administration has made in taming the pandemic, a new question looms:
By the time the Summit of Democracies takes place, will the United States qualify to attend?
Click through for the full article

Politico is also on the trail … but eschewing sweeping generalzations for concrete specifics.
Republicans want to change state election laws. Here’s how they’re doing it. Here’s a quote –
Together, Texas and Georgia show which areas Republicans are focused on after Trump’s 2020 loss. Texas’ mail voting policies were already very tight, but both states sought to make their absentee policies stricter. Both states specifically targeted new voting policies piloted by big, blue counties in 2020. And Republicans in both states sought to impose new limits on election officials — and expose them to new criminal penalties for wrongdoing.
Click though for the rest.

Food for Thought:

Share

Open Thread for June 5, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 052021
 

Well, I got some charge into the battery, but I didn’t get the car started, and I ran out of time (and energy.) But I’m encouraged enough to keep trying. If I can’t get this done myself, I’ll have to find a roadside Assistance provider who will bring me a whole new battery. Thanks to the stimulus, I can afford that, it just pains my frugality (which I apparently inherited from my father, or so my mother often said.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes

Crooks and Liars – Stanford Law Withholds Diploma After Student Satire Triggers Federalist Society
Well, this is embarrassing. I mean, anyone can make a mistake, but tis is my school and the mistake is egregious and public. Here’s the header of the flyer Which Lainched a Thousand Snowflakes:

You can click though fror the details. They say it’s a two-minute read. (And ends with the news that the hold has been lifted. Thank God.)

Also from Crooks and liars – I can’t find anyone else carrying this story, and that’s a shame. Every American should know about this.

CNN – San Francisco’s ‘CAREN Act,’ making racially biased 911 calls illegal, is one step closer to becoming a law
This is great news, as far as it goes – it’s just a bill (or whatever they call it in a City/County – San Francisco is both), not a law (ordinance?) But oh, how it needs to be! And enforced!

Share

Video Thread 6/4/2021

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 042021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Plea Offers to Some Insurrectionists Raise Concerns: Here’s What Drives Prosecutorial Decisions

Meidas Touch – with Jason Kender

Now This News – Excuse my language, but this pisses me off. (It pisses Beau off too, but he’s politer.)

VoteVets – Count on Gen. Eaton not to mince words and to lay out the right thing to do … and VoteVets to publish it.

Thom Hartmann on Traitors, Particularly Flynn

Robert Reich – How Fast Can You Read? Pro tip: Watch twice – watch Robert the first time and Sam the second time (oe vice versa.) You can also slow it down, but definitely watch each separately.

Beau – an analogy that this sports ignoramus can wholeheartedly endorse.

Share

Open Thread for June 4, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 042021
 

TGIF – although i don’t really know why I still say so, since after retirement most days are alike to me. If anything, my Fridays are busier than other days. Today, I’m going to be off line for a while. Since I haven’t driven since the pandemic started, my battery is so low that it won’t hold a jump. It’s possibe, even probable, that keeping the machine the pros use attached and charging it would bring it up to where it would at least hold a jump, and driving around a while would complete the charge. But we have been having electrical storms every day. I don’t think it’s paranoid not to want to be out playing with electricity with a storm in the offing. But today we are forecast nothing but sun all day. So I’m hoping – I have one of those boxes the pros use – to get out and charge it up. Of course I’ll be off line for a while (and the longer it is, the better news it is.) Thanks in advance for your patience.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Aeon – Exit the Fatherland

If I could, I would make this an “Everyday Erinyes” article. But I can’t – it’s classified as an “essay,” and only “idea”s are available to republish. But, depressing as it is, I urge everyone to at least skim it. Because this is what we have to look forward to even if we do confront nationalism and all who embrace and push it. If we don’t – and we certainly didn’t, for instance, after the Civil War – it is not something we are good at – what we have to look forward to is likely even worse. I wish I knew how to get this through and into Americans’ heads.

PolitiZoom – Get Ready For Waco II: Trump Loving Moonies Purchase Compound In Texas To Prepare For Apocalyptic Shoot Out
I realize this page is tough to access and I apologize – but no one else has it and it is eyebrow-raising. “Moonies” is not a metaphor – the son of Sun Myung Moon leads this – group. (because it’s hard to reach, I have made a pdf – if you can’t see it online and want the pdf, email me or say so in a comment and I’ll send it

The Hill – FBI investigating political fundraising of former employees of Postmaster General DeJoy
You may already have seen this, so it may not be news, but it’s still good.

And because there’s to be no Friday Fun, and I for one am craving something totally of the wall …

Share

Open Thread for June 3, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 032021
 

I am always So Happy when It’s Thursday. I got my groceries all in on Tuesday – it didn’t do my back any good, but apparently it didn’t do it any harm either. As usual, not all the non-perishable stuff got put away, and still isn’t, partly because I stocked up beyond my storage capacity. But it will be eventually.

Cartoon

Short Takes

The New Yorker (The Borowitz Report) – Donald Trump will be reinstated in August as President of Trump University, according to one of his supporters. The loyalist, Harland Dorrinson, told reporters, “Donald J. Trump will be reinstated as President of Trump U. and will be teaching students how to get filthy rich in real estate by Labor Day.” Dorrinson said that skeptics who claim that Trump cannot be reinstated because Trump University ceased to exist in 2010 “don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Click through to learn what “really” happened to Trump U.

The Hill – Appeals court rejects bid by landlords to resume evictions
The ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest twist in a multifront legal challenge to the eviction freeze that was enacted by federal public health officials as a way to keep financially distressed renters in their homes and out of crowded homeless shelters during the coronavirus pandemic.
Well, this is good news   Click through for more details, including what to do if you are a distressed tenant (or know someone who is.)

Crooks And Liars – The Next GOP Election Steal Won’t Resemble The Last One
I don’t know whether Democrats can block the [Texas voter suppression] bill in the special session. I assume it will pass eventually. Even if it doesn’t, fourteen states have already passed restrictions on voting just since the 2020 election, with more to come.
Not pleasant, but we need to be aware. If HR1 can get through the Senate we can nip this in the bud. If not … prepare to live under real fascism (as opposed to narcissistic fake dictator in clown uniform fascism.) Click though for detaills.

View post on imgur.com

Share

Open Thread for June 2, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 022021
 

Wednesday already – and so much going on. Well, let’s dig in.

 

 

 

Cartoon

Short Takes

The Hill – The Memo – For years I was predicting a French-Revolution-style uprising based on the way government was ignoring, not just the will of the people, but also the needs of the people, including needs the people didn’t themselves recognize (such as climatee change). Then the Trump** presidency seemed so much more like the rise of Hitler that I shifted my concerns. But now it seems I was wrong. We are re-living, in some ways, the French Revolution – and we are now approaching the Reign of Terror stage, and mob rule. A mob with no leaders with any power to restrain it. Empty Greene seems like an unlikely Mme. Defarge (and I’d be astonished if she can knit), but there it is. (And, believe it or not, I wrote this first – and then found TC’s cartoon. My timing could not have been better.)

QConference – The “Conference” at which Michael Flynn made the remarks on camera which he now denies having made was observed by the author of this Twitter thread. I’m sorry, it’s not in a neat thread reader, but I found it worth going through. The chief “takeaways” – This a near-religious movement, and they are preparing to enact violence if they don’t get their way in future elections. The talk of war is now preparation for it.

Robert Reich – H/T Mitch – Of course the Reich on the left is right. What may be more of personal annoyance to me than a major danger to democracy – but it seems that, having lived through four years of a Trump** presidency (not to mention the campaign before and the insurrections after), we seem to have all forgotten who has the authority to doo whatm and who does not have authority to do certain things. This sentence from the article: “So there will be no investigation.” – I won’t say it’s just wrong, but it’s not an established fact. A House Select Committee has not beed ruled out. A DOJ investigation (has not been ruled out (and if they are already investigating and have not told us, they are not going to tell us before it’s over.) But it kind of gives a wrong impression. Keith makes a similar error as to who can do what, and I’ll address that in the video thread. I’m sure a big part of it is that those of us who recognize the enormity of what we are facing are somewhat in a panic. But a better handle on who can and should do what would, for one thing, help us target the right people in petitions. And it should also help us to think more rationally, and God knows we’ll need that.

Share
 Older Entries  Newer Entries