Video Thread 5/14/22

 Posted by at 12:15 pm  Open Thread, Politics
May 142022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump election lawyer John Eastman caught telling PA legislators to just “retabulate” vote for Trump

Meidas Touch – Top Democrat BLASTS these two crazed Republicans in scathing speech [while wearing a tie in the colors of the Ukrainian flag]

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – May 10, 2022

MSNBC – Lawrence Explains Just How ‘Monumentally Historic’ The McCarthy Subpoena Really Is [and how fundamentally – and rapidly – things have changed]

Sky News – Finnish President tells Russia ‘You caused this’ as he signs security pact with UK

Really American – Dr. Oz EXPOSED voting in Turkey’s election, denying Armenian genocide

Beau – Let’s talk about Natives, history, and volume being released….

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Open Thread May 14, 2022

 Posted by at 6:53 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 142022
 

Yesterday was Friday the Thirteenth, and it got me thinking about the fact that “In the United States, the number 13 has many positive associations related to the 13 original colonies. So on the Great Seal there are 13 stars, 13 red stripes, and thirteen arrows held by the eagle.” Also, when the eagle holds an olive branch in the other foot, that branch has 13 olives and 13 leaves. You can count themon the back of the dollar bill, and you can look for more hidden 13s there if you like; I forget what all of them are. Friday is a separate matter – I won’t go into all the rationalizations, but fear of Friday goes back to ancient times, and Friday the 13th was considered especially unlucky only because it was thought to be a double whammy. These days we tend to say “Thank God it’s Friday,” so it’s hard to say why anyone (in the US especially) should be concerned about Friday the Thirteenth.

Cartoon – 14 constitution

Short Takes –

BioSpace – Researchers Pinpoint Reason Infants Die From SIDS
Quote – According to Mayo Clinic, many in the medical community suspected this phenomenon could be caused by a defect in the part of the brain that controls arousal from sleep and breathing. The theory was that if the infant stopped breathing during sleep, the defect would keep the child from startling or waking up…. They found the activity of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) was significantly lower in babies who died of SIDS compared to living infants and other non-SIDS infant deaths. BChE plays a major role in the brain’s arousal pathway, explaining why SIDS typically occurs during sleep.
Click through for details. It has NOTHING to do with anything any parent or caregiver has any control over whatsoever. It is an effing enzyme. Unless it happens when the infant is actually on the parent’s arms, and the parent notices something wrong, and knows and performs CPR (which is a LOT of “if”s), there is not one bloody thimg a parent can do to prevent it. Of course, there is now – all infants should be tested as soon as possible for BChE levels. But if every parent who ever lost a child to SIDS could instantly know this, the weight of guilt leaving the earth might be enough to knock

the earth out of its orbit.

Crooks and Liars – Katie Porter Describes Shocking Quid Pro Quo Deal Under Trump
Quote – [Katie Porter:] “So, what happened here is the deputy secretary of the interior — the Secretary of the Interior at the time was Ryan Zinke, who is currently running for Congress. But the deputy secretary was named (David) Bernhardt. He took a secret meeting with a developer named Mike Ingraham, trying to develop a project in Arizona, in a very environmentally sensitive area. It was a secret meeting, never disclosed on any of Secretary Bernhardt’s calendars. It was never disclosed to our committee, and we were investigating. A couple weeks later, this Fish and Wildlife career employee, just doing his job for 30 years, he gets a call around a high-level politico wanting him to reverse his decision that the development would harm the environment,” she said.
Click through (there’s also a video). Of course, under TFG, no kind or amount of criminal behavior can actually shock anyone with a brain any more. But this certainly should be shocking, and demonstrates how desperately we need to restore integrity to govenment, so regain people’s trust, so that an incident like this would be shocking.

BuzzFeed News – Republicans Don’t Think Undocumented Immigrant Babies Should Get Formula Over Americans
Quote – Republicans are claiming without proof that baby formula used to feed infants at immigrant detention centers is siphoning away a product in short supply and instead want “American kids” put first…. None of the Republican lawmakers explained how feeding infants in detention was affecting formula supplies in the rest of the country, but suggested they should be left without food anyway.
Click through for story. More posturing from the “pro-life” crowd.

Food For Thought

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Marking a Sad and Solemn Milestone

 Posted by at 1:48 pm  Politics
May 132022
 

This week marked a tragic milestone in America’s history: One MILLION Deaths from COVID.

It’s appropriate that we revisit a previous post I did visualizing the extent of this tragedy with white flags planted on the lawn of The Mall in Washington.

But first, a graphic that puts the million deaths in some perspective

This is from a wonderfully done article in WaPo briefly following the arc of this tragedy:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2022/how-many-people-died-covid-united-states-1-million-graphic/

REDUX: From my previous post of almost a year ago:

https://www.7thstep.org/blog/2021/09/26/solemn-sunday-commemorating-americans-lost-from-covid-19/

In the spring of 2020, Artist Susanne Brennan Firstenberg was incensed when Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX) told Tucker Carlson, while discussing the raging COVID pandemic, that “There are more important things than living.”

Patrick even went further during that interview to suggest grandparents should be willing to die from COVID in order to save the economy for their grandchildren.

“That really disturbed me,” Firstenberg, who’s worked as a Hospice volunteer for over 25 years, told ABC News.  But it inspired her into action with creation of her first display of more than 267,000 small white flags on the four-acre D.C. Armory Parade Grounds in the fall of 2020, just outside RFK Stadium.

Moved by the overwhelming response to her first installation, she knew that second one would require a much larger venue.  She began discussions with the Federal Parks Service, and was successful in securing a site on the National Mall of more than 20 acres next to the Washington Monument.  It borders the White House, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the World War II Memorial.

The installation, In America: Remember, was opened for viewing from September 17 thru October 3, 2021.

Firstenberg enlisted the services of Ruppert Landscape for 150 employees working with a corps of volunteers to place the flags in 143 geometric sections that create 3.8 miles of walking paths.  Scattered throughout the display are numerous white benches, making it easy for visitors’ quiet reflections.

The installation was designed to be interactive.  There were 10,000 Sharpies available for visitors to use to inscribe personal messages on the flags.

At the opening ceremony dedication, Lonnie G. Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, noted that the flag display is the largest installation on the Mall since the that of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, another collaborative art piece that was displayed multiple times during the height of the AIDS epidemic.

Firstenberg, compelled by outrage she felt for Trump and his fellow Republicans constantly downplaying the pandemic during the election, was  inspired to create her first installation at RFK Stadium.  She hoped her second installation will convince people to get vaccinated.

“The last thing I want to do is to have to buy more flags.”

ADDENDUM

While Firstenberg’s efforts certainly had an impact, sadly there remains a group of Trumpkin Luddites who have refused to follow the science Dr. Fauci and so many other distinguished healthcare professionals have so bravely provided.

From NPR, here is a graph of the estimate of adults who could have been saved if they had been vaccinated:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/05/13/1098071284/this-is-how-many-lives-could-have-been-saved-with-covid-vaccinations-in-each-sta

And this is a map where most of the anti-vaxxer troglodytes lived:

I’m sure you can see a correlation between deaths (largely due to anti-vaxxers) by state and the Trumpkin voters.

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Video Thread 5/13/22

 Posted by at 11:54 am  Open Thread, Politics
May 132022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Elon Musk wants Trump back on Twitter, saying that Twitter’s ban was a “morally bad decision.”

Meidas Touch – Mitch McConnell FACT-CHECKED on his Roe v. Wade Lies!

The Lincoln Project – Last Week In The Republican Party

MSNBC – Ted Cruz Slammed By Father Of Former Marine Released By Russia For Lack Of Support

VoteVets – Best Chance

ACKAH TV – Amanda Gorman Speaks on Roe (CC more legible on full screem)

Beau – Let’s talk about what Republicans said with the vote in the Senate….

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A Red Flag in Colorado

 Posted by at 10:27 am  Politics
May 132022
 

This is the first lead article I have posted since I took over the senior editor spot. I don’t plan to do it unless there is something extraordinary that comes up, and even then not when the material is accessible on the web for a Short Take. Therefore, most of the time, as now, it’s going to be a message from an email (which I can quote in full).

I received this email from Ike McCorkle, the presumptive Democratic Candidate for Congress in the district currently held by Ken Buck. I don’t suppose what is happening there could happen in every state – but it could happen in any state which mandates county, district, or state assemblies of parties as all or part of the candidate selection process, and it explains a lot.  Here’s what Ike has to say:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We’re writing today to give you an early warning about something truly dangerous unfolding on Colorado’s Eastern Plains.

Ike McCorkle (L) Ken Buck (R)

In April, Colorado politics watchers were shocked to see Incumbent Congressman Ken Buck (R-CO) take a humiliating defeat at the Colorado Republican assembly for Colorado’s 4th Congressional district that saw him lose his spot at the top of the ballot and nearly lose his Congressional seat in one fell swoop.

The man who dealt the unexpected blow to Buck was one Bob Lewis, an Elbert County real estate agent. While Lewis is a political outsider and little is known about him, what we do know should be deeply concerning.

At the assembly, Lewis criticized Buck for referring to believers of the 2020 stolen election theory as “conspiracy theorists” and received assistance from the extreme right-wing FEC United, a Castle Rock based Colorado militia group, known for calling for Governor Polis to be hanged.

Everything known about Bob Lewis

Much like how the traditional Conservative Scott Tipton was unseated by insurrectionist aiding Congresswomen Lauren Boebert. Across the state we are seeing a resurgent wave of extreme right voters throwing out their own members of Congress who they don’t believe are radical enough. In CD-7 an election conspiracist also managed to beat a sitting Republican Congressman, Doug Lamborn, making it to the top of their ballot as well.

If Bob Lewis beats Buck our campaign will be the only thing holding back a Boebert 2.0 from representing over 700,000 Coloradans in Congress. 

This November, whether we are taking on the devil we know, Congressman Buck, or the devil we don’t, Bob Lewis, we will be running on bringing people together, not dividing them. We’ll be fighting for the notion that rural Coloradans deserve a right to good jobs, fair wages, election integrity, and bodily autonomy.

We are running an honest campaign based on the real issues affecting Eastern Coloradans. Partisan rhetoric and furthering divisive conflict between Americans solves nothing and should not be the ambition of leadership.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I have been to assemblies in Colorado (in 1992 I actually made it to the state one), so I know how people get there. They start the process by turning out one cold night in February to attend a very small meeting of people from their precinct. Those who turn out for this are only the most dedicated (even fanatical) of party members, and not even all of those. It excludes people who work swing shifts. It excludes people who cannot drive at night (as I no longer can.) It excludes parents who cannot get child care. No doubt you can think of other categories who might be excluded. It is also a bloody nuisance. But it is where the delegates to the County Assembly are decided (based on what percentage of the vote their candidate gets in February). And the County Asssembly is where the delegates to the State assembly are decided (also based on percentages of votes  received by their candidates.) If a party contains extremists, it is practically inevitable that they will be over-represented at State Assemblies. Fortunately for Colorado, these assemblies only determine who will be on the primary ballots, not on the general election ballots, so there is time and means to correct some of the worst travesties. But that doesn’t always happen. Lauren Boebert is a case in point.

My recommendation to every Democrat – and even to every sane Republican – is to read up on your state’s election processes, and find out if there is a way – short of venturing out into a blizzard – that you can get involved in that process in your state before it comes time to cast your ballot in November. Particularly if there are any political storms brewing. Buck has, I believe, a decent chance of winning the primary. But it’s not a certainty. It’s much closer to certain that whoever wins the Republican primary in that district will win the general. And if that candidate is not Buck, we will have lost the only Colorado Republican in the House who was willing to work with Senator Bennet to get National Historical Monument designation for the Amache internment camp from World War II. Fifteen years ago – even five years ago – if you told me I’d be writing in defense of Ken Buck, I would not have believed it. But that is where we are now.

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Open Thread May 13, 2022

 Posted by at 7:11 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 132022
 

Yesterday, I paid a couple of bills. I didn’t venture outside, though I suppose I might have, because besides the evacuations the day before, we also has spring winds (to blow them away) – but that’s a straight stick which points two ways, – the winds could aldo have brought the fires (and their smoke) closer. Not difficult to justify doing what I wanted to do anyway (grin.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

truthout – DeSantis’s Congressional Maps Deemed “Unconstitutional” by Judge He Appointed
Quote – Smith will likely replace DeSantis’s gerrymandered maps with one of two that the Republican-controlled legislature had previously passed, which the governor had vetoed earlier this year. Though still advantageous to the GOP, those maps are seen as somewhat better (though by no means perfect), in terms of respecting Black voters’ voices, than the ones DeSantis demanded be passed after his veto.
Click through for article. Here’s my take on DeSantis.

Media Matters – Fox News melts down following revelation Karine Jean-Pierre called the network racist. She’s right.
Quote – It’s not just people on the left pointing out Fox’s racism. In 2020, amid the George Floyd protests, The Daily Beast reported that it “spoke to more than a dozen Fox News insiders, who all suggested that behind the scenes there is a growing despair among employees about the network’s role in demonizing and spreading fear about Black Americans in particular.” One Fox staffer quoted in the piece described some of the network’s personalities as “a white supremacist cell,” adding, “This is rank racism excused by Murdoch.” Another described Fox programming as “white supremacist crap.”
Click through if you can stand to. Shall we expect Fox staff to treat Karine with even more disrespect than they did Jen? (OK, I grant I was shocked when Doocy said on camera that he would miss her because she’d always been a “good sport.”)

Robert Reich – Personal history: The Supreme Court I argued before fifty years ago
Quote – Douglas, Marshall, and Blackmun were the intellectual leaders of that Supreme Court. Their opinions gave the Court its moral heft. They drew not only from the Constitution as written but also from the nation as it had evolved. They understood the moral leadership America needed to protect the rights of the voiceless and the powerless. Today’s Supreme Court majority doesn’t have a clue about the Court’s moral authority, and couldn’t care less.
Click through for history, nostalgia, and moral clarity. Today’s FFT is a meme drawn from this article.  Feel free to share it.

Food For Thought

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 16: Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich testifies before the Joint Economic Committee January 16, 2014 in Washington, DC. Reich joined a panel testifying on the topic of “Income Inequality in the United States.Ó (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

 

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Video Thread 5/12/22

 Posted by at 11:46 am  Open Thread, Politics
May 122022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Mark Esper hides Trump’s crimes & unfitness for office; discloses those crimes & abuses in his book

The Lincoln Project – Yes We Know

RepresentUs – Sen. Warnock and Sen. Ossoff on Gerrymandering and Voting Access

Farron Balanced – Lauren Boebert Informed By FEC That She’s Breaking The Law

PBS – Amanpour and Company – Kristin Du Mez: How Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith
Yes, this is long. But it is extremely illuminating. I assume the book is even more illuminating. It’s not brand new, but not much has changed.

Stray Puppy Wanders Into Stranger’s Home in the Middle of Night

Beau – Let’s talk about Britney Spears being every woman in the US….

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Open Thread May 12, 2022

 Posted by at 6:38 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 122022
 

Yesterday, I woke up from a nightmare.I was talking with Mitch McConnell and he said something which almost made sense. It was horrible. I never used to dream about public figures Sigh.
Today is May 12. I’m using a cartoon made by TC, but every year on May 12 I remember that when I was a freshman in college and still visiting my high school bridge club because I didn’t feel ready for tournament bridge (this would have been 1963), every time there was a trick with four face cards, it was obligatory for someone to say, “Summit Conference.” And on a trick with three face cards it was obligatory for someone to sat, “May 12th.” (because on May 12, 1960, Khrushchev walked out on the summit conference.) Just one of those trivial to the point of being idiotic things that one can’t seem to forget. (And it really wouldn’t make a good cartoon, anyway. Too much explanation needed.)

Cartoon – 12 0512Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast- A Second MAGA Clerk in Colorado Also Breached Voting Machines
Quote – Schroeder, who did not return a request for comment, is the second Colorado clerk accused of breaching voting machines under his supervision. The other clerk, Tina Peters of Mesa County, is currently facing a barrage of criminal charges for allegedly stealing a local tech worker’s identity, illegally copying her county’s election data, and leaking it to election fraud conspiracy theorists last spring. She later appeared at Lindell’s “cyber symposium” on supposed voter fraud where she implied, incorrectly, that the stolen data suggested election malfeasance against Donald Trump.
Click through for details. Colorado is a blue state if Democrats vote. But ever since Focus on the Family decided to settle in Colorado Springs, RWNJs all over the state have become more amd more loud and obnoxious. And lawless. Here’s a related article.

Crooks and Liars – ‘Songbird Of Mariupol’ Wants The World To Know That She’s Still Alive
Quote – For she is singing in a bomb shelter amid the shattered hell of Mariupol, accompanied by a low murmur from a chorus line of men sitting beside her. Her name is Kateryna. She joined the army last year after completing her music studies and, at the age of 21, she finds herself fighting for her life as a member of the heroic band of Ukrainian fighters making a desperate last stand in a besieged factory.
Click through for story and video. The video has CC (I don’t speak Ukrainan, but it looks good), and you can just tell she has a lovely voice, maybe perfect pitch, but the “accompaniment” doesn’t help.

AP News – Ambassador nominee for Ukraine seeks quick embassy reopening
Quote – Bridget Brink, who has spent the majority of her 25-year diplomatic career in former Soviet republics, spoke to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ahead of what’s expected to be her easy Senate confirmation…. Committee Republicans and Democrats alike Tuesday emphasized getting Brink confirmed and in place in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, as soon as possible, as Ukraine’s forces are in their fourth month of battling invading Russian troops, with the help of an extraordinary campaign of military and financial support by the United States and European allies.
Click through (it’s short). Let’s not forget the last Ambassador, Marie (Masha) Yovanovitch. Like (and along with) LtCol Vindman, she demonsrated truth and honor in the face of a world-class bully. Big shoes to fill. I wish Bridget Brink all the best.

Food For Thought

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