Nov 202021
 

Yesterday (techncally, although it seems like the day before), I went out a bit after midnight to look at th eclipse I wasn’t expecting much bcause the forecast had been for 86% cloud cover. However, I was able to get a pretty good view, straight overhead. Impressive. I stayed until it looked like the thumbnali (close to that color too – maybe a wee bit more orange) and then went in as the temperature was close to single digits. And then went to bed and to sleep.  And eventually woke up.  And came here and posted.  And I reached out to the campaign for the NYT gift link, but had already writtrn my remarks, and I didn’t re-do everything.  Hope it isn’t too confusing.

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Short Takes –

Daily Kos (Walter Einenkel) – FBI raids homes of Colorado election clerk and former Boebert campaign manager
Quote – On the morning of Nov. 16, the FBI conducted federally-authorized law enforcement actions into potential criminal activity by employees of the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder’s Office and others associated with those employees. The activity occurred in both Mesa and Garfield Counties at four separate locations. Investigators with the 21st Judicial District Attorney’s Office (Mesa County, Colo.) and the Colorado Attorney General’s Office assisted in the operations. No arrests were made, and the operations are related to ongoing investigations. Per order of a federal court, all documents related to these operations are sealed.
Click through for what details are not sealed. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me.

Mother Jones – Disinformation Isn’t Just a Tech Problem. It’s a Social One, Too.
Quote – The rise of disinformation is the product of long-standing social problems, including income inequality, racism, and corruption, which can be easily exploited to spread false information online. “Saying that the disinformation is the problem—rather than a way in which the underlying problem shows itself—misses the point entirely,” the report quotes Mike Masnick, founder of Techdirt, as saying.
Click through for story – I suppose it’s arguable which comes forst, like the chicken and the egg, but wi need to be fighint on every front, and even then, we will not be able to eliminate the monstr. We may be able to make it controllable.

New York Times – San Francisco’s Top Prosecutor Will Face a Recall Election
Quote (from his email, because I was paywalled out of NYT) – San Francisco voters elected me because of the promises I made: I promised to end cash bail. We’ve done it. I promised to reduce youth incarceration. It’s down by 50%. I promised to release innocent people from prison. We launched an independent commission to ensure no innocent person is languishing behind bars. I promised to hold police accountable. We filed homicide charges against the officer who shot and killed Keita O’Neill — the first time in our city’s history that homicide charges were brought against an on-duty police officer.
Click through for the NYT story with a gift link – which means you are not paywalled out even if you are not a subscriber. And spread the word. Turnout is even more critical in recalls than any other election! And don’t cut the link – all that stuff is needed to pass the paywall.

Food for Thought –

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Nov 192021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Steve Bannon’s Ridiculous Court Performance Exposed

Meidas Touch – “Let’s Go, Brandon!” (They’re going to be sorry they came up with that chant.)

Now This News – Julius Jones sentence commuted. If you have been following this at all you will be glad to see this.

Political Voices Network – What is Gosar Even Thinking?! [Richard French]

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party

Stray Cat Shows Up At Fire Station And Moves Right In With Firefighters

Beau – Let’s talk about making the case and ruining Thanksgiving….

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Nov 192021
 

Yesterday, I woke up a few minutes early and just stayed up. Heaven knows ehwn I’ll be up today, though – the eclipse was last night. Since eclipses go by real time rather than by clocks, I couldn’t be exact about exactly when it would start, but I was guessing somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes after midnight. I’ll let you know after the fact.

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Short Takes –

HuffPost – Paul Gosar Censured For Violent Anime Video Targeting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Quote – The vote passed mostly along party lines, with only two Republicans — Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), who is retiring — seeing it necessary to condemn Gosar for sharing a video that depicted him slicing the throat of one of their Democratic colleagues.
Click through for more. Yes, he was stripped of all his committee assignments, thank God. And forced to stand alone in fromt of the House to hear the censure read aloud. However, he was unapologetic. He has learned nothing.

politicsrus – What Has Joe Biden Done For Us? (four episodes)
I did use Episode #1 on the video thread, but now that there are four episodes, I have decided to post the links here, together, rather than separating them out. The last three in particular are excellent messaging of what is in the Infrastructure bill (now law) I hope they will continue coming out.
Episode 1 – Accomplishments
Episode 2 – Water
Episode 3 – Broadband
Episode 4 – For Children

Daily Kos (Rule of Claw) – The Math Didn’t Add Up: The Reason President Biden Asked The FTC To Investigate Gas Gouging!
Quote – So the formula is price of crude divided by 42, divided by 2 times 3. Going by that gas pricing should be about $2.78 per gallon. Of course this is not a perfect assessment as there are from time to time other market factors to consider. But not apparently, this time. And I for one do not believe the President would make this move capriciously. This is the sort of thing that you do when you already know the answer and just want the suspect to implicate themselves.
Click through for ancillary details. There is no low the GOP will not stoop to. The only surprise here is that they never tried it before.

Food for Thought –

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Nov 182021
 

Glenn Kirschner – New Reporting Reinforces Trump’s Criminal Liability for Avoidable COVID Deaths: An Analysis

The Lincoln Project – Biden Delivers

politicsrus – From the Darkness (no dialogue – background “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”

Ring of Fire – Marjorie Taylor Greene Brags About Being Fined $60,000 For Being An Idiot

CNN – Jim Acosta with John Dean

Liberal Redneck – Rittenhouse Trial

Beau – Let’s talk about income, public health, and Trump….

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Nov 182021
 

Yesterday, I overslept, having stayed up too late the day before, trying to get too much done. This week, I can handle that. I’m glad it wasn’t last week or next week. The weather was drk and cold, although without precipitation, which probably also contributed.

Cartoon – 18 1118Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

Mother Jones – I’m Moving to Portugal, See You Never
Quote – [I]n a lot of ways telecommuting chained workers to their offices even more by making sure that their work was always present, in their computers and in their cellphones. Something needs to get done late? It’s not waiting until you get back into the office. Your boss is going to email/Slack/text you tonight to do it…. Portugal is done with all of that.
Click through for story. It’s short, but loaded. Why can’t we have nice things?

Wonkette – Six Colorado High School Students Take Bullets For Gun Freedom
Quote – Monday afternoon, six teenagers were hanging out at Nome Park in Aurora, Colorado, across the street from their high school. For no reason anyone can yet determine, the teens were shot by gun-toting cowards who drove away after the sneak attack. The students, aged 14 to 18, were hospitalized with what the police describe as non-life-threatening injuries. However, one student required emergency surgery.
Click through for details, video, and summary of gun laws. Sadly, we have our share – matbe more – of crazies hereI can only speculate they are most active in Aurora and Boulder on the mistaken assumption there are no liberals in colorado Springs.

Reason – Cops Thought Sand From Her Stress Ball Was Cocaine. She Spent Nearly 6 Months in Jail.
Quote – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled last week that two Atlanta police officers are not entitled to qualified immunity from a civil lawsuit brought against them by Ju’zema Goldring for malicious prosecution. Goldring says the officers falsely accused her of jaywalking and cocaine trafficking, based on a field test of a powdery substance inside a stress ball she had in her purse.
Click through for mixed information. At least ahe’s alive.

Food for Thought –

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Nov 172021
 

Glenn Kirschner – New Reporting Reinforces Trump’s Criminal Liability for Avoidable COVID Deaths: An Analysis

CNN – Jim Acosta and Carl Bernstein It was a couple of days ago – but it is substantial.

Ring of Fire – Investigation Says 13 Trump Officials Broke The Law During 2020 Campaign

Crooks and Liars – Lauren Boebert

Mrs. Betty Bowers – One Nation Under the Wrong Impression

The Five Laws Of Stupidity

Beau – Let’s talk about Bannon being indicted and the impacts….

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Nov 172021
 

Yesterday, again quiet. I got a few things done (never as much as I’d like to, of course.) I hope you can stand a day of good news … goodness knows there’s enough bad news out there.

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Short Takes –

Democratic Underground – I think I Spotted Antifa
Quote – Wearing a military beret and a Polish wartime resistance armband, 94-year-old Wanda Traczyk-Stawska stunned the crowd at a pro-EU rally when she thundered “Be quiet, stupid boy! You lousy bastard” at a member of a far-right group attempting to disrupt the gathering over a loudspeaker.
Click through for more and a great picture. I couldn’t possibly honor every hero here – if I tried I wouldn’t be able to do anything else – but she is special.

Daily Kos (Gabe Ortiz) – ‘Dad, welcome back’: Advocate for deported veterans wins his own fight to return to the U.S.
Quote – “Thanks to a law passed in recent years that allows immigrants to challenge old convictions if they weren’t warned about potential immigration consequences before accepting plea deals, he was finally able to get the conviction undone,” The Union-Tribune reported.
Click through for full story. I needed a hanky and Pat probably will too. Others might also.

Furtive ferret: one of North America’s rarest mammals turns up in Colorado garage
Quote – “This is extremely rare,” Schmal said. “Black-footed ferrets are nocturnal and extremely shy. For some reason, this one left the colony and was seeking shelter. “We’re just glad it appeared healthy, not starving or sick, and we were able to capture it and return it to the colony.”
Click through for story. Walker Ranch is in Boulder County, so I’m guessing Nettles lives in or near Boulder. I don’t blame him for not wanting the exact afddress out.

Food for Thought –

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Nov 162021
 

The Pythonesque farce known as the Kyle Rittenhouse trial makes me nervous – not so much the goings-on at the hearing itself, but the possible aftermath. No matter what the verdict, no matter what charges stick, no matter what the sentence if the lad is convicted, I fear that the doo-doo is going to hit the fan.

If Rittenhouse walks, that will outrage Blacks, as well as many progressives and liberals. Remember the riots that erupted after those LAPD cops were acquitted for beating Rodney King? Of course, there was no excuse for that violence; but there was no excuse for the verdict, either. Judge Bruce Schroeder has made matters worse by forbidding the use of the term “victims” for the two men whom Rittenhouse shot and insisting that they be labeled “rioters” and “looters.” All this does is fan the flames of racism and encourage violence. Words can become very potent and dangerous weapons in the right context.

If Rittenhouse is found guilty on even one charge, that will hack off Q-anon, Proud Bois, and other assorted right-wing bugnuts. After the 6 January putsch, I have zero faith in their ability to control themselves. They’ll label Rittenhouse a martyr and regard his case as a bloody shirt for them to wave, just as BLM protesters wave the bloody shirts of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Breonna Taylor, etc.

No matter which way you slice it, the Rittenhouse trial is likely to be a pivotal moment in our country’s history and the saga of race relations. Right-wingers harp on the claim he was attacked, and assert that he was acting in self-defense. OK, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what really happened; and had I been in his shoes, how would I have acted? On the other hand, what was a 17-year-old doing with an AR-15, a weapon that no civilian should wield, let alone a teenager? Even if he was trying to protect an auto dealership, as one source claims, you don’t send a child to do an adult’s job. Teens are notorious for having little common sense, if any at all.

Batten down the hatches, y’all – I see a bad moon rising.

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