Politics – Page 348 – Politics Plus

Open Thread for October 1, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:28 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 012021

Yesterday, I put everything physically in place to go quickly in the morning. I’m not expecting to need to take off my sweater then I leave. After tomorrow, it’s supposed to warm up some here, but not, for the next week, to ever break 80°F.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Hill – Jan. 6 panel subpoenas 11, including Pierson, other rally organizers
Quote – Each of the 11 individuals is identified by the committee as having been involved with the Women for America First-sponsored rally where Trump spoke on Jan. 6. “You assisted in organizing the rally held on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, in support of then-President Trump and his allegation of election fraud. President Trump spoke at the January 6th rally shortly before the attack on the Capitol, urging the crowd to ‘fight much harder’ and to ‘stop the steal,’” the committee wrote in letters to each.
Click through for names. Note that the Congressinal select committee, while it has powers, does not have judicial powers. It can’t indict, or try, or convict, or sentence. The best it can do is to refer its findings to those who can do those other things.

Wonkette – Huzzay! We Shan’t Have A Government Shutdown Tonight! Probably!
Quote – This is where we reassure you that for years now, Congress has passed continuing resolutions to keep the government funded at current levels, often on the day a shutdown would otherwise kick in, and the only times there’s been an actual shutdown have been when the threat to force a shutdown was telegraphed well in advance. Then again, this is 2021, so we can’t completely rule out the possibility that once the CR is passed by the Senate, the entire House side of the US Capitol may be spirited away by Tralfamadorians in flying saucers, leaving President Joe Biden without a bill to sign. But that seems at least only a 30 percent possibility at the moment.
Click through for story. Every publication has its own house style (some more distinctive than others), and also individual writers’ treatments of the house style. This article is by Doktor Zoom. By the time you see this, you will know whether or not a CR has been passed.

Food for Thought –

Video Thread 9/30/21

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:30 am Open Thread, Politics

Sep 302021

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s de facto “All-Of-Government” Corruption Policy Exposed by Republican DHS Whistle Blower

Meidas Touch – The FUNNIEST Trump impression you’ll hear all day!

MSNBC – Colorado Secretary Of State Sues To Strip GOP Official Of Election Powers

RepresentUs – Senate dysfunction might crash the economy (Here’s the petition link) http://represent.us/debtceiling

Political Voices Network – Did You Hear The Liz Cheney Interview? You Need To! (I won’t go so far as to say you need to watch the whole interview – but this 2 minute clip – Yeah.)

Robert Reich – The Real Reason the Economy Might Collapse

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party

Beau – Let’s talk about a fact check of the US duty to help Haiti….

Open Thread for September 30, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 302021

Yesterday, I focused on getting prepared to go see Virgil tomorrow. I also heard from Pat B that she will be missing tomorrow. I promise a post, but I don’t promise a full one. I also promise a video open thread, but it may be short as well.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

HuffPost – Alabama Wants To Use Its COVID Relief Funds To Build New Prisons
Quote – Sandy Ray, the mother of an inmate killed in a state prison in 2019, came to the Statehouse Monday and showed lawmakers a photo of her son’s battered face following an altercation with guards. New prisons might help, she said, but there needs to be broader changes, otherwise it’s, “still going to be the same problems in the new buildings.” “They are still killing people in the prison system and it’s worse than it was in 2019 when my son died,” she said.
Click through for story and rationales.

Mother Jones – In California’s Water Wars, Nuts Are Edging Out People
Quote – Irrigating the valley’s farms takes 89 percent of the region’s water (compared to just 3 percent for residents). Embedded in what’s essentially a desert, San Joaquin’s vast agriculture industry relies on two sources for this liquid sustenance: snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada mountain range that forms the state’s eastern spine, and underground aquifers that have developed over millennia. Farm operations receive the great bulk of the melted snow, shunted through a complex of dams, canals, and aqueducts. But because of climate change, the annual Sierra Nevada snowpack has shown a declining trend for years—and will likely dwindle further over the next several decades, a growing body of research suggests.
Click through for details. This is a serious story, and I hope y’all will pardon my frivolity, but what drew me to this story was the applicability of the title to the entir country. (Wing) nuts are edging out (normal) people everywhere one looks.

NM Political Report – Chipmunk subspecies only found in the White Mountains could be listed as endangered
Quote – The three units proposed for critical habitat include Nogal Peak, Crest Trail and Sierra Blanca. The lands are both federal and tribal. The tribal lands belong to the Mescalero Apache Tribe. The critical habitat includes Ski Apache Resort in the Sierra Blanca unit. According to the notice published in the Federal Register, the chipmunk has been seen at Ski Apache Resort on Lookout Mountain and the summer activities at the ski resort, including maintenance, can negatively impact the chipmunk. The Fish and Wildlife Service has had conversations with the Mescalero Apache Tribe, according to the notice.
Click through for more. Greedy and powerful people don’t give a tinker’s dam about unintended consequences … which is why we have to.

Food for Thought –

Video Thread 9/29/21

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:28 pm Open Thread, Politics

Sep 292021

Glenn Kirschner – House Investigation of 1/6 Insurrection Issues 4 Subpoenas. Here’s an Overview of the Legal Issues

Meidas Touch – Rep. Dingell on Standing Up to “Hateful Bully” Marjorie Taylor Greene

Really American – Republicans Opposing Paid Sick Leave In Infrastructure

Liberal Redneck – Review of Kyrsten Sinema (Excerpt)

“Mangy Fetlocks” – A Message for Trumpsters About Their Car’s Warranty

Beau – Let’s talk about how white people should respond to racism they see….

Open Thread for September 29 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:02 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 292021

Yesterday, my grocery delivery came quite promptly (in the first hour of a four-hour window) and I got everything put away quickly except the shelf-stable beverages – and I did get those in, and have room to store them, they’re just heavy. Also, we heard from WWWendy. Please check out yesterday’s open thread for her comment.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Hill – Biden sidesteps GOP on judicial vacancies, for now
Quote – There’s no Senate rule that requires Biden get buy-in from GOP senators on who he nominates. But a Senate precedent known as the “blue slip” gives home-state senators tremendous sway over who gets nominated for district court vacancies in their state and the power to block nominees they oppose.
Click through for explanation. In politics, everything is a gamble, but this seems reasonable.

Democratic Underground – Schmidt: The “TRUMP COUP MEMO” should be an occasion for a giant, collective, national time out.
Quote – There now exists in the public realm, documentary evidence, a written plan to kill it off and replace it with something new. It was written by the Presidents atty and presented to the President. Trump took that paper and turned it into a weapon, a poisoned shiv and stuck it into the rib cage of American Democracy. He twisted it, crazed with rage that he had been rejected and repudiated.
Click through for the full thread – that’s what this is, a Twitter thread unrolled for easy reading. Schmidt knows whereof he speaks.

Twitter Threadreader – Harrowing account of effect of UNVACCINATED on hospital ICU capabilities
Quote – In August my dad was living independently in rural New Mexico, as he has for years, in a beautiful place with a view of the mountains. He got vaxxed against Covid as soon as it was available, wore masks, and was waiting out the pandemic like the rest of us. Then, he had a fall.
Click through for (tissue alert) story. This is another Twitter thread opened for easy reading. In case it gets taken down before you get to it, there is another copy here which won’t.

Food for Thought –

Video Thread 9/28/21

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:36 am Open Thread, Politics

Sep 282021

Glenn Kirschner – Trump Admits to Georgia Election Crimes; Brookings Institute Publishes Piece on Trump’s GA Crimes

VoteVets – Hurts

Thom Hartmann – The “Businessman‘s Conspiracy” Authoritarian Plot Is Close

RepresentUs – John Oliver on How to Fight Voter Suppression

Robert Reich – Trump & Biden BOTH Use This Law to Prevent Asylum

Mrs. Betty Bowers – “Bringing Integrity To Christian Homemakers” Awards Dinner

Beau – Let’s talk about water in the southwest US….

Open Thread for September 28 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:24 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 282021

Yesterday, I did finish organizing my evening meds. I also placed a grocery order to be delivered today. I even worked a little bit on that front panel I mentioned last week. It rained a little, which is now supposed to continue for a few days.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Hill – Biden administration moves to preserve DACA after court ruling
Quote – A federal district judge in Texas ruled in July that the 2012 DACA program violated the Administrative Procedures Act. The decision left intact the program’s benefits for some 600,000 people otherwise unable to obtain legal status after being brought to the U.S. as children. But it blocked any future applications, leaving thousands of young immigrants in limbo.
Click through for story. The delay from July to now is because it was appealed. But this is good news.

The Daily Beast – Arizona Dems Threaten Sen. Kyrsten Sinema With No-Confidence Vote
Quote – “The Arizonans who did the work to elect Sinema have had enough of her betraying the voters who put her in office. It’s time for her to show the bare minimum of accountability and stop obstructing the agenda that Democrats, including her, campaigned on and were elected to deliver. Sinema is setting her political future on fire. If she doesn’t change course drastically and soon, it will be too late,” Kai Newkirk, a Democratic organizer in Arizona, told The Daily Beast.
Click through if you like – It doesn’t go into the consequences of such a vote.

The Guardian – John Hinckley, who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan, to be freed from restrictions
Quote – The US district court judge, Paul L Friedman, said in Washington during a 90-minute court hearing that he would issue his full ruling this week. “If he hadn’t tried to kill the president, he would have been unconditionally released a long, long, long time ago,” Friedman said. “But everybody is comfortable now after all of the studies, all of the analysis and all of the interviews and all of the experience with Mr Hinckley.”
Click through for details. Actually, he probably was never quite as insane as present-day MAGAts are. But I would still be nervous if I lived nearby.

Food for Thought –