Politics Plus – Page 307 – Overcoming Republican insaniTEA, one day at a time.

Open Thread April 2, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:53 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 022022

Yesterday I got my trash and recycling carts movedaway from the curb back to where they “live.”And that was plenty. It’s been a busy week for me, so I was glad to have some respite. I did a little knitting and a ittle gaming, and tried to get to bed earlier than I had been most of the week. I’ll try not to get spoiled.

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Short Takes –

Report: DOJ Grand Jury Has Been Secretly Targeting Trump World For Months
Quote – The Department of Justice, as some of us said all along, is doing their job. They have been doing their job. This didn’t just happen in the past week because Congress members publicly complained. Even the reporters who wrote this piece get it wrong by saying the probe has “expanded.” These grand jury subpoenas didn’t just fall out of the sky, and it’s not in response to public pressure. Leaking the news? Yeah, that’s for the benefit of the public. But this is a hugely complex investigation, and they’re being careful not to screw it up.
Click through for details and some interesting reactions.

Navy ship to be named for late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Quote – Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced on Thursday, the final day of Women’s History Month, that the Navy would name a replenishment oiler ship after Ginsburg. The ship is part of the John Lewis-class of replenishment oilers which are named in honor of individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of civil rights. Other ships in the class are named after John Lewis, Robert F. Kennedy, and Sojourner Truth.
Click through for background. The entire class appears to be relatively new.

“CODA” Actor Troy Kotsur Becomes First Deaf Man to Win an Oscar: “This Is Our Moment”
Quote – “CODA” star Troy Kotsur just made history at the 2022 Oscars. The 53-year-old actor is the first deaf man to be nominated and win an award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Kotsur took home the award for best actor in a supporting role on Sunday for “CODA,” beating out Ciarán Hinds, Jesse Plemons, J.K. Simmons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Click through for story. Yeah, know, I don’t follow the Oscars either – the last time I watched was when Halle Berry won in 2001. But any diversity milestone in films is worth celebrating.

Food For Thought:

Video Thread 4/1/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:16 pm Open Thread, Politics

Apr 012022

Glenn Kirschner – on Zerlina – some good news

The Lincoln Project – Partner

Ojeda Live – Top 5 Republican Sell-Outs

Now This News – Here’s a story about a Florida Man which won’t male you groan. But you may want a hanky.

Robert Reich – Here’s What It’s Like Having $100 Billion vs. $1 Billion

Feisty Foster Kitten Doesn’t Grow Bigger – WIDDLE

Beau – Let’s talk about mapping the unthinkable….

Open Thread April 1, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:03 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 012022

Yesterday was Transgender Day of Visibility, often abbreviated as TDOV. My Women’s History short date was not picked to celebrate it, because i didn’t know or remember it, but it did just cross ay mind that she might have been trans. But she also might have been gender neutral, or neither of those. It was just a[n interesting] coincidence. Today, to make up for it, I am featuring a real-life transgendered person from history. Some of you may remember seeing or hearing about her during her lifetime. I do. At that tme transsexuality (as it was then called) did not have the entire religious right line up against it She was more or less accepted on her own merits – not that she was universally acclaimed, but she did enjoy notable successes. I’m proud to say that I was not brought up to think of trangender in any negative way – just as something that sometimes happens. BTW, I will have no April Fool’s pranks in either post today. Reality is prankish enough.

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Short Takes –

The 19th – What Transgender Day of Visibility means for trans Texans this year
Quote – Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV), celebrated annually on March 31, is a moment to celebrate the lives of trans people and to raise awareness of injustices they face. This year, it carries a special significance for some transgender Texans: Trans people still living in the state, as well as those who have moved away for school or work, told The 19th that they are thinking about how to use their own voices to uplift trans youth — and about what being visible ultimately means to them.
Click through for much more. Most straight people would benefit from a lot more analysis and contemplation of our own sexuality. Those who instead focus on others are wasting a lot of time and energy which could more profitably be ised to improve their lives. (Just my opinion.)

Colorado Public Radio – New Colorado law bans people from openly carrying firearms near voting locations
Quote – Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law on Wednesday that bans anyone in Colorado from openly carrying a firearm within 100 feet of a voting location, unless their property falls within that buffer…. It passed with no Republican backers, who argued it infringed on 2nd Amendment rights.
Click through for story. If “No electioneering within a hundred feet of the polls” doesn’t violate the First Amendment, then this doesn’t violate the Second. Ideally, all states should have this law on the books (not that there shouldn’t also bemoe voter protecton.)

Wikipedia – Christine Jorgensen
Quote – Jorgensen was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II. After her military service, she attended several schools and worked; it is during this time she learned about sex reassignment surgery and traveled to Europe, where in Copenhagen, Denmark, obtained special permission to undergo a series of operations beginning in 1952. She returned to the United States in the early 1950s and her transition was the subject of a New York Daily News front-page story. She became an instant celebrity, known for her directness and polished wit, and used the platform to advocate for transgender people. Jorgensen often lectured on the experience of being transgender and published an autobiography in 1967.
Click thrugh for details. There was much more to her life. People – most if not all – sometimes feel trapped. I don’t know how one could feel any more trapped, inside their own body, than a transgendered person, and particulrle in our current culture.

Food For Thought:

Video Thread 3/31/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:40 am Open Thread, Politics

Mar 312022

Glenn Kirschner – Federal Judge Finds, by a Preponderance of the Evidence, that Trump Committed Crimes Against the US

Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican PArty

MSNBC – Sen. Whitehouse: Three New Supreme Court Justices Being Told What To Do By Donor Front Groups

Robert Reich – The Oligarchy’s Ultimate Political Weapon

Al Franken – Critical Race Theory – An ACTUAL Explanation

Liberal Redneck – Trump’s January 6th Burner Phones

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump, a judge, DOJ, and a ruling…..

Open Thread March 31, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:22 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 312022

Yesterday, I made and got confirmed my reservation to see Virgil on April 10 – the first available Sunday, Sunday being the safest day of the week for driving. I also managed to get the recyclable and trash bins out to the curb for pickup tomorrow, which surprised me a little bet, because the previous day I had pushed my mobility limits. While I was doing that, the “neighborhood cat” came around and accepted a few salmon treats. He can be picky, so that was nice. He is definitely not starving, but I still try to figure out his likes and dislikes. Sadly, looking at my iris bed, it doesn’t look like my TomCat iris is coming back this year. In fact, it looks like I’ll only have one stem of Baboon ~~Butt~~ Blood (sorry – when that varietal came out it was named “Baboon Bottom” and I got into a bad habit with it). I may be able to recover the others, or soe of them, by separating and fertilizing, but it’s by no means certain, even if I can muster up the energy to do it, which is also doubtful.

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Short Takes –

Mother Jones – We All Know Teachers Are Underpaid. But Who Imagined It Was This Bad?
Quote – Perhaps most jarring of all was the teacher in California who said that, in order to support her family financially, she has become a surrogate mother. Twice. “I’m literally renting out my uterus to make ends meet,” she wrote.
Click through for stats and stories. This may be the most devastating thing Republicams have done to the United States. It may not grab headlines like an insurrection, but its effects are far more widespread and far more long lasting.

The Hill – Biden signs bill making lynching a federal hate crime
Quote – “Hundreds of similar bills have failed to pass. Over the years, several federal hate crime laws were enacted. … But no federal law — no federal law expressly prohibited lynching. None. Until today,” Biden said to applause.Biden noted that civil rights leaders and lawmakers have been working for more than 100 years to pass a bill making lynching a hate crime. The president called lynching a “uniquely American weapon of racial terror.
Click through for story. It’s about time.

Women’s History – Wikipedia – Milunka Savić
Quote – In 1912, her brother received call-up papers for mobilization for the First Balkan War. She chose to go in his place—cutting her hair and donning men’s clothes and joining the Serbian army. She quickly saw combat and received her first medal and was promoted to corporal in the Battle of Bregalnica. Engaged in battle, she sustained wounds and it was only then, when recovering from her injuries in hospital, that her true sex was revealed, much to the surprise of the attending physicians.
Click through. Please. I can’t possibly do justice to this feisty lady in one quote (if I had to try, it ought to be “I will wait.”

Food For Thought:

Video Thread 3/30/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:01 pm Open Thread, Politics

Mar 302022

Glenn Kirschner – Congress to Hold Navarro & Scavino in Contempt, Refer them to DOJ for Prosecution. Will DOJ Indict?

American Bridge – Fox News confronts Republican about GOP tax hike plan

Political Voices Network – John Fugelsang (on the Stephanie Miller Show with a guest host.)

Farron Balanced – Mo Brooks Says Trump STILL Asks Him To Overturn 2020 Election

Ojeda Live – Lindsay Graham’s SCOTUS Hearing Antics Through the Years

Service Dog Wasn’t Playful — Until He Met His Kitten Sister

Beau – Let’s talk about a question about gender….

Open Thread March 30, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:52 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 302022

Yesterday, I went to my doctor’s office to get the form filled out that the DMV gave me Mondey (of course after calling to see whether they could fit me in. Frankly I think they went out of their way for me. I do try not to be a Karen.) I took the form to the DMV and it worked like a charm. In fact, they offered, because my driver’s license was supposed to renew within 6 months anyway, to renew it for another five years. Of course I was thrilled. (I do try not to be a Karen.) Now all I have to do is make an appontment to visit Virgil – the earliest Sunday he is available is April 10th (and, frankly, I feel safest driving on Sunday) I know that because the visitation staff has gone out of their way to let me know what days he (his “pod”) is scheduled for. (I do try not to be a Karen.) So back to what passes for normal starting today. Yay!

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Short Takes –

Politico – CAWTHORN’S ORGY CLAIM FALLOUT
Quote – The first-term conservative said he received invitations along the lines of: “‘Well, hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get-together at one of our homes, you should come’.” The 26-year-old described his response on the podcast “Warrior Poet Society”: “I’m like, ‘What did you just ask me to come to?’ And then you realize they are asking you to come to an orgy.” Cawthorn also claimed to have seen other people who are “leading” efforts to eradicate drug addiction using cocaine in front of him.
Click through for story. I wouldn’t doubt the orgies, but I definitely doubt that anyone would invite Maddy. Unless they wanted to make him the goat (no, not the GOAT, just the goat, as in scape.)

PolitiZoom – REVEALED: Trump’s Last Official Call Jan 6 Was To Pence, Then A 7 Hour, 37 Minute Blackout On WH Logs. What’s Being Covered Up?
Quote – That immediately begs the question, what happened between the hours of 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. on January 6 and how was Trump communicating with people? He has already stated through a spokesman Monday night, “I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term.” Right. What’s being covered up? Seven hours is one whole lot of a longer time than the infamous 18-minutes of Watergate.
Click through for details. I thought “Shades of Nixon” – but at 7:37 Trump makes Nixon’s 0:18 and a half look like Amateur Hour.

The National WWII Museum – Sophie Scholl and the White Rose
Quote – Within the United States, Sophie Magdalena Scholl is not the best-known resistance fighter, but her story is a powerful one. She was a key member of the Weiße Rose (White Rose)—a resistance group run by students at the University of Munich who distributed leaflets and used graffiti to decry Nazi crimes and the political system, while calling for resistance to the Nazi state and the war. On February 22, 1943, she was beheaded for treason at just 21 years old.
Click through for full details. If you hear someone allude to the “White Rose” (or the “White Rose Society”), this is what they are talking about. Beau does occasionally (he also has a Tshirt with a white rose, so he can allude to it without saying it.)

Food For Thought:
The video this quote is from will be on the Video Thread tomorrow. But this is so succinct I just wanted to meme it.

Video Thread 3/29/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:45 am Open Thread, Politics

Mar 292022

Glenn Kirschner – Ginni Thomas’s Pipeline to the White House, a Compromised Supreme Court and the Coming Subpoenas

Thom Hartmann – Did Tulsi Gabbard Just Expose Herself? (I won’t say “I told you so” because I don’t remember whether I ever voiced my doubts. I do, however, remember that I had them.

MSNBC (h/t Colleen) – Ali Velshi – When Biden Said Putin ‘Cannot Remain In Power’, He Was Right. And He Should Stick To It [IMO ali is 100% correct morally, and 100% wrong strategically. Blinken’s “clarification was in order to save all of our lives.]

ELTA Sports – The narration is in Chinese but the song is mostly in English (some Ukrainian) and this seems to be the only video wih the complete performance, the full staning ovation, and some slomo closeups at the end. (background here)