Open Thread for June 11, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 112021
 

Turns out I wouldn’t have needed to be home today – but I will tomorrow. I wish i could (honestly) say I got a lot done. But I didn’t. I didn’t even succeed in gtting used to the heat we are finally starting to have. However, I do welcome it, after what seemed like a forever winter. I did get some bills paid on line, which is always satisfying, so there’s that.

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Short Takes

The Conversation – Supreme Court affirms tribal police authority over non-Indians. If I have addressed this beforeI apologize for the duplication – but isn’t it nice to see something positive come out of thei Supreme Court – and with a 9-0 ruling, yet!
Quote: Federal Indian law attorneys feared that a Supreme Court decision limiting tribal policing authority would further undermine the safety of Indians and non-Indians living in Indian country. They worried such a ruling could hamstring the ability of tribal police to detain and search potential criminals.
Click through for more background.  We know that Breyer (who wrote the opinion), Kagan, Sotomayor, and, surprisingly even to me, Gorsuch are dependable supporters of Native Americans’ rights. But this case did not hang on finding a fifth justice to vote the right way. It was decided unanimously. Amazing.

Wonkette – Hey, Look, Some Of Barack Obama’s Judicial Nominees Finally Got Confirmed! They’ve been waiting a long time. And so have we, for them.
Quote: I wish Democrats had hammered Republicans on their obstruction from the personal level. We should’ve known the names of every nominee McConnell blocked. It should’ve become a political liability for every Republican senator from the nominee’s state.
Click through for more story. Hey, Joe, there are lots more where those came from.

Daily Beast (opinion) Fire the IRS Chief Who Doesn’t Care if the Rich Don’t Pay
Quote: Within hours of ProPublica’s blockbuster report showing just how little America’s 25 wealthiest people pay in taxes, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig announced an investigation, which, of course, is what great journalism into a scandal is supposed to generate: a renewed commitment by senior government officials to fix an obvious scandal. But Rettig wasn’t looking into how broken the tax system is in favor of the wealthy, but rather about who leaked the documents proving that to the press, stating that he intended to prosecute the whistleblower if the investigation found the records were distributed illegally.
Click through fpr more thoughts.

Food for Thought:

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Video Thread 6/10/21

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 102021
 

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ Announces it will Defend Donald Trump in Defamation Lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll this week is turning into a workshop on how decent people express anger. Glenn makes his voice into silk dripping with sarcasm.

Meidas Touch – with Stuart Stevens

The Lincoln Project – The Line

BARF BAG ALERT! Campaign “ad” from Lauren Boebert. Yecccch!

Liberal Redneck on Manchin

Now This News – Magawa the Landmine-Sniffing Rat is Retiring a Hero (Just a little break. There are actually maany of these rats and the lives they have saved, and are saving, are priceless.)

Beau – What National Security REALLY needs

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Open Thread for June 10, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 102021
 

Well, I have a new battery. He was right on time, and it only took about a quarter hour.  Without going into too much detail. I need to be home the next two days, so I’ll make a vax appointment for Saturday, Sunday, or Mondey. And I will let y’all know how it goes.

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Short Takes

Common Dreams – ‘Biggest Tax Story of the Year, If Not the Decade’: Analysis Shows Just How Little Richest .001% Pay in Taxes
I was running out of video space for today, so instead of including Thom Hartmann, I am including here this article he cited.
Quote: ProPublica makes clear that, far from being the beneficiaries of a sprawling, illegal tax dodging scheme, “it turns out billionaires don’t have to evade taxes exotically and illicitly—they can avoid them routinely and legally,” a point that spotlights the systemic inequities of the U.S. tax system. [emphasis mine]
There is a legal distinction between tax avoidance and tax evasion. But to my mind, there’s not much of a moral distinction. Click through for the full article, and if you are really interested, through again from there to the full report.

Politico – Yesterday was a very busy day, so frankly, I have only skimmed this myself. But so much I have been featuring, here and in videos, skirts around this topic, I thought it would be well to bring it to the fore.
Quote: During a Senate budget hearing, Garland said he was aware of the controversy triggered by the Justice Department’s actions defending Trump in a civil suit and seeking to maintain secrecy around memos sent to former Attorney General William Barr as he responded to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Click through for more.

Wonkette – Ohio Kooks Think COVID-19 Vaccine Will Give You Freaky Magnetic Powers Like That’s A Bad Thing .  As a person who often drops small metal parts, like beads and findings, I would love for this to be true. Sadly, no.
Quote (in Wonkette’s unique style): Ooh, boy, so the usual gang of idiots are promoting a conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 vaccine contains microchips or other metals that the government uses to track Americans. It’s like a 25-year-old plot from the “X-Files,” and Agent Scully was clued into the government’s diabolical scheme after the metal detector at the FBI picked up the chip in her neck. Yes, because the shadowy government conspiracy never imagined that a person might someday walk through a goddamn metal detector.
Click through for some details and more giggles.

Food for Thought:

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Video Thread 6/9/21

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 092021
 

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ Holds Press Conference on Colonial Pipeline Case – Remains Silent on Insurrection Investigation (Glenn’s frustration is showing – not least in that he [I assume accidentally] allowed his ending to also start this video.)

Meidas touch – We saw this ad when it posted to their YouTube channel – I of course included it in this thread at the time. Now push has come to shove.

The Lincoln Project – Trump’s North Carolina Speech In 70 Seconds

Lakota Peoples Law – latset DAPL decision (not good)

Jim Acosta – Mar-a-Lagoville. He does have a way with words.

Rob Rogers – Race Massacres

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump running for the House and the speaker’s bargain….

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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.

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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:

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Hi all

 Posted by at 10:41 pm  Politics
Jun 082021
 

Hello everyone,

Sorry for my absence – I have been trying to keep my head above water in dealing with all this.  Trying to work, navigate legal issues, deal with my household, my elderly mother, an upcoming trip, etc…….. Needless to say, it has been a balancing act.

It was Tom’s wishes that I have a video memorial in his honor so that we all had a chance to say good-bye – I would like to do that when “he can join us”.  Apparently, getting him cremated and getting his remains has not been an easy task.  The legal paperwork I sent in giving me permission to make decision upon his death is currently being reviewed by their “legal department”.  Once that is complete, they will contact me to make further arrangements.  Who knew it would be so hard to get someone’s remains?  I will keep you all posted.

I have a vacation scheduled to Florida at the end of this month.  I really would like to have all this handled by the time I leave so that I may use my time away to “rejuvenate” my weary soul.

I am currently trying to deal with my mother as well.  She is 85 and has some severe mobility issues.  She should not live on her own anymore.  I either need to put her house up for sale and find a suitable retirement home for her or find someone that can live with her and help care for her.  She is not liking either option basically because she doesn’t want to part with any money.  I am unable to live with her and provide her full-time care (for many, many, many reasons) -I know that seems strange since you all know me as a caregiver, but it just isn’t something that can be done right now.  Needless to say, somedays it feels as if everything is happening at once.
Please know that my thoughts are with you all – I will keep you all posted.

Thank you for your patience,

Wendy

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Video Thread 6/8/21

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 082021
 

Glenn Kirschner – a recap of May

Don WInslow Films – Well, he nails Sinema, but I’d rather have her than a Republican 9and no, she isn’t one – she [and Manchin] both vote with the Democratic caucus more often than not. Sadly, the “not” votes are generally more visible.)

The Republican Accountability Project – a coule of weeks old, but aged well – too well.

Ring of Fire – Mo Brooks

RebelHQ – DANGEROUS Trump Speech You Can’t Ignore – good analysis of the need to cover garbage pople who are also dangerous

Beau – I’ve seen him upset before – but not this upset. (And with good reason.)

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