Open Thread for November 4, 2021

 Posted by at 7:12 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 042021
 

Yesterday, I overslept a biy – still tired from the day before. So I kind of took my time – and worked some on a new portrait doll. Otherwise, a quiet day.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Florida Trio Accused of Smuggling Guns to ‘400 Mawozo’ Gang in Haiti
Quote – Three Florida residents are facing federal charges for allegedly smuggling firearms from South Florida to leaders of Haiti’s notorious 400 Mawozo gang, recently accused of kidnapping at least 17 American and Canadian missionaries last month near Port-au-Prince.
Click through for the exact charges. Who did they think they were, the CIA?

Law & Crime – Woman Pointed Gun at 7-Year-Old Child Who Was Trick-or-Treating: Deputies
Quote – According to authorities, Bradford was yelling at nearby trick-or-treaters. Deputies did not explain how this escalated to her pointing a gun at the 7-year-old, or specify why she was mad in the first place, but that is what they alleged she did.
Click through for mugshot. There’s not much detail but the quote was so Dunning-Kruger I couldn’t resist.

Crooks and Liars – Everyone Is Watching Sir David Attenborough Today And You Should Too
Quote – The problem often feels too big for one person to understand, let alone make a difference in solving it. But Sir David Attenborough makes it EASY to understand…. I watched it this morning and feel BETTER and better informed on the topic of climate change than I ever have before. I hope you do, too.
Click through for video and full accurate transcript. We really need this.

Food for Thought –

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Open Thread for November 3, 2021

 Posted by at 6:48 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 032021
 

Yesterday, my grocery delivery came – including not only substitutions but missing items. I have no idea what I was actually charged for. They have a feedback option, but you can’t make any personal comments – and you can report missing items, or you can report substitutions, but not both. Fortunately there is a “contact us” form on the website. These people do not seem to be aware that if they substitute something I am allergic to for something I ordered, and I have a serious reaction, they would be legally liable for damages. I sugeested they speak with their lawyer. (And I never place a food ordeer without finding and checking or unchecking, however it’s worded, the appropriate box to specify “no substitutions.” Even if that requires multiple browsers.) Grrrr. OK, end of rant today.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – QAnon Voting Clerk Suspected Of Stealing Voting Equipment
Quote – That prompted Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to revoke Scott’s ability to run the upcoming election, putting Hillsdale County Clerk Marney Kast, a fellow Republican, in her place. But when Kast and her team arrived in Adams Township to inspect the voting equipment, they found a surprise. During the inspection, officials discovered that the voting machine’s tablet—a key part of its operations—was gone. Michigan State Police launched an investigation Thursday to uncover who took the tablet.
Click through – We had one in Colorado who has been stripped of her powers regarding elections (best we can do, she was elected). Now Michigan has one. How many more?

New York Times – Florida Bars State Professors From Testifying in Voting Rights Case
Quote – Three University of Florida professors have been barred from assisting plaintiffs in a lawsuit to overturn the state’s new law restricting voting rights, lawyers said in a federal court filing on Friday. The ban is an extraordinary limit on speech that raises questions of academic freedom and First Amendment rights. University officials told the three that because the school was a state institution, participating in a lawsuit against the state “is adverse to U.F.’s interests” and could not be permitted.
Click through for full story. Should you want to share, don’t cut the URL – it’s in all that garbage that thr NYT knows it’s been paid for – by a subscriber who also posts on DU.

The Daily Beast – Jan. 6 Organizers Are Raking It In With Trump and GOP Groups
Quote – A review of public financial disclosures shows that multiple entities involved in the Jan. 6 rallies have continued to rake it in after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, with various Republicans and GOP groups continuing to give these entities business even as investigators look into their roles with the insurrection. Public records also show a number of curious payments on and around Jan. 6—including more than $25,000 in advertising that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) paid to right-wing social media platform Parler, with one transaction on the day of the riot.
Click through for details. Follow the money.

Food for Thought –

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Open Thread for November 2, 2021

 Posted by at 7:16 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 022021
 

Yesterday, I finally felt rested.  I looked at some catalogs – one was the company whose catalog helped save my vision Saturday – I figured I owed them a look.  One was a yarn/needlecraft supply company. I also placed a grocery delivery order for today.  So there may be gaps in my responding to your comments (which I am the only one who will notice, most likely.).

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Guardian – Republican Adam Kinzinger: I’ll fight Trumpism ‘cancer’ outside Congress
Quote – But he said a stronger push to retire had come from the direction of his party under Trump. “It’s sitting back and saying, ‘OK, what happens if I win again? I go back, probably Republicans will probably be in the majority. I’m going to be fighting even harder … and I haven’t seen any momentum in the party to move away from lies and towards truth.”
Click through. This is a pity, and if it lets a Trumpublican into Congress, t’s more than a pity. But at least he is not going away completely.

Democratic Underground – Matt Gaetz talks about blowing up the metal detectors in the House with Tannerite or C4
Quote – [Matt Gaetz Tweet] If you can’t fantasize about blowing up useless metal detectors with @laurenboebert at a Florida Halloween political rally for @AnthonySabatini, when can you?
Click through for more info on tannerite and C4.  Hey, Matt – how about “NEVER!!”?

Talking Points Memo – The Most Damning Jan 6th Revelation Yet
Quote – As I have noted in other recent posts, much of the recent ‘news’ about the insurrection has not been terribly new. It’s repackaged versions of things we knew or additional evidence and detail. This story published last night in the Post is one of the biggest revelations I’ve seen to date. John Eastman is the Federalist Society right wing law professor who wrote up the legal gloss for the President’s coup plot. It created the connective tissue joining the coup plot within the government with the paramilitary violence that broke out on Capitol Hill on January 6th.
Click through for details. It’s not surprising – it’s not all that much farther down the rabbit hole – but it does come with “receipts.”

Food for Thought –

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Open Thread for November 1, 2021

 Posted by at 7:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 012021
 

Yesterday was the first day of COP-26. Having been to a conference or two in my life, I am assuming that means today is the first full day of it. So I am trying to feature climate. You may have noticed we all are. Speaking of which, it was overcast and wet here. Since it was, and it’s expected to stay wet for at least a few days, I pushed myself to go out and put down some iris food. And to being the trash/recyclable carts to where they live. And to deal with the mail from the car and the mailbox (most of which went straight to recycle.) Incidentally it was also cold with a high of 36°F.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Toni Morrison’s 1998 Interview Speaks To ‘GOP Mom’
Quote – Youngkin tweeted a campaign video on Monday that featured the outrage of Laura Murphy, a white mom who years earlier tried to get Morrison’s classic novel, Beloved, banned from her son’s Advanced Placement English curriculum.
Click through – in case you mised Youngkin’s incendiary Tweet (recalling the infamous “Willie Horton” ad), it’s there. Sigh.

Reuters – G20 offers little new on climate, leaving uphill task for COP26
Quote – Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who chaired the Rome gathering, hailed the final accord, saying that for the first time all G20 states had agreed on the importance of capping global warming at the 1.5 degrees Celsius level that scientists say is vital to avoid disaster. “We made sure that our dreams are not only alive but they are progressing,” Draghi told a closing news conference, brushing off criticism from environmentalists that the G20 had not gone nearly far enough to resolve the crisis.
Click through for details.

AP News – ‘Last, best hope:’ Leaders launch crucial UN climate summit
Quote – Government leaders face two choices in Glasgow, Patricia Espinosa, head of the U.N. climate office, declared at the summit’s opening: They can sharply cut greenhouse gas emissions and help communities and countries survive what is becoming a hotter, harsher world, Espinosa said. “Or we accept that humanity faces a bleak future on this planet. It is for these reasons and more that we must make progress here in Glasgow. We must make it a success.”
Click through for more. If only today’s lead (right after Glenn) video would come true.)

Food for Thought –

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Open Thread for October 31, 2021

 Posted by at 6:39 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 312021
 

Yesterday, I saw Virgil, and we had a good visit. I left about a half hour before closing, being concerned about the light. This was probably the last time until March I will be able to stay even close to the full time allowed – within two weeks we will be back on Standard time, and I will be checking the online almanac every visit, aiming to depart between 2 and 2 and a half hours before sunset – whatever it is that day. I can manage driving in what they call “civil twilight,” but what they call “nautical twilight” is too dark for me to feel safe.However, even for a while before the Solstice, sunset starts getting a littl later each day insead of a little earlier, and after the solstice for a while sunrise heeps getting later – giving sunset a boost on being later. So that will help. I can’t really plan departure times ahead – I just need to check every time I visit. I already said in a quick comment that Virgil returns all greeting with thanks, but I don’t think it will hurt to repeat it.

Cartoon – Scary enough for ya?)

Short Takes –

Huff Post – Buckingham Palace: Queen Elizabeth Should ‘Rest For At Least The Next Two Weeks’
Quote – The monarch returned to work ― albeit virtually ― on Tuesday, and took part in her first scheduled engagements since hosting a reception for the Global Investment Summit at Windsor Castle on Oct. 19. But later that day, Buckingham Palace announced that the queen wouldn’t attend a reception for the United Nations climate change conference, called COP26, in Glasgow on Nov. 1. The palace said that she would instead pre-record a video message for attendees.
Click through if you care to. I care because I’m a long-ish married person myself (about half as long as she was, but I started later.) I startted to worry about her when I heard of Philip’s death. Of course, the fact that she has a very imposrtant (and very visible) job complicates things. She is married to the nation also.

Democratic Underground – Biden, other G-20 world leaders formally endorse groundbreaking global corporate minimum tax
Quote – President Biden and the other national leaders gathered for the Group of 20 summit formally endorsed a new global minimum tax on Saturday, capping months of negotiations over the groundbreaking tax accord. The new global minimum tax of 15 percent aims to reverse the decades-long decline in tax rates on corporations across the world, a trend experts say has deprived governments of revenue to fund social spending programs.
Click through – it’s a combination of a Washington Post article and a Reuters article. Nice of BumRushDaShow to post them together for us.

Truthout – Minneapolis Set to Vote on Dissolving Police Department
Quote – Currently, state law requires licensed police officers to perform certain duties, and the charter amendment would not change current labor contracts with police, according to a city memo. Still, Question 2 could allow Minneapolis to replace police with other public safety professionals over time and reinvest resources back into neighborhoods, a process [Sheila] Nezhad [a mayoral candidate] said must involve high levels of community input.
Click through for story. Truthout can be crazy radical, but this appears to be straight reporting, not opinion, just information on a race worth watching.

Food for Thought –

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Open Thread for October 30, 2021

 Posted by at 7:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 302021
 

Yesterday, I essentially got ready for today. That didn’t leave much time free. By the time this posts, I’ll be on the road, and by the tie the video thread posts, I’ll be in the middle of my visit. See you all when I get back.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Pattern Of Democratic Clean-up On Aisle Republican Deficit Continues
Quote – Now we have the Biden economy doing what Trump had promised, but without having reversed any of the Trump tax cuts (yet). Just think how much better off our national finances could be if at least certain Democrats (cough, Sens. Manchin and Sinema, cough) would acknowledge that and help the president take the obvious next steps.
Click through for column. It’s short but meaty.

Mother Jones – The Owners of the Democrats’ Big Data Firm Have a Side Gig: Working to Elect Far-Right Republicans
Quote – The involvement of TargetSmart’s owners in electing right-wing Republicans has remained unknown among the political professionals within Democratic and progressive campaign circles. Informed about this, a former technology specialist for the Democrats says, “This is not a good look for TargetSmart.” And a union official notes, “This is pretty damning…In the world [TargetSmart] occupies, it couldn’t be much worse. A lot of Democratic consulting firms do work for corporations that don’t always support Democrats or progressives. But to have a sister company working on behalf of Republicans is not good for its standing.”
Click through for full story. Sadly, the cold fact is that big successful businesses and Republicans go together We all would be better off to stay aware of thet.

The Revelator (Center for Biological Diversity) – A Nose for Science: Conservation Dogs May Help in Search for Endangered Franklin’s Bumblebee
Quote – The quest to save a rare pollinator from extinction has just gained an unlikely ally: a mutt named Filson. A six-year-old Australian cattle dog mix with black and tan fur and oversized ears, Filson will soon join the mission to find the endangered Franklin’s bumblebee (Bombus franklini). The fuzzy pollinator, which no one has observed in 15 years, became a federally protected species this summer.
Click through for more, and not just bees. This really is exciting for anyone who realizes how connected we all are.

Food for Thought –

Bonus – a comment from the Wonkette newsletter:
A Journey Of One Thousand Miles Begins With A Single Baby Step. And we really do have a thousand miles to go when it comes to fixing America’s infrastructure, and this bill that was going to be a giant stride forward is ending up to be just one step. But it is a step, in the right direction for once. And we should embrace that, and own that, and harken back to a time when all the steps were backwards, into authoritarian nativism, which really wasn’t all that long ago.

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Open Thread for October 29, 2021

 Posted by at 7:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 292021
 

Yesterday, I finished a couple more cartoons for November. I admit they all look alike … but mostly there are others separating them which don’t. I looked at the weather and the almanac and learned I can get away with staying the full visitation time, but may have to pull off the road a bit at one point to adjust my visor. (The next visit will be on Standard time, and I will have to watch the almanac very carefully inded to know how early I need to leave. Staying over is becoming too much for me, especially since doing so no longer gives me an extra day to visit.)  I have ordered a visor clip, but I won’t have it for tomorrow, and may not have it for the next visit either.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Wonkette – TN State Senator Indicted For Hilarious Campaign Finance Hijinks
Quote – Naturally, the “social club” run by Defendant Smith has a PAC, as all your better single-outlet eating establishments do. (LOL, wut?) And according to the indictment, the defendants used this PAC to move $106,000 from Kelsey’s state campaign coffers to support his 2016 run for the US House — an illegal use of so called “soft money” because the state campaign donations are not subject to federal campaign finance limits. So to disguise the transfer, these two geniuses moved the cash from Kelsey’s state campaign to the “social club” PAC, and thence on through one more PAC until it wound up at the American Conservative Union, which immediately dropped $80,000 on radio ads endorsing Kelsey’s federal campaign.
Click through for full description of indictment (plus a link to the real thing.) Enjoy this story. The next two are scary.

Mother Jones – How Do People Join Militias? A Leaked Oath Keepers Roster Has Answers.
Quote – Some of the explanations offered in the database are absurd: “Old man in Jarome, AZ at a little bar rocking some reggae,” reads one. Others are concerning: “An ICE agent,” another says. Some are both: “Funny story, I stopped a speeding truck driver, who had your decal on the side of his truck, I asked about it, he went on and on, I said, Damn I’m all about this. looked up online and here I am. I’m a poor broke cop. But, I’m TRUE BLUE/ AMERICAN,” reads an accounting from an Illinois-based police officer.
Click through for story. How can a nation protect itself against this?

Pro Publica – A Union Scandal Landed Hundreds of NYPD Officers on a Secret Watchlist. That Hasn’t Stopped Some From Jeopardizing Cases.
Quote – The list was created a decade ago amid a sprawling investigation into the city’s biggest police union and its role in helping officers “fix” tickets issued to family and friends for speeding, illegal parking and other traffic offenses. It grew to 664 names and was intended to help prosecutors vet cases that might rest too heavily on officers whose ties to the scandal could raise questions about their conduct and credibility. Ten years after it was first created, the No Fly List itself remains secret by judicial seal.
Click Through for discouraging details The Department has roughly 36,000 officers, and the list has 664. That doesn’t sound like a lot … but it’s still way too many. ONE would be too many.

Food for Thought –

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Open Thread for October 28, 2021

 Posted by at 7:27 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 282021
 

Yesterday, I figured I couldn’t wait any longer, and started looking for cartoons to re-use for November. To be pellucidly clear, I started, randomly, in 2013, and have just stayed with that year, and my plan is to move up thrugh time, re-using when possible, and coming up with something new if the one for a particular day is hopelessly dated (for example, there’s one about Harry Reid’s balls.) It looks like I’ll need to come up with 6 new ones in November, and three of them are in the first teo weeks. So I stated looking at history. I found events for all 6 of them. I made the first one and found pictures for the next two before I ran short on time. But that’s a good start.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The New Yorker (Borowitz Report) – Trump Tells January 6th Panel He Has Diplomatic Immunity as Russian Official
Quote – While Trump waits to see if his claim of diplomatic immunity succeeds, he is also prepared to argue that, having once hired Rudolph Giuliani as his attorney, he would be justified in pleading insanity.
Click through. Good luck with that. (BTW, unlike many of Andy’s reports, this one is clearly satire. For it to be straight news, Trump** would have to have told the truth, and that’s imposssible.)

Oh Sh*t, Dallas Teacher Did A Critical Race Theory To The Texas Wingnuts!
Quote – There’s not the slightest hint of CRT in having students read and analyze a text; if the lesson was supposed to “indoctrinate” the students, it didn’t work, since if anything I think the kid goes a little too easy on Cato’s methods, and doesn’t seem especially bothered that the email urges district employees to report on each other — then again, that’s a common enough method of enforcing discipline among students, so perhaps the kid doesn’t know just how creepy the tactic is.
Click through for details. It would be great if this teacher could be cloned and placed in every high school in t America. Teaching critical thinking skills “has not been tried and found wanting, but has been found difficult and left untried” (G. K. Chesterton) for a long time. This shows it can be done. I particularly like SPACECATS.

How commercialization over the centuries transformed the Day of the Dead
Quote – In 2019, I talked to a grandmother building a Day of the Dead ofrenda, an altar with offerings for her family’s dearly departed that included candles, food, flowers, and festive decorations. For years she’d tried to get her grandchildren to help her erect the altar for their ancestors, to no avail. It wasn’t until they watched Disney’s “Coco” and saw sugar skulls at Target that they took interest in the holiday. Now they eagerly help their grandmother build the altar. Commercialization is and has been transforming Day of the Dead. But, from what I’ve seen, it’s also giving a new generation a chance to be proud of their culture.
Click through for story. It’s a good point. Also, a pet peeve pf mine is that people criticizing advertising for a holiday too early don’t cut purveyors of craft materials and supplies any slack. If I am going to make a hiliday gift, a week before is not enough time. If I am making several, so much more so. There are 99 (at least) things to criticize Hobby Lobby about, but advertising Christmas too early is not one of them.

Signature-worthy IMO:
Bill Pascrell and Elizabeth Warren are looking for co-sponsors to nail Trump** et al.
https://action.billpascrell.com/crimes/?source=211026_bp_crimes_b1&link_id=1&can_id=dd94559fa9486ce8a4824766af6a024f&email_referrer=email_1336070&email_subject=will-you-sign-on-as-an-official-citizen-cosponsor-of-my-political-crimes-act-with-sen-warren-to-hold-donald-trump-accountable
I can’t shorten it or it won’t get you there, sorry. After you sign you’ll be asked for a contribution but it isn’t necessary.

Food for Thought –

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