Open Thread April 15, 2023

 Posted by at 7:13 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 152023
 

Yesterday, as you may already know (but if not will be happy to learn) the Supreme Court told the crazy judge in Texas that he cannot tell the FDA what to do with their special professional knowledge. This is only a temporary stay … but it was written by Alito, which to me looks promising. In other news, it snowed in Denver. It hadn’t here yet, but by today it’s supposed to. It’s not a weekend that I need to go anywhere, so I may not pay attention.

Cartoon –

Actually we have till the 18th this year (and I really don’t regard the IRS the way TC did)

Short Takes –

Daily Beast – Moms for Liberty Leader Allegedly Hijacked Dead Woman’s Facebook Page to Harass Foes
Quote – Pennsylvania mom Libby Leonard had been dead for a year and a half when her Facebook page began attacking another mother. “EVERYONE…Say Hi to a real DUMB worst word you can call a woman (because she earned it),” the March 14 post begins. “Can’t wait for her to meet her KARMA…It’s already beginning, but until then I think a taste of her own medicine is amusing. However, I will be sharing legally and EVERYWHERE.” Of course Libby didn’t write this. She was stabbed to death by her children’s babysitter in 2021. Instead, the post appears to have been authored by Nicole Prussman, a local leader of the right-wing group “Moms for Liberty” who had inserted herself in Libby’s life and marriage before her tragic demise.
Click through for story. Why is it that when Republicans (and American “Libertarians”) talk about “Liberty” and/or “Freedom,” they always mean taking away someone else’s?

Sentinel – BACK IN THE SADDLE: Second Chance bikes rides again
Quote – The redevelopment of Aurora’s East Bank Shopping Center had forced the nonprofit project to relocate, but at the time of his passing, Ernie was struggling to find a new spot for the shop that offered free bikes to children, homeless people and others in need. After Ernie’s death, [his daughter] Betty told the Sentinel how she promised her father that she would help carry on his legacy “come hell or high water.” Now, she’s making good on her promise and says Second Chance is gearing up to reopen out of a new storefront in Centennial.
Click through for more. Not the biggest story in the world, but a feel-good one to offset that first one.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread April 14, 2023

 Posted by at 6:51 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 142023
 

Yesterday, a new transaction came out in the Clarence Thomas scandal. Harlan Crow purchsed some property from Thomas. Per ProPublica – “The sale netted the GOP megadonor two vacant lots and the house where Thomas’ mother was living.” You’ve heard the expression “He’d sell his own mother…” Well, here’s someone who actually did. That sale made her a tenant of Harlan Crow.  Apparently Crow remodeled and repaired the place – butshe is still his tenant (assuming she’s still alive) and therefore owes him rent shold he decide to demand any.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Daily Beast – How Ron DeSantis Is Taking a Page Out of Nixon’s Playbook
Quote – [Steven] Jarvis, who has tracked disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories as an off-duty hobby since the 2016 election, said he’s developed a thick skin. But seeing pro-DeSantis accounts, and other apparent bot networks, accusing him of being a pedophile—and posting details of his marriage that could only have been gleaned from direct messages on Facebook, Jarvis said—shattered the barrier between his compartmentalized worlds. It wasn’t an isolated incident. For some who criticize the Florida governor and likely 2024 presidential candidate, a pattern appears to be emerging: attack DeSantis publicly, and risk your personal information posted online by pro-DeSantis accounts.
Click through for specifics. Just what I would expect from a man who laughs at his murder victims as they are dying.

The Bulwark – Jim Jordan Takes His Clown Show on the Road
Quote – Now Jordan has announced that he’s packing up the tent and hitting the road: Next week, the committee will be taking a taxpayer-funded field trip to New York. Why New York? To go after Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, whom Donald Trump, in his patented racist style, has called an “animal” and about whom Trump has screeched that “THE DEMOCRATS HAVE TOTALLY WEAPONIZED LAW ENFORCEMENT IN OUR COUNTRY . . . TO INTERFERE WITH OUR ALREADY UNDER SIEGE ELECTIONS!”
Click through for details. Maybe he’ll do somethiing illegal and get arrested We can hope.

Food For Thought

The Law, paking ticket, Trump indictment, arraignment, history, NYPD, political cartoon

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Video Thread 4/13/23

 Posted by at 11:57 am  Open Thread, Politics
Apr 132023
 

Glenn Kirschner – NY DA Alvin Bragg SUES Jim Jordan to force him to stop obstructing prosecution of defendant Trump

The Lincoln Project – President Fraud

Farron Balanced – Jim Jordan Just Made The Biggest Mistake Of His Career (My take on Pomerantz is the same. Jordan? I don’t know. His capacities for screwing up appear limitless.)

Robert Reich – Why Are There Fees on Everything?

Golden Retriever Picks Apples For His Bunny BFF

Beau – Let’s talk about reactions to the Justice Thomas news….

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Open Thread April 12, 2023

 Posted by at 7:13 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 122023
 

Yesterday, In The Public Interest (ITPI – a group which opposes any privatization of anything which ought to be a pure government function) reported that in two red states, Kansas and Texas, the legislatures had defeated measures which would in some way privatize public schooling. This is welcome news. Still, I can’t get the thought out of my head that one motivator for taking this the action at this time was the desire to keep tight state control over what children are allowed to learn. In his play, “Murder in the Cathedral,” which dramaizes the death of Thomas Beckett, T. S. Eliot wrote the line “The last temptation is the greatest treason:/ To do the right ting for the wrong reason.” I’m not sure that is 100% true, but there is truth in it.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Robert Reich – Is the GOP becoming the American fascist party?
Quote – We are witnessing the logical culmination of win-at-any-cost Trump Republican politics — scorched-earth tactics used by Republicans to entrench their power, with no justification other than that they can. Democracy is about means. Under it, citizens don’t have to agree on ends (abortion, health care, guns, or whatever else we disagree about) as long as we agree on democratic means for handling our disagreements. But for Trump Republicans, the ends justify whatever means they choose —including expelling lawmakers, rigging elections through gerrymandering, refusing to raise the debt ceiling, and denying the outcome of a legitimate presidential election.
Click through for article.  Yeah, I know, the question answers itself. But he puts the evidence together nicely and neatly. Including the distinction between ends v. means, which is as important as the distinction between left and right v. up and down.

Raw Story – Lauren Boebert accused of ‘coverup’ after son’s car accident
Quote – Noble D’Amato, a 19-year-old friend of Rep. Lauren Boebert’s son Tyler, has accused the Republican congresswoman of covering up details of a vehicle crash that left him injured. D’Amato told Denver news site Westword that he was riding shotgun with Boebert’s son on September 17 when Tyler flipped the SUV he was driving. D’Amato suffered “multiple concussions and a severely lacerated hand.” “I still have problems with my hand,” D’Amato told the site. “My thumb almost got cut off. It prevented me from getting a welding job, because I can’t hold a TIG torch anymore. I’m a personal-care provider now.”
Click through for details. It used to be a truism that “It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup.” I’m afraid, for today’s Republican fascists, neither matters much, if at all. I’d love to be wrong in this case, as the kid appears to deserves justice.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 4/7/2023

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Apr 072023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Defendant Trump arraigned on 34 FELONY CHARGES! And it looks like he has co-conspirators.

MSNBC – Lawrence: Presumption of Trump’s innocence ‘only applies in the courtroom’

Farron Balanced – Trump Ignores Judges Order And Starts Attacking His Entire Family

Brent Terhune – DONT LOCK HIM UP

Puppy Won’t Let Senior Rescue Dog Sleep Alone

Beau – Let’s talk about SECDEF vs Republicans….

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Open Thread April 7, 2023

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 072023
 

Yesterday, I got a late start and was coming from behind. I did succeed in pretty well catching up, which is a good thing, since I’m to see Virgil on Easter. And I just make too many mistakes when I’m feeling frazzled. Incidentally, happy anniversary to Pat B. today – she may or may not be here, since she’s going out to lunch, but I trust she’ll see it eventually.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Mother Jones – Mining Giant Is One Court Ruling Away From Destroying an Apache Holy Site
Quote – For nearly a decade, tribal leaders in Arizona have fought to save Oak Flat—a sacred site central to the religious practices of the San Carlos Apache and other Indigenous nations connected to the area. Now, the site’s fate rests with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, who is weighing whether mining copper in the area, and effectively destroying the site, violates the religious rights of local Indigenous peoples…. Oak Flat has been used as a religious site to connect Indigenous peoples to their Creator, faith, families and natural world since before colonization and European contact, said Wendsler Nosie, the former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and the head of Apache Stronghold to the Arizona Republic.
Click through for details. This makes me want to spread rumors that there is far more copper – inconceivable quantities of copper – and maybe gold and uranium – under the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem – or Saint Peter’s in Rome – or the black stone (the Kaaba) in Mecca – or the Buddha in Kamakura – and see how mining interests react.  If they wouldn’t touch those, their disgusting hypocrisy would be evident – but – if they would – their lives could be endangered.

ProPublica – Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire
Quote – For more than two decades, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them, documents and interviews show. A public servant who has a salary of $285,000, he has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. He flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas. And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks. The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Click through for story. I would expect MAGAts to be so outraged that so many goodies went to one of THOSE people that there would be some public outcry – maybe even violence – on account of this knowledge. On the other hand, maybe Fox can see that too and will not allow them to find out. Or maybe they are so far gone they won’t care.

Food For Thought

 

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Video Thread 4/5/2023

 Posted by at 11:57 am  Open Thread, Politics
Apr 052023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Will judge impose gag order to stop defendant Trump’s lies, threats & inciting imminent lawlessness?

MSNBC – SCOTUS under new ethics rule thanks to Sen. Whitehouse

Ring of Fire – Elise Stefanik Promised Trump That House GOP Would Handle Alvin Bragg (I’m with Farron)

Six13 – The Prince of Egypt (for Passover CE 2023)

Pittie Is Obsessed With Her New Cinderella Carriage

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump, political reactions, and personal opinions….

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Open Thread April 5, 2023

 Posted by at 7:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 052023
 

Yesterday, the forecast predicted snow after 8:00 pm. Not unexpected in April ( or even in May), but for most of last week snow had been in the prediction for yesterday, and then for a couple of days it wasn’t predicted, and them it came back at the last minute. Also, within 6 days – next Monday – we’re supposed to expect a high of 80°F. Again, not entirely unexpected in April. As a person who grew up on the San Francisco Peninsula, the weather here continues to surprise me. One of the reasons I wanted to live in Colorado was that I wanted to experience four seasons. I just didn’t expect them to be all in the same week.

 

 

 

Last night NBC projected

Janet Protasiewicz as the winner in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race by a margin of 57.5% to 42.5%. Even if there are some votes out, that is a commanding margin. This means we are on track to get Wisconsin back to the sane side of the aisle. You can breathe again.

Cartoon – 05 veto RTL + Passover

Short Takes –

Axios – Trump pleads not guilty to 34 counts in hush-money case
Quote – Former President Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in a Manhattan criminal court related to 2016 hush money payments…. The historic indictment of the only president to be impeached twice has unified the Republican Party around him. Nearly every Republican in elected office has defended Trump and decried the indictment as politically motivated — with only a few prominent GOP defectors…. While that message is playing well with GOP voters, a new CNN poll indicates that 60% of Americans approve of the indictment.
Click through for more information. Here it is – the story we’ve all been waiting for – and now we can take a deep breath and start waiting for the next thing – whatever that may be. There are many possibilities.

Mother Jones – This Race Could Decide the Fate of Democracy in Wisconsin—and the 2024 Election
Quote – [I]f Daniel Kelly, a former conservative justice who criticized Hagedorn as “supremely unreliable” and was defeated by a liberal justice in April 2020, had still been on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Trump’s effort to overturn the election in Wisconsin likely would have succeeded, plunging the state and the nation into a constitutional crisis. Now Kelly is running again for his old job against Janet Protasiewicz, a progressive judge in Milwaukee County[.]
Click through for details. I’ve written about this before. Yesterday was the day. Robert Reich and Mary Trump also weighed in (with similar views.)

Food For Thought

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