GOP Fascism – Page 3 – Politics Plus

Open Thread February 24, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:04 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 242023

Yesterday, the temperature did go up before it went down, although it never for as high as freezing. Today it should, and the next several days should be warmer still. There’s no snow in the forecast for a little over a week.

This article in one of my newsletters caught my eye… and then I saw that it had also caught Mitch’s eye. I know many of y’all are also on his mailing list – and also that the contents are no surprise – but it’s good to see that someone is in a position to prove it.

Cartoon – 24 0224Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – 10 Surprising Lessons of the Ukraine War So Far
Quote – While Ukraine has pleaded for fighter jets for a year, unmanned aircraft have stolen the show … “No Time for Sergeants” was once a TV hit in America. It has been a flop for the Russian army ,,, Speaking of time, it’s time for traditional navies to realize their time will soon be up … Poland is the new Germany. (And Estonia is the new France.) … Vladimir Putin may be a madman, but at least he has the common sense not to want to be obliterated in a nuclear war with NATO … Speaking of Putin, stick a fork in him. He may not be quite done yet, but he will be soon… and besides if anyone deserves to have a fork stuck in him, it’s Putin … TikTok is more than just an annoying teenage time-waster and Chinese espionage plot … Ukraine is already in the EU and NATO whether you (or Russia or Turkey[sic]) like it or not … With friends like Turkey[sic], Israel, the global South and Elon Musk, who needs enemies? … And the most important lesson of all is, as it will be for the remainder of this century, everything is always about China.
Click through for the explanation of each point. I am doing my best to respect the newly preferred spelling of Türkiye. If the UN can do it, I should be able to.

The Nib – The Great Debate: Martin Luther King, Jr. vs Robert F. Williams
Quote – While the debate between King and Williams was waged in dueling magazine columns in pages of the Liberator over the course of 1959, I like to imagine what it would have been like inperson. Maybe I’d be sitting with WEB Dubois, who followed the discussion closely.
Click through for full graphic. The hearts and minds of bigots cannot be won with violence. The hearts and minds of bigots also cannot be won with non-violence. They also cannot be won with legislation, but I believe legislation has the best chance of controlling their behavior, and of at least achieving justice when that doesn’t succeed. But for that to happen we need to elect majorities of sane legislators everywhere and at every level – and we need exclusively sane people in law enforcement and the courts. None of this is easy.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 2/8/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:54 am Open Thread, Politics

Feb 082023

Glenn Kirschner – Chinese spy balloons, Jim Jordan, and the debasement of the House & Senate Judiciary Committees

The Lincoln Project – Built Back Better

Farron Balanced – Trump Threatens To Help Democrats If Republican Voters Reject Him

Armageddon Update – Book Banning

Bearded Dragon Comes Running When His Mom Calls Him

Beau – Let’s talk about a laptop and a change of strategy….

Open Thread January 12, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:56 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 122023

Yesterday, there was news about Damar Hamlin. I didn’t report when he was moved from the hospital he was originally in to one nearer home, because he was still hospoitalized. But now, after probably every test they could come up woth, he has been released from the hosppitsl entirely.

You may see a theme in the short takes today. I am beginning to see some thoughtful reporting about what Republicans are threatening to do, and what they can’t, or, if they can, why it cannot have the effects they claim it will. However, if they are able to get control of all three houses (Representatives, Senate, and White), it will be a different story. Campaign 2024 begins now.

Cartoon – 12 0112Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Democrats Have Little to Fear From GOP House Investigations
Quote – [McCarthy] announced Republicans’ intent to investigate everything from active criminal investigations being conducted by the Justice Department to “the withdrawal of Afghanistan [sic], to the origins of COVID, and to the weaponization of the F.B.I.” A resolution to create a special House Judiciary Committee “select subcommittee” to get this laundry list of investigations done will be voted on later this week. The intention to make this committee the Republican answer to the Jan. 6 Committee was made clear by Rep. Chip Roy’s disclosure that Speaker McCarthy has promised the select subcommittee at least as much funding and staffing as was given to the Jan. 6 committee.
Click through for details. The advice contained in this artocle is good, but probably unnecessary. No elected Democrat is going to be stupid enough to blow off a request from a lawfully formes committee just because it is made up of idiot and the request is laughable. None of us has anything to hide.

Crooks & Liars – No, House GOPers Can’t Block Additional IRS Funding
Quote – Maybe these Republicans would have been happier if they’d done high school theater when they were kids, and gotten it all out of their systems. Because there’s no way, no how they get to stop this IRS funding. They just have to be seen trying to stop it to make their donors happy!
Click through for exactly why not. (Not that you don’t already know this if you have ever seen Schoolhouse Rock.)

Food For Thought

Video Thread 1/3/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:52 am Open Thread, Politics

Jan 032023

Glenn Kirschner – Signs of hope and optimism that 2023 will be the year of accountability

Thom Hartmann – Did Corporate Personhood Turn Democracy Into Fascism?

Ring of Fire – Fox News Tries To Blame Pete Buttigieg For Southwest Airlines Disaster

Shirley Serban – Queen Parody Song for New Year 2023 – Another One Bites the Dust

This Dog Wouldn’t Leave Her Bed Until Her Foster Mom Brought Her Home

Beau – Let’s talk about what is and isn’t history….

Open Thread November 13, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 132022

Yesterday, the radio opera was Charles Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliette,” recorded in China. Juliette’s opening aria, “Je veux vivre,” has been sung by finalists on many, many Miss America telecasts (I don’t know whether that still holds – I haven’t watched any pageants for a long time.) In any medium, this is a difficult story to tell, in large part because the protagonists are so very young – Juliet is not yet 14, and Romeo not much older. Any 13-year-old who can manage to sing that music, and project it throughout an opera house, should not be allowed to do so, because that much that young will harm the growing voice. (Anyone remember Charlotte Church? Hear of her lately? Well, in 2022 she appeards as”Mushroom” on The Masked Singer and took second place.) I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I have always thought the DiCaprio-Danes movie version came closest to nailing it – I thought at the time it was because they looked so young, but looking back, while their appearance helped, what really sealed the deal was their youthlul blocking and body language. Through most of history children were expected to behave like miniature adults; it’s only in the last hundred years or so that some cultures have recognized there are actual stages of development from child to adult, and it isn’t realistic for a child or a teen to behave adultly. If they try, they are going to appear awkward.

Also, late breaking from Axios: “Wins in Arizona and Nevada kept President Biden’s party in charge of the upper chamber while control of the House still hangs in the balance.” To be clear, add Wornock and we will actually have 51-49.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Warning – American politics remains broken
Quote – American politics was broken before the Tuesday election. It remained broken on Wednesday morning. The MAGA extremist threat did not dissipate by failing to achieve its aims. The GOP/MAGA class of 2022 was a dangerous group of unfit extremists that has no parallel in modern American history. Collectively, their presence on US ballots from sea to shining sea amounted to indisputable evidence of national decay irredeemable cynicism, factionalism and cowardice.
Click trough for partial analysis. My feeling is that gross Republican misjudgment saved the election for us, and that the fact that control of both houses is so close should be terrifying. So I’ll be using the scary closer for a while yet.

Washington Post (gift link) – She decoded Nazi messages and helped win World War II. Now she’s 101.
Quote – The goal of the WAVES women was to save American lives by sinking German subs before they could attack Allied shipping. At first, news of a destroyed U-boat was cause for celebration. But it became more painful as the war dragged on and its human cost became more evident. Once, Parsons helped decode a congratulatory note to a German sailor at sea upon the birth of his son back home. A few days later, she learned the father’s submarine had been sunk, with no survivors. “To think that we all had a hand in killing somebody did not sit well with me,” she said. “I felt really bad. That baby would never see his father.”
Click through for full story. I’m still trying to feature some good news daily if possible. I am sure Pat B and I (both sea service veterans) are not the only ones who can appreciate her work. It can’t have been easy.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 11/11/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:56 am Open Thread, Politics

Nov 112022

Glenn Kirschner – Republican controlled House can NOT stop DOJ criminal investigations of Trump & his co-conspirators

The Lincoln Project – Who We Are

Ojeda LIVE – The MAGA-ploy in Wisconsin

MSNBC – Symone Sanders: People Need To Give Stacey Abrams Her Flowers

John Fugelsang – Jimmy Carter can Stop Trump!

Beau – Let’s talk about a future message from your daughter…. (Not what you’re probably thinkng, not aimed at us, but… hanky alert.)

Open Thread October 27, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:55 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 272022

Yesterday, the weather report said (my paraphrase of a graph) “There might be snow tomorrow [today now], but don’t hold us to that; it might just be a little rain.” Snow for Hallowe’en in Colorado used to be like rain at 5:00 pm on a Florida summer day – you could practically set your watch (time or calendar) by it. But that hasn’t been true for a while now. So we’ll see. Otherwise, a quiet day.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Letters From An American – October 23, 2022
Quote – In 1876, “Redeemers” set out to put an end to the southern governments that were elected in systems that allowed Black men to vote. “Rifle clubs” held contests outside Republican political rallies, “Red Shirts” marched with their guns in parades. Their intimidation worked. Democrats took over the South and created a one-party system that lasted virtually unbroken until 1965. Without the oversight that a healthy multiparty system provides, southern governments became the corrupt tools of a few wealthy men, and the rest of the population fell into a poverty from which it could not escape until the federal government began to invest in the region in the 1930s.
Click through for full letter. I learned about “Reconstruction” in school, but I never heard the word “Redemption” in that context. That they should use that word for what they actually did seems to me blasphemous. “Redemption” means “buying back.” Buying involves paying a price. They paid no price – they extorted a price from the powerless.

The Daily Beast – Florida Puts Raging MAGA Moms on Book-Banning Council
Quote – In the name of “curriculum transparency,” Florida’s Republican-controlled state government has appointed several anti-gay and anti-mask conspiracy theorists to take charge of a new effort at public schools: banning books. This hastily assembled censorship council—tasked with retraining public school librarians to abide by new restrictions—is the latest ploy in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ crusade to upend the state’s education system. But the council was also staffed under suspicious circumstances, with the state Education Department ignoring its own call for official candidates from local school districts and instead filling most of the slots with right-wing activists who have a history of proposing book bans. One was even nominated by a religious activist with close ties to the DeSantis administration a week before the department publicly called for candidates, according to government emails, hinting at secret coordination between them.
Click through for details. You can read or listen, your choice. Should Florida just change the name of its high schools to “Hitlerjugend” and be done with it?

Food For Thought

Video Thread 9/19/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:44 am Open Thread, Politics

Sep 192022

Glenn Kirschner – Judge Cannon, classified document denier; Governors Abbott & DeSantis & kidnapping by inveiglement

Meidas Touch – MAGA Republicans’ Trafficking Stunt BACKFIRES when Residents Welcome Migrants with Open Arms

The Lincoln Project – Big Problems (This one ends rather oddly – long black screen with music. Not sure what the point is. It’s plenty scary without that.)