Open Thread for July 19, 2021

 Posted by at 7:10 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 192021
 

Yesterday I managed to get off of the back of my lap long enough to fill my car’s gas tank, so that if I have to idle it for 20 or 30 minutes from time to time to make sure the battery stays charged, I won’t need to worry about running out. I was gobsmacked by the changes in the landscape since I last drove by the gas station I used – there used to be about a two-block-long strip mall and now there’s just tall grass. This is not the south, where if you park your car in the wrong place on Friday you can’t find it for the kudzu on Sunday – instead we are high desert – so it must have been gone for at least a few months.

Cartoon – 7/19 “pinkframe”

Short Takes – I don’t generally double up (and certainly not triple up) on sources on any given day … but this combination of stories was just too – colorful – to resist. Think of it as a break from serious news.

Law & Crime – Man Allegedly Opened Fire at Police, City Code Compliance, and Crew Hired to Mow His Lawn
Quote – On Friday, July 16, 2021 at approximately 0830 a.m., the Fort Worth Police Department along with Fort Worth Code Compliance arrived at the 4800 block of Cedar Springs Drive in reference to an ongoing Code Compliance issue. The call originated for an execution warrant for a high grass violation.
Click through for more. Twelve inches is unusually generous for grass and weeds, IMO.

Law & Crime – Oklahoma Woman Arrested After Commenting on Police Facebook Post That Named Her An Accessory to Murder
Quote – The department included a screenshot of Graves’s comment in its Friday Facebook post about her arrest. A Facebook user whose name was redacted responded to Graves, writing, “giiiiirl you better stay off social media they can track you!!” A second user wrote, “Lorraine Graves aint [sic] gonna be as funny when you get processed.”
Click through for sequence of events. Facebook. What can I say.

Law & Crime – Police Sergeant Accused of Making Child Porn, ‘Lustful Touching’ After the FBI Put His Picture on Wanted Poster
Quote – [The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children] employs a “team of analysts who work tirelessly to help identify clues in images and videos” that might help locate abused children, the Center said in a blog post. That team discovered an image of John Doe 44, which the FBI in turn chose to make public. “Within hours of the FBI releasing his photo to the public, he was identified and arrested,” the NCMEC said of the defendant.
Click through for more, including good information about the NCMEC. Sigh. And then some people wonder why other people don’t trust the police.

Food for Thought: Could the people in these stories have benefitted from more parental guidance?

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Video Thread for 7/14/21

 Posted by at 12:08 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jul 142021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Donald Trump Breathes New Life Into Need for an Investigation into Justice Brett Kavanaugh

Meidas Touch – EPIC RANT: The GQP Stands for NOTHING! (no shouting)

Armageddon Update: Bothsiderism – . Best of Mitch McConnell. The first of the two episode(s?) is one to bookmark, IMO

Bruno For Congress | Rise – He is running against Kevin McCarthy in California’s 23rd District. I checked a map but can’t be sure whether Bakersfield is in it, party in it, or just outside it. Theere are a couple of National Forests in it certainly. Too bad the trees can’t vote. https://crooksandliars.com/2021/07/endorsement-california-bruno-amato-v-kevin

Vote Vets – VoteVets – Traitor Oath

Keith Olbermann – Stephen A Smith righteous rant

Beau – Let’s talk about Democrats walking out in Texas….

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Video Thread for 7/10/21

 Posted by at 5:34 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jul 102021
 

This is quite late … but, trying to get it up before I gat any more behind.

Glenn Kirschner catchup – DC Court Makes it Easier to Jail Insurrectionists Pending Trial; Prosecutors Hint at New Conspiracy (535 defendants. Where have I heard that number before? Gotta be a coincidence.)

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s Frivolous Lawsuit Against Twitter/Google/Facebook Will Be Dismissed. But 1st, a Deposition?

Meidas Touch – Former SDNY Asst. US Attorney Explains Why Trump Just Incriminated Himself

The Lincoln Project – Toyota

Thom Hartmann – What Happens When the GOP Flips an Election?

Keith Olbermann – Olbermann VS. Trump: It’s not that he praised Hitler in 2018, it’s why was John Kelly “stunned”?

Beau – Let’s talk about sympathy for Republicans…. (Good advice. Too bad it will fall on deaf ears – if it even gets that far.)

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Video Thread for 7/8/21

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jul 082021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Following New York’s Lead, DC Appellate Court Suspends Rudy Giuliani’s Law License.

Meidas Touch – Case Closed #IndictTrump

Decency United – Leadership Across History – Qualities of Great and Terrible Leaders

Global Idigenous Council – “Family”

Liberal Redneck – “Fox Weather”

Parody Project – FILIBUSTER – a Parody of Land Down Under

Beau – Let’s talk about Chip Roy’s 18 months of nothing getting done….

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Open Thread for July 8, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 082021
 

Yesterday was quiet enough – in fact it was significantly more quiet than usual because I now have no phone service at all on my land line … so no robocall rings. But the technician supposedly comes today. Hopefully that will provide resolution.

Cartoon –

 

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Opinion – Former Murdoch Exec: Fox News Is Poison For America
Quote – Fox News has caused many millions of Americans—most of them Republicans (as my wife and I were for 50 years)—to believe things that simply are not true. For example, Yahoo News reports that 73 percent of Republicans blame “left-wing protesters” for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Of course, that is ludicrous. All one has to do is look at the pictures or videos of the attack to see that the violent mob was comprised of Trump supporters. Similarly, a poll by SSRS in late April found that two-thirds of Republicans either believe or suspect that the election was stolen from Trump—60 percent saying there is “hard evidence” that the election was stolen. As noted above, this ridiculous notion has been thoroughly refuted. But millions of Americans believe these falsehoods because they have been drilled into their minds, night after night, by Fox News.
Click through for more. This is a “Consider the source” story. This dude is in a position to know what he is talking about, even though he gives Rupert too much benefit of the doubt (reminds me of the KMart ads aimed at WalMart claiming Sam would have been ashamed. No, he wouldn’t have.)

The Hill – Eric Adams wins New York City mayoral primary
Quote – “Now we must focus on winning in November so that we can deliver on the promise of this great city for those who are struggling, who are underserved, and who are committed to a safe, fair, affordable future for all New Yorkers,” he said…. The race is the first in which the board sought to implement ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to list five candidates in order of preference.
Click through for some details. I disn’t follow this race, but did follow the Manhattan DA Dem primary, which Alvin Bragg won.Hopefully they will work together well.

Reuters – Judge finds U.S. 60% responsible for 2017 Texas church mass shooting
Quote – In a decision released on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez said the Air Force did not use reasonable care when it failed to enter Devin Patrick Kelley’s plea to domestic violence charges in a database used for background checks for those buying firearms. Rodriguez said the government bore “significant responsibility” for harm to victims of the Nov. 5, 2017 massacre at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, 31 miles (50 km) east of San Antonio.
Click through for background. Even if you remember it, it’s been a while, and a lot has happened in the meantime.

Food for Thought

Link to story in Common Dreams

 

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Video Thread for 7/3/21

 Posted by at 12:47 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 032021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump Org/Weisselberg Indictment Suggests 2 Other “Trump Employees” Also Up for Possible Indictment Two remarks – first a quibble – nothing here “begs the question.” Glenn means it “raises” or “poses” or “suggets” the question. “Begging the question” something completely different. Second, after this (and Richard Wagner and James Livine and others) I surely hope I never again have to hear anyone say that “Music is ennobling.”

Meidas Touch – Traitors

Now This News – Biden on Surfside Florida Condo Collapse (Hanky alert, as if you couldn’t figure that out.)

Vote Vets – Rep. Moulton and Rep. Auchincloss Discuss Evacuating Afghan Interpreters

Ring of Fire – Homeland Security Warns Of Future Violence From Angry Trump Supporters. (Beau also addressed this – I’ll get to his in a few days – it needs reminders from time to time)

A Cat’s Guide to Training Your Human

Beau – Let’s talk about the Republican investigation into the NSA….

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Open Thread for June 29, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 292021
 

The opera last night was “Marnie” – based on the same bool as the Hitchcock movie. It premiered in 2019 to good reviews and good audience response too. So it’s very new. (I’m a fan of the mezzo-soprano for whom it was written, Isabel Leonard, and was lucky enough to get to see her in person in another new opera, “Cold Mountain,” when it premiered in Santa Fe.) I’m sure the movie left out things that were in the book, and the opera has left out things from both, but it’s still a plenty twisted story.

Cartoon

Short Takes –

The New Yorker – Out-of-Practice Trump Forgets to Strand Rally Crowd in Parking Lot
Quote – “People have come to expect that, at the conclusion of one of our rallies, they will be marooned in the middle of nowhere for hours, often in inclement weather,” Harland Dorrinson, a Trump aide, said. “On Saturday night, we didn’t get it done.” Dorrinson said that the entire Trump team would be conducting a postmortem of the rally to find out why attendees were able to leave the event without incident.
Click through for details. Andy, it’s harder to strand a crowd when it’s small to begin with and much of it gets boored and leaves early.

Daily Beast – YouTube Permanently Bans Right Wing Watch, a Media Watchdog Devoted to Exposing Right-Wing Conspiracies
Quote – “What are we going to do?” he asked. Launched in 2007, Right Wing Watch has posted thousands of clips of prominent right-wing figures making controversial comments, perhaps most famously including televangelist Pat Robertson and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. In fact, Right Wing Watch’s exposure of Jones’ false and conspiratorial rhetoric was key to YouTube and other social-media platforms eventually removing his channel InfoWars from their sites. Notably, many of the right-wing outlets and personalities that Right Wing Watch chronicles are not currently suspended or banned from posting content to YouTube, while RWW has been booted for merely exposing their comments and content—something Mantyla noted as being particularly ironic.
Click through for full story. This is NOT good news. They are still on Vimeo, at least.

Independent – GOP senator says roads and bridges are ‘a woman’s problem’ because women ‘do the shopping’
Quote – “My wife says that roads and bridges are a woman’s problem if you will,” said Mr Cassidy. “Because oftentimes it is the woman – aside from commuting to work – who’s also taking children to schools or doing the shopping…. And the more time that she spends on that road, the less time she spends doing things of higher value,” he added.
Click through for absolutely not satire. Yes, Senator, women are human beings, and human beings need roads and bridges. (And your wife sounds brainwashed.)

Food for Thought

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Open Thread for June 26, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 262021
 

Colleen was expecting to get released after her surgery around 3 or 3:30 pm.  i’m hoping she did – but I also realize that there are many benign reasons whay that may not have happened.  My day here was quiet enough.  I hope everyone will be kind to b=me and overlook typos, duplications, and whatnot for a week starting monday, as the Met streams 7 American operas, one each day, for the week.  I’ll try not to slack off, but I may be a wee bit short on sleep by Sunday.

Cartoon

Short Takes

The Hill – Department of Justice sues Georgia over voting law
Quote – The suit was announced alongside another initiative from the Justice Department to battle rising threats made against local election officials. A memo from Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco establishes a task force across the FBI, as well as DOJ’s criminal division, the civil rights division, and the national security division.
Click through for the full article.

The Hill – Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years prison for murder of George Floyd
Quote – Per state guidelines, the maximum sentence for unintentional murder in the second degree is 40 years, but because Chauvin has no previous criminal record, the presumptive sentence is 12.5 years, with an acceptable deviation range of 10.67 years to 15 years. But because Cahill agreed with the prosecution’s aggravating factors motion, the judge had the discretion to increase the sentence.
Click through for more, and of course it’s also being reported elsewhere.

Politico – Graham: Biden made GOP look like ‘f—ing idiots’
Quote – “If he’s gonna tie them together, he can forget it!” Graham said. “I’m not doing that. That’s extortion! I’m not going to do that. The Dems are being told you can’t get your bipartisan work product passed unless you sign on to what the left wants, and I’m not playing that game.”
Click through if you don’t mind thir format which makes it a bit tough to be sure you’re still in the same article. (Personally, I’m all for any Dem who can make the GOP look like – what he said.)

Food for Thought

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