GOP Incompetence – Page 2

Open Thread October 25, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:10 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 252023

Yesterday, Talking Points Memo shared a link to an opinion piece on what has happened to Ken Buck – a topic which has had my brain running around in circles for a few months. The explanation is not completely satisfying, but it’s the most convincing I have seen. If anyone else cares (and I certainly wouldn’t blame you if you don’t), here’s the link. It is on Substack so there will be a popup to click. Since this was from Substack, and I had noted two other Substack articles – all from very different -authors – I decided to just go ahead and use all of them on the same day. So do remember the popups, and that when the screen darkens slightly, you may have to scroll down.
And today Margaret Atwood is getting a pacemaker. I realize what I’m about to share may have limited interest (although many of us were interested, to put it mildly, in The Handmaid’s Tale) but if even one person is interested, I think I should share it, because my sharing is the only way you are going to find it. On September 30, Ms. Atwood joined the Theater of War at the Toronto International Festival of Authors for a program “Patient and Impatient Griselda” which included both a dramatic reading – with professional actors – of Boccacio’s story Patient Griselda, and then Ms. Atwood reading her own story Impatient Griselda, narrated to a group of humans in quarantine by an alien which looks like an octopus. A complete video is now available here. Ms. Atwood starts at 34:01 (and I’ve set the YouTube link to start there), and when she finishes there is a lengthy group discussion, you dont need to continue. In case you haven’t guessed, all this is in aid of a domestic violence project.
Finally, Tom Emmer dropped out of the race for Speaker barelly four hours after he won the nomination. He is the majority whip so at least has a tiny bit of experience – which is more than the rest of them do. Sigh. But by 8:30 mountain hehad been replaced by Mike Johnson.

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Wonkette – Dollar General’s Creepy Pre-Employment Medical Exams Cost Them $1 Million
Quote – According to the lawsuit, the medical examination included the “taking of vital signs, the completion of a drug test, a vision test, a medical and health history questionnaire, a review of current medications, and a physical examination, including, in some instances, genital examination of job applicants.” It is hard to imagine what job, other than “porn star,” a genital examination might be necessary for, but God help us all if it’s “working at a Dollar General warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.”
Click through for details. Creepy is certainly the mot juste. I can’t help wondering who they think they are. (The Dollar General stores are creepy to me, too

Robert Reich – Thirty years later
Quote – I was in the White House Rose Garden in September 1993, when Bill Clinton hosted the now iconic handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat after they signed the Israeli-PLO peace accord. We were so optimistic, 30 years ago. Coincidentally, last night I had a reunion with about 60 members of my top team at the Department of Labor to mark 30 years since we came together. They’d been assistant secretaries, deputy assistant secretaries, other political appointees, and senior career professionals.
Click through for article. They must have been quite a team. And yet – “we couldn’t stop the storm.” I know – I feel it too – it makes one want to wash one’s hands of the entire human race sometimes.

Food For Thought

Open Thread October 14, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:51 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 142023

Yesterday, I got to thinking that a House of Representatives with no Speaker, at a time when we have no budget, and have our foreign policy focused on the Middle East shooting war, is pretty damned convenient for Russia. Ukraine is holding strong so far, but there’s going to come a point when it will need resources badly. Is anyone investigating, or contemplating investigating, Matt Gaetz for being a Russian agent? Yes, I know he’s a pedophile and is himself intellectually and emotionally an adolescent (and will probably never grow up.) But that doesn’t mean he can’t be useful to Russia. Au contraire. See the Food for Thought below.

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The Root – What In The Actual Hell: CVS Abortion Med Mixup Led To Black Woman’s IVF Termination
Quote – [Timika] Thomas and her husband had trouble getting pregnant and after two ectopic pregnancies, Thomas had to have her fallopian tubes removed. Even though their insurance didn’t cover IVF, they decided to do it and pay out of pocket anyway. Thomas’ doctor prescribed a vaginal suppository to replace the injections required to jumpstart her hormones. After taking two of her required doses, she immediately knew something was wrong…. “They just killed my baby. Both my babies, because I transferred two embryos,” [Thomas said.]
Click through for story. This would be unacceptable, no matter how the pregnancy occurred, but for an IVF pregnancy it’s exponentially worse. IVF is expensive, so expensive that it’s a last resort among fertility treatmernts. It often doesn’t “take” for multiple attempts. The best analogy I can come up with is – one is like you studued and worked hard, took the SAT or whateve they are using, sweat blood over your essay, and got turned down. the other is like you decided when you were five you wanted to go to a particular college and started saving monet from your allowance and odd jobs. You applied in your seniot year of high school and wewre turned down. You alloied in the first year after graduation and were turned down again. the second and third year after graduation you applied again and were turned down both times. Finally, in the fourth year after graduation, you applied and were accepted. Two days before freshman orientation the college burned down.

PolitiZoom – Anti-WOKE: Even Your Name Can Get Book Banned
Quote – Imagine if you will having had a successful career as a children’s book author. Your work has been widely acclaimed, published in a dozen languages and you’ve won lots of awards. Your work includes several series including a pair of them about siblings – one from the perspective of a little girl named Stella and the other from her little brother named Sam. The Stella series which ran from 1999 to the last book about Stella and Sam building a doghouse was published in 2013. including one about the adventures of a little girl named Stella and her brother…. Does the book delve into topics that might, only might mind you raise “content” questions about whether topics like human sexuality or race relations or religion are “age appropriate?” Nope, as I’ve stated it’s about a pair of siblings building a dog house. So by now you’re wondering why the hell this book wound up on a “we’ve got to BAN these books from the library” list in the first place. The author’s name is Mary-Louise GAY.
Click through for article. Yes, compared to the first short take, this is small potatoes indeed. But it still hurts people. And the people most harmed are among the most vulnerable.

Food For Thought

Open Thread October 7, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 072023

Yesterday, now that we’re a week into October, Wonkette posted a link to the 20 Most Haunted Places in the World (not a Substack site.) Many of them, maybe most, are quite beautiful – if I were a ghost there, I’d likely stay too. Also, here’s a link about an incident from World War II which demonstrates just how dangerous classified informmation can be in the wrong hands (and mouths.) Finally, I received an email from Eric Swalwell advertising a closeout price on a Kevin McCarthy Catnip Toy: “While Kevin’s on his way to the litter box to try and salvage the mess he’s made of the GOP, our team’s throwing Kevin the celebration he deserves: A clearance sale. Our Kevin McCatnip toys are now marked down to just $15, so you can watch your cat bat Kevin around the living room the way you’d like to!” Tomorrow, I’ll be seeing Virgil, and will post when I get home as always.

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Grist – How does climate change threaten your neighborhood? A new map has the details.
Quote – If you’ve been wondering what climate change means for your neighborhood, you’re in luck. The most detailed interactive map yet of the United States’ vulnerability to dangers such as fire, flooding, and pollution was released on Monday by the Environmental Defense Fund and Texas A&M University. The fine-grained analysis spans more than 70,000 census tracts, which roughly resemble neighborhoods, mapping out environmental risks alongside factors that make it harder for people to deal with hazards. Clicking on a report for a census tract yields details on heat, wildfire smoke, and drought, in addition to what drives vulnerability to extreme weather, such as income levels and access to health care and transportation.
Click through for article and map. I see the South is expecting below-freezing temperatures this weekend, except for Florida’s peninsula, whereas I’m expecting some warming. Go figure. I actually seem to have made a pretty good choice of where to live in view of climate change – not that anywhere is perfect, of course. Literally the entire world is endangered.

Wonkette – Jimmy Carter’s Solar Panels And The Mellow Allman Brothers Climate Paradise That Could’ve Been (OK, some of that headline may not be scrupulously fact-checked.)
Quote – Reagan reversed the clean energy initiatives Carter had put in place, a far more concrete rejection of renewable energy than the symbolic removal of the panels. Solar panels would return to the White House eventually. In 2002, the National Park Service installed solar electricity and water heating systems elsewhere on the White House grounds, although the George W. Bush administration chose not to publicize that. In 2014, Barack Obama installed a photovoltaic system on the White House roof. And in 2017, Jimmy Carter installed a solar farm on 10 acres of his peanut farm; it provides about half the electricity for Plains. Carter, who’s now in hospice care at home, celebrated his birthday quietly at home with Rosalyn, his wife of 77 years, and with his children and grandchildren. I’ll assume the party was lit by solar, too.
Click through for full article. In 1976 none of us who weren’t scientists were all that accurate on what the answers were – and what they weren’t – and the scientists weren’t telling – or at least, not the truth. Jimmy was trying. Ronny rejected it all. I’ll go to my grave beliebing that the 1980 Presidential election was a catastrophe and a creator of more catastrophes – and I think I”ll be correct. I’ll for sure be in good company.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 10/5/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:55 am Open Thread, Politics

Oct 052023

Glenn Kirschner – FINALLY a judge – NY Judge Arthur Engoron – has GAGGED Trump to STOP his dangerous speech and posts

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party October 3, 2023

Joe Biden – The Difference | Biden-Harris 2024

Parody Project – Capitol Hill

Cat Carries Around Baby Potatoes In His Mouth

Beau – Let’s talk about the shutdown deal, McCarthy, math, and milk….

Open Thread October 5, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:51 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 052023

Yesterday, Kamala Harris swore Laphonza Butler in to the Senate. Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, and James Comer announced themselves to be candidates for the Speakership. The Daily Beast published an article purporting to be about the opera “Dead Man Walking” which is really about Sister Helen Prejean, her experiences, her mission, her passion. It’s long necause there is so much in it. Here’s a link in case anyne wants to follow up on the status of the death penalty in America.

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Civil Discourse – About Merrick Garland
Quote – Asked about his objective as Attorney General, Garland said it was to “pass our democracy on, in working order, to the next generation.” That would have been mere pleasantry from any of his predecessors. For Garland, it’s serious business, and it’s important to hear him say it out loud. Joe Biden’s Attorney General was always going to be in a tight spot, no matter who he chose for the job. The weightiest of choices, whether to indict a former president, was always going to rest on their shoulders. And that decision was going to be made in the context of a Justice Department that had lost much of its credibility with the public despite the diligence of its employees, due in no small part to the deliberate efforts of Donald Trump to undermine the country’s confidence in the Department. Merrick Garland has been the subject of more criticism and outright disapproval by members of the party that appointed him than any other attorney general, at least since Watergate. And of course, he’s been the subject of criticism and abusive and sometimes dog-whistling antisemitic commentary from the other side.
Click through for article. Joyce Vance is a former DOJ prosecutor who raises silky chickens (and a few other breeds) and knits. How could I not like her? In this case I think that her point = that there is a whole lot that we don’t know, much of which we will likely never know, and the bottom line is we can’t know enough to make character judgments from the little we do know. Of course we can have opinions. But presenting our opinions as fact is as disingenuous as – well, as a Republican.

PolitiZoom – He’s a Hoochie Coochie Man – Secretary of State Anthony Blinken Rocks the State Department
Quote – As the ever enraging Orangeutan addressed fake Union Auto workers in Michigan and the also-rans for the Republican Nomination insulted ea[ch] other, First Lady Jill Biden and President Johnson’s Great Society from the Reagan Library in California, [Secretary of] State Anthony Blinken pulled out his Stratocaster and launched the Global Music Diplomacy with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters in attendance. Blinken will not be opening for The Rolling Stones anytime soon, but it was a laudable amateur effort:
Click through for details. I confess that, not that I had any doubts about Blinken, it makes me feel even safer to know that he has this side.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 10/4/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:02 pm Open Thread, Politics

Oct 042023

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s NY fraud trial: more dangerous attacks by Trump, and foolish arguments by Trump’s lawyers

The Lincoln Project – 2nd GOP Debate in 90 Seconds

Farron Balanced – Trump’s Mental Problems Exposed In Terrifying New Video

Patrick Fitzgerald – Big Bad Don

I’ve been avoiding Xitter, having seen others having difficulty with the embed function. But I just had to go for this. (In case it doesn’t work well for you – https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181892231

The groom gave the bride’s students with Down syndrome the task of carrying the ring. The result is a wonderfully meaningful moment. pic.twitter.com/xT8IVlYsUB

— Enezator (@Enezator) September 27, 2023

Beau – Let’s talk about the 2nd GOP debate….

Open Thread September 30, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 302023

Yesterday, arguments about whether DiFi should resign came to an end with her passing. Governor Newsom has said he will make an interim appointment. Even Chuck Grassley said nice things about her. Since I was born and grew up in California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, this feels like the end of an era to me. I have known of her, and of her achievements, for so long – it’s true that at my age when someone who has been a fixture of one’s life for so long, one doesn’t grieve just that person, but also one’s own lost youth. Also, The White House made available online a partial transcript of Joe Biden’s speech at the John McCain Library in Tempe, AZ. There’s also an opportunity at this link to sign up for pratial transcripts whenever anyone in the administration says something significant. Wow. The first plea deal in the Fulton COunty case was sealed. And last (and kind of least compared to the preceding) my Dark Brandon mug came. So I immediately made a cup of coffee. And it works as advertised (what with being carried in a postal vehicle in the sun all day and then stuffed into a hot mailbox, the eyes were actually red when I opened it. The directions advised putting it in the freezer for a few minutes – which worked like a charm.)

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The Daily Beast – Why Are Republicans Playing Politics With Ukraine?
Quote – Over the course of more than 30 interviews with members of Congress, The Daily Beast set out to trace exactly how and why providing aid to Ukraine became such a controversial endeavor among Republicans. To Democrats, the $24 billion package in front of Congress right now is the best money Washington could spend on national defense…. The issue, many Republicans in Congress agree, shouldn’t be partisan. But these Republicans are also keenly aware of the reality—that it is…. The story of how that happened is a case study in the workings of a congressional GOP loyal to Donald Trump, one in which the former president and a small handful of right-wing figures wield immense power to set the agenda of the party base, which in turn commands immense power to shape the actions of lawmakers eager to use uncompromising tactics to achieve their goals.
Click through for full article. One thing that leaps out – if the poll cited is accurate, and 55% of Americans nationally do not support aiding Ukreaine, we need to ne doing a better job of messaging. 62% Democratic support isn’t enough.

Colorado Public Radio – What the impending government shutdown means for Coloradans
Quote – Perhaps the biggest impacts will be felt by the state’s approximately 38,000 federal employees and 12,000 active duty military service members, who will not get a paycheck during a government shutdown. Their first missed payday will be October 13, if the shutdown drags on that long…. Gov. Jared Polis is ordering the Colorado Department of Natural Resources to develop a plan to use state money to keep the parks and other federal land in the state open, although any plan will need a federal sign off…. The governors of Arizona and Utah have also said they’ll use state funds to keep some of their parks open…. States that opened their parks in 2013 were never reimbursed…. When it comes to airport travel, a shutdown could fuel passenger exasperation and worsen staffing challenges at Denver International Airport….
Click through. As promised, here’s the shutdown article. Not every state is going to step in on National Parks (or anything else), and it’s not certain that Colorado is this time. But – like everything else – red states are going to suffer the most. And there’s more. CPR really looked at everything they could. It’s very thorough.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 9/25/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:58 am Open Thread, Politics

Sep 252023

I looked for Glenn, Andrew Weissmann, Neal Katyal, and Harry Litman. Everyone seems to be taking a breather. So here’s this, to piss off all the LGBTQIA haters.
Look to the Rainbow (Petula Clark) from the 1968 movie with Fred Astaire (4 years after the Civil Right Act – pretty good time to release it, don’t you think?
1. On the day I was born,/Said my father, said he./I’ve an an elegant legacy/Waitin’ for ye,/’Tis a rhyme for your lips/And a song for your heart,/To sing it whenever/he world falls apart.
Look, look/(Chorus):Look to the rainbow./Follow it over the hill/And the stream./Look, look/Look to the rainbow./Follow the fellow/Who follows a dream./Follow the fellow,/Follow the fellow,/Follow the fellow/Who follows a dream.
2. So I bundled my heart/And I roamed the world free;/To the East with the lark/To the West with the sea./And I searched all the earth/And I scanned all the skies,/And I found it at last,/In my own true love’s eyes. (Chorus)