GOP Incompetence – Page 6

Open Thread June 30, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:06 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 302023

Well, yesterday, they did it. The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions (but you can bet any important body part you can think of that this applies to any selection process. If not now, it will.) In the interest of avoiding profanity, I’ll stop there. In other news … New York City’s “Free Shakespeare in the Park” is doing “Hamlet” this year. FSitP has never shied away from using the dynamincs of race, and this year is no exception. Hamlet and his relatives are all black – Polonis and his family, white or mixed. They decided not to show the ghost of Hamlet’s father, but instead to represent him by his voice through loudspeakers (which also obscure the direction from which his voice is coming – making it seem to come from anywhere and everywhere. Visual projections add to the effect.) The voice actor is not seen, nor credited. But Daily Beast reveals that the actor is in fact Samuel L. Jackson. Wow. PBS Great Performances featured their “Much Ado” a few years ago. I surely hope they pick this one up.

Cartoon – 30 KBJ RTL

Short Takes –

HuffPost – In Speech On Bidenomics, Biden Tries To Turn The Page On Reagan (And Every President Since)
Quote – Biden embraced the insult the Wall Street Journal Opinion page gave to his economic plans — Bidenomics. “I did not come up with the name,” Biden noted. But he would now embrace it to tout what the White House sees as significant economic achievements and a new vision of economic policy for the country. He denounce[d] the old supply-side economics that have dominated American policy-making since Ronald Reagan put them in place in 1981. But then Biden explained how his policies actually mark a break with this economic model — and while he didn’t say it, how they break with the policies of both Obama and Bill Clinton.
Click through for story. The speech is attracting a lot of attention, as it should. Enough attention? Not yet really possible to tell.

Daily Beast – Inside the Dem Playbook to Stymie GOP Impeachment Efforts
Quote – Lefty groups like the Congressional Integrity Project and Facts First USA were first formed in 2020 and are doing much of the heavy lifting for the White House, as Biden and his staff attempt to stay out of the political fray—at least publicly. “The impeachment efforts are not legitimate,” said David Brock, a longtime Democratic operative who launched Facts First USA. “They’re basically 100 percent driven by the idea that the Republicans believe that the impeachment of Trump hurt him politically. So the fact that they have the power to do it, they’re gonna do it, whether they have the facts on their side or not.” Brock, who was famously a right-wing reporter in the 1990s before converting to the Democratic side, said he’d seen this as a long time coming—a sort of slow onramp of Republican ire against the Biden administration that he only expects to grow ahead of next year’s elections.
Click through for details. I find this reassuring – and unexpected, though i should have expected it. Joe thinks of everything.

Food For Thought

Open Thread June 29, 2023

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

Jun 292023

Yesterday, It was pretty quiet. Hot, but quiet. I did manage to get my carts out to the curb for pickup tpday, but then,I was highly motivated – they pick up trash every week, but recyclables only every other week, and I always have more recycleables than trsh, and if I didn’t get them out yesterday, I’d have had to wait two more weeks, not one. And the contents were starting to push the lid up already.

Cartoon – 28 0628Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

The New Yorker – Does It Matter That Neil Gorsuch Is Committed to Native American Rights?
Quote – In most areas of law, notably those to do with guns and abortion, Gorsuch has been the Justice that conservatives wanted him to be. Not so with tribal law. Adam Liptak, of the Times, recently called him “the fiercest proponent of Native American rights” on the Court. There are various theories about the source of Gorsuch’s commitment, including his childhood in the West, his textualism-based judicial philosophy (if one reads the text of the treaties that the U.S. signed with the tribes, one will find a lot of unkept promises), and his experience dealing with tribal-law cases while a judge on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Colorado. But there are Westerners and textualists who have little time for the tribes, and Gorsuch stood out on the Tenth Circuit, too. (A number of Native American organizations and tribes supported his confirmation.)
Click through for full article. If you are paywalled out, I’ll be happy to email you a copy. I’m sure it will come as no surprise to anyone here that this matters to me – a lot. I”m exceedingly glad to see this article.

US Senate Committee on Homeland Securiy and Governmental Affairs – Planned in Plain Sight
Quote – [Finding of Fact] 6. FBI and I&A failed to follow agency guidelines on the use of open-source intelligence. The Special Agent in Charge of the Intelligence Division at the FBI Washington Field Office on January 6th conflated the Bureau’s standards for what type of information is actionable for further investigation (a higher standard) versus what is merely reportable to partner agencies (a lower standard), and as a result, FBI did not share certain tips and intelligence about January 6th. FBI also did not develop certain tips about January 6th because they were deemed not credible, contrary to FBI policy that requires every tip received to be logged as long as it meets an “authorized purpose” for investigation, regardless of credibility
Click through for full report. It’s a bit over 100 pages, so I don’t expect anyone to read it in full. But both the Executive Statement at the beginning and the Conclusions at the end are packed with facts we suspected. And the Findings of Fact and Recommendations (just after the Executive Summary) are stark and chilling.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 6/27/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:06 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jun 272023

Glenn Kirschner – Current Republican member of Congress calls out Trump for his lies, says Trump committed crime

The Lincoln Project – A Clear Crime

Thom Hartmann – Right To Vote Ended For People With These Common Disabilities

Brent Terhune – Dodgers Pride Night (a week late but way too good not toshare)

Starving Cat Shows Up To Guy’s Backyard Asking For Help

Beau – Let’s talk about a GOP mistake with over energizing their base….

Video Thread 6/12/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:51 am Open Thread, Politics

Jun 122023

Yes, this is long. But Glenn today is almost twice as long, and IMO needlessly alarmist, as well as repetitive. I get that. But despite the clickbait Meidas Touch headline, I think this is more realistic – and more accurate.
Meidas Touch – Jack Smith has PLAN to DEAL with CORRUPT Judge Aileen Cannon – long but meaty

The Lincoln Project – Pence Knows

Thom Hartmann – Unsealed! Donald Trump’s Indictment (And More)

Armageddon Update – Florida Is A DeSaster

Guy Finds Tiny Frog In His Salad

Beau – Let’s talk about McCarthy’s dream and the GOP’s future….

Open Thread May 9, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:02 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 092023

Yesterday, as I usually do on Mondays, I slept even later tnan usual. When I got up, I did a few personal things, then turned to my email. and immediately saw that Grace Bumbry had died. I assure you thre are better ways to start a day. Of course, the loss of a diva (or a divo) whom I admired enough to buy vinyl of (and I was very picky when I was doing that) is just going to happen to me more and more. And, although she is gone, her achievements, including the trailblazing she did, remain and will continue to be built upon. But there sre still better ways to start a day. I did do the Name Drop, and it was someone I had heard of (it isn’t always), but I cetainly never would have known that from the first clue, as I had no idea he had served at the Battle of Lepanto, and on the way home been captured by pirates and held for five years, and the second clue was also obscure. But on the third clue I figured out the dude was from La Mancha (and it was the referenced musical which gave that away.) I’m really not a competetive person (except with myself – I always want to learn and improve) – and that’s why I’m drawn to Name Drop. I almost always learn something, even if it’s not terribly useful. And if Cervantes was a veteran of one of the most important conflicts in history, and a POW, so to speak, for 5 years, that deserves to be remembered.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The 19th – Kimberlé Crenshaw’s work was cut from AP African American Studies. Now she’s fighting back
Quote – Crenshaw [led] the “Freedom to Learn” national day of action [last] Wednesday to protest rising censorship in schools. The day of demonstration includes rallies, book readings, teach-ins and live virtual events. The goal is to build a coalition — now including civil rights groups, Black Greek-letter organizations, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association — that advocates for inclusive learning….. The “Freedom to Learn” national day of action stems from an open letter that scholars and their allies sent to the College Board, urging it to preserve the integrity of AP African American Studies by not eliminating from the course “divisive concepts” and works by academics including Crenshaw, Roderick Ferguson and the late bell hooks. In April, the College Board announced that it would make changes to AP African American Studies over the next few months, but it is uncertain if it will restore the pilot curriculum.
Click through for article and interview. On the one hand, if anyone should be for education without political bias, it’s the College Board. On the other hand, exactly because it’s a private organization, little can be done to force it to live up to standards, even its own.

Fox 31 – Stolen Colorado tiny house found at Kansas grain elevator
Quote – Hamilton County Sheriff Michael Wilson said the Colorado State Patrol notified his office Sunday evening to be on the lookout for a tiny house and that it was possibly headed toward Coolidge. It had been taken from a farm in Otero County, Colorado…. The sheriff said the men also allegedly had a stolen trailer and a Bobcat. He said the suspects are being held in jail on suspicion of possession of stolen property. The tiny house is valued at $9,000. The sheriff said the $33,000 Bobcat was stolen out of Castle Rock, Colorado, and the $25,000 trailer is from Florida.
Click through for details. Yes, this is from a Fox affiliate. But the keywords are “affliate” and “local.” One of the most maddening things about Fox, IMO, is that the affiliates generally have sound news departments with accurate local news. Unfortunately, this tends to validate all of Fox in weak minds.

Food For Thought

Open Thread May 6, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 062023

Yesterday, I got 8 out of 8 correct in the Conversation’s weekly quiz for the second week in a row. I can’t possibly keep this up. This week, most of the credit goes to the quiz author. The wrong answers were mostly so off the wall that it wasn’t really difficult. The only one I actually had to guess was the one about Karl Lagerfeld, and that was a true-false, so the odds were better than when there are four answers. and, yes, Virgil called to say Happy Anniversary. You knew he would (I certainly did.)

Cartoon – My Everyday Erinyes (#369) is up here:

Short Takes –

Letters from an American – May 4, 2023
Quote – Weirdly, Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) at a Senate Budget Committee hearing today blamed Democrats for not raising the debt ceiling themselves last year without help from the Republicans. Kate Riga of Talking Points Memo broke down this argument. If the Democrats had raised the debt ceiling through reconciliation, without Republican votes, Republicans would have insisted that it was the Democrats, not them, who had burdened the country with debt when, in fact, the Republicans added almost $8 trillion to the debt under Trump. Romney’s complaint amounts to berating the responsible Democrats for not protecting the country against the Republicans, who are willing to burn down the country. As Riga put it: “Darn you Democrats for not taking care of the debt ceiling then, because you knew we’d refuse to raise the limit unless you conceded to our demands, and look what a sticky spot we’re in now.”
Click though for much more (Click “continue reading”). They used to say “Seinfeld” was a show about nothing. This, on the other hand, is a letter about everything.

Crooks & Liars – Texas Bill Would Allow State To Overturn Harris County Elections
Quote – The measures call for the “abolition” of election administrators in counties with populations larger than 1,000,000—a metric that only applies to Harris County, which Republican state lawmakers have taken a keen interest in in the aftermath of the 2022 midterm elections…. Since then, the Harris County Elections Office report concluded that they couldn’t determine if potential voters were pushed away because of the issues at polling centers.
CLick through for story. This is so blatant that even now I can hardly imagine it succeeding though the courts. Even the courts we have now. But there is always a possibility. Clearly they think they are on to something.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 5/2/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:03 pm Open Thread, Politics

May 022023

Glenn Kirschner – Trump attorney cross-examines E. Jean Carroll while Trump flys off to golf; judge DENIES mistrial

Foundation to Combat Antisemitism – #StandUpToJewishHate: Son

Farron Balanced – Trump’s Lawyer Gets Completely Humiliated By Judge At The Start Of Assault Trial (Not sure he’s actually capable of humiliation, but the judge did get in some good remarks.)