Glenn Kirschner – Disdain and disregard for the voters of Pennsylvania: Trump’s Election lies in the land of Oz
Meidas Touch – Beto O’Rourke brings THE HOUSE DOWN with EPIC answer on gun control
The Lincoln Project – This Man Votes
Farron Balanced – Lauren Boebert Accidentally Makes A Great Argument For Paid Family Leave
No Dem Left Behind – Meet the Not-So-Radical Left
Armageddon Update – Damn you, Biden!
Beau – Let’s talk about SCOTUS making it easier to buy a Senator….
Yesterday, I got up and checked the weather, and discovered we had had some snow, earlier that expected. I had to go out and brush it off before it froze – otherwise I’d never have been able to get it off this morning; But that had to wait until after the radio opera, which was Lucia di Lammermoor. Directors are always looking for new ways to stage this opera, likely because it is heard so often, and is so well written that, like La Boheme, there are some of us who know every note, and they want there to be some surprise. This production (though of course one can’t see it on the radio, but I saw some stills and watched a couple of shot excerpts) is supposed to be set in today’s American “rust belt,” but you wouldn’t go far wrog if you visualized “West Side Story.” But really, any environment with heavy-handed male domination works to conver how a young girl, emotionally (and mentally) fragile and with no allies, could reach the point murdering someone and then going into hallucinatory denial. Hence the “Mad Scene.” 19th century composers loved mad scenes because they were an excuse for highly decorated melidoes which could have nothing to do with anything actually happening (and of course sopranos love them too), and the one in “Lucia” is the best known for good reasons. But they were so prevalent, there is even a short one in the Ring Cycle (though it was only recently I realized that – it’s not presented as one.) Finally, I sent copies to Mitch of all your responses to the update in Thursday’s Open Thread and he wants to thank everyomne.
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George Takei’s Comic Sands – GOP Group That Helped Take Down Cawthorn Now Has Their Sights Set On Boebert—And Critics Can’t Wait
Quote – So the American Muckrakers PAC said they are going after Boebert next with damaging info. Apparently they had a hand in Cawthorn’s demise. This should be fun…. They are starting with her finances. In the fall, it was reported Boebert wrongly used campaign funds to pay for her rent and utility bill. This came about when $6,650 was exchanged via Venmo with the payment labeled “personal expenses.
Click through. This may be the best news I’ve had all week.
HuffPost – Tucker Carlson Asked Hunter Biden For Help With His Son’s Georgetown Application
Quote – “Tucker and I have the greatest respect and admiration for you. Always!” Susie Carlson wrote back. “I can’t thank you enough for writing that letter to Georgetown on Buckley’s behalf,” Tucker Carlson wrote to Biden a day later. “So nice of you. I know it’ll help. Hope you’re great and we can all get dinner soon.” The emails were part of records retrieved from a laptop Biden reportedly left at a Delaware repair shop in 2019, first reported by The New York Post.
Click through for story. To me the biggest story is that tucker ever had enough testosterobe to father a son. DNA testing anyone? And the second biggest surprise is that Tucker once had a decent human being as a friend.
Crooks and Liars – In Case Alex Jones Isn’t Detestable Enough, There’s This
Quote – [Marcel Fontaine] notified Jones that he was not the shooter. They ignored him. When he began to get threats, he notified them again that they were broadcasting a picture of the wrong person. The picture identifying him as the shooter remained on Jones’ website for a full day, visited by hundreds of thousands of people.
Click through for disgusting details. Jones should be held fully accountable for this. But who thinks Ken Pazton is going to prosecute?
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – All of gov’t approach to deal w/unrestricted gun access + unrestricted hate speech inciting violence
Meidas Touch – Former Federal Prosecutor REACTS to DOJ request of Jan 6 Committee Transcripts
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – May 17,2022
Robert Reich – This One Thing Is Making Your Life More Expensive
MSNBC – Why We Can’t Keep Ignoring Political Extremism
Ring of Fire – Trump Tells Dr Oz To Just Declare Victory As Votes Are Still Being Counted
Beau – Let’s talk about a problem at an intelligence school….
Glenn Kirschner – J6 subpoena puts McCarthy in a trick bag: testify & incriminate Trump or refuse & commit crimes
Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Republicans Spreading Racist White Replacement Theory
MSNBC – Lawrence: ‘Fox News Has Blood On Its Hands’
Also MSNBC – DOJ Requesting Transcripts From 1/6 Committee According To NYT
The Lincoln Project – Remember Buffalo
Pittie Has The Cutest Way Of Grooming Her Foster Kittens
Beau – Let’s talk about midterm math for Democrats….
Yesterday, I watched a Sixty Minutes segment (during that hour I avoid the radio -its only about 27 minutes, so I also watched something else – a documentary about the WWII British equivalent of Tucker Carlson – mildly interesting.) If you watch 60 mnutes you have probably seen the segment. If not, you may want to bookmark this for when you have a spare half hour. It’s the story of a black family who purchase a large home which turns out to have been, not just a plantation, but the plantation on which their ancestors were enslaved. Simply amazing. Here’s the link. I also managed to get trash ans recyclables out to the curb (It only took me about a half hour and a few extra CBD gummies to recover from that.)
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CPR News – ‘I’m not giving up’: Sen. Michael Bennet’s drive to make the expanded Child Tax Credit permanent
Quote – The pandemic-relief package, known as the American Rescue Plan, expanded the Child Tax Credit for one year, made it fully refundable, so the poorest families could benefit, and for the last half of 2021, sent it in the form of monthly checks to families, turning it into a reliable income supplement…. Bennet’s frustration that the expanded benefit was not made permanent, or even just extended, is palpable…. “I’m not giving up. And I don’t think we should give up. And I, frankly, I’m not giving up until we have an economy that when it grows, it grows for everybody, not just the people at the very top. And I think we can do that too,”
Click through for story. Colorado would have to be crazy not to re-elect Senator Bennet. (And it’s because part of Colorado IS crazy that I became a – small- monthly donor to the campaign.)
HuffPost – Living With The Far-Right Insurgency In Idaho
Quote – [White nationalist Vincent James Foxx] is one of many far-right activists who have flocked to Idaho in recent years, where a large and growing radical MAGA faction in the state’s Republican Party has openly allied itself with extremists to a shocking extent, even for the Trump era. This faction is accruing more and more power in Boise, the state capital: Imagine a statehouse full of Marjorie Taylor Greenes and Steve Kings. At the local level, they have seized seats on school boards and county commissions at a fast clip.
Click through for details. Idaho is pretty much every bit as LDS as Utah – just not as publicly. I don’t know what the position, or the participation of the LDS Church is in this – but I’ll bet there is some. The church just possibly could surprise us.
The Hill – House passes domestic terrorism bill in mostly party-line vote
Quote – The bill calls for establishing a Domestic Terrorism Unit in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the DHS, which would be tasked with observing and examining domestic terrorism activity, in addition to a Domestic Terrorism Office in the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division of the DOJ, which would look into and prosecute domestic terrorism incidents and communicate with the Civil Right Division about occurrences that may be considered hate crimes.
Click through for discussion and details. This could work, if only the government (federal and atate) would stop assuming that it’s only terrorism if a non-white person does it – when the reverse is closer to the truth.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Unrestricted guns + unrestricted hate speech = today’s American. Our government CAN tackle this
Meidas Touch – Francis EXPOSES Tucker Carlson’s influence on Buffalo Hate Crime
MSNBC – Garland Signals Criminal Case That May Involve Donald Trump Is Not Out Of Bounds (just in case you missed those magical, musical words “Grand Jury”)
No Dem Left Behind – No Dem Left Behind Endorses John Fetterman for U.S. Senate (PA)
San Francisco DA Recall – Dr. Angela Davis Opposes Prop H (I know everyone remebers her.)
CNN – ‘Millions of people absorb this garbage’: Acosta calls out Carlson for dangerous rhetoric (Acosta can usually be counted on to speak out … but one Acosta is not enough. We also have Lawrence, Ari, Mehdi, Chris, and Rachel – whom too few people watch.)
Beau- Let’s talk about why I look left and expectations….
Glenn Kirschner – If Kevin McCarthy defies subpoena, concealingTrump’s crimes, he is guilty of misprision of a felony
Meidas Touch – School Board member BLASTS parents for using religion to target LGBTQ kids (Academy District 20 is in northern Colorado Springs. Yay!)
The Lincoln Project – What was that, Elise?
MSNBC – Chris Hayes On Taking Paxlovid And What He Learned From His Covid Experience
San Francisco DA Recall – Lawrence Krasner Opposes the Recall (Remember him? Progressive Philadelphia DA? I’ve written about him, and he was in a Sam Bee segment. (IMO if we are ever going to get police reform, it will be through progressive prosecutors.)
I try not to put two Beaus in the same post, but these two make one story, so I made an exception.
Beau – Let’s talk about inflation and Biden….
and
Beau – Let’s talk about baby formula, Biden, and solutions….
Yesterday, my radio station played (an orchestral arrangement of ) the Welsh song usually translated as “Men of Harlech.” I first learned it when I was a little girl – but today it made me think of Ukraine. It’s known to date back to the Wars of the Roses, but may be even older, from 1408, when Prince Hal (the future Henry V) invaded it to annex it. Here’s a short quote from the oldest published English translation (1873):
Know that freedom’s cause is strongest,
Freedom’s courage lasts the longest,
Ending but with death!
Freedom countless hosts can scatter,
Freedom stoutest mail can shatter,
Freedom thickest walls can batter,
Fate is in her breath.
Sadly, the Welsh lost that battle and became part of the UK … but not part of England, even now. They have held on to their language and culture, and their status as a nation, to this day.
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Media Matters – Fox’s modest proposal for baby formula crisis: Starve migrant babies
Quote – Meanwhile, there is currently a major shortage of baby formula in the United States. There are many reasons for this shortage, including the consolidation of formula suppliers, supply chain issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, bacterial contamination that forced a recall of some formula stocks and the shuttering of a major manufacturing plant, U.S. trade policy, and the general disregard U.S. policy has for children. The shortage is a crisis for many parents, who are unable to find the food they need for their babies.
Click through for more. ICYMI, the term “Modest Proposal” is a reference to a satirical essay by Jonathan Swift regarding famine and babies (written IIRC during the Irish potato famine.)
Letters from an American – May 15, 2022
Quote – They also drew from America’s own version of a theory of replacement. That theory comes out of the 1870s and was explicitly connected to voting…. The violence of the 1876 election, along with fears of what their lives would look like in its wake, led Black Americans to leave the South in a movement known as the Exodus…. When Black Americans began to come to their state, Indiana Democrats immediately howled that the Republicans were importing Black migrants to shift the state back toward the Republicans in the 1880 election…. [T]he conspiracy theory took root. White Hoosier Democrats met Black migrants with showers of rocks and vowed to “clean out all the g–d d– –n***ers in the county before the [1880] election.”
Cick through for history and discussion. The only replacement of voters which is happening is in the course of nature, Yes, a few people do leave the US, and a few come here (though it takes a while to become a citizen, but the biggest influence is that older peole die and children reach voting age.That process happens to people of every color, and incidentally every gender – and has done so since the beginning of time. (Although Texas Paul has a slightly different take on it.) Wouldn’t you think Talibangelicals would think that trying to stop or change it was against God’s will? Alas, no consistency there.
The Daily Beast – Hero California Church Members Hog-Tied Gunman Who Killed 1, Hurt 5
Quote – After the initial gunfire, Hallock said, “a group of church-goers detained him and hog-tied his legs with an extension cord and confiscated at least two weapons.” The man had two handguns, police said…. Peggy Huang, a Yorba Linda city councilwoman who[se] parents are members of the congregation but were not present, told the Los Angeles Times that witnesses told her that after the shooting started, the pastor hit the gunman with a chair and other members accosted him.
Click through for details. Most of the parishoners appear to be in their seventies and up. There was no “good guy with a gun” here – the only weapon used was a chair. Older people are often underestimated.
Food For Thought
