Dec 072023
 

I missed a positive story last week, and am just picking it up today.  The Colorado state Peace Officers Standards and Training board has voted, unanimously and without debate, to strike the controversial diagnosis “excited delirium” from all training documents starting in January.  Yes, this is a move which is long overdue – and is srill long overdue nationally (although every state which does the right thingh helps) – the whole idea is not just a dog whistle but an extremely loud one – and eliminating it will certainly not replace the injustice of the treatment of Elijah McClain’s killers (five were charged, three have been tried of whom two were acquitted and one convicted of a lesser offense, two – both EMTs – are yet to be tried.)  But it is one small gleam of light in a far too big darkness.

Here are two cartoons about Pearl Harbor Day, both drawn from a column filled with them – here’s the link if you can handle the rest of them.

Share
Oct 282023
 

Yesterday, the mass shooting in Maine reached some other news outlets, including Wonkette. I heard about it a couple of days ago from Joyce Vance. I wanted more detail before passing it on, but her take did inspire me to make today’s cartoon, and bump a different one (which I hadn’t finished anyway). Also, I received the email that my ballot has been counted. I can now display the “I voted” sticker, which was thoughtfully included in the envelope with the blank ballot. And I came across today’s Food for Thought, which is clearly a Public Service Announcement, so by all means pass it on.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Wonkette (Substack) – Search Continues For Whichever Antifa Biden Lib Forced Maine Shooter To Pretend To Be A Right-Winger
Quote – America is picking its way through the aftermath of yet another mass shooting, this time in Lewiston, Maine, where at least 18 people died and at least 13 others were wounded … when another previously law abiding gun owner stopped abiding the law and shot up a bowling alley and a restaurant. The reported casualty numbers … have varied widely, and may well rise. The suspected shooter is still at large as we write this, as law enforcement from all over join in searching for the shooter or perhaps his body and cable news fills time with expert opinion. People in the area have been told to shelter in place until the shooter is found. Businesses and schools are closed in Lewiston and several other locations around the state.
Click through for details – not that they aren’t much like every other details from every other mass shooting ever. Only the names and the numbers seem to change.

The Root – Freddie Krueger Who? Karen is the Real Face of Terror For Black America
Quote – In a world where law enforcement violence against Black Americans is far too common, where stereotypes still abound, the true face of terror is not Chucky or the Nun. It’s Karen…. Doesn’t matter if the Black person in question is a man or a woman. Doesn’t matter if they are strong or weak. Doesn’t matter if they are an adult or a child. Karen can get them. She can still drag them to hell.
Click through for story. Heaven knows people of any hue can find Karens annoying. But white people tend not to think of them as weapons of war. We need to look harder – and deeper. This goes back at leeast to the antebellum south and the character of “Miss Ann.” And it has been, and still can be, deadly.

Food For Thought

Share
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.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

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

Share
Oct 192023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Did Donald Trump ALREADY violate Judge Chutkan’s gag order? The answer might surprise you.

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican – October 17, 2023

Robert Reich – From Robber Barons to Bezos: Is History Repeating Itself?

Puppet Regime – Vladimir Putin travels time, everything is fine! | P

Rescuers Search Everywhere For Mother Of Kittens Found In Sewer

Beau – Let’s talk about surprising witness in the Georgia case….

Share
Oct 142023
 

Glenn Kirschner – In NY fraud trial, Trump prepares to make mean faces at former lawyer turned witness Michael Cohen

The Lincoln Project – Appeasement

PBS – Amanpour & Company – Historian Heather Cox Richardson: GOP “Has Become an Extremist Faction”
It’s all good, but I cut off some at the beginning that I thought was more fammiliar to make it more watchable length-wise, and get straight to the nitty-gritty.

Liberal Redneck – Liberal Redneck – RFK Jr. Runs as Independent (ad in middle – ignore or skip)

Giant Dogs Get New Baby Brother To Look After

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump being worried about another candidate….

Share
Oct 102023
 

Yesterday being a holiday, the courts and everything else were closed, and in any case all eyes were on the Middle East. In that connection, I would say only that, just because a person belongs to a group which has actually, historically, been victimized (as opposed to, say, MAGAts, who who do a lot of whining but are no more victims than, oh, say American police union members) does not mean a person cannot be a jerk. Well, also, that pointing out that something a person is doing is morally questionable at best is not the same thing as calling that person an unmitigated moral degenerate. Screaming insults and accusations does not a conversation make. If I knew how to say that so that a substantial majority of humans would actually hear it, I definitely would. But I don’t. I do want to mention that Pat B.’s family has sustained a loss, and I don’t know, nor does she, how long she will be MIA, but it will be a while.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Wonkette (Substack) – NYTimes Compares Conservatives Annoyed By Unhoused People To Parents Of Trans Kids Being Denied Healthcare
Quote – It’s lovely that they are happy, that they feel safer, and that they are not annoying the good people of Portland with their bullshit. Couldn’t be happier for them! But they’re also entirely ridiculous. Troy is a rural town with a population of 15,000, while Portland is a bustling metropolis with a population of about 641,000. Obviously there would be more crime there. There would also be less crime in any town in Oregon with a population of 15,000, owing to the fact that there are just fewer people to do any crime. That’s just math. In fact, it would likely be a lot more safe, as Missouri has the ninth highest violent crime rate in the nation, while Oregon ranks 36th. Troy is an exurb of St. Louis, the city with the highest crime rate in the United States. Portland? Portland has the 62nd highest crime rate of any city in the United States, even with all them liberal policies what so frightened the Huckinses. Oh, and St. Louis only has about a third of the population of Portland.
Click through for article. Today’s FFT is from this article, and IMO summarizes it well.

Thomas Zimmer (also Substack – sorry) – Why America’s Elites Love to Decry “Polarization”
Quote – In the final third of the book, Klein himself emphasizes that we are not looking at a radicalization on both sides of the political spectrum. He emphasizes the difference between the Right, entirely focused on the interests and sensibilities of white conservatives, and a Democratic coalition that is much more diverse – ideologically, racially and ethnically, and in terms of cultural sensibilities: “Sorting has made Democrats more diverse and Republicans more homogeneous. As a result, appealing to Democrats requires appealing to a lot of different kinds of people with different interests.” (p. 230) As a matter of fact, Klein sees Democrats as extremely resistant to political extremism due to this heterogeneity of their supporters: “Democrats,” the author argues, “have an immune system of diversity and democracy.” (Why We’re Polarized, p. 229)
Click through for full argument. While I certainly feel polarized, in that I feel that MAGA lunacy is the polar opposite of my beliefs, he’s right. True polarization requires both sides to be “the same” but in opposite directions. And both sides are not the same.  Not in any way.

Food For Thought

Share
Oct 092023
 

Glenn Kirschner – -Donald Trump compromises our national security & then . . . ruminates on being Speaker of the House.

The Lincoln Project – Vision

Thom Hartmann – Will Trump’s Mouth Cause MORE Deaths?

Columbus Day … from Full Frontal … with Deb Haaland

Deaf Cat Loves Riding Around London With Her Dad

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump, troops, and truth….

Share
Oct 092023
 

Yesterday, I saw Virgil (who returns all greetings, spoken and unspoken.) We played Scrabble, getting very liberal, even multilingual, especially the last game. But it’s all in fun. After I got home and posted my safe note, I was listening to tha radio and heard something I certainly never dreaned it was possible, and I’m not 100% positive how it was done. I heard four snare drum rolls (2 sets of 2) played by a classical guitarist, on the classical guitar. It was in an orchestral piece, transcribed for guitar, which starts with a little fanfare of two drum roll and then repeats it later. It was a piece I’m familiar with, so though they didn’t sound exactly like drum rolls, I recognized immediately what they were meant for. No transcription ever sounds exactly like the orchestral piece anyway, so I thought they were pretty darned good. My best guess is that he knocked or slapped the guitar through the open strings – but that’s quite a feat , since the parts of the strings that are directly over the sound box of the guitar are mostly over the sound hole.

I apologize for not making a graphic for Indigenoua People’s Day. The reason was that – there are so many tribes – all over the Americas – and every single one of them has rich cultural traditions and images – and every single tribe also survived over 2000 years by living sustainably. Even just in my corner of the United States there are multiple tribes with multiple traditions. And I didn’t want to leave anyone out, nor did I want to fall back on stereotypes, many of which are not even respectful. So I’ll just wish you a happy indigenous people’s day and leave it at that.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

TeenVogue – The Supreme Court Must Protect Domestic Violence Survivors By Overturning the Rahimi Decision
Quote – When I was a young girl living in South Carolina, my mother, Patricia Ann, was shot and killed by an abusive dating partner. He murdered her in front of my three younger sisters — who were 10, 11, and 12 at the time — with an sawed-off shotgun. He was a convicted felon who should never have had access to the firearm he used to take our mother away from us forever. My sisters and I are grown now, but we still feel her absence every single day…. The Fifth Circuit’s decision in Rahimi is putting domestic violence survivors living in the Fifth Circuit in danger right now. I know firsthand that this is not an abstract exercise. If the decision is not reversed, domestic violence survivors face the prospect that their abusers can arm themselves immediately. This ruling is a potential death sentence for countless women and families.
Click through for article. If you had the idea that TeenVogue was a shallow, ditsy publication all about clothes, makeup, and maybe a little sex, hold that thought – for when you are around MAGAts. For the sake of democracy, never let them find out how woke it is. It is stepping in where schools and scared parents fear to tread – has actually been doing so for some time.

Colorado Public Radio – Colorado’s Black history — and future — go on display in a new unlikely center of Black culture: Boulder
Quote – [A] new exhibit at the Museum of Boulder, called “Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History,” gives the community and the state another chance to reflect on the past, celebrate the accomplishments of those who have persevered, and create joy for the future. The exhibit opened Sept. 29, and the museum plans to have it on display for two years. It comes shortly after a documentary released in 2022 called “This Is [Not] Who We Are,” which explores “the gap between Boulder’s progressive self-image and the lived experiences of its Black citizens,” and the opening of the university’s new Center for African and African-American Studies, which is meant in part to help build community…. Adrian Miller, the lead curator of the new Museum of Boulder exhibit… is conscious of the specific cultural moment when this exhibit is opening, three years after massive protests for racial justice, and amidst a celebration of Black culture in Boulder centered around the football coach.
Click through for story and some pictures. CPR calls Boulder “unlikely” on the basis that Boulder is like 90% white and only 1% black. But the thing is, the main University of Colorado is there. And one of the things Republicans hate about education, especially higher education, is that academics tend not to shy away from research, from finding out truth, and then from sharing that truth. My only issue with this being in Boulder is hoping that fact doesn’t turn out to limit access.

Food For Thought

Share