Everyday Erinyes #361

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 4:39 pm Politics

Mar 122023

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

Today’s article is a bit old also, but in a week when The Conversation is featuring, among others, an article on why there are many other math constants which deserve their own day because why should pi have all the recognition, I believe this is a bit more important. Back in the day, before Democrats owned civil rights, there were more than a few Democrats who were not unwilling to weaponize government, and I don’t doubt some can be found today, because no one is perfect, and that goes exponentially for groups. But it is Republicans, who have invented a Subcommittee in the House on the “Weaponzation of Government,” who are the current masters of it – and have been for some time.
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The weaponization of the federal government has a long history

President Nixon urged the IRS to audit his perceived enemies; Donald Trump wanted to do the same.
LPettet/ iStock / Getty Images Plus

Ken Hughes, University of Virginia

Now that House Republicans have created a “Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government,” let’s revisit a classic of that power-abusing genre, featuring its greatest star, Richard M. Nixon.

The subcommittee’s express purpose is investigating federal investigators for alleged “illegal or improper, unconstitutional, or unethical activities,” at which Nixon was an acknowledged master. I’ve been listening to Nixon abuse power on the secret White House tapes for two decades with the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. I’ve written about his decisions to sabotage Vietnam peace talks to damage the Democrats’ 1968 presidential campaign, to time his withdrawal from Vietnam to help his 1972 reelection campaign, and to spring former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa from prison in return for the union’s political support.

This story is a forgotten sequel to the Watergate break-in. No one has ever proved that President Nixon ordered burglars to photograph documents and plant listening devices at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, known as the DNC.

But Nixon himself created proof that he abused his presidential authority to go after the DNC with the investigative powers of the Internal Revenue Service. He captured this high crime on tape less than two months after the Watergate burglars’ arrests.

‘Can’t we investigate people?’

“Are we looking over the financial contributors of the Democratic National Committee?” Nixon asked his chief of staff on Aug. 3, 1972. “Are we running their income tax returns? Or is the Justice Department checking to see whether or not there’s any antitrust suits? Do we have anything going on any of these things?”

“Not as far as I know,” said H.R. “Bob” Haldeman.

“We have all this power and we aren’t using it. Now, what the Christ is the matter?” Nixon asked.

Two men in suits walking on a path toward the White House. — President Richard Nixon walks with his assistant H.R. Haldeman from the Executive Office Building to the White House for a Cabinet meeting in December 1969.
AP photo/file

“We’ve got a guy who’s a pluperfect bastard. He’s a loyalist – he’s a fanatic loyalist – in the IRS,” said John D. Ehrlichman, whose title was assistant to the president for domestic affairs and whose job was henchman.

“He’s with us, you mean?” Nixon asked.

“He’s our guy,” Ehrlichman said. “One Treasury secretary after another, starting with [David M.] Kennedy, [John B.] Connally, now [George P.] Shultz, has said, ‘Oh, Jesus, can’t you get this guy out of there? Can’t you just take him out? He’s making all kinds of trouble for us. He’s too partisan.’”

The president’s mood darkened. “Shultz is not long for this life, in my opinion, because he’s not being political enough,” Nixon said. “I don’t care how nice a guy is. I don’t care how good an economist he is. We can’t have this bullshit.” His frustration was growing. “Can’t we investigate people?” Nixon asked. “Is there anything we can do?”

“Yes,” Ehrlichman said.

“I would think that we could get some people with some guts in the second term, when we don’t care about repercussions,” Haldeman said.

Nixon wanted to do something immediately about the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Larry O’Brien. O’Brien directed John F. Kennedy’s victorious presidential campaign in 1960 and Lyndon B. Johnson’s in 1964. “If you could dirty up O’Brien now, I think it might be a lot better than to wait until later,” Nixon said.

Two men in suits sitting at a table strewn with papers. — President Nixon, right, at a meeting with aide John D. Ehrlichman in 1972.
AP photo

Abuse of power

Under pressure from the White House, the IRS subjected O’Brien to an audit during the 1972 presidential campaign. The audit found a “relatively small deficiency,” which O’Brien promptly paid. Treasury Secretary Shultz and IRS Commissioner Johnnie Walters told Ehrlichman there was nothing more they could do.

“I wanted them to turn up something and send him to jail before the election,” Ehrlichman later said. There are few purer expressions of authoritarianism than an attempt to jail the titular head of the opposition party during a campaign.

Shortly before Nixon resigned in 1974, the House Judiciary Committee cited his abuse of his power over the IRS in an article of impeachment.

Chief of staff: Trump requested audits

In 1998, Congress made it a felony for a president to “request, directly or indirectly,” an IRS audit or investigation.

None of that stopped President Donald Trump from requesting IRS audits, according to his own former White House chief of staff, John Kelly.

“I would say, ‘It’s inappropriate, it’s illegal, it’s against their integrity, and the IRS knows what it’s doing, and it’s not a good idea,’” Kelly told The New York Times in November 2022.

Two men in suits, one with a bright red tie, in an elegant room. — White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, right, says that President Donald Trump wanted the IRS to conduct audits on people Trump had publicly attacked.
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Trump said the IRS should investigate two former FBI officials, Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Kelly said. Trump has publicly, and baselessly, accused Comey and McCabe of treason, a capital crime.

After Kelly left the White House, both Comey and McCabe were subjected to unusually intense IRS audits, the kind tax lawyers refer to as “an autopsy without the benefit of death,” New York Times reporter Michael S. Schmidt wrote. Through a spokeswoman, Trump denied any knowledge of the audits. A Trump spokeswoman also denied Kelly’s account.

If Kelly told the truth, then Donald Trump managed to weaponize the IRS more effectively than Richard Nixon. That’s a sentence that I, as the author of two books on Nixon’s worst abuses of power, found difficult to type.

Kelly has made exactly the kind of credible allegation that a “Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government” worthy of the name would investigate. Yet none of the Republicans who spoke before their party-line vote to establish the subcommittee expressed any interest in investigating government weaponization by politicians of their own party.

Congress has the power, even the obligation, to unearth and eliminate government weaponization. But if the subcommittee abuses its power for partisan ends, it will merely be an example of the problem it’s supposed to solve.

Ken Hughes, Research Specialist, the Miller Center, University of Virginia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, while Nixon was pretty blatant about his desire and actions to weaponize the Federal Government, he also did not act alone. And he was clever – or whatever that was – enough to keep his involvelent mostly out of the public eye. Today’s Republicans are more obvious, and are enabled to be so by the brainwashing propaganda they are aware that their voters are being stuffed with – and sometimes are the creators of that propaganda. Most of us could probably cite many of the steps by which we got here – but the question is how do we get away from here? (And Echo answers, “How?”)

The Furies and I will be back.

Open Thread March 12, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 122023

Yesterday, the radio opera was Verdi’s “La Traviata,” an opera which I have never gotten tired of yet. Based on “La Dame aux Camélias” by Alexandre Dumas fils, first as a novel, then as a play (the play in English speaking countries is usually referred to as “Camille” – ironic because in French speaking countries “Camille” is a man’s name). The Greta Garbo movie was called “Camille.” Neither the play nor the opera was performed as being contemporary when they were new (the mid-nineteenth century), being considered too scandalous. They were often set in the 18th century. An Art Nouveau (gilded age) poster survives which shows Sarah Bernhardt as Marguerite (Violetta in the opera) in gilded age dress. In the 2000’s a German director, Willy Decker, staging it for an Austrian music festival, created a production in which the stage was very minimalistic, Violetta wore a sleeveless, full skirted (just about to the knee) red dress and red spiked heels, and literally everyone else wore modern male clothing, including the women, except one dude in the third scene who showed up in drag in a mockery of her dress, emotionally kicking her when she’s down. Her doctor, who only sings in the final scene, has mute business at different points throughout, including during the prelude, often conected with the huge clock face which dominates all the scenes except the one where she enjoys her brief happiness – because in addition to being her doctor he also represents the death which is inevitable for her, always hanging over her. People either love it or hate it, and I kind of did both. I hated the isolated scenes I saw of it first, but when I was able to see the whole thing – now I don’t think I want to see it any other way. (But I can still listen to it.) Here’s a review of the Decker production when it first came to the Met, if anyone cares. It is no longer being used at the Met, which has gone all the way back to the 18th century for now. Also in the broadcast was an interview with the general manager about the plans for next year, and there will be 4 Late 20th or 21st century operas never before presented at the Met, plus two more repeated from the last two seasons. Opening night will be “Dead Man Walking.” We won’t hear it then, because the radio season doesn’t start till over a month after the house opens, but I hope and trust we will hear it sometime – and hopefully all the others too.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Daily Beast – She Used a DNA Test to Identify Her Dad—and Her Mom’s Rapist
Quote – Cruz eventually sought help from [her attorney, Susan] Crumiller, a well-known legal advocate for sexual abuse survivors. They worked together to devise a legal strategy that would reopen the statute of limitations and allow them to seek justice. Then, in May of last year, New York passed the Adult Survivor’s Act, which opened a one-year “lookback window” for complaints of sexual abuse that were past the statute of limitations—complaints just like Cruz’s…. “My mother has had a hard life, and I hope this lawsuit will help her get the care that she deserves after OPWDD failed to protect her from her attacker 37 years ago,” she said in a statement.
Click through for story. The motto of the Daily Beast is “Truth is a beast” – and this story certainly demonstrates that.

Raw Story – Election denier Tina Peters found guilty — and could be going to jail
Quote – Peters, a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist, is best known for being indicted last year on completely separate charges of election tampering and misconduct, after she allegedly breached voting equipment to try to prove the 2020 presidential election was stolen. While her case was underway, she ran for Secretary of State of Colorado, and lost the GOP primary. She then had another arrest warrant issued against her after allegedly violating the terms of a protective order by contacting her former Mesa County office to demand a recount of that election.
Click through for details. As far as I know she’s no DNA relation to Lauren Boebert, but they are certainly two of a kind – the law doesn’t apply to them – just ask them.

Food For Thought

Open Thread February 25, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:11 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 252023

Yesterday, It warmed up above freezing and the snow is mostly gone from where it needs to be gone. Today (and tomorrow) should be warmer. I did listen to the concert “For Ukraine: A Concert of Rememberance and Hope.” It began with a video message from Olena Zelenska (Debra Lou Harder read out the English subtitles.) I was choked up before the first note (which was the first note of the Unkrainian National Anthem, BTW.) If you saw “Amadeus,” you’ll remember several chunks from the Mozart Requiem, and of course everyone recognizes Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. They are actually less familiar to the performers than to the audience – opera orchestras don’t generally play sumphonies, and opera choruses seldom sing Requiems, though top rank vocal soloists do, at least on occasion. The “Prayer for Ukraine” was part of the first Met concert for Ukraine. Yes, this is alot of music analysis. But as someone cited from Heine, (it may have been the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, or one of the two Ukrainian soloists), “When words leave off, music begins.” They posted the program on line (part of it – they cut out the advertising.) And – speaking of Ukraine and music …

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Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Broadway Star Ben Platt Condemns ‘Evil’ Neo-Nazis After ‘Parade’ Protest
Quote – The show, a Broadway transfer from the Encores! concert series, is based on the true story of a Jewish factory superintendent, Leo Frank, who was falsely convicted of killing 13-year-old employee Mary Phagan in 1913, and who was kidnapped from prison and lynched two years later…. [A] masked activist from the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi hate group, tried to leaflet theater-goers outside the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre so they could “find out the truth” about the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), as well as Parade. “You’re paying 300 bucks to go fucking worship a pedophile, you might as well know what you’re talking about,” the masked person said.
Click through for article. This is bad enough – but the same people who staged this outrage have also designated today as a “National Day of Hate.” At least in many large cities, it’s being reported that law enforcement is providing extra protectio to synagogues.

Letters From An American – February 19, 2023
Quote – Today is the anniversary of the day in 1942, during World War II, that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 enabling military authorities to designate military areas from which “any or all persons may be excluded.” That order also permitted the secretary of war to provide transportation, food, and shelter “to accomplish the purpose of this order.” … On March 2, 1942, General John DeWitt put Executive Order 9066 into effect. He signed Public Proclamation No. 1, dividing the country into military zones and, “as a matter of military necessity,” excluding from certain of those zones “[a]ny Japanese, German, or Italian alien, or any person of Japanese Ancestry.”
Click through for Letter. There is Nick Anderson the basketball player, and there is Nick Anderson the cartoonist, but the Nick Anderson to whom Heather refers is neither of them. He is a young reporter for the Washington Post. I can’t provide a gift link – my cousin is all out of them for this month. Here’s the paywalled link. But hHeather does a gret job and you may not need or want it.

Food For Thought

Open Thread February 22, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:59 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 222023

Yesterday, I learned that over 13,000 people have donated over $500,000 to Adam Frisch, just since he announced a week earlier. (I was one – I didn’t send much, but I’ll be sending it monthly.) A lot of people must hate Boebert. We just need more of them to live in her district. The profile for the current snowstorm looks pretty much like that last one – with the temperature continuing to drop after the snow stops falling, not getting higher than freezing the following day or much above the second day, and then back to the fifties as if nothing happened (sounds Republican, doesn’t it?) And I was hung up for a bit in a back-and-forth with my cousin about some news stories. It did provide me with some material, which I’ll credit when I use it. Oh, and the cherry on the sundae is that the Virginia special election for a House seat was won by the Deomcrat. Yeah!

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Short Takes –

Daily Beast – Biden’s Trip to Kyiv is the Ultimate Humiliation for Putin—and Trump
Quote – Kennedy and then Reagan in Berlin. Now Biden in Kyiv. Periodically during the past sixty years, American presidents have stood up at the Eastern edge of Europe and looked to Russia to say, “We stand with our allies. Our resolve is unshakeable.” Kennedy said, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev tear down that wall.” Biden, on his surprise President’s Day visit to Kyiv said, “One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands.”
Click through for article. Interesting to put this event into this particular historical context. (Steve Schmidt did so also.) And there’s more than that.

Sherrilyn’s Newsletter – A Response to Conor Friedersdorf
Quote – This was supposed to be a Twitter thread – a response to the recent newsletter in the Atlantic written by Conor Friedersdorf in which he announces that “the Black Lives Matter approach” to ending police violence against Black people “has largely failed.” But now that the video of the brutal and savage murder of Tyre Nichols in Memphis has also been released, and the 5 officers (all Black) charged, what I have to say cannot be managed in a Twitter thread. Because I suspect that many white people – and perhaps Black people as well – will ask as Friedersdorf does: “What happened to national outrage over police killings?” And perhaps like Friedersdorf they will even take the step to conclude after viewing this latest horror, that the demand to end police violence – “the Black Lives Matter approach” has failed. And this, the willingness to cast the failure of white people to effectively confront and contain the manifestations of violent white supremacy as Black civil rights failure, deserves a strong response.
Click through. Joyce Vance recommends Sherrilyn’s Newsletter, in particular this article. I respect Joyce and, still mourning Gwen, I am always consoled that Sherrilyn, her cousin (their fathers were brothers) is still with us. (Conor Friedersdorf, on the other hand, is apparently a jerk, and, sadly, a very literate one.)

Food For Thought

Open Thread February 19, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:15 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 192023

Yesterday, The radio opera was “Don Carlo” by Verdi, based on a play by Schiller (another playwright whose work inspired multiple operas, the best known besides this one being “Maria Stuarda” by Donizetti and “William Tell” by Rossini.) All three of those are based on actual historical characters, but hoo boy, is the history – and in this one characterization – off. And probably wrongest with Don Carlo himself.He is depicted as maybe a little hot-headed, but enlightened and idealistic. In reality, the best decription of this Spanish prince would be the line from “Greater Tuna” – “Vera, that boy ain’t right.” The one character in Don Carlo whom Schiller invented is Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa. He is the nicest and best human being in the opera. Well, we can’t have that in aplay/opera including the Spanish Inquisition, so he gets killed near the end. He does get the most beautuiful aria to die to in the opera, in fact one of thee best I’ve ever heard. So there are plenty of audience tears to water his imaginary grave. King Philip gets a nice aria too, and basses love to sing it, but given the context it strikes me as a bit ridiculous. His wife was engaged to his son first, and they had a chance to meet, and being two young healthy and attractive people (at least in theory) they naturally fell in love. Their marriage is supposed to be part of a peace treaty between Spain and France. When twice-widowed Philip decides to marry her himself, and for the sake of her country’s peace she agrees, I mean, what did he expect? Now, after all these years he’s whining “She never loved me.” Dude, you should be grateful that, not loving you, she was faithful to ypu in spite of all temptations. Such a Republican fantasy world. Possibly the most interesting character (at least the real-life one) is the Princess Eboli. She doesn’t come across as terribly nice in the opera, but she does come across as strong, and she was that, along with being beautiful She lost an eye in her early teens playing with a bow and arrows – not something one would exoect a girl to do – and wore an eye patch the rest of her life, and was considered the most beautiful woman in Europe anyway. In Spain even today, she’s kind of a feminist icon. She gets two arias, one just to entertain the court, flashy and tells a story, but not personal, and the big one in the last act, after she has betrayed the queen and confessed to doing so, which is right from the depths of honesty and contains, not one, but two mood swings. Ah, well. In actual news, one of out lost submarines (which the Navy refers to as being “on Eternal Patrol”) has been found, off the coast ofJapan’s largest island, just about where it disappeared in 1944. There’s more information here.

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Short Takes –

PolitiZoom – Trump Thanks GA For ‘Total Exoneration’ Which Didn’t Take Place.
Quote – Once again we gather together, friends, to ask the eternal question: Is Donald Trump really that stupid or does he think that we are? Or, could it be both?… [A]pparently Trump didn’t get [the] memo. He’s off on a mad tangent now, that the redacted report which was released today is a “total exoneration” of him, because it doesn’t mention him by name. Whut?
Click through for details. I think he knows very well what the situation is and is just hoping to convince others. Why, since convincing others won’t stop prosecution? No – but it very well could get his dupes to take up arms.

The 19th – We asked lovers of Black literature to curate a Black resistance reading list. Here’s what they chose.
Quote – Each year, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, a group [Carter G.] Woodson founded, provides a theme for Black History Month. This year’s theme is Black resistance, which the group hopes will highlight the myriad ways Black people have used “to advocate for a dignified self-determined life in a just democratic society in the United States and beyond the United States political jurisdiction.” One way that Black people have always resisted oppression was through the use of the written word. During enslavement, reading, writing or teaching enslaved people to read and write was a crime punishable by torture, imprisonment or death.
Click through for full list. I wish I had had a list like this when I was in high school. i lived in a very white neighborhood until the age of five, and then moved into another one where I grea up. And went to very white schools. So white that I cannot remember anyone even mentioning black people until I read Huckleberry Finn and a couple of Rex Stout’s “Nero Wolfe” novels. At least all three of those were positive about black people – and “Huckleberry Finn” was also dismissive of whites who thought themselves superior, so I guess it could have been worse. And at least I did support the civil rights movement from the day I knew there was suxh a thing.

Food For Thought

Brilliantly created by our very own SoINeedAName:

Open Thread February 17, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:04 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 172023

Yesterday, when I checked around noon, the sun was bright, and a ggod deal of snow had melted, although the temperaure had not yet reach freezing (and would not all day.) I would have had a dry path from my door to the driveway, but not all the way to the mailbox. So the small package which was delivered Tuesday had to wait. Freezing temperatures shouldn’t hurt it as long as it’s dry. Also, it occurred to me that tday, February 17, is my PEBD (Pat will remember that acronym.) In plain English, it’s the day I signed the contract which both entitled and obliged me to report to Officer Candidate School to learn to be a Marine officer. The acronym stands for “Pay Entry Base Date,” I took my oath that day, and all my pay raises based on longevity went into effect that day in whatever year. And that original day was 57 years ago this year. Amazing. One more thing – I doubt anyone missed thepartial release of the Special Grand Jury report in Georgia, but just in case, here it is.

Cartoon – 17 0217Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

The 19th News – An Oklahoma judge just transferred a lesbian mom’s parental rights to her son’s sperm donor
Quote – Legal experts warn that the case could have substantial implications for marriage equality nationwide. Advocates battled a number of cases to enshrine same-sex marriage protections after the Supreme Court granted those rights nationwide in 2015. Among those fights was the right of parentage. The 2015 Supreme Court case Pavan v. Smith found that it was unconstitutional to treat queer couples differently than heterosexual couples when it came to presuming parentage. If married heterosexual couples were presumed to be parents of children born during their marriage, the same must be true for LGBTQ+ couples. However, laws vary state to state.
Click through for story. This case is so unusual I would hope it would not be much of a precedent – but with MAGAts you never know.

Letters from an American – February 12, 2023
Quote – On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky. Exactly 100 years later, journalists, reformers, and scholars meeting in New York City deliberately chose the anniversary of his birth as the starting point for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)…. The spark for the organization of the NAACP was a race riot in Springfield, Illinois, on August 14 and 15, 1908. The violence broke out after the sheriff transferred two Black prisoners, one accused of murder and another of rape, to a different town out of concern for their safety.
Click through for full letter. The NAACP is still around; over a hundred years later, it is needed as much as it has ever been.

Food For Thought

Just one from a remarkable set of photos – Five-year-old girl recreates photos of influential black women.

Open Thread February 15, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:49 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 152023

Yesterday, I got the New Yorker’s Name Drop on the first clue (and the cheeky little respone they provide, whether you get the answer or not, said “Now go tell everyone you know.”) I don’t know that everyoe would get it on the first clue (I happen to be a huge fan), but there’s a lot of information scattered through the six clues, and I think most people would get it at some point. But thegood news is that Dianne Feinstein has announced she will not run again. Not that there won’t be a primary, but it looks like it will be between Katie Porter and Adam Schiff, and possibly Barbara Lee. Much as I hate the thought of losing any from the House,let alone all three, any of them would dramatically improve the Senate. Does anyone know whether the losers will be able to run for their House seat instead? That varies from state to state, and I’m not even 100% positive how it works in mine. Speaking of mine, another announcement today – Adam Frisch will take on Boebert again.

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Short Takes –

PolitiZoom – Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls, GOP. It Tolls For Thee
Quote – The next day he went into Rick Skeletor Scott’s backyard in Florida to spread the good word. And as people walked into the auditorium for the rally, there was a leaflet of Senator Scott’s 11 point plan on every seat. Biden almost gleefully led a Sing-Along-With-Mitch of the part that sunsetted Medicare and Social Security after 5 years
Click through for full list. Considering the bubble in which MAGAts live, I don’t know how long these achievements are going to carry us, but it won’t hurt to take a small victory lap.

Politico [from 2019] – The Spy Case That Made Adam Schiff a Russia Hawk
Quote – This was no ordinary FBI surveillance operation: The “acquaintance” Grishin referred to was himself an FBI agent—a man who, out of greed, desperation, and spite, had begun an affair with Ogorodnikov and agreed to sell classified information to the Soviet government. Eventually, this man—Richard W. Miller, a 47-year-old Los Angeles-based counterintelligence agent on the Bureau’s Soviet squad—would become the first FBI agent ever convicted of espionage. And the man who would finally secure Miller’s conviction in 1990—after three trials over the course of six years—was a young U.S. attorney in Los Angeles: Adam Schiff.
Click through for background. This is not news, but since Adam is running for the Senate, I thought some background wouldn’t hurt. I will also from time to time look at background on Katie, and if and when Barbara announces, on her as well.

Food For Thought

Open Thread February 13, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 132023

Yesterday, Virgil and I had a good visit, even without cards. He is still dreaming things and thinking they happened, but if he starts to tell me about one, he now often catches himself up and says, “Oh, never mind.” And he did remember a few things that actually did happen, such as when a former boss of mine (whom we both adores) died – doing what she loved – rock climbing in Mexico. We were the only table for a couple of hours, but then gradually five others received visits. A couple of them left before I did, but the other three were still there when I left – at just the right time to minimize the sunset hindering me. There are some windows in the room, and they face roughly west. Their light on the floor gradually moves as the sun does, and eventually starts climbing up the wall, and acts as a makeshift sundial. When the top corner reaches a certain height, it’s time to leave. (If there isn’t sun, it doesn’t make as much difference when I leave because the sun won’t distract me if it can’t be seen.) Congratulations to Nameless on his team’s win (even though it still has an insensitive mascot. ;-)) After I got back and started looking around, I realized that Ohio is having an environmental catastrophe after a train derailment – near East Palestine – and I hope Spy Kat isn’t anywhere near it. Spy, I see you’ve been by (thanks for the upvotes) and I hope that means you’re fine and not in danger. On a happier note, Stevie van Zandt sent Jamie Raskin a gift – check this out.

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Short Takes –

Civil Discourse – Who Weaponized the Federal Government?
Quote – Yes, this subcommittee was a product of the “compromise” a desperate Kevin McCarthy struck to get the votes he needed to win the speakership on the 15th ballot. That’s apparent. But we need to understand the purpose the members who negotiated for its existence had in mind for it. We’ve already established it’s not about responsible governance. It’s purely performative. The goal seems to be producing a series of video clips and social media posts that Republicans can use for gotcha, for campaigning, and to advance fake claims that will only serve to push the country further into two opposing camps. It’s about writing bumper stickers and own-the-libs punchlines. Look no further than the fact that Fox News didn’t carry the hearing live. It’s all about some 60-second clips where Jordan and friends will be free to harpoon Democrats in a fact-free environment.
Click through for the details of her premise. While mostly obvious to us, it needs to be shouted from the rooftops. I do want to make one tiny correction – Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands is not a Congresswoman but a delegate (USVI is not a state). She doesn’t have a vote on legislation. I presume she does on the committee, and in any case she has a voice – a strong one.

(New York magazine) The Cut – Misty Copeland on Becoming a Mom, Writing a Memoir, and Returning to the Stage
Quote – The self-doubt that comes with the responsibility of being the first, going onstage and performing these roles — Raven Wilkinson dealt with it herself, right before she left the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She was being told by Nina Novak, who was the principal ballerina in the company, that her time pretty much was up. She was never going to be the White Swan. That’s just not a role for Black women. That was ingrained in us as Black women in the ballet world. So when I was given the opportunity to do Swan Lake, it was like this ancestral trauma that I’m bringing with me — this responsibility that if I don’t live up to these standards, what will that mean for future Black dancers taking on this role? Will they be given the opportunity, or will I be the reason not? All of these things were going through my head.
Click through for the rest of today’s Black History moment. I’m not a huge ballet fan, but I do admire Misty, and I’ve missed hearing/reading about her. (The first FFT is the cover of the children’s book she wrote – and the second is tips on how to use that.)

Food For Thought

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