Open Thread October 24, 2022

 Posted by at 6:46 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 242022
 

Yesterday was, of course, Sunday. And the week before it was long and busy, and everyone, including me, is exhausted. Besides myself, we are also talking about all of my sources. So we’ll have one old-ish article, (old news recently come to light), and one scoop from Axios. Since the scoop is about Tucker Carlson, it is full of sound and fury, and may well signify not very much, but it is at least interesting – and reveals a possible crack in the MAGA wall (no, not that one, the one that prevents any truth from reaching them.) We will hope for more news today. (Better news would be particularly nice.)

Cartoon – 24 1024Cartoon.jpg

Cartoon 2 (Holiday) –

Short Takes –

Political Wire – Pelosi Wasn’t Sure Secret Service Could Be Trusted
Quote – Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that as rioters raged inside the Capitol on January 6, she was concerned about the Secret Service’s treatment of then-Vice President Mike Pence, Politico reports. Said Pelosi: “I myself wondered if he could trust the Secret Service to take him to a safe place. I don’t know.”
Clck through for story. Not much gets past Nancy Pelosi’s eagle eye. And she is far from alone.

Axios – Scoop: Tucker Carlson lashes out at GOP campaign chief in irate private call
Quote – Just two weeks before the midterms, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee [Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.)] — who is headed into a high-stakes leadership race if House Republicans win the majority — finds himself on the wrong side of the nation’s most powerful right-wing TV host…. Emmer also now finds himself under attack from two MAGA celebrities: Donald Trump Jr. and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
Click through for details and names. I know, you are thinking, “Tucker Carson has a son?!?!?” Well, yes. So does Trump**. So does Herschel Walker. Hard to believe on so many levels. But nonetheless true. He has a bit of my sympathy – but I still hope that several MAGAts get well and truly burned in the battle.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 10/10/22

 Posted by at 11:46 am  Open Thread, Politics
Oct 102022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump STILL unlawfully concealing classified documents. DOJ must act to preserve the rule of law

Meidas Touch – Biden MOCKS Coward MAGA Republicans for Socialism remarks WHILE secretly BEGGING for Investments

The Lincoln Project – President Biden Speaks in Florida Following Hurricane Ian

MSNBC – Oath Keepers Trial Is DOJ’s ‘Biggest Case And Biggest Challenge

Sam Bee from 2019 – Columbus Day Should Be Indigenous Peoples Day ft. Congresswoman Deb Haaland

Beau – Let’s talk about the possibility of Putin using a tactical….

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Open Thread October 10, 2022

 Posted by at 6:54 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 102022
 

Yesterday, I went to see Virgil. I set my alarm a bit earlier than I had been on days I was going to see him, and that turned out to be a mistake. We live and learn. So I’ll switch it back (after I set it for Thursday’s hearing, of course.) Virgil appreciates and returns all your greetings. The weather was fine and the drive both ways was uneventful. Also, I thought I had enough sleep Saturday night. However, I still felt pretty tired upon return.  Oh, yes, and Happy Indigenous Peoples Day.

Cartoon – 10 1010Cartoon.jpg


Short Takes –

HuffPost – What The Weird Conservative Fixation On Electric Vehicles Says About Their Politics
Quote – The Biden administration has made support for EVs a top priority. The Inflation Reduction Act, the spending bill that Biden signed over the summer, included new tax credits for people who purchase EVs as well as businesses that open up charging stations. Greene has been critical of this effort from the get-go, and in February posted a 21-part tweetstorm calling the Biden plan ― which, at that point, was still under discussion ― “a one way ticket to hell.” Greene isn’t alone in making these sorts of arguments. On the contrary, the list of Republican officials who have attacked the Biden administration’s EV agenda in similar terms is long and includes everybody from Florida Sen. Rick Scott to Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw.
Click through for three reasons why anyone with a functioning brain and who doesn’t hate Democrats could be expected to be ebthusiastic about EVs. But, Republicans … What do you want to bet that20 or even 10 years from now they will be all in favors of EVs, and will never admit they weren’t always.

CPR News – As the reparations debate continues nationally, some Denver organizations are stepping up now
Quote – Risë Jones is walking around TeaLee’s, her three-year-old tea shop in Denver’s historically Black Five Points neighborhood. Soft jazz plays in the main seating area with about 10 tables, and in the basement is a bookstore with some hard-to-find titles by Black authors…. Jones is among several Black business owners in Denver who have received grants from groups raising private funds to pay reparations for the centuries of abuse of Blacks forced into slavery…. Jones received an $8,500 reparations grant to open the shop, one of several that have been distributed…. There are several organizations that do precisely that kind of work. One of them is BRIC (Black Resilience in Colorado) a non-profit organization that officially opened on Juneteeth (June 19) of 2020.
Click through and scroll down for the article – it’s below a podcast and the picture. Hey, they’re a radio outfit, of course they like podcasts. But they like articles too. There is so much in it for me as a Coloradan to be proud of (and that TomCat would have loved.)

Food For Thought

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Open Thread September 25, 2022

 Posted by at 7:10 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 252022
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Rúsalka, sung in Czech, by Antonín Dvořák (there’s not actually an accent on the u -I put one there to remind myself that’s where the stress is.) Like every other culture, the Czech cultur is rich in fairy tales. But, if you think the Brothers Grimm are grim, don’t look up the Czech ones, because they are grimmer. A Rúsalka is a female water spirit (it isn’t her name), and her story is that of the Llittle Mermaid, only darker. She is a fresh water being, she doesn’t go to a sea witch, but a lake or river witch called Jezibaba, and forfeits her voice to become human. The prince falls for her but everyone in his castle is terrified of this speechless woman who seems so cold (she didn’t get a soul in the deal, you see.) A foreign princess comes to visit, and the Prince is tempted, and the Rúsalka fears all is lost and goes back to the water. The prince tries to stop her but it is too late. She has become a different kind of water spirit, one who exists to lure human men and kiss them, which condemns tham to hell for eternity (she did get her voice back, so she tells him this – she doesn’t want to doom him.) But he chooses to kiss her anyway. Not exactly a happily ever after ending for sure. The one aria from it which is often concertized is the “Song to the Moon,” about how much she loves the prince and wants to be with him. The role is for a soprano, but this aria isn’t high, and a mezzo-soprano can sing it, and in fact the best, IMO, I ever heard it was done by a mezzo, Frederica von Stade (also, Joshua Bell did a lovely violin version). But I digress. Dvořák also used Czech fairy tales as the bases for some tone poems, of which the three I can remember are “The Noon Witch,” “The Wood Dove,” and “The Golden Spinning Wheel.” All the music is lovely, and all the stories are gruesome.

Cartoon – 25 0925Cartoon.jpg also Rosh Hashanah loaded

Short Takes –

CPR News – Elijah McClain’s autopsy report changed to death by ketamine
Quote – “The forensic evidence revealed that the cause of death was undetermined. Specifically, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy stated that he was unable to conclude that the actions of any law enforcement officer caused Mr. McClain’s death. In order to prove any form of Homicide in the state of Colorado it is mandatory that the prosecution prove that the accused caused the death of the victim.” Even with this new cause of death being ketamine, it is unclear how prosecutors move forward with holding those who touched McClain that evening accountable for his death without a homicide declaration on the death certificate.
Click through for updates. We pretty well knew this. But now it’s official – but the manner of death is still wrong. I think our AG tried hard for accountability, but has been stymied, as usual, by law enforcement sticking together regardless.

Crooks & Liars – Ukraine Returns 215 POWs, Including Azovstal Defenders In Prisoner Swap
Quote – An amazing swap, as in total Ukraine returned 215 prisoners of war, 205 Ukrainians and 10 foreigners. The entire leadership of the Azov regiment appears to have survived and were freed, including commander Denys Prokopenko. British national Aidan Aslin, sentenced to death by Russian proxies of Donetsk, also swapped. Ukrainian medic and songstress Kateryna “Ptashka” Polishchuk aka “Birdie” was also among those released, just days after Russia released an interrogation video of her.
Click through for more details. This is astonishing, particularly since Putin has started conscripting. But I’ll definitely tke it.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread August 8, 2022

 Posted by at 7:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 082022
 

Yesterday, it was a pretty unexciting day until the word came out that the Inflatin Reduction Act had been passed by the Senate. I picked up a very short, graphic short take about it, figuring there will be plenty of time to discuss it at length.

Cartoon – .(which  forgot to insert before posting, but went back and added later)

Short Takes –

Letters from an American – August 6, 2022
Quote – “Gentlemen,” [Garfield] said, “ideas outlive men; ideas outlive all earthly things. You who fought in the war for the Union fought for immortal ideas, and by their might you crowned the war with victory. But victory was worth nothing except for the truths that were under it, in it, and above it. We meet tonight as comrades to stand guard around the sacred truths for which we fought…. [W]e will remember our allies who fought with us,” he told them. “Soon after the great struggle began, we looked beyond the army of white rebels, and saw 4,000,000 of [B]lack people condemned to toil as slaves for our enemies; and we found that the hearts of these 4,000,000 were God-inspired with the spirit of liberty, and that they were all our friends.” As the audience cheered, he continued: “We have seen white men betray the flag and fight to kill the Union; but in all that long, dreary war we never saw a traitor in a black skin.”
Click through for the background and what happened next. White supremacy = corruption. President Garfield was ambidextrous, multilingual, and so good at multitasking that he could write in Latin with one hand and Greek with the other at the same time. That means nothing – but this speech meant something. So, of course, they killed him.

Twitter – This happened yesterday at approximately 5 pm Eastern. By now I’m sure there is a real article of analysis up somewhere, but I didn’t want to wait:

I believe it goes to the House Friday. No need for tiebreaking there.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 7/6/22

 Posted by at 12:15 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jul 062022
 

Glenn – Witness tampering of Cassidy Hutchinson, Jeffrey Clark’s crimes, AG Garland and DOJ’s legitimacy

Meidas Touch – BREAKING NEWS: Kinzinger says NEW WITNESSES have come forward to Jan 6 Committee

The Lincoln Project – Our Country

MSNBC – Biden Announces Presidential Medal Of Freedom Recipients (I didn’t count, but I don’t think all 17 are identified.)

Farron Balanced – Conservative Media Outlets Are Finally Throwing Trump Under The Bus

Beau – Let’s talk about Ohio, Indiana, a girl, and the Supreme Court….

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Open Thread July 5, 2022

 Posted by at 6:57 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 052022
 

Yesterday, I read Robert Reich‘s and Heather Cox Richardson‘s fourth-of-July essays, which cam in, one late the previous night, and one very early in the morning. In a way they say the same thing in different words. And in a way, both are wrong – not in the wrong direction, but not going far enough. It was this that struck me in Richardson’s piece (referencing the Gettysburg Address): “the Civil War was ‘testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.’ It did, of course.” No. It didn’t. The same issues which divied us in 1776 and 1865 and 1964 have never gone away. We just managed to push them underground for a few years (a trifle longer the second time). And Trump** did not bring them to a boil. They were always at a boil. All he did was give the wrong side permission to speak.

If we are ever going to heal this divide, we have to do more than trying harder, because that isn’t working. The most recent time around (the 1960s), psychology had become a science, and there have been all kinds of psychological studies about perceptions which have provided new information about the states of mind of Americans – but not one (and no combination) has given any insight into what to do to make it go away. Now, again, some states are talking about seceding. And some progressives are saying (and more are secrtly thinking) perhaps we should let it happen (at least some of us are talking about the need to rescue sane people from the departing states, and how difficult that would be) We already have a Civil War on our hands now – right now. It’s not yet a shooting war. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be. And way too few appear to realize it.

Oddly, it may be Steve Schmidt who puts it the most clearly: “Then [the beginning of the Civil War, speaking of Congress] like now, there were some who looked at the empty desks and saw crisis in the absence – not [in] the cause of the absence.”

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Double Whammy: Trump Media Group Subpoenaed Twice In One Week
Quote – Digital World Acquisition Corp. said in a filing Friday that Trump Media and Technology Group received a subpoena from the grand jury in Manhattan on Thursday. The Trump company also received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding a civil probe on Monday, DWAC said
Click thrpugh for details. Two different subpoenas by two diferent entities. Good.

Democratic Underground – Robert Hubbell has an idea for getting control of the Supreme Court.
Quote – It is debatable whether Congress can force Supreme Court justices to adopt an enforceable code of ethics. But the Constitution provides that Congress can restrict the appellate jurisdiction of the Court, as provided in Article III, Section 2: [T]he Supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.
Click through – This could be, not IMO a permanent solution, but a powerful stopgap until the Court can really be fixed (not that it shouldn’t stay in effect – it should always have been in effect.  But we also need more)

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 7/4/22

 Posted by at 11:45 am  Open Thread, Politics
Jul 042022
 

Glenn – J6 committee subpoenas WH Counsel Pat Cipollone. Will he testify or coverup Trump’s crimes?

Meidas Touch – Michael Cohen REACTS to Trump attacks on Cassidy Hutchinson

Robert Reich – The Supreme Court’s War on the People (yes, I also used the text article.)

Beloved Community Talks | The Replacement Theory and White Fear: It Starts in Our Minds
This is a seminar produced by The King Center through “The Beloved Comunity Speaks” program, and it is 45 minutes even after I cut off some intro. I don’t expect anyone to watch it without setting aside time to do so, and I understand anyone who doesn’t want to do that. I share it mainly because I have a long online relationship with Scott. When he first “came out” on LinkedIn as a “reformed racist” in 2010 (and asked for advice how best to help eliminate racism from anyone willing to give it), I was new to LinkedIn myself but I felt I had to respond with support, and we have been LinkedIn contacts ever since. It hasn’t been easy for him (racism is not the only thing he is recovering from) but he has never wavered. He works with The King Center at least annually now. I’m proud to know him.

Puppet Regine – CoVid-19

Beau – Let’s talk about Elmo and a phrase I never thought I say….

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