Open Thread June 9, 2023

 Posted by at 5:59 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 092023
 

Yesterday, Pat Robertson died. He was 93. “I was always taught never to say anything about the dead unless it’s good. He’s dead. Good.” – Moms Mabley. You can read about it in lots of places (AP is one) but this Wonkette remembrance may be the most – satisfying. Also yesterday, it was dry enough to put the sticker om my car (and of course put a copy of the registration into the glove box). So I did. We’re expecting more rain, so I carped the diem.  And one more thing:  Trump** stated publicly that he has been indicted (in the documents case).

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – FL GOPers Panicking As Immigrants Flee Ahead Of New Law
Quote – Florida Republicans concerned about the state’s new anti-immigration law and its potential impacts on Florida’s economy… admit the bill is “100% meant to scare” immigrants and beg the crowd to “urgently” convince “your people” to not leave Florida since folks in the agriculture industry are mad workers are leaving.
Click through for story. Now that the debt ceiling is off the table for a while, the news stream is so fast and furious that I think I’ll have to do three a day for a while to catch up. Just for a while. I won’t be able to keep it up.

HuffPost – DHS Launches Major Effort To Stem Human Trafficking In Indigenous Communities
Quote – One of the “brutal realities” is that Native women command more money from sex traffickers, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who has been a leader in combating violence against Indigenous women, previously told HuffPost. “Native women, because of their looks, can be viewed as more exotic, more Asian, and apparently there is a higher market for women that are of Asian descent,” Murkowski said. “When I heard that, it just … It just sickens me.”
Click through for details. It’s no surprise that people who would profit from, or pay into, human trafficking objectify women. But this certainly brings that fact home.

Civil Discourse . Today in Trump
Quote – Venue, as a legal proposition, is the place or location where conduct that prosecutors want to charge took place—the judicial district where the crime was committed. Sometimes that’s obvious, like in a bank robbery. Other times, it can be more difficult to determine, and there may be more than one possible venue. Imagine a drug-dealing network that operates across a region of the country. There can be more than one proper venue for a case. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 18 provides that “Unless a statute or these rules permit otherwise, the government must prosecute an offense in a district where the offense was committed.[“]
Click through for more explanation and the news which prompted it. As usual, click “no” or “continue” on the popup(s). Venue decisions may be the most important ones that DOJ must make in these cases. I don’t want anyone here to be crying “foul!” if Jack Smith ends up trying the documents cse in Florida. If that happens, it will be because it was legally necessary.

Food For Thought

Share

Open Thread January 8, 2023

 Posted by at 6:53 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 082023
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Medea,” by Luigi Cherubini. Cherubini ws a contemporary of Beethoven, and was considered by him to be (as one musicologist put it) “the greatest living composer not named ‘Beethoven.'” Maria Callas was a big fan of this opera, and while I was still in the military I found a (vinyl) recording of her performance of it, and snapped it up. From the first measure of the overture (which still sends chills down my spine) I was hooked. While stationed in Washington (DC), I was privileged to see a performance live at Wolf Trap (where we had thunder and a little lightning during the overture – which would not enhance every opera, but did this one.) All of those people (on the record and at Wolf Trap) are gone now. But this cast did not disappoint. The intermission features included the annual review of those singers we lost in 2022. This year there was only one singer whose name I recognized – Maria Ewing – she didn’t sing a whole lot of roles, but during the pandemic one of the videos available was “Dialogues of the Carmelites” in which she sang the leading role of Blanche. Sigh. (Her daughter, Rebecca Hall, was on “Finding Your Roots,” I forget which season.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Mother Jones – American Myths Are Made of White Grievance—and the Jan. 6 Big Lie Is Just the Latest
Quote – [I]t is insufficient to claim that the Big Lie is merely that the 2020 presidential election was stolen or that Trump’s election-fraud conspiracy was the root cause of the riots. As we confront the insurrection on its two-year anniversary, it’s important to remind ourselves of what motivated the rioters that day: the idea that the United States is for white people, whose power must be protected at all costs.
Click through for full article. I might add that the phrase “Christian Nationalism” really means “white nationalism” – as if people of colorwere not as good Christians (they’re usually better, in my experience) as wypipo. “Patriarchal Nationalism” would be closer to the truth.

Denverite – Colorado’s plan to relieve pressure on Denver: busing migrants and state workers volunteering at shelters
Quote – The state said it was partnering with two nonprofits to help migrants move to their intended destinations, where some may have friends or family waiting for them. So far, Polis said, many who have arrived and overwhelmed Denver’s existing and emergency shelters actually planned to be in Miami, New York and Chicago. Migrants do not have to prove that they have friends or family in other cities, but Polis said the local emergency managers are coordinating the arrival of larger groups of migrants with other cities.
Click through for details. Since MY governor is not a Nazi, I want to stress that THIS busing is 100% voluntary, and will be to places they were intending to go to before getting sidetracked. Also that the state employees who volunteer will be doing so on (paid) administrative leave.

Food For Thought

Share

Open Thread December 31, 2022

 Posted by at 6:56 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 312022
 

Yesterday, I decided that, since almost everyone is doing end-of-year retrospectives, I didn’t have to. Instead, since I have a couple of depressing sories which unfortunately are important, I at least made a satire sandwich. I hope the middle one gives you a chuckle or a grin, maybe even a LOL.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Trigger Warning
Denverite – Migrants in Denver faced horror on their journeys to the U.S., but despite their desperate risks, many will be forced to leave.
Quote – Kevin, who’s 22 and declined to tell us his last name, is one of at least 1,500 newly arrived migrants who’ve been sheltered by the city this month. He’s one of millions who’ve taken dangerous paths through jungles and deserts over the years to ask the U.S. government for asylum, legal and safe passage into the country. But that status is far from a guarantee. “Imagine traveling with your child, then your child dies and you arrive in the United States only to be deported,” he told us in Spanish during a recent visit to a church-run shelter. “You lost your child and you lost your dream. So then it’s difficult.”
Click through for full story, if you can bear it There is a trigger warning.

SATIRE Wonkette – Donald Trump Has Not Turned His Back On Me! He’s Turned His Front Towards Himself! By Sean Hannity.
Quote – I can hear all my listeners out there asking, “Sean, why are you letting the neighborhood children break wooden boards over your head? Is this a Make a Wish Foundation thing? Are the kids all cancer patients whose dying dream was to beat the crap out of Sean Hannity with a two-by-four?” Well, I can assure you it’s nothing like that. I would never do anything nice for a sick child. No, what’s happening is that a bunch of angry MAGA types in the area sent their little brats to beat up on me because they heard I admitted under oath in a deposition that I did not actually believe “for one second” that Donald Trump lost the election due to widespread voting fraud.
Click through – It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. (Try not to overdose on Schadenfreude.)

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Democratic Underground)
Associated Press – Supreme Court asked to bar punishment for acquitted conduct
Quote – A jury convicted Dayonta McClinton of robbing a CVS pharmacy but acquitted him of murder. A judge gave McClinton an extra 13 years in prison for the killing anyway…. McClinton’s case and three others just like it are scheduled to be discussed when the justices next meet in private on Jan. 6.
Click through for details. Even for today’s Republican party, this is jaw-dropping abuse of power.

Food For Thought

Share

Open Thread November 30, 2022

 Posted by at 7:10 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 302022
 

Yesterday, we did indeed have snow as predicted, but the sun was out a couple of hours before is was supposed to slow down to a trickle. (the prediction also suggested it would continue to trickle throug the night, which it may – or may not.)  It was also Giving Tuesday, so my inbox was about twice its usual size. And one more notable thng – the Senate passed the law upholding same-sex marriage 61-36  At this link you can see the 12 Republicans who voted yes, and I guarantee some will surprise you.  Now, this doesn’t mean some (*)hole state will not challenge the law, but it does make it harder.

Cartoon – 3

Short Takes –

Mother Jones – How Did a State Known for Its War on Immigrants Approve In-State Tuition for Undocumented Students?
Quote – Proposition 300, [passed in 2006, was] a successful ballot measure that made university students in Arizona who were not US citizens or permanent residents and those lacking legal status ineligible for in-state tuition and federal and state financial aid…. Sixteen years later, that could change. The majority of voters in Arizona during the recent midterm elections were in favor of Proposition 308, a ballot measure that repealed provisions from Proposition 300 and opened the way for any high school graduate, regardless of immigration status, living in Arizona for at least two years, to access in-state tuition rates at state universities and community colleges.
Click through for analysis. It makes sense to me. If you don’t like a groups of people, at least in part because they are uneducated, then educate them. but then, I’m a flaming liberal.

Crooks & Liars – Russian Mothers ‘Rewarded’ With A Set Of Towels For Fallen Sons
Quote – On the occasion of Mother’s Day, one of the leaders of the Kursk region in Russia made a grotesque gesture, presenting a set of towels to mothers who lost their sons on the Ukrainian front. Outrageous news came to light in the Russian media: one of the district leaders of the Kursk region, Sergey Korostyev, gave a set of towels to mothers who lost their sons on the Ukrainian front, reports the Russian newspaper Vesma.
Click through for story and sources. Mothers Day in Russia is celebrated on the last Sunday in November. I don’t know about the “Dollar store” part. I expect the government is hurting for funding.

Food For Thought

 

Share

Open Thread November 22, 2022

 Posted by at 6:58 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 222022
 

Yesterday, I tried to rest as much as possible.I did manage to get a prison email off the Virgil with some pictures of Joyce Vance’s chickens – and a couple of other pictures – that should lift his spirits when he gets it, although he will still be envious of anyone who can get close to silky chickens. No matter how well it goes, am always wiped out after any of my visits Of course, when I was in my teens and even my twenties, driving used to energize me. That has not been so for many years, and that’s probably a big part of it.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Republicans Lost the Races Where They Spent the Most
Quote – The Daily Beast reviewed the most expensive House and Senate races in the country, and found that, with a few exceptions, Republican candidates were on the losing end. Republicans lost three of the five most expensive Senate races, per CRP data, with Democrats clinching the top three—Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona. (The Georgia contest, where Sen. Raphael Warnock received the most votes, is headed to a runoff.) While Republicans [won] a slim majority in the House—far below their expectations—Democrats took all five of the most expensive races, according to CRP data.
I’ve never believed that money won elections. Granted that it doesn’t hurt, elections are decided by human beings, and, unless you are paing them directly for their votes, you can’t buy their support with campaign money. Good candidates, creatively promoted, and short, catchy, accurate slogans (“In January, I’ll be better. He will still be a con man”) work better. Some money is needed in order to maximize communication – but after a certain point, the law of diminishing returns hits.

Crooka and Liars – City Of Brotherly Love Welcomes Immigrants That Texas Governor Dumped
Quote – [On the] morning [of November 16], despite earlier denials that this was indeed his plan, Greg Abbott, the wizened little nominal governor of Texas, dropped a busload of immigrants in my city…. “The bus was sent by Gov. Greg Abbott in what he said was an effort to bring the challenges of the border to northern cities. Immigration advocates in Philadelphia called the bus ride a cruel trick played on innocent people who are legally in the United States.”
Click through for story. Susie Madrak has some words for Abbott and other Republicans. Does anyone thnk that Abbott and DeSanctimonious will ever get a clue, no matter how often and how dramatically their cruel stunts backfire?

Colorado Encyclopedia – Amendment 2
Quote – Amendment 2 was a ballot initiative passed by Colorado voters in 1992 that prohibited the state from enacting antidiscrimination protections for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals…. Passage of the controversial amendment set the stage for a national debate over the rights of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, while the ensuing legal struggle was the first legal case affecting homosexuals to reach the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court eventually declared the amendment unconstitutional, setting a precedent for the current struggle for LGBT rights in the United States.
Click through for complete history. The Q-Club massagre immediately beought me back to 1992 (although I had to look up the year.) This horrendous vote showcases the worst of our state – and a past the Supreme Court would live to bring us back to. I believe we are better than that, and offer as evidence the fact that we just RE-elected an openly gay governor. But here, and alas world wide, the struggle is far from over.

Food For Thought

Share

Open Thread November 21, 2022

 Posted by at 7:11 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 212022
 

The day before yesterday, seven score and nineteen years prior, a Natinal Cemetery was dedicated at a tiny town called Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania. Heather Cox Richardson commemorates the occasion in her Letter from an American for November 19. Being a historian, she gets in some detailswhich are little-known along with the story we all know, and her primary point – not new, but often in danger of being forgotten in times like those and these, was Lincoln’s reminder that we have two founding documents, and the Constitution is not the only one which is important.

Yesterday, though, I went to visit Virgil. It waa a quiet day there. We got to sit on the same level one comes in on, and we got to use the deck of cards. I was a bit concerned that the clock can’t be seen from where we sit unless we go down a short flight of stairs – not that easy since I use my wheelchair, and he uses a walker. But the windows (yesm there are windows) cast light and shade on the florr, and later in the afternoon the walls, that it’s almost like having a sundial. And we really do not get many sunless days in Colorado. So I am much lless worried. We played cribbage and I told hi about Joyce Vance’s latest newsletter, which I knew he would enjoy because he thinks silky chickens are just about the cutest things in the world, and she raises them. By the time I exhausted my short term memory, he was green with envy. (She also knits, BTW. I don’t know how she finds time. Of course I’m a lot older.) On the way in I was scoped out by a flock of Canada Geese, and then saw a baby bunny scurry across the pavement in front of me (not close enough to have to sop for, and I was going pretty darn slowly at the timw anyway.) Where I grew up, on the San Franciso peninsula, the only wildlife i saw outside of state or national parks was birds and butterflies – and not all that many of either. After 46 years in Colorado, I haven’t lost my sense of wonder at wildlife, and I hope I bever do.

Grim though it is, I have to mention the mass shooting here in the LGBTQ+ club. Five dead and 18 injured. Just horrible. The suspect is in custody, but even that is small consolation.

Cartoon – 21 Piltdown RTL

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – The White House Admits It: We Might Need to Block the Sun to Stop Climate Change
Quote – The report will be dedicated specifically to a form of geoengineering known as solar radiation management. This is a technique that essentially involves spraying fine aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth. The idea is that, once it’s reflected, there’ll be less heat and temperatures will go down. The research plan will be modeling how SRM might impact the atmosphere and assess its viability as a potential technique used to “manage near-term climate risk.” Put it another way: We want to know whether or not we should include this in our “break glass in case of climate disaster” box.
Click through for details. This is a no=brainer, if it can be done safely. It absolutely would work – maybe too well – history shows that The article mentions an 1816 volcanic eruption, but I immediately thought of an eruption in 536 AD, which has been heavily researched. It blocked sunlight so much, and literally around the world, that there was more or less perpetual winter for a couple of years. Some sunlight and warmth is necessary in order to grow food crops, otherwise people starve. IIRC that eruption also facilitated disease transmission until all the particles were gone – or at lease gone from the sky.

Daily Kos – Jan. 6 Panel Creates Subcommittee for Criminal Referrals
Quote – Among those who have ignored subpoenas to appear before the Jan. 6 Committee are GOP Reps. McCarthy, Perry, Jordan, Biggs, Brooks, and of course, TFG himself. Clearly, none of them are out of the barrel just yet. The subcommittee will make recommendations to the full Jan. 6 Panel, which, if approved by a vote, will then pass them along to the Justice Department. This process is hastened by the reality that the GOPosaurs will take control of the House on Jan. 3, 2023. That’s only 46 days!
Click through for story. It was actually created about a month ago and has been working, but is just now being made public. Four lawyers, headed by Jamie Raskin (Has anyone besides me noticed that he seems to be aging more rapidly?)

Mother Jones – A Preschool on Wheels Drives Opportunity to Immigrant Families in Colorado
Quote – Parked in the lots of schools, churches, and community centers, the buses are inconspicuous. Most passersby would overlook them, distracted by the natural beauty of their backdrop. But inside, day after day, small wonders are unfolding. Gutted and retrofitted to look like traditional preschool classrooms, these mobile spaces host 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds in the valley who, otherwise, likely wouldn’t see a formal learning environment until kindergarten, by which time many of their peers are already steps ahead.
CLck through for more. I had this penciled in before the shooting – and I’m glad I did. I certainly need something positive to offset that tremendous negative, and I hope it will help others too.

Food For Thought

 

 

Share

Video Thread 9/27/22

 Posted by at 11:54 am  Open Thread, Politics
Sep 272022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s secret grand jury litigation to stop aides from incriminating him & why it won’t work

Meidas Touch – BREAKING: Federal Court CITES Trump case and IMMEDIATELY DENIES Mike Lindell Search Warrant Motion (It takes Ben a while to get to the lede, but when he does, it’s delicious)

The Lincoln Project – How a Democracy Falls

Robert Reich – The Truth Behind “Self-Made” Billionaires

Armageddon Update – IMMIGRATION NATION!

Beau – Let’s talk about how Game of Thrones can change the world…. [Call me crazy, but I would recommend detective fiction – not what I would call crime fiction where the focus is on the crimes, but detective fiction where the focus is on analyzing and deducing to restore order.)

Share

Open Thread September 22, 2022

 Posted by at 7:18 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 222022
 

Yesterday, although I’m not really ready to go back to three short takes, there were three stories so different but so connected I could not decide which one to leave out. Also, Tish James’s fraud investigation is now to the point where she can formally file (a civil) suit against Trump** personally, three of his children, and several officers. (The investigation has been done under a filing against the Trump** Organization, not anyone personally, so this is a bigger step than it may sound.)  Also, though it wasn’t all that easy, I did manage to take out trash and recyclables for pickup tomorrow. Which pretty well wore me out for the rest of the evening. I need to post Shirley Serban’s parody of “Let’s do the time warp again,” which she calls “I’m feeling time-worn again,” in the video thread, because it expresses exactly how I so often feel. It won’t be today – I need to address my “Parody Project” backlog first – but maybe tomorrow.

Cartoon – 22 0922Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

Talking Points Memo – The Search for Perla
Quote – [E]ven the barest look at the details we know [about the story of the Venezuelan immigrants shipped off to Martha’s Vineyard] make it very unlikely this was an official or on-the-books government operation. And yet it’s one Gov. Desantis has publicly taken credit for and said was paid for with taxpayer funds from Florida. [Representatives of LULAC, the Latino civil rights organization] went to Martha’s Vineyard on Friday to talk to the asylum-seekers and get more details about what happened. They were able to flesh out the story about “Perla” and her team in San Antonio.
Click through for quite a story. As far as I know, “Perla” has not yet been definitively identified. These people – these MAGAts – just will not stop criming long enough for investigations to make any progress.

Mother Jones – DeSantis Flying Migrants to Martha’s Vineyard Is Part of a 60-Year-Old Segregationist Playbook
Quote – Bell and Williams were among almost 100 people to be shipped under false pretenses to the resort town over the spring and summer of 1962 as part of a white supremacist campaign to send Black people from the South to northern cities. Overall, some 200 people were bused to Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Los Angeles, and other cities in Indiana, Idaho, and New Hampshire. The political ploy was a retaliation for the Freedom Rides from the previous year, when a group of 13 Black and white civil rights activists with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) embarked on southbound buses from Washington, DC, to protest continued segregation in interstate transportation despite the Supreme Court having ruled that it was unconstitutional.
Click through for history. Not only will they not stop criming, they can’t even be bothered to think of anything new.

Daily Kos (Vetwife) – So many executive orders moving DA’s and Judges around in Florida. What is this about?
Quote – I took a look at DeSantis Executive orders and all I see for the most part is soooo much moving District Attorneys (called state attorneys in Florida) and Judges around. Were these people not elected? There are also some Executive orders marked “ Confidential” and you cannot see them. Not clickable anywhere so much for Sunshine State. We need to be looking under every rock this guy is hiding with his pen. God only [knows] what he is doing in secret.
Click through for more. Vetwife is community, not staf, but she is no dummy and has a nose for corruption. She implies that in FLorida both prosecutors and judges are elected. If that is the case, ALL of these executive orders MUST violate SOMETHING – if not the Sate law or Constitution, surely Federal law or the Constitution? IANAL, of course.

Food For Thought

Share
 Older Entries  Newer Entries