Glenn Kirschner – Grand Juror did NOTHING wrong by giving interviews about Trump criminal investigation in Georgia
The Lincoln Project – Freedom
Ojeda Live – Marge the Trainwreck Tweets for a National Divorce!?
Armageddon Update – G.O.P. = Grifting On Purpose
Dog Who Wasn’t Supposed To Survive Is Completely Transformed By Love
Beau – Let’s talk about divorce, nationally….
Glenn Kirschner – Once Trump is indicted, he will throw EVERYONE on whom he has compromising information under the bus (My concern, and that of his niece, is that he will incite violence on a much larger scale than anything up till now.)
The Lincoln Project – Democracy Won
Ring of Fire – Why Trump’s Document Problem Makes Him Look So Stupid (Not to be a party pooper, but this assumes all the documents start out in the National Archives – and they don’t. But it’s still funny.)
Shirley Serban – Pets Sing The Prayer
This Ancient-Looking Dog Is Actually A Puppy
Beau – Let’s talk about a PSA for Ohio and a question from Europe….
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!
Cartoon –
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
Glenn Kirschner – More docs found at Pence’s place: Pence/Biden doc issues are VERY different than Trump’s doc issues
MSNBC – Trump lawyers turn over more classified material, including digital copies (Statehood for the USVI !!! – also Puerto Rico and DC, of course.)
Robert Reich – The Dark Side of Sports Stadiums
Armageddon Update – Balloon Terror!!
Woman Finds Spicy Kitten Under Trash Can
Beau – Let’s talk about Biden’s State of the Union fiddle playing….
Glenn Kirschner – Special Counsel Jack Smith subpoenas Mike Pence to testify to grand jury about Donald Trump’s crimes
Meidas Touch – Marjorie Taylor Greene LOSES IT during Hearing and it’s HILARIOUS
The Lincoln Project – This Is Leadership
Steve Schmidt – World War Stupid
Couple Cries After Sending Their Skinny Rescue Dog To New Home
Beau – Let’s talk about polling on a second Biden term….
Glenn Kirschner – At Proud Boys trial, jury hears that Proud Boys were “jubilant” at Trump “stand by” call to action
The Lincoln Project – Achievement Unlocked
MSNBC – ‘I’m impressed’: Michael Cohen on new Manhattan DA team behind Stormy Daniels hush money probe (I hope he’s right.)
Lehto’s Law – Greatest Story Ever! (Yes, it’s long, but it is a great story, and it looks like it happened either in or very close to Kevin McCarthy’s District)
Cross-Eyed Kitten Takes His Grandma’s House By Storm!
Beau – Let’s talk about the balloon coming down….
Yesterday, of course, I received many emails including or linking to post mortems on the State of the Union address. Just about all of the ones I saw were highly of favorable. Robert Reich’s was reserved for paid subscribers, and in advance of the address he had expressed a wish to hear something which Joe did not say, so I’ll be looking for a more public message from him. I picked the one from the New Yorker, not because it was necessarily the most insightful, but because it speaks from an unusual angle. See what you think. The weather prediction was for snow last night – not a long storm but fairly heavy while it lasted. We shall see. (I did manage to get trash and recyclables to the curb, BTW.)
Cartoon – 09 Quincy RTL
Short Takes –
Democratic Underground (True Dough) – Tricks that Cops use
Quote – I have been taught to yell “stop resisting” and “drop your weapon” after firing a gun, because bystanders will remember you said it and their memory will automatically reverse the order of these events to make it make sense. Their tstimony will support yours, because of this.
Click through for thread. Yes, it’s a Twitter thread, but it has been posted as screen shots, not as an embed, so no one should have any difficulty seeing it, and it’s extremely revealing. As are many of the comments.
The New Yorker – Joe Biden, Once Again, Lucks Out with His Enemies
Quote – Biden, it seemed, had carefully prepared for their antics. Had he scripted their reaction, he could not have asked for a better foil than Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former QAnon promoter who flirts with white supremacy. Greene arrived for the State of the Union dressed for the TV cameras in an all-white fur-trimmed outfit that made her seem like a villain in a Disney movie. “Liar!” she stood and shouted at Biden, after he accused some members of her party of wanting to “sunset” Medicare and Social Security in the name of fiscal discipline. Unfazed, Biden challenged her and the others who were jeering him to prove that Republicans did not actually support such a thing. When they then rose to their feet to applaud, alongside Democrats, his pledge not to cut either Medicare or Social Security, Biden claimed it as a victory for the bipartisan dealmaking that he wants to be remembered for. “We got unanimity!” he exulted.
Click thrugh for full opinion. Of course, speech writers are largely responsible for the wroding of any Presidental address. But there was a good deal which was unscripted in theis one. For some of them, alternatives may have been pre-planned depending on the audience. But not for all. We have a President who can think on his feet under pressure.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Chinese spy balloons, Jim Jordan, and the debasement of the House & Senate Judiciary Committees
The Lincoln Project – Built Back Better
Farron Balanced – Trump Threatens To Help Democrats If Republican Voters Reject Him
Armageddon Update – Book Banning
Bearded Dragon Comes Running When His Mom Calls Him
Beau – Let’s talk about a laptop and a change of strategy….