Justice – Page 165 – Politics Plus

Open Thread for June 12, 2021

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

Jun 122021

Well, alrighty then. I get my first dose of CoViD vaccine today at 3:30 pm my time, and the second four weeks later, July 10, also at 3:30 pm. Yesterday was a very busy day, but I managed to get that set up.

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Short Takes

The Hill – House Judiciary Democrats call on DOJ to reverse decision on Trump defense. They actually signed this June 7, so it has taken a day or two to get into circulation.
Quote (from the letter, quoted in the article): “Are we to understand that federal employees are free to engage in private tortious conduct for personal gain, so long as they maintain federal employment and can assert some pretextual benefit to the public for their actions?” they asked.
Click through to the article here. And/or click through to the letter here – it’s only a page – the other three pages are signatures and CCs. And the signatures are those of some of the most wonderful people in Congress. It made my heart swell reading just them.

The Pulitzer Committee (or Board or whatever it has) has come a long way since the 1930s when everyone involved with “Of Thee I Sing” received a Pulitzer except George Gershwin, because there was then no category for music. There’s no category for this either – so they made an honorary award – for changing the world.
19th – Darnella Frazier, the teen who filmed George Floyd’s murder, wins honorary Pulitzer
Quote: The act reflected many of the core tenets of journalism: Afflicting the comfortable, shining a light on wrongdoing, bearing witness on behalf of the marginalized, speaking truth to power. It was not her job, but Frazier described it as her duty when she testified at Chauvin’s trial earlier this year.
Click through for the full story. You may want a hanky.

News Corpse at Daily Kos – Trump’s Love Letter to Putin Prior to Meeting with Biden is Utterly Demented – and Treasonous. “News Corpse” is a Community member, who has top “mojo” (in other words, has earned Daily Kos’s trust), has published books to their credit, and their own blog.I haven’t followed their work as much as I have that of some others, but I have not found (or seen called out) any inaccuracies in what I have read. I’d say this article is sound.
Quote: Trump’s new “Save America” (from democracy?) message is like a greatest hits collection of delusional days gone by. He appears to have crammed every psychotic concoction he could think of into one run-on rejection of reality. However, it is also a disturbing admission that he has greater trust for America’s enemies than for its leaders and defenders. What follows is an annotated examination of Trump’s profoundly anti-American screed:
Click through for the full article.

Extra short take: Merrick Garland gave an address on civil and voting rights. Now This News has it on YouTube. It takes over a half hour for it to start, so I have doctored the URL to take you right to where he starts talking. Now This News usually has CC, but this doesn’t. Sorry. I hope some sound news source will pick up a transcript.

Food for Thought:

Video Thread 6/11/21

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 1:00 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jun 112021

Glenn Kirschner – “DOJ’s Position in the E. Jean Carroll Case Explained” – but not justified. I’ll look for Ted Lieu’s letter for tomorrow’s Open Thread. And he’ll talk a little more about it too.

Meidas Tough – Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Republicans Want to Turn America Into An Electoral Autocracy

Crooks and Liars – It keeps becoming more and mmore evident why history nd the teaching of it is suppressed.

Robert Reich – CoViD-19 vaccine

Now This News – This is …bizarre.

Liberal Redneck on Louie Gohmert – Personally, I was surprised. I didn’t know he knew the earth isn’t flat.

Beau – Let’s talk about which party is most gullible and confirmation bias….

Open Thread for June 11, 2021

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

Jun 112021

Turns out I wouldn’t have needed to be home today – but I will tomorrow. I wish i could (honestly) say I got a lot done. But I didn’t. I didn’t even succeed in gtting used to the heat we are finally starting to have. However, I do welcome it, after what seemed like a forever winter. I did get some bills paid on line, which is always satisfying, so there’s that.

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Short Takes

The Conversation – Supreme Court affirms tribal police authority over non-Indians. If I have addressed this beforeI apologize for the duplication – but isn’t it nice to see something positive come out of thei Supreme Court – and with a 9-0 ruling, yet!
Quote: Federal Indian law attorneys feared that a Supreme Court decision limiting tribal policing authority would further undermine the safety of Indians and non-Indians living in Indian country. They worried such a ruling could hamstring the ability of tribal police to detain and search potential criminals.
Click through for more background. We know that Breyer (who wrote the opinion), Kagan, Sotomayor, and, surprisingly even to me, Gorsuch are dependable supporters of Native Americans’ rights. But this case did not hang on finding a fifth justice to vote the right way. It was decided unanimously. Amazing.

Wonkette – Hey, Look, Some Of Barack Obama’s Judicial Nominees Finally Got Confirmed! They’ve been waiting a long time. And so have we, for them.
Quote: I wish Democrats had hammered Republicans on their obstruction from the personal level. We should’ve known the names of every nominee McConnell blocked. It should’ve become a political liability for every Republican senator from the nominee’s state.
Click through for more story. Hey, Joe, there are lots more where those came from.

Daily Beast (opinion) Fire the IRS Chief Who Doesn’t Care if the Rich Don’t Pay
Quote: Within hours of ProPublica’s blockbuster report showing just how little America’s 25 wealthiest people pay in taxes, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig announced an investigation, which, of course, is what great journalism into a scandal is supposed to generate: a renewed commitment by senior government officials to fix an obvious scandal. But Rettig wasn’t looking into how broken the tax system is in favor of the wealthy, but rather about who leaked the documents proving that to the press, stating that he intended to prosecute the whistleblower if the investigation found the records were distributed illegally.
Click through fpr more thoughts.

Food for Thought:

Video Thread 6/10/21

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 1:00 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jun 102021

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ Announces it will Defend Donald Trump in Defamation Lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll this week is turning into a workshop on how decent people express anger. Glenn makes his voice into silk dripping with sarcasm.

Meidas Touch – with Stuart Stevens

The Lincoln Project – The Line

BARF BAG ALERT! Campaign “ad” from Lauren Boebert. Yecccch!

I went to the southern border to see what’s up, but I didn’t go alone… pic.twitter.com/m66fet7mUT

— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) June 8, 2021

Liberal Redneck on Manchin

Now This News – Magawa the Landmine-Sniffing Rat is Retiring a Hero (Just a little break. There are actually maany of these rats and the lives they have saved, and are saving, are priceless.)

Beau – What National Security REALLY needs

Video Thread 6/9/21

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 1:00 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jun 092021

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ Holds Press Conference on Colonial Pipeline Case – Remains Silent on Insurrection Investigation (Glenn’s frustration is showing – not least in that he [I assume accidentally] allowed his ending to also start this video.)

Meidas touch – We saw this ad when it posted to their YouTube channel – I of course included it in this thread at the time. Now push has come to shove.

The Lincoln Project – Trump’s North Carolina Speech In 70 Seconds

Lakota Peoples Law – latset DAPL decision (not good)

Jim Acosta – Mar-a-Lagoville. He does have a way with words.

Rob Rogers – Race Massacres

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump running for the House and the speaker’s bargain….

Open Thread for June 9, 2021

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

Jun 092021

I checked around and the most promising one which is also the one that clearly shows on the map it serves my area) has a contact me form. I tried on both browsers (some sites don’t like one or the other, and when I still had no answer i called and reached someone. So, 2:00 pm today he will be here and change it. Then I will look into vaccine appointments – not that I haven’t already, and they seem to be available and plentiful. I will keep you posted, of course.

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Short Takes

The Hill – New report highlights severe intelligence failures on Jan. 6 Personally, I’m not sure you can call it a “failure” of intelligence when deliberate ignoring is involved, but whatever
Quote: “The failures are obvious. I think to me it was all summed up by one of the things in our report where one of the officers was heard on the radio that day asking the tragically simple question: ‘Does anybody have a plan?’ Sadly, no one did,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), chair of the Senate Rules Committee.
Click through for the rest

Mother Jones – How the 2022 Midterms Could Be Shaped by a Few Easy-to-Ignore Elections This Year I don’t think it’s any too early to be thinking about midtersm.
Quote: Chaz Nuttycombe, the director of Virginia-based election forecaster CNalysis, explains, “Democrats wouldn’t be in the majority in the Virginia House if Trump had lost in 2016.”
Click through for full analysis

BBC News – ANOM: Hundreds arrested in massive global crime sting using messaging app This is makinging all kinds of news – the BBC article is explained the most simply.
Quote: More than 800 suspected criminals have been arrested worldwide after being tricked into using an FBI-run encrypted messaging app, officials say. The operation, jointly conceived by Australia and the FBI, saw devices with the ANOM app secretly distributed among criminals, allowing police to monitor their chats about drug smuggling, money laundering and even murder plots.
Click through for more details

Food for Thought: Are you in need of a new welcome mat for your front door (outside or inside)? John Paclovitz is offering two peaachy-keen ones. My favorite:

Video Thread 6/8/21

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 1:00 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jun 082021

Glenn Kirschner – a recap of May

Don WInslow Films – Well, he nails Sinema, but I’d rather have her than a Republican 9and no, she isn’t one – she [and Manchin] both vote with the Democratic caucus more often than not. Sadly, the “not” votes are generally more visible.)

The Republican Accountability Project – a coule of weeks old, but aged well – too well.

Ring of Fire – Mo Brooks

RebelHQ – DANGEROUS Trump Speech You Can’t Ignore – good analysis of the need to cover garbage pople who are also dangerous

Beau – I’ve seen him upset before – but not this upset. (And with good reason.)

Video Thread 6/7/21

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 1:00 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jun 072021

Glenn Kirschner – “Lawlessness begets lawlessness”

Now This News – Paxton Smith Reflects on Her Viral Abortion Speech

Ring of Fire – Scholars Warn That Republicans Have Launched A Total Assault On Democracy

Thom Hartmann – Is the GOP Insanity Being Driven By Trump or 40 Years of Madness? – Our Tom has been saying this for years.

Rocky Mountain Mike – “Bye Bye Blog”

Beau – Let’s talk about coming together under China and good news….

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