Open Thread July 18, 2022

 Posted by at 7:21 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 182022
 

Yesterday, I got to see Virgil. I got to the facitity a coupe of minutes after the – I don’t think this is what they call it – but I’ll say screening time started (11:30). We fill out forms (if we haven’t done so at home), get searched, turn over our driver’s licenses and car keys and receive a numbered brass disc for a receipt, then go through two electronically locked gates, go into the main building, ago and go theough two electronically locked doors to the visitng room – where I arrived at just about 12:00, which is when visitation itself starts. Virgil was asleep at the time, and between waking him up and getting him to the visitation room with his walker, it was about 12:30. (If I had a nickel for every time he has been asleep when I got there for a visit – well, I wouldn’t be rich, but I’d have maybe $10.00.) I passed on all wished, including the ones I didn’t see till I got home but knew they were coming, and he was appreciative. The next time I see him he will have turned 79. He never expected to live that long. Only one of his six uncles on his mother’s side did, and that was the one who was married to a diabetic (he may even have hit 90 – but at least lived well into his 80’s. But i digress. Coming home I forgot that to go south and west from the facility, I first need to get on the interstate eastbound. So I got a little tour of some odd parts of Denver. Though irritated with myself, I had no trouble staying calm, knowin I was in a triangle of interstates and that it didn’t really matter which I found first – they’d all get me home eventually. It didn’t consume all that much time either – less than a half hour. And I wasn’t going for speed.

Cartoon – If ha had been playing an instrment, that is the one it would have been.  However, he was not in Rome when the fire broke out, and by the time he got there his own home was destroyed – so he certainly didn’t play and sing from his balcony, because it was gone.  He seems to have acted like a conscientious ruler for a white – raising money to help rebuild – but what pissed people off was that he earmarnked far too much of it for his own home instead of theirs.

Short Takes –

PolitiZoom – Fulton County DA Fani Willis Just Took Off The Kid Gloves.Exploding GOP Heads To Follow
Quote – One former federal prosecutor appearing on MSNBC today referred to the target letter by its internal nickname, the heart attack letter. Think about it. A prosecutor has just told you that you are at serious risk of indictment on criminal charges. The letter always reminds the target of his or her 5th Amendment rights, advises them to seek and obtain legal counsel, and carries an oblique reminder that if the target is having a Come to Jesus moment, it’s always the first rat to jump on the government gravy train that gets the most cheese.
Click through for story. This broke Friday evening, and whatever else it is, it is delightful.

Crooks and Liars – Ex-US Attorney Lays Out How To Charge Donald Trump For Manslaughter
Quote – “The other thing that is coming clear to me is there is a potential charge here against Donald Trump for manslaughter,” McQuade said, referring to the seven deaths connected to the Jan. 6 attack. “The other thing that is coming clear to me is there is a potential charge here against Donald Trump for manslaughter,” McQuade said, referring to the seven deaths connected to the Jan. 6 attack. She added: “Knowing that this crowd is armed, he has a duty as the president of the United States, as the commander-in-chief to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, to call off that mob and do everything he can to stop it. Instead, he sits idly by during those 187 minutes.”
Click through for reasoning. I realize at this point prety much no one (incliding me) caress “for what” as much as “how soon” and “how long.”Plus, the more potential charges, the better the likelihood that some will stick.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread May 20, 2022

 Posted by at 7:15 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 202022
 

Yesterday, among other things, I heard from Mitch (our Mitch, I mean, of course – not BBM!) I had passed on a little info from comments about how we all are doing, and he was grateful to know and sends encouragement. He also gave me permission to pass on that he had his first cario rehab (yesterday); and it went well. It was a combination of assessment and workout, and he did more execcise than he had done since the day before the attack, and ended up not feeling not that bad. This coming Monday he will be doing it 3x weekly. He’s not up to commenting yet. He’s grateful for everyone’s concern. Of course I told him to take all the time he needed (where have I heard that before?)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

CPR News – After almost 80 years, roses from Colorado’s Amache internment camp may bloom again
Quote – It was during an archaeological dig that the rosebush was discovered. Bonnie Clark, an archaeologist with the University of Denver, and her team were on-site at Camp Amache when they found the bramble crawling across the remnants of a barracks doorway in 2012. It had survived a dark time in American history and the unforgiving extremes of Colorado’s southeastern plains…. Clark, who leads the DU Amache Research Project and Field School, believes people who were imprisoned at the camp planted the roses. “It’s hard to know which family planted them,” she said. “But most of the people who lived in the block where we found them at Amache were from Los Angeles.”
Click through to learn what all it took to accomplish this. Not only is this good news, but it comes at a time when the White House Rose Garden has just been partially restored and is colorful again.

Robert Reich – What you need to know about the anti-democracy movement
Quote – Peter Thiel, the billionaire tech financier who is among those leading the charge, writes “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Thiel is using his fortune to squelch democracy. He donated $15 million to the successful Republican Ohio senatorial primary campaign of J.D. Vance, who alleges that the 2020 election was stolen and that Biden’s immigration policy has meant “more Democrat voters pouring into this country.” And Thiel has donated at least $10 million to the Arizona Republican primary race of Blake Masters, who also claims Trump won the 2020 election and admires Lee Kuan Yew, the authoritarian founder of modern Singapore.
Click through for more – I suppose, since no one is perfet, there are times when the Reich on the left is not right, but I haven’t seen it yet. This may be the most important thing about our drift to autocracy which has yet been said – that it isn’t a drift, it’s a conscious push.

Crooks and Liars – Katie Porter: Dems Are Actually Doing Something About Inflation
Quote – “We have monopolies today in virtually everything. There is a bread monopoly, there’s a cereal monopoly, beef monopoly. So we need to create this competition. It’s going to help not only consumers, but small businesses wanting to enter these marketplaces. More competition is better for our economy, period. The only people who benefit from monopolies are the monopolists themselves.”
Click through for some details and how to message. This is difficult because it is complex yet the solution is pretty clear – and proven to work (Remember the Sherman Anti-Trust Act?) there’s also a video, if you can stand Joe and Mika for a few minites.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 5/18/22

 Posted by at 11:55 am  Open Thread, Politics
May 182022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Unrestricted guns + unrestricted hate speech = today’s American. Our government CAN tackle this

Meidas Touch – Francis EXPOSES Tucker Carlson’s influence on Buffalo Hate Crime

MSNBC – Garland Signals Criminal Case That May Involve Donald Trump Is Not Out Of Bounds (just in case you missed those magical, musical words “Grand Jury”)

No Dem Left Behind – No Dem Left Behind Endorses John Fetterman for U.S. Senate (PA)

San Francisco DA Recall – Dr. Angela Davis Opposes Prop H (I know everyone remebers her.)

CNN – ‘Millions of people absorb this garbage’: Acosta calls out Carlson for dangerous rhetoric (Acosta can usually be counted on to speak out … but one Acosta is not enough. We also have Lawrence, Ari, Mehdi, Chris, and Rachel – whom too few people watch.)

Beau- Let’s talk about why I look left and expectations….

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Video Thread 4/14/22

 Posted by at 11:46 am  Open Thread, Politics
Apr 142022
 

Glenn Kirschner – J6 Committee AND Federal Judges Conclude Trump Committed Crimes. How about DOJ Makes it Unanimous?

The Lincoln Project – Brian Schatz is Right

MSNBC – ‘They’ve Been After Me For 12 Years,’ Says Putin Critic Of Russia (same story as in Open Thread, but here it’s direct from the target’s mouth.)

Ring of Fire – Court Revives Challenge To Madison Cawthorn Being On The Ballot

Truth Matters – What’s in a Word?

Rocky Mountain Mike – Crime After Crime

Beau – Let’s talk about hope and acceleration….

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Open Thread April 11, 2022

 Posted by at 7:31 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 112022
 

Yesterday, I sent the weekly email, went and saw Virgil, got home, and then sent a second one because columns went up while I was gone. Virgil, BTW, returns all greetings. Yes, he was ecstatic. They didn’t have masks and we got to sit as close to each other as we did before the pandemic – but we were socially distanced from other tables. The warden, whi is not brand new, but new within the last six months or so, has for now expanded visitation to 7 days a week. That doesn’tmean I can visit any time, because they have divided the population into 2 groups (which they are referring to as “pods”) and they are assigned alternate days. So, if that holds, I can expect to visit every other Sunday until the next variant hits. Yes, the traffic was probably the best I’ve ever seen it – there was some, but I never felt that I had too little space in case someone did something crazy. And what more can I ask?

I had a bunch of articles collected for Short Takes, and you will see three below picked almost randomly (News of the Weird?) But I am going to skip the Video Thread today. I’ll have more time later in the day to go searching for videos, so I’ll be back on schedule tomorrow.

Cartoon

Short Takes –

PolitiZoom – Have Patience. The DOJ Is Doing Its Job
Quote – Please, people. For the last 4 long years, you have become used to a DOJ that blatantly released salaciou details of investigations into people they had no chance of arresting and convicting. But Biden has restored a presidential hands off policy for the DOJ, And Attorney General Merrick Garland has it functioning just the way it always did. Patience, Grasshopper. Or to quote A Bugs Bunny movie line, Patience is a virtue, patience brings good luck. It is seldom found in humans, and never in a duck!
Click through for his reasoning. You can also read the knock-down-drag-out battle in the comments. I would certainly recommend that those who are the most frustrated (and, yes, that includes me) support Garland’s request for funding for over 100 additional prosecutors. (Although additional judges – of whom there are many nominated and not confirmed – would also help.) But all those prosecutors could at least get indictments, if not trial dates and convictions, before the midterms.

Anti-Abortion Terrorists Explain Those Five Fetuses In The Freezer
Quote – Remember our old pal, Lauren Handy, who was arrested by the FBI for terrorizing abortion clinics and patients, and who kept five fetuses in their home that had to be removed by the DC Police? Well, your C&L gal here has a little update. I want you all to rest assured that they did not keep five fetuses at her home. I promise. Completely untrue. They kept 115 fetuses at their home. One-hundred-fifteen. Fetuses.
Click through for details. Feel free to express yourself with expletives.

Democratic Underground (babsbunny) – Ran across this today
Quote – Someone shared a quote on Twitter: Yuri Bezmenov says that only 15% of KGB (now the FSB) work is in espionage. The other 85% attempts to undermine the U.S.A. via “ideological subversion,” which sets about to change our citizens’ perception of a reality where no sensible conclusions can be made.
Click through for the links they found to back this short quote up. It figures

Food For Thought:

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Personal Update for November 28, 2021

 Posted by at 6:33 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 282021
 

Hi all.  Yes, it was a good visit.  And Virgil returns all greetings.    He was, as I predicted, delighted to hear about the “Muttcracker” (as well as flabbergasted that Fort Collins has a ballet company!)

Driving out there in the morning was quite peaceful – almost no one in sight at any point.  Coming back, however was something else.  I had to leave visitation at around 2 in order to get to the restroom on the way out  (I am not starting a 2 hour drive without first stoping there, and that is not negotiable. ) After that, picking up my car key and driver’s license at the desk, getting through the locked gates, opening th tailgate, putting away my wheelchair including putting a bungee around it to keep it in one place, grabbing my crutch, putting it in the back, getting into the frone, putting the car key back on the ring, using lip balm (it’s not allowed in there and mine get chapped), getting my ice water and gluten free cookie bar out of the insulated lunchbox, putting a CD in – it was 2:30 by the time I got out of the parking lot.

And going back was not like coming out.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much traffic along that entire route.  I do realice 2″30-4:40 pm is prime shopping tme, but it wasn’t like that two weeks ago.  Of course, it also wasn’t Black Friday weekend two weeks ago.  So there’s that.

I got home safely, but kind of znked.

So my advice to you is to read today’s Erinyes and the other tings in the email, if you haven’t already.  And I will get full posts ready for tomorrow

I did already have a TC cartooon picked out for today:

But not an FFT.

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Personal Update for October 2, 2021

 Posted by at 9:25 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 022021
 

Good morning, all – I’m alive, but my imternet died.  I called a friend whose internet works and asked her to sent an email, and she was able not only to do that but to get to my provider’s troubleshooting website (she doesn’t use the same one) and learn there was an outage in my are ant they hoped oet it fixed by 11 pm/  They didn’t.  They didn’t get it fixed by midnight.If they had, I would have gotten something up.  At that point, I really needed sleep, and jusa got up.  Thankfully, it is back!  I will have at least a partial Video Thread, because I alreadt=y had some picked and ready.  I also already had the cartoon picked, so here it it.

I am fine, Virgil is fiune, and returns all greetings.

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Open Thread for August 16, 2021

 Posted by at 7:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 162021
 

Yesterday I was pretty well behind with everything. I did learn that Mitch got back from his trip safely, but he now cannot get in to PP. So it may be a while before we hear from him. But he’s fine. Does anyone else here know anything about Apple/Mac systems and Safari? If so, would you consider allowing me to send your email to Mitch? If you aren’t getting my emails weekly, the “Contact me” link under “Other Links” on the bottom right, second to last section, above “WordPress.org links, now comes to me. If your email client is not set to pop up, right-click on it, select “copy email address,” and then paste it into your address line. I don’t swear that will work in every browser, but hopefully it will. If it doesn’t, you could leae a comment and let me know it’s OK – you don’t have to put your address in the comment, as WordPress will record your email in a place that only Administrators can see.

Cartoon –

There’s a typo in it – it was 11 seconds, not 0.11.

Short Takes –

Democratic Underground – Mary Trump: the most cogent description ever of our current peril as a democracy
Quote – McConnell is the greatest traitor to this country since Robert E. Lee (with the difference that McConnell has been trying to take our country down from within). He has always been expert at using existing rules and procedures in ways they weren’t intended to be used, and yet—whether it was denying Merrick Garland a hearing, pushing through Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation, or ending the filibuster as it applied to Supreme Court nominees but employing it to block legislation that would expand voting rights—his anti-democratic maneuvers have been performed within the bounds of the system.
Click through for the rest, and then, if you like, click through again to the meta-source.

PolitiZoom – WATCH: COVID ‘Shedding’ Theory Is More Deranged Than You Can Possibly Imagine
Quote – It is astonishing to me that as a species we have done remarkable things like send mankind into outer space. We’ve built technological marvels. We’ve extended life expectancy and the quality of life with surgical procedures and medicinal interventions of one kind or another. We’ve invented communication devices and transportation that were beyond imagining a century ago. Yet despite all that, there are people who listen to this level of ignorant witchcraft fear mongering and believe it to be true. “Don’t go near the vaccinated. They’ll contaminate you. They’ll shed on you.” Shed how? Hair, skin, cooties? Frankly, I’d rather listen to tales of witchcraft and sorcery than this non-intellectual make believe hooey.
Click through for story. I could go on quite a rant here, but I’ll restrain myself.

Washington Examiner – Rachel Maddow reports sign of life in Georgia criminal investigation of Trump 2020 election efforts
Quote – Prosecutors began the investigation in February, following Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he asked the official to “find” the 11,780 votes sufficient to reverse his loss. Maddow told her audience on Friday that she had an “exclusive” with new information regarding a top official at the Justice Department that will help the process move forward.
Click through for story, and then through again to Maddow Blog if you like.

Food for Thought –

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