Glenn Kirschner – Will beating death of Tyre Nichols prompt politicians to take seriously the need for police reform?
The Lincoln Project – Still Here
MSNBC – Biden speaks to family of Tyre Nichols
Armageddon Update – Murder Moron!
Couple Tries Rescuing Two Puppies for Six Hours At The Beach
Beau – Let’s talk about Newport News and remembering your training….
Glenn Kirschner – More Oath Keepers & other Trump foot-soldiers CONVICTED of seditious conspiracy and other 1/6 crimes
MSNBC – Rep. Lee introduces bill to fight white supremacy, ‘the largest part of domestic terrorism’
Farron Balanced – Judge’s Ruling Could Spell DOOM For Trump
Dick Van Dyke reads “A Most Non-Political Speech” by Rod Serling
Dogs Avoided This Pup At The Dog Park Until… 😍
Beau – Let’s talk about Alec Baldwin, charges, and lessons….
Yesterday, though it was pretty cold, I took out some recyclables – not to the curb, just so the polycart. I hadn’t done so for a while, and I needed the space. The speed and the degree with which my hands bounced back to warm after coming back in is actually more revealing to me of just how cold it was than looking up the actual temperature. Fortunately, that’s something I don’t need to do all that often. Also, I received confirmation to see Virgil Sunday, so I guess my change in phraseology worked.
I imagine everyone has noticed that some classified documents have now been found at the home of Mike Pence. Even before that, Democratic Underground had some thoughts… (I say Democratinc Underground rather than the original poster because comments.)
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Mother Jones – Can $25 Million Preserve an Alaskan Town Sinking Into the Tundra?
Quote – From a distance, not much seems amiss, but a stroll through the community, almost 500 miles west of Anchorage, reveals a myriad of health and safety problems. Climate warming has severely degraded the permafrost, so buildings are sinking into the tundra. The Ninglick River, which flows past the village, is rapidly devouring large swaths of land, taking with it buildings and homes during periods of high water.
Click through for details. The short answer is “not even close.” And you know the town did not get to thispoint from the actions of residents alone. It took a lot of bad actions from around the world to melt the tundra to this degree.
Southern Poverty Law Center – ‘Willing to Fight’: Residents rise up against development that could erase historic Florida town’s rich Black heritage
Quote – At stake is the fate of the Robert Hungerford Preparatory School property, where the leaders of Eatonville established a school in 1897 on about 300 acres. The school was modeled on Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now Tuskegee University, in Alabama. Attracting Black students from up and down the Eastern Seaboard, it was for generations the beating heart of a community where, in an era of Jim Crow and lynching, Black citizens managed to build, govern and maintain their own Black-majority town.
Click through for story. Some livability issues are climeate-related. Some are white-supremancy-related. Still others are related to greed. Somehow they all seem to be related to Republican policies, though.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – The dramatic difference between DOJ’s search of Biden’s home & the search warrant for Trump’s home
The Lincoln Project – Decision
Ring of Fire – Marjorie Taylor Greene Smacks Down Matt Gaetz’s Attempt To Be Friend Again
Randy Rainbow – Speaker of the House – Randy Rainbow Song Parody (I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed him.)
Aggressive, Feral Cat Loves To Cuddle Now
Beau – Let’s talk about my shirts, the art, the artist, and cancel culture….
Yesterday, I looked at my cartoon calendar, and said to myself, “Well, shoot – I really have to seriously get down to making cartoons for the rest of the month – I need nine and the first one I need tomorrow (the 18th).” Also – I know people here disdain Chuck Todd, and with good reason, but he appears to have actually stood up to Sen. Ron Johnson. Stece Schmidt was the first one to say it, and now PolitiZoom is on it too. I don’t know what could have happened to bring it aout – but it’s welcome. If Chuck Todd can grow a spine, I would think almost anyone could.
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The Conversation – How the distortion of Martin Luther King Jr.‘s words enables more, not less, racial division within American society
Quote – Even after Reagan finally signed the King holiday into law in 1983, he would write letters of assurance to angry political allies that only a selective version of King would be commemorated. That version was free of not only the racial politics that shaped the civil rights movement but also of the vision of systemic change that King envisioned. In addition, Reagan’s version left out the views that King held against the Vietnam War. Instead, the GOP’s sanitized version only comprises King’s vision of a colorblind society – at the expense of the deep, systemic change that King believed was needed to achieve a society in which character was more important than race.
Click through for essay. Certainly this isn’t (or shouldn’t be) a sirprise. If so-called Christians with their “Prosperity Gospel” can distor the words and actions of Jesus to justify their crimes, clearly MLK would not be immune. But it’s definitely sad – and dangerous.
The Nib – Martin Luther King, Jr. Was More Radical Than You Think
Quote: 
Click through for full article. Graphics, or any type of visual, can, I think, help to clarifythings that are complicated. This may not be an artice you need – but it may be handy to pass on.
Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance – The Week Ahead
Quote – The past couple of weeks have been intense and draining. It’s clear things won’t ease up as we head into this week. But it’s impossible to live at this level of intensity on an ongoing basis, so if you’re like me, you probably need to ease back off the gas pedal a little. We’ll hit the high points this week but try to have a bit of fun too. We all need the sanity break.
Click through. Despite the intro, she doesn’t let us completely off the hook. She addresses MLK Day in Alabama and also the two Special Counsels.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, I got to see Virgil – and we got the deck of cards. It was just us for a while, but by the time I left 5 others inmates had received visitors (the guests included two toddlers, but not more than one at a time. I’m sure no one planned that – it was just a matter of who could get there when and who had to leave when.) Colleen remarked she hoped the weather was nice, and it was – for me. It was cold but not freezing, and there was no precipitation, but lots of cloud cover. I know, it sounds dismal – but it meant I didn’t have to have sun in my eyes driving back, but it was plenty light enough to see to drive. Actually there was a teeny tiny bit of rain, but so little that the slowest wiper speed (the one that is one slow swipe and then a fifteen second pause) took care of it, and it lasted less than three minutes total.
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SPLC – Unhealthy Homes: ‘Gutted’ New Orleans ordinance allows landlords to neglect run-down properties
Quote – “I can’t imagine having to put in a card opposing a healthy homes ordinance offered by the city of New Orleans, but we find ourselves here today after this very effective and very essential legislation has been effectively gutted by the vote you just took,” HousingNOLA Executive Director Andreanecia Morris told Morrell at the city council meeting where the revised ordinance was adopted. “We rise in opposition. What you have today is not good enough. It is not good enough for the people of New Orleans.”
Click through for story. And we all know those most affected will be the most vulnerable. Is there an emoji for spitting in disgust?
Salon – Ex-GOP candidate’s wife hit with 52 felony charges after casting 23 votes for husband: DOJ
Quote – Her actions took place ahead of the June 2020 primary election, in which Jeremy Taylor unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for Iowa’s 4th District Congressional seat as well as during the November general election in which Taylor defeated incumbent Democrat Marty Pottebaum for the District 3 seat on the county board.
Click through for details. More than one election was affected by thiese shenanigans.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, I got confirmation to visit Virgil tomorrow. This is the second visit in a row I’ve had to follow up on my request, but it pays off not to get upset, and I think they are rotating assignments or something because the name in the “signature” was new to me. So I think I’ll just start adding “Thanks in advance for your confirmation” or the like to my emails. It’s easy to do, it’s not insulting, and it could save a whole lot of grief on both ends. I also heard from a friend in California, one town up from where I grew up (but we had to join the Marines and be stationed in North Carolina to meet) letting me know that the rains had been heavy, but that she is fine. That area is separated from the ocean by what they call “the foothills,” although they aren’t at the foot of any mountains, they are just there. They are tall enough that a couple of inches, or even a couple of feet in sea level rise is not going to affect the area, but of course rain is another story. I’ll have to start paying more attention to the weather, beyond my own weather and the big headline storms.
Cartoon – (So many of TomCat’s cartoons were clairvoyant. This one is from January 2015.)
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Wonkette – Oh Sh*t, Ohio Student Noticed Top Secret Anti-Racist Message Of ‘The Sneetches’
Quote – This is where we are: You can’t read The Sneetches because a kid might notice discrimination is wrong. And that’s exactly what red state governors and legislators have been accomplishing. She added that the school district is “really not about suppressing any viewpoints or dialogues,” which it did, actually. In addition, so everyone will have something to groan about, she also insisted “We do not ban any books,” which is true, because all she did was ban a teacher from reading one. Congratulations, rightwing hoax-panic over “critical race theory.”
Click through for story. Children, like adults, differ, and not all of them have brains that fit the “tabula rasa” theory. Some are quite intelligent. So, while I of course would not call any kind of censorship healthy, no matter how hard they try, some facts are going to get through.
Robert Reich – What to do about America’s “labor shortage?” Easy. Pay people more.
Quote – The reason people aren’t working is that work doesn’t pay them enough, given declining wages and the increasing costs of childcare, eldercare, and transportation. Both the Fed’s solution (slow the economy so employers can find the workers they need without raising wages) and the Republican corporate solution (slash safety nets so people are so desperate they have to take any job available) are cruel. They would impose huge burdens on many of the most vulnerable people in our society. If we want more people to take jobs and we wish to live in a decent society, the answer is to pay people more.
Click through for details. I don’t get it. Is it because Reich’s background is technically in the field of labor, not economics, that “serious economists” don’t take him seriously? He is right on this, he is virtually always right, and he has cold, hard facts to back him up.
Food For Thought (Our system can handle gifs, but not, for some reason, this one. But uyou can see it in moton here.)
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.)
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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
