Video Thread 6/24/21

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 242021
 

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ/Garland Need to Address the Nation on the Investigation into those who Incited the Insurrection

The Lincoln Project – The Mission. I hope this gets through to people. It’s absolutely accurate. Why can’t people see it?

Now This News – Mom Advocates for Critical Race Theory to Board of Education  (She doesn’t mention CRT, at least not in what’s shown.  She does mention truth.  And I think that’s where we should all be going.)

Keith from yesterday

Mrs Betty Bowers on American History

Corey Ryan Forrester – Putin is interviewed about his first summit with President Joe Biden

Beau – Let’s talk about my uncle, a storyteller….

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Open Thread for June 21, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 212021
 

Well, I really overslept – woke up only a few minutes before my grocery delivery arrived. But I did get it in without incident and put away. A few items missing, but at least no substitutions.

Cartoon

Short Takes

Crooks and Liars – Rep Ted Lieu Dares Catholic Bishops To Deny Him Communion
“Quote”


Click through for a little more background

The Guardian – The martyr who may rise again: Christian right’s faith in Trump not shaken. This is not fun reading,but it is the reality, and we cannot afford to ignore it.
Quote: [Jonathan] Riches – a rightwing activist with a reputation for litigiousness and spreading falsehoods – booed Mike Pence during his speech on Friday because of the former vice president’s refusal to overturn the election result; others in the room shouted “Traitor!” and were escorted out. “We feel like he abandoned Trump,” Riches explained. “We needed him to challenge the election. He doesn’t represent our party. He’s now trying to redeem himself but we don’t want him.”
Click through to skim as much as you can stand.

NBC News – Derek Chauvin sentencing thrusts Minnesota Judge Peter Cahill back into spotlight. Yes, that is this week.August is when the other three get tried.
Quote – In interviews, people who know Cahill and cases he has overseen say he is likely to land somewhere in the middle. They said he is a fair judge, though there is no guarantee he will mete out a punishment that will make either side entirely happy. “He’s been both a prosecutor and a defense attorney,” said Craig Cascarano, 72, a Minneapolis lawyer in private practice who met Cahill at the Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office when Cahill was a law clerk. “So he understands what it’s like to do both jobs. And he tries very hard to do the right thing.”
Click through for full story (and a short video, kind of a montage.)

Food for Thought

A bonus “dad joke” from Eric Swalwell, belated from Fathers Day: “Why do seagulls fly over the ocean? Because if they flew over the bay, we’d call them bagels!”

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Video Thread 6/20/21

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 202021
 

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ Brief Says “Proud Boy” Defendant Committed Act of “Terrorism.” This is What Trump Incited

The Lincoln Project – Juneteenth

Now This News – Teen Receives Racist Attacks After Anti-Racist Graduation Speech

Ring of Fire – Former Nixon Lawyer Says Trump’s Behavior Was WAY Worse Than Nixon’s

Thom Hartmann – Choose: Voting Rights or The US Chamber? (w/ Karl Frisch)

What Happens When You Leave a Barrel Hanging in a forest

Beau – Juneteenth and reactions to it

(*On You Tube, I can cut miscellaneous stuff at the beginning .. but not at the end. So I like to let you know when you can stop one early without losing content.)

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Open Thread for June 20, 2021

 Posted by at 7:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 202021
 

It is now possible to hear an opera broadcast on every Saturday all year round, and not just during the Metropolitan Opera’s season. Yesterday’s opera is “Tosca,” by Puccini, which premiered in 1900, based on an 1887 play. In it the political is the personal, and I would ccll it prescient except that, sadly, the struggle between authoritarians and the rest of us has been going on forever. But it does, at least to me, make it more poignant to consider that what happened to Tosca and Mario (and Angelotti) could conceivably happen to any of us at any time if we fail to preserve our democracy.

Cartoon TomCat has run this cartoon every Father’s Day since at least 2010 (probably before that, but I don’t think the prior blog, which was on Blogspot, remains accessible). He always protested strongly that the litter was not his progeny.

Short Takes

INDEOENDENT (UK) – The Republican Party has turned fascist – it is now the most dangerous threat in the world. (And apparently everyone can see it except us.)
Quote: Two strategies, though never entirely absent from Republican behaviour in the past, have become far more central to their approach. One is a greater willingness to use or tolerate violence against their opponents, something that became notorious during the invasion of the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters on 6 January. The other change among Republicans is much less commented on, but is more sinister and significant. This is the systematic Republican takeover of the electoral machinery that oversees elections and makes sure that they are fair. Minor officials in charge of them have suddenly become vital to the future of American democracy. Remember that it was only the refusal of these functionaries to cave in to Trump’s threats and blandishments that stopped him stealing the presidential election last November.
Click through for the full article. Share it if you can.

Crooks and Liars – What’s The ‘Critical Race Theory’ Uproar Really About? Making Enemies For 2022
Quote : The whole campaign against CRT, in fact, appears to be primarily the work of a handful of astroturfing “dark money” right-wing organizations. And its central figure is named Christopher Rufo, a longtime right-wing think tank activist with a history of promoting various kinds of spurious enemy concoctions.
Click through for details. But remember, just because only one person is behind it doesn’t mean it hasn’t already infected multitudes. Donald Trump** ia onlt one person too.

Sad news – Champ has passed. (BTW this looks like a Twitter account worth following if one were on Twitter.)

Food for Thought

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Video Thread 6/19/21

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 192021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Breaking News: FBI/DOJ Investigating Possible Complicity of Members of Congress in the Insurrection

Don Winslow – This is 3 days old, and there has been some mitigating news since then. But it’s still a good point.

Armageddon Update – Snark lives!

Now This News – Scare off scammers (ad at end)

Ring of Fire – Mostly opinion here – and I don’t always agree with Farron – but today I applaud him unconditionally. (Ad at end)

Decoding cat emotions

Beau – Let’s talk about the weather and record breaking heat…

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Open Thread for June 18, 2021

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 182021
 

My settled routine is more or less back, which is a blessing. It enables me to stop and knit a little, or bead a little, or eve play a computer game a little. And those little breaks keep me going. There’s pretty much good news today. It’s all in the nature of clawing one more step forward from having been pushed two steps back … but it’s all good nonetheless. Happy Juneteenth (observed) to all.

Cartoon

Short Takes

The Hill – Supreme Court upholds ObamaCare in 7-2 ruling
Quote: “We do not reach these questions of the Act’s validity, however, for Texas and the other plaintiffs in this suit lack the standing necessary to raise them,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the majority.
Click through to see which Trump**-appointed Justice(s) voted the right way. You know at least one did, just by the numbers.

Sojourners – JUNETEENTH: ‘HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS’
Juneteenth is, of course, tomorrow. But it has been announced that the Federal Government will celebrate it today. So here is a very personal yet also historical article about the first one.
Quote: The next day, Friday, June 19, when Granger arrived, the more than 1,000 enslaved people working in Galveston’s ports, houses, hotels, cotton fields, and barber and smithing shops would have witnessed thousands of Black men in blue uniforms as far as the eye could see as their liberators…. It was the beautiful presence of authoritative Black bodies that made these words real.
Click through for the full story.

Crooks and Liars – Teachers Push Back On GOP ‘Critical Race Theory’ Nonsense
Quote: Teachers across the country have spoken out against bills like [Texas] S.B. 2202, with thousands gathering in more than 20 cities last weekend for a National Day of Action organized by the Zinn Education Project, which publishes educational materials based on Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” and other writings. Several thousand educators have also signed a pledge stating, “We, the undersigned educators, refuse to lie to young people about U.S. history and current events—regardless of the law.”
Click through for more detail. Howard Zinn rocks, so if you haven’t read his “people’s histry” you may want to look it up.

Food for Thought

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Video Thread 6/17/21

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 172021
 

Glenn Kirschner – NYT Reports that NY DA Vance Has Weisselberg’s Personal Tax Returns. The Flip on Trump is Near

Meidas Touch – more Lev Parnas

The Lincoln Project – How To Get Back To The White House: A Guide For Donald Trump

Thom Hartmann – Secret Plans of Boogaloo & White Supremacists Revealed

What Biden said about his meeting with Putin, in 3.5 minutes

Cory Ryan Forrester turns an ambulance chaser parody into something much better.

Beau – Let’s talk about 750 million refugees coming to the United States….

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