{"id":53323,"date":"2023-10-13T05:59:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T12:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=53323"},"modified":"2023-10-12T20:54:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T03:54:44","slug":"open-thread-october-13-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/13\/open-thread-october-13-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread October 13, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, Jim Jordan threw his support behind Steve Scalise, and a vote of the full House was held. The result was Scalise 113 to Jordan 99 (That adds up to 212, which, coincidentally, was the exact number of votes cast for Jeffries.) I am no fan of Scalise (except maybe = MAYBE &#8211; as compared to Gym Jordan) but he is at least predictable. Jordan and other MAGAts, you never know what cockamamie idea they will come up with nect &#8211; nor even whether they&#8217;re serious about it or just being outrageous. Planning is next to impossible.\u00a0 And then, after all that, Scalise dropped oout of the race!\u00a0 Also yesterday, the jury reached a verdict in the case of the two officers charged in the death of Elijah McClain (the forst of three trials for five defendants).\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cpr.org\/2023\/09\/20\/elijah-mcclain-trial-death-colorado-latest-updates-live-blog\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> From CPR:<\/a>\u00a0 &#8220;One Aurora police officer was found guilty on Thursday for his role in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain. Randy Roedema has been convicted on the lesser charges of criminally negligent homicide and assault in the third degree. The other officer on trial, Jason Rosenblatt, was found not guilty.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cartoon &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-53118\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/block.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/block.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/block-300x185.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/block-150x92.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Short Takes &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/north-carolina-republicans-are-creating-a-secret-police-force\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Daily Beast &#8211; North Carolina Republicans Are Creating a \u2018Secret Police Force\u2019<\/a><br \/>\nQuote &#8211; This new entity, formally known as the Joint Legislative Committee on Government Operations, or \u201cGov Ops\u201d for short, will be chaired by Senate Leader Phil Berger (R) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R). It grants the state the authority to investigate various matters, including \u201cpossible instances of misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, mismanagement, waste, abuse, or illegal conduct.\u201d Gov Ops, a product of North Carolina\u2019s most recent state budget, was established via a comprehensive bill passed in late September. Despite Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper\u2019s refusal to sign the legislation, the Republican majority in the state legislature pushed it through just 10 days later, thanks to their veto-proof majority and the state\u2019s laws restricting the governor\u2019s ability to make line-item vetoes. Gov Ops is slated to take effect next week.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/north-carolina-republicans-are-creating-a-secret-police-force\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click through for more.<\/a> I have fond memories of North Carolina from when I was stationed there. This kind of thing just sinks them as the iceberg sank the Titanic.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/atlantablackstar.com\/2023\/10\/11\/kamala-harris-supporters-race-to-her-defense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Atlanta Black Star &#8211; \u2018Want to Go In \u2026 Start Flipping Over Desks\u2019: Kamala Harris\u2019 Supporters Race to Her Defense After Anonymous Staffer Criticizes Vice President for the \u2018Amount of Time Dedicated to Hair Care\u2019<\/a><br \/>\nQuote &#8211; According to The New York Times Magazine, Democrats have also insulted Harris and questioned her skill set. A top Democratic consultant reportedly claimed that the vice president \u201chas a little Ron DeSantis in her.\u201d Another Democrat donor said that Harris serving as the vice president \u201cis not ideal, but there\u2019s a hope she can rise to the occasion\u201d as Biden\u2019s running mate. One particularly petty microaggression revealed in the article noted the amount of time that the country\u2019s first Black vice president spends grooming her hair. \u201cSometimes the arguments against her feel more petty,\u201d said the article. \u201cA member of Harris\u2019 staff remarked on the amount of downtime the vice president schedules on trips, which includes an inordinate amount of time dedicated to hair care.\u201d<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/atlantablackstar.com\/2023\/10\/11\/kamala-harris-supporters-race-to-her-defense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click through for full article<\/a>. All of this is petty, and IMO clearly more misgynistic than racist. 2016 should have taught us that Democratic misogyny is a force which is powerful, and which needs to be considered if we don&#8217;t want to lose our democracy. But no one wants to hear that. I find it terribly painful that some of the finest minds and greatest talents in the nation are not electable. But I find the prospect of living in 1984 Orwell &#8211; or 1930&#8217;s and 40&#8217;s Stalin &#8211; or Russia or Iran today even more painful. Another lesson we should have learned even longer ago &#8211; this one as long ago as Reconstruction &#8211; is that bigotry cannot be eradicated by ignoring it or denying it exists.<\/p>\n<p>Food For Thought<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-53328\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/shioes.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"770\" height=\"588\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/shioes.jpg 770w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/shioes-300x229.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/shioes-150x115.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/shioes-768x586.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-50380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Steal.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Steal.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Steal-300x209.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Steal-150x105.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Steal-768x536.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, Jim Jordan threw his support behind Steve Scalise, and a vote of the full House was held. The result was Scalise 113 to Jordan 99 (That adds up to 212, which, coincidentally, was the exact number of votes cast for Jeffries.) I am no fan of Scalise (except maybe = MAYBE &#8211; as compared <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/13\/open-thread-october-13-2023\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":50381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[4553,3704,4165,3735,4172,3748,5635,5205],"class_list":["post-53323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","tag-campaign-2026","tag-cartoon","tag-congress","tag-misogyny","tag-north-carolina","tag-racism","tag-secret-police","tag-speaker-of-the-house","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}