DL Open Thread Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021
The takeaway from the second day of “Impeachment 2: Impeach Harder” seems to be that Trump deliberately riled up his mob to target VP Mike Pence. Lots of people were shocked at how close rioters came to getting their hands on lawmakers.
You knew this already, but now there’s evidence in the form of memos: The CDC was compromised by the Trump White House to downplay the need for testing.
Self-described “smut peddler with a heart” Larry Flynt died Wednesday at age 78, 43 years after being paralyzed when he was shot by a white supremacist upset over interracial sex photos in Hustler magazine.
Ever hear of the House Defense Spending Reduction Caucus? It’s only 20 members strong, but these brave souls have a goal of cutting defense spending by 10 percent. It’s considered political suicide — the military-industrial complex has its fingers in every single congressional district — but jobs are the worst reason to spend Pentagon money. Here’s why: $1 billion in military spending creates roughly 11,200 jobs, compared with 26,700 in education, 16,800 in clean energy, and 17,200 in health care.
Mark Cuban, billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, tried to break the noxious tie between sports and nationalism — the team wasn’t playing the national anthem before games, and the NBA said it was OK. Oops, that was yesterday. Now the league says it’s not optional. This is what happens when a country goes to shit — it spends what’s left of its power forcing everyone to insist that it’s not.
The floor’s yours.
“This is what happens when a country goes to shit — it spends what’s left of its power forcing everyone to insist that it’s not.”
Exceptionally well put.
Voters Flee GOP. There is always turnover following a Presidential election. The D’s have lost 79K since November. However, the loss of 140,000 registered R’s is notable, especially in states like Arizona and Pa. Plus, don’t forget, there already were more registered D’s than R’s:
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/538199-nearly-140000-voters-left-gop-in-25-states-in-january
Shout out to the Libertarians: Want to “shrink the federal government”? Start with the military and cut not 10% but 50% and go from there. No, they don’t “keep us safe”, that horse excrement. Start by closing hundreds of bases around the world and stop pretending those countries want us there. Then tell the kids from the south and midwest to get a real job and not just join the military, as a jobs program it’s a failure and does little more then prop up failed red states. All Empires Fall, the American one will too. Bet on it.
Hear hear dammit! Then they come back with PTSD and get hired in police departments all over the country
Here in scenic Smyrna and Dover there are thousands of military retirees, almost all from red states, almost all far right. They are a plague of sorts and they never, ever got the hell home to where they came from. Why would they? Who really wants to live in Oklahoma? NOBODY, cheap land or not. The chances of reducing the military are near zero at this point, the reason is federal money. At some point the plug will be pulled on the great deficit machine, and the politicians will have nothing to do with it, it will be the banks and creditors that end this sick game. When the lending stops so does the spending. Trump found that out decades ago, we will too.
4 in 10 Republicans say political violence is ok.
4 out of 10 is a little lower than I would have expected.
Some people are fleeing the republican party because it’s not crazy enough. But maybe that’s a split that helps liberals/progressives.
Struth, everyone acts like the ones leaving are anti-trumpers.
Jazz fans, Chick Corea died.
What position did he play? Power forward?
That’s not funny. That is disrespectful of a great artist.
I’m gonna have to listen to some of his acoustic piano work.
Jazz fusion was a genre that I was never able to embrace. Still can’t.
This acoustic trio performance from just a couple of years ago seems like a good place to start. This group initially recorded together around 1998. Or was it 1989? You can really enjoy the camaraderie, telepathy, and superior musicianship in this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-XZu8DBLSs
And he played with Miles.
I know. And Bitches’ Brew was huge when I was in college.
I was never able to get into it. Ditto for Mahavishnu John McLaughlin.
Don’t know why. Just wasn’t to my liking.
The last thing I’ll say is that the album Light as a Feather deserves consideration as one of the great jazz albums, despite the “fusion” label. Please give it a listen. It always helps my happiness.
Will do. Always looking for great musical recommendations.
I listened to this cut, and it’s great. Even though it’s not the title cut, ‘light as a feather’ could certainly apply. I’ll have to share with my oldest daughter, who is a serious flute player:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEhQTjgoTdU
So happy that you liked it. The whole album is great and Joe Ferrell is just a monster.