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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Morning Open Thread

Friday Morning Open Thread

by | 112 Comments

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A few odds and ends. First, here’s video I took of one of my hummingbirds earlier this week:

Prince Philip, husband of the Queen, has died at age 99. He was a handsome man in his younger days:

Friday Morning Open Thread 1

Election fraud that changed the outcome of at least one statehouse race occurred in Florida in 2020. Republicans were the perps and beneficiaries:

MIAMI — Former Republican Sen. Frank Artiles was in possession of campaign documents of two spoiler no-party candidates who ran in separate, competitive Miami-Dade state Senate races in 2020, according to a 38-page search warrant obtained by the Miami Herald Thursday.

Artiles, 47, is facing multiple felony campaign-finance related charges in connection with recruiting and paying an alleged spoiler candidate with the goal of swaying the outcome of Miami-Dade’s Senate District 37 race…

Rodriguez, who shares a surname with losing Democrat incumbent José Javier Rodríguez, netted more than 6,000 votes in an election decided by just 32.

GOP candidate Ileana Garcia, a television personality and co-founder of Latinas for Trump, won the race.

The Confederate chair/toilet has allegedly been returned by White Lies Matter:

The memorial chair, valued at $500,000, was “dropped off at a secure location” in New Orleans and police and the United Daughters of the Confederacy were given GPS coordinates to locate the chair.

New Orleans police could not immediately be reached to confirm reports that it found the chair…

When White Lies Matter said it appeared the Confederate group would not meet its demand, it began disseminating photos of what it claimed was the chair being used as a toilet.

But Thursday, White Lies Matter said it was all a ruse and that it kept the original chair intact.

My guess is WLM are Tulane students. Anyhoo, seems like it might be a newsy day. We’ll see.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

112Comments

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    My thoughts are with QE2 and her family. As if being portrayed on “The Crown” was not enough ….

    Anyway, 99 is a great run, and what history Philip lived through.

    ETA:  You remind me that I kept meaning to pop by the Daughters of the Confederacy HQ and see if anything was going on over there.  Nothing ever seems to be …

  9. 9.

    Baud

    @Elizabelle:

    You remind me that I kept meaning to pop by the Daughters of the Confederacy HQ and see if anything was going on over there.

    Whaccha planning to steal?

  15. 15.

    Amir Khalid

    It feels strange not to see Anne Lurie’s Covid-19 update post. Should I post my daily Covid-19 update comment here?

    Sad about Prince Philip. He was one of the less-uninteresting members of the House of Windsor.

  16. 16.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I’m concerned that Gaetz will never be prosecuted if they keep having to broaden the investigation to uncover all of his crimes.

  18. 18.

    raven

    So I had a lumbar mri 15 months ago and have been pursuing physical therapy and try to figure out my motor issues. Since I won’t have any surgical treatment while Bohdi is still with us my neurologist and I decided to do another round of mir’s. I had the first one, cervical, Monday. They called and left a message and said the neurologist said nothing has changed but the radiologist noted a “tethered spinal cord” and they want to refer me to a neurosurgeon. This is all swell except that my spinal tethering symptoms would seem to be lumbar and not cervical related. We haven’t done a lumbar mri so, if they picked this up from the original lumbar mri, I’m not going to be happy.

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: LOL.  You cannot even get on to the property, last time I was near it.  Yellow [crime??] tape up at the entrance; fire scorching repaired, and African American guards at the ready to tell you to stay off the steps.

    In the aftermath of the BLM protests, I was seeing a lot of whinging by rightwingers that Stonewall Jackson’s [sacred] battle flag had been damaged/desecrated, but no news like that ever appeared in a real news source.  I don’t know if anyone even breached the building.

    Blacks and people who like black people — rioting!  Stonewall’s flag — in danger!

    I wish those old gals would sell the building (which used to be called “Battle Abbey”).  It’s located between the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (free!  visit, visit!) and the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. Either institution could elevate that building’s purpose.

    Those Daughters of the Confederacy are the next group to be sneered at publicly.  Little darlings did a lot of damage, putting up all those grandiose monuments to The Lost Cause (ie. preservation of  African slavery on US soil).

  20. 20.

    debbie

    I was listening to reports about yesterday’s testimony at Chauvin’s murder trial. The expert referred to a knee on George Floyd’s neck and a knee on his back. Does anyone know if there were two cops doing this or if Chauvin was using both knees?

  22. 22.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker:

    She’s unwell? I didn’t see anything about that, but also sending my best wishes!

    Neither did I, but if she were intentionally taking a (much-deserved) break from putting together the daily Covid thread, she’d have surely let us know she was doing that.  So I expect either she’s under the weather, or some other emergency came up suddenly.

    Either way, sending thoughts and good vibes AL’s way!

  23. 23.

    burnspbesq

    Raises an interesting question about remedies. If the fraudster goes to jail, but the fraudulent result isn’t overturned, that doesn’t seem like complete relief.

  25. 25.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: looks like we are already down the road on that investigation.  32 vote difference:

    Prosecutors filed new felony charges against Frank Artiles, a Republican operative and former state senator, and Alexis Rodriguez, an auto-parts dealer who authorities say was recruited and paid by Artiles to sway the outcome of a Miami-Dade Senate race. https://t.co/HoKOKvMxFA— John FitzGerald (@TheTweetOfJohn) April 8, 2021

  26. 26.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I don’t think it’s accidental that all of the Republican efforts on “election fraud” focus exclusively on individual voters and never even contemplate preventing the most common and most profound election fraud crimes- the fraud that actually changes outcomes-  which are committed by politicians and election officials.

    All the punching is down. Never up.

  29. 29.

    Geminid

    The “ghost candidate” story revived my suspicions about Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant. He announced last month that he would mount an independent run next year for the U.S. Senate now held by Marco Rubio. Grant is term limited as Mayor, and he may just be a ambitious man. He speaks of fighting “the duopoly,” though, which I find kind of horse-shoey.

    Florida statewide elections have been close in recent years, and Rubio probably would probably benefit from multiple challengers splitting the anti-incumbent vote. I won’t be surprised if Grant raises substantial money from Republican sources.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @Immanentize: That’s a different race — South FL vs Panhandle. I assume this “ghost candidate” thing is a Republican ploy that is rampant throughout the state.

  31. 31.

    debbie

    I can’t help but be disappointed at Stacy Abrams’s comment discouraging boycotts of GA’s voter suppression law.

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    RIP, Prince Philip. I remember as a little girl of 5 listening to radio coverage of Princess Elizabeth’s wedding, and avidly looking at newspaper and LIFE Magazine photos of the couple. He was a spectacularly good-looking young Viking of a man. Sad that he wasn’t able to make it to his centenary (June 10), but he’s been so ill in recent years that he was probably more than ready to go.

    Condolences to the Queen and her family on their loss.

  36. 36.

    satby

    @Betty Cracker: I bet it’s used all over the country. The Green party has a lot of funding sourced from Republicans. The spoilers can be positioned in ways that split the electorate most favorably to whatever outcome is desired. It’s how the excreable Dan Lipinski held onto his seat for a decade after he would have lost it, he always had multiple opponents splitting the primary vote.

  38. 38.

    Kay

    Arguably, Republicans efforts on “voter fraud” will increase the chances of coordinated election fraud committed by politicians (the election fraud that changes outcomes) because Republican efforts on voter fraud make the state legislators who would be committing the fraud the only oversight on elections.

    The Georgia law takes two layers of oversight out and Justice Alito’s Grand Theory of the Primacy of State Legislatures that he pulled out of his ass cuts out state judges.

    They’re making the same state legislators who would commit the fraud the only arbiters of elections.

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    @rikyrah:   Interesting surmise.

    I hope AL is feeling peachy, and those COVID threads deserve an award.  They’ll be an archive of what we knew, and when, in months/years to come.

    A Tunch Trophy?  Being named a Lily Laureate?  What does AL get??

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    The Gaetz thing started out as a Lifetime Movie.

    But, now, it’s grown into an HBO movie or a limited release on Netflix

  44. 44.

    Geminid

    @debbie: Stacey Abrams is working hard to overcome those laws in the courts, and by mobilizing Democratic voters. She also plans to run for Governor. A shrewd, pragmatic politician, Abrams will not damage her chances by advocating boycotts of her state, especially when boycotts will not be decisive in this area.

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    @debbie:   In another year, Stacey might be down with the boycotting, which can be effective.  But not coming out of a pandemic, with so many jobs lost and families in peril.  She’s made the case that vulnerable Georgians, many of them people of color, would be hurt by boycotts of their employers.

    Although:  we can sure alter our buying habits.

    The other weird thing about the boycotts: you’d almost like to reward the Georgia voters for electing two Democrats to the Senate.  They would get hurt, too.

    Needs better targeting.

  47. 47.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: Man!  How do you keep track down there?  Miami election corruption has been forever -+ it has now been exported across the State?

    If I believed in a God I would understand the many efforts via hurricane to wash it clean.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Some rather breathless reporting from the Guardian: Revealed: Republican-led states secretly spending huge sums on execution drugs

    Republican-controlled states are spending astronomical sums of their taxpayers’ money to buy pharmaceutical drugs from illicit dealers in a desperate and almost certainly unlawful attempt to carry out lethal injection executions.

    Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal the full extent of the spending blitz that American death penalty states have embarked upon as they try to restart executions delayed by the pandemic. The findings show that Republican leaders are not only willing to run roughshod over their own state and federal laws, but are also prepared to spend lavishly in the process.

    The most jaw-dropping outlay has been made by Arizona, a state in which Republicans hold both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s mansion. A single-page heavily redacted document obtained by the Guardian records that last October the department of corrections ordered 1,000 vials of pentobarbital sodium salt, each containing 1mg, to be shipped in “unmarked jars and boxes”.

    At the bottom of the document, the record states: “Amount paid: $1,500,000.”
    ………………………………
    The Guardian asked Arizona’s department of corrections to explain its costly and apparently unlawful purchase of pentobarbital. The department said that it does not discuss how it obtains execution drugs.

    It also stressed that the information the Guardian was requesting was “statutorily confidential” – meaning that it is secret under court order. A spokesperson added: “Pentobarbital has been administered lawfully and successfully for many years”.

    I’ll have to admit, 1.5 million buckaroos is a bit steep, especially when they could just go down the street and get more than enough heroin to overdose somebody for less than a hundred smackers.

    Other documents obtained by the Guardian relate to Tennessee and Missouri.

    I knew it I knew it I knew it… Misery was not about to be left out of the moral degradation. A state which refuses to provide healthcare for it’s working poor (in defiance of it’s voters) surely would have no problem stooping as low as it took to kill a few of it’s citizens.

    Since then, states have been pushing at legal boundaries in their scramble to evade the boycott of pharmaceutical supplies. “States have switched from one drug to another, crossed state lines to get drugs, paid cash and failed to record the payments to keep the purchases secret,” said Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham law school.

    Denno added: “All of those actions are violations of state or federal laws, and all of them have ended up jacking up the price of the drugs.”

    Fiscally conservative, Law and Order, Pro-Life Republicans breaking the law and spending exorbitant amounts of money just to get their killing in? Say it ain’t so!

  49. 49.

    Immanentize

    @debbie: She wants to be elected on Georgia.  Hence her opposition to boycotts.  It’s a bit of a conflict of interests, it seems.

  50. 50.

    Immanentize

    @rikyrah: This time of year is especially hard, I think, on AL because of allergies.  She lives pretty close to me and all the pollen is in the air.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I wonder if it would be worthwhile or even possible to explain the difference to people- that there is “election fraud” – committed by politicians and election officials (people in power who want to stay in power)  like this case in Florida and the other big GOP case in Georgia and then there is “voter fraud”, focused on the least powerful actor, individual voters,  much more rare and much less likely to change an outcome, and also oddly the single type of fraud Republicans care about.

  53. 53.

    cope

    Thanks for the red throat guy video to start my day.  I can see that my hummingbird feeder is strangely empty just a couple of days after filling it.  Maybe a leak?  Anyway, better make some food so our own red throat guy(s) will come back.

    Also, sad about Prince Philip though I have no personal interest in or use for all that royalty stuff.  My wife gets into it but me, not so much.  And glad the chair fetish object was returned to the only group of people who could possibly have any interest in it.  That makes our side look not so felonious.

  57. 57.

    Patricia Kayden

    Matt Gaetz is what the @GOP decided to value: power for no purpose, humility is a weakness, character is a burden that hinders ambition, inherited wealth makes you better than others, never give back, only take more, personal responsibility is for suckers. He is the @GOP. https://t.co/LxKBi5yhAS— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) April 9, 2021

  58. 58.

    Baud

    Another possible new elementary particle, this time at CERN.

    Evidence emerges of ‘brand-new force of nature’ at CERN

  61. 61.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: She was editing a COVID post in the backroom this morning, so I made the assumption all is well. Could be she just lost connectivity or something came up. Anyhoo, I sent an email and will share if I hear back.

  62. 62.

    satby

    @John S.: love that guy.

    @OzarkHillbilly: Also this from the Guardian: “The big lie of a stolen election that [Trump] was pushing, and his supporters were pushing leading to the insurrection … has taken hold in religious communities,” said Andrew Whitehead, associate professor of sociology at Indiana University, and recent author of Taking Back America for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States.

  63. 63.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I think it’s worthwhile to explain the difference, especially in red states where the power grab is happening. Letter to the Editor time for me! :)

  68. 68.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Yeah I read that piece too. Not at all surprising, cults gotta cult. In other news, water is wet and the sun is hot.

  69. 69.

    cope

    @satby: No but I do need to actually read stuff on Twitter which I generally don’t do because I already spend too much time on this computer. See? I’m at it again.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    If you read the articles conservatives write about “voter fraud” the examples they cite are never “voter fraud” but always election fraud- fraud committed by politicians or election administrators to change an outcome.

    The Georgia “voter fraud” law makes election fraud more likely. It removes layers of oversight and centralizes power in the people who stand to gain from schemes like this one in Florida.

  72. 72.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    Sickening that cheating has become the GOP’s standard.

    The RNC, through Chairfascist Ronna ROMNEY McDingle, issued this response: “Nuh-uh!!! No cheaters, the Dems are the cheaters! They let those  coloreds  darkies  not-truly-‘Muricans vote!”

  73. 73.

    Sloane Ranger

    My thoughts go out to HM The Queen, his children,  grandchildren and great grandchildren. He had his faults but did great work as President of the WWF, the National Playing Fields Association and numerous other charities. Served the UK bravely in the Royal Navy during WWII and supported the Queen for years afterwards as her husband. Overall, a life well lived.

    RIP Prince  Philip,  Duke of Edinburgh.

  74. 74.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    The Georgia “voter fraud” law makes election fraud more likely. It removes layers of oversight and centralizes power in the people who stand to gain from schemes like this one in Florida.

    Ah, but is it really election fraud if the GA lege just decides to declare the Rethug the winner(s) wherever they deem it necessary? And that also sort of obviates the need for gerrymandering, so it’s a win-win-win scenario. Unless you’re one of those nit-pickers who insists that elections be free and fair.

  76. 76.

    germy

    “I am sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today.” — Fritz Scheller, attorney for Joel Greenberg, associate of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL)

    (Greenberg is expected to take a plea deal with federal prosecutors in his own criminal case.) pic.twitter.com/Bz1PLWBuv4

    — The Recount (@therecount) April 8, 2021

    The defense lawyer reminds me of Dr. Bornstein (remember him?) for some reason.

  77. 77.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: That’s true! In my letter-writing campaign, I can use recent, in-state examples of both voter AND election fraud here in FL, with Republican perps in all cases. It would demonstrate the difference AND the potential for materially affecting the outcome too. The “always projection” meme is so apt in this situation.

  79. 79.

    Elizabelle

    Jackals:  I am preparing a letter to a friend who is vaccine-averse, for not particularly good reasons.  I think she may lose her job if she continues that stance, because she’s in the healthcare field and expected to see patients.

    SO:  do you remember the article about separating out normal occurrences and not blaming them on COVID?  Might have been from the The Atlantic; how X number of people are going to drop dead or have some type of health situation, and it is not caused by the vaccine, although the patient may be suspecting correlation?

    Any articles on people who really should not take this vaccine?  What if patient has had a bad reaction (up to anaphylactic shock) to a previous vaccine?

    The weird thing here is I know this particular person has been willing to take previous vaccines, as a condition of employment, and she has sounded amenable to taking the COVID one if it allowed her to travel for a vacation … (priorities, priorities)

  80. 80.

    citizen dave

    Just saw this one (in my head):

    Florida Man Emerges as Potential Suitor for Queen

     

    Former President of the United States of America Donald J Trump emerged Friday as an early potential suitor for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, longtime head of the United Kingdom monarchy.  With the passing of the Queen’s husband Prince Philip on Friday, Mr. Trump is considering making a strong move on Her Majesty.  Sources close to the former President say he has been patiently waiting for this opportunity, and believes that the Queen could help him in his troubles with his golf and resort property in Scotland.  On their first date, Mr. Trump plans to play up his mother’s Scottish heritage, his portfolio of tall, erect buildings in America, and his former career as a reality TV star on the Apprentice.  

  81. 81.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Wow. When Gaetz went corrupt, he went corrupt all the way. 

    Isn’t that the Flori-duh way?  Go big, or go home!  I’m fully expecting to find out he beat someone to death with an alligator.

  83. 83.

    germy

    Former Rep. Katie Hill on Matt Gaetz: "He should resign immediately. The Ethics Committee should be opening an investigation immediately and, for some reason, they haven't when they opened one up on me based on a Facebook post from my bitter ex-husband." @allinwithchris— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 9, 2021

  84. 84.

    Soprano2

    Texas Republicans, legislating the important stuff https://sports.yahoo.com/texas-senate-passes-bill-requiring-teams-with-government-contracts-to-play-the-national-anthem-025936653.html

    A bill that passed overwhelmingly in the Texas Senate on Thursday would require professional sports teams with government contracts to play the national anthem before games.

    The bill passed 28-2 in the Senate with bipartisan support and now heads to the Texas House of Representatives.

    Of course it was “bipartisan” because few people are going to vote against the National Anthem, but this is just stupid.

  86. 86.

    Betty Cracker

    As y’all probably surmised from the COVID-19 update post upstairs, Anne Laurie is fine and was just experiencing technical difficulties.

  88. 88.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    The Big Lie itself is election fraud. When I listen to informed commentary on the Georgia law voting rights advocates say “what I’m really worried about is the provisions that allow for removal of local election officials and the power grab by the state legislature”

    They’re not worried about that for abstract reasons- they’re worried about election fraud.

  91. 91.

    citizen dave

    @satby: Re: the religion-politics connection.  There are lots of articles on the recent Gallup poll showing Americans religious identification falling below 50%.  I can’t find it now, but one article I read the other day said some of the youth didn’t like the right wing politics–religious connection, and that had turned them away from religion.

  95. 95.

    Betty

    @raven: Recently joined your team. Cervical mri shows a manageable problem, lumbar mri shows surgery will be required. I am hoping to manage with physical therapy for a while. Neuropathy in the feet is the worst part so far. Good luck!

  96. 96.

    Ken

    @Elizabelle: Derek Lowe’s “In the Pipeline” blog has had a lot of covid posts.  “Get Ready for False Side Effects” was, IIRC, cited in the comments here, so might be the one you’re thinking of.

    We’re talking about treating very, very large populations, which means that you’re going to see the usual run of mortality and morbidity that you see across large samples. Specifically, if you take 10 million people and just wave your hand back and forth over their upper arms, in the next two months you would expect to see about 4,000 heart attacks. About 4,000 strokes. Over 9,000 new diagnoses of cancer. And about 14,000 of that ten million will die, out of usual all-causes mortality. No one would notice. That’s how many people die and get sick anyway.

  97. 97.

    Elizabelle

    @Ken:   That’s it!  Thank you so much.

    And Soprano’s link (WaPost article from yesterday about having convos re vaccine) is excellent.

  98. 98.

    germy

    @Kay:

    “In 2021 a woman deciding to engage in consensual sexual activity is somehow a mark against her morality, but a man sharing images of women without their consent on the House floor is not grounds for his immediate removal from office or resignation.” https://t.co/gCCvw4Z172

    — Katie Hill (@KatieHill4CA) April 8, 2021

  103. 103.

    germy

    (CNN) Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger became the first congressional Republican to call on his colleague from Florida, Rep. Matt Gaetz, to resign in the face of a federal investigation into sex trafficking allegations.
    “Matt Gaetz needs to resign,” Kinzinger tweeted Thursday night, linking to a Daily Beast article about allegations against Gaetz, the details of which CNN has not confirmed.

  104. 104.

    Ken

    @Benw: Soon we will be able to collapse the false vacuum state and find how the universe really works!  We’ll be destroyed instantly afterward, but for one brief shining moment we’ll know!

  106. 106.

    Benw

    @Ken: some believe that in that case the universe will be replaced by an even more complicated one. Some believe this has already happened :)

  109. 109.

    James E Powell

    @karen marie:

    Nearly every professional sports team gets free money from taxpayers. There are usually some obligations that run from the sports team to the government to make it look like something other than a straight handout.

  110. 110.

    Soprano2

    @Elizabelle: I’m glad it helped. It says a lot of stuff that’s true, but puts our teeth on edge in some cases. I want to yell at people who say things like “I don’t want someone else’s DNA in my body”, but I know yelling at them is counterproductive.

    Speaking of side effects, for about the past week I’ve had unexplained muscle soreness in the trunk of my body. It’s weird, and since I had extreme muscle soreness the day after I got my first shot, I’m wondering if this is a follow-on side effect or just a coincidence. I get my second shot on Monday, so it can’t be that. I had a  Type 1 diabetic co-worker tell me that he had unexplained wild swings in his blood sugar highs and lows the day after he got his first shot – he has an implanted blood sugar monitor and manages it through an app on his phone. I told him he needed to report it to the web site asking about side effects. It wouldn’t surprise me if a small part of the diabetic population had a side effect like that.

  111. 111.

    SFAW

    @Benw:

    some believe that in that case the universe will be replaced by an even more complicated one. Some believe this has already happened

    Bullshit. Iron Man and his nanotech thingies stopped Thanos from doing just that.

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