Jun 252026
 

I have been saying for years (OK, only a few years – but definitely more than two) that the Russian people are a population who would (and in fact, historically did) say to marauding Vikings, “Gee, you guys seem to be really good at organization. Why don’t you stick around and be our government?” That sounds like suckers pretty gullible to me. And the Vikings – at least some of them – did do just that. And when, if ever, since that time, when has Russia had any form f governmen which was not autocratic? The Russian Revolution in the 19 teens was not really even supposed to do that, and it didn’t. (In hindsight, I suspect that was largely due to the fact it was intended to be, and was, an economic revolution, and paid no attention to the possible forms of government it would establish – only to the form of government – heredity monarchy unrestrained by a constitution – it was replacing.) This is fresh in my mind just now after having watched a Substack video with Jacob Kaaesbo (one of Malcolm Nance’s co=hosts) and John Sipher , mostly regarding Ukraine’s war against Russia. Here’s a link to that conversation and a little picture showing how to find the Transcript – it does require scrolling down, but only about half a page.

It’s nice to have a little good news which is political in nature during the week – especially from a court.

The judge above called out the DHS. The former Reagan official cited here calls out the Supreme Court. Both desperately need reform – but both, sadly, will have to wait until we have the other two branches functioning again.

I’m not crazy about the reasons why this dude started this program – but at least he appears to be capable of learning from experience and changing his mind. As long as he keeps that mind open to new evidence, I wish his progress with it only the best.

This kind of goes with the previous piece, since both are about housing – and/or the lack of it. There is too much going on to try to cut down to 3 today.

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Jun 242026
 

No, I did not make a point of finding news which required me to use long and unusual words in the tags. It just worked out that way. And the tags are still shorter than they would have been if I had gone for periphrasis.

Monday, Alan Greenspan died at 100. Here’s a link to Robert Reich’s obituary for him. Of course there are many more, but this one would be my choice. You won’t have any trouble finding others.

I’m aware that many in the military do not vote for persons or issues which will make the United States better for everyone – and also that many misguided people in the military go so far as to encourage this and call it religion. But there are equally many in the military who understand their oath and take it seriously. Either way, no one eligible to vote should ever be disenfranchised. And it does seem to be particularly ironic to blanket disenfranchise people who are willing to risk their lives on behalf of the nation.

This from CPR is not good news – but not bad news, or news at all, except in the sense that you may not have known it (I didn’t). I doubt that it’s widely known. And I found it interesting.

Defend Our Courts dot com shared this in an email. It took a little time to find the actual story (partly because Alito’s article in Wikipedia shows 2 children, but doesn’t provide their names), but I think it was well worth the effort.

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Jun 232026
 

Who you going to believe? Donnie “I-Just-Make-Shit-Up-to-Make-Me-Look-Important” Trump:

“She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her. She begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a picture with me so badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/19/giorgia-meloni-stunned-donald-trump-claims-begged-him-photo

Or your lying eyes?

 

And then DJT calls in the National Guard to battle the Reflecting Pool Algae Army …

Forget his surrender to Iran.  Hell, DJT …

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Jun 222026
 

Yesterday, it was just a Sunday – and I still managed to not get everything done. But Trinette coming by helped.

I assume the regime will do things like this in every state where they think they can get away with it. I wish they didn’t thinkt hey can get away with it in the “Mother of Presidents” state – but they clearly do. Grrrrr.

This from John Pavlovitz has nothing to do with faith – it’s pure fact. The only thing he leaves out (so recent when he wrote that he probably hadn’t seen it) is that now the Apricot Antichrist is blaming the algae on deranged radical left vandalism.

If you are a fan of Ken Harbaugh, do yourself a favor – grab a hanky and listen to this interview he gave Steve Schmidt about the article he wrote for The Atlantic (Steve provided a gift link to it). And if you’re not a fan of Harbaugh, but you are a fan of Ukraine – you too.

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Jun 212026
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Shostakovich’s “Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk.” It was quite popular, including internationally, until Stalin saw it and didn’t like it, and officially condemned it. After Stalin’s death, Schostakovich revised it under the title of “Katerina Izmailova.” The protagoniste isn’t much like Lady MacBeth. She does kill – two people by herself and one with assistance -but she has no remorse, and at least Lady MacBeth had a marriage where they apparently cared about each other. Katerina is in one kind of prison or another through the entire opera. A husband with zero libido, an abusive live-in father in law, then a lover who treats women like beer cans (why keep one around when the beer is gone?), and who, when they are in a group of other convicts doing a forced march to Siberia, tricks her into helping him seduce another woman. Normally, life has its ups and downs – but this is a story with no ups at all. It is supposed to have satirical aspects, but I don’t hear them. Maybe you need to understand Russian. Or maybe you need to be male and privileged. I just hear cringe. Which is not to denigrate the brilliance of the music. In the scene in which the jerk lover comes to her room, where she intends to flirt, but he rapes her, one criic described the music as “pornophony.” And I certainly cannot dispute that.

I may not follow any sports – but I’m not so distanced from those who do as not to recognize a rare achievement when I see one. As is generally true of the American ABC, it’s a video on loop, and may need to be unmuted.

For a change, an ABC (US) video that’s not on loop. But if you want to play it again, refreshing the page will do the trick.

When I was in high school and college, I did a little baby sitting on the side. This kind of sitting doesn’t compensate the siters monetarily, but I’ll bet it’s also a lot less work. And very rewarding emotionally.

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Jun 202026
 

Yesterday (technically the night before) Ukraine attacked Moscow with drones. I’m a veteran, but that was long before drones were even a gleam in Mars’s eye, this may be totally inaccurate – some of the drones were, or behaved as, incendiaries, while others were heat-seeking. Anyway, the result was that Moscow was on fire. WRT Iran, one of the points in the MOU was that if Bibi did anything hostile, the MOU would be null and void. Well, it’s null and void, less than 24 hours after the signing. So we are back to NACHO (not a chance Hormuz opens.) One very small point which I think is noteworthy – someone has managed to teach the Apricot Antichrist how to say “eviscerated.” That really surprised me.

OK, this is not an earthshaking story – though it may inspire people who live in areas where law enforcementis problematic. Alamosa and the San Luis Valley in which it is located were my home for 15 years, and I still get that “that’s home!” kneejerk reaction, alyhough everone I knre there is pretty much either gone or dead. And the story is not a downer.

From Press Watch, and right on the nose. There are indepenent journalists who actually do get this right – but traditional news oulets – not so much.

Expecting Bibi or anyone else in Israel to do anything because the Canteloupe Caligula told them to would be laughable if there weren’t human lives affected. And that’s not just Bibi. He has some ministers who are at least as crazy as he is.

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Jun 192026
 

Happy Juneteenth, y’all! Yesterday, from a comment on Malcolm’s show: “Trump [sic] didn’t get his HEU (highly enriched uranium) but he did get HEI (highly enriched Iranians).” Jim Acosta, on the other hand, called the signing foreign policy flatulence – the fart (maybe even the shart) of the deal.

Robert Reich – is singing my song. Well, except that no one is trying to tell me to slow down, because no one sees the actual work, which mostly consists of goinf through hundreds of emails daily in order to select a few topics – and minimize the explainer part – and minimizing is harder than it looks. But if anyone did say something – I’d have basically the same response.

To quote Nina Simone – “Mississippi God Damn.” Yes, I do know there are good people in Mississippi – that’s proven right in this story by the witneses who are coming forward to dispute the police account. But still.

Glad to learn that someone is taking Tommy Potatohead to court over where he actually lived – as opposed to just owns the houae.

This is a little bonus for today – because it officially opens today – because of course it does – although the big party was yesterday.

SocSecur

Cat

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Jun 182026
 

Yesterday, The Broadview 6 case was dismissed – but that is not the punchline. Instead, the ex-defendants through their counsel have requested the judge appoint a Special Counsel to investigate the DOJ for criminal contempt. My link is to a video, which is about 21 minutes long, which is normal for Glenn Kirschner alone – and here he is with Adam Klasfeld. Also, the Dekleptocracy Alliance reported it is very close to taking its January 6 tracker live, ans requested donations accordingly. I furst reported on this group lasy August, when they were mounting a general Corruption Tracker. Now they are mounting a specific Jan 6 tracker, to follow crimes committed by Jan 6ers afyer they received pardons (and therefore subject to potential prosecution.) It’s not up as I type, but the email suggested it is only “a few days” away.

I kind of feel the moral rot has been exposed for decades myself. But Isuppose if that were true for Americans in general, we woud not be where we now are.

If these crazy-a$$ righties want to give up their votes, I’d let them. But they won’t take mine away.

Jonathan Larson gets a bit fanciful trying to build an analogy between what hospice care actually does for people and what Repubicans are trying to do to hospices. Hopefully that doesn’t get too confusing – because he’s right.

 

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