Yesterday, in a followup to my second article(s), we learned that Judge Boasberg has reached the subpoena stage. I don’t think he set out to be a hero I think he is just royally pissed – but if this continues, his name will end up in the history books.
This will disappoint you. It certainly disappointed me.
I get TPM’s newsletter daily, and it’s always good, and usually fairly comprehensive, but there are days when it’s up to the overwhelming level. Monday was such a day.
Harry Litman wants to reassure you that you are not crazy – it’s the regime which is crazy. And he brings receipts.
This video is 11 minutes, and yes, that is long for here. I have watched/listened three times, and in a way it’s information you can find elsewhere, but what it does that others mostly don’t is “connect the dots.”
Yesterday, Jasmine Crockett announced a Senate bid, and Colin Allred announced a run for the House. Today, Mark Elias argues National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission before the Supreme Court
“Sick in a Hospital Town” is a joint project of Pro Publica and Theater of War. It is a five part series (or will be eventually). You can read it now or listen as a podcast – both are available at the link. To read parts 2 through five, keep scrolling down past the photos.
From a DUer who got it from The Guardian. It is outrageous (so it must be Tuesday.) It’s harder to oppose evil when one’s government is all for it.
We are aware of the group featured in the article from Politico (referred by Liza Donnelly), because I get Steve Schmidt’s Substack newsletter, and you’ll remember his project a white ago of posting and projecting images of Stephen Miller like “Wanted” posters all over DC – that was the SAM. But the more publicity the group gets, the more it can do. So I’m glad to see it here.
Yesterday, I read Joyce Vance‘s analysis of the case against the alleged pipe-bomber Brian Cole (Jr.) She begins with the same question we all asked: “Can we trust the FBI and this Justice Department after years of watching Donald Trump denigrate and politicize those previously independent agencies?” And then goes into detail. Lots of detail. Bottom line, it looks as though even this DOJ got something right for a change. (And that that was the result of finding actual work done by the previous DOJ, not their own.) Included in the analysis is that many people have some degree of prejudice in favor of direct evidence over circumstantial evidence. I tend the opposite way myself. Objects are less inclined to lie than people.
I tend to get nervous about Democrats making promises, and then being prevented from keeping them by Manchins and other holdouts. Sure, we can do all of these, if we have a dependable veto-proof majority. Otherwise, we might be able to accomplish some, but nowhere near all of this. But all of it certainly needs doing – Robert Reich has that absolutely right.
Yes, Pearl Harbor Day was yesterday (I recognized it with a photo of the Pearl Harbor Memorial.) But this by Steve Schmidt, and the other by Heather Cox Richardson, were not available in time to post for yesterday. And I think they need to be seen.
From The New Republic. We don’t hear about this much – or at least I don’t. But it is correct. If this is still going on, it needs to stop.
Yesterday, the radio opera was Puccini’s “La Bohème.” I would not say it’s everyone’s favorite opera, but it is for a lot of people, and not without reason. And the reasons are not just the music, although the music is some of his best. It’s also the story – it has everything. Its protagonists are “have-nots,” and it makes outrageous fun of “haves.” In between thise, it put on sage what falling in love looks like and feels like. It ahows a Parisian Cafe on Christmas Eve, including a self-employed toymaker selling his wares, with kids begging their parents for this or that. The song the second female lead sings in that setting is so good it was turned into a pop song in the fifties and sung by Della Reese under the title “Don’t You Know?” – you may remember it. Then it turns dark as the female lead, trying to find out why the male lead has been cold to her lately, learns it’s because she has this terrible cough and he’s afraid she’s dying (spoiler – she is). They separate, and the two male leads admit, not out loud to each other, but in soliloquies how lonely they are, and then there’s more humor as the other two show up and they decide to dance, two pretending to be female, but they are interrupted by the two female leads (only one at first because the one with TB can’t climb the stairs alone) showing up. They get the one with TB upstairs, and everyone tries to help, each in his or her own way showing grief and then leaving to get medicine or pawn a coat or whatever they can, leaving the lovers alone. They reminisce about their meeting, and she falls asleep, and the others get back. Soon one notices she is no longer breathing and whispers it to the others. Her lover is oblivious to her death , but notices the others have gone silent, and says, “What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?” and then it hits him. He rushes to her, calls her name twice and then loses it. The orchestra replays the first phrase of the tune to which they reminisced, and there is not a dry eye in the house. I know that’s a lot happening, but without intermissions it only takes up about an hour and a half total, which is very short for an opera, which also doesn’t hurt its popularity. (The broadcast today did have intermissions, including an Opera Quiz, so the broadcast was a bit over 2 hours.) It’s the first opera I ever owned on vinyl. I found it at the PX for $4.00, which was very cheap even then, and the lead was sung by Renata Tebaldi, who was contemporary with Maria Callas. They were the two biggest names at the time, and were said to be feuding- which I’m pretty sure never happened, but OMG, did their respective fans ever feud! It was, like so many feuds, just silly. I enjoyed both divas, not in the exact same way, but on balance about equally. And, yes, La Bohème was the inspiration for “Rent” Today is not a Sunday that I see Virgil, and Trinette is out of town, so I am hoping to get some knitting done.
From The Root. This is jaw-dropping. I do know a little about prisons, which states have better ones and which states (including Louisiana) have worse ones, and that the gap between good and bad is huge. This blows my mind – in the best way.
Referred by The Smile, this article was a bit annoying to navigate at the original site, so I archived it. Sure, it’s worth a little effort to get to – but it was easy to do and makes it a lot easier to read.
I love my Secretary of State. Next year she’s term limited but will be running for AD (I love my AG even more, but he’s also term limited. He’ll be running for Governor.) One thing about being told to take a hike is Colorado is that there’s virtually no end of beautiful and exciting possible hikes to take here.
Randy – I started the video at 2:43 because that’s where the song starts, but by doing so I left out the first 1:18 of introduction. You can decide how much you want to see by going to YouTube.
Yesterday, I received two Axios alerts about the courts – one that SCROTUS will hear Metanucillini’s birthright citizenship case, and the other that a Federal judge has ordered Epstein’s grand jury transcripts unsealed. Also, The Root had an update on Baby Chance – you’ll remember the case. And the New York Times (are you sitting down?) actually did something in favor of freedom of the press.
Colorado Public Radio addresses my Secretary of State’s refusal to turn sensitive voter information over to the DOJ. I knew that was the case but it’s good to also have her legal reasons. I might also point out the request is unconstitutional – the conversation gives the states sole authority to run elections. There have been times I wished that wasn’t the case – but now is not one of those times.
This is essentially one story from Senator Hickenlooper – and it’s a story comparable to Abrego Garcia’s. Hick and his staff are doing everything they can think of and are getting stonewalled at every step.
Yes, I realize this is almost an hour long, and yes, there are some ums and aws in it. That’s why I put it in Saturday when it’s from Thursday. There is a transcript if that’s better for you (I didn’t vet it so it may have some creative spelling in it.) The first 16¼ minutes are an overview of history starting in the 1920s and then explaining how we got here from the 1980s. I lived through a lot of it, and I expect you did too. After that she goes into how we got here from 1980, including the “Some people are better than others” fallacy (of course some people are smarter and/or more competent than others, but the idea that skin color or gender has anything to do with that is such an obvious fallacy that one really has to have a mind which is out of shape to fall for it.) She explains how the unitary executive theory was proposed and is being used to make some people worth less in law. She touches on a principle that if you take a random 10 people, 2 will have actual opinions on government and 8 just want things to go smoothly and predictably so they don’t have to think about it – and just want to get along with people, and how to use that knowledge to get through to many people on whom reason and logic don’t work. She mentioned that she put so much effort into this video that she might not do a Thursday night letter (turns out she did, but it didn’t post until after 3 am her time). If you choose not to watch it or read the transcript, that’s fine. It’s your decision.
Yesterday, another grand jury declined to indict Tish James. And in Colorado, a train derailed Wednesday night. All survived. Also – WRT thr cartoon – or whatever you want to call it – it is based on the phrase “Elf on the shelf” only different.
Heaven only knows how this will work out (and no one there will tell me). But I am glad the discussion is happening. (I have read recently that there is something in tattoo ink which gets into the bloodstream and does damage. Even if that includes brain damage – I haven’t gone beyond the headlines – that would be no excuse for Petey.)
This from Democratic Underground IMO demonstrates far more than just PTSD. There is deep resentment of betrayal here. The Russian Army is being run in ways we have never run our military, and Ukraine still doesn’t. I’m sure they think it makes soldiers “tougher.” In one way it probably does – but not in the way they think.
There are other sources for this story on the arrest of the alleged pipe bomber. I looked for the story at Law & Crime, even searched there, but they don’t yet have it (do not look there if you are prone to nausea). I just picked Joyce Vance for legal information, particularly in view of “this Justice Department.” I got that, and also some speculation on the length of time it took and the spin put on it. I am willing to believe that there may have been one or a group of agents in the FBI who deliberately sat on it, against the wishes of the rest of the bureau and of the administration. I am not willing to believe that the administration sat on it.
Yesterday, Andy Borowitz headlined his Substack “Trump Boasts That International Criminal Court in The Hague Has Invited Him to Receive Award.” Considering what that would actually imply, would that it were true. Oh, well, I can dream. Also, yestersay was World Coati Day. Coatis, (or coatimundi, which was the name I learned as a kid, but I guess ispretty well limited to Brazil these days) are members of the raccoon family. They are somewhat rare jn the US, being limited to the Southwest, but more common in Central and South America, including Mexico. Oh, and also, it snowed – dirst of the season, about 3 inches and still on the ground at sunset. Unsurprisingly, it was cold.
This from The Independent was referred by Daily Dose of Democracy. I suppose it makes sense in a really, really warped kind of way. And we already knew that this regime is really, really warped. But good grief, what next?
Robert Reich tells us nothing here that we aren’t (probably) already aware of. But he does it so well – and offers possible solutions. Not easy solutions – I don’t think there are any of those – but possible. And he’s more than willing to hear about others from any reader who has any suggestions.
Harry Litman is not a veteran, but he knows a thing or two about military law, and First Amendment history, anyway. This is the second of a two-part analysis of the reaction to the veterans’ video regarding illegal orders. “I was just following orders” has not been a valid legal defense since the Nuremberg trials – almost my entire lifetime.
Yesterday, I slept very late. which I hadn’t done on Monday. I knew on Monday that I was still behind, but I guess I didn’t realize how much. And when I did get up, I had 255 emails in my inbox (some of which were old which I needed to hold for a bit.) Using bulk delete, selecting only the ones I could tell from the subject line were cyber week or giving Tuesday (or from a person or group I want to be able to hear from but don’t want every email), I took out more than 200. I hope no one else got hit that hard.
This is from the Alabama Political Reporter, and was forwarded to me by Carrie B. I would say it’s accurate as far as it goes. What it doesn’t address is the way that so many of us – sometimes it seems like the entire human race – is so hypnotized by money and possessions. And not just in our lives, but all the way back as far as human history goes. Until we can break that spell for a majority of us, we will sadly make no progress.
Robert Reich is worried enough about Palantir that he sent out two emails back-to-back about it. This is the second one, and it is the one that has the link .I know everyone here has heard of it because I’ve written about it, but I expect he’s correct that many people have not. If I didn’t already rant about these people have no right to use a name out of Lord of the Rings because they are all servants of Sauron (and that the original palantirs were created for good uses and only used for evil in evil hands), please consider that rant ranted now. You won’t need to read the article if you prefer to watch Robert Reich’s video below. But I hope you’ll share one or the other – or both.
This story from the 19th is, of course, just one of thousands. But it isn’t really possible for one person to feel all the pain in the universe – or in the world – of of any one class of abused people – or even a family. To get just an idea, we need to hear individual stories. (Consider the man in the painting “The Scream.” He is not screaming – he is hearing the scream of the universe – and it is killing him.)
