Glenn Kirschner – Colorado Judge REFUSES to dismiss lawsuit to disqualify Trump from running for president
The Lincoln Project – Even Fox
MSNBC – Gold Star father Khizr Khan: Trump ‘incapable’ of leading U.S. again
Steve Shives – If Republicans Said the Quiet Parts Loud to Workers (long, but WOW! It hits EVERYTHING. You or someone you know might need it to pass on to make a point.)
Kitten Grows Up Wrestling With Huskies
Beau – Let’s talk about Santos and more to come….
Yesterday, the radio opera was one of the ones which have me so excited – “Assassinio nella cattedrale” by Ildebrando Pizzetti. That means “Murder in the Cathedral,” and it is based on the T. S. Eliot play. So, though I didn’t even know it existed, I knew it could not have been written before 1935. In fact, it debuted in March 1958., at La Scala in Milan. The premier was recorded, as was a live radio broadcast in December of the same yesr. (I was 12 in March and 13 in December of that year. I had seen my first live opera – whe I was 8 – but I was definitely not tuned in to the international opera landscape then. I think I would have liked it. I certainly did yesterday.) The bass who sang Becket said {I’m paraphrasing) that if there was one word for what he wanted his character to conve y it would be “sincere.” I think he did that. Basses have it rough in opera when it comes to juicy parts, but this definitely is one. With luck, perhaps a bass with star clout will come along and make a case for doing it at the Met. Hey, I can dream. Certainly I’m not the only person who was excited about this production. The materials made available included 174 pictures. So I can tell you from photographic evidence that it was fully staged in a church (The Chicago Temple, to be precise) with gorgeous stained glass windows. Also, my new keyboard came. It has the Logitech layout, wich is what I am used to (with a few tiny differences) and is so fancy I had to go to support online to figure out how to set it up. It’s working now, I typed this sentence on it, but I am running late now.
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New York Magazine/Intelligencer – A Left That Refuses to Condemn Mass Murder Is Doomed
Quote – And no small number of supposed leftists found in all this cause for celebration. Others, meanwhile, loudly refused to condemn Hamas’s atrocities, insisting it was not their place to decry the “military strategy” or “violent resistance” of oppressed Palestinians. In my view, these responses constitute a betrayal of the left’s most fundamental values. Either one upholds the equal worth of all human lives, opposes war crimes, and despises far-right ethno-nationalist political projects or one doesn’t. What’s more, cheering (or publicly announcing your refusal to condemn) the murder of children isn’t just morally grotesque but also politically self-defeating.
Click through for argument (I doubt anyome here will disagree.) Other publications tend to be more generous with their archives than the latest news – New York mag does it the opposite way – this article is free “for a limited time.” So I “printed” it (by which I mean I converted it to a pdf file which I can easily email if anyone gets here too late for the free time. I almost never print on paper any more.) Possibly sounding like a broken record, I do think it’s a mistake to talk of this in terms of left and right. Left and right represent economic theories. This is a matter of authoritarian as opposed to egalitarian (yes, after a couple of hours with multiple thesauruses I finally came up with what I believe is the best word to use unstead of “Libertarian,” which has been poisoned by the so-called Libertarian party.) It’s natural to assume that leftism goes with egalitarianism because both require at least some compassion, and because with an economic theory with the principle that everyone should have enough money, it’s reasonable to pair that with the idea that everyone should have enough power. And vice versa. But human beings are not always consistent, and the author here is addressing leftist authoritarians.
Wonkette (on Substack) – What If Crowdfunding Is *Not* A Great Healthcare System?
Quote – Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton is very sick and in the hospital with what is being referred to as “a rare form of pneumonia.” That’s very sad, as is the fact that she does not have health insurance and thus cannot afford her stay in the ICU. They started a crowdfund for her, which has since blown past its $50,000 goal all the way to over $375,000. This included one $50,000 donation from Linda McIngvale, wife of Gallery Furniture magnate Jim McIngvale…. Now, when I first heard that Retton didn’t have health insurance and her family was raising money on GoFundMe to pay for her medical treatment, I immediately assumed it was some kind of very tragic Erin Moran/Brett Butler situation and that despite her former fame, she couldn’t even afford health insurance…. “How very American!” thought I, until I looked into it and saw that she is, in fact, likely still very rich, lives in a very fancy 9,000 square foot mansion, and very likely just kind of chose not to have health insurance.
Click through for article. I think we all know that crowdfunding does not a great healthcare system make – particularly when the crowdfunding is abused, which I am not saying this is, but it would be hard not to notice that it looks like it. I think we also all know that a Democratic supermajority in both the House and the Senate would be needed to effectively put in a health care ayatem which would be great.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – In NY fraud trial, Trump prepares to make mean faces at former lawyer turned witness Michael Cohen
The Lincoln Project – Appeasement
PBS – Amanpour & Company – Historian Heather Cox Richardson: GOP “Has Become an Extremist Faction”
It’s all good, but I cut off some at the beginning that I thought was more fammiliar to make it more watchable length-wise, and get straight to the nitty-gritty.
Liberal Redneck – Liberal Redneck – RFK Jr. Runs as Independent (ad in middle – ignore or skip)
Giant Dogs Get New Baby Brother To Look After
Beau – Let’s talk about Trump being worried about another candidate….
Yesterday, I got to thinking that a House of Representatives with no Speaker, at a time when we have no budget, and have our foreign policy focused on the Middle East shooting war, is pretty damned convenient for Russia. Ukraine is holding strong so far, but there’s going to come a point when it will need resources badly. Is anyone investigating, or contemplating investigating, Matt Gaetz for being a Russian agent? Yes, I know he’s a pedophile and is himself intellectually and emotionally an adolescent (and will probably never grow up.) But that doesn’t mean he can’t be useful to Russia. Au contraire. See the Food for Thought below.
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The Root – What In The Actual Hell: CVS Abortion Med Mixup Led To Black Woman’s IVF Termination
Quote – [Timika] Thomas and her husband had trouble getting pregnant and after two ectopic pregnancies, Thomas had to have her fallopian tubes removed. Even though their insurance didn’t cover IVF, they decided to do it and pay out of pocket anyway. Thomas’ doctor prescribed a vaginal suppository to replace the injections required to jumpstart her hormones. After taking two of her required doses, she immediately knew something was wrong…. “They just killed my baby. Both my babies, because I transferred two embryos,” [Thomas said.]
Click through for story. This would be unacceptable, no matter how the pregnancy occurred, but for an IVF pregnancy it’s exponentially worse. IVF is expensive, so expensive that it’s a last resort among fertility treatmernts. It often doesn’t “take” for multiple attempts. The best analogy I can come up with is – one is like you studued and worked hard, took the SAT or whateve they are using, sweat blood over your essay, and got turned down. the other is like you decided when you were five you wanted to go to a particular college and started saving monet from your allowance and odd jobs. You applied in your seniot year of high school and wewre turned down. You alloied in the first year after graduation and were turned down again. the second and third year after graduation you applied again and were turned down both times. Finally, in the fourth year after graduation, you applied and were accepted. Two days before freshman orientation the college burned down.
PolitiZoom – Anti-WOKE: Even Your Name Can Get Book Banned
Quote – Imagine if you will having had a successful career as a children’s book author. Your work has been widely acclaimed, published in a dozen languages and you’ve won lots of awards. Your work includes several series including a pair of them about siblings – one from the perspective of a little girl named Stella and the other from her little brother named Sam. The Stella series which ran from 1999 to the last book about Stella and Sam building a doghouse was published in 2013. including one about the adventures of a little girl named Stella and her brother…. Does the book delve into topics that might, only might mind you raise “content” questions about whether topics like human sexuality or race relations or religion are “age appropriate?” Nope, as I’ve stated it’s about a pair of siblings building a dog house. So by now you’re wondering why the hell this book wound up on a “we’ve got to BAN these books from the library” list in the first place. The author’s name is Mary-Louise GAY.
Click through for article. Yes, compared to the first short take, this is small potatoes indeed. But it still hurts people. And the people most harmed are among the most vulnerable.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – DA Willis says Jim Jordan is “abusing” his authority & “obstructing” her RICO prosecution of Trump
The Lincoln Project – Good Night America – very soft, and no CC, so here’s transcript:
Mom: Hey, honey –
Child: what, mommy?
M: You asked me to wake you up to tell you the results of the election
C: Who won?
M: Trump. Trump won.
C: You said he could only be President two times.
M: (Whisper) Not any more
Mob chanting: I can’t make it out. It sounds to me like M-R-U or N-R-U but I can’t make sense of that.
Ring of Fire – Furious Sean Hannity Delivers Most Ironic Rant Ever On Fox News
Patrick Fitzgerald – The Longest Time (Donald Trump / Billy Joel Song Parody)
Bunny Thumps At Mom When He’s Mad
Beau – Let’s talk about an update and what we know….
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 – 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 – nor even whether they’re serious about it or just being outrageous. Planning is next to impossible. And then, after all that, Scalise dropped oout of the race! 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). From CPR: “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.”
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Daily Beast – North Carolina Republicans Are Creating a ‘Secret Police Force’
Quote – This new entity, formally known as the Joint Legislative Committee on Government Operations, or “Gov Ops” 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 “possible instances of misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, mismanagement, waste, abuse, or illegal conduct.” Gov Ops, a product of North Carolina’s most recent state budget, was established via a comprehensive bill passed in late September. Despite Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s 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’s laws restricting the governor’s ability to make line-item vetoes. Gov Ops is slated to take effect next week.
Click through for more. 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.
Atlanta Black Star – ‘Want to Go In … Start Flipping Over Desks’: Kamala Harris’ Supporters Race to Her Defense After Anonymous Staffer Criticizes Vice President for the ‘Amount of Time Dedicated to Hair Care’
Quote – 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 “has a little Ron DeSantis in her.” Another Democrat donor said that Harris serving as the vice president “is not ideal, but there’s a hope she can rise to the occasion” as Biden’s running mate. One particularly petty microaggression revealed in the article noted the amount of time that the country’s first Black vice president spends grooming her hair. “Sometimes the arguments against her feel more petty,” said the article. “A member of Harris’ staff remarked on the amount of downtime the vice president schedules on trips, which includes an inordinate amount of time dedicated to hair care.”
Click through for full article. 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’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 – or 1930’s and 40’s Stalin – or Russia or Iran today even more painful. Another lesson we should have learned even longer ago – this one as long ago as Reconstruction – is that bigotry cannot be eradicated by ignoring it or denying it exists.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Jack Smith seeks to protect jurors from Trump; informs Judge Chutkan of Judge Engoron’s NY gag order
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – October 10, 2023
Farron Balanced – Visibly Drunk Donald Trump Goes On Bizarre Rant About Sharks
Armageddon Update – SEE, It’s BOTH SIDES!!!!
Pittie Does The Sweetest Thing When His Baby Sister Cries
Beau – Let’s talk about Trump, subs, and secrets….
Yesterday, a little-known conversation from many years ago (which was recently quoted by Steve Schmidt) popped up in my mind to haunt me. I can’t say it any better then Steve did, so I’ll quote him: “There is an extraordinary account of a late night meeting that took place between FDR and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in the White House from Nigel Hamilton’s “FDR at War“ trilogy. The two leaders talked late into the night. King returned to his room and wrote down the details of the conversation. FDR outlined to King his vision for what would come after victory in World War II. He said something chilling from the perspective of 2023. He said that nothing lasts forever, and that included his vision for the future. He told King that he hoped it would endure for as long as everyone who was alive on the day the war was won was still alive. The youngest of those people are 77 years old today.” Well, I am 78, and I’m still here. So is Mitch, whio is a bit older. The rest of us who think here are younger (as was TC). I wish all of us long lives free of world war. Also yesterday, Steve Scalise defeated Jim Jordan to be the nominee for speaker. We shall see whether Republicans can come together on this or any nominee. Oh, and The New Yorker had an article on dizziness/vertigo in their daily newsletter. I haven’t had any symptoms for months, but I “printed” it anyway (to my C drive for now – I’ll copy to a portable hard drive eventually.)
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The Daily Beast – ‘Violence-Ready’ Militia Group Says Jan. 6’ers are Idiots
Quote – A male-only movement in the U.S. dressed up as a sports club catering to white men is taking over the right-wing social scene—and promising some dangerous results…. The clubs advertise as sporting groups designated for white-only men, but their real objective, Ritzmann tells The New Abnormal, “is to essentially train a white supremacist militia.”… [Ritzmann] says “Day X” could look similar to the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but adds of the rioters, “they have [been] discussed as being a bunch of idiots who don’t know how to storm a building properly. And they discuss this in a, let’s say, indirect way, because they don’t want law enforcement to focus on them.”
Click through for details. The podcast the article references is also on the page,. and I listened to the whole thing so you wouldn’t have to. The part which expands on the artile starts at approximately 18:40 and ends at 36:35. I also encourage anyone who has not seen Rachel Maddow’s podcast “Ultra” to look it up (and everyone who has seen it to refresh their memory.) It was not easy then to bring America together to oppose fascism, and it won’t be easy now. When I said we needed Joe Biden to be another FDR this was not what I had in mind. But apparently, it comes with the territory.
Jeff Tiedrich – holy shit, Donald Trump gave classified Israeli intel to Putin — probably more than once
Quote – let’s take a closer look at a thing I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s post. Donald Trump fucking loves to collude with Russia. Trump desperately wants to be Vladimir’s bestie. he does everything he can to stay in Putin’s good graces. why? is it because Donny dreams of opening a Trump Tower in Moscow? is it something more insidious, like kompromat? in the end, it doesn’t matter. what matters is that Donald Trump is a Russian asset.
Click through for article. Yes, Jeff has a pottymouth, but he tends to be accurate in both facts and interpretation.
Food For Thought
