Open Thread June 4 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 042026
 

Yesterday, Malcolm reported (so some or all of this may have happened Tuesday) that we bmbed Iran, which responded by attacking Kuwait, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates. In Kuwait the airport was burned. Kuwait attempted to retaliate, but the missile “went stupid” (a term of art) and bombed straight back down to its point of origin. Kuwait only reported one fatality. Yet, no one is saying that the “cease fire” is over. Also, Feank Figliuzzi posted a 49 minute video, with Gareth Gore, who has written a book about the origins, purpose, and accomplishments of Opus Dei (by using the word “accomplishment”, I do not mean to imply that any are positive.) It’s a force to be reckoned with – Gore calls it an abusive cult – and forearmed is forearmed.

Guns. I don’t believe the Mango Moron is smart enough to figure this out by himself. Some evil genius must have advised him on it.

Archived from Lever News. Same song, different verse. Repubicansre so (uninrentionally) transparent.

I’m sure there are bigger things happening than what Robert Reich is covering here. But this kind of personal. It’s our money that the Apricot Antichrist is throwing around on “attractions” like Milli Vanilli (who could not show up anyway, since one of the two is dead.)


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Open Thread June 3 2026

 Posted by at 5:52 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 032026
 

On Monday, Malcolm a photo of Rubio and Hefseth that someone had shopped to look like Milli Vanilli. I took a screen shot, enlarged it, skewed it, and stretched it a little horizontally since it had gotten suqished- and it’s still comewhat blurry, but I think recognizable. So I’m sharing it as rge fearyes image today for your amusement. And after that, he found a post saying “If I wanted to see Trump’s ballroom, I’d just look in Lindsey Graham’s mouth.”

Yesterday, I steeamed the opera “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, ” which was the radio opera on January 2. My goodness, what a tear jerker. But not without hope. The synopsis in Wikipedia definitely does not do it justice – although I’m not sure any syn0psis could – it’s that complex.  I really needed to see it – and not just for this quote from near the end: “The world will always be broken. Repair it anyway.”

Harry Litman (Talking Feds) writes about legal happenings of last week, and how, on balance, they supported or at least aided democracy.

Elizabeth Warren and Greg Casar are working on this same problem from a taxation perspective, and the article quotes them. I’m not sure who has the better chance. I think Bernie’s idea might benefot more propl – but both plans look good to me.

It really is terrifying what some people will do to convince themselves they are not weak. Statistics din’t really communicate that. But this is a personal story.

RReich Tariff refunds

Dog

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Open Thread June 1 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 012026
 

Yesterday, I saw Virgil, and we played cribbage.He complained of being hungry, and I offered to stasrt arriving a half hour later so he could have lunch, but he said he’d rather see me than eat, so of course I’ll keep going from 10:30 to 3 when visiting closes. I am back n the calendar schedule, so I’ll now be going every two weeks unless something weird happens again. Or unless our strategic oil reserves run out, which they certainly might, particularly if the Mango Moron keeps selling them off to other countries, in which case there won’t be any gas at any price.

Stasight from The Root. So, a bunch of “pro-Israel” (which does not necessarily mean pro-genocide, but, given their behavior, I think it probably does for them) gathered around Gracie Mamsion to yell at Mamdani – because of course they did. He appears to have responded with notable grace.

Robert Reich on the judge who is doing her best to reopen the Saffron Sauron’s “lawsuit” against the IRS in order for it to be investigated and proven to be fraudulent. That of course is not how she worded it – no judge would prejudge guilt like that – but the rest of out here all know that is the case.

Dan Froomkin with Press Watch on the Delany Hall concentration camp in Newark, New Jersey, which has been maing headlines for all the wrong reasons – such as pepper sprayine Senator Andy Kim.

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Open Thread May 31 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 312026
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was a new one – not a premiere, but new enough to not be in Wikipedia yet. It was the El Ultimo Sueño de Frida y Diego by Pulitzer Prize winning Gabriela Lena Frank. The premise is that on the Day of the Dead, Diego Rivera is about to die. He reaches out to his late wife Frida Kahlo (who, though 20 years younger, predeceased him) to return from the land of the dead and help him transition. (You may have noticed that this premise is kind of a mirror image of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth.) Their marriage was one of those stormy ones where the couple fights a lot, at least in part because making up feels so good. It’s not my idea of a relationship, but it works for dome couples – and it makes for great opera. Other characters include Catrina, the goddess of the underworld, who is a trickster goddess; Leonardo, the souls of a Grets Garbo impersonator (a counter-tenor); and various spirits. I wouldn’t call it a comedy. but there is a lot of humor in it,both in the libretto and in the orchestration. Frank has an unusual heritage – her father was Ashkenazi Jewish and her mother was half Peruvian and half Chinese, and all of those musical traditions were in her childhood home. The opera is not terribly long – an hour and 55 minutes of music in two acts is pretty short – and it seemed to fly by – which means it’s very easy to listen to. “Viva la vida!” Off to see Virgil now- will chwck in upon return

If you thought that all the firsts for women (except, of course, US President) had been accomplished by now – Mikala would like you to hold her beer.

This is not you average pet rescue story. (It’s also not a video

Try to avoid looking around the web page on this one – stick to the story.

Carrie B found a second Raging Granny group – this one is in California, near Yosemite. The song in this video is a rough Diamond for sure,

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Open Thread May 30 2026

 Posted by at 6:10 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 302026
 

Yesterday, Malcolm used the title Milli-Vanilli-cast for his presentation. There are multiple reasons for this, one of which is that he credits Milli Vanilli for inventing alternate reality. I won’t go into other reasons, but I will recommend you avoid the National Mall between June 25th and July 10th this year. But all the information is in the first 17 minutes of the cast, so if you are curious, here’s the link. Also yesterday, a DC circuit judge ruled that the Saffron Sauron’s name must be removed from the Kennedy Center immediately. And another judge ruled that no money can be paid out from his slush fund until, and if, it is determined that it is even legal.

 

I have to share this story, although it took a while to ger it posted – it’s just too good. Wednesday night Bruce Springsteen gave a live concert attended by, among other, Joyce Vance and Mary Trump, who went together. There was a large sign on the building with a short anti-Trump** message – they ran up to it (and probably took selfies) and said – “WE are the Trump/Vance team you need!” And, you know, they are absolutely right.

Robert Reich on wealth tax. He considers it so important he is willing to vote for Tom Steyer – a billionaire – over Katie Porter because Steyer claims to support a wealth tax. I also want wealth taxes – in every state – but I don’t believe a word a billionaire says at any time, least of all when he is running for office.

From Civil Discourse. My first question was – why Chicago? Wasn’t the defamation case tried in New York? Doesn’t she live in New York? Reading farther, Joyce has the same question. (being a lawyer, however, she asked legal procedural questions first.)

I find it very difficult to accept that a sane person, or a sane party, would choose not to be part of the solution. I’s clear that the present Republican party is not part of the solution, and also that it is insane. It’s not as clear to me that the Democratic party is part of the problem – we are kind of dysfunctional just now, but that seems always to happen to a minority party. We do need to form clear goals and get a lot better at communicating listening. If we can’t listen, we won’t be able to communicate at all.

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Open Thread May 29 2026

 Posted by at 6:14 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 292026
 

Yesterday, Malcolm Nance reported that Israel wants to take away from Jordan of the Dome of the Rock and the the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and hold custody jointly with the United States. If this happens, there will be “holy war” across the entire middle east, with terrorism which will make Isis look like kid stuff. (his co-host Wajeeh Lion shared some of the stories/history which underlie Muslim theology.)

This from Robert Reich is admittedly a distraction. Bbut it’s kind of a sweet one.

From Talking Points Memo. One of the things that happened in the Abrego Garcia case was that the well-publicisied actions of the regime from the very beginning caused the judge to make a presumption of vindictive prosecution, which in turn put the burden of proof on the regime to prove that the prosecution was not vindictive nor selective (which of course they could not do, because it was as vindictive as hell.) I don’t know that the regime’s vindictiveness has been quite that egregious against Smartmatic or the SPLC (although anyne with two eyes and a brain jnows it exists), but I hope the respective judges will see it. James Comey has a better chance, I suspect, because the Evil Emperor has been shooting his mouth off about Comey for years – all the way back to 2017. But, as the article points out, the more defendants are successful with this approach, the more likely the courts are to seriously consider it. So I wish them all success.

From Talking Feds. Nothing about how the Saffron Sauron’s mind works is really news, nor will he ever learn his lesson.He just won’t. But its good to hear he is at least getting one.

250 to 250. There are a number of these videos already posted here, narrated by many different people for this project of Heather Cox Richardson’s. I am obviously not going to get to them all, but I’ll be leaning heavily on them. If you want more, they can be found at her YouTube channel here.

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Open Thread May 28 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 282026
 

Yesterday, I pretty well caught up on sleep. We’ll see how long that lasts. I am going to see Virgil again this weeken, buth to make up to him (and to me) for the pne I missed, and to get back on schedule.
And last week, Action Network introduced a new FAFO campaign – not what you’re thinking. This time, it stands for Fight Amazon, Fight Oligarchs.

I could have posted just tRobery Reich‘s video – especially since the message is something we all know. But his suggested responses are well worth reading – particularly the last one.

This is from Vote Vetes. The highest rank of General is four star (short of being the General of the Army) and that is what the title of the series alludes to punningly. I realize a lot of veterans are Republicans. But those who are not – like the Vindmans, Jason Crow, Mark Kelly, Tammy Duckworth, Mikie Sherrill,and others, really do make good legislators and governors – because they take their oath seriously.

Belle Jim Crow 2.0

Cat

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Open Thread May 27 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 272026
 

Last weekend, it happened again. In case you missed it, starting around Easter, the announced on Saturday that peace talks were going well and peace was imminent. The oil futures market responded – the price per barrel dropped. On Monday (or Tuesday if Monday was a day the market was closed) the same went all hawkish and threatened to bomb Iran to Kingdom Come. The price of oil futures went up. American oligarchs who had bought low (who can affords to buy futures th the hundreds of millions of barrels) then sold high. This has happened every weekend for eight weekends. Every weekend for those eight weekends, ‘s personal friends who could afford to buy oil futures in the millions of barrels made millions of dollars. And don’t think it’s over. It will go on as long as they can get away with it. Malcolm dtill called his show the “confuion-cast” yesterday, but said he may soon go to “dementia-cast.”

You don’t have to go to X to watch the graphic. It plays fine right in the article. I personally think the final still at the end is every bit as jawdropping as the video.

Robert Reich is talking about the political compass here – and so on point that I expect he is aware of it. This is not the first time I have heard someone advise that a third axis is needed, and I beieve that person suggested good and evil – which is fine with me. It would have to be in and out, since that’s the only dimension left in our three-dimensional world, and it would be a challenge to draw in two dimensions, but I think probably worth the effort.

There’s a lot in Mornng Memo, and it’s all valuabe. But the first section is what first caught my eye.

Better a couple of days late then never (IMO)

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