Medical professionals are well aware of this. When I was checking in to rehab in ’23 and was asked whether I had “Advantage,” I said something like “I wouldn’t have Advantage if they paid me to take it,” And the response was “Oh, you’re smart.”
ICE and CBP are just the tip of the iceberg in Minnesota. MAGA has always been full of vigilantes. Does anyone besides me wonder why, if they actually believe and trust the Saffron Sauron’s Keystone Cops, they think they have to handle it themselves?
I wholeheartedly agree with the business owner who says the “law and order” is not what is happening. But I disagree that it isn’t politics, because all politics is moral (or immoral.)
Yesterday, the FBI raided the Fulton County, GA election office and warehouse looking for election materials from 2020. Before the story came up in my news feed (if I can call it that – the collection of email newsletters which contain just news) I received an email from DASS (the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State – although the medical acronym probabky descibes ppretty well how they are feeling right now.) It does occur to me that, if he could raid enough states to “legitimize” his claim that he won that one, he would at the same time delegitimize his current term since the two terms that a President may serve would be over. Not that I know how that could be enforced, but it’s a thought. I also learned that the next No Kings day has been announced for March 28. That is 8 days before Easter and one day before Palm Sunday. For Eastern Orthodox, it is 15 days before Easter. It is also 4 days before the beginning of Passover, and Ramadan will have been over for 8 days. The closest Buddhist festival will have been over for 17 days, and the closest Sikh festival will be 17 days afterwards. March 28 falls comfortably between Wiccan festivals on March 20 and April 2. If I have left anyone out, I apologize – but it looks to me like the planners did a difficult job very well in picking a date at a crowded time of the year.
Well, we now have solid evidence that the Apricot Antichrist staged the assassination attempts on him. You may have read elsewhere about the incident in which Ilhan Omar was sprayed with an unidentified (it turns out to have been apple cider vinegar) yellow substance. Here’s what he said when ABC News asked for a reaction from him: “I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud.” Trump continued accusing Omar of staging the whole thing. “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.” Every accusation a confession.
Harry Litman thinks that Minnesota is in for one hell of a fight over the Murder of Alex Pretti – but he also thinks they are up to the task and that they have a – pardon me – fighting chance. He wrote a similar article about Renee Good, which I must have seen but failed to read, and the principles are pretty much the same. He also points out that absolute immunity – there’s no such thing. Harry also has a video up with Steve Vladeck specifically on federal supremacy immunity. The part which can be seen by a non-paid subscriber or a non-subscriber is 15 minutes, and there’s no resolution by then, but the criteria that should be used become quite clear.
Joyce Vance addresses the lack of professionalism (to throw some roses at it) displayed by ICE and CBP, the demotion of Bovino the cosplaying Nazi, the vulnerability of Krieti Noem, and related issues, including the ICE mooner.
Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, which I missed putting up a visual for. I tried to feel bad about missing it, but the truth is, that under our current regime, to me every day is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Also, several emails informed me that Alexander Vindman is running for a Senate seat in Florida. (His twin Eugene represents Virginia’s 7th District already). This may not be the suicide mission it looks like at first glance, but it’s not a walk in the park either. I may have to sign up as a monthly donor.
This may be the sickest thing I’ve heard about from this regime which didn’t involve direct physical violence – yet. Eagle County is not as close to me as it looks on this map, since it is up in the mountains of which I am on the eastern edge, and while there are roads up there, there are no direct routes to just about anything. But it still feels too close.
From Common Dreams – When the Saffron Sauron started bombing fishing boats in the Caribbean, claiming that they were Venezuelan drug mules, I would have bet good money that at least some of them were not even Venezuelan, let alone drug mules. And I would have won. Two families in Trinidad are now suing us for wrongful death of their relatives in one of those bombings. And hoo boy, do they ever have lawyers. Human lives may be no more important that insects to this regime, but these insects had families which will sting him. I just wish the money that will change hands would come from MAGA billionaires and not from us taxpayers.
From Axios, this is an article about an essay written by an AI CEO who seems almost as worried as I am about the potential for misuse, whether due to human naivete or human corruption. The article links to the full essay, but I felt both needed to be archived for readability.
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”* Yesterday, I slept until after sunset. However, I had been up until almost sunrise, and Saturday night I had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep. I’m not kidding when I say that I’m not a morning person. That quote is from Act II of “The Tempest” where it is also a quote – Ariel is telling Prospero what the first guy said who jumped from the king’s ship when he (Ariel) made it sink in the storm. No one died in that storm, because it sank so close to shore the drew and passengers could practically walk to the shore – but it was still scary to them. We, on the other hand, have seen people die, and have seen the devils who pulled the triggers.
I can’t improve on Robert Reich. He has the facts and he explains them more clearly (and with more evidence) than I could.
I think Malcolm Nance makes a valid point here. Not that I’m certain where exactly we need to be going with it.
I have a quote here from the 19th which I cannot link to because it was just in the newsletter, and there’s no link to it, or any indication that it’s in an article at the 19th or elsewhere, but it struck me as significant:
A local doctor remembered him on social media as someone who “used to tell people off when they made sexist comments to female physicians … he made a point to teach medical residents without judgement [sic], but with a smile on his face and a joke.”
BTW, Renee Good was from Colorado. Alex Pretti’s parents live in Colorado. I am beginning to take this debacle personally.
From Rocky Mountain PBS. This is a great idea, although I am far from certain that federal Courts will uphold it, particularly in the cases of Federal Agents – who are the only kind of law enforcement likely to attempt it (unless there is another pandemic, which heaven, karma, and the cat goddesses forbid.)
Yesterday, another day, another death at the hands of (presumably) ICE (CBP is also out and equally lawless.) At least it appears to have turned many Dems away from voting for the appropriation bill which funds ICE. The radio opera was “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.” The Met always refers to it that way, though if there’s another one, I’m not aware of it. I expect everyone has heard something from it – the most likely thing would be “Summertime.” Others often excerpted include “A Woman Is a Sometime Thing,” “My Man’s Gone Now,” “I got plenty of Nothin'” “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” The Gershwins were adamant that it should never be performed unless the cast was 100% black – although I assume that would not include the ICE agents Detective and Policemen, who only have very short spoken parts – just long enough to make the racism clear. (They didn’t specify a black conductor, but today we had that too.) This performance was even more bittersweet that usual – Ryan Speedo Green, a bass-baritone who is still young and on the way up, was in it, and so was Denyce Graves, a diva who has been singing opera for decades and is retiring – this is her last performance -was also in it. During her career, she inspired so many young black singers to consider opera that it is possible – even probable – that without her we would never have heard Speedo either. If that sounds irrelevant, consider how many entertainers in movies and popular music have drawn attention not just for their professional activity, but for their activity in the community – George Clooney, Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift, and so many more. And that, for good or ill, becomes part of their persona. It’s the same with opera singers. Renee Fleming working with veterans with PTSD and physical injuries through music therapy. Joyce di Donato doing the same in prisons. I’d love all these singers just for their work in opera – but their other activities make it personal for me. They honored her at the end of intermission – with a speech, a facsimile of a plaque which is going up in the Opera House to honor her forever, and a piece of the iconic crystal chandelier (because, like her, it lights up the House.) I can’t say, I wasn’t crying – but I can say she was too. Off to see Virgil now – will check in upon return
I mentioned music therapy in connection with the opera. Bot any and everything that has to do with art and creativity can make a huge difference for veterans – or anyone, really. But I can see why Rocky Mountain PBS featured this from the Denver Art Museum.
I had no idea that this was even possible. Virgil has a form of red/green color blindness – he can see true red (crayon red) and reds that are on the blue side. But the more brown there is in something that is rea, the more green it looks to him, and all browns look green. And greens look brown. Not that it would have helped to know about it – it’s clearly pretty pricey. And it’s too late now – even if I could get one, it would be illegal to send it to him.
Yesterday, We did get some snow – not a lot, but some. And we’re due to get more today. After the opera, I’ll need to go out and look at it, and maybe try to brush or scrape some off before overnight. Not that the predicted temperatures are in my favor, but anything I can manage to do to alleviate it has got to help.
Common Dreams addresses ICE’s use of children as “bait” to trap their parents, and then keeping the children detained anyway.
Robert Reich posts the photo of one child (Liam, aged 5) alluded to above. He then discusses the responses to some questions he asked readers about what the most effective strategy would be to resist.
Joyce Vance discusses the Fourth Amendment and the blatant violations of it which ICE is committing. Sorry I don’t include any of my own opinions with these articles – but they wouldn’t be printable.
Yesterday, Rethuglicans in the House defeated even so much as a toothless rebuke to the Saffron Sauron over Venezuela. I blame gerrymandering – polls show that well over half of us are strongly opposed to his unconstitutional and otherwise despicable actions there, and if we were truly proportionately represented in the House, Rethuglicans would not be able to do that. Also yesterday, the prediction for snow today had disappeared – they are still predicting some for tomorrow, but only an inch. Well, we’ll see.
Joyce Vance summarizes the year 2025. Not that there’s anything we don’t know, but there is so much that we may have forgotten some things. Personally, I think the month of January 2026 was “a very long year.”
Y’all probably don’t need any incentive from me or from Common Dreams to be upset with Democrats. (My rep isn’t a Democrat, so I am upset with him all the time anyway.) But – in case you did – here it is.(Apparently only 7Dems did vote with the Rs, but that was more than enough. Now it’s in the Senate.)
Robert Reich on axioms applying to the Apricot Antichrist. I like his use of the word “axiom” – something there’s no need to prove because it’s self-evident, nd can therefore be used to prove other things. So many similar words, like “postulate” and “assumption” are much weaker.
This with Heather Cox Richardson is long – but then, as she says, it was a fire hose of a day – and iI could find it all in writing (from different sources, too),I’d probably still be looking.
Yesterday, The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Lisa Cook’s unlawful firing from the Federal Reserve. Based on questions asked by the Justices, both Michael Popok and Adam Klasfeld believe it will go 8-1 against the Mango Menace, or maybe even 9-0. Both have been watching the court for a long time, and I hope they are not wrong this time. Incidentally, Jerome Powell was present at the hearing too. Also, CPR reported that Tina Peters was “involved in an altercation” at the prison she is in (not a surprise.) And most of the snow in my yard is gone now, but there are a few patches left – and we are now expecting more on Friday and Saturday.
This is Robert Reich at his best. I don’t know whether it will actually be seen by the world leaders he is really addressing – but I hope it will.
It’s not as if we didn’t know most of what’s in the Common Dreams article. But knowing what happened, and doing something about it, are two different things.
This is the way Andy used to write for the New Yorker. The only thing missing is “Harland Dorrison.” Oh wait -I said that too soon. He shows up (a little masked) in this one!
Ask and you shall receive, I guess! Not that I actually asked anyone, but here it is – I can give you a full day’s notice for this event.
