Open Thread December 11 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 112025
 

Yesterday, I found in my inbox and archived a Huff Post article on the civil suit that three Representatives have brought against the Apricot Antichrist. (I didn’t get all the money-asks out, but it is much easier to read than I found it. There is a good deal of white space and multiple photos. so it’s longish to scroll.) The lawsuit is not new, but it’s news to me that is it still ongoing. Generally, the websites of Representatives will not accept contact forms from non-constituents, and I have not checked to see whether any of these three is an exception to that. But if you are mailing Christmas (Hanukkah, Diwali, whatever) cards, and can spare three, this might be a good way to use the spares to send gratitude. Also, I saw the results on the special election in Georgia (we won) and the Miami mayoral election, not won by a Democrat in 28 years. One source said that we lost the most recent prior election by 9 points, but won this one by 67 points. That is quite a flip. I’ve seen different numbers since, but all the numbers show striking flips.

This from the 19th does make a kind of very ugly sense – “Wombs are essential to ethnic nationalist movements.” It’s a natural consequence of fear of immigrants to be worried about the birth rate. If they could only relax and allow (and empower) government to do what it is meant to do, like “promote the general welfare,” the birth rate would manage itself. Not everyone is competent to be a parent.

I am NOT recommending that anyone try this from The Root. As someone implied in a response, it needs “a special set of skills.” But it gave me a smile – even though I don’t trust “Mike” as far as I could throw Rhode Island.

This from The F* News, suggests to me that we need to work much harder to demonstrate that the modern Republican Party is actually a death cult. The lead story can be Exhibit A. When we run out of letters, which sadly won’t take long – we can start over with AA, and so on.

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Open Thread December 10 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 102025
 

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.”

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Open Thread December 9 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 092025
 

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.

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Open Thread December 8 2025

 Posted by at 5:52 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 082025
 

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.

Belle Bonds

Cat

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Open Thread December 7 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 072025
 

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.

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Open Thread December 6 2025

 Posted by at 5:56 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 062025
 

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.

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/a-2-1-panel-of-the-dc-circuit-makes
from Joyce Vance – “The case is styled as Harris v.o Bessent, although there are numerous parties involved and the order directly impacts the president’s ability to fire at will.”

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.

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Open Thread December 5 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 052025
 

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.

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Open Thread December 4 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 042025
 

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.

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