Open Thread April 29 2026

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

Yesterday, Malcolm Nance changed the name of his daily Substack Video (also on YouTube after it ends) from the “US-Iran Warcast” to the “Global Crisiscast.” For good and sufficient reasons. If you have a tolerance for facing worst case scenarios – and the consequences of stupidity and also a tolerance for Malcolm’s style (which includes dark humor), I seriously recommend it. This link will not take you directly to it, because the specific address changes daily, but it will take you ro Malcolm’s Substack home page and the crisiscast should be at or very near the top.

This is from Americans of Conscience. All of my experience with running elections was prior to 2016, but when I was doing that work, even under Republican Secretaries of State, the Colorado state government had a strong attitude of inclusion. (Not all the others I worked with did (in precinct  work, workers must comprise equal numbers of Ds and R)s, but the state did, and the County Clerks did.) I did realize that was not the case everywhere. But the extent of the differences may not be as widely known. Plus, these are just two examples – there are at least 49 more.

From The Intercept. I realize there are a lot of things in this world which can hurt other people – or which can hurt oneself if one tries to work with them without good sound understanding of how they work, or to push their limits. Stoves. Cars and trucks. Construction Equipment. Large animals. Large bodies of water. Knives. Stupid people. None of these things are evil in themselves, but people get hurt by them every day. Of them, AI most resembles large animals and stupid people. If the incidents of AI talking people into suicide have not sufficiently convinced you to use it with great caution, if at all, consider this article.

This from Rights and Insights is not new information, but it’s from a different perspective than most. It points out something no one else is saying – that the practices this regime wants to eliminate from elections in order to “make them safer” are exactly the safeguards which allow elections to be free and fair.

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Open Thread April 27 2026

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

Yesterday, my inbox was reachable again. It took me a while to delete over 350 emails, though, even without reading almost all of them. But I am assuming today there is only one story – one which has multiple possible takes. I’m bumping to Wednesday a story or two which I had in mind for today. See you then.

This is from an attendee of the other party – the one for independent journalists – the people we should all be reading, or watching, if possible. (Not all of them – no one has that kind of time – but some of them.)

This is from The New Yorker. This attendee was at the Correspondents’ party.

https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/the-real-victim-of-the-white-house
Robert Hubbell writes about more than the shooting, including the California Gubernatorial primary, for which he proposes a strategy which highly recommend (assuming it becomes necessary – and it certainly might.) But what caught my eye was his headline point that truth id the chief victim of the WHC dinner shooting – as it is of everything about the current regime.)

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Open Thread April 26 2026

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 262026
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “La Sonnambula” by Vincenzo Bellini. It’s classified as an opera semiseria, and yes, that means “halfway serious.” The serious part is the information on sleepwalking, which most people at the time it was written had never heard of, Aside from that, it’s basically a rom com. Bellini was known as “The Swan of Catania,” and was – and is today – afmired for his graceful melodies, which were characteristic of the “bel canto” period, but his really did stand above others.. He died at age 33, and a quotation from the libretto of “La Sonnambula” is engraved on his tombstone – a couple of lines about not expecing a flower would have withered so soon. I was having issues getting into my inbox, which have slowed me down, so please be patient with me until I can get back in. I now uaw Substack so much Ihave lots of places to look, but I’ll still miss some news. Today seems to be a predominantly feline day – even the composer of yestersay’s opera is from Catania.

Archived from 11alive, wherever that is -referred by The Smile. Isn’t Boone gotgeous?

From kitv,wherever that is. Lucky kitties!

Forwarded by our Mitch. Pictures are one thing, and these are amazing – but the project has also halped rangers care for and conserve all the species.

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Open Thread April 25 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 252026
 

Yesterday, I wanted to use the cartoon below, but I also wanted to make sure everyone got it. It is titled “Orangemandias” and is a riff on Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias.” If you were ever exposed to it, you probably remember the gist of it. If not, or if you just want a refresher, here it is at The Poetry Foundation. Sorry it’s so hard to see. If you open it in a new tab or window it’s clearer.

From The Root. Long, yes. But please scroll through and read all the names. Especially those whom other Democrats are demanding resign. There are definitely times when public servants need to be forthcoming and detailed about their strategies, including potential ones. This may not be the time – or, on the other hand, it may be but corporate news may not be sharing.

From The New Republic. I didn’t even know Clarence had given a speech until I saw the video with retired Judge Luttig’s take on it. I don’t (ad I’m sure y’all don’t) agree with the Judge’s politics, but despite that, he is a man of honor, and all this must be terribly painful for him. He is proof that it is possible to be an honorable Conservative – and, sadly, also proof that it is bloody difficult to do – since it is so rare.

From The 19th. IANAL, nor a historian, but I do know some things about patriarchy in the Roman Empire. If you had a wife she was property. If you had children, they were property. You could legally kill them, You could rape them, You could sell them. Heck, you could even kill our mother. But you couldn’t legally murder another male Roman citizen – and if you killed your father – Katie, bar the door. The punishment for patricide, called poena cullei, was to be “sewn up in a leather sack, with an assortment of live animals including a dog, snake, monkey, and a chicken or rooster, and then being thrown into water,” where you would drown, unless of course the animals got you first. By the time of Hadrien, there was an alternative method of being thrown to the beasts in the arena. I don’t know whose option that was, but it wasn’t the convicted person’s. I expect very few on the far right knoe about this, allergic to history as they are. But it is the kind of patriarchy they want to bring us back to.

HCR – pious coprolites!

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Open Thread April 24 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 242026
 

Yesterday, I ran across this video. It’s probably not one you want to watch all the way through at once, but one to maybe save (or save the URL) and watch one idiot at a time. When you are feeling dumb, I guarantee it will make you feel smarter. Incidentally, Norton (one of the later numbers) died in 1888 and I wasn’t born till 1945, but he was still a legend when I was growing up. I don’t think anyone in San Francisco believed a word he said – I think he was just a nice guy and they decided to humor him.

The Saffron Sauron is not the first US President to disagree with NATO – but he is the worst (so far). We and NATO have survived the others – so far.

This from Bloomberg is the first of two articles I have chosen on John Roberts and what he has done to us. It focuses on the Shadow Docket. If you can’t get in, here is the archived version.

This from Lever News, also about Roberts, addresses how someone who was fearful of “activist judges” became one of the worst. Again, here is the archived link.

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Open Thread April 23 2026

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 232026
 

On Tuesday, The Oedipus Project was on Zoom again – with an all new cast inclding Dr. Fauci as Tiresias, and Chuck Schumer as, probably technically a member of the chorus – but the chorus’s lines were broken up and spread around. Yes, I’ve seen the project before, and yes, I’ve read the play (in English – I came late to Greek and didn’t have time to get good enough to read plays – the only one I read a little of in the original was Philoctetes.) But there is always something new that comes out of these productions.

If you are wondering about the criminal complaint against the SPLC which Todd Blanche somehow managed to get past a Grand Jury (in the Middle District of Alabama), there are a couple of good videos available regarding it – one on YouTube on the Talking Feds channel, and the other (and more detailed) on Substack.  Either (or both) can generate a transcript easily if you prefer one. Don’t worry, the SPLC has not done anything illegal (Unfortunately, that fact may not protect them from a MAGA judge in that district.)

From the 19th. One woman’s story to represent so many women’s stories. Which is how we learn, I think.

Since the only thing the Papaya Pasha cares about, besides himself, is money, it shouldn’t be surprising that every bizarre thing he does ends up affecting money. Unfortunately, it’s our money which is the most affected. As Robert Reich points out.

Talking Points Memo has a string of stories here, but the longest, and possibly the ugliest, is the first one. Read as much (or as little) as you like.

This video, from and for Earth Day, is a short – there may be a way to embed it, but I couldn’t find one in the “share” options. Hick is not the best Senator ever, but he is right on this.

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Open Thread April 22 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 222026
 

Today is (International) Earth Day. It is also the last day of the US-Iran 14 day ceasefire, unless an extension has been or is negotiated. Today’s video is all about the SCROTUS “Shadow Docket.” It has an ad right in the middle – if I start after it, you’ll miss all the background. But he wears a very different shirt for the ad, so it should be easy to stop it, run the red dot past it, and pick up when he starts on the subject again.

From Ukrainform. You gotta respect Zelenskyy’s courage to push for a meeting with not one, not two, but three fascists, for peace negotiations. I am not a mind reader nor a prophet (my name is Joanne, not Jeane – remember her?), but I personally suspect that Putin will not stop until very single person in his military is dead, or until he is, whichever comes first.

About half of young Americans can’t name a single Holocaust site, repeating a pattern of ignorance seen in postwar Germany. Knowing what has happened to education in the US since I was in school, I shouldn’t be surprised – but I was, for about a second.

I do agree with Robert Reich. It would be a toss-up between him and Alito, if it weren’t for the fact that Thomas is a known sexual abuser.

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Open Thread April 20 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 202026
 

Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage. A good number of hands were outstanding, and about the same number were awful. I think we had less decent average hands than usual. You can’t predict that kind of thing. It just happens. The weather was lovely, and I wasn’t fighting the sun either going or returning. So I think I can be getting there from 10:30 to 5:00 – in other words, get my half-hour back by leaving home a half hour earlier, at least into fall. Of course, in the winter the sun squeezes the time at both ends. Happy 4/20 today to those who celebrate!

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2026/03/world/expose-rape-assault-online-vis-intl/index.html
Between CNN, UltraViolet, and John Pavlovitz, I was able to use CNN after searching for and finding a readable article. I really would have hated to use a video.

https://theconversation.com/about-half-of-young-americans-cant-name-a-single-holocaust-site-repeating-a-pattern-of-ignorance-seen-in-postwar-germany-278507
Even though I was not born until after VE Day (and less than a month before VJ Day), remembering the Holocaust comes to me almost as natural as breathing. But – I got an education – not just in school, but also through reading, and even movies and television contributed. It isn’t merely the loss of knowledge of the Holocaust which has degreaded our education since then – but that is a teribly important part of what we have lost.

The Corporatization of Public Schools


How long will it take for people to learn that any kind of privatization (including so-called public-private partnerships) will always cost more and provide less than just letting the government do what government does?

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