Open Thread August 4 2025

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

This weekend, looking for music, after finding the Rocky Mountain Mike one you saw yesterday, I came across a “Horrible History” song from the BBC. It’s very silly, and IMO not useful as a mnemonic either. But it did remind me of Charles I and his billionaires cavaliers and how he vexed the people so much, including levying taxes without the consent of Congress Parliament, that there was a Civil War – which the people won, and locked him up (they didn’t all agree on all that much, but they did agree that he needed to be locked up), then they tried him for “treason against England by using his power to pursue his personal interest rather than the good of the country,” convicted him, and beheaded him. I might note that the verdict included accountability for the deaths, mostly in the Civil War, of 300,000 people, which was a lot then, but nowhere near the numbers that dictators today can kill. Charles’s defense, incidentally, was that the trial and verdict were illegal (sound familiar?) Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

I’m sure it’s no surprise that my email inbox is getting less and less manageable by the day. I don’t subscribe to Jacobin (though I love the name), but I do subscribe to Dose of Democracy who sent me the link, and I thought it was well said.

Heather Cox Richardson got a lot of pushback on this letter – so much that she made a video to explain it.

Belle security

Dog called ugly

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Open Thread August 3 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 032025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was a double bill of Leonard Bernstein – “Trouble in Tahiti,” which I have heard of and heard excerpts from but was not clear on the plot, and “A Quiet Place,” the sequel, which I didn’t know existed. Both are about stages in the life a dysfunctional marriage/family. (And this is the kind of dysfunctional relationships – marriage and family as practiced in the 1950’s – that Republicans want to take us back to.) Also yesterday, I got an email from Adam Kinzinger. He is raising funds for the reelection of Zoe Lofgren. As far as I know he is still registered Republican, but I could be wrong (there have been so many registration changes I cannot keep up). Anyway, after serving with her a=on the Jan 6 committee, he says this about her: “Zoe Lofgren will always put the American people first.” And Lonnie Griffith Bunch III received Robert Reich’s Joseph Welch award (the Senator who stood up to McCarthy) for restoring the full impeachment exhibit to the Smithsonian (he isn’t finished yet … but says it will be done this week.)

My experience is that animals definitely respond to music – and also that they have distinct preferences. My little Princess Fukutsu (a Japanese word that means several things depending on how it’s pronounced – and one of those things is “indomitable courage”) was addicted to the Mills Brothers. Gray Mouser, the cat who took to Virgil and tried to kill me preferred Glazunov and Shostakovich. And Sugar Bear – he wasn’t picky on the type, but he had perfect pitch – and if my violin student’s intonation was off, even too little for me to hear, he’d demand to be allowed out.

 

So far just signs … although enough of them for two columns is impressive … but it has to start somehow. This is one of them – it doesn’t stop anything but it does slow things down some.

Rocky Mountain Mike

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Dekleptocracy

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Politics
Aug 022025
 

The Dekleptocracy Alliance is a 501c(4) out of Austin Texas.  There is also a Dekleptocracy Project out of Virginia which is a 501c(3). But they are, if not the same thing, at least related, because the email I want to share from Kristofer Harrison has both.

I would give you a link to the full text, but there isn’t one. So all i can do is quote the email.  I am including a link to donate, but not asking anyone to. There is of course a bunch of information on the Dekleptocracy websites  on what else they do. Here’s the email:

The anti-corruption tool they’re terrified of is almost complete

When a corrupt official cuts a shady deal and walks away unscathed, it’s not an accident.

The powerful have built our country this way by design, free from accountability and oversight.

They’ve made it a point to hollow out our newsrooms and outgun our local watchdogs.

We here at the Dekleptocracy Alliance are taking back control — permanently.

For months, we’ve been developing a first-of-its-kind anti-corruption tool that will track public corruption wherever it rears up in towns, counties, and cities across America.

Here’s an early preview:

With this tool, you can directly contribute to solving real problems in your community, making a tangible difference.

This system consolidates reports and local stories that otherwise slip through the cracks. It flags shady deals. It builds case files. It connects the dots between campaign donations, no-bid contracts, sudden zoning changes, and government favors that just don’t add up.

Once we launch it, you’ll be able to search, follow, and act on those patterns yourself.

And we’ll give it to you for free on release; we just need help to get it over the finish line.

HELP US BUILD THE TOOL

This tool will help power the work of journalists, watchdog groups, honest public officials…and pissed-off citizens who are done letting this stuff slide.

Imagine walking into your next town hall open forum armed with the data you can pull up on this dashboard:

We’re 80% finished with the tool now, thanks to the help of supporters like you, and we’re itching to go live.

The corrupt don’t deserve to stay hidden, and now they won’t be able to.

Thank you,

Kristofer Harrison
President, Dekleptocracy Alliance

 

 

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Open Thread August 2 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 022025
 

Yesterday, I spent some time getting organized for Trinette to come over Sunday. I have trash and I have recyclables, and they need to be in bags so they’re easy to carry out. Also, since Trinette has now nagged me enough, we are going to he VA Monday to see what they can do for me. I haven’t been there since 1976, and I hear they will now assist with MedicAlerts – if the Persimmon Palpatine hasn’t destroyed that already. And I want to have all my paperwork together. Otherwise, it was just a day. I gat a card in the mail from an old Marine Corps friend,, and one of my second cousins in California called to wish me a happy day. i also got emails from Trinette and Carrie B (“NannyCarrie” from Care2).

Thursday, Andy Borowitz, who generally keeps his videos for paid subscribers only, posted a (roughly 31 minute) video with W.Kamau Bell open to everyone. Like every other Substack video I have watched, it needs to be unmuted, but otherwise it was very smooth. But if you just want to skip close to the end and learn what charity Bell donated his Jeopardy winnings to, I think you may be surprised.

This from ProPublica I fear needs a trigger warning – or at least a tissue alert. But one of the men in it says that getting home and realizing that he hadn’t been forgotten was the best gift he could have received. Let’s not forget them.

A couple of other outlets had this story, so I may be sorry I chose it, but it’s definitely personal to me. I live on Social Security. My life depends on it.

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Open Thread August 1 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 012025
 

Yesterday, I got an email that Jeopardy is now on Substack When I said (and it must be over a year ago) that eventually “everyone” would be on Substack, I certainly didn’t imagine that. But here we are. Today marks the end of a difficult month-and-a-half for me, which is uncomfortable every year. Today I am not longer the same age as the Apricot Antichrist. And in three days it will be Barack Obama’s birthday. If you didn’t get an invitation to sign a digital birthday card for him, this link should take care of that.

There are federal agencies, some of which are intended to be “independent” in the sense that they are supposed to decide policy on the basis of expert knowledge, not on any political opinions. And then there are Non-Government Organizations  (NGOs), which like every other good thing, are now in danger. There is much more in this memo, but it’s this first section for which I am posting it.

Joyce Vance looks at history (since she is a lawyer, it is legal history and a judge.) This was in my lifetime, so I have memories of it, but I was also more than half a continent away from it and very young, so I didn’t have all these details. I also do not remember newspapers publishing court judgments the way not just Joyce but many communicators do now on the internet. It might have been better if they had done so.

And this is why I subscribe to The Root. Some stories are mainly of interest to people of color – but now and then one of those stories will – or should – be of interest to everyone who is human. It’s a pity Missouri can’t just out all its Republicans in government at every level.

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Open Thread July 31 2025

 Posted by at 6:07 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 312025
 

Tuesday, I forgot to schedule the post I had prepared, and it ended up getting used yesterday. Sorry. Yesterday, I got an email from Lona that she was concerned about the notice that PHP is out of date, and unless I misunderstood her, she was able to see that on the blog itself, not just on the dashboard.  I went to BlueHost, where I found conflicting sets of instructions on how to update it. After a lot of searching, I was able to find how to execute one set, which I did. I went back to PP and got only a critical error message, both on the dashboard and on the blog. I had to call in, which took several tries, but finally got in and got a live person who checked my work and checked the blog and determined that the updated version is not compatible with our blog,  So she reversed the update and now it is working again. In case anyone attempted to see it while the error message was up – that was the problem. However, all this means that we are stuck with the old PHP. If you ever see anything about it, please be aware that our beloved TC was not always satisfied with software offered through BlueHost and sometimes found a different plugin to do the same job better. For instance, I observed that at BlueHost it says the site does not have backups enabled. But what BlueHost doesn’t know is that TC arranged for backups through another provider – Updraft Plus – and we are getting backed up every day without fail – I get a daily email notification of it. So if the new PHP is not compatible, and BlueHost is not worried about it, I am not either. TC will have arranged another plugin for the same function. And all our plugins are set to automatically update. When I can, I’ll put up either a new page or a new block on the Home Page to explain this, so in case anyone else is seeing a PHP warning on the blog itself, the information will be there.

Steve Schmidt is not himself a trained psychologist. But sometimes an untrained person can stumble upon a realization which is profound. I think Steve is on to something here.

Leaving MAGA is a group founded by Rich Logis, and it is also a book (at the home site you can get an ebook for free if you wish.) It is also a petition from the action network to major media requesting that they cover the stories of people who have left MAGA. That would not reach all of them – but it could reach a significant segment. At the very least they might be able to hear something outside their bubbles.

Robert Reich republishes (with permission and translated) an article from Haaretz.

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