Open Thread October 14 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 142025
 

Yesterday, I slept late and tried to take it easy. Just a note on the cartoon/meme: Many, maybe most, people think that businesses open to the public are public property. They are not. They are private property and anyone other than an employee who enters one is either an invitee, a licensee, or a trespasser. Invitees are there to do business (often but not always with an appointment, as for a doctor or a dentist or a hairdresser.) Licensees are there to look around – or they are accompanying a licensee. Anything else is a trespasser. Trespassing is not a crime everywhere (that depends on local laws) but it is a tort everywhere, which means that if you trespass, you can be sued. The sample sign below makes any agent of ICE a trespasser. Whether or not any particular ICE agent is educated enough to know that, or for that matter, even able to read it, is of course iffy. But posting it or a similar sign in the best protection any private business can really put into practice.

Common Dreams. I have heard of adding insult to injury. But that does not remotely begin to describe this travesty. It’s more like adding atrocity to injury. I can’t even. And this story was not even at the top of the newsletter.

Straight from The Root. Lessons progressives and just anyone who still believes in the Constitution can learn from the Black community.

I don’t suppose there is anything in this that anyone with eyes and ears doesn’t know about. But still. The answer to Joyce Vance‘s question, sadly, is “yes.” At least in the eyes of the world.

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Open Thread October 13 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 132025
 

Yesterday, Trinette was by. It’s always good to see her. Otherwise, a quiet day. It’s definitely starting to feel like autumn – which is OK.

Robert Reich on the vulnerability of the media. And, yes, we have the tool – the anti-trust act, but it needs to be used. Not just on the media. On just about anything.

This from Talking Points Memo has several stories, but the first one is the one I’m posting it for.

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Open Thread October 12 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 122025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Handel’s “Giulio Cesare in Egitto” – which requires three countertenors, which the Salzburg Festival was able to find. I won’t go into what other productions, prior to the resurgence of countertenors (which, IIRC, started in the 1940 with Alfred Deller, but did not really start to take hold in opera until the 1970s) used to do. I will address the question of why is a German writing an Italian opera for an audience which was mostly English-speaking with a few native German speakers – it was because Italian operas (and oratorios) were all the rage. It wasn’t until John Gay and John Rich presented “The Beggar’s Opera” which was an absolute smash hit that musical entertainment in England began to thrive. (“The Beggar’s Opera” survives to this day as “The ThreePenny Opera,” thanks to Brecht and Weill. At the time – when “gay” still meant happy, it was sait that it had made Gay rich and Rich gay. But I digress.) In relation to historical accuracy, the opera is mixed. But the music is pure Handel (I assume everyone has heard “Messiah”) – not that everyone liked him – many preferred his rival Giovanni Bononcini. This led to a wit of the day coming up with the verse “Some say compared to Bononcini/ that Mynheer Handel’s but a ninny./Others aver that he to Handel/is scarcely fit to hold a candle./Strange all this difference should be/Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee.” And, yes, that’s where Lewis Carroll got the names. Pretty much all art is related, often in unpredictable ways.

Although I have never been a member of a labor union (paper pushers tend to have salaried jobs, which are much harder to unionize for multiple reasons), I have always supported unions. After all, what was the American Revolution if it wasn’t a form of union organizing? And the whole “independent contractor” concept was designed to make it between difficult and impossible to organize. This is a real step forward, even if it’s only one state. For now.

This choked me up a little. (Cats can also be extremely calming and lower blood pressure. But their affection is never instant – it needs to be earned – they can be excellent therapy for one person, or even one family, but usually not for just anyone.) This literally is saving lives.

If I haven’t lost count, this is one of 34 elections this year in which a Democrat flipped a seat. This one was a mayoral seat. Most of the seats have been in state legislatures. But don’t underestimate those victories. Victories like these are how people get to Congress. And it looks like there are 17 more such elections to come (which of course have not been won yet, but which could be won.)

The cartoon today is a gif called Magic Potion Kitten. I probably should save it until closer to Hallowe’en, but it charmed me too much (pun intended.)

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Open Thread October 11 2025

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

Yesterday, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was announced. Of course it was NOT the Apricot Antichrist. But I suspect if he wanted to he could claim he had some influence in the choice, since Maria Corina Machado is Venezuelan. I would not be surprised if his murders of Venezuelans drew a little extra attention to Machado’s work. Not that she doesn’t deserve it – I’m confident she does. Also, I learned that Mark Bray and his family have made it safely out of America. I have been worried about that. If you don know, here’s the backstory. And I added one more link which is not huge news but is about Portland.

This from John Pavlovitz may sound odd, but if one honestly asks the question “targeting for what?” the answer is clear – every single American is being targeted for something. Think of “Tomorrow belongs to me” in “Cabaret.” Or, a bit less obviously, think of the scene in “The Sound of Music” when Georg says, “They’ll never make a Nazi out of you.” I think you’ll see what John is talking about.

As simple s this is, I doubt that any brainwashed MAGAts will understand it. And – yeah, 2 from Pavlovitz in one say. I’d be sorrier, but he’s been really hot lately. And both are secular.

From The Intercept, everything you hoped you would never need to know about the Insurrection Act.

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Open Thread October 10 2025

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

Yesterday, I couldn’t get back to sleep and ended up getting up early.  It would be nice if I had therefore accomplished more than usual, but I’m afraid I didn’t, except for maybe a little knitting.

Steve Schmidt is correct. Stephen Miller doesn’t generally worry about saying the quiet part out loud, or anything outrageous. He shows his hate freely. If Steve is correct as to what happened, and I don’t know why he wouldn’t be, then what was said before the cutoff should indeed be truly terrifying.

Other outlets have covered this situation, and there’s been a lot said about it (for instance, at Democratic Underground, where the point was made that, in the past, when the Speaker was “not available”, new members have been sworn in by a Supreme Court justice). But this is the deepest dive I have seen.

Wonkette addresses the issue of federal employees ever getting paid after the shutdown. With any sane President, this would never have been ab issue. But then, if we had a sane President, we likely would not be in a shutdown.

Guest video from Robert Reich – because he requested it be shared.

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Open Thread October 9 2025

 Posted by at 5:52 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 092025
 

Yesterday, an email from Justin Pearson – one of the “Tennessee three” along with Justin Jones and Gloria Johnson – remember “No Justins, no peace”? – announced his run for Congress. More power to him. Also, The F* News newsletter included this sentence, which shocked me and may shock you: “[T]he GOP leadership’s followers aren’t even following their leaders. TFN told you on Tuesday about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) demanding subsidy extensions. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is also cracking the GOP wall.” Finally, I re-watched “Judgment at Nuremberg.” It is on YouTube in full. If you are a member, you won’t need this link, but it not, here is a link which will shove no advertising on you. (if you just want the explanation of how ordinary people allowed it to happen – which I am by no means 100% behind – it starts somewhere around 2 hours 15 miutes.)

Many people dismiss the ideas of comedians and cartoonists as being “unserious.” I don’t. There is a long history of the “jester” or the “fool” being the only one in a kingdom who could speak truth to power and live. This goes back to the dawn of history, but if you want some 500 year old evidence, I challenge you to find me a comedy (or even a tragedy) by Shakespeare in which the fool, if there is one, is not the wisest character. Iiza Donnelly is a cartoonist for The New Yorker. Ann Telnaes was a cartoonist for the Washington Post until she quit because Bezos was censoring her truth. The two of then were recently the headliners at an international cartoonists convention in France. Here are some of Liza’s thoughts while returning home.

There’s been a great deal of news about MAGA freakouts over Bad Bunny being scheduled for the Super Bowl halftime show. Just so you know, Bad Bunny is a birthright citizen of America, as are his parents.

This from Wonkette appears to be under-reported, possibly because the perp is under 18. Two families devastated by one little creep. I hope New Jersey has some provision for victims’ rights. Our Mitch would probably know, unless the law has changed since he moved to Florida.

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Comments to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC)

 Posted by at 6:01 am  Plus, Politics
Oct 082025
 

Here is the full text of the email I received from the Native Voters Alliance. I think I can expect to get more, but this one is one of the most comprehensive instruction emails I’ve seen – ever.

We’re here to tell you about a concrete action you can take, in just a couple of minutes, to help protect voting rights.

Right now, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is taking public comments on a proposal that would force Americans to show Documentary Proof of Citizenship (DPOC), or specific, costly, hard-to-access documents like passports, before registering to vote. An estimated 21 million Americans could be shut out from the ballot box, particularly communities of color, rural folks, students, and women.

The EAC needs to hear from people like you, now, while they gather input to decide whether or not to adopt this anti-voter proposal. They need to hear from our movement about how damaging this policy would be before they make their decision. It only takes a couple of minutes to make your voice heard!

Public comments can be as short as 1-2 sentences. You can submit a public comment to the Federal Register here by October 20. Not sure what to say? Here are some ideas:

  • This “show-your-papers” requirement was a bad idea when Congress tried to do it with the SAVE Act, and it’s a bad idea here too. Do not go through with this!
  • This could block millions of Americans from voting! Don’t do it!
  • I’m an American citizen and I’ve been voting for years. Like half of all Americans, I don’t have a passport – I’ve never needed one. If you agree to this, you’ll be making it harder for me to vote and blocking millions of other Americans from voting. Please don’t go through with this.
    • ALT: I’m an American citizen and I’ve been voting for years. My passport is expired. If you agree to this, you’ll be making it harder for me to vote and blocking millions of other Americans from voting. Please do not go through with this.
    • ALT: I’m an American citizen and I’ve been voting for years. My passport doesn’t have my married name on it. If you agree to this, you’ll be making it harder for me to vote and blocking millions of other Americans from voting. Please do not go through with this.
    • ALT: I’m an American citizen and I’ve been voting for years. I have a passport, but I know lots of family and friends who don’t! If you agree to this, you’ll be making it harder for them to vote and blocking millions of other Americans from voting. Please don’t go through with this.
  • If you agree to this, it looks like I couldn’t even register to vote using my birth certificate?!? I’m an American citizen who’s voted for years. This doesn’t solve anything – it’s only going to block Americans from voting.
  • I changed my last name when I got married, and now my passport doesn’t match my current name. Are you going to handle the $165 cost and months of waiting and jumping through bureaucratic hoops it’ll take to update that, just so I can continue exercising my right as a citizen to vote? Or is that going to fall to me? Please vote no!
  • There’s a reason Congress didn’t pass the SAVE Act. This is bad news! Don’t do this behind all of our backs when we already told Congress no.

Tell the EAC not to require Americans to show costly documents before registering to vote – you can help protect democracy by making your voice heard right now.

In the trenches with you.
Native Voters Alliance Nevada

********************************************************************

Me again – The video I was able to watch live yesterday is now available as a recording.  You can watch it here:

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-supreme-court-case-that-could

It’s under 40 minutes and seems much shorter.

 

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Open Thread October 8 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Politics
Oct 082025
 

Yesterday, I was checking my yahoo email account and started with spam. I saw an email whose sender name started with “Department of G” – that was as much as I could see and I needed the magnifier to read it – which is why I went to tutamail in the first place. That turned out to be “Department of Government Efficiency” – but a hover showed it was actually from a gmail address. As if we didn’t have enough government reality to be suspicious of – now we need to watch for scams masquerading as official scams. In other news, you may remember that, of all people, MTG is on our side on releasing the Epstein files. Well, now she is also on our side about the shutdown. I don’t know if my brain can handle it. Also, there was a lot of news about MAGA freaking out about Bad Bunny being booked for the Super Bowl halftime show (Bad Bunny is an American citizen by birthright).

Several topics here, at The F*News: the first is on Judge Immergut (you gotta love her name – “Always good” in German), but then it goes into Social Security cuts (mine for this month is in my account as “pending.” On Wednesday, the “pending” will disappear and my balance will reflect it) and two more. Along the way, Jonathan does a little bragging, which I certainly would too for the achievements he cites.

This week the Supreme Court’s term begins, and they will start hearing arguments again. Joyce Vance has posted the full calendar, through June, of which days are argument days, and the first two weeks of which cases when. And there’s more. Also, from a different site which included Joyce Vance in a video, the Supreme Court heard arguments on but did not decide one case last term – Louisiana v. Callais – and will be hearing arguments again on Wednesday, October 15. Meanwhile, the Election Assistance Commission has a comment period open on this case. Why is this important? Because all we have left of the Voting Rights Act is Section 2 (the Court previously overturned Section 5). This case could overturn Section 2. The link for comments is here. I have put up a separate post with suggestions for comments, because I have no link to it. The to-and-fro directions below the comments section should direct you to it. Although arguments are October 15, you have till October 20 to comment.

Dan Froomkin has put a lot of thought into his premise here. I don’t think he is seeing ghosts. Robert Reich has similar, though not identical, thoughts as this map he drew suggests.

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