Yesterday, the “President” landed in China and unsurprisingly behaved like an idiot. There were moments when Xi was clearly struggling not to laugh. But if we laugh too, we should still be keeping in our minds who he took with him. Also, I took in a grocery delivery. Everything is as put away as it is going to get.
I think we’re all aware that whatever the Evil Emperor says, the opposite is true. This is no exception. Robert Reich spells it out.
From The Conversation. I know Colorado couldn’t suspend taxes on gas even if the Governor wanted to.Thanks mistly to TABOR, we currently have the worst budget deficits we’ve had for years.
Archived from The Atlantic – so I could read it. I almost wish I hadn’t – But it’s safer to know than not to know.
Yesterday, My inbox was packed with Substack videos. I didn’t watch every one, but I did watch more than usual. Besifes Malcolm Nance’s “warcast” (he’s back to calling it “warcast” since the “cease fire” has been broken, but it still contains a lot of geopolitics), there was a video from Vicky Ward Inveastigates with Adam Klasfeld with her part filned in the Epstein Files Museum which is currently in New York City but will be traveling throughout the nation. And the one from the Brennan Center with a NYU professor whose book on the Constitution was just released. It took up a lot of my time but I would have missed a lot if I had skipped any one of them.
This is just the first of five stories in a single email from Dean Blundell. It is the longest (sorry) and the most scary (sorry) of the five, and IMO the most consequential. It doesn’t necessarily require politicians and/or elected officials to bring about 1984. It can be done by private businesses.
From POGO. Everything with the Orange Oligarch is transactional – even if the only thing he gets out of it is screwing people. After all, that is near and dear to what in someone else would be a heart.
I can’t say I was surprised by this, although I didn’t know the actual numbers.
Yesterday, I expected to have lab work again. My previous PCP wanted me to do that every three months. Over the winter, my PCP moved, and I tranferred to another provider at the same facility in a phone call. At least that was easy. But – because he hasn’t actually seen me yet (that will happen next week). the lab had no order on file. So that was a wasted trip. Not something one wants to do when gas is about to go up again, and we could run out of our reserve and not be able to get any at all. Today’s political video is longer than Belle’s are, but shorter than Glenn Kirschner’s are. I am trying to keep them down.
Sometimes I get frustrated looking for articles to feature. The ones with the most (and newest) news are too long, and/or too repetetive, either in themselves or of other articles, or just wrong. Then I trip over a history piece which is relevant to what we are now going hrough (not always in an obvious way, but in some way.) idt Steve Schmidt may not be a professional historian like Heather Cox Richardson, but he has a knack of finding and sharing historical events which feel extremely relevant. Here is one. (The General Butler mentioned cannot be Smedley, who was not born until the last year of the Hayes Presidency. My guess is that it was General Benjamin F. Butler, who was, in 1879, running for governor of Massachusetts [he lost] after failing to win re-election to Congress, so he was at least alive at the time and had the right connections.)
I don’t – not intentionally – subscribe to Political Voices Network – not because the folks are not factual )they are both factual and good), but because there are too many of them and I just don’t have the time. But this came into my inbox, and it has some solid facts and some very good questions. If health insurance CEOs are murderers – why aren’t Republicans who consistently vote against Medicare for all, who strengthen private health insurance providers, murderers too? I can’t help thinking of Wendell Potter and his first book, “Deadly Spin.”
This is a few days old, but I thought it could wait – I didn’t see the MSM covering it under this regime. And it’s good news, as far as it goes. I hope it gets past SCROTUS still standing.
Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage. He’s still having vivd dreams, but fornow, he knows they are dreams. Eventually he’ll forget that and I’ll have to explain it again. Our 42nd anniversary was last week, on Cinco de Mayo.
Robert Reich on Graham Platner. There are some Democrats who are seriously doubtful of Platner – mostly based on his tattoos, as far as I can tell. He probably got them when he was in the Marine Corps, for 8 years after graduated from high school (he remained a reservist afterwards and was deployed again multiple times.) His highest rank was Sergeant, and since he was in and active more than 8 years, I can pretty well guarantee he is not pro-establishment. I’ve known a whole lot of Marines who were fresh out of high school – they can be incredibly impulsive. And tattoos are probably the most regretted thing one can do as a young person. Anyway, after his initial active duty, he attended George Washington University, which is fairly prestigious. It’s private, so one gets no help from the government except the GI Bill (unless the government is sending you there to learn skills it want you to use for it, as happened to me.) You can get all thr scoop on him in Wikipedia, including some names of his endorsers, including, besides Robert Reich, Elizabeth Warren and others.
From NBC news, referred by Daily Dose of Democracy. This is a different strain of hantavirus from the one we in Colorado are familiar with, which is carried by deer mice and not transmissible from human to human. Given the current regime, I’m surprised that such precautions are being taken – but very grateful. (the mice that were in my house have all been house mice, not deer mice.)
Archived from Mediaite (because they want you to turn off your as blocker.) A little humor to help us keep going.
https://www.theroot.com/a-federal-judge-just-exposed-the-discriminatory-truth-b-2000104507
This is a few days old, but I thought it could wait – I didn’t see the MSM covering it under this regime. And it’s good news, as far as it goes. I hope it gets past SCROTUS still standing.
the radio opera was “La Fille du Regiment” by Donizetti – the opera which includes Luciano pavarotti’s signature aria – the one with nine high Cs. Lawrence Brownlee did one of the best renditions I have ever heard, and received a worthy ovation. I don’t know whether it was a standing one, but it lasted long enough for him to give an encore (which we sadly didn’t hear in this recording.) Hard to believe that an agent he spoke with before he was famous told him he had no future in opera for two reasons: he was short and he was black. Well, he still is both and opera audiences appear to have no issue with either. But I digress. Sandra Oh played the role once played b Ruth Bader Ginsburg ((Brownlee was in that production also.) Ah, well. Happier times. Off to see Virgil now and will of course check in upon return.
Yesterday was David Attenborough’s 100th birthday. The first email I saw about it had the subject line “100 years of David Attenborough” which made me think we had lost him – but, thankfully, we have not. He is so well known and loved. Some years ago I went to a college theater production featuring the three winners of a contest for one-act plays. The one I remember best had three actors – two were visible and were a boy and a girl mayfly. The third, invisible inside a prop TV set was David Attenborough narratibg a program about the life cycle of Mayflies, which you probably know is in the neighborhood of 24 hours. The two Mayfly characters were getting increasingly panicked that they wouldn’t have time to reproduce. It was very funny. (The second was about Philip Glass tring to place a bakery order in the style of his music. That was funny too, but not as funny as the Mayflies. I don’t remember the third at all.)
From Press Watch. Suggestions to more wimpy news media about how to report on the Evil Emperor
From Bowers News Media. Yes, the voters in Virginia overwhelmingly voted for a [temporary) distrct map skewed Democratic – and the Virginia Supreme Court immediatelu struck it down. Bowers News Media is big on sharing things ordinary people can do – some are always not feasible, geographically or physically or budget-wise.
Yesterday, I got all the printer software installed, only to find that the black ink cartridge isn’t working. My fault, I fear – I pulled something loose while removing the tape, and assumed it would just stay in place. So today I need a trip to Staples. Fortunately, it’s a pretty straightforward and not too long trip. Again, sorrythis is late.
There’s no reason Andy can’t do straight news when the actual facts are this amusing. Maybe I should have saved it for Sunday, but I prefer to avoid politic completely on Sundays if possible.
Archived from the Independent, which has a photo of the note. See what you think. It doesn’t look to me like the writing of an adult. Most peopl’s writing either leans to the right or to the left pretty consistently. This note leans every which way (which is not the only reason it’s almost illegible.)
Common Dreams addresses Tennessee’s very rushed redistricting (inspired by the Callais decision.)
Yesterday, my exterminator came and said all my rooms have much less activity – and so does the yard. It actually snowed a little Tuesday, which is exactly when they would try to get inside out of the cold, so that’s all good. Then Trinette came by – and it took us a while to find where the plug had come out of the computer, but we did, and it works. So I can run the disc now, and hopefully I’ll be back in business.
Thirty seven minutes of discussion about Louisiana v. Callais – and the procedural mandate SCROTUS released late this Monday (a little less if you skip the part at the beginning when knitting and animals are discussed. The first few minutes of Substack videos are always off topic because viewers don’t all join at once, and most presenters wait until at least 1000 have joined to address the topic.) Once I started watching instead of reading, I have continued when possible because watching, you can’t skip, so I don’t miss things by trying to read too fast. And also, because depth of the the presenters’ feelings on the topic come through more clearly. But if you really prefer to read it, scroll down a bit – I’ve se the link so the transcript will already be up.
Under a regime which does not care whether people live or die, nor how they suffer –this could not have happened at a worse time. Not that there is a good time, but there have been times when the federal government would at least have tried to minimize tragedies.
Robert Reich points out a billionaire who is making a case for a wealth tax. But he’s not doing it intentionally. I’ve often wondered whether, if millionaires and billionaires woul just pay their political contributions into the IRS as conscience gifts instead of giving them to politicians, we could fund Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and other similar programs just fine.
