Open Thread June 26 2025

 Posted by at 5:59 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 262025
 

Yesterday, I got the news (and you probably did too) that Zohran Mamdani won the NYC mayoral Democratic primary so handily that Andrew Cuomo conceded before they even started looking at ranked choice. That does not mean he cannot run as an independent – but it might mean that he won’t. There are a couple of other human monkey wrenches interested in the position, but the more of them run, the stronger Mamdani’s win is likely to be. So, a little good news for Thursday. David Hogg is overjoyed. Off topic, but a while ago, I responded to one of his emails that, while I’m on board with his mission, I was unhappy with his ageist framing of it. I did not receive a reply, so I don’t know whether he got it, or if so, whether anything will change. To offset that good news, SCROTUS greenlighted the regime to deport people to third countries (i.e., neither this country nor the country they are from) with little if any process. They did it with the shadow docket, of course. Also, if you want to wish Justice Sotomayor a happy birthday, here’s a link where you can do so. Few people deserve a happy birthday more than she does. And one more thing – I am always saying that religion itself is not the problem in making our government and society terrible – it is the abuse of religion. And John Pavlovitz now has a term for “the abuse of religion” – he calls it “holy shit.”

Patriotic Millionaires PAC passed this on – it was written by one of their members. Already in the subhead, she puts her finger on a big part of the problem.

Joyce Vance discusses Emil Bove, and how to talk with your Senator(s) about him. Wonkette as good as called him a vampire in their article about him. Joyce’s content is similar, but her wording and phrasing is more conventional. If you have a Senator who resonates with hyperbole and other figures of speech, you might want to look up Wonkette. But Joyce’s presentation is definitely more controlled.

Tis is a Substack video just under 31 minutes. I delete a lot of Substack videos without looking at them. This one caught my eye because it brings together Pete Buttigieg and Bishop William Barber, brought together by Jonatnan Wilson-Hartgrove. It was recorded and is likely on all three Substack’s but the link goes to Pete’s. I note that the Bishop’s remarks bear directly on political strategy even more than those of the other two speakers. Feel free to skip it, but I thought it would be irresponsible of me not to make it available.

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Open Thread June 25 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 252025
 

Yesterday, Wonkette unintentionally informed me that I guess I’m going to have to thank my junior Senator for something. I don’t think it’s quite good enough for me to apologize, but a “thank you” won’t kill me. Also yesterday, Rep Al Green introduced new articles of impeachment and forced a vote on them using Article IX. And 128 Democrats voted with Republicans to table them. I knew my Rep wasn’t one because my rep is a Rethug. But I did look up the record, so if you want to know how yours voted here it is. In Colorado, only Diane DeGette had the balls to vote not to table it.

Robert Reich forwards, if you will, a letter from Liz Cheney. I cannot disagree with either of them on this.

When Pete Buttigieg speaks, I’m inclined to listen. Particularly when he speaks about something he has just spent two weeks doing a deep dive into. The article is not all that long, but every word is important.

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Open Thread June 24 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 242025
 

Yesterday, Bowers News Media reported “n a welcome development, Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has ruled against the provision in the House-passed version of the Republican megabill that would have made it more difficult for federal judges to enforce contempt charges. This means that, at least right now, there are no provisions in the megabill that would reduce the power of the courts.” I don’t think he can fire her – but I hope she has security.

Since this from The Intercept is an ex post facto analysis, I figured it could wait a few days. Also, there’s little if anything we don’t already know. But seeing it in print kind of gives it an authority it would otherwise not carry. And that is why the betrayal of the mainstream media is so tragically important.

This is an “Oregon leads the way” story from Democratic Underground. I don’t know whether the poster is the writer, and DU is strict about copyright infringement, so I am “printing” it to a pdf. Let me know if the link is broken and I’ll send that to you.

I’m afraid I think this is a good idea – and maybe not just now. They are obviously out to get anyone who in any way makes like more bearable for non-billionaires, and they are out there regardless of who is in office, and too many of them are armed.

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Open Thread June 23 2025

 Posted by at 5:54 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 232025
 

Yesterday, it became obvious that I would need to address the illegally declared war today. Yes, I’m a veteran, but i also know my limitations, and one is that that I’m not qualified to discuss the strategic aspects of this other than to opine that it’s damned dumb along with being unconstitutional. So I’ll just provide some links instead from some better qualified people and let you choose which if any to read.

Jonathan Larson of The F* News. Title: Trump Bombs Iran, Constitution, International Law, and Last Surviving MAGA Principle

Norm Eisen of The Contrarian. Title: Trump’s National Insecurity and What We Can Do About It

Steve Schmidt of The Warning. Title: America is at war in the Middle East. Again.

Robert Reich at his Substack. Title: The Dogs of War (the cartoon is not his. It’s maybe a century old.)

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Open Thread June 22 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 222025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” which, like “The Queen of Spades” is based on a tale by Pushkin (if memory serves, this one was originally a poem, but I won’t swear to it.) The title character is a jerk, but he does get his comeuppance. Everyone loves the letter scene, which is certainly beautiful, but what stands out to me is Lenski’s aria, which is beautiful and heart wrenching, and immediately after it he gets killed in a duel. Ironically – or maybe just evidence that duels really were that ordinary – Pushkin himself died in a duel. Republicans would probably love to bring them back.

This from Newsweek was passed to me by readthesmile.com on Tuesday. I saved it for today. It’s only one company, but it’s a start – and in Idaho at that.

Granted that this from the BBC is not news – it’s more like history – but it’s good, and it’s good to know. (BTW, the BBC is now on Substack.)

I’ve been getting (and signing) petitions from this PAC. You may have been too, but just in case you haven’t and didn’t know about it, here’s some attention it’s getting.

Not what I expected to post today, but even before looking for parodies, I tripped over this at Democratic Underground If you were wishing for some Schadenfreude, here it is.

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Open Thread June 21 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 212025
 

Yesterday was the Summer Solstice. I hope all who celebrated had a great day. Also yesterday, an email from Justice Democrats informed me that eight Senators, led by Bernie Sanders, made a statement that voters are looking for for bold leaders, not feckless moderates. And polling backs them up – 70% of Democrats in a recent poll say the same. Of course I had to know who those seven others are, so I did a search and found they are Warren, Murphy, Merkley, Welch, Tina Smith, Markey, and Van Hollen. Neither of my Senators, of course. The only surprise in there is Peter Welch, and that’s only because I haven’t heard of him until now. He is Bernie’s junior Senator from Vermont. Tina Smith and Chris Van Hollen have not been loud until recently, but recently, they have. I could wish for the addition of a few names which are missing, like Sheldon Whitehouse, Alex Padilla (who also hasn’t been loud, but I would think has motivation now), Sheldon Whitehouse, Adam Schiff (who needs to put up or shut up at this point – I’m certain Katie Porter would have been on that list in a New York minute), and you can probably think of others who should have been there. Finally, I will not go deeply into the surreal disorientation I felt while reading about the possibilities of war in Iran while simultaneously listening to Albert Ketelbey’s “In a Persian Market” on the radio. I wonder who programmed that.

This does need to be read and/or heard. One thing that jumped out at me was the sentence “Their stories remind us that in the eyes of MAGA, just being Latino is enough to be treated as a criminal.” Sadly, actual criminals, are generally – are at least supposed to be – treated better.

This link is to a petition which you can sign if you like (it’ll take your signature even if you’ve signed on the same issue multiple times already.) But that isn’t why I’m posting it. I just want to be crystal clear on my source for this quotation:
Because Donald Trump is an egomaniac who will do anything to hurt anyone while helping himself, the bill is structured so that all of the new spending provisions associated with deportations and building up the military, as well as with Trump’s gimmicky campaign promises, expire in 2028. Further, almost all of the cuts to the social safety net, and even some of the cuts to green energy investments, do not go into effect until 2029. Basically, all of the perks happen during Trump’s time in office, while all of the pain will be felt by his successor, thus making Trump look good at the expense of literally everyone else. (Click here to read an article from Politico last month that goes into detail on this aspect of the bill.)

This means that if Democrats can retake Congress and the White House in the 2026 and 2028 elections, they will be able to quickly pass a bill that would block the social safety net cuts and not renew any of the spending related to Donald Trump’s deportations, military build up, and campaign promises. To top it off, they can also end Trump’s tax cuts for wealthiest Americans, thus rendering the bill deficit neutral.

So, even if Republicans do manage to pass this bill into law, the fight to stop it from taking effect will continue on into 2026 and 2028. The is very bad news for Republicans who, unlike Donald Trump, will run for re-election again. As I already mentioned, this bill is very unpopular, and Democrats will be able to legitimately argue in 2026 and 2028 that if you elect them, they can stop the Republican cuts to the social safety net before they ever take effect. Now that is a winning message.

Screenshot

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Open Thread June 20 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 202025
 

Yesterday, the 2:00-4:00 pm weekdays on my local radio station used her first hour for music about cats (including big ones, like Elsa the lioness.) Hooray for childless cat ladies! I hope your Juneteenth was happy.

Yes, I’m late getting this posted. But I don’t suppose it holds any surprises. It does hold some hard evidence which should be useful in future elections – provided we know how to use it.

This is from the 19th. A couple of days ago, in the middle of the night (which is when many of us, including me, get our most off-the-wall thoughts), I started thinking about transgender and the brain, specifically the two sides of the brain. I have since done a search, and I do realize the differences between male and female usage ouf our brains is not as cut and dried as we were led to believe in the seventies. However such differences do exist. As a child, growing up in a Lutheran household, during the career of Christine Jorgensen (not that I ever saw any of her films), I was told that transgender is when the soul of a woman is born into a male body (or vice versa.) And that made perfect sense to me. I never imagined a time when transgender people would have to fight and defend their very identities. Now that we live in such a time, it occurred to me (as I said, in the middle of the night) that possibly the study of differences between male and female brains could provide transgender people with evidence that their perception is real. Possibly I am totally off base here, and it might even backfire, but it is a thought. Being in a brick-and-mortar prison is bad enough, but at least in that situation one is still oneself. Being in prison inside one’s own body and never able to be oneself has got to be orders of magnitude worse.

This is a new ad from a very outspoken PAC which I guess is new – but they already have a bunch out. This on was featured on Democratic Underground, and I thought it hit like a brick: And there are more.

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Open Thread June 19 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 192025
 

On Tuesday, Joyce Vance wrote about the legal status of the Minnesota shootings, and I want to link to it without discussing the content. In the email, there was an understandable conflation of the Hoffmans and the Hortmans, but it has now been fixed at the site. Also yesterday,  Tucker Carlson, while interviewing Ted Cruz, actually made sense.  Watch out for airborne pigs.

I can see I’m going to have to start paying more attention to The Lever Report. This is pretty scary.

I can’t summarize this from HuffPost any better than by quoting the first two paragraphs: “The first U.S. pope is a citizen of Peru, and the first U.S. bishop he appointed is a refugee from Vietnam. And next week, that bishop is urging his fellow priests to stand in solidarity with migrants by showing up to immigration court proceedings. – There may be a pattern here.”

The Reich on the Left is, as usual, right. This is important.

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