Yesterday, of course, was Christmas Day. I hope yours was exactly what you wanted it to be. I had a dinner which was special and different without being complicated – and almost finished another sweater (I should easily finish today – and start another.) I’m expecting a package or two – both too large for the mailbox but small enough to bring in easily. But – we’ll see.
From The Lever News. This quote pretty much says it all: “Trump workplace regulators say jobs in entertainment, sports, and other fields are too dangerous to be covered by safety protections.” Of course, there are always derails.
From The Conversation. The story of rapamycin is fascinating. Treating the subjects like objects (grammatical pun intended) was 100% typical of the time frame, and sadly, probably still happens.
Archived from The Intercept. If you thought all those ICE bounties were going to individual disreputable MAGA insurrectionist bounty hunters – which would certainly be bad enough – think again. It’s worse than that.
Yesterday – well, that escalated quickly. The Senate sent the “release the files” bill to the Orange Oligarch’s desk for signature by 5:30 EST. (I received the Axios update at 3:35 MST, and assume it took 5 minutes or more to get it sent. I could be wrong – but not by more than 5 minutes.) I expected it to pass both Houses, but not today. People would not be in Congress if they did not love to talk. I also thought it had a good chance of being veto-proof. I did not expect it to pass with only one negative vote in both houses.
On Sunday, before the House Vote took place, Epstein survivors once again gathered on the Capitol steps, this time with photos of themselves contemporary with the abuse. It appears many people are viewing them as grown women in attempts to discredit, or at least soften, the trauma they endured. (Megyn Kelly is an example.) I really cannot address this – so just imagine a string of (expletive deleted)s, and supply whatever you wish to fill in. I will say I fully agree with Haley Robson’s assessment of the Apricot Antichrist’s reversal.
As Common Dreams demonstrates, it would be nice if we could manage to listen to Bernie. He has enough experience, and has paid enough attention to other nations’ methods of dealing with health care that he knoews what works. He has also done enough town hallls across the nation recently enough that he knows what is popular.
I’m very glad I didn’t include yesterday the news of Jesse Jackson being on life support – because it ain’t so. Yes, he turned 84 in October, so he’s not exactly youthful – he has Parkinson’s and PSP (which is definitely no walk in the park) – but he’s stable and with his family. The article includes a facsimile of the statement from his family (in very small print so I confess not to have read it all).
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.
Yesterday, the ACLU announced in an email that it had quickly refiled to block the executive order against birthright citizenship as a class action, allowing a federal judge to block it nation wide. Also, I got my blood test results and none of my meds is changing this time – a welcome first. Also, the 19th advised me that the first Barbie doll to have Type 1 diabetes is here. This is what she looks like. If it seems weird to you to se something so comparatively “normal” in the news, you are not alone.
This from the F* News is brilliantly framed and might possibly even suck MAGA into reading it, though they might not get the point.
Press Watch with Dan Froomkin – who does know what journalism is, and also what it isn’t. If you claim to be a journalist, and have “a strong belief and passion” in anything other than truth and accuracy – you are nor a journalist. Period. (And the New York Times is just as bad and getting worse by the day.)
It’s hardly news that Republicans lie. Some of us who have been saying they lie like Democrats breath are now starting to re-evaluate that, because they lie so much more than Democrats breathe. It should be no surprise that Heather Cox Richardson has their number.
Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage. The drive down was clear and sunny, with the sun high enough not to be a glare issue. But when I left, it was pouring in the parking lot, and by the time I got to the car I was drenched. And I stopped for gas because I has planned to, and really, really didn’t want to run out of it in the rain. Of course that was under cover of canopies. Thankfully, it didn’t last all the way home, but gradually tapered off. By the time I got to the county line I was wishing for my sunglasses, and put them back on at the next red light. Also yesterday, I saw this – has anyone else seen this information anywhere? It seems important.
Emil Bove’s hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee was last week. John Thune intended to “start” voting on the Big Brutal Bill Friday. That may or may not have occupied the Senate all weekend – but while they might work overtime for that, I doubt they’d work overtime for a confirmation hearing. So I figure today to be the first possible day for Bove to face the full Senate. If it hasn’t happened yet, so much the better. Here is advice from Joyce Vance on how to present your objections to him to your Senator(s.
This from The F* News regarding not just Mamdani but specifically how politicians are reacting to him after his primary win is IMO relevant to what David Hogg is trying to accomplish (Mamdani was endorsed by Hogg and may even have been recruited by him). I think it’s pretty clear that party leaders who will congratulate but not endorse him are not taking that position on account of his youth. I don’t think they are even pretending to. Not that they should. Honesty is the best policy, as usual. But it does show we are not as united as we may appear to be because in opposition to Trump**(*) and MAGA, we are united.
This link goes to a donation page at Act Blue which appears to be the only way to see a 16-minute documentary video based on an investigation by More Perfect Union into why a Kentucky county which had voted Democratic for 144 years instead voted GOP in 2024. The report won an emmy, so it’s not just me who thinks it’s worth watching. A donation is not required to do so.
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.”
Yesterday, As I was going through my emails looking for news, my radio station began to play Gustav Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony. And it put into my mind another comparison between Jesus and the Mango Monarch. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection.” Trump**(*) said, “I am your retribution.” It might make a decent meme, but I don’t think I could stand the process of looking for the right pictures – of either of them actually – Christian art can be (not always , but you’re bound to trip over it) so saccharine I’d worry about getting diabetes.
This by Dan Froomkin is also from last week. It’s from Substack, but if you look at the URL, you will see it’s a bit different from the usual Substack URL. I don’t know whether Froomkin or Substack made that decision, but I concur with it.
Also from last week, this one from the F* News. You may know about the MRFF (Military Religious Freedom Foundation) – I did – or not, but you may not know about The Orders Project – I did not – and both are doing excellent and important work. Also, there were very few comments when I read it, but 50% of them expressed relief to learn they exist – and we all need some relief – not complacency, I don’t mean that, but we don’t need to feel like everything depends on us alone either, when in fact there are other people doing work, and in many cases work which is critical but for which we may not be suited.
Yesterday, John Fugelsang in his podcast had as guests God and Jesus from the “The God Pod” podcast. Like John himself, The God Pod is apparently serious but doesn’t take itself seriously. I think it will make you laugh; it did me. It’s under 10 minutes and I wished it was longer. Also, Trinette was by to take my recyclables out (and trash if I had enough, but I didn’t.)Some weeks I have more that I need help with … but much or little, we enjoy each other’s company.
I hate to break it to pro-lifers, but – oh, wait, that’s not true. I am delighted to have the opportunity to break this to pro-lifers. There is another situation in which a fetus, or even a baby, is not a person. See today’s cartoon. It doesn’t appear that the medical people are using this as a defense, although they may well be and it didn’t get into the article. But this whole case is a strong argument for not letting celibate men (which, by the way, Scripture does not call for) decide the morality of reproductive matters with no input from women or even from married men.
I would file this CPR story under “No s**t, Sherlock” – but it seems to have escaped a lot of younger people, including highly educated ones, whose education may be somewhat deficient in history. In an autocracy, you don even need to f**k around to find out. Doing your job to the best of your ability appears more than enough.
possibly even suck MAGA into reading it, though they might not get the point.
