Open Thread April 16 2026

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 162026
 

Yesterday, Malcolm Nance apologized for failing to do a scheduled Substack video – because he had had to do interviews on three BBC entities and on ABC (down under.) Apparently I am far from alone in respecting his experience and analysis (and also his choices of co-hosts – Jacob has been missing for three says because he was doing interviews, not just in Denmark, but all over Europe.) Fertilizer was in the spotlight. I am no chemist, but a huge component of fertilizer is urea which is a major (or the major) source of nitrogen for fertilizer. Aren’t we all running around every day full of urea, and flushing most of it? Is it time for someone who is a chemist to come up with some way to capture that and refine it? Or am I dreaming?

Harmeet Dillon’s name has not yet, as far as I know, come up from the White House as a potential AG. But if Robert Reich thinks it is a possibility, I’m confident it is a possibility

Jesse Wegman is part of the Brennan Center for Justice. He has some thoughts about the courts here, and at least one of those thoughts is colorful.

We may as well look at this. The devil, as they say, is in the details.

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Open Thread April 10 2026

 Posted by at 5:58 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 102026
 

Yesterday, per “Black Man Spy,” Kegsbreath said something on the order of “Our warriors are preparing for our next conquest.” “Conquest” is a word which has a range of meanings. but in its original basic meaning, it is a war crime. If you go into enemy occupied territory in a war they started, and you take the territory, such as occupied France in WWII, that is not conquest – it is defense. But if you go into someone else’s territory with the intention of taking it order – that is conquest. That is what, for example, Hitler did to Poland in 1939. It’s what Cortes did to the Aztec empire. That is what white Americans did to Indian territories. That is what Britain did to India. All just examples – since throughout history, way too many nations did it to too many other nations and thought it was a good and honorable idea. Put that on the ground and it will make the flowers grow. The warcast also went into how new alliances are being formed leaving us out – which is (though they didn’t use these words) going to make us a pariah state allied with no one. Except maybe Israel. Which, under Bibi, is already a pariah. Speaking of Bibi, who is at least as crazy and evil as our un-president – and even more “Nobody can tell him anything that will change his mind” than ours. If you want a cease-fire including Israel, you need to discuss it with Bibi personally. Accept no one else’s word for it.

Democrats aren’t always bizarre. But when we are – we are within out constitutional rights, and we don’t maul or abuse anyone. The Intercept has the story.

What a mess. Decisions like these are difficult enough when everyone is on the same page. With misinformation flying around like a plague of cicadas, decisions re xlose to impossible.

And this article may be worse than the last one. At least vaccines, and the diseases they protect against, are tangible. Gender orientations are not, although they are very real. You can’t prove that a person is gay like you can prove that a chiled has measles. There are no blood tests for it. Nor for transgender – genitalia may be tangible, but they may also lie. Depression and suicidal feelings ae also intangible – unless they are acted on – and then it is too late. My state was doing the right thing. SCROTUS is not.

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