Oct 182025
 

Yesterday, Pro Publica added a third name to the list of people who are said to be the real President behind Metmucillini. Their pick is Russel Vought. I’m sure Stephen Miller and Larry Ellison are strong influencers in on way or the other. I don’t see the man-baby knowingly giving up that much power to any one person. If you want to see that Robert Reich thinks, his map is here. Tomorrow I go to see Virgil. will of course check in upon return.

Joyce Vance tells it like it is. I don’t know what else to say.

Joyce Vance also covered this story, and in more detail. I wanted to avoid using the same source twice in one day, so I went to Preet Bharara, since they often work together and his email had essentially the same subject line. He shares less detail than she does, but the same conclusion. If anyone wants details from the indictments, let me know and I’ll share Joyce’s link.

If this quote from the article at Wonkette intrigues you, feel free to click on the link. If it doesn’t, there’s no need to. There is a nice chart about trust at the very beginning.

Perhaps ironically, given Kennedy’s assertions here, men who get married and become fathers have, on average, lower testosterone levels than those who do not. This comports with a theory proposed by evolutionary biologists that testosterone has decreased as cooperation has become more important to survival than combat, and as women have purposely avoided selecting “hugely dominant, aggressive males” as mates. You know, because we don’t want them to murder us.”

Yes, four links in one day, but a couple of them are short. This one from The 19th is good news in the sense that it is a response to bad news, but I don’t know how much impact it will actually have. I’ll be glad if it has some, but it probably won’t have enough. Our homegrown fascists are not big on respecting court orders.

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Oct 162025
 

Yesterday, a video of a conversation between Andrew Weissman and Jack Smith was getting attention, including from me. The total time on it is an hour and almost 20 minutes. But at the beginning, the first 6 minutes and 20 seconds are the UCL spokesperson giving Weissman’s resume, and after that, Weissman gives Smith’s resume and then asks him about it, and, to a degree, ethical type questions about, e.g., how a righteous prosecution can be determined. My interest is primarily in the Trump**(*) cases, as I suppose is everyone’s here. Given a choice, I would start watching at the 34:43 mark when Andrew asks Jack to explain “special counsel.” But you could certainly wait until about the 42:00 mark. Either way cuts it down significantly

This from Common Dreams is a piece of analysis, and a fairly deep one at that. If you don’t find it helpful, that’s OK. I’m not crazy myself about how the author uses “Israel” as shorthand for “the government of Israel,” but I ay be oversensitive because I too now live in a country whose governmen does horrible things not supported by all the people.

Yes, I realize Politico is iffy. But they seem to be the ones who did the reporting which everyone else is citing as evidence of just how much trouble we are in. And Politico and everyone who is citing them may in fact be underestimating.

Research from The Conversation. It makes no sense to me, and it probably won’t to you either. But to me the key question, which is missing from the article, is what can we do about it? Can education help immunize people against it? Or is it somehow an inborn trait?

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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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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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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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Oct 072025
 

Yesterday, I heard from Carrie after her visit to Barry. I’m quoting much of it because we are all so used to brain strokes and how to tell if you or a loved one may be having or have had one, and none of that will work for a brain stem stroke. “I was able to speak to him and he was aware I was there. That is the saddest thing about this type of stroke. His brain functions well, but everything the brain stem controls is gone. Because brain stem strokes are so rare, they are easily missed. That’s why he was not correctly diagnosed when he first arrived in the ER. His doctors had only had one other such stroke victim in the past four years. Barry will be transferred to Warm Springs, Georgia to a hospital / rehab facility. After 2 to 4 weeks, they should be able to give us a prognosis.” In other news, our Supreme Court is corrupt – but not corrupt enough to consider Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal (Axios). Also, I can at least say that I have one Senator who has a clue how to message.

I agree with Robert Reich that this needs to be discussed – or at least thought about – by everyone. I personally am absolutely unqualified to talk about it with people who voted for it, but no doubt there are people who are. Will those voters be willng to listen to or even talk to such qualified people? Anyway, for us – therapy animals can help. for those lucky enough to own one or be near a professional one.

Harry Litman with a this-is-how-it’s-done article on a judicial opinion. As he points out, All judges have occasions on which they need to defer, but they should never to lies. Other courts should take this message to heart – immediately. (Incidentally, this judge was appointed by the Mango Moron. How she got past the Heritage Foundation, I can’t even guess.)

This may brighten your day and maybe even look into the book. There is a Little Professor bookstore in Athens, Ohio, and another in Owatonna, Minnesota, but Joyce lives in Alabama, so this has to be in Birmingham or its suburb Homewood. Although cities are more liberal than rural areas, that’s still a lot of books for Alabama (I wonder how much her signature changed from the first one to the last one.)

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Oct 042025
 

Yesterday, I awoke with the joint where my right thumb meets my right hand just throbbing. I rubbed some cold formula sore muscle rub on it, which helped, and I put on an arthritis glove, which also helped. But I haven’t had full use of it all day – so of course this was the day that FIVE packages came, and one was very heavy. I managed to get them all into the house but not all opened. One of them was my new speakers about which I’ll say more when I can type better (and have tried them out.) I forwarded an email to a few of you – not all, because I don’t have my mailing list complete, and I didn’t send it to anyone outside the US. It was an email warning that ICE is now actively looking for immigrant children. Here’s the link that Daily Dose of Democracy provided for more information. If you have children, or grandchildren, or great-grandchildren down to age 10, you need to see it. If you know anyone who does, you will probably want to share it. Also, Don Froomkin of Press Watch says the Chicago apartment raid needs more attention. Here’s the link to his analysis, and here’s another to Heather Cox Richardson. I haven’t read both through as I type, but but the time you see this, I may have managed to read through both. But maybe not.  Tomorrow I’ll be going to see Virgil.

This from The Root is directed to the Black community. I don’t want anyone to panic, but it appears to me that everyone should be aware of this, not just people of color and in other underserved groups.

Some of that silence was just protocol. Generals don’t applaud (or at least, not when in uniform. See the Hatch Act.) But the further they got into the meeting, and especially with the two jerks soliciting applause, the louder a statement it became.

When the ACA was passed, I had coverage from prior employment as a retiree, and soon after that from Medicare. As y’all probably know, Medicare is complicated enough, and I wasn’t working in insurance (I never actually worked with life or health insurance anyway), so I depend on journalists to give me a sense of who qualifies for what and why. Wonkette is not the obvious journal to go to for that, but I think Robyn has done an impressive job of clarifying this.

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Oct 022025
 

Yesterday, we learned that Jane Goodall has died. She was 91. Such a loss. I’m struck by the difference between her research, which was with primates in their natural habitat acting normally, as opposed the the “research” on wolves which studied only wolves in captivity, who do not act the same way or even close in their natural habitat. If someone did a study on humans but did it inside a prison using the prison population as subjects, we would instantly reject it. But if it’s on wolves – we just swallow it whole.

Obviously I am not about to be able to go do the kind of stuff Robert Reich describes here. But it does point to ways that younger, stronger, and more phone-literate people can conceivably get involved.

Press Watch on Trump’s occupation of Portland. Dan says his question “raises questions about his mental competence.” To me, it actually suggests he may have some. Can you imagine any Fox-Sinclair-OAN watching cult-brain-frozen MAGA asking this? They seem pretty unquestioning to me. But I may be missing something.

A guest video from Robert Reich. I can’t embed it because it’s in the “Shorts” format (More analysis on the shutdown tomorrow.)

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