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 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 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 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 16 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 162025
 

Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage. Though it was Father’s Day, there was only one inmate in the visiting room whose visitation included a child. That doesn’t mean necessarily that he was  the only father who was visited – visiting is also allowed on Friday and Saturday – I just prefer Sunday because the traffic is calmer. There was a little bit of rain on my way back (maybe even a little hail – but if so, very small – maybe pinhead size.) And neither the rain nor the hail lasted long at all.

Evan Hurst is a staff writer for Wonkette, but he also has his own Substack called “The Moral High Ground.” (And there’s always a link to it at the end of his pieces, including this one.) I think everyone who is progressive has moral reasons for that stand, but we don’t always appeal to them when discussing politics – and I’m not saying we should, but maybe we should think about it. As you can tell even just from the title, “moral” doesn’t necessarily imply “respectable word choices.” And that, I think, is a good thing.

Yes, I learned about these shootings on Saturday, but I wasn’t about to put this in Sunday’s post. I will only add to Joyce that Melissa Hartman was not just a representative, but also a former Speaker of the Minnesota House. So much for “Minnesota nice.” (Or maybe that only applies to the DFL party.)

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Open Thread June 14 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 142025
 

Earlier this week, I mentioned that Pete Buttigieg now has a Substack. A couple of days later, Heather Cox Richardson invited him to a video conversation which was broadcast as recorded. The recording is now available, probably on both Substacks, but I watched it on Pete’s. If you have a spare three quarters of an hour or so, and you’d like to spend it in the company of two people who are intelligent, knowledgeable, sane, and just good people, this may be for you.

As Wonkette does not say (but I do), families are not a certain predictor of a person’s principles. Some apples fall a county, or a state, or a country away from the tree. These people coming up with these conspiracy theories, particularly the ones including trafficking children- I mean, for that to even occur to them doesn’t say much for their own morals.

This opinion piece (I say opinion, but it’s the truth) by Rebecca Solnit got her banned from Facebook. But Wonkette’s “TABs” linked to it. If you are here before going out to a “No Kings Day” event, this is probably the one to read now and the rest later.

I threw in this from Wonkette because I didn’t want it to wait. I also didn’t want it to get buried. Foreign policy is not an area which gets much attention (unless there’s a war – and that goes double for the current isolationist atmosphere) and I thought this important.

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Open Thread June 13 2025

 Posted by at 6:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 132025
 

Yesterday, California Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a DHS press conference held by Kristi Noem defending the indefensible. You can’t have missed it. It was in Daily Kos, Axios alerts, and enough others that you must have seen it. Also, The Conversation has an article up from an Orwell expert. And, Daily Dose of Democracy reported on how the Mango Moron was met at the Kennedy Center the previous night.

Up until now, I have felt Lever Reports pretty much overpromised and underdelivered. But this article appears to be right up there with ProPublica, POGO, and ITPI

From Huff Post. Leave it to Republicans to get all pissed off over anything that takes away the smallest iota of attention from them, them, them. I wish I thought this article would stand a chance of reaching its intended audience. Sadly, I don’t.

I didn’t want to hold this until Saturday, partly because there is certain to be more news by then which will deserve an audience. So, three articles.

Cat/Dog (rerun?)

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Open Thread June 11 2025

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 112025
 

Yesterday, I had a phrase running through my head most of the day – that phrase is “government in exile.” Not exactly a government in exile as happened during the second World War, but just for some functions. For instance – RFK Jr has fired the entire CDC vaccine advisory committee. Of course they are individuals … but they are also a team. What if we could find a way to keep them together and fund them so they could continue their life-saving work. They might not even need to be outside the country, though they probably should be very secret. The same goes for government funded medical research and the National Weather Service – and other life saving groups being torn up and cast aside because the current regime is a death cult. Solid journalism outside the U.S. already exists, such as The Guardian – I don’t know how helpful it would be to fund historians to archive it, but it’s a thought. Basically, just functions which could enable us eventually to hit the ground running when the time comes to restore civilization. I’m not a millionaire – far from it – I depend on social Security – but there is a PAC called “Patriotic Millionaires.” I don’t know whether they might have some interest. It might turn out to be more effective in the long run than duplicating the obvious protests everyone else is doing. Also, my governor has been accused of collaboration. I hope it isn’t true.

This from the F*News on the callup of the National Guard and deployment of Marines from 29 Palms. Lots of sources are pointing out that the National Guard command has not been taken from a governor by a President since the 1960’s. Fewer are pointing out why it was done in the 1960s – basically for the exact opposite of why it is being done now. At that time it was the governor who was breaking the law and the President who was enforcing it and protecting Americans.

This is more of a rant from Dan Froomkin than it is news. But righteous rants are needed when the main news utlets are owned by billionaires and staffed by cowards.

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