Open Thread June 11 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 112026
 

Yesterday, there were a whole lot of Substack videos available from Substackers whom I fpllow. Malcolm’s “warcast” was probably the one which most struck me, though Frank Figliuzzi’s interview with Jim Himes on national intelligence was also sobering. One – from Joyce Vance, lasting under a minute, I added a link to under the history one (all of those are only a minute, plus or minus not more than five seconds.) I got a lot of knitting done, but I didn’t forget to pay my escrow shortage. Oh, and my primary ballot arrived by mail, as is state law.

It’s easy to sympathize with Nichelle Nichols and her family. It’s harder to remember that every day, black people and their families are treated as second (or lower) class citizens by other people who don’t think they are racists.

Ve-ry in-ter-est-ing. (Somehow quoting Arte Johnson feels appropriate here.)

The first in a two part series from Harry Litman. Is playing chicken ever a smart idea? I think not. Part 2 is coming – and I will share it when it arrives.

Steve Schmidt has written before about Roderick Edmonds. Sadly, he will likely feel the need in the future to do so again.

Mary and Joyce. This happened outside last week’s Bruce Springsteen concert. I wrote about it, but didn’t have video. You’ll probably have to unmute it.

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Open Thread June 8 2026

 Posted by at 5:58 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 082026
 

Yesterday, after saying it was a slow day, Malcolm had to come back and make an emerbency sequel when Iran attacked Israel. To steal one of his expressions – “not healthy.” As I type, Ihave noclue what will be happening today.

Remember what I said last week about Graham Platner’s tattoos a while ago, based on my experience with young male Marines? This quote, from a former Marine who served with him and got tattoos with him, says the same thing, only blunter: “No, we did not purposely get hateful fucking shit because we’re racist people,” he said. “We got matching tattoos because we were in our 20s, drunk in Croatia, and that’s it. That’s all that fucking happened.” I had to laugh. It really took me back to the day.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/whos-most-responsible-for-the-monopolization
This from Robert Reich is history. But it’s history I don’t think is terribly widely known, even if you know the players. I admit it surprised me.

https://thefrankfigliuzzi.substack.com/p/i-see-dead-people-and-the-friday
This Frank Figliuzzi video is from Friday, and I assume most won’t watch the whole thing, or maybe any of it, but there is a full transcript. Scroll down to the line below Frank’s picture on the left, and the last opyion before the three dots is “Transcript.” Frank’s presentations re like a whole newspaper (a real one, back in the day), so skim through it, and you are likely to find at least one thing no one else has covered. Plus there is good news at the end.

https://www.theroot.com/13-organized-plots-against-black-america-that-are-worki-2000109731
This, straight from The Root, is also from Friday, and is also history

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Open Thread June 7 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 072026
 

Yesterday, the Met season was over, but WFMT’s summer season was just beginning, with “The Bartered Bride” by Smetena, from Vienna. It was perfomed in German, as opposed to the original Czech, which I thought might give me a fighting chance to ubderstand some dialogue as it was sung. But individual words like “I”. “My”, “your,” “no”, “yes”, even “love” (hey, it’s a rom com) don’t give much to go on. But the plot is simple, based on concealed identity, and there’s a lot of great dance music (which must have come in handy for Paris), so it wasn’t hard to follow. Also, John Pavlovitz had a thought for so-called Christians who want to turn Pride Month into Niclear Family Month – they should celevrate Mind Your Own Damn Business Month instead.

Another short ABC video on loop. It speaks for itself. ABC is pretty good at this.

This, referred by The Smile, is closer to politics than I usually try to get on Sunday. But it is very good indeed.

From National Public Radio. This is limited to melanoma – for now – but it’s progress. (My mother had a melanoma, but she was lucky. It was very visible even when very small, and even with just outpatient surgery with local, it never returned. Not everyone can be that fortunate.


Animals, Dogs, Cats, Personal Profiles,

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Open Thread June 6 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 062026
 

I’ve been thinking about this for some time, and I’m not the only one. Several pundits have said that the GOP’s gerrymandering scheme may well backfire. Using numbers I’ve made up, here’s how. Let’s assume a red southern state has a majority minority district which in 2024 went blue by 12 points. It’s adjacent to a majority red district which went red by 10 points. So the state mashes them together and redivides them, expecting both to go red by maybe 8 points. But they haven’t taken into consideration how deeply the current regime’a approval ratings have descended. Some who voted Republican in 2024 will vote Democratic in 2026. I’m guessing that more will simply not vote. Those two dictricts could easily go blue by 2 points each – which would be enough. Especially if it happened in multiple states.

Yes, this page requests donations, and no, I am not asking you to donate. I just want us to be aware of this race. It is for Joni Ernst’s seat (Grassley’s current term will be up in 2028 – he will be 94 but may run again anyway.) Turek is endorsed by Elizabeth Warren (probaly by others, but she’s the one I just got the email endorsement from.)

This from Talking Points Memo is about Todd Blanche but Bill Polte is likely to be as big a problem.

The latest on Tina Peters – which IMO shows clearly why she should still be locked up. The next best thing would be laws at tgr Federal level, and Stale laws, County lawd, and municipal laws that no convicted felon can be eligible for public office.

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Open Thread June 4 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 042026
 

Yesterday, Malcolm reported (so some or all of this may have happened Tuesday) that we bmbed Iran, which responded by attacking Kuwait, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates. In Kuwait the airport was burned. Kuwait attempted to retaliate, but the missile “went stupid” (a term of art) and bombed straight back down to its point of origin. Kuwait only reported one fatality. Yet, no one is saying that the “cease fire” is over. Also, Feank Figliuzzi posted a 49 minute video, with Gareth Gore, who has written a book about the origins, purpose, and accomplishments of Opus Dei (by using the word “accomplishment”, I do not mean to imply that any are positive.) It’s a force to be reckoned with – Gore calls it an abusive cult – and forearmed is forearmed.

Guns. I don’t believe the Mango Moron is smart enough to figure this out by himself. Some evil genius must have advised him on it.

Archived from Lever News. Same song, different verse. Repubicansre so (uninrentionally) transparent.

I’m sure there are bigger things happening than what Robert Reich is covering here. But this kind of personal. It’s our money that the Apricot Antichrist is throwing around on “attractions” like Milli Vanilli (who could not show up anyway, since one of the two is dead.)


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Open Thread May 30 2026

 Posted by at 6:10 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 302026
 

Yesterday, Malcolm used the title Milli-Vanilli-cast for his presentation. There are multiple reasons for this, one of which is that he credits Milli Vanilli for inventing alternate reality. I won’t go into other reasons, but I will recommend you avoid the National Mall between June 25th and July 10th this year. But all the information is in the first 17 minutes of the cast, so if you are curious, here’s the link. Also yesterday, a DC circuit judge ruled that the Saffron Sauron’s name must be removed from the Kennedy Center immediately. And another judge ruled that no money can be paid out from his slush fund until, and if, it is determined that it is even legal.

 

I have to share this story, although it took a while to ger it posted – it’s just too good. Wednesday night Bruce Springsteen gave a live concert attended by, among other, Joyce Vance and Mary Trump, who went together. There was a large sign on the building with a short anti-Trump** message – they ran up to it (and probably took selfies) and said – “WE are the Trump/Vance team you need!” And, you know, they are absolutely right.

Robert Reich on wealth tax. He considers it so important he is willing to vote for Tom Steyer – a billionaire – over Katie Porter because Steyer claims to support a wealth tax. I also want wealth taxes – in every state – but I don’t believe a word a billionaire says at any time, least of all when he is running for office.

From Civil Discourse. My first question was – why Chicago? Wasn’t the defamation case tried in New York? Doesn’t she live in New York? Reading farther, Joyce has the same question. (being a lawyer, however, she asked legal procedural questions first.)

I find it very difficult to accept that a sane person, or a sane party, would choose not to be part of the solution. I’s clear that the present Republican party is not part of the solution, and also that it is insane. It’s not as clear to me that the Democratic party is part of the problem – we are kind of dysfunctional just now, but that seems always to happen to a minority party. We do need to form clear goals and get a lot better at communicating listening. If we can’t listen, we won’t be able to communicate at all.

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Open Thread May 25 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 252026
 

Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage. It was a brand new deck – no tears, no peeling, no sticking. Hands with a wide range of values (zero to 21.) It’s always cold in the visiting room – but it was extra cold today – and quite warm outside – too warm for comfort, actually – but at this time of year the sun is not in my eyes, for which I was grateful.

And on Saturday, I received a Memorial Day email from Major General Eaton (retired) of Vote Vets. He wrote about the wars in Iraq And Afghanistan, and included a statistic which was new to me. In those two wares combined we lost almost 7,000 military in combat – and more than 22,000 to suicide after they came home. More than three times as many to suicide as to combat.

Snarl at me if you like. Because I’m not postinng this from JoJo from Jerz for news value. I’m posting it because of the sheer beauty of the righteous rant. The pure vitriol of the analogies, metaphors, and needle-sharp points made. I’m in awe. I can come up with the occasional zinger, but I could never come up with a string of them like this.

We’re all familiar with the term “kleptocracy” – Maybe too familiar. The term “corruptonomics,” coined by Robert Reich, may help us look more closely at it. As he also says – “Please send to any candidates you care about.”

From Press Watch. The saying goes that a competent prosecutor could get a true bill from a grand jury on a ham sandwich. That’s an exaggeration for a competent prosecutor – but for a crooked prosecutor – maybe not so much.

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Open Thread May 23 2026

 Posted by at 12:27 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 232026
 

Yesterday, Malcolm was in Greenland – He went a couple of days ago for the opening of a “new” (meaning newly purchased or leased) building for the American Consulate. Jeff Landry was there (the governor of Louisiana, who is a “Special Envoy” to Greenland), making not just a fool of himself – not that that is unusual -but also acting creepy, offering children chocolate chip cookies) but left early after Greenlanders tactfully asked him not to act like a pedophile. There was a protest on site – including baseball caps reading “Make America Go Away,” “Already Great” [with the Greenland flag] and “Nu det NUUK” [Danish for “That’s enough” but punning on the name of Greenland’s capital – “Nuuk”]. One of the Protest signs read “Yes NATO, No Pedo.” I could go on a lot longer about how much Greenland wants nothing to do with the US under the Canteloupe Catastrophe, but I’ll spare you. Also, Tulsi Gabbard quit. Good riddance – but likely to be replaced by someone even worse. (Flynn? Lindell?) One good thing – Abrego Garcia’s federal case was dismissed with prejudice. Also yesterday – everybody was slush fund talking.

From The Root. I’m old enough to have memories of what it looked like, even though I didn’t grow up in the South. And good enough vision to know it when I see it – which is pretty much all over the place now, and also to see how it jumped back into broad daylight when Barack Obama was electrd President (and yet – misogyny is even stronger.) There are still many glass ceilings above which it is difficult – if not impossible – to rise if you are not a white male. And there is no such thing as modern humans belonging to different races. Neanderthals and Denisovans may be races different from homo sapiens (or not – many of us today carry bits of DNA from one or the other.)

From Pro Publica. Maricopa County – it figures. Joe Arpaio’s county. Did someone day “fraud, waste, and abuse”?

Harry Litman on the slush fund scandal. Of course I thought of Teapot Dome (no, I’m not old enough to have lived through it, but I am old enough to have heard of it in history classes.) But, as Harry points out, the government at least got some oil through it, whereas this criminal enterprise is all take, no give to taxpayers. And those to whom it is giving are the worst of the worst.

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