Nov 182025
 

Yesterday, along with the rest of the world, why Michelle Obama will not run for President. And apparently she has been singing my song – or I have been singing hers – except this is the first time she has said it publicly: “As we saw in this past election, sadly, we ain’t ready. That’s why I’m like, don’t even look at me about running because you all are lying. You’re not ready for a woman. You are not. So don’t waste my time.” She could have added “And don’t kill any career I do want.” And she is absolutely right. We ain’t ready – we aren’t going to be in my lifetime and quite possibly not in the lifetime of anyone who is alive today. Because this societal change has to start with parents – and the parents ain’t ready for the lesson: “If you don’t want your sons to be lonely, stop raising them to be misogynistic assholes.” (quote from John Pavlovitz) Also, I slept late (normal for a Monday) – in addition to normal catching up, I had stayed up to stream the first episode of “The American Revolution” (Passport allows me to stream it through my local station.) I was surprised by how much I already knew – but even more surprised at how much the current GOP is acting like George III’s cabinet “You’ll do what we tell you.” We know what those people want and we can second guess and outsmart them (didn’t work.) “We’ll tell you what you want.” “We’re sending in the troops.” And that’s just the first episode. (And this probably means nothing, but more than a few women were quoted using modern women’s voices, and every single time Abigail Adams was quoted, I knew it was she before the name was shown. That was also true for Phillis Wheatley, but that was only one quote and impossible to miss.) Also yesterday, the Evil Emperor claimed he had changed his mind on releasing the Epstein files. I have a theory as to why, but as yet no evidence.

To me, this Huff Post article is super good news. More Progressives running. They won’t all win their primaries, But at the very least some who do will win the general. And that will be good for all Americans – including the ones too dumb to know it.

Chris Bowers has a point here – but I think it’s also possible to underestimate the Apricot Antichrist, and that we have been doing so for ten tears now – since he first came down the escalator, in fact. Granted his body count for this regime is so far much lower than the body count from the first one (which I don’t think we should forget, nor allow others to forget), it is also far more violent – it is being achieved through direct and despicable action, rather than through inaction.

The only excuse to call this news is that it’s from a newsletter. We all knew it from the instant the election was called – just not the exact names and faces. But this from Common Dreams does have receipts.

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May 202025
 

Yesterday, Virgil and I played cribbage (I know – What a surprise!)  As usual, we got a wide variety of hands. It seemed like I was counting for him more than usual today – but that’s just a feeling and may be wrong.  We were definitely glad to see each other. particularly since I wasn’t able to see him two weeks ago, so we hadn’t seen each other for a month.  We had communicated through phone calls.  Fortunately, since this is Colorado and not, say, Mississippi, phone calls are cheap.  From the traffic, especially going home, you would have thought that Memorial Day weekend was this week, instead of next, which it actually is.  But when we got to the Pikes Peak International Raceway exit, a bunch of cars got off, so maybe they were having something ho on and that’s all it was.

Heather Cox Richardson discusses something I’ve been thinking. The Turmeric Tyrant thinks he wants to be king, maybe even an emperor. If he only knew how restricted actual kings and queens are today, he wouldn’t. And if his family knew how restricted royal families are, they wouldn’t want him to either. In almost every country that still has a king or queen, it is a legislative body – a Parliament – which has the real power. The monarch essentially does what he or she is told. And, as for families, they are the only ones who really have to defer to the monarch. I mean things like princesses can’t even choose their own lipstick. Anyone dining with the monarch must stand up and leave the table when the Monarch does, whether on not they have eaten their fill. Not that that is law – but it is court etiquette with the force of law if you are in the court. And they can’t be idle. They have to work (unless they are for some reason disqualified), generally for some charity or cause. They do get some choice – Diana, a former schoolteacher, worked for children’s welfare. Charles, when Prince of Wales, worked for historical preservation (the British Antiques Roadshow admired him.) Harry worked for the climate. Americans who say that the UK or other countries with a king or queen “should get rid of the monarchy” have no idea what they are talking about. Dictators, on the other hand, are “elected.” they may be sham elections compared to what ours are supposed to be like and in many states still are – pressures on voters here are not from the Government – yet. Apparently after our Revolution, when Europe saw the system was working pretty well, European countries started slowly shaping their governments to work more like it. I can’t think of a European country where a king or queen has unlimited power.

The F*ing News – irony may be dead (although I’ll never believe it), but sarcasm is very much alive.

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May 092025
 

Yesterday, I picked up some Belle videos. She’s still posting four a day, and of course they are all of interest, but to different groups, so they are no means all of equal interest to PP readers. Sometimes the choices are tough. Also, I picked up some music parodies, including a Canadian parodist I was not familiar with. Tomorrow, I’ll post his praise for Australia – for Lona. Also, there is a new Pope (or in Latin, Habemus Papa) on only the second day of the conclave. His papal name is Leo XIV, and I don’t know much else about him, but he appears to be someone Francis himself might have chosen. He was born in Chicago, so (not all) American Catholics are going nuts over the first American Pope. In America we have so many – or maybe they aren’t that many, but they are loud – bishops and archbishops who are Nazis that I was worried. But I’m not sure he should be called an American Pope, except in the broadest sense – he was born in the US but has mostly worked in Peru and is a naturalized Peruvian citizen.

This Letter is about corruption in general, which includes tariffs along with many other grifts. If you want to know exactly how the Apricot Antichrist is grifting you (and the rest of the nation), this is the place to come. But wait – there’s more. The following day’s letter follows up on the first one.

I certainly don’t want to encourage complacency, but if Robert Hubbell is reading the room correctly, this is worth at the very least a sigh of relief.

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Dec 142024
 

Yesterday, I learned that Nancy Pelosi had fallen and injured her hip while part of a Congressional delegation to Europe, and is now in a hospital in Luxembourg.  “The 84-year-old former speaker is cancelling the rest of her CODEL engagements but ‘continues to work,’ Pelosi spokesperson Ian Krager said in a statement.”  It as/is a bipartisan delegation, and apparently some Republicans even offered good wishes and said nice things.  The story is on Axios and being updated as new information comes in.  I’m glad it wasn’t a knee, which I understand is the most difficult joint to work on and get good results.  I wish her a full and speedy recovery.

I didn’t want to wait too long on this analysis by Joyce Vance, so I just squeezed it in when I saw it. (If I’ve said this before, I apologize for the duplication. Apparently the American people simply cannot tolerate a person with as much goodness as Biden has in the Presidency. Jimmy Carter also did not get a second term.) Since he’s apparently not done yet, I can still hope for clemency for Leonard Peltier.

Living in fear is no way to live. On the other hand, if it weren’t for fear, we’d all be dead. A clear eyed fear of actual danger is necessary to survive. Although I don’t remember it, when I was maybe 3 or 4, my Mom, her brother, and I went to Yosemite. At one point, we were fairly close to some bears who were minding their own business. I ran up to one and tried to climb onto it. My Mom about lost it. My Uncle ran to me and the bear and grabbed me off of it before I could be hurt. Was I grateful? No. I was yelling “Bad Unca Bill, won’t let me ride nice bear!” Dictators are predictable in some ways and unpredictable in others. Steve Schmidt addresses ways one can decide to live under those conditions. The more we work at understanding the unpredictable, the more likely we are not to get caught in some less predictable mood swing.

This absolutely didn’t need to happen. But it did. The F* News covers some underlying as well as the obvious facts which make it so bad.

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Oct 082024
 

Yesterday was the first Monday in October, and that means it was the beginning of the current term for the Supreme Court of the United States. If, like most of us,you pay attention to this Court when it makes a decision which will affect you or someone you care about (and I admit that describes me), this may be a good time to dig a little deeper. Jotce Vance is not on the Supreme Court (more’s the pity for us, though she is probably happy she isn’t), but she knows more about it than most people do.) You can if you wishm read he “The Week Ahead” column for this week I guarantee you will learn something.

People who love horses will be interested in these two companion stories. I can’t speak for other states, but, at least in Colorado, no horses are being killed in the interest of reducing equine crowding. And I can’t say what the horses are thinking, but the girls in this program must feel like they are in heaven. I haven’t been on the back of a horse for at least 50 years now, and I know myself better than to try it now, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget the feeling.

I don’t know what else one would expect from a Trump** nominee. But I also don’t know what the process is to fire an Inspector General. If it’s as hard as it is to fire a Postmaster General, that would explain why he hasn’t been fired. We can at least hope that this report from POGO will generate some action.

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Jan 292023
 

Glenn Kirschner – The ugly truth EXPOSED about the Durham/Barr investigation of those who investigated Trump-Russia

The Lincoln Project – – RNC Chaos

MSNBC – Pence takes ‘full responsibility’ for classified documents found at his home

PUPPET REGIME – The Rat Explains Putin

Dog Stuck In Pipe Gets Dug Out

Beau – Let’s talk about the Pence documents case….

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Oct 052022
 

Yesterday, at roughly 1:41 a.m. her time, Heather Cox Richardson sent out her daily email for Monday, and when I got up I read it. She touched on a wide variety of topics, of which possibily the most unnerving was Moore v. Harper and the “independent state legislature” doctrine. If this case is wrongly decided, we can kiss democracy goodbye- that’s assuming we can ever get close enough to it to kiss it. I know I’m sarting to sound like the proverbial broken record, but I admit I am afraid.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Offshore Tax Havens Move On Shore
Quote – Research published Wednesday details how a handful of U.S. states that are “subservient to the trust industry” are helping oligarchs and money launderers from around the globe evade taxes and hide their wealth within the nation’s borders…. “The concept of the ‘offshore’ tax haven has very much washed ashore,” says the report, which exposes how 13 U.S. states “shield the fortunes of the world’s richest people.”
Click through for details, including which states. I knew that a fw states’ laws were more favorable to credit card companies, which is why ao many are incorporated in South Dakota and Delaware, but I didn’t know about this. I’m surprised, actually – not at the states’ greed, but at the blind faith of the billionaires. Should a Republican win the Presidency in 2024, it will all be confiscated.

The Warning – Media corruption at the “paper of record”
Quote – His name is Donald John Trump from Queens. He has a “psychiatrist.” Her name is Maggie Haberman. She is the lead Trump reporter for The New York Times, and has become, like him, a singular totem of corruption. The corruption of the American media has fueled the extremist movement that threatens the republic as the journalistic ethic forged by Ed Murrow, Fred Friendly, Dorothy Thompson, Walter Cronkite and a generation of truth seekers gave way to a generation of information profiteers. The money that flows from anger, division, confusion and insanity can be counted in the tens of billions of dollars. That is the business of much of the American media. It is certainly Maggie Haberman’s business.
Click through for story. There will be a pop-up to subscribe – just click on “Let me read it first.” He certainly nails Maggie.

Food For Thought

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Sep 212022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s new $3 million criminal defense attorney paid for by his Save America PAC/his supporters.

Meidas Touch – BREAKING: Appeals Court RESPONDS to DOJ Mar-A-Lago Search Motion and SETS DEADLINE for Trump (Whew – that was fast)

The Lincoln Project – S.O.S. (I sent this to my Secretary of State, who is running for re-election. Maybe TLP will let her use it on TV.)

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse – The Scheme 18: Leonard Leo’s $1.6 Billion Payday (You can find ## 1-17 here [scroll down a bit], all neatly lined up) https://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorWhitehouse

Hey Fletch – GOP HAS GOT TO GO (The Midterm Song)

Beau – Let’s talk about who gets to pick Georgia’s next gov….

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