Yesterday, my inbox was reachable again. It took me a while to delete over 350 emails, though, even without reading almost all of them. But I am assuming today there is only one story – one which has multiple possible takes. I’m bumping to Wednesday a story or two which I had in mind for today. See you then.
This is from an attendee of the other party – the one for independent journalists – the people we should all be reading, or watching, if possible. (Not all of them – no one has that kind of time – but some of them.)
This is from The New Yorker. This attendee was at the Correspondents’ party.
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/the-real-victim-of-the-white-house
Robert Hubbell writes about more than the shooting, including the California Gubernatorial primary, for which he proposes a strategy which highly recommend (assuming it becomes necessary – and it certainly might.) But what caught my eye was his headline point that truth id the chief victim of the WHC dinner shooting – as it is of everything about the current regime.)
Yesterday – my “day off” – I was not writing or researching, but I really have to go through inboxes regardless. So, I do want to say – if we are all still here – I’ m grateful. If not – it was wonderful knowing all of you. (P.S. – I did manage to do some laundry – mostly after the letdown.)
On Monday, Malcolm Nance said on his “warcast” that “All of us are agreeing with Marjorie Taylor Greene.” And, dammit, he was right. This is what she posted (starting with a screenshot of POTUS’s post), and I agree 100%, and I’m confident y’all will too: “On Easter morning, this is what President Trump posted. Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness. I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.”
Wajeeh mentioned this during Malcolm’s and his “warcast” one day last week, and it launched Malcolm into a horror story about when he was working there and his wife was also working there (as a contractor) and they needed a maid (the Nances probably saved the poor girls life – they definitely saved her sanity and started her on a real career). Wajeeh promised to write an article on the system, and this is it.
From The Root. This really pisses me off. The CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) may be made up of public servants, but itself is just a club. The Congreaaional Back Caucus Foundation is not even a club, but a non-profit NGO, not a government entity. The scholarship program is “The CBC Spouses Education Scholarship” The spouses of the Caucus are not public servants, but private citizens. They are entitled to do what they effing want with their GD money. This is racism pure and simple.
I watched this conversation between Joyce Vance and an expert on Hungary (which is having an election Sunday), but there is a transcript if you prefer to read. It’s about 33 minutes – but I can’t think of any way you could get this much information without reading a book (or listening to an audiobook). It’s very scary – and the scariest part may well be how little of it we knew about.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
