Open Thread November 11 2025

 Posted by at 5:55 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 112025
 

Yesterday, I see that the Senate appears to have caved on the shutdown. (Jeffries says he has not and will not, but we’ll see.) The calls to kick Chuck Schumer out range from statements to screams – although he was NOT one of the eight who caved. (And two out of those 47 are actually Independents, and at least one of those two was among the eight.) You can find the list and photos here (Belle also lists them.) It seems a bit unfair to me to blame all Democrats for what only 17% of them did. But on the bright side, SCROTUS has declined to hear a challenge to Obergefell. (And I’m pretty confident that if they won’t hear that, they won’t hear Loving either.) So, hopefully, one less thing to worry about. But we still have to worry about trans people, especially trans kids. Someone at Democratic Underground remarked that the Orange Oligarch will for sure end in prison, because dementia ia a form of prison – prison in one’s own body. Well, if that’s true, and in a way it is, what about being trans? Isn’t it prison to be a girl in a boy’s body, or vice versa? And to be fully aware of the discrepancy? I was born in 1945, and in the 1950s Christine Jorgensen was in the news a lot, and my mother told me that sometimes the soul of a girl is born into the body of a boy. Whether you think in terms of a soul, or a personality, or essence, or whatever it is that makes us who we are non-tangibly, can you think of a worse prison to be locked up in? For a person who has done nothing to deserve prison, yet it’s a prison from which the only escape is major medical intervention. Otherwise, there is no release, no probation, no parole, no escape but death. And the older one gets, the more invasive the surgery becomes. And Republicans would sentence these innocent prisoners to stay in prison from birth to adulthood (and longer, with the cost of health care going through the roof, only the wealthy can afford it.) At the very least transgender kids should be allowed puberty blockers. It’s no bloody wonder that the suicide rate among transgendered people is so high.

The F* News is experimenting with a weekly newsletter in addition to their dailies, wanting to go into a little more depth than they can trying to keep up with the daily chaos. This one includes more than one topic, and all are interesting, but the first one, regarding Elon Musk’s personal body count, may be the most shocking.

Some judges appointed by the Orange Oligarch are actually making judgments based on the law and the Constitution, without fear or favor, such as Karin Immergut. Others not so much. People for the American Way addresses 14 rulings from this fall so far which are, to say the least, troubling. Or I should say that it lists them and links to fuller analysis, so you can choose which one or ones to dive into.

Speaking of judges, Steve Schmidt starts this article with a powerful quote from one (a Reagan appointee, no less).

Dog

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Open Thread November 9 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 092025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Parsifal” by Wagner – a good four hours. “Parsifal” is the way Germans spell “Percival,” and the allusion to the Round Table is intentional, although no other character’s name follows through. The opera traces how Parsifal became the king of the knights who are charged with protecting the Holy Grail. I won’t go into detail. Wagner quotes the Dresden Amen in it more than once, but especially at the (happy) ending. Wagner’s ideas about Christianity were somewhat warped, but if they were as warped as MAGA, that does not come through in his operas. His ideas about sexuality were also somewhat warped, also (as far as we can tell) not as warped as MAGA. I won’t push that any farther either. The man could and did write beautiful music. To anyone – and I have heard it a lot – who thinks that music, especially classical music, is “ennobling,” I say “It certainly didn’t work for Wagner.” Not that his record can compete with the Mango Monster – but pretty much everything the Monster has done hundreds and thousands of times, Wagner did at least once.

I found this through The Smile on a day when most of their news was both political and pathetic. This is neither, and I applaud the educators who are facilitating this.

I knew some of this, because last month The Root had an article on several philanthropists, of whom she was one. The article doesn’t really answer the question the headline asks, but the answer is really “because she has a soul.” If she is not already on your list of secular saints, this might be the time to add her to it.

If you can’t see the video, I couldn’t either, until I turned my browser’s media player on. I’m sorry that I won’t be around to vote for this young man for President.

Crazy Soup Mr. Tangerine Man – not the world’s best singer, no CC, and it’s from last year’s election season, but hey. It’s amusing.

Dog

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Open Thread November 7 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 072025
 

Yesterday, I received the link to Barry’s online obituary from Carrie. Barry and I must have been in the Marines at about the same time. Also yesterday, Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement from Congress – giving San Francisco plenty of time for candidates to show up – and there are several already. The 19th has the story, and I’m sure they are not alone.

This by Joyce Vance is as good a combination of summary and marching orders as I have seen.

Doktor Zoom from Wonkette makes an excellent point here. Maybe I’m weird, but instead of being the 80-year-old in the room who thinks they know what will worked because it always has, I’m the 80-year-old in the room saying, “We have never seen anything like this in my life and I don’t know how to cope with it. If we are going to rely on history, we need to go back to FDR’s first term election to see what worked, and even then, today’s not quite the same. We need also to listen to people who are new politics, including young ones.” Rational people have a strong tendency to believe that rational argument can educate people. It can do that for some, but not for enough to win elections (at least not in red areas.) We have to find ways to meet people where they are.

Wonkette was hot yesterday. I already bumped one from them to Saturday so as not to duplicate sourcing, but this was simply too funny (in a scary way) to wait.

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Open Thread November 6 2025

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 062025
 

Yesterday, Andy Borowitz had Adam Kinzinger on his show (not for the first time. The full show is only for paid subscribers, but Andy did reveal that Adam has been working on a documentary (with Meidas Touch) called “The Last Republican”, and it’s available now to stream on Apple TV, Amazon, Googleplay and YouTube, and others. I foresee more knitting in my future. Also yesterday, my inbox was very full, and so many of the emaiis were on the giddy side, that I had a bit of difficulty finding takes that were distinct. But that’s OK. We need and deserve a little giddy time.

This is about a half hour video with Joyce Vance and Steve Vladek concerning the murders being carried out by our military in the Caribbean and the Pacific (so far.) Both feel that this is a situation we should be hearing more about, and specifically more pushback from Congress on, even just for legal reasons without analyzing the moral issues. And yes, I realize that when people in their district are starving, that should be Congressfolks first priority. On the other hand, when the only Congressional voice pushing back belongs to Rand Paul, maybe not other Congressfolks’ only priority.

If you can’t spare a half an hour for Joyce Vance, you can read this instead. It’s an analysis of the case of the fellow who threw a sandwich at a Border Control agent (who are separate from ICE.) This is so unimportant that the fact of it going to trial at all is disproportionately important, which sounds like an oxymoron, but isn’t.

Huff Post discusses a concept which explains a lot about how Republicans can live with their cruelty. And I truly do think it can ensnare anyone. I have never told anyone before about this, and I won’t provide details, but I caught myself doing this once when I was about 11 or 12 – and it shamed me so tha I vowed never to do it again. But of course narcissists and Republicans have no shame – and no introspective ability -so it’s not surprising they can and do keep using it. It’s called “violent innocence.” I don’t know how or even if knowing about it can help to combat it in others, although it’s probably useful to combat the tendency in oneself, although at our ages we have probably already done that.

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Open Thread November 4 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 042025
 

Yesterday, I opened my email, and it looks like I’m going to be doing more knitting this week and next. PBS Great Performances will be streaming “The Barber of Seville”. Cedille Records (RBG’s son) will be releasing a new CD and streaming from another, both with only composers killed or exiled during the Holocaust (good thing I just ordered and received 4 boxes of tissues).

This Intercept article didn’t pop up a subscription pitch for me – possibly because it’s the first of the month? Anyway, I have held this for a bit in the chaos, but it does need to be known.

Heather Cox Richardson from last Friday is worth reading if only for the Gatsby quotation, in which Nick specified that he was speaking of “Tom and Daisy [Buchanan]’, but which Richardson rightly extends to the whole MAGA party. It’s sad but true. (Totally off topic, but I just realized that she and I have the same surname – mine just uses the nickname instead of the full first name, and has condensed the spelling.)

I posted last week a preview of the Supreme Court season, but this “The Week Ahead” specifically looks at a Nectarine Napoleon’s tariff case (one of them) and analyzes what exactly he is trying to accomplish,

HCR videos generally run at least 20 minutes and usually considerably more. So I thought I’d better grab this six minute one while it was still current.

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Open Thread November 2 2025

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 022025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” by Wagner. It is his only comedy – and it’s a comedy not just because it’s a sweet love story with a happy ending. It’s also about musical pedants who fall apart if any composer does anything new – and there are many in every generation (there’s a book called “Lexicon of Musical Invective, originally published in the 1950s IIRC to record every awful thing that was said about great composers, starting with Mozart and Beethoven. It’s full of doozies – an has to keep getting reissued because the pedants just keep coming.) Historically, the meistersingers were not professional composers, but a guild of tradesmen and craftsmen who were dedicated hobbyist composers. Hans Sachs (an actual historical person) was a cobbler, for instance, and Beckmesser was the town clerk. Beckmesser is the quintessential pedant, and Wagner lets him have it every time he is on stage. I always feel for the singer who has to play that part. One has to be really smart yo play that stupid, and really self confident to withstand that much embarrassment. Hans Sachs, on the other hand, is the teacher that everyone wishes they had had in every subject. I have seen this opera once, on television, not in person, and James Morris sang Hans Sachs and really made the whole thing worth watching – all five hours. I recorded it on VCR – yeah, it was a while ago. Off to see Virgil; will of course check in.

From The Root. With the regime acting like a demolition crew and loving it, it can be easy to forget there are still plenty of good people in the world. Like Sabrina. And like I expect Riley will grow up to be.

OK, this from Democratic Underground is not good news. It is in fact not news at all. It’s just for fun.

Also from the Root, I’m calling this good news. It dates back a long time, but it was certainly news to both McCullough and Smith.

From a local TV station via The Smile, I never expected to find something like this in my own back yard. Although I probably should have. I too remember Nick Venetucci and his wife Bambi – if you weren’t inspired by them you needed your vitals checked. It should not be surprising that someone was inspired enough by him to go the distance for kids, particularly disabled kids, at Hallowe’en.

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Open Thread November 1 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 012025
 

Yesterday, an email from “Daily Dose of Democracy” had an important message. Virginia is blue enough to want to redistrict in order to neutralize Texas and other red states which are redistricting to redder. But their Attorney General is red and will block it. The Attorney General position is on the ballot for Tuesday. The race is (thanks to Republicans) the most expensive AG race in VA history. I’m generally not inclined to donate to a race outside my own state, but this race has national implications. So I made an exception and gave a small donation through Act Blue. Here’s the link – I shortened it so it shouldn’t prefill with my information, nut if it does, it should offer you a way to replace it.

Harry Litman’s Talking Feds Substack is an outgrowth of his YouTube channel, so I thought I might be able to find this there, but no such luck. It is a bit of a complicated read, involving the fate of the Immerfut ruling on Portland, review of it by two circuits, the SCROTUS shadow socket, and leading up to a request (read demand) from the SCROTUS to the President for more information on a shadow docket case which has already elicited no ruling in over two weeks. But it also contains a glimmer of hope – which heaven knows we all need right about now. It’s not bright enough to save for Sunday, but it’s something.

I did not have to archive this – Daily Dose of Democracy’s newsletter included the already archived link. I’m sure I don’t have to tell anyone here that liars lie – but the claim investigated here is such a blatant lie that it sinks to the level of farce. In particular, I got a chuckle out of “high ranking dumb” – and then realized how much grief a father would actually feel who felt the need to sat this about his son (presumably in order to defend him.) And the farther I read, the less amusing it got. The Gamboge Garnage’s DES makes the Keystone Cops look like Scotland Yard (and Dogberry and Verges look like Holmes and Watson.).

Robert Reich is asking everyone on his mailing list to share all of these videos, and it’s a reasonable ask, so I will be doing it. It hasn’t been every day, and I don’t expect it to be, but it will be often enough that I won’t be putting “Guest Video” if it’s a normal video – I’ll just post them – it will be pretty obvious from the preview. This one, however, is a “short” and cannot be embedded, so here’s the link.

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Open Thread October 30 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 302025
 

Yesterday, I was led by DU to this in Law and Crime. Does anyone besides me think that a big factor in why their hatred is so ridiculously relentless is Chris Van Hollen? That they somehow think by persecuting Abrego Garcia so far past reason they are hurting – or at least thumbing their noses to – the Senator?

Honestly, no one knows what the numbers are like on the unlawful order issue. But we know there are some on the right side. Here are two of them, courtesy of CBS

I can’t link to just one section of the TPM Morning Memo – so I will just quote this:
Some Counter-Trolling in Action?
Two judges on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals during oral arguments in a terrorism case on Friday wondered aloud if the standard the government was using for aiding and abetting a crime would have swept up President Trump’s remarks in his infamous Ellipse speech on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Politico reports: “What if a large group of people, angry at Congress, gathered on the Washington Mall, some of whom have firearms, and are known to have firearms, and a leader stood in front of them, here, right in front of them, not in another country, and said, ‘Go down the street and fight like hell. I’ll be there with you,’” said Judge Stephanie Thacker, an Obama appointee on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. “To me, it sounds the same. So, if what you’re advocating is a crime, then what I just said is a crime — may be a crime,” Thacker said.

More Perfect Union doesn’t blow its own horn a lot – or, if it does, I don’t see it. But when it does – Katy, bar the door (yes, I’m old.) This is a report which on one level we all knew, but didn’t have receipts. Now we do.

Guest video from Paul Lance. I don’t know who he is either, but this is highly accurate (assuming opinions can be accurate – I think they can.)

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