Open Thread July 30 2025

 Posted by at 5:53 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 302025
 

Yesterday, this showed up on Democratic Underground. I usually prefer to go to the original source, but this is such a coherent summary, the USL provided is already cut so doesn’t need cleaning up, that I thought I’d just use it. Also yesterday, Roy Cooper announced for the US Senateđź‘Ť. And, sadly, Tom Lehrer has died. He was 97. Finally, here’s a link to a Meidas post – no video, no article, just photos of Scottish protest signs which met our FĂĽhrer when he disembarked there.

OK, this from Robert Reich is from last week. But it’s still accurate, and it doesn’t look like it will get any better any time soon. Really, the readers here are so informed that there’s not much point to me covering the top stories unless I have a spin on them that’s not getting attention. Instead, covering the stories that will otherwise be missed is our mission. That’s not to say I will always guess correctly what is big – or get hooked into a big story for some reason – after all, I’m only human. But that’s my goal.

Heather Cox Richardson only comments on this story by setting it next to a story from 1955 (a story which y’all are probably aware of). And that is all that is needed. As a nation – we haven’t come very far.

From Wonkette. No way to tell at this point whether this had any effect at all on those who are addicted to lies, but it is still refreshing.


This is not a cartoon, nor is it new – it was painted by John Gast in 1872. It is named “American Progress,” and the blonde giantess represents “Columbia” (still a synonym for “The United States” almost a hundred years after the Revolution.) If yo see it credited to Thomas Kinkade, that is false, although DHS, which posted this at their website, also posted a picture by Kinkade, without permission from his heirs, who have protested. The Kinkade is fairly innocuous, but this image, propaganda for the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, is chilling when you think about how many totally innocent people were killed for it.

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Open Thread July 28 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 282025
 

Yesterday, I certainly didn’t mean to scare anyone, and I hope I didn’t. I pulled into my driveway at 4:30, but it was after 5:30 by the time I got the “home safe” post up. And a huge part of that was temperamental computers – three of them. I think it was about the fifth time trying to start it that was the charm for the desktop, and that didn’t happen until I was getting my dinner out of the crockpot. In the meantime I tried the laptop, and I got in in about five minutes, but could not open my Opera browser. I got it open with a workaround, but then it wouldn’t go to any of my speed dial sites. Finally I went to the 8.1 desktop, and managed to get it posted. I grant that some of the delay was for my personal comfort – It was 95°F outside, and I was wearing a heavy sweater (not heavy enough to keep me warm for the visit, though – it seemed unusually cold in the visitation room where it’s always colds, and Virgil thought so too.) But if my main desktop had started right up, I would have been able to post first and cool off afterwards. I suspect it was a random outage. (I certainly hope so.) Anyway the cribbage was good, and we got an update on the dog (he’s wonderful.) Late in the day, another inmate came in to use a tablet (they may use tablets for video phone calls to family/friends if the contact has a camera and mike – I don’t, and I don’t think Virgil could possibly learn to use the tablet, so I’m not planning on getting either) and Virgil said “He’s in my area. I think he’s a [jerk.] He does a lot of pissing and moaning.” and I said, “And you don’t?” and he laughed with a big smile on his face. A lovely, sunny smile. Of course that’s a big reason I fell for him in the first place, and also that we have been together so long – he can genuinely laugh at himself and enjoy it.

Heather Cox Richardson also saw the (full) South Park opener, but she discusses a lot more than that here.

Meidas Touch videos are too long for me – but here’s an article of theirs with just pictures – of Scottish protest signs.

In honor of World Tiger day, World Wildlife Fund is making four wallpaper-sized photos available for desktop or phone free. They had a contest, and the baby won it of course, but they have decided to release all four finalists. In case any cat people missed this, I wanted to share it.

How many times have you heard “Follow the money”? Joyce Vance explains exactly how real investigators accomplish that. Most of us don’t have the appropriate access to do it effectively. Senator Wyden (D-OR) does. Oregon leading again.

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Open Thread July 26 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 262025
 

Yesterday, I had a good night’s sleep – and a little more energy than I’ve been having (though not as much as I would like to have.)  Incidentally, does anyone remember that before I was in the hospital, and I was putting up two posts daily, including one just for videos, one of the creators I used was retired Major Richard Ojeda? Well, he is now running for Congress in North Carolina. He may not be young, but he is a fighter, has zero tolerance for BS, and tells it like it is “without fear or favor.” I hope he wins.

I don’t see anything surprising in this from the Intercept, unless it’s the focus on Personal Protective Equipment – when there are so many other behaviors they could criminalize. Like giving people food and/or water, as was done in some states at the last election.

I apologize for posting legal – stuff – on a Saturday, but at least you will be amused by some of the colorful similes. With any other court, this is so extreme that I’d just laugh and delete it. But with this court, who knows?

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Open Thread July 24 2025

 Posted by at 6:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 242025
 

Yesterday, Malcolm Nance and Bryan Cunningham did a video on Substack including a visit from Lev Parnas. It’s about an hour and a quarter long, and there is a fair amount of profanity, but little time is wasted, and a lot of details discussed, while not new, are new to the public. Many are in Nance’s book, but his knowledge is so far ahead of pretty much everyone else’s that it must have been hard to read or even to listen to. I might add that there is some content on which the participants don’t agree on what is going to happen. IT really is worth the time in my opinion. 1700 people watched it live – which is apparently big for Substack – but small compared to the number of people who should learn about it.

As Robert Hubbell points out, one doesn’t have to go to another country to be in exile. At this point all the good and decent people in the US are virtually and politically in exile.

I considered putting this story in Sunday’s post, but decided to post it today – because, although the hero of it is a good man indeed, and deserves credit (actually for all his accomplishments), the does not resolve into a smooth good news ending.

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Open Thread July 20 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 202025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was the second opera about Manon Lescaut. This one is called simply “Manon” and is by Jules Massenet. This is the version in which after des Grieux, her lover, has been kidnapped by his father and enters the seminary to become a priest (leaving Manon pretty much no choice except to hook up with the rich dude), she visits him in his church and you can guess what happens. The other two don’t spell that out. Also, in this version, she doesn’t even make it to Louisiana but dies en route to the ship which was to take her there. As I said last week, the stories are similar but not the same. About the music video  today – John D. Cundle is a Canadian who has produced and posted quite a little library of upbeat videos, many aimed at us in a friendly way. This is just one. It’s not satirical, although he also does satire. I also watched one about corruption, in which he appeared as “Judge Clarence.” I don’t know how much more pointed one can get than that.

This is about the Superman movie I discussed recently.  MAGA was all up in arms to boycott is as “woke,” and they may be doing so,  considering their attitude toward non-humans, including people they consider to be non-human.  I don’t see them responding in the way this article describes.

(Not paywalled, but you need to close a popup) This from the 19th is on Instagram. It is good news about a workaround.

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Open Thread July 19 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 192025
 

Yesterday, Talking Points Memo published Maurene Comey’s farewell letter to her colleagues at SDNY, fro BlueSky where it had been posted by some one from Lawfare. Whatever you may think of her father, the message is on point and worth a look. It’s in hte second section of their newsletter.

There is another national protest scheduled for a week from today. This one is sponsored by Families First and being publicized by Care in action. Families First is specifically trying at this point to protect domestic workers, many of whom are immigrants, documented or not. Yes, the Apricot Antichrist wants to rip children’s nannies away from them, Quelle surprise. The link to find an event is here. Also there are some photos for the most recent one here.

The F* News refers to Amanda Marcotte (of Salon), but doesn’t link to her – I don’t know why – maybe because Salon is paywalled if you go there too often – but I found the article and archived it. So if anyone wants to go straight to the source, here it is.

I cannot honestly say this article is encouraging. But it is honest and frank, and probably pretty much correct. Democratic leaders need to deal with the fact the most voters are not like good Democrats, who follow the facts enough to know that middle class and poor people are better off under Democratic leadership than under what passes for Republican leadership, and therefore it is in the best interest of anyone not a billionaire to vote in Democrats. On the contrary, far too many voters are far too easily swayed by appeals to their guts.

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Open Thread July 17 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 172025
 

Yesterday, I had a good night’s sleep the previous night. I suspect because, though heaven knows I have plenty of stuff to worry about, major changes in my medications aren’t among them. Also, this from John Pavlovitz caught my eye, and since it’s in the periphery of politics rather than being actually political, I decided to put it in as an extra. It just makes sense that authoritarian men (and women) are weak, since they need the assurance of authoritarian power. Egalitarians would naturally be stronger, because by definitions they (we) have faith in their (our) own judgment.

This from Lever News has a few popups, including, ironically, one for a popup blocker. But they all closed and I could read the whole article. However, I went to archive.is for those who don’t like popups – and, also ironically, the archived version has a frozen popup – it only hides most of the title and part of a photo, and the article is intact. Either should work.

This is from the “Wolves and Sheep” Substack, which is not part of but does have a relationship to Bowers News Media, to which I do subscribe. It doesn’t state much, if anything, which isn’t obvious if you think about it. But who has time to think in this chaos? And there’s alwaus a need for Captain Obvious, because the obvious, exactly because it is obvious, can be difficult to see as obvious, as opposed to being a given (and therefore safe to ignore.) I for one am grateful that someone – someone on our side – is not ignoring it.

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Open Thread July 16 2025

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 162025
 

Yesterday, after blood work last week, I saw my doctor again. Everything is pretty much smooth – even my blood pressure was 120/78. I don’t get readings that good at home. So my next appointment is in May ’26 for an annual. Also, I don’t know whether I have mentioned that, in Colorado, the names of the four seasons are Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction – but I certainly found that to be true today. Getting to the clinic I had to cope with four constructions sites – and that’s not counting the one I’ve been coping with since I’ve been using this location. One was only about half a block from my house. I did make it in time – and came home a different way – also with construction going on. So I’ll be giving Trinette a heads up, since this coming Sunday is the one she’s due to come over.

I found this Intercept article to be illuminating. Not just because I was not aware of the existence of the phrase it addresses (although I am aware of how much and how compulsively Republicans distort the meaning of any verbiage they think they can distort to produce anger and fear), but mainly because the response by Mamdani provided such a good example of how to resist that particular technique – and the kind of knowledge one needs to have (or get) in order to grasp what is really going on and do it right.

At this point in the coup, I’m ready to suggest that no Republican office holder should be allowed to go anywhere or do anything without eliciting some kind of Democratic response. f they are taking away people’s lives, livelihoods, and every smidgen of joy from anyone they don’t like, they really do not deserve any smidgen of joy in their own lives. Too bad about their families. They are hurting others’ families.

A lot of the time I don’t even bother to read emails with “notes” from Substack. For some reason I did – and one of them was this. You’re welcome to read all the responses – but the point of the short video is that all it takes to turn a Republican in a Democrat is an open mind, a tutorial on fact-checking, and applying that tutorial. Yeah, I know, the open mind is the hardest part. But it can happen.

Robert Reich is asking everyone who gets his emails to share this video as widely as possible. I’m not sure it will get through to any of those who need it the most, but I’m sharing it anyway, because why not do what he requests.

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