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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
Yesterday, I got an email from Colorado Public Radio sharing that my Attorney General (who is also running for Governor) is all in on Colorado joining the redistricting war for the midterms. God, I love this guy. Also yesterday, I tripped over a post from a DUer who has been suffering extreme pain, and just found out that for all that time he has been suffering from shingles with no rash (only dxed because a very small rash just turned up) He is up to date on his shingles vaccinations, too, but his PCP says it’s possible to get it anyway. I think this should be more wisely known. Shingles pain can make non-suicidal people consider (and for all I know, commit) suicide.
Per Heather Cox Richandson, “NBC News reported [last Thursday] that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s rush to get new recruits onto the street has meant they have pushed into their training program more than 200 people who have disqualifying criminal backgrounds, fail drug testing, or don’t meet the academic or physical requirements.” I’m less worried about the physical requirements, and even the drug testing (which is not perfect – and the federal Government is a little nutty about drug use) and academic requirements (I suspect we all know someone who is a highly educated idiot), but the past criminal record issue bothers me, particularly for a group which is openly looking for male white supremacists, the most under-prosecuted group in the US. And don’t stop with this quote. There’s more.
Metamucillini is wrong (no surprise there) and Canada is correct (no surprise there either). Ronald Reagan did indeed speak negatively of tariffs, and Wonkette has the reveipts in the form of a video. If you already know if this, and our dictator’s reaction, you may want to go to the link anyway to see the “tantrum gif” which may give you a smile or even a chuckle.
No, I don’t actually need any more reasons than we already have to despise the Washington Post (or Amazon, for that matter.) I am guessing that the 1800 block of E Street SE in DC is experiencing earth tremors as Sousa spins in his grave, wishing he had named that march “The Washington Monument” instead of for the Post.
Guest video from Robert Reich
Yes, I shop at King Soopers, which is Kroger. But my only alternatives are Safeway which is Albertson’s, and Walmart – which is Walmart. I’ve boycotted Walmart since it was created. After the Albertson’s=Kroger merger was denied by the courts, Albertson’s had the gall to sue Kroger for breach of contract – but that was only my last straw. I also cannot trust Safeway to follow my delivery instructions which are necessary to keep me safe (it was while taking in [I should say trying to take in] a delivery order from Safeway that I experienced the fall – two years ago tomorrow – which put me in the hospital. Incidentally, at least here, King Soopers runs its sales from Wednesday through Tuesday regularly. So I don’t shop on Tuesday for Wednesday delivery ,although one can re-check the prices on line.) Sometimes they’ll have a special, shorter, sale, such as over a weekend, but their advertising always makes that clear. And the sale tags on the shelves – the last I looked – it’s been years since I went to a store in person – always had (I grant in fine print) an end date for the sale on them. So many people today have smartphones – it really is worth it for people who have a smartphone and shop in store to open a web account and tie it to the actual store they shop at so they can compare the price on the shelf to the price on the website.
Yesterday, I hardly knew what to do with myself – it was the first Sunday in a very long time when I didn’t have Trimette over andalso didn’t go see Virgil. I did aome knitting (I am on track to wear the sweater next Sunday to see Virgil, and I intend to stay on track – ahead of track if I can.) Otherwise it was pretty normal – at least as much as anything can be normal in our current national chaos.
Almost anyone could have thought of this, but it appears to be only Ursula at Politizoom who actually did, as far as I can tell (feel free to correct me if I am wrong). And I’ll bet she is absolutely right.
Steve Schmidt can speak for himself. He doesn’t always speak for me – but this time he does. See what you think.
This article from The Nation is both hopeful and helpful, although it’s not for the physically unfit or the faint of heart. It’s also not new – it was archived 8 months ago. But successful resistance doesn’t really change much over time (probably because the actions of tyrants don’t change much over time. The last thing a tyrant is would be is an original thinker.)
Guest video from Really American. It’s about 10 minutes, which is long for here, but not really that long.
