Open Thread June 18 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 182025
 

Yesterday, the DLCC chair sent an email about honoring Melissa Hortman. In case you didn’t receive it – or received it but deleted it thinking it was a donation request (which I almost did), here is the list of suggested actions we can take to honor her memory (hanky alert):
Plant a tree.
Visit a local park and make use of their amenities, especially a bike trail.
Pet a dog. A golden retriever is ideal, but any will do.
Tell your loved ones a cheesy dad joke and laugh about it.
Bake something — bread for Mark or a cake for Melissa, and share it with someone.
Try a new hobby and enjoy learning something.
Stand up for what you believe in, especially if that thing is justice and peace.

And this is why I keep subscribing to John Pavlovitz – and saving his emails. Of course he has a lot to say, but in case anyone else is struggling with morale, this might help.

I don’t often post from the 19th. But this – this is something I had no idea existed, and I expect I’m not alone in that. And we should know about it. And the only other coverage is, at all places, The Borowitz Report.

Clearly this is not a happy news day. And this from the F* News is no exception. And I haven’t even brought up Iran. But I really can’t ignore this.

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Open Thread June 15 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 152025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino,” and I actually got to hear it on the radio, which I hadn’t expected, since it is pricey for a station to carry the series, and especially now, with the Mango Monster trying to remove all Federal funding. But my local station has decided to air at least the first half. It was a performance from La Scala in Milan, an opera house even more storied than the Met. With quite a cast. It was lovely – sad of course, but lovely. Also, Just as Carlo was executing his sister, I received a certified letter from Virgil’s facility asking me whether I’d be willing to hold his Medical Durable Power of Attorney. Well, I hadn’t thought about it, but if I had, I would have realized that was only a matter of time before that would happen. I think I’m competent, and I also think it’s part of my job. I emailed and said so and added that I’ll be down today if anyone is there and would like to talk with me. And now I’m off to visit him.

I almost hope this gets such wide coverage that I’ll need to look for something else by the time this posts. I doubt it’s news to anyone here that animals have more smarts than humans, but it’s a lovely story.

It isn’t enough … but it’s something. If it would catch on, that would be a much bigger (and better) story.

Now this story – this is personal (I don’t mean to me – I mean it involves and affects real individual people.) In a way it reminds me of an animal rescue story, except that this object is inanimate.

Today is Father’s Day. From the ACLU, here is a letter from Mahmoud Khalil to his newborn son. You will have to scroll down some, since the donation section is at the top. (I’m not really good at remembering Father’s Day, since mine died a few days after I was born. But I can recognize love when I see it.)

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Open Thread June 13 2025

 Posted by at 6:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 132025
 

Yesterday, California Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a DHS press conference held by Kristi Noem defending the indefensible. You can’t have missed it. It was in Daily Kos, Axios alerts, and enough others that you must have seen it. Also, The Conversation has an article up from an Orwell expert. And, Daily Dose of Democracy reported on how the Mango Moron was met at the Kennedy Center the previous night.

Up until now, I have felt Lever Reports pretty much overpromised and underdelivered. But this article appears to be right up there with ProPublica, POGO, and ITPI

From Huff Post. Leave it to Republicans to get all pissed off over anything that takes away the smallest iota of attention from them, them, them. I wish I thought this article would stand a chance of reaching its intended audience. Sadly, I don’t.

I didn’t want to hold this until Saturday, partly because there is certain to be more news by then which will deserve an audience. So, three articles.

Cat/Dog (rerun?)

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Open Thread June 12 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 122025
 

Yesterday, It was quite a news day – I filled up two days, which is a good thing, because… I also had two packages arrive at two different times – fortunately, both were left on the porch so I got them in without having to endanger myself. Then I had online issues with one of my banks (I guess I should say “with my bank” since the other is a credit union.) The website appears no longer to have an easy way to put a message into a queue for them, so I ended up typing a letter, “printing” it into a pdf, and uploading that.

This from Wonkette pretty well sums up what we have all been expecting since last November. At that, it could be worse. If you remember my Stravinsky story – with the magistrate saying “In Germany today, such things happen all the time” and sending them away – at least we are protesting. And how. Right now I feel like I just want to live long enough to see Stephen Miller get to the FO stage of FAFO. But I’m sure when I cool down a little I’ll think of other names for that list.

Well, this is spooky. It was only two days ago that I made my comment about government in exile. I made it here, and also on Substack. And already yesterday it appears that someone with money read it. No, I don’t really believe that – it’s probably just a matter of great minds falling in the same ditch, as TC would have said – but the synchronicity is remarkable.

This from the F* News is not a huge story – but it does have implications which may or may not be hopeful. When the attitudes chronicled here start to show up in the voting, that will be a story – if it happens.

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Open Thread June 10 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 102025
 

Yesterday, I learned that Pete Buttigieg has a Substack. Here’s the link. Just looking at the front page, he appears to be doing less writing and more conversational videos that most newsletters there, but he also appears to be keeping his readership current on what he’s doing. I subscribed – and didn’t even get offered a paid subscription, so it’s free. Just so you know, he has acquired facial hair, so don’t be shocked.

Quite frankly, we do not have enough Democrats in Congress (either House) and there is going to be carnage in the Big Bad Bill that we are somehow going to have to live with, at least for a time. The F* News discusses.

It is, I think, indicative of just how all-consuming the chaos has become that I did not see this faux pas reported anywhere else – though I’m sure it was – on inner pages and below the fold, to use slang from print journalism. Surely Heather Cox Richardson and I are not the only ones who know better.

Yeah, three today – I didn’t want to leave out Los Angeles completely and this seems to be highly thoughtful coverage dripping with sarcasm. Trinette’s family – and there’s a lot of it, even just the California part – lives in Southern Cal, but thankfully not in LA but in Riverside County mostly.

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Open Thread June 8 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 082025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “The Queen of Spades” by Tchaikovsky, loosely based on a novella by Pushkin. There is also an operetta by Franz von Suppê based (even more loosely) on the same novella, which is unlikely ever to be performed again, but one sometimes still hears the overture. This used to confuse me because the opera is so dark I did not see how an operetta could possibly work comically. But a little research informed me that the novella, the opera, and the operetta are pretty much three different stories. THere is a little achadenfreude at the end of the opera, but it is the Countess, who is now dead, who has it, and soon the young lovers are also dead. I’ve only heard it once, during the pandemic, streamed with Placido Domingo and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as the romantic rivals and Elisabeth Söderström (who would be 98 now if whe were still alive) as the Countess. She was pretty old when that was first recorded (and the cxharacter is pretty old) – but physically and vocally still gorgeous. It wasn’t clear then , and it really shouldn’t be, whether the paranormal element in the story is really paranormal, or a kind of hallucination burn of the desperation of the lead tenor. It is not rearly as popular as Tchaikonsky’s Eugene Onegin, and, unlike Onegin, it has no excerpt which can be and is performed in concert, but is still in the repertory (unlike Tchaikovsky’s “Joan of Arc” – which does have an aria which gets sung in concert). I have to add that when the series announcer, Deborah Harder, asked the general manager, Peter Gelb, why he chose to close the season with Tchaikovsky, he said, because great Russian art is and will always be great Russian art, and to show that we weill not be held hostage by Putin committing daily war crimes. I knew that his wife is Ukrainian (I didn’t know ahe was lao a conductor -she conducted today) but I did not expect such political passion from him so publicly. Slava Ukraini!

This is not unqualified good news via Harry Litman, but there is good news in it. I’ll be surprised (and disappointed) id Chris Van Hollen doesn’t keep on this as much as is necessary.  Even if there is a conviction, he will be in prison here, in a Federal prison, which is somewhat regulated, and his family will know whether he is alive or dead, and may even get to visit him.  Big difference from CECOT.

I don’t know how good this sounds to other people, but it’s extremely good news to me. As a person who works with fiber as a way to relax and also be creative, it’s a break for my conscience. Even in yarns, it isn’t really possible to get 100% cotton any more. Not that I tend to put stuff into landfills if there’s any other way to go – but you also never know where something is going to end up. I hope I live long enough to get a chance to work with some of the recycled yarns this is going to make possible.

This is not brand new, but I missed it when it was.

Dog

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Open Thread June 6 2025

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 062025
 

Yesterday, I hadn’t slept well the night before, so I wasn’t terribly ambitious. I did get an email from my AG that he has initiated lawsuits against the Mango Monster 21 times – and he (the monster) hasn’t been in office five full months yet. He (the AG) is running for Governor, and will have my vote in the primary and, God willing, in the general. Unfortunately my senior Senator has talked about running also. The AG is a better campaigner than the Senator and also, obviously, a better fighter of Republicans. But of course I’m worried about name recognition. I am doing what I can. Also, Axios says even Elon is calling for impeachment for the Cantaloupe Caligula.

It’s about time I shared an analysis of Operation Spider’s Web, and Heather Cox Richardson now has one, so here it is.

Recently I remarked that anyone who has ever been or worked with a Federal civil servant knows that they take their oaths seriously. Chris Bowers’s experience is a case in point.

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Open Thread June 4 2025

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

Yesterday, before actually seeing this, I had read it in a different email (with sourcing I wasn’t assured by.) Now that I can actually see it, I’m going ahead and sharing it. By now you’ve likely seen it, though. Even Snopes has weighed in.My initial reaction was, “An AI clone with a cancer diagnosis? Really? But it does show how terrified they must be of Biden to resort to such a bizarre, almost paranormal, fantasy. And I can’t honestly say that this was the worst horror story at the link (but there is a cute gif of a family of foxes.)

Also, the first petition to 86 Palantir has hit my inbox.

This by Robert Reich is IMO important enough that I added it to my post draft before even reading it. Unless you are a professional security guard and can get hired by a judge, what we can do is basically light a fire under those persons and agencies which can take real action. But that is not nothing, and we have gotten results before with that playbook. He provides all the names and addresses and even some phone numbers.

Axios put out several alerts yesterday. This one I thought was meaningful. Jamie Raskin means business. It’s very sad that it requires a white man to stand up for a black woman and get any attention, but it’s good that we have some white men who will.

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