Yesterday, I saw Virgil. and we played Cribbage. He asked me to thank you, Lona, for your birthday wishso – Many Thanks. Also yesteray, Heather Cox Richardson posted more 1-minute videos in her “250 to 250” series, which she might continue through December – since July 4 is past.. I have been sharing very few on individuals – not that that means I haven’t been leaving out some major events, because I have. I said when I started I would not possibly be able to share all of them. If you want to see what you are missing, all of them from the beginning (and last week was week #9), are at her YouTube channel – mixed in among her readings of her “Letters from an American”, her “Politics Chats,” and other videos, but they are clearly marked.
From The Root. Sorry, kids, humans – especially professors – are generally smarter than AI.
I for one never think about judges working on Saturdays. However – court doesn’t need to be in session for them to be working – and if thre was ever a time and place for a judge who respects his oath of office to be working overtime – the time is now and the place is here.
Yesterday, I did get my yarn untangled and separated, and finished one cuff. We’ll see whether I can finish the second one today. Not that there’s any rush.
Archived from In The Public Interest. What is it with Oligarchs and Water? In Iran they’ve bombed desalinization plants, depriving people of water at any cost. Here, they’re privatizing it so they cn make money from exorbitant pricing. Human life is apparently just an annoying bug that gets in their way.
Atlanta Black Star. Yes, I am posting a lot about Nolan Wells. The Black news outlets also are. Somebody white needs to, and I guess it’s I.
This link is to the YouTube of the Jim Acosta Show “Oh, Schmidt, it’s Friday” with Steve Schmidt. Accessing it through Substack took me to YouTube, and, looking back to Substack I couldn’t find a transcript. YouTube has one. I wanted to call attention to the Apricot Antichrist changing the status of the last four combat deaths in Iran to just deaths. Frank Figliuzzi also addressed this, and wondered whether the change would cheat thair families out of compensation. Having served 10 years as a disbursing officer handling military pay, I can’t say, because so much has changed – not just the numbers, but the categorization of different kinds of compensation. I can adjust for inflation what would have happened then, but have no idea how it works now. Back in the day, anyone stationed in a combat zone received “Hostile Fire Pay” of a flat $65 per month (adjusted for inflation, $513.88.) The family of any one in service who died while in service anyhow, anywhere, would receive from SGLI (Servicemens’ Government Life insurance of $2,000.00 (adjusted for inflation $15,811.65.) I have no idea whether either HFP or SGLI still exist, or, if not, how they have been replaced, if at all. But, regardless of compensation, this is still a case of stolen honor. And it’s despicable.
Yesterday, I didn’t get any knitting done – instead, I was untangling a ball of yarn I want to use for cuffs. Measuring it into two equal lengths is not difficult. but it does involve making tangkes along the way and then having to undo them, and this yarn was tangled before I started, and that had to be untangled first. I felt as if I were playing fast and loose – and losing. (“fast and loose” has nothing to do with speed – it was a grifting “hand is quicker than the eye” game similar to “which cup is the coin under,” played with a long belt which the grifter apparenly tangled up and challenged the mark to find the spot where a pull would un-knot the whole thing – make it loose. The mark almost invariably picked a spot where pulling would hold it fast, and lose his/her money.) Virgil didn’t call before curfew – but I’ll be seeing him on Sunday anyway
This from The Conversation is not the least bit humorous. But some of the realities in it could lead to chuckles zt the potential consequences of new US military policy. This is not a good thing.
Archived from the New York Times, referred by VoteVets. The nest time you run into a MAGAt veteran, on social media, in person, or however, don’t forget that there are also large numbers of veterans like Thomas Gibbons-Neff – even though many don’t have whatever it takes to apologize in person.
In case you want to read her whole article which this is from, here it is.
Yesterday, I pretty much relaxed – and knitted. Which was nice.
OK, I need to rant a little today. We all know that the Apricot ntichrist probably does not even know what a treaty is, let alone that the Constitution is clear that a treaty is the law of the land, that only Congress can ratify a treaty (so only Congress can get us out of one.) There is nothing in the Constitution about what to do if an ally we have a treaty with goes rogue – starts committing war crimes. So will someone please tell me WTF is a Constitutional President who is sworn to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” supposed to do when that happens?? What pushed my button was a New Yorker headline “How Biden Emboldened Israel,” also a subject line in its daily email. Oh, sure, NOW “over a hundred Democrats are voting to withhold arms from Israel- wnich is not enough to break or rescind a treaty. How is any of this Joe Biden’s fault? If we had had Congressional blessing to pull out of our treaties (yes, plural) with Israel the instant the war crimes started (which we did not have the votes to do), then MAYBE Kamala would have been elected (but I would not bet a dime on that), but if not, we would be exactly where we are now. War crimes are a hell of a drug.
Colorado also has closed primaries, but has been good about publicizing deadlines for switching or declaring parties, even under Republican Secretaries of State. I would not expect Floridians to be able to say the same. I switched parties once, back when there were still sane Republicans, and one was running in the primary against a Tea Party (remember it?) one for a state office. And I was far from alone. We got her into the general, where she won, and we had sanity even in those days (Colorado is blue now, but hasn’t always been so. And desperate situations require desperate measures.
It bursts my bubble every time – and it is pretty much always – that so many people feel compelled to denigrate every person of color who has anything to say and speaks it publicly. Why do they feel this need? Because they have nothing to say so they make something up? Are they secretly terrified that if there is a person of color smarter and/or wiser than they, that somehow makes them lesser? Or if there is a person of color who is more compassonae then they, or has higher ethical standards, that demeans them? There are difinitely contradictions in the stories of the witnwssws to what happened over the semiquincentennial weekend – contradictions which can’t be reconciled.
.I lost track of the times Frank said “under any other administration” or the equivalent. He does a deep dive into the background of the ICE agent who shot the young father in Biddeford, ME. I’m tearing my hair out about this one because there’s no transcript. I went to his main Substack page – still no trnscript. There was a YouTube link for the same video – but CC was not afailable, so no transcript there either. Frank is affiliated with Lincoln Square, so I checked there also – the show was there, but no transcript. Feel free to skip it. He covers more topics, but what I thought was most important was the background check he did was the background check, and unfortunately, that’s in the middle.
Here’s a bonus in case you want to skip Frank. But this is good new – yes, it’d dsigned to help people of color, but not just people of color – – it’d for everyone not an oligarch. And it doesn’t leave Black people out.
Yeah, I already put up this in “250 to 250”, but this is only a bit over 4 minutes, and it has almost everything the 1 minute version leaves out.
Yesterday, the Radio Opera was Boris Godunov, starring Bryn Terfel, in the original 1869 version, which, among other things, has no scene in Poland with an alluring soprano. The main female solo voice are those of Boris’s daughter (who IIRC is around 8-10) and her nanny. (His some is also pre-pubertal, so that’s also in the higher range), and they are only in a couple of scenes. Boris isn’t in every scene (those plotting to bring him down don’t plan in front of him) but he is in most scenes. Mussorgsky wanted it to be in the mold of a Sheakespearean tragedy, so there is some humor in it. At one point a policeman, with a warrant for another character – can’t read -so the guy he’s looking for offers to read it for him, but substitutes another person’s description for his own, so the policeman grabs the other guy. That may not be screamingly funny – but then neither is the porter in MacBeth. I will say the feature in my browser that lets me increase volume betond what a website can do got a workout. That’s not a criticism. A wide range of volume is a good thing and a mark of real musicians. But my house doen’t have the acoustics an opera house has.
This is long, especially for a Sunday, but I found it very rewarding. Thanks to our Mitch for the link.
This may be a bit overdue – but maybe I’m not taking the problems seriously enough. In any case, it’s a good thing – and not surprising in a state which keeps electing Bernie.
https://www.rmpbs.org/news/science-environment/aspen-acres-fire-animal-rescue
Just as Mr. Rogers mother always told him – “[When there’s a disaster] look for the helpers.”
From the 19th. I was lucky – I lived close enough to home that I could just stay there. Most people are not that fortunate. And we as a nation need those people who want the education to get it. We need them much more than we need the “fortunate sons.”
Tuesday was Bastille Day, and all the European leaders were in Paris to honor Ukraine. Of course President Zelenskyy was there with Mrs Zelenskyy and a Ukrainian fighter pilot led the flyover. I wish I could go on and on about it, but I would be remiss not to warn you about the cyclospora outbreak reported by The New Yorker (HHS is not helping.) Just as one example, Michgan generally averages 50 cases a year, but has seen 3000 cases in just a month. The described symptoms remind me of when I was in the hospital – believe me, you do not want this (Yeah, you might lose weight, but there are better ways.) The regular method of transmission is through uncooked produce. So cook all the produce you can (I know that’s not really possible with, say, lettuce) and wash strongly what you can’t cook.
Yesterday, Malcolm’s show (with Jacob and Wahjeeh went for 1.75 hours, most of which was details of how Iran has been pummeling us, and our unnecessary and catastrophic losses – not of people (yet, thankfully) but of equipment and facilities. I would love to hear from some of the women and Black men whose promotions to General were revoked – not what they would say for publication, but what they really think.
Juan Proaño is the CEO of LULAC – think “the Latino NAACP.”) He and Joyce talked about the death of Lorenzo Arauno last week and of Joan Sebastian Guerrero on Monday morning. You can flip through the transcript for such details as that neither was the person ICE were “looking for,” nor was any of the others in Arauno’s vebicle. Or that ICE stripped Arauno of all ID before the ambulance came, so that the hospital had to admit him as a “John DOE,” with the result that when the family arrived at the hospital, the hoapital could not cprroborate his identity, and it wasn’t until the next day that the family could actually learn he was dead. In the case of Guererro – and you won’t find this in the trancript; I had to go hunting for it – ICE claimed it attempted to stop the vehicle, but “the driver kept going. They said the officer feared for public safety when he shot at the vehicle, hitting and killing the driver.” Sure – if you are afraid for public safety, of course you would shoot to kill someone who is actually driving a moving car so you can turn the car into an out of control killing machine /S/.*
Of course the Narcissistic Navel Orange will appeal. But the Supreme Court’s term is over until the first Monday in October – so he may have to wait a while. Meanwhile, this ruling will not stop or suspend any disciplinary proceedings against Blanche and Woodward.
This link is to a conversation between Ken Harbaugh and Kris Goldsmith. They look to be a notably odd couple – but appearances can deceive. Both are veterans. Kris has survived serious PTSD (not that there is such a thing as non-serious PTSD – but some are more serious than others.) Ken may not have- but he gets it. I’ve watched a lot of conversations on Substack which were illuminating. Butthis is the first one I would describe as profound. It’s about 25 minutes (and has, of course a trenscript), so you likely will not want to drop everything anf watch it. But may I suggest? – that, instead of watching or listening to the speech tonight of the Apricot Antichrist, in which he will claim that the elections of Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock were fraudulent because of intervention from Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, among other lies, you consider this instead. Or afterwards as a palate cleanser.
I don’t remember whether I have used the symbol /S/ her before. in case I haven’t it means “Sarcasm” and is called a “snark tad.”
Yestersay, I saw Virgil – we played cribbage – I passed on a greetng from and old friend 9n Florida, and he asked me to pass it back (which I intend to do via Jacquie Lawson.) Oh, yes, and Lindsey Graham suddenly died. There seems to be a lot of discussion about it. If I find one or two that are particularly illuminating, I’ll post them Wednesday.
On Saturday, Common Cause (commoncause dot org) emailed it mailing list (which includes me) to report that since the beginning of the year, they have tracked 149 bills in 38 states calling for an Article V convention. I knew there were numerous crazy people who want to use Article V to tear up the Constitution so they can replace it with an authoritarian document – but 38 states? That’s very unwelcome news. I didn’t put this up on Sunday so as not to contaminate the good news, and the link I provide is to their home page, but they may ask for a donation/ I am not asking. That’s up to you.
This week, Todd Blanche faces confirmation hearings for his nomination to Attorney General. Last Friday, Joyce Vance discussed the potential for these hearings with another former DOJ prosecutor – one who worked with Blanche when he was still sane.The link is to a Substack video, so there’s a transcript. If I had to summarize it, I would say that even after almost 2,000 years, no one still now why a disciple into a Judas (I would argue that it isn’t money – or at least not just money. There’s something else going on.)
And speaking of Todd Blanche, there’s this. Adam is a journalist who specializes in legal news – he’s not a lawyer himself, but a good number of lawyers rspect his judgment when he does proffer an opinion, which he doesn’t here. I personally am not panicking – but this doesn’t exactly help.
This is a bunch of coprolites. Of course it’s pure projection. A black personin the public eye like this has everything to lose and nothing to gain from attacking physically or verbally a white person also in the public eye. God knows it can be tempting is the white person is a ritchbitch (not saying Clark is – I know zero about her.)
Yesterday, the radio opera was The Makropulos Affair, based on a 1922 play of the same name by Karel Čapek – the same guy who populized the word “robot.” The opera is about immortality – and why it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I’ll just stop there and go off to visit Virgil. And check in upon return (which may take a while – it’s supposed to be quite warm.)
I’m always interested in, and often excited by, medical good news. At 80, I don’t expect to benefit personally from this news, but, having empathy, I can appreciate its life changing nature. And – if this can be done with stem cells (and stem cells can be made from other cells), what else will be possible?
You don’t often see much good news from The Root – and when you do, it’s likely to be bittersweet, as is this one. But I am always inspired by a celebrity stepping in to console and encourage a child.
