Yesterday, I slept quite late, but also took in a grocery order – a huge one – which I might not have had the strength to cope with otherwise. As it is, I didn’t get it all put away – just the perishables – and was rxhausted.
This is from Sunday’s Politizoom newsletter. but I don’t think it has lost any of its humor over those three days.
Currently, 96¢ of every dollar the government receives in tariffs is being paid either by us, or by businesses which are able (for now) to suck it up to avoid loss of custom (same source, different article). I suppose the only reason no one ever thought of this before is that no one figured out how to do it. After all, billionaires also have to eat, use the bathroom, and wear clothes just like the rest of us. But Zucman appears to have a plan which might work.
I’ve never expected anything good – or anything true – to come out of Davos. All those billionaires together – who but another billionaire would expect anything good? But – apparently – Canada is the adult in the room of the western hemisphere. I never mind if people skip things – but I hope no one will skip this.
Yesterday, The Root had a trivia piece on MLK Jr which went deeper than I’ve ever seen before. You might enjoy it. TomCat was a close enough friend of his the he might have known all or most of it – even I knew some of it, but a lot of it was news to me. With four articles today, I’m skipping the political video – but not the animal video. Also, Trinette was by to help me take out trash (and recyclables.)
Joyce Vance discusses the Insurrection Act, including how to recognize bait when we see it, and why we should not take it.
Robert Hubbell addresses specific misconceptions about the Insurrection Act (and there are many floating around.)
Wikipedia lists every time the Insurrection Act has been invoked, both legally and illegally. It appears to me – and feel free to disagree – that every time it has been invoked, the civil rights of vulnerable people were being attacked – and the sometimes the invocation intervened on the right side, and sometimes on the wrong side. If the Saffron Sauron invokes it, it is certain to be on the wrong side.
Robert Reich addresses what can be done about it, who can actually do that. and what we can do to help, mostly by adding pressure.
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Carmen” by George Bizet. There’s not much I don’t know about Carmen (although I did learn something today from the tenor in an intermission interview, he pointed out that Carmen never tells Jose she loves him. And he is 100% correct. She implies it once or twice, and says it to others, but never says it to him.) I played first chair second violin in a student production when I was studying music (I didn’t play it well, despite the work I put in, both practicing and listening) but I did play it, and the production was a success in spite of me. I’ve heard and seen so many productions I can’t remember them all. I’ve seen the movie “Carmen Jones” (in which Marilyn Horne sang for Dorothy Dandridge.) If I can’t get to sleep on account od an earworm, there’s probably about a 30% chance it’s from Carmen. A couple of seasons ago the Met put it on with a French mezzo and the announcers were excited to hear it, I presume because Bizet was French. But no one in Carmen is French. Carmen, her two gal pals, and the leaders of the smugglers, and part of the time the chorus, are Romani. Everyone else is Spanish (Jose and Micaela (and if so, Jose) may have been Basque, or may not.) The only thing in the opera which sounds remotely French is the “Flower Song,” and Carmen doesn’t sing that – Jose does. Yesterday’s Carmen was Aigul Akhmetshina, who is Bashkir – not Romani, but the Bashkir people were nomadic at one time. In the absence of any mezzos who are Romani, I’m more excited by this. Also yesterday, I received an email informing me that the trauma combat surgeon who saved the life of Tammy Duckworth in Iraq is now running for Congress in New Jersey. He joins a record number of medical and scientific professionals who are doing the same.
“Colorado Chooses Vaccines is a broad, statewide coalition of healthcare providers, public health leaders, and community organizations working together to protect vaccine access and trust.” from the coalition’s website. I’m proud of Colorado for doing this. And of Coloradans like Carol Boigon don’t let physical disabilities stand in the way of their public service.
Yesterday, the snow in my back yard didn’t all disappear, though it did disappear on the northern half. The southern half showed patches of the growth underneath the snow, but they amounted to less than half of the area, Joyce Vance did a Substack video with Mark Elias, and she highly recommended his Substack “Democracy Docket,” so I’m giving it a try. He is involved in a lot of anti-regime litigation and therefore someone we should know exists, which does not necessarily mean we should read everything he writes. I’ll follow this up. Also, I learned that Malcolm Nance is going to Greenland to work with NATO training exercises with military from NATO countries. And Robert Reich informed me that the Saffron Sauron threatens to invoke the insurrection act in Minneapolis. And the frosting on the cake is that Maria Machado gave her Nobel Prize to the Apricot Antichrist (I assume just the medal, not the money.) And then there’s this. Theater of War productions are known for using well known actors to perform – at least they are well known if you watch cable – which I don’t. But I know these people – who are not professional actors, but are lot more interesting than actors IMO. Take a look. It doesn’t say whether it will be Zoomed or otherwise digitally broadcast. Generally their events are Zoomed live (which would be at 5:00 here, 6:00 Central) and one also needs to register in advance ,with Zoom. I’ll follow up and share what I find, if anything.
I’m not sure I’d call what Common Dreams calls “mockery,” mockery. I’m more inclined to call it pure evil.
The saddest thing about this is that Robert Reich believes (rightly) that there are people who need to be told it because they can’t figure it out themselves. Perhaps our species needs renaming – “sapiens” just doesn’t seem to fit any more (if indeed it ever did). Having checked Google translate, may I suggest “homo stolidus”?
Once again, I am reminded by this article from The Root of Igor Stravinsky in Germany witnessing the brutal beating of a Jew by Gestapo going to a court to report it, only to be told by the Judge “In Germany today, such things happen every minute.”
Granted, I’m late with this video. But at least it’s still January – and we may need reminding now more than we did on the first or second.
Yesterday, Adam Klasfeld along with Vicki Ward did a live broadcast and saved it as a video which can be seen here. I’m not telling you to watch it, because it’s a full hour, and I know not everyone can. But it covers everything. They start with the Mangione cases (did you know there were two, a federal one and a state one in Pennsylvania? I didn’t), and also discuss the Maduro case and the murder in Minnesota, and Lindsey Halligan (whose deadline to explain to the judge is today) and Jerome Powell, and Judge Hellerstein, and I’m probably leaving something out. That is a lot to cover in an hour. (P.S. Here‘s the follow-up on Halligan)
Archived from the Washington Post, referred by Talking points Memo, here is an overview of all the ways the Saffron Sauron is looking to ratfuck the midterms. I have no idea how this got past Bezos, but apparently, it did. And I’m citing it – all of it (and it has chapters, sort of.) Perhaps every state (and territory, if applicable) should assign their own National Guard right now to monitor elections in November. I would suggest calling in UN observers, but ICE would probably deport them.
Mary Trump discusses how to navigate the floods of discouraging and increasing overreach from the Executive Branch and how to avoid giving them what they want
Matt Kerbel (who, along with Chris Bowers, comprises Bowers News Network) discusses “Consent of the Governed.” and why, despite havin won the election (by a sliver) this “President” doesn’t have it.
Yesterday, I visited with Virgil, and we played cribbage. He fot the hand of the day – two double runs of three (16 points) over cards containing numbers adding to 15 (8 more points.) It was early in the day, but IIRC, it was in the crib, which is miraculous. The drive down wasn’t bad, considering the snow. It wasn’t snowing yesterday, not the day before, but on Friday we got what Weather Underground claimed was 7 inches of it. I would sear the on the front hood of my car alone there was still 12 inches, and I didn’t get it all off – just enough to see. When I came out from seeing Virgil. however, all of it was gone. I can’t prove this – I did park at an ange so the afternoon sun could do as much as possible – but I strongly suspect that one of the staff, going rounds in the parking lot as they do, knocked it all off. The staff there comprises the kind of people who would do that. In any case, the drive home was even easier than the drive down – the only rough part was getting into the driveway, and tha worst of that was walking of the remaining snow, now partly thawed and re-frozen twice, to get to my front door. But (obviously) I made it without injury or even slipping. If anyone was able to participate in a “No Kings” sponsored demonstration either Saturday or yesterday, I hope it went well. I received some photos in emails, but am too tired to work anything up tonight. I’ll get a post up this week.
This and the HCR video are connected. Both are related to the second World War. This is more about what we didn’t do this time but should have. The video is more about something we did right, but boy, was it ever touch and go. )And the video is quite short.)
“JoJo from Jerz” now has a Substack, If you have ever seen any of her memes posted on line, you know the is truthful and witty, and doesn’t mince words. I watched a video of her talking with Andy Kim, who is now one of her Senators – you may remember him as the Congressman (he was in the House then) who stayed behind after the Jan 5 insurrection to work on cleaning the Rotunda. I’m not linking to that video, since it’s longish, but to an essay she published on fascism and Orwell.
Archived from HuffPost. I don’t like it, but it’s factual, and I believe itls better for us all to be aware of the obstacles sooner than later, so we won’t hurt ourselves and ethical prosecutors complaining after the fact that it took too long or it isn’t good enough.
HCR Bulge
Bonus video – in between the political one and the animal one because it’s a political animal. It’s repetitive (after all, feline vocabulary is limited), but it’s also short, do watch it to the end. Oh, and it’s definitely NSFW.
Yesterday, I didn’t see any news big enough to supersede the killing of Renee Nicole Good (although the fact that the House passed Jeffries’s discharge petition on ACA subsidies – and then passed the bill – deserves a mention. Now it goes back to the Senate – which today advanced a war powers resolution.) I did watch what I could of a Substack video with Malcolm Nance, Michael Cohen, and JoJo from Jerz (and isn’t that a lineup!) which kept locking up. But what I could see and hear was cathartic. I do want to share something about this death which bothers me. Renee’s six-year-old was born from her first marriage to a soldier who died. She was now married again, to a woman. Her late husband’s father is, I gather, on his way to Minneapolis to collect the child. I am concerned that a custody battle, if it becomes a battle, or if it doesn’t, just taking him away from the only parent he knows could harm him as much or more than the loss of his biological mother. Heather Cox Richardson‘s remarks on what happened are well worth listening to if you can spare the time.
Archived from The Washington Post (referred by The Daily Beast), it is IMO a good sign that someone else – particularly someone who has been making money from the regime, is finally fed up. I might add that it required a whole lot of ordinary people to push Avelo to this point. So we do have a voice – at least some of the time.
A Pro Publica investigation found that Elon Musk’s SpaceX is producing enough debris to seriously endanger commercial flights of conventional aircraft. Is anyone surprised?
The top image for this article from The Conversation was (For me) reduced to a miniscule line of type, with the top half cur off. But by right clicking on that line, I was able to open the image in a new tab, and refreshing the page also worked. This, frankly, scares me as much as and maybe more than ICE.
I could already see on Monday that term limits were going to become a hot topic again this year. Judge Hellerstein, who has been conspicuous in several previous cases involving the God-Emperor and his cronies, is a proven no-fear-or-favor tiger. He is 92, and, had some kind of term limits been in place, we would not have him. On the other hand two terms (or even one term) is more than enough for the God-Emperor. Yet, had a two-term limit on the presidency been in effect rather than just a custom in the 1930s, we would not have had the liberal consensus which kept not just us but the world more liberal up through 2024. I can’t prove this – no one can – there’s never been a dedicated study, and there are simply too many people in our history who have held office for anyone to hold that much information in one brain at one time – but I am strongly inclined to believe that for every elected crackpot from whom term limits would save us, there is an elected official whose inability to be re-elected would harm us. This is not like the electoral college argument, where one can review all the presidential elections (62 of them if my math is correct, but there would be fewer in which the electoral college overrode the popular vote.) The only one I can be confident of without more research where the electoral college was both different from and better than the popular vote was in the election of John Quincy Adams, and that really is not a good enough record to defend the College on. Instead, there would be hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of races to review, and that’s not even counting appointed judges and justices. On principle, I’m not comfortable with term limits for elected officials because they limit the power of the people. Appointed judges and justices are different – the power limits there is that of elected executives, not that of the people, so it is more democratic. But still, there’s Judge Hellerstein, who clearly has a better understanding of the Constitution, and other law, than most people half his age – and the courage to uphold it. And those are qualities which we desperately need right now.
Yesterday, Malcolm Nance hosted a video on Substack with a couple of other guys. It’s a bit rough to listen to because, in the first place, Malcolm has a lot of hearing loss from his military service (possible also from CIA service) and tends to over-talk the others. Jacob is I guess Danish, and his English is excellent, but with an accent. Dean, the third guy, is Canadian; he doesn’t talk much but what he has to say about Canada and airspace is fierce. Also, their discussion about what would happen if the current US stooges actually attempted to occupy Greenland – well, it’s so absurd they can barely stop laughing. But it will, if you can overcome all of that, give you a pretty good idea of what would really happen if we attempted to invade Greenland. And, honestly, if it could happen without making Greenland and/or Denmark and/or NATO hating the sane ones among us – I wish they would try. I was lucky enough to catch it live, and a recording was not immediately available, but some hours later it popped up. If y’all can call attention to Greenland among friends and family, please do.
As if I didn’t have enough to piss me off, now there’s this. Which happened in the seat of the county I grew up in. Grrrr. I’m beyond being shocked by hate, but it still makes me angry, especially so close to home. At least they fired the SOB – but I didn’t see anything about preventing him from working in law enforcement elsewhere.
This is a podcast from The Conversation – or, I should say, it is the first episode of a six-episode podcast on how an autocrat becomes one. Lately, I’m not accomplishing much of anything – but I am finding that sources which can be listened to are at least letting me get some knitting done. Being from the Conversation, you know it is well researched. But by all means feel free to ignore this.
This is from Instagram (referred by the 19th), so I can’t see all of it either. Trinette knew about it before I did – we talked about it on Sunday. It is tragic indeed, but I honestly don’t know how how to prevent it from happening again, to any female medical professional (and, yes, dammit, she was a professional, regardless what the regime says.) The reason we need to have professionals to deliver babies is that there are parts of a woman’s body she cannot reach herself, and sometimes those parts need to be reached tp deliver a baby safely. A mother who knows exactly what needs to be done still can’t do it herself because of physical limitation. There are some things we could do to help close the childbirth mortality gap – but the current regime not only won’t do them, it also won’t allow anyone else to do them. And that’s the tragedy we need to address.
