Open Thread September 11 2026

 Posted by at 5:50 am  Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 112026
 

Yesterday, I received the paper Colorado Springs street map I ordered because, besides the fact that I’ve forgotten a lot of streets which used to be familiar, many of the onws I do remember have changed beyond recognition – and online maps no longer show street names. I can already see it’s going to be a huge help.

From Common Dreams. Considering the source, you’d think people would listen to this warning. But they probably won’t. Here’s an addendum.

Wajeeh Lion has a favorite saying which is not too different from one of the Ben Franklin quotes Michael Waldman uses – “You may not “F” with politics, but politics is going to “F” with you.” I think the title of this from the Brennan Center is accurate – but by itself it doesn’t address the measures above and beyond normal that some voters will need to take to get it done. But voters who have listened in previous election years to the perennial advice: “Have a plan in advance how you are going to vote, and stick to it. And take someone with you.” will likely get it done.

We haven’t – or at least I haven’t heard from Tammy Duckworth for a while. As usual, she is correct. (Reinstating them would be better – but she’s no fool, and knows that’s not currently in the realm of possibility.)

2fer

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Open Thread September 9 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 092026
 

I do realize that we are in September, not October – and that Hallowe’en is still 52 days away. But today I am going to do my best to scare you – because the dangers are real. All of these are videos – one on YouTube and two on Substack – which means for the ones on Sunstack there is a Transcript – and for the one on YouTube you can generate one. So you don’t actually have to watch them. However, I personally find that tones of voice, facial expressions, and general body language add to the urgency, and I want to offer that to you, whether or not you choose to accept it. I also kept the two normal videos, so today we have ans all-video (except the cartoon) post.

This is the first one from Substack – specifically from “Confront the Hate” published by Phil Williams. It’s 47 minutes and 3 seconds. All of the scariness is right out in the open. Much of it is from the viewpoints of people who are actively fighting it – which is not easy.

This is the one from YouTube – specifically from The United Front Show, by Max Kuhn and Dr. David Benjamin (although Max has been appearing less and less often, and is not in this video at all). It runs 20 minutes and 25 seconds, which includes a sponsor message – but it is also divided into “chapters,” which makes it very easy for you to find and skip the ad. If you just look at the title, it would appear to be good news. But, as Dr. Benjamin stresses, Trump’s mental condition is one which will cause him to become more dangerous in real time as he loses power. And that should definitely scare you.

This second Substack video is from Joyce Vance’s “Civil Discourse,” and includes Ruth Ben Ghiat. While it too emphasizes the danger, it also presents possibilities for antidotes – for ourselves and for spreading to others. It runs 32 minutes and 54 seconds. Ruth is one of our top experts on autocracy and autocrats, and author of the book “Strongmen,” and Joyce is a lawyer and a professor of law, and author of the book “Giving Up Is Unforgiveable.”

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Open Thread September 3 2026

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 032026
 

Yesterday, my inbox was packed even more than usual.
Somehow I managed to get it down – not completely, but at least manageable. By the time I scheduled this, I was seriously tired.

Archived from Axios because paywall. Yeah, it happened Tuesday. But though people talk frequwntly about the censure option, and we (Democrats) frequently recommend it to Republicans, it almost nnever happens. That it did now is noteworthy – and that rgw vote was 413 to 2 is breathtaking.

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I’m not convinced that any of these people even know what a conflict of interest is, nor believes they even exist. Their position appears to be something like “No conflict of interest here. Everything I do is in my interest. No conflict there.” Fortunately, we have Elizabeth Warren (for now anyway) to ask the right questions to challenge that – not that the challenges are getting through to the willfully ignorant.

Anyone surprised? I didn’t think so. Of course, the people who need to see this are the Secretariesof State of each state.

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Open Thread August 22 2026

 Posted by at 6:13 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 222026
 

Yesterday, I got up early for me, which was not all that early, but early enough to call an institution on a 9 to 5 schedule and reach a human being. Turned out not to be necessary. It appears that if Virgil calls and I don’t answer, for whatever reason, the company that provides the phone service thinks I don’t have an account with them, and sends a recorded message to that effect. But the caller ID, instead of showing the phone company, as calls from Virgil do, but instead shows the name of the facility. I jumped to the conclusion that his case manage was trying to reach me for some reason, and that I needed to call it back during working hours. I was pleasantly surprised that that wasn’t the case.

From the Brennan Center, an analysis piece about the effects of AI on elections. There is a smorgasboard of sentence fragments and hypotheticls before you get to the actual article, so don’t give up.

Colorado Public Radio. The “Listen” does duplicate some of the written word, but with different empgasis, and has a little information not in the written part.

This is from Thursday. Malcolm is pissed. I am too. I don’t have a family history like his – although my father was in the Army during WWII as a telegrapher – and his grandfather did fight in the Civil War for the Union – that’s defnitely not unbroken. I didn’t learn about Dory Miller until long after I was out of the service – but it’s a truth I have treasured since I did learn it. Upgrading the decoration to the MOH while renaming the ship is like throwing a piece of candy after killing his or her parent. It’s not proportionate. It’s a little bit of sweet compared to an avalanche of grief. CNN has a recorded livestream here from its Laura Coates Show, in which Malcolm speaks, (about ten minutes total.) The first seven minutes are mostly with Dory’s grand-nephew, and about the last three minutes with Malcolm, who somehow manages to communicate the importance of decisions like these with no expletives – a minor miracle, according to him. I might just add he also exhibits his own dignity and with it the dignity of everyone who has ever served – and Malcolm is not a man who normally stands on dignity. But it was needed here.

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Open Thread May 9 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 092026
 

Yesterday was David Attenborough’s 100th birthday. The first email I saw about it had the subject line “100 years of David Attenborough” which made me think we had lost him – but, thankfully, we have not. He is so well known and loved. Some years ago I went to a college theater production featuring the three winners of a contest for one-act plays. The one I remember best had three actors – two were visible and were a boy and a girl mayfly. The third, invisible inside a prop TV set was David Attenborough narratibg a program about the life cycle of Mayflies, which you probably know is in the neighborhood of 24 hours. The two Mayfly characters were getting increasingly panicked that they wouldn’t have time to reproduce. It was very funny. (The second was about Philip Glass tring to place a bakery order in the style of his music. That was funny too, but not as funny as the Mayflies. I don’t remember the third at all.)

From Press Watch. Suggestions to more wimpy news media about how to report on the Evil Emperor

From Bowers News Media. Yes, the voters in Virginia overwhelmingly voted for a [temporary) distrct map skewed Democratic – and the Virginia Supreme Court immediatelu struck it down. Bowers News Media is big on sharing things ordinary people can do – some are always not feasible, geographically or physically or budget-wise.

https://www.propublica.org/article/kids-tear-gas-trump-immigration-crackdown
From ProPublica. The war and some other things have kind of pushed this out of the news. It’s not all video – there are just three to scroll down past in order to get to content.

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Open Thread April 8 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 082026
 

Yesterday – my “day off” – I was not writing or researching, but I really have to go through inboxes regardless. So, I do want to say – if we are all still here – I’ m grateful.  If not – it was wonderful knowing all of you. (P.S. – I did manage to do some laundry – mostly after the letdown.)

On Monday, Malcolm Nance said on his “warcast” that “All of us are agreeing with Marjorie Taylor Greene.” And, dammit, he was right. This is what she posted (starting with a screenshot of POTUS’s post), and I agree 100%, and I’m confident y’all will too: “On Easter morning, this is what President Trump posted. Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness. I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.”

Wajeeh mentioned this during Malcolm’s and his “warcast” one day last week, and it launched Malcolm into a horror story about when he was working there and his wife was also working there (as a contractor) and they needed a maid (the Nances probably saved the poor girls life – they definitely saved her sanity and started her on a real career). Wajeeh promised to write an article on the system, and this is it.

From The Root. This really pisses me off. The CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) may be made up of public servants, but itself is just a club. The Congreaaional Back Caucus Foundation is not even a club, but a non-profit NGO, not a government entity. The scholarship program is “The CBC Spouses Education Scholarship” The spouses of the Caucus are not public servants, but private citizens. They are entitled to do what they effing want with their GD money. This is racism pure and simple.

I watched this conversation between Joyce Vance and an expert on Hungary (which is having an election Sunday), but there is a transcript if you prefer to read. It’s about 33 minutes – but I can’t think of any way you could get this much information without reading a book (or listening to an audiobook). It’s very scary – and the scariest part may well be how little of it we knew about.

By contrast, here’s a VERY short video from YouTube Shorts,  which was sent by Evelyn to Loan and from her to me: https://youtube.com/shorts/Ac8ppjNsMQ8

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Open Thread March 16 2026

 Posted by at 5:47 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 162026
 

Yesterday, Malcolm Nance‘s daily update reported that all eight of the US military whom we have lost were reservists. Not one of them was on active duty before the war – all eight were called up for the war. This report – the one for day 16 – has a lot of strategic speculation (you might say “what ifs”) which appear to me to be well worth knowing – some are speculative, some deduced. And this video, at just over 40 minutes, is shorter than most of them. So I’m sharing the link. Also, Trinette was by – for once I was ready. Always great to see her.

Common Dreams: Well, this is not good. IANAL – but I think I heard somewhere that a lower court decision does not become a legal precedent until it is upheld by a Circuit appellate court. On the other hand, who knows what the Fifth Circuit will do – this is Texas, after all.

The new cartoon doesn’t really inspire me – but the captions for the old one impressed me. I do think the top prize should have gone to the last runner-up – but see what you think.

This from The Hill in not all that interesting, but it was probably the slowest news day I’ve ever seen (I hope it wasn’t just the calm before the storm!). So slow I’m going to throw in a story about a T-shirt.

This link is to a Video with JoJo from Jerz and Harry Dunn. Harry is wearing a Tshirt which you can’t see all of – within the first 30 seconds he pulls it up enough that you can see more of it, but there is still at least one “book” that you can’t. I managed to collect the “titles” of all but the very bottom “book”(s) so here they are:
DREAM LIKE MARTIN
FIGHT LIKE MALCOLM
LEAD LIKE HARRIET
THINK LIKE GARVEY
BUILD LIKE MADAM CJ
CHALLENGE LIKE ROSA
WRITE LIKE MAYA
EDUCATE LIKE W.E.B.
If I ever wore Tshirts, I’d want one – but I wear long sleeves when it’s cold and sleeveless when it’s hot – and there doesn’t seem to be any in-between for me.

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Open Thread March 5 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 052026
 

Yesterday, the Senate refused to take action to restrain the Degenerate Darth Vader’s illegal war in Iran. I, as you have probably noticed, an struggling this week to keep abreast of what day it is. I think that may be at least in part because the first was on Sunday, and, although I consciously know that the week is Sunday through Saturday, I, because school weeks and work weeks start in Monday, subconsciously still see Monday through Friday as one through five. Hopefully I’ll be more on track next week.

I had realized I missed the start of Ramadan, hence the image. It goes until roughly March 19 this year.  The ending date is not totally predictable because the moon has to be in the right position at the time, but Eid al Fitr is predicted for March 20.

Tuesday, this happened. I hope you’ll find it as satisfying as I did. Of course, it’s still just words, no action – but coming from one Rethuglican to another, it’s like music. (Also, Josh Hawley even toreinto her, but I don’t have that quote.)

The first story at this link is the one I am posting -but just about every one is worth at least a look (and they are short.)

I don’t think Joyce is correct about every state. But, sadly, she doesn’t have to be right about every state for there to be fatal chaos. I stopped doing it when it became to much for my mobility, but I did work elections for many years administering elections in Colorado, and that under both Democratic and Republican Secretaries of State and County Clerks, during periods when Colorado was red, and periods when it was blue. The attitude of “If people are entitled to vote, we want them to vote” never changed through the years -though Democrats and Republicans disagreed on almost everything else. But that was then and this is now, and red states (and maybe counties, which might be worse) will ratf*** if they can.

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