Oct 082025
 

Yesterday, I was checking my yahoo email account and started with spam. I saw an email whose sender name started with “Department of G” – that was as much as I could see and I needed the magnifier to read it – which is why I went to tutamail in the first place. That turned out to be “Department of Government Efficiency” – but a hover showed it was actually from a gmail address. As if we didn’t have enough government reality to be suspicious of – now we need to watch for scams masquerading as official scams. In other news, you may remember that, of all people, MTG is on our side on releasing the Epstein files. Well, now she is also on our side about the shutdown. I don’t know if my brain can handle it. Also, there was a lot of news about MAGA freaking out about Bad Bunny being booked for the Super Bowl halftime show (Bad Bunny is an American citizen by birthright).

Several topics here, at The F*News: the first is on Judge Immergut (you gotta love her name – “Always good” in German), but then it goes into Social Security cuts (mine for this month is in my account as “pending.” On Wednesday, the “pending” will disappear and my balance will reflect it) and two more. Along the way, Jonathan does a little bragging, which I certainly would too for the achievements he cites.

This week the Supreme Court’s term begins, and they will start hearing arguments again. Joyce Vance has posted the full calendar, through June, of which days are argument days, and the first two weeks of which cases when. And there’s more. Also, from a different site which included Joyce Vance in a video, the Supreme Court heard arguments on but did not decide one case last term – Louisiana v. Callais – and will be hearing arguments again on Wednesday, October 15. Meanwhile, the Election Assistance Commission has a comment period open on this case. Why is this important? Because all we have left of the Voting Rights Act is Section 2 (the Court previously overturned Section 5). This case could overturn Section 2. The link for comments is here. I have put up a separate post with suggestions for comments, because I have no link to it. The to-and-fro directions below the comments section should direct you to it. Although arguments are October 15, you have till October 20 to comment.

Dan Froomkin has put a lot of thought into his premise here. I don’t think he is seeing ghosts. Robert Reich has similar, though not identical, thoughts as this map he drew suggests.

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Aug 272025
 

Yesterday, POGO released information on a new investigation showing that officials of the current regime are aligned with (and profiting financially from their alignment with) the tech bro manosphere – surprising, I suppose, absolutely no one. If anyone is surprised, it’s probably because when they think of tech, they think STEM, which does require intelligence – but forget they there are different kinds of intelligence (or different ways of perceiving the universe other then through intelligence – the jury is still out on which is more accurate), and it is clearly possible to be highly competent, even expert, in a limited specialty while not understanding the first thing about the real world.

Robert Reich quotes in full an essay from the Daily Yonder regarding how real people are coping with the regime and the uncertainty.

 

This letter from Heather Cox Richardson is a few days old (sorry) and I doubt if any on our readers needs it to know how we got here. But as a blow-by-blow account, I’ve not seen a better one. Should you ever need to explain this, you’ll be better prepare with this in your intellectual armory.

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Dec 072024
 

Yesterday, my toilet clogged, and the plumber cannot come until Monday. But that’s not why I made this post entirely about healthcare today. I started putting it together when the news of the murder came out. By the way, the picture at left  is from Pearl Harbor. Besides the videos, allow me to add this extra to lighten up a little.
Andy Borowitz on pardons

I have never worked in health insurance, but I have worked in auto and home insurance, and one thing I learned is that if a coverage dispute goes to court, the verdict often goes to the insured, even if the expense is pretty nearly not covered by the contract. And that is because an insurance policy is a “Contract of adhesion.” That means that the insured has little or no say in what the contract says. It’s not a rule (neither is “tie goes to the runner” a rule in baseball). The jury or judge, like the umpire in baseball, must make the decision. But insurance companies know that the insured often gets the benefit of the doubt. I would think this would also apply to health insurance, which leads me to the conclusion that insureds who need help the most are those financially unable to take a case to court – a conclusion which should surprise no one at all. I couldn’t help but think of Wendell Potter – the Cigna CEO who quit because he couldn’t take the corruption. He is still fighting Big Health, and has a column on Substack (the newest entry is from the da before Thanksgiving, so it’s upbeat, but still very telling.)

Since I have already brought up health insurance, this may be an appropriate time to share this story on Medicare Advantage, which is not to anyone’s advantage but those who want to privatize Medicare. And, it not only doesn’t save money for its insured, but it doesn’t save any for taxpayers either. It’s something only a Republican could love. My advice is, don’t get it, and if you have it, don’t renew it. If it’s too late to drop it this year, don’t renew it next year. You’d be far better off setting up a separate savings account for medical emergencies and putting what the pemiums cost into it.

Incidentally, if you live in any of these nine states: Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia – you need to know about this. Even if it wouldn’t affect you personally, it might stall affect a friend, a relative, or a neighbor.

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Nov 092024
 

Yesterday, hoo boy, did I ever wake up from a strange dream. It startes with my preparing to teach some kids how to adapt and bake an adapted cookie recipe. Tere were actually several dozen kids, 5th-7th grade, in the class, but I was one of many teachers, so no one of us was dealing with more than 5 or 8. I prepared by actually baking different adaptaions, and making printouts of the one I considered the best. No one else had done this, so I ran horribly short of printouts, and all the kids had attitudes. Afterwards, the supervisor of all the teachers asked me to deliver an object for him and i agreed. It was to a place somethng like Chaco Canyon, though I have never actually been there. When I delivered it, the recipient asked me to deliver a different object to someone else. In fact, everywhere I went, everyone to whom I delivered somethng had something else for me to deliver to someone else. Some of these people were children and young adults, but some were much older. Some were lovers separated by circumstance. There were various ethnic and lingual groups represented, and multi talents. Most of the spaces were kind of wilderness, but one thing I was asked to deliver was to a college to which the asker had applied, and that was in a small city. Among the people I delvered to were a little girl who said she wanted to be President when she grew up, and a little boy who said he wanted to be President now. At the very end, the person I was delivering to was not there, and an elderly lady said she would deliver it, so I gave it to her and returned to the supervisor who has started the chain, who picked up a small rifle and shot the person standing behind me, who turned out to be the elderly lady from my last stop, who had been aiming at my back with a bow and arrow. That was when i realized that the stuff I had been delivering was not just stuff, but objects of great spiritual significance and power, and I was returning them to their rightful owners, and I was doing so on behalf of a resistance movement. If I could remember (or reinvent) all the details, it would make a great fantasy novel. I would love it if Margaret Atwood would do so – wry humor was prominent among the wide range of emotions in it. But if anyone wants to tackle it,I would not dream of claiming copyright for a dream (pun intended.) I actually have been working on a cookie recipe IRL – maybe I will have managed to bake something by today.

Talking Points Memo Wednesday morning listed a whole lot of catatrophoc stuff which we wll knew was comng – but there was just so much of it, it’ barely possible to hold it all in mins at one time. So, in case anyone forgot anything, here is it. Yea, I held it a couple of days. Including from myself. I can only take so much.

I realize I am in no danger of being raped by Nick Fuentes, for a large number of reasons (or at least not sexually – financially is another matter). But the mere thought of it is enough to make me start thinking anout mixing a potassium cyanide-grapefruit juice cocktail. I actually anticipate seeing the suicide rate among women of all ages skyrocket in the near future.

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Oct 152024
 

Yesterday, I read Joyce Vance’s “The Week Ahead.” A day late, but since yesterday was Indigenous People’s Day, the week doesn’t start until today. Certainly not SCROTUS’s week – and she includes the SCROTUS week’s calender in her post.

It amazes me that it seems to have taken so long, and so much more evidence, for so many people to see this. I don’t even remember how long I’ve known this, except that it was sometime in his first (and I hope last) term.  I expect Robert Reich has known it for a minute also, but this is the first time I have seen him write about it quite this way.

I think that Wonkette’s Robyn Pennachia does a fine job with this story. She manages to make it both laughable and chilling at the same time, which is not all that easy. I have a bumper sticker – I’ve has it for more than 20 years and have always been afraid to put it on my car, here in Colorado Springs, the crazy Christian capital of the West. And people like the one Robyn describes are why. The sticker says, “Jesus called. He wants his church back.”

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Jun 222024
 

Yesterday, Robert Reich posted the fourth installment in his DEBUNK series. He posted another article too – he has referred in the past to the one person who protected him from school bullies without being asked, and who was murdered – but yesterday was the 60th anniversary of that murder, so he put up a piece on just that. SCOTUS decided Rahimi, and released the decision first, and Joyce Vance posted about that particular decision.

Talkng Points Memo does not link seperately to seperate artices in its Moring Memo. I chose to share this one because of the lead article, “Quick.. Guide to SCOTUS Malarkey….” including “Decoding the Cloaked Language….” but there are other segments. When you see “Rudy Rudy Rudy,” that’s where my rec stops. But you can certainly continue if you wish. (Yes, it was posted before any opinions dropped.)

I think Saturday is a good day for sharing this article from The Bulwark detaling why you need some kind of a break … and also how to do it without giving up. It’s in three numbered sections, and all are helpful. Section three does a longish digression (as an analogy); it’s clearly marked as a quote, so you can easily skip it. I read it so you won’t have to.

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Mar 142024
 

Yesterday, I really did not want to get up. It might be the fault of the weather. Today and tomorrow, snow is heavily predicted, starting at 2 am today and going steadily through about 10 Friday morning.  We do need the water so I can’t really complain -though the watersheds are where we need it most, and they are at much higher elevations than Iam.

I may be one of the last remaining Americans who actually like Merrick Garland. When I see articles all over Democratic sites blaming him, for example, for Jan 6 rioters getting short sentences (judges do that – not even the same branch of government) or dragging his feet (I do admit to someone not involed in criminal law that it looks like that, primarily because he committed so many of his criomes in broad daylight and plain sight), I find it refreshing to see a different opinion. Especially from someone such as Marcy Wheeler, who has credentials and a solid reputation. The first link takes you to the her main argument, and the second, at her own blog, supplements the first somewhat.

Kerry Eleveld, who is on the staff at Daily Kos, analyzes the shifts in polling produced by the quality of Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. It’s good news.

I’m slipping this in today because I don’t want people to be needlesslay alarmed. (Alarmed is fine if it’s needed.) Wonkette’s style is frivolous butI think handles the story well.

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Sep 062023
 

Glenn is over-simplifying a bit. You don’t have to be 35 to be running. You need to be 35 on Insuguration Day in case you win. If you start running more than a year in advance of the inauguration Day, you could even be 33.
Glenn Kirschner – Donald Trump is ALREADY DISQUALIFIED under the 14th Amendment from being president again.

The Lincoln Project – FAFO is right

Farron Balanced – Trump’s Indicted Lawyers Want Speedy Trials To Destroy His Legal Defenses

Patrick Fitzgerald – Over on Truth

“Zorse” Thanks His Rescuer In The Sweetest Way

I couldn’t agree more with Beau. I said the same thing about Boehner – and when it happened, we got Paul Ryan.
Beau – Let’s talk about McConnell and being careful what you wish for….

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