Open Thread August 29 2025

 Posted by at 7:32 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 292025
 

Yesterday, I received an email from Dr. Barber and others containing a copy of a letter they prepared in response to the Apricot Antichrist being quoted as saying he wanted to get into heaven. It is totally honest, while at the same time being kind and filled with love. God help the person who has to read it to him (he’d never be able to read it himself. It’s too honest, has too many words and ideas he wouldn’t grasp – you get the picture, I’m sure.) But if anyone who has never met or even seen a real Christian is interested in knowing how one thinks and at least aspires to act, this would be a good place to look. I don’t have a link but am saving it as a reminder of who I am supposed to be. Also yesterday – remember Trey Gowdy? One of the candidates for dumbest Congressman and IIRC also showing up in Separated at Birth memes, though I forget with whom (possibly the Malfoy brat?) He’s on Fox now, and under fire for suggesting that it might, just possibly might, be a good time to discuss gun control. And, speaking of guns, one more thing – yesterday NPR reported that the Mississippi Department of Archives and History has acquired the gun with which Emmett Till was shot

Two hundred fifty years after the birth of our nations, and after many amendments to the Constitution (and I’m proud to say that all of them have been to expand the voting population), there are still people who say “My vote doesn’t count.”

Joyce Vance is correct – it isn’t just our history of slavery which condemns us – our history of internment is not much better, if at all. I might suggest that fear is a somewhat less venal and more understandable motivation than financial gain, But neither is exactly moral high ground stuff.

I had to squeeze in this from Wonkette. I don’t really have words for it. My state is another state which is prone to wildfires.

P,S. – Obviously this did not get scheduled and is therefore being posted about 15 hours late.  I would like to say it won’t happen again, but I am afraid it will.  Since getting started with my new PCP, my thyroid dosage has been lowered three times, I have been instructed to give up anti-inflammatories (I can have acetaminophen), I have been instructed to give up omeprazole (I can have Pepcid), and I must now take alendronate sodium weekly. Every one of those changes has normalized my blood work – and every one of those changes has negatively affected either my energy level of my pain.  I wasn’t surprised – acetaminophen has never worked for me any better than a sugar pill, I tried all kinds of acid relievers before I found omeprazole, and Pepcid was the best I found prior, but there was really no comparison.  And of course thyroid is directly related to energy. I am far from the first person in the world who has been instructed to give up or cut down on something that makes me life better (it’s just that one doesn’t expect those orders when it’s not something obvious like alcohol or nicotine or heroin or cocaine or meth – I’m sure y’all can think of others.) So I’m sure I can expect ore days when I conscientiously prepare the post, put it into the blog, activate the links, and possibly even fill in the time to schedule if for but then fail to hit the “schedule” button.  Please try not to worry, and feel free to send me an email, or, if yu are an author or an administrator, to just go into the dashboard and post it.

 

Share

Open Thread August 18 2025

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

Yesterday, Trinette was by. She took my old printer out of its site, put my new one there instead, and also took out an old (50 years) stereo/tape/AM/FM player which was state-of-the-art in its day. Also, I saw this at DU and found it to be a great relief. I hope you will also.

Yeah. There’s no way I could cover all of this in separate articles – assuming I could find them – and separately, it’s harder to discern a trend. But this from The Root does all that I can’t.

OK, I admit that I picked this article from The F* News because of the title. But it’s also current and important.

r
Here’s another multi=purpose article. Some of the full articles it references I have previously shared but most I haven’t. If you only want to look at one of the individual articles, may I suggest “Moving the Window”? The Overton Window is real, and people trying to move it to suit themselves can really be dangerous.

Share

Open Thread July 1 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 012025
 

Yesterday, I went through a little more than two days of emails – I had not had the energy to tackle Sunday’s on Sunday. But Joyce Vance’s “The Week Ahead” from Sunday really shouldn’t be missed, both for the analysis and for the hope. Harry Litman addressed the same case – not the verdict itself but apparently even lawyers can’t agree on how awful it is.) Also yesterday – remember the Pearl Street bombing in Boulder, CO on June 1? Well, one more victim has died, as reported by Colorado Public Radio. She was 82 years old. Finally, USA Today has a pretty detailed account of the shooting in Idaho. I won’t claim is the best – I didn’t check everywhere – but it’s pretty solid. No paywall.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-

This is a few days old – but I think still interesting to anyone who is still wondering just how effed up the knuckle-draggers working in the current regime can get. I would put this somewhere in the territory of FUBB and FUBAR.

John Pavlovitz was inspired (as was I) by Joe Biden’s presence and demeanor at the funeral of the Hortmans (Melissa, Mark, and Gilbert). This is what he had to say about it – and I can agree with just about every word. I did know what we had, and you may recall, was so crushed when he dropped out of the race that I had to take a week off to collect myself. I wish I had a way to forward this to President Joe. He deserves to know how much he is loved and missed.

Share

Open Thread May 29 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 292025
 

Yesterday, Various people were still talking about Scott Pelley’s commencement speech at Wake Forest, mostly in glowing terms (although I’m sure MAGAts had other opinions.) Wonkette linked to a transcript of it, so you can judge for yourself. I think it’s worth the time. Also, the Nature Conservancy shared aome footage on the mating rituals of the greater prairie-chicken, including sound. It’s funny, because it’s kind of a little allegory of males of every species – or so it appeared to me and Trinette. You may not agree.

Yes, this from Joyce Vance is from Tuesday. She is concerned that it isn’t (or wasn’t then) getting much if any coverage, and she may still be correct about that.

John Pavlovitz would be the first to tell you that he struggles with major depression (and, yes he has sought and received treatment for it, with all that implies. If you’re not familiar with the concept of the wounded healer, you can look at him and get an idea.) So the current regime is terribly hard on him – as of course it is on us. But, as he points out, joyis not just feeling good – it is also a weapon- a defensive weapon, but still a weapon.

Not really news from the Brennan Center – at least, not to anyone with two brain cells to rub together. But not being news does not mean it isn’t still a problem, especially since we have a modern Roger Taney SCOTUS.

Share

Open Thread May 27 2025

 Posted by at 5:59 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 272025
 

Yesterday, as I was starting to check email, my radio station played a piece by Chopin, and when it was over and the DJ back announced it, she said “Frederic Chopin,” but what I thought I heard was “President Chopin.” There’s nothing wrong with her pronunciation, nor with my hearing – but apparently my brain is over-fixated. Sigh. Also yesterday – I don’t know whether this will actually work for anyone else, but I kind of got slapped in the face by my white privilege. One of the websites at which I found a birthday card last year was having a sale, and I had so much difficulty then, I thought I’d look now for birthday cards for Trinette’s two sons. We’re talking about young black men, in their twenties, whom I would probably recognize if I saw them on the street but we’re not close the way I am to their mother. So I did a search there for “birthday card black man.” I got a result of 106 pages and managed to get through 17 or 18 of those pages, despite constantly second guessing myself – “that’s gorgeous, but I don’t know whether they care much about history or African heritage – will it look like I’m talking down?” or “that’s funny, but will it look like I’m laughing at them instead of with them?” I finally managed to find 10 cards, although one is for Virgil (it says “Happy Birthday from the best decision you ever made” – he will know I’m laughing with him because he tells me that – a lot) to get a quantity discount on top of the sale prices. But it took a lot of time and a lot of self-examination. Also yesterday – ironically on Memorial Day, Korean War veteran and long time (but now retired) Congressman Charlie Rangel (in his day known as “the lion of Lenox Avenue”) died at age 94. May he rest in power.

Since yesterday was a holiday, I thought The Week Ahead from Joyce Vance would be appropriate for today. And there’s a lot of it to digest.

Robert Reich has pretty much seen it all. If he says something is “truly horrifying,” it must actually be so – at least. Possibly worse.

I guess Roberts hasn’t learned anything yet. I’m still hoping he’s capable – the other Republicans, with the exception of Barrett (surprising though that may be, it seems to be true) are incapable of learning anything.

Share

Open Thread April 15 2025

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

Yesterday, Harvard at least stood up to the regime. I’m pretty sure they are the first (at least the first household named university), but I hope will not be the last. And at that, it decided not to use the language “will not negotiate” in the rejection letter. Axios broke the story and by now has more details. Most of my sources yesterday were fixated on the economy, and I certainly am not trying to blow off the possibility of another Great Depression. But it is Robert Reich, IMO, who has the real story – and it isn’t good.

Robert Reich has the direst warning yet. And I might also refer to Harry Litman. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote during the Civil war: “The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.” It’s a nice thought, but peace and good will will not by themselves turn the trick. Accountability is needed. Has our democracy onl exisited up till now because the Nuremberg Trials were held? Would stronger enforcement of Reconstruction have prevented the 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden? Will we ever learn that no consequences means no accountability, and no accountability means the poison never leaves. White supremacists – not all of whom are whie, sadly – ARE the enemy, along with misogynists (and I should add that there is massive overlap.)

This from Heather Cox Richardson on April 9 because that was an important anniversary. Its relevance is not limited to that day – far from it. We are still dealing with consequences of decisions made then.

Share

Open Thread March 20 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Politics
Mar 202025
 

Yesterday, The new (to me) PC is here now and I was able to get it connected to everything and running much faster then I’ll be able to get everything organized on it. But it’s looking a lot more feasible. And I did find out my games are going to work now, except for the ones which depended on Adobe Flash (Sadly, there’s no workaround for that – I asked about that some time ago, and instead of a workaround they gave me a free game coupon to get something else.) Oh, and happy Spring Equinox to those who celebrate.

Jim Stewartson has a background in entertainment, including videogames. When he realized that technology he had helped develop was being used in far-right propaganda and psyops, he founded the organization Antifascist USUA to help deprogram victims. So, though not academically trained in psyops, he has been on the frontlines for a while. I am taking this seriously. This link is to his own website, but he is also on Substack now.

Robert Hubbell has retired from lawyering, but he doesn’t appear to have forgotten much. The post is from this week, but before John Roberts released his social media post about impeachment, with which Hubbell clearly disagrees, at least in part. (Off topic, but as I was typing I typoed “media: as “mefia.” And it occurred to me that all that needs is an “a” in the second position to be all too accurate.)

Share

Open Thread November 7 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 072024
 

Yesterday, it appeared that Nameless and I were caught together in the shrinking gap between winter storm Anya and Hurricane Rafael. And, yes, I did receive some snow – about an inch and a half, which by afternoon had melted on the asphalt but was still clinking to the unpaved ground. They’r predicting 4″ more today and just under that tomorrow, with mostly sun on Saturday and sun all day Sunday. It’s a good thng for Trinette that she works from home, though. Many people, including people who have been born here, have not grasped that Colorado Springs does not have a climate, but a bundle of microclimates. I could tell you stories. Once I went from needing chains to dry road in the space of one interstate exit. And a coworker of mime when I worked on north Academy who then lived roughly where I live now (but at the time I lived a little north f downtown) setout for work, and at the time it was also dry on North Academy. But across the middle of town therer was asnow so thick and fast it was literally impassible. Anyway, I expect to be fine, and they don’t seem to expect Rafael to go as far west as Nameless. But I surely wish people would pay more attention. This video from Parody Project is much more fun than the Weather Unferground video. And it looks as though we’ll need some fun just in order to stay off of hard drugs

This from what used to be Twitter via Democratic Undergound could help

I recently read, I think it was at Democratic Underground, that it is easier to get to sleep if you go to bed thinking about three good things that happened during the day. They don’t need to be huge good things. Just something which is positive. I won’t go so far as to say it works, but I have tried it, and it does help. Accordingly, here are this, this, and this.

Share
 Older Entries  Newer Entries