Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played, you know, cribbage. The weather was good, and my air conditioner was working (Both ways, it waited until I got to my destination to ask me to turn it off please as the engine was starting to overheat. Both times I was happy to oblige. After getting home, I went through my email and, among other things, watched a Substack with Joyce vance and an old friend of hers, also a lawyer, who is suing to get Tommy Tuberville off the ballot for Governor on the grounds that he does not meet the [Alabama} Constitutional requirement to have resided in Alabama for seven years consecutively before the election. I wish Joyce’s friend a crushing victory. Alabama may not know it, but it really needs Doug Jones.
This is ridiculous. And atrocious I could go on, but I expect y’all can too.
Harry Litman of Talking Feds on the “investigation” of Governor Newsom
And these are who Stephen Miller and the rest of the regime want to let into the Us – The scum of the earth. Professional victims coming as “refugees.” Doong their best to poison our brains.
I’ve been thinking about this for some time, and I’m not the only one. Several pundits have said that the GOP’s gerrymandering scheme may well backfire. Using numbers I’ve made up, here’s how. Let’s assume a red southern state has a majority minority district which in 2024 went blue by 12 points. It’s adjacent to a majority red district which went red by 10 points. So the state mashes them together and redivides them, expecting both to go red by maybe 8 points. But they haven’t taken into consideration how deeply the current regime’a approval ratings have descended. Some who voted Republican in 2024 will vote Democratic in 2026. I’m guessing that more will simply not vote. Those two dictricts could easily go blue by 2 points each – which would be enough. Especially if it happened in multiple states.
Yes, this page requests donations, and no, I am not asking you to donate. I just want us to be aware of this race. It is for Joni Ernst’s seat (Grassley’s current term will be up in 2028 – he will be 94 but may run again anyway.) Turek is endorsed by Elizabeth Warren (probaly by others, but she’s the one I just got the email endorsement from.)
This from Talking Points Memo is about Todd Blanche but Bill Polte is likely to be as big a problem.
The latest on Tina Peters – which IMO shows clearly why she should still be locked up. The next best thing would be laws at tgr Federal level, and Stale laws, County lawd, and municipal laws that no convicted felon can be eligible for public office.
Yesterday, I set my alarm because I needed to take in a grocery order. At least I got everything in and put away. But that did throw me a little off schedule – to the extent that I even have a schedule. But – today being the last day of Black History month, I think I simply must share something I learned today – from Wikipedia: “Errollyn Wallen CBE (born 10 April 1958)[1] is a Belize-born British composer and musician, who moved as a child with her family to London, England. Wallen was appointed Master of the King’s Music in 2024 by King Charles III, in his first appointment to the post. She is the first black woman to serve in the position, having in 1998 been the first black woman to have a work featured in the Proms.” Oh, and Andy Borowitz has Hillary’s complete opening statement – no joke – though he does joke some in the lead-in.
This from the Brennan Center is an abridged version of their report. The one thing I wanted to see which was not in the summary was which states do what. I found that information by clicking on the “Download Insight” button (Colorado was not the first to correct this, but was one of the first . No one took any action until just before the 2020 census.) The summary is probably comprehensive enough for most people.
A report from Pro Publica on the conditions at the Dilley concentration camp in Texas. The art of children is likely not as monetarily valued as the art seized from German Jews by the Nazis – but it is in its way no less important. How can one put a price on the tears of a child?
Yesterday, Trinette came by after her work day ended. She works at home, for the state of Colorado, on a program which was new last year to assist mothers and children. If it were for the Federal Government, she would be out of work now, you betcha. I am SO grateful she is working where she is! Also yesterday, I got the first fundraising email from the first candidate for one of California’s new provisional Congressional districts. She is a federal labor attorney and will run against Darrell Issa. She previously flipped a city council seat within the new district. You go, girl! Also, the press conference with Epstein survivors was recorded on video (by PBS News) and is available here. it’s almost an hour and a half but I really don’t know how it could have been much shorter. (you can always skip the introductions – although heaven knows it’s remarkable to hear MTG make sense. And all of them together only come up to about 18 minutes. Questions begin at about 52 minutes)
You may have read about this incident – I did – but I didn’t have the analysis then. Talking Points Memo is generally pretty good at that.
I drink coffee again, after I don’t know how many years not doing so. And I have to say I’m glad the EU is doing this, because we certainly won’t. Yes, it will affect prices. But too many people have somehow convinced themselves and others that there is no price to pay for keeping our planet livable. Or, for that matter, for doing right by others on a daily basis. And that just isn’t so.
It’s no secret that I’m big on analysis. Sometimes without good analysis (and occasionally even with it) it’s tough to tell whether news or potential news is good or bad. Take, for example, the possibility of the Mango Monster dying. Many people are all for it. I, o the other hand (and along with John Pavlovitz, among a few others) am terrified by the possibility. But I digress. The Brennan Center, which is also keen an analysis, is addressing “the shape of the big showdown on presidential power” in an article titled “Appeals Courts Rule Against Trump on Tariffs and Deportations.” Brennan doesn’t always link to specific articles, but I think I found a direct link to this one.
Yesterday, I got an email from Trinette in which she mentioned medicine. I called, and it turned out she had caught a cold from one of her sons. Today was the third day of it and she was feeling better (and sounded pretty good, fingers crossed.) Of course I urged her to take care of herself.
This just may be one of the most optimistic posts that The F* News has ever posted. And of course he is right. Jury nullification happens, and it’s not always the best resolution to a case, but when it is, it is. Just look at the three grand jury nullifications in a row on the same case that Judge Boxwine just endured.
On Sunday’s parody music video, I remarked that I guessed AI was actually good for something. If you didn’t believe me then, you may believe it after reading (or even just skimming) this article from The Root. The only one it missed was Rush Limbaugh.
Yesterday, I tripped over this on Democratic Underground and found it fascinating. Joyce Vance tackles a subject which requires a whole lot more analysis than I could ever hope to give it in this blog. World history is already full of non-factual “facts,” and don’t get me started on the interpretations of both real and fake facts – if I live to be a hundred, I would still not have enough time to do justice there. And explaining why it matters – to be very brief, if every human being has the right to be judged on the basis of actual fact, I believe that applies to the dead as well as to the living. But there’s more to it, including the harm done to living people sucj=ked it to admiring the evil and disdaining the good.
After that highly abstract article and analysis from Joyce Vance, Steve Schmidt gets very concrete and specific. How this government is making even us who did not vote for it complicit in murder.
Yes, a third article, this one from Wonkette, because we needed something on the lighter side, even though it’s not yet Sunday. (The content is serious but the tone is hilarious.)
Oddly, since I normally prefer reading to videos, I think I’d rather listen to Heather Cox Richardson than read her letters/ Even though she says “um” a lot. I think part of that is her enthusiasm. Even when she has warnings to give, it can feel like she’s giving a pep talk. I listened to all 41 ½ minutes of this one, digressions, and ums, and all, and there was little in it that I hadn’t heard or read elsewhere, but I still felt enlightened afterwards. You may feel differently, but here’s the link if you want to try. (If you don’t, ignore it.)
I am absolutely in agreement with Robert Reich here. Eternal vigilance is the price, not only of freedom, but of equity. If they distort it one way, the only way we can restore it is to distort it ourselves. We didn’t get that during reconstruction (any of the reconstructions) – but we need to learn it now.
This is from Wonkette, and not unexpected, I would guess. One old saying which is absolutely true is that “Figures don’t lie. But liars do figure.
Yesterday, as is usual for me on Mondays when possible, I relaxed a lot. I did order a grocery delivery for the evening, and received most of it, and put away most of what I received.
It’s been a long time since I heard from Margaret Atwood. She has written a new post called “The Woman Thing, Part 1”. Her starting point is pretty much where she left off earlier – the French Revolution (or Revvie.) That’s because she has been invited to create a video audiobook, has agreed, and has chosen “A Tale of Two Cities.” But I expect her to move on from there and provide insights few people could.
Joyce Vance takes on misogyny. We tried our best to warn people about all of this too. Someone in the comments, probably close to my age, says it is exhausting to think about having to do it all over again. Yes, it certainly is.
This by Steve Schmidt is the big truth bomb of the day. Not that anyone should be surprised. Allow me if you will to compare humans to pit bulls. Pit bulls are basically big sweet goofballs. But pit bulls can be trained for dog fighting to be vicious killers. The people in charge of ICE detention are like pit bulls trained for dogfighting – all their grievances, both real and imaginary, have been catered to and they have been assured that nothing in their lives they don’t like is their fault, and that they have been terribly wronged. I dont suppose they have been taught much if anything in the way of specific torture techniques, but they are filled with anger and it’s not difficult to translate that into cruelty – in fact, it’s harder not to. Encouraging them to focus on wanting revenge (rather than actual improvements in their lives) has turned them into dogfighting pit bulls. Or, to use a different analogy, if anyone remembers, like those entities in Star Trek episodes who fed upon human misery and needed it to survive. I don’t know how to untrain them, or if it is even possible, but decent people need to know about evil things being done in our name.
