Yesterday, I heard something very disheartening from Malcolm Nance’s warcast – and all three agreed – that the MSM in Europe is parroting Russian talking points as much as ours are. The latest is that Russia is claiming their current strikes are retaliatory (when they’ve been doing the same thing since 2022 – or maybe even 2014.) What’s going on with global oil prices is also not pretty. It is currently artificially low (so keep your tank filled – maybe even some full containers on hand). But we are closer and closer to a real worldwide shortage, and the pricing won’t matter much when there isn’t any to be had. Oh, and in case you were wondering why the Orange Ogre is whining about Greenland again – it could be because, after he bribed or threatened FIFA into lifting a suspension they had imposed on the biggest bully on our team, Belgium beat us anyway – and Denmark was rooting for Belgium.
This is a Substack video – in which Glenn Kirschner is PISSED to the point of 37 minutes and “legal terms” such as “shitshow,” “assclowns”, “grabass” as well as addressing Todd Blanche as “sport.” I don’t really expect anyone to watch it, but, being Substack, there is a transcipt.
I doubt this will surprise anyone here. And it appears to me that most of this increase is initiated by the Papaya Palatine personally. (My apologize to papayas, which alleviate nausea rather than initiating it.)
To me this undersells the contributions of African Americans to the American Republic. IIRC, the first American killed in the Revolution was Crispus Attucks – a Black man, Many more Black men fought for the Union in the Civil War – and in World Wars I and II – and since. And Black women too – if not allowed to fight with arms, by caring for the wounded, gathering intelligence, dealing with mail, breaking codes, and more than I can think of. But I get it – the authors here are more interested in putting together an effecive playbook for a better future than in remembering the past. And they are right. An effective playbook is needed. And so is the will to use it – in people of all colors.
Just as there are decent and kind people in red states – there are monsters in blue states. Washington may be blue – but it still has monsters like these. I’m inclined to hope they are all in debt for the rest of their sorry lives paying for the $17 million they owe – plus interest. Including the school employees.
Monday, I tried to sign this petition and couldn’t – when I clicked on “Start Writing” it took me to a page which was blank except foe the organization’s logo. And I’m not asking you to sign it – it’s just that this is the only link to the story, and I thought y’all would want to be aware. Not that you’ll be surprised.
Yesterday, it was all over the Net that birthright citizenship survived SCROTUS by a 5-4 vote. I didn’t have time to name check before I had a medical appointment, but by now you probably know who the dissenters were – and I would love to read any dissemt that was written – because it would be like watching a circus acrebat act to see them trying to explain why they think an actual part of the Constitution is not Constitutional. If I find one, I’ll share a link.
Next Wednesday, the 8th, Robert Reich will be streaming his documentary “The Last Class” on YouTube next Wednesday, July 8. It will start at 5:30 pm Pacific. To see it, you must preregister. Once it starts, you won’t be able to pause it (so be prepared.) You can see it for free, but they do request a one-time donation which is optional. Here’s the link to register:
Robert Reich discusses how some SCROTUS decisions which are obviously inhumane are also obviously illegal – they flatly ignore Congress, which is the only branch of the Federal Governmen with the power to make law.
Yesterday, Malcolm was in Greenland – He went a couple of days ago for the opening of a “new” (meaning newly purchased or leased) building for the American Consulate. Jeff Landry was there (the governor of Louisiana, who is a “Special Envoy” to Greenland), making not just a fool of himself – not that that is unusual -but also acting creepy, offering children chocolate chip cookies) but left early after Greenlanders tactfully asked him not to act like a pedophile. There was a protest on site – including baseball caps reading “Make America Go Away,” “Already Great” [with the Greenland flag] and “Nu det NUUK” [Danish for “That’s enough” but punning on the name of Greenland’s capital – “Nuuk”]. One of the Protest signs read “Yes NATO, No Pedo.” I could go on a lot longer about how much Greenland wants nothing to do with the US under the Canteloupe Catastrophe, but I’ll spare you. Also, Tulsi Gabbard quit. Good riddance – but likely to be replaced by someone even worse. (Flynn? Lindell?) One good thing – Abrego Garcia’s federal case was dismissed with prejudice. Also yesterday – everybody was slush fund talking.
From The Root. I’m old enough to have memories of what it looked like, even though I didn’t grow up in the South. And good enough vision to know it when I see it – which is pretty much all over the place now, and also to see how it jumped back into broad daylight when Barack Obama was electrd President (and yet – misogyny is even stronger.) There are still many glass ceilings above which it is difficult – if not impossible – to rise if you are not a white male. And there is no such thing as modern humans belonging to different races. Neanderthals and Denisovans may be races different from homo sapiens (or not – many of us today carry bits of DNA from one or the other.)
From Pro Publica. Maricopa County – it figures. Joe Arpaio’s county. Did someone day “fraud, waste, and abuse”?
Harry Litman on the slush fund scandal. Of course I thought of Teapot Dome (no, I’m not old enough to have lived through it, but I am old enough to have heard of it in history classes.) But, as Harry points out, the government at least got some oil through it, whereas this criminal enterprise is all take, no give to taxpayers. And those to whom it is giving are the worst of the worst.
Yesterday, Jesse Jackson died. It grieves me how many civil rights heroes we have lost and are losing – and we need them so badly. We do have new young heroes coming up, but they are still building their platforms. How can we help? We need every one of them. Robert Reich quoted Jackson’s speech to the 1988 Dem Convention in full. At least I found out what I am going to do to escape the SOTU next week. See the not-a-cartoon below. Check ut qqq.defiance.org if you’re interested.
Well, we haven’t invaded Greenland – yet – but a power failure there made everyone there think we were, and scared the crap out of them. I gather there were no casualties, but people with heart conditions have died from less.
This definitely scares me. Secretaries of State are the ones who make the decisions and policies about how elections are run statewide. County Clerks are often the ones who supervise the “judges” who do the actual work (in heavily populated counties there will likely be a dedicated employee of the County Clerk who does this.) And those judges – there must be as close to an equal number of blue ones and red ones as possible. Because if any of them so much as has to go to the bathroom, she or he must be accompanied by a judge from the other party. In June, I will have lived in Colorado for 50 years, and it has not been blue for all of them. I have worked with clerks and clerks from both parties, and the one thing they had in common was following the rules to the letter. Going forward, I don’t know what to expect.
More on Epstein from dekleptocracy. It includes quotes from The Guardian, so I assume Lona is already aware. (Barf bag alert)
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, Robert Reich had this to say. It has zero to do with Dr. King, and it’s not even really funny because it’s too real. But it is definitely clever. This from Andy, on the other hand, is funny – sort of – an appealing idea but not really able to be implemented. And then there’s this – from Sunday, so we knew about it. But this is in their own words.
Since the Mango Moron does not understand cause and effect any better than he understands anything else, he would not recognize a consequence if it came to the door and showed RealID. And those of us not in the military or veterans, and even some veterans, have no experience of the signs of impending war, and would not recognize them either. But Malcolm Nance does know about them, and wrote this to give us knowledge to interpret what is happening as it happens.
You may have seen this news – I saw a reference to Laura’s story somewhere else, but it was very incomplete. (And Democracy Now is not on my radar) Mary Trump has all the details.
https://wolvesandsheep.substack.com/p/the-three-reasons-donald-trump-backs
This by Chris Bowers is a thoughtful piece. I’m not sure we have enough information to generalize from, nor how much the information we do have applies to the Saffron Sauron and how much applies to his handlers. Nor how much we can actually bring about. But it’s worth thinking about.
I don’t know how many episodes of this Richardson has planned – this is episode three = but I expect there will be more.
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.
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.
