Open Thread October 17 2026

 Posted by at 6:13 am  Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 172026
 

As I expect everyone knows, today is No Kings Day 4.0. I’m looking forward to seeing photos of group and signs, and to hearing how big the total numbers are this time.

(not a video) I realize this is second hand – and I do subscribe to Axios – but only to their breaking news alerts. They don’t have the best reputation for lack of spin in their fuller reporting. So you can take what Adam says they said with a grain of salt. I do trust Adam, and you can see for yourself he’s good at distinguishing what Axios reported from what he is reporting. Also, this is not the full article – you can get it for free by clicking on “accepy your free article” – but if you do, I can’t guaranteeyou can ever do it again – on anyone’s Substack.

From VoteVets – one of the stars in may “Daily Four Star” email. Do not het your hopes up that recognizing that this is weakening us will lead to stopping it, or at least slowing it down. (I’m actually astonished that thre was even a small temporary admission, and I’m confident that even that will not last.)

And he’s right. It is a huge scandal that so much dark money in campaigns is perfectly legal. And that is only exacerbated by the fact that our lawmaking body – Congress – did not legislate rhis. It was legislated through our courts. Not what our founders intended, to be sure.

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Open Thread October 12 2026

 Posted by at 5:52 am  Blog News, Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 122026
 

Yesterday, Trinette was by. Next weekend shewill be in California for a baby shower – and I wil be visiting Virgil, which works out nicely. My cold is mostlt gone 0 I;m still making more phlegm than usual, but it isn’t requiring heroic coughing to get it up and out, and my lightheadedness is also better. I still need to watch my balance – but that was true before it started. I got a Hallowe’en e-card from my “frosted sister.” I believe she’s always been a Democrat, but has always stayed out of politics (except for voting herself). This year she is writing letters and postcards and making neighborhood visits – everything except phone calls (which she won’t do because she hates receiving them and doesn’t want to make anyone else suffer, and boy, do I get that. Jacquie Lawson has a new Hallowe’enhcasr with Littke Red Riding Hood…and the three bears – which made me chuckle.

Stephen Miller has been keeping as low a profile as he can… which is in itself suspect. As deputy Chief of staff, one would expect his dealings to carry more of the public interest. And it would appear that they do. And that there are some other issues.

For once – the weekend was boring enough for me to be able to post “The Week Ahead.” on a Monday And today is a hiliday! (I celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day myself.) And this Saturday isthe next No Kings protest.

File under “No shit, Sherlock.” The Orange owner may think he has Putin in his pocket – but it’s been clear to anyone with two eyes and two brain cells to rub together since 2015 that it’s the other way around.

I did the best I could at the time putting together information on plague, but this video, goes into what we don’t know, and is made by a doctor I have   have come to trust, is somewhat more reassuring. It’s longer than my usual videos, but only about 12 minutes total.

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Open Thread September 25 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 252026
 

It isn’t a holiday where I am, and it’s probably not where you are. But in California, starting today and in perpetuity (or until some Republican ruins it),, September 25 is and will be Dolly Parton Day. (And why didn’t Tennessee think of that?)

So true – so simple – and so sad that some people need to be told it.

This may ask you to subscribe, but you shouldn’t need to just inorder to read it. I found it encouraging.

No, I wasn’t particularly looking for encouraging news today – I just happened to tripover some in my inbox. This takes me back to the sixties – not that I remember actual candidates for Congress taking this risk then. Outrage and resistance are not dead.

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Open Thread September 18 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 182026
 

Yesterday, I learned that Amazon’s electric delivery trucks (which they are touting as green) are charged with Diesel generators, Also, after findng out Wednesday that my old Yahooemail had been hacked, I got up early (for me) so I could find a phone number (which is not available from the help postings) – because the hackers has deleted my new email address, and the phone number I had on record with them was my landline. Also I took in a (thankfully small) grocery order. By the time I got that put away, I was really feeling the lack of sleep – I was all the way to groggy. So I went to bed as soon as I had scheduled this post. Also, I missed Constitution Day yesterday, so the image is today instead.

Referred by VoteVets. I don’t know how this looks to someone who is not a veteran. To, me it looks a lot like murder. ICE did not kill their bodies – but it did kill something in them – some pary of their spirit which wanted to serve their country. Something like patriotism. And, of course, these two youths are not alone. I don’t know whether thw goal of the current regime is to murder patriotism in every American who has any – but, you know, it might as well be. One thing which cannot move through the internet (not even with a 3D printer – not yet) is tears – so at least mine won’t splash onto you. So at least I don’t have to apologize for that.

This is from Tuesday – but by now we should know whether it went anywhere. I doubt it does. Possibly after early January the new Congress might be able to accomplish something. There are more and more pundits (since we don’t have a perfect word for “people with education, brains, and solid experience in real administrations”) who are starting to fear, as I do, impeaching the Mango Monster – because J D Vance. But there is no one in the cabinet who does not merit impeachment. Kegsbreath is just the most obviously destructive. (Update – this scared Mike Johnson so that he called a recessfor Congress. They won’t be back in session until after the midterms. He might eventually regret that – unless he’s thinking that Hegseth will get impeached whenever the House votes on it – but afyer the midterms maybe he can blame it on Democrats.)

Look, this is how dangerous AI could be – Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon are teaming up to fight it. If that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what would.

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Open Thread June 19 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 192026
 

Happy Juneteenth, y’all! Yesterday, from a comment on Malcolm’s show: “Trump [sic] didn’t get his HEU (highly enriched uranium) but he did get HEI (highly enriched Iranians).” Jim Acosta, on the other hand, called the signing foreign policy flatulence – the fart (maybe even the shart) of the deal.

Robert Reich – is singing my song. Well, except that no one is trying to tell me to slow down, because no one sees the actual work, which mostly consists of goinf through hundreds of emails daily in order to select a few topics – and minimize the explainer part – and minimizing is harder than it looks. But if anyone did say something – I’d have basically the same response.

To quote Nina Simone – “Mississippi God Damn.” Yes, I do know there are good people in Mississippi – that’s proven right in this story by the witneses who are coming forward to dispute the police account. But still.

Glad to learn that someone is taking Tommy Potatohead to court over where he actually lived – as opposed to just owns the houae.

This is a little bonus for today – because it officially opens today – because of course it does – although the big party was yesterday.

SocSecur

Cat

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Open Thread April 1 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 012026
 

Yesterday, April Fool came early for me. My email client was experiencing problems – by 2 pm I had only received four emails, and that is deflinitely not normal. When something like that happens, the first thing I do is try a different browser. I tried a total of four – no joy. I kept refreshing my main browser. Meanwhile, I went through Substack to get to some of my main sources. I have not been looking forward to today.

On Monday, Malcolm pointed out that everything he has pointed out might be possible in the war has subsequently showed up in the national news (NYT, WSJ, WP, etc.) not soon enough for them to have gotten the stories from him directly, but rather, in a time frame for someone to have suggested to Kegsbreath and him to – at least verbally – run with it. And Netanyahu is now poisoning Iran’s and other Gulf states’ water (a war crime, in case anyone didn’t know. (We did it to Kishem Island a couple of weeks ago – Just one of our war crimes.) I am beginning to understand, not just with my brain, but with my heart, why many Jewish people, Israeli and diaspora alike, think it is antisemitism to criticize Israel. When people anywhere in the world, including within the US, criticize the US, even though my brain knows it is the Saffron Sauron and his orcs and nazgul they are criticizing and not me personally, I can’t help feeling sad and a little hurt.

I know we are all worried about the Supreme Court, and we all know something is needed to change it. But we don’t all agree on what needs doing – and I don’t think we really have so much as a concept of a plan as to how the necessary changes can be accomplished. So you may be as encouraged as I am by this conversation between former US Attorney Joyce Vance and Brennan Center Senior Fellow Jesse Wegman (who was essentially hired by Brennan to address the Supreme Curt, but also has a book out about the Electoral College.) It’s 28 minutes, and if that’s too long, there’s a transcript.

I did mention this, but there is much more information here. May Day is the day.

Yeah. Well, that’s the headline. But I’m not seeing them voting that way, or even saying much about it. Certainly not in the numbers needed to make it happen.

It’s been a minute since we had an episode of this series, and this sounds like the final one. My father (who served in WWII, but as a telegrapher) was not in this one, having been medically discharged prior to November 1944. (If he had been there, I almost certainly would not be here.) I could wish that more people remembered – if not from life, at least from education – how important this war was for all of us.

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Open Thread March 29 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 292026
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was one of my top two or three favorites – “La Traviata” by Verdi. I always tear up – not at the end, but in the middle when she says goodbye to Alfredo. That is the saddest event in it. I can get through the end when she dies without tears (or at least with a lot fewer tears), because she dies happy – for two reasons – because Alfredo has come back to her, and because of spes phthisica – a kind of euphoria experienced by pulmonary tuberculosis patients. I expect it’s a romantic fantasy that it happens only at the moment of death, but it is a real phenomenon. So the only sad people on stage when she dies are Alfredo and his father – and I don’t actually have much sympathy for either of them. It’s Violetta who is the victim. The music is exquisite throughout, and all the main characters get some to sing.

When I was in college at Stanford, and my mother worked for the University as supervisor of the Gift Processing Team (which is a story in itself), I would often go to her office building after my classes were through. A friend and colleague of hers in a totally different department but working in the same building was an art lover, and he would from time to time collaborate with the art college to mount shows in his (and Mom’s) building and maybe even sell some of the art. One grad student named Edith Bergstrom had one of these shows, and it pretty well sold out. Everyone loved her work, oils and watercolor alike, and she was only asking $30 each painting. I bought a couple and so did Mom, and I still have mine and now have hers, and still love them. After she completed her advanced degree, she didn’t exactly change her style, but she changed her subject matter, deciding to paint only palms – trees, branches, leaves and some combinations. And she was successful – Since today is Palm Sunday, I thought I would find one of her paintings on the internet and use it here. I’ve selected the focal point of a much larger piece, but it may give you an idea.

Everyone who participated in any No Kings is special – but this one is – let’s say offbeat.

This happens from time to time and it’s always good to hear. Good people exist.

This is kind of cool. We ever had anything like this when I was in school – I would have loved to participate.

This is not a big project with people going out of their way to help others, but it is definitely amusing.

This video features excerpts from CPAC. But not what you’d expect. Please don’t skip it.

Dog

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Open Thread March 14 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 142026
 

Today being Pi Day, and the rest of the news being so grim, a mathematical puzzle might be in order.

Yesterday, I discovered something – I knew Jim Acosta was on Substack, and I knew that S teve Schmidt was sometimes a guest of his, but I had no idea that Steve was going to be a regular guest every Friday, nor that they were calling this “Oh, Schmidt, It’s Friday.”  (Gotta laugh so you don’t cry, right?) Apparently the US death toll is up to 11 now. Or was yesterday.

From The Root. I figure that what Black people need to know, we all need to know.

It appears the shooting I mentioned yesterday, and another shooting, and a hacking, were not home-grown but Iranian retaliation. Robert Hubbell expands on this with multiple citations. He then goes into other ramifications of the war, also with citations.

From the Contrarian – a history and definition of Concentration Camps – so that if anyone tries to tell you they aren’t, you can prove that they are.

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