Nov 252025
 

Yesterday, Judge Cameron Currie dismissed both of the James cases – Comey and Letitia. Comey should be off the hook (although it was dismissed without prejudice) because the statue of limitations is up. There is, per Harry Litman, a possible argument that a Latin term in the opinion sets the calendar back a little, which could affect the statute of limitations. James’s was also dismissed without prejudice, so she could be indicted again (and likely will be, unless it turns out that the statute of limitations has run out for her also, which even Joyce Vance isn’t certain of – since it’s the Orange Oligarch.)

The F* News on the meeting between Zohran Mamdani and the Apricot Antichrist, which went surprisingly well. Even jaw-droppingly well. I’m so allergic to Trump**[*] I really can’t bear, not just his face and voice, but even his words, even when he appears to be making sense, so I really didn’t take much away from this, but it’s such a black swan event it’s hard to ignore.

I did not have this on my Bingo card. But now that Democratic Underground has reported it, I cannot say I am surprised. The only paperwork they actually pay attention to is the skin colors paint sample

This from Common Dreams is regarding Senator Mark Kelly, one of the six who made the video about not obeying illegal orders. Yes, they can do this. Any service member, officer or enlisted, who stays active long enough to receive retirement pay is subject to recall to active duty. That is why those retirement checks are funded in the DoD budget, and that’s a huge figure in it. Not all the DoD budget goes to $200 hammers and planes that don’t fly. I get why, if they are subject to recall, they must be paid from DoD funds, but very few people, including active duty service member and probably even some retirees are aware of that, and it makes the DoD budget look far worse than it is. Retiree pay is definitely fraud or waste, but if some creative Democrats could come up with a way around this, It could be an incredible public relations victory. Failing that, efforts to make the facts about retiree pay more widely known could also help. I was in the USMC for 10 years, most of which was spent directly working with military pay, and I did not find this out for at least 8 of those 10 years. Back to the court-martial suggestion – if this were going to be a civilian court, even now, I would, and I suspect Kelly would, say “have at it.” But I don’t have as much faith in a Court Martial. (Neither does Steve Schmidt, and he says so quite bluntly.)

Off Topic – sort of – The one-woman play “Ann” about Ann Richards is streaming on demand now and will be through next year. Of course it is political – but not current politics – which is why I say Off Topic. But it is a fun escape if you have a couple of hours to spare.

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Nov 132025
 

Yesterday, I got to my main email just about the time Grijalva was sworn in. Yes, that was kind of late in the day, but before I check my main email, I check the old one, and look up the times of sunrise and sunset and record them, and I take my morning meds and make coffee, and even getting dressed is not zero time, plus it’s two hours earlier here. And it’s nice to get up to a little good news, since it is mostly anything but. Also, none of the DOJ’s Epstein Files were released, but three emails obtained by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee directly from the Epstein estate were.

In view of the fact that many people are losing their minds over this or that in it, I thought it would be good for us all to turn to Heather Cox Richardson and get a view of everything that is in it. After that, losing one’s mind will still be on the table (including for me.)

National Public Radio has coverage of an ICE arrest from June but given that Veterans’ Day was just a couple of days ago seems appropriate to revisit now.

This from Axios reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode – “Eye of the Beholder“, to be precise. I was a big fan of TZ, and was 15 when this episode first aired. I think it shocked me more than any other episode of TZ- and I certainly never expected it to play out in my lifetime. But here we are.

Robert Reich’s series to share widely as he requests

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Nov 122025
 

Yesterday, I observed Veterans Day in the traditional Marine Corps manner by sleeping in. Here’s how Barack Obama observed it, God bless him (cat goddesses, bless him too.)

Common Dreams recounts just one story of an ICE arrest – this one in Fitchburg, Massachusetts (but they are just about all alike.)

I’ve been waiting for a comprehensive article on NPSM-7 – so many people are raising the alarm and so few are at all addressing what is in it. I decided it was time to find something more substantial. Just scroll down m past the “Donate” section – I’m confident anyone who can afford to is already donating to them. Below that is the whole story.

https://www.theroot.com/former-white-racists-expose-secret-lingo-and-gestures-y-2000072520
I was aware of more then half of these listed, but I did learn a couple which were new to me – and I certainly didn’t know there was a “hate symbols database.” Not that it is surprising.

This Lawrence video is a bit over 18 minutes. So don’t watch all of it, unless you decide you really want to after watching the first three minutes. There is stuff in those first minutes that everyone really should know and you won’t find elsewhere.

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Oct 282025
 

Yesterday, I got an email from Colorado Public Radio sharing that my Attorney General (who is also running for Governor) is all in on Colorado joining the redistricting war for the midterms. God, I love this guy. Also yesterday, I tripped over a post from a DUer who has been suffering extreme pain, and just found out that for all that time he has been suffering from shingles with no rash (only dxed because a very small rash just turned up) He is up to date on his shingles vaccinations, too, but his PCP says it’s possible to get it anyway. I think this should be more wisely known. Shingles pain can make non-suicidal people consider (and for all I know, commit) suicide.

Per Heather Cox Richandson, “NBC News reported [last Thursday] that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s rush to get new recruits onto the street has meant they have pushed into their training program more than 200 people who have disqualifying criminal backgrounds, fail drug testing, or don’t meet the academic or physical requirements.” I’m less worried about the physical requirements, and even the drug testing (which is not perfect – and the federal Government is a little nutty about drug use) and academic requirements (I suspect we all know someone who is a highly educated idiot), but the past criminal record issue bothers me, particularly for a group which is openly looking for male white supremacists, the most under-prosecuted group in the US. And don’t stop with this quote. There’s more.

Metamucillini is wrong (no surprise there) and Canada is correct (no surprise there either). Ronald Reagan did indeed speak negatively of tariffs, and Wonkette has the reveipts in the form of a video. If you already know if this, and our dictator’s reaction, you may want to go to the link anyway to see the “tantrum gif” which may give you a smile or even a chuckle.

No, I don’t actually need any more reasons than we already have to despise the Washington Post (or Amazon, for that matter.) I am guessing that the 1800 block of E Street SE in DC is experiencing earth tremors as Sousa spins in his grave, wishing he had named that march “The Washington Monument” instead of for the Post.

Guest video from Robert Reich

Yes, I shop at King Soopers, which is Kroger. But my only alternatives are Safeway which is Albertson’s, and Walmart – which is Walmart. I’ve boycotted Walmart since it was created. After the Albertson’s=Kroger merger was denied by the courts, Albertson’s had the gall to sue Kroger for breach of contract – but that was only my last straw. I also cannot trust Safeway to follow my delivery instructions which are necessary to keep me safe (it was while taking in [I should say trying to take in] a delivery order from Safeway that I experienced the fall – two years ago tomorrow – which put me in the hospital. Incidentally, at least here, King Soopers runs its sales from Wednesday through Tuesday regularly. So I don’t shop on Tuesday for Wednesday delivery ,although one can re-check the prices on line.) Sometimes they’ll have a special, shorter, sale, such as over a weekend, but their advertising always makes that clear. And the sale tags on the shelves – the last I looked – it’s been years since I went to a store in person – always had (I grant in fine print) an end date for the sale on them. So many people today have smartphones – it really is worth it for people who have a smartphone and shop in store to open a web account and tie it to the actual store they shop at so they can compare the price on the shelf to the price on the website.

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Oct 142025
 

Yesterday, I slept late and tried to take it easy. Just a note on the cartoon/meme: Many, maybe most, people think that businesses open to the public are public property. They are not. They are private property and anyone other than an employee who enters one is either an invitee, a licensee, or a trespasser. Invitees are there to do business (often but not always with an appointment, as for a doctor or a dentist or a hairdresser.) Licensees are there to look around – or they are accompanying a licensee. Anything else is a trespasser. Trespassing is not a crime everywhere (that depends on local laws) but it is a tort everywhere, which means that if you trespass, you can be sued. The sample sign below makes any agent of ICE a trespasser. Whether or not any particular ICE agent is educated enough to know that, or for that matter, even able to read it, is of course iffy. But posting it or a similar sign in the best protection any private business can really put into practice.

Common Dreams. I have heard of adding insult to injury. But that does not remotely begin to describe this travesty. It’s more like adding atrocity to injury. I can’t even. And this story was not even at the top of the newsletter.

Straight from The Root. Lessons progressives and just anyone who still believes in the Constitution can learn from the Black community.

I don’t suppose there is anything in this that anyone with eyes and ears doesn’t know about. But still. The answer to Joyce Vance‘s question, sadly, is “yes.” At least in the eyes of the world.

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Oct 022025
 

Yesterday, we learned that Jane Goodall has died. She was 91. Such a loss. I’m struck by the difference between her research, which was with primates in their natural habitat acting normally, as opposed the the “research” on wolves which studied only wolves in captivity, who do not act the same way or even close in their natural habitat. If someone did a study on humans but did it inside a prison using the prison population as subjects, we would instantly reject it. But if it’s on wolves – we just swallow it whole.

Obviously I am not about to be able to go do the kind of stuff Robert Reich describes here. But it does point to ways that younger, stronger, and more phone-literate people can conceivably get involved.

Press Watch on Trump’s occupation of Portland. Dan says his question “raises questions about his mental competence.” To me, it actually suggests he may have some. Can you imagine any Fox-Sinclair-OAN watching cult-brain-frozen MAGA asking this? They seem pretty unquestioning to me. But I may be missing something.

A guest video from Robert Reich. I can’t embed it because it’s in the “Shorts” format (More analysis on the shutdown tomorrow.)

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Sep 302025
 

Yesterday, as usual on a Monday, I slept quite late. And today is the day of the “meeting” at Quantico. I may just sleep late again. I’d rather not even be awake, let alone reading about it, while Hogsbreath desecrates Quantico with his presence.

Well, this (Politico) is interesting. Not, I would say, surprising, but interesting

Resist. Persist. Repeat. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it. And it is simple. But simple is not the same thing as easy. The Conversation addresses why compliance can be so much easier than defiance, and what can be done about it.

There are two stories in this article from Wonkette, and either one might be accompanied by a tissue alert, so with the two together, I think the alert is necessary. Also, there’s more about the Roberts arrest here. However, there are hundreds, or thousands, of cases very much like these, and if we don’t take a closer look at some of them, we won’t grasp the full significance. Sometimes to see the forest, one needs to look at some of the trees.

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Jul 262025
 

Yesterday, I had a good night’s sleep – and a little more energy than I’ve been having (though not as much as I would like to have.)  Incidentally, does anyone remember that before I was in the hospital, and I was putting up two posts daily, including one just for videos, one of the creators I used was retired Major Richard Ojeda? Well, he is now running for Congress in North Carolina. He may not be young, but he is a fighter, has zero tolerance for BS, and tells it like it is “without fear or favor.” I hope he wins.

I don’t see anything surprising in this from the Intercept, unless it’s the focus on Personal Protective Equipment – when there are so many other behaviors they could criminalize. Like giving people food and/or water, as was done in some states at the last election.

I apologize for posting legal – stuff – on a Saturday, but at least you will be amused by some of the colorful similes. With any other court, this is so extreme that I’d just laugh and delete it. But with this court, who knows?

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