Yesterday, I wore for the first time my third experiment in knitting pants. Myfirst try was a disastr – but not such a disaster that I can’t rip out one leg, knit it back to match the other. and wear it. On my second try I adjusted the pattern to correct everything that went wrong on the first try, and it was a pretty good fit, just a bit loose and long. For the third try, I decided not to change anything about the stitch or row counts, but instead to use smaller needles. and it’s anout as close to perfect as an imperfect human can do. I could wear them to go see Virgil. And comfortable – as comfortable as the yarn, which for this pair is all cotton, except the cuffs, which are bamboo. In including contrast cuffs, I was thinking of sweat pants, but with more fitted legs.
Robert Reich has some suggestions for non-constitutional words to describe unconstitutional things about our current elected officials. I’m ahead of him on “regime” – I’ve not used any other word for it since day one – but all of his suggestions are appropriate
From ProPublica. Yes. this happens all the time. But if we don’t get reminded of it from time to time, we may forget.
From Common Dreams. One of Axios’s reporters is named “Barak Ravid.” Malcolm Nance calls him “The Mouth of Trump**.” I get “Alerts” from Axios, and yes, his often begin with “Trump** says” or the like. But it made me think – y’all know I often refer to our regime leader as “the Saffron Sauron,” and there is a character in The Lord of the Rings” who introduces himself as “The Mouth of Sauron.” They’re not at all the same – Ravid does not present what our regime leader says as truth – he just quotes him and identifies it as a quote, so readers can disbelieve it. But it appears to be a coincidence.
Yesterday, my exterminator came and said all my rooms have much less activity – and so does the yard. It actually snowed a little Tuesday, which is exactly when they would try to get inside out of the cold, so that’s all good. Then Trinette came by – and it took us a while to find where the plug had come out of the computer, but we did, and it works. So I can run the disc now, and hopefully I’ll be back in business.
Thirty seven minutes of discussion about Louisiana v. Callais – and the procedural mandate SCROTUS released late this Monday (a little less if you skip the part at the beginning when knitting and animals are discussed. The first few minutes of Substack videos are always off topic because viewers don’t all join at once, and most presenters wait until at least 1000 have joined to address the topic.) Once I started watching instead of reading, I have continued when possible because watching, you can’t skip, so I don’t miss things by trying to read too fast. And also, because depth of the the presenters’ feelings on the topic come through more clearly. But if you really prefer to read it, scroll down a bit – I’ve se the link so the transcript will already be up.
Under a regime which does not care whether people live or die, nor how they suffer –this could not have happened at a worse time. Not that there is a good time, but there have been times when the federal government would at least have tried to minimize tragedies.
Robert Reich points out a billionaire who is making a case for a wealth tax. But he’s not doing it intentionally. I’ve often wondered whether, if millionaires and billionaires woul just pay their political contributions into the IRS as conscience gifts instead of giving them to politicians, we could fund Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and other similar programs just fine.
Yesterday – my “day off” – I was not writing or researching, but I really have to go through inboxes regardless. So, I do want to say – if we are all still here – I’ m grateful. If not – it was wonderful knowing all of you. (P.S. – I did manage to do some laundry – mostly after the letdown.)
On Monday, Malcolm Nance said on his “warcast” that “All of us are agreeing with Marjorie Taylor Greene.” And, dammit, he was right. This is what she posted (starting with a screenshot of POTUS’s post), and I agree 100%, and I’m confident y’all will too: “On Easter morning, this is what President Trump posted. Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness. I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.”
Wajeeh mentioned this during Malcolm’s and his “warcast” one day last week, and it launched Malcolm into a horror story about when he was working there and his wife was also working there (as a contractor) and they needed a maid (the Nances probably saved the poor girls life – they definitely saved her sanity and started her on a real career). Wajeeh promised to write an article on the system, and this is it.
From The Root. This really pisses me off. The CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) may be made up of public servants, but itself is just a club. The Congreaaional Back Caucus Foundation is not even a club, but a non-profit NGO, not a government entity. The scholarship program is “The CBC Spouses Education Scholarship” The spouses of the Caucus are not public servants, but private citizens. They are entitled to do what they effing want with their GD money. This is racism pure and simple.
I watched this conversation between Joyce Vance and an expert on Hungary (which is having an election Sunday), but there is a transcript if you prefer to read. It’s about 33 minutes – but I can’t think of any way you could get this much information without reading a book (or listening to an audiobook). It’s very scary – and the scariest part may well be how little of it we knew about.
Yesterday, No Kings 3.0 brought out over 8 million participants within the US. This is closer to 3.5% than you might think. I looked up the adult population of the US this time along with the total population – because that historical 3.5% is supposed to be applied to the adult population – and that number is 8,925,000. This time around, there were expats – many of whom are still citizens and still vote – and vacationers holding rallies outside the US. Robert Hubbell has photos from Madrid (Spain), Geneva and Zürich (Switzerland), the British Virgin Islands, Rome (Italy), Uzes (France – today’s cartoon is a poster from that one – the featured image is from Brattleboro VT), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Milan and Camogli (Italy), Paris (France), and Barcelona (Spain). May 1 has been announced for No Kings 4.0 On the other hand, Malcolm Nance posted this – I thought it was important enough to put it in a comment yesterday – but there were already comments, so I’m repeating it here.
This is an extra because I know not everyone will want to follow this link – But my message is here. Last week, John Pavlovitz posted a series of videos, some numbered, some not, under the umbrella title of Love Loathe Your Neighbor, addressing how and why Christian denominations (particularly evangelical ones) have slid into the mix of patriotism, misogyny and general fascism the are now mostly mired in. One of his guests (Diana Butler Ross) brought up the history of The Great Awakenings. She has her doctorate in American Religious History, and looks at the Awakenings through the lens, not of organized anything, but through the lens of real moral progress. And she noted that each Great Awakening has been followed by pushback which is at least morally, and often also physically, violent. You won’t find her descriptions in the history books or encyclopedias – but she made much more sense to me: 1. Abolitionism (pushback – Civil War) 2. Reconstruction (pushback – Jum Crow and lynching) 3. Civil Rights movement starting with Brown v. Board (pushback – School vouchers push, gated communities) 4. The Obama Presidency (pushback – MAGA, “Christian Nationalism”). The last two occurred in my lifetime – and both times I thought we had made real progress. And I was not alone. Decent people in general did not see the pushback coming. I’m fairly certain I won’t be around for the next one – but those who are – please, at least try to anticipate the pushback and prepare for it.
Many years ago – centuries really – there was a phrase: “noblesse oblige.” In English – if you are born into a titled family, you have a moral obligation to behave in an honorable way at all times. I am not going to claim it was always observed in real life, because it actually never even came close as a general rule – though dome did respect it. We don’t have titles in the US any more than we have kings. But here richesse has been substituted for noblesse, and “richesse oblige” might be something that should be introduced into American English, forcefully if necessary.
Obviously, no one ever told the Mango Moron about the grains of wheat on the chessboard. (If you put one grain of wheat on the first square, 2 on the second, four on the next, and so on, you will not only run out of room on the squares pretty fast, but you won’t be able to finish, because the total will have come to the point where there are not that many grains of wheat in the world. The courtier [IIRC it was a vizier] who allegedly asked the king for that chessboard as a reward for some striking deed thought he was being cute but ended up losing his head.)
Yeah, I know, two by Reich. But all my other deep thinkers were either too tired to post anything, or just too tired to do it in writing, so did videos instead. And this is a really good purpose statement – and the other is or will be pivotal in establishing a government that works – for us.
Yesterday, Malcolm Nance predicted that the US will either put boots on the ground on multiple islands (including Kharg Island)in the Persian Gulf/Strait of Hormuz on Saturday – or else Donald Trump** will chicken out. And his two hosts – the Danish Intelligence officer and the Saudi Arabian political analyst – agreed. (Internet trolls didn’t – but I would no more listen to them than to the Apricot Antichrist himself.) None of them mentioned “No Kings.” (But I am. Not – absolutely not – to discourage anyone from taking part – but to suggest that signs denouncing him putting our troops into harms way and creating casualties might become more pertinent than they appear now.)
The Speaker of the Iranian house is far from the only one making this accusation. Malcolm Nance and his now two co-hosts are saying the same, and I am sure there are many others I don’t have time or energy to know about. Malcom even found a meme someone made with AI taking off on Sun Tzu – see below.
Quote from this Ukrinform article: “After World War II, defeated Nazi Germany managed to carry out reforms, reinvent itself, and become one of the most successful economies in the world. In contrast, the USSR, despite its status as a ‘victor,’ remained a poor and inefficient system that eventually collapsed. Modern Russia has inherited the same model: authoritarianism, [*,] corruption, and dependence on raw materials.” [* they left out “oligarchs.” I didn’t fix it – I’m just pointing it out.]
Joyce Vance on the Mueller investigation – what was in iy – and what is instead trolling.
HCR, barely 8 minutes and war-related (and grift-related)
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.
Yesterday, another mass shooting, this one at a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. The only casualties were the shooter (killed) and a guard (wounded, not too seriously.) And we have a president who apparently would rather confess to a war crime than be credibly accused of a crime of pedophilia. Think bout that. i desperately hope that, wherever he is, TomCat is having a better birthday than our day. Happy Birthday, TC. We still miss you.
ProPublica discusses the school bombing (which I trust no one here attributes to anyone other than us) in the context of a program initiated during the Biden administration which, if it hadn’t been cut into smithereens, might have prevented it. (On the other hand, Kegsbreath might have ignored it.)
Common Dreams addresses a different atrocity. This one involving a ship, is clearly an atrocity (the school bombing might have been an error – not that I believe that for an instant.) But a ship cannot possibly have been mistaken for a military base.
From Ukrinform. Someone joked this week that the Saffron Sauron “has started World War Two and a Quarter.” I don’t think it’s that funny really – but it does make a point.
Yesterday, there was a hearing on disciplinary charges brought against Ed Martin by the DC Bar, and the charges were upheld. He is entitled to appeal – I’m not sure to whom but after the process plays out, he could well be disbarred. Also, Alabama governor Kay Ivey of all people commuted the sentence of Sonny Burton. It’s about damn time – but at least it is in time. Finally, Colorado Public Radio reported that one of the Americans killed in this war was one of ours – stationed at Fort Carson here in the Springs.
I have no desire to use AI – I [prefer to keep my HI as fit as possible by using it. But if I did, at this time, it would be Anthropic. But this link is really for the second story – the kerfuffle in the District of New Jersey. By the time you read this, the hearing will be over, but you can still use this link to get there if you wish. Click on the All Rise logo in the upper left and you’ll get the home page. If the hearing isn’t the first story, scroll down a bit.
Well this was certainly not on my bingo card. But it certainly does make sense.
Archived from Huff Post, this article reminded me of a Kipling quote shared by Malcolm Nance, who us a huge Kipling fan – a quote which could easily become our motto for this war: “with an epitaph drear,/a fool lies here/who tried to hustle the east.” Kipling was not free from racial prejudice, but he was bright enough to see that brains of all kind (intwllectual, practical, strategic, etc.) and a passion for self government were not limited to white westerners.
Pete Buttigieg’s speech last weekend in Selma, AL Only 6 1/2 minutes)
