Open Thread March 5 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 052026
 

Yesterday, the Senate refused to take action to restrain the Degenerate Darth Vader’s illegal war in Iran. I, as you have probably noticed, an struggling this week to keep abreast of what day it is. I think that may be at least in part because the first was on Sunday, and, although I consciously know that the week is Sunday through Saturday, I, because school weeks and work weeks start in Monday, subconsciously still see Monday through Friday as one through five. Hopefully I’ll be more on track next week.

I had realized I missed the start of Ramadan, hence the image. It goes until roughly March 19 this year.  The ending date is not totally predictable because the moon has to be in the right position at the time, but Eid al Fitr is predicted for March 20.

Tuesday, this happened. I hope you’ll find it as satisfying as I did. Of course, it’s still just words, no action – but coming from one Rethuglican to another, it’s like music. (Also, Josh Hawley even toreinto her, but I don’t have that quote.)

The first story at this link is the one I am posting -but just about every one is worth at least a look (and they are short.)

I don’t think Joyce is correct about every state. But, sadly, she doesn’t have to be right about every state for there to be fatal chaos. I stopped doing it when it became to much for my mobility, but I did work elections for many years administering elections in Colorado, and that under both Democratic and Republican Secretaries of State and County Clerks, during periods when Colorado was red, and periods when it was blue. The attitude of “If people are entitled to vote, we want them to vote” never changed through the years -though Democrats and Republicans disagreed on almost everything else. But that was then and this is now, and red states (and maybe counties, which might be worse) will ratf*** if they can.

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Open Thread March 2 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 022026
 

Yesterday, the news was of course filled with Iran. The mass shoooting in Austin almost got lost. All I have is the initial breaking release and it’s not all that helpful. I emailed Pat B to ask whether she and hers are all right, but it’s pretty late here and an hour later there so I’m not expecting a reply before Tuesday. Trinette was by – have you ever noticed there are people who can make you feel better just by walking into the room? Virgil called and I reminded him who his case manager is. Hopefully he will remember long enough to ask he the balance in his commissary account.

My first thought when I realized that the Saffron Sauron had bombed Iran was, “He got a taste of the blood of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, and now he wants more.” Even if he is too stupid to realize that being at war means your own people getting killed, and even if Kegsbreath is that stupid, there must be someone who is not. Now, after the first casualties including military of ours have been reported, he has his wish. I won’t be crude, but you’ll likely know exactly what I’m thinking when I say he must be thrilled. If you want to follow this war closely, I mean really closely, your best bet is probably Malcolm Nance’s Substack, called “Black Man Spy.” It’s video, because writing takes time, and it is as up to the minute as possible. He does it along with a Danish spy, Jacob Kaarsbo, who has also worked in the area, so both have insider knowledge about the region. Together, they have far more knowledge than I could ever hope to supply. They do it pretty early in the morning, but it’s set (not all live videos are) to re-post a recording after it’s ended. That usually takes roughly an hour (but don’t give up). Or if you are a subscriber, free or paid, Substack will send an email when the recording is up.

This video is from Saturday morning, right after the bombing of Iran. It’s 22 minutes long

This is what we have done – what the monster we elected has done in our name. I don’t think “I’m sorry” or “we’re sorry” will cut it.

I could go on – and probably will as it goes on. But this is my final statement for today.

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Open Thread March 1 2026

 Posted by at 5:57 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 012026
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Berlioz’s “Les Troyens” – just the first half. It was recorded in 1974, so all the stars are singers whom I remember vividly. It’s a beast to stage, and in fact was not staged in Berlioz’s lifetime. It’s in two acts, and we’ll hear the second act next week. It tells the story of the first four “books” of the Aeneid well – including Laocoon and his sons – which is probably the hardest to stage. The only character who is in both acts is Aeneas, so it’s also expensive to cast. But, if you like Berlioz, and I do, it is gorgeous. I’m not ignoring the fact that the Apricot Antichrist bombed Iran in the middle of the night Friday, and I’ll address that tomorrow. Today is a day of rest – and I’ll need time to go through multiple reports and decide what to stress and why. I did hear the Ayatollah has been confirmed to be dead, but as I type, I can’t vouch for it.

Sharing a story about the demand for tattoos rising as good news was never on my Bingo card. But I find the increasing demand for these specific tattoos both interesting – and encouraging that so many people care that much. Also, I’m impressed at how the owner of the shop is dedicating the increased revenue.

You may have to unmute this (I did), but it’s under 2 minutes, and it’s on loop so you won’t miss anything.

Building community is always good news (well, maybe not if it’s a “Christian Nationalist” community. But most are better than that.) This one sounds like fun – and is reaching more than just its members.

NM Granny

Cats

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Open Thread January 17 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 172026
 

Yesterday, I added a comment to yesterday’s open thread because by now it’s already late to register for Saturday. There’s still time for Sunday as this goes up. I was drowning in emails and was full when saw the one from Axios that said “Iran’s exiled crown prince implores Trump to strike regime.” Royals may stick together, but since he’s not a real royal (and never will be – a dictator maybe, a royal never), who knows what he’ll do. Also, a little more snow melted in the back yard. The Conversation newsletter had a story about a drunken raccoon.

I could not agree more with Mary Trump if I tried with both hands for a week. Spending $30 billion on ICE is like spending $30 Billion to till every veterans’ cemetery in the US – it’s not just a waste, it’s a violent attack on something which once made us great. And, no, veterans are not perfect, and neither are immigrants. But we certainly don’t become great by trashing either. We now live in the Incredible Shrinking USA.

Asha Rangappa analyzes seven critical actions by the shooter of Renee Good which reveal whether or not he was in fact in fear for his life or those of his colleagues. This analysis so impressed Harry Litman (of Talking Feds) that he made a Substack video with her to go through it. It’s 33 minutes, so I won’t link to it, but if you read this article, there’s a link on the home page.

This has been a bastard of a week, which made it possible to fill multiple Open Threads in advance – but also had me hoping some short takes – like this one from Common Dreams – would not be obsolete by the time they were posted, because the worst had happened.

Cat

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Open Thread June 23 2025

 Posted by at 5:54 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 232025
 

Yesterday, it became obvious that I would need to address the illegally declared war today. Yes, I’m a veteran, but i also know my limitations, and one is that that I’m not qualified to discuss the strategic aspects of this other than to opine that it’s damned dumb along with being unconstitutional. So I’ll just provide some links instead from some better qualified people and let you choose which if any to read.

Jonathan Larson of The F* News. Title: Trump Bombs Iran, Constitution, International Law, and Last Surviving MAGA Principle

Norm Eisen of The Contrarian. Title: Trump’s National Insecurity and What We Can Do About It

Steve Schmidt of The Warning. Title: America is at war in the Middle East. Again.

Robert Reich at his Substack. Title: The Dogs of War (the cartoon is not his. It’s maybe a century old.)

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Open Thread June 21 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 212025
 

Yesterday was the Summer Solstice. I hope all who celebrated had a great day. Also yesterday, an email from Justice Democrats informed me that eight Senators, led by Bernie Sanders, made a statement that voters are looking for for bold leaders, not feckless moderates. And polling backs them up – 70% of Democrats in a recent poll say the same. Of course I had to know who those seven others are, so I did a search and found they are Warren, Murphy, Merkley, Welch, Tina Smith, Markey, and Van Hollen. Neither of my Senators, of course. The only surprise in there is Peter Welch, and that’s only because I haven’t heard of him until now. He is Bernie’s junior Senator from Vermont. Tina Smith and Chris Van Hollen have not been loud until recently, but recently, they have. I could wish for the addition of a few names which are missing, like Sheldon Whitehouse, Alex Padilla (who also hasn’t been loud, but I would think has motivation now), Sheldon Whitehouse, Adam Schiff (who needs to put up or shut up at this point – I’m certain Katie Porter would have been on that list in a New York minute), and you can probably think of others who should have been there. Finally, I will not go deeply into the surreal disorientation I felt while reading about the possibilities of war in Iran while simultaneously listening to Albert Ketelbey’s “In a Persian Market” on the radio. I wonder who programmed that.

This does need to be read and/or heard. One thing that jumped out at me was the sentence “Their stories remind us that in the eyes of MAGA, just being Latino is enough to be treated as a criminal.” Sadly, actual criminals, are generally – are at least supposed to be – treated better.

This link is to a petition which you can sign if you like (it’ll take your signature even if you’ve signed on the same issue multiple times already.) But that isn’t why I’m posting it. I just want to be crystal clear on my source for this quotation:
Because Donald Trump is an egomaniac who will do anything to hurt anyone while helping himself, the bill is structured so that all of the new spending provisions associated with deportations and building up the military, as well as with Trump’s gimmicky campaign promises, expire in 2028. Further, almost all of the cuts to the social safety net, and even some of the cuts to green energy investments, do not go into effect until 2029. Basically, all of the perks happen during Trump’s time in office, while all of the pain will be felt by his successor, thus making Trump look good at the expense of literally everyone else. (Click here to read an article from Politico last month that goes into detail on this aspect of the bill.)

This means that if Democrats can retake Congress and the White House in the 2026 and 2028 elections, they will be able to quickly pass a bill that would block the social safety net cuts and not renew any of the spending related to Donald Trump’s deportations, military build up, and campaign promises. To top it off, they can also end Trump’s tax cuts for wealthiest Americans, thus rendering the bill deficit neutral.

So, even if Republicans do manage to pass this bill into law, the fight to stop it from taking effect will continue on into 2026 and 2028. The is very bad news for Republicans who, unlike Donald Trump, will run for re-election again. As I already mentioned, this bill is very unpopular, and Democrats will be able to legitimately argue in 2026 and 2028 that if you elect them, they can stop the Republican cuts to the social safety net before they ever take effect. Now that is a winning message.

Screenshot

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Open Thread June 19 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 192025
 

On Tuesday, Joyce Vance wrote about the legal status of the Minnesota shootings, and I want to link to it without discussing the content. In the email, there was an understandable conflation of the Hoffmans and the Hortmans, but it has now been fixed at the site. Also yesterday,  Tucker Carlson, while interviewing Ted Cruz, actually made sense.  Watch out for airborne pigs.

I can see I’m going to have to start paying more attention to The Lever Report. This is pretty scary.

I can’t summarize this from HuffPost any better than by quoting the first two paragraphs: “The first U.S. pope is a citizen of Peru, and the first U.S. bishop he appointed is a refugee from Vietnam. And next week, that bishop is urging his fellow priests to stand in solidarity with migrants by showing up to immigration court proceedings. – There may be a pattern here.”

The Reich on the Left is, as usual, right. This is important.

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Open Thread October 11, 2023

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 112023
 

Yesterday, I had calmed down some and thought maybe I was cool enough to address the Middle East war – though still not in my own words. I’m going to give you three articles without comment. One of them appears to be on Substack – it doesn’t exactly say so, but the quote function it uses looks like Substack’s. At least the clicking to continue is not too onerous – certainly less so than YouTube has become. While I was putting it together, my keyboard – um -started pining for the fjords -I tried new batteries, but no luck. So I’ll be getting a new one. I may be able to find a corded one I can use as a temp. The on-screen one is not that much slower, but it obscures part of the screen.   Update – I found it.  It’s laid out a bit funny but it works.  And as a postscript – George Santos was hit with 23 new charges, including identity theft.

Cartoon –  Number 2 of 4.

Short Takes –

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/09/israel-war-hamas-benjamin-netanyahu-government
The Guardian – We feel fear, anger and helplessness: all of Israel is in a state of war. But revenge is not the answer
Quote – Here in Jerusalem, we are trying to hold on to the hope that Hamas won’t launch missiles towards the city due to its proximity to al-Aqsa mosque, but the general anxiety still lingers. Schools have been closed, as have all businesses, and very few people are on the streets. Those who don’t have to, do not leave their homes. On Saturday night, after hours of anxious staring at the television and social media, my daughter was panicked by the fear that Hamas militants, armed and still inside Israeli territory, might make their way to Jerusalem and attack us in our home. Only after a thorough tour of the public shelters in the neighbourhood did she calm down slightly and manage to fall asleep.

https://www.dogshirtdaily.com/p/how-not-to-respond-to-a-terrorist
Dog Shirt Daily – How Not to Respond to a Terrorist Attack
Quote – The reason I don’t write about Israeli-Palestinian matters much is that the more time I have spent with them, the less I think I have anything useful to say on the subject. The process of spending time with the actual conflict has humbled me to the point that I am these days much more interested in asking questions than I am in making pronouncements. I am much more interested in conveying information than I am in telling people what I think—when I even know what I think, which is increasingly infrequent.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-israel-was-duped-hamas-planned-devastating-assault-2023-10-08/
Reuters – How Hamas duped Israel as it planned devastating attack
Quote – A careful campaign of deception ensured Israel was caught off guard when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched its devastating attack, enabling a force using bulldozers, hang gliders and motorbikes to take on the Middle East’s most powerful army. Saturday’s assault, the worst breach in Israel’s defences since Arab armies waged war in 1973, followed two years of subterfuge by Hamas that involved keeping its military plans under wraps and convincing Israel it did not want a fight. While Israel was led to believe it was containing a war-weary Hamas by providing economic incentives to Gazan workers, the group’s fighters were being trained and drilled, often in plain sight, a source close to Hamas said.

Food For Thought

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