Yesterday, I was pretty well swamped by news. The one which stood out was the Mango Monster hiding in the catering cart, which happened what, a month ago and is just now coming out? Several were talking about that. I tried to find some less obvious news which was still important or at least noteworthy.
From Talking Points Memo. The word “overreach” doesn’t, I think, sound as scary as it can be when the overreacher is unscrupulous. And unscrupulous is what we have.
From the AP. I posted the well-wishing opportunity yesterday(ICYMI). JoJo from Jerz has her own take, which I’ll post on a slow day with a hanky alert.
Robert Reich. I’ve always thought that the Luddites had very solid points. Not that I would argue in favor of their tactics – but those tactics were the only ones available to them at the time
From Phil Williams of “Confront the Hate. So much is going on, I feel compelled to post 4 a day until (unless?) things settle down.
Yesterday, I pretty much relaxed – and knitted. Which was nice.
OK, I need to rant a little today. We all know that the Apricot ntichrist probably does not even know what a treaty is, let alone that the Constitution is clear that a treaty is the law of the land, that only Congress can ratify a treaty (so only Congress can get us out of one.) There is nothing in the Constitution about what to do if an ally we have a treaty with goes rogue – starts committing war crimes. So will someone please tell me WTF is a Constitutional President who is sworn to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” supposed to do when that happens?? What pushed my button was a New Yorker headline “How Biden Emboldened Israel,” also a subject line in its daily email. Oh, sure, NOW “over a hundred Democrats are voting to withhold arms from Israel- wnich is not enough to break or rescind a treaty. How is any of this Joe Biden’s fault? If we had had Congressional blessing to pull out of our treaties (yes, plural) with Israel the instant the war crimes started (which we did not have the votes to do), then MAYBE Kamala would have been elected (but I would not bet a dime on that), but if not, we would be exactly where we are now. War crimes are a hell of a drug.
Colorado also has closed primaries, but has been good about publicizing deadlines for switching or declaring parties, even under Republican Secretaries of State. I would not expect Floridians to be able to say the same. I switched parties once, back when there were still sane Republicans, and one was running in the primary against a Tea Party (remember it?) one for a state office. And I was far from alone. We got her into the general, where she won, and we had sanity even in those days (Colorado is blue now, but hasn’t always been so. And desperate situations require desperate measures.
It bursts my bubble every time – and it is pretty much always – that so many people feel compelled to denigrate every person of color who has anything to say and speaks it publicly. Why do they feel this need? Because they have nothing to say so they make something up? Are they secretly terrified that if there is a person of color smarter and/or wiser than they, that somehow makes them lesser? Or if there is a person of color who is more compassonae then they, or has higher ethical standards, that demeans them? There are difinitely contradictions in the stories of the witnwssws to what happened over the semiquincentennial weekend – contradictions which can’t be reconciled.
.I lost track of the times Frank said “under any other administration” or the equivalent. He does a deep dive into the background of the ICE agent who shot the young father in Biddeford, ME. I’m tearing my hair out about this one because there’s no transcript. I went to his main Substack page – still no trnscript. There was a YouTube link for the same video – but CC was not afailable, so no transcript there either. Frank is affiliated with Lincoln Square, so I checked there also – the show was there, but no transcript. Feel free to skip it. He covers more topics, but what I thought was most important was the background check he did was the background check, and unfortunately, that’s in the middle.
Here’s a bonus in case you want to skip Frank. But this is good new – yes, it’d dsigned to help people of color, but not just people of color – – it’d for everyone not an oligarch. And it doesn’t leave Black people out.
Yeah, I already put up this in “250 to 250”, but this is only a bit over 4 minutes, and it has almost everything the 1 minute version leaves out.
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Manon Lescaut” by Puccini – his first big hit, actually. I always struggle not to laugh when she ends up dying in “the deserts of Louisiana”, but – since it’s set in the 18th century, when French-owned Louisiana stretched much farther west even than the Louisiana Purchase – it’s not nearly as silly as it sounds today. This performance was chosen by soprano Asmik Grigorian, a big fan of Mirella Freni (who was born in the same tiny little town where Luciano Pavarotti was born – there must have been something in the water.) Off to see Virgil now – will check in upon return..
It always warms my heart to see Joe Biden get any credit at all. He deserves so much better.
I do realize some people have difficulty with bats – and that most people are not aware how much bats do for the environment. But how can anyone not find flying foxes adorable?
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Iolanta” by Tchaikovsky. It’s in one act with four scenes, and is set in the 1400s, which if not exact, is probably close enough to the era in history when Islam had all the good scientists and all the good physicians (although probably not good enough to give vision to someone born blind – but hey, it’s an opera.) Like the opera “Ruslan and Ludmilla”, it’s popular in Russia and little known elsewhere, but the Met did do it for a Saturday matinee some years ago and later televised it, so I have seen it once. It’s very pretty and has a happy ending. The Muslim doctor, I think, has the best line and certainly the most relevant today: “Without inner desire, change cannot take place.” Wikipedia has a great article on it, including (not that I think anyone but me cares) the fact that the name in the Danish play from which the libretto was derived was “Iolanthe” – like the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta – and that both names are forms of “Yolanda” – which makes perfect sense but was news to me. It’s also very short for an opera – well under 2 hours – so I was able to have a little additional treat. My local station, which could not afford the second half od the summer season, decided that instead they would play a recording of a complete opera starting at the same time, so I was able to hear a substantial part of Handel’s “Rinaldo” after “Iolanta” finished. I’ve seen it once – almost certainly during the pandemic, when the Met allowed people to stream a different opera every day/night for free. When I turned it on, it was during a recitative scene, but very soon it went to an aria, and lucky for me, it was the aria which has been frequently performed in concert and recorded away from the opera (including by Celtic Woman), so I recognized it and was able to identify the opera quickly.
“Friday” in this from Democratic Underground was probably the 14th. I didn’t receive it in time for the 16th.
From The Guardian. I am putting this into Sunday’s post as good news because the judge did the right thing. However, I personally have mixed feelings. I was hoping this would backfire – that reducing the number of Republicans in some of the darkest red districts would actually make them competitive and increase our representation, not theirs. Now that will not happen – at least not in Texas.
This was from a local ABC affiliate in New Jersey, but I found it through The Smile. (off topic, but the part of the URL I cut off ended with “bfd.” Yeah, I would say so.)
Yesterday, I was exhausted so slept in. But here’s what I know about the projection project:
This link goes to an Act Blue page with a couple of pix of physical posters. I haven’t yet found pix of any projections..
And here’s what I know about No Kings Day: the initial total participation nationwide was estimated at over 7 million. On the spot estimates are kind of rough, so that may change. I did the math, and to meet the three and a half percent rulr, we would need just under 12 million nationwide. Some events did over perform. Theres a little town in Colorado with 500 population which brought out 150 people. That’s 30%, and impressive.
As for the No Kings Day signs – they were many unique, all creative, and some surprising. Meidas Touch complied a Top 40 List, which needs four links because Substack can only post up to 10 images in one article. I found a couple at Steve Schmidt’s The Warning that made me smile – one said “There will be hell toupée” and the other “They’re eating the Checks, They’re eating the balances.
If you think you have to be brave to go out and protest when you are white – think for a minute about how brave you have to be to go out and protest when you are Black. Or LatinX. The Root shared a list of Black celebrities who took part (not all were physically present, and I get that – but f the regime decides it wants to find them, it will.) I expect Jasmine Crockett will surprise no one.
I enjoy Jeff Tiedrich quotes when I run into them, but generally don’t go to his site. This time I did for his massive, mostly pictorial report on No Kings – and I don’t think I’ll need to tell you which publication referred me.
This is not a “No Kings” report. Harry Litman thinks it might be possible for the State of New York to overturn the commutation of George Santos’s sentence, and I see his point. Unfrotunately, that does not nexesssarily mean it would be easy.
There is less than usual in this about The Week Ahead, and more about last week. But the section on Abrego Garcia caught my eye – and hopefully it will illuminate not just this week but also future court cases – depending on how it is decided, which of course reflects and depends on judicial ethics.
Yesterday, I went through a little more than two days of emails – I had not had the energy to tackle Sunday’s on Sunday. But Joyce Vance’s “The Week Ahead” from Sunday really shouldn’t be missed, both for the analysis and for the hope. Harry Litman addressed the same case – not the verdict itself but apparently even lawyers can’t agree on how awful it is.) Also yesterday – remember the Pearl Street bombing in Boulder, CO on June 1? Well, one more victim has died, as reported by Colorado Public Radio. She was 82 years old. Finally, USA Today has a pretty detailed account of the shooting in Idaho. I won’t claim is the best – I didn’t check everywhere – but it’s pretty solid. No paywall.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-
This is a few days old – but I think still interesting to anyone who is still wondering just how effed up the knuckle-draggers working in the current regime can get. I would put this somewhere in the territory of FUBB and FUBAR.
John Pavlovitz was inspired (as was I) by Joe Biden’s presence and demeanor at the funeral of the Hortmans (Melissa, Mark, and Gilbert). This is what he had to say about it – and I can agree with just about every word. I did know what we had, and you may recall, was so crushed when he dropped out of the race that I had to take a week off to collect myself. I wish I had a way to forward this to President Joe. He deserves to know how much he is loved and missed.
Yesterday, while looking for a cartoon for today (a specific one), I found trove of older cartoons and memes, many of which are not old at all. For instance, does anyone remember (I didn’t) that the Cantaloupe Caligula expressed interest in buying Greenland as early as 2019? I didn’t. But he did. Incidentally, the third asterisk in parentheses when I use the name Trump**(*) is because articles of impeachment have actually been filed. Not that they will go anywhere, but they have. I admit I jumped the gun a little and added it when they had only been drafted and not yet filed – but they did get filed, so I have no regrets. Also yesterday, the Brennan Center reported that Rikers Island ‘s penal complex has been put into receivership by a Federal judge. And one more thing: Rep Gerry Connolly (D-VA) died from esophageal cancer. I looked up Virginia law, and there will be a special election called by the Governor. The law does not specify a time frame.
I’m back to working a little ahead, which means my selections will be a little behind. I hope that isn’t too annoying. At least this from Talking Points Memo covers multiple topics (all important) so there’s a chance you may not have seen one or two.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/stop-asking-about-a-biden-cover-up
This by Robert Reich is not really addressed to us, but to the media, and particularly to wingnut media. As such, it’s probably already doomed. It may give us some ammunition, if any of us has a platform from which to use it. Persnally, I will put on record, and would happily do so anywhere, any time, my evidence-backed opinion that a demented Joe Biden would be a better President than Trump**(*) in perfect mental health and 20 years younger.
I would not be a bit surprised if this news got buried, and in fact considering the circumstances – all the circumstances – it’s probably not all that big a story. But you gotta love Wonkette‘s headline. (I am not blind to the possibility of dangerous consequences from it, but it’s still funny.)
This is a bonus video from Talking Feds. Harry analyzes in detail the events regarding the arrest of Mayor Baraka and the charge against Congresswoman McIver in New Jersey – and what a mess* it really is. The vid is about 26 minutes because it doesn’t leave any issues out.
*When I was in the USMC, we had a racist expression for this which I won’t repeat. “SNAFU,” even “FUBB,” don’t really do it justice, though. Maybe “circle jerk”?
Today I have an appointment with my PCP in the afternoon. Hopefully tht won’t slow me down.
Don’t ask me what it will take for Americans to wake up and wee what is happening. I don’t know. Robert Reich doesn’t know. John Pavlovitz doesn’t know. If any of us knew, we would have started doing it. Marcie Jones at Wonkette doesn’t know either. If only we did.
Nice to know some people have a sense of proportion. About time someone did.
I can’t actually post the “Dose of Democracy” daily news email, but this link has most of the information from Tuesday’s. One wonders how long Shapiro will stay mad at the Apricot Antichrist. At least it’s something.
