Yesterday, I watched Malcolm Nance’s Day 3. I intend to watch it every day it continues, which means as long as the war lasts (assuming I live that long), but not to report on it here. These reports contain too much detail, including a lot of detail which may be important but may not appear so. Yesterday I provided a link from which anyone can reach the day’s report s it is posted, or subscribe for free to have links sent to their email. I won’t say that something said there might not color my comments on something else, because it might, but I also won’t promise it. I will give you a link to one more longish – about a half hour – video which I expect to be a one-off by Adam Klasfeld (because his primary area of journalism is within courts in the US). It’s about the Rules of Engagement and related topics and features a legal expert in that area.
Archived from The Lever News. You can’t hear it in the archive, but I think most prefer to read anyway. The Lever has just about all the dark money sources nailed here. There are some I haven’t heard of.
There are other things going on besides an unjust, unprovoked, illegal, unconstitutional war. Here are some of them.
While listening to the audio version of this The F* News article, I was thinking – so what should the people of the US do? Well, what if you were an abused wife who learned that your abusive husband had hired a hit man to kill you? You’d probably attempt to get into a shelter, along with any children (and pets – but good luck with that). Obviously that’s not feasible for a nation, but it still might be a mindset to consider.
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.
Yesterday, La Befana (I’m a day late with her because I always thought she came on Epiphany, but no, it’s Epiphany Eve.) But seriously – here’s a link to a roughly 22 minute video with Joyce Vance and Senator Mark Warner, who says as much (unclassified) quiet part out loud as he can. And it is chilling. Also yesterday, it appears that Minnesota has been Joe-Bidening Tim Walz, who has just dropped his reelection campaign.
Saturday, I saw Nameless’s Friday image representing the court at the Hague, and insignificant as this sounds, I started a search to find out whether orange jumpsuits are ever used outside the US (the answer is seldom, and in some nations, never.) But that rabbit hole also took me to The Hague – and I learned there are, not one court, but two international courts there (Lona probably already knows this.) The one which bears the nickname of “The World Court” is the International Court of Justice, which was established in 1920 by the League of Nations and adopted by the United Nations. Every member of the United Nations (there are 193) is automatically a party to this court. But it does not try criminals. It considers cases where there is a disagreement between member nations. So in that way it is more like a civil court. The other court, also at The Hague, is the International Criminal Court, authorized under a treaty called the Rome State in 1998, entering into force in 2002. 125 nations are parties to this court as of a year ago. The United States is not one of them. Venezuela is one of them – in fact every country south of out border is except maybe Costa Rica (the map ia a bit tough to read, even compared with a more labelled map.) The Court tries four crimes: (I) Genocide, (II) Crimes against humanity, (III) War crimes, and the (IV) Crime of aggression. The only immunity the ICC recognizes is that of being a juvenile at the time the crime was committed (i.e. younger than 18.) I quote from Wikipedia” “The issue of immunities from the jurisdiction of the ICC has become recently relevant, when the Court issued arrest warrants for Russian and Israeli national leaders, since their immunities are granted from states which are not parties to the Rome Statute. States which have ratified the statute have waived the immunities of their officials with respect to the jurisdiction of the court by accepting the provisions of Article 2.” The U.S, did sign the Statute once, but never ratified it, and has subsequently withdrawn its signature. This is the Court in which most of us would like to see multiple U.S. officials prosecuted.
From Common Dreams. There are only 337 (rounded) million people in the US. There is no way we could handle the loss of 30% (rounded) of our population and survive as a nation.
I mentioned Adam Klasfeld last week in connection with Joyce Vance. Now here he is with Glenn Kirschner. At this point, I don’t know whether he is himself a lawyer, or a law student, or what, besides a journalist – it’s clear he is strong on legal vocabulary (unlike the CC). And that he is the guy that sits in the courtroom and takes notes so that the actual former prosecutors don’t have to because he can share it with them. The video with this (and yes, there is a transcript – I haven’t looked at it, but if it’s from the CC, and they usually are, there will be some far-fetched spelling errors.) The video is only 15 minutes.
Yesterday, Joyce Vance and Stacey Abrams had a conversation about what individuals can do in this constitutional crisis. I know that all of us are already doing something – but I also know that I sometimes get a nagging feeling that it’s not enough, and I’m betting I am not alone in that. The video of the convo is only 31 minutes, which is definitely short for such a subject, and both women are highly respected and easy to listen to. So I’m sharing the link. Stacey mentions a website with more guidance, and I tripped over several obstacles looking for it, so here is the correct spelling: 10stepscampaign.org.
I’m not putting this from The F* News in Sunday because it’s too mixed. The video produced by members of Congress is good as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough. It doesn’t list (as the article does) any of the resources service members can rely on for support against the chain of command giving the illegal order. However, it is not nothing. (Also, the Gamboge Garbage is calling for them to be executed. Se the next article, from Common Dreams)
This from Common Dreams is so outrageous you have probably already seen it or heard about it. In fact, if you haven’t, your news sources are failing. Bur exactly because it’s so outrageous, I want a record of it here. I can’t even.
This from NBC News is good news as far as it goes. If it passes with a veto-proof majority, that will be good enough for a Sunday post. But we’re not there yet.
Yesterday, as is usual for me on Mondays when possible, I relaxed a lot. I did order a grocery delivery for the evening, and received most of it, and put away most of what I received.
It’s been a long time since I heard from Margaret Atwood. She has written a new post called “The Woman Thing, Part 1”. Her starting point is pretty much where she left off earlier – the French Revolution (or Revvie.) That’s because she has been invited to create a video audiobook, has agreed, and has chosen “A Tale of Two Cities.” But I expect her to move on from there and provide insights few people could.
Joyce Vance takes on misogyny. We tried our best to warn people about all of this too. Someone in the comments, probably close to my age, says it is exhausting to think about having to do it all over again. Yes, it certainly is.
This by Steve Schmidt is the big truth bomb of the day. Not that anyone should be surprised. Allow me if you will to compare humans to pit bulls. Pit bulls are basically big sweet goofballs. But pit bulls can be trained for dog fighting to be vicious killers. The people in charge of ICE detention are like pit bulls trained for dogfighting – all their grievances, both real and imaginary, have been catered to and they have been assured that nothing in their lives they don’t like is their fault, and that they have been terribly wronged. I dont suppose they have been taught much if anything in the way of specific torture techniques, but they are filled with anger and it’s not difficult to translate that into cruelty – in fact, it’s harder not to. Encouraging them to focus on wanting revenge (rather than actual improvements in their lives) has turned them into dogfighting pit bulls. Or, to use a different analogy, if anyone remembers, like those entities in Star Trek episodes who fed upon human misery and needed it to survive. I don’t know how to untrain them, or if it is even possible, but decent people need to know about evil things being done in our name.
Yesterday, Senator Van Hollen (D-MD) was in my prayers all day. He is in El Salvador to do everything he can to bring back his constituent, Kilmar Abrego Garcia. I have two D Senators, but I doubt whether either of them would do anything like that. They are hung up on “collegiality.” Senator Van Hollen did inspire me to send a single-sentence email to both my Senators, though: “So – what are you going to do when he starts disappearing people who are legally residing in Colorado?” I do hope the Senator is safe himself – that is far from guaranteed. Speaking as a white person, I wish we could bring back Ellis Island, or something like it and screen immigrants, not for tuberculosis, but for white supremacy. Not by asking them whether they are a white supremacist, but with a psych screen. Elon would never have made it through that. Just in case anyone thinks I am overreacting (I know, not likely), here’s a link with thought. Also yesterday, Judge Boasberg issued a ruling that there is cause to hold the Trump** Regime in criminal contempt, and gave them a week to come clean (turn over all information he has requested.) HuffPost has the story.
This all along is what has worried and frightened me the most. And here we are. I may be wrong, but I don’t think Marcie at Wonkette is a lawyer, so I’m also posting the same story as explained by Joyce Vance, who is a lawyer, and not just a lawyer, a former DOJ prosecutor.
Nobody says it better or clearer than Joyce Vance. She doesn’t sugar coat it, and I certainly don’t want to either. And I am about out of words of my own at this point.
May as well add Heather Cox Richardson to the chorus. I really do not think there is any way to over-report this.
John Pavlovitz weighs in also. I think this can be called a righteous rant.
Had I found this in time, I would have used it Tuesday. But it wasn’t posted until late enough Tuesday that I had already scheduled Wednesday.Here it is now.
Yesterday, Trinette came by to help get my trash and recyclables out for Thursday pickup. It had been a while, so I had a fair amount. I told her about that mail piece I had received from “Pure Talk,” and she could only shake her head. Otherwise, not a lot happening here. Which is a pretty good thing. I don’t need any more excitement than I get from the news (and that mostly negative.) I did manage to at least skim Joyce Vance’s “The Week Ahead” before the week actually started, for a change
The F* News has a point. I’d be even more worried than I am if DoD were headed by someone with Hegseth’s ideas and principles but more competent. And if he’s getting negative attention from MAGA – well, that’s just a bonus.
I missed seeing this Wonkette story elsewhere. Not that it contains any surprises, unless taking revenge he said he was going to take is close enough to telling the truth to be a surprise – that certainly could happen.
Yesterday, ProPublica released the results of an investigation they did into “Terrorgram.” They worked in cooperation with PBS’s “Frontline,” and if you watch it regularly, you saw this last night. if not, you can read about it here, and or pick up links to YouTube, the PBS a[[, and Frontline’s website, and watch it at one of those. Only by knowing how these – people – operate can we hope to detect them and report them. Also yesterday, Louis DeJoy resigned – at the worst possible time. Just at the right moment for the Valencia Vlad-the-Impaler to appoint a lunatic who will buy and privatize the Postal Service. Is Philadelphia having earthquakes? Benjamin Franklin is probably finding that turning over is not enough, and taking up break dancing instead.
Yeah, “The Week Ahead” is late. But she has put together a number of related ideas that are being mentioned, but mostly not together, and personalizing it from her own experience.
Also late, and also from Joyce Vance, a discussion of something Judge Boasberg might do (or, of course, might not, but he seems like someone who might.) Incidentally, if you see anyone refer to him as “Jeb” Boasberg, J.E.B. are his initials. There is precedent for the nickname.
This is old from Wonkette also. But it is so surreal that I couldn’t resist.
