Yesterday, I ran across this video. It’s probably not one you want to watch all the way through at once, but one to maybe save (or save the URL) and watch one idiot at a time. When you are feeling dumb, I guarantee it will make you feel smarter. Incidentally, Norton (one of the later numbers) died in 1888 and I wasn’t born till 1945, but he was still a legend when I was growing up. I don’t think anyone in San Francisco believed a word he said – I think he was just a nice guy and they decided to humor him.
The Saffron Sauron is not the first US President to disagree with NATO – but he is the worst (so far). We and NATO have survived the others – so far.
This from Bloomberg is the first of two articles I have chosen on John Roberts and what he has done to us. It focuses on the Shadow Docket. If you can’t get in, here is the archived version.
This from Lever News, also about Roberts, addresses how someone who was fearful of “activist judges” became one of the worst. Again, here is the archived link.
Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage. The deck we had (I just pick up whatever is closest in the games cabinet now ) was not brand new, since it was rather sticky, but it was missing no cards, and no cards were torn or peeling – that’s not always the case. Colorado prisons’ visiting rooms are always cold, but yesterday it was colder than usual. But we had fun anyway. I posted after I got back home but didn’t respond to comments – I’ll do that today. After getting home (and finally making a cup of coffee, and dinner), and while I was looking for a video for today, I tripped over a channel I was not aware of, called “Sideprojects”, whose purpose is to inform people of things you learned in history or even from (usually older) books, are not true, and how we found out. I watched one on the Roman Empire – some of it I knew, but some thinks, especially DNA things were new even to me – and Latin was my major in college, and Roman History was a requirement. I don’t know that I’d call the false stories lies, actually, because I believe a falsehood requires intent to deceive in order to be a lie. But if I “know” something which is false, I do like to learn the truth. Most of the videos, as far as could see, not looking at the whole library, run in the neighborhood of 20-30 minutes, though some are longer – and while many are history based, some correct scientific “knowledge.”
I didn’t want to put this on Sunday. Wajeeh is a Saudi Arabian political analyst who now lives in Minneapolis and is a co-host for Malcolm Nance, along with Jacob Kaarsbo, who is Danish. I’m pretty sure all three pilots who were shot down have been rescued now, thankfully. But that does not mean that he risk is over. We have more pilots, and more planes, and neither the Emperor nor Kegsbreath appears to care much. See also this.
Heather Cox Richardson writes a short history of the origin of NATO, for its anniversary. I just hope this is not also its epitaph.
From Bowers News Media. Besides demonstrating how despicable Republicans can be (even without the Mango Moron as a model, but particularly with), it’s an extremely good argument for not having “jungle primaries.” I’ve been following the California Governor’s race since Katie Porter announced for it, and I’ve been nervous for most of that time – but I haven’t been terrified until now.
From The Seneca Project. Obviously this was made to recruit people to No Kings III, so all the signs shown will have been from II or I. But many people believe that viewing this type of presentation can help build morale anyway – and besides, there is another No kings scheduled for May Day. (And the song will never go out of fashion.)
Yesterday, The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Lisa Cook’s unlawful firing from the Federal Reserve. Based on questions asked by the Justices, both Michael Popok and Adam Klasfeld believe it will go 8-1 against the Mango Menace, or maybe even 9-0. Both have been watching the court for a long time, and I hope they are not wrong this time. Incidentally, Jerome Powell was present at the hearing too. Also, CPR reported that Tina Peters was “involved in an altercation” at the prison she is in (not a surprise.) And most of the snow in my yard is gone now, but there are a few patches left – and we are now expecting more on Friday and Saturday.
This is Robert Reich at his best. I don’t know whether it will actually be seen by the world leaders he is really addressing – but I hope it will.
It’s not as if we didn’t know most of what’s in the Common Dreams article. But knowing what happened, and doing something about it, are two different things.
This is the way Andy used to write for the New Yorker. The only thing missing is “Harland Dorrison.” Oh wait -I said that too soon. He shows up (a little masked) in this one!
Ask and you shall receive, I guess! Not that I actually asked anyone, but here it is – I can give you a full day’s notice for this event.
Yesterday was reasonably calm and quiet. I still don’t have speakers, but they are on order, and the videos I need to watch to choose from for here all have CC, and I know they are on the way and that I will get emails on their progress. I still don’t have full lighting in the kitchen, but I have an appointment for an electrician to come Thursday, and that’s OK. If they didn’t have an appointment before then, they are booked up, which probably means people like and/or trust them. I made some progress on a sweater I’ve been working on what seems like forever – I think I’ve mentioned it – the one with the yoke and sleeves using ladder yarn. But I’m down to the bottom ribbing, which is the finishing.
Completely off all topics, but too funny not to share. Wonkette had a story about the rapture (apparently many cultists believe it will happen today In a comment, a reader referred to a quote from someone’s supposed vision “I saw Jesus on his throne.” The response was, “So many times I have heard, ‘Jesus Christ, close the door when you are taking a shit.’ I had no idea.”
IIRC, Denis Elliott of Politizoom is a veteran of longer service and higher rank and a MOS closer to battle than I had. So, though I don’t always agree with him, I take this thesis seriously. And I think we should all be aware.
Democracy Docket is not a publication I subscribe to. But when I got this news in an email from the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, a link to the news was not included (they are amicus curiae and requesting donations to help), I did a search and found one. And I didn’t want to wait until Sunday.
This from The Root breaks my heart. Because it is so true. I have written before, though it must be a bunch of years ago, about how even in majority black/all black nations, colorism is so strong that snake oil producers can make a living selling heaven-knows-what’s-in-them” medications” “guaranteed” to lighten the skin of a baby while it is in the womb. And in the same newsletter as this article, there was one about the first international beauty pageant for trans women, and how it was won by an American, and how she is being shunned and dissed by all the other contestants.
Yesterday, I learned that Mallory McMorrow (D-MI), the state senator who got national attention for being fierce, is running to represent Michigan in the US Senate. She joins Roy Cooper (D-NC) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), all candidates who accept no BS and are proven winners. This is exactly what we need (and could use a little more of.) Also yesterday, I woke up in more pain than usual (and the “usual” has been gradually worse for a while now.) I’m accustomed to my left knee flaring up and know how to deal with it. But when the right knee flares up too at the same time, that’s something I’m not used to dealing with. I iced the right knee and at the same time used the TENS on the right back and the left knee, and took an 80 mg aspirin (the largest I’m now allowed). The TENS helped. The ice, not so much, which didn’t totally surprise me, since the pain in the right knee feels different from he pain I get in the left one. I’m not even going to try to explain how. But anyway, I then put the TENS on the sides of the right knee. That didn’t help so I tried putting the pads n the front and back of the right knee. That helped some, but not enough to dispense with the walker. I think I’ll take one more aspirin.
I could wish that Ursula was wrong about this, but sadly, I think she has nailed it. Heck, I can even add an example – there was never even the slightest hint from the media during his presidency that JFK had Addison’s Disease.
John is actually 56 in calendar years. This makes me wonder just how tired I look at 80. No wonder I’m sleeping late so much. Please, everyone, get as much rest as you need.
I managed to squeeze a very brief note about this into yesterday’s OT, but of course I didn’t have the full story, which had not yet happened. Wonkette also covered it, but I think The F* News contains a bit more.
Yesterday, the 2:00-4:00 pm weekdays on my local radio station used her first hour for music about cats (including big ones, like Elsa the lioness.) Hooray for childless cat ladies! I hope your Juneteenth was happy.
Yes, I’m late getting this posted. But I don’t suppose it holds any surprises. It does hold some hard evidence which should be useful in future elections – provided we know how to use it.
This is from the 19th. A couple of days ago, in the middle of the night (which is when many of us, including me, get our most off-the-wall thoughts), I started thinking about transgender and the brain, specifically the two sides of the brain. I have since done a search, and I do realize the differences between male and female usage ouf our brains is not as cut and dried as we were led to believe in the seventies. However such differences do exist. As a child, growing up in a Lutheran household, during the career of Christine Jorgensen (not that I ever saw any of her films), I was told that transgender is when the soul of a woman is born into a male body (or vice versa.) And that made perfect sense to me. I never imagined a time when transgender people would have to fight and defend their very identities. Now that we live in such a time, it occurred to me (as I said, in the middle of the night) that possibly the study of differences between male and female brains could provide transgender people with evidence that their perception is real. Possibly I am totally off base here, and it might even backfire, but it is a thought. Being in a brick-and-mortar prison is bad enough, but at least in that situation one is still oneself. Being in prison inside one’s own body and never able to be oneself has got to be orders of magnitude worse.
This is a new ad from a very outspoken PAC which I guess is new – but they already have a bunch out. This on was featured on Democratic Underground, and I thought it hit like a brick: And there are more.
Yesterday, the biggest news appeared to be that Joe Biden is adding Spureme Court reform to his platform. I expect you can watch, or read about, this development just about anywhere. How very welcome this is can probably be measured by how vitriolic Trump**s remarks about it in his social medium (I made that singular because he only has the one.) Of course, the formation of an agency by NATO is also pretty big. But I’ll let Beau talk about that.
Apparently, we have zebra mussels in our waters. They are native to Russia, as are Siberian elms, another invasive species we have. Grump.
Joyce Vance has some things to say – about the apparent attack on Trump** and reactions to it – on both sides. Normally, IMO, if something is balanced, it is by definition not fair, because both sides are not the same. But she shows it can be done.
Yesterday, I found it refreshing for an earthquake to be newsworthy in some place other than California. (And, since there were no injries, the humor is a nice touch. “The Empire State Building”sent some messages via Xitter: “I am fine.” “I am still fine.” and then another “I am fine.”) Also I got my lost made of people whom I haven’t yet paid. There are seven of them, one of them whom I guess I saw twice, so there are eight charges. When new bills come in they should be easy to find. Also – the “Phone Call” Robert Hubbell prodived a summary for yesterday – Beau did a video on it It’s over 10 minutes, so I sdon’t wast to embed it. But it’s detailed enough i do wany to make it available. So, here’s the link.
This really is madness. Sadly it’s predictable (and in-character) madness. Russia is not going to be destroyed by migrants. But it very wwell may be destroyed by its own government.
Very often I can’t find a particular story on “Law and Crime,” appaently because there’s so much crime that stories get pushed to the back. This time I found the one I was looking for. A value of $40.000.00 sounds like grand theft to me.
