Organized Crime – Politics Plus

Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage.If you’ve ever played any kind of card game with actual cards (including solitaire), you’ve probably noticed that there are days when the cards seem to have a mind of their own – and sometimes that mind is mischievous. This was one of those days. I kept coming up with double runs (and occasional triple runs, and sometimes two double runs in the same hand.) Virgil got quite envious (although he hd a few himself.) In the last hand we played before closing, I dealt, and didn’t have anything remotely like a double run in my hand – but darned if I didn’t have a double run in the crib. Go figure. Also, a thoughtful and educational Yom Kippur to all who celebrate. (I may illustrate wih pomegranates and a shofar, but I won’t say “Happy Yom Kippur” – that isn’t its purpose.)

While apologizing for a long post on a Saturday night, Joyce Vance neverthe less feels it’s too importa nt to wait. I have to concur. There are things going on we need to know about ASAP, even if we also need to wait and possibly prepare before taking action. It’s about 44 days to election day – and 26 days to the next No Kings event.

It would appear that ICE, CBP, and DHS have exactly zero interest in quitting the killing. Also that the DOJ has even less interest in indicting and prosecuting the murderers. In Minnesota, the state Attorney General stepped in. But this is Texas. Although he’s rinning for something wlse (Senate? or Govermor?), I think Ken Paxton is still the AG of Texas. No joy there.

Having taken part in a few product trials (years ago), I have at least an idea what informed consent is supposed to look like. Which is nothing like anything the Orange Ogre(apologies to actual ogres, who are much nicer) will come up with. I doubt whether anyone in RFK Jr’s circle believes in allergies, so I don’t expect them to ask any prospective participants about any. And that is only one way they will kill people -while learning nothing related to actual science. Of course none of them has a clue what an ethic might be, so they won’t be bothered.

Yesterday, the radio opera was Madama Butterfly. I assume everyonehas at least heard of it and maybe something from it, even if not the whole thing. Certainly from the song “Poor Butterfly” all the way to “M(onsieur) Butterfly on broadway, creative artists have assumed that everyone knows the story (which is probably as old as humanity, though the odlest i can trace it to is “Madame Chrysantheme” by Pierre Loti, which itself inspired the opera “Lakmé,” set in india with an English cad, whereas of course Butterfly is set in Japan with an American cad. It’s always beautiful to listen to, and always makes everyone cry, which “Lakmé” doesn’t necessarily/ I’m pretty sure that’s because somewhere between Loti and Puccini the detail got added of her having birthed a child in his absence, and that really ups the stakes. It also makes the opera more difficult to produce, but everyone stages it anyway. Totally unrelated, but May 12, today, always reminds me of my (very) long ago youth. In my last year of high school and my first couple of years of college I enjoyed playing bridge, and preferred the high school club even after graduation because the college one was duplicate bridge, and very, very serious. You know kids that age – we all thought we were clever. We had nicknames for certain kinds of tricks, such as one where all the cards were honor cards was called a “Summit Conference.” A trick where three cards were honor cards and one not was called a “May 12th, because, on May 12, 1960, Khrushchev had walked out on a summit conference – and that was such a short time before it was practically still news.

Well, this is interesting. Sure too bad this didn’t come out earlier.

There’s a whole lot of information here, and some, but not all, of the snippets which follow the longer first section have some relevance to that section.