Happy Juneteenth, y’all! Yesterday, from a comment on Malcolm’s show: “Trump [sic] didn’t get his HEU (highly enriched uranium) but he did get HEI (highly enriched Iranians).” Jim Acosta, on the other hand, called the signing foreign policy flatulence – the fart (maybe even the shart) of the deal.
Robert Reich – is singing my song. Well, except that no one is trying to tell me to slow down, because no one sees the actual work, which mostly consists of goinf through hundreds of emails daily in order to select a few topics – and minimize the explainer part – and minimizing is harder than it looks. But if anyone did say something – I’d have basically the same response.
To quote Nina Simone – “Mississippi God Damn.” Yes, I do know there are good people in Mississippi – that’s proven right in this story by the witneses who are coming forward to dispute the police account. But still.
Glad to learn that someone is taking Tommy Potatohead to court over where he actually lived – as opposed to just owns the houae.
This is a little bonus for today – because it officially opens today – because of course it does – although the big party was yesterday.
Yesterday, Virgil and I played cribbage as usual. He loved the new outfit. I think I said I barely finished it in time, but I didn’t mention I didn’t even have time to sew the ends of the elastic in the waitline of the pnats, so I gambled on usinf a small safety pin, and it did not set off the metal detector. That’s good to know for sure. I told him about the Googlr doodle story and he was just as impressed as everyone else. The drive was pretty easy both ways. On the way down I stopped to drop off my primary ballot in a drop box. I figured that even if we win the mail-in ballots war, it’s still time for me to learn about drop boxes, so I read up on where they are, and there are two on the stretch of old-fashoned highway I use to get to the Interstate when I see him. The first one is on the right side of the road going, and the second is on the right side of the road when I return. I stopped at the first one, and the box was obvious, and the parking was good, so I just used that one, and probably will in the future if it doesn’t change. But I am still glad to know about the second one.
I personally favor “Scrap the Cap.” And, even if that’s not actually passable, enough people supporting it could make Reich’s suggestion easier to pass.
Knowing Senator Whitehouse as I do – not personally, but through following his work in the Senate and his thinking through various media, I’m confident that the reassurance he is asking for is something that he wants only if it is true – and tha if it is not, he wants the truth. I say this because I don’t feel the article makes that clear. He and Senator Merkley are two Senators I just named as people whose nomination for President I would vote for – and added that that were others, but didn’t name them. Yes, he is pushing 70, and Merkley is pushing 69 (their dates of birth are one year minus 4 days apart.) And no, One doesn’t need to be that old to know what one is doing and how things work – but both do.I’m not averse to someone younger, but I would like someone who gives me the quiet confidence which they do.
Does ths reporting from ITPI surprise anyone? It certainly doesn’t surprise me – it just depresses me.
Sam Adams
Dog &Duck
I confess that when I filled up yesterday on the way home, it cost only a little over half what it had cost the last time. I wasn’t completely out either time, and he amounts were comparable. I doubt that’s widespread – I suspect I just got lucky.
Yesterday, I finished a sweater just in time to get to bed early enough to get more than8 hours sleep (fingers crossed.) The previous week, I finished finished the matching pants. Now I’m off to see Virgil and show them off. I’ll check in when I get back.
Even though I was never interested in Roller Derby (and certainly never considered participating, due to balance issues even in childhood), this from The 19th makes me very glad it’s still around.
This story really warmed my heart. Too many people have for too long used others’ hair as a stick to beat them with – not just racists, but also parents of teenagers whom they considered rebellious, and probably also situations I haven’t personally seen. You may have seen this on the Today show, if you watch it. I don’t, but Trinette does.
I’ve been short of time and have skipped enough RMPBS and CPR emails that I had no idea of this till I stumbled on it. I am amazed – and can hardly wait to tell Virgil today.
lYesterday, Public Citizen revisited a lawsuit they already won to ask SCOTUS to enforce the settlement, “which, again, the USPS agreed to and which requires it to prioritize the timely delivery of election mail to all voters without exception.” This of course was a reaponse to the Apricot Antichrist’s attempt to weaponize USPS by turning it into voter police. It could get interesting.Also, Malcolm quoted Pete Hegseth as saying “We’re negotiating with bombs. That’s what we do.” (As a veteran, this just makes my stomach churn.)
Archived from Huff Post, not because of a paywall, but because their cookie policy is so convoluted – and time consuming to navigate, and confusing – that I had no idea what I’d be getting you into with the original link. I strongly suspect that the person who has the very worst case of TDS in the world is Trump**(*) – although there are cases to be made for Marco Rubio, Todd Blanche, Pete Hegseth, and others.
I am guessing (and that’s all it is – a guess) that reasers here either do not trade stocks – or, if they do, do so through a trusted financial advisor and may not pay much attention to individual stocks [that would be me – with only a small 401(k) which I mostly only look at when it’s MRD time, though I have been following it periodically thtough the war, and it’s been very stable.) But this is an IPO which even I can see is different – though I could not even come close to explaining it as Robert Reich can. If you do trade, whether first hand or seconf hand, caveat emptor.
This is the Part 2 I promised – but unfortunately it’s for paid subscribers only, and archiving won’t get around that with Substack (I tried.) So we only get the summary of Part 1.
I want to address the International Criminal Court at the Hague (not to be confused with the International Court of Justice – also at The Hague, which is more like a civil court to settle disputes between nations. An international criminal court was proposed as early as 1919, but it took until 2000 for a treaty establishing it to be finalized and signed. We, the United States, signed it in 2000, but never ratified it, and in 2002, when the Rome Statute was passed and submitted for ratification (which 125 nations have done, then or since), this is what the United States said:
“This is to inform you, in connection with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court adopted on July 17, 1998, that the United States does not intend to become a party to the treaty. Accordingly, the United States has no legal obligations arising from its signature on December 31, 2000. The United States requests that its intention not to become a party, as expressed in this letter, be reflected in the depositary’s status lists relating to this treaty.”
Sounds like Dick Cheney wrote it, doesn’t it. So we are not a member state. I didn’t have time to verify this, but I think a US citizen can be tried in the court, but cannot be arrested on US soil – or the soil of any other non-member state. I also did not have time to look up all the member states, though I did notice that the UK is (and thought of a golf course in Scotland.) We are still a member of the UN and therefore subject to the Mandela Rules, which lay out rules for treating prisoners, which among other provisions specify that, when outside the prison, fot instance, while in court, prisoner be allowed to wear their own clothes. We don’t always require that, but I expect the ICC does,.
Yesterday, there were a whole lot of Substack videos available from Substackers whom I fpllow. Malcolm’s “warcast” was probably the one which most struck me, though Frank Figliuzzi’s interview with Jim Himes on national intelligence was also sobering. One – from Joyce Vance, lasting under a minute, I added a link to under the history one (all of those are only a minute, plus or minus not more than five seconds.) I got a lot of knitting done, but I didn’t forget to pay my escrow shortage. Oh, and my primary ballot arrived by mail, as is state law.
It’s easy to sympathize with Nichelle Nichols and her family. It’s harder to remember that every day, black people and their families are treated as second (or lower) class citizens by other people who don’t think they are racists.
Ve-ry in-ter-est-ing. (Somehow quoting Arte Johnson feels appropriate here.)
The first in a two part series from Harry Litman. Is playing chicken ever a smart idea? I think not. Part 2 is coming – and I will share it when it arrives.
Steve Schmidt has written before about Roderick Edmonds. Sadly, he will likely feel the need in the future to do so again.
Mary and Joyce. This happened outside last week’s Bruce Springsteen concert. I wrote about it, but didn’t have video. You’ll probably have to unmute it.
Yesterday, after saying it was a slow day, Malcolm had to come back and make an emerbency sequel when Iran attacked Israel. To steal one of his expressions – “not healthy.” As I type, Ihave noclue what will be happening today.
Remember what I said last week about Graham Platner’s tattoos a while ago, based on my experience with young male Marines? This quote, from a former Marine who served with him and got tattoos with him, says the same thing, only blunter: “No, we did not purposely get hateful fucking shit because we’re racist people,” he said. “We got matching tattoos because we were in our 20s, drunk in Croatia, and that’s it. That’s all that fucking happened.” I had to laugh. It really took me back to the day.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/whos-most-responsible-for-the-monopolization
This from Robert Reich is history. But it’s history I don’t think is terribly widely known, even if you know the players. I admit it surprised me.
https://thefrankfigliuzzi.substack.com/p/i-see-dead-people-and-the-friday
This Frank Figliuzzi video is from Friday, and I assume most won’t watch the whole thing, or maybe any of it, but there is a full transcript. Scroll down to the line below Frank’s picture on the left, and the last opyion before the three dots is “Transcript.” Frank’s presentations re like a whole newspaper (a real one, back in the day), so skim through it, and you are likely to find at least one thing no one else has covered. Plus there is good news at the end.
https://www.theroot.com/13-organized-plots-against-black-america-that-are-worki-2000109731
This, straight from The Root, is also from Friday, and is also history
Yesterday, the Met season was over, but WFMT’s summer season was just beginning, with “The Bartered Bride” by Smetena, from Vienna. It was perfomed in German, as opposed to the original Czech, which I thought might give me a fighting chance to ubderstand some dialogue as it was sung. But individual words like “I”. “My”, “your,” “no”, “yes”, even “love” (hey, it’s a rom com) don’t give much to go on. But the plot is simple, based on concealed identity, and there’s a lot of great dance music (which must have come in handy for Paris), so it wasn’t hard to follow. Also, John Pavlovitz had a thought for so-called Christians who want to turn Pride Month into Niclear Family Month – they should celevrate Mind Your Own Damn Business Month instead.
Another short ABC video on loop. It speaks for itself. ABC is pretty good at this.
This, referred by The Smile, is closer to politics than I usually try to get on Sunday. But it is very good indeed.
From National Public Radio. This is limited to melanoma – for now – but it’s progress. (My mother had a melanoma, but she was lucky. It was very visible even when very small, and even with just outpatient surgery with local, it never returned. Not everyone can be that fortunate.
I’ve been thinking about this for some time, and I’m not the only one. Several pundits have said that the GOP’s gerrymandering scheme may well backfire. Using numbers I’ve made up, here’s how. Let’s assume a red southern state has a majority minority district which in 2024 went blue by 12 points. It’s adjacent to a majority red district which went red by 10 points. So the state mashes them together and redivides them, expecting both to go red by maybe 8 points. But they haven’t taken into consideration how deeply the current regime’a approval ratings have descended. Some who voted Republican in 2024 will vote Democratic in 2026. I’m guessing that more will simply not vote. Those two dictricts could easily go blue by 2 points each – which would be enough. Especially if it happened in multiple states.
Yes, this page requests donations, and no, I am not asking you to donate. I just want us to be aware of this race. It is for Joni Ernst’s seat (Grassley’s current term will be up in 2028 – he will be 94 but may run again anyway.) Turek is endorsed by Elizabeth Warren (probaly by others, but she’s the one I just got the email endorsement from.)
This from Talking Points Memo is about Todd Blanche but Bill Polte is likely to be as big a problem.
The latest on Tina Peters – which IMO shows clearly why she should still be locked up. The next best thing would be laws at tgr Federal level, and Stale laws, County lawd, and municipal laws that no convicted felon can be eligible for public office.
