Yesterday, I learned in passing that – at least for now – TACO (T* Always Chickens Out) has been replaced by NACHO (Not A Chance Hormuz Opens).
I’m posting this from Colorado Public Radio, not so much as Colorado news, as that I’m pretty confident this happening all over the country. Because why wouldn’t it.
You can read the letter – or you can listen to Heather read it (under 14 minutes) – they have identical content. I’ve checked enough times to be confident, but I checked this one anyway.
Today, in addition to being May Day, is also Law Day in the US.
Yesterday, Joyce Vance made a Substack video with Norm Eisen and April Ryan from The Contrarian, and the subject of James Comey’s new indictment came up. I know almost everyone is still upset with him on account of the 2016 election and “her emails.” But the more time goes by, the less I believe that that remark had anything to do with Hillary’s loss. I think pure misogyny was more than enough to sink her. But I digress. April, who had worked at the FBI when Comey was its Director, said something about him that I didn’t know and you probably don’t either. She said he would take every new hire to the MLK Memorial, and show them the FBI files on Dr. King, and say “This is what overreach looks like.”
From The Conversation. The Panamanian company Congress just authorized to mine the Boundary Waters for copper sulfite may be the most egregious example of this. It doesn’y just pollute the water. It also poisons the air.
As Liza Donnelly points out, Heather Cox Richardson nailed the difference between the two speeches. And Liza goes a bit farther by linking to videos. (This from Borowitz is just a footnote.)
There’s been noise about Rep Chuck Edwards (R-NC) being under ethics investigation, but nothing about why. Unless this is it. Not that this sounds like something Republican would care about. I guess we’ll wait and see.
Yesterday, SCROTUS eviscerated the Voting Rights Act. I’m not providing a link because the news is everywhere. I am not saying this in its defense, because there is no defense. But I presume they are looking at Clarence to justify their illusion that people of color are less intelligent. (If they would look at Ketanji, they would not be able to hold on to that lie.) Also yesterday, I received an email which included a poll. I almost never respond to those polls which are sent out, for the simple reason that they include no way to express one’s specific feelings about a person or an issue, and my feelings are generally far more nuanced that the possible responses provided. But this poll had a response which actually nailed my feelings, and even allowed me to add s few words explaining why, so I did respond. If that piques your curiosity, here’s the link. You need to scroll down below the petition to get to the poll part, but not far.
This article comes with a roughly 45 minute video which covers in detail corruption which is a matter of public record but which has been under the radar for at least 30 years. You don’t need to watch it – I’m just telling you so you can make a more informed decision.
https://archive.is/h1zxW
Archived from The Lever, the brainchild of David Sirota, a former campaign manager for Bernie Sanders, and a Substack personality in his own right. It’s in the category of “investigative journalism.” The case in the title is a civil suit in Maine. There’s a link to the actual complaint, but the complainants are three named groups and the defendants are six individuals, in their capacities as elected or appointed officials of the state of Maine. Heaven only knows what the short name will end up being.
Yesterday, my inbox was reachable again. It took me a while to delete over 350 emails, though, even without reading almost all of them. But I am assuming today there is only one story – one which has multiple possible takes. I’m bumping to Wednesday a story or two which I had in mind for today. See you then.
This is from an attendee of the other party – the one for independent journalists – the people we should all be reading, or watching, if possible. (Not all of them – no one has that kind of time – but some of them.)
This is from The New Yorker. This attendee was at the Correspondents’ party.
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/the-real-victim-of-the-white-house
Robert Hubbell writes about more than the shooting, including the California Gubernatorial primary, for which he proposes a strategy which highly recommend (assuming it becomes necessary – and it certainly might.) But what caught my eye was his headline point that truth id the chief victim of the WHC dinner shooting – as it is of everything about the current regime.)
Yesterday, the radio opera was “La Sonnambula” by Vincenzo Bellini. It’s classified as an opera semiseria, and yes, that means “halfway serious.” The serious part is the information on sleepwalking, which most people at the time it was written had never heard of, Aside from that, it’s basically a rom com. Bellini was known as “The Swan of Catania,” and was – and is today – afmired for his graceful melodies, which were characteristic of the “bel canto” period, but his really did stand above others.. He died at age 33, and a quotation from the libretto of “La Sonnambula” is engraved on his tombstone – a couple of lines about not expecing a flower would have withered so soon. I was having issues getting into my inbox, which have slowed me down, so please be patient with me until I can get back in. I now uaw Substack so much Ihave lots of places to look, but I’ll still miss some news. Today seems to be a predominantly feline day – even the composer of yestersay’s opera is from Catania.
Archived from 11alive, wherever that is -referred by The Smile. Isn’t Boone gotgeous?
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.
On Tuesday, The Oedipus Project was on Zoom again – with an all new cast inclding Dr. Fauci as Tiresias, and Chuck Schumer as, probably technically a member of the chorus – but the chorus’s lines were broken up and spread around. Yes, I’ve seen the project before, and yes, I’ve read the play (in English – I came late to Greek and didn’t have time to get good enough to read plays – the only one I read a little of in the original was Philoctetes.) But there is always something new that comes out of these productions.
If you are wondering about the criminal complaint against the SPLC which Todd Blanche somehow managed to get past a Grand Jury (in the Middle District of Alabama), there are a couple of good videos available regarding it – one on YouTube on the Talking Feds channel, and the other (and more detailed) on Substack. Either (or both) can generate a transcript easily if you prefer one. Don’t worry, the SPLC has not done anything illegal (Unfortunately, that fact may not protect them from a MAGA judge in that district.)
From the 19th. One woman’s story to represent so many women’s stories. Which is how we learn, I think.
Since the only thing the Papaya Pasha cares about, besides himself, is money, it shouldn’t be surprising that every bizarre thing he does ends up affecting money. Unfortunately, it’s our money which is the most affected. As Robert Reich points out.
Talking Points Memo has a string of stories here, but the longest, and possibly the ugliest, is the first one. Read as much (or as little) as you like.
This video, from and for Earth Day, is a short – there may be a way to embed it, but I couldn’t find one in the “share” options. Hick is not the best Senator ever, but he is right on this.
Today is (International) Earth Day. It is also the last day of the US-Iran 14 day ceasefire, unless an extension has been or is negotiated. Today’s video is all about the SCROTUS “Shadow Docket.” It has an ad right in the middle – if I start after it, you’ll miss all the background. But he wears a very different shirt for the ad, so it should be easy to stop it, run the red dot past it, and pick up when he starts on the subject again.
From Ukrainform. You gotta respect Zelenskyy’s courage to push for a meeting with not one, not two, but three fascists, for peace negotiations. I am not a mind reader nor a prophet (my name is Joanne, not Jeane – remember her?), but I personally suspect that Putin will not stop until very single person in his military is dead, or until he is, whichever comes first.
About half of young Americans can’t name a single Holocaust site, repeating a pattern of ignorance seen in postwar Germany. Knowing what has happened to education in the US since I was in school, I shouldn’t be surprised – but I was, for about a second.
I do agree with Robert Reich. It would be a toss-up between him and Alito, if it weren’t for the fact that Thomas is a known sexual abuser.
