Open Thread May 23 2026

 Posted by at 12:27 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 232026
 

Yesterday, Malcolm was in Greenland – He went a couple of days ago for the opening of a “new” (meaning newly purchased or leased) building for the American Consulate. Jeff Landry was there (the governor of Louisiana, who is a “Special Envoy” to Greenland), making not just a fool of himself – not that that is unusual -but also acting creepy, offering children chocolate chip cookies) but left early after Greenlanders tactfully asked him not to act like a pedophile. There was a protest on site – including baseball caps reading “Make America Go Away,” “Already Great” [with the Greenland flag] and “Nu det NUUK” [Danish for “That’s enough” but punning on the name of Greenland’s capital – “Nuuk”]. One of the Protest signs read “Yes NATO, No Pedo.” I could go on a lot longer about how much Greenland wants nothing to do with the US under the Canteloupe Catastrophe, but I’ll spare you. Also, Tulsi Gabbard quit. Good riddance – but likely to be replaced by someone even worse. (Flynn? Lindell?) One good thing – Abrego Garcia’s federal case was dismissed with prejudice. Also yesterday – everybody was slush fund talking.

From The Root. I’m old enough to have memories of what it looked like, even though I didn’t grow up in the South. And good enough vision to know it when I see it – which is pretty much all over the place now, and also to see how it jumped back into broad daylight when Barack Obama was electrd President (and yet – misogyny is even stronger.) There are still many glass ceilings above which it is difficult – if not impossible – to rise if you are not a white male. And there is no such thing as modern humans belonging to different races. Neanderthals and Denisovans may be races different from homo sapiens (or not – many of us today carry bits of DNA from one or the other.)

From Pro Publica. Maricopa County – it figures. Joe Arpaio’s county. Did someone day “fraud, waste, and abuse”?

Harry Litman on the slush fund scandal. Of course I thought of Teapot Dome (no, I’m not old enough to have lived through it, but I am old enough to have heard of it in history classes.) But, as Harry points out, the government at least got some oil through it, whereas this criminal enterprise is all take, no give to taxpayers. And those to whom it is giving are the worst of the worst.

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Open Thread September 13 2025

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 132025
 

Yesterday, I got an email from No Kings via Move On (which is connected to Robert Reich) about their next demonstration scheduled for October 18. I’m pretty sure I already shared that date, but am repeating just in case. This (obviously) will be electoral politics related. And the climate related one, “Sun Day,” is still on for September 21st. I may not be able to go, but by golly, I can at least spread the word. Here’s the No Kings RSVP link. And yes, this is early. But they have a lot of events scheduled already, and they also have some training events scheduled

Thanks to the Mango Mussolini, everyone is scrambling for money these days. I suspect we should expect new paywalls where they have not previously been. Huff Post does not have a paywall, but they do have enough of a maze of asks that I archived this. You still need to scroll down – but that should be all. In view of the backlash just from a fine (two-term) President having brown skin, I think we need to take this seriously.

And this from The F* News was already under weigh before Charlie Kirk was assassinated. I do wish more people had paid attention. We did our best to warn them but so many did not believe us.

Another guest video – probably nothing you didn’t suspect, but it’s here now – it’s happening. At least it will all be out in the open – because discovery. Just under 12 minutes.

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Open Thread July 19 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 192025
 

Yesterday, Talking Points Memo published Maurene Comey’s farewell letter to her colleagues at SDNY, fro BlueSky where it had been posted by some one from Lawfare. Whatever you may think of her father, the message is on point and worth a look. It’s in hte second section of their newsletter.

There is another national protest scheduled for a week from today. This one is sponsored by Families First and being publicized by Care in action. Families First is specifically trying at this point to protect domestic workers, many of whom are immigrants, documented or not. Yes, the Apricot Antichrist wants to rip children’s nannies away from them, Quelle surprise. The link to find an event is here. Also there are some photos for the most recent one here.

The F* News refers to Amanda Marcotte (of Salon), but doesn’t link to her – I don’t know why – maybe because Salon is paywalled if you go there too often – but I found the article and archived it. So if anyone wants to go straight to the source, here it is.

I cannot honestly say this article is encouraging. But it is honest and frank, and probably pretty much correct. Democratic leaders need to deal with the fact the most voters are not like good Democrats, who follow the facts enough to know that middle class and poor people are better off under Democratic leadership than under what passes for Republican leadership, and therefore it is in the best interest of anyone not a billionaire to vote in Democrats. On the contrary, far too many voters are far too easily swayed by appeals to their guts.

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Open Thread July 18 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 182025
 

Yesterday, I hope everyone who is willing and able found a protest to join, and did so safely (and had a great sign. And got home safely.) The Senate passed the bill to kill public radio and television, and sent the bill back to the House.

This story, newly released by The 19th, took a lot of time, multiple lawyers, even more proofreaders, and an unknown (but definitely non-zero) number of fact checkers to put together. I don’t know how alone I am in this, but I have a tendency these days to look at , for example, the UK, Germany, New Zealand and others and think they are ahead of us when it comes to eliminating misogyny. This story makes me seriously question whether anyone at all is at all ahead of us. That’s ugly, but we need to know the truth.

Other than the remark about Joe Biden’s intentions, which no one but Joe really knows, but I seriously doubt Hubbell’s guess, this is a real problem and good advice. I’m not sure exactly how an unimaginative person can be expected to acquire imagination (though I’d guess it isn’t something that can be done quickly, least of all instantly.) But we can learn to listen to people who have it without shooting them down as fantasizers.

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Open Thread July 16 2025

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 162025
 

Yesterday, after blood work last week, I saw my doctor again. Everything is pretty much smooth – even my blood pressure was 120/78. I don’t get readings that good at home. So my next appointment is in May ’26 for an annual. Also, I don’t know whether I have mentioned that, in Colorado, the names of the four seasons are Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction – but I certainly found that to be true today. Getting to the clinic I had to cope with four constructions sites – and that’s not counting the one I’ve been coping with since I’ve been using this location. One was only about half a block from my house. I did make it in time – and came home a different way – also with construction going on. So I’ll be giving Trinette a heads up, since this coming Sunday is the one she’s due to come over.

I found this Intercept article to be illuminating. Not just because I was not aware of the existence of the phrase it addresses (although I am aware of how much and how compulsively Republicans distort the meaning of any verbiage they think they can distort to produce anger and fear), but mainly because the response by Mamdani provided such a good example of how to resist that particular technique – and the kind of knowledge one needs to have (or get) in order to grasp what is really going on and do it right.

At this point in the coup, I’m ready to suggest that no Republican office holder should be allowed to go anywhere or do anything without eliciting some kind of Democratic response. f they are taking away people’s lives, livelihoods, and every smidgen of joy from anyone they don’t like, they really do not deserve any smidgen of joy in their own lives. Too bad about their families. They are hurting others’ families.

A lot of the time I don’t even bother to read emails with “notes” from Substack. For some reason I did – and one of them was this. You’re welcome to read all the responses – but the point of the short video is that all it takes to turn a Republican in a Democrat is an open mind, a tutorial on fact-checking, and applying that tutorial. Yeah, I know, the open mind is the hardest part. But it can happen.

Robert Reich is asking everyone who gets his emails to share this video as widely as possible. I’m not sure it will get through to any of those who need it the most, but I’m sharing it anyway, because why not do what he requests.

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Open Thread May 5 2025

 Posted by at 5:53 am  Blog News, Personal, Religion
May 052025
 

Yesterday, I did receive by email the approval of the documents I sent to San Carlos (where Virgil is.) Not in time to visit that day, though. I had sent a note through the electronic system – they print it out and give it to him on paper, so it’s not immediate – asking him to call me, but, as I type, I haven’t heard from him yet. (The other thing I did was put the need for a new form on my calendar for next year – with about 2 weeks to spare. In the meantime, I don’t really know how to plan. I expect I’ll hear from him in time to plan effectively, but just now, it’s frustrating.

Robert Reich on the May Day demonstrations. This is helpful but not, IMO, good enough to run on Sunday. Particularly since the following day Trump** issued an executive order defunding NPR and PBS. My local public radio station is not a member of NPR, but it does – or it did – receive some federal funding.

HuffPost covers the Apricot Antichrist’s declaration that being poor is good for you. You may think that sounds like St. Francis – but nothing could be farther from the truth. Sur, Francis lover poverty, but that was because he chose to be poor. That’s 180 degreed from being forced to be poor because everything you had was taken away from you. Francis would not have been in favor of that at all.

Heather Cox Richardson writes about the media – not the mainstream media, and not the media of the resistance, but the Turmeric Tyrant’s own media – which may be the direst threat to democracy of all, more so than his flouting of the law and the courts, because it creates and intensifies a cadre of true believers who are beyond the ability of reason to influence. Yes, we’ve already observed that in his first term and in his campaigns, but this is an escalation on an undreamed of scale.

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Open Thread May 4, 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 042024
 

Yesterday, I learned from Progress Now Colorado that a fundraiser in Jefferson County for Kristi Noem has been cancelled. A short quote from the email: “We’re proud to have called for the well-behaved and leashed dogs of Colorado and their loving owners to peacefully protest against Gov. Noem’s fundraiser in Colorado. We asked attendees to bring extra doggie bags and ensure that the space we occupied would be left as clean as we found it. The reason this fundraiser was canceled is that Kristi Noem’s values are not Colorado values, and organizers realized they were making a terrible political mistake bringing her here.” Some pregressives (most actually, if not all – there are such things as infiltraators) know how to stage a protest.

CPR published an interview with the state’s Attorney General. There’s an article followed by a transcript (and I expect it’s still possible to hear somewhere on the news portion of the website.) I consider Phil Weiser a good AG and intend to vote for his reelection.

This is an article about a podcast regarding recent student protests. Certainly there’s a little bit of disturbance for just about everyone – and especially those who remember Kent State.

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Open Thread August 14, 2023

 Posted by at 6:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 142023
 

Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we were able to play cribbage. I think I’ve mentioned that the deck is not new, so it’s sticky, and there are at least a half dozen cards, 0maybe as many as 10, that bend in half, both of which make it hard to shuffle and also hard to deal, which can result in some strange happenings. For example, I had a hand with two 7’s, two 3’s and one 5 (including the starter.) Well, that’s a nice hand, but I don’t recall seeing anything quite like it before. But several hands later, I  got the exact hand again, And several hands after that, I got a hand with two 9’s, 2 aces, and a five – which is essentially the same hand, just different denominations. And a few hands after that, I got that exact same hand again. Very strange. All in good fun, of course. I guess a little weirdness never hurts.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The New Yorker – Can “Cop City” Be Stopped at the Ballot Box?
Quote – I reached out to Mayor Dickens to ask whether he believes that Atlanta voters should be able to decide, after all the conflict and concern expressed in the past two years, whether to build the training center in the South River Forest. A spokesperson, in an e-mail, disputed the notion that a referendum could repeal a city ordinance. This initiative, he wrote, “would violate the constitutional prohibition on the impairment of contracts. That said,” he added, “we welcome public dialogue and engagement around our goal to build the most progressive Public Safety Training Center in the nation.”
Click through for story, of which, if you aren’t aware, it is not Freya’s fault. I would point out that “”progressive” does not mean the same thing in training police that it does in politics. In police training, it appears to mean something like all the latest gadgets to more effectively vcontrol people. Also, IANAL, but the theory that a referendum cannot revoke a city ordinance appears to me to be in violation of the people’s right to petition the government for redress of grievances, a right guaranteed by the First Amendment. It’s an empty right if the government in question claims in advance that there can be no redress.

al dot com – ‘Get them off their fannies:’ Gov. Kay Ivey on how to grow Alabama’s workforce
Quote – According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Alabama has a labor participation rate of 72.1 percent. Only three states rank lower even as the state’s workforce of about 2.3 million represents a new high mark. Still, ranking near the bottom nationally in labor participation somewhat offsets the fact that Alabama is 7th nationally with a 2.2 percent unemployment rate. The unemployment rate, of course, only includes those looking for jobs. “Today, over 2.1 million people are employed in Alabama,” Ivey told the chamber audience. “That’s the most in state history, y’all.
Click thrugh for details. If you have so many job openings that you can’t fill them all, even with people who are not looking for work (and probably NOT “sitting on their fannies”), woudln’t it be a good idea to make your state more friendly to potential workers? Like with reproductuve rights and other health care, and diversity and friendliness? What am I missong? (Heck, they can’t even keep both Senators in the state. Tuberville has moved to Florida – not that he isn’t a good fit there.)

Food For Thought

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