Yesterday, California Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a DHS press conference held by Kristi Noem defending the indefensible. You can’t have missed it. It was in Daily Kos, Axios alerts, and enough others that you must have seen it. Also, The Conversation has an article up from an Orwell expert. And, Daily Dose of Democracy reported on how the Mango Moron was met at the Kennedy Center the previous night.
Up until now, I have felt Lever Reports pretty much overpromised and underdelivered. But this article appears to be right up there with ProPublica, POGO, and ITPI
From Huff Post. Leave it to Republicans to get all pissed off over anything that takes away the smallest iota of attention from them, them, them. I wish I thought this article would stand a chance of reaching its intended audience. Sadly, I don’t.
I didn’t want to hold this until Saturday, partly because there is certain to be more news by then which will deserve an audience. So, three articles.
Yesterday, Trinette emailed about sending Zach over to whack my weeds. I chuckled, because this was the second time in just a few days I had made a correct prediction. The first one was on Saturday, when I told Virgil that by Sunday morning he would forget that was coming to see him. Then when I got home, I looked at the yard and thought I should be hearing from Trinette soon about the weeds. My name is still not Jeane Dixon, and I am still not psychic. Both predictions were based on lots of prior knowledge. But it’s still amusing. Also, when I saw this alert from Axios, the word which caught my eye was “federal” – what could have motivated this regime to prosecute a hate crime? After looking at the details I realized the injured must all be white, and the suspect is Muslim. Sigh. Not that prosecution isn’t appropriate – it is – but in this regime it only goes one way. And that’s not appropriate. Finally, The Nature Conservancy is offering a guide to “day trips” around the country, I gather hoping to get people to look at the natural beauty we have and maybe even care about protecting it. Of course they want you on their mailing list – but if you aren’t already and don’t like that you can always unsubscribe.
“The inmates are running the asylum” is bad enough, but when it comes to the point where the inmates in the asylum are running the country, well, that’s a few levels up. (Americans love sports analogies, and I guess computer gaming is a sport now.) Heather Cox Richardson discusses how Federal budget cuts are going to cost more money than they save, as anyone with a brain could have foreseen. (But Richardson does it better than just “anyone with a brain.”)
Harry Litman discusses independent agencies, the unitary executive theory, the shadow docket of the Supremes, and a dangerous decision from the latter last week. As someone who was born a few month’s after FDR’s death, I have never lived in a United States which did not have independent agencies (and I am the oldest one here, except for Mitch D, and he’s not that much older.) We’ve all studied governments without independent agencies, in history, and in other countries. But we haven’t lived under those conditions. Now we are about to.
I think it’s only fair to Steve Schmidt to share his expose of someone who once worked for him and now works for the Nectarine Napoleon through RFK Jr. Steve has good reason to be furious (including with himself for not seeing fellow Republicans for who they are sooner. Although I get it. It’s tough to see someone gradually falling into insanity – until it’s too late.)
Yesterday, everyone had the story that Senator van Hollen had been able to meet with Abrego Garcia. Some said “in the prison” or “in the concentration camp.” Others said the meeting took place in a hotel. I can’t confirm the hotel story for sure, but from the photos, it was not in a prison and definitely not in a concentration camp. I can’t even imagine the thought of a concentration camp having a visiting area. A prison might – but it wouldn’t look like that. Glass glasses? Ceramic coffee cups? Metal forks? Chairs made of anything other than molded plastic? Tables with inlaid tops? Not hardly. The only ting which might be in an actual prison visiting room was the plastic water bottle. A hotel is at least believable. Sadly, it did not result in Abrego Garcia being released, and although he looks pretty good, the Senator reported that Abrego Garcia had been traumatized. I didn’t watch the Meidas Touch video (I just wasn’t up to it) but the print article has details and is pretty short. This is not over yet.
Do we have any real bakers reading this? A casual cookie baker like me would not be up for this recipe (no to mention I couldn’t use wheat, so the lottery would be wasted on me). But here’s a recipe for authentic Ukrainian Easter Cake using flour made from wheat grown in a demined field in the Kharkiv region. Like other Ukrainian recipes I’ve seen, it does sound yummy. You don’t have to belong to Instagram to see it – just close the popup and it’s all there.
Speaking of food, Robyn at Wonkette likes spinach. So do I – especially with a squirt of lemon juice. But (except for what I have in the freezer, purchased before the Rockmelon Regime*
took over) I won’t be eating any more either, until it’s safe again. Assuming I live that long. Guns are not the only things that can kill you or me which will become more widely available with less warning.
On a new topic, it isn’t often lately that Harry Litman
or any other legal expert finds something that he or she believes will make history, especially in a good way. The full opinion should certainly shame anyone in the Executive branch who is capable of shame, if there is any such (I wish I could believe that there is.) I thought I’d best share.
*In case you are wondering, “rockmelom” is another word for “cantaloupe.”
Yesterday, I started working on setting up my new email inbox with folders and changing the address on all my newsletter subscriptions. Most of them, there is no way without unsubscribing and resubscribing, so I did a fair amount of that (and I’m not done.) Fortunately, I did find a way to change my address for all my Substack subscriptions in one place. That would have been a day’s work in itself. And then migrating my contacts is going to be even worse. But I’m getting closer. In case I didn’t give y’all the new email, it is jvdix@tutamail.com. I’m probably the only one here who would like it, but for me it’s as close to perfect as it gets. Simple, good sized print, white space as needed and not more (he white space they added in Yahoo was more than twice the space of the print.) I did take a few minutes for sanity’s sake to look at Democratic Underground, where I discovered that a wide variety of Trump** voodoo dolls are now available.
And this from ProPublica contains a number of articles, all of which would be front page above the fold news if it weren’t for us currently having an administration which is a mob under the mob boss President and being supported by the mobsters in Congress, and even by non-mobsters who have no idea how to deal with a mob.
This is from People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch newsletter, so naturally it is outrageous. I don’t like to use the word “demonic” because they fling it so often at us, but on the other hand, we know how how they project, and it really does feel that strong to me.
Yesterday, The computer I keep the most up to date things on still wasn’t booting. I did some looking up on the other computer, did a little playing around in the system settings, and surprisingly (at least to me) got it to boot. Checking what I did against what I had planned, I hadn’t done too badly. I’m including a few items today which were lost from yesterday, and the rest tomorrow. Thanks for bearing with me. One thing I did fail to mention is that Trinette has been unwell for a bit over a week now – she is getting better, but it’s slow. I’m sure she would appreciate prayers, healing vibes, or however you communicate with the universe (and I would also appreciate on her behalf.)
Heather Cox Richardson from (late) Saturday and including a previously aired interview even older. But some things take time to reveal themselves, and I think this may be one.
Wonkette got the title wrong – it’s clear from the article the correct figure is $2,400 a year. Which makes it even more disgusting that it was blocked. Wealthy people already get a free ride. But they still want even more.
Wonkette is singing my song. Someone should respond to some of these gripes with something like “Tell me you are both ignorant and insecure without telling me you are both ignorant and insecure.” Also, I have noticed (and I never use the phone for anything which can be done by email) that companies are NOT using “Press 1 for English” or anything similar in their menus – haven’t for years. They do have “Press 5 [or whatever] for Spanish,” but it’s clear English is assumed to be the default. If these snowflakes didn’t know that, they can’t be using phones for personal business much, if at all. Also, with regard to the poster from World War II, I might point out that, in a war, if no one on our side can “speak the enemy’s language,” it is impossible to get any kind of intelligence, which almost certainly will cost lives. That is why the Diné code talkers were such game changers. (It’s pretty easy to tell when something pushes my buttons, isn’t it.
Yesterday, I discovered that the reason my Win10 desktop will not run or even load any games is that, though it has a 64bit processor, it only has a 32bit OS. Yes, it took me long enough to figure that out. And upgrading the OS is going to be a time consuming and tedious process spanning multiple (not necessarily consecutive) days. At least my 8.1 will still run them, so I can take my time. Rushing something like this is a great way to lose data. (At least, if I scream a lot, y’all won’t have to hear me. 🙂 Also, here’s a link to a petition which, in my not so humble opinion, should have way more signers than it has, or even than the sponsor is asking for. See what you think.
It’s all too easy, with so much chaos here, to forget that there’s a world out there – and that we are being watched and judged by it. But it’s the case. Heather Cox Richardson looks at it – and at the contrast in the way we were seen in the previous administration, as opposed to how we are seen now. Embarrassing as it is, I think this change is a good thing. If the rest of the world, particularly Europe, were to sound approving of us right now, I’d be far more worried than I am.
Well, it’s here. The 19th reports the first death of a child caused by measles from an outbreak in like 30 years (There was an isolated on in 2018 which may have involved international travel in some way, but there was not an outbreak. Now there is – about 129 kids in west Texas are measles patients.) I think the details are such that your reaction, like mine, will be “Well, we tried to warn you.” I still have all my extra masks from CoViD and intend to use them if necessary.
Yes, a third article, this one from Wonkette. I feel like a broken record saying “We tried to warn you.” But here we are.
Yesterday, VoteVets sent me an email containing their nickname for Elon Musk: “Dork Vader.” Who says military people have no sense of humor? And I did manage to get through my emails, though I had to speed through a lot of them.
All I can say is that, even if you already thought that ICE was nothing but a bunch of malicious bully Keystone Kops, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. But then, what else could anyone expect from this administration?
Cutting federal funds for medical research is personal to all of us, since any of us could at any time be stricken with some disease or condition which is the subject of research, on which our very lives might depend. But it’s also personal to Joyce Vance in a different way. I’ll let her explain.
Yesterday, I got to see Virgil. The drive down was mostly not as bad as two weeks ago, but I did miss my exit and by the time I managed to get off the interstate I was far enough past where I should be to get lost. I eventually made it though. We played cribbage. I always deal the first hand since I’ve had the cards and been shuffling while he’s be getting to the visiting room. But on the second hand, which he dealt, he got a hand with two double runs of three over the 7 and 8 (the fifth card was a 9) – in the crib. If you’ve ever played, you know how unlikely that is – it’s the highest score I’ve ever seen in a crib. So that set a nice tone for the day. Coming back home was much easier than getting there, fortunately. On the way there the windshield wiper fluid was still frozen. Coming back, I just picked up a handful of snow and rubbed it over the driver’s windshield and ran the wipers. And that was all I needed for good vision all the way.
Huff Post points out that “America First” policy could make Americans physically ill. The CoViD pandemic was apparently not enough for him – he wants to make a pandemic out of patchwork.
Well, this is chilling. As much of the news coming out of ProPublica is. And that’s because investigations is what they do. And in particular the things which have the potential for the most danger. I pulled this one from the newsletter, but there are more. Sigh.
