Yesterday, I saw Virgil, and we played cribbage. Besides being great to see each other, it was good to experience something more or less normal (even including the normal frigidity in the visiting room.) I have forgotten that, though I never found my original car key, Trinette did – in a place I would never have looked, and I try not to think of how it might hace gotten there, because that way lies madness. I’m just glad it has been found.
Yes I realize this is not new – certainly not to anyone here – but Robert Reich says things so well.
Black Star is correct that “nobody has noticed.” This is certainly the first I have heard of it, and I see some legacy media and more independent news outlets than any one person can possibly read. (This is also the first I have heard of Gary being predominantly black. I expext that would surprise Harold Hill if he were real and still alive. This is BS -not in the sense of fake, but in the sense of morally unacceptable.
Back in the seventies, I was a charter subscriber to Mother Jones magazune. It was always good reporting – eventually It got too good for me to deal with – even just on line. Dose of Democracy referred this artivle.
Yesterday, I signed this. It’s not a petition. It’s a get well (or at least feel better) card. I’m not trying to pressure anyone to sign it – only to make it available in case anyone wants to. And then there was this (archived from WaPo. Someone’s been reading too many Tom Clancy novels. Amd, after that, there was this. Not surprising, I’m sure.
(From the Atlanta Black Star) I would expect something like this to happen in Louisiana or Mississippi – not in California – nor even in Los Angeles (where I might expect no action ay all.) Ihave no woeds (that are printable.
There’s a lot in and around this Brennan Center newsletterContains several topics. The main one titled “Americans Can Vote Without Fear” I though might be encourahing, being reality based (although that might depend to some degree on who your Xecretary of State is.)
Yesterday, Malcolm described the Iran War situation as one of two things: either all combatants (and non-combatants, including some new ones) think the war is a game of Risk – or they think it is a Tom Clancy novel. I’m not familiar with either the game or the author’s works – but it doesn’t sound good. Also, he put out a second show, a special edition – mostly about a newly resuscitated 500-year-old territorial dispute between Spain and Morocco for part of the Sahara. NO ONE HAS INVADED SPAIN. Although the Evil Emperor clearly wants to take down the government of Spain.
This is long – and it’s going to be even longer, because it’s a series. It will be coming out on Fridays, which means you will be seeing it on Satirdays – unless you subscribe to Robert Reich‘s Substack yourself. Someof it may well bore you – because it is fundamental, and y’all are already up on foundations. But it’s still good to look at them from a different angle. I do take issue with his statement that economics are not separate from politics. He sees them as two sides of the coin. I see them as married – with no reason why they can’t divorce and marry something else.
From The Conversation. I know that I want the truth from news sources – whether that truth is excellent, horrifying, or anything in between. I’m inclined to think that may well have been influenced by the fact that my recreational reading, from age 8 up, was authors like Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner, Rex Stout, and Ellery Queen – adding in my teens Ngaio Marsh, Matjorie Allingham, Josephine Tey, and too many more to list here. But that might be just my imagination. I really so not understand people who either don’t care whether what they believe is true or not – or who will embrace anything as truth because they want it to be true. And it boggles my mind how many of them there are.
I finally got Drop Site News sending to my new email address. My bad, I should have done it sooner. This is quite a story. Apparently the Mango Monster has gotten a bee in his bonnet about a Russian spy station which used to exist, but was closed in the early oughts and pretty well demolished. The site now has a school. I am still trying to wrap my head around as to why Russians would call a spy station in a Spanish-speaking country “Lourdes”. Saint Bernadette might has thoughts about that. Anyway, after the Soviet one was demolished, a Chinese one went in to a completely different area. All this and more is at the link, including a couple of supplemental videos.
Atlanta Black Star weekly puts together a column called “The Narrative, which matches up news stories with a common theme – which may or may not be obvious
Yesterday, I saw Virgil, and we played cribbage.He complained of being hungry, and I offered to stasrt arriving a half hour later so he could have lunch, but he said he’d rather see me than eat, so of course I’ll keep going from 10:30 to 3 when visiting closes. I am back n the calendar schedule, so I’ll now be going every two weeks unless something weird happens again. Or unless our strategic oil reserves run out, which they certainly might, particularly if the Mango Moron keeps selling them off to other countries, in which case there won’t be any gas at any price.
Stasight from The Root. So, a bunch of “pro-Israel” (which does not necessarily mean pro-genocide, but, given their behavior, I think it probably does for them) gathered around Gracie Mamsion to yell at Mamdani – because of course they did. He appears to have responded with notable grace.
Robert Reich on the judge who is doing her best to reopen the Saffron Sauron’s “lawsuit” against the IRS in order for it to be investigated and proven to be fraudulent. That of course is not how she worded it – no judge would prejudge guilt like that – but the rest of out here all know that is the case.
Dan Froomkin with Press Watch on the Delany Hall concentration camp in Newark, New Jersey, which has been maing headlines for all the wrong reasons – such as pepper sprayine Senator Andy Kim.
Yesterday, I wore for the first time my third experiment in knitting pants. Myfirst try was a disastr – but not such a disaster that I can’t rip out one leg, knit it back to match the other. and wear it. On my second try I adjusted the pattern to correct everything that went wrong on the first try, and it was a pretty good fit, just a bit loose and long. For the third try, I decided not to change anything about the stitch or row counts, but instead to use smaller needles. and it’s anout as close to perfect as an imperfect human can do. I could wear them to go see Virgil. And comfortable – as comfortable as the yarn, which for this pair is all cotton, except the cuffs, which are bamboo. In including contrast cuffs, I was thinking of sweat pants, but with more fitted legs.
Robert Reich has some suggestions for non-constitutional words to describe unconstitutional things about our current elected officials. I’m ahead of him on “regime” – I’ve not used any other word for it since day one – but all of his suggestions are appropriate
From ProPublica. Yes. this happens all the time. But if we don’t get reminded of it from time to time, we may forget.
From Common Dreams. One of Axios’s reporters is named “Barak Ravid.” Malcolm Nance calls him “The Mouth of Trump**.” I get “Alerts” from Axios, and yes, his often begin with “Trump** says” or the like. But it made me think – y’all know I often refer to our regime leader as “the Saffron Sauron,” and there is a character in The Lord of the Rings” who introduces himself as “The Mouth of Sauron.” They’re not at all the same – Ravid does not present what our regime leader says as truth – he just quotes him and identifies it as a quote, so readers can disbelieve it. But it appears to be a coincidence.
Yesterday, I expected to have lab work again. My previous PCP wanted me to do that every three months. Over the winter, my PCP moved, and I tranferred to another provider at the same facility in a phone call. At least that was easy. But – because he hasn’t actually seen me yet (that will happen next week). the lab had no order on file. So that was a wasted trip. Not something one wants to do when gas is about to go up again, and we could run out of our reserve and not be able to get any at all. Today’s political video is longer than Belle’s are, but shorter than Glenn Kirschner’s are. I am trying to keep them down.
Sometimes I get frustrated looking for articles to feature. The ones with the most (and newest) news are too long, and/or too repetetive, either in themselves or of other articles, or just wrong. Then I trip over a history piece which is relevant to what we are now going hrough (not always in an obvious way, but in some way.) idt Steve Schmidt may not be a professional historian like Heather Cox Richardson, but he has a knack of finding and sharing historical events which feel extremely relevant. Here is one. (The General Butler mentioned cannot be Smedley, who was not born until the last year of the Hayes Presidency. My guess is that it was General Benjamin F. Butler, who was, in 1879, running for governor of Massachusetts [he lost] after failing to win re-election to Congress, so he was at least alive at the time and had the right connections.)
I don’t – not intentionally – subscribe to Political Voices Network – not because the folks are not factual )they are both factual and good), but because there are too many of them and I just don’t have the time. But this came into my inbox, and it has some solid facts and some very good questions. If health insurance CEOs are murderers – why aren’t Republicans who consistently vote against Medicare for all, who strengthen private health insurance providers, murderers too? I can’t help thinking of Wendell Potter and his first book, “Deadly Spin.”
This is a few days old, but I thought it could wait – I didn’t see the MSM covering it under this regime. And it’s good news, as far as it goes. I hope it gets past SCROTUS still standing.
Yesterday – my “day off” – I was not writing or researching, but I really have to go through inboxes regardless. So, I do want to say – if we are all still here – I’ m grateful. If not – it was wonderful knowing all of you. (P.S. – I did manage to do some laundry – mostly after the letdown.)
On Monday, Malcolm Nance said on his “warcast” that “All of us are agreeing with Marjorie Taylor Greene.” And, dammit, he was right. This is what she posted (starting with a screenshot of POTUS’s post), and I agree 100%, and I’m confident y’all will too: “On Easter morning, this is what President Trump posted. Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness. I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.”
Wajeeh mentioned this during Malcolm’s and his “warcast” one day last week, and it launched Malcolm into a horror story about when he was working there and his wife was also working there (as a contractor) and they needed a maid (the Nances probably saved the poor girls life – they definitely saved her sanity and started her on a real career). Wajeeh promised to write an article on the system, and this is it.
From The Root. This really pisses me off. The CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) may be made up of public servants, but itself is just a club. The Congreaaional Back Caucus Foundation is not even a club, but a non-profit NGO, not a government entity. The scholarship program is “The CBC Spouses Education Scholarship” The spouses of the Caucus are not public servants, but private citizens. They are entitled to do what they effing want with their GD money. This is racism pure and simple.
I watched this conversation between Joyce Vance and an expert on Hungary (which is having an election Sunday), but there is a transcript if you prefer to read. It’s about 33 minutes – but I can’t think of any way you could get this much information without reading a book (or listening to an audiobook). It’s very scary – and the scariest part may well be how little of it we knew about.
Yesterday, I found in my inbox and archived a Huff Post article on the civil suit that three Representatives have brought against the Apricot Antichrist. (I didn’t get all the money-asks out, but it is much easier to read than I found it. There is a good deal of white space and multiple photos. so it’s longish to scroll.) The lawsuit is not new, but it’s news to me that is it still ongoing. Generally, the websites of Representatives will not accept contact forms from non-constituents, and I have not checked to see whether any of these three is an exception to that. But if you are mailing Christmas (Hanukkah, Diwali, whatever) cards, and can spare three, this might be a good way to use the spares to send gratitude. Also, I saw the results on the special election in Georgia (we won) and the Miami mayoral election, not won by a Democrat in 28 years. One source said that we lost the most recent prior election by 9 points, but won this one by 67 points. That is quite a flip. I’ve seen different numbers since, but all the numbers show striking flips.
This from the 19th does make a kind of very ugly sense – “Wombs are essential to ethnic nationalist movements.” It’s a natural consequence of fear of immigrants to be worried about the birth rate. If they could only relax and allow (and empower) government to do what it is meant to do, like “promote the general welfare,” the birth rate would manage itself. Not everyone is competent to be a parent.
I am NOT recommending that anyone try this from The Root. As someone implied in a response, it needs “a special set of skills.” But it gave me a smile – even though I don’t trust “Mike” as far as I could throw Rhode Island.
This from The F* News, suggests to me that we need to work much harder to demonstrate that the modern Republican Party is actually a death cult. The lead story can be Exhibit A. When we run out of letters, which sadly won’t take long – we can start over with AA, and so on.
