Open Thread June 4 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 042025
 

Yesterday, before actually seeing this, I had read it in a different email (with sourcing I wasn’t assured by.) Now that I can actually see it, I’m going ahead and sharing it. By now you’ve likely seen it, though. Even Snopes has weighed in.My initial reaction was, “An AI clone with a cancer diagnosis? Really? But it does show how terrified they must be of Biden to resort to such a bizarre, almost paranormal, fantasy. And I can’t honestly say that this was the worst horror story at the link (but there is a cute gif of a family of foxes.)

Also, the first petition to 86 Palantir has hit my inbox.

This by Robert Reich is IMO important enough that I added it to my post draft before even reading it. Unless you are a professional security guard and can get hired by a judge, what we can do is basically light a fire under those persons and agencies which can take real action. But that is not nothing, and we have gotten results before with that playbook. He provides all the names and addresses and even some phone numbers.

Axios put out several alerts yesterday. This one I thought was meaningful. Jamie Raskin means business. It’s very sad that it requires a white man to stand up for a black woman and get any attention, but it’s good that we have some white men who will.

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Open Thread May 31 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 312025
 

Yesterday, Wonkette had a link to a site which tracks lower level elections all over the US – state level, of course, including primaries, but all the way down to city council level as well. I’m posting the link because I think we have learned the hard way that we ignore this information at our peril. Also, the ACLU emailed regarding four cases they are working on which will essentially affect everyone. I don’t have a link, so I’ll just list them. U.S. v. Skrmetti. Louisiana v. Callais. Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton. Mahmoud v. Taylor. All have been heard by the Supremes and decisions will start coming out next week. Finally, ACLU promises they will keep me (and some of you who are member-donors) updated on what the decisions mean for real people. Incidentally, has anyone heard from Freya? I haven’t and neither has Evelyn, who emailed to ask me if I had.

The F* News is on to something here that we should all latch on to. Granted that it’s nowhere near as easy to use for citizens as it is for foreign nations – that still needs work – but it should be something we can find a way to use.

What’s the point of learning history? Well, there are many reasons. One is that the truth is important in itself – another is to be able to accurately credit (and if appropriate discredit) those who preceded us for their accomplishments. But probably the best reason is in order to avoid making the same mistakes over and over. As a race, the human race is not very good at that. There are many ways in which we as a society have failed, and that failure has led to where we are now. Robert Reich here discusses just one of them.

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Open Thread May 27 2025

 Posted by at 5:59 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 272025
 

Yesterday, as I was starting to check email, my radio station played a piece by Chopin, and when it was over and the DJ back announced it, she said “Frederic Chopin,” but what I thought I heard was “President Chopin.” There’s nothing wrong with her pronunciation, nor with my hearing – but apparently my brain is over-fixated. Sigh. Also yesterday – I don’t know whether this will actually work for anyone else, but I kind of got slapped in the face by my white privilege. One of the websites at which I found a birthday card last year was having a sale, and I had so much difficulty then, I thought I’d look now for birthday cards for Trinette’s two sons. We’re talking about young black men, in their twenties, whom I would probably recognize if I saw them on the street but we’re not close the way I am to their mother. So I did a search there for “birthday card black man.” I got a result of 106 pages and managed to get through 17 or 18 of those pages, despite constantly second guessing myself – “that’s gorgeous, but I don’t know whether they care much about history or African heritage – will it look like I’m talking down?” or “that’s funny, but will it look like I’m laughing at them instead of with them?” I finally managed to find 10 cards, although one is for Virgil (it says “Happy Birthday from the best decision you ever made” – he will know I’m laughing with him because he tells me that – a lot) to get a quantity discount on top of the sale prices. But it took a lot of time and a lot of self-examination. Also yesterday – ironically on Memorial Day, Korean War veteran and long time (but now retired) Congressman Charlie Rangel (in his day known as “the lion of Lenox Avenue”) died at age 94. May he rest in power.

Since yesterday was a holiday, I thought The Week Ahead from Joyce Vance would be appropriate for today. And there’s a lot of it to digest.

Robert Reich has pretty much seen it all. If he says something is “truly horrifying,” it must actually be so – at least. Possibly worse.

I guess Roberts hasn’t learned anything yet. I’m still hoping he’s capable – the other Republicans, with the exception of Barrett (surprising though that may be, it seems to be true) are incapable of learning anything.

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Open Thread May 24 2025

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 242025
 

Yesterday, it was a news-heavy Friday – and with the MAGA habit of breaking crap on Friday afternoons and evenings, it may not even have been over when I posted. Anything I missed will have to wait until next week. I do sometimes need time for dealing with clutter. And I am sorry, but I will not cover the “crypto dinner.” It’s been covered enough.

Trust Robert Reich to take a document this big and make a cogent summary of it in terms that are easy to understand, And also to find and point out the big surprise.  (which we probably don’t need quite as much as low-information voters do, but I for one appreciate.)

I could not pick just one of these articles from The Contrarian – so I’m posting the full list. Hopefully one or more will speak to y’all.

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Open Thread May 17 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 172025
 

Yesterday, an email I received from a PAC supporting Social Security informed me that “Musk claimed that millions of dead people were collecting Social Security benefits, and that 40% of all phone calls to Social Security’s 800 number were scams. Musk’s DOGE implemented a new system to catch this fraud, and now, the results are in. Out of over 110,000 new claims made by phone, TWO were found to be likely fraudulent. That’s not 40%. That’s 0.0018%. What’s worse is, Musk’s system slowed down each of those new claims by about 25%.” I am not surprised, and neither are you. But it’s nice to have numbers. Also yesterday, the trailer about the documentary about Robert Reich was released. And finally, the Supreme Court said to the regime (to paraphrase The Contrarian) stop trying to circumvent the system and start following the law. Seven to two. We shall see.

I saw this elsewhere first, but Joyce Vance, as a former Federal prosecutor is more knowledgeable than the other article. They did go to the trouble of a grand jury, which I would have expected them to attempt to skip. I don’t actually think it’s a good sign.

This was also published elsewhere … but Harry Litman saw it in the Atlantic, so that (the archived version with no paywall) is what I am linking to. It’s by J. Michale Luttig, who is one of the last of the generation of Republicans who were wrong about economics but still had honor. We saw him testify to the January 6 committee, and we’ve seen him a few times since also. You won’t be able tolisten to it here if you prefer listening – if you subscrive to the Atlantic, you can listen to it there. I hope it reaxhes at least some of the audience for whom it is meant, which isn’t really us. But it’s factual and well written.

 

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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 April 30 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 302025
 

Yesterday, the Contrarian posted a “Words and Phrases We Could Do Without,” as it sometimes does. The phrase was “Golden Age.” Of course what the Rockmelon Regime actually wants to duplicate is actually the “Gilded Age” – and I have a personal story about how different that is. I have never cared for turkey, but my aunt always made it for Thanksgiving and we always went to them for Thanksgiving = they came to us for Christmas. The part of the turkey I could basically stand was the part no one else wanted – the tail (you have probably heard some bigoted nicknames for it – I certainly have.) The first Thanksgiving I was not there because I was in the USMC, my uncle decided that a cute was to say “we missed you” would be to “gild” the tail of the turkey, mount it on a little block of wood, and send it to me, so he did just that. Of course he didn’t use actual gold, but gold paint – however, I suspect the results would be the same had he used actual gold – you can gild a turkey’s ass, but you can’t prevent it from rotting. And that’s why the term “Gilded Age” is so appropriate. However, if “Gilded” bothers Republican snowflakes, may UI suggest “Fools’ Golden Age” as a possible alternative? Also, this Borowitz is from Sunday but I haven’t completely trained tutamail yet on what is and isn’t spam, so I just found it – and can’t resist sharing.

I just found this Heather Cox Richardson also. You may have seen the information, but I don’t know who is better than a great historian to analyze it.

The ACLU put this up and out on Monday. But since today, Wednesday, is the actual Day 100, I don’t consider it terribly late. there’s a donate screen, but you can just scroll down past it. I suspect everyone who has the means is already giving.

Robert Reich mentioned Al Gore as one of the past Presidents and Vice Presidents he had not heard speaking publicly about the Rockmenlon Regime. Then he found this. I figure if he missed it, we probably all missed it – know I did – so here it is.

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Open Thread April 26 2025

 Posted by at 5:50 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 262025
 

Yesterday, an FBI agent arrested a judge in Wisconsin for allegedly “trying to help an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest.” Axios has the story. I have seen sources refer to her as a Federal judge, which she is not. She is a state district judge (at the County level.) And Steve Schmidt is pissed.

I am doubling up on Robert Reich today, partly because he’s interesting, and partly to take the taste of the FBI action away. This post leads to a documentary, and I’ll stop now to avoid spoilers. If you don’t want to watch “NOT the White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” maybe you’d prefer this. (On the other hand, if you do want to watch NOT the White House etc., and you reserves a spot of the pay per view, you’ll be able to re-watch it through June 30.)

Does it sound silly to say that we need to know what a national civic uprising would look like so that, armed with that knowledges, we won’t miss or dismiss it when it happens? It does sound so to me. But since so many people so disastrously did not see the Rockmelon Regime coming, maybe it isn’t silly at all.

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