Dec 112025
 

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.

Share
Dec 032025
 

Yesterday, I slept very late. which I hadn’t done on Monday. I knew on Monday that I was still behind, but I guess I didn’t realize how much. And when I did get up, I had 255 emails in my inbox (some of which were old which I needed to hold for a bit.) Using bulk delete, selecting only the ones I could tell from the subject line were cyber week or giving Tuesday (or from a person or group I want to be able to hear from but don’t want every email), I took out more than 200. I hope no one else got hit that hard.

This is from the Alabama Political Reporter, and was forwarded to me by Carrie B. I would say it’s accurate as far as it goes. What it doesn’t address is the way that so many of us – sometimes it seems like the entire human race – is so hypnotized by money and possessions. And not just in our lives, but all the way back as far as human history goes. Until we can break that spell for a majority of us, we will sadly make no progress.

Robert Reich is worried enough about Palantir that he sent out two emails back-to-back about it. This is the second one, and it is the one that has the link .I know everyone here has heard of it because I’ve written about it, but I expect he’s correct that many people have not. If I didn’t already rant about these people have no right to use a name out of Lord of the Rings because they are all servants of Sauron (and that the original palantirs were created for good uses and only used for evil in evil hands), please consider that rant ranted now. You won’t need to read the article if you prefer to watch Robert Reich’s video below. But I hope you’ll share one or the other – or both.

This story from the 19th is, of course, just one of thousands. But it isn’t really possible for one person to feel all the pain in the universe – or in the world – of of any one class of abused people – or even a family. To get just an idea, we need to hear individual stories. (Consider the man in the painting “The Scream.” He is not screaming – he is hearing the scream of the universe – and it is killing him.)

Share
Dec 022025
 

Yesterday, Fair Fight Colorado announced that a ballot measure has been announced in Colorado to join the redistrict fight. Colorado has officially declined to transfer Tina Peters into federal custody. And CPR also told the state that we lost a (D) state Senator last week, in a 5-car crash on I-70.

In one way it could be called good news that there is yet another prominent Reagan-appointed judge who cannot abide Metamucillini, but it’s not good news that he has therefore resigned. I do get it, and he articulates it very well, and of course he couldn’t stay – but that’s also one less judge who can be trusted at a time when he admits trust in the government, and particularly the DOJ, is at an all-time low – and for good reason.

At least I am getting to “The Week Ahead” on Tuesday this week. She apologizes for it being long, and also says it’s incomplete. So fasten your metaphorical seat belts. Here we go.

Politizoom is the only place I saw this story, and it didn’t arrive until a bit after 8 pm (7 pm Pacific), so it’s as hot a story as you are ever likely to see here. My uncle lived in Stockton until I was about 12 or 13, so that caught my eye, but it was “Child’s birthday party” that really hit me. Four dead, three of them children, and ten injured.

Share
Nov 172025
 

Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage. Most of the hands were mediocre – but Virgil got a perfect 29 hand again, and this time it was for real – I didn’t stack it – no one did. First time I’ve ever seen a real one. Also yesterday, if anyone is interested, COURIER has compiled the 20,000 documents from Epstein’s estate, released by the US House Oversight Committee on November 12, 2025, into an easily searchable repository. It appears one must sign in to google to access it. Here’s the link:

Robert Reich on what the verdict of history should be on the Apricot AntiChrist. I emphasize “should” because I know of too many individuals on whom the verdict of history is wrong. And that goes both ways. I do like Robert Reich’s idea for a monument, but strongly doubt that it will ever come to pass.

Y’all can skip this if you have had enough, but I thought it would be useful to have pretty much all the Epstein stuff that is being emphasized – all of it would be a book the size of the OED or bigger – in one place, and The F* News appears to be it for now (Along with the above database.)

Common Dreams with another reason to be skeptical of AI – which is also another reason for those who are working on it to keep doing so. As long as they don’t force me to work with it, fine.

Belle veto-proof

Dog

Share
Nov 012025
 

Yesterday, an email from “Daily Dose of Democracy” had an important message. Virginia is blue enough to want to redistrict in order to neutralize Texas and other red states which are redistricting to redder. But their Attorney General is red and will block it. The Attorney General position is on the ballot for Tuesday. The race is (thanks to Republicans) the most expensive AG race in VA history. I’m generally not inclined to donate to a race outside my own state, but this race has national implications. So I made an exception and gave a small donation through Act Blue. Here’s the link – I shortened it so it shouldn’t prefill with my information, nut if it does, it should offer you a way to replace it.

Harry Litman’s Talking Feds Substack is an outgrowth of his YouTube channel, so I thought I might be able to find this there, but no such luck. It is a bit of a complicated read, involving the fate of the Immerfut ruling on Portland, review of it by two circuits, the SCROTUS shadow socket, and leading up to a request (read demand) from the SCROTUS to the President for more information on a shadow docket case which has already elicited no ruling in over two weeks. But it also contains a glimmer of hope – which heaven knows we all need right about now. It’s not bright enough to save for Sunday, but it’s something.

I did not have to archive this – Daily Dose of Democracy’s newsletter included the already archived link. I’m sure I don’t have to tell anyone here that liars lie – but the claim investigated here is such a blatant lie that it sinks to the level of farce. In particular, I got a chuckle out of “high ranking dumb” – and then realized how much grief a father would actually feel who felt the need to sat this about his son (presumably in order to defend him.) And the farther I read, the less amusing it got. The Gamboge Garnage’s DES makes the Keystone Cops look like Scotland Yard (and Dogberry and Verges look like Holmes and Watson.).

Robert Reich is asking everyone on his mailing list to share all of these videos, and it’s a reasonable ask, so I will be doing it. It hasn’t been every day, and I don’t expect it to be, but it will be often enough that I won’t be putting “Guest Video” if it’s a normal video – I’ll just post them – it will be pretty obvious from the preview. This one, however, is a “short” and cannot be embedded, so here’s the link.

Share
Oct 232025
 

Yesterday, Robert Reich announced the issue of a coffee mug with one of his drawings on it. It’s pricier than I would want (but with Robert Reich, you know whatever he makes from it will be spent on saving democracy), and I’m pretty sure it only comes in one size, but it is Robert Reich, and I wanted to give everyone here a chance to know about it. Last Sunday might, Heather Cox Richardson‘s daily letter summed up No Kings Day from both sides (and there’s no comparison), and I wanted to share that. Sorry I’m late with it, but I think it’s timeless. Also yesterday, the “border czar” (and if we don’t want kings, we really don’t want czars!) announced that he plans to deport 600,000 more people this year. That’s in addition to the 2 million already deported so far. It’s difficult to find a way to express that meaningfully, and I know my math isn’t 100% accurate, but I think it does at least provide an order of magnitude. He’s talking about 0ne out of every thousand people who are still here. So if you know 50 people, you have a 5% chance of someone you know being deported between now and January. Also yesterday – you can call this a typo or you can call it a Freudian slip – The Root made a reference to “Fox News hose Jesse Watters.” (I’m for the Freudian slip.)

There is a lot in this that we need to know. But if you take nothing else away from it, I hope you will take note of why Malcolm Nance gives the people he does the platform he gives. I think he’s on to something – specifically, a window into the mind of the Apricot Antichrist that those who are still close to him may see but would never say publicly any of what they see there. There is a history of thousands of years of converts being the most devout believers, and that is and has been true way beyond just religiously. Remember Eric Hoffer’s “The True Believer.”

The Intercept has no paywall, but its popups are so big I tend to just archive them so as not to scare anyone away. (Their content is more than scary enough – by design, since they want to fully inform readers.) The protest that started this chain was in July, but the court case, which is the scariest part, is ongoing.

Huff Post‘s popups are if possible even more obtrusive than The Intercept’s, so I archived this too. The video is not live, but I couldn’t get it to load, and anyway it’s very short (1:33), so I doubt we’re missing much.

Footnote – Jeff Merkley has been filibustering. TomCat would have been so proud. Here’s a link to a letter thanking him.

Share
Oct 222025
 

Yesterday, as if we didn’t have enough bad news from politics, I heard this from Carrie:

Barry is not going to recover. He is paralyzed from the neck down and now has pneumonia. We were unable to get him in Warm Springs because of insurance difficulties. He is in Columbus Specialty Hospital. Not what we wanted, but at least he is close by and we can monitor his care on a daily basis. I can’t really say anything else except please continue praying…. I want him to die peacefully in his sleep, and not suffer any pain or distress. Take care and thank you for your friendship. I could use a few prayers myself.

Regarding the SAM project I wrote about yesterday, I now have one picture of a projection onto a building in DC, and one video of an ad (30 seconds) they are running on Fox:


And the estimated participation in No Kings now include a maximum of up to 8.2 million (but there are also lower ones.)

I’m not sure where this is going – but I’m pretty sure it’s going somewhere. And I’m also pretty sure it happened only because killing human beings to their face, so to speak, is a little bit more obviously a war crime that blowing up their ship, especially with drones, and drowning it. It’s much harder to watch someone die.

Anyone who watches Rachel Maddow regularly has likely already seen this. I only have time to watch her sporadically. I’m not sure how to describe this. Outrageous or even atrocious don’t seem strong enough.

You’d probably have to be completely out of things to be unaware of the vandalism at the White House – but here’s an article anyway.

Guest video from Robert Reich. I expect we all hope he is 100% correct.

Cats

Share
Oct 132025
 

Yesterday, Trinette was by. It’s always good to see her. Otherwise, a quiet day. It’s definitely starting to feel like autumn – which is OK.

Robert Reich on the vulnerability of the media. And, yes, we have the tool – the anti-trust act, but it needs to be used. Not just on the media. On just about anything.

This from Talking Points Memo has several stories, but the first one is the one I’m posting it for.

Share