Open Thread October 10 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 102025
 

Yesterday, I couldn’t get back to sleep and ended up getting up early.  It would be nice if I had therefore accomplished more than usual, but I’m afraid I didn’t, except for maybe a little knitting.

Steve Schmidt is correct. Stephen Miller doesn’t generally worry about saying the quiet part out loud, or anything outrageous. He shows his hate freely. If Steve is correct as to what happened, and I don’t know why he wouldn’t be, then what was said before the cutoff should indeed be truly terrifying.

Other outlets have covered this situation, and there’s been a lot said about it (for instance, at Democratic Underground, where the point was made that, in the past, when the Speaker was “not available”, new members have been sworn in by a Supreme Court justice). But this is the deepest dive I have seen.

Wonkette addresses the issue of federal employees ever getting paid after the shutdown. With any sane President, this would never have been ab issue. But then, if we had a sane President, we likely would not be in a shutdown.

Guest video from Robert Reich – because he requested it be shared.

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Open Thread October 6 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 062025
 

Yesterday, I went to see Virgil. As usual we played cribbage. Most of our hands were mediocre to dire, but what the heck. We play to pass the time in each other’s company, not to win. Before I left to go see him, I received an update from Carrie on Barry. It’s not as good as I had hoped, but it’s also not as bad as my worst fears. It’s short, so I’ll quote it in full: …

I wanted to let you know Barry will be transferred to a long term acute care facility sometime next week. He had a tracheotomy last week so they could get the tube out of his mouth. Since he is still on a ventilator, the tube goes through the tracheostomy. They have turned the ventilator off from time to time, but he is only able to breathe on his own for about 30 minutes. At least he is no longer under heavy sedation. At present he is completely paralyzed. I will be seeing him tomorrow for the first time since he had the tracheotomy. He cannot speak, but is still answering simple yes or no questions by blinking. Please keep praying for him.*

*Or as always, however you communicate with the universe.

Late breaking news

It’s easy to criticize the media, and the MSM in general is indeed doing a terrible job of getting out the truth about this regime. But maybe at least some of the problem is that, being unaccustomed to government lies and fraud on this scale, they really don’t know how to report it. And I have to agree that the method proposed here is simple, but by no means obvious.

From Robert Reich‘s keyboard to God’s monitor or iPhone, whatever he’s using these days.

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Open Thread September 24 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 242025
 

Yesterday, another quiet day – which is wonderful, Heck, any one day under the current regime is more excitement than I need for the rest of my life.

Apparently Jimmy Kimmel was back on TV last night (as Wonkette and others expected). But that doesn’t matter in connection with what Robert Reich has to say about the whole kerfuffle, both here and in his video for Inequality Media (below).

Dan Froomkin from Press Watch thinks the Old Gray Lady may be reverting to actual journalism. I think the key words are “may be,” but he does have some examples to share. I note that this does NOT apply to the Washington Post.

This from the Talking Feds Substack is, of course, an opinion, but I have seen a fair amount about this, and thought about it. I would never support shutting down a government which is working well. But this one isn’t. It is in fact actively harmful. And I think Talking Feds is on to something. To shut down the Government and make it count, we need to make it about fascism. I think we can, and I think we should.

A guest video today from Robert Reich – not just OK but encouraged to share.

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Open Thread September 18 2025

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

Yesterday, I still couldn’t hear anything from the computer (it isn’t me – I can hear the radio just fine.) I went through all the troubleshooting in settings, and it says everything is just fine. So I’ve ordered new speakers. but they won’t come in time for me to hear Pénélope (by Gabriel Fauré) on Saturday. That doesn’t necessarily mean I shall never hear it – I looked it up on Wikipedia, and there are two existent recordings of it – one with Jessye Norman, of all people. No, I’m not ordering that right away. It would be quite a search, and I don’t have time. Maybe if we manage to survive this régime. Anyway, I will still have to get up earlier than usual Saturday to take my weekly Alendronate.

Robert Reich would like to remind us that no publication of his is sold by amazon. So if they claim to have, for instance, his new book, “Coming Up Short,” don’t buy it (in either sense.)

This is archived from from The Nation, where I didn’t even try to navigate to the full story through all the popups. But I suspect it speaks for all of us, at least in the sense that all of us will probably find something in it that says exactly what we were thinking.

File this from Wonkette under “Credit where credit is due, even if the amount of credit is small.”

Belle – I could not hear this, but I followed the CC as best I could. It seems important.

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Open Thread September 3 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 032025
 

Yesterday, Indivisible announced its next “No Kings” Day will be October 18. They expect to have maps up with events starting next week, but there is already a link to just “RSVP” (i.e. just say you’ll be there -somewhere.)

This is mostly a video with a reading from Robert Reich’s new book. It’s NSFW because Robert’s father did not mince words. It’s about 36 minutes, but doesn’t seem that long – but that may be partly because, being a book reading, it doesn’t need to be watched, and someone like me can knit while listening.

Margaret Atwood reports that The Handmaid’s Tale” is being banned in Edmonton, Alberta, and all the world and its canary wants her to comment – but she hasn’t been able to reach anyone in Edmonton who will tell her the basis on which it is being banned there. She still has a lot of general comments on book banning, though. And some other issues.

This Davis Mortuary thing has been a continuing scandal in the state for some time, but this is the first I have heard of a co-owner having a side gig as the Pueblo County Coroner. So now it’s political – and personal. The County Coroner in most places I know about is one of the least visible public officials, and, in many places, there is no legal requirement for him or her to meet any particuar qualificatons, other then getting elected. I do not know this, and could not prove it if I did, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is a real life example of American exceptionalism – I doubt that other, smarter countries handle deaths quite as crudely as we do.

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Open Thread September 2 2025

 Posted by at 5:58 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 022025
 

Yesterday, Trinette didn’t feel she was safe to come over, but is pretty sure she will by Wednesday evening. I sent her a Jacquie Lawson card with a recipe for chicken soup. I did get a little knitting done – not a whole lot, but enough to get me finished with a yarn that was dragging me down (a ladder yarn to be precise). I’ll be finishing the garment with a normal worsted yarn which is mostly recycled fibers (I am guessing mostly acrylic.)

As Robert Reich points out, nothing here is any reason for complacency. But they are reasons for hanging in there and fighting as much as we individually can.

There are several topics in this The F* News article, but the main one, the first one, is public health – and those of us who live in blue states can all be grateful for the news here. Those of us in red states … your nearest blue state may be a good place to look for vaccines.

I threw this in as a sort of extra, because it made me so angry. The Mango Moron is not smart enough to know about the 30-day minimum himself – so some veteran must have broken his (or her) oath and told him.

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Open Thread August 30 2025

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

Yesterday, an email from Robert Reich informed me that his new book – “Coming Up Short: a Memoir of My America” is number one on the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list. That is great – and Bob was deeply touched – but if the Times can see it is so popular, why won’t they take his advice about reporting? (No, don’t tell me – I do know – but it’s a crying shame.) Also, some one came up with a great nickname for RFKJr – “Obi-Wan Baloney” (apologies to lunchmeat.) Also – this was actually a couple of days ago – Joni Ernst will not seek reelection to the US Senate in Iowa. Certainly this is a kind of a victory – I just hope it isn’t a Pyrrhic one. Her dropping out is a sign that both she and the party know that she cannot now win. So instead, they are going to try to find someone who can. And I am afraid that that is possible. There are many ways to overperform – but this one is the most dangerous.

There are I believe, reasons why the concept of the “Wounded Healer” is so powerful. One can become an expert is, for example, brain surgery without every experiencing it oneself – because the brain is an objective reality which can be seen, diagrammed, studied from outside. But the mind cannot. The only way to become a true expert in, for example, depression is to suffer from it. Yes, some of us have more natural empathy than others, and are quicker to grasp others’ feelings. But there’s nothing quite like being there.

This from Robert Reich sounds very practical – and do-able. And considering that his latest collection of videos have been moving Trump**(*) voters up to 16 points, I think he’s on to something.

When I saved this to my list, I marked it “Extreme tissue alert.” I just watched it again, and yes, the warning is appropriate.

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Open Thread August 20 2025

 Posted by at 5:59 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 202025
 

Yesterday, I slept really late – like almost 4:00 pm. I was actually awakened by the refrigerator guy at the doorbell (I didn’t even know it could ring that loud.) But I needed it. I needed to use the TENs on my back at that spot I’ve been needing it off and on since TC was still with us – but my knees were so much better – not perfect, but I’m back in business. Also, we (Democrats) have a candidate opposing Susan Collins – but she is also getting primaried (or however that works in Maine – don’t they have ranked choice?) by a Republican – an oyster farmer (It’s silly, but somehow it nags on me that that should be an “oyster rancher.”) And one more news item – this one from Texas.

I apologize for the disgusting nature of this article from The 19th. Unfortunately, to get at the whole truth, it’s sometime necessary to face disgusting facts. And neither misogyny nor cryptocurrency is a fringe issue. Both are capable of being used (and are being used) to silence us and keep us down.

Mail-in ballots. Certainly, without them, my vote would not get counted. But I wouldn’t expect anything but disinformation from a person who lies like the rest of us breathe.

“Political Primate” is a new YouTube channel (started 7/22/25) depicting an ape (I’m no primatologist, but I think maybe an orangutan) speaking political commentary in a beautiful bass voice. Whatever he is, he is clearly highly educated, and far more intelligent than our current regime.

I’m using a Robert Reich video today instead of Belle, essentially because he asked me to. There’s a lot in it that I can’t do – but I am doing what I can. (I got a smile out of noticing that Reich watches Farron.)

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