Open Thread December 27 2025

 Posted by at 10:07 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 262025
 

Yesterday was a slow news day – I’m glad for the respite, but it makes it tough to fill a column. Here is one article on the big story, an opinion piece, and a book report. I didn’t finish the sweater, but I came very close.

Those of us like me who essentially ignore mainstream media and instead get our news from independent news sources such as The Root learned that, not content with murdering Venezuelan fishermen, the Cantaloupe Caligula bombed Nigeria on Christmas Day. I guess he doesn’t know (or doesn’t care) that it’s New Year’s Day that is the big day for fireworks in the world outside the United States. Seriously, this action is not merely certifiably evil, but it is also tone deaf, which someone who cares about polls as much as he does would normally try to avoid.

Robert Rwich‘s interview with Zohran Mamdani, which happened a week before the election. Reich reprints it as he actually takes office. He’s smart, he has a good understanding of real people’s real problems. and good ideas on how to help. But we knew that. What really struck me in the interview was his courtesy.

Colorado Public Radio has been running a “best books of the year” post for several years now, and the one for 2025 is out. This year’s list looks small to me – or it did until I looked at the two previous years.

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Open Thread December 24 2025

 Posted by at 1:31 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 242025
 

Yesterday, for a change, SCROTUS ruled against the Mango Monster 6-3 for a change in Trump v. Illinois – a case Harry Litman has been saying since it was filed would be its moment of truth. Because had it gone the other way, the Monster would have had free rein to act on any lies he could dream up. Harry Litman invited Leah Litman (mp relation) to discuss it with him on Substack Live. Both were so excited they were interrupting each other. I’ll provide the link anyway, difficult as it is to listen to (actually the video seems to be one and done, but the transcript is there), but a key factor was that one amicus brief was incredibly important. One amicus brief which was saying something no one else was saying, but which was right. So if you ever discounted the effect of amicus briefs – it’s time to rethink that.

CPR News referred me to this. Between this and a related story about Colorado losing FEMA funds which are now tied to immigration policy, I decided this one would affect a whole lot more people in a whole lot more places.

I’ve written previously about Lone Star ticks, and IIRC at that time there were already a few other ticks who carried this trait, but apparently, according to The Conversation, it’s getting worse. I don’t, thank the universe, have this particular food allergy, but I do have a couple which are almost equally crippling, such as wheat and soy, and frankly, you don’t want to have any food allergy ever, and especially when grocery prices are out of control.

I’m sure everyone is aware about how the short (for a documentary) documentary about CECOT had been scheduled to air on 60 minutes but was yanked by Bari Weiss. But she either forgot or didn’t know that 60 minutes also plays on Global TV in Canada. By the time she realized it, Canada had already seen about 13.5 minutes of it. That 13.5 (13.35 to be precise) was all over the internet. By yesterday, it had been taken down from most of those places. But it it viewable here. If you haven’t already seen it, you might want to watch it, if only because so many people worked so hard to prevent you from seeing it.

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Open Thread December 19 2025

 Posted by at 3:29 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 192025
 

Yesterday, Steve Schmidt called the Mango Monster’s Wednesday night speech a “Norma Desmond imitation.” I didn’t watch it. Was he ready for his close-up? Also, I keep forgetting to mention this before it’s gone. PBS has a video of “Twelfth Night” from a few of years back “Free Shakespeare in the Park,” and they are streaming it, but only through December 31 (I really think they ought to at least go through Jan 6, since that is actually 12th Night, but what do I know.) Lupita Nyong’o plays Viola, and her real life brother Justin plays Sebastian. He’s a bit taller and of course their voices don’t match, but otherwise, I’ve never seen a better match. And Malvolio is played by Peter Dinklage, who appears to be having a wonderful time doing it. You can stream it here. I don’t think you have to have Passport, but since I do, I can’t be sure. They did not ask me for credentials to see it, but I hadn’t cleared my cache for a while. When I looked it was the second show down, but priorities change, so you may have to scroll farther. (They are also still streaming “Ann” about Ann Richards. I don’t know how long that will last.) And if those aren’t your thing, something else might be.

The Brennan Center for Justice takes another look at Bush v. Gore and how it has affected the makeup of the Supreme Court as well as its reputation.

From Mediaite, referred by Dose of Democracy. I didn’t watch or listen – I’m sorry, but my health won’t take it. Having to read about it is bad enough.

This from The F* News SO pisses me off. Look, I was assigned female at birth and the assignment in my case was accurate. I also turned out to be straight. And I don’t have the kind of imagination to write fantasy novels, science fiction or otherwise. But I do have enough imagination to picture how terrible it must be to be attracted to people of the same sex and to be thereby considered by society as a horrible person or a sick person who needs curing. Or, even worse, to be a male person who was born into a female body, or the reverse, and to know that there are medical solutions that could help me by carefully making changes to my body so it could match who I am, but people who are terrified, or terrible, and almost certainly, on some level, both, have passed laws against doctors helping me. It’s no effing wonder that so many LGBTQIA+ teens kill themselves. The teen years are a time when everything already looks like the end of the world.

link for Lona 

Cat

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Open Thread December 11 2025

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

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Open Thread December 3 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
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.)

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Open Thread December 2 2025

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

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Open Thread November 17 2025

 Posted by at 5:51 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
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

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Open Thread November 1 2025

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

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