Open Thread October 23 2025

 Posted by at 5:54 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
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.

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Open Thread October 22 2025

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

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Open Thread October 13 2025

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

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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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