Happy Juneteenth, y’all! Yesterday, from a comment on Malcolm’s show: “Trump [sic] didn’t get his HEU (highly enriched uranium) but he did get HEI (highly enriched Iranians).” Jim Acosta, on the other hand, called the signing foreign policy flatulence – the fart (maybe even the shart) of the deal.
Robert Reich – is singing my song. Well, except that no one is trying to tell me to slow down, because no one sees the actual work, which mostly consists of goinf through hundreds of emails daily in order to select a few topics – and minimize the explainer part – and minimizing is harder than it looks. But if anyone did say something – I’d have basically the same response.
To quote Nina Simone – “Mississippi God Damn.” Yes, I do know there are good people in Mississippi – that’s proven right in this story by the witneses who are coming forward to dispute the police account. But still.
Glad to learn that someone is taking Tommy Potatohead to court over where he actually lived – as opposed to just owns the houae.
This is a little bonus for today – because it officially opens today – because of course it does – although the big party was yesterday.
Yesterday, Virgil and I played cribbage as usual. He loved the new outfit. I think I said I barely finished it in time, but I didn’t mention I didn’t even have time to sew the ends of the elastic in the waitline of the pnats, so I gambled on usinf a small safety pin, and it did not set off the metal detector. That’s good to know for sure. I told him about the Googlr doodle story and he was just as impressed as everyone else. The drive was pretty easy both ways. On the way down I stopped to drop off my primary ballot in a drop box. I figured that even if we win the mail-in ballots war, it’s still time for me to learn about drop boxes, so I read up on where they are, and there are two on the stretch of old-fashoned highway I use to get to the Interstate when I see him. The first one is on the right side of the road going, and the second is on the right side of the road when I return. I stopped at the first one, and the box was obvious, and the parking was good, so I just used that one, and probably will in the future if it doesn’t change. But I am still glad to know about the second one.
I personally favor “Scrap the Cap.” And, even if that’s not actually passable, enough people supporting it could make Reich’s suggestion easier to pass.
Knowing Senator Whitehouse as I do – not personally, but through following his work in the Senate and his thinking through various media, I’m confident that the reassurance he is asking for is something that he wants only if it is true – and tha if it is not, he wants the truth. I say this because I don’t feel the article makes that clear. He and Senator Merkley are two Senators I just named as people whose nomination for President I would vote for – and added that that were others, but didn’t name them. Yes, he is pushing 70, and Merkley is pushing 69 (their dates of birth are one year minus 4 days apart.) And no, One doesn’t need to be that old to know what one is doing and how things work – but both do.I’m not averse to someone younger, but I would like someone who gives me the quiet confidence which they do.
Does ths reporting from ITPI surprise anyone? It certainly doesn’t surprise me – it just depresses me.
Sam Adams
Dog &Duck
I confess that when I filled up yesterday on the way home, it cost only a little over half what it had cost the last time. I wasn’t completely out either time, and he amounts were comparable. I doubt that’s widespread – I suspect I just got lucky.
Yesterday, The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Lisa Cook’s unlawful firing from the Federal Reserve. Based on questions asked by the Justices, both Michael Popok and Adam Klasfeld believe it will go 8-1 against the Mango Menace, or maybe even 9-0. Both have been watching the court for a long time, and I hope they are not wrong this time. Incidentally, Jerome Powell was present at the hearing too. Also, CPR reported that Tina Peters was “involved in an altercation” at the prison she is in (not a surprise.) And most of the snow in my yard is gone now, but there are a few patches left – and we are now expecting more on Friday and Saturday.
This is Robert Reich at his best. I don’t know whether it will actually be seen by the world leaders he is really addressing – but I hope it will.
It’s not as if we didn’t know most of what’s in the Common Dreams article. But knowing what happened, and doing something about it, are two different things.
This is the way Andy used to write for the New Yorker. The only thing missing is “Harland Dorrison.” Oh wait -I said that too soon. He shows up (a little masked) in this one!
Ask and you shall receive, I guess! Not that I actually asked anyone, but here it is – I can give you a full day’s notice for this event.
Yesterday, I was checking my yahoo email account and started with spam. I saw an email whose sender name started with “Department of G” – that was as much as I could see and I needed the magnifier to read it – which is why I went to tutamail in the first place. That turned out to be “Department of Government Efficiency” – but a hover showed it was actually from a gmail address. As if we didn’t have enough government reality to be suspicious of – now we need to watch for scams masquerading as official scams. In other news, you may remember that, of all people, MTG is on our side on releasing the Epstein files. Well, now she is also on our side about the shutdown. I don’t know if my brain can handle it. Also, there was a lot of news about MAGA freaking out about Bad Bunny being booked for the Super Bowl halftime show (Bad Bunny is an American citizen by birthright).
Several topics here, at The F*News: the first is on Judge Immergut (you gotta love her name – “Always good” in German), but then it goes into Social Security cuts (mine for this month is in my account as “pending.” On Wednesday, the “pending” will disappear and my balance will reflect it) and two more. Along the way, Jonathan does a little bragging, which I certainly would too for the achievements he cites.
This week the Supreme Court’s term begins, and they will start hearing arguments again. Joyce Vance has posted the full calendar, through June, of which days are argument days, and the first two weeks of which cases when. And there’s more. Also, from a different site which included Joyce Vance in a video, the Supreme Court heard arguments on but did not decide one case last term – Louisiana v. Callais – and will be hearing arguments again on Wednesday, October 15. Meanwhile, the Election Assistance Commission has a comment period open on this case. Why is this important? Because all we have left of the Voting Rights Act is Section 2 (the Court previously overturned Section 5). This case could overturn Section 2. The link for comments is here. I have put up a separate post with suggestions for comments, because I have no link to it. The to-and-fro directions below the comments section should direct you to it. Although arguments are October 15, you have till October 20 to comment.
Dan Froomkin has put a lot of thought into his premise here. I don’t think he is seeing ghosts. Robert Reich has similar, though not identical, thoughts as this map he drew suggests.
Yesterday, the details of an ICE raid on an apartment building in Chicago were published, including by Wonkette. It appears they simply broke down every door in the building, detained everyone, then after some hours released those they had been able to confirm were citizens. If you don’t want to read about it, I don’t blame you but here’s the link anyway.
This from The Conversation goes along with the article earlier this week about learning to be defiant. If a serious, dedicated scholar can be as far off about what the Third Reich looked like from inside, the rest of us need to take notice now.
Wow. Just Wow. Wonkette – well, it isn’t actually Wonkette which nails it – it’s District Judge Young, but Wonkette serves it up. And it inspired me to use a cartoon I have been holding, because it makes it so clear that it isn’t words, and certainly not words alone, which make terrorists.
This HuffPost article sheds some light on the Federal shutdown. And also on the messaging. Our messaging is pretty clear, and self explanatory, if anyone who needs to hear it will ever hear it (and believe it – they are so accustomed to believing six impossible things before breakfast that getting their belief is not exactly guaranteed.)
Yesterday, I spent some time getting organized for Trinette to come over Sunday. I have trash and I have recyclables, and they need to be in bags so they’re easy to carry out. Also, since Trinette has now nagged me enough, we are going to he VA Monday to see what they can do for me. I haven’t been there since 1976, and I hear they will now assist with MedicAlerts – if the Persimmon Palpatine hasn’t destroyed that already. And I want to have all my paperwork together. Otherwise, it was just a day. I gat a card in the mail from an old Marine Corps friend,, and one of my second cousins in California called to wish me a happy day. i also got emails from Trinette and Carrie B (“NannyCarrie” from Care2).
Thursday, Andy Borowitz, who generally keeps his videos for paid subscribers only, posted a (roughly 31 minute) video with W.Kamau Bell open to everyone. Like every other Substack video I have watched, it needs to be unmuted, but otherwise it was very smooth. But if you just want to skip close to the end and learn what charity Bell donated his Jeopardy winnings to, I think you may be surprised.
This from ProPublica I fear needs a trigger warning – or at least a tissue alert. But one of the men in it says that getting home and realizing that he hadn’t been forgotten was the best gift he could have received. Let’s not forget them.
A couple of other outlets had this story, so I may be sorry I chose it, but it’s definitely personal to me. I live on Social Security. My life depends on it.
Yesterday, Wonkette unintentionally informed me that I guess I’m going to have to thank my junior Senator for something. I don’t think it’s quite good enough for me to apologize, but a “thank you” won’t kill me. Also yesterday, Rep Al Green introduced new articles of impeachment and forced a vote on them using Article IX. And 128 Democrats voted with Republicans to table them. I knew my Rep wasn’t one because my rep is a Rethug. But I did look up the record, so if you want to know how yours voted here it is. In Colorado, only Diane DeGette had the balls to vote not to table it.
Robert Reich forwards, if you will, a letter from Liz Cheney. I cannot disagree with either of them on this.
When Pete Buttigieg speaks, I’m inclined to listen. Particularly when he speaks about something he has just spent two weeks doing a deep dive into. The article is not all that long, but every word is important.
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.
