Open Thread October 8 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Politics
Oct 082025
 

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.

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Open Thread October 7 2025

 Posted by at 7:04 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 072025
 

Yesterday, I heard from Carrie after her visit to Barry. I’m quoting much of it because we are all so used to brain strokes and how to tell if you or a loved one may be having or have had one, and none of that will work for a brain stem stroke. “I was able to speak to him and he was aware I was there. That is the saddest thing about this type of stroke. His brain functions well, but everything the brain stem controls is gone. Because brain stem strokes are so rare, they are easily missed. That’s why he was not correctly diagnosed when he first arrived in the ER. His doctors had only had one other such stroke victim in the past four years. Barry will be transferred to Warm Springs, Georgia to a hospital / rehab facility. After 2 to 4 weeks, they should be able to give us a prognosis.” In other news, our Supreme Court is corrupt – but not corrupt enough to consider Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal (Axios). Also, I can at least say that I have one Senator who has a clue how to message.

I agree with Robert Reich that this needs to be discussed – or at least thought about – by everyone. I personally am absolutely unqualified to talk about it with people who voted for it, but no doubt there are people who are. Will those voters be willng to listen to or even talk to such qualified people? Anyway, for us – therapy animals can help. for those lucky enough to own one or be near a professional one.

Harry Litman with a this-is-how-it’s-done article on a judicial opinion. As he points out, All judges have occasions on which they need to defer, but they should never to lies. Other courts should take this message to heart – immediately. (Incidentally, this judge was appointed by the Mango Moron. How she got past the Heritage Foundation, I can’t even guess.)

This may brighten your day and maybe even look into the book. There is a Little Professor bookstore in Athens, Ohio, and another in Owatonna, Minnesota, but Joyce lives in Alabama, so this has to be in Birmingham or its suburb Homewood. Although cities are more liberal than rural areas, that’s still a lot of books for Alabama (I wonder how much her signature changed from the first one to the last one.)

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Open Thread October 3 2025

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

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.)

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Open Thread September 21 2025

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 212025
 

Yesterday, I was able to hear the radio opera from my laptop. Even set up to the max, the volume was low, and I hope I won’t need to do it again. Faure was one of the Impressionists like Debussy and Ravel, but is much less known. His best known work is probably the Dolly Suite, written for a little girl nicknamed Dolly. This opera, Pénélope, based on the last part of Homer’s Odyssey (when Odysseus finally gets home), doesn’t sound much like the Dolly suite, but it is attractive. Why it’s not performed more than it is is mostly bad luck. It wasn’t a huge hit in the provinces, but when it made its Paris premier, it was well received by the audience and the critics. But within two months another premier at the same theater stole all the oxygen from everything else – it was a little ballet called “Le sacre du printemps,” or in English, “The Rite of Spring.” It actually caused riots, in which people were physically hurt. And it’s not pretty – but it is a masterpiece. But I digress. It has been so long since I read the Odyssey I had almost forgotten about the lack of trust which was normal back when there were no certain ways to establish one’s identity. Odysseus arrives in disguise, and when recognized, orders the person not to reveal him – because all the dudes waiting around for up to 20 years to try to marry his wife would have killed him (instead, he kills them.) When he does reveal his identity to Penelope, she tests him with a fib about having replaced the bed in the master bedroom (not really possible, because the bed was a four-poster and one of the posts was a living tree, and the room was built around it and the bed), and of course he freaks because he knows that, which establishes he really is Odysseus. Off to see Virgil now – will check in.

You are welcome to argue with me about whether this from The Root is good news – since it’s mostly not new, but history. But I maintain the news part is that someone whose name should have been in people’s mouths along with the names of Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and many others is finally getting recognition – at least from the black community, and it should be from us also. It’s not exactly anyone’s fault it’s coming late. Photographers speak with the images they create, not with their mouths, and images are not physically attached to them, so its too easy to forget the people behind those images.

This was apparently a federal charge; I assume that because it was tried in a federal court house and at the Times there is an implication that the prosecution was by a U.S. Attorney. But it’s good news at any level.

There is a lot of good news in this from Wonkette, and it’s from Thursday, so you may have seen some of it. But probably not all of it.

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Open Thread September 10 2025

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

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, CHARLIE KIRK WAS SHOT AND KILLED LAST NIGHT WHILE SPEAKING IN UTAH.

Yesterday, I’m not excited about rehashing things, especially when there is so much rapid-fire news. On the other hand, G. K, Chesterton had it eight when he said “The human race does not need to be instructed so much as it need to be reminded.” We know that George Washington warned us about Trump**(*) (not a prediction so much as a general knowledge of human nature.) But The Conversation recently published a scholarly article addressing the details of that warning. Also yesterday, this from Liza Donnelly – you may find some of it elsewhere, but as I type, it’s all new to me (some, but nowhere near all, is from Heather Cox Richardson – I checked because they are close friends.) And also, I have noticed that Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce Vance have done a Substack Live and I have really wanted to see it – and today I was able to see it through Preet Bharara’s Substack. Both are knitters (and I knitted while watching.) If you want to watch but skip the knitting talk, start at 4:20. Also, it says it ends at 52:47 but it actually ended at 48:43 – and that’s including a bit about book tours, which can be skipped.

I have gotten to the point that when I come to a headline in The Root which begins “Black People Need To Know About”, my immediate gut reaction is “Sure, but do white people and other non-Black people know enough about this, since we are the ones doing it, and maybe the ones in the best position to do something about it?” In this particular case, sane white people have been opposing it for decades – maybe forever – and haven’t had much luck. But now is not the time to give up.

I think of Jennifer Rubin as being a journalist, not a lawyer – but I looked her up in Wikipedia and she does have a Juris Doctor degree – in fact, headed her law school class. So her opinions on the Courts – what they are doing, and what it means – are at a minimum educated thoughts.

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Open Thread September 6 2025

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

Yesterday, I received an email from Catholics for Choicea addressing the myth that the Catholic Church “cannot change,” which  is historically, demonstrably false. I won’t do a rant on this, but for anyone who cares about women’s rights, I’ll provide the link.

Pro Publica takes a deep dive into what the regime is on to about “mortgage fraud.” It’s about what constitutes a primary residence. Apparently, in many cases claiming two primary residences is perfectly legal. I don’t know what the criteria are for that, but I can certainly see it in the cases of “snowbirds,” who have a primary summer residence and a primary winter residence. Yeah, most people couldn’t afford that, but in thse cases that really is how they are using their properties. But even if some of these case aren’t technically lawful, anyone he attempts to prosecute will have a great “selective prosecution” defense, since three of his Cabinet members have multiple primary mortgages.

Steve Schmidt from The Warning. Yeah. That ship we just attacked was carrying drugs exactly like all those men we sent to CECOT were MS-13. Right. I’m positive of that.

Joyce Vance shares an analogy made by a federal judge and presented by NBC News. The anonymous judge, along with other quoted in the episode, was anonymous for self-defense. Theres a link to the (print) article in Joyce’s post. All of the article is onsistent with what I see and probably most hee ee, which eans that it may not be encouraging, but it does appear accurate.

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Open Thread July 26 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 262025
 

Yesterday, I had a good night’s sleep – and a little more energy than I’ve been having (though not as much as I would like to have.)  Incidentally, does anyone remember that before I was in the hospital, and I was putting up two posts daily, including one just for videos, one of the creators I used was retired Major Richard Ojeda? Well, he is now running for Congress in North Carolina. He may not be young, but he is a fighter, has zero tolerance for BS, and tells it like it is “without fear or favor.” I hope he wins.

I don’t see anything surprising in this from the Intercept, unless it’s the focus on Personal Protective Equipment – when there are so many other behaviors they could criminalize. Like giving people food and/or water, as was done in some states at the last election.

I apologize for posting legal – stuff – on a Saturday, but at least you will be amused by some of the colorful similes. With any other court, this is so extreme that I’d just laugh and delete it. But with this court, who knows?

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Open Thread July 14 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 142025
 

Yesterday, Virgil and I talked unusually long before starting to play cribbage. I kind of unloaded about some of the things the Fascist regime is doing and planning to do. He is unlikely to remember any of it, of course, but it made me feel better. Also, when we did play cribbage, he kept forgetting, both in the hands and in the cribs, that the cut card is also a part of his hand – of both our hands – and of the crib. Technically in what I call cutthroat cribbage, the rule is that if you catch something another player failed to count, you get the points and the other person loses them. Of course I would never do that to him – but if I had today, it would have been a metaphorical bloodbath. He also forgot how old he is (He’ll be 82 before the end of July.) Yeah, I can see why his case manager asked me to be his medical POA.

Joyce Vance from Friday. I don’t really have anything to add. At least, not without profanity.

I guess this from “Balls and Strikes” is rather specialized. On the other hand, if enough Americans who were loud enough had been doing this kind of specialized knowledge long enough ago, there’s a possibility we might have been spared Brett Kavanaugh.

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