Aug 152024
 

Yesterday, I learned there’s a new Randy Rainbow out. I also learned Randy has a sponsor now. I have doctored the URL to omit it – but I might point out that it is “Ground News,” which Trae Crowder has also accepted as a sponsor, so you know it’s going to be a reliable source. If you want the coupon, you can start it at the beginning. The parody is of “The farmer and the cowman should be friends,” from “Pklahoma,”which also is about division, so very appropriate. Here’s the link. With that accomplished, I also requested to schedule a donation pickup – and got today for a date. Well, I was ready; all I needed to do was move the chair I want to keep away from the boxes, and put out a note. Since I was going out to the porch anyway, I replaced my “No solicitation” sign, which was getting pretty worn, and put up a new one (if you are on our Mitch’s email list you probably saw it) “Warning! Retired person on premises. Knows everything and has plenty of time to tell it.”

Brooke Binkowski is new at Wonkette. She is a “counterdisinformationist*. In this article she addresses what counterdisinformation is and why it differs from fact-checking and debunking (both of which are also in her CV.) Even though she writes with Wonkette’s trademark irreverence (Rebecca appears to have a knack for hiring people who take to irreverence like ducks to water) some of her suggestions are quite doable. Of course, the more successful one is at it, the more likely one is to start receiving death threats, so take that into consideration too.

There’s a great deal wrong with people who to remove from society those wom they believe to be the “underclass.” But the one thing that may make them the most likely to rethink this is to point out that, without the “underclass,” they would have to clean their own toilets, scrub their own floors, at the very least harvest, and possibly also grow, their own food – and on and on. No, he’s not running for PResident – yet – but as an adviser th JD Vance, if Republicans win, he could still see the inside of the White House.

Belle Ukraine

Dog

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Aug 102024
 

Yesterday, I read Joyce Vance‘s post on the Special Counsel asking Judge Chutkan for more time – i.e. more delay. Being who he is, he has some very good reasons. But the line in the post which struck me and gave me hope was this: “[G]etting it right matters more than going fast.” Not that I haven’t always felt that way. But reading it from her hand strengthens my confidence that we can (aabd will) get it right in the end. Also, Robert Reich posted a bonus episode (not originally intended) of his DEBUNK series.

Of course this is one state. But the information that’s being used in this training would be useful anywhere. And our SoS has offered in the past to assist other states (IIRC that offer was made during the pandemic in regard to voting by mail.) I can’t imagine her turning down any other SoS who requested help on this.

If anyone had told me during the Nixon presidency that some day I would look back on that time as a kind of golden age, I would have scoffed. You probably would also. But looking back with Heather Cox Richardson, I now see that the greed and abused privilege of Nixon and his coterie were offset by the integrity of people in the Senate and the press who were determined to get to the truth. Then, as now a point was made of mounting impartiality in the investigators – then as now the President claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy – but then, as is not true now, most people believed the proven facts in the end. Who would have thought.

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Jul 202024
 

Yesterday, since it was Friday, Robert Reich posted the latest episode in his “DEBUNK” series. Heather Cox Richardson posted a blistering bio of Paul Manafort.

Russian soldiers are, due to the lack of purpose-built vehicles, being compelled to use whatevet that can lay their hands on – such as golf carts – to attempt to attack. I am not pro-violence, and least of all am I pro-enjoying violence – but I have to say that Ukreainians have an excuse. Slava Ukraini!

Robert Hubbell has had it with corporate Democrats, and I don”t blame him. I have too. I am extremely upset with Adam Schiff and several others. I think Hubbell’s advice is excellent for anyone who can follow it. Since I’m obligated to post here, I cannot follow the “Keep your head down” part, but I’ll do my best to keep my blood pressure down at least. This is a two-parter and I’m sharing both parts today. And putting a quote from the second part into a second cartoon.


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Jul 182024
 

Yesterday, the biggest news appeared to be that Joe Biden is adding Spureme Court reform to his platform. I expect you can watch, or read about, this development just about anywhere. How very welcome this is can probably be measured by how vitriolic Trump**s remarks about it in his social medium (I made that singular because he only has the one.) Of course, the formation of an agency by NATO is also pretty big. But I’ll let Beau talk about that.

Apparently, we have zebra mussels in our waters. They are native to Russia, as are Siberian elms, another invasive species we have. Grump.

Joyce Vance has some things to say – about the apparent attack on Trump** and reactions to it – on both sides.  Normally, IMO, if something is balanced, it is by definition not fair, because both sides are not the same.  But she shows it can be done.

(jJst a snaoshot)

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Jun 272024
 

On Tuesday, Ukraine began official accession negotiations with the European Union. It’s nice to have some good news to offset what came out of the Supreme Court yesterday, and the ridiculous number of decisions not yet decided by the same. Also, I learned that Steve Schmidt has a wicked sense of humor, as is shown by his remarks about the Alan Shepard prayer.

I would think that Pete Buttigieg would be among the very last of white people to think that black lives – quality as well as quantity – don’t matter. I’d advise them to go directly to him. But I do realize that’s not as easy as it sounds.

Of course this is a concern, because bullies willalways look stronger to stupid people than they in fact are, and leaders with genuine inner strength will not look strong to stupid people. But if Joe just does what he did in the latest SOTU (and we know he can, bcause we watched him pull it off), people who are not brainwashed will get the point.

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Jun 182024
 

Yesterday, when I had the time and energy to finish reading my emails from Sunday, I came across Joe Biden’s Father’s Day Proclamation (courtesy of Steve Smith), read it, and am sharing the link. That’s the world that I want to live in. It’s not a perfect world – there is no perfect world – but it’s a world in which at least the Federal goverment is run with ethics, honesty, kindness, and consideration, in order to make life easier for the maximum number of people. I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but I’m going to anyway: we willl never get there by electing people at any levels who just want power – and who get elected by promising their voters power through them. Also, Robert Reich’s caption contest, which asked readers to submit suggestions for whar “MAGA” really stands for, ad too many good answers to list here. I can’t enter, being a free subscriber, but had I been ale and done so, I would have suggested “Malice And Greed Always.”

Moving to actual news (or at least actual analysis of actual news – there’s some of both), Robert Hubbell goes into detail about how and why the Washington Post is so worng in their election coverage, even though they still do well in other areas (some of this ofcourse also apples to the New York Times, and other formerly competent mainstream outlets.) If he is accurate on their strategy (and I suspect he is), it’s easy to see why he wonders whether the Post can survive. It’s a no-brainer.

In Sunday’s Open Thread, Beau spoke about Ukraine, including commenting that Ukraine might be operating in the skies a little more – which, with the loan he also spoke about – they have been doing. Now, the Daily Beast confirms that Ukraine is hitting hard, and it is working. We can but hope Putin is runninng out of things up his sleeve.

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Jun 172024
 

Yesterday, I managed to remember it was Father’s Day in time to wish Virgil a happy one. The prison dog’s handler brought him out to say happy Father’s Day to all the visitors. And of course we played cribbage. Two weeks ago the cards were seriusly hot – we were seeing scores up as high as 24. Yesterday not so much. The highest score all afternoon was 16, and there were only 3 hands all afternoon which achieved that score. But who cares – we were having fun.

Before we get too giddy over the Supremes approving mifeprestone (for now), we need to look deeper. Robert Hubell does. There are several topics here, but each has its own large type headline, so it’s not hard to find. And some of the other topics are pretty interesting also.

Yes, it took me a while to get this up. But I try to minimize bad news over a weekend. At least there are influential people who see right through this and are doing their best to spread reality. Unfortunately, the media is not among them.

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Jun 122024
 

Yesterday, Trinette’s son Zach was by to “mow the grass” (a very charitable euphemism for “mow thw weeds. And I did reach the exterminator, who confirmed they are coming in the late afternoon tomorrow. So that’s all good. Also, as I’m sure youall know, Hunter Biden was convicted of a gun felony. And then too, in case anyone cares, I looked up the no paywall link to the Rolling Stone article which captures the Alitos’ real political ideas. It’s here. And one last thing – the Theater of War production scheduled for 6 pm Eastern today was featured on PBS News Hour over the weekend and the segment can be streamed here if anyone is interested. I’m sure they aren’t finished with this project.

The Southern Poverty Law Center calls this geoup “The greatest threat to democracy you’ve never heard of.” The HuffPost Fringe shares the information.

I do hope TFG (Can also stand for That Felon Guy) doesn’t actually try this. However, as Virgil’s mother used to say, “Xit in one habd and hope in the other and see which gets filled first.

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