“When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace.” – attributed to Jimi Hendrix. Quoted on a banner two people were attempting to fly from the top of the Statue of Liberty. I hope they have survived. I don’t know the whole story as I type – perhaps y’all do by now.
If you know anything about the British Constitution, you know that a King or Queen nactually has far less power than our President – especially this one. The monarch of England, for example, is forbidden by the Constitution to speak publicly about politics. Elizabeth II spent what, over 70 years? – living up to that. I mention this because Robert Reich implies in the video that SCROTUS made our so-called President a King. They did not. They made him into an emperor- or maybe a demigod. An autocrat. A Dictator. But not a King.
This from “We Are The Mighty” is a flashback to World War II which has a happy ending. This quote – “The Nazis took perverse pleasure in trying to destroy anything that their enemies held dear” rings very now to me. Therearestill Nazis – and they are still practicing this.
Archived from the Huff Post. One response to Mike Johnson: “Don’t threaten us with a good time”
I don’t think the subject of this from The Intercept is getting the attention it deserves. Possibly because it doesn’t sound that bad – but the unintended consequences are massive.
sorry the URL is embedded in Paint. But I put it below the image in case you want to read the story and haven’t already seen it.
Yesterday, the Senate refused to take action to restrain the Degenerate Darth Vader’s illegal war in Iran. I, as you have probably noticed, an struggling this week to keep abreast of what day it is. I think that may be at least in part because the first was on Sunday, and, although I consciously know that the week is Sunday through Saturday, I, because school weeks and work weeks start in Monday, subconsciously still see Monday through Friday as one through five. Hopefully I’ll be more on track next week.
I had realized I missed the start of Ramadan, hence the image. It goes until roughly March 19 this year. The ending date is not totally predictable because the moon has to be in the right position at the time, but Eid al Fitr is predicted for March 20.
Tuesday, this happened. I hope you’ll find it as satisfying as I did. Of course, it’s still just words, no action – but coming from one Rethuglican to another, it’s like music. (Also, Josh Hawley even toreinto her, but I don’t have that quote.)
The first story at this link is the one I am posting -but just about every one is worth at least a look (and they are short.)
I don’t think Joyce is correct about every state. But, sadly, she doesn’t have to be right about every state for there to be fatal chaos. I stopped doing it when it became to much for my mobility, but I did work elections for many years administering elections in Colorado, and that under both Democratic and Republican Secretaries of State and County Clerks, during periods when Colorado was red, and periods when it was blue. The attitude of “If people are entitled to vote, we want them to vote” never changed through the years -though Democrats and Republicans disagreed on almost everything else. But that was then and this is now, and red states (and maybe counties, which might be worse) will ratf*** if they can.
Medical professionals are well aware of this. When I was checking in to rehab in ’23 and was asked whether I had “Advantage,” I said something like “I wouldn’t have Advantage if they paid me to take it,” And the response was “Oh, you’re smart.”
ICE and CBP are just the tip of the iceberg in Minnesota. MAGA has always been full of vigilantes. Does anyone besides me wonder why, if they actually believe and trust the Saffron Sauron’s Keystone Cops, they think they have to handle it themselves?
I wholeheartedly agree with the business owner who says the “law and order” is not what is happening. But I disagree that it isn’t politics, because all politics is moral (or immoral.)
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Carmen” by George Bizet. There’s not much I don’t know about Carmen (although I did learn something today from the tenor in an intermission interview, he pointed out that Carmen never tells Jose she loves him. And he is 100% correct. She implies it once or twice, and says it to others, but never says it to him.) I played first chair second violin in a student production when I was studying music (I didn’t play it well, despite the work I put in, both practicing and listening) but I did play it, and the production was a success in spite of me. I’ve heard and seen so many productions I can’t remember them all. I’ve seen the movie “Carmen Jones” (in which Marilyn Horne sang for Dorothy Dandridge.) If I can’t get to sleep on account od an earworm, there’s probably about a 30% chance it’s from Carmen. A couple of seasons ago the Met put it on with a French mezzo and the announcers were excited to hear it, I presume because Bizet was French. But no one in Carmen is French. Carmen, her two gal pals, and the leaders of the smugglers, and part of the time the chorus, are Romani. Everyone else is Spanish (Jose and Micaela (and if so, Jose) may have been Basque, or may not.) The only thing in the opera which sounds remotely French is the “Flower Song,” and Carmen doesn’t sing that – Jose does. Yesterday’s Carmen was Aigul Akhmetshina, who is Bashkir – not Romani, but the Bashkir people were nomadic at one time. In the absence of any mezzos who are Romani, I’m more excited by this. Also yesterday, I received an email informing me that the trauma combat surgeon who saved the life of Tammy Duckworth in Iraq is now running for Congress in New Jersey. He joins a record number of medical and scientific professionals who are doing the same.
“Colorado Chooses Vaccines is a broad, statewide coalition of healthcare providers, public health leaders, and community organizations working together to protect vaccine access and trust.” from the coalition’s website. I’m proud of Colorado for doing this. And of Coloradans like Carol Boigon don’t let physical disabilities stand in the way of their public service.
Yesterday, the snow in my back yard didn’t all disappear, though it did disappear on the northern half. The southern half showed patches of the growth underneath the snow, but they amounted to less than half of the area, Joyce Vance did a Substack video with Mark Elias, and she highly recommended his Substack “Democracy Docket,” so I’m giving it a try. He is involved in a lot of anti-regime litigation and therefore someone we should know exists, which does not necessarily mean we should read everything he writes. I’ll follow this up. Also, I learned that Malcolm Nance is going to Greenland to work with NATO training exercises with military from NATO countries. And Robert Reich informed me that the Saffron Sauron threatens to invoke the insurrection act in Minneapolis. And the frosting on the cake is that Maria Machado gave her Nobel Prize to the Apricot Antichrist (I assume just the medal, not the money.) And then there’s this. Theater of War productions are known for using well known actors to perform – at least they are well known if you watch cable – which I don’t. But I know these people – who are not professional actors, but are lot more interesting than actors IMO. Take a look. It doesn’t say whether it will be Zoomed or otherwise digitally broadcast. Generally their events are Zoomed live (which would be at 5:00 here, 6:00 Central) and one also needs to register in advance ,with Zoom. I’ll follow up and share what I find, if anything.
I’m not sure I’d call what Common Dreams calls “mockery,” mockery. I’m more inclined to call it pure evil.
The saddest thing about this is that Robert Reich believes (rightly) that there are people who need to be told it because they can’t figure it out themselves. Perhaps our species needs renaming – “sapiens” just doesn’t seem to fit any more (if indeed it ever did). Having checked Google translate, may I suggest “homo stolidus”?
Once again, I am reminded by this article from The Root of Igor Stravinsky in Germany witnessing the brutal beating of a Jew by Gestapo going to a court to report it, only to be told by the Judge “In Germany today, such things happen every minute.”
Granted, I’m late with this video. But at least it’s still January – and we may need reminding now more than we did on the first or second.
Yesterday, Adam Klasfeld along with Vicki Ward did a live broadcast and saved it as a video which can be seen here. I’m not telling you to watch it, because it’s a full hour, and I know not everyone can. But it covers everything. They start with the Mangione cases (did you know there were two, a federal one and a state one in Pennsylvania? I didn’t), and also discuss the Maduro case and the murder in Minnesota, and Lindsey Halligan (whose deadline to explain to the judge is today) and Jerome Powell, and Judge Hellerstein, and I’m probably leaving something out. That is a lot to cover in an hour. (P.S. Here‘s the follow-up on Halligan)
Archived from the Washington Post, referred by Talking points Memo, here is an overview of all the ways the Saffron Sauron is looking to ratfuck the midterms. I have no idea how this got past Bezos, but apparently, it did. And I’m citing it – all of it (and it has chapters, sort of.) Perhaps every state (and territory, if applicable) should assign their own National Guard right now to monitor elections in November. I would suggest calling in UN observers, but ICE would probably deport them.
Mary Trump discusses how to navigate the floods of discouraging and increasing overreach from the Executive Branch and how to avoid giving them what they want
Matt Kerbel (who, along with Chris Bowers, comprises Bowers News Network) discusses “Consent of the Governed.” and why, despite havin won the election (by a sliver) this “President” doesn’t have it.
Yesterday, La Befana (I’m a day late with her because I always thought she came on Epiphany, but no, it’s Epiphany Eve.) But seriously – here’s a link to a roughly 22 minute video with Joyce Vance and Senator Mark Warner, who says as much (unclassified) quiet part out loud as he can. And it is chilling. Also yesterday, it appears that Minnesota has been Joe-Bidening Tim Walz, who has just dropped his reelection campaign.
Saturday, I saw Nameless’s Friday image representing the court at the Hague, and insignificant as this sounds, I started a search to find out whether orange jumpsuits are ever used outside the US (the answer is seldom, and in some nations, never.) But that rabbit hole also took me to The Hague – and I learned there are, not one court, but two international courts there (Lona probably already knows this.) The one which bears the nickname of “The World Court” is the International Court of Justice, which was established in 1920 by the League of Nations and adopted by the United Nations. Every member of the United Nations (there are 193) is automatically a party to this court. But it does not try criminals. It considers cases where there is a disagreement between member nations. So in that way it is more like a civil court. The other court, also at The Hague, is the International Criminal Court, authorized under a treaty called the Rome State in 1998, entering into force in 2002. 125 nations are parties to this court as of a year ago. The United States is not one of them. Venezuela is one of them – in fact every country south of out border is except maybe Costa Rica (the map ia a bit tough to read, even compared with a more labelled map.) The Court tries four crimes: (I) Genocide, (II) Crimes against humanity, (III) War crimes, and the (IV) Crime of aggression. The only immunity the ICC recognizes is that of being a juvenile at the time the crime was committed (i.e. younger than 18.) I quote from Wikipedia” “The issue of immunities from the jurisdiction of the ICC has become recently relevant, when the Court issued arrest warrants for Russian and Israeli national leaders, since their immunities are granted from states which are not parties to the Rome Statute. States which have ratified the statute have waived the immunities of their officials with respect to the jurisdiction of the court by accepting the provisions of Article 2.” The U.S, did sign the Statute once, but never ratified it, and has subsequently withdrawn its signature. This is the Court in which most of us would like to see multiple U.S. officials prosecuted.
From Common Dreams. There are only 337 (rounded) million people in the US. There is no way we could handle the loss of 30% (rounded) of our population and survive as a nation.
I mentioned Adam Klasfeld last week in connection with Joyce Vance. Now here he is with Glenn Kirschner. At this point, I don’t know whether he is himself a lawyer, or a law student, or what, besides a journalist – it’s clear he is strong on legal vocabulary (unlike the CC). And that he is the guy that sits in the courtroom and takes notes so that the actual former prosecutors don’t have to because he can share it with them. The video with this (and yes, there is a transcript – I haven’t looked at it, but if it’s from the CC, and they usually are, there will be some far-fetched spelling errors.) The video is only 15 minutes.
Well, Happy New Year, everyone. Here’s a link to the complete transcript of Jack Smith’s 8+ hours of testimony to the House Judiciary Committee. There is also a complete video, if you want it.
Robert Reich uses Paul Ingrassia as Exhibit A to demonstrate that the title of this post is an accurate characterization of the current administration. You know, Africa was doing just fine before “white” people decided to start exploiting it. My Exhibit 1 for this is the preview at this link. (Don’t expect the series to be on in February, however – the February the trailer is referring to was years ago. But you can see the full series – if you missed it then or want to see it again – with Passport. IIRC it was Episode 3 which made Professor Gates cry.) As I’ve said before, I can hardly get through aday without saying (or at least thinking) “effing white people” – or “effing pink people” – despite the fact that I myself am white (pink.)
From Common Dreams. I am very proud of my state for standing up to the Apricot Antichrist, and consider his unhinged “statement” a badge of honor. I might point out Peters is not 73 (though she is 70.) Also, if she is sick in a Colorado prison, she is getting medical care – probably not as good as Congress gets, but better than Jeffrey Sterling got in Federal prison. (also, if Boebert is telling the truth, or even close to the truth, this veto can easily be overridden.) Karma is probably already on to ensuring his wish for our officials turns back on him.
This is a video that I normally would not put up, since it’s 3+ minutes over a half hour. But in that half hour, they cover not only what is going on in the Abrego Garcia case, but also what is going in in the pipe bomber case – which doesn’t seem to be getting any coverage from elsewhere – possibly because there was supposedly a confession – which they now question. There is nothing funny about any of this – with the exception of the fact that this DOJ and state Republican officials are so incompetent and their criming and cheating so obvious that it is laughable. (And, sadly, some of it is actually legal.) So if you have the tme, it’s worth the watch and may be a good omen. If not, there’s also a transcript.
