Open Thread December 2 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 022025
 

Yesterday, Fair Fight Colorado announced that a ballot measure has been announced in Colorado to join the redistrict fight. Colorado has officially declined to transfer Tina Peters into federal custody. And CPR also told the state that we lost a (D) state Senator last week, in a 5-car crash on I-70.

In one way it could be called good news that there is yet another prominent Reagan-appointed judge who cannot abide Metamucillini, but it’s not good news that he has therefore resigned. I do get it, and he articulates it very well, and of course he couldn’t stay – but that’s also one less judge who can be trusted at a time when he admits trust in the government, and particularly the DOJ, is at an all-time low – and for good reason.

At least I am getting to “The Week Ahead” on Tuesday this week. She apologizes for it being long, and also says it’s incomplete. So fasten your metaphorical seat belts. Here we go.

Politizoom is the only place I saw this story, and it didn’t arrive until a bit after 8 pm (7 pm Pacific), so it’s as hot a story as you are ever likely to see here. My uncle lived in Stockton until I was about 12 or 13, so that caught my eye, but it was “Child’s birthday party” that really hit me. Four dead, three of them children, and ten injured.

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The Sequel to Hegseth’s Classless Comic Book Mocking His War Crimes

 Posted by at 2:12 pm  Politics
Dec 012025
 

MeidasTouch Facebook page announced this morning that “Pentagon Pete” Hegseth just posted an AI comic book mocking war crimes.

“Pete Hegseth just posted this amid accusations he has committed serious war crimes”

Believing that patriotic Americans would not let this travesty go unanswered, I ventured to Hegseth’s social media post (which might not show up because it’s X).

https://x.com/PeteHegseth/status/1995291042346852861

And I wasn’t disappointed by those answering the challenge, so I culled the best ones and put them together as a GIF cautionary tale about war crimes.

TRIGGER WARNING: The panel close to the end depicts a fate similar to Jeffrey Epstein’s while in prison.

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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 April 4, 2024

 Posted by at 5:31 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 042024
 

Yesterday, Hump Day, I accomplished almost nothing. Fortunately, there are other days.

On the last day of Women’s History Month, Heather Cox Richardson posted a biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (And of Marty, from when they met.) I held it a few days because it’s timeless, as opposed to court and political news.

Thom Hartmann frequently uses clickbaity headlines, but he knows a fact when he sees one – his content is as reliable as possible.

From danarheaelliott’s keyboard to God’s monitor. I will say that some of this is so downright idiotic that people of normal and up intelligence may be confused. Don’t worry about it.

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Open Thread April 3, 2024

 Posted by at 5:38 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 032024
 

Yesterday, I looked up on the HRA website to make sure that a payment of $10.84 was sent to one of the providers involved in my hospital and rehab time. Because they keep billing me and billing me – and I paid it. I did find the proof, with all the details- including the date the check was cashed – which was March 27. So I made no attempt to contact them right away. But I did take a screenshot and circled a few details, and saved it, so if it doesn’t (finally) stop now, I’ll be prepared. After the one I was looking for information on yesterday, I think there are now few enough who haven’t billed me to make a separate list of them in one place so I won’t have to go through 9 MSEs for every bill.

The playbook is straight out of the 1930s. Robert Reich spells it out.

Joyce Vance’s weekly “The Week Ahead” is generally useful,and this week’s appears to be no exception, even a couple of days late.

Now this was just revealed yesterday. You should have heard about it – it’s a story large numbers of people will care about (and get angry. I did see it in The Daily Beast – they interviewed Chef Jose Andrés and got an earful.) DU has the story, but they got it from a xeet from World Central Kitchen. A commenter there found it on Yahoo! news.

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Open Thread October 15, 2023

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Politics
Oct 152023
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was one of the ones which have me so excited – “Assassinio nella cattedrale” by Ildebrando Pizzetti. That means “Murder in the Cathedral,” and it is based on the T. S. Eliot play. So, though I didn’t even know it existed, I knew it could not have been written before 1935. In fact, it debuted in March 1958., at La Scala in Milan. The premier was recorded, as was a live radio broadcast in December of the same yesr. (I was 12 in March and 13 in December of that year. I had seen my first live opera – whe I was 8 – but I was definitely not tuned in to the international opera landscape then. I think I would have liked it. I certainly did yesterday.) The bass who sang Becket said {I’m paraphrasing) that if there was one word for what he wanted his character to conve y it would be “sincere.” I think he did that. Basses have it rough in opera when it comes to juicy parts, but this definitely is one. With luck, perhaps a bass with star clout will come along and make a case for doing it at the Met. Hey, I can dream. Certainly I’m not the only person who was excited about this production. The materials made available included 174 pictures. So I can tell you from photographic evidence that it was fully staged in a church (The Chicago Temple, to be precise) with gorgeous stained glass windows. Also, my new keyboard came. It has the Logitech layout, wich is what I am used to (with a few tiny differences) and is so fancy I had to go to support online to figure out how to set it up. It’s working now, I typed this sentence on it, but I am running late now.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

New York Magazine/Intelligencer – A Left That Refuses to Condemn Mass Murder Is Doomed
Quote – And no small number of supposed leftists found in all this cause for celebration. Others, meanwhile, loudly refused to condemn Hamas’s atrocities, insisting it was not their place to decry the “military strategy” or “violent resistance” of oppressed Palestinians. In my view, these responses constitute a betrayal of the left’s most fundamental values. Either one upholds the equal worth of all human lives, opposes war crimes, and despises far-right ethno-nationalist political projects or one doesn’t. What’s more, cheering (or publicly announcing your refusal to condemn) the murder of children isn’t just morally grotesque but also politically self-defeating.
Click through for argument (I doubt anyome here will disagree.) Other publications tend to be more generous with their archives than the latest news – New York mag does it the opposite way – this article is free “for a limited time.” So I “printed” it (by which I mean I converted it to a pdf file which I can easily email if anyone gets here too late for the free time. I almost never print on paper any more.) Possibly sounding like a broken record, I do think it’s a mistake to talk of this in terms of left and right. Left and right represent economic theories. This is a matter of authoritarian as opposed to egalitarian (yes, after a couple of hours with multiple thesauruses I finally came up with what I believe is the best word to use unstead of “Libertarian,” which has been poisoned by the so-called Libertarian party.) It’s natural to assume that leftism goes with egalitarianism because both require at least some compassion, and because with an economic theory with the principle that everyone should have enough money, it’s reasonable to pair that with the idea that everyone should have enough power. And vice versa. But human beings are not always consistent, and the author here is addressing leftist authoritarians.

Wonkette (on Substack) – What If Crowdfunding Is *Not* A Great Healthcare System?
Quote – Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton is very sick and in the hospital with what is being referred to as “a rare form of pneumonia.” That’s very sad, as is the fact that she does not have health insurance and thus cannot afford her stay in the ICU. They started a crowdfund for her, which has since blown past its $50,000 goal all the way to over $375,000. This included one $50,000 donation from Linda McIngvale, wife of Gallery Furniture magnate Jim McIngvale…. Now, when I first heard that Retton didn’t have health insurance and her family was raising money on GoFundMe to pay for her medical treatment, I immediately assumed it was some kind of very tragic Erin Moran/Brett Butler situation and that despite her former fame, she couldn’t even afford health insurance…. “How very American!” thought I, until I looked into it and saw that she is, in fact, likely still very rich, lives in a very fancy 9,000 square foot mansion, and very likely just kind of chose not to have health insurance.
Click through for article. I think we all know that crowdfunding does not a great healthcare system make – particularly when the crowdfunding is abused, which I am not saying this is, but it would be hard not to notice that it looks like it. I think we also all know that a Democratic supermajority in both the House and the Senate would be needed to effectively put in a health care ayatem which would be great.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread October 11, 2023

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 112023
 

Yesterday, I had calmed down some and thought maybe I was cool enough to address the Middle East war – though still not in my own words. I’m going to give you three articles without comment. One of them appears to be on Substack – it doesn’t exactly say so, but the quote function it uses looks like Substack’s. At least the clicking to continue is not too onerous – certainly less so than YouTube has become. While I was putting it together, my keyboard – um -started pining for the fjords -I tried new batteries, but no luck. So I’ll be getting a new one. I may be able to find a corded one I can use as a temp. The on-screen one is not that much slower, but it obscures part of the screen.   Update – I found it.  It’s laid out a bit funny but it works.  And as a postscript – George Santos was hit with 23 new charges, including identity theft.

Cartoon –  Number 2 of 4.

Short Takes –

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/09/israel-war-hamas-benjamin-netanyahu-government
The Guardian – We feel fear, anger and helplessness: all of Israel is in a state of war. But revenge is not the answer
Quote – Here in Jerusalem, we are trying to hold on to the hope that Hamas won’t launch missiles towards the city due to its proximity to al-Aqsa mosque, but the general anxiety still lingers. Schools have been closed, as have all businesses, and very few people are on the streets. Those who don’t have to, do not leave their homes. On Saturday night, after hours of anxious staring at the television and social media, my daughter was panicked by the fear that Hamas militants, armed and still inside Israeli territory, might make their way to Jerusalem and attack us in our home. Only after a thorough tour of the public shelters in the neighbourhood did she calm down slightly and manage to fall asleep.

https://www.dogshirtdaily.com/p/how-not-to-respond-to-a-terrorist
Dog Shirt Daily – How Not to Respond to a Terrorist Attack
Quote – The reason I don’t write about Israeli-Palestinian matters much is that the more time I have spent with them, the less I think I have anything useful to say on the subject. The process of spending time with the actual conflict has humbled me to the point that I am these days much more interested in asking questions than I am in making pronouncements. I am much more interested in conveying information than I am in telling people what I think—when I even know what I think, which is increasingly infrequent.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-israel-was-duped-hamas-planned-devastating-assault-2023-10-08/
Reuters – How Hamas duped Israel as it planned devastating attack
Quote – A careful campaign of deception ensured Israel was caught off guard when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched its devastating attack, enabling a force using bulldozers, hang gliders and motorbikes to take on the Middle East’s most powerful army. Saturday’s assault, the worst breach in Israel’s defences since Arab armies waged war in 1973, followed two years of subterfuge by Hamas that involved keeping its military plans under wraps and convincing Israel it did not want a fight. While Israel was led to believe it was containing a war-weary Hamas by providing economic incentives to Gazan workers, the group’s fighters were being trained and drilled, often in plain sight, a source close to Hamas said.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread September 23, 2023

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 232023
 

Yesterday, I received a Substack newsletter from Mary L. Trump about the Meet The Press interview with TFG. She watched it so you and I don’t have to. (Beau did the same thing, taking notes, but, since TFG can lie faster than Beau can write, his notes are incomplete.) And Mary’s article really also just hits low points. (There were appaently no high points.) Here’s the link if anyone wants it. Also, Andy Borowitz’s headline was “Zelensky Offers to Broker Peace Deal Between Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans.” Yahoo cut off the subject line after “between,” so I wasn’t expecting that – I was expecting something more like “red states and blue states.” So I did laugh out loud.

Cartoon – 23 0213

Short Takes –

The New Yorker – Inside the War Between Trump and His Generals
Quote – Both Esper and Milley found new purpose in waiting out the President. They resisted him throughout the summer, as Trump repeatedly demanded that active-duty troops quash ongoing protests, threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, and tried to stop the military from renaming bases honoring Confederate generals. “They both expected, literally on a daily basis, to be fired,” Gates recalled. Milley “would call me and essentially say, ‘I may not last until tomorrow night.’ And he was comfortable with that. He felt like he knew he was going to support the Constitution, and there were no two ways about it.” Milley put away the resignation letter in his desk and drew up a plan, a guide for how to get through the next few months. He settled on four goals: First, make sure Trump did not start an unnecessary war overseas. Second, make sure the military was not used in the streets against the American people for the purpose of keeping Trump in power. Third, maintain the military’s integrity. And, fourth, maintain his own integrity. In the months to come, Milley would refer back to the plan more times than he could count.
Click through for complete story. This article is a bit over a year old, but Milley is in the news again because the Atlantic has just published a profile. I can’t get into the Atlantic, but Steve Schmidt referenced this New Yorker article – which broke the existence of a never-submitted letter of resignation – as back-story, and I can get in to the New Yorker. The Atlantic profile also influenced Beau amd MSN and probably others to discuss it, so you could find more in a lot of places. My take is that the military is commonly considered to lean to the right – but “right” does not necessarily mean “authoritarian.” I (and I think Pat would agree, but she’s off now and through the weekend having fun) would trust the Generals in a crisis – with the caveat that they can function better when their promotions are confirmed, and only 3 of over 300 have gotten past Tuberville and those 3 were already months late. (Lawrence O’Donnell had some words on that.  His Aunt Mary was a senior officer’s wife, and they had 7 kids.)

PolitiZoom – Zelenskyy: Russia Has Weaponized Food (In Addition To Energy)
Quote – So there’s that, but let’s get to the substance of what President Zelenskyy dove in to because it’s an impressive laundry list. BBC News has a nice piece that if you scroll down starts with the pre-speech stuff but it does a nice job of emphasizing those main points. Zelenskyy starts out throwing a hard punch, noting that Ukraine gave up the third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons once upon a time. (If you didn’t know this was a carefully negotiated treaty and Russia signed on – with a promise not to try and take over Ukraine I might add) He flat out said it was Russia, who is acting as a terrorist State that should have had to give up its nukes!
Click through for article. My first reaction was that with TFG “promising” that if reelected he’ll weaponize – fill in the blank – DOJ is probably at the top of the list-he’s sure to pick up this too. He won’t have to read PolitiZoom. He’ll get all the info he needs from Putin.

Food For Thought

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