Aug 272024
 

Yesterday, of course, the big news was the NPD data breach, and that a security firm called Pentester (pentester dot com) can tell you whether your Social Security number was compromised or not. I looked at the page they put up to notify people whether or not their SSN has been compromised, and I noted that it asked only for first and last name, state of residence, and year (not the full date) of birth. In other words, you don’t need to provide your SSN, and I can see a legitimate need for those four chunks of data in order for them to be positive, but I don’t see it as enough information to compromise you without also having the number. Before requesting, however, I also read three reviews of Pentester on line. One said it’s a scam. The second gave it a rating of 71.5 out of a possible 100. The third said it is absolutely not a scam. I decided not to send the form. If you are worried, I suggest you look up Pentester reviews yourself and make your own decision. Also yesterday, I got an email from “levi + artie”, subject “WOOF!” which started “we are jawn’s dogs.” It went on to say “will you please chip in 10 dollars (we are told they are a form of human treats but you can’t eat them so we are not sure what exactly the point of that is)” The “jawn” in question is Fetterman. I just had to share the chuckles.

Joyce Vance’s “The Week Ahead” this week starts with today, Tuesday, because today is the day Jack Smith appears in Cannon’s court to appeal her dismissal of the documents case. And there are enough possibilities that it would be a challenge just to make a flowchart. Since Joyce knows what she’s taling about, she makes it as simple as possible. Personally, I would love it if Jack would ask to speak to the judhe in chambers and then give her an earful. But, unless it would be the best thing for the case, he won’t.

Well, dang! There are some sane Republicans left in Colorado! Though you wouldn’t know it by, for instance, Boebert. There are enough to vote to oust the state party chair (a JD Vance lookalike – and apparently the resemblance extends to personality). Apparently he is still refusing to step down, calling the meeting where the vote was taken “illegitimate” and “a fake takeover.” CPR thinks the state party is headed for a schism. I’m for it. The story is still being updated as new events occur, so it’s far from settled.

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Jun 252024
 

Yesterday was the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision. Two effing years. Here’s a link to what Mary Trump and two of her friends, both of whom have worked on the Lincoln Project but have now founded what’s called The Seneca Project, have to say about it. There’s both a 37 minute video and a full transcript.

Heather Cox Richardson on the rconomy compared and consrasted baased on who wins the election. I am not convince that all those “business leaders” are as smart as Heather appears to think they are (I know for a fact that Elon isn’t). but even a few of them that smart would hlp.

Joyce Vance, because the Supremes aren’t finished for the year. In fact, tere are 12 undecided cases to go/ The earliest we can expect another opinion to drop is Wednesday. (As Joyce points out, and as I have often noticed, anything that happens during a President’s term of office, 17% at least will think is his fault. Or to his credit – it works both ways.)

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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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May 252024
 

Yesterday, Robert Reich announced he is starting a series he is calling “Debunk” in which he will debunk the ten biggest political-economic myths. It’ll run for ten weeks. Any episode i don’t share i will at least link to so you can follow it.

The headline here says it all, really. And the artice connects the dota, with each new dot adding something more appalling.

This should bring a smile to your face. (I wonder whether they invited Bernie to the ceremony.)

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May 232024
 

Yesterday, I observed that Donald Trump** is now claiming that Biden ordered him assassinated, specifically on the day of the raid on Mar-a-Lago. Magats are, frankly, to evil to eben be able to imagine a person who just wouldn’t do that, so perhaps we should counter with something like “Democrats get things done. If Joe wanted him assassinated, he’d have been assassinated. He wasn’t. End of story.” Also, among the petitions I signed was one for Thomas and Alito to recude from the Trump** immnity case. Actually, I’d rather leave those to on and have the three he nominated recuse.Knocking out those two still leaves it 4-3, and the best hope we have is for Roberts to do the right thing. But if we knock out Gorsuch, Javanaugh and Barrett, it’s now 3-3. Unless Roberts does the right thing, there’s an unbreakable tie.

I’m going to word my hanky alert differently on this by quoting Shakespeare’s Mark Antony: “If youhave tears, prepare to shed them now.” Yes, I’m preaching to the choir. But sharing it couldn’t hurt.

Just as I’m highly in favor of the National Interstate Popular Vote Compact, because I don’t see any possibility to amend the Constitution without the nation being able to see that the popular vote works, I also don’t see equirable tax reform happening unless people can see it works. That’s why I;m posting this,and enci=ourage sharing it as widely as possible.

And here is yet another article which desperately needs to be widely shared. I’ll try to help on this one with the”Food for Thought” cartoon below.

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May 102024
 

Yesterday, I got two petitions which I did not sign (along with a bunch of others that I did sign.) Both were from Left Action (I don’t know whether it is a wing of Care2/The Petition Site, that is who hosts its petitions.) The first one I saw (the second I received becaue I read my emails from the top down) was addressed to Judge Merchan and was headed “Don’t let Trump’s lawyers get a mistrial.” The problem is that it is addressed to the judge. Prople not involved in the trial pushing the judge to rule a certain way could be construed as obstruction of justice. The other one was regarding remmoving Aileen Cannon from the Mar-a Lago case. It didn’t specifically say it was addressed to the Citcuit Court (I forget which District that is), but I had to assume that it is, since that’s the only body which can do what is petitioned. I’m not saying no one can petition the courts, but this is not the way. Such a petition would have to come from someone with standing, like a group which had filed an amicus brief. We have all gotten so accustomed to “Don’t like something? Sign/start a petition that we have lost sight of the need to address those petitions to the entity which can actually act on them, and that entity had better not be someone in the justice system for whome the petiton could be construed as obstruction. Judge Merechan has been doing everything he possibly can from the day the case was assigned to him to insure there will be no mistrial. This petition could even conceivably increase the chances of a mistrial, not reduce them, if it is actually delivered and Trump**’s defense team find out about it. Both petitions were from n email address which can apparently be responded to, since i did and haven’t received a non-delivery notice. I hope y’all will consider this concerning these and any other petition involving any court. You can probably petition the prosecutor, maybe even the defense, but please, not the judge.

At least this is good news – if, as Ben said, we can keep it. I can guarantee that, should Trump** win, we cannot. And even if he doesn’t, if enough of his followers get into/stay in Congress, I certainly wouldn’t guarantee being able to keep it.

More proof that it’s not about life, it’s about control. With my age and experience, I probably shouldn’t be – but I was shocked by the sheer volume.

I don’t see how any sane person can fail to be in awe of Volodomyr Zelensky. Eleven assassination attempts and still trucking. Fly high, Ukrainian Guy!

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May 022024
 

Yesterday, going through my email, I came across this headline at Wonkette: “Does It Count As A ‘Post-Birth Abortion’ When DeSantis Takes Away A Sick Child’s Healthcare?” Good question. It certanly seems like it should, doesn’t it?

Heather Cox Richardson writes about the interview with Trump** in Time magazine. I don’t subscribe to Time, so this is a convenience to me – horrifying as it is. Feel free to share it widely.

Joe Biden is certainly trying to extend humanitarian aid as widely as possible. This is such a difficult situation for anyone wanting to bring peace to the middle east – because the hostilities go back literally thousands of years – and both sides are wrong – and both sides are right. (Well, not Netanyahu – but he is not the whole side. And that’s a big part of the problem.)

Having bought and sold one house in North Carolina, handling my mother’s estate, buying the home i am currently living in anf refinancing it twice or three times, and also having at least signed petitions concerning the difficulty of black voters, especially in the American South, for getting voter ID – so many with no birth certificates – that these situations would have occurred to me as a problem. It didn’t, because privilege. But having now been told about it, I can certainly see the potential for massive Jim Crow abuse.

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Apr 272024
 

Yesterday was pretty quiet.  Which is just fine with me.  I’ll just mention that the yard sign below  is the brainchils of John Pavlovitz.  You can find it, along with some shirts with the design, in his merch.  I’m not trying to be pushy, but so many times I’ve read “I want one of those!” as a comment on an article sharing something clever – I’m trying to be pro-active.

Here’s another feel-good story from Colorado. The video will keep playing as long as you let it, and there are some other popups which I hope won’t annoy you too much. Vallecito is down in the southwest corner of Colorado, 18 miles from Durango.)

In case this got lost … I’ve seen a couple of mentions of it but this is the most detailed (and I love the lede.)

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