Open Thread February 23 2026

 Posted by at 5:52 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 232026
 

Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage. As usual, we had a mixture of hands. He was having more difficulty counting his hands than he had been lately. (Also, this week he had another of those vivid dreams in which his first wife phoned him and was reading him the riot act about something, and he had completely forgotten that this cannot happens. The only phones he is allowed to use do not have incoming numbers – they can only be used to call out. Prior to this week he had been remembering that. But either the dream scared the memory out of him – or he just forgot it and that enabled the dream to form. But we had a good time and enjoyed each others’/ company. I was able to stay until visitation ended today, since subset was not until 5:45. The drive was easy both ways this trip. The meme at bottom was created by Joyce Vance, who gives permission to anyone to share it widely with no alteration.

In The Public Interest addresses school vouchers. Y’all already know what I think about vouchers – they are like saying “I don’t like the city parks. I want my kids to play at the Country Club, so they won’t have to play with those people. So I want the city to pay my club dues.”

So the Ginger Grifter’s tariffs are illegal and, per SCOTUS, must stop. So the Ginger Grifter has announced he is increasing tariffs to 15%. Shades of Worcester v. Georgia.

Certainly Neil Gorsuch is a far, far, far right jurist. But every once in a while he has the right idea and does the right thing. We all know it’s “damn seldom.” But he is fairly consistently respectful of Native Americans, and of the (broken) treaties the US government has made with them. Sometimes even more respectful than liberal justices. That is why, although I really, really want a strong liberal majority on the Court, I would not mind if he were to be one member of a minority of 2 or 3 – or maybe even 4. Certainly his views on pretty much everything else terrify me.

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Open Thread February 16 2026

 Posted by at 5:50 am  Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 162026
 

May I say something about the partial government shutdown which i don’t think is getting enough attention? Congress voted to provide zero funding for DHS in this fiscal year. But it did not vote to rescind any funds already allocated in the big brutal bill, and that bill includes a huge slush fund for ICE (and I think but am not certain also for CBP) – enough to fund them through September 2029, I have heard. So they are not shut down – but the rest of DHS is. The rest of DHS includes FEMA, the Coast Guard, and more – good stuff. I’m not trying to say the shutdown didn’t need to be done – it did, and it may need to continue – it’s a serious bargaining chip. But it isn’t an instant solution to anything. Y’all are smart and may well know all of this. But I guarantee there are a lot of people out there who need to know it and don’t.,

No one needs me to tell them that this is outrageous. It is and/or will be clear to every one who hears about it. Unfortunately, these days, if there’s an outrage, it must be a day that ends in “y”.

This is a story which was featured at the Philadelphia Independence National Historic Park near Independence Hall. Naturally, it was dismantled by our fascist regime. It doesn’t mean that Washington was a jerk who deserves no honor – that would be false. It does mean that Washington was a human being and therefore not perfect, and that he was a child of the era into which he was born. But, to fascists, that’s blasphemy, I guess.

Dog

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Open Thread February 3 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 032026
 

Yesterday, finally Liam and Dad are home. I have my exterminator coming tomorrow, and next Tuesday I have lab work scheduled. Both are late enough in the day that I should not be late for either.

Sometimes we need a little history – sometimes for cautionary reasons, and sometimes for hope. This one, from Steve Schmidt, is a little bit of both.

I seriously doubt that anyone here even considered seeing this movie for a millisecond, but in case you know anyone who is thinking about it, here’s the antidote from Robert Reich. (I would note that the “deadpan face” to which one reviewer refers is probably deliberate in order to prevent or at least delay facial wrinkles.)

Heaven knows there are issues with inconsistency among the states when it comes to federal elections. But “nationalizing” now would lock all the crap ln and sll the fairness and freedom out. No. Just No (well, maybe Hell, No.)

Cat

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Open Thread January 29 2026

 Posted by at 5:53 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 292026
 

Yesterday, the FBI raided the Fulton County, GA election office and warehouse looking for election materials from 2020. Before the story came up in my news feed (if I can call it that – the collection of email newsletters which contain just news) I received an email from DASS (the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State – although the medical acronym probabky descibes ppretty well how they are feeling right now.) It does occur to me that, if he could raid enough states to “legitimize” his claim that he won that one, he would at the same time delegitimize his current term since the two terms that a President may serve would be over. Not that I know how that could be enforced, but it’s a thought. I also learned that the next No Kings day has been announced for March 28. That is 8 days before Easter and one day before Palm Sunday. For Eastern Orthodox, it is 15 days before Easter. It is also 4 days before the beginning of Passover, and Ramadan will have been over for 8 days. The closest Buddhist festival will have been over for 17 days, and the closest Sikh festival will be 17 days afterwards. March 28 falls comfortably between Wiccan festivals on March 20 and April 2. If I have left anyone out, I apologize – but it looks to me like the planners did a difficult job very well in picking a date at a crowded time of the year.

Well, we now have solid evidence that the Apricot Antichrist staged the assassination attempts on him. You may have read elsewhere about the incident in which Ilhan Omar was sprayed with an unidentified (it turns out to have been apple cider vinegar) yellow substance. Here’s what he said when ABC News asked for a reaction from him: “I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud.” Trump continued accusing Omar of staging the whole thing. “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.” Every accusation a confession.

Harry Litman thinks that Minnesota is in for one hell of a fight over the Murder of Alex Pretti – but he also thinks they are up to the task and that they have a – pardon me – fighting chance. He wrote a similar article about Renee Good, which I must have seen but failed to read, and the principles are pretty much the same. He also points out that absolute immunity – there’s no such thing. Harry also has a video up with Steve Vladeck specifically on federal supremacy immunity. The part which can be seen by a non-paid subscriber or a non-subscriber is 15 minutes, and there’s no resolution by then, but the criteria that should be used become quite clear.

Joyce Vance addresses the lack of professionalism (to throw some roses at it) displayed by ICE and CBP, the demotion of Bovino the cosplaying Nazi, the vulnerability of Krieti Noem, and related issues, including the ICE mooner.

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Open Thread January 12 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 122026
 

Yesterday, I visited with Virgil, and we played cribbage. He fot the hand of the day – two double runs of three (16 points) over cards containing numbers adding to 15 (8 more points.) It was early in the day, but IIRC, it was in the crib, which is miraculous. The drive down wasn’t bad, considering the snow. It wasn’t snowing yesterday, not the day before, but on Friday we got what Weather Underground claimed was 7 inches of it. I would sear the on the front hood of my car alone there was still 12 inches, and I didn’t get it all off – just enough to see. When I came out from seeing Virgil. however, all of it was gone. I can’t prove this – I did park at an ange so the afternoon sun could do as much as possible – but I strongly suspect that one of the staff, going rounds in the parking lot as they do, knocked it all off. The staff there comprises the kind of people who would do that. In any case, the drive home was even easier than the drive down – the only rough part was getting into the driveway, and tha worst of that was walking of the remaining snow, now partly thawed and re-frozen twice, to get to my front door. But (obviously) I made it without injury or even slipping. If anyone was able to participate in a “No Kings” sponsored demonstration either Saturday or yesterday, I hope it went well. I received some photos in emails, but am too tired to work anything up tonight. I’ll get a post up this week.

This and the HCR video are connected. Both are related to the second World War. This is more about what we didn’t do this time but should have. The video is more about something we did right, but boy, was it ever touch and go. )And the video is quite short.)

“JoJo from Jerz” now has a Substack, If you have ever seen any of her memes posted on line, you know the is truthful and witty, and doesn’t mince words. I watched a video of her talking with Andy Kim, who is now one of her Senators – you may remember him as the Congressman (he was in the House then) who stayed behind after the Jan 5 insurrection to work on cleaning the Rotunda. I’m not linking to that video, since it’s longish, but to an essay she published on fascism and Orwell.

Archived from HuffPost. I don’t like it, but it’s factual, and I believe itls better for us all to be aware of the obstacles sooner than later, so we won’t hurt ourselves and ethical prosecutors complaining after the fact that it took too long or it isn’t good enough.

HCR Bulge

Bonus video – in between the political one and the animal one because it’s a political animal. It’s repetitive (after all, feline vocabulary is limited), but it’s also short, do watch it to the end. Oh, and it’s definitely NSFW.

Dog

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