Open Thread June 5 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 052025
 

Yesterday, it came out that the DoD is going to rename every Navy ship in the John Lewis class (and probably also the class.) And it hit me that everything they do is some kind of backlash. No actual governing principles at all, just kick down at decent people. We elect a black President, they bring back (or morm likely, just go public with) lynching. We nominate a woman for the Presidency, they overturn Roe. We rename some military bases so they won’t commemorate traitors, they do this. Even the whole dictatorship thing is essentially a return to the feudal system. Not an original thought in the entire party.

Remember when I said I was surprised the DOJ was pushing this prosecution, until I saw that the suspect’s name was Muslim? Well, The F*News got a photo of him, and he’s white. Now the Turmeric Tyrant wants to drop the charges but deport him.

This is one paragraph from a long newsletter because I don’t know how to link to just it. I apologize for the pun in the last sentence.
A Milwaukee man allegedly tried to get a witness in the armed robbery case against him deported so he wouldn’t be able to testify. Seizing on anti-immigrant fervor, the man sent letters in the name of the witness threatening to assassinate President Trump. The witness was arrested, but law enforcement eventually figured out the scheme and have filed new charges against the imposter, but not before DHS Secretary Kristi Noem trumpeted the initial arrest.

Belle golden dome

Cats

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Open Thread June 4 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 042025
 

Yesterday, before actually seeing this, I had read it in a different email (with sourcing I wasn’t assured by.) Now that I can actually see it, I’m going ahead and sharing it. By now you’ve likely seen it, though. Even Snopes has weighed in.My initial reaction was, “An AI clone with a cancer diagnosis? Really? But it does show how terrified they must be of Biden to resort to such a bizarre, almost paranormal, fantasy. And I can’t honestly say that this was the worst horror story at the link (but there is a cute gif of a family of foxes.)

Also, the first petition to 86 Palantir has hit my inbox.

This by Robert Reich is IMO important enough that I added it to my post draft before even reading it. Unless you are a professional security guard and can get hired by a judge, what we can do is basically light a fire under those persons and agencies which can take real action. But that is not nothing, and we have gotten results before with that playbook. He provides all the names and addresses and even some phone numbers.

Axios put out several alerts yesterday. This one I thought was meaningful. Jamie Raskin means business. It’s very sad that it requires a white man to stand up for a black woman and get any attention, but it’s good that we have some white men who will.

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Open Thread June 3 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 032025
 

Yesterday, Trinette emailed about sending Zach over to whack my weeds. I chuckled, because this was the second time in just a few days I had made a correct prediction. The first one was on Saturday, when I told Virgil that by Sunday morning he would forget that was coming to see him. Then when I got home, I looked at the yard and thought I should be hearing from Trinette soon about the weeds. My name is still not Jeane Dixon, and I am still not psychic. Both predictions were based on lots of prior knowledge. But it’s still amusing. Also, when I saw this alert from Axios, the word which caught my eye was “federal” – what could have motivated this regime to prosecute a hate crime? After looking at the details I realized the injured must all be white, and the suspect is Muslim. Sigh. Not that prosecution isn’t appropriate – it is – but in this regime it only goes one way. And that’s not appropriate. Finally, The Nature Conservancy is offering a guide to “day trips” around the country, I gather hoping to get people to look at the natural beauty we have and maybe even care about protecting it. Of course they want you on their mailing list – but if you aren’t already and don’t like that you can always unsubscribe.

“The inmates are running the asylum” is bad enough, but when it comes to the point where the inmates in the asylum are running the country, well, that’s a few levels up. (Americans love sports analogies, and I guess computer gaming is a sport now.) Heather Cox Richardson discusses how Federal budget cuts are going to cost more money than they save, as anyone with a brain could have foreseen. (But Richardson does it better than just “anyone with a brain.”)

Harry Litman discusses independent agencies, the unitary executive theory, the shadow docket of the Supremes, and a dangerous decision from the latter last week. As someone who was born a few month’s after FDR’s death, I have never lived in a United States which did not have independent agencies (and I am the oldest one here, except for Mitch D, and he’s not that much older.) We’ve all studied governments without independent agencies, in history, and in other countries. But we haven’t lived under those conditions. Now we are about to.

I think it’s only fair to Steve Schmidt to share his expose of someone who once worked for him and now works for the Nectarine Napoleon through RFK Jr. Steve has good reason to be furious (including with himself for not seeing fellow Republicans for who they are sooner. Although I get it. It’s tough to see someone gradually falling into insanity – until it’s too late.)

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Open Thread June 2 2025

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

Yesterday, I saw Virgil, and as usual, we played cribbage. On the way there, it was bright and sunny, but on the way back I ran into some rain and had to remove my sunglasses. But, obviously, I got home safely anyway, though of course tired out. I’m going to take my night meds, play at a game for a while, listen to the Broadway show that’s on Sundays from 8 to 9 pm, and then call it a night..

From the F* News. I was briefly tempted to include this for Sunday, but only the lead article is actually good – and – it’s not actually news to anyone who has ever been or worked with a Federal civil servant. I don’t claim they are perfect, but I do claim adherence to their oaths by administrators.

If you ever thought that those of us who described the current Republican Party as a death cult were exaggerating, this article from Wonkette may change your mind. honestly, I don’t know what else you’d call it.

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Open Thread June 1 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 012025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” One of two operas based on Beaumarchais’s trilogy which caused somuch scandal inits day by dissing the aristocracy (They barely made it past the censors.) The other is Mozart’s “Figaro’s Wedding.” There have been numerous attempts at operas intended to get the third play, “La Mère coupable,” into the repertory. So far John Corigliano has come the closest, with his “The Ghosts of Versailles.” It has received a fair number of performances (including one in Los Angeles with Patti Lupone in the role which Marilyn Horne created), but it’s not really in the repertory yet. But I digress. The story in “Barber” is how Count Almaviva courted Rosina with help from Figaro and even more from Rosina, in spite of opposition from her guardian, who wanted to marry her himself – the last thing she wanted. The cast appears to be from all over, and unknown to me, but I never saw or heard a performance I didn’t enjoy. I will say there’s only one tenor who has ever given me chills at the end when the count, his character, threatens the guardian and his sidekick with the Italian 18th-19th century version of “Nice life you’ve got. Be too bad if anything happened to it,” and that was a fellow named Rockwell Blake who must have just leaned on his white privilege. It’s kind of a plot point, so it’s unfortunate more tenors can’t do it. Anyway, I’m off to see Virgil and will check in as usual upon return.

This is good news for a number of reasons, and probably different reasons for different people. For me, there’s the factor that Yosemite means so much to me.

Not exactly news, but definitely good. Even though it’s blue, I can’t always be proud of my state. I can about this.

Kermit the Frog‘s graduation address at the University of Maryland (ending with The Rainbow Connection” and the presentation to Kermit of a Citation from the Governor.) I did not set out to do an double-frog post, honest. (Off topic, but the best-known orange frog will kill you.)

We’ll never know for sure why Harvard picked this moment to back fown on this – but from where I sit, it looks as though being attacked by a corrupt administration has provided a sense of proportion previously masked by privilege.

Randy Trump Derangement (That’s Entertainment) I clipped the ad, but if you want the whole enchilada you can go to YouTube.

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Open Thread May 31 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 312025
 

Yesterday, Wonkette had a link to a site which tracks lower level elections all over the US – state level, of course, including primaries, but all the way down to city council level as well. I’m posting the link because I think we have learned the hard way that we ignore this information at our peril. Also, the ACLU emailed regarding four cases they are working on which will essentially affect everyone. I don’t have a link, so I’ll just list them. U.S. v. Skrmetti. Louisiana v. Callais. Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton. Mahmoud v. Taylor. All have been heard by the Supremes and decisions will start coming out next week. Finally, ACLU promises they will keep me (and some of you who are member-donors) updated on what the decisions mean for real people. Incidentally, has anyone heard from Freya? I haven’t and neither has Evelyn, who emailed to ask me if I had.

The F* News is on to something here that we should all latch on to. Granted that it’s nowhere near as easy to use for citizens as it is for foreign nations – that still needs work – but it should be something we can find a way to use.

What’s the point of learning history? Well, there are many reasons. One is that the truth is important in itself – another is to be able to accurately credit (and if appropriate discredit) those who preceded us for their accomplishments. But probably the best reason is in order to avoid making the same mistakes over and over. As a race, the human race is not very good at that. There are many ways in which we as a society have failed, and that failure has led to where we are now. Robert Reich here discusses just one of them.

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Open Thread May 30 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 302025
 

Yesterday, Elon Musk apparently resigned as a “temporary government employee” or whatever the “official” title was. But that doesn’t mean “DOGE” is gone. His hand-picked lackeys are still around, as loyal to him as MAGA is to Trump**(*). We aren’t going to escape that easily. Also , Andy Borowitz came out with a jest that I wish (and I expect we all do) was real. Finally, after reading the CPR newsletter, and deciding no one else was about to do it, I put up a petition on Care2. You don’t have to be in Colorado to sign it.  The other side is sending from all over.

One of my core principles is that, if someone does something wrong due to a condition in which you played a part in creating, intentionally or not, knowingly or not, you don’t get to punish them for it. It’s acceptable to take non-punitive steps to alleviate the condition, but that’s it. If necessary to protect the community, it is permissible to apply restraint, but it cannot be punitive. And you must accept your own accountability. This applies to big and small issues equally. There used to be a commercial about a mother helping with her daughter’s wedding, and the daughter acting somewhere between disappointed and disgusted because mom had frequent urination. I used to think “you little brat, she has frequent urination now in large part because she brought you into the world. If you have children and make it to her age, you’ll have frequent urination too, and it’ll be too late to make it up to her.” But that’s really nothing compared to this story – which incenses me as a veteran.

If you have seen this elsewhere, I apologize for making you look at it again. I mean, not that we didn’t know that GOP lies and cruelty go together like syphilis and gonorrhea, but this expands the definition of judicial murder into new territory. What we need now in this country, and in particular anyone in this country who has both a heart and a brain, is more righteous outrage. (And of course more people like Anna Stout.)

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Open Thread May 29 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 292025
 

Yesterday, Various people were still talking about Scott Pelley’s commencement speech at Wake Forest, mostly in glowing terms (although I’m sure MAGAts had other opinions.) Wonkette linked to a transcript of it, so you can judge for yourself. I think it’s worth the time. Also, the Nature Conservancy shared aome footage on the mating rituals of the greater prairie-chicken, including sound. It’s funny, because it’s kind of a little allegory of males of every species – or so it appeared to me and Trinette. You may not agree.

Yes, this from Joyce Vance is from Tuesday. She is concerned that it isn’t (or wasn’t then) getting much if any coverage, and she may still be correct about that.

John Pavlovitz would be the first to tell you that he struggles with major depression (and, yes he has sought and received treatment for it, with all that implies. If you’re not familiar with the concept of the wounded healer, you can look at him and get an idea.) So the current regime is terribly hard on him – as of course it is on us. But, as he points out, joyis not just feeling good – it is also a weapon- a defensive weapon, but still a weapon.

Not really news from the Brennan Center – at least, not to anyone with two brain cells to rub together. But not being news does not mean it isn’t still a problem, especially since we have a modern Roger Taney SCOTUS.

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