Yesterday, I got up a couple of hours before sunset, which doesn’t sound like much, but will help me get back on track.
I watched Frank Figliuzzi’s “Frank Friday” broadcast in which he uses the adjectival definition of his name (not that he doesn’t always do his best to be frank but yeah – this time he delves deeply into a couple of legal cases which reek to high heaven – a proposed sale of land within Yosemite to a private developer, the destruction of government databases which have taken real administrations decades to build, actions of DOJ employees at primary polling places in Wyoming, and more. I’m sure you can find it all elsewhere – but not all in one place – and not presented with Frank’s attitude.
I realize you all know that the meeting occurred, and would like to know what was said at it. This from Common Dreams doesn’t have that except a couple of snippets. The article is mostly about the backlash to the meeting.
This is the civil case regarding the Orange Ogre’s attempt to illegally use the Postal Service. Joyce Vance goes into detail.
Wednesday, I went to bed around sunrise, and got up around sunset, and stayed up. On Thursday, I did the same, and finished and posted this in real time, around sunrise. That won’t last too long. The opera is tomorrow, and Trinette will be coming over Sunday. By Tuesday at the latest I should be back on a schedule which, if not exactly normal, is at least normal for me.
ttps://harrylitman.substack.com/p/the-other-side-of-dojs-corruption
I am not saying, and I don’t think Harry is saying, that this is entirely due to this DOJ having thrown the presumption of regularity out of a fiftieth story uindow. But I can’t help but think it does play a part. And so does sheer incompetence (something which affects every aspect of this regime, not merely the DOJ.)
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/revisiting-can-federal-troops-be
It always surprises me – and, frankly, feels false – when the Mango Moron is described as using a “trial run.” simply because I don’t think is intelligent eough – and I do think he is too vain – to believe he needs one. However, he does have lackeys who are knowledgeable enough to recommend trial runs to him, and possibly glib enough to get his approval. Of course, a trial run on his part may also become a trial run on our part – or, at the very least, a telegraphing of the nature of the attack before it occurs. I’m very glad Joyce Vance is doing the analysis so that I don’t have to – she is SO much better at it than I could possibly be.
https://thefuckingnews.substack.com
I expect the Guardian has all of these stories, and a lot more respectfully at that. Somehow, to me, the tone felt exactly right.
https://www.confrontthehate.com/p/the-american-caesar-why-extremists
Well, here it is at last – the truth that, if we become a fascist nation, it won’t happen or at least not completely, from our being careless and just sliding into it. We will have been deliberately dragged into it by people who know exactly what they are doing, and want it to happen, because tthey think it will allow them to get everything they want. It won’t. But by the time they figure that out, since they are wealthy and think wealth will buy everything, i will be far too late for all of us. So much for “most of us just want the same things.” The people who want the power they believe a monarchy will give them re totally different. They are a minority, yes -but they are a larger minority than normal people can begin to comprehend.
Yesterday, I missed my morning appointment because I got royally lost. That’s a humiliating confession from someone who was habded a road map when I was 5 years old and told that I was the navigator, but it is what it is. Other than that my plsn worked well. I got to the ultrasound appointment a bit early having done the prep they recommend. They have certainly made progress with ultrasound equipmentin the 35 years or so since I had one before surgery to remove an endometrioma – something which runs in the family on my mother’s father’s side. One of Mom’s aunts (my great aunt) pretty clearly had one – they are pretty obvious when not removed, and she refused surgery. Considering this was around the time of World War I, that was probably a wise choice. My mother didn’t have one, but she did have an ectopic pregnancy, which has a similar cause but is much more dangerous. But she survived it, thanks to a creative OBG, and lived to age 93.
They just can’t let anything natural be without finding a way to mess with it – usually to ruin it. They really do think they are Masters of the Universe – or Gods. Spoiler – They aren’t.
This from Morning Memo speaks for itself pretty eloquently
Trust Joyce Vance to be right here to explain the ramifications when the same crime (or tort, if a civil suit) – and a single act can be both.
I guess I’m lucky. I don’t know whether my gas and electric is public orr private – but I do know they can’t change rates without first holding a well-publlicized public hearing. My water and sewer I do know is public, and cannot change rates without putting a measure on the ballot in the next election -and then getting a majority of those voting to vote for it. My fire department is also public through a special district (this is very common in Colorado). And my utility rates have not gone through the roof – yet.
Yesterday, Dolly Parton died, aged 80. Many people will mourn her because of her singing, and the songs she wrote. And that is understandable. She was at the top of her genre, and it’s one which tugs at heartstrings. This the New Yorker speaks toall who will miss her. I will grieve because, while she lived, no majority black high school band in Tennessee ever had to fundraise to get band uniforms.
Today I have two medical appointments -one at 9:00 am (with 8:30 checkin) and the secoand the second at 4:30pm (with 4:15 checkin.) I decided my best chance of getting to both on time and awake was to stay up all night Monday, sleep all day Tuesday, and stay up all Tuesday night. We’ll hope it works.
From Talking Points Memo. This is quite an analogy – The Orange Ogre’s drug of choice is not adderall after all, , but his fantasies about reality,which he cannot accept. At this late date, after all these years, I doubt that an intervention is going to change anything.
Archived from the Old Gray Lady because paywall. Referred by Allison Gill. This does appear to be yesterday’s biggest news. This is why so many people are discovering that not all Democrats are alike – and that we don’t want coporate ones (also known as “third way” Democrats.)
I couldn’t agree with Robert Reich more. This should be painfully obvious. (It probably won’t be, given MAGA’s Trump Derangement Syndrome – but it should be.)
Yesterday, I saw Virgil, and we played cribbage. Besides being great to see each other, it was good to experience something more or less normal (even including the normal frigidity in the visiting room.) I have forgotten that, though I never found my original car key, Trinette did – in a place I would never have looked, and I try not to think of how it might hace gotten there, because that way lies madness. I’m just glad it has been found.
Yes I realize this is not new – certainly not to anyone here – but Robert Reich says things so well.
Black Star is correct that “nobody has noticed.” This is certainly the first I have heard of it, and I see some legacy media and more independent news outlets than any one person can possibly read. (This is also the first I have heard of Gary being predominantly black. I expext that would surprise Harold Hill if he were real and still alive. This is BS -not in the sense of fake, but in the sense of morally unacceptable.
Back in the seventies, I was a charter subscriber to Mother Jones magazune. It was always good reporting – eventually It got too good for me to deal with – even just on line. Dose of Democracy referred this artivle.
Yesterday, the radio opera was Giuseppe Verdi’s “Luisa Miller” – one of his early successes which made masterpieces like Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Rigoletto and more possible. It reminds me of La Gioconda, in that both have a character who has the hots for the heroine (who is in love with someone else) and is so resentfl at being turned down that he destroys pretty much everyone else in the cast. Verdi named this character “Wurm,” so you know right up front just who he is. (Come to think of it, “Andes Chenier” has one of those too.) Off to see Virgil now – will of course check in upon return.
Yesterday, I got up early for me, which was not all that early, but early enough to call an institution on a 9 to 5 schedule and reach a human being. Turned out not to be necessary. It appears that if Virgil calls and I don’t answer, for whatever reason, the company that provides the phone service thinks I don’t have an account with them, and sends a recorded message to that effect. But the caller ID, instead of showing the phone company, as calls from Virgil do, but instead shows the name of the facility. I jumped to the conclusion that his case manage was trying to reach me for some reason, and that I needed to call it back during working hours. I was pleasantly surprised that that wasn’t the case.
From the Brennan Center, an analysis piece about the effects of AI on elections. There is a smorgasboard of sentence fragments and hypotheticls before you get to the actual article, so don’t give up.
Colorado Public Radio. The “Listen” does duplicate some of the written word, but with different empgasis, and has a little information not in the written part.
This is from Thursday. Malcolm is pissed. I am too. I don’t have a family history like his – although my father was in the Army during WWII as a telegrapher – and his grandfather did fight in the Civil War for the Union – that’s defnitely not unbroken. I didn’t learn about Dory Miller until long after I was out of the service – but it’s a truth I have treasured since I did learn it. Upgrading the decoration to the MOH while renaming the ship is like throwing a piece of candy after killing his or her parent. It’s not proportionate. It’s a little bit of sweet compared to an avalanche of grief. CNN has a recorded livestream here from its Laura Coates Show, in which Malcolm speaks, (about ten minutes total.) The first seven minutes are mostly with Dory’s grand-nephew, and about the last three minutes with Malcolm, who somehow manages to communicate the importance of decisions like these with no expletives – a minor miracle, according to him. I might just add he also exhibits his own dignity and with it the dignity of everyone who has ever served – and Malcolm is not a man who normally stands on dignity. But it was needed here.
