Open Thread September 25 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 252024
 

Yesterday – well, let’s just say – did you know there was a new PAC called AntiPsychopath Pac? I sure didn’t. But I certainly welcome it!

The author of this article, Jeremy Mohler, works with In The Public Interest, which is probably the most ambitious opponent of inappropriate privatization of government functions (which IMO means almost any privatization of government functions) in the U.S. today. Why do I say that? Because our government was designed, among other things, to “promote the general welfare.” That’s in the Preamle to the Constitution. Corporations are designed to promote the welfare of their stockholders – not the welfare of all their stakeholdres, which would include the general public, along with the conporation’s employees. If you want to call that Socialism, it follows you must believe that the authors of the Constitution were Socialists. I think not.

This article from the Brennan Center for Justice is a referral from Joyce Vance, who is busy with about 11 baby chicks (all of whom are terminally cute. There are pictures.) If one works in any way with the law or legal issues, one does not want to be on the wrong side of the Brennen Center. And it would appear that John Roberts just got there.

Share

Open Thread September 24 2024

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 242024
 

Yesterday, the defendant in the case of the shooting at the King Soopers in Boulder, CO, was found guilty on 55 felony counts, incluing 10 counts of first-degree murder.  It didn’t even take them a full day to come to that conclusion. I had not been following this story closely enough to have previously seen the names of the victims, but I read it this time, and saw two surnames, both relatively uncommon, which were the same as those of people I had known in Colorado – when I lived in the San Luis Valley. But when I looked then up, there appeared to be no connection in either case. Still, all the victims were known to and kin to and important to someone, and looking that up made the shooting very real to me.

Talking Points Memo’s Morning Memo was hot yesterday. Every time I finished a section and was going to file the email, I’d see the next title and realized I wasn’t ready. I got all the way to the end, in fact. Fortunatel, I can give you a link to the whole thing so you can decide what to skip.

Over the weekend, Heather Cox Richardson reviewed the history of the Electoral College. It’s a history which is little kown, even among people who consider themselves history buffs. And it’s a grand demonstration of how much and in how many ways an institution such as the Electoral College is vulnerable to manipulation – and in how many ways (the Electoral College is the reason we have two Dakotas, for one thing.) I wish that everyone in Amereica, voting age or not, could be forced to read or to listen to it. In whatever language they understand.

Share

Open Thread September 23 2024

 Posted by at 5:52 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 232024
 

Yesterday, I went to see Virgil. Going down there were a few scattered showers – not enough to keep the wipers going – and it also stayed overcast enough I didn’t need to wear sunglasses. Again, we played cribbage in our way – had quite a variety of good hands, middlind hands, and awful hands,more or less evenly divided between us. I can’t be sure, since we do’t keep running totals, but it felt prettty equal no me. Coming back, the sun was out, and I needed to shield the driver’s side window, and that worked. I nuked a leftoer meat from a crockpot made a while ago and the leftovers frozen. I’m calling it Chicken Marengo – although there is in fact no standard recipe forChicken Marengo, and its legen id fake, asthechefwho is supposed to have rsustled it up was not present at the battle. (The fact that there’s so much fake history floating around really makes me appreciate people like Heather Cox Richardson who set things straight.)

And speaking of fake history – though I nonlonger subscribe to Mother Jones, one of my other sources recommended this article, and when I read it, I kind of said “Wow!” Getting to the truth is much harder when people who are actively pushing a myth are fighting you every step of the way – and having found truth, getting it out so everyone knows is even harder.

The line TPM cites in its headline is not the only line they are intentionally blurring. They are also blurring the one between citizenship and the lack of citizenship. Y’know, Paul (in the Bible) was a Roman citizen. He mentions this in one of the Epistles, and basically says anyone who has enough money can buy (Roman) citizenship (“At a great price I obtained this freedom.”) Is this what we are coming to if Trump** and MAGAts win, not just the Presidency, but majorities in Congress?

We all know, or I hope we do, that the stock market and the economy are two different things – two very different things. But you wouldn’t know that by talking with investors – or with Republicans. But the person who can explain it best may well be Robert Reich. And that may well be because he looks at the economy as it pertains to reality, including real people, specifically real workers, as opposed to looking at the economy as pieces of paper with numbers on them

Share

Open Thread September 22 2024

 Posted by at 5:54 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 222024
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Puccini’s “Turandot.” It’s one of the most performed operas in the repertory, so I’ve almost certainly described it before. People who don’t care for opera often cite their feeling that it presents stories so improbable that it makes no sense. On this one they have a point, except that it’s supposed to be a fairy tale, so it’s not supposed to make much sense, if any. It does sweep the listeners and viewers along emotionally with great success, and maybe it’s better to just accept that and not try to make sense of it. Anyay, also yesterday, Steve Schmidt wrote a powerful piece about Ohio. I’ll just link to it, and you can see it for yourselves. Well, off to see Virgil now, and will report my safe return when I’m back, as always.

Heather Cox Richardson starts with (the disgusting) Mark Robinson, but soon swings in to the history of the two-party system, why the founders hated it, why they ended up with it anyway. Reminds me of the quote “Democracy is the worst possible system of government – except for all the other systems.”

This is certainly not news, although the way the word “Patriotism” was defined in 1774 and thereabouts would certainly be news to a lot of Americans today who think they are patriots. I hope on a Sunday you’ll have more leisure to digest it.

Cartoons by Tom the Dancing Bug are generally too large for me to just put them into a post here and still have them legible, and this one is no exception. Sometimes I can reorganize the panels and make it work, but time is tight just now, and I didn’t want to wait with this one. If the last line of the last panel doesn’t have an impact on you, you might want to check your pulse.

Share

Open Thread September 21 2024

 Posted by at 6:07 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 212024
 

Yesterday, I was still working on organizing, but more on computers than IRL. That is less tiring physicall, but possib,ly even more time consuming, though of course it should save me time in the long run. I do keep swithching from one task to another so that each task can also be a break from the previous task, which helps keep me sane (at least as sane as I can be.)

I saved this story for the weekend. It’s not a typical good news story, but it is about living one’s life in one’s own way, about friendship and love, about grieving, anout a (now international) item called a “wind phone,” and more. (When you get to the point where you see the name “Kora” you may want to grab a hanky.) What an amazing woman Nancy Brockman was! (I also love Silverton, BTW.)

This is also a nice story for a weekend. We just need to not be overconfident about it, or about any other good nesws.

This HuffPo article explains universal medicare as an insurance agent should (but may not.) Some people have a mindset that insurance is a bad investment if you never get any money back from it. The truth is that in order to never get any money back from an auto or home policy over time, and given enough time, what it means is that you are incredibly lucky never to have had a loss. Good luck should be worth something. That, and the fasct that the bigger the pool is, the more fair it iis to everyone. I would much rather get no monetary return from my insurance then get lots of money with expensive and painful claims. But I’m pretty sure that thinking will not convince Republicans – not even the old fashioned kind.

Share

Open Thread September 20 2024

 Posted by at 6:07 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 202024
 

Yesterday, I received a link to a printable flyer (3-page pdf) on Project 2025. It’s in plain English, and organizes the information by groups who will be most adversely affected, explaining how. (I am in all three of the top three groups, as I have realized for some time.) It could come in handy. I also received an email from my junior Senator (Hickenlooper) – of course it was just a newsletter, but for a newsletter it was very personal indeed. I had not known that the Senator an his wife could not have had their son Jack without IVF. Funny how much more real it becomes when it’s someone you know, even if you haven’t even met them face to face. (Apologies for the name of the newsletter. Hick, a Denver businessman, has always fancied himself as a cowboy.) Of course the last thing that would occur to Republicans (at least the crazy ones) is that getting rid of vaccinations for childhood diseases is only going to lower the birth rate when those unvaccinated kids grow up, and the nation will be even more dependent on immigrants than it is now.

I did see this poll, and it did upset me, and yet I’m not sure that it really sank in until I read Steve Schmidt‘s take on it. He’s right. It’s devastating.

The lead article is the one I am posting this link for. But feel free to read anything else below which catches your eye.

Share

Open Thread September 19 2024

 Posted by at 6:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 192024
 

Ahoy, me hearties (today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.) Yesterday, I deliberately went looking for climate news becuse I wantedto use tis cartoon today. I realize that sounds pretty shallow. But it is true that the climate is getting pushed out of the news in favor of violence and other stupidities. And not finding any climate-related news in my ususal sources made me more aware that more attention needs to be paid to it. It’s enough to make a pirate say Aaarrrgh! And I may do it again before the election, though that’s not a promise.

The AP could not resist putting a few beautiful photos in among the more obviously disastrous ones in this photo-essay. But it’s still quite eye-opening. Something else that is eye-opening is that herein Colorado we are starting to have climate refugees who have been our neighbors. At 5000 feet ablove sea level, it’s not from sea level rise, nor is it from flooding, or heavy snowfall (which quite reasonably might happen here, as evaporation puts more water into the air. The last two blizzards here were IMO caused by that.) It is related to dryness though. There’s a fire in Larimer County (where Virgil grew up) which has taken a lot of homes and displaced a lot of people. Our wildfire seasons are not as bad as California’s yet, but we are headed that way.

And Reuters has a potpourri of snippet articles, some of which are as devastating as some of the pictures from the AP. Fortunately that’s not true of all of them.

Share

Open Thread September 18 2024

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 182024
 

Yesterday, Reading about all the crap that’s happening in Springfield, OH, it struck me that Republicans, at least MAGAts, don’t seem to have a lot of faith in their own candidates. If they actually had faith in Trump**, they would believe that if elected he would deport or murder any immigrants who are “eating pets: – maybe even citizens who are “eating pets.” But they apparently don’t. They apparently think they must take the bloodshed into their own tiny hands. So they can’t really have as much faith in Trump** as they think they do.

I really don’t know what to say about this. of course, concerning Trump**, the first question should always be, “Is it even a thing or just fantasy?” That said, even if it’s a thing, even if it makes any money, how long is he going to live to appreciate it? Ron Filikowski thinks it’s actually a Junior and Eric venture using Daddy’s name – well, maybe. Makes the most sense I have seen so far.

I get the morning newsletter from Talking Points Memo, but thatt’s all, so I often don’t see what else they have to offer. This was cited by Robert Hubbell. Of course it was Trump** who “started the fire.” But I serously doubt that “everyone knows it.” Republicans have been promoting that label that violence comes from the left, and olicing as if that were actually true, for my entire lifetime. A bit of truth is not going to wipe that out, no matter how obvious it has become, and no matter how much we wish it would.

Share
 Older Entries  Newer Entries