Open Thread March 30, 2024

 Posted by at 6:26 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 302024
 

Yesterday, I heard from Pat B – you may have noticed she hasn’t posted much recently. I knew her 50th wedding anniversary is this year, so I checked my calendar, and, sure enough, it is April 6 – just a week from today. I sent her a note to check if that was why we hadn’t seen her , and she responded that that is exactly why (and from the tone of her note, she is over the moon about it.) So in case anyone is wondering, Pat is just fine and will be back once she is down to earth again.

Margaret Atwood has not finished with the French Revolution. This link is to Part VII, and she promises at least one more to come. She references an opera at the beginning, but her point is essentially that there is no such thing as a good state religion. Because (my wording) religion under compulsion is null and void. And she has the solid history to convince anyone not a cultist.

Privatization strikes again. My opinion is that the town needs to recall all four councilpeople who voted for this, but particularly the one who works for the company they are looking at. That’s a conflict of interest pure and simple.

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Open Thread March 29, 2024

 Posted by at 6:12 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 292024
 

Yesterday, I got up earlier than i had been doing, and got a few things accomplished, including my taxes. It should have been easier than it was had I not somehow lost track of my Social Security 1099, lost some time looking for it, and finally I had to go online and download it. But it’s don now. I even got the email the IRS has accepted it. (As I predicted, no money will change hands either way.)

Johns Hopkins is very proud of this study, and with reason. It’s the first ever To consider non-fatal shootings along with deaths (And it’s like pulling teeth just to get the truth on deaths.)

Yes, I’m doing an all-gun post today. The two stories came out at the same time so although they’re not exactly the same, I feel they are related, and thought I would put them together

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Open Thread March 28, 2024

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 282024
 

Yesterday, I could hardly wait to see what Joyce Vance (who lives in Alabama) had to say about the upset special election there (while being aware it might have shocked her so much that she wouldn’t react until tonight.) Well, I did wait up for it, and here is a quote: “In the category of “you can’t make this up” the special election happened because David Cole, the Republican who previously held the seat, pled guilty to voter fraud charges when it came to light that he didn’t live in the district he voted in and represented.”  While waiting, I sent a litte money to Katie Porter’s PAC, “Truth to Power.” As she won’t be in Congress, she’s very motivated to help as many solid campaigns as she can.

Lakota Law has a petition on behalf of all native American nations. It’s to Pope Francis, and it’s asking him to return lands seized by the church to those tribes to whom it belonged. This link has been cut so it will not prefill with my information, and verified to make sure it works the way it should. There is some background at the link, and also another link to the full petition so you can be clear on what is being asked.

Mixed news here – good that it’s at least being considered – bad that it’s necessary.

I’m big on whistleblowers anyway, and this one is especially deserving of admiration. It’s 180 degrees removed from trading in classified information. Democracies need to, and have a right to, know the truth. ( Wonkette – who agree.)

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Open Thread March 27, 2024

 Posted by at 6:25 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 272024
 

Yesterday, one of the stories reminded me of my mother’s Uncle Fred, who died before I was born, so I never met him, but was told a story about him. Fred was a civil engineer, and some people made fun of him because he predicted the Golden Gate Bridge could never be built. Well, he was wrong. But he was also right, because what he meant was that it could not be built as planned without unacceptable loss of life (and to him one life lost was unacceptable. Eleven were lost during construction, and it could have been worse. A safety net saved 19 from certain death.) I think I would have liked Uncle Fred.

Everyone calls this the “hush money” case. But it’s really basically criminal only because it is really an “election interference” case. I did see someone refer to it as the “hush money/election interference” case – probably a good idea.

A new ad from VoteVets. Short, not sweet, but extremely accurate. (I had to turn the sound on, it was muted – you may also. But the CC is perfect so you may not care.

Building bridges is a dangerous business. So is fixing them when they need maintenance. But I doubt whether anyone would have predicted this.

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Open Thread March 26, 2024

 Posted by at 6:09 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 262024
 

Yesterday, another uneventful day for me. But not for a number of public figures, one in particular.

Mary Trump would like us non-lawyers all to calm down and take a deep breath. (I’d like that too. Things are bad enough without us interpreting anything we don’t like as a catastrophe. Whych is why I don’t report more on the Trump** trials.)

Now that i’m getting the Borowitz report again, I can share him. And this is a good one. There is only one female character in the Revelation of Saint John. And I can definitely see why he’d think of her.

I was concerned about this – we probably all were – I even included a Beau video (yesterday) discussing the possibility of a veto. Well, we didn’t.

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Open Thread March 25, 2024

 Posted by at 6:18 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 252024
 

Yesterday, I didn’t do much. I received an order of groceries and for once got everything I ordered and nothing I didn’t. The news was light also, so I’m going with one deep and one women’s history today. When I say deep, I mean both serious and scary. Definitely worth some thought.

Heather Cox Richardson takes Talking Points Memo’s exposure of the SACR (Society for American Civic Renewal) and uses her knowledge of history to compare it to various happenings in our own history, leading up to the Civil War.

I’m afraid I didn’t know who she was. I’m glad to have learned.

This is a nice feel-good video to watch when you’re feeling down (and we all do sometimes.)

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Open Thread March 24, 2024

 Posted by at 5:58 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 242024
 

Yesterday, Trinette came by. She came straight from the hairdresser, and looked great (not the she doesn’t always.) She took out my recyclables, and, because I have now cleared as space from old boxes which is large nough to work with, vacuumed that space.once I move another piece of furniture (a table) partly into that stace, iI’ll gain access to some other areas which need to be cleared out. And I did listen to the opera, which was Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette.” You’ve probably heard part of it – for years (and for all I know, maybe still) there couldn’t be a Miss America pageany without some young soprano singing it. I don’t dislike the opera, but I’m also not passionate about it. I hear it as elevator music. Pleasant to listen to, but not memorable. The people in the Met audience had a much higher opinion – the applause was deafening. I’m glad of that. All the major-[art singers are nice people, did a great job, and deserve credit.

Apparently I am not the last living American who doesn’t hate Merrick Garland. Joyce Vance doesn’t either. And, being a lawter, including a former DOJ prosecutor, she has some words. (For another view, here’s a gift link)

Public schools (and public prisons) are the most obvious examples of how privatization hurts everyone (except the owners of the businesses which bleed government. ITPI (In The Public Interest) is the watchdog group which monitors abuses of privatization (not that every example isn’t an abuse.) Their newsletters are often long and in fine print, difficult to read (because there is so much privatization.) This example is so egregious that they limited this newsletter to it alone.

 

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Open Thread March 23, 2024

 Posted by at 6:09 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 232024
 

Yesterday, still needed (and got) more sleep. Then, it being Freiday, and given that Trinette is coming today this week instead of tomorrow, I needed to so some serious moving things around so she will be able to take tham out to the bins. That left me very short on time, so today, you are getting a personal update. One article I had picked out inadvance, abd one video ditto (I line the animal videos up way in advance, basically alternating cats and dogs, and squeezing other critters in at intervals in order to keep some variety.) I’m pretty confident I’ll have more tomorrow.

Joyce Vance is getting quoted a fair amount, this article in particular. For one, Heather Cox Richardson quoted Joyce in her daily letter. HCR will recommend quote through Substacks system (and periodically I get an email of quotes), but this is the first time I have seen her put a quote into her own email.

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