Aug 252024
 

Yesterday, I was very late posting the Open Thread, and I apologize. I had it ready to go and just forgot to load and post it. I was working on writing and printing letters to my 401(k) custodian and to an urgent care facility which just sent me a bill for services in March of 2023. Had I not received a bill from them in July of 2023 and paid it, I would have just paid this one. But I don’t what to pay for aomething twice. I tried to call, but the menu wanted me to enter my employee ID number, which, since I’m not one, I don’t have. I didn’t even try to call the 401(k) custodian because I’ve tried in the past. Because there’s no such thing as one phone call. No matter how detailed you are, they leave some detail out, and you have to keep corresponding until they get it all. Anyway, with all that, i simply forgot to schedule it. I wish I could promise it won’t happen again, but sadly, I can’t.

In any case, yesterday’s radio opera was “Idomeo, Re di Creta” by Mozart. It’s one of those stories – and every culture seems to have one = there’s even one in the Bible – where someone is in potentially fatal danger, and prays to a god, promising to sacrifice the first living thing he meets when he gets home, and then that turns out to be his child. Oops. Not all of the stories end the same way, though – there are several directions it can go. In this opera, it ends up with the voice of Neptune telling him not to kill his son, but to abdicate n his favor, by which his sacrifice becomes his kingdom instead. Everyone is happy, except the princess the son doesn’t marry. But nothing was ever going to make her happy anyway. And now I’m off to visit Virgil visit Virgil

This, from The 19th, is very much peripheral. But there’s not way i could cover the substantal part of the Convention like the big boys and girls, especially since many readers have likely watched it. And its not an unimportnt side issue in view of Project 2025, for sure.

This is Heather Cox Richardson writing after the third day of the Convention. I saved it for Sunday because – because it’s kind of a sermon. An American, Democratic sermon. Don’t skip it because I said that. It is very encouraging.

Joyce Vance has some suggesions for anyone who is not inspired to do something but doesn’t know what. (Steve SChmidt has the same ones – because he quotes then from her. She’s in Scotland just now, but the animals are being taken care of.)

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Dec 042022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Judge orders Trump’s top White House lawyers to testify to grand jury about Trump’s crimes

The Lincoln Project – Winning (A victory lap)

MSNBC – Jan. 6 Bomb Stuns Trump: MAGA Allies Convicted As Top Aide Goes Under Oath

Raw News And Politics – Co-Defendant To Testify Against Peters

Goat Mom Waits for Baby to be Rescued from Cliff

Beau – Let’s talk about a new way of looking at small actions….

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Nov 262022
 

Yesterday was Black Friday – or, as the North SHore Animal League put it, Bark Friday. I used to be pretty good at using sales and coupons, butnow that I’m retired and my time is my own, that is more important to me. And the pandemic just made thatmindset even stronger. Not that I would shop on Black Friday on principle. But I hope that those who do shop (many of whom are working to hard for too little pay) find bargains that stretch their budgets farther than they dreamed. Also yesterday, I “printed” (to pdf) DCCC’s guide to what facts to have handy when dealing with Republican relatives. It was intended for Thanksgiving, but by the time I received the email, Thanksgiving was over. However, there’s always Christmas. It loads huge and prints weird (I ended up zooming out, snapshotting it a page at a time – it’s only 4 pages – putting the snapshots into a Word document, and “printing” that. But there are probably ways to manipulate the online pdf to print better.) If you have any Republican relatives, or know someone who does and could use it, here’s the link.

Cartoon – 26 1126Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Dems Already Going On Offense Against Coming House Investigations
Quote – The New York Times reports that a network of Democrat-aligned groups is planning “a multimillion-dollar counteroffensive,” including a “SWAT team,” to combat the coming deluge of GOP investigations into President Biden, his family and his administration. Although the White House is planning its own defense, the outside groups plan to push back “in a more adversarial manner,” the Times says…. The Democratic counteroffensive is designed to avoid another Benghazi which, fake scandal that it was, nonetheless dragged down Hillary Clinton. Some of those involved in the efforts include Facts First USA, whose president is David Brock, the former right-wing hit man turned left-wing advocate; the Center for American Progress; and the Congressional Integrity Project.
Click through for more informaion, and links to both the Times and Politico. The money is not taxpayer money but activist money (from some pretty flush activists.)

Mother Jones – After Decades of Public Service, Dr. Fauci Gives His Final White House Briefing
Quote – His departing message to the public: get vaccinated before the holidays. “My final message, maybe the final message I give you from this podium, is, please, for your own safety and the safety of your own family, please get your updated COVID-19 shot as soon as you’re eligible,” Fauci told reporters.
Click through for article. I have nothing to add to the Food for Thought.

Lakota People’s Law – Help the Cherokee Nation Seat a Congressional Delegate
I had a video up on this yesterday (which was made before the hearing). Then O got this emai from Chase Iron Eyes, including:
“[A]fter nearly two centuries of delay, Congress held its first ever hearing on the subject — and it went very well! To be clear, it isn’t a done deal. However, as NPR accurately reports, last week’s House Rules Committee hearing represents by far the biggest step the federal government has ever taken toward fulfilling a promise it made to the Cherokee way back in 1835’s Treaty of New Echota. And while we can’t celebrate prematurely, the U.S. government making progress toward doing what it said it would for any Native nation is historic and a reason for optimism.”
Now Chase is asking us to write to our Representatives and encourage them to accept the selected delegate, Kimberly Teehee. The link above is to the page to help you do that – thre is also a video, which is a bit over a half hour, and doesn’t have CC there, but it does on YouTube at this link

Food For Thought

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Jan 282022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Barr Talks to House Select Committee with No Leaks: Two Important Takeaways from this Revelation

American Bridge – Family values are for suckers: Ron Johnson unloads child care costs on families

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party

Thom Hartmann – What Biden Has Done That You Don’t Know! – The URL he gives has “expired” – I’d recommend opening a transcript [via the 3 dots to the right of the line just over the red subcribe button] and copying and printing it.

Rebel HQ – Trump’s Cult Is Full Of Mental Derangement

Really American – Rudy’s t shirts

Beau – Let’s talk about Clyde Bellecourt….

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Jan 282022
 

Yesterday, I heard from WWWendy (we are still working on my getting ownership of the blog esablished at BlueHost) She added a personal update:

Right now, I am continuing work as a caregiver – I care for two clients – one with alzheimers and one with dementia. Both will probably need to be placed soon so I want to stay with them until the transition is made. What will I do after that? Not really sure- guess I will deal with that when the time comes. Give my best to everyone.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Capitol Rioter Invoked ‘Game Of Thrones’: ‘I Choose Violence’
Quote – “In stating, ‘I choose violence’, Cersei Lannister embraced — and then carried out — mass murder to achieve her political ends,” the document adds. “In the context of Caplinger posting this just two days after January 6, Caplinger’s adoption of this quote is alarming and provides insight into his mental state and intent in storming the Capitol.”
Click through for story. Maybe I should try to figure out the poll app so we can vote on who is stupider – this dude or the ones who called the “Lost and Founf.”

Mother Jones – Oath Keepers Anticipated “a Bloody and Desperate Fight” to Overturn the Election for Trump
Quote – “[Edwards] Vallejo and his co-conspirators coordinated at least three regional QRF teams stationed at a Comfort Inn in Arlington, Virginia, to support the co-conspirators’ plot and the January 6 Capitol attack. The QRF teams guarded an arsenal of firearms and related equipment and were prepared to speed those weapons into the hands of co-conspirators on the ground in Washington, D.C., when directed by Rhodes or other conspiracy leaders.”
Click through for details. We are not making this up. I don’t understand why more people aren’t terrified.

The Jerusalem Post – Biden references Colleyville in Holocaust Remembrance Day statement
Quote – “Today, and every day, we have a moral obligation to honor the victims, learn from the survivors, pay tribute to the rescuers, and carry forth the lessons of last century’s most heinous crime,” said Biden. “From the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, to a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, we are continually and painfully reminded that hate doesn’t go away; it only hides.” The president stressed the need to teach accurately about the Holocaust and to push back against attempts to ignore, deny, distort, and revise history, making reference to a US co-sponsored United Nations resolution to combat Holocaust denial.
Click through for more. Yes, I’m a day late. It isn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last. In any case, as Joe said, “and every day.”

Food For Thought:

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