Open Thread February 10 2025

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 102025
 

Yesterday was the first day this year that the sun waited until 5:30 to set. So I stayed with Virgil till closing. I checked out there at 3:26 and made it home before 5 pm (20 minutes before, to be precise.) That does include putting the wheelchair into the back of the car, putting my car key back on its keychain, grabbing something for dry mouth, putting the driver’s license away, starting the usb sound player, switching glasses and grabbing sunglasses, etc., before leaving the parking lot, as well as stoplights and fire trucks along the way, and changing glasses again at home. Yes, I know trifocals exist, but I loathe them almost as much as I loathe contacts. We had an unusual day with cribbage today – all the best hands were in the cribs. That started with Virgil getting two double runs of three in the crib on the first hand he dealt, and just continued. It wasn’t every deal, but often enough to defy the odds, and pretty evenly distributed between us. Virgil’s pretty good but was having some back pain. He plans to see a medical person about it when that is possible. He says hi to all. I forgot to take out my home-frozen meal from the freezer yesterday or even this morning, so I had to thaw it in the microwave before I could heat it in the microwave. (When people get older, they start thinking more about the hereafter. I often go into a room and ask myself “Now, what am I here after?”) Also I should mention that I saw some advice for all of us to freeze our credit with all three bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) unless we are currently applying for any kind of a loan, secured (mortgage or car loan) or unsecured. It is free at all three, but Equifax is the easiest one to do it with – the other two tend to route you to paid subscription signups when you are looking for the free one – so Experian is the only one I have completed. I may need to use a different browser on the others, but I will get it done.

The Contrarian is already so much of a brain trust that I seldom know whether a given post is written by someone who is a staff member or by a guest expert. Regardless, Michael Podhorzer has a great point here. Labor unions – “civilian” (i.e. non-government workers) labor unions in particular, but also the ones for government employees and for people who are somewhat in between, such as public school teachers and nurses. He goes into detail which I won’t, but I do want to say, let’s not cross any picket lines – including virtual ones. Let’s punish Amazon for firing duly elected union leaders. Let’s penalize Starbucks for their egregious anti-union pushing (they ought to change their name to Ahabs – since that’s who they are more acting like.) King Soopers (which is Kroger) in Colorado has actual picket lines right now. I was willing to cut them some slack because Albertson’s frivolously sued them for deal breaking when the proposed merger failed – I say frivolously because it was the courts which really stopped the merger, as well they should have. But I’m not about to cross a picket line for them. If anyone knows of some I didn’t mention (I know they exist), please share in a comment.

I apologize for this being a video. I first saw it quoted, with a link to BlueSky, which I saved, but which now does not have the transcript of the letter. YouTube at least has that. And the video is not quite three minutes.

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Open Thread February 9 2025

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 092025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman”, which I’ve discussed before. It was the choice of Ryan Speedo Green, who picked it because of the performance of George London in the title role. London started singing professionally in 1945, debuted at the Met in 1951, retired in 1967, and died in 1985 after his third heart attack, so I mostly missed him. (I know a lot of earlier singers from my mother’s 78 rpm record collection and of course newer ones from my own listening and collecting. And that includes a couple of the other principals in today’s recording who worked longer and lived longer.) But Speedo was just the right age to hear his recordings while studying … and to enter a competition and get financial help from a foundation London founded, continued by his widow after he died. I’ve also discussed Speedo’s story, which I find incredibly inspiring, so I’ll shut up now. Off to see Virgil, will check in upon return.

Straight from the Root – a list (not inclusive) of companies which continue to support DEI – in fact, some are doubling down. Many are not useful to me, either because I don’t use what they sell, or because I have rejected them for some other reason, but that’s me. Also, they’re all huge. But you can always look up any company on the internet and see whether they have a DEI statement in their “about us” section.

Dennis Donovan at Democratic Underground shares a post from Norm Eisen (cofounder of “The Contrarian”) – it’s a few days old, but I haven’t seen it elsewhere (which may be just me – I had to skip a lot to get through all those emails.)

This is a 23 minute video (with not bad CC – a couple of clunkers easy to mentally correct) and I can’t – not that I would want to – make you watch it. But in addition to advice, it also has some hope. So I thought I’d add it to Sunday.

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Open Thread February 8 2025

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 082025
 

Yesterday, I had more than 100 emails come in, so I was overwhelmed even though I started the day with no new emails. I hope this doesn’t keep up. I also lost 3 hours waiting for a grocery delivery (at least when it came it had no substitutions and nothing missing, which helps.) Tomorrow I go to see Virgil. No snow or other potentially dangerous weather is expected. It should be cold, but that’s not a problem. The visiting room is kept so cold I always bundle up anyway. But of course I will check in upon return.

I’m squeezing this Joyce Vance article in today so it won’t spoil Sunday or have to wait for Monday. I hop eit will be helpful (and I hope the same for the next link.)

I previously shared Robert Reich‘s “What You Can Do,” so now that he has a “Revised and Expanded” version up, I thought I should share that as well. If he’s changed his mind about anything, there’s probably a reason, and we should know it.

Wonkette’s Doktor Zoom speaks about things schools are doing or trying to do to protect children from the horrors of the current Administration. Some things are easier to protect kids from than others, of course – somethings are harder that\n others to protect anyone from. But kudos to those who are doing their best.

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Open Thread February 7 2025

 Posted by at 5:41 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 072025
 

Yesterday, although I had wiped out all the emails from Monday and Tuesday on Wednesday, I still had some from Wednesday to get through. By the end of he day I was caught up on them. But to do that I had to do a mostly single-topic OT for today, and do it early. It’s a little different, but hopefully at least thought-provoking.

Here’s a bonus video from Vote Vets. It’s nicely done, only a minute long, and includes excerpts from a speech by Alex Vindman.

And this from Huff Post is related. Both this and the video above are about what is going on with the USAID – not the best known Federal agency, but one of the most important to our national security (so of course the MAGAs want to destroy it, as do the billionaires who want to hand us over to Putin.)

Colorado Public Radio didn’t even take the time to write this up themselves, but instead shared the Denverite version. It looks like Freedom Summer all over again (except for the weather – and in this particular demonstrations, less blood. But there were demonstrations in  50 states, and I’m sure some of them made up for ours.)

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Open Thread February 6 2025

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 062025
 

Yesterday, I got the results of my bone density test and was disappointed but not terrible surprised to learn I have osteoporosis. I have no symptoms, but I do have the early signs, such as loss of height. I’ve taken calcium religiously all of my adult life, which may have slowed it down some. I’m sure my new PCP and I can come up with something which will help. Off topic – the reason I had to so the blood draw at a place which was so hard for me to find was not that the place near me was booked up – it was because the place near me was closed for repairs. That lab expects to reopen well before the next blood draw I’m going to need in early April. (I already made the appointment for that one. Apparently hypo- and hyperthyroidism are related to osteoporosis. Who knew? Probably Nameless and possibly Dave, but anyone else would surprise me.)

From The 19th from Monday, but we have a whole month to reflect. And this is real stories from real people, which IMO is always refreshing even if not always victorious.

The link to Brennan Center should work. After I copied it, I tried it and it worked for me. But since it looks like a blanket link to the site, I’ll mention thet the name of the srticle I had in mind is “Breaking the Law” and that it’s in the category “Checks & Balances.”

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Open Thread February 5 2025

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

Yesterday, I arrived on time for my bone density test, and it didn’t take too long, However, when I got home, I found that USPS had not picked up the Valentine I had put there to send to Loveland and get the cache on the envelope for Virgil. So I went out again and dropped it at the post office. And when I got back from that, it wasn’t even three o’clock yet. And a good thing too, as I didn’t have much – I’m still, as predicted, in email jail. And today, the exterminator comes. I can at least keep working while he (or she – so far I’ve only seen men) is here, but I do lose some concentration. And even at full concentration, I can’t cover everything.

From Democratic Underground, with a link to Lawfare. There really are bunches of good lawyers on the ‘Net, and little excuse for not understanding the ways of the law and the (federal)justice system.

This is the most recent message I have received from The Contrarian. They have done more journalism since this, but I haven’t see any emails. If you scroll to the top and click on the “THE CONTRARIAN” next to the Statue of Liberty logo, you’ll get to the home page and see a list of articles. So things are happening. And at the very least, what you read there will be truth. Unlike, for instance, Politico, which Robert Reich tore into smithereens yesterday.

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Open Thread February 4 2025

 Posted by at 6:08 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 042025
 

Yesterday, the blood work went smoothly – I didn’t feel a thing. However, it took forever and was exhausting because I had a lot of trouble finding the place and was pretty late. Fortunately they took my blood anyway – and the results were in by the time I got home. What wasn’t in my inbox was anything from Lona. But – thankfully- that came before the end of the day:

Thanks for asking, Joanne, but fortunately for us this is some 700km north of us. We’ve had plenty of water ij December and January, with some flooding, even from the creek running at the end of my property, but no damage. Just a road blocked for a day or two. 
The amounts falling further north from Townsville, where the major floods are now, is absolutely ridiculous. 1 meter (more than 3 feet) in 48 hours and in one spot 1.2 meters in 24 hours. Some villages are completely cut of from the rest of the world because of rads and bridges being swept away. 
While in the South a heatwave is killing people (+43 degrees Celsius for days on end) and in the West, whole National Parks are burning out of control. I feel so sorry for them, as I do for the people in California.

I haven’t been able to look at much email, so I’ll be in email jail for a while – and today I have the bone density test. I did note skimming through that the resistance appears to be stepping up with Black History resources, so that’s good.

Heather Cox Richardson for Black History Month. One of many who know this is important, and who will recognize and celebrate it no matter who tries to kill it. I know, I don’t feel much of a celebratory mood either (in a way it reminds me of last week’s opera. But I think that Black people and Black history month can be resurrected, unlike Violetta. It qill take all of us and all of our effort. But without it, there’s no justice – and therefore no peace.)

Yes, this was posted Sunday night and now its Tuesday. But I only promised not to miss a post, not that all posts would have scoops. That’s not happening. Even on Tuesday, “The Week Ahead” is worthwhile.

In the interest of Black History, this from The Root is around a dozen moments from Black History in the US. So it isn’t so much what I think is important as it is what Black people consider important. Each event is described very briefly – but with enough key words to look it up if you don’t remember it.

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Open Thread February 3 2025

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 032025
 

I’ve been sitting a few days on proposing a new word to describe the government this administration is doing its best to impose. It isn’t meritocracy – no one involved has the least bit of merit. Oligarchy is closer, but isn’t specific enough. I propose we call it leucandrocracy – rule by white males. Both racism and misogyny are openly vital elements of it, and this term reflects both. Sure, it’s the oligarchs who are being given official government roles. But without the support of white men with grievances, white men terrified of people of color and people of any gender identity other than theirs – whose fear has been transformed into rage, and the rage into hatred, the oligarchs would not be where they are. Perhaps Black History Month – for those of us who celebrate it, could be an opportunity to push this.

Robyn with Wonkette‘s headline asks one heck of a good question here. Another question might be, with ideas like theirs, are they actually even human, or are they demons in human form? She provides a trigger warning for one paragraph and rightly so.

In 1944, the CIA created a written guide for, among others, civilians in occupied territory whose sympathies were with our side – a manual on how to use little sabotages to weaken the Nazis (or other axis powers). This manual has recently gone viral. I checked three sites from which anyone who wants a copy can download it. It’s not very long, especially for a government publication. The one direct from the CIA is a 12-page pdf but most “pages” contain 2 pages of text. The one at Internet Archive is the same. Project Gutenberg is the one which gives you choices on how you want it to look, including Kindle. I generally go for plaintext to a “Notepad” file and then, if I want to keep it, into Word and play with the font and font sizes until I like the way it looks, but you do you.

As much as I would prefer to focus on Black History this month, this from Joyce Vance (and other sources) cannot be ignored. Not the actions of the Apricot Antichrist himself so much as the lack of outrage in response. I realize decent people are exhausted – I am too – but this is no time to sit on our hands. It was only huge public outrage which caused the rescission of the OMB freeze memo, and even then, it was only the memo, not the executive order behind it. I hope that by the time you read this there will have been more outrage. Heather Cox Richardson does too.

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