Borowitz – Politics Plus

Open Thread April 25 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 252025

Yesterday, Andy Borowitz was “reporting straight news” again. I won’t say it made me smile, because it didn’t, but maybe it will someone. (And I can’t respond to his question. Free subscribers cannot comment at Substack unless the owner opens the comments to us, and the only one I’ve found so far that foes consistently is Wonkette. But, if I could answer, I’d say Kash Patel. Those eyes – he really looks the part.) Also yesterday, apparently DHS has posted Kilmar Abrego Garcia‘s home address in Maryland, forcing his wife and kids to go into hiding.

It took me a couple of days to get this posted. If anyone knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone else who is an illegally fired Federal Civil Servant, There is a nonprofit called “Work For America” which has set up a program to help them find new jobs. Since this program is new, it’s difficult to check its bona fides. I would start by checking out the list of partners on their home page, none of which I recognize – but then I haven’t been looking for work since I retired either. I grant it sounds too good to be real, and I certainly wouldn’t send them any money without knowing more, but if it is legit it could be a needed lifeline for some very deserving people.

https://19thnews.org/2025/04/supreme-court-children-books-lgbtq-censorship/
This article from the 19th is a few days old – but the issue is not going away any time soon.0

This article at Joyce Vance’s Civil Discourse contains a video which was originally on the other guy’s site – which is why it sounds like Joyce is the guest – because she is. It’s not quite 40 minutes. I found it very listenable. There is stuff in it about their respective religious traditions, and it occurred to me I don’t think I have done this rant here before because I never thought it was needed, and it may not be needed here. So I’ll make it as brief as I can. At many liberal sites, especially those which encourage commenting, I see people all the time pontificating that “religion is the problem.” But, just as alcohol is not the problem in alcoholism, it is not religion which is the problem. It is the abuse and/or misuse of religion which is the problem. (For some specialists in allergy and intolerance, alcoholism has been described as an “addictive allergy,” but I won’t push that metaphor now.) If you can tolerate them discussing what is good in their respective religious traditions, there’s a lot of good advice in the discussion. If not, there’s a short article to read.

And this, also from Joyce Vance, is bad news which we cannot afford to ignore. I’m not saying thet the Civil Rights Division eliminated the stacking of the deck against the most vulnerable, because that would have been impossible. But over the years it has done a great deal to alleviate that deck-stacking, and without it we will be in big trouble.

Open Thread April 16 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:44 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 172025

Posted late because I filed to schedule it. Ooopsie.

Yesterday, Robert Reich announced two awards – a Joseph Welch award for Harvard, and a Neville Chamberlain award for all law firms capitulating to the regime. Joseph Welch, you may remember for saying “Have you no decency?” to Tail Gunner Joe McCarthy – the beginning of the end of McCarthyism. The Chamberlain awards speak for themselves. But the cool thing, the reason why I’m featuring this, is that shortly after the column came out he received a lovely thank you note from Welch’s granddaughter. Sometimes humanity is hereditary, despite many counter-examples.

I really used to like Jon Stewart. I have been really disappointed in him since he returned to the airwaves (and I don’t even watch – it’s the quotes in my news sources which have me cringing.) Wonkette explains this better than I could.

TomCat used to like to say, when Andy Boro witz came up with a particularly pointed satire, that he was reporting straight news (again.) But this time he really is doing that – it’s not satire. The closest it comes to satire is the title. Past that, it literally is straight news.

Belle has been covering the economy very thoroughly lately, from Tariffs and inflation/deflation/stagflation to chances of a recession or even a new Great Depression, and I think I get it. She’s probably overwhelmed with questions about money from a huge chunk of her audience. But it means she’s not covering the currently happening coup. So today I’m going to substitute this highly righteous rant by Lawrence O’Donnell on Harvard. Yes, it’s long, about 20 minutes. I didn’t notice an excess word in any part of it. If you do, feel free to cut it short.

Open Thread March 6 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:59 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 062025

Yesterday, a petition I signed for Care2 reminded me vividly of “The Kennel Murder Mystery,” a Philo Vance mystery by S.S. Van Dine. The Vance novels are not for everyone, not even for every mystery fan. The series ran in the 1920s and 1930a, and in the 1920s it was the fashion for young men of some means to be eccentric, and Vance was probably the most eccentric, to the point that this jingle became what we would today call viral: “Philo Vance/needs a kick in the pance.” (Off topic, but wouldn’t that work nicely with the substitution of J.D. for Philo?) The Kennel Murder Mystery is from the 30’s and one critic said it was the best of the later ones because it was a locked room mystery and because in it Vance was “less unbearably obnoxious than usual.” But I digress. From time to time a petition, particularly one involving dog abuse, will remind me of this novel, and the look in the eyes of the dog in this photo pushed that button. The content in question is in Chapter 19 (or XIX), and i see the link I copied should take you directly to that chapter – but it doesn’t. But putting “As we approached the western entrance to the park” take you right to the place to start. There are several points to stop at, but when Vance says he wants to talk to Liang, the episode is as over as it’s going to get. I went a bit farther and found this quote from Lao-Tzu: “he who abuses the weak is eventually destroyed by his own weakness.” It might make a decent protest poster.

On Monday, I received a “Damn-giver Dispatch” from John Pavlovitz, and decided I needed more. So I signed up for a free subscription to his Substack (“The Beautiful Mess”) When I got there and started looking, I discovered that one of his posts there has been picked up by MoveOn and turned into a petition – not that it’s asking for anything, but to provide a vehicle to get it to the person to whom it is addressed, and to express the number of people who are in agreement. He certainly speaks for me, so of course I signed it. The link here is to the column – the petition link is at the bottom (before the comments). speaking of Substack, I seem to remember when I started linking to Substack articles and the “please subscribe” request looked like a paywall, saying something like “Please get adjusted because this thing is growing so fast that just about everyone who has something helpful to say will be on it.” Well, I also got an email from Theater of War – and checked the email address – and yup TOW is now on Substack. [The Pavlovitz and the ProPublics article below were intended for Tuesday.]

ProPublica’s weekly “The Big Story” newsletter from Saturday was just packed with news, most of which others are not covering. Fortunately, they provide a “view in browser” link – which as you know not everyone does.

I don’t suppose anyone here doesn’t know this now. Although you may not know just how far back it goes. Evan Hurst with Wonkette also has his own Substack, titled “The Moral High Ground.” Having that mind set, he sees things which other sometimes miss.

Open Thread February 20 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 202025

Yesterday, again acting on advice from a Democratic Underground member, I went to the Social Security website and downloaded or printed my essential information – lifetime record os earnings, verification of benefits letter, and my Social Decurity statement. They are not on my hard drive, but on my portable hard drive; I have two of those, so I’ll be copying the information to the other one. Paranoid, sure. Except that we have something to be paranoid about. If Dork Vader’s random comments and the antics of his crew don’t make you even a little bit nervous, maybe you should check your pulse. Also, Andy Borowitz was getting serious.

I don’t know what the answer is to something which bugs me about this otherwise excellent Pro Publica article, which is well researched and factual. It’s the tone. It sounds so surprised that a Mange Menace appointee appointed a deputy who is an obvious criminal. Because, of course he did. That’s what this administration does. I don’t want to normalize this behavior, but I also don’t want, for myself or anyone on my side, to sound like an idiot surprised that the sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west daily. There has to be some kind of middle way to address these predictable but horrible events.

I’ve added a “sarcasm” tag to this from the F* News, not because every word is sarcastic, but because the author is affecting naivete, requiring the reader to pay more than normal attention to determine what’s being said. But the fact remains, whoever or whatever is driving this administrations policies and actions, the fact remains that all the policies are gawdawful

Open Thread February 15 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:12 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 152025

Yesterday, my email included a Valentine from Eric Swalwell’s dog, Penny. That was a refreshing break from the rest of it. I can’t even begin to go into all the crap that’s going on. Of course, that’s the plan, and to a degree it’s working. But I’m slogging on. I do want to share that I watched most of a short video sharing, on the basis of an interview with someone who knew the family, that Dork Vader’s parents were Nazis (technically Nazi sympathizers in Canada) who apparently were too chickens**t to move to Germany, but instead moved to South Afrika because they also supported the Afrikaaners (in other words were racist.) My browser kicked me off before it finished, so I don’t have the link, but it was on the “Occupy Democrats” channel, so it shouldn’t be hard to find. For one more upbeat (or at least humorous) item, here’s Andy.

Joyce Vance provides enough information to charge Patel criminally with lying to Congress. But it’s foregone that this DOJ will not do that. And she also singles out DOJ employees who have spines and are, therefore, sadly, no longer part of DOJ.

I seldom share petitions, in large part because Freya does such a good job of it I don’t feel I need to. But this one is one that shouldn’t be missed

I couldn’t decide between these two stories, so I’m linking to both. In a way they’re related. One is about the Forest Service and the other about the Park Service, and, since one is from The F*News and the other from Wonkette, both have sardonic (a word you may be seeing a lot here) headlines. Also, both deal with the nightmarish, 1984 like, concept that we must all be identical or we’re not American, when the exact opposite is more in line with who we are supposed to be, as Americans, and as humans.)

Open Thread January 12 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:06 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 122025

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Rigoletto” by Giuseppe Verdi. It was the second opera I ever owned on vinyl. It’s also the opera from which a scene got me my A grade in conducting class. It’s notoriously dark, it had trouble with censorship (which was routine when everywhere was governed by an absolute monarch, and they were all terrified of looking bad, even just by proxy, so to speak), and the music is exquisite (and in places heartbreaking.) Noteworthy was the tenor, who is the very first opera singer born in Samoa, in his Met debut. Hearing him, I suspect his delay in singing at the Met may have been due to his being so in demand elsewhere that they just couldn’t get him. But all the principals were impressive. It’s an opera which draws tears, and then they piled on by picking this week for the annual review of people we lost last year. Somehow I missed the deaths of Seiji Ozawa and Lucine Amara (among others.) But it’s Sunday, so I’ll stop here and share an Andy Borowitz take on more current events. And, if anyone is interested, Robert Hubbell has transcribed Judge Merchan’s complete remarks from the sentencing Friday. Not that the Canteloupe Caligula will hear, understand, or care. But he was pretty clear in distinguishing between the public office and the person who holds it.

well, this is something new. I know we have at least a few readers who ar into astronomy, and that light pollution is a problem for anyone who wants to watch the stars, planets, galaxies, etc. I would also warn anyone over 50 that the San Luis Valley is mostly more than 7500 feet above sea level, and if you have any heart or respiratory issues, you should consult your medical team before planning a trip (and it isn’t open yet anyway.) Living at 6500 feet as I do, it would almost certainly not bother me. But it isn’t, sadly, possible to make lenses which would allow me to aee what everyone else sees when they look at the sky, so it would be wasted on me. Still, I’m all for it. And Mosca is a good location. Roughly 15 miles north of Alamosa – a college (excuse me, now a university) town – close enough to get to easily and far enough to provide a good dark sky. And now I’m off to see Virgil, and will check in when I get home.

It’s telling that the only good news I noticed this week was from Colorado Public Radio (at least this week, CPR is cpr for the soul). And I’m well aware that people close to my age (and many of us are), old enough to remember “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, are going to be very skeptical. I was. But this treatment appears to be working very well for this young man, and the smile on his face in the accompanying photo is evidential. Especially compared to the second photo. I wish him and his family the best.

Open Thread January 5 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 052025

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Les Contes d’Hoffman” (the tales of Hoffman) by Jacques Offenbach, who is best known for having composed the “Cancan.” The Tales of Hoffman was his only serious opera, and it is not without comedy. The most obvious is, I think, the “Doll Song,” in which the soprano plays a mechanical, life sized doll with whom Hoffman has fallen in love. During this aria, the soprano “runs down” twice and the toymaker has to run up behind her and “wind her up.” Literally. Back in the day, I was driving on the Washington DC beltway, and this aria came on the radio, sung by Joan Sutherland. Even without the sight gags, she made it so funny that I had to pull off – I was so distracted with laughter – until it was over. The doll is one of three women with whom Hoffman falls in love and loses – this one because she isn’t real, the second because she dies, and the third because she has stolen his soul – well, that’s pretty un-comic. There is also an “evil genius” who in some way comes between Hoffman and all of the women he falls for. It is filled with catchy tunes, a specialty of Offenbach. If you have ever heard his “barcarolle,” which is a real earworm, this is the opera from which it comes. Also yesterday, I received several emails about Ann Telnaes leaving the Washington Post. I’ll link to Andy Borowitz on this, although Heather Cox Richardson also covered the story. We can hope hat she finds a position worthy of her talent and integrity.

In keeping with my intent to reserve the Sunday Open Thread for good news, here is a story from Colorado Public Radio, about a remarkable man, and the tribute to him which is now being paid.

This from Axios is at best halfway good news. I was hoping something better would come along, but sadly, if it has, I haven’t seen it (and I have been looking.)

Open Thread December 5 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:10 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 052024

Yesterday, the exterminator came and checked inside and out. He said there was a little activity indoors, which didn’t surprise me because last time he came too early and didn’t check inside. I just need to make sure that either the email specified an afternoon time or else I call to confirm that. Here are a couple of extras –
Andy Borowitz
Richardson on the failed coup in Korea

This is from Driftglass, though I found it through Crooks and Liars. Sometimes a really crude analogy is what is needed to make a point (and this one is about as crude as it gets.)

This is a history from Heather Cox Richardson specifically of how the liberal consensus, which I grew up with and so did many of you, was formed – and of what happened to it. And why we need it back – but not exactly how to do that. In my opinion, it’s a keeper – not that I expect to be able to do much of the work. And I have no children or grandchildren. But those of you who do will want, I am sure, to preserve for them as much of it as possible.

Robert Reich endorses Ben Winkler for DNC Chair, and makes what I would consider a strong case. But, you know, there are a lot of Democrats in leadership positions who would disagree. We’d need to convincing that it isn’t just that we are losing with their mode – it’s that their model is causing the losing trend. (BTW, everyone else spells it “Wikler” so Robert Reich may be wrong in his spelling.

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