Yesterday, Trinette came over and moved a bunch of stuff for recyclables, trash, and sharity, so that I have “traffic lanes” again. And she brought in all the mail, which included my ballot, which arrived Saturday (I thought it might, though it was just sent Friday.) She also showed me some pictures from her trip to Portugal last year and of her family. Her mother is as beautiful as she is (and she is names after her mother, Trina – Trinette means “little Trina,” which is ironic considering how tall she is.)
I’m not quite sure exactly what the author means by “the political set.” It could mean politicians and their staffs. It could mean people who are outside of politics, but read about it and discuss it because they darned well want to know what they are voting for – or against. It could also mean that segment of the media which concentrates on politics. Or any combination of those three. If there’s one group there which really should be listening to “ordinary people,” though, it’s the politicians. Politicians represent ordinary people, and therefore should always be listening to them.
The entire newsletter from In The Public Interest is in this newsletter, but I’m sharing for just the first article (feel free to read on.) There is a great meme on this topic which I’ll share as today’s cartoon.
Yesterday, I discovered Brave New Films has released its newest documentary – about the E. Jean Carroll case (They have quite a catalog – the earliest one I remeber them putting out was exposing the Koch Brothers, u they also did one with Ed Asner playing the Fox-owned grandfather. That’s just what I remember. there are lots more.) Also, Robert Reich posted the newest video/article in his current series.
This is not election news, but it is equally disgusting. Since the article is in a local paper, it’s not that specific to where this is happening, but Wonkette, who referred me to it, identifies the district as being in Yotk County, PA. Since we are in the overlap of Hispanic Heritage Month and LGBTQ’s month, I thought I’d share this even without any Hispanic link. My response to this would be a lot of every-thing-proof black paint on the inside (along with protesting.)
Heather Cox Richardson‘s column from Thirsday nigh started me thinking. I am not thrilled by our two party system, yet I fear the formation of a third party because in my lifetime I have seen too many spoiler candidates negatively affect our government. But what if we had four parties, and each one stood for one quadrant of the political compass? I think potential leadership actually exists – Kamala Harris is clearly a strong leader in the lower left quadrant. Jill Stein appears to represent the upper left, and Liz Cheney (along with Adam Kinzinger and Michael Luttig, and likely a lot more who have not spoken out) is clearly in the lower right quadrant. I can think of far too many “leaders” who are solidly in the upper right quadrant, and I expect so can you, and though I would love to make a statrmrnt by alluding to a woman here, I can’t think of one who would actually have that party’s support (Sarah Huckabee Sanders may be the closest.) I doubt whether any one of the four would have a majority without forming a coalition of some kind. It might be fun to speculate who would form a coalition with whom and on what grounds. And it would be much easier to setermine where any given candidate “really” stands. It certinly couldn’t happen in my lifetime. But maybe some day (aessuming we don’t lose the 2024 election.)
Joyce Vance finished and posted here analysis of Jack Smith’s superseding indictment and I, at least, am not disapponted. I hope you’ll think it was worth waiting a day for also. It clarifies the hoops he had to jump through as well as how he did it. When – not if – this comes to the Supreme Court, ALito and Thomas should, of course recuse, but won’t, and can’t be forced to. Although if we get a majority in both the House and the Senate, we may be able to tell them “recuse or be impeached.” If we could get rid ofjust those two, I’d be a happy camper. We’d have a 5-4 majority, and Gorsuch respects tribal law (most Republicans and even some Democrats don’t), and Barrett is a nebbish.
Could have sworn I posted this before now – guess I didn’t.
Yesterday was International Coffee Day. Generally when Virgil calls me he has a cup of coffee in his other hand. So when he called, I wished him a happy International Coffee Day – and guess what, he had a glass of milk in hand instead. Irony lives. Also, I received a grocery deliviery, which was late, so I was late starting the debate. I observed that at least one mod was doing minimal fact checking. But I was so repelled, I couldn’t stand it and quit early. I’m not worried you won’t find out what happened, since it will be all over the net the second it is over. In any case, Walz is absolutely transparent and Vance shoots off his mouth so much, that the 19th was able to put this together before either one stepped on “stage.”
I get so accustomed to simply remembering that everything that comes out of a Republican mouth is a lie that I tend to forget how painful, how damaging, and mostly how misleading they are. Heather Cox Richardson reminds me why I shouldn’t do that.
And a little parody from our friends in Australia that we didn’t know we had (We knew we had Lona – but she doesn’t know “The Juice.”)
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
