Yesterday, I learned from Talking Points Memo’s “Morning Memo” that, apparently, there was a midair plane/helicopter crash over the Potomac River the night before. First responders were not expecting there to be any survivors. I’m not up to it, but someone really should start a list of all the deaths traceable to actions of the Orange Oligarch’s second administration. I’m sure there were more resulting from the first term than we ever heard of, since the only ones that were catalogued were the ones from CoViD. I’ve linked to that Memo, not because it has the last word on the crash, but because there is a whole lot more in it. In any case, today is the first day of Black History Month. I am going to be using as much Black History as I can – and including prsent day articles throwing light on the Black experience. Bit if you are interested in diving deeper, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) has you covered. If The Emperor doesn’t abolish it.
As fast as things change under an administration which has no idea what it is doing other than robbing the poor to give to the rich, this from Wonkette may already be out of date. I personally read the Colombian Tariffs news only a couple of hours before reading this.
This by Robert Reich is an analysis, not a news piece. So it isn’t now dated and isn’t likely to become dated any time soon. The problem now is how to get this analysis to people who need to be aware of it … and how to get those people to grasp its truth. Good luck with that.
Yesterday, I watched/listened to most of a Contrarian interview with Sherrilynn Ifill. Being naturally a better reader than listener, while still listening, I scrolled down into the comments. I noticed a bunch of people complaining about no transcript. Odd, I thought, since the button (not exactly presented as a button but as a word which served the function. I finally came to one which was the last in a thread, so probably a lot of people didn’t see it, which pointed out that before you see the transcript “button” you must click on “Watch now” and it will appear. That may only be true on phones and tablets (those who are complaining who mention what hardware they are using look to all be on phones or tablets), but it’s still good to know. As an unpaid subscriber, I can’t comment, but I can recommend comments, and I recommended that one. Also, the Contrarian does pay attention to subscribers, and from now, instead of sending an email for every new post, or even just the major ones, they will send two a day, morning and evening, which will include a list with short descriptions of of the articles (mostly videos) since the previous newsletter. I hadn’t complained, but that will certainly make my life easier. Also yesterday. the stock market tanked – and Robert Reich knows why. Today, Happy Lunar New Year!
From Wonkette. You likely know about it – but no one says it quite the way Wonkette says it. And we also all knew it was coming, I expect.
These two articles from PoGo are a lot to read, I admit. And getting Congress to do what needs to be done looks darned near impossible. Those three special elections are looking more important every day. Not that they will solve everything, by any means. But every little victory helps a little. BTW if it looks like either of the two links is done, keep scrolling anyway. One had, at least for me, a huge plug for the newsletter – but there was much more after it.
Yesterday, the radio opers was Verdi’s Aida, which may be the most performed opera which exists. Certainly it is at the Met, which means it’s had more performances than La Boheme or Carmen. This may be the first time in my life – I don’t remember any other – when I have heard the tenor sang his opening aria the way Verdi wanted it sung – the high note ending on a pianissimo floating away. From the time of Caruso (which is pretty close to the beginning of recorded sound), few tenors have been able to resist the temptation to hit it an hold it forte to show off the high note. The soprano, Angel Blue, reminded me of Leontyne Price in the role. The only other I’ve heard who was as good as those two in the role was Latonia Moore. I believe there is exactly one race of humans and that is homo sapiens, so I don’t believe in radial memory. But it is interesting that all three of those divas are African American
I think I have all good news today – Well, Belle’s may not be exactly good, but it is funny.
A few days old, but it is good news. Besides the speed of getting this into court, there’s a short preview of other court action to come. I’m also linking to Joyce Vance, who has some additional details on what actually happened in the courtroom.
This happened on Tuesday, but was published Wednesday. I just received the link yesterday from JL. As y’all know, I got a very late start yesterday – and had email left over from Friday -and had not found any other good news yet, so I’m using this. I do subscribe to Huff Post, but not to everything, just the “Fringe.”
Yesterday or the day before, I mentioned three special elections coming up which should be winnable – and the more of them get in, the slimmer the house majority becomes. Here is the link to a PAC called “Youth Save Democracy” which concentrates on GenZ and Millennial voters and has a “Special Elections Fund” currently for these three elections. Also yesterday, ay least one person is rejecting the Peach Prevaricator’s pardon. When tried, she pled guilty, and said, “We were wrong. This is what I deserve.” She was sentenced to, and served, two months. Now, she has an attorney writing a letter of rejection for her to make her rejection an official matter of record. Both The Root and Democratic Underground have this story. Several DUers posted – ar least one got it from the BBC.
I pay no attention to DAVOS, and I’ll be surprised if anyone elsehere does. But Robert Reich does that for us – and oh boy, does he have their number.
I didn’t know that Elno’s grandparents were Nazis – but I can’t say I’m surprised. I did know he is on the spectrum, but it’s ben a minute since I stopped giving him any mental slack because of that. Did anyone know he had once visited Auschwitz? I didn’t. Schmidt says of Auschwitz: “There is a duality at Auschwitz that is shattering. It is simultaneously a space of utter madness and hyper-rationality.” But that’s not really a duality. G. K. Chesterton more than a century ago that if you apply strict rationality (or as Spock would say logic) to erroneous premises (such as “alternative facts”), the result is insanity. But Schmidt’s point in the essay is not that, but the disappearance from the memory, at least the American memory, of the history which produced Auschwitz and the other “camps.” And, though he doesn’t mention it, the disappearance from American collective memory which modern Nazis are attempting to make universal of slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, massacres which taint our own history, along with hostility to just about every immigrant group we have ever seen.
Yesterday, The 19th shared a Vogue article about Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s collar for the inauguration (spoiler: it was a “strong statement.”) I don’t know whether she is on a Vogue cover, or will be, but it would be a lovely rebuke to Melania. You go, Vogue! Also, The F*News did a summary of executive orders and other junk, which made me wish I could just read nothing but it (and The Contrarian) for the next four years. But I can’t do that. Finally, Wonkette referenced an article by Tim Snyder about Cabinet nominees who were rejected by the Senate in bygone days, when we still had a Senate.
I doubt this will make the news … and I also wonder how many stories there are like it.
This Democratic Underground link is to a list of economic indicators and exactly where they were when Biden handed over to the Apricot Antichrist. Bookmark it, or copy to a word document or anything else which will also save the live links. It will be needed when the media starts parroting MAGA lies about what happens to it.
Yesterday, Steve Schmidt posted a column which is near perfect for today. I can disagree with him on a couple of minor points, but that’s really just nitpicking. I cannot disagree with his conclusion, even though I don’t clearly see how it is to be done. Also, I read yesterday that the Mango Monster’s cryptocurrency scan is called $TRUMP. Does that make him a $TRUMPet? And to top off the day, the word “Villainaire[s]” has been coined.
Crooks & Liars is really speaking to elected Democrats here. But one of the things we do best is to nag our elected officials to do the right thing. So we need to think about how we can best do that under this administration.
This was in a Contrarian newsletter from Friday. I’m sorry to have to say that all the information is in a video, it doesn’t appear to have CC, and you need to jump on the button to unmute the sound. I missed about a minute but I think what I mostly missed was courtesies. Joyce Vance is known here as a Substack author, but from now on she will also be working (not alone) on a project for the Contrarian called the “Democracy Tracker. The idea is to have something which will catch us up to as much as a week’s important news into minutes. I want to say “Good luck with that,” but this time I really mean it. I hope they do pull it off. Everyone working with The Contrarian is an expert in their own right, so I think they do have a good chance. We shall see.
Yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson mentioned, among other things, that after Preident Biden’s speech this week, Google searched for the term “oligarchy” spiked. I guess it’s good that a lot of people are learning – and I guess it’s encouraging that enough people are willing enough to learn to trigger a spike. But I guess I just don’t live in the same world as people who didn’t already know the word. I suppose that in 1962 there wewre plenty of people who didn’t grasp the implications of “military-industrial complex” too. (However, I’ll bet everyone who heard Washington’s farewell understood the term “designing men” – although it’s much harder to actually recognize one until he’s on the way out with your money and possessions in his pocket.)
If Robert Hubbell provides clarity on resisting, Robert Reich provides a pep talk to stress the necessity of resisting. That’s why I’m putting it first today. I for one needed the guidance of Hubbell to help me get out of the emotional swamp Reich built. You may not, but just in case.
Given the holiday, I need to plan ahead some, but I want to get this in before Sunday. Robert Hubbell makes the difference very clear between resisting and disengaging, particularly on social media. I don’t do any social media myself, and the closest thing I do do to social media is Democratic Underground, and I’m kind of afraid to go there since I posted this Thursday and expect a lot of pushback. The way some members there post, you’d think Merrick Garland was Roy Cohn or Roger Stone. and that just isn’t the case.
Yesterday (OK, just barely, but after midnight) I read this article from Democratic Underground regarding the Special Counsel’s notes on the Insurrection case. The link to the New York Times is probably paywalled, but if you copy the URL into the home page of archive.is, it will tell you when it was last saved (and I’m sure it will have been) and you can read it there. Or, since it’s a “developing story,” you can save it yourself and see whether there is anything new. Also yesterday, Wonkette featured a graphic sourced from the New York Times which is essentially the Political Compass with different names for the axes – distinguishing between “fiscally” and “socially” liberal and conservative. Those terms were in common use in the 1980s, but I haven’t heard them much lately. Particularly for people who don’t spend much (if any) time on politics, they may well be easier to grasp. The graphic includes only US actual voters from 2016, and shows pretty clearly what kind of people are obsessed with money. Since Hillary won the popular vote in 2016, it looks to me that there was a disproportionate number of Republicans in the sample. But it’s still valuable information. For one thing, it shows even more clearly than Robert Reich can explain why the Democratic party should NOT “move toward the center.” Also, the whole article is packed with information, and I’ll link to it tomorrow.
Harry Litman of Talking Feds (which is on both YouTube and Substack – sorry but I didn’t check to see whether or not this was a transcript) addresses the subject of preemptive pardons, going into almost every one of the pros and cons and the ethics behind all of them. The one thing he doesn’t address, which has actually been bothering me, is that technically, legally, accepting a pardon constitutes an admission of guilt. Common sense would suggest that this would not apply to a “safe harbor pardon,” but the GOP as a group has not shown any common sense since the Eisenhower administration. Also, if the Tangerine Palpitine keeps his promise to pardon al the January 6 conspirators, the implication of confession is something we are going to want to use, and oh boy, does that ever have the potential to get ugly. Much of what Harry says refers, not to Biden’s current approval rating, but to the approval rating of his legacy (a metaphor, but one that is a thing.) I implied above that I have no faith in the common sense of Republicans, and that’s the truth. I certainly don’t have a very strong faith in the common sense of historians – but I do have more faith in them than I do in Republicans. Since I won’t be around to see history’s final judgment, I’ll never know whether any of my opinions are going to be justified. But I’m putting my thoughts out anyway.
From Wonkette on ASL interpretation. Normal human beings (it’s normal to have both common sense and compassion) would not call the use of ASL interpreters in news broadcasts and videos “tyranny.” They are more likely to be delighted by it, since frankly, it’s fun to watch. Charlie Kirk brings to mind the (way too many) people who, if they hear anyone speaking anything other than English, jump to the conclusion that the speaker is talking about them, and not in a friendly way. How insecure can you get? Insecure enough to call ASL “the tyranny of the deaf,” I guess. When I was working as a costumer, including for musicals, we had a deaf singing actress and a blind singing actor. We were thrilled. We didn’t whine, we got creative – and we had an ASL interpreter at every performance. Sighted and hearing audiences loved it. But then, we are talking about normal human beings with normal common sense and compassion. (I could also rant about CC, but Wonkette has that covered.)
This is a compilation, and I’m pretty sure the first one is a rerun, but the second is new.
