Yesterday, it appeared that Nameless and I were caught together in the shrinking gap between winter storm Anya and Hurricane Rafael. And, yes, I did receive some snow – about an inch and a half, which by afternoon had melted on the asphalt but was still clinking to the unpaved ground. They’r predicting 4″ more today and just under that tomorrow, with mostly sun on Saturday and sun all day Sunday. It’s a good thng for Trinette that she works from home, though. Many people, including people who have been born here, have not grasped that Colorado Springs does not have a climate, but a bundle of microclimates. I could tell you stories. Once I went from needing chains to dry road in the space of one interstate exit. And a coworker of mime when I worked on north Academy who then lived roughly where I live now (but at the time I lived a little north f downtown) setout for work, and at the time it was also dry on North Academy. But across the middle of town therer was asnow so thick and fast it was literally impassible. Anyway, I expect to be fine, and they don’t seem to expect Rafael to go as far west as Nameless. But I surely wish people would pay more attention. This video from Parody Project is much more fun than the Weather Unferground video. And it looks as though we’ll need some fun just in order to stay off of hard drugs
This from what used to be Twitter via Democratic Undergound could help
I recently read, I think it was at Democratic Underground, that it is easier to get to sleep if you go to bed thinking about three good things that happened during the day. They don’t need to be huge good things. Just something which is positive. I won’t go so far as to say it works, but I have tried it, and it does help. Accordingly, here are this, this, and this.
Yesterday, I deleted 93 incoming emails before 3:00 pm. I moved another couple of dozen to my folders without reading them – I’ll go back and at least look at most of them, but not until we have cerrtifiable election results. I don’t need that roller coaster. I do have the dial tone n my phone back, and about 7 or 8 emails about that – I haven’t read them all as I type, but apparently my old carrier transferred the internet but not the phone, and the new one is now powerless until the old one gets it – stuff – together and gives the new one a solid date. I didn’t need that either. If anyone does feel the need for the roller coaster, there will have been plenty of watch parties both on and off line. Rober Reich promised a handholdimg one at his Substack site, for instance. At least one thing is sure -by the time you read this it will be all over but the counting.
Robert Reich posted this Monday evening, but I think Wednesday morning will be soon enough to read it. We will know more than then we do now, but between crazy MAGAts, red states which will not even begin counting early votes untill the polls close, and irresponsible media, I am not convinced we will know enough to be certain what the next four years will look like. I think there will still be a vacuum into which Reich’s analysis will be a welcome introduction.
The Atlanta Black Star does manage to cover more than black news – the reason that’s so often what I choosef rom them is that no one else will touch it. I wonder how many other news outlets will touch this story?
Belle alphabet
(Not sure this is for real – but it is sweet, even if it’s AI)
For months now I have been mostly skipping over fundraising emails. But Saturday, I got one with the From/Subject in the screen capture below. Seriously, how could I not open that one? Besides being lovely, it reminds me of Virgil (No, I’m not claiming to be as badass as Kamala, but bless his heart, I think he thinks I am.) Yesterday, I saw him and we once again played cribbage. On the way, I detoured to check out a medical building where I have an appointment for the 13th. I lost the first appointment I made looking for a new PCP through not being able to find the place in time, and I don’t want to go through that again, especially since I’m getting low on scrips and have no prescriber until i can keep an appointment. And just to make life more interesting, my landline has not been working all week.
And speaking of Virgil – I probably hardly even need to say that authoritarians are so clueless when it comes to understanding what motivates people. Granted, it’s not 100% impossible for people to be motivated to anything positive by shame, but it’s very rare. Hitting bottom is not about shame, it’s about losing things. I’ve only come across one anecdote in over 40 years of being married to a recovering alcoholic which suggests shame as a positive motivator, and that was the story of a father who was drunk and still drinking in the kitchen when his teenaged son walked in and said, “Dad, you stink.” And even that can be explained otherwise. But all of these MAGAts would have kicked the kid in this story off the team with no remorse, and it likely would have sealed his fate. Tim knew better.
Heather Cox Richardson‘s history is, as always, impeccable. I can only hope that her speculation is equally reliable. There is oly todat and tomorrow to make a difference – in a few states late mail ballots can be accepted, but they must be postmarked by midnight tomorrow. With the whole nation, possibly the entire world freaking out (and not without reason), we are going to have to wait possibly days after voting ends to know the results. At times like these, I always remember C. S. Lewis’s analysis – a psychological analysis – That it’s perfectly legitimate to pray for (or against) something wihich has already happened, as long as you don’t know what the result is (and it’s probably psychologically impossible to keep praying once you know anyway, for good or ill.) So those who believe in prayer, feel free to keep praying as long as there is any doubt.
Yesterday, of course, was Hallowe’en. Without writing a novel, I need to provide the background that one of my backups when there’s a program on the radio i don’t like (or static, even worse) is “The Score” – a one hour each week program on film music which keeps a two-week archive on line. I went there today and listened to a program on scary movies rated G. The only one i found truly terrifying, and that really only because he featured its poster, was “The House with a Clock in the Wall” from 2018. Jack Black then just looks way, way too much like JD Vance now. And he was playing the good guy!
From ProPublica. Sure, this is Tennessee. But it’s also a preview of a Trump** second term anywhere and everywhere for anyone whom Tru,p** and his demons consider to be “the enemy within.” No one deserves this.
Sheesh! They are everywhere! Shasta County isn’t in the southern part of California – it’s about halfway between Sacramento and Oregon. The county seat even has a couple of universities. Stupid just is as stupid does.
Three million blind GOPs,”, See how they lie,”, They all ran after the people’s votes, tried to claim they were faked in totes, so much dumber than baby stoats, three million blind GOPs. Pardon me, I can get flaky when I’m mad.
Yesterday – wait, I need to give you some background. A week ago Monday I got my phone and internet provider changed – not my idea, but the old provider is changing and essentially transferred me (and the rest of the county, maybe even the entire front range, eventally). I have five working computers, and no two of them are networked, unless you consider the two which have internet access to be networked through the ‘net, but if I want to move information from any one to any other I use a thumb drive. For a week it worked fine, but this Monday I started getting 404s. I rebooted the modem (the old modem but it’s still part of the connection) which resolved the problem until evening when I had to reboot it a second time. Yesterday morning, rebooting that modem did not work. I tried three times, and it took three hours, before I decided to go look at the newest desktop and see whether there was something going on which I could only see on that one, which is connected directly to the newly installed equipment. And it was. I changed the settings on it, and now the other one is getting on line also. Actually, now it all makes sense (except that that’s three hours I’ll never get back,) and is even reassuring. I’ve never used WiFi at home, only when traveling, and then it wasn’t my own but the hotel’s, and now that Virgil is so close, I won’t be doing that any more, probably at all. So I stressed that, despite the new provider’s pride in their WiFi, I only wanted ethernet. This experience tells me that , even though it may still be available, it won’t decide to take over on its own. To those who are smarter than I about the way computers actually work (my specialty is how to make them do what I want – I used to be the Queen of Workarounds and very popular at work on account of it – that probably sound silly, and it probably is. But that’s OK. Also yesterday, I received a letter from my attroney general full of information about what’s going on in the courtroom with the Alberson-Kroger merger. I searched some to see if I could find the text online, but no luck. I’m aware this is a topic of importance to the entire nation, and would be happy to forward the email to anyone who wants it. If uou get my new-post letters, you should have my email address, but for anyone who doesn’t, the contact button doesn’t work for everyone, but I have put my address into the “About Me” page so it can be cut and pasted.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219622078
This DU link will take you to an embedded video of Bernie Sandersa answering the question, “I disagree with Kamala on Gaza. How can I vote for her?” If you are someone, or know someone, who has that question, this is the answer. I would have been asking it myself, were it not so obvious to be that neither Joe nor Kamala wants to support Netanyahu for a second the nation of Israel, yes, Netanyahu no), but consider us to be treaty bound, either actually or morally, and fear losing other allies if we appear to desert this one. (An Act of Congress might change that, but it will not come from this Congress.) An ally by treaty is not like a Facebook friend. A nation cannot just ghost them and survive. Anyway, I’m citing the embed because if you aren’t a paying member of YouTube the ads are getting obnoxious.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/estranged-family-of-oath-keepers
Of course the political is always personal. But it’s not always quite this personal. I’m grateful to Wonkette for sharing this (apparently Tasha has been in touch with Wonkette for a while – and found compassion there – which, despite their generally snarky style doesn’t surprise me in the least.)
Yesterday, Trinette came by – besides the normal help with mail, trash, and rcyclables, she also helped with hangin up some drapes which I had finally gotten all the stuff preventing access pout of the way, helpedn me get an old fashined monitor (one of the big ones – remember those?) out of a corner so I can tie it up and put a handle on it, and took in for a refund a product which was an unauthorized substitution (and I already have the email that it’s processing) I’m short of sleep – but I did mange to lie down for six hours las night and get up without being crippled. Sorry yesterday’s went up so late in the day. I’m pretty well useless when I’m not getting sleep.
As a child, Robert Reich had the privilege of meeting Henry Wallace (FDR’s VP in his third term.) He was so young at the time that he didn’t appreciate it them. But he does now. It’s interesting how often in history political figures have been put into place because the inseen party powers believed that those figures could be controlled by them – for good and for bad. Sometimes it has worked, and sometimes not.
At eight days before the election, I’m glad this film (64 Days) in Talking Point Memo‘s report has comeout,but hope it isn’t too little, too late.
Yesterday, having spent the week hearing about how Trump** wishes he had generals like the generals Hitler had, I think I should throw in my two cents. Hitler’s generals were not competent. This is proven by the fact that they attempted to assassinate him more than once, and failed every time. Trump** and his supporters conveniently forget that detail. Now, if he could have generals like Hitler’s generals only competent, I could live with that. Also, I did sleep in a chair, and even though I’m short on sleep as a result, my back is much, much better. I think I’ll keep doing that for a couple of weeks before trying to sleep in bed again – if as I suspect it is an arthritis flareup, those are supposed to last two to four weeks and then calm down. When my knee flared in 2018 I believe it was, it took the full four weeks, but it did calm down and has not flared since. If I can’t resolve it myself, I’ll seek medical help – but even two weeks should give me a better handle on whether to go to the sports injury center again or just to urgent care. Also, Robert Reich‘s Election Video of the Week gotposted.
I held this story from The 19th until the weekend because it is so different from anything you’d expect to see in the leadup to a presidential election (but appropriate for Hallowe’en. I suppose the story might anger some people – I’m thinking of anti-trans people who would be upset by a family who love each other this much – and I guess it could also make folks like you and me who respect every other human to be angry at how much they have suffered. But mostly I think it’s sad. I am not trying to pick on Missouri in general nor KC in particular (Tomorrow I’ll be singing KC’s praises). These are things which could happen just about anywhere, sadly.
You probably had no idea you were waiting for Talking Points Memo to publish this opinion piece (though not without facts to back it up) addressing bipartisanship, and the current pressure, especialy on Democrats, to be more bipartisan. But here it is.
Yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson referenced an article by Rachel Bitcofer (yes, also on Substack.) The article is called “What (Really) Happens If Trump Wins?”, which she believes should be read by every American (and I would add “read aloud to every American who is not able to read and comprehend it.) Cox Richardson herself goes into Dorothy Thompson’s experiences with Hitler. Once he got into power, it didn’t take long (and the first people in the camps – Dachau was the first one – were not [necessarily] Jews or Gypsies or the disabled, but the most powerful among his political rivals.) Perhaps the takeaway from Bitcofer’s article is the last two sentences: “All you need to end a democracy is a leader willing to suspend or end the Constitution and a supporting cast large enough to allow him to do it. Republicans have both.” Also, I scanned my “I voted” sticker. They held a contest for its design and this won. It’s 2″ in diameter, a bit larger than the old voting stickers, prior to all mail voting, though last year’s was also 2″ but much more boring.
Heather Cox Richardson wrote and posted this late Saturday night. So you have probably heard about TSF’s behavior from Saturday. But then she goes into history for perspective.
Is everyone up for another Atlanta Black Star story? This one is from 2022, but is in the news now because the bodycam info just got released (and immediately went viral.) It’s noteworthy in that the white man went to the trouble of telling elaborate stories in order to put a new spin on calling a black man “boy.”
