Open Thread February 27 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 272025
 

Yesterday, I discovered that the reason my Win10 desktop will not run or even load any games is that, though it has a 64bit processor, it only has a 32bit OS. Yes, it took me long enough to figure that out. And upgrading the OS is going to be a time consuming and tedious process spanning multiple (not necessarily consecutive) days. At least my 8.1 will still run them, so I can take my time. Rushing something like this is a great way to lose data. (At least, if I scream a lot, y’all won’t have to hear me. 🙂 Also, here’s a link to a petition which, in my not so humble opinion, should have way more signers than it has, or even than the sponsor is asking for. See what you think.

It’s all too easy, with so much chaos here, to forget that there’s a world out there – and that we are being watched and judged by it. But it’s the case. Heather Cox Richardson looks at it – and at the contrast in the way we were seen in the previous administration, as opposed to how we are seen now. Embarrassing as it is, I think this change is a good thing. If the rest of the world, particularly Europe, were to sound approving of us right now, I’d be far more worried than I am.

Well, it’s here. The 19th reports the first death of a child caused by measles from an outbreak in like 30 years (There was an isolated on in 2018 which may have involved international travel in some way, but there was not an outbreak. Now there is – about 129 kids in west Texas are measles patients.) I think the details are such that your reaction, like mine, will be “Well, we tried to warn you.” I still have all my extra masks from CoViD and intend to use them if necessary.

Yes, a third article, this one from Wonkette. I feel like a broken record saying “We tried to warn you.” But here we are.

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Open Thread February 26 2025

 Posted by at 5:51 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 262025
 

Yesterday – well, let me back up a little. Last week, the guy who had been posting a column of political cartoons daily announced he would not be able to do that any more, for health reasons. He offered, if someone would strp up, to share all his sources, including international sources, and also tips for getting around some issues. I do not get all my cartoons from there – I take them where I find them – but a lot do come through DU. Well, yesterday, his replacement posted (and clearly took all the tips they could get.) So that will make life a bit easier for me. (All the Dr. Seuss cartoons I have used came to me through DU, for one thing.) Also, the backlash against MSNBC was growing, and rightly so.

Talking Points Memo points out a problem which would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. At least it explains in part why some say Elon Musk can’t be fired since no one hired him. Much kudos and many promotions to Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, not only for asking and pressing the right questions, but for not going into a screaming fit while doing so – she certainly must feel like it.

Joyce Vance departs from her usual tone to share a number of things which are being done in response to this administration by people who may have read the CIAs’s “Simple Sabotage” – or maybe are just very creative. Barf bag warning for the AI video.

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Open Thread February 23 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 232025
 

Yesterday, The radio opera was Verdi’s last opera, “Falstaff,” written when he was about my age. (His second-to-last opera had been “Otello.” He really loved Shakespeare, and in his late 70s he was rich and famous enough to indulge that love.) Falstaff is based on “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” which is said to have been written because Queen Elizabeth I wanted to see “Sir John in Love,” an impossibility given his character – even “Sir John in heat” would be almost impossible so she had to settle for “Sir John attempting to seduce faithful wives in order to extort them foe money to pay his bills.” The opera follows the play as closely as possible, given that singing takes longer than speaking. The plot, the duplicate love letter which give away hos game, the laundry basket thrown into the Thames, the young couple disapproved of by the girl’s father, the suspicious husband hiring Falstaff to seduce his wife to find out how virtuous she is, the fairies in the forest – it’s all there. This presentation was selected by the Met’s principal conductor because it was conducted by Leonard Bernstein (so you know it’s older than a minute – in fact it was presented and recorded in 1964 and was Bernstein’s Met debut.) The music and the cast were stellar – many names I remember loving in the sixties and some beyond. The male half of the young couple was sung by Mariano Caruso – absolutely zero relation to Enrico – I looked that up, as I’ve been burned too many times thinking unrelated people were related (in my defense, so have announcers.) My email wasn’t bad, so I got through it all and even managed to post a letter the same day I received it. Now I’m off to see Virgil. I will of course check in.

https://apnews.com/article/president-jimmy-carter-2025-grammy-awards-0b8a1c1fa8c8887b945a2b893b7e59e5
This is not all that new, but given that all of our eyes have been on our Democracy, I though some might have missed it. Jimmy Carter – WOW. Everything he did, he did with excellence.

https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/education/metaphorse-montrose-horse-therapy
I’ve posted about horse therapy before – but this is a new twist, and one that I for one would never have expected. And one which is at least as important as any other method of self-defense.

Patrick Fitzgerald filling in for Belle – at least he’s amusing.

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Open Thread February 22 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 222025
 

Yesterday, The Conversation newsletter included an article titled “Making sex deadly for insects could control pests that carry disease and harm crops.” I suppose it’s worth a try. But it certainly hasn’t worked on humans. Also, I cut my hair. It’s not a professional job, but it will keep it out of my eyes for a while. After period of a couple of months last spring when it was shedding so fast it was starting to thin, then that stopped, and now its as thick as ever. Maybe even in a couple of places a little thicker. And definitely growing as fast as ever.

You may have seen this story elsewhere. Of my sources, Wonkette had the most thorough coverage. But I can’t read everything, I may have missed a better one.

Yes, I know, two from the same source the same day. This Wonkette article is not so much news as it is an op-ed – an op-ed which is really singing my song. If it is singing yours too, I don’t think Robin would mind if you printed a copy and mailed it to your federal legislators – who are actually the “Democrats” of the title. She doesn’t mean us.

As if we didn’t have enough injustice – The Conversation suggests it may get far, far worse.

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Open Thread February 20 2025

 Posted by 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

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Open Thread February 19 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 192025
 

Yesterday, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) reported that a cybersecurity firm with substantial government contracts has hired a lobbyist (TSF affiliated) for “assistance in navigating DOGE.” So much for “honor among thieves” not that most people ever believed that anyway. And speaking of DOGE, I think I’ve mentioned this before, but it needs a little more history and a little rant. The word “doge,” pronounced “doje” or occasionally “dozhe.” refers to an official of the late Medieval and early Renaissance (Renascence) times. In Italy, at that time, long before it was (finally re-)united in the 19th century, government was by city-states, and most city states had a Doge, or absolute ruler. The name derives from the Latin word “dux,” which means “leader,” and it also means “leader.” As does “Il Duce” (Mussolini) and “Der Führer” (Hitler). In Russia, Stalin held several titles, one of which was “Great Leader.” Are you seeing a pattern here? Dork Vader may be an idiot, but he is an educated idiot and I’m sure he knows every bit of this, and chose it to taunt us – telling us exactly who he is in a way he thinks we won’t understand. People who think that the acronym DOGE has anything to do with canines are simply not taking is seriously enough. Also yesterday I finally finished freezing my credit with all three bureaus. Experian was the hardest for me because, although they claim they will “text or call” for verification, they will not accept a landline number, so I had to phone them. But that’s done now. Finally, I imagine everyone knows the GOP majority in the House is only 3 votes, and that there are 3 special elections coming up to replace three R’s who accepted executive appointments. Dems are working their derrieres off trying to win all three, and what with buyer’s remorse, we might be able to do so. I am always forgetting the districts, which are FL-01, FL-06, and NY-21. The first one happens in April. Funds are being raised for all three of them here.

In this situation we can hope that the Reich on the left is wrong. He hopes so himself. Unfortunately, it is what it is.

This is the kind of civics that, even if you learn it somewhere between K and 12, unless you go to law school, or become a long-term Federal civil servant, you probably forget it. It’s another link in the chain of checks and balances, all of which affect us all in the long run, directly or indirectly, buy for most of us this one is pretty indirect. Even so, it matters. But it’s not sexy, so I doubt you’ll see much, if anything, in the mainstream media. Joyce Vance explains.

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Open Thread February 17 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 172025
 

Yesterday, Trinette was by and helped me with the stuff I either cannot do, or cannot do without wearing myself out, or am nervous about doing any given week. And then we chatted for a while. She is not only a great friend, she is also a lot of fun. Also, Axios, which I mostly subscribe to for the breaking news alerts, came out with a story on which states give the Federal government more then they receive from it, and vice versa. We all know the ones that give more are mostly blue states, but it’s handy to have the names, the figures, and the color-coded maps.

This sounds from the headline as if it ought to be a good news story, but it isn’t, because the things which divide us, not being fact based, are extremely difficult to debunk. When your platform is based on “owning the libs,” who are supposed to believe in killing and raping children (project much?), it’s tough to get past that.

If there was ever a week to post Joyce Vance’s “The Week Ahead” column, this would be it. I expect everyone has heard of the “SAVE Act” and y’all probably have a pretty good idea of what is in it, but this makes it pellucidly clear. And that’s just the start. There are other things going on – so many other things that I’m having trouble coping, and I’m sure you are too. Hopefully a little clarity, even if it doesn’t help all that much, can’t hurt.

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Open Thread February 15 2025

 Posted by 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.)

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