Dec 142024
 

Yesterday, I learned that Nancy Pelosi had fallen and injured her hip while part of a Congressional delegation to Europe, and is now in a hospital in Luxembourg.  “The 84-year-old former speaker is cancelling the rest of her CODEL engagements but ‘continues to work,’ Pelosi spokesperson Ian Krager said in a statement.”  It as/is a bipartisan delegation, and apparently some Republicans even offered good wishes and said nice things.  The story is on Axios and being updated as new information comes in.  I’m glad it wasn’t a knee, which I understand is the most difficult joint to work on and get good results.  I wish her a full and speedy recovery.

I didn’t want to wait too long on this analysis by Joyce Vance, so I just squeezed it in when I saw it. (If I’ve said this before, I apologize for the duplication. Apparently the American people simply cannot tolerate a person with as much goodness as Biden has in the Presidency. Jimmy Carter also did not get a second term.) Since he’s apparently not done yet, I can still hope for clemency for Leonard Peltier.

Living in fear is no way to live. On the other hand, if it weren’t for fear, we’d all be dead. A clear eyed fear of actual danger is necessary to survive. Although I don’t remember it, when I was maybe 3 or 4, my Mom, her brother, and I went to Yosemite. At one point, we were fairly close to some bears who were minding their own business. I ran up to one and tried to climb onto it. My Mom about lost it. My Uncle ran to me and the bear and grabbed me off of it before I could be hurt. Was I grateful? No. I was yelling “Bad Unca Bill, won’t let me ride nice bear!” Dictators are predictable in some ways and unpredictable in others. Steve Schmidt addresses ways one can decide to live under those conditions. The more we work at understanding the unpredictable, the more likely we are not to get caught in some less predictable mood swing.

This absolutely didn’t need to happen. But it did. The F* News covers some underlying as well as the obvious facts which make it so bad.

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Dec 062024
 

Yesterday, I learned that Steve Schmidt will be speaking at the Oxford Union’s annual debate, along with other Americans Julian Castro and Jeh Johnson. Steve is on the pro side and the other two on the anti. The proposition is “The House believes America is a failing democracy.” The whole thing will be videotaped, and should be on the Oxford Union’s YouTube channel next week. Steve will link to it when it is available. You know, 200 years ago, it might have made some sense to be an isolationist in America. Today, it’s impossible.

Joyce Vance brings together 1984 (with a nod to The Handmaid’s Tale), the Federalist Papers, and a letter to President Biden from two concerned Senators into a warning which we will heed – but a lot more people are needed to heed it. Not that I’m optimistic.

I am sourcing this from PolitiZoom rather than directly from Pavlovitz because I think the commentary adds a little something, as a second look at the same material from a different angle often does.

This is from Wonkette and ties together Trump**, cryptocurrency, and China. Sigh. I can see I am going to be missing more stories for longer than I had hoped. (There are emojis for sighing, but, except for the “sigh of relief” ones, which are pretty cute, they are all awful.)

Belle Russia

Dog

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