Apr 132025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” – or I should say “Die Zauberflöte,” since it was the full opera and in German – except for a few interpolated jokes by Papageno. Such as, in the second act when he and Tamino were supposed to be refraining from food, drink, and even speech, he whistled and then sang a snippet from “New York, New York,” quoting “These little=town blues,” to be exact. I think Emanuel Schickaneder, who wrote the libretto and was the first to play Papageno, would have loved it (he was quite the card himself, and an improviser.) Today’s audience certainly did. Also yesterday, ProPublica reported that both Leonard Leo and Charles Koch are among plaintiffs (both as parts of groups) suing the the Mango Monster over tariffs. Did you ever expect to be grateful to either of those two for anything – anything at all? I certainly didn’t. Also, I chose the video I did because virtually everyone is riffing on “Who Shot The Sheriff” – besides Don Caron, the Riccardis, Founders Sing and  Patrick Fitzgerald have all covered it – with slightly different lyrics, but the same issue – tariffs.

I’d call this very good news indeed. Colorado appears to contain some very courageous people – and, more importantly, have at least some of them in positions where it is needed.

I don’t want to post a single-source open thread, so I’ll need a third one. But this one even CPR marks as good news – which they can’t do on political stories very well.

Here’s some good climate news from Wonkette. “Doktor Zoom” is the writer there who is most into climate change news, though all are to some degree.

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Apr 022025
 

Yesterday, both Steve Schmidt and Wonkette singled out the same Senator for praise – Cory Booker. Both are on our side, but they are not the same, so I find this noteworthy. Both were focused on his talking filibuster. I hope this praise will both call attention to how many voters approve of bold action, and inspire other Congressional Dems to do more of it. I had already noticed that it is starting to look as though the Tangerine Palpitine’s regime is getting a little pushback, and likely to get more, from at least some of the Courts. Jen Rubin at the Contrarian ran through some of it on Monday – and pointed out that there is more she did not mention. I am not (nor is she) suggesting we count on the courts to save us. For one thing, the Courts themselves will need loud public support. They won’t get it from this regime.

If I’m reading Harry correctly, and I think I am, he is making the point here that it’s not the individual lies, however disgusting and calumnious they may be, that make the Mango Monster’s regime so very dangerous, as it is the lack of respect for truth itself which is so fatally destructive to democracy. And in the long run he is certainly correct. I really think there are way too many Americans who don’t care much about truth in the abstract and don’t realize how important insistence on the truth is to all our (and our children’s and grandchildren’s) futures. And, incidentally, the House gave its middle finger to Mike Johnson over proxy voting.

And, here at The F* News, is exhibit A. The headline is absolutely correct. The number of people who are saying so (and that includes God knows how many people said so once but no longer are) is staggering. If you give up on truth, you give up on literally everything.

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Mar 292025
 

Yesterday, I was moving slowly for some hours, at which point I realized I had a mild headache and made myself a cup of coffee, which helped. But I’d like to have accomplished more.

Time for a post from The F* News again. Unfortunately, the title only expresses a wish, not a reality. I had better not start on a rant here, since I might have difficulty stopping.

Oh, what the heck, let’s make it a full rant day. Tomorrow is Sunday and I’ll find good news or die in the attempt. It’s hard to believe that there are people who did not see this coming. Or maybe they did, and are thrilled to see the actual destruction. I’m sure Putin is.

On Thursday, I received an email from Lona with a link to The Guardian, and a note that she observed I am in a wildfire danger zone (which is no surprise, considering how often over the past couple of decades I have had to reassure friends and family that a particular wildfire wasn’t anywhere close to endangering me, other than with smoke in the air, and that we can get from as far as Arizona. I was interested to see the map and noted that what we call the Front Range – the eastern slope of the Rockies at the foot of which Colorado turns into prairie and farmland, is the main corridor of wildfires here, but also not terribly surprised, as the Front Range is where all the cities are, lined up in a row, and I doubt there’s a natural disaster humans can’t manage to make worse. n The map is so useful I’m passing it on – y’all in the US (and I know not everyone is) know where you are on it, and may want to save a copy (or copies – besides wildfires, there are also maps for hurricanes, extreme heat, and drought.) drought.)

Gate

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Mar 282025
 

Yesterday, Ilhan Omar announced that she is proposing Articles of Impeachment for Hegseth, Waltz, and Ratcliffe over Signal-Gate. That was a scoop from Axios – I went to the site but what more they has was mostly possibiities and speculation. Of course, by today they may have more. Meanwhile (also from Axios), in the Senate, sixteen Dems led by Jacky Rosen have signed a letter proposing a massive investigation of the debacle. And at least one Republican Senator has called for an IG inspection (do we still have any IGs though?). Finally, in an unrelated piece of news, the Sundance Festival will be moving to Boulder, CO, in 2026. Colorado film junkies and residents of Boulder are over the moon.

Something that happened Wednesday and which y’all may have missed is I believe worthy of note. A Turkish PhD candidate on a student visa was essentially kidnapped off the street by DHS agents for an op-ed she published in the college newspaper last year. The F* News (an alum of that college), Wonkette, and Talking Points Memo all have the story, as does the Associated Press (which provided this video) but I haven’t seen it elsewhere yet. It’s hard to say whether we will see it elsewhere. “In [the United States] today, such things happen every minute.” The student’s name is Rumeysa Ozturk.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-159929854
Well, this didn’t take long. I wish the plaintiffs the best of luck – since they are representing the Constitution, and therefore us. I might also recommend a video conversation on Substack between Harry Litman and Malcolm Nance, mostly about the gravity of the situation, but also addressing the merits of potential remedies.

One more article on Signal-Gate, this one from Robert Hubbell. Except it’s not so much about Signal-Gate as it is about messaging, and what we can learn about messaging from Republicans, even though handicapped by our need to stick to the truth. We might at least consider replacing “But her emails” with “But his Signals.”

I don’t suppose Robert Reich says anything in here that we don’t already know. But I like lists. They tend to put raw data into an order, making it easier to digest and easier to discuss as well.

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