Open Thread March 13 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 132025
 

Yesterday, the first thing I did was check to see whether my Social Security had arrived. It had. So it’s replacement computer time. I’m still working on getting everything I will need either onto a portable hard drive or changed on the Net, Bu I can slow down a little. Incidentally, if you have ever wanted to say SOB (in full) in a different language, I have a few for you:
German Hündinsohn
French Fils de chienne
Italian Cagnafiglio
Greek skýla gios
Ukrainian сучий син (transliterated suchyy syn)
I know enough French, German, and Italian to be pretty sure those work. But my Greek is classical. That’s a transliteration. And my Ukrainian is non-existent, so that’s pure Google Translate. But I thought it would be really handy. (BTW in Italian “gn” and “gl” are pronounced “ny” and “ly” respectively. So, “canyafeelyio.”)

PolitiZoom‘s article speaks for itself. My personal feeling is that anyone who has a personal relationship with the Clementine Caligula should be barred from having any weapons of any kind for life. But that’s probably just me.

Yes, I know Ash Wednesday was yesterday. But I am very proud of my co-religionists for coming up with this, and it’s not too late. It’s never too late to do the right thing.

Several sources of mine have referred to this article from the Atlantic (which I just got around to) in regard to Elon Musk (AKA Dork Vader). I only knew of it as the drug with which Elijah McClain was overdosed with by paramedics – and which killed him. It was the sub-head of the article which grabbed me: “can make anyone feel like they rule the world.” For anyone who doesn’t know, Virgil is a recovering alcoholic (now about 38 years sober) and when we were engaged and first married, I went to a lot of AlAnon meetings, but also to a lot of open AA meetings with him. The latter included a lot of sharing of personal stories. I think everyone who has ever had a drink or two believes they know exactly what it feels like to be “high” on alcohol, and outside of an AA meeting, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone else actually describe their feelings in that condition. But if we think we know something, we may not listen as carefully when it is discussed. I speak from experience. It took me a couple of years to actually hear and process those stories. And they had this in common: every recovering alcoholic said that when they were drinking they felt “in control.” It’s not a big jump from feeling “in control” to feeling “like they rule the world.” Do I even need to say I have never felt anything remotely like that with alcohol? Because I certainly haven’t. If I had ever found anything which did give me that feeling, it would be extremely difficult for me to stop using it. Not that I have ever been looking!

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VoteVets Gets Real

 Posted by at 12:19 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Feb 222025
 

Here is another letter I felt I needed to share.  I think we – and that even includes veterans – are so accustomed to being confident that our military is – maybe not perfect – but a stable and reliable defense with which we can sleep better – that we only think about it when it’s budget time.  Just as we tend to think about our democracy.  It’s time to wake up about both.

Many of their letters are signed by retired General Paul Eaton – this one is only signed by “The Team at VoteVets,” and it is asking for donations (I cut that part).

A Friday night massacre.

Last night, while most of us were logging off and winding down — eating dinner, watching a movie with the kids, or enjoying an evening out with friends — Trump and Hegseth started purging senior Military officers that they deem insufficiently loyal. We’ve been talking about this for months, and last night it finally began.

They started with the Chair of the Joint Chiefs, General CQ Brown. They followed with Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff General James Slife.

But they didn’t stop there.

Trump and Hegseth also purged the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. JAG officers interpret and determine lawful and constitutional orders. Replacing career JAG officers with loyalists is essential to Trump’s overall goal of a Military dedicated not to the Constitution, but to him alone.

To put it bluntly, our adversaries are popping champagne right now. There is no better outcome for them than the promotion of Trump loyalists over the best and brightest. They know that this move makes our Military weaker.

The real concern is what comes next. Trump has made his intentions clear. He has openly signaled his intent to ignore the Constitution, he has attacked democratic processes and elections for the better part of a decade, and the actions he and Elon Musk have taken over the last four weeks openly defy longstanding Constitutional order.

This is a dangerous moment, and we have to be ready for whatever happens. VoteVets will be standing by.

 

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Open Thread November 12 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 122024
 

Yesterday, unsurprisingly, I received an email from VoteVets. But somehow I was not expecting an email from VoteVets to ne quite thisblunt. For instance, “Being a Veteran has often meant that the promises your country made to you were not always upheld. It meant being lied into wars. It meant that you had to watch as politicians refused to care for your friends as they got sick when they came home from those wars. It meant that the ideals and values you swore to uphold were often cast aside by the people in charge.” I know a lot of people think most veterans are Republican. While I don’t know the actual numbers, I doubt it. I know the people at VoteVets are not Republican. No Republican would ever be that honest. It’s no wonder that one of the most attended play presented by the Theater of War is “Philoctetes” – the title character who has been severely betrayed by “the generals,” and now they want to betray him again. In different ways, Theater of War and Vote Vets have a common goal – to help people heal. Theater of War works with public and private grants. Vote Vets needs contributions, and it is a worthy organization. I apolgize to everyone here and all Vets for crying on Veterans Day. But I’m afraid it seemed like the right thing to do.

This is Robert Reich’s take on the election, and on why geting the right take onthe election is so important going forward. I am with him up to a point. Here’s where I differ: when he says misogyny and racism does not explain it all. Yes, it does. Now, he goes on thedicuss the levels of education of the voter pool, much of which is woefully inadequate. But he fails to make the connection that the right kind of edication will also reduce racism and misogyny – and that nothing else will. It is not misogyny to recognize that misogyny exists. It is not misogyny to believe and say that by putting our best and brightest women into elections which no woman can win with the electorate as it it, we are killing them politically just as surely as outlawing abortion id killing women physically. We are not doingwomen any favors by sacrificing them on the altar of progress. (And I am willing to believe racism is also a factor since Hillary won the popular vote also and Harris did not. But education is also tha only way to put a dent in that.)

If you were expecting a civil war but not a shooting war, you may want to rethink that. I’m providing the link to NBC, since the Democratic Underground article just summarizes.

This is a very personal take on a World War II battle, and I doubt you’ll see it anywhere else other than here. I hope it helps.

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Open Thread November 11 2024

 Posted by at 6:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 112024
 

Yesterday, I didn’t accomplish much. Trinette came by and I nad no trash to take out – only recyclables, and not that much of those. But at least I has baked the gluten free oay flour cookies so I was able to share them with her. This Wednesday, I have a medical appointment which I am a bit on edge about, so I may not be as conscientious with typos etc, (and goodness i have enough pf those even when I am doing best conscientious.) After almost 30 years with the same PCP it’s tough to be looking for a new one. I think I’m prepared, but I not even all that crazy about nice surprises, and I certainly don’t want any which are not so nice.

HuffPost may be jumping the gun by a couple of months, but that short time is relatively zero in the scheme of things. Ugly as it is, we need to look at it.

This is from The F-ing News. I have not seen it elsewhere. Feel free to scream.

.

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Open Thread November 4 2024

 Posted by at 5:53 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 042024
 

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.

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Open Thread August 22 2024

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 222024
 

Yesterday, I got an email from Vote Vets regarding Republican members of Congress who, while accusing Tim Walz of stolen valor, are themselves stealing valor as they speak “A full 29 of the 50 signatures come from Republicans who falsely claimed they are retired. Calling yourself Retired means something. It speaks to a length of time in service that many of the people on that list of Republicans never fulfilled.” They singled out Ronny Jackson and Troy NEhs – but that’s just two out of 29. In case anyone here has a veteran in your life who is Republican, Vote Vets is the place to go for the facts = any and all facts regarding MAGA lies about active duty military and/or veterans. Also, this popped up in Colorado – has any other state done this? Or could this be a model? And all this while Andy Borowitz got some giggles about Melania.

Joyce Vance has a subhead under the title of this post: “I’m not about to let up on this, and you shouldn’t either!” And, you know, she’s right. So I’m adding an extra link here, to her home page. By clicking on “No thanks” you will have access to a sort of “front page” of recent posts.And there are already a few newer than this one. It was a hot week for articles and columns (and the Convention hadn’t even started yet.) But this one is a good introduction. Also, here is something that is getting lost in all the other outrages

I have no doubt that the Obama presidency was used as a recruiting tool for the KKK )and other groups), nor that it was successful (I mean, all you have to do is to look at MAGA to see that), nor that the same is true for protests against wypipo murdering black citizens with no accountability. But that is on them, not on the decent and caring people who voted for Obama or those who object to people getting away with murder. In fact, Pro Publica recently completed an investigation on the phenomenon of radical racists getting more radicalized by Obama, and what can come of that.

There is so much crap in Project 2025 (and in Don-OLD Trump* for that matter) that it’s prectically impossible to keep up with it all. Of course, thet’s what sources like Talking Point Memo, and others, are for.

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Open Thread March 27, 2024

 Posted by at 6:25 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 272024
 

Yesterday, one of the stories reminded me of my mother’s Uncle Fred, who died before I was born, so I never met him, but was told a story about him. Fred was a civil engineer, and some people made fun of him because he predicted the Golden Gate Bridge could never be built. Well, he was wrong. But he was also right, because what he meant was that it could not be built as planned without unacceptable loss of life (and to him one life lost was unacceptable. Eleven were lost during construction, and it could have been worse. A safety net saved 19 from certain death.) I think I would have liked Uncle Fred.

Everyone calls this the “hush money” case. But it’s really basically criminal only because it is really an “election interference” case. I did see someone refer to it as the “hush money/election interference” case – probably a good idea.

A new ad from VoteVets. Short, not sweet, but extremely accurate. (I had to turn the sound on, it was muted – you may also. But the CC is perfect so you may not care.

Building bridges is a dangerous business. So is fixing them when they need maintenance. But I doubt whether anyone would have predicted this.

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Open Thread March 15, 2024

 Posted by at 5:31 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 152024
 

Yesterday, I looked up the radio opera for tomorrow, which is Puccini’s “Turandot.” It’s a lovely opera, with very effective music, including “Nessun dorma,” which became Pavarotti’s signature aria, and has been recorded now by almost evereyone (I’ve even heard a recording of Sarah Brightman singing it.) But tonight, Rocky Mountain PBS will air Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking,” starting at 8:00 pm and running until 11:00 pm. And that I just cannot miss. It is part of the Live in HD series, so it was recorded in October, and will be the same cast I heard in January. The three leading women I know well, and have not just heard but also seen them all, two of them in person, but I had to look up the bass/baritone. This is kind of a signature role of his. He spent some years corresponding with a death row prisoner in Texas – until the man suicided after SCOTUS turned his last appeal down. So I may end up sleeping though all or part of “Turandot” after all. We shall see.

Mary Trump writes about the Hur hearing. There are video clps all over of Jerry Nadler and Jamie Raskin handing Hur his posterior – you have probably seen some. Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff also got in on the act. Enjoy.

Although he technically is, being a human male over 18, I hate even seeing Kyle Rittenhouse called a “man,” To me, “little punk” is more appropriate.

I’m linking this instead of embedding it … but it’s only a minute. It’s a new ad made by VoteVets, and they have managed somehow to get Fox to commit to airing it on Fox & Friends (one of TSF’s favorite shows.) So backlash can be expected. I applaud VoteVets for doing this.

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