Open Thread September 19 2024

 Posted by at 6:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 192024
 

Ahoy, me hearties (today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.) Yesterday, I deliberately went looking for climate news becuse I wantedto use tis cartoon today. I realize that sounds pretty shallow. But it is true that the climate is getting pushed out of the news in favor of violence and other stupidities. And not finding any climate-related news in my ususal sources made me more aware that more attention needs to be paid to it. It’s enough to make a pirate say Aaarrrgh! And I may do it again before the election, though that’s not a promise.

The AP could not resist putting a few beautiful photos in among the more obviously disastrous ones in this photo-essay. But it’s still quite eye-opening. Something else that is eye-opening is that herein Colorado we are starting to have climate refugees who have been our neighbors. At 5000 feet ablove sea level, it’s not from sea level rise, nor is it from flooding, or heavy snowfall (which quite reasonably might happen here, as evaporation puts more water into the air. The last two blizzards here were IMO caused by that.) It is related to dryness though. There’s a fire in Larimer County (where Virgil grew up) which has taken a lot of homes and displaced a lot of people. Our wildfire seasons are not as bad as California’s yet, but we are headed that way.

And Reuters has a potpourri of snippet articles, some of which are as devastating as some of the pictures from the AP. Fortunately that’s not true of all of them.

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Open Thread September 11 2024

 Posted by at 5:48 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 112024
 

Yesterday, I organized as much as I could to be free to watch the debate last night. As I typed this, I didn’t know whether the Harris campaign ad discussed by Belle had worked. I do now, though – not as I type, but as you read.

I cancelled my paid subscription to The New Yorker (after I had to get a new water heater), but the email newsletter is free, so they didn’t cancel that. This is the first thing I have seen since which is important enough to make me read it. In case anyone is paywalled out of it, I did print it to a pdf. It’s about 46 and a half pages, but it’s still less than a megabyte, and my email will sent up to 2.5 megabytes per message, so I can send it to anyone who wants it.

Just when you thought you couldn’t possibly deplore Elon Musk any more that you already do, comes this article from The Conversation. He fully justifies my referring to hom as the Muskrat (apologies ao any actual muskrats who may be reading.)

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Open Thread September 7 2024

 Posted by at 6:07 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 072024
 

Yesterday, Robert Reich published his first post in his new series on Project 2025. Also, the names of the two Trump** staffers who accosted the cemetery employee were learned and released by NPR and you can probably find them just about anywhere now. Left Action alreade has a petition to prosecute the one who got physical (Michel Picard – Jen Luc and Patrick Stewart would both be disappointed.) Finally, since Wonkette and Talking Points Memo and others are recommending Joyce Vance as the authority on the meeting in Judge Chutkan’s courtroom regarding the election interference case, the least I can do is provide the link.  Oh, and one more thing — not only is Liz Cheney voting for Harris – so is her father.

Wonkette is not exactly noted for good news, but it was Wonkette which referred me to this story, which made Rebecca (Wonkette owner and editrix [her term]) cry (I don’t know how hard that is – she comes across as pretty tough, but she wouldn’t run the project if she didn’t give a damn about others.) Why can’t all people act like this?

I know everyone who reads here loves animals. This story is something I had not thought about, but now that I know it exists, I can see how badly it is needed. It didnn’t happen in my home – but many substance abusers, including alcoholics become so impossible to live with that human loved ones leave before they hit bottom. And then it’s the animals who are vulnerable.

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Open Thread August 5 2024

 Posted by at 6:10 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 052024
 

Yesterday, I went to the mailbox and picked up the note from Paul Whelan. The note I sent was dated December 15, 2022. He received it, or at least wrote a response May 8, 2023. The envelope has Russian stamps and postmarks with a postmark date of June 19, 2024. it was a lovely note. I had mentioned Virgil was incarcerated and he included “please do pass along my regards to your husband.” And just about then Virgil called, so I passed along his regards right away.

Pretty sure this means the entire State Department is also on the same page. I realize many feel this is way too late. But a nation cannot just desert an ally without warning – and particularly if there is a treaty, which under the Constitution is the law of the land. He has hated this from Day One. But he goes by the book because the country comes first.

This was written Saturday, but I didn’t see it until Sunday. So Friday, August 2, was the date Chutkan received the case back. No, she isn’t wasting any time.

Dog

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Open Thread July 18 2024

 Posted by at 6:12 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 182024
 

Yesterday, the biggest news appeared to be that Joe Biden is adding Spureme Court reform to his platform. I expect you can watch, or read about, this development just about anywhere. How very welcome this is can probably be measured by how vitriolic Trump**s remarks about it in his social medium (I made that singular because he only has the one.) Of course, the formation of an agency by NATO is also pretty big. But I’ll let Beau talk about that.

Apparently, we have zebra mussels in our waters. They are native to Russia, as are Siberian elms, another invasive species we have. Grump.

Joyce Vance has some things to say – about the apparent attack on Trump** and reactions to it – on both sides.  Normally, IMO, if something is balanced, it is by definition not fair, because both sides are not the same.  But she shows it can be done.

(jJst a snaoshot)

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Open Thread June 27 2024

 Posted by at 6:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 272024
 

On Tuesday, Ukraine began official accession negotiations with the European Union. It’s nice to have some good news to offset what came out of the Supreme Court yesterday, and the ridiculous number of decisions not yet decided by the same. Also, I learned that Steve Schmidt has a wicked sense of humor, as is shown by his remarks about the Alan Shepard prayer.

I would think that Pete Buttigieg would be among the very last of white people to think that black lives – quality as well as quantity – don’t matter. I’d advise them to go directly to him. But I do realize that’s not as easy as it sounds.

Of course this is a concern, because bullies willalways look stronger to stupid people than they in fact are, and leaders with genuine inner strength will not look strong to stupid people. But if Joe just does what he did in the latest SOTU (and we know he can, bcause we watched him pull it off), people who are not brainwashed will get the point.

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Open Thread June 24 2024

 Posted by at 5:45 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 242024
 

Yesterday, Trinette came by. I didn’t have a lot for her to do, but we had a good talk. She says hi to everyone.

This sems like a pretty big deal to me. I hope we are successful in the end – and maybe Nepal can be next.

I haven’t seen all the decisions handed down Friday by SCOTUS, but I did see this report on this one. Despite having lived practically on the banks of the Rio Grande for almost 20 years (in Alamosa), I have no idea whether this is good decision or not. Certainly there are a whole lot of other states which get water from the Rio Grande, and I wouldn’t want those states to get screwed (one of them is mine.) If I knew who the 5 and the 4 were, I’d have a far better idea just from that.

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Open Thread June 18 2024

 Posted by at 6:09 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 182024
 

Yesterday, when I had the time and energy to finish reading my emails from Sunday, I came across Joe Biden’s Father’s Day Proclamation (courtesy of Steve Smith), read it, and am sharing the link. That’s the world that I want to live in. It’s not a perfect world – there is no perfect world – but it’s a world in which at least the Federal goverment is run with ethics, honesty, kindness, and consideration, in order to make life easier for the maximum number of people. I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but I’m going to anyway: we willl never get there by electing people at any levels who just want power – and who get elected by promising their voters power through them. Also, Robert Reich’s caption contest, which asked readers to submit suggestions for whar “MAGA” really stands for, ad too many good answers to list here. I can’t enter, being a free subscriber, but had I been ale and done so, I would have suggested “Malice And Greed Always.”

Moving to actual news (or at least actual analysis of actual news – there’s some of both), Robert Hubbell goes into detail about how and why the Washington Post is so worng in their election coverage, even though they still do well in other areas (some of this ofcourse also apples to the New York Times, and other formerly competent mainstream outlets.) If he is accurate on their strategy (and I suspect he is), it’s easy to see why he wonders whether the Post can survive. It’s a no-brainer.

In Sunday’s Open Thread, Beau spoke about Ukraine, including commenting that Ukraine might be operating in the skies a little more – which, with the loan he also spoke about – they have been doing. Now, the Daily Beast confirms that Ukraine is hitting hard, and it is working. We can but hope Putin is runninng out of things up his sleeve.

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