Saturday Open Thread 3/22/25: Odds and Ends
I hope this spring Saturday morning finds you you good people enjoying your lives.
Oh, I know we have near-constitutional crises, active participation in a genocide, and that we are one shot away from WWIII, but that is exactly the same situation we have been for all our lives.
I have mentioned that we have added a room to the house. It is basically a 12ft by 12ft enclosure over a back porch. It is 5 ft above ground, overlooks approximately 10 acres. Lots of big windows, fresh air, a stifling effect from loud mufflers here and there. And deer herd sightings.
The best part is the sunset. Setting sun shining through grey Spanish moss, bright green trees in warm months, stark bare trees during cold months. It is not possible to gather limbs and stack them up to burn more than a few days in any given year. Burn bans, winds, rains, and burn piles may stay for 2 years before they can be finished off. And, the colors. Bright yellow, then orange, then peach, then lavender, then pink moss, then darkness. For about 1 hour and 45 minutes, nature makes me forget humans who ignore it, destroy it for their benefit, and I go into a trance, oblivious to all the tragedies occurring everywhere. All I want to do is appreciate I am alive and in a place where I get this experience every day.
Now, I am gonna brag. 39th year of criminal defense work. Thursday. Never accomplished this before, do not know any defense attorney whoever did, will never do it again, so I am entitled to some beers and cheers.
On Thursday, I got a class C misdemeanor traffic ticket dismissed in Justice of the Peace court. Then, in county court, I got a Class A family violence case dismissed. Then, I went upstairs, got a felony and an underlying Class A misdemeanor dismissed.
Cheers to the 3 clients, 4 cases, as they go free!!! No fines, no fees, no county jail, no state prison! No restrictions on their driver's licenses, or ability to go hunting, or negative effect on pending child custody cases, or getting jobs!
They are good people at the wrong place at the wrong time, and we should all wish them well!
I am writing this on Friday night, and experiencing peach to blue skies. I am near paralysis, need a song from the Eat a Peach album.
Apaches wandered here to the water. I have springs on my property. General/President Sam Houston signed a treaty with them about 2 miles from here. I am one of many over a century or more that saw the magic of nature, right here. Arrowheads are proof.
And, all of you have all kinds of things on your mind, and you all know all the rest of us want to hear about it.
This is an open thread, open to every topic you choose to share, and it is my hope you will do so, folks.
Stop by if you can, and enjoy your weekend!
Comments
Happy Saturday, good people!
What is going on in yall's neck of the woods?
Here, we have had a wild fire, and kerfuffle about Houston running high powered electric lines through our community, and winds that make it hard to walk upright.
Your turn!
Let 'er rip!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Meanwhile in Russia...
They are no longer interested in the West.
Good job, diplomats. Here it must be remembered that Trump is the product of the Dems' punch-left strategy.
As for the Sanders rallies, well, you don't have to watch this video for long to get it:
So what do you do when you live in a country that acts like it deserves to die, and is busy dying as you speak?
"To watch the leader of the most powerful nation on earth endorse and finance a genocide prompts not a passing kind of disgust or anger, but a severance." -- Omar el Akkad
Good morning, Cass!
Thanks for the videos. Luckily, I have no plans other than a cooking project this afternoon, so I have plenty of time to view them.
I am about 1/3 through the article you linked. It will help us understand the current crisis of whether or not there exists a judicial restraint on a President.
About Bernie. Bleh!
Enjoy your weekend, friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good morning!
There is only a judicial restraint upon a President if the President has a (D) next to his name. This is to prevent Presidents from inadvertently giving us health care.
Oh, and one last addition. Remember all that money you contributed to Social Security?
"To watch the leader of the most powerful nation on earth endorse and finance a genocide prompts not a passing kind of disgust or anger, but a severance." -- Omar el Akkad
That Carlin performance
was shown live on TV. I was watching it. Not worried about SS, but I sure am now!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Making a peaceful space is great therapy
Cheers and beers your way!
Funny headline on the trumpet revoking security clearance
for Harris, Hillary and a few others last night. Payback time.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-pulls-security-clearances-ka...
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
Good morning, Cap'n!
I do not recall a dust up when Biden revoked Trump's security clearance, but whatever Trump does seems to make the headlines the world over.
If I understand it correctly, access to high security info gives the former officials the ability to offer advice.
Everyone who wants Hillary's advice, please raise your hands.
I love my new room! The interior will be painted by Monday, the wood flooring will be laid Tuesday. I have a desk ready to be moved into it, and have art from Africa, S. America, and Asia to decorate the walls. Crazies are not allowed to enter! I meant for it to be my escape from the crazies I work for and work with, Monday through Friday, year after year. The beauty of the setting sun is icing on the cake.
I am going to cook turnip greens and cornbread today. The young lady cashier at the grocery store had never seen a turnip and asked management to identify the thing. She must not have spent time with her g'mas.
Have a great weekend, my dear friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good morning...
Congrats on the new room with lovely views, and the courtroom successes!
We burnt three piles down by the pond that have been there for a couple of years with annual additions. It was a sunny still day, but cool....perfect for burning. When I checked them late yesterday all three piles were just warm ash. The pond is lovely with redbuds blooming all around. I'll get a picture today and post it later.
Trade day was also chilly this AM. Here in the holler it was 42F, but Trade day was 31F. So traders were thin and I didn't buy a thing. However did catch up with some friends, and heard one of our buddies has COVID. Fortunately he is on the mend.
Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend, and thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Hey, LO!
Wow, 31 Deg. would discourage me from trading much more than a pair of work gloves for wool gloves! It got down into the high 30s the last two nights, but we have temps in the mid-80s coming next week.
It is perfect today for burning, but Dear One is too busy to stand and manage the fire for hours. Sigh...
I got very lucky on Thursday. The District Attorney and his staff have limited time, limited resources. They move forward on what they consider important cases, such as murders, sexual assaults, etc...My client's drug charge was close to being important, but when I disclosed his tragic life story, and the fact that he had put himself into a 1 yr lock down drug rehab center, the prosecutor figured he was on the right track without the State mandating it, and let him go, wished him all the best.
I cannot count how many drug addicts I have represented that got into drugs with parental assistance. Nothing says loving mother more than sharing coke with her son, amirite?
I am going to watch a video on how to re-calibrate an oven, make sure it is properly set before the cornbread goes in!
Enjoy your weekend, my dear friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Da Judge on The first amendment
.
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/03/20/perilous-times-in-us-for-freedom/
Americans should read the constitution and see what it actually says.
Biden allowed lots of immigrants into the country and they were working their way through the court system. Trump just canceled over 500,000 TPS and now he can deport them to wherever he wants.
Will he do that to the white Ukrainian refugees too? Will anyone get upset if he does?
A family from Mexico who has a 10 year old daughter getting treatment in Texas for brain cancer had been allowed to travel for treatment many times, but not the last time. If the kids would have stayed they would have been put into our deplorable system.
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
Good afternoon, snoopy!
The Judge's article is excellent. I hope everyone reads it.
I hadn't read about the Mexican family unable to get to the Medical Center for the child's cancer treatment. This is just not what closing the borders is meant to do.
I am appalled that the woman dr. from Peru, married to an American, has been held in detention, possibly already deported.
What I have hoped for was to process people at the borders for legal entry. I have hoped for decades that corporations hiring cheap labor migrants would be prosecuted for violating laws that are right there in the statutes and penal codes. Jobs should be available to citizens at un-suppressed wages.
Criminals from any country, no matter what their race or skin color might be, should not be allowed entry or slip in through obvious cracks in the "wall"..
There are 3 illegals, gang members, awaiting trial for capital murder, in jails in 2 adjacent counties. One of them had been deported 4 times, but managed to slip back in to commit multiple murders.
The crips, bloods, Banditos,and Hell's Angels are just wussies compared to the foreign gangs.
The response should be rational and responsible, not for political gains.
I hope my client is being properly entertained, chica!
Have a great weekend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good mornng otc, thanks for the OT. For several days
now we have been visited during the night by an opossum, which we find to be very cool.
Gnus headline that isn't remotely news from the Guardian:
Yeah, oh so true, but not really news at all.
Al Sharpton of all people opined that
, my first reaction is "good luck with that" Lost in the mists of time, even though it was really only yesterday is the fact that the civil rights movement, related fights for civil liberties and basic human rights and the like were minority movements. The vast mass of the populace was non on board with those movements and, when it iss their personal ass on the line, it is unlikely that the mass of the population will get involved with any new one.
For much of the period since Trump was elected, much has been made of his "revenge" actions in the media. Cap'n Q linked to a not atypical article above. We should support and encourage much of this behavior and try to inform the public and th president of its merits and the need for its extension. To paraphrase a statement attributed to Trump It is no longer in the National interest for these people to have these clearances. Well Duh. Whythehell did Kamala ever have one anyway. Hillary should have been fired and had hers revoked for tons of malfeasance.
First, we really need to declassify mountains of stuff and stop classifying so much. We also should make a crime, with no sttute of limitations to classify certain kinds of things, like CYA stuff, stuff which was hidden because its release would embarass the government or some agency or person, stuff which was classified simply to prevent the use in court of information on government negligence and/or malfeasance, and much more, but beyond that --
If somebody has a job which requires access to certaub kegitimate sekrets, they should have such a clearance or lose said job, well and good. For them to have such a clearance which is needed for them to do their job for the government or its agent(s) is In.The. National. Interest. Once they no longer have said job, they no longer have a need for such clearance and it is therefore no longer In.Yhr.National.Interest for them to have said clearance. The larger the pool of people with access to any sekret, the larger the probability of a breach. Loss of that kind of clearance should be automatic upon separation form government service. This is, in fact, the case for a great many such clearances. It seems not to be the case for purely political grants of access, grants of access to political appointees and politicians, but there is clearly no justification for them to have it. Ex-presidents are, in reality, nobody and need no such clearance. Even so Ex-political appointees. And mere political candidates shouldn't get one in the first place. Kamala? WTF?
/rant
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
It should have been a crime for Richard Helms to have ordered
the destruction of the MK-ULTRA records as head of the CIA.
We the People, in whose name all this national security stuff is supposedly done, will never know but a tiny bit — discovered wholly by accident — of the full truth concerning the experimentation on humans the CIA performed, without victims’ knowledge or consent. Nor will Congress, nor will historians, present and future.
Hola, Lotl. I think it technically was a crime, like the
USAID document shredding, Ollie North's shredding, etc. Gubment records are supposed to be retained.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Hey. Lotl!
Sorry to respond so late.
The real crime is at its' inception: drugging and killing innocents and the unknowing.
The cover-up is the secondary crime.
I have actually read articles over the years about agents giving drugs to people who killed themselves.
USA. Great country. The best. Puke.
Enjoy your weekend, and don't take a drink or cookie from a stranger, ok, friend? Please?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I agree we classify way, way too much
information. A government of, by, and for the people should not consider the people too stupid to be truthfully informed. You'd think the spy agencies are scared of us, wouldn't you? Hmmm...
I, too, believe security clearances are a job requirement. Period. Any official that gets fired or replaced is an official with no government job. These are not the go-to people for opinions and strategy for those on the job.
The meme that the CIA doesn't want to be embarrassed is pretty lame. Like, they are embarrassed for planning JFKs murder, but had no issues being revealed for having failed to assassinate Castro 5 times. Gawd, they want us to see how inept they are, but no bragging rights when they hit a grand slam.
The CIA should be disbanded. I think the FBI should be reduced in size and importance.
Possums at night are pretty cool. If they are out in daylight, assume rabies and take proper measures.
I don't see a mobilization of the majority of us banding together on much of anything anymore. Maybe wehn citizens start getting deported or imprisoned for being anti-Zionists might do it.
Have a great weekend, and some nocturnal possum fun, dear friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Dorothy Thompson the (in)famous journalist...
...you never heard of. Or maybe you have. My focus was always world history. I only took the minimum required American history courses because thanks to my primary and high school education it bored me to death. American history is in large part censored and pasteurized. I think it would require a life long effort, say along the lines of a Howard Zinn, to expose it's true nature.
So case in point, I find out about Dorothy Thompson, a prominent American journalist of yesteryear, in a neo-liberal, New Zealand, Sinology journal I've been reading from a contrarian perspective. The journal's literary and historical references, true, it's spin, not necessarily so.
Dorothy Thompson who was famous in the 30s and 40s, as a foreign correspondent and commentator, essentially was disappeared in the 1950s for her critique of Zionism, when she became infamous and taboo. Her story is remarkable. If I had known of Dorothy Thomson as a young person, it may have been a life changing influence. As it was, I was oriented by upbringing by the WWII generation, and the subsequent cold war, Korea and Vietnam conflicts, which almost entirely dominated my cold war political outlook, so that my attitude toward middle east politics was largely stereotypical, characterized by movies such as Lawrence of Arabia, and Exodus, and the "evil" soviet client states in the mideast.
In any case, living in NY, I understood from a very young age, critical discussion of Israel was off limits.
Here's a thumbnail video trailer (5 min)- (notice the number of views):
The Silencing of Dorothy Thompson Trailer
Here's a longer historical treatment below, almost an hour, if you don't have the time, start at nine minutes, 22 minutes, 38 minutes (her turn against Zionism) or just go to the punch line and Thompson's prophetic warnings at 40:49 and 45:00.
Dorothy Thompson's Journey to and from Zionism
South Korea
Suspended prime minister Han Deok-soo's impeachment judgement will be scheduled Monday (notice) as I understand the Constitutional Court's schedule at this point. The CC has broken its promise to give priority to the impeachment judgement on suspended President Yoon. April 17 is a drop dead date for adjudication announcement because two justices' (liberal ones) terms expire then. This eventuality would throw South Korea's governance into chaos. In the same fashion, a rejection of Yoon's impeachment by the Court before that would also throw South Korea into chaos. The democratic party Assembly member who predicted the 12.3 martial law coup by Yoon and his cabal last August makes this prediction and I think it's credible. The timing couldn't be worse. Han Deok-soo said he opposed the martial law declaration by Yoon, yet in his role as acting president, after the impeachment resolution by the National Assembly, he obstructed the filling of Constitutional Court vacancies, and he had to be impeached as well to get him out of the way.
Enjoyed my visit to the VA clinic yesterday. Talked to some old timers, one of whom was a surviving Korean war vet. He told me, he had almost been killed dozens of times. I was declared healthy by the nurse, based on bp, heart rate, and oxygen levels, and talked to my old friend the urologist, who told me he's going to retire.
I was exhausted by the time I got home, perhaps it was the cold and wind.
Thanks for the OT, Onthecusp. Someone from our extended clan had important historical ties to Texas and San Antonio before my immediate forebears time. I was stationed at terrible Fort Hood for a while. What a dry, hot, miserable place that was. Well, at least there were no floods.
語必忠信 行必正直
Thompson got some things right,
others very wrong. I read her puff pieces in monthly fashion sort of magazines.
At least she figured out Zionism.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
SK news is welcome!
As for SK news being hopeful, well, not so much. Looming chaos looks like chaos right now to me.
Thanks for the update, friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
What a great idea
Sam is smelling a little smelly, but it’s been too cold to give her a bath. Warming up into the 70’s next week. I can’t wait! But 70 in March? Dunno if we’ve hit that before.
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
How smart!
Fun video!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Just after I got the beast
I went to a car wash and Sam rolled down the window and let the water flood into the car. She was trying to bite the water and was having a grand time with all the suds on the back seat.
I might have done that again if it wasn’t warming up soon.
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
Biting water is good
as long as it isn't soapy, of course.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Sam Husseini makes a good point
.
Link
I’ve been having wonderful rows with the right wing folks who have no problem with Trump transferring people out of the country without due process. They believe that the constitution only applies to Americans and no one else in America
even though it states all persons.
Today someone said that every person targeting Teslas should be sent to gitmo because Trump says they are domestic terrorists. I reminded him that Biden called the J-6ers domestic terrorists so people should be careful what they wish for. Wars abroad always come home. We have seen it countless times.
Trump just canceled the legal status for thousands of people who in America on special status…or something. Now every one of them can be sent to El Salvador for who knows how long? Once laws start getting broken….
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
That is an excellent point.
MAGAS hate curbs on free speech, see their reaction to J 6ers, but immigrants? Legal or no, they must go back home.
FWIW, I skim a couple of notoriously right wing sites daily, and more and more MAGAs are peeling away from their idol. They still rally around him on immigration, anti-DEI, and the fight against lawfare judges, but they are not sold on tariffs, tax breaks for the rich, war, cuts in Social Security, or Bitcoin. Most surprisingly of all, they are sick and tired of Israel controlling us. MAGAS are more likely to spout off something anti-Semetic than you'd imagine.
I do not believe his high polling numbers.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
That’s good to see
I’m not seeing many people on the site I read peeling away from him. It’s really more like a cult there than a free thinking site. The owner is a lawyer and he twists himself into a pretzel to support the things Trump is doing. He doesn’t believe that any judge has the right to tell Trump what to do. And they are ticked that Robert’s said anything.
Maybe I’ll start posting links to the constitution.
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
Seems even Constitutional lawyers and professors can't
agree on how to interpret balance of powers with powers of the executive with supposed control over government agencies in the executive branch. Conservative scholars pretty much go along with executive control over agencies, and immigration, but are throwing cold water on the fire if deportation is based solely upon exercising free speech.
Chief Justice Roberts is a conservative in the Bush mold, leader of the stop the count/hanging chad that beat Al Gore. I dated a man that helped fund the legal team. Not for long, that dating thing lasted about 2 months. More than enough.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
How 'bout those tariffs on Chinese electric cars!
Nearly All Cybertrucks Have Been Recalled Because Tesla Used the Wrong Glue
"To watch the leader of the most powerful nation on earth endorse and finance a genocide prompts not a passing kind of disgust or anger, but a severance." -- Omar el Akkad
LOL!
Did China send them the wrong glue intentionally?
Lol!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
the order specified a Taiwan super glue
.
.
cause it is made in China to be cheap
(little details) was made for human skin
not robot skin, whoops!
translation error and
supply chains issues or Covid
non-human errors
Alternative Intelligence didn't do it?
Can't have that look at this juncture.
Hmm
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
Lol!
The idiot games lend themselves to great humor!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Happened to see this earlier
The Good Chinese Billionaire
I skipped the part about the toxic sanitary pad scandal. I thought, is this a parody? What the so called "New Sinology" could do with this. Surely, this is some kind of dissident code, and China is about to collapse.
語必忠信 行必正直
The country that can't make
sanitary actual sanitary pads is doomed, I tell ya! DOOMED!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
LOL nt
語必忠信 行必正直
Damn good questions!!!
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
I confess, snoopy,
that dead women and babies that have never hurt anyone or anything being blown to bits for an Israel boundary expansion is haunting me. Every pleasant moment, every laugh, every interesting moment in my life is what those dead innocents and soon dead innocents will never know.
I am not able to forget them, and know of absolutely no way to help them.
I am feeling something similar to depression.
They are always on my mind.
I drink guilt beer, while they drink filthy water.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I feel the same
I have run out of words to describe how this genocide is making me feel.
Anger, anguish and extreme sadness doesn’t seem to be enough to convey my feelings. For 18 months every time I get up at night and take a drink I have thought of the people in Gaza who don’t have decent water to drink like I do.
The anger at the whole fcking world ignoring what Israel is doing with our bombs seems to be insignificant and impotent.
Easter is around the corner again and how many pastors and priests will ignore talking about what is happening in the holy land? The hypocrites who are okay with this will spout BS at their congregations and the idiots will nod along and think that they are superior to everyone else and believe that gawd thinks they are special.
I could go on for days, but what’s the point? I, you, we can’t change a damn thing about this….
Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.
I got many promo offers
from my tour agency I toured the world with to go to Israel.
Not a cent. Never. I have no regrets in failing to enrich them with my money by choice.
Now, I have no say about how my tax dollars boost the Beebs in letting new born Palestinian infants die of dehydration and starvation, but I did what I could, and will continue to do so.
I am seeing Caitlin go deeply into depression with each day of this genocide. She is not alone.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981