Y’all come on down!
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And now the cartoons, via Cagle:
Really feeling that last one…
Try and be safe out there, this is an open thread.
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The Sky Dancing banner headline uses a snippet from a work by artist Tashi Mannox called 'Rainbow Study'. The work is described as a" study of typical Tibetan rainbow clouds, that feature in Thanka painting, temple decoration and silk brocades". dakinikat was immediately drawn to the image when trying to find stylized Tibetan Clouds to represent Sky Dancing. It is probably because Tashi's practice is similar to her own. His updated take on the clouds that fill the collection of traditional thankas is quite special.
You can find his work at his website by clicking on his logo below. He is also a calligraphy artist that uses important vajrayana syllables. We encourage you to visit his on line studio.
Sky Dancing 
I had this post set to publish at 8:30 pm…
It’s okay, You’ve had a rough few days. It’s great!
Yes!!
I love Sherrod Brown! So glad he is running for the Senate in 2026. Turn the great state of Ohio blue next year! Beata
I’ve come to the conclusion that we will never have a woman president. So that is my 2 cents.
Sherrod Brown is running for the Senate in 2026, not for president. I’m focused on Democrats gaining seats in the Senate and House next year. It’s too early to even think about the presidential election in my opinion. I’d kinda like to save democracy at this point.
Beata
They’re trying to gerrymander Ohio. I hope that doesn’t succede. I volunteered for Brown’s campaign and I’m going to bring a lot of LA folks from my band of my hellraisers to fundraise, do postcards, and phonebank.
They are trying to gerrymander Indiana, too, which is absurd since Indiana has been so gerrymandered already. There are only two Democratic House districts in Indiana now. One is a small area that consists of little more than inner city Indianapolis. The other is the Lake County area (Gary). So they are trying to get rid of the “Black Districts”. It’s blatant racism.
They did that here and the courts made them redo it. I’m not sure if they’re going to pay attention to court findings any more sadly.
Welcome Beata! It’s so nice to see you.
I highly recommend Brian Tyler Cohen’s YouTube channel. He’s doing a terrific job, with lots of excellent content like the interview with Sherrod Brown. He posts several times a day and always seems to be on top of the latest news.
Beata
Is MAGA going Marxist and Maoist? Trump’s assault on free-market capitalism
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, John Pepper, Anne Mulcahy, Bill George, Laura Tyson
From Fortune Magazine
“As many CEOs understandably grew horrified last month at the prospect that New York City, the capital of capitalism, is on the brink of going socialist with the mayoral momentum of the inexperienced candidate Zohran Mamdani, they were ignoring the greater assault on free market capitalism that has already overtaken the nation in the Republican Party. While we agree that Mamdani’s solutions to affordable housing and grocery prices threaten to undermine free markets by bowing to the appeal of populist anger, President Donald Trump has already begun doing so, but to suit his own grandiose political agenda instead.
Unlike any leader of any free-market economy around the world, President Trump has seized control of private enterprise’s strategic decision-making and investment policies while invading corporate board rooms so that he may dictate leadership staffing, punish corporate critics, and demand public compliance with his political agenda. This is far more dangerous to capitalism than a city-run grocery store.
Many free-market economists and business leaders who have long worshipped the free-market ideals of Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, Ayn Rand, and Milton Friedman should be aware that their idols would be rolling in their graves right now, as rather than pursue standard laissez-faire conservative economic policies, MAGA has gone Marxist and even, increasingly, Maoist.
As Greg Ip warned this week in The Wall Street Journal, “The US marches toward state capitalism with American characteristics … President Trump is imitating [the] Chinese Communist Party by extending political control ever deeper into the economy.” Ip pointed out that in the past, crisis-driven government bailouts of the banking and automotive sectors, such as TARP, were acute, targeted assistance, with brief and bipartisan rescue aims. Similarly, government incentives to drive investments in chips manufacturing, oil exploration, space exploration, internet development, agricultural vitality, cancer detection, disease treatment, and clean energy were not ownership deals with preferred companies or corporate cronies.
Indeed, Ip’s warnings mirror our own, as we were the first to accurately, presciently warn—over a year ago—that many of Trump’s economic positions more closely resemble communism than capitalism, as part of what we called “the coming MAGA assault on capitalism.” It certainly looks like MAGA is going Marxist if not even Maoist, especially across Trump’s vicious personal targeting of individual business leaders; government crackdown on business freedom of expression; weaponization of government powers; apparent extortion of businesses; and insertion of government into an unprecedented, outsized role in private sector strategic investment, capital flows and business decision-making.
Marxism and Maoism were both, of course, expressions of the communist theory that spilled forth from Karl Marx’s pen in the 19th century, brought to life in the brutal one-party states of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China under its leader Mao Zedong, before it evolved into “capitalism with Chinese characteristics” starting in the 1970s, around the time of President Richard Nixon’s fateful visit to Beijing.
Both Marxism and Maoism claimed to champion “ordinary people” against corrupt or exploitative elites, while both targeted intellectuals, bureaucrats, and traditionalists, and purged institutions to enforce ideological purity, especially during Stalin’s “Great Terror” and Mao’s “Cultural Revolution.” Both centralized leadership to the point of creating a cult of personality, demanding intense loyalty and the glorification of the sole figure who could fix the country’s problems. Both prized loyalty over expertise, sidelining critics and dissenters in favor of a tightly controlled political narrative. Sound familiar?
The essence of market capitalism is that owners—shareholders and the management they appoint share in the profits. These deals give share of profits to government in return for favors. Friedman said that federal government should never own anything—that it should not run a surplus because it would have funds to invest in the private sector. What strategic decision-making rights would the government have in such deals, then?”
“U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann ruled that Alina Habba, President Donald Trump’s acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey, could not continue in her role.
In a 77-page ruling on Thursday, Brann noted that the Trump administration had used “a novel series of legal and personnel moves” to keep Habba in her position after a panel of judges effectively ousted her. Two defendants, Julien Giraud Jr. and Cesar Pina, argued that Habba could not oversee their prosecutions.
“Faced with the question of whether Ms. Habba is lawfully performing the functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, I conclude that she is not,” Brann wrote. “And because she is not currently qualified to exercise the functions and duties of the office in an acting capacity, she must be disqualified from participating in any ongoing cases.”
Wow
https://www.newsbreak.com/raw-story-2096750/4189188698627-unlawfully-appointed-alina-habba-disqualified-as-us-attorney-by-republican-judge
Highlighting another 2026 Senate race: Maine Democrat Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and veteran, is running against Susan Collins. Her popularity in Maine is down, causing Collins to become “concerned”. That’s a damn shame.
I just him on TV. He looks great!