Open Thread June 7 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 072026
 

Yesterday, the Met season was over, but WFMT’s summer season was just beginning, with “The Bartered Bride” by Smetena, from Vienna. It was perfomed in German, as opposed to the original Czech, which I thought might give me a fighting chance to ubderstand some dialogue as it was sung. But individual words like “I”. “My”, “your,” “no”, “yes”, even “love” (hey, it’s a rom com) don’t give much to go on. But the plot is simple, based on concealed identity, and there’s a lot of great dance music (which must have come in handy for Paris), so it wasn’t hard to follow. Also, John Pavlovitz had a thought for so-called Christians who want to turn Pride Month into Niclear Family Month – they should celevrate Mind Your Own Damn Business Month instead.

Another short ABC video on loop. It speaks for itself. ABC is pretty good at this.

This, referred by The Smile, is closer to politics than I usually try to get on Sunday. But it is very good indeed.

From National Public Radio. This is limited to melanoma – for now – but it’s progress. (My mother had a melanoma, but she was lucky. It was very visible even when very small, and even with just outpatient surgery with local, it never returned. Not everyone can be that fortunate.


Animals, Dogs, Cats, Personal Profiles,

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Open Thread June 6 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 062026
 

I’ve been thinking about this for some time, and I’m not the only one. Several pundits have said that the GOP’s gerrymandering scheme may well backfire. Using numbers I’ve made up, here’s how. Let’s assume a red southern state has a majority minority district which in 2024 went blue by 12 points. It’s adjacent to a majority red district which went red by 10 points. So the state mashes them together and redivides them, expecting both to go red by maybe 8 points. But they haven’t taken into consideration how deeply the current regime’a approval ratings have descended. Some who voted Republican in 2024 will vote Democratic in 2026. I’m guessing that more will simply not vote. Those two dictricts could easily go blue by 2 points each – which would be enough. Especially if it happened in multiple states.

Yes, this page requests donations, and no, I am not asking you to donate. I just want us to be aware of this race. It is for Joni Ernst’s seat (Grassley’s current term will be up in 2028 – he will be 94 but may run again anyway.) Turek is endorsed by Elizabeth Warren (probaly by others, but she’s the one I just got the email endorsement from.)

This from Talking Points Memo is about Todd Blanche but Bill Polte is likely to be as big a problem.

The latest on Tina Peters – which IMO shows clearly why she should still be locked up. The next best thing would be laws at tgr Federal level, and Stale laws, County lawd, and municipal laws that no convicted felon can be eligible for public office.

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Open Thread June 5 2026

 Posted by at 6:09 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 052026
 

Yesterday, The House passed a War Powers Resolution 215-208. It went to the Senate, but if they voted, I haven’t heard the numbers.

Talking Feds/Harry Litman. Please forgive the insult to drunken sailors. Other observations are totally on target.

From Lever News. This is short, it’s currently only in one house, and there are caveats. But it’s as important as the words “or of such other body as Congress may by law provide” are in section 4 of the 25th Amendment. It opens up a way around a Presidential veto or a captive cabinet.

Too late for Alex Trebek – and for so many other beloved people – but I’m thankful something is finally here

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Open Thread June 4 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 042026
 

Yesterday, Malcolm reported (so some or all of this may have happened Tuesday) that we bmbed Iran, which responded by attacking Kuwait, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates. In Kuwait the airport was burned. Kuwait attempted to retaliate, but the missile “went stupid” (a term of art) and bombed straight back down to its point of origin. Kuwait only reported one fatality. Yet, no one is saying that the “cease fire” is over. Also, Feank Figliuzzi posted a 49 minute video, with Gareth Gore, who has written a book about the origins, purpose, and accomplishments of Opus Dei (by using the word “accomplishment”, I do not mean to imply that any are positive.) It’s a force to be reckoned with – Gore calls it an abusive cult – and forearmed is forearmed.

Guns. I don’t believe the Mango Moron is smart enough to figure this out by himself. Some evil genius must have advised him on it.

Archived from Lever News. Same song, different verse. Repubicansre so (uninrentionally) transparent.

I’m sure there are bigger things happening than what Robert Reich is covering here. But this kind of personal. It’s our money that the Apricot Antichrist is throwing around on “attractions” like Milli Vanilli (who could not show up anyway, since one of the two is dead.)


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Open Thread June 3 2026

 Posted by at 5:52 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 032026
 

On Monday, Malcolm a photo of Rubio and Hefseth that someone had shopped to look like Milli Vanilli. I took a screen shot, enlarged it, skewed it, and stretched it a little horizontally since it had gotten suqished- and it’s still comewhat blurry, but I think recognizable. So I’m sharing it as rge fearyes image today for your amusement. And after that, he found a post saying “If I wanted to see Trump’s ballroom, I’d just look in Lindsey Graham’s mouth.”

Yesterday, I steeamed the opera “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, ” which was the radio opera on January 2. My goodness, what a tear jerker. But not without hope. The synopsis in Wikipedia definitely does not do it justice – although I’m not sure any syn0psis could – it’s that complex.  I really needed to see it – and not just for this quote from near the end: “The world will always be broken. Repair it anyway.”

Harry Litman (Talking Feds) writes about legal happenings of last week, and how, on balance, they supported or at least aided democracy.

Elizabeth Warren and Greg Casar are working on this same problem from a taxation perspective, and the article quotes them. I’m not sure who has the better chance. I think Bernie’s idea might benefot more propl – but both plans look good to me.

It really is terrifying what some people will do to convince themselves they are not weak. Statistics din’t really communicate that. But this is a personal story.

RReich Tariff refunds

Dog

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Pineapple Peeling by Pros & Pendulums Dancing

 Posted by at 6:38 am  Politics
Jun 022026
 

Pineapples are a common street food in SE Asia, so finding a way to increase production increases profit.
This Malaysian street vendor has it down to a fine art:

Why are we still peeling pineapples like cavemen? 🛠️🍍This gadget does it perfectly in seconds. Lazy? Maybe. Smart? Absolutely.#pineapplehack #funnyvideo #asmrcooking #foodhacks #cooksky #beestrot

— Beestrot 👨‍🍳 (@beestrot.com) 2026-05-15T10:43:15.969Z

Typically hand-peeling to get this artistic result takes 2-3 minutes, but this gadget gets the job done in under 30 seconds.

From Harvard Natural Sciences Lectures

I found this fascinating and mesmerizing.

The period of one complete cycle of the dance is 60 seconds. The length of the longest pendulum has been adjusted so that it executes 51 oscillations in this 60 second period. The length of each successive shorter pendulum is carefully adjusted so that it executes one additional oscillation in this period. Thus, the 15th pendulum (shortest) undergoes 65 oscillations. When all 15 pendulums are started together, they quickly fall out of sync—their relative phases continuously change because of their different periods of oscillation. However, after 60 seconds they will all have executed an integral number of oscillations and be back in sync again at that instant, ready to repeat the dance.

Harvard’s classic pendulum waves demonstration

 

 

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Open Thread June 1 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 012026
 

Yesterday, I saw Virgil, and we played cribbage.He complained of being hungry, and I offered to stasrt arriving a half hour later so he could have lunch, but he said he’d rather see me than eat, so of course I’ll keep going from 10:30 to 3 when visiting closes. I am back n the calendar schedule, so I’ll now be going every two weeks unless something weird happens again. Or unless our strategic oil reserves run out, which they certainly might, particularly if the Mango Moron keeps selling them off to other countries, in which case there won’t be any gas at any price.

Stasight from The Root. So, a bunch of “pro-Israel” (which does not necessarily mean pro-genocide, but, given their behavior, I think it probably does for them) gathered around Gracie Mamsion to yell at Mamdani – because of course they did. He appears to have responded with notable grace.

Robert Reich on the judge who is doing her best to reopen the Saffron Sauron’s “lawsuit” against the IRS in order for it to be investigated and proven to be fraudulent. That of course is not how she worded it – no judge would prejudge guilt like that – but the rest of out here all know that is the case.

Dan Froomkin with Press Watch on the Delany Hall concentration camp in Newark, New Jersey, which has been maing headlines for all the wrong reasons – such as pepper sprayine Senator Andy Kim.

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Open Thread May 31 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 312026
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was a new one – not a premiere, but new enough to not be in Wikipedia yet. It was the El Ultimo Sueño de Frida y Diego by Pulitzer Prize winning Gabriela Lena Frank. The premise is that on the Day of the Dead, Diego Rivera is about to die. He reaches out to his late wife Frida Kahlo (who, though 20 years younger, predeceased him) to return from the land of the dead and help him transition. (You may have noticed that this premise is kind of a mirror image of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth.) Their marriage was one of those stormy ones where the couple fights a lot, at least in part because making up feels so good. It’s not my idea of a relationship, but it works for dome couples – and it makes for great opera. Other characters include Catrina, the goddess of the underworld, who is a trickster goddess; Leonardo, the souls of a Grets Garbo impersonator (a counter-tenor); and various spirits. I wouldn’t call it a comedy. but there is a lot of humor in it,both in the libretto and in the orchestration. Frank has an unusual heritage – her father was Ashkenazi Jewish and her mother was half Peruvian and half Chinese, and all of those musical traditions were in her childhood home. The opera is not terribly long – an hour and 55 minutes of music in two acts is pretty short – and it seemed to fly by – which means it’s very easy to listen to. “Viva la vida!” Off to see Virgil now- will chwck in upon return

If you thought that all the firsts for women (except, of course, US President) had been accomplished by now – Mikala would like you to hold her beer.

This is not you average pet rescue story. (It’s also not a video

Try to avoid looking around the web page on this one – stick to the story.

Carrie B found a second Raging Granny group – this one is in California, near Yosemite. The song in this video is a rough Diamond for sure,

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