Open Thread January 12 2025

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 122025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Rigoletto” by Giuseppe Verdi. It was the second opera I ever owned on vinyl. It’s also the opera from which a scene got me my A grade in conducting class. It’s notoriously dark, it had trouble with censorship (which was routine when everywhere was governed by an absolute monarch, and they were all terrified of looking bad, even just by proxy, so to speak), and the music is exquisite (and in places heartbreaking.) Noteworthy was the tenor, who is the very first opera singer born in Samoa, in his Met debut. Hearing him, I suspect his delay in singing at the Met may have been due to his being so in demand elsewhere that they just couldn’t get him. But all the principals were impressive. It’s an opera which draws tears, and then they piled on by picking this week for the annual review of people we lost last year. Somehow I missed the deaths of Seiji Ozawa and Lucine Amara (among others.) But it’s Sunday, so I’ll stop here and share an Andy Borowitz take on more current events. And, if anyone is interested, Robert Hubbell has transcribed Judge Merchan’s complete remarks from the sentencing Friday. Not that the Canteloupe Caligula will hear, understand, or care. But he was pretty clear in distinguishing between the public office and the person who holds it.

well, this is something new. I know we have at least a few readers who ar into astronomy, and that light pollution is a problem for anyone who wants to watch the stars, planets, galaxies, etc. I would also warn anyone over 50 that the San Luis Valley is mostly more than 7500 feet above sea level, and if you have any heart or respiratory issues, you should consult your medical team before planning a trip (and it isn’t open yet anyway.) Living at 6500 feet as I do, it would almost certainly not bother me. But it isn’t, sadly, possible to make lenses which would allow me to aee what everyone else sees when they look at the sky, so it would be wasted on me. Still, I’m all for it. And Mosca is a good location. Roughly 15 miles north of Alamosa – a college (excuse me, now a university) town – close enough to get to easily and far enough to provide a good dark sky.  And now I’m off to see Virgil, and will check in when I get home.

It’s telling that the only good news I noticed this week was from Colorado Public Radio (at least this week, CPR is cpr for the soul). And I’m well aware that people close to my age (and many of us are), old enough to remember “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, are going to be very skeptical. I was. But this treatment appears to be working very well for this young man, and the smile on his face in the accompanying photo is evidential. Especially compared to the second photo. I wish him and his family the best.

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Open Thread January 11 2025

 Posted by at 6:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 112025
 

Yesterday, my attention was drawn to a story which everyone in Las Vegas, NV, probably is aware of but which seems to be going under the radar (literally as well as figuratively) elsewhere. It probably doesn’t help that the name of the company involved, owned by the Boer MuskRat, sounds like someone’s idea of a joke. But it’s pretty much a given that as a result of this project people will die, not to mention the property damage (less important unless one is the property owner, as the entirw population of Los Angeles County would probably tell you if you asked.)

Also yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson quoted from all the eulogies for Jimmy Carter. If you weren’t able to watch it or listen to it, as I wasn’t, you might find that Carter can be as inspiring in death as he was in life.

Joyce Vance explains why the government’s position on the documents case report is a “heads the people win, tails Trump** loses” kind of thing. Not that we really win overall, but both alternatives she discusses will be unsatisfying to the Tangerine Palpatine. Good.

For anyone with a short memory (probably not needed by y’all, but you might know someone who needs reminding), Wonkette has an article which help to refresh that memory – assuming we can get anyone who needs it to read, or listen. Republicans have no clue what they could be getting themselves (and all of us) into, and that goes double for elected and appointed Republicans who think they are untouchable by virtue of their positions and/or their money. The Nuremburg rallies were eventually followed by the Nuremburg trials and people were hanged. But that didn’t happen without a whole lot of destruction in between the two.

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Open Thread January 10 2025

 Posted by at 6:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 102025
 

Yesterday, I learned Ben Meiselas (and of course his family) had to be evacuated from Los Angeles. He posted a roughly 16 minute rant about how right wing lies interfere with the capability of first responders to respond – in addition to all the other results of lies, none of which are good. Barbara Lee sent an email that she is opofficially running to be mayor of Oakland, CA. Robyn Pennachia at Wonkette ranted about a white man who claimed that on 1983 he could not get a job as a firefighter because he was white. She debunks that, but doesn’t address the fact that when he graduated at 19 his GPS was 1.7. Even on a 4-iscale, that is underwater (below “C” level.) But also, when I graduated from high school at 16 California high schools were using a 5 point scale, on which a 1.7 would be under a D average. I wouldn’t have hired him for anything, ever. Also, it was cold in my house. Overnight, high winds managed to blow open my back door. Even without wind I have to stuff something between the door and the jamb to keep it shut, and the wind had blown away the felt I had in there. I had to use some cardboard instead, and it’s thick enough to leave a crack between the door and the jamb, but it has warmed up some anyway.

Also yesterday, the Supreme Court denied Trump**  a stay of his sentencing.  As you read this, he will likely have been sentenced already.

The F* News complains (with reason) that the MSM is not giving us the background information and implications of Trump**’s greed to annex other nations (allied nations). So this article goes deeper into what his ideas could result in. Y’all are intelligent and could probably work it out, but this may at least save some time. And there are a few additional topics as well.

I’m reusing an older cartoon because it just fits with this Wonkette story. I have no Constitutional problem with people wanting to send their children to private schools (I do have a problem with how that affects our national security, but freedom of choice is also important.) Just not on my dime. If I have to pay for their children’s learning (and failurses therof), where’s my freedom? Where’s my choice?

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Open Thread January 9 2025

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 092025
 

Yesterday, although it has taken a while for them to do so, Faithful America has decided to send a card of welcome and congratulations to Sarah McBride. Of course I signed it. It’s the least we can do. Also yesterday, Los Angeles, California, was in flames (and I assume still is). But y’all probably knew that before I did. Also, I may have jumped to conclusions on the story that was yanked from CPR yesterday. Today’s newsletter says it was a scheduling issue and it will be available next week. We shall see. Today is the day of Jimmy Carter’s service in the Washington National Cathedral – hence the cartoon with his tool belt.  Very few people would even be able to lift it, let alone use it.

Joyce Vance combines the fire[s] on Los Angeles and the nerve of the Apricot Antichrist thinking he can (or should) annex Canada in a comparatively short rant with a fine point. Also,  in case anyone cares, the full name of the city is “Ciudad [or maybe El Pueblo -historians aren’t agreed] del Rio de Nuestra Señora Reina de los angeles en Porciuncula.”

Wonkette has the most backgrounded story on Los Angeles which I have yet seen – not that I have made it through all my emails as I type – but if I find something better I’ll replace this with it. I note that it mentions the story about many hydrants having no or minimal water pressure and that being due to low reservoirs originates with one billionaire – the one she defeated for the mayoralty – so the fact that it is all over social media now doesn’t necessarily mean it is true. In fact, Wonkette has some evidence that at least the part about low reservoirs is false. (But Steve Schmidt fell for it hook, line, and sinker.)

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Open Thread January 8 2025

 Posted by at 6:08 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 082025
 

Yesterday, we got the snow we didn’t get on Monday – by 3 pm it was just a white blanket, and toe roads were clear, though a bit icy. We’re expecting more, but not until Saturday, and maybe half of what we got this time. Tomorrow we’re expecting wind – and when we get wind, we get wind. It used to scare me when I had the mini-van and needed to drive on the Interstate – I expected to be blown over at any minute. I feel much safer in the PT Cruiser, but I still don’t like driving in high winds. Fortunately, I won’t need to go anywhere this time.

Sherrilyn Ifill is a cousin of the late [IMO great] Gwen Ifill, PBS news anchor. I looked that up when we lost Gwen. Sherrilyn is a civil rights lawyer, and she can definitely write, as this post demonstrates. Many people are writing about what it’s going to be like on a second Trump** administration, mostly about what we can, or should do, and that’s important – but this post is more about how it feels. And that probably shouldn’t be ignored. After all, we have to deal with that somehow.

Colorado Public Radio’s newsletter today featured an article about Auden Schendler, VP of Sustainability at Aspen One (formerly Aspen Skiing Company, and the heaviest hitter there) who is leaving the company. By the time I got to it in my email, the story had been yanked. So, of course, it’s important. The title of the article was “Why this longtime Aspen ski executive thinks corporate sustainability is a scam,” so the yank is not surprising. Schendler has written a book called “Terrible Beauty,” which is currently available for pre-order only, and he has a personal website at this link, and also a Wikipedia page on him here,. If you scroll down past the book blurbs on his personal page, you’ll find a quote from him which is meant to be inspiring. After reading both, I am less surprised that he is leaving AspenOne than that he was hired in the first place. “Terrible Beauty” is, I suspect, a book everyone should at least know about and preferably read. Since it’s still in pre-order, I can’t be certain, but definitely the CPR article’s getting yanked suggests the importance of the book.

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Open Thread January 7 2025

 Posted by at 6:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 072025
 

Yesterday, reading the list of Medal of Freedom recipients, I thought “Boy, I’ll bet those people (I’m assuming three different people, but there’s no way to know) who donated those three Ralph Lauren handbags to the Association for Retarded Citizens so that I could buy them dirt cheap to use for knitting projects are sorry now.” I’m not letting them go.  Also, yes, the cartoon is old, but I missed it the first time around, and with a little imaginary bleach and a change of numbers, it fits again.  I hope everyone who experienced snow survived it and that there’ll be a little break in it for y’all

This from Wonkette would be funny if it weren’t going to harm so many of the nation’s most vulnerable people.

This report from ProPublica is massive, as it covers years of undercover activity investigating militias. (The audio version is almost three quarters of an hour.

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Open Thread January 6 2025

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 062025
 

Yesterday, Joyce Vance‘s “Civil Discourse” addressed Trump**’s potential sentencing, and why it matters. The Readers Digest version is that the judge and the prosecution are looking to history in the future. As the only state which has currently achieved a jury verdict of “guilty” in a criminal case, New York is in a key position to make or break history here, and a;; involved on the right side appear determined to do what they can to make it. But for us non-legal people it’s going to be disappointing. Joyce explains it better then I can, so I hope you’ll at least skim it through.

Heather Cox Richardson on Friday (technically Thursday night, but it reached my inbox at 6 minutes to midnight, which would be after midnight Pacific, Alaska and Hawaii time, and do many people really stay up east of me until 10 or 11pm to read political posts?), after discussing the Presidential Citizens Medals which President Biden awarded Thursday, took a deep dive into what Republicans are saying and doing to distract us from their actual goal of robbing the poor to give to the rich. (I didn’t post this yesterday because this year I will be trying even harder to reserve Sunday for good news. We will be severely needing needing breaks.)

Robert Reich is optimistic here – but not optimistic enough to post on Sunday, And also, there’s all that depressing history to get through first.

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Open Thread January 5 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 052025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Les Contes d’Hoffman” (the tales of Hoffman) by Jacques Offenbach, who is best known for having composed the “Cancan.” The Tales of Hoffman was his only serious opera, and it is not without comedy. The most obvious is, I think, the “Doll Song,” in which the soprano plays a mechanical, life sized doll with whom Hoffman has fallen in love. During this aria, the soprano “runs down” twice and the toymaker has to run up behind her and “wind her up.” Literally. Back in the day, I was driving on the Washington DC beltway, and this aria came on the radio, sung by Joan Sutherland. Even without the sight gags, she made it so funny that I had to pull off – I was so distracted with laughter – until it was over. The doll is one of three women with whom Hoffman falls in love and loses – this one because she isn’t real, the second because she dies, and the third because she has stolen his soul – well, that’s pretty un-comic. There is also an “evil genius” who in some way comes between Hoffman and all of the women he falls for. It is filled with catchy tunes, a specialty of Offenbach. If you have ever heard his “barcarolle,” which is a real earworm, this is the opera from which it comes. Also yesterday, I received several emails about Ann Telnaes leaving the Washington Post. I’ll link to Andy Borowitz on this, although Heather Cox Richardson also covered the story. We can hope hat she finds a position worthy of her talent and integrity.

In keeping with my intent to reserve the Sunday Open Thread for good news, here is a story from Colorado Public Radio, about a remarkable man, and the tribute to him which is now being paid.

This from Axios is at best halfway good news. I was hoping something better would come along, but sadly, if it has, I haven’t seen it (and I have been looking.)

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