Open Thread June 29 2024

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 292024
 

Yesterday, Robert Reich posted episode 5 in his DEBUNK series. Joyce Vance summarized what happened in SCOTUS Thursday, and what didn’t happen (more important actually). And it’s worth reading her post to the end for a little good news. And, SCOTUS told Steve Bannon to go pound sand (they declined yo hear his emergency appeal.) And then there was this: “Supreme Court guts agency power in seismic Chevron ruling.” And finally, Heather Cox Richardson and Robert Hubbell were the only two in my feed who saw the same debate I saw. I’ll let Heather tell it.

If you are looking for actual information about performance-enhancing drugs (which Joe Biden is not taking), I can recommend Evan Hurst’s article at Wonkette, from which I want to share this quote: “Every Republican accusation — literally every one — is a confession. If they’re talking about things, they’re talking about the things they do, and that’s why they know about them.” This weekend I am trying to keep the reference to either good news or funny/amusing. I for one need that break. We’ll see how it works.

This is short and succinct, and absolutely right on target. It hits literally close to home. It might even influence somebody. (and with all that, it’s also amusing.)

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Open Thread June 28 2024

 Posted by at 6:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 282024
 

Yesterday, Ballotpedia announced a new feature: users will now be able to specifically track, from proposal through passage (or failure) legislation regarding AI deepfakes. They sent me an email, but its content is also in an article on their home page. I’m thinking that trying to identify deepfakes and distinguish them from real information is probably a very different experience depending on which state one lives in. At least with this, it should be possible to get an idea of just how tough it is depending on where one lives. And also maybe what to do about deepfakes one identifies. Also the “Debate” was last night. I watched it so you don’t have to.  and that wasn’t easy.  28 minutes in I almost dropped out.  Listening to all those lies literally hurts my ears.  I did make it to the end – but I didn’t stay for the analysis.

I can affirm that trans people exist. I can also affirm that teans people are neither something new nor something liberals made up. There are references to trans people in literarure going back to the fifth century BCE. There are references to, and discussions of, trans people in Jewish scriptures going back thousands of years. We don’t have written records for Egypt on this, but both Ikhnaten and Hatshepsut were depicted in the visual arts as being somewhere between male and female. It would not surprise me to learn that trans people were known of and existed in ancient Africa, Ancient Europe, and Ancient Asia (it would surprise me no end to lean that they didn’t.) Yes, there are Republicans claiming that transgender is a concept liberals just made up withi the last 40 or 50 years. It isn’t. And it is real. Transgender people are not crazy. (Republicans are crazy, but that’s a different matter.)

There are few things I want to do less than reading 920 pages of Project 2025. Frankly, I’d rather have a root canal. But if anyone can make it bearable, it’s Joyce Vance. And when it’s so important, and so few people have even heard of it, let alone what’s in it, she makes a good case for paying attention to it. She starts here with the question, “If immigrants were deported… what would it mean for her grocery bill and access to food?” I can tell you it would be horrible, but she has the facts, including the numbers.

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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 26 2024

 Posted by at 5:59 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 262024
 

Yesterday, having been up the previous night well into the morning, I slept late. I did manage to get up soon enough to call my doctor’s ofice about an appoinrment, but I still had to leave a message. But not that i can drive again, I need to get there and get labs so I can get a prescription straight. They’ll call back.  Also, Andy Borowitz came up with this idea.  What do you think?

Now that we know who is doing this, I suppose the next step is a cease and desist order, and then a big money lawsuuit. At least I hope so. This dude must be stopped (and not rreplaced.)

I always thought Crooks and Liars was progressive – but apparently someone thinks they are not progressive enough, so they are “curating” some articles now, such as this one. Both Elizabeth Warren and Robert Reich weigh in.

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Open Thread June 25 2024

 Posted by at 5:56 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 252024
 

Yesterday was the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision. Two effing years. Here’s a link to what Mary Trump and two of her friends, both of whom have worked on the Lincoln Project but have now founded what’s called The Seneca Project, have to say about it. There’s both a 37 minute video and a full transcript.

Heather Cox Richardson on the rconomy compared and consrasted baased on who wins the election. I am not convince that all those “business leaders” are as smart as Heather appears to think they are (I know for a fact that Elon isn’t). but even a few of them that smart would hlp.

Joyce Vance, because the Supremes aren’t finished for the year. In fact, tere are 12 undecided cases to go/ The earliest we can expect another opinion to drop is Wednesday. (As Joyce points out, and as I have often noticed, anything that happens during a President’s term of office, 17% at least will think is his fault. Or to his credit – it works both ways.)

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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 23 2024

 Posted by at 6:12 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 232024
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Die Frau Ohne Schatten” by Richard Strauss. That translates to “The Woman without a Shadow,” but the shadow is purely symbolic. The woman of the title is not a woman but a fairy, who has married the Emperor and become his Empress. But in order to stay with him after a certain amount of time has passed, she must become fully human, and that is what the shadow symbolizes. To emphasize the fairy tale environment, only one of the characters is given a name, and that is the dyer, whose wife is tempted to sell her shadow to the empress. It always tickles me that the name of the dyer is Barak (in German, the accent is on the first syllable,) since this opera premiered in 1919. I won’t go into the plot – it’s too complicated. Musically, it’s somewhere between Salome and Rosenkavalier. It has the color of Rosenkavalier but not the catchy waltzes, and it has the fierceness of Salome (and Elektra, which is like Salome without the sex) but without the jarring dissonances which made them so shocking in their day. Also, after looking all over for a video clip of John Oliver discussing Project 2025 which has CC, I did finally find one here.

For Pride Month – what people of faith are doing to oppose the hatred of LGBTQIA people, particularly at Pride events, where the hatred too often becomes physical.

When you read this, you will likely wonder whether Joe really is a wizard after all. It certainly seems like it would require a wizard to accomplish all of this at once.

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Open Thread June 22 2024

 Posted by at 5:57 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 222024
 

Yesterday, Robert Reich posted the fourth installment in his DEBUNK series. He posted another article too – he has referred in the past to the one person who protected him from school bullies without being asked, and who was murdered – but yesterday was the 60th anniversary of that murder, so he put up a piece on just that. SCOTUS decided Rahimi, and released the decision first, and Joyce Vance posted about that particular decision.

Talkng Points Memo does not link seperately to seperate artices in its Moring Memo. I chose to share this one because of the lead article, “Quick.. Guide to SCOTUS Malarkey….” including “Decoding the Cloaked Language….” but there are other segments. When you see “Rudy Rudy Rudy,” that’s where my rec stops. But you can certainly continue if you wish. (Yes, it was posted before any opinions dropped.)

I think Saturday is a good day for sharing this article from The Bulwark detaling why you need some kind of a break … and also how to do it without giving up. It’s in three numbered sections, and all are helpful. Section three does a longish digression (as an analogy); it’s clearly marked as a quote, so you can easily skip it. I read it so you won’t have to.

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