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.
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.
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.
Yesterday, SCOTUS issued verdicts and opinions in 4 cases (none involving TFG) – Moore, Chaverini, Diaz and Gonzales. I, on the other hand, took in a grocery order and baked cookies. (Given this Court, my accomplishments were orobablly better for the country.) Today, we can expect more verdicts and opinions. My reference for these decisions and more is here. P.Ss – Tonight is a full moon. And a “strawberry moon” is expected – low in the sky and so bright it is its own light pollution.
The latest Biden-Harris ad, on YouTube. I’m not as convinced as many seem to be of its effectiveness against brainwashed MAGAts. But then, it’s probably not aimed at them, but at independents and undecideds. With them, it should help.
The Daily Beast’s “Obsessed” section is all about entertainment. But this cought my eye as a piece of fiction I would love to be a part of in real life. The protagonist is known as “The girl with the Dragon Tattoo of journalism,” and she takes on evil corporations. I remember when the first Girl with the Dragon Tattoo novel came out – at least one reviewer compared her to “Pippi Longstocking” grown up.” I’m sure part of that was because both were Swedish – but there were other traits they had in common as well.
Yesterday, I learned that Willie Mays had died the day before. He was 93. His death now is overshadowed by the conflict between democracy and fascism, so I learned this from The Conversation. Even Democratic Underground didn’t have it (they do now because I posted it) and they have a dedicated Sports forum. (Talking Points Memo did cover it.) Y’all know I’m not much into sports, but, as a native of San Francisco, I do feel this. After all he had to put up with, though, as a black baseball star during the Cold War and Civil Rights era, at least he’s free at last now.
Murfster makes a historical error or two (using movie history instead of real history) – it’s close enough to make his point, though, and the comments straighten him out. The work that people are doing now, preparing for the worst, is real, and thank heaven for it. Noy that we couldn’t also use some preparation directed at meeting direct violence, of course.
I’m not going to spoil the punchline by telling you too much – or anything, really – about this by Andy Borowitz, other than that I think it one of his best ever.
Yesterday, Joyce Vance shared a link to the “Projct 2025” ducument which is the Republican Party’s plan for governing us (and it will be governing us – no representation here.) It’s 920 pages long, and they are joping we won’t read it (heck, I had to struggle with the URL. It resisted being cut. But maybe that’s a good thing. Every time this link is used, the Republicans will know it’s someone who was, directly or indirectly, referred to it by Joyce Vance. And the more of us do, the more they will know she has supporters.) Because they hope we won’t read it, I hope that all of us will at least open the link. If you go, start with the Table of Contents. Ignore the glittering generalities, such as “the general welfare.” All the chaters are aspects of government which they wasnt to take over and destroy. All they need is Trump**. Try to enjoy your Juneteenth anyway (red beverages are apropos. I have some res herbal iced tea, some raspberry iced tea, and some strawberry soda, so I’m ready.)
I applaud Colorado for leading the way here. Our law may not be perfect (in fact, it probably isn’t – it’s nearly impossible to achieve peerfection in the very first law on anything new. The Second Amendment certainly didn’t.) But at least it’s a law. I hope other states will not just follow, but also alter details to make the law better.
If you disagree with me that Wonkette’s unique style adds to this story, you probably can find it elsewhere. I personally feel that people who say and do things such as the potential defendant in this potential litigation dod ans said deserve all the mockery that gets aimed at them, and likely more. There’s also a neat little twist of Virginia law in the story, and although I can see how it could be abused,I kind of like it.
Yesterday, when I had the time and energy to finish reading my emails from Sunday, I came across Joe Biden’s Father’s Day Proclamation (courtesy of Steve Smith), read it, and am sharing the link. That’s the world that I want to live in. It’s not a perfect world – there is no perfect world – but it’s a world in which at least the Federal goverment is run with ethics, honesty, kindness, and consideration, in order to make life easier for the maximum number of people. I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but I’m going to anyway: we willl never get there by electing people at any levels who just want power – and who get elected by promising their voters power through them. Also, Robert Reich’s caption contest, which asked readers to submit suggestions for whar “MAGA” really stands for, ad too many good answers to list here. I can’t enter, being a free subscriber, but had I been ale and done so, I would have suggested “Malice And Greed Always.”
Moving to actual news (or at least actual analysis of actual news – there’s some of both), Robert Hubbell goes into detail about how and why the Washington Post is so worng in their election coverage, even though they still do well in other areas (some of this ofcourse also apples to the New York Times, and other formerly competent mainstream outlets.) If he is accurate on their strategy (and I suspect he is), it’s easy to see why he wonders whether the Post can survive. It’s a no-brainer.
In Sunday’s Open Thread, Beau spoke about Ukraine, including commenting that Ukraine might be operating in the skies a little more – which, with the loan he also spoke about – they have been doing. Now, the Daily Beast confirms that Ukraine is hitting hard, and it is working. We can but hope Putin is runninng out of things up his sleeve.
Yesterday, I managed to remember it was Father’s Day in time to wish Virgil a happy one. The prison dog’s handler brought him out to say happy Father’s Day to all the visitors. And of course we played cribbage. Two weeks ago the cards were seriusly hot – we were seeing scores up as high as 24. Yesterday not so much. The highest score all afternoon was 16, and there were only 3 hands all afternoon which achieved that score. But who cares – we were having fun.
Before we get too giddy over the Supremes approving mifeprestone (for now), we need to look deeper. Robert Hubell does. There are several topics here, but each has its own large type headline, so it’s not hard to find. And some of the other topics are pretty interesting also.
Yes, it took me a while to get this up. But I try to minimize bad news over a weekend. At least there are influential people who see right through this and are doing their best to spread reality. Unfortunately, the media is not among them.
