Yesterday being a slow Sunday, I had plenty of time to beat myself up over not having accomplished anything. I tried not to, but the fact is I really didn’t accomplish anything. I’ll try to do better so that can pat myself on the back next week (hopefully without breaking my arm, as the saying goes.) It’s not just me – my email is down also.
Joyce Vance did a piece on gun control which is IMO quite pointed. Without saying so explicitly, it demonstrates that we have allowed ourselves to be snookered by thugs using our own Constitution into a position where we really can’t do much without repealing the Second Amendment. Yes, there are people valiantly trying, but our best efforts fall into the category of stable door when steed is gone.What we really need to do is to repeal the Second Amendment, and then adopt military rules on gun safety into federal law. Of course I don’t think that’s going to happen. And, what with ghost guns, it may be too late even for that. However, her column will give you enough information on the Uvalde report and the division at DOJ which produces such reports, to realize that there actually are people trying to do something – anything – to help. But it is, of course, an uphill battle. GOP has stood for “Guns Oveer People” for as long as I can remember.
Yesterday, as I expect everyone knows, the radio opera was “Dead Man Walking” by Jake Heggie. I said so much yesterday that there may not be much to add. I was a little surprised no one mentioned Joyce’s own prison eork. Siter Helen was quoted as having said, “No one gets me ike Joyce.” Now, I’m confident that much of that is because Joyce di Donaato is such a consummate artist, dedicated to her calling to the point even the ushers can see it (An usher in Santa Fe told me that, no matter how late the performance ends, she won’t sleep before getting on the phone with her voice coach to improve the next night’s.) But I still can’t thinking those prior esperences – well, let’s say don’t hurt. (And I can see why Joyce would not want them mentioned.) She may have discused that with Sister Helen (they have become friends) but Sister Helen would never out her. I must say, as emotionally draining as just listening was, I would not trade it. And I would love to actually be able to see it (streaming would be acceptable.)
I’m not ready to pick up with the Erinyes – and may not ever be. Yes, from time to time there will continue to be articles which are both important and sharable in full. And which don’t need the aegis of the Erinyes. And because there’s no Erinyes, and Nameless is in recovery from surgery, I don’t see the point of an email today.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/if-congress-can-do-this
For now, I’d like to share this by Joyce Vance – I think she is on to something. Last November, a bipartisan pair of Senators introduced a bill to provide direct and indirect victims of one specific act of terrorism access to view the court proceedings connected with that act. Feel free to drop your jaw shen you see the numbers by which it passed. And it either gave Joyce the idea, or more likely, suggested something fairly obvious which she has been behind for some time – and that is that we need to provide that service to all victims of all federal offenses going through the courts. Read her argument and see what you think.
Yesterday, I worked on educating myself for today’s opera – “Dead Man Walking” by Jake Heggie. Obviously it is based on the book, but has probably also taken a thing or two from the movie. The book was published in 1993, the movie produced in 1995, and the opera premiered in 2000. Considering all that, I’d say the Met was dragging its feet. And I’m not alone in that – because this season is being different. Thankfully. The book is purely non-fiction, and includes Sister Helen’s experiences with two death row inmates … and their families. For both the movie and the opera, these two men were conflated into one and given the name Joseph de Rocher, which is far from close to either real name.It struck me as interesting (probably meaningless) that at the premier in San Francisco Sister Helen was sung by Susan Graham and the convict’s mother by Frederica von Stade. In the 2023 Met production 23 years later, Susan Graham is singing the convict’s mother and Sister Helen portrayed by Joyce di Donato – she’s a trifle older than Graham was when she sang it, but she also has real experience working with convicts in at least one prison that I know of – Sing Sing in New York. This opera is set in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which, if you are aware of it, it’s probably under another name – Angola. Wikipedia has a fairly detailed sumary, and I will probably keep it open while listening. It certainly doesn’t appear that the opera shies away from anything. And, as if to demonstrate that capital punishment is an issue which has not gone away, here is a petition written by Sister Helen herself, sponsored/promoted by Move On, with whom Robert Reich works so much.
I haven’t mentioned Loper Bright v. Raimondo yet, but you may have heard about it anyway. It’s been before the Supreme Court this week. If it is decided wrongly (and of course the crazy justices are leaning that way), regulatory agencies will not be allowed to regulate. I can hardly begin to describe how catastrophic that would be. Little Sammy is calling regulation “the administrative state” as if it were a bad thing. It actually isn’t – it’s far preferable to an “anarchic state,” which is what we are likely to get. This quote is from Wonkette’s newsletter , and is chock full of links to blogs by people who actually have the credentials to have opinions:
What smart things do we need to know about Loper Bright v. Raimondo (the Supreme Court case in which they’re probably about to ban “agencies doing regulations”) today? Here’s Madibe K. Dennie on Samuel Alito’s latest power grab disguised as a legal theory. (Balls and Strikes) Here’s Justice Kegs pretending not to understand that agencies have different policies during different administrations because voters chose a new administration to make different policy — plus some bullshit on the “major questions doctrine” (made up) and delegation. (Dorf on Law) The Only Republicans Are Allowed to Govern Doctrine. (Lawyers Guns & Money) Chris Geidner says it’s one of the most disingenuous arguments he’s ever seen. It must have been SOMETHING. (Law Dork)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/no-labels-party-2024-presidential-ballot-access-effort-complaint/
Some people are saying that “No Labels” has lost, or is losing, it’s collective mind. Personally, I am not sure that No Labels has a mind to lose. It has made a complaint to DOJ with the premise that anyone who doesn’t want to see their candidate, whoever that may be (they don’t even have a clue yet), on the November ballot is part of a RICO conspiracy against them. The Justice Department has not yet responded. Hopefully someone will tell them that, because the Constitution directs them to, states have laws in place covering every aspect of elections, including who may and may not appear on the ballot, and that if the No Labels candidate doesn’t qualify, it is the duty of the state not to put them on it.
Yesterday, I got an email from Carrie B. She mentioned that Barry is having medical issues and could use all the prayeers (or however you communicate with the universe) you can spare. Her own mobility issues are such that she cannot go anywhere without someone driving her, and Barry won’t be driving for a while.
Earlier this week, or maybe last week, I selected a Beau video about the difference between the ICJ, which is currently hearing a genocide case against Israel) and the ICC, which isn’t. Well, The Conversation is interested in this too. Their article doesn’t exactly compare the two, instead going into more detail about the powers of the ICJ.
Sacramento is, of course, the capital city of California. Growing up, I had a great-aunt and a great-uncle living there and from time to time we would visit, which was not really enough to educate me about the city. But when I saw this article fro California Public Radio, I thought, well, apparently, if a group means business, apparently they can do something about homelessness. Of course it took a long time and a chunk of change, but the story might well still have something to say to people working on homelessness in other places. So, if you know of a group near you (or are part of one), this is for you to share.
Yesterday, I didn’t get a lot done. Not that I have to every blessed day, of course.
As usual, Wonkette is pretty snarky, but the facts are solid. Republicans! i can only deduce that they want to prevent kids from growing up and voting. Including their own kids. Come to think, that would also explain all the guns.
The New Yorker had this piece on the separate battles breaking out in the Middle East. Am I being paranoid to suspect that these are not unrelated incidents? Well, if I am, i am not alone. If you can’t access it at the New Yorker, I made a pdf copy, and I can literally forward it in secons.
Yesterday, we received some unsurprising results from the Iowa Republican caucus (which they held on MLK Day, I presume because they don’t recognize it.) Of course the weather was not suchas to encourage participation … but those who think making Election Day a federal holiday will solve all ourtuenout problems might want to rethink that. Otherwise, the news today has for some reason given me this song (introduced by the Kingston Trio) as an earworm:
They’re rioting in Africa, they’re starving in Spain.
There’s hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles.
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch.
And I don’t like anybody very much!
Now here’s something to save and share. Blue Voters Guide is a non-profit which analyzes elections all over the country for you, so that if there’s some candidate you haven’t heard of – or for your friends who are wellintentioned but don’t follow politics – you will always be able to find out who is blue. 41 states have primaries scheduled between now and about June. Right now the guide for Colorado’s March 5 Presidential primary is pretty simple – though you’d be amazed by the length of the list of rag-tag nobodies who are running against Joe Biden. But later in the year we’ll have primaries for candidates for the House of Representatives and possibly for the Colorado House and the Colorado Senate, and who knows what. It probably won’t cover school board elections, which is IMO what we need the most at this time, but with enough support, it might be able to get there. In any case, I’m sure we all know someone (or someones) who could benefit from it. This information is courtesy of Robert Hubbell on Substack, whom I occasionally quote.
Joyce Vance’s “tomorrow” is now “today.” So it’s happening now. And it’s important enough that Robert Reich also addresses it, possibly even more starkly. So I’m providing both links, you can read or skim one or both. I expect eveeryone here can put their mind back to the days when we had rivers burning – and lakes full of dead fish – and that just scratches the surface. I don’t know whether this is accurate, but someone in a comment over at Crooks & Liars said that ancient Sumeria lasted for 3000 years. From the beginning, they had a legal system which protected the poor and weak and there were strict legal punishments for breaking those laws. But, every 300 years or so, the laws had been strayed from, but they had a king who brought the country into line with “the old laws.” We will be celebrating 250 years in just two years. (If it were up to me I would date our existence as a country from April 30, 1789, when George Washington took office and set the Constitution in motion, but no one asked me. And maybe I’m being unfair to the Articles fof Confederation which were the stopgap – but I don’t think so.)
Yesterday, I decided that, though still not up to my previous format, I am sharing ehough news to be able to call these “Open Threads.” My understanding of the term “Open Thread” as used on the ‘Net is essentially a reference to sites with rules that comments must be pertinent to the material presented by the blogger. In some cases I believe moderators delete irrlrvent comments. I can’t imagine TomCat doing that and I certainly never would. All news and opinions are welcome here, even fake news, if labeled – and blowback to controversial opinions – just be polite about it.
I kind of hesitated to mention this, but a jewelry company called The Concorde Collection is going out of business in 9 days. Their specialty is rings (for both men and women), and I guarantee they will not turn your finger green. They are all solid sterming silver – if gold in color, they are plated with 14K gold. That attracted me, and so did their original designs. I have several of their designs, but the only one I have that they still have is the “Jeweled Sunflower.” So they are not lying when they say that what they have left is going fast. I’m not worried about them selling out – that will happen. But just in case anyone besides me likes rings, I didn’t want y’all to miss out.
This from Heather Cox Richardson is a day late – but that might just be for the best. Forgetting the meaning of a holiday as soon as it is over is always a danger. This article is an article for every day – every minute, every second.
Steve Schmidt also posted an article worthy of saving, even if it were only for the links he gives tp these seven speeches:
1. What is to the slave is the 4th of July? speech by Frederick Douglass
2. Martin Luther King letter from a Birmingham jail
3. Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address
4. Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address
5. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address
6. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech
7. Martin Luther King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech
Yesterday was a quiet day for me. I slept late, while still making sure to get up in time for my grocery delivery, which was mostly accurate, and which the drivers (it was a couple) did help me get into the house so I wouldn’t have to step over the threshhold. There was one odd substitution which I haven’t figured out yet. But they did bring the fresh fruit I ordered (cherries and pears) and it was all in good condition.
Heather Cox Richardson, writing in Substack, has also addressed the brutal murder of a mother and two children by Texas Guardsman, under the eyes of Border Patrol agents, who were prevented from dong anything to save the victims’ lives because “state’s rights.” She has found a very telling quotation to oppose Abbott’s view of state’s rights in the writings of, of all people, Andrew Jackson – one of the last Presidents whom one would call “woke.”
I put Beau second today because I wanted to re-post this from 2021 to demonstrate that I was on the Pope’s side even before the Pope was. I have been since long before I made the graphic even. The problem with early Christian lifestyle and also with Marxist Communism is not their principles, which are sound. The problem is that for a society to actually live that way and sustain it is that everyone involved needs to be too good to live.
But I don’t want to leave out this one today of all days –
