In the 1972 movie version of Cabaret there was a chilling, frightening scene where a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Hitler Youth stands up and starts singing “Tomorrow Belongs to Me”.
Yesterday that scene immediately came to mind:
And I’m the old man shaking my head …
Yesterday, I deleted 93 incoming emails before 3:00 pm. I moved another couple of dozen to my folders without reading them – I’ll go back and at least look at most of them, but not until we have cerrtifiable election results. I don’t need that roller coaster. I do have the dial tone n my phone back, and about 7 or 8 emails about that – I haven’t read them all as I type, but apparently my old carrier transferred the internet but not the phone, and the new one is now powerless until the old one gets it – stuff – together and gives the new one a solid date. I didn’t need that either. If anyone does feel the need for the roller coaster, there will have been plenty of watch parties both on and off line. Rober Reich promised a handholdimg one at his Substack site, for instance. At least one thing is sure -by the time you read this it will be all over but the counting.
Robert Reich posted this Monday evening, but I think Wednesday morning will be soon enough to read it. We will know more than then we do now, but between crazy MAGAts, red states which will not even begin counting early votes untill the polls close, and irresponsible media, I am not convinced we will know enough to be certain what the next four years will look like. I think there will still be a vacuum into which Reich’s analysis will be a welcome introduction.
The Atlanta Black Star does manage to cover more than black news – the reason that’s so often what I choosef rom them is that no one else will touch it. I wonder how many other news outlets will touch this story?
Belle alphabet
(Not sure this is for real – but it is sweet, even if it’s AI)
Yesterday, I learned that Kamala Harris had appeared on Saturday Night Live’s cold open along with Maya Rudolph. (Yeah, even with the extra hour, I didn’t get through Sunday’s emails on Sunday.) Mitch, sweetie that he is, had sent me a link to the NYTimes article on it, which I did archive, but frankly I don’t much care what the NYTimes has to say about anything any more. So here’s a link to the Cold Open on YouTube. Also yesterday I learned that Quincy Jones died Sunday – and I might not have learned that without subscribibg to The Root’s free enail newsletter, so much has the election sucked the life out of all other news (although in the evening I did hear about it on CPR Classical.)
Heather Cox Richarddson has just returned fro a thirteen month book tour, and is admittedly exhausted. But, while o tour, everywhere she went she was asked the same question – to wit, how she managed to maihtain hope in the face of – well, everything. this is her answer. I’m not adding a tissue alert – I needed one, but I think that’s at least in large part because I’m low on antidepressant just now – and I don’t see this history being taught in red states any time soon. But the history itself is filled with hope.
Joyce Vance’s “The Week Ahead” (also from Sunday evening) may not be as radiantly hopeful as Cox Rixhardson, but it is full if information which should not be missed. What we don’t know about, we cannot defend against. And it’s not all bad. There’s some good news also. (And did you know that chickens can purr? The previous day’s column even had a short video with sound which proves it. I am speechless.)
For months now I have been mostly skipping over fundraising emails. But Saturday, I got one with the From/Subject in the screen capture below. Seriously, how could I not open that one? Besides being lovely, it reminds me of Virgil (No, I’m not claiming to be as badass as Kamala, but bless his heart, I think he thinks I am.) Yesterday, I saw him and we once again played cribbage. On the way, I detoured to check out a medical building where I have an appointment for the 13th. I lost the first appointment I made looking for a new PCP through not being able to find the place in time, and I don’t want to go through that again, especially since I’m getting low on scrips and have no prescriber until i can keep an appointment. And just to make life more interesting, my landline has not been working all week.
And speaking of Virgil – I probably hardly even need to say that authoritarians are so clueless when it comes to understanding what motivates people. Granted, it’s not 100% impossible for people to be motivated to anything positive by shame, but it’s very rare. Hitting bottom is not about shame, it’s about losing things. I’ve only come across one anecdote in over 40 years of being married to a recovering alcoholic which suggests shame as a positive motivator, and that was the story of a father who was drunk and still drinking in the kitchen when his teenaged son walked in and said, “Dad, you stink.” And even that can be explained otherwise. But all of these MAGAts would have kicked the kid in this story off the team with no remorse, and it likely would have sealed his fate. Tim knew better.
Heather Cox Richardson‘s history is, as always, impeccable. I can only hope that her speculation is equally reliable. There is oly todat and tomorrow to make a difference – in a few states late mail ballots can be accepted, but they must be postmarked by midnight tomorrow. With the whole nation, possibly the entire world freaking out (and not without reason), we are going to have to wait possibly days after voting ends to know the results. At times like these, I always remember C. S. Lewis’s analysis – a psychological analysis – That it’s perfectly legitimate to pray for (or against) something wihich has already happened, as long as you don’t know what the result is (and it’s probably psychologically impossible to keep praying once you know anyway, for good or ill.) So those who believe in prayer, feel free to keep praying as long as there is any doubt.
Well, it’s the time of year for the radio operas to be productions from Beijing. This year there are four of them; two are Italian , one is German, and one is a new commission from a Chinese composer (and librettist. Yesterday was the first, “La Sonnambula” by Bellini. This may be the only opera which has a farther-fetched plot than Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino,” but to make up for it, it at least has a happy ending. Europe in the early 19th century was fascinated by sleepwalking, and medicine was in the stage of starting to look fo causes of and treatments for phenomena which were just beginning to be understood as medical conditions. By 1831, the villagers, who at first have thought the “lady in white” to be a ghost, have learned enough about sleepwalking (actually from the local count, who has been traveling and learning stuff and has just returned home) to know they need to save her first (as she sleepwalks across the framework of the village’s water mill – or across local rooftops, depending on the staging – it could also be the edge of a steep cliff, I suppose) and wake her afterwards, or it would have been a tragedy. A line from her last aria about the flower (of her love) which she did not expect to have faded so soon (having been set up by a rival using her sleepwalking to convince her fiancé that she has been unfaithful) was inscribed on Bellini’s tomb in reference to his having died so young (at 34.) Anyway, the music is gorgeous, as is all of Bellini’s work – there’s a reason he was known as “The Swan of Catania.” This opera was one of many “Bel Canto” operas championed by Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, and has not fallen out of the repertory since. Also, I’d like to apologize for being late for Diwali (I didn’t get the email until it was already over.) Now I’m off to visit Virgil, and will check in in the comments.
Well, the Reich on the left is most assuredly right this time. Not that we needed one, but this is certainly another reason to be voting for Harris-Walz. Lina Khan is doing her job, using but not exceeding her authority, and long may she continue!
This from Crooks and Liars is not as good as it could be – but at least it’s honest and as something to be played at a citizenship ceremony, it beats the holy crap outof “God Bless the USA.” (Not that that is difficult. We actually have had for decades something better than either – the second verse of “This is My Country.” You know, the first verse starts “This is my country, land of my birth,” and the second starts “This is my country, land of my choice.” Both end “This is my country, to have and to hold.”)
Yesterday, I picked up a Randy Rainbow for us – a bit late, but i did manage to remove the advertisinf and the tracing as well – I checked the link of course, and it sode work. I have nothing against Ground News – it apparently works very well too – but as long as I’m paying off the new water heater I really don’t need another paid subscription (I cancellted what i already had), even 50% off. I do wish we’d had this one months ago – OK, some of th details are newer than that, but like six months ago he could already have done a great job with everything we already knew. But better late than never. Also, per the Washington Post, the kids who survived Sandy Hook as first graders will all be voting for the first time this year. But please – there are better ways toachieve full participation in democracy.
Mary Trump nails it. Not that that’s unusual or in any way unexpected. But it does leave me without much if anything to add.
Much as it turns my stomach to even think about it, Hickenlooper is in the right. But I’ afraid his advice to Republicand will fall on deaf ears and blind eyes – if they haven’t detached themselves yet, they’re not going to do it by January.
Not only is it next to impossible for people with the attention span of a gnat to remember all the horrors of the Trump** administratin, it’s probably also impossible for them to stick with Robert Reich long enough to get through a list of just some of them. But I applaud him for trying.
Belle Red Mirage
Dog
Yesterday, of course, was Hallowe’en. Without writing a novel, I need to provide the background that one of my backups when there’s a program on the radio i don’t like (or static, even worse) is “The Score” – a one hour each week program on film music which keeps a two-week archive on line. I went there today and listened to a program on scary movies rated G. The only one i found truly terrifying, and that really only because he featured its poster, was “The House with a Clock in the Wall” from 2018. Jack Black then just looks way, way too much like JD Vance now. And he was playing the good guy!
From ProPublica. Sure, this is Tennessee. But it’s also a preview of a Trump** second term anywhere and everywhere for anyone whom Tru,p** and his demons consider to be “the enemy within.” No one deserves this.
Sheesh! They are everywhere! Shasta County isn’t in the southern part of California – it’s about halfway between Sacramento and Oregon. The county seat even has a couple of universities. Stupid just is as stupid does.
Three million blind GOPs,”, See how they lie,”, They all ran after the people’s votes, tried to claim they were faked in totes, so much dumber than baby stoats, three million blind GOPs. Pardon me, I can get flaky when I’m mad.
I’ve had it with the Right-Wing press. They demand NO information on TFG’s policies but are obsessed with constantly badgering Kamala about hers – which have been thoroughly detailed.
Biden’s “gaffe” of saying Trumpkins’ values are “garbage” was good for TWO DAYS as the LEAD story over at NBC by Garratt Haake.
But TFG can call Americans “scum” “vermin” “the enemy within” etc. – and the MSM sane-washes him as “It’s just Trump being Trump. Whaddaya going to do?”
Biden’s gait has slowed down and the MSM concludes he’s too old to be president.
But Trump puts on a full display of his neurological or age-related fumbling, and you get bupkis from them for coverage.
So to correct that oversight, let’s enjoy TFG trying to get into his garbage truck yesterday in his failed effort to mock Biden:
