Open Thread November 12 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 122024
 

Yesterday, unsurprisingly, I received an email from VoteVets. But somehow I was not expecting an email from VoteVets to ne quite thisblunt. For instance, “Being a Veteran has often meant that the promises your country made to you were not always upheld. It meant being lied into wars. It meant that you had to watch as politicians refused to care for your friends as they got sick when they came home from those wars. It meant that the ideals and values you swore to uphold were often cast aside by the people in charge.” I know a lot of people think most veterans are Republican. While I don’t know the actual numbers, I doubt it. I know the people at VoteVets are not Republican. No Republican would ever be that honest. It’s no wonder that one of the most attended play presented by the Theater of War is “Philoctetes” – the title character who has been severely betrayed by “the generals,” and now they want to betray him again. In different ways, Theater of War and Vote Vets have a common goal – to help people heal. Theater of War works with public and private grants. Vote Vets needs contributions, and it is a worthy organization. I apolgize to everyone here and all Vets for crying on Veterans Day. But I’m afraid it seemed like the right thing to do.

This is Robert Reich’s take on the election, and on why geting the right take onthe election is so important going forward. I am with him up to a point. Here’s where I differ: when he says misogyny and racism does not explain it all. Yes, it does. Now, he goes on thedicuss the levels of education of the voter pool, much of which is woefully inadequate. But he fails to make the connection that the right kind of edication will also reduce racism and misogyny – and that nothing else will. It is not misogyny to recognize that misogyny exists. It is not misogyny to believe and say that by putting our best and brightest women into elections which no woman can win with the electorate as it it, we are killing them politically just as surely as outlawing abortion id killing women physically. We are not doingwomen any favors by sacrificing them on the altar of progress. (And I am willing to believe racism is also a factor since Hillary won the popular vote also and Harris did not. But education is also tha only way to put a dent in that.)

If you were expecting a civil war but not a shooting war, you may want to rethink that. I’m providing the link to NBC, since the Democratic Underground article just summarizes.

This is a very personal take on a World War II battle, and I doubt you’ll see it anywhere else other than here. I hope it helps.

Share

Open Thread November 11 2024

 Posted by at 6:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 112024
 

Yesterday, I didn’t accomplish much. Trinette came by and I nad no trash to take out – only recyclables, and not that much of those. But at least I has baked the gluten free oay flour cookies so I was able to share them with her. This Wednesday, I have a medical appointment which I am a bit on edge about, so I may not be as conscientious with typos etc, (and goodness i have enough pf those even when I am doing best conscientious.) After almost 30 years with the same PCP it’s tough to be looking for a new one. I think I’m prepared, but I not even all that crazy about nice surprises, and I certainly don’t want any which are not so nice.

HuffPost may be jumping the gun by a couple of months, but that short time is relatively zero in the scheme of things. Ugly as it is, we need to look at it.

This is from The F-ing News. I have not seen it elsewhere. Feel free to scream.

.

Share

Open Thread November 10 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 102024
 

Yesterday, The radio opera was “LAN Huahua” (WFMT puts Chinese surnames in all caps to remind everyone that the surname comes first), an opera comissioned for the NCPA in 2011 (completed in 2017) based on a flok ballad about a beautiful young woman who makes the mistake of believing she can think for herself in feudal China (and even have bodily autonomy.) It doesn’t end well, at least not in my opinion.  It ends with all the villagers singing her ballad, so that she will never be forgotteen.  But that to me does not compensate for all the bullying and the eventual suicide.  Lovely music, though.  Interesting fusion of Chinese ans western musical traditions put together so smoothly it’s not really easy to find the joins.  At least some of that has got to be because the composer worked so hard to find analogies between aspectss of the two traditions.

I’m sorry that this article from the 19th is heartbreatking. I’m even sorrier that it is just one more heartbreaking thing in a world of heartbreak. And that we dare not close our eyes to it.

Apparently there are people who did not see this coming. I am not one of them. I can’t tell whether the Atlanta Black Star saw it coming or not, but I can say they do report on it fearlessly. And this article is aimed at all decent people. The evil empire has another plan just for people of color.

Screenshot

Share

Open Thread November 9 2024

 Posted by at 5:49 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 092024
 

Yesterday, hoo boy, did I ever wake up from a strange dream. It startes with my preparing to teach some kids how to adapt and bake an adapted cookie recipe. Tere were actually several dozen kids, 5th-7th grade, in the class, but I was one of many teachers, so no one of us was dealing with more than 5 or 8. I prepared by actually baking different adaptaions, and making printouts of the one I considered the best. No one else had done this, so I ran horribly short of printouts, and all the kids had attitudes. Afterwards, the supervisor of all the teachers asked me to deliver an object for him and i agreed. It was to a place somethng like Chaco Canyon, though I have never actually been there. When I delivered it, the recipient asked me to deliver a different object to someone else. In fact, everywhere I went, everyone to whom I delivered somethng had something else for me to deliver to someone else. Some of these people were children and young adults, but some were much older. Some were lovers separated by circumstance. There were various ethnic and lingual groups represented, and multi talents. Most of the spaces were kind of wilderness, but one thing I was asked to deliver was to a college to which the asker had applied, and that was in a small city. Among the people I delvered to were a little girl who said she wanted to be President when she grew up, and a little boy who said he wanted to be President now. At the very end, the person I was delivering to was not there, and an elderly lady said she would deliver it, so I gave it to her and returned to the supervisor who has started the chain, who picked up a small rifle and shot the person standing behind me, who turned out to be the elderly lady from my last stop, who had been aiming at my back with a bow and arrow. That was when i realized that the stuff I had been delivering was not just stuff, but objects of great spiritual significance and power, and I was returning them to their rightful owners, and I was doing so on behalf of a resistance movement. If I could remember (or reinvent) all the details, it would make a great fantasy novel. I would love it if Margaret Atwood would do so – wry humor was prominent among the wide range of emotions in it. But if anyone wants to tackle it,I would not dream of claiming copyright for a dream (pun intended.) I actually have been working on a cookie recipe IRL – maybe I will have managed to bake something by today.

Talking Points Memo Wednesday morning listed a whole lot of catatrophoc stuff which we wll knew was comng – but there was just so much of it, it’ barely possible to hold it all in mins at one time. So, in case anyone forgot anything, here is it. Yea, I held it a couple of days. Including from myself. I can only take so much.

I realize I am in no danger of being raped by Nick Fuentes, for a large number of reasons (or at least not sexually – financially is another matter). But the mere thought of it is enough to make me start thinking anout mixing a potassium cyanide-grapefruit juice cocktail. I actually anticipate seeing the suicide rate among women of all ages skyrocket in the near future.

Share

Open Thread November 8 2024

 Posted by at 6:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 082024
 

Yesterday, The 19th (though its editor) ask the question, “What will it take for America tohave a woman President?” You’re probably familiar with the concept of necessary and sufficient conditions. Well, IMO, a necessary condition would be for Democrats to sontrol the standards for primary and secondary education nationall, in all states and territories, wit enforcement, for 40 years (one generation.) But i can’t claim that would be sufficient. The 19th is a Creative Commons source, so I posted it to Democratic Underground. and put my pwn opinion in a comment. By yhe time I posted the comment there was already ne comment other than mine, and by the time I got there to read it there were two more. I must have touched a nerve.

Yes, this leads to a video – from “Legal AF” which is affiliated with Meidas Touch, although if I understand him correctly, it’s now being opened as a seperate channel. Being part of a Resistance is hard, but in the long run not being in a resistance may be harder. I have to add to what Popok says: he speaks about watching blue states go purple, and purple states go red, and by larhe margins, but he doesn’t really address why. The reason is MISOGYNY. As in 2016, misogynists managed to hide in plain sight for months, even years – and then cpme out of hiding in droves. How long are we going to ignore this? Until it kills us, like the cancer it is? I’m providing the link to the new channel, not the main link, but the one to the “Videos” page because that is the page which has all the videos in chronological order (newest first) which makes it possible to follow a complete timeline. I am not going to be posting one daily, though I shall certainly try to be following the channel daily.)

Defending Rights and Dissent sent me an email outlining their plans for the next four years. (Of course it’s requesting donations.) They didn’t provide a direct link to the content, but I’m pretty sure I found the same article. Since we are now the Resistance, you might want to read it and at least know there are places to turn (ACLU is not alone). You know, Audrey Hepburn, when she was a teenager, worked with the Resistance in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation. She had health issues for the rest of her life – not I think because of the work, but because everyone was starving. They ate tu;lip bulbs just to survive, for instance.

This link is to the home page of New Mexico Political Report. Which means it almost certainly will not look the same to you reading this as it did to me posting it. But here re the headlines I am seeing (sorry about the all caps. I cut and pasted.):
HEINRICH WINS THIRD TERM IN SENATE
VASQUEZ WINS REELECTION TO CONGRESS IN CLOSELY FOUGHT RACE
DEMOCRATS DEFEND LARGE MAJORITIES IN STATE HOUSE, SENATE
DEMOCRATS WIN 1ST, 3RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS
SECRETARY OF STATE: 2024 ELECTIONS A SUCCESS
They are probably all still findable.
Colorado also could have done a lot worse. We still have one House seat that’s too close to call, but we did well with initiatives. The only big one we lost was trying to outlaw sport hunting of big cats.  So, if you are considering to a different state, here we are. I can’t say what our job markets are like, but our prices are certainly lower than California’s.

Share

Open Thread November 7 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 072024
 

Yesterday, it appeared that Nameless and I were caught together in the shrinking gap between winter storm Anya and Hurricane Rafael. And, yes, I did receive some snow – about an inch and a half, which by afternoon had melted on the asphalt but was still clinking to the unpaved ground. They’r predicting 4″ more today and just under that tomorrow, with mostly sun on Saturday and sun all day Sunday. It’s a good thng for Trinette that she works from home, though. Many people, including people who have been born here, have not grasped that Colorado Springs does not have a climate, but a bundle of microclimates. I could tell you stories. Once I went from needing chains to dry road in the space of one interstate exit. And a coworker of mime when I worked on north Academy who then lived roughly where I live now (but at the time I lived a little north f downtown) setout for work, and at the time it was also dry on North Academy. But across the middle of town therer was asnow so thick and fast it was literally impassible. Anyway, I expect to be fine, and they don’t seem to expect Rafael to go as far west as Nameless. But I surely wish people would pay more attention. This video from Parody Project is much more fun than the Weather Unferground video. And it looks as though we’ll need some fun just in order to stay off of hard drugs

This from what used to be Twitter via Democratic Undergound could help

I recently read, I think it was at Democratic Underground, that it is easier to get to sleep if you go to bed thinking about three good things that happened during the day. They don’t need to be huge good things. Just something which is positive. I won’t go so far as to say it works, but I have tried it, and it does help. Accordingly, here are this, this, and this.

Share

Open Thread November 6 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 062024
 

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)

Share

Open Thread November 5 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 052024
 

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.)

Share
 Older Entries  Newer Entries