Yesterday, I looked up the latest “Parody Project” – a parody of “Cat’s in the Cradle” called “Rats who enable.” And I realized how long it’s been since I checked the site. Here’s a link to all the videos, in date order, newest first. Something else may well appeal to you as much or more. I admit I’m influenced by loving the original so much. Akso, Trinette was by, and we made some more space. She says hi to all. I couldn’t find aother artice (and ran out of time to look harder), so I’m putting in 2 videos of Beau. He’s been hot lately (and one of them scared the daylights out of me).
It wasn’t pretty – but I have to suspect she took him by surprise and he didn’t know what to do. It was just so different for a Republican to be minimally polite.
Yesterday, the radio opera was Puccini’s “La Rondine” (The Swallow), his only comic opera (which still has a suffering heroine, but she doesn’t die.) It was written on commission from a Viennese theater. and was intended to be an Italian version of a Viennese operetta. Certainly some of them do not end with the lovers living happily ever after – off the yop of my head, thre’s “Juditta” and “The Land of Smiles”. Viennese operettas do, if I’m not mistaken, all have spoken dialogue, but Puccini only accepted the commission woth a stipulation of no spoken dialogue. The theme is true love v. riches and comfort. Basically, in the first act a poet’s newest work starts a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of both. in the second act she “flies like a swallow” from her sugar daddy to true love, and in the third, she “flies” back. Of course the music is luscious. Also yesterday, the House passed the foreign aid package after months of Republican anal retention (the reference is not to the content of the package necessarily, but to the conduct of Republicans.)
After the package was passed in the House, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) – toold them the truth and they thought it was hell.
This is heartbreaking – but it needs to be widely known. It explains a whole lot. And the article he links to should also be widely spread.
Yesterday, a man set himself on fire in the “designated protest area” outside the courthouse where Trump** is being tried. He has allegedly been identified as Maxwell Azzarello of St. Augustine, FL. Since we already know MAGAts are clinically insane, what struck me about the atory is the fact that a “protest area” has been designated. That seriously makes me worry that we will never see sanity in government again – at least not nationally. I do have confidence in some states. Also yesterday, Robert Reich posted a new video on RFKj, and is inviting everyone to share it with everyone. Sure, he can’t win. And logically, his platform should take away voters from Trump**, not from Biden. But politics is not all that logical. Too many people don’t really pay attention.
I am hoping this small victory – the kind of victory which so often Democrats don’t get involved with because it’s local – not thinking it through that it’s those victories from which our bench for the “bigger” contests needs to grow -I hope iit helps inspire others to run also.
Now this is what I have been waiting for ever since Joe appointed Deb Haaland to the Department of the interior. Based just on all the Republican whining it may well have been worth waiting for. Here’s a second link to a different article, same subject.
P.S. Yes, I realize today is 4/20. But since THC doesn’t really do anything for me, so that I just stick with CBD, I’m afraid I don’t really know how to celebrate
Yesterday, I had had a pretty good night’s sleep. Of course I had done some stuff the day before – packed and tied four boxes for pickup, unpacked my new (to me and already obsolete) computer and broke up the box it came in, fighting staples and glue, and a couple of other little things. But I felt good enough to take in a small grocery order, and assemble ingredients for a recipe which I can now make. (Don’t get too excited about the computer. I am not going to plug it in until I can also plug in a USB multi-hub, since the place I am putting it makes it very difficult to reach the back. And I don’t want to move my present 8-port one from where it is. So I ordered a new one – probably nect week sometime it should arrive.)
Someone has made what I can only call a “mockyoumentary” out of Trump’s** anecdote of the Battle of Gettysburg. Yes, it’s awful, but it’s also short – and very funny in a schadenfreude kind of way.
Mary Trump, as you know, is following Trump**’s cases from a personal perspective. She put together a group of topics from Tuesday’s jury selection, including a list of characteristics on selected jurors which are allowed to be made public.
Yesterday, I arose after a long night with very little sleep (I did rip through a bunch of Sudokus, though.) I’m yawning a little, but otherwise OK – and hoping that staying up will help me sleep better tonight. And also that I get a bunch done.
Heather Cox Richardson summarizes a whole bunch of related events here, but I believe that’s a good thing. When one is in the middle of something (and especially if one is in the middle of more than one something), it’s all too easy to forget details which may be critical.
Well, I did do a post for yesterday, but the computer ate it. And I didn’t discover that early enough to try to reconstruct it. Sorry.
Yesterday, the court in Manhattan managed to select and swear in 6 jurors, includinng the foreperson (which surprises me – I thought the foreperson was chosen from [and by] the full jury. But whatever.)
None of us is completely immune to the belief that “Everyone thinks exactly the way I do.” In people who value the truth and facts, it sometimes presents as “Everyone knows exactly what I know.” None of this is accurate. This article may give you an idea just how inaccurate it is. It really cannot be repeated too often.
This may be just me … but this article starts with the statistic “Internet scammers targeted more than 10,000 Coloradans last year, stealing a total of $187,621,731.” I immediately thought, that averages out to almost $19,000 per victim. Who are these people (who can come up with that kind of money to lose)? I do realize a lot of victims are businesses – but still.
Pat B is having fun with family and company probably the rest of the week. I don’t expect to have a TJI every day, but I thought I should share this one – “The media has wrongly adopted a narrative that views the trial as a proxy for the election. It is not. If we let go of that false narrative, we can observe the trial for what it is—a clunky, imperfect way to arrive at a procedural determination about whether the state has met its burden of proof.” – Robert Hubbell
Yesterday, I came across a new Parody Project video at Democratic Underground, and I’m providing the link to that site (you can easily get to YouTube from it if you prefer.) The poster,, “DFW,” is “The freedom Toast” just as Don Caron is “The Parody Project.” DFW is an ex-pat living in Europe after a lifetime of foreign service. In the one photo I’ve seen of him, he looks a bit like Santa Claus in a dress suit – and that’s probably more than you wanted to know. I recommend the YouTube CC because the white type washes out on some of the light backgrounds – the CC isn’t perfect, but it’s something.
This has taken a long, long time to accomplish, and it’s really only starting, but I for one am glad it has at last gotten this far.
On the eve of a major trial, Richardson takes a look at the other (neglected by the MSM) story of how the economy works, and when it works best, and why. While attending to the Trump** story, we also need to be telling this one.
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Die Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss Jr (“The Waltz King”). This and “The Merry Widow” bY Lehar are the only two operettas I can think of which are sometimes done by regular opera companies. Both can be described as “zany.” Of course so can Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas – and, really, most operettas of the period. People have always enjoyed far-fetched humor. “Fledermaus” means “Bat,” and the premise is that, a year before the operetta, the lead tenor and the baritone went to a an event together, something between a party, a costume ball, and an orgy, and both got drunk. The baritone, who dressed as a bat, passed out, and the tenor (dressed as a butterfly) left him in a public park to sober up, and he woke to crowds pointing and laughing. This year, he wants revenge – and he gets it. And everyone except the tenor gets amusement and laughs at the tenors expense. When I was working as a volunteer costumer for my local college’s music department (before I got hired and paid by the theatre department), this was one of the shows I dressed. That was even longer ago than when the recording was made which they used yesterday to celebrate the operetta’s 150th anniversary (it premiered in April, 1876.) Also, I heard from Pat, who said her doctor’s apointment went well, and she is greatly relieved.
This is neither political, medical, financial, or helpful in any other way. It’s just interesting in that it reveals issues in the way we think about time (and probably other things as well.)
Many sources are discussing the decision by the Arizona Supreme Court that an abortion law from 1864 can stand. Much of the coverage includes lurid detail about the life and actions of the author of the law, which may be interesting, but really isn’t germane to the merits (and demerits, which outnumber the merits) of the law itself. This (gift-linked) article from the Washington Post doesn’t go there, instead concentrating on the effect of the ruling on the 2024 general election, both statewide and nationwide, and the reactions of Arizonans both in and out of politics.
