Yesterday, the exterminator came by. He said progress is being made, and if 2 weeks from now there is more, we need to dicuss longer intervals between visits. So that’s good.
Well, I was wrong. I apologize to anyone who may have thought I was right and watched the show. Mary Trump does a far better job of breaking down why than I could.
They have arrested a dude (and believe he was not alone) for “stealing” (no mention of vandalism) the Jackie Robinson statue. Sometimes it’s hardest to see things that are right under yor nose for the last 2 weeks he’s been locked up for something else. Try not to hit yourself in the head over what cops will believe or claim to believe in order to announce “No evidence of a hate crime.”
Yesterday, my ballot for the Presidential primary arrived. The election is March 5th. I’ve been avoiding going out the front door since my hospital stay, and even more so, avoiding the porch steps (the last time I ventured on them wasthe day I came home, and that was one way only.) But with that much time, and Trinette coming Sunday, I’m sure I can wait tll then. I know for whom I am voting, and it’s only one block to fill in, and if she takes it out the same day it comes in, it should get there in time easily.
This is a crash course in foreign affairs. If that makes it sound difficult – it isn’t. And it explains a lot about how we got to this point. And it’s available for free to anyne, so you can share (you might want to mention scrolling a little for “continue reading.”)
Yesterday, it was quiet enough. I had sent Nameless a quick email the night before congratulating KC in the SuperBowl win, and he responded with a video of fans celebrating at the Electric Company, with plumes of steam (I guess it was) blowing. And when that video ended is showed so many links t animal videos I didn’t have that I wasted an hour or two looking them all up and keeping a record of most of them. OK, that wasnt really a waste.
UNC, which is in Greeley, I presume has a fine medical school, but it’s the veterinary school which has a national reputation. I’m glad it’s being included. I also hope a bunch of the MDs will be OBGs – Republicans have greatly multiplied the patient base for that specialty.
I liked the lead article in this newsletter (the first three titled paragraphs) because it makes no excuses for the stupid – stupid, after all, is stupid. And it reveals the game and gives us alittle something to throw back.
Yesterday, Trinette came over again, to run the car, bring in mail, and take out recyclables (I didn’t have enough trash to make that worth while.) She says “Hi back, especially to Nameless.
This is late news, but as Susie Madrak points out, you wouldn’t know it, from the coverage it didn’t get. And it’s game-changing – if only it can gain traction.
Yesterday, I posted Steve Schmidt’s opinion on Robert Hur before I had seen Robert Reich’s, or, for that matter, VP Harris’s. Both pointed and worth seeing.
Because today is what it is, I am using a Superb Owl pic in lieu of the usual logo.
The SPLC’s report on the attitudes of young Americans toward guns and gun safety, compiled with assistance from the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) is complete, and can be found here. The study examined “young people’s access to guns, experiences with gun violence, feelings of safety and mental wellbeing, as well as their views on male supremacy, racial resentment and the Second Amendment.”
Yesterday, I didn’t have to read up on the opera – in fact I may sleep theough it – because it’s not a full opera but a selection of love duets for Valentine’s Day. I am so much intp opera as a vehicle for storytelling and plot that I can’t get excited about selections. But if anyone is interested in a sampler, it bradcasts at 1:00 pm EST, 12 noon CST, 11:00 am Mountain, and 10:am Pacific. All of those are the same time. KCME.org will broadcast, as aell as WFMT.com in Chicago, WQXR.org in New York. I wasn’t able to confirm KUSC.org in Los Angeles (though as active as LA OPera is I’d be surprised if it doesn’t), but if you are listening on the internet, the sound isn’t any better from somewhere close than is is from the other side of the country.
I expect everyone’s heard of Trump**’s plan to alter the hiring criteria for Federal civil service so that he can fire anyone he doesn’t think is “loyal” enough and replace them with someone he thinks is. The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) takes a hard look at the implications of this here.
I know crap when I see it, and I presume y’all do also. But, sadly, Steve is still right.
Yesterday was another quiet day, which is fine with me.
Harry T. Burleigh, born in 1866, was a black man with a desire to become a classical composer. With the encouragement and assistance from Frances McDowell, the mother of Edward McDowell (“To a Wild Rose” and much more), he was admitted to the New York Conservatory of Musicon work study as a janitor. While he swept the halls, he would sing Spirituals, and was heard by Antonín Dvořák (New World Symphony), who was enchanted, and requested Burleigh to sing for him as much as possible. (Contrary to myth, Dvořák did not use any actual spirituals in The New World Symphony, though he was good enough at working in the style to make people think he did, and a later Black American wrote words to the most recognizable theme therein and called it “Going Home.”) Burleigh graduated and had a career as a composer, writing both instrumental and vocal music. In particular he composed songs to poems by “Laurence Hope” (a pseudonym for a woman, – and not only was it next to impossible for a woman to get published then in her own right, but a lot of those poems were pretty hot stuff for the day) including a set called “5 Songs of Laurence Hope.” Jim Ginsburg, the son of Marty and Ruth (Bader) Ginsburg, and the founder of Cedille Records, is featuring a record of music by Black composers, called “Dreams of a New Day,” sung by Will Liverman (the baritone protagonist of choice of today’s Black opera composers) which includes Burleigh’s “5 Songs of Laurence Hope,” and the first of them is available on Spotify at this link. Call me a name-dropper, but I think those are some names worth dropping even when it’s not Black History Month.
This column is a rant, and an exceedingly righteous one at that, IMO. I could wish I’d said it first … but it’s better this way, since he has the larger following. Basically, he compares and contrasts encouraging news with the discouraging words in which the media presents it. Certainly we should never take winning for granted. But the media seems to want us to take losing for granted, and that is a bridge too far for us to be going over. I did get some encouragement myself from Hubbell’s counterarguments, and hope you also will.
Yesterday, the radio opera was “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” by Anthony Davis. Most of us probably remember Malcolm X, if not in great detail. The important parts of his life were not published at the tiem, and after his death mostly in books, which fewer people read than read newspapers or the equivalent. At that time there were some real journalists, and I can’t help wondering what they would have come up with for public consumption at the time if only black people had been considered to have any importance. I don’t expect we’ll ever know. There was, as Lona predicted, a choke-up moment – according to the opera Malcolm’s last words were “As-Salamu Alaikum” – peace be upon you – and then the gunfire. Those who were closest to him at the time don’t agree, but the variants they remember, although in English, are actually pretty close. Musically – well, I’ve said for years the man can write music, and I stand by that. I was reminded a little of Lin Manuel Miranda discussing how he determined in what style to write all the Hamilton characters’ music – partly by their ages. “X” covers several decades, and Davis nods to that specifically in the jazz styles. In a different way, it struck me that three operas I have heard which were writtin by black composers about black people have all included a boy soprano to play the protagonist as a child. I don’t recall any other opera depicting that, and I have to wonder why not.
Also yesterday, I saw Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letter from an American” from Friday, since it came, as always, late in the day. I got a feeling of deja vu, and quickly realized it was because it was the same information Beau provided in the video in February 3’s Open Thread – except that Heather’s letter was in National-Security-speak whereas Beau’s was in Beau-speak. Still, it was cool to revisit the same story in different words.
I subscribe to newsletters from both the Atlanta Black Star and The Root – not just for Black History Month, but all the time, because it helps keep me on track with the perspective. For some reason, every time I attempt to load a full article at The Root, the screen goes white after a short time (I know, I know, past time for an upgrade. But it will have to wait until I am ready.) It’s long enough for me to get inough detail to search for the story elsewhere, and this time it was long enough to tell me that MSN had reprinted the story – for which I was most grateful. It helps to clarify the difference between money and votes. Yes, they go together, sort of – but they are not each other, and the one is not necessarily a predictor of the other. And the one will not win elections. But the other one will. Jaime Harrison is a rising star in the Democratic Party, and I believe his opinions are worth a listen. And I deeply believe we need to show more love than we are currently showing to black Democrats. Especially now, going into an election which we cannot win without them.
