Open Thread September 17 2024

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 172024
 

Yesterday, I was still tidying up. I have been known to make the same mstake twice, but hopefully not in a two-day period, so this should be on time. Also, the New Mexico Political Report announced a week starting today of articles discussing exactly what impact Project 2025 would have in New Mexico specifically. I realize that probably none of us live in New Mexico, but even if your state has zip in common with it, seeing it applied to a particular state could get us thinking about how it would apply to our own. I’m providing a link to the introduction, which has more details. While there , I went to the home page by clicking on the logo in the upper left, and saw two stories already on how Project 2025 will affect the climate in New Mexico. The New Mexico Political Report is (or used to be and I hope still is) a creative commons site, which means that as long as you follow their rules, you can repost complete articles and not violate copyright. And then there’s this (watch the embed here – don’t go to YouTube – it is censoring VoteVets

TomCat referred to the Reichstag fire often, as I’m sure everyone recalls. The first “assissination attempt” may have been actually an intended attempt, but I still do not believe it as a bullet which caused his ear to bleed (my vote goes to shattered glass “shrapnel.”) But this really does look ridiculous to anyone with a functioning brain. Not that that precludes it from being very dangerous, as Rober Reich has also remarked.

This is a report from the Project on Government Oversight on what happens in one state – Texas – when the Census is not conducted to count every head. NOte that Texas deliberately conducted the 2020 Census so as to undercount its population. WEll, it cost them a lot of money to do that. Not that they care about that. Red states are states which turn down Federal money even if the count is correct.

Belle 18 mos

Cat

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Open Thread September 16 2024

 Posted by at 2:28 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 162024
 

Yesterday was the first day of National Hispanic Heritage month. It will run through October 15.   Also yestrday, I got so involved in cleaning up my work area that I forgot to pre-post this. Don’t worry, I’m fine – and I’m also making progres though i may be the only one who can really see it.

My district tried running a trans woman candidate a few elections ago … I suppose it was worth a try, after we failed twice to elect a moderate Dem white male veteran, but I never expected it to succeed, and it didn’t. It looks like Delaware has a much better chance of succeeding, and I hope it does.

Robert Reich apologizes for quoting Karl Rove. But I’d say no apology is needed. I felt no need to apologize for sharing quotes from Liz and later from Dick Cheney when they endorsed Harris. This article isn’t quite that good, but it’s good to know this is what he thinks.

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Open Thread September 15 2024

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 152024
 

Yesterday,as I mentioned, the opera was a double bill of “Highway 1 USA” by William Geant Still and “The Dwarf” by Alexander Zelinsky. The former is a sad (though it ends well) story of a married couple who have already sacrificed much to send the husband’s younger brother through college, to fulfill the promise he made to his dying mother. The kid has grown up to be a narcissist. He attempts to seduce the wife without success, and in a rage stabs her (not fatally, but everyone thinks so for a while, because she loses consciousness). And then it gets interesting. The younger brother will no longer be in their household. “The Dwarf” also includes a failed seduction attempt and it apparently is semi-autographical = Zemlinsky was one of the “Practically all the top creative talent in central Europe” (to quote Tom Lehrer) who fell in love with Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel. She did not return his feelings and must have been pretty blunt. The literary basis for the libretto was “The Birthday of the Infanta” by Oscar Wilde, who must have been thinking of the painting “Las Meninas” by Velasquez, because all the characters from it are in the opera.

The trial of the man who shot up the King Soopers in Boulder, CO is bring put all kinds of stories of how people react in situations like that. It will probably not surprise you that many, maybe most, are very unlike the police force of Uvalde, TX.

I’m not 100% sure that cruelty is the point is this behavior, but I am 100% sure that Republicans don’t give a flying continental whether it is cruel or not – as long as it riles up the base and wins elections. If it stops winning electins, they might change their tactics – or they might not. But it it doesn’t stop winning electins, they’ll only whip it harder. I do know this has been discussed here, but I also feel the Wonkette take is worthy.

Belle shutdown

Cat

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Open Thread September 14 2024

 Posted by at 5:45 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 142024
 

The night before last, a wild hair got me strted clearing ut one of my desk drawers. This lead to my starting yesterday clearing off my desk. I actually made a lot of progress, but it was time consuming. And I also made enough time to look up the one of today’s double bill of short radio operas which is by William Grant Still (it should be very intense.) BTW the other opera on the double bill is “The Dwarf” by Alexander Zemlinsky, also from the 20th century. Anyway, I hope you’ll be kind to any typos today. Oh, I almos00t forgot to say, I did bake a another batch of oatmeal raisin cookies and they came out remarkably well. Thank you, Nameless for the tip.

Also, yesterday being Friday, Robert Reich‘s new series got another entry – which he is calling #2 and #2-1/2/

This is a long article about the Tina Peters case. It’s an interview with the DA who tried the case, and the interviewer asked a lot of very good questions which might not have occurred to most people and elicited some answers that were not exactly obvious. If you don’t have time for ir, that’s fine. The people who really should be reading it are mostly election workers, whether elected or appointed.

Yes, It does need to be noted. Thanks, Lincoln Project, and particularly Trygve Olson for pointing it out.

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Open Thread September 13 2024

 Posted by at 6:13 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 132024
 

Yesterday, I came across a just-under-six-minute presentation by Anonymous on Christian nationalism – in the Christian nationalists’ own words. It’s pretty awful. But it should get as wide exposure as possible so that as many people as possible become aware of the real stakes in this election. All those people who are thinking about the economy, or womens’ rights, or anything else, don’t get it. Sure, all those things are important. but Trump**II would destroy all of them and far more.

Well, this is encouraging, and what really makes it so is the fact that the author at the source holds focus groups with swing voters.

They are telling the same lies about Aurora, Colorado –  but if Aurora has a four-generation journalist resident, he or she has not yet spoken up in the way that David Dewitt of the Ohio Capital Journal has. It’s highly personal and it is touching in a way thay MAGA Republicans can never hope to be (not that they would want to), and here it is.

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Open Thread September 12 2024

 Posted by at 5:59 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 122024
 

Yesterday, I received a recommendation to see the movie Sugarcane from Tokata Iron Eyes (Chase’s daughter). She writes so passionately ans convincingly that I wish I could share the full letter. Instead, I can provide a link to the National Geographic site (it is a documentary) which is essentially its home page. It will not be shown everywhere in the US – nor everywhere in Canada (though about half – I didn’t count – of the locations it will appear are in Canada, as they should be). The closest to me is Denver; but there is a complete list at the link. And a lot more information of various kinds. And anyone can watch the trailer there. Besides the on-site appearances, it’s planned for Disney and Hulu to stream it (no word on when that will be available yet.) When I was in the hospital last fall, PBS showed a fact-based drama on this subject set in Canada. But it all happened everywhere, at least in North America, and i would not bet against the proposition that it also happened in Central and South America. I also received a surprise. It did not surprise me when Liz Cheney (and even her father endorsed Kamala Harris. But when Liz Cheney also indorsed Colin Allred against Ted Cruz, my jaw dropped. As grateful as I am to all the Republicans who are endorsing Harris, I did not expect any of them to endorse any down-ballot Democrats. I hope this becomes a trend, but am not holding my breath.

Also yesterday, I came to the conclusion that I am not the best person to evaluate debates. In reading around afterwards, I noticed that figures like Robert Reich, Robert Hubbell, and Steve Schmidt were so pleased by Harris’s performance they were almost giddy. Heather Cox Richardson was more restrained, but also felt that Harris had goaded Trump** to fall apart. Joyce Vance had not weighed in yet – but she was hosting an on-line watch party and may simply have been exhausted. My own reaction was most like that of DC Report (written by Terry Schwadron, a name which is new to me.) It’s just not possible for any Democrat (or anyone) to “destroy” Trump** with facts and reason, because his base evaluates him by a different standard.

I got this too late to use yesterday, but I still think it’s worth reading, even if only to evaluate how accurate his predictions were. Did you know the League of Women Voters published a Bingo card for it?

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-9-2024
Yes, this is from Monday, but there is still a lot to consider in it, as for example her remarks on the continuing resolution to fund the government, including details in which the devil exists.

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Open Thread September 11 2024

 Posted by at 5:48 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 112024
 

Yesterday, I organized as much as I could to be free to watch the debate last night. As I typed this, I didn’t know whether the Harris campaign ad discussed by Belle had worked. I do now, though – not as I type, but as you read.

I cancelled my paid subscription to The New Yorker (after I had to get a new water heater), but the email newsletter is free, so they didn’t cancel that. This is the first thing I have seen since which is important enough to make me read it. In case anyone is paywalled out of it, I did print it to a pdf. It’s about 46 and a half pages, but it’s still less than a megabyte, and my email will sent up to 2.5 megabytes per message, so I can send it to anyone who wants it.

Just when you thought you couldn’t possibly deplore Elon Musk any more that you already do, comes this article from The Conversation. He fully justifies my referring to hom as the Muskrat (apologies ao any actual muskrats who may be reading.)

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Open Thread September 10 2024

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 102024
 

Yesterday, like pretty much every Monday, was my day to recover from the stress of the weekend, much of it self-induced. At some level that I don’t seem to ba able to reach, I’m a believer in the saying, “Don’t tell me worry doesn’t solve anythin. The things I worry about never happen.” Silly, I know – it’s supposed to be – but I can’t be alone or it wouldn’t be such a classic. Also yesterday, Wonkeette’s last newsletter of the day was titled “Wonkette’s News of the Day Was Stupider Than Usual” and the letter itself proved it. I don’t have space, and you don’t have time to list all of the titles, but WOW. I will be happy to forward the list to anyone who wants it.

Yes, I realize PolitiZoom is hard to read. Even with an ad blocker it’s not that easy – at least not if you have a permanent zoom in your browser, as I do, to make everything bigger – because then the sidebar starts to overlap the text. But I think this one is worth a read. If you really can’t stand it, a trick I have is o select all, copy, and put it in a .txt file like Notepad (and then, if I want to save it, cleaning it up.) Articles that are already pretty clean (elsewhere) I print to a pdf (I use an older program, but Micrisoft I know now has this feature built in. Apple I don’t know about.) Deleting a pdf when one is finished with it doesn’t hurt any trees.

This from Colorado Public Radio isn’t hard to read because of ads. But it is hard to read because of content. Is there any state that is actually addressing this problem at the state level? Because it’s not really appropriate, IMO, for communities to be addressing a problem which is cused by years of Republuan rule at the Federal level. Maybe even the state level isn’t really that appropriate either, but it would be better than leaving it to communities full of NIMBYs.

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