Open Thread May 5, 2023

 Posted by at 6:10 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 052023
 

Today, Virgil and I have been married for 39 years. No, I won’t see him until Sundey (but you can bet he’ll call,) Now, next year, being a leap year, the day will be on a Sunday. And it will be 40 years. I think that’s cool. (Incidentally, tomorrow’s radio opera will be Puccini’s “La Boheme.” If you were ever curious what inspired “Rent,” this is it. It’s easy to listen to, very melodic [Della Reese recordsed one of the arias with English words as “Don’t you know”] The four acts average maybe 20 minutes each of actual music, though of course with intermissions the broadcast will be longer, and besides the music there’s usually applause. If you don’t know of a local station, cpr.org/classical, kcme.org [both mountain], and wfmt.com [central] are always available.)

Also – Robert Reich is trying to give away the chair which was his official chair when he served in the Cabinet. It’s huge, and looks comfortable, if one is tall enough (I’m not tall, but I seem to have long femurs for my height – I would love it but have no room for it.) Any takers?

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Short Takes –

Pro Publica – What You Need to Know About Stillbirths
Quote – Every year, more than 20,000 pregnancies in the U.S. end in a stillbirth, the death of an expected child at 20 weeks or more of pregnancy. Research shows as many as 1 in 4 stillbirths may be preventable. We interviewed dozens of parents of stillborn children who said their health care providers did not tell them about risk factors or explain what to watch for while pregnant. They said they felt blindsided by what followed. They did not have the information needed to make critical decisions about what happened with their baby’s body, about what additional testing could have been done to help determine what caused the stillbirth, or about how to navigate the process of requesting important stillbirth documents.
Click through (they’ll offer you the newsletter but you can just click on “No, thanks, I’m all set”). Back in the day, there was an expression, “Just the same, only different.” That’s the case with miscarriages and stillbirths. And, with the increased push for men to control women’s bodies, it’s more an more important to understand both. I am way past menopause, but every woman of childbearing age – and all the men in throir lives – need to know this material. So I’m bookmarking it.

Southern Poverty Law Center – MALE SUPREMACY IS AT THE CORE OF THE HARD RIGHT’S AGENDA (caps are theirs)
Quote – The hard right, in other words, wants to revive an older social order, before the Civil Rights Movement, women’s and gay liberation movements, and other social and political transformations upset what was a thoroughly white-dominated, patriarchal society. Gender, then – how it is understood, practiced and described in our laws – is clearly of central concern to the hard right. Their goal is to uphold male supremacy, a movement that scholar of right-wing movements Chelsea Ebin describes as “a complex system that serves to assert, support, and promote the supposed superiority of men,” and subjugate women, trans, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people.
Click through for details. I’ve been yelling this for years – glad to see someone else yelling too. If we don’t know our enemy, we will lose battles and eventually lose the war. Never forget Hillary. Never forget “Sure, I’d vote for a woman – just not this woman.” I never want to need to say “I told you so,” nor do I want it to need to be said “She told us so” after I’m gone.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread May 4, 2023

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 042023
 

Yesterday, I finished the last of the cartoons needed for May. That’s a relief. Nothing much else happened. But in the CPR Newsletter, I followed a link to a sweet story about an original play for two actors, a young girl whose growing up is complicated by being an outsider, and her imaginary superhero, “The Falcon” – who has some insecuroties of his own, so that they end up helping each other. Written by a person of color (for people of color), I can imagine it being inspirationsl to just about any young person, as well as some of us older ones. Who isn’t insecure sometimes? (Well, besides narcissicists – who probably are too but can’t recognize it.) I’m not commenting on Putin’s claim because I’m still putting pieces together (but I strongly spspect BS.)

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Short Takes –

U.S. Department of Labor – Three McDonald’s Franchises in Kemtucky Pay $212K in fines after Federal Investigations Find 305 Minors – Including 10-year-olds – Working Illegally
Quote – Working in a kitchen late at night near dangerous cooking equipment is a reality for many adults in the food service industry. But finding 10-year-old kids in such a work environment is a cause for concern and action by the U.S. Department of Labor. Investigators from the department’s Wage and Hour Division found two 10-year-old workers at a Louisville McDonald’s restaurant among many violations of federal labor laws committed by three Kentucky McDonald’s franchise operators. The investigations are part of the division’s ongoing effort to stop child labor abuses in the Southeast region.
Click through for report. Tuesday we saw how Republicans are trying to legalize child labor. Now we see that some of them literally can’t wait.

The 19th – Colorado becomes the first state to ban controversial abortion pill reversals
Quote – The Abortion Pill Rescue Network is run by Heartbeat International, an anti-abortion group that promotes a controversial practice called abortion pill reversal, in which a patient is given progesterone within 72 hours of taking mifepristone, the first pill administered in a medication abortion, and before taking misoprostol, the second pill. The organization said more than 4,000 infants have been born since 2013 after people went through the reversal process. KFF Health News couldn’t independently verify that number, which Heartbeat International said is based on internal patient data.
Click through for story. I am not trying to push Oregon out of leading the way. But the combination of an expanded majority Dem legislature and a term-limited Governor’s second term seems to be having a positive effect.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread May 3, 2023

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 032023
 

Yesterday, I was short of sleep, and I hope you will forgive any typos I made in comments yesterday (and in todays posts, slthough the mechanics of putting up a post generally allows for better proofreading than the comments get from me.) I did do a couple of cartoons, and am now good through the middle of May, with only four more to make for the rest of the month. That’s quite a relief.

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Short Takes –

Daily Beast – Canadian Farmer Turned ‘Superman’ Escaped Putin’s Troops to Save Little Girl (hanky alert)
Quote – Paul described the decision to risk his life that day as a no-brainer. “When I said I was going to go down and get a 6-year-old girl, I was, I didn’t really think about my own personal safety anymore. I didn’t think about it, I didn’t do a risk analysis or anything. I just, yeah, go get this kid. Right?,” he told The Daily Beast. “Sometimes you get that call to go and do something that’s incredibly dangerous. And if you don’t take the call, then that means somebody else must. So, yeah, it’s passing the buck.”,,, “Paul is Katya’s Superman now. She tells me how he picked her in a car with all of those missiles landing around and saved her. Katya calls him ‘Superman’ every time we mention him. I wish there were more people like him in the world,” Julia said.
Click through for story. I added a hanky alert, but an outrage alert is also in order – outrage at the fascist Republicans who support Russia over Ukraine.

Robert Reich – Advice to Biden on how to handle House Republicans’ demands for raising the debt ceiling
Quote – My advice to Joe Biden: Ignore McCarthy and the Republican radicals. Mr. President, your oath to uphold the Constitution takes precedence. As the supreme law of the land, the Constitution has greater weight than the debt ceiling. Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution states that “The validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.” A debt ceiling that prevents the federal government from honoring its existing financial commitments violates the Constitution. So, if House Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling, you are obligated by the U.S. Constitution and your oath of office to ignore the debt ceiling and continue to pay the debts of the United States.
Click through for details (you may need to click on “keep reading.”). Bipartisanship is nice (assuming it’s real, and not just a code word for extortion.) But the Constitution is nicer – and far more important.

Food For Thought
(The one on the left is Mrs. Matt Schlapp.  I assume everyone recognizes Kari Lake on the right.)

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Open Thread May 2, 2023

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 022023
 

Yesterday, it being May Day, my mind filled up with associations, such as the fact that May 1 is the big labor holiday internationally (and once was here as well.) That led me to think of Odgen Nash’s poem about the man who hated spring – a psychological illness which had begum when someone told him to “Come down to Union Square, it’s Mayday,” and he had misheard it as “Come down to Union Square, it’s payday,” and the disappointment was more than he could handle (it ends with his wife shooting him, and his last words are “Thank you, honey, it was thoughtful of you to use the autumn-atic.” Which leads right in to the second short take.) Then my mind turned to Walpurgis – actually, I think, Mayday Eve – one of the four great pagan festivals which Christans, of course, associated with witchcraft. And then they associted witchcraft with people, especially but not exclusively women, who wanted to harm children. And that seques naturally into the first short take and comes right back the the Labor Day thought I started with.. I swear I did not plan any of that. It just happened. Coincidence actually is a thing.  Also – I’m sorry to report that Gordon Lightfoot has died.

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Short Takes –

Letters from an American – April 28, 2023
Quote – Those in favor of the new policies argue that fewer restrictions on child labor will protect parents’ rights, but in fact the new labor measures have been written by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a Florida-based right-wing think tank. FGA is working to dismantle the federal government to get rid of business regulations. It has focused on advancing its ideology through the states for a while now, but the argument that its legislation protects parental rights has recently enabled them to wedge open a door to attack regulations more broadly. FGA is part of a larger story about Republicans’ attempt to undermine federal power in order to enact a radical agenda through their control of the states.
Click through for full article (you may have to click on “Keep Reading.”). This a few days old, but any time is the time to address this (so close to Mothers’ Day, too.)

Colorado Public Radio News – Here’s why voters are unlikely to have a direct say in an assault weapons ban
Quote – In theory, a group can work to place a ballot initiative on the statewide ballot. That process involves taking a proposed initiative to the Secretary of State, agreeing on the language that would be on the ballot and gathering valid signatures as a sign of support. Then, and only then, will voters have a chance to have a say on a possible assault weapons ban. Non-fiscal ballot measures like gun control rules can only be considered in even-year elections.
Click through for details, including the difficulty of defining an “assault weapon,” which is a huge problem no matter who is pushng the legislation. Legislators and activist really need to drop the term and think in terms of characteristices which make some weapons so deadly and legislate those, without ever giving any weapon a name. Also , this is Colorado, but most if not all states have some kind of process which is analogous.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread May 1, 2023

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 012023
 

Yesterday, I started to look for any pictures which might illustrate the Furies (PoPublica does not permit reprinting pictures), and got sidetracked by the Google Doodle, which was of Alan Rickman. I didn’t completely fall down that rabbit hole, but I did end up using an image I already knew about, as you’ll probably have guessed if you saw it. The Peter Sellars (with an “a”) mentioned is the Australian director, not the deceased British actor and comedian (who spelled Sellers withan “e”). Sellars with an “a” is still alive at 83 and as outrageous as he ever was. Also, I came across a short post at Democratic Underground which I thought was kind of special – you can see it here. Finally, I put together a chair I had ordered which came Saturday, and did some rearranging to get it where I wanted it to be.

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Short Takes –

Southern Poverty Law Center – ‘LONG OVERDUE’: BLACK MEN KILLED IN INFAMOUS COLFAX MASSACRE COMMEMORATED ON NEW MONUMENT
Quote – In a bold swap engineered by a Black man and a white man working together, reckoning has come at last to Colfax, Louisiana… This month the Rev. Avery Hamilton, whose great-great-great-grandfather was the first Black man murdered in the rampage, and Dean Woods, whose great-grandfather was part of the paramilitary force that left the courthouse grounds soaked in blood, dispelled the ghosts of their family histories to achieve some measure of justice for the victims of the Easter Sunday massacre. They presided over the unveiling of a monument to the victims.
Click through for story and background. It’s very easy to lose hope in the face of virulent bigotry, not just here, but world wide. But – when something like this happens – it helps.

Daily Kos (Joan McCarter) – Biden needs to go it alone on the debt ceiling
Quote – Civiqs asked about just one of those alternatives, the platinum coin. It’s the “one neat trick,” as Bloomberg’s Joshua Green calls it, for Biden to make the problem disappear…. Precisely. It doesn’t have to be the coin. There are other options, including the one deemed by Michael C. Dorf, law professor at Cornell Law School, the “least unconstitutional option.” That would involve Biden taking Section Four of the 14th Amendment literally, and using it. He could declare that Congress is failing in its constitutional duty to pay the debts it incurs, so he must act to uphold its clear directive: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
Click through for article. I have not seen anyone else writing on the subject taking quite this approach.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread April 30, 2023

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 302023
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Peter Grimes” by Benjamin Britten. It’s based on a poem by George Crabbe (1754-1832) called “The Borough.” It is also one of two operas I would never take Virgil to or even let him liisten to, despite the fact that he learned to love opera almost as much as I do – and not just the ones considered easy to like, but also some baroque and 20th/21st century stuff (“Tea: A Mirror of Soul” composed in 2002 by Tan Dun is probably his all time favorite). Rather, it’s because they contain or allude to conduct which could be abusive directed at a young boy. The other is “Amahl and the Night Visitors” – such a sweet opera, if you can only get around that one thing. Certainly, if there is a villain in either one, it is intended to be society (that’s more explicit in “Peter Grimes” but also I think true of “Amahl.”) Peter is a fisherman, and is an outsider, and “an ordinary, weak person who, being at odds with the society in which he finds himself, tries to overcome it and, in doing so, offends against the conventional code,” as described by the tenor who originated the role. He’s intended to be sympthetic. But – there are those dead apprentices. People who don’t know opera may still be a little familiar with this one through Brtitten’s “Four Sea Interludes,” orchestral peces which describe some of the many moods if the ocean. The title tenor role is sufficiently demanding, both vocally and dramatically, that many who play it are known as Wagnerian “heldentonors.” The tenor today is British, and a Britten specialist, and is certainly built lke a heldentenor (of course there are exceptions.) He’s little known outside of the UK (which I predict will change) but has won numerous awards there.

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Short Takes –

Daily Beast – Pro-War Russians Duped Into Torching Kremlin Military Offices
Quote – Throughout Russia’s war against Ukraine, baffling reports of Russian pensioners trying to set military enlistment offices on fire have emerged with amusing frequency. But they’re not what you may think. Seen at first glance by some as brave protests against the war, the string of bizarre arsons have actually been part of a now widespread scheme in which scammers convince the confused pensioners they’re on a secret mission to help the war effort.
Click through for story. Our MAGAt problem is so obvious, and so severe, that it’s easy to forget that these people are not confined to the United States. They are all over the world.

The Project on Government Oversight, in the person of its President, Danielle Brian, testified before the Senate Armed SErvices Committee last week. Being on their mailinglst I received an email afterwards, including links to the testimony itself.
Quote (from email) – The testimony was especially topical as it was reported just this week that the former director of the National Security Agency took on a $700,000 contract as a cybersecurity adviser for Saudi Arabia, a nation notorious for its human-rights violations. With close to 700 former high-ranking government officials now working for major defense contractors and over 500 former servicemembers working for foreign interests, closing the lucrative revolving door and pipeline is a matter of utmost urgency.
You can click through to the video of the event (the hearing begins between 17:30 and 17:40 with ELizabeth Warren. At 27:32 Rick Scott starts speaking. At 32:17 Wilkerson’s testimony begins. At 37:23 Brian begins. I’m afraid I didn’t follow past that, so there may be some back and forth). Alternatively, you can access the written testimony as presented to the comittee, or the transcript on the POGO site (they have the same content but the POGO page has larger type and more visual spacing.) The problems addressed are of long standing, It’s good that they are being discussed at this level.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread April 29, 2023

 Posted by at 6:07 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 292023
 

Yesterday, I managed to get all 8 questions right on the Conversation’s “Weekly News Quiz.” That has never happened before. Usually I get 6 out of eight, occasionally 7 on a good week, occasionally 5 on a bad week. There weren’t that many I actually knew – the rest I got by elimination, including some logic (ocean-going ships “going downhill” is not a thing, for instance.) It’s a small thing – but it does bolster my confidence a little that I am actually keeping up with the good stuff in the barrage of news.

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Short Takes –

The Warning – Have you ever heard of ‘stealthing?’
Quote – “Non-consensual condom removal,” said Google. A behavior and problem so prevalent that it not only had a nickname — “stealthing” — but a range of definitions largely dependent on geography, the most severe being a rape crime punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison in the United Kingdom. In the United States, however, there was little to no legal definition of this act, which remains the case to this day. The first and only piece of legislation — adopted by California in 2021 — recognizes stealthing in the state’s civil sexual battery code and allows victims to sue for damages.
Click through for article (you may have to click on “Keep reading.”) Yes, I’d heard of it, but relatively recently. There were a couple of terms in the article I had to look up, however. Reading the whole thing will probably mak you angry once or twice. But without anger, there is no change.

Colorado Public Radion – One suspect in fatal rock-throwing case had a history of destructive behavior
Quote – Three teens accused of driving around and throwing large rocks at passing cars, one of which investigators say killed a 20-year-old woman, circled back to take a photo of her crashed car as a “memento,” according to court documents released Thursday…. In a hint at a possible motive, Karol-Chik said all three got excited every time they hit a car with a rock that night but acknowledged he felt “a hint of guilt” passing by Bartell’s car, according to the documents.
Click through for story. Now that there are identified suspects in this crime, we can get a glimpse of what they were thinking – if you can call that “thinking.” It certainly gives a new, though equally pernicious, meaning to the acronym KKK.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread April 28, 2023

 Posted by at 6:19 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 282023
 

Yesterday, Crooks & Liars found a video which shows Republican leaders as drag queens, thanks to judicious use of AI. Frankly, some of them look more like drag wenches or other drag commoners than drag queens (not that that doesn’t make them even weirder.) But it’s good for a laugh if you need one. Otherwise, there’s no news – unless snow on the ground is news. But it’s not like we haven’t seen snow as late as the third week of May here.  Also, Name Drop was kind to me.  i did not get it on the first clue, but did on thesecond.

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Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Anonymous: We Will Release Info On GOP Sexual Predators
Crooks & Liars – Anonymous Announces Plans To Highlight GOP Sex Predators
Quote – “Over the next 50 days, we will be releasing every Republican sexual predator, abuser and enabler, focusing on underage and consent.” They attached a reel about Trump’s accused sex crimes, including the 13-year-old who said he raped her. My response is, is 50 days enough?
Click through to one or both. When Crooks & Liars posts a video, they often post it twice. One post will jave just the video, or if there are words at all, they are few. The other will have more detail in text. When they put them into their newsletter, for soeme reason, they put the one with no words in the regular news part, and the one with detailinto the “CLTV” section. This time I just decided to share both, even though it’s the same story. I haven’t seen it elsewhere. But I hope it’s real.

5280 Magazine – Did Any Coloradans Pay Their State Income Taxes in Crypto?
Quote – Last September, Governor Jared Polis kicked things off when he announced that, effective immediately, Colorado would begin accepting cryptocurrencies as payments for a number of different taxes, most notably state income taxes. The move wasn’t entirely surprising for Polis, who has been a noted fan of blockchain technology since before he became Colorado’s governor and who has since made multiple appearances at ETHDenver, the annual crypto conference that’s hosted in the Mile High City. What is surprising is just how few Coloradans actually did it: As of April 14, only 11 people paid their state income taxes using crypto, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue. Of the roughly 3.1 million individual tax returns Colorado can expect to receive this year, that represents just 0.00035 percent.
Click through for story. Well, I mean, why not? If it gets the job done, why not use it? Apparently we are the first state to allow it. But everything new has to start somewhere.

Food For Thought

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