Open Thread November 19 2024

 Posted by at 5:57 am  Politics
Nov 192024
 

Yesterday, I was stressed out by the feeling that everything I did or wanted to do was fighting with me. So I’ll likely be brief in my comments on the articles I post. Honestly, I just feel exhausted.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/trumps-first-buddy-is-in-deep-shit
Robert Reich reports Elno is calling himself’ Trump**’s “first buddy.” Without comment on intellectual intelligence which Elno may or may not possess, it’s been clear for some time that his EQ (Emotional intelligence quotient) is a single digit.

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-democracy-index
Joyce Vance lays out how she plans to chronicle this Trump** administration (differently from the wayshe did so last time) in hope of minimizing distractions. I’m not sure she realizes that it’s not just the media, or MAGA, or Putin, who are actively working to distract us. When I dug out the Windows 10 laptop earlier ths year, and again when I dug out the Windows 10 desktop, I literally spent over a week on each one just uninstalling distractions. And I have not yet finished on either – I just got to a point where I could cope. But now both are getting worse. Please note too that uninstalling some of this is in no way obvious -but the amount of links providing instructions on how to do so (not all of which even work, which is part of the issue) suggests that I am far from alone in not wanting to be distracted by crap I will never use.

Belle 4 Tuesday

Cat

 

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Open Thread November 17 2024

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Politics
Nov 172024
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Richard Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman.” It’s short, especially for a Wagner opera- less than 2 1/2 hours, and, though one doesn’t usually hear them in concert, it has more extractable parts than most of his do, such as “The Ballad of the Flying Dutchman” and “The Spinning Song.” I’ve mentioned before how the salvation of men through the suffering (sometimes death) of women was a theme running though the 19th century, and Wagner is the most obvious proponent of that. “The Flying Dutchman”, along with “Tannhäuser”, are the two most straightforward statements of that theme (and if it sounds to you like something only white men would dream up, I won’t say you’re wrong.) But it is very listenable. If I could relive the time in my life when I was buying vinyl records, I would have skipped “Tristan und Isolde” and bought this one instead. Also yesterday, here where I live, sunrise was at 6:44 and sunset was at 4:46. I realizethose times differ wildly even within a single time zone – but I’ve been collecting these times for about three years now and this is the first time I have ever seen sunrise and sunset together make a palindrome. And one thing more – a couple more House races in California have been called for the Democrat. It may even be three of them. Well, off yo see Virgil now, and will check in in the comments when I get back.

Joyce Vance cut through the ingenuous doubletalk, euphemisms, and everything else that so many are using to try to make life appear “normal.” It isn’t normal. She brings it right down to the Constitution quite clearly.

Heather Cox Richardson attempts to answer the question which Joyce Vance’s title, above, asks. I am not holding my breath.

 

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Open Thread November 14 2024

 Posted by at 6:10 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 142024
 

Yesterday, I made it in time to my appointment with my new PCP which I feel went well. I will be gettin prescriptions renewed ASAP which is good, since I’m out of 3 of the 4 now. After my last previous post, I found that I could “check in” on line in advance, and boy, was I glad of that. It was a detaiiled medical history they wanted and took much longeer than the 20 minutes they had told me to arrive early. I even got a chuckle at one point when they listed surgeries I might have had and had me check which nes I had had, and there was no way yo write it “removal of endometrioma,” so I checked “C-section” and had a comments section to explain in. Dr. Woody is very nice and so is her – I’m not sure what the qualification level is, so I’ll say her sidekick. The whole thing is a great load off my mind. Coming home and looking at my emails, I see that the Apricot Antichrist is appointing abunch of – I won’t say clowns, because clowns are better than that – laughingstocks to his administration. I won’t go into that, I’m sure you have seen them too. I literaly did laugh out loud over a couple – a “laugh so you won’t cry” kind of laugh.

This is Joyce Vance‘s “The Week Ahead” column from last Sunday. But it might just as easily be called “The Month Ahead” or “The Year Ahead.” So I won’t apologize for not posting it earlier. There is some inspiration in it along woth advice.

Atlanta Black Star. And they mock us for having feelings. But they are the ones whose feelings – all negative – are constantly getting out of control.

Talking Points Memo. Yeah, most of these prosecutions were at the Federal level. But any that may have been at state – or district – level should stand.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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)

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Open Thread November 4 2024

 Posted by at 5:53 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 042024
 

For months now I have been mostly skipping over fundraising emails. But Saturday, I got one with the From/Subject in the screen capture below. Seriously, how could I not open that one? Besides being lovely, it reminds me of Virgil (No, I’m not claiming to be as badass as Kamala, but bless his heart, I think he thinks I am.) Yesterday, I saw him and we once again played cribbage. On the way, I detoured to check out a medical building where I have an appointment for the 13th. I lost the first appointment I made looking for a new PCP through not being able to find the place in time, and I don’t want to go through that again, especially since I’m getting low on scrips and have no prescriber until i can keep an appointment. And just to make life more interesting, my landline has not been working all week.

 

And speaking of Virgil – I probably hardly even need to say that authoritarians are so clueless when it comes to understanding what motivates people. Granted, it’s not 100% impossible for people to be motivated to anything positive by shame, but it’s very rare. Hitting bottom is not about shame, it’s about losing things. I’ve only come across one anecdote in over 40 years of being married to a recovering alcoholic which suggests shame as a positive motivator, and that was the story of a father who was drunk and still drinking in the kitchen when his teenaged son walked in and said, “Dad, you stink.” And even that can be explained otherwise. But all of these MAGAts would have kicked the kid in this story off the team with no remorse, and it likely would have sealed his fate. Tim knew better.

Heather Cox Richardson‘s history is, as always, impeccable. I can only hope that her speculation is equally reliable. There is oly todat and tomorrow to make a difference – in a few states late mail ballots can be accepted, but they must be postmarked by midnight tomorrow. With the whole nation, possibly the entire world freaking out (and not without reason), we are going to have to wait possibly days after voting ends to know the results. At times like these, I always remember C. S. Lewis’s analysis – a psychological analysis – That it’s perfectly legitimate to pray for (or against) something wihich has already happened, as long as you don’t know what the result is (and it’s probably psychologically impossible to keep praying once you know anyway, for good or ill.) So those who believe in prayer, feel free to keep praying as long as there is any doubt.

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