Apr 062024
 

Yesterday, I found it refreshing for an earthquake to be newsworthy in some place other than California. (And, since there were no injries, the humor is a nice touch. “The Empire State Building”sent some messages via Xitter: “I am fine.” “I am still fine.” and then another “I am fine.”)  Also I got my lost made of people whom I haven’t yet paid.  There are seven of them, one of them whom I guess I saw twice, so there are eight charges.  When new bills come in they should be easy to find.  Also – the “Phone Call” Robert Hubbell prodived a summary for yesterday – Beau did a video on it  It’s over 10 minutes, so I sdon’t wast to embed it.  But it’s detailed enough i do wany to make it available.  So, here’s the link.

This really is madness. Sadly it’s predictable (and in-character) madness. Russia is not going to be destroyed by migrants. But it very wwell may be destroyed by its own government.

Very often I can’t find a particular story on “Law and Crime,” appaently because there’s so much crime that stories get pushed to the back. This time I found the one I was looking for. A value of $40.000.00 sounds like grand theft to me.

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Apr 042024
 

Yesterday, Hump Day, I accomplished almost nothing. Fortunately, there are other days.

On the last day of Women’s History Month, Heather Cox Richardson posted a biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (And of Marty, from when they met.) I held it a few days because it’s timeless, as opposed to court and political news.

Thom Hartmann frequently uses clickbaity headlines, but he knows a fact when he sees one – his content is as reliable as possible.

From danarheaelliott’s keyboard to God’s monitor. I will say that some of this is so downright idiotic that people of normal and up intelligence may be confused. Don’t worry about it.

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Mar 302024
 

Yesterday, I heard from Pat B – you may have noticed she hasn’t posted much recently. I knew her 50th wedding anniversary is this year, so I checked my calendar, and, sure enough, it is April 6 – just a week from today. I sent her a note to check if that was why we hadn’t seen her , and she responded that that is exactly why (and from the tone of her note, she is over the moon about it.) So in case anyone is wondering, Pat is just fine and will be back once she is down to earth again.

Margaret Atwood has not finished with the French Revolution. This link is to Part VII, and she promises at least one more to come. She references an opera at the beginning, but her point is essentially that there is no such thing as a good state religion. Because (my wording) religion under compulsion is null and void. And she has the solid history to convince anyone not a cultist.

Privatization strikes again. My opinion is that the town needs to recall all four councilpeople who voted for this, but particularly the one who works for the company they are looking at. That’s a conflict of interest pure and simple.

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Mar 272024
 

Yesterday, one of the stories reminded me of my mother’s Uncle Fred, who died before I was born, so I never met him, but was told a story about him. Fred was a civil engineer, and some people made fun of him because he predicted the Golden Gate Bridge could never be built. Well, he was wrong. But he was also right, because what he meant was that it could not be built as planned without unacceptable loss of life (and to him one life lost was unacceptable. Eleven were lost during construction, and it could have been worse. A safety net saved 19 from certain death.) I think I would have liked Uncle Fred.

Everyone calls this the “hush money” case. But it’s really basically criminal only because it is really an “election interference” case. I did see someone refer to it as the “hush money/election interference” case – probably a good idea.

A new ad from VoteVets. Short, not sweet, but extremely accurate. (I had to turn the sound on, it was muted – you may also. But the CC is perfect so you may not care.

Building bridges is a dangerous business. So is fixing them when they need maintenance. But I doubt whether anyone would have predicted this.

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Mar 252024
 

Yesterday, I didn’t do much. I received an order of groceries and for once got everything I ordered and nothing I didn’t. The news was light also, so I’m going with one deep and one women’s history today. When I say deep, I mean both serious and scary. Definitely worth some thought.

Heather Cox Richardson takes Talking Points Memo’s exposure of the SACR (Society for American Civic Renewal) and uses her knowledge of history to compare it to various happenings in our own history, leading up to the Civil War.

I’m afraid I didn’t know who she was. I’m glad to have learned.

This is a nice feel-good video to watch when you’re feeling down (and we all do sometimes.)

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Mar 212024
 

Yesterday, after a couple of nights with little sleep, I slept so late that this is kind of short.

A Women’s History month post – More power to them, for all our sakes.

This is just appalling – not that the Panthers showed up, but that they felt (with sound reason) that they needed to. Crazy white people are a threat to everyone. I’m not sure who they think thay are, but I’m damen sure that, whoever it is, they’re not.

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Mar 172024
 

Yesterday, I did listen to Turandot after all. Of course it was lovely – but I was also fascinated to observe that the Met’s announcer as well as the steeped-in-opera expert who seerves as her sidekick (you know that opera which the listeners voted on a few weeks ago? Well, he was at that performance when it happened. And was an adult at the time) both pronounced the name of the opera “Turandot” but the singers pronounced it “Turandough.” I believe “Turandough is more technically correct, based on a letter Puccini wrote suggesting that pronunciation, but I do like the sound of “Turandot” better myself. Not that it really matters. Oh, the conductor was the first Ukrainian, and therefore also the first Ukrainian woman, to conduct at the Met. Aside from that, I basically just laid out (in tiny bottles) my meds for the next two weeks. Boring, but it has to be done.

I am not deliberately seeking for Women’s History month stories which are also Black History – I just keep running into them, and they’re good ones.

Heaven knows I cannot generally recommend the New York Times for journalism, but this appears to have some valuable information. Hopefully you won’t be negatively affected by all the eye-blinking in the caricatures.

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Mar 152024
 

Yesterday, I looked up the radio opera for tomorrow, which is Puccini’s “Turandot.” It’s a lovely opera, with very effective music, including “Nessun dorma,” which became Pavarotti’s signature aria, and has been recorded now by almost evereyone (I’ve even heard a recording of Sarah Brightman singing it.) But tonight, Rocky Mountain PBS will air Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking,” starting at 8:00 pm and running until 11:00 pm. And that I just cannot miss. It is part of the Live in HD series, so it was recorded in October, and will be the same cast I heard in January. The three leading women I know well, and have not just heard but also seen them all, two of them in person, but I had to look up the bass/baritone. This is kind of a signature role of his. He spent some years corresponding with a death row prisoner in Texas – until the man suicided after SCOTUS turned his last appeal down. So I may end up sleeping though all or part of “Turandot” after all. We shall see.

Mary Trump writes about the Hur hearing. There are video clps all over of Jerry Nadler and Jamie Raskin handing Hur his posterior – you have probably seen some. Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff also got in on the act. Enjoy.

Although he technically is, being a human male over 18, I hate even seeing Kyle Rittenhouse called a “man,” To me, “little punk” is more appropriate.

I’m linking this instead of embedding it … but it’s only a minute. It’s a new ad made by VoteVets, and they have managed somehow to get Fox to commit to airing it on Fox & Friends (one of TSF’s favorite shows.) So backlash can be expected. I applaud VoteVets for doing this.

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