Dec 032024
 

Yesterday, I had blood drawn for four tests. The appointment was for 3:00 pm, and I was prompt. The actual draw too well under a minute, and by 6:00 pm I could see the results on line. If I had been worried, that would have been a real blessing. In fact, just about everything was in normal range, and most right in the middle of normal range (I didn’t have to do the math – they gave me colored graphs.) I also had over 100 emails – but it was Cyber Monday and today is Giving Tuesday and Thursday is Colorado Gives Day. So that comes as no surprise. I have a bunch of stuff picked out, and most of it I still think is important, but I’ll try to put newer stuff in as extras this week.  Also, as I came to post this, I realized I hadn’t posted yesterday.  I do apologize.

Hunter Biden Pardon and US v Skremetti in SCOTUS

Robert Reich provides the news sources he relies on for the truth. All are good (I will say the New Yorker has become a little to far right for me, and there are others.) I would add to Reich’s list Wonkette, The F*ing News because I often don’t have the time or energy to do my own sarcasm, and from them I get it ready made. For people who can tolerate videos, there’s “Legal AF” with Harry Litman, which is under the Meidas Touch umbrella, and he doesn’t have the annoying habit the brothers do of repeating things over and over, On Substack you can take your pick – besides Cox Richardson and Reich himself, I trust Joyce Vance, who doesn’t just stick to law and the courts, though that’s her area of expertise. Also, sign up for one unpaid subscription on Substack and whoever you subscribe to will occasionally (not often enough to drive you nuts) recommend other Substackers, and Substack will send you a short email with those recommendations. As Joyce often says, We are in this together.

So Erin Burnett at CNN is “an observant Catholic.” Well, I’m a Catholic. And I’d like to tell Erin Burnett a story. Many years ago – in the late seventies, to be precise, a gentleman named Charles Buswell was the bishop of the Pueblo, CO diocese. And I use the word “gentleman” advisedly. He was such a sweet, real Christian that he was written up by Time magazine. Alamosa was in that diocese then (may still be), and he had come to Sacred Heart parish there for I forget what ceremony – it might have been confirmations – and was relaxing at a barbecue afterward when I got into a conversation with him. In that conversation be mentioned that he has released from his vows a priest who was trans, and had recently completed surgery. “He said, I think that transgender is considered to be when the soul of one sex is born in the body of the other?” and I replied, “That is what I have always understood.” He grinned and replied,  “Our diocese then should get the credit for having ordained the first woman priest.” That is how a real Catholic responds to transgender. You know, Christine Jorgenson was still alive then (she died in 1989). Her glory days were over then, but they lasted long enough into my childhood for her to be discussed in our home and for my mother to have given me the explanation on which I agreed with the bishop. Gender affirming care is not something frivolous. It’s much like needing an abortion when the fetus is already dead. Oh, wait – they oppose that too.

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Dec 012024
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Capriccio” by Richard Strauss. It addresses the age-old questin of whether the music or the words are more important in an opera. It does this theough the mechanism of featuring a poet and a composer both in love with the same woman expecting her to choose between them, In the end, she can’t. Some people think that Strauss hid the answer in the scoring of the final scene. But those people don’t always agree in which choice they think she made. So I don’t believe that. Operas have succeeded with strong music and weak libretti, and also the other way around. And some have failed in both of those categories. But a strong libretto with strong music is also no guarantee of success – and a weak libretto with weak music may be a hit for a while (though it’s unlikely to be remembered long. But good ones can be forgotten also.  Welp, I’m off to see Virgil. I will check in in a comment when I get home.

This is late for Thanksgiving, I grant. But Andy Borowitz‘s tips may give you a SUnday smile or at least a Sunday snicker. nd Christmas is coming. And there’s always next year. And, speaking of Andy, there’s a video here – it’s about 15 minutes and is very funny, though just at the very end you may want a tissue.

This also appears to be good news, although Republicans seem always to find ways to take the joy out of everything. The F* News is snarky, of course. But it appears to be baseline true.

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Nov 302024
 

Yesterday, I continued some computer chores of moving infornation from one to the other. I also took in a grocery delivery, and though I haven’t checked it all yet against the order, I don’t think anything was missing. I aldo noticed – yes, I’m late to the party – that Elon Musk had posted something quite a while ago calling Kamala Harris “the ultimate diversity hire.” You may remember that my definition of “diversity hire” is “I can’t stand another ignorant white boy, I need someone who comes with actual qualifications.” Now that definition she might fit.

Our states are by no means all the same. I don’t suppose Ruben Gallego’s campaign strategy, as described by Huff Post, would work in every state. In fact, I believe that in many states our candidates should sound more progressive rather than moving center. But it did work for him (which means it also worked for all of us). and would work in many states.

Joyce Vance will sound overly optimistic to many of us, but she has some good points. And no one ever said or suggested that getting the Republic back could be done without a powerful resistance.

Robert Reich on gratitude. Do I need to say more?

Belle Kentucky batteries

Cat-Dog

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Nov 282024
 

Yesterday, for a change, I caught up on my email. That doesn’t mean I didn’t find anything in my inbox this morning, of course.  I hope the featured image doesn’t squish today.  I tripped over the quote, from a survivor of the Holocaust, but finding the right background and getting the quote into the right place took time.  Just in case:  “I also bear witness to the unexpected extent to which man is capable of defying and braving the worst conditions conceivable

“I wasn’t going to post anything about Matt Gaetz following his dropout, but Amanda Marcotte used him as our poster boy to help us decide exactly what to oppose and exactly how to oppose it. Of course at this point I don’t suppose anyone ia 100% correct on that (though there probably are some who are 100% wrong), but Amanda Marcotte writes well and makes a good case. There isn’t a pay wall, but there is an ad blocker wall. You can keep the trackers blocked.

You may have already heard this from The F* News, but maybe not said so well, and maybe not in quite as much detail. This would not be the only thing where what’s floating around is not 100% accurate. In fact, I used one yesterday.

I wanted to get this up for the holiday because is is something I have been concerned about for a while now off and on, and maybe you have also – conservatives pushing an Article V convention. In fact, I’m going to quote a couple of sentences: “Two bodies can propose constitutional amendments: Congress or a “convention of the states” called under Article V of the Constitution. But regardless of which body proposes a constitutional amendment, an amendment does not become effective until it is ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures (38). Accordingly, any 13 state legislatures can block ratification of a constitutional amendment.

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Nov 252024
 

Yesterday,  I got my internet back, but only on one computer, not the one I usually use for this.  It had ben down since Friday, and so were my phones.  SO I didn’t hear the opera Saturday, since for the summer season (which is for one more week now) I need the internet – no internet, no opera.  Fortunately it’s one I know well, and some time ago I even downloaded an old recording of it.  And on December 7 the Met season starts, and my local radio station carries that.  Anyway, I’ve been struggling all weekend with trying to reach my provider, and this is my first chance to post.  I hope things are better with all of you than they have been this weekend.  But it’s just the electronics, not me, which are ill.  I’m fine physically,  I have all my meds now and am taking them

With the one exception that this uses the term “Christianity” and “Christian” where it should use “Christian Nationalism” and “Christian Nationalist,” this article is as good a portrait of the Republican concept of education as you are ever likely to see. Yes, there’s a lot of profanity in it. That’s just how The F* News rolls.

Mary Trump‘s observation that cruelty is the point is not new, but it’s at least as accurate as it ever was. And there is no simple answer (in fact, there’s more than one complex answer – probably as many of those as there are people on earth) to the question, “Once a person gets into that mindset, how can they get out of it?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Claudia is saying, “You know what, we will pay for that wall after all!”

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Nov 212024
 

Yesterday, the Riccardis took the song “Who shot the Sheriff” and turned it into “I thought the tariffs” and really covered just about every discouraging point. Well done. I also learned that a 2025 commemorative stamp for Betty White will be released sometime in 2025. She’s one of those people who are/were pretty much universally loved.  I also did a little online shopping – I need to get what I need from China before the inauguration while I can still afford to.

Robert Reich on DOGE. I can’t imagine Trump** has the foggiest notion of the other meaning of the acronym – a term from the Italian Renaissance for an absolute ruler. Most people think first of Venice, but other city states also had them, notably Genoa (Simon Boccanegra was one, though the Verdi opera based on him is not 100% historically accurate.) The word is a now obsolete variant of “Il Duce.” Hiding fascism in plain sight. I’d also point out that destroying “bureaucracy” is not an admirable or a desirable goal. As i learned in MBA school, “bureaucracy” was invented to replace partisan government service which had unfairness baked in with a non-partisan, merit based system which would be unbiased. No human institution is perfect, but I would far prefer and always recommend some form of bureaucracy over any other system for running a large country. You might still get screwed by a bureaucrat, but it wouldn’t be for any personal reason. With Trump** and apparently Elno, everything is personal because everything is transactional. (And that part of Verdi’s opera – the dude saying “you gotta reward me because I made you Doge” – and not getting his way and then poisoning Simon – is quite historically accurate, and appropriate to a Trump** administration.)

Robert Hubbell points out that the “red mirage” has not ended, and that the count is still changing – certainly through this week, and maybe longer. More counts will not change the results, because of the electoral college – but we have already seen Trump** fall below 50% of the popular vote, and we may yet see him slip below Kamala’s popular vote total. So much for the “landslide” that really never was anyway.

I don’t know what to do about this -I tried everything I could think of including re-downloading it from my original source, which by the way is here – https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219725786

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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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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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