Yesterday, what I mostly did was finish two knitting projects – one fair-sized one on which I’ve been working for some time, and one so small I started and finished it after finishing the large one. Not exciting, but there it is
Crooks and Liars has posted a video by Cliff Schecter which really points up the difference between the time when the Republican Party had Joe MacCarthy, and now, when all Republicans are Joe McCarthy. And you may learn something about the Illinois loyalty pledge too. It’s under 7 minutes, and if you watch it at C&L you won’t have to pay YouTube to avoid ads.
Margaret Atwood has been using her Substack to share a multi-part history of what the French Revolution (which she calls “The French Revvie”) was really like. This link it to Part IV – subtitled “The Vengeance.” I used to warn that if we didn’t make some corrections – and quickly – we’d have another French Revolution. And, yet, when I saw it, I didn’t recognize it. Margaret did. No surprise that she is smarter than I am.
Yesterday, I didn’t have to prepare for today’s opera – it’s “Carmen” by George Bizet. I’ve heard it a lot of times and seen it several times as well. For one production, I played second violin in the pit orchestra. All the string parts are extremely difficult, mostly because Bizet liked to run very fast scales starting in the basses and running all the way up to the first violins umpteenth position, and then back down again just as fast. I did my best (which wasn’t very good). But even then, I can’t say it was a bad production. There may not be such a thing as a really bad production of Carmen. And today’s radio cast is outstanding. Now, next week will be another story.
This certainly doesn’t surprise me. We have simply got to stop believing everything a Republican presents as fact. They just make things up.
I know there are many Democrats who think that, like Manchin, Jon Tester (D-MT) is useless other than for keeping our Senate majority (which is oretty thin.) I would invite all of those Dems to read at least parts of this article about two Republicans, one of whom will be in the Senate if Tester loses his reelection bid. Sheehy is the crazier of the two, but Rosendale is close behind.
By now everyone will have heard this, because it is, to quote the article’s headline, “a big non-fracking deal.” And it certainly took climate experts by surprise. Bill McKibben said, “[I]f it’s true, and I think it is, this is the biggest thing a U.S. president has ever done to stand up to the fossil fuel industry.”
Yesterday, it became fairly obvious that, if Trump** should be re-elected, The US can kiss Alaska goodbye – and the EU can kiss Ukraine goodbye. If you agree with me that this must not happen, raise your hand.
If you are concerned about the latest data breach (which seems to be mostly, if not all, recycled data from previous breaches), i’d recommend this article at DU. It quotes from Forbes, and provides a link to a site where you can check to see whether any of your data is included. This is sourced from Forbes, and I would trust Forbes – if you’re concerned, I’d look for it on Forbes (it shouldn’t be hard to find) directly.
I’m going to put a trigger warning on this in case anyone is phobic about needles or asphyxiation. And if you do read it, it will make you angry. One thing struck me about this story was a legal point. Ex post facto legislation is outlawed because historically it has been used to take rights w=away from people. But sometimes legislation gives rights to people. I worked over 10 yearss in insurance, and one thing people who haven’t probably don’t know is the principle of liberalization. It works like this: if you have an auto or homeowers policy which I issued, and at some point during your policy term I decide (or laws change and require me) to rewrite some coverage in it, it onlt goes into effect for you immediately if the change benefits you. If it costs you, either by loss of coverage or increased premium, it will not go into effect until your polisy renews. Now, that is not out of the goodness of our hearts. It’s because it cuts down on lawsuits, and the ones which do go to litigation are easier not to lose on account of it. But IMO it’s a principle which should be applied in law as well. On account of the newer legislation thatjudges can no longer do what his judge did, he ought to have his sentence commuted automatically. Clearly Republicans aren’t worried about lawsuits.
I’m trying to limit the videos. This one is by Robert Reich. I doubt it will tell anyone here anything they don’t already know, but it might be useful for sharing,
Yesterday, I worked on educating myself for today’s opera – “Dead Man Walking” by Jake Heggie. Obviously it is based on the book, but has probably also taken a thing or two from the movie. The book was published in 1993, the movie produced in 1995, and the opera premiered in 2000. Considering all that, I’d say the Met was dragging its feet. And I’m not alone in that – because this season is being different. Thankfully. The book is purely non-fiction, and includes Sister Helen’s experiences with two death row inmates … and their families. For both the movie and the opera, these two men were conflated into one and given the name Joseph de Rocher, which is far from close to either real name.It struck me as interesting (probably meaningless) that at the premier in San Francisco Sister Helen was sung by Susan Graham and the convict’s mother by Frederica von Stade. In the 2023 Met production 23 years later, Susan Graham is singing the convict’s mother and Sister Helen portrayed by Joyce di Donato – she’s a trifle older than Graham was when she sang it, but she also has real experience working with convicts in at least one prison that I know of – Sing Sing in New York. This opera is set in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which, if you are aware of it, it’s probably under another name – Angola. Wikipedia has a fairly detailed sumary, and I will probably keep it open while listening. It certainly doesn’t appear that the opera shies away from anything. And, as if to demonstrate that capital punishment is an issue which has not gone away, here is a petition written by Sister Helen herself, sponsored/promoted by Move On, with whom Robert Reich works so much.
I haven’t mentioned Loper Bright v. Raimondo yet, but you may have heard about it anyway. It’s been before the Supreme Court this week. If it is decided wrongly (and of course the crazy justices are leaning that way), regulatory agencies will not be allowed to regulate. I can hardly begin to describe how catastrophic that would be. Little Sammy is calling regulation “the administrative state” as if it were a bad thing. It actually isn’t – it’s far preferable to an “anarchic state,” which is what we are likely to get. This quote is from Wonkette’s newsletter , and is chock full of links to blogs by people who actually have the credentials to have opinions:
What smart things do we need to know about Loper Bright v. Raimondo (the Supreme Court case in which they’re probably about to ban “agencies doing regulations”) today? Here’s Madibe K. Dennie on Samuel Alito’s latest power grab disguised as a legal theory. (Balls and Strikes) Here’s Justice Kegs pretending not to understand that agencies have different policies during different administrations because voters chose a new administration to make different policy — plus some bullshit on the “major questions doctrine” (made up) and delegation. (Dorf on Law) The Only Republicans Are Allowed to Govern Doctrine. (Lawyers Guns & Money) Chris Geidner says it’s one of the most disingenuous arguments he’s ever seen. It must have been SOMETHING. (Law Dork)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/no-labels-party-2024-presidential-ballot-access-effort-complaint/
Some people are saying that “No Labels” has lost, or is losing, it’s collective mind. Personally, I am not sure that No Labels has a mind to lose. It has made a complaint to DOJ with the premise that anyone who doesn’t want to see their candidate, whoever that may be (they don’t even have a clue yet), on the November ballot is part of a RICO conspiracy against them. The Justice Department has not yet responded. Hopefully someone will tell them that, because the Constitution directs them to, states have laws in place covering every aspect of elections, including who may and may not appear on the ballot, and that if the No Labels candidate doesn’t qualify, it is the duty of the state not to put them on it.
Yesterday, we received some unsurprising results from the Iowa Republican caucus (which they held on MLK Day, I presume because they don’t recognize it.) Of course the weather was not suchas to encourage participation … but those who think making Election Day a federal holiday will solve all ourtuenout problems might want to rethink that. Otherwise, the news today has for some reason given me this song (introduced by the Kingston Trio) as an earworm:
They’re rioting in Africa, they’re starving in Spain.
There’s hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles.
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch.
And I don’t like anybody very much!
Now here’s something to save and share. Blue Voters Guide is a non-profit which analyzes elections all over the country for you, so that if there’s some candidate you haven’t heard of – or for your friends who are wellintentioned but don’t follow politics – you will always be able to find out who is blue. 41 states have primaries scheduled between now and about June. Right now the guide for Colorado’s March 5 Presidential primary is pretty simple – though you’d be amazed by the length of the list of rag-tag nobodies who are running against Joe Biden. But later in the year we’ll have primaries for candidates for the House of Representatives and possibly for the Colorado House and the Colorado Senate, and who knows what. It probably won’t cover school board elections, which is IMO what we need the most at this time, but with enough support, it might be able to get there. In any case, I’m sure we all know someone (or someones) who could benefit from it. This information is courtesy of Robert Hubbell on Substack, whom I occasionally quote.
Joyce Vance’s “tomorrow” is now “today.” So it’s happening now. And it’s important enough that Robert Reich also addresses it, possibly even more starkly. So I’m providing both links, you can read or skim one or both. I expect eveeryone here can put their mind back to the days when we had rivers burning – and lakes full of dead fish – and that just scratches the surface. I don’t know whether this is accurate, but someone in a comment over at Crooks & Liars said that ancient Sumeria lasted for 3000 years. From the beginning, they had a legal system which protected the poor and weak and there were strict legal punishments for breaking those laws. But, every 300 years or so, the laws had been strayed from, but they had a king who brought the country into line with “the old laws.” We will be celebrating 250 years in just two years. (If it were up to me I would date our existence as a country from April 30, 1789, when George Washington took office and set the Constitution in motion, but no one asked me. And maybe I’m being unfair to the Articles fof Confederation which were the stopgap – but I don’t think so.)
Yesterday was a quiet day for me. I slept late, while still making sure to get up in time for my grocery delivery, which was mostly accurate, and which the drivers (it was a couple) did help me get into the house so I wouldn’t have to step over the threshhold. There was one odd substitution which I haven’t figured out yet. But they did bring the fresh fruit I ordered (cherries and pears) and it was all in good condition.
Heather Cox Richardson, writing in Substack, has also addressed the brutal murder of a mother and two children by Texas Guardsman, under the eyes of Border Patrol agents, who were prevented from dong anything to save the victims’ lives because “state’s rights.” She has found a very telling quotation to oppose Abbott’s view of state’s rights in the writings of, of all people, Andrew Jackson – one of the last Presidents whom one would call “woke.”
I put Beau second today because I wanted to re-post this from 2021 to demonstrate that I was on the Pope’s side even before the Pope was. I have been since long before I made the graphic even. The problem with early Christian lifestyle and also with Marxist Communism is not their principles, which are sound. The problem is that for a society to actually live that way and sustain it is that everyone involved needs to be too good to live.
But I don’t want to leave out this one today of all days –
I’m happy to say, and I’m sure you’ll all be happy to know, that my back door got fixed – it no longer opens from the slightest wind and lets in cold drafts – and this just a day before the Polar Vortex is due.
I did see the news when this happened. I didn’t watch the actual video – I think it was on X or something. But it was clear from the screenshot (which was blurry) that he moved very quickly to leap and/or reach across the bench to physically attack. Because he wanted probation, and she gave him some jail or prison time (IMO richly deserved.) No one other than the Atlanta Black Star seems to have even a sliver of this story… which I’d suppose means that the judge is a woman of color… except she isn’t, she’s blonde. It’s the perp who’s black. Well, I guess he’s now in the “Find Out” stage.
Yesterday I got a bunch of stuff done – mostly on the computer rather than with physical objects, but it still tired me. I guess whie I was busy, the Appeals Court looked at TFG’s “immunity” claim and apparantly those looks were all askance.
The Theater of War has a new project called “An Enemy of the People,” using the play by Ibsen. “The play tells the story of a doctor who discovers the water supply in his small, rural town has been poisoned by a tannery. Despite his efforts to convey the truth to the public, the doctor fails to save his community from environmental disaster and is ultimately scapegoated for his whistleblowing.” Ibsen didn’t pussyfoot around the truth, as long ago as 1882. This sounds a lot like how Fauci was treated – and in fact Dr. Fauci will be one of the actors (the actors will change from one event to another so if you want to hear what he has to say you will need to checking cast lists.) The first two events are 2/22 and 2/24, and Fauci is scheduled in the 2/24 event but not the 2/22 event. This is the link for 2/24 (it looks like you might be able to scroll from it.)
Here’s my response to the “poop Nazi” telling everyone to get over stuff – stuff like their kids being shot in school:
