Open Thread February 24 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 242025
 

Yesterday, Virgil and I played cribbage – and did some reminiscing about Fred, which was bittersweet. His legacy – the station announced his passing on Thursday and started then playing comments from other announcers, former announcers, the manager, former managers, and listeners about their memories. They continued all day Friday – except for a two-hour special featuring more comments and his favorite music. Than they continued interspersing comments all day Saturday (except for the opera – it runs live so there’s no way for an individual station to carve out any time, and besides, Fred would have hated that – he loved opera at least as much as I do – probably more.) Then yesterday it continued. It may continue today. I’m certainly not tired of it.

There is a lot of good-to-know information in this The F* News article. The Governor of Maine is just the hors d’oeuvres, if you will. What convinced me to post it was its explanation, complete with links to evidence, of why having a Medicare Advantage plan is literally paying for the privilege of having your claims denied.

I don’t watch network TV, or any TV really – if you do, you’ve likely heard that Joy Reid (Th Reid Out) has been fired from MSN. I expect some of you have already given up on MSN – numerous people at site I read which allow comments certainly have. I still feel that Lawrence and Nicolle are valuable, and also Rachel is back daily, I believe for the first hundred days of the present administration only, but it’s something. I also note – at the link – that Meidas Touch offered her a position before the ink was dry on the pink slip (metaphor – I know no one uses ink on paper any more.) I personally find Meidas Touch difficult to listen to, but I know that’s just me, and I am extremely grateful for the work they are doing.

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Open Thread February 23 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 232025
 

Yesterday, The radio opera was Verdi’s last opera, “Falstaff,” written when he was about my age. (His second-to-last opera had been “Otello.” He really loved Shakespeare, and in his late 70s he was rich and famous enough to indulge that love.) Falstaff is based on “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” which is said to have been written because Queen Elizabeth I wanted to see “Sir John in Love,” an impossibility given his character – even “Sir John in heat” would be almost impossible so she had to settle for “Sir John attempting to seduce faithful wives in order to extort them foe money to pay his bills.” The opera follows the play as closely as possible, given that singing takes longer than speaking. The plot, the duplicate love letter which give away hos game, the laundry basket thrown into the Thames, the young couple disapproved of by the girl’s father, the suspicious husband hiring Falstaff to seduce his wife to find out how virtuous she is, the fairies in the forest – it’s all there. This presentation was selected by the Met’s principal conductor because it was conducted by Leonard Bernstein (so you know it’s older than a minute – in fact it was presented and recorded in 1964 and was Bernstein’s Met debut.) The music and the cast were stellar – many names I remember loving in the sixties and some beyond. The male half of the young couple was sung by Mariano Caruso – absolutely zero relation to Enrico – I looked that up, as I’ve been burned too many times thinking unrelated people were related (in my defense, so have announcers.) My email wasn’t bad, so I got through it all and even managed to post a letter the same day I received it. Now I’m off to see Virgil. I will of course check in.

https://apnews.com/article/president-jimmy-carter-2025-grammy-awards-0b8a1c1fa8c8887b945a2b893b7e59e5
This is not all that new, but given that all of our eyes have been on our Democracy, I though some might have missed it. Jimmy Carter – WOW. Everything he did, he did with excellence.

https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/education/metaphorse-montrose-horse-therapy
I’ve posted about horse therapy before – but this is a new twist, and one that I for one would never have expected. And one which is at least as important as any other method of self-defense.

Patrick Fitzgerald filling in for Belle – at least he’s amusing.

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Open Thread February 21 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Politics
Feb 212025
 

Yesterday, sadly, I learned that a long time friend had died. I knew this was coming, but that never makes it easier. He was an announcer at my classical radio station, and was considered a personal friend by everyone he met, I believe, and even by hundreds of people who only “met” him over the radio. Fred was a member of the local Freethinkers group, a practicing atheist, and possibly the most generous person I’ve ever met – certainly that was true for many years, though now I’d need to put SoINeedAName right up there with him. The station is being very protective of his personal information (which is laudable) so I don’t know exactly when it happened, but it must have been very recent – there’s no obituary in the local paper yet (not that that’s conclusive, as he always considered it a Nazi rag.) I dreaded telling Virgil – which I however did when he called – because it’s part of my job – and he was indeed very upset. But he also admitted he’d rather know than not know.

Michael Waldman, writing for the Brennan Center for Justice, discusses the Unitary Executive Theory – what it is, why it’s “fringe” (IMO that means a tactful way to say BS), how its influence shows up in Project 2025, executive orders, and general Republican attitude, as well as coming court battles.

Harry Litman of Talking Feds references George Orwell on the subject of Memory Holes and discusses the implications of the destruction of (supposedly) permanent records. I’m sure this is also why people are suggesting that everyone who is receiving Social Security, and everyone who is currently or ever has been employed in s job where they paid into Social Security, go log in to The Social Security website right now and download all the informaion on you stored there. The same with the IRS, and any other government body which might have any stored information about you (I always keep a copy of my tax returns, and have them for a lot longer than the seven years normally recommended). Especially if you have already established an account with LogIn dot gov, it’s a lot easier than freezing your credit. At least it is now. Don’t wait too long.

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Open Thread February 20 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 202025
 

Yesterday, again acting on advice from a Democratic Underground member, I went to the Social Security website and downloaded or printed my essential information – lifetime record os earnings, verification of benefits letter, and my Social Decurity statement. They are not on my hard drive, but on my portable hard drive; I have two of those, so I’ll be copying the information to the other one. Paranoid, sure. Except that we have something to be paranoid about. If Dork Vader’s random comments and the antics of his crew don’t make you even a little bit nervous, maybe you should check your pulse. Also, Andy Borowitz was getting serious.

I don’t know what the answer is to something which bugs me about this otherwise excellent Pro Publica article, which is well researched and factual. It’s the tone. It sounds so surprised that a Mange Menace appointee appointed a deputy who is an obvious criminal. Because, of course he did. That’s what this administration does. I don’t want to normalize this behavior, but I also don’t want, for myself or anyone on my side, to sound like an idiot surprised that the sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west daily. There has to be some kind of middle way to address these predictable but horrible events.

 

I’ve added a “sarcasm” tag to this from the F* News, not because every word is sarcastic, but because the author is affecting naivete, requiring the reader to pay more than normal attention to determine what’s being said. But the fact remains, whoever or whatever is driving this administrations policies and actions, the fact remains that all the policies are gawdawful

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Open Thread February 18 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 182025
 

Yesterday, I scrambled around the internet looking for a replacement for a charging cord I had managed to break (don’t ask). I wouldn’t call that a complete waste of time, but it did certainly take a lot. Shopping on the internet, unless you know in advance exactly who you want to deal with, is very time consuming.  In any search engine, if you just type in what ou are looking for, you are hit with Amazon, Amazon, Walmart, Amazon, Walmart, Amazon. At least I was caught up on my email, and it being a holiday, I managed to stay caught up. I don’t expect that to be true every day.

Harry Litman is not one to get excited over nothing, nor to jump to conclusions about how certain events will lead to other events when they well may not. So when Harry does a rant like this I think it’s worth sharing. It’s fairly long despite his efforts to keep it as short as possible, but every word is carefully chosen. And it’s covering material he wrote about when it was brand new (and he includes the link to that) and is now revisiting because he has had time to collect his thoughts.

This story at The F* News is scary AF. But we certainly need to know. For one thing we all need to get with and behind all the Democrats who are seriously working on (as oppose to mouthing off) Citizens United. And we need to do it yesterday. George Soros isn’t going to live forever – and in any case, he’s just one against all the rest.

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Open Thread February 16 2025

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 162025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Ariadne auf Naxos” by Richard Strauss. It is one act with a prologue which is about as long as the Act. This performance was chosen by Lise Davidsen, a Norwegian soprano. I would imagine (demonstrating a lack of imagination) that a Norwegian soprano would be likely to model on someone like Swedish Birgit Nilsson or Norwegian Kirsten Flagstad, but Davidsen has more imagination than that, so her most admired model is the late Jessye Norman, who sang the role of Ariadne in this broadcast. There’s a black history fact, if you will. The opera itself is an atypical comedy, the premise being that a serious opera and a comedy act similar to Commedia dell’Arte are presented on the same stage at the same time, and the participants have to interact somehow improvising as they go, and that is what happens in the one act. In the prologue, the situation is set up, with the prima donna throwing a fit, the composer throwing another fit, and the comedy troupe being more accepting and trying to calm everyone else down. There aren’t any punchlines, the humor is all situational and subtle. And the music is beautiful. Richard Strauss got hos start with “Salome” and “Elektra,” both of which include two or more murders and neither of which can really be called beautiful – although exciting fits, and maybe even enthralling. But Ariadne is compositionally more like his final opera, “Der Rosenkavalier,” which really is beautiful, especially the waltzes, though Richard and the Johanns were completely unrelated.

My state Senate is taking action on censorship – book banning. At least this committee is. And our state house (the Assembly) is also blue. I hope it will pass. It looks like a good bill. It allows challenges, but limits who can legitimately make them and how frequently they can do so. And more.

Robert Reich recognizes six individuals and one group who are willing and able to say “No” to the Papaya Poopy-Pants. And he’s right, it takes courage. And they have it and they exercised it. And, to the gest of my knowledge all are still alive. But sadly, all are now out of a job. Still, all these actions are well worth applauding.

Bonus video to go with cartoon

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Open Thread February 13 2025

 Posted by at 5:54 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 132025
 

Yesterday, VoteVets sent me an email containing their nickname for Elon Musk: “Dork Vader.” Who says military people have no sense of humor? And I did manage to get through my emails, though I had to speed through a lot of them.

All I can say is that, even if you already thought that ICE was nothing but a bunch of malicious bully Keystone Kops, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. But then, what else could anyone expect from this administration?

Cutting federal funds for medical research is personal to all of us, since any of us could at any time be stricken with some disease or condition which is the subject of research, on which our very lives might depend. But it’s also personal to Joyce Vance in a different way. I’ll let her explain.

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Open Thread February 11 2025

 Posted by at 5:54 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 112025
 

Yesterday, I started the day with only 80 emails (of course more same in, but gradually.) A lot were responses from petition recipients – including 5 from just one Senator (I expect my other one will catch up eventually.) There was also one good laugh in there – Andy Borowitz’s news that Yambo has declared himself the Principal Ballerina of the Kennedy Center, purging most existing ones and blaming DEI for so many being women. I got the total down to 36 pretty quickly, and that included a few from Sunday.

Straight from The Root, a story from Black History which oddly is about a white woman.  Weird, I know. But true.

Joyce Vance goes over a lot of what is happening and bring us closer to Autocracy (or Leucandrocracy). She encourages us all to stay strong, and ends with a little quote I had not heard before, but which I like so much I have put into today’s cartoon. Kudos if you knew it. Double Kudos (or Kudoi, which is the plural) if you also knew who first said it. In a separate email, she reported that The Democracy Index has been launched. I figured it would take some time from the planning stage.

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