Open Thread February 9 2025

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 092025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman”, which I’ve discussed before. It was the choice of Ryan Speedo Green, who picked it because of the performance of George London in the title role. London started singing professionally in 1945, debuted at the Met in 1951, retired in 1967, and died in 1985 after his third heart attack, so I mostly missed him. (I know a lot of earlier singers from my mother’s 78 rpm record collection and of course newer ones from my own listening and collecting. And that includes a couple of the other principals in today’s recording who worked longer and lived longer.) But Speedo was just the right age to hear his recordings while studying … and to enter a competition and get financial help from a foundation London founded, continued by his widow after he died. I’ve also discussed Speedo’s story, which I find incredibly inspiring, so I’ll shut up now. Off to see Virgil, will check in upon return.

Straight from the Root – a list (not inclusive) of companies which continue to support DEI – in fact, some are doubling down. Many are not useful to me, either because I don’t use what they sell, or because I have rejected them for some other reason, but that’s me. Also, they’re all huge. But you can always look up any company on the internet and see whether they have a DEI statement in their “about us” section.

Dennis Donovan at Democratic Underground shares a post from Norm Eisen (cofounder of “The Contrarian”) – it’s a few days old, but I haven’t seen it elsewhere (which may be just me – I had to skip a lot to get through all those emails.)

This is a 23 minute video (with not bad CC – a couple of clunkers easy to mentally correct) and I can’t – not that I would want to – make you watch it. But in addition to advice, it also has some hope. So I thought I’d add it to Sunday.

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Open Thread February 7 2025

 Posted by at 5:41 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 072025
 

Yesterday, although I had wiped out all the emails from Monday and Tuesday on Wednesday, I still had some from Wednesday to get through. By the end of he day I was caught up on them. But to do that I had to do a mostly single-topic OT for today, and do it early. It’s a little different, but hopefully at least thought-provoking.

Here’s a bonus video from Vote Vets. It’s nicely done, only a minute long, and includes excerpts from a speech by Alex Vindman.

And this from Huff Post is related. Both this and the video above are about what is going on with the USAID – not the best known Federal agency, but one of the most important to our national security (so of course the MAGAs want to destroy it, as do the billionaires who want to hand us over to Putin.)

Colorado Public Radio didn’t even take the time to write this up themselves, but instead shared the Denverite version. It looks like Freedom Summer all over again (except for the weather – and in this particular demonstrations, less blood. But there were demonstrations in  50 states, and I’m sure some of them made up for ours.)

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Open Thread February 4 2025

 Posted by at 6:08 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 042025
 

Yesterday, the blood work went smoothly – I didn’t feel a thing. However, it took forever and was exhausting because I had a lot of trouble finding the place and was pretty late. Fortunately they took my blood anyway – and the results were in by the time I got home. What wasn’t in my inbox was anything from Lona. But – thankfully- that came before the end of the day:

Thanks for asking, Joanne, but fortunately for us this is some 700km north of us. We’ve had plenty of water ij December and January, with some flooding, even from the creek running at the end of my property, but no damage. Just a road blocked for a day or two. 
The amounts falling further north from Townsville, where the major floods are now, is absolutely ridiculous. 1 meter (more than 3 feet) in 48 hours and in one spot 1.2 meters in 24 hours. Some villages are completely cut of from the rest of the world because of rads and bridges being swept away. 
While in the South a heatwave is killing people (+43 degrees Celsius for days on end) and in the West, whole National Parks are burning out of control. I feel so sorry for them, as I do for the people in California.

I haven’t been able to look at much email, so I’ll be in email jail for a while – and today I have the bone density test. I did note skimming through that the resistance appears to be stepping up with Black History resources, so that’s good.

Heather Cox Richardson for Black History Month. One of many who know this is important, and who will recognize and celebrate it no matter who tries to kill it. I know, I don’t feel much of a celebratory mood either (in a way it reminds me of last week’s opera. But I think that Black people and Black history month can be resurrected, unlike Violetta. It qill take all of us and all of our effort. But without it, there’s no justice – and therefore no peace.)

Yes, this was posted Sunday night and now its Tuesday. But I only promised not to miss a post, not that all posts would have scoops. That’s not happening. Even on Tuesday, “The Week Ahead” is worthwhile.

In the interest of Black History, this from The Root is around a dozen moments from Black History in the US. So it isn’t so much what I think is important as it is what Black people consider important. Each event is described very briefly – but with enough key words to look it up if you don’t remember it.

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Open Thread February 2 2025

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 022025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Verdi’s “La Traviata,” which can be counted on to bring me to tears, possibly not at the end when the heroine dies, but in the second act, when it is all foreshadowed. The Met these days takes February off, and this year, they have asked three singers and a conductor to pick operas they love starring someone who is a role model for them. At least one of them go way back and includes people who were dead before i was listening regularly. However, the conductor chose Leonard Bernstein, and I think most people have heard of him. Also, today is Groundhog Day, and thinking of that made me think of the musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” from 1961 (if you missed it, there was a movie in 1967 and revivals in 1995 and 2011, the last starring Daniel Radcliffe in the role Robert Morse won a Tony for.) Why, you ask, would anyone think of that in connection with Groundhog Day? Well, because the original CEO of the company the Morse character ends up the Chairman of the Board of went to college at Old Ivy, whose mascot is the groundhog, and the Robert Morse character pretends to have done so too. And the two of them break into the college fight song. The version I picked from YouTube is just the song, no dance or anything, but from the original cast album with Morse and Rudy Vallee and it’s a hoot. But you can find it with the dancing from the movie or from either of the two revivals and even from a high school production which is surprisingly competent. All of them have the same choreography, which, though not credited to him for reasons which are very much to his credit, was by Bob Fosse. The music and lyrics were by Frank Loesser (who also wrote Guys and Dolls.)

 

Tomorrow I am having bloodwork done, and on Tuesday a bone density test. The blood work is lightning fast, and I don’t expect the bone thing to take much longer, but there is always getting to and from, not to mention compliance with what and what not to do beforehand. I don’t expect to miss a post, but I thought I would mention it.

I had to get this in for today because of the deadlines. Sadly, I didn’t have that much, so the one I had in this position will not get used – it wasn’t that impressive. This, though it’s not exactly new, it’s been a tradition like forever, is at least pleasant and fun.

Here are three  – related – good news stories from Lakota Law. I wish I could just link to a news page there instead of three separate links, but I’m sure that Lakota Law has more important things to do than post their newsletters, particularly if their website isn’t set up for that. So I’ll just quote from their letter, signed by Darren Thompson: “This trio of important wins for Indigenous-led movements will preserve and protect a range of traditional Indigenous lands on the West Coast from additional harm.”

Xtra – here is the link to the donation page for Josh Weil, the blue candidate in the first of the three special elections to replace Congressmen appointed to executive positions. We really need to win all three. I realize not everyone can donate.

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Open Thread January 30 2025

 Posted by at 5:51 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 302025
 

Yesterday, I learned from Talking Points Memo’s “Morning Memo” that, apparently, there was a midair plane/helicopter crash over the Potomac River the night before. First responders were not expecting there to be any survivors. I’m not up to it, but someone really should start a list of all the deaths traceable to actions of the Orange Oligarch’s second administration. I’m sure there were more resulting from the first term than we ever heard of, since the only ones that were catalogued were the ones from CoViD. I’ve linked to that Memo, not because it has the last word on the crash, but because there is a whole lot more in it. In any case, today is the first day of Black History Month. I am going to be using as much Black History as I can – and including prsent day articles throwing light on the Black experience. Bit if you are interested in diving deeper, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) has you covered. If The Emperor doesn’t abolish it.

As fast as things change under an administration which has no idea what it is doing other than robbing the poor to give to the rich, this from Wonkette may already be out of date. I personally read the Colombian Tariffs news only a couple of hours before reading this.

This by Robert Reich is an analysis, not a news piece. So it isn’t now dated and isn’t likely to become dated any time soon. The problem now is how to get this analysis to people who need to be aware of it … and how to get those people to grasp its truth. Good luck with that.

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Open Thread January 29 2025

 Posted by at 6:08 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 292025
 

Yesterday, I watched/listened to most of a Contrarian interview with Sherrilynn Ifill. Being naturally a better reader than listener, while still listening, I scrolled down into the comments. I noticed a bunch of people complaining about no transcript. Odd, I thought, since the button (not exactly presented as a button but as a word which served the function. I finally came to one which was the last in a thread, so probably a lot of people didn’t see it, which pointed out that before you see the transcript “button” you must click on “Watch now” and it will appear. That may only be true on phones and tablets (those who are complaining who mention what hardware they are using look to all be on phones or tablets), but it’s still good to know. As an unpaid subscriber, I can’t comment, but I can recommend comments, and I recommended that one. Also, the Contrarian does pay attention to subscribers, and from now, instead of sending an email for every new post, or even just the major ones, they will send two a day, morning and evening, which will include a list with short descriptions of of the articles (mostly videos) since the previous newsletter. I hadn’t complained, but that will certainly make my life easier. Also yesterday. the stock market tanked – and Robert Reich knows why.  Today, Happy Lunar New Year!

From Wonkette. You likely know about it – but no one says it quite the way Wonkette says it. And we also all knew it was coming, I expect.

These two articles from PoGo are a lot to read, I admit. And getting Congress to do what needs to be done looks darned near impossible. Those three special elections are looking more important every day. Not that they will solve everything, by any means. But every little victory helps a little. BTW if it looks like either of the two links is done, keep scrolling anyway. One had, at least for me, a huge plug for the newsletter – but there was much more after it.

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Open Thread January 26 2025

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 262025
 

Yesterday, the radio opers was Verdi’s Aida, which may be the most performed opera which exists. Certainly it is at the Met, which means it’s had more performances than La Boheme or Carmen. This may be the first time in my life – I don’t remember any other – when I have heard the tenor sang his opening aria the way Verdi wanted it sung – the high note ending on a pianissimo floating away. From the time of Caruso (which is pretty close to the beginning of recorded sound), few tenors have been able to resist the temptation to hit it an hold it forte to show off the high note. The soprano, Angel Blue, reminded me of Leontyne Price in the role. The only other I’ve heard who was as good as those two in the role was Latonia Moore.  I believe there is exactly one race of humans and that is homo sapiens, so I don’t believe in radial memory.  But it is interesting that all three of those divas are African American

I think I have all good news today – Well, Belle’s may not be exactly good, but it is funny.

A few days old, but it is good news. Besides the speed of getting this into court, there’s a short preview of other court action to come. I’m also linking to Joyce Vance, who has some additional details on what actually happened in the courtroom.

This happened on Tuesday, but was published Wednesday. I just received the link yesterday from JL. As y’all know, I got a very late start yesterday – and had email left over from Friday -and had not found any other good news yet, so I’m using this. I do subscribe to Huff Post, but not to everything, just the “Fringe.”

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Open Thread January 24 2025

 Posted by at 6:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 242025
 

Yesterday or the day before, I mentioned three special elections coming up which should be winnable – and the more of them get in, the slimmer the house majority becomes. Here is the link to a PAC called “Youth Save Democracy” which concentrates on GenZ and Millennial voters and has a “Special Elections Fund” currently for these three elections. Also yesterday, ay least one person is rejecting the Peach Prevaricator’s pardon. When tried, she pled guilty, and said, “We were wrong. This is what I deserve.” She was sentenced to, and served, two months. Now, she has an attorney writing a letter of rejection for her to make her rejection an official matter of record. Both The Root and Democratic Underground have this story. Several DUers posted – ar least one got it from the BBC.

I pay no attention to DAVOS, and I’ll be surprised if anyone elsehere does. But Robert Reich does that for us – and oh boy, does he have their number.

I didn’t know that Elno’s grandparents were Nazis – but I can’t say I’m surprised. I did know he is on the spectrum, but it’s ben a minute since I stopped giving him any mental slack because of that. Did anyone know he had once visited Auschwitz? I didn’t. Schmidt says of Auschwitz: “There is a duality at Auschwitz that is shattering. It is simultaneously a space of utter madness and hyper-rationality.” But that’s not really a duality. G. K. Chesterton more than a century ago that if you apply strict rationality (or as Spock would say logic) to erroneous premises (such as “alternative facts”), the result is insanity. But Schmidt’s point in the essay is not that, but the disappearance from the memory, at least the American memory, of the history which produced Auschwitz and the other “camps.” And, though he doesn’t mention it, the disappearance from American collective memory which modern Nazis are attempting to make universal of slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, massacres which taint our own history, along with hostility to just about every immigrant group we have ever seen.

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