Open Thread September 17 2024

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 172024
 

Yesterday, I was still tidying up. I have been known to make the same mstake twice, but hopefully not in a two-day period, so this should be on time. Also, the New Mexico Political Report announced a week starting today of articles discussing exactly what impact Project 2025 would have in New Mexico specifically. I realize that probably none of us live in New Mexico, but even if your state has zip in common with it, seeing it applied to a particular state could get us thinking about how it would apply to our own. I’m providing a link to the introduction, which has more details. While there , I went to the home page by clicking on the logo in the upper left, and saw two stories already on how Project 2025 will affect the climate in New Mexico. The New Mexico Political Report is (or used to be and I hope still is) a creative commons site, which means that as long as you follow their rules, you can repost complete articles and not violate copyright. And then there’s this (watch the embed here – don’t go to YouTube – it is censoring VoteVets

TomCat referred to the Reichstag fire often, as I’m sure everyone recalls. The first “assissination attempt” may have been actually an intended attempt, but I still do not believe it as a bullet which caused his ear to bleed (my vote goes to shattered glass “shrapnel.”) But this really does look ridiculous to anyone with a functioning brain. Not that that precludes it from being very dangerous, as Rober Reich has also remarked.

This is a report from the Project on Government Oversight on what happens in one state – Texas – when the Census is not conducted to count every head. NOte that Texas deliberately conducted the 2020 Census so as to undercount its population. WEll, it cost them a lot of money to do that. Not that they care about that. Red states are states which turn down Federal money even if the count is correct.

Belle 18 mos

Cat

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Open Thread September 15 2024

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 152024
 

Yesterday,as I mentioned, the opera was a double bill of “Highway 1 USA” by William Geant Still and “The Dwarf” by Alexander Zelinsky. The former is a sad (though it ends well) story of a married couple who have already sacrificed much to send the husband’s younger brother through college, to fulfill the promise he made to his dying mother. The kid has grown up to be a narcissist. He attempts to seduce the wife without success, and in a rage stabs her (not fatally, but everyone thinks so for a while, because she loses consciousness). And then it gets interesting. The younger brother will no longer be in their household. “The Dwarf” also includes a failed seduction attempt and it apparently is semi-autographical = Zemlinsky was one of the “Practically all the top creative talent in central Europe” (to quote Tom Lehrer) who fell in love with Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel. She did not return his feelings and must have been pretty blunt. The literary basis for the libretto was “The Birthday of the Infanta” by Oscar Wilde, who must have been thinking of the painting “Las Meninas” by Velasquez, because all the characters from it are in the opera.

The trial of the man who shot up the King Soopers in Boulder, CO is bring put all kinds of stories of how people react in situations like that. It will probably not surprise you that many, maybe most, are very unlike the police force of Uvalde, TX.

I’m not 100% sure that cruelty is the point is this behavior, but I am 100% sure that Republicans don’t give a flying continental whether it is cruel or not – as long as it riles up the base and wins elections. If it stops winning electins, they might change their tactics – or they might not. But it it doesn’t stop winning electins, they’ll only whip it harder. I do know this has been discussed here, but I also feel the Wonkette take is worthy.

Belle shutdown

Cat

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Open Thread September 13 2024

 Posted by at 6:13 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 132024
 

Yesterday, I came across a just-under-six-minute presentation by Anonymous on Christian nationalism – in the Christian nationalists’ own words. It’s pretty awful. But it should get as wide exposure as possible so that as many people as possible become aware of the real stakes in this election. All those people who are thinking about the economy, or womens’ rights, or anything else, don’t get it. Sure, all those things are important. but Trump**II would destroy all of them and far more.

Well, this is encouraging, and what really makes it so is the fact that the author at the source holds focus groups with swing voters.

They are telling the same lies about Aurora, Colorado –  but if Aurora has a four-generation journalist resident, he or she has not yet spoken up in the way that David Dewitt of the Ohio Capital Journal has. It’s highly personal and it is touching in a way thay MAGA Republicans can never hope to be (not that they would want to), and here it is.

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Open Thread September 10 2024

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 102024
 

Yesterday, like pretty much every Monday, was my day to recover from the stress of the weekend, much of it self-induced. At some level that I don’t seem to ba able to reach, I’m a believer in the saying, “Don’t tell me worry doesn’t solve anythin. The things I worry about never happen.” Silly, I know – it’s supposed to be – but I can’t be alone or it wouldn’t be such a classic. Also yesterday, Wonkeette’s last newsletter of the day was titled “Wonkette’s News of the Day Was Stupider Than Usual” and the letter itself proved it. I don’t have space, and you don’t have time to list all of the titles, but WOW. I will be happy to forward the list to anyone who wants it.

Yes, I realize PolitiZoom is hard to read. Even with an ad blocker it’s not that easy – at least not if you have a permanent zoom in your browser, as I do, to make everything bigger – because then the sidebar starts to overlap the text. But I think this one is worth a read. If you really can’t stand it, a trick I have is o select all, copy, and put it in a .txt file like Notepad (and then, if I want to save it, cleaning it up.) Articles that are already pretty clean (elsewhere) I print to a pdf (I use an older program, but Micrisoft I know now has this feature built in. Apple I don’t know about.) Deleting a pdf when one is finished with it doesn’t hurt any trees.

This from Colorado Public Radio isn’t hard to read because of ads. But it is hard to read because of content. Is there any state that is actually addressing this problem at the state level? Because it’s not really appropriate, IMO, for communities to be addressing a problem which is cused by years of Republuan rule at the Federal level. Maybe even the state level isn’t really that appropriate either, but it would be better than leaving it to communities full of NIMBYs.

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Open Thread September 8 2024

 Posted by at 6:14 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 082024
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades” based on Pushkin’s novelle of the same name. (There is also a comic opera by the same name by Franz von Suppé supposedly based on the same story, but it’s very different. The Tchaikovsky opera is as serious as a heart attack – in fact, there’s a heart attack in it. Leave it to Tchaikovsky to kill off all three principals in the same opera.) None of the characters is particularly admirable, but they are interesting. There’s a paranormal twist at the end. It’s one of only two opeeras I know of where the old lady is a soprano and the young one is a mezzo (the other being “The Consul” by Menotti.)  Lots of drama and also nice music.

Also – I’m not going to try to describe this email from Sean Astin – I’ll have to quote from it:
This Sunday, I’m inviting you to the Heroes 4 Harris Kamala-Con national livestream event with heroes from Star Wars, The Avengers, Hellboy, Batman, Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings, The Princess Bride, Hercules, The Neverending Story, and so many other sagas.
You can see me, Sam Gamgee, and others talk with real-life democracy heroes like Adam Schiff, Alexander Vindman, and the Tennessee Three about how we can defeat real-life foes in 2024.

https://www.cpr.org/2024/09/05/msu-denver-simulation-skills-hub-lab-health-care-training/
I was afraid I wouldn’t find another good news story worth sharing, but it appears I had too little faith. This one – well, it’s summed up by this quote: “Having a simulation gives me the opportunity to learn from my mistakes,” Mercado said. “Whereas in the real world, I would learn from my mistakes, but it could be at the cost of somebody’s life.”

This link will take you, if you wish, to a long comment by a user whi has been an economist for 18 years, and who debunks the idea the the only obligation of a corporation is to the shareholders. He suggests that corporations should also be responsible to other stakeholeders – such as workers, consumers, and the environment. When I was in grad school for my MBA, we were actually taught that (except the environment was not mentioned – it was just over 50 years ago and although the destruction was already well under way, few then realized it.) I have no idea what happened to this philosophy. Of course even then it was more honored in the breach than the observance. But today, corporations don’t even bother to talk the talk.

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Open Thread September 3 2024

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 032024
 

Yesterday, I was referred to this article by a poster at Democratic Underground. It’s at Salon, which I have long thought is one of the most, maybe the most in depth organ on cultural issues at least, and often beyond. Actually,that’s a reason why I don’t cite it more often than I do – I don’t have the time or energy to go that deep often, and I don’t expect you to either. But I am citing this one.

There are ways to sugarcoat this – and that’s part of the problem. It’s gonna take a whole lot of votes to offset it. I think the votes are there, but we will need every single one of them. GOTV matters as – well, not as never before because it mattered this much in 2016 and we didn’t succeed. But it matters that much again.

I would not call this an unseen problem – anyone who looks at national election results nationall since 1980 (and particularly since 2000) sees it clearly. I would call it an unacknowledged problem, since no one but Democrats (and not all of us) and the National Popular Vote interstate Compact is pointing it put. And why would Republicans point it put? It’s the only way they can win ( almost said without cheating, but, for on thing, it is a forme of built-in cheating, and for another, if it isn’t enough for them, they cheat in other ways, as in 1976.) I do not intend to badmouth decent and honorable Republicans (mostly historical) such as Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, T. Roosevelt, Margaret Chase Smith, Mark Hatfield, Adam Kinziger, and others (mostly historical.) But the few that are left had lost control of the party by 1980. None of this is unseed. It’s merely unmentioned.

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Open Thread September 1 2024

 Posted by at 6:12 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 012024
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Puccini’s “Todca.” It is so rooted in both locale and history that it must really be a challenge for a company to present it in modern dress and settings, but they do try. One of the photos showed the tenor and soprano with luggage and she was holding what appeared to be a Polaroid print. Aother photo showed a stage split vertically, something I hadn’t seen before but very appropriate, since while the soprano is upstairs with the villain, the tenor is being tortured in the dungeon, and they actually show that. It’s an opera which really hits me (in the most cathartic possible way) whenever I see or even hear it. And even in the original time and place it’s relevant now – there are still bullies with more power than anyone should have. Also yesterday, Steve Schmidt posted a new “Schmidt Storm.”

I am so old that to me a “Swiftie” is something like “Wow, that is one deep ditch!” said Tom gorgeously.But I have no difficulty admiring Tatlor Swift and these fans. This is kind of a fluff piece, but hey, it’s Sunday.

I wanted another story which was at least not a disaster, even if not 100% good news, and I thought of this one, which I had seen in Colorado Public Radio’s newsletter, and started looking for it. I couldn’t find it at CPR and hadn’t saved the newsletter, but I found it with DuckDuckGo at, of all places USA Today. Ironically, the name of the song which was interrupted was “It Matters to Her.” I gather she doesn’t want to file a complaint but there is enough evidence (witnesses) for the state to consider pressing charges

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Open Thread August 31 2024

 Posted by at 6:09 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 312024
 

Yesterday, Mary Trump wrote about the Arlington incident (or, as Robert Reich now calls it, “Cemeterygate”) and her take on it is actually simiar to mine. Of course, as an Amercan, I am angry about the disrespect of both federal law and a place that is practically holy to most Americans (certainly to all patriotic Americans), but the part that made me the angriest is that the assaulted civil servant fears retaliation and is afraid to press charges. Mary Trump addresses this powerfully, not just MAGA’s part in it, but also our national failure to protect our citizens from bullies. Heather Cox Richardson also got in on the issue. The only good to come out of this is that it should make things worse got DonOLD. Also yesterday, my water district (I get gas and electric from the city, but water and sewage from a special district – and fire and ambulance from another special district. It’s not confusing once you’re used to it) came by (by appointment) to install a new water meter to go with their new system. It comes with an online tool (sorry, I just hate the word “app”) through which I can track my water usage on a daily basis. Interesting. I don’t know whether I’m required to sign up, but I will.

I have seen very little about this incident, but knowing how Republicans will go on and on, I decided to cover it. Of the only two places who covered it at any length (in other words, with solid facts), this was the one I chose. The other site was PolitiZoom, in case anyone wants more. Apparently there’s a whole movement of people who believe that the 13th, 14th, 15th amendments are unconstitutional because they were passed without representation from the southern states (because we were at war with them – which is why we made them explicitly swear allegiance to the Constitution when they returned – funny how they forget that part.)

I have to wonder how many CMOH citations Steve Schmidt had to read before he found the one he quotes in full in this article. And after all that Carter lived long enough to be promoted and almost almost another twenty years. I am in awe (and in tears.)

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