Open Thread May 26 2024

 Posted by at 6:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 262024
 

Yesterday’s radio opera was Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del Ouest” (Girl of the Golden West.” It was taped before the pandemic, and it’s one of the operas I streamed during the pandemic, so no surprises, and I was glad to hear it again. Puccini is famous (notorious?) for the pathos of his doomed heroines, and most of his operas certainly fit the pattern. I am sure of only three operas where the heroine doesn’t die (one is iffy, as there are two heroines, and one dies and the other doesn’t.) This is the only one where the heroine can actually look forward to a new ife with her lover. It follows the play closely, including the blood dripping from the ceiling, and the cheating at cards, but leaving out some things because singing takes longer than speaking – her trip to the mission (on which she meets Dick Johnson – and feel free to laugh – everyone does) is not shown, only alluded to. And this summer Tme General manager’s wife will be touring with the Ukrainian Freedom orchestra, including in Kyiv and Lviv. and next year – Moby Dick.

Although today is not Memmorial Day, the National Memorial Day Concert  on PBS airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. most places (but check your local listings( and again at 9:30 pm (immediately after the first airing.)  If you have ever seen one of these concerts, you will likely not want to mss it.

I no longer ger newsletters from Mother Jones, but Talking Points Memo referred this article about RFKJr. David Corn has always been an excellent writer and a real journalist, and I think it’s worth sharing.

Heather Cox Richardson looks at Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP through the lenss of Lincoln’s “House Divided speech, including some background that most people don’t know. If only Republicans had any shame, this would devastate them. It’s a pity they don’t.

RGB version

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Open Thread April 30, 2024

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 302024
 

Yesterday, I ran across a video on ice cream from which I learned that Joe is far from the first President to have a thing for ice cream. Washington did, and so did Jefferson, and Dplley Madison hostessed America’s first ice cream social ever, in the White House. I won’t embed it here because it’s over 20 minutes longbut I will provide a link in case anyone wants to check it out. The earliest ice creams, incidentaally, were made with eggs, and should therefore really be called frozen custard rather than ice cream. Among the many books I had as a little girl, there was one which mentioned frozen custard, and I wondered what it was – I was well into adulthood before I learned the distinction. Now I know, and now you know.

This from LAWdork (at Substack) was referred by the Talking Points Memo newsletter. The facts of the case itself are all too common. But the sight of conservative lawlessness being too much for even a proven, dyed-in-the-wool conservative is not quite so common. I wish AG Drommond and Mr. Glossup both complete success here.

There are multiple reason why this story from Antiques Roadshow is astonishing, touching, and mindboggling. And pertinent to America and Americans today. Christian Nationalism has in common with slavery the concept that some people are more equal than others.

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Open Thread April 28, 2024

 Posted by at 5:48 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 282024
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Fire Shut Up in My Bones”, the first opera by a black composer ever to be performed at the Met, now in its second season with a couple of cast changes (I’m sure due to prior commitments on the part of the original principals). Ryan Speedo Green is a much lower baritone than Will Liverman who played the leading part last time around, and was able to sng the part as originally written, whereas Will Liverman – a fine singer – needed a couple of adjustments. Terence Blanchard, the composer worked with him on that, as is generally done when the composer is alive, to maximize the integrity of the opera. For me, the test of a great opera is if it sounds better each time you hear it. So far, this one does for me. I’ll be able to give it a workout though – I bought the DVD from the Met (not that I have a lot of time to spare for watching, but I’ll find some, even if I have to do it one act at a time.) Later, I was watching a dialogue between Lawrences O’Donnell and Tribe with CC, and I had to laugh – Tribe mentioned several male justices and the CC spelled all their names correctly except for Gorsuch – he came out as “Corsets.”

What Alito is actually saying is that punishment increases recidivism. I won’t say that’s complete nonsense (although his example is), but if he were correct, the logical thing to do would be to let everyone in any prison at any level out immediately. I am certainly not in favor of that, and I doubt he would actually want that.

You may well know this already, as it’s been shared by various sources (with multiple levels of incredulity.) I find it completely believable.

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Open Thread February 2, 2024

 Posted by at 5:48 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 022024
 

Yesterday – well, actually all this week I have been sleeping later than usual. I’m pretty cool with that, except that I don’t want to do it Saturday – the radio opera will be Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. It premiered in 1986… so it’s about time it came to the Met. Two of his four other operas have been “The Central Park Five,” for which he won a Pulitzer (but which I have not heard) and “Amistad,” which I have heard, on the radio, from Chicago Lyric Opera, and which choked me up. That must be almost 20 years ago – or more – , since I attempted to capture it on cassette tape, and only partially succeeded. Do I need to say that this Anthony Davis does not play pro basketball? So if you wasnt to learn more, be sure to Google (or Duck Duck Go) “Anthony Davis composer.”

Robert Reich has posted an article which is, or ought to be, pretty scary. How do you even prepare for something like that?And we know there are a lot of people who would gladly go along with it. We need our best legal minds to start getting on it right now (yesterday would be even better.)

Joyce Vance explains the border “crisis” as well as possible. But it’s hard to explain why states like Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Ohio are so worried. We don’t actually have a problem with illegals from Canada – do we? (By the way the answer to that first question is “No.” If you secede, you lose your citizenship. It’s not like someone who moves to another country but retains US citizenship.


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Video Thread 4/23/2023

 Posted by at 11:48 am  Open Thread, Politics
Apr 232023
 

Glenn Kirschner – DA Fani Willis seeks to kick lawyer off fake electors cases; moves forward in Georgia Trump probe

The Lincoln Project – Bullies

Thom Hartmann – WAR on America Declared By Our Own People? WTF

Friend Dog Studios – GOP Jesus (not new but oh so on target)

Dog Is Obsessed With Watching TV With His Human Sister

Beau – Let’s talk about 3 unrelated but similar incidents….

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Open Thread February 3, 2023

 Posted by at 7:14 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 032023
 

Yesterday, only a day or two after I pointed out that McCarthy had seated Ilhan Omar on the Foreign Affairs Committee, she was kicked off of it. The snake didn’t have the guts to do it himself. He took a vote of the full House. Grrrrr. Also, I want to highlight an article by Robert Reich on the debt ceilling – factual and easy to understand, like everything he writes.

Also, this video was in Wednesday’s video thread, and Lona recommended reporting it here because, essentially, it should be seen by everyone in the country.  She also recommended Freya including it in her action emails, which is up to Freya of course, but I’d concur.

PoliticsGirl – Why Less Tax is Actually More Tax

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Letters from an American – February 1, 2023
Quote – On February 1, 1862, in the early days of the Civil War, the Atlantic Monthly published Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” summing up the cause of freedom for which the United States troops would soon be fighting…. [T]he hopes of that moment had crumbled within a decade. Almost a century later, on February 1, 1960, David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell A. Blair Jr., and Joseph McNeil set out to bring them back to life when they sat down on stools at the F.W. Woolworth Company department store lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina…. Exactly 63 years later, on February 1, 2023, Tyre Nichols’s family said laid their 29-year-old son to rest in Memphis, Tennessee.
Click through for more detailed history. Mr. and Mrs. Nichols have accepted President Biden’s invitation to attend his State of the Union address. But – will we ever learn?

Washington Post (no paywall) – A Black professor defies DeSantis law restricting lessons on race
Quote – The painful chapter in Florida’s history known as the Newberry Six lynchings is one the university professor has taken pains to help document over decades of research. It’s also one that he fears will be removed from Florida history lessons under a new education law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as part of a broader push to root out ideas he deems “woke.”
Click through for story. In DeSantis’s Florida – Desantistan – it’ is not unthinkable that Professor Dun may need to be concerned that he may be lynched. That despite the fact that so many of us, even before 1861 and up to the present – have fought so hard to prevent that.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 11/20/21

 Posted by at 12:18 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Nov 202021
 

Glenn Kirschner – While We Must Accept the Rittenhouse Jury’s Not Guilty Verdict, We have Much to Learn & Miles to Go – Here’s the link to his OpEd.

Meidas Touch – McCarthy’s Harangue

Thom Hartmann – Inside The GOP’s New “Leave It To Beaver” Southern Strategy  Mitch

Armageddon Update – Screaming From The Sane Center

Brent Terhune – We’re Hiring!

Beau – Let’s talk about the other case and verdict…. He’s right, we need to look at the good along with the bad. You can read more here, but Beau pretty well covers it.

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