Open Thread March 19 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 192025
 

Yesterday, still slogging along. I did look for an image of St. Joseph, since March 19 is his day, but they were all too – TBH – white. Then I remembered that March 19th is also the day that the swallow (theoretically – it’s really just a legend) return to San Juan Capistrano mission after a winter in South America. As legends go, this one is pretty benign. So I thought I’d refer to it and maybe make up a little for having missed Pi Day.

Clearly none of this has anything to do with actual DEI, the point of which is to prevent us all from being limited to dealing exclusively with stupid white people. The point of these efforts is to erase history and convince people of the clearly false belief that white people are better than anyone else (and also that men are better than women, also clearly false.) I hope to heaven no one tells any of these dodos (apology to actual dodos) about the USS Doris Miller. (And yes, the Mount Suribachi photo is a target also.)

I always have difficulty reading The Root – I click to the page and maybe manage to read a paragraph and then it whites out (I think it’s my browser – I can read it in edge, I just hate edge.) I expect we all know what happened, including law enforcement though they are not admitting it, and likely no one will be held accountable. Someone commented that the Mango Monster and Dork Vader have taken us back 80 years in two months. I disagree. It’s more like 85 to 90 years. 80 years ago we were about to celebrate VE day in a couple of months and no one here was admitting to being a Nazi, or at least not in public.

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Open Thread March 10 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 102025
 

Yesterday, I visited Virgil and we played cribbage. It was not a day for high scores but we still had fun. Virgil’s back was hurting ans he had on uncomfortable shoes instead of the ones he usually wears. I was short of sleep – bu the fact is, even if I allow enough time for enough sleep, between the excitement of going to see him and the nervousness about something going wrong, I never get enough sleep the night before I go see him. And I need to stop expecting (or hoping) to. So today I’ve chosen two sources and I’m going to let them speak for me

This is a roundup from The Contrarian. Although they do send emails on individual posts, they also send at least one of these daily. Their style is quite straightforward – just the truth (which may or may not include background on the contributor so the reader can evaluate credentials. On regular contributors it may get skipped. This Roundup is put together by Norm Eisen, one of the two founders, along with Jen Rubin. Both have credentials.)

Here is the front page of The F* News. If Norm is too serious (and depressing) for you, I will guarantee that Jonathan is not too serious. Although he may not be able to avoid being depressing.

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Open Thread February 15 2025

 Posted by at 6:12 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 152025
 

Yesterday, my email included a Valentine from Eric Swalwell’s dog, Penny. That was a refreshing break from the rest of it. I can’t even begin to go into all the crap that’s going on. Of course, that’s the plan, and to a degree it’s working. But I’m slogging on. I do want to share that I watched most of a short video sharing, on the basis of an interview with someone who knew the family, that Dork Vader’s parents were Nazis (technically Nazi sympathizers in Canada) who apparently were too chickens**t to move to Germany, but instead moved to South Afrika because they also supported the Afrikaaners (in other words were racist.) My browser kicked me off before it finished, so I don’t have the link, but it was on the “Occupy Democrats” channel, so it shouldn’t be hard to find. For one more upbeat (or at least humorous) item, here’s Andy.

Joyce Vance provides enough information to charge Patel criminally with lying to Congress. But it’s foregone that this DOJ will not do that. And she also singles out DOJ employees who have spines and are, therefore, sadly, no longer part of DOJ.

I seldom share petitions, in large part because Freya does such a good job of it I don’t feel I need to. But this one is one that shouldn’t be missed

I couldn’t decide between these two stories, so I’m linking to both. In a way they’re related. One is about the Forest Service and the other about the Park Service, and, since one is from The F*News and the other from Wonkette, both have sardonic (a word you may be seeing a lot here) headlines. Also, both deal with the nightmarish, 1984 like, concept that we must all be identical or we’re not American, when the exact opposite is more in line with who we are supposed to be, as Americans, and as humans.)

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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 August 5, 2023

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 052023
 

Yesterday, It was fairly quiet. Actually, it was really quiet around here – and there wasn’t that much in the news. Of course Thursday was the big news day. After that, most other news is going to be anticlimactic. I did manage to find a couple of things to say, though. WRT the FFT, ordinarily I’d put it in the video thread. But the success story, which I covered here, but not from this angle, is a victory most of us, maybe all of us were part of, as he points out.

Cartoon – 05 0805Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

The 19th – Young Americans who identify with gun culture are more likely to believe in male supremacy, research shows
Quote – Pasha Dashtgard, the director of research at PERIL and an expert on male supremacy and online radicalization, said one factor propelling this sentiment is a shifting economic landscape in America. “In places of economic instability, men are shifting from this attitude of man as provider to man as protector,” he said. “You may not be able to, as a man, be the primary breadwinner, but you can — through acquiring guns and the willingness to use guns for violence — reclaim your masculinity as a protector.” Even in young people, this sentiment was notable and behind many of the things that participants expressed to the researchers during interviews. Dashtgard said this speaks to a larger cultural dynamic at play currently, where many White men are feeling unsure of how to articulate themselves as men in current society. As a result, many young men are turning to guns as an “unimpeachable access to masculinity.”
Click through for details. “What a surprise!” said no one ever.Apparently we need to provide education to teach people who don’t realize it that a gun and a penis are not the same.

Colorado Public Radio – ‘I Am the Bridge’: How a poem being presented at an African cultural event in Arvada was created by 50 people from different ethnicities and cultures
Quote – Words of resilience, marginalization, trepidation and community were spoken when about 50 people showed up on July 1 at a spiritual center in Arvada to brainstorm lines for what eventually became “I Am the Bridge: A Poem By All Of Us.” It’s a four-page poem with contributions from local Native Americans, Asians, Hispanic people, Jewish people, European people, Black Americans and African immigrants. It will be performed by seven people, one representing each of these groups, at the Arvada Center on Saturday evening.
Click through for a few quotes and more information. It isn’t Amanda Gorman, but it is powerful nevertheless.

Food For Thought

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