Glenn Kirschner – Mike Pence CALLS OUT Donald Trump at Gridiron Dinner? Will Pence now testify about Trump’s crimes?
Thom Hartmann – Is This Healthcare or a Crime?
Ring of Fire – Biden Baits Republicans Into A Trap On Medicare Funding
Armageddon Update – DeSantis DeStruction
Stray Cat Waits For This Guy At Work Every Morning For 2 Years
Beau – Let’s talk about Fox, a Zoom call, and the New York Times….
Yesterday, It warmed up above freezing and the snow is mostly gone from where it needs to be gone. Today (and tomorrow) should be warmer. I did listen to the concert “For Ukraine: A Concert of Rememberance and Hope.” It began with a video message from Olena Zelenska (Debra Lou Harder read out the English subtitles.) I was choked up before the first note (which was the first note of the Unkrainian National Anthem, BTW.) If you saw “Amadeus,” you’ll remember several chunks from the Mozart Requiem, and of course everyone recognizes Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. They are actually less familiar to the performers than to the audience – opera orchestras don’t generally play sumphonies, and opera choruses seldom sing Requiems, though top rank vocal soloists do, at least on occasion. The “Prayer for Ukraine” was part of the first Met concert for Ukraine. Yes, this is alot of music analysis. But as someone cited from Heine, (it may have been the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, or one of the two Ukrainian soloists), “When words leave off, music begins.” They posted the program on line (part of it – they cut out the advertising.) And – speaking of Ukraine and music …
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The Daily Beast – Broadway Star Ben Platt Condemns ‘Evil’ Neo-Nazis After ‘Parade’ Protest
Quote – The show, a Broadway transfer from the Encores! concert series, is based on the true story of a Jewish factory superintendent, Leo Frank, who was falsely convicted of killing 13-year-old employee Mary Phagan in 1913, and who was kidnapped from prison and lynched two years later…. [A] masked activist from the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi hate group, tried to leaflet theater-goers outside the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre so they could “find out the truth” about the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), as well as Parade. “You’re paying 300 bucks to go fucking worship a pedophile, you might as well know what you’re talking about,” the masked person said.
Click through for article. This is bad enough – but the same people who staged this outrage have also designated today as a “National Day of Hate.” At least in many large cities, it’s being reported that law enforcement is providing extra protectio to synagogues.
Letters From An American – February 19, 2023
Quote – Today is the anniversary of the day in 1942, during World War II, that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 enabling military authorities to designate military areas from which “any or all persons may be excluded.” That order also permitted the secretary of war to provide transportation, food, and shelter “to accomplish the purpose of this order.” … On March 2, 1942, General John DeWitt put Executive Order 9066 into effect. He signed Public Proclamation No. 1, dividing the country into military zones and, “as a matter of military necessity,” excluding from certain of those zones “[a]ny Japanese, German, or Italian alien, or any person of Japanese Ancestry.”
Click through for Letter. There is Nick Anderson the basketball player, and there is Nick Anderson the cartoonist, but the Nick Anderson to whom Heather refers is neither of them. He is a young reporter for the Washington Post. I can’t provide a gift link – my cousin is all out of them for this month. Here’s the paywalled link. But hHeather does a gret job and you may not need or want it.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Special Counsel Jack Smith subpoenas Ivanka Trump & Jared Kushner to testify about DJT’s crimes
The Lincoln Project – Wiser Instincts
Farron Balanced – Trump Says He’ll Use The Federal Government To Punish Your Children
Rep. Jamie Raskin’s message to PCCC members (hanky alert)
Wobbly Baby Goat Finally Runs With Her Best Friend
Beau – Let’s talk about water in Cincinnati and Kentucky….
Yesterday, the temperature did go up before it went down, although it never for as high as freezing. Today it should, and the next several days should be warmer still. There’s no snow in the forecast for a little over a week.
This article in one of my newsletters caught my eye… and then I saw that it had also caught Mitch’s eye. I know many of y’all are also on his mailing list – and also that the contents are no surprise – but it’s good to see that someone is in a position to prove it.
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The Daily Beast – 10 Surprising Lessons of the Ukraine War So Far
Quote – While Ukraine has pleaded for fighter jets for a year, unmanned aircraft have stolen the show … “No Time for Sergeants” was once a TV hit in America. It has been a flop for the Russian army ,,, Speaking of time, it’s time for traditional navies to realize their time will soon be up … Poland is the new Germany. (And Estonia is the new France.) … Vladimir Putin may be a madman, but at least he has the common sense not to want to be obliterated in a nuclear war with NATO … Speaking of Putin, stick a fork in him. He may not be quite done yet, but he will be soon… and besides if anyone deserves to have a fork stuck in him, it’s Putin … TikTok is more than just an annoying teenage time-waster and Chinese espionage plot … Ukraine is already in the EU and NATO whether you (or Russia or Turkey[sic]) like it or not … With friends like Turkey[sic], Israel, the global South and Elon Musk, who needs enemies? … And the most important lesson of all is, as it will be for the remainder of this century, everything is always about China.
Click through for the explanation of each point. I am doing my best to respect the newly preferred spelling of Türkiye. If the UN can do it, I should be able to.
The Nib – The Great Debate: Martin Luther King, Jr. vs Robert F. Williams
Quote – While the debate between King and Williams was waged in dueling magazine columns in pages of the Liberator over the course of 1959, I like to imagine what it would have been like inperson. Maybe I’d be sitting with WEB Dubois, who followed the discussion closely.
Click through for full graphic. The hearts and minds of bigots cannot be won with violence. The hearts and minds of bigots also cannot be won with non-violence. They also cannot be won with legislation, but I believe legislation has the best chance of controlling their behavior, and of at least achieving justice when that doesn’t succeed. But for that to happen we need to elect majorities of sane legislators everywhere and at every level – and we need exclusively sane people in law enforcement and the courts. None of this is easy.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Chinese spy balloons, Jim Jordan, and the debasement of the House & Senate Judiciary Committees
The Lincoln Project – Built Back Better
Farron Balanced – Trump Threatens To Help Democrats If Republican Voters Reject Him
Armageddon Update – Book Banning
Bearded Dragon Comes Running When His Mom Calls Him
Beau – Let’s talk about a laptop and a change of strategy….
Yesterday, there was news about Damar Hamlin. I didn’t report when he was moved from the hospital he was originally in to one nearer home, because he was still hospoitalized. But now, after probably every test they could come up woth, he has been released from the hosppitsl entirely.
You may see a theme in the short takes today. I am beginning to see some thoughtful reporting about what Republicans are threatening to do, and what they can’t, or, if they can, why it cannot have the effects they claim it will. However, if they are able to get control of all three houses (Representatives, Senate, and White), it will be a different story. Campaign 2024 begins now.
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The Daily Beast – Democrats Have Little to Fear From GOP House Investigations
Quote – [McCarthy] announced Republicans’ intent to investigate everything from active criminal investigations being conducted by the Justice Department to “the withdrawal of Afghanistan [sic], to the origins of COVID, and to the weaponization of the F.B.I.” A resolution to create a special House Judiciary Committee “select subcommittee” to get this laundry list of investigations done will be voted on later this week. The intention to make this committee the Republican answer to the Jan. 6 Committee was made clear by Rep. Chip Roy’s disclosure that Speaker McCarthy has promised the select subcommittee at least as much funding and staffing as was given to the Jan. 6 committee.
Click through for details. The advice contained in this artocle is good, but probably unnecessary. No elected Democrat is going to be stupid enough to blow off a request from a lawfully formes committee just because it is made up of idiot and the request is laughable. None of us has anything to hide.
Crooks & Liars – No, House GOPers Can’t Block Additional IRS Funding
Quote – Maybe these Republicans would have been happier if they’d done high school theater when they were kids, and gotten it all out of their systems. Because there’s no way, no how they get to stop this IRS funding. They just have to be seen trying to stop it to make their donors happy!
Click through for exactly why not. (Not that you don’t already know this if you have ever seen Schoolhouse Rock.)
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Signs of hope and optimism that 2023 will be the year of accountability
Thom Hartmann – Did Corporate Personhood Turn Democracy Into Fascism?
Ring of Fire – Fox News Tries To Blame Pete Buttigieg For Southwest Airlines Disaster
Shirley Serban – Queen Parody Song for New Year 2023 – Another One Bites the Dust
This Dog Wouldn’t Leave Her Bed Until Her Foster Mom Brought Her Home
Beau – Let’s talk about what is and isn’t history….
Yesterday, the radio opera was Charles Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliette,” recorded in China. Juliette’s opening aria, “Je veux vivre,” has been sung by finalists on many, many Miss America telecasts (I don’t know whether that still holds – I haven’t watched any pageants for a long time.) In any medium, this is a difficult story to tell, in large part because the protagonists are so very young – Juliet is not yet 14, and Romeo not much older. Any 13-year-old who can manage to sing that music, and project it throughout an opera house, should not be allowed to do so, because that much that young will harm the growing voice. (Anyone remember Charlotte Church? Hear of her lately? Well, in 2022 she appeards as”Mushroom” on The Masked Singer and took second place.) I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I have always thought the DiCaprio-Danes movie version came closest to nailing it – I thought at the time it was because they looked so young, but looking back, while their appearance helped, what really sealed the deal was their youthlul blocking and body language. Through most of history children were expected to behave like miniature adults; it’s only in the last hundred years or so that some cultures have recognized there are actual stages of development from child to adult, and it isn’t realistic for a child or a teen to behave adultly. If they try, they are going to appear awkward.
Also, late breaking from Axios: “Wins in Arizona and Nevada kept President Biden’s party in charge of the upper chamber while control of the House still hangs in the balance.” To be clear, add Wornock and we will actually have 51-49.
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The Warning – American politics remains broken
Quote – American politics was broken before the Tuesday election. It remained broken on Wednesday morning. The MAGA extremist threat did not dissipate by failing to achieve its aims. The GOP/MAGA class of 2022 was a dangerous group of unfit extremists that has no parallel in modern American history. Collectively, their presence on US ballots from sea to shining sea amounted to indisputable evidence of national decay irredeemable cynicism, factionalism and cowardice.
Click trough for partial analysis. My feeling is that gross Republican misjudgment saved the election for us, and that the fact that control of both houses is so close should be terrifying. So I’ll be using the scary closer for a while yet.
Washington Post (gift link) – She decoded Nazi messages and helped win World War II. Now she’s 101.
Quote – The goal of the WAVES women was to save American lives by sinking German subs before they could attack Allied shipping. At first, news of a destroyed U-boat was cause for celebration. But it became more painful as the war dragged on and its human cost became more evident. Once, Parsons helped decode a congratulatory note to a German sailor at sea upon the birth of his son back home. A few days later, she learned the father’s submarine had been sunk, with no survivors. “To think that we all had a hand in killing somebody did not sit well with me,” she said. “I felt really bad. That baby would never see his father.”
Click through for full story. I’m still trying to feature some good news daily if possible. I am sure Pat B and I (both sea service veterans) are not the only ones who can appreciate her work. It can’t have been easy.
Food For Thought
