Yesterday, I made it in time to my appointment with my new PCP which I feel went well. I will be gettin prescriptions renewed ASAP which is good, since I’m out of 3 of the 4 now. After my last previous post, I found that I could “check in” on line in advance, and boy, was I glad of that. It was a detaiiled medical history they wanted and took much longeer than the 20 minutes they had told me to arrive early. I even got a chuckle at one point when they listed surgeries I might have had and had me check which nes I had had, and there was no way yo write it “removal of endometrioma,” so I checked “C-section” and had a comments section to explain in. Dr. Woody is very nice and so is her – I’m not sure what the qualification level is, so I’ll say her sidekick. The whole thing is a great load off my mind. Coming home and looking at my emails, I see that the Apricot Antichrist is appointing abunch of – I won’t say clowns, because clowns are better than that – laughingstocks to his administration. I won’t go into that, I’m sure you have seen them too. I literaly did laugh out loud over a couple – a “laugh so you won’t cry” kind of laugh.
This is Joyce Vance‘s “The Week Ahead” column from last Sunday. But it might just as easily be called “The Month Ahead” or “The Year Ahead.” So I won’t apologize for not posting it earlier. There is some inspiration in it along woth advice.
Atlanta Black Star. And they mock us for having feelings. But they are the ones whose feelings – all negative – are constantly getting out of control.
Talking Points Memo. Yeah, most of these prosecutions were at the Federal level. But any that may have been at state – or district – level should stand.
Yesterday, unsurprisingly, I received an email from VoteVets. But somehow I was not expecting an email from VoteVets to ne quite thisblunt. For instance, “Being a Veteran has often meant that the promises your country made to you were not always upheld. It meant being lied into wars. It meant that you had to watch as politicians refused to care for your friends as they got sick when they came home from those wars. It meant that the ideals and values you swore to uphold were often cast aside by the people in charge.” I know a lot of people think most veterans are Republican. While I don’t know the actual numbers, I doubt it. I know the people at VoteVets are not Republican. No Republican would ever be that honest. It’s no wonder that one of the most attended play presented by the Theater of War is “Philoctetes” – the title character who has been severely betrayed by “the generals,” and now they want to betray him again. In different ways, Theater of War and Vote Vets have a common goal – to help people heal. Theater of War works with public and private grants. Vote Vets needs contributions, and it is a worthy organization. I apolgize to everyone here and all Vets for crying on Veterans Day. But I’m afraid it seemed like the right thing to do.
This is Robert Reich’s take on the election, and on why geting the right take onthe election is so important going forward. I am with him up to a point. Here’s where I differ: when he says misogyny and racism does not explain it all. Yes, it does. Now, he goes on thedicuss the levels of education of the voter pool, much of which is woefully inadequate. But he fails to make the connection that the right kind of edication will also reduce racism and misogyny – and that nothing else will. It is not misogyny to recognize that misogyny exists. It is not misogyny to believe and say that by putting our best and brightest women into elections which no woman can win with the electorate as it it, we are killing them politically just as surely as outlawing abortion id killing women physically. We are not doingwomen any favors by sacrificing them on the altar of progress. (And I am willing to believe racism is also a factor since Hillary won the popular vote also and Harris did not. But education is also tha only way to put a dent in that.)
If you were expecting a civil war but not a shooting war, you may want to rethink that. I’m providing the link to NBC, since the Democratic Underground article just summarizes.
This is a very personal take on a World War II battle, and I doubt you’ll see it anywhere else other than here. I hope it helps.
Yesterday – wait, I need to give you some background. A week ago Monday I got my phone and internet provider changed – not my idea, but the old provider is changing and essentially transferred me (and the rest of the county, maybe even the entire front range, eventally). I have five working computers, and no two of them are networked, unless you consider the two which have internet access to be networked through the ‘net, but if I want to move information from any one to any other I use a thumb drive. For a week it worked fine, but this Monday I started getting 404s. I rebooted the modem (the old modem but it’s still part of the connection) which resolved the problem until evening when I had to reboot it a second time. Yesterday morning, rebooting that modem did not work. I tried three times, and it took three hours, before I decided to go look at the newest desktop and see whether there was something going on which I could only see on that one, which is connected directly to the newly installed equipment. And it was. I changed the settings on it, and now the other one is getting on line also. Actually, now it all makes sense (except that that’s three hours I’ll never get back,) and is even reassuring. I’ve never used WiFi at home, only when traveling, and then it wasn’t my own but the hotel’s, and now that Virgil is so close, I won’t be doing that any more, probably at all. So I stressed that, despite the new provider’s pride in their WiFi, I only wanted ethernet. This experience tells me that , even though it may still be available, it won’t decide to take over on its own. To those who are smarter than I about the way computers actually work (my specialty is how to make them do what I want – I used to be the Queen of Workarounds and very popular at work on account of it – that probably sound silly, and it probably is. But that’s OK. Also yesterday, I received a letter from my attroney general full of information about what’s going on in the courtroom with the Alberson-Kroger merger. I searched some to see if I could find the text online, but no luck. I’m aware this is a topic of importance to the entire nation, and would be happy to forward the email to anyone who wants it. If uou get my new-post letters, you should have my email address, but for anyone who doesn’t, the contact button doesn’t work for everyone, but I have put my address into the “About Me” page so it can be cut and pasted.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219622078
This DU link will take you to an embedded video of Bernie Sandersa answering the question, “I disagree with Kamala on Gaza. How can I vote for her?” If you are someone, or know someone, who has that question, this is the answer. I would have been asking it myself, were it not so obvious to be that neither Joe nor Kamala wants to support Netanyahu for a second the nation of Israel, yes, Netanyahu no), but consider us to be treaty bound, either actually or morally, and fear losing other allies if we appear to desert this one. (An Act of Congress might change that, but it will not come from this Congress.) An ally by treaty is not like a Facebook friend. A nation cannot just ghost them and survive. Anyway, I’m citing the embed because if you aren’t a paying member of YouTube the ads are getting obnoxious.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/estranged-family-of-oath-keepers
Of course the political is always personal. But it’s not always quite this personal. I’m grateful to Wonkette for sharing this (apparently Tasha has been in touch with Wonkette for a while – and found compassion there – which, despite their generally snarky style doesn’t surprise me in the least.)
Yesterday, I learned (and I may be late to the party, but I think not, since this is so damning) that Sheldon White house (God bless him) has released a report that during the Kavanaugh confirmation, the FBI didn’t even see the content the thousands of tips called in, because all calls were redirected to the White House. Meanwhile, Axios reports that Democrats have initiateed a llawsuit against the FEC for allowing the GOP to put out ads which are not just morally but also legally questionable. Also, for a while now Steve Schmidt has been sounding increasingly nervous because Kamala Harris has not been as forceful as he would like to see. But her interview with Bret Baier on Fox appears to have satisfied him. Finally, I think this is the first time I have seen Belle pissed off. Personally I found it both amusing and inspiring. See what you think.
I have been aware for some time that Rolling Stone, though not the first name most people thing of when the phrase “news outlet” comes up, does do journalism, much of it on subjects other news media won’t touch,some of it outstanding. I just never went there till now. Maybe I thought I’d be paywalled, and maybe if I go to the well too often I will be. But i was able to see this story. You know, back in ancient Greece and Rome, and even up into the Middle Ages, European rulers literally did kill the messenger who brought bad news. I thought humanity had grown beyond that by now – I suppose the pandenic should have given me a clue.
This is perhaps an extreme example, but it is an example of what Republican policies of starving the government so they can drown it in a bathtub will always lead to. But you knew that. Although you may not have expected to see quite so blatantly it in real time.
OK, I realize this post is getting crowded, but trust me, you do not want to miss the letter which former Governor of Georgia (who is now a lawyer representing Fani Willis personally and professionally) wrote to Jim Jordan. Joyce Vance publishes a photo and describes it as “civil discourse with a little twist of bless your heart attached.” (I magnified it to 500% just to see what it looked like and it’s still very legible, just a bit blurred.)
Yesterday,I was reminded of an expression I used to see all the time in early and middle 20th century detective novels (but it goes farther back than that.) it does, depending on the point being made, “[name] by name and [name] by nature,” or “[name] by name but not by nature.” For instance, the couple who took their interracial marriage to the Supreme Court and got it legalized nationally – you could call them “Loving by name and loving by nature.” what reminded me was reading that Jeff Crank is the Republican running for Congress in my district. Yeah, he’s definitely Crank by name and crank by nature. Oh, well. As long as he’s otnumbered – I realize that’s not certain, but we are working on it. Also yesterday, I got an email fro Scout Walz, sent by the Harris campaign. I expect all or most of you got it too. If not I’ll be happy to forward it. It reads much like a Dodo video. And one more thing, in case you have seen something about it, the Mollie Kathleen gold mine in Teller County, Colorado, which is now a tourist attraction, did not collapse. It did have an equipment malfunction in that the elevator which takes tourists about 1,000 feet down and then uo again, malfunctioned, and would not go back up. One person has died from causes yet unknown, or at least not published, eleven people have been rescued, twelve were still trapped as of yesterday, and at least one of the 24 is a child. Here is a link for more information. Teller County is the county to the immediate west of my county. My county contains a lot of natural beauty, but I think Teller County has more. Normally the most danger around here is from blizzards (which can be prepared for), hail, and occasional wildfires. Lastly, Ethel Kennedy has died. I’m kind of sorry she had to see what her son did to his father’s memory – and then didn’t get to see him put in his place.
Common sense should tell me that a judge, whether a traffic judge or a Supreme Court Justice, cannot know everything that is known by armies of scientists and researchers. And of course that is why trial attornies so often need to call expert witnesses. But this still makes me nervous.
This fear may be new to Joyce Vance, but it isn’t to me. I have not faced violence as an election “judge” but I certainly have seen situations which might have become violent. And that’s inColorado. She lives in Alabama. Violence may not be likely in her precincts, but I’ll bet there are many majority-black precincts which could easily see pre-planned violence and should prepare for it as best they can. Maybe not violence from ISIS – but definitely from vanilla ISIS.
Yesterday, Reading about all the crap that’s happening in Springfield, OH, it struck me that Republicans, at least MAGAts, don’t seem to have a lot of faith in their own candidates. If they actually had faith in Trump**, they would believe that if elected he would deport or murder any immigrants who are “eating pets: – maybe even citizens who are “eating pets.” But they apparently don’t. They apparently think they must take the bloodshed into their own tiny hands. So they can’t really have as much faith in Trump** as they think they do.
I really don’t know what to say about this. of course, concerning Trump**, the first question should always be, “Is it even a thing or just fantasy?” That said, even if it’s a thing, even if it makes any money, how long is he going to live to appreciate it? Ron Filikowski thinks it’s actually a Junior and Eric venture using Daddy’s name – well, maybe. Makes the most sense I have seen so far.
I get the morning newsletter from Talking Points Memo, but thatt’s all, so I often don’t see what else they have to offer. This was cited by Robert Hubbell. Of course it was Trump** who “started the fire.” But I serously doubt that “everyone knows it.” Republicans have been promoting that label that violence comes from the left, and olicing as if that were actually true, for my entire lifetime. A bit of truth is not going to wipe that out, no matter how obvious it has become, and no matter how much we wish it would.
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.
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.
