Feb 172024
 

Yesterday, a news alert from Axios alleged that Alex Navalny has died. Their source is the Russian Prison System, which I would not trust to be truuthful, but it’s also hard to believe it didn’t happen earlier. R.I.P. Alexei. Avaaz is collecting signatures for a tribute to him.  Also we had a “mass shooting” here of our own – a little different in that it appears to have happened inside a dorm, during the might, and so far not much evidence – except two dead people with gunshot wounds.

Mary watched Fani Willis’s entire testimony (I only had time for a few clips) and this summary-through-categorized-excerpts is brilliant.

This is not nearly as much fun … but it’s likely to have a more direct effect on all of us. Sigh.

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Jan 272024
 

Yesterday, I didn’t have to prepare for today’s opera – it’s “Carmen” by George Bizet. I’ve heard it a lot of times and seen it several times as well. For one production, I played second violin in the pit orchestra. All the string parts are extremely difficult, mostly because Bizet liked to run very fast scales starting in the basses and running all the way up to the first violins umpteenth position, and then back down again just as fast. I did my best (which wasn’t very good). But even then, I can’t say it was a bad production. There may not be such a thing as a really bad production of Carmen. And today’s radio cast is outstanding. Now, next week will be another story.

This certainly doesn’t surprise me. We have simply got to stop believing everything a Republican presents as fact. They just make things up.

I know there are many Democrats who think that, like Manchin, Jon Tester (D-MT) is useless other than for keeping our Senate majority (which is oretty thin.) I would invite all of those Dems to read at least parts of this article about two Republicans, one of whom will be in the Senate if Tester loses his reelection bid. Sheehy is the crazier of the two, but Rosendale is close behind.

By now everyone will have heard this, because it is, to quote the article’s headline, “a big non-fracking deal.” And it certainly took climate experts by surprise. Bill McKibben said, “[I]f it’s true, and I think it is, this is the biggest thing a U.S. president has ever done to stand up to the fossil fuel industry.”

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Jan 072024
 

Yesterday’s radio opera was Verdi’s “Nabucco,” his first big hit, loosely based on the Biblical figure of Nebuchadnezzar. Much of the plot is dramatic malarkey which makes for ear-catching arias and ensembles. But the “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves” (“Va, pensiero”) – based on Psalm 137 – something like it apparently did happen, and had resonated through centuries, and still resonates. Whether you have been taken away from your country, or your country has been taken away from you, it will resonate with you too. It is the one number in all of opera which is never not encored in performance, even during periods when encores in performance are out of fashion. My recollection is that in the latter half of the 20th century “Nabuco” was seldom performed, but that as the 21st century progresses, it is performed more often, at least in the United States, as we see our rights slipping away from us. And of course “Va pensiero” outside of the opera has never fallen out of favor (and it’s often encored in the concert hall, also.) Not a bad choice to broadcast on this anniversary, I’d say.

Speaking of the anniversary, remember Harry Dunn? Well, he’s now running for Congress in Maryland.

The news from Ukraine inspires me to reprise this video (which I first used in an article on Saint Javelina).

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Dec 292023
 

Well, I’m a bit better – I have some remedies on order and in the meantime hve cobbled together as best I could a recipe given to me by a former medical missionary who used to used it against dysentery in Africa.  It’s not (nor is it intended to be) a miracle cure, but it’s helping.  At that I may be lucky.  Heather Cox Richardson’s latest column is about Wounded Knee today.  Here’s one quote:

A dozen years ago, I wrote a book about the Wounded Knee Massacre, and what I learned still keeps me up at night. But it is not December 29 that haunts me.

What haunts me is the night of December 28.

It is haunting.  Those who most deserved to be haunted by it likely were impervious.  Their descendants, and all Americans in Power, who are not impervious should be learning something from it (as some are and some aren’t.)  Because

One of the curses of history is that we cannot go back and change the course leading to disasters, no matter how much we might wish to. The past has its own terrible inevitability.

But it is never too late to change the future.

Yesterday Maine did this in hope f changing the future (Lawrence interviewed the Maine Secretarty of State Las night on it)

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Oct 282023
 

Yesterday, the mass shooting in Maine reached some other news outlets, including Wonkette. I heard about it a couple of days ago from Joyce Vance. I wanted more detail before passing it on, but her take did inspire me to make today’s cartoon, and bump a different one (which I hadn’t finished anyway). Also, I received the email that my ballot has been counted. I can now display the “I voted” sticker, which was thoughtfully included in the envelope with the blank ballot. And I came across today’s Food for Thought, which is clearly a Public Service Announcement, so by all means pass it on.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Wonkette (Substack) – Search Continues For Whichever Antifa Biden Lib Forced Maine Shooter To Pretend To Be A Right-Winger
Quote – America is picking its way through the aftermath of yet another mass shooting, this time in Lewiston, Maine, where at least 18 people died and at least 13 others were wounded … when another previously law abiding gun owner stopped abiding the law and shot up a bowling alley and a restaurant. The reported casualty numbers … have varied widely, and may well rise. The suspected shooter is still at large as we write this, as law enforcement from all over join in searching for the shooter or perhaps his body and cable news fills time with expert opinion. People in the area have been told to shelter in place until the shooter is found. Businesses and schools are closed in Lewiston and several other locations around the state.
Click through for details – not that they aren’t much like every other details from every other mass shooting ever. Only the names and the numbers seem to change.

The Root – Freddie Krueger Who? Karen is the Real Face of Terror For Black America
Quote – In a world where law enforcement violence against Black Americans is far too common, where stereotypes still abound, the true face of terror is not Chucky or the Nun. It’s Karen…. Doesn’t matter if the Black person in question is a man or a woman. Doesn’t matter if they are strong or weak. Doesn’t matter if they are an adult or a child. Karen can get them. She can still drag them to hell.
Click through for story. Heaven knows people of any hue can find Karens annoying. But white people tend not to think of them as weapons of war. We need to look harder – and deeper. This goes back at leeast to the antebellum south and the character of “Miss Ann.” And it has been, and still can be, deadly.

Food For Thought

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Oct 232023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Powell & Chesebro plead guilty, flip, & agree to testify against Trump & others: Top 5 takeaways

The Lincoln Project – This Is Your Coup, Jim Jordan

MSNBC – Trump’s embrace of violence since leaving office

John Fugelsang – Kid Rock for Senate?

Wobbly Cat Adopts A Tiny, Wobbly Kitten

Beau – Let’s talk about how Biden’s trip changed….

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Oct 172023
 

Yesterday, I received confirmation for my visit to Virgil. I also learned that, on Monday, a train derailed on I-25 “near Pueblo” and that I-25 is closed indefinitely. I looked deeper and discovered that in this case, “near Pueblo” means at about exit 106, and that, when it derailed, it took a railroad bridge with it, dumping the bridge remnants onto the interstate. I normally use the interstate from Exit 128 to Exit 99, so I expect to need an alternate route. (I suppose I can be grateful the train didn’t explode.) I’ve been looking at road maps, and it’s pretty clear that the safest route which I can depend on it being there is via Cañon City. Virgil was in Cañon City for a few montjhs last year, so I know the route, or most of it, and the part I don’t know is US 50, so it should be well marked. An extra half hour should probably do it. Of course that also means I’ll be home later than usual, so please don’t worry. I’ll do my best to be extra oprganized in advance as much as possible so I don’t have to cut into sleep time.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Dad of Palestinian Boy Stabbed 26 Times in Chicago Reveals Last Words (hanky alert)
Quote – The Chicago landlord suspected of stabbing a Palestinian-American six-year-old 26 times had a “good” relationship with the boy and her mother before the killing, the child’s father told The Daily Beast on Sunday…. “[Wadea Al-Fayoume, the boy] “He is an angel. Basically a small angel in the form of a person. To this minute, I cannot believe how this could have happened,” the father, Oday El-Fayoume, told The Daily Beast. “My ex-wife and son knew him, and they had a good relationship. It is hard to picture this man holding a knife about to stab my son. I keep thinking that my son was probably running towards him before getting stabbed, trying to give him a hug.”
Click through for story – which you probably have heard, since it is egregious, so it’s all over. I should also provide a barf bag alert, because I can already hear the gun crazies yelling, “See! See! Guns aren’t the problem!”

The 19th – This Latinx geologist and TV show host is disrupting stereotypes of who can be a scientist
Quote – On a sunny day, perched on slanted beige rocks of the San Andreas Fault line, Michelle Barboza-Ramirez is dressed in a white sun hat, with retro sunglasses and dangly flower earrings, discussing how plate tectonics transformed the Los Angeles landscape as the camera rolls. “Take a look behind you. These rocks are tilted. Like hella tilted,” they tell Blake de Pastino, a fellow host of the popular PBS show “Eons.” The camera pans to the background. “If you didn’t know anything about geology, you’d see them and you’d be like, ‘Wow, that’s so weird that these rocks formed sideways.’” This conversational tone makes Barboza-Ramirez, who is a paleontologist and geologist, relatable to viewers.
Click through for article. Don’t get confused that Barboza-Ramirez’s pronouns are they/their. There is actually only one of them. (Not that there shouldn’t be more – Latinx scientists, that is.)

Food For Thought

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Oct 122023
 

Yesterday, a little-known conversation from many years ago (which was recently quoted by Steve Schmidt) popped up in my mind to haunt me. I can’t say it any better then Steve did, so I’ll quote him: “There is an extraordinary account of a late night meeting that took place between FDR and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in the White House from Nigel Hamilton’s “FDR at War“ trilogy. The two leaders talked late into the night. King returned to his room and wrote down the details of the conversation. FDR outlined to King his vision for what would come after victory in World War II. He said something chilling from the perspective of 2023. He said that nothing lasts forever, and that included his vision for the future. He told King that he hoped it would endure for as long as everyone who was alive on the day the war was won was still alive. The youngest of those people are 77 years old today.” Well, I am 78, and I’m still here. So is Mitch, whio is a bit older. The rest of us who think here are younger (as was TC). I wish all of us long lives free of world war. Also yesterday, Steve Scalise defeated Jim Jordan to be the nominee for speaker. We shall see whether Republicans can come together on this or any nominee. Oh, and The New Yorker had an article on dizziness/vertigo in their daily newsletter. I haven’t had any symptoms for months, but I “printed” it anyway (to my C drive for now – I’ll copy to a portable hard drive eventually.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – ‘Violence-Ready’ Militia Group Says Jan. 6’ers are Idiots
Quote – A male-only movement in the U.S. dressed up as a sports club catering to white men is taking over the right-wing social scene—and promising some dangerous results…. The clubs advertise as sporting groups designated for white-only men, but their real objective, Ritzmann tells The New Abnormal, “is to essentially train a white supremacist militia.”… [Ritzmann] says “Day X” could look similar to the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but adds of the rioters, “they have [been] discussed as being a bunch of idiots who don’t know how to storm a building properly. And they discuss this in a, let’s say, indirect way, because they don’t want law enforcement to focus on them.”
Click through for details. The podcast the article references is also on the page,. and I listened to the whole thing so you wouldn’t have to. The part which expands on the artile starts at approximately 18:40 and ends at 36:35. I also encourage anyone who has not seen Rachel Maddow’s podcast “Ultra” to look it up (and everyone who has seen it to refresh their memory.) It was not easy then to bring America together to oppose fascism, and it won’t be easy now. When I said we needed Joe Biden to be another FDR this was not what I had in mind. But apparently, it comes with the territory.

Jeff Tiedrich – holy shit, Donald Trump gave classified Israeli intel to Putin — probably more than once
Quote – let’s take a closer look at a thing I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s post. Donald Trump fucking loves to collude with Russia. Trump desperately wants to be Vladimir’s bestie. he does everything he can to stay in Putin’s good graces. why? is it because Donny dreams of opening a Trump Tower in Moscow? is it something more insidious, like kompromat? in the end, it doesn’t matter. what matters is that Donald Trump is a Russian asset.
Click through for article. Yes, Jeff has a pottymouth, but he tends to be accurate in both facts and interpretation.

Food For Thought

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