Jul 092022
 

Thought it was time to let Mitch regale us with a few humorous photos.

How to get that surly teenager to do his/her chores:

 

BONUS

As a follow-up (NOTE: I no longer use the standard medical abbreviation for “Follow Up” of f/u since my nephew gave me a heads up) to my July the 4th post on the use of safer drones for celebrations, I came across these events to buttress the point.  Whether done by the neighbors …

Or professions, like the infamous 2012 San Diego fiasco – “Big Bay Boom” – that went BUST and lasted less than 30 seconds …

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Jul 092022
 

Glenn – Georgia DA Willis’ subpoena-palooza: John Eastman, Rudy G., Jenna Ellis, Lindsey Graham & others.

Meidas Touch – Reenactment of Don Jr. DRUNK DIALING friend after Cassidy Hutchinson Humiliated Dad

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – July 5, 2022

MSNBC – Could Pat Cipollone Be The John Dean Of The Jan. 6 Case?

Ojeda Live – WATCH Richard Ojeda Explain the Top 5 Republican Motivators

Beau – Let’s talk about Texas and teaching history….

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Jun 282022
 

Yesterday, I realized Nameless has posted Sunday evening after I sent the email – I’ll pick it up in next week’s, but for regular readers, here’s the link – https://www.7thstep.org/blog/2022/06/26/there-is-no-joy-in-mudville/ I didn’t see it immediately because I was loking for an email response to my visit-Virgil notification, and when I found it, it was a notificaion that he has been moved again. I needed to address that right away because they only have certain hours in which they read and answer emails, so I didn’t get to PP right away. And I realize this OT is pretty lightweught. Sometimes that happens. BTW, there’s another hearing today I’ll be watching it after the fact. And one final note – I’m not big on podcasts myself as a learning method (I find it difficult to sit still and listen), but this one, recommended by the editor of Mother Jones, appears to be seriously content-rich, down to earth, and something you can recommend to anyone whose shock at current events leads them to wnt to learn more. It’s called “How to Citizen.” https://www.howtocitizen.com

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The New Yorker (Borowitz) – Women Declare Themselves Corporations to Force Supreme Court to Grant Them Rights as People
Quote – Attorneys across the nation indicated that they have been swamped by requests from clients seeking to incorporate as soon as possible. “The Supreme Court decided in 2010 that corporations are people, so all we want is to be treated like corporations, ” Carol Foyler, who now goes by the corporate name FoylerCo L.L.C., said.
Click through for full (short) article. I’ve heard lots of ideas less intelligent than this one.

Robert Reich – When I was Baby Jesus
Quote – What was I to do? I did the only thing my five-year-old brain could come up with: I apologized to God. I did it quietly as I lay on the straw on the stage, under my breath so no one else would hear, and then apologized again during the prayers and Christmas carols. I whispered, “God, I didn’t have a choice. I was cast as Baby Jesus. I don’t celebrate Christmas. It’s against my religion. Please forgive me. Thank you.”
Click through for his thoughts on yet another horrible SCOTUS decision.

Food For Thought

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Jun 192022
 

Yesterday, The radio opera was “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs”[sic] by Mason Bates, libretto by Mark Campbell, in a recording from the Santa Fe Opera, where it premiered in 2017. My biggest surprise of the week was that it was aired on my local radio station. There had been no promotion for it, and these programs are expensive to air, and the most recent fund drive had not made goal. So maybe it is a one-time broadcast – the most recent new manager had made the one announcer who is as nuts about opera the program director, and this opera is, to say the least, a rarity. It is told with multiple out-of-sequence flashbacks – the composer structured it in a musical circle, in homage to Jobs’s belief that life is a circle. Its characters are real people and it’s based on events which occurred, but it makes no claim to be accurate in detail. It has had subsequent performances, and it has been commercially recorded (in fact, it won a Grammy) One of the things I love about Santa Fe is that they do a premier every season. So many companies are terrified of premiers and a contemporary composer has a had time getting a new opera perfi=oemed. But Santa Fe has been so successful that other companies are now putting on new operas as well. I’ve seen a couple I’d love to see again, and there are some I haven’t seen that I’d love to see – several that I’ve heard and one in particular that I haven’t (but if WFMT is going to keep including premiers I eventually may) – “The Lord of Cries” by John Cotigliano in which he fuses “The Bacchae” and “Dracula” – yes, it wounds weird, but Corigliano is very good at combining stories and making the result seamless. I might just add that WFMT knows that opera is meant to be seem, and works hard to post folders of excellent professional photos of the productions it presents so that one can at least get a feel of the visuals.

Cartoon(s) –



Short Takes –

Robert Reich – What the crypto crash tells us
Quote – Earlier this week, Bitcoin dropped 15 percent over 24 hours to its lowest value since December 2020, and Ether, the second-most valuable cryptocurrency, fell about 16 percent. Last month, TerraUSD, a stablecoin — a system that was supposed to perform a lot like a conventional bank account but was backed only by a cryptocurrency called Luna — collapsed, losing 97 percent of its value in just 24 hours, apparently destroying some investors’ life savings. The implosion helped trigger a crypto meltdown that erased $300 billion in value across the market.
Click through for details. No, I can’t imagine anyone here has “invested” in this stuff – but if you know someone who has. you can pass it on. And, in any case, what a bunch of random idiots do can affect everyone, especially if they do it with money.

Wonkette – The Myth Of The ‘Normal’ Republican
Quote – The Republican Party is very confused. On one hand you have GOP politicians hoping to move forward with their regularly scheduled GOP political terribleness. On the other, GOP politicians are doubling down on being led by a twice-impeached former reality TV host who cost them the White House. In some cases, you have both in the very same GOP politician! Let’s check out a few examples from this week’s Sunday shows.
Click through for examples. In today’s Video Thread, Trae describes certain Republicans as “Team Normal” (As opposed to “Team Bugf**k,” but he also stresses that “Team Normal” is not to be trusted either.

Food For Thought

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Jun 122022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Preview of J6 committee public hearings: what do we expect to see & what happens after we see it?

Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Dr. Oz NOT Being Registered to Vote in Pennsylvania

The Lincoln Project – Think Again

via DAPL – Dakota Water Wars #3 – No Praying without a Permit (Parts 1 and 2 here )

Farron Balanced – MyPillow Guy Hatches New Conspiracy To Stroke Trump’s Ego

Hidden Camera Catches Cat Comforting Anxious Dog While Family’s Away

Beau – Let’s talk about unemployment, Wall Street, and Main Street….

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Jun 062022
 

Yesterday, for reasons I won’t go into, I was late for my visit with Virgil. That is more annoying at this faco;ity than at prior facilities I’ve visited, because of the shuttle bus system. I ca arrive at the facility any time, but I can only get on the bus when it is scheduled. o I was late, arriving at the visiting room about 12:30, and he was also late, having gone to lunch. So the visit was shorter than usual, but still a good one. I’m just as tired as if I had been thre all day – maybe more so – so I’ll probably rest today as much as I can.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The New Torker (Andy) – Biden and Zelensky Reach Agreement to Send Americans’ Four Hundred Million Guns to Ukraine
Quote – In a move that could tip the scales in the war against Russia, U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have reached an agreement to ship Americans’ four hundred million firearms to Ukraine. “The Second Amendment calls for a well-regulated militia necessary to secure a free state,” Biden said. “I can’t think of a better description of what’s going on in Ukraine right now.”
Click through for full humor. This is Andy’s best idea since sending Abbott to Russia to take down Russia’s power grid. In fact, it may be even better!

Comic Sands (George Takei) – Boebert’s Inane ‘Reading Rainbow’ Dig At Randy Rainbow Has Fans Clamoring For A LeVar Burton Collab
Quote –

Click thrugh for lots more opinions – or just wait for it to happen, as you wish.

Dempcratic Underground (Applegrove) – Tweet of the Evening
Quote –


Click through if you like – I’d say the tweet stands alone (Also, all tweets I have quoted today are linked to Twitter, both at my source, and here. Click on the blue bird.)

Food For Thought

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May 242022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Giuliani testifies; friends of Stone are flipping; Ginni Thomas insurrects & Loudermilk gets quiet

Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Bombshell Elon Musk Scandal (This is starting to remind me of an incident in Okinamwa, not too long before I came back stateside – not, I rush to assure you, to me personally, but a story I heard from a reliable source.)

The Lincoln Project – Skin in the Game

MSNBC – Raskin On Giuliani’s Jan. 6 Testimony: ‘Definitely Has A Lot Of Information’

VoteVets – Leader

Guy Visits Dog And Her Friends In The Desert For Over A Year

Beau – Let’s talk about what aliens can teach us about tech companies….

And a little bonus – this is a new kind of video which can’t be embedded, can’t even be stopped, not even at the end, because it is always on autoplay and will take you to the next one (in this case, a rabbit giving birth.) So why am a sharing something so difficult? Because it is a preview of the R Reich – H Jackman cameo on The Simpsons (probably the only way any sense will ever get shown on Fox.)

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May 162022
 

Yesterday, as you could probably tell from the email, I was trying to find out how to solve a problem with Disqus. I went through multiple FAQ pages and found out that, if Disqus won’t load at all for womeone, it is probably a browser issue, but resolving it depends on which browser (and may also depend on whether or not one is using Windows, and if so which version.)  If anyone has had any experience with this. I’d appreciate any anecdotes at all.  Also yesterday, it being Sunday, my radio station aired a “Classics for Kids” program on the theme of Military music.  Snippets of the 1812 Overture, Háry János, and some marches were played, as well ass Beethoven’s “Wellington’s Victory.”  I could not help thinking that if they really wanted to tell musically what war is, Schönberg’s “A Survivor from Warsaw” might come the closest.  But that would probably draw complaints from parents of little snowflakes.

Cartoon –

 

Short Takes –

Mother Jones – The Fight to Keep Their “Poor People’s Paradise” out of Private Equity’s Hands
Quote – [A] private equity–backed firm had bought the park, and residents soon found blue bags hanging on their doorknobs, containing packages outlining a fresh set of rules. Tenants were not to “wander on the streets of the community” after 9 p.m. Children were not to play in the roads. “Unsightly” or overgrown lawns were prohibited…. [L]andscapers hired by the park’s new owners had started cutting down residents’ rosebushes, lilac ­trees, and wildflower gardens. Before, Sans Souci was a “poor people’s paradise,” one resident said, where neighbors greeted each other as they passed by. But now everything that gave the community character, from people’s yard statues to the multicolored paint on their homes, had to go.
Click through for story. Remember Bain Capital (which by the way is still in business)? IMO, what private equitygroups to is simply lega;ized piracy.

Slate – Former Judge Resigns From the Supreme Court Bar
Quote – On Wednesday, Dannenberg tendered a letter of resignation from the Supreme Court Bar to Chief Justice John Roberts. He has been a member of that bar since 1972. In his letter, reprinted in full below, Dannenberg compares the current Supreme Court, with its boundless solicitude for the rights of the wealthy, the privileged, and the comfortable, to the court that ushered in the Lochner era in the early 20th century, a period of profound judicial activism that put a heavy thumb on the scale for big business, banking, and insurance interests, and ruled consistently against child labor, fair wages, and labor regulations.
Click through for letter (and also explanation of what the “Surpeme Court Bar” is.) Fifty years of membership down the tubes – because of Roberts.

The Daily Beast – PA Senate Candidate John Fetterman Hospitalized With Stroke Days Before Democratic Primary
Quote – Pennsylvania Senate Candidate John Fetterman revealed on Twitter that he checked into the hospital on Friday after he felt under the weather. According to a statement he posted Sunday afternoon, he suffered “a stroke that was caused by a clot from my heart being in an A-fib rhythm for too long.” Fetterman credited his wife, Gisele, for quickly spotting the signs and prodding him to seek medical treatment. Doctors were able to remove the clot and reverse the stroke, the candidate said
Click through for what is known. This is too bad – but at least it’s the primary, not the general. John is a Progressive, a force of nature who actually tells it like it is. His Democratic opponent, Conor Lamn, is more of a moderate.  I’d rather see Fetterman in the Senate … but at least Lamb is no Joe Manchin.

Food For Thought

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