Glenn Kirschner – w/Eric Swalwell on Lawrence – in lieu of February recap
Ring of Fire – Fox Host Humiliates Himself Trying To Find A Single DeSantis Supporter At Florida Diner
Channel 9 Denver – Colorado’s cold air helped create the perfect conditions for ‘light pillars’ (No, I’ve never seen one, and no, I don’t expect to.)
Patrick Fitzgerald – He’s Always a Moron
Pittie Is Foster Mom To Over 50 Kittens
Beau – Let’s talk about two GOP hurdles for 2024….
Glenn Kirschner – Judge unseals order directing Rep. Scott “Pardon Me” Perry’s cell phone disclosed to prosecutors
Robert Reich – Deregulation is Destroying Us
VoteVets – The Line
Patrick Fitzgerald – George Santos (not brand new but PolitiZoom just found it)
Dog Rescued From Side Of Road Gives His Cat Friend Kisses
Beau – Let’s talk about when the boss shows up and photos….
Glenn Kirschner – EVEN MORE classified documents found in Trump’s office, & these docs had been uploaded to the cloud!
Thom Hartmann – Did Far Right Turn Religion Into Authoritarian Cult?
Politics Girl – Wanna Save Democracy? (Yes, the primary is over now – Janet Protasiewicz won the open primary, and that’s good. But she won with a plurality, not a majority, and now we need to win the general. As far as I can gather from what I have found about the candidates, Wisconsin could really use its own Stacey Abrams right now.)
Parody Project – Parody of Mac the Knife about Jack Smith Special Prosecutor
My deer are getting high on Nitrous Oxide (NOS–laughing gas). Watch them lose their minds!
Beau – Let’s talk about Larry Hogan and the GOP….
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was based on a novella of roughly the same name, as unfair as that name is to the protagonist, who is essentially reacting to being abused, not only by her husbamd, but by her father-in-law, and then by an employee of the family business with whom she has an affair which essentially begins with a rape. No, murder is never justified, but it really is not hard to have empathy for her. There is a revised version from 1962, which the composer felt was different enough to rename it “Katerina Izmailova,” but it’s the original version (and the original title) which is usually heard today. The opera is one of many of his works which got him into deep doodoo with Stalin (he used to keep a fully packed suitcase by his front door so that if the secret police came in the middle of the might he’d have some possessions to take with him.) As always, I’ll comment when I get back from seeing Virgil.
Cartoon
Short Takes –
Crooks & Liars – Why Hasn’t Russia Destroyed Even One US HIMARS System In Ukraine?
Quote – The HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) has been credited with changing the trajectory of the war. Though Ukraine only has about 20 of these systems sent from the United States, Russia seems to have no counter. And many have wondered why Russia has not managed to destroy a single one of them
Click through for article and video. I don’t know much about Czech history or culture. I would not have expected this. But, upon reflection, it fits very well with the little I do know. (And it’s most amusing.)
A Jim Crow–Era Murder. A Family Secret. Decades Later, What Does Justice Look Like?
Quote – It’s like “legal archaeology,” Burnham says. The students read old newspapers, travel to Southern towns to obtain court transcripts, and speak with surviving families. “It’s really not enough to say, ‘Those were horrible days,’ and let them pass,” Burnham told the Northeastern Law magazine in 2010. “The details matter. These stories are important, and to the extent these people are still around, their stories deserve to be told.”
Click through for story. I don’t really have words. I’m thankful for this project – but then I look at the complete erasure of reality DeSatan is perpetrating in Florida. I hope these stories do not disappear like the family photographs mentioned.
Food For Thought
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 …
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
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 – Forewoman of Georgia state grand jury indicates multiple indictments are coming with no surprises
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party
Robert Reich – How Corporate Greed Destroyed a Small Ohio Town
Parody Project – Walk Like a Drunk Russian
Stray Cat Is Best ‘Mom’ To Her Sister
Beau – Let’s talk about parents and education….
Glenn Kirschner – Once Trump is indicted, he will throw EVERYONE on whom he has compromising information under the bus (My concern, and that of his niece, is that he will incite violence on a much larger scale than anything up till now.)
The Lincoln Project – Democracy Won
Ring of Fire – Why Trump’s Document Problem Makes Him Look So Stupid (Not to be a party pooper, but this assumes all the documents start out in the National Archives – and they don’t. But it’s still funny.)
Shirley Serban – Pets Sing The Prayer
This Ancient-Looking Dog Is Actually A Puppy
Beau – Let’s talk about a PSA for Ohio and a question from Europe….
Glenn Kirschner – Emails between Fox News hosts expose Fox’s intentional election fraud lies. What happens now?
MSNBC – Burn: Neil DeGrasse Tyson roasts UFO theories, says ‘no to aliens’
Farron Balanced – Republicans Are Convinced Space Aliens Are Invading Earth
The Riccardis – Deranged, Dopey, and Deluded (not new, butvery pertinent still.)
Cat Cares For His New Sister’s Kittens After She Gives Birth
Beau – Let’s talk about Ukraine, West Virginia, and Texas…. So glad someone said this.Now if Beau, or someone, could only go back even farther in history to, say, the tenth century, and how Ukraine was civilized before Russia was even a twinkle in the Vikings’ eyes.