Music – Page 26 – Politics Plus

Open Thread January 3, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:58 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 032023

Yesterday, It had snowed, and, because the day was overcast, there was still a blanket of it when I got up. But the concrete (like my driveway) was just a lttle damp – except the parts that get no sun at all Those patches always linger. We are heading into a cold snap, so some of the snow.may hang around, but we’ll see There’s no new snow in the 10-day forecast.

I was looking up all the music parody and straight satire people for new stuff. There actually isn’t much – looks like everyone wanted to do something for Christmas and are now taking a break. Rocky Mountain Mike does have a new one, but it’s not a parody, but a straight cover of “Summer Wine.” But he clearly is looking to expand his work visually, because the visuals are a dramatization of the story of the song. It’s mostly black and white – color is used just at the end, and whe it shows up, it’s startling. There’s no CC, but the lyrics are available here (if anyone cares.)

If you haven’t already seen this, it may shock you – it did me! Among the few Republicans who have expressed support for Jamie Raskin is – wait for it – Marjorie Taylor Greene. Who would ever have thought she had it in her?

Finally, today is the day the House votes on the Speaker. I will be surprised, however, if there is any decision made today. In fact, it’s anybody’s guess how long it will take to come up with a compromise which is acceptable to everyone (this is a full house vote – it’s not just Republicans.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Arizona Border Containerpalooza Sale!
Quote – Governor Ducey has agreed to pay AshBritt Management & Logistics $76 million to tear down containers they illegally placed on the southern border of Arizona to keep the brown folks out. The problem, in a nutshell, is that the containers were placed on federal land, and the DOJ has sued Arizona to remove them. So after paying $95 million to install them, they will need to be removed.
Click through for details. This would be funny, were it not such a waste of money – taxpayers money – for which there were thousands of better uses.

New York Times (no paywall) – Opinion: Anthony Fauci Quietly Shocked Us All
Quote – Days after the conference, I found myself in Dr. Fauci’s office, along with the ACT UP members Mark Harrington and Jim Eigo, hammering out the final details of our parallel track program, which would allow thousands of people to obtain experimental drugs outside of traditional clinical trials. Within days, a New York Times front page headline about Dr. Fauci read, “AIDS Researcher Seeks Wide Access to Drugs in Tests.” The F.D.A. quickly fell in line. ACT UP had scored its first major victory, with Dr. Fauci’s help.
Click through for OP. It’s not all sunshine and roses, but on balance, it’s a tribute.

Food For Thought

Open Thread January 1, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:55 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 012023

Yesterday, the opera wasn’t an opera, but a collection of excerpts from operas previously broadcast, some more or less recently, some way, WAY back. What they had in common was that each was from the Met debut of a singer(/actor/storyteller – plus one conductor) who later became an international star. Kiri Te Kanawa was one, and another was Latonia Moore (you may remember I heard that debut – she stepped in as understudy and I was, like, “Wow!”) Not all, of course, were quite that “A Star Is Born” dramatic – some stars were pretty well established elsewhere before coming to the Met – but some were (Astrid Varnay and Te Kanama). The range was from Moore (2012), the newest, all the way back to Bidu Sayão on February 13, 1937.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

ProPublica – They Called 911 for Help. Police and Prosecutors Used a New Junk Science to Decide They Were Liars.
Quote – Junk science in the justice system is nothing new. But unvarnished correspondence about how prosecutors wield it is hard to come by. It can be next to impossible to see how law enforcement — in league with paid, self-styled “experts” — spreads new, often unproven methods. The system is at its most opaque when prosecutors know evidence is unfit for court but choose to game the rules, hoping judges and juries will believe it and vote to convict.
Click through for details. You thought facial recognition technology was bad? Hold these p[eople’s beer (And I use the term “people” loosely. I questin their humanity.)

National Public Radio – Why scientists dug up the father of genetics, Gregor Mendel, and analyzed his DNA
Quote – Sequencing his DNA revealed genetic variants linked to diabetes, heart problems, and kidney disease. The variant that most intrigued Fairbanks was in a gene that has been associated with epilepsy and neurological issues. “He suffered throughout his life from some sort of a psychological or neurological disorder that caused him to have very severe nervous breakdowns,” says Fairbanks. “That may well have been an inherited condition – and that was a fascinating discovery that these scientists made.”
Click through for story. At first it sounds morbid – but on reflection, I think he would take it in the sirit of homage in which it was done. (He might have even gotten a chuckle out of it.)

Food For Thought

Video Thread 12/29/2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:12 pm Open Thread, Politics

Dec 292022

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s tax returns and the corruption at the top of the IRS during the Trump years

Thom Hartmann – This Proves We Haven’t Lost to Climate Change Featuring Featuring Michael Mann

Farron Balanced – Mark Meadows Might Have Already Flipped On Trump

Rocky Moutain Mike – MTG – Butt plugs and Dildoes

Family Finds Someone In A Taped-Up Box

Beau – Let’s talk about a Christmas special…. [this is long, but the way his staff set him up, especially at the end, is priceless.]

Video Thread 12/25/2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:11 pm Open Thread, Politics

Dec 252022

Glenn Kirschner – Trump and his White House “ethics lawyer” accused of tampering with witness Cassidy Hutchinson

Puppet Regime – New Boss at The North Pole

Mrs Betty Bowers – The War on Christmas 2022

Parody Project – Oh Holy Cow

Woman Wasn’t A Cat Person — Until She Met This Kitten

Beau – Let’s talk about that list in Texas….

Open Thread December 25, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:41 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 252022

Yesterday, the radio opera was Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” – not the whole thing, but an abridged version aimed at children. And sung (and spoken) in English. With sets and costumes by Julie Taymor (very fairy-tale-y and lots of puppets.) The Queen of the Night‘s famous “Holy Racket” aria is included, of course. They’ve been using this production for some time (they have another production for the full opera in German) and their experience is that the kids are always most enthralled by Papageno. Not unexpected. He’s the most childlike – not in the sense ob being uncomplicated, but in the sense of being easily distractable, and that’s where all the humor comes from.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Good Word News – How do Christmas traditions vary around the world? See the pictures
Quote – In a show of resilience among Christmas celebrants, 40 Ukrainian refugees in Krakow, Poland, sold handmade items such as candles, tree ornaments and gingerbread cookies during a Christmas craft fair organized with the help of the United Nations Refugee Agency. A stall at the Ukrainian Christmas Market in Krakow, Poland…. It was an opportunity to showcase the “great talent within the refugee community,” Argaz said, adding that the idea for the event was born when UN staff members received a stone “ intricately painted” by one of the residents of a collective center, which is a dwelling that houses a large number of refugees.
Click through. There are other parts of the world included, but this struck me as special.

Good News Network – Man Spells Out ‘Hi Kevin’ in Lights for 20 Years–to Honor His Neighbor
Quote – Witmer says passersby are sometimes confused by his lights, which read ‘Hi Kevin’ across his roof, but it’s to honor the memory of a young boy who passed away from cancer in 2010…. “When I heard he had cancer and was going through chemo and radiotherapy, I wanted to support him. I had this idea to write ‘Get Well Kevin’ in my Christmas lights—what 11-year-old doesn’t want to see their name in lights?” Witmer continued to do it every year, even after his cancer went into remission and Kevin went off to college….
Click through for full story. (Hanky alert)

Food For Thought

Video Thread 12/24/2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:10 pm Open Thread, Politics

Dec 242022

Glenn Kirschner – Despite criticism, J6 committee’s criminal referral of Donald Trump to DOJ was right thing to do

Farron Balanced – Republicans STILL Don’t Understand Why The Public Hates Them

Puppet Regime – Zelensky vs Santa Claus

Rocky Moutain Mike – Elon Musk is Watching Your Feed

Wild Groundhog Won’t Let Woman Go Home Without Her

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump’s move with McCarthy….

Open Thread December 18, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:45 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 182022

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Rigoletto” by Verdi. It’s pretty well known, and I’ve written about it here before. Din I mention it’s based on a play by Victor Hugo? I know I’ve mentioned many operas are based on his works. (In the late 19th-early 20th century it was David Belasco. But Puccini, though he set a couple of Belasco’s, did’t so much look at the author – he’d go to see plays in languages he didn’t know, and if he could follow the plot anyway, he’d consider the property. That’s one reason why his operas were immediate classics – it was a very effective way to choose properties which had deep and broad appeal.) “Rigoletto” was the second operea of which I ever owned a complete recording, and yes, that was on vinyl, and yes, I still have it.I didn’t buy it – it was a parting gift from the enlisted Marines whose boss I was at my forst duty station, and I’ll never forget their kindness – particularly the kin=dness of the corporal who volunteered to find out what opera I wouls like without letting on that was why he wanted to know. He was just about the last person I would have suspected of that, and his patinence at my rambling – it must have been a real challenge for his wife, also a corporal in the office, not to break out in giggles. Today, I’ll be seeing Virgil. Of course I will pass on all greetings to him, and will post a comment here when I get back.

Cartoon

Short Takes –

Robert Reich – When will the GOP reach the anti-Trump tipping point?
Quote – When will the GOP finally reach its anti-Trump tipping point — when a majority of Republican lawmakers disavow him? Again and again, it looks like the tipping point is near but the GOP remains under Trump’s thumb…. [per Mitt Romney: “He’s got such a strong base of, I don’t know, 30% or 40 % of the Republican voters, or maybe more, it’s going to be hard to knock him off as our nominee.”
Click through for his thoughts – I’m pretty sure he (and therefore Mitt) are right. And that brain-dead base doesn’t care about anything that actually matters. This trading card fiasco may chip away at the base, but I’m not holding my breath for a major reversal.

Left Jabs – SCOTUS is Developing a Taste for Chaos
Quote – State-v.-state lawsuits are already starting to fly, and the legal positions are already being hardened. Interstate cooperation — a crucial component of daily life — is already fraught, and could at any time turn ugly. It’s almost as if chaos were the point. The six “conservative” justices — they’re conserving very little these days — are pushing everything in the direction of chaos. Whatever the democratic institution they’re invited to tear down, they seem willing to go there. Like they’re remaking the legal system in the image of Ginni Thomas.
Click through for full opinion. TomCat called the Court “SCROTUS” (R for Republican, and pun intended) since Roberts became Chirf Justice – And now it’s far beyond that. I’m not expecting the outcome of this particular case to be quite as bad as “Left Jabs” thinks, but I can’t think it will be good either.

Psyche – Heartbreak is more than a metaphor. Are you at risk?
Quote – But how much medical truth is there to ‘heartbreak’? This was a not a question that was taken particularly seriously – not until an unusual syndrome began appearing in Japanese hospitals in the 1990s. In X-rays, doctors saw the hearts of traumatised patients changing shape. They resembled takotsubo, the small clay pots used in Japan to catch octopus. The story of Takotsubo syndrome, and how it got its name, is the story of how heartbreak became more than a metaphor.
Click through for details. There is plenty of ancedotal evidence, through the centuries, for this. But the imaging results – showin two clearly different ways the hear can actually reshape itself under stress and/or grief – not to mention the preavalence of each differing by gender and age – that’s amazing.

Food For Thought