Music – Page 34 – Politics Plus

Video Thread 5/2/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:16 pm Open Thread, Politics

May 022022

Glenn Kirschner – With Trump’s admission that he alone oversaw Calamari’s compensation, DA Bragg’s action even worse

MSNBC – Lawrence: U.S. Senate Is A Fundamentally, Relentlessly, Permanently Undemocratic Institution

Lincoln Project – The GOP Isn’t Interested

Meidas Touch – Biden ROASTS Trump and Fox News at White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Really American – GOP Lawmaker Says Rape is “Opportunity” For Women

Parody Project – PUTIN TOLD THE RUSSIAN NATION

Beau – Let’s talk about Romney, bribes, and cancelling debt….

Open Thread May 1, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:21 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 012022

Yesterday, the radio opera was Madama Butterfly. That was the first opera I saw live (I was eight.) Then, when I was in college, I took the 12-year-old across the street to see it as her first opera. (The San Francisco Opera at that time had a “Spring Opera” season which was so affordable I could pay for two season ticket sof box seats out of my allowance.) Special for both of us. The tenor playing Pinkerton always gets asked how he approaches the character – this one I think nailed the concept -he plays him as “21 and stupid.” (He left out entitled, but that can be assumed, I think.) He really can’t be played as a villain, and especially not from the beginning. But the damage done by entitled stupidity is no less than that done by a villain in the end. One aria in particular is very famous and has been heard by myriads of people who have never thought f opera in their like – “Un bel di vedremo” (or just “Un bel di’).

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The 19th – Autistic people have been excluded from advocacy conversations. Julia Bascom is changing that.
Quote – April is Autism Acceptance Month, marked by hashtags, charity fundraising and celebrity parent interviews. Many articles will highlight autism hiring initiatives or, increasingly, famous people who are autistic themselves. You won’t see Julia Bascom in most Autism Acceptance Month coverage or any major ad campaigns. This is somewhat by design — she prefers not to be interviewed. Autism can make speaking difficult or draining for some, Bascom said. “In high school, I was a theater kid, but I primarily did stage managing. I like getting stuff done. I don’t like things being about me,” she told The 19th.
Click through for story. Back in the day when I was doing nursing home sing-alongs, a friend who sometimes helped told me she could not go to a niursing home without feeling overwhelmed by the years and years of contributions to the community that these peole represent. I try to take that to heart. Anyone and everyone can and does contribute. Something Republicans will never understand … mostly because they don’t want to.

Mother Jones – A San Francisco Public Defender Explains What the Media Are Getting Wrong About the “Crime Wave”
Quote – Earlier this month, Peter Calloway, a San Francisco deputy public defender and a resident of the Tenderloin neighborhood (where earlier this year, citing drug overdoses, Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency) went viral for a twitter thread that showed just how little basis the narrative [that San Francisco is plagued by overwhelmng crime rates] has in reality. A week later, the San Francisco Chronicle backed Calloway up with even more statistics, writing: “The data shows that crime shifted dramatically during the pandemic. But now that San Francisco is returning to pre-pandemic behavior, so are its crime rates.” It’s worth noting that cities with more old-school law-and-order prosecutors—including Sacramento, where District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who is running for state attorney general on a more lock them up approach, governs—aren’t safe havens. In 2020, eight out of ten of the states with the highest murder rates were controlled by Republicans.
Click through for details. I pray that Boudin succeeds in dodging this recall with an even stronger showing than the first one.

Crooks and Liars – Another Oath Keeper Pleads Guilty To Seditious Conspiracy
Quote – This might be a good time to reflect on Jamie Raskin’s framing of the insurrection as 3 circles of sedition. The outer circle is the general public caught up in the fray. The middle circle consists of Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, neo-Nazis and other white supremacist groups, and the inner circle are those people in government who assisted. As Raskin noted in his speech, the circles sometimes overlap. In this case, Ulrich is solidly in the second circle. My sense of things is that we haven’t even begun to understand the ways these circles intertwine, but there can be no question about the fact that January 6th wasn’t just a riot.
Click through. If he is facing 20 years, possibly 20 + 20, in a plea deal, what might the sentence have been without the deal?It would appear his testimony is likely to be valuable.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 4/30/22

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

Apr 302022

Glenn Kirschner – More audiotapes show Republicans McCarthy, Gaetz, Scalise and Mo Brooks feeding on one another

Meidas Touch – Catholic Politician REACTS to Marjorie Taylor Greene Calling Catholics ‘Satanic’

Lincoln Project – Last Week In The Republican Party – April 27, 2022

Democracy Now – Juan Gonzlez: In Surprise Move, Gorsuch Challenges U.S. Colonialism in SCOTUS Ruling on Puerto Rico (this really is jaw-dropping!)

No on H -Stop the Republican Con – Judges and Police agree [This ad being pushed by the DA they are trying to recall]

Rocky Mountain Mike – You Sank My Battleship

Beau – Let’s talk about Transnistria, the unknown, and new develops for Ukraine….

Video Thread 4/19/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:51 am Open Thread, Politics, Religion

Apr 192022

Glenn Kirschner – Stephen Miller Testifies to J6 Panel: How might he have criminal exposure? Let us count the ways.

The Lincoln Project – Abbott’s Wall –

Voice of America – Ukraine Refuses to Surrender Besieged Mariupol to Russian Forces

Thom Hartmann – Will SCOTUS Turn America Into A Theocracy?

Parody Peojrct – THE BANANA REPUBLICAN VOTE NO SONG

Beau – Let’s talk about Patrick Lyoya in Grand Rapids….

Open Thread April 17, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:44 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 172022

Yesterday, the opera was “Elektra,” by Richard Strauss, about one of the earliest and most dysfunctional families. They weren’t doing so badly until Paris met Helen, whose brother-in-law was Agamemnon (a much better general that Menelaus, Helen’t husband), who in irder to assure victory in Troy sacrificed one of his daughters, Iphegenia, for which his wife, Klytemnestra, (understandably) never forgave him. So in the ten years he was gone, she took a lover, Aegisth, and when he got back they mirdered him. This did not sit well with the children – Elektra, Chrysothemis, and their brother Orest (who had fled in fear for his own life), but Elektra and Chrysothemis did not feel competent to kill their mother and stepfather so they were stuck waiting for Orest to return. And here the opera begins. Chrysothemis really just wants a normal life; it is Elektra who is obsessed with revenge, and rants a lot to anyone who will listen, and to the gods. Eventually Orest does return and kills the guilty pair (off stage, thankfully), leading to Elektra’s final rant, a dance of victory. (Incidentally, the situation put Orest into a bind with the Furies – he was cursed if he killed his mother, but equally cursed if he failed to avenge his father’s murder. His trial by the gods is how the Furies got their other name of Eumenedes, and their other mission of resolving impossible situations. But that trial was after this opera ends.) Nina Stemme, who sang Elektra is probably the top dramatic soprano of today, as were Kirsten Flagstad and Birgit Nilsson before her. And a soprano really needs to be at the top to sing this part. But the rest of the cast cannot be slouches either. It also demands a fair amount from the audience – as do all Greek tragedies, whether spoken or sung. They weren’t intended as entertainment.

Cartoons

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Russian Wife Laughingly Authorizes Her Husband To Rape Ukrainian Women
Quote – A conversation in which a woman invites a man to rape Ukrainian women was published by the Security Service of Ukraine on April 12. From the recording, it can be assumed that the published fragment is part of a longer dialogue. The man turned out to be Roman Bykovsky, a former conscript of the Russian Guard, and then a soldier of the 108th Guards Airborne Assault Regiment, which participated in the annexation of Crimea. It was here that he recently moved his family from Russia.
Click through – if you have a barf bag. I am not making this up.

Daily Beast – FDA Grants Emergency Authorization to First COVID-19 Breath Test
Quote – The first breath test for the virus collects a sample in a manner similar to blowing up a balloon, and can be analyzed for results in under three minutes. “Today’s authorization is yet another example of the rapid innovation occurring with diagnostic tests for Covid-19,” Jeff Shuren, the director of the F.D.A.’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement. The company behind the test, InspectIR, reported that, in a study of just under 2,500 people, it could correctly detect a COVID-19 infection 91.2 percent of the time
Click through for details. I just received my first shipment of four free tests (rapid, swab in the nose) which take about 15-20 minutes. I can handle the annoyance if necessary, but this is a great development for peole for whom the discomfort is a deal breaker.

Daily Kos (Marissa Higgins) – Watch openly gay Democrat tell anti-trans Republican colleague exactly what he needs to hear
Quote – [Mackey (D)]: “I recall a story you told. About your brother….And I remember you said that your b[r]other, or, rather, your mother called to tell you that your brother had some news that he was afraid to tell you…. And your brother wanted to tell you that he was gay, didn’t he?… Can I tell you, if I were your brother? I would have been afraid to tell you, too.” [Basye (R)] “Well, I’m sorry.” And that was meager remark was enough to let Mackey really unleash the heart of his argument.
Click through for full argument. You might need a tissue.

Food For Thought:
Peace
I think thr author would give me permission to republuish it. But I want to share it today, on Easter. And this is a short and easy-to-save link. (The picture is not of the author’s property, but it is of a place within the historic Onondaga territory.)

Video Thread 4/14/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:46 am Open Thread, Politics

Apr 142022

Glenn Kirschner – J6 Committee AND Federal Judges Conclude Trump Committed Crimes. How about DOJ Makes it Unanimous?

The Lincoln Project – Brian Schatz is Right

MSNBC – ‘They’ve Been After Me For 12 Years,’ Says Putin Critic Of Russia (same story as in Open Thread, but here it’s direct from the target’s mouth.)

Ring of Fire – Court Revives Challenge To Madison Cawthorn Being On The Ballot

Truth Matters – What’s in a Word?

Rocky Mountain Mike – Crime After Crime

Beau – Let’s talk about hope and acceleration….

Open Thread April 10, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:23 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 102022

Yesterday, the radio opera was “La Nozze de Figaro,” which is usually translated “The Marriage of Figaro,” but I prefer “Figaro’s Wedding.” Like a wedding, it takes place in one day, wheras marriage (hopefully) lasts a lot longer (in fact, from the third play, we know they were still married 20 years later, and still happy and healthy and looking forward to more.) Of course, as wedding days go, it may not have been the worst wedding day ever (the ending is happy), but it qualifies, I think, as the most frantic. I think my favorite part of it is the section which starts with Marzellina’s lawsuit and ends with plans for a double wedding – because the misunderstanding is totally unforced. The other misunderstandings (and there are several) are set up deliberately, by different people, for one reason or another. But the opera is full of great music and amusiong (and emotional) moments. Afterwards, my day was a scramble to get ready for today.

Cartoon

Short Takes –

NBC News – Two D.C. men charged with impersonating feds, several Secret Service agents placed on leave
Quote – The Secret Service is conducting an internal review of the interactions between four Secret Service agents and the two men accused of posing as federal agents, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. “We are looking into our people in terms of how their social circles collided,” one of the sources said. “We are only 72 hours into this review,” the source said, adding that “right now there’s no sign of nefarious activity.”
Click through for story. Shades of “The Great Pretender.” They are lucky that this is found out suring a scary war and some criminal investigations of real government officials. In a less hyper time, no one wuld be talking about anything else. In a
related story …

Biden at war: Inside a deliberate yet impulsive Ukraine strategy
Quote – The Biden administration has stood up a second “Tiger Team” to internally game out different attacks and responses, but has been especially cautious about sharing any possible repercussions publicly. “We’ve had the opportunity to coordinate with our allies. We’ve had the opportunity to get organized internally. We’ve been clear publicly that Russia would pay a severe price,” Sullivan told reporters, flying from Brussels to Poland on Air Force One. “And beyond that, I’m not going to speak further to the issue.”
Click through for full analysis. As a Vatican II Catholic, and also a person who is 100% anti-war right up until the moment it becones necessary to save the world, I think I can identify with where Joe is comeing from. Certainly, like him, I’m emotionally invested. That’s not to say that anything about it is easy.

The 19th – Older women voters may play a big role in the 2022 midterms, and they are not happy
Quote – “One thing that’s so remarkable about this current moment is the way that cost of living is just cutting across every demographic line,” Anderson said. “Cost of living is a challenge whether you are 19 years old, just starting off in the workforce, and are trying to figure out how to pay your rent, or if you are retired, on a fixed income and you’re trying to pay your rent.” Matthews emphasized that older women are tired of out-of-touch politicians, abstract campaign promises and hostility permeating the political climate.
Click through for details. I find this terribly depressing. Ar e that many American women over 50 really so ignorant as to constantly blame the wrong people for what government does? If so, we are doomed.

Food For Thought: