Open Thread June 28 2024

 Posted by at 6:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 282024
 

Yesterday, Ballotpedia announced a new feature: users will now be able to specifically track, from proposal through passage (or failure) legislation regarding AI deepfakes. They sent me an email, but its content is also in an article on their home page. I’m thinking that trying to identify deepfakes and distinguish them from real information is probably a very different experience depending on which state one lives in. At least with this, it should be possible to get an idea of just how tough it is depending on where one lives. And also maybe what to do about deepfakes one identifies. Also the “Debate” was last night. I watched it so you don’t have to.  and that wasn’t easy.  28 minutes in I almost dropped out.  Listening to all those lies literally hurts my ears.  I did make it to the end – but I didn’t stay for the analysis.

I can affirm that trans people exist. I can also affirm that teans people are neither something new nor something liberals made up. There are references to trans people in literarure going back to the fifth century BCE. There are references to, and discussions of, trans people in Jewish scriptures going back thousands of years. We don’t have written records for Egypt on this, but both Ikhnaten and Hatshepsut were depicted in the visual arts as being somewhere between male and female. It would not surprise me to learn that trans people were known of and existed in ancient Africa, Ancient Europe, and Ancient Asia (it would surprise me no end to lean that they didn’t.) Yes, there are Republicans claiming that transgender is a concept liberals just made up withi the last 40 or 50 years. It isn’t. And it is real. Transgender people are not crazy. (Republicans are crazy, but that’s a different matter.)

There are few things I want to do less than reading 920 pages of Project 2025. Frankly, I’d rather have a root canal. But if anyone can make it bearable, it’s Joyce Vance. And when it’s so important, and so few people have even heard of it, let alone what’s in it, she makes a good case for paying attention to it. She starts here with the question, “If immigrants were deported… what would it mean for her grocery bill and access to food?” I can tell you it would be horrible, but she has the facts, including the numbers.

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Open Thread June 23 2024

 Posted by at 6:12 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 232024
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Die Frau Ohne Schatten” by Richard Strauss. That translates to “The Woman without a Shadow,” but the shadow is purely symbolic. The woman of the title is not a woman but a fairy, who has married the Emperor and become his Empress. But in order to stay with him after a certain amount of time has passed, she must become fully human, and that is what the shadow symbolizes. To emphasize the fairy tale environment, only one of the characters is given a name, and that is the dyer, whose wife is tempted to sell her shadow to the empress. It always tickles me that the name of the dyer is Barak (in German, the accent is on the first syllable,) since this opera premiered in 1919. I won’t go into the plot – it’s too complicated. Musically, it’s somewhere between Salome and Rosenkavalier. It has the color of Rosenkavalier but not the catchy waltzes, and it has the fierceness of Salome (and Elektra, which is like Salome without the sex) but without the jarring dissonances which made them so shocking in their day. Also, after looking all over for a video clip of John Oliver discussing Project 2025 which has CC, I did finally find one here.

For Pride Month – what people of faith are doing to oppose the hatred of LGBTQIA people, particularly at Pride events, where the hatred too often becomes physical.

When you read this, you will likely wonder whether Joe really is a wizard after all. It certainly seems like it would require a wizard to accomplish all of this at once.

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Open Thread June 19 2024

 Posted by at 6:14 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 192024
 

Yesterday, Joyce Vance shared a link to the “Projct 2025” ducument which is the Republican Party’s plan for governing us (and it will be governing us – no representation here.) It’s 920 pages long, and they are joping we won’t read it (heck, I had to struggle with the URL. It resisted being cut. But maybe that’s a good thing. Every time this link is used, the Republicans will know it’s someone who was, directly or indirectly, referred to it by Joyce Vance. And the more of us do, the more they will know she has supporters.) Because they hope we won’t read it, I hope that all of us will at least open the link. If you go, start with the Table of Contents. Ignore the glittering generalities, such as “the general welfare.” All the chaters are aspects of government which they wasnt to take over and destroy. All they need is Trump**.  Try to enjoy your Juneteenth anyway (red beverages are apropos.  I have some res herbal iced tea, some raspberry iced tea, and some strawberry soda, so I’m ready.)

I applaud Colorado for leading the way here. Our law may not be perfect (in fact, it probably isn’t – it’s nearly impossible to achieve peerfection in the very first law on anything new. The Second Amendment certainly didn’t.)  But at least it’s a law. I hope other states will not just follow, but also alter details to make the law better.

If you disagree with me that Wonkette’s unique style adds to this story, you probably can find it elsewhere. I personally feel that people who say and do things such as the potential defendant in this potential litigation dod ans said deserve all the mockery that gets aimed at them, and likely more. There’s also a neat little twist of Virginia law in the story, and although I can see how it could be abused,I kind of like it.

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