Open Thread September 3, 2023

 Posted by at 5:59 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 032023
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Richard Wagner’s “Tannhäuser,” from Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA). The events of the opera have a definite historical date – during the lives of the real people Wolfram von Eschenbach and Walther von der Vogelweide, but it’s far from historical. As it starts, Tannhäuser has been living in the Venusberg (which means “the mount of Venus,” and yes, the double meaning in English also exists in German) where the goddess Venus has been keeping him satisfied for at least months if not years. The “Venusberg music” is supposed to be a bacchanale (orgy), but I certainly don’t think “orgy” when I hear it and I doubt anyone here would. Now, Saint-Saëns bacchamale from “Sanson et Dalila” is hot. Richard Strauss’s “Dance of the Seven Veils” from Salome is wicked hot. The Venusberg music is inspiring and even noble, but not hot. But Wagner’s (IMO very odd) attitudes toward sexuality don’t really come out until later. Anyway, Tannhäuser decodes he wants to go home where there are other minstrels and a girl, Elisabeth, who loves him, and he arrives just on the eve of a big singing contest, in which he is expected to participate. His entry is too erotic for everyone else, and when it comes out he has been in the Venusberg, all heck breaks loose, and Elisabeth’s uncle (the local feudal lord) in particular, but everyone really, demands he travel to Rome and get absolution from the Pope. He goes to Rome, and the Pope tells him that his staff (a piece of pretty old, very dead wood) is as likely to bear green leaves as he is to be forgiven (terrible theology, BTW). He comes back, travelling with a bunch of ordinary Pilgrims, whose chorus is very familiar outside the opera house, as is Wolfram’s song to the Evening Star, which he sings not long before Tannhäuser gets back. Tannhäuser tellsWolfram what the Pope said, Elisabeth dies (the salvation of men through the deaths of women is a very common 19th century romantic trope, it’s not just Wagner, but Wagner kind of did beat it to death), and green leaves burst out of his staff (very glad I never had to build that prop). It really is beautiful musically, which certainly saves the ridiculous (even offensive) story line. Wagner is not known for realism – his one comedy, Die Meistersinger, does actually show people with real feelings and quirks, and if you can get past the magic love potion, so does Tristan und Isolde, but mostly his characters – humans, gods, giants, dwarves, witches, dragons, birds – seem a little off. But one can get carried away by the music in spite of that.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Zip Recruiter – Professional Troll
Quote – As of Aug 25, 2023, the average hourly pay for a Professional Troll in the United States is $67.39 an hour. While ZipRecruiter is seeing hourly wages as high as $141.59 and as low as $5.29, the majority of Professional Troll wages currently range between $16.35 (25th percentile) to $129.57 (75th percentile) across the United States. The average pay range for a Professional Troll varies greatly (by as much as $113.22), which suggests there may be many opportunities for advancement and increased pay based on skill level, location and years of experience.
Click through. It likely wil come up with information on your area. Someone at Democratice Underground found this … and found it scary. I concur.

MSN/Axios – AG Merrick Garland denounces election worker threats as DOJ charges over a dozen people
Quote – The DOJ announced Thursday that two men in two separate cases in Arizona and Georgia had pleaded guilty to threatening election officials in Arizona and Georgia in separate cases, brought by the the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force — which has now brought charges in 14 cases…. “The Justice Department will continue to investigate and prosecute those who target election officials and election workers as part of our broader efforts to safeguard the right to vote and to defend our democracy.”
Click through for a bit more. I’m glad they are taking this seriously, and hope there are not people failng to report for fear nothing – or worse – will be done.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread March 17, 2023

 Posted by at 6:58 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 172023
 

Yesterday, I got an email from Move On, who have an insidious plot. They did not post the contents of the letter so I can’t provide a link, and will summarize. They want to put up three billboards with quotes on the route which Trump** must use to get to the airport, since his Mar-a-Lago heliport is gone. They want each one to highlight a different Tucker Carson text from the trove in which he admittied he does not care for Trump** This, they believe, will cause Trump** to post – let’s say shade – at Carlson every time he takes that road. This will cause Tucker’s viewers to leave him. That’s far more than they say even at the donation site. I think they don’t want the right to get even a hint of it unless and until it’s a done deal. That’s a pity, because it’s quite amusing, but it’s a good strategy. If and when they get the billboards up, we can share the details. Also, I got The New Yorker’s Name Drop answer from the first clue – and actually, any of the clues alone would have given me the correct answer. In this case it was just someone I know so much about that it would have been difficult to wrtie a clue whivh wouldn’t have given me the answer immediately.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

CPR News – As gun deaths rise, Colorado is trying something new — a public health approach to gun violence prevention
Quote – In a first-of-its-kind partnership, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention within the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is teaming up with researchers from the Injury and Violence Prevention Center in the Colorado School of Public Health. They’ll create and maintain a resource bank of regularly updated and accurate materials regarding gun violence in Colorado. In addition to the resource bank, officials at the new office also developed a grant program to fund evidence-and-community-based gun violence prevention initiatives.
Click through for details. I really thought it was more widely known than apparently it is that guns are a public health problem. It’s too early to say what this iniriative will accomplish, but we can hope

The Conversation – The retention problem: Women are going into tech but are also being driven out
Quote – So, questions arise: Why does the technology industry have a retention problem? Why are women who are employed by the technology industry quitting in such high volumes? What factors contribute to this low retention of women in the technology industry, and what kind of support do women need to stay and succeed in it?… Mainstream media often reports on open-source software’s toxic “tech bro” culture. In recent years, high-profile leaders in open-source software have been exposed for their abusive behavior.
Click through for full article. Back in the day, women who went into male dominated professions knew we had to be tough and we prepared for it. Is it a drawback of greater societal acceptance in general that we don’t sufficiently prepare kids to cross invisible lines?

Food For Thought
Now, this is what I call trolling!

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Video Thread 8/12/22

 Posted by at 11:54 am  Open Thread, Politics
Aug 122022
 

For this, I am skipping Glenn for one day only.
PBS – Marrick Garland Briefing on Search (only 4-5 minutes – I set it to start when he enters)

Meidas Touch – Trump INVOKES THE FIFTH AMENDMENT in New York AG Deposition

The Lincoln Project – Insider

Farron Balanced – Depressed Mitch McConnell No Longer Thinks Republicans Will Win Midterms

MSNBC – Laurence Tribe On Trump Investigations And ‘The Death Of Truth’ – Deadline

Beau – Let’s talk about Garland’s statement on the Trump search….

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Open Thread May 28, 2022

 Posted by at 7:23 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 282022
 

Yesterday, I started work on cartoons for the second 10 days of June (I did finish framing and watermarking the ones for the first ten days Thursday.) I also discovered Randy Rainbow has a couple of new videos up. Neither is a parody, though – they are from the first album he has released. So I will get them into Video Threads, but on slow days. There are things that need to come first (like Mrs. Betty Bowers).

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – The Massive Screwup That Could Let COVID Bypass Our Vaccines
Quote – The leading Western vaccine manufacturers are focusing on developing boosters specifically for the recent Omicron variant. But by the time these boosters are ready in the fall, Omicron is likely to have been replaced by a new and more dangerous variant. Two years ago the world worked together to develop highly effective messenger-RNA vaccines, and fast. Today there’s less money and less urgency, meaning vaccine development is slowing at precisely the moment the virus is speeding up.
Click through for discussion. Like so many things, it appears to come down to Republicans.

CPR News – Elijah McClain’s mother attends signing of executive order on police reform, but says Biden’s plan wouldn’t have helped her son
Quote – The order, which affects federal law enforcement only, will create a national database of police misconduct, bans chokeholds and tracks data on use of force incidents for all federal law enforcement. It also orders new guidance on the use of substances, like ketamine, outside of a hospital setting…. “It would not have kept my son alive. If this executive order would have been in place on the day he died, he still would have died,” she said, in a phone interview from a bench on the White House lawn. “There needs to be so much more done on the state level.”
Click through for more. If I may correct the headline, it’s not the plan which is insufficient – it’s that an executive order can only apply to federal law enforcement, and the cops who killed ELijah were state and/or municipal. (I still take Elijah’s death personally, having been a violinist myself in a previous lifetime.)  She does say the President did the best he could.

US News and World Report – California Senate Advances Newsom-Sponsored Gun Bill Modeled After Texas’ Abortion Law
Quote – Among the bills is one proposed by Newsom that takes a cue from Texas’ abortion law, replicating its unusual mechanism, which deputizes private citizens as its enforcers. Gun manufacturers have largely been shielded from lawsuits associated with their product under federal law. The California rule would allow private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes or sells so-called “assault weapons” or ghost guns or parts in the state. And, just as importantly, it would provide incentive to do so, with an end goal of removing such weapons from circulation.
CLick through for story. This comes the same week that Speaker Pelosi publicly stated that she would refuse to accept communion from Archbishop Cordileone as long as he was in contempt of the Pope’s directive to refuse communion to no one. If more California Democrats are going to start trolling Republicans in real time, I can’t wait to hear from Ted Lieu.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 9/9/2021

 Posted by at 11:37 am  Open Thread, Politics
Sep 092021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Biden Removes Conway, Spicer & Others From Trump-Appointed Positions. Now, Do Brett Kavanaugh (Beery Brett may not even be the worst of the rump justices, but he is fir sure the lowest hanging fruit, for exactly the reasons Glenn gives.

Meidas Touch – Mary Trump on How Republicans Turn FEAR into ANGER to CAUSE CHAOS!! BRILLIANT BREAKDOWN!!!

The Lincoln Project – Sad

Thom Hartmann – Right Wing Plans Next Jan 6th Coup For September 18th

Ring of Fire – Portland May Put Economic Sanctions On Texas Following Attack On Reproductive Freedom

The dog’s name is “Neesha,” and here’s the story.

Beau – Let’s talk about masks in schools….

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Open Thread for August 12, 2021

 Posted by at 7:07 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 122021
 

Yesterday it was cooler again.That and tha fact I went into it with more and better sleep than i have been getting lately ade it a good day right from the start. And then, I filled up the Short Takes quite early and even have a head start on tomorrow. So I spent some quality time untangling tangled yarns /s. OK, that really isn’t quality time … but it’s good to have it done.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Second Nexus – Dems Hilariously Troll GOP Senator by Unanimously Voting for His Petty Infrastructure Amendment
Quote – Once the bill was brought to debate, the first amendment offered came from Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, who proceeded to rail against the Green New Deal—an ambitious climate policy overhaul championed by progressives as the only viable option to significantly curb the climate crisis…. [Bernie] Sanders told Barrasso: “As a supporter of the Green New Deal, I have no problem voting for this amendment because it has nothing to do with the Green New Deal.”
Click through for giggles. This is from George Takei, though it may have been published elsewhere.

The 19th – Cuomo’s exit puts two women in New York’s highest offices
Quote – Lt. Gov Kathy Hochul will soon become New York’s first woman governor, ushering in a historic first for women’s political leadership at the state level. New York state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins is next in line to replace Hochul as lieutenant governor. She would be the first Black woman to serve in the role in New York — and her appointment to the position would mark the first time in U.S. history that a state has been led by a woman governor and a woman lieutenant governor. Stewart-Cousins was already the first woman Senate majority leader in the state’s history.
Click through for story. Talk about unintended consequences (which apparently aren’t always bad). Who knew Andy Borowitz was a prophet (in the colloquial sense)?

Crooks and liars – YouTube Suspends Rand Paul For 7 Days Over Mask Disinfo
Quote – Senator Rand Paul, who has already had COVID, used an online video to attack Dr. Fauci and all CDC guidelines regarding masks. That got him kicked off YouTube for a week.
Click through for the rest. I guess after you suspend a former President, suspending a Senator comes easier. (Also, Marjorie’s off Twitter for a week.)

Food for Thought –

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