Mar 192023
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin,” which is a sequel to his prior opera, “Parsifal.” Parsifal is identified with Sir Percival of the Round Table and both names are associated with the Holy Grail. Neither of these two operas is racist, but both are misogynistic to a degree. But anyone who can handle the misogyny in Disney, and the story of Cupid and Psyche, can probably handle these. While the Met was free streaming during the pandemic, I watched a production of it, and it had no trouble holding my attention. I was about to type “It has a bittersweet ending,” and I stopped to think, and the fact is most of Wagner’s operas do not have the kind of catastrophic endings for which opera is famous. If his are not exactly gleeful, at the very least they are triumphant. Even the end of the Ring cycle, with Siegfried murdered and Brunnhilde dies along with her horse in his funeral pyre, and the day of the gods is over, the balance of nature is restored when the Rhine maidens get their god back and the age of humans begins. I would not call that a total loss. I wonder whether that was one reason he didn’t want them called “operas” but “music dramas.” Anyway, the story – Elsa is accused of murdering her little brother after their father died, making the brother the Duke of Brabant. This was in the 12th century, when the custom was trial by combat, and Elsa has no one to fight for her until this dude shows up, in a boat powered by a swan, and says he will fight for her and marry her, but she must never ask his name. He wins, and spares the life of the other guy (not really a mistake as the real villain is that guy’s wife) and marries Elsa. That other dude’s wife (whose name is Ortrud) works on here like Fox News and gets her to ask his name. Just at that moment the guy who lost the combat breaks in and the anonymous groom kills him in self defense. He then calls a town hall, explains he must now leave, reveals his name (Lohengrin) and that he is the son of Parsifal, and denounces Ortrud. Ortrud is all “Durned right I’m a witch, and I did all that and also turned the Duke into a swan.” At this point he goes over to his swan, kneels, and prays, and the swan turns into Elsa’s brother, very much alive. Ortrud is outgunned. Lohengrin still has to leave, though – the knoghts of the Grail lose their powers when they cease to be anonymous – but it is certainly a happy ending for the people of Brabant who get their rightful Duke back, and Elsa loses her husband but gets her brother back, and no one gets killed but the bad dude.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Mother Jones – “This Was My Baby”: The Family of Black Man Killed By Cops While Experiencing Mental Crisis Speaks Out
Quote – According to [the family’s attorney, Mark] Krudys, the video at Central State Hospital shows Otieno seated on a chair at one point and then lying on his stomach on the ground, however it’s unclear whether or not he got there on his volition. For nearly 12 minutes, Krudys said all seven officers were on top of him, ultimately asphyxiating him. Virginia State Police weren’t notified about his death until three hours after the fact, according to [Prosecutor Ann] Baskervill.
Click through for story. It didn’t take very long to send the case of the seven officers to a grand jury, nor to charge three of the hospital staff. This is a case which is likely to get a lot of national attention.

The 19th – Toni Morrison is the face of the new Forever stamp from the U.S. Postal Service
Quote – Morrison is the newest face of the Forever stamp from the United States Postal Service. Set against a gold background, a photo of the “Beloved” author with a cherry-red smile, thick gray locs and silver orb earrings graces the stamp revealed last week at a Princeton University ceremony attended by her son Ford Morrison and other relatives. A faculty member from 1989 to 2006, Morrison was the Robert F. Goheen professor in the humanities at Princeton and part of the university’s creative writing program. Each year, the Postal Service chooses up to 30 people to feature on a stamp, selecting them from a list of 30,000 individuals recommended by the public. Morrison made the cut because of her “extraordinary and enduring contributions to American society,” a Postal Service spokesperson said in a statement.
Click through for more. I have used the stamp as today’s FFT. It won’t actually have the black line through “Forever” – that’s to prevent counterfeiting.

Food For Thought

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Apr 292022
 

Yesterday, I received a grocery order which had NO SUBSTITUTION! Yay! My delivery window was 4-6 pm and by 4:30 I actually had it all put away. Amazing.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

HuffPost – Parents of Trans Kids Don’t Know Where Their Children Can Be Safe
Quote – Many families, including the Morrisons, would be forced to move away if Arizona were to pass a stricter trans youth medical care ban in the future. What makes that reality particularly devastating for their household is that they already had to relocate once to keep Skyler safe: They left Texas in 2017 after lawmakers attempted to force through a bill banning trans youth from using the school restroom that matches their lived gender. The Morrisons hoped Arizona would be a chance to start over.
Click through for the full story. Cuss if you feel like it – I did. (I personally don’t think I would have gone to arizona from Texas for this reason – New Mexico would have been a better bet. But that’s just me.)

Crooks and Liars – Blinken Torches Rand Paul’s Russian Talking Points
Quote – Sen Paul tried to blame the US and other NATO nations for agitating Vladimir Putin to attack Ukraine. Blinken said, “If you look at the countries Russia has attacked over the last years — these are countries not part of NATO. They do not attack NATO countries for probably good reason.” Paul replied, “You could also argue the countries they attacked were part of Russia. Were part of the Soviet Union.” This is Putin’s propaganda, which Sen. Paul gave credibility to.
Click through for full exchange (including video). I get very frustrated that so many people – people in general but also an astonishing number of people who ought to know better – keeptalking as if there is still such a thing as “the Societ Union.” There isn’t. There’s also a misconception that Rissua = Communism, It doesn’t. It is a capitalist oligarchy. It is also extremely authoritarion, as it was under communism (and under Communism in name only), but that’s a different matter. I also see peole using the term “Comrade” in Russian references, which bolsters the falsehoon. If we don’t know what we are up against, we can’t very well oppose it effectively.

Mother Jones – A Wave of Lawsuits Aims to Halt Louis DeJoy’s Gas-Guzzling Postal Fleet
Quote – Sixteen states and two environmental activist groups—Earthjustice and the National Resources Defense Council—are suing USPS to halt its purchase of a fleet of of gas-guzzling mail trucks. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has come under fire in recent months for his decision to move forward with a contract for 165,000 new postal trucks—90 percent of which would run on gas and earn 8.6 miles per gallon.
Click through fir list and details.. I have aleady ranted once today, so I stand mute on this one.

Food For Thought

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Feb 252022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Once Trump is Indicted, What Challenges Lie Ahead Regarding Impaneling a Fair and Impartial Jury?

Robert Reich – End USPS Sabotage

Lincoln Project – Weakness (BBA)

Ring of Fire – Stand Your Ground Laws Linked To 11% Spike In Gun Homicides

Armageddon Update | Tootin’ For Putin [re-posted from original release date July 2, 2020]

Liberal Redneck – Texas Targets Trans Kids

Beau – Let’s talk about Cruz, Hawley, and Nina Morrison….
As i said in the Open Thread, I am not going to be able to post everything Beau has to say on Ukraine, but personally, I consider him a top source.  I posted a link there to his video page.  And you can aklways get to his hole page from any of his videos by clicking on the picture on the left below the video.

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Dec 192021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Jim Jordan’s Text to Mark Meadows & the Crime of Obstructing a Congressional Proceeding

The Lincoln Project – The Fight

MSNBC – New Details Paint ‘Insane’ Picture Of How Right Wing Media Obtained Biden Daughter’s Diary

Robert Reich – How the Grinch Stole the Post Office

Armageddon Update – Taking The World By Storm

Puppet Regime – A Kremlin Christmas

Beau – Let’s talk about the post-Christian church…. (Oh wow.)

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Nov 252021
 

Glenn Kirschner – Justice in a Georgia Courtroom: Three Men Convicted of Murdering Unarmed Jogger Ahmaud Arbery

MSNBC 1 – Three Men Found Guilty In Death Of Ahmaud Arbery

MSNBC 2 – Rep. Swalwell: They Are Getting Closer To The Commander Of Insurrection, Donald Trump

The Hill – Psaki Shuts Down Reporter Who Asks About Biden Spending Thanksgiving In Nantucket Of course it was Baby Dooce)

Every Hallmark Thanksgiving Movie Ever (Hey, I looked hard for this.)

Wild Horse Immediately Recognizes His Girlfriend After Years Apart

Beau – Let’s talk about bad news for DeJoy and good news for the postal service…. Apparently this process was under Beau’s radar – wee all knew exactly how this would go, just not when. And, yes, DeJoy gifted Bloom a whole lot of money in stock. It wasn’t 4D chess. It was just a President who knows how government works.

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Aug 112021
 

Yesterday I was kind of bleary, because my portable noise generator, though it worked, didn’t last all night. (However, I did learn valuable information about what to do differently – found out it does run on house power and how to make that happen.) And the new one should come before the weekend (and it will run on house power.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – USPS Board Won’t Quit DeJoy — Or His Disastrous Plan
Quote – The arrangement, amazingly, was cleared by ethics officials the Postal Service according to a previously unknown inspector general report requested by lawmakers. He filed all the right paperwork, according to the IG. That doesn’t mean there’s anything that doesn’t stink about this. (DeJoy, however, remains under investigation by the FBI for his political contributions and company activities involving XPO.)
Click through for probably more than you wanted to know. Very little is good about this. However, President Biden’s latest nominee to the Board was just confirmed yesterday and that should help,

The Hill – The 19 GOP senators who voted for the $1T infrastructure bill
Quote – The passage of the bill comes just before Democrats take up a budget resolution that greenlights their ability to pass a separate $3.5 trillion spending plan, packed with the party’s top priorities, later this year without GOP votes. No Republicans are expected to support the budget resolution or the subsequent spending package, which is unlikely to get voted on before late September.
Click through for complete list. Don’t forget there’s another infrastructure bill in the House, and that Reconciliation will be invoked. This $1T bill is not the one we want (and we may not get the one we want, but we can expect to get closer to what we want than this.) Also, as Lona pointed out, this vote is going to go to Manchin’s head. It shouldn’t. These Senators are voting for it because they know something good is going to pass and they want to be able to claim credit.

HuffPost – Pentagon Issues COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate For All U.S. Military Members
Quote – Austin’s decision reflects similar moves by governments and companies around the world, as nations struggle with the highly contagious delta variant that has sent new U.S. cases, hospitalizations and deaths surging to heights not seen since last winter. The concerns are especially acute in the military, where service members live and work closely together in barracks and on ships, increasing the risks of rapid spreading. Any large virus outbreak in the military could affect America’s ability to defend itself in any security crisis.
Click through for story. If, like me, you were wondering what they were waitin for – it was FDA approval. But they decided it was too important to wait any longer (with which I concur – for what that’s worth.)

Food for Thought –

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Jan 222021
 

I apologize for another canned post, but it’s extremely important – as anyone who was paying attention to the 2020 elections already knows – and it is not going to just go away, it needs work.  And Jeremy Mohler does a much better job of explaining it than I could.  (I also had better luck with mail this holiday season than he did – or maybe I was just more patient, and mailed less.)  This is from his email, sent to the world on behalf of In The Public Interest, so there’s no copyright issue.

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If I had a nickel for every time a neighbor has complained on Facebook recently about our local post office, I’d bail out the entire U.S. Postal Service, which is $14 billion in debt.

See, that’s just the problem. The Postal Service has been struggling financially for years. Throw in a pandemic and record-breaking holiday shipping season (during which FedEx and UPS turned away customers as volume grew), and America’s most popular federal agency is woefully behind on deliveries.

But before you jump to conclusions about why, check out this new report from the Economic Policy Institute on what they call “the war against Postal Service.”

Here’s what they conclude:

  • The Postal Service is a valuable public service. It connects family and friends, even in far flung places. It promotes democracy. It’s crucial to our emergency and national security infrastructure. And it provides good jobs, especially for Black workers and veterans.
  • Most of its challenges were intentionally created. A 2006 law passed by Congress (then dominated by Republicans) sent the agency into a financial tailspin. The Postal Service was forced to slash labor costs and limited in how it can increase revenue.

  • Privatization is not the answer. Selling the agency to FedEx, UPS, or Amazon would harm the consumers, workers, and small business owners who rely on universal service, especially those in rural areas. But that hasn’t kept billionaires like Charles Koch from pushing privatization.

If anything, the Postal Service should be unleashed to truly innovate for the 21st century.

Postal banking. Free WiFi. Community gardens. Affordable housing. Think about what we could do with the agency’s vast network of real estate. Nearly 99 percent of the U.S. population lives within ten miles of their nearest post office.

Those buildings are public. They’re ours.

I’m just as angry as my neighbors. My mom’s Christmas gift, which I ordered way back on December 7, still hasn’t arrived.

And that’s just a gift. Other people’s prescriptions aren’t showing up on time. Bills are going unpaid.

“I mailed five checks on the same day and nothing has cleared,” one of my city’s residents told the local news. “I feel so sorry for the postal workers because they are overwhelmed. And nobody yet has any answers as to how long this will take and when the bottom line comes down how do I even trust the United States Postal Service.”

We can fix the Postal Service if we allow it to innovate and give it the resources it needs.

If you agree, let’s make some noise about the value of a public Postal Service.

Talk to your neighbors (masked, of course). Support postal workers. Post on social media. Forward this email to friends. Sign this petition demanding incoming President Biden save the Postal Service.

I know there’s a lot going on in the world right now. But we need to do something before it’s too late.

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I can’t use a yellow highlighter here, but I have put one paragraph in large red letters instead.  That paragraph gives the crux of all the USPS’s problems (Jeremy says most, but I honestly don’t think there’s a thing that couldn’t be fixed if that were fixed.)  And that’s the thing that nobody knows.  You had to be paying pretty close attention to notice it when it passed – I admit I didn’t, but learned later.  That act is what requires the USPS to fund employee pensions for 75 years into the future – which includes employees who aren’t even born yet.  No other entity – no government entity, no for-profit corporation, no non-profit – has that kind of crippling requirement.  If you or I had to put away money like that and could not touch it, we would not be eating, and would probably be homeless.

If you could just get that into the heads of other people, it would make a huge difference.  And even more of a difference if they passed it on.

And all the machinery stolen and destroyed by Louis DeJoy didn’t help either.

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Sep 042020
 

It’s another sweltering day here in the CatBox with a high of 95°.  Last night I executed my Last Will and Testament.  WWWendy was thrilled to learn that she gets both the liver and the plunger.  I overslept and had a hearty breakfast of gooped potatoes, ground beef, cheese and gravy, gooped watermelon, mixed berry yogurt and apple juice, so I’m running later.  Diana will be here in the next 45 minutes to check my butt fungus.  Wendy has to work, so she can’t be here to make a video of the event.  Update:  I have a mildly infested but much more contented ass! Happy Hump Day!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:09 (average 4:46).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

A past blast of protest

Trump* Virus Update:

0904TrumpVirusMap

US Cases: 6,338,119
US Deaths: 191,138
Plus thousands of GOP plague murder victims Republicans are hiding from us

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): ARREST THIS SCARY GENTLEMAN

AMEN, Don! “No Joy” belongs behind bars with his beloved criminal Fuhrer Trump*!  RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Jacob Blake Spoke To Biden From His Hospital Bed, Says Family Attorney

Biden’s Kenosha trip was the polar opposite from Trump’s*. Biden conciliated; Biden told the truth; Trump* spewed lies.  Trump* threatened. Biden offered solutions; Trump* offered failures. Biden supported victims and upholders of law and order; Trump* supported Gestapo and abusers of power. Biden showed love; Trump showed fear (the opposite of love).  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast of protest): Vietnam War-House of the Rising Sun

From now on, I’ll keep looking for material haven’t used before. Because that’s so hard to find, expect mostly reruns. Protest like the 60s!  RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

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