Open Thread March 19, 2023

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

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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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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.

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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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Open Thread March 11, 2023

 Posted by at 6:47 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 112023
 

Have you ever heard of Susie King Taylor? Neither had I. Yesterday, I got an email from Theater of War which introduced me. She was the first Black nurse to serve in the Union Army during our Civil War. She wrote a memoir later, describing her experiences then and in the later Jim Crow era, and ToW is doing a presentation of selections from that memoir featuring Samira Wiley. That sounds like it could very well blow the roof off of the venue – except that the venue is Zoom. I also found it interesting that Margaret Atwood, who has played Tiresias a couple of times (“a crabby old prophet who is alwayr right – type casting”), has a Substack newsletter herself. I don’t necessarily want a personal newsletter just because I like the person, but I definitely signed up for hers.

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Short Takes –

Denverite – Why homelessness solutions aren’t working and what the unhoused need, according to 828 people experiencing homelessness
Quote – In recent political debates, some candidates have speculated that many unhoused people simply don’t want housing. The results of the survey suggest that isn’t true in the vast majority of cases. “Between 93% and 99% of houseless people want some form of housing,” the report states. But four walls and a roof aren’t necessarily enough. People want safety where they’re staying, their freedom and community, according to the report. Housing needs to offer residents the basics: the ability to control the temperature, restrooms with showers and accessible locations.
Click through for story. If you work with the homeless, or know anyone who does, you can follow a link to the group (HAND) which produced this, then to their “2023 report” page, and download the whole thing. It’s 130 pages, but that isn’t all that many bytes – less than 32 MB, in fact, and I doubt whther you can even find a thumb drive any more smaller than 32 MB.

The Nib – The Long Road to Women’s Suffrage
Quote – On January 10, 1878, Republican Senator from California named Aaron A. Sargent introduced the “Anthony Amendment” – 29 words to amend the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and grant American women the right to vote…. It was named after the prominent suffragette, Susan B. Anthony, co-founder of the National Women’s Suffrage Association, an organization of which Senator Sargent’s wife, Ellen Clark Sargent, was treasurer.
Click through for full graphic. It was a long and hard battle – and there’s not really a happy ending. None of the three who worked so hard on this could see past whiteness – and none of them lived to see the 19th Amendment ratified. We all need to continue to grow in what reactionaries would call “wokeness.”

Food For Thought

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Open Thread March 4, 2023

 Posted by at 6:41 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 042023
 

I have been so disorganized lately that I have not gotten around to sharing this website, not a new one, but one which has finally clicked for me: More Perfect Union. The name, of course, evokes the Constitution. But the “Union” they have in mnd in their name is a reference to labor unions. Their offerings include a YouTube channel called “The Class Room” with presentations which are sort of like TED talks garnished with documentary clips, only a little bit shorter. Notice that it’s not spelled “Classroom” but “Class Room.” tha “class” to which they are referring is not an academic class, but social class, as in Class Wars.

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Crooks and Liars – Trump Ordered Meadows To Leak Classified Docs To Discredit Adversaries
Quote – Brad Moss, an attorney specializing in national security law, explained to me: “Anything Trump had in his possession that was still classified and that he gave to a reporter or anyone else unauthorized to receive it, after 12:01 pm on January 21, 2021, was unlawful as a legal matter.” I’m sure this isn’t the only instance of Trump committing a felonious act with classified documents.
Click through for article. You can also click through to his source, Murray Waas, for a lot more detail (you may have to click “keep reading” on a popup). This behavior has never been litigated, because so far no one has ever been such an evil excuse for a human being as to do it, or so incompetent as to be caught doing it. As Pat would say, Holy cannoli!

The 19th – 99% of women-owned businesses say the federal government hasn’t done enough to support them, survey finds
Quote – That figure, from a new survey by Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses Voices program, illustrates a frustration that is universally shared among women-owned businesses. The findings, first exclusively shared with The 19th, represent responses collected over the past week from nearly 900 women small-business owners across 47 states and Puerto Rico. As many as 89 percent of women small-business owners said they feel they are not on a level playing field with men who own businesses, and 72 percent said that if they had to grade the federal government on the effectiveness of its programs, services and resources, they would give it a “C” or below.
Click through for details. Ninety-nine percent is a substantial percentage. Anyone besides me remember “99 44/100% pure”?

Food For Thought

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Open Thread October 25, 2022

 Posted by at 6:51 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 252022
 

Yesterday I received the email that my ballot has been received. Good news. There was other news also, consequential and inconsequential, but today I am just focusing on humor, because that also came in multiple emails, and I think we all could use some. That’s also why the FFT is just a wordplay, only marginally related to news.  If you really want some har news, Letters from an American touches on the presser held by DOJ and also the letter to Biden from Congressional Progressives which weems to have been overinterpreted.

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The New Yorker (Borowitz) – Americans Seething with Envy of U.K. After Malignant Narcissist Opts Not to Run Again
Quote – From coast to coast, Americans expressed bitter jealousy of the British for having an incompetent former leader who, though maniacally self-absorbed and attention-craving, nevertheless possessed enough realism to depart the public stage after only twenty-four hours of hogging headlines…. “If you have to have a malignant narcissist, that’s the kind you want.”
Click through if you like. Boy, did this ever hit home.

Psyche – Just when in history did men decide that women are not funny?
Quote – Allow me, an historian, to offer evidence about the modern origins of this myth, instead of theories about the supposed evolutionary advantage of bro jokes…. Perhaps the answer will come as no surprise: it was when men began to value humour highly that they decided women didn’t have it.
Click through for story. Just offhand, my mind jumped first to “Much Ado About Nothing” (1598), specifically to Beatrice and Benedict, who are supposed to be a subplot, but whom audeiences have always considered the stars, and who “never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them.”

Food For Thought

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Open Thread April 2, 2022

 Posted by at 6:53 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 022022
 

Yesterday I got my trash and recycling carts movedaway from the curb back to where they “live.”And that was plenty. It’s been a busy week for me, so I was glad to have some respite.  I did a little knitting and a ittle gaming, and tried to get to bed earlier than I had been most of the week. I’ll try not to get spoiled.

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Short Takes –

Report: DOJ Grand Jury Has Been Secretly Targeting Trump World For Months
Quote – The Department of Justice, as some of us said all along, is doing their job. They have been doing their job. This didn’t just happen in the past week because Congress members publicly complained. Even the reporters who wrote this piece get it wrong by saying the probe has “expanded.” These grand jury subpoenas didn’t just fall out of the sky, and it’s not in response to public pressure. Leaking the news? Yeah, that’s for the benefit of the public. But this is a hugely complex investigation, and they’re being careful not to screw it up.
Click through for details and some interesting reactions.

Navy ship to be named for late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Quote – Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced on Thursday, the final day of Women’s History Month, that the Navy would name a replenishment oiler ship after Ginsburg. The ship is part of the John Lewis-class of replenishment oilers which are named in honor of individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of civil rights. Other ships in the class are named after John Lewis, Robert F. Kennedy, and Sojourner Truth.
Click through for background. The entire class appears to be relatively new.

“CODA” Actor Troy Kotsur Becomes First Deaf Man to Win an Oscar: “This Is Our Moment”
Quote – “CODA” star Troy Kotsur just made history at the 2022 Oscars. The 53-year-old actor is the first deaf man to be nominated and win an award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Kotsur took home the award for best actor in a supporting role on Sunday for “CODA,” beating out Ciarán Hinds, Jesse Plemons, J.K. Simmons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Click through for story. Yeah, know, I don’t follow the Oscars either – the last time I watched was when Halle Berry won in 2001. But any diversity milestone in films is worth celebrating.

Food For Thought:

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Open Thread March 31, 2022

 Posted by at 7:22 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 312022
 

Yesterday, I made and got confirmed my reservation to see Virgil on April 10 – the first available Sunday, Sunday being the safest day of the week for driving. I also managed to get the recyclable and trash bins out to the curb for pickup tomorrow, which surprised me a little bet, because the previous day I had pushed my mobility limits. While I was doing that, the “neighborhood cat” came around and accepted a few salmon treats. He can be picky, so that was nice. He is definitely not starving, but I still try to figure out his likes and dislikes. Sadly, looking at my iris bed, it doesn’t look like my TomCat iris is coming back this year. In fact, it looks like I’ll only have one stem of Baboon Butt Blood (sorry – when that varietal came out it was named “Baboon Bottom” and I got into a bad habit with it). I may be able to recover the others, or soe of them, by separating and fertilizing, but it’s by no means certain, even if I can muster up the energy to do it, which is also doubtful.

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Short Takes –

Mother Jones – We All Know Teachers Are Underpaid. But Who Imagined It Was This Bad?
Quote – Perhaps most jarring of all was the teacher in California who said that, in order to support her family financially, she has become a surrogate mother. Twice. “I’m literally renting out my uterus to make ends meet,” she wrote.
Click through for stats and stories. This may be the most devastating thing Republicams have done to the United States. It may not grab headlines like an insurrection, but its effects are far more widespread and far more long lasting.

The Hill – Biden signs bill making lynching a federal hate crime
Quote – “Hundreds of similar bills have failed to pass. Over the years, several federal hate crime laws were enacted. … But no federal law — no federal law expressly prohibited lynching. None. Until today,” Biden said to applause.Biden noted that civil rights leaders and lawmakers have been working for more than 100 years to pass a bill making lynching a hate crime. The president called lynching a “uniquely American weapon of racial terror.
Click through for story. It’s about time.

Women’s History – Wikipedia – Milunka Savić
Quote – In 1912, her brother received call-up papers for mobilization for the First Balkan War. She chose to go in his place—cutting her hair and donning men’s clothes and joining the Serbian army. She quickly saw combat and received her first medal and was promoted to corporal in the Battle of Bregalnica. Engaged in battle, she sustained wounds and it was only then, when recovering from her injuries in hospital, that her true sex was revealed, much to the surprise of the attending physicians.
Click through. Please. I can’t possibly do justice to this feisty lady in one quote (if I had to try, it ought to be “I will wait.”

Food For Thought:

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Open Thread March 30, 2022

 Posted by at 6:52 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 302022
 

Yesterday, I went to my doctor’s office to get the form filled out that the DMV gave me Mondey (of course after calling to see whether they could fit me in. Frankly I think they went out of their way for me. I do try not to be a Karen.) I took the form to the DMV and it worked like a charm. In fact, they offered, because my driver’s license was supposed to renew within 6 months anyway, to renew it for another five years. Of course I was thrilled. (I do try not to be a Karen.) Now all I have to do is make an appontment to visit Virgil – the earliest Sunday he is available is April 10th (and, frankly, I feel safest driving on Sunday) I know that because the visitation staff has gone out of their way to let me know what days he (his “pod”) is scheduled for. (I do try not to be a Karen.) So back to what passes for normal starting today. Yay!

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Short Takes –

Politico – CAWTHORN’S ORGY CLAIM FALLOUT
Quote – The first-term conservative said he received invitations along the lines of: “‘Well, hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get-together at one of our homes, you should come’.” The 26-year-old described his response on the podcast “Warrior Poet Society”: “I’m like, ‘What did you just ask me to come to?’ And then you realize they are asking you to come to an orgy.” Cawthorn also claimed to have seen other people who are “leading” efforts to eradicate drug addiction using cocaine in front of him.
Click through for story. I wouldn’t doubt the orgies, but I definitely doubt that anyone would invite Maddy. Unless they wanted to make him the goat (no, not the GOAT, just the goat, as in scape.)

PolitiZoom – REVEALED: Trump’s Last Official Call Jan 6 Was To Pence, Then A 7 Hour, 37 Minute Blackout On WH Logs. What’s Being Covered Up?
Quote – That immediately begs the question, what happened between the hours of 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. on January 6 and how was Trump communicating with people? He has already stated through a spokesman Monday night, “I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term.” Right. What’s being covered up? Seven hours is one whole lot of a longer time than the infamous 18-minutes of Watergate.
Click through for details. I thought “Shades of Nixon” – but at 7:37 Trump makes Nixon’s 0:18 and a half look like Amateur Hour.

The National WWII Museum – Sophie Scholl and the White Rose
Quote – Within the United States, Sophie Magdalena Scholl is not the best-known resistance fighter, but her story is a powerful one. She was a key member of the Weiße Rose (White Rose)—a resistance group run by students at the University of Munich who distributed leaflets and used graffiti to decry Nazi crimes and the political system, while calling for resistance to the Nazi state and the war. On February 22, 1943, she was beheaded for treason at just 21 years old.
Click through for full details. If you hear someone allude to the “White Rose” (or the “White Rose Society”), this is what they are talking about. Beau does occasionally (he also has a Tshirt with a white rose, so he can allude to it without saying it.)

Food For Thought:
The video this quote is from will be on the Video Thread tomorrow. But this is so succinct I just wanted to meme it.

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