Mar 142024
 

Yesterday, I really did not want to get up. It might be the fault of the weather. Today and tomorrow, snow is heavily predicted, starting at 2 am today and going steadily through about 10 Friday morning.  We do need the water so I can’t really complain -though the watersheds are where we need it most, and they are at much higher elevations than Iam.

I may be one of the last remaining Americans who actually like Merrick Garland. When I see articles all over Democratic sites blaming him, for example, for Jan 6 rioters getting short sentences (judges do that – not even the same branch of government) or dragging his feet (I do admit to someone not involed in criminal law that it looks like that, primarily because he committed so many of his criomes in broad daylight and plain sight), I find it refreshing to see a different opinion. Especially from someone such as Marcy Wheeler, who has credentials and a solid reputation. The first link takes you to the her main argument, and the second, at her own blog, supplements the first somewhat.

Kerry Eleveld, who is on the staff at Daily Kos, analyzes the shifts in polling produced by the quality of Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. It’s good news.

I’m slipping this in today because I don’t want people to be needlesslay alarmed. (Alarmed is fine if it’s needed.) Wonkette’s style is frivolous butI think handles the story well.

Share
Jan 142024
 

Yesterday’s radio opera was “La Bohème,” Puccini’s breakout opera. You will hear people who are into opera claim that one cannot hear it too many times (a few will even claim that it is not possible to hear any of Puccini’s operas too many times.) Although it’s not true for everyone, they’re not totally wrong. Even for someone who still loves it, performance flaws can hit the boredom button. But it still is not unpleasant. And it certainly has proved to be enduring. I assume everyone here knows it was the inspiriation for “Rent,” with AIDS substituted for tuberculosis and of course modern young people for 19th century “Bohemians.” (Though actually a late 19th century opera, it was set in the first half of the 19th century.) My nomination for the best performance, both vocally and visually, is actually available on DVD as well as streaming from the Met. It was recorded on Januaty 16, 1982, and features Teresa Stratas, Renata Scotto, Jose Carreras, Richard Stillwell, Allan Monk, and a very young James Morris. Everything I have seen Stratas in, I have marvelled at how she can sing like that and still project an aura of such fragility. (In the last scene one is inclined to wonder whether she has in fact died – it is that convincing.) And everyone else plays around that perfectly. But I digress. In yesterday’s performance, Rodolfo was played by Stephen Costello, whom I am inclined to like for the same reason that Virgil strongly dislikes Daniel Barenboim (pianist and conductor), because of the circumstances of his divorce from Jacqueline du Pre. In Stephen’s case, it was the circumstances of his divorce from Ailyn Perez. She initiated the divorce and he experienced a psychatric crisis which lasted apparently years (based on his absence.) Yes, i realize du Pre could be difficult (but, dammit, she had cancer, and it killed her, and he had left her), and I’m sure so can Stephen. But he had won the Richard Tucker award a couple of years earlier, and appeared to be promoting her, and then she won the same award – he sang as a guest at her award concert – and it actually was a few years, but seemed like it was the next day she was gone. The optics were – not good. But he is better now and back to opera. And I wasn’t there, and don’t know all the details. So I should probably try to let it go. Now, next week, it will be “Dead Man Walking.” That will be a change.

In other news, Axios broke this – “Scoop: John Kerry to leave Biden administration, help campaign.” Kerry isn’t wrong. Of course it’s not only the climate but the survival of democracy itself which is on the line.
Kerry is welcome by me to continue to be a climate hawk as long as his efforts also help save democracy.

Share
Oct 202023
 

Yesterday – Will wonders never cease!

The story implies that the railroad cooperated, and also that we got some help from the federal government. Also that there will be intermitttent closures ehrn they start building the bridge back. We joke that Colorado has four seasons – almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction – but they could get to it during the winter – if we don’t have too much snow. At least CPR will let me know. Southbound opened yesterday, but they expect northbound to open today. In case it doesn’t, I will see that on the way down. So, if I do need a detour, now or in the future, it may only be one way. Gosh, I’m glad we have a Democratic governor!

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

PolitiZoom – Court Employee Arrested After Approaching Trump During Trial To ‘Assist Him’ MAGA Follower?
Quote – Judges and courtrooms are known for being sober individuals and somber places, but not when the Trump circus is in town. A court employee was arrested and subsequently put on administrative leave after she approached Donald Trump during his Trump Organization trial this morning at the 60 Centre Street court, shouting that she wanted to help him. It will certainly be interesting to get the details on what help she was offering. We will update when that information is available.
Click Through for more. This is a real doozy. Tina Peters in Colorado comes to mind. You gotta wonder how many there are of these.

Wonkette (Substack) – Woke Farmer Mob Converts Former MA Cranberry Bogs To Wetlands, Preventing Floods, Sequestering Carbon
Quote – Around the turn of this century,… the cranberry industry [in Massachuisetts] started being pinched by a worldwide cranberry glut…. But what to do with the former berrylands? Farmers could probably sell out to developers, but that wasn’t necessarily something they wanted to see. Fortunately, crazy environmentalist hippies and ecologists (same thing) had an idea: How about restoring the bogs to be wetlands again, like they were before getting covered in sand for cran-griculture?
Click through for details. There is a fair amount of science here, but it’s not terribly technical. It’s easy to grasp. Who knew sand could have such consequences?

Food For Thought

Share
Oct 072023
 

Yesterday, now that we’re a week into October, Wonkette posted a link to the 20 Most Haunted Places in the World (not a Substack site.) Many of them, maybe most, are quite beautiful – if I were a ghost there, I’d likely stay too. Also, here’s a link about an incident from World War II which demonstrates just how dangerous classified informmation can be in the wrong hands (and mouths.) Finally, I received an email from Eric Swalwell advertising a closeout price on a Kevin McCarthy Catnip Toy: “While Kevin’s on his way to the litter box to try and salvage the mess he’s made of the GOP, our team’s throwing Kevin the celebration he deserves: A clearance sale. Our Kevin McCatnip toys are now marked down to just $15, so you can watch your cat bat Kevin around the living room the way you’d like to!”  Tomorrow, I’ll be seeing Virgil, and will post when I get home as always.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Grist – How does climate change threaten your neighborhood? A new map has the details.
Quote – If you’ve been wondering what climate change means for your neighborhood, you’re in luck. The most detailed interactive map yet of the United States’ vulnerability to dangers such as fire, flooding, and pollution was released on Monday by the Environmental Defense Fund and Texas A&M University. The fine-grained analysis spans more than 70,000 census tracts, which roughly resemble neighborhoods, mapping out environmental risks alongside factors that make it harder for people to deal with hazards. Clicking on a report for a census tract yields details on heat, wildfire smoke, and drought, in addition to what drives vulnerability to extreme weather, such as income levels and access to health care and transportation.
Click through for article and map. I see the South is expecting below-freezing temperatures this weekend, except for Florida’s peninsula, whereas I’m expecting some warming. Go figure. I actually seem to have made a pretty good choice of where to live in view of climate change – not that anywhere is perfect, of course. Literally the entire world is endangered.

Wonkette – Jimmy Carter’s Solar Panels And The Mellow Allman Brothers Climate Paradise That Could’ve Been (OK, some of that headline may not be scrupulously fact-checked.)
Quote – Reagan reversed the clean energy initiatives Carter had put in place, a far more concrete rejection of renewable energy than the symbolic removal of the panels. Solar panels would return to the White House eventually. In 2002, the National Park Service installed solar electricity and water heating systems elsewhere on the White House grounds, although the George W. Bush administration chose not to publicize that. In 2014, Barack Obama installed a photovoltaic system on the White House roof. And in 2017, Jimmy Carter installed a solar farm on 10 acres of his peanut farm; it provides about half the electricity for Plains. Carter, who’s now in hospice care at home, celebrated his birthday quietly at home with Rosalyn, his wife of 77 years, and with his children and grandchildren. I’ll assume the party was lit by solar, too.
Click through for full article. In 1976 none of us who weren’t scientists were all that accurate on what the answers were – and what they weren’t – and the scientists weren’t telling – or at least, not the truth. Jimmy was trying. Ronny rejected it all. I’ll go to my grave beliebing that the 1980 Presidential election was a catastrophe and a creator of more catastrophes – and I think I”ll be correct. I’ll for sure be in good company.

Food For Thought

Share
Sep 242023
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “La Fanciulla Del West” by Giacomo Puccini. If you have ever seen “The Girl of the Golden WEst in any other incarnation (there was a movie with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, for instance) You’ll know the story, complete with the blood dripping through the ceiling. (Estlin Usher got a pic of the set for that scene, but before the blood started dripping. He also got two of the bar and one of the final scene – no horse – but they look like they were taken from the very last row.) Minnie is one of the few Puccini heroines who survives the opera, but though the lovers are together, their future is far from certain as they ride off into the sunset. We can hope – and most if not all do – that it all works out. This is the last production from Beijing this season (and it was recorded in 2019); the rest of the schedule is in place, and I’m excited about it. There are some 21st century operas and some rarities from traditional composers – a lot will be new to me to hear, even if I have read about some of the operas. It will take us into December. And the Met’s radio schedule, which will pick up where this leaves off, is also out, and I am excited about it too. But that can wait. Also yesterday, the Carters showed up at the Plains Peanut Festival parade (in a vehicle). That choked me up.  Finally, yesterday I had to bring out the space heater.  Sigh.  Now, off to see Virgil.

Cartoon – 24 new Jay + yom kippur (both loaded)

Short Takes –

HuffPost – The UAW Strike Poses The Biggest Test — And Opportunity — For Joe Biden’s Economic Agenda
Quote – Since taking office, Biden cast his domestic economic agenda as a repudiation of the free-market economic policies that have dominated since President Ronald Reagan won election in 1980. Reaganomics, with its “trickle-down” upper-income tax cuts, corporate deregulation and anti-labor actions, “failed the middle class, it failed America,” Biden said in a June speech. More than any other single event, how Biden handles the UAW strike could determine the political and policy success of his grand agenda.
Click through for explanation. HuffPost is talking about siding with the strikers. And my second take suggests that is exactly what he is doing – maybe not exactly the way that HuffPost suggests, but maybe even more strongly.

Axios – Biden to join UAW strike and picket with auto workers
Quote – President Biden said he’ll picket alongside the United Auto Workers in Michigan next week — in a rare act of a president visibly joining a labor movement…. Biden, who has previously called himself the “most pro-union president ever,” had urged U.S. automakers last week to share more of their “record profits” with the workers on strike. Biden’s visit is set for the day before former President Trump is expected to appear in Michigan instead of attending the second GOP primary debate.
Click through for details. HuffPost was not expecting this. But they also carry the story so if you like, you can compare the coverages.

Food For Thought

Share
Sep 172023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Jack Smith files motion destroying Trump’s attempt to remove Judge Chutkan from his DC case

MSNBC – Lawrence: GA judge effectively told Trump co-defendant lawyer to shut up

Farron Balanced – Sidney Powell Tells Court That She Was Authorized To Commit Crimes

Liberal Redneck – Boebert’s Undying Trashness

130-Pound Dog Gets His First Home Ever

Beau – Let’s talk about the new US record in 2023 and NOAA….

Share
Sep 112023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Meadows loses in federal court; will be tried in Georgia state court together w/Trump in RICO case

Robert Reich – Why Does Flying Suck So Much?

Ring of Fire – Biden Comes Out Swinging With Harsh Insult Aimed At Climate Change Deniers

Brando has done vids for Meidas Touch, but this is on his own channel. Looks like we didn’t stop posting Maher a minute too soon.
Tennessee Brando – What Happened to Bill Maher?

Homeless kitten adopts a human

Beau – Let’s talk about Biden, Alaska, and oil….

Share
Aug 312023
 

Yesterday, Mitch McConnell froze again, Idalia made landfall in Florida’s “Big Bend” region (which is exactly where you think it would be), our Mitch emailed his list that he and his are in no danger, and, by evening, Idalia was down to a tropical storm.  Late the night before, I read that Fani Willis has asked the judge to  put all the speedy-trial-demanders into a single trial, and therefore on the same date, October 23, if legally possible.  It hadn’t occurred to me that it might not be so I was assuming they would all be tried together (Eastman is number three.)  It’s consederably more complex than I thought.  Harry Litman explains the contingencies, in this vodeo, which has CC and therefore generates a transcript (click the 3 dots tp the right of the up-down-share line and “open trancript”.)  I hope it works out with the minimum number of seperate trials (which i believe would be four – but what do I know.)   Georgia’s doing us all a big favor and should not be required to break the bank to do it.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Family Recalls Jacksonville Shooting Victim’s Last Call With Daughter
Quote – Several other relatives told the Associated Press that Gallion was a devoted father, and though his relationship with the child’s mother didn’t work out, he still had the respect of her family. “He never missed a beat,” Sabrina Rozier, the child’s maternal grandmother, said Sunday at a vigil honoring the victims. “He got her every weekend. As a matter of fact, he was supposed to have her (Saturday).”… “My heart melted for my granddaughter, because she was his world and he was her world. And now we’re trying to figure out how to tell her, because we haven’t told her yet and she’s only 4.”
Click through for more. I do appreciate the Beast telling the story in a respectful way. We don’t always see that.

Robert Reich – Globaloney: Why the Democrats’ love affair with “free trade” is over
Quote – But “globalization” is not a force of nature. How it works and whom it benefits or harms depend on specific, negotiated rules about which assets will be protected and which will not. In most trade deals, the assets of American corporations (including intellectual property) have been protected. If another nation adopts strict climate regulations that reduce the value of U.S. energy assets in that country, the country must compensate the American firms. Wall Street has been granted free rein to move financial assets into and out of our trading partners. But the jobs and wages of American workers have not been protected. Why shouldn’t American corporations that profit from trade be required to compensate American workers for job losses due to trade?
Click through for full assessment. It’s not news that unregulated anything helps only the wealthiest and hurts the reat of us. This does point up that regulation itself needs to be both accurately designed andproperly administered

CPR – [Senator] John Hickenlooper showed up at a SAG-AFTRA rally, and not just as a supporter — he’s paid his dues (literally)
Quote – He was there not just as a supporter, he said, but as a dues-paying member of SAG-AFTRA’s local chapter. That’s because the senator’s cousin, the late filmmaker George Hickenlooper, had a habit of casting him for bit parts. Among them was the film “Casino Jack,” released in 2010 when Hickenlooper was mayor of Denver. He played a U.S. Senator with one big line: “Remove that man.” “My cousin George made me do 28 takes,” Hickenlooper told the crowd near the City Park boathouse.
Click through – I’m not going to be able to keep up three a day, even in a week like this, but I thought this was cute, and I didn’t want to bump anything else for something this light. It was news to me.

Food For Thought

Share