Politics Plus

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Die Meistersinger von Nuremburg,” the only comedy written by Richard Wagner (who is most famous for the Ring Cycle.) It has a happy ending – and it also does have a few punch lines along the way (it absolutely skewerss pedants who narrowly concentrate on the letter of rules and cannot see beyond that to the spirit – which makes it pretty appropriate for the week – think of Alito.) Probably the best known highlight is the tenot aria “Walther’s Prize Song,” but the second best would be the aria “Wahn!” sung by the character of Hans Sachs (who was a real person) which loosely translates to “The whole world is nuts.” Which also makes it appropriate for the present day.

Cartoon – 15 0515Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Cop Arrested After Allegedly Masturbating in Family’s Home During Service Call
Quote – It was not immediately clear what kind of call Officer Matthew Dominguez had been summoned to address, but sources told NBC Bay Area earlier this week that he had been caught by members of the family who walked in on him during the act. Dominguez, 32, has been placed on leave pending an investigation into the alleged incident
Click through for story – News of the Weird.

Marine Link – Linda Fagan Confirmed as First Woman USCG Commandant
Quote – Nominated for the role by President Joe Biden in April, Fagan will succeed Adm. Karl Schultz as head of the Coast Guard. Schultz, who has been Coast Guard Commandant since 2018, will retire at the end of this month. A change of command ceremony is scheduled to take place on June 1. Fagan became the first woman four-star admiral in the service when she took over as vice commandant in June 2021. Fagan is also the Coast Guard’s first-ever Gold Ancient Trident, as the officer with the longest service record in the marine safety field.
Click through for details. Another step forward in getting the upper echelons to look like America.

The New Yorker – Samuel Alito’s “Amelia Bedelia” Reading of the Constitution
Quote – Amelia Bedelia is a housekeeper who goes to work for a rich couple. They give her instructions—dust the furniture, draw the drapes, put out the lights—that Amelia, being extremely literal-minded, interprets exactly the wrong way. She pours dust on the furniture; draws a picture of the drapes; puts all the lights outside. The couple comes home to the chaos, and resolves to fire poor Amelia—until they taste a pie that she has made. It is so delicious that they can’t bear to let her go.
Click through for explication. Fabio Bertoni nails it – except that Alito has no talent so remarkable that sane people wouldn’t let him go.

Food For Thought

Yesterday was Friday the Thirteenth, and it got me thinking about the fact that “In the United States, the number 13 has many positive associations related to the 13 original colonies. So on the Great Seal there are 13 stars, 13 red stripes, and thirteen arrows held by the eagle.” Also, when the eagle holds an olive branch in the other foot, that branch has 13 olives and 13 leaves. You can count themon the back of the dollar bill, and you can look for more hidden 13s there if you like; I forget what all of them are. Friday is a separate matter – I won’t go into all the rationalizations, but fear of Friday goes back to ancient times, and Friday the 13th was considered especially unlucky only because it was thought to be a double whammy. These days we tend to say “Thank God it’s Friday,” so it’s hard to say why anyone (in the US especially) should be concerned about Friday the Thirteenth.

Cartoon – 14 constitution

Short Takes –

BioSpace – Researchers Pinpoint Reason Infants Die From SIDS
Quote – According to Mayo Clinic, many in the medical community suspected this phenomenon could be caused by a defect in the part of the brain that controls arousal from sleep and breathing. The theory was that if the infant stopped breathing during sleep, the defect would keep the child from startling or waking up…. They found the activity of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) was significantly lower in babies who died of SIDS compared to living infants and other non-SIDS infant deaths. BChE plays a major role in the brain’s arousal pathway, explaining why SIDS typically occurs during sleep.
Click through for details. It has NOTHING to do with anything any parent or caregiver has any control over whatsoever. It is an effing enzyme. Unless it happens when the infant is actually on the parent’s arms, and the parent notices something wrong, and knows and performs CPR (which is a LOT of “if”s), there is not one bloody thimg a parent can do to prevent it. Of course, there is now – all infants should be tested as soon as possible for BChE levels. But if every parent who ever lost a child to SIDS could instantly know this, the weight of guilt leaving the earth might be enough to knock

the earth out of its orbit.

Crooks and Liars – Katie Porter Describes Shocking Quid Pro Quo Deal Under Trump
Quote – [Katie Porter:] “So, what happened here is the deputy secretary of the interior — the Secretary of the Interior at the time was Ryan Zinke, who is currently running for Congress. But the deputy secretary was named (David) Bernhardt. He took a secret meeting with a developer named Mike Ingraham, trying to develop a project in Arizona, in a very environmentally sensitive area. It was a secret meeting, never disclosed on any of Secretary Bernhardt’s calendars. It was never disclosed to our committee, and we were investigating. A couple weeks later, this Fish and Wildlife career employee, just doing his job for 30 years, he gets a call around a high-level politico wanting him to reverse his decision that the development would harm the environment,” she said.
Click through (there’s also a video). Of course, under TFG, no kind or amount of criminal behavior can actually shock anyone with a brain any more. But this certainly should be shocking, and demonstrates how desperately we need to restore integrity to govenment, so regain people’s trust, so that an incident like this would be shocking.

BuzzFeed News – Republicans Don’t Think Undocumented Immigrant Babies Should Get Formula Over Americans
Quote – Republicans are claiming without proof that baby formula used to feed infants at immigrant detention centers is siphoning away a product in short supply and instead want “American kids” put first…. None of the Republican lawmakers explained how feeding infants in detention was affecting formula supplies in the rest of the country, but suggested they should be left without food anyway.
Click through for story. More posturing from the “pro-life” crowd.

Food For Thought