Personal – Page 167 – Politics Plus

Open Thread 7/31/2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:14 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 312022

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Samson et Dalila” by Saint-Saëns. Since this is another story I think everyone knows (if I’m wrong I hope someone will correct me), I’ll take a couple of sentences to share that the summer season for radi operas has its own web page at WFMT with multiple sub-pages, one of which allows one to download photos from every production, which makes the opera much more intresting, particularly when it’s one I’ve heard but never seen – and that doesn’t have to be a new opera necssarily. I have seen Samson et Dalila in the Met’s streaming library once, but it’s challenging to stage. This production from England doesn’t make any attempt to show authentic period or culture (not that it’s necessary, but the Met’s kind of did – but used colors which literally had not been invented at the time it was supposed to have taken place.) The big famous aria is “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” in which Dalila seduuces Samson by telling him how much his voice turns her on – all the time turning him on with her voice. Yes, sneaky (and diaingenuous. Well, that’s Delilah for you.)

I’ll take yesterday’s poll as 2 yes and 2 abstain, and will put Randy’s Hawley video in tomorrow’s video thread.

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Short Takes –

Wonkette – Anti-Abortion States Worst Places To Get Pregnant And Have Kids. Who Would Have Thought?
Quote – [The states that have either banned or are about to ban abortion] have higher maternal mortality rates, higher infant mortality rates, higher child poverty rates, and more uninsured women and children, and are much less likely to have minimum wages over $7.25, the Medicaid expansion, or paid family leave. In fact, literally none of them have paid family leave. If you have a kid in these states and you do not have a job that gives you paid family leave, you may have to get your ass up out of the delivery room (if you can even afford a delivery room) and get right to your next shift.
Click through for details. Wonkette knows perfectly well that anyone with a brain would have thought. That’s just Wonkette’s trademaek snark.

Mother Jones – Of Course Samuel Alito Is Bragging About It
Quote – High off the fumes of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the constitutional right to an abortion, a beaming Samuel Alito has emerged to try his hand at comedy. It did not go well. More critically, it further exposed an overtly political Supreme Court justice teeming with condescension for his critics.
Click through for story. Its author is understandably – um – irritated (mad as hell actually) – as we all should be.

Food For Thought –

Open Thread 7/30/2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:20 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 302022

Yesterday, the Hawley Run for your life video inspired someone on DU to resurrect Randy Rainbow’s song about him … and it certainly stll sounds very current. How about we do an informal poll on bringing some of his older productions back into the Video Thread (starting with that one)? Also, I received a grocery order which included nothing frozen and very little refrigerated . Much easier to put away than usual.

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Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – https://crooksandliars.com/2022/07/fl-republican-may-have-disqualified
Quote – Introduced by state Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, and signed into law last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the new statute requires a candidate vying for a party’s nomination to be a registered party member for 365 days before qualifying for the post begins. Elections supervisor records show that Stark did not re-register as a Republican voter until January 2022.
Click through for story. Not the most important story in the world – but good for a smile anyway. I hope they enforce it. Snit fits should have consequences.

The New Yorker – Will Wisconsin’s Republicans Make Voting Meaningless, or Just Difficult?
Quote – In the time since she’d moved to the [nursing] home, more than a year earlier, no staff member had mentioned voting to her. Three weeks before the April primaries, [Jessica] Nell asked a senior staff member how to change her address in order to vote. The staff member refused to help, according to Nell. “I’m not going to go room to room and tell everybody about voting, because ninety per cent of the people here shouldn’t be able to vote,” she recalled him saying.
Click through for the climate and the stakes. Before is was Fitzwalkerstan, Wisconsin used to be reasonab’e. Them it bacame fascist before fascism was cool. And neighboring Minnesota seems almost equally infected.

Food For Thought –

Open Thread 7/29/2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:42 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 292022

Yesterday, one of my newsletter included a link to an article whose title included both “Roe v Wade” and “Brown v Board,” and it occurred to me that we may have missed an opportunity back in 1954. At that time one big scream that was comong from all the racist maniacs was “miscegenation !!!” (which incidentally demonstrates that sexualizing children for poitical purposes is not new.) I wondered what would have happened had we responded “All right, then, we will integrate all school, bit all schools will eiher be all-girl or all-boy.” Obviously, had this been accepted, we would have created a set of entirely different but at least equally damaging problems, but one thing it might have accomplished was to create some deep and enduring friendships which crossed the color line. At that time we as a nation did not know everything about gender that the sane among us now know – it would not be possible to try or even suggest it today (and it would fuel even deeper misogyny if we could.) We do need better public education, and the education that we need is being actively opposed, and in too many areas successfully opposed. All I could come up with was “We need to pro-ctively form diverse and representative coalitions,” and we probably already knew that. It was just a thought.

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Short Takes –

AP News – 102-year-old WWII veteran from segregated mail unit honored
Quote – Presented with the medal citation and a wartime uniform to replace hers, which was stolen out of a car soon after she returned stateside, [Romay] Davis received a standing ovation; some in the crowd applauded with tears in their eyes…. Davis, in an interview at her home Monday, said the unit was due the recognition, and she’s glad to participate on behalf of other members who’ve already passed away. “I think it’s an exciting event, and it’s something for families to remember,” Davis said. “It isn’t mine, just mine. No. It’s everybody’s.”
Click through for story. About (expletive) time.

The Daily Beast – There’s One Thing Standing Between Us and the COVID Vaccination of Our Dreams
Quote – The new COVID-19 vaccine from Novavax is safe and effective. Better yet, it’s easy to ship and store, making it ideal for poorer countries that are still under-vaxxed. The company’s shot, called Nuvaxovid, could reshape the vaccine landscape as the pandemic grinds into its 32nd month. More protection for more people against ever-more-contagious new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Assuming Novavax can produce enough doses on time, that is. Manufacturing problems could doom the new jab’s wider rollout.
Click through for details. After a lot of thought, and because I never fgo anywhere (except to the prison system, and they are CoViD hawks), I’ve decided to wwait for the new vaxx in the fall rather than getting a summer booster (getting both doesn’t seem to be getting recommended.) I don’t expect it to be final, but I’m hoping for it to be at least a bit longer lasting (and address newer variants.)

Just one additional note – Denali National Park – understandably – has a modest breeding program for sled dogs (one litter a year and includes outbreeding to strengthen the genetic base.) This year’s litter can now be observed on their PuppyCam. I’m a cat person rather than a dog person myself – but puppies are cute (as are most baby mammals).

Food For Thought –

Open Thread 7/28/2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 282022

Yesterday, I observed that the forecast had mover the two seriously cold days this week from today and tomorrow to tomorrow and Friday. If they keep pushing them out, it could make my drive Sunday to see Virgil much more pleasant – assuming he’s still where he is now. I do think he is likely to be. At this point in the week I hoe so, because in the past when they have moved him it has been a few days at least before visiting is allowed at the new location.

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Short Takes –

Minnnesota Reformer – Conservative blocs unleash litigation to curb public health powers
Quote – Through a wave of pandemic-related litigation, a trio of small but mighty conservative legal blocs has rolled back public health authority at the local, state and federal levels, recasting America’s future battles against infectious diseases. Galvanized by what they’ve characterized as an overreach of COVID-19-related health orders issued amid the pandemic, lawyers from the three overlapping spheres — conservative and libertarian think tanks, Republican state attorneys general, and religious liberty groups — are aggressively taking on public health mandates and the government agencies charged with protecting community health.
Click through for details. The EPA can’t regulate. Now the CDC (and similar agencies at state and local levels) can’t regulate. Can anyone doubt any longer that they are trying to kill us all?

NPR – Decades of ‘good fires’ save Yosemite’s iconic grove of ancient sequoia trees
Quote – But it took more than the hard work of wildland firefighters, luck or a shift in the wind to protect the majestic trees in the Mariposa Grove, many of them 2,000 years old with several including the Grizzly Giant well over 3,000 years. Instead, foresters and ecologists say a half-century of intentional burning or ”prescribed fire” practices in and around the area dramatically reduced forest ”fuel” there, allowing the blaze to pass through the grove with the trees unscathed.
Click through for backstory. Nothing, in the end, will prevent forest fires entirely. And vacuum cleaners won’t help. But something else will. I shudder to think what a Republican administration might do to the Forest Service and the Park Service.

Food For Thought – This is from the British version of Vogue. I needed a little uplift and figured others might also.

Open Thread 7/27/2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:53 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 272022

Yesterday, I went to sleep with the bedroom ceiling fan on, and, during the night, had to turn it off and grab a light blanket. Ah yes – Colorado. It’s supposed to be cooler through Thursday and start warming up again Friday. We shall see.

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Short Takes –

Letters from an American – July 24, 2022
Quote – On Friday, Axios began to publish a deeply researched and important series by Jonathan Swan, explaining that if former president Trump retakes power, he and allies like his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), and head of Trump’s social media network Devin Nunes are determined to purge our nonpartisan civil service and replace it with loyalists. In a normal administration, a new president gets to replace around 4000 political appointees, but most government employees are in positions designed to be nonpartisan. Trump’s team wants to gut this system and put in place people loyal to him and his agenda.
Click through for more, including how much damage he did along these lines while he was in office, with Schedule F in place. Now imagine the damage he could do without it.

CPR – 6 fire agencies in El Paso County join together to form an interagency wildland fire team
Quote – Those involved include the Hanover Fire Protection District, Fountain Fire Department, Stratmoor Hills Fire Protection District, Security Fire Protection District, Fort Carson Fire & Emergency Services and the Southwest Highway 115 Fire Protection District. The 18-member Wildland Fire Team is made up of volunteers specifically trained in wildland firefighting. While all of the locations have their own staff, Stratmoor Hills Fire Chief Shawn Bittle said the volunteer component will allow for increased manpower without impacting the agency’s restricted budgets.
Click through for story. Of course the City of Colorado Springs has a Fire Department. It does not serve unincorporated areas of the county. All those fire departments named are funded by Special Districts with the authority to tax residents. Elections regarding these Special Districts are the elections I think I have mentioned which one may vote in without being a registered voter, or even a citizen, provided they own property in the District (because “No Taxation Without Representation”). Obviously, they have limitations. I consider this development really good news – as well as a model for others who own property outside of municipal fire departments’ service areas, wherever in the nation they may be.

Food For Thought

Open Thread 7/26/2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:06 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 262022

Yesterday, I kind of dodged a bullet. I couldn’t get in to my credit card website for a couple of days, and had to call. I’ve had fraudulent charges on my account before and it’s a pain to have to go through the “new number” process. This time, there was no fraud. As everyone here knows, I do not order from amazon until the product is vitally necesary and there’s no other way to get it. So I had seen a product (a particular style of coat hanger) on amazon, but went to the brand name, found it, and ordered directly from the manufacturer. Pretty much no one does that, and the company name – “Songmics” – was unusual, and it got flagged. So I verified that and three other transactions, and I have my access back and get to keep my card number. (Sigh of relief.) Other than that, things were quiet. Afternoon thundershowers but otherwise quiet.

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Short Takes –

Washington Post (gift link) – A 1792 case reveals that key Founders saw abortion as a private matter
Quote – In the early republic, abortion was largely a private matter. It was not a cause for public concern, nor was abortion considered a criminal act. In fact, contrary to Alito’s assertions in Dobbs, three Founders from Virginia — Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and John Marshall — did not seek charges in a sensational court case from that era in which evidence of an abortion was discovered.
Click through for details (no paywall.) I would point out that the Constitution was ratified and went ito effect in 1789, and therefore this case is subject to it. It isn’t just an interesting example of public opinion at the time – it is an actual precedent.

CNN – An ‘imposter Christianity’ is threatening American democracy
Qute – That’s because they follow a different Jesus than the one depicted in the Gospels, says [Kristin Kobes] Du Mez [author of the New York Times bestseller, “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation”], who is also a professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University — a Christian school — in Michigan. They follow the Jesus depicted in the Book of Revelation, the warrior with eyes like “flames of fire” and “a robe dipped in blood” who led the armies of heaven on white horses in a final, triumphant battle against the forces of the antichrist.
Click through for details. “The insurrection marked the first time many Americans realized the US is facing a burgeoning White Christian nationalist movement”? Hello? How blind can people be?TomCat pointied it out for years – decades. Hence all those “Republican Supply-Side Jesus” cartoons This article would make a great documentary – are you listening, CNN?

Food For Thought

Open Thread 7/25/2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:54 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 252022

Yesterday, Despite not having slept all that well, I got the blog posts up and sent the weekly email, but I didn’t do much else. An unexpected but very welcom Sound Off! did go up before the end of the day – don’t miss it.

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Short Takes –

Psyche (via Aeon) – The power of Langston Hughes’s ‘melancholy citizenship’
Quote – Hughes calls the people ‘humble, hungry, mean … despite the dream’. Whether one is ‘the poor white, fooled and pushed apart’ or ‘the Negro bearing slavery’s scars’, ‘the red man driven from the land’ or ‘the immigrant clutching the hope I seek’, all must live in the space between abstract ideals and the bitter world. To create a world better than the one into which we are born, Hughes urges victims of colonisation and slavery to find ways to discover common ground with beneficiaries of past injustices.
Click through for full idea. Poetry is not scary. It’s mostly the expressions of simple truths in unexpected ways that make people see them as new, even if thet’re actually very old.

Letters From An American – July 23, 2022
Quote – Rising autocrats have declared democracy obsolete. They argue that popular government is too slow to respond to the rapid pace of the modern world, or that liberal democracy’s focus on individual rights undermines the traditional values that hold societies together, values like religion and ethnic or racial similarities. Hungarian president Viktor Orbán, whom the radical right supports so enthusiastically that he is speaking on August 4 in Texas at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), has called for replacing liberal democracy with “illiberal democracy” or “Christian democracy,” which will explicitly not treat everyone equally and will rest power in a single political party.
Click through for full letter. Richardson is not being alarmist. She makes it pellucidly clear what we are up against. This needs to be read or heard by every American, particularly every American who is not already deeply aware of politics.

Food For Thought

Open Thread 7/24/2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:44 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 242022

Yesterday, The opera was Macbeth (Verdi). Everyone knows that story, of course. I was not familiar wih the soprano singing Lady MacBeth, but she was excellent. MacBeth and Banquo were sung by two stars who are also known for being drop-dead gorgeous. The baritone (Simon Keenlyside) is not as young as he was, but still very handsome, and the bass, Günther Grossböck, is younger (and generally taller than anyone else on stage.) I have seen both the play and the opera more than once – back to back once, at the Kennedy Center, when I was in the service and they were doing a mini-Shakespeare festival, and I may be the only person in the world who feels this way, but I have always felt that the play never quite worked. There are parts of it which just can’t be played naturally – they are always either underplayed or overplayed. It isn’t really the fault of any of the actors – it’s just written that way. But the opera – all you need for that to it themark is singers who can stand up and hit the notes. With that, it’s a winner every time. All the passion is i the score.

I also managed to finish reading Heather Cox Richardson’s Letter from Thursday night. She quoted an NPR host as saying: “the Democratic chair of the committee just gracefully, and with full confidence, turned over the running of tonight’s hearing to the vice-chair, who happens to be of another party, and they spoke with mutual trust and respect. That’s how it’s supposed to go.” Well, yeah. that struck meat the time also. You might say it isn’t evidence, and it indeed is not evidence regarding the insurrection. But it is evidence that, even now, people who disagree with each other, even violently, can still work together if they have decency, integrity, and courtesy. It’s no wonder Rethuglicans so hate courtesy, and find insulting terms like “political correctness” to describe it. And here we all are. Sigh.

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Short Takes – I’m just going to go with News of the Weird today and be serious again tomorrow.

The Daily Beast – A Judge Pulled a Gun in the Courtroom—and Then It Got Weird
“The whole trial was insane,” said one lawyer, who later reported the weapon-wielding jurist to the FBI.

PolitiZoom – AR Toting Lunatic Spotted in Local Park Threatening to Shoot His Foot Off
Yes, this was Ronny Jackson. Sigh.

Democratic Underground (Nevilledog) – Cops stood by while a woman was terrorized by a stalker in her home for 12 hours and then killed
Seriously? In San Diego?

ProPublica – Pharma Companies Sue for the Right to Buy Blood From Mexicans Along Border
A year after the U.S. barred Mexicans from crossing the border to sell their blood, pharmaceutical companies have acknowledged that those donations provided as much as 10% of the plasma collected nationwide as they seek to have the ban overturned.

Crooks and Liars – Remember That Other Secret Service Scandal?
We all remember that story about the two fake agents who were sucking up to the First Lady’s Secret Service detail. Well, one of them has filed a notification that he will now change his plea to guilty.

Food For Thought

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