It’s a muggy, hectic day here in the CatBox. Moving day is tentatively set for next Monday. I will probably be offline for at least two days, but I’ll give you all a heads up. OGIM!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:54 (average 5:17). To do it, click here. how did you do?
Short Takes:
From USA Today: President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived at Buckingham Palace Monday just after noon, local time, to meet Queen Elizabeth II and be treated to the kind of royal pomp-and-ceremony the president loves receiving and the British love staging.
During Monday’s visit, the queen greeted President Trump as he ascended the palace stairs with Prince Charles, as Melania walked behind with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. The queen wore a big smile as she greeted the president with a handshake, wearing a mint suit and matching hat. She then acknowledged Melania, and the three royals walked inside with the president and first lady.\
The POOR Queen! If I were her, I would have abdicated first! RESIST!!
From NY Times: A move by House Democratic leaders to thwart party members from mounting primary challenges to incumbents, even in safe Democratic districts, could have the unintended consequence of arresting the party’s shift toward a more female and racially diverse caucus, one of its most striking achievements of the last election.
Last week, a Democratic political consultant with longstanding ties to the party’s campaign committees quit a senior-partner position at the firm Deliver Strategies after it, like most dominant campaign outfits, agreed to comply with a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee policy barring it from conducting business with a primary opponent of a sitting Democrat.
Her reason: She feared the policy’s impact on female challengers.
“It is hard enough for challengers, for a lot of reasons,” said the consultant, Amy Pritchard, who worked last year for Representative Ayanna Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts, in her successful campaign to defeat a 10-term Democratic incumbent. “And this policy is a bridge too far. I’d like to see a majority of women in Congress, and it’s not going to happen with this policy.”
When my party does something wrong, I don’t avoid it. I speak out that we need to fix it. The DCCC is so far off base that they are acting like Republicans. All Democrats must oppose this policy. RESIST!!
From Alternet: Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, currently under indictment over his misappropriation of roughly a quarter million dollars in campaign funds, continues to go out on a limb in his party’s new defense of American war criminals. First Hunter argued for a pardon of former Navy SEAL team leader Edward Gallagher, accused by his fellow soldiers of repeatedly targeting innocent civilians in Iraq, by dismissively telling a town hall that that he, too, was guilty of “taking a picture of [a] body and saying something stupid.”
This admission of a plain breach of military rules by ex-Marine Hunter did not do much to discredit the more damning accusations against Gallagher, that he so consistently targeted innocent civilians with his sniper rifle that his fellow SEALs tampered with his weapon in order to throw off his aim. So Hunter is now back with a more on-point defense of the intentional targeting of civilians, arguing that why of course he did that too.
“I was an artillery officer, and we fired hundreds of rounds into Fallujah, killed probably hundreds of civilians, if not scores, if not hundreds of civilians,” Hunter said. “Probably killed women and children, if there were any left in the city when we invaded. So do I get judged, too?”
The answer to Hunter’s question is “Yes”. I believe his statement that he is also a war criminal and he should be imprisoned as such. RESIST!!
It’s a muggy day here in the CatBox. WWWendy is coming to destink the rancid TomCat and help with chores and moving prep. This is my only article today.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:35 (average 5:47). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Big Idea: Cleaning Up Corruption
Amen, Liz! The more I see and hear, the more I like her. RESIST!!
From YouTube (1960s music): The Byrds – Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) – 45 RPM – ORIGINAL MONO MIX
Ah! The memories! RESIST!!
From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump raised eyebrows on both sides of the Atlantic on Saturday by claiming that he would be a “much better princess” than Meghan Markle.
Calling the Duchess of Sussex “a nasty woman,” Trump said, “If I were a princess, I would not be nasty. People would say, ‘Donald Trump is the nicest princess.’ ”
Trump added that “all a princess has to do is sit on a throne, and I would be very good at that also.”
LOL, Andy! I’m sorry, but if you want a princess for the Republican Reich, try Lindsey Poo! RESIST!!
[I apologize for the late posting. And I’ll add a “Note to Self”: Never EVER again take on a project that has NO ending.]
On April 15th the world collectively gasped as we viewed the devastating Notre Dame Cathedral inferno that lasted for 15 hours and destroyed its iconic spire and most of its wooden roof. Two days later France’s Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced a competition to design a new roof and spire for the iconic structure.
“This is obviously a huge challenge, a historic responsibility. The international competition will allow us to ask the question of whether we should even re-create the spire as it was conceived by Viollet-le-Duc. Or if, as is often the case in the evolution of heritage, we should endow Notre Dame with a new spire.”
There has been no dearth of entries – and they’re still coming in, which has made this project bigger than I had anticipated. Nevertheless, I thought it’d be fun to view some of the designs submitted so far. In my opinion, they range from the ethereal to the ridiculous.
But where to begin? I decided I’d start with what I consider the outliers – ones that are … hmmm … unique. But ones that I strongly doubt will ever (thankfully) come to fruition.
[A]
JETSON THEME
A Cyprus-based firm called Kiss the Architect created a what I would call a Jetson-Themed rendering of a futuristic spire with metal arches, circles and spheres wrapped around a central staircase.
[B]
GOLDEN FLAME
While not the most outlandish proposal (we’ll get there), but apparently the most controversial one is from French designer Mathieu Lehanneur, who wants to recreate the spire as it was the day it burned. Lehanneur has a reputation for transforming solid materials into a seemingly “liquid” state – so he envisions the Cathedral Spire as a massive golden flame.
[C]
QUASIMODO’S PENTHOUSE
A studio called Who Cares Design feels that Victor Hugo’s protagonist in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” deserves an upgrade from his belfry attic – so they proposed building a rooftop villa for Quasimodo. The penthouse, which would stretch across the cathedral’s crossing, is designed to replace Quasimodo’s previous home in Notre-Dame’s attic.
This is not your ordinary urban loft, as Who Cares describes it:
“A modern and light-flooded penthouse with two gigantic patios including a helipad and a spa with an indoor / outdoor pool. The new loft has a living area of 8.000 sq. ft. with two patios of 540 sq. ft. each. One rooftop garden is located on the east and the other on the west of the building.”
In the outlier competition we now move from the sublime to the ridiculous.
[D]
POOL – AND WE’RE NOT TALKING A RIVER CITY TROUBLED BY A BALKLINE GAME OF BILLIARDS
The Swedish firm of Ulf Mejergren Architects proposes a swimming pool on the rooftop, rather than rebuilding the spire. “Instead we are proposing a meditative public space; a complementary spatial experience to the building with unmatched views over Paris.”
[E]
PARKING LOT
The firm of Yung Yonge envisioned the roof of Notre-Dame being turned into a single-level car park as a dig at North America’s car culture. He tweeted the image with the caption: “If North Americans are put in charge of the Notre-Dame reconstruction”.
But the Irish architect Rob Cross (apparently inspired by Joni Mitchell’sBig Yellow Taxi lyrics “They paved paradise And put up a parking lot”) ran with the idea, turning it into a multi-level parking garage.
[F]
ROCKET LAUNCHING PAD
After seeing even more outliers like turning into a Louis Vuitton center, Circus Tent and McDonalds, Chilean-born designer Sebastian Errazuriz cried “ENOUGH!” – and suggested turning Notre-Dame Cathedral into a space-rocket launchpad in an “act of creative one-upmanship” designed to stop architects producing more proposals.
“This is not a serious a proposal for the reconstruction of Notre-Dame. This is an act of creative one-upmanship designed to ridicule every remaining, rapacious architectural firm still circling the carcass of Notre-Dame with an ‘idea’ for a new roof proposal.”
SERIOUS PROPOSALS
But there were also serious proposals, so let’s take a look at a few. And you’ll notice that glass is a popular design element in many of them.
[1]
CRYSTAL
The Italian firm of Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas proposed a contemporary design for the roof and spire made from Baccarat crystal, which would be lit up at night.
[2]
GLASS & STONE with TRADITIONAL SPIRE
Russian architect Alexander Nerovnya also proposes a fully glass roof, but with a traditional spire structure.
[3]
APIARY
Since 2013 Notre Dame has housed three beehives on a roof over the sacristy 100 feet below the main roof, just beneath the celebrated stained-glass Rose window. Each one of the hives has about 60,000 bees – and all 180,000 honeybees made it through the fire unscathed!
The Paris-based firm of Studio NAB wants to celebrate that miracle, so they envision a glass greenhouse roof that would actually house an apiary in the spire for the honeybees. And according to Lonely Planet, their design also includes planters made from burnt oak salvaged from the attic.
[4]
SPIRE OF LIGHT
The Slovakian studio of Vizum Atelier has focused on reimagining the iconic spire of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc as a beam of light. To accomplish this, they propose a tower with a powerful beam to shine a light up into the heavens. Their theory is that in the Gothic era, builders tried to reach the sky, like the Eugène Viollet-le-Duc spire. “Now, it’s possible to make it happen.”
[NOTE: WRT Instagram photo series – when you come to the frame w/ only ONE arrow (either forward or backward), if you click it – it will open in a separate Instagram window.]
The Amsterdam-based design firm studio drift is taking an ecological approach by designing a roof of plastic made from material salvaged from our seas. The collected plastic would be melted down and reformed in tiles to clad the roof. The tiles would be colored blue to relate to the sky above. Drift estimates that using recycled plastic instead of wood the renovation would save thousands of trees.
I’ll close (YEAH!) with the three that are the most fully fleshed out. It’s not that I favor them, but it’s clear that these firms were very serious in proffering their proposals.
[6]
STAINED GLASS
São Paulo-based architect Alexandre Fantozzi firm Aj6 extends Notre Dame’s magnificent stain-glass windows to the roof and spire itself. “In Gothic, there is the connection of the earth to the sky, and inside the Cathedral, the natural illumination multiplies in colors through the filter of the cover in stained glass,” he wrote on Instagram.
Miysis Studio has proposed combining a reconstruction of a replica of the iconic spire from the 19th century by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc with a modern glazed roof to “find the right balance between history and future” for the cathedral.
But the original 13th-century roof would be replaced with a modern structure constructed from a timber and steel frame as a glass-covered roof space, which would replace the timber structure with what would be known as the Forest – a garden for visitors.
[8]
MOST DETAILED – PALINGENESIS
I can’t help but feel that Vincent Callebaut Architectures has proffered the most detailed proposals for the renovation of Notre Dame. Whether they’re the best will be decided by folks much more educated in the full consequences of this undertaking than I would ever hope to be.
And I truly admire their proposal. (And it’s probably my favorite at this point.) But in all honesty (just like when I built my home working w/ my architect), I don’t get why architects insist on talking in this foreign argot/patois that us humans have NO chance of understanding.
Take a gander at how they detail their proposal:
Vincent Callebaut Architecture titled their project “Palingenesis,” which derives from Greek, meaning “rebirth.” The design combines gothic architecture and a biomimetic forest.
The company’s website explains that they “advocate for an exemplary project in ecological engineering that feels true to its time and avoids a pastiche architecture that turns the city into an open-air museum.
“Circular economy, renewable energies, inclusive social innovation, urban agriculture, protection of biodiversity, without forgetting beauty and spiritual elevation: our reconstruction project feeds on such values to deliver a deep, conscious meaning.”
What the HELL does that mean? Translation Please!
At any rate, here are their proposals:
I’m going to try to include a poll in post. NO idea if this will work, but let’s give it a try:
It looks like if you click on the link below in the Polls, you can vote. HOW & WHERE that is recorded I have NO IDEA!
He’s better than 100% of Senate Republicans, but that just gets him out of the sewer basement. He has no chance to beat Putin’s Pervert, but I’m glad he’s running.
Animae shipped in early this morning and snagged her third Big Mouth Award.
Animae is a denizen of Care2, where she has followed us for over two years. She made a single comment here in the summer of 2016. After that, she was gone until April, 2018. Then she jumped in with both feet, started commenting every day, became a valuable member of our community, and won her first award on 12/18/2018 and her second on 1/25/2019. She clearly deserves her third
Animae lives upside down, as her feet are anchored in the land of Oz. She is a Buddhist, and believes in unconditional goodwill. She is an animal lover, and is also passionate about human rights. I thoroughly enjoy her sense of humor. She can’t stand the evils of the Republican Reich. Her comments are compassionate and insightful.
Please join me in offering Animae thanks and praise for making Politics Plus a kinder place to be and for her fire to fight right-wing insanity, wherever it is.
It’s a busy Saturday here in the CatBox on another hot muggy day. As I’m up to my ears in moving prep, I will not be preparing a Monthly Report for May. Tomorrow is a busy WWWendy day, so please expect no more than a Personal Update tomorrow, with no links messages on Care2. I trust I speak for all at Politics Plus in offering our heartfelt condolences over to Lona over her sudden loss of her beloved husband and soul mate.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:23 (average 5:09). To do it, click here. How did you do?
How typical for the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, and for the Republican Reich! RESIST!!
From YouTube (Snopes Channel): Lindsey Graham Called Trump “Race-Baiting, Xenophobic Bigot” in 2015?
Now Lindsey Poo has an ugly orange shit stain on the tip of his nose. RESIST!!
From Daily Kos: The growing campaign to elect the president by popular vote met two defeats on Thursday, as the governor of one swing state rejected a bill to add his state’s Electoral College votes to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, while lawmakers in another did the same.
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak unexpectedly became the first Democratic governor in the country to veto a bill to join the compact, meaning the state’s six electoral votes won’t get added to the 189 that are already part of the compact. Sisolak defended his decisionwith the fallacious claim that the Electoral College benefits small states such as Nevada, and his veto statement leaves little room for a future reversal. Supporters lack the votes in the legislature to override Sisolak’s veto, and it appears unlikely that they will be able to do so while Sisolak remains governor.
It’s time for a primary challenge to DINO Sisolak! RESIST!!
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
When David and Barbara Mikkelson got divorced, I admit I was concerned about the future of Snopes dot com. David had founded it in 1994, but Barbara had been doing most of the writing, and apparently, most of the fact checking. But, as it turned out, there was actually no cause for concern.
When the site was founded, it was mostly focused on fact-checking urban legends. I always felt it was scrupulously honest, using such gradations as “Partly True” and “Mostly False” in addition to the obvious “True” and “False,” and thus giving at a glance a more accurate picture of reality than most.
After the dust had settled from all the changes, and now that it is actually owned by an entity called “Snopes Media Group” – although David is still there – and has added staff substantially:
Now our team of researchers, writers, developers, and support staff is probably greater than you can fit in a large passenger van, although we haven’t scientifically tested that yet.
it has become a force to be reckoned with.
My attention was drawn to it recently by an article (“diary”) in Daily Kos which cited a “must-read” article at Snopes. I would say the Snopes article is indeed a must-read for anyone who wants to be familiar with the details of how Facebook (along with other social media) is being used, not just to spread misinformation, but to make it so ingrained in the minds of those who fall for it, that it becomes almost impossible to communicate the truth.
This article, by Alex Kasprak (everything is by-lined at Snopes; no one hides behind anonymity, and all sources are linked), reports on a two-month-long investigation Alex did into
a small group of radical evangelical Christians that re-purposed Facebook pages and PACs to build a coordinated, pro-Trump network that spreads hate and conspiracy theories.
The page names imply groups, and the names put together imply diverse groups – at least, sort of diverse. But all the pages – Alex found 24 and suspects there may be more – can be tied to one person. That person is Kelly Monroe Kullberg. Kullberg is neither black nor Jewish, despite both of those groups showing up in some of the group names. Another group which turns up is women – and I’m sad to sad that apparently Kelly is a woman, though she doesn’t appear to be a “senior” (another group) and I doubt she’s a veteran (another group), although that, alas, is not impossible.
Watch the GIF to see a string of group names. The GIF is from all of those pages, and more.
Snopes refers to this collection of pages as “the Kullberg network,” and also found that there is one prominent GOP donor (there may be more, but they found one) funding (and possibly exploiting) the network. That donor is William Millis, a fundraiser and board member for the 2016 Presidential campaign of Ben Carson.
Facebook’s terms of use forbid “coordinated inauthentic behavior.”
Why is this important?
The network serves to influence public opinion by presenting the views of a small group of activists as representative of a much broader swath of the American populace.
Their strategy amplifies and offers a veil of legitimacy to hatred and conspiracy theories.
In spite of these strategies awash in misinformation, the pages within the network have attracted the financial backing of well-heeled political donors who exploit these pages and groups to disguise the origin of political Facebook ads.
Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone., the good news is that you don’t need to do anything. An update from Snopes states that all 24 of the pages they identified as being in the Kullberg network have been taken down. It’s true that Facebook has not directly responded to any of Snopes’ requests for comment. It’s also true that there may be more pages in the network than Snopes was able to identify. It’s also true that there are other “networks” out there preaching the same hate. But I don’t know enough to send you after any of them. And Snopes seems to be doing a pretty good job.
My original link to the investigation was to the summary article. If anyone wants to dig deeper into the subject, the full background is HERE.
Let’s assume that Democrats take the White House and hold their strong House Majority in 2020. Let’s further assume that we experience a miracle, and Democrats win a bare majority in the Senate. Will we have everything we need to undo the damage that Resident Trump and the Republican Reich have imposed on our nation? I think not. Bought Bitch Mitch and Trump have further infested SCROTUS (Republican Anti-Constitutional VD) with two new bogus Injustices: Whoresuch and Pervert Kava-Nazi. That gives the court five extreme right-wing ideologue extremists. Those are lifetime appointments. Just to balance the Court, we need to add two progressive Justices.
Republicans have been successfully leveraging the Supreme Court balance of power as a major campaign issue to ignite their base since the 1980s. For Democrats, the 2020 election may mark the first in modern times that they unite around the high court as a driving force in a presidential election.
Democratic candidates are increasingly advocating “court packing,” that is, upping the number of Supreme Court justices to balance the bench — or ensure a liberal majority. The idea is unlikely to succeed for historical and practical reasons but its resonance on the campaign trail reflects Democrats’ new emphasis on the judiciary during the Trump era.
The issue emerges partly from lingering anger over the Republican-led Senate’s 2016 stall of President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland, a fire stoked this week when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said if a Supreme Court vacancy occurred in 2020 election year, he would confirm a Trump nominee.
McConnell’s comments were an audacious reversal of his 2016 election-year position blocking Garland for the vacancy caused by the sudden death that February of Justice Antonin Scalia. McConnell argued that the seat should be filled by whoever won the then-upcoming presidential election.
Also drawing Democratic attention to who sits in the nine black leather chairs at the high court has been the recent enactment in states of new abortion bans. The fate of those restrictions would eventually be decided by the Supreme Court, now featuring four liberals and, with Brett Kavanaugh replacing the retired Anthony Kennedy last year, five solid conservatives…
The Washington Post produced this video to clarify the issue.
To actually do it, we need to repeal or modify the Judiciary Act of 1869. That’s the legislation that defined the court as a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices. To do that, we need it take the Senate. We have a tall order to accomplish.
