Yesterday, Joyce Vance‘s “Civil Discourse” addressed Trump**’s potential sentencing, and why it matters. The Readers Digest version is that the judge and the prosecution are looking to history in the future. As the only state which has currently achieved a jury verdict of “guilty” in a criminal case, New York is in a key position to make or break history here, and a;; involved on the right side appear determined to do what they can to make it. But for us non-legal people it’s going to be disappointing. Joyce explains it better then I can, so I hope you’ll at least skim it through.
Heather Cox Richardson on Friday (technically Thursday night, but it reached my inbox at 6 minutes to midnight, which would be after midnight Pacific, Alaska and Hawaii time, and do many people really stay up east of me until 10 or 11pm to read political posts?), after discussing the Presidential Citizens Medals which President Biden awarded Thursday, took a deep dive into what Republicans are saying and doing to distract us from their actual goal of robbing the poor to give to the rich. (I didn’t post this yesterday because this year I will be trying even harder to reserve Sunday for good news. We will be severely needing needing breaks.)
Robert Reich is optimistic here – but not optimistic enough to post on Sunday, And also, there’s all that depressing history to get through first.
Well, it’s the time of year for the radio operas to be productions from Beijing. This year there are four of them; two are Italian , one is German, and one is a new commission from a Chinese composer (and librettist. Yesterday was the first, “La Sonnambula” by Bellini. This may be the only opera which has a farther-fetched plot than Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino,” but to make up for it, it at least has a happy ending. Europe in the early 19th century was fascinated by sleepwalking, and medicine was in the stage of starting to look fo causes of and treatments for phenomena which were just beginning to be understood as medical conditions. By 1831, the villagers, who at first have thought the “lady in white” to be a ghost, have learned enough about sleepwalking (actually from the local count, who has been traveling and learning stuff and has just returned home) to know they need to save her first (as she sleepwalks across the framework of the village’s water mill – or across local rooftops, depending on the staging – it could also be the edge of a steep cliff, I suppose) and wake her afterwards, or it would have been a tragedy. A line from her last aria about the flower (of her love) which she did not expect to have faded so soon (having been set up by a rival using her sleepwalking to convince her fiancé that she has been unfaithful) was inscribed on Bellini’s tomb in reference to his having died so young (at 34.) Anyway, the music is gorgeous, as is all of Bellini’s work – there’s a reason he was known as “The Swan of Catania.” This opera was one of many “Bel Canto” operas championed by Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, and has not fallen out of the repertory since. Also, I’d like to apologize for being late for Diwali (I didn’t get the email until it was already over.) Now I’m off to visit Virgil, and will check in in the comments.
Well, the Reich on the left is most assuredly right this time. Not that we needed one, but this is certainly another reason to be voting for Harris-Walz. Lina Khan is doing her job, using but not exceeding her authority, and long may she continue!
This from Crooks and Liars is not as good as it could be – but at least it’s honest and as something to be played at a citizenship ceremony, it beats the holy crap outof “God Bless the USA.” (Not that that is difficult. We actually have had for decades something better than either – the second verse of “This is My Country.” You know, the first verse starts “This is my country, land of my birth,” and the second starts “This is my country, land of my choice.” Both end “This is my country, to have and to hold.”)
Yesterday, Wonkette referred to this article in America’s Voice. It’s about something which actually happens a lot, yet is always worth celebrating. I mean, of course, the ceremony conferring American citizenship on those who have jumped through all the hoops. It goes right to my heart every time. Did you know a new citizen can change their name legally when naturalized, without having to go to court? I learned that when I was working at USAA and pulled up a piece of mail which turned out to be an N-400. I forget now what exactly he changed it to, but it was clear he was doing so to honor Dr. King. It made my day. Also, Robert Reich posted episode 4 of his current series.I didn’t use number 3 last Saturday – it wasn’t labeled as part of the series – but I did include it in the Open Thread for September 23. I’m still not 100% sure it’s part of the series, but in case it is, you’ll be able to find it.)
The 19th has no intent to disparage the men not of color who have been outspoken on this topic forever. But that’s different from what is happening here. this is a movemet to raise the voices of men of color who have been right all along but have been silent, for whatever reasons.
Well, this is nice. And it’s about damn time. If those children had lived, they’d be entering college and old enough to vote. Since they can’t, the rest of us have to vore for them -not, certainly, by voting multiple times, but by voting for people and initiatives which would have benefitted them, and against people and initiatives which disrespect them.
Yesterday, Robert Reich published his first post in his new series on Project 2025. Also, the names of the two Trump** staffers who accosted the cemetery employee were learned and released by NPR and you can probably find them just about anywhere now. Left Action alreade has a petition to prosecute the one who got physical (Michel Picard – Jen Luc and Patrick Stewart would both be disappointed.) Finally, since Wonkette and Talking Points Memo and others are recommending Joyce Vance as the authority on the meeting in Judge Chutkan’s courtroom regarding the election interference case, the least I can do is provide the link. Oh, and one more thing — not only is Liz Cheney voting for Harris – so is her father.
Wonkette is not exactly noted for good news, but it was Wonkette which referred me to this story, which made Rebecca (Wonkette owner and editrix [her term]) cry (I don’t know how hard that is – she comes across as pretty tough, but she wouldn’t run the project if she didn’t give a damn about others.) Why can’t all people act like this?
I know everyone who reads here loves animals. This story is something I had not thought about, but now that I know it exists, I can see how badly it is needed. It didnn’t happen in my home – but many substance abusers, including alcoholics become so impossible to live with that human loved ones leave before they hit bottom. And then it’s the animals who are vulnerable.
Yesterday, I didn’t do a whole lot. I’ve been trying to do stuff around the house – mostly too piddling to mentiom – and today I had even less time than usual since I slept in. What little I did do would take longer to explain than it did to accomplish. But there is s-l-o-w progress going on. Trnette was visiting family today -actually for the holiday weekend. I’m not totally sure which family – she has some on both coasts – but my guess would be southern California as that’s where her Mom lives. But I’m managing.
This is a very positive article. I don’t know why so many people, including even some black people, seem to think that black people as a group are not very bright. I would bet there are some white spoiled brats running around who are dumber than some black youths who grew up with leaded water.
This is serious good news to me. The Catholic Church in the United States is about as polarized theologically as the country is politically. Possibly this will send a dignal to the other bishops in the MAGA camp (such as Cordiloene in San Francisco – and isn’t that a mob name?), and failing that, maybe they will follow Vigano into excommunication. It’s way past time.
Yesterday, the radio opera, “El Niño,” by John Adams, was originally an oratorio. But the Met decided it deserved a fully staged production it is of course the Christmas story. It premiered in December of 2000 in Paris. Some of the libretto is in English, some in Spanish, and even some in Latin, and Adams draws heavily on folk and other traditional carols. The angel Gabriel is sung by a trio of counter-tenors (fortunately for Adams they are getting easier and easier to find.) It’s very listenable (of course I have heard a lot of Adams’s work, some many times, so I don’t know how it would strike someone who doesn’t listen to any composer newer than Debussy.) Also, I learned that “Meet The Press” today features an interview with Cindy McCain, not a John’s widow, but as the head of the UN World Food Program. She speaks about the famine in Gaza. Sight unseen, I recommend it for anyone interested in that conflict.
I am not trying to beat this to death. But what is now going on is in some ways very much like how we got Nixon in 1968 (ans then in 1970 we got Kent State.) In other ways it is very much like how we got Trump** in 2016. And I don’t have to tell you what happened after that. I don’t know that all those who are protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza are honest protesters with moral reasons – I suspect not, exactly because of the violence – but I do know those who see it as a moral issue are making false assumptions and drawing erroneous conclusions. Robert Hubbell says this better than I could. Heather Cox Richardson also addresses the protests and how Republicans are using them to hurt Biden in the short run and destroy higher education in the long run.
On the lighter side, the Daily Beast has an article about warrior princesses in real life (and yes, they do mention Queen Elizabeth II’ service during World War II.)
So sorry I’m late. I had it ready bot forgot to post. Yesterday, the radio opera was Verdi’s “Ernani,” an early work, in a historic broadcast from 1962. For at least the last three years, the Met has been setting aside one broadcast for a historic performance, and they ask listeners to vote for whhich of ten or a dozen they would like to hear. I didn’t vote for “Ernani,” but I’m not surprised it won, because Leontyne Price. And the three male stars are equally prestigious to anyone who was listening to opera in the sixties. However, I voted for “Der Freischutz,” simply because one never hears it these days. But “Ernani” is almost as rare, and probably more interesting. One of the roles, the baritone, represents someone who actually lived and made history, though whether he was ever in love with Wlvira, or even whether she existed is doubtful. But Charles, Holo Roman Emperor, the fifth of that name, did exist, and was elected to that post by an “Electoral College” – a standing one, comprising princes (heads of state) of the countries within the empire. Charles, and Ernani (the tenor, an outlaw, as much due to politics as to poverty), and da Silva (the bass, a Spanish nobleman, and Elvira’s guardian) are all three in love with Elvira, who loves only Ernani. The character who strikes me as different from other characters in this opera, and indeed from most characters in opera is da Silva, who seems to think he’s Rodney Dangerfield, but unlike Dangerfield he means it seriously. I see no signs of him actually being persecuted – he just doesn’t always get his way (and who does?) But that victim mentality – almost a complex – may at least partially explain why he is so malicious. A play by Victor Hugo was the inspiraton for the opera.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince-elector
Phillis Wheatley was America’s first black woman poet. This article picks her up at the auction at which she was sold upon arrival – which was pretty consequential – and goes from there, as does the book, with vatious little-known information. IMO she deserves to better known, and not just her name.
This is a segment from The Young Turks featuring a doctor discussing Trump**’s inability to produce the correct word for the context. No, it won’t convince any of his cultists. But what interested me was his use of the term “brain damage.” Virgil has brain damage with far less symptoms than Trump**) and he and I both know how he got it – he got it from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBIs are often closed head injuries, as Virgil’s was but not always, but in any case it’s unlikely that one would experience one and have no idea that something had happened. How else could one damage one’s brain? Drugs would be one. Some condition which involved anoxia could. Could some or all of these symptoms go back to his bout of CoViD-19, for which he was hospitalized? I’m no doctor, but I would say absolutely. There is increasing evidence that even mild CoViD-19 can cause damage to the brain.
Well, yesterday I got my car back after some very pricey repairs (including a timing belt – which was most of the cost.) Trinette worked the time out with her boss, drove here, took an Uber to the garage, and then drove home. Yes, Nameless, I said “Hi” for you, and she says “Hi” back. Now we just need to keep it running until I’m cleared to drive. Not that driving is exactly exercise, but I’d like to be a little stronger yet.
Robyn Pennecchia, writing for Wonkette, says this so well: “Today, I would like to take a moment to congratulate myself for not going on any violent murder sprees, for never adopting a Ukrainian orphan and then claiming she was an adult who was trying to kill me and my family so I could “re-age” her and send her to live on her own at the age of eight, for not participating in any dog fight rings, for never having voted Republican, and for never having consumed human flesh. At the same time, I would like to congratulate the state of Ohio for not sending a woman to prison over a miscarriage — which is a far lower bar of human decency than many of us would have ever thought possible. More specifically, we should be congratulating the grand jury that refused to charge Brittany Watts, 34, with “abuse of a corpse,” a charge which makes a lot more sense, re: cannibalism and necrophilia than, say, miscarrying a child who had no chance of survival to begin with.”
Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad that she’a been acquitted. But I’m still furious it happened in the first place. Jury nullification can be very helpful, but it’s not something which can be depended upon.
