11/20 Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. It is also World Children’s Day. I find that appropriate, and also ironic. I cannot begin to imagine what transgender children have to go through (heck, I can’t even imagine what some left-handed children still have to go through, and I can simulate that.)
I have a contractor coming today, so this will be all today.
Thursday, Robert Reich (accurately) predicted that, by Friday, the UAW would be on strike against GM, Ford, ad Chrysler. The way the giants have been acting, I really didn’t doubt it. Would you want to buy a car assembled by a senior manager on a CFO or whatever? I certainlt wouldn’t. (And that isn’t even one of his five reasons.) Yesterday was also the 60th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing which killed four girls. Both Joyce Vance and Marian Wright Edelman commemorated this tragedy. Marian, an educator, emphasized how, in the civil rights movement of the soxties and seventies, children were forced to lead. Joyce, an Alabama lawyer, made a point of how it was Doug Jones who finally brought some closure by prosecuting the last two living perpetrators of the outrage. Both takes are valid, and both are necessary. Contrary to the anti-woke mob, one can’t be ully human withou looking at the worst (and also the best) that humans can be. Also yesterday, jury selection began for the trial of two of the officers accused in connection with the death of Elijah McClain. Yes, I realize how ironic that is, and how discouraging. But also yesterday, Denver’s neighbor Mount Evans had its name changed to Mount Blue Sky – in order to stop honoring the instigator of the Sand Creek Massacre.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Crooks & Liars – So Guess Who’s Suing Fox News Now — And Why
Quote – New York City’s pension funds and the state of Oregon are suing Fox Corporation, alleging in a lawsuit that the Fox News parent company failed shareholders…. “The lawsuit, which was filed under seal in the Delaware Court of Chancery and named Fox Corporation board members and its executives as defendants, accused the media company of having chosen to “invite robust defamation claims, with potentially huge financial liability and potentially larger business repercussions, rather than disappoint viewers of Fox News.”
Click through for details. I did not see this coming. More power to the plaintiffs!
Wonkette (on Substack) – Domestic Abuser Shot At Woman In Parking Garage, Wants Supreme Court To Give Him Back His Guns
Quote – On Nov. 12, 2020, a 25-year-old woman told police that she agreed to meet Rahimi in a parking lot after receiving a Snapchat message from him saying that he “had something for her.” When she arrived, she told police she saw him kneeling by the driver’s side of a vehicle, wearing all black clothes, including a black ski mask covering his face. Rahimi had his hands around his waistband, she said, where he appeared to hold a pistol with a magazine larger than the gun itself. As the woman got back into her car and drove off, she heard five or six gunshots, some of which appeared to strike her car. “Vehicle was shot multiple times with the driver inside,” the police report reads. Again, Rahimi went on to open fire in public five more times after that.
Click through for full story. I’m kind of out of words.
Food For Thought
As mentioned in my reply to JD’s post of
Here’s the bothersome (at least to me) slideshow I put together of the NRA’s efforts at “grooming” or indoctrinating children into the gun culture:
Yesterday, the newsletters were filled with responses to The Indictment. Substack in particular was packed – of course the people I subscribe to there are mostly experts, not only knowledgeable but competent and experienced communicators, so that is what one would and should expect – but I was a little overwhelmed. As a legal layperson, I thought Joyce Vance’s column was the best – the explanations were thorough, and the personal feelings showing through were in such congruence with mine (and probably with yours) that I was deeply moved. I’m not going to try to do a short take – I’ll just provide the link (remember to look for the popup and click “continue reading”)
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Talking Points Memo – Newly Revealed Text Messages Show GOP Officials At Ground Zero Of Election Conspiracy Outlined By Trump Indictment
Quote – Text messages obtained by Talking Points Memo — most which have not previously been made public — paint a picture of what was going on behind the scenes in the White House during the crucial period the special prosecutor has zeroed in on. In particular, they reveal that Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and former Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward were among those who played key roles in elements of the alleged conspiracy from the moment Smith said it began.
Click through for details. There have been some occasions when Willard “Mitt” Romney appeared to have a sense of ethics. But he clearly wasn’t able to raise a daughter with ethics, so even those few occasions are now questionable.
USA Today – FBI: Over 200 sex trafficking victims, including 59 missing children, found in nationwide operation
Quote – “Operation Cross Country” grew out of a 2003 FBI initiative which identified and recovered sexually exploited minors. It’s a coordinated operation involving federal, state and local agencies across the country. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is also a significant partner in the initiative, the FBI said.
Click through for full story. I probably should have posted a barf bag alert – not for their results, but for the fact that they do it every summer – and never come up empty.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Trump lawyer says he was BLOCKED from searching Trump office at Mar-a-Lago for classified documents
Thom Hartmann – The First Fascist State In America Revealed?
Farron Balanced – Fox News Raided Tucker Carlson’s House And Took His Filming Equipment
From TikTok via Twitter – possible hanky alert
This moved me to tears. pic.twitter.com/7URbXPY5dj
— ✭ 🅑🅤🅑🅑🅐 ✭ (@BubbatheOG) May 29, 2023
Cat stops would-be burglar | ‘Binky went after him’
Beau – Let’s talk about the GOP coming for no fault divorce…
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Peter Grimes” by Benjamin Britten. It’s based on a poem by George Crabbe (1754-1832) called “The Borough.” It is also one of two operas I would never take Virgil to or even let him liisten to, despite the fact that he learned to love opera almost as much as I do – and not just the ones considered easy to like, but also some baroque and 20th/21st century stuff (“Tea: A Mirror of Soul” composed in 2002 by Tan Dun is probably his all time favorite). Rather, it’s because they contain or allude to conduct which could be abusive directed at a young boy. The other is “Amahl and the Night Visitors” – such a sweet opera, if you can only get around that one thing. Certainly, if there is a villain in either one, it is intended to be society (that’s more explicit in “Peter Grimes” but also I think true of “Amahl.”) Peter is a fisherman, and is an outsider, and “an ordinary, weak person who, being at odds with the society in which he finds himself, tries to overcome it and, in doing so, offends against the conventional code,” as described by the tenor who originated the role. He’s intended to be sympthetic. But – there are those dead apprentices. People who don’t know opera may still be a little familiar with this one through Brtitten’s “Four Sea Interludes,” orchestral peces which describe some of the many moods if the ocean. The title tenor role is sufficiently demanding, both vocally and dramatically, that many who play it are known as Wagnerian “heldentonors.” The tenor today is British, and a Britten specialist, and is certainly built lke a heldentenor (of course there are exceptions.) He’s little known outside of the UK (which I predict will change) but has won numerous awards there.
Cartoon – 30 0430Cartoon.jpg
Short Takes –
Daily Beast – Pro-War Russians Duped Into Torching Kremlin Military Offices
Quote – Throughout Russia’s war against Ukraine, baffling reports of Russian pensioners trying to set military enlistment offices on fire have emerged with amusing frequency. But they’re not what you may think. Seen at first glance by some as brave protests against the war, the string of bizarre arsons have actually been part of a now widespread scheme in which scammers convince the confused pensioners they’re on a secret mission to help the war effort.
Click through for story. Our MAGAt problem is so obvious, and so severe, that it’s easy to forget that these people are not confined to the United States. They are all over the world.
The Project on Government Oversight, in the person of its President, Danielle Brian, testified before the Senate Armed SErvices Committee last week. Being on their mailinglst I received an email afterwards, including links to the testimony itself.
Quote (from email) – The testimony was especially topical as it was reported just this week that the former director of the National Security Agency took on a $700,000 contract as a cybersecurity adviser for Saudi Arabia, a nation notorious for its human-rights violations. With close to 700 former high-ranking government officials now working for major defense contractors and over 500 former servicemembers working for foreign interests, closing the lucrative revolving door and pipeline is a matter of utmost urgency.
You can click through to the video of the event (the hearing begins between 17:30 and 17:40 with ELizabeth Warren. At 27:32 Rick Scott starts speaking. At 32:17 Wilkerson’s testimony begins. At 37:23 Brian begins. I’m afraid I didn’t follow past that, so there may be some back and forth). Alternatively, you can access the written testimony as presented to the comittee, or the transcript on the POGO site (they have the same content but the POGO page has larger type and more visual spacing.) The problems addressed are of long standing, It’s good that they are being discussed at this level.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Dominion takes Fox to the cleaners, then Smartmatic, then Fox’s own shareholders. Will Fox survive?
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – April 18, 2023
Thom Hartmann – He Lied His Way To Power To Take Your Healthcare
Ring of Fire – Republican Governor Says Her 2-Year-Old Granddaughter Already Owns 2 Guns
Guy Gives Squirrel CPR
Beau – Let’s talk about the RNC, Milwaukee, trouble, and loyalty….
Yesterday, I received a “Damn-Giver Dispatch” email from John Pavlovitz. Some of y’all probably did also. But, in case you didn’t, or in case you did but missed this column, I want to link to it: “Yes, I’m A ‘Hateful’ Human Being.” I really like the way he turns things around. It’s the closest we can come to holding a mirror up to the deluded. Some, of course, will never see anything but what they want to see. But – sometimes – we have to try.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Daily Beast – Black Teen Shot in the Head After Ringing the Wrong Doorbell: Family
Quote – The alleged gunman, who has not been identified [to the media], was taken into custody and brought to a police station to give a statement. Placed on a 24-hour hold, he was released pending further investigation, something the chief of the Kansas City Police Department spent much of a short Sunday press conference justifying. “The vast majority of cases to include violent crime involve the suspect being released pending further investigation,” Chief Stacey Graves said. “In this case, the prosecutor requires more information from investigators that would take more than 24 hours to compile throughout the weekend.”
Click through for story. You may have seen it. The killer opened the main door, and there was a glass door which he shot through. There is video of him calmly sweeping up the broken glass. The “right” house was one block over, on a street with the same name except “Terrace” instead of “Street.” The victim is still alive, miraculously. Virgil was 21 when he survived major head injuries (from a car crash). No one ever fully gets back everything lost from injuries like that.
The 19th – A Black Texas couple chose their midwife’s care over a hospital. Now their newborn is in foster care.
Quote – A custody case currently unfolding in Texas has separated a newborn from her parents and highlighted two systemic realities in the United States: the policing of Black families by child welfare systems and the disregard of midwifery expertise by many doctors. It has been 20 days since infant Mila Jackson was taken from her parents by Child Protective Services in Texas after they sought guidance from their licensed midwife to treat a common infant condition rather than following a directive from their pediatrician. Now a court will decide if she’ll be returned to their custody.
Click through for details. With good prenatal care and no complications, a trained midwife is at least as competent as a doctor. Women were having babies assisted by midwives for centuries while doctors thought it was a waste of time to wash their hands between patients and were killing people thereby. Some of these child welfare people need to be tied down and forced to watch all the seasons of PBS’s “Call the Midwife.”
Food For Thought
