Yesterday, I heard from my mechanic. The down side of having found a mechanic I (it’s actually a repair shop with several mechanics, but I can trust the shop) is that they are always busy. They are also not the cheapest in town, but they are fair and honest. In the “fast, good, and cheap” (where you can never get all three, but you can good get two), when it comes to my car, I want good above all else. Anyway, they’ve been in touch but have not diagnosed yet. So I pushed my appointment back a week. Fortunately it’s not urgent.
Some people are celebrating Black History month – and I’m proud to say my local radio station is one of them (I guess I should say some of them – it’d every local announcer in their scheduled pre-recorded spots, most of them in their non-themed spots, and some of the syndicated programs – including the Met Saturday operas. Last Sunday I didn’t mention that the opera recording played that day was chosen by Lawrence Brownlee, a Black bel canto tenor (who once had the honor of escorting Ruth Bader Ginsberg to the curtain call after she played a speaking part in an opera presented in DC. But I digress.) Kathleen Battle, a Black soprano, was also in last week’s opera, but Larry picked it for the tenor, Alfredo Kraus, a Spanish tenor who had inspired him, even before he found out they shared a birthday – Kraus in 1927 and Brownlee in 1972, another coincidence. This article is not happy like that, but it is a necessary part of Black history because it actually happened. And the regime is doing its best to steal Black history from all of us, not just from Black people.
Is it ever the wrong time for something inspiring? Renee Good was a poet, and I found and linked to her prize-winning poem. To the best of our knowledge Alex Pretti was not a poet, but this poem clearly alludes to him and was meant to honor him, and it definitely inspired Joyce Vance. And me. If it doesn’t inspire you, no worries – just pass it by.
Apparently we were wrong to scoff at the theory that the world is run by a vast ring of pedophiles – although we were correct that it isn’t a ring of Democrats. It is a ring of oligarchs, and it’s not based on politics – but it is true that oligarchs overwhelmingly tend Republican, since the Republican ideology (“trickle down”) feeds their net worth.
Common Dreams was really hot on Monday. The newsletter had six stories, and all were on the “Wow” side. After eliminating all the ones which pretty much provided evidence for something we already knew, I chose this one. We knew Massie was working with Khanna – but I for one never expected Massie to go to these lengths. And he’s not only a Republican, but a Republican from Kentucky – McConnell’s state.
If you are old enough to remember Joe McCarthy, you can skip this video. But I do want to point out (again) that the problem with Russia has never been communism or socialism, which are not forms of government, but economic theories (Russia has not even pretended to use either since the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.) The problem with the Soviet Union was Authoritarianism – which is a form of government.) I will keep pushing this distinction until I no longer need to, or until I die, whichever comes first (and frankly I expect the latter.)
Cat
