Yesterday, Virgil and I talked unusually long before starting to play cribbage. I kind of unloaded about some of the things the Fascist regime is doing and planning to do. He is unlikely to remember any of it, of course, but it made me feel better. Also, when we did play cribbage, he kept forgetting, both in the hands and in the cribs, that the cut card is also a part of his hand – of both our hands – and of the crib. Technically in what I call cutthroat cribbage, the rule is that if you catch something another player failed to count, you get the points and the other person loses them. Of course I would never do that to him – but if I had today, it would have been a metaphorical bloodbath. He also forgot how old he is (He’ll be 82 before the end of July.) Yeah, I can see why his case manager asked me to be his medical POA.
Joyce Vance from Friday. I don’t really have anything to add. At least, not without profanity.
I guess this from “Balls and Strikes” is rather specialized. On the other hand, if enough Americans who were loud enough had been doing this kind of specialized knowledge long enough ago, there’s a possibility we might have been spared Brett Kavanaugh.
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Manon Lescaut” by Daniel Auber – something which I did not even know existed. I knew about “Manon” by Jules Massenet, and “Manon Lescaut” by Giacomo Puccini – which are going to be the next two operas in the radio series. All are from the same opera house in Turin, Italy, which decided to present all three in one season for comparison. You may remember I said about “The Queen of Spades” that the opera, the operetta, and the te original novella are three very different stories. Well, that’s pretty much true of Manon as well, except it’s four different stories, all three operas being adapted from the same novel. The one plot point they all have in common is that they all end with Manon being deported to Louisiana and dying there from poverty. If this strikes you as somewhat too politically appropriate, the WFMY group may have had that in mind, but the Teatre Regio probably didnt, and all three operas were recorded last October – and therefore likely scheduled some time in 2022, or even earlier. The Auber version, with a libretto by Eugene Scribe cleaned up the heroine’s morals somewhat. The other two didn’t but differ in other ways. (If you have any energy to spare, you might want to look up Eugene Scribe some time. The list of playwrights he influenced all over the western world is striking. You may never have heard of him, but you have seen plays or movies by writers he influenced.) Daniel Auber’s father and grandfather both had royal appointments, but when he was about 10, the French Revolution started and he had to find something else to make a living. What had been his hobby became his profession. So, there’s politics all over this opera. It does have spoken dialogue – the plot was not lofty enough for the Paris Opera, so it premiered at the Opera Comique, and was the first opera there with a tragic ending, preceding Bizet’s “Carmen” and probably paving the way for it – although Bizet’s librettist did not clean up the heroine’s morals, so it was still a scandal when it came along. Anyway, next week Massenet, and the following week Puccini, same story only different. The one by Auber for this week has delightful music including “bel canto.” The other two are newer, but both are also very listenable (neither of them cleaned up Manon’s morals, because by that time, Carmen had come along.) Off to see Virgil now – will check in upon return as always.
I know everyone is going to love this story, because if there’s anything we have in common besides being passionate about democracy, is being passionate about animal welfare. And I think I’m being pretty good at sticking to good news and apolitical humor for Sundays to give us a break. But if you can use more of a break, consider getting “The Smile” newsletter daily. The subscribe button is on this page.
Also referred by The Smile but either paywalled or ad-blocker-walled. From archive it’s all there.
Yesterday, I read in Wonkette about a new Superman movie coming out this summer. If you can go to theaters (my allergies preclude my doing so) you may want to go see it. MAGA will be boycotting it, so there’s that. Monday evening’s radio program on movie scores talked about Christopher Reeve, and how he got cast even though no one thought he looked muscular enough, but they expected him yo wear a “muscle suit,” and instead he worked out and bulked up from 185# to 225# of pure muscle. It appears no one considered that aspect this time – but that’s not what has MAGA’s panties in knots. It’s that he’s being shown as kind. And a refugee. Both of which he always has been but which was not always a deal breaker for anyone. Also in Wonkette, they covered the breaking of the story about ICE and the National Guard invading MacArthur Park under the headline “Someone Left the Cake Out in the Rain.”
I generally go to Harry Litman for interpretation of the law and of court actions. Yes, this is a court action in a sense – it’s the settlement of a lawsuit – but his analysis goes beyond that aspect and into politics.
You may already be aware of the “Seven Mountains Mandate” – it has been around a while among authoritarian “Christians” (quotes because no one actually following what Jesus actually taught can possibly be an authoritarian) but it was always a fringe aberrancy. Now it’s a political force and getting stronger.
Yesterday, I got up late, having had a somewhat difficult night, but somehow I got everything done that I needed tp do and a tad extra. Of course I would have liked to do more and have a little cushion, but at least I’m no farther behind than I was.
Wonkette covers most of the reasons why the Times story is BS. Mamdani was a teenager at the time, There was probably no box on the application that fit him, so he checked the closest. Then, to clarify it, he wrote “Ugandan” on the application. Incidentally, he was not accepted, so he gained nothing from anything on that application. Never forget that the New York Times is no longer “The paper of record.” There is no longer an American “paper of record.” The closest think I can think of is The Guardian, and it can only retain accuracy because it is not American.
In “The Week Ahead,” Joyce Vance includes addressing Social Security and the extremely misleading letter sent by the Social Security Administration regarding taxation on Social Security income. It’s all twitter-pated about ending taxation on Social Security income. Let me provide a little insight here from a Social Security recipient. My monthly check is not large, but it’s enough for me to live on if I am careful (and by “live on,” I mean to pay my mortgage and utilities, including trash and recycling pickup, electricity and gas, water and sewer, landline phone and internet.) For the last ten years or more I have been using a company in the IRS’s FreeFile program (not the same as direct file, which appears to be going away before it even gets started, but similar – Federal is free, but they can charge to file in your state.)I receive the data on my Social Security earnings on a 1098 form, and I put it in, and the program puts it on my return but does not count it as taxable income. I have never paid a penny in taxes on Social Security. I grant that I might not be able to live on it if I didn’t have an HRA – but I do. Still, anyone getting federal tax relief on Social Security from this bill must be getting payments in between what I get and what billionaires get.
After several years of not getting newsletters from Daily Kos, despite regularly checking that I have been signed up for them, I am now receiving them again, and this one included a story on something which has been bothering me – Abrego Garcia, his wife, and their legal issues have been getting substantial coverage – and they should be – but what about all the other innocent people?
Yesterday, the radio opera was an “opera-ballet” from the 18th century by Jean Philippe Rameau called “Les Fêtes d’Hébé.” The series has a more dignified translation, but I just call it “Hebe’s Parties.” Hebe, the goddess of youth, finds the gods “insincere” (which I assume is code for “too old” – sounds like the DNC) and comes to earth to seek more fun among humans. The three acts are unrelated episodes, though each symbolizes a different “lyric art”, and comprises both singing and dancing. Rameau had quite the sense of humor and was also apparently not afraid of anyone – one of his operas which Virgil and I saw in Santa Fe (yeah, it’s been a minute) is called “Platée” and features a female swamp creature who thinks she is a femme fatale, so when Jupiter, looking to set up an elaborate joke to take Juno’s mind off of his infidelities, proposes to her, she is sucked in, and the joke works – Juno, who comes to the “wedding” to catch him, sees the “bride” and cracks up laughing. The reason I share this as an example of Rameau’s fearlessness is that he wrote it for a royal wedding, in which the actual bride, though highly aristocratic, was known for her lack of good looks. And he got away with it. Today’s feature is not daring, it’s just for fun, and was staged by the Opera Comique because the conductor, a Baroque specialist, wanted to conduct it to celebrate his 80th birthday. (Conductors do tend to live long and prosper – one theory as to why is that the upper body exercise, although not terribly strenuous, is sufficient to strengthen the heart. Of course it doesn’t work for everyone. But it does for many.) Anyway, the music was lovely. There is a 59-second clip on YouTube which shows snippets of a variety of scenes while playing just the main theme which shows up in the prologue and every act.
This story is unsourced other than the DU member who posted it – but it is good news and I think we can all agree with the point made at the end.
This is exciting to me. I suspect it may not replace implants, because hearing loss at older ages may not be genetic (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t genetic in my mother abd grandmother, because I don’t have it, and for bothe of them the onset was at 10 years minimum younger than I am.) But for eople as young as those in this story it could well be genetic, and I would expect gene therapy to be a lot less invasive than implants.
Yesterday, as you all know, the House passed the Big Brutal Bill in the Senate version, despite the fact that Hakeem Jeffries kind of brought the filibuster over from the Senate in opposition. I believe there’s some intention of taking it to the courts but that doesn’t give me a lot of hope. Earlier tis week, John Pavlovitz already wrote that the Fourth of July this year is not a day for celebration but one of sitting vigil for the dead. I had already picked out my featured image, which is not current – it is from 2021. But though those people have been disgustingly pardoned, the sentiments hold, at least for me. And the traitors are still around. It’s not strong enough, but I doubt I could find a stronger one, and I’m not exactly feeling creative. I might point out that, with heir glair for deception, the bill is written so that any of the cuts do not take effect immediately – so the bill is also a time bomb. For a while they will be telling us “See? it isn’t so bad,” and that will be a lie. Today, do your best to summon up some joy and hope. You – and I – will need it.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-democracy-index-76b
The Democracy Index is a feature of The Contrarian. There is a team pf highly qualified people who work on it, one of whom is Joyce Vance. TBH, reading or even skimming all the sources I subscribe to doesn’t leave me much time – or energy – to follow the Index. But this one is specifically for the Fourth of July, and today being the fourth, I decided to share it. I note that there is a comment on reading the chart, so I’ll remind everyone that the metaphor here is taking the temperature. Two of the thermometers are at at least 106°F, and one looks to be at maybe 101°F. You may disagree either with the chart or with my guesstimate (I personally think National Security is hotter than that), but it looks to be generally accurate in proportion.
This from Chris Bowers is about what the New York City primary results imply for the Democratic party, particularly in tandem with the recent successes of Bernie and AOC with their touring town halls. I really hope that enough Democrats are paying attention with open minds, because, if too many are not, we may see panicking which will hurt us all.
Yes, this is from the Senate’s vote on their version of the Big Brutal Bill. But I wouldn’t call it old.
Yesterday, I spent about 17 minutes watching a video on Pete Buttigieg’s Substack – an interview with the mother of twin girls, one of whose lives depends on Medicaid. This shows why Pete is the best communicator in the Democratic Party – and one of the best in history. Tissue alert.
Here are two articles from the 19th. One is a detailed story of one person who is a victim of ICE. But even in the context of this incident an entire community is affected. And the regime is taking this to such lengths that anyone could be affected. But the other article is about trends which absolutely will affect everyone over time – everyone who is still above ground.
Joyce Vance on the Supreme Court. I see I am not the only one who turns to Greek mythology to interpret present day events. That – and animals and knittng – I guess are reasons I feel somehow connected to Joyce.
Yesterday, I went through a little more than two days of emails – I had not had the energy to tackle Sunday’s on Sunday. But Joyce Vance’s “The Week Ahead” from Sunday really shouldn’t be missed, both for the analysis and for the hope. Harry Litman addressed the same case – not the verdict itself but apparently even lawyers can’t agree on how awful it is.) Also yesterday – remember the Pearl Street bombing in Boulder, CO on June 1? Well, one more victim has died, as reported by Colorado Public Radio. She was 82 years old. Finally, USA Today has a pretty detailed account of the shooting in Idaho. I won’t claim is the best – I didn’t check everywhere – but it’s pretty solid. No paywall.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-
This is a few days old – but I think still interesting to anyone who is still wondering just how effed up the knuckle-draggers working in the current regime can get. I would put this somewhere in the territory of FUBB and FUBAR.
John Pavlovitz was inspired (as was I) by Joe Biden’s presence and demeanor at the funeral of the Hortmans (Melissa, Mark, and Gilbert). This is what he had to say about it – and I can agree with just about every word. I did know what we had, and you may recall, was so crushed when he dropped out of the race that I had to take a week off to collect myself. I wish I had a way to forward this to President Joe. He deserves to know how much he is loved and missed.
