Yesterday, ProPublica released the results of an investigation they did into “Terrorgram.” They worked in cooperation with PBS’s “Frontline,” and if you watch it regularly, you saw this last night. if not, you can read about it here, and or pick up links to YouTube, the PBS a[[, and Frontline’s website, and watch it at one of those. Only by knowing how these – people – operate can we hope to detect them and report them. Also yesterday, Louis DeJoy resigned – at the worst possible time. Just at the right moment for the Valencia Vlad-the-Impaler to appoint a lunatic who will buy and privatize the Postal Service. Is Philadelphia having earthquakes? Benjamin Franklin is probably finding that turning over is not enough, and taking up break dancing instead.
Yeah, “The Week Ahead” is late. But she has put together a number of related ideas that are being mentioned, but mostly not together, and personalizing it from her own experience.
Also late, and also from Joyce Vance, a discussion of something Judge Boasberg might do (or, of course, might not, but he seems like someone who might.) Incidentally, if you see anyone refer to him as “Jeb” Boasberg, J.E.B. are his initials. There is precedent for the nickname.
This is old from Wonkette also. But it is so surreal that I couldn’t resist.
Yesterday, the radio opera was a double bill of Ravel’s “L’enfant et les sortilèges” (on the one hundredth anniversary, to the day, of its premier) and Poulanc’s “Les Mamelles de Tirésias.” The former “is the story of a rude child who is reprimanded by the objects in his room, which he has been destroying. After being scolded by his mother in the beginning of the opera, the child throws a tantrum, destroying the room around him and harming the animals nearby. He is then surprised to find that the unhappy objects in his room come to life.” (Wikikpedia) The latter is absurdist, in the literary sense, which was written and performed right after the first World War. It takes off on the idea of Tiresias having been “the only human ever to have experienced being a man and also being a woman” (without surgery – since Tiresias was a mythical character dating from about 1000 BCE). Its premise is to convince French people to be as fertile as possible in order to replenish the population losses of the Great War. It has a plot, but that plot is so absurd I’m not going there. Off to see Virgil now – will check back in in a comment.
Yes, I’m having to go to sites like Good New Network to find anything calm enough for Sundays. And, while current, this story harks back to history – not just the obvious WWII history, but back to the Middle Ages. Take that, “Monument Men.”
Colorado Public Radio often has good news, but I’m behind (surprise, surprise!) on reading their newsletters. I found this story from Grist by searching sites which specialize in finding good news – a particular site which additionally specializes in finding happy stories written by proven, experienced, real journalists. It’s about what locals are doing to speed recovery from the devastating wildfires in California so recently.
Yesterday, I hid a boatload of fonts and downloaded a couple of my favorites. I already discovered on the previous computer that not only are the English fonts that come with Windows 10 all alike and equally boring, but that, with all the non-English fonts displaying, it takes forever to find the right font for the project (if it’s even there.) I had been coping by constructing memes on the 8.1 and either bringing them to the 10 on a flash drive, or just uploading them to PP from the 8.1 and searching for them if they had been pushed down from the top. I don’t have all the fonts I will want yet, but i have a good start, and I need to be choosy, since paint can only show so many before sending me to font jail.
This from Wonkette was posted Wednesday. And there’s a lot in it. Now that the Clementine Caligula figures he’s not accountable to anyone, I don’t know how much it will really do to slow him down. But at least there are people with some authority who are trying.
Harry Litman has more to say about Justice Roberts’s social media post. He makes the implications of it pellucidly clear. I agree that the Roberts who made that post is the Roberts we need. But it’s not enough.
Yesterday, still slogging along. I did look for an image of St. Joseph, since March 19 is his day, but they were all too – TBH – white. Then I remembered that March 19th is also the day that the swallow (theoretically – it’s really just a legend) return to San Juan Capistrano mission after a winter in South America. As legends go, this one is pretty benign. So I thought I’d refer to it and maybe make up a little for having missed Pi Day.
Clearly none of this has anything to do with actual DEI, the point of which is to prevent us all from being limited to dealing exclusively with stupid white people. The point of these efforts is to erase history and convince people of the clearly false belief that white people are better than anyone else (and also that men are better than women, also clearly false.) I hope to heaven no one tells any of these dodos (apology to actual dodos) about the USS Doris Miller. (And yes, the Mount Suribachi photo is a target also.)
I always have difficulty reading The Root – I click to the page and maybe manage to read a paragraph and then it whites out (I think it’s my browser – I can read it in edge, I just hate edge.) I expect we all know what happened, including law enforcement though they are not admitting it, and likely no one will be held accountable. Someone commented that the Mango Monster and Dork Vader have taken us back 80 years in two months. I disagree. It’s more like 85 to 90 years. 80 years ago we were about to celebrate VE day in a couple of months and no one here was admitting to being a Nazi, or at least not in public.
Yesterday, the radio opera was Beethoven’s “Fidelio.” You are welcome to skip the details, although I hope you’ll give it a chance – I am going into more detail than usual, because Beethoven was one of us. I don’t suppose he would be thought progressive today, but in his day he was as progressive as they came, and loud about it. Like pretty much all the progressives of the day, he was fooled for a while by Napoleon – they all thought “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” – until he wasn’t. But this opera is our opera – all about political corruption and the courage to oppose and expose it. Here’s the story: Leonora (Eleanor in English) Florestan is a young (or youngish) woman whose husband disappeared two years ago, shortly after attempting to expose the corruption of the “governor” of a political prison named Pizarro. She has tried and failed to learn anything about hos whereabouts. In desperation, she disguises herself as a young man and applies for a n apprentice warden job at the prison governed by Pizarro, under the alias “Fidelio.” She is a bright, intelligent, conscientious worker, and makes excellent impressions on the warden, Rocco, and also on his daughter, Marcellina, who is ready to throw over her previous suitor, Jaquino, to marry “him,” and Rocco supports Fidelio as a suitor. (This leads to a comic quartet.) Fidelio changes the subject by offering to help Rocco in his duties in the dungeon. Rocco’s response make her almost positive her husband is there. Everyone leaves but Rocco, and Pizarro arrives. Rocco tells him that his (Pizarro’s) boss, the minister (cabinet member) plans a surprise inspection the next day. Pizarro orders Rocco to murder and bury Florestan, who is a close friend of the minister. He also orders that a trumpet be sounded at the minister’s arrival. Rocco refuses to do the murder, but agrees to dig the grave. Pizarro will do the murder himself. Fidelio has come back close enough to overhear the plot, although not soon enough to be 100% sure it’s Florestan they are talking about With Marcellina’s help, she persuades Rocco to let the prisoners out into the garden for a while (her real motivation is in case she’s wrong and Florestan is not in the dungeon, she might see him among the other prisoners), and a touching chorus ensues. It’s on the short side, for fear Pizarro might hear them. Pizarro does hear and demands an explanation. Rocco says they were given a little outdoor time in honor of the King’s name day. Pizarro grants permission for Fidelio to marry Marcellina and also to help Rocco in the dungeons. The prisoners are locked up again as the act ends. Act II begins with a long aria (technically a “scena”) by Florestan – his trust in God, his love of Eleanor, a fantasy that she comes to save him, and then more or less hallucinates being free. Finally he collapses and falls asleep. Fidelio and Rocco enter and start digging the grave. Florestan wakes up, and she recognizes him (his voice, actually), but he doesn’t yet recognize her. He learns that the prison he is in is governed by Pizarro, and realizing he’s doomed, asks to send a message to his wife, but is turned down. He begs for water, and Fidelio is allowed to give him some, She then begs to be allowed to give him a crust of bread and is granted permission. Rocco gives the signal to Pizarro that the grave is ready and Fidelio is told to leave, but hides instead. Pizarro pulls out a knife to kill Florestan, but Leonora jumps between them, saying “First kill his wife!” revealing her true identity. She pulls out a gun, which stymies Pizarro, and just then the trumpet is heard. Pizarro and Rocco leave, Florestan says “Leonora! What have you done for me?” to which she replies, “Nothing, my Florestan, nothing.” Whereupon they have a love duet. The scene changes –
everyone is now out of the dungeon, the minister is there, and the whole plot comes out. Florestan is freed and Pizarro is imprisoned. All the other prisoners are also freed. The chorus sings about how lucky a man is who has a good wife, and all are happy, except Marcellina and of course Pizarro.
This is of course still up in the air (or I hope it is – I think we would have heard if had passed), but the 19th gives background not just on the measure but on co-sponsors Pettersen and Luna (and even though it would have been really hypocritical for her not to co-sponsor this after her own experience, I have to give her credit for co-sponsoring it.)
OK, I admit this is anything but good news. But Robert Reich‘s sharing of his memories is so sweet, and even downright funny in spots, that at least it’s not depressing
Yesterday, I spent most of my time going through the folders in my Yahoo! email account, forwarding the very few emails which needed to be kept to the tutamail address and deleting the rest. Yahoo only allows me to delete a hundred at a time – they claim I can select more, but when I follow the instructions, they don’t work. So far the folder with the most emails in it had around 7500. Yes, I know, but I never intended to leave Yahoo, and they give you a terabyte of storage, and all my folders together were only using 0.37% of it, and I just never took the trouble. Shame on me. I also placed a grocery order for delivery today, and that’s pretty much it. I did change a few usernames, but only a few.
This is a few days old, but it’s also Robert Reich. His take one this was vaguely floating around in my subconscious – but iy would have taken months, even years, before I could have articulated it even clumsily.
This is not news, it’s been floating around for a while, but the 19th, which was started to emphasize news affecting women and other minorities, cover all the details, and some are less obvious. I am fortunate in having my original marriage certificate. I don’t have a birth certificate that qualifies – I have several copies of what California was giving out in 1945, because my Mom was wise enough to get a bunch, but it doesn’t qualify. getting a certified one is not free, but it’s not that difficult. The only passport I ever had was in my teens and no one wants to see that. Forty years ago, when I got married, I was not politically opposed to keeping my maiden name – bit it was “Stangenberger,” and I thought changing it would make life easier. I can actually put together quite a little package of evidence that I am who I am – but most of it would be considered irrelevant under this bill.
Yesterday, Katie Porter announced she is running for Governor of California. Here’s her announcement video (I had to unmute it, so if you can’t hear it, check that.) I was so heartbroken to lose her from Congress – I hope she wins. (It’s also in the back of my mind that many Governors have gotten into the Senate from the Governor’s Mansion.) Here, i have been trying to export my bookmarks and passwords – whether I format the one which has uncooperative operating system and processor, or break down and get a new one, I’ll need that. I easily exported the bookmarks, but the passwords in this version of the browser cannot follow the instructions. I can and did export from the 8.1, but those are not up to date, although it will help. Exporting takes the form of a CSV file, so maybe I can edit it some before importing. One piece of good news is that although Yahoo mail does not work at all on the Win8.1, the Yahoo notepad still works just fine. I’ve gotten enough addresses changed that the new inbox is looking more like a real inbox by the hour, but am still working.
Joyce Vance on something other than law/politics. She explains why the choice.
Yesterday, I visited Virgil and we played cribbage. It was not a day for high scores but we still had fun. Virgil’s back was hurting ans he had on uncomfortable shoes instead of the ones he usually wears. I was short of sleep – bu the fact is, even if I allow enough time for enough sleep, between the excitement of going to see him and the nervousness about something going wrong, I never get enough sleep the night before I go see him. And I need to stop expecting (or hoping) to. So today I’ve chosen two sources and I’m going to let them speak for me
This is a roundup from The Contrarian. Although they do send emails on individual posts, they also send at least one of these daily. Their style is quite straightforward – just the truth (which may or may not include background on the contributor so the reader can evaluate credentials. On regular contributors it may get skipped. This Roundup is put together by Norm Eisen, one of the two founders, along with Jen Rubin. Both have credentials.)
Here is the front page of The F* News. If Norm is too serious (and depressing) for you, I will guarantee that Jonathan is not too serious. Although he may not be able to avoid being depressing.
