Yesterday, having been up the previous night well into the morning, I slept late. I did manage to get up soon enough to call my doctor’s ofice about an appoinrment, but I still had to leave a message. But not that i can drive again, I need to get there and get labs so I can get a prescription straight. They’ll call back. Also, Andy Borowitz came up with this idea. What do you think?
Now that we know who is doing this, I suppose the next step is a cease and desist order, and then a big money lawsuuit. At least I hope so. This dude must be stopped (and not rreplaced.)
I always thought Crooks and Liars was progressive – but apparently someone thinks they are not progressive enough, so they are “curating” some articles now, such as this one. Both Elizabeth Warren and Robert Reich weigh in.
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Die Frau Ohne Schatten” by Richard Strauss. That translates to “The Woman without a Shadow,” but the shadow is purely symbolic. The woman of the title is not a woman but a fairy, who has married the Emperor and become his Empress. But in order to stay with him after a certain amount of time has passed, she must become fully human, and that is what the shadow symbolizes. To emphasize the fairy tale environment, only one of the characters is given a name, and that is the dyer, whose wife is tempted to sell her shadow to the empress. It always tickles me that the name of the dyer is Barak (in German, the accent is on the first syllable,) since this opera premiered in 1919. I won’t go into the plot – it’s too complicated. Musically, it’s somewhere between Salome and Rosenkavalier. It has the color of Rosenkavalier but not the catchy waltzes, and it has the fierceness of Salome (and Elektra, which is like Salome without the sex) but without the jarring dissonances which made them so shocking in their day. Also, after looking all over for a video clip of John Oliver discussing Project 2025 which has CC, I did finally find one here.
For Pride Month – what people of faith are doing to oppose the hatred of LGBTQIA people, particularly at Pride events, where the hatred too often becomes physical.
When you read this, you will likely wonder whether Joe really is a wizard after all. It certainly seems like it would require a wizard to accomplish all of this at once.
Yesterday, SCOTUS issued verdicts and opinions in 4 cases (none involving TFG) – Moore, Chaverini, Diaz and Gonzales. I, on the other hand, took in a grocery order and baked cookies. (Given this Court, my accomplishments were orobablly better for the country.) Today, we can expect more verdicts and opinions. My reference for these decisions and more is here. P.Ss – Tonight is a full moon. And a “strawberry moon” is expected – low in the sky and so bright it is its own light pollution.
The latest Biden-Harris ad, on YouTube. I’m not as convinced as many seem to be of its effectiveness against brainwashed MAGAts. But then, it’s probably not aimed at them, but at independents and undecideds. With them, it should help.
The Daily Beast’s “Obsessed” section is all about entertainment. But this cought my eye as a piece of fiction I would love to be a part of in real life. The protagonist is known as “The girl with the Dragon Tattoo of journalism,” and she takes on evil corporations. I remember when the first Girl with the Dragon Tattoo novel came out – at least one reviewer compared her to “Pippi Longstocking” grown up.” I’m sure part of that was because both were Swedish – but there were other traits they had in common as well.
Yesterday, when I had the time and energy to finish reading my emails from Sunday, I came across Joe Biden’s Father’s Day Proclamation (courtesy of Steve Smith), read it, and am sharing the link. That’s the world that I want to live in. It’s not a perfect world – there is no perfect world – but it’s a world in which at least the Federal goverment is run with ethics, honesty, kindness, and consideration, in order to make life easier for the maximum number of people. I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but I’m going to anyway: we willl never get there by electing people at any levels who just want power – and who get elected by promising their voters power through them. Also, Robert Reich’s caption contest, which asked readers to submit suggestions for whar “MAGA” really stands for, ad too many good answers to list here. I can’t enter, being a free subscriber, but had I been ale and done so, I would have suggested “Malice And Greed Always.”
Moving to actual news (or at least actual analysis of actual news – there’s some of both), Robert Hubbell goes into detail about how and why the Washington Post is so worng in their election coverage, even though they still do well in other areas (some of this ofcourse also apples to the New York Times, and other formerly competent mainstream outlets.) If he is accurate on their strategy (and I suspect he is), it’s easy to see why he wonders whether the Post can survive. It’s a no-brainer.
In Sunday’s Open Thread, Beau spoke about Ukraine, including commenting that Ukraine might be operating in the skies a little more – which, with the loan he also spoke about – they have been doing. Now, the Daily Beast confirms that Ukraine is hitting hard, and it is working. We can but hope Putin is runninng out of things up his sleeve.
Yesterday, I managed to remember it was Father’s Day in time to wish Virgil a happy one. The prison dog’s handler brought him out to say happy Father’s Day to all the visitors. And of course we played cribbage. Two weeks ago the cards were seriusly hot – we were seeing scores up as high as 24. Yesterday not so much. The highest score all afternoon was 16, and there were only 3 hands all afternoon which achieved that score. But who cares – we were having fun.
Before we get too giddy over the Supremes approving mifeprestone (for now), we need to look deeper. Robert Hubell does. There are several topics here, but each has its own large type headline, so it’s not hard to find. And some of the other topics are pretty interesting also.
Yes, it took me a while to get this up. But I try to minimize bad news over a weekend. At least there are influential people who see right through this and are doing their best to spread reality. Unfortunately, the media is not among them.
Yesterday, and I can still hardly believe it, I spoke with Lynn Squance (Squatch). My phone rang, and after 2 rings stopped, and I hadn’t had time to read the full caller ID, but I thought the first two letters were BC,so I checked my call log, and checked my contact list, and it was her number. Except that in my contacts there was one wrong number – I had the last two digits as 81 and it was actually 61. So I called back, and she said she hadn’t called, but was happy to hear from me. She’s fine. All her cats that we knew are at the Rainbow Bridge, but she has another now named Simon who was born the day after her last prior cat died. We haven’t seen her lately because she tried to register at Disqus, and was told she was already registered, and had no idea under what username or password. We talked about ways to get around that – “logging in” through facebook, Xitter, or google – or starting a new profile. She mentioned a couple of usernames, so if she follows through, I’ll know it’s she and will pass that on. The relief is overwhelming.
Today, after a day filled with snark, we have a day with two articles “as serious as a heart attack” (though, I hope and believe, not equally life-threatening – but instead I hope life-inspiring. Although – I have seen the results of one actual heart attack which was amazingly life-inspiring – and life transforming – for the survivor. I’ll have to write about that. It’s quite a story. But not today.)
Robert Reich digs into the possible reasons why so many people are so wrong in their evaluations of Trump** and Biden – and what can be done about it.
Heather Cox Richardson covers Biden’s commenceement speeach at Morehouse College last week, adding some historical background here and there.
Yesterday, the radio opera was “The Hours” by Kevin Puts. Its world premier was just last season. I’m not going to try to describe the plot because it isn’t really a plot. It looks at the lives of three different women in three different time periods, all of whom have some connection to Virginia Woolf. One is Virginia Woolf, one (in the 1950s) is reading Virginia Woolf, and one (in the 1990s) is compared to Virginia Woolf. The opera jumps around a lot between them (I believe they call it being “interwoven”), so it’s next to impossible to follow if you aren’t able to see it. But it’s nice to listen to, and one can always get the book or the movie if one wants more details. Now I’m off to see Virgil.
This has nothing to do with anything really, except that it’s a good reminder not to simplify people. Most people are complex and many-sided, but it’s not always easy to see that or to bring it out. (Yes, it’s the NYT, but it’s a gift link.)
Beau led me to this site – it’s delivered in a way suggestive of fun (at least if you like Bingo) but has some genuine information.
Yesterday was a bad back (and shoulder) day. I wasnt happy about it, but I had to admit I had earned it – assembling furniture, packing stuff up for charity, moving heavy stuff around. I thought I had paced it better, but I guess not. I used the TENS a full two hours, which helped. And today is an opera day (also a filling pill bottles for the next two weeks day) so I’ll make a point of resting physically, and ice if necessary.
This is what clean energy is all about – rechargeable batteries. Not the double A ones you probably use if you have a solar stake in your yard, but big ones. Really big ones.
Eric Adams is not my idea of the world’s greatest mayor – but I do like this. (And, if Trump** doesn’t hand his phone off to one of his attorneys before they take him, they will confiscate it, and there will be no Xeets from it. Not that i suppose the reception is all that great inside.)
