Open Thread February 28, 2024

 Posted by at 5:40 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 282024
 

Yesterday, the exterminator came. After looking around inside and out, he called his office and discussed the progress, and the bottom line is we are going to try a two-month interval instead of two weeks. Yes, that’s good news, although it won’t make much, if any, financial difference – when the visits are close together, each one costs less. (And they are quite reasonable anyway.) Also, I learned that I had chosen the winning photo for next year’s calendar’s cover photo for the Natonal Parks Conservation Association. Earlier this month, I had done the same for the Nature Conservancy. I never pick winners in situations like this … and now twice in a row. But I think I know why – and it’a not a question of taste. Both groups offered three photos, of which two were purely scenic and the third included a critter (one was an adult squeaking silkmoth and the other was 3 bear cubs). With odds like that, the majority is always going to pick the critter over the still lifes. Rocks, water features, and trees just aren’t cuddly.

Certainly not a lesson that anyone wants to learn the hard way. So those of us who have grandchildren or great-grands might want to have a conversation with their parents. It’s not that difficult to avoid if people just know the risks.

This is from Monday from Mary Trump. She promised updates after consulting with experts, and was hoping to provide at least some of those yesterday. It shold be possible to get to the updates from this link if she has written it yet. If it’s confusing, search for “The Good In Us”.

I’m pretty sure there’s at least one person who reads her who also watches Seth Meyers faithfully. If it’s not you, you can still catch up on Monday night’s show here.

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Open Thread February 14, 2024

 Posted by at 5:51 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 142024
 

Yesterday, my ballot for the Presidential primary arrived. The election is March 5th. I’ve been avoiding going out the front door since my hospital stay, and even more so, avoiding the porch steps (the last time I ventured on them wasthe day I came home, and that was one way only.) But with that much time, and Trinette coming Sunday, I’m sure I can wait tll then. I know for whom I am voting, and it’s only one block to fill in, and if she takes it out the same day it comes in, it should get there in time easily.

I’m sharing this as a Black Histoy story because IMO there’s no doubt that it is one. You can make up your own mind,of course.

This is a crash course in foreign affairs. If that makes it sound difficult – it isn’t. And it explains a lot about how we got to this point. And it’s available for free to anyne, so you can share (you might want to mention scrolling a little for “continue reading.”)

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Open Thread February 12, 2024

 Posted by at 5:56 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 122024
 

Yesterday, Trinette came over again, to run the car, bring in mail, and take out recyclables (I didn’t have enough trash to make that worth while.) She says “Hi back, especially to Nameless.

This is late news, but as Susie Madrak points out, you wouldn’t know it, from the coverage it didn’t get. And it’s game-changing – if only it can gain traction.

This article from Democratic Underground is exactly what ALL the media SHOULD be saying about Joe Biden.

Dr. Biden Has much to say, and she also references Heather Cox Richardson, so I don’t have to.

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Open Thread February 11, 2024

 Posted by at 6:09 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 112024
 

Yesterday, I posted Steve Schmidt’s opinion on Robert Hur before I had seen Robert Reich’s, or, for that matter, VP Harris’s. Both pointed and worth seeing.

Because today is what it is, I am using a Superb Owl pic in lieu of the usual logo.

The SPLC’s report on the attitudes of young Americans toward guns and gun safety, compiled with assistance from the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) is complete, and can be found here. The study examined “young people’s access to guns, experiences with gun violence, feelings of safety and mental wellbeing, as well as their views on male supremacy, racial resentment and the Second Amendment.”

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Open Thread February 10, 2024

 Posted by at 6:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 102024
 

Yesterday, I didn’t have to read up on the opera – in fact I may sleep theough it – because it’s not a full opera but a selection of love duets for Valentine’s Day. I am so much intp opera as a vehicle for storytelling and plot that I can’t get excited about selections. But if anyone is interested in a sampler, it bradcasts at 1:00 pm EST, 12 noon CST, 11:00 am Mountain, and 10:am Pacific. All of those are the same time. KCME.org will broadcast, as aell as WFMT.com in Chicago, WQXR.org in New York. I wasn’t able to confirm KUSC.org in Los Angeles (though as active as LA OPera is I’d be surprised if it doesn’t), but if you are listening on the internet, the sound isn’t any better from somewhere close than is is from the other side of the country.

I expect everyone’s heard of Trump**’s plan to alter the hiring criteria for Federal civil service so that he can fire anyone he doesn’t think is “loyal” enough and replace them with someone he thinks is. The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) takes a hard look at the implications of this here.

I know crap when I see it, and I presume y’all do also. But, sadly, Steve is still right.

This sounds glorious, but it’s not something I know enough about to address.

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Open Thread February 6, 2024

 Posted by at 6:08 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 062024
 

Yesterday was another quiet day, which is fine with me.

Harry T. Burleigh, born in 1866, was a black man with a desire to become a classical composer. With the encouragement and assistance from Frances McDowell, the mother of Edward McDowell (“To a Wild Rose” and much more), he was admitted to the New York Conservatory of Musicon work study as a janitor. While he swept the halls, he would sing Spirituals, and was heard by Antonín Dvořák (New World Symphony), who was enchanted, and requested Burleigh to sing for him as much as possible. (Contrary to myth, Dvořák did not use any actual spirituals in The New World Symphony, though he was good enough at working in the style to make people think he did, and a later Black American wrote words to the most recognizable theme therein and called it “Going Home.”) Burleigh graduated and had a career as a composer, writing both instrumental and vocal music. In particular he composed songs to poems by “Laurence Hope” (a pseudonym for a woman, – and not only was it next to impossible for a woman to get published then in her own right, but a lot of those poems were pretty hot stuff for the day) including a set called “5 Songs of Laurence Hope.” Jim Ginsburg, the son of Marty and Ruth (Bader) Ginsburg, and the founder of Cedille Records, is featuring a record of music by Black composers, called “Dreams of a New Day,” sung by Will Liverman (the baritone protagonist of choice of today’s Black opera composers) which includes Burleigh’s “5 Songs of Laurence Hope,” and the first of them is available on Spotify at this link. Call me a name-dropper, but I think those are some names worth dropping even when it’s not Black History Month.

This column is a rant, and an exceedingly righteous one at that, IMO. I could wish I’d said it first … but it’s better this way, since he has the larger following. Basically, he compares and contrasts encouraging news with the discouraging words in which the media presents it. Certainly we should never take winning for granted. But the media seems to want us to take losing for granted, and that is a bridge too far for us to be going over. I did get some encouragement myself from Hubbell’s counterarguments, and hope you also will.

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Open Thread January 29, 2024

 Posted by at 6:37 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 292024
 

Yesterday, what I mostly did was finish two knitting projects – one fair-sized one on which I’ve been working for some time, and one so small I started and finished it after finishing the large one.  Not exciting, but there it is

Crooks and Liars has posted a video by Cliff Schecter which really points up the difference between the time when the Republican Party had Joe MacCarthy, and now, when all Republicans are Joe McCarthy. And you may learn something about the Illinois loyalty pledge too. It’s under 7 minutes, and if you watch it at C&L you won’t have to pay YouTube to avoid ads.

Margaret Atwood has been using her Substack to share a multi-part history of what the French Revolution (which she calls “The French Revvie”) was really like. This link it to Part IV – subtitled “The Vengeance.” I used to warn that if we didn’t make some corrections – and quickly – we’d have another French Revolution. And, yet, when I saw it, I didn’t recognize it. Margaret did. No surprise that she is smarter than I am.

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Open Thread January 28, 2024

 Posted by at 6:29 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 282024
 

Yesterday, as I said, the radio opera was “Carmen” by Georges Bizet. Though Bizet was French (some of the most Spanish of Spanish music written in the 19th century was written by Frenchmen) evryone thinks “Spain” about Carmen, and it is set in Spain – but Carmen is a Roma. So are her two closest friends. So are pretty much all the smugglers Romani. That kind of hit me in the face when i realized that yesterday was Holocaust Remembreance Day – and theRomani were as much a target of the Nazis as the Jews. Trying to read up in the Roma quickly is a little like trying to collect syrup in your hand – a little sticks, but more slips out. They are the largest ethnic minority in Europe, but they also live all over the world. They have been called “gypsies,” but they are not from Egypt. They have been called “Bohemians,” but they are not from what is now Czechoslovakia. Neither are they from Romania, but originally from northwest India. They have endured slavery along with other forms of abuse. I’m linking to both Steve Schmidt’s Substack – it’s not new material, but a collection of links to his earlier writings on antisemitism – and to The Conversation, to an article which addresses some of the ways in which the Jews and the Roms were linked by the Nazis (I needed a hanky. But it’s all very well to mourn the lost – it doesn’t do too much to prevent it ever happening again.)

Heather Cox Richardson’s Friday night letter did quite a decent job of summarizing highlight from the week, including a couple I hadn’t heard. If you have time, I recommend it.

Over the weekend, someone on DU shared the information that under New York law, you can appeal a civil suit, but if you do, you must first deposit the full judgment plus a small percentage with the court. I don’t know whether the legislators were thinking of interest, or court costs, or justice delayed – possibly all three. But if Trump** is going to appeal the most recent judgment, he will have to deposit $99 million with the court.

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