POSTERS
“Z” – RUSSIA’S NEW HATE SYMBOL
MISC.
Mar 182022
Mar 182022
Yesterday, I watched the Theater of War “The Nurse Antigone,” in which Margaret Atwood played Tiresias. Tiresias was blind, and she chose to present blindness with a hoodie covering a lot of her face, including her eyes – but oh, what a voice! All the actors were powerful certainly. And the discussion at the end raised issues which I didn’t realize that I didn’t realize, and not just pertinent to nurses. It was taped, which I hope means it will be available to re-watch – I will be looking for it. But a moral here is, don’t dismiss presentations for military because you’re not military (or have never been in compat), don’t dismiss presentations for medical professionals because you’re not one, and so on .. you could learn something, or hear something that really speaks to you, from any group in this web of projects.
Cartoon
Short Takes –
The New Yorker – How Putin’s Oligarchs Bought London
Quote – Invoking Dean Acheson’s famous observation, in 1962, that Britain had “lost an empire but not yet found a role,” [Oliver] Bullough[, a former Russia correspondent,] suggests that it did find a role, as a no-questions-asked service provider to the crooked élite, offering access to capital markets, prime real estate, shopping at Harrods, and illustrious private schools, along with accountants for tax tricks, attorneys for legal squabbles, and “reputation managers” for inconvenient backstories. It starts with visas; any foreigner with adequate funds can buy one, by investing two million pounds in the U.K. (Ten million can buy you permanent residency.)
Click through. It certainly gives me no pleasure to share this information. However … it is what it is.
The Daily Beast – ‘Many’ Spy Agency Staffers Think Capitol Riot Was ‘Justified,’ Ex-NSA Veteran Says
Quote – An internal U.S. intelligence messaging system became a “dumpster fire” of hate speech during the Trump administration…. Dan Gilmore, who was in charge of overseeing internal chat rooms for the Intelink system for over a decade starting in 2011, says that by late 2020 the system was afire with incendiary hate-filled commentary, especially on “eChirp,” the intelligence community’s clone of Twitter…. “Hate speech was running rampant on our applications… I’m not being hyperbolic. Racist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamaphobic [sic], and misogynistic speech was being posted in many of our applications.”
Click through for detail. I’m not naive enough to think the it would ever be possible to eliminate all of them (and I realize I am inviting the question “How many traitors would be about right?”), but before I would believe that so many of our intel agents knowingly and delberately lied under oath about their intentions, I would believe that so many of them simply do not know what the Constitution is and says. And that would be a failure of education.
Women’s History – Wikipedia – Enheduanna (23rd century BCE)
Enheduanna … was the EN priestess of the moon god Nanna (Sīn) in the Sumerian city-state of Ur in the reign of her father, Sargon of Akkad. She was likely appointed by her father as the leader of the religious cult at Ur to cement ties between the Akkadian religion of her father and the native Sumerian religion. Enheduanna has been celebrated as the earliest known named author in world history, as a number of works in Sumerian literature, such as the Exaltation of Inanna feature her as the first person narrator, and other works, such as the Sumerian Temple Hymns may identify her as their author.
Click through for more. Sure, we can’t prove she did write everything attributed to her – but they also can’t prove she didn’t. But ar least she got recognition for the work. We do know for sure that she did not have to write under a male pen name to be piblished, like Amantine Dupin and Mary Ann Evans, to name just two. That is an accomplishment in itself.
Food For Thought:
Mar 172022
Yesterday, aas you will see below, i had a story fall into my lap (so to speak) at exactly the right moment. That doesn’t happen very often. I also spent more time looking for parody and satire for the video thread, since the parodisis and satirists are often in sync with each other. (If you missed Randy Rainbow and Betty Bowers in yesterdas video thread, click back to it.) I found a few, which will show up in due course … but I didn’t find a new Rocky Mountain Mike, which I was hoping for.
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Short Takes –
Crooks and Liars – 300K Hackers Come Together Online To Fight Russia
Quote – Kali – and many others who contributed to this article – declined to share his real name because some of the action he is taking is illegal and because he fears Russian retaliation. He is one of about 300,000 people who have signed up to a group on the chat app Telegram called “IT Army of Ukraine”, through which participants are assigned tasks designed to take the fight to Vladimir Putin. In so doing, they are trying to level the playing field between one of the world’s superpowers and Ukraine as it faces bombardment and invasion.
Click through for C&L story, and through again to the Guardian if you want more. I find this very sweet … but sweetness doesn’t always also have teeth. This does.
Mother Jones – Invoking Pearl Harbor and 9/11, Zelenskyy Issues Extraordinary Plea for Help
Quote – During his speech, Zelenskyy urged Americans to recall the panic sparked by the attack on Pearl Harbor and the September 11 terrorist attacks. “Our country experienced the same every day,” he said. “Right now. At this moment, every night for three weeks now.” To conclude, Zelenskyy switched from Ukrainian to English, calling directly on President Joe Biden to become the “leader of the world.”
Click through for more excerpts, analysis, and a link to the full speech. I really couldn’t ignore this. It’s also noteworthy that on Tuesday the Senate voted unanimously to censure Putin as a war criminal. Sure, talk is cheap – but not as cheap as we used to think before TFG.
Colorado Public Radio – Without Ouray, Colorado, there’d be no ‘Danny Boy’
Quote – It was [in Ouray] in 1913 that Weatherly, the wife of a patrician miner from England, linked an old Irish tune to a poem that had been written by her brother-in-law, Frederic Weatherly, an English barrister and lyricist. The poem was written in 1910 as Frederic mourned the deaths of his father and his son. He intended for it to be a song, but no one had succeeded in coming up with the right melody to suit the sad words. That is, until Margaret Weatherly thought of a tune she had heard her father, who immigrated from Ireland, and other Irish railroad workers play when she was a child in California.
Click through for story. Who knew that a story combining Women’s history and irish culture would fall into my lap. I knew Ourau was historically significant (it’s named after a chief of the Tabeguache band of the Utes), but I certainly did not know this. (Ouray is also absolutely gorgeous, and photographs do not do it justice.)
Food For Thought:
When Russia sanctioned Canada, it barred leaders from all major federal parties, including conservative leaders.
But when Russia sanctioned the U.S., it barred Democratic leaders only. It didn’t name a single GOP leader.
The signal couldn’t be clearer.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) March 16, 2022
Mar 162022
Enjot Betty and Randy – I decided not to hold either one. There’s enough grimness already today.
Glenn Kirschner – Trump Endangers America’s Teachers: When Will DOJ Decide We’ve Reached the Arrest Tipping Point?
Crooks and Liars – Ali Velshi Struggles Through Tears Discussing Slain Ukrainian Family
Rebel HQ – Richard Ojeda Reacts To Trump’s Latest Con Job: Trump Force One
Republican Accountability Project – Republicans are suffering from Partisan Derangement Syndrome
Mrs Betty Bowers – My Intervention with the Gremlin in the Kremlin
Randy Rainbow – GURL, YOU’RE A KAREN
Beau – Let’s talk about Putin banning words and what we can learn….
Mar 162022
Yesterday, it was pretty quiet. Which is just fine with me.
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Short Takes –
Headline from Democratic Underground – Cawthorn said he used his wheelchair to transport “multiple weapons” during Jan 6 insurrection
Unearthed: Madison Cawthorn called into the Charlie Kirk show during the January 6th attack and said he used his wheelchair to transport “multiple weapons” ahead of the Capitol riot and armed those around him. pic.twitter.com/AoQDaqSDjs
— PatriotTakes (@patriottakes) March 14, 2022
The video is short. But it contains all the necessasry “receipts.”
Robert Reich – Helplessness in the face of evil – An allegory
Quote – It’s like watching a three-hundred-pound bully beat up a kid half his size, for no reason — bloodying the poor kid, pulverizing him. Yet you don’t dare try to stop the mayhem because the bully has a gun that he’ll use on you if you intervene. You look for police, but there are none….
Click thorugh for the rest of the story. Yes. This is is exactly what it is like.
Women’s History – The 19th – Black women’s qualifications have long been questioned. Ketanji Brown Jackson’s allies were prepared.
Quote – “Vicious, racist, sexist tropes have long been levied against Black women,” said Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist and member of the Black Women’s Leadership Collective, which has worked in tandem with the White House on messaging efforts around Jackson’s nomination. “These are outlandish tropes, but they’re designed to undermine Black women based on stereotypes, based on trying to play to people’s worst instincts and fears.”
Click through for – I guess I have to say aaalysis. And at least some of it, if not all of it (we can hope), will turn out to have been necessary. I do hope it doesn’t take forever (even though Justice Breyer has arranged things to provide plenty of time.)
Food For Thought:
Tweet including letter on the loss of American Journalist Brent Renaud. (And i still cut off some of the signature) Yes, you’ll ned a hanky (at least I did).
Mar 152022
Glenn Kirschner – Before Putin’s Illegal War Against Ukraine, There Were Trump’s Crimes Against President Zelensky
Thom Hartmann – Crazy Alert: Did the GOP Really Endorse Killer
No Dem Left Behind – Protect our kids from Religious Right extremists and the GQP!
Sum of Us – BlueTriton is the worst company you’ve never heard of.
Really American – Republicans Dine In Moscow: Party Of Treason
Suibhne – The Animated History of Ukraine (17 Minutes)
Beau – [Two videos about the domino effects of war]
Mar 152022
Yesterday, I changed some light bulbs. Yes, it would have been nice had I changed them when it was getting dark earlier – but there isn’t a lot of ancillary lightng in that room, and I had to be able to see to do it. Also, balance is an issue – I’ve had balance issue on and off since childhood. Most of the time you wouldn’t know it – I can walk aound fine inside without a cane or crutch (because i knpw all the handholds) – but when I go even one step up I need something to grab. But I got it done. Later, I listenet to the Met Opera “A Concert For Ukraine.” I hoped it might show up later on YouTube, but all that has been loaded is the final curtain calls (If anyone does care, when they bring on the soloists, they are, from left to right, .Jamie Barton, Elza van den Heever, Lisa Davidsen. Then Yannnick Nézet-Séguin (the conductor), and on the right, a 24-year-old Ukrainian bass-baritone in the Met’s Lindemann Young Artists Program (which is what thy call their apprentice program, Every major opera company has one now.), followed bt Piotr Beczala and Ryan Speedo Green. Davidsen sang the Four Last Songs by Strauss, and the young Ukrainian soloed in the Ukrainian National Anthem. The other four were the soloists in the last movement of Beethoven’s nintu (Ode to Joy). Sorry I didn’t catch the young Ukrainian’s name … but I also watched a video of a different performance of the anthem, prior to an opera, and I actually picked him out – he was the only one not reading the words, and he had his hand over his heart just as he does in the curtain call. (Beczala, who also puts his hand over his heart in the curtain call, is from Poland, one of Ukraine’s nest door neighbors.) I realize this is not as meaningful if one doesn’t know the peole … but I do (except the one I will get to know better later.)
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Short Takes –
Crooks and Liars – Ukraine To Release Commemorative ‘Russian Warship, Go F#ck Yourself’ Stamp
Quote – The Ukrainian postal service will release a stamp that says “Russian warship, go f#ck yourself” to commemorate the soldiers who reportedly cursed out Russian forces attacking
Snake Island during the early days of the Russian invasion. Ukraine’s Ukrposhta wrote on Facebook that they will be holding a vote to choose one of 20 finalist designs sent in which feature the phrase, which has become a rallying cry for Ukrainian troops and citizens defending their homeland.
Click through for more. The contest is over and the winner is in (and shown here.) My mom took up philately as a hobby after she retired, so I know that collectors all over the world will want this. So if you want one, find yourself a business that deals in philately and you should have no trouble putting in an order Ask about first day covers – I know those are a thing but I really don’t know what effect it would have on the value of this one. You may have to wait a while – I don’t know how hard it will be to get it printed while being shelled. God, I love the Ukrainians. (Can we get a stamp that says “F*ck the GQP”?)
Slate – A New Report Adds Evidence That Trump Was a Russian Asset
Quote – During the campaign, Trump, his national security appointees, and his allies in Congress insisted that China was meddling in the election to help Joe Biden. They even claimed that China’s interference was more dangerous than Russia’s. The report shreds that fiction. China “did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US Presidential election,” says the assessment. It finds no attempt by China to “provide funding to any candidates or parties,” and it challenges the Republican spin that China feared Trump because he was too tough. It argues, to the contrary, that Beijing saw Trump as a weaker adversary because he “would alienate US partners,” whereas Biden “would pose a greater challenge over the long run because he would be more successful in mobilizing a global alliance against China.”
Click through. This report doesn’t mention that he may actually have been a Russian asset for 40 years, or nearly – since the 80’s (when he started getting loans from thhem through Deutsche Bank), but that has also been mentioned recently.
CNN – After over three decades of covering Russia, I leave in despair. One man has extinguished the bright hope many once felt
Quote – Over the past couple of months while I’ve been reporting from Moscow, I’ve met many people who have been horrified, shocked and numbed by Putin’s wanton aggression. Some of them believed him when he said he wouldn’t invade Ukraine. Some even knew players in the Kremlin inner circle and thought they understood the President’s red lines, but now that trust is blown and they fear he has no limits at all.
Click through for full analysis. It’s pretty clear that Mr. Robertson feels strongly about this. I certainly would in his shoes. I wish I had a solution. I wish someone – anyone – had a solution.
Food For Thought:
Mar 142022
Glenn Kirschner – Mike Flynn Pleads the 5th; He Should be Ordered to Active Duty & Court-Martialed for his Crimes
Meidas Touch – Exclusive: Ukrainian Diplomat has a message for America
The Daily Show – Russia Threatens to Abandon American Astronaut in Retaliation for Sanctions
Vox – How a no-fly zone would change the war in Ukraine
Armageddon Update – Freedumb Convoy
Sprouts – Skin in the Game: No Risk No Learning
Beau – Let’s talk about a unique proposal going after oligarchs…. Well, this is an interesting development. Did you notive he started with “Ahoy,” not “Hi there”?