Yesterday, I learned that Pete Buttigieg has a Substack. Here’s the link. Just looking at the front page, he appears to be doing less writing and more conversational videos that most newsletters there, but he also appears to be keeping his readership current on what he’s doing. I subscribed – and didn’t even get offered a paid subscription, so it’s free. Just so you know, he has acquired facial hair, so don’t be shocked.
Quite frankly, we do not have enough Democrats in Congress (either House) and there is going to be carnage in the Big Bad Bill that we are somehow going to have to live with, at least for a time. The F* News discusses.
It is, I think, indicative of just how all-consuming the chaos has become that I did not see this faux pas reported anywhere else – though I’m sure it was – on inner pages and below the fold, to use slang from print journalism. Surely Heather Cox Richardson and I are not the only ones who know better.
Yeah, three today – I didn’t want to leave out Los Angeles completely and this seems to be highly thoughtful coverage dripping with sarcasm. Trinette’s family – and there’s a lot of it, even just the California part – lives in Southern Cal, but thankfully not in LA but in Riverside County mostly.
Yesterday, the radio opera was “The Queen of Spades” by Tchaikovsky, loosely based on a novella by Pushkin. There is also an operetta by Franz von Suppê based (even more loosely) on the same novella, which is unlikely ever to be performed again, but one sometimes still hears the overture. This used to confuse me because the opera is so dark I did not see how an operetta could possibly work comically. But a little research informed me that the novella, the opera, and the operetta are pretty much three different stories. THere is a little achadenfreude at the end of the opera, but it is the Countess, who is now dead, who has it, and soon the young lovers are also dead. I’ve only heard it once, during the pandemic, streamed with Placido Domingo and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as the romantic rivals and Elisabeth Söderström (who would be 98 now if whe were still alive) as the Countess. She was pretty old when that was first recorded (and the cxharacter is pretty old) – but physically and vocally still gorgeous. It wasn’t clear then , and it really shouldn’t be, whether the paranormal element in the story is really paranormal, or a kind of hallucination burn of the desperation of the lead tenor. It is not rearly as popular as Tchaikonsky’s Eugene Onegin, and, unlike Onegin, it has no excerpt which can be and is performed in concert, but is still in the repertory (unlike Tchaikovsky’s “Joan of Arc” – which does have an aria which gets sung in concert). I have to add that when the series announcer, Deborah Harder, asked the general manager, Peter Gelb, why he chose to close the season with Tchaikovsky, he said, because great Russian art is and will always be great Russian art, and to show that we weill not be held hostage by Putin committing daily war crimes. I knew that his wife is Ukrainian (I didn’t know ahe was lao a conductor -she conducted today) but I did not expect such political passion from him so publicly. Slava Ukraini!
This is not unqualified good news via Harry Litman, but there is good news in it. I’ll be surprised (and disappointed) id Chris Van Hollen doesn’t keep on this as much as is necessary. Even if there is a conviction, he will be in prison here, in a Federal prison, which is somewhat regulated, and his family will know whether he is alive or dead, and may even get to visit him. Big difference from CECOT.
I don’t know how good this sounds to other people, but it’s extremely good news to me. As a person who works with fiber as a way to relax and also be creative, it’s a break for my conscience. Even in yarns, it isn’t really possible to get 100% cotton any more. Not that I tend to put stuff into landfills if there’s any other way to go – but you also never know where something is going to end up. I hope I live long enough to get a chance to work with some of the recycled yarns this is going to make possible.
This is not brand new, but I missed it when it was.
Today is Kyiv Day – the (this year the 1543rd) anniversary of the founding of Kyiv. Happy Kyiv Day to all who celebrate. Here’s a link to the picture at left, and a little back story. (Also, UNITED24 is raffling off 24 sweatshirts with a Kyiv monogram – to enter, they ask a contribution of $24 by May 31. I couldn’t find it on their website, but will gladly forward the email on request.)
Yesterday, the radio opera was a new opera by John Adams (“Nixon in China,” “Doctor Atomic”) which for once is not set in modern history: “Antony and Cleopatra” – based on Shakespeare. (One thing hasn’t changed – Gerald Finley is still one of his favorite baritones.) The opera was staged in the 1930-s, more or less, and had some references to fascism. At least one review – the one I found – wasn’t crazy about it, but I found it very listenable Having learned to like Adams’s other compositions has made me comfortable with his style..
This is pretty cool. Anyone who wants to repurpose Alcatraz should read this first.
This good news from Amazon Watch is qualified – but it is good news for now. And we don’t often hear good news from Amazon Watch. (I wonder if the new Pope’s election had any influence.)
The original of this parody is from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” made for TV and originally starring Julie Andrews (later remade with Lesley Ann Warren.) The fairy godmother sings it : “Impossible.”
Yesterday, I wondered how badly I need to get over being annoyed by American exceptionalism, at least over some things. But I’m at the point where If I see the phrase “American Pope” one more time, I might – I don’t know – beat my head against the wall or something. Yes, he is American born, which makes him a birthright American citizen. Yes, his brother still lives in the US, and yes, they do Wordle together every morning. But the Pope is also a naturalized Peruvian citizen, which means at the very least he should be called a dual citizen, or an American-Peruvian. (I just learned before getting ready to post that he is in fact a dual citizen.) But frankly, as right wing as the American Roman Catholic church is today, that gives me a lot more hope that if he were in fact just an American. Pope Francis was also from South America. OK, end of rant. Let’s have something good for a change. My email from the ACLU yesterday had this subject line: “Breaking: Rümeysa Öztürk is free!” The case is not over. But for now, she can wait it out in her own community with her own asthma meds.
This link is to a video about 16 and a half minutes. It is about government surveillance and data collection. The CEO, IMO, had balls the size of church bells to name it Palantir, and if I were Chris Tolkien, I’d take him to court over it – if I knew about it. Not that is isn’t appropriate – particularly in how sinister and dangerous the misuse of it can be – it just irks me to see a word invented by JRR Tolkien ripped out of context for commercial use.
Heather Cox Richardson adresses the direction in which we may be heading. OK, this is a quibble – you can have your own opinion on how important it is, but it always bothers me. Yes, “Brave New World” is a dystopian nobel, but it is utterly unlike just about every other dystopian novels in that its inhabitants are not miserable, and that is by design. Everyone in it is conditioned from conception to be in a specific labor pool, and also to be comfortable with the jobs in that labor pool. Hence, everyone is employed practically from birth (however it is defined.) The inhabitants do not want for necessities such as food or shelter or health care. All that is provided by the government. The goverment also provides access on demand to a powerful antidepressant (in fact, I don’t think the word “antidepressant” is strong enough for soma.) Birth control is perfected, and there is no nosigyny, so casual sex can be casual and guilt free. Destructive emotions are dealt with in group sessions. Even a form of religion is government-provided. There is no resistance, not because it’s sternly put down, but because there is nothing to resist – everyone is happy (except that one guy, an no one pays attention to him because they are all happy.) And it works. The seeds of its destruction do not come from within it, but from a place so totally outside it that it has been overlooked. Republicans, authoritarians, do not want a Brave New World. Because for them, cruelty is the point, and there is no cruelty in the Brave New World world. They want a 1984 world, in which people can be tortured for counting to four. And that is what the surveillance is for.
Here is what the 19th has to say about the new pope. He’s not perfect, but he’s far better than I feared when Francis died. I can say with some confidence that he is personable. At least one of his friends is delighted that the rest of the world will get to meet him.
Yesterday, I ran my car for a while, since I hadn’t driven it Sunday. I also out the updated insurance and registration papers in the glove box and the registration sticker on the license plate. (After three wet days, it stopped raining long enough for me to do that.) A couple of weeks ago I was scraping around the base of one of my irises so the rhizome could get sunlight so it can bloom. I was thinking it was kind of early – we’ve been having temperature ups and downs but chilly (at least to me) on balance – but I noticed a bud today – so there may be more coming. No guarantee, but irises tend to surprise me always.
Politics Plus has known and remarked on this phenomenon for some time. There are memes about it which have had widespread and repeated exposure. I don’t know why it’s taking so long for so many decent people to get it. I suppose the fact that decent people, because they are decent, don’t think like that – and deep down we all believe everyone thinks the way we do – is a huge factor. Unfortunately, that isn’t true. Different people think different thoughts, and many of those thoughts are anything but decent. Check out comments on the fundraiser for Shiloh Hendrix (in the 4th paragraph – barf bag alert.)
Y’all know I’m not a huge fan of Meidas Touch journalism. It’s not because of inaccuracy – despite the occasional exaggeration in a title, they are on target. Nor is it because I dislike them personally – because I don’t. I’m delighted to see them exceed Fox News in viewership. And I do respect their “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, and them yell them what you told them style . It useful for many, maybe for most listeners. It just bores me to tears. But this is a text article, not a video – and written not by staff but by a Ukrainian journalist. It’s not very long, and it’s profound. It does have a short introduction by Ron Filipkowski.
Yesterday, everyone had the story that Senator van Hollen had been able to meet with Abrego Garcia. Some said “in the prison” or “in the concentration camp.” Others said the meeting took place in a hotel. I can’t confirm the hotel story for sure, but from the photos, it was not in a prison and definitely not in a concentration camp. I can’t even imagine the thought of a concentration camp having a visiting area. A prison might – but it wouldn’t look like that. Glass glasses? Ceramic coffee cups? Metal forks? Chairs made of anything other than molded plastic? Tables with inlaid tops? Not hardly. The only ting which might be in an actual prison visiting room was the plastic water bottle. A hotel is at least believable. Sadly, it did not result in Abrego Garcia being released, and although he looks pretty good, the Senator reported that Abrego Garcia had been traumatized. I didn’t watch the Meidas Touch video (I just wasn’t up to it) but the print article has details and is pretty short. This is not over yet.
Do we have any real bakers reading this? A casual cookie baker like me would not be up for this recipe (no to mention I couldn’t use wheat, so the lottery would be wasted on me). But here’s a recipe for authentic Ukrainian Easter Cake using flour made from wheat grown in a demined field in the Kharkiv region. Like other Ukrainian recipes I’ve seen, it does sound yummy. You don’t have to belong to Instagram to see it – just close the popup and it’s all there.
Speaking of food, Robyn at Wonkette likes spinach. So do I – especially with a squirt of lemon juice. But (except for what I have in the freezer, purchased before the Rockmelon Regime*
took over) I won’t be eating any more either, until it’s safe again. Assuming I live that long. Guns are not the only things that can kill you or me which will become more widely available with less warning.
On a new topic, it isn’t often lately that Harry Litman
or any other legal expert finds something that he or she believes will make history, especially in a good way. The full opinion should certainly shame anyone in the Executive branch who is capable of shame, if there is any such (I wish I could believe that there is.) I thought I’d best share.
*In case you are wondering, “rockmelom” is another word for “cantaloupe.”
Yesterday, there was an interesting development. Last week the cartoonist Michael deAdder signed up to be exclusive to Meidas Touch. Then yesterday, Ann Telnaes did the same with the Contrarian. It appears that the Progressives on Substack are doing something right. Also yesterday, Joyce Vance wondered what it will take to break through the psychological chains which bind them to the Canteloupe Caligula and his ilk. I can answer that in one short phrase: a resounding defeat. I would like to think it wouldn’t have to be a military defeat, but there is no guarantee. I know this because I am old enough to remember that after the Allies occupied Germany, soldiers consistently said that it was impossible to find anyone who would admit to having been a Nazi. If – and I’m afraid it is an if – we manage to pull off that decisive a victory, it will be difficult to impossible to find anyone who will admit to having been MAGA. But it will have to be a victory as decisive as World War II was. And then we – although I don’t expect to be present – will have to come up with a way to have the First Amendment and at the same time be able to stifle MAGA opinions. That is not going to be easy. But if it isn’t done, there will be another takeover by authoritarians in about 80 years – two generations.
I’m not reading the New Yorker newsletter much any more, but this one’s subject line didn’t say New Yorker, it said Ronan Farrow, and I find him to be both accurate and readable. Besides the horrific callousness in this story, I hope you will pause for a few seconds and think about how much misogyny shared by how many people it took for this to happen. There are more predators here than just the obvious one.
Robert Reich tells it like it is – and without saying so in so many words, demonstrates that Nazi Germany existed not only because of the actions of tha Nazis, but also because of the inaction of non-Nazis. I don’t mean to demean the resistance in Germany – look up Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Society if you don’t know or don’t remember it. They were valiant. But meanwhile, many other Germans were collaborating. There’s a much quoted line from “Judgment at Nuremberg” (so much quoted I am likely not to het it exactly right) when near the end a character playing one of the convicted German judges says to Spencer Tracy’s character, “I swear to you that I did not know it was happening,” and Tracy replies, “You knew the first time you sentences a man to death whom you knew to be innocent.”
Yesterday, a petition I signed for Care2 reminded me vividly of “The Kennel Murder Mystery,” a Philo Vance mystery by S.S. Van Dine. The Vance novels are not for everyone, not even for every mystery fan. The series ran in the 1920s and 1930a, and in the 1920s it was the fashion for young men of some means to be eccentric, and Vance was probably the most eccentric, to the point that this jingle became what we would today call viral: “Philo Vance/needs a kick in the pance.” (Off topic, but wouldn’t that work nicely with the substitution of J.D. for Philo?) The Kennel Murder Mystery is from the 30’s and one critic said it was the best of the later ones because it was a locked room mystery and because in it Vance was “less unbearably obnoxious than usual.” But I digress. From time to time a petition, particularly one involving dog abuse, will remind me of this novel, and the look in the eyes of the dog in this photo pushed that button. The content in question is in Chapter 19 (or XIX), and i see the link I copied should take you directly to that chapter – but it doesn’t. But putting “As we approached the western entrance to the park” take you right to the place to start. There are several points to stop at, but when Vance says he wants to talk to Liang, the episode is as over as it’s going to get. I went a bit farther and found this quote from Lao-Tzu: “he who abuses the weak is eventually destroyed by his own weakness.” It might make a decent protest poster.
On Monday, I received a “Damn-giver Dispatch” from John Pavlovitz, and decided I needed more. So I signed up for a free subscription to his Substack (“The Beautiful Mess”) When I got there and started looking, I discovered that one of his posts there has been picked up by MoveOn and turned into a petition – not that it’s asking for anything, but to provide a vehicle to get it to the person to whom it is addressed, and to express the number of people who are in agreement. He certainly speaks for me, so of course I signed it. The link here is to the column – the petition link is at the bottom (before the comments). speaking of Substack, I seem to remember when I started linking to Substack articles and the “please subscribe” request looked like a paywall, saying something like “Please get adjusted because this thing is growing so fast that just about everyone who has something helpful to say will be on it.” Well, I also got an email from Theater of War – and checked the email address – and yup TOW is now on Substack. [The Pavlovitz and the ProPublics article below were intended for Tuesday.]
ProPublica’s weekly “The Big Story” newsletter from Saturday was just packed with news, most of which others are not covering. Fortunately, they provide a “view in browser” link – which as you know not everyone does.
I don’t suppose anyone here doesn’t know this now. Although you may not know just how far back it goes. Evan Hurst with Wonkette also has his own Substack, titled “The Moral High Ground.” Having that mind set, he sees things which other sometimes miss.
