Yesterday, an email from the Dekleptocracy Alliance (AKA anticorruptionaction.org) pointed out that Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, has a $200 million contract with the Pentagon and is “is now being embedded inside our most sensitive military infrastructure.” It is an email only, so I cannot link to the full letter, but it does go on, and it doesn’t get better. It’s just an email, not a post, and there is no link to the full text; if there were, I would have posted it. Also, Trinette came by, to take care of some stuff that I can’t. And Virgil’s aunt called to say his stepfather had passed away. This was not unexpected, as he was 100 last December. I can’t call Virgil, but when he calls me I shall tell him. He’s been expecting it and I’ve been telling him that when it happened his aunt Donna would let me know.
If this reminds you of the opening of LesMiz – you are not alone. That was the first thing I thought of. “Look down, look down, sweet Jesus doesn’t care.” Rümesa Oztürk is Muslim, but the principle is the same.
I know there are hundreds and thousands of stories much like this. But one person’s story can speak louder than the numbers. You can be confident ProPublica is looking into as many as they are aware of.
Yesterday, the 2:00-4:00 pm weekdays on my local radio station used her first hour for music about cats (including big ones, like Elsa the lioness.) Hooray for childless cat ladies! I hope your Juneteenth was happy.
Yes, I’m late getting this posted. But I don’t suppose it holds any surprises. It does hold some hard evidence which should be useful in future elections – provided we know how to use it.
This is from the 19th. A couple of days ago, in the middle of the night (which is when many of us, including me, get our most off-the-wall thoughts), I started thinking about transgender and the brain, specifically the two sides of the brain. I have since done a search, and I do realize the differences between male and female usage ouf our brains is not as cut and dried as we were led to believe in the seventies. However such differences do exist. As a child, growing up in a Lutheran household, during the career of Christine Jorgensen (not that I ever saw any of her films), I was told that transgender is when the soul of a woman is born into a male body (or vice versa.) And that made perfect sense to me. I never imagined a time when transgender people would have to fight and defend their very identities. Now that we live in such a time, it occurred to me (as I said, in the middle of the night) that possibly the study of differences between male and female brains could provide transgender people with evidence that their perception is real. Possibly I am totally off base here, and it might even backfire, but it is a thought. Being in a brick-and-mortar prison is bad enough, but at least in that situation one is still oneself. Being in prison inside one’s own body and never able to be oneself has got to be orders of magnitude worse.
This is a new ad from a very outspoken PAC which I guess is new – but they already have a bunch out. This on was featured on Democratic Underground, and I thought it hit like a brick: And there are more.
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.”
