June 24, 2022

Maybe it's just me

But I feel like if Liz Cheney wants democrats to vote for her in a primary, giving up their right to support a democratic candidate, she ought to throw them a bone. Not just “well I’m against tRump, but acknowledge that she has seen the light and will reject the republican bullshite. If she is unwilling to come to Jebus and recognize that her party is crap, why should a democrat cross over and support her. I grew up in Wyo, so I totally realize that no democrat would ever be elected there, but she ought to acknowledge that it’s not just tRump that is a problem. It’s her whole toxic, fascist party. She ought to leave the party and their shitty policy choices.

I know, ain’t gonna happen, but she has surprised us before.

May 16, 2022

"Quartet" on Netflix

This is an older movie (2012?) but I found it to be a heartwarming thing of beauty.

"Quartet is a 2012 British comedy-drama film based on the play Quartet by Ronald Harwood, which ran in London's West End from September 1999 until January 2000. It was filmed late in 2011 at Hedsor House, Buckinghamshire. The film is actor Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut." Wikipedia

May 2, 2022

What Trevor Noah Got Desperately Wrong at the White House Correspondent's Dinner

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/05/trevor-noah-mistake-white-house-correspondents-dinner.html

*Snip

The most notable part of an event that has felt in recent years like a stale and hackneyed tradition—even before the former guy’s multi-year boycott—came when Daily Show host Trevor Noah stuck the landing as he closed out the evening with a gentle admonition to U.S. journalists. Noah ended the event with these words:

"Ask yourself this question: If Russian journalists who are losing their livelihoods… and their freedom for daring to report on what their own government is doing, if they had the freedom to write any words, to show any stories or to ask any questions, if they had, basically, what you have, would they be using it in the same way that you do?"

*Snip

Well. Illiberalism is nigh. It voted in 2016, it rampaged in the Capitol in 2021, it formed the basis of myriad new election restrictions in 2022, and it may well steal the election in 2024. It is dictating what children may read, what teachers may teach, how private companies may speak, how parents can raise their own children, and it’s conscripting citizen vigilantes as its lawful enforcers. We should report on that as though we are in Russia because, in real ways, many Americans are already experiencing similar levels of repression. Women in Texas have been in reproductive Russia since September of 2021. Freedom is a continuum and not a touchdown dance, and nearly everyone in media knows this. The problem isn’t so much that we in the press aren’t doing our jobs. It’s that we know nobody would come to watch a show about how now that the occupiers and election deniers have temporarily and mostly—though not entirely—vacated the Capitol, they’re actually still out there, preparing for the next attacks, that very little is being done to stop them, and that this is generally considered neither interesting nor news.

April 22, 2022

MTG has taken the stand

April 22, 2022

Cool Dashboard

Bird migration dashboard. Select your state/county and the dashboard will show how many birds crossed over your county last night, at what altitude and direction and shows a list of the types of birds that migrate through your area. For example, it showed that last night, 886,000 birds flew through the county I selected. Pretty interesting!

link:https://dashboard.birdcast.info

March 28, 2022

Nicole Wallace is back!

She has been out a long time. Hopefully she will say where she has been. I am curious if she was still fighting off her COVID infection. Anyway, glad she is back!

March 24, 2022

This is the best thing I saw today

I love Corey Booker
This is how this excellent woman deserves to be spoken to.

February 14, 2022

Thank you for the hearts!

I read a lot and don’t often comment. Have a small number of posts, so I appreciate the hearts more than you can know. Love you all!

February 8, 2022

Now & Then podcast

Bans & Schools: Book Panics

"Book bans are back. What’s causing this resurgence? What have similar acts of censorship meant throughout American history? And how should concerned citizens respond? In this first installment of a special three-part series, “Bans & Schools: Book Panics,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss three past book panics: the political uproar over Hinton Helper’s 1857 The Impending Crisis of the South, the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial over the teaching of evolution, and the 1966 Virginia school controversy over Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Tune back in next week for a closer look at the specific role of schools in the battle over bans and censorship."

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bans-schools-book-panics/id1567665859?i=1000550410592


This was a very interesting discussion comparing book bans from the past with the current political actions in Tennessee and other red states. The last five minutes were an impactful summation on the use of book bans as political power plays. If you have 50 minutes to spare, I would highly recommend this (especially if you enjoy Heather Cox Richardson's daily Letters from an American ).

February 1, 2022

Watching Jen Psaki press briefing

on PBS this afternoon. I was watching on YouTube and there was close captioning that was less then accurate. When a reporter asked a question about something the Florida governor had said, the close caption interpreted (governor Desantis) as,
"gutter de satan." I think I like that even more than DeathSantis.