What is everybody listening to these days?
I’ll embed the first 5 YouTube links that are posted (only one to a person)
(Don’t make me sorry I said that!)
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How About a Music Thread for a Saturday NightPost + Comments (210)
Archives for 2024
A story out of America’s earliest history that may give us some hope
Jackie sent me a link to this terrific story on Raw Story. Never thought I would write that sentence! I guess the feeling is mutual, because Raw Story hates me. This time, it kept covering up the text as I was trying to read, but I managed to copy the story, in 7 bits and pieces. Normally I don’t post an entire story, but this one seems important, and really, how many of you will go to the trouble of trying to get the story if you have to go through that?
So here’s the story in its entirety. Since the story is long, I won’t say more than that, so let’s discuss it in the comments.
This posted accidentally a few days ago, so the first 15 comments are from that day, before I noticed the inadvertent publish!
Let’s stay on topic in this post – this is not an open thread.
A dark mystery from America’s past could save us from Trump’s tyranny
by Thom Hartmann
It’s probably, politically and spiritually, the darkest Thanksgiving for our nation in my lifetime. So how about a quick story out of America’s earliest history that somewhat echoes this moment and may give us some hope?
Donald Trump has told us he’s going to use the 1807 Insurrection Act to declare a state of emergency, which will allow him to round up not only undocumented immigrants but also his political opponents, who he refers to as “the enemy within.” He came to power using Willie Horton-like ads trashing trans people and is happy to demonize anybody else who stands up to his hunger for absolute power.
In an age-old technique usually employed during wartime, Trump regularly uses the rhetoric America has employed against foreign enemies to characterize Americans who disagree with him and his policies. Remember the “raghead” slurs against Arabs from the Afghan and Iraqi wars? Or politicians referring to Vietnamese in the 1970s as “slants” and “gooks”?
My dad, who volunteered to fight in WWII straight out of high school, called Germans and Japanese “krauts” and “Japs” to his dying days; American propaganda during wartime encouraged popular usage of these racist characterizations.
In this regard, Trump’s trying to lie us into a war. But not an external war; this time he’s pushing for something very much like a 21st century version of a second civil war. A war by Americans against Americans.
Often history tells us how the future may turn out: Trump isn’t the first American politician to use lies and slanders to whip up a war-like frenzy. Or to use the language of war for political gain.
A story out of America’s earliest history that may give us some hopePost + Comments (122)
A Quarter of a Billion Dollars to Enable Hawk Tuah Memecoin
The Guardian has a breakdown of FEC filings in the Presidential race. Trump raised $273.2 million:
The analysis of new election data from the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) shows the increasingly heavy influence of the tech industry in US elections. Advocates of cryptocurrency were particularly active in this election as they fought to stave off regulation, pumping money into the presidential campaigns and key congressional races.
I really have a hard time writing about crypto with any level of seriousness because it is one of the dumbest fucking things I’ve ever heard in my entire life, most of which has been spent working on technology for a living. Case in point:
Who could have guessed that buying up a token based around the long-past-its-expiration-date hawk tuah meme might turn out to be an unwise investment? Haliey Welch, the originator of the raunchy catchphrase, launched a memecoin that she insisted was not a cash grab but a “good way to interact with her fans”. (The “interaction” in question here was limited to ” fans give money”, because she had no other specific plans for the token).
The token followed the typical pattern of quickly pumping, then crashing spectacularly, losing around 90% of its “value”. This is often an indicator of a pump-and-dump scheme by insiders, but Welch vehemently denied such wrongdoing, blaming the crash on “snipers”.
“I really lost $43k apeing in ‘hawk tuah’ coin,” wrote one buyer on Twitter. Other Twitter users marveled at a wallet that swapped $1.4 million worth of MOODENG (a memecoin based on the tiny hippo of the same name) only to lose it all on the $HAWK token.
Another example is the kid in his early teens who parlayed a $350 investment in his own memecoin into a $30K cash out in the span of an evening. There are many other stories like this on Molly White’s Web3 is Going Great blog
Anyway, here’s the problem Democrats face. We should be laughing at this shit while simultaneously calling for regulations. But that sweet crypto cash is pretty fucking tempting. This graph is from the Guardian article linked above:
So as usual in our big tent, C.R.E.A.M. for a discouraging number of Democrats. We have electeds across the ideological spectrum who want us to be part of the crypto “revolution”, ranging from Kirsten Gillibrand to Ro Khanna. (You can see who the crypto industry thinks is or isn’t in their corner at this link.) As part of our post-election dialogue here, I wonder if anyone has any smart ideas about how the party can disentangle itself from the crypto time-bomb that is certainly coming and might just blow a hole in the entire economy.
(Edit: Forgot to add Bret Terhune’s TikTok video on Hawk Tuah memecoin, which is hilarious.)
A Quarter of a Billion Dollars to Enable Hawk Tuah MemecoinPost + Comments (77)
The Last Abortion Clinic in Wyoming
This is the opposite of a Cletus safari and it’s really well done:
“We see patients from Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah” and “from Montana, from Nebraska,” says Katie Knutter, the executive director of Wellspring. “We regularly have patients who are traveling up to eight hours,” she adds. Some patients have even come from Georgia and Louisiana. Wellspring is also the closest clinic to multiple Native American reservations—one of which, the Oglala Sioux Reservation, is in South Dakota, which virtually bans abortion altogether.
“There is no one-size-fits-all” patient, says Brown. “I have seen 15 year olds, I have seen 50 year olds. I see married women, I see single women. I see women who have a whole bunch of kids already. I see women who’ve never been pregnant before.”
“Hero” might be an overused term, but not in this case: the nurses, staff, volunteers and physicians serving this clinic are heroes. They face the possibility of death every day at the hands of the terrorists who stalk clinic employees.
You may remember this clinic because it was the target of arson a couple of years ago. Wyoming has a constitutional amendment passed during the “death panels” freakout that guarantees the right to make healthcare decisions. A judge in Teton County recently struck down two laws limiting abortions on the basis of them violating the state constitution. The cases now go to the Wyoming Supreme Court. If this clinic closes, the next nearest place for an medical abortion in the vast open spaces of the Mountain West is probably somewhere in Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon or Washington state. Patients at this clinic are already driving long distances, and sometimes having to come back more than once.
In other abortion news, Missouri, like every other Republican state faced with the people voting for an initiated measure or constitutional amendment they don’t like, is trotting out all the fuckery they can muster to try to make sure that the will of the voters is thwarted. Meanwhile, in Texas, women are still dying for lack of a D&C.
C is for Cookie Dough Open Thread
Happy Saturday. Every year at Christmas I send out about two dozen boxes of cookies to friends here in the UK. Today I’m mixing up all the doughs; tomorrow I’ll bake off the first five boxes, and then bake-and-send in shifts all week. One of the last things I ever bought off Amazon was an off-brand stand mixer, and boy does it help during this time of year. Here’s the chocolate chip cookies in progress:
Today, as it happens, is a perfect day to spend at the kitchen counter for two reasons: one, I’m just coming out of a bout of bronchitis; two, Britain is currently being battered by Storm Darragh. I’m about as far inland as you can get in the UK, but every now and then a 60-MPH gust slams past the house, and the rain gets hurled against the windows with a sound like a bucketful of gravel. I feel as if I’m in a ship at sea.
So what’s in this year’s cookie box? Links to recipes after the jump.
Saturday Morning Open Thread: Rebuilding the Cathedral of Notre Dame
The whole of Western society has enjoyed this transformation–more or less–over the past 50 years, thanks to anti-pollution efforts & the marginalization of cigarette smoking. But we are apparently blind to all the ways our lives are better than they've ever been before
— Chatham Harrison is tending his garden (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) December 5, 2024 at 6:06 PM
Notre Dame's reopening will begin with an archbishop's knock on the doors. Here's what comes next
— Associated Press ?? (@asssociatedpress.bsky.social) December 6, 2024 at 12:23 AM
The reopening this weekend of Notre Dame is a succession of ceremonies to breathe life back into the iconic cathedral and celebrate the recovery from its devastating fire in 2019.
Forecasts of stormy winds forced a late change in plans Friday, moving all of Saturday’s events indoors. Still, the weekend’s high points are expected to be the ritualized reopening of the cathedral’s massive doors, the reawakening of its thunderous organ and the celebration of the first Mass. For both France and the Catholic Church, the televised and tightly scripted ceremonies will be an opportunity to display can-do resilience and global influence…
During part one of Notre Dame’s rebirth on Saturday evening [2pm EST], Archbishop Laurent Ulrich will lead more than 1,500 guests through a reopening service. Part two, on Sunday, is an inaugural Mass, with special rites to consecrate the main altar.
On Saturday, Ulrich will first reopen Notre Dame’s great doors — by tapping them with his crosier, or bishop’s staff.
The staff was created for the occasion by designer Sylvain Dubuisson. The wood — bearing visible black traces from the blaze — came from pieces of the cathedral roof that collapsed in the inferno, Dubuisson told The Associated Press.
In response to the archbishop’s door-knocks, the cathedral will erupt into song, its choirs once again filling the cavernous spaces.
That back-and-forth will happen three times and the doors will then open…
The voice of Notre Dame’s great organ hasn’t been heard in public since the blaze coated the nearly 8,000 pipes with toxic dust released when the lead roofing burned.
After the door-opening rites, Ulrich will reawaken the giant instrument. He’ll address it directly with a series of eight incantations, starting with “Awaken, organ, sacred instrument: Sing the praise of God.”
That prompt will launch a conversation with the organ, with four organists (Olivier Latry, Vincent Dubois, Thibault Fajoles and Thierry Escaich) taking turns to play its responses.
They’ll be perched high above the congregation, seated at the newly renovated giant console that controls the instrument — through five keyboards of 56 notes each, foot pedals for 30 notes, and 115 stops…
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A Little Thing That Makes You Happy (even for just a minute)
Can we talk about little things?
My little thing that makes me happy – for the time I am looking at it, at least – is the color show that Waffle puts on when you get 5 stars on the Waffle or on the Waffle Royale. 5 stars is a perfect score.
It’s not static colored squares, the colors shift around quietly, slowly, and artfully, beautifully.
That’s my moment of zen when I am in the moment with the color show. Very short, but sweet!
You may also get the color show if you get 5 stars one the Deluxe Waffle,
but I have never gotten 5 stars on that one so I can’t be sure.
The Deluxe Waffle (there is one every Sunday) is 7 x 7 instead of 5 x 5.
There is an archive for the daily game and the weekly Deluxe Waffle.
No archive for the Waffle Royale, catch it that day or it’s gone forever.
Is there a little thing that has that same effect that for you guys?
A Little Thing That Makes You Happy (even for just a minute)Post + Comments (177)