Motley Kamuka

I read that Afghanistan they banned women singing in public ( NPR ). What is the mental state, and the assumptions in your head that makes that a possibility, and in a society, what makes that a possibility. It's not clear whether they can sing on Twitter . Supposedly they want to boost the economy with tourism. What kind of woman wants to go to a country where she can't sing in public if she wants? I read the other day that a fellow didn't eat for 382 days. He did it while he was in a hospital. He had vitamins and yeast, and put milk and sugar in his coffee and tea towards the end. He lost He lost 276. People had to push him through the door of a bus to go to a soccer game, and that is what led him to realizing he should lose some weight. He went 48 days sometimes without pooping. They began to break the fast by giving him sugar water, so if you count that time, he went 392 days without solid food. Barbieri had his first solid meal on 11 July 1966: a boiled egg and a slic

Gabrielle Zevin (born 1977) is a 47 year old American. She was born in NYC. Her father has Russian, Polish and Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, and his mother was Korean, came to the USA at age 9. Gabrielle grew up in Boca Raton Florida, went to Harvard and graduated in 2000. Her first novel was published in 2005. She's also written young adult fiction and four screenplays.  Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow came out in 2022. Here's what I liked about it. It felt like Sally Rooney's close up of relationships, in the game world, almost like Sally Rooney wrote a kind of Ready Player One. And there's a kind of Brideshead Revisited triangle.  People see Zevin as a zionist, which to them means she picks it as OK for what is going on there, but I don't think we need people to denounce the genocide in Gaza to uncancel people. People have tribal loyalties, and like and dislike things, I don't see her liking her heritage as threatening. Someone wondered if she leaves ideas

Controlling the country through the courts was the plan behind stacking the courts with Republican nominees and weaponizing the filibuster to stop Democrats from passing legislation. In March 2024, in Slate, legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern noted that McConnell “realized you don’t need to win elections to enact Republican policy. You don’t need to change hearts and minds. You don’t need to push ballot initiatives or win over the views of the people. All you have to do is stack the courts. You only need 51 votes in the Senate to stack the courts with far-right partisan activists…[a]nd they will enact Republican policies under the guise of judicial review, policies that could never pass through the democratic process. And those policies will be bulletproof, because they will be called ‘law.’” Heather Cox Richardson  

I'd say the consequences of the lie about immigrants eating cats and dogs, it dramatizes a point about hatred and anxiety about immigrants, but "I saw it on TV," isn't sourced enough. You need to be more than a salesman to be a president. The harm to people in Springfield isn't worth trying to weasel his way into the presidency by manipulating hatred and anxiety.  The Guardian as usual has the best article.  Sinister hue HCR : On August 10, about a dozen neo-Nazis of the “Blood Tribe” organization showed up in Springfield, where one of their leaders said the city had been taken over by “degenerate third worlders” and blamed the Jews for the influx of migrants. The neo-Nazis stayed and, on August 27, showed up at a meeting of the city council, where their leader threatened council members. On September 1, another white supremacist group, Patriot Front, held its own “protest to the mass influx of unassimilable Haitian migrants” in the city. Right-wing social media

I read the New York Times frequently in college. This is the final straw for me.  I've been consistently disappointed with it's bothsidesism lately. The regularly run op ed articles explaining why Trump would be a great choice instead of the monster he is, instead of how his campaign is sinking, how he was the worst president ever. I'm reading the article about Harris making Trump her bitch in the debate, and then I come across this: "In recent weeks, as the burst of enthusiasm around Ms. Harris’s candidacy has tempered, the questions about her policy positions and plans have grown. Very few were answered Tuesday night." Are you serious? Harris has more answers on policy than Trump will ever have, and she actually has policies to address problems in America. Her campaign isn't just avoidance of justice, and excuse to bully judges. This but her policy bullshit has to end.  The Times wanted him to attack her on inflation, which isn't really the president, bu

Bluegrass covers that gave me goose bumps: Thunderstruck by Steve'n'Seagulls YouTube Sweet Child o' Mine by Thunder and Rain YouTube Sierra Hull - Mad World (Tears For Fears) - DelFest YouTube Brandi Carlile Covers Crosby, Stills, & Nash’s “Helplessly Hoping” YouTube I went down a rabbit hole of Helplessly Hoping once: Suddenly Years Align The Ladies of the Roach Motel Leah Taub Hannah Cameron, Husky Gawenda and Stephen Grady YouTube My two other songs I love is: I'm Ready There's an amazing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 9, season 2, called "Subspace Rhapsody" She has gotten into the Vulcan science academy, and she's leaving the ship and that means Spock is losing a girlfriend, and he sings a pretty cool song, "I'm the ex".  But what I like about it is that I was working hard to understand upeksha meditation, equanimity, and I came across the idea that it's being ready, so to me the song has a different meaning than the sh

Here's the dynamic. Trump does outrageous stuff. Left leaning people amplify the horror that he is, but he's still in front of you, saturating you, overwhelming America. Just one example. He still owes Albuqueue $200K ( source ). The far right enjoys his antics. Moderate conservatives are not as offended by him, but they are offended some by him. Conservatives are OK with distracting the left with culture wars, some. Only Liz Cheney and Romney feel it's gone too far, those are the only two prominent right wing politicians who have denounced Trump. Others have denounced him, but they're not really prominent, and it's arguable that Cheney, who lost her seat, and Romney are prominent. Most right wing politicians lick Trump's butt, and that's another source of angst for the left, they don't understand who people can pretend to be so blind. He's constantly in everyone's face and not everyone enjoys it. I want to ignore him, and then I see something th

 

Jerome Weiselberry is the name of a YouTube channel for a woman who speaks about her like in movies, and books.  I watched her video about favorite things in the movie The Third Man. I think she posted it on Reddit  on a film noir subreddit.  Her video of explaining why she called the channel Jerome Weiselberry.   The video on the books she's recently read (beginning of August 2024). Here's a video 25 things about her. While I'm at it, I also like watching videos of Strange Lucidity .  I can't leave this blog post until I say Happy Maria Bamford Day! She was born today in 1970. She's a darling and I love her comedy. YouTube always puts up some unseen by me video her her. That leads me to This Will Make An Excellent Horcrux a comedy special by Jackie Kashian on YouTube .