An F in voting

This is a delicious dilemma. If Congressional GOP flee the nasty guy his base turns against them. If they cling to the nasty guy the rest of the country turns against them. Actually doing the right thing – protecting citizens from the virus, providing adequate financial protection during the lockdown, and doing something about police brutality for starters – doesn’t seem to have entered their minds.



Georgia had a primary election yesterday. It didn’t go well. Kristen Clarke of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said, “If we view the primary election as a dry run for November, then Georgia gets an F today.” New voting machines didn’t work right. Back up provisional ballots ran out. Many precincts (the black ones) had hours long lines. One precinct ended voting after midnight. Many people weren’t able to exercise their right to vote simply because they couldn’t afford to wait that long.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (GOP) says the problems were with the counties. Voting rights advocates, such as Stacey Abrams, point to Raffensperger.

Greg Bluestein tweeted a thread with images and videos of the problems of voting in the state.

LeBron James tweeted:

Everyone talking about “how do we fix this?” They say “go out and vote?” What about asking if how we vote is also structurally racist?

Jenn Budd tweeted:

Okay. I’m just going to say it. I think this was a practice run for November to see which of his people and which law enforcement he can trust to fight for him when he refuses to leave. It’s just crazy to say that but I believe it.

Sarah Kendzior replied:

Not crazy at all. They have other horrific objectives along with it, but it is indeed a test run for Nov and a loyalty test.

It’s been a while since I’ve watched an opera stream from the Metropolitan Opera. I did this evening. The opera was Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck. The basic plot is the fairy tale we know well.

This is the only work I know by this composer and it’s a good one. The most famous bit is the Evening Prayer. The children are lost in the woods and night is coming on. They pray that fourteen angels will guard them during the night. That is followed by orchestral music for the dream pantomime. In most productions one sees the angels arrive and take up position. The music of the prayer and pantomime are wonderful.

This production focuses on the reason why the children are in the woods – they’re hungry. So in this production instead of angels the children dream of a fabulous banquet with waiters uncovering all the dishes in a big flourish.

A couple other things about this production. It is sung in English instead of the original German. And the witch is sung by a tenor. If you want something to do Thursday look for the Met Opera free streaming.

I saw this opera live maybe 25 years ago in Toronto. It was a Sunday afternoon and the audience had a lot of kids – I think there were five children on either side of me. In that production the sets and costumes were designed by Maurice Sendak, the author of the children’s book Where the Wild Things Are. When the opera ended and the witch came out for her curtain call all the children booed. The actor reacted, mustered some dignity, and bowed anyway.