Rightly seen as hair-on-fire emergencies for Western liberal democracy

I downloaded Michigan’s COVID data yesterday but forgot to mention it in yesterday’s post. This is data through Friday. The big peak in new cases per day of four weeks ago was raised to 27,393. Since then the weekly peaks are going in the right direction – 24,537, 18,632, and 13,135. Deaths per day are still in the 50-85 range. I heard in Michigan news the state has said for those doing tests at home they no longer need to report a positive test to the state. That’s a bit worrisome. All along the state has not included home test results in state statistics. Aldous Pennyfarthing of the Daily Kos community reported that Rep. John Fillmore of the Arizona state legislature has proposed a bill which would eliminate most early and absentee voting and require people to vote in their home precinct rather than at a big vote center. Does that mean he’ll support Election Day as a holiday so people can get to the polls? What about making sure there are enough polling places so people of color don’t wait for hours? And one more thing in the bill – after an election the legislature would hold a special section to review election process and results and to “accept or reject the election results.” Yup, they want the power to nullify an election they don’t like. Pennyfarthing says the bill is unlikely to pass. It’s still alarming.

Before Trump came along, such initiatives would be rightly seen as hair-on-fire emergencies for Western liberal democracy. Now? Just another Wednesday.

Kos of Kos put up another collection of pro vaccine memes. The first one with Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker is pretty good. The one that I like the most isn’t directly related to promoting getting a COVID vaccine. This one says:

If giving free shots is for the health of the nation why aren’t they giving away free insulin and chemo?

This is a case where reading the comments is a good idea. The first block of comments includes Star Trek characters McCoy and Spock trying to make sense of people not getting the vaccine. Another shows a zombie looking for brains and walking past people with anti-vax shirts. My video this evening was Mademoiselle a documentary of Nadia Boulanger. Unless one is a student of 20th century classical music her name probably won’t be familiar. She is known for being the teacher of a long list of major composers of that century and many pianists too. That list includes Aaron Copland, Philip Glass, Astor Piazzolla, Burt Bacharach, and Quincy Jones. The film was created in 1977 when she was 90 (she died at 92). It shows her leading her studio with a student at the piano and perhaps another dozen listening to what she had to say. There were also interviews with a student or two and an interview with her. Since I am a student of 20th century classical music I find her life fascinating and I could discuss the stories I’ve heard at length, though I doubt many others would be interested. The video was in French with subtitles. One of the people interviewed was Leonard Bernstein. He wasn’t a student of hers, though his teachers, Aaron Copland and Walter Piston, were. He did meet her and they became friends. I was surprised to see how well Bernstein spoke French. This video of Boulanger is on YouTube and it looks like a few more videos of her are there. Another day.