Monday Reads: In other news …
Posted: April 4, 2022 Filed under: alternative energy, New Orleans 39 Comments
The Dancer (detail),
Gustav Klimt
Good Day Sky Dancers!
Today is the day the Senate Judiciary will discuss “Ketanji Brown Jackson’s bid to join the Supreme Court as its 116th justice — and first Black woman.” It’s good to be making history in a positive way for a change. The right-wing media and pols are still harping over nonsense. The vote will probably come by the end of the week. This is from the Washington Post.
The Judiciary Committee — which, like the full Senate, is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans — is almost certain to deadlock 11 to 11 on her nomination. That will force Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to put a measure on the Senate floor discharging Jackson’s nomination from the committee, a vote that is expected to occur Monday evening. Her final confirmation vote on the Senate floor would happen Thursday or Friday.
As the Senate heads into the final week of Jackson’s confirmation battle, the last-minute deliberations of a handful of GOP senators are being watched closely to see whether her support will grow beyond one Republican.
From the AP News tweet above we have a major report on climate change.
Temperatures on Earth will shoot past a key danger point unless greenhouse gas emissions fall faster than countries have committed, the world’s top body of climate scientists said Monday, warning of the consequences of inaction but also noting hopeful signs of progress.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change revealed “a litany of broken climate promises” by governments and corporations, accusing them of stoking global warming by clinging to harmful fossil fuels.
“It is a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that put us firmly on track towards an unlivable world,” he said.
Governments agreed in the 2015 Paris accord to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) this century, ideally no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). Yet temperatures have already increased by over 1.1C (2F) since pre-industrial times, resulting in measurable increases in disasters such flash floods, prolonged droughts, more intense hurricanes and longer-burning wildfires, putting human lives in danger and costing governments hundreds of billions of dollars to confront.
New Orleans is ecstatic as Jon Batiste swept the Grammys with 5 wins! He also announced that he and journalist and author Suleika Jaouad tied the knot. She had battled leukemia in her 20s but it returned this year. Watch their appearance on CBS Monday to meet this incredibly talented couple. It’s a really inspiring partnership. Jon could not be with her during her bone marrow transplant due to Covid-19 restrictions but wrote her a daily lullaby to play her to sleep during their online time together. She is also a fabulous painter.
You may read an excerpt of Suleika Jaouad’s Between Two Kingdoms about her cancer battle here.
With all the news of Russians raping and butchering women and children in Ukraine I was happy to see this young Mardi Gras Indian at the center of Batiste’s performance. I was also delighted to hear this as part of Batiste’s acceptance speech.
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You know, I really, I believe this to my core, there is no best musician, best artist, best dancer, best actor, the creative arts are subjective and they reach people at a point in their lives when, they need it most it’s like a song or an album is made and it almost has a radar to find the person when they need it the most…
Even in times like these, we continue to create music, art, and great works of literature that reach us when we need it most.
I’m going to make this short today because I’m headed to the dentist shortly. I’d also like to introduce you to Waylon who spent 3 days with me after Michelle grabbed him from the rickety bridge at St Claude running loose and untagged. Waylon–newly named–has a furever home now. It was a lot to have this big boy in my small house but he’s a goofy lovebug that deserved a home and now he has one.
Have a good week! Look for the good stories about the good people today! Here’s a fewto get you started!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Good luck at the dentist. I’m so glad Walon has a good home now. He looks so sweet and sort of confused.
Yeah. It will do him good to have some stability I think plus he’s in need of some training and she does that for a living so he’ll get both!
Awww, he looks like a sweet doggo. Must have been a handful — German Shepherds have so much energy and need a lot of time to play, go for walks and runs!
yup, quite the handful!
That Klimt painting is gorgeous!
I know it popped right up when I searched flowers and women paintings! I’m always finding something I’ve never seen before!
It is amazing!
Republicans are definitely not even what they used to be when the worst of the Dixiecrats joined the party. They have no shame. They just want to control everything.
Nice to see his nuclear option crammed down his throat. Hope we can do it a few more times.
How qualified? Well, if you’re Kavanaugh, you have to be qualified as a snivelling day drunk. If you’re the Handmaid, you have to smile glassily. KBJ doesn’t do any of those things. Of *course* the Pathetic Panderers Platoon is unhappy with her.
endless screaming, etc etc etc
Romney and Murkowski are yes voters along with Collins.
Republican Madison Cawthorn offers Congress his definition of ‘What a woman is.’:
CAWTHORN: “A woman is two X chromosomes and no ‘tallywacker’…”
Honestly, that is a better answer than Jackson’s “I don’t know; I’m not a biologist.” How can she adjudicate issues around women’s rights if she doesn’t know what women are?
That doesn’t mean I want Cawthorn on the Supreme Court — he’d be horrible! I like everything else about Jackson.
If she had given a definition, it might prevent her from hearing a case about trans/women’s rights in the future though.
I don’t follow that. Since she doesn’t know what a woman is, she can’t say to whom women’s rights belong. It’s a ridiculous state of affairs when a distinguished judge doesn’t know that a woman is an adult human female, or when she’s so afraid of misogynist backlash she won’t say it.
What’s the procedure for children born with both sex organs? Do they chose by y chromosome or what?
There are no true hermaphrodites among humans. They’re either male or female. “Intersex” is an outmoded term for disorders/differences of sex development (DSD). People with DSDs are either male or female, not neither, both, nor spectrum-y. DSDs are a medical condition, and usually have other anatomical anomalies. It’s a not a gender self-identification. Only ~0.01% of babies are born w/DSDs. The ‘common as redheads’ contention isn’t accurate. Nearly all babies can be sexed accurately at birth; the other ~0.01% can be sexed by DNA.
Thx. I’ve always wondered. I had a beautician, Heather that had both organs, and the parents were given the choice of what to do. The parents choose to keep the male ones. Not sure what the actual biology was at birth but I did have a cat that had both and was originally sexed as female before being neutered. The vet there was a penis too and I guess it was removed. Not sure if they actually looked at chromosomes back then with Heather or what or how that decision was made but she eventually become Heather sometime in the 80s with full-on surgery. I was always curious about the situation. I am aware it’s quite rare.
A complicating factor is that people often decide “maleness” based not on testes but on the presence of a penis, when it’s in reality an enlarged clitoris. So you have an XX female, with ovaries, vagina, and clitoris, who’s interpreted as male because “penis” and female because there’s also a vagina.
With mosaic inheritance it’s not theoretically impossible to have one testicle and one ovary (and a mix of XX and XY cells) in one body, but there have either been no confirmed cases in all the medical literature or just one. (Don’t remember) As Luna says, beyond rare.
Oh yes. If all of Florida had been recounted Gore would have won the Electoral College. That was clear from reported totals per county. Gore’s team should have pushed harder for a state-wide recount, but SCOTUS probably would have blocked him.
2000, 2004, 2016 — all with invalid wins. Now the Republicans are weaponizing recounts. DARVO.
Yup. And many of us knew it at the time.
Genocide
Some one needs to ask Marcia about pedophiles th those evangelical churches behind this.
Vile. And of course we all know the “brides” are going to be 10-y.o. girls, not boys (not that that would be any better).
There’s absolutely nothing that men won’t do to control women and children in whatever way they feel obliged. How do they still consider us chattel/property in the modern world?