Thursday, April 28 10 PM:  Is anything else going on these days besides the Wedding of the Century, The marriage of Katherine ( Kate) Middleton and William (Will) Mountbatten-Windsor?  (This time the wedding of the century really is the wedding of the century–the century is young and until another big wedding comes along this is it.)

Tonight the Big channels–E!,  MSNBC, CNN, BBC America–have all put together specials on tomorrow’s big day. The background, the real stories, the life histories of both Will and Kate,  as well as interviews with their families and anyone who has ever known them, from class-mates to haberdashers and hairdressers to people they’ve waved to on the street.  Right now BBCA is talking about the wedding of the son of Camilla Parker-Bowles.  Very chi-chi.  High society. Astonishingly irrelevant and even, maybe, just guessing, in really, really bad taste.

10:38:  On CNN’s Anderson Cooper they’re showing footage of Princess Diana being helped out of her carriage while her bridesmaids stand by.  Will it totally spoil the mood if I say that her bridal gown looked as if it had been made for a giantess and then tucked and pinned to fit little Lady Di?  Same with the bridesmaids.  Very odd.  But what do I know?  I’ve heard there were thousands of weddings world-wide where brides happily wore dresses that were near-copies of Diana’s.

(Did you hear about the guy who had pictures of Will and Kate tattooed onto his two front teeth?  It’ll wear off in about three months, depending on how often and how vigorously he brushes his teeth, but until then–they’re there.  It’s all here.)

10:55 PM:  Matt Lauer is excitedly talking about the wedding cake.  It’ll be big and beautiful and it’ll taste heavenly.  It’s a Royal cake so it can’t be anything less.  It just can’t.  (Looks like the mayor of London forgot to comb his hair tonight.  Sure hope he remembers tomorrow.  [Update:  He didn't])

11:00PM:  I’m off to bed.  Coverage starts at 3 AM EST.  I’m not kidding.  (No, I won’t be there, either.)

6:00 AM:  I’m up.   Kate is out of the funny, boxy limo and she’s beautiful and her gown is beautiful, if very similar to gowns I’ve seen on “Bridezilla” or elsewhere.  I’m a little disappointed, frankly.  But the tiara belonged to the Queen Mum and for some reason that makes me quite happy.

Here come William and Harry.  Harry is dressed in regalia that’s much more eye-popping than William’s.  Black and gold, compared to William’s more sedate red with blue banner.  One-upped.  Imagine.

I see Beefeaters lining the Cathedral aisle as Kate and her father make their way to the altar.  They really do look wonderfully Gilbert & Sullivan.  What are Beefeaters anyway?  I’ll look them up later, after the festivities.  [Okay, here it is.]

Yes, those Brits know how to throw a wedding.  Is Westminster Abbey the most gloriously ostentatious building you’ve ever seen in your life?

They’ve all met now at the altar and the sopranos are singing the high notes.  I think it’s about to begin. I’m sorry.  I can’t take my eyes off of Harry.  Is he adorable, or what?

Oh, wait, not yet.  Now the crowd is singing.  There’s Elton John.  And Victoria Beckham and that guy. Does Princess Anne ever smile?

The queen is lovely in Daffodil yellow but can’t seem to muster up much enthusiasm.  Prince Philip is looking peaked.  Lady in large blue hat is looking peaked, too. Come on, people!  It’s the Royal Wedding!  Lots of work went into this!

Okay, singing has stopped and the Archbishop of Canterbury just said “Dearly Beloved”.  Shhh, I need to hear this.

I grabbed this off of my TV.  Hope it’s okay, CNN.

They’ve spoken their vows and got through it without flaw.  Whew!  I won’t mention Diana’s mixing up of Charles’s many names.  No, I won’t.

6:20AM/11:20 AM:  It’s done!  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have moved to the side of the altar and are now. . .standing there singing along with everybody in the cathedral.    Crowd scene.  Lots of fancy duds.  Camilla, true to form, is wearing a ridiculous hat, but this time she’s not alone.

An outside shot.  Crowds of Royal worshipers are seen but I can’t tell if they’re singing. Lots of happy flag-waving.

Kate’s brother James is reading from the scriptures or something, appealing to everyone to “present your bodies for sacrifice”.  What???   Is he reading the wrong passage?   “Extend hospitality to strangers”.  “Weep for those who weep”.  “Do not be haughty but associate with the lowly.”  “Do not claim to be wiser than anyone.”  What the heck?  Who invited him, anyway?

Long shot of the cathedral.  Took my breath away. I mean it.

Small boys singing in high voices.  (No, I’m not thinking what you’re thinking.)  Now the grown-up choir is joining in.  Lovely.  Simply lovely. I miss the Queen Mum.

St. Catherine of Sienna said “Be all you can be and you’ll set the world on fire”.   Speeches now, while Will and Kate sit obediently listening when I know they’re thinking, “Didn’t we just get married?  Why are they still talking? Aren’t we supposed to be walking up the aisle?  Will this never end?”

Shot of the crowd outside.  They’re getting restless.  Who knows what will happen if these guys don’t wrap it up soon?  Wide shot.  Huge screens out there showing the inside events.  Almost as good as  watching it on TV at home.

Will and Kate are back at the altar, standing alone.  Gorgeous scene.  Just saw the Palace Guard marching to somewhere.  The singing has stopped.  Kate and Will are kneeling now.  “Lord have mercy upon us.”  Now the Lord’s Prayer.  Now more preaching.  What an opportunity.  A captive audience,  inside and out.  It goes on and on, with the newlyweds still on their knees.  Good thing they’re young.

Now “Jerusalem” by William Blake.  Played at every British Rugby game, someone just said.  The Brits know all the words.  Nice song.  The crowd is waving Union Jack flags and cheering. Now the stirring British national anthem, “God Save the Queen”.  Everyone singing but the queen herself.

The Maid of Honor just bent over to lift the bride’s train.  Oh, my!  The cleavage!  They’ve walked behind the altar and are, I presume, leaving the building.  The music is swelling.  Shot of the cathedral from above.  Stunning camerawork.  Really.

Oh, I should have known.  Here come Will and Kate again.  NOW they’re finally walking up the aisle.  Kate is smiling and Will looks somber.  Ah, there’s a little uplift of the left side of his mouth. And now a full blown Diana-like shy grin.  All’s right again.

They’re standing in the doorway and the crowds outside are seeing them for the first time.  They’re going wild.  Confetti everywhere.  The bells are clanging.  The red,black and gold Cinderella-like carriage, the very same that carried Charles and Diana so long ago, has pulled up and Will is adjusting his white gloves.  They’re entering the carriage.  The bells are going wild.  Lovely couple.  They’re smiling at each other lovingly.  This could work.

They’re off.  They’ve mastered that Royal side-to-side wave with very little wrist action.  Prancing white horses.  Wide-spread jubilation (according to Piers Morgan, who ought to know).

Piers just reminded us that the sun is shining.  They’re really pleasantly surprised, since it’s England in April and heavy rain was actually predicted.  I seem to remember that the weather cooperated when Charles and Di were married, too.  So much for portents of good things to come.

They’re entering  Buckingham Palace and both Will and Harry have saluted as they enter the gates.  The Royal couple have exited the carriage and won’t be seen again until they appear on the palace balcony.  The queen is arriving behind them.  Prince Philip salutes as they enter the gate.  Charles and Camilla are in a carriage behind the queen.  Aerial view of the crowds.  Pretty impressive.

From now on it’s all talk.  Example:  “We have never seen Prince William kiss Kate.”  They can’t stop talking about the long-awaited first kiss.  They’re actually doing a minute-by-minute countdown until the Big Smooch.

Okay, they’ve kissed.  We’re done here.

(Cross-posted at Ramona’s Voices)

(Cross-posted at Ramona’s Voices here)

Michigan, our wonderful, beautiful jewel of a state–the only state in the union that looks like a mitten reaching up to grab a leaping rabbit, the only state surrounded on three sides by three different really Great Lakes, the only state that can lay claim to both Vernor’s Ginger Ale and Sanders Hot Fudge Sauce, has been in the news a lot lately.

Not because we’ve finally been discovered and people are wondering how they could possibly have overlooked us (Weather Channel, I’m talking to you. Bad weather travels from the northern plains to NEW YORK CITY! via a route through Michigan.  There’s no getting around it), but because on January 1, 2011 Richard Dale Snyder (”Rick”, because, you know, he’s just–aaaw–Rick) was sworn in as Governor.

Nothing unusual about a new governor being sworn in in early January, but this particular brand-new governor raised hackles in some circles (okay, in nearly ALL circles outside the corporate honchos and people still having Tea Parties in the midst of the rubble) by stepping off the podium and almost instantaneously barking orders to annihilate anyone outside his own elite space who thought they might be entitled to a taxpayer-funded public education, or wages beyond the truly laughable, or even a retirement free of toil and strife.

For most people bent on taking over an entire state that might have been enough, but some days later this man Rick found the Holy Grail.  An existing Financial Emergency Manager Law that he and his Republican-led legislature then got to work enhancing and extending until it no longer would only be used in–okay–emergencies, but could be tweaked to kill the unions, take over public education and. . .oh, let’s say. . .fire duly elected officials in cities and towns that may or may not have potentially fatal fiscal wounds but do have too many poor people and thus can’t keep the Gov and his court in the style to which they’ve become accustomed.

Robert Bobb (true name) has been the Emergency Financial Manager for the city of Detroit since 2009.  I don’t know how well he was doing in that job before the EFM act gave him infinite powers, but he’s apparently rubbing his hands in glorious anticipation of being able to do away with 53 Public Schools, either by outright closings or mergings or switching them to charter status.  (Rachel Maddow has been reporting on one of them–The Catherine Ferguson Academy, a school for teen mothers.  After learning their school was targeted for closing, the students staged a quiet sit-in and, for their efforts, were handcuffed and taken away by the police, causing enough commotion (not by the students) to make the story go national. Thank you, Rachel–and everyone else who picked up the story and ran with it.  Everything that happens in Michigan mustn’t–must not–stay in Michigan.  We need to shout it to the mountaintops.  We’re under attack and we can’t pretend it’s all pretend.  It’s not.

As Todd A. Haywood reported in Michigan Messenger yesterday, The Mackinac Center for Public Policy,  home of Michigan’s Randian Tea Party, really is a part of the Vast Right Wing Free Market Think Tank Conspiracy.  They’ve joined up with Sauron in the Dark Tower to seek out and destroy anything resembling entitlement programs, government-sponsored good works, university professors’ emails in support of beleaguered Wisconsin, and more importantly, labor unions.  Their goal is small government and their method is to fire all municipal officials and put an “emergency financial manager”–one person–in their place.  One person will run everything, making every decision without fear of being fired or losing elections.  It’s the Fascist version of “we’re not a Democracy, we’re a Republic”.

This group, State Policy Network, is working at installing a host of compliant soldiers posing as Leaders of the People in all 50 states.  Their purpose:  to guarantee the complete and total privatization of these United States of America.  So far they’ve managed to enlist the governors of Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana, all of whom are not in the least shy about expressing their fascination with the mission they’ve chosen to accomplish.

In Michigan, Governor Ricky is in direct competition with Wisconsin’s Governor Scotty to see who can take down whose state first.  At first glance you might be inclined to say “boys will be boys”, but you mustn’t forget the Eye of Sauron watching their every move.  (Here I’ll repeat:  Vast Right Wing Conspiracy)

More to chew on:

If two members of the legislature get their way, Michigan’s foster kids will have to get their back-to-school clothing from thrift stores because Michigan could save a lot of money that way.  I loved this part but you have to read the whole thing by Susan G. Demas:

So what’s behind these moves by the Legislature? Well, the two DHS panel chairs both live in relatively homogeneous and very conservative enclaves in the state.

[Bruce] Caswell is a Calvinist who’s never had to deal much with Democrats or people with other views on social issues, taxes or government services. He believes he’s doing the right thing and rooting out inefficiencies in the budget.

[Dave] Agema … well, his general philosophy can be summed up in his solution for overworked welfare caseworkers. Rather than hire more workers or work to speed up paperwork processing times, the goat killer suggested that DHS employees be armed with guns to subdue any unruly welfare queens.

Sen. Coleman Young II (D-Detroit) once flippantly described Republicans’ attitude toward the poor and unemployed as: “Too bad. It sucks to be you.”

Who thinks like this?  What kind of person sits around thinking about poor, dispossessed kids and, instead of wondering what he/she can do to make things better for them, concludes that money could be saved if they wore second-hand Government-issue clothes?  And what kind of person is then surprised when reasonable people say, “Hold it right there. . .”.   And who then would say in response, they probably don’t spend it on clothing anyway, and “I think the hardship is negligible“?

(Newsflash:  They’re rethinking this, after a really soul-satisfying (on my part), all-out blogospheric blast attack against it.  Looky here:

Senator Caswell initially proposed issuing a gift card for the clothing allowance for resale shops in order to ensure the money would actually go toward purchasing clothing. After a suggestion from a constituent, he plans to draft an amendment to the proposal that would direct the state to work with major retailers to create a gift card program that would ensure the clothing allowance money only purchases clothing and shoes at their stores. Furthermore, the amendment will direct DHS to negotiate with the retailers for a discount on those clothing items purchased with the allowance in order to get the best deal for the recipients.

Okay, I’m exhausted.  But one last thing.  You know how Gov. Ricky gave supreme power to one lone Emergency Financial Manager in poorest of the poor Benton Harbor?  Yes?  And how they fired everybody (see links above) and then poured salt in the wounds by demoting them to secretarial duties, like taking minutes at meetings?  Yes? Well, Gov. Ricky will be visiting Benton Harbor on May 7.  No, he won’t be looking around to see how well his plan is working. Or to see what else he can do to lift that poor town out of its misery.  No. He’ll be Grand Marshal of  Blossomtime’s Grand Floral Parade.  The parade route will start in St. Joseph:

And end in Benton Harbor:

This is clueless to the absolute ultimate.  This is Nero fiddling while Rome burns.  This is the New America.

So the way I see it, we either get used to it or we fight like hell to end this onslaught.  I know us. We don’t plan on ever getting used to it.

Michigan Labor Legacy Landmark, “Transcending”