Times of New York Flyover

 As a peace-loving American, I was fretting, this morning, about the Jan6 Capitol insurrection. . . wondering whether it had been an isolated event . . .or maybe connected to some larger, fascistic  plot to undermine our Rule of Law and overthrow our .gov of the people.

Then I came upon, in the New York Times, Frank Bruni’s written response to Cassidy Hutchinson’s recent testimony on Capitol Hill.

A strange thing happened. 

The veteran journalist, Frank Bruni, raised a question or two that reflected exactly the questions that had entered my mind when I heard  Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony about  trump’s  infamous We’re going to the Capitol speech shortly before the riot happened.

On that January 6, 2021 morning, donald trump was being driven from the White House to the Ellipse to make a speech for his devotees. 

Cassidy Hutchinson’s sworn testimony reveals important details about what was happening on that fateful day. A small crowd was gathering near the White House to hear what their leader had to say about Congress gathering to count the Electoral votes.

As the presidential Beast SUV approached the Ellipse, trump voiced his disappointment that the crowd appeared to be smaller than he had expected.  He had been devising a plan in his mind to maximize the crowd size, for better publicity effect. 

But there was a problem.

Security conditions at the the ellipse were being reported to trump’s Secret Service agents who were in the Beastly vehicle with him.  The highly disciplined professional agents of various Security agencies had made provision for magnetometers, weapons detectors, to be operative in the vicinity of the gathering crowd, to assure that weapons would not be brought into that gathering.

This is standard procedure for any public presidential event in our nation’s Capital.

Meanwhile, out on our National Mall, near the Washington monument, weapons-bearing trumpists were deciding not to attend that speech event at the Ellipse, because they knew that the weapons they were carrying would be detected. Their AR’s and Glocks, etc. would either be confiscated or, at least,  would become the basis for Police to deny their entrance to the gathering crowd for trump’s speech.

So the proud boys and the oathkeepers and other weapons-bearing Mall-cruisers redirected their travel direction so that no law-bearing Police would deprive them of their 2nd-Amendment lethality capabilities. As everybody knows now, those weapon-bearing oath-making proud guys  showed up at the Capitol a little while later to do their dirty work. 

Meanwhile, back at the Ellipse, as the donald was being driven in the Beast to make his speech, he was wanting to get the Police and other dutiful Security personnel to disable weapon-detecting  ‘mags” so that those rowdies could be admitted to the speech and thereby keep his numbers up and his public support maximized. 

In his effort to convince his SService guys to let the gun-toters into the Ellipse, donald’s main point was that those rowdy gun-toters would not hurt him. 

Apart from any dutiful security concerns that these professional law-enforcers had for any other nearby US citizen, what really mattered to trump was that they were not there to hurt him. He did not express any concern about what death and destruction those gun-toting gangsters might inflict upon other Americans who might be in the vicinity.

I was fretting over some of these recently-reported developments when I happened upon Frank Bruni’s comments about the events of that day. I must say that the NYTimes writer, Professor from Duke, absolutely nailed it—voicing my concerns exactly, in a more qualified voice than I  could ever summon:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/28/opinion/cassidy-hutchinson-testimony.html

These were Frank Bruni's opening sentences:

“If the Jan. 6 rioters weren’t going to be pointing their guns at him, then he didn’t care that they were armed.

There may be no better distillation of Donald Trump’s narcissism.”

This morning I was jotting down some thoughts about this Frank Bruni profundity while, as fate would have it, I happened to be flying out of the City whose newspaper brought Frank Bruni's thoughts into the public mind and in conjunction with my own fearful fretting.

 So I snapped this pic, just to commemorate . . . 

I don’t know . . . worried minds think alike? But, to the main point again: trump was not concerned about the danger posed by those gun-toters to anyone except himself. 

Glass half-Full

Women Rule Men Cruel

 January 6-'21 . . .  ketchup hit the wall in the president’s dining room. 

Meanwhile, back at the Capitol there was  blood on the tracks.

 Law enforcement officers were dying in defense of our Capitol and Congress. Meanwhile back at the ranch donald trump had a tantrum in the dining room.

Potus was mad as hell that his Secret Service guys wouldn’t let him go the extra mile to the Capitol to lead his “Stand by” proud boys out of their “Stand down” mode and into his attempted tirade of Treason. 

While they were leaving the Ellipse, Potus tried to grab the steering wheel from his driver; they were in the presidential limo, “the Beast". But a dutiful secret service agent grabbed donald’s hands and removed them from the steering wheel.

Donald trump was pissed. Things were NOT going his way. Events were NOT going as he and Eastman and Rudy had planned them.

That’s why there was ketchup on the wall in the White House while there was blood on the tracks at the Capitol.

How do we know this? 

Cassidy Hutchinson testified today. In 2020-21, she was  assistant to Mark Meadows, trump’s Chief of Staff, before and during the insurrection.

Questioned today by Rep. Liz Cheney , the intrepid insider testified about what she saw and heard during inner sanctum White House panic while  America was being assaulted on the far end of Penn Avenue.  

Cassidy delivered to the House Select Committee, and to us, the American people, that long-awaited inside story, the up close view of a treasonous Potus. Thanks to this alert, honest staffer, we now know the rest of the story.  

The intrepid Ms. Hutchinson now takes her place in history, along with Rosemary Woods and Martha Mitchell, women who stood up for our Rule of Law, back in '72-'73 Watergate misadventures. Then, and now,  cruel men attempted stultifying stunts of sedition but in the end collapsed in idiotic impotence.

But it takes real women to clean up the mess. 

Glass half-Full

Our New False Flag

 In the midst of our present noise and confusion, Ross Douthat mentioned that the Court’s Dobbs decision “won the right to legislate against abortion” for states.

As the fire of leftist reaction and activism leaps up to conflation levels, abortion advocates and activists will eventually reach a peak of rage.

But after some time, the more constructive political leaders among them will moderate their real-world assessment of where they are and where they should go. Then they will get down to brass scalpels and return to strategies and tactics that will enlarge their options in the new birth battleground. 

As Dylan sang long ago . . . “he not busy bein’ born is busy dyin’.”

The 21^st-century iteration of that could be . . . she not busy havin’ fun is busy birthin’.

But I digress.

In this weird Dobbs fallout, a new right-to-life landscape may compel certain persons and groups among our population to relocate from abortion-forbidding states to abortion-permitting states. 

In 2021, our widening amerikan cultural war degenerated from ideological to tactical. The gap between red states and blue states appeared, more clearly defined, in the wake of the  Jan6 reichstag fire attack on our US Capitol.

Now, in the aftermath of Dobbs v Mississippi, or whatever the hell it was,  our ideological red v blue scizophrekia will actualize, as it did back in 1860.

Then it was blue v gray but the 21^st-century manifestation will unfold as blue v red.

When all these sheets hit the fan, I do not foresee that the rebellion will be sufficiently destructive to destroy our democratic republican nation. We've got too much at stake on the international conflageration front for such a rapacious rending to take place. Rather, the red v. blue obsessions that have overtaken us will be manifestly destined as represented by our new flag:

The Stars are gone; they’ve been sold to the streaming video providers for stellar roles in all the latest movies that perform a sedation function by converting our gun-toting violent inclinations into harmless video fantasy. Good luck with that.

The one white spot represents the the new state of Guantanamo, to whence we will exile the white supremecists who, in their trumpian frenzy, cannot get along with anybody else. There they will proudly keep their oaths among themselves as boys with their handmade babes. I hope they don't birther there in sufficient numbers to f*up the freedoms that we all hope to retain in the midst of these riotous times.

Glass half-Full

Brett 'n Blasey Ballad

 In the broad tradition of American folk music, I borrowed an old story melody from Mamas and Papas for this ditty about what happened when Kavanaugh got nominated, back in summer of '18, for the Supreme Court.

            Have a listen:  Ballad of Brett 'n Blasey

Lindsey and Mitchey were gett'n' kinda itchy

just to leave  Judiciary hearings behind.

Chuck with his committee, workin’ toward a ditty

trying to get Brett’s nomination on time.

On committee fence Jeff Flake sat

‘cause victims’ rantings knocked him flat.

Lindsey and Mitchey still a-pushin’ forward

in the Senate, you know where that’s at

and no one’s getting Tweet ‘xept Blasey Ford

 

Lindsey said to Grassley we need to go so fastly

just to push this nomination on through (let’s go fast)

But Flake said to Grassley, we just can't pass it

until we truly know what to do.

On committe fence Jeff Flake sat

‘cause elevator tirades knocked him flat.

Lindsey and Mitchey still a pushin’ forward

in the Senate, you know where that’s at

and no one’s getting Tweet ‘xept Blasey Ford.

 

When Blasey was in high school, accosted by a drunk fool. . .

She said it was the nominee.

In Committee testifyin’, implied the nominee be lyin’

And stop his nomination immediately.

Cuz he was drunk’n crazy, back in the school days,

she said Brett had accosted in a drunken haze.

Lindsey and Mitchey still a pushin’ forward

in the Senate, you know where that’s at.

and no one’s getting Tweet ‘xept Blasey Ford.

 

Old schools, Senate rules, smart fools, America drools,

the escalating hype is so strong.

Tweet up, Face up, everything is hype up

to make trauma and drama prolong.

In a last-minute surprise

 Jeff proposed a compromise

Lindsey and Mitchey still a pushin’ forward

in the Senate, you know where that’s at.

and no one’s getting Tweet ‘xept Blasey Ford.

 

Broke busted Blasey can’t be trusted

and Mitchey wants it to go to the Floor.

Diane cant take it; she says she’ll have to shake it

We knew she’d wanna shut that door.

Slidin’ on procedures and rules;

You know its lowball, but politics is old-school.

Blasey’s ‘criminations and sad accusations

cant go on indefinitely,

so Brett’s nomination was becoming a reality.

Glass half-Full

Looking for Real Republicans

 Let’s go Republican-hunting. Let us find the real Republicans.

So that we understand what we are looking for, let’s define what a republic is; then we’ll define what a republican is. According to my traditional (1965) Webster’s dictionary . . .

Republic: noun: a form of government in which the head of state is an elected president rather than a monarch; a form of government in which the sovereign power is widely vested in the people either directly or through elected representatives.

Republican: 

1. adjective:  pertaining to, characteristic of or having the nature of a republic; favoring a republic; of or belonging to the Republican party. 2. noun: a person who supports the form of government of a republic.

Furthermore, we will define the Republican Party.

Republican party: one of two main political parties in the USA; it was formed in 1854 by anti-slavery groups . . .

Now. . . in the fast-moving current of 2022 politics, let us ford the rapids of Congressional politics, in order to identify the legitimate Republicans, so that we can distinguish them from the infamous R.I.N.O (Republican In Name Only) chimerae.

First candidate: Eric Greitens

  Eric said: "The RINO feeds on corruption and is marked by the stripes of cowardice. . . Get a RINO hunting permit. There's no bagging limit, no tagging limit, and it doesn't expire until we save our country."

And this:

“We are sick and tired of the Republicans in name only surrendering to Joe Biden and the radical left.  Order your RINO Hunting Permit today!

Second candidate: Adam Kinzinger

"In May of 2009, I returned from service in Iraq and announced my intention to run for Congress. . . If we are going to ask Americans to die in service to our country, we, as leaders, ought to ought to be we willing to sacrifice our careers and our political intensity when our oath requires it.”

And this:

 “So who is Jeff Clark? An environmental lawyer with no experience leading the entire department of Justice. What is his only qualification? That he would do whatever the President (Trump) wanted him to do, including overthrowing a free and a fair democratic election.”

Which of these two political office-holders is the better role model for leadership in the defence our 241-year-old republic?

What say ye? Eric or Adam?

Glass half-Full

To Be or Not to Be

To be or not to be, that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in our elections to allow

the slings and arrows of unscrupulous meddling,

Or to speak testimony against a pack of Lies,

and by opposing end them!

These two followed not what trumpian corruption did demand;

but instead they did stand their ground

to do the right thing

For Truth and Honesty.

For election Integrity!

They knew not what course other public servants may take,

but as for these and other patriots like them, they did say:

Give us Honesty instead Lies! 

Thus sayeth Rusty Bowers and Shaye Moss!

Ring the bell of Liberty; Sing the Anthem of Integrity!

Oh Say Can You See . . .

Glass half-Full

 

  

Juneteenth

 For the umpteenth time I been

try’n to tell you 

today and tomorrow

how we had to beg steal n borrow

for so long damn long

to right this wrong 

to make you understand

Garland had brought ole Abe’s command

to make you see the writing on the wall

that proclamation on the wall, y’all

that proclamation that sent out the call

Abrahamic exclamation that say stop to end it all.

Put an end to it yall!

For the umpteeth time, I say I say I say

Hey! bodies of enslaved people used

bodies whipped, scarred and abused

as collateral

for more chattel

like cattle

until the umpteenth generation

from away back there in Africa nation

and along the way in honky miscegenation

even unto Haitian liberation

and later Haley’s imagination

implanted in roots of captivity

bearing fruits of productivity

through blood and sweat and tears

with underground railroad gears

in defiance of mason-dixon fears.

Yet two and a half years after the fact

the end of slavery became at last an act

announced  belatedly to Texas blacks

in spite of obstructive Texas rangers

at Galveston by Major General Granger

when he brought news of emancipation

of Abe’s neglected proclamation

way back there on June 19th, 1865. 

Now it was time for blacks to thrive

‘though we be say’n it for the umpteenth time

folk didn’t know it ’til that Juneteenth sign

when Granger say You now be free

cuz You been free since ’63!

Underground Railroad Rides Again!

Glass half-Full

Your Friendly Neighborhood AI

I was bagging groceries at the A&P in 1968 when the movie theatre across the parking lot provided my first glimpse of the now-infamous AI.

The incredible dual prescience of author Arthur C. Clark and movie producer Stanley Kubrick was revealed when, in 1968, Kubrick produced the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Their combined human intelligence brought forth a portrait of an Artificial Intelligence movie character never before seen on the silver screen: Hal, the talking computer. 

In the movie, Hal was dutifully keeping a watchful eye of the the good ship, Discovery One, and crew. When Hal and Pilot/Scientist Dave Bowman have a little disagreement, we viewers catch a glimpse of Hal’s compassion-less, inhuman disregard for human life:   

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARJ8cAGm6JE

This was our baby-booming introduction to the unprecedented character of Artificial Intelligence. It was not a favorable report. Hal’s cruel obsession with completing the mission provides the artificial intelligence rationale for the demise of crew members out there in the middle of nowhere!

But hey! That heartless glitch has been fixed. It’s all good now.

The good news is that AI’s obsession with duty is nowadays moderated with a humanitarian compassionate sensitivity! This news was brought to my attention by Amala Ekpunobi, through her Prager University podcast, Unapologetic Live in conversation with her Prager sidekick,Taylor. Check it out!:

https://www.prageru.com/video/has-google-created-a-sentient-ai?

Thanks for the good news, Amala! Keep up the good work.

Glass half-Full 

the January 6 Turnaround

 This is a sign for those who haven’t bothered to give attention to our Congress’ uncovering of the January-2021 attempt to overthrow our government. 

Just so you’ll know. Don’t say I didn’t tell you.

According to testimony spoken yesterday, Thursday June 16, by Mr. Greg Jacob, Mike Pence’s lawyer, to our Congressional committee:

Our Vice President at that time, Mike Pence, was performing his Constitutional duty as President of the US Senate. His main duty on January 6 2021 was to supervise the counting of Electoral votes that had been delivered by the 50 State Legislatures to our Congress.

President Trump, assisted by Mr. John Eastman and other alleged conspirators, had devised a plan to convince Mike Pence to take it upon himself to reject some of the Electors who had been appointed by voters and officially certified by State Legislatures as Electors to elect the next President, either Donald Trump or Joseph Biden.

Mr. Greg Jacob, our Vice President’s lawyer, explained yesterday, June 16, 2022 that the Trumpian  plan consisted of two possible ways that Mike Pence could reject certain Electors who had been directed by the people of their respective states to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris instead of Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

One plan was for Vice President Mike to simply take it upon himself to reject some of the duly-selected Electors and simply declare thereby that Trump and himself would be the winners of the 2020 election. This tactic is called the “plenary theory” of Vice Presidential authority. 

The other Trump plan was for Vice President to use the Electoral Act of 1887 as a supposedly legal basis to reject the duly-appointed Electors Republican legislators in certain battleground states. Instead of receiving those Electors, certain Republicans would appoint themselves as Electors.

It was a “coup in search of a legal theory.”

In a meeting with Trump on January 4, 2021, Mike Pence refused Donald Trump’s attempts to make him use this plan. As Mr. Jacob testified yesterday, Mike Pence “never wavered” from his resolve to do his Constitutional duty.

Even so, on that day and the next day, January 5, Trump did not relent on his effort to persuade and intimidate Mike Pence into stealing the election from us, the American people.

Mr. Jacob testified yesterday that the last Trump/Pence conversation about this disagreement took place on January 5 at 2:44 pm. Trump’s attempt to persuade his VP to do the wrong thing had failed. 

From that time on, as everybody knows, Trump spoke publicly to his gathering hordes of proud boys and oathkeepers and other f-swearing rioters, insisting that he would not like Pence any more if Pence did not buckle under to his plan to overthrow the government of our United States.

So big deal. Donald doesn’t like me any more. What else is new?

At 2:13 pm, January 6, those violent rioters broke into the Capitol and attempted to prevent our Senators and Representatives from performing their duty to accept the decisions of the States to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

The law-hating mob were also chanting “Hang Mike Pence” while some person or two among them erected a gallows with a noose by which they would hang Pence if they got half a chance. 

During that time, Trump was declaring that Pence did not have the courage to do what Donald had wanted him to do. 

But in fact, Mike Pence had risked his life to do the right thing. He had, in fact, performed his duty as Vice President of the United States. 

His courage is, in fact, worthy of our respect. That is why I am recalling to you what I saw in House Select Committee video yesterday.

During that riotous Jan6 insurrection, the Secret Service protectors scuttled Pence and others with him to a secure underground location. While they were down there, his protectors offered to deliver him away from the Capitol complex to an even safer location. They wanted to drive him away from the place where he had a sacred duty to perform.

But Mike Pence declined their offer. He was determined to do his duty. As far as he was concerned, it was not only a Constitutional duty, but a sacred duty laid upon him by the Lord whose purposes he had always strived to fulfill. Mike Pence is a believer, not a puppet.

They stayed in that safe place for the next  4 1/2 hours.

Here’s a note for all ye Dems out there who think that Trump and his legions of lawbreakers have some kind of hold on Bible-thumping Christians.

 Greg Jacob, friend and Counsel to Mike Pence in that safe underground location, testifies how his faith in God sustained his, and Mike Pence’s, understanding of the spiritual, political and cultural warfare that had happened that fateful day, January 6, 2021. While reading his Bible there, in that secure location beneath the Capitol, Greg Jacob explained:

  “Daniel 6 is where I went . . . Daniel has (had) become the second-in-command of Babylon, a pagan nation, but he completely, faithfully serves. He refuses any order from the king that he cannot follow, and he does his duty, consistent with his oath to God. I felt that that was what had played out, that day.”

A few minutes later in the June 16 hearings, the House Select Committee showed a clip in which Marc Short, Pence’s Chief of Staff, had testified that later . . . “At 3:50 in the morning, when we finally headed our ways, I remember texting the Vice President a verse from the biblical 2nd Timothy letter chapter 4, verse 7:

“I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith.” 

And that, my fellow Americans, is what Vice President Mike Pence had done in order to deliver our democratic republic from lawless tyranny on January 6, 2021.

Thus we see that the trump conspiracy has not taken control of so-called evangelical christianity, but that Mike Pence's Christian conscience compelled his resolve to do the right thing on January 6, 2021. His courage and patiently resolute action delivered us from anarchy, confusion and destructive treason.

You can thank God for deliverance. God bless America.

Glass half-Full

Prince of Peace

 There are two main reasons why Jesus Christ is called by his followers, with me included, the Prince of Peace.

The first reason is that if you accept Him as your spiritual guide, as the one whose victory over death is historical proof that He can save you and me from eternal death, after death, and deliver you instead into Life after death. 

The second reason is that Christ was a strong advocate for actual Peace, in the worldly sense, as opposed to violence and malevolence.

Jesus demonstrated this principle in a way that would be perpetually remembered in the gospel account of his life and death. On the night that his last, ultimately fatal, ordeal began, He was with his disciples in a garden when, according to his disciple, Matthew . . .

". . . Judas, one of the twelve, came up accompanied by a large crowd with swords and clubs  . . . (sound familiar?) . . . Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.

"And behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew out his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear.

"Then Jesus said to him: 'Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword."

Furthermore:

Jesus is well known among millions of people throughout history and throughout this present world for his teachings on peace and non-violence. Here are just a few of the principles of peace for which, in Matthew 5, he advocated:

" Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . Blessed are those mourn . . . Blessed are the gentle, the meek . . . Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right . . . Blessed are the merciful . . . Blessed are the pure in heart . . . Blessed are peacemakers . . . Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of what is right . . . Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.

". . . I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You are good for nothing' shall be guilty before the supreme court . . ."

Now I must point out that Christ's teaching presents no advocacy for this contemporary crop of insurrectionists, riotous traitors and murderers and their unprincipled leaders.

 

Christ was a leader who demanded that his right-hand-man put away the sword, when authorities came to arrest Him.

Before that incident Christ had consistently taught: Blessed are the peacemakers; blessed are the meek, and turn the other cheek when someone attacks you.

 

Christ (that's "Christ" as in "Christian") was no advocate for the Jan6 riot in which f-word-chanting murderers wanted to hang the Vice-President of the United States, a man whose Christian faith reinforced his Christian conscience on that pivotal day,  so that . . . Mike did the right thing and thus rescued our nation from violence and criminality that might have sparked another civil war.

Bottom line: Christ was no fascist ; Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

You should comprehend that truth, no matter what the riotous traitors claim about their so-called religion.

Instead of rioting to destroy the Constitution and the Capitol of our United States, believers in Jesus Christ ought to be declaring praise and honor in the name of the Prince of Peace.

 

Glass half-Full

Our Vast Plastic Trash

 Although I have lived in the Blue Ridge now for far longer than that long-ago past when I grew up, down in Louisiana . . . where, as TonyJoe White sang, "the alligators grow so mean," I still remember the bayou state with fond memories. I remember those moss-laden bayous where my dad and I, or my brother and I, would drift in the old "johnboat" in search of the elusive sac-a-lait and brim, and maybe haul out a net or two of them crawfish.

In those still, swampy waters, water quality is a delicate balance between what God and the mighty Mississippi hath bestowed in that great delta alluvial mouth and what we mortals have cast into it.

I was reminded of this today when I was reading about Dave Rivers and Trey Dennis in the New York Times

Just over the state line in Texas is a very big city called Houston. To be honest with you, I never thought much of the place, but today I had to give them some credit for hiring these two brave citizens, Dave and Trey, whose job it is to clean everybody else's friggin throwaway mess on a bayou that runs right through the city of Houston. 

Here's the comment that I wrote after reading about that very important work that Dave and Trey are doing. . . work that we should all be minimizing by proper disposal at our myriad-millions points of consumption:

These men are angels, doing the dirty work that we should all be doing.

We hear so much nowadays about climate change, carbon emissions and global warming.  These problems are global in scale and should be remedied by laws and through public education.

But what about this plastic and throwaway trash that would actually be easier to properly dispose, if laws were passed accordingly, and we Americans could collectively begin solving theproblem by passing laws to control disposal, placing the responsibility squarely on each citizen, and . . .

building new industries to convert these supposedly neutral substances, which are actually lethal to our wildlife and ecosystem. . . converting them to useful products such as lawn furniture, parking lot bumpers, street signs and God-only-knows what else.

And speaking of God, let us proclaim God bless America, but even more importantly that that blessing is this entreaty:

God help us clean up the mess we have made and are still making every day, until we finally acquire the commonsense to quit trashing our planetary home.

And God bless Trey Dennis and Dave Rivers!

Glass half-Full

Anthem for our National Capitol

Sing the anthem with our national melody from the National Anthem:

Oh say can you see, in the 2021 light 
What we so proudly maintained 
after a riotous fight. 
That broad dome and wide steps 
through the perilous fight 
O’er the barricades we watched 
was so gallantly retained! 
As our Congress did dare, with teargas in the air, 
giving proof through the fight 
that our Congress was still there; 
O say does that Capitol Congress remain 
with our Presidency, 
o’er the land of the free, Democracy!

Listen: Star-Spangled Capitol

Glass half-Full 

Overcoming Dirty Tricks

After reading an article this morning about the dirty tricks that Richard Nixon used to fortify his political ambitions, I remembered that I had written a song that mentions, in the third verse,  the aforesaid “dirty tricks” of tricky dick. 

In that song about my g-generation, I composed four verses, one verse about each decade of our boomer baby shared experience. 

Not intending to dis those earliest boomers who popped out in the ’40’s, I nevertheless began my song with a verse about the 1950’s, because I was born in ’51. It goes on from there with a verse about the ’60’s, then the ’70’s and  the’80’s. The last verse lumps the ’90’s and the ’00’s together because I was confused when when I was singing it. (It was a confusing time).

Perhaps you would be interested in hearing it: Boomer’s Choice

A couple of years ago, we Americans suffered an onslaught of dirty tricks of a different kind. You can hear my musical account of those destructive attacks, here: Star-spangled Capitol

As it turned out, this song borrows the melody from our national anthem, because the anthem emphasizes the role of some valiant public servants whose heroic action prevented the downfall of our Rule of Law. 

 I hope you don’t mind,  I hope you don’t mind, that I put down in words . . . how wonderful life is when you live in a functional democratic republic.  

A republic, as Ben had said, if we can keep it!

And as Jim Croce once sang: I’ve got a song; if it takes me nowhere, I’ll go there proud. 

I hope you will hear it, and may the bird of freedom fly up your flagpole.

Glass half-Full 

Pasi′on Española

I think I was about thirteen when I heard flamenco guitarist extraordinaire Carlos Montaya performing Malagueña.

Here’s Pepe Romero performing it: 

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COc1ljZEb-M

The experience of hearing Carlos steered me to a musical path that I followed fervently for many years. 

Later, much later, I turned to writing historical fiction. After discovering an ancient copy of the Times of London, May 12, 1937, I published a novel about what was happening in Europe in 1937.

Here’s a scene from my story, published in the novel Smoke, in  which the main character, a young American businessman, Philip, is in a French tavern on the Mediterranean coast hearing a report about the war in Spain.  The tavern scene is inspired by Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, which he wrote before he penned 1984. Orwell had traveled to Spain as a volunteer, fighting, as Hemingway also did, for the government of Spain. These nationalists were resisting Generalissimo Franco’s fascist army who were being proxy-supported by Mussolini and Hitler. 

The situation in Spain was similar to what is now happening in Ukraine, with a fiercely determined Madrid government resisting the destructive attack of a dictator’s invasion.

In this scene from Smoke, the woman who is speaking, Plia, is an intrepid nationalist whose fighting husband had been captured by the Franco fascists. Her character was inspired by Hemingway’s “Pilar” in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Sitting in the tavern, Plia speaks as Philip listens:

 “I suppose when a man has something once, always something remains,” the woman said. She was speaking of her husband, who now was confined to a prison in Barcelona. The “something” that remains of Geraldo Kopa could not be known, since neither his condition nor the accusation against him had yet been revealed by the PSUC, or Partit Comunista, which seemed now to be more and more in charge of the Spanish government.

      Philip was listening intently to the imprisoned Comandante’s wife, Plia, whose seasoned voice now issued from between her dark lips like slow smoke from some craggy Pyrennic cave, and the smoke enveloped her words in clouds of cynical hindsight.

      Whatever it is inside a man that compels him to lead ragged, ill-equipped militias onto the frosty plateaus of Aragon and  require those soldiers to hold a front line against trained fascist battalions—whatever it is that sustains him through such war, and then strengthens his resolve to do what is right—even  even after his anti-fascist comrades have unjustly thrown the brave comandante into a dark prison; “Always something remains,”  Plia was saying, as lamplight glowed on the taut skin of her high Castillian cheekbones, while the cigarette shrouded her obscure hope in pathos. 

Later on in life, Pat and managed to visit Spain, thank God. While we were there we visited a Flamenco club where we witnessed this passionate dancer, accompanied by Flamenco musicians.

At that moment, you might say my Flamenco fantasy, having begun long ago while hearing Carlos Montoya, came full circle, to passionate reality.

Smoke