Boston does it Best

When I was young grad back in ’70’s I had a big “entertainment center” that I used to haul around, from apartment to apartment.  It had an exterior of fancy faked wood, about five feet long, maybe three feet high. . . and as wide, front to back, as a TV console, although there was no boob tube in it. 

All of that old grandiose ’60’s-style bulk existed for one reason, and one reason only: music. This ancient lo-tech, high-bulk furniture was nothing like the smart phone with music in your 21st-century hand.

I had a collection of 33rpm records. There were a lot of them stacked in a drawer inside that furniture, but certain ones of them still linger in my mind today. 

I had a double-record set of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Handel’s Messiah. And I remember vividly the day that Dylan’s Slow Train Coming first came spinning off that old turntable. I think there were some old Beatles LPs in that stack, and a few Moody Blues, most notably, Threshold of a Dream.

But most vivid in my boomer mind was the memory of hearing the Boston Pops performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812, recorded under the baton of Arthur Fiedler. 

Last night, I and several thousands of other Americans, along with our immigrant friends, heard the live 2022 version of 1812 by the Pops, cannons and all,  now under the baton of their 20th Conductor, Keith Lockhart. 

In preparation for Tchaikovsky’s musical masterpiece, we heard the entire litany of our American patriotic songs, My Country ’tis of Thee, God bless America, Grand Ole Flag, etc, with words projected so we could all sing along. We also sang the anthems for all of our armed services, with appropriate interviews from the military personnel who were assisting Boston’s Finest and the Mass State Patrol to keep keep an appropriate handle on our covid-delayed exuberance. 

Conductor Lockhart also included a Pops’ performance of the Ukrainian National Anthem to honor those patriots in yonder Euro nation who are under the Putin gun now, as we were under King George’s muskets in 1776.

In introducing Tchaikovsky’s 1812 masterpiece, Conductor Lockhart explained its relevance here and now. The composer wrote it to commemorate the courage, resolve, and sacrifice of people who had had to defend their lands and their lives because of a dictator’s (Napolean) unprovoked attack.

Oddly enough, in these times, those Russian defenders of 1812 were the forefathers and mothers of a people group whose grand history is presently being violated by megalamaniacal dictator as he makes hitlerian war on their Ukrainian neighbors to the souuth.

So that’s something to think about on this day after Independence Day, 2022.

A good time was had, y'all, as we Southerners say. But hey, nobody does the 4th like Boston! where our Independence was born by the light of a lantern held high in the Old North Church, illuminating the midnight ride of Paul Revere!

King of Soul 

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