Mark Meadows is the Alexander Butterfield of our time. Slow and steady wins the race and the January 6th Committee seems to have the best show runners in the biz. Televised hearings are going to help. There’s still hope for the midterms!
I agree that televising the hearings is a game-changer and, possibly, the only hope for the mid-terms. The Committee did a phenomenal job last night--really compelling stuff.
At the risk of bringing up a moot point, I'm going to share my thoughts on why(possibly)almost all the conservatives in the WH are being assholes.
Why wouldn't Russia steal the RNC records, at the same time they hacked the DNC information? Putin wants ALL the knowledge he can gather from the U.S., correct? And, let's face it, the Republicans have had a lot more nefarious activities in the past 20 or so years.
Perhaps this is being held over the heads of their party? Why not? Those politicians would crumble if knowledge of their lawlessness we're to leak out.
Imagine the chaos!
Thank you all for indulging me. Just a thought that keeps replaying in my mind.
I don't think it's moot point at all. In fact: "A senior administration official said, 'We now have high confidence that they hacked the D.N.C. and the R.N.C., and conspicuously released no documents' from the Republicans, according to the New York Times." So the behavior of elected Republicans can be explained by a combination of fear of exposure, weakness, and authoritarianism.
Thank you so much for your blog and podcast. Processing all the horrific things that are happening in this country and realizing the mainstream media is making thing worse is so disheartening. I've never been more exhausted both physically and mentally as I've been over the past six years and especially the past two years. Then I think about the fact that most people don't know how close we are to losing our democracy. I can see it in their faces when I safely run errands here in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. Again, this goes back to how awful the mainstream media has gotten because if they were doing their jobs properly the public would know how dangerous things are right now. I'm so glad I don't work for CNN anymore. I left at just the right moment (2001).
Also, I'm learning so much about music from you via your Twofer Tuesday posts and I greatly appreciate that!
It really is hard to process everything that's going on--especially since so much of it is bad. But writing helps, as does interacting with all of you. It's hard to overstate how much responsibility the MSM have for the awful spot we're in. I think you're right that 2001 (or maybe even the 2000 election) was the turning point. My hope is the information coming out of January 6th Committee will help focus them.
I love doing the Twofer Tuesdays and I'm so glad you like them.
And finally, regarding the Oxford shooting, this memoir by Rep. Jackie Speier, who is a survivor of Rep. Leo Ryan's visit to Jonestown, has a great story about her being asked by a fellow California State Assemblyperson whether she has ever held or fired an assault rifle: somehow he didn't know she had been almost killed by one. She was instrumental in getting that legislation passed in California.
I've been sick mostly emotionally since just before the pandemic started to hit us. I then lived alone for the first time. I turned on the music once again for calm and joy. My partner of 50 years had just died. I started to recall the person I was as a child the one I'd hidden as I hoped others would accept me and I returned to myself the non-binary me that I was and knew I was yet suppressed from childhood. Music. Music. Music.
Be your beautiful self, Maureen. Life is too short to do otherwise. If someone can't or won't accept you as you are, they are not your friend. Frig 'em!
In the past 50 years the U. S. Government has let its people down by..,
1. Not prosecuting Richard M. Nixon,
2. Not holding Ford accountable for his pardon of Nixon.
3. Lying to the American people regarding the crimes of Nixon, Agnew, H. W. Bush’s complicity in the Agnew coverup.
4. Not prosecuting H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan for going to war in Granada defying a Congressional order not to, and the Iran/Contra Affair.
5. Not prosecuting George W. Bush and most of his administration for lying to the American people and Congress so he could go to war in Iraq; for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Torture is a war crime.
6. Not securitizing our processes that prohibited much of these prosecutions to happen and protect the people and our country from further crimes committed by our Presidents and their collaborators.
7. Allowing states and the Department of Education to diminish a once stellar educational system, into a, ‘how to past test’ and learn little; instead of improving it for the learning curve has widen.
8. Allowing our citizen firearms ownership to get out of control, along with providing states to have their own laws regarding firearms, conceal carry laws and stand your ground laws.
9. Allowing healthcare to become not the best, in the world it once was, but a privilege for the very wealthy.
10. The all-voluntary military, that we now know has traitors in some of its highest-ranking officers, and those in active military service and retired military attempting a coup at the capitol on 6 Jan 2021. We should have little faith in our military’s loyalty at this point.
11. The dismantling of our civil rights laws by the SCOTUS.
12. Allowing Supreme Court Justices and elected officials to get away with their tyranny on a daily basis.
13. Allowing a “free-press” to be push to the brinks where we now have not news channels but propaganda channels and some for the most nefarious of reasons.
14. Allowing our First Amendment or any of our amendments to be use against us and turn our Constitutional Republic, a grand experiment, into an authoritarian dictatorship or a religious theocracy.
15. Allowing the most unqualified to run for elected office, indeed not only allowing it, but not vetting these prospects of service.
This is a short list; a very short list and we need leaders who are willing to take a look at these wrongs in our history and to right our ship of state. To truly ‘Build Back Better’ we need legal accountability to the full extent of our laws for those trying to destroy us from within for whatever their draconian reasons are; that is the first step, but in addition we must start reforms and we must tackle these arduous tasks now.
This is a really good list but, sadly, it is short. Amazing how many egregious crimes--against humanity, against the constitution--have been committed without any accountability. I'm afraid that what's required in order fix the system is a significant majority (preferably a super-majority) of Democrats in Congress but given the institutional advantage Republicans have this is increasingly unlikely. I do have hope that the January 6th Committee will start to change that.
Do not be deceived by the fantasy that if only the criminals were punished, we'd have solved something. In fact, punishment is one of the weakest forms of behavioral control. Authoritarians love it, and it appeals to those of us raised in families that practice it. But it does not cause people of bad character to be of good character. That moment in development is long past for any adult.
Moreover, the threat of punishment works best on people with a conscience, something mostly lacking in the criminal element. These people are not deterred by anything. Do you really think if Nixon and Reagan had been incarcerated, that the criminals in the GOP, and trump, would have restrained themselves now? They would not. It is in their DNA, augmented by poor handling, to behave as they do. These guys are authoritarians; they do not care about ideals or democracy. They are truly cut from different cloth than you are.
Moreover, our problems are largely social and political, and we can't expect the justice system to solve them. Lock up all the bad guys? Incarceration may well increase trump's popularity; who doesn't love a martyr to their cause? He could run for president from prison (though is unlikely to be there soon enough), and wouldn't that be exciting. The millions out here still refuse vaccines because that is how they reinforce their self-delusion of being better than everybody else (by which we mostly mean Black people and others of color). Imprisoning the bad guys gives us a nice sense of revenge, but does nothing to eradicate the racism that is part and parcel of the Republican world, and to which they are irretrievably wedded. The only way to change the systems that perpetuate racism is for Democrats to be in charge, in DC and in statehouses and on school boards.
We have to outvote them, by massive majorities, and repeatedly. The answer to political problems is political. The answer to social problems is less clear, but surely outvoting them and shoving their terrible ideas to the margins where they belong is part of the solution, so they can't be propagated and passed through to children -- in schools, for crying out loud.. The rest may lie in the direction of social conscience in education, which will be a long time coming, but shorter if we are running things locally as well as in DC.
Register new voters. Inculcate them into your culture of voting. Many, many millions of families do not have this tradition. Invite them over. Introduce them to how your family talks politics at the supper table. Politics is a living breathing thing to active, useful, reliable voters. Non-voters have never seen that. Yes, they will register, and vote in an election, but we need to cultivate lifelong voters.
I understand your points, if we are discussing the general population, but we are not. And, we are not discussing criminal behavior such as armed robbery. We are discussing politicitians that took an oath of office and broke it. We are talking about individuals that would like to overtrhow our government. Yes, I do think had we prosecuted the folks and more I did not mention from the past, and upheld our rule of law, not only for the average criminal, but those with power and money, it just might have made folks, 1. respect our system more, and, 2. think twice.
I completely understand why Republicans would be against this but it's mystifying to me that the blatant hypocrisy of the R's vis-vis the filibuster wouldn't sway Manchin and Sinema. I mean we're talking about voting rights not helping off and poor people (which clearly they're against).
I love Linden. Thank you for this incredible reading that, even though it’s spot on with the debacles of the week, is still up lifting. Just the right amount of outrage, sprinkled with a little lyrical Renaissance & the F word for impact. Can’t wait to read your take on the Committee response to Meadows’ contempt.
As for the newsletter, I'm doing my best to face this head on while keeping it light and not swearing as much as I feel like swearing :) Pets helps tremendously.
I definitely do have something planned re Meadows et al.
The Mauchat piece vocals remind me of a group you should check out Mary… Libera. I got my first CD in 2004. They are still recording. Check out their latest, Angel. It’s a boys choir singing in the gothic style. I think you’d enjoy it!
BTW, what got me into classical music was a pop album—Days of Future Passed by the Moody Blues in 8th grade. I immediately switched from playing clarinet to oboe. My junior and senior years of high school was spent in musical performance and awards. I even put together a quintet where the bassoon music was played by a second French horn, and we won at state that year, along with my oboe solo, and duet with flute.
I won’t bore you with my short musical career, but if you’re interested, ask about my very first performance in the city orchestra in college. You will laugh your ass off!
I really liked the Moody Blues when I was in high school (Long Distant Voyager) but obviously knew their music growing up (Nights in White Satin was basically inescapable.)
It's awesome that you put together a quintet. I hope you still play. The oboe is one of my favorite instruments. You should definitely share the story here. I'm pretty sure we could all use a good laugh.
The reason I liked that particular album is it was with the London Symphony, so I got my pop music and learned i liked classical music at the same time. Why did it take so many more years for Pop Opera to come along?
Here’s my story: first semester in college, I auditioned for the Greater Grand Forks Symphony, and got placed as second Oboe. We immediately began practicing for the fall concert with very little time to practice. So there we are, on stage, my parents in the audience who knew nothing about classical, their first time seeing an orchestra. I wish I remembered the piece. Anyway we start the music, then suddenly someone’s off. The conductor, a volatile guy of 5’2”, is starting to get us back on track, when it gets worse. As the second oboe I wasn’t playing, but the first was playing a complicated stretch, and I saw him looking at the music, then the conductor, back and forth for guidance. We were now several bars off; I could hear the brass instruments were playing an entirely different part than the oboe and first violin. Suddenly the conductor screams STOP and throws his baton behind him. In the stunned silence, the only sound is the baton rolling across the stage. I thought he was going to start yelling at us all right there, but he finally says after an interminable long time, let’s start again. We start again and everyone kept their place this time. He was fired the next day as conductor and asked to retire from his post at the university!
Glass armonica: Some years ago, Linda Ronstadt sponsored this recording of glass armonica pieces; it features a new piece written by Garry Eister, my double-dog brother-in-law (my sister's husbands' sister's husband).
Thank you for the Renaissance choral piece; it was lovely. I even enjoyed some of the glass harmonica pieces. I'd forgotten about those! It helps to put beautiful music into your head after spending hours listening to yet more revelations about right-wing atrocities and hypocrisies.
Thanks for your summary of this week’s issues. Once again, there’s always so much to wrap our heads around. One of my sisters is a high school teacher in Kentucky. Between the resource issue in public education and the active shooter drills that are now standard, it’s difficult to swallow the new “normal”. Speaking of Kentucky, the devastation from the tornado (my sister’s family thankfully was not impacted) is amplified by the stories of employers refusing to release employees without consequences during the storm. I think that’s the theme I see running through today’s summary - the influence of greed and imbalance of power has permeated so many sectors of society (I know it always has, but seems much more overt now). I hope that directly exposing it, like through the Jan. 6 committee work, makes a difference. Appreciate the music at the end, it was lovely! Also appreciate the way you worked the f-bomb in when describing the coup PowerPoint, you really have a knack for perfect placement! 😉
The onslaught of news is daunting. I try to keep these under two thousand words but still miss so much. The situation in Kentucky is beyond words and, as you point out, part of a much larger theme. What corporations are allowed to get away with, at the expense of workers, is horrific. The Sacklers are perfectly emblematic of the problem. We really need to figure this one out.
It seems we have a backwards idea of freedom and the rights we have when we are often are fighting for the Sacklers for funding. Way back in time I’d been there trying to find support for our uni’s student group’s then new program to encourage and support us with funding. After our group’s presentation I turned to her and thanked her. She just glared at me. I’ve been haunted by that ever since, because I couldn’t connect what troubled me about her. Not until now. It came back to me last night as I looked at the horror on TV and realized how all those employees lives were sacrificed for money.
That scene of teachers fighting over dollars was disheartening. I'd love to see Pentagon generals fighting over money in that way.
Thank you for writing about the slow-motion coup that the Republicans are currently pursuing. They learned from the last election and it will be true "Trump Loyalists" who are in charge in 2022 and 2024 in many states. Get ready for turmoil and a rejection of any Democrat victories.
I absolutely love the idea of making generals fight for cash. Unfortunately, the majority of Democrats in Congress are just as responsible for the obscenely large defense spending bill as Republicans so I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Yesterday, I compared this to putting a biscuit on your dogs nose and not letting the pet eat it until you say so. Both instances are humiliation porn.
I heard from a coworker once that his wife, a first-year lawyer at a big LA law firm, had to do something like that with all of her fellow first year lawyers at their annual holiday party: the glass booth with the dollar bills flying through the air. Highly competitive people seem to have no problem with forcing others to be that way.
Music and nature help me deal with the chaos. I listen to music that takes me to my "happy place"--mostly '70's and 80's Top 40 radio. And I love watching birds. Loading up the bird feeder and bird bath in the yard is part of my morning routine. I also find walking meditative and helpful. Gotta keep moving. Coffee, Casey Kasem's American Top 40 (music from "the before times"), Chickadees, and walking the block--my prescription for sanity. Keep your feet on the ground but keep reaching for the stars, y'all.
Mark Meadows is the Alexander Butterfield of our time. Slow and steady wins the race and the January 6th Committee seems to have the best show runners in the biz. Televised hearings are going to help. There’s still hope for the midterms!
I agree that televising the hearings is a game-changer and, possibly, the only hope for the mid-terms. The Committee did a phenomenal job last night--really compelling stuff.
At the risk of bringing up a moot point, I'm going to share my thoughts on why(possibly)almost all the conservatives in the WH are being assholes.
Why wouldn't Russia steal the RNC records, at the same time they hacked the DNC information? Putin wants ALL the knowledge he can gather from the U.S., correct? And, let's face it, the Republicans have had a lot more nefarious activities in the past 20 or so years.
Perhaps this is being held over the heads of their party? Why not? Those politicians would crumble if knowledge of their lawlessness we're to leak out.
Imagine the chaos!
Thank you all for indulging me. Just a thought that keeps replaying in my mind.
~Laura
I don't think it's moot point at all. In fact: "A senior administration official said, 'We now have high confidence that they hacked the D.N.C. and the R.N.C., and conspicuously released no documents' from the Republicans, according to the New York Times." So the behavior of elected Republicans can be explained by a combination of fear of exposure, weakness, and authoritarianism.
Thank you so much for your blog and podcast. Processing all the horrific things that are happening in this country and realizing the mainstream media is making thing worse is so disheartening. I've never been more exhausted both physically and mentally as I've been over the past six years and especially the past two years. Then I think about the fact that most people don't know how close we are to losing our democracy. I can see it in their faces when I safely run errands here in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. Again, this goes back to how awful the mainstream media has gotten because if they were doing their jobs properly the public would know how dangerous things are right now. I'm so glad I don't work for CNN anymore. I left at just the right moment (2001).
Also, I'm learning so much about music from you via your Twofer Tuesday posts and I greatly appreciate that!
It really is hard to process everything that's going on--especially since so much of it is bad. But writing helps, as does interacting with all of you. It's hard to overstate how much responsibility the MSM have for the awful spot we're in. I think you're right that 2001 (or maybe even the 2000 election) was the turning point. My hope is the information coming out of January 6th Committee will help focus them.
I love doing the Twofer Tuesdays and I'm so glad you like them.
And finally, regarding the Oxford shooting, this memoir by Rep. Jackie Speier, who is a survivor of Rep. Leo Ryan's visit to Jonestown, has a great story about her being asked by a fellow California State Assemblyperson whether she has ever held or fired an assault rifle: somehow he didn't know she had been almost killed by one. She was instrumental in getting that legislation passed in California.
(the memoir is good but short...)
https://www.amazon.com/Undaunted-Surviving-Jonestown-Summoning-Fighting-ebook/dp/B07GPBS6T2/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=jackie+speier&qid=1639490293&s=books&sr=1-1
Rep. Speier is an extraordinary woman.
Music is so important. It is medicine for the heart and soul. Thank you for helping us remember that, Mary.
I totally agree. I think the pandemic reminded us how important art in general is.
I've been sick mostly emotionally since just before the pandemic started to hit us. I then lived alone for the first time. I turned on the music once again for calm and joy. My partner of 50 years had just died. I started to recall the person I was as a child the one I'd hidden as I hoped others would accept me and I returned to myself the non-binary me that I was and knew I was yet suppressed from childhood. Music. Music. Music.
Be your beautiful self, Maureen. Life is too short to do otherwise. If someone can't or won't accept you as you are, they are not your friend. Frig 'em!
Thank you, Caroline. That’s why I’m here finally finding a place to look at these needs we have long been accumulating.
I'm glad that music is helping you find peace and acceptance, Maureen. I'm so sorry for your loss, especially during the pandemic.
In the past 50 years the U. S. Government has let its people down by..,
1. Not prosecuting Richard M. Nixon,
2. Not holding Ford accountable for his pardon of Nixon.
3. Lying to the American people regarding the crimes of Nixon, Agnew, H. W. Bush’s complicity in the Agnew coverup.
4. Not prosecuting H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan for going to war in Granada defying a Congressional order not to, and the Iran/Contra Affair.
5. Not prosecuting George W. Bush and most of his administration for lying to the American people and Congress so he could go to war in Iraq; for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Torture is a war crime.
6. Not securitizing our processes that prohibited much of these prosecutions to happen and protect the people and our country from further crimes committed by our Presidents and their collaborators.
7. Allowing states and the Department of Education to diminish a once stellar educational system, into a, ‘how to past test’ and learn little; instead of improving it for the learning curve has widen.
8. Allowing our citizen firearms ownership to get out of control, along with providing states to have their own laws regarding firearms, conceal carry laws and stand your ground laws.
9. Allowing healthcare to become not the best, in the world it once was, but a privilege for the very wealthy.
10. The all-voluntary military, that we now know has traitors in some of its highest-ranking officers, and those in active military service and retired military attempting a coup at the capitol on 6 Jan 2021. We should have little faith in our military’s loyalty at this point.
11. The dismantling of our civil rights laws by the SCOTUS.
12. Allowing Supreme Court Justices and elected officials to get away with their tyranny on a daily basis.
13. Allowing a “free-press” to be push to the brinks where we now have not news channels but propaganda channels and some for the most nefarious of reasons.
14. Allowing our First Amendment or any of our amendments to be use against us and turn our Constitutional Republic, a grand experiment, into an authoritarian dictatorship or a religious theocracy.
15. Allowing the most unqualified to run for elected office, indeed not only allowing it, but not vetting these prospects of service.
This is a short list; a very short list and we need leaders who are willing to take a look at these wrongs in our history and to right our ship of state. To truly ‘Build Back Better’ we need legal accountability to the full extent of our laws for those trying to destroy us from within for whatever their draconian reasons are; that is the first step, but in addition we must start reforms and we must tackle these arduous tasks now.
This is a really good list but, sadly, it is short. Amazing how many egregious crimes--against humanity, against the constitution--have been committed without any accountability. I'm afraid that what's required in order fix the system is a significant majority (preferably a super-majority) of Democrats in Congress but given the institutional advantage Republicans have this is increasingly unlikely. I do have hope that the January 6th Committee will start to change that.
Do not be deceived by the fantasy that if only the criminals were punished, we'd have solved something. In fact, punishment is one of the weakest forms of behavioral control. Authoritarians love it, and it appeals to those of us raised in families that practice it. But it does not cause people of bad character to be of good character. That moment in development is long past for any adult.
Moreover, the threat of punishment works best on people with a conscience, something mostly lacking in the criminal element. These people are not deterred by anything. Do you really think if Nixon and Reagan had been incarcerated, that the criminals in the GOP, and trump, would have restrained themselves now? They would not. It is in their DNA, augmented by poor handling, to behave as they do. These guys are authoritarians; they do not care about ideals or democracy. They are truly cut from different cloth than you are.
Moreover, our problems are largely social and political, and we can't expect the justice system to solve them. Lock up all the bad guys? Incarceration may well increase trump's popularity; who doesn't love a martyr to their cause? He could run for president from prison (though is unlikely to be there soon enough), and wouldn't that be exciting. The millions out here still refuse vaccines because that is how they reinforce their self-delusion of being better than everybody else (by which we mostly mean Black people and others of color). Imprisoning the bad guys gives us a nice sense of revenge, but does nothing to eradicate the racism that is part and parcel of the Republican world, and to which they are irretrievably wedded. The only way to change the systems that perpetuate racism is for Democrats to be in charge, in DC and in statehouses and on school boards.
We have to outvote them, by massive majorities, and repeatedly. The answer to political problems is political. The answer to social problems is less clear, but surely outvoting them and shoving their terrible ideas to the margins where they belong is part of the solution, so they can't be propagated and passed through to children -- in schools, for crying out loud.. The rest may lie in the direction of social conscience in education, which will be a long time coming, but shorter if we are running things locally as well as in DC.
Register new voters. Inculcate them into your culture of voting. Many, many millions of families do not have this tradition. Invite them over. Introduce them to how your family talks politics at the supper table. Politics is a living breathing thing to active, useful, reliable voters. Non-voters have never seen that. Yes, they will register, and vote in an election, but we need to cultivate lifelong voters.
I understand your points, if we are discussing the general population, but we are not. And, we are not discussing criminal behavior such as armed robbery. We are discussing politicitians that took an oath of office and broke it. We are talking about individuals that would like to overtrhow our government. Yes, I do think had we prosecuted the folks and more I did not mention from the past, and upheld our rule of law, not only for the average criminal, but those with power and money, it just might have made folks, 1. respect our system more, and, 2. think twice.
Marilyn you should run for office!!
Thanks, I think. But, way too old at this point.
Surely since carve outs were made to the filibuster to raise the debt ceiling, there shouldn’t be any problems for voting rights .
I completely understand why Republicans would be against this but it's mystifying to me that the blatant hypocrisy of the R's vis-vis the filibuster wouldn't sway Manchin and Sinema. I mean we're talking about voting rights not helping off and poor people (which clearly they're against).
Right.
I love Linden. Thank you for this incredible reading that, even though it’s spot on with the debacles of the week, is still up lifting. Just the right amount of outrage, sprinkled with a little lyrical Renaissance & the F word for impact. Can’t wait to read your take on the Committee response to Meadows’ contempt.
Thanks, Lynda! Linden is a sweetie pie.
As for the newsletter, I'm doing my best to face this head on while keeping it light and not swearing as much as I feel like swearing :) Pets helps tremendously.
I definitely do have something planned re Meadows et al.
The Mauchat piece vocals remind me of a group you should check out Mary… Libera. I got my first CD in 2004. They are still recording. Check out their latest, Angel. It’s a boys choir singing in the gothic style. I think you’d enjoy it!
BTW, what got me into classical music was a pop album—Days of Future Passed by the Moody Blues in 8th grade. I immediately switched from playing clarinet to oboe. My junior and senior years of high school was spent in musical performance and awards. I even put together a quintet where the bassoon music was played by a second French horn, and we won at state that year, along with my oboe solo, and duet with flute.
I won’t bore you with my short musical career, but if you’re interested, ask about my very first performance in the city orchestra in college. You will laugh your ass off!
I really liked the Moody Blues when I was in high school (Long Distant Voyager) but obviously knew their music growing up (Nights in White Satin was basically inescapable.)
It's awesome that you put together a quintet. I hope you still play. The oboe is one of my favorite instruments. You should definitely share the story here. I'm pretty sure we could all use a good laugh.
The reason I liked that particular album is it was with the London Symphony, so I got my pop music and learned i liked classical music at the same time. Why did it take so many more years for Pop Opera to come along?
Here’s my story: first semester in college, I auditioned for the Greater Grand Forks Symphony, and got placed as second Oboe. We immediately began practicing for the fall concert with very little time to practice. So there we are, on stage, my parents in the audience who knew nothing about classical, their first time seeing an orchestra. I wish I remembered the piece. Anyway we start the music, then suddenly someone’s off. The conductor, a volatile guy of 5’2”, is starting to get us back on track, when it gets worse. As the second oboe I wasn’t playing, but the first was playing a complicated stretch, and I saw him looking at the music, then the conductor, back and forth for guidance. We were now several bars off; I could hear the brass instruments were playing an entirely different part than the oboe and first violin. Suddenly the conductor screams STOP and throws his baton behind him. In the stunned silence, the only sound is the baton rolling across the stage. I thought he was going to start yelling at us all right there, but he finally says after an interminable long time, let’s start again. We start again and everyone kept their place this time. He was fired the next day as conductor and asked to retire from his post at the university!
My parents asked me after, is that supposed to happen, ever? If I hadn’t been so shaken I would’ve laughed my ass off.
Glass armonica: Some years ago, Linda Ronstadt sponsored this recording of glass armonica pieces; it features a new piece written by Garry Eister, my double-dog brother-in-law (my sister's husbands' sister's husband).
https://www.amazon.com/Cristal-Glass-Music-Through-Ages/dp/B0030IQJNG
Thank you for the Renaissance choral piece; it was lovely. I even enjoyed some of the glass harmonica pieces. I'd forgotten about those! It helps to put beautiful music into your head after spending hours listening to yet more revelations about right-wing atrocities and hypocrisies.
I'm very glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for your summary of this week’s issues. Once again, there’s always so much to wrap our heads around. One of my sisters is a high school teacher in Kentucky. Between the resource issue in public education and the active shooter drills that are now standard, it’s difficult to swallow the new “normal”. Speaking of Kentucky, the devastation from the tornado (my sister’s family thankfully was not impacted) is amplified by the stories of employers refusing to release employees without consequences during the storm. I think that’s the theme I see running through today’s summary - the influence of greed and imbalance of power has permeated so many sectors of society (I know it always has, but seems much more overt now). I hope that directly exposing it, like through the Jan. 6 committee work, makes a difference. Appreciate the music at the end, it was lovely! Also appreciate the way you worked the f-bomb in when describing the coup PowerPoint, you really have a knack for perfect placement! 😉
Thank you, Ronda!
The onslaught of news is daunting. I try to keep these under two thousand words but still miss so much. The situation in Kentucky is beyond words and, as you point out, part of a much larger theme. What corporations are allowed to get away with, at the expense of workers, is horrific. The Sacklers are perfectly emblematic of the problem. We really need to figure this one out.
It seems we have a backwards idea of freedom and the rights we have when we are often are fighting for the Sacklers for funding. Way back in time I’d been there trying to find support for our uni’s student group’s then new program to encourage and support us with funding. After our group’s presentation I turned to her and thanked her. She just glared at me. I’ve been haunted by that ever since, because I couldn’t connect what troubled me about her. Not until now. It came back to me last night as I looked at the horror on TV and realized how all those employees lives were sacrificed for money.
That scene of teachers fighting over dollars was disheartening. I'd love to see Pentagon generals fighting over money in that way.
Thank you for writing about the slow-motion coup that the Republicans are currently pursuing. They learned from the last election and it will be true "Trump Loyalists" who are in charge in 2022 and 2024 in many states. Get ready for turmoil and a rejection of any Democrat victories.
I absolutely love the idea of making generals fight for cash. Unfortunately, the majority of Democrats in Congress are just as responsible for the obscenely large defense spending bill as Republicans so I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Agreed, sadly.
Yesterday, I compared this to putting a biscuit on your dogs nose and not letting the pet eat it until you say so. Both instances are humiliation porn.
I heard from a coworker once that his wife, a first-year lawyer at a big LA law firm, had to do something like that with all of her fellow first year lawyers at their annual holiday party: the glass booth with the dollar bills flying through the air. Highly competitive people seem to have no problem with forcing others to be that way.
Music and nature help me deal with the chaos. I listen to music that takes me to my "happy place"--mostly '70's and 80's Top 40 radio. And I love watching birds. Loading up the bird feeder and bird bath in the yard is part of my morning routine. I also find walking meditative and helpful. Gotta keep moving. Coffee, Casey Kasem's American Top 40 (music from "the before times"), Chickadees, and walking the block--my prescription for sanity. Keep your feet on the ground but keep reaching for the stars, y'all.