Month: October 2021

Steve M. believes Donald Trump will be the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2024. Not only that, he doesn’t think there will even be an actual contest. In a basic repeat of what happened in 2020, when Trump was essentially coronated as the nominee, Steve expects that some Republican state parties won’t hold legitimate primaries, making it impossible for Trump challengers to accrue delegates to the RNC convention. As a result, all the A-List Republican candidates will decide against running at all, and Trump will face only token opposition from poorly funded tomato cans who are mainly looking to push an issue, raise their profile or build a mailing list.

These are not unreasonable assumptions. Things can definitely turn out this way, mainly because Trump is still extremely popular among Republican voters which makes it hard for conservatives to say a bad word about him. The party apparatus suffers from a combination of infiltration from Trump true-believers and cowards who won’t risk the wrath of his supporters.

Back in April, Myra Adams looked at this question for The Hill and made a perceptive point.

[P]arty leaders might argue, “Trump won a record 74 million voters in 2020. Let’s build on that base, continue to raise millions, and not waste time and resources with presidential primaries. Trump rallies will be the new primaries, so forget about debates and small ball retail politics.”

In other words, why humor Ted Cruz, Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo or any other potentially attractive contenders when they already have someone who can cheaply bank north of 70 million votes? They can just hand the nomination to Trump and avoid a lot of infighting and expense.

But there are a lot of miles on the road between here and the 2024 primary season. Trump has a lot of legal woes, and there should be more legal woes on the near horizon. For now, the GOP is intent on helping Trump weather the storm. On Thursday, there were only nine Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives who voted to hold former Trump adviser Steve Bannon in criminal contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena to appear before the committee investigating the January 6 coup attempt. That’s a strong indication of where the party stands today. It shows that most elected Republicans are ready to shrug off any legal consequences Trump might face for the insurrection or anything else. Would they treat an imprisoned Trump as a martyr and still clear the field for his nomination as their 2024 standard bearer?

It certainly feels that way. But if we want an actual contest for the Republican nomination, it would certainly help convince state parties to hold primaries if Trump is in jail or has a criminal record and is on probation. It seems to me that a lot of people on the right should have a strong interest in seeing Trump prosecuted. Anyone who wants to live in a country where voters have a say in the party nominee, for example, will want to see actual primary elections. Anyone who is sick of being bullied by Trump and his supporters will want a real alternative, not just some patsy.

As for the prosecutors who have to decide whether the country can stand to see a former (and possible future) president on trial, they ought to be clear-eyed than letting Trump off the hook for prosecutable crimes is a direct threat to representative government. This is because, in the first place, Trump really could be coronated by the party, and in the second place because he’d never accept the legitimacy of any election he lost.

So, he shouldn’t be charged just to charge him. But if he’s committed crimes that can be proven in court, he should not get a free pass just because it will cause social unrest or set a troubling precedent. If Trump doesn’t face justice, then Steve M.’s vision of the future will probably come to pass. It might happen despite every effort to prevent it, but the effort must be made.

So, if you create a Space Force you need a Space Force National Guard, right? It makes sense, I guess. Of course, it’s not necessary in the strict sense. Space guardsmen can remain attached to the Air Force and Army reserves, as they are now. But if we’re going to treat the Space Force as a legitimate and separate branch of the military, shouldn’t they be organized similarly to the other branches?

You probably don’t care much either way, and I can’t blame you for that. There’s something inherently giggle-worthy about the Space Force and it’s hard to take it as seriously as we probably should. Members of the armed services committees in Congress have to consider these things, however, and they’re trying to hash out the correct structure.

It might not surprise you to learn that some congressional delegations are more invested in the idea of a Space Force National Guard than others. It comes down mainly to money. An independent force will get new facilities and extra spending, and states like Hawaii, Florida and Colorado where much of the space activity is focused will stand to benefit.

So, for example, two of the biggest advocates for the standalone Space Guard are Democrat Jason Crow and Republican Doug Lamborn of Colorado. Both serve on the House Armed Services Committee and they teamed up to pass an amendment authorizing the policy in this year’s annual defense policy bill.

The White House and Pentagon aren’t on board, perhaps for different reasons. The Biden administration thinks it’s a waste of money, while the top military brass wants more control over how space resources are spent without having to deal with the hassle of lobbying from National Guard advocates.

But Colorado, which hosts NARAL and the Air Force Academy could pull in more federal dollars, and so we see this rare example of bipartisanship from Reps. Crow and Lamborn.

This is actually how Congress is supposed to function. Not every issue is partisan, and there is serious work to do. Rather than going on cable news or repeating political talking points, members of Congress should be working in concert across party lines to benefit their states and constituencies. I don’t say this as some wide-eyed idealist. We have to compete with other nations. Our national security depends on us being able to craft sensible policies. That’s done in committees, and it involves a balancing act that takes into account various interests.

The debate over the Space Force National Guard isn’t about empty bipartisanship or centrist posturing.  We don’t need every solution to come down to what the most conservative Democrat or most liberal Republican will tolerate. We need more legislating that brings in Coloradans as an interest group, where the state’s interests take precedence over partisan politics.

This kind of work is discouraged by the filibuster in the Senate because bills become all or nothing. When a Republican can get an amendment passed that helps their state, he or she is less likely to oppose final passage of the bill. Yet, if they aren’t allowed to vote on the bill in the first place, what incentive do they have to invest their time in it?

A lot of this cooperation still goes on in Congress, but it’s largely hidden. You can witness it if you watch a bill being marked up in committee on CSPAN, where members of the minority will introduce constructive amendments and actually win support from the other side. But Republicans typically don’t want their own party base to know they’re doing this because it adds legitimacy to whatever Marxist schemes the Democrats are supposedly pushing.

I don’t know if the Space Force National Guard is a good idea or not. But I do know that we need legislators doing more work on this type of issue, and less work on obstructing and undermining the other side.

We’d see more of this if we didn’t have the filibuster because bills would actually come to a vote, and that would give the minority the incentive to play a constructive role.

Earlier this year, I was visiting friends in Tucson, Arizona. as someone who really enjoys regional fast food/burger joints, I was excited to finally have a chance to try In-N-Out Burger. One of the reasons—believe it or not—was that I’d heard that In-N-Out paid their workers better than your average McDonalds, although a quick google search shows that more recently they may have violated California’s labor laws.

Sadly, it looks like I won’t be going back to In-N-Out anytime soon, and not just because I live in Vermont.

Popular California burger chain In-N-Out is refusing to comply with San Francisco’s mandate that restaurants check vaccine cards before allowing customers to dine indoors — a move that resulted in a temporary shutdown of the city’s only location.

“We refuse to become the vaccination police for any government,” Arnie Wensinger, the company’s chief legal and business officer, said in a statement shared with The Washington Post. “It is unreasonable, invasive, and unsafe to force our restaurant Associates to segregate Customers into those who may be served and those who may not, whether based on the documentation they carry, or any other reason.”

The clash comes as the country remains divided about pandemic policies, with vaccination mandates in the public and private sectors prompting unrest and firings. San Francisco, like New York City, requires customers to be vaccinated before they can dine inside, and restaurants are responsible for checking cards at the door…

But Wensinger says San Francisco is overstepping. The burger chain, he said, believes in the “highest form of customer service,” and that means allowing customers to eat indoors regardless of their vaccination status.

“We fiercely disagree with any government dictate that forces a private company to discriminate against customers who choose to patronize their business,” Wensinger said. “This is clear governmental overreach and is intrusive, improper, and offensive.”

OK, first of all, In-N-Out’s stance is kind of bullshit. Diners deserve to be safe, and rather than focusing on segregation and discrimination—which, deliberately or not, conflates public health ordinances with the Jim Crow South—In-N-Out should perhaps consider that their diners shouldn’t have to congregate with potentially contagious customers. Discrimination is generally predicated on circumstances out of the victim’s control—you don’t choose to be Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino, LGBTQ, or a woman. It’s who you are.

Exclusion from certain places and activities because of a personal choice not to get vaccinated against a highly contagious virus isn’t discrimination, any more than a sign reading “No shirt, no shoes, no service” constitutes discrimination against nudists. Laws that prohibit smoking in restaurants and or while filling up your gas tank don’t discriminate against tobacco users. You can be as naked as you want, just not in the 7-11. Smoke as many Marlboros as you like, just not in the Applebee’s or at the Sunoco. And just a reminder—not that anyone reading this blog needs to hear it—Covid-19 isn’t the flu or a cold. It’s disease that can kill you and your loved ones, and in a truly horrible manner. Excluding people who refuse to get vaccinated is no different than these and other similar mandates.

At the same time, having seen plenty of videos of diners and shoppers throwing violent tantrums over mask mandates at their local restaurant or big box store—including leveling physical threats at employees or deliberately coughing on other customers—I am sympathetic to In-N-Out’s claim that it’s not safe for their employees to be checking vaccination cards. The workers shouldn’t have to confront potential lunatics screaming about their freedumbs.

But San Francisco’s mandate at least begins to mitigate that kind of confrontation, by giving In-N-Out and their employees the wiggle room they need to enforce such a rule. “We wish we didn’t have to do this, either—blame the big, bad government.” So I’m not entirely buying In-N-Out’s objections.

That said, a better approach to making employees check vaccine cards—which is time consuming for both staff and customers, and yeah, sort of invasive—would be the kind of vaccine passport I use every time I visit my son, who lives in Montréal (although the website says it’s for citizens, I had no trouble getting signed up).

A person who uses VaxiCode Verif to verify your proof of vaccination cannot see your personal data. In addition to a “green” (adequately protected) or “red” (not adequately protected), VaxiCode Verif only displays the full name of the holder of the proof of vaccination. No other identifying or medical information is displayed. The person verifying the proof will not have access to your date of birth, which vaccines you have received or your COVID-19 screening test results.

Moreover, no information is saved by the telephone or tablet that scanned it at the time of verifying the QR code on your proof of vaccination. Your information will be displayed for 10 seconds. No information is transmitted. There is no history of verifications of proof and no one can find out this information. Therefore, it is not possible to check your verifications, your movements or where you presented your proof.

Everywhere you go in Montreal, outside of some essential services like the grocery, VaxiCode is required to enter.

A vaccine passport is not required for access to essential services like education (primary, secondary, post-secondary).

See the places and activities requiring the vaccination passport according to the sector of activity:

Health and social services
Sports and physical activities
Outdoor events and festivals
Performance venues, cinemas, sports venues
Bars and restaurants
Arcades, theme parks, amusement parks and centres, recreation centres, and water parks
Other areas and locations

Teachers, students, and chaperones are exempt from the requirement to present their vaccination passport while on a school trip.

Customer registers currently required at certain locations or activities will be maintained to facilitate contact tracing.

You can visit the link to see just how many places and activities require proof of vaccination. The Quebec government, led by the otherwise awful CAQ, is NOT fucking around. And neither, so it seems, is the rest of Canada. Even provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan—where vaccine rates are extremely low, and the political culture can be described as Trumpist—are requiring vaccine passports of some kind of another.

Quebec made the VaxiCode design really easy to use. When the border opened and I was able to start visiting again, I didn’t have the app. So everywhere I went, I had to scroll through my phone for a photo of my vaccine card, then pull out my drivers license or passport to show that I was who I said I was. Not the biggest burden in the world, but also kind of a pain in the ass. Scroll, scroll, scroll—there it is! No wait, that’s not it. Dammit. Ah, here’s my card. You can almost see the line building behind me as other patrons waited for me to get my act together.

With the app—which is essentially a giant QR code—the person working the door simply scans the pass, and in I go. It takes less than five seconds. It’s convenient, and I gotta say the security of knowing you’re surrounded only by other vaccinated people really makes me breathe easier (no pun intended).

Several US states, including New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, Louisiana and more, already have some form of vaccine passport (some are voluntary only). Twenty US states have banned those kind of passports entirely, and you can probably guess which ones. Frankly, I think it should be federally mandated, but that probably gets crosswise with the Constitution—and would almost certainly cause a right wing meltdown that would make Chernobyl look like a walk in the park (not that anyone should pay any attention to them, but that’s how we live now).

Bottom line, for me at least: In-N-Out Burger needs to get with the program, and stop pretending that public health protections aren’t a form of discrimination. At the same time, California should provide a standard app like Quebec’s VaxiCode to make the confirmation process smoother, faster, less invasive and standardized so companies like In-N-Out have less justification to throw temper tantrums.

It’s encouraging that we’re still seeing people flee the Republican Party in search of sanity. I’d be extra concerned if we weren’t seeing this. But the truth is that we’re in very deep trouble. Support for President Biden is collapsing, especially among independents who blame him for inflation. It’s true that Trump suffered from persistently and historically bad approval numbers throughout his presidency, but remember that he lost reelection. And his floor of support rarely was as low as Biden’s is right now.

A new poll from Grinnell College and Selzer and Company shows President Joe Biden’s approval rating is falling.

According to the poll, only 37% of Americans approve of the job the president is doing, while 50% disapprove.

The poll shows President Biden’s support among Independent voters since the 2020 election has collapsed, and he would be tied with former President Trump if the 2024 election were held today.

“In 2020 exit polling, President Biden won independent voters by a 54% to 41% margin,” said J. Ann Selzer of Selzer & Company. “If the election were held today, our poll shows former President Trump winning that group 45% to 28%. It is a massive shift in a demographic that helped carry Biden to victory less than two years ago.”

I wish I had an adequate explanation for how this is possible, but one thing I’m certain about is that the American people are in a deep funk. On the left, there’s widespread faith that this will resolve itself if Biden’s agenda is passed through Congress. To be sure, having some legislative success will help. Depending on what’s included and excluded from the final package, there could be an additional boost from crafting good policies that benefit the people. Anything is better than a display of impotence and incompetence.

Some on the left are arguing that the legislation needs to be enacted in full, largely as promised by Biden on the campaign trail, and that watered down half measures won’t right the ship. Others are saying that voting rights need to be protected or the Republicans will essentially cheat their way back into power. These are defensible arguments. But I keep coming back to the seeming insanity of public opinion.

I’m familiar with the common explanations: widespread disinformation campaigns, dishonest and all-prevalent right-wing media, social media algorithms, foreign interference, the stress of the pandemic, predatory monopolies and the loss of entrepreneurial opportunity, the backlash against changing demographics and “woke” culture. The biggest factor of all is probably simply the malign influence of Donald Trump who undermines faith in our institutions on a constant basis.

I don’t think things can begin to return to normal until Trump is out of the picture. I’ve given up on Republican leaders having any constructive role in helping the country move past Trump. Any faith I have is vested in district attorneys, the Justice Department, and the courts.

I know that in some ways Trump is only a symptom, made possible by other factors. But he became the primary problem, one that has to be addressed before we can solve the underlying issues.

The Democrats need to pass as much of Biden’s agenda as they can, both because he needs a win and because many of his policies should help address the underlying issues. But this is unlikely to be enough by itself because the rot and sickness in our political culture is too far advanced. As things stand, it almost doesn’t matter what the Democrats do–they’re on track to lose power to an anti-Democratic death cult.

I can’t say precisely why Americans have gone insane or which remedies have the most promise, but I know Trump has to be dealt with or things will just get worse.

Here’s a blast from almost 45 years ago:

This is one of those tracks I just never tire of, no matter how many years pass, or how much my perspective in life shifts.

This has been a difficult month. Just the way it is. In the meantime, try to take a moment to enjoy the sights and sounds around you.

Cheers!

On the list of things I care about, daytime television is at the bottom of the list. I believe I’ve watched The View once since it first aired in 1997. Barack Obama was the guest. In that span, I’ve probably tuned in to The Price is Right three or four times. I can’t think of any other non-sports network programming I’ve watched before dinner time.

I also don’t care about Meghan McCain. Not even a little bit. But I decided to read her explanation for why she left The View in July 2021 and I found that I was sympathetic to many of her complaints. The root of the problem is that she had a difficult pregnancy followed by a bout of postpartum anxiety. This left her in a bad headspace when she returned to work and ill-equipped to deal with the hostility of her co-hosts who weren’t exactly in the mood, post-January 6 coup attempt, to humor her role as designated conservative apologist.

The problem is that McCain expends thousands of words in her effort to explain what happened without once mentioning January 6.

That’s probably because her experience was one of personal humiliation and frayed workplace relationships.

On my second day back, as I was still getting my sea legs back and adjusting to my new schedule and life between breast-pumping and researching for my hot topics, Joy [Behar] and I began squabbling a bit about the state of the Democratic Party on air. To make light of things and to ease the tension, I said, “Joy, you missed me so much when I was on maternity leave! You missed fighting with me!”

“I did not,” Joy said. “I did not miss you. Zero.”

Nothing anyone has ever said to me on camera since I have been giving interviews since I was 22 years old ever hit this hard. I felt like I’d been slapped.

Knowing all the difficulties McCain was having with postpartum anxiety at the time, it’s easy to see why she was so devastated by this exchange. Even in the best of times, that kind of remark would hurt, especially when delivered on national television. But if we’re being charitable to Joy Behar, she didn’t know what McCain was going through.

McCain evidently doesn’t know what the rest of us have been going through since Trump decided to try to stay in power despite being defeated at the polls.

The problem wasn’t that Behar was too mean or that McCain was too sensitive. The problem was that the format of the show depends on a token Republican Alan Colmes figure to be a foil to a bunch of liberal-minded women. The token can’t be too conservative, but they also can’t be an ex-Republican. But by July 2021, there was no longer a willingness to tolerate people still clinging to the GOP. Behar was reacting to McCain the person, but also to McCain the token Republican.

Behar was short-tempered but it was really about the format of the show not making sense. With McCain absent on maternity leave, this wasn’t something they had to confront. That changed the moment she returned.

McCain finished the show but she wanted an apology. When one was not forthcoming, she realized that she’d be much happier if she quit, so she did.

A lot of what McCain has to say about paid maternity leave and mothers in the workplace strikes me as correct and important. She may have identified some issues with the management and production of The View, although I do not care about any of that.

The really important thing is what McCain completely misses. She certainly understood that she had an assigned role because she notes correctly that the other hosts should have understood that she was only doing her job, and doing it better than some of her immediate predecessors.

After my dad died, I heard Joy had told others at “The View” that she couldn’t understand how I could still defend Republicans after everything Trump had done to me. Why was that something she had to worry about? I could separate the two. I could separate Trump from being a Republican. And by the way, that was my job on the show. It’s also how the great political analysts survive the ups and downs of each administration. “The View” wouldn’t have had the ratings that it did during my four years if I was like the conservative co-hosts who succeeded Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Those women agreed with everyone and nodded politely. The women who once voted Republican and came to find nothing except the ability to trash the party and its members at every possible opportunity.

Leaving aside that no one ever mistook McCain for “a great political analyst,” what she didn’t get is that there’s nothing left of the GOP to defend. She was right to walk away from the show, but if she’d been able to detach herself a little bit she’d have realized that her assigned role now demanded she play an irredeemable villain. Either you’re for the peaceful transfer of power or you are not. The gray areas are gone.

One of the worst aspects of the Trump Era has proven to be the ongoing acts of performative stupidity by right wingers, in order to “own the libs.” I wrote a little bit about this last week, taking specific note of Breitbart writer John Nolte’s ridiculous theory that “the organized left is doing everything in its power to convince Trump supporters NOT to get the life-saving Trump vaccine…by using reverse psychology to trick Trump supporters.” This is because of Cleek’s Law, although Nolte doesn’t use the term: what it boils down to is that if liberals say “up,” conservatives reflexively say “down,” even if they know they’re wrong. So, you see, if the Democrats want people to take the vaccine, the only option available to the right is to refuse—you know, kind of like a two-year old. It’s little more than a clever plot by Democrats to kill Republicans by leveraging their idiocy rank tribalism.

Refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19 is the most obvious form of this performative stupidity. Prevention is for pussies, after all—so conservatives and anti-vaxxers are willing to try anything to rid themselves of Covid once they inevitably get infected. Instead of a free and FDA-approved vaccine, they take horse dewormer and hydroxychloroquine. They inhale hydrogen peroxide, or take vitamin C and zinc. Many rely on an army of prayer warriors, which has to be the worst army in the world because they never seem to win. Of course, when you’re fighting God’s will—whenever one of these poor, deluded fools dies, that’s how their families explain it, there’s never any reflecting on what THEY could have done differently—the deck is stacked, what with the omnipotence and all.

Today, I offer two highly entertaining—or incredibly sad, depending on your perspective—items in the ongoing Saga of Stupid.

Item! You’ll be delighted to learn that the Deniers have discovered a NEW quack cure for the deadly virus: urine therapy. Apparently it’s a real thing, as gross as it sounds. As a friend of mine quipped, “I guess we’re rapidly approaching real life ‘eat shit and die’ levels of insanity,” which sounds funny until you consider that some moron in Trumplandia will almost certainly suggest it, and then they’ll all sit there with actual shit-eating grins on their faces, insisting through persistent wheezing and a hacking cough that if they only ingest enough of their own waste products they’ll never end up on the vent. Speaking for myself, I have never felt so owned in my life. You should also feel owned as well—which is far worse than your breath smelling like peepee, right? Can I get an “Amen?”

Item! Bloviating right-wing radio host with backpfeifengesicht syndrome Dennis Prager claims he deliberately went around hugging people in a deliberate effort to catch Covid-19.

“I have engaged with strangers, constantly hugging them, taking photos with them knowing that I was making myself very susceptible to getting covid,” he said. “Which is — indeed, as bizarre as it sounded — what I wanted, in the hope I would achieve natural immunity and be taken care of by therapeutics.”

Contradicting studies and recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prager told his audience that natural immunity was more effective than getting the vaccine, saying a covid infection was “what I hoped for the entire time.” The CDC recommends that people get vaccinated even after contracting the virus — officials point to an August study that showed unvaccinated people who already had covid were twice as likely to be reinfected as those who had been fully vaccinated after contracting the virus.

It’s a well-known alternative fact that the CDC is an agent of the Deep State, and thus a bunch of libs who must be owned, so it’s not surprising that Prager is making this claim whether it’s true or not. As the Post notes,

Prager is one of several conservative radio show hosts to spread misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccines, including some who later died of the virus.

In the past three months, at least five right-wing radio show hosts, all of whom discouraged their listeners from getting the vaccine, have died of covid-19. The most recent was Bob Enyart, 62, who in the weeks leading to his infection told listeners to boycott the shots while pushing the debunked claim that the coronavirus vaccines are made from aborted fetus cells.

It would be churlish (if understandable) to wish death on the elderly and out-of-shape Mr. Prager, even though his lies have probably put several of his listeners in the hospital and may have even killed a few. It’s not like he cares about anyone but himself, including his fellow MAGA clowns. In fact, just a few days before Prager came up positive, he’d been out doing appearances with Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, whose campaign told the local NBC affiliate that they didn’t know anything about Prager’s plan to get infected with Covid, and were now “reaching out to all those who attended to make sure they are informed,” and encouraging them to get tested.

So I wish Mr. Prager luck with his (supposed) self-inflicted battle with coronavirus. If all else fails, Dennis—after you’ve shoved a UV light up your ass or choked down a megadose of horse dewormer—why not try a nice glass of fresh, warm piss?

At the very least, you’ll be owning the libs yet again.

When my brother Andrew died, alone in his car in a rest stop in Ohio, seven months sober but his esophageal varices shot all to hell, I was in indescribable pain. What hurt more than anything else was to know that this was how the story ended. There was the injustice of it all, obviously, but also that it was such an ugly end to such a meaningful life. So, you know, our form of justice was to tell the story without the end.

We go through these rituals and we shine the best light on things, but the subtext is still there. The best storytelling is driven by subtext and some stories serve to teach you of life’s most important lessons so you can access them when they’re really needed.

I’ve been listening to Robert Hunter’s Stella Blue since I was fourteen year’s old, and I’ve contemplated and valued its message countless times. What really is “Stella Blue”? Why are those words in the song, and what do they mean? There’s no correct answer to that question, but I know what they mean to me.

Stella Blue is what remains at the end of the story when the story is filled with loss and pain and regret and unfathomable sorrow. Hunter describes this feeling as a song that comes crying “up the night” and “like the wind down every lonely street that’s ever been.” In the end, it’s all that remains.

The song ends like this:

It all rolls into one
and nothing comes for free
There’s nothing you can hold
for very long

And when you hear that song
come crying like the wind
it seems like all this life
was just a dream

Stella Blue

I’ve heard these words and I’ve understood them, but now I feel them. Yet, Stella Blue is ultimately redemptive. After all, there is something that remains.

When all the cards are down
there’s nothing left to see
There’s just the pavement left
and broken dreams
In the end there’s still that song…

That’s the real power of the lyrics: “There’s still that song.” As long the song is there, life is there. We can go on.

Subtext and redemption are not just for last chapters, however. Sometimes they can be captured in the fleeting moment. For example, Robert Earl Keen’s song Feelin’ Good Again describes a man whose been away for a long time, obviously suffering from hardships and depression. He comes home and goes to an old bar where his favorite band is playing. He sees all his old friends and wishes he’d cashed his paycheck so he could buy them all a round of drinks. Suddenly he discovers seventy dollars in his pocket and it’s clear his luck has finally changed. It’s feel good but then he begins to wish an old flame was there too.

The boys from Silver City
Were standin’ by the fire
Singin’ like they thought
They were the Tabernacle choir

And I wanted you to see ’em all
I wished that you were there
I looked across the room
And saw you standin’ on the stair
And when I caught your eye
I saw you break into a grin
It feels so good feelin’ good again

That’s all the song conveys. Two examples of unexpected good fortune after a long string of difficulties. We don’t need to know the details of those difficulties because we can provide our own examples. The important thing is to know that luck can change and it’s possible to feel good again.

Finally, if ever anyone had a bad last chapter it was Blaze Foley who was shot to death and whose murderer was acquitted. But his song Clay Pigeons is much like Keen’s Feelin’ Good Again in that it explores the possibility of getting back on you feet after suffering some very severe blows. It’s another mid-chapter story with a vital lesson.

I’m goin’ down to the Greyhound station
Gonna get a ticket to ride
Gonna find that lady with two or three kids
And sit down by her side

Ride ’til the sun comes up and down around me
‘Bout two or three times
Smokin’ cigarettes in the last seat
Tryin’ to hide my sorrow from the people I meet

And get along with it all
Go down where the people say y’all
Sing a song with a friend
Change the shape that I’m in
And get back in the game and start playin’ again

Again, we have no idea what put Foley in such bad shape to begin with, but we can fill in our own blanks. The key is that he has a plan and he has faith that he can change the shape that he’s in and get back in the game. This is something he knows he needs to do.

I’m tired of runnin’ ’round
Lookin’ for answers to questions that I already know
I could build me a castle of memories
Just to have somewhere to go

Count the days and the nights that it takes
To get back in the saddle again
Feed the pigeons some clay, turn the night into day
And start talkin’ again when I know what to say

Brendan Skwire was kind enough to come all the way down from Vermont with a friend to sing the latter two of these songs at Jesse’s memorial celebration yesterday, and we chose these songs because they meant a lot to Jesse. But, really, they were reminders to those of us who are grieving his loss and trying to cope with the last chapter.

As Robert Keen wrote in another song, “the road goes on forever and the party never ends,” and we have more chapters to write.

I take solace from this music and take inspiration as a writer from the genius and craftsmanship of the lyrics. Sometimes we leave out the last chapter as a way to right the wrongs of the world. Other times, we leave the details unspoken because we’re after universal truths.

Colin Powell, lying liar who helped spread lies about Iraq’s imaginary weapons of mass destruction, is dead. Although he regretted his role in spreading the lies that led hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women, and children to an early and violent death, that doesn’t make them any less dead. Let’s roll the tape!

Also, too.

Powell’s lies followed him to his grave. Even the Washington Post, of which you’ll read more in a few lines, noted Powell’s disgraceful tap dancing in their hagiography obituary.

Gen. Powell harbored deep misgivings about the timing of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the size of the invading U.S. force. But he ultimately supported the action, lending his considerable credibility to making the public case for war. It was a move he later regretted…

Throughout 2002, Gen. Powell continued trying to slow the march to war with Iraq, warning Bush in a meeting in August that an invasion could destabilize the Middle East and shackle the United States with a great reconstruction burden.

“You break it, you own it,” he recalled saying.

But Gen. Powell eventually threw his substantial public credibility behind the decision to attack Iraq, agreeing to Bush’s request to present the U.S. case for war to the U.N. Security Council in February 2003.

His 75-minute speech, asserting that Iraq possessed chemical, biological and perhaps even nuclear weapons, proved deeply embarrassing when no weapons were found after the invasion. He told an interviewer several years later that the speech would remain a “blot” on his career, which was “painful” for him to accept.

A “painful blot.” LOL, as the kids say. You know what’s REALLY a painful blot? “When you’re feeling your freedom and the world’s off your back, then some cowboy from Texas starts his own war in Iraq,” and the next thing you know you’re burying your mangled wife and children because someone dropped a bomb on your house, or maybe your husband came home with no legs, or maybe in a flag-draped coffin.

But yeah, I guess knowing you’re responsible for all that bloodshed is painful. Omelets and eggs, amirite?

While we’re on the topic of lying liars, Iraq War propagandist and Washington Post editorial page editor/columnist Fred Hiatt has some thoughts to share on the topic of lying.

How does a lie become respectable?

Bit by bit, step by step, cowardly dodge by cowardly dodge.

Case in point: The Japan-America Society of Washington, D.C., inviting Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty (Tenn.) to its annual gala this week as featured guest and honorary chairman…

But Trump is not, really, gone, and Hagerty, to the surprise of many, has emerged as one of his most loyal acolytes — and one of the most complicit in questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

As late as Jan. 2, Hagerty was vowing, along with fellow Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn, to vote in the Senate not to recognize Joe Biden’s victory in the electoral college. They said they had “concluded without any reservation that we will stand against tainted electoral results from the recent Presidential election…”

When the Senate was able to resume business, he and Blackburn both voted to certify the electoral results after all.

He’s been trying to crawl back into Trump’s good graces ever since, including by sponsoring the Protect Electoral College Act, which calls for the Government Accountability Office to audit the use of absentee ballots in 2020…

The Japan-America Society celebrates the friendship between the world’s oldest democracy and Asia’s oldest democracy. I asked Ryan B. Shaffer, society president, whether a willingness to acknowledge the legitimacy of elections, win or lose, shouldn’t be a minimum requirement for becoming an honorary chairman…

There’s an argument to be made that, at times of intense partisanship, it’s more valuable than ever that people from across the spectrum can encounter each other in nonpartisan arenas such as the Japan-America Society…

By the accumulation of uncounted such little-noticed decisions, Trump’s lie is legitimized and an essential pillar of democracy is eroded: that the loser recognizes the winner, knowing another election opportunity will come around.

Apparently Fred’s not a fan of lying anymore. But if anyone knows that a lie becomes respectable “bit by bit, step by step, cowardly dodge by cowardly dodge,” it’s Fred Hiatt who, along with Colin Powell, helped bring death to thousands of innocent people.

At least Powell felt bad about it and went public with his regrets. Hiatt has never, to the best of my knowledge, admitted that he was wrong.

Hello again painting fans.

This week I will be continuing with the painting of Bodiam Castle in the UK. The photo that I’m using is seen directly below.

I’ll be using my usual acrylic paints on a 8×10 inch canvas panel.

When last seen the painting appeared as it does in the photo seen directly below.

Since that time I have continued to work on the painting.

I have now added some paint to the panel. Note the shadows. I have paused at this juncture to show the effect of shadowed areas on the building. It suddenly becomes three dimensional. More for next week.

The current state of the painting is seen in the photo directly below.

I’ll have more progress to show you next week. See you then.