Hopefully, none of you brought any of these cute little babies home for Easter. Wrongoâs parents once brought home some baby chicks for the holiday. The family dog ended their stay very quickly. Just donât do it!
Easter falls on April Foolâs Day. Weâve been invited to a family party. Weâre hoping someoneâs really home when we get there. The men’s college basketball championship is sandwiched around April 1st, and Wrongo will be watching. Sadly, the UConn women’s basketball team lost in their final four for the second year in a row.
We endured another week of non-stop foolery by our elected representatives, and this week’s cartoons show just that.
There will be new census questions, but its doubtful that these will make the cut:
The new questions come with a few new tools:
The Roseanne show reboot was cause for concern by Dan:
Trump has the best irony. Trump should pay more and so should Amazon:
We didnât hear Bob Dylan at the #March for our lives, but Congress should have:
Trumpâs legal problems actually have an easy solution:
Trump’s careful diplomatic approach will certainly win the trade negotiation with China: (from the Economist)
At the beating heart of Trumpâs Presidency lies the notion of the “Art of the Deal”. It is said that Trump has few convictions, but his notion of how to negotiate â with a big stick, maximum leverage, and with credible, fear-inducing âthreatsâ –Â is central to his whole Presidency.
Crooke continues:
This underlying notion of the âdealâ is transactional in essence, best practiced as a one-to-one operation, rather than in a multilateral context. But in the sphere of geo-politics this is not so easy….in May… Trump will put his negotiating theory to the test in a very different ambit to that of New York real estate. The North Korean summit should be held; the verdict on the nuclear agreement with Iran is due to be pronounced then; the US Israeli-Palestinian determination is scheduled to be âhanded downâ in May; the Sunni statesâ Iran containment roles [are] to be set; and any punitive tariffs on China will be decided, and enacted.
May will be an important month for America. We could see success in all, some, or none of these negotiations.
Crooke posits that the Chinese, the North Koreans, the Iranians and the Russians all have read and understand the concepts behind the Art of the Deal. They also know that the US is not really in a position to make good on the bluff, and particularly, not in each negotiation, in each part of the globe.
And despite John Boltonâs best efforts to reinforce Trumpâs desire to show America as the strongest, baddest version of LeRoy Brown, all of these competitors and would-be adversaries wonât necessarily blink if Trump threatens them.
There are other problems with Trumpâs Art of the Deal strategy. Heâs not the only one who knows how to play high-stakes poker:  Putin and Xi did not become the undisputed leaders of Russian and China without knowing a bit about strategy and risk-taking.
And the leaders on the other side of each of these Trump initiatives are being told by their own âhawksâ that one option is to out-Trump Trump, and win.
This raises the question of a diplomatic âoff-rampâ. When Trump warns North Korea that the alternative to accepting Americaâs demands is military action, what will Trump do if Kim Jong-Un just says ânoâ? Or, what if Kim answers âyes, but only if America withdraws its nuclear shield from the Korean Peninsulaâ, or insists that American forces leave northeast Asia altogether?
What does Trump do then?
Does he go to war? The Donald can go to the well too many times with the Art of the Deal strategy.
Over the past 17 years in the Middle East and elsewhere, Americaâs military might has been shown to have serious limitations, despite our substantial capabilities.
Will Trump be able to bluff his way through May? And if he canât, then what?
Relax! The good news is that we have a couple of months to figure this out.
Sounds like we need to enjoy the spring, now that itâs finally arrived. Here, the fields of Wrong have finally given up their snow. The birds are returning, and our thoughts turn to a spring clean-up of the damage brought by winter.
So, letâs procrastinate a bit by brewing up a vente cup of Dragonfly Coffee Roasters Ninety Plus Gesha Estates Panama Limited Batch #238, made with the Jose Alfredo Process. ($165/8oz.) Dragonfly claims that the taste is astounding and original, including deeply arousing notes of caramelized green apple surrounding lavish fruit notes that delicately transition the finish into rich cocoa.
Who writes this stuff?
Now, settle back and contemplate the arrival of spring by watching and listening to a video of a Bobolink, by the great Lang Elliott. The Bobolink is a member of the Blackbird family:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Emma GonzĂĄlez spoke for just under two minutes on Saturday before tens of thousands of demonstrators at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, describing the effects of gun violence in emotional detail and reciting the names of classmates who had been killed.
Then she said nothing for four minutes and 26 seconds.
It was uncomfortable for many in the audience. Then a timer went off, and she said:
Since the time that I came out here, it has been six minutes and 20 seconds. The shooter has ceased shooting, and will soon abandon his rifle, blend in with the students as they escape, and walk free for an hour before arrest. Fight for your lives, before its someone elseâs job,
Wrongo likes this analysis by Melissa Byrnes at Lawyers, Guns & Money: (brackets by Wrongo)
[Her silence] It is the loudest call to action I have heard in a long time. We need to be unsettled. We need to question our assumptions about what is possible. We need pay attention to the silent woman who insists that we hear the multitude of silences of those weâve failed. We need to recognize when that woman is commanding us to listen. We need to rethink what leadership looks and sounds like.
Because this is a woman I am ready to follow.
There is reason to hope that these kids will drive change in our politics. They have stepped into a vacuum caused by our divided politics. They shouldnât have had to do this, it was our job, and we have failed.
Now, we canât just become their passive admirers. We have to participate in this movement for political and social change. On the one hand, we are being led by an amazingly courageous person in Washington DC. And on the other, your titular leader, Donald Trump, chose to go golfing in Florida this weekend.
Remember this in November.
For the first time since Trumpâs election, we are seeing how issues like gun control, #metoo, BLM and the frustration caused by economic inequality are melding together in a leftward political tilt.
Itâs way past time for Trump and politicians on all sides, who purposefully make no progress on the great issues of the day, to wake up, listen and ACT!
To help them wake up, here is Ed Sheeran with his 2017 song âWhat Do I Knowâ? Sheeran says that his dadâs advice was to never mention politics, never mention religion and never get involved in other peopleâs battles. From Sheeran:
The song âWhat Do I Knowâ was me looking at the world and being like âwe arenât doing too well are we?â and writing a song about itâŠ
Listen up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toQgbx-kT1w
Sample Lyrics:
The revolutionâs coming, itâs a minute away
I saw people marching in the streets today
You know we are made up of love and hate
But both of them are balanced on a razor blade
 Iâll paint the picture let me set the scene,
You know the futureâs in the hands of you and me
So letâs all get together, we can all be free
Spread love and understanding positivity
 Everybodyâs talking about exponential growth
And the stock market crashing and their portfolios
While Iâll be sitting here with a song that I wrote
Saying love could change the world in a moment
But what do I know?
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
March for Our Lives  in DC â 3/24/18 NYT photo by Erin Schaff
The March for Our Lives took place yesterday. High schoolers led the rest of us, marching against Americaâs gun culture, and against politicians who do nearly nothing to solve the slow-moving disaster that is our governmentâs response to mass murders in our country.
Nobody knows where this will lead. It could be part of something big that changes our society, or it could lead to nothing. But, we can be sure that nothing can change without electing a different set of politicians.
That wonât happen unless the public gets behind the demonstrators. MLK Jr. knew this. Wrongo is sure that Emma Gonzalez, and the other activists from Stoneman Douglas know this too. We must support them, and demand that our politicians actually do something about gun violence, or lose their jobs.
On to cartoons. MLK approves:
Unlike Congress Critters, these kids seem immune to cash that comes with strings attached:
Austin TX is safe, but the bomber didnât fit the stereotype:
John Boltonâs mustache grows even more alarming:
Facebookâs mismanagement of personal information makes Zuckerberg look bad:
The Dow looks like it might take a year to recover. But the weekend looks to be a rollicking good time, with marches by high schoolers and their adult supporters, Stormy Daniels on 60 Minutes, and the Sweet Sixteen college basketball tournament.
And donât forget John Bolton, also known as the “Mustache of War”.
Bolton, as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs from 2001 to 2005, was a prime mover behind the Bush II war on Iraq. As you can read here, Bolton rejected intelligence that conflicted with his desire that the US government use the phony claim that Iraq had WMD to justify the war. In fact, senior British officials accurately showed what was happening in their secret âDowning Streetâ memo to Tony Blair in July 2002 when they reported that:
The intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy.
Throughout that fall, Bolton knew how the administration was misrepresenting the details of the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraqâs WMD to the public. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence also documented these distortions in a series of bipartisan reports following the 2003 invasion. Lawfare gives a first-person analysis of Bolton:
First, heâs a masterful bureaucratic tactician. Unlike his predecessors, Michael Flynn and H.R. McMaster, Bolton is a very experienced and adept creature of Washington institutions. Similar to former Vice President Dick Cheney, he knows the levers and knobs of the vast national security and foreign policy machinery: how they work, who works them, and how to exert control over them.
That’s also mixed in with the fact that Trump likes to defer to people who can dominate a room, another formidable trait of Bolton’s:
Third, he’s thorough and methodical. Most senior policymakers simply cannot keep up with the details across so many issues….Expect the same diligent readiness from him on issues like Iran and North Korea, but with the added advantage that he’ll face less pushback than he might otherwise because of the fact that so many senior diplomatic posts remain unfilled. His ability to be meticulous and bombastic will probably serve him very well in this White House.
The key takeaway is that Bolton brings to the president’s national security agenda a competence that this White House has lacked. I generally agree with Benjamin Wittes that some of the president’s worst instincts have often been tempered by sheer ineptitude. What makes Bolton dangerous is his capacity to implement those instincts effectively.
He has the ability to put loyalists in key positions while marginalizing those he distrusts. From Booman:
This is the most dangerous moment for humanity since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thereâs nothing Congress or the public can do directly to prevent Bolton from taking his post, but all means for resisting his influence must be employed.
Those who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis know that we barely avoided going nuclear, in part because JFK stood up to General Curtis Lemay, and because tactical commanders on both sides failed to follow their respective militariesâ rules of engagement.
Maybe this isnât a good time to bring up that many Democrats and independents thought that Hillary Clinton was a greater threat to world peace than the Donald. Kinda makes a person long for some good old Obama-style gridlock.
Enough! We gotta just get away, relax and get soothed. Wrongo says this every week, but this weekend, he really, really means it. The daffodils are poking up through the snow, and it is time to brew up a hot vente cup of something caffeinated. This week, Wrongo recommends Hula Daddy Coffeeâs Kona Sweet blend ($94.50/lb.), with its silky mouthfeel, and very sweet taste which suggests subtle milk chocolate, according to the roaster. Donât worry, the stock market is so bad, you might as well blow what you have left on one cuppa joe.
Now, settle in and listen to a selection from George Winstonâs âWinter into Springâ, recorded in 1982. This video adds terrific sights and sounds of spring in northern Idaho to Winstonâs soundtrack. Some might think it distorts Winstonâs art. You be the judge:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Does capitalism work for you? Well, you certainly work for capitalists. The real question is whether capitalism still provides economic security to all of us.
Steve Lambert, the artist who designed the sign, engaged with people across America over a three-year period about whether capitalism was still working. He learned that people were split about 50/50 on the premise:
People usually first react to the piece by falling back on the comfort of abstractions and repeating popular myths. For example, the true/false dilemma is much easier to resolve when the only alternatives to capitalism are presumed to be failed communist dictatorships. Itâs also much easier to pretend that the only âtrueâ definition of capitalism is the kind of free-market extreme idolized by thinkers like Ayn Rand and Friedrich Hayek
Or thinkers like Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. Lambert learned that people generally agreed with the concept, assuming âyou are willing to work hard, or work smarterâ:
Iâve always found the formulation âwork hard, work smartâ disturbing. When you invert the expression, it implies: if capitalism doesnât work for you (that is, if youâre poor, out of work or have a demeaning job), itâs your fault. To put it more bluntly, you are lazy and stupid.
If we ignore the fact that until recently, wages have stagnated for decades, and that what most people earn in a lifetime is insufficient to cover a modestly comfortable retirement, maybe you can say that capitalism is working.
We have been told that federal budget deficits impair our ability to grow the economy, or to put food on our individual tables. In fact the opposite is true. This idea makes us believe that our ability to earn a living requires some degree of suffering by other Americans.
âWe canât afford itâ has been the proverbial comforter of opponents of the welfare state harking back to the Clinton / Blair days….This argument has been used as an emotional crutch for people who donât want to admit that theyâre comfortable with homelessness and unemployment….If their bottom line is stable.
This lie sets us against each other, implying that the well-being of everyone else is a direct threat to our own. And who wins? The beneficiaries of the newly lowered taxes, corporate America and its management teams. More from Connelly:
Do we really want to live in a world….Where most people will be lucky to earn minimum wage, or wait for months to get paid. If at all. A world where we are not entitled either to a job, or an education, or affordable health care or a social safety net?
We are likely to see a $1.3 Trillion budget pass both houses of Congress this week. It is deficit spending run wild. Wrongo knows that both parties believe that deficits donât matter, and to a great extent, he agrees.
But these deficits are larger than they had to be, due to the massive corporate and wealthy individual tax cuts the Republican House and Senate just passed. And itâs not only the size of the deficits, itâs the mis-allocation of funds by our neo-con overlords.
This is what capitalism has delivered for America: More than 45 million of us (14.5%) live in poverty. In 2016, another 49.5 million Americans were age 65 and older, and half of them (24.75 million) had yearly income of less than $23,394.
That adds up to about 70 million (22%) of Americans.
One idea that is gaining attention is a Jobs Guarantee program. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) recently released a paper arguing for a national jobs guarantee through a national infrastructure bank. The CBPP plan envisions an infrastructure bank that would fund vital projects and ensure that jobs are well-paid. The government would use this job-creating ability to expand jobs in sectors where the market wonât currently invest, like a national high-speed internet network.
Government guarantees of employment arenât radical. They arenât communism, or socialism. We did it before with the New Deal. It reinforces traditional American values around work, and it builds the tax base by taxation on the jobs created. Hereâs a final quote from Steve Lambert:
My favorite response to the sign was from a 17-year-old high school student in Boston. She said: âCapitalism canât work for everyone. If it did, it wouldnât be capitalism.â
This is where the conversation needs to go: We have to change an economic system that fails so many.
In March 2003, a US-led coalition invaded Iraq to forcibly remove Saddam Hussein from power. A quick victory ensued, but while the campaign had been carefully planned, what was to happen after winning had not. That led to a series of blunders and ill-conceived decisions, and a chain of events that ensures the Middle East and North Africa will be unstable for generations to come.
No one knows for certain how many Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion 15 years ago. Some credible estimates put the number at more than one million. You can read that sentence again. The invasion of Iraq is often spoken of in the United States as a âblunder,â or even a âcolossal mistake.â It was a crime. Those who perpetrated it are still at large. Some of them have even been rehabilitated thanks to the horrors of Trumpism and a mostly amnesiac citizenry. (A year ago, I watched Mr. Bush on âThe Ellen DeGeneres Show,â dancing and talking about his paintings.) The pundits and âexpertsâ who sold us the war still go on doing what they do. I never thought that Iraq could ever be worse than it was during Saddamâs reign, but that is what Americaâs war achieved and bequeathed to Iraqis.
What was supposed to be a quick operation, limited in time to remove a dictator from power, has snowballed into an out of control global nightmare.
Fifteen years later, the consequences have given us an uncertain future, but back in 2003, it didnât have to be that way.
Wrongo had dinner back then with Gen. Jay Garner, who GW Bush had just tapped to lead the post-war reconstruction efforts in Iraq. We were at a company offsite meeting, just before he left for Iraq. Garner said that he believed the establishment of a new government could be accomplished quickly, and that the country could be back on its (sort of democratic) feet within a year.
Garner’s plan was to choose the new government officials who would lead the country from the former Iraqi regime. He later said:
…as in any totalitarian regime, there were many people who needed to join the Baath Party in order to get ahead in their careers. We don’t have a problem with most of them. But we do have a problem with those who were part of the thug mechanism under Saddam. Once the US identifies those in the second group, we will get rid of them.
Garner was replaced by the noxious Paul Bremer in May, 2003. Garner wanted early elections, and for Iraqis to decide how to run the country. But Bush, Cheney and Wolfowitz wanted to purge all Baathists. They cashiered the Iraqi military. They then selected Iyad Allawi to lead the Iraqi interim authority. Allawi was a Shiite who had worked with the CIA.
You know the rest of the story. The continuing catastrophe in Iraq led to the continuing catastrophe in Syria. That has caused the destabilizing flood of refugees into Europe. And it led to the European right-wing anti-immigrant movements that have ascended in most of the Eurozone.
Europeans must find it unbelievable that Trump claims they aren’t paying their way. They’re paying a huge daily tab in the form of destabilized politics and costly social programs for immigrants that reside in their towns and cities due to Americaâs adventurism in the Middle East.
In its wake, Iran allied with Russia and Iraq. Assad has won in Syria. Turkeyâs relationship with NATO is frayed. Those birds will keep coming home to roost for generations.
Without the lies about Iraqâs weapons of mass destruction, and the sheer incompetence of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Bremer in Iraq, ISIS might not have expanded throughout Iraq and Syria. The refugee crisis might never happened.
And for what? A neo-con wet dream come to reality? Some real money made by their buddies via no-bid contracts?
The human toll, as Antoon says, was about one million Iraqis, and untold Syrians on top of that. It was never worth it.
Americans arenât accustomed to calling their foreign adventures blunders. Antoon says it was a crime. We had a moment after Obama was elected to call the Iraq warâs perpetrators criminals, but Obama and Pelosi agreed that they wanted to look forward.
Now, the American public seems to want to let GW Bush off the hook for his blunders.
Massachusetts stream after March Nor’easter – 2018 photo by Karen Randall
The New York Times and The Observer each reported on Sunday about Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook (FB) personal information for about 50 million users. The data were acquired by an external researcher who claimed to be collecting it for academic purposes.
Those data were subsequently passed by the researcher to Cambridge Analytica (CA), who used it to help the Trump campaign develop very accurate psychographic profiles on each FB user. They also built a powerful software program to influence choices at the ballot box, targeting them with personalized political messages. CA then helped create websites and FB posts specifically designed to appeal to those users who followed the information, and then the most effective messages were used to either get them to vote, or to stay home.
The Observer said that the 50 million profiles represented about a quarter of potential US voters.
Cambridge Analytica was at the time, managed by Steve Bannon, and remains owned and financed by Robert Mercer. In June 2016, the Trump campaign hired Cambridge Analytica to take over its data operations. The WSJ reported on Friday that Robert Mueller has requested that Cambridge Analytica turn over internal documents as part of its investigation.
Some detail on the FB data: In 2015, a University of Cambridge researcher Aleksandr Kogan harvested data on millions of Americans by getting them to use his FB research app, âthisisyourdigitallife,â which offered a personality prediction, and was billed on FB as âa research app used by psychologists.â
Kogan then passed the data to Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, who used the personal information to create psychological and political profiles, and then target them with political ads designed to work with their particular psychological makeup.
We know about this because Wylie just came forward to the Observer, which broke the story. The Observer reports that Wylie: (edits and brackets by Wrongo)
Was the gay Canadian vegan who somehow ended up creating âSteve Bannonâs psychological warfare mindfuck toolâ… [And they quote him saying] we âbrokeâ Facebook…
Cambridge Analytica also was used in the Brexit election campaign on the side of the âLeaveâ faction. And, The Hill reports that CA met with the Russian oil firm, Lukoil, three times in 2014 and 2015. Lukoil was apparently interested in how data could be used to target US voters.
When this story broke, Facebook banned Cambridge Analytica from advertising on its platform. But, The Guardian reports that Facebook had known about this misuse of its data for two years, doing nothing about it. Facebook acknowledges that the data were obtained legally, but that this use violates its policies
Until now, Wrongo has been agnostic about foreign meddling in the 2016 election. But finally, this may be where the Mueller investigation is heading: Collaboration by the Trump campaign (through Cambridge Analytica) and Russian operatives on the development and deployment of these robustly targeted digital advertisements. This becomes clearer since the Guardian reports that Kogan, the data gatherer, was also working for a St. Petersburg university while he was working for Cambridge and running his app. The Guardian also implies that he had funding from the Russian government.
This is at the center of everything. Russia, Facebook, Trump, Mercer, Bannon, Brexit. All of these threads run through Cambridge Analytica.
And we shouldnât ignore FBâs culpability. They contracted with the app developer. They transferred large amounts of data to Kogan for specific purposes. FB had the opportunity and obligation to oversee and enforce that contract, and they seem to have failed to do so.
If this happened only in the US, we might not have even heard about it. Luckily for the American public, part of this arrangement appears to be subject to EU data protection rules, so more of the story will come out.
This shows why the US badly needs a data privacy and data protection regime similar to Europeâs.
Itâs time to WAKE UP America! We have to get sharp! We need to dig deeper. To go beyond headlines, and develop a real understanding of the issues confronting our Republic.
Otherwise, we can be bullshitted or manipulated, and our democracy will be lost.
To help you wake up, here is English singer, Lily Allen doing her 2009 song âThe Fearâ:
Sample Lyrics:
I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
And I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
‘Cause I’m being taken over by the fear
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
What is most interesting about the #Enough movement is that it is well-disciplined, and deadly serious. These kids arenât just looking for a chance to cut school. They realize whatâs at stake: not just their lives, but the future of the country. Most of them will be old enough to vote in 2020.
When you think about high school kids marching, the Parkland kids are from FL, many WI kids marched, and Democrat Conor Lamb just won in a PA district gerrymandered to be very red. Total Electoral College votes if these three states switched from red to blue: 59. In other words, #Enough:
Dem surprise win in PA gets standard Trump response:
GOP debrief on PA rounds up all the usual suspects:
Unitedâs problems transporting dogs makes Romney look good:
Mt Kilimanjaro – March 2018 photo by Peter Madonia
The #enough movement is about school kids protesting school violence. America watched this week as thousands of high school kids left their classrooms. Some wanted their government to do more to end gun violence, some simply wanted to show solidarity with 17 dead Florida kids.
These children may not be able to vote yet, but theyâre learning how to make themselves heard. Letâs hope they grow up and vote, because we are living in a country where many, including most Republicans in Congress, think that universal health care is tyranny, but dead school children are part of the cost of freedom.
They think that access to medical treatment is a privilege you earn based on whatâs in your wallet. Meanwhile, they defend the right of virtually anyone over 18 to own an AR-15.
And in New Milford, here in Litchfield County CT, there was a big dust-up over the town’s walk out. A group of parents hired an attorney to tell the school district that they were not happy that the kids got to participate in the national student walkout. Their lawyer wrote to the school district, saying:
My clients have asked me to notify you that this event violates state law, on the basis that state and local public funds are being used improperly to advocate for a political issue and to influence how voters will vote. Because it violates state law, we demand that the New Milford Public School Districtâs Superintendent and Board of Education immediately cancel the event, and rescind any association or prior involvement in it.
Since the event is over, itâs doubtful that it can be canceled. They also emailed Breitbart: (editing and brackets by Wrongo)
…the parents â who wish to remain anonymous â argue [that] the decision involves issues concerning adherence to law and policy, the manipulation of minors, the misuse of tax dollars, and indoctrination and political activism during school hours.
These parents think their kids are being manipulated. They surely must realize how difficult it is to manipulate one teenager, much less to simultaneously manipulate hundreds of thousands of them all across America.
George Soros just isn’t that powerful.
The #enough movement is somewhat reminiscent of the Vietnam-era marches, which included high school and college kids spontaneously standing in public places protesting something that was a legitimate threat to their physical safety. The primary concern of students back then was being killed.
It is also the primary concern of these kids today.
Back in New Milford, solidly Trump country, a few anonymous parents obviously want to micromanage their kidsâ experiences and to politicize them. Here is a Facebook page quote by a student at NM High School:
Any student who wanted to go to the gym did, and those who chose not to participate were not forced to. A few students gave speeches, one of which contained a list of the names of the victims of the Parkland shooting. With each name a bell was rung and a moment of silence was given. A memorial for the innocent lives that were lost. The other speeches focused on being positive and spreading kindness; one given from a student who used to live in Parkland and who was very personally affected by this tragedy. Students and teachers alike listened and felt for the losses. It was a powerful and beautiful movement for all who watched. There was NO mention of guns in any way.
These kids didn’t leave the building! But, despite knowing this, these anonymous parents hired a lawyer to intimidate the school district, and politicize the intentions of high school kids. The parents then involved Breitbart, a right wing rag. They wanted to highjack the message of these kids, turning it into yet another right wing, Second Amendment moment.
As Paul Simon said: âA man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the restâ.
This really makes Wrongo feel like we all need a soothing experience. To help with that, Wrongo suggests brewing a cup of Al-Durrar Single Farmer Lot coffee from Yemen, ($45/4 oz.) imported and roasted by Port of Mokha coffee. Wrongo heard about this on the PBS News Hour. It is a very interesting story.
Now, take your cup, and settle into your most comfortable chair to listen to âSicilian Blueâ by Hiromi Uehara, a Japanese jazz composer and pianist. Her work is a perfect blend of emotion and control. Here, she is performing live at the Jazz in Marciac (France) Festival in August, 2010:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7xAbT4jzD8
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
