What is the real State of the Union? Polarized, now, and for the rest of our lifetimes.
With that in mind, today is a good day to chill, and here a few songs to promote chillin’. We start with the very funny song “I’ll Never Smoke Weed with Willie Again” during Willie Nelson’s 70th birthday celebration. It is sung by Toby Keith and Scott Emerick, with Willie Nelson laughing in the background:
Sample Lyrics: I always heard that his herb was top shelf I just could not wait to find out for myself Don’t knock it ’til you tried it, well, I tried it my friend And I’ll never smoke weed with Willie again
For all you old hippies out there, here is “Willin” and “Don’t Bogart that Joint” by Little Feat, that is, the Lowell George-led version of Little Feat, not the several incarnations of bands using that name that have been working since Lowell died in 1979. These two tracks were recorded at Lisner Auditorium on the campus of George Washington University in August of 1977:
For the Wrongologist’s (not substantial) money, Waiting for Columbus is one of the greatest live recordings. However, it is not completely a “live” album. It doesn’t take anything away from WFC or Little Feat, but there were overdubs done later, prior to release, to enhance the sound on a few cuts.
If you don’t know this album, buy the 2002 Deluxe Edition CD, you will never be sorry. Don’t buy the version on Amazon, it only has 20 songs, the actual deluxe CD has 27.
We can’t end without another Waiting for Columbus tune. WFC was recorded in London in addition to Washington DC. There were 4 dates in London. Here is “Dixie Chicken”, recorded at London’s Rainbow Theater on August 3 & 4, 1977:
That’s Bill Payne on the piano solo. Here, Little Feat combined jazz, honkytonk, swing, ragtime and dixie into one great song.
WFC is a go-to experience on any road trip for the Wrongologist.
Although it was first observed in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. Day wasn’t recognized by all 50 states until 2000. It isn’t simply a day about the man; it’s a day about a Dream. MLK remains the hero of a certain generation of Americans for whom activism was a building block of their personal journey to adulthood.
In most ways, our nation has lost that sense of can-do, that all things are possible if you follow your Big Idea, because sadly, we no longer have people who can rally us to make Big Ideas happen. And isn’t it fascinating that the three men of the 20th Century who had big ideas and brought them to fruition, Gandhi, Mandela and Dr. King, all faced “it can’t be done” opposition, often violent, from the white power base in their countries. All three modeled non-violence for their followers, and all three lived to see their Big Dream become a reality in their own country.
Since it is Wake Up Monday, here are 3 songs that pay tribute to Dr. King, his ideals and his relentless drive for equality. It is important to remember that he was just 39 when he was killed.
First, “Glory” by Common and John Legend from the soundtrack of the current movie “Selma”:
50 years later, we are far from completely erasing our race-related issues, except on TV, where all day, every day, commercials show people of all races having fun together while shopping for fast food.
Let’s work together to make it a reality outside of TV before too many more MLK days come and go.
Next, U2’s “Pride (In the Name of Love)“. From their 1984 album, “The Unforgettable Fire”:
If listeners have any doubt that Martin Luther King Jr. is the subject of the song, these lyrics drive the point home:
Early morning, April 4 Shot rings out in the Memphis sky Free at last, they took your life They could not take your pride.
But, MLK’s assassination took place in the early evening, rather than the early morning. That didn’t matter, everyone loves the song, and the Edge’s guitar at the start is one of the most recognizable riffs of the 1980’s.
Finally, the Wrongologist’s favorite MLK song, “Southern” by OMD from their album “The Pacific Age“. On April 3, 1968, in Memphis, King delivered his last speech, which we now know as his “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech. He was assassinated the next day. OMD samples some of the content of that speech for their song “Southern”:
Although everyone knows the “I’ve been to the mountaintop” part of the speech, Wrongo thinks our focus should be on the following:
I want young men and young women, who are not alive today But who will come into this world, with new privileges And new opportunities I want them to know and see that these new privileges and opportunities Did not come without somebody suffering and sacrificing For freedom is never given to anybody
Why should we focus on that part of the speech? Because one day down the road, and it will not be long, young people will have forgotten what MLK meant to America, and how whatever remains of their rights came to be.
They won’t know anything about the intellectual foundations of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Or, how the 13th Amendment ending slavery came about, and why, 100 years later in 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed, or how 48 years later, in June, 2013, the Roberts Court eviscerated it.
So, today, teach a child about why MLK is important.
Today, Wrongo is remembering Doug Sahm, the founder of two great groups, the Sir Douglas Quintet, in 1964 and the Texas Tornados in 1990. Sir Douglas had a hit in 1965 with the song “She’s About a Mover”, which was renamed from “She’s a Body Mover” so it could be played on radio.
Here is a video from the NBC-TV show “Hullabaloo.” That night’s host was Trini Lopez. At the end, you will hear Trini explain that the band is not from England, but is actually from Texas. Doug Sahm, formed the Quintet in 1964 with longtime friend Augie Meyers.
The Quintet was part of a cross-cultural south Texas musical melting pot that included the sounds of Mexico, Poland, Germany, and Africa. But you also see the Brit-Pop influence in their haircuts and outfits:
Next, Sahm and Meyers formed the Texas Tornados, along with the great Freddy Fender and accordionist Flaco Jimenez. This was a true Tejano fusion band, and stayed active from 1990 when they got together, until 1999 when Sahm died. Fender died in 2006. Their 1996 single “A Little Bit is Better Than Nada” was in the opening credits of the movie Tin Cup. Here they are singing the Wrongologist’s favorite from their album “Texas”, “Guacamole”:
Rod Stewart turned 70 over the weekend. Married three times with eight children, he is worth about $150 million, give or take, and is still working. There are hundreds of Stewart songs to choose from, but here is the Rodster with Jeff Beck and Ronnie Wood, from the Jeff Beck Group’s album “Truth” recorded in 1968, doing “Rock My Plimsoul”:
A Plimsoul is a guitar pedal. While Beck and Stewart give themselves writing credit for “Rock My Plimsoul“, it is actually by BB King, written in 1964. Here is his “Rock Me Baby“:
Over 8.4% of subprime auto loans taken out in the first quarter of 2014 were already delinquent by November, according to an analysis of Equifax data by Moody’s Analytics…That’s the highest rate of early subprime delinquencies since…2008.
Is it time for another George Zimmerman defense fund? Who could have predicted that Zimmerman would be in trouble again? Well, anyone with two functioning brain cells could have predicted it.
5 months of air strikes in Iraq and Syria in 4 charts: Since Aug. 8, the US has carried out 1,689 strikes in Iraq and Syria against more than 3,200 ISIS targets. From the first day of strikes through Jan. 2, the bombing has cost $1.2 billion, with an average daily cost of $8.2 million a day.
Analog search before Google: People sent their questions to reference librarians, no matter how strange. The New York Public Library had the foresight to write the questions down, including ones pre-dating the library’s reference desk itself. Like this one:
Ya sleep with a guy worth $27 million, and you don’t get his name? You deserve to remain single and poor.
Thought for the week: Give up on trying to appeal to reason. If appeals to reason worked, the GOP would get fewer votes than the Libertarians or Greens. During Adlai Stevenson’s 1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out: “Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!”
Stevenson replied: “That’s not enough, madam, we need a majority!”
You’ve probably never heard of Tony Joe White. If you know him at all, it is because you know some of the songs he wrote, like “Polk Salad Annie“, or “Rainy Night in Georgia“, songs covered by many artists. He also wrote “Steamy Windows” and “Undercover Agent for the Blues“, both hits for Tina Turner. Mark Knopfler, (who was Turner’s producer at the time) brought those two songs to her.
Here is Tony Joe White with “Bayou Woman”:
After you listen to “Bayou Woman”, you can hear the strong influence Tony Joe had on Knopfler’s “Sultans of Swing”. TJ toured with Knopfler in Europe in the early 1970s.
When Tony Joe appeared with the Foo Fighters doing “Polk Salad Annie” on Letterman, Dave pointed at Tony Joe and said: “”If I was this guy, you could all kiss my ass”.
Today is also Elvis Presley’s birthday, he would have been 80. Here he is doing “Polk Salad Annie”:
If Letterman was Elvis, we would all probably kiss is ass, too.
Let’s start the first Monday of the New Year with this photo of a hermaphrodite Northern Cardinal:
The half-red, half-white plumage of this northern cardinal is caused by its sex chromosomes not segregating properly after fertilization, so the bird is half-male, half-female. You can read more in New Scientist magazine here.
Last night, Wrongo watched Martin Scorsese’s film, The Last Waltz, which documents the last concert by the roots-rock group, The Band. Late in the movie, Robbie Robertson recounts jamming with the great harmonica player, Sonny Boy Williamson in the early 1960s, and making (never-realized) plans to work together. Obviously, Robertson, Helm, et al. went on to be the band that backed Bob Dylan in the 1970s.
Here is your Monday musical wake-up: Sonny Boy Williamson playing and singing “99”, in which he can’t come up with that last dollar to make the $100 his girlfriend wants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP668KiaY7E
Here are links that you may have missed:
Drone etiquette is one of several issues covered in the WSJ’s “21 Tech Do’s and Don’ts for 2015.” Really, drone etiquette is gonna be a thing in 2015?
The latest ISIS offensive in Iraq’s Anbar Province may have reversed weeks of progress by Iraq’s government forces. And it only took a few hours. No airstrikes were launched by US coalition forces in time to support the ground troops.
Today is the Wrongologist’s birthday. That’s right, nearly everyone in the civilized world tries to have a drink with Wrongo on New Year’s Eve. It makes New Year’s Eve among his favorite holidays.
Christmas, not so much. The double bind that Christmas has become is summed up by those annual Lexus commercials. They promise that if you’re nice enough to Santa, or if your spouse truly loves you, there could be a $50,000 luxury car outside, wrapped in a bow.
Really? Tell that to the average American (whose wages haven’t gone up, even though much of their daily living costs have increased) that the reason they don’t have a Lexus waiting for them is that their spouse or significant other just doesn’t love them enough.
It is easy to hate what Christmas has become here at the end stage of the Empire.
But New Year’s is different. Here is Johnny Swim, the Wrongologist’s favorite new musical group of 2014, singing a song written by Frank Loesser in 1947, “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”:
Happy New Year, and thanks to all of those who read this blog.
No need for a long list of resolutions that we would all just break in January. Let’s settle for a wish that 2015 brings each of us a better economy, better health, and fewer global crises to worry about.
Now, Christmas Eve doesn’t engender thoughts of Bob Dylan. He’s the last guy you would think about. But today, we have Dylan two ways. First, Dylan singing “It Must Be Santa”. If you listen carefully, Dylan uses the names of several US presidents in with the list of Santa’s reindeer. And his hair is ironed or its a wig:
We close with our go-to Christmas Eve sing along carol here at the Mansion of Wrong. That would be Tom Lehrer’s “A Christmas Carol”. Here is Lehrer’s lead in to the song:
Christmas, with its spirit of giving, offers us all a wonderful opportunity each year to reflect on what we all most sincerely and deeply believe in. I refer of course, to money.
Here’s the song:
From all of us here at the Mansion of Wrong, Merry Christmas, and please work to bring peace to your family and your community.
A few more words about the killing of two NYPD officers. It was and is a tragedy. No one should think otherwise. The harsh reaction that blamed Mayor de Blasio and the Eric Garner and Ferguson demonstrators should be viewed through a lens of that tragedy, The statements made by the PBA, and Commissioner Bratton were over the top, but under the circumstances, we can let go of them.
It was different with the professional politicians. On Sunday, Ray Kelly, who was the police commissioner during the Bloomberg administration, said that in his view (and in the view of many officers), that Mr. de Blasio ran on an “anti-police” platform.
He wasn’t alone. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani attributed the killings to the protests that broke out across the city following a grand jury’s failure to indict a police officer for killing Eric Garner. But Rudy being Rudy, went over the top on Fox News on Sunday:
We’ve had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police.
OK, that makes the killings Obama’s fault. Then, it was Ex NY Governor George Pataki (R) who weighed in, blaming de Blasio and Attorney General Eric Holder for inciting the kind of anti-police fervor that led to the murders:
Sickened by these barbaric acts, which sadly are a predictable outcome of divisive anti-cop rhetoric of #ericholder & #mayordeblasio. #NYPD
(For those who receive this blog in email via FeedBurner, the tweet will not display properly. Pataki said):
Sickened by these barbaric acts, which sadly are a predictable outcome of divisive anti-cop rhetoric of #ericholder & #mayordeblasio. #NYPD
This, just days after Pataki said that he was thinking of running for President in 2016. Pataki seizes an issue and runs (literally) with it.
Yet, de Blasio said on the night of the killings, while standing next to Commissioner Bratton:
It is an attack on all of us; it’s an attack on everything we hold dear.
Isn’t it interesting how the shooting of two NYC cops became politicized, not just in NYC but throughout the country. Bratton blamed, in a roundabout way, the protests and so it goes. All of these guys looking for political advantage on Sunday. Then, on Monday, the headline in NYT said:
Officers’ Killer, Adrift and Ill, Had a Plan
Ismaaiyl Brinsley was a gang member who spent time in jail, who hated cops, who shot his girlfriend before he took the bus to NYC. He necessitates shutting down demonstrations, suggesting we recall the mayor, and blaming the White House.
Yet, in Pennsylvania, in September, Eric Frein, a white guy kills one cop and wounds another. But that story isn’t about how we should end marches and protests, or play the political blame game. He was just a loner with authority issues. This is typical of the coverage of the PA killing: (emphasis by the Wrongologist)
Police have not spoken about a possible motive for the crime, other than that Eric Frein has talked and written about hating law enforcement. Authorities have said a review of a computer hard drive used by Frein shows that he had planned the attack for years.
NO motive?? The same story says that Frein claimed to have fought with Serbians in Africa. That he was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted fugitives list. And that when they found him, he had two fully functional pipe bombs.
Clearly, Ismaaiyl Brinsley was the real threat to democracy, not Eric Frein. Two guys, two different plans, two different attacks on police, and two different reactions by the police and Republican pundits.
No surprise here.
Let’s move on to more music for the season with something to make us forget that the America we knew is disintegrating in front of us.
Here is an old Irish song that dates from the 12th century, “The Wexford Carol”. Take a listen to the melody and beautiful words. This version has Allison Krauss performing along with Yo Yo Ma. That’s the amazing Natalie MacMaster backing them on the fiddle:
First verse:
Good people all, this Christmas time,
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done,
In sending His belovèd Son.
RE: Sony. The twist in this case is the trope that North Korea is suppressing our Freedom of Speech. And, the suppressed “Freedom of Speech” is a shitty Hollywood movie. So the public is getting spun about an invisible, but somehow tangible, “attack” on our freedoms. The Wrongologist has no skills to determine who hacked Sony, but when the mainstream media jumps on something with both feet, you know it supports SOME government theme.
Is the plan to convince the American people that there are “threats” everywhere and that only the State Security Apparatus can protect them from Evil? The usual pun-holes on the Sunday tube talked about how big the threat is, and how vulnerable we are.
America has become a Factory of Fear. Fear the Muslims, fear Putin, fear China, fear immigrants, fear criminals, fear the national debt, fear detente with Cuba. Trouble is, once again, the only thing we’re being urged to do is muster up the courage to go shopping. Authoritarians need their subjects to be afraid. Their bet is that people will submit to bullying if they believe that the bullies are the only thing standing between them and their terrors.
Things have to change. Killing brown people for peace is not working. Our empire is bankrupting us, and has not made us any safer. Unfortunately in the US, our domestic politics, plus our failures in military adventurism, have created ever greater violence and lunacy, further feeding the rolling disaster.
As an example, take New York City. Two police were killed in their patrol car. NY’s Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the police union, reacts by declaring that the NYPD has “become a ‘wartime’ police department, and we will act accordingly.”
Wartime, really? Are these the union’s marching orders to the 35,000 armed members of the biggest police department in the US? The NYPD seems to be asserting their superiority to the NYC executive branch. This has the earmarks of an attempted coup.
As a former military, the Wrongologist respects the absolute need for a chain of command with an elected civilian at the top. As a former military, he knows that many in the military only respect the authority of civilian leadership if the civilian happens to be a conservative.
The NYPD seems to be ready to strike out at their civilian leadership because they have deemed it to be unworthy of leading their “honorable” police force. Their attitude of superiority should scare the living daylights out of all of us. This attitude is not amenable to any evidence to the contrary, or to self-reflection and examination. It will brook no doubts about the moral purity of the NYC police.
This seems to be coming to a head, and seems that it will only get uglier.
Monday’s Wake Up Music: On a much lighter note, some seasonal music. Here are the Capitol Steps with a seasonal song about Guantanamo:
Next, a semi-seasonal tune by The Firemen. Sounds obscure? It is. The Firemen are a duo of Paul McCartney and Martin Glover, who performs as Youth. There are some doubts about whether or not “Dance ‘til We’re High” is a real Christmas song, even though it has lyrics about “winter coming”, “snow falling”, “bells ringing out” and a catchy tune. But, it’s way better than McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime”:
Your Monday Linkage: Tanks that won’t go away. The CRomnibus funding bill includes $554 billion for defense spending. This lines up almost exactly with President Obama’s original request, but Congress made considerable changes to where this money is being spent. According to analysis by Defense News, 10% of the FY15 defense appropriations budget—and 30% of all line items—were changed in the logrolling process. The biggest ticket items include $120 million more for M-1 Abrams tanks, despite Army protestations (for the third straight year) that no additional tanks are needed.
Oops. On July 3, Homeland Security, which plays a key role in responding to cyber-attacks, replied to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about a malware attack on Google called “Operation Aurora.” Unfortunately, DHS officials made a grave error in their response. DHS released more than 800 pages of documents related not to Operation Aurora but rather to the Aurora Project, a 2007 research effort demonstrating how easy it was to hack into US power and water systems.
Ars Technica calls the Sony hack a “software pipe bomb.” Analysis by Cisco of a malware sample matching the signature of the malware that was used in the attack on Sony Pictures, reveals that the code was full of bugs and was anything but sophisticated.
Our frequent commenter, Terry McKenna, has a great post about Cuba and our Constitution. Go read it.
It’s easier to believe in a benevolent God — the baby Jesus — than it is in some kind of theory about global warming. It’s just easier, is it not?
O’Reilly was making the point that literal belief in the story of the virgin birth as it appears in the gospels is easy, while believing that burning fossil fuels causes climate change is hard. Another way of putting this is that O’Reilly thinks it is easier to believe that a woman can be impregnated without sperm than it is to believe the consensus of the scientific community on an issue he apparently doesn’t understand.
