User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Free Form Friday the Fifth
36 thoughts on “Free Form Friday the Fifth”
after the fourth festivities, the hair of the dog with a singed and smoky taste
Louisville courier-journal: Jim Beam bourbon warehouse fire still burning as runoff poses environmental threat
[…]
The warehouse contained 45,000 barrels of bourbon. One standard bourbon barrel usually holds about 53 gallons of bourbon, which eventually turns into around 150 to 200 750-milliliter bottles. If all of the barrels held bourbon, that would be a loss of at least 6.75 million bottles.
[continues]
Bourbon on fire. Mad Magazine gives up. SFB tells us the Army Air Corp or Air Force captured enemy airports during either the Revolutionary War or the War of 1812, not sure which as the “like really smart” guy seemed to be having a senior moment or a blast of something backing up from his lower regions in to his brain case.
Something is amiss with the world.
Didn’t watch SFB’s performance, but did get to see Keala Settle perform a signed version of This Is Me for a Capitol Fourth which is what the nation expects for a “normal” celebration.
business insider: Pete Buttigieg rebuked a man in Iowa who said ‘tell the black people of South Bend to stop committing crime and doing drugs’
[…]
At the Carroll County Democratic Party barbecue in Iowa on Thursday, the man who spoke to Buttigieg appeared to weigh in on the issue by blaming South Bend’s African-American population.
“I have a solution for you, and I’d like you to make a comment on my proposal,” the man began. “Just tell the black people of South Bend to stop committing crime and doing drugs.”
The remark prompted a few chuckles before he was drowned out by loud boos.
“Sir, I think that racism is not going to help us get out of this,” Buttigieg responded.
“No no no, just stop committing crimes. It has nothing to do with race,” the man said.
Buttigieg shut down the man by explaining that black residents are far more likely to be arrested, prosecuted, and punished than their white counterparts who commit the same crimes.
“The fact that a black person is four times as likely as a white person to be incarcerated for the exact same crime is evidence of systemic racism. It is evidence of systemic racism,” he said. “With all due respect, sir, racism makes it harder for good police officers to do their jobs too. It is a smear on law enforcement.”
[continues]
“This your first reelection campaign, kid?”
went to a rooftop fireworks-watching party last night and missed Trump’s hoopla, but looking at morning clips. behind that bullet-proof glass splattered with rain it seemed like one of those pictures of mobsters behind a dirty windshield leaving the courthouse.
can’t wait to hear WH explanation for this screw-up:
“In June of 1775, the Continental Congress created a unified Army out of the Revolutionary Forces encamped around Boston and New York, and named after the great George Washington, commander in chief. The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown.
“Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rocket’s red glare it had nothing but victory. And when dawn came, their star-spangled banner waved defiant.”
uh, obviously there were no airports then, and Ft. McHenry was during the War of 1812
Trump’s Fourth of July history speech: Turns out there weren’t airports back then
President Trump broke with decades of tradition Thursday by not only attending the Independence Day celebration on the Mall in Washington but making a speech as part of his ‘Salute to America.’
It wasn’t the usual lock-her-up-no-collusion-fake-news fare though. With the aid of a teleprompter, the president spoke for 45 minutes about U.S. history, especially military history, or as he described it, “the greatest story ever told, the story of America.”
Historians — at least the ones fact-checking the president on Twitter — were not impressed. One likened the speechto “an angry grandpa reading a fifth grader’s book report on American military history.”
* * * [Tweets, etc. omitted]
Trump opened with an account of the signing of the Declaration of Independence:
“On this day, 243 years ago, our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to declare independence and defend our God-given rights.”
As most history undergrads could tell you, this isn’t quite true. The Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain on July 2, 1776. On July 4, they approved the final text of the declaration. They signed it with their John Hancocks on Aug. 2.
There were inaccuracies like this peppered throughout the speech — the president still seems to not know exactly who “Douglass, Frederick Douglass, the great Frederick Douglass” is — but Trump was especially befuddled when he described the creation of the U.S. Army.
In June of 1775, the Continental Congress created a unified army out of the revolutionary forces encamped around Boston and New York and named after the great George Washington, commander in chief. The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our army manned the [unclear], it [unclear] the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do. And at Fort McHenry, under “the rockets red glare,” it had nothing but victory. And when dawn came, their star-spangled banner waved defiant.
There is a lot to unpack here.
First, it’s clear the president was having some issues reading the teleprompter, which led to a number of errors. For example, British General Cornwallis was ofLondon; he was defeated at Yorktown. The Continental Army wasn’t named after Washington; it’s possible Trump substituted “named” for a different verb in the text of the speech.
But that doesn’t explain the apparent conflation of two wars fought three decades apart. In the first part, Trump mentions Valley Forge, crossing the Delaware and Yorktown, all of which occurred during the Revolutionary War. Then he says, “And at Fort McHenry …” and describes the battle in which the national anthem was written. This battle was fought in 1814 during the War of 1812.
Then there’s the claim the Army — in either 1775 or 1814 or some time in between? — “took over the airports.” Odd considering that earlier in the speech Trump noted the Wright brothers first flew at Kitty Hawk in 1903.
Was it another ad-lib born of too-small teleprompter type? Who knows?
But by late Thursday night, #RevolutionaryWarAirportStories was trending on Twitter.
* * * [numerous tweets, etc omitted]
Also, some angry Canadianswould like you to know that when Alexander Graham Bell got the first U.S. patent for the telephone, he was a Scottish immigrant to Canada.
Now, really, who can say whether the errors were SFB adlibbing and screwing up what his speech writers had written, or whether (as we all know) he doesn’t have only the best people running the WH – or more likely, both?
LOL,
Craig,
Stream of Consciousness history. A new and creative way to view and enjoy history.
Jack
never have thought trump had very good speechwriters. why would really good ones work for him? he hardly ever uses them, and usually screws it up when he does.
We had a nice family dinner (BBQ) here with everyone pitching-in on every task to include clean-up.
Grandson Jasper departed after helping me restore the normal sized flag to its place on our pole and helping me fold the large 48-star flag that he carefully placed inside.
I tuned-in the Indians game from KC. It was looking good for the Tribe. Except for a couple of breaks to watch snippets of the PBS DC program, I was focused on the National Pastime. Where would baseball be without our immigrant talent? In all shades of the human spectrum??
Pardon me, in all candor I must say, Fuck Trump.
too bad we can’t get to his school records. bet that was part of a speech or essay he wrote during his days at NY Military Academy at 13.
or maybe a thesis (plus a hefty donation by daddy) at Fordham or Wharton in order to graduate.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Friday unveiled a new plan to tackle the pay gap between men and women as well as racial disparities in employee compensation if she is elected president.
In a Medium post, the 2020 candidate touted a set of executive actions that would impose new requirements on federal contractors, and penalize companies shown to have poor track records on race or gender-based pay by ending contracts or refusing future business.
The executive actions would also prevent companies seeking federal contracts from forcing employees to sign non-compete or forced arbitration agreements that Warren said restricts rights to raise concerns about issues in the workplace.
“Forced arbitration and collective action waivers make it harder for employees to fight wage theft, discrimination, and harassment — harms that fall disproportionately on women of color,” Warren wrote on Medium. “Abusive non-compete clauses for low- and middle-wage workers needlessly hold them back from pursuing other job opportunities.”
Other provisions in her executive orders would mandate a $15 minimum wage for all federal contractors and ban companies that discriminate against formerly incarcerated people from obtaining contracts.
“Make the senior ranks of the federal government look like America,” she wrote. “The federal government does a dismal job on diversity and inclusion. The share of Latinas in the federal workforce is about half that of the entire workforce. And even though Black women are disproportionately represented in the federal workforce, they are nearly absent from its leadership ranks.”
“It’s time to build an America that recognizes the role that women of color play in their families and in the economy, that fairly values their work, and that delivers equal opportunity for everyone,” Warren continued.
Her proposal comes following the release of her plan to help minority-owned businesses last month by creating a $7 billion fund to support new companies run by women- and minority-owned companies.
Warren sits in fourth place among 2020 Democrats in a Hill-HarrisX poll published earlier this week.
Why did it rain on Trump yesterday?
OMG… reading those trumpty dumpty gaffes this morning…. hilarious!
Watched the Boston Pops last night. Loved the rendition of This Land is My Land led by Woody’s son, Arlo.
ahhhh… today… reading a good book with a nice tall glass of lemonade. I’m reading the 4th installment of the girl with the dragon tattoo series. The new author, David Lagercrantz is actually a better writer than Stieg Larsson was, IMO.
raw story: Trump’s disastrous July 4th speech walloped as ‘middle-school story time from hell’ in brutal takedown
President Donald Trump sounded more like his eldest daughter than his namesake son in his Fourth of July address — but the speech still landed flat, according to writer Molly Jong-Fast.
In her column for The Daily Beast, Jong-Fast gave the president meager credit for sticking to the speech he saw on his Teleprompter, but she said those words were dully written and dutifully read.
“It was a speech that had all the excitement of an excerpt from one of Bill O’Reilly’s YA history books,” Jong-Fast wrote. “It was middle-school story time from hell.”
The president lacks the oratorial skills to deliver a “not-so-insane” speech, Jong-Fast wrote, and she said Trump’s glancing look at American values only served to highlight all the norms he’s crushed.
“It was a relief that the president stuck to the script, delivering a drone-like Ivanka-esque speech and not a scary Don Jr.-style speech,” Jong-Fast wrote, “that he didn’t make the event more political than it already was; that he didn’t, you know, start a war.”
“It was one of Trump’s least bonkers speeches,” she wrote. “It didn’t encourage violence! He didn’t lead chants of ‘CNN sucks.’ He didn’t talk about how much he loves Robert E. Lee. There were some gaffes — like his mention of airports during the war of 1812 — but maybe that was just to let us know we weren’t in some alternate reality.”
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That is one soggy critter.
Trump would have been better off doing his campaign rift, he sucks at being presidential. If he had his base would have loved it and the left wing nuts would have went ballistic in a really stupid way and drove more of the center toward Trump.
Jack
nothing much has changed. we were warned but didn’t take the warning seriously enough
Donald Trump yet again made headlines this week for saying something outrageous. This time, he said that he could just start shooting people on Fifth Avenue and still wouldn’t lose voters. What goes into writing those crazy claims of his? We’ve got an exclusive look inside the mind of a Trump speech writer.
Looks like I get the day off. The Kid (24 yr old going on 13) I have hired to help me checked in about 9am. Just woke up from his 4th celebrations. He stopped by to pickup his check. He had a banged up knee and a big ole skinned spot on his forehead and other road rash spots about his body. I guess he had a good time last night.
Glad I don’t do that any more.
Jack
Renee – it should be a great read. Last night I happened across the film version of The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Decent flick. I read the “Dragon Tattoo” a few years ago – and I liked it a great deal.. Haven’t read the others, but I’ll have to read this and the latest by Lagercrantz.
Biden knocked it out of the park in his lengthy interview with Chris Cuomo this morning on CNN. That’s his best format, needs to do more of that. Clearly made his case that he’s best positioned to win the general election.
renee, is this the version you saw?
Arlo Guthrie sings censored verses of “This Land is Your Land” -Queen Latifah, Boston Pops July 3
Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular Rehearsal Night, July 3, 2019, Charles River Esplanade, Boston During “This Land Was Made For You,” Arlo Guthrie sang the first half of the forbidden, censored verses his father wrote:
“As I was walkin’ – I saw a sign there And that sign said – no trespassin’ But on the other side … it didn’t say nothin! Now that side was made for you and me!”
Perhaps due to time constraints, or an agreement, he didn’t continue with the rest, which is:
“In the squares of the city – In the shadow of the steeple Near the relief office – I see my people And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’ If this land’s still made for you and me.”
We wondered how many attendees knew about this.
Clearly made his case that he’s best positioned to win the general election.
As far as I’m concerned that it the most important consideration for 2020.
patd… yup… that’s the one!
Although born in Brooklyn NY… Arlo has lived most of his adult life in Stockbridge Massachusetts. It’s the place of Alice’s Restaurant. Massachusetts has adopted him as an honorary native son and he is considered a state icon and treasure. When doing concerts nowadays, he frequently performs with his children and grandchildren.
Biden is ridiculous. I don’t think he did himself any good. I am not a racist — sounds like I am not a crook
President Trump has come under fire for implying there were airports to take over during the Revolutionary War. Fools, trolls, those with a fifth-grade understanding of history — all of them joined to calumniate him and suggest his statement was wrong. Even he blamed it on the teleprompter. This just goes to show how ignorant most people are of history. They do not know how key the air force was to the Revolution, or how vital taking the airports was. Well, I know.
Recently, I was leading an unauthorized tour of Fort Knox when I happened to bump against a button, opening a long, dark passageway. Cobwebs hung from its ceiling, and there was a skeleton in a tricorn hat leaning against the wall. Deep down the tunnel, I could see a faint light emanating from a pile of documents. I moved closer and saw parchment with writing in a neat slanting hand, bound by a leather cover that read: “BEING THE TRUE AND OFFICIAL MEMOIRS OF THE CONTINENTAL AIR FORCE, 1776- SO FORTH.”
I blew some dust off the cover and began to read:
Dec. 25, 1776. There is much consternation among the troops, and General Washington and his aides are in bitter disagreement as to the question of how best to surprise the Hessian forces encamped in Trenton, New Jersey. I suggested we use the air force. After all, we have an air force. But General Washington does not want to. General Washington thinks that it would be more picturesque if we were to all get in a boat and row across the Delaware River, with him standing in the middle looking steely and illuminated by a light from above. He is very specific about it. I, however, think we should use the air force and just bomb the Hessians. I said, “Sir, you must pardon me, but what good does it do us to have this air force if we do not use it?” But General Washington seems unmoved. I think we are going to do the boat thing.
Winter 1777: We are suffering a bitter winter at Valley Forge, in Pennsylvania. I think the air force is suffering most of all. We keep saying we have an air force and we could go spend the winter somewhere more pleasant — for instance, Florida. But General Washington says it will build character to stay here at Valley Forge. So we are staying. Our morale suffers. I have gangrene now. I think General Washington fears his horse will not want to get on the airplane. But that is no reason for the rest of us to suffer. I am not confident in the general’s leadership, and Benedict Arnold agrees with me.
[…reports feb 1778- sept 1781…]
October 1781: A GLORIOUS VICTORY FROM THE AIR! First we stormed the airports, of course. Once we had done so, we could tell Cornwallis’s morale was broken. We picked him up in our Spitfire and performed a barrel roll, and he said, “The world is turned upside down!” Alexander “The Red Baron” Hamilton — so called on account of his hair — boarded his Sopworth Camel and wreaked havoc upon the British forces. Even General Washington was impressed at how our army manned the air. He said that someday, a future leader of our new nation would speak with gratitude of the actions of our aviators, and, in my heart, I felt certain he was right. They were the key to this war, the key to our freedom, and I hope one day they receive the recognition they deserve, even if General Washington has inexplicably insisted we erase all mention of them from history for the next 238 years.
I think most people who support Biden are doing based on the current polling — he can win– tripe.
If he keeps losing place in polls by the end of the summer he will be in negative territory
Because in the here and now polling tells me that when head to head matchups with SFB are put out there Biden does better than anyone else. If he doesn’t win the nomination current polling won’t mean anything. Until then it is the best measure of how the respective Dem candidates are doing in the minds of those polled. Plus, in RCP’s averages he holds a 10.8% edge over the next closest candidate – being Kamala Harris. If you don’t buy the results, OK. You may be right and you may be wrong, just as I might.
way too early to hitch wagons to a particular star. too many inadvertent goofs and gaffes, possible and probable collateral fall-out from family and friends, unforeseen (or uncovered) health problems, and just plain ever changing life can happen in these many months before the primaries let alone the general.
voters, keep your options open and your powder dry.
and candidates should heed Del Gue ‘s advice: Keep your nose in the wind and your eye along the skyline.
Goofs & gaffs. THAT’S catchy.
I look at one thing and one thing alone – who has the best chance to beat SFB. If it’s Biden today (it is) and the election was today I’m a Biden supporter. If it’s Harris (or Warren or Budigeig) tomorrow (it may be) and the election is tomorrow I’m a Harris (…) supporter, and pleased as punch. If it’s Bernie! the next day I’ll hold my nose and vote for him. My only demand is “Show me.” In the meantime, show me why your candidate beats SFB and mine doesn’t and I’ll consider supporting your candidate. Take shots at my candidate without supporting yours, don’t expect that to be persuasive. But you know I’m not going to shoot at your candidate so wail away.
after the fourth festivities, the hair of the dog with a singed and smoky taste
Louisville courier-journal: Jim Beam bourbon warehouse fire still burning as runoff poses environmental threat
[…]
The warehouse contained 45,000 barrels of bourbon. One standard bourbon barrel usually holds about 53 gallons of bourbon, which eventually turns into around 150 to 200 750-milliliter bottles. If all of the barrels held bourbon, that would be a loss of at least 6.75 million bottles.
[continues]
Bourbon on fire. Mad Magazine gives up. SFB tells us the Army Air Corp or Air Force captured enemy airports during either the Revolutionary War or the War of 1812, not sure which as the “like really smart” guy seemed to be having a senior moment or a blast of something backing up from his lower regions in to his brain case.
Something is amiss with the world.
Didn’t watch SFB’s performance, but did get to see Keala Settle perform a signed version of This Is Me for a Capitol Fourth which is what the nation expects for a “normal” celebration.
business insider: Pete Buttigieg rebuked a man in Iowa who said ‘tell the black people of South Bend to stop committing crime and doing drugs’
[…]
At the Carroll County Democratic Party barbecue in Iowa on Thursday, the man who spoke to Buttigieg appeared to weigh in on the issue by blaming South Bend’s African-American population.
“I have a solution for you, and I’d like you to make a comment on my proposal,” the man began. “Just tell the black people of South Bend to stop committing crime and doing drugs.”
The remark prompted a few chuckles before he was drowned out by loud boos.
“Sir, I think that racism is not going to help us get out of this,” Buttigieg responded.
“No no no, just stop committing crimes. It has nothing to do with race,” the man said.
Buttigieg shut down the man by explaining that black residents are far more likely to be arrested, prosecuted, and punished than their white counterparts who commit the same crimes.
“The fact that a black person is four times as likely as a white person to be incarcerated for the exact same crime is evidence of systemic racism. It is evidence of systemic racism,” he said. “With all due respect, sir, racism makes it harder for good police officers to do their jobs too. It is a smear on law enforcement.”
[continues]
went to a rooftop fireworks-watching party last night and missed Trump’s hoopla, but looking at morning clips. behind that bullet-proof glass splattered with rain it seemed like one of those pictures of mobsters behind a dirty windshield leaving the courthouse.
can’t wait to hear WH explanation for this screw-up:
uh, obviously there were no airports then, and Ft. McHenry was during the War of 1812
From WaPo – uhhh, there seem to be a few errors in SFB’s 7/4 speech.
Now, really, who can say whether the errors were SFB adlibbing and screwing up what his speech writers had written, or whether (as we all know) he doesn’t have only the best people running the WH – or more likely, both?
LOL,
Craig,
Stream of Consciousness history. A new and creative way to view and enjoy history.
Jack
never have thought trump had very good speechwriters. why would really good ones work for him? he hardly ever uses them, and usually screws it up when he does.
We had a nice family dinner (BBQ) here with everyone pitching-in on every task to include clean-up.
Grandson Jasper departed after helping me restore the normal sized flag to its place on our pole and helping me fold the large 48-star flag that he carefully placed inside.
I tuned-in the Indians game from KC. It was looking good for the Tribe. Except for a couple of breaks to watch snippets of the PBS DC program, I was focused on the National Pastime. Where would baseball be without our immigrant talent? In all shades of the human spectrum??
Pardon me, in all candor I must say, Fuck Trump.
too bad we can’t get to his school records. bet that was part of a speech or essay he wrote during his days at NY Military Academy at 13.
or maybe a thesis (plus a hefty donation by daddy) at Fordham or Wharton in order to graduate.
another day, another plan
the hill:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Friday unveiled a new plan to tackle the pay gap between men and women as well as racial disparities in employee compensation if she is elected president.
In a Medium post, the 2020 candidate touted a set of executive actions that would impose new requirements on federal contractors, and penalize companies shown to have poor track records on race or gender-based pay by ending contracts or refusing future business.
The executive actions would also prevent companies seeking federal contracts from forcing employees to sign non-compete or forced arbitration agreements that Warren said restricts rights to raise concerns about issues in the workplace.
“Forced arbitration and collective action waivers make it harder for employees to fight wage theft, discrimination, and harassment — harms that fall disproportionately on women of color,” Warren wrote on Medium. “Abusive non-compete clauses for low- and middle-wage workers needlessly hold them back from pursuing other job opportunities.”
Other provisions in her executive orders would mandate a $15 minimum wage for all federal contractors and ban companies that discriminate against formerly incarcerated people from obtaining contracts.
“Make the senior ranks of the federal government look like America,” she wrote. “The federal government does a dismal job on diversity and inclusion. The share of Latinas in the federal workforce is about half that of the entire workforce. And even though Black women are disproportionately represented in the federal workforce, they are nearly absent from its leadership ranks.”
“It’s time to build an America that recognizes the role that women of color play in their families and in the economy, that fairly values their work, and that delivers equal opportunity for everyone,” Warren continued.
Her proposal comes following the release of her plan to help minority-owned businesses last month by creating a $7 billion fund to support new companies run by women- and minority-owned companies.
Warren sits in fourth place among 2020 Democrats in a Hill-HarrisX poll published earlier this week.
Why did it rain on Trump yesterday?
OMG… reading those trumpty dumpty gaffes this morning…. hilarious!
Watched the Boston Pops last night. Loved the rendition of This Land is My Land led by Woody’s son, Arlo.
ahhhh… today… reading a good book with a nice tall glass of lemonade. I’m reading the 4th installment of the girl with the dragon tattoo series. The new author, David Lagercrantz is actually a better writer than Stieg Larsson was, IMO.
raw story: Trump’s disastrous July 4th speech walloped as ‘middle-school story time from hell’ in brutal takedown
President Donald Trump sounded more like his eldest daughter than his namesake son in his Fourth of July address — but the speech still landed flat, according to writer Molly Jong-Fast.
In her column for The Daily Beast, Jong-Fast gave the president meager credit for sticking to the speech he saw on his Teleprompter, but she said those words were dully written and dutifully read.
“It was a speech that had all the excitement of an excerpt from one of Bill O’Reilly’s YA history books,” Jong-Fast wrote. “It was middle-school story time from hell.”
The president lacks the oratorial skills to deliver a “not-so-insane” speech, Jong-Fast wrote, and she said Trump’s glancing look at American values only served to highlight all the norms he’s crushed.
“It was a relief that the president stuck to the script, delivering a drone-like Ivanka-esque speech and not a scary Don Jr.-style speech,” Jong-Fast wrote, “that he didn’t make the event more political than it already was; that he didn’t, you know, start a war.”
“It was one of Trump’s least bonkers speeches,” she wrote. “It didn’t encourage violence! He didn’t lead chants of ‘CNN sucks.’ He didn’t talk about how much he loves Robert E. Lee. There were some gaffes — like his mention of airports during the war of 1812 — but maybe that was just to let us know we weren’t in some alternate reality.”
That is one soggy critter.
Trump would have been better off doing his campaign rift, he sucks at being presidential. If he had his base would have loved it and the left wing nuts would have went ballistic in a really stupid way and drove more of the center toward Trump.
Jack
nothing much has changed. we were warned but didn’t take the warning seriously enough
Looks like I get the day off. The Kid (24 yr old going on 13) I have hired to help me checked in about 9am. Just woke up from his 4th celebrations. He stopped by to pickup his check. He had a banged up knee and a big ole skinned spot on his forehead and other road rash spots about his body. I guess he had a good time last night.
Glad I don’t do that any more.
Jack
Renee – it should be a great read. Last night I happened across the film version of The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Decent flick. I read the “Dragon Tattoo” a few years ago – and I liked it a great deal.. Haven’t read the others, but I’ll have to read this and the latest by Lagercrantz.
Biden knocked it out of the park in his lengthy interview with Chris Cuomo this morning on CNN. That’s his best format, needs to do more of that. Clearly made his case that he’s best positioned to win the general election.
renee, is this the version you saw?
Arlo Guthrie sings censored verses of “This Land is Your Land” -Queen Latifah, Boston Pops July 3
During “This Land Was Made For You,” Arlo Guthrie sang the first half of the forbidden, censored verses his father wrote:
“As I was walkin’ – I saw a sign there
And that sign said – no trespassin’
But on the other side … it didn’t say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!”
Perhaps due to time constraints, or an agreement, he didn’t continue with the rest, which is:
“In the squares of the city – In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office – I see my people
And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me.”
We wondered how many attendees knew about this.
As far as I’m concerned that it the most important consideration for 2020.
patd… yup… that’s the one!
Although born in Brooklyn NY… Arlo has lived most of his adult life in Stockbridge Massachusetts. It’s the place of Alice’s Restaurant. Massachusetts has adopted him as an honorary native son and he is considered a state icon and treasure. When doing concerts nowadays, he frequently performs with his children and grandchildren.
Biden is ridiculous. I don’t think he did himself any good. I am not a racist — sounds like I am not a crook
BTW, Timothy Egan has a very good piece at today’s Times. The title
The Founders Would Gag at Today’s Republicans pretty much says it all.
KGC, you and I agree, it’s for others to judge whether or not one is a racist or bigot
If your main priority is beating SFB — why pick a guy who has run for president and hasn’t been able to make it through the primaries.
Craig,
I guess it has to do with viewpoint. Biden whined all the way through and if he says “Come On Man” one more time in any context, I may gag.
Alexandra Petri: The planes of the Revolutionary War
President Trump has come under fire for implying there were airports to take over during the Revolutionary War. Fools, trolls, those with a fifth-grade understanding of history — all of them joined to calumniate him and suggest his statement was wrong. Even he blamed it on the teleprompter. This just goes to show how ignorant most people are of history. They do not know how key the air force was to the Revolution, or how vital taking the airports was. Well, I know.
Recently, I was leading an unauthorized tour of Fort Knox when I happened to bump against a button, opening a long, dark passageway. Cobwebs hung from its ceiling, and there was a skeleton in a tricorn hat leaning against the wall. Deep down the tunnel, I could see a faint light emanating from a pile of documents. I moved closer and saw parchment with writing in a neat slanting hand, bound by a leather cover that read: “BEING THE TRUE AND OFFICIAL MEMOIRS OF THE CONTINENTAL AIR FORCE, 1776- SO FORTH.”
I blew some dust off the cover and began to read:
Dec. 25, 1776. There is much consternation among the troops, and General Washington and his aides are in bitter disagreement as to the question of how best to surprise the Hessian forces encamped in Trenton, New Jersey. I suggested we use the air force. After all, we have an air force. But General Washington does not want to. General Washington thinks that it would be more picturesque if we were to all get in a boat and row across the Delaware River, with him standing in the middle looking steely and illuminated by a light from above. He is very specific about it. I, however, think we should use the air force and just bomb the Hessians. I said, “Sir, you must pardon me, but what good does it do us to have this air force if we do not use it?” But General Washington seems unmoved. I think we are going to do the boat thing.
Winter 1777: We are suffering a bitter winter at Valley Forge, in Pennsylvania. I think the air force is suffering most of all. We keep saying we have an air force and we could go spend the winter somewhere more pleasant — for instance, Florida. But General Washington says it will build character to stay here at Valley Forge. So we are staying. Our morale suffers. I have gangrene now. I think General Washington fears his horse will not want to get on the airplane. But that is no reason for the rest of us to suffer. I am not confident in the general’s leadership, and Benedict Arnold agrees with me.
[…reports feb 1778- sept 1781…]
October 1781: A GLORIOUS VICTORY FROM THE AIR! First we stormed the airports, of course. Once we had done so, we could tell Cornwallis’s morale was broken. We picked him up in our Spitfire and performed a barrel roll, and he said, “The world is turned upside down!” Alexander “The Red Baron” Hamilton — so called on account of his hair — boarded his Sopworth Camel and wreaked havoc upon the British forces. Even General Washington was impressed at how our army manned the air. He said that someday, a future leader of our new nation would speak with gratitude of the actions of our aviators, and, in my heart, I felt certain he was right. They were the key to this war, the key to our freedom, and I hope one day they receive the recognition they deserve, even if General Washington has inexplicably insisted we erase all mention of them from history for the next 238 years.
I think most people who support Biden are doing based on the current polling — he can win– tripe.
If he keeps losing place in polls by the end of the summer he will be in negative territory
Because in the here and now polling tells me that when head to head matchups with SFB are put out there Biden does better than anyone else. If he doesn’t win the nomination current polling won’t mean anything. Until then it is the best measure of how the respective Dem candidates are doing in the minds of those polled. Plus, in RCP’s averages he holds a 10.8% edge over the next closest candidate – being Kamala Harris. If you don’t buy the results, OK. You may be right and you may be wrong, just as I might.
way too early to hitch wagons to a particular star. too many inadvertent goofs and gaffes, possible and probable collateral fall-out from family and friends, unforeseen (or uncovered) health problems, and just plain ever changing life can happen in these many months before the primaries let alone the general.
voters, keep your options open and your powder dry.
and candidates should heed Del Gue ‘s advice: Keep your nose in the wind and your eye along the skyline.
Goofs & gaffs. THAT’S catchy.
I look at one thing and one thing alone – who has the best chance to beat SFB. If it’s Biden today (it is) and the election was today I’m a Biden supporter. If it’s Harris (or Warren or Budigeig) tomorrow (it may be) and the election is tomorrow I’m a Harris (…) supporter, and pleased as punch. If it’s Bernie! the next day I’ll hold my nose and vote for him. My only demand is “Show me.” In the meantime, show me why your candidate beats SFB and mine doesn’t and I’ll consider supporting your candidate. Take shots at my candidate without supporting yours, don’t expect that to be persuasive. But you know I’m not going to shoot at your candidate so wail away.
NEW THREAD thanks to sturge