Quartet in A major, op2 by Richard Strauss
Composed by Strauss, early in his career, when he was 18. Amazing especially when I think of what I was doing at 18
From some research
While Strauss did not, in later life, devote much time to chamber music, in his earlier years he tried his hands at several different types of chamber works composing a string quartet, two piano trios, a piano quartet and several instrumental sonatas.
During his early years, Strauss took Schumann and Mendelssohn as his models. The String Quartet, which dates from 1882, is typical of his style at this time. Later, of course, he came under the influence of the new tonalities of Liszt, Berlioz and Wagner. Although the Quartet is the work of an 18 year old, knowledgeable critics have never considered it a juvenile work. Wilhelm Altmann, the Dean of Chamber Music Critics, writes, “There are so many pleasing features and it is so delightful to play, and so full of sound musicianship, that it will always be sure of a welcome among players and listeners.” Link
Enjoy, Jack
Thank you, Jack, for the music, the info and a welcome lull before the storms.
Mike Johnson believes in the divine right of kings
The Speaker serves only Trump
Ann Telnaes
Sep 05, 2026
After the Labor Day holiday and the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, Congress will return for only four days before heading back to their districts to campaign for the midterms. Guess it doesn’t matter that Congress isn’t working since Speaker Johnson isn’t doing his job and letting Trump spend taxpayer money for his vanity projects without congressional approval anyway.
[click above link to see Ann Telnaes’ substack cartoon]
Aug 20, 2026 #midterms2026 #congress #vote
To be clear, Congress has had the power to stop 47’s fascist regime from Day 1. Yet, they have failed the People at every opportunity. We are in an illegal war with no exit strategy. The National Debt is at a record high with 1/4 of that occurring under 45/47. America has abandoned & alienated its longtime allies. People have lost healthcare, jobs, homes as well as losing family members, friends, & coworkers to ICE. All while the oligarchs have continued to increase their wealth.
We the People have had enough of this useless Congress. Despite the regime’s efforts to suppress voters this November, we must all turn out in record numbers and vote them out! Then, we start the long progress of healing and building a better system for all.
What Shall We Do With a Useless Congress?
Tune: What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor
Lyrics: Fran Osborne, RGTC
Video: Juli Fountain, RGTC
We should all be as useful
Thank you Jack for all the wonderful string quartettes you keep finding.
didn’t see this coming. looks like Minnesota could eventually prosecute? That will be a big case…
ICE officer charged with lying about shooting turns himself in
Didn’t see this coming. Abbott had let him go. He’s still in Texas, but looks like Minnesota could eventually prosecute? That will be a big case…
ICE officer charged with lying about shooting turns himself in
Sometimes our diner chats feel like a fine quartet, or a moonshine jug band…
Watch us take the National Geographic Animal Spirit Quiz — Spoiler Alert: Ours often has twins.
A fun music oriented video. The Star Spangled Banner, if Bach had composed it. Although at the end I think maybe Beethoven helped.
Here’s our Potomac cruise reel from yesterday…
I think we have at least Weird Al fan here. Just for them
Today in the Diner…
1. John Roberts & The Supreme Court’s Threat to Democracy
2. Why Jared Kushner & Steve Witkoff Met Putin in Moscow
3. JD Vance and the Ohio Data Center Disaster
Chief Justice John Roberts is dismantling Democracy at the Supreme Court. Plus, Jared Kushner meets Vladimir Putin and JD Vance talks data centers.
We start with the Supreme Court, where Chief Justice John Roberts is busy building an imperial presidency while destroying the last guardrails of Democracy. With the help of some strategically placed powder puffs, he is shielding Donald Trump from accountability and reshaping constitutional law. Even conservative Judge Michael Luttig is calling it out as one of the worst decisions in history.
Meanwhile, the AI bubble continues to spawn absolute garbage, leaving JD Vance to blindly defend the massive influx of data centers gobbling up electricity from the Ohio River to Lake Erie. Instead of real solutions, Vance is just spouting his usual nonsense about building nuclear power plants while working families foot the bill. Up in Maine, Troy Jackson is hammering Susan Collins with ads exposing her absolute cave to the MAGA agenda.
Finally, we track a bizarre situation in Moscow, where Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are somehow conducting shadow diplomacy with Vladimir Putin. Nobody seems to know why these two are over there without security clearances, but it certainly smells like a double-cross waiting to happen. Throw in a quick boat ride down the Potomac River to the National Harbor to see The Awakening sculpture, and you have today’s full menu.
Live Chat: https://trailmix.cc/chat
Website: https://trailmix.cc
Alerts: https://trailmix.cc/alerts
00:00 Intro
02:40 John Roberts at the Supreme Court
11:00 Eurasia Group Mocks Vladimir Putin
17:15 LBJ & Immigration Act of 1965
21:10 Elon Musk Driverless Taxis Austin
23:10 JD Vance Defends Ohio Data Centers
32:10 Potomac River to National Harbor
44:00 Kushner and Witkoff Meet Putin
49:05 Troy Jackson Rips Susan Collins
53:30 Flavio Diaz Case in Massachusetts
— Human directed and edited. Machine drafted (Gemini Pro).
Chief Justice Bedhead 👉 John Roberts builds an imperial presidency while shredding Democracy. His rainmaker wife rakes in millions.
🍽️From today’s Digital Diner menu
Weird Al appears to be quite the moo-jician.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/michigan-democrat-lost-senate-primary-abdul-el-sayed-takes-aim-bernie-sanders-israel-stance
Michigan Democrat who lost Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed takes aim at Bernie Sanders over Israel stance
*Hayley Stevens is still carrying water for Netanyahu…so she’s campaigning against Good Doctor Abdul using Bernie as his proxy.
[She]…called out Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in an interview over his Middle East policy, describing the progressive senator as part of an anti-Zionist “sickness.”
*Nope. Zionism is a supremacist ideology in line with Christian (aka white) Nationalism; neither have anything to do with their religion.
“I really don’t know what Bernie Sanders has done for peace in the Middle East, for Palestinian dignity; I can’t think of anything he’s totally done. It’s a sickness that needs to end. You know, it’s a linkage towards extremism or jihad, I don’t know,” she said in an interview with the Jerusalem Post.
*Bernie Sanders is not a jihadist nor is jidadi adjacent.
“I believe that anti-Zionism is a hate movement that has taken over in America and throughout parts of the West,” Stevens said in the interview.
*Huh, she said it like it’s a bad thing. Yes, we hate Zionism, and all other supremacist/nationalist ideologies.
Sanders has repeatedly called to end U.S. military aid to Israel and has been outspoken in his criticism of the Israeli government.
“I think that Israel is more than just a punching bag for some of the challenges that America is facing,” she said. “There is this bizarre obsession that has reached pitch level with calling out one country, one tiny country in the Middle East.”
She was critical, however, of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he has been a “problem.”
*Yaa, yaa, yaa, a “problem”…just like Susan Collins is very concerned.
“I came really close [to winning the primary] and I’m still a Democrat. I’m still out here talking about my views and values. I want the people who share my views and values to feel safe and to feel heard in the Democratic Party,” she continued.
*That is corporate Dem speak for ‘corporations, and most especially Israel’ are my true constituents. Take a hike, lady.
https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/trumps-new-brown-hair-turns-heads-did-he-dye-his-hair-article-156044986
His signature coif appeared darker than usual and had less volume than it has shown in recent appearances.
*Just For Fascists, an at-gaudy-gilded home kit, in Tawny Donny Dictator Brown.
I prefer the Star Spangled Banner as a British pub sing a long. We know Key must have been a drinker.
I see FOX was happy to pump up Haley’s Jerusalem Post interview while she was in Israel. Thanks a lot Haley. She must be gunning for an AIPAC lobbying job.
Here’s what WinterLinde was talking about:
GERMANY: Far-right AfD secures huge lead in key vote
Saxony-Anhalt is a small state in eastern Germany, but its election just sent a big shock through German politics. The far-right AfD won roughly 44% of the vote, about double its 2021 showing, while Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right CDU collapsed to around 18%. You can’t treat one eastern state as Germany as a whole, but the message is unmistakable: the far right isn’t merely gaining ground—it is swallowing much of the traditional conservative vote. — DW News
Just got this alert from my AI monitor. Every afternoon it checks for significant news in our 12 key Senate races.
Three Inside Elections rating changes sharpen the Senate map:
Ohio: Tilt Republican → Toss-up. The biggest shift: Sherrod Brown–Jon Husted is now classified as a true coin-flip contest.
Alaska: Lean Republican → Tilt Republican. A modest Democratic movement after Mary Peltola finished about eight points ahead of Dan Sullivan in Alaska’s all-party primary.
Kansas: Safe Republican → Likely Republican. Still GOP-favored, but no longer treated as untouchable—enough to justify its addition to your watchlist.
Junior Dumbass Speaks:
JD Vance blindly defends the AI bubble stealing Ohio electricity. He hands Democrats political dynamite daily.
🍽️ From today’s Digital Diner menu
https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/06/politics/john-fetterman-staffers-report
Exclusive: Fetterman blasts ‘disgruntled staffers’ and ‘smears’ after report details apathy toward his work
In the statement, Fetterman responded to three of the leaked text messages in The Journal’s report, arguing they were “stripped of any context and circumstances.”
In one text message from last September, The Journal reported, Fetterman asked his staff why he had to “keep having to meet” with officials from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, known as CHOP.
“Because they’re worried about Medicaid cuts,” the aide said.
Fetterman responded: “Well, I’m not.”
In the statement to CNN, Fetterman called that comment a “dumb joke, and for that, I sincerely apologize.”
*It was him or Dr. Oz; Fetterman seemed to be the better choice, but they seem pretty similar now.
Shapiro should give some thought to primary-ing Fetterman instead of running for prez.
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/german-far-right-influencer-applies-us-funding-new-media-network-2026-08-10/
German far-right influencer applies for US funding for new media network
A German far-right influencer whose online posts have been amplified by Elon Musk has applied for funding from the U.S. State Department to launch a media network for political content, Germany’s Handelsblatt news outlet reported on Monday.
Naomi Seibt, a self-professed libertarian and supporter of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), told Handelsblatt that she had applied under a U.S. State Department program intended to back European organisations focused on issues including free speech, national sovereignty and the impact of migration.
*More of our taxes? Elon’s DOGE cut Vox of America until they were told they couldn’t. Let Elon pay for it…with his US government contact money aka our taxes.
The State Department said it does not comment on its decision-making process but added that its programming supports European allies in defending “their civilizational self-confidence and sovereignty from those who seek to undermine them.”
The 25-year-old plans to launch a network called the “Freedom Alliance of the West”, including a social media channel and cooperation with lawyers involved in free speech cases, alternative media outlets and polling institutes.
Seibt rose to prominence as a climate change sceptic and later became one of the German commentators with whom Musk most frequently engaged on his social media platform X.
*Oh, she’s 25. If she hasn’t spawned another Musk for him, it’s probably on the (IVF) table.
Doing my calendar for 2027; February’s Lunar New Year is the year of the Fire Goat 2027 (goat, ram, sheep). Unlike this year’s Fire Horse which had aggressive Yang Fire, the goat has controlled Yin Fire.
Super Bowl Sunday is on Valentine’s Day.
Independence Day is on a Sunday, too.
STAGE 1 • 2026
Fire Horse – Move
Momentum, independence, visibility, courage, direct action, and testing direction.
STAGE 2 • 2027
Fire Goat – Refine
Creativity, relationship quality, belonging, aesthetics, sensitivity, and selective expression.
STAGE 3 • 2028
Earth Monkey – Adapt
Practical ingenuity, experimentation, strategy, resourcefulness, and flexible problem-solving.
If folks in the flyover hear that the US State Department is funding something that isn’t about public health (food, water, medicine) in yet another another country…
The State Department needs to put the checkbook down and walk away. Using our money to push fascism in Europe, etc. It doesn’t need the help of our taxes.
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/04/texas-flock-cameras-dps-network-search-abbott/
Gov. Greg Abbott has blocked state agencies from spending money on Flock cameras, but the Texas Department of Public Safety has no apparent plans to stop using its existing roadside surveillance cameras.
As police agencies scramble to adjust to the loss of millions in state grants for Flock cameras, DPS maintains its own far-reaching network of hundreds of AI-powered cameras that compile identifying information on tens of thousands of vehicles each day.
Once every four seconds, on average, DPS’s surveillance network is accessed by a law enforcement agency somewhere in the United States to search for specific license plates or probe for a vehicle based on its make, model, color or other characteristics, according to a Texas Tribune review of a month of searches.
That analysis of the roughly 615,000 searches using the DPS network in June found:
48% of queries came from outside Texas, including tens of thousands from Florida and Georgia law enforcement agencies that were conducting nationwide searches of Flock networks.
Searches were conducted by 3,075 agencies, 396 in Texas and 2,679 from out of state.
Houston Police had the most searches with 13%, and DPS officers accounted for just under 9%.
More than 58,000 searches were conducted for “traffic infractions,” including some listed for running stop signs or following cars too closely. Other searched categories included auto theft, missing persons and drug offenses.
111 searches listed Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection and other immigration-related details, including “ICE deportation warrant,” as reasons for the query.
In July, DPS told the Tribune only law enforcement agencies that signed agreements with the department could access its Flock data. At the time, 206 Texas law enforcement departments had such agreements.
“Law enforcement agencies that did not have signed agreements with DPS could previously access DPS’ ALPR network to look up specific and full license plate numbers only. Moving forward, only law enforcement agencies with signed agreements with DPS will be able to conduct searches of any type to access data and images,” the agency said in a statement.
Asked if Abbott’s directive affected the state police force’s camera network, a DPS spokesperson said it will pause installing additional cameras. But a spokesperson said the agency will continue using existing cameras for a variety of “legitimate public safety efforts.”
Flock camera contracts are a recurring expense, and DPS did not respond to questions about how it plans to fund them long term without state dollars.
Trump Wants to Make Sure Every Voter Knows the Midterms Are a Referendum on Trump
“The Greatest RALLY of them all!”
On Saturday, he once again hyped the event, writing on Truth Social: “The Greatest RALLY of them all! I’ll be speaking on night one, and hanging around for an earlier closing, and lots of music, on night two!!! See you in Dallas.”
In other words, despite his record-low approval ratings, Trump has determined that the midterms must be about him and a referendum on his second presidency—even as GOP lawmakers have made it clear that they desperately do not want that to be the case.
This is JD’s half-hedge when his shoveling it: ‘This is what I WOULD SAY about that’ or something to that effect.
https://www.newsweek.com/list-republicans-not-attending-trump-midterm-convention-12408670
The RNC’s formal call says the convention will celebrate Trump’s accomplishments and rally the party behind a shared vision, while prohibiting resolutions, elections or any other official business. Its success therefore rests primarily on messaging, visibility and voter mobilization.
https://eurweb.com/white-male-violence/
Together, these events return me to the question I raised in my September 2025 AFRO commentary, “Dear White Men, Why Are You So Angry?” In that article, I challenged white men to confront the contradiction between their collective social power and the rage expressed by a violent minority among them. It’s a year later, still a national crisis.
This commentary does not assert that every white man is violent or that white males have the highest per-capita rate in every category of crime. They do not. Most white men are not criminals, extremists, mass shooters, or murderers.
This article examines documented patterns in public mass shootings, extremist violence, hate-motivated killings, gun ownership and institutional power. Its evidence comes largely from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Secret Service and Pew Research Center—institutions that historically have been governed, administered or substantially led by white men.
Again, the word “all” does not appear in that question.
Millions of white men are loving fathers, responsible husbands, pastors, teachers, coaches, employers, public servants and peaceful citizens. They should not be assigned collective guilt for crimes they did not commit.
But America has never extended that same demographic courtesy to Black men. That is the loud national crisis.
When individual Black men commit crimes, the country routinely places Black masculinity itself on trial. Black boys are perceived as older, more threatening and less innocent than white boys. Black men are followed in stores, stopped in traffic, overpoliced in their communities and displayed in mug shots long before all the evidence has been presented.
The suspicion frequently arrives before the crime.
When white men commit spectacular acts of violence, however, the public is invited to consider their loneliness, mental condition, childhood trauma, romantic rejection, job loss, social alienation or online radicalization.
When a Black man commits violence, society searches for a cultural indictment.
*And it’s the same with immigrants.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/6/far-right-afd-wins-vote-in-germanys-saxony-anhalt-state-exit-polls
Far-right AfD wins vote in Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state: Exit polls
The AfD won 44.5 percent of the vote, exit polls for the ARD broadcaster suggested on Sunday. That is more than twice the 18.5 percent for the incumbent centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
AfD has tapped into a sense of nostalgia for communist East Germany, as well as lingering resentment about the enduring wealth gap with the west decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The party’s anti-“woke” agenda also includes promises to replace LGBTQ pride rainbow flags at public schools with the German standard and to change history teaching to lessen the emphasis on Hitler’s Third Reich.
In order to replace migrant workers, the AfD wants to lure back German expatriates, while offering “baby bonuses” for families to reverse the shrinking population in the small state of 2.1 million.
The German Economic Institute has warned that the AfD’s immigration policy would be “ruinous” for Saxony-Anhalt, which is highly reliant on foreign-born workers, especially in the health sector.
Others have voiced fears that an AfD-run state security apparatus could leak sensitive information to Russia, which Moscow could use to destabilise Germany.
The Kremlin “makes no secret of the fact that the AfD is the most important instrument for destabilising Germany for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” Thuringia state interior minister Georg Maier told the Handelsblatt daily newspaper.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel also hailed a “historic” result, which has given the far-right party a clear mandate to govern, though it was not immediately clear whether it would be able to form a government.
“The reality is the AfD has got the lion’s share of the votes in this election, according to the exit polls. But the question is: is it enough to get them control of the state? Right now, we cannot say for sure,” reported Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane from Magdeburg in eastern Germany.
Sunday’s result is another blow to the authority of Merz, whose popularity has declined as his coalition government struggles to revive growth in Europe’s largest economy.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/6/can-you-guess-the-real-size-of-each-country-on-the-new-world-map
Can you guess the real size of each country on the new world map?
Pick which country is bigger, then watch it morph from Mercator to Equal Earth projection to see how close you were.
*I got 8 out of 10
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/9/5/have-scientists-discovered-a-dark-matter-particle
Dark matter is an invisible substance that is believed to make up roughly 27 percent of all matter in the universe. Similarly, dark energy, thought to make up 68 percent of everything in the universe, is an invisible force that pushes galaxies apart and speeds up the expansion of the universe.
Ordinary matter, which is everything we can see and touch, accounts for only 5 percent of everything that exists.
Deep beneath the Black Hills of South Dakota, US, in an old gold mine, a tank of liquid xenon has been used to produce an unusual particle reaction that may be a link to “dark matter”.
Scientists conducting an experiment there say they have found a single “unexplained particle interaction” that resembles a dark matter particle, though researchers have not called this a confirmed detection.
Scientists found proof that this unseen matter exists in the universe by observing its gravitational pull, which affects how galaxies spin and how light bends around large clusters of it.
What it is made of, and what it looks like, has remained a mystery to scientists since its discovery nearly a century ago, as it cannot be detected directly because it does not reflect light or electromagnetic radiation.
Oh, now there are questions about the line juror possibly holding tight because he was one of those (or someone close to him) placing bets on the case.
https://parade.com/news/amanda-hirsch-apology-lindsay-clancy-polymarket-ad-not-skinny-but-not-fat
“On Polymarket it was predicted the verdict would be Not Guilty. Are you surprised? #Polymarketpartner,” Hirsch wrote in the ad, screenshots of which subsequently circulated online, getting plenty of backlash from fans.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-space-force-uniforms-star-wars-b3045658.html
Trump has been mocked over his new design for Space Force uniforms, with social media users comparing them to the costumes worn by sci-fi villains – and even Nazis.
The graphic says the design is “inspired by the discipline and functionality of the Starship Trooper uniform. Modernized for the guardians of the space domain.”
Starship Troopers is a 1997 space epic — directed by Paul Verhoeven, who grew up in Nazi-occupied Netherlands — about a future Earth governed by a fascist regime that wages war against giant alien bugs. Some social media users picked up on the inspiration behind the uniforms, while others compared them to other space films.
“Designing the Space Force uniforms to look like the evil bad guys from Star Wars, who are led by an elderly, power hungry tyrant, who lose, repeatedly, is a bit too on brand, no?” healthcare advocate Melanie D’Arrigo wrote on X.
Speaking on Starship Troopers, Jonah Goldberg, the editor-in-chief at The Dispatch, a digital media company focused on politics and culture, said, “My concern is whether these guys understand the point Verhoeven intended in Starship Troopers. “The thing is I don’t know what would be worse: whether they got it or didn’t.”
https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/trump-administration-drafts-proposal-pay-at-home-parents/
The Trump administration has drafted a proposal that would pay some stay-at-home parents using funds from a federal program originally designed to help working families afford child care.
The New York Times reported the plan would create what could become the first federal grant program to directly compensate parents for staying home to raise their children.
The proposed benefit would apply only to married couples.
Funding would come from the Child Care and Development Fund, a program created during the Clinton administration to help low-income and working-class families pay for child care.
The program currently provides about $9,000 per child annually, with funds typically paid directly to child care providers.
Under the proposal, eligible stay-at-home parents could receive payments directly from the government.
To qualify, families would need to meet several requirements:
Be married
Have one spouse working at least 35 hours per week
Have the other spouse stay home to care for the children
Meet income requirements, which vary by state
Unmarried couples with a stay-at-home parent would not qualify, nor would single parents who are not employed.
*Taking the food and shelter of single-parent households. Their idea of those one-parent households are not skinny, blonde, young, white mothers.
there’s nothing new about prediction markets which is why they’ve been illegal until now, the same phenomenon that happens with sports gambling and fixing will happen with everything else
great job trumpers
*Dyed…so close.
the two coasts should secede and join canada, let the southern ignorants live how the want
do support
what i’m watching now- the Doctor is transported by his broken TARDIS console to a parallel world where everyone is a fascist version of themselves
of course they won’t listen to good sense from the fabulous stranger
▶
spolier alert: they all die due to their own arrogance after destroying their own planet, the Doctor escapes
ooh i forgot the conclusion where back in this world there are still some who are receptive to reason and are persuaded out of their destructive ways from being led by a despot (who is a mentally ill narcissist btw)
Almost everyone lives hooray
“infinite parallel universes” was 50 years ahead of it’s time, who tf wrote this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Houghton
Someone from the future?
if we’re all one organism that makes trump a clump of cancer cells
new name for him hooray
I’m definitely ready for WA to become Southern British Columbia!
NEW THREAD