Recommended Reading

For what it's worth...See What We Must Believe to Believe Biden Won: The surreal list of innumerable irregularities, by David Catron at Frontpage Magazine (November 19, 2000).  Comments there are interesting, too.

Related...Flashback: Here's the Scary Warning Dems Had About Voting Machines Just Last Year.

Please read the links before commenting.

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down) 

One of my favorite classical pieces — the first movement of Symphony No. 40 (1788) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791):

Peace.  Wouldn't that be nice?

Stick a Fork in It

Silverfiddle Rant!

The first clue President Trump's efforts to overturn the election were not serious was when he appointed stumblebum Rudy Giuliani to head up the effort. Everything that boob involves himself in is quickly reduced to a farcical shambles.

Rudy drools on himself in the courtroom and makes Biden look like the picture of youthful mental clarity, and judges all over the US are throwing out lawsuits left and right, but Team Trump continues to bang the drum on rightwing cable and talk radio.  Is this a money grab of some kind, keeping the campaign going? I have my own suspicions...

They can yammer on all day about voting machines and mathematical algorithms, but until they bring the proof in a court of law, its all BS. It's time to pack up the circus tent, send Rudy off to rehab, and have the president deliver a gracious concession speech.  

To my fellow Donald Trump voters, I urge you to turn it off, tune it out and drop the bullshitters from your life.  Donald Trump did great things and showed the GOP how to win, but its time for him to go.  And not return.

Disagree?  Bring Evidence.  Not Hannity blather, not talk radio talking points or news conference video.  Evidence that can be presented to a judge in a court of law.

"The People have Spoken. The Bastards!"

Silverfiddle Rant!

Clarity

Every now and then, some reality pokes through the "mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia." This rare event has happened twice in four years, and both times, Donald Trump was the catalyst.

He shocked the world four years ago and shook the arrogant progressive class from its confident perch upon the arc of history, and he instigated teeth-gnashing turmoil on the right.

El Donaldo struck again this election, with a different result and different realities surfacing. The margins in the upper Midwest that swept him to victory four years ago are not so different this time, but the President is on the losing side, no Jill Stein to siphon Democrat votes.

Here are the realities as I see them:

Both parties continue their unholy alliance with global corporations and international finance, but The Democrat Party is becoming the party of upscale elitists, while the GOP is looking more like the party of  rural folks and the working class. The GOP is now the America First party, and the Democrats are the standard bearers of globalism and interventionist foreign policy. 

Demographics is not destiny. Hispanics are now the nation's largest minority group, but they don't herd easily and they are not a homogenous group.  Donald Trump won between a third and a half of them, doubled his black vote and saw a solid increase of the LGBTQ+ community voting for him.  Will the Republicans pay attention and build on that?

We are a divided nation.  Working class whites and working class people of color have more in common with each other than each group does with its professional, university educated class.

Biden did not restore the upper Midwest "Blue Firewall."  Those are now battleground states.

The South is no longer solid red.  Georgia is now a purple battleground state, and North Carolina is four to eight years behind Georgia, on the same trajectory.

Biden's margin of victory came from people who just wanted this four year national heart attack and leftwing toddler temper tantrum to end.  He is the calming Mr. Rodgers, here to soothe the nation, turn down the volume, use nice words and restore sanity and civility.  I think those people are delusional, but I understand them.

 

The sole Democrat win of Election 2020 was the presidency: a pyrrhic victory that will produce two years of gridlock. Republicans will hold the Senate (even a tie would produce gridlock), and the GOP has taken 9-12 seats (at least two in California) from Democrats, trimming Empress Pelosi's majority to a threadbare margin, and ending all that foolish talk about what a political genius she is. 

The Democrat political strategery will be to promise everybody everything:  Full bailouts for businesses and corrupt, fiscally criminal blue states and municipalities; student loan forgiveness; free college; "green jobs" for everybody who wants one and Lord knows what else.  This will force the GOP to be the party of No and make them look hypocritical, coming off a multi-year, multi-trillion dollar spending jag.    

Census 2020: People are voting with their feet.  For the first time ever, California will not gain a congressional seat.  New York, Illinois and other creaky blue Midwest and east coast states will lose seats.  Texas could gain three. 

Republicans will dominate redistricting at the state level, so prepare yourself for tortured screams of "Gerrymandering!" from the left.

My conclusion is, a bare majority of voters wanted Trumpism without the bombast, vulgarity and gratuitous insults of Trump himself. Republicans can build on this GOP big tent, if they are smart.

All the entertainment this next two years will be on the Democrat side.  The loony lefties and the sensible Democrats will be in open warfare.  

This is America, a vibrant and diverse nation.  The map is never static.

Quotations:

"The People have Spoken...  The Bastards!" -- Dick Tuck

George Orwell:  

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics’. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia."

COVID-19: The Long Term Effects?

I have long expressed concern about exactly what recovery from COVID-19 looks like.  What the medical profession considers recovery is really not a desirable recovery. 

After all, Mr. AOW is considered recovered from his stroke of September 15, 2009, but the recovery doesn't look good at all: hospital bed in the living room, bedside potty in the living room, mobility scooter, and totally dependent on me his caregiver for his ADL's (bathing, getting dressed, etc.), frenetic searches for a viable restroom when we're out, the occasional pit stop at the side of the road.  You get the picture, I'm sure: Mr. AOW's stroke recovery is one of total disability.

 

Also, the tragic case of Nick Cordero got me to wondering, "what does recovery from COVID-19 look like?"  

 

Apparently, the variables are many and even unknown.

Before weighing in, please watch the short video below and read the articles at the bottom of this blog post.

 

Mayo Clinic article (October 7, 2020) HERE.

From Harvard Medical School (October 8, 2020): The hidden long-term cognitive effects of COVID-19.

Questions, then, arise: 

What is the appropriate and Constitutional role of the government for COVID-19 prevention during this pandemic?  

Have certain state and local governments overstepped with the measures they are taking?  Two examples of recent measures, and there are many more recent clampdowns: (1) the mayor of Chicago has basically canceled Thanksgiving and Christmas and (2) the governor Virginia has limited all public gatherings to 25 people or fewer (previous limitation was 250).

Do we even know which measures work?

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

  That time of year — although, where I live, the peak has ended:

Program music for the above:

Allegro 

Celebrates the peasant, with songs and dances, 

The pleasure of a bountiful harvest. 

And fired up by Bacchus' liquor, 

many end their revelry in sleep. 

Adagio molto 

Everyone is made to forget their cares and to sing and dance 

By the air which is tempered with pleasure 

And (by) the season that invites so many, many 

Out of their sweetest slumber to fine enjoyment.

Allegro 

The hunters emerge at the new dawn, 

And with horns and dogs and guns depart upon their hunting 

The beast flees and they follow its trail; 

Terrified and tired of the great noise 

Of guns and dogs, the beast, wounded, threatens 

Languidly to flee, but harried, dies.

Joe Must Have Changed His Mind — Or Something

During the first 2020 debate.  Not so long ago....

FLASHBACK: Joe Biden Promised Not To Declare Victory Until Election Is ‘Independently Certified. 

Text and video at the above link.

The Future

I know that many of you don't like Tucker Carlson and what he often has to say. Even so, if you have not seen the video clip below, please watch now.

.@nedryun & @TuckerCarlson Calling Out America Last Republicans (@LindseyGrahamSC) For Trying To Push For Amnesty & Return The GOP To Being A Neo-Con Globalist Party

Ned Ryun: "America First is not going away." #AmericaFirst pic.twitter.com/8bjMWV9ni9

— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) November 7, 2020

Related reading, this comment by Bocopro, frequenter of Z's blog, and this comment well states the future I see for our country (erstwhile republic)...

O.K. Everybody who voted “for” Biden – living or otherwise – legally or not – only once, or frequently – by proxy – whatever . . . listen up: 

Until the intermittent moron, quid-pro-Joe, mysteriously disappears from the White House and the Marxist concubine wiggles her seditious butt into the power position, just remember – you own it. 

And when Sundowner Joe is in ICU at Walter Reed after a massive cerebral artery clog and Horizontal Harris begins issuing EOs in end-runs around the Senate, just remember – you own it. 

Let’s not hear complaints about higher taxes, new taxes, excise taxes, value-added taxes, rising prices, unemployment increases, inflation, exorbitant health care costs – just remember, you bought it. 

Don’t get your knickers in a wad because of massive fees to support climate control or skinny paychecks because of reparations – you asked for it. 

Just suck it up when your stocks deflate and your 401K dries up like a west Texas mudhole in August . . . it won’t be Trump’s fault. 

Become a devout stoic when your children learn nothing in school except political correctness and “F-E-E-E-E-lings” and “White males are the problem” even though the costs have risen exponentially – it’s what liberals do when they have the power. 

Step into your big-boy hat and big-girl panties when you lose your job because millions of illegals suddenly become citizens and millions more Muslim “refugees” appear and take your job – that’s what you wanted, isn’t it? 

And be reasonable when minimum wage rises to the point that employers can no longer afford to employ you or your children or your grandchildren, much less offer them benefits . . . it’s only fair, right? 

And when “peaceful” protesters such as Antifa and BLM destroy city property and crime rates soar and your community is no longer safe to live in . . . hey – that’s the “new normal” you said we have to adjust for. 

And when jobs dry up because the capital left the country and it’s cheaper to import things from Asia, just remember who told us that “China is not our enemy”: that was quid pro Joe, who made grunches of money off deals with China. 

And you should be happy when interest rates on loans get so high that you can’t even consider asking for one, and you can’t afford to replace that old Chevy, and you’re suddenly upside down on your mortgage – that’s your boy, the silver-tongued sniffer. 

No complaints, Dems . . . the hateful Orangeman is gone and Happy Days Are Here Again now that we have a proper career politician running things. It’s what you asked for . . . so just keep your trap shut and own it. Nobody wants to hear you bitching about getting what you said was best “for the American people.” 

You asked for it, and now you own it. Congratulations, Meathead.

Weekend Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

An unusual piece for this most unusual year of 2020 — performed by The Choral Arts Society of Washington, my favorite choral group in the area in which I live: 

Text for the above:

A flame 

Dispels the dark 

Its delicate light dispels the shadows 

A flame alone 

Brings within its flicker 

A welcoming warmth 

A single flame 

That shares its light 

Is but strengthened by this splitting in two 

And as each flame 

Begets another 

Its life and life are multiplied 

To become unending 

Forever burning 

A beacon that both beckons and guides 

So to light the world.

Many years ago, I was privileged to be an alto in The Choral Arts Society, then under the baton of the founder, Maestro Norman Scribner (1936-2015).  What a wonderful and unique education I received during those three and one-half years!

Now What?

So, here we are, the day after the 2020 National Election.  At least six states are "too early to call."  Why is that?

Both Democrats and Republicans are claiming victory, with the latter crying "Foul!"  Perhaps the Democrats are, too.  I haven't checked.0

The great divide continues.

Where does America go from here?

Breaking Speculation!

Delivered with dramatic lead-in music and breathless voices — as if those touches will change or predict a single thing. My email inboxes reaches overflow within a few hours every single day the past few weeks. 

 I wonder how many hours I have spent deleting emails? Those hours must have added up to at least several weeks. I kid you not! Hours upon hours deleted from my remaining finite hours.

I'm so sick of all this breaking speculation with regard to the 2020 National Election. We will find out the election results when we find out. 

Days? 

Weeks? 

Months?

Meanwhile, "THE COVID" is doing what viruses do: spreading.  Hysteria does nothing to prevent the spread.

BOO!

(For politics, please scroll down)

The theme music for the 1983 science-fiction thriller The Dead Zone, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, was composed by Michael Kamen (1948-2003), who, by the way, collaborated with Pink Floyd on the album The Wall.

Nick Bode, a commenter at YouTube, noted about the theme to The Dead Zone:

When Michael Kamen was composing this score, he'd play it over & over on his piano at home. His neighbor called & said "Please stop playing whatever that music is. You're giving my family nightmares." Epic.

Listen to this music. Do you agree with Mr. Bode?

 

Related reading: The True Stories Behind 11 Hair-Raising Urban Legends, From Candyman to Slender Man.  Interesting stuff!

More Beheadings In France — This Time INSIDE A Cathedral (with addendum)

During morning mass at the largest Roman Catholic Church in the city!

Dateline...Nice France, October 29, 2020: 

Three people are killed - with church warden and woman beheaded - and several others wounded in terror attack at a church in Nice before attacker is shot and arrested while chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ 

Three killed - two of them beheaded - and several more stabbed in a terror attack inside a cathedral in Nice Attack began around 9am before police swarmed the area, where they shot and arrested the attacker 

Mass had just begun inside cathedral - largest Roman Catholic church in Nice - when the attack started 

Comes fortnight after teacher [Samuel Paty] was beheaded near Paris; a month after stabbings near Charlie Hebdo offices

Read the rest HERE.

The marching orders of Allah: "When you meet the unbelievers, strike necks" (Qur'an 27:4)

ADDENDUM: 

Two hours later man armed with a handgun and shouting Allahu Akbar was shot and killed by cops in Avignon 

Meanwhile a guard at the French consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was stabbed and wounded by a knifeman 

Attacks come after Macron sparked fury by defending cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, and amid the Mawlid festival when Muslims celebrate the Prophet's birthday

Ghost Town: New York City?

From The Federalist's October 23, 2020 essay Of Course New York City Is A Ghost Town:

 

Read the essay HERE.

What is it like where you are?  

Here in the greater Washington, D.C., area, most of the cultural amenities are not happening  or are chocked full of procedure to follow: concerts, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts;  most Smithsonian Museums with restrictions destroying spontaneity (the Museum of Natural History, my favorite, even worse because that particular museum is completely closed, as is the D.C. National Air and Space Museum).

Dining out is a tedious experience.

Not much of a festive season this year.

Thanks, China.  **snarl**

And thanks power-hungry governments and linguine-spined sheeple.  **snarl again**

Related: Big Brother stomps on Thanksgiving in California. Excerpt:

...• Only three households may gather for Thanksgiving. 

• People must dine outdoors, although shade structures are allowed. (Depending on where one is in California, Thanksgiving and the December holidays are likely to be both cold and wet.) 

• Even while celebrating together, each of the three permissible households must stay at least six feet away from the two other households at all times, even while outdoors. 

• People may remove their face coverings only briefing to eat or drink. 

• The whole gathering must end within two hours. 

• Attendees must try not to sing, chant, or shout. 

• Musical instruments are allowed only if the musician is also a guest -- and that guest really shouldn’t play a wind instrument (e.g., trumpet, flute, etc.).... 

Read the rest HERE.

Ain't It The Happy Truth?...

(For politics, please scroll down)

...Especially during this more-contentious-than-usual election season!

Have a good weekend!

Truth & Reconciliation Commission?

Really?  Really?

 

About Robert Reich.

Black Trump Supporter Viciously Attacked

From Gateway Pundit, dated October 17, 2020:

On Saturday black Trump supporter Philip Anderson attended a rally for free speech in San Francisco. 

 Philip was attacked by an Antifa street thug while escorting a fellow conservative from the rally. Philip Anderson did not see the punch coming. 

He was sucker-punched by an Antifa thug and lost both of his front teeth while he was trying to help a fellow patriot get to the event safely....

Read and watch the rest HERE.

Vote accordingly.

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down) 

Enjoy Frédéric Chopin's Waltz in C# Minor, performed by blogger and pianist extraordinaire FreeThinke/Franco Aragosta (April 11, 1941-October 7, 2020).  All the more amazing because Roger had to memorize every note, which he could barely read on paper: he was almost completely blind by the age of 77.

 

YouTube blurb for the above: 

The first section of the C#-Minor Waltz, casts a spell tinged with Chopin’s characteristic aristocratic elegance, but at the same time world-weary, and nostalgic. The haunting, more animated second section has about it a beguiling aura of nocturnal mystery and enchantment. It beckons us, but where it wants to lead us remains shrouded in mystery as the music keeps dancing gracefully but dissolves into the mist. With each of three repetitions we are left ever more curious, - and a bit fearful -, wondering what might be found if we dared to move beyond the edge of the perfumed garden to parts unknown. 

ROGER TREFETHEN began his piano studies with Joseph Erwin of the Juilliard Preparatory School. He also worked briefly with Ada Brant of Aurora, Illinois. At the Eastman School of Music he studied under Cecile Staub Gerhart, Postgraduate studies with Claude Frank at the Mannes College of Music, Adele Marcus and Albert Fuller at the Juilliard, and finally acclaimed interpreter of Beethoven, Bruce Hungerford, rounded out his music education.

Open Thread

So, what's on your mind? 

Here is your chance to opine within the parameters listed below. 

Please note! We welcome civil dialogue at Always on Watch. Comments that include any of the following are subject to deletion: 

1. Any use of profanity or abusive language 

2. Off topic comments and spam 

3. Use of personal invective 

Comments consisting of blog gossip will be deleted as soon as a blog administrator becomes aware of such comments.

"Indigenous Peoples Day Of Rage"

What purpose does all this mayhem on Columbus Day 2020 serve?

“F— all you colonizers!...Everyone of you that’s against Black Lives Matter can f— the f— off.”

Antifa rioters in the process of toppling the Portland statue of Roosevelt. They were soon successful in pulling it down. Video by rioter Tracy Lynn Molina. pic.twitter.com/D5XgfX3slR

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) October 12, 2020

 

The Abraham Lincoln statue in Portland was toppled tonight by the “indigenous” faction of antifa who organized a “day of rage.” #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/HJ6ul7p4Hi

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) October 12, 2020

 

#Antifa black bloc rioters cheer and celebrate the mass vandalism and destruction in downtown Portland tonight. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/OwD0SxHCxj

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) October 12, 2020

The above are. a merely a few samples from the link at the beginning of this blog post. Read and watch the rest HERE.