Joe Biden's Hot Streak

You can't make up this stuff! Dated October 10, 2020:

In last three days, Biden:
1. Said he won’t reveal his stance on court-packing till after the election
2. Said voters don’t deserve to know his stance
3. Claimed that Republicans are court-packing &
4. Claimed that the GOP is unconstitutionally proceeding with ACB’s nomination

— Emily Larsen (@emilyelarsen) October 10, 2020

And, yet, the polls still show Biden winning on November 3. Go figure!

We Can Never Go Back to Manderley Now

By Kurt Silverfiddle

It is much easier to understand Franco if you understood his considerable talents, and the era he came from: Where literary giants like Norman Mailer, William F Buckley, Gay Talese and Gore Vidal thrusted and parried, as did poets, musicians and denizens of various artistic communities, jealously guarding their reputations in the clawing, catty, neverending fight for recognition, celebrating success, and celebrating the failures of your rivals.

He was a man of many talents and a fiery ego, although in person-to-person conversation he was gentle as a purring kitten.  His voice reminded me of a more baritone, less nasal Mark Steyn, and he had the wit to go along with it.

He was also incredibly generous.  He supported at least two families and people suffering from cancer, and his generosity extended to undocumented immigrants.  He went so far as to seek legal aid for a family he had grown close to.  He could argue vociferously on principles, but he loved people and pulled considerable amounts of money out of his bank account to help those who needed it, including the widow of our departed friend Jersey McJones.

He told me back in August he was ready to go.  Failing hands, failing eyesight, his disgust at the cultural rot encircling us...

I'll close with my favorite poem by him, made more poignant upon his death.

We Can Never Go Back to Manderley Now

Should I care if I get cancer

In this wretched, troubled, world

Where all seems swiftly headed towards the rocks?

Since we live with devolution,

Marred and poisoned with pollution

Cancer gives us absolution,

Since our kids don’t care enough to wear their socks.

 

As towards The End we're whirling

With flaming batons twirling,

And last night's dinner hurling towards the rug

And no one seems to notice

As they take positions lotus

To escape the awful bother,

Despite demur from failing father,

To remove the dreadful stench, at which they shrug

And each, emaciated limb

Grayish, pale, translucent, slim

Flailing in St. Vitus' Dance

Keeps death watchers in a trance

As with dead, unseeing eyes they watch and long

With fading final song for their ultimate demise

I’d be grateful to have cancer

It has given me an Answer

In this wretched, troubled, world

Where my life now lies unfurled

Wherever I have travelled

All behind me lies unravelled,

And backward glances give me naught but shocks.

As I see we’ve ALWAYS headed towards the rocks.

~ FreeThinke

RIP, Franco Aragosta/FreeThinke

(For politics, please scroll down) 

Franco Aragosta (aka FreeThinke), one of the friends of this blog as well as my personal friend since 2012, passed away suddenly very early on the morning of October 7.  He would have turned 80 years old on his next birthday, in April.

This talented man was an accomplished pianist, an astute music critic, and a writer of poetry (both serious and light-hearted).  In fact, for years, he composed acrostic sonnets as a daily mind-sharpening exercise.  A Renaisssance Man in several ways!

I will miss him.

FreeThinke/Franco was quite fond of English composers and their works, particularly their lesser-known compositions.  Consequently, I am posting "In Moonlight," composed by English composer Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934), in honor of Franco/FreeThinke:

 

YouTube blurb:

Extracted by Elgar from his concert overture "In the South (Alassio)", "In Moonlight (Canto popolare)" is played here by the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Paul Goodwin. The paintings are by the English artist John Atkinson Grimshaw.

About Kamala Harris (with addendum)

To read in preparation for or after the Vice Presidents' 2020 Debate....

Great piece! https://t.co/OjKECV5ZNQ

— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) October 6, 2020

Addendum and worth your time:
Discover the Network's entry about Kamala Harris. 

Cheezing off the "Progressives" (as Ducky used to say about conservatives)

(posted by Warren)

 

New Addition To The Family!

(Long personal post!  For politics, please scroll down)

Welcome, California Sky!  Aka "Callie."  This sweet girl takes tidbits carefully, never letting her teeth touch your fingers.  No doggie smell!  No doggie breath!

Around September 1, 2020, this photo, which appeared on our online neighborhood network, appeared with a desperate plea of needing to rehome a niece's three-year old hound mix (b. August 19, 2017).  She likely has Labrador Retriever in there, too:

Callie, with her favorite toy, on Mr. AOW's hospital bed:

The original owner was told that Callie is a Pocket Beagle. Clearly, she is not! But she was very small when first adopted — because Callie was taken from her mama dog at 3.5 weeks:

October Surprise (With Addendum)

So, President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for COVID-19, some 30 days before the National Election.

Now, what?

ADDENDUM:

pic.twitter.com/gvIPuYtTZG

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2020

What A Tangled Web!

I received the email below from a friend.  

I haven't confirmed each of the statements, so feel free to debunk any statement.  If doing so, please provide a link to support your assertion.

THE GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN USED TO WORK FOR GEORGE SOROS. 

CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM IS NANCY PELOSI'S NEPHEW. 

ADAM SHIFF'S SISTER IS MARRIED TO GEORGE SOROS’ SON. 

JOHN KERRY'S DAUGHTER IS MARRIED TO A MULLAH'S SON IN IRAN. 

HILLARY'S DAUGHTER CHELSEA IS MARRIED TO GEORGE SOROS' NEPHEW. 

ABC NEWS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER IAN CAMERON IS MARRIED TO SUSAN RICE, OBAMA'S FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER. 

CBS PRESIDENT DAVID RHODES IS THE BROTHER OF BEN RHODES, OBAMA'S DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS. 

ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT CLAIRE SHIPMAN IS MARRIED TO JAY CARNEY, FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY.

ABC NEWS AND UNIVISION REPORTER MATTHEW JAFFE IS MARRIED TO KATIE HOGAN, OBAMA'S FORMER DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY. 

ABC PRESIDENT BEN SHERWOOD IS THE BROTHER OF ELIZABETH SHERWOOD, OBAMA'S FORMER SPECIAL ADVISER. 

CNN PRESIDENT VIRGINIA MOSELEY IS MARRIED TO TOM NIDES, FORMER HILLARY CLINTON'S DEPUTY SECRETARY. 

STACKED DECK, ANYONE?

Joe Biden, Gaffe Machine & Racist

Tonight is the big debate between President Trump and President Wannabe  Biden. So, this list just might expand: The Worst of Joe Biden in Forty Quotes.  Spew alert!

Is Donald Trump A Racist? Nope!

 Proof (hat tip to Infidel Bloggers Alliance):

Musical Interlude

Enjoy this palate cleanser: CONCERTO op. 99 (complete) by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968): Flavio Sala, guitar:

 

About composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco:

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was one of the most promising Italian composers of his generation. A talented musician, he befriended other large musical figures like Ildebrando Pizzetti and Alfredo Casella, who became one of his closest friends; at least until the enforcement of anti-Jewish laws in Fascist Italy, which forced Castelnuovo to flee to the USA, where he worked as a film composer and teacher, instructing no less than film music superstars Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams.

Castelnuovo-Tedesdo also mentored George Duning, a film and television music composer of some note. For example, George Duning was the composer of the theme music for the 1955 film Picnic and the theme song for the television series The Big Valley.

Lies, Lies, Lies!

(hat tip to Bunkerville)

 

Read this: https://t.co/nTI8aMqzd8

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 23, 2020

By obscuring the above information, the Enemedia are promoting division and violence!  Lies of both commission and omission!

On The Other Hand...

The Law of Unintended Consequences in play? 

See Ginsburg's death gives GOP an edge in 2020 legal fights: How the loss of the reliably liberal justice could affect the outcome of upcoming election-related disputes.

Excerpt:

The first signs of the impact of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s absence may come in a flurry of election-related disputes expected to reach the Supreme Court on an emergency basis in the coming weeks. Until Friday, Chief Justice John Roberts or other justices had the power to issue or deny emergency relief by joining with the court’s four liberals. It didn’t happen often, but it did sometimes happen. 

With the court shorthanded for the time being, the court’s three remaining Democratic appointees would now need two Republican-appointed colleagues to take emergency action. 

With scores of court challenges underway across the country seeking or opposing coronavirus-related changes to voting procedures, the change in the ideological balance of the high court could affect the outcome of such fights — even if a new justice doesn’t take the bench until after the election....

Read the rest HERE.

I admit it.  I'm smiling at the possible irony.

RBG's Own Words

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's words — in 2016...

Here's What RBG Said About Filling a SCOTUS Vacancy in an Election Year: “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the President stops being President in his last year.” https://t.co/Awim0Ww6fF

— Always On Watch (@Always_On_Watch) September 20, 2020

Another flashback — again, from 2016 (hat tip to Mike's America)...

Attn GOP: Senate has confirmed 17 #SCOTUS justices in presidential election years. #DoYourJob pic.twitter.com/Mdm0P5SRC4

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) February 23, 2016

As Mike's America opined on September 19, 2020:

Like Obama, Trump has the duty under the Constitution to appoint a successor. The Senate has the power to confirm.

Related: 

(1) ‘That’s a promise’: Actor Russ Tamblyn says ‘there will be a war’ if ‘you dare try and replace’ RBG

2) The left threatens death, destruction, and fire if President Trump dares nominate a replacement for RBG on SCOTUS.

So...

 

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

  Enjoy Symphony No. 4 by Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936):

I. Andante. Allegro moderato 

II. Scherzo 

III. Andante. Allegro.

Comment Of The Day

September 16, 2020 comment made by Baysider at GeeeZ on Z's excellent post "WHY TRUMP DOES BETTER… look at the comparisons!": 

...De Blasio says, with all the people leaving NYC, that we need to raise taxes on the rich AND “we have to redistribute income.” How about YOURS, your honor? He just announced he’d furlough his salary, but I suspect it’s a rebound from the terrible optics of “redistributing income.” To quote from his Wikipedia page: he did “a brief stint as a campaign manager for Charles Rangel and Hillary Clinton …[and] started his career as an elected official on the New York City Council. So your career never took you into the real world of working for a living. 

 Plus, he said restaurants would continue to be closed for indoor dining (only very reduced sidewalk dining), because dining out was “an activity for middle- and upper-income New Yorkers.” Really? Are these higher income folks the ones who 1) shop for the menu, 2) deliver food and supplies, 3) cook the food 4) serve the food, 5) bus the dishes, 6) wash the dishes, 7) clean up the restaurant, 8) ferry diners to the restaurant, 9) service the equipment, and 10) grow the food in the first place? CLUELESS!! 

We hear stories of people who stayed not working because the combined state and federal unemployment benefit (of which I received ZERO) was more than their salary. Then I ran into one. My locksmith had to furlough his helper in April. When he could work again and asked him to come back to work, he did not want to – and didn’t. It was because he made a lot more in gov’t $$$....

If you have time, it is worth your time to see why Z stated that Trump does better. Read Z's post HERE.

Higher Education And Cancel Culture

If you care about the education of your children, your grandchildren, and your nieces and nephews; if you attend secondary school or later; or if you work in the field of education, then make time to watch this short video (11:32):

 

Related reading: Academics Are Really, Really Worried About Their Freedom: Some fear for their career because they don’t believe progressive orthodoxies by John McWhorter, Ph.D., contributing writer and The Atlantic, professor of linguistics at Columbia University, and author of numerous books.  The last paragraph of the above article (emphases mine):

Overall I found it alarming how many of the letters sound as if they were written from Stalinist Russia or Maoist China. A history professor reports that at his school, the administration is seriously considering setting up an anonymous reporting system for students and professors to report “bias” that they have perceived. One professor committed the sin of “privileging the white male perspective” in giving a lecture on the philosophy of one of the Founding Fathers, even though Frederick Douglass sang that Founder’s praises. The administration tried to make him sit in a “listening circle,” in which his job was to stay silent while students explained how he had hurt them—in other words, a 21st-century-American version of a struggle session straight out of the Cultural Revolution.

Read the entire essay HERE.

Never Forget!

Nineteen years ago, but seems like yesterday for some of us...

The flight paths of the 9/11 hijacked planes

Adagio For Strings, Op. 11, sound track from a recording conducted by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990):

From the YouTube blurb:

A slideshow tribute to the events of September 11, 2001. Focus is on people, their connection with the towers, past and present, and not simply a play by play of news footage. Communicating the full range of expression from terror to sacrifice, compassion, and sacrifice...as well as the ways in which people responded as friends, neighbors and as Americans. Set to Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, which was played at Ground Zero during the memorial service the same week as the tragedy.

Graphic by Stogie:

Let us fervently hope that the Middle East peace brokered by the Trump Administration endures for at least a few years!  "Trust, but verify!"

Americans: A Good And Generous People

Michelle Minor and her sons [photo credit]

From Gwinnett County, GA - Gwinnett school bus driver dedicates time to making wooden desks for families in need (dated August 30, 2020, emphases mine): 

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A desk is not something normally on a back-to-school shopping list. But with so many families doing virtual learning, it has become a much-needed item. 

Gwinnett County mother Michelle Minor and her sons realized this and got to work. 

From her suburban garage and driveway, Michelle Minor and her sons are cranking out as many wooden desks as time allows. 

[...] 

The orders have come pouring in. Some families are paying for them. Others are donating, so families in need can have one built. 

“I’ve probably got about 30-40 desks that I need to make, and I just emailed this out last Wednesday,” Minor said. 

Minor does [all this] in between driving a Gwinnett County school bus. Her older son Skylar uses his math skills to help his mom out while third grader Chase does what he can too.... 

Read the rest HERE.

A fundraiser page is HERE.

I am sick and tired beyond words of the constant drumming that we Americans are terrible people.

We.  Are.  Not.

Overall Americans are a good and generous people!

Recommended Reading

For what it's worth... 

See I’m a Body Language Expert. Here’s What I Saw During the Conventions. What did people’s faces and gestures tell us, rather than just their the scripted speeches? 

Please read the link before commenting.