Donald Trump is the expression of the id, animated by libidinal whims, repressed desires, and resentments; the liberal establishment was the moralizing superego, directing commands toward appropriate conduct and policing discourse. 

Upon losing control of the id, the compulsion to fact-check and bellow “This is not normal!” into the post-truth abyss turned liberals, Rensin proclaims, into “the blathering superego at the end of history.” (Altexploit - The New Lexicon of Hate)

Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5

Stalin and the Soviet regime hailed Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 as a heroic celebration of the USSR.  In reality, it damned the cruel communist regime that crushed the human soul and murdered millions. 

He said: “The rejoicing is forced, created under threat. It’s as if someone were beating you with a stick, saying ‘Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing’, and you rise up, shaky, and go marching off, muttering, ‘Our business is rejoicing.’ Stalin liked it because he thought Shostakovich was glorifying him, not realizing the composer’s true intent! (How Shostakovich Survived to Protest Stalin’s Anti-Semitism)

If you're like me and you don't automatically "get" classical music, here is a read-ahead to orient you to the historical context and what each of the four movements are about: Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 5

There is also a two-minute YouTube video that captures the time quite nicely:  Shostakovich's 5th Symphony

I have enjoyed a live performance of this symphony, and it is indeed emotion and moving. I hope you enjoy and appreciate it.

 

In This House, We Believe

Silverfiddle Rant!

In this progressive house, We Believe...

All immigrants should be given shelter... somewhere else

Declaring our city a sanctuary city is virtuous, just don't ask us to actually provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants

Black Lives Matter!  Except for the Black Lives burned out of their businesses and neighborhoods by larping privileged white kids and Marxists of Color protesting police violence against black people by destroying black neighborhoods and businesses.

Doctor Fauci is Science

Working people who never attended college should bail out those who did

Gender is a white male construct!

My Body My Choice!!! (Unless you are a little baby body gestating in the womb)

"The Science" is "settled"

Logic is racist

"Fact Checkers" "Debunk" "Disinformation," and "Misinformation" 

Crayons are real food

Beria's America

Silverfiddle Rant!

I would like to ask everyone to please stay on topic.  It's unfortunate the comment threads have turned into a place for personal rants and hobby horses.

Today we compare the cases of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.  I know, the press has already "debunked" and "fact checked" everything, but please hear me out, and then tell us what you think.

Which action puts our nation's secrets in more jeopardy of being stolen by our adversaries?

1) Taking classified paper documents and locking them in a private home?

or

2) Flagrantly air-gapping classified information from secure systems to unclassified ones, and routinely transmitting classified information over unsecure e-mail, and storing communications including Confidential, Secret and Top Secret information on an unprotected server connected to the internet, where US government secrets are literally exposed to any hacker anywhere in the world?

Here are the facts from the FBI investigation of Hillary and her staff:

"From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received." 

"Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification ..."  (RCP - Adriana Cohen)

Her only defense is that Comey called the sloppy and lazy practices of her and her staff "extremely careless" but not criminal.  An opinion that JustUs Minister Loretta Lynch eagerly gobbled up to push the whole affair down the memory hole and allow Hillary to proceed to her coronation.

Career friendlies at the State Department also investigated and concluded that Hillary and her staff meant no harm, they just innocently spilled classified information hundreds of times, destroyed evidence and wiped a hard drive.  Anyone could have made those mistakes...

Hillary got a sweeheart deal from the syndicate because she's a made man.  FBI investigators allowed Clinton bagman Cheryl Mills and other co-conspirators to sit in on the "interviews," and they immunized the low level IT technician who did the dirty work. Whatever happened to the FBI squeezing lower lever people and making them squeal, and working their way up the chain to the Big Guy?

Our government and the press operate on a flagrant double-standard.  I don't understand why everyone does not see it, or how anyone can defend it.

What say you?

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

From the days of unforgettable television-show themes, enjoy "Park Avenue Beat," the Theme to Perry Mason (1957-1966), composed by the prolific radio, television, and film composer Fred Steiner (1923-2011): 

About the above piece:

The [Perry Mason] theme music is one of the most recognizable in television. Composer Fred Steiner set out to write a theme that would project the two primary aspects of Mason's character—sophistication and toughness. "The piece he came up with, titled "Park Avenue Beat," pulsed with the power of the big city and the swagger of a beefy hero played to perfection by actor Raymond Burr," wrote the Los Angeles Times. Described by Steiner as "a piece of symphonic rhythm and blues," the Perry Mason theme heard at the opening and end credits became the composer's best-known work.

Get it Off Your Chest 9/16/22

 

Open Comments 

Comments from trolls and rants against administrators will still be deleted.

 By Warren     

A Fascist by any other Name...

Silverfiddle Rant!

"It is astonishing to watch Dems and their allies in media corporations posture as opponents of "fascism" - while their main goal is to *unite state and corporate power* to censor their critics and degrade the internet into an increasingly repressive weapon of information control."   - Glenn Greenwald

Remembering 9/11

 

When you went to Google on 11 Sep 2022, this is what you got.  Normally, Google marks a noteworthy occasion by incorporating the theme of the date in its clickable Google logo, with the embedded link taking you to a search with results about that historic day.  

This year, Google simply put an American flag with a black ribbon over it.  It was not clickable, but did render a tool tip message when you hovered the cursor over it.

I found that oddly fitting.  What are we remembering?

Never Forget

Twenty-one years ago today. 

New York City:

Photo by Dr. Emil Chynn

Many more photos of Ground Zero HERE.

The Pentagon:

Photo from the Department of Defense

What did America learn that day?

What did the world learn that day?

Has the West learned the right lessons?

Have we moved on so far that we have forgotten those attacks?

History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes (attributed to Mark Twain).

Please take a few moments to reflect on the terrorist attacks of 9/11: to honor those who lost their lives and to remember the many more who lost their beloveds:

Get it Off Your Chest 9/9/22

 

Open Comments 

Comments from trolls and rants against administrators will still be deleted.

 By Warren     

Conservatives are Happier than Liberals

Silverfiddle Rant!

For decades now, study after study has shown conservatives report more happiness than liberals.

There is one single study flying gnat-like in the face of facts, insisting cons are in reality no happier than libs.

"The portrait of conservatives that emerges is different from the view that conservatives are generally fearful, low in self-esteem, and rationalize away social inequality. Conservatives are more satisfied with their lives, in general... report better mental health and fewer mental and emotional problems (all after controlling for age, sex, income, and education), and view social justice in ways that are consistent with binding moral foundations, such as by emphasizing personal agency and equity. Liberals have become less happy over the last several decades, but this decline is associated with increasingly secular attitudes and actions." (Why Are Conservatives Happier Than Liberals?)

 
What say you?

What Now, Europe?

Silverfiddle Rant!

We hammered a few domestic politics topics hard yesterday, but left the topic of Europe and Ukraine largely unaddressed. Russia's invasion of Ukraine grinds on, Ukraine's harvest is piling up because Russia controls their access to the Baltic, and energy prices are not coming down.  In fact, they have increased almost ten-fold for some European nations.

Blogger buddy Geeez wrote a great post yesterday featuring comments from her stepchildren living in Germany.  It is an eyewitness report:  Real news from MUNICH

Vlad has finally pinched off Europe's gas pipe.  

What now? Putin knows European 'powers' are weak sisters.  This may be his gambit to end his bumbling Ukraine invasion.  Europe is stocked up, but they will still have to impose severe restrictions and rationing on homes and businesses. 

Our heating bills here in the US will bite hard, and look for worldwide riots and food shortages in poorer countries as Ukraine's war-shrunken harvest cannot export through Russian controlled ports.

Western nations will make it through, but this may be our own winter of discontent, and to what end? I don't see Europeans and Americans coming out the other side of this a happier people.

What say you?

Happy Labor Day!

Silverfiddle Rant!

I figured I'd give people a forum to sound off, in case anyone gets bored.  Me? I'm ready to go back to work.  In this over-crowded state, if you want to do anything on the weekend, you have to fight the traffic and the crowds.  Holiday weekends are even worse.

Anyway, here are some topics of discussion:

After the President's 'V for Vendetta' speech, he issued a clarification:

"I don't consider any Trump supporter a threat to the country."

Glad he cleared that up! What's going on?  

~~~~~~~~~

The Infotainment Media Complex proudly participated in a  conspiracy to 'save' an election for Democrats, cheers on censorship, and has been fanning the flames of civil war for years.  Now this:

Red wave crashing? GOP momentum slips as fall sprint begins.

It's always been an iron law that polling before Labor Day is unreliable and predictive of nothing.  Reporting 'the news,' or propaganda?

~~~~~~~~~

Vlad has finally pinched off Europe's gas pipe.  

What now? Putin knows European 'powers' are weak sisters.  This may be his gambit to end his bumbling Ukraine invasion.  Europe is stocked up, but they will still have to impose severe restrictions and rationing on homes and businesses. 

Our heating bills here in the US will bite hard, and look for worldwide riots and food shortages in poorer countries as Ukraine's war-shrunken harvest cannot export through Russian controlled ports.

What say you?

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

This Labor Day Weekend, enjoy String Quartet No. 12 'American' by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904), also known for his Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World": 

 

[about the above piece, which is, in effect an homage to American music, particularly Negro spirituals and folk songs]

Noise, Fear, AI/ML

Silverfiddle Rant!

So much to talk about, so little time...

Why did President Trump take and stash all those documents?

What is the absolute worst Russia could do to Europe?  What do we as Americans have to fear from Russia?

Is Europe worth defending with American blood and treasure?

Has the US Federal Government become a horrible uncontrollable machine that depersonalizes us and endangers our liberties, but that we paradoxically cannot survive without?

When President Obama federalized student loans in 2010 as part of interlocking legislation with Obama Care, he said this:

"By cutting out the middleman, we'll save American taxpayers $68 billion in the coming years," the president said. "That's real money -- real savings that we'll reinvest to help improve the quality of higher education and make it more affordable."

It's 12 years later. Can anyone use federal budget figures to demonstrate this savings?

Can anyone point to any politician's promise of "savings" that actually happened?

Bonus Question: Who wrote the following?  (no prizes, Yahoogle search makes finding the author way too easy):

"In any technologically advanced society the individual's fate MUST depend on decisions that he personally cannot influence to any great extent. A technological society cannot be broken down into small, autonomous communities, because production depends on the cooperation of very large numbers of people and machines. Such a society MUST be highly organized..."

What say you?