OPINION ANALYSIS and FUN: 12/07/22
TOP NEWS STORIES
Several news sources have reported that Democrat Raphael Warnock has defeated Republican Herschel Walker for a Senate seat in Georgia. This means that Democrats will have a clear majority in the Senate and theoretically will not have to rely on tie breaking votes of Vice President Harris to get legislation passed. (We say this with some degree of bated breath because the votes of Senators Manchin and Sinema have been less than reliably loyal to the Democratic agenda).
A New York jury convicted convicted the Trump Organization on all 17 counts of a fraudulent tax scheme that spanned 15 years. Trump himself was not a defendant.
The January 6th Congressional committee that has been investigating the riot and storming of the Capitol during the Congressional certification of the 2020 election of Joe Biden as President has indicated that it is going to make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice as a result of its investigation. (Of course, a few weeks ago, Attorney General Merrick Garland already appointed a special prosecutor to look into Trumps activities surrounding a variety of matters presumably including his knowledge of events concerning January 6h as well as Trump’s handling/confiscation/failure to turnover classified documents.)
All of the foregoing are good news for the healthy functioning of our governmental institutions in upholding the Constitution and the rule of law.
Internationally, Russian airbases deep inside Russia proper, have been bombed three times. The responsible party is thought to be Ukraine. This of course is an embarrassment for the both the Russian military but also for Vladimir Putin.
And former President Trump called for termination of the Constitution to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. Though he subsequently has made statements to soften his rhetoric in this regard several Republican leaders have expressed some disquiet over Trump’s demand.
There are indications that Russia continues to apply pressure on Belarus to enter war against Ukraine. Russia obviously would like to see Belarus provide troops to again attack Ukraine from the North thus opening another front and taking pressure off of beleaguered Russian troops in the East who have had trouble holding ground.
Our view:
All in all it was a good day for democracy and the rule of law. Yet another Republican is looking to challenge election results in Arizona. How many times do these folks have to lose in court to realize that they are just making a bunch of excuses and/or pandering to right wing extremism? We reiterate what we’ve written about many times elsewhere. Winners and losers must at some point accept the outcome when the courts say an election was legitimate. Otherwise we’ll have constant chaos and the country will disintegrate. It’s getting to the point where these constant challenges appear to be filed exclusively for the purpose of disrupting the functioning of government and not to redress any actual wrong. If that’s the case, then these challenges and election denial claims are themselves seditious activities and need to be treated as such. Let’s just hope that when the Republicans gain control of the House of Representatives next month that we won’t have legislative stalemate and hence more governmental disfunction.
And last, but certainly not least, Trump has demanded that the Constitution itself, be terminated, or at least suspended to rescind the results of the 2020 election of Joe Biden. Although he has made subsequent statements attempting to soften his demand, a few Republican leaders have expressed their disagreement and/or discomfort at Trump’s demand. For reasons stated above, it’s alarming to say the least, that all Republican leaders (as in every last one) have not been much more vocal in disavowing Trump’s demand to suspend/terminate the Constitution and reverse the 2020 election results.
And Now: The TUNES we are listening to today:
I was looking for some soul music from Sweden,
but came upon this instead
they looked like they were
impersonating none other than JB
and so, I thought that this music movement
is somethin’ that some of you might find intriguing
According to Wikepedia
“ Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England and the English Midlands in the late 1960s from the British mod scene, based on a particular style of Black American soul music, especially from the mid-1960s, with a heavy beat and fast tempo (100 bpm and above)[1][2] or American soul music from northern cities such as Detroit, Chicago and others.”
looks like she spread some powder or light sand on the floor
to pull that off…the ole soft shoe trick
if I did that I’d probably fall on my keister (sp)
anyway…
One of the singers at karaoke tonight
did a great version of our next song
And I know that this artist is a fav of many of you
And this tune really does get the crowd going
this next tune is unique in two respects
it features my man PT
but here he plays piano
….LIVE,
not guitar
(I knew he could tinkle the ivories
but I’ve never actually seen him do it)
And secondly
Phil Collins accompanies him on the drums
( I think I saw somewhere once
That Collins approached PT’s band
…yes that band…
about playing
Drums for them
This was right AFTER KM died.
This is off one of PTs more successful solo albums
And speaking of uniqueness
Here’s a tune that I’m gonna do one day
It features the guy that
CCR sang about
While they were
lookin’ Out there back door
Here…a little later in his career
And sans his bud Don Rich,
His old lead guitarist
And excellent vocal harmonizer
who perished many years ago now
In a motorcycle accident
…really super depressed our guy here for many years
In fact there are two things about this video that are
Unique as well
First:
I think our guy is playin’ Don Rich’s old guitar
But with a new neck
(you can see the similarities in guitars
If you look at some old videos
With Rich in them)
And secondly,
Our guy actually lays down a few
Tasty lead guitar licks himself
…I’ve never seen him play lead before.