Music Monday - Debatably

The first debate between presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will be held this evening at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York, aired on TV for the erm...delectation or frustration of viewers, or in our case an experiment in deciding who can tear out most hair - husband or me.

From a piece at Counterpunch by Thomas Knapp:
Election 2016: Of Dog Legs and “Debates”

The Hofstra event and its followups won’t be debates. They’ll be combination beauty contests, “professional wrestling” matches, and campaign commercials. The only proposition either candidate will support will be “I should be president.” The closest thing to an argument either one will put forward will be “because I am not the other person on this stage.”

Yesterday I noticed a #Debate Side Effects thread at Twitter - my favourite entry:
"Yearning for Bernie"

Finding music appropriate to this evening's event - this ditty by Rush is a fairly good fit lyric-wise, though the melody wouldn't be an easy one to whistle on the way to work.

LYRICS to Farewell to Kings, written by Neil Elwood Peart, Gary Lee Weinrib, Alex Zivojinovich

When they turn the pages of history
When these days have passed long ago
Will they read of us with sadness
For the seeds that we let grow?
We turned our gaze
From the castles in the distance
Eyes cast down
On the path of least resistance

Cities full of hatred, fear and lies
Withered hearts and cruel, tormented eyes
Scheming demons dressed in kingly guise
Beating down the multitude and
Scoffing at the wise

The hypocrites are slandering
The sacred Halls of Truth
Ancient nobles showering
Their bitterness on youth
Can't we find the minds that made us strong?
Can't we learn to feel what's right
And what's wrong?
What's wrong?

Cities full of hatred, fear and lies
Withered hearts and cruel, tormented eyes
Scheming demons dressed in kingly guise
Beating down the multitude and
Scoffing at the wise
Can't we raise our eyes and make a start?
Can't we find the minds to lead us
Closer to the heart?






Here's one I could whistle - if I could whistle, that is:

Everybody's Talkin'




I've always liked this one, parts of which are certainly appropriate here: Dave Frishberg's Blizzard of Lies

.....We've got inflation licked I'll get right back to you
It's just a standard form tomorrow without fail
Pleased to meet you, thanks a lot, your check is in the mail
Marooned, marooned, marooned in a blizzard of lies
Marooned, marooned, marooned in a blizzard of lies
Your toes and knees aren't all you'll freeze
When you're in it up to your thighs
It looks like snow but you never know
When you're marooned in a blizzard of lies
You may have won a prize, won't wrinkle, shrink or peel
Your secret's safe with me, this is a real good deal
It's finger lickin' good, strictly by the book
What's fair is fair, I'll be right there, I am not a crook....

Once Upon a Time in... Debate

Tonight there'll be another Democratic debate aired on TV, this one from New York City, after which Bernie Sanders will be travelling to the Vatican to take part in a conference tomorrow. It's all go !

The New York debate is an overture to the state's primary, due in 5 days' time. Result of the New York primary could well be the deciding factor, delegate-wise, as to whether Senator Sanders will still have any possible path to nomination; same could apply to Donald Trump for the Republicans.

There's a whole lot of New York state outside of New York City, but much attention will be on the City itself.

Never having visited New York City, I've relied on movies for my impression of it - there are many. West Side Story - iconic, musical, tale of life in New York City; Midnight Cowboy, Breakfast at Tiffany's all attempt to depict various facets of life in the city during certain decades.

The first film that comes to my own mind when thinking about New York City is Once Upon a Time in America, set 'twixt the 1920s and 1960s. Sadly the film on a tape we have is a truncated version of the original, made for US audiences. The film's original, almost four hours long, has been mauled terribly over the years, for showing in cinemas all over the world. I saw what I suspect was the longer (possibly original) version aired on TV back in the UK in (I think) the late 1980s, presented as a two part mini-series. After watching our thrift store VHS tape, I discovered that some scenes, important ones I clearly recalled from long ago, simply weren't there. There is, now, a special edition Director's Cut available which is said to be nearer to the original version. In general, I dislike gangster-type tales in the Godfather or Sopranos genre, yet this one had long remained in memory. It really is a classy production, great background music, great acting, a film not properly appreciated, initially, in the USA. It was before its time, I guess.

Speaking of class, and returning to the debate, I trust we'll see some of that tonight!

NOTE
Husband's photograph titled "Are you here for the debate?" at Flickr (SEE HERE) was among the top 500 chosen from millions to be a part of Flickr Explore's "most interesting photograph of the day", during this week. I suspect the title, and comments under the pic, had as much influence in its choice as the photograph itself, taken in some antique store we'd visited.

Political Words and Non-political Music

Is That all there is? by Dan DeWalt at This Can't Be Happening: a very good rundown on last Tuesday's presidential debate,
Clip:

"The media often tell us that because of our short attention span, need for instant gratification, disinterest in complex/subtle/foreign affairs, we get the politicians that we deserve, but it's more complicated than that. In fact, the media have contributed mightily to the dumbing down of questions and the simplification of issues the more easily to cast the election merely as stories abut the horse race, or to simply pit the candidates against each other. While Obama and Romney postured on stage to see who could give the best swagger display Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and her running mate Cheri Honkala were being arrested for merely trying to enter and watch the debate as observers.

The inclusion of Stein, or Rocky Anderson, or any number of other serious third party candidates in that debate would have expanded the conversation to include many issues that really matter to people. Instead, courtesy of a conspiracy by the two main parties, we are led to believe that we only have a choice of two corporate toadies and that the only issue that matters is paying less for energy and lowering taxes."

And a song - same title as the article and a little advice ("If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing, let's break out the booze and have a ball") - Peggy Lee with Leiber & Stoller's Is That all there Is?:

Excellent brief assessment of socialism and attitudes to even the word socialism in the USA, a piece by David Glenn Fox at The Leftist Review:
Socialism
Clip:

"If you would want to demonize something in the United States of America, simply tie it together with socialism and before long, you too could raise an angry torch-carrying mob or small army of ministers on phone-trees calling up the faithful to fight back the Red Menace.

Do you want to know what socialism is about? I mean, do you really want to know what socialism is about Charlie Brown? Socialism is a traffic light; it says the traffic stops for three minutes going this way and for three minutes going the other way. It doesn’t care what kind of car you drive or where you live. It divides the usage of the intersection fairly without standing or class. It is really a very simple solution to some very complex problems. Of course to conservatives, I suppose it does carve into that blessed freedom of theirs, which they are always so concerned about.
I imagine to a libertarian traffic lights must appear to be an abomination......."

And from Clusterfuck Nation, by James Howard Kunstler: Heretics Unite
Clip:

If you look closely at the artifacts of the centuries pre-dating the Renaissance, you detect a long-running mood of severe psychological depression when the human race dwelt in abject hopelessness and poverty, with only the hocus-pocus of the church promising better times beyond the mystery of death as the Zoloft of the day. Poggio was not alone in his enthusiasm for the lost world of the ancients, and eventually the rediscovery of a realm of ideas beyond the drear preoccupations of a corrupt church turned on a light for humanity that has burned for five hundred years.
I mention these old and arcane matters because the mood of humanity lately seems to be darkening again, and to some large degree for understandable reasons. Between the melting of the polar icecaps, the destruction of all edible life in the oceans, and the vulgar spectacle of the paved-over American landscape with its clown monuments mocking all civilized endeavor, and a long list of other insults to healthy life on earth, there's a lot to be depressed about.

And so..to a song written and sung by John Conlee - it suggests what we might need if we are to remain (almost) sane during these "interesting" times: rose-coloured glasses!

I own an old creaky pair - but a smart newer version is on order! They do make one feel better- I'm not kidding!

A Binding Distraction

More from boredom than good sense, we fell into watching the presidential debate on Tuesday evening. As everyone and their dogs have already written, this time the President was more animated. Possibly this change was due to the different, town-hall style, format with no lectern to cling to, and a posse of questioners in the smallish (well-vetted) audience seated in front of the two debaters. Or even more possibly due to Prez having watched a video of his earlier debate performance, reading reports and opinions of it, and feeling he could have done better.

I'm posting just to let off a wee bit of steam on one aspect.

"Binders full of women".....In a remark which could certainly have been phrased better, Gov. Romney inadvertently gave the Twitterverse, Facebook and general chattering classes yet a second piece of nonsense to throw around social networks and internet generally. First piece of nonsense: his "Big Bird" remark in the earlier debate. I do not wish to diminish the importance of what was at the core of these remarks - that is equal opportunities for women and funding of a public TV channel
by criticising Twitterers and the like - but really.......they have diminished those issues themselves.

Is this the best that social media can achieve in the USA? If so, then I suspect we were better off without it, at least at election time. There are many very important issues to be considered, some of which are never given a single mention, due to an already highly controlled media and debate platform, making these debates little better than theatre to distract the masses. Rather than pushing such issues to the fore users of social media choose to throw around these silly bits and pieces.

The masses are so very easy to distract, are they not? I wonder sometimes if these types of distractions are cynically orchestrated rather than naturally occurring.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in "Brave New World Revisited", the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions". In "1984", Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. "In Brave New World", they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.”
― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

According to Facebook, the reference to "binders full of women" resulted in a 213,900 percent surge in mentions at one point during the evening. One Facebook page focused around the topic already has 230,000 "likes." "Binders full of women" was the No. 3 search term associated with the debate on Google; and according to Yahoo, search interest in the term was up 691 percent following the debate. It was also the remark that celebrities were tweeting about most the morning after the debate.
(Oh well - if they were Tweeting about it, it must be important.)
(Statistical info from The Hill).

Disclaimer: I am neither a Romney supporter nor an Obama supporter. See sidebar.

A Biden Appreciation

We watched the Biden/Ryan debate on Thursday. Five minutes into the proceedings I was remembering how I'd felt about the now Vice President during the last election circus 2007/8. Joe Biden impressed me a lot then.
I was disappointed when he left the primaries at an early stage. On Thursday evening he impressed me again. I love his straight-talking style, unaffected, right to the point, no messing! He's the leader we should've had. He is a natural leader. But The Powers That Be (whoever they are, and whatever their reasons) didn't want Biden, they wanted Barack Obama and allowed no obstacle to his achieving the presidency.

I've nothing to say about Paul Ryan - he doesn't speak my language. I'm not going to say "Biden won", though he did dominate. "Winning" these things is purely in the eye of the beholder. The debates offer political equivalents of football games or boxing matches - the side you support can do no wrong, t'other can do nothing right. One has only to visit a left-leaning blog, then a right-leaning blog, to be presented with totally different views on the matter - all a bit pointless anyway, but grist for bloggers' mill (and my own).

For anyone seeking a good blow-by-blow account, go read Big Joe & the Joyful Noise by William Rivers Pitt at Truthout. In his last paragraph he wrote this: "... The sun came up on Friday morning to shine upon a world that will never, ever underestimate Joe Biden again....."

A couple of snips from my 2007/8 posts mentioning Biden, who is the focus of this post, follow. Full versions of the posts, and several more, can be accessed easily from the Label Cloud in the sidebar - Biden's astrology features there too. In looking back over my posts from that time, I was surprised how engaged I'd felt in the whole election ballyhoo. I've lost that enthusiasm this time around, but the sight of Biden on Thursday brought back an echo of it.

"Joe Biden is growing on me! I'll not be disloyal to Dennis Kucinich, he's still top of my heap, but Joe Biden comes a close second in the current line-up of Democratic presidential candidates. He, like Dennis Kucinich, is usually sidelined in televised debates, in favour of "the front-runners", but when he does get an opportunity to speak he makes it count.............................Biden as Prez would give me confidence in the USA I think, a feeling of security, the kind of security I used to feel back in the UK. I don't feel the same here - so far. Whatever government was in power in Britain, and I experienced many I didn't agree with, I always felt that they'd do the right thing if push came to shove. It's down to the way he answers questions, his attitude and bearing, he seems to have substance - in a nutshell, he appears presidential. Or could this be the old Scorpio magnetism at work?"

"And so to the man who turned my own mind away from voting either third party or (perish the thought) Republican: Joe Biden. Another man who knows exactly how to speak to the public, inform and inspire without ever talking down. Why the heck he didn't do better in the primaries I'll never understand. I have a lingering suspicion that "the fix has been in" for a long, long time. Obama was earmarked, nothing was allowed to stand in his way. I'll try to keep an open mind if he does become president, I'll hope my own assessment of him has been wrong. Anyway, back to Joe. That inspirational Scorpio had me hooked again..... Joe's nomination as VP will make the future so much more interesting and reassuring for yours truly."

The Debatable Debate

I didn't watch the televised debate between President Obama and Governor Romney last week, and had avoided watching videos of any part of it - until yesterday afternoon, when I became curious enough to dive in and watch the whole thing. There have been countless articles and opinions expressed, most emphasising that the Prez was lack-lustre, seemed tired, disengaged, wouldn't look at Gov. Romney, didn't even contradict several lies said to have been presented by him.

I don't support either one of the two debaters. My view is that the debates are little better than theatre for consumption of the masses. Having now seen a video recording of the full debate it's hard to relate what I saw to what has been said and written about it. If I had to score it I'd say it was a tie rather than the resounding win for Romney most have been calling it, along with a variety of theories as to whether it could have been a deliberate ploy by the President and his advisers, or was he even "taking a dive"? Dearie me!

Romney was on the offensive, naturally, why wouldn't he be, Obama already has the ball? That was to be expected. I didn't see Obama as tired or disengaged. He did look at Romney, in between quickly writing notes, didn't seem at all intimidated as some have implied. I don't agree with either of 'em, so watched the proceedings with a different perspective from most, I guess.

What seems likely to my way of thinking, is that immediate post mortems by TV pundits (of which I haven't seen any at all) must have shaped the views of many. It was in the best interest of those pundits to keep interest in the debates and campaigns alive for as long as possible, leaving viewers and readers panting for more, with plenty to argue about until the next outing.

Debate or Not Debate?

I doubt we'll watch the TV "debate" tonight. My view is that the election's "all over bar the shouting" (in favour of the incumbent). Husband tends to froth at the mouth when listening to a Republican for more than 30 seconds. It's sweet really - he actually thinks the Democrat who is now President is any better! We've still got part of West Wing season 4 to get into - may as well watch admitted fiction in place of fiction heavily disguised as real life.

If I'm correct about the outcome of 6 November 2012, then what really is disturbing to consider is what'll happen in 2016, when the political pendulum swings way back rightward. In many ways I'd have preferred to get a Republican prez in now, with a rather stronger Democratic congress. In 2016 the pendulum would surely swing back to a left-winger, and perhaps by then momentum would have built for a real left-wing party to enter the proceedings.

I do not understand why the alternative parties to the plutocratic duopoly do not band together under a new label. The Greens, The Justice Party, Dem Socialists and other scattered seminal organisations could, working together garner sufficient backing to make a showing on almost every state ballot - even in Oklahoma. That might still happen, of course, if in a second term the Prez does not change tack.

Hope springs.