Standin' On A Corner

 . . . in Winslow, Arizona with the THC Son last Saturday.

Don't worry, I still stand with the Dude on the subject of The Eagles.

Opening Day

 . . . is tomorrow.

In the meantime, remember Mayday Sam Malone, Yaz, and Coach Ernie Pantusso?

Fenway legends. pic.twitter.com/qA4Ba7rkJ8

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) March 29, 2021

Ring Them Bells

Been on a bit of a Dylan kick lately, particularly from his "late" (post-1980) period.  Ring Them Bells is from Oh Mercy (1989).  Enjoy this lovely version by Sarah Jarosz.

Ring them bells, ye heathen
From the city that dreams
Ring them bells from the sanctuaries
’Cross the valleys and streams
For they’re deep and they’re wide
And the world’s on its side
And time is running backwards
And so is the bride

Ring them bells St. Peter
Where the four winds blow
Ring them bells with an iron hand
So the people will know
Oh it’s rush hour now
On the wheel and the plow
And the sun is going down
Upon the sacred cow

Ring them bells Sweet Martha
For the poor man’s son
Ring them bells so the world will know
That God is one
Oh the shepherd is asleep
Where the willows weep
And the mountains are filled
With lost sheep

Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf
Ring them bells for all of us who are left
Ring them bells for the chosen few
Who will judge the many when the game is through
Ring them bells, for the time that flies
For the child that cries
When innocence dies

Ring them bells St. Catherine
From the top of the room
Ring them from the fortress
For the lilies that bloom
Oh the lines are long
And the fighting is strong
And they’re breaking down the distance
Between right and wrong 

 

Lies

Great Beatlesque style single by The Knickerbockers from 1965.  A one-hit wonder New Jersey band they adopted the British approach - listen to how "girl" becomes "gurl" in the lyrics.

Speaking of lies, let's quickly note three current lies promulgated by the Biden Administration.

The filibuster as a "Jim Crow" relic.  Historically a lie.  More recently, only Democrats have used the filibuster since 2014.  When, in 2017 President Trump asked Sen. McConnell to end the filibuster, McConnell refused to do so.  Just last year, the Democrats used the filibuster to block Senate action on Republican Senator Tim Scott's police reform bill.  Senator Scott is the first black senator elected from a former Confederate state since Reconstruction.

The Georgia voting legislation, as yet another "Jim Crow".  Basically, everything President Biden is saying about it is a lie.

There is no border crisis.  Yes, there is.  Can you imagine if President Trump was blocking access to border facilities by the press and even members of the opposition party?

The difference between when President Trump lied or, more commonly, blustered and exaggerated, is media reporters would challenge him on it and then report.  Now propaganda outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC and the networks work overtime to amplify Biden's lies.

53 Transcripts: Real Estate Promoters

In May and June of last year I wrote a series of posts (53 Transcripts) after reading the nearly 6,000 pages of testimony given to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 and early 2018 regarding alleged Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election.  This testimony had been suppressed for nearly a year and a half by Representative Adam Schiff after the Democrats seized control of the House because it debunked their theories of Trump collusion with the Russians and exposed Rep Schiff as a serial liar.  I recently discovered one last post that mistakenly was left in draft form and wanted to post it to complete the series.

Before doing so a couple of summary comments on what has proven to be the Russian Collusion Hoax and the greatest political scandal in American history; a concerted attempt to remove an elected President by the opposition party, entrenched federal bureaucrats and supported by supposedly non-partisan media.  The post Election Tampering sums up my views and you can read all the Russia Collusion posts here.

I initially thought there might be something to the allegations regarding Trump based on his own statements during the campaign and after the election.  I was wrong.(1)

There were two pillars upon which the investigation rested.  The first was the Steele Dossier, which proved to be a creation of the Clinton campaign and Russian intelligence, a fact so embarrassing to the Mueller investigation that all mention of the dossier was excised from the collusion section of its final report.  The second was the March 2016 conversation between Professor Joseph Mifsud and junior Trump foreign policy wannabe George Papadopolous.  What was said remains in dispute.  Mifsud, interviewed by the FBI in February 2017, denied making any statements regarding Russian possession of damaging information regarding Hillary Clinton and the Mueller team never charged Mifsud with making a false statement.  What appears to be the case as of now is that Mifsud was not a Russian intelligence asset and not working for the FBI.  But what was he?  If, as I suspect he was tasked by a friendly foreign intelligence service to approach Papadopolous it puts an entirely different light on the beginnings of this affair.  I hope that Special Counsel John Durham's investigation will reveal whatever the truth is about Mifsud.  For more background on Mifsud see Footnote 2 of this post.

Looking back it is also revealing the depths to which the Democrats and their allies stooped to conspiracy mongering.  Just as we have QAnon, we also have what some have aptly referred to as BlueAnon, and the Russian Collusion Hoax was the starting point for an unending wave of conspiracy theories from the Left.

Russian Collusion was a conspiracy theory and it had many sub-components.  As a reminder here are some of them (ones I wrote about as part of the 53 Transcript series are in bold):

Carter Page as key link in collusion

Trump Tower Meeting

Trump Tower Moscow

Miss Universe Moscow and the "salacious allegations" (Fake news, but relevant because Russians.)

Russian Financiers of Trump Org (except there weren't any, but relevant because Russians)

Russian Condo Buyers (after Trump Tower was built, which contains condos separate from the office space, some of the original condo purchasers resold their unit to Russian buyers.  The Trump Organization was not involved but somehow this was relevant because Russians.)

Russian Buying Florida Mansion (Trump bought a Florida mansion and sold it a few years later to a Russian and made tens of millions.  Relevant because Russians.)

Deutsche Bank (so stupid even the D's on the Intelligence Committee gave up on this one.)

Alfa Bank  (Russian owned bank with its servers allegedly connected directly with Trump Org.  Fake news, but relevant because Russians)

Ukraine Plank on GOP Platform

Paul Manafort.  (Supposed co-mastermind behind it all.  Not.  Targeted by Ukrainians working with Hillary Campaign in 2016).

Michael Flynn & The Ruskies (this one completely fell apart with revelations later in 2020)

The Hacks (DNC, DCCC, John Podesta)

Wikileaks (Bumbling clowns Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi try to get info from Assange but fail).

Michael Cohen in Prague.  (And, according to Steele Dossier, co-mastermind with Manafort of collusion.  I was surprised and impressed with Cohen's testimony - precise, knows the real estate world, impassioned rebuttal of the Steele Dossier, and refused to be pushed around by Schiff and Swalwell.)

Cambridge Analytica.  (Bad because it used data from Facebook, unlike the Obama people in 2012 who were good because they used data from Facebook.  More recent information indicates this was a phony story from the start).

This doesn't even include the continuing barrage of "fake news" stories from major media outlets.  For three examples just from one week in December 2017 read Footnote 4 from this post.

Real Estate Promoters

The Democrats on the Intelligence Committee were fixated on the attempt to build a Trump Tower in Moscow based on a complete misunderstanding of how the Trump Organization operated and developed and financed its projects.

There were two primary witnesses on this subject, Felix Sater and long-time Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen.

By the time he testified Felix Sater was being portrayed in the press as a Russian asset who was loyal to Putin.  He gave a lengthy opening statement refuting these allegations.  Sater, who was a U.S. citizen after emigrating from Russia with his family at the age of seven, started:

"I was born in 1966 in Moscow, Soviet Union, with the word 'Jew" stamped on my passport under nationality, not Russian, as has been reported about me". 

Sater had previously been the promoter for the Trump SoHo project in Manhattan and had known Michael Cohen since they were both teens.  In discussing some of his emails and his claims regarding contacts with the Russian government as he pursued the Trump Tower project he was unabashed about the fact he would say anything to get a deal done.

"Guys, I'm a real estate promoter.  Until the bank writes the check, it's all salesmanship and promotion to try to get many, many parties towards the center to try to get the deal done." 

Reading this in light of the Trump presidency and, in particular, the debacle he created between the 2020 election and the inauguration, it is clear how much of Trump's political strategy derived from his real estate experience.  The Trump projects were transactional and one-time events.  Each stood alone.  Trump never had to think about longer-term strategy and it hampered him as President.  After the election he employed his real estate techniques, making outlandish and insupportable statements about election fraud, specifically the Dominion software allegations.  He simply didn't care if they were true or not as long as he got enough of his supporters to believe they were.  He would say anything, regardless of longer-term consequences, if it could get him the deal.

Sater was an independent contractor.  If he could put together the deal and the parties in an acceptable form the Trump Organization could agree to proceed with his proposal.  There was never any need for he or anyone else to talk with the Trump Org or banks about financing because the Trump Org only did licensing deals, it provided its brand name and management skills if a project proceeded, that was it - there was no need for financing, so all the talk about being dependent on Russian banks for financing was fake news.

 

It was Sater and Michael Cohen working on the Trump Tower Moscow project and it was only if it came together that it would go to Trump for approval.  Cohen confirmed the contingent nature of Sater's efforts, telling the committee that in a real estate deal, "the loyalty is to who brings the check first."  

 

Sater stated he was ambivalent about Trump entering the presidential campaign because its potential effect on the deal was uncertain:

"I had a concern both that if we won and the project couldn't move forward, because maybe he couldn't do it as the President . . . or if he lost and the other side would lose interest in financing it".  

Cohen testified he discounted some of Sater's email claims and never discussed them with Trump.

"What Mr Sater is is a salesman, and he uses very colorful language".

Cohen went on to say the deal failed because partner could never establish control of property and "I had lost confidence in the licensee [Sater]" by January 2016. 

 

In general, Cohen's testimony demonstrated the complete lack of business knowledge by the Democrats on the committee.

 

He also testified the only time Donald Trump spoke with him regarding Putin was to ask, "Did you see that President Putin said some really nice things about me?", underscoring Trump's lack of interest in the details of foreign policy as well as his belief that if you say nice things about him he will say nice things about you.

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(1) In this, as in other instances, Trump was his own worst enemy.  His statements about Putin and Russia during the campaign and during his Presidency were often terrible and frequently embarrassing.  I wrote that at his 2018 Helsinki summit with Putin, the president sounded like a starstruck teenage girl.  This contrasted with his actions, including sanctioning additional Russian oligarchs, authorizing the attack that killed 200 Russian mercenaries in Syria, the unprecedented American-Swedish-Finnish military exercises in the Baltic aimed at Russia, sanctions halting the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, and an energy policy damaging to the Russian economy.

It's the exact opposite of the Biden Administration so far.  Biden talks very tough about Russia and Putin but, so far, he's given Putin everything he wants.  Trump had refused to extend the Intermediate Nuclear Missile Treaty with Russia unless Russia improved compliance and unless China, which is now a bigger threat, became a party.  For Putin this was a problem because if the treaty was not extended it would place enormous economic pressure on Russia.  Biden immediately announced a five year extension with no additional conditions and without China joining.  Biden has also effectively withdrawn sanctions on Nordstream 2 and with his domestic energy policy he is driving a reduction in U.S. output and an increase in oil prices which suits Putin just fine.  Little noticed in the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference was a mention in the appendix that the undisputed conclusion was that the Kremlin was supporting American environmental groups trying to block fracking and energy production because it would create favorable conditions for the sale of Russian fossil fuels.

 

Nobody 'Cept You

 There’s nothing ’round here I believe in
’Cept you, yeah you
And there’s nothing to me that’s sacred
’Cept you, yeah you

Recorded by Bob Dylan for his 1973 album Planet Waves, but dropped before its release.  Finally released in 1991 as part of Dylan's bootleg series.  This cover is by 16 Horsepower, a Denver based band during the 1990s and early 2000s. A little known gem from the Dylan catalog.

All Creatures Great And Small Revisited

In January I praised the new BBC version of All Creatures Great And Small.  I was premature.  It is good, but not as good as I thought based on the first show in the new series and it does not match the original.

The new series is very well acted but as it progressed it became increasingly soap-opera like and much too didactic.

The other thing that changed my opinion is Mrs THC and I rewatched much of the original series over the past few weeks.  Robert Hardy cannot be surpassed as Siegfried Farnon and the story telling is superior in the original series.  The original also is much more effective in conveying the hard working life of farmers in the Yorkshire Dales and it explores their stories in more depth than the new series.  Part of this may be the times.  The original series was filmed in two batches during the early and late 1980s when the Dales still held some resemblance to the days in which the stories were set.  That is gone now and the cinematography of the new show makes things look too pretty.

When the second season of the series is broadcast we will watch it but the original is the real deal.

COVID + 12

One year in.  Who thought this would go on for so long?  But having had the vaccines we are resuming some of the old life.  Attended a spring training game!  Attendance was limited to about 15% of capacity and we had to wear masks but it was wonderful to see baseball in person again.

Case and mortality trends continue in a favorable direction in the United States.  May it continue.  When I look at the mortality chart for the U.S. as a whole it reminds me of the curves I've seen regarding the Spanish Flu of 1918-9; an initial large surge, followed by a decline, and then a massive longer lasting second wave.  

The UK and Israel, which lead the world in administering vaccines, have seen a dramatic drop in deaths.

Other parts of the world are not so fortunate yet.  Most of the rest of Europe is still troubled.  In the West, France and Italy have seen major upsurges and reinstituted lockdowns while the East, from Poland in the north to Greece in the south, is experiencing another wave.

South America is going through another wave with Brazil seeing the worst of it.

I've increased the benchmark for reporting from 800 deaths per million to 1,000 deaths per million as the death toll is increasing.  When I began this monthly report in October only one country (Peru) had exceeded 1,000; five months later 31 countries have exceeded that dubious milestone.  As always, countries with populations of less than one million are not included.

Europe

Czech Republic (2314), Belgium (1953), Hungary (1913), Slovenia (1912), UK (1852), Bosnia & Herzogovinia (1818), Bulgaria (1764), Italy (1744), North Macedonia (1681), Slovakia (1667), Portugal (1649), Spain (1573), France (1417), Croatia (1416), Sweden (1307), Poland (1305), Lithuania (1294), Switzerland (1177), Romania (1163), Moldova (1140), Austria (1005)

Unofficially, Russia has exceeded 1,000 and probably 1,500.

North America 

USA (1672), Mexico (1524), Panama (1385)

South America

Peru (1512), Brazil (1384), Colombia (1212), Argentina (1202), Chile (1162), Bolivia (1023)

Africa

None

Unofficially, South Africa has exceeded 1,000 and possibly 1,500.

Asia

Armenia (1132)

Eight countries are between 1,000 and 850, before a drop off to the next at 746; Latvia (977), Netherlands (949), Georgia (931), Ecuador (924), Ireland (922), Germany (898), South Africa (872), Lebanon (854)

Paired Readings

Thoughts on books that would be interesting to read together and use as the basis for a discussion group or class.  

First up:

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

Cardiac Arrest: Five Heart Stopping Years as a CEO on the Feds' Hit-List by Howard Root

One of these books illustrates numerous failures of our systems, including that of the federal government and the FDA in preventing fraud.

The other book illustrates numerous failures of our systems, including that the federal government and the FDA in pursuing vendettas against innocent individuals.

All of which leads to a discussion of how better to prevent fraud while discouraging abuse of the regulatory and enforcement process.

Bad Blood is the astonishing tale of Theranos and its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, and enterprise that collapsed in fraud and failure and with Holmes currently facing a criminal trial.  The book is written like a thriller and its hard to put down - I read the whole thing on a cross-country flight.

With her striking personality and appearance Holmes attracted fervent admirers and supporters who didn't closely inquire into the underlying technology of her company.  She cleverly recruited an extremely prestigious board, but one which had little knowledge of the technology involved; people like Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, James Mattis, former Senator Sam Nunn, former Secretary of Defense William Perry.

Carreyrou also explains that Holmes being a woman helped persuade most in the media not to inquire too closely into the details.  Instead she was promoted as a role model and rock star CEO.

Carreyrou also becomes a subject of his own story.  He began covering Theranos as a Wall Street Journal reporter, became skeptical about the company and Holmes and began writing critical stories.  Theranos and Holmes went to the Journal's publisher, Rupert Murdoch who had invested $100 million in Theranos, asking him to stifle Carreyrou, who later found out that Murdoch refused to do so.

Cardiac Arrest is written by the CEO of a medical device company in Minnesota that was first investigated by the FDA and then by the Justice Department which ended up charging him for violation of Federal laws.  Howard Root resigned as CEO to fight the charges and ended up winning in a jury trial.

The book chronicles Root's increasing disbelief as the matter escalated into a criminal case and goes through in detail every step of the process which is truly mind-boggling in its complexity and in the deviousness of the prosecutors who were clearly abusing their powers. Above all, the discretionary power the government has to destroy someone's life is laid out for all to see.  A powerful tale.

Next:

Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama

My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas

I suspect I am one of the few people to have read all of both of these books and recommend both.

For a moment let's leave aside politics.  I quite enjoyed Dreams From My Father, the story of a biracial young man, who at times harbors a lot of anger, eventually goes to elite colleges and decides to move to Chicago, become fully "black" and work in the community.  It climaxes with his visit to Kenya to connect with the relatives of his deceased father and finds them to be the usual mix of humanity; kind, crazy, difficult, loving, accomplished, lost etc.

My Grandfather's Son is the tale of a boy growing up in the segregated South, in an isolated black community that spoke its own dialect.  His difficult upbringing with his father and of the grandfather who made him the man he became.  Along the way he attends colleges in the Northeast, deals with rage against white people, struggles in his career and develops a drinking problem.

Reading the books and knowing that both Obama and Thomas rose to great public prominence though they became very different in their political views, could generate some fascinating discussions about their respective family backgrounds, personalities, how and where they grew up in trying to determine how they came to follow their respective paths.  There are striking similarities and differences in their lives and personalities.

Who Knows The Wind?

In AM to FM, I wrote of my recollections of when, in late 1966, WOR became the first FM station to play modern music in the New York area and, after it changed formats a few months later, was followed by WNEW-FM in October 1967.  The DJs and overall tone on FM was much calmer.  On FM they played more songs, album cuts, and long cuts, not just the Top 40.  FM sounded better with its clarity and sense of space between the notes creating a more intimate and immediate sound.

Perfectly suited to the new ambiance, particularly for the late-night DJs like Rosko and Allison Steele (“The Night Bird”), was Wind by Circus Maximus.  The five-piece band, formed in 1967 by Bob Bruno and Jerry Jeff Walker (later to write Mr Bojangles) released its first album that year (and broke up the next).  I have the album and, with the exception of Wind, there is not a decent cut on it.  But Wind was perfect for FM, with its haunting melody, enigmatic lyrics (I liked the phrases and sounds of the words and never looked up the full lyrics or thought much about what the song was about), and jazzy vibe – listen to the guitar and piano solos about five minutes in.  I’d probably only listened to a handful of times in the past 40 years.  Listening to it again just before writing this, it brings me back to the younger me.  Laying in bed, late at night with the radio on the shelf of the bed with this song playing in the quietness.  I can close my eyes, picture my room and everything in it; I can feel myself in that moment.  Yeah, I was once that kid.

 

 

Jabs

THC and the Mrs have received both vaccine doses (Pfizer) and now that a couple of weeks have passed since the second are resuming some semblance of normal existence.  Had lunch (outside) at a restaurant last week for the first time in a year.

It looks like about 1/3 of adults in Arizona have received at least one dose and a little under 20% have received both.

We got the shots at State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals, located on the far side of the metro area from us.  It is a very efficient operation.  First time took about an hour from entering the parking lot to leaving after our 15 minute observation period after the injection, while the second took only 30 minutes from entrance to exit.  Below is an aerial view of the setup (it was never as crowded when we were there).

ICYMI: We hit the half-million mark!

The 500,000th COVID-19 vaccine dose was administered today at our 24/7 site. pic.twitter.com/ivGhtztDnp

— State Farm Stadium (@StateFarmStdm) March 15, 2021

The Night Of The Hunter

Sometimes you finally get around to watching what you've heard is a great film and end up disappointed.  This happened to us last year viewing The Rules of the Game (1939) by Jean Renoir, a movie on many Top Ten greatest film lists.  It was boring, pretentious, and way too obvious in its themes.

And then there is The Night of the Hunter, which we viewed last night and one of the finest films I've ever seen.  Released in 1955 and the only movie directed by actor Charles Laughton, The Night of the Hunter stars Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish, the great silent film star, in one of her few sound picture appearances.

Set in West Virginia during the Depression, Mitchum plays an itinerant preacher who has devised his own religion, based on a twisted interpretation of Christianity, while marrying widows, killing them and stealing their money.  With L-O-V-E tattooed on the knuckles of his right hand and H-A-T-E on the left he charms small town folk and mesmerizes his intended victims.  In this case, he plans to shake loose the secret location of a hidden $10,000 from the two young children of his newest wife (played by Shelly Winters with much more restraint than usual).  After murdering the woman he sets off to track down the children who have fled.  Lillian Gish plays the children's protector, a deeply religious woman who represents love in the struggle against hate.

This is an eerie and terrifying movie.  As AO Scott remarks in the video below, "While you're watching this movie you are like a child in the grip of a nightmare".  Mitchum is frightening whether charming, threatening, or both at the same time.  The film is shot using techniques from German expressionist films of the silent era, giving it a dreamlike quality.  The scenes and images from this film will stay with you for a long time.

A unique and unforgettable film, it was a commercial failure at the time and Laughton never directed another movie.  You can watch the cast and crew talk about the making of the film here.

When The Drums Stop

Jonathan Winters used to do a routine about the old movies of primitive tribes drumming in the background and one of the characters shouting "I can't take it anymore!  Those drums, drums, drums!  They're making me crazy!" and another character saying quietly "It's when the drums stop that we should worry."

From Assistant Village Idiot

Going Up The Country

In the late 1960s, Canned Heat became popular playing blues based songs - I saw them at Woodstock.  Their most popular was Going Up The Country.  Other hits were On The Road Again and Let's Work Together.  Like so many bands of that era they could not resist the temptation of drugs and the two founders, Alan Wilson and Bob Hite, both died of overdoses.

Though I knew their songs were based on older blues, until recently I'd not heard the song that inspired Going Up The Country.  It was Bull Doze Blues by Henry Thomas and Canned Heat closely followed the original musically, though Wilson rewrote the lyrics.  Thomas, born in 1874 to parents who were formerly slaves, was a hobo and itinerant singer who recorded 24 songs between 1927 and 1929.  Along with Bull Doze Blues, Thomas also recorded Honey Won't You Allow Me One More Chance (later adapted and recorded by Bob Dylan; this is Declan O'Connell performing the Dylan version) and Fishin' Blues, which THC featured in a post on Taj Mahal last fall, though I didn't know Thomas was the composer at the time.

Thomas is believed to have died in 1930 though no one knows for certain.

 

Reading For Pleasure

Until sometime in the 1980s there was only one library in Shanghai containing "forbidden" books; those that contravened Party doctrine and were unsuitable or even dangerous for the masses to be exposed to.  Access was limited to a small group authorized by the government.  Books could be taken out by those authorized though they were carefully tracked to ensure return.  If you knew one of that favored group, and they were willing to take a little risk, they could pass on a "forbidden" book to you to read and then return to them for return to the library.

If you wanted to reread the book and since there were no copy machines, you had one option - make a handwritten copy for yourself.  

Told this by a friend who lived there and read some of those books.

Something to keep in mind as we look at the future.

It Makes No Difference

Well, I love you so much
That it's all I can do
Just to keep myself from telling you
That I never felt so alone before 

The saddest of love songs from The Band.  Composed by Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko on the plaintive lead vocal, and Garth Hudson on the little saxophone.