Here is David Fiderer's seminal piece from back in 2010 and updated in 2017. Just replace Bush with Trump as nothing has changed.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-bush-tax-cuts-and-the_b_781419

You should be very, very enthusiastic about voting for him!

I mean that sincerely, I'm not trying to be facetious here.

Elizabeth Miller wrote:

... and put a stake in the Republican cult of economic failure!!!! This should be so easy to do. Recruit Geithner if you have to ... he's one of the very few who know how to do it!

There is no way that Trump should be leading on the economy. But, alas, he is.

Joe could take away Trump's polling lead on the economy in a New York second. All he'd have to say is,

"Starting with Reagan and continuing through Trump, the tax breaks for our wealthiest Citizens have only helped the people who least need it while hurting the rest of us. Once President I will restore the tax rates to pre Reagan levels and we'll use the money to rebuild an America that works for ALL Americans, not just the rich!"

Alas, I cannot imagine Joe saying this, hence my complete lack of enthusiasm for him and for Hillary before him. A return to the fucked up pre-Trump normalcy ain't gonna cut it.

Guess who agrees with you? Bernie!

I saw an interview with him yesterday and he said that Joe is too focused on talking about the orange one and he needs to start talking about economic issues. I doubt that he agrees with you regarding Geithner, though.

If Biden can't do that, then ... I don't even want to tap it out.

There is no way that Trump should be leading on the economy. But, alas, he is.

Stop saying you don't understand when it comes to anything outrageous that Trump says or does. Stop talking about him.

Start talking about how you will stop the chaos. Start acting presidential, NOW!

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-drummers-of-all-time-77933/john-bonham-37887/

i live in the bronx, i write poetry and songs, and the number 22 just seems to show up in my life. e.g. my sister's birthday & my wife's birthday.

Sorry, MntCaddy, only ticketholders can re-watch the Modern Drummer Festival 2020 w/ a tribute to Neil Peart.

You'll have to sneak a few funds into your music account, every now and again, so you'll be ready for the next big event. There's bound to be many more of these types of concerts before the end of the year ...

I'm still hoping the non-virtual actual STYX concert in Niagara Falls, CA next month is a go.

Creep from Korn (Unplugged.)

Shoulda known that nypoet22 would still be up! "City that never sleeps" and such.

BTW do you live in The Big Apple? And did you graduate 22nd in your class at, uh, poetry school? Inquiring mind wants to know!

https://youtu.be/O5Up-qHTJdY

I don't mind paying for music, either. If artists aren't compensated then they cannot keep producing music for us.

And... Black Betty

Efforts to remedy glaring racial inequality in the criminal-justice system, which whites have long denied but now acknowledge, tap into principles of equal treatment that have historically been easier to get whites on board for than the big structural changes that are needed to produce some semblance of actual equality,” the political scientist Michael Tesler told me recently. “Whites have historically had little appetite for implementing the policies needed to achieve equality of outcomes.

This is from a longish read from an Atlantic article The New Reconstruction
The United States has its best opportunity in 150 years to belatedly fulfill its promise as a multiracial democracy.

IAM a politics junkie and I LOVE in-depth down in the weeds of policy articles. Kinda like, as a Progressive Rocker, I like long, complicated songs. Such as Supper's Ready by Peter Gabriel era Genesis. Enjoy!

Anyway, have a listen to Stairway to Heaven ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbhCPt6PZIU&list=RDaxbtig7w7a8&index=3

I'm afraid I missed it. You said I had to get a ticket to watch it and I didn't have any dinero on my debit card, so I passed on it. If it's free please give me the link.

How about a little Black Magic Woman ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axbtig7w7a8&list=RDaxbtig7w7a8&start_radio=1&t=0

So, it's late 1964 or early '65 - Keith's memory is a bit foggy. NO KIDDING?! Heh.

Anyway, he's in St. John's Wood and he's been having trouble sleeping for a few days; he's been foolin' around with this new thing called a cassette recorder and he's finally ready to fall asleep for the night, leaving the recorder bedside with his guitar also close by.

At some point he wakes up, sort of, sits on the edge of the bed and starts playing his guitar and singing and then went right back to sleep again.

When he woke up in the morning, he noticed that his cassette recorder had been on 'record' and had wound to the end of the tape. These recorders were pretty new and he didn't really know what he was doing. He had no idea that he had left it running on record when he crashed. When he plays it he hears himself strumming the guitar and singing, "I can't get no satisfaction ...". He didn't remember anything about it, otherwise... he was singing and playing the guitar in his sleep! - heard it for the first time when he played back the tape! He had no memory of it but, he recorded it!!!

And, the rest, as they say, is history ... :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ8GZ3PFVGM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VmXZQVo-6o&list=RDmyq0zxDHK1g&index=3

Carl Palmer was part of the 3-hour drumming tribute to Neil Saturday night ... don't tell me you missed it!

Linda did wonders for Desperado ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myq0zxDHK1g&list=RDmyq0zxDHK1g&start_radio=1&t=5

John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) and Kieth Moon (The Whole are also on my short list. I also love Phil Collins work with Peter Gabriel era Genesis. Try Riding the Screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvbjXHSb7fA&list=RDDvbjXHSb7fA&index=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd8R18MpFLU&list=RDDvbjXHSb7fA&index=2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hufU6MIS2vw

Willin" is my favorite country song and it plays a big part in LF lore. I had forgotten that Linda Ronstadt had covered it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XPrNGpzeGI&list=RD6XPrNGpzeGI&start_radio=1&t=21

Musicianship in its purest form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isdS12H4Kuk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oem46aJgUg

Old Folks Boogie

. . . and one that you Rush fans may like a little better:

The Fan

No one can your musical tastes are not eclectic! :)

I hope everyone got tickets (proceeds to support brain tumor research) to last night's special virtual LiveXLive event put on by Modern Drummer Magazine (Festival 2020) - three hours of some of the world's best drummers, all in a wonderful tribute to Neil, Rush's drummer and lyricist, on his birthday. It was AMAZING!

MDM announced two new awards to be handed out annually ... the Neil Peart Lifetime Achievement award and Neil's family accepted the first one in his honour. Secondly, the Neil Peart Spirit of Drumming award will go to a promising up and coming drummer beginning next year.

Thanks, MntCaddy for getting the CW Sunday Night Music Festival and Dance Party off to a great start!

And, here is the best drummer to ever walk the earth ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWRMOJQDiLU

Here’s A Apolitical Blues

. . . and here’s one for the orange one.

It's high time that you found
The same people you walk on
On your way up
You might meet up
On your way down

(bleeping auto correct)
(bleeping failure to proofread)

Let's "Rush" to get the show on the road! Two of my favorites are Tom Sawyer and New World Man.

Heya Kick,

I'm sorry that you lost your Uncle to Covid-19.

Here’s her new campaign ad.

Then he insisted that Bob Woodward was really the one to blame, since he didn't report Trump's word "to the authorities."

Yes, Poor Donald playing that tired and worn out "but, but, but, I'm the victim here" card as he does so frequently. For somebody who claims he is so strong, Trump sure does whine all the time about how he is a victim, doesn't he? You'd think the useful idiots would catch onto this whining bullshit pattern of Trump's, but then that would require actually "thinking" on their part when it's much easier to just blame Bob Woodward or Lindsey Graham. I even heard Karl Rove whining about why Joe Biden didn't just tell everyone what he knew and questioning what Biden knew and when he knew it. *laughs* Why does Karl and the Trumpian cult of useful idiots think Donald Trump began referring to the virus as the "Democrat hoax"? Because many Democrats and scientists and people not politically affiliated were sounding the alarm about the seriousness of the disease while the misinformed and outright gullible cult followers and useful idiot mouthpieces of Donald Trump were downplaying it. Trump lied. People died as a direct result of Trump's lying.

Today, he's moved on to comparing himself (are you sitting down?) to Winston Churchill during the London Blitz.

One of the ways we learn from history is to pay attention to when we see it repeated and to question ourselves when it sounds familiar... so:

Question: When was the last time Trump did something stupid and then he and his mouthpieces and the useful idiots attempted frantically to compare it to Winston Churchill during the London Blitz?

Answer: That time Trump wanted a photo-op at St. John's Church of him holding a Bible.

I remember watching live as they walked, Ivanka -- sticking out like a sore thumb among the rest of them -- in high heels and mask (when almost no one else was) and carrying a huge white purse, and I also remember wondering why on Earth she would walk out of the White House with a huge designer purse like that in tow. Of course, I found out later that the prop had been removed from Ivanka's very necessary huge purse so that Daddy Don the Con didn't have to carry that Bible in his hands the whole way to St. John's Church. How convenient. A Bible just happened to be handy for that planned photo-op that was later attempted to be compared to Winston Churchill.

So they're trotting out the old "Donald Trump as Winston Churchill" nonsensical bullshit again in an attempt to spin Trump's repetitive lying to Americans about the severity of COVID-19 that took their lives? It would be comical if it wasn't such an obvious and pathetic attempt at political spin that they've already tried.

Donald Trump lied and people died as a direct result of the lies. We're nearing 50,000 Benghazis soon, and the people who were outraged and held hundreds of fundraisers over the four dead Americans seem perfectly fine with Trump's lying and resultant hundreds of thousands of deaths... and if that outright hypocrisy doesn't make you cringe, what could?

Wake up, America.

Learned Cluelessness

definition:

A condition in which a person suffers from reasoning entirely within the moment, without regard to anything that has actually occurred in the past, or the consequences that might be logically inferred to occur in future from such reasoning. Anxiety, phobias, glibness and grandiosity are associated with this condition. See Twitterpated. Also see Sucker Born Every Minute.

I'd like to find encouragement in your family anecdote, but I can't say that I do. Just look at how Herman Cain is still tweeting death cult propaganda from the grave.

Your story is about lack of empathy. Until it hits home, it's just The Other's problem. Republicans love to demonize gay people until they find out that their son is gay, and even then, some are unmoved. They demonize black people until their daughter marries a black man. Even then, they call their grandchildren "multi-racial" despite the fact that America's caste system defines them as black.

I can't say that I understand how the zombies could believe that this plague is a plot against Dear Leader as the dead bodies pile up around the world, but that's where we are. I'm afraid to even ask my sister (in a swing state) if she's deprogrammed because I fear the worst.

Un-freakin'-believable.

When will Democrats put a stake in the Republican cult of economic failure?

In another conversation on March 19, the president told Woodward that he intentionally played down the threat of the virus so as not to panic Americans.

It was so nice of Donald Trump to tell Bob Woodward the facts about the novel coronavirus early in February. A few questions come to mind now that the facts are known:

* Do you think those useful idiots that actually believed the Orange Blowhole and spewed back his lies on cue like trained monkeys for months upon months will now admit they got suckered by their Orange Worship?

* How many times do y'all figure it will take for the mouthpieces and holsters of Donald Trump being thrown under the bus by him for them to finally figure out that he's a lying piece of shit that doesn't give a damn about their welfare?

Well, I have some answers to the above questions from a few of his recovered cult followers.

I do wish my uncle had survived COVID-19 and was now finding out that he was a fool to believe Donald Trump over the word of his sister's daughter, but I'm glad that my aunt and cousins in his household lived to learn the facts. I got a call and multiple apologies from them yesterday. They're mad as hell and feel like the pathologically lying POTUS killed their father and were asking me how they could sue Donald Trump for wrongful death. Interesting call.

For every one of those Americans that Donald Trump is responsible for killing due to his outright lying when he knew the facts, there are multiple Americans that have permanent damage to their lungs and organs whose lives will never be the same. Full stop.

I do hate their vacuum cleaners, though ... and all the bagless ones, for that matter.

Thanks for the info on air purifiers! I always love to hear personal reviews of products and prefer them over reading Amazon’s reviews. I literally just purchased a Blue 211 air purifier two weeks ago, and it has been a life saver during these smoke-filled days! I have always liked Dyson products, but I will be honest that my snarky-consumer brain wondered if Dyson hadn’t just strapped an air purifier onto one of their bladeless fans as a way to charge more for one of their fans. Most air purifiers work well if they are using a HEPA filter, but I really liked Blue’s triple filtration system and am shocked at how quiet it is. But I will definitely remember to look closer at Dyson the next time we have to replace a purifier!

a great part of the american mythos is built on the rule of law and an apolitical military. that part isn't just aspirational, it's who we believe ourselves to be as a nation. while military people may support donald up to a point, they're not going to obey illegal orders. based on what's already happened with donald as president, the pattern is for military leaders to ignore unlawful orders and hope the president forgets he gave them, which he usually does.

If Trump doesn't win reelection the Constitution says his term ends at noon on January 20th, period.

I think that an attempt to declare martial law would,
(1) Likely NOT be honored and acted upon by our military. I was in the Army 35 years ago and I cannot imagine that the oath that all Service members swear "to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic" is any less inculcated in our military's DNA now as was when I was active duty. Trump would be demonstrating that he is an enemy of the Constitution.

(2) This would give Repugs the excuse (read, "moral imperative") to invoke the 25th Amendment. It's their "out" to get Trump out of the GOP's hair.

I shall be focusing on his iconic drumming and lyrics tomorrow night at the CW Sunday Night Music Festival and Dance Party so, don't miss it!

Love, love, love your fun sense of humour!

And, I can vouch for what GT says about those Dyson cool air purifiers. I don't have AC but, who needs it.

Take it easy!

It has been a good while for you guys. I remember when the big fires in Vancouver drifted down and turned Seattle into Mars during Seafair 4 or 5 years ago.

While I don't have asthma I do have bad allergies and with everything down in my neck of the woods covered in ash, they are off of the charts.

I suggest you drop the bucks on a nice Dyson air purifier. I have one that does 800 sq ft and also doubles as a cooler. It makes life in the part of the house that is my office and entertainment quite pleasant. My eyes don't feel like they have sand in them and my nose doesn't pack itself with cement like snot.

Dyson is pricey but so worth it.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dyson-tp04-pure-cool-tower-800-sq-ft-air-purifier-white-silver/6192408.p?skuId=6192408

Good luck up there...

Yeah, we live right under Mt. Rainer...just outside of Seattle. We seem to be in the clear, for now, so it’s easier to sound confident — at the time I wasn’t so confident! I dunno if it is because I have moved so much over the course of my lifetime or what, but I know that I will NOT risk our lives in some feeble attempt to delay our house from burning! It’s all just STUFF! It’s all replaceable. Devon and my dogs...not so replaceable! (Sure, I could trade him in for two hot 20 year olds...but it took me years to properly train him to be the perfect hubby and I just don’t know if I have it in me to do it again).

The sky here is crazy with all of the smoke in the air. It’s like the sun was replaced by one of the first environmentally friendly lightbulbs that never quite got the tint right. And with my asthma, it is like walking around with a large millstone pressing on my chest. Add to that the COVID threat and it looks like I’m gonna be doing my shopping this week in a full hazmat suit and respirator!

And, I didn't realize you are in Washington state. I probably just forgot. What you describe would have scared me half to death. You don't sound worried??

Be careful and stay safe!!!

What's the wild fire situation there?

https://www.moderndrummer.com/2020/08/20th-annual-modern-drummer-festival-a-tribute-to-iconic-drummer-neil-peart/

... just got my ticket.

Emails. Benghazi. Spying. They want bumper sticker talking points.

Agreed. That's not what was reported.

Maybe she was going to leave when she was done with this project anyway. People change jobs all the time.

Durham and Dannehy had to do the investigation. Their boss told them to. They don't have to do anything corrupt. He can't make them do that, but he can twist and lie about their report w/o releasing it.

Durham hasn't resigned, but neither did Comey. You seem to believe he was great. I'm giving Durham the benefit of the doubt for now. Maybe I shouldn't.

I believe that Barr is planning to make a big deal about the FBI investigator who altered a CIA email cited in the fourth application to the FISA court - something we've known about for 8 months.

It would be fantasy to think she quit because of that!

I believe that Barr is planning to make a big deal about the FBI investigator who altered a CIA email cited in the fourth application to the FISA court - something we've known about for 8 months.

Now, you're confusing me. A 'corrupt as Barr' report is why she left the building, no?

That assumes that Durham is as corrupt as Barr and willing to produce something that contradicts the Senate Intelligence Committee's report and the IG's report. I'm not ready to go there just yet.

I hope we hear from her soon ...

I'm not counting on that. Unlike Tony Fauci, she no longer works for the government. She'd have to pay for her own security guards.

I think you may have that ass-backwards.

There won't be any reason to "summarize" this one. It's being overseen by Barr, after all. :)

I hope we hear from her soon ...

Just say NO to Killer Joe.

More Kremlin puke from the resident MAGAt.

Right.

People in the know think this means indictments are coming

What I heard yesterday was that Barr was pressuring them for a report before the election and, due to the pandemic, they aren't finished. I heard that there aren't going to be indictments, just a report that he can lie about.

She didn't just resign from the investigation. She left the entire department of justice. People in the know think this means indictments are coming or, at the very least, a big ... decision. Hoping she is not the last to leave the building.