They absolutely will give him a microphone

My Sunday movie was Frybread Face and Me. It’s 1990. Benny is 11 and Navajo, living with his parents in San Diego. As the movie opens his parents announce he will spend the summer with his maternal grandmother at her home on the reservation in Arizona. Grandma speaks only Navajo, which Benny doesn’t know. Also living in Grandma’s house is Uncle Marvin who is quite upset with life, sometimes taking it out on Benny. Martin’s daughter Dawn, who others call Frybread Face, is Benny’s guide to life on the Rez. His mother’s other siblings, Lucy and Roger, come for visit. Lucy, a lesbian is a happy person and a help to Benny. Roger and his wife just bicker. Over the summer Benny begins to understand what it means to be Navajo and what Grandma is doing with her weaving. Though he still wonders, if life is so hard on the Rez, why don’t they move to somewhere where life is easier? It’s a quiet film and a good one. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos discussed the statement the nasty guy made last Saturday. He had railed against other NATO members about not contributing at least 2% of their GDP for defense. If they didn’t pay up and were attacked he would not come to their aid and would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want.” Sumner noted that this statement is quite a jolt to NATO, but it really didn’t get much US media coverage until Monday morning. The nasty guy is referring to the common defense clause of the NATO treaty – an attack on one is to be considered an attack on all. That clause has been invoked once – by the US after the 9/11 attacks. It drew many NATO countries into the Afghanistan war. Some were stuck there for 20 years. Sumner noted an important point, one that should have been on front pages Sunday instead of Monday:

Article VI of the Constitution declares, "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States ... and all Treaties made" are the "supreme Law of the Land." Trump is not just saying that he will break treaty obligations to U.S. allies and hand them over to Russia, he is flat-out saying that he will break the law. Because treaties are law. Failure to abide by the obligations of Article 5 would be the gravest possible betrayal of our allies and a direct failure to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It seems like someone should be making a big deal about this. But that doesn’t seem to feature in the coverage. ... Meanwhile, European leaders are consigning U.S. leadership to the dustbin and preparing for a world in which America is an afterthought.

In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted several people discussing the nasty guy’s NATO comments. There’s also a quote discussing European leaders’ reactions. And, of course, that is the topic of a few cartoons in the comments. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported reactions from NATO leaders. The nasty guy’s statement undermines security and puts soldiers at risk. The risk means European countries needs to invest in their own security – prompting them to do what the nasty guy accuses them of not doing. Others are confident the US will remain a strong ally, no matter who is president. This article and others I heard add a bit of explanation. Other NATO countries do not owe the money to the US, though the nasty guy’s wording makes that seem true. They do not owe the money to NATO. That 2% is a recommendation of what each country is to spend on its own defense, something the nasty guy is turning into a requirement. I’ve also heard with the Ukraine invasion in their backyard most, perhaps all, NATO countries now spend more on defense and most have probably passed the 2% recommendation. Last week I reported on the failure in the House to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Another AP article reported this week they voted again and this time Steve Scalise is back from his cancer treatment. And this time the vote was 214-213 to impeach. There is another reason why the vote was done early this week – On Tuesday there was a special election in New York to replace ejected House member Republican George Santos. And the winner is a Democrat, Tom Suozzi. So if the vote were delayed until the new guy was sworn in the tally would again be tied, this time at 214-214. The impeachment now goes to the Senate, where neither party has the desire to take on the trial. I’ve heard it will likely be referred to committee – where it will quietly die. The House doesn’t have the evidence to impeach Biden. So, as reported Joan McCarter of Kos, they’re latching on to special counsel Robert Hur’s report with the gratuitous comments that Biden is too old and has poor memory. And with that as supporting evidence they’re launching an investigation into Biden’s age and whether that means he’s unfit to lead.

They “might” ask Hur about Biden’s fitness? They “might” take this chance to exploit Biden’s age, his biggest political liability with voters, and run with it? They absolutely will give Hur a microphone and put him in front of cameras and the traditional media will absolutely eat it up.

While they’re at it they intend to investigate the Justice Department and AG Merrick Garland for why there isn’t any evidence to impeach Biden. Sumner reported:

Over the weekend, The New York Times filled every slot on its editorial page with a piece attacking Biden’s age and memory. That didn’t just include the Times’ conservative columnists calling for the president to step down, but the paper’s editorial board jumping in to tell you that Americans think Biden is too old. As for 77-year-old Donald Trump? Now there’s someone who “does not appear to be suffering the effects of time in such visible ways.” ... What’s especially convenient about this storyline for the Times is that they’ve already been doing it for decades.

Well, NYT hasn’t been constantly reporting Biden’s age for decades. Until recently it was Biden the gaffe guy.

The New York Times, along with other media outlets, has created an opinion ouroboros. The publication provides stories that emphasize how Biden is old, slipping, and gaffe-prone. Then they circulate the news that people, shockingly, believe them. Then they use those poll results as an excuse to do it all again. When it comes to Trump … don’t worry about it. He dyes his hair and wears makeup and talks for a long time. According to the Times, that means you shouldn’t be concerned about his age. In fact, they have a poll that shows you’re not concerned. And now, here’s an article about how you’re not worried about Trump’s age.

Mike Luckovich posted a cartoon on Kos. Biden says, ticking off his fingers, “Lowered prescription costs, infrastructure bill, Chips Act, Inflation Reduction Act, Gun Safety Legislation, booming economy...” And an elephant jumps in, “Ha! Forgot the 14 million jobs he created ‘cuz his memory’s shot!” When Florida bans books what happens to them? Dartagnan of the Kos community reported on one case, what happened in Duval County. The county has 128K students. It had 180 titles in their Essential Voices collection, which it sends out to schools. At least 34 titles were identified as not in compliance with new legislation. The county packed the books in a semi-trailer. They were part of a prepackaged set and could not be resold. Firestorm Books in Asheville, North Carolina calls itself a “little anarchist’s bookshop.” They agreed to take the 22,000 books, though that’s nearly three times their usual inventory. They set up a website and whoever filled out an online request form would get books free of charge. More than a third of the request have come from ... Duval County. Many of the books are going to families with community libraries in their yards. Dartagnan quoted Eesha Pendharkar of Education Week who noted that when a book is challenged interest goes up. Student use of libraries also goes up.

So if Republicans’ newfound penchant for book-banning is so counterproductive, why do they do it? The short answer: It’s way to score cheap, easy political points with ignorant or intolerant constituents. But as Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers has noted, the broader end goal of inflicting these onerous laws on school districts is to weaken and ultimately destroy the public education system. Book bans serve that purpose well, by both draining resources from schools and intimidating teachers. Republicans will almost certainly continue these efforts, as long as they can get political benefit out of it. But the books will continue to be read, whether conservatives like it or not.

Tom Huizenga of NPR did a 7 minute report on the 100th anniversary of the premier of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. It was part of a concert on February 12, 1924 titled “An Experiment in Modern Music.” The experiment was pieces that combined classical and jazz music. The audience loved it. Critics didn’t. Classical music composers of the time – including Aaron Copland, Virgil Thompson, and Leonard Bernstein – didn’t think it was serious music. Adding jazz elements to classical music was “poisoning the well,” as Huizinga wrote. In the 1920s there wasn’t a distinct “American” sound in classical music. I add back in the 1890s, when Antonin Dvorak spent three years teaching in New York, he called for American composers to use their folk music, including black folk music, to create a distinct “American” sound, in the same way Dvorak was using Bohemian tunes to create Bohemian classical music (as were composers across Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and Spain). The only American to actually incorporate black music was Gershwin. (More than a decade later Copland would start incorporating cowboy songs to create an American sound in classical music – see his composition Rodeo, recently used in the Beef, It’s What’s for Dinner campaign.) Following the Rhapsody Gershwin wrote An American in Paris, the Concerto in F, the Cuban Overture and the opera Porgy and Bess. There’s also a Second Rhapsody. Go ahead and take time to enjoy them all. On Monday in the 9:00 hour the Detroit classical station played the Rhapsody in Blue with its distinctive opening clarinet wail. And the Canadian station I like played it in the noon hour. Of course, I’ve heard lots of stories about the Rhapsody, usually told by radio hosts introducing the piece. Some were repeated today. The concert was set up by Paul Whiteman, who included Gershwin in the advertising – but didn’t tell Gershwin. He found out about it from a newspaper article read by his brother Ira. And even with limited time he met the deadline. As for that opening sound, Gershwin had notated every note of a rising scale. In the first rehearsal the clarinet player turned it into the glissando we know, perhaps to annoy Gershwin? But the composer loved it and asked how to properly notate it so it would forever be part of the piece.