We did the hard work, you got a handout

I finished the book The World in Six Songs; How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature by Daniel Levitin. I had read and enjoyed his earlier book This is Your Brain on Music so when I saw this one I bought it. The title might properly be The World in Six Types of Songs. The author discusses six categories of songs and how each would have influenced the evolution of humans. He also discusses the opposite – how humans developed the capacity to create music while animals cannot. The six types, common to all cultures, are: Social bonding, including helping us develop synchronous movement. Joy, being so joyful we want to sing. Comfort, why we sing lullabyes and why we don’t listen to happy music when we’re sad. Knowledge, more than the ABC song. Religion, music that accompanies rites. And Love. That last one prompted a long discussion of what love is. Decades ago I had heard when the Christian Old Testament (the Jewish Testament) was written down the scribes had to sort through four sources. More modern scholars had identified four threads of influence. The chapter on knowledge songs explained how the ancient text could have had four sources. The reason is that for perhaps the first thousand years of the Jewish story the Torah and other books were not written down, they were sung. Levitin explains how singing influences memorization. But over a thousand years the words and tune would drift, both within a community and between separated communities. So, yes, four (at least) sources. I enjoyed the book and learned from it. But I can recommend the book only to people who have a strong interest in both music and how the brain works. He definitely gets into the details. My writing time has been limited lately, enough that I finished a second book. It is the novel, What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad. The pivotal event is portrayed in the first chapter – a boat full of refugees has come apart and the humans have washed onto the shore of an island. Only one of the travelers is alive. He is Amir and about nine years old. The rest of the book is alternating chapters of Before and After that event. The Before chapters tell about how Amir got onto the boat and what the crossing was like. He, his mother, infant brother, and Quiet Uncle (brother to Loud Uncle) flee the regime in Syria. They get to Alexandria, Egypt and Quiet Uncle buys passage on a ship to smuggle him to the West and Amir also gets on board. As is frequently the case with these sorts of things the passengers pay a lot of money and are duped onto a rickety boat. The crossing is not what they thought they paid for. Because of the structure of the book we know what will happen to most of them. TheAfter chapters are about what happens on the island. It is not named, but presumably is Greek. Amir flees from officials in uniform and is protected by Vänna, a fifteen year old girl. Both don’t know the other’s language. She wants to get him off the island in a way that doesn’t get him bogged down in the official government method of processing refugees. They are pursued by Colonel Kethros, who wants to make sure Amir does go through the approved system. Along the way various characters discuss how the West views refugees and how the island locals view tourists. I enjoyed the book. It sheds important light on what the refugee crisis is about in human terms. Meteor Blades of Daily Kos posted a mashup video, less than 3 minutes long, of scenes of many No Kings protests around the country. In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Zeeshawn Aleem of MSNBC, who discussed the end “protest fatigue.”

In the early months of Trump’s second term, it was common to ask “Where is the resistance?” Whereas Trump’s first inauguration triggered the largest single-day protest in American history, his second inauguration was met with far smaller demonstrations. Combined with Democratic Party leaders’ timidity and a business community that was much more receptive to Trump than in his first term, there was a widespread sense that Trump’s victory had fundamentally demoralized the left and that MAGA was the new normal. ... Another encouraging phenomenon: According to the Crowd Counting Consortium researchers, the total number of protest events this year is far outpacing 2017. That’s a proxy for how organized protest coalitions are — and suggests that activist networks may be building up more extensively than during the comparable part of Trump’s first term.

Kev added:

IMHO, I think that Trump’s popular vote win in the 2024 presidential election accounts for much of the “timidity” and even shock from the Democratic Party overall, including some of the party leadership. (The MSM capitulation, by and large, to MAGA coverage has also been a huge factor in a downplaying of the resistance.) I will note that the mass protests that I have seen televised and even live here in Chicago seem to be better organized than many of the protests during Trump’s first term.

In the comments is a cartoon by DaylieDoodle. It shows an elephant lecturing:

Now remember kids... When we win, it’s because we’ve earned it fair and square. But when you win, the system is rigged. When we catch a break, it’s a reward for our hard work. When you catch a break, it’s a handout. If we stop supporting something, we boycott. If you stop supporting something it’s “cancel culture.” Our extremists have nothing to do with us. But yours are indicative of everything that you believe in. Yearning for what this country used to be is patriotic. And changing it is un-American. And if you aren’t American, you’re the enemy.

Last Thursday Emily Singer of Kos reported that California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla went to a Department of Homeland Security news conference to ask Secretary Kristi Noem a question. She was defending the nasty guy’s use of the military to subdue protests against deportation. Two men forced Padilla out the news conference where FBI agents pushed him to the ground and handcuffed him. DHS accused Padilla of not identifying himself (he had) and that he “chose disrespectful political theatre” and that Secret Service thought he was an attacker. What is known about Padilla’s actions do not sound like an attacker and anything Noem says about the incident is highly suspect. Even if this was disrespectful political theater he did not deserved to be shoved out the door, then pushed to the floor and handcuffed. No one who did what he did deserves it. But this is another instance of the nasty guy’s administration calling law enforcement on Democrats wanting answers about the treatment of immigrants. Last Wednesday Alex Samuels of Kos reported that Elon Musk is trying to mend his relationship to the nasty guy after the spectacular public breakup. About all he said, though, was:

I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far.

He didn’t say which of the many posts crossed the line. Though Musk is trying to revive their alliance, the nasty guy may not want him back. Also, the public didn’t rally to Musk’s side. And he still wants those government contracts. The nasty guy did walk back his threat of pull those contracts. The nasty guy went off to the G7 conference, held in Canada this year. He then left early. YourAnonCentral explained the various humiliations he may have felt, prompting him to leave. His microphone was cut off in the middle of a rant against US citizens. He tried to act as a spokesman for Putin. He defended Israel’s attack on Iran as the others called for de-escalation. A picture circulated on him falling asleep at the meeting, prompting the name “DonOld.” He struck a deal with the UK while calling it the EU. Last Friday Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted late night commentary. Here’s a couple:

"Everyone was talking about Trump being on the Epstein list and fighting with Elon. So what did he do? He manufactured a crisis. He got back to what got him here in the first place—good old xenophobia. I don’t know what happened to the states' rights he thinks so much of when it suits him, but I know I speak for a lot of us here when I say leave us alone here. We don’t need you. We don't need your 'help.' [...] And to those of you in the National Guard who have been thrust into this: when Donald Trump orders you to do something that is immoral, try to get your dad's podiatrist to write a note to say you have bone spurs." —Jimmy Kimmel "Trump's terrible policy has generated a huge backlash, which he's responded to by overreacting, which is gonna generate another backlash. We don’t know how this is gonna end, but at least we know it'll be a huge waste of money. Hello, DOGE? I found some cuts for ya." —The Daily Show's Desi Lydic

Greece!

This would be entertaining if it wasn't dangerous. Remember that federal budget I mentioned yesterday that included funding for Planned Parenthood? Evangelist Franklin Graham (heir of Billy Graham) is incensed enough over it – both that PP thing and the whole budget just way too big – that he is leaving the Republican Party. Apparently the GOP is too willing to compromise and too moderate.

But he'll still vote for Trump.



Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is quite the homophobe. Even so, he has issued what will likely be known as the Kim Davis order, named for the county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Bevin's executive order is that the name of the clerk is no longer required to be on marriage licenses. One problem, pointed out by the ACLU, is that Bevin doesn't have the authority for such a change – the legislature would have to do it.



Yesterday I reported that marriage (or even relationship) equality failed in Austria, Romania, and Slovenia. I'm happy to report that a bill allowing civil unions passed in Greece. The vote was 194-55. Greece is caught between the European Union demanding same-sex relationship equality and the Greek Orthodox Church's fierce opposition. So there will be civil unions, but not many rights (such as adoption or pensions) to go with them.



An anti-trans group Privacy for All didn't get enough signatures to get their proposal on the ballot in California. The bill would have required trans people to use bathrooms for their biological sex unless they had undergone reassignment surgery. So the bathroom wars won't be coming to Calif.