Legal threats usually come from Venezuela

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah yesterday. Biden said his greatest concern is that the nasty guy will try to steal the election. He has thought about what would happen if the nasty guy refused to leave. Biden is heartened that several of the top military leadership have spoken out against the nasty guy and his desire to use the military against protesters. He is now convinced if necessary they would escort the nasty guy from the White House.

I’m so glad he recognizes the threat.

Yesterday I mentioned the possibility the disastrous Georgia primary was a practice run for November showing who is loyal when the nasty guy refuses to leave.

That fits with this news: Hunter of Daily Kos reported the nasty guy campaign showed their boss poll numbers showing he is losing by a lot. He was infuriated. To placate him the campaign threatened CNN with legal consequences. And then followed through, sending a cease and desist letter to CNN. Wrote Hunter:

The letter, which again is apparently absolutely real and demands a "conspicuous retraction, apology, and clarification,” claims that the poll was "a stunt" and "phony," to "cause voter suppression, stifle momentum and enthusiasm for" the White WalkerToChurch leader, reports CNN. And it uses numerous weird claims from perennially sketchy Republican pollster McLaughlin & Ass. to assert that well, CNN's pollster did it all wrong and Actually Dear Leader would be leading if they did it right, so everybody needs to shut up and apologize and I still cannot believe this is a real letter, are we serious about this insanity? Wait, I'm being told it really is.

Of course, the CNN poll is not the only one showing he’s losing and many news outlets are reporting these polls.

CNN tweeted their response:

To the extent we have received legal threats from political leaders in the past, they have typically come from countries like Venezuela or other regimes where there is little or no respect for a free and independent media.

Your letter is factually and legally baseless. It is yet another bad faith attempt by the campaign to threaten litigation to muzzle speech it does not want voters to read or hear. Your allegations and demands are rejected in their entirety.

I add: The nasty guy’s response to an unfavorable poll is an indication of what his response will be to an election result that doesn’t go his way. He won’t believe that either and will turn to the courts, or anyone who will listen, to punish those who try to embarrass him like that.



I watched another opera tonight. This one The Ghosts of Versailles bu John Corigliano, a composer still alive.

I had known The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart and The Barber of Seville by Rossini were two parts of the same story, perhaps more properly two connected novels by the same author, Beaumarchais. With this opera I find there is a third novel of the set. But this isn’t a simple adaptation of that third story. It serves as an opera within an opera. And that outer opera…

The characters in the outer opera are the ghosts of the French royalty killed in the Revolution. Marie Antoinette wants to forget the horror and turns to Beaumarchais to tell a story that will revise history so she will live again. That story is the third novel – sort of. The two stories end up intertwined. The scene at the Turkish Embassy when Figaro tries to prevent Almaviva (both characters from the earlier stories) from selling Antoinette’s necklace to the English ambassador is quite fun and funny. But Antoinette’s trial and the imprisonment of the aristocrats are quite serious.

This video is from a 1992 production. With an interest in what a new opera might be like I saw it on TV at the time. Alas, I don’t remember it (and it was 28 years ago). Though the composer uses a lot of modern techniques that most people don’t find beautiful, he doesn’t use them exclusively and there are many lyrical and beautiful moments.