All along the way people handed him the boots and straps

I finished the book I’m Possible, a Story of Survival, a Tuba, and the Small Miracle of a Big Dream by Richard Antoine White. This is the autobiography of the first black man to get a doctorate in tuba performance. White begins his story as a four year old living with his alcoholic mother on the streets of Baltimore. Many times his day starts by searching for where his mother is. He has a list of places he checks. The story shifts when he does that search in a blizzard and his various relatives see this isn’t sustainable. He moves in with his grandparents as his mama gives the usual litany of promises of getting her life together that never happen. It takes a while to realize he’ll be in this house tomorrow, these people will still be here tomorrow, I’ll have plenty of food tomorrow. In elementary school he and a buddy start to play the trumpet. He soon realizes why be the 15th trumpeter out of 25 when he can be the only one on sousaphone. He gets into the Baltimore School of the Arts where sousaphone has to give way to tuba. It takes him a while to figure out there really is benefit in practicing. And once he does – and once he hears the tuba player in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra – he becomes determined to become a tuba player in an orchestra and willing to put in the work to get there. Part of the book is his education, including learning what is involved in winning the audition for an orchestra job. The rest of the book is dealing with being a black man and learning about black history. And once in the School of the Arts, it is being a black man in places were most people are white. At the end of the book White is encouraging black kids to put in the work to escape poverty and be what they want to be. He wrote:

People often hear by story and comment that I pulled myself up by my bootstraps. That’s part of the American myth, after all. But we have to acknowledge that not everyone has boots and straps to pull.

I expected him to add that he pulled himself up by his bootstraps because all along the way people handed him the boots and straps. Though he didn’t say it that way explicitly, he did say it throughout the text: His grandparents took him in, which gave him a family, a secure home, and the chance of better schools. Teachers saw the potential in him and gave him the desire and chance to learn. People helped him buy the next higher quality tuba. People paid for him to go across country to do an audition, though it took several of these before he figured out what he needed to do to get beyond the cattle call. Time and again people gave him the bootstraps, gave him the opportunity to take the next step. Yes, he spent long hours in the practice room and that drive came from within himself. But he wouldn’t have made it as far as he did without the community supporting him. Those who demand we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps also were handed boots and straps at important points in their lives. So let’s make sure people get the bootstraps they need and let’s stop using that myth. I recommend this one. On Wednesday the nasty guy announced a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT was coming. It came on Thursday and Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos reported on it and the response. What the nasty guy revealed was rather pathetic. It’s a series of trading cards depicting him as various superheroes. They’re sold only as digital images. And only $99! Twitter, of course had a lot of fun with that. My favorite is:

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT! My official Myrna Tellingheusen Digital Trading Card collection is here! These limited edition cards feature amazing ART of my life & career as executive secretary to Stanley Bogenshoots at Hughes Aircraft! Only $99 each! Would make a Christmas gift.

Aldous Pennyfarthing of the Kos community added that this grift is so obvious and so silly the nasty guy’s own fan base can see it for what it is. Then Pennyfarthing added:

But another part of the announcement should start all our grift-detection antennae a-tinglin’. It’s the bit where he offers one “lucky” worthless-thing purchaser a chance to have dinner with the Real Trump.

The prize appears to be only dinner. The guy who claims to be worth ten billion dollars won’t be paying for travel and lodging. And, “Selling fake e-cards online for $99 a pop is totally billionaire behavior.” As for the dinner... The nasty guy has offered such a prize a few times before. But journalists are never able to get a photo of the winner actually with the nasty guy, never mind eating dinner. One would think the nasty guy would definitely want to publicize the winner. So it is likely the dinner never happened and the prize is a mirage. Fits with what a grifter would do. In a report from the end of November Joan McCarter of Kos discussed the leak from the Supreme Court before the anti-abortion ruling last spring. There is now news of a leak before the 2014 ruling that says a corporation doesn’t have to include abortion care in the health insurance they offer employees. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Hank Johnson are starting to investigate. Which led to this:

The court’s lawyer refused to answer any of the question posed by the lawmakers regarding ethics inquiries in the court that are ongoing or potential, or whether or which justice might have received gifts from their friends in the forced birth group. Instead, he tersely restated Alito’s denial of the allegations and a conflict of interest. “There is nothing to suggest that Justice Alito’s actions violated ethical standards,” Torrey wrote. That’s technically true. Because there is no code of ethical standards that governs the behavior of SCOTUS justices to violate.

Also from the end of November Laurence Tribe of Slate tweeted a link to an article with this:

“Wealthy religious zealots paid big money to pray and socialize with and extract priceless personal favors from Supreme Court justices.” That some justices undisputedly welcomed such outrageous behavior is a huge problem. The leak is the least of it.

Earlier this week Laura Clawson of Kos reported that after the Supremes overturned the right to abortion there would be an effort to overturn the right to contraception. And the road to that has begun.

Alexander Deanda, the plaintiff in Deanda v. Becerra, is “raising each of his daughters in accordance with Christian teaching on matters of sexuality, which requires unmarried children to practice abstinence and refrain from sexual intercourse until marriage,” so he’s arguing that the availability of federally funded family planning services tramples on his rights as a father to control his daughters’ sexuality.

Natthew Kacsmaryk, a federal judge in Texas appointed by the nasty guy, is open to this argument. He hasn’t ruled in Deanda’s favor, but has asked what they want to happen next.

Vox’s Ian Millhiser lays out a litany of problems with Kacsmaryk’s decision here, starting with standing: Deanda is trying to block funding on the argument that his daughters might someday, maybe, possibly seek out these services, knowing they would never get their father’s permission. But since the Supreme Court just heard a case in which a web designer claimed she was being oppressed because of the possibility that if she ever started designing wedding websites, she might be subject to anti-discrimination policies preventing her from refusing to work with LGBTQ couples, “my daughters might someday do something I disapprove of” no longer looks so far-fetched as a legal argument.

Of course, the losing side will appeal. Pennyfarthing discussed a story from Politico saying Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was spotted at a holiday party hosted by CPAC chair Matt Schlapp and attended by many Republican bigwigs. Yes, partying with conservative activists with a vested interest in his decisions is at least ethically questionable. But this behavior appears to be practiced by more than Kavanaugh. Wealthy volunteers were recruited to dine with and entertain conservative justices while pushing conservative positions on abortion, gay rights, gun rights, and other issues. Not surprising the Court’s approval rating is so low. Chitown Kev, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted Robin Givhan’s review of the exhibit “Spirit in the Dark: Religion in Black Music, Activism and Popular Culture” at the National Museum of African American History and Culture written for the Washington Post. Here’s part of that quote:

Some religious folks move with breathtaking certainty to fight for laws and rules that always seems to involve making someone else feel less welcome in their school, in their community, in this world. They claim to have the answers to impossible questions. They aren’t so much interested in understanding the nuances and contradictions of theology as they are in carving out a how-to guide for a certain kind of life. They are focused on judgment more than mercy and when they talk about loving the sinner but hating the sin, it’s just a way to excuse themselves for doling out punishment and vitriol and calling it Christianity.

But why are they upset? What right of theirs is under attack? There’s a national Christmas tree, lit for the 100th time, and even the Jewish Second Gentleman attended it’s lighting. There is no war on Christianity, though some Christians claim they’re on the losing side.

People turn to religion seeking comfort and guidance. And surely it provides both. It also helps people find common ground, not by agreeing on everything but recognizing the fuzzy, tenuous nature of our existence — that endless search for meaning that everyone is slowly, plodding toward. “Spirit in the Dark” highlights all the tensions, contradictions and questions religion fosters, many of which have led to some of the country’s most provocative and profound creativity and activism.

In honor of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birthday, which was yesterday, here’s a 2012 flashmob version of his Ode to Joy, from the end of his 9th Symphony. The orchestra even wheeled a pair of timpani into the town square. Whoever planned this also planned the camera people quite well. Half the fun is watching the crowd – especially the kids – getting into it.