Yesterday we lost Howard Carroll, the phenomenal singer and guitarist in the legendary gospel group the Dixie Hummingbirds. He was 94. Carroll joined the Birds in 1952 and quickly set the standard for the electric guitar in a gospel setting. Carroll grew up on the blues, country and bluegrass, and the jazz stylings of Charlie Christian. The only instrumentalist in the Birds, Carroll's unique genius was his always-perfect use of the guitar to complement the group's gorgeous voices. A truly masterful musician.
TRUMP RESPONDS TO LAS VEGAS TRAGEDY BY BANNING TRAVEL TO NORTHERN EUROPE AND SCANDINAVIA AND REFOCUSING WALL EFFORT ON CANADIAN BORDER
Speaking from the White House in front of a group of Americans who have lost relatives to Anglo-Saxon terrorism, President Donald Trump announced sweeping new security measures in reaction to the horrific shooting last night in Las Vegas.
“My biggest job,” Trump stated, “is to keep America safe. Guns don’t kill people, so don’t give me that tired old stuff. Who are the people who are doing this killing? That’s the question. I am a businessman, and the way this businessman thing works—if you wanna be successful at it, and, believe me, I was phenomenally successful at it, some people say that I was the best at it—is that you have to know how to run the numbers. And when these numbers are run we see that the fact is—the mainstream media won’t tell you this, but I will—that Americans are ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE times more likely to be killed by a white American than by a foreign terrorist.”
The President condemned in the strongest possible terms radical Anglo-Saxon terrorism and the philosophy it represents. “We cannot let this evil continue,” Trump stated. “Nor can we let the hateful, perverted ideology of Anglo-Saxonism – its oppression of women, gays, children, and nonbelievers – be allowed to reside or spread within our own countries.”
Trump announced that he was taking the following steps to protect Americans:
Immediately instituting a total ban on travel between the United States and northern Europe and Scandinavia. “I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of Anglo Saxons entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
Shifting the focus of his border-wall effort from the southern border to the northern. “Since I was inaugurated,” said Trump, “I have learned—among other things, I have learned many things—that Canada is full of Anglo-Saxons and that they are pouring over our northern border. This stops TODAY.”
Taking the war on radical Anglo-Saxon terrorism to Anglo Saxon strongholds in the United States. “We’re going to hit them and we’re going to hit them hard,” Trump said grimly. “I’m talking about a surgical strike on these Anglo-Saxon stronghold cities using Trident missiles.” The White House later qualified that the first targets would be the ten most Anglo Saxon cities in the United States: Hialeah, Florida; Scottsdale, Arizona; Boise Idaho; Laredo, Texas; Lincoln, Nebraska; Gilbert, Arizona; Corpus Christi, Texas; El Paso, Texas; Madison, Wisconsin; and Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Bringing back torture. The President announced that he was authorizing the military and all intelligence agencies to use enhanced interrogation techniques on Anglo-Saxon prisoners. “Torture works--okay, folks? Believe me, it works. Just ask Jeff Sessions.”
Taking revenge on the families of Anglo-Saxon terrorists. “You have to take out their families,” Trump insisted. “They care about their lives, don’t kid yourself. When they say they don’t care about their lives, you have to take out their families.”
The President promised “total victory” in the war against radical Anglo-Saxon terrorism. “Americans have defeated other threats before—unions, science, universal health care, voting rights—and we’re going to defeat this one with a force and fury that the world has never seen.”
TRUMP RESPONDS TO LAS VEGAS TRAGEDY BY BANNING TRAVEL TO NORTHERN EUROPE AND SCANDINAVIA AND REFOCUSING WALL EFFORT ON CANADIAN BORDER
Speaking from the White House in front of a group of Americans who have lost relatives to Anglo-Saxon terrorism, President Donald Trump announced sweeping new security measures in reaction to the horrific shooting last night in Las Vegas.
“My biggest job,” Trump stated, “is to keep America safe. Guns don’t kill people, so don’t give me that tired old stuff. Who are the people who are doing this killing? That’s the question. I am a businessman, and the way this businessman thing works—if you wanna be successful at it, and, believe me, I was phenomenally successful at it, some people say that I was the best at it—is that you have to know how to run the numbers. And when these numbers are run we see that the fact is—the mainstream media won’t tell you this, but I will—that Americans are ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE times more likely to be killed by a white American than by a foreign terrorist.”
The President condemned in the strongest possible terms radical Anglo-Saxon terrorism and the philosophy it represents. “We cannot let this evil continue,” Trump stated. “Nor can we let the hateful, perverted ideology of Anglo-Saxonism – its oppression of women, gays, children, and nonbelievers – be allowed to reside or spread within our own countries.”
Trump announced that he was taking the following steps to protect Americans:
Immediately instituting a total ban on travel between the United States and northern Europe and Scandinavia. “I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of Anglo Saxons entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
Shifting the focus of his border-wall effort from the southern border to the northern. “Since I was inaugurated,” said Trump, “I have learned—among other things, I have learned many things—that Canada is full of Anglo-Saxons and that they are pouring over our northern border. This stops TODAY.”
Taking the war on radical Anglo-Saxon terrorism to Anglo Saxon strongholds in the United States. “We’re going to hit them and we’re going to hit them hard,” Trump said grimly. “I’m talking about a surgical strike on these Anglo-Saxon stronghold cities using Trident missiles.” The White House later qualified that the first targets would be the ten most Anglo Saxon cities in the United States: Hialeah, Florida; Scottsdale, Arizona; Boise Idaho; Laredo, Texas; Lincoln, Nebraska; Gilbert, Arizona; Corpus Christi, Texas; El Paso, Texas; Madison, Wisconsin; and Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Bringing back torture. The President announced that he was authorizing the military and all intelligence agencies to use enhanced interrogation techniques on Anglo-Saxon prisoners. “Torture works--okay, folks? Believe me, it works. Just ask Jeff Sessions.”
Taking revenge on the families of Anglo-Saxon terrorists. “You have to take out their families,” Trump insisted. “They care about their lives, don’t kid yourself. When they say they don’t care about their lives, you have to take out their families.”
The President promised “total victory” in the war against radical Anglo-Saxon terrorism. “Americans have defeated other threats before—unions, science, universal health care, voting rights—and we’re going to defeat this one with a force and fury that the world has never seen.”
Hurricane Trump
Hurricane Katrina was a defining disaster for George Bush because it revealed two fatal flaws: his administration’s incompetence and its callous disregard for the safety of people of color. Trump’s response to the calamity in Puerto Rico makes it clear that his White House is similarly afflicted.
But Trump has done what no other failed President ever did publicly: enthusiastically embrace--in language so plain that it is not subject to interpretation—naked, vicious cruelty.
Cruelty is the defining aspect of his tenure in the White House, and it has put a bleak, nasty public face on this country.
Trump is a wartime President. To this point Trump has not declared war on a foreign adversary--not, certainly with the Russians who interfered in our election--but on most Americans: everyone who voted against him last year, women, the press, his own party, the opposition party, his own Cabinet, his own White House staff, Congress, the judiciary, the U.S. military, every U.S. intelligence agency, Hispanics, African Americans, American Muslims, disabled people, government employees, Puerto Ricans, Californians, New Yorkers, the residents of Washington D.C., Facebook users who disagree with him, the National Football League--the list grows daily.
Anyone or anything that does not obsequiously kiss that increasingly vast, pale Trumpian ass is quickly subjected to shaming, bullying, obscenities, character assassination, slurs on their parentage, and attacks on their patriotism. Trump’s tweets this morning sneering at and blaming the victims in Puerto Rico are particularly cruel, but they are just the latest in the never-ending, daily stream of proofs that our President is not only a disaster but a truly mean, vile bastard.
the white moderate
"I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: 'I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action'; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a 'more convenient season.' Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
"I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured."
--Martin Luther King, "Letter From a Birmingham Jail"
If he only had a heart
Like my fellow naïve leftists, I have been waiting for Trump’s base to turn on him. They didn’t become disenchanted when he didn’t defeat ISIS in thirty days. They didn’t get disgruntled when he helped to torpedo the Obamacare repeal attempt. All those insanely expensive golf vacations? No problem. Filling his Cabinet with Wall Street swampers? They can live with that. The failure of the travel ban? That was the courts trying to keep America lame. The wall? That was a big metaphor, basically. The base didn’t even flinch when Trump cut a deal with those agents of Satan Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer on the debt ceiling. Of course, it makes zero sense to expect that the tribe that believes that americafirstarmedgodfearingpatriot.com is a legitimate source of “news” would ever return to the reality fold.
There’s been a lot of press on Steve Bannon’s comment last week on “60 Minutes” that the Comey firing would go down as the biggest mistake in the modern political era. In the same interview, Bannon also pointed to the DACA debate within the Republican Party as a possible cause of the GOP getting hammered in the 2018 midterm elections.
I don’t believe that Trump won primarily because he spoke to a class of people who had been ignored by mainstream economic policies. That was a factor, but I think what really energized his campaign was his relentless, aggressive focus on the dark, zenophobic, anti-immigrant, put-the-white-man-back-on-top, rotten piece of the American psyche. That’s why the wall was always the biggest applause line at his frenzied rallies.
Well, Trump may have finally booted it with his base yesterday, when news came out that he had brokered another deal with Schumer and Pelosi: to re-legislate the DACA “amnesty” program that he had just killed the week before. And to NOT get funding for his stupid wall in return.
This reversal may be different, if the initial reaction from the media and political influencers within the Trump cult is any indication.
As of today, Ann Coulter asks “Who DOESN’T want Trump impeached?” Breitbart’s screaming headline yesterday was “Amnesty Don,” and the comments under the accompanying article included “Put a fork in Trump. He is done” and “I can reconcile Trump caving on virtually any issue.Amnesty and not building the wall are not one of them.” Lou Dobbs’ tag line yesterday was “Deep State Wins, Huge Loss for #MAGA.” Sean Hannity laid down the gauntlet on Twitter: “If @POTUS doesn’t keep that promise, and goes for amnesty, it will be the political equivalent of ‘read my lips, no new taxes.” Congressman Steven King, who dreams about young Mexican drug smuggles with calves the size of cantaloupes, tweeted the coming apocalypse: “If AP is correct, Trump base is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, and disillusioned beyond repair. No promise is credible.” John Walsh piled on: “Trump got screwed by Chuck and Nancy. Trump just screwed his base.”
Worse yet for Trump, Jeff Flake THANKED him in his tweet last night.
It’s really difficult to figure out what is going on. The one and only talent Trump seemed to possess was a deep, instinctive understanding of his base. Only a week ago, when he announced the end of the DACA program, he seemed to be once again laser focused, against all political odds, on pleasing his tribe. The Dealmaker of All Dealmakers may have just driven the first wedge between himself and the voters who propelled him to victory—a self-inflicted gunshot to the head that may be just as lethal as the Comey firing. This DACA dive could be the incident that starts a long, inexorable peeling away of his base.
Why is Trump doing this? No doubt he wants to get DACA over with—he never could figure out which way to go on it—and get on with tax reform. No doubt he despises McConnell and Ryan and is trying to rub their faces in a series of deals with the Democrats.
Most intriguing of all, Trump is indicating through his tweets that he has a lot of sympathy for the Dreamers. Could that really be true? Could that empathy—instantly translated by the unwashed Trumpist hordes as the apostasy of “amnesty”—be driving a wedge inside his own feverish cranium between Trump the manipulator of white-pride voters and Trump—dare I say it?—the human being?
George Jones
Best birthday wishes to George Jones, the most searing country music heart singer ever. Jones was a product of the Big Thicket in southeast Texas, a rough landscape that harbored even wilder inhabitants. George's father would regularly come home drunk and violent late at night and wake the entire family up, demanding that the kids sing to him, so George had a problematic relationship with music from the beginning. He wrestled multiple personal demons throughout his life, but he never lost his impossibly elastic, multi-octave voice, which year after year produced some of the most nakedly emotional performances in recorded music.
The Blue Yodeler
Happy birthday to the father of country music, Jimmie Rodgers. Rodgers was a tubercular 29-year-old former railroad man when he showed up in Bristol, Tennessee in 1930 to audition with his backing group for RCA Victor's Ralph Peer. The band was cleared for a recording session, but the group broke up the night before and Rodgers ended up recording two solo sentimental numbers. They sold well enough to earn Rodgers a second session, at which he recorded the first of his famous "blue yodels"--"T For Texas"--which catapulted Rodgers to stardom. When record sales evaporated during the Depression, Rodgers' popularity kept RCA Victor from bankruptcy. Rodgers' recording career lasted only six years (he died of tuberculosis at the age of 35), but he established the blend of sentimental tunes and blues numbers that was the pattern for country music for decades, and he left us with many remarkable recordings--including "Blue Yodel #9," an early interracial session with Louis Armstrong and his wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong.
Fourth and Forty five
There is thinking. And hoping. And promising. And talking.
But then there is the doing part.
Trump thinks, wishes, promises, and talks a lot. But he has no understanding of the separation of powers or the legislative process and no interest in pausing "Fox and Friends" long enough to learn about them. With Trump, passing legislation is three consecutive fumbles setting up a 4th-and-45 situation and then a punt out of his own end zone--back to the Republicans in Congress.
Trump the candidate promised to kill Obamacare. But Trump never even bothered to learn what was actually in the various Trumpcare bills, so therefore he couldn't help get more votes for it. He yelled at Republicans because he didn't have the knowledge to persuade them or compromise with them. That backfired spectacularly, especially with Murkowski and McCain. When the bill failed, he blamed his own Congress and insisted that they keep trying to pass a bill--any kind of bill, as he still has yet to offer any guidance to his own legislators because he has no real personal opinion on what the solution should be and no interest in taking the time to learn how health insurance works. So he punted health care back to Congress and threatened them with primary opponents if they don't pass something.
Trump promised endlessly during the campaign that he would get Mexico to pay for a border wall. Now he admits that the American taxpayers will pay for it. But he has no real personal opinion on how that wall should be funded or any interest in taking the time to learn the various ways in which funding could be secured. So he has punted the wall back to Congress, threatening to shut down the government if they can't get the money.
Trump the candidate unequivocally swore to end DACA. Trump the President hinted at reversing himself, saying that he "loved" the Dreamers, that they had "nothing to fear" from him, and that he would provide a solution for them that would show "a lot of heart." He had in effect backed himself deep in his own end zone. Trump has no personal opinion of how DACA should actually be ended, so he demanded that his advisors give him "a way out." In the end, he punted the Dreamers back to Congress, giving them six months to figure out what he couldn't figure out. (In the end, he didn't even want to convey this directive himself because of the considerable political downside, so he even punted the public announcement of his decision--to Jeff Sessions, the lap-monkey attorney general who Trump has repeatedly waterboarded in public.)
There's no doubt at this point that we will see the same total absence of leadership and accomplishment from Trump in the coming months when it comes to raising the debt ceiling, passing a budget, providing relief for the hurricane victims, reforming the tax code, and on and on and on. It's entirely possible that Trump will not pass a single piece of major legislation in his entire term, much less before next year's midterms. The third-string waterboy who has been too busy tweeting to read the playbook has become the quarterback, and from here on out it'll be threats to his teammates in the huddle, three plays and nothing but dust followed by ever more feeble punts. The only real action will be the intra-team fist fights on the GOP sidelines during commercials for MAGA hats.
Larry Field
My father, Larry Field, died on Friday. He had a phenomenal run—he left us two months short of his 98th birthday and six months before what would have been his and my Mom’s 70th wedding anniversary. (Not long ago I caught him intently watching a television documentary about centenarians. Dad was always goal oriented.)
Dad was born and raised in Leavenworth, Washington. Perched in a gorgeous setting just east of the summit of the Cascade Mountains, Leavenworth is now one of the state’s biggest tourist attractions, having been made over in the 1960s as an ersatz Bavarian village. When Dad was born, Leavenworth was a raw boom town with more whorehouses than automobiles. Then the sawmill closed and the railroad terminus was moved to nearby Wenatchee, and Leavenworth slid into the national depression just as the bottom dropped out of its own local economy. Despite the dire times, Dad remembered the Leavenworth of his childhood as a place where everyone knew each other and where everybody helped keep each other afloat via a collectively improvised system of bartering. Dad and his four siblings all worked hard as kids—odd jobs, paper routes, fighting fires in the summer, and picking apples in the fall—but in the winter there was also skiing, igloo making, and ski jumping (Dad won the high-school ski jumping championship one year) and in the summer Dad and his friends savored the freedom to swim the Icicle River to their pirate camp on Blackbird Island and to take off for four or five days at a time to hike unchaperoned up into the spectacular Enchantments with knapsacks, a cast-iron skillet, a sack of potatoes, and some fishing rods.
As a boy Dad caught the eye of the local librarian (the Leavenworth library was a single room in the basement of the high school), who changed his life by introducing him to the magic of the printed page. In his telling, he was captivated initially by the Wizard of Oz series and over the years ploughed his way through the library’s entire modest collection. Whatever the initial impetus, Dad was a voracious reader his entire life.
Music was also a big presence in Dad’s life early on. A traveling hustler right out of “The Music Man” showed up in Leavenworth and convinced the town’s parents to start a band for the youngsters. Fifty kids showed up for the first day of practice. Dad was given a snare drum and his older brother Jack had a trumpet put in his hands. Dad was barely into his teens when he started playing local grange-hall dance gigs with local stars like Snoose Henderson, who was justly celebrated throughout the Wenatchee Valley for his “laughing sax” technique. Dad and all his siblings attended Washington State College. Swing music was the rage then, and Dad and Uncle Jack played in dance bands all through their college days. The Jimmie Lunceford band was a particular favorite of Dad’s, and he told me that seeing that band play a show in Spokane in the ‘30s was an all-time musical thrill for him.
Dad was drafted in ’42 and spent three years in the Army during World War II. He landed on Omaha beach on June 9, 1944—three days after the initial landing—and served in the Inspector General’s office throughout the European campaign. Dad and the Army weren’t a particularly good fit, but for a small-town boy who had never been outside Washington (Dad didn’t manage to make the 120-mile trip to the big city of Seattle until he graduated from high school--he treated himself to a $2.00 flight over vast metropolis in an open-cockpit biplane), his wartime experience in Europe was a life changing one.
After the war Dad attended a summer writing course at Stanford and parlayed that into a staff writer job at KOMO radio in Seattle. My parents met on a blind date. They had a big argument about music—Mom was passionate about classical music and opera, whereas Dad was all about Count Basie and Frank Sinatra—but things got smoothed out and a year later they married. Not long afterwards they sold their few possessions and traveled around Europe on a very sketchy motorcycle before spending a year in Paris.
After the return to Seattle Dad briefly found work with an advertising agency before becoming a floor director at KIRO television. Dad later joined the Northwest’s largest advertising agency, Cole and Weber, eventually becoming a vice president there after winning many national awards for his commercials for clients like Boeing, Weyerhauser, and Pacific Northwest Bell.
Dad had been neglected by his own absentee father as a child, but he refused to continue that cycle and was a committed family man who always made time for us despite his challenging job. We had a lot of fun with him growing up. He took us camping and backpacking and introduced us to skiing. (Dad grew up on skis and didn’t put them down until he was 85. I was on a quad chairlift once at Crystal Mountain with Dad and a couple of young punks. One of them leaned over and asked Dad “How long have you been skiing, old timer?” Dad paused. “Seventy-eight years,” he answered, and the kid was quiet for the rest of the ride. Dad had regular dreams about skiing until he died.) He was there for every teacher conference, PTA meeting, and band concert.
Dad liked to keep up to date with technology. In the late ‘70s he bought one of the first PCs—Radio Shack’s TRS-80—and after he retired he spent a lot of time pursuing digital photography and using his computer to write short memoirs of his days in Leavenworth and in the Army. A few years ago he decided that he wanted to buy a tablet computer, so I took him to Best Buy to look them over. He kept apologizing for asking so many “stupid questions” until I finally posed one to him: “Dad, how many other 93-year-olds do you see in here shopping for tablets?”
My folks went from a small apartment in Seattle to a nice home in the suburbs north of Seattle to a ten-acre place on a stream in the country to a retirement home in Issaquah, Washington. My sister Laurie lives in Vancouver, Washington, and after I moved just across the river to Portland a few months ago, we found a great new home for them at a retirement home in Vancouver, and they moved in in May. Right away Dad’s health began to decline dramatically. At first we thought this was due to his advanced age and disorientation after the move, but after working with doctors for a couple of weeks we learned that Dad had terminal cancer. (He had already beaten colon cancer and prostate cancer decades earlier.)
Dad was always very methodical, and as he grew weaker and began having periods of delirium, he fought hard to stay oriented. He wanted to be able to see a clock at all times. He had me go through his emails with him. He wrote lots of lists and we had many briefings about his finances. The days were structured around Mariners or Seahawks games. In the last couple of weeks, Dad was in an extended dream state. Not all of that seemed particularly pleasant—he was back in the Army for much of it—but there were some beautiful moments. One night when my brother Keith was with him, Dad was back in Paris and happily speaking French with the locals. My sister and my mother witnessed a scene in which a huge, beatific smile came across Dad’s face, his eyes opened wide and he exclaimed “Wow. It’s blue.”
I have learned so much over the past two months. I learned from Dad how to face death right in the face with the intelligence, patience, grace and humor that was always his way with everything. I learned from my mother, my brother Keith and my sister Laurie Field Sturgeon that our family could draw together even more closely as we worked together to make sure that Dad got his wish to die at home in his sleep. I learned from the hospice program that there are phenomenal people in this country that reject the notion that health care is a Darwinian struggle and instead make it their job to leverage government assistance to enable people to die in comfort and with dignity in a familiar place surrounded by their loved ones.
Of all the many pieces of great fortune that have come my way, one the most profound was having Larry Field as my father. Dad was a whip smart, very kind person of unflagging patience who respected everyone. He was shaped by his small-town upbringing but was determined to experience the wider world. He worked very hard and the results were always of high quality. He was a natural and loving father and husband who focused on the big things. And he effortlessly cracked jokes until the very end.
Now we fight them at home
Our fathers and grandfathers faced the evil of white supremacy head on. They didn't make cowardly statements about hatred and bigotry "on many sides." They fought the Nazis.
Trump and my great grandparents
I can understand people feeling that they are powerless within the political system (although I don’t agree with them), but I don’t get it when people say that “politics has nothing to do with me.” Politics affects every aspect of everyone’s life and our national culture.
Today White House Advisor Stephen Miller took to the podium at a press briefing to unveil, in chilling fashion, a new immigration bill that the White House is sponsoring along with GOP Senators Cotton and Purdue.
Trump was elected on a openly rascist, xeonophobic, and profoundly un-American platform that included a blatantly false narrative that illegal immigrants were streaming into this country and committing mayhem against us. As late as two months ago, Trump stated that he had no desire to limit legal immigration.
The bill rolled out today has NOTHING to do with illegal immigration. Its goal is to cut LEGAL immigration in half. And if anyone has any doubt as to what half of the immigrant population will be cut out, Miller’s rewriting of Emma Lazarus’ poem that is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty (which he publicly scorned) leaves no doubt as to the Trumpists’ goal when it comes to immigration:
“Give me your skilled, your schooled
Your English-speaking people yearning to be free
From the wretched refuse back at home
Send only these, the privileged and familiar, to me
And I wiil douse my lamp beside the closing door!”
Politics is personal, and Trump’s is a vicious insult to me, my family, and our country.
The two gentlemen shown above are my maternal great-grandparents, Francois Lemoine and Charles Johnson. They both came to this country in the 1800s—from France and Sweden, respectively. Neither spoke English. Neither came to this country with money. Both became model citizens who made great contributions to—and sacrifices for—their new country.
Trump, Bannon, and Miller are using politics and the media every day to transform the United States from the country that welcomed my forebears (and yours) into a haven for rich white people. Their America is the kind of country in which the Justice Department attacks not crime but affirmative action, the NAACP issues a travel warning against the state of Missouri, the nominee as chief scientist of the USDA brands progressives as “race traitors,” Congressional districts are designed to ensure that minorities are not represented, and non-whites are systematically denied the right to vote.
That’s not the America that convinced my great grandfathers to pull up stakes and leave all that was familiar with no money, no advantage, and no language. This could not be more personal to me. My great grandfathers would expect nothing less from me than total resistance to this monstrously evil vision for the country that welcomed them and made room for them.
My great grandfathers Francis Lemoine and Charles Johnson
How a bill does not become law
The GOP House wrote their "health care" bill in one month with no public testimony and the rejection of 100 Democratic amendments, then they had to pull their first bill because they couldn't get enough votes from their own party members, then they passed a second version that was passed by one vote after adding language that the GOP claimed would protect people with pre-existing conditions, so then Trump declared that this was "a great plan," but the CBO said that it would result in higher premiums and 24 million Americans losing their health insurance and it turned out it didn't really protect people with pre-existing conditions and the bill turned out not to be a health-care bill at all but instead a big tax refund for the super rich, so only 17% of Americans approved of it, so then Trump said that it was "a mean bill," so the GOP Senate said that it would write their bill from scratch, so thirteen male Republican Senators wrote a bill in secret in six weeks leveraging large parts of the House bill, but this version couldn't get enough GOP votes because the CBO said that it would raise premiums and cause 32 million Americans to lose their health insurance, so the vote was delayed until John McCain could return to Washington, then Trump threatened GOP Senators at a really nice White House lunch that they had better not leave town until they had passed some kind of bill, so a new version of the bill was presented and a vote was taken on whether to bring the bill forward, so then Murkowski and Collins voted against that, but then John McCain arrived to cast the deciding vote to begin debate, and then McCain announced that he would vote against the actual bill, so a bill "repeal and replace" new bill was distributed to Senators and voted on 90 minutes later, but it failed even though McCain reversed himself and voted FOR it, so then the Interior Secretary threatened Murkowski with the state of Alaska's financial ruin and Trump told the Boy Scouts that DHS Secretary Price would be fired if the GOP bill didn't pass, and then the Senate voted on the same "repeal now and replace later" bill it had passed in 2015, but this time six Republican senators who had voted for the bill in 2015 changed their minds and voted AGAINST it, so that bill also failed, so then McConnell decided to create a fake bill called a "skinny bill" that was only created so that it could be sent back to the House so that the House GOP could conference with the Senate GOP and create a whole new bill that would be the real bill that Trump would sign into law, so then the CBO came out and said that the "skinny bill" would raise premiums and cause 11 million Americans to lose their health insurance, and the top health insurers and the AMA begged the GOP to kill the bill, but then GOP Congressman Mark Meadows told Senator Lindsay Graham that there was a danger that the House would just skip a conference and pass "skinny" into law, so then Senatots Graham, Johnson and McCain held a press conference saying that the "skinny" bill was "a fraud" that would lead to a "disaster" that the GOP would be blamed for, and then they said that they would vote "no" on the "skinny" bill until Paul Ryan gave them an ironclad guarantee that the bill they were trying to pass would never actually get passed, so then Ryan said he would do that, but he said it in a way that didn't seem ironclad, and Ryan also demanded that the actual real bill that Trump would sign would have to be written by the Senate GOP and not the House GOP because he knows that he can't tell the GOP Senate what it wants to actually pass, so then the Senate GOP produced the actual text of the "skinny" bill, which was voted on three hours later, but then McCain voted against the bill and it was defeated, and McConnell said he was disappointed and Schumer said they should work together to fix Obamacare, and then all the senators went home at 2 a.m.
Johnny Hodges
Happy birthday to the one and only Johnny Hodges, the owner of that patented, impossibly gorgeous alto sax tone. Here he is weaving a silky path through the melody of Billy Strayhorn's "Passion Flower."
Fifty Cents and a Box Top
Just finished reading "50 Cents And A Box Top," the new memoir by legendary harmonica ace Charlie McCoy. Charlie recounts his amazing personal journey from young blues freak and rockabilly singer to a completely unique harmonica stylist to one of the most in-demand session players in the history of popular music to best-selling recording artist to international music star to member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. What a ride! My favorite chapters were the ones about the thousands of sessions Charlie did behind folks like Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, Bob Dylan, and Paul Simon. (There's a jaw-dropping anecdote about a Leonard Cohen session that confirmed all my personal suspicions about that artist.) Harmonica players will especially appreciate the appendix with complete details of the harmonica model, key, and, in some cases, special tunings that Charlie used on his own stunning instrumental recordings. Charlie is one of the great musical geniuses of our time and one of the nicest guys in the business. If you have any interest in music, you will love this book.
Austin
When I lived in Austin back in the day, it seemed like the blues capitol of the world. It's still pretty heavy, decades later. Over the past two days I have been entertained by Kim Wilson, Rick Estrin, Jimmie Vaughan, Bob Corritore, Annie Raines, Sue Foley, Angela Strehli, Lou Ann Barton, Bob Margolin, Mud Morganfield, Lazy Lester, Marcia Ball, Emily Gimble, Derek O'Brien, Sarah Brown, Johnny Moeller, Jay Moeller, Kyle Rowland, and Mike Keller, among others. That's in just two days! This afternoon I guested at a really fun recording session with Kathy Murray, Bill Jones, and keyboard wizard Floyd Domino. Tonight it's back to Antone's for the great Barbara Lynn, and tomorrow I'll be at a table near the stage for the fabulous Paul Oscher's regular weekly gig at C-Boys. Whew!
A nation of immigrants
Forever grateful for my birthright and to the country that welcomed my forebears, who came here to seek a better life and found it--and in the process made their new home all the greater.
Toxic Trump
Forget about the Black Death or Typhoid Mary. The most dangerous carrier of infection in the land today is Toxic Trump, a walking, politically radioactive isotope who destroys the immune systems of anyone unfortunate enough to enter his orbit.
Trump has done the poorest job of hiring folks to fill key administration jobs of any President in history, and his toxicity may make him fall further behind in this effort, as it seems to be shortening the shelf lives of the few minions who are in place.
Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was the first of Trump’s victims. According to his attorney, Flynn is excited to share “the story he has to tell.” (That’s shorthand for trying to shed his illness in favor of immunity by selling out his former colleagues.)
Vice President Pence has just hired a personal attorney and is already busy raising PAC donations to pay for his anticipated legal bills after being caught up in, or being an active participant in, “the Russian problem.”
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and campaign advisors Carter Page, Roger Stone, Rich Gates and J.D. Gordon have all fallen victim to the grim malady “Putin’s Revenge” and are reportedly receiving emergency medical treatment at an undisclosed facility within the FBI.
Recent lab-test results for longtime Trump attorney and White House advisor Michael Cohen were so disturbing that the lawyer has hired his OWN lawyer.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Education Secretary Betsy Devos’ brother Erik Prince are showing symptoms, too. They are both reportedly under investigation due to meetings they had with Russians after the November election about establishing back-channel communications with Putin.
Given their daily interactions with a highly infectious supervisor, every member of Trump's White House staff has been ordered to submit urine and blood samples three times each day to the special prosecutor.
There may be a silver lining to Trump’s killing powers, as his victims include the leadership of the government agencies most likely to cause Trump legal problems—the Department of Justice, the heads of the intelligence agencies, and the Congressional committees.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself from the Russian probe after his annual physical revealed that his close contact with Trump and the Russians had led him to be infected. Now it looks as if Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will also have to check into the Recusal Ward. Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats were all so stricken due to their constant contact with Trump that they were rendered mute when they tried to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week. CIA Director Mike Pompeo has been asked to turn over details of his conversations with Trump about the Russian investigation to Bob Meuller’s medical team. And House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has been hospitalized after a psychotic episode resulting from repeated interactions with Trump.
What about the risk to Trump himself?
Trump and Typhoid Mary are examples of what the medical profession calls “asymptomatic carriers.” Such infected people have the power to sicken and possibly kill others, but are not themselves at risk of contracting the disease that they carry.
We don’t yet know what Trump’s fate will be, but we know what happened to Typhoid Mary. Mary Fallon, a restaurant worker who caused the deaths of between three and fifty people during the early 1900s, adamantly refused to believe she was a carrier of disease. She died alone, in quarantine.
30th annual waterfront blues festival
Thrilled to be part of the 30th annual Waterfront Blues Festival this July 4th in my new home of Portland. I'll be playing and singing in Bill Rhoades' 16th Annual Harmonica Blowoff, along with heavy harpers Mark DuFresne, Hank Shreve, Mike Moothart, and Mr. Rhoades himself. Many thanks to Bill and Peter Dammann for the opportunity. We play just before the huge fireworks spectacular, which is only appropriate. Excited about seeing many great shows at the West Coast's premier blues festival, including the Paul deLay tribute and the return of the always amazing Curtis Salgado.
The Howlin' Wolf
Today is the birthday of Chester Burnett, the Howlin’ Wolf.
I was privileged to catch the Wolf many times. The Wolf had one of the most unique and amazing voices in all of music, but he was also an outstanding harmonica player. When I was twenty I saw the Wolf do a show on a Tuesday night at Sir Morgan’s Cove in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was a slim crowd, but the Wolf was in bigtime harmonica mode, blowing some incredible stuff. Impossibly huge tone.
Paul Oscher, Muddy Waters' former harmonica player, had introduced me to tongue blocking on the harp a couple of months before, so I had that concept on the brain. Wolf’s first set ended and the rest of the band hit the bar, but the Wolf stayed on his stool under the lights, staring at the floor. Naturally, I just had to ask him whether he tongue blocked on the harp.
As I walked toward him my legs got wobbly. The Wolf was one of the largest—and certainly most intimidating—humans I had ever approached. Somehow I managed to open my mouth and stammer out an introduction. I was a harp player, I explained. I threw out Paul’s name, haltingly explained that he had just introduced me to this mysterious technique, complimented the Wolf effusively on his harmonica work, and asked him if he tongue blocked on that thing.
An eternity passed as the Wolf slowly lifted his penetrating gaze from my shoes to my eyes. Several seconds of silence ensued, which felt like forever. Then suddenly that otherworldly voice was addressed to me.
“The Wolf don’t tell nobody his tricks,” the Wolf balefully intoned. “If you find out, the Wolf don’t mind. But the Wolf ain’t gonna tell you about it.” I beat a hasty retreat.
One thing for sure: there will never be another Howlin' Wolf.
