I've been helping to man the phone banks at the headquarters of the Carolyn Long for Congress campaign in the Third District in Washington State, one of the many swing districts that are critical to the Democrats taking over Congress this November. It's been great to finally put my time where my mouth is. Volunteering is not only action, it's a great way to fight the -everyone-in-this-country-has-lost-their-mind malaise that Trumpism has brought. I have met a slew of smart, passionate, energetic and funny people within the Long campaign. We have our work cut out for us, but morale is very high.
Find the swing district nearest you and get involved NOW. Mail-in ballots drop in Washington State in only THIRTY-FIVE DAYS!
Resist!
The coup against the Constitution
What kind of "adult," when faced with living with an addled patriarch/arsonist who is actively engaged in burning down the house, decides that their proper response is to suffer through the destruction of the living areas and all the family heirlooms as long as Crazy Pappy doesn't torch the filing cabinet in the basement containing Grandma's recipes?
The courageously anonymous White House insider who wrote the flabby, self serving, and ethically compromised opinion piece in the NYT says that it is important that we Americans "understand that their are adults in the room," but this creature is an even more terrifying figure than Donald Trump because he or she still contends that a constitutional crisis is worse than having an amoral wild man with his finger on the nuclear trigger.
The founding fathers understood that once they went the route of a popularly elected President, there was the risk that a lunatic or a crook would be elected. So they came up with the 25th Amendment and the impeachment process, respectively, to deal with those two scenarios and crafted the balance of powers that we Americans have long felt made this country something special.
We elected a President who is a crook AND a lunatic.
We elected a Congress that understands that the President is systematically destroying the rule of law in this country but that will never impeach and convict him.
One wing of that Congress is about to approve a new Supreme Court justice who will ensure that a solid majority on that Court will decide that the President is not subject to the rule of law.
This President chose a Cabinet that understands that their boss is dangerously deranged but who will never take steps to implement the 25th Amendment.
The carefully wrought balance of powers crafted in 1789 has failed, and failed utterly. Each of those powers--the Executive branch, the Congress, and the Judiciary--has, without a shred of conscience or hesitation or patriotism and with no fight, treasonously abandoned the country in favor of a crazed, crooked despot.
We need to stand up and take on the hard work of removing every one of these traitors--election by election, appointment by appointment.
Teaching the GOP a lesson
A special shout out on this Labor Day to the nation's teachers unions, who rose up this year to fight the relentless war against them and their profession with successful strikes in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Colorado. Teacher's unions have had a big political impact during the primaries--six Oklahoma state legislators who voted against teachers were ousted this summer--and they will ensure that many more politicians will learn a very tough lesson this November.
"Black Diamonds" remix released
Several years ago I released "Black Diamonds," a CD of original tunes performed by me and the original version of my great band, the Mighty Titans of Tone. I never felt that my original mix did justice to the performances, and my amazingly talented friend Al Kaatz, who guested on guitar on the original release, recently remixed the tunes for me, adding some additional keyboard and percussion tracks in the bargain. The remixed "Black Diamonds" tracks are now available as digital downloads on CD Baby. Thanks all over again to Eric Daw, Brady Daniel Kish, Billy Spaulding, Steve Yonck, and the legendary Little Bobby Sumpner for their great playing, and to Al for bringing it out.
The face of a new Democratic Party?
The narrative being promoted by much of the media and some moderate Democrats that Andrew Gillum, the new Democratic nominee for governor in Florida, is an extreme-left candidate is predictably bogus. My Facebook feed is replete today with posts from traditional Democrats contending that Gillum's victory was a huge mistake and that he will take the party down to defeat.
Bernie Sanders brought a compelling progressive platform and a small army of devoted followers to the Democratic Party in 2016. Not surprisingly, his insurgency angered many Democrats, because he didn't register as a Democrat until he ran for President. In turn, Clinton's victory incensed many Sanders supporters who bought into a false narrative that Clinton had stolen the nomination. Sanders' progressivism did not attract enough minority voters. Clinton did not inspire enough younger voters or independents. The biggest danger the Democrats face in this fall's midterms is a continuation of the Sanders/Clinton divide. The ideal Democratic dynamic for November's critical election is one in which the two sides move past 2016 and create a majority coalition, and candidates that represent that coalition, to take down Trump.
Gillum is not a far-left extremist. He is, in fact, the personification of a new, bigger-tent, post-2016 Democratic Party.
Yes, Bernie Sanders endorsed Gillum, as did pro-Sanders groups Democracy in Action and the Working Families Party. But Gillum was a strong Clinton supporter in 2016; he spoke on her behalf at the Democratic convention. Gillum's Florida candidacy was endorsed by Julian Castro, BlackPAC, Color of Change, Tom Steyer's Next Generation America, and Moms Demand Action--who all supported Clinton in 2016.
Gillum could lose in November. The Florida gubernatorial election will be the most pathologically savage campaign that we have ever seen. But the old practice of nominating candidates indistinguishable from Republicans or former Republicans like Crist led to losses in 2010 and 2014. Gillum and Stacey Adams in Georgia are committed to a strategy of not apologizing for being a Democrat and of running on a progressive campaign that could unite the opposition in Florida. The outcome will say a lot not only about the future of the Democratic Party but about the future of the country.
Ingres
Today is the birthday of Jean-August-Dominique Ingres. A founder of the neoclassical school, Ingres was a taunch defender of the classic tradition in painting amd drawing and fought mightily against the romanticist movement that came to dominate European painting in the nineteenth century. One of the greatest draughtsman to ever pick up a pencil or a brush, this arch-traditionalist's innovative approach to perspective and color made him a favorite of Picasso and Matisse. Ingres was also a passionate violinist who counted Franz List among his close friends. This is a gorgeous pencil sketch of the violin virtuoso Paganini, with whom Ingres performed on occasion.
The ugliest, meanest campaign ever
Fasten your seat belts.
Andrew Gillum, the black mayor of Tallahassee, won the Democratic nomination for governor in Florida tonight.
Like Stacey Adams in adjacent Georgia, Gillum is an aggressive progressive who will run a general election campaign focused not on attracting Trump voters but on turning out the vote across the potential Democratic coalition: liberals, moderates, minorities, and millennials. Gillum supports legalizing marijuana, single-payer health care, abolishing ICE, and impeaching Trump. Gillum, who campaigned for Clinton in 2016, was endorsed by Bernie Sanders, George Soros, and Tom Steyer. His opponents spent $90 million (!!) on this primary. Gillum spent $4 million. Like Adams, Gillum's opponent will be a hardcore Trumpist.
Florida is always a brutal election battleground, but the stakes are incredibly high this year. Florida is one of the most populous states in the country and its Electoral College votes could determine the 2020 Presidential contest. The state's Congressional Districts will be redrawn during the next governor's term.
Trump told evangelical leaders at a dinner last night that if the Democrats win the House, they will unleash antifa to violently attack the general population. This is where the GOP is already at 70 days away from the November midterms. If signs of a blue wave continue to persist, this fall will see the most vicious, howling, bare-knuckled elections we have seen in this country in a century. The Republicans' only accomplishment has been a phenomenally unpopular tax cut. The Trump gang will soon focus full time on what they do best--scaring the shit out of their base by applying massive, relentless doses of outfront, shrieking racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism racism.
Swing the midterms
It's imperative that Democrats retake Congress to begin reclaiming our country from the nightmare that is Trumpism. I urge all of my friends to find the Congressional swing district nearest to you and to donate and volunteer for the Democrat in that race. In my case, since I live in solidly blue Portland, the swing district nearest to me is the 3rd District across the Columbia River in Washington State, so I will be volunteering between now and November for Carolyn Long, the Democrat who is running for Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler's House seat. If you live in the Portland/Vancouver Washington area, please join me in contributing to, and working for, Carolyn Long's campaign. It's critical that we all get personally engaged and active in the most critical midterms of our lifetime. Only 70 days until the elections. Resist!
Morris Graves
Happy birthday to Morris Graves, one of the greatest artistic talents ever produced by the Pacific Northwest. His moody, spiritual, Asian-influenced art--and his refusal to compromise in life--helped to establish an aesthetic unique to his native region.
John McCain
None of us can even comprehend what John McCain went through as POW in Vietnam. He was broken under relentless torture. He was honest about his experience and he spoke out tirelessly and eloquently against the senseless practice of torture by the American government. Anti-war leader John Kerry was a close friend, as was Democratic lion Ted Kennedy. As many in his party openly embraced racism, McCain defended Barack Obama as a worthy opponent and a fellow patriot. Like most of us, McCain was a complex, imperfect individual, but because of his service and sacrifice he understood more than anyone what really qualifies as a life-and-death struggle, and he never put politics in that category.
Lazy Lester
We lost Lazy Lester the human being yesterday, and that's a very sad thing. The musical world will not be the same. He left us his music, of course, and that's forever. I met him at Amanda's Roller Coaster in Tucson in 2010. (That's a photo of me and Junior Watson with Lester from that week.) Lester was definitely not lazy--he accomplished so much over his long career--but I think it's true to say that his upbeat nature, his sense of humor (he tossed off down-home one-liners--"I only drink when I'm alone or with somebody"--all day long) and his understanding of how life worked enabled him to go through his life with far less friction that most of us put ourselves through. Lester was a killer musician, vocalist and songwriter and one of the founders of Louisiana swamp pop, one of those rare musical genres that EVERYBODY loves. One of the true blues greats is gone.
First pitch
In Seattle at smoky (from nearby forest fires) Safeco Field for today's game against the Astros. Go Ms!
Five hundred harmonica players in one hotel
I spent last week in St. Louis at the annual convention of SPAH--the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica, an organization that has been around since 1962. I started attending SPAH conventions in the 1990s, when I was working on my harmonica book. Until last week I hadn't been to SPAH convention in many years. I considered it almost every year, but other priorities always seemed to interfere.
Attending a SPAH convention is a unique experience, to say the least. Living for five days in a hotel filled with harmaniacs can seem at times like you're living in the world's largest aviary. This is an event at which people can talk passionately for hours about the best way to gap a harmonica reed, whether tongue blocking is a superior approach to puckering, or who recorded the first overblow.
It's also an event filled with hundreds of incredibly fine and supportive people and the most astonishing collection of harmonica talent you'll ever see or hear in one place. The convention includes tons of jamming, vendors displaying all the many advances to the instrument, and formal performances by the top players. The photo collage shows some of the musical highlights: a session featuring Will Scarlett, Cheryl Arena (who did the blues harp proud all week), Joe Filisko, Johnny Long, and Buzz Krantz; a predictably killer set by the legendary Charlie McCoy; Chris Bauer and PT Gazell showing brilliantly how the chromatic and diatonic harmonicas are both great jazz instruments; Rob Paprozzi wowing the convention with Howard Levy backing him on piano; Tom Stryker’s fabulous harmonica big band; and Howards Levy and Susan Sauter sending the attendees home with their jaw-dropping performance of Bartok, Bach, and Vivaldi. Richard Sleigh and James Conway also gave a remarkable show, as did Filip Jers.
I had a ball. The best thing about being a musician--by far--is the people you meet. It was SO much fun to hook up with so many old friends, including the amazing Joe Filisko, Buzz Krantz, Kirk Jelly Roll Johnson (who was awarded a no-brainer, well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday night), Winslow Yerxa, Richard Sleigh, Michael Rubin, Howard Levy, Rob Paparozzi, Peter “Madcat” Ruth, Kyle Rowland, and any others. I also finally got the chance to meet many new friends and harmonica heroes, including Brendan Power, PT Gazell, James Conway, Paul Messinger, Charlie Barath, and Deak Harp. And I saw the bright future of the instrument in the music of all the outstanding young players, some of whom are years away from voting age.
A special thanks to Tom Albanese and Ron Rosco Selly, even though they were at times corrupting influences (what really happened on Thursday night, anyway?), and everyone at SPAH for going above and beyond in making SPAH 2018 a great experience for yours truly.
The Vatican's Child Rape Program
When syndicated cartoonist Pat Oliphant published this cartoon in 2002, he was roundly condemned. One Catholic wrote a letter to his local newspaper saying "I don't need the newspaper to make me feel like I am part of an ongoing criminal conspiracy." The Catholic Church has for decades (if not for centuries) sponsored, staffed, covered up for, and fought mightily to maintain the most successful child rape program in human history. No other individual monster or group even comes close to the enormity of its crimes. The Church leadership is still, today, actively covering up its crimes against children, even after all the horrific details exposed in Boston, Anchorage, Chicago, Crookston, Davenport, Denver, Dubuque, Fall River, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Oakland, Omaha, Orange, Palm Beach, Peoria, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Antonio, San Diego, Savannah, Spokane, Stockton, Tucson, Kenya, Tanzania, the Philippines, Vienna, Antwerp, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Scotland, Wales, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru. The Church's campaign to use the statute of limitations to ensure that priests will not be brought to justice has worked brilliantly. Our best recourse to provide some measure of justice to the innocent victims and to ensure that the Catholic Church no longer sponsors or accepts such behavior is to methodically bankrupt it.
R.I.P. Aretha Franklin
Sweet Sweep
A stellar, truly inspiring, impossibly fun four-game sweep of the Astros on their home turf--capped by a thrilling finale in which they lost the lead in the eighth, tied the game with two outs in the ninth, and won it in the tenth--by the reawakened Seattle Mariners. July was a brutal trek through the Sahara Desert for the M's, who scored fewer runs and hit fewer home runs that month than any team in the AL. Only Dee Gordon hit over .300 in July. Haniger faded. Nelson Cruz and Ryon Healy disappeared. Aging ace Felix Hernandez flamed out spectacularly. After nipping at the Astro's heels all season, the Mariners slipped to third place and eight games behind as they arrived in Houston for this series. You could feel the great promise of the first half of the season slipping away and the spectre of another year out of the playoffs looming. Manager Scott Servais made some big moves, putting Haniger in the leadoff spot and sending Hernandez to the bullpen. Haniger hit a home run in his first leadoff at bat, and the M's were off to the races. They beat Verlander. They beat Gerrit Cole. They beat Charlie Morgan, who was 12 and 2. (Those guys were ALL on this year's All-Star team.) Today they knocked off Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel. They're hitting--Haniger and Healy, especially, have found their groove again. The defense has been rock solid--Heredia made a spectacular double play from the outfield last night. The insanely spectacular Edwin Diaz saved ALL FOUR games. He's on pace to beat the major league record for saves in a season. The Mariners desperately needed to reignite in August, and so far--there are series with the Astros and second-place Oakland yet to come this month--they are truly on fire. We needed this one--bad. A series to savor, for sure.
Shame the Racists
The "Unite the Right" march in D.C. today turned out to be a ragtag group of about twenty racist weasels, several marching in their MAGA hats. Their pitiful turnout was dwarfed by the hundreds of police and thousands of counter protesters who shouted them down and helped convince these moronic Nazis to go home early. "Lots of people were afraid to show up after what happened last year," said one white supremacist.
That's the America I know—the America that makes Nazis and the KKK and homicidal fascists who think it's brave to run over innocent people with their cars afraid to show their faces. Not that alternative-universe America that considers them "good people."
Trump Gang says that families cannot be reunited
Last June Federal Court Judge Dana Sabraw set a deadline for the Trump Gang to reunite all the nearly 3,000 children they had kidnapped from their parents.
That deadline was two weeks ago. FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY NINE children still remain separated from their parents, including 46 children under the age of five, who the Trump Gang claim are "ineligible" for reunification--in many cases, because the Trump Gang deported their parents and now can't locate them. Many of these children will NEVER be reunited with their parents.
Please donate to the ACLU, which is leading the fight to reverse these kidnappings, keep agitating on behalf of these young victims, and remember this vicious policy when you vote in November.
What the hell is a "perjury trap"? It used to be called lying.
According to Rudy Guiliani, Fox News, and the alt-right, a “perjury-trap question” is a real thing, and it’s not good. It’s a trap, a devious trick sprung on innocent people by super smart, slick prosecutors and special counsels. To hear them tell it, these questions are so cunning that they can force blameless folks to lie and give the prosecutors—who are supposed to go after criminals but instead, according to the alt-right, spent most of their time trying to trip up Republicans—the grounds to send them to jail.
“Perjury-trap question” is now a term in the political lexicon. You can’t watch cable news for two minutes without hearing some talking head discussing “perjury-trap questions” as if they were a legitimate subject. They’re not.
This seems to beg another one of those basic civics lessons about something that we all thought was common knowledge until we were all propelled into Trumpworld in 2016.
PERJURY is what is real. Perjury is making an intentionally false statement, either spoken or in writing, that could affect the outcome of a proceeding.
Because perjury can sabotage legal cases, especially when capital punishment is a possible outcome, it has always been a serious crime in the United States. In the early days of our nation, penalties for perjury included death, banishment, and cutting out the liar’s tongue.
Such lies often follow a question, but the question is not the issue. The issue is whether the person who answers a question under oath tells the truth or not.
People become perjurers not because of the questions they are asked or by underhanded prosecutorial black magic. They become perjurers when evidence from other sources is presented that proves that what they said was untrue.
So dodging “perjury-trap questions” is not a problem for a witness under oath because there is no such thing. They are just questions.
Faulty memory is not perjury. Perjury requires willful intent.
Inconsequential false statements, even if there was intent, do not result in perjury charges. If Trump was to lie under oath about his hair or his age, a greased slide won’t open up under the witness seat to take him to Perjury Land. The lie has to be a conscious one, and it has to be about something that could change the decision of the judge or the jury.
A titanic myth at the center of this “perjury trap” is that it infers that Mueller is focused on nailing Trump as a perjurer. This is that notion, again, that evil prosecutors can get innocent people to lie. Mueller has much bigger fish to fry. He is investigating whether Trump worked with the Russians to rig the election and whether Trump has obstructed justice. Trump has much bigger charges to fear than a perjury rap.
If Mueller is supposedly setting a perjury trap, he is doing a really, really poor job of it. He has been negotiating with Trump’s lawyers for months on getting Trump to answer questions. He even gave Trump the questions IN ADVANCE. He’s offered to allow Trump to submit written (by whom?) answers if he can ask follow-up questions. Worst entrapment scheme ever!
Trump’s lawyers have responded that the President should not be asked questions about possible obstruction of justice.
Here are those questions that Mueller wants to ask Trump about possible obstruction of justice:
• What is your knowledge of calls that Gen. Flynn made with [former Russian ambassador Sergei] Kislyak late December 2016?
• What is your reaction to press accounts Jan. 12, 2017, Feb. 8-9 2017?
• What did you think and what did you know regarding Sally Yates’ meetings on Jan 26-27 regarding Gen. Flynn?
• How was the decision made to request the resignation of Gen. Flynn on Feb. 13?
• What was the purpose of the meeting with James Comey on Feb. 14 after the Homeland Security briefing?
• What did you say to Comey about Gen. Flynn?
• What did you think and what did you do about the Comey June 8, 2017 testimony regarding Gen. Flynn?
• After Gen. Flynn resigned, what calls or efforts were made by people associated with you to reach out to Gen. Flynn or to discuss Flynn seeking immunity or possible pardon?
• What was the President’s view of James Comey during the Transition with respect to job performance?
• What did the President think and do in reaction to James Comey’s briefing on January 6, including the intelligence community assessment?
• What was the President’s reaction to Comey when they met alone regarding what they called other ICA matters (the Steele Dossier)? Also, what was discussed [regarding] ancillary reports?
• What was the purpose of the Jan. 27 dinner meeting you had with Comey?
• Was loyalty discussed? Did you communicate with Comey concerning his status at the end of the dinner? What was your knowledge of the Gen. Flynn and Russia investigation in days leading up to the March 20 testimony of Comey before House Intel Committee?
• What did you think and what did you do in reaction to the Comey testimony on March 20 before House Intel Committee?
• Describe outreach to Intel chiefs [Mike] Rogers, [Mike] Pompeo, and [Dan] Coates?
• What did you say to them?
• What was the purpose of the reach-out on March 22, 25 and 27?
• What was the purpose of your calls to Comey on March 30 and April 11?
• What was the purpose of your statement to Maria Bartiromo on April 11, 2017?
• What did you think and what did you do regarding the May 3 Comey testimony before the Senate Intel Committee?
• Regarding the decision to terminate Comey, when was it made, why was it made, who on your staff played a role in decision, and how was it determined to make it public?
• What did you mean to communicate during your May 10 meeting with Kislyak and [Sergey] Lavrov (concerning ‘pressure off’ and ‘nutcase’)?
• What did you mean regarding your statements to Lester Holt regarding Comey and Russia?
• What was the purpose of May 12 tweet that Comey better hope there are no tapes?
• What was the purpose of the September and October press statements, including tweets, regarding an investigation of Comey? Also, Sarah Sanders statements regarding same?
• What did you think and what did you do regarding AG Sessions recusal?
• What efforts did you make to try to get him to change his mind and reverse?
• Did you have a discussion about whether the AG was going protect him and reference other AG’s?
• What did you think and what did you do in reaction to the news of the appointment of the Special Counsel? – Including your reaction to AG Session’s resignation?
• What was the purpose of holding AG Sessions resignation until May 31 and with whom did you discuss it?
• What did you think and what did you do in reaction to the June 20, 2017 determination that the SC was speaking to Rogers, Pompeo and Coates?
• What consideration and discussion did you have regarding terminating the Special Counsel in June of 2017?
• What did you think and do in reaction to January 25, 2018 story about the termination of the Special Counsel and Don [McGahn] backing you off of the termination?
• What discussions did you have with Reince Priebus in July 2017 about obtaining the Sessions resignation?
• With whom did you discuss obtaining the AG’s resignation?
• What was the purpose of the public criticism of Sessions via tweets during July 2017?
• What was the reason for your continued criticism of Comey and McCabe, even till today?
No tricks or traps here. Every one of these questions is an entirely predictable query that goes to the heart of determining whether Trump has obstructed justice. Many are based on Trump’s own words, and they are all focused on Trump’s own actions.
The Trump legal team and Fox News aren’t worried about “perjury-trap questions.” They are worried, with damn good reason, because their guy is incapable of telling the truth. About anything. Given that remarkable fact, ANY question posed to Trump under oath is literally a “perjury-generating question”—not because of the trickiness of the question, but because the answer will come directly out of that “truth-free zone” that is Trump’s mouth and mind.
Chicago Blues
Spent the afternoon in Chicago with a couple of heavy hitters and very fine people—Richard Shurman and the legendary Bill Boy Arnold—and then the evening with another great talent, Martin Lang. A great day!