It seems that what passes for conventional wisdom has pretty much written off the stormy, incandescent career of the junior senator from Texas, “Tailgunner” Ted Cruz. The “tactical error” of bringing the country to the brink of default earned him the disapprobation of his party and enough condemnation by our collective thought leaders that we seem to have dismissed him from further consideration as a figure of national significance and appeal. And the sigh of relief and hopeful finality attending this dismissal is notably one of the few truly bipartisan undertakings of our otherwise sharply polarised politics and conflicted media commentary.
But let’s set aside, for the moment, the convenient notion that we have survived this political asteroid. His meteoric career impacted squarely on the fault line dividing the modern Republican party at a crucial moment. Is this accidental?
Just as the leadership prepared to abandon the single, defining policy issue which had been used to demonise the administration and whip support for almost four years, Cruz weighs in and makes a perfect riot out of what the party was hoping to quietly concede. In the process he wins a Gungam style volume of earned media, unimpeachable ‘outsider’ status in spite of having trod the corridors of power in Washington for a decade and a distant fourth in the history of filibusters.
He has also captured the unswerving loyalty of a significant cohort of disgruntled, activist Republicans who were the true believers. Sorry, folks, but this is no accident, it is the calculated, if somewhat volatile, opening gambit of a presidential nomination campaign.
You see, it doesn’t matter what other Republicans and the media think, or say, about Cruz. Every criticism levelled at him now just makes the nativist Right cling to him more tightly. What should have probably been foreseen, but apparently wasn’t, is that Rand Paul, the other dark horse candidacy vying for the same constituency, was always Cruz’s only serious early competition. And Paul’s foreign policy stance is already inviting the Republican establishement to crush him; early and hopefully quite flat. Ironic that the party might be furthering Cruz’s nascent candidacy just as engaged supporters are considering their options.
“Where we are right now is eerily, uncannily, like the late 1970s,” he said. “You had Jimmy Carter in the White House and you had the same failed economic policies. Out-of-control spending, taxes, and regulation produced the exact same misery and stagnation. You had the same feckless foreign policy and the same naiveté making the world a much more dangerous place.”
So it’s the late 70s and he’s the candidate so… “Eerily, uncannily” he’s Reagan, right? Sheesh. Still, one can perhaps think of some people who might accept the “late 70s” malaise comparision, even in a general election. Can you?
Unlike last time if one candidate comes off the blocks with a confident majority of support within the marginal population of Republican primary voters the contest could become an early rout leading to a succession of establishment firewalls which the activist rump of the party would just love to try breaching. If this is a credible scenario then it might be argued that Cruz has already established a path toward such a victory.
Perhaps we should start having a look at that. Because if this guy wins the nomination we’re in for a proper sleigh ride.
I make no secret about being a fan of Jay Smooth’s. I regularly use his video commentaries about race and other social justice issues in the classroom.
“Jay Smooth” is the deejay moniker of John Randolph, who founded and hosts New York City’s longest running hip-hop radio program “Underground Railroad” on Pacifica Radio station WBAI-FM. He’s a blogger at hiphopmusic.com, and Ill Doctrine, and probably best known for his widely distributed video commentary “How To Tell Someone They Sound Racist”
I’m always looking for new tools to use to encourage thoughtful discussion about race, racism and racial relations, and browsing Jay Smooth alerted me to the report issued this year by Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation , entitled “Moving the Race Conversation Forward” which is something I recommend you read and pass on to others if you haven’t read it already.
analyzed nearly 1,200 newspaper articles and transcripts from cable TV outlets from 2013, and found that two thirds of race-focused coverage either emphasized alleged individual racism or prioritized voices that dismissed the persistence of racism as a significant force in our country today.
The report refers to this kind of coverage as “systemically absent” content, in contrast to “systemically aware” content that at least highlights policies and practices such as racial profiling or voter suppression that lead to racial disparities. As the latter term is defined, the media didn’t have to explicitly use terms like “institutional racism,” “structural racism” or “systemic racism” to be classified as “systemically aware,” but even with this low bar, the performance was poor.
You can download the two sections of the report separately.
Content analysis of mainstream media: Two-thirds of race-focused media coverage fails to consider how systemic racism factors into the story, instead typically focusing upon racial slurs and other types of personal prejudice and individual-level racism.
Seven harmful racial discourse practices, which reinforce the common misconception that racism is simply a problem of rare, isolated, individual attitudes and actions: Individualizing Racism, Falsely Equating Incomparable Acts, Diverting From Race, Portraying Government as Overreaching, Prioritizing (Policy) Intent over Impact, Condemning Through Coded Language, and Silencing History.
Mainstream media coverage of race and racial issues shapes much of how our citizenry thinks about, reacts to and discusses these issues, from the NY Times, FOX, CNN and MSNBC, to local papers. As bloggers and blog readers we often react to this coverage, as well as reporting on the same stories. The report gives us insights into how we can do better too.
The second half of the report looks at actions.
Part Two features case studies and profiles of recent interventions and initiatives advanced by the racial justice field to challenge mainstream discussions of race and racism, and the negative policy impacts that dominant frames and narratives have on people of color. They include: Drop the I-Word, Migration is Beautiful, ALEC on the Run, Fruitvale Station, and Ending the Schoolhouse-to-Jailhouse Track.
Fierces on the Weather Critter Comment are obligatory welcome.
The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.
For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.
The important stuff to get you started:
– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.
– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)
– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce, … or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).
– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”
– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”
(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)
Yes, it is that time again (No, NOT Howdy Doody Time). Time to deal with the animal known as Monday…
PLEASE Do Not Recommend the check-in diary!
Recs on the weather jar comment are still welcome.
The check-in is an open thread and general social hour. Come back when time allows through the day – the conversation continues.
It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:
I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”.
OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.
ART NOTES – a retrospective on the works of perhaps the most renowned living US artist, in an exhibit entitled Jasper Johns: Regrets is at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, through September 1st.
ALTHOUGH academic freedom is still limited, the new president of Iran has made positive changes, with visiting Western scholars now allowed in … and sought-after by students.
THIS PAST WEEKEND saw a convention held in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia that brought together those with the rare condition of albinism – which affects nearly 1 in every 17,000 people worldwide (to some degree).
THURSDAY’s CHILD is Max the Cat – a California kitteh who survived a 60-mile highway journey … atop a twelve-foot trailer.
SIGN of the APOCALYPSE – portraying King Herod in an upcoming US touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar will be none other than John Lydon – yes, the former Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten – who admits, “I don’t do nothing easy, right?”
TIME MARCHES ON – a judge who became persona-non-grata decades ago in South Carolina was J. Waties Waring – the dissenting (2-1) vote in the 1950 South Carolina Briggs vs. Elliot desegregation case (in which one of the plaintiff attorneys was Thurgood Marshall). His belief that separate-but-equal was impossible caused him to leave the bench and move to New York City (though he was buried in Charleston after his death in 1968).
At the time of his decision, the head of the local NAACP wrote to him, “The people of my group have thanked God for you in the past. America will thank God for you in the future, and at some later date the South will raise a monument to you.” The last part seemed most implausible … until this week .. over sixty years later.
HAIL and FAREWELL to the singer-songwriter Jesse Winchester – whose songs have been covered by everyone from George Strait to Tim Hardin, and who was the focus of a 2012 tribute album featuring James Taylor, Elvis Costello, Jimmy Buffett, Rosanne Cash, Lucinda Williams, and Vince Gill – who has died at the age of 69 … and the former NBA star Lou Hudson – whose career with the Atlanta Hawks began when they still played in St. Louis, and who is believed to have been the first African-American elected official in Utah – who has died at the age of 72.
FRIDAY’s CHILD is Hamish McHamish the Cat – a Scottish 14-year-old stray kitteh who has been immortalized by his adopted town … in bronze.
YUK for TODAY – Yesterday’s edition of Saturday Night Live opened with a skit of two leading GOP figures addressing the audience at the Coachella festival – and the video is a hoot.
WHO WOULDA THUNK that a 31 year-old Hungarian who had been the deputy head of the right-wing extremist party Jobbik – which he also represented in the European Parliament – would transform his life upon learning that he was … of Jewish descent.
SEPARATED at BIRTH – Pulitzer Prize winning author Gail Caldwell and the late author Nora Ephron – who as well was a playwright, screenwriter and producer.
….. and finally, for a song of the week ………………………… if you are a fan of the electric blues – and especially the Chicago version – then someone whose work has shaped your enjoyment was Walter Jacobs …. better known as Little Walter – on harmonica. Tired of being drowned-out in accompanying an amplified guitarist, he cupped a microphone to his blues “harp” and plugged-it into his own amplifier. He was not the first to ever do so, but was the first to do so regularly. And he was the first musician – period – to drive-up his Silvertone amplifier (intentionally) to distortion levels, which had long been avoided by musicians. Although he also played guitar and sang: he is the only person inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on the strength of his harmonica playing alone.
Born as Marion Walter Jacobs on the first of May, 1930 in rural Louisiana, he was a somewhat unruly child who made his way as a twelve year-old to New Orleans. And like many future blues musicians: he made-his-way up the Mississippi River to Chicago (although unlike others, he settled in places like Memphis and St. Louis for a time before reaching the Windy City in 1946).
He fell into the Maxwell Street blues scene, eventually performing with another Delta emigré – the more well-known Muddy Waters – in 1949. For three years, the two (along with a rhythm section) became one of the hot nightclub acts in town, signing with the Chess record label. And it was on Muddy’s 1951 recording of Country Boy that Little Walter was first recorded with an amplified blues harp.
Little Walter left Muddy Waters in 1952 to start his own band – although the two sounded so good together, label owner Leonard Chess always asked Walter to be a sideman on Muddy Waters’ future recordings. Thus, if you have never listened to any Chess recordings other than Muddy Waters (such as Hoochie Coochie Man and Trouble No More) … you probably have heard the sound of Walter Jacobs, anyway.
Signed to the Chess subsidiary label Checker in the early 50’s, Little Walter recorded a #1 (on the R&B charts) song entitled Juke – the first (and only) harmonica instrumental to top the R&B charts. His back-up band became known as The Jukes: whose members over the years included future blues stars such as Robert Jr. Lockwood and Luther Tucker on guitar. Other songs that he had hits with were Sad Hours, Blues with a Feeling … and the 1955 Willie Dixon song My Babe – based upon the Gospel tune This Train – that is among his best-known songs by the rock and roll generation (as it even reached #106 in the pop music charts). In fact, from 1952 through the end of the decade, Walter had fourteen Top Ten hits on the R&B charts … more than Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and any other Chess Records hitmaker.
Alas, the advent of the 1960’s would prove to be the downfall of Walter Jacobs. In part, this was no different for other blues and R&B artists (as the British Invasion and Motown explosion ate into their audience). But while many were able to have a renaissance (years later) after successive generations re-discovered their music … Walter Jacobs was not around to benefit from it.
And that is because Little Walter had (a) an alcohol problem, and (b) a short temper …. which led to (c) street fighting and (d) bouts with the law. He became an unreliable performer (with his face showing the scars from his fighting) and it affected his once-prodigious abilities both in concert and on recordings. He was invited to perform on two European blues tours in 1964 and 1967 (although reports that he opened for the Rolling Stones are untrue). This helped boost his star among many future British blues-rock band members, but most critics deem his post-1960 recordings – even one in 1967 with both Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley – as of lesser achievements.
It was such a street fight in early 1968 – on a break during a Chicago performance – that a fight injured him enough to aggravate prior injuries, and Walter Jacobs died in February, 1968 at the home of a girlfriend … at the age of only thirty-seven.
His influence can be heard in the sound of many blues harmonica players (such as Junior Wells, James Cotton and Carey Bell) to more modern blues-rock performers (such as Charlie Musselwhite, Kim Wilson, Paul Butterfield and John Popper of Blues Traveler.
His songs have been recognized by the Blues Hall of Fame (Juke and My Babe) with the Grammy Award foundation also recognizing Juke … as well as awarding his compilation album Chess Masters 1950-1967 a Grammy for Best Historical Album. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted Little Walter in 2008 (as a sideman) and Rolling Stone named his Best of Little Walter as #198 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. A biography of Walter Jacobs entitled Blues With a Feeling was published in 2002.
His daughter Marion (shown with him in the photo below) today runs the Little Walter Foundation – dedicated to supporting music education and helping to preserve the blues. The second annual Little Walter Festival takes place next month in his native Louisiana, and a documentary film on his life – entitled Blue Midnight – has long been a work-in-progress of Boston film-maker Mike Fritz (with help from an NEA grant).
The Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy in his recent autobiography summed-up Little Walter thusly:
No one could put pain into the harp and have it come out so pretty. No one understood that the harmonica – just as much as a trumpet, a trombone, or a saxophone – could have a voice that would drop you in your tracks, where all you could say was “Lord, have mercy.”
And forty-five years after his death, Walter Jacobs continues to influence. The 2008 film about the Chess label entitled Cadillac Records saw him portrayed by Columbus Short, and the 2009 novel Under the Dome – by Stephen King – had a character named Little Walter Bushey, named after the musician.
Fortunately, if one views his grave in the town of Evergreen Park, Illinois – you will see the headstone (photo below) that was paid for by music fans in 1991 – thus ennobling a grave that had gone unmarked for twenty-three years.
If you’d like to hear his breakthrough song, here is a link to his 1952 hit Juke – but of all of his work, my favorite is another song that blues-rock fans will recognize.
Key to the Highway – written by Charlie Segar and (the more well-known) Big Bill Broonzy – was first performed in 1940 … and Little Walter’s version reached #6 in the R&B charts in 1958. It has subsequently been performed by a multitude of blues and rock stars – among them The Band, B.B King, the Derek Trucks Band, John Lee Hooker, Steve Miller and Eric Clapton. And below you can hear Little Walter Jacobs sing it ….. and, of course, play the blues harp.
Three people are reported dead after a shooting at a Jewish Community Center and the Village Shalom retirement village in Overland Park, Kansas. It is reported that police took a man into custody who was screaming “Heil Hitler” at reporters. The Forwardreports that the gunman “reportedly shouted Nazi slogans.”
This shooting occurred a day before Passover begins tomorrow night at sundown. If the reports from The Forward are correct, then this represents an anti-Semitic murder as preparations for that upcoming holiday are well underway.
Here in New York, we are used to police coming to our synagogues on the eves of holidays, and during the holidays themselves, to check up and make sure that everything is okay. Such is the risk of anti-Semitic incidents occurring even here in the United States. Even though such risks have declined significantly the past several years, there were still 751 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States according to an audit performed by the Anti-Defamation League. Most ominous is this fact:
While the total number of anti-Semitic incidents declined overall, one dark spot in the numbers was a significant increase in violent anti-Semitic assaults. The Audit recorded a total of 31 anti-Semitic assaults on Jewish individuals or those perceived as Jewish in 2013, up from 17 in 2012.
Of the overall results, ADL national director Abraham Foxman said:
“In the last decade we have witnessed a significant and encouraging decline in the number and intensity of anti-Semitic acts in America,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “The falling number of incidents targeting Jews is another indication of just how far we have come in finding full acceptance in society, and it is a reflection of how much progress our country has made in shunning bigotry and hatred.”
That said, there is a significant way to go, both in terms of anti-Semitism and bigotry in general. Today’s shooting is a reminder of that. There are three families that will be burying their loved ones tomorrow before they sit down for their Passover seder. There will be three empty chairs. Twelve cups of wine that will not be drunk. Three haggadot that will remain unopened.
Fierces on the Weather Critter Comment are obligatory welcome.
The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.
On weekends (and holidays), you may find the check-in thread earlier or later than normal because … it is the weekend! Moosies need their beauty rest:
For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.
The important stuff to get you started:
– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.
– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)
– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce … or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).
– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”
– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”
(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)
In this week’s address, the President underscores the importance of ensuring equal pay for equal work and highlights the steps his Administration has taken to expand opportunity and narrow the pay gap that exists between men and women.
Hi, everybody. Earlier this week was Equal Pay Day. It marks the extra time the average woman has to work into a new year to earn what a man earned the year before. You see, the average woman who works full-time in America earns less than a man – even when she’s in the same profession and has the same education.
That’s wrong. In 2014, it’s an embarrassment. Women deserve equal pay for equal work.
This is an economic issue that affects all of us. Women make up about half our workforce. And more and more, they’re our families’ main breadwinners. So it’s good for everyone when women are paid fairly. That’s why, this week, I took action to prohibit more businesses from punishing workers who discuss their salaries – because more pay transparency makes it easier to spot pay discrimination. And I hope more business leaders will take up this cause.
But equal pay is just one part of an economic agenda for women.
Most lower-wage workers in America are women. So I’ve taken executive action to require federal contractors to pay their federally-funded employees at least ten dollars and ten cents an hour. I ordered a review of our nation’s overtime rules, to give more workers the chance to earn the overtime pay they deserve. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, tens of millions of women are now guaranteed free preventive care like mammograms and contraceptive care, and the days when you could be charged more just for being a woman are over for good. Across the country, we’re bringing Americans together to help us make sure that a woman can have a baby without sacrificing her job, or take a day off to care for a sick child or parent without hitting hardship. It’s time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a “Mad Men” episode, and give every woman the opportunity she deserves.
Here’s the problem, though. On issues that would benefit millions of women, Republicans in Congress have blocked progress at every turn. Just this week, Senate Republicans blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act, commonsense legislation that would help more women win equal pay for equal work. House Republicans won’t vote to raise the minimum wage or extend unemployment insurance for women out of work through no fault of their own. The budget they passed this week would force deep cuts to investments that overwhelmingly benefit women and children – like Medicaid, food stamps, and college grants. And of course, they’re trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act for the fiftieth or so time, which would take away vital benefits and protections from millions of women.
I’m going to keep fighting to make sure that doesn’t happen. Because we do better when our economy grows for everybody, not just a few. And when women succeed, America succeeds. Thanks, and have a great weekend
Fierces on the Weather Critter Comment are obligatory welcome.
The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.
On weekends (and holidays), you may find the check-in thread earlier or later than normal because … it is the weekend! Moosies need their beauty rest:
For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.
The important stuff to get you started:
– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.
– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)
– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce, or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).
– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”
– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”
(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)
Recs on the weather jar comment are still welcome.
Friday Coffee Hour and check-in is an open thread and general social hour.
It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:
t seems that what passes for conventional wisdom has pretty much written off the stormy, incandescent career of the junior senator from Texas, “Tailgunner” Ted Cruz. The “tactical error” of bringing the country to the brink of default earned him the disapprobation of his party and enough condemnation by our collective thought leaders that we seem to have dismissed him from further consideration as a figure of national significance and appeal. And the sigh of relief and hopeful finality attending this dismissal is notably one of the few truly bipartisan undertakings of our otherwise sharply polarised politics and conflicted media commentary.
