Saturday, September 28, 2019

5 great tracks from Blondie

Please read Sarah Chayes piece for THE ATLANTIC about ethics -- it pairs nicely with C.I.'s snapshot from this morning.

Debbie Harry and Billy idol in 1978 and today .






Debbie Harry of the group Blondie.

Her memoir FACE IT comes out Tuesday.

"There are many stories for me to tell…” Debbie Harry. FACE IT. Available to pre-order now.
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In honor of that, let's do five great tracks by Blondie.  I'm going to warn up front that I love PARALLEL LINES.  It's the group's perfect album the way BE YOURSELF TONIGHT is the perfect album by Eurythmics or WILD HEART is the perfect album by Stevie Nicks.  So let me just pull all PARALLEL LINES tracks from consideration or I'll just go with those tracks and ignore the other albums.

1) "In The Flesh"



I love this song from the minute it starts.  The chords, the caresses of  "darling, darling, darling" Debbie does so perfectly.

2) "Denis"



They did power pop better than anyone, Blondie did.  They really were one of the great groups of their era.

3) "Dreaming"



This is Debbie Harry and Chris Stein at their songwriting best.  Let's just look at the second verse:

I don't want to live on charity
Pleasure's real or is it fantasy?
Reel to reel is living verite
People stop and stare at me, we just walk on by
We just keep on dreamin'


That is really some strong writing.  It paints a picture, it offers a unity ("we just keep on dreamin'") that binds the listener with the speaker in the song and to pull in cinema verite?  That's really amazing.  Chris and Debbie have a real gift for songwriting.  I don't think they have ever gotten the credit for their songwriting.  It's acknowledged that they could write a hit song, yes, but I don't think people really look at how accomplished the two of them can be.  I'd argue "Dreaming" is on Joni Mitchell's level of songwriting.

4) "Rip Her To Shreds"



Another classic.  This is sort of a talk song, "She's so dull, yeah, rip her to shreds."  It's got a shuffle beat.

5) "Suzy and Jeffrey"



A wonderful story song.  I love how the car crash comes when Jeffrey tells Suzy he wants to postpone the wedding.  Debbie Harry and Nigel Harrison wrote this song.  Sample lyric:


Only 30 payments due
They had outstanding tickets
They had no car insurance
But they had lots of things to do
They were getting organized
They had their plans all finalized
The date was set for Saturday
Susie and Jeffrey, they're gonna get married
They're going for a blood test
What if I don't pass my blood test?
What about our marriage licence?
What if I can't be deprogrammed?

Again, Debbie Harry's memoir comes out Tuesday.


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Friday, September 27, 2019.. Ethics.

In the United States, the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues.  Jim Newall (SLATE) notes:

While most of the news focus this week pertained to certain goings-on in the House of Representatives—goings-on that of course Elizabeth Warren was the first candidate to call for, in April—Warren has started to take Joe Biden’s lead. She led Biden narrowly, for the first time, in two national polls released this week, and she has taken the lead in the Iowa polling average as well. She took the lead in a New Hampshire poll. She is nearing the lead in Nevada. She is drawing healthy shares from supporters of both Clinton and Sanders in the 2016 primary contest. She is starting to see some movement among black voters. Democrats are the most enthusiastic about her candidacy. There is … nothing going wrong right now? Nothing! This newsletter likes to make jokes about how politicians are failing at politics, and she’s just not giving us anything.


So while Elizabeth is up, Joe is down, dragged down by his own actions.  Over at US NEWS AND WORLD REPORTS, Susan Milligan speaks with University of New Hampshire's Dante Scala:


Biden, in fact, might have some vulnerability on the Ukraine matter with voters, Scala says, because voters might wonder how and why the younger Biden went to work for a Ukrainian firm while his father was in the White House.
"It's not a great look, even though there's not any evidence of wrongdoing," Scala says.

There is absolutely the evidence of wrong doing.

This lowering of our standards is how we end up with presidents unfit to serve.

Joe Biden's son Hunter gets employed by a firm and that's the wrong doing.  Yes, Hunter needed a job.   Three months prior the US military had kicked him out of the reserves because of his use of cocaine.  They should have referred it over to a court, he should have been arrested.  Instead, they just kicked him out.  Three months later, with no experience to speak of, he's brought on and paid $50,000 a month.

That is unethical.  And his father at the time was vice president.  Joe then has interactions with the government of Ukraine.  That is unethical.

Hunter never should have taken the job to begin with.  Once he did, Joe should have been removed from any and all dealings with Ukraine.

It is unethical.  And as vice president, Joe insisting, "I didn't do anything wrong," isn't enough.  Joe has to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.  He was the Vice President.  He has to be held to a higher standard while in that office.




It was Joe Biden’s family that almost kept him from running. Now, it could help drag him down. 
Why it matters: The former vice president has to answer questions about family controversies just as Elizabeth Warren is catching him in the polls.
  • Hunter Biden was a paid board member of a Ukrainian gas company while his father was in the White House.
Top Democrats tell us they worry the Ukraine fracas winds up being an albatross for Biden because he'll be associated with an unpopular issue and process, and won't be able to shake questions about Hunter Biden.

No, wrong doing?  Corruption in office is wrong doing.  There is ample public knowledge that suggest wrong doing without any investigation.

Joe did not do his job as vice president because that job included avoiding even the appearance of a conflict of interest.  Joe did not do his job.

His actions look smarmy, his actions appear unethical.  And that's without any probe taking place.

The usual idiots of the faux left are refusing to look seriously at what is right before their eyes.  In some cases, they're afraid of 'helping' Donald Trump.  Try helping yourselves, you idiots.  This is about democracy, this is about fairness, this is about basic expectations of those in public office.

I can understand the press being leery to go into too much detail after the verbal attacks on THE NEW YORK TIMES.  I don't like THE TIMES.  I'm not a fan.  That was long ago established.  But they published an article -- this one -- that I've read over and over trying to understand the need to attack the paper for it.

Didn't REUTERS already report that the whistle-blower or 'whistle-blower' was CIA?

I don't understand the anger at NYT.  The person is of public interest.  The news report -- fairly bland to begin with -- serves the public interest.

But you have all these idiots claiming on Twitter that NYT did something wrong.  Then claiming that they've cancelled their subscriptions -- most never subscribed.  Some even bigger idiots insisting that they're going to subscribe to the physical paper of THE WASHINGTON POST -- who's going to deliver that to most of your homes?  Lots of luck with that.

How could NYT do this!!!! They insist the paper was wrong and you protect a source and -- The person who filed the complaint is not a source to the paper.  People don't even understand journalism.  It's not -- REPORT WHAT I LIKE!!!!!

The immaturity is just astounding.

On impeachment . . .

One person wrote a lengthy e-mail to the public account stating that the snapshot was brief because I was avoiding the topic of impeachment?

No, that’s not why it was brief.  I’ve explained why it was brief.  I will probably note a hearing in Monday’s snapshot.  I went back and forth over including it today but wanted to just focus on ethics.

The e-mail informs me that I was wrong (wouldn’t be the first time) when I stated that I didn’t believe Donald Trump broke a law as it was being described in press reports.  I still don’t.  Based on the latest details.  If you want to say it was unethical, I’ll hop on board that.  But the Justice Dept was correct not to prosecute.  If Congress wants to pass a law, they can do so.  Whether or not the Court would uphold it is a big if, but they can pass a law on this.  Currently, there is no law.

The e-mailer, like Nancy Pelosi yesterday, wants to insist that Donald was attempting to ensure that he won the 2020 election.

You’re ascribing motive.

On someone you don’t even know.

As noted here many times over the years, and at THIRD, I do not like Donald Trump and that’s based upon my knowing him.

As someone who has known him over the years, I don’t think he was trying to get re-elected.

I think he’s on a kamikaze mission.  I’m ascribing motive but I’m basing it on my personal interaction with him in the past.  (And that’s limited, I’ve noted before that I would walk away if I saw him approaching.)

Bob Somerby and others have done crazy lunatic talk.  Donald’s not going to leave!!!! He’s going to lose the election and he’s not going to leave!!!!

First, there’s a good chance he will win the election.

Second, if he loses, he’ll leave and he’ll leave playing the victim and spend the rest of his life saying how the US screwed up and how every president after him screwed up.  That’s Donald.

You know what else is Donald? Thinking the world is against him.  “He didn’t even want to win!”  That’s what some said as the 2016 election approached and after.  Yes, he did.  But he didn’t think he would and he didn't want to be seen as wanting it as much as he did because he felt the world would then laugh if he lost.  That’s his low self-esteem.  That same low self-esteem tells him he probably won’t be re-elected.  As such, he’s out to destroy now.  This was about punishing others.  It was not, “Joe could beat me!”  It was, “Democrats have been corrupt and I’ll take out any I can on my way out the door.”  That’s Donald.

To be clear, I have not stated he will lose in 2020.  There’s a good chance he’ll win.  Especially if impeachment is pursued.  Especially if No-Enthusiasm Joe is the nominee.

But he has low self-esteem and that’s what he operates from.

“He has a huge ego!!!!”  He has bravado that covers (for some) his low self-esteem.

So I think he’s on a kamikaze mission to take out as many as he can before January 2021 when he fears/suspects/believes he will be leaving the White House.

That’s me ascribing motive.  I don’t deny it.  But I’d argue my insight is a little greater than some speaking on his possible motives.

Donald has low self-esteem.  If he lost the election, he would see it as part of the world victimizing him and would leave the White House.  I do not get the crazy that Bob Somerby has repeatedly preached on Donald locking himself in the White House after losing the election and refusing to go.

But I also don’t get the nonsense Bob preaches about Donald being crazy.  His actions do not surprise me, they do not mystify me.  I do not believe he’s insane.  I do believe he is the wounded child who never recovered.

--------------
Note, the snapshot this morning included Stan's "PRODIGAL SON" -- I don't know how that happened but it was in here twice.  To be clear, Stan wrote that.  It also included the impeachment section 3 times.  That's been reduced to one.  Stan did a strong review of "PRODIGAL SON" and I want to be sure he gets credited for that.  Ava and I do our TV pieces at THIRD.  -- C.I., 9/27/19 12:37 pm EST.
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The following sites updated:








Thursday, September 26, 2019

Joe is not fit to be president

Your son buys dope an other drugs, your niece steals ppls credit cards and fights w/the police cause she didn't pay her rent and gets off on all charges! But your writing crimebills 4 black ppl! You won't be president! via


Joe Biden isn't fit to be president.  He's disgusting.  His family is disgusting.

Jay Ambrose (NEWSDAY) offers this on Joe and his son's raking in money:


Joe Biden has pleaded innocent to a conflict of interest, but early on he knew what was going on because of newspaper reports, and even though he says he never talked to his son about the issue, his son has said he did. Hunter Biden has said he was a director of the company trying to help it out financially and legally, but it is inconceivable that he did not know he was compromising his father, just as it is equally inconceivable that his father did not know the situation might make the United States look corrupt, too, at least to some.

President Barack Obama is said to have been concerned about the son’s since-abandoned job, and Joe Biden could surely have gone to Obama and said, at least on this matter, he did not want to be a point man, or possibly told his son to behave. It didn’t happen and so you wonder why he decided to risk the worst when other, protective options were at hand.


Joe Biden creates his own problems.  Grasp that.  Grasp that since he announced he was running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, it has been one problem after another -- all created by him.  I don't know about you, but I'm really sick of these idiotic men who think they put one over on us.

Nic Rowan (FREE BEACON) reports:

When former president Barack Obama's campaign vetted Joe Biden during the 2008 presidential race, it also looked into Biden's son, Hunter, angering the former vice president.
Obama campaign researchers found potential public relations issues with Hunter Biden's marriage, substance abuse history, and lobbying work, according to the New York Times. "Keep my family out of this," Joe Biden reportedly snapped. The Obama campaign did not press the issue any further.
Hunter Biden has become an issue for his father's 2020 campaign due to his appointment to the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, during the Obama administration. The Ukrainian government dismissed the top prosecutor investigating the company.
The Obama administration repeatedly dodged questions about Hunter Biden's involvement with Burisma in 2014, amid heightened tensions between the United States and Russia following the annexation of Crimea.

Joe has real problems.  His refusal to demand that his son act ethically go to yet another reason why Joe is not fit to be president.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Thursday, September 26, 2019.


Starting in the US where the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues.  War Hawk Joe Biden wants to be president.  And so does his family.  Including his niece who stole over $100,000 and just got a slip on the wrist (see Ruth's "Biden's only tough on crime when it comes to people of color") because, well, "as a Biden."  Joe's word as a Biden is looking even more laughable.


Apparently, Caroline Biden's family didn't use that record player enough at night or maybe they didn't have social workers coming in teaching her parents how to parent -- that's Joe's answer for African-Americans, right?  What's his answer for spoiled White kids in his own family?  Oh, right, look the other way.  Always.

With more on the trashy Biden family, Ben Schreckinger (POLITICO) reports:


Joe Biden’s brother told executives at a healthcare firm that the former vice president’s cancer initiative would promote their business, according to a participant in the conversation, who said the promise came as part of a pitch on behalf of potential investors in the firm.

The allegation is the latest of many times Biden’s relatives have invoked the former vice president and his political clout to further their private business dealings. It is the first that involves the Biden Cancer Initiative, a project Joe Biden made the centerpiece of his post-White House life following the death of his son Beau. 

Biden’s brother, James, made the promise to executives at Florida-based Integrate Oral Care during a phone call on or around November 8, 2018, according to Michael Frey, CEO of Diverse Medical Management, a health-care firm that is suing James Biden. At the time, James Biden’s business partners were pursuing a potential investment in Integrate, according to Frey and court records. Frey, who had a business relationship with James Biden and his associates, had introduced the group to Integrate. 



James Biden told the Integrate executives that he would get the Biden Cancer Initiative to promote an oral rinse made by the firm and used by cancer patients, Frey, who said he participated in the call, told POLITICO. He added that James Biden directly invoked the former vice president on the call. "He said his brother would be very excited about this product,” Frey said. 

Crony capitalism.

Joe claims wisdom.  His family is unethical and he wants to be president?  His niece stole over $100,000 and she's not going to do time?  That's not fair, that's not fair and equal. That's the Biden corruption that runs through that family.

Simon Lewis (REUTERS) reports:

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday edged past former Vice President Joe Biden for the first time in a major national opinion poll for the Democratic presidential primary, making her largest gains among white voters with a college degree. 
Warren drew 27% support to Biden’s 25% in a Quinnipiac University poll of Democratic voters and independent voters who lean Democratic, though her lead was within the margin of error.
The results marked a significant shift from Quinnipiac’s prior polls for the Democratic nominating contest to choose a candidate to take on President Donald Trump in November 2020. Biden had been ahead of Warren by double digits since it began polling in March and by 13 points in the same poll in August.


Joe had been ahead.  He had been.  Before people started seeing who and what he was.

And what happens to his niece is an issue  This goes to the whole 1% argument.  And this is not fair -- again, we're talking $100,000.  There are actresses who are in trouble  for using their money and influence to get their children into colleges.  But his niece steals $100,000 and she's not serving time?

If she wasn't his niece, she would be doing time.

Joe wants to be president as this happens and feels no embarrassment.  This goes back to Hunter Biden getting caught for cocaine usage while in the reserves and being allowed to walk when many others would have served time.

This goes to the issue of corruption and his family -- his brother and his son Hunter -- using his name and his positions to make money.  It's unethical.  This is not a new development.  This nothing new.  It did not develop last week, last year or last decade.  These are policies that have been in effect throughout Joe's political career -- in fact, before his career started.

Joe's allowed this unethical behavior to go on and on.  And now he wants to be president.  It is a serious issue and he needs to be asked about it and he needs to answer for it.  Serious issues are not addressed by sitting down with Jimmy Kimmel, for example.  And that's not slamming Jimmy.  He does an entertainment talk show, he has no background in news, his audience is watching for laughs.  The problem is not Jimmy or any other late night talk show host.












The following sites updated: