Your administration is full of imbeciles.

As if you expected me to say anything different . . .

Let's take a look at the latest bits of insulting lunacy, shall we:

• Your "president" actually handed the German chancellor a fake invoice for what he thinks is backpay due for NATO spending!  Not only that, but the calculations go back to 2002, it is in the amount of £300 BILLION (yes, with a B), and that amount includes freaking INTEREST!! Clearly he has no clue how NATO works.  But didn't he also threaten to pull us out of it, too?
• Your "vice-president" continues to sit back on his holier-than-thou high horse to break Senate vote ties that will significantly, and potentially (heaven forbid) irreparably, harm millions of citizens.  First it was to confirm the ignorant Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary, thus threatening the livelihoods of thousands of educators and, perhaps even more damning, the education of thousands of children.  Today it was using his religious beliefs to allow states to defund Planned Parenthood, thus taking away health care from thousands of women across the country.  Knowing that his entire argument is about an uber-Christian ideal of pro-life, he apparently hasn't read the information that NO GOVERNMENT FUNDING GOES TO ABORTIONS!!!  The money he has just voted against giving to this organization will do so much more harm to women who need PP's other services.
• Your Environmental Protection Agency head his/your fearless leader have signed off on another order essentially dismantling all progress we have made towards the fight against climate change, continuing to ignore all science; and once again arbitrarily killing off one more thing President Obama did during his tenure just because it was his.
• White House aides supplied the reports to your House Intelligence Committee chair to help support the ridiculous wiretapping claims.  Meanwhile he continues refusing to recuse himself in the Russia investigation, now claiming it is Democrats who aren't really serious about it, thus trying to throw up yet another distraction to make it go away.
• And finally (today), your "first daughter" (is that even a thing when she is a grown woman formerly with her own life?) is making her White House role official rather than just taking up an office.  Personally, I still don't understand how she and her husband are allowed to have these positions.  According to U.S. Code › Title 5 › Part III › Subpart B › Chapter 31 › Subchapter I › § 3110, which addresses the employment of relatives (copied from Cornell University Law School, emphasis mine):

(a)For the purpose of this section—

(2)

“public official” means an officer (including the President and a Member of Congress), a member of the uniformed service, an employee and any other individual, in whom is vested the authority by law, rule, or regulation, or to whom the authority has been delegated, to appoint, employ, promote, or advance individuals, or to recommend individuals for appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement in connection with employment in an agency; and

(3)

“relative” means, with respect to a public official, an individual who is related to the public official as father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, or half sister.

(b)

A public official may not appoint, employ, promote, advance, or advocate for appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement, in or to a civilian position in the agency in which he is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control any individual who is a relative of the public official. An individual may not be appointed, employed, promoted, or advanced in or to a civilian position in an agency if such appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement has been advocated by a public official, serving in or exercising jurisdiction or control over the agency, who is a relative of the individual.

(c)

An individual appointed, employed, promoted, or advanced in violation of this section is not entitled to pay, and money may not be paid from the Treasury as pay to an individual so appointed, employed, promoted, or advanced.

          Now, true, the L.A. Times articles says she will not be paid, so seemingly in compliance with
          subsection c (or whatever it's called at this point in the document) above; but I am more
          concerned with subsection b which says it is not allowed.  Now that said, I would argue that
          the law needs a little tweaking, too, as subsection c sounds to me like it says "So a relative
          really shouldn't be employed, but if they are anyway, it's okay so long as they're not paid."
          Come on, folks; which is it you're more concerned with, nepotism or salary?  But I digress
          (speaking of diversions) . . .

So my point today is there is a lot of BS continuing to transpire in Washington.  It is all happening right under our reap-what-you've-sown noses, and we are all going to suffer for it.  I am fearing more and more that nothing is going to happen to get this tyrant removed early, that we are stuck for the full four years with this disaster.  It may not sound like such a long time, but a lot of damage can happen in four years, and it is going to take a lot longer to dig ourselves out, whenever it is he must finally leave.  I really don't know how to protect my family from what is to come, and that scares me more than anything.

Why is Congress allowing this to go on?!

Of course the obvious answer is "We're still Republicans in the end and we hate(d) Obama."  But the whole thing is just so petty!  What is the point of destroying the work of one man when it was all done with the greater good at heart - what the actual fuck?

I am speaking, of course, of the latest batch of bills he signed to rollback more of President Obama's regulations.  It all seems so ridiculously arbitrary the way he is going about his business of destroying his predecessor's legacy in order to make himself look even better to his supporters; of which I don't understand how there still are any - I guess they all haven't figured out how they are getting screwed by him yet.  And those supporters are blindly, irrationally, potentially racistly (not a word, but you get my meaning) cheering for every word uttered and every pen stroked.  And speaking of pens, he reportedly gave out pens to members of Congress as he signed these new bills like it was a fund raiser or a campaign.  I guess the whole thing is just one big campaign for him because he is always about the attention; how many rallies has he had even though he has already won?  And did you break the bank on those novelty pens, Donnie, or did you just have them mass-produced by the same Bic supplier that every corporation uses for their office supplies and get a million for a penny?  But I digress . . .

I'm really beginning to believe Bannon does have his hand so far up the Trump puppet's ass that it's lost.  I have tried very hard not to buy in so quickly to the extreme-left accusation that the entire right population of Washington are nothing but a bunch of backwards racist dickholes and that's why they fought President Obama so hard for eight years.  At the same time I ask myself "What could they possibly have against him; why do they hate him so severely?"  Even before he got elected, they were against him - WHY??  What was so radically different about him that caused the right to defy him so strongly other than he is an educated, well-spoken person of color?  Makes you wonder . . .

So to my title point, if there are enough Republicans starting to turn on him, and obviously everyone on the left has been against him from the beginning, then why does this continue?  Of course it's an easy outsider opponent thing to say "Impeach him already;" I'm not so ignorant of the process that I think it can happen quickly and easily.  I've said it before, I don't think anything will happen until after the midterm elections next year when the Republicans will most assuredly lose at least one house of Congress due to this disaster.  But I just have to believe that the longer 45 (or Bannon) is allowed to continue spewing trash and making hasty, rash decisions in a vain attempt at erasing the black guy from history that enough people on both sides will say "enough is enough" and do something to work towards getting rid of the real problem, the true threat.  It just has to happen sooner than later . . . doesn't it?

What did your government do for you today?

So for the record, I am not on the Affordable Care Act.  I am thankfully supplied health insurance by my employer.  But as the liberal neo-socialist I am, I cannot be happier for the 24 million Americans who have been given a reprieve today by the defeat of the rushed and ill-thought Republican health care bill.  They will not have to fear the loss of their current benefits.  Those with pre-existing conditions will continue having coverage.  Planned Parenthood will not be defunded.  Medicare will continue to exist.  Thank you to all of the members of Congress who were set to vote against the bill before President Crazypants and Speaker Wonderwonk took the cowardly way out and pulled it.

That said, fuck you to the Republican members of the House who were going to vote against the bill because it didn't go far enough to drive out all memory of the ACA.  Your vote was going to be for the absolute wrong reasons.  Let me be clear: I actually do believe that those Representatives who say they were afraid for their constituents who were poised to lose everything related to their health care should this bill have passed.  I am cursing those who were voting in their own self-interests; those who have been part of the seven-year long tirade against the ACA who just want to see it and anything else President Obama accomplished wiped from history.  These are the politicians who again need to be reminded that they work for us.  They were elected to be the voice of the people who for voted for them, not to just toddle off to Washington to fight like children playing King of the Hill. Today, that voice of the people was heard, and a travesty was avoided.

Now let's turn, regretfully, back to our Oval Office man-child.  He whined that it's all the Democrats' fault; they now own it and it is going to explode.  As he always does, he called out his "losers" in the scenario.  He thanked people who stuck by him like he was giving an Oscar speech.  In an unusual attempt at subtlety (which was really subtle as a freight train), he made a dig, instead of a direct attack, about "learning about loyalty," clearly a jab at the Republicans who broke rank and were going to vote against the bill.  And then should his prediction that Democrats come to him with a desire to build a bipartisan plan when the ACA fails come true, you know he will lord it over them like the fascist he is.  Listen to him here if you can stomach it:

I don't care what anyone says, I like CNN's reporting.  This panel discussing the defeat of the bill and 45's comments after is excellent.  David Gergen, who was an adviser to several presidents on both sides for years, says this may be the worst first 100 days we have ever seen for an American president.  Listen for John King's great analogy around the 2:00 mark.

So as I said after the first ridiculous travel ban was blocked, don't ever let it be said that protesting, attending rallies, and speaking out for your beliefs doesn't work; today we saw another crushing blow to this tyrant.  We can only hope they continue and more members of his party prove just how loyal they are, not to the president, but to their constituencies.  Forty-Five, and frankly all politicians, have to stop treating their jobs as "us against them" between their parties and get back to doing what we sent them there to do, which is to govern how we want them to, not how they and their lobbyists want them to.

Today is a very important day in Musical Theatre.

Okay, maybe not very important, but hugely coincidental, and worth recognizing and celebrating. Today is the birthday of TWO of musical theatre's most important and influential composers, Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber.



For the uninitiated, these two are each responsible for some of the most memorable songs and musicals in the history of modern theatre:

• Mr. Sondheim wrote the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy in his early years, then gave us, among many others, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeny Todd (that includes "Not While I'm Around"), A Little Night Music (that includes "Send In the Clowns"), Company, Sunday in the Park With George (which is currently in revival on Broadway starring Jake Gyllenhal), Assassins, and Into the Woods.  He also did the music for the Dick Tracy movie, for which he won the Oscar for Best Original Song that year.  How this genius is not an PEGOT yet is beyond me - why has no one asked him to write for television?!  The man has a Broadway theater NAMED FOR HIM!  He remains my absolute favorite and I hope he can hang on to complete his latest piece.
• Lord (yes, Lord) Lloyd Webber is equally synonymous with musical theatre, despite some critical reviews of his work.  You don't even have to be a fan of musical theatre to at least have heard of several of his shows: Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, his latest is an adaptation of School of Rock, and of course Cats and Phantom of the Opera.  Again, he hasn't written for American television, so no Emmy, but he is that award shy of being a EGOT.  I was absolutely obsessed with his works growing up.  I have soured on him some as I have grown more discerning and realized some of his failings, however the richness of melody he employs when he really has a good one (listen to Music of the Night or Memory), he can't be beaten.

Both men have been honored with the Kennedy Center Honors (1993 and 2006, respectively) and they both reside in the American Theatre Hall of Fame.  They both truly deserve everything they have ever earned, and world theatre and culture are so much richer for them having graced us with their immense talents for so long.

So Happy 87th Birthday Mr. Sondheim and Happy 69th Birthday Lord Lloyd Webber!  Great health and many happy returns of the day to you both.  Thank you for all you have given us.

I can't get too excited . . . yet.

So the FBI has finally admitted it is conducting an investigation into the Trump campaigns and collusion with the Russian government during the 2016 election.  I appreciate they have done so. However, it kind of feels like this is coming from the "Yeah, we already knew that" file.  What little bit has been given to us has certainly proven that Russia was involved.

I don't claim to understand espionage or collusion or secret investigations or Intelligence in the least. As I'm typing, I am listening to the House Intelligence hearing that took place this morning, trying desperately to understand what it's all about; it ain't happening.  But one thing I do get is when a hostile entity infiltrates an organization for its own purposes, a. it rarely ends up good for the organization; and 2. the truth will eventually come out.  Someday we will know the depths to which the Russians were/are involved in our democracy.  We will know the devious backroom lengths to which Trump and/or his team went to getting him elected.  And when the truth is discovered and revealed, there will be some hard prices to pay.  In the meantime, the rest of us who are paying the price right now must continue to be vigilant and look out for each other.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BROADWAY LEADING LADIES BRACKET CHALLENGE

So I guess this is the end of the first attempt at the Broadway Leading Ladies Bracket as I only had one vote submitted for the first round.  Maybe I need to have a different platform for it.  Oh well; I still think it's a fun little distraction.

ELAINE STRITCH MEMORIAL BRACKET

#2 Carol Channing v. #15 Carolee Carmello

#7 Judy Kaye v. #10 Sherie Renee Scott

#6 Andrea Martin v. #10 Megan Mullally

#3 Carol Burnett v. #14 Kerry Butler

Sesame Street has always been a wonderful institution.

Anyone who is of a certain age knows the classic Sesame Street songs, characters, animations, and scenes.  It is wonderful nostalgia for us to think about it and the impact it had on our youth.  Its diligent attention to serving all populations of children, addressing issues many face (death, incarceration, physical disabilities, race) has made it a cultural bedrock for childhood education. With the massive increase in the number of children's networks, I'm deeply saddened to say that the show will not have the same impact on my kids as it did for me.  We had it in our house briefly, but it didn't last long.

That said, I know it does still resonate strongly with many children and their families.  Today, 60 Minutes did a piece on Sesame Street's new Muppet character, a child named Julia who lives with autism.  I absolutely love the notion of introducing a character with a developmental disability to help teach children that those who live with these disabilities are just as worthy of love and attention as they are.  Kudos to the Sesame Workshop for doing this!

I encourage you to look up the 60 Minutes piece, but here is a small sample of Julia:

So this story comes right on the heels of the Big Bad Buffoon Budget Blast that we got the other day which kills all federal funding to the National Endowment for the Arts and PBS.  Sesame Street has always prided itself on thoroughly researching issues like autism and how to properly teach "typical" children (the term used for my kids who were in developmental disability preschool classes as kids without disabilities).  The show's research goes back to it's inception almost fifty years ago when it was first developing the notion of educational children's television.  It has been proven time and again that IT DOES WORK, no matter what 45 and Dick, I mean Mick, Mullvaney want us to believe. Show us your provable research that PBS does no good, and I bet anything the staff at Sesame Workshop will show you at least three times as much research proving it does.

I'll end with this copy-and-share opportunity:

Immediately after the election Trump transition spokesman Jason Miller explained that Melania would be staying in New York because there was "obviously a sensitivity to pulling out a 10-year-old in the middle of the school year".
We have since learned that the cost of security for Melania and Barron to remain at Trump Tower is $183 million/year. There is also no indication that they will actually move to DC this summer. So in essence the Federal government is giving the Trump family a $183 million annual voucher so Barron can attend the elite private prep school of his choice.
Meanwhile, we learned last night that Trump's budget would completely eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA, with an annual budget of only $148 million, is able to provide seed money for arts programming in literally every Congressional district in the country.
So, on the one hand you have a $183 million school voucher for a single 10-year-old at an elite private school. On the other hand you have a program that impacts arts and cultural programming throughout the entire nation.
NOT NORMAL. #Resist

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BROADWAY LEADING LADIES BRACKET CHALLENGE

 ELAINE STRITCH MEMORIAL BRACKET

#1 Angela Lansbury v. #16 Stephanie J. Block

#8 Christine Ebersole v. #9 Debra Monk

#4 Tyne Daly v. #13 Megan Hilty

#5 Faith Prince v. #12 Jessie Mueller

Two words: Bill Maher

Part Two of my rant from yesterday is brought to you so much better by Bill Maher, that wonderfully arrogant, sarcastic, dry, brilliant asshole - I really gotta pay more attention to him!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BROADWAY LEADING LADIES BRACKET CHALLENGE

MARY MARTIN MEMORIAL BRACKET

#2 Barbara Streisand v. #15 Phillipa Soo

#7 Victoria Clark v. #10 Laura Benanti

#6 Kristin Chenoweth v. #11 Judy Kuhn

#3 Barbara Cook v. #14 Laura Osnes

Your president is a disgrace.

Like you really needed me to make that statement if you have followed me at all.  What he did with Angela Merkel today was shameful; ignoring something simple and benign as a handshake, and then continuing to double-down on his wiretapping claims and bringing her into it with an insinuation that she had been tapped too based on an old unproven report.  All of the other world leaders who have had the misfortune of having to meet with him and his aggressive, arrogant extended handshakes in an effort to prove his dominance . . .  This is a country you're "running," not your business; they don't work the same!

I really want to know who taught him how to be presidential and diplomatic, because someone needs to tell that individual to seek a new line of work.  He does have advisers, yes?  Although he never seems to listen to anybody, so it begs the question "Why does he even have advisers?"  Seems like a waste of (presumably taxpayer) money to me.

And while we're on the subject of money, what the hell is this flaming piece of shit budget proposal??!!  You claimed you were going to be a president for ALL Americans, and yet you propose to kill funding for our humanities as well as our humanity.  Pulled directly from the "Highlights" (page 5) of the document:

The Budget also proposes to eliminate funding for other independent agencies, including: the African Development Foundation; the Appalachian Regional Commission; the Chemical Safety Board; the Corporation for National and Community Service; the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; the Delta Regional Authority; the Denali Commission; the Institute of Museum and Library Services; the Inter-American Foundation; the U.S. Trade and Development Agency; the Legal Services Corporation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation; the Northern Border Regional Commission; the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; the United States Institute of Peace; the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness; and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Now I fully admit I don't know what half of these agencies are or what they do.  But I do know that when you pull another fascist/dictator move like attempting to eliminate the arts and humanities to shield yourself from the truth getting out, you're a dick.  When you claim you want to help all citizens, then your party proposes to gut their health care and you want to take away a simple program that can provide food to them, you're a dick. And don't give me the cock-and-bull story that you've analyzed the merits of all these organizations and they just don't work.  You haven't been at it long enough to know that!!  Then to top it all off, you want to give all that money you're supposedly saving to the freaking military complex!

Here are a couple of thoughts, Donnie: first, go fuck yourself, and not in a good way; I mean like dark lifetime prison recess where no one can hear the screams fuck yourself.  Next, instead of cutting funding to programs you and your lousy staff arbitrarily have deemed unworthy of federal spending, cut a few extra golf trips to Florida and/or (I'll give you a choice since one may be more important than another - I'm just saying . . . ) have your wife WITH YOU (novel concept) so there is no extra security.  Then ASK US where we want our tax money going (and not through one of your biased leading surveys directed only at your supporters) instead of assuming every single citizen wants it going to the military or funding pipelines that will poison sacred land or continuing to destroy the planet with the processing of fossil fuels.  You want to work on the country's infrastructure?  Focus on the PEOPLE first, not your own ego, which, by the way, is not equal to that of the country.

Sixty days in and I have yet to see an ounce of America being made great again.  On the contrary, I have watched us degrade into a wallowing, hateful laughing stock.  We thought 44 had a hard time cleaning up the mess created by 43??  Heaven help 46 . . .

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BROADWAY LEADING LADIES BRACKET CHALLENGE

MARY MARTIN MEMORIAL BRACKET

#1 Julie Andrews v. #16 Rebecca Luker

#8 Kelli O'Hara v. #9 Donna Murphy

#4 Bernadette Peters v. #13 Sierra Boguss

#5 Audra McDonald v. #12 Marin Mazzie

Tonight was the night!

The night I took my baby girl to her first professional show!  I'm sure I mentioned before that I was taking her to see the National Tour of Matilda the Musical when it came through the Smith Center here in Las Vegas.  Well, it's here and we went!

                      

Aside from her getting increasingly tired as the night went on because she had inexplicably stayed up over an hour past her bedtime the night before, and how do you truly get a five year old to sit still for two and a half hours, she really enjoyed it.  I need to get a copy of the cast recording for her now, that's for certain; if you haven't heard the score, I recommend it.  The whole show is just a lot of fun. Ignore the fact that I dropped an additional $100 tonight (aside from the cost of the tickets) between a $40 dinner, $40 on souvenirs, and another $20 donation to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS so she could get another little prop from the show (although I was considering donating anyway).  The money is not important, though; so long as my girl had a memorable night.

And now you get to listen to me gush about her theatrical prospects again.  I'm not pushing her, I promise.  She is showing some genuine interest in being a part of this community somehow, and I couldn't be happier!  If her interest continues, she is going to have a lot of fun some day.  And if she decides to be an actor at any level, you better believe I will be right there on her first opening blubbering like the proud, overly-dramatic fool I am.  I really hope both of my children continue to find the pleasure in theatre that I always have.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BROADWAY LEADING LADIES BRACKET CHALLENGE

GWEN VERDON MEMORIAL BRACKET

#2 Rita Moreno v. #15 Catherine Zeta-Jones

#7 Donna McKechnie v. #10 Karen Olivo

#6 Debbie Allen v. #11 Frances Ruffelle

#3 Ann Reinking v. #14 Sarah Jessica Parker

I'm just waiting for Civil War II.

And I don't mean the Marvel Comics event that happened last year.  I mean the very real threat of what the rise of this administration could cause us to do.  Whether the Tyrant Liar in Chief actually means all of the things he has said and continues to say, his populist rhetoric has added new fuel to the very pathetic and (dare I say) evil beliefs many citizens have ignorantly retained despite them having been fought against for decades and centuries.  The rise in anti-semitic displays and continued attacks on Muslims are prime evidence of this.

And now we have (thankfully) received a federal block of Travel Ban 2.0, just as with its original, citing once again that, however you state it, such and order would be an unconstitutional discrimination of a single religion.  Forty-Five happened to be giving another of his campaign-style speeches to an audience of supporters south of the Manson-Nixon line (copyright Robin Williams) when the ruling was delivered, and preached to his choir about how he thinks they should just implement his original order.

It is this choir I fear.  It's not even so much him, because when it comes down to it, we really don't know what is in Trump's mind or heart.  He has lied so much I wonder if even he knows himself anymore.  But what I fear is how what Trump says stirs the pot that irrationally justifies racism, bigotry, and xenophobia, all under the falsehood of being good Christians.  And it will be these people who cast the first stone as they continue to worship their false idol Donald J. Trump, pretending God sent him to us to be president - yes, I actually read that in a thread today:

#1  God gave us Trump for our President for a reason only our Lord knows !!!

Like · Reply · 3 hrs

#2  #1, God did not give us this lying hypocrite!!

Like · Reply · 1 · 3 hrs

#1  I beg your pardon.....

Like · Reply · 3 hrs

#1  Thats YOUR opinion.

Like · Reply · 3 hrs

The anger and venom and hatred that gets spewed from all sides is terrifying.  We can't have disagreements anymore without insults and threats generously peppered throughout the barrages. And that is why I fear CWII: it's not like the first war where we were essentially divided between north and south state borders.  It is clear there are enough alt-right crackpot conservatives and uber-left lunatic liberals (copyright Dan Cole, The Common Man) everywhere that will make the second American Civil War that much more dangerous and bloody because we are intermingled with each other.  And to top it all off, it will give terror organizations like Al-Qaeda (who set us all at each other's throats to begin with - you realize we are letting them win, right?), and real dictators like Kim Jong-Un and Putin, to swoop in and take us over completely while we wallow in our own self-inflicted shithole.

Today's post has been brought to you by Hyperbole, the new fragrance by Scared Pacifist.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BROADWAY LEADING LADIES BRACKET CHALLENGE

So even though I can't seem to get anyone to play with me, I'm still going to post the first round matchups in a vain hope that enough may come around.  I'll give up after all first-round pairings have been given a chance to be voted on.

GWEN VERDON MEMORIAL BRACKET

#1 Chita Rivera v. #16 Marilu Henner

#8 Patina Miller v. #9 Cady Huffman

#4 Bebe Neuwirth v. #13 Charlotte d'Amboise

#5 Jane Krakowski v. #12 Liz Callaway

I hope it doesn't take the full four years.

Another baby step was taken today as a copy of 45's 2005 1040 tax return turned up, unsolicited, in a journalist's mailbox, and he promptly took it to MSNBC to disclose and discuss.

It's not telling us much, but it certainly is begging the questions we have been asking anyway: from where is his income derived; to whom is he beholden; where are the "hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes" he said he paid during the campaign?  If you haven't watched any of Rachel Maddow's coverage of this revelation, I encourage you to catch a bit of it; it is worth continuing the discussion. As a side note, yes, I realize MSNBC is considered the left-wing cable news network, but they are actually getting better about that, and it's intentional.

There is also something to be said for the possibility of this just being another distraction from the Russia investigation and now the failing new health bill, and that 45 himself may have been the source of it.

Also in today's news, Spicey thinks 45 is "extremely confident" there is still proof to be found to support the ridiculous wiretapping tweets.  Because it was extremely abundant to begin with for 45 to make the original accusation . . .

This is the full press conference from 3/14/17. The wiretapping

discussion happens around the 38-minute mark.

And finally, three more bands were barred from entering the country to play at SXSW this week. This time it feels even more racially and religiously motivated as some of the band members are of Egyptian decent.  Rather than commenting again, I will stand by what I posted when this first occurred and encourage you to visit the links to the bands and listen to their music through the linked NPR article.

So what I mean by hoping it doesn't take the full four years is that day after day something new comes up that just adds to the pile of shit he and his circle have been feeding us for months now; before, during, and after the campaign, and since the taking office (and I do mean taking it). Eventually it has to break and the structure we have in place will get him thrown out.  I just hope it doesn't take a full four years for those things to finally add up to a sum that the majority of Congressional Republicans can't stomach anymore.  I still think it will take at least until after the midterm elections next year before anything will happen; if anything will happen . . . .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BROADWAY LEADING LADIES BRACKET CHALLENGE

Not a lot of response from yesterday's match-ups.  If you know musical theatre, please play!

ETHEL MERMAN MEMORIAL BRACKET

#2 Liza Minnelli v. #15 Cynthia Erivo

#7 Lea Salonga v. #10 Jennifer Damiano

#6 Alice Ripley v. #11 Rachel York

#3 Idina Menzel v. #13 Renee Elise Goldsberry

I really can't anymore...

Can anyone explain to me how we keep falling for the lies and deceit this so-called administration continues putting out?  Every time something seriously dangerous comes out of his blathering yob or he clicks out on his handheld computer that doubles as a communication device (copyright Dan Cole, The Common Man), we latch onto it as the latest mini-scandal when we are smart enough to know full well it is just a distraction so we don't focus on something else stupid or insane he has said or done.  And then, like the weasel he his, he hides behind his equally-inept staff while they have to deflect and spin even further for him!  Nothing this fool says is true unless someone else writes it for him and he can actually be convinced to stay on script (see his joint speech to Congress).

This ridiculous wiretapping accusation is the latest in a string of unsubstantiated lies that he has thrown out in an attempt to completely discredit President Obama and make himself look good.  The deadline for him to produce his evidence to the investigative committee came and went today with nothing presented (psssst! THERE WAS NOTHING TO PRESENT BECAUSE THERE IS NO EVIDENCE!!)  Then three things happened: a. they asked for more time to gather their supposed proof (how long do you need if you confidently made the claim in the first place?); 2. Spicey had to go out and and make himself look like an idiot again by trying to convince the press corp, and America, that 45 didn't actual say what he said . . . when he actually said it (do you think Sean really believes his spin or is he just paid really well?); and 3. Conjob gave us yet another great larf by telling us all we are cooking in undercover Transformers (I don't have a snarky parenthetical here, but some of the instant memes are funny!).

KAC, or "Kack" as I think I will start calling her because that's what I want to do when I listen to her, followed up her latest gaff by going on CNN (aren't they the sworn enemy of the current White House?? *GASP!*) to argue, spin, and deflect with Chris Cuomo, who was having none of it.

It's a long one; get some popcorn, but don't choke:

So while I wholeheartedly applaud the Cuomos of the media for holding her and all of their feet to the fire about their lies and deflections, my point is we have to stop letting them distract us in the first place.  Stay focused on the big white Putin in the room.  Don't go off on non-existent tapps (sic) or non-existent millions of illegal voters or non-existent attendees at the inauguration (see the pattern forming?).  His/Their lies need to be addressed and challenged, but stay accountable to the truth and the topic at hand.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

BROADWAY LEADING LADIES BRACKET CHALLENGE

As promised, here is your first chance to vote for your pick for the top Broadway Leading Lady!  As I don't think this blog format has the ability to create polls, I will just need you to reply in the comments, then I will tally up the results and post each day with the next round of voting.  Each pairing will include links to Wikipedia pages with information about each performer if you need help deciding on your selections.  

Please play along! 😁

ETHEL MERMAN MEMORIAL REGION

#1 Patti Lupone v. #16 Jennifer Hudson

#8 LaChanze v. #9 Jennifer Holliday

#4 Sutton Foster v. #13 Emily Skinner

#5 Betty Buckley v. #12 Krista Rodriguez

I have not been a good artist lately.

One of my lovely aunts tipped me off to an article written by Toni Morrisson two years ago for The Nation titled "No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear."

Christmas, the day after, in 2004, following the presidential re-election of George W. Bush.

I am staring out of the window in an extremely dark mood, feeling helpless. Then a friend, a fellow artist, calls to wish me happy holidays. He asks, “How are you?” And instead of “Oh, fine—and you?”, I blurt out the truth: “Not well. Not only am I depressed, I can’t seem to work, to write; it’s as though I am paralyzed, unable to write anything more in the novel I’ve begun. I’ve never felt this way before, but the election….” I am about to explain with further detail when he interrupts, shouting: “No! No, no, no! This is precisely the time when artists go to work—not when everything is fine, but in times of dread. That’s our job!”

I felt foolish the rest of the morning, especially when I recalled the artists who had done their work in gulags, prison cells, hospital beds; who did their work while hounded, exiled, reviled, pilloried. And those who were executed.

The list—which covers centuries, not just the last one—is long. A short sample will include Paul Robeson, Primo Levi, Ai Weiwei, Oscar Wilde, Pablo Picasso, Dashiell Hammett, Wole Soyinka, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Lillian Hellman, Salman Rushdie, Herta Müller, Walter Benjamin. An exhaustive list would run into the hundreds.

Dictators and tyrants routinely begin their reigns and sustain their power with the deliberate and calculated destruction of art: the censorship and book-burning of unpoliced prose, the harassment and detention of painters, journalists, poets, playwrights, novelists, essayists. This is the first step of a despot whose instinctive acts of malevolence are not simply mindless or evil; they are also perceptive. Such despots know very well that their strategy of repression will allow the real tools of oppressive power to flourish. Their plan is simple:

1. Select a useful enemy—an “Other”—to convert rage into conflict, even war.

2. Limit or erase the imagination that art provides, as well as the critical thinking of scholars and journalists.

3. Distract with toys, dreams of loot, and themes of superior religion or defiant national pride that enshrine past hurts and humiliations.

The Nation could never have existed or flourished in 1940s Spain, or 2014 Syria, or apartheid South Africa, or 1930s Germany. And the reason is clear. It was born in the United States in 1865, the year of Lincoln’s assassination, when political division was stark and lethal—during, as my friend said, times of dread. But no prince or king or dictator could interfere successfully or forever in a country that seriously prized freedom of the press. This is not to say there weren’t elements that tried censure, but they could not, over the long haul, win. The Nation, with its history of disruptive, probing, intelligent essays sharing wide space equally with art criticism, reviews, poetry and drama, is as crucial now as it has been for 150 years.

In this contemporary world of violent protests, internecine war, cries for food and peace, in which whole desert cities are thrown up to shelter the dispossessed, abandoned, terrified populations running for their lives and the breath of their children, what are we (the so-called civilized) to do?

The solutions gravitate toward military intervention and/or internment—killing or jailing. Any gesture other than those two in this debased political climate is understood to be a sign of weakness. One wonders why the label “weak” has become the ultimate and unforgivable sin. Is it because we have become a nation so frightened of others, itself and its citizens that it does not recognize true weakness: the cowardice in the insistence on guns everywhere, war anywhere? How adult, how manly is it to shoot abortion doctors, schoolchildren, pedestrians, fleeing black teenagers? How strong, how powerful is the feeling of having a murderous weapon in the pocket, on the hip, in the glove compartment of your car? How leaderly is it to threaten war in foreign affairs simply out of habit, manufactured fear or national ego? And how pitiful? Pitiful because we must know, at some level of consciousness, that the source of and reason for our instilled aggression is not only fear. It is also money: the profit motive of the weapons industry, the financial support of the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about.

Forcing a nation to use force is easy when the citizenry is rife with discontent, experiencing feelings of a powerlessness that can be easily soothed by violence. And when the political discourse is shredded by an unreason and hatred so deep that vulgar abuse seems normal, disaffection rules. Our debates, for the most part, are examples unworthy of a playground: name-calling, verbal slaps, gossip, giggles, all while the swings and slides of governance remain empty.

For most of the last five centuries, Africa has been understood to be poor, desperately poor, in spite of the fact that it is outrageously rich in oil, gold, diamonds, precious metals, etc. But since those riches do not, in large part, belong to the people who have lived there all their lives, it has remained in the mind of the West worthy of disdain, sorrow and, of course, pillage. We sometimes forget that colonialism was and is war, a war to control and own another country’s resources—meaning money. We may also delude ourselves into thinking that our efforts to “civilize” or “pacify” other countries are not about money. Slavery was always about money: free labor producing money for owners and industries. The contemporary “working poor” and “jobless poor” are like the dormant riches of “darkest colonial Africa”—available for wage theft and property theft, and owned by metastasizing corporations stifling dissident voices.

None of this bodes well for the future. Still, I remember the shout of my friend that day after Christmas: No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.

I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge—even wisdom. Like art.

Ms. Morrisson wrote this article three months before DT officially announced his candidacy for president in 2015.  Yes, we were already a politically divided country (that started with Bill Clinton's indiscretions, and the rift has continued growing ever since), but I don't know how she could have been so clairvoyant to see us two years later ready to be at each other's proverbial (and perhaps literal) throats over where we are now.

I have not made any real art of any kind for a long time.  Aside from a couple small school projects and some silly lip sync battles, I have not performed in about nine years (I am close to remedying that as I hope to finally audition for some shows in a couple of weeks! 😲).  I have the second beginning of a short story (don't tell my kids) waiting for me to actually care enough to do something more with it after getting unmotivated once I lost the first draft when my first tablet burned out.  I still have yet to make good on a twenty-five year-old promise to a high school art teacher to make two works of art for myself in exchange for an A in his class that I didn't really deserve.

Ms. Morrisson's friend is absolutely right.  She is absolutely right.  When it is time to stand up and fight for what is right and just, we must not cower in the corner with our nookie-blankies.  We do what is necessary.  I have yet to do that.  I don't consider this blog to be particularly creative.  This is just the uneducated blatherings of someone with an opinion who ultimately just wants to feel self-important behind the guise of speaking out against tyranny and bragging about a few insignificant personal accomplishments.  I am not trying to demean anything I have done or want to do, but the plays for which I plan to audition are not earth-changing; they're fun and important, but they're not going to rock the establishment to its foundation.  My short story is a fantasy that is influenced by an idea my father had.  Maybe I could start to work on that promise, but I have no ideas.

For seven years, I have just focused on being as good a dad to my two wonderful children as I can. My art has dried up.  Perhaps it is time to get out some metaphoric moisture, lubricate the gears, and really create something again.  Art matters, in all forms, whether it speaks directly to current events or is a much-needed temporary distraction from the realities of our collective environment.  Whatever the case, it is high time I take Ms. Morrisson's sage words to heart.  Great respect and gratitude to those of you who have continued to make your art under all circumstances.

I can't believe what we have become.

As part of America's "new normal," we have had a collective xenophobia thrust on us.  Anyone who is different from us can be thrown out or not admitted in for the slightest reason.  Heaven forbid we remember we are the HUMAN race first, not the AMERICAN race.  And, lest we forget, we are a nation founded by immigrants searching for new opportunities to live freely from oppression.

Do not start going off again on the stupid M&M theory.  I am not suggesting we let absolutely anyone into the country without question; of course we need to protect ourselves, but that doesn't mean we must become so harsh that we incarcerate or deport someone for life because they sneezed during their entry interviews.  If someone comes through Border Patrol with all the proper documentation and a corroborating story, why all the fuss?  Because 45's immigration mandates are so vague and they give far too much interpretive power to individual agents, we have now reached the point where an indie band was disallowed entry into the country.

Italian band Soviet Soviet (who I admittedly had not heard of before this incident, but I listened to a couple tracks and they are up my alley) flew into Seattle to perform at a couple of promotional venues along the west coast before traveling to Austin, TX for the annual South By Southwest (that's SXSW for those hip enough to know) exhibition festival.  At none of these events was the band being paid - strictly promotional performances - and they flew in with all of the appropriate documentation they were told they needed.  They have a label who represents them here.  None of their materials or contacts made any difference.  They were interrogated separately, then, after it was determined they were not to be allowed entry, they were handcuffed and taken to jail for the night, apparently while awaiting travel arrangements to return them to Italy.

THEY ARE A FREAKING ROCK BAND!!!  They are just trying to make a living doing what they love.  Like so many other bands around the world, they were coming to SXSW to promote themselves.  If you don't know, SXSW is a very big deal for hundreds of bands, and now comedians and filmmakers, to help them get attention for their work.  This band has now been denied potential exposure from one of the bigger international stages because of an arbitrary decision made by some Border Patrol agents who claimed the band still did not have the proper documentations.  The excuse was that since a couple of the venues at which they were to have performed were charging a cover, that was reason to make the agents believe the band was going to be paid and therefore made it necessary for them to have work visas rather than ESTAs, which is a Visa Waiver Program.  I'm sorry, you're going to have to do better than that, CBP.

So the dangers of Trump's America shine again, this time on such an innocuous situation.  As if the so-called "travel ban" isn't ridiculous enough, now we have any Tom, Dick, or Harry with a badge and a clipboard deciding who is clean enough to step on our sacred and hallowed ground that we appropriated from the real natives in the first place.  I guess they've proven one thing by this: they aren't racial profiling against Muslims; we're afraid of everyone.  I am so disgusted and ashamed.

The only good thing that should come out of this is Soviet Soviet gets a lot more attention, and I hope they do become big stars and then find a way to throw it back in 45's face.

And so you don't think I'm just going off half-cocked about this, here is an article reporting the incident; a link to radio station KEXP in Seattle (which was one of the promo events the band was to play) detailing their understanding of the it; Soviet Soviet's Facebook page; and one of their videos. Peace, love, and rock and roll; may clearer heads prevail.

I stumbled on a piece of nostalgic gold tonight.

As I have mentioned in past posts, when I was in college frmphferumph years ago, I volunteered at a wonderful radio station in Minneapolis called REV105.  It was the most refreshing commercial radio station many of us had heard, running right during the prime of the alternative music boom in the mid-1990s (I was so fortunate to be in school at that time!).  It competed with a Disney-owned mega-watt mainstream alternative rock station, to which it was eventually sold.

                                                

Initially I was an avid listener of the mega-watt giant.  When REV first went on air, I toyed with it a bit.  I called once for a request, but told the screener I was still sticking with the big boys.  I was asked what it would take to convert me; I didn't have a good answer.  Sooner after, I was listening to the corporate beast and decided to call in for a request, the new Juliana Hatfield single if I remember correctly.  Their screener flatly said "Who?"  I was floored a radio station who called itself the "leader" in a market for a particular format didn't know one of its more-famous faces.  From that moment on, I was a dedicated REV105 listener, spending hours and hours with my obsession, probably irritating the snot out of my family and friends because I refused to listen to anything else.

I began thinking I wanted to steer away from my lifelong goal of becoming a professional actor to pursuing a career as an on-air personality in alternative radio, and I decided it was going to happen at the REV.  I got up the nerve to call the station and offer my volunteer services to the Program Director, the esteemed Kevin Cole, thinking it would be my way in to eventually just being handed an actual job.  For the next two years, all the staff at the station put up with my annoying clinging and begging to be a part of everything I could, from parades to comps to shows to almost getting to engineer during the State Fair.  In hindsight, they all couldn't have been more generous and patient with an obnoxious little wannabe from the south suburbs who really had no idea what the business was really about and just wanted to hang with the cool kids.

Tonight, this Soundcloud mix was posted on Facebook by a couple of actual former employees of the station who have continued having very successful radio careers.  It is a 90-minute splice of on-air and studio recordings as well as samples of the music, album tracks and in-studio rarities, that made the station so great.

The posts were accompanied by the melancholy reminder that it was twenty years ago this weekend that the station was ripped away from us.  No fanfare, no warning; just an hour of even more unusual and eclectic programming than we were already used to, then suddenly getting blasted out by The Scorpions as Disney decided it was going to change the format to hard rock.  No one knew what was happening.  The staff had just been told themselves.  There were mourning parties soon after.  We had all lost something very dear to us.  It was a travesty and we all hurt for a long time.

If you choose to listen, it may not mean as much to you if you weren't down with the Revolution at the time, but at least some of the music may bring a nostalgic smile to your face.  The whole thing did for me.  If I weren't working my suit job on Saturday and it weren't getting prematurely hot here in the desert, I might wear my REV hoodie all day in memorium; it's the only piece of memorabilia I have left, but I still proudly wear it when the weather permits.  Maybe I'll just have to break out some of my favorite albums from that period to reminisce further.  I hope you'll spare some time and take a listen to what was truly one of the highlights of my life.  Peace, love, and rock and roll.

Let's have a little fun!

Today was International Women's Day, a day to celebrate women from all walks of life, everywhere in the world.  To all women, you are wonderful, beautiful, hard-working people who have always and continue to deserve far greater respect and equality that you receive.  As a white male in America, I don't pretend to understand all you go through, but I stand with you.

We are also approaching the NCAA College Basketball Tournament - MARCH MADNESS!  I also don't pretend to know the first thing about college basketball; I barely follow the NBA.  But I do know this is the time of year where everyone has fun with brackets of some kind.

If you have followed me at all, you know I have always been a huge fan of theatre, particularly musical theatre.  I have had an idea rolling around my noodle for a couple of years for no particular reason.  I've worked on it a little bit, but now, in light of the day and that we are all in need of a slight distraction due to our shared national/global disaster, I have decided it is finally time to present my BROADWAY LEADING LADIES BRACKET! 

So first of all, let me apologize for the poor quality of the photo.  The bracket was created in Excel and I'm not bright enough to figure out how to just copy that into the blog, so we get a phone pic upload instead; I hope you can work out how to read the names.

Second, I need your participation in this!  To give you time to fill out your brackets, voting will begin on Monday, March 13.  Each day, I will give you match-ups on which to vote and then tally the results until we get a winner for our greatest living Broadway Leading Lady!  Please share this with anyone you know who enjoys Broadway!

Third, all of these extremely talented ladies could go into just about any category description, but in case you don't understand my four brackets, here is an explanation:

• Ethel Merman Memorial Bracket is for belters.
• Mary Martin Memorial Bracket is for "legit" singers.
• Gwen Verdon Memorial Bracket is for "triple threats" - actor/singer/dancer.
• Elaine Stritch Memorial Bracket is for character actors.

Finally, for those of you who are following me looking for more than fluff and diversions, don't worry: I will not abandon my other writing for this over the next couple of weeks (or however long it takes to get through this - I'm very informal about it); I will simply add each day's match-ups at the end of the post; feel free to not participate if it doesn't interest you, but it would be really fun to have a lot of votes each day!

So warm up your warblers, put on your tap shoes, and sparkle those jazz hands as we honor our favorite Broadway ladies!

I don't know how to approach this tonight.

I guess first off apologies are in order.  Yesterday was the first day I have missed a post since starting this blog (I can hear the sarcastic sentiments from many of you).  Not only was I thoroughly exhausted and falling asleep while trying to type up some nonsense fluff piece about being excited for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and what it will be giving us this year (although I may return to that in the not too distant future), it's DAMN HARD writing like this day after day!  I have a whole new respect for those who can, and for those who write period, no matter your medium.  How do other bloggers and editorialists (not a word?) and late-night talk show staves write such great stuff to be presented instantly day after day??  Kudos to you all!

So as I'm still trying to crawl out of my "45 Fatigue," as a high school friend poetically calls it, I'm torn with how I should proceed tonight.  I could go off about Immigrant Ban 2.0 and how it's basically more of the same with just a little (surprising) pander to the left in recognizing there could be harm in a unilateral ban of all immigrants; how there is a convenient coincidence that Khizr Khan, the father of the Muslim soldier who died while serving the country and spoke at the Democratic National Convention to offer DT a copy of the Constitution, has had to cancel travel plans TO CANADA for a speaking engagement because of it; how it is all still very vague and scary to leave things up to individual Customs and Border Patrol personnel to interpret, who could just as easily insert their own feelings and biases rather than be fair and impartial about waiver requests.

I could talk further about the ridiculous alt-right media claims that he jumped all over about President Obama and a "tapp" (sic) of his golden NYC palace; how the claim is completely unsubstantiated and he and Spicey know it is which is why they are now refusing to make any further statements about it; how it is just another attempt at distraction from the continuing investigation into his campaign's ties with Russia.

I could bring up the rise in anti-Semitism in the country; how he himself may not be anti-Semitic, but his campaign run on hate and bigotry and intolerance has made it acceptable for citizens of that backwards and antiquated mindset to physically and verbally attack other citizens who are different from them, both to their person and to their property, including sacred places like cemeteries.  And let's not forget the continuing Islamophobia running rampant (side note: how sad is it "Islamophobia" is recognized by spellchecker?).

I could talk about how Dr. (??!) Ben Carson doesn't seem to understand his history because he compared slaves to immigrants, despite a pathetic attempt at a retraction.  Or how about the suddenly-existent new bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act which would still harm millions of Americans (kudos to the Republican leaders who are currently refusing to go along with it)?  OR how about that he has been in Florida playing golf four out of five weekends of his short term when he was so quick to chastise his predecessor for taking an infrequent vacation over EIGHT YEARS?

I COULD go on about any of these things, but I just want to talk about the shared love my son and I have for Harry Potter, and now it's too late for me to do that tonight - thanks Trump!