Month: January 2018

Quinnipiac poll results (1/10/18)

Trump tweeted that 66% of the public think the economy is good or excellent in a new Quinnipiac poll which is the highest mark ever.  That’s true but there’s lots of bad news in the poll which he ignored.  While the economy mark is high, 49% give credit to Obama while 40% give credit to Trump.

The complete poll is here. The results are mostly bad for Trump.  The summary includes:

 “President Trump’s grades on most character traits are down significantly since his first post-inaugural poll January 26, 2017, as voters say:

  • 63 – 34 percent that he is not honest;
  • 59 – 39 percent that he does not have good leadership skills;
  • 59 – 38 percent, that he does not care about average Americans;
  • 59 – 39 percent that he is a strong person;
  • 65 – 32 percent that he does not share their values.”

Sad!

Trump keeps lying about the 2016 election

Trump keeps telling lies about the 2016 election which was over a year ago.

  • The Electoral College map favors the Democrats

This is not true.  In two of the last five elections, the Democrat has won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College vote.  Democrats are concentrated in urban areas and blue state.  Clinton won California by millions of votes.  Trump won Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin by fewer than 50,000 votes in each state.  That’s why he won the election.  His campaign does deserve credit for thinking they could win in those states when most people considered them solidly Democratic.

  • There were three to five million illegal votes and Trump would have won the popular vote without them

This is a lie and he has presented no evidence to support his claim.  The amount of voter fraud is extremely small.

  • Trump won an electoral college landslide

It was not a landslide.  In fact, his percentage was 46th out of 58 elections.

And of course, he denies there was Russian interference.  We’ll never know how much that influenced the election.  He certainly may have won without Russian help but it can’t be proven one way or the other.  The fact that he won should be enough but Trump has to lie to make his win seem even better.  Sad!

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) was the first film directed by Orson Welles after Citizen Kane.  However, unlike Kane, Ambersons was cut and revised by the studio.  It is still a great film.  It is the second best Welles film after Kane.  I would place Touch of Evil third and The Lady from Shanghai fourth.

Here’s the trailer for The Magnificent Ambersons.  Several scenes from the film are on YouTube and it is available on DVD.  I suggested on a Facebook forum that Criterion should issue a Blu-ray version and someone wrote back that they are working on it.

The great funhouse mirror scene from Shanghai is here.  It won’t make a lot of sense without the rest of the film but the effects of the mirrors are fun to watch.

Trump is an authoritarian

This column discusses findings by two political scientists about how to identify an authoritarian leader.

They have four criteria:

“1. The leader shows only a weak commitment to democratic rules.

2. He or she denies the legitimacy of opponents.

3. He or she tolerates violence.

4. He or she shows some willingness to curb civil liberties or the media. ”

Trump meets all four criteria.  Sad!

 

The Russia Investigation

Trump tweeted today that Republicans should take control of the Russia investigation.  Republicans already are in charge of the House and Senate investigations and have increasingly shown they are not serious and intend to protect Trump.   Senators Grassley and Graham referred the author of the dossier, Christopher Steele, for prosecution.  Steele was not involved in contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign.  He was trying to find out what happened.  The referral is just a diversion from the real issue.

What we know so far:

  • There were contacts between Russians and the Trump campaign which were not initially revealed by the Trump team.
  • Trump, Jr. was willing to collude with Russia to get dirt on Hillary Clinton.  He should have told the FBI instead of meeting with the Russians.
  • The initial statement about the meeting was a lie.  Apparently, Trump was involved in writing it.
  • We don’t know if collusion occurred – this in an open issue.   Trump lies when he says everyone says there is no collusion.  That’s not true.
  • Trump has made efforts to stop the investigations.
  • Some Republicans are trying to discredit the Mueller investigation which is the only real shot we have at finding out the truth.

Why are the all of these efforts to stop the investigations if there is nothing to hide?  Why all of the lies and coverups?  I don’t know yet if the Trump campaign was guilty of collusion but I sure think they act like they’re guilty.  Sad!

Covers: The Dark End of the Street

The Dark End of the Street was written by Dan Penn and Chips Moman in 1966.  The original (and probably the best and most famous) version was released by James Carr in 1967.  Percy Sledge also released a version in 1967.  It has been covered numerous times and I have attached links to YouTube below.  It was used in the 1991 film The Commitments.  Co-author Dan Penn released a version in 1994.

James Carr (1967) with harmony vocal by Dan Penn 

Percy Sledge (1967)

The Flying Burrito Brothers (1969) 

Aretha Franklin (1970)  

Ry Cooder (instrumental) (1972) 

Linda Ronstadt (1974) 

Richard and Linda Thompson (1975) 

The Commitments (1991) 

Dan Penn (1994)

Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham live (date unknown)

Covers: Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Them All

Fiddlin’ John Carson recorded “Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Them All” in the early 1930s.  I first heard the song (as “Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Us All”) on Ry Cooder’s terrific 1972 album Into the Purple Valley.  Cooder moves the music into the electric age while preserving the Depression Era theme about mistreatment of the farmers.  While preparing this post, I also found a 1959 version by the New Lost City Ramblers which is much closer to Carson’s original.  Here are all three versions.

Fiddlin’ John Carson

New Lost City Ramblers

Ry Cooder

Trump and the National Anthem

Trump’s attempt to sing the National Anthem at the College Football Championship game was strictly a political move to appeal to his base.    He has ignored the players’ purpose for the protests – concerns about rational injustice.  He has warped it into making it look like the players are disrespecting the military which is not true.   His actions serve two purposes.  It’s an appeal to the white supremacist part of his base and it enables him to ignore the real issues (which also appeals to his base).

This column describes out the long history of whites objecting to protests by African-Americans.

This column, by former NFL player Anquan Boldin, discusses the real reasons for the protests.