Month: January 2019

You can’t negotiate with Trump

First, he signaled he would sign the continuing resolution passed by the Senate which did not include money for the wall.  Then, pressured by Fox News, he said he wouldn’t.

The Vice President floated the idea of compromising in $2.5 billion for the wall.  Then Trump said he wouldn’t do it.

Trump would have had a deal last year with $25 billion for the wall in exchange for taking care of the DACA immigrants and others but then he decided he wouldn’t do it.

Trump believes in winning.  That means someone will lose.  This deal will require a compromise where both sides get something and give something.  Trump does not appear to be willing to give anything.

Why should the Democrats give in?  The wall is a poor idea – there are better ways to protect the border.  Polls show the public does not want the wall.  Only the Trump cult, which is a minority, wants it.  The public blames the Republicans for the shutdown which is correct when both houses of Congress and the White House were controlled by them.  Trump doesn’t care about the people hurt by the shutdown.  He says, with no factual basis, that the employees are mostly Democrats.  Trump only cares about his cult members, not the whole country.

Federal workers should be used as political pawns by Trump.  Democrats will pass continuing resolutions and Trump should sign them.  McConnell is gutless and won’t bring up a bill similar to the one previously passed.

Trump’s non-stop lying doesn’t help either.

 

Don’t forget how bad the Trump tax cut was

Trump lies at his cabinet meeting

Trump defended Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan, too.  Which side is he on?

Rolling Stone on the Band

 

I am a big admirer of the Band and saw four of their concerts.  They did not indulge in the musical excesses common then – they just stood there and played.  I first saw them in 1970 – the concert was loud like their then new album Stage Fright.  It was great – crisp, rock and roll more than their earlier folkie sound.

This article  isn’t bad and I’m glad to see the Band get the publicity but I have some disagreements.

One factual point – Moondog Matinee was their sixth album, not their fifth.

The Band is by far their best album.

Stage Fright is half great, half bad.  I love “Strawberry Wine”, “Sleeping”, “Time to Kill” and “The Shape I’m In”.  To me, “W.S. Walcott Medicine Show” is a self conscious imitation of the old-fashioned sound and stories that were natural on The Band. “Just Another Whistle Stop” is bland mainstream rock.  Nothing distinguishes it from the other music popular then.  Great Band songs really stand out because they were so unique in how they brought the past into the present.

Cahoots is terrible.  The only good tracks are the first two – “Life Is a Carnival” and “When I Paint My Masterpiece”.

Before the Flood is a very accurate souvenir of what the 1974 tour shows were like.  I saw one in Philadelphia.  It’s shorter than the actual shows.  I saw Dylan do five acoustic songs and there are three here.  The Band did 11 songs and there are eight here.  The Band was excellent but the crowd kept calling out for Dylan when he was offstage.

I have read Dylan did not like the tour so I doubt it will be covered in the Bootleg Series releases.  That’s a shame.  There are more shows that were recorded and some have been bootlegged.  The performances were fine.  Maybe Dylan didn’t like it because it was more a recreation of 1966 than something new.  In 1974, the performances were met with adulation instead of the hostility from 1966.

I am not a big fan of The Last Waltz.  I was tired of seeing the same songs and the performances were not as good as their early ones.

I do like Moondog Matinee which emphasizes some lesser known songs by great artists such as “I’m Ready” (Fats Domino) and “Promised Land” (Chuck Berry).

I’m glad the article mentioned “Going, Going, Gone” which is the best song on the slight Planet Waves.

“Can You Please Crawl Our Your Window” was from an era (1965-67) when everything Dylan did was great.  It’s not up there with the previous singles like “Like a Rolling Stone” or “Positively 4th Street” but there aren’t many songs that are.

This is not the released take and I don’t think the Band was the backup.  Most Dylan stuff is not on YouTube.

 

Trump’s unpresidential tweets about McChrystal

Little Donald just has to throw a tantrum and fight back.  You’re the president.  Act like it.

See the Jake Tapper thread below by clicking on the tweet.