Note (actually twenty-eight measures of notes): This post is apolitical and consists of blatant self-promotion of a short, original musical composition about the coronavirus lockdown. I am a frustrated fifty-four year member of the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS). I direct one chorus on Mondays and sing in a second chorus on Thursdays. Well, I used to until the COVID-19 virus shut them both down in March. Because I dabble in composing original music and had nothing better to do, I finished a song I started writing forty years ago. It was supposed to be a show opener for "Denino’s Home-Grown Harmony,” the quartet I sang in with my three sons in the 1970s and 80s. The melody and half of the lyrics were in my head when the quartet broke up. Thanks to boredom caused by the forced lockdown of the global pandemic, I located the unfinished song in a seldom-visited corner of my memory, dusted it off, and and completed it usingmy trusty iMac. The theme of the story told in the lyrics is new, but the question asked at the beginning and the answer at the end are forty years old. Some might even say the answer is timeless. 😎
Click the song title below to hear the virtual singer module of Harmony Assistant, the music composition software I used sing...
What can you do when you want to sing, but COVID ls lurking around? You need a barbershop chord to ring, but alone you can’t make that sound. Sing in the shower, and what do you get? Soap in your eyes and a sound that’s all wet! So, what can you do when you miss your quartet and you find yourself all alone?
Can’t see your father, your mother, your sister, or your brother ‘cause you’re stuck at home all alone with your honey.
I tell ya, “You can make music. Two can make music, beautiful music at home!”
Donald J. Trump is using these two dog-whistle words to call out to his brainwashed base for acts of violence that will help him become a dictator in fact as opposed to the dictator by presidential decree and executive order he has been since his inauguration.
If you don't recognize that reality fter nearly four years of his divisive rhetoric, government chaos, and attacks on those who have tried to defend the rule of law,you are part of the problem.
President Trump is making a play for suburban voters by trying to convince them that if Democrat Joe Biden wins, then crime will be rampant.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
To read and/or listen to the Tamara Keith's NPR article, click here, or on the title above.
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Trump is pitching fear to his base, but the real threat to America comes from Trump himself.
This rewrite of the Pledge of Allegiance cuts to the chase to make clear where Trump, his supporters, and his enablers in the GOP will take us if he is reelected in November.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the Divided States of America, and to the Theocracy for which it stands, one Plantation under Trump, inconsolable, with fascism and bondage for all.
Trump attacks the "Radical Left" from the "Radical Right" and essentially says, "Go to Hell!" to the majority of Americans who are asking their government to live up to its claim of equality for all.
Data can be "distributed" (spread out) in different ways.
It can be spread out
more on the left
Or more on the right
Or it can be all jumbled up
But there are many cases where the data tends to be around a central value with no bias left or right, and it gets close to a "Normal Distribution" like this:
To Donald Trump, the distribution of American opinions on any issue is anything but normal. He discounts the entire middle, sees only the fringe elements on the left and right, and panders to those on the extreme right with dog-whistle politics and emotional rhetoric devoid of substance.
President Trump speaks during the Fourth of July "Salute to America" event on the South Lawn of the White House, on Saturday.
Patrick Semansky/AP
In a Fourth of July speech aimed at commemorating the military on Saturday, President Trump hit on familiar divisive themes, condemning the "radical left" and the media he accused of "slander."
During the second annual "Salute To America" event held on the South Lawn, the president drew a comparison between historic American wartime victories and stopping the "radical left."
"American heroes defeated the Nazis, dethroned the fascists, toppled the communists, saved American values, upheld American principles, and chased down the terrorists to the very ends of the Earth," the president told attendees. "We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters and people who in many instances have absolutely no clue what they are doing."
Trump also went after protesters who've rallied to take down statues and monuments that honor Confederate leaders and others known to have supported or profited off of slavery and racism.
"We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children, or trample on our freedoms," he said.
Trump said media outlets "slander" him and "falsely and consistently label their opponents as racists."
He said his administration has already selected "30 legends," men and women that include: John Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Daniel Boone, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Henry Clay, Davy Crockett, Frederick Douglass, Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Franklin, Billy Graham, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Douglas MacArthur, Dolley Madison, James Madison, Christa McAuliffe, Audie Murphy, George S. Patton, Ronald Reagan, Jackie Robinson, Betsy Ross, Antonin Scalia, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, George Washington, and Orville and Wilbur Wright.
The celebration comes as the U.S. sees a surge in coronavirus infections. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser advised the public to follow CDC-recommended hygiene measures to prevent the spread of the virus, including wearing face coverings and avoiding large gatherings.
You say you don't understand why Black Americans are angry and protesting? Well, Charlie White, here's an old Peanuts comic strip that I hope will help you wake up to reality.
When Charles Schulz created this strip many years ago, I'm certain he was not commenting on racial inequality.
However, now that the entire country has witnessed the murder of George Floyd, Schulz's Fathers Day comic strip is a perfect visual metaphor for the underlying history and the current state of race relations in America.
half-truth| ˈhaf ˈˌtro͞oTH | nounastatement that conveys only part of the truth, especially one useddeliberately in order to deceive someone: the nuclear industry has often resorted to half-truths and cover-ups. Because Donald Trump lies constantly, I rarely agree with anything he says, but this tag line from a video he shared on Twitter is accurate.
"America is not the problem. Fake news is," says the video that fakes CNN footage. However, as with all things related to Trump, there is a caveat. Trump is a master of the half-truth. Fake news is indeed a problem, but the major sources of fake news are Trump's enablers, right-wing media outlets, and Trump himself.
President Trump, seen here during a meeting Thursday at the White House, shared a video on Twitter with a fake CNN headline. The social media network flagged the doctored footage as "manipulated media."
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Just three weeks after President Trump clashed with Twitter over its fact-checking policies, the social media platform has again flagged a post from the leader of the U.S.
The social media platform tagged a video he posted Thursday night with a warning label — "manipulated media" — after finding that it deceptively doctored footage in a way that was "likely to cause harm."
The video fakes a CNN segment that depicts a white toddler running after a black child of similar age, scoring the images with screechy, scary string music. Beside CNN's reproduced logo, a false, misspelled chyron declares "TERRIFIED TODLER RUNS FROM RACIST BABY." Then, it reads: "RACIST BABY PROBABLY A TRUMP VOTER."
The video then rewinds and plays more of the footage, showing a viral video from last year in which the two toddlers run toward each other and embrace, after introducing the new scene as "what really happened."
"America is not the problem. Fake news is," says the video that fakes CNN footage.
"CNN did cover this story — exactly as it happened. Just as we reported your positions on race (and poll numbers)," CNN replied to the tweet. "We'll continue working with facts rather than tweeting fake videos that exploit innocent children. We invite you to do the same."
Twitter, too, took action against the post, affixing a warning on the tweet that redirects users to an explanation why it's deceptive. Along with the explanation, the platform also displays a number of tweets offering further factual context.
Trump has not publicly responded to the decision, but it's unlikely the significance will go unnoticed by the president.
Late last month, he sparred with the leadership behind his social media network of choice. Slapped with a fact-checking warning for the first time, Trump signed an executive order targeting the broad legal protections afforded to social media companies.
As he announced the order, Trump described the companies' "unchecked power to censor" as "one of the gravest dangers it has faced in American history."
On Facebook, meanwhile, the Trump campaign saw several of its posts and advertisements removed on Thursday, just hours before Trump posted the video on Twitter. The ads, one of which warned of "dangerous MOBS of far-left groups," featured an upside-down red triangle that Nazis once used to identify political opponents — and that campaign officials dismissed as "an emoji."
Tell a lie; apologize. Tell another lie; apologize. Tell yet another lie; apologize. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat…
Effectiveness:
This is a favorite tactic of those who mislead the public because it works so well. The apologies are disingenuous and purely cosmetic. Once a lie has been published it will circulate among the true-believers as unassailable truth despite the apologies of the perpetrators and debunking evidence from their critics.
This digitally manipulated image was published on the Fox News homepage on June 12 with stories about Seattle. The image combines scenes from a June 10 photograph from Capitol Hill with two May 30 images from downtown.
Trailers refer to short previews of a piece of content, such as a movie trailer, which demonstrates scenes and the general plot and mood of a piece of media, in order to garner interest. This also applies to trailers for television or radio shows or other online content like podcasts or vlogs. Generally, trailers will be matched with other relevant content, such as a trailer for a fantasy movie appearing before a science fiction movie, or a trailer for a family comedy appearing before a children's animated film. A trailer might also appear for self-promotion, such as content on the same network or a trailer for the next episode of a series or sequel in a film franchise.
President Trump’s planned address to the nation on race, American Urban Radio’s April Ryan reports, is being written by none other than Stephen Miller, a Trump aide and aficionado of white nationalism.
This is bound to raise a fuhrer. What next? Paul Manafort drafting a presidential address on business ethics?
But Miller can stand down. Trump has already given his remarks on race — many times, in fact. Here they are, entirely in Trump’s own words, excerpted:
Full coverage of the George Floyd protests Nobody has ever done for the black community what President Trump has done. My Admin has done more for the Black Community than any President since Abraham Lincoln. George [Floyd] is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that is happening for our country. A great day for him.
Diamond and Silk, you’re so, so great. Thank you, Kanye, thank you. Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.
Think of this: Blacks for Trump, Black Voices for Trump, African Americans for Trump. Call it whatever the hell you want. I have a group of African American guys and gals, by the way, that follow me around, and they think I pay them and I don’t.
A well-educated black has a tremendous advantage over a well-educated white in terms of the job market. If I were starting off today, I would love to be a well-educated black, because I believe they do have an actual advantage. Sadly, because President Obama has done such a poor job as president, you won’t see another black president for generations!
To the African American community, I say what the hell do you have to lose? You’re living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs. Fifty-eight percent of your youth is unemployed. Last in crime, last in this, last in homeownership, last in the economy, lowest wages. Our inner cities are a disaster. You get shot walking to the store. They have no education, they have no jobs.
Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now”?
Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States? No human being would want to live there. A disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested).
So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came?
Why do we need more Haitians? Why are we having people from all these shithole countriescome here? We should have more people from places like Norway.
An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud. His grandmother in Kenya said, “Oh, no, he was born in Kenya.” A lot of people do not think it was an authentic certificate.
You ever see Maxine Waters? A low-IQ individual. LeBron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made LeBron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.
What has happened to the respect for authority, the fear of retribution by the courts, society and the police? Let our politicians give back our police department’s power to keep us safe. Unshackle them from the constant chant of “police brutality.” BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY AND BRING BACK OUR POLICE!
You also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park, from Robert E. Lee to another name. Robert E. Lee was a great general. They’re trying to take away our culture. A Great American Heritage.
I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here — a lynching. I am the least racist person that you’ve ever encountered. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!
