Rota Trombone Concerto

Live.

This isn’t a rarity I am happy to say, and there are many versions on YouTube. Here, with challenged live acoustics, is a recording of Yuri Simonov rehearsing it.

A good, short discussion in Tablet about the effect of the Russia hoax on the pundit class's credibility. He is more optimistic than I am.

I am struck by how central to this were senior members of “the Intelligence community”. I recall discussions with friends over the past decade where I was skeptical, or sometimes dismissive, of their worst imaginings about the intelligence infrastructure. I need to look at this again.

PS When I was in West LaFayette I saw a bookstore selling votive candles with Mueller's picture on them. I wonder if they still have them.

UPDATE: I don’t watch Tucker Carlson very often, but I happened to see this, which is related, and hilarious.

Coyne's Intellectual Cowardice

Jerry Coyne

so please do not fault me for neglecting the Mueller report, as I have nothing to say about it that you can’t read in the mainstream media.

Actually I will fault you. You hyped this hoax pretty heavily over the past few years. You mocked doubters. You were taken. Admit it. (I don’t expect you to ask yourself why you were hoaxed, I have read you too long.)

Innocent men

... get their bond back.
Innocent men don’t want the record sealed. Innocent men want their innocence seen.

Rahm Emmanuel is right:

This is without a doubt a whitewash of justice, and sends a clear message that if you’re in a position of influence and power, you’ll get treated one way, other people will be treated another way,” [Chicago Mayor Rahm] Emanuel said. “There is no accountability in the system. It is wrong, full stop.

This is an escalation. This isn’t just corruption, it is open corruption, flaunted. It is, we can act this way and you can’t stop us.

A belter

That is British slang that corresponds to a home run. Piers Morgan nails it, and ...

The press was either lying or lied to. If I were lied to that much, to such effect, I'd want to know by whom, when, why. But the media seem uninterested. There is an obvious conclusion.

Greenwald and a spectacular montage

As Greenwald points out, Maddow gets paid $10,000,000 a year. US dollars, that's over 13 million in Canadian. Every month a multinational conglomerate pays her more more than the average American earns in a lifetime.

And this is SPECTACULAR.

This is pretty funny too. The saddest part is he thinks “my opinion” can be certain “beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

Matt Taibbi: We broke every written and unwritten rule in pursuit of this story, starting with the prohibition on reporting things we can’t confirm.

UPDATE: A list.

So much for the rule of law

Bernie Sanders tweeted

I don’t want a summary of the Mueller report. I want the whole damn report.

He knows that this would be illegal. If he didn’t know it before he should know it from Barr's summary. Of course he's not the only grandstander. But the underlying complaint is that Trump cannot be trusted with power, and this complaint is coming from someone crying “to hell with what the law says.”

UPDATE: This seems the new tactic. The report was X pages long, so the 4 page summary cannot be right! The GOP is afraid to release it! Let my Mueller go!
This Is a mistake by the Democrats. The report, somewhat redacted, will be released. That has been announced already. It might take a few weeks but it will happen. Febrile speculation always looks foolish in retrospect, and retrospection is only weeks away.

Leshnoff Violin Concerto

Jonathan Leshnoff is an American composer. His violin concerto is a new work. Here is one short movement.

Bonus: a little Eisenga.

Masturbation Hoax Exposed

It’s a mania. Putin is literally in our underpants. Maybe, if we’re lucky, New York might someday admit its report claiming Russians set up an anti-masturbation hotline to trap and blackmail random Americans is suspicious, not just because it seems absurd on its face, but because its source is the same “New Knowledge” group that admitted to faking Russian influence operations in Alabama. 

From a long piece by Matt Taibbi that is honest about the shit show of the past two years of Russia mongering.

Here is his conclusion:

As a purely journalistic failure, however, WMD was a pimple compared to Russiagate. The sheer scale of the errors and exaggerations this time around dwarfs the last mess. Worse, it’s led to most journalists accepting a radical change in mission. We’ve become sides-choosers, obliterating the concept of the press as an independent institution whose primary role is sorting fact and fiction.

We had the sense to eventually look inward a little in the WMD affair, which is the only reason we escaped that episode with any audience left. Is the press even capable of that kind of self-awareness now? WMD damaged our reputation. If we don’t turn things around, this story will destroy it.

I hope he is right, and I hope their reputation and business model is destroyed. These are after all only particular for-profit multinational corporations. We can get new ones. Sears is gone, did the sky fall?

Mueller

Thread

More schadenfreude.

CNN commentator calls out CNN's blatant lie

The only explanation for such a repeated falsehood is abject laziness or willful deception. 

Anatomy of a graph

Here is an interesting look at a graph of purported temperatures in the USA. It purports to show them declining.

Of course the real issue is, are the NOAA adjustments correctly done? I have no idea, but I do know you cannot simply say that adjustment is illegitimate.

Inside The Jimmy Swaggart Ministries

I mean the SPLC, which is considerably sleazier.

But it was hard, for many of us, not to feel like we’d become pawns in what was, in many respects, a highly profitable scam.

Ripper Paper Ripped

The much ballyhooed identification of Jack the Ripper, shredded.

Well, it was a cold winter

Declining demand for copulation hits Central Park.

Titania McGrath Unmasked

Shocking news from Britain. Titania McGrath is a parody! Or so this guy claims.  Perhaps this is a cover up, and the Patriarchy have taken her out.

Shamelessly Stolen Graphics

The case against CNN

Scott Adams is very direct here. This is very harsh, but justified. Pollak's latest article is here.

I almost never watch CNN (or any television news). I did a few days ago at my parents' place, where it was on in the background. Once again I was amazed at how awful it really is. The only word I can think of for it is cult.

UPDATE: The full Trump quote is here.

Now Downy No Peace!

No Downy, no peace!

UPDATE: Coyne has more.

Buying the Ivy League

You have read about the rich and famous buying places for their kids at big name schools. Why? This isn’t about earning power. It's a caste marker. The Eloi and the Morlocks are must be seen to be distinct.

Another Myth Busted: Blind Auditions

I have frequently seen cited a study that purported to prove orchestras with blind auditions hired more women, by a large factor. Someone actually read the paper. Here.

In which I agree with Elizabeth Warren

I don’t support her for president, or for dog catcher, and don’t like some of the reasons she gives, but she is 100% right about breaking up big tech: Google, Facebook, Twitter. They all have more market share than Standard Oil ever did, and they all behave worse. Apposite example.

And another.


UPDATE: Interesting.

The really important news

I have said often that Canadians need to have a better sense of how terrible American politicians and the political class really are. So I have occasionally posted about the Board Of Education in Madison Wisconsin. Here.

They don’t call her Tequila Sheila for nothing

A Liberal stalwart weighs in ... calling Wilson-Raybould a bitch and more.

Sheila Copps

More Sheila Copps

Shamelessly Stolen Graphic

I do miss Hitchens

Watch.

New party. Who dat?

Ilhan Omar is the Democratic Party’s dream of the future, made real. Rahm Emanuel is its past, crying out as it dies.

— Glenn Reynolds

Rahm Emanuel  condemns Ilhan Omar's anti-semitism.

But the some in Congress defend it.

The Conspiracy to Re-Elect Donald J. Trump

“I just made it up.” Here. 

Frank Martin Violin Concerto

A live recording from Martin's homeland, Switzerland. 33 minutes.

This is a beautiful concerto.  I programmed it on radio about 40 years ago.

Trump Defends Free Speech On Campus

With an executive order. This is outstanding.

PS As for the executive order on the wall, I agree with Rand Paul.

Small but ubiquitous

Here is a small example of, well corruption is too strong a word, but slimy sneakiness fits, from an NBC talking head. Our nomenklatura and political class are notable for their lack of civic virtue and self-control.

UPDATE: A more important example, Rashida Tlaib breaking campaign finance laws by drawing a salary from her campaign after the election.

Labor peer accused of rape “became a councillor in Rotherham in 1990“

What the hell is up with Rotherham? Link.