Drive-By Truckers Perform "Ramon Casiano," "Ever South," "What It Means" & "Once They Banned Imagine"

Make America Normal Again: Peter Thiel's Pro-Trump Speech Today

The most coherent thirteen minutes I have heard in a long, long time. Economic, political, foreign policy common sense. An excerpt:

Very unusually for a presidential candidate he has questioned the core concept of American exceptionalism. He doesn't think the force of optimism alone can change reality without hard work. Just as much as that's about making America great, Trump's agenda is about making America a normal country. A normal country doesn't have half trillion dollar trade deficit. A normal country doesn't fight five simultaneous undeclared wars. In a normal country the government actually does its job.

This man would get my vote in 2024, and become our second gay president, since we already have had our first — Newsweek: Obama 'First Gay President'.

J.S. Bach's Ein Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott, Performed by the Korea Presbyterian Theological Seminary Choir and Camarata Antiqua Seoul, Directed by Dr. Changhoon Park

Tomorrow marks the CDXCIX^th anniversary of Martin Luther's 95 Theses.

A Disastrous Nasty Women

It’s an outrage how she’s played the gender card. She is a woman without accomplishment. “I sponsored or co-sponsored 400 bills.” Oh really? These were bills to rename bridges and so forth. And the things she has accomplished have been like the destabilisation of North Africa, causing refugees to flood into Italy… The woman is a disaster!

Thus spake one of the most interesting minds of our times — ‘The woman is a disaster!’: Camille Paglia on Hillary Clinton.

"The Worst Racists of All"

To many black apologists, blacks can’t be guilty of anything, be it murder, rape, a brick across your face or even racism, because everything they do is just a response to relentless white racism. I’ll insist, though, that these black apologists are the worst racists of all, because to deny someone of moral agency is to reduce him to an animal.

So writes Linh Dinh, informing us that "last week, at least 150 blacks attacked whites at random around TempleUniversity," and reminding us of the "the 22,000+ black-on-white rapes/sexual assaults reported yearly, as compared to zero white-on-black sexual attacks" — Who’s Racist?

Black Sabbath Perform "War Pigs"

Special dedication to hitlery and all her supporters.

Hitlery's War on Putin's Russia

In parody there is truth — Going Viral on Twitter=> Vote For Hillary So She Can Start World War III with Russia.

I'm With Her

Birgitta Jónsdóttir, the "poetician" behind this populist rebellion of "anarchists, hackers, libertarians and Web geeks" — Iceland, a land of Vikings, braces for a Pirate Party takeover.

James Comey, American Hero

"Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates disagreed with FBI Director James Comey's decision to notify Congress about his bureau's review of emails potentially related to Hillary Clinton's personal server, law enforcement officials familiar with the discussion said" — Comey notified Congress of email probe despite DOJ concerns. Standing up to political and "gendered" interests.

Felice Brothers Perform "Dancing On The Wing," "Diamond Bell," "Aerosol Ball," "Sell The House," "Sally!" & "Plunder"

I've been appreciating the Catskill Mountains ensemble's album "Favorite Waitress" more and more.

Joe Errigo for New York State Assemblyman

The dead man I voted for last month — Assemblyman Bill Nojay (1956-2016) and the Democracy of the Dead — was replaced by a worthy man, as evidenced by these non-controversial statements — Errigo stirs controversy with 'kill the whites' remarks.

The de rigueur virtue signaling and moral grandstanding followed suit, as his opponent "called Errigo's comments 'absolutely unacceptable'" and "a joint statement by the Democratic Party chairs of Monroe, Livingston and Stueben counties, blasted the remarks as 'deplorable' and sought an apology."

Two on Game Two

"A wise man once said that the problem with baseball writers is that they love baseball, a flaw which presumably prevents them from acknowledging certain realities about The Grande Olde Game," writes local sportswriter Bud Poliquin, acknowleding "that baseball can be a wretched thing to watch" — Game 2 of World Series was as brutal, tedious as baseball gets. He writes:

Baseball, you see, is our often-beautiful summer game meant for balmy evenings and warm zephyrs. And yet, there are its czars challenging the gods by scheduling what would be the season's penultimate elimination affair (World Series Game No. 6) and its most important one (World Series Game No. 7) on Nov. 1-2.

Steve Sailer agrees, comparing "four hour ordeal in the cold and rain" to :the ultimate game of the Old Order of baseball (154 game seasons and 16 teams) before the 1961 expansion," "the 7th game of the 1960 World Series was played in the sunshine on October 13, 1960, a day when the high temperature in Pittsburgh was 77 degrees and humidity was 46 percent" — A 5-1 Baseball Game Takes 4 Hours and 4 Minutes.

In his "World Series Notes" from the day before, Mr. Sailer laments "the World Series starting so ridiculously late in October in outdoor Rust Belt ballparks" with the "sizable danger of cold rains or sleet postponing games into mid-November" and argues that "baseball would be better off shrinking from a 162-game regular season back to the pre-1961 154 game regular season in order to get the much protracted postseason under way sooner."

Donald Trump as Chief Wahoo

Leave it to "hard left" CounterPuncher Paul Street to make the connection between "the single most offensive, politically incorrect image in sports today" and "[t]he insane, politically incorrect spectacle of Trump" — An Identity-Politicized Election and World Series Lakefront Liberals Can Love.

I support both.

To a certain extent, Mr. Street is right when he writes, "Identity politics provides cover for, and diversion from, class rule and from the deeper structures of class, race, gender, empire, and eco-cide that haunt American and global life today."

Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound System Perform "Happy Birthday," "I Am A Madman," "Black Ark Vampires," & "Dread Lion"

As I Watch the World Series...

I ponder Ryan McMaken's grim forecast — Are High Taxes in Northern States Ruining Baseball? With my Toronto Blue Jays out, geographic proximity has me rooting for the Cleveland Indians, even if I can't help but like the Chicago Cubs. Good to see such a Great Lakes/Rust Belt showing his year.

"Trump's Election Will Be The Biggest 'Fuck You' Ever Recorded In Human History"

Since it makes absolute perfect sense, it's hard to believe who's voice we hear in the above video, link via Roissy — Fatass Michael Moore’s Brush With The Trumpening.

Billy Bragg & Joe Henry Perform "Rock Island Line," "Hobo's Lullaby," & "Midnight Special"

The blurb:

Earlier this year, Billy Bragg and Joe Henry set off on a journey. They boarded a train in Chicago, bound for Los Angeles. Each time the train stopped for more than 20 minutes in cities like St. Louis and San Antonio, they'd grab their guitars, hop off, find the waiting room and record an old railroad song. The result of this journey is an album called Shine A Light: Field Recordings From The Great American Railroad.

Bragg has been weaving folk and punk with protest music since the late '70s, when he first started busking around London. You can hear his passion for American songwriters such as Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly on this record. Henry is an American singer and songwriter with 13 albums of his own. He's also produced so many great records for others, including Rodney Crowell, Lisa Hannigan, Bonnie Raitt — and Bragg himself.

This concept record could be seen as a nostalgia trip, but both Bragg and Henry will emphatically say that it's not. These songs and this journey celebrate the modern railroad as a major economic engine and a still-vital form of transportation. The songs are filled with mythic poetry and the metaphoric romance inherent in train songs, but the vitality in the performances keeps the songs current. You can hear that behind my desk as well as you might in a rail station.

Iroquoian Roadsignage

"Signage is one facet or tool in preserving language as well as to educate the public and acknowledge Tribe's connection to the land as well as their sovereignty as nations across the country," said Jessica Robinson, deputy director of the Seneca Nation of Indians Department of Transportation, quoted here — Bilingual road signs: Growing trend on state roads crossing Indian lands.

Local Natives Perform "Past Lives," "Coins," "Wide Eyes," "Dark Days" & "Fountain of Youth"

Local University, Asian Faces

"Recently, computer scientists at the University of Rochester tried to teach an algorithm to tell the difference between Chinese, Japanese and Korean faces" and "were surprised to discover that the computer could achieve accuracy rates of over 75 percent" — Every Asian American has been asked this question. A computer gives the best answer.

Ancient Upstate

Three from this list — Upstate NY's 20 oldest buildings.

Upstate Autumn Rain

"High water and strong winds made for a beautiful autumn setting along Nine Mile Creek, Marcellus, NY" — Soggy Fall fun in CNY.

Guillaume de Machaut's Messe de Notre Dame, Sung by the Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Directed by Dominique Vellard

Something for the good churchgoers up early on Sunday morning to pray matins rather than the crazy punk-rockers who stayed up late past Saturday midnight.

Social Distortion Performs "Bye Bye Baby," "Hour Of Darkness," "Let It Be Me," "Prison Bound," "So Far Away," "Ring Of Fire," "99 To Life," "Cold Feelings," "1945," "Bad Luck," "Making Believe," "Ball & Chain," "Sick Girl," "Born To Lose," "Shame On Me," & "When She Begins"

Piggy-backing on last night's Steve Sailerian post "for the people still up Friday night rather than the good citizens up early on Saturday morning" — "Story of My Life". So this post is for the crazy punk-rockers still up Saturday night rather than the good churchgoers up early on Sunday morning.

I saw Social Distortion and Sonic Youth open for Neil Young and Crazy Horse back in the '80s. The former was better received by the Neil fans, but the latter was more my speed, and one of my favorite bands on my favorite label, SST Records.Even more my speed were label-mates Hüsker Dü, whose Land Speed Record attests to their speed and Zen Arcade, the best album of that era, to their talent.

I'm With Her

Uptsate New York on a down-stater for whom up-staters can vote down-ticket for her support of a down-under underdog — Senate candidate Wendy Long calls for pardon of Wikileaks founder. The candidate, "challenging [the sinister] Sen. Charles Schumer," said of the Aussie hero:

Assange is the only source of transparency and truth that most Americans now have about some of the most important matters affecting this election and our country. We need him, we need his help, and we need him on the side of America.

[....]

Investigative journalism is dead in this country, and citizen journalists are trying to fill the void. We know that almost 100 percent of the mainstream media are in the tank for Hillary Clinton. And were it not for Julian Assange, we would not know that.

But, alas, it may be too late — Is Julian Assange Alive? Wikileaks Says Armed Forces Are Outside Of Ecuadorian Embassy.

Donald J. Trump's Gettysburg Address

Our next president's first 100 days in his own words, unspinned and unfiltered, on top of this excellent news — Trump Expands Lead Over Clinton To 2 Points – IBD/TIPP Poll.

Arvo Pärt's Da Pacem Domine Performed by ACO Underground

Donald J. Trump's Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner Speech

Roissy calls it — Trump's Revenge:

At the Al Smith charity dinner, Trump laid a trap for the elites and unleashed his vengeance on a gathering of effete plutocrats, smug globalist whores, lapdog media hacks, intellectually inbred urbanites, and the Wicked Bitch herself. You have to see this video to believe it, and if you ever doubted Trump’s sincerity or his commitment to destroy the old order and throw the corrupt money-changers out of the American temple, doubt no more.

Pat Buchanan on The Trumpening

"The establishment is horrified at the Donald’s defiance because, deep within its soul, it fears that the people for whom Trump speaks no longer accept its political legitimacy or moral authority" — An Establishment in Panic.

Six months ago, John Derbyshire wrote of "Pat Buchanan, whom History has cast as John the Baptist to Trump's Jesus" — Radio Derb Transcript.

I'm With Her

"There’s a global awakening," says the next president of the French Republic, announcing that "the time of the nation state has come again" — France’s Marine Le Pen: could she win?

Haley Bonar Performs "Hometown," "Jealous Girls" & "Called You Queen"

Birth of a Trump Nation?

Even if the post directly below this is wrong, and I do not think it is, Mike Whitney's article, which begins with a lengthy evisceration of hitlery and her high crimes and misdemeanors, gives hope — Trump Unchained:

Maybe Trump isn’t really trying to win any more. Maybe he knows he can’t overcome a 12 point deficit this late in the game, so he’s going to pull a Samson. He’s going to shake the pillars and bring the whole rotten temple crashing down around him. He’s going use all his influence to discredit this fake democratic system the elites have painstakingly put together to control the public, he’s going to grow his throng of angry supporters into a small army, and he’s going to spearhead a (mainly) right wing populist movement that is going impose gridlock on Washington, deepen the political divisions, acrimony and polarization across the country, and make Clinton’s tenure as president a living hell.

That’s the gameplan. He’s going to marshal enough grassroots support that Clinton will spend her entire four years bogged down in endless investigations, fending off charges of criminal misconduct, and leap-frogging from one seedy scandal to the next.

No, Trump isn’t planning on winning. He doesn’t want to be president. He wants to be a modern-day Braveheart leading the peasants into battle against a thoroughly-corrupt and heinous ruling class establishment. That’s what he wants, and that’s why political has-beens like Gingrich and Giuliani have attached themselves to him like the plague. They see an opening for resurrecting their own dismal careers.

In any event, Hillary’s going to win the election, that’s for sure. But don’t count Trump out just yet. He’s just getting warmed up.

I had similar thoughts, before the triumphant third debate, based on this speculation — Exclusive: Is Donald Trump's Endgame The Launch of Trump News? Now, we saw what to expect at the debate — Did Trump TV Launch Last Night? I expect a President-elect Trump in three weeks, but if that is not the case, a Trump Nation of dissenters, dissidents, and partisans would not be a defeat.

Statistics Herald Triumph of the Trumpening

As heterodox and right as our next president, the model used here "flies in the face of just about every other major election forecast out there" — SUNY professor says Trump win at least 87 percent certain; other polls 'bunk'.

Professor Helmut Norpoth, whose name alone should earn him a place in the Trump Administration, explains how his model, which "correctly predicted the victor in every presidential election since 1996" and "on earlier campaigns comes up with the correct outcome for every race since 1912, except the 1960 election," works — You can't trust polls: Clinton leads, but our polling methods are bunk.

The American Cuckservative Loses Its Place on My Sidebar

Replaced by American Renaissance, from which this excellent article by Linda Preston comes — The Decline of The American Conservative.

All that's wrong with The American Conservative can, as I see it, be summed up in two words: Rod Dreher, who is even more genuinely "horrified" today than Bernie-victory-robbing hitlery was last night in this stupid article — Trump Disqualifies Himself. Rod disqualifies himself, and the degraded magazine he ruined.

Back in '03, I had a subscription to the magazine overseas, when, in Ms. Preston's words, "its main purpose was lambasting the catastrophic Iraq War, [but it] also tackled issues that both the Bush administration and its leftist opposition wouldn’t touch: immigration, multiculturalism, and the erosion of American civil society and social trust." This was a time I could even enjoy this article by Mr. Dreher — Birkenstocked Burkeans.

Courtney Marie Andrews Performs "How Quickly Your Heart Mends," "Irene," "Table For One" & Rookie Dreaming"

Hitlery's Brownshirts Strike Again

Just imagine the media hysteria this story would have garnered had the "who, whom" been reserved — Fears rise that GOP office firebombing in NC will stifle free speech as election nears. "Nazi Republicans get out of town or else.”

An assassination attempt on Mr. Trump, multiple attacks on his supporters, and now a firebombing of a local office have all been largely ignored, downplayed, or twisted by the media and by his opponent, who, in the last debate, use violence at his rallies, perpetrated by her own thugs, against him.

Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings Machine Perform "Look At Miss Ohio"

Good news from the Buckeye State — WSJ/NBC poll: Trump back on top in Ohio.

"Hard Left" Nods to The Trumpening

Over at CounterPunch, Paul Street reminds us that "the nation’s corporate, financial, and imperial establishment loathes Donald Trump" — The Ruling Class’s Hatred of Trump is Different Than Yours — and Pepe Escobar points out "the frankly surrealist scenario of Donald Trump as The Last Man Standing between sanity and WWIII" — Is Trump Ready to Go Nuclear?

Mr. Escobar's "frankly surrealist scenario" reminds me of Salvador Dalí's comments about meeting Francisco Franco, which I have been reminded of several times in this election cycle, that the artist had felt he had been in "the presence of a saint."

Heaters Perform "Dali," "Elephant Turner," "Centennial," & "Ara Pacis"

Mr. Trump's Historic, Heroic Florida Speech

Speaking truth to power. His best speech yet. I'm looking forward to the inaugural.

My Bubba Perform Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go"

My favorite Icelandic/Swedish duo performing a number by a songster recognized for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition" — Bob Dylan Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature.

Minden Perform "Real Sugar," "Artist Statement," "Love Is Bad," & "Sheila"

Death and the Civil War; The Fairer Sex and the Birth of Civil Society

Yankee or not, a much-deserved local honor — Memorial Recognizes Civil War Nurses. "These four figures represent the women from Tompkins County who dared convention, following their conscience and their own sense of patriotic and religious duty at a time of national need and went to hospital and battlefields to nurse the wounded, the dying, the sick with disease."

This story brings to mind this incredibly moving and informative documentary, which shows, among other things, how womenfolk, both Northern and Southron, motivated by something higher than mere wage-slavery, helped not only maintain but advance civilization in the face of modernity:

My Soap

An appreciation — 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Dr. Bronner And His Magic Soap.

Trump Unleashed

Bring it on — Unshackled, Trump unleashes aggressive attacks on own party.

Margo Price Performs "Tennessee Song," "Hands of Time," "This Town Gets Around," "Four Years of Chances," & "No Expectations"

The Final Frontier?

Science, in this case no less an authority than the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, going boldly where no man has gone before — Female brains change in sync with hormones.

The findings? "The researchers observed that in women, in parallel to the rhythm of the level of estrogen across their menstrual cycle, the structures of the Hippocampus vary -- a brain area that is crucial for memories, mood and emotions."

Jean-Philippe Rameau's Les Sauvages from Les Indes Galantes, Performed by Danielle de Niese, Rachel Redmond, Katherine Watson, Marcel Beekman, Reinoud Van Machelen, Elliot Madore, Marc Mauillon, Laurent Naouri & Les Arts Dlorissants, Directed by William Christie

Happy Columbus Day, observed. Please excuse any cultural appropriation in this ballet héroïque.

"Make War, Not Love"

Coined by Roissy for today's "bloodthirsty Puritans" — Liberals Have A New Slogan. "Shitlibs going all-in for warmongering hillary while crying hysterically over Trump’s pussyhound sex banter have flipped their ’60s credo on its back."

Bush Crime Family Aiding Clinton Crime Family?

Roissy makes the case, which seems pretty clear — The “Pussygrab” Trump Recording Was An Orchestrated Release By The Republican Establishment.

Dryad, Succubus, and Sylph

If you, like me, grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons, then you, like me, may have fantasized about the above three from the Monster Manual. Reflecting after three decades, it seems these three represent three feminine archetypes. It is the dryad who has always allured me the most.

Bob Weir and Josh Kaufman Perform "Walkin' Blues," "When I Paint My Masterpiece," "Blue Mountain," "Only a River," "Lay My Lily Down," "Peggy-O," & "Ki-Yi Bossie"

Some great music to accompany a truly great interview that I stumbled across the other day with this gentlemanly embodiment of the best of hippiedom — Grateful Dead Founding Member Bob Weir Draws Inspiration From 'Old Cowboy Songs'.

More music, and a link to a great documentary that had this blogger rethinking "this gentleman whom I now revere as a Bodhisattva*," in this post of mine:

Bob Weir & The National Perform "Help on the Way," "Love Thine Enemy," "Looks Like Rain," "El Paso," "Friend of the Devil," "Cassidy," "Daughters of the SoHo Riots," "My Brother Esau," "Me and My Uncle," "Fake Empire," "Most of the Time," "Brown Eyed Women," "The Other One," "Standing on the Moon," "China Cat Sunflower," "I Know You Rider," "Ripple," "Uncle John's Band," & "Brokedown Palace"

* He has even come to look a bit like Bodhidharma, has he not?

Trumptalk

Cuckservative Rod Dreher grasps his pearls and reaches for his smelling salts upon learning that a decade ago a man was overheard talking to another man about a woman — Quit Now, Trump. Stop writing now, Rod.

Keeping writing, Roissy, who, at Chateau Heartiste, exposes another shrinking violet traumatized by "normal healthy heterosexual male banter about hitting on women," by writing, "There is no end to the ways in which this phoneyfuck indignation reveals the full rainbow-facialed glory hole degeneracy of Cuck Ryan’s flaccid testosterone deficient soul" — Paul Ryan, World’s Biggest Faggot.

The LRC Blog's non-cuck Bulter Shaffer has some questions — Trump’s “Vulgar,” “Lewd” Talk?

It is amusing to see the political establishment so desperate to defeat Trump that it will resort to any – as in a-n-y – indiscretion to keep him out of the White House. The sin du jour is an eleven year old video of Trump talking about a failed effort to seduce a woman, saying, in part, “when you’re a star they let you do it.” I don’t know whether any of the “stars” were Bill Clinton, or the Kennedy brothers, who did far more than talk about doing so, but used their positions of power (including helpful Secret Service agents) to engage in such acts with vulnerable women. Perhaps the make-believe “journalists” on television news channels whose “reports” are dominated by their endless babbling about this video, would be willing to replay some earlier video taken at Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts!

Unless such behavior is outrageous only when engaged in by the non-politically correct faithful, and if joking, on camera, about sex is enough to disqualify such persons from office, any intellectually honest journalist (are there any?) might choose to inquire of Hillary: “do you repudiate the extra-marital sexual behavior of your husband when he was president – including oral sex with young interns in the Oval Office – and can you assure us that neither you nor your husband – as ‘first gentleman’ if you are elected – will engage in such actions?”