Category: Politics, Religion & Money

Our Long National Nightmare Continues

Trump-appointed judge gives Donald another stay-out-of-jail card.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a legal victory for former President Donald Trump, a federal judge on Monday granted his request for a special master to review documents seized by the FBI from his Florida home and also temporarily halted the Justice Department’s own use of the records for investigative purposes.

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-government-and-politics-bc980316f80f88620b92e5666f96251c

I tend to stay away from cable news, even when it’s bashing Donald, but this bizarre tidbit about the 45 Wine & Whiskey bar in Trump Tower is worth making an exception.

Trump probably knows nothing about wine and whiskey, except its potential for abuse. Because the one positive thing in his otherwise toxic existence is he doesn’t drink. Alcohol destroyed his older brother, Fred Jr., and Donald was smart to abstain. Otherwise, imagine how much worse he would be.

Cancel Culture Wars

Following up on a mention by mih of Carl Orff’s crowd-pleasing “Carmina Burana”, the opening poem is the one that’s familiar to most everybody.

Orff was a German who remained in Germany throughout the war. I was thinking I touched upon this difficult subject not very long ago, but it was longer ago than it takes to get a Bachelor’s degree. Slow down, space/time! Slow down!

Sweden’s Neglected Composer

Herbert Von Karajan’s career didn’t suffer after the war. Perhaps it isn’t surprising I was unable to find a Karajan recording of Orff’s composition.

After a 1941 performance of the popular Carmina Burana, the composer himself said admiringly, ‘the orchestra under Karajan sounds fantastic’.

https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/politics-and-propaganda/third-reich/karajan-herbert-von/

https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/politics-and-propaganda/third-reich/orff-carl/

Separating artists from their art isn’t always easy. Sometimes it isn’t possible, but their work must at least be put into context of time and place. Whether for a musical figure, or a cartoonist like the Belgian Georges Remi, aka Hergé, who was accused of Nazi collaboration.

For decades, Robert Crumb’s uninhibited portrayals of women and Blacks were both celebrated and controversial. Today, Crumb’s name is political poison and, rightly or not, he is seen by many as a toxic misogynist and racist. Space/time continues, freeing some in the process while trapping some others.