The Biden campaign had Brayden Harrington, the boy who bonded with Joe over stuttering, record a closing campaign ad and now I am crying pic.twitter.com/MOmlXvg5tj
— Tim Hogan (@timjhogan) October 31, 2020
Archives for November 2020
On The Road – Albatrossity – Summertime in Scotland – #7
Albatrossity in Scotland
Our final days in Scotland were spent near Edinburgh, although we didn’t get into the city since there was some large festival going on at the time and it seemed to be a zoo. On the way down to Edinburgh from Aberdeen we stopped and visited an ancestral site. My great-grandfather was born there, but when he was a young man in the mid 19th century, he emigrated to America. We shared a first name as well. My cousin,who is a dedicated family genealogist, researched the records and found the home site near Kinross in Perthshire. So we were armed with a map, and we proceeded to seek out that site and get some pictures to send to the rest of the family.
The ancestral estate name apparently dates back to the 1300’s, when the name was spelled Rentowle. What was left at the time we visited was a run-down barn and a sealed up two-story house. It is not clear if my great grandfather was born in this structure, but he was baptized in Orwell Parish in Milnathort, about three miles east of this site. A look at the most recent Google Earth images (from June 2018 and March 2020) would indicate that these structures have been leveled and something else is being constructed on the site.
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House and barn as seen from the road,
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday/Monday, Nov. 1-2
“You could not possibly be positioned more poorly," Dr. Anthony Fauci said of the state of the pandemic in the U.S. as the country heads into winter. https://t.co/u8YPkEkF5p
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 2, 2020
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Late Night Open Thread: Chivvying the GOP Retreat
Among all the other problems with this, this is not something a campaign says if it thinks it has much chance of winning legitimately. https://t.co/cVZKTGYWtm
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 1, 2020
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Demoralization Is the Point
The whole point of all the chaos that the President, his campaign, his surrogates, and his supporters are calling for, and the actual chaos that he, his surrogates, and his supporters are creating, are all intended to do one thing: demoralize everyone. In the table below you can see the Soviet doctrinal model for subverting a state and society. Demoralization is one of the major components. Among other actions, it includes subverting the legislative process to subvert the judicial system and the rule of law. Part of the reason that Senator McConnell jammed Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination through in under six weeks just before the election is to demoralize the majority of Americans. It is why he’s already stated publicly that during the lame duck, regardless of the results of the election, he’s not going to bring a COVID relief package to the floor. Rather, all he’s going to do is fill the remaining Federal judicial vacancies in order to achieve a legislative demoralization two for: further packing the courts with Leonard Leo chosen reactionaries and extremists and ensuring that Americans don’t get the help and assistance they need to survive the pandemic.
Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Music!
In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in.
Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools unsuffered. We hope it’s a welcome break from the world of shit falling on our heads daily in the political sphere.
Tonight’s Topic: Music!
On this week’s MC, let’s talk about work music.
I don’t usually play music when I work, since I’d normally be in my office or in the library reading room (where I get the most done and which I miss so, so much). But now, working exclusively at home, with a kid and a dog, etc., there’s a need for something in the headphones or at low volume on the stereo.
I can’t listen to anything with lyrics. My usual go-to is jazz or classical, but lately I’ve been really into long instrumental music that’s pretty hard to classify. My absolute favorite, which I first heard about through Aquarium Drunkard (join them with a $5 Patreon donation per month and get a TON of music), is The Dick Slessig Combo. They’ve only put out a few tracks, all long-form covers of well-known songs, made into something strange and wonderful.
Go here for their version of “Wichita Lineman” and the backstory:
https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2020/03/25/dick-slessig-combo-wichita-lineman/
There are other ambient tracks I listen to, but this puts me in the zone.
So, what do you listen to for work? Or for producing the right frame of mind for something you need to do?
Query From An Exile: Possible Seattle Meet-Up?
We relay, you decide. From commentor Yutsano:
I’m going to be back in the Seattle area November 22-24. I am not insensitive to the times, but I am DYING for some meet-up action! Any possibility?…
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