At Random | 11 | Beatles, interruptus
My eleventh post was scheduled to be a continuation, an even deeper dig into my appreciation and fascination with The Beatles and their music. (In case you missed it, here it is.)
At Random | 10 | Beatles, Part 1
Listening to music has been a passion for as long as I can remember.
But ever since posting At Random | 10 on June 2, my mind and creative energy have atrophied as I consume — both willingly and, seemingly, inescapably — the headlines, news, op-eds, texts, tweets, interviews, and everything else having to do with — not John, Paul, George, Ringo, George Martin and Giles Martin, Peter Jackson, and so on and on — but rather with Trump, Rubio, Hegseth, Musk, Bannon, Vance, and the whole cast of characters that Thomas Friedman so aptly described, thusly: “If you hire clowns, expect a circus.”
So my sensibilities have taken an alternate route, and I find that today I’ve turned these rabbit paws toward another hole …
Alex Padilla suffers a take-down. I agree with the question he and almost everyone else has asked: If this is how authorities surrounding Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem treat a U.S. Senator, what can an immigrant detainee look forward to?
Senator Padilla apparently didn’t go looking for a fight. As a Californian, he was there to take the increasing temperature of the situation, to see the action between the protesters and the police, now buffeted by the presence of the National Guard and U.S. Marines.
Another view might be that he and who knows how many others just wanted to be involved. Tomorrow Betty plans to join a few of our neighbors and friends and participate in a protest scheduled for West Jefferson, NC. I applaud their planning and look forward to hearing about their experience. “Do you think we’ll be safe?” she asked me. One of her very good friends who grew up in “West Jeff” said to her, “There are some crazy people up there. Be careful.”
Only direct, sustained protest will protect us. Everyday people standing between authoritarianism and our freedom scare the administration. They reveal the greatest informal mechanism for democratic enforcement: not kings, not former presidents, but the power of the people. — Tressie McMillan Cottom in a New York Times op-ed.
About a week before the 2024 Presidential election, another NC friend asked if I was as worried as she was about the specter of a Trump sequel in The White House. “I just don’t know what we’ll do,” referring to how she and her husband might handle and react to the news. My response, in retrospect, was naive and maybe even a little condescending: “I can’t see how my life will be affected by him or anything he might do,” I said.
Boy, was I wrong! I go through each day time and again literally shaking my head, my mood running the gamut from incredulity to outrage, hopeful that members of Congress will buck up, that the courts will continue to strike down as much of the foolishness as they can, and that, eventually, the Supremes (SCOTUS, that is) will finally say, “Stop! in the Name of Love.”
This isn’t Watergate. There is no group of influential Republican senators who will go to the President and tell him that he’s lost their support, that he needs to resign. There is no bipartisan select committee — Sam Ervin, Howard Baker, et al. — working together “for the good of the country.” (Speaking of Watergate, I guess the Trumps give enhanced meaning to Deep Throat’s advice to Woodward and Bernstein to “follow the money.”)
Waiting for the Democrats’ leadership to step up, to develop a plan? Maybe there is no credible leadership among the elected Democrats.
Perhaps Betty and her friends are just doing whatever they feel they can do. At least they’re doing something. I’m proud of them and hope there are millions of similar-minded citizens (and citizen wannabes) at least offsetting the military parade President Trump has decided will appropriately celebrate his birthday.
My follow-up about The Beatles and their music can wait.
if you want a front row seat you ought to try living inside the. beltway. Grim doesn’t behind to describe the vibe here. so many of my clients are senior gov officials - the type of people you WANT in the FAA, FBI, NSA, ODNI - it’s crazy. and don’t me started on then nonprofits that lost funding. Insane.
My first job out of college was at West Jefferson’s newspaper. Then and now, ignorance dominates. But the place is significantly more evolved today. They need a dose of Betty and her cohort. She’s a badass.