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I’m not really a fan of Sacha Cohen’s. He’s masterful at street theater, with the Michael Moore touch but even better in play-acting. However, the difference between Moore and Cohen is that Moore punches up while Cohen tends to punch down.
That being said, this is hilarious. He managed to get a fictitious bluegrass musician booked to speak at this right wing rally, and then got up on stage for over 8 minutes singing a catchy parody song with racist lyrics – they get worse as the song progresses – and gets part of the audience to sing along with him.
The organizers claim that they knew he was false all along and that they tried to put a stop to the performance, but that the security they hired wouldn’t allow them to do it. Does anybody with a higher IQ than a turnip really believe their story? They were enjoying the song like many others – until the media coverage.
“Chinese people what you gonna do. Nuke em up like World War Two.” – and the audience was laughing!
During the Fox town hall, Trump also appeared resigned to a loss to Biden in November, arguing that he may suffer a loss because “some people don’t love me.”
“The man can’t speak,” Trump said, jumping on conservatives’ criticism over the former vice president’s speech patterns. “And he’s going to be president because some people don’t love me, maybe. And all I’m doing is doing my job.”
Even the reliably conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board concluded that Trump needs a new nickname for Biden: “How does President-elect sound?”
We’ve had this discussion, but I think this guy puts it succinctly. And I agree with him – we are at a moment in history where the discussion is at the deepest it’s been on a national level. Will it lead to meaningful change? The jury’s out, and this time it’s not an all-white jury.
“You told the people of your state, and you told the people of this country, White House, ‘Don’t worry about it. Just open up, go about your business, this is all Democratic hyperbole,’” Cuomo said. “Oh, really? Now you see 27 states with the numbers going up. You see the death projections going up. You see the economy going down. It was never politics. It was always science. And they were in denial, and denial is not a life strategy.”
We are increasing in positive tests and hospitalizations. We are still trending down on deaths, but as we know there is a two-week lag time linking death rates to trends in testing. Plus, I like to think that death rates lower as we learn more about how to treat COVID 19.
Meanwhile,the EU has a tenth of our new casesdespite a population of a 100 million greater.
I don’t want to judge the anger and frustration people feel and certainly human lives are more important than statues. I neither condone nor condemn some of the symbolic cultural actions taken by demonstrators. But I am concerned when destruction of art is perpetrated in ignorance.
When I was in high school I played a small part in the school’s production of The Man of La Mancha – a musical play based upon Cervantes and his novel Don Quixote. Reading the script made me curious about Cervantes so when I was doing homework at the City College Library across the street from my school I decided to read up on him. I learned that he was probably the first working class author to earn enduring recognition. I learned that his family’s Catholicism was probably based upon a conversion for survival to elude the Spanish Inquisition among other things and that he is believed to have been of Jewish or Muslim roots. I learned that his novel is considered the first “modern novel” in that it incorporated everyday speech making is accessible to lower class people lacking formal education but capable of reading. I learned that some of the description of his very hard life described in the musical were true (though I found nothing to suggest that he ever actually attempted to foreclose on a church). I learned that he probably died of diabetes, probably resulting from the diet of his poverty.
I then tried to read the novel, but couldn’t get into it even though I pretty much knew the story. I wonder if I had a good translation. I’m thinking maybe I’ll try again.
I would guess that the people who vandalized his statute know nothing about him or what he represents in cultural and social history. Again, I know they mean well, but I am concerned that for all the right reasons this movement will evolve into something akin to Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” and book burning. The left accuses the right of anti-intellectualism, but I think we have plenty of our own.
The photo comes from the linked Press-Democrat article.
Addendum: My friend Marcia Hope Wolhandler raises an interesting point. The other three statues were pulled down, while what you see in the photo is the only thing the protesters did to the Cervantes statue. What if they aren’t ignorant, and in fact this was an historically more sophisticated act of political art – recognizing whom Cervantes was and what he represents? What if the eyes are blood red from his own suffering under the worst aspects of European culture and the tears of blood being shed for all they have wrought? I mean, it makes sense. Worthy of thought.
“The president eventually moved on to the water incident, in which he tried to drink a glass of water with one hand, and appeared to require the other hand to lift it to his mouth.
Trump explained he was speaking for a long time and “wanted to wet my lips a little bit.” He said he couldn’t lift the glass up to his mouth because he “just saluted 600 times,” adding that he also wanted to protect his red silk tie.
The president proceeded to drink a glass of water before the Tulsa rally crowd, successfully doing so with one hand. He threw the glass on the stage. The crowd went wild, launching into a chant of “FOUR MORE YEARS.”
This one is my favorite. Entitled “Luke’s Change.”
At a Board of Supervisors meeting this last Monday the Chair of the BOS invited department heads to comment, but when Karen Paz Domínguez, elected Auditory-Controller, raised her hand she was denied the opportunity to report on budget issues. She will join me on All Things Reconsidered tomorrow night to discuss what she attempted to report.
Equal time will be provided to any county agency or official who would like to rebut or discuss the issue.
Thursday evening at 7:00. Phone calls will be accepted.
Sohum Parlance II 
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