tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86846986469972009192024-03-13T01:32:25.249-04:00DC BarrocoDCBarroco: The surreal musings of a "party animal" living Between the Beltways, whose favorite contact sport may be politics, but who also has interests that are not poll driven, who thinks beyond the next spin cycle and who will caucus with diverse special interest groups.El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.comBlogger664125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-44265615254572232192021-10-27T13:23:00.007-04:002021-11-28T11:32:06.929-05:00Switching Cellular Services in 2021<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMXBd_Y-b5b8DwwxIzoj2SmMXh6rtsoncH5PWOrf1IyAptpJfCalM-w0wGxPQrv8xfa5EzKGbfJLYCKK4nTDN_ZQ9-4hlBLaSLe-Ofr4JPvKX2bvCNA3WphkuF6Dj95ehm06SvachJot_H/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="1025" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMXBd_Y-b5b8DwwxIzoj2SmMXh6rtsoncH5PWOrf1IyAptpJfCalM-w0wGxPQrv8xfa5EzKGbfJLYCKK4nTDN_ZQ9-4hlBLaSLe-Ofr4JPvKX2bvCNA3WphkuF6Dj95ehm06SvachJot_H/w645-h212/image.png" width="645" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">It’s been over a decade since it has been propitious for me to “go mobile” with cellular services. My household has remained with Boost Mobile because it offered the most bang for the buck with unlimited talk and texting along with a generous hotspot capability gratis. The handsets were mostly one generation behind, but they were affordable for replacement, thus obviating the expensive and unsatisfying “phone insurance racket.”</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH1T35xdJFZ5oAQXYwkXB_uGn6CYNwDL6kpPWMNq5i8PoqA-qA0N6eAf1U66L0c_USdEVg9pbwB2KYZVKKwXJhshpEwbplCu8to1aL6ynV5mePQnjhrdIp-G-gtvOk3uNBa7VE9PNDNL6Z/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><img alt="" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH1T35xdJFZ5oAQXYwkXB_uGn6CYNwDL6kpPWMNq5i8PoqA-qA0N6eAf1U66L0c_USdEVg9pbwB2KYZVKKwXJhshpEwbplCu8to1aL6ynV5mePQnjhrdIp-G-gtvOk3uNBa7VE9PNDNL6Z/" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">Alas, there have been shifts in the cellular marketplace which prompt a change. As a thrifty android aficionado, I regretted that LG decided to leave the cell phone market in July as I owned several iterations of the Stylus. I had not heard good reviews of the LG Stylo 6 and I hoped that its successor would be worth procuring, but in the US the LG Stylo 7 was not to be released. </span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPhn7-bynJuFAk_koE_8FnrcjAzgXhxOYyIqh-c5DjPuOad7Zz4FwTX4SQnzh6pNBLuE63ggHUS0nITWXC6QOhewyBdDw8iEl6sJYxf-etQB7lQPg316D1g0xJs1au_Kk_TFfuFbmvHKje/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1500" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPhn7-bynJuFAk_koE_8FnrcjAzgXhxOYyIqh-c5DjPuOad7Zz4FwTX4SQnzh6pNBLuE63ggHUS0nITWXC6QOhewyBdDw8iEl6sJYxf-etQB7lQPg316D1g0xJs1au_Kk_TFfuFbmvHKje/" width="240" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">Boost does offer a Motorola Moto Stylus 5G but it has a higher price point. I was considering getting a Moto Power, which has most of the features, aside from the stylus and massive built in 128GB RAM, but for less than half the cost. But handsets are not the only thing in flux.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">When T-Mobile merged with Sprint in 2019, federal regulators required the merged company to spin off Sprint’s house MVNO Boost Mobile so that there would be a viable fourth major cell competitor and lessen the likelihood of monopolistic price gouging. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh80FiIScKhb4Qx7HA29taSydlAbpWaDtJpx7p2LZ44g0BWNN6gAOtIdsSmyHIApeqLZDsZjDWJhY5d1EN6mveNCbLln_b-_4JaHjJbB32DT4VWejWd6Ji0fuBpdKBLjMjeOqDiPuBU7bp5/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh80FiIScKhb4Qx7HA29taSydlAbpWaDtJpx7p2LZ44g0BWNN6gAOtIdsSmyHIApeqLZDsZjDWJhY5d1EN6mveNCbLln_b-_4JaHjJbB32DT4VWejWd6Ji0fuBpdKBLjMjeOqDiPuBU7bp5/w477-h267/image.png" width="477" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">After some ado, Dish Network acquired Boost Mobile and the feds required T-Mobile to provide seven years of network sharing which would allow Boost could build its own celllular network. Prior to he merger, Boost relied on Sprint’s CDMA old network; however, T-Mobile relies on GSM networks (like much of the world). Even though the trend amongst cell providers is to create 5G networks, it takes time to transition, especially for Dish’s Boost Mobile as it needs to start from scratch. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">T-Mobile decided to scrap the old CDMA 3G networks. T-Mobile had sought to decommission the old CDMA network by the end of 2021. But in pointed T-Mobile press release from October 21, 2021, it announced that it was delaying the CDMA sunset until March 31, 2022 because its partners had not sufficiently followed through on customer migration to the new network. Boost Mobile claims the tardy telephone services are post paid and not pre-paid like Boost. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvWmurq0IiV43oiWe112c2V6i3pB6VMah6s096HyUuwGgLT_QYce7UJDtBOdmrG4zZD26XnvmY1w5c4NyLWY5uD-H-Up0FYGFi_PLlpmEeUd8YcMmemusPLG_2BmNT31hK1Zx8W3zabAH/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="159" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvWmurq0IiV43oiWe112c2V6i3pB6VMah6s096HyUuwGgLT_QYce7UJDtBOdmrG4zZD26XnvmY1w5c4NyLWY5uD-H-Up0FYGFi_PLlpmEeUd8YcMmemusPLG_2BmNT31hK1Zx8W3zabAH/" width="120" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">Despite the network sharing agreement, it requires new SIM cards for Boost’s “Expanded Network” which essentially means switching to 5G capable network. Some Boost i-Phone customers, may just be able to upgrade their SIM cards. But for the rest of the low budget customer base, that means new handsets. Although Boost Mobile offered some discounts, they are not remarkable incentives.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">Despite being longtime customers, our loyalty is being shaken by provisions when switching from Boost’s “Nationwide Network” (CDMA) to “Extended Network” (a.k.a. GSM towers). Aside from basically requiring new handsets for Android customers, whenever a retained customer Boosts up to the new network, they must join a new plan. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">Well we have a heritage Family Plan that was grandfathered in at two lines with unlimited talk and text and unlimited (really around 32 GB) data plus 12 GB separate of hotspot data for $80 a month flat (no extra taxes or fees). It was not clear if two person family plans are available on the “Expanded Network”. This could mean a $20 “boost” to our bill. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">After several frustrating webchats, a Boost CSR shared a webpage which indicates that a customer can change family plans, which presumably would extend into the new Extended Network. But this information is contradicted by fine print on Boost’s webpage and frankly many opinions which contradict each other impeaches confidence in this assertion. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">So I considered other carriers. The major carriers like Verizon, T-mobile and AT&T supposedly have migrated away from iron clad two year contracts with substantial early withdrawal penalties (up to $350). Instead, this system has been replaced with expensive phones with installment plans over 22 to 36 months, which makes handsets seem so much more affordable, although this is on top of the cost for your phone plan. Taxes needed to be paid up front for the full value of the handset. Moreover, if a customer switches before the phone is paid off, their contract is only released if the balance is paid off. On the bright side, at least one can keep the device, but at a high price.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">Then I looked at the pre-paids, which are MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators), which tend to offer good value for money, albeit with some cost cutting. These savings can derive from not having brick and mortar stores, significantly automating customer contacts, offering older model new phones or encouraging customers to bring their own devices. Boost is an MVNO which offered curtailed customer service and prior generation devices. Now that Boost is switching to GSM, it seems that they may be dissuading data driven current customers from remaining to bring in new blood which is interested in inexpensive cellular plans that have less data attached to it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCSB2YzaRkUALHbtpKEEkc2moYtig_O4AQaekqbOLKsD-CAN1zV1NZCcXco-llPv-PgyRJCwopFFh6hAcEy2peo2BLgw2V0WTEXKj7G5Liev0JSORdlOHbZS4rysdM_DIutQYtYjlR9T8B/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCSB2YzaRkUALHbtpKEEkc2moYtig_O4AQaekqbOLKsD-CAN1zV1NZCcXco-llPv-PgyRJCwopFFh6hAcEy2peo2BLgw2V0WTEXKj7G5Liev0JSORdlOHbZS4rysdM_DIutQYtYjlR9T8B/" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">As this analysis is being written, MetroPCS, a MVNO subsidiary of T-mobile since 2013, has an aggressive pricing plan to lure Boost Mobile and Cricket Wireless customers by offering a $25 a month cellular plan with unlimited talk, text and smartphone data. This is half the cost of the comparable Boost Mobile plan. The major difference is that Boost offers a hotspot whereas MetroPCS does not. Plans with hotspots start at $50 with an additional $20 a month surcharge.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">To sweeten the deal in switching from Boost or Cricket, MetroPCS offers a free phone, a Samsung Galaxy A32 which on paper has good specs (6.54" screen, 64 GB internal memory, 4 GB ROM, and a 5000 Mah non removable Lith io battery, a quad rear camera with 48/8/5/2MP). Boost Mobile offers this for $139. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">Frankly, I have my eye on the Motorola Stylus 5G, which has 218GB internal memory but otherwise similar specs for an additional $19.99 with the switch from Boost, whereas Boost Mobile wants $199 for the same handset.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-EnQyf7trZt2OIH_hnxiL3XLGSbsNpQwoiWYYiCSDetSnkBXJu01VQLjxI7hAsLQIKnoxDgKXZ3CpNp9MHRUZLGqeSdk77ZwOJw3hONBe85qDenxfbEhHzUqjlFOqYF0zqT7G-X7HgVY8/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-EnQyf7trZt2OIH_hnxiL3XLGSbsNpQwoiWYYiCSDetSnkBXJu01VQLjxI7hAsLQIKnoxDgKXZ3CpNp9MHRUZLGqeSdk77ZwOJw3hONBe85qDenxfbEhHzUqjlFOqYF0zqT7G-X7HgVY8/" width="240" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">To be fair, Boost is trying to retain customers with the Celero 5G for $49 online if one is invited (actually it rings up at $89.99). The specs look good but there are some real question marks. Even in pre-order it seems out of stock, yet Boost will immediately charge the customer. Aside from the less discounted price, the manufacturer is not known, so it is buying a pig in a poke (but from my poking around, it’s FCC filings stem from Wingtech, a Hong Kong based company). If my memory serves correctly, some handset providers from that area had problems with customers’ personal information surreptitious being sent to the Middle Kingdom. No thanks.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">Boost Mobile consistently offers contradictory information about those switching to the Extended Network both in stores, on the website and through website chats. It seems that the emphasis is to sell new handsets, even though the mid and lower priced models are two generations behind competitors, and push their BoostUp program which effectively locks customers in for 18 months.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">From a market analysis standpoint, T-mobile through its subsidiary MetroPCS is leveraging its size with loss leaders (such as heavily subsidized handsets and half priced cellular plans) to drive away Boost customers. This move may deprive DISH Network from having ample capital to build its own 5G network during the remainder of the T-mobile network sharing. In doing so it may stifle Boost’s nascent attempts to become a fourth major US cell carrier. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">The handsets which MetroPCS has deeply discounted may not be the latest and greatest phones, but they provide plenty of value for money for most customers. For my desired phone, it would be $180 savings vis-a-vis Boost Mobile website (or $226 via the BoostUp option). And MetroPCS’s presumably temporary promotion pricing would save a consumer $720 over two years. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">It is wise to consider what features cellular plan or a handset are crucial when discerning a cellular choice. My household has prized hotspot tethering because we are often traveling to a place that has no household internet. That may give Boost an edge. But there are economic alternatives. Rather than opt for a pricier plan with MetroPCS, one account could stay with Boost and share the signal while traveling. There are also cheap prepaid carriers which are al a carte and could be turned on and off when tethering data is needed. There might also be other ways to achieve the occasional objective. But saving $30 a month for two years is appealing to a thrifty techie. And good customer service is priceless. </span></p><div><br /></div>
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-77967346100245102172018-07-09T14:25:00.001-04:002018-07-09T14:25:13.454-04:00Considering SCOTUS Selection Strategies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9xrEGvmJpTLv644wqOydk_TML6td9AY0JH3uHLfV6yD-KOSGymNUxJT6vVdA3W0kBch1S8y0rajPLLFMZ2iLiBnXKbZMwOQqeRps2PxiB0hRgYFXgHmDx0DUmiA_bD7F7g8aFi-DWIRUQ/s1600/SCOTUS+vacancy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="872" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9xrEGvmJpTLv644wqOydk_TML6td9AY0JH3uHLfV6yD-KOSGymNUxJT6vVdA3W0kBch1S8y0rajPLLFMZ2iLiBnXKbZMwOQqeRps2PxiB0hRgYFXgHmDx0DUmiA_bD7F7g8aFi-DWIRUQ/s640/SCOTUS+vacancy.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement at the end of the 2017/18 Supreme Court term affords President Trump another opportunity to fill a seat on the Nation's High Court. After the Borking of President Reagan's first choice in 1987, the confirmation process is no longer a gentile process of Senate vetting whether the President's choice is qualified. While the vacancy is still up in the air, it is a fun political junkie parlor game to consider the strategies the President Trump may employee to make the nomination. Major factors include: timing; traits; temperament</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I. <b><u>Timin</u>g</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Firstly, there is a question of timing. Democrats have been braying that there should be no confirmations until after the midterm elections. They point to how President Obama was denied an opportunity to replace the Scalia vacancy with Merritt Garland as Republicans refused to confirm just before an election. Of course, their objections are ahistorical, as Kagan was confirmed thee months before midterm elections. But when do fact matter to partisans who talk out of both sides of their mouths to gain advantage? The difference in 2016 is that Republicans were in the majority and set the agenda.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some partisans focused on the political horse race postulate that it might make sense to hold the confirmation until after the midterms to have Trump supporters Get Out The Vote (GOTV). Such a strategy is needless and short sighted. While our elected officials do not work in a vacuum so they need to be mindful of elections, the decision should not be primarily driven by political advantage. However, the deferral of confirmation in 2016 was a prudential decision by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to let voters decide. This move respected a 73 year old tradition for about Supreme Court openings in the last year of a Presidential term.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If one looks through a partisan lens, it makes little sense to stall the confirmation until after the midterms. Republicans have a majority in the Senate. Thanks to <a href="https://goo.gl/jgwL7h" target="_blank">ex Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) blowing up comity in the Senate by exercising the Nuclear Option in 2013</a> and Democrat Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) leading a Supreme Court confirmation filibuster in 2017, cloture votes are obviated and a only a majority vote is required. While Senate Democrats have a hard midterm election cycle, one never knows what the future holds, so it would be better to try to get it done sooner rather than later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Summers in the District of Calamity are often the silly season as political news is either trivial or outrageous, but typically few people pay attention as they are on vacation. Democrats are intent on fighting any Supreme Court nominee from President Trump tooth and nail, so the expected vitriol and direct action will not have as much resonance as it would be if it became a campaign issue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If President Trump did not have a booming economy or positive news from foreign relations, it might make sense to make a SCOTUS nomination a campaign issue. But <a href="http://www.georgebarna.com/research-flow/2017/9/6/the-day-christians-changed-america" target="_blank">George Barna</a> pointed out through polling of evangelicals about the 2016 election, the two issues which that 11% segment of the population cared most about was the Supreme Court and pro-life positions. Evangelical turned out 98% in 2016 and 96% voted for Trump, so there is little reason to gin up that base over a Supreme Court nomination.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It seems pretty clear that the nomination of Trump's second Supreme Court choice will be sooner rather than later. During the 2016 Presidential election campaign, Mr. Trump had circulated a list of twenty five jurists who would be considered. This list was augmented with five names after his inauguration which included now Justice Neil Gorsuch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The White House indicated that it will <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/huddle/2018/06/29/scotus-pick-could-come-by-july-10-dems-search-for-a-strategy-house-gop-clashes-with-doj-officials-farm-bill-passage-sets-up-food-stamp-fight-282371" target="_blank">announce the President's choice before he flies to Europe on July 10th</a>. In fact, two days after Kennedy announced his retirement, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44665434" target="_blank">President Trump announced that he had winnowed the frontrunners to five</a>, including two women and set the selection announcement on July 9th. So we will not play this Between the Beltways parlor game for long.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Moreover <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODj_m46ny_E" target="_blank">Majority Leader McConnell proclaimed that there will be a vote for confirmation by October. </a> This is in keeping with <a href="http://www.hughhewitt.com/senate-judiciary-committee-chairman-chuck-grassley-on-president-trumps-nominees/" target="_blank">Senate Judiciary Chair Charles Grassley's </a>(R-IA) timeline that from nomination to confirmation vote, the Senate could do its work in 78 days.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>II. <u>Traits</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A Supreme Court nomination is one of the marquis decisions during a President's time in the Oval Office. The pick stays on the High Court long after the Chief Executive leaves the White House. The fact that it is Justice Kennedy's replacement is even more significant. Even though Kennedy was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, he has been a swing vote in his 31 years on the Supreme Court. So Mr. Trump's choice will significantly impact the balance of power on the High Court.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">At a campaign rally in Minnesota, President Trump mused that his choice could be on the bench for forty years. Many of the jurists on the list are in their 40s and 50s so it seems that prospective longevity on the Supreme Court is an important attribute.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Does race or gender matter? Perhaps. Other Presidents have tried to make their mark by appointing "the first" identity group (e.g. Johnson with the first black of Thurgood Marshall in 1967, Reagan with the first woman Sandra Day O'Connor in 1982, Obama with the first Hispanic with Sonya Sotomayor in 2009). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Trump is not likely to bow to political correctness or play identity politics. Still, with 40% of Trump's short list being comprised with women, selecting a female could put vulnerable Democrats in a difficult position. Prominent Democrats (and their media allies) have been strident in seeking to savage any pick made by President Trump. There are already ten Senate Democrat incumbents in states where President Trump won in 2016 who have tough re-election races. If these vulnerable Democrats are associated with an unjust evisceration of a female Supreme Court nominee, this may play very poorly for them during the midterms with key groups (suburban Moms, traditional Democrats, Independents).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because of the timing of the selection, President Trump may want to ensure that the background vetting of a prospective nominee is speedy. That might give an advantage to candidates who have recently been confirmed, as they have fresh FBI full field background investigations. So when speculation draws to a fevered pitch, consider who has been recently appointed to the federal bench.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>III. <u>Temperament</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Despite contradictory indications during the 2016 primary campaign, President Trump has proven to be a Pro-Life President. Yet he maintained that he will not ask about abortion when he interviews his short list. This is hardly surprising because a good Supreme Court candidate will wisely deflect such a probing question, pointing to not answering hypothetical questions or not tipping one's hand on pending matters. As the left has made abortion rights a keystone issue, much of the pre-nomination hysteria revolves around the potential overruling of Roe v. Wade (1973). Any prospective candidate for the nation's High Court needs to be prepared for hard questions from the Senate Minority.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This points to a couple of qualities which Supreme Court nominees need to possess at least through confirmation. A SCOTUS choice must be prepared. Harriet Miers was a failed choice of President George W. Bush, in part, because she was not impressive in constitutional chit chat with Senate Majority members when making courtesy calls.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To present well in the Senate Judiciary Committee, successful candidates must master "Murder Boards", that is the harsh mock interviews preparing for the hard questions. Once they are on the bench, Supreme Court members deliberate in private. But before confirmation, they must skillfully parry with hostile questions, which generally do not tip the hand of a prospective justice yet sufficiently satisfy the interlocutor. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For a contentious candidate, mouthing the mantra "I can't comment on a prospective matter" or "Courts adjudicate real cases and I do not comment on hypotheticals" will not suffice. As Roe v. Wade will mostly likely be touchstone for skeptical questioning, whoever is nominated must be well prepped to answer questions about "the right to privacy" and the primacy precedence (a.k.a. stare decisis).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When John Roberts went through his confirmation hearings, he did not totally deflect about questions of precedence, noting that there are some instances of bad precedence that should be upheld (like "Separate but Equal" Plessey v. Ferguson in 1896 which was overturned in 1954 by Brown v. Board of Education).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nominees also must be mindful how simple questions can be abused by opponents to their confirmation. When Judge Bork was asked why he looked forward to being on the High Court, and Bork answered that it would be an intellectual feast. That answer was twisted to portray Bork as being an elite intellectual who was only in the position for himself. Combined with vilification of Bork's record by liberal Senators, chiefly Ted Kennedy (D-MA), the nomination was defeated. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">While Supreme Court candidates should be sufficiently deferential to tough questioning, sometimes they can successfully fight back. The left tried to "Bork" Clarence Thomas in 1991 with allegations about a subordinate employee Anita Hill. Thomas famously refuted his treatment as a <a href="https://youtu.be/ZURHD5BU1o8" target="_blank">"high tech lynching of an uppity negro."</a> Despite that contentious quip, Thomas was narrowly confirmed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As for judicial temperament, President Trump's list of 30 prospective selections, prima facia most would be deemed conservatives. But their legal logic is not necessarily uniform. Justice Thomas's jurisprudence rests on "natural law", whereas Justice Gorsuch is a textualist who looks to the letter of the law which defers to the will of the legislature (even if they pass stupid laws). Then there is originalism, which sees things through the prism of an understanding of the Constitution when it was originally ratified. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A judicial trait which seems to be in favor with President Trump is the notion of judicial humility. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Former Judge Andrew Napolitano characterizes this jurisprudence to interpret the law and apply the Constitution to the laws Congress has written. Judicial humility has not been the prevailing model of Supreme Court activism over the last sixty years, with the High Court legislating from the bench by inventing rights (e.g. "The Right to Privacy") or rewriting law to rule it constitutional (e.g. "Obamacare").</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Since the Kennedy retirement has been announced, there has been rampant speculation about Mr. Trump's picks. Even though the President has interviewed seven prospective SCOTUS picks, it has been generally considered that the list has been narrowed to four candidates. Some even say that there are just two front runners. Senator Orrin Hatch stirred up the rumor mill when he stated in an Op/Ed that he will fight for Mr. Trump's pick. But some wonder if he had insider information, <a href="http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2018/july/does-sen-orrin-hatch-have-insider-information-on-president-trumps-supreme-court-pick" target="_blank">as Hatch's release opined</a>: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #282828;">"But no matter the nominee's background or credentials, progressives will do everything they can to paint </span><span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #282828; font-weight: 700;">her </span><span style="background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #282828;">as a closet partisan, if not an outright extremist."</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This could well be a MacGuffin to throw off all speculation, a ghostwriter using inclusive language or a retiring Senator tipping the hand. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If Hatch was not just being deceptive or politically correct, there is only one female on the short list of choices, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who made headlines when </span><a href="https://youtu.be/7Www05AVfN8" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">Senator Diane Feinstein rebuked her by saying: "The [Catholic] dogma lives loudly within her"</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> during her September 2017 confirmation hearings. If President Trump is raring for a fight, picking Barrett could paint Democrats as being bigoted towards Catholics, and hint that Roe v. Wade might not stand. But considering the vitriol which Democrats have been displaying and the importance that they place on abortion rights, this may also be a dangerous donnybrook.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One thing can be said with certainty -- the Simpsons were being satirical rather than sagacious with their rending of a Trumpian Supreme Court pick.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Ivanka will not be sporting a black robe (in public) anytime soon. </span><br />
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-42801747565006822292018-05-08T09:40:00.000-04:002018-05-08T10:01:45.263-04:00Book Review: The Great Revolt by Salena Zito and Brad Todd <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">After Richard Nixon won the 1972 Presidential election in a 49 state landslide, New Yorker film critic was flummoxed at how this could happen as none of her Manhattanite friends would vote for him. This possibly apocryphal episode illustrated how seaboard elites can be so out of touch with Middle America (sometimes flippantly labeled as “Fly Over Country”).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A similar cognitive dissonance has occurred at the election of President Donald Trump in 2016. Heading into election night, the 538 blog polling guru Nate Silver predicted that Hillary Clinton had a 72% chance of winning. Yet when election results were confirmed at 2:30 AM November 9th, Donald J. Trump gave a victory speech. While Mr. Trump won a huge 304 to 227 (with five disloyal electors), the margins of victory in five Rust Belt states were close. Had 56,000 voters not voted for Mr. Trump, then Bill Clinton would have returned to the White House as First Gentleman (sic).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To delve into how Donald Trump was able to confound conventional wisdom and assembled a new coalition which led him to the White House, Salena Zito and Brad Todd wrote “<i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Great-Revolt-Populist-Coalition-Reshaping-ebook/dp/B076YZC99L/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525783319&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Great+Revolt" target="_blank">The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics”</a></i> (2018 Crown Forum 309 pages). Salena Zito is a reporter from Pittsburgh but made made her mark during the campaign for the New York Post by traveling to these Midwest battleground states and interviewing prospective Trump voters to understand their attraction and enthusiasm for this first time populist candidate. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZxbY6iHGUOVei59-FZi55pbRYOeZYGdfPZNuzp116oQKSK1UCgLIdREh9HKAGKmoIYXdqPCqkt42VARC1kb31BMUVyTuDDKDvsKnnnJ2eophkFPuS8WoKZFShzAfKnqiFWv_FTmXXaoz/s1600/Brad+Todd.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="140" data-original-width="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZxbY6iHGUOVei59-FZi55pbRYOeZYGdfPZNuzp116oQKSK1UCgLIdREh9HKAGKmoIYXdqPCqkt42VARC1kb31BMUVyTuDDKDvsKnnnJ2eophkFPuS8WoKZFShzAfKnqiFWv_FTmXXaoz/s1600/Brad+Todd.JPG" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">These oral histories are backed up by data from Brad Todd’s <a href="https://onmessageinc.com/our-people/" target="_blank">On Message Inc. </a>polling unit. The metrics were particularly instructive in seeming how sentiments shifted in swing counties between 2008 and 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>The Great Revolt</i> featured 21 interviews with voters from two key counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa. These interviews felt like an extended coffee talk at a diner with a trusted confidant. <i>The Great Revolt</i> broke down these voters into seven archetypes: 1) Red Blooded and Blue Collar 2) Perotistas 3) Rough Rebounders 4) Girl Gun Power 5) Rotary Reliables 6) King Cyrus Christians 7) Silent Suburban Moms. While they all chose to support Trump, their pathways were not straight and narrow and deserve careful consideration. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKvYS3EomFuyzp0rQQYYzkFY_p-20j7Ihi_qDdbCeTKZLAz4W8WwwRG-EwEcGmx2Odh5RvmPGpLQWqxNyAjvGl8AEqtr-lOgMnR565pYBXs9fuT-qcxYjYsIjBpS3eaFheFnwm86khyphenhyphenMdw/s1600/Bitter+Clinger.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="248" data-original-width="646" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKvYS3EomFuyzp0rQQYYzkFY_p-20j7Ihi_qDdbCeTKZLAz4W8WwwRG-EwEcGmx2Odh5RvmPGpLQWqxNyAjvGl8AEqtr-lOgMnR565pYBXs9fuT-qcxYjYsIjBpS3eaFheFnwm86khyphenhyphenMdw/s320/Bitter+Clinger.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Over the past several elections, Democrats seemed to abandon salt of the earth blue collar erstwhile Democrats to favor demographically up and coming minority majorities and those new voters who might be culled from immigration. During the 2008 Democrat primaries, candidate Barack Obama derisively referred to rural Rust Belt voters as <a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/ben-smith/2008/04/obama-on-small-town-pa-clinging-to-religion-guns-xenophobia-007737" target="_blank">“bitter clingers to their guns and their Bibles”.</a> Ironically, Ms. Clinton was trying to win their support for her first failed presidential run. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmebNCPfXRs1XNEsQFG_oKUHcifCmIIm2QFndHbBjs4Yyl5ueVNO_e4n0nHNVKQ6MNIuVJBGmUhTm0SFRmfIqr4g-WLfqe0h-3GcLZhqmx07aEgcxTxZVQJTNhI1WfYk5iPsu6K-MNKHmr/s1600/Basket+of+Deplorables.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="492" data-original-width="646" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmebNCPfXRs1XNEsQFG_oKUHcifCmIIm2QFndHbBjs4Yyl5ueVNO_e4n0nHNVKQ6MNIuVJBGmUhTm0SFRmfIqr4g-WLfqe0h-3GcLZhqmx07aEgcxTxZVQJTNhI1WfYk5iPsu6K-MNKHmr/s320/Basket+of+Deplorables.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yet in 2016, these same segment of voters were ignored by the Hillary! campaign as she declared that <a href="http://dc-calamity.blogspot.com/2016/09/hillary-clinton-half-of-trump.html" target="_blank">half of Trump supporters were a “Basket of Deplorables”</a> which might serve as a caricature of this segment of voters which would be more sympathetically described as The Forgotten Man. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/clinton-losing-wisconsin-results-2016-11" target="_blank">Hillary Clinton chose to ignore Wisconsin during the 2016 General Election</a> campaign and made only a couple of trips to large population centers in Michigan, figuring that she had those votes already in the bag. Donald Trump campaigned hard in Rust Belt states in rural precincts and scraped together enough support to win the Wolverine State by about 8,000 votes (0.23%) and the Badger State by about 22,000 votes (0.77%). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Pundits have pontificated that Republicans face a demographic problem whereas Democrats have a geographic problem, as they continue to lose support in vast swaths of middle America. In 2016, Mrs. Clinton only won 526 counties compared to the over 1500 counties that her husband President Clinton won in 1992. What became obvious after election night 2016, racking up large victories in the popular vote does not necessarily win the White House. Both parties would learn from contemplating the shared psyches of these Trump voters if The Great Revolt was a one time populist phenomenon, if it can transfer unto other populist politicians and if it can be sustained after 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A couple of these <i>Great Revolt</i> subgroups, such as Rotary Reliables and NRA inspired Girl Gun Power types are likely to continue to actively oppose progressive politics as it directly impacts their intrinsic interests. It is more dubious for other groups. In 2016, evangelical voters made a pragmatic decision to back Mr. Trump, who has a messy personal life and whose blithe brashness is an antithetical attitude, because they were concerned about the Supreme Court and pushing back against abortion. The outlook for Perotistas is unclear as their support seemed personality driven and may not be transferrable. The three women interviewed as Perotistas were superannuated, so one can surmise that their support will age out.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfxTSzpKgaIEeHGKfov4RjC71Od9_Kb02gVpJmX4vlWFynQ8Mnig_BeBhbVMbx-9zVw9GRCXuZ8dOG4s8YPACrsaHop3B1II_RhUsaDraaFWyJIOLkQPRFfrAw7Rq0r1-sUPqY6ISY9CV3/s1600/Hillary+for+Prison.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="892" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfxTSzpKgaIEeHGKfov4RjC71Od9_Kb02gVpJmX4vlWFynQ8Mnig_BeBhbVMbx-9zVw9GRCXuZ8dOG4s8YPACrsaHop3B1II_RhUsaDraaFWyJIOLkQPRFfrAw7Rq0r1-sUPqY6ISY9CV3/s200/Hillary+for+Prison.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As much as the iconoclastic mainstream billionaire turned celebrity politician appealed to some segments of <i>The Great Revolt </i>voters, what became quite clear is how his opponent and the nature of the race also impacted the election. In some of the vignettes, the anti-Hillary! sentiment jumped off the page. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Many of the interviewees came from union families or those who served in the military would have been quite at ease in John F. Kennedy’s Democrat Party but who are red headed stepchildren in today’s Democrat Party. That being said, they probably would not have participated in politics or been motivated to vote GOP had Donald Trump not reached out and appealed to their sensibilities. They may not always agree with Mr. Trump and may recoil at some of his Tweets or stances but as Salena Zito nailed during the campaign, they know to take Trump seriously but not always literally (unlike the anti-Trump pack press).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Most of the coalition in <i>The Great Revolt</i> worried about their economic security and loss of their rural way of life, it did not seem like there was strong linkage to “Build the Wall” or immigration. While one union activist was strongly against NAFTA, much of the blue collar sentiments revolved around being forgotten by their erstwhile allies, the Democrats. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">While the interviews in <i>The Great Revolt</i> were vivid, it would have been desirable if there was a bit more uniformity when describing the interlocutors. Not all of the portraits had demographic details or made it easy to discern the interviewees profession. There also seemed to be a disconnect between the prefatory analysis with the dialogues of the Trump voters. The authors rightly proposed that Mr. Trump’s social media instincts allowed him to circumvent curating by the mainstream media and directly reach his coalitions. Yet many of the interviewees contained in <i>The Great Revolt</i> wished that President Trump would tweet less. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">That being said, surely Salena Zito and Brad Todd appreciated President Trump’s pre-publication post which extolled the virtues of <i>The Great Revolt.</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCOkWlj3JY_pU_jj_SBOnW7JDp7rUOIfuEiQILkYVPbacsAIOlEVCSbYIxFl1rtcojdwLwsoerG8tAn-PcYU3f5zq384DJ1lmz5WKWaFjpLt3bdZhyphenhyphenZW7Kh5M8zbGzJXHSpqHp3eFiyh_5/s1600/Twitter+Trump+The+Great+Revolt.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="97" data-original-width="722" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCOkWlj3JY_pU_jj_SBOnW7JDp7rUOIfuEiQILkYVPbacsAIOlEVCSbYIxFl1rtcojdwLwsoerG8tAn-PcYU3f5zq384DJ1lmz5WKWaFjpLt3bdZhyphenhyphenZW7Kh5M8zbGzJXHSpqHp3eFiyh_5/s640/Twitter+Trump+The+Great+Revolt.JPG" width="540" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The case histories in <i>The Great Revolt</i> offer insightful context for the unexpected coalition which elected Donald Trump to the White House in 2016. But the archetypes portrayed in <i>The Great Revolt</i> may point to traits that could appear in other voter segments. Democrats have opted to appeal to progressive identity politics and rely on the brown wave of new voters <i>in lieu</i> of “The Forgotten Man” (rural, blue collar, union white males). A flaw with that strategy is that it relies upon banked voters, which since 1964 have been the bulk of black voters. <i>The Great Revolt</i> chronicles how slim segments of voters who feel neglected and come to the epiphany that their traditional party no longer represents their values can impact an election.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-y3OW-kin-rnoLqbhMYYSlax3lIhW8qdfgtg69NK1uLuKGxP0hBqj_fGGrKP-sR07VdXlss9xonr-VDaD9-t_h1GaFAH8Pb2qfSZ5EbT889w_yhUz_0P71C6UvGBqhZed3isapNWOYXLz/s1600/Kanye+MAGA.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="261" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-y3OW-kin-rnoLqbhMYYSlax3lIhW8qdfgtg69NK1uLuKGxP0hBqj_fGGrKP-sR07VdXlss9xonr-VDaD9-t_h1GaFAH8Pb2qfSZ5EbT889w_yhUz_0P71C6UvGBqhZed3isapNWOYXLz/s320/Kanye+MAGA.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/25/politics/kanye-west-donald-trump-twitter/index.html" target="_blank">Recently, Kanye West said some favorable things towards President Trump</a>. Perhaps that was a publicity stunt or an African American celebrity <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/05/01/maxine-waters-kanye-talking-out-of-turn-should-think-twice-about-politics/" target="_blank">"talking out of turn" </a>as Rep Maxine Waters (D-CA 43rd) claimed. But afterwards polling showed a <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/trump-thanks-kanye-for-surge-in-approval-among-black-males" target="_blank">doubling of his support among African Americans.</a> Mr. Trump has been making explicit appeals for those voters. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwCjzU3M64sM8oG3osreRlD7e9bO6CX7cmmI1uis3CdxdKe9vRr5mIoY9Nij0oCxyRyjaLR0pmoOfc5g4jKGwDENM1cuNBHQXUkcUJJO6A9hb3Q4nuBA6QzzBbQdszkefvFFo7s5hU7DU2/s1600/Diamond+and+Silk.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="911" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwCjzU3M64sM8oG3osreRlD7e9bO6CX7cmmI1uis3CdxdKe9vRr5mIoY9Nij0oCxyRyjaLR0pmoOfc5g4jKGwDENM1cuNBHQXUkcUJJO6A9hb3Q4nuBA6QzzBbQdszkefvFFo7s5hU7DU2/s320/Diamond+and+Silk.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is conceivable that an upsurge in black labor participation and showing up to make the case may shift some attitudes, or mollify some of the bile against him. Conservative Black video bloggers <a href="http://dccalamity.blogspot.com/2018/04/diamond-and-silk-on-social-media.html" target="_blank">Diamond and Silk</a> have shown that elements of the Trump Administration agenda may have some appeal to fed up African American voters. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Black represent about 13% of voters and in recent elections have voted about 95% for Democrats. If there is a 5% shift in that segment of reliable votes, Democrats’ election strategy may be in trouble. </span></div>
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-55043038447047034892018-04-20T14:42:00.000-04:002018-04-22T07:48:01.373-04:00Ruminating on the Book Primal Loss by Leila Miller<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEishdJq166VwtUAekUzEuLsBeTs-a97qYMF1vwUNCguN1jfa9uHJ5C9k4F4o23ItGLDDhJrmxTYOcc2BxW1i9lHyTM9vhzwfAxN5MChJDfEN_cLxR78Edoojq774y5LBg95dGlT50_-uz8l/s1600/Primal+Loss.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="318" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEishdJq166VwtUAekUzEuLsBeTs-a97qYMF1vwUNCguN1jfa9uHJ5C9k4F4o23ItGLDDhJrmxTYOcc2BxW1i9lHyTM9vhzwfAxN5MChJDfEN_cLxR78Edoojq774y5LBg95dGlT50_-uz8l/s640/Primal+Loss.JPG" width="452" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Recently, I had some coffee talk with a more liberal Catholic friend who wondered why I am aghast at the sleight of hand in Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation <i><a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia.html" target="_blank">Amoris Laetitia</a> </i>(2016) concerning communion for Catholics in irregular marriages. My interlocutor argued that I should not care as this change neither effects me nor rocks my faith and it is meant to reach out to an increasingly secularized culture that needs healing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The impetus of <u>Amoris Laetitia</u>'s pastoral provision can be characterized as offering band aids to the wounded in the field hospital of faith. However, by circumventing the annulment process with a suggestion of pastoral counseling, it seems intended to attract more wayward Catholics who have “moved on” from a bad marriage back to the faith with the incentive of receiving the Eucharist. Such a procedure moots the Magisterium and risks cheapening the faith and endangers souls.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDgHJu9DKvvsyJsf3X9GTns4m854R1yqTltzuvo0VEbBKTxNy2jTry0Df7PQHYg-u92YY-0nf9mH9RUUKnHhdGQUXrCs5c4x1Q7gO7HhhV1T34NAjCi5lIUwPvCVhvRze2AkyondXgLKpe/s1600/Leila+Miller.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="317" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDgHJu9DKvvsyJsf3X9GTns4m854R1yqTltzuvo0VEbBKTxNy2jTry0Df7PQHYg-u92YY-0nf9mH9RUUKnHhdGQUXrCs5c4x1Q7gO7HhhV1T34NAjCi5lIUwPvCVhvRze2AkyondXgLKpe/s320/Leila+Miller.JPG" width="296" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This theological conversation took place as I was reading <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Primal-Loss-Now-Adult-Children-Divorce/dp/0997989319/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524249876&sr=8-1&keywords=Primal+Loss" target="_blank">Primal Loss: The Now-Adult Children of Divorce Speak (2017)</a> edited by Leila Miller. The author graduated summa cum laude from Boston College, is a reverted Catholic mother of eight who became known for her blog </span><a href="http://littlecatholicbubble.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">“Little Catholic Bubble”</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">. Leila Miller has now turned to writing apologetics on thorny moral issues. Primal Loss which aggregates the oral histories of 70 adult children of divorce in reaction to six simple but revealing questions:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1) What effect has your parents’ divorce had on you?<br />2) What is the difference between how you felt about the divorce as a child and how you feel as an adult?<br />3) Has your parents’ divorce affected your own marriage or view on marriage?<br />4) Asking for reactions to the bromides “Children are resilient”, “You’ll be just fine and live a successful life after your parents’ divorce.<br />5) Asking what would you say to your parents about their divorce and if their reactions are just unconscious revenge.<br />6) What should society know about how divorce affects children.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sociologists might dismiss <u>Primal Loss </u>as anecdotal evidence from a self selected contributors which did not stem from a controlled study. The author’s objective was to given unvarnished opinions from those directly impacted by a divorce and to educate people on the ignored pitfalls of the Divorce Ideology which is championed in current culture and is one of the linchpins of the Sexual Revolution.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Indubitably, divorce is more prevalent today than it was a half century ago before the widespread. implementation of No-Fault Divorce. But those bent on accommodating the new reality of divorce culture cite the statistic that 50% of marriages in America end in divorce. But the index of Miller’s interviewees (whom she scrupulously protected their anonymities) belie that false fact. So many of the contributors to Primal Loss have parents who were married several times after their initial divorce. This certainly inflates the marriage rate. Michael Medved points to studies which show that <a href="http://www.michaelmedved.com/column/50-divorce-rate-again-exposed-as-a-lie/" target="_blank">two thirds of marriages last until one person dies</a>. But the bogus 50% divorce rate statistic is part of the mythology that people in troubled marriages use to justify their self-centered action of divorce.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was remarkable to read in <u>Primal Loss</u> the unvarnished opinions and reflective reactions that the now adult children of divorce had to their parents breaking up their family. Several of them chronicled abusive parents or adults mired in addiction (sometimes both parents), where it was understandable that separation was necessary for safety. Many times adultery (or the desire for a newer or more compatible mate) was the driving force for the divorce. But more often than not, these grown children of divorce recognized that parental selfishness was at play. Divorcing parents also broke up their families for seemingly trivial reasons under the generous guise of No Fault Divorce without weighing the devastating consequences on their children.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was unsurprising that divorce pushes custodial parents into poverty and unsupervised parenting which makes kids prone to promiscuity, abortions and addiction to fill the void that they feel. These interviews also highlight how their parents example of divorce negatively impacts their faith. To justify their life style choices which are contrary to traditional church teaching, previously faithful parents pull back on their religiosity and children follow suit. The domestic church is decimated. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is also the uncomfortable dynamic that with joint custody, kids of divorce have to adapt to two different households and parental styles. So during adolescence, when kids are struggling to discern their true identities, they must act to please the powers that be in their household <i>du jour </i>(which often may harbor bad feelings towards churchy purveyors of guilt). Add on the feeling of betrayal and abandonment for an institution which seems to be made of straw caused a fair number of interviewees to abandon their faith, seek more conducive pastures or seek self destructive secular solutions. As <u>Primal Loss</u> originated from <a href="http://littlecatholicbubble.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Catholic social media</a> connections, most of the contributors seemed to have reverted back to Catholicism.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQgKH3Cq5XfEjBov8iTE7WDjSLA6jFDteHn2x1vHsBsrFbL5sqiaPrHQvkMRuNYItvIKy5eF6hqFjnKaKQI_g8f3-zS7fm80oroVAhU9PIH53Bgl3HxEuLCoLCGioRmsnqypiTIhvM3RC2/s1600/Resilience.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="869" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQgKH3Cq5XfEjBov8iTE7WDjSLA6jFDteHn2x1vHsBsrFbL5sqiaPrHQvkMRuNYItvIKy5eF6hqFjnKaKQI_g8f3-zS7fm80oroVAhU9PIH53Bgl3HxEuLCoLCGioRmsnqypiTIhvM3RC2/s320/Resilience.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A set of lies which the Divorce Ideology trumpets is the knee jerk reaction “Oh, kids are resilient, they’ll get over it.” and the self serving “Kids will be happy if I am in a happier relationship.”. The tangled webs we weave when first we learn to deceive. Children crave acceptance so they will fake it until they make it and to great extends mask their woundedness from their family identity being torn away from their through divorce. Superficially, they’ll embrace the prospect of having two Christmases etc... But that comes at a cost of not having a stable place of their own. And the reality that they will have to grow up quickly, often becoming their custodian parent's sounding board about the failed marriage. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnhdWEHanPVkNCylb4OhAR1GziM3WQQsyeq2zkTwIAvYVswVBF9RNXMVgZeQzCIzbmOCkDf-iYSSdQbW_Yl2l34VXhnP3-ieVAdqCHHD-UhfnuXJWVYzXNhH89jbNtQ_Pt62RF0_ON_CXm/s1600/Fake+Warning+FINE.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="291" data-original-width="480" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnhdWEHanPVkNCylb4OhAR1GziM3WQQsyeq2zkTwIAvYVswVBF9RNXMVgZeQzCIzbmOCkDf-iYSSdQbW_Yl2l34VXhnP3-ieVAdqCHHD-UhfnuXJWVYzXNhH89jbNtQ_Pt62RF0_ON_CXm/s320/Fake+Warning+FINE.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Combine an emotionally fragile adolescent who has been wounded by their parents’ divorce and parents preoccupied with their own love life along with authority issues with step parents, these children of divorce often are laxly parented lest they scion leave (and give their divorced spouse a “victory”). That interplay creates FINE kids, which one interviewee used as an acronym for “F-‘ed up Insecure Neurotic Emotional”.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Another reaction to their hemaneutic that divorce is OK because it allows the parent to seek a happy relationship was:</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Before I say anything to them, can I slap them around a little first, and let them know that that makes me happy so they should be happy too? No. Okay...</span></i></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC8lmSLM5100thJsyq8ZY3X-5HXIWmTcJNhPyMpx9Ggx-5PDBEBLe5Ww9OKsBfNt0vZd9cqqDnBMcjyEc-m9NYtSIW0zN1PCdZ7R1Ewvv-XkQoWe9ryF2hqWVPbJ2Vgdk02baHw23DUwE3/s1600/Brady+Bunch.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="564" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC8lmSLM5100thJsyq8ZY3X-5HXIWmTcJNhPyMpx9Ggx-5PDBEBLe5Ww9OKsBfNt0vZd9cqqDnBMcjyEc-m9NYtSIW0zN1PCdZ7R1Ewvv-XkQoWe9ryF2hqWVPbJ2Vgdk02baHw23DUwE3/s320/Brady+Bunch.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A reconstituted family rarely runs as smoothly as portrayed in the TV myths like “The Brady Bunch”. Most adult children revealed that they long yearned for the possibility that their parents may become reconciled. Adult children of divorce ruefully recall that their well being was perennially put in a lower position than their parents’ happiness. And it is usually made clear to divorced children what their place is in a blended family. No wonder the contributor harbored that slap happy reaction.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What really seemed to be lacking in a Divorce Culture is the notion of sacramentality of marriage. If one views marriage as a contract, it is relatively easy to mentally justify walking away from it if you are not happy. Marriage ought to properly understood as a covenant which is a sacrament modeled as the Lord wedded himself to a stiff necked people who He called his own despite their weaknesses and infidelity. Moreover, if we understand the Trinity as a divine relationship which results in the overflowing of love of the Holy Spirit, we should see the analogy in our own participation in creation through the sacrament of marriage and having children. Being wedded to someone is never easy and often requires sacrifice. And it is not just for us mere mortals. After all, the Lord endured having His only begotten Son sacrificed to reconcile with an estranged humanity. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt-EpElwU20S_U9svIMFct_MU2psstUDTMXHiTNi12OgyaEoZ_YWfXNO_lsLlfvSjBigXPMNT5E0dsRBR5q9GnfK9C1zOb026lhrLgHiISAZDEfTuVtyHy9wUuKRuazH94e1hFJXVqMh8H/s1600/Covenant+Marriage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="319" data-original-width="591" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt-EpElwU20S_U9svIMFct_MU2psstUDTMXHiTNi12OgyaEoZ_YWfXNO_lsLlfvSjBigXPMNT5E0dsRBR5q9GnfK9C1zOb026lhrLgHiISAZDEfTuVtyHy9wUuKRuazH94e1hFJXVqMh8H/s640/Covenant+Marriage.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Church also needs to improve its catechesis about divorce. While dining with some on fire social justice warrior faithful, one person gave uninformed assent to provisions of <i>Amoris Laetitia </i>because divorced Catholics have already had it hard enough and ought to receive the Eucharist. He seemed stunned when I observed that those who remain celibate (honoring their covenental nuptuals) can. And those in irregular marriages (civilly divorced and remarried) can go through an annulment. The author tried to solve this by including Catholic teaching on marriage in her last chapter, but the message is better disseminated from the pulpit as well as Catholic media.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFtwLp_mMe04vnDw3Z3OtDFiOyznKt3Z5xJCXSK5jOjCHWLZD8NgHuyg9byrkPsYhHqRoMgOdaMclxbaRcRb8N5oUqY7qvZrIH02XawB8tv3JF3cOOanos7baWGc_YV3BQIRdF8i_pTFrr/s1600/Annulment.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="866" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFtwLp_mMe04vnDw3Z3OtDFiOyznKt3Z5xJCXSK5jOjCHWLZD8NgHuyg9byrkPsYhHqRoMgOdaMclxbaRcRb8N5oUqY7qvZrIH02XawB8tv3JF3cOOanos7baWGc_YV3BQIRdF8i_pTFrr/s400/Annulment.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://deadphilosopherssociety.com/is-an-annulment-a-catholic-divorce-4818/" target="_blank">Some Catholics consider annulments to be a Catholic divorce</a>, and contend that <a href="https://www.catholicmatch.com/institute/2014/07/easy-annulments/" target="_blank">annulments are much easier to get today</a> in America. But the process for a certificate of nullity asks incisive questions of petitioners and their witnesses which require deep introspection. I appreciated the suggestion by one Primal Loss contributor that couples should be allowed to go through the annulment process BEFORE having a civil divorce proceeding as it might encourage more couples to work through their problems and stay together. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Circumventing the annulment process to allow for pastoral counseling to educate couples in irregular marriages poses several problems. Priests already have severe time constraints and the necessity of educating thoroughly secularized consciences may make true faith formation challenging. The reliance on abiding by individual consciences without the surety of formal pronouncement of nullity from church authorities means that either souls are endangered or the process is a fiction. Furthermore, to continue to have an annulment process when this pastoral provision is foisted as being magisterial (which is mistaken as paragraph 3 of <i>Amoris Laetitia</i> indicates that it is a persuasive document intended pastorally) makes anyone seeking annulments as a pious patsy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I appreciated the observation that when an annulment is granted, it may bring closure to the ex-spouses but it does not have the effect on the offspring as it does not change the dire circumstances of blowing up the family and snatching away their identities. An adult friend of mine declared that he was a bastard because his parents had their marriage annulled. I tried to tell him church teaching that while the sacramentality of the marriage was void, he was not born out of wedlock. That nugget of truth did not change his long held self perception.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One contributor to <u>Primal Loss </u>eloquently expressed the resulting marred self perception of being a child of divorce:</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Divorce creates its own language for a child. Much of it is unspoken and the child is the only one who achieves fluency. It might be the voice of doubt in the back of one's mind one day, or the voice of indecision where I should be resolute another day. This perpetually dysfunctional language replaces the language of family love that otherwise forms a child's internal dialogue. So, in a way, divorce becomes the 'everlasting gift' to the child that a child can't overcome. The dysfunction replaces the permanence and security of an intact family.</span></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Since most of <u>Primal Loss </u>were oral histories grouped together by topics, it was in many ways an easy read. Yet absorbing the tales of pain, reflections on the adverse impact of divorce on kids lives and the intractable issues associated with breaking up families also made it a painful read. A virtue of Leila Miller’s organization of the book is that aside from grouping narratives together which corresponded to her six questions, there was scant thematic argumentation, so a reader was not led to obvious take away conclusions, other than divorce is bad, it harms children in innumerable ways and ought to be avoided at almost all costs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The penultimate chapter of <i><u>Primal Loss</u> </i>contained Stories of Hope. Many of these accounts attest to the power of prayer. But they are not saccharine stories of sanctimoniousness. These adult children of divorce find themselves at the brink of a marital breakup. But the reoccurring theme is that they do not surrender to selfishness and look beyond themselves, turning to prayer along with considering their childrens’ plight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Recently, <a href="http://littlecatholicbubble.blogspot.com/2018/03/cardinal-sarah-endorses-primal-loss.html" target="_blank">Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, offered high praise of Primal Loss </a>for highlighting a world view which denies the value of self sacrificial love along with the damaging and long lasting consequences of divorce. This is a recommended read for anyone in a troubled marriage to contemplate before their break up their family. These testimonials may also give real life examples for adult catechesis. For myself, it illustrated the ill born consequences of the Church circumventing the Magisterium on marriage to be more appealing in a populist driven New Evangelization.</span><br />
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-89912424488855949662018-03-27T11:04:00.001-04:002018-03-27T11:04:43.299-04:00Savoring Sakura on the Potomac<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4imAvpCrV74azW1bYdgujuj8gav3JS8JXGhGqjEuMR7l7trwFUWwbsSHywmUxK6i8tUaP1tXJkVVd3daovj22TdYhkRPlIcoy6v9Rnyy3THHa2nuA7LP4buLNaRKMvtO18DCFltsoeiXd/s1600/6821+Playing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The 6821 Quintet concert at the National Gallery of Art, March 26, 2018" border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1600" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4imAvpCrV74azW1bYdgujuj8gav3JS8JXGhGqjEuMR7l7trwFUWwbsSHywmUxK6i8tUaP1tXJkVVd3daovj22TdYhkRPlIcoy6v9Rnyy3THHa2nuA7LP4buLNaRKMvtO18DCFltsoeiXd/s640/6821+Playing.jpg" title="The 6821 Quintet play Sakura on the Potomac for the National Cherry Blossom Festival" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 6821 Quintet performing at the National Gallery of Art, March 26 2018</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For the last few years, the National Cherry Blossom Festival has been privileged to feature the 6821 Quintet, an ad hoc group of musicians, which was formed in 2015 and is comprised of members from Japan, New York and Philadelphia with through the support of the <a href="http://www.rueno.org/" target="_blank">Ryunji Ueno Foundation</a>. The 6821 Quintet derives its name from the distance between Washington, DC and Toyko, Japan. This year’s ensemble is comprised of violinist <a href="https://www.japanarts.co.jp/artist/MayuKISHIMA?lang=2" target="_blank">Mayu Kishima</a>, violinist <a href="http://www.ericsilberger.com/" target="_blank">Eric Silberger, </a>violinist <a href="https://www.philorch.org/about/musicians/meng-wang#/" target="_blank">Meng Wang</a>, cellist <a href="http://www.clancynewman.com/" target="_blank">Clancy Newman</a> and pianist <a href="http://www.jasonsolounias.com/" target="_blank">Jason Solounias</a>.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPf0u4pqWlGPK7-5s48X5KkiP0EGMkDvkQS_iHxLJdkBCzZ2vkQMID2jAjYKjcPx6i3Ju0SU0WSlxv_zZt7bP-4b0i4GDfUUJR6JbjDuC8OsQCwslqZm7rocMSPGSl8Xt5oFCM9Q5qGS3Q/s1600/6821+Sakura+on+the+Potomac+Title+Card.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="153" data-original-width="343" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPf0u4pqWlGPK7-5s48X5KkiP0EGMkDvkQS_iHxLJdkBCzZ2vkQMID2jAjYKjcPx6i3Ju0SU0WSlxv_zZt7bP-4b0i4GDfUUJR6JbjDuC8OsQCwslqZm7rocMSPGSl8Xt5oFCM9Q5qGS3Q/s320/6821+Sakura+on+the+Potomac+Title+Card.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sakura on the Potomac, which premiered at the 2018 National Cherry Blossom Festival was composed by Japanese composer and producer Kunihiko Murai. Sakura is the Japanese word for Cherry Blossom Tree, which includes the twelve species of Cherry Blossom Trees that encircle the Tidal Basin in the Nation's Capital since Japan’s generous gift to America in 1912.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The 6821 Quintet also played <a href="https://youtu.be/iEll4vbxH4g" target="_blank">Songs of Spring</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/TKr5F3cG8oQ" target="_blank">Portraits of Sakura– our memories of bloom</a>, which were respectively the prior two years commissions for the National Cherry Blossom Festival.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">During the final performance at the National Gallery of Art, two of the three composers of National Cherry Blossom Festival commissions were present. <a href="http://www.michaeldjupstrom.com/" target="_blank">Michael Djupstrom</a> had performed with the 6821 Quintet for a couple of years, but also composed Songs of Spring for the 2016 Cherry Blossom Festival. Mr. Djupstrom commended the 6821 Quintet for their remarkable cohesiveness in their artistry, especially since they only perform together one week a year.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4-xc7-HTTPtRY1cb1rhNHKJhur7iD5HyHmB6H-sp3LGIVMIUXNa0cLneZ3tpzQOR2DbAsV25p4IEdYzn8vlVhnhYbpY4JNHQcLcW8xjHXJGbyYfqpNUxUpICtj0q7gPjDkfuHQ13IYZt6/s1600/6821+Murai+crowd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="698" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4-xc7-HTTPtRY1cb1rhNHKJhur7iD5HyHmB6H-sp3LGIVMIUXNa0cLneZ3tpzQOR2DbAsV25p4IEdYzn8vlVhnhYbpY4JNHQcLcW8xjHXJGbyYfqpNUxUpICtj0q7gPjDkfuHQ13IYZt6/s200/6821+Murai+crowd.jpg" width="189" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0610797/" target="_blank">Kunihiko Murai </a>had written over 300 songs and 30 film scores, so composing a tone poem like Sakura on the Potomac was a new adventure. Mr. Murai revealed that he associated lyrics in his head for Sakura on the Potomac but did not reveal them. The composer, however, noted that he was inspired by the <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-did-T-S-Eliot-mean-when-he-said-that-April-is-the-cruelest-month-in-%E2%80%9CThe-Waste-Land%E2%80%9D" target="_blank">T.S. Eliot quotation </a>“April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land”. This seems apt as the blossoming of the Sakura on the Potomac signals Spring in the District of Calamity (sic), a.k.a Washington, DC.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxtrCI7mYl3hsqwitjO8t_KMiXDH5Ybk2npsRCWuo1-rEo_RrldE_nWJGIWrmgBRl18Lh0-B0TgaTXL0YoHyFdB_ygUW-BEIzmYOL48Rk9drF3erFkufFIUqc48BRgikZTi5e_cyEyE3Jv/s1600/6821+Quintet+with+composer+Murai+b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Meng Wang, Kunihiko Murai, Clancy Newman, Eric Silberger, Jason Solounias, Mayu Kishima" border="0" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="1600" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxtrCI7mYl3hsqwitjO8t_KMiXDH5Ybk2npsRCWuo1-rEo_RrldE_nWJGIWrmgBRl18Lh0-B0TgaTXL0YoHyFdB_ygUW-BEIzmYOL48Rk9drF3erFkufFIUqc48BRgikZTi5e_cyEyE3Jv/s640/6821+Quintet+with+composer+Murai+b.jpg" title="The 6821 Quintet with composer Kunihiko Murai after playing Sakura on the Potomac " width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 6821 Quintet pose with Sakura on the Potomac composer Kunihiko Murai </td></tr>
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-51674492376265585062018-03-18T08:20:00.002-04:002018-03-18T08:20:44.217-04:00Shamrockfest 2018 Memories <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-PLTYA7-3MDLhQLholjDd8ZrqUYrTC628WaIqy6Dl-xiZWy1vJpIY_5FGxt-4z2g94bpuhEyzh7bdnGMwWnVCCUQ_DgbWIdJpxBvcVaeIWZ-ZlYqU5x4MI_fe0e121YldJE6CJ1yw5UcN/s1600/Shamrockfest+sign.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="758" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-PLTYA7-3MDLhQLholjDd8ZrqUYrTC628WaIqy6Dl-xiZWy1vJpIY_5FGxt-4z2g94bpuhEyzh7bdnGMwWnVCCUQ_DgbWIdJpxBvcVaeIWZ-ZlYqU5x4MI_fe0e121YldJE6CJ1yw5UcN/s640/Shamrockfest+sign.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Despite the mostly mild winter in the DMV, St. Patrick's Day 2018 had weather which mimicked the Emerald Isle as it was chilly, overcast with a touch of rain. Still hearty partiers shook their fists at the sky and danced a jig at Shamrockfest, which was held on the grounds of RFK stadium.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvO78tMdKf2q3LXavrUEq8o5eFKIh9ER3TZwWaBsVguChdkNoW6QVozTQXH4-_jovgPZohQD5CnSA6HC_jBdbP3WwPTAnQkj209PSgfpnxAOY_LzPVcErsF3gRYhSfWybeCmFyKLnj0q5U/s1600/Shamrockfest+bands.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="741" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvO78tMdKf2q3LXavrUEq8o5eFKIh9ER3TZwWaBsVguChdkNoW6QVozTQXH4-_jovgPZohQD5CnSA6HC_jBdbP3WwPTAnQkj209PSgfpnxAOY_LzPVcErsF3gRYhSfWybeCmFyKLnj0q5U/s640/Shamrockfest+bands.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Shamrockfest featured three stages. The Electric Isle featured DJs spinning tunes under a big tent. DJ Clinton Matthews kicked things off at what became quite the popular venue. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsiKvKY_Zcnt33l2-rSMpqp5s9fewP-VspF5L5DHQRbJOXjTiECk6HHW-MQJLsjve0txSYPHyLhZTuEnlWzqrWz7AwzWBRl4YCIiEXNKchHYzfdJ6H1883j-f2z4cwAERDnxxO-CAld4-T/s1600/Shamrockfest+DJ+Clinton+Matthews+fan.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="DJ Clinton Matthews spinning tunes at Shamrockfest" border="0" data-original-height="813" data-original-width="472" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsiKvKY_Zcnt33l2-rSMpqp5s9fewP-VspF5L5DHQRbJOXjTiECk6HHW-MQJLsjve0txSYPHyLhZTuEnlWzqrWz7AwzWBRl4YCIiEXNKchHYzfdJ6H1883j-f2z4cwAERDnxxO-CAld4-T/s640/Shamrockfest+DJ+Clinton+Matthews+fan.JPG" title="DJ Clinton Matthews spinning tunes at Shamrockfest" width="370" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Watching DJ Clinton Matthews while wearing the green at Shamrockfest</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">The Shamrock Gold and Shamrock Green stages rotated with bands playing high energy rock with a touch of the Irish. One had to marvel at the guitar playing prowess demonstrated by Reel Big Fish. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjme-xcuu08CeCp22tbI_sU6WUdSVEsD7HwNWJg-iEn_ELu3L55UMxbrmyNbfbXnOiqJNKaG1RptY7PygoD09HWAte1wxScT7bavE9Xue7jCeucPw2mWcEoor9UNLZdFZdUIMRuRCrPke_T/s1600/Shamrockfest+Reel+Big+Fish.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Reel Big Fish performing at Shamrockfest" border="0" data-original-height="415" data-original-width="979" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjme-xcuu08CeCp22tbI_sU6WUdSVEsD7HwNWJg-iEn_ELu3L55UMxbrmyNbfbXnOiqJNKaG1RptY7PygoD09HWAte1wxScT7bavE9Xue7jCeucPw2mWcEoor9UNLZdFZdUIMRuRCrPke_T/s640/Shamrockfest+Reel+Big+Fish.JPG" title="Reel Big Fish performing at Shamrockfest" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reel Big Fish performing at Shamrockfest</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">And it was craic to rock to Carbon Leaf.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimLMPiFktMYQOo59Moy4SxV6Wsi7mDk8UxlhAvcv9iQiqyUIVWLsE2r7LPsPOYJaCAjwG0Du5TsIDIr6QmJhYfFpCAwB4G4I-4E6Ikiy0nmcvkeIEjHBRNKWnjNoMkCqq-dUPPXJ5o6r-d/s1600/Shamrockfest+Carbon+Leaf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Carbon Leaf playing at Shamrockfest " border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1133" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimLMPiFktMYQOo59Moy4SxV6Wsi7mDk8UxlhAvcv9iQiqyUIVWLsE2r7LPsPOYJaCAjwG0Du5TsIDIr6QmJhYfFpCAwB4G4I-4E6Ikiy0nmcvkeIEjHBRNKWnjNoMkCqq-dUPPXJ5o6r-d/s640/Shamrockfest+Carbon+Leaf.JPG" title="Carbon Leaf playing at Shamrockfest " width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carbon Leaf playing at Shamrockfest </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Of course there was plenty of festival food and libations to enjoy, with plenty of Guinness and Jamison. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWluo3ZPlfuFyBOAzSxmgRawrLiWT9eMtQnT7t7-W8F-MVQzv00919MWYRrira7fwHB_3XmqBxU6NygxqXbGQHGm903Z1gFMGUc_EE7637jiDdj6tZGgzSvQ8HNCPET9jkCRx7qpSznO4l/s1600/Shamrockfest+Guinness+Man.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A Guinness toast on St. Patrick's day at Shamrockfest" border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="1513" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWluo3ZPlfuFyBOAzSxmgRawrLiWT9eMtQnT7t7-W8F-MVQzv00919MWYRrira7fwHB_3XmqBxU6NygxqXbGQHGm903Z1gFMGUc_EE7637jiDdj6tZGgzSvQ8HNCPET9jkCRx7qpSznO4l/s640/Shamrockfest+Guinness+Man.JPG" title="Guinness Man" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Shamrockfest is said to be one of the largest outdoor St. Patrick Day festivals around. People really try to dress to impress to show their Irish. Some chose to sport some udderly crazy costumes (sic) to have a good time. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-MEgkLDKEIpO4FqBIqjNuM2KJZlg8We-EqA1mrgWzjYpy7f53eP8WBZJtc88ygmbMJXj_PlqDhEtuKRApnyvBCWHHO3QymBR7eGzv9MViaU6s12kjkjwh8jvbtgEOUBhyphenhyphenIbS7ChC3BX2q/s1600/Shamrockfest+Udderly+Good+Time.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Having an udderly good time at Shamrockfest 2018" border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="434" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-MEgkLDKEIpO4FqBIqjNuM2KJZlg8We-EqA1mrgWzjYpy7f53eP8WBZJtc88ygmbMJXj_PlqDhEtuKRApnyvBCWHHO3QymBR7eGzv9MViaU6s12kjkjwh8jvbtgEOUBhyphenhyphenIbS7ChC3BX2q/s640/Shamrockfest+Udderly+Good+Time.JPG" title="Shamrockfest Cow Crazy " width="390" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Having an udderly good time at Shamrockfest 2018</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHieGONuNTGn_nV1dG6ZGel73XM7aGUcYyY5Ns1XKwmVRoNbZHN2gQnLVIBErIRC8ZMCeS0L3Y2gG6bN7deDFm5xTNvTtsomZrVolUqJUrSJu6gMRtJ5poTO6lUkoThJv-7I8xwfx8rMtU/s1600/Shamrockfest+Red+Frog+Events.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="365" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHieGONuNTGn_nV1dG6ZGel73XM7aGUcYyY5Ns1XKwmVRoNbZHN2gQnLVIBErIRC8ZMCeS0L3Y2gG6bN7deDFm5xTNvTtsomZrVolUqJUrSJu6gMRtJ5poTO6lUkoThJv-7I8xwfx8rMtU/s320/Shamrockfest+Red+Frog+Events.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Shamrockfest is produced by Red Frog Events. In mid June, they will hold <a href="https://fireflyfestival.com/" target="_blank">Firefly Music Festival</a> in Dover, Delaware, which is a four day music extravaganza which will feature scores of bands, headlined by Eminem, the Arctic Monkeys and The Killers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Hope to <a href="https://youtu.be/YoUd3smsvCY" target="_blank">see you at the Woodlands.</a></span></div>
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-86427191667349854972018-02-12T09:42:00.000-05:002018-02-12T09:42:14.584-05:00On What Propaganda is Condemned and Countenanced at Pyeongchang Winter Olympics <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The 23rd Winter Olympiad in Pyeongchang, South Korea had a reoccurring theme of Peace, as was evident from the Opening Ceremonies. It was well known that athletes from North and South Korea would march as a unified team into Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD2VMPA6Owwfxxx0-8G_2nLKgCH125kzQI8WRJX2VVBfmzY1GIAWl1eexuNPosX8zj1sS-82jF5s_AACzgXktpYuH5F0JLR5AAJrZoA9xMWjtkVnxygw3YMGWPPJSVzgB6bvRC8ZxFfQuG/s1600/Winter+Olympics+Koreas.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="730" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD2VMPA6Owwfxxx0-8G_2nLKgCH125kzQI8WRJX2VVBfmzY1GIAWl1eexuNPosX8zj1sS-82jF5s_AACzgXktpYuH5F0JLR5AAJrZoA9xMWjtkVnxygw3YMGWPPJSVzgB6bvRC8ZxFfQuG/s640/Winter+Olympics+Koreas.JPG" width="540" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the draws for casual sports fans to watch the Olympics is the Opening Ceremonies. The pageantry of the Opening Ceremonies, as expressed through artistic expression as well as thematic choice sets the mood for the Olympic Games. Afterwards, there is the Parade of Nations, when all of the competitors gather in a gesture of unity and good will. During this long march of nations, television viewers often have to endure commentary from NBC announcers to add color and context to the visuals. Often this dialogue is pap or seems scripted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">However, when the Japanese team made their debut at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, NBC Asia correspondent Joshua Cooper Ramos offered an incredible generalization. Ramos claimed that Koreans looked with admiration to Japan as an important example of cultural, economic and technological transformation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Several hours after uttering this insensitive and insulting insinuation, NBC Sports issued a hasty apology.</span><br />
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<a href="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/180211c-nbc-sports.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="NBC offeres shame faced apology for Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony insulting commentary" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-19874" src="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/180211c-nbc-sports.jpg?w=604" width="534" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">NBC paid $967 million for broadcast rights for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and it would seem that they did not want to insult their hosts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">With that in mind, one wonders why NBC keeps pushing North Korean propaganda while covering the Winter Olympics. No doubt that a unified Korean team marching during the Parade of Nations was a big story. It epitomizes the international aspiration of brotherhood and exemplifies the Pyeongchang Game's theme of Peace. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[Front Center] Vice President Mike Pence [Back Center] Kim Yo Jung, sister of DPRK dictator Kim Jun Un</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is understandable that an Olympic broadcaster would want to capitalize on controversy by showing how close Vice President Mike Pence was seated to North Korean Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong during the Opening Ceremonies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8rdfUks7VYU5KHJz1NamKe1vYFuUFZtuUSYVOXq4Ud4zlykSbnj6lKpSTYdApvifpnKproj4RYCZshW4QkVujACn6UZJkxmepgwGWIIHbZwEquJV21WxuorZYx2vV8DOXN_pV2lD2H0d0/s1600/Winter+Olympics+Combined+Korea+cheerleaders.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="805" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8rdfUks7VYU5KHJz1NamKe1vYFuUFZtuUSYVOXq4Ud4zlykSbnj6lKpSTYdApvifpnKproj4RYCZshW4QkVujACn6UZJkxmepgwGWIIHbZwEquJV21WxuorZYx2vV8DOXN_pV2lD2H0d0/s400/Winter+Olympics+Combined+Korea+cheerleaders.JPG" width="400" /></a>The coverage of the North Korea cheerleaders during the womens' hockey game between Korea and Switzerland does raise eyebrows. It was a cute featurette to have a piece about the some of the 200 woman squad of the <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/north-korean-army-beauties-cheerleaders-athletes-attend-olympics-games-775076" target="_blank">North Korean "Army of Beauty"</a> cheerleaders leading chants during the 0-8 rout of Korea. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/north-koreas-cheerleaders-steal-spotlight-2018-winter-olympics/story?id=52983432" target="_blank">Some say that the synchronized chants of the North Korea Beauty Cheerleaders stole the show</a>. But what what telling is what they chanted and how they performed. These NPDK cheerleaders chanted "Unity" waving "neutral" flags of a unified Korea.<a href="https://twitter.com/CalamityDC/status/962444974523641856" target="_blank"> After each goal by their opponent, they chanted: "Cheer up!".</a> Perhaps that exemplifies a cultural trait. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What has been shown but little explored are instances in which the female Beauty Squad use big heads of a Korean man. Hmm. Who could this be? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is dubious that it was an everyman Korean. <a href="https://twitter.com/CalamityDC/status/962363507588173826" target="_blank">The Big Head looks rather like an idealized image of North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un.</a> What does it say about the consequences of "Unity". Is that something that all Koreans also believe?</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisJ4KSSTu4RHUXI8_7slWbLUXk_2b7dtLGIgM_GxAKg_x5GJWgVAN78sRqfzkly4zXSFlyIw8HJwu6WqiQgby2AjzzYKe62u7WLiiC6NQaDCQ1fY68qXvFTYE2SrGxg_Mf7So4fzWs_9VV/s1600/Winter+Olympics+Kim+Jong+Un+Big+Head.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="691" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisJ4KSSTu4RHUXI8_7slWbLUXk_2b7dtLGIgM_GxAKg_x5GJWgVAN78sRqfzkly4zXSFlyIw8HJwu6WqiQgby2AjzzYKe62u7WLiiC6NQaDCQ1fY68qXvFTYE2SrGxg_Mf7So4fzWs_9VV/s640/Winter+Olympics+Kim+Jong+Un+Big+Head.JPG" width="540" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">UPDATE 02/12/2018</span></b> BBC News quotes Korean media that the DPRK Army of Beauties cheerleaders were holding up big heads of Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (the first of the Hermit Kingdom's Juche post World War II dictators). Yet the South Korean Unification Ministry insists that the cheerleaders were just holding up cut outs of "a good looking man". </span></div>
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-9455706953798737332018-02-09T15:48:00.000-05:002018-02-10T09:34:03.645-05:00Being At Peace With Different Measures of Glory<script type="text/javascript">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj28T58N-T0GszxuuQ27inw-rBsDZXxlA0YP-KzfbgcGvZIJ8k-_KCV5TQfGnnYeWltbC8kY1Gsz3qCgHQNseu40aHAPS3OTxNCo8zwr-YWqHb2DKHoBbmvO-1sYMMXC9Cep3v-TBPFvyP7/s1600/Winter+Olympics+Opening+Ceremony+Dove.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="413" data-original-width="620" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj28T58N-T0GszxuuQ27inw-rBsDZXxlA0YP-KzfbgcGvZIJ8k-_KCV5TQfGnnYeWltbC8kY1Gsz3qCgHQNseu40aHAPS3OTxNCo8zwr-YWqHb2DKHoBbmvO-1sYMMXC9Cep3v-TBPFvyP7/s640/Winter+Olympics+Opening+Ceremony+Dove.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Athletes from Unified North & South Korean Team at Winter Olympics</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The 23rd Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea are themed to be the games of peace. <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/unified-korean-olympic-team-to-march-at-olympic-winter-games-pyeongchang-2018" target="_blank">This was accentuated by athletes of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) marching with their Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) counterparts under a unified flag.</a></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn1BWNYp-OR_i60lTTAfcutu1Tp_8rNaEk2CRI-41y91TE4o8gifl5B0ILYRbVa7JvFsTIT2Y2jtpsLzP0CdIkgS4wdo2xNfCYPeIWUNiOH1SVGavSeEH5NT-XmaHRYyJV6vtgMr_ln_Kw/s1600/Winter+Olympics+Russian+Athletes.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="374" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn1BWNYp-OR_i60lTTAfcutu1Tp_8rNaEk2CRI-41y91TE4o8gifl5B0ILYRbVa7JvFsTIT2Y2jtpsLzP0CdIkgS4wdo2xNfCYPeIWUNiOH1SVGavSeEH5NT-XmaHRYyJV6vtgMr_ln_Kw/s320/Winter+Olympics+Russian+Athletes.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Olympic Athletes from Russia for 2018 Winter Olympics </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Due the<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/02/01/pyeongchang-winter-olympics-features-169-russian-athletes-despite-countrys-ban.html" target="_blank"> doping ban on Russian Federation,</a> the 169 clean Russian athletes marched as neutrals in red and grey uniforms as neutrals. Any gold medal winning "Olympic Athletes of Russia" will be feted with the raising of the Olympic flag and anthem. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">While the <a href="https://hellogiggles.com/news/many-female-athletes-competing-2018-winter-olympics/" target="_blank">2,952 athletes</a> participating in the Pyeongchang games are the best <a href="https://goo.gl/ri5U6u" target="_blank">winter sport</a> athletes in the world, but only a few make it up to the medal stand to receive their glory. For most, marching in the Winter Olympics opening ceremony is the highlight of their careers. </span><br />
This makes Eric Liddell's admonition about glory all the more poignant.
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This makes Eric Liddell's admonition about glory all the more poignant. </span><br />
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<a href="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/180209e-eric-liddell.jpg"><img alt="Eric Liddell on Glory" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-19856" height="556" src="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/180209e-eric-liddell.jpg?w=604" width="604" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyvtyURhbmWVQGPKf9N83PCq2VxbB1n5BS8f0KefJTbhx9T8Z7TDpiQzx5TQnlx4_tCnIdqy8EG8bdK-0stqQeJLjxGlDixfaggBRJQWxdFql6MhBloGO-7RZ0AcJgbfX8y56uq0VBcY4M/s1600/Chariots+of+Fire.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="657" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyvtyURhbmWVQGPKf9N83PCq2VxbB1n5BS8f0KefJTbhx9T8Z7TDpiQzx5TQnlx4_tCnIdqy8EG8bdK-0stqQeJLjxGlDixfaggBRJQWxdFql6MhBloGO-7RZ0AcJgbfX8y56uq0VBcY4M/s320/Chariots+of+Fire.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What is <a href="https://youtu.be/e6KCCWt_Aps" target="_blank">particularly noteworthy of Eric Liddell</a> is not that he was the the Flying Scotsman was the first British Gold Medal winner in track from 1924, or that he was the basis of the film <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Chariots-Fire-Nicholas-Farrell/dp/B004FQX5A2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518207352&sr=8-1&keywords=Chariots+of+Fire" target="_blank">Chariots of Fire</a> (1981), or his steadfast Sabbath keeping, but for dying as a missionary in a Japanese internment camp in China in 1945. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We should all be inspired to run a good race in life and doing our best.</span><br />
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El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-58478470401723972012018-02-02T10:24:00.000-05:002018-02-02T10:24:48.274-05:00Connecting Candlemas to Groundhog Day <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/180202c-candlemas-rhyme.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="An old English rhyme celebrating Candlemas, the Presentation at the Temple of Jesus, the light of the world" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-19799" height="483" src="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/180202c-candlemas-rhyme.jpg?w=604" width="534" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">February 2nd marks 40 days after Christmas. On the liturgical calendar we celebrate the Presentation of Our Lord at the Temple, the traditional close of the Christmas season. It is also known as <a href="https://youtu.be/_V_NANigsdU" target="_blank">Candlemas,</a> as the faithful traditionally processed into the church sanctuary with Candles. This ceremony re-presenting how the Mary and Joseph brought Jesus, the Light of the World, into the Temple.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLJEdXv64NLUNQ-A0WOIyMd8h7YvbxEBDRVGdc4fzfonaPQGvvbEioHc_hBIlX0NzosNUHQdhIWYmqECglKuPNVe5EgKcaU6k8FfMrbneCtvlmnJNVrrEsDqHBVJsm13WNka2yS3Pvmjhs/s1600/170202b+Bill+Vaughn.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="664" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLJEdXv64NLUNQ-A0WOIyMd8h7YvbxEBDRVGdc4fzfonaPQGvvbEioHc_hBIlX0NzosNUHQdhIWYmqECglKuPNVe5EgKcaU6k8FfMrbneCtvlmnJNVrrEsDqHBVJsm13WNka2yS3Pvmjhs/s320/170202b+Bill+Vaughn.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the secular calendar, we celebrate Groundhog Day, awaiting the <a href="https://goo.gl/wKHUvX" target="_blank">predictions of Punxsutawney Phil </a>from western Pennsylvania on whether there will be six more weeks of winter (<a href="https://goo.gl/AdsnHx" target="_blank">not Black History Month</a> as some wags have wondered). This makes sense as it roughly is midwinter (especially prior to the Gregorian calendar adjustment of 1752). Unbeknowst to most, <a href="https://youtu.be/dv-zeHS7PfY" target="_blank">Groudhog Day has a direct connection to Candlemas.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In eastern Europe, which focused on light and candles, there was a folk association between how much light was in the sky on Candlemas and God's providence in the months to come. Thus they believed that if there was a lot of light in the sky on February 2nd, there would be 40 more days of winter. Germanic peoples used an animal as their light detector, typically a hedgehog or a badger. When they immigrated to America, they adapted their instrument and used the plentiful groundhog. </span></div>
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-5843954947419604372018-01-25T12:17:00.000-05:002018-01-25T12:17:54.100-05:00On the Politicization of Church Life <script type="text/javascript">
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<a href="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/180125d-cardinal-raymond-burke.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="Cardinal Raymond Burke on the Politization of Church Life under Pope Francis" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-19748" src="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/180125d-cardinal-raymond-burke.jpg?w=604" width="534" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cardinal Raymond Burke gave an extended interview with Christopher Altieri for "Thinking With the Church" about matters of controversy among Catholics. <a href="https://thinkingwiththechurch.wordpress.com/2018/01/22/episode-20-a-conversation-with-raymond-leo-cardinal-burke/" target="_blank">Burke's interview was recorded as a podcast</a> and the <a href="http://www.catholicworldreport.com/2018/01/22/cardinal-burke-it-is-a-source-of-anguish-to-hear-suggestions-that-i-would-lead-a-schism/" target="_blank">transcript was published in the Catholic World Reporter</a>. The Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta expressed anguish that some consider his request to the Holy See for clarifications (<a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-burke-maintains-unwavering-resolve-but-offers-no-timetable-for-for" target="_blank">dubia</a>) about the apostolic exhortation <i>Amoris Laetitia</i> (2016) are motivated to create a schism in the Catholic church. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cardinal Burke is concerned that the interpretation and application of <i>Amoris Laetitia </i>contradict long standing traditional teachings on the Sacrament of Marriage. While Cardinal Burke scrupulously avoided ideological labels in his Altieri interview, he noted <a href="http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/amoris-laetitia-malta-and-conscience" target="_blank">the Bishop of Malta's innovation</a> regarding irregular second marriages, which clearly are progressive in nature.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSqf5p2fi8e3R5q4L15SwDH54SyUAcowHHRZoTckrOc-59aTfygeQJqT4PLyaFm1CWvyMNQquc89dSSbnv9xKeI0w1GEAv7J7Xi28VFnexqHEPJflnP3NmFlhCtsOjVnQDx2Pv2N3Ovqx4/s1600/Laudato+Si.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSqf5p2fi8e3R5q4L15SwDH54SyUAcowHHRZoTckrOc-59aTfygeQJqT4PLyaFm1CWvyMNQquc89dSSbnv9xKeI0w1GEAv7J7Xi28VFnexqHEPJflnP3NmFlhCtsOjVnQDx2Pv2N3Ovqx4/s200/Laudato+Si.JPG" width="140" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the characteristics of Pope Francis' reign is the injection of secular progressive politics into papal pronouncements. In <i><a href="http://dcbarroco.blogspot.com/2015/06/laudato-si-praise-be-popey-cock-sic-or.html" target="_blank">Laudato Si'</a> </i>(2015), Pope Francis implored world leaders to approve the Paris Climate Change Accords. <a href="http://time.com/4226808/pope-francis-border-mass/" target="_blank">Pope Francis' visit to the Mexican-US border </a>was a pointed ploy to champion open borders, counter to the platform of then candidate now President Donald Trump. Even Pope Francis'<a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/events/event.dir.html/content/vaticanevents/en/2018/1/24/messaggio-comunicazionisociali-2018.html" target="_blank"> annual announcement for World Communication Day</a> railed against <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/01/24/pope-francis-compares-fake-news-to-serpent-in-garden-eden.html" target="_blank">"fake news"</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Pope Francis' advocated a journalism of peace, which the Holy Father defined as:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“<i>A journalism created by people for people, one that is at the service of all, especially those – and they are the majority in our world – who have no voice,” A journalism less concentrated on breaking news than on exploring the underlying causes of conflict, in order to promote deeper understanding and contribute to their resolution by setting in place virtuous process. A journalism committed to pointing out alternatives to the escalation of shouting matches and verbal violence.</i>"</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A true faith ought to be challenged and should not be confined to the sanctuary of the Church. There is the danger , however, that the Catholic faithful are being shepherded to take sides on secular political issues which are outside of the aura of competency of the Petrine office) and sometimes seem counter to traditional church teachings). Those who object to this progressive polarization and stand fast to the Magisterium have increasingly been scorned, ostracized or dismissed as getting with today's program, even if the innovation is not magisterial.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For example, Chicago's Archbishop Blase Cardinal Cupich interpreted <i>Amoris Laetitia</i> as being a development of doctrine which the Petrine office has loosened requirements when pastorally addressing irregular marriages. But the apostolic exhortation did no such thing. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As we grapple with the politicization of Church life, we ought to heed <a href="http://dc-lausdeo.blogspot.com/2012/08/peter-meiderlin-on-virtue.html" target="_blank">16th Century Lutheran theologian Peter Meiderlin</a>'s wisdom that we ought to have "[U]nity on necessary things, liberty on dubious things and charity in all things." </span></span></div>
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El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-58864712141773138672018-01-18T12:33:00.000-05:002018-01-18T12:33:14.035-05:00Will It Take Courage to Win the Arizona Senate Primary in 2018? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Congresswoman Martha McSally (R-AZ 2nd) announces her candidacy for the U.S. Senate to replace Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Republican field is already populated by Dr. Kelli Ward, <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/01/11/kelli-ward-seems-deny-steve-bannon-endorsement-cnn-interview/1026457001/" target="_blank">a candidate endorsed by Steve Bannon</a>, and <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/adolfoflores/arpaio-running-for-senate" target="_blank">Joe Arpaio, the 85 year old long-time ex Maricopa County sheriff</a> renowned for his tough treatment of criminal aliens who was <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/25/politics/sheriff-joe-arpaio-donald-trump-pardon/index.html" target="_blank">recently pardoned by President Trump</a>.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[L] Dr. Kelli Ward [R] Ex Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Arizona GOP candidates for US Senate</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Although Democrats need to defend 25 of 33 Senate seats in the 2018 election cycle, including in 10 states in which President Trump carried in 2016, Republicans are worried about losing their slender control of the Senate. Senator Jeff Flake's (R-AZ) decision not to stand for re-election puts another "safe" GOP seat up for grabs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In some respects, the GOP primary might be made up of voters with <a href="https://dc-calamity.blogspot.com/2015/09/trepidations-of-troll-party-takeover-of.html" target="_blank">trollish Trump-eteer tendencies</a> (infamously redubbed by Hillary Clinton as the<a href="http://dc-calamity.blogspot.com/2016/09/ed-rollins-on-deplorables.html" target="_blank"> "Basket of Deplorables"</a>) who think that strong immigration stances are the way to win via Arpaio's reputation and rhetoric. Kelli Ward had positioned herself to be a<a href="https://goo.gl/Kv8Lf6" target="_blank"> Bannon disruptor of the GOP Establishment</a>, but now is backing away from <a href="https://goo.gl/pg8zwe" target="_blank">"Sloppy Steve" after his fall from grace in the "Fire and Fury" fiasco</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Establishment Republicans hoping to avoid a<a href="https://goo.gl/CF4y7o" target="_blank"> repeat defeat akin to the Alabama special election</a>, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">seem to favor McSally to keep the seat as she has legislative experience and is not an agitating lightning rod. However,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> when an ex fighter pilot urged her colleagues to "grow a pair of ovaries and get the job done", such a candidate might not be exactly safe for the go along to get along in the so called Senate country club in the District of Calamity (sic).</span><br />
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[This piece originally was published at<a href="http://www.dccalamity.us/" target="_blank"> DistrictofCalamity.com</a> ]</div>
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-41328726143777138912018-01-17T18:33:00.000-05:002018-01-17T20:06:56.676-05:00Some Thoughts Should Be Kept Close to the ScotteVest (sic)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Scott Jordan is an entrepreneur who developed a line of clothing which allows for fashionably carrying gadgets within the garments. Jordan even went on ABC's Shark Tank in 2012 in a bid to raise funds for his technology enabled clothing (but <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/scott-jordan-on-shark-tank-fundraising-2014-3" target="_blank">Jordan rejected the the offers</a>). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">ScotteVest snowballed into a $10 million company by 2015.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">ScotteVest's pricey e-commerce product line were often seen advertised on Fox News, presumably to appeal to geeky traveling businessmen who tired of fumbling gadgets when they went through TSA lines.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">ScotteVest CEO Scott Jordan may have unraveled this fashion market niche by oversharing on social media. Scott Jordan had developed a reputation of being an<a href="https://mixergy.com/interviews/scott-jordan-scottevest/" target="_blank"> outspoken CEO on social media</a>, pumping products and pimping his progressive politics. However Jordan recently shared on Facebook a smarmy post which revealed marketing strategy while denigrating his customers.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGqkb-Re5-172c23rGgt7Z9tGKA1ft3_qhyx7rLAA2dAjr0G_yEABHGQRO7-U263lQ_7IjLHUB7wfL0yBpf-c2B1dokqlKn3hFZaJRHps6Q-EgPxWHeV-zpQkT8wkq9P-kjnsQTNkPeED/s1600/FB+Scott+Jordan.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="372" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGqkb-Re5-172c23rGgt7Z9tGKA1ft3_qhyx7rLAA2dAjr0G_yEABHGQRO7-U263lQ_7IjLHUB7wfL0yBpf-c2B1dokqlKn3hFZaJRHps6Q-EgPxWHeV-zpQkT8wkq9P-kjnsQTNkPeED/s640/FB+Scott+Jordan.JPG" width="442" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">While one could certainly see a small time celebutard who is full of himself to contemptuously sneer at the little people on whom you've made your millions while taking a chair lift in Ketchum ski resort. But it is almost unfathomable that he would share this "burn" on social media. It really makes one wonder, to use Jordan's parlance, who is the "f**king idiot?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">After Jordan's Facebook <i>faux-pas</i> festered for a few days, the ScotteVest CEO posted an incomplete apology on Twitter, which linked to the original Facebook post. Unfortunately, the Facebook post had been deleted. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zQoi5YN7yXSqIlUkmIA3ozbPwzumIjKfqAp5lPCsFh7qU2GoqiFBN-umvNYTH3ueBX53Dcmn7lr6ZecgQY9LbuWhQpLLk-Vso5CBEDBn523892U2z5HEZ73nJLykaPI6SEU_TmohGQoP/s1600/Twitter+Scott+Jordan.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="158" data-original-width="688" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zQoi5YN7yXSqIlUkmIA3ozbPwzumIjKfqAp5lPCsFh7qU2GoqiFBN-umvNYTH3ueBX53Dcmn7lr6ZecgQY9LbuWhQpLLk-Vso5CBEDBn523892U2z5HEZ73nJLykaPI6SEU_TmohGQoP/s640/Twitter+Scott+Jordan.JPG" width="540" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">No doubt that this story certainly won't make <a href="https://www.scottevest.com/about/media-buzz.shtml" target="_blank">ScotteVest's media buzz page</a>. But the internet never forgets. The question is whether ScotteVest's customers will be willing to forget that they are considered to be gullible f**king idiots" by the guy profiting from their sales.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Social Media is a wonderful way for companies to reach customers. One need not be "Always Be Closing" when sharing on social media and genuineness is a way to cement bonds with fickle customers of an expensive, niche products. But denigrating the demographic which lined one's pockets is an odd way to reach out to customers. A smart CEO would have kept his crass critiques of customers closer to his ScotteVest. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Enjoy your <i>après-ski</i> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">canapés </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">and hope that your cup is not forever full of sour grapes. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiQ7EHHJuAyxiFzkQtP9bd2imV8h_8IHJIDli6xqeHcxC6J4JeTsDx7A40iaBryJ6EGmfmDjMWxji2QUfGDCkA27VAFjTpPOXtIkkcTWqRI8BEOYksIfNAi01qv5g0g_iFcrpNjQd5Zud6/s1600/Ketchum+Ski+Lodge.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="875" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiQ7EHHJuAyxiFzkQtP9bd2imV8h_8IHJIDli6xqeHcxC6J4JeTsDx7A40iaBryJ6EGmfmDjMWxji2QUfGDCkA27VAFjTpPOXtIkkcTWqRI8BEOYksIfNAi01qv5g0g_iFcrpNjQd5Zud6/s640/Ketchum+Ski+Lodge.JPG" width="540" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knob Hill Ski Lodge, Ketchum, Idaho </td></tr>
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-2079511132945250482017-11-18T09:56:00.000-05:002017-11-18T09:56:27.027-05:00Greeting the Beatification of a Simple Priest--Blessed Solanus Casey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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"Barney" Solanus Casey is being beatified in a ceremony in Detroit, Michigan on November 18, 2017. Casey will be the<a href="https://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=180844" target="_blank"> second American born male to be beatified.</a> Cardinal Angelo Amato, the head of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints will celebrate the Beatification Mass. Among the 70,000 in attendance at Ford Field will be four Cardinals and 218 Capuchin Friars.</div>
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The beatification of Fr. Solanus Casey is remarkable for a Wisconsin farm boy born in 1870. When Casey was called to the priesthood, he academically struggled at the seminary since instruction was in German. Thus, Casey was just ordained just a sacredos simplex and served in the early and mid-Twentieth Century as a lowly porter for the Capuchins friaries in Yonkers, Harlem, Manhattan and for 21 years in Detroit. </div>
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Despite not being able to give homilies or hear confessions, Fr. Casey had a remarkable impact. His reputation grew as a compassionate holy man who founded a soup kitchen in Detroit in 1929. Casey became well known as a priest who could relate with people. Fr. Casey was also known as an <a href="http://www.freep.com/story/news/2017/11/12/beatification-father-solanus-casey-draws-70-000-faithful-catholics-detroit/840638001/" target="_blank">ordinary Detroiter who enjoyed Coney Island hot dogs and the Detroit Tigers. </a></div>
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Yet Fr. Casey drew people to him from his holy reputation and as a miracle worker who had a knack at helping get prayers answered. In his vocation as porter, Fr. Casey lent a listening ear and a caring heart to those who came to him. Fr. Casey would also offer visitors an opportunity to join a Capuchin Mass Memorial Society, in which he scrupulously wrote down their petitions and updated the log with how prayers were answered. </div>
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In 1954, Fr. Casey suffered a severe case of eczema over his entire body and was transfered back to Detroit to receive better medical case. Alas, complications set in and he died of untreatable psoriasis. It was estimated that 20,000 people showed up to mourn Fr. Casey's passing from this world. But when Fr. Casey's remains were exhumed in 1987, his corpse was incorrupted, save for a little decomposition around the elbows. </div>
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After Fr. Casey's death, lay friends of the Capuchins sought permission to create a Father Solanus Guild. <a href="http://catholicexchange.com/many-miracles-solanus-casey" target="_blank">As early as 1966, there were 24 reports of cures attributable to Fr. Solanus</a>. Fr. Casey was named Venerable in 1995. </div>
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Normally, the Catholic beatification process involves the recognition of a miracle associated with a Servant of God. The Miracle which was recognized by the responsible Vatican dicastry is from 2012 when a <a href="http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2017/11/12/father-solanus-casey-panamanian-women/804170001/" target="_blank">Panamanian woman who visited Fr. Casey's tomb</a> who<a href="http://heavy.com/news/2017/05/solanus-casey-beatification-miracles-saint-pope-detroit-quotes-bio/" target="_blank"> suffered from an incurable skin disease but was healed</a> by praying for Solanus Casey's intercession.</div>
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-13177969978027777542017-11-16T18:46:00.001-05:002017-11-16T18:46:09.255-05:00On Pope Francis on Pre-Mass Silence and Lex Vivendi <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Recently, Pope Francis lamented the tendency of Catholics to engage in small talk before Mass when they ought to be spiritually preparing for the liturgy.<br />
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This may be related to how the Mass is considered by the faithful. The Council of Trent affirmed the holy sacrifice of the Mass. <a href="http://dc-lausdeo.blogspot.com/2015/10/scary-spiritual-costumes-for-all.html" target="_blank">The spirit of Vatican II </a>considers it a family meal, thus what would be wrong with some pre-supper conversation?<br />
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While it is laudable to have pre-liturgical silence to encourage the People of God to prepare for the Liturgies of the Word and the Eucharist, it should be tempered by fostering community.<br />
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It is my experience that at least in America, parishes are no longer the tightly knit and stable discreet communities that they once were. Folks typically move around. There are volitional parishes where people choose to attend. People often do not make a day of worship, sticking around for coffee or pot luck.<br />
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The infrastructure can also be an issue. My parish's main church was built in the 1850s and has a very small narthex, so there is not a courtyard for people to gather and make small talk before going into the sanctuary. Many modern churches have incorporated a gathering area for such purposes.<br />
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So what would be the best way to cultivate more reverence prior to Mass? I would suggest catechesis and clues.<br />
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While I want thoughtful exegesis from a homily, it can sometimes be edifying to also have some instruction. I regret that I did not hear more priestly presiders educate the faithful about the change from dynamic translation to static <a href="http://dcbarroco.blogspot.com/2011/09/lost-in-translation-with-roman-missal.html" target="_blank">translation of the new Roman Missal in 2011</a>. I sought to educate myself and attended some additional talks which helped me understand the logic of the syntax changes as well as to become accustomed to the "clunky" new sound.<br />
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<a href="https://goo.gl/Fq7ZUG" target="_blank">Pope Benedict XVI</a> observed that the essence of liturgy disappears when we applaud in church and it becomes religious entertainment. While the Mass that I frequently attend has a wonderful contemporary choir, it still garners applause "from the crowd" after Mass. Being shepherded by our Holy Father, I curbed my enthusiasm for post-prandial celebration. It would have been instructive if clergy discerned if such a critique was praiseworthy and shared it with their flock.<br />
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Another moment where reverence not revelry ought to be instructed is during the "sign of peace". In some liturgies, it becomes a "half time" where people will briefly socialize with their neighbors. Some celebrants campaign, needing to shake the hand of every Catholic "constituent". Liturgically, we are sharing the unity coming from the altar after the fraction rite that comes sharing one body of Christ. So <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-announces-desire-for-more-restrained-sign-of-peace-at-mass-36123" target="_blank">several years ago, the Congregation for the Divine Worship</a> published a piece which discouraged irrational exuberance during the sign of peace. Yet this instruction received nary a mention from the pulpit.<br />
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One parish which I attend while visiting relatives has a barn-like sanctuary. Several minutes before they start they dim the lights to get the People of God in the mood. Visually, they are giving them a clue. Where I believe that they go off the right path in making announcements or having brief secular speakers come up front "before the show". <br />
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For me, <a href="http://mass-appeals.blogspot.com/2015/04/what-is-good-liturgy.html" target="_blank">good liturgy is key</a>. However, community is also important. There is probably not a one-size-fits-all approach. But pastors and sacristans can discern what will work best for their "faith community". And homilists ought not to be afraid to challenge their congregation to prayerfully consider how we comport ourselves in the sanctuary before, during and after our liturgies. And may the clergy not dismiss <a href="http://mass-appeals.blogspot.com/2015/09/on-consequences-for-standing-up-against.html" target="_blank">righteous chaffing from the faithful </a>just because they are in charge. </div>
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-69370155947623228742017-11-16T18:43:00.001-05:002017-11-16T19:10:20.823-05:00When Swamp Rats Are Dirty Rats<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The revelation of sexual misconduct by Hollywood's Harvey Weinstein has transitioned to the District of Calamity. Accusations of sexual impropriety threatens to swing two Senate seats and effect the balance of power on Capitol Hill.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja78HJlWXcpmjwx8dgbe8ZtACjYGp6NnTkvkgpdqz1kyzFUX4g13Au-Jp2j_qWZm9boe2BrvZEcRyp4Q3RY58h8c1_l7k54bczq6kCqO-UhJuA4S-t10CFLNX01xeRMMBMrCQqP5-XK8Ad/s1600/Roy+Moore.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="796" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja78HJlWXcpmjwx8dgbe8ZtACjYGp6NnTkvkgpdqz1kyzFUX4g13Au-Jp2j_qWZm9boe2BrvZEcRyp4Q3RY58h8c1_l7k54bczq6kCqO-UhJuA4S-t10CFLNX01xeRMMBMrCQqP5-XK8Ad/s400/Roy+Moore.JPG" width="400" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Much has been made about allegations of skivvy conduct by Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore (R-AL). These accusations stem from conduct nearly four decades ago that were unreported to authorities, but came to light in the closing days of a special election to fill the seat vacated by now Trump Administration Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The alluvia of allegations sound bad, but are past the statute of limitations, based she-said-he-said allegations with little to no corroborating evidence and relies upon the court of public opinion. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">From a political standpoint, Democrats are anxious to make Roy Moore a poster child for Republicans in 2018 and use the hermaneutic that Republicans condone sexual harassment as a cudgel to impeach President Donald Trump if Democrats regain the House of Representatives. In the near term, the muck about Moore put the White House in a box. On the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, establishment Republicans did not like a loose cannon like Judge Moore to be in the Senate chambers, when it endangers the clubby atmosphere of the Upper Chamber and he could help shake up the leadership. So many GOP party loyalists were quick to condemn Moore for the alleged but unproven misconduct.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There are concerns that Republicans might lose this previously considered "safe" seat, as Moore is polling with a double digit deficit after these allegations have been publicized. Since candidate Moore refuses to step aside due to this scandal, the DC GOP suggested writing in another Republican. Apparently, this did not test well and was dropped. After a careful reading of the Alabama state statutes,<a href="https://www.newsmax.com/politics/hugh-hewitt-gop-strategy-alabama/2017/11/15/id/826318/" target="_blank"> centrist Republican Hugh Hewitt</a> claims that the problem could go away if Senator Luke Strange (R-AL) resigned, creating a new vacancy which would cancel the shaky December 12th election, and Governor Kay Ivey (R-AL) could appoint another caretaker Senator until the next general election (in November 2018). Considering the shaky ground Jeff Sessions is in at the Department of Justice, it is possible that Sessions be appointed back to his own seat.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE50IvWO8bPrWGjmta8vqcOy5C4R-W6iBMnGh8mNWJEHOCdeGhrKm2lLYvoqzISqpG8OQEU_Tv9uoVcNPhpEHwiMz4sNFG05enWGS5e2_FAU7iV9-6yW9SCozSI_PE2l-MU5TvO8tmTPME/s1600/Senate+Sessions+Strange.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="591" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE50IvWO8bPrWGjmta8vqcOy5C4R-W6iBMnGh8mNWJEHOCdeGhrKm2lLYvoqzISqpG8OQEU_Tv9uoVcNPhpEHwiMz4sNFG05enWGS5e2_FAU7iV9-6yW9SCozSI_PE2l-MU5TvO8tmTPME/s640/Senate+Sessions+Strange.JPG" width="540" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">[L] Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) attending [R] Senator Luther Strange (R-AL) swearing in</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Recently, after a pleasant Sunday brunch, we chatted about the troubling news about Roy Moore. As the topic expanded to include sexual harassment by elected officials, two ardent feminists insisted that Congress needed to do something about it and make offenders on Capitol Hill as accountable as the rest of us. I asked who were their bosses. The obvious answer was the people. I maintained that voters get to fire their elected officials periodically and they should decide rather than an insider committee. That viewpoint was not well received.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Well, it seems that when Congress pushed to make the same rules apply to them as their constituents, there were a few quirks. Regarding charges of sexual harassment with members of staffers, there is 30 day waiting period before pressing charges. In addition, the victim making the accusation must undergo mandatory counseling. That sounds munificent, except the counseling comes from the employer whom someone is accusing. It would seem that it could be made clear to accusers that going public would not be in anyone's best interests. If I recall correctly, John Batchelor's news-maker interview indicated that <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/politics/settlements-congress-sexual-harassment/index.html" target="_blank">this system has paid out $15 million</a> since its advent in the 105th Congress with nary a word making the press.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoOQZ0EMIMbiSyel-9mjFi6jYAlPEVyy-pAWc5JPeHuZ8q-eMxxPfjG2RhakYBFtgIgU6hnAfreJsBaxsxgqCZQk-J-esELg-8YcFFcX4HREptya_rCRID3xwgG7KIaT7Xz1pPpuVZ5iLF/s1600/Congressional+Sex+Slush+Fund.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="669" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoOQZ0EMIMbiSyel-9mjFi6jYAlPEVyy-pAWc5JPeHuZ8q-eMxxPfjG2RhakYBFtgIgU6hnAfreJsBaxsxgqCZQk-J-esELg-8YcFFcX4HREptya_rCRID3xwgG7KIaT7Xz1pPpuVZ5iLF/s400/Congressional+Sex+Slush+Fund.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Congressional Sexual Misconduct payout ledger</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What took party hacks off their sexual harassment game plan was the revelation by a Los Angeles radio personality of Al Franken's inappropriate conduct during a USO mission to the Middle East in 2006, before he was elected as Senator from Minnesota. The woman reported that she was supposed to do a skit written by Franken that involved a kiss and wanted to rehearse-- she demurred but eventually consented. During the practice, she alleged that Franken put his tongue halfway down her throat and grabbed her head. She immediately insisted "Don't do that again!", and she deflected his approach during the skit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The problem with sexual conduct and Al Franken is about the contemporaneous photographic evidence. The woman in question wanted to grab some rack time during the 36 hour military flight. When she was asleep, Franken was seen with a coprophagic grin cupping at her breasts. No doubt, Franken thought this was funny at the time (and probably a great way to get back at her). Franken has been known to take outrageous photos for laughs (but </span><a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/republican-columnist-uses-fake-franken-photo" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">the infamous Franken diaper photo</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> was a fake).</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Citizen Al Franken takes a picture with a sleeping beauty during a 2016 USO tour.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But this Al Franken moment was captured on camera. Oops. And the <a href="https://youtu.be/xkTvGjSW7v0" target="_blank">accuser is Leeane Tweeden</a>, a KABC-AM radio personality. Tweeden initially posted #MeToo, but she decided to come forth after hearing <a href="http://www.tmz.com/2017/11/14/jackie-speier-congresswoman-sexual-harassment-washington-dc-creep-list/" target="_blank">Congresswoman Speier's (D-CA 14th) allegations</a> that members on both side of the aisle have thrust sexual advances while in Congress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now this puts a kink into progressive partisans' plans. One of their prominent members stands accused. The public has been primed to always accept the word of victims. In addition, there is photographic proof. This takes away from the rip the GOP as blanket sexual predator smear. <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/11/16/everybody-knew-about-al-franken/" target="_blank">Rush Limbaugh</a> points out that in this environment, Democrats will have to proverbially throw Senator Franken (D-MN) under the bus to not to seem hypocritical and prospectively use it against their ideological opponents. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/politics/franken-apology/index.html" target="_blank">Franken publicly apologized</a> to his victim, claiming that he thought that it was funny. In addition, Franken submitted himself to scrutiny from his peers. Maybe this gets it out of the headlines and it gets buried by the press. If push comes to shove, Minnesota has a Democrat Governor Mark Dayton (D-MN), so Franken would undoubtedly be replaced by another Democrat. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">While justice is a noble pursuit, in this charged environment, the court of public opinion may well condemn non-guilty people just based on innuendo or unproven accusations which are promptly swept under the rug out of convenience. The reform from the 105th Congress seems to allow members to slide, in a process intended to apply the peoples' law to Congress. Although there are Ethics Committees to punish members egregious actions, I suspect that the ballot box is still the most efficacious way to punish when swamp rats act like dirty rats. </span><br />
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-71672033675203594922017-11-09T07:29:00.000-05:002017-11-09T07:29:02.444-05:00A Show After the Show for Ferguson the Play's Final Closing Curtain <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/171108b-phelim-mcaleer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Playwrigh Phelim Mc Aleer on unscripted closing for Ferguson the Play" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-19487" src="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/171108b-phelim-mcaleer.jpg?w=604" width="534" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Conservative entertainment provacateur Phelim Mc Aleer held the World Premiere of his 2015 play <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ferguson-the-play-world-premiere-in-nyc" target="_blank">"Ferguson the Play"</a> in New York City . The drama depicts the shooting of Michael Brown by a greater St. Louis police officer in 2014 which sparked several days of rioting. This ugly incident which galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement under the ersatz slogan "Hands up, don't shoot." Mc Aleer wrote the play because he believed that the truth that it was a defensive shooting was not getting out because of media bias buying into a progressive activist agenda.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKEhmUxJ-xlchVFsPlS0JkCuo6FAD4K6nfKfXxJfWwiR4NLwWQjXwtc2j_udUQbK91Unw3bGlsF_pbafVYKG2OoMzc1htZWHdVTkrZ7k8Wa54iJQpt7M3AVCrOknOzfcYG-BxlxL1WwJ6G/s1600/Ferguson+the+Play+poster.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="578" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKEhmUxJ-xlchVFsPlS0JkCuo6FAD4K6nfKfXxJfWwiR4NLwWQjXwtc2j_udUQbK91Unw3bGlsF_pbafVYKG2OoMzc1htZWHdVTkrZ7k8Wa54iJQpt7M3AVCrOknOzfcYG-BxlxL1WwJ6G/s400/Ferguson+the+Play+poster.JPG" width="396" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What made Ferguson the play notable is that playwright McAleer constructed the <a href="https://youtu.be/WSN6PQhJKdI" target="_blank">verbatum theater </a>completely using the released transcript of the Ferguson Grand Jury. McAleer and director Jerry Dixon worked with a multi-racial cast to put on the <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/453376/ferguson-play-new-york-michael-brown" target="_blank">controversial courtroom drama </a> for a short run at the 30th Street Playhouse in Manhattan.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the closing night, Cedric Benjamin commadeered the stage at the close to voice his displeasure as he thought that the play was unbalanced and biased.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Director Jerry Dixon shut down the rogue actor's rant, but the histrionic polemic spilled out into the street, with actor Benjamin accusing playwright Mc Aleer of "white arrogance". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mc Aleer later praised the director for shutting down the unscripted lecture by a cast member.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It seems ironic that the actor invoked arrogance against the playwright, who raised over $51,000 in a crowdfunding campaign to mount the production, when the actor could not just say his lines. <a href="http://mailchi.mp/fracknation/controversial-ferguson-play-world-premiere-nyc-334781?e=dd4dd98484" target="_blank">Mc Aleer deliberately brought Ferguson the play to New York</a> after the cast of<a href="https://youtu.be/aWlwrUFiuUw" target="_blank"> Hamilton accosted attendee then Vice President Elect Mike Pence</a> to defy the conceit that conservatives are not welcomed in the New York theater community.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the <a href="https://youtu.be/rBVNATEyF_g" target="_blank">first production, which was a stage reading</a> in 2015, <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/divisive-ferguson-play-has-new-york-city-debut/" target="_blank">nine members of the Los Angeles cast walked off</a>, with one actor claiming that he did not trust Mc Aleer's motives. At least those thespians were professional enough to disassociate themselves with a theatrical vehicle with which they could not agree.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUSmJlGYhETUaYju2EYluAOwU1C7yP7eIsAe_GLlG1fgkxyis4hxCzVykXh1vd3IyVwbOg_suXHwqE1M8PTlpXJ7G8sc7APhDznU-fY1sg1OLQ6JiEQbOhngxRtVFdVlTf7XVRmRo_7YOy/s1600/Cartoon+Hands+Up+Don%2527t+Shoot.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="606" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUSmJlGYhETUaYju2EYluAOwU1C7yP7eIsAe_GLlG1fgkxyis4hxCzVykXh1vd3IyVwbOg_suXHwqE1M8PTlpXJ7G8sc7APhDznU-fY1sg1OLQ6JiEQbOhngxRtVFdVlTf7XVRmRo_7YOy/s320/Cartoon+Hands+Up+Don%2527t+Shoot.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ironically, Cedric Benjamin's grand gesture might prove to be counterproductive. It has drawn more attention to a small production, thrusting it into the news. Phelim Mc Aleer continues to fund raise over the controversy with an expressed purpose of continuing to perform Ferguson the Play in New York. Mc Aleer took great consolation that one BLM attendee who attended the play and left shocked and mystified that "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" was a lie.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Pollster George Barna recently sought to understand why evangelical Christians supported Donald Trump, who seemed to contradict many of their mores. A large part of the answer is that SAGE-cons (Spiritually Aware Governmentally Engaged) conservatives have great distrust in the mainstream (a.ka. lamestream) media because of biased reporting against Trump that they now use alternate media sources to avoid "fake news". By banding together on core issues like rule of law, Barna contends that this 11% sliver of of the American electorate voting for Donald Trump was "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Day-Christians-Changed-America/dp/0692905308/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510162409&sr=8-1&keywords=george+barna+the+day+christians+changed+america&dpID=51-ezROhRfL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch" target="_blank">The Day Christians Change America"</a> (2017).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The strength of SAGE-cons influencing America was shown more than for Election 2016. The informal boycotts by football fans of the <a href="http://dccalamity.blogspot.com/2017/10/nfl-players-pissed-off-at-trump.html" target="_blank">NFL as they tolerate players who Take A Knee </a>during the National Anthem has severely cut into <a href="http://www.hannity.com/content/2017-11-06-game-over-nfl-officials-stunned-at-empty-stadiums-over-weekend/" target="_blank">attendance </a>along with<a href="http://ew.com/tv/2017/09/25/nfl-sunday-ratings-kneeling/" target="_blank"> television ratings</a> and is <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/01/media/nfl-papa-johns-protests/index.html" target="_blank">influencing advertisers like Papa John's Pizza to pull back.</a> Such a motivated minority of SAGE-cons may well see Ferguson the Play as a chance to actuate their ideas and counter the "fake news" phenomenon in entertainment as well as cultural conceits.</span><br />
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-36086630375007442912017-10-16T13:27:00.002-04:002017-10-16T16:26:37.265-04:00Stephen Bannon Declares War Against Republican Establishment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/171016b-stephen-bannon.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ex Trump White House Advisor Stephen Bannon Declares War on Republican Establishment " class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-19388" height="693" src="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/171016b-stephen-bannon.jpg" width="537" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Although he opened his 2017 Value Voters Summit speech by echoing Ecclesiastes about the time of the season, former Trump Senior Adviser Stephen K. Bannon kept true to his street fighting instincts by declaring political war in a bombastic address to Evangelical voters in Washington DC.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bannon voiced frustration that many Republicans in the Senate were either Janus faced or openly hostile to their President Donald Trump. Bannon particularly took aim at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Foreign Policy Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To wit, Bannon declared war on the GOP Establishment. As Bannon is no longer shackled as a White House West Wing advisor, Bannon is free to support the Trump nationalist populist agenda from the outside. Bannon intimated that he is working hard to primary many RINOs who do not support the Trump agenda.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bannon claimed that there is time for Establishment sinners to repent, but otherwise he insisted that Deplorables will come after those not supporting Trump during the 2018 primaries. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7F1WoVCOiIVAZ1QJQilANgFCEu7s2ilBm6nyVdAyW6Gxx6_TeQTgTEdCNGY4V5xC4gS7sQS7f2lPF-grz1ZWUCVWBbzWNV7HeLaDuzrLwwiDJ3NyAzVjE8pa4m4jus_ytDWzl57iEXXY0/s1600/Tony+Perkins+w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1167" data-original-width="876" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7F1WoVCOiIVAZ1QJQilANgFCEu7s2ilBm6nyVdAyW6Gxx6_TeQTgTEdCNGY4V5xC4gS7sQS7f2lPF-grz1ZWUCVWBbzWNV7HeLaDuzrLwwiDJ3NyAzVjE8pa4m4jus_ytDWzl57iEXXY0/s320/Tony+Perkins+w.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FRC President Tony Perkins at VVS17</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This message was well received by the Values Voters Summit crowd. A constant theme during the three day conference of politically active Evangelicals was "Drain to Swamp." To underline that sentiment, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins honored his Louisiana roots and jocularly dressed in muck wear to open the Value Voters Summit. </span></div>
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-29398412269513646492017-10-05T11:39:00.001-04:002017-10-05T11:39:38.759-04:00Appraising the Impact of Tillerson at Foggy Bottom<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/171005b-rex-tillerson.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Rex Tillerson on Being Trump's Secretary of State" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-19369" src="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/171005b-rex-tillerson.jpg?w=604" width="534" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Over the weekend, Trump Administration Secretary of State Rex <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-news/watch/ruhle-my-source-says-tillerson-called-trump-a-f-ing-moron-1062086211940" target="_blank">Tillerson was accused of saying that the President, his boss, was a "f***ing moron".</a> This exasperated expletive was alleged uttered after President Trump's rousing remarks before the<a href="http://time.com/4872118/trump-boy-scout-jamboree-speech-transcript/" target="_blank"> 2017 Boy Scouts Jamboree</a>. When these comments came to public light, Tillerson held a news conference which denied that Vice President Pence needed to convince him to stay at Foggy Bottom because he never considered resigning. It is notable, however, that Tillerson did not back away from the original insulting allegation. This has led <a href="http://www.hughhewitt.com/nros-jonah-goldberg-many-merits-tevi-troy-hhs-secretary/" target="_blank">pundits to ponder how long Tillerson will remain as Secretary of State.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/04/rich-lowry-rex-tillerson-should-go-215682" target="_blank">Politico Magazine, Rich Lowry</a> wondered if anyone would notice whether anyone would notice if Tillerson left his position at Foggy Bottom. In the Trump Administration, foreign policy leads seem more driven from the Oval Office (or perhaps Twitter postings) than from Cabinet officials. Secretary of State <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climate/tillerson-says-u-s-could-stay-in-paris-climate-accord-idUSKCN1BS0LW" target="_blank">Tillerson has voiced policy positions, particularly on Climate Change</a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/06/09/532294710/in-an-afternoon-trump-and-tillerson-appear-to-contradict-each-other-on-qatar" target="_blank">Qatar,</a> which seem at odds with President Trump. Moreover, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/08/tillerson-vs-trump/536295/" target="_blank">@POTUS Trump has posted Twitter thoughts which undermine Tillerson </a>attempts to achieve diplomatic solutions with North Korea.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW3SXc3ylk4DQV35KFRcruZreE4ftHjJ8kUiwD7kgfoj6e3w1vnSSVDGcr6KdLkumh7D2N6y4GoRph08sB4zOi4tPAHOpWfX9GL4kqkzgwJ6GCEff0cTJCQ5Zv1Lsmbs16TjZQcH6GJfcp/s1600/Twitter+Trump+Tillerson+DPRK.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="390" height="540" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW3SXc3ylk4DQV35KFRcruZreE4ftHjJ8kUiwD7kgfoj6e3w1vnSSVDGcr6KdLkumh7D2N6y4GoRph08sB4zOi4tPAHOpWfX9GL4kqkzgwJ6GCEff0cTJCQ5Zv1Lsmbs16TjZQcH6GJfcp/s640/Twitter+Trump+Tillerson+DPRK.JPG" width="540" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">During his nomination hearings, Tillerson was vilified for his role at Exxon and connections to Big Oil. But through these petrochemical connections, Tillerson was said to have cultivated good relations with the Russian Federation. It does not seem that Tillerson has neither been effective in lessening tensions with Moscow nor distancing the Trump Administration from accusations of Russian collusion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of Tillerson's virtues was that he had more of a business background than a political resume, thus his organizational skills might be different at Foggy Bottom. Perhaps this may be true on paper, but Secretary of State Tillerson seemed reluctant to clean house at the State Department. In April 2017, well after his confirmation, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/us/politics/state-department-diplomats-tillerson.html" target="_blank">Tillerson indicated that he was in no rush to fill nearly 200 State Department posts.</a> In August 2017, Tillerson announced that there would be fewer promotions at State. These may have been an attempt at pruning an overstaffed State Department, but it also gave the opportunity for Obama Administration holdovers to exert undue influence in Foggy Bottom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the major motivations for many loyal Trump voters is to "Clean the Swamp". In other words, to divest power from progressive elites who have burrowed their way into the bureaucracy. This is especially true in the State Department. But this is impossible to achieve if the chief acts like a short termer. In late J<a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/25/tillerson-might-not-last-a-year-at-state/" target="_blank">uly 2017, Tillerson confided with friends that he did not expect to last a year</a> on the job. Notwithstanding his recent denial of resigning over the moron kerfuffle, Tillerson is not taking the broad measures to clean house. The Iran Deal is an example in which the State Department has been enthusiastic in promoting and preserving, yet it is in conflict with Mr. Trump's campaign promises as well as inklings from the West Wing. A cabinet official who is deemed a short termer will have little sway with the bureaucracy in aligning with the President's foreign policy predilections.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Secretaries of State can take different tacks to their job. Henry Kissinger, who was Secretary of State under Presidents Nixon and Ford, took a leading role in formulating the realpolitik and detente foreign policies. George Schultz, President Reagan's long serving Secretary of State, did not seek the limelight and was able to earn the loyalty of State Department officers by staffing for professionalism rather than political concerns. Hillary Clinton, President Obama's First Secretary of State, did her bosses bidding by racking up frequent flier miles in visiting diplomatic outposts rather than take the lead on foreign policy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Aside from trying to shrink the size of the State Department by attrition and to stop relying on special envoys, it is unclear how Secretary of State Tillerson is making a difference at his job. Moreover, the friction between Tillerson and Trump on personal and policy fronts, makes his position tenuous.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">At a time in which Americans have been distracted by ephemeral issues like the <a href="https://goo.gl/gWsBCd" target="_blank">NFL Taking the Knee</a> during the National Anthem and dealing with disasters, such as hurricanes and the <a href="https://goo.gl/VMtib5" target="_blank">Las Vegas shooting</a>, there are serious foreign policy concerns brewing. North Korea continues to be belligerent. The world will no longer buy the peace through bribes for worthless promises of non-aggression or denuclearization. While the United Nations has applied additional sanctions, this does not seem to be achieving the objective of de-escalation of tension or DPRK regime change.</span><br />
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<a href="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/171005c-rich-lowry.jpg"><img alt="Rich Lowry on Trump Secretary of State Charles Sprugeon " class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-19372" height="490" src="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/171005c-rich-lowry.jpg?w=604" width="604" /></a>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Considering a prospective conflict with North Korea, it would be unwise to have Secretary Tillerson leave his Secretary of State post at this time. However, presuming this situation with the Kim Jung Un regime comes to a head in the near future, it would be prudent to have a Secretary of State who is more in tune with the Commander-in-Chief's expectations for Foggy Bottom and who more accurately reflects (at least in public) the President's foreign policy positions.
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-75178367774338528042017-09-11T19:32:00.000-04:002017-09-11T19:32:12.091-04:00Never Forgetting 9/11 Video <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O5NZ7dZ1qoM" width="560"></iframe>
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-85058933034061220882017-09-06T16:36:00.000-04:002017-09-10T12:06:49.046-04:00A Fire Line for The Blaze?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/170906c-glenn-beck.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Glenn Beck and a Fire Line for The Blaze TV?" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-19228" height="362" src="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/170906c-glenn-beck.jpg?w=604" width="604" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/31/glenn-becks-blaze-announces-mass-layoffs.html" target="_blank">Last week, Glenn Beck’s The Blaze and Mercury Radio Arts announced a 20% cut in staff.</a> Many critics take <i>schadenfreude</i> at this cost cutting moving for the six year old trans-media company. Beck felt compelled to <a href="https://twitter.com/stuntbrain/status/904731260232355841" target="_blank">can his longtime friend Mike Opelka </a>(a.k.a. “Stuntbrain”) who had been hosting during the weekday 12pm-3PM and Saturday morning slot. Despite the venom spewing from MAGA critics and liberal cynics, this does not spell the end of Beck’s alterative media venture, but is certainly a setback. As Beck’s platforms undergo an agonizing reappraisal, it is worthwhile to make a Blaze-ing (sic) retrospective of the ventures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For full discloser, this writer has been a subscriber to GBTV/The Blaze since its inception. While one ought to respect the integrity of Glenn Beck and appreciate his contributions to the media and political landscape, it does not preclude taking a critical eye or thinking for onself on issues.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Glenn Beck started a syndicated national radio program for Premiere Networks (the same group which syndicates Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity). Beck started with a rodeo clown shock jock reputation. But after the terror attacks on 9/11, he took an increasingly serious interest in current events, albeit with a wry and emotional sensibility.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Beck got into television via a show on Headline News Network (a CNN channel) from January, 2006 to October, 2008. As President Obama was being inaugurated in 2009, Glenn Beck Program premiered at 5 pm on Fox News. It was there Beck achieved phenomenal ratings for his non-prime time slot as well as considerable controversy. <a href="http://dcbarroco.blogspot.com/2011/07/glenn-becks-mercury-rising.html" target="_blank">Beck left Fox News in July, 200</a>9 to start up his <a href="http://dcbarroco.blogspot.com/2011/09/gbtv-signs-on.html" target="_blank">streaming television venture GBTV</a> through Mercury Radio Arts which later morphed into “The Blaze TV”.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">"Waffle Face" John Kerry</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Glenn Beck has not shied away from taking political stands which ruffle feathers and are not in lock step with his supposed side. Despite prominently promoting “W”’s re-election in 2004 <a href="https://youtu.be/EaP7icw8ew0" target="_blank">(the John Kerry Waffle Head bit was memorable)</a>, Beck seemed to become dissuaded with President Bush after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the confirmation of Beck’s libertarian sensibilities. After President Obama assumed office in 2009, Beck posited that Obama had racist tendencies as displayed by his reactions Henry Louis Gates arrest. During the run up to the wide open Republican Presidential Primaries in the 2016 election, Beck was charry about candidate Donald Trump and the articulation of nationalist politics. This evolved into becoming an anti/never-Trumper which persisted through the General Election. Of course, the stunt in which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVz92-oHW4Q" target="_blank">Beck and his posse doing Cheetos facials</a> further stoked the ire of many MAGA loyalists.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> One of the major motivation of establishing alternative media platforms was to ensure that an unadulterated message could reach an audience. While Beck maintains that he left Fox News on good terms (and continued to appear for years on The O’Reilly Factor, Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson Tonight), Beck was steered away from focusing on some subjects and encouraged to tone things down on his own show. Beck worries about the potential of government censorship (e.g. a re-application of “The Fairness Doctrine”) as well as corporate steering of topics.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1TJbcmSXo1zJJicKFKVmoic6FCgm8PeHlYsadqLV9PGSR8FftxKdqzvSMY5-7XKRkzFsfmc7rHgV6k8u3XCNG3aRLNyhNjEHycqI4F7E-ghOYcpFwGPAmM-O-qMXtHKobbV7pHbilRylq/s1600/Orson+Wells+Mercury+Theater.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="473" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1TJbcmSXo1zJJicKFKVmoic6FCgm8PeHlYsadqLV9PGSR8FftxKdqzvSMY5-7XKRkzFsfmc7rHgV6k8u3XCNG3aRLNyhNjEHycqI4F7E-ghOYcpFwGPAmM-O-qMXtHKobbV7pHbilRylq/s320/Orson+Wells+Mercury+Theater.JPG" width="220" /></span></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNYojoAgCm5OsmhuDc3RncRzTc2Op7AppwDR6va4yTuRCJNnZAFjIxzvNQw8e0N_iA9HNvPkCK4WyaP32sfFNNgXTknkxWYVrUwIoQLrJkx1D6VOgNu1_mVDy_EXtY6KMIEIKGNxTzBMM/s1600/Mercury+Rising.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="396" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNYojoAgCm5OsmhuDc3RncRzTc2Op7AppwDR6va4yTuRCJNnZAFjIxzvNQw8e0N_iA9HNvPkCK4WyaP32sfFNNgXTknkxWYVrUwIoQLrJkx1D6VOgNu1_mVDy_EXtY6KMIEIKGNxTzBMM/s200/Mercury+Rising.JPG" width="198" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Orson Welles’ meteoric multi-media career in the 1930s served as an inspiration for Glenn Beck’s multi-valiant media ventures through Mercury Radio Arts, including “GBTV/The Blaze”, “Blaze Radio”, “The Blaze” website, Mercury publishing, stage appearances, films, music and charity. The streaming television part of the media empire started in 2011 with an eponymous name and anchored by a simulcast of the three hour radio program along with an extended Glenn Beck TV program. Beck sought to de-emphasize his imprint by assuming the moniker “The Blaze” (a reference to how fire burns to the truth). A year later, The Blaze Radio began, which featured different radio hosts (beginning with Doc Thompson and Jay Severin, later Buck Sexton, Mike Opelka and Chris Salcedo). There are also several regular radio shows which are available for podcast.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Blaze TV was one of the first successful paid streaming television ventures, using MLB Advanced Media technology for a great picture, whether on a mobile device or a large screen HDTV. While NewsMax and One America Network have made strides in cable carriage, arguably neither have made a major media impact. Ventures like <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-death-of-pjtv-how-aubrey-chernicks-right-wing-media-dream-died" target="_blank">PJTV </a>and <a href="http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/sarah-palin-internet-subscription-video-channel-1201535281/" target="_blank">SarahPalinChannel</a> have withered and died, failing to monetize ideological video on the web. But <a href="https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/conservative-crtv-launch-december-led-mark-levin-michelle-malkin-mark" target="_blank">CRTV</a> venture seems much stronger than PJTV, including the originator Mark Levin, Michelle Malkin and Stephen Crowder.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Glenn Beck has proven to have a good eye in spotting and developing media talent. The Blaze TV’s first hire was Amy Holmes. Beck developed Buck Sexton into an accomplished radio host and television commentator (though Sexton’s TV simulcast was short lived). A Dana Loesch producer Lawrence Jones was lifted to the media spotlight and given his own radio show, along with commentator appearances on other networks. And The Blaze TV gave then 23 year old <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/04/20/tomi-lahrens-former-collegauges-at-the-blaze-turn-on-her-glenn-beck-fired-her-because-she-was-difficult-to-work-with/" target="_blank">Tomi Lerhen her own show</a>, in which she catapulted into the conservative commentator stratosphere, until she was terminated for being inconsistent about her so called conservative views favoring abortion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Blaze TV has mainly relied upon a subscription internet model, although it is also available as a premium channel on Dish TV satellite and Verizon’s FIOS cable. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/03/glenn-beck-purchase-current-tv-report_n_2402273.html" target="_blank">Mercury Radio Arts made serious enquiries about buying Current TV </a>(Al Gore’s channel) in 2013 and was rumored to buy its successor Al Jazeera America, <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/01/15/i-want-to-make-it-very-clear-glenn-beck-sets-the-record-straight-on-theblazes-interest-in-purchasing-al-jazeera-america/" target="_blank">the latter which Glenn Beck vehemently denied</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Blaze TV was based in Dallas, Texas but the Real News roundtable and later Buck Sexton’s radio/TV show was produced in Manhattan. The Blaze also had an office in Washington, DC.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As a media venture The Blaze TV is challenged by limited conventional carriage issues. During the kerfluffle on fairness in presenting the 2016 Republican debates, <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2015/11/glenn-beck-offers-to-host-gop-debate-in-place-of-nbc-215453" target="_blank">The Blaze TV made a strong pitch to host a GOP debate </a>. Obviously, the move was intended to attract attention and prospectively earn wider cable carriage. But this did not happen, which may have in part been due to the never-Trump reputation of Glenn Beck and the networks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As for “The Blaze Radio”, the programming mainly has been distributed as live streaming as well as via podcasts (e.g. I-Tunes, Stitcher et ali) and I-Heart Radio (Clear Channel). There was a still born endeavor, which The Blaze Radio would have channels with regional news/traffic focus (e.g. Philadelphia), but that was a short term one off. As Buck Sexton went off to his own syndicated show, The Blaze Radio adapted and started to carry his early evening show live.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> For four years, <a href="http://investor.siriusxm.com/investor-overview/press-releases/press-release-details/2013/Glenn-Becks-TheBlaze-to-Launch-TheBlaze-Radio-News-on-SiriusXM/default.aspx" target="_blank">The Blaze Radio had its own channel on Sirius/XM</a>, which was eventually demoted to a streaming sub channel before it was terminated in 2017). For several years, The Blaze Radio provided top of the hour news updates for a couple of Sirius/XM talk channels. The Blaze website was intended to be a center for up to date news, which would feature positive takes on faith and some feel good stories. The website has not been as successful as Breitbart and developed a poor reputation of appearing cluttered and simply “click bait”.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Although Beck has strived not to make his media ventures, his shadow looms large on the various ventures. The original concept for his TV show was to eventually involve viewer interactivity, in which a viewer could pause a program to search prior shows about unfamiliar concepts before returning. Alas that is an idea which Beck is again slightly ahead of the curve. Starting out, GBTV/The Blaze was intended to be a streaming TV netlet with a strong news emphasis (such as the nightly one hour Real News), investigative journalism (For the Record), wholesome afternoon kids show (Liberty Treehouse), simulcast of Beck’s radio program and his extended TV program along with original entertainment shows (Independence USA).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiobcfkTW1aQOn4_9ZxL7PDD3-gZE5ix8ajv1QrgJtGaN5cjrItuInp6pTwPXtsofgSTHKJ0qiyK5aSxLKLNOnO12-EF_-w7Z8tIzBPpnzrNd7ECjFRpCIYyi89luuUiL7jePNPe-f9GGVP/s1600/Beck+Circumstances.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="405" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiobcfkTW1aQOn4_9ZxL7PDD3-gZE5ix8ajv1QrgJtGaN5cjrItuInp6pTwPXtsofgSTHKJ0qiyK5aSxLKLNOnO12-EF_-w7Z8tIzBPpnzrNd7ECjFRpCIYyi89luuUiL7jePNPe-f9GGVP/s640/Beck+Circumstances.JPG" width="404" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Obviously, some media concepts fall flat, such as a survivalist reality TV show. Other programs like afternoon educational kids programming reveal there is a small market. And then there’s the gorilla in the room, the costly nature of producing quality news programs. That being said, a fair portion of upheaval in programming comes from shifts in The Blaze driving force’s priorities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Beck knew that it was costly to produce quality news, but wanted to be recognized as a legitimate news network. When the nightly news round table folded, The Blaze TV went to great lengths to produce investigative journalism. But those shows seemed to have abruptly ended.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Another impetus of The Blaze has been to educate the audience. While on Fox News, Founder’s Friday proved to be wildly popular. Beck sought to replicate that last season with a twice weekly “The Vault” (showing history artifacts while telling the story) and “HIStory” (an extended historical bio show). In addition, Beck produced cross platform serial segments on history. But that programming seemed abandoned mid season.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Beck has shilly shallied from being a conservative political activist to a libertarian contrarian and now seems despondent at the course of current events. In the 2016 election cycle, The Blaze Radio hosted commentary shows after many of the Presidential debates. As mentioned, Mercury Radio Arts wanted to fairly host a GOP debate in Dallas. Judging from Beck’s current commentary, he seems to want to guide the network away from partisan bickering where you can find everywhere else in the media. That is wise, but apparently educational news that you can use or extended format history segments are not profitable for The Blaze.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The current layoffs were not the first significant downsizing with The Blaze ventures. <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/40-layoffs-as-glenn-becks-blaze-empire-continues-its-decline-and-fall" target="_blank">In 2016, Mercury Radio Arts laid off 40 people </a>and shuttered their New York City and DC offices. Beck rued the bloat in which he felt was becoming a money pit that was out of control. Beck also wanted to revamp The Blaze website, that he regrets had just become “click-bait”</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw41d7ICnTIWWN4XdSxJSQSW9F9HL-wMN5LKhqcQfgYb6I5HESF7XV4aK3MVNbz79E8o_VqTPphxW7eQ2hTxLf1r_3XLmoOsUZCNwdnom_dWGaDqUhMTbe5kp-gMceKy2bTNCuICRsr8DI/s1600/Glenn+Beck+Man+on+the+Moon+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="622" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw41d7ICnTIWWN4XdSxJSQSW9F9HL-wMN5LKhqcQfgYb6I5HESF7XV4aK3MVNbz79E8o_VqTPphxW7eQ2hTxLf1r_3XLmoOsUZCNwdnom_dWGaDqUhMTbe5kp-gMceKy2bTNCuICRsr8DI/s320/Glenn+Beck+Man+on+the+Moon+2.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Glenn Beck's Man on the Moon (2013)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">While it is foolish to believe that everyone employed at The Blaze are Beck’s automatons, Beck does exert an extraordinary influence the direction of the venture. The Blaze seems to have backed off on small enterprise live spot advertising (aside from the self owned realty group). . Moreover, there has been a de-emphasis on 1791 clothing, music, publishing. And there has been a lack of live shows, whether they are comedy tours, artistic events (like <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjR8qWGqJHWAhUrrlQKHWz3DlkQtwIIJjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fvideo%2Fmagazine%2F100000002423327%2Fglenn-becks-man-in-the-moon.html&usg=AFQjCNH2GqWTkalNgLIvqSe_m_8pmmfrdg" target="_blank">Man on the Moon</a> in 2013) and public affairs gatherings (e.g. Restoring Honor, Restoring Love). Perhaps these ventures took away from Mercury Radio Arts core competencies or were too difficult to do well, but these changes reflect Beck’s constantly shifting priorities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Blaze TV’s programming has seen several shifts: 1) full service streaming netlet 2) educational news you can use 3) supplementing personal conservatarian activism 4) current events source 5) less partisan programming featuring radio simulcasts. These constant shifts hurt network branding and positioning.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxQj9Ni5TjXUoNgAUUh8U2lkXKPhZhNqOIdBbg2nqaSJJqb4oTKPgl4wS7bTx-KHBze2hwku16OK5szg6CCv_2EIIQWVnnfljli6ZapxmUMzm_odjj8o3RaoyCGtTlukBXVre552MATN5p/s1600/Wonderful+World+of+Stu.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="427" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxQj9Ni5TjXUoNgAUUh8U2lkXKPhZhNqOIdBbg2nqaSJJqb4oTKPgl4wS7bTx-KHBze2hwku16OK5szg6CCv_2EIIQWVnnfljli6ZapxmUMzm_odjj8o3RaoyCGtTlukBXVre552MATN5p/s200/Wonderful+World+of+Stu.JPG" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some of the programming choices seem like friendly personal predilections, such as “The Wonderful World of Stu” and "Pat and Stu". It will be interesting to see if Pat Gray can live up to his billing of being a crack radio host on his own during mid-day radio prime time. In mid-September, Mercury Radio Arts is conducting an all-hands-on-deck meeting which, in the interests of opacity, will be released in a podcast, to flesh out the direction of the networks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Glenn Beck is convinced that media is at a pivot point and that traditional networks are a dying breed of media dinosaurs. As predicted in 2011, The Blaze has been ahead of the media curve and was wise to employ a multi-media and trans media approach to find out what works. Despite alienating some Trump-eteers and mockery from the mainstream media, Beck has developed a loyal audience for his streaming network. <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/08/31/a-message-from-glenn-beck-a-heavy-heart-and-the-road-ahead/" target="_blank">The Blaze's mission statement is to "change the world for the better".</a> But increasing those eyeballs requires integrity and a sustained vision. The latter quality may mark a fire line for The Blaze in setting the world on fire with truth in order to make the world better.</span><br />
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-2884357736064327142017-09-05T16:36:00.001-04:002017-09-05T21:17:06.475-04:00Concept Video: Federation Law and Klingon Justice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">One of highlights of the Museum of Science Fiction's Escape Velocity 2017 Convention was the symposia on the Law and Star Trek. A panel of distinguished lawyers, including a law professor, a partner in a private practice along with a couple of attorneys working in the court system lent their collective wisdom on how legal concepts were applied on The Original Series (1966-1969), The Next Generation (1987-1991), Voyager (1995-2001) as well as several major motion pictures. The discussion consciously avoided the many violations of Star Fleet's Prime Directive, which sought to prevent the imposition of values and technologies by superior space races (i.e. civilization which had achieved warp speed).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry originally envisioned Star Fleet justice to be meted out as would an 18th Century colonial captain. Under Admiralty Law, the highest in command in an area was the person who wheeled great discretion because of scant communications with Star Fleet Command. But as Star Trek progressed, it seemed to favor Common Law tendencies to individual rights, guarding due process and being conscientious about justice rather than the blind application of law.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">As the session was ending, these words were tested by Klingon Justice. </span></div>
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El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-68680702370341705472017-05-03T10:50:00.003-04:002017-05-03T10:50:40.692-04:00Reflecting Upon Jim De Mint's Confusing Heritage Departure<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It should be noted the Heritage President Ex Senator Jim De Mint (R-SC was ousted by the Heritage Foundation's 22 member Board of Trustees after leading the conservative think tank for nearly four and a half years. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVsJ_-vyRvOE6fyFrw8mbRHrK_pbRJWEgnEfF1eaRqvbe2CU3M9VlX6REOIoYEGaNJzhr3OiPWB8kvZ2xQvVrKpigUib7nlGhfTefFhtl6R1IrlkwWvVd7_PT7iMuPu20xSfPv80sp4ukM/s1600/Mike+Needham.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVsJ_-vyRvOE6fyFrw8mbRHrK_pbRJWEgnEfF1eaRqvbe2CU3M9VlX6REOIoYEGaNJzhr3OiPWB8kvZ2xQvVrKpigUib7nlGhfTefFhtl6R1IrlkwWvVd7_PT7iMuPu20xSfPv80sp4ukM/s320/Mike+Needham.JPG" width="275" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://thefederalist.com/2017/05/02/the-coup-against-jim-demint-threatens-to-tear-apart-the-heritage-foundation/" target="_blank">De Mint was skeptical about Heritage Action</a>, a 501(c)(4) influencing branch of Heritage run by Mike Needham. It was said that De Mint did not want to throw control of the think tank. to 30 something political operatives with no policy experience. Ironically, the official spin from Heritage on parting ways with De Mint is that he was making the think tank too political.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/heritage-foundation-announces-resignation-of-jim-demint/article/2621928" target="_blank">The Heritage Foundation's letter announcing the change cited alleged mis-management and communication</a> issues for precipitating De Mint's "resignation". <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/02/demint-heritage-foundation-237907" target="_blank"> De Mint retorted</a>: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f8f8; widows: 1;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"The public statement released earlier is puzzling given that the Board of Trustees have praised our work for four years and approved performance bonuses for our entire management team each year for a job well done." </span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Some have speculated that De Mint had been too outspoken in favor of Donald Trump, which alienated GOP Establishment elements in the organization. <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/02/why-jim-demint-was-ousted-from-heritage-237876" target="_blank">Heritage Foundation Board member Mickey Edwards (and former Congressman from R-OK 5th) noted</a>: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f7f8f8; widows: 1;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>“When DeMint went in, Heritage became very political. It changed from a highly respected think tank to just a partisan tool and more ideological — more of a tea party organization than a think tank.”</i></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Heritage Foundation founder Ed Feulner has agreed to again take the reins of the think tank as interim President while a leadership search is conducted.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heritage Foundation founder Ed Feulner </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is<a href="https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/04/28/part-iii-prediction-jim-demint-will-join-the-trump-administration/" target="_blank"> talk that De Mint may soon find a spot within the Trump Administration</a>. That seems much more credible than the <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/15888/chris-wallace-will-bannon-be-heritages-next-robert-kraychik" target="_blank">rumor (or joke from Fox New's Chris Wallace</a>) that Steve Bannon will become Heritage Foundation President. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ex House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX 26)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This series of backroom recriminations seems reminiscent of <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/more-details-emerge-about-dick-armey-s-failed-freedomworks-coup" target="_blank">the attempted coup of the Freedom Caucus by ex GOP House Majority Leader Dick Army (R-TX 26th)</a> in late 2012. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/26/dick-armey-freedomworks_n_2364986.html" target="_blank">At least no one felt the need to pack heat at Heritage.</a></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f7f8f8;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nevertheless, Capitol Hill conservatives need not be afraid of adversity in the District of Calamity, but they must find ways to solve problems lest a short stint at being the majority be their real Heritage. </span></span></div>
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-62984317995770482222017-05-03T10:48:00.002-04:002017-05-03T10:48:55.316-04:00Paying Tribute to Quality-- RIP Robert M. Pirsig<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Author Robert M. Pirsig died at the age of 88 in South Berwick, Maine after a period of failing health. Pirsig was renowned for writing <u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry-ebook/dp/B0026772N8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493084332&sr=8-1&keywords=zen+and+the+art+of+motorcycle+maintenance" target="_blank">Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance-- An Inquiry Into Values </a></u>(1974), a loosely autobiographical travelogue of a 17 day cross country road trip in 1968 with his 11 year old son and two friends during which he pondered weighty philosophical problems to discern the metaphysics of quality, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Pirsig had served in the Army in the Far East before the Korean War. During a trip on leave to Japan, Pirsig became fascinated by Zen Buddhism. After his military service, Pirsig received graduate degrees in Philosophy from the University of Chicago and Banaras Hindu University.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Like the unnamed protagonist in the novel, who sometimes referred to himself as Phaedrus (a name inspired by Plato's Dialogues), Pirsig was a brilliant thinker with a high IQ who eventually suffered a mental breakdown which was treated by electro-shock therapy that altered his personality. By delving deeply into undercurrents of thought, the novel can be seen as a detective story of a man in search of himself.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert M. Pirsig, 1975</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The title of the book was a play on another popular tome <u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Archery-Eugen-Herrigel-ebook/dp/B00HGXPOD2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493084260&sr=8-1&keywords=Zen+and+the+art+of+archery" target="_blank">Zen and the Art of Archery </a></u>(1971). Pirsig's playfulness was also evident in the forward in which the author wrote:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"</span><u style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance </u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 1.0625rem;">It’s not very factual on motorcycles either.”</span></i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But the book contemplated how man relates to machines, the roots of our culture and what inspires madness. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plato & Aristotle "The School of Athens" Raphael (1510)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Phaedrus ordered existence between "classic" values (like rational problem solving in fixing motorcycles) and "romantic values" (like beauty and the arts). This philosophical chautauqua ("circus of ideas)</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> which Phaedrus grappled with in his deep thoughts was how the Western mind had separated ordinary experiences from transcendent experiences because Plato and Aristotle had done so. Moreover, the mind-body dualism championed by the Greeks stoked a mental civil war which stripped rationality from its spiritual underpinnings and spirituality of its reason.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What man really ought to strive for is quality. As Pirsig contemplated:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWzcywiV5ZwhtpVvf9Tnulz7C7FLIOUvGevslQLWIeOH4EsayLnfmFsys_yjv9ITOhJynTtC-wYTVyGEwmN8MK5YAq_aGjKOeba5OqH9ySbwBD6mPlJdvWtIM36kiUUEQ7Ukz2J4ejVjg9/s1600/Quality.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWzcywiV5ZwhtpVvf9Tnulz7C7FLIOUvGevslQLWIeOH4EsayLnfmFsys_yjv9ITOhJynTtC-wYTVyGEwmN8MK5YAq_aGjKOeba5OqH9ySbwBD6mPlJdvWtIM36kiUUEQ7Ukz2J4ejVjg9/s320/Quality.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 25.1429px;"><i>"Quality . . . you know what it is, yet you don't know what it is. But that's self-contradictory. But some things are better than others, that is, they have more quality. But when you try to say what the quality is, apart from the things that have it, it all goes poof! There's nothing to talk about. But if you can't say what Quality is, how do you know what it is, or how do you know that it even exists? If no one knows what it is, then for all practical purposes it doesn't exist at all. But for all practical purposes it really does exist."</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The book became a phenomenon which the author later described as a <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">“kulturbarer" (Swedish for culture bearer), which developed a near cult popularity amongst hippies. Pirsig mused: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">“I expressed what I thought were my prime thoughts and they turned out to be the prime thoughts of everybody else." </span>Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance truly appealed to Baby Boomers. When the novel was first published, <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/24/525443040/-zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance-author-robert-m-pirsig-dies-at-88" target="_blank">New York Times reviewer <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote: </span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">"[H]owever impressive are the seductive powers with which Mr. Pirsig engages us in his motorcycle trip, they are nothing compared to the skill with which he interests us in his philosophic trip... </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">when [Pirsig] comes to grips with the hard philosophical conundrums raised by the 1960's, he can be electrifying." </span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> When reflecting on the impact of ZAMM, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/books/robert-pirsig-dead-wrote-zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance.html?_r=0" target="_blank">Todd Gitlin, a counter cultural sociologist speculated </a>that b</span>y blending the deep thoughts with the drudgery of daily life, such as motorcycle maintenance: "P<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">irsig provided a kind of soft landing from the euphoric stratosphere of the late ’60s into the real world of adult life.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The counter cultural novel sold over one million books in the first year of its publication and sold several million more since then. <u>Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance</u> became the biggest selling philosophy book of all times and remained on the best sellers list for over a decade. This is remarkable for a manuscript which was rejected by 121 different publishers before William Morrow signed hi for a small $3,000 advance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">After the unexpected success of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Pirsig won a Guggenheim fellowship, some fortune and unwanted fame. Pirsig got so freaked out by what his neighbors called "Pirsig Pilgrims" to his Minneapolis home that he eventually packed his bags and would live in a camper or a sailboat for months. Pirsig spent the last 30 years of his life in a small town in Southern Maine</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Pirsig wrote one other book, <u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lila-Inquiry-Morals-Robert-Pirsig-ebook/dp/B00FUZPRNU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1493088777&sr=8-2&keywords=Lila" target="_blank">Lila- An Inquiry into Morals </a></u>(1991), which achieved neither the same success nor cultural impact. But sometimes one oeuvre is enough to make one's mark on the world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Personally, I found Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to be a highly influential book. Believe it or not, it served as a textbook for an Advanced Placement American History course in high school. Despite the unorthodox textbook, I achieved highest marks on the exam as it honed in me an incredible analytical inclination which remains with me to this day (sometimes to the consternation of those close to me). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">While I may not be an adherent to Zen Buddhism, nor will anyone catch me fixing motor scooters or the ilk, I am graced by the idea that there is a nexus between the simply joys and drudgery of daily life and the transcendent. More than a quarter century later, I am still inspired by a quest for quality. To be so deeply impacted by a book demonstrates its importance. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">H/T: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/books/robert-pirsig-dead-wrote-zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance.html?_r=0" target="_blank">New York Times</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/24/525443040/-zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance-author-robert-m-pirsig-dies-at-88" target="_blank">NPR</a></span><br />
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-8431458743899287752017-04-19T10:48:00.000-04:002017-04-19T10:48:07.277-04:00Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Doolittle Raids <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/170418g-jimmy-doolittle.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle on War and Air Power" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-18952" src="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/170418g-jimmy-doolittle.jpg?w=604" width="534" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Just a little over five months after the devastating Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States made a daring raid on the Imperial Homeland. The responsibility to conduct the raid fell upon then Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, a revered test pilot for the U.S. Army Air Corps. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sixteen specially modified B-25B bombers carrying 80 men took off at night from the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942, which was positioned 500 nautical miles off the Japanese mainland. The plan had to be rushed as the Hornet was sighted further out than expected.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Army Airmen participating in Doolittle's raid understood that they were most likely on a suicide mission. Their intended targets were military and industrial targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya and Yokosuka. One of the sixteen planes had to bail before it reached its target. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Remarkably despite losing 15 aircraft, only four of eighty men were killed in the Doolittle Raid, eight became POWS (but three were executed), and one crew was interned after landing in Vladavostok, Soviet Russia. They were held in the USSR for a year and were "smuggled out" (probably arranged by the Russian Secret Police NKVD because the USSR could not release the prisoners because of the neutrality pact with Japan).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Doolittle expected to be court marshaled as his raid lost 15 of 16 aircraft in pin prick air strikes. But back in the United States, the daring Doolittle Raids was celebrated as a morale building first strike against Imperial Japan. The Japanese were caught off guard by the Tokyo Raid and the Imperial Military rearranged forces, which might have turned the tide in the Battle of Midway in June 1942.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Doolittle received the Medal of Honor from President Franklin Roosevelt, with the citation:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfRL2t0e1Jcyhlercyz-FKAMrVmAlQriU1OVR3ExeNtExeVPdJ-BYtl66QRVYxiu3ZnTs1OV6Mv1KHpKSmo4Vx3chCR3i92IJDR4crFSVq6o0x6kThPAF1REAt5q1GV00X8KOlz_BezXg/s1600/Doolittle+FDR.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfRL2t0e1Jcyhlercyz-FKAMrVmAlQriU1OVR3ExeNtExeVPdJ-BYtl66QRVYxiu3ZnTs1OV6Mv1KHpKSmo4Vx3chCR3i92IJDR4crFSVq6o0x6kThPAF1REAt5q1GV00X8KOlz_BezXg/s1600/Doolittle+FDR.JPG" /></a></div>
<i style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif;">"For conspicuous leadership above and beyond the call of duty, involving personal valor and intrepidity at an extreme hazard to life. With the apparent certainty of being forced to land in enemy territory or to perish at sea, Lt. Col. Doolittle personally led a squadron of Army bombers, manned by volunteer crews, in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland."</span></i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Doolittle was eventually promoted as a Lt. General and became the highest ranking active reserve officer in modern times. </span></span><br />
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</script>El Barrocohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993968199585760734noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8684698646997200919.post-48525796127108584132017-01-30T12:41:00.000-05:002017-01-30T12:41:45.026-05:00On Blue Dogs and Beltway Democrats Being on the Endangered Species List <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/170130c-dane-strother.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Progressive Purity Tests May Keep Democrats in the Political Wilderness by Banning Blue Dogs" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-18447" height="569" src="https://dcbarroco.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/170130c-dane-strother.jpg?w=604" width="604" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoFZPtwgo_as7kiWsEFPlcjcl4gLS2L_jkYdHkBjERouv0qfDeoZWZY8STNv44cgQ_l4I8k_KXae5I-uwOBZAqCMv232KiTScKLd_zdhwthwwjwyp6Tj-7Kg4zsm_8uGrZwJ3AwQQzmPc/s1600/Blue+Dog+Blue.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoFZPtwgo_as7kiWsEFPlcjcl4gLS2L_jkYdHkBjERouv0qfDeoZWZY8STNv44cgQ_l4I8k_KXae5I-uwOBZAqCMv232KiTScKLd_zdhwthwwjwyp6Tj-7Kg4zsm_8uGrZwJ3AwQQzmPc/s320/Blue+Dog+Blue.JPG" width="285" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Blue Dog Coalition was formed in 1995 in reaction to devastating losses in President Clinton's first mid-term election. The moniker played off of the expression "Yellow Dog Democrats" of the South who were so loyal to the party after the Civil War. Blue Dogs could also refer to the idea that when dogs are not let in the house, they stay outside in the cold and turn blue. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_IDeKmE_D4lBmX2JgwnB6cl2A7CL9FZr6o14AtAZGUa3cwAMNEwOQhgEX3zwaOLCkDfaJSwQCllT5RhythVSuJttgipTyXe9NKasKj8wOXK5YfQqX4UU0JSWScDPcnoQibranRJqr2To/s1600/Cartoon+Blue+Dogs+Bark.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_IDeKmE_D4lBmX2JgwnB6cl2A7CL9FZr6o14AtAZGUa3cwAMNEwOQhgEX3zwaOLCkDfaJSwQCllT5RhythVSuJttgipTyXe9NKasKj8wOXK5YfQqX4UU0JSWScDPcnoQibranRJqr2To/s200/Cartoon+Blue+Dogs+Bark.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Blue Dogs sought to find a compromise between conservative and liberal positions. They tended to be Democrats who were from rural districts who were pro-guns, pro-life and fiscal hawks. Blue Dogs were successful in 1996 and then Democrat National Committee Chairman Rahm Emmanuel used Blue Dogs to retake the House in 2006. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGXdKu8Vv0PRb1bZPuroVa6hASLCQV4CAUWuRCV-NWnrSHfUi-Rj9DyZfRckqdZGbn3CzqeKonHskAxt0V_EpU7jXuLB5f35tnzVXRNIGr-fdfPdEXO3T_gyu_BDIjKQntgGHyNGw0iaQ/s1600/Vote+for+Joe.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGXdKu8Vv0PRb1bZPuroVa6hASLCQV4CAUWuRCV-NWnrSHfUi-Rj9DyZfRckqdZGbn3CzqeKonHskAxt0V_EpU7jXuLB5f35tnzVXRNIGr-fdfPdEXO3T_gyu_BDIjKQntgGHyNGw0iaQ/s320/Vote+for+Joe.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">However, in the same 2006 election cycle, progressive began to retake the Democrat Party. A Progressive candidate beat Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CN) in the Democrat primary, forcing the veteran lawmaker (who was quite an orthodox liberal except on staunch support for Israel and being a war hawk) to successfully run as an "Independent Democrat" in the general election. But this bode as a bad omen for Blue Dog Democrats.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj1dQUFBHwA2w_K3TmrAv06uq9vWezpDe5OB5fXBaSDdbU4rZpZc4Iz1121jJ-YuovMk3lbAPYRCpjiap_h_8sDvhNJlhRabLwcy6WKkD78aOAFl5CBbEvDTDkWXnr7IzV2e9VLaC4OzA/s1600/Blue+Dogs+DC.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj1dQUFBHwA2w_K3TmrAv06uq9vWezpDe5OB5fXBaSDdbU4rZpZc4Iz1121jJ-YuovMk3lbAPYRCpjiap_h_8sDvhNJlhRabLwcy6WKkD78aOAFl5CBbEvDTDkWXnr7IzV2e9VLaC4OzA/s200/Blue+Dogs+DC.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">At their high water mark, Blue Dog Democrats had 44 members, which was roughly 20% of the Democrat Caucus. But progressive tides and internecine battles have lowered Blue Dogs ranks to 17 members which again puts them out in the cold. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the beginning of the 115th Congress, Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH 13th formerly 17th) sought to run for House Minority Leader against the incumbent Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-12th formerly 5th & 8th). The <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/30/politics/house-democrat-election-results-nancy-pelosi-tim-ryan/index.html" target="_blank">final vote was for unseating Pelosi not even close 134-63</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Considering the way that close to 70 Democrats (all from safe Democrat districts) boycotted President Trump's inaugural festivities shows that Congressional Democrats seem dedicated to the progressive cause, under the delusion that they will retake the House in the 2018 elections. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Democrats continue to be obsessed with gun control, abortion rights, liberal immigration and an ever expanding government.Thus it seems that Democrats continue to count on winning urban voters along with educated white collar suburban voters in their path to victory. This sort strategy leaves Blue Dog in the cold, forcing them to accept irrelevance amongst the DC Democrat party or to go against their tradition and aversions to vote GOP to remain relevant.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />It was fascinating to see how <a href="http://dc-calamity.blogspot.com/2016/09/bill-clinton-on-coal-people.html" target="_blank">2016 Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (D-NY) ran against coal country</a> in her futile bid for the White House. <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2016/11/11/why-hillary-clinton-lost-pennsylvania-the-real-story/" target="_blank">Hillary lost the Keystone State by about 46,000 votes</a>. That slim margin of victory may have been taken from President Trump's increased support in Central Pennsylvania, which epitomized Blue Dog Coalition voters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In Washington Examiner, <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-democrats-diversity-challenge/article/2613114" target="_blank">Salina Zito noted how Cambria County, Pennsylvania</a>, which contains the old industrial city of Johnstown, has shifted from being a 70 reliably Democrat area in 2006 to today being a 70% Republican area. It is these working class white voters that Democrat strategist Dane Strother worries that imposing a progressive purity test will drive Democrats into the political wilderness for forty years. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivNF1I9kJ7A6UvL3Pyx1atc4OH2ZmxsNGYlTGKco7Y-KmzU0cVoVkVZ4se19W3kYyXAuIpf2B3rVmopwnXrz8C0BhGN8HQTR-KxnHDDqAOIZnR82SErU-0xPebkJ528WqcAWD9fmnn2nU/s1600/Cartoon+Coal+Hill+Bitter+Clingers.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivNF1I9kJ7A6UvL3Pyx1atc4OH2ZmxsNGYlTGKco7Y-KmzU0cVoVkVZ4se19W3kYyXAuIpf2B3rVmopwnXrz8C0BhGN8HQTR-KxnHDDqAOIZnR82SErU-0xPebkJ528WqcAWD9fmnn2nU/s400/Cartoon+Coal+Hill+Bitter+Clingers.JPG" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">President Trump may have sensed the alienation that Blue Dogs (who also comprised "Reagan Democrats" in the 1980s) felt, and now seeks to cement the relationship with them. Thus the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">overtures to labor leaders and winning back manufacturing jobs as well as fulfilling campaign promises which validate voters who then candidate Barack Obama derided as those who were "Bitter Clingers" to their bibles and their guns.</span>
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