Now, let us see whether we have a Congress and an administration of patriots or quislings, combatants or collaborators.
Now, let us see whether we have a Congress and an administration of patriots or quislings, combatants or collaborators.
Posted at 03:16 PM in American Politics, Books, Current Affairs, Foreign Policy and National Security, Music, Political Commentary and Analysis, Public Diplomacy, Public Policy Issues, Television, Think Tanks, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: date that will live in infamy, DNC, Donald Trump, FDR, Helsinki, Hillary Clinton, Jonathan Lemire, POTUS, quislings, Robert Mueller, Russian Federation, servers, Vladimir Putin
Posted at 03:04 PM in American Politics, Books, Current Affairs, Foreign Policy and National Security, Music, Political Commentary and Analysis, Public Diplomacy, Public Policy Issues, Television, Think Tanks, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Broadway musicals, Congressional Republicans, Donald Trump, George and Ira Gershwin, George S. Kaufman, Helsinki, Mitch McConnell, Of Me I Sing, Robert Mueller, Vladimir Putin
A thousand-year-old English castle echoed with the exhortations of a black preacher and a gospel choir on Saturday, as Prince Harry wed Meghan Markle, an American actress, nudging the British royal family into a new era.
New York Times, 19 May 2018
"Camelot, located no where in particular, can be anywhere.”
Norris J. Lacy, Arthurian Scholar
Dear Friends,
Like millions of people around the globe, I began yesterday morning at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, albeit from the comfort of a couch, not a wooden pew. I was prepared to start the morning with grim television reportage of the tragic school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, or a fresh round of conspiratorial condemnations from America’s prevaricator-in-chief, aided and abetted by his roving barrister, Rudy Giuliani.
Instead, I was transported to the wedding of Prince Harry and his bride, Meghan Markle, and for an hour or more, I watched in silence as the ceremony, whose choreography derives from centuries of custom, but which was enhanced by bold new cultural infusions, took me by total surprise. I had no expectations, nor did I anticipate that I would last long as a viewer.
It was a Proustian moment, however, without the madeleine and the tea, for the thoughts it engendered about how far we have fallen from our tradition of behaving well during moments of national ceremony. Though a royal wedding and a presidential inauguration are wholly different occasions, they are both moments in which we are expected to display our best face and to honor our common values.
To enjoy this particularly festive wedding was to be reminded of how dreadful the inaugural ceremony of the 45th President was, from the divisive, discordant presidential address about “American carnage” and the failure of all those presidents who had preceded him, to the day-after shenanigans about crowd size, climatological conditions, and the sorry spectacle of the speech at the CIA.
On the one hand, there was the joy of being present at such a moment — with its glorious assemblage of choral and musical performances, the Kingdom Choir and “Stand By Me,” the exquisite cello artistry of Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the soaring oratory of an African-American Episcopal preacher, the vibrant colors and architectural shapes of hat-fascinators, and the invigorating sense of energy and promise that all of this and the bride, Meghan, and groom, Prince Harry personify. It was a magnificent start for the day, and for that hour or more, it seemed like the brilliant blue, sunny skies of Windsor were right outside our window.
But, of course, they were not.
All of that was thousands of miles away, across an ocean, and in a country where the monarchy is the institutional rock upon which is anchored the nation’s solidity, continuity, and tradition. Meanwhile, England’s Brexit-stained political landscape is buffeted by the ill winds of nativism, faux-nationalism, and fear of the foreigner.
Here at home, we have the ill winds, but no rock.
Where once we could believe that a President could be the standard-bearer of our best traditions — not unfailingly, but when kismet came calling — and the White House the repository of our Constitutional bedrock, today we are bereft, bankrupt at the very top.
Instead of a paragon or even a journeyman, we have a grifter, an habitual fabricator and fabulist, a malignant presence who delights in the dismantling of existing relationships, partnerships, and alliances, and who has assembled through a mixture of cunning and crass communications tactics and techniques, an army that wears red hats, cheers wildly at his attacks on the ‘deep state,’ and which delights in his stentorian denigration of the institutions upon which this democracy was built — the judiciary, the press, and the exercise of First Amendment rights.
His former opponent called these people ‘deplorables,,’ which placed the name tag on the wrong party. Instead, it’s an apt characterization for the President himself and the corps of collaborators who are his lieutenants, enablers, and proxies, and who participate in the boorish, vindictive behaviors that are at the core of the Trump disposition.
But for ‘one brief, shining moment’ yesterday, we were with Harry and Meghan, their family, friends, and supporters around the globe in celebration of their marriage. It was a moment of unexpected exuberance, genuine glee, and a nourishing vacation from the vulgarity that is our lot for the nonce.
We may not have our Camelot, but we can surely set our sights on ridding ourselves of this Babylonian dominion and America’s Nebuchadnezzar.
Posted at 09:56 AM in American Politics, Current Affairs, Film, Foreign Policy and National Security, Music, Political Commentary and Analysis, Public Diplomacy, Public Policy Issues, Religion, Television, Think Tanks | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Brexit, British monarchy, Donald Trump, Kingdom Choir, Meghan Markle, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Queen Elizabeth II, Rudy Giuliani, Santa Fe, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, St. George's Chapel, Stand By Me, TX, Windsor Castle
23 February 2013
Dear Friends,
If it isn’t one thing, it’s another.
First, there was the ‘fiscal cliff,’ over which the republic would tumble on its way to another financial disaster.
This was quickly and tragically followed by the ‘slippery slope,’ on which the rights of gun owners would be taken away in treacherous acts of legislative legerdemain by the heirs to the anti-war movement, and the kinds of deadbeats who were once dragooned into appearances before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Now, of course, we are approaching ‘sequestration,’ a euphemism for castration in the fiscal arena, and about which Bob Woodward will soon set us all straight. It’s the thing we most prize about Woodward -- i.e., ‘being set straight.’
And if you fear that TMR is about to leap into that fray, relax. It’s at moments like this where we most need diversions from the solemnity and humorlessness of public policy, and that explains this week’s offering.
When you’re able to set aside seven uninterrupted minutes, and are ready for an exercise in erudition, here’s a graphic and musical journey through the history of music.
But don’t sequester yourself; share it with family and friends in acts of random bipartisanship and generosity of spirit.
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