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Author Archives: Aaron B. Pryor
Everything.
Thanks to Crooks and Liars for having the text of this amazing exchange between Rep. Eric Swalwell and majority counsel Daniel Goldman during the Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday.
SWALWELL: During Watergate, the famous phrase from Senator Howard Baker was asked: “What did the President know and when did he know it?” There is a reason that no one here has repeated those questions during these hearings. We know what the President did. And we know when he knew it. Mr. Goldman, who sent Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to smear Joe Biden?
GOLDMAN: President* Trump.
SWALWELL: Who fired the anti-corruption Ambassador in Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch?
GOLDMAN: President* Trump.
SWALWELL: Who told Ambassador Sondland and Ambassador Volker to work with Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine?
GOLDMAN: President* Trump.
SWALWELL: Who told Vice President Pence to not go to President Zelensky’s inauguration?
GOLDMAN: President* Trump.
SWALWELL: Who ordered his own Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney to withhold critical military assistance for Ukraine?
GOLDMAN: President* Trump.
SWALWELL: Who refused to meet with President Zelensky in the Oval Office?
GOLDMAN: President* Trump.
SWALWELL: Who ignored on July 25 his own national security council anti-corruption talking points?
GOLDMAN: President* Trump.
SWALWELL: Who asked President Zelensky for a favor?
GOLDMAN: President* Trump.
SWALWELL: Who personally asked President Zelensky to investigate his political rival Joe Biden?
GOLDMAN: President* Trump.
SWALWELL: Who stood on the White House lawn and confirmed that he wanted Ukraine to investigate Vice President Biden?
GOLDMAN: President* Trump.
SWALWELL: Who stood on that same lawn and said that China should also investigate Vice President Biden?
GOLDMAN: President* Trump.
SWALWELL: As to anything that we do not know in this investigation, who has blocked us from knowing it?
GOLDMAN: President* Trump and the White House.
SWALWELL: So as it relates to President Trump, is he an incidental player or a central player in this scheme.
GOLDMAN: President Trump is the central player in this scheme.
SWALWELL: There is a reason that no one has said “what did the President know and when did he know it?” From the evidence that you have presented, Mr. Goldman, and the Intelligence Committee findings, we know one thing and one thing is clear. As it related to this scheme, the President* of the United States, Donald J. Trump, knew everything.
HR4
Republicans: Democrats need to stop wasting time on this impeachment nonsense and get on with the business of the American people.
House Democrats: ::this morning, debating H.R. 4: Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019::
Republicans: Not like that!
King Kong
I have always thought that the most remarkable thing about Zappa’s “King Kong” is that it sounds like King Kong. It is huge and frightening and potentially deadly, but it is also lumbering and vulnerable. One of the greatest Mothers tracks. I also note that in some performances of this song, they are playing around a lot with the “plugged-in” saxophone sound. I wonder if Zappa listened to Eddie Harris.
Here is a fabulous performance of it for the BBC in 1968. Bari sax honking by Jim “Motorhead” Sherwood.
The Democratic Party
There’s a lot of jibber-jabber today in Washington about “civility.” Moscow Mitch today was bemoaning something he called “partisan paralysis.” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said today that impeachment efforts were “divisive.” And, the USA Toady published this today: Divided we fall? Americans see our angry political debate as ‘a big problem’
Republicans have so far pushed the idea that the impeachment proceedings are due to Democratic butthurt that a reporter (from Sinclair Broadcasting, of course) today asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi today if she “hates” the preznit.
She didn’t like that very much.
So I can tell you one thing I think needs to happen in order to pierce a little spit-hole into the divisive nature of American politics. It is a simple thing to be done, and it could be done by an entire political faction all at once, and it would create a wealth of good will in the American political discussions.
Attention, Republicans: Stop calling it the “Democrat Party.”
If you’re not aware, the phenomenon is even laid out at Wikiepedia: “Democrat Party is an epithet for the Democratic Party in the United States, used in a disparaging fashion by the party’s opponents. While historical usage includes non-hostile appearances, the term has grown in its negative use since the 1940s, in particular by members of the Republican Party—in party platforms, partisan speeches, and press releases—as well as by conservative commentators.[1]”
Using “Democrat” where “Democratic” would be preferred is a bullying tactic. It is not grammatical. And this practice alone is divisive on its face. So long as Republicans continue to employ this incorrect usage time after time, it will be difficult to leave divisiveness behind toward a more effective democratic republic.
One can dream.
Speaking of divisiveness, Republicans are outraged that impeachment witness, law scholar Pamela Karlan dared to invoke young Barron Trump’s name as an example/mild joke. Here is what she said, as reported by Vox:
“Contrary to what President Trump says, Article Two [of the Constitution] does not give [Trump] the power to do anything he wants. And I’ll just give you one example that shows you the difference between him and a king, which is the Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility, so while the president can name his son Barron, he cannot make him a baron.”
Karlan later apologized, after Republican shit their pants over this. Rep. Matt Gaetz yelled at Karlan for daring to invoke Barron’s name by…um…invoking Barron’s name.
I want to remind everyone that John McCain once stood up at a dinner and said this, attempting a joke: “Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father.” Chelsea Clinton was 18 years old at the time.
This was not that.
Hundalasiliah!
It’s weird, but I always get a little excited this time of year, this day, as if I’m actually lighting the candles on Little Richard’s birthday cake.
It is a luxury that Little Richard’s birthday falls within the Zappa Solstice. Of course, if the information I read on the Facebook today is correct, so does Louis Cole’s birthday. But that’s another matter altogether. Hi, Louis Cole!
Little Richard, 87 today, penned a song that became one of my favorite Mothers performances ever caught on tape. Track two off of Weasels Ripped My Flesh, the song is called “Directly from my Heart,” and it features Don “Sugarcane” Harris in a blistering fiddle performance. But this thing would not be half what it is without the stellar source material, the song that drags its left foot so beautifully.
This is not going to be a long, drawn-out post. I have done that previously. I do recommend on this auspicious occasion that the average humble music listener might want to take a moment away from one’s gorging diet of Zappa, and Mothers, and Beefheart, and Geronimo Black, and listen to something by Little Richard. And, if you’re curious, settle down with author Richard Kirby’s masterpiece, Little Richard: The Birth of Rock and Roll. It will change your life.
Happy birthday, Georgia Peach. Health and comfort to you.
These Are The Days When You Wish Your Bed Was Already Made
Why, I thought today, as I watched the Judiciary Committee’s impeachment hearing today, would Democrats add a fellow like Jonathan Turley on your panel only to have your counsel race at him with a “that’s a yes or no” question kind of question?
It just seemed like a poorly built pile of Lincoln Logs to me. Why not just make Turley try on the glove while you’re at it? “IF YOU OVERREACH, YOU CAN’T IMPEACH!”
More bizarre was Turley’s position itself. You shouldn’t be impeaching because you can’t point to a specific law broken? Or because you should go to the courts first, for some reason? I’ve seen the video of Turley in 1998, looking quite a bit squeakier than he does today, up in front of the mic goin’ YEAH, IMPEACH THAT MOTHERFUCKER. YEAH, YOU HEARD ME. WHACK HIM WITH A STICK WHILE YOU’RE AT IT, YOU’LL SEE. IN THE BUM.
Ya’ll don’t reckon Jonathan Turley would like to be a judge someday
do you?
Then there was Doug Collins of Georgia, why, here he is in a vintage commercial from like the olden days
I’m sayin’ I believe Collins’ father was a tobacco auction barker and also his mom was a tobacco auction barker too.
He talks fast.
However, he’s worried that these impeachment hearings are going toooooooo fast. It’s about the clock and the calendar, the clock and the calendar, the clock and the calendar, he kept saying. What he was subtly trying to intimate was that Democrats want this thing to hurry up because of this upcoming election deal.
Well he isn’t wrong.
As my favorite New Yorker Randi Rhodes pointed out today on her radio program, yes! Democrats would like to get this thing done well before election 2020.
Because we know that in 2016, the Russkies (is that how you spell that?) were fucking with our elections. And we have evidence sitting in our blubbery laps that Trump and his friend Edmund Jumanji have been trying to get the Ukranians on board with that particular move as well.
And we also know that Trump just telegraphed, in his subtle, clever manner, that he’d be okay if these Untied States of ‘Merka didn’t have a trade agreement with China until after the election. Which, if you run it through a sieve, sounds an awful lot like “we’d like you to do us a favor though.”
Yeah, there’s a reason to get this done soon. And if you like to vote, you should be rooting for it, too.
By the way, here’s a weird effect of one rather bizarre part of today’s proceedings, where Republigoats took bony objections to people trying to finger out what the Founders might thing, something Turley called “necromancy.” As the spiffy John Cole indicates over at Balloon Juice, it rather awkwardly dry-humps the concept of Constitutional originalism.
Yep, today’s hearing was like going for ice cream but the only flavor they have left is garlic.
Good thing it’s Zappadan. I’ve got “Feeding the Monkies at Ma Masion” on the Spotify jukebox, and I’m about to write some nice things about a legendary superstar superhero genius.
Dickie’s Such An Asshole
Day one of Zappadan is also the start of impeachment hearings in the House Judiciary Committee. This seems about right:
Bummernacht 2019
Today is Bummernacht 2019, a day signifying the last day that the great man himself, Frank Zappa, stopped refusing to die. Or, as they teach today in the finest classrooms:
“On this day ’93, we all stopped jivin’ with that cosmic debris”
So I often write up a buncha stuff for this blog space here in outer space for the occasion, and I do not know how much I will have to share here. As I am the Zappadan tumblr man and the Twitter Captain as well, plus as a person who has one of those “job” things, I hope the best I can do in this time is to listen to music, to reflect, and to maybe learn more things.
First, the boilerplate: Zappadan began as a blogswarm many years ago, I think in 1972 or so, back when people were still “blogging.” It is from Dec. 4, the day of Frank Zappa’s permanent discorporation, until Dec. 21, which is that day that my brother was born. And also Frank Zappa was born that day too, yes. Since then it has reached beyond the blogosphere, celebrated today with a modified maypole dance, some rye whiskey, and feats of strength.
And pigs and ponies.
And so today, as I ponder my first discussion of the Zappadan of 2019, I am listening to the svelte shasta sounds of Harry Wayne Casey, who is extorting an audience to “blow yo whistle” and to “let him hear it.” And I wonder what Frank Zappa thought of Casey, known better to all ya’ll as “KC,” of KC and the Sunshine band, if he ever really thought of them at all. I thought of them this evening when I came home and sat down on my toilet. And so I picked up the remote control I keep nearby, and I said into the remote, I says, ALEXA. PLAY KC AND THE SUNSHINE BAND ON SPOTIFY. And it played a song by KC and the Sunshine band.
And I wondered what Frank thought of this musical marvel, built in the solid Caribbean musical tradition of Junkanoo, which will sit beside you all night at a party and swear it has nothing to do with the Indian tradition of New Orleans but holy crap you just keep squinting and thinking you canNOT tell the difference, maybe there’s more whistles or something. But knowing this, that this young man who worked at the time in a record store in Hialeah, Florida, witnessed this cultural touchstone centuries old, perhaps even grew up with it, and thought enough of it to want to try bringing some variant of it into the recording studio, and that that is how you got “I’m Your Boogie Man,” I can tell you that it has made me reach for this previously considered guilty pleasure with more gusto and insight than I had before. Seriously, put on the album “Do It Good” sometime and listen from gavel to gavel, and apply a truly critical ear. You may leave the experience gushing.
I only wish I knew if Frank ever gave ol’ KC and his Sunshine Band any thought. Like, perhaps, he’d named an album in parodied tribute, ever.
But hey, enough of my yakkin’. What do you say? Let’s boogie!
what a fool believes
He came from somewhere back in her long ago
The sentimental fool don’t see
Trying hard to recreate
What had yet to be created once in her life
She musters a smile
For his nostalgic tale
Never coming near what he wanted to say
Only to realize
It never really was
She had a place in his life
He never made her think twice
As he rises to her apology
Anybody else would surely know
He’s watching her go
But what a fool believes he sees
No wise man has the power to reason away
What seems to be
Is always better than nothing
And nothing at all keeps sending him
Somewhere back in her long ago
Where he can still believe there’s a place in her life
Someday, somewhere, she will return
But what a fool believes he sees
No wise man has the power to reason away
What seems to be
Is always better than nothing
There’s nothing at all
But what a fool believes he sees