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Sunday Morning Reading
It’s Sunday. It’s the Sunday after the U.S. election that will change everything. In my opinion those changes will make life worse not better. The one thing that won’t change is my curiosity and sharing that in Sunday Morning Reading.
I cranked out a Thursday edition of Sunday Morning Reading this week to share some terrific writing in the aftermath of the election. I’m going to once again share a couple of those titles here, for the record, but also because they are worth re-reading now, and perhaps also later.
John Gruber’s thoughts post election are special, as is his piece How It Went.
Ken White of PopeHat fame’s piece And Yet It Moves is also worth re-reading and re-sharing. Excellent.
David Todd McCarty’s So, That Happened is also worth re-visiting.
Now on to some new stuff to share.
A series I had been sharing links to for awhile never really escaped my radar, but for some reason didn’t get mentioned as much here. Ellis Weiner and Steve Radlauer’s excellent serial The Split has come to an end. Conceived as a meditation “about what a country modeled entirely on red state ‘values’ would be like,” it has been a fantastic journey through 52 chapters. I’m sorry to see it come to an end. You can find the final chapter here and all of The Split here.
Over at Beardy Guy Musings, Denny Henke advises that we Remain Calm. But Prepare. Good advice.
Rachel Maddow reminds us that America has had its share of bad guys in the past in Dead Last.
Jeff Jarvis asks and answers Why Are Liberals So Infuriated with the Media?
Matteo Wong ponders The Death of Search in a world racing to embrace AI harder and harder.
Finally Frank Landymore tells us that a Physicist Says There’s Another Universe Hiding Behind the Big Bang. You can read the original essay Landymore refers to by Neil Turok here. Intriguingly not only does it exist in this theory but it is moving back in time. I’m sure not alone in wishing somehow we could do that either here or there.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. You can also find me on social networks under my own name.
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America Had A Choice. America Chose Wrong
America had a choice on November 5, 2024. America chose wrong. Donald Trump, the decaying orange convicted felon/child rapist who stole state secrets and tried to overturn his 2020 election defeat was reelected to be President and Commander-in-Chief of the United States. We can’t say we weren’t warned.
From The Onion I’m still reeling a bit, alternating between shock, grief, and trying to find my way to process what I believe marks the end of America two years shy of its 250th birthday. Oh, sure it’ll still show up on a map, have a flag, and command a place in the world. But it will never be the same. No more defiantly claiming this is not who we are. In an act of national lunacy, this is who we’ve chosen to be. Sorry. That’s how I see it. You don’t invite a criminal into your home and stand in surprise when he steals the silver.
But back to the processing.
One of the things I do is read and share writing and subjects I think are worth your time. Typically that appears in my Sunday Morning Reading column here on the Wicked Stage. Today, I’m sharing some reading that has helped me through a couple of sleepless nights and very gray moods under very gray skies. Some seeks solace and understanding. Some might feel vindictive and angry. As I said, processing.
I hope you take the time to read this writing from some very thoughtful thinkers.
First up is Scattered Thoughts On The Worst of Days by Ian Dunt. Helpful words from overseas.
David Todd McCarty is trying to make sense of things in the aftermath of a catastrophe in So, That Happened.
Mark McKinnon pens An Open Letter to My Daughters. It’s meant as some words of solace. I’m not sure I’m there yet. One day, maybe. But I’m saving this for my granddaughter to read down the road.
Charles Pierce writes With The Election of Donald Trump, America is About to Get Exactly What It Wants.
James C. Nelson is a vet from a distinguished military family. He comes in hot with I Will Fly My Flag No Longer.
Finally, Ken White of PopeHat fame writes down some thoughts in And Yet It Moves. Damn good. Here’s a quote:
Are Americans inherently good, freedom-loving, devoted to free speech and free worship, committed to all people being created equal? That’s our founding myth, and isn’t it pretty to think so? But a glance at history shows it’s not true. Bodies in graves and jails across America disprove it. We’re freedom-loving when times are easy, devoted to speech and worship we like with lip service to the rest, and divided about our differences since our inception.
In some small way I’m selfishly hoping sharing this might help me as much as you. Good reading.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. You can also find me on social networks under my own name.
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America Decides If It Still America Today
Election Day. Decision Day.
Finally.
America decides its future today. Fingers crossed we make the right choice.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
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Sunday Morning Reading
We’re on the road again, this time to celebrate my granddaughter’s first birthday. It was quite a fun day, but also one that brings everything that’s going on socially and politically into a different perspective. This week’s Sunday Morning Reading will be all politics if that gives you a clue. No apologies for that.
Above I said a different perspective. Different isn’t accurate. Intensified is probably more to the point, because if my grandchildren had never arrived I’d be feeling and vote the same way in this election. As I’ve said many times before I’m voting for her and my grandson’s futures. They will be voting age before anything in this dire moment will have a chance at being put right again.
Enough of the soapbox. Here’s this week’s Sunday Morning Reading.
McKay Coppins tells us that “Democraccy lives in the people” in This Is Not The End of America. Hopeful? Yes. IMHO missing the point given the real reasons we’re at this moment.
Proving my point, to a degree, is this piece from Nathan J. Robinson called It’s Going to Take A Constant Fight to Perserve the Historical Record, linking to a Wall Street Journal article by Andrew Restuccia and Rebecca Ballhaus telling us that America’s Top Archivist Puts A Rosy Spin on U.S. History-Pruning the Thorny Parts. If you can’t face the past, or the current moment, the future is always in doubt.
J. Michael Luttig pens an editorial in the NY Times saying My Fellow Republicans, It’s Time To Say ‘Enough’ With Trump. He’s correct.
Why Are LIberals Infuriated with the Media? Jeff Jarvis tells us what he thinks. I largely agree.
Natasha MH wonders if it is still possible for adults to break bread without breaking apart in Hanged, Drawn and Quartered for Dinner.
Anne Applebaum offers some closing thoughts On Vermin. Here’s a quote:
This campaign has had a purpose. It has prepared Americans – even serious, establishment historians, or members of the Wall Street Journal editorial board – to accept what comes next.
And finally this week, David Todd McCarty asks If Trump Wins, Is It Game Over? It won’t be game over. But the rules will be vastly different and too many won’t be allowed to play.
Time to play with my grandchildren.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. You can also find me on social networks under my own name.
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Why I’m Voting for Kamala Harris
Short. Sweet. Simple.
This week I voted for Kamala Harris for President of the United States.
Tomorrow, my granddaughter celebrates her first birthday.
I voted for my granddaughter’s (and also my grandson’s) future.
That’s it. That’s the post.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
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Husbands, Wives, and Voting
My mother and father have both been gone so long that I’m glad they don’t have to live through the political mess we’re in currently. Politics and voting seemed much simpler then. Until my father died my mother always voted the way he told her too. There wasn’t any bullying involved. It was just the way of things. They’ve both been gone long enough that this current political squabble about wives not telling their husbands that they are going to vote for Kamala Harris would make no sense to either one of them.
As context, my first presidential election was 1972 and my dad and I argued over politics until he died in 1985. Needless to say we mostly didn’t see eye to eye. After Dad passed, Mom declared that going forward she would be voting with her children’s best interest in mind. She’d sound each of us out and make her own decisions. Sometimes we agreed. Sometimes we didn’t. She still leaned much more conservative than liberal, although in a few elections she surprised me. Had she lived long enough I’m convinced she would have voted for Hillary Clinton.
The intriguing thing, as I look back on it, was that Dad, and thus Mom, didn’t always vote one way or the other from a party perspective on a national or state level.
As I recall Dad was an Eisenhower Republican, but he voted for Kennedy and then again for Johnson. He voted for Nixon the second time around, but not his third. He voted for Mills Godwin when he ran as a Republican for governor the second time, but not when he ran as a Democrat the first time. Godwin won both times. So there was always a mix, and Mom always followed suit. Or at least that was the assumption.
Again, that was a different era in what seems like a different land.
From what I’m seeing these MAGAt dunces that are terrified of their wives voting secretly for Kamala Harris and lying to them about it probably need to worry about more than just how their household might split the vote. I’m guessing that’s one reason these Project 2025ers want to do away with no-fault divorce, along with everything else that provides women an equal footing.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
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The Verge’s Election Coverage Is Top Notch
Kudos to Nilay Patel and his team at The Verge. In an era when many businesses, including those in media and journalism, are working overtime to hedge their bets in the event of a victory by the decaying orange convicted felon/child rapist, who promises to exact retribution on his enemies, The Verge is producing some outstanding and unflinching political content.
You can check out each of the posts they’ve published in The Verge’s Guide to the 2024 Presidential Election. They are each well done. I’d like to highlight two of them:
A Vote For Donald Trump Is A Vote for School Shootings and Measles is Nilay Patel’s endorsement for democracy, solving problems, and Kamala Harris. Here’s a quote:
Donald Trump is a dangerous maniac who can barely complete a sentence, and it is lunacy to believe he can even recognize the existentially threatening collective action problems facing our nation, let alone actually solve them.
In an age when we’re seeing the former top dogs of the journalism profession tuck tail and retreat into their dog houses and not issue endorsements, this one is not only worth a read it is worth sharing.
Sarah Jeong lays out the stakes when it comes to our justice system in Trump’s Takeover Of The Entire Legal System Hinges On This Election. Here’s a quote:
Legal observers understood at the time the enormity and lasting impact of what was happening, but few clocked that the problem was about to become exacerbated by a recursive power grab.
Again, well done and well worth your time as are each of the posts on the blog.
I say posts, because The Verge has resumed a blogging format for its work. Don’t let that fool you. There’s real quality journalism happening on that blog. Much better, much more thorough than what we’re seeing in what used to be called the Main Stream Media.
Certainly we can’t say we weren’t warned.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
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Stevie Nicks: Shines a Beacon with The Lighthouse
I’ve been bemoaning the fact that given what’s at stake in this election, we’ve seen (heard?) very few musicians create what we used to call protest songs illuminating the moment. Thanks to Stevie Nicks, we have at least one memorable, and hopefully galvanizing one called The Lighthouse.
Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac produced records (yes vinyl) that I always wore down, later to be replaced with other media. Their songs still play featured roles in my playlists. I remember fondly and passionately that era of music, when songwriters and musicians were sources we turned to for inspiration and validation in big moments of our lives.
Longing for that, I wish we had seen more from more of them in this moment.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
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The Marsh Family Is Back with Bohemian Trumpsody
Music might sooth the savage beast though I’m not sure it’ll help us through this last week before the election that will decide the fate of the United States and possibly the world. But The Marsh Family is certainly giving it a shot with another terrific musical parody, turning Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody into the Bohemian Trumpsody.
As with their previous parody take on JD Vance, the lyric content hits all the right notes. Interspersing video footage of January 6th, the video hits home in a way that might make calling it a parody seem odd, but the political punch is spot on.
This British family must have a blast putting these efforts together. Their musical efforts have been a highlight in a dangerous political era.
Watch and share it.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
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The Fear In Corporate America Is Real
If you think ordinary Americans are living with fear and anxiety you would be correct. Right up there with them on the anxiety scale are the titans of corporate America. I don’t call those folks ordinary Americans, because let’s be real, they have the luxury of not having to deal with the every day struggles they visit on the rest of us.
But their anxiety levels are through the roof. Certainly there are some that want to see the decaying orange convicted felon/child rapist win the election, somehow thinking it will be good for them long term. But most, having enjoyed seeing their bottom lines rise off of the bottom brought on by the pandemic, would much rather see some semblance of stability in a more traditional back and forth political landscape that has a chance to rekindle if Kamala Harris is elected.Most are cowed, and cowardly hedging their bets. They don’t just fear bad economic results brought about by a deranged and delusional madman, they also fear retribution if they speak out. Well publicized cowardice from corporate media is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the cold feet these folks hope never get held to the fire.
The one thing that’s guaranteed to happen should Trump win or steal power, we won’t have to wait for his insane policies to go into effect to see prices rise and inflation spike. Corporate America, after acting like cowards in the run up, will raise prices to grab every penny they can before the inevitable crash happens and they cash out.
Cowardice never wins and boldness can often lose. But sitting on the sideline means you’re not in the game, and you own the loss as much as those who stood up to play.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
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Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3
Musings on life, the theatre, technology, culture and the occasional emu sighting
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 