Saturday Night Radio Drama - Dan Treston - Piano In The River

 Piano In The River

Tonight a jewel from the archive, and the winner of the Prix Italia in 1965.

Thomas Studley and Deirdre O'Meara lead the other Temporary Unestablished Civil Servants (who constituted The Raidio Éireann Players) in  Piano in the River ~ An interlude for radio by Dan Treston

Anticipating The Neo-Nazi Trolling Me About The Indictment of Abrego Garcia

IT'S GOT NOTHING to do with Abrego Garcia, this is Bondi DoJ-FOX Lies distraction because now they don't know if among the things Musk and his incel-boys got hold of was Epstein evidence, especially those thousands of hours of video rumored to be among that evidence.   Musk dropping his bomb was all about putting Trump on notice that he's got that or to make Trump think he's got it.   He'll play Trump like Putin in possession of a pee-tape to get what he wants.   So, I think if someone wants to take advantage of the EV subsidy (what Trump, no doubt on the advice of the Republican-fascist PR focus group research to lie more effectively calls a "mandate")  I think you can take your time because as long as Trump and the Republican fascists think Elon has got those goods,  it's a safe bet it isn't going anywhere.  

Real History Isn't Expurgated Like A Best Seller Bullshit Bio Or Coextensive With "Production Values"

I WILL NOTE it's why the bullshit bio that inspired "Hamilton" is bullshit history,  as, in fact, so many of those "biographies" and best-seller "history" books are bullshit.   What makes about 99% of cabloid and now online "documentaries"  annoying bullshit with shitty musical scores and annoyingly upperclass, generally brit sounding narration.    

Some may have been surprised that I posted the video about broke and horny soldiers one of the excellent short videos about LGBTQ+ history  of Hugh Hagius about the long mostly hidden history of straight-identifying men in uniform either prostituting themselves to other men or enjoying sex with other men.   I don't know why that should surprise anyone,  it's always amused me that a lot of People figure being a Christian requires not knowing about such things and, certainly, never talking about them.   I think such  genteel Christianity is of little help to anyone and is certainly incompatible with Jesus as presented in Scripture and the earliest traditions.    It certainly didn't help anyone during the AIDS pandemic (which, despite what the media leads our gulled and media stupefied population to believe is nothing like "over)  or will be of much help in what I have ever confidence will, eventually, be another deadly and easily contracted pandemic of STDs, promiscuity among straight as well as much of LGBTQ+ People providing such an excellent lab for the development of those.   I certainly don't advocate promiscuity or having sex outside of a committed, faithful relationship but I neither think those who do those are beyond the experience of holiness nor do I think they should be excluded from our active care and love.   If anyone needs the love and attention of Christianity,  it is those most at risk.  It's that practice of prissy Christianity and, even more so, respectable secular kulcha that forced LGBTQ+ People into a demimondain life,  sometimes along with a more "respectable" overt life in the wider society.  

If you watched the first of his videos I posted about him,  you'd see that Mr. Hagius spent a number of years in the seminary,  which,  I think, accounts for his care about his research and reporting of history.  I also think it helps that he became a newspaper man back when that profession had some standards of fact checking and integrity of reporting, something that goes out the window when you make it electronic media, especially that which makes money through getting more eyes or ears glued to it.   As with the non-style style production practiced by some of my favorite podcasters,  such as Heather Cox Richardson,  I associate "low production values" with superior content.  I really like his style of presentation as much as I do the paint stains on the woodwork in HCR's videos.   I LOVE her paint stains on her paneling because of what she says in front of it. 

Walter Brueggemann Has Died

I CAME LATE to Walter Brueggemann's scholarship and, more importantly, his witness to Scripture and the life of Christianity.   It's one of the regrets of my life that I didn't read him from the 1970s instead of wasting so much time reading much of the philosophy,  political literature and pretty worthless lit literature instead of reading him and others who wrote on religion.   

I don't know any details other than that he was 92 and remarkably active up till at least recently.  I did hear one interview-discussion with him a few years ago,  when one of the interviewers asked him how he was he said, . . . . "I'm old."   The interviewer pointed out that  he, probably one of the greatest of Old Testament Scholars wasn't familiar enough with Scripture because there were lots of People in the Old Testament a lot older than he was,  which got a good hearty laugh from him. 

May he live with God in the Communion of Saints forever. 

Just Posted And Without Further Comment - Broke & Horny Soldiers and Their Gentlemen Admirers

 

At Last!

I'VE SAID BEFORE that I really like Keith Olbermann,  I mean I like him like you like a really good radio-person who you know is generally reliable, adult and responsible,  and added on that intelligent, good humored, and has good morals,  you know, in the way I love Callie Crossley and a few others.  That's despite our disagreements about religion and a few other topics.   And he's a really good writer and has a really great radio style vocal presentation.    He is the only person in my lifetime who has ever been able to get me to listen to a sports story that was longer than thirty seconds with something like real attention.    

Today he said something in passing which I realized was the very first time I've heard someone in the media admit a glaring truth that I not only noticed about 49 years ago but which I've railed about ever since.     I've gone to and edited the automated transcript of Olbermann's excellent podcast for this morning where his mention is embedded because you need the context of it:

. . . More importantly Musk's money is going to ghost Trump and bluntly without Musk's money $275 million in the election thank you Citizens United and Floyd Abrams without Musk's money and Musk's tech bro vote Trump probably loses.  Musk has ghosted Trump and is starting to attack Trump and Trump can't say a word because unless Musk bankrolls it Trump will not be able to subvert the Constitution and run for a third term.  And unless Musk bankrolls it a Trump successor will never get off the ground and unless Musk bankrolls it the Republicans will lose the House next year and maybe the Senate too all Trump has been able to do thus far is the really sad sight of publishing without comment a screenshot of a Musk tweet . . . 

Astute readers of my humble attempts here might note this,   "and bluntly without Musk's money $275 million in the election thank you Citizens United and Floyd Abrams without Musk's money and Musk's tech bro vote Trump probably loses. " 

Olbermann was, of course, referring to that figure considered a hero of the "civil liberties" industry,  Floyd Abrams,  who is such a goddamned, frickin' champion of all that is good that he represented Moscow Mitch McConnell in the case that cemented in place the corruption of American democracy on behalf of, not only our domestic billionaire robber barons but, also opened up our elections to being bought and corrupted by billionaires foreign,  such as the richest of those,  Putin,  Xi, MBE, and all of the oil state billionaire dictators,  as the Roberts Court and the goddamned "civil liberties" industry.   

He started his quite brilliant commentary on this by asking a question:

It's still just at the passive-aggressive stage but Elon Musk has not only broken with Trump and ghosted Trump, now he has re-tweeted someone telling MAGAs to go to the comments at Fox News and read how "almost every comment is in agreement with Elon – to see so many vehemently disagreeing with Trump is wild.”

This is not going to end well.

Pass the popcorn.

How is that POSSIBLE? Who could have EVER forseen that relying on a chemical’d-up, psychologically-impaired, persistent over-promising, compulsive sperm donor who may have been the victim of a botched penile implant, could be a BAD thing? 

I can answer part of that in the negative.  We're to believe that the many Ivy Law School grads on the Supreme Court foresaw it as a GOOD thing BECAUSE THEY, WITH OPEN EYES, HANDED OUR ELECTIONS OVER TO CORRUPTION BY THE MUSKS AND BEZOS'S AND TECH BROS AND THE MEDIA WHO WHORES AFTER THEIR MONEY AND AFTER THE SAME TAX BREAKS AND GRAFT THAT THE BILLIONAIRES DO.  And so do the like of Floyd Abrams and many a liar lawyer I can name at the ACLU and many a mealy-mouthed "liberal" civil liberties champion in the whore houses of the legal profession, the media that benefits so handsomely from that corruption and millions of idiot "liberals" and "lefties" who are OK with that status quo continuing and metastasizing because, you know, "the First Amendment." 

But I'm in a celebratory mood because it is the first time I ever remember someone in the news business admitting that it wasn't just Republican-fascists and the alphabet soup of Louis Powell inspired crypto-fascist think tanks and foundations and their kept Ivy League faculty whores who were responsible for making the corruption of American elections Constitutional dogma and the lawless Supreme Court legislated law of the land,  it was the same goddamned "civil liberties" lawyers who are, when you look at their careers, about as virtuous on their beat as RFK jr. is in his anti-vaxx ambulance chasing.   Floyd Abrams shares in the responsibility of corrupting our elections and putting some of the worst Republican-fascist politicians in power as the most corrupt of our oil tycoons or tech bro fascists, as do the "civil liberties" lawyers of the ACLU who have been thick as thieves with them in overturning literally every attempt at effectively cleaning up our elections since a strong bi-partisan Congress passed the post-Watergate election reforms overturned by Buckely v Valeo (a case containing the name of one of our most genteel of fascist families,  sort of like the Kennedys used to be associated with mildly progressive politics).   You will note that Abrams represented Mitch "Leonard Leo Tool" "Republican Court Packer" McConnell in this.   I doubt it was pro-bono work. 

I'm greatly gratified to have heard someone of Olbermann's stature finally note that someone who cares about equality and democracy has finally noticed.   Though I doubt that anyone in the media in my lifetime will admit the truth that that line of "civil liberties" Supreme Court innovation goes back to the Sullivan decision that first gave the media to lie with impunity - a "right" that not only created the impossible,  that there is a "right" to do what's wrong, that is LYING,  but also gave the media a carte blanche to lie with impunity FOR ITS OWNERS AND OPERATORS PROFIT.    The Supreme Court in the legendary Warren years, in fact, are the authors of the downfall of American democracy in that act making lying in the mass media a "First Amendment 'right'" and they were fully supported in that by the ACLU and other "civil liberties" whores.  

Continuing On With Hugh Hagius' Story - Another Pride Month Post

 

I'm old enough and was enough of a news junkie that I remember this period of LGBTQ+ history,  though the news business of the time didn't lead to much information having been accurately transmitted.    It's interesting to hear someone who was there, observing it as a journalist at the time   It's important to look back at the pre-Stonewall period of the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement because the Republican-fascists and today's news operations are trying to return us to that status quo. 

You Can Imagine How They'd Be Treated If They Were Muslims

HERE'S A RECENT INCIDENT in Jerusalem:

Palestinian Christians, like many others in the West Bank, must navigate a complex system of Israeli-imposed movement restrictions to access holy sites and basic services. This system includes nearly 800 permanent checkpoints and barriers in the West Bank, along with thousands of temporary "flying" checkpoints, all enforced under the justification of Israeli security concerns. 

After parking near the New Gate, Hani (who preferred not to disclose his last name due to personal reasons) and his family began walking toward the entrance — until he was stopped. Tension hung heavy in the air. 

"You can't get in," said a policeman.

"I'm with my wife and kids," Hani replied. "They're already inside."

His 8-year-old daughter burst into tears, reaching for him. It was only her second time attending with the Orthodox scout group, and she wanted her father beside her. His wife stepped forward.

"He's my husband. We're all inside — he's the only one out."

They stood in the sun for half an hour, pleading. Eventually, the police let him through. He was lucky — at least he made it to Jerusalem. Others from the West Bank never got past the checkpoints, left standing outside the Old City behind barriers, watching.

Hani continued toward the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate but was stopped again — trapped between two checkpoints, unable to move forward or back.

The sun was relentless. The children were exhausted. Then things escalated.

A border police officer approached the children, shouting and demanding the spot they were sitting in. Hani stepped in, but the officer kept yelling and pushing him. Surrounded by Israeli border police, with his wife beside him and his daughter behind him crying, the situation grew tense.

And then — chaos.

Hani heard the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked. He turned to see the officer had drawn his weapon — aimed at Hani's head.

"I was terrified. I moved closer, tried to push his hand up so he couldn't fire."

Others rushed in, pulling the officer back and holding him. Then, quietly, several officers began removing their name tags. They scanned the crowd. People were filming.

Hani moved toward a shaded area. That's when the camera went off — and things got worse. Police, border police, soldiers — it was hard to tell who was who. One officer began hitting him, swinging like a boxer.

It was the members of the Orthodox scout group who intervened, forming a barrier between Hani and the police.

Again, he walked away — searching for someone, anyone, in charge. He found an officer who barely spoke English. Still, the man followed him.

"What happened?" he asked.

Before Hani could respond, another soldier cut in: "It's OK. Never mind. Go away."

Hani asked for the name of the officer who pointed the gun.

"Here's my name," the soldier replied mockingly. "Sue me. Take a picture."

But Hani couldn't. Other soldiers stood behind him, smirking. As if to say: "We can do anything. You can't stop us."

Hani's ordeal was documented on video and the individual, a reservist serving in an operational role, was removed from his assignment following the incident, the Israeli border police told the National Catholic Reporter in a written statement.

But this is not an isolated case. It reflects a larger crisis confronting Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem — a shrinking space for faith in a city that once celebrated its multi-religious identity.

Israel is a pantomime of a democracy, it is an apartheid state and it was bound to become one.   And as the rot of apartheid develops,  some who experienced South African apartheid said it's far worse in Israel and the occupied territories, apartheid is turning to state terror, expulsion and, in the place it has reached its end stage, Gaza, genocide.  

All of those soldiers involved in that should be under international investigation for crimes against humanity as should the entire Israeli government. 

Dealing With Christians Using The Bible Against The LGTBQ+

 

I like Reverend Ed Trevor.   

Here's what I said in the comments.

I respond by pointing out that, as Paul said, all do the same things that they find disgusting when others do it.    I tell them to bridge the artificial barrier between Romans 1 and 2 because Paul pointed out things that his audience would find disgusting when other people did it to point out they do it too.  The recent statement by Pope Leo XIV that said the ideal family was based on a "stable union of a woman and a man" doesn't even apply to the majority of such marriages,  given the adultery rate -  by one or both - couples who hate each other but stay married,  those who divorce and remarry even when they are civil about sharing custody of children, ( who are adulterers according to Jesus),  the large number who are anything but civil in that instance.   those who become single parents through abandonment,  death, involuntary separation (such as imprisonment or forced immigration of some kind) , those who are single parents by choice,  those who are in any number of unconventional families, some of which are headed by a parent and a grandparent or aunt or uncle or other, etc.

If Lousiana's Kennedy Isn't Making The Name Dirty From Here On, Little Bobby Is Putting The Nail In Its Branding

LITTLE BOBBY,  a lying lawyer who has been trading off of his father's name his entire life,  is doing everything he can to make his ambulance chasing for profit gig ever more profitable for him and his law firm by risking the lives of Americans.   His  recently issued lie filled report, full of fake citations that don't exist and claiming real scientists said things they say they never said was only one of the things he did to do that this week.   He has also, in all of his scientific erudition, decided to cancel research into an HIV vaccine, bird flu vaccine, etc. and has removed the recommendation that healthy Children and pregnant Women get Covid boosters.    Here's just a little on that from two highly informed doctors.

He, no doubt, has the Kennedy male ego, which has helped give us, now, three of the worst presidents in our history,   Nixon, Reagan and Trump, but I think this is a new level of the hereditary mental illness that runs so conspicuously on the male side of his family,  KES, Kennedy Entitlement Syndrome. 

Considering how many millions of deaths across the globe his career padding might lead to, Little Bobby should be eligible for trial land conviction for crimes against humanity.   I loathe pretty much everyone in Trump II but I have to say I loathe RFK jr. to an enhanced degree because he tapped into the low-information "liberal" world to do what he's done and to get him where he is, today.   I'd be interested in doing some research into what the lefty media had to say about him in the past thirty years if I had the time to do that research,  I would bet it would not enhance the reputation of some of its more notable organs of the media.    Along with the clearly disproved myth that the "free press,"  freed to lie with impunity is a boon for democracy,  the idea that the lefty media is responsible and clean handed, the idea that that fabled American political clan lives up to the myth has died for any informed and thinking person rather definitively.