the rhythm, the beat

On You Tube, these two songs sound good played back to back:

first,

In the Mood, Glenn Miller

and then, 

Mississippi John Hurt - Avalon, My Home Town.

     I don't know exactly why, but they sound good one right after the other.  In a music documentary I watched in the 90s, St. Louis nightclub owner George Edick tried to describe why Ike Turner's band was so popular -- "They had -- it was -- the rhythm, the beat -- I don't know...".  A couple of us watching laughed at that -- just the way he said it.  "The rhythm -- the beat -- I don't-know!!"

     That kind of "explains" (but can't explain) why it's good to play these two songs.

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2 headlines yesterday:


White House Tells F.B.I. to Interview Anyone Necessary for Kavanaugh Inquiry

~ The New York Times


Supreme Court, in Harsh Spotlight, Returns to the Bench

~ The New York Times

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Supreme Court nomination notes


^  Pres. Trump was right, I think, to say -- Let the FBI investigate this candidate for a Supreme Court seat, just like they do with every other person nominated for that.


^  That headline that says the 'Supremes' are returning to the bench "in harsh spotlight" -- this coincided with something I was thinking -- we as citizens maybe should watch the Court more closely -- their decisions and everything... we rely on them to do a good job, and we're busy with our own lives, it's easier to not think about it.  

However, as it's been pointed out more than once over the history of our American Experiment, if we don't "watch ourselves" we could lose our democratic republic.  Maybe we have to pay more attention.

     Most of us assume that people love freedom, but there's a portion of humanity that will vote for dictatorship if they are convinced the dictator will "go after" people they themselves hate, or think they hate.  

They don't think far enough ahead, or look at the big picture, to see that if the dictator can burn other people in ovens and torture them in concentration camps, he can do it to them, too.

     The thing about Mr. Kavanaugh that is scary to me is, he has made statements to the effect that the president is above the law -- at least as long as it's a Republican president -- LOL.  In the '90s, Brett Kavanaugh worked with Ken Starr to "get" Bill Clinton, spent a ton of $$ doing it....  But now Trump's in, Oh, it's different.  (What is Kavanaugh, in second grade? -- The rules change when it's My Turn! - ???)

     Disturbing aspects of this apparent mindset:

|    A Supreme Court justice is not supposed to be "political".


|    Putting the president above the law would be a radical departure from our Constitution, and could (though it sounds crazy) pave the way for fascist dictatorship.  Hopefully our built-in safeguards, checks and balances on power, would "buffer" us against such an eventuality.   

However, with Congress in its current "supine" state, full of empty rhetoric, diffidence, and cowardice, we cannot afford any further inches given toward totalitarianism.

|    The whole attitude of just looking to "win" and "get" people is the opposite of what a judge's attitude should be -- any judge, and certainly one nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court.  They're supposed to look at what is truly fair to people, under the law, and put country above personal or political consideration.  A Supreme Court Justice is not a politician.

|    In a memo Kavanaugh wrote while he worked for Ken Starr 

he said that it's "our job to make his [Clinton's] pattern of revolting behavior clear -- piece by painful piece." -- 

The memo can be read online

 -- two things about the memo -- again, the "rules" "change" now that our Grabbin'-Donny is in the White House -- 

a Republican is in!  New rules!  New rules!  

And the other thing about the memo -- "piece by painful piece."  

It's a brief phrase -- maybe I'm nit-picking -- but it sounds like Mr. Kavanaugh has issues. ...Obsessed with sex?  Obsessed by the Specifically Detailed Description Of The Exact Sexual Activities Of Consenting Adults Who Were Not Himself?  Voyeurism?

"Piece by painful piece..."  Obsessed with pain?  Or the idea of it?  If this is some kind of Personal Porn for Brett Kavanaugh, I find that I'm losing interest -- Not my area -- Take it to your shrink, kid....
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