ALL HANDS ON DECK!

I think I'll start this post as follows: it is commonly said that if you want to attend quality cultural events, you must go to NYC.  You can hear music (classical, jazz, or anything else), see plays, or attend dance shows.  You can go to art shows, museums, and galleries.  In my experience, this conclusion is insane.  There is so much culture going on in Miami that you can attend one thing or another most days, you sometimes have to choose which thing (same day, and same time) you want to attend, even occasionally at the same venue, and I have on uncommon occasion attended more than one event on the same day.  There are many small companies, some larger ones, and the County has even erected venues where none existed before.  I've made things easier on myself by not going to any event that requires me to buy a ticket from TicketMaster or Eventbrite, usually not going to Miami Beach (the Colony Theater and New World Symphony, and often the bandshell), not going to the Arsht, because the ticket prices are too high, and parking is too difficult, and I've stopped attending some shows I otherwise like, because I didn't approve of their evolving artistic direction.  And even so, I'm busy a lot!  So no one will be at a lack for artistic activities in South Florida, or even just Dade County.

This morning, I received an e-mail from Dimensions Dance Theater of Miami.  I have no doubt I've mentioned them repeatedly before.  Almost all of their shows I see are at South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center (also called Dennis C Moss Cultural Arts Center).  It's far from here, in Cutler Bay, but it's very well worth the trip.  This e-mail was almost identical to an e-mail I received last week from Dance NOW! Miami, which is an extremely similar company.  And there will be more.  (I just now got another one from GableStage.)

It turns out that Florida's best known adult-aged child, Ronnie DeSantis, has cut all or nearly all state grants from cultural organizations.  Specifically, he has eliminated $32M in grants.  I wouldn't begin to guess what this game feels like to Ronnie, but it has very significant consequences for Florida arts organizations.

And let me explain to you how arts funding works.  At the very best, arts organizations (all of them, including the Louvre, the New York City Ballet, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, and every other one there is) make at most 30% of their budget by selling tickets.  The rest of their budget comes from grants and donations.  In Florida, until now, grants came from the (federal) National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the state, the county, the municipality, and grant providers like the Knight Foundation.  And applying for a grant doesn't mean the organization gets one.  Generally speaking -- again until now -- everyone has valued the arts (the Dade County Commissions have been magnificent), and among ticket sales, grants, and personal donations, I don't know of one that has failed.  The e-mails I got last week and today are emergency alerts.  Arts organizations are now in more trouble than they used to be, thanks to Ronnie DeSantis and his tricycle.

No arts organization can raise ticket prices to fulfill its budget.  Ticket prices would be so high that no one would attend.  The organizations still get federal, county, municipality, and grant provider grants, except for the state now, so what has to change is donations.  Donations come from people like you and me.  Some people who have or had a lot of money leave ongoing donations, even after they die.  But not all of them do.  I knew a guy like that, who was always a generous donor to several arts organizations.  But he and his wife died, and he remembered some, but not all, of those organizations in his will.  And at least one of the ones he stopped remembering operates on a shoestring.  So they're in trouble now.

I will give you what would normally be confidential information.  My largest donation is to musimelange.  I donate $2500 per year, on top of the $300 per year I pay for four concerts, because musimelange is an extraordinarily unique organization, it has a very small audience (almost what you might call intimate), and the founder is a friend of mine.  If you're keeping up with the arithmetic, I pay $700 per evening, which includes all the top flight wine I want, all the gourmet food/"bites" I want, a spectacular concert, all the excellent champagne I want, all the French dessert I want, I support my friend, and I get to experience this with nice and interesting people, including some BP residents, and others of whom become friends.  Is that worth $700 per evening?  Probably not to some, but it it is to me.  I donate $1000 to each of two organizations (I'm on the Board of one), and lesser amounts to others.  I commonly gave $250 a year to Dance NOW! Miami, but after last week's e-mail, I doubled it.  And most of these organizations do not have pre-publicized "seasons" to which you can subscribe.  As I said, things are so busy down here that it's hit or miss as to whether or not you can go, and how often.  The donation is commonly your biggest contribution.

My system is this: if I like an organization enough to go to its shows, I subscribe to its season, if it has one.  If I subscribe, I donate.  (And if it doesn't have a season, I donate anyway.)  As I said, the donation is not uncommonly, or is most commonly, larger than the subscription price.  I know that sounds nuts, but it has to be that way.  Otherwise, they don't survive.  And if you go to them, you'll hope very much that they do survive.

How much do you donate?  It depends on a lot of things.  But I'll tell you this.  If you look at lists of donors mentioned in programs, you'll see in a number of programs that people who donate $50 per year are listed.  That's how much these organizations need the donations, and how grateful they are to get them.  Not that they wouldn't be more grateful to get $100, or $150, or $250, or $500, or more.  There are personal donors who donate $10K or more per year.  (I've seen some programs that list some of the performers as donors (they get paid to perform, then they donate back part of what they got paid).  Everybody gets it.  Everybody except Ronnie DeSantis, who must be a very ill-tempered, and probably unhappy and angry, person, and probably needs an appointment with me.

Anyway, don't waste your time and money going to NYC.  You can have all the enrichment you want, in three languages, right here.  And make a donation.  It's now desperately needed.

The Giorgio/Jorge/George Marinoni "Show"

Jorge/George (that's what he calls himself) is actually of Italian heritage, and his given name is Giorgio.  But, since he calls himself some version of Jorge, and since he's personally from South America, I'm going to refer to him as Jorge.

I've known Jorge and Karen Marinoni for quite some time.  I moved to BP in 2005, and I feel sure they already lived here then.  I think Jorge's career was in something to do with technology, but he's retired, and now, he applies himself to art.

You've seen some of his art.  If you've driven through the Village, and noticed concrete benches with enameled ceramic tile decorations, Jorge made those.  He also paints.  (He's also been active in the Village, at least on the Foundation and the P&P Board.  I think he's on the latter now.)

So, if you paint, you...paint.  And that creates a backlog of paintings you did because you were inspired, and not necessarily because you had people who wanted to acquire those paintings.  That's especially true if you're retired.  People who know Chuck Ross well have to twist his arm to get him to consider selling his magnificent wildlife photography, which went from a hobby to a passion to an expertise.  Jorge seems to be a bit like that.

Two days ago, Jorge had a display of many of his paintings at Luna Star Cafe on the north side of 125th St between 7th and 8th Avenues.  Jorge is not very much of a self-promoter, and he didn't even tell me about this showing until the day before it or the day of it.  So, of course...

The show was from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM, and I was busy and didn't get there until 4:30.  It was a pretty thin group at that point, but over the next couple of hours or so, an increased number of "Village people" arrived.  It was very good to catch up.

One painting -- a nice rendering of the log cabin -- was already sold by the time I got there.  Jorge must have been in more active contact with those buyers, because they weren't even in town.  Over the course of the late afternoon and early evening, Jorge sold a few more pieces.  I'm personally way over the limit in terms of art, a noteworthy amount of which is on the floor, because I have no wall space for it, but I picked out the painting I liked best, and told Jorge that if he didn't sell it to someone else, I'd take it.  I like it, I most certainly don't need it and have no place for it, but I do like Jorge and Karen.

I don't know how many paintings have been sold as of this minute.  But Jorge told me the exhibit would remain in place until June 28.  You can't be treated to complimentary wine and "bites" any more, but you can certainly swing by, take a look at Jorge's paintings, and enhance your living space with one or more, which I personally encourage you to do.  And if you see something you like, and it has a red dot sticker on it (it's been sold), my guess is that Jorge will paint you another one just like it.

  

So, It's "Juneteenth" Again. It Makes You Wonder.

I have a friend who tells me I'm "colorblind."  My friend means that I don't interact with people differently, depending on their race.  No one is "colorblind."  It's not that you don't recognize what race someone else is.  At best, you just treat everyone the same -- well, ideally -- regardless of race, gender, or anything else.

But the question is, what is race?  When I was a young'un, I remember that three "races" were specified: "Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid."  I don't remember if I read that somewhere, or if it was taught in school.  But it turns out there are more "races" than those three.  My father, who was in the Navy in WWII, said that seamen learned to distinguish the various "Mongoloid" people (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and many others) from each other.  So all "Mongoloid" people weren't the same.

Today, the convenient characterizations are "Black, Brown, and White."  They're all wrong, of course. "Black" people aren't black.  They're darker brown to lighter brown.  "Brown" people aren't brown.  Many of them are much closer to Caucasian.  And "White" people aren't white.  They're a range, with all but the albinos being sort of light tan.

My Ahmadi Muslim friend sent out another post today, and it's worth reading and considering:

"Today is Juneteenth and I wanted to take the opportunity to elevate an iconic Civil War story that they just don’t teach in schools. To be sure, you absolutely should use today as an opportunity to follow amazing Black writers and content creators.

"For my part, today I want to share the Civil War story of Private Mohammed Kahn. At a time of rising anti-Black violence, anti-immigrant policy, and anti-Muslim hate, Kahn’s story pushes back against such division and discord, and instead exemplifies the beauty of what this country can be.

"Private Kahn was one of only 250 Muslim soldiers who fought in the Civil War. His story is even more unique, however, as he fought in the famous Battle of Gettysburg, is believed to be one of only two Muslim soldiers who received a pension, and may be the only Muslim soldier who was also an immigrant.

Born in Persia, modern day Iran, in or around 1830, Mohammed Kahn was raised in modern day Afghanistan. He immigrated to the United States in 1861, during the period of antebellum America. Kahn quickly made friends upon arrival. The Civil War broke out in April of 1861. Only two months after his arrival, and after a night out with his friends, Mohammed Kahn became Private Mohammed Kahn when he enlisted in the 43rd New York Infantry Regiment. The 43rd New York Infantry Regiment was an all white unit. Kahn was a person of color, yet evidently passed as “white enough.”

This is where his story truly begins and becomes history.

"Khan spent the first two years of the Civil War as a cook serving the Union Army. That all changed in July of 1863 when Private Kahn fought in the infamous Battle of Gettysburg. Mere days after the battle and perhaps due to the ensuing chaos, he was separated from his unit. As he was not white, the Union guards who found him arrested him in Hagerstown, Maryland, and brought him before the Provost Marshall’s headquarters to explain himself.

"Despite his best efforts, and perhaps due to his limited proficiency in English, Kahn was unable to convince the Union Army that he himself was in fact part of the Union Army, and part of the all white New York’s 43rd Infantry. Because he was of color, and described as having dark complexion, and even though he had just fought in one of American history’s most famous battles to end the scourge of slavery and white supremacy in America, they believed he could not be part of the white unit, and held him under military arrest.

"As punishment, Kahn was sent to Philadelphia and put to work with recently escaped enslaved people. He spent months and months trying to find anyone who could vouch for him, reunite him with his New York 43rd, or even a member of the New York 43rd—but to no avail.

"All that changed 10 months later in May of 1864. The Battle of the Wilderness was set to begin in Fredericksburg, VA between General Grant’s Union Army and General Lee’s Confederate Rebellion Army. Private Kahn, having learned that the 14th New York Infantry was taking a train down to partake in that battle, devised a remarkable plan. In his time in what was effectively a slave labor camp, Kahn had befriended an enslaved person, and conceived the plan with his support. His friend was tasked with distracting the prison guard, while Kahn prepared his escape. Kahn waited patiently and timed his escape with the departing train, and took off on foot.

"Running as fast as he could, Kahn chased after the train and jumped on to it at the last possible moment as it pulled out of Philadelphia station. By the time the prison guard realized what happened, it was too late. Kahn was already out of their grasp and on a train headed back into battle. As Kahn hoped, he found and remained with the 14th New York Infantry on this trip, that is, until Washington DC. From here, he traveled nearly 70 miles by foot down to Spotsylvania, Virginia by following other squadrons.

"Private Kahn arrived on May 7, 1864, on the last day of the Battle of the Wilderness and remarkably found and was reunited with his 43rd infantry unit. Joining his brothers once more, Kahn reengaged his service and fight to help the Union Army win. Only 15 minutes into the battle he was wounded with a gunshot to his left hand.

"Kahn, an immigrant who arrived in the United States just months before the Civil War broke out, had now served as a cook, fought in the Battle of Gettysburg, suffered 10 months in a prison camp, escaped and found a miraculous way to reunite with his Unit, fought in another battle, and suffered a major injury. But far from using this injury as an excuse to exit the War, and he certainly would have been justified, Kahn persisted.

"Undeterred, he refused to leave the war, and took the time to heal. And after his hand healed, Private Kahn returned once more to the field of battle, this time as a sharpshooter, and served through almost the entire Civil War until it ended the following year in April of 1865.

"Private Kahn’s pension application records in detail the battles in which he fought, the injuries he suffered, and the duties he performed both as a cook and as a soldier. Private Mohammed Kahn died on May 26, 1891 in Manhattan, New York. He was buried at Cypress Hills National Cemetery in Brooklyn, Kings County.

"I first learned about Mohammed Kahn while researching for an opinion editorial on the vast contributions of Muslim Americans to our nation’s history. Contrary to the popular perception that Muslims or Islam are new to America, Muslims have thrived in America since before America even existed, and have fought to defend this nation in every battle since the Revolutionary War, and to expand national participation in democracy. As Michael Harriot remarks:

"I think that is what Juneteenth means to me and to a lot of people. I also think that it is just as important as the 4th of July, or more important, because this is the first time that America took a real step toward democracy. That’s when the majority of this country were able to participate in democracy.

"Mohammed Kahn’s story is about that power of perseverance to overcome obstacles, the power of good to conquer hate, and the power of justice to conquer injustice. And while this article is a heavily summarized story of his life, remarkably, there are no books on Private Mohammed Kahn. Meanwhile, his full and complete 209 page pension is preserved in the US Government National Archives. Given the opportunity, perhaps I’ll take the initiative to write this much needed book about a critical and precious story of American history."

If we're focused enough on race, whatever that is, we think that Juneteenth is about race.  But as Michael Harriot points out, it's about democracy.

So Happy Juneteenth.

Eid Mubarak!

A friend of mine is Muslim of the Ahmadi sect, and he's Pakistani.  Today happens to be Mulims' holiest day of the year: Eid ul Adha, or Eid of Sacrifice.  This holiday marks the end of the yearly Hajj (Pilgrimage to Mecca).  Muslims are called upon to sacrifice their egos for service to "god" and to humanity.  As you must know, I personally don't believe in any of this -- Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, or anything -- but this person is a friend of mine, and he sent out a lengthy e-mail post about it.  Islam, or any religion, is not important to me, but my friends are.

Ahmadi Muslims are not permitted to participate in this holiday, or the Hajj.  Because my friend is Muslim, although he is American (and a lawyer), he offered an analogy, so non-Muslims would understand the problem.  His analogy was as follows: "Let’s start with a quick thought exercise. Imagine if tomorrow the United States government passed a constitutional amendment declaring all Catholics as not Christian. Then imagine if the government added criminal provisions that any Catholic identifying or acting Christian would be fined, arrested, and given up to the death penalty. Additionally imagine that when a Catholic went to register to vote, they would be forced to choose between accepting that they were “non-Christian” or else sign a declaration denouncing the Pope and Catholicism. And finally, imagine if all books, websites, universities, even apps addressing Catholicism were banned, and Catholics using these tools to speak out about their persecution would face arrest or even death."

That is what the Pakistani government has done to Ahmadi Muslims starting in 1974.  Ahmadi Muslims are no longer permitted to participate in the Hajj, and Ahmadi lawyers, for example, are not allowed to be admitted to the Bar in Pakistan.  Some Ahmadi Muslims are victims of vigilante execution, as African Americans had and have been, and still are, in this country.  My friend has written peer-reviewed law review articles about this problem.

In the post he sent out, he also said "Ahmadis in Pakistan are subjected to severe legal restrictions and other forms of officially-sanctioned discrimination. Ahmadis are prevented by law from engaging in the full practice of their faith and may face criminal charges for a range of religious practices, including the use of religious terminology. In 1974, the constitution was amended to declare members of the Ahmadi religious community to be “non-Muslims.” In 1984, basic acts of Ahmadi worship and interaction were made criminal offenses when sections B and C of Article 298 were added to the penal code. These amendments criminalized Ahmadis 'posing' as Muslims, calling their places of worship 'mosques,' worshipping in non-Ahmadi mosques or public prayer rooms, performing the Muslim call to prayer, using the traditional Islamic greeting in public, or displaying the basic affirmations of the Muslim faith."

And "In April 2023, a 77-year-old lawyer from the Ahmadiyya Community was targeted within the premises of the Sindh High Court by some lawyers on account of his faith. He was accused of hurting the sentiments of Muslims by adding the religiously inclined word 'Syed' as a prefix to his name. However, critics argued that by using the prefix, which is only used by Muslims, the lawyer was trying to pose as a Muslim, and they did not accept that being of the Ahmadiyya faith, he was a Muslim.

"You read that right. The blasphemy allegation was that his name, Syed, hurt the feelings of orthodox Muslims and therefore he is a criminal. The most prominent and violent attack on Ahmadi Muslims to date occurred on May 28, 2010, when Taliban extremists attacked two Ahmadi mosques in broad daylight, during Friday Jummah Prayer, and killed 94 Ahmadis."

And "Dozens to hundreds of Ahmadi Muslims are murdered annually with impunity, with hundreds to thousands more in prison, with hundreds of thousands more denied the right to vote, run for office, practice their faith publicly, or even speak freely without the existential consequence of fine, arrest, or even the death penalty. And for those wondering how the authorities might discover that a person belongs to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community? Ahmadis have special ID cards that forcibly identify their faith, making the targeted persecution an inevitability. The discriminatory laws on the books that ban Ahmadi Muslims from identifying as Muslim, practicing our faith, or even voting, remain on the books."

And "Meanwhile, and by all accounts and testimonies, Ahmadi Muslims are model citizens with a 99% literacy rate, build secular schools and hospitals globally providing free education and healthcare to millions, and have contributed to Pakistan world renowned juggernauts like Pakistan’s first Nobel Prize winner in Dr. Abdus Salam.  But the Government of Pakistan has wiped even his memory from Pakistan’s history books, as they have wiped the word “Muslim”  off Salam’s tombstone."

And "In a recent report to the United Nations, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Lawyers Association USA testified to the horrifying escalation that the Government of Pakistan is now engaging in by prosecuting Ahmadi Muslims on terrorism charges for the ‘crime’ of possessing and selling an Ahmadi printed copy of the Qur’an:

State authorities are also arresting and prosecuting Ahmadi Muslims as 'terrorists' under the provisions of Pakistan’s primary anti-terrorism legislation, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, for possessing allegedly banned religious publications, arrested and sentenced to five years in prison on blasphemy and terrorism charges for selling copies of the Qur’an and other publications of the community.

How ironic that while claiming to stand as the vanguard of Islam, Pakistan criminalizes possession of the Qur’an itself in ways the West’s most ardent Islamophobes could only dream of. The result of this targeted persecution is that despite representing less than 1% of Pakistan’s population, 'Ahmadi Muslims account for almost 40% of all arrests under Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws. Over 4,000 Ahmadi Muslims have faced criminal charges for simply practicing their Islamic faith.'"

And perhaps most important for us: "Pakistan’s first Constitution reflected the ideals of religious freedom and minority rights to date denied to Ahmadi Muslims. For example, the Preamble to Pakistan’s Constitution declares that Pakistan shall be a state:

Wherein adequate provision should be made for the minorities freely to profess and practise [sic] their religions and develop their culture. . .Wherein should be guaranteed fundamental rights including equality of status and of opportunity, equality before law, and freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship and association, and social, economic, and political justice…; Wherein adequate provision shall be made to safeguard the legitimate interests of minorities…;" 

I told my friend something he probably had no other reason to know: Orthodox Jews similarly disqualify the Jewishness of Jews who are not Orthodox.

You don't care about Islam, per se, and I'm essentially virulently anti-religious.  But I'm not anti-people.  And as was true of Pakistan's first Constitution, the US Constitution likewise guarantees separation of church and state  We here have a different version of the problem Pakistani Ahmadi Muslims have with other Pakistani Muslims.  We have Christians who think at least the United States is somehow supposed to have been, and to be, a Christian country, and many of those Christians think all Americans should practice their brand of Christianity.  Apparently, it's not hard to get careless, and forget that the majority doesn't get to make all the rules for the minority, whether they're a religious minority, Native Americans, or African Americans.

There Was an Argument to Be Made. But It Wasn't, And You Can't Have It Both Ways.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/wsj-opinion-the-law-and-donald-trump/vi-BB1nulFY?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=d65ae2d550164e9a8837cd45a8d5b342&ei=34

This is a discussion that occurred on a WSJ broadcast.  The fact that it was WSJ already makes you suspect it.

The discussant argues that the judge showed partiality, and that this should have disqualified the judge, and possibly the hearing.  The discussant even specifies that the judge's daughter benefitted financially from a position adverse to the defendant (Donnie Trump).  This case, possibly importantly, since the discussant says there was no victim, was about Donnie's fling with Stephanie Clifford ("Stormy Daniels").  And that assertion has some importance for how this defense could have been handled.

The asserted "crime," of course, was that Trump unlawfully (the discussant thinks it's important whether this was a misdemeanor or a felony) paid Clifford for her silence, and his reason for doing so was to create an image of himself as the equivalent of not a bad husband, so that he would be less unappealing to voters.

Trump's deal with Clifford was his best defense.  Setting aside that almost no one argues that he had an affair with her while his wife was home with their infant son (Donnie, of course, disagrees with any criticism anyone makes of him), the fact is that Clifford signed an agreement not to reveal this affair, and she agreed to accept, and did receive, $130K not to reveal it.  (She reportedly changed her mind later, when some tabloid offered her a lot more than that to reveal it.)  But apart from the fact that she agreed to considerably less money than someone else later offered her, the discussant here is right: Clifford is not a victim of anything.  She made a deal, and the party on the other end of the deal delivered as promised.  So she should have kept her end of the bargain, too, and never spoken about it.

The fact that she did speak about it alerted the government to Donnie's crime, which led to the trial in which he was convicted completely.  Donnie cheated on his wife, which some might argue he shouldn't have done, he paid off his floozy, she agreed to be paid off, and no one would have known he committed a crime if she had not reneged on the deal to which she agreed and for which she accepted payment: to keep her mouth shut for once in her life.  Donnie's wife was a victim (although she wouldn't have known that if Clifford had honored the contract she signed, which was accompanied by an amount of money to which she agreed), and it could be argued the public/voters were a victim, but they, too, wouldn't have known that without Clifford's violation of her agreement.  If there's a punishment here, it should be applied to Clifford.  Donnie is sort of a victim, since there appears to be agreement that this roll in the hay cost him $130K, but he's not complaining about that.  He just says no part of any of this is true, but that's what he always says, and he is not remotely credible.  Everything is "rigged" and a "scam" and supported by terrible and criminal people who sort of want to hurt him, but mostly want to hurt the American people whom he's here to save and protect.  He's equated himself with Jesus before, and it sounds like that's his favorite self-image.  He's even grudgingly said the Bible is his favorite book, although he can't cite any passages he particularly likes about it.  He doesn't even specify which Bible he likes so much.

The problem comes with the discussant's complaints about the judge.  The discussant, if you bother to listen to the linked interview, is a lawyer, and has been Donnie's lawyer.  So there's no reason on earth to imagine he's impartial, fair, or honest.  The problem is that besides suggesting "sexy" bases for appeal, he also unloads on Judge Juan Merchan for things like predetermining how he wants this trial to go (and making various communications and jury instructions to get it to go there), and being partial, including citing how be believes Merchan's daughter benefits from the Democratic Party, as if that had anything to do with this charge, or the jury's conclusion.  But neither the moderator nor the discussant mentioned one word about Aileen Cannon or the Supreme Court, both of which are vastly more glaring examples of the problem the discussant believes exists.  Nor do various people who claim that people like Juan Merchan's daughter, who is said to have made a few million dollars or so on something or other allegedly connected to this (or Joe Biden's recently convicted son, who was unrelatedly alleged to have made about $7M by referencing his father), ever talk about the $2B Donnie's son-in-law got from the Saudis while Donnie was in office.  And the discussant also takes swipes at Alvin Bragg, whom he portrays as having prosecuted this matter sort of because he felt like it, or perhaps because he doesn't like Donnie.

It's too bad the discussant couldn't have brought himself to be impartial, fair, or honest, or that the WSJ wants to ride this nag.

Oy.

As I said a month or two ago, I finally changed the Comment setting so that no one could comment without my approving it.  My one and only goal was to stop comments from anyone who didn't identify him- or herself.

Yesterday, I published a post I had written two months ago, and forgotten to publish then.  Today, a reader wrote to me to say s/he had posted a comment.  No comment was there, and blogspot never sent me the comment to preview.  I checked Spam, and there was nothing from blogspot there either.  The reader was someone I trust completely and know well.

So the system that allows me to block comments from "Anonymous" isn't working.  Therefore, I changed it back to the old system, where anyone can comment without my approval, and I'll just delete any comments from "Anonymous."

The fact is that I never received any comments to preview after I made the change, and I apparently mistakenly thought that was because no one had anything to add.  Well, someone said s/he did, and my goal is to stimulate conversation, not prevent it.

Please Say You Were There, And I Just Didn't See You.

I wrote this post in the middle of this past April.  I have no idea why I didn't publish it.  It says I wrote it at 1:13 AM.  Maybe I was out of steam, or maybe I was thinking I might have more to say.  It's been two months, and if there was anything more I might have wanted to say, I don't remember what it was.  I have told you innumerable times about South Miami-Dade (now also called the Dennis C Moss Cultural Arts Center) and if you're not there a lot, it's your loss.  Yes, I know it's a long drive.  If you want to go, let me know, and we'll go together.

Last night's concert at South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center was Harold Lopez-Nussa and his combo.  Harold plays piano, his brother plays drums, and he has a double bass player and a harmonica player.

Harold, and presumably his brother, are Cuban.  Harold lives in France.  I don't know where his brother lives.  I spoke to the other two, and they don't have accents, as Harold does.  I have no idea where they were born and reared, and where they live.  They were busy mingling, and I didn't have a good opportunity to ask more.

Someone in the know told me the bass player and the harmonica player are both award-winning musicians.  I don't know if this combo is relatively fixed, or if they got together for this tour.

I have been to very many concerts at SMDCAC.  It would be hard to say that one was, let's say, the best concert ever performed there.  But if one was, it's very possible it was this one.

Harold is a magnificent Cuban jazz pianist.  I could hear influences of Bebo Valdes, Chucho Valdes, Ruben Gonzalez, but also fleeting bits of Stevie Wonder and Leon Russell.  But I think a lot of it was just Harold Lopez-Nussa.

I don't know if Harold's brother, who looks a bit younger, is the best drummer in the world.  But he's at a very high level, and I'm not completely sure I've heard better.  And his kit was compact (from where did all that percussion sound come?), and it included bongos.  He was absolutely all over that kit.

The best upright jazz bass players are commonly considered to be Ron Carter and Stanley Clarke.  This bass player was considerably better than both of them.

The best jazz harmonica player was considered to have been the late Toots Thielemans.  After Thielemans died, the mantle was sort of passed to Hendrik Muerkens.  I've seen videos of Thielemans, and I've heard Muerkens live.  The guy in Lopez-Nussa's group was better than both.  And as a creepy aside, he looks very much like a friend of mine who is the best portrait painter I've ever seen.  I'm talking about someone who paints better portraits than did Da Vinci, Caravaggio, Sargent, or anyone.

I doubt you were there, because if I know you, I'm sure I would have seen you.  You missed one hell of a Cuban jazz concert.  Eric Fliss, who is the impresario of SMDCAC, told me Harold Lopez-Nussa was there several years ago.  He doesn't in any way seem forgettable, so I probably missed that concert.  And even if he was there, I doubt very much it would have been with this particular group of musicians.

I Was Wrong. I Thought At Least He Wasn't Opposed to African Americans. I Guess His Girth Means There Isn't Enough Koolaid in the World.

'GOP members have lost their minds': Internet fumes as Mark Robinson insinuates US was behind Pearl Harbor and General Patton's death (msn.com)

Brian Tyler Cohen is right.  There's no one for whom the far right has more disdain than it has for its base.  They will tell them absolutely any lie there is.  I would say they're underestimating the intelligence of their base, but the far right know their base better than I do, so I'm probably not the right person to tell them they're wrong.

One of Cohen's videos today was about a communication Juan Merchan sent to both sides the day before Trump was found unanimously guilty of all charges in NY.  The communication was about a social media post that said "my cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted."  Sean Hannity and other Foxes were all over this, suggesting that this proved that the "fix was in" against Trump.  What Hannity and his pack of Foxes either didn't know, or chose not to report, was that the post came from some guy named Michael Anderson, who is a renowned, and self-proclaimed, "shit-poster," who likes to invent things that he posts to create commotion.  OMG: Trump allies try to get mistrial… INSTANTLY regret it (youtube.com)  Presumably, that's his idea of fun.  But Cohen's point, which he generally makes with some frequency, was that people like Hannity and his Foxes love to spew this kind of thing into the air, because it riles up their base, which is what they intend to do.  Cohen even recalled the $700+M fine against Fox for making false accusations against an automated vote-counting system, and he categorized it simply as Fox's cost of doing business.  But in any event, communications like any of these, with strategic omissions, are based on the far right's (seemingly proven correct) assumption that they can tell their base absolutely anything, and enough of the base will believe it, no matter how preposterous.

Whether Mark Robinson is being manipulative that way, or he's just a dimwit or nutcase, is unclear.  It depends on something no one but he can know: does he actually believe what he says.  Clearly, he needs a much better understanding of the factual history of WWII, unless he already has one, and knows he's making this nonsense up.  But that's not for me to know.  I know what he says.  I don't know what he thinks.  Although he did express highlighted skepticism about George Patton's having died in a car accident, as if it's inconceivable to him that anyone ever dies in a car accident.

I certainly agree that Joe Biden is his own worst enemy.  But it's sort of impossible to imagine that he, or more or less anyone, would lose an election to Donnie Trump, certainly at this point.  The first linked article seems strongly to suggest that Robinson can't win in NC.  I can understand why some people would be opposed to a Communist government.  But MLK Jr as a Communist?  Robinson is in some orbit I can't track.  And I hope he realizes that his opportunities came from the work MLK Jr did, and the fact that he gave his life to do it.

I Should Sign a Petition Asking Republicans Not to Impeach Biden?

Tell Republicans: No Illegitimate Impeachment | Civic Shout

I might as well have signed a petition asking the Keystone Kops not to keep running into each other, or one asking Larry and Curly not to keep letting Moe poke them in the eyes.  I'd be asking any of them not to make fools of themselves.  What would motivate me to make requests like those?  And anyway, some people like to watch people make fools of themselves.

The fact is that I don't have to make a request like that.  Jared Moskowitz did it for me.  He's a Democrat in the House of Representatives, and he made a motion to impeach Biden.  He was, facetiously, I agree, trying to move this circus along.  He couldn't get the Republican committee chair, or anyone, even to second the motion.  "There's no there there," and absolutely everyone knows it.

I don't have to sign this petition.  Anyone I'd be asking not to impeach Biden already knows there's no basis for impeachment.  If there was a basis, they would have impeached him by now.  They've been whining about this for some time now -- Comer, Jordan, Greene, and the rest of them -- and they haven't budged an inch.  They claim they're still gathering "evidence."  That's backwards, isn't it?  Don't you start with evidence, and then make an accusation?

And to add insult to injury, for those of us who are real, this is the Congress that has accomplished the least of any Congress in the history of this country.

No, I'm not signing this petition.  Pathetically enough, it's of more import even to write blog posts.  And anyway, I'm sure this request will end with a request for a donation, which I'm also not going to give anyone.

We're Ignoring Trump's Defense.

Donnie Trump has been unwavering in his insistence that he did nothing wrong.  We're treating him as if he never said that, or as if he somehow shouldn't be believed.

And we're believing instead people like Michael Cohen, who admitted in the past having lied, and were punished for it.  Clearly, we don't believe in rehabilitation, either, because we still disqualify Cohen as a liar, so Cohen should have received a life sentence.

Donnie has given us explanations, and we have simply chosen not to believe them.  Some are thin, and some seem preposterous, at least to the skeptical ear, but they're his explanations.  And our failure to take him at his very consistent, frustrated, angry word might contain a lesson for all of us.

Many years ago, I worked for a couple of years in a prison in Massachusetts.  I was the prescribing psychiatrist, and my job was to evaluate and treat inmates who had psychiatric complaints.  Part of my evaluation, in getting to know the inmates, was to ask them why they were incarcerated.  As it turned out, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and its criminal justice system, were so grossly dysfunctional that not one inmate was guilty of the crime of which he was accused and for which he was tried, convicted, and incarcerated.  Not one.  Knew nothing about it.  Happened to be in someone else's car while that person was holding up a 7/11, shockingly and totally unbeknownst to the inmate.  Just didn't do it.  Or whatever.

And I had a very interesting conversation with a therapist at that prison once.  One inmate said he was arrested, and his probation revoked, because his ex-girlfriend, who had a restraining order against him, called the police, said someone called her phone, said she recognized the breathing of her ex-boyfriend, and that was enough for police to arrest and incarcerate him.  I was naive, and thought this was a ridiculous story, but the therapist said that the level of sensitivity about things like domestic abuse or threats was in fact very high in Massachusetts, and it was entirely possible that the story happened exactly as the inmate reported it.

So I'm thinking we shouldn't be so quick to find Donnie guilty when he says he definitely isn't.  Stephen King, who is not a fan of Donnie's, made the old crack about "denial [not being] just a river in Egypt."  But maybe it is.  Maybe it's a very genuine, heartfelt, and frankly correct response to a false accusation.

So I'm further thinking that we should adopt this theory for everyone who is accused of anything.  If they say they didn't do it, then they didn't do it.  And we can empty the prisons, commute sentences, and dismiss convictions of every person in America who was convicted and incarcerated and says they didn't do it.  We don't even need District Attorneys, court systems, and judges.  We can just ask people if they did anything illegal, and if they say they didn't, the "case [is] closed."  We'll save ourselves a lot of time, trouble, and money, and stop compromising and wrongly punishing people who promise us they didn't do anything wrong.

I'm Not the Only One Who Knows This.

I have said before that in my experience, on the average, women are smarter than men.  The story I told a year or so ago was of going to dinner with a couple of which the husband was a fighter pilot, as was his son, and their favorite activity was flying fighter jets side by side.  So you get the picture.

For some reason, which I cannot begin to remember, I told this couple that in my experience, on the average, women are smarter than men.  The husband shot back "no they're not; women can't focus."  If I had felt like arguing, I would have said that that's why women are smarter than men: they take more into account.  I don't know if it's an outgrowth of maternal instincts, or "nesting," or what.  But they're not as ridigly fixated as are men, and it allows them to appreciate a broader perspective, and be smarter than men.  That's setting aside whether or not there are any differences in female and male frontal lobes.  (Interestingly, today I met a new couple who needed treatment, and the girlfriend deliberately got herself intoxicated, which she somehow thought would be an advantage.  It certainly wasn't.  She also admitted that her past career was as a "porn star," and this was her boyfriend's second relationship with a "porn star."  They met online, and, after a short time, she moved in with him.  He has more money than he knows what to do with, and he likes the kind of sex he can have with "porn stars."  [You get that picture, too, right?]  It was unclear what she wanted out of this relationship, but I certainly wouldn't rule out the lifestyle he provides.  She was too drunk to engage in a proper conversation.  I'll see her individually, when she's sober, and find out more.  But the point is that this young woman, whom anyone would dismiss as an airheaded floozy, is smarter than her tech-endowed boyfriend.  She'll get her needs met, at least for a while, and he'll wind up with nothing but sexual escapades with someone who frankly couldn't care less about him.)

There's been a lot of talk about Caitlin Clark lately (if you don't know who she is, she was an overpowering basketball star in college, and now, she's a star in her first season in the WNBA.)  A lot of people have had things to say about her.  LeBron James thinks she's great, and great for the sport.  Charles Barkley said this: Charles Barkley's Comments About Caitlin Clark's Haters Goes Viral After Foul (msn.com).  He says men are the "the most insecure group in the world."  And he's right.  Men are a perfect example of "the best defense is a good offense" in their efforts to subjugate women, so the men will feel stronger, more powerful, more in charge, and smarter.  Culturally, male-dominated groups suppress and infantilize women, and the women, who are led to think they're powerless, accept their fate, and it's all based on the men's well-supported fear of women.  ("A woman's place is in the kitchen" does not mean that men are incapable of learning to cook.  It's just a way of limiting women's functioning, capacity, and overall influence.)  Not that men have anything to fear, but they're consciously or unconsciously aware of their comparative inferiority.

Which is certainly not to say that every woman on earth is smarter than every man on earth.  But an awful lot of them are smarter than the men.  The awareness -- even an unconscious awareness -- of that fact is why men feel a need to dominate women.

I have female patients who are smarter than I am.  I know vastly more about psychiatry than they do, but I work harder in a different way to help them than I do with my male patients.  I'm smarter than more or less all of my male patients, and it's generally easier to help them.  Although it's harder to help some, because they don't adequately get it.  I do know some men who are smarter than I am, but they're not my patients.

Maybe the Message Is That I Shouldn't Get My Knickers in a Twist.

On my neighborhood walk today, I was walking south on 11th Pl.  At about 114th or 115th St, there was a blockage in the southbound lane.  A truck was in that lane, and something like a small forklift was dumping rocks into that truck.  When the forklift-like vehicle was there, 11th Pl was impassable.  When it wasn't there (when it was going to get more rocks), the northbound lane was passable.

Just as I was nearing the truck that was waiting for more rocks, a small passenger car was driving up the northbound lane, and it stopped just where the truck was, and in the middle of the northbound lane.  Now, 11th Pl was completely impassable.  The driver got out of the car, retrieved a box of something, and went to deliver it to a house there.  He had on a (Sc)Amazon shirt.  I waited until he got back to his car, and I asked him if (Sc)Amazon tells all their delivery drivers to park in the middle of the street.  (There was plenty of room for him to have pulled over.)  He had a heavy accent, but he understood the question.

He reassured me that it would "only take 15 seconds" to make his delivery.  I suggested that if it would only take 15 seconds, then it would only take 15 seconds for him to pull over, off the road.  At that point, he got distracted by his mobile phone, his accent got heavier, and he shrugged his shoulders.  The damage, from my perspective, had been done, he was leaving, and there was no reason for him to waste his time talking to some resident of a municipality where he doesn't live.

Later, I had an experience I've never had before on my morning walk.  I wave to all drivers, and if it appears to me they're probably speeding, I push my hands down, as if to ask them to slow down.  It is invariable (has been until today) that the vast majority of drivers wave back, and they slow down, even if I don't ask them to.  I want them to be aware that BP is not just a network of streets.  There are houses and people here, too, and some of those people are out for a walk.

In the past, when I used to be curious about it, I would turn my head to see the car that just passed me, and it was almost invariable that they applied their brakes, even if I didn't suggest it.  So I figured I accomplished my goal, and I have stopped checking.  Today, I waved at someone who, as it happened, seemed to me to be speeding.  So I also pushed my hands down in a "slow down" gesture.  The sound was unmistakable: the driver sped up.

So, the couldn't-give-a-shit squad is increasing.  It's hard not to care, since I live here, as do almost all readers of this blog.  Whether it's our ability to navigate the streets, or our safety, it seems someone should give a shit.  Apparently, Luis Cabrera no longer works here, but whoever replaced him also can't be bothered to assign continual patrolling to our most problematic and dangerous street.  And I guess that means the manager doesn't give a shit, either.  Although I strongly suspect he gives a shit about his salary.  Just not about the residents of and visitors to BP.