Politics Plus

Yesterday, I managed to get the weekly email out before sunset, and was able to slow down a little and saw a headline in the ProPublica newsletter of a follow-up to the story of the teens who don’t want to be sent back to their abusive father. Under pressure from public opinion and a couple of prosecutors, the judge has (at least temporarily) vacated his order, and the kids will be able to see the light of day while this is being hashed out. It’s not a total victory, but it is a cease-fire and allows them to breathe.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Jack Smith Subpoenas The Maids At Mar A Lago
Quote – That includes Mar-a-Lago staff like a housekeeper and restaurant servers, as well as Trump political aides like Margo Martin, who was a press assistant in the White House and then stayed with Trump as he relocated to Florida after leaving office. The prosecutors, led by special counsel Jack Smith, are “casting an extremely wide net—anyone and everyone who might have seen something,” an unnamed source told CNN.
Click through for details. This takes me back to Agatha Christie and other detective novels featuring the British upper class. I don’t know why, but it appears to be unsurmountably difficult, not just in fiction, but IRL, for the wealthy to grasp that nothing is secret from the help.

Civil Discourse – Courage
Quote – After all of the speculation over whether there might be some type of standoff at Mar-a-Lago if charges are filed against Trump, we get this quiet concession from the lawyers. It’s an early acknowledgment that Trump isn’t above the law in these anticipated proceedings. He will have to follow “normal procedures” just like anyone else who is charged with a crime. Of course, he will be doing it with a Secret Service agent at his side. The agent will presumably go through all of the booking procedures with him and accompany him in court. That’s a good reminder that we are in uncharted territory from here on out, but unprecedented doesn’t mean the procedural rules don’t apply to Trump. It’s a good sign that his lawyers have been forced to concede that before charges are even filed.
Click through for full article. Of course I can’t possibly track the entire internet and every newspaper in the country – but, to my knowledge, Joyce Vance is the only attorney to publish a matter-of-fact description of what may be expected if and when. I think it’s worth sandwiching in.

The 19th News – The radio divide: How airplay reinforces the gender gap in country music
Quote – The year 2015 was especially emblematic, [Jada Watson,… the principal investigator of the SongData project,] noted, with Gary Overton, then the chief executive of Sony Nashville, saying, “If you’re not on country radio, you don’t exist.” After that came “Tomato-gate,” when radio consultant Keith Hill told an industry publication, “If you want to make ratings in country radio, take females out,” before going on to compare women artists in country to the tomatoes, not the lettuce, of the salad of country radio. These remarks were “pretty indicative of how the industry mainstream works,” Watson said of country radio in the years following the fallout surrounding The Chicks. “If you’re not a White, cisgendered, heterosexual, able-bodied male, you’re not on air and you’re not on the radio and so you don’t exist within that space. There are multiple barriers to access to [the country music industry] and the biggest one is radio.”
Click through for analysis. I don’t hate country music, but am not a huge fan. I do, however, highly appreciate many of its performers, past and present, who understand what love of country means – and act accordingly. To name just a few, Woody Guthrie, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley. It’s the fans who are shallow, not the genre.

Food For Thought