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The Danes used empathy politically—an action abhorred by right-wing leaders, who have gone so far as to brand it as an enemy and a weakness. But what they are leaving unsaid is that fascism cannot prosper where empathy exists.

Sarah Sophie Flicker in The Nation. The Danes Resisted Fascism, and So Can We

Danish resistance didn’t arrive all at once during World War II. But taken as a whole, the Danes’ actions are a testament to what’s possible when we work together to fight fascism.

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Across the Boderline

Flaco Jiménez

Flaco Jimenez, Grammy-winning, legendary Texas accordionist, dies at 86

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A sociopath goes for a job interview (Tracey Ullman Show)

Baghwallah

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In 1991, Wexner, Lauder, Charles Bronfman, Michael Steinhardt, Steven Spielberg, and 15 other oligarchs founded the Mega Group to finance Zionist youth organizations like Birthright and Hillel that could work to discourage intermarriage and “assimilation,” burnish Israel’s public image, and in Bronfman’s characterization, “make it cool to be Jewish.” That same year, the Columbus Police Department had circulated an eight-page memo detailing Wexner’s organized-crime associations and fingering him as a possible suspect in the 1985 Mafia-style murder of his former tax attorney; the month the memo was drafted, Wexner had signed over full power of attorney over his multibillion-dollar fortune, estimated at the time to be the third-largest in America, to Epstein. Also that year, the British tabloid mogul and documented Mossad asset Robert Maxwell died mysteriously in a fall from his yacht in an accident/assassination that left his daughter Ghislaine inconsolable, broke, and increasingly inseparable from Epstein, who for reasons that remain a mystery was now an overnight billionaire.

Maureen Tkacik reporting in The American Prospect. Making America Epstein Again

Trump’s transactional ethics are making the U.S. a refuge for criminals. This mirrors something Israel has done for years.

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David Graeber Institute

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Public attention rarely remains focused on any one atrocity. We’re bludgeoned by the never-ending stream of misdeeds and affronts—which each day come wrapped in propaganda extolling a new Golden Age and assorted false glories of Dear Leader. When one is caught in the crossfire, it is hard to see, let alone address, the big picture. That is to Donald Trump’s advantage. For a long time, commentators have noted that he relishes generating chaos and believes he can exploit disorder for political advantage. It’s an escape route for him. The dizzying whirlwind he creates places critics and opponents off-balance. And perhaps best of all for him and his crew, it hides their overall plan and inhibits the development and promotion of an overarching counternarrative. Their foes are stuck decrying the individual acts of villainy, one at a time, without doing what is most necessary in American politics: telling a story.

David Corn in Our Land. Donald Trump and the Deconstruction of America

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John Costa plays It's You I Like

Rufus The Pink Elephant

Wikipedia: Although Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was a children's show, Costa made it a point not to play "kiddie" music. He believed children understood good music[3] and that he could experiment with his own musical styles and techniques, even for a kids' show. Each day, Costa and his trio (Carl McVicker Jr. on bass, Bobby Rawsthorne on percussion) played live in the studio for the filming. 

So daunting to witness the torching of so many iAmerican nstituions. After 60 years the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been shut down. Having experienced media made for reasons other than amassing wealth, the CPB's absence will be felt.

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Toni Morrison

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Episode on YouTube

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Silly Geese

Every year around this time the roof of the shopping mall where I work becomes a geese hang out. We hear their feet thumping on the roof. And they are molting, feathers fly everywhere.

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Soul Force

Yesterday after work I was so moved by hearing Wang Ping tell her story The Book War. The story shines a light on an aspect of living beings I hardly understand, but am quite sure is real. Anima, spirit, soul are words we often use to name this aspect. Because it's not solid it's hard for us to grasp it, but it is often children who surprise us with it. Wang Ping's story offered a glimpse of an inward truth.

My mind often mixes up all sorts of things I've been thinking about. After hearing the story feelings of grief about children caught in adult nets of sexual abuse welled up. While my sadness became large and general, there was a specific thread I will relate.

Before the 2016 presidential election news reports of "Jane Doe" aka "Katie Johnson' suits against Donald Trump were published. I shared a a report with a Trump-leaning friend who ultimately voted for Jill Stein. A part of that story socked me in the gut was Trump demanding to be masturbated. And when "Jane Doe" went to touch his penis Trump yelled at her saying he was a germaphobe and demanded she wear glove. My friend didn't believe the it and was unmoved.

I care about "Jane Doe" but I know my friend whose embrace of MAGA wounds me sorely.

Part of my job is loading and carrying stuff for customers. An elder customer who knows my name, it's right on the company vest I wear, chatted with me on the walk to her car. She expressed horror over seeing people starving people in Gaza. She told me that Trump said Hamas is stealing all the food. I went to lunch right after and the talk there was about Epstein. For some reason Ghislaine Maxwell's name doesn't come up, but Bill Clinton's does. For my workmates and regular chatty customer's think there's puzzlement about how I could think so differently and I feel that puzzlement about them too.

I saw in the news that members of Virginia Giuffre's family came forward to publicly urge President Trump not to pardon Ghislaine'Maxwell. Maxwell encountered Virginia working at Mar a Lago when Giuffre was a teenager. Maxwell groomed Giuffre ensnared her into the network she operated with Jeffrey Epstein and trafficked Giuffre multiple times. Giuffre has for more than ten years was a advocate for exploited children before her suicide this spring.

Hundreds and hundreds of vulnerable women and girls were caught in Maxwell and Epstein's network of abuse. Much less is understood about Donald Trump's organization, what we do know about the pageants he owned and his modeling company plainly suggest abuse. We will never know the names of them all.

Like all good stories Wang Ping's "The Book" War engages those who listen, own story with many meanings. My heart ached with love for the the soul of young Ping and her comrades.

Martin Luther King, Jr. used the term "soul force" to name how love can live even in the face of hatred. The many of us can stand with the many of them against powerful abusers.

President Trump can pardon Ghislaine Maxwell. He almost certainly will, Doing so will impress guiltiness over his name for all time.

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Wang Ping

The Book War

by Wang Ping

Wang Ping starts a banned book club during the Cultural Revolution in China.

Kinship of Rivers We Are Water

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Jesus Children

Robert Glasper

I have been listening to music from the last 25 years, prompted by the radio station I listen to, WYEP, making a big list of listener's favorites. People send in 20 songs and the radio station cruches them down to do a countdown of about 1300 songs for the fall pledge drive.

For me this song captures a zeitgiest even while covering a very 20th Century song. It's remarkable the song was recorded in a single take with Malcolm Jamal Warner's spontaneous contribution.

I have never heard the song on WYEP, but that doesn't mean they've never played it. I am curious how I might have heard the song. What I supsect is it came up via algorithm prompted by a search or another song listened to. Radio isn't as influential now as it was for discovering music, Most of us find new music primarily by algorithmic matching. It's more common now than in the last century for favorite artist and songs to be ones nobody you talk to has ever heard.

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The Oaks town hall drove home a central issue in this election that the national political press has only episodically addressed: For all the Sturm and Drang that commentators and reporters unleashed on incumbent President Joe Biden after his checked-out debate performance in June, Donald Trump is unmistakably losing the plot. 

Chris Lehmann at The Nation. Last Night, a DJ Saved My Campaign Rally

At a town hall event in Oaks, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump appeared to give up on politics and spent 39 minutes nodding along to his favorite songs.

Playlist:

- Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli - Time To Say Goodbye - James Brown & Luciano Pavarotti - It's a Man's World (Live) - Village people - Y.M.C.A - Rufas Wainwright - Hallelujah - Sinead O’Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U - Elvis - An American Trilogy (Live) - Oliver Anthony Music - Rich Men North of Richmond - Gun N’ Roses - November Rain

Musicians who opose Donald Trunp's use of their music

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Among the 39% of respondents who describe themselves as “liberal” or “moderate, who leans liberal,” Pop and Hip Hop/R&B titles make up a combined 68% of their Top 100 songs. Those who describe themselves as “conservative” or “moderate, who leans conservative”—a group that comprises 28% of the sample—have a strong appetite for Country music, as 48% of their Top 100 titles are from this genre. Another 27% of their Top 100 consists of Pop titles.

Warren Kurtzman at Coleman Insights. The Musical Divide Between Trump and Biden Supporters

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South Park has molded a generation-plus of young, mostly male, heavily libertarian, anti-authoritarian minds. That’s not to suggest that South Park will single-handedly sway this cohort away from Trump. But it might mean that South Park has just canary-in-a-coal-mined their discomfort with Trumpian theocracy. Which might even be one of the reasons this cohort—a big chunk of ostensibly independent voters—are shifting from Trump, as a new Gallup poll just found.

Johnathan Larsen at Religion Dispatches, first published on Larsen's subscription newsletter. Obsessed with Trump’s Penis in South Park Premiere, Media Ignore the Larger Issue

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While the UN and NGOs are being blocked, just one aid group has a green light to operate. “The only actor I’m aware of that has seemingly full access and full scale to bring in supplies has been the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” says Moran. The GHF, a newly-formed American nonprofit, operates with local staff as well as US-based contractors and private security firms. At its helm is Johnnie Moore, an American evangelical pastor and public relations expert. Moore has close ties to Trump, Israel, and the Christian Zionist movement that has a theological commitment to supporting Israel.

Pema Levy in Mother Jones. “This Is Trump’s Famine”: How the US Is Complicit in Gaza’s Suffering

An American-funded food distribution network provided Israel cover as starvation spread.