Last Thursday, I drove up to Greenfield MA to the house of Rachel Wyatt Lindsay, for dinner and a house concert by Brian Lindsay and Arthur Davis.
They were surprisingly good, phenomenal, and they sang the song recorded below, though in this rendition here, Brian is with his Seattle partner, Alex Sturbaum.
Finding verse in this curse.
’Twas the eve of impeachment, when all through the House
No Republicans wavered, each last one a louse.
The articles were drafted by Democrats with care
In hopes that a conscience would soon bloom there.
We pundits were tossing all steamed in our beds,
While Trump’s certain acquittal danced in our heads.
And I in frustration, feeling all solemn,
Wished I could capture my woe in a column,
When out on the web there arose such a clatter,
I signed in to Twitter to see what was the matter.
And there I beheld him, the master of lies,
Weaving fresh falsehoods, to no one’s surprise.
He savaged the Bidens, he smeared Adam Schiff,
And cycled through villains in a furious jiff,
Could a “leader” be cruder, could his morals be weaker?
So now he’s a dentist, in his all-knowing ways?
I prayed for deliverance one of these days.
When what to my cynical eyes did appear
But a raft of excuses pulled by mangy reindeer,
With a weasel-eyed driver, so meek and so zany,
I knew in a moment he must be Mulvaney.
More shameless than con men, the sycophants came,
And Trump gloated, so bloated, and called them by name:
“Now, Rudy! Now, Jared! Now, Lindsey and Mitch!
Please fly this democracy into a ditch!
It is how you will save me. It is how I prevail.
Or else I will join poor Paul in the jail.
That’s the toll of a presidency ended too soon,
So you must sing along to my favorite tune:
‘It’s a witch hunt! A hoax!’ Those are lyrics for me.
That’s the verse, that’s the chorus, for eternity.”
He was dressed in a necktie, from his jowls to his soles.
He had tanned beyond tanning. Imagine the moles.
On such fishy foundations was his confidence laid.
And we couldn’t stop looking — not his fans, not his foes.
That was what he was after: the show of all shows.
Its plot strained belief. Its appeal tested reason.
Still it was soaring toward a second season.
The economy roared. The Democrats whimpered.
Vladimir chortled. Emmanuel simpered.
In the bag that Trump carried, he had goodies galore:
Lower taxes, the Dow, right-wing judges and more.
They weren’t for the many, they favored the few,
But that was obscured by the smoke that he blew.
All was fog, all was mist, all was boast, all was fiction,
As he hid his true airs with bad diet and diction.
He could do as he wanted and never know fear,
For an elf — and a savior! — named Barr hovered near.
And then there was Tucker and of course Hannity
To put an extra-fine gloss on insanity.
What great luck to discover a country so riven
You could smash it and rule it if suitably driven.
You could summon the Russians, you could bully Ukraine,
Just as long as you made “It’s fake news!” your refrain.
Our values, our futures hijacked by his gall.
A last bid to preserve them was cause to impeach
But his party’s corruption put him beyond reach.
So then why all his thrashing? His howls of dejection?
It was just a performance for the next election.
It brought more donations. It rallied the base.
You could see, if you looked, a clear smirk on his face.
If you listened, you heard it: a lilt in his voice.
In drama like this, he would always rejoice.
So as history scarred him, he could nonetheless yell,
“Merry TrumpMas to all! I’m the king of this hell.” “
David Lindsay: from the fb post of David Coller
Oscars host Kevin Hart’s homophobia is no laughing matter
Benjamin Lee
Benjamin Lee
The comedian-actor has been chosen to take charge of next year’s awards ceremony but a history of hateful remarks suggest he’s not the man for the job
@benfraserlee
Wed 5 Dec 2018 16.52 EST Last modified on Thu 27 Dec 2018 09.26 EST
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Kevin Hart in 2015. Why, when the Academy is desperate to show a more inclusive side would Hart seem an appropriate host?
Kevin Hart in 2015. Why, when the Academy is desperate to show a more inclusive side would Hart seem an appropriate host? Photograph: Jason Merritt/Getty Images
At first glance, the Academy picking the ebullient and experienced comedian-actor Kevin Hart to host the 2019 Oscars seems like a smart pick.
The 39-year-old star of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Ride Along has quipped his way to becoming one of the most dependable box office stars working today with his films totalling over $3.5bn worldwide. His social media presence has also been a major key to his success with 34 million followers on Twitter and over 65 million on Instagram and with ratings for the ceremony continuing to spiral down, the Academy clearly hopes he’ll help draw viewers back in.
After two years of straight white host Jimmy Kimmel’s rather dull shtick and after an increased push to improve the diversity of voters, choosing an African American host is also a much-needed leap forward on stage.
But there’s one small catch.
Hart has a rather vile history of documented homophobia, ranging from offensive standup clangers to dumb interview statements to puerile tweets to a whole embarrassing film filled with it. In 2010 during his Seriously Funny standup special, Hart delivered an extended joke based on a fear of his three-year-old son Hendrix turning out gay.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/dec/05/oscars-host-kevin-hart-homophobia-is-no-laughing-matter
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One of my biggest fears is my son growing up and being gay. That’s a fear. Keep in mind, I’m not homophobic, I have nothing against gay people, be happy. Do what you want to do. But me, being a heterosexual male, if I can prevent my son from being gay, I will. Now with that being said, I don’t know if I handled my son’s first gay moment correctly. Every kid has a gay moment but when it happens, you’ve got to nip it in the bud!
Source: Oscars host Kevin Hart’s homophobia is no laughing matter | Benjamin Lee | Film | The Guardian
“‘By Myself’President Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, a move that had long been rumored to be imminent. Tillerson held the position for just over 14 months, a relatively short term for a secretary of state.Trump boasted to reporters that he had made the call to oust Tillerson “by myself.” Jimmy Fallon found that amusing.“I heard Trump has been telling people that he fired Rex Tillerson all by himself. Trump brags about firing people the same way a toddler brags about using the bathroom alone for the first time.”
“Of course you did it by yourself, there’s no one left at the White House anymore. It’s just you and your Slovenian captive!” — JIMMY KIMMEL
“In the past few weeks, Gary Cohn, Hope Hicks and now Rex Tillerson have all left the White House. Most people have said they’re shocked, while Betsy DeVos was like, ‘Wait, how the hell am I still here?’” — JIMMY FALLON”
But in the final minutes of the show, Mr. Colbert scrapped a prepared closing monologue about the importance of coming together after a polarizing election, and went off script. He was personal, and he discussed, bluntly, the searing divides in the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT4MZLl0v_c
“Dan Letwin, a history professor at Penn State, wrote a timely “ode to alternative facts”:
Well now, Kellyanne Conway has lately conceived
Of a new understanding of what to believe
When the truth gives you heartburn, don’t worry, relax
You can always resort to alternative facts!”
Oh it works for the Donald and all of his hacks
As they go ’bout promoting their retrograde acts
Don’t fret if your documentation is lax
You can always get by with alternative facts!
Don’t fear all those women with signs on their backs
The straight and the queer, the whites and blacks
You can trivialize them with snide little cracks
And wash them away with alternative facts!
Just as loggers might swing an alternative ax
And fell a great tree with alternative whacks
When the truth won’t cooperate, try some new tacks
We live in an age of alternative facts!
“Few comedians capture the liberal mood as well as John Oliver and Stephen Colbert, who tag-teamed President Trump with biting sarcasm Tuesday night on “The Late Show.”OLIVER: Until Inauguration Day, you know, nothing was really happening. It was just being tied to a train track, watching the train coming, and then, of course, Inauguration Day is the train hitting you and you’re thinking, “Yup, that felt pretty much how I thought it was going to feel.”Mr. Colbert warned his British-born friend that he might be deported in a Trump America — “tossed out like tea,” as Mr. Oliver put it — even with his green card. The prospect drew a stinging remark about sacrifice and the president.OLIVER: We held up translators, Afghan and Iraqi translators, at the border who have bled for a country they’ve never visited, have sacrificed family members for this country. This president has done neither of those things. So it’s a little hard to swallow him telling people whether they should be a benefit to America or not.”
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