The featured image is of Nigel Hawthorne in The Madness Of King George. You know why it’s here. It’s No King’s Day. Please participate in whatever way you can.
Ignore the usual suspects on social media who claim protesting is performative and useless. It should be easy to ignore such ignorance. It’s a good thing Dr. King didn’t listen to those, including JFK, who urged him to cancel the March on Washington in 1963.
Peaceful non-violent protest works. Anyone who tells you otherwise should be reminded of the protests throughout the former Soviet bloc in 1989. Fortunately, Vaclav Havel didn’t listen to the usual suspects of his time. Hell, the Berlin Wall might have stood longer if the despair mongers had their way.
Repeat after me: Peaceful non-violent protest works.
The usual suspects refused to vote for Hillary Clinton because she wasn’t pure enough.
The usual suspects belittled Joe Biden because he wasn’t pure enough.
The usual suspects wouldn’t vote for Kamala Harris because she wasn’t pure enough.
The usual suspects hate the Democratic party but offer gratuitous advice about running moderates out of the party. It makes no sense when raging moderates like Chris Van Hollen and Cory Booker are fighting MAGA madness whereas former DSA darling John Fetterman has gone horseshoe person.
The usual suspects continue to maintain, despite all evidence to the contrary, that Democrats and Republicans are Tweedledee and Tweedledum. The twitty malakatude, it burns.
I’m venturing forth to the protest later today despite my oak pollen allergy. If I have to protest with a runny nose, so be it. Beats the hell outta sitting on the sidelines and bitching. As 6-year-old me would have said, the usual suspects are so full of shit that their eyes are brown.
Repeat after me: America is a nation founded on protest.
That concludes this Saturday sermonette, rant, or whatever that was.
This week’s theme song is a protest against the Vietnam War and militarism in general. It was written by Graham Nash for his 1971 solo album Songs For Beginners. It sounds experienced to me but that was Jimi’s jam, not Graham’s.
We have 2 versions of Military Madness for your listening pleasure: The Nash OG and CSN live:
While a member of The Hollies, Graham Nash wrote another song that’s startlingly relevant to our times:
Nash’s band mates didn’t like the song. It was one of the reasons he left the band and moved to Los Angeles. The rest is history.
Repeat after me: Everything Trump touches turns to shit.
I’m doing something different with this week’s second act and featuring pieces about the rewriting of history by authoritarian assholes; a pernicious practice that’s been imported to our country by MAGA.
The Plot To Erase Imran Khan: Every time there’s a charismatic civilian political leader in Pakistan, the military moves against them. Imran Khan is a former Prime Minister who was ousted by the military on bogus charges.
The current Pakistani regime is trying to erase Khan from the public’s memory. It won’t be easy: as a former cricket superstar and TV star, Khan is the most famous living Pakistani.
Osman Samiuddin has the details in The Guardian.
We’re staying at The Guardian with our next segment.
The Plot To Erase The Dirty War: The new right-wing populist president of Argentina Javier Milei is one of the Insult Comedian’s favorite foreign leaders. He’s currently trying to erase the memory of the egregious human rights violations committed by the Argentine junta from 1976-1983. It was called The Dirty War. An estimated 30K people disappeared and are presumed dead.
There’s a brilliant piece by Jordana Timerman excoriating Milei for his attempt to rewrite history. He’s counting on short memories. Let’s hope Argentinians aren’t like those Americans who dwell in what Gore Vidal called the United States of Amnesia.
The last word of our second act goes to Sting with a song dedicated to the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who protested the forced disappearance of their children during the aforementioned Dirty War:
We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.
Separated At Birth Casting Edition: We continue our protest theme with Maureen Stapleton who won an Oscar for playing radical activist Emma Goldman in Reds.
We’ll let The Fugs play us out of this segment.
Your Basic Basie: Our madness theme continues with a 1946 composition by Count Basie.
Have I told you lately how much I love Count Basie?
Classic Movie Trailer: In America, the movie I cited at the beginning was released as The Madness Of George III. Whatever you call it, it’s a helluva flick.
Grading Time: I give The Madness of King George 3 1/2 stars and an Adrastos grade of B+. It’s just shy of a stone cold classic.
Saturday GIF Horse: Here’s Diane Keaton in Reds.
Holy smoke filled room, Batman.
Toon Time: This one comes from last year by Pat Bagley of the Salt Lake Tribune.
The Nazi Stephen Miller and Q’anon Shaman were a nice touch.
Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.
Saturday Closer: A classic video from a much missed artist. There wasn’t anything petty about Tom Petty, that goes for the rest of The Heartbreakers as well.
That’s all for this week. The last word goes to Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria:
