Wednesday, January 22, 2025
It may be better for Liz to go mute for a while
The whole Liz Cheney episode has been hard for many of us. It wasn’t that long ago that I was defending her father against the same people that Liz is hanging around with. Anyway, that’s history.
Today, Liz Cheney got a pardon for an undefined crime related to the J-6 committee. One would think that Liz would just shut up, take her pardon, and buy a lottery ticket.
Not this Liz. She can’t let go of Trump. This is the story:
Cheney, who lost her chance at reelection when pro-Trump candidate Rep. Harriet Hageman beat her in the August 2022 GOP primary for Wyoming’s at-large congressional district, took to social media to attack the new president:
“Trump’s remarks in the Capitol Visitor Center today were a reminder that neither lies nor the liar who tells them get better with age,” the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney wrote on X.
“The Select Committee evidence is available on multiple websites and, as a criminal defendant, Donald Trump has had access to all the transcripts for years,” she continued. “Remember Trump’s character: He sat in his dining room watching on television as his supporters attacked our Capitol and brutally assaulted law enforcement. For hours, he refused to instruct the mob to leave. The truth will never change.”
OK. So why did she accept the pardon? She could have said something like: “Thank you, Mr. President, but I’ll be happy to prove all of this in a court of law. I’m innocent, and there is nothing to pardon. Let the Trump DOJ go after me.”
Of course, she has the pardon, and her bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome just couldn’t keep her away from the microphones.
So, life goes on, and people will go fly fishing in beautiful Wyoming today. I’m still grateful for VP Cheney and his career, but it’s hard to understand Liz, who lost it somewhere along the way.
P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.
— Silvio Canto. Jr. (@silvio_canto) January 22, 2025
We remember Sam Cooke (1931-64)
Cooke turned into one of the best male singers of the early 1960's.
Sam Cooke's life ended abruptly in 1964 and his death was a bit of mystery.
Sam Cooke was a great singer. His music is now available on a digital format, such as this great summary of his career.
January 1965: "I feel fine" was # 1 this month
The Beatles started 1965 with the # 1 song on Billboard.
"I feel fine", and the B-side of "She's a woman" sat on top of the charts for a few weeks years ago.
Both songs were included in the "Beatles 65" LP released in the US. They were not included in a British LP until a "greatest hits" album was released years later.
The song started with an unusual feedback.
According to Songfacts:
It was another of their many # 1 songs on the radio."The first note of this song was the first time feedback was used on a record. It was created when Paul McCartney pushed his bass up against an amplifier."
'I'm down" and other rare B-sides by The Beatles
The last one is a classic.
It really shows that The Beatles had a big sense of humor. "You know my name, look up my number" was the US B-side of "Let it be". The songs' lyrics are the title over and over again.
The Beatles wrote and recorded many great songs. These are not among them. Yet, they were fun to listen to now that they are available in a digital format! As I recall, they performed "I'm down" on The Ed Sullivan Show and the Shea Stadium concert.
What version of these great songs do you like better?
Let me share these examples:
It is still my favorite Beatles' album, with other great songs like "Norwegian Wood" and "Michelle".
About 15 years later, Kim Carnes recorded "More love" and introduced Smokey's great composition to a whole generation of fans.
Many years later, Art Garfunkel released a great update of the song: "I only have eyes for you".
1973: President Johnson ( # 36) died on this day
If you live in the Dallas-Ft Worth area, or the Metroplex, as we call it, you are constantly talking about LBJ. It's LBJ to the airport or to Garland or now to I-30 thanks to all of the expansion. Of course, this LBJ, or I-635, is a highway that connects the area from east to west. For the record, we also have a Bush highway farther north. That one was named after our 41st president.
Today, I'm going to remember the other LBJ, or President Lyndon Johnson, the 36th president of the U.S., who died on this day in 1973. He was living in South Texas and watching as his successor announced the end of the Vietnam War:
On the day of Nixon's second inaugural celebration, Johnson watched sullenly as Nixon announced the dismantling of many of Johnson's Great Society social programs and, the next day, that he had achieved the ceasefire in Vietnam that had eluded Johnson.
The following day, while Lady Bird and their daughters were in Austin, Johnson suffered a fatal heart attack at his ranch in Johnson City.
I would argue that few modern Democrats even know who LBJ is. If they do, they rarely talk about him. They are more likely to talk about Beto O'Rourke taking your AR-15 or Senator Bernie Sanders promoting whatever he is promoting.
LBJ's presidency was volatile. It began on the day that President Kennedy was killed in Dallas in 1963. A year later, he won a landslide victory against Senator Goldwater by avoiding the topic of Vietnam and promising not to send troops. By mid-1966, the U.S. involvement in Vietnam had grown to 500,000 troops, and resentment of LBJ's policies divided the Democrats and the nation. By the spring of 1968, President Johnson's fortunes hit bottom, and he did not seek re-election. A week later, Reverend Martin Luther King was killed. Two months later, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was killed, too. That's a lot of history in such a short period.
It is true that LBJ is remembered for the Great Society and significant civil rights reforms. His knowledge of the U.S. Senate and Congress, and persistence, brought many reluctant Southern Democrat legislators along. However, the jury is still out on the billions of dollars spent on the War on Poverty. In other words, did we just throw money at the problem rather than deal with other causes of poverty? I would argue that we threw money at the problems and may have made the breakdown of the family inevitable.
Overall, it was a tragic presidency, and the first one that I remember, having arrived here with my parents in 1964. A few years ago, there was a great book, Master of the Senate, written about LBJ, by Robert A. Caro. It reminded us that he was a strong U.S. Senate majority leader, a better legislator than an executive.
I'll be on LBJ later this week and remember that it was named after the president born in Texas, who died 50 years ago, and the same Democrat whom no one remembers around here.
2012 podcast: Let's talk a little tango with Leslie Eastman plus Georgina & Oscar from Argentina
Let's talk a little tango with Georgina & Oscar from Argentina.....click to listen............
P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
A wonderful book about Cuban-Americans
We spoke a few years ago with Amarilys Gacio-Rassler, the author of "Cuban American Dancing on the hyphen".
Amarilys was born in Cuba and came to the US under Operation Pedro Pan. She was one the 14,000 unaccompanied children to the US in the early 1960s.
This is a great read, from humorous posts to wonderful memories of "Abuelo" and "Tio Manuel".
We would strongly recommend this one for your Cuban-American library. Get your copy.