Michael Bates: August 2024 Archives

Transcript: Lessons from the 1968 Democratic Convention: Under the Shadow of Protests - Retro Report

Sen. Fred Harris (D-Oklahoma) remembers the conflict between old-guard Rust Belt and Yellow Dog Democrats and the New Left in the Vietnam War Era:

"I came out of that convention terribly depressed about the failure to adopt an anti-war plank, about what had happened in the streets. And I was very bothered by the fact that the Democrat Party was undemocratic. People felt the anti-war movement represented the majority of Democrats in the country, but that was not reflected in the selection of the delegates to that convention. They were establishment people, a big part of whom, what we now call 'super delegates.'"

Harris, as DNC chairman, reformed the nominating process, but it led to George McGovern and the biggest loss in the party's history in 1972:

"I was elected the Chair of the Party in 1969. I appointed a reform commission to be sure that there'd be democracy in the selection of delegates. The main thing we wanted was that they'd be elected, but then in 1984, another commission decided to go back to some super delegates."

Except for Jimmy Carter's surprise "win" in the 1976 Iowa caucuses (he finished second to Uncommitted), the Democrats under Harris's reform kept losing with northern progressives. The introduction of super-delegates in 1984 helped more conventional left-of-center politicians (Mondale, Dukakis) to the nomination, but they still got beaten badly. The Democratic Leadership Council pushed for a regional Southern primary (Super Tuesday, starting in 1988) to give a boost to more moderate Democrats to counterbalance the momentum of candidates backed by left-leaning Iowa activists and New Hampshire voters. That paid off with Bill Clinton's surprise 1992 victory.

Patricia Routledge: 'There's a fashion to speak badly' | Theatre | The Guardian

"'History!' says Patricia Routledge. She leans forward, her blue eyes button-bright; her beautifully modulated voice drops to a conspiratorial whisper. 'History! And character. Architecture! I always say,' she adds, 'that here [in Chichester], you've only got to dig a little hole to put a bulb in, and if you're not careful, you come across some Roman mosaic. Thrilling!'...

"'There's a fashion abroad generally to speak the language as badly as possible. I'm of a mind,' she adds, in tones that would make Mrs [Bucket] proud, 'to start a society for the reinstatement of the letter 't' and the banishment of the glottal stop.'"

What is the Wada Hoppah? The proposed Charles River ferry could ease Boston traffic. - CBS Boston

The proposed water shuttle route would run from Watertown to near North Station, with stops along the way. (They need an MIT stop.) I love this idea. Brisbane has ferry service along its river -- a long route from the University of Queensland to the cruise ship terminal at Hamilton, a shorter route focused on the CBD, South Bank, Kangaroo Point, and New Farm, and three short-hops to carry people directly across the river.

Church leaders: If you think you're neutral, you're drifting left | Clear Truth Media

Joel Berry writes: "The particulars of the political parties aren't just a set of neutral tools, they are a series of conclusions that follow logically from very different starting points. The politics of the right grow from the worldview of the Right. The politics of the Left grow from the worldview of the Left. There are sinners on both sides, there are imperfect solutions on both sides. But they are far from neutral.

"And right now, the culture, all our institutions, our politics, and our pop-culture, are all moving Left. Christians aren't leading the way in this drift. At this point, they're just along for the ride. At the highest levels of Leftism both culturally and politically, you see people who are unapologetic about their hostility towards God and everything good, true, and beautiful. The Leftist movement starts with the assumption of a godless universe populated by an animal species that through evolution can build heaven here on earth. All their politics follow from that beginning. Every power center on earth, almost without exception, is following their lead."

NEW RELEASE (August 2024): BACK HOME AGAIN: A WESTERN SWING REUNION - Origin Jazz Library

"A 2-CD deluxe package documenting a musical reunion of three generations of pioneering western swing musicians. Never before released, this set marks the coda in the lives of legendary greats from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, recorded in 1983 and 1984. Produced by Cary Ginell." From Ginell's Facebook post about the album: "The Dal-Jam Reunion Band includes [Smokey] Montgomery, Zeke Campbell, and Johnny Strawn (Light Crust Doughboys), Jim Boyd and Carroll Hubbard (Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers), Fred "Papa" Calhoun and Ocie Stockard (Milton Brown & his Musical Brownies), Leon Rausch and Joe Frank Ferguson (Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys), Freddy Casares (the Wanderers), Roscoe Pierce (the Sunshine Boys), Tommy Camfield (Hank Thompson), Milton Brown's surviving brother, Roy Lee Brown, J. Eldon ("June") Whalin, the only surviving original member of Bob Wills' first band in Waco, Texas, plus 13 others." Origin Jazz Library has also issued a series of early western swing on CD.

Revealed after 26 years, judge was source of scoop for the ages

John Amick, the district judge who sealed the 1993 multicounty grand jury felony indictment of Gov. David Walters and later received his misdemeanor guilty plea, leaked the indictment to the press. "He had seen the governor's indictment, signed an arrest warrant and set bail at $16,500. Then, at the request of prosecutors, he sealed the indictment from the public while the investigation continued. What was bothering the amiable judge that September in 1993, he explained later, was what he witnessed by chance shortly afterward. At an event, he saw a sweet older lady make a donation to Walters' reelection effort. He thought to himself she wouldn't have done that if she knew the governor was under indictment, he explained. So, the judge told the secret to the state's largest newspaper, then known as The Daily Oklahoman."