Middle Finger Symphony Theater

 ~ No Tuxedos Required ~

 ~ Brought To You By BLUESJUNKY: Middle Finger Symphony Chair of Music ~

Your Official Almost Semi-World Famous Irredeemable Big Ass Mid-Week Open Thread.

It's been another historic week of bedlam and insanity for we highly evolved pond scum here on the third stone. And your Beloved Blog Editrix, Who Loves Each and Everyone of You, wants to hear your views and opinions on our continuing descent into chaos.

And since Your Beloved Blog Editrix, Who Loves Each and Everyone of You, did not receive the requested Personal Christmas gift preferences from readers in last weeks Open Thread, She will today be embarking on a short trip to the nearby Dolet Hills Coal Fired Power Station to choose from their extensive selection of Bituminous for your stockings.  

You know the ground rules. And use the Coasters. The floor is yours....... 

The Ugly Face of DEI in the Poison Ivy League

Excerpts from the Twitter Feed of C. Bradley Thompson @CBradleyThomps1 

"I have received from inside Harvard sources a August 20, 2020 memo from Claudine Gay (now Harvard President) to the Faculty of Arts & Sciences when she was Dean. It flies in the face of everything she said to the world last week. This memo was written when she was a short-listed candidate for the Harvard presidency.  We must face a stunning possibility: Gay got the the job precisely because she holds these views. 

This memo not only exposes her hypocrisy & duplicity but also the real source of what makes her (and those like her) the most destructive force in American higher education. 

This memo is a blueprint for the intellectual corruption & politicization of a once great institution, and it laid the groundwork for the anti-semitism & the anti-Americanism rampant at Harvard today."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

"This moment offers a profound opportunity for institutional change that should not and cannot be squandered. Even as our opportunities to be together on campus are limited, now is the time to reengage and reconnect, both with each other and with the promise of our mission....." 

"I write today to share my personal commitment to this transformational project and the first steps the FAS will take to advance this important agenda in the coming year. Amplify teaching and research on racial and ethnic inequality....." 

"This fall, we will reactivate the cluster hire in ethnicity, indigeneity, and migration, with the goal of making new faculty appointments. In order to accelerate our progress, I am also establishing the Harvard College Visiting Professorship in Ethnicity, Indigeneity, and Migration to recruit leading scholars of race and ethnicity to spend a year at Harvard College actively engaged in teaching our undergraduates. Beginning in 2021-2022, the FAS will appoint up to two new visiting scholars each year....."

[snip] 

Then she(?) goes after the university's long history by suggesting change to the artwork and signage at Harvard to erase the legacy of White men who built and attended the school over the past 387 years from its history. "

"This fall, I am launching the Task Force on Visual Culture and Signage to take up this consequential conversation. This task force will convene a group of faculty, staff, and students from across the FAS to conduct a comprehensive study of our visual culture and articulate principles and informed guidelines for evolving the visual culture and imagery of the FAS. Staff leaders of color remain significantly underrepresented in the FAS. I will launch a study of the hiring, professional development, and promotion practices that may contribute to the low representation of minority staff in managerial and executive roles......" 

These initiatives are just a starting place. Our engagement in anti-racist action and the infusion of inclusive practices into all aspects of our teaching and research mission reflect a new sense of institutional responsibility and will require sustained effort over time..... '

The work of racial justice is not a one-time project. We must be relentless, constructively critical, and action-oriented in our pursuit. Even as I say that, I am clear-eyed that the work of real change will be difficult and for many it will be uncomfortable. Change is messy work. Institutional inertia will threaten to overwhelm even our best efforts. If we are to succeed, we must challenge a status quo that is comfortable and convenient for many....." 

Collectively, we are the authors of Harvard’s future. 

________________________________________ 

I see this as the rantings of a DEI hire that has no real talent for leading the University, just a chip on her shoulder she uses to get what she wants. An anti-Semite hypocrite to boot.

 “My truth” instantly converts to “my delusions” every time I hear that phrase. Filling the University with people rewarded for skin color rather than merit hastens the day when Harvard becomes irrelevant.

A Short History of Joe Biden's Long Record of Lying About Joe Biden

You might recall that during a 2020 campaign, then-presidential hopeful was asked by an Iowa man if his son Hunter had ever had access to the Obama administration.  The future president, who had vowed to bring decorum and decency back to the White House, got in his face and called the man a "damn liar" and "fat" and told him he was "too old" before insulting his IQ. This act of projection from Biden should have been a warning.

It was modus operandi for Joe, whose extraordinary dishonesty was impressive even for a politician, to question the mental fitness of those who caught him in a lie. When the New York Post broke the Hunter Biden laptop story, strongly indicating that Joe had lied, virtually the entire left-wing media tried to bury the story by relying on the claim of former disgraced intelligence officials that the story smelled like Russian "disinformation. Even Joe noted that the "vast majority of the intelligent people have come out and said there's no basis at all. The wagons were circled. 

Well, we soon found out there was plenty of basis to the story even though the protective lapdog media became deaf and dumb to the evidence. In scores of emails and texts, Hunter talks about the "Big Guy" helping him secure payments and taking his cut. One of Hunter's former business partners contends Joe was involved in the family business, as does Hunter's former close friend, who testified under oath.  At this point, there was overwhelming direct evidence that Joe was a willing participant. And as evidence of Joe's lies about his family's influence-peddling business mounted, "fact-checkers" and the media began struggling to keep up with fresh information.

At first, we were told there was "no evidence" that Biden knew anything. Suddenly, there was "no evidence" that Biden had personally benefited from Biden Inc. (as if enriching your entire family wasn't personal enough).It was around this time that White House language began subtly shifting from blanket denials to finely tuned Clintonesque turns of phrase about Joe never being "in business with his son.

So we eagerly look forward to fact-checkers, media and the White House clarifying why this is all just fine. From Joe Biden "knew nothing" to Joe Biden "did nothing" to none of what Joe Biden did was "illegal" – it's been like a long ride through manure covered fields on a short legged pony. 

A Good Monday Morning

Sunday Soothingness

For your Sunday Soothingness, I present another choice morsel drawn from your Blog Editrix's personal digs. I must say I was pleasantly surprised the name "Otis Spann" came up in the comments of the MFST post below.  Not many people outside of Music School Jazz/Blues academia or hardcore Blues Aficionados would know the name.  Spann was an unsung but much respected session man who spent much of his career tickling the ivories for Muddy Waters, whose keyboard style initial hit me as a kinda laid back Oscar Peterson.

Here I give you the tune "Temperature is Rising" from 1969's 'The Biggest Thing Since Colossus', done with a little help from three of those Fleetwood Mac fellows. 

Middle Finger Symphony Theater

 ~ No Tuxedos Required ~

 ~ Brought To You By BLUESJUNKY: Middle Finger Symphony Chair of Music ~