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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 27, 2017 8:07:10 GMT -5
Duplicate. Never mind.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 27, 2017 8:01:52 GMT -5
Undoing Executive Orders is easy. He's done a bit of that. So far, not any legislative dismantling. Obama was a popular President and the laws he passed remain popular. Trump is a very unpopular President, apparently incapable of leading his party towards any legislative achievements. Signing orders, giving speeches and stealing a Supreme Court seat are all, as it turns out, a hell of a lot easier than taking health care away from 20,000,000 Americans. Correct. Obama had only one real legislative accomplishment. And as it turns out, that one sucks. Congress can't seem to fix it, but that's not Trump's fault. Other than that Obama didn't really pass any laws. Generally because he's incompetent. What he did do was reinterpret laws to get his way when stamping his feet didn't work. The problem with that is that Trump just needs to reinterpret the reinterpretation. How's that Net Neutrality thing going? The Climate Scare/Paris Accord/CO2 Regulation thing? The Clean Power Plan? Obama took the cheap route and Trump is razing the buildings.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 26, 2017 17:44:28 GMT -5
Undoing Executive Orders is easy. He's done a bit of that. So far, not any legislative dismantling. Obama was a popular President and the laws he passed remain popular. Trump is a very unpopular President, apparently incapable of leading his party towards any legislative achievements. Signing orders, giving speeches and stealing a Supreme Court seat are all, as it turns out, a hell of a lot easier than taking health care away from 20,000,000 Americans.
Obama was a personally popular President but his policies were less popular. If his policies had been popular Hillary would be President now but the policies hurt more people than they helped and those hurt people pulled the plug on them. I'm guessing maybe you weren't damaged by the past 10 years since the Democrats took power in 2007. I don't know how you avoided it but congratulations.Compared to where I was at in 2008 when the market crashed and the economy almost went over the cliff? The country was rather happy that he bailed us out the messes that Bush got us into. Unpopular? Two resounding victories and he lost a race in which he wasn't a candidate. I, for one, was finished talking about W, for the most part, by this time in 2009. I was happy to have Obama in there and pleased to point at what I felt he'd accomplished. Strange to me that six months in anybody who supports Trump is still thinking that much about Obama, much less Hillary.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 26, 2017 16:20:32 GMT -5
As long as Trump continues to dismantle any semblance of Obama's existence in office, I don't much care what he says to anybody. Undoing Executive Orders is easy. He's done a bit of that. So far, not any legislative dismantling. Obama was a popular President and the laws he passed remain popular. Trump is a very unpopular President, apparently incapable of leading his party towards any legislative achievements. Signing orders, giving speeches and stealing a Supreme Court seat are all, as it turns out, a hell of a lot easier than taking health care away from 20,000,000 Americans.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 26, 2017 15:11:12 GMT -5
My point isn't how Obama would have conducted himself. I think it's obvious that he would have been more statesman-like. And appropriate. My point was that it might be instructive to compare crowd reactions. They are good kids. They are excited to see a President live. My best guess is they would follow the behavioral lead of whoever they are listening to. Trump, as he is wont to do, took it as one more chance to have a campaign-like rally and to encourage whooping it up, and they behaved accordingly. I think we know that Obama not have taken that approach, and that, thus, the crowd would have been more quiet. We know how both of these POTUS's speak to crowds. We know how the crowds tend to react.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 26, 2017 14:50:25 GMT -5
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 26, 2017 14:35:10 GMT -5
The article indicates that eight Presidents in 80 years have spoken to the Scouts. It also states that surrogates have often spoken on their behalf, which would account for the other seven of the 15 POTUS's since 1937.
I have no idea why or if Obama skipped it. I see he spoke on video link once? Whatever. I follow politics fairly closely and have no memory of Obama going out of his way to miss this, but who knows?
In any event, I'm sure that if we had crowd reactions to compare, Trump would claim a larger, more adoring group. (He loves large crowds and being adored, does he not?)
Also, as in the case of his brags about his inauguration crowd size and pretty much every other public utterance, he'd likely be lying when he said it.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 26, 2017 14:26:39 GMT -5
Nothing fake about it. The article does not say that every President has addressed the Boy Scouts. It says that every President who has addressed them has had an apolitical message- we have had more than eight Presidents in 80 years. But he avoided being seen with them. He didn't want the association. Too bad, too. If he had we'd have some crowd reaction to compare the current one to. As I said, it's that, not the speech, that really has the press upset. You too. You don't like their patriotic cheers. In fact, you're mostly making my point for me. Yours and Russell's are the exact sentiments that had Obama avoiding associating with the Boy Scouts.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 26, 2017 14:04:57 GMT -5
I detest political chanting.
I hate “USA!USA!” as well as “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" It's all mindless.
I detest easy displays of patriotism that require no effort or sacrifice.
I associate “USA!USA!” with the bad sportsmanship at the Olympic games. It was excusable in the miracle of the 1980 hockey triumph, but when the USA beats Poland to get a gold in, say, basketball, it seems really nasty.
Hey! We beat Poland! Go, pound sand, Poland!
Getting a bunch of 12-17 year olds to chant USA, and boo the person Trump beat in the election as well as the person that preceded him is really a banana republic-like nightmare.
I have zero tolerance for anything Trump. The man is a stain on America. The idea that his picture will forever hang in the halls of history with Lincoln, Roosevelt- even Nixon- should shame every American.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 26, 2017 13:06:21 GMT -5
Yeah, well, Eisenhower, you know...very Lenin-like.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 26, 2017 11:14:21 GMT -5
Nothing fake about it.
The article does not say that every President has addressed the Boy Scouts.
It says that every President who has addressed them has had an apolitical message- we have had more than eight Presidents in 80 years.
"For 80 years, American presidents have been speaking to the National Scout Jamboree, a gathering of tens of thousands of youngsters from around the world eager to absorb the ideas of service, citizenship and global diplomacy.
In keeping with the Scouts’ traditions, all eight presidents and surrogates who have represented them have stayed far, far away from partisan politics.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt used the occasion to talk about good citizenship. Harry S. Truman extolled fellowship: “When you work and live together, and exchange ideas around the campfire, you get to know what the other fellow is like,” he said. ADVERTISING
President Dwight D. Eisenhower invoked the “bonds of common purpose and common ideals.” And President George H.W. Bush spoke of “serving others.”
For a brief moment at this year’s jamboree in West Virgina, President Donald Trump indicated that he would follow that tradition — sort of.
“Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts?” he said."
I don't know a damn thing about Obama's supposed absence, and it is irrelevant to the disgraceful show that Trump put on.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 13, 2017 14:37:02 GMT -5
As I said, this is the first high quality instrument that I have ever purchased brand new.
So, I never realized that the lifetime guarantee was quite so comprehensive. Cool!
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 13, 2017 14:35:19 GMT -5
Hey all- I have a small handful of instruments, going all the way back to the Stella that my folks bought me at BA Rose music on 50th street in Edina for $29 in 1966 or so. In between I never had a high quality instrument that I purchased new. Always used. Until recently. I bought a 00-18 Martin that was made for the Podium, and got it for a nice price just before they moved out of Dinkytown. It's not my most played guitar, though I do love it, and I have not felt a need to change the strings until now. My question may be elementary, but is a puzzle to me. How do I change the strings without the string ends creating scratches in the head's finish, as they wind around and around, popping in and out of the slots? Thanks. The easiest method is to have Marty show you how he does it. Then the next time they need changing, have him show you again, and so on until you eventually get rid of the guitar.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 11, 2017 14:08:35 GMT -5
Hey all-
I have a small handful of instruments, going all the way back to the Stella that my folks bought me at BA Rose music on 50th street in Edina for $29 in 1966 or so.
In between I never had a high quality instrument that I purchased new. Always used. Until recently.
I bought a 00-18 Martin that was made for the Podium, and got it for a nice price just before they moved out of Dinkytown.
It's not my most played guitar, though I do love it, and I have not felt a need to change the strings until now.
My question may be elementary, but is a puzzle to me.
How do I change the strings without the string ends creating scratches in the head's finish, as they wind around and around, popping in and out of the slots?
Thanks.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 11, 2017 14:00:16 GMT -5
Thanks for the welcome, Bill, VI and Dub.
I have occasionally lurked here, and LK encouraged me to join more than once. My problem is that I am fully capable of getting so absorbed in a place like this that I start to get sucked into a vortex and begin to ignore other things that need tending.
That said, I may pop my head in occasionally. I have truly appreciated reading some of Lon's old posts and seeing the deep connections among his fellow song chasers and rhyme runners.
And, Bill, thanks for the reminder. No doubt we've crossed paths.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 10, 2017 9:50:12 GMT -5
This is my first post here. Thanks for letting me in.
For two months I have been trying to find the right set of words regarding my feelings towards Lonnie and his slipping off the bonds of this earth. Part of my difficulty in doing so is that Lonnie himself, was so eloquent. But if I always held myself up to being as good as Lonnie in any area, that would be a dead-end and I would surely never pick up another guitar, so here goes…
I first heard of Lonnie as a kid, reading Connie’s Insider. I was too young to see get into Magoos or similar venues. “Teen clubs” required that you be 16 to get in. I was probably about 13. So, I never saw the Jokers Wild or the Rave-Ons. But my adolescent-self had a feeling they must be awesome.
I finally saw him perform at the Coffeehouse Extempore in 1971. I was a junior in high school. It was one of my first real dates. I may remember Lon’s set even more vividly than the pretty young woman who eventually became my girlfriend. Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love,” Cat Steven’s “Moonshadow,” Tom Rush’s “Child’s Song,” “Darling Be Home Soon.” A handful of originals.
Holy Jesus! This guy has it all!
To this day I would put his talent so high on the list of any of the greats I have had the privilege to see and hear live. But you all know that.
I am and always have been a guy who loves music and playing here and there, but never with any illusions that I had was going to go pro. I just like playing and singing and doing a bit of writing.
In 1977 in the spring I somehow got a slot opening for Lonnie at the Extemp. That was probably the first time I ever actually talked with him. And I have considered him a friend ever since. The amount of time we spent together waxed and waned over the decades. Years might even go by, but the thread never broke. The last couple of years, we were down to every-now-and-then coffee. I keep having trouble with the idea that the next coffee hang is not going to happen now.
Between facebook and here and, even real life, I have read and heard so many memories of various good times and highlights and hard roads. Some of my favorite moments seeing and hearing LK go back to his stint in City Mouse in the late 70’s. Lord! A fine band, and he brought them up to a whole new level- as he almost invariably did with anybody he played with.
Our coffee get togethers were probably most frequent during the early 2000’s. Coincidentally, it was around this era that one of Lonnie’s musical paths was hosting open stages. The Atelier, Coffee Grounds. A few electric ones as well.
While he might groan, “Please, do not make me hear ‘Free Bird,’ ever again,” in private conversation, he was always, always, always generous on stage.
Whether it was another established player passing through town who happened to stop by or someone who had recently learned their first three chords and might have been better advised to wait just a bit before stepping up to a live mic, Lonnie played, with, backed-up and encouraged them all equally.
I play in an informal jam group most Thursdays over the noon hour. I have been missing a few Thursdays due to being out of town and other commitments. So a couple of Thursdays ago was the first time I’ve played with other people since Lonnie passed away.
When it came my turn to pick a tune, I chose Merle Haggard’s “Big City.”
The first time I ever heard it was around the mid-80’s in some funky bar in North Minneapolis where Lon was leading a band called Arizona.
I can’t sing like Lonnie and I can’t play like Lonnie.
But I closed my eyes and tried to conjure up his spirit. Tried to pretend that his beautiful tenor and his ability to connect so completely to the musical moment was getting channeled through my being during that Haggard tune.
I felt great and utterly sad in the same moment.
I had the chance to share most of these thoughts in one way or another with Lonnie over the years. It’s weird when one of your best friends is also one of your heroes, though. I hope I was as clear as possible and that he heard and knew these things as clearly as I am trying to communicate them now.
"And if you ever wonder why you ride this carousel You did it for the stories you could tell" - John Sebastian
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