In light of all the horrific things the Trump administration is doing, this one doesn't seem very significant.
Nearly nine months after Trump became chair of the center and more than a month into its main season, ticket sales for the Kennedy Center’s three largest performance venues are the worst they’ve been in years, according to a Washington Post analysis of ticketing data from dozens of recent shows as well as past seasons. Tens of thousands of seats have been left empty.
I can't help but think about the fact that two of the biggest moments in music history over the last couple of decades took place at the Kennedy Center. First came this moment in 2012:
Three years later, this happened:
Notice who is in the stands swaying to the music, wiping away a tear, and joining the standing ovation.
I'm not a music historian, but I doubt there has ever been a presidential administration that did more to celebrate this county's musical heritage than Barack Obama's. I am reminded of this part of his speech at the 50th anniversary of Selma:
We’re the inventors of gospel and jazz and blues, bluegrass and country, and hip-hop and rock and roll, and our very own sound with all the sweet sorrow and reckless joy of freedom.
In addition to Obama's support for the Kennedy Center, the White House hosted eleven "Performances at the White House" honoring everything from country music to Broadway, Motown, and classical music.
Did you know that six years before the first performance of Hamilton, Lin Manuel Miranda performed "The Hamilton Mixtape" for poetry/spoken word night at the White House? And before there was Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl, there was Marc Anthony at the White House for Fiesta Latina.
The line-up for Red, White, and Blues night at the White House was extraordinary, featuring musicians like B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Keb' Mo', Mick Jagger, and Jeff Beck. But of course, I was thrilled to see Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks in the line-up. That was the night that this happened:
Adding to the darkness that seems to have overtaken us these days is the fact that those kinds of moments aren't happening any more. That's why these words from Bruce Springsteen reached down into my soul and brought a tear to my eye.
Fifty-four years ago today Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident. He was only 24 years old. And yet, every list of the greatest guitar players of all time has Duane in their top ten. It is hard not to wonder how the world of music would have been changed if he'd lived longer.
When it comes to the Allman Brothers Band there are lots of interesting stories to tell. For example, here is what Warren Haynes wrote about their impact on a young Southern boy growing up in Asheville, North Carolina.
Over the next few years I would begin to play guitar as everyone of my music loving friends became Allman Brothers’ freaks. That music spoke to anyone who heard it but in the South it resonated with us. It spoke volumes. It brought a voice to people like myself in the midst of some confusing, ever-changing times. Here was this group of Southern hippies with an integrated band coming out of the Deepest South with equally deep music on the heels of some extremely deep changes. We didn’t realize how heavy that was at the time but we sure realized how heavy the music was. Every guitar player in every Southern town was listening to the Live at Fillmore East record and worshipping at the altar of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts.
It can be hard to imagine how Duane and Gregg Allman - two white brothers from the South - so effectively maneuvered the deep changes that were happening in this country in the 50s and 60s. But for them, it was all about the music. Here's how Gregg described it:
Duane and I were raised in Panhandle, Florida. We used to listen to a station that called itself “The black spot on your dial”. It played Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, and it hit Duane and me like spaghetti hitting a wall...
I learned to play mostly from black people: the clubs on Daytona Beach, Surf Bar, Paradise, all black dudes.
While another famous Southern Rock group played their concerts in front of a Confederate flag, Duane and Gregg would have none of that and, instead, celebrated the Black Southern blues players they admired so much. The day after Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, Gregg wrote this song - which he later recorded with Duane.
As that song demonstrates, it was through their experience with Black Southern blues music that they viewed the struggle for civil rights in this country.
Duane is known for being the best slide guitar player in history. One of my favorite stories about him is that he was inspired to learn that skill after hearing Native American Jesse Ed Davis playing slide on Taj Mahal's recording of Statesboro Blues. Take a listen to that one.
There are lots of tunes you can listen to that explain why Duane's guitar-playing is so revered. But one of the best comes from the time he spent as a session guitarist at Muscle Shoals studio (prior to forming the Allman Brothers Band). At the time, Wilson Pickett was recording there. The other session musicians were all white men, who would go into town for lunch. But both the Black guy and the long-haired hippie weren't welcome in small town Alabama in 1968. So Duane and Wilson hung back together at the studio. That is when Duane convinced Pickett to record Hey Jude, even though the Beatles version was still topping the charts. It's worth noting that this is the one that grabbed Eric Clapton's attention and inspired him to ask Duane to join Derek and the Dominoes in recording Layla and Other Love Songs. Stay tuned for the guitar riffs near the end of this one.
There was, however, a lot more to Duane's playing than shredding and jamming. Here's one of my favorites where he makes the guitar sing during his fills for the blues song Gregg wrote - Please Call Home.
Finally, there is only one song the Allman Brothers Band recorded that was written solely by Duane - Little Martha. This one, which was recorded just a couple of months before he died, demonstrates that Duane also had a softer, more gentle side.
While it is difficult to avoid wondering how the world of music might have been affected if Duane had lived beyond his short 24 years, Alan Paul described why his musical legacy lives on.
Duane’s continued relevance – his ongoing musical dialogue - is in large part because he consciously set out to create something that was bigger than himself. The lack of egocentrism in his vision for the Allman Brothers Band guaranteed that he and his ideas would live forever. For all his charisma, technical facility and musical inspiration, he did not build a band aimed merely at casting a spotlight his way...
“They wanted him to form the Duane Allman Band, but he had something different in mind. Something bigger,” says drummer Jaimoe.
As a testament to that legacy, last April Jaimoe (the only surviving member of the original line-up) gathered The Brothers for two nights at Madison Square Garden.
Derek Trucks said there were ghosts in the room when he and Warren Haynes recorded Real, Real Love. You can definitely hear him channeling Duane on this one.
Today we mourn the loss of Duane. But clearly, his legacy lives on.
After the No Kings protest on Saturday, I was curious about how MAGA pundits would respond, so I watched a few clips from their shows/podcasts. For the most part, they went from claiming that those involved would be America-haters, terrorists, antifa, and Marxists beforehand, to claiming it was all just old people afterwards.
On Youtube, it was a post by Glenn Beck that caught my eye because it was titled, "Glenn Beck Exposes No Kings Plot: This IS a Color Revolution!" In case you're not familiar with the term "color revolution," here's how Wikipedia defines it:
The color revolutions were a series of often non-violent protests and accompanying (attempted or successful) changes of government and society that took place in post-Soviet states (particularly Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan) and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the early 21st century.The aim of the color revolutions was to establish Western-style democracies.
I'll grant that Beck isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. Perhaps he thinks that comparing the No Kings protests to non-violent attempts to establish democracies in post-Soviet states is fear-inducing. But if that's his idea of a critique...I'll take it!
So I watched the video. Beck begins by calling everyone who attended the protests an "idiot." But after about 9 minutes of that, things get pretty interesting. At that point, he starts talking about the intellectuals and organizers behind the protests and encourages his listeners to read two books. The first is "Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, " by Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan.
For more than a century, from 1900 to 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts in achieving their stated goals. By attracting impressive support from citizens, whose activism takes the form of protests, boycotts, civil disobedience, and other forms of nonviolent noncooperation, these efforts help separate regimes from their main sources of power and produce remarkable results.
Over the last few months I've heard about the "3.5% rule," but didn't know where it came from. Thanks to Glenn Beck, I now know that it came from Chenoweth and Stephan.
Whether or not you agree with the "3.5% rule," the fact that "nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns," is the money quote.
The second book Beck mentions is "From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Guide to Nonviolent Resistance," by Gene Sharp.
From Dictatorship to Democracy was a pamphlet, printed and distributed by Dr Gene Sharp and based on his study, over a period of forty years, on non-violent methods of demonstration. Now in its fourth edition, it was originally handed out by the Albert Einstein Institution, and although never actively promoted, to date it has been translated into thirty-one languages. This astonishing book travelled as a photocopied pamphlet from Burma to Indonesia, Serbia and most recently Egypt, Tunisia and Syria, with dissent in China also reported. Surreptitiously handed out amongst youth uprisings the world over - how the 'how-to' guide came about and its role in the recent Arab uprisings is an extraordinary tale.
If you're interested, check out Sharp's "198 Methods of Nonviolent Action."
Silly me. I had studied the nonviolence methods of Ghandi and MLK when I was in college in the 1970's. But I thought all of that wisdom had been lost in the succeeding decades. Here it is alive and well in a whole different form among the intellectuals and organizers behind the No Kings movement. That brings me so much hope and joy!
At this point, I haven't seen a lot of other MAGA pundits comparing No Kings to the color revolutions. But someone who did make the connection is Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's Envoy on Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation. In response to a tweet from Mike Flynn about the No Kings protests, he wrote: "Same playbook and same people who do 'color revolutions.' Sad that very few people understand the deep level of coordination and experience involved." It's not hard to understand why Putin would fear color revolutions. As a matter of fact, that fear could be what drove him to invade Ukraine.
The Kremlin’s fear of a fresh popular revolution threatening its position in power isn’t far-fetched; history favors nonviolent movements, which boast a 53% success rate compared with the 26% success rate for violent campaigns. In Russia’s neighborhood, civil resistance has proved itself to be a particularly potent strategy – between 1900 and 2019, 58% of the region’s major nonviolent movements succeeded in achieving their goals. While Russia’s “special military operation” launched on Feb. 24 to “denazify” Ukraine came as a shock to many, Putin’s fear of popular revolutions means he has been plotting to regain control in Ukraine ever since a popular revolution in February 2014 deposed Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovych.
If the worst thing that Beck or any other MAGA pundits can say about No Kings is that we are emulating nonviolent color revolutions to defend democracy - a prospect that terrifies Putin - it is just the kind of affirmation I've been looking for to indicate that we're on the right track.
During his conversation with Marc Maron, Barack Obama took a step back from the specifics of what we're dealing with these days and gave an overview of the basic conflict that has been at the heart of our differences since the founding of this country.
To illustrate the warring narratives, the former president pointed to the speech he gave at the 50th anniversary of the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, saying that - of all the speeches he gave during his presidency - that is the one that is "closest to my heart."
As a point of privilege, I'll simply say that six years ago, I wrote that the Selma speech was the most important of Obama's presidency. The context in which he gave it is important to recognize.
Early that year, Rudy Giuliani had set off a firestorm by suggesting that Obama didn’t love America. The accusation was made because of the president’s refusal to use the words “radical Islamic terrorist.” It became one of those stories that not only swirled around right wing media, but migrated into mainstream outlets as well. The patriotism of this country’s first African-American president was under assault.
Here are a few key quotes from the speech:
What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this, what greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?...
The American instinct that led these young men and women to pick up the torch and cross this bridge, that’s the same instinct that moved patriots to choose revolution over tyranny. It’s the same instinct that drew immigrants from across oceans and the Rio Grande; the same instinct that led women to reach for the ballot, workers to organize against an unjust status quo; the same instinct that led us to plant a flag at Iwo Jima and on the surface of the Moon.
It’s the idea held by generations of citizens who believed that America is a constant work in progress; who believed that loving this country requires more than singing its praises or avoiding uncomfortable truths. It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for what is right, to shake up the status quo. That’s America.
Many things have changed since that march over 50 years ago, but one remains constant.
[W]hat has not changed is the imperative of citizenship; that willingness of a 26-year-old deacon, or a Unitarian minister, or a young mother of five to decide they loved this country so much that they’d risk everything to realize its promise.
That’s what it means to love America. That’s what it means to believe in America. That’s what it means when we say America is exceptional.
For we were born of change. We broke the old aristocracies, declaring ourselves entitled not by bloodline, but endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. We secure our rights and responsibilities through a system of self-government, of and by and for the people. That’s why we argue and fight with so much passion and conviction — because we know our efforts matter. We know America is what we make of it.
As Obama told Maron, the clash on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965 was between people like young John Lewis, who held that view of patriotism, vs. those with billy clubs on horseback who represented conquest, hierarchy, domination, and the idea that if you weren't a white property-owning male, you didn't matter.
The reason Obama brought up that speech is because, once again, those two narratives are clashing. MAGA isn't even being subtle about it - they're saying the quite parts out loud.
For example, back in July, J.D. Vance gave a speech at the right wing Claremont Institute where he "offered one of the clearest articulations to date of American citizenship and identity based on ancestry and bloodline rather than the principles outlined in our Declaration of Independence." A couple of months later, Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) gave a similar speech titled "What is an American" at the National Conservatism Conference. After referencing his (white) ancestors who conquered the west, Scmitt said:
[A]ll of them would be astonished to hear that they were only fighting for a “proposition.”...
America, in all its glory, is their gift to us, handed down across the generations. It belongs to us. It’s our birthright, our heritage, our destiny.
If America is everything and everyone, then it is nothing and no one at all.
When pundits and politicians wring their hands about what divides us in this country...they should look no further than these two narratives about what it means to be American.
Ahead of the No Kings demonstrations on October 18th, MAGA talking points about it have been consistently repeated. They're suggesting that the people who protest on Saturday "hate America."
I tend to reject using the word "hate." But if those folks want to paint me as rejecting the America of (white) bloodlines, conquest, hierarchy and domination, I'm happy to own that charge.
The America I love is the one Obama described. And yes, it includes everyone.
Selma shows us that America is not the project of any one person. Because the single-most powerful word in our democracy is the word “We.” “We The People.” “We Shall Overcome.” “Yes We Can.” That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone...
Weare Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea, pioneers who braved the unfamiliar, followed by a stampede of farmers and miners, and entrepreneurs and hucksters. That’s our spirit. That’s who we are.
We are Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer, women who could do as much as any man and then some. And we’re Susan B. Anthony, who shook the system until the law reflected that truth. That is our character.
We’re the immigrants who stowed away on ships to reach these shores, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free –- Holocaust survivors, Soviet defectors, the Lost Boys of Sudan.
We’re the hopeful strivers who cross the Rio Grande because we want our kids to know a better life. That’s how we came to be.
We’re the slaves who built the White House and the economy of the South.
We’re the ranch hands and cowboys who opened up the West, and countless laborers who laid rail, and raised skyscrapers, and organized for workers’ rights.
We’re the fresh-faced GIs who fought to liberate a continent. And we’re the Tuskeegee Airmen, and the Navajo code-talkers, and the Japanese Americans who fought for this country even as their own liberty had been denied.
We’re the firefighters who rushed into those buildings on 9/11, the volunteers who signed up to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.
We’re the gay Americans whose blood ran in the streets of San Francisco and New York, just as blood ran down this bridge.
We are storytellers, writers, poets, artists who abhor unfairness, and despise hypocrisy, and give voice to the voiceless, and tell truths that need to be told.
We’re the inventors of gospel and jazz and blues, bluegrass and country, and hip-hop and rock and roll, and our very own sound with all the sweet sorrow and reckless joy of freedom.
Barack Obama said something recently that I found quite thought-provoking.
OBAMA: It's fair to say that 80% of the world's problems involve old men hanging on who are afraid of death and insignificance, and they won't let go. They build pyramids, and they put their names on everything. They get very anxious about it.
Having studied Obama intensely over the last decade, I can tell you that he doesn't throw stuff like this out lightly. I can actually imagine him calculating how many of the world's problems track back to old men who are afraid of death.
It's important to note that, based on past statements, Obama wasn't using the term "men" generically. This statement echoes something he said back in 2019.
The world would be a better place if more women were in charge, former President Barack Obama says. Speaking at an event on Monday, Obama also said that many of the world's problems stem from "old people, usually old men, not getting out of the way...They cling to power, they are insecure, they have outdated ideas and the energy and fresh vision and new approaches are squashed."
My mind immediately went to that fact that, ever since about 2016, I've said that the three most dangerous men in the world are Donald Trump (79), Vladimir Putin (73), and Benjamin Netanyahu (75). Globally, men's average lifespan in 71, while in the U.S., it's 75. I wouldn't be surprised if those were three of the men Obama had in mind.
As someone who is now in their 70's, I can attest to the fact that the imminence of death is much more present that it has been in the past. It is clear that, even in his dementia-addled brain, Donald Trump is thinking about it a lot as well. Over the past couple of months, he's talked about his desire to get into heaven several times.
None of this is to suggest that I endorse the kind of ageism that I've seen on display lately. Someone shouldn't simply step down based on the year they were born. Those kinds of calls should be based on performance. There is a certain kind of wisdom that can come with age that is worth revering, just as there are young men who cling to power out of a sense of insecurity (J.D. Vance is only 41 years old).
But it is interesting to view Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu through this lens that Obama articulated. They're scared to death and are clinging to power in order to avoid the insignificance of death.
To be honest, I shed a tear when I heard that Charlie Kirk had been shot. It was partly because no human being deserves that. But I also felt the dread of what was going to come next. I wasn't wrong to feel that way. The division in our country has never felt more deep. The darkness from that seemed overwhelming.
But then I ran across a video that had been posted the day before Kirk was shot. Perhaps you've seen it too.
While the performances are amazing, I suggest that you focus on the faces of the people in the crowd. One of the comments on YouTube captures my reaction perfectly: "I love flash mobs. I know it's weird, but the idea of huge amounts of people working together for zero payback except making people happy makes me emotional." Those performers not only brought joy to the people in the crowd. As I write, the video has garnered almost 7 million views in 5 days, demonstrating that people are starving for that kind of shared joy.
A few days later I ran across a couple of young men doing this on social media:
Want more? Here ya go.
These guys are "social media influencers" with hundreds of thousands of followers. But they're not just performing. I got hooked binging on T. Eian's videos and his skills aren't limited to dancing. He is a master at engaging all kinds of people - young, old, white, black, brown, etc. As with the flash mob, check out the joy they're spreading.
When it comes to music, engagement, and spreading joy, no one is better at it than Jacob Collier.
You can tell that everyone in the audience that night had a spiritual experience.
Perhaps Nelson Mandela put it best: "It is music and dancing that makes me at peace with the world...and at peace with myself."
I can't say that I have found peace with the world. But for right now, these performers have brought me some peace with myself. As Kamala Harris reminded us during the 2024 campaign, it's all about preserving our joy - especially as others try to ensnare us in fear/anger.
One of my least favorite political commentators is Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report. Her appearance on the PBS News Hour on Tuesday reinforced that opinion. Host Geoff Bennett specifically asked her to comment on Trump's use of the military to paint a picture of toughness. Here's how Walter responded:
No, I think that's true, and I do think that's why it's been so interesting to watch the Democratic response, especially of Democratic leaders, not just in the state, but nationally...
The question going forward, I think, is how Democrats do talk about these issues, it's going to be really important for the — not just what's happening today in Los Angeles, but just writ large. I think there has been a lot of pullback and a lot of hand-wringing from Democrats about an issue which they used to have an advantage on during the — Trump's first term, they have a disadvantage on now.
Walter can't be bothered with talking about a president using the military against citizen protesters. Instead, she frames the issue as a challenge for Democrats. WTH?! Of course, right wing media was able to wallow in her comments about "handwringing Democrats" being at a disadvantage on the issue of immigration.
But how can anyone take her historical reference seriously? Did Democrats have an advantage on immigration during Trump's first term? On what basis does she make a claim like that?
So here's a little recent history lesson for Ms. Walter. Republicans were shocked to lose the 2012 election after making huge gains in the 2010 midterms. The situation was so bleak for the GOP that they did an autopsy to try and figure out why they had failed so miserably. Here's one of the recommendations coming out of that autopsy:
[A]mong the steps Republicans take in the Hispanic community and beyond, we must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our Party's appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only. We also believe that comprehensive immigration reform is consistent with Republican economic policies that promote job growth and opportunity for all.
Some Republican politicians took that to heart. In the Senate, Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John McCain (R-AZ), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) worked with four Democrats to produce a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill that included both border security and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. It passed the Senate 68-32.
But then House Speaker John Boehner refused to take up the bill due to pressure from his right wing Tea Party (prelude to MAGA) members. The bill stalled and was never passed - even though polls showed that a large majority of voters supported such a measure.
Donald Trump kicked off his 2016 presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists. His presidency was filled with racist lies about immigrants invading our country and a truly horrific attempt to deter immigration by separating children from their parents at the border. Even some Republicans were appalled.
The first bill President Biden sent to congress after beating Trump in the 2020 election was on comprehensive immigration reform, including both border security and a pathway to citizenship. It never passed. Towards the end of his term, Biden and Democrats once again negotiated a bipartisan border control compromise in the Senate. But Trump urged Congress to kill it because he wanted to use immigration as a campaign issue.
During the 2024 campaign Trump ratcheted up the lies about criminal immigrants and even went so far as to claim that they were eating our pets. Now he's trying to implement his mass deportation agenda, even though only 39% of Americans support what he's doing. Polls consistently show that Americans support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
If all anyone did was pay attention to right wing media and their enablers in mainstream media, you'd think Walter is right. But a brief look at both recent history and polling suggests that - at minimum - things are a bit more complex than her "analysis" suggests.
If we are ever going to have a rational discussion about immigration, we're going to need to take a deep breath and step back from the racist fear-mongering and fascism emanating from Trump and his enablers. Democrats are firmly on the right side of history on this one. We recognize that we are a country of immigrants and that diversity is our strength. We must construct a humane immigration system because it's not just the right thing to do. It is the step we need to take right now in order to "perfect our union."
