Can You See Kyiv from Selma?

Prexy and VP establish a new world odor...

Mar 02, 2025

[update below 10:20AM March 3]

I hadn’t planned to do a political screed today but sometimes, like in Jazz music, you have to be prepared to “play the (chord) changes” you’ve been given, not the ones you necessarily want or have practiced.

So, here we are at the conclusion of another Black history month. This one should actually live in infamy when you consider the ways that African Americans and their culture had been so massively disrespected by the current administration in what was supposed to be a month of celebration and acknowledgment.

Let’s look beyond skin color though, to make a subtle but salient point.

Of all the things that our current President has done to inflame racial division, it was his massive disrespect of a Jewish man yesterday that brought to mind some of the most pungent images of the snarling, unreasoning and, frankly, scary aspects classic American® old south racism.

Watching and listening to our president and vice president hectoring, demeaning, instigating, threatening and attempting to humiliate the leader of Ukraine, I thought of the countless black adults, and kids caught up and provoked into “hitting back” by hate-drunk ol’ boys determined to make someone pay for humiliation festering inside their own minds.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is obviously not African American, but to our petulant president, he was just another ______ to be taught not to be so uppity.

So big lesson:

•Whether race- or politics-based, If you’d like to understand what it’s like for Black people as they seek to achieve a political parity commensurate with their contributions to the society, remember their exchange.

•If you’d like to understand what it’s like for women of child-bearing years advocating for their own bodily autonomy, remember their exchange.

•If you have the courage to really understand what the Iowa legislature did to it’s own LGBTQ+ citizens this week…remember their exchange.

It’s not all about Race, It’s not all about Class, It’s not all about Money. It appears to be a congealed collection of all three… with a dollop of ignorance thrown in.

Listening to Trump and Vance hectoring the elected President of a great country, telling him he’s essentially worthless and a sitting duck if he won’t bow down to them is pretty sickening (especially while at the same time, they’re scheming to get his nations’ valuable natural resources) .

As the president off-handedly mentioned after the fiasco: “Well that should make good television..”

D.W. Griffith would probably agree…

This week’s made-for-TV incident brought back memories of my own folks warnings about dealing with instigation from racist-types. The most important element of survival was not fighting back; it was keeping cool. Keep your mind focused on the task (which was getting out of the situation with mind and body intact).

You think Marine boot camp is tough?

Huge everlasting thanks to mom and dad for making good damn sure that we were not going to physically fight open racism, we were going to outthink it.

Mom and Dad would’ve been proud of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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[Update] It’s Monday morning and WHO radio Des Moines didn’t waste any time with their take on last Friday’s proceedings….

While the civilized world acknowledged the ‘unsportsmanlike conduct’ DJT and JDV pulled in the oval office, WHO radio? ….not so much. This morning’s coverage overwhelmingly pushed the “Zelenskyy is disrespectful” line in clear opposition to observable reality.

1×

0:00

-1:43

Just a tidbit of the public discourse we suffer here on behalf of iHeart Radio’s profit margins.

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Oh yeah, while we’re on the subject of DEI, Apple, America’s most successful innovative company just told our president to stuff it. From its founding, Apple has always cast a world-around net when looking for talent. Just like in Jazz music, when you finally find someone with the talent you can use, looks and ethnicity tend to become secondary considerations.

The tragedy for America is that some of you are letting a cheap misinterpretation of DEI serve as a reason to harden your hearts against your fellow humans.

Speaking of Mom and Dad….(and music)

Back soon. Hug someone.

Can You See Kyiv from Selma?

Prexy and VP establish a new world odor...

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