Reports: Joe Biden hires Irish band for inauguration

Reports: Joe Biden hires Irish band for inauguration

main

norman lebrecht

November 16, 2020

It is reported that President-elect Joe Biden has asked the Chieftains to perform at his inauguration ceremony in January.

Like him, they’ve been around for a while.

UPDATE: He’s also invited an Irish violinist.

Comments

  • V.Lind says:

    Maybe they could perform from Santiago, one of my favourite of their albums, to curry favour with the Latin vote.

    Or just because it is terrific.

    • Greg Bottini says:

      Dear Ms. Lind,
      I’m responding to this particular comment of yours just so I don’t get buried way down below.
      You, and me, and William Safford, and “American” (just to name some of those making comments to this post) are obviously coming up hard against the spastic, violent, terminal and – in terms of its non-response to the Corona virus – lethal thrashings of the bloated, dying reign of Trump and his gang of criminals, shysters, and traitors.
      The delusional MAGAt trolls who comment on this site are without exception anti-intellectual, anti-democracy, anti-Constitution, and anti-reality.
      Anthony Sayer actually uses this phrase, below: “If Trump’s recounts bear fruit….”.
      You see? “Trump’s recounts”? Even the fetid Rudy Giuliani (absolutely the stupidest attorney in the known universe) couldn’t have made the Tangerine Traitor’s true, desperate agenda any clearer.
      And yes, this pagliaccio Sayer is the same person who earlier referred to protective masks as “face nappies”.
      Well, what else can one expect from ignoramuses such as these MAGAts?
      – Good luck and best regards, Greg
      PS – In total agreement with you re: The Chieftans!

      • Marfisa says:

        One of the many good things about the Biden victory is that it should put an end to these boring, overblown, intemperate, ranting invectives against Trump and anybody who is assumed (often wrongly) to be American and a Trump supporter. Moderato cantabile, please, Greg!

        • Marfisa says:

          I concede defeat. Enjoy yourselves, trollers and anti-trollers, bigots and the self-righteous.

          • Greg Bottini says:

            I’ll start enjoying myself on Jan. 20, 2021, 12:01PM, EDT.
            Until then, I’m scared to death.
            And you should be too, Marfisa. You may not be an American, but the Honey-baked Hitler is a threat worldwide.
            I want him and his thuggish cronies to ALL be in jail.

      • William Safford says:

        I do not know why the trolls and bigots choose to spread their santorum all over the comments section of Slipped Disc.

        I truly hope they are not representative of the audiences for whom we perform. That would be disheartening.

        • Marfisa says:

          Agree absolutely. My two points are that not everybody who expresses a mild disagreement on certain points is a troll or a rabid Trump supporter (or even thinking of Trump), and that intemperate invective is not persuasive and may be counter-productive. There is an appropriate Ghanaian saying: Do not beat a drum with an axe!

          • William Safford says:

            The Orange Enemy of the People* and his supporters and enablers are an existential threat to American democracy.

            This is not mere politics as usual. This is not about whether or not to build an oil pipeline, or how many ships the U.S. Navy should have.

            This is about whether or not America continues to be exist as a democracy.

            Former Vice-President Biden and Senator Kamala Harris won the 2020 election. Period.

            The Orange Enemy of the People is attempting to thwart the will of the people, by stealing an election that he lost fair and square.

            The very moves that are underfoot by him and his minions to steal the election, are ones that undermine free and fair elections. They will establish a right wing minority party in power in a way that cannot be dislodged by free and fair election.

            We have seen this happen in other countries: in Russia, Turkey, Hungary, Poland.

            We in the United States are now on the cusp of it ourselves.

            The world looks on with horror — except for countries such as Russia and North Korea. They look on with delight.

            This attempted slow-motion coup must be stopped. American democracy must be preserved.

            *I refer to him that way, because he calls a free press the enemy of the people.

            In all my posts to this board, anytime I have referred to him in an insulting way, in almost every case I am quoting him and his insult of someone else. The only exception is if I have used a word that’s bigger than his very limited vocabulary. “Liar” — he has said that many times about truth tellers. “Prevaricator” — nope, that’s too big a word for him.

      • Diandre Watts says:

        Greg,
        You, William and Lind need to realize that there is still no “president elect” yet. Votes continue to be both received in the mail, verified and counted in several states besides the runoffs or canvassing that continues to take place in lieu of a clear winner.

        You each need to read the following official letter and get educated on the actual, legal process using facts as opposed to overreacting with your usual pseudo confidence bravado using media outlets to support your “feelings”.

        https://republicans-oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Letter-to-GSA-re-Transition-final-11.13.20-1.pdf

        • William Safford says:

          Your post reminds me of the story about the engineer in an office in a building. A hot-air balloon floats past his window. The person in the gondola, who is lost, asks: “Where are we?” The engineer replies: “You are in a gondola under a hot air balloon.”

          That is to say, your comment is technically correct in one very limited sense, but not helpful.

          You need to realize that there is, in fact, a President-elect right now.

          There is a legal process for an orderly transfer of power from the current Administration to the next Administration.

          The extant votes must be counted, if for no other reason than to finalize votes in down-ballot races. However, the extant ballots are not enough to change the result of the Presidential election.

          Nor are the lawsuits, which are attempting to thwart the actual and legal results of the election.

          The Orange Enemy of the People is doing everything he can think of to thwart this legal process.

          Every election in modern history has initiated the process for the legal transfer of power from the previous administration to the next one, immediately after the winner had been ascertained. With the exception of the election of 2000, this has happened within days of the election, and before every single vote was counted. With the election of 2000, this process was initiated right after the Supreme Court decision and the concession by candidate and former Vice President Al Gore.

          The election of 2000 was incredibly close. It was determined by approximately 500 votes in Florida out of millions.

          The election of 2020 is not close. The President lost the popular vote by something like 7 million votes. More pertinent, he lost the Electoral College by the exact same amount by which he won it in 2016. Again, it is not close.

          At best, the histrionics by the administration of the Orange Enemy of the People is a carnival show to help soothe the bruised ego of the Orange One, and also to attempt to motivate his voting base to turn out to vote in runoff elections for two Senate seats in Georgia that will determine which party controls the Senate.

          At worst, this is an attempted coup.

          I fear that we are witnessing a coup in process.

          We must stop this coup! We must stop this illegal attempt at seizure of power!

          BTW, quoting those who support the coup plot, as justification that they are rightfully seizing power, is not valid.

          You need to learn about facts.

          • LaQuanna O. says:

            The FACT is that the GSA has yet to ascertain a clear winner.

            Trump is still your President and Biden remains ILLEGITIMATE.

            Apparently the Russians and facebook tampered with the elections again. We need to wait and see what happened.

            Hillary and the Democrats were certain of this back in 2016 and the Obama administration should have investigated her claims as Trump is doing now. Another big Obama era failure! Of course Biden was VO then and didn’t do anything either!!!

            Lastly you, Lind, Bottini the Russian bot and Marfisa need to be more RESPECTFUL to others including Lebrecht as you are not commenting in either a civil or decent manner let alone cite facts as Watts did.

            PS
            Now that Lebrecht has revealed his elaborate “privacy terms” in order for him to openly exploit data against everyone who he disagrees with, you all should respect him and those you harbor ill will towards as each of you are clear candidates for feeling his wrath!

          • William Safford says:

            You are repeating lies and false conspiracies as if they were facts. Stop it.

            The GSA has not announced a winner, because the Republican political head of the GSA has refused to announce a winner.

            By this point in time in every election of recent history other than 2000, the GSA had already initiated the legal transfer of power from the previous President to the President-elect.

            She has withheld this recognition, despite the fact that Biden has won this election and will be the next President unless it is stolen from him.

            The Orange Enemy of the People’s minions are hard at work at trying to steal this election.

            It is time for these minions to stop this attempted power grab, and accept the fact that the Orange One lost, no matter how much this may bruise his delicate ego.

            Biden won. Get over it.

            Don’t threaten me. Also note that I have never posted anything against NL as a person or as a host of this blog.

          • E.P. Stein says:

            The GSA Administrator has not rendered her decision. Trump remains your president with no other legally ascertained winner.

            Enjoy it or simply renounce the US citizenship you hate so much and move to where you believe your life will be better instead of crying as you have. You’re too jealous of President Trump and his huge number male and female supporters.

            Your constant hatred on this blog is something no one will miss when Lebrecht finally banns you with his new tech enhancements. Your narrow mind is warped against the POTUS, women, Jews for Trump and anyone else you feel threatened by. Use your Obama care to find psychological help.

            Don’t tell others what to say or think like the Nazi you are either!

          • William Safford says:

            How many sock puppets do you have?

            I love my country.

            We have a leader who loves himself, not his country. He routinely smears it, works against it, profits off of it, and betrays it to foreign powers, among other offenses.

            The GSA Administrator refuses to do her job.

            It is not her job to choose a winner. She does not choose the new President.

            Her job is to initiate cooperation with the new incoming Administration, once a winner has been recognized. This can always be stopped if there is a legal change in the status of the new President-elect.

            There is a clear winner. That winner is Joe Biden.

            She is balking at doing her job. It is easy to surmise why.

            She is now being called upon by increasing numbers of the members of her own party to do her job and ratify the results.

            One example of this:

            “A group of leading GOP national security experts — including former homeland security secretary Tom Ridge — urged congressional Republicans on Monday to demand President Trump concede the election and immediately begin the transition to the incoming Biden administration.

            “President Trump’s refusal to permit the presidential transition poses significant risks to our national security, at a time when the U.S. confronts a global pandemic and faces serious threats from global adversaries, terrorist groups, and other forces,” said a statement signed by more than 100 GOP luminaries.”

            https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-concede-republicans-national-security/2020/11/23/af5e6a36-2d3c-11eb-860d-f7999599cbc2_story.html

            Of course the Orange Enemy of the People remains President. That states the obvious. That would be true irrespective of whether he lost or won the November 3rd election.

            Absent death, impeachment and removal, or resignation, he will remain President until January 20, 2021.

            The first two are highly unlikely. The last is also unlikely, but plausible, especially if he were to resign in order to allow a new and very temporarily-elevated President Pence to pardon him.

            On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden will become President.

            The Orange One will cease being President, unless he succeeds at his coup attempt.

            As for the rest of your message, I have one word:

            Feh.

          • Ivan D. says:

            Emily is doing her job in a legal and professional manner.

            All you are William is an anti-Semitic, anti-black woman hater which explains your lack of a lady in your life. Norman and his commenters do not approve of your overt hate. Besides being predictable and boring, you tend to crawl up several men’s behinds with your desperate need to criticize stronger men than yourself. Guys like you always have a lack of alpha within your lonely circle so you feel somehow big using another male’s platform who goes along willingly with your hate. Your failures with women, hatred of Jews and blacks leave you a mere KKK Democrat.

            Doesn’t say much for either you or Norman apart for appeasing whiny boys who are insecure around masculinity which also includes Greg and VLind between the 4+ sock puppet alters you use.

            Instead of responding here yet again like a Russian bot, you should go find or buy a date!

          • William Safford says:

            “Emily is doing her job in an illegal and unprofessional manner.”

            FIFY.

            As for the rest of your message, it is spoken just like a true supporter of the Orange Enemy of the People: with hate in your heart and no facts to back any of it up.

          • American says:

            Hey, troll- we see right through you. William Safford “needs something up him?” Your insults are sophomoric. Safford is one of the most informed people commenting here. You just hate that you can’t debate any of his points.

            Stafford uses one name. You use hundreds, which is against the rules. Insinuating that Norman is gay because he allows Safford to comment is absurd.

            Your guy lost. Isn’t it time to move on to another activity? You seem to have a lot of trouble keeping up.

          • William Safford says:

            The GSA just signed off on Biden.

            This is excellent news. It’s also about time.

          • William Safford says:

            Actually, LaQuanna O, the GSA did just that today.

            The GSA does not decide the winner, but it has signed off on the ascertainment of the winner.

        • William Safford says:

          Breaking news: the GSA *just* initiated the formal transition process.

          Again, the GSA does not determine the winner.

          But this does mean that President-Elect Biden and his staff received ascertainment. They will soon start to gain access to briefings, data, classified and other information, logistical and financial support, and more, as his transition team prepares for Biden to assume the Presidency on January 20, 2021.

          This is the first step in this process.

          It’s happening! And it’s about time.

        • Christopher Read says:

          Diandre Watts,
          Your and Jody Hice’s assertion is not accurate. It is based on #3, which states “the presence of intensive fraud or intimidation”, which there was not! Donald Trump and his minions are the ones who are claiming voter fraud and/or a rigged election. Trump was never going to accept defeat. He even claimed “The only way I lose is if there is voter fraud”, weeks before the election even took place? Just because Trump claims voter fraud and he gets his base to claim the same, doesn’t make it so. There has to be evidence of such fraud in order to stop the transition team’s process with the President-Elect and in this case, there was No Evidence! A lot of baseless claims without merit or any evidence by people who refused to accept that Donald J. Trump LOST!
          Fast forward to today, January 14th, 2021, where Trump and his right wing fanatics, attacked and overran the Capital, during the proceedings to count the electoral votes and killed a police officer, at the urging of President Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump Jr. and even Rep. Mo Brooks, when they claimed again that the election was stolen and Donald Trump had actually won. This nonsense has got to stop and “We the People” need to put our differences aside and come together as a Nation! Otherwise we will destroy our Country, which is just unacceptable!

    • Marfisa says:

      Thank you, V. Lind and William Safford, for making sane, knowledgeable and illuminating contributions to this post, that I have read with profit (I will not say with enjoyment, because I agree that the present situation is terrifying, that the causes of the problems are deeply embedded in US history and culture, and that no clear or easy solutions are in sight).

  • Larry says:

    A great choice. Perhaps Vice President Harris will invite Indian musicians, in tribute to her heritage.

    • BruceB says:

      …or Jamaican ones, in tribute to her heritage.

    • Nicholas says:

      In tribute to Harris’s Indian heritage only half of the American population would go gaga over raga, but the other half would MAGA!

    • Sue Sonata Form says:

      Yes, since Indians themselves are amongst the most economically progressive and successful immigrant cohorts the world over. What’s the beef, Ms. Harris; you were actually born lucky!! (But keep telling your dummy constituents that you’re a victim.)

  • J Barcelo says:

    Now, if it were Donald Trump hiring The Chieftans (great group, btw), there would be hell to pay – the media would relentlessly damn him for not hiring American musicians who maybe need the work right now. But since he’s a liberal, they’ll let it slide. The last president with real class was Richard Nixon whose “band” was the Philadelphia Orchestra with Ormandy.

    • Una says:

      It is often forgotten that Trump is half Scottish. His mother’s Scottish.

    • Le Křenek du jour says:

      > “The last president with real class was Richard Nixon”

      As a matter of record, there appears to have been the trifling matter of Watergate, as well as rumours of impeachment proceedings, but let that pass.
      If inaugural euterpean predilections define the ‘real class’ of a president, sure, Jenö Ormandy makes the cut.

      Granted, compared to the current (and possibly indefinitely prolonged, if he has his way) incumbent, Richard Milhous Nixon was a statesman of Solonic wisdom and the moral rectitude of a Cincinnatus.
      But then, who wouldn’t ? Even Warren G. Harding dwarfs the Vicious Pumpkin.

      • Pagano says:

        Nixon’s favorite piece of classical music was reportedly Victory at Sea by Robert Russell Bennett. I was then a member of The US Army Chorus which Nixon often invited to the White House where we always performed at his command these two selections, The Road To Mandalay (“Where there ain’t no Ten Commandments”)which was my solo, and Stouthearted Men. (“For the strong obey when a strong man shows them the way”)

        • Sue Sonata Form says:

          Actually it was Richard Rodgers who wrote the original music for ‘Victory at Sea’, arranged by RR Bennett.

          • Stephen Owades says:

            Credit for the “Victory at Sea” score is more complicated than you suggest. From the Wikipedia article: “Rodgers contributed 12 “themes”—short piano compositions a minute or two in length; these may be examined in the Rodgers Collection at the Library of Congress. Robert Russell Bennett did the orchestrating, transforming Rodgers’s themes for a variety of moods, and composing much more original material than Rodgers, as may be observed in Bennett’s holograph scores….”

          • PFoboe says:

            Rodgers cribbing from Vaughan WIlliams Sea Smphony, at that.

      • BruceB says:

        I think by “class” he means “love of classical music.”

        As far as having real class, I’d say Jimmy Carter — whatever people may think of him in his role as president — is a pretty good candidate for top-of-the-class.

        • Nicholas says:

          It was Jimmy Carter who inaugurated In Performance at the White House by inviting such distinguished artists as Horowitz, Rostropovich, and Leontyn Price. Carter, also, while in the Navy, listened to his own records of Rachmaninoff playing his music.

          • José Bergher says:

            On November 13, 1961, Pablo Casals, Alexander Schneider, and Mieczyslaw Horoszowski performed at the White House on November 13, 1961. The President was John F. Kennedy.

          • BruceB says:

            And again: I don’t mean just love for classical music. His sharp-witted but gentle sense of humor (never crass or belittling) and his decades of work for Habitat for Humanity are two examples of what I’m referring to.

    • Occamsrazor says:

      Barcelo, for me the fact that classical musicians overwhelmingly support Biden and the official Covid narrative, the very factors that decimated their livelihoods and which will make them extinct if Biden/Covid wins, is comedy gold. I’m thankful for being alive to witness so many people in general cheerfully soaping their own ropes.

      • Sue Sonata Form says:

        It’s otherwise known as Stockholm Syndrome.

      • NYMike says:

        Comedy?? Without a cessation of the COVID pandemic, concert halls, opera houses and B’way theatres will remain closed. Better to not perform during this period than to contract a deadly disease while doing so.

        • Occamsrazor says:

          NYMike, people who are waiting for Covid’s cessation are going to die waiting because something that doesn’t exist cannot end and it was not meant to end. The mass psychosis however does exist and it is deadly even in individual cases, let alone in the present situation with billions of people already clinically insane. People have been gradually dumbed down to such degree that their ignorance and cowardice has reached the point when they are cheerfully marching into a global electronic death camp with nobody sticking guns in their backs for one reason only, because most of the others are doing the same. This camp doesn’t need guards because they will guard themselves. No psychiatrist can define the precise point at which ignorance is so deep that it becomes insanity.

          • Anthony Sayer says:

            You’ll do yourself a mischief with all that independent thought. Please sit down and listen to the MSM to learn the truth.

          • Prishpreed says:

            What’s up with all of the covid-truthers invading lately?

          • William Safford says:

            Troll.

            “South Dakota nurse says many patients deny the coronavirus exists — right up until death”

            https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/11/16/south-dakota-nurse-coronavirus-deniers/

          • Hayne says:

            Washington Post…heh, heh, heh…

          • William Safford says:

            Yes, the Washington Post. Not some right wing cesspool, as several others attempt to use as valid citations.

          • psq says:

            Neither can psychiatrists define the precise point at which the believe in conspiracy theories became so deep it became insanity.

          • Occamsrazor says:

            Simon, before this…what should I call it without using swear words…situation the medical guidelines for declaring an epidemic was 2-5% of population infected and to declare a Pandemic there had to be at least 20% infected. They quietly changed the guidelines and we are in the midst of a pandemic. This has never happened before. Not only I haven’t seen a dead body here in nyc, I haven’t seen anyone collapse in respiratory distress and guess what, I haven’t heard any goddamn person cough since March except myself, I used to be a heavy smoker of all kinds of things and occasionally cough after using e-cigarette. People are scared to cough, how they manage to suppress that is beyond me cause I can’t. PS. TPTB have confessed to us their goal to reduce the population drastically so many times that even homeless people know by now what’s going on. If there was a real disease do you suppose they would tell you about it?

          • Occamsrazor says:

            Simon, let me refresh your memory. The Covid affair started by showing the world the Chinese footage of people collapsing in the streets and dying. I wasn’t impressed that much because I’ve lived through Chernobyl and was exposed to enough radiation to have temporarily lost a significant amount of hair as a 15 year old boy. The panic that ruled over Russia at the time had at least some basis in science although the expected demise of every living thing never materialized. Most of those exposed to even lethal amount of radiation have recovered and are still alive. So my question is this: how come I’ve never seen anyone collapse in the streets yet? It’s her Majesty Pandemic, not some puny epidemic we are living in. It should be statistically impossible in 8 months not to have encountered a single person in nyc getting short of breath and whispering cries for help. As for the logic of masks protecting from viruses, they can only offer some protection from saw dust being thrown in your face by power equipment. Try working in dusty environments and you’ll know but I forget, you haven’t done one day of honest work in your life.

          • NYMike says:

            A quarter-million US dead and over one million dead (a low estimate) world-wide from a non-existent disease. WOW! I wouldn’t speak of psychosis if I were you.

          • Occamsrazor says:

            NYMike, for every diagnosis of Covid hospitals get 13000$, for every use of a ventilator they get 39000$. If you place the healthiest person on the planet on a ventilator he will die in 2-3 days from drowning in his own mucus. By now most doctors are complicit in mass murder for profit and because of fear of losing their jobs. Most but not all. Thousands of honest doctors are presently working on a Nuremberg-scale tribunal against the medical system for going along with this Mengele agenda. The most interesting times are coming very soon.

          • Occamsrazor says:

            https://www.infowars.com/posts/top-pathologist-claims-coronavirus-is-the-greatest-hoax-ever-perpetrated-on-an-unsuspecting-public/ Your communist dream of The Great Reset will join its rightful place in history with the rabid ravings of Hitler, Lenin and other cannibals.

          • William Safford says:

            Troll quoting a troll as if it were substantiation.

      • V.Lind says:

        I fail to see how Biden, who can’ t even get a briefing on Covid-19 thanks to the Poor Loser, was a factor in any classical musician losing his livelihood. Nor was “the Covid narrative.” The decisions regarding lockdowns and closures belong to President Trump and State authorities.

        Who acted — how responsibly is open to many questions — due to Covid itself. It does exist, it does spread, and it does kill and challenge health care and other infrastructure. People who come into contact with infected people do get it,, and they sometimes die.

        Crawl back under your rock, where a buck is more important than a life. As long as the buck comes to you and the life taken is someone else’s.

      • William Safford says:

        Troll.

    • NotToneDeaf says:

      If you think Richard Nixon had “class” you must think Donald Trump is Prince Charming. You obviously don’t know the first thing about US history.

      • V.Lind says:

        Or class.

      • William Safford says:

        They’re grading on a curve.

        Nixon, for all his very real faults, had much more class, and vastly more intelligence, capability, and experience, than the Orange Enemy of the People.

        Furthermore, even though Nixon broke the law in numerous ways, he acquiesced when the Supreme Court ruled against him in the Nixon Tapes controversy.

        He resigned days later, rather than attempting to contest an almost-guaranteed impeachment.

        The Orange Enemy of the People has no such regard for the Constitution, the rule of law, or America. He is in it only for himself.

        Nixon was a deeply flawed statesman. The Orange Enemy of the people is a deeply flawed conman and hazard to the world.

  • Don Ciccio says:

    But that’s not all. As a reconciliation gesture from the European union, Angela Merkel has convinced a special artist to come out of the retirement to perform at the gala. It’s none other than Honey Hornberg and her Stuttgart Steppers with the Funk-und-Strumpf Kapelle under Oberkellnermeister Carl Dummkopf von Apfelstrudelundlallenschmied.

    • José Bergher says:

      Good old Dummkopf. Actually, his friends call him scheissekopf” because he hates apfelstrudel and prefers sauerkraut mit pizza und fried platanos. He says apfelstrudel negatively affects his playing of pizzicatos on his valveless B flat subcontrabass piccolo.

  • Doc Martin says:

    The name “Biden” originates from Somerset, it is totally unknown in Ireland. We do not regard Biden as Irish. Once his grandfather emigrated across the pond he is became just another Yank. Kennedy tried it on too. He cannot speak a word of Irish. I doubt he has ever heard of Father Ted and Dave Allen.

    US Presidents in the past always tried to appease the perceived “Irish-American” vote, Biden appears to be following suit, however recent US population demographic changes make this group far less significant.

    The Chieftains were helped by the late Garech de Brun, (Lord Oranmore and Browne) who founded Claddagh Records where they used to perform at Luggala, Wicklow.

    Here they are playing O’Sullivan’s March.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpkrr0-qut4

    • Una says:

      Yes, nothing Irish about the nane Biden or him, only playing the Irish card. Even I would be classed as being more Irish with being born and brought up in London with two Irish parrents and a six-week holiday every two years to three different counties to see Irish family. No cheap Ryan Air in those days just a long boat and train journey. Bit far fetched with Biden.

      • Anthony Sayer says:

        Is this how you got there?

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPyl2tOaKxM

      • Danny Boy says:

        Una, his family name is Blewitt. Many immigrants Americanized their names when they arrived in the US. The Irish home of his ancestors is Ballina, in County Mayo.

        The US is new. We are a country of immigrants. All of our ancestors came from somewhere else. The only ones who didn’t are Native Americans. We all – including Joe Biden – want to know where our ancestors were born and feel a connection to that country. Joe Biden is not “playing the Irish card”. He is your average US citizen who, like most of us, has traced his ancestry to another country.

        This is a concept which must be REALLY hard for Europeans to fathom. We get that your ancestors have apparently been living in the same country since eternity, but it’s not that way in the US. This is why genealogy sites like Ancestry are so popular in the US. We all want to know where our ancestors came from.

        We are not “playing the Irish card” or the “Italian card” or the “German card” or the “Mexican card” or the “Chinese card”. These countries are our family history. It’s where our grandparents & great grandparents, and in Joe Biden’s case 3x great grandparents were born.

        • Peter San Diego says:

          Technically, Native Americans came from Siberia…

        • Anthony Sayer says:

          If Trump’s recounts bear fruit, the Democrat candidate will have to go by the name of Mr. I. Blewitt. He nearly did, as it is.

          • Maestro4 says:

            Yes, I am sure tRump’s recount will come up with those 200,000 votes he needs. He found 3 thus far including one “doctored” ballot submitted by a republican.

        • V.Lind says:

          Joe Biden’s MOTHER was a Finnegan. Marrying a non-Irish person is not a hanging offence in a pluralistic society (such as Ireland’s).

    • Danny Boy says:

      Have you been following the news reports at all from Ireland? According to Irish news reports, Biden’s victory is being celebrated heartily, and especially in the home town of his ancestors, Ballina, in County Mayo. https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bidens-ancestral-home-ireland-celebrates-victory-74083013

      His Irish family name was Blewitt. Like most immigrants, seems like it was Americanized at some point. You’ve complained that he doesn’t speak “Irish”. How many actual Irish citizens speak Gaelic? 39% in 2016, with only 4.2 % using it outside the education system. Seems like Biden fits right in!

      This is not about “getting the Irish American vote”. Irish Americans vote exactly as we please. We didn’t even know Biden was Irish American until the Irish press started trumpeting it.

      Look at the big picture here: Biden’s 1st state visit abroad will be to Ireland. He is extremely proud of his Irish heritage & is eager to have good US-Ireland relations. He is putting Ireland at the top of his list.
      What is the harm in that?

      We Irish American descendants realize that quite a few people in Ireland are tired of us claiming ties to your country. You see us as ignorant interlopers. But the US was built on the backs of our ancestors who immigrated from Ireland. We look like you, our family history is entwined with your country & our ancestors were born there. We are proud of our Irish heritage.

      You’re complaining because a US President is claiming ancestral ties to your country? A world power is preparing to put Ireland in the spotlight & you’re whining because he doesn’t speak “Irish”? His name doesn’t sound Irish enough to you? Give me a break.

      You know nothing about US demographics. Descendants of Irish immigrants to the US are an enormous demographic. We are proud that our ancestors came from Ireland, just as Joe Biden is.

      Just google Biden and Ireland & you’ll get the picture. This is a win win situation.

    • Seán Ó Muirthile. says:

      Who is this Doc Martin that he can speak on behalf of the entire Irish nation? The surname “Martin” can be English, Scottish, Irish, French, Dutch, German, Czech, Slovak, Spanish and Italian in origin according to Ancestry.co.uk so why is somebody of that name being so sniffy about Joe Biden’s name? We’re all mongrels and the type of people who pretend otherwise are delusional but also dangerous.

    • Inchiquin says:

      Garech de Brun is greatly missed. His parties and masked Balls at Luggala were legendary.

    • William Safford says:

      You already know the speciousness of your comment. It has already been discussed previously.

      Biden is of Irish descent, irrespective of his surname.

      You may or may not care about this. That is your choice. But his Irish heritage has a factual basis.

    • Danny Boy says:

      His mother’s maiden name was Finnegan. Is that Irish enough for you, Doc?

  • Dander says:

    Not surprising given only 1% of US population listens to any classical.
    At least with Irish trad you are getting real music, rather than standard US pop shite.

  • Rachelle Goldberg says:

    Will they actually be performing or miming to their recording? The temperature in Washington on January 20th is normally sub zero. I understand that when Itzhak Perlman and Yo Yo Ma performed for incoming President Obama in 2009 they were extremely concerned at what the temperature would do to their valuable instruments and their ability to perform in such cold temperature as well as the acoustics. I believe they had to pre- record their performance

    • BruceB says:

      Yes, they pre-recorded and (if they were smart) mimed their performance using shitty instruments.

      If you remember Aretha Franklin sounding strange and kind of terrible at her inauguration performance, it was because she did not want to pre-record, and instead sounded like a great singer trying to sing on lungfuls of frigid air.

  • Joseph T Anderer says:

    This brings tears to my left eye (or whichever one is Irish- not my German eye!). The best news of the week!!

    • American says:

      Ha ha! You wish! He lost. Let it go. Contesting the results of the election is making him look like an even bigger loser, since his desperate lawsuits are all getting thrown out.

      • Hayne says:

        Why don’t you watch the humorous short video before you spout nonsense.

        • V.Lind says:

          It’s boringly unwatchable — I tried and got through about half.

          • Hayne says:

            You must not be American. If so, it’s understandable. If you are American, you have an extremely short attention span. Sorry.

          • V.Lind says:

            I’m not American. I prefer to get my news from better sources. I am following the challenges to the election with interest. I simply did not find this broadcaster interesting.

          • Hayne says:

            He’s doing satire, not broadcasting. Geez…

      • Billy says:

        They’re not all getting thrown out, though.

        (1) The main ones that the media is reporting have gotten thrown out, weren’t even made by the Trump campaign.

        (2) Getting thrown out is how you get to SCOTUS, anyways. On Election Night, Trump anticipated the case would be going to SCOTUS.

        (3) The Russian collusion narrative managed to survive for 4 years on the lips of Dems and mainstream media pundits, without so much as even a single sworn affidavit (legal evidence) to back it up. Yet less than a week after the election, hundreds of sworn affidavits alleging voter fraud were already filed for *a single state*. A couple days later, there were already hundreds for single *county*. These are thousands of people willing to face felony charges and years of prison, if anything they are claiming is found to be untrue. For 4 years, no one had the guts (or rather was foolish enough) to put their name behind a false Russian collusion claim that could land them in prison. Yet the media pushed the narrative like it was absolute proven fact.

        (4) Trump only looks like a “sore loser” to low-info people like you. You have no clue what’s going on. Do you really think you can trust your mainstream media sources to tell you the truth, when they claimed there were “dozens” or “hundreds” of Trump supporters at the Million MAGA March in D.C. last weekend? In actuality, there were *at least* 500,000 there, and police estimates are 1,000,000+. You’re being lied to on a daily basis and you either are oblivious, or simply don’t care: Ignorance is bliss!

        Care to explain why Wayne County should be certified, when there was 200-300% voter turnout?

        Care to explain why Biden underperformed Hillary in all but a select few cities—the cities in the *swing states* that he needed to beat Trump?

        Care to explain how Biden got 95% turnout (sure sign of fraud) in Philly?

        Care to explain how there were dumps of tens of thousands of ballots in which every single one was for Biden (not even a handful for Trump or even third party candidates)?

        Care to explain why we’re supposed just accept hundreds of thousands of ballots in PA that are missing signatures?

        Care to explain why we’re supposed to accept the “mail-in” ballots in GA that don’t have any creases (aka they weren’t mailed)?

        Care to explain why we’re supposed to accept PA barring Republican observers from entry—even going so far as to obey a judge’s order?

        Care to explain why were supposed to trust Detroit’s results when Republican observers were kept out and the windows were covered with pizza boxes and other cardboard so that people couldn’t see what was going on?

        Care to explain why we should trust that a dementia patient who did virtually no campaigning—and who mere days before the election was saying he was running for the “Senate”—beat out an incumbent president that got 10 million more votes than he got in 2016?

        Care to explain why we should believe Biden won, when Trump got more minority support than any Republican candidate has gotten since at least the 60s?

        Care to explain why the 6 big states Trump was massively ahead in at the end of Election Night, all magically stopped counting at the same time? And then huge dumps of Biden ballots just started pouring in at 3 and 4 AM?

        Care to explain why we should trust voting machines that send our votes to servers overseas to Spain and Germany?

        Thankfully, things are starting to move in the right direction, and counties are refusing to certify (due to blatant “irregularities”), recounts are finding thousands of Trump ballots that weren’t counted before, etc. Trump won in an absolute landslide, and it will soon be proven. And I’m sure your media sources you get your news from will all call it a “coup,” because they’re so predictable like that. Maybe you should ask yourself why they covered a story for 4 years with no evidence, but aren’t even willing to give a few weeks of legit consideration for a story that has over 100x more evidence?

  • Greg Bottini says:

    “JOE BIDEN HIRES IRISH BAND FOR INAUGURATION”

    An excellent choice! The Chieftans are great, and they’ll make a grand addition to the inaugural festivities.

  • B. Guerrero says:

    Nice. I like them.

  • Occamsrazor says:

    I doubt that Manhattan Detention Complex allows live performances, I hear you only get to watch black and white tv. One is on surveillance camera 24/7 and if you try to inaugurate yourself too vigorously you’ll be seen by a doctor and given a shot to help you sleep.

  • Curvy Honk Glove says:

    I liked their stuff back in the day, but The Chieftains are neither current, diverse, or even American. Anybody want to fill me in on how they’re relevant here?

    • Anon says:

      Biden’s ancestors were Irish immigrants to the US. He is very proud of his Irish heritage.

      • Dander says:

        He is as Irish as VW Polo.

      • Doc Martin says:

        He is as Irish as a VW Polo.

        • Danny Boy says:

          So out of curiosity, what’s his heritage, then? Where do YOU think his people came from when they, like nearly every other American, immigrated to the US?

          How many generations are you allowed to be in the US before it wipes out who your ancestors were?

          Or is it, as you said in a previous post, that a person instantly becomes a “Yank” the minute they step off the boat? So you think that the act of simply stepping onto US soil should totally wipe out your past: who your ancestors were, what country they came from? That’s bullshit.

          No one is saying Joe Biden is Irish. He is a US citizen of Irish descent. That’s a fact. He is honoring his past by choosing Irish music for his inauguration.

    • V.Lind says:

      They are excellent. Good enough?

  • Eden Elieff says:

    Another reason to celebrate! Very cool.

  • Anon says:

    Norman, I predict your website traffic will fall by 25% now that you’ve removed the like-dislike feature for the comment section.

  • Bring-back-SD-like/dislike-buttons says:

    OMG – maybe the name “sleepy JB” was right after all

    • Sue Sonata Form says:

      At 78 he’ll be having his daily grandpa-naps so, yes, that’s the correct moniker. I’m standing by to see how this near-octogenarian handles those 16 hour days x 7.

      • V.Lind says:

        Maybe like the 74-year-old incumbent — by skipping briefings, not reading background material, winging it and playing golf hundreds of times.

        How young are you that you think this guy is past it? How ignorant are you that you are not aware of HMQ, Nicholas Parsons, many others who operate pretty well at greater ages than the President-Elect?

        Don’t be so stupid, ageist and ignorant. Well, try. I know it is working against the habits of a lifetime. (Hey, here’s one you keep forgetting in your Bolshevik hunt: Fidel Castro, who outlasted ten American presidents and outlived the two terms of an eleventh, living beyond the election of the twelfth and current holder. Howzzat for a thought to give you nightmares?).

      • American says:

        Grandpa-naps? I’ve known people in retirement homes who have a busier schedule than Chump. Chump is the one who wakes up late and watches hours of Faux News before starting his “work” day, which–when he’s not playing golf–consists of attempting to vanquish his perceived enemies and become a dictator. There are no meetings in his schedule to mitigate the spread of a deadly virus, that’s for sure. Chump never wanted to do the job of being president; he only wants the power.

        And, Sue, as long as we’re comparing the two, I’m sure you’ve noticed: at least Biden isn’t morbidly obese. Biden can walk down a ramp and hold a glass of water with one hand. At least Biden isn’t a malignant narcissist.

  • Nick says:

    A bit too early!! Biden is NOT a president-elect yet!! The US Constitution is clear about it! Only after December 14, 2020 and even then it is still a maybe!
    He might consider a band for another occasion.

    • American says:

      Wrong again. Biden IS president-elect. Chump is delusional but all of his lawyers are abandoning him because his claims are completely baseless. Maybe it’s time you did, too. You’ll lose even more face if you wait.

      Do you really think 74 million American voters are going to allow him to stay in office, just because he’s afraid of what happens now?

      • Hayne says:

        Whoever controls the narrative, controls the people. The press doesn’t certify elections.
        Biden may well win but for now, there is a small chance he could lose.

        • Sue Sonata Form says:

          Perhaps you could read this to understand who’s going to be doing the controlling:

          https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/11/17/the-new-few/

          If you voted for it, you own it.

          • Anthony Sayer says:

            Good to see you read this excellent site.

          • Hayne says:

            If you’re speaking to me, please know I don’t vote as it is worthless as most people finally can see.

          • V.Lind says:

            A vote is not worthless because your side, or candidate, did nto prevail. The point of elections is that one side (or person) wins and the other does not. Grown-ups live to fight another day.

            Republicans seem to think that in the times when they do not win, the election has been stolen, while in the ones they win it has been utterly fair. How old are they?

            Is infantilism THAT widespread in the US? We all know it is America’s greatest curse — even more than racial attitudes — but is it not about time Americans began to behave like reasonable, rational adults?

          • William Safford says:

            V.Lind, the last four Presidential elections have ripped the scab off of a systemic infection in the U.S. polity.

            There has been a tradition of wacko-bird conspiracy mongering in this country for as long as it has existed. For just one example, check out the Wikipedia article about the “No-Nothing Party” from the 1850s. They demonstrated their tribalism by gleefully denying facts together.

            There has also been the original sin of slavery and white supremacy from colonial times. (And the near-extermination of Native Americans.)

            It is an evil admixture.

            The Republican Party is the inheritor of the former Dixiecrats: the white supremacist Southern faction formerly in the Democratic Party. They white supremacists had belonged to the Democratic Party since before the Civil War, and many of them were instigators of the Civil War.

            These white supremacists started jumping ship from the Democratic Party en masse starting in the 1960s, after President Lyndon Johnson achieved the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights laws. These laws were technically passed with bipartisan support, but with almost unanimous opposition from the members of Congress from the former states of the treasonous and seditious Civil War Confederacy.

            Up to this point, the Republican Party had been mainly a party of the upper-middle and upper classes, with power centers in the Northeast and Ohio. (The Democratic Party was primarily supportive of labor and unions.) The Republican Party had progressive and conservative factions.

            Then-Republican-candidate Nixon first employed the “Southern Strategy” in 1968 to appeal to and attract these white supremacist Southern voters. He did a good enough job to win the Presidency.

            With this influx of former Dixiecrats, the power center of the Republican Party shifted southward. These new leaders and power brokers brought into the party not only their white supremacy, but also their social conservatism and their fundamentalist Christian leanings. Even more so, they brought their dirty trick skills learned under American apartheid to preserve Jim Crow in the South against all decency, morality, and the Constitution.

            The tide really started to turn with the election of President Reagan, who regularly employed dog whistles to appeal to these white supremacists, without outwardly pandering to them. (There is even a documentary about this on Showtime on cable in the U.S. I haven’t seen it yet.)

            Now I’m arriving at addressing your point.

            These white supremacists, and those with white supremacist and racist leanings, conscious or unconscious, viewed the 2008 election of President Obama with both dread and disgust. To them, a Black man was an illegitimate candidate for President. His election was therefore illegitimate. Therefore, there was something fundamentally corrupt about the election. Therefore, there must have been a conspiracy behind his election. This in part explains the rise of the so-called Tea Party movement.

            The Republican leaders in the Senate, led by Majority Turtle “Moscow” Mitch McDonnell, vowed that the only goal of the Republicans in Congress was to make Obama a one-term President, by opposing everything he stood for.

            Obamacare was originally a conservative plan, created by the arch-conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. It had its genesis in Republican opposition to President Clinton’s attempt to create universal health care in the U.S. in 1992. It was the Republican plan to compete with the Clinton plan.

            Obama adopted it as his plan, at which point the very conservatives who created the plan opposed it.

            They failed. Obama was reelected. Obamacare is the law of the land, at least for now.

            However, the white supremacists came out of the shadows during his Presidency, culminating with the election of the single most unfit Presidential candidate in the history of the United States.

            The Orange Enemy of the people beat a profoundly qualified woman. He did so by making those racist dog whistles into clarion calls.

            For four years, he fed these conspiracy-minded followers, most of whom have a high school education or less, with lie after lie, and false conspiracy after false conspiracy.

            Today, many of them are True Believers in his lies about the election. Of course, others are opportunists–they know it’s a lie, but they do not care; they just want their man reelected, damn the democracy.

            There has been racism, bigotry, white supremacy, xenophobia, and more in this country for as long as it has existed. Our two original sins, are slavery, and the near-extermination of the Native Americans.

            Today, it’s come to the forefront, in ways that we have not seen in a long time.

            Where do you see a microcosm of this bigotry, this white supremacy, this no-nothingism, this xenophobia, this support of false conspiracies, this denialism of facts, this hatred?

            Right here on Slipped Disc, posted to the comments section by many such people.

          • V.Lind says:

            Thank you, Mr Safford, for that eloquent digest of an aspect of American history. I have been enough of a student of American history and politics, since I was 10 years old, to know how accurate it is.

            But the rot set in long before Obama. Clinton came from a southern state, if not exactly Dixie, and the hatred around him was the worst I had ever seen. I was travelling internationally throughout the late 80s, living in Asian for the last stretch of it. When I returned to North America in 1990 I found a nastier atmosphere in the air.

            Programmes like Roseanne, which I never saw but about which I could not escape information, topped TV ratings. Rush Limbaugh had become a national voice, and the Laura Ingrahams of the world were getting increasing airspace. The public discourse had taken on a more extreme tone.

            Clinton was its first (presidential) victim. Sure, there were policy differences — an awful lot of Americans for some reason (I know, because they would have to pay real taxes) oppose universal health care, something the rest of the civilised world takes for granted. Sure, there were some sexual scandals, because in puritanical America men don’t stray. But the vitriol was being poured long before there was anything specific to pour it on. And the divisiveness that is corroding American democracy at Mach speed was on its way.

            Another rot set in under Reagan. I disagreed with a lot of his policies (Iran-Contra, the air traffic controllers, others) but generally thought of him as an amiable rightwing nut. He was also dead lucky in his timing, presiding when the whole Soviet empire was collapsing (and not actually because of much he had done, despite the iconic “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” line) and Margaret Thatcher ruled with a rod of iron and a will of steel in the UK.

            But Americans liked the amiable fool. Particularly the fool part. You may have noticed that since his relatively capable VP slid past the hapless Dukakis, the Republicans have not elected anyone with a brain in his head.

            The distrust of intellect is rampant in red-state America. Whereas Clinton and Obama, and the defeated Gore and Hillary Clinton, are all brainy. Biden’s greatest selling point is his perceived ordinariness — though he is clearly an intellectual giant compared to what he replaces. Americans seem to like a C student — though unlike some, he has learned a lot since his college days, and intellect alone is no guarantee of political or leadership abilities, or even intelligence.

            What is alarming is that the red state voters have come to distrust facts as if they are some preserve of people with Ph.Ds in abstruse philosophies. And the road from that sort of ignorance to conspiracy theories and self-preservative prejudices is not a long one.

            From there to distrust of education is another short hop. Which is a pity, because if Americans would read any history (and not the watered-down America-only stuff they get in their schools) they might see that some of the most exceptional empires in the world have self-destructed. And American exceptionalism has been an article of faith, if not entirely of fact, since before DeTocqueville took a look at the whole experiment.

            As someone who grew up in awe of that experiment, I find it brutally disheartening to see it collapse, not due to external forces but from its rotting innards.

            Some of which, as you say, spill over here rather than providing argument for a position. That, unfortunately, requires rational thought and the marshalling of discussion points. Not popular in the red state right.

            I read the posts of those who take an opposing view to mine and, on occasion, modify or even change my mind about something if persuaded by facts and logic. Not popular in the American right, where Winston Churchill’s definition of a fanatic comes to mind as I watch Ann Coulter and her ilk, or read Sue Sonata Form (though she is apparently not American): “someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”

          • William Safford says:

            You’re welcome, and you are correct that this rot long predates the election of President Obama. (I hope I’m not merely telling you what you already know. Also, these posts are for others to read and perhaps learn from them if they have an open mind.)

            You know more about American politics than I know about British politics. I learned a little bit as an undergrad, which included meeting and conversing with a shadow minister (I don’t remember who now, alas), whom I escorted around campus. He and I talked a lot about PR. I have picked up some more knowledge over the years, but not in depth.

            The Orange Enemy of the People is as much a symptom of this rot, as he is the rot itself. After all, this racist con artist and grifter could not have become President without the votes of millions upon millions of like-minded bigots, and the tacit support of the Republican Party establishment.

            Nor could he have ascended to power without the support of the right wing propaganda machines that masquerade as news organizations, led by Fox News and its Australian owner, Rupert Murdoch.

            Starting back in the 1950s, conservative pundit William F. Buckley attempted to create an intellectual framework for American conservatism. Even though he was far from good on issues such as race relations (to give credit where due, he did improve somewhat later in life), he did recognize that this conservative movement had to sideline the right wing nut jobs such as the John Birch Society if it wanted to be taken seriously.

            Buckley died some years ago. The nut jobs have taken over the Republican Party.

            Re Reagan: on his watch, impeachable and prosecutable offenses were perpetrated, in the Iran-Contra scandal. Several members of his administration were convicted of crimes and jailed. Reagan and his VP, George H. W. Bush, escaped impeachment or prosecution due in part to the machinations of William Barr, who was Bush’s attorney general. After Bush was elected President, Barr recommended that Bush pardon several convicted felons from that scandal, which thereby served to protect Reagan and Bush.

            Note that Barr is now the Orange One’s attorney general. Hmmmm….

            Reagan was in many other ways a terrible president.

            One example: just as the Orange One has done as little as he can to address the current pandemic, so too did Reagan ignore AIDS. Thousands of people died due to a lack of support of research into HIV and a denial of the importance of it. Since AIDS at first predominantly affected gay people, it was not deemed by Reagan and his cohorts worthy of attention. (I give the second President Bush credit for being far better about promulgating AIDS treatment than Reagan.)

            A second example: Reagan’s promotion of supply-side economics–or, as the first Bush labeled it while campaigning against Reagan for the Republican nomination for President, “voodoo economics.”

            Re President Clinton: I am still not 100% clear why he was hated with such a passion by so many right wingers. They did not hate all Democrats with the same vituperation. Part of the reason may be his outsider status. Another part may be his warm relations with Black and nonwhite people. He lived for a time as a child with his grandparents. “At a time when the southern United States was racially segregated, Clinton’s grandparents sold goods on credit to people of all races.” (Wikipedia) Clinton grew up in the last years of American legal apartheid.

            I agree with your observation about the lack of quality of Republican Presidents since the first Bush: the second Bush was in way over his head, and the Orange One is unfit to be President.

            Compare this with the quality of Democratic Presidents. Carter is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and had some training in submarine nuclear power plant operation. Clinton is a Rhodes scholar, and attended University College, Oxford. Obama “was the first black person to be president of the Harvard Law Review” (Wikipedia) at Harvard Law School, and was a law school professor.

            Furthermore, look at the quality of candidates for the Republican Presidential nomination of the last several election cycles. They have ranged from somewhat competent but generally mediocre (Jeb Bush), to truly mediocre (most of the rest).

            I also agree with you about American sexual hypocrisy. Think back to the Clinton impeachment. He was impeached essentially for having sex with an adult intern, as an excuse to get rid of him. Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich led the movement to impeach him. Gingrich was outed for having his own affairs. He resigned his seat after the House Republicans unexpectedly lost seats in the midterm Congressional election. “The Speaker-designate, Representative Bob Livingston, chosen by the Republican Party Conference to replace Gingrich as House Speaker, announced the end of his candidacy for Speaker and his resignation from Congress from the floor of the House after his own marital infidelity came to light….Many other prominent Republican members of Congress (including Dan Burton, Helen Chenoweth, and Henry Hyde, the chief House manager of Clinton’s trial in the Senate) had infidelities exposed about this time, all of whom voted for impeachment.” (Wikipedia)

            Finally, Hastert became Speaker. Decades later, he was exposed as a pedophile who had sex with boys. Hmmmmm….

            The American experiment in democracy is not yet over. However, this abominable President is testing it in a way that we have never seen before. This is the greatest internal threat that we have faced at least since the McCarthy era, and probably since the Civil War.

            One more note. Senator McCarthy’s right hand man was a lawyer named Roy Cohn. Cohn’s last protégé was Donald Trump. Hmmmmm….

          • V.Lind says:

            I’m going to leave this for now as I think we are essentially on the same page. Let’s hope the US will accept soon that they have a new President — and enjoy his musical guests at the Inauguration.

          • William Safford says:

            Sounds good. This process is happening. We are starting to see honest Republican civil servants and lower-echelon political figures ratify the results of the election, even when under intense political pressure from the Orange One and his cronies. We are seeing judge after judge reject the specious lawsuits.

            This is a good sign.

            I listened to the clip of the fiddler that NL put up in a different blog post. She sounds good.

            I look forward to seeing who else is invited to the inauguration. For that matter, I wonder what kind of inauguration it will be. How much of it will be virtual, how much outdoors, how will it be socially distanced? We’ll see.

          • Hayne says:

            Hahaha! How quaint.

        • Petros Linardos says:

          Biden’s margin of victory is greater than any margin of error in all states. Election officials have consistently confirmed the integrity of this election.

          There is a chance, however, that Trump and his ilk will stage a coup of sorts and steal the election. That chance seems minimal.

      • Marge O. says:

        No he is not president-elect anything. The courts will decide not the us propaganda “media” and fake us “news”

      • Occamsrazor says:

        American, go to Facebook and see for yourself that Biden has been demoted from president-elect to candidate for president, husband to Jill, proud father and grandfather. Even Facebook is covering up their ass for the inevitable demise of his campaign and the subsequent federal criminal trial. Biden has been chosen as the democratic candidate for the reason of his dementia so that in the case of a criminal investigation he can plead mental incompetence and avoid the slammer.

        • William Safford says:

          Troll.

        • American says:

          Occamsrazor, are you seriously suggesting I get my information from Facebook and Infowars, as you cited above? If these are the sources you use to get your news, you are a victim of the disinformation that is so rampant in society.

          I would NEVER click on a link from Infowars, home to Alex Jones, denier of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the massacre in Sandy Hook, among other absurd conspiracy theories. Families of victims have successfully sued him, because his words are extremely harmful, as are yours.

          We’d like to ignore the trolls, to say they’re irrelevant. The problem is that their conspiracy theories are amplified and repeated so much that gullible people believe what they say. Then those same people act on those lies as if they’re fact. See the problem? When you perpetuate lies, you’re working to make the world worse for all of us, but I guess you knew that.

          • Occamsrazor says:

            American, upholding the official versions of major events like 911, Kennedy’s murder, the current deadly plague that can be eradicated by dust masks and a combination therapy of committing economic suicide and giving up human rights forever, is either due to genuinely low IQ, the blind kind of patriotism and the understandable fear of tptb upon learning the eerie truth which by the way has been cheerfully discussed by billions of people everywhere since 911. The latter cause is the most common one and astute observers easily determine the correct cause of conformity in most cases. Terminal ignorance is very hard to conceal and isn’t that common among the so called educated people, although the level of basic knowledge of science among the art degree holders is shockingly low, enough to render many of them dangerous to themselves. I’ve known so many people with graduate degrees from major conservatories eating mostly French fries and diet soda and explaining that it’s their fiscal strategy to save money for fun things like being able to afford designer clothes and beer occasionally. They had a vague idea that such food was “bad” and that was the extent of their knowledge of chemistry. Blind patriotism is common among the right wing and is sometimes mistaken for terminal ignorance. It’s the least despicable among the 3 causes because at least it has the somewhat noble foundation. The intellectual coward kind is the most common among the leftist art people, they are soft and facing powers capable of committing the unthinkable makes them visibly scared. Once in the late 2000’s while in the company of a good friend, a well-educated, old right-wing religious Jewish guy who was unfortunately not very courageous and incapable of facing these truths after years of 911 info being widely available, I ran into an old crusty CIA guy with a high security clearance. His early work included machine-gunning Vietnamese pow’s and getting a basic salary of 1$ and 50 cents an hour. I whispered to my friend in Russian:” how about I ask the CIA dude about who did 911 if you give me your permission because he’s your friend and I understand the unethical aspects of such questions?” My friend unexpectedly said why not. I repeated the question to make sure he understood correctly what I was about to do since we were both a little stoned at the time. The Jewish grandpa told me to go ahead and even promised to accept the CIA answer as the correct version of reality. I was shaking with anticipation as I asked the guy if he would kindly share his opinion about the 911 story expecting to be told the same official drivel but with a few choice curses that only the real soldiers use. The CIA dude said within a second:”it was us”. My friend stood there with literally his mouth open and then we hurriedly shook hands with the CIA who was entirely sober at the time and got the hell out of there. The fact that such a person isn’t afraid to voice such opinions even though an average person like me at the time expected 100% chance of getting a canned official response, changed my world view forever. Here’s a guy who has photos of his with American presidents, committing what I thought was suicide in front of me. Before that I thought only average people like me could express such opinions without fear while holders of high security clearances would rather play Russian roulette than even whisper such things to their relatives. This story reduced my respect for the politically-correct intelligentsia to about zero because it wasn’t far from that anyway. By the way my definition of what it means to be American is much closer to that old soldier than someone like you even though you call yourself that, and setting the old soldiers’ obviously morally ambiguous biography aside.

          • William Safford says:

            Troll.

    • BruceB says:

      *YAWN*

      That has always been true in every presidential election. The election isn’t official until all the electors have cast their official electoral college votes. It was even true back in 2016; I don’t remember #45’s supporters urging restraint back then, though.

  • James Weiss says:

    So much for Joe Biden bringing culture back to the presidency. Egads.

    • Peter Phillips says:

      James Weiss seriously underestimates the Chieftans. Their performances are historically informed and in their earlier days approached the authenticity of Sean O’Riada’s work; he was also happy to popularise in film music (Mise Eire). So it’s a great and discerning choice musically.

  • John Nemaric says:

    If that is a fact it is a bad, very bad choice indeed. If I may, El Presidente should recall The Dubliners and specially Ronnie Drew (for the solo) and they have to perform “The Holy Ground” for the Orange Fantôme’s (outgoing) honors. Then bring The Chieftains and The Dubliners to play together. I know The Dubliners are hard to get these days, but we should try anyway.

  • Inchiquin says:

    Culture has to be imported into US. The only indigenous culture being native tribal, they could have invited them really. After all everyone else is an invader.

    • Sitting Bull says:

      Yes the native indigenous population have a case, they could politely ask them all to leave and return to Eastern Europe, Russia, Poland, Germany, Ireland, UK France etc. Makes sense and return to a low carbon hunter gatherer economy.

  • Inchiquin says:

    Biden is as Irish as a VW Polo.

    • Dander says:

      A VW Polo is German, although it probably is made in South Africa or Brazil. Biden is just trying to get support from a dwindling IA population. US no longer has a big IA block.

      • Danny Boy says:

        Beg to differ. Irish people are mostly Catholic, not traditionally big fans of birth control & tend to have big families with lots of descendants. That goes for the Irish in Ireland & the Irish who immigrated to the US.

        You know all those Irish immigrants who came over to the US during the potato famine & various other points in history? Well, lets just say they produced legions of descendants in the US. Big Catholic families with lots & lots of children, all of Irish descent.

        The US didn’t limit Irish immigration as it did immigration from other countries, so our genetic influence in the US is pretty extensive. Those Irish immigrants are our ancestors. Those are Joe Biden’s ancestors & they’re mine, too.

        But several generations later, we are integrated. We are not a “block” who vote together. We are of Irish heritage but we are integrated into US society completely. We vote for whoever we feel like voting for. We don’t act like some big Irish mafia (although those did exist some time ago in the US) and all vote the same. We don’t usually favor other people of Irish descent politically because most of the time we don’t even know who they are. Most Irish Americans had no idea that Biden was of Irish descent.

        You must be watching some old Hollywood gangster movies from the 1920’s or something. The “Irish American vote”?? What is that even?

        Get up to date. Stop accusing Irish Americans of 1. not being of Irish descent and 2. of being some kind of voting mafia that politicians like Biden have to appeal to. You’re being ridiculous.

    • William Safford says:

      How many sock puppets are there of you?

  • Doc Martin says:

    FAO Joe Biden (Acting Bottle washer 2nd Class in waiting)

    Pfizer’s claim their vaccine “may be more than 90% effective”. The specific data are not given in their press release, however it is easy enough to approximate the numbers involved, based on the 94 cases in a trial that has enrolled about 40,000 subjects: 8 cases in a vaccine group of 20,000 and 86 cases in a placebo group of 20,000.

    This yields a Covid-19 attack rate of 0.0004 in the vaccine group and 0.0043 in the placebo group. Relative risk (RR) for vaccination is 0.093, which translates into a “vaccine effectiveness” of 90.7% [100(1-0.093)]. This may sound impressive, but the absolute risk reduction for an individual is only about 0.4% (0.0043-0.0004=0.0039).

    The number needed to vaccinate (NNTV) is 256 (1/0.0039), which means that to prevent just one Covid-19 case, 256 individuals must get the vaccine; the other 255 individuals derive no benefit at all, but are subject to vaccine adverse effects, whatever they may be and whenever we learn about them.

    We’ve already heard that an early effect of the vaccine is “like a hangover or the flu.” Will vaccinees who are later exposed to coronaviruses have more severe illness as a result of antibody-dependent enhancement of infection (ADEI), a known hazard of coronavirus vaccines? Is there squalene in the Pfizer vaccine? If so, will vaccinees be subject to autoimmune diseases, like Gulf War Syndrome and narcolepsy that have been associated with the adjuvant?

    We already know that current Covid-19 vaccine trials are unlikely to show a reduction in severe illness or deaths. Will they be like seasonal influenza vaccines, which have not proved to be lifesavers, and may even have increased overall mortality in the elderly?

    We need a lot more time and a lot more data, especially in view of massive uncertainties about Covid-19 case definitions and statistics before embarking on a mass vaccination programme.

    • Dander says:

      Yes Doc, they are rushing it, cutting the timeline to 10 months using emergency approval and waiving your rights to vaccine damages is just making a bad situation a whole lot worse.

  • V.Lind says:

    I’d like to thank NL for returning the posting section to the previous format. Nice to know he takes contributor response on board.

  • Marge O. says:

    He has not won nor elected. 37days for the Al Bore selection in 2000. Please review us history

    • American says:

      No, Marge O., you’re incorrect. The situation with Gore was completely different. Please review U.S. (not “us”) history. We lived it. There was a recount happening in Florida (remember the hanging chads?) when Republican aides, posing as “concerned citizens” staged a protest, which halted the recount and left the decision in the hands of a Republican. But the rest of us were ready this time.

      I realize you want us to keep the dangerously incompetent traitor in charge, but he has lost both the popular and electoral college. Interestingly, Republicans in general this election did better than their dear leader, which means many people voted against Chump specifically. Most reasonable, educated people have an intense dislike of him and the ruin he has wrought on our nation.

      So far, Republican officials are not willing to overturn the will of the people. Biden will be our president. Get used to it.

      • Danny Boy says:

        Love your comment. Bravo. Best post in this thread!

      • Occamsrazor says:

        “Biden will be our president. Get used to it.” American, get used to what, the entire USA looking like Portland or Seattle? Including the nuclear facilities? Do you think one out of 3 superpowers and arguably the greatest at the moment will be surrendered to those people? The only reason Russia which was betrayed and pretty much occupied in 1991 was allowed a degree of independence instead of a full scale occupation and dismemberment was the unacceptable risk of chaos and the countless nuclear facilities falling into the hands of drunk Russians who would play the piano with red keys just for the hell of it.

  • Curvy Honk Glove says:

    Let’s not forget the true hero of this narrative: Tara Reade. It’s rare that you find someone so willing to take one for the team.

  • Sharon says:

    To save money he could have used a US military band

  • William Safford says:

    Today, the Electoral College electors cast their votes.

    They officially ratified that Joe Biden is the President-Elect, with the same margin of electoral college victory as the Orange Enemy of the People received four years ago.

    Of course, the popular vote was millions higher for Joe Biden than for Orange One.

    There are a few more steps between now and the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.

    No problem–Joe Biden is President-Elect. He will be President in just over a month from now.

    The Orange Sore Loser will then be a private citizen.

  • William Safford says:

    Alas, the Chieftans did not perform at today’s inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Harris. I hope they will have a future role in some presidential event.

  • MOST READ TODAY: