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Let’s put billionaire donations in perspective: the Ballmers
One genre of news coverage I hate is the “generous billionaire” story. This one’s from Forbes: After an exceptionally tough year for public media, Connie Ballmer, billionaire philanthropist and wife of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, donated $80 million to support NPR’s future. I don’t have to read any more than this, which is cool, because I don’t have…
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The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 28
Our primary election “autopsy” (GOP is evil, Dems are incompetent); a medical emergency portends sad future for Kentucky; get out and visit the state, and Shakespeare is back in Louisville (to like or not to like, with a dramatic reading from a galaxy far, far away). Attica Scott: Kentucky democrats need to reckon with a…
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The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 27
Election Day in Kentucky and its implications, IVF in the courts and we’re out of town at home and abroad. CORRECTION: The GOP senator who lost his primary was Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. We incorrectly said it was a North Carolina senator. In this podcast, we refer to: Republican fights to survive Trump’s wrath in…
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The murals of Louisville
We do a lot of walking through the streets of Louisville. As we noted in our last podcast, we also run across murals you won’t necessarily notice if you’re driving through the city, like the painting at the top of noted mid-20th century singer Rosemary Clooney, the aunt of actor George Clooney, located on a…
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‘No Kings’ in Louisville
Thousands of people gathered in downtown Louisville Saturday as part of the nationwide “No Kings” rallies. Of course, our local paper’s coverage was less than ideal (the best it could do was run a bunch of photos that had the same caption), but that doesn’t compare to the Fox News headlines blaring such dumb shit…
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‘Civil Disobedience’ is not anathema to U.S. history
Millions of Americans will rally on Saturday in the latest “No Kings” protests. As notes in a previous post there are more than 30 demonstrations slated throughout Kentucky on March 28. With that in mind, it’s worth noting that PBS is promoting a Ken Burns documentary on Henry David Thoreau, the 19th century “teacher, scientist,…
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The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 23
“No Kings” rallies coming as Iran War continues; higher oil prices in the Bluegrass state; MAGA muddies state legislature; Chumps for Trump debate; why are we so unhealthy; disrespect for women’s sports on the local level and a new bridge from Kentucky to Ohio. Some of the things we discuss: Find your nearest March 28…
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The ‘patriotic’ invasion through the Fox (Fake) News spectrum
So, the president of the United States is a corrupt, racist grifter who, as the Epstein Files emphasizes, is also a serial pedophile. The logical step in dealing with this on the White House level is to create a distraction. And what’s his best outlet for distraction? Fox News. Remember, how we went through this…
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Citizen Bezos
Since one of the richest men in the world recently decided to gut the Washington Post, firing a third of its journalists not long after it instituted buyouts that had already slashed jobs, it’s time to compare the current newspaper owner to the greatest newspaper mogul in cinema history. Here’s a clip from “Citizen Kane”:…
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The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 21
Black History Month and the history of American oppression; Kentucky Republicans continue to act against constituents’ interests; municipal legislators fall short (again); dealing with ICE; another failure in journalism, and honorably mentioning local sports. Our discussion includes: The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who led the Civil Rights Movement for decades after King, has died at 84…
