Althouse: In my mind, I'm going to the Democratic Convention/Can't you see the sunshine/Can't you just feel the moonshine/Ain't it just like a friend of mine/To defenestrate Joe Biden....

August 20, 2024

In my mind, I'm going to the Democratic Convention/Can't you see the sunshine/Can't you just feel the moonshine/Ain't it just like a friend of mine/To defenestrate Joe Biden....

60 comments:

Cappy said...: Can't you just smell the bullshine...; 8/20/24, 7:33 AM
Temujin said...: Love the empty chair comment. Wonder how many in that audience got it.
Well...even though I know he's a lifelong Democrat and mostly a Massachusetts level one at that, it's impossible for me to not like James Taylor. Sorry. Too many great songs over too many years and miles listening to him. His voice is the voice of a friend. And though I cannot listen to the song 'You've got a Friend' ever again in my life, the rest of his oeuvre is always welcome in my home.
I suspect James is just an old lifelong Democrat, and even though the party has gone far left, to the point of celebrating killing babies and cutting body parts off of kids, in his mind, its still just the old Dems. It's not, but James gets a pass. One of the few in my mind.; 8/20/24, 7:33 AM
Dave Begley said...: He must use Hillary’s plastic surgeon.; 8/20/24, 7:36 AM
Humperdink said...: “In my mind, I’m going to the Democrat Convention”.

Funny, Josh Shapiro and John Fetterman chose to skip it. Politicians from arguably the most important swing state.; 8/20/24, 7:39 AM
Kevin said...: So nothing about the transsexuals?; 8/20/24, 7:43 AM
Saint Croix said...: I liked that Clint Eastwood joke!; 8/20/24, 7:51 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: What Temujin said.; 8/20/24, 7:54 AM
tastid212 said...: The Dems have a lousy hand but they're very good players. Trump has a good hand but is often a crappy player. Place yer bets.; 8/20/24, 7:56 AM
Inga said...: Josh Shapiro was at the convention.; 8/20/24, 7:56 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: I just read elsewhere that he (along with Debbie Wasserman-Schulz) had been bumped from the program last night because it was running over so long and they needed to get Joe on=stage before the drugs wore off. Did JT go on later then?; 8/20/24, 7:57 AM
Mary Beth said...: James Taylor in 2012. They bumped him in 2024.; 8/20/24, 7:57 AM
Mary Beth said...: Look at the date on the video.; 8/20/24, 7:58 AM
Jamie said...: Yes, Shapiro was there, denying with vehemence that he was passed over (despite his very probable ability to deliver Pennsylvania to a candidate who has been adamant about banning fracking) because Democrats have, as Van Johnson put it, an antisemitism problem. Naturally he was asked to comment on it in the context of Trump - "What's your response to Donald Trump's claim that ..."

And his answer, about the man with the daughter who converted to Judaism and the Jewish grandkids, was that Trump is a big fat bigot (and implied antisemite) with no room to talk.

Ok, but Trump hasn't thrown over his son-in-law... not yet, anyway.

I still think Shapiro got into that room with Harris, listened to her for a bit, and said to himself, "No way I want to be a part of this." His comments later, about "not having come out of the meeting with a good feeling," have been interpreted as his realizing Harris didn't like him, but it seems much more likely to me that he didn't like her, and didn't want her tarnish rubbing off on him.; 8/20/24, 8:12 AM
Jamie said...: Odds this morning: Harris at -102, Trump at +110. They've been creeping Trump's way since Harris's incredibly tone-deaf economic policy speech.; 8/20/24, 8:14 AM
wendybar said...: Megyn Kelly
@megynkelly

All AOC wants is to be a star. Congressional Kardashian.
9:45 PM · Aug 19, 2024; 8/20/24, 8:20 AM
Iman said...: I fully support bumping Debbie Poodleman Scheisse off the planet.; 8/20/24, 8:27 AM
Wince said...: Ain't it just like a friend of mine/To defenestrate Joe Biden

Why change the lyric? The original was exactly on point:

And ain't it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind?; 8/20/24, 8:28 AM
wendybar said...: I didn't realize we never had a President of the United States before... Progressives teach me something everyday about their Unicorn Utopia...https://nypost.com/2024/08/19/us-news/gov-hochul-calls-kamala-harris-first-president-of-the-united-states-in-dnc-speech/; 8/20/24, 8:32 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: As he ages he resembles James Carville.; 8/20/24, 8:37 AM
Aggie said...: Give muh somah that ol'-fashioned, pure-D natural sacchrine, baby. James is there as chief drone, to give us that nasally summons, and the ladies are lappin' it up, desperate to belong to something, anything.; 8/20/24, 8:38 AM
Jamie said...: I hated Handyman - it was supposed to be all sexy or something, but with THAT voice?

Similarly, we have friends who think Chris Isaak is the ultimate sexytime music, but all I can think of when I hear his awful Wicked Game dreck is that he sounds like Rick Astley. Ugh, and we have ANOTHER friend who fancies himself quite the musician and will play and sing Wicked Game at the slightest provocation, doing THAT voice.; 8/20/24, 8:55 AM
JAORE said...: Women are not without electrical power.... until our Green New Deal comes to fruition.; 8/20/24, 8:56 AM
Clyde said...: It's mostly the really old white guys who are like that, not realizing that their party has left them and that they are voting against their own interests. My father, for instance. Lifelong Democrat, remembers that FDR helped bring electricity to his part of Texas and remains eternally grateful for that. Believes all the MSM bullshit about Trump. Nothing you can do about folks like that.; 8/20/24, 8:58 AM
Humperdink said...: Re: Shapiro. It was reported earlier that both he and Fetterman would not be attending. When will Shapiro be speaking?; 8/20/24, 9:00 AM
Clyde said...: Also, the old saying among religious folks was that the Devil had all the good music. These days, it's the Democrats who have all the good music, since most musicians (and artists of all stripes as well) tend to be left-leaning. It comes from feeling rather than thinking. This also explains why more women tend to be Democrats than men. You know it's true.; 8/20/24, 9:01 AM
Bob Boyd said...: I like James Taylors music, but that hat! It makes him look like a creepy snake oil salesman.
On second thought, maybe it was perfect for the occasion.; 8/20/24, 9:02 AM
narciso said...: he was in that song, I just remember the hawt model from the video; 8/20/24, 9:03 AM
narciso said...: And two years later, you had charlie hebdo, and john kerry; 8/20/24, 9:04 AM
Kirk Parker said...: James Taylor? Ugh.

His voice is grating; his guitar playing, while technically brilliant, is rarely all that musical; his songwriting is mediocre at best. Y'all are welcome to him, but no thanks!; 8/20/24, 9:54 AM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: Sure, 75 million legitimate votes for president, increased his own totals over the previous election by over 20%, won 19 of 20 bellwhether counties...crappy playing, Trump. All the while he was fighting the USA/Party government, USA/Party media, and his own party (GOP/D) singlehandedly. Then they finally attempt to assassinate him, shoot him in the face, and he gets up and gives them the finger.... crappy playing, Trump.....
JFC, you people are dense, soft and dense with MSM mush for brains.; 8/20/24, 9:57 AM
Tina Trent said...: Perfect use of "defenestrate." The political plus the visceral. Whatever joy is on that stage is certainly joy tinged with defenestration.; 8/20/24, 9:58 AM
wendybar said...: Kristan Hawkins
@KristanHawkins

Boy did The Simpsons nail it in 1994 nail it or what.
https://x.com/KristanHawkins/status/1825732348727439813; 8/20/24, 9:59 AM
tommyesq said...: that makes the empty chair joke a bit more timely.; 8/20/24, 10:06 AM
Aggie said...: The video is 11 years old.; 8/20/24, 10:12 AM
Howard said...: Wow. Y'all need to make appointments for counseling by Jordan Peterson. If even James Taylor can make you feel aggravated aggrieved with petty jealousy and insane conspiratorial anguish, you need some serious help.; 8/20/24, 10:19 AM
Humperdink said...: Beta white males for Kamala. Fitting.

BTW Howard, James Taylor does not grieve me. He’s just a mockable face who is way past his “use by” date.; 8/20/24, 10:26 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: james taylor seems so appropriate for the Democrat convention. You might as well hang up a sign "Straight men - keep out".; 8/20/24, 10:41 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: If you don't like Mel Gibson, you're just jealous and full of bitter envy. LOL!; 8/20/24, 10:53 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: I always love how dumb average people have this weird "Friendship" with millionaire celebrities that they dont know - except from TV/Movies/Etc. And if criticise them, they get upset and say you're full of "envy". Goddamn, trying to unwrap that sychophantic fantasy and understand it, is almost impossible.; 8/20/24, 10:55 AM
Lazarus said...: Shouldn't Sweet Baby James be in Kursk or Gaza now bringing world peace?

Shouldn't the Democrats have arranged for a cat-sitter so that Carly Simon could come and serenade them.; 8/20/24, 11:07 AM
Joe Smith said...: He is the equivalent of musical Wonder Bread. Not a lot there. Now he's just an over-the-hill lefty entertainer who still can't sing enough to bring about world peace. Time to retire.; 8/20/24, 11:08 AM
Joe Smith said...: Couldn't find a box for him to stand on.; 8/20/24, 11:10 AM
Joe Smith said...: That's technically brilliant guitar playing? I guess I know a lot of technically brilliant guitar players.; 8/20/24, 11:11 AM
hombre said...: He's so vain!; 8/20/24, 11:20 AM
George Leroy Tirebiter said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/20/24, 11:27 AM
George Leroy Tirebiter said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/20/24, 11:36 AM
George Leroy Tirebiter said...: A much better, incredibly beautiful song about North Carolina, written and sung by my old friend Steve Runkle, with accompaniment by rest of The Contenders, who were definitely in the insanely great, criminally obscure band category.

The Contenders - Light From Carolina; 8/20/24, 11:38 AM
Iman said...: “And ain't it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind?

…and I’m eating deep dish pizza in my mind.”; 8/20/24, 11:49 AM
mikee said...: I had an exGF who heard the Taylor song "You've Got A Friend" and told me, long after our breakup, instigated by her, that she felt that way toward me. Either she was so dumb that she didn't know or understand the lyrics, a real possibility, or she thought then the way the Dems do now, always thinking only of what can be, unburdened by what has been. I have never been so glad to have lost a GF as that one.; 8/20/24, 12:12 PM
TosaGuy said...: Glad the GOP has Lee Greenwood as its aging go-to singer instead of James Taylor.; 8/20/24, 12:41 PM
mezzrow said...: "I chatted with one young man with peroxide blond hair who was holding an unfamiliar (to me) communist banner. He explained that it was a “Stalinist-Hoxhaist” flag, after Enver Hoxha, the lunatic leader of communist Albania. I asked why he was a Hoxhaist, of all things. He said he was still completing his political education, and asked that I direct further questions to his comrade, who was dressed like Strelnikov in Doctor Zhivago. When I persisted, he explained that his “buddies” were also all Hoxhaists. He himself had been a psychology student at the University of Wisconsin, but dropped out when he ran out of money."
The Democrats in Chicago; 8/20/24, 1:41 PM
narciso said...: One loves America the other doesnt really care; 8/20/24, 2:29 PM
wendybar said...: Deon Joseph
@ofcrdeonjoseph
When they condition you to be emotional thinkers, you lose reason. That is what has happened to many for 60 years supporting the Democratic Party. And this version of the party I have belonged to for my entire life is unrecognizable and dark.

No other group in this nation or world rationally votes for or supports people who systematically causes their misery. Twisted people who ignore you for four years, then use you to gain power only to abandon you again. You can’t do that to rational people. You can’t do that to people of reason. You can only do that to an abused and conditioned people. They are from all walks of life.

We are in an emotionally abusive relationship with this version of the party.

I look into the crowd of the DNC, and become saddened. Singing and clapping for more disappointment. More failure.

But I’m thankful to see many opening their eyes every election cycle. That’s why I’m speaking up.

I’m okay with being called names. I’m okay with family looking at me sideways.

My love for them is why I can’t be silent. My concern for their future is why I can’t vote party anymore.

America is not perfect. But it can’t go from
Imperfect to… Venezuela. Whether I win or lose in this effort, whether I stand alone or have thousands standing with me. I have to stand.

I know evil when I see it. And as the saying goes “Evil men prosper when good men are silent.

That’s the Joseph way.

Hilda Thielen 🇺🇸🇻🇪
@HildaThielen
·

Replying to @ofcrdeonjoseph
I hear you. I’m Venezuelan living in the US. I remember when we used to say “Venezuela was not Cuba”. And I know many here say “USA is not Venezuela”, but this is exactly how it all started….
12:13 AM · Aug 20, 2024; 8/20/24, 4:32 PM
Butkus51 said...: Didnt Mozart perform at a DNC? Joe was there. Wolfgang was a hoot.; 8/20/24, 5:38 PM
Kirk Parker said...: Joe Smith,

Apologies for misleading you; I meant my statement in general, in response to the James Taylor adulation exhibited here, and not specifically about the linked video (which I must confess I did not listen to.); 8/20/24, 5:54 PM
Marcus Bressler said...: I read Carly Simon's autobiography: James Taylor, heroin addict, asshole, and misogynist. Ask her what she went through. Their duo on "Mockingbird" was cringe before I knew what cringe meant. BTW, "You've Got A Friend" was written and performed by Carole King on her great "Tapestry" album. Her version is vastly superior to the daytime-television version he put out on Mudslide Slim. I liked his first release, Sweet Baby James, but not much afterwards.; 8/20/24, 6:30 PM
Marcus Bressler said...: Let's have Hank Williams, Jr. sing this version of his dad's song: (to the tune of "Jambalaya" by Hank WIlliams, 1952)
Goodbye Joe, he gotta go, me oh, my oh!
Can't afford the all things I used to buy, me oh, my oh
My red cap, MAGA one, me oh, my oh
DJT will win PA and Ohio,.
Kid with a gun, a sloped roof, Secret Service
Were that night, three blind mice, oh so nervous
Shots went off, kid thought, he'd be a hero
Butler cop took him out, he's dead on arriv-oh!
Donald Trump, turned his head so, he wasn't dying
CNN said Trump took a fall, they started lying
Trump stood up, raised a fist, me oh, my oh
Yelled, Fight! Fight! In USA, we got our HERO!; 8/20/24, 6:34 PM
YoungHegelian said...: I'm still trying to figure out if I can work the words "I left my vas deferens in Ol' Chicago" to the tune of 'I left my heart in San Francisco", but so far no luck. Here's the story on the vasectomy/abortion pill truck at the DNC.; 8/20/24, 6:49 PM
walter said...: I always think of him tagging along with John Kerry.; 8/20/24, 9:16 PM
Rusty said...: He looks like an even more demented Juaquin Pheonix.; 8/21/24, 12:08 PM