Two weeks ago today, an overflow crowd of melody aficionados at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts were treated to a two hour concert from musicians assembled from twenty-one Washoe County Schools.
There were four separate orchestras, one from the 7th grade, one from the 8th grade, a combination of 9th and 10th grade and a combination of 11th and 12th grade. Each separate orchestra contained some thirty or forty gifted young people and there were three separate guest conductors, from out of town, to lead the four orchestras. The three conductors were Dr. Angela Ammerman, Kirt Mosier and Dr. Robert Gillespie. In addition to their very professional performance, each conductor added a dash of humor in their presentations. In Kirt Mosier’s appearance, three of the four songs were of his creation with one of them being played for the first time.
Probably the most impressive item of the performance was that so many musicians from the 21 schools involved practiced together for less than a month and performed so flawlessly at the event.
The upshot of the evening was that the musical culture is alive and well in Washoe County and bodes well for the future. I was fortunate enough to attend courtesy of the family of Nat Mousaw, a violinist in the 8th grade orchestra***.
SCHIFFWRECK. I wanted to let the Impeachment Inquiry terminate last Thursday before commenting on it. Apparently it turned out to be nothing more than a Schiffwreck up Schiff Creek. What started out with a lie in the form of frustrated screen writer Schiff’s rendition of the famous phone call between President Trump and the President of Ukraine ended with Schiff’s long diatribe in which he perorated, postulated and pontificated a long session of boring television. Most of the witnesses, who Schiff called, whether in private or public, gave testimony based on hearsay, assumption, or presumption when it came to the question of quid pro quo. There certainly was quid in the form of the money that was eventually released to Ukraine. But there was no quo in the form of the non investigation that Trump had requested.
In the phone call Trump asked for a “favor” in the testimony that Lt. Col. Vindman proliferated the word “demand” was substituted for the word favor. In all cases when there is confusion as to a definition I refer to Webster’s dictionary. The word favor is defined as a gracious act, kind regard, good will; partiality; token of generosity or esteem and so forth. On the other hand, “demand” is to ask authoritatively or pro-peremptorily; to question; to require and so forth. In addition to his changing of the word, Vindman, who is an army veteran, went outside the chain of command to voice his objection to the President’s phone call. He said he spoke to several people other than his immediate superior about the “demand”. When it became apparent that one of those person’s may have been the so call “whistleblower” chairman Schiff immediately shut down the questioning.
As to the whistleblower’s complaint, it was revealed that he had consulted with Schiff’s staff and possibly Schiff himself before going to a lawyer who was the same lawyer who several years ago was famous for the quote “the coup has begun”. When the final draft of the complaint was sent to the IG it reeked of legalese.
What was interesting in both the hearings was that Rudy Giuliani’s name was mentioned as many times as Trump’s. This was due to the fact that Giuliani, as the President’s personal lawyer, was doing his best to root out the corruption that existed in Ukraine and its possible influence on the 2016 Presidential Election in favor of Hillary Clinton. Back channel diplomacy has always been present in diplomatic relations. The most famous case occurred during the Cuban Missile Crisis when JFK sent his brother Bobby to negotiate a quid pro quo wherein Russian missiles would be removed from Cuba if US missiles would be removed from Europe.
The most odious questioner on the Democrat side of the Impeachment Inquiry next to Schiff was Rep. Swalwell, who is so full of himself and hot air that he seemed ready to explode. Actually he did get some of that hot air out on a CNN interview.
The real danger for the Democrats going forward on impeachment is that Adam Schiff, a well-known prevaricator, may be called as a witness along with Hunter Biden by the Senate Committee.
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