Leonard Bernstein? From WIKIPEDIA:
Leonard Bernstein (/ˈbɜːrnstaɪn/ BURN-styne;[1] August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the U.S. to receive worldwide acclaim. According to music critic Donal Henahan, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history."[2]
His fame derived from his long tenure as the music director of the New York Philharmonic, from his conducting of concerts with most of the world's leading orchestras, and from his music for West Side Story, Peter Pan,[3] Candide, Wonderful Town, On the Town, On the Waterfront, his Mass, and a range of other compositions, including three symphonies and many shorter chamber and solo works.
Bernstein was the first conductor to give a series of television lectures on classical music, starting in 1954 and continuing until his death. He was a skilled pianist,[4] often conducting piano concertos from the keyboard. He was also a critical figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler, the composer he was most passionately interested in.[5]
As a composer he wrote in many styles encompassing symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and pieces for the piano. Many of his works are regularly performed around the world, although none has matched the tremendous popular and critical success of West Side Story.
So that's his critical reputation. When I think of him, I think of the story John Mulaney told in his most recent comedy stand-up:
My dad's a very weird, informal guy. A lot of people ask me if he gave me a sex talk. Yes. I think. I was like 12 years old and my dad walked up to me and he said, “Hello… Hello, I'm Chip Mulaney. I’m your father.” And then he said the following, “You know, Leonard Bernstein was one of the great composers and conductors of the 20th century, but sometimes he would be gay. And according to a biography I read of him, when he was holding back the gay part, he did some of his best work.” Now we don't have time to unpack all of that. And I don't know if he was discouraging me from being gay or encouraging me to be a classical composer. But that is how he thought to phrase it to a 12-year-old boy. How would that ever work? Like years later, I'd be in college about to go down on some rocking twink and I'd be like, “Wait a second. What would Leonard Bernstein do?” I've never talked to my dad about that, but I figured I would tell all of you.
So if Bradley makes the movie and, in the promotion of it, doesn't say, "Hey, I'm gay" . . . What do we think about him?
Most of us heard he was gay when he was on ALIAS. That might not be true. That could just be bad gossip. But he was supposedly having an affair with Victor Garber back then. If it's not gossip and it is true, promoting the film would be a good time to come out. He would lose a lot of respect if he were gay and didn't come out then.
Again, he may not be gay. It could be just rumors. And gay or not, Bradley's an attractive and sexy man who is a fantasy for many women and men.
But there's something rather sad about the Richard Chamberlains who wait until they're in their 80s to come out.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Tuesday, January 21, 2020. Joe Biden has serious 'electability' issues,
protests continue in Iraq, another Iraqi journalist is killed and much
more.
Let's start with the stupid.
Let's start with the stupid.
"How 5 members of Joe Biden's family got rich through his connections," a link shared by Donald Trump Jr.
Ivanka, Eric, Melania and the rest of the Trump's got rich off their own skills and abilities and their family connections weren't involved in this at all.
Donald Trump was a private citizen. You can be sure that Bill and Melinda Gates' children are getting rich off their last name. Before Donald was president, his children were already rich and already benefiting from nepotism. If you see something they're doing since he became president, please call that out. Absolutely. Because Donald is no longer a private citizen, he's a public servant and that comes with ethical obligations.
Joe Biden's entire work career was as a public servant. His family getting rich on the taxpayer's dime or getting rich because they're cashing in on our servant -- that's what he was, our servant? No, that's completely different. That's why there are laws and that's why there are guidelines.
You appear to think you can throw 'Not true!' out there and somehow rewrite history. It's not happening.
Joe is a portrait of corruption. His entire family is.
While he's demanding accountability of others who do drugs, for example, his son faces no charges or jail time for using crack and cocaine and this and that. His niece uses identify fraud and should be serving a mandatory sentence but somehow walks with no time at all.
This is corruption.
He's a public servant up until January 2019. That goes back to January 1973 when he becomes a member of the Senate.
Look at the following about Joe's son-in-law and, if you want, just look at the quotes from his son-in-law:
It would be a dream for any new company to announce their launch in the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
StartUp Health is an investment consultancy based out of New York City, and in June 2011, the company barely had a website. The firm was the brainchild of three siblings from Philadelphia. Steven Krein is CEO and co-founder, while his brother, Dr. Howard Krein, serves as chief medical officer. Sister Bari serves as the firm’s chief strategy officer. A friend named Unity Stoakes is a co-founder and serves as president.
StartUp Health was barely up and running when, in June 2011, two of the company’s executives were ushered into the Oval Office of the White House. They met with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
The following day, the new company would be featured at a large health care tech conference being run by the US Department of Health and Human Services, and StartUp Health executives became regular visitors to the White House, attending events in 2011, 2014 and 2015.
How did StartUp Health gain access to the highest levels of power in Washington? There was nothing particularly unique about the company, but for this:
The chief medical officer of StartUp Health, Howard Krein, is married to Joe Biden’s youngest daughter, Ashley.
“I happened to be talking to my father-in-law that day and I mentioned Steve and Unity were down there [in Washington, DC],” recalled Howard Krein. “He knew about StartUp Health and was a big fan of it. He asked for Steve’s number and said, ‘I have to get them up here to talk with Barack.’ The Secret Service came and got Steve and Unity and brought them to the Oval Office.”
StartUp Health offers to provide new companies technical and relationship advice in exchange for a stake in the business. Demonstrating and highlighting the fact that you can score a meeting with the president of the United States certainly helps prove a strategic company asset: high-level contacts.
Vice President Joe Biden continued to help Krein promote his company at several appearances through his last months in the White House, including one in January 2017, where he made a surprise showing at the StartUp Health Festival in San Francisco. The corporate event, open only to StartUp Health members, enabled the 250 people in attendance to chat in a closed session with the vice president.
Just what Krein says above? That's unethical and it should have caused a huge flag to go up. Joe Biden is not Vice President so his family can get rich or they can trade on his name or he can give them a boost while other companies in the US don't get that boost because they don't have his son-in-law on the payroll.
That's not how it's supposed to work and what the Krein is describing is an ethical violation.
He is a public servant. He's not only required to conduct himself in an ethical manner, he's required to avoid even the appearance of any conflict of interest -- even the appearance.
So let's walk through Ukraine. The US 'rescues' the country. They're going to fix it. And Barack puts Joe in charge of rooting out corruption. And then Hunter Biden gets a sweetheart deal while his father is in charge of US interests in Ukraine.
That's a conflict of interest. A flat out conflict of interest.
Joe is corrupt. Now you can scream "So is Donald Trump!" forever and a day. If you're correct, all you've done is argue that both are unsuited for the presidency.
Joe is the wrong candidate. His greed knows no bounds. He and his wife have raked in $15 million since January 2017. And yet his miserable son Hunter -- 50 years old in a matter of weeks -- is still fighting in court, still refusing to pay child support for the child he fathered.
The latest whine is that he's broke. Not even Hunter could have spent that much on hookers, strippers and drugs. And if he was really broke, he wouldn't be living in a mansion near Ben Affleck's home.
But grasp what's going on.
DNA has established this is Hunter's child. That makes it Joe's grandson.
Grasp how cheap Joe is, how money hungry he's become.
$15 million raked in during the last three years and he can't peel off a few bucks and see that his grandchild is taken care of?
That's how cheap that whole family is, how tacky. They'd rather argue in court against paying any money for that innocent child then fork over some dough and make it go away. They're that damn cheap.
And I'm not saying anything new here. Joe's senior campaign staff have told him to pay and make this go away. Three different big money donors have told him to his face that he needs to make a deal with the mother to get this out of the courts.
But greedy Joe says no. He'd rather avoid having to pay anything he doesn't have to.
And that's rather sad when we're talking about his own grandchild.
All the cuddly b.s. press you keep seeing is nonsense. He's allowing his grandchild to suffer. It's bad enough that Joe raised a Deadbeat Dad. But now we know that Joe won't step in to make up for his wayward son even though Joe has more than enough money to do so.
This is not a minor issue.
A child has suffered as a result of all of this. DNA testing came back before Christmas. Joe took a family picture. We know why Hunter wasn't there -- he's fat and he's in hiding. But to not have the child there? How trashy are you now, Joe Biden?
It shouldn't be allowed and it shouldn't be excused. Judge Judy's endorsed Michael Bloomberg in the race of the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Imagine if Joe were in front of Judge Judy. She's not fond of Deadbeat Dads to begin with. She'd be telling lazy Hunter that he made a child and he needs to be responsible. But can you imagine how she'd be ripping into Joe as he refuses to use his dollars to take care of his grandchild? She'd be pointing out how that means, most likely, that we, the taxpayers, will foot that bill since neither Joe nor Hunter want to step up.
This is not a personal issue. For one thing, it's landed in the court system and that alone makes it a political issue. But it's also true that Joe has a long history of public statements and yet they don't appear to apply here. In other words, he makes demands on others but doesn't expect his own family or himself to live up to the same demands.
This is not a private matter. It is a public disgrace.
Joe was told to his face by one big time donor (who thinks Joe's going to get the nomination, obviously) that, if Joe doesn't address this, in the general election Donald will probably invite the woman and the child to a debate the way he invited the women who accused Bill Clinton to that debate. Joe just grinned and shook his head.
But when campaign staff tries to talk to him about this, he starts yelling at them, he goes ballistic.
He has a real problem.
And the corporate press can whore all they want for Joe but in no world we live in is this not an issue. Deadbeat Dads are an issue and it is already effecting the way single mothers see Joe.
And it should.
And if Hunter can't pay child support, his deadbeat ass needs to be behind bars.
April 19, 2015, THE NEW YORK TIMES thought enough of the issue in abstract to run a piece headlined "Skip Child Support. Go To Jail. Lose Job. Repeat." Now the issue is on full display as Joe Biden tries to become president and the press doesn't want to comment?
Do the rules apply for all and do they apply equally? Nothing in Joe's current life suggests that they do. And he wants to be president? Of course, these are valid issues. And that's before we get to the fact that Hunter's apparently failed to pay his federal taxes.
Joe is a nightmare on so many levels. But pretending that's he's electable? That's a willful suspension of disbelief and it will not carry into a general election.
In Iraq, protests continue.
Qassem Abdul-Zahra and Samya Kullab (AP) report of Monday's protests, "Among the dead was Yousif Sattar, 21, a local journalist covering the protest movement, one medical official and an activist said."
Last night protests in #Iraq escalated, resulting in dozens of people wounded and three casualties. One of them is #YousifSattar, a 21-year-old local journalist who was covering the protests in #Baghdad.
Photographer #يوسف_ستار Yousif Sattar shot dead covering #IraqiRevolution today in Baghdad Iraqi government brutally suppression October protests demanding ending corruption and specific political reform
the photographer #yousif_sattar
was assassinated today by live ammunition at mohamed alqasim Road #Baghdad
@AmnestyIraq
@hrw_ar
@Reuters
@UNIraq
@UNHumanRights
#Save_the_Iraqi_people
facebook.com/12986259801539…
“Among the dead was Yousif Sattar, 21, a local journalist covering the protest movement.”
#IraqProtests | Yousif Sattar, Baghdadi photojournalist, got killed near Gailani Sq.
#IraqJournal
In Iraq, journalists are assassinated for covering the protests.
CFI & international press freedom organisations call upon the prime minister of #Iraq, Mr. Adil Abdul-Mahdi, and the Council of Representatives to secure the investigation of the killings of Iraqi journalists Ahmed Abdul Samad and Safaa Ghali in Basra 
buff.ly/2ttV3YW
Quran readings and candle vigils at Basra's main protest square to commemorate slain journalists Ahmed Abdul Samad and Safaa Ghali
@CFImedias and international press freedom organisations call upon the prime minister of #Iraq and the Council of Representatives to secure the investigation of the killings of Iraqi journalists Ahmed Abdul Samad and Safaa Ghali in Basra.
The protesters are fighting for self-determination, for an end to government corruption, for basic rights including jobs. And yet so many in the US ignore them. Supposed journalists -- 'independent,' you understand, ignore them. While real journalists in Iraq risk their lives to cover the protests, supposed journalists in the US ignore the protests.
I'm looking at you, Aaron Mate. Jeffrey Epstein got away with a lot, didn't he? And a lot of people helped him. How are you different from them, Aaron Mate? You just put thrice arrested pedophile Scott Ritter on your program. He's served time for his pedophilia. And you put him on your show. Not to discuss his crimes -- you didn't even mention them. How are you different from the people who covered for Jeffrey Epstein all those years? I'm not seeing any difference at all. You're choosing to promote a pedophile and, as far as I'm concerned, that makes just as guilty as the pedophile.
Women and girls around the world suffered because Jeffrey Epstein could count on people to normalize his illegal behavior -- just the way you are normalizing Scott Ritter.
I find it amazing that you can't even spare a Tweet for the Iraqi people but you can put pedophile Scott Ritter on your program. Priorities.
I guess it's more important to you to fight to popularize pedophilia than it is to help the Iraqi people. "Pushback with Aaron Mate"? What are you pushing back against, Aaron? The notion that pedophilia is wrong, apparently.
In the real world, most people realize that our support should go to the Iraqi people, not the Scott Ritters and Jeffrey Epsteins of the world.
The sustainability of the protests- now in their fourth months- has redefined the political history of Iraq.
Iraq's young are trying to redefine their country, through protest and direct action. It's cost 500 of them their lives, in months long demonstrations, but they're demanding to be heard. @bbcworldservice @BBCr4today @thewhirlinzim
The following sites updated:
