m ball watches the DNC - the Last Night

m ball watches the DNC - the Bill Clinton Speech and . . .

. . . more great, in-depth coverage from CNN:

      Bill and Gloria share a moment.

m ball watches the DNC - "First Night"

m ball watches the Democratic National Convention - assemblages and drawings

Budweiser's can for the Democratic National Convention.

Again: InBev didn’t ask, but lack of corporate sponsorship has never stopped us. We asked Go Around Back and The Ambiguities’ artist-in-residence melchior ball to design Budweiser cans for the Republican and Democratic conventions. Here is mel's tribute to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. 

mel’s tribute to the Republican nominee Donald Trump, Brownshirt Beer, may be found here.

"Point of personal privilege"

Many years ago, when Gaspar Stephens and I were teaching on the same faculty (of one of those Universities of Name of State at Name of Town), we had a colleague – in economics, if I’m remember correctly – that interrupted every faculty meeting at least once with a “point of order” to move the discussion from substance to procedure or a “point of personal privilege” to explain how things ought to, though they probably never could, be – I think. Because: He’d rise, “Point of personal privilege, Mr. Chairman!” and he’d launch off into a tangent that only the most tortured reasoning could relate to the business at hand. Experts, however, in tortured reasoning, Gaspar and I would discuss the point of privilege after the meeting, and we almost always made the connection; moreover, there was usually a principle involved, if only one that an economist would recognize.

I listened to as much of the-next-president-of-the-united-states Donald J. Trump’s speech last night as I could, then I scanned the transcript of the rest and went to bed. Donald J. Trump’s “dark speech,” as more than one pundit has characterized it. But I slept well.

     It’s not that I don’t also believe the world is going to hell in a handbasket. But I don’t expect – at least not immediately – a bloody apocalypse. I’m not sanguine enough to believe civilization will die so quickly and painlessly; we won’t get that kind of one-breath release. Instead, in the West at any rate, we’ll smother each other in cant. It won’t be rapid-fire guns in the hands of dark-skinned young aliens that will destroy our republic but hypocrisy and smuggery in the wheezing throats of old white men – like me!

I wish I could say that knowing that I am part of the problem would shut me up. It won’t. Like most old white men, I am – at the deepest level of my waning intellect* - convinced that I know best, for everyone.

On the other hand: Truth be known, I’d be surprised if any of us knows what is best for us, as a community, as a nation, as a Western alliance, as a planet – or individually. But that’s a truth we can’t believe; it makes sense, but it goes too much against our innards. Besides, as the truth, it might set us free. Even from cant.

     Nobody really wants that.

_______________

* I am 68 years old, and I know I am not as smart as I was when I was 38 years old. Then I also know that we will be making a mistake to elect a president that is as old or older than I am.

Bringing back the political-cultural lexicon - J is for junior senator.

J

junior senator • ^lmak-ē  ə-^lvĕl-lē

     noun

     1. government official elected by the people and for himself; must be thin-skinned, good at holding a grudge.

ex.

another man of the people
educated at two Ivies

The pundrity is aghast: It's plagiarism, but . . .

. . . can you steal a cliché?

Melania Trump, National Convention, 2016:

     “From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life.

     “That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son, and we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow," she said. "Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”

*Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

Michelle Obama, Democratic National Convention, 2004:

     “Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values, that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them.

     “Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."

My mother when she dropped me off at prep school, 1961:

     “Here’s what you need to know, what the Nashes believe. Work hard. Your word is your bond, so when you make promises keep them. Treat your teachers and your fellow students with respect even when you disagree with them. Dream big. Work hard. You’ll get where you want to go, whether you know where that is yet or not.

     I know: I’m not the first to say this and I won’t be the last.”

You've seen the first of these. Have you seen the second?

Paul Ryan selfie with young Republicans.

Paul Ryan selfie with old Republicans

Budweiser's new can for the Republican Convention

InBev didn’t ask, but lack of corporate sponsorship has never stopped us before. We asked Go Around Back and The Ambiguities’ artso-fartso melchior ball to design Budweiser cans for the Republican and Democratic conventions. Here, in honor of Independence Day, or really because it’s exactly two weeks out, is mel’s tribute to the Republican nominee Donald Trump.

The quotation from Ovid, because Trump knows Ovid – he tweeted about the Roman poet recently: “Ovid. Yeah. Great guy. Raw deal by the king there.” – from The Metamorphoses’ description of Narcissus, might be translated:

he admires all that he finds admirable in himself

he longs for himself, and he approves what he approves in himself.

He seeks himself sought, he kindles and he burns.

Inquiring minds . . .

want to know: