"Star Spangled Banner" Sounds Suspiciously Russian When Played In Minor Key

Comedian and musician Bill Bailey gives us an unsettling
take on "The Star Spangled Banner"

A comedian and musician named Bill Bailey has given us a rather startling musical oddity.

He likes to play around with musical scores, playing tunes intended to be played in a minor key in a major key instead. And he plays songs in major keys in minor keys.

There's a viral video floating about in which Bailey gives examples. The video is at the bottom of this post. At first he plays around with different snippets of songs, then gets to "The Star Spangled Banner," the United States National Anthem.

Like most national anthems, "The Star Spangled Banner" is meant to be played in a major key. As Bailey says, that makes them feel celebratory and uplifting.

He then tries "The Star Spangled Banner" in a minor key. The result is pretty unsettling, given the alleged deep ties between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, and the allegations Trump colluded with Russia to get elected.

Yep, in a minor key, the "Star Spangled Banner" sounds like, well, Russian!

Listen for yourself:

Leave It To Fox News To Complain About Diversity On U.S. Olympic Team

Fox News Vice President John Moody is very upset that
some of the United States athletes now competing in the
2018 Winter Olympics are not white and straight.
Apparently, in his mind, Olympics are for whites only.

Apparently, the white supremacists at Fox News are deeply upset by our U.S. Winter Olympics team.

A greater proportion of our team has more people of color, more people from the LGBTQ community and more people from different backgrounds than in past years.

It sounds to me like whoever deals with getting athletes on the U.S team might have looked to a broader population than usual to get the cream of the crop into the Olympics.

Or much more likely, the best athletes out there come from more diverse backgrounds than they used to. America is more diverse than it used to be, so this makes total sense.

But Fox News would beg to differ.

The U.S. Olympic team's motto is Faster, Higher, Stronger.  Period. Our best athletes are now competing in PyeongChang. Not our gayist, not our most African-American. Not our most Asian. Just our best.

Apparently, Fox News and its hard core racists, homeophobic fans really don't want the best of the best. As long as the atheletes are white and are not queer.

Fox News executive Vice President John Moody whined that that the U.S. Olympic Committee seems to want to change the above mentioned motto to "Darker, Gayer, Different."

Moody was terribly upset that the U.S. Olympic Committee has the gall to have qualified team members that might be African-American, Hispanic, Asian, gay, or simply not 100 percent straight and white.

"If your goal is to win medals, that won't work," Moody whined. "No sport that we are aware of awards points - or medals - for skin color or sexual orientation," he added.

"Were our Olympians selected because they're the best at what they do, or because they're the best publicity for our current obsession with having one each from Column A, B and C."?

African-American speed skater Shani Davis is not qualified
to be in the Olympics because he is black and only white athletes
are good enough, says Fox News Vice President John Moody.
By the way, Davis already has four Olympic medals
under his belt. 

And there you have it.  White supremacy at work. What Moody basically said is that anyone who is not white and straight has lesser abilities and skills white people.

 It's unfathonable to Moody that an African American, Asian, gay, whatever, could possibly have the ability to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

That's totally in league with Trump fans and avid followers of Fox News. A bit ignorant, to say the least.

A day or so after Moody's column appeared, Fox News removed it from its web site, saying Moody is just a longtime mucky muck there who doesn't have editorial control. Because of his longevity there, they didn't really vet or edit it carefully.

"John Moody's column does not reflect the views or values of Fox News and has been removed," according to a statement Fox released to the media Friday. 

Riiiiight.

Unsurprisingly, there was quite a bit of pushback against Moody's column before it was yanked. "These athletes are at the Olympics because they already won by qualifying to represent the United States on the world's stage; and they did so despite facing discrimination from places like Fox News throughout their careers," said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

".....to suggest that race, sexuality, or gender orientation are the reasons these incredible athletes made the cut is insulting, repugnant and dismissive of a lifetime of hard work," said Catherine Sakimur of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

The column is off the web site, but it did its job. It was a nice serving of red meat for the white supremacists, alt-right, aging racists and raving lunatics that make up the core of Trump's base.I don't think we'll ever change the minds of this very base Trump base. But the louder the rest of us are when we resist these idiots, the better.  

Silly Political Ad Season Arrives Early Cruz And Bacon, Plus A Canadian Super Hero

If this guy wins the Presidency, we'll all learn how
to properly cook bacon. Oh joy!  

It's already time for bizarre political ads in both the United States and Canada, and we're off to a STUNNING start.

Here in the good old U.S of A, crazy Texas Republican Senator "Government Shut Down" Ted Cruz is running for President, as we all know, and like the rest of them, he's trying to get attention.

Say what you want about the climate denying, Obama hating, religious kook Cruz, he's sure got a flair for style, at least in ads and videos.

Earlier this month, he demonstrated how they cook bacon in Texas. He wraps bacon on the barrel of a   machine gun and fires away, probably to demonstrate his gung ho guns and red meat style of conservative bonafides to a willing audience.

Or, as Roxanne Roberts couldn't resist saying on last week's NPR news quiz show, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!" Cruz engaged in classic pork barrel politics. Ha!

I dunno, though. It's a little chilling watching the end of the video, in which Cruz says, MMMmm! Machine gun bacon!  Would he have that smirk on his face if he goes to a NATO diplomatic summit as president.

Anyway, here's the video.




Next we move on to Canada. O Canada!

A gentleman named Wyatt Scott is running for the  Canadian Parliament. 

In is ad, he does a number of incredible things, like ride a giant Canada goose, slay a dragon and send death rays out of his eyes to slay a giant robot thing. A real superhero to save Canada!

If Scott wins, and his performance is anything like what we see in his campaign ad, I think we will all then be able to agree that Canada is NOT, in fact, boring.

Watch:

I Didn't Think Diplomacy Involved Yelling "#&@(@!!!!!"

This guy might not have been the United States' best diplomat.

As you can see from the video in this post, the meeting on a narrow street in Malta did not go well.

Our Man in Malta fails at his peacekeeping skills.

His car met up with another, and one had to back up. Apparently, our Man in Malta didn't want to be the one to back down.

You can tell in this extremely NSFW video (because of language) when the U.S. diplomat says "I'm going to beat your fat fucking Maltese ass all over this goddam street!"

Well, then. Temper, temper. I can't imagine U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry talking like that to say, the British foreign minister.

Our Man in Malta is apparently not in Malta anymore. The U.S. government has recalled him and apologized for the undiplomatic diplomat. He has not been publicly identified. I'd still love to find him to detemine whether he things the argument was worth it.

It's a lesson to our former Man in Malta. The cameras are everywhere, and there's no sense in losing your temper.  Overreacting just a wee bit, were we?

Now that it appears you're losing your job with the U.S. diplomatic corp, you can maybe get a job on a cable news show. They behave like that all the time there. You'll fit right in.

Here's the video, if you dare: