What's Next: A New Political Chapter

 

As 2022 approaches, the political situation in the U.S. is unsettling. As I noted in my recent post, “Sharp Right Turn,” the activist base of the Republican Party remains in the grip of Trump extremists who feed off of the toxic wave of entrenched white grievance.

Meanwhile, the activist base of the Democratic Party remains relatively uninvolved and nonchalant about the Biden Presidency. He has never been the charismatic type like Sanders or AOC, but a pragmatist trying to prevent the existing sharp political divisions splinter the country into unreconcilable fragments.

To his credit, he has overseen an economic recovery, the successful vaccination of most of the population, and a relatively peaceful international scene, although trouble looms on all fronts.

If Russia attacks Ukraine, or if China attacks Taiwan, all bets are off in the global cold wars. Regarding the pandemic, some think Omicron, Delta and as-yet unidentified Covid variants will upset the economic recovery, but I’m not among those.

I expect the recovery to continue, the stock market to boom, and unemployment to remain low, which should in normal times guarantee Biden’s re-election in 2024. The midterms will be another story.

Among the impacts of the pandemic may be increased political extremism, and if so, we’ll get an early indication next year in the mid-term elections.

If Republicans regain control of Congress, that will effectively end Biden’s opportunity to get anything substantial done on the domestic front.

Accordingly, global issues will take over, which in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing. The U.S. economy and military are so overwhelmingly the largest on the planet that the case can be made that any U.S. President ought to be governing not from a national perspective but much more from a global perspective anyway.

And what is best for the whole is not always what is best for the folks back home.

That is a difficult case for any politician to make. And that is why the Republicans are stuck with the likes of Kevin McCarthy and Ted Cruz — spineless nobodies who pander to the historically pampered.

White grievance is nothing more than spoiled-kid syndrome. The world has changed. America is changed. It is not a white, Christian, male-dominated society and never will be again.

Get over it or get out of the way. That is the message a true Republican leader would deliver. But where is a conservative politician like that?

As for the activist wing of the Democrats, restless with Biden’s approach, is the country ready for them? A new generation led by AOC, Omar, Mayor Pete, Beto and the like are poised to replace Sanders as charismatic leaders.

But is the country ready for them?

SATURDAY’S HEADLINES

• Why Didn’t the U.S. Detect Omicron Cases Sooner? (NYT)

• Covid live: Omicron variant could cause ‘large wave of infections’, UK scientists warn; Switzerland tightens restrictions (Guardian)

• New rules requiring international air travelers arriving in the United States to obtain a negative COVID-19 test within one day of travel will take effect Monday at 12:01 a.m. ET. (Reuters)

• Omicron covid variant three times more likely to cause reinfection than delta, S. Africa study says (WP)

• New York confirmed five cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, bringing the number of states with cases of the troubling strain to five as Biden announced new measures to combat a winter surge in COVID-19 infections. Researchers are still racing to learn more about the omicron variant, however, and much remains unknown about its capabilities. [HuffPost]

• Omicron-stricken South Africa may be glimpse into the future (AP)

• Despite shutting its borders to travel from high-risk southern African countries, Australia became the latest country to report community transmission of the new variant, a day after it was found in five U.S. states. (Reuters)

• The Atlantic Daily: Omicron Could Be Bad, or Really Bad—Or Maybe Good

  Delta anxiety, meet Omicron anxiety. If you’re feeling spooked by the sudden rise of the latter, remember that our tools for combatting the coronavirus are much more advanced than they were in the pandemic’s dark early days. (Atlantic)

• Study suggests past COVID infection may not fend off omicron (AP)

• For a City That Followed Covid Rules, Will Omicron Change the Playbook? — San Francisco has endured mask mandates, vaccination requirements and lockdowns. Now with the first U.S. case of the Omicron variant, no one’s sure what comes next. (NYT)

• WHO says measures used against delta should work for omicron (AP)

• COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna that use mRNA technology provide the biggest boost to antibody levels when given 10-12 weeks after the second dose, a British study published has found. (Reuters)

• Covid-19 Vaccine Demand Strains CVS, Walgreens (WSJ)

• ‘The fire that’s here’: US is still battling delta variant (AP)

• Beijing Olympic officials concerned about Omicron (NHK)

• How Pfizer developed a COVID pill in record time (NPR)

• Omicron threatens to stoke US inflation, warns top Fed official (Financial Times)

• Donald Trump: Superspreader in chief (Edit Bd/WP)

• The Gateway Pundit, which started as a tiny opinion blog, saw readership surge to 50 million views a month as it amplified Donald Trump’s false stolen-election claims. Reuters documents the impact:25 election workers targeted by more than 100 violent threats or hostile messages citing the pundit. (Reuters)

• Trump faces flurry of investigations beyond Jan. 6 probe (AP)

• How the Politics of Abortion Are Poised to Intensify (NYT)

• What Roe Could Take Down With It — The logic being used against Roe could weaken the legal foundations of many rights Americans value deeply. (Atlantic)

• The Women's Health Protection Act would protect the right to access legal abortion care across the country by providing safeguards against state bans and medically unnecessary hurdles. It passed with historic support in the House — but the filibuster may need to be eliminated for it to get through the Senate. [HuffPost]

• What Happened to Amazon’s Bookstore? (NYT)

• Suspect’s parents charged in Michigan school shooting (Politico)

• Russia has massed more than 94,000 troops near Ukraine's bordersand may be gearing up for a large-scale military offensive at the end of January, Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told parliament, citing intelligence reports. (Reuters)

• Astronomers discover hot, dense planet with eight-hour year (Phys.org)

• Biden warns Russia’s Vladimir Putin against Ukraine invasion (AP)

• Scars of remote schooling linger in a San Francisco high school (WP)

• With No Resources, Authority or Country, Afghan Ambassador Presses On — Adela Raz arrived in Washington just before her country fell and has struggled to keep her embassy going. A dinner with U.S. veterans was a priority. (NYT)

• Afghanistan's Taliban government released a decree on women's rights, which said women should not be considered "property" and must consent to marriage but failed to mention female access to education or work outside the home. (Reuters)

• Turkey’s Economic Turmoil Sends Desperation and Inflation Soaring (WSJ)

• A Slow-Motion Climate Disaster: The Spread of Barren Land — Brazil’s northeast, long a victim of droughts, is now effectively turning into a desert. The cause? Climate change and the landowners who are most affected. (NYT)

• Snowfall may be nearly zero for years at a time in Mountain West because of climate change, study finds (WP)

• A group of Senate Republicans seeking to dramatize their dislike of President Joe Biden's efforts to encourage vaccination against COVID-19 backed down from their threat to hold up a government funding bill, after the idea proved unpopular. “I am glad that, in the end, cooler heads prevailed, the government will stay open," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). [HuffPost]

• A map that contains a description of Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor is on display at the US Library of Congress in Washington D.C. This month marks 80 years since the attack occurred. (NHK)

• The Tech Moguls Are Looking for a New Playground — Jack Dorsey’s decision to leave Twitter, like Mark Zuckerberg’s pivot to the metaverse, shows us where the internet is heading. (Atlantic)

• ‘Flash mob’ robberies spike at outlets piled high with holiday inventory (WP)

• Oregon police seek clues in poisoning of eight wolves (BBC)

• Baldwin: ‘Someone is responsible’ for shooting, but ‘not me’ (AP)

• Soon when you walk down the street, 3-D creatures could try to sell you something (WP)

• Michigan vs. Iowa: Prediction, pick, Big Ten Championship (CBS)

• A vision realized: Aidan Hutchinson’s relentless pursuit of greatness (Michigan Daily)

• Party Evacuated Following Reports Of Host Assembling Some Sort Of Activity (The Onion)

SATURDAY LYRICS:

“Reflections of my Life”

Songwriters: William Campbell Jr / Thomas McAleese

The changing of sunlight to moonlight
Reflections of my life
Oh, how they fill my eyes

The greetings of people in trouble
Reflections of my life
Oh, how they fill my eyes

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my crying (Oh, my crying)
Feel I'm dying, dying
Take me back to my own home

I'm changing, arranging
I'm changing
I'm changing everything
Everything around me

The world is
A bad place
A bad place
A terrible place to live
Oh, but I don't want to die

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my crying (Oh, my crying)
Feel I'm dying, dying
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home

ACTIVATE THE NEWS

TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER PLEASE VISIT SUBSTACK.  <https://davidweir.substack.com/>

Some people ask me how I can put up with curating dozens of news stories from multiple outlets day after day, presenting them here and on other platforms without falling into a clinical depression.

After all, the news is almost all bad and it never stops — it just cycles and cycles around the world as if a global newspaper boy were throwing thick folded papers at our front door every few minutes.

If you just let the reports bounce off, unread, they’ll pile up faster than autumn leaves. If you read them carefully, you might be in danger of growing suicidal.

But journalists get used to living by the news cycle. They get high off of a big story. Some people would call that an addiction. If so, withdrawal is hard too — don’t expect many smiles in a newsroom on a slow news day.

But everyone, including journalists, has a choice when it comes to the news. We can remain passive and consume it as if it were a plate of food or we can decide to try and do something about it.

Among the people who scan the curated headlines I present every day are a few friends who recently decided to try and do something about one particular story in my daily news feed.

They are making an effort to help my young Afghan friend/correspondent escape from his country, where he is currently trapped under the oppressive rule of the Taliban.

These friends have worked behind the scenes to explore options for my correspondent to seek asylum somewhere else. It will be a hazardous, arduous process, far from certain to be successful. A lot could go wrong. The risks to him are substantial.

But as of today, a copy of his passport is in the hands of a pro-bono immigration attorney in the West and a small network of friends are standing by to help. Stay tuned in the coming weeks to find out how this story ends.

FRIDAY’S HEADLINES:

• ‘We are pulling out all the stops’: White House details strategies to combat delta, omicron variants (WP)

• The United States and Germany joined countries around the globe planning stricter COVID-19 restrictions as the new Omicron variant rattled markets,fearful it could choke a tentative economic recovery from the pandemic. (Reuters)

• Scientists Studying Omicron See Rise in Covid Reinfections

  Scientists in South Africa tracking the spread of the variant are seeing a rise in coronavirus reinfections in people who had recovered from Covid-19, suggesting previous infection provides less protection against the new variant. (WSJ)

• Omicron drives new urgency for global pandemic treaty (Politico)

• Moderna could have a COVID-19 booster shot targeting the Omicron varianttested and ready to file for U.S. authorization as soon as March, the company's president said. (Reuters)

• As Covid-19 Drags On, Americans Hoard Cash (WSJ)

• Omicron may cause more Covid reinfections, say South African experts (Guardian)

• GlaxoSmithKline said that a lab analysis of the antibody-based COVID-19 therapy it is developing with U.S. partner Vir has shown the drug is effective against Omicron. (Reuters)

• Brazil enters recession as inflation grips economy (Financial Times)

• While Politics Consume School Board Meetings, a Very Different Crisis Festers— In a wealthy suburban Philadelphia district, schools are struggling with shortages of all sorts. Behavioral problems have mushroomed. “We are in triage mode,” one teacher said. (NYT)

• The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack voted to hold Jeffrey Clark, a former Department of Justice official, criminally accountable for his failure to cooperate with the panel. If the full House approves it, Clark can be criminally charged. He is the second ally of former President Donald Trump to be held in contempt by the panel, after Steve Bannon. [HuffPost]

• Desperate to overturn his election loss, former President Donald Trump's team spun a sprawling voter-fraud fiction, casting two Georgia election workers as the main villains. Read our special report on the conspiracy theory hatched by Trump's campaign. (Reuters)

• Potential loss of Roe v. Wade as a legal standard shakes political landscape (WP)

• Less than a month after Texas’ six-week abortion ban went into effect in September, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) quietly signed another anti-choice bill that restricts access to medication abortion. On Thursday, that restriction became law, largely cutting off what little access Texans had left to abortion care. Across the country, medication abortion is the most common abortion method for people who are 10 weeks pregnant or less. [HuffPost]

• Republicans Hope Their Assault on Democracy Will Stop a Post-Roe Backlash

  Conservatives on the Supreme Court have engineered a system that allows half the country’s population to be stripped of a fundamental constitutional right. (Atlantic)

• Roberts Searches for Middle Ground in Abortion Case — The chief justice, known for his incremental approach to contentious issues, explored on Wednesday whether the court could uphold Mississippi’s law without totally throwing out Roe v. Wade. (NYT)

• Big Tech Privacy Moves Spur Companies to Amass Customer Data

  Marketers are staging sweepstakes, quizzes and events to gather people’s personal information and build detailed profiles—a response to Apple’s “opt in” policy for apps and Google’s plan to restrict user tracking in its browser. (WSJ)

• A group of Senate Republicans is plotting to hold up a government funding bill this week to dramatize their dislike of President Joe Biden's efforts to encourage vaccination against COVID-19. Shutting down the government — at a moment when Republicans have lots of political momentum and are poised to retake at least one chamber of Congress — is a highly questionable strategy and not all Republicans are on board. [HuffPost]

• Russia deploys missile system on island near Japan (NHK)

• Symone Sanders, senior adviser to Vice President Harris, will leave post (WP)

• Global stocks will shake off recent weakness and rise over the next 12 monthsbut at a more tempered pace than this year's rally, found a Reuters poll of equity analysts who also said a correction was likely in the next six months. (Reuters)

• Trump interacted with Gold Star families, White House staff, donors at a fundraiser, then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden and many others despite knowing that he had tested positive for COVID-19, according to a new book from former chief of staff Mark Meadows. “The whole episode demonstrates a total disregard for public health and the well-being of others,” said Alyssa Farah Griffin, Trump’s former communications director. [HuffPost]

• Winter heat wave sets December records in four U.S. states, Canada (WP)

• California state officials say that major water agencies won’t get any of the water they’ve requested and that mandatory restrictions could be coming (AP)

• ‘Call Me Dog Tag Man’: Pacific Island Is Full of War Relics and Human Remains — More than 75 years after the Battle of Biak ended, collectors are still finding remnants of the fight, and U.S. authorities are hoping to bring closure to families of soldiers still missing. (NYT)

• Curious leopard enters classroom in India (BBC)

• ‘Aspirational’ Amtrak Map Depicts Train Car Married, Happy, With Little Caboose Baby (The Onion)

FRIDAY’s LYRICS:

“Running Kind”

By Merle Haggard

I was born the runnin' kind

With leavin' always on my mind

Home was never home to me at any time

Every front door found me hopin'

I would find the back door open

There just had to be an exit

For the runnin' kind

Within me there's a prison

Surrounding me alone

As real as any dungeon with its walls of stone

I know runnin's not the answer

Yeah, but runnin's been my nature

And a part of me

That keeps me movin' on

I was born the runnin' kind

With leavin' always on my mind

Home was never home to me at any time

Every front door found me hopin'

I would find the back door open

There just had to be an exit

For the runnin' kind

I was born the runnin' kind

With leavin' always on my mind

Home was never home to me at any time

Every front door found me hopin'

I would find the back door open

There just had to be an exit

For the runnin' kind

Life Without Borders

“Not so different.” 

That is the way to describe any of our lives in the end. But the specific details differ at some moments and so do our perceptions of each other’s lives.

For months I have been serving as the English-language outlet for the voice of a young writer trapped in Afghanistan. To date, I have published 18 of what I’ve variously described as letters from — or conversations with — him. (Soon we will be collecting all of them into a more accessible form.)

As for the specific details, his life must seem quite different from the lives of my readers. He is a member of the Hazara minority, which has long been despised and discriminated against by the dominant groups in Afghanistan, particularly the Pashtuns, who make up the bulk of the Taliban now in control of his country.

Most Hazara are Shia, not Sunni Moslems, whereas the Pashtuns are overwhelmingly Sunni. The internal Islamic conflict is similar to the Catholic-Protestant conflict of centuries past.

Over the years that the Taliban built up and finally seized control of the country, they recruited alienated members of other ethnic groups, especially the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Turkmen to join their ranks. 

But the Hazara stubbornly remained resistant to Taliban control.

Therefore, since late August when the Taliban seized power in Kabul, life has been especially difficult for the Hazaras. Some have been summarily executed by Taliban fighters now in control of the roads and checkpoints simply for being Hazara, or for being openly critical of Taliban rule.

Many others live in fear of suffering a similar fate if they venture out or speak their minds.

No single group currently lives under that kind of blatant threat in the U.S., although the widespread racism, homophobia, misogamy, anti-Semitism, anti-Islam and other hateful ideologies just below the surface of American society require our constant vigilance lest they burst out into the open again at any point.

Here at least anyone can speak his or her mind, for now.

But my Afghan friend also is educated, thoughtful and skeptical of organized religion, centralized power, capitalism — all of the major forces that shape our lives here and around the world.

The majority of humanity lives under the control of despotic rulers — not democratically elected leaders — though few are subject to as harsh extremes as the Hazards face from the Taliban.

So those of us in the (relatively) free world need to remember how despotism can rise and overwhelm the peaceful, thoughtful, skeptical, educated minority by exploiting the ignorance, prejudice, fear and misperceptions of the masses — overseas but here as well.

The would-be despots among us would have you believe that our differences in age, race, gender, religion or lack thereof, class, occupation, status, orientation, belief system, education, location, appearance matter — that they are threats.

But we are not all that different, really. The great majority of people want peace and freedom and to live with dignity. 

And it is never too late to remember that.

THURSDAY HEADLINES:

• FDA advisers narrowly recommend authorization of first antiviral pill to treat covid-19a (WP)

• The omicron variant has been found in 23 countries (NPR)

• Omicron variant detected in California (Politico)

• Omicron Prompts Swift Reconsideration of Boosters Among Scientists— Many public health experts were opposed to a boosters-for-all approach. The new variant is changing some minds. (NYT)

• Severe Covid infection doubles chances of dying in following year, study finds (Guardian)

• In Omicron Fight, Scientists See Glimmers of Hope — Faint signs of hope emerged that a key weapon in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic would still be effective against the new variant, as scientists and health authorities piece together fragmented evidence about it. (WSJ)

• WHO member states will work on a global agreement to deal with future pandemics (NPR)

• W.H.O. Reopens Debate Over Fairness of Pandemic Response — As wealthy countries react to the new Omicron virus variant with travel bans and booster shots, the World Health Organization scolded them, calling the steps ineffective and unfair. (NYT)

• Covid-19 variants may not evolve to be less dangerous (Guardian)

• Germany reported the highest number of deaths from coronavirus since mid-February as hospitals warned that the country could have 6,000 people in intensive care by Christmas, above the peak of last winter. (Reuters)

• Co-founder of Christian TV network that railed against vaccines dies of Covid-19 (Guardian)

• What the AIDS crisis can teach us about the COVID pandemic response (NPR)

• Nigeria said it had confirmed its first cases of Omicron, among them a sample from travelers who came to Nigeria in October, suggesting it had turned up weeks before it was reported in southern Africa.(Reuters)

• Covid and political fatigue 5.0 (Politico)

• Omicron Could Knock a Fragile Economic Recovery Off Track (NYT)

• 15-year-old student kills three, injures eight at high school in Michigan town, authorities say (WP)

• A 4th student has died in the Michigan high school shooting (NPR)

• Court upholds California ban on high-capacity magazines (AP)

• Stock markets roared higher, reversing much of the previous session's losses, as investors used the dip in prices to bet the latest COVID-19 variant would not derail the economic recovery. History says expect a strong December for U.S. stocks, despite Omicron and Federal Reserve worries. (Reuters)

• The immediate and overall consensus after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization: Roe v. Wade is in serious danger. The conservative majority on the court appeared largely supportive of a 2018 Mississippi law that seeks to ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a law that directly contradicts Roe V. Wade. Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that the Supreme Court won't survive the "stench" of partisanship in the Mississippi abortion case. [HuffPost]

• As the U.S. Supreme Court heard a Mississippi case Wednesday that could topple abortion rights nationwide, the state’s only abortion clinic was busier than ever: Volunteers escorted patients into the bright pink building while protesters outside beseeched women not to end their pregnancies. (AP)

• Roe v. Wade's future is in doubt after historic arguments at Supreme Court (NPR)

• Members of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority are suggesting they may make sweeping changes to limit abortion rights in the United States. (AP)

• Boarded-up stores and armed guards greet holiday shoppers (SFC)

• Biden to expand National Space Council to advance workforce, climate goals (Politico)

• Why the CIA is so worried about Russia and Ukraine (WP)

• US warns Russia has plans for ‘large scale’ attack on Ukraine(Guardian)

• Is Inflation Sticking Around? Bicycle Makers Offer Some Clues

  Manufacturers are pricing next year’s bikes now, and higher costs for components and supply-chain holdups, combined with still-strong demand, mean increases are coming. (WSJ)

• The main risk to an otherwise upbeat global economic outlook is that the current inflation spike proves longer and rises further than currently expected, the OECD said. Global growth is set to hit 5.6% this year before moderating to 4.5% in 2022 and 3.2% in 2023. (Reuters)

• WTA halts China tourneys over fallout from Shuai sexual assault allegation (WP)

• China told Indonesia to stop drilling for oil and natural gas in maritime territory that both countries regard as their own during a months-long standoff in the South China Sea earlier this year, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The unprecedented demand elevated tensions over natural resources between the two countries in a volatile area of global strategic and economic importance. (Reuters)

• CNN suspends Chris Cuomo ‘indefinitely’ after documents detail help he gave his brother (WP)

• Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's former chief of staff, is cooperating with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Meadows has produced records to the committee, despite Trump's battle to withhold documents from the probe. By cooperating, Meadows avoids charges of criminal contempt of Congress. [HuffPost]

• Trump tested positive for coronavirus before first debate with Biden, former chief of staff says (WP)

• Biden to expand National Space Council to advance workforce, climate goals (Politico)

• The United States has joined the list of countries where democracy is backsliding, according to a new report by the think tank International IDEA. (NPR)

• The New Right’s Strange and Dangerous Cult of Toughness (Atlantic)

• The civil unrest suffered by the Solomon Islands in the past week raised alarm among leaders of other Pacific island nations that rivalry between China, Taiwan and the United States risked aggravating their region's social and economic problems. "I think what is happening in the Solomons is something we all should be paying serious attention to, because it can happen at any time," former Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Meg Taylor told the Reuters Next conference. (Reuters)

• Biden's young voter problem — Polls show the president’s approval rating has fallen sharply among a key component of the Democratic base: younger voters. (Politico)

• Taliban wages campaign of targeted killings against former members of Afghan security forces (WP)

• Afghanistan economic meltdown one of worst in history, UN says (Financial Times)

• Afghan Journalists in Exile Keep Spotlight on Their Homeland (WSJ)

• Unique effort reopens girls’ schools in an Afghan province (AP)

• Taliban appear positive over education for women (NHK)

• Barbados' declaration of a republic may fuel fervor in other Commonwealth countries to follow suit, but experts say removing the queen requires overcoming political hurdles that have for decades stymied republican initiatives. (Reuters)

• Iran Feels Cornered by the Biden Administration (Atlantic)

• Rep. Omar urges House GOP to address ‘anti-Muslim hatred’ (AP)

• These living robots made of frog cells can now reproduce, study says(WP)

• Contact lost with cargo ship in distress (NHK)

• Rules of war need rewriting for the age of AI weapons (Edit Bd/Financial Times)

• Facebook says it carried out broad takedown of disinformation networks, including some tied to anti-vaccine groups, state actors(WP)

• Space junk forces spacewalk delay, too risky for astronauts (AP)

• Aztec altar with human ashes uncovered in Mexico City (BBC)

• Long-Ago Victim of Vesuvius May Shed Light on Ancient Rome — Archaeologists found the remains of a person buried at Herculaneum in the eruption of 79 A.D., and hope that with modern technology it will yield fresh insights. (NYT)

• Ancient footprints mistakenly attributed to bears were made by early humans (NPR)

• Are we thinking about alien life all wrong? — Professor Brian Cox explains the ‘panspermia’ theory – how life could spread between planets. (BBC)

• NASA Delays Space Walk After It Starts Snowing In Outer Space (The Onion)

THURSDAY’s LYRICS

“The Blues Man”

By Hank Williams Jr.

Best Version: George Jones & Dolly Parton

I'm just a singer, a natural-born guitar ringer

Kind of a clinger to sad old songs

I'm not a walk-behinder, I'm a new note finder

But my name's a reminder of a blues man that's already gone

So I started drinkin', took things that messed up my thinkin'

I was sure sinkin', when you came along

I was alone in the hot lights, not too much left in sight

But she changed all that one night, when she sang me this song

Hey baby, I love you

Hey baby, I need you

Hey baby, you ain't got to prove to me you're some kind of macho man

You've wasted so much of your life running through the dark nights

Let me shine some love light down on the blues man

I got so sick from speedin', all the stuff they said I wasn't needin'

If I was to keep pleasin', all of my fans

I got cuffed on dirt roads, I got sued over no-shows

But she came and took all that old load, down off this blues man

Hey baby, I love you too

Hey baby, I need you

Hey baby, I do get tired of this travelin' band

I'm 30 years old now, nights would be cold now

If you hadn't stuck it out with this blues man

I'm 30 years old now, nights sure would be cold now

If you hadn't hung around with this blues man