From an overall life-management standpoint, this past week was pretty uneventful. I should just count my blessings. Obviously that doesn’t mean These Trying Times(TM) are over. But I’ve reached an age where I find myself appreciating the calm between storms.
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I missed this episode of INDEPENDENT LENS the first time it came around, but when I found it online, I had to give it a go. (It’s free for about another 3 weeks if you’re interested.)
And So It Begins follows the Philippines’ turbulent 2022 presidential race, with the son of ousted former dictator Ferdinand Marcos waging a combative social media campaign against his more progressive opponent, incumbent Vice President Leni Robredo. Following it all is independent journalist and Nobel-winner Maria Ressa, with an eye toward the specter of increasing autocracy.
It took the Philippines a good 50 years to bury Marcos’s Proclamation No. 1081 in a deep-enough memory hole to elect another Marcos. I guess since the U.S. isn’t willing to learn from its own history (2016), I suppose it’s going to take Martial Law happening here? I hope not, but if past is prologue–that is, three years in the past in the Philippines–then I don’t like where this is heading.
My parents came to the U.S. barely six months before Proclamation No. 1081. Wouldn’t that be some bullshit if Martial Law would be why I might have to leave?
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First Ozzy Osbourne passes, and now Tom Lehrer…
When Lehrer wasn’t teaching college-level math, he was sitting at a piano making people laugh — and worry — about the world. His targets included politics, nuclear destruction, and even social harmony.
Tom Lehrer was one of the most subversive things I, as a Fil-Am kid living in the Midwest going to a Catholic boys high school in the ’80s, could possibly get into. I never heard of him until a friend of mine came to school with a cassette tape on which he’d recorded an episode of a weekly comedy show that played on college radio. (I know, I know, “Tell me you’re old enough to crumble into dust without crumbling into dust.”) On that tape were bits from George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, songs from Dr. Demento, a nice bossa nova from Martin Mull, skits from The Firesign Theatre, and what I’m 99% sure was this song if memory serves…
::takes off eyeglasses and raises them:: Here’s to you, Tom!
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Stephen Colbert triple-dog-dares them–which is a fine response to These Trying Times™.
Hey, any effort to stave off Martial Law is greatly appreciated.