Sanity Sunday- Two Gabriels of the Subways

  by Nomad

If you've never been to New York, there's one pleasant thing that might catch you off-guard. That is the extraordinarily high quality of street music. Jaded New Yorkers think nothing of it. It is their background music but as a visitor, I was deeply impressed.  I suppose that's why I often feature street musicians on my blog.

That high quality is not an accident. Every year since 1985, the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority holds auditions, to maintain that standard.

The program is called “Music Under New York” or (MUSIC) and with acts like Haitian folk singers and Balkan party bands, reflects the wide cultural diversity of the city itself. 

Musicians Gabriel Royal, and Gabriel Mayers, who play and sing in the subway, are featured in this post.

Privileged Executive: How Sessions Has Shut Down Congressional Oversight

by Nomad

One of the duties of members of Congress is to provide oversight over the executive branch. Presidents have long attempted to evade this scrutiny by means both legal and questionable. One tool at president's disposal is the use of executive privilege. 
Here's how Trump's Attorney General has used it to shield the president from oversight in the matter of Russian collusion.

No question about it, as a concept, executive privilege is a tricky thing. It is defined as "a constitutional principle" that allows the president (and high-level executive branch officials) to withhold information from Congress, the courts and ultimately the public.

A Conservative Blogger Unmasks Laura Ingraham's Fake Populism of Mr. Trump

 by Nomad

It's always a pleasant surprise to find a post of the past linked on other websites. Okay, it's rather flattering. However, when the site that links is called "American Conservative," I tend to be wary about checking to see what gives. I was intrigued, but at the same time, prepared to be insulted and mocked. What I found, to my amazement, was something unexpected.

Common ground.

The Busy Ms. Ingraham

It's an understatement to call the 54-year-old Laura Ingraham a busy lady. She is a nationally syndicated radio show host, an editor-in-chief for her own website, a long time Fox News Channel contributor and starting soon, a full-on Fox News TV host. She riding a wave of conservative broadcasting and publishing that been very good to her. 

She is also a writer of bestselling books like Shut Up & Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN Are Subverting America, The Hillary Trap: Looking for Power in All the Wrong Places and The Obama Diaries. a fictional collection of diary entries not written by President Obama. And finally, there's this year's bestseller to be, Billionaire at the Barricades: The Populist Revolution from Reagan to Trump.

Sanity Sunday- The Music of Manuş Baba

 by Nomad

Now a musical interlude in this calm before the storm.

Born in 1986 in the southeastern Turkish city of Mersin, Manuş Baba studied music in the Faculty of Fine Arts of Akdeniz Üniversity.

During this time, he played in coffeehouses, bars, and nightclubs either as part of a group or as a solo performance.

After graduation, Manuş later moved to Istanbul, the cultural capital of Turkey to advance his career.
For a young and talented musician, Istanbul is really the only place to be noticed and to grow as an artist.

He has earned deserved recognition in the last year and released his debut album in May 2017.

How Rampant Corruption in Russia Forced Putin to Attack Western Democracies

by Nomad

A few days ago, Sergei Aleksashenko wrote an article in The Moscow Times that very likely went unnoticed in the West. Aleksashenko was Deputy Minister of Finance and Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank in the 1990s.
Since that time, Aleksashenko witnessed with his own eyes the 1992 promise of economic transformation turn sour. The creation of the Putin's autocracy, wiping away Russia's chance for substantive reform, has been one of the modern history's sadness stories.