Including Virginmarys, Beth Hart, Keel and five other bearers of the good flag of rock'n'roll

The sneaky sin of sloth doesn’t just keep us from stepping to the starting line; it tempts us to give up completely before we finish.

And the Caitlin Clark hate continues

Research on top Billboard songs from 1950-2022 shows a decrease in melodic complexity, potentially linked to genre evolution and digital music production advancements, even as...

France’s second round of legislative elections Sunday delivered a surprise victory to Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s hard-left “New Popular Front” (NFP), which came in first in the seat count. Marine Le Pen’s conservative Rassemblement National party, which was projected to win a plurality of seats, came in third, despite winning a plurality of the vote and 54 seats. France, snap national parliament election, second round:Final results (seat distribution)NFP-LEFT|G/EFA|S&D: 182 (+51)Ensemble-RE: 168 (-76)RN and allies-ID: 143 (+54)LR/Divers droite-EPP: 60 (-11)Divers gauche-*: 13 (-9)Divers centre-*: 6 (+2)Regionalists-*: 4 (-6)… pic.twitter.com/dcBvgMD9d6— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) July 7, 2024 According to the official results, across both rounds of voting, the NFP won 181 seats despite winning only 25.8 percent of the vote. President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble party won 166 seats with only 24.5 percent of the vote. Le Pen’s RN, along with minor RN-aligned parties, managed to win a large plurality of the popular vote with 37 percent, but won only 143 seats. Nevertheless, these numbers improved on those of the 2022 legislative elections, which saw Le Pen win only 89 seats and 17.3 percent of the vote in the second round.  The elections were really at a knife's edge in hundreds of seats.The anti-Le Pen barrage held convincingly, but what will happen to those hundred of seats if the tide keeps rising? pic.twitter.com/JFcwkKkV7v— François Valentin (@Valen10Francois) July 7, 2024 What critics have dubbed “an alliance of dishonor” was responsible for keeping RN from power. After a strong RN performance in the first round, Macron and his prime minister, Gabriel Attal, decided to work with Mélenchon and the left despite earlier promises not to do so. While this strategy was heavily criticized due to the extremist actions of several NFP candidates, it seems to have paid off. As the result was unexpected, it is unclear what the political fallout will be. Attal has announced that he will resign as prime minister. While Mélenchon has declared his intention to govern, without a majority in the National Assembly he has little ability to do so.  The post French Elections: Macron’s ‘Alliance of Dishonor’ Pays Off appeared first on The American Conservative.

"It's also about a place of personal refuge." The post The song Bruce Springsteen wrote about “being an outcast” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

"It's good enough." The post “It’s shit”: The album The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas admitted was rushed first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

The Democratic establishment discovered three things about President Biden during his Friday interview with Clinton operative cum ABC anchorman George Stephanopoulos: First, he is utterly delusional about his first term record and his fitness to remain in office. Second, he’s in denial about the dismal polling numbers that portend his defeat by former President Trump in November. Finally, Biden has no intention of voluntarily withdrawing from the race and is pointedly ignoring the frantic entreaties of other elected Democrats, large-dollar donors and the doyens of the commentariat to do so. He has wanted to be President all his life and he likes the job. The predicament the Democrats find themselves in … was caused by their attempt to deceive the voters about the President’s ongoing cognitive decline. Biden is, of course, cognitively unfit to carry out the duties of the presidency. Moreover, a majority of Americans already know it according to numerous surveys — including a CBS News poll conducted at the end of June. This presents a particularly awkward dilemma for the White House press corps because they consciously ignored Biden’s “problem” for well over three years, right up until the wheels came off during his June 27 presidential debate with Donald Trump. Now that his cognitive limitations are undeniable, and may very well cost him the 2024 election, these “journalists” have expressed shock and dismay. But, as veteran reporter Mark Halperin writes at Fox News, they are the people who buried the story: The White House press corps was not gaslit by Biden’s aides … The public has been lied to by its government and its free press. Foreign nations, both friends and foe, know that our president is mentally unfit for office, and that there is no one in charge in the White House. The very foundations of the American system have been replaced by sand and mist, leaving questions about re-election, but also fundamental doubts about our national security and our commander in chief. Meanwhile, the Hill reports that House Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn. became the fifth House Democrat to officially call on Biden to bow out of the presidential race. She joins Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.). In the upper chamber, according a Washington Post report, “Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) is attempting to assemble a group of Democratic senators to ask President Biden to exit the presidential race.” Even more ominous for him is an impending mutiny by large-dollar Democrat donors who are threatening to stop writing checks if Biden refuses to go. One such donor, Damon Lindelof, has called for a “DEMbargo” in Deadline: The checks give us access to power and it is power that is needed to persuade our pitcher to come out of the game, because dammit, even four runs down with the bases loaded and no outs, he still feels like he’s got good stuff … When they text you asking for cash, text back that you’re not giving them a penny and you won’t change your mind until there’s change at the top of the ticket. And when Joe finally leaves the mound, I will stand and applaud. Because he truly pitched a great game. The claim that Biden has “pitched a great game” is eminently debatable, but he has unquestioningly been successful in garnering the support of large-dollar donors until his debate debacle. During the quarter that ended June 30, Biden’s campaign raised $264 million according to AP. That isn’t as much as Trump’s haul of $331 million, but it’s not chicken feed. Since Biden’s interview with Stephanopoulos, however, a number of deep-pocketed donors are joining Lindelof in calling for him to step down. ABC News reports that Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, former Paypal CEO Bill Harris and Los Angeles real estate mogul Rick Caruso are among those who are now reluctant to write checks to Biden. Democrat Delusion But the President will nonetheless be very nearly impossible to dislodge if he refuses to step aside. Disregard the nonsense published in the corporate media concerning the 25th Amendment. In recent days, various pundits on the left and the right have suggested that it offers the Democrats a way to renege on the Faustian bargain they made with Biden in 2020. The silliest of these was written by Jeannie Suk Gersen, a professor at Harvard Law School, in the New Yorker. She writes, “Biden should resign from the Presidency altogether as soon as possible. The Twenty-fifth Amendment says that in the case of the President’s resignation, the Vice-President — Kamala Harris — becomes the President.” If the problem here isn’t obvious, let’s spell it out again — Biden isn’t going to resign voluntarily. Thus, the 25th Amendment is useless in this situation if he is conscious and able to transmit to Congress a “written declaration that no inability exists.” The predicament the Democrats find themselves in as the 2024 election looms was caused by their attempt to deceive the voters about the President’s ongoing cognitive decline. That attempt failed and, combined with inflation and immigration, this will probably be fatal to Biden’s reelection campaign. They made a bargain in 2020. Now it’s time to pay up. READ MORE from David Catron: Biden’s Debate Debacle Disqualifies His Entire Party Will Biden’s Pandering Fool Black Voters Again? Is Biden’s Dementia Just Russian Disinformation? The post The Democrats’ Faustian Bargain With Biden appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.