Music Friday: "Granny"

 I've been listening to the Dave Matthews Band a bit lately on SiriusXM radio. 

Here's a classic that eclectic band. 

Random Notes from a Crank

 I'm trying to catch up on my public affairs magazine reading. 

Here are some factoids from the last three months of "Harper's Indexes":

• Percentage decrease in the number of flu cases in the United States this season: 99
• Factor by which U.S. police officers are more likely to use force against left-wing protesters than right-wing protesters: 3.4
• Percentage of Black Lives Matter protests during which the police used force against protesters: 5
• Of Stop the Steal protests during which police did so: 1
• Percentage of Americans who identified as Republicans and Democrats, respectively, at the outset of 2020: 47, 45
• At the end of 2020: 39, 50
• Number of U.S. members of Congress who are not affiliated with a religion: 1
• Portion of the American population that is not: 1/4
• Percentage of 2020 Trump voters who feel more loyal to Trump than to the Republican Party: 54
• Who would support a Trump party over the Republican Party: 46
• Minimum number of identified long-term effects from contracting COVID-19: 55
• Factor by which a solar farm was more expensive to build and maintain than a coal plant in 2009: 3.2
• By which a coal plant is more expensive to build and maintain than a solar farm today: 2.2
• Estimated number of Earths that humanity would require to sustain its current level of resource consumption: 1.6
• Year in which humanity  is expected to require two Earths: 2030
• Number of U.S. state legislatures that are considering new voting restrictions: 47
• Number of such bills being considered: 361
• Percentage of Democratic or Democratic-leaning voters who are "extremely concerned" about Trump supporters: 82
• Who are "extremely concerned" about voter suppression: 53
• Percentage of U.S. electric-car owners who are concerned about being able to charge their vehicles on the road: 47
• Portion of U.S. electric-car charging outlets that are in California: 1/3
• That support only Tesla vehicles: 1/5
• Minimum number of state governments that are funding efforts to modify the weather with cloud seeding: 6

Usually when I provide the stats and figures from the Harper's Index, I just leave them as for readers to ponder for themselves. But for this post since it's three-months worth of numbers and percentages, I thought I'd comment on some of them. 

With the drop of flu cases, it's clear that masks work, people. That's why people in certain countries in Asia wear masks during flu season. 

In response to the "Blue Lives Matter" crowd, it seems that the police feel conservative lives matter more. 

I hesitantly take the party affiliation changes from the start of 2020 to the end as a good sign. The Republican Party has lost any sense of a moral and/or philosophical compass with people's irrational support of Moscow Don. 

That long-term effects figure should be a part of PSAs about getting the COVID-19 vaccine. 

We need to build more solar farms and electric-car charging outlets. 

Back to the GOP, they want to restrict voting access because doing so helps them. But will it? I wonder if these ridiculous bills like the one in Georgia will only motivate people to vote. That's my hope. 

Music Friday: "Silver Sings"

I have both of Caitlin Rose's albums, but she hasn't put out anything since 2013 when The Stand-In came out. 

I don't know what's up with that. I really like her lyrics and her alluring voice. 

Please put out something new Ms. Rose. 

Musing of the Moment: Harry Kane & Tottenham

As various reports have indicated, Harry Kane apparently wants to move on to a different club.

As it normally does, The Athletic is doing some fine work on this story with all kinds of reasoned speculation where he might go if he indeed does get traded/sold to another club. 

Apparently he wants to stay in the Premier League. 

As reports indicated, Chelsea and Manchester City seem like the most logical landing spots for Kane. However, I don't Daniel Levy striking a deal with Chelsea, a North London rival of epic proportions. 

If he were to go to either of those clubs, the Spurs better get one hell of a haul in return either in players and/or lucre. 

In either case, it would be the rich getting richer as both clubs are incredibly wealthy because of their owners. 

Manchester City would be the club I would bet on him going since Aguero is no longer going to be on the squad. 

A recent reporter in The Athletic stated that he thinks the most likely scenario is that Levy doesn't move Kane at all this transfer window and instead waits until next summer's transfer window once various clubs have recovered from pandemic-induced financial straits.  

Regardless, I'd hate to see Kane playing for another club. 

However, when they picked Mourinho, they picked a gaffer who did not let the team have any kind of coherent offensive philosophy. 

For me, I don't think Levy will give in to Kane's demands, especially in such a depressed market for transfers. If he does, I suspect it will be Man City. Which pisses me off. 

Random Notes from a Crank

 I don't like the trend of workers in certain establishments calling their customers "boss." I take it as some kind of passive-aggressive linguistic move to make fun of the customer. I'd rather be called "Sir." 

The word "boss" just seems like a move to condescending to the person buying goods or services. I've worked in a number of retail establishments over my life, and I would never call someone "boss."  

Tottenham Hotspur is unlikely to qualify for European events unless they get some help from other clubs over the next two weeks of match days. They could qualify for Europa League if they get their shit together. 

I'm worried about Kane leaving the Spurs. However, they've been playing more loose and free since Jose got sacked and Mason took over. 

I like the starting lineups he's been throwing out there lately. Today he had Tanganga at right back, which I like. And Dele played alongside Bale, Son, and Kane. That is a formidable front four that can do some impressive work on offense. 

The defense needs to get better. That's been a common refrain all season.

Music Friday: "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"

As of late, I've been listening to Sirius XM's First Wave channel that broadcasts mainly alternative music from the 80s. I grew up on that stuff. 

A lot of the selections tend toward the more electronica-based music, which I listened to when I watched Mtv, but I never really bought any of that music. Back then, I was purchasing more guitar-based tunes. And still am. 

I did always like Tears for Fears though. And here's one of their hits. 

Music Friday: "Informer"

As I was driving on I-57  to take my son to a travel baseball game, Pat Hughes and Ron Cooper were calling the game on 670 The Score, and Pat got on a tangent about the term "stool pigeon," which is an informer. 

So this goofy song from the early 90s came into my head as they rambled on about the term.