Roger O Green

GameStop, Robinhood: explain it to me

Bernie meme

A smart, nearly 80-year-old man wears mittens suitable for a cold DC day. How does it become a meme? And when do we decide it’s over? At least Bernie seems amused if slightly bemused by it.

This pic, BTW, was forwarded to me by my daughter. I have no idea why.

GameStop? What’s a GameStop?

Explain it like I’m 5 years old: A desperate nation tries to understand the GameStop saga. “There better be a test about the GameStop saga. When it burst into the news, I dutifully dropped my other studies and applied myself to the stock market frenzy.

“The short. The short squeeze. Margin call. Payment for order flow. The CBOE Volatility Index. Go ahead, ask me anything.

“Wait, hold on a moment: I swear I understood it like a second ago.”

I think the Globe is correct, that “we’re dealing with a Category 3 story… That’s a story that’s simultaneously complicated and simple, compelling but somehow boring, and can only truly be explained by John Oliver or a kindergarten teacher.

“Category 1: These are stories that are so easy that any civilian could go on CNN with no notice and comment authoritatively. Meghan and Harry leaving the Royal family. Murder hornets…

“Category 2: Stories you will never understand, no matter how hard you try so you can skip right over them. Physicists finding a way to test superstring theory. The new AI tool that cracks the code of protein structures…

“But then there’s the third category, which is when facts you should be able to grasp — if the Wall Street bros can, why not you? We’re not talking Stephen Hawking here — briefly seem within reach, but then slip away.”

Hank Green spends four minutes explaining the “short squeeze.” Whatever that is.

Does it wear green tights?

And what the heck is Robinhood? I’d never of it. According to this two-star review of the app, its “claim to fame is that they do not charge commissions for stock, options, or cryptocurrency trading. Due to industry-wide changes, however, they’re no longer the only free game in town.

“The firm’s target customer base is young people new to investing, who are drawn to the app by advertising that leans heavily on words such as ‘free’ and ‘democratization.’ By and large, this tactic has succeeded, drawing in 10 million accounts held by an unknown number of customers. But what happens to them when they outgrow Robinhood’s meager research capabilities or get frustrated by outages during market surges?”

You know their control of the market is too strong when AOC and Ted Cruz both think so.

Too bad John Oliver is on hiatus. Here, read these pieces from Nation of Change and Business Insider. I think it means…

And

Why is clogging while eating spaghetti so fascinating to me?

We’re in this water, it’s in us, on us

Mahogany Mermaids

In this Now I Know piece about Fred Rogers, Dan Lewis quoted Greg Carr. “That’s the most intimate thing,” the chairman of Howard University’s Afro-American studies department noted. “I’m in this water, you’re in this water, it’s in me, on me.”

What are we talking about? Swimming together, wading in the water together, black and white. In a New York Times article – behind a paywall – there’s a relevant 2018 article. “Racism at American Pools Isn’t New: A Look at a Long History.”

And the issue isn’t limited to pools. There has been a contentious history even of public beach access. “Well into the 20th century, northern municipalities in the US treated beaches as spaces for enforcing the kind of Jim Crow segregation commonly associated with the post-Reconstruction South… Municipal shoreline policies were directed towards racial and class exclusion, yet often used ‘ostensibly race-neutral laws’ to achieve their aims.

“Sometimes, Black beachgoers were explicitly told they could not access a beach or were confined to an undesirable area. Other times, municipalities used elaborate means to enforce Jim Crow on the shoreline while obscuring their racist intentions.

“One New Jersey town, for example, required beachgoers to buy a ticket to access one of its four beaches. But when Black beachgoers bought tickets, they were given tickets to Beach 3 only. ‘Across America, this was how many black children first encountered the color line: during summer and at the beach.'”

Read about the St. Augustine, Florida wade-in, June 1964. The photo above is from that event.

Unspoken rules

The Windy City area provides a striking example. “Though never segregated by law, Chicago’s beaches were long segregated in practice. With the start of the Great Migration during World War I, Chicago’s growing African American population confronted sharp limits in access to beaches, enforced by violent responses from whites.

“In 1912, for example, a Black child was attacked after attempting to bathe at the white 39th Street Beach, nearly causing a riot. Into the 1950s and 60s, African Americans visiting white beaches met conflict and violence upon entering – and apathy from park police.”

The 2020 article notes that change is difficult and slow. “Today, methods of regulating beach access in metropolitan Chicago are subtler, but they continue to produce discriminatory outcomes and beaches largely segregated by class and race.”

The couplet within a song performed by Pete Seeger in 1963 called If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus is relevant here:

If you miss me at the Mississippi River, and you can’t find me nowhere.
Come on over to the swimmin’ pool, I’ll be swimmin’ over there.

Plays a cop on TV

Which brings us back to Mr. Rogers. He notes that François Clemmons, an actor and opera singer, played “Officer Clemmons, a recurring character on the television show… Every once in a while, Clemmons would visit his neighbor. There shouldn’t be anything even remotely noteworthy [about them wading in a small pool together in 1969], except maybe for how high they rolled up their pants relative to the water level.

“For the kids watching, there may not have appeared to be anything out of the ordinary… But for the adults, it was borderline scandalous — or perhaps would have been, had they been watching.

“The vestiges of such discrimination were still present… Just weeks before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 went into effect, for example, a motel manager infamously dumped cleaning supplies into a pool, intending to get swimmers — black and white together — to exit the pool.”

Clemmons notes in the documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? xenophobes “didn’t want black people to come and swim in their swimming pools. My being on the program was a statement for Fred,” and one they both hoped kids would pick up on.

Don’t Go Near the Water

The result of the narrative is why, statistically speaking, black Americans don’t swim. Thus, black youth are at higher risk of drowning.

In 2015, Jessica Williams reported for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart a satirical piece. “Assault Swim – Progress in Community Policing,” noting the risk of Swimming While Black.

Thus, this recent story resonated very much with me. N.C. swim team brings Black women to the pool for competition and camaraderie. “How often do you see this? You don’t ever see Black women swimming in a pool together,” said one member of the Mahogany Mermaids.

“I’m in this water, you’re in this water, it’s in me, on me.” Wade in the Water, children.

How do we move forward?

Truth first, then reconciliation

My friend Alison from church, in response to something I posted on Facebook, noted:

The Perils of having a reality show host as your country’s leader! I think probably you and [your wife] predicted that at the start? But no one could have predicted quite how terrible it could be! I would like your views on how this country can learn and move forward?

Let’s parse this. I don’t think that his a TV host per se was necessarily a disqualifying item on the resume. Ronald Reagan was an actor, and while I despised most of his politics, I seldom doubted that he was in government for what he thought was the good of the country, rather than always out for himself.

Whereas most people who knew Donald Trump before 2016 thought of him as self-absorbed, to be kind. He began his racist campaign talking about Mexican rapists. This was, as they say in poker parlance, a “tell.” So the outcome wasn’t that much of a surprise. What was more interesting/scary was how attractive his vulgar and abusive rhetoric appealed to voters.

Here’s the problem with political prognosticators. They depend too much on the past. “Trump will pretend to run for a few months then drop out.” He’s teased as early as the 1990s about running. They also said Biden couldn’t win in 2020 because he’d failed to even get his party’s nomination twice before.

Oh, yeah, what you asked

To your question, I really don’t know. I’ve been reading tons of contradictory advice on this topic. Ultimately, I often end up in the “truth and reconciliation” mode. See this article from Politico on the question of race. Surely, we need a healing process. But before that, we know we need some truth-telling.

This is important because “it’s not ‘unity that Republicans want, but absolution. They want Americans to forget what we just witnessed and what we are now likely to witness over and over again.”

Also: “As The very leaders who refused to accept the results of a free and fair election, who themselves trucked in the falsehoods and debunked conspiracy theories about a stolen vote and oncoming tyranny — the lies that fueled the Capitol assault — were now preaching the gospel of unity. And they did it with straight faces.”

Should djt be convicted in his second Senate impeachment trial? NO! But only if he appears before the Senate and repudiates the Big Lie. He could say, “I’m sorry. There was no widespread voter fraud. My hubris got the best of me.” Of course, he NEVER says he’s sorry about anything. So the Senate should convict the kleptocrat, keeping him from ever running for office ever again.

In remarks on the Senate floor on January 19, Republican leader Mitch McConnell condemned the violence at the Capitol. “The last time the Senate convened, we had just reclaimed the Capitol from violent criminals who tried to stop Congress from doing our duty. The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.” Sure Mitch has his own agenda here, but he always does.

Congress amok

As for those ‘other powerful people,” they include members of the House of Representatives. Members of the House such as QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene, Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee Jim Jordan, and minority leader Kevin McCarthy, spread the Big Lie.

Worse, Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, and newly-elected gun-toting Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, among others, allegedly provided tours to insurrectionists ahead of the January 6th attack. Thus armed intruders knew the layout of the building and the weaknesses in security.

Then DURING the event, Boebert reportedly updated insurrectionists to the location of Democratic members of Congress, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi. If true, these people needed to be booted from the House, at the bare minimum.

In the Senate, McConnell has problems in his caucus. In an op-ed published a couple of Saturdays ago, the El Paso Times was the third Texas paper calling on Ted Cruz to resign. The editorial board wrote: “To borrow from the title one of his books, now was ‘A Time for Truth.’ And Cruz knew the Stop the Steal campaign was a fraud.” Failing that, the Senate should at least censure him and Josh Hawley (R-MO), constitutional scholars who know better.

Understand their views

Speaking of which, CBS This Morning ran a segment on how poorly the average American knows the Constitution. They asked toughies such as the three branches of the federal government, who the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is, and who their member of Congress is. Surely Constitutional literacy is lacking in America. Maybe we need to require Civics for Grownups.

Other suggestions kicking around include supporting local newspapers so they can engage in robust reporting. I’m afraid, though, that too many people are so jaded about the honesty of the “mainstream media” that it will be of minimal effect.

I relate to this. Teaching in the Age of Disinformation Propaganda and conspiracy theories are everywhere. What’s a professor to do?

All of this said, I think it is important to try to understand those who revere 45, preferably in a “safe place”. Admittedly I don’t know what this looks like. Maybe we need to engage therapists all over the country to have us talk it out?

I do know from personal experience that this is damn difficult. But if you dismiss them as deluded, stupid, or manipulated, this will get neither of you anywhere. They collectively see him as keeping GOD at the forefront of American life. He cares about the little guy in their minds. You can agree to disagree with them, or just walk away.

1911: Discography of American Historical Recordings

not the old but the new

A friend wrote to me, and the query led to the Discography of American Historical Recordings.

“I have a bunch of Edison diamond disc records. One thing about these records is that the labels come off as they were put on with cheap glue. So I have bunches of records that have the Edison catalog number stamped onto them, but I have found no way to easily identify them. I am trying to find a searchable database of Edison records.”

But then he found, on his own, this link concerning 5,000 Edison Recordings Online. “Over the past two years, editors have added a complete discography of Thomas Edison’s disc recordings (1910-1929) to DAHR.” It is “documenting more than 14,000 recording sessions that resulted in more than 8,000 published discs. Over 5,000 of these recordings from UCSB’s collection have been digitized and are available online to scholars and the public for free.”

The public, as in YOU.

I checked the book A Century of Pop Music by Joel Whitman for songs that hit #1 in 1911. Using the Discography of American Historical Recordings basic search field, I put in the label number. No artist, song title, or even label. And I found 10 or 11 of these, not just Edison discs. I should note that searching shorter numbers provided more false hits. If the label number was 123, you’d also generate 4123, 1237, and 51236, et al.

The big hits!

Alexander’s Ragtime Band – Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan (Victor 16908), 10 weeks at #1. Some years back, I remember reading that this was one of the most significant of the early songs no longer under copyright.

Let Me Call You Sweetheart – Columbia Male Quartet (Columbia 1057), 7 weeks at #1. It’s a very familiar song, but I didn’t realize how old it was.

I’m Falling In Love With Someone – John McCormack (Victor 64174), 7 weeks at # 1.

Mother Machree – John McCormack (Victor 64181), 5 weeks at #1.

Under the Yum Yum Tree – Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan (Columbia A943), 5 weeks at #1.

Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey – Collins and Harlan (Victor 16708), 5 weeks at #1. These last two cuts are considered comedy cuts.

Come, Josephine In My Flying Machine – Ada Jones, Billy Murray, and the American Quartet (Victor 16844), 3 weeks at #1.

Mother Machree – Will Oakland (Edison Ambersol 583), 2 weeks at #1. “Victor ledgers indicate this as having been mastered but EDVR data associate no catalog number.” I couldn’t find it at DAHR, but I did retrieve it on YouTube.

I Love the Name of Mary – Will Oakland (Columbia A969,) 2 weeks at #1. Mary was, by far, the most popular name among females in the 1910s, by almost a 2:1 margin over the second place name, Helen.

Come, Josephine In My Flying Machine – Blanche Ring (Victor 60032,) 2 weeks at #1.

Down By the Old Mill Stream – Arthur C. Clough and the Brunswick Quartet, 1 week at #1. This search didn’t quite work as I planned. Columbia 1057 gave me three other songs, including Let me call you sweetheart by the Columbia Quartette. This link is to Edison 80215 from 1914.

Questions about God, and coincidence

Does God DO that?

My new friend Carla, who I’ve only known for a half-century starts off this round of Ask Roger Anything:

God — **The star in the center, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope, is known as V1331 Cyg and is located in the dark cloud LDN 981.**

If you had the chance to ask three different people (living or dead, famous or not) ONE question… who and what would you ask?

The one requirement for this exercise, I suppose, is that they would have to answer honestly. What would I ask? What is your sense of how God manifests God’s self if, in fact, God does that? Or maybe Does knowing God just take practice?

I’d ask Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1967. I’m thinking of his disappointing experiences in his previous couple of years might have changed his world view of God’s plan.

I’d ask Thomas Jefferson c. 1820, long after he had left the presidency. As this article explains, his “relationship with Christianity was complicated.” So where was it near the end of his life?

I’d ask Donald Trump in 2020. But I’d wonder if he’d understand what I was trying to get at. Maybe I’d need some clarifying questions. Does he think God favors the rich? Does he believe that God supported him in herding demonstrators so he could hold up a Bible in front of a church? And if so, what was God saying to him?

Does he believe God wanted him to be reelected? Does he actually read the Bible? And if so, what parts resonate with him?

He was asked this last question around 2017, and he gave the non-answer “Oh, all of it.” Anyone who has ACTUALLY read the Bible will admit that there are some parts of Scripture with which they are uncomfortable.

What a coincidence

Uthaclena, being their usual mystical self, asks:

Isn’t “coincidence” an ALTERNATIVE Fact??

So, what do we know here? “A coincidence is a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances that have no apparent causal connection with one another.” So a coincidence is a fact.

“The perception of remarkable coincidences may lead to supernatural, occult, or paranormal claims.” So the perceptions of coincidences may be alternative facts.