Marching music for the Wyoming Democratic Caucuses

As I told my readers in the final paragraph of Roll Call and Teen Kids News update statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C., popular topics for the past three years of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, "Stay tuned for an update to 2016's Drum corps for the Wyoming Democratic Caucuses."  As Wikipedia states:

The 2020 Wyoming Democratic caucuses were scheduled to take place on April 4, 2020, in the Democratic Party presidential primaries for the 2020 presidential election. However, the in-person caucus was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and mail-in voting was extended to April 17, 2020.

As I wrote in Marching Music for the Alaska Democratic Primary, "Since Bernie Sanders dropped out, there is little suspense left in the result, although it's possible that Sanders could win, as he did in 2016, which would be a Pyrrhic victory."  Sanders didn't get that as he lost and he has now endorsed Biden, along with former President Barack Obama and Senator Elizabeth Warren.  Other than selecting delegates, this election has little meaning.  Just the same, enjoy the music while waiting for the results.

Still, it is a good excuse for another of my marching music for a primary election entries, especially since Wyoming has a famous drum and bugle corps, the Troopers, who I've featured here before.  I begin with the corps' 2016 show, Hero.

Casper, WY - 14th Place 83.438
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"Fanfare" Written by Robert W. Smith Published by Ariana Productions; "War Psalm" Written by Paul Rennick Published by Paul Rennick; "Walking With Heroes" Written by Paul Lovatt-Cooper Published by Prima Vista Musikk Limited; "Symphony No. 1: Of Rage and Rememrance" Written by John Corigliano Published by G. Schirmer, Inc.; "Fire" Written by Robert Smith Published by Ariana Productions;

Now their 2017 show, Duels and Duets.

Casper, WY | 17th Place | 81.275
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“Death of Tybalt (from ‘Romeo and Juliet’)”
Written by Sergei Prokofiev
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“Black Heart Tango”
Written by Robert W. Smith, Paul Rennick
...
“Nessun Dorma”
Written by Donald Leslie Reedman, Giacomo Puccini, Chris Cozens, Nick Magnus
...
“Foil”
Written by Robert W. Smith, Paul Rennick

Unfortunately, neither of these shows have the elements I mentioned four years ago, when I wrote "No Troopers retrospective would be complete without both a sunburst and a color presentation."  To make up for it, here's the corps performing a sunburst from 2008...


...and a color presentation of sorts from 2013 I've used before.


Other traditional aspects of a Troopers show missing are patriotic songs and music from Westerns.  Follow over the jump for a marching band from Wyoming that has preserved that tradition.

Roll Call and Teen Kids News update statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C., popular topics for the past three years of Crazy Eddie's Motie News

I concluded Tax Day postponed to July 15 because of pandemic with a preview of coming attractions.

Stay tuned for retrospectives for Throwback Thursday and Flashback Friday.  The subjects will be adding states to the Union and stars to the flag, followed by holidays.  I've managed to tie the two together on this blog, thanks to Flag Day and Pina Colada Day.

The blast for the past for Throwback Thursday this week is Mitch McConnell calling Puerto Rico statehood 'socialism' drives one to drink on National Pina Colada Day 2019, the most popular post about both Puerto Rico and holidays during the ninth year of this blog.  I'll explain its history after I update the topic of adding Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., as states.

I begin with Roll Call's How statehood is granted to U.S. territories, explained.

Historically, territorial status has been granted as a precursor to statehood, yet 1959 was the last time any stars were added to Old Glory.

The United States controls five inhabited territories. While their citizens are American, their homes are not considered states — but someday they could be. Watch as CQ Roll Call explains the statehood process.

Moving from the general to the specific, Roll Call updated the status of D.C. Statehood in Coronavirus funding slight emboldens DC statehood fight.

In what seems like a lifetime ago — February — D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton attended trivia night at a crowded local brewery, celebrating the House Oversight Committee’s approval of a bill to make the District of Columbia the 51st state.

Just a few long weeks later, that brewery is selling beer only online for delivery or pickup. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, non-essential D.C. businesses have shut down, the Metro is running reduced service, and nine district residents have died as of Sunday night.

Late last week Congress passed a coronavirus relief package that provides millions less in funding to D.C. than states, because the district was grouped with federal territories rather than states.

“This is why you’ve seen me pressing so hard for statehood for the District of Columbia,” Holmes Norton told CQ Roll Call in a video interview Thursday.

“Hear me, I’m going to get it fixed in the next bill, and mind you, there is going to be a next coronavirus bill,” Holmes Norton said.

With D.C.’s non-statehood status affecting its access to emergency funding, CQ Roll Call took a look at where Holmes Norton’s decades-long push for statehood lies, including Republicans’ myriad Constitutional objections to making the nation’s capital a state.

Yes, every issue has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Also, Mitch McConnell calling statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico "socialism" made a cameo in this video, tying the two together and connecting the video to the reason I'm writing this post today.

Since the original post was about Puerto Rico, it's time for an update on its struggle for statehood.  Watch Teen Kids News ask Should Puerto Rico pursue Statehood or Independence?

Nicole tells us about Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory that could become America's 51 state. She travels to Washington D.C. where she meets Pedro Pierluisi, the Resident Commissioner for Puerto Rico. Mr. Pierluisi serves in the U.S. House of Representatives. It's his job to make sure Puerto Rico's interests are represented in our government.

I wish both Eleanor Holmes Norton and Pedro Pierluisi luck in obtaining statehood for their home jurisdictions.  It looks like they'll need it.

Follow over the jump for how Mitch McConnell calling Puerto Rico statehood 'socialism' drives one to drink on National Pina Colada Day 2019 earned its page views.

Tax Day postponed to July 15 because of pandemic

Happy Tax Day!  I mean that sincerely this year because the deadline for filing federal and most state income taxes, including here in Michigan, has been delayed until July 15 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  CBS News has the story in What the 2020 Tax Day deadline extension means for you.

In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, the IRS and Treasury Department extended the tax filing and payment deadline from April 15 to July 15.  Tax attorney Sahang-Hee Hahn joins CBSN to discuss the implications of the delay and how it could also impact the anticipated stimulus check.

No tax marches, at least in person.  Instead, Tax March is hosting a petition-signing campaign on their website.  Clicktivism while staying safe at home — that's better than marching in person right now.  Maybe conditions will be safer for public assemblies in July, the new tax filing and payment deadline.  Either way, that's when I plan on returning to my usual topics for Tax Day of highlighting inequitable taxation and demanding President Trump release his tax returns.  There are more immediate concerns today.

Stay tuned for retrospectives for Throwback Thursday and Flashback Friday.  The subjects will be adding states to the Union and stars to the flag, followed by holidays.  I've managed to tie the two together on this blog, thanks to Flag Day and Pina Colada Day.

NASA's 'Apollo 13: Home Safe' for the 50th anniversary of a 'successful failure'

I didn't keep all of the promise I made in Apollo 8's Earthrise 50 years later for Christmas Eve to blog about the 50th anniversaries of the rest of the Apollo missions.  I did get around to writing about Apollo 11 but skipped Apollos 9, 10, and 12.  Sorry.  I needed a reminder to write about them and I didn't see any.  That's not the case with Apollo 13, as NASA created Apollo 13: Home Safe and uploaded it to its YouTube channel on Friday.  Watch along with me.

"Houston, we've had a problem." Apollo 13 has become known as “a successful failure” that saw a safe return of the crew in spite of a catastrophic explosion in the middle of their lunar journey. This 30-minute documentary features interviews with Apollo 13 Astronauts Jim Lovell and Fred Haise, as well as Flight Directors Gene Kranz and Glynn Lunney, with engineer Hank Rotter. Parts of their interviews take place in the restored Apollo mission control room. This documentary also features original NASA footage and newly synchronized audio from Mission Control.

Thanks to Stephen Slater and Ben Feist/Apollo in Real-Time (apolloinrealtime.org/13) for providing additional footage and audio.

Let this serve as an example of what some of the best minds in the U.S. government can do in an emergency.  May the best minds we have now do their best to get us out of our current crisis.

Pandemic effects from and on space, an April asteroid flyby, and NASA at Home for Apophis Day on Monday the 13th

Happy Apophis Day on Monday the 13th!  Normally, I treat this date as "my version of Asteroid Day, when I warn of dangers from space — other than plagues" — and I will do some of that, but, just as yesterday's Yuri's Night entry looked at both the promise and peril of space through the lens of the coronavirus pandemic, so will today's observance of the day I declared in 2012.  As I wrote in Pandemics and collapse in 2013:

This blog is still about how to avoid the collapse of the current civilization and takes a science-fiction slant on the topic.  An asteroid impact is the perfect merger of the two.

So are pandemics.  We need to be prepared for them, too.

My readers don't have to guess which one happened first, as we're living through it and we're finding out that we weren't prepared!  Let that be a lesson to us.

Before I examine hazards from space, Space.com/Video From Space shows its viewers Coronavirus impact seen from space in before and after satellite images.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a massive decrease in movement of people around the world, which is evident in these satellite images.

I found all of these striking, but particularly the before and after images of Tokyo Disneyland.  When I'm really in an "I can't be all DOOM all the time mood," I de-stress by watching videos about theme parks, particularly Disney's theme parks.  The closure of all of Disney's theme parks at once has really affected those video bloggers and made their videos less stress-relieving.  Escapism doesn't work when you know there was a place to escape to that isn't available any more.*

Video From Space examined both the effects of the pandemic on space travel and an April asteroid flyby in What's Up in Space by Space.com (April 2020).

The Space.com team, like everyone else, may be stuck at home amid the coronavirus pandemic, but space exploration is still going on. Here's what to expect in April with Space.com Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik and Community Manager Stevie Ward!

Yes, space industries and agencies are having people work from home while keeping essential personnel on site as well as shifting production, too.  Also, the video mentioned an asteroid flyby on April 29th.  Fortunately, it will miss Earth by a safe distance, which Space.com reported today.

"On April 29, asteroid 1998 OR2 will safely pass by 3.9 million miles/6.2 million kilometers," scientists with NASA's Asteroid Watch program said in a Twitter update as they debunked a Daily Express report warning of the flyby. "There is no warning about this asteroid," they added in another Twitter post.
...
"The orbit is well understood and it will pass harmlessly at 16 times the distance to our moon," NASA wrote on Twitter. "No one should have any concern about it."

That's a relief, especially after seeing all the alarmist YouTube videos about the flyby when I searched for asteroids yesterday.  Those alone were enough to make me change the focus of today's post from asteroid impacts to the pandemic.

Speaking of NASA, they opened A Universe of Possibilities to Explore at Home on This Week @NASA – April 3, 2020 with how they are serving the public while people are staying safe at home.

You, plus “NASA at Home” equals a universe of possibilities, the first delivery service selected for our lunar Gateway, and an astronaut added to a future Commercial Crew flight … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

Virtual field trips and science experiments — I should check them out to see if there are any I can recommend to my students.  Since I can't run my geology field trip in person, I'll have to find one the students can do themselves.  Wish me luck as my students and I stay safe at home.

*For my readers who are wondering how a doomer blogger such as myself came across this community, it's because they form a branch of urban exploration, which also includes all the video bloggers about the Retail Apocalypse.  When I started looking at videos about dead malls, YouTube suggested videos about closed Disney park attractions, so I starting watching them and looking at YouTube's recommendations for those videos.  Behold the power of the YouTube algorithm!

Vox and Vintage Space explain why Apollo 11's crew was quarantined for Yuri's Night 2020

Not only is today Easter, but it's also Yuri's Night, the anniversary of the first crewed space flight and the first operational launch of the space shuttle.  As I noted four years ago, it's the first of two space days in a row I observe on this blog with Yuri's Night celebrating the promise of space and Apophis Day examining its perils.  For this year's edition of Yuri's Night, I'm looking at both the promise and peril of space through the lens of the coronavirus pandemic with a history lesson from two of my favorite YouTube channels, Vox and The Vintage Space.  Both of them cooperated in Vox's Why NASA quarantined the Apollo 11 astronauts.

In this episode of History Club, Vox's Phil Edwards and Coleman Lowndes chat with Amy Shira Teitel of The Vintage Space about the Apollo 11 quarantine.
...
It was an unusual process for an unprecedented task: keeping potential moon germs from entering the Earth’s atmosphere (and affecting its population).

To try to isolate the Apollo astronauts from the Earth, NASA went to extraordinary lengths. They clothed them in “Biological Isolation Garments,” transported them on a converted Airstream trailer, and then quarantined them for weeks in a Lunar Receiving Lab specially built to analyze moon samples and, of course, the men who went there.

The quarantine was a strange capstone to the journey to the moon — but also a necessary one that’s surprisingly resonant today.

Vox recommended The Vintage Space, so I'm sharing Amy Shira Teitel's How Apollo Astronauts Passed Time in Quarantine, which she produced first.


If only our period of staying at home lasted a mere three weeks with celebrations afterwards.  Who knows, after months to more than a year of social distancing and working from home, we'll celebrate, too, just like the participants in Yuri's Night last year in Los Angeles!

Watch this video to see all of the awesome things that happened at Yuri's Night Los Angeles 2019 - there is so much to do that you literally can't see, hear, and do it all!

Now, that's a party!  Too bad this year's was virtual, not real.  Next year.

That's it for both Easter and Yuri's Night.  Stay tuned for Apophis Day, my version of Asteroid Day, when I warn of dangers from space — other than plagues.

Madison Scouts 'Judas' for a drum corps Easter

A happy drum corps Easter to my readers!  For an explanation, I'm going to be a good environmentalist and recycle what I wrote for Easter 2019.

Since I first started observing Easter on this blog in 2015, I've been alternating between my two default holiday themes, drinks from Tipsy Bartender on odd-numbered years and drum corps on even-numbered years.

Because this is an even-numbered year, it's drum corps.

I foreshadowed today's selections four years ago, when I told my readers "the Madison Scouts will play selections from ["Jesus Christ Superstar"] this coming summer.  Stay tuned."  Without any further ado, I present 2016 Madison Scouts - FULL SHOW by Vic Firth Marching.

Vic Firth takes you BEYOND the lot with MADISON SCOUTS as they perform their 2016 production "Judas" during finals week in Indianapolis, IN! NINE HD cameras you WON'T see anywhere else!

That's a rehearsal run-through that will stay up for as long as Vic Firth wants it to.  For a competitive performance, watch 2016 Madison Scouts Closer.


Enjoy it while it lasts.  It's been on YouTube for four years, but that's no guarantee it will be here tomorrow.

That's it for this year's celebration of Easter.  Next year, the theme will be Easter drinks.

Stay tuned for a celebration of Yuri's Night later today.  Space!

I missed Bill Weld dropping out in March when Trump clinched the GOP nomination

I expressed my pessimism about the last significant primary opponent to Trump in Joe Walsh walks away from the Republican primary and says he'll support the Democratic nominee.

Now it's up to William Weld to serve as the internal opposition to Trump within the Republican Party.  I wish Weld luck, but I don't know if he'll even get enough delegates to earn a speaking spot at the Republican National Convention — this is, if the party bothers to follow their own rules.  I'm not optimistic about that, either.

I was right to be pessimistic — Weld received only one delegate to Trump's 1,330 so far — but as I observed in Bye, Bye, Bernie, the Sequel, I didn't see the confirmation of my opinion when it happened.

I'm not done with this series, as I missed Bill Weld dropping out on March 18, 2020.  My excuse was that I was busy with Vox explains how its viewers and readers can fight the coronavirus.  I'll get around to it on Saturday after I post retrospectives for Throwback Thursday and Flashback Friday.  In the meantime, on to the conventions (no matter how they will be held) and the general election!

Well, at least it wasn't like the last candidate I missed leaving the race, when I wrote I missed Messam dropping out three months ago.  It only took me three weeks.

Enough of the introduction.  Watch Newsy's Bill Weld ends GOP primary campaign.

The announcement comes after  president cleared the number of delegates needed to be the GOP nominee.

Most Americans dislike Trump, but the overwhelming majority of those who remain in the Republican Party appear to be very enthusiatic about supporting him.  Sigh.

Since I never suggested any drinks for him, I don't have to retire any.  Besides, there have been four candidates from Massachusetts, so I've suggested, retired, re-used, and re-retired so many drink suggestions for the Bay State that I don't feel like repeating myself.  Sometimes, even an environmentalist gets tired of recycling.

On the other hand, I will look at what On The Issues says about Weld's ideological position.  It lists Weld as having an economic score of 53 and a social score of 78, which On The Issues considers to be a Progressive Libertarian.  That puts him closer to Tulsi Gabbard than to Trump, who has an economic score of 83 and a social score of 20, a Hard-Core Conservative according to On The Issues.  I guess that's why the Republicans are enthusiastic about Trump and barely gave Weld the time of day.

That's it for this stage of The Hungry for Power Games or Fury Road to the White House, whichever Colbert meme one wants to use, unless I feel like doing something for the Libertarian or Green Party conventions.  Otherwise, I might do it for the general election.  We'll see.

Stay tuned for a drum corps Easter followed by a celebration of Yuri's Night.

CNBC's 'Why Coronavirus May Change How Americans Vote' updates pandemics and outbreaks for the ninth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News

Happy Flashback Friday!  For today's retrospective, the topic is the coronavirus pandemic, as if nearly all the posts here for the past four weeks haven't been on that topic in one way or another.  I'll review the top posts on the subject during the ninth year of this blog over the jump.  Above the fold, I'm going to focus on yet another aspect of American life the pandemic may change when it's over, elections.  Watch CNBC explain Why Coronavirus May Change How Americans Vote.

As states and jurisdictions move elections later in the calendar and call for voters to request absentee ballots, the country faces the possibility of holding a presidential election in the middle of a pandemic. As states and jurisdictions move elections later in the calendar and call for voters to request absentee ballots, the country faces the possibility of holding a presidential election in the middle of a pandemic. Recently, Governors from both parties have attempted to postpone primary elections, but courts have upheld election dates.

In Ohio, a judge rejected a lawsuit backed by Republican Governor Mike DeWine to extend the state’s presidential primary elections scheduled for April 9 to June 2. DeWine said he made the recommendation following guidance from public health officials, but claimed that he lacked the legal authority to suspend the election.

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said he supported the recommendation to do away with Tuesday’s in-person voting, but added that the party was considering other ways of extending the election, including switching entirely to vote-by-mail with a “much earlier” deadline than June 2.
...
In the case of Wisconsin, the United States Supreme Court voted 5-4 on Monday to reverse an order extending the absentee ballot deadline for voting in the elections scheduled for Tuesday, stepping into a back-and-forth between Tony Evers, the state’s Democratic governor and the GOP-controlled state legislature.

The Supreme Court, which was considering a case brought before Evers issued his executive order, was not considering whether voting would take place on Tuesday, but only whether to keep in place an order that extended the deadline for absentee ballots to be postmarked.

In an unsigned order from which the court’s four liberal justices dissented, the court did away with the extension. The top court’s five Republican-appointees, none of whom attached their name to the court’s order, reasoned that extending the date by which voters could mail absentee ballots “fundamentally alters the nature of the election.”

Democrats and voting rights groups had gone to court to push for an extended deadline, warning that coronavirus fears could keep voters from the polls. On Friday, a federal appeals court upheld a one-week extension for absentee ballots.

Michigan to mail ballots and $400 million for elections in coronavirus stimulus bill update the election news and views for the ninth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News wasn't enough, especially when I saw that CNBC had uploaded a video on the subject.  CNBC explores why coronavirus is more dangerous for diabetics convinced me that they were a good source of videos about the wide-ranging effects of COVID-19.

Follow over the jump for the most read entries about the pandemic from the ninth year of this blog.

Marching Music for the Alaska Democratic Primary

Today is the deadline for ballots to be received in the 2020 Alaska Democratic primary.

The 2020 Alaska Democratic primary was scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 4, 2020, in the Democratic Party presidential primaries for the 2020 presidential election. However, in person voting was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, while mail-in voting was extended to April 10, 2020.[1] The Alaska primary is a closed party-run primary, with the state awarding 19 delegates, of which 15 are pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the results of the primary.

Since Bernie Sanders dropped out, there is little suspense left in the result, although it's possible that Sanders could win, as he did in 2016, which would be a Pyrrhic victory.

That written, I'm still going to post one of my marching music for a primary election entries, just as I did for the Wisconsin Primary.  Since there are no drum corps in Alaska, it's a marching band's turn.  In this case, it's the Colony HS Knights Marching Band, which Music213 captured at the 2014 Pasadena Rose Parade.

From Palmer, Alaska
Colony High School Knights Marching Band "THEE Northern Sound", performing at the 125th Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade on Wednesday, January 1st 2014.

Music213 also recorded their performance at Bandfest.

From Palmer, Alaska
Colony High School Knights Marching Band "THEE Northern Sound", performing their musical selections at the 34th Annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses Bandfest on Monday, December 30th 2013.

In addition to performing at the Rose Parade, the band peformed at the 2017 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, where the video identifies them merely as Alaska Marching Band Macys Day Parade NYC.


Enjoy the music as you're awaiting the results, even if they don't mean as much anymore.  In the meantime, stay tuned for the Flashback Friday  retrospective I promised yesterday.