By Dawoud Kringle
(AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article is for general information purposes only, and is NOT intended to diagnose or cure any illness or condition. The author invites the reader to further research. If you suspect yourself to suffer in any way described herein, you are urged to seek professional help.)
“There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.” – Aristotle
By Dawoud Kringle
One of the most polarizing controversies among audiophiles is the dichotomy between analogue and digital recording. Surely you, dear reader, have been subjected to (or subjected someone else to) an impassioned soliloquy about how much warmer analog recording sound than digital.
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Text by Dawoud Kringle
The Trump tariff fiasco has reached a predictable outcome.
China played its hand as well as it could have. The thing that Trump and his like cannot understand is that China rarely thinks in terms of short term gains: they think in terms of decades and centuries. Trump underestimated them, and US businesses and economies are suffering because of it.
Of course Trump needs to scapegoat China with an economic war to detract people from his domestic filth, in an effort to win another election term. China is an easy target for his voting base. They fear China because US companies have become dependent upon buying from China. Trump squeezes the idea of IP theft for everything he can get from it; and it’s a fair assessment. But every country is engaged in this game, including the US. Ultimately China has strongly contributed to almost 20 years of global prosperity. Slowing China is bad for the US, even though it hurts Trump’s ego (and his follower’s egos) to know that any other country is prospering.
Text by Dawoud Kringle
For the third year in a row, the Trump Administration repeated its efforts to destroy the arts in the US. The White House has proposed a federal budget that would shutter the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (which supports PBS and NPR) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Like the two previous years under Trump, the plans diminishing appropriations for each agency are a clear attempt to facilitate its demise.
The cuts total $897 million of the $4.7 trillion 2020 spending plan.
In the beginning of his administration, Trump called for the complete elimination of these agencies. The Republican-led Congress funded them both times, with the NEA, NEH and IMLS each seeing small increases in 2019. The 2020 budget provides $29 million for the NEA and $38 million for the NEH, both funded at $155 million this year. The CPB would receive $30 million, down from $465 million, and the IMLS would receive $23 million, a $219 million cut. This translates to about $1.35 per citizen per year.
Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo
By Dawoud Kringle
The U.S. government has been operating under a partial shutdown since Dec. 22, 2018. Trump is in political battle, holding our nation hostage for the $5.7 billion down payment to fund a wall along the border with Mexico.
