The Rogovoy Report 12.4.22
From around the corner to around the globe....
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CIVIL WAR WATCH
The GOP and the Normalization of Extremism
(The Atlantic) - The role of extremist white nationalists in the GOP may be approaching an inflection point. Few GOP officials have criticized Donald Trump personally — much less declared that Trump’s meeting with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes and Ye, the rapper (formerly known as Kanye West) who has become a geyser of anti-Semitic bile, renders him unfit to serve as president again. The Anti-Defamation League tracked more than 2,700 anti-Semitic incidents in 2021 — the highest annual total it has ever recorded and triple the number of incidents it documented as recently as 2015, the last year before Trump emerged as the GOP’s leading man. Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL, worries that Elon Musk is on course to radically increase the volume of racist and anti-Semitic hate speech on Twitter, which was already a problem before Musk bought the company. Greenblatt sees what he calls “the normalization of extremism” hardening in ways that would have been unimaginable only a few years ago. “Society itself is at risk if we don’t finally move the extremists … out of the mainstream, back to the margins where they belong,” he said. “I think we don’t realize the peril that we run, the risk that’s upon us, if we don’t get this right.”
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For ages, antisemitism has served as an early warning system for civil society, the canary in the coal mine of democracy. When slurs and physical attacks against Jews are on the rise, it’s often a sign that the country is headed for more serious trouble. (Donald Morrison - Berkshire Eagle)
By violating the norms holding together liberal democratic society with impunity, Donald Trump renders those norms inoperable. If it were just Trump doing this, that would be bad enough. But other narcissistic celebrities are now joining him in reveling in reactionary transgression. (Michelle Goldberg - NYT)
World War III won’t just be a conventional war. The fight for democracy requires a person-to-person defense of our democracies. Microtargeting means that this is hand-to-hand combat for all of us on social media. This is us — you and me and everyone you know — resisting dictatorship through our values not only in the public sphere but in our daily lives. (Maria Ressa - The Atlantic)
Trump's latest policy proposal: U.S. Constitution should be 'terminated' (The Guardian)
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Where Veteran Rockers Go to Reinvent Themselves
(NYT) HUDSON VALLEY, N.Y. - A former grunge icon for Courtney Love’s band in the dangerous days of the ’90s, Melissa Auf der Maur is just one of the many musicians who have moved to the Hudson Valley and the Catskills to start over, in one way or another. Some have put their musical careers on hold. Others, who include Tommy Stinson of the Replacements, Meshell Ndegeocello, Kate Pierson of B-52s, Amanda Palmer, Amy Rigby, Wreckless Eric, and Natalie Merchant, have continued recording and touring, while devoting themselves to completely new pursuits.
Alt-Rockers Deer Tick to Bring Genre-Defying Mix to Mahaiwe
(Berkshire Eagle) GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. - Deer Tick's influences are varied, but well-regarded: Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan and Bill Callahan come up as specific inspirations. But John McCauley, the group’s lead singer, also mentioned a less likely suspect: Nirvana. Drawing from different sources is part of the band’s mystique. Despite their influences, however, one of the band’s biggest developments of the last 10 years is a sound that is uniquely their own. The group performs at the Mahaiwe on Friday, Dec 9, at 8pm.
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It is rare to find a successful merger between an abstract outlook and a study of nature, but Great Barrington painter Yura Adams does it (White Hot)
Crescendo Chorus and Berkshire Brass team up for Renaissance and Baroque holiday music concerts (B Eagle)
Hilary Knight is center stage in 'Eloise and More,' a retrospective of the illustrator's expansive career at Norman Rockwell Museum (B Eagle)
Mary Ann Unger retrospective 'To Shape a Moon from Bone' at WCMA explores 'endangered bodies' (B Eagle)
The Clark to offer free admission through March 2023 (B Eagle)
Lee Elman, cofounder of Aston Magna, dies at 86 (NYT)
Poet Bernadette Mayer remembered as 'genius' (ATU)
Plenty of places have tried to claim the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford over the years. He grew up in Jackson, Miss., and Little Rock, Ark. He went to school in East Lansing, Mich., and Irvine, Cal. He’s lived in Ireland, and taught at Columbia in New York City. But for this moment, Billings, Montana, is home. (Billings Gazette)
FOOD & DINING
Padrona a Top Pairing of Cocktails, Small Plates
(ATU) HUDSON, N.Y. - Tucked away on North Fourth Street, near the Etsy headquarters, nothing at Padrona is by chance. Not the mix of upscale, custom-made bar stools and low-cost finds from furniture stores. Not the vibrant wall murals in orange and teal, or the humor in bathrooms wallpapered with martini-guzzling, cigar-smoking monkeys and one swinging as a lamp overhead. Veteran bartender Kat Dunn has long curated a vision she hoped would resonate when brought to life. Years in the making, including a pandemic delay, Padrona is a near-exact rendering that delivers an undeniably welcome vibe.
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After cryptocurrency meltdown, scant sign of change for FTX executive Ryan Salame’s Lenox restaurants (Berkshire Eagle)
Jae's Grille, new upscale American restaurant, opening in Pittsfield (News10)
Hudson's Little Rico is a wellness bodega and juice bar offering prepared foods (RI)
Goodies brings great vibes and bagels to Catskill, N.Y. (Chronogram)
NEWS FROM THE BERKSHIRES
The Secret Racist History of Williamstown's White Oaks Neighborhood
(Williams Record) WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - About a five-minute drive from Williams College is the secluded neighborhood of White Oaks. Although it is a relatively unknown part of Williamstown, the college has had a long relationship with White Oaks, starting with the college’s construction of the White Oaks Congregational Church. The church, which now has a sign reading “All Are Welcome” above its entrance, was once home to Ku Klux Klan (KKK) meetings. Though White Oaks has long been gentrified, Bilal Ansari, interim co-director of the college's Davis Center, continues to push for accountability from both the church and the college, whether that be in the form of reparations or a public acknowledgement of the area’s anti-Black history.
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Williams students who work off-campus jobs get firsthand lesson in class conflict (Williams Record)
A group that buys small town movie theaters and transforms them into community hubs appears to be bringing Great Barrington’s Triplex Cinema into its portfolio. (Berkshire Eagle)
Affordable housing organization to purchase Marble Block in downtown Great Barrington (Berkshire Edge)
South Egremont inn repurposed for workforce housing (B Edge)
Foundry owner pleads for special permit to allow reopening (B Edge)
Drivers find inventive ways to crash at new Great Barrington roundabout (B Eagle)
NEWS FROM THE HUDSON VALLEY
Catskill: A Town in Transition
(Chronogram) CATSKILL, N.Y. - You can feel it in the air like a crisp autumn wind. Catskill is continuing to grow and transform, even in the face of economic upheaval. Amid longtime businesses shuttering, new ones have launched, and change in all its forms, the defining feature here for better or worse — especially since the pandemic — continues.
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'$900K will resolve it.' Behind-the-scenes settlement negotiations by law enforcement officials in unlawful imprisonment and assault case could result in obstruction and witness-tampering charges. (ATU)
1859 Greek Revival house in Germantown serving as retreat for queer and BIPOC-owned or -oriented organizations and artists (Architectural Digest)
Hudson Planning Board gives site plan approval to Galvan's 'Hudson Forum' at former Community Theatre (GoR)
How New York Democrats lost the House (HVOne)
Hudson honored by state for battling through pandemic (HV360)
Roll Call: Founding Members
Richard Koplin