My newsletter this week can be read here, which is also where you can sign up for free. I was going to write about the Republicans’ disregard for the Constitution, but I got sidetracked by images of the Russian people taking to the streets to support opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Sample:

In Russia, the people are fighting for truth and justice, against a criminal regime. The full discussion of the origins of the Vladimir Putin regime are beyond the scope of this missive, but it began with Putin carrying out brazen acts of terror against his own people — literally bombing his own citizens and blaming the bombings on Chechen rebels. (If you are unaware of that history, I commend to you this 2017 post from my blog and the links therein.) The list of journalists and critics Putin has murdered is long. It is no exaggeration to state that the Russian government is a large criminal conspiracy. The people in the streets in Russia this weekend are fighting that lawless cabal of thieves and killers.

Here at home, the people who stormed the Capitol were fighting against truth, in order to violently reinstall a regime rejected by voters. A government, in fact, which had been headed by the most dishonest president in American history — someone who had spent two months denying reality, retweeting increasingly insane conspiracy theories, and generally whipping up an entirely manufactured sense of certainty among diehard Republicans that the election had been stolen from them.

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I woke this morning to the terrible news that Tom Stevens of The Long Ryders has died, at the age of 64. I started listening to The Long Ryders in high school, and saw them at the West End Marketplace in Dallas, Texas (without Tom — he had left the band) in 1987. I had the pleasure of seeing the reunited band — with Tom, whom I got to meet — in April 2017 and again in October 2019. Here is a photo I took of Tom (on the left) with Sid Griffin from a Long Ryders concert at the Roxy on October 3, 2019.

Rest in peace, buddy. A tragic loss for music.

It is the third Sunday after the Epiphany. The title of today’s cantata is “Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort” (Settle account! Word of thunder):

Today’s Gospel reading is Mark 1:14-20. I prefer the King James Version for this passage:

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,

And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.

And when he had gone a little farther thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets.

And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.

The text of today’s cantata is available here. The opening aria contains these words:

Settle account! Word of thunder,
that by itself splits the rocks,
word, which freezes my blood!
Settle account! Soul, go forth!
Ah, you must repay to God
His gifts, body and life.
Settle account! Word of thunder!

Happy listening! Soli Deo gloria.