Hasta La Gadget!

You wouldn’t always call Ralph Stanley’s voice “pretty.” You might be safer with “haunting.”

But it was a voice that kept an important song tradition in the American air for 70 years, before Stanley died Thursday from complications of skin cancer. He was 89 and he was one of those musicians who seemingly had always been around.

He sang hundreds of Appalachian mountain songs, some traditional, some borrowed from artists like Bill Monroe or the Carter Family, and some composed by Ralph or his brother Carter, who died in 1966 from cirrhosis of the liver.

The Stanley Brothers, and their band the Clinch Mountain Boys, were known as bluegrass musicians. They were heavily influenced by Monroe, with whom they had an amusingly eventful relationship.

When Columbia signed the Stanley Brothers, Monroe left the label in protest, telling Columbia that if it wanted these new bluegrass guys that badly, there obviously wasn’t room for him.

Later they all reconciled, and both Carter and Ralph (above) played for a time in Monroe’s band.

But while Ralph could sing in the familiar bluegrass style, sometimes called high and lonesome, he also could sing rough.

Movie fans got a taste of that in the Coen Brothers’ film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which featured Stanley’s bone-chilling a cappella “O Death.”

That tune won him a Grammy in 2002 and helped make an unlikely best-seller from the soundtrack album.

Ralph Stanley had sung “O Death” years before, at the same time he was singing traditional mountain ballads like “Omie Wise” and “Man of Constant Sorrow,” after which he also named his autobiography.

While Stanley’s groups were not gospel ensembles per se, many of their songs had religious DNA. That included “Rank Strangers,” which was about as bleak a vision of mortal life as anything that was preached at the Primitive Baptist Church the Stanley boys attended as children.

“Rank Strangers” did offer the hope of redemption in a heaven where there could be reconciliation in the arms of the Lord. It left a lot less hope for brotherhood in the present life.

“Rank Strangers” may also, though not by design, underscore the place of the Stanley brothers in country music. Almost from the start they were widely respected in traditional music circles, playing venues like the Newport Folk Festival and other “roots” gatherings. But in a career that ran for more than seven decades, Ralph Stanley has only had one single on the country music charts.

The Stanley Brothers’s “How Far to Little Rock” peaked at No. 17 in the early spring of 1960.

Ralph Stanley didn’t become a member of the Grand Ole Opry until 2000, when he was 72.

Recognition came in other ways. Ralph Stanley got a “Living Legends” medal from the Library of Congress and a National Medal of the Arts. He performed at the inaugurations of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. He was a member of the International Bluegrass Hall of Fame.

He was also admired by subsequent musicians the way he admired Monroe or the Carter Family. Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs were among those who played in his band. Jerry Garcia and Dwight Yoakam cited him as a major influence. Bob Dylan, who recorded “Man of Constant Sorrow” a decade after the Stanley Brothers, joined Ralph for a duet of “Lonesome River” on a 1997 tribute album.

Stanley resisted efforts to over-glamorize the career of a musician, saying the road never lost all its hardships.

Judging from his songs, neither does life. The best his songs offer is a light at the end. We just have to get to it, and if the music that points us there sometimes feels a little rough, well, what else did we expect?

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J.K. Rowling wishes she could conjure up a spell to keep the United Kingdom inside the European Union.

The “Harry Potter” author tweeted how sad she felt after it emerged a majority of voters had opted “leave” over “remain” in the country’s EU referendum.

One of Rowling’s 7.5 million Twitter followers posted a desperate tweet, pleading for her to “do something” about the result. “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted magic more,” she replied.

Despite the overall voting outcome, each of the 32 voting areas in the author’s home country of Scotland decisively chose to remain in the EU.

It prompted Rowling to later suggest that Scotland would now seek independence from the U.K.

“Scotland will seek independence now. Cameron’s legacy will be breaking up two unions. Neither needed to happen,” she wrote.

And it seems she’s right, according to a statement from Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.

“Scotland has delivered a strong, unequivocal vote to remain in the EU, and I welcome that endorsement of our European status,”Sturgeon said. “The people of Scotland see their future as part of the European Union.”

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LONDON (Reuters) – Scotland has made clear that it sees its future as part of the European Union, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Friday, after it voted to remain while most of the United Kingdom voted to leave.

“The vote here makes clear that the people of Scotland see their future as part of the European Union,” Sturgeon said in a statement.

“We await the final UK-wide result, but Scotland has spoken – and spoken decisively.”

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WASHINGTON — The United Kingdom and the United States are not one country, nor do they beat with one political heart.

But the two empires — one faded, the other holding on — share a centuries-long history and a common imperial culture in which the ideal of “white man’s burden” — to quote Rudyard Kipling — is a privileged inheritance and a sacred identity.

The pro-Brexit vote in the U.K. is a cry of defiance by what’s left of that Anglo-American white tribal faith, and the decision to leave the European Union should send a shudder through those who think that Donald Trump is a xenophobic, racist nationalist with no chance to win the U.S. presidency.

A glance at the U.K. referendum results show that Brexit won handily in England, especially in the rural, traditional towns and cities least dominated by immigrant cultural and globalism. 

Brexit also won in Wales, which in many ways historically is the home of some of the most ancient religious and cultural traditions of old Britain — going back before the Norman Conquest.

Wales and rural England were the rallying grounds of Oliver Cromwell’s assault on the continentally oriented 17^th century kings, and those regions rose up in a nativist way now.

The parallel to the U.S. is obvious — and ominous if you worry that Trump could somehow find his way to the White House.

Trump is riding the same tide of anti-globalism that propelled the likes of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage in the U.K.: against waves of immigrants, against global corporate dominance of trade, against Muslim claims that terrorism has nothing intrinsic to do with their religion, against the control of power by internationalist intellect and capital.

His greatest appeal so far is not only in traditionally Republican states in the South and Mountain regions, but potentially in states such as Pennsylvania – where the immigrant population is relatively low and there remains a fealty to the old ways. Former British subjects rebelled, to be sure, but they nevertheless followed the old country’s ideas about law and politics and culture.

Trump, if he is anything substantive, is a scream of defiance by white America — married, traditional, commercial — against the new multicultural and global country and world.

Not surprisingly, Trump was for Brexit, more or less.

Not surprisingly, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage have had some nice things to say about Trump, while the now-humiliated Prime Minister David Cameron did not.

Scotland, which voted to stay in Europe, will now try to leave the U.K., and Scottish leaders who once praised the Donald for his investments in the Auld Sod now despise him.

The White Man’s Burden now has new meaning in the U.K. and in the U.S. It is the burden of defying history, which is moving in the direction of a multi-cultural, multi-global identity for the entire human race on a beleaguered planet.

It seems increasingly possible that, come November, American voters may decide to join England and Wales in defiance.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

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While lawmakers in Washington maintain the status quo, failing to take action on even modest gun control measures this week, the governor of Hawaii on Thursday signed into law a trio of bills aimed at better protecting island residents from gun violence.

Most notable is SB 2954, now Act 108, which authorizes county police departments to enroll gun owners into a federal criminal monitoring database, known as “Rap Back.”

Gov. David Ige’s signature means Hawaii becomes the first U.S. state to enroll gun owners in the FBI system. In addition to alerting authorities when a Hawaii gun owner is arrested for a criminal offense anywhere in the country, the measure will allow Hawaii police to evaluate whether the firearm owner can continue to possess and own weapons.

Ige said in a statement that the law will help law enforcement better protect Hawaii residents and visitors. 

“This is about our community’s safety and responsible gun ownership,” Ige said. “This bill has undergone a rigorous legal review process by our Attorney General’s office and we have determined that it is our responsibility to approve this measure for the sake of our children and families.” 

As Honolulu Civil Beat reports, SB 2954 was introduced by Democratic Hawaii Sen. Will Espero, who urged Hawaii to be a model for other states.

Predictably, the bill drew fire from gun enthusiasts, including the Hawaii Rifle Association, which said it would subject law-abiding citizens to unnecessary monitoring. 

“The exercise of an individual’s Second Amendment rights is not inherently suspicious and should not require a person to surrender other civil liberties, including unwarranted invasions of privacy or unequal treatment under the law,” the Institute for Legislative Action, the lobbying arm of the National Rifle Association, wrote in an online call to action. “The lawful acquisition, possession, carrying, or use of a firearm does not justify subjecting citizens to ongoing monitoring.”

Ige also signed into law HB 625 and HB 2632. The first, according to the governor’s office, specifies harassment by stalking and sexual harassment as crimes of violence that disqualify a person from owning or possessing a firearm. The second requires gun owners to surrender firearms if they have been diagnosed with significant behavioral, emotional or mental disorder.

Hawaii, which already has some of the nation’s strictest gun laws, has the lowest gun death rate of any state in the country, according to the most recent data from the Violence Policy Center.  

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