the defeatists!

Why we write...

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection... THOMAS PAINE

 

 

And probably gets bitchslapped and his ass handed to him anyway but doesn't stop --Crusader AXE

Well, it's been a weird week...out on Highway 61

 

I've been quiet lately. Posted some crap at Facebook and Twitter that I found other places and figured either didn't need or deserve my comments. I've been toiling away at a few things, and have no excuse. Of course, between the budget deal and the Ryan Budget and the Obama budget and Libya and Michele Bachmann and Donald Trump and such, there really hasn't been a lot to write about. However, got a few things to at least refer to...

Larry Kirwan is an Irish immmigrant and now citizen who wandered into the Brnonx with a Telecaster, an excellent Irish education from the schools of Eire, a collection of adventures and the attitude that allowed him to form, with friends, Black 47. Unlike a lot of Celtic Rockers, they have a strong reggae influence and have actually got a bit of hip hop in the closet. However, he's in the best of the Irish-Catholic-liberal-working class tradition, and Black 47s political stuff can be as exciting as the best rock stuff, and sometimes they overlap. Anyway, he had the opportunity to speak and play at a Labor Rally commemorating the Triangle Shirt Fire recently, and that led to an excellent discussion of how impossibly hard it is to keep us focused on what's important.

“You don’t say,” says Your Man up in Pearl River. “We didn’t think you were performing at a Sarah Palin Rally!”  I do have to admit that it was a thrill to stand on the same stage where a rather more stellar Republican, Abraham Lincoln, gave one of his greatest speeches. Besides, Sarah is auld hat now. Everyone and their granny knows that Michele Bachman is the new inheritor of Margaret Thatcher’s mantle. (AXE comment.  Thatcher looks like Elizabeth I compared to the US Bachmann-Palin-Coulter Underdrive. However, she stayed too long, and that gave the British Tony Blair and David Cameron. Reagan-Thatcherism, the gift that keeps on giving -- venereal disease.)

Kirwan is well worth reading on this and listening to as well. I dislike a lot of the Black 47 Ballads. That said, I have most of their CDs because they have fantastic up-tempo stuff. The ballads suffer from the Irish "Oh, Danny Boy" syndrome...we can't help it...like Danny Boy, it's a legacy of the British occupation and cultural rape. Like venereal disease. But, he can rise above it --and I think he sums our situation up well here.

All of us, Left, Right and Center, are being manipulated by that top 1%. It’s just that we’re so busy trying to keep our heads above water we don’t have time to stop and think about it.

Consider this! Back in the bellbottom 70’s manufacturing workers were pulling in $15-20 per hour. The recently negotiated UAW contract guarantees new hires $14 per hour. Thirty years of progress!

That great American ineluctable right – or rather assumption – that one can make the middle class is now a mere pipe dream for much of the population.

Many who lost their jobs in the recent financial debacle stand scant chance of regaining their standard of living, for those decent union jobs of 30 years ago have been replaced by low paying service industry positions, if at all. The great factories that I once drove past on Route 80 are now boarded up shells. Buffalo, Toledo, Detroit are graveyard cities, their populations declining by the year.

How did this come about? Well we trusted venal politicians in the pocket of lobbyists employed by the top1% oligarchy. Meanwhile, we allowed ourselves to be divided by a media more interested in selling ads than seeking the truth; and the sad part is - nothing has changed.

There is a great moment in the Scorses film about Dylan where Joan Baez says that after 40 years, she doesn't expect Dylan to show up at any "movement" function. He isn't about that stuff anymore. Hasn't been for over 40 years. Probably wasn't then -- she advises people to get over it, and appreciate him for what he is. Although he'd probably blanche at the comparison, for the AXE, Dylan is Kierkegaard in Leather, with a Telecaster swung over his shoulder and an XM radio. He doesn't really show up, he just is there sometimes. In the first Farm Aid concert, there was a moment when he was playing with his band, and he glanced up and saw Willy Nelson jamming away -- he was taken aback, and Nelson shrugged and grinned. That's the way to appreciate Dylan -- he goes where he goes and does what he wishes. And then he does a tour in China and Vietnam, and it's seen as a betrayal?  

I've expressed my love and contained lust for Maureen Dowd in this space for years. However, she can get very irritating. Her attitude toward the Dylan show and it's set list shows a number of things, including that she isn't really a Dylan fan. There is nothing in the Dylan songbook from the protest period that would be controversial in the Chinese Communist Party mind. Hell, they could start chanting Mao, Mao, Mao and waive their Little Red Books in adulation of the old fat bastard and be right in sync... There is nothing universal about Master's of War or Hurricane -- they're American songs about America. When a poltical song becomes specific, it loses it's universality. So, the Chinese apparachniks could actually have felt at home with With God on Her Side...because it's about the problems of American aggression, based on a tune stolen from Dominic Behan called the Patriot Game. And, Blowing in the Wind isn't all that optimistic and positive..."The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind."I think Jerry Jeff Walker put it well in it's proper place in the American songbook when he sang "The answer my friend isn't pissin' in the wind, the answer is pissin' in the sink..."

The stuff that Dylan got to sing was a helluva lot more subversive than the stuff Dulcinea Dowd wanted him to play, and she has the balance to quote people who point out that Dylan is not the guy with the old Martin guitar and workshirt anymore. Anyway, here's the setlist. If "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" isn't subversive enough, as another commentator put it, Highway 61 really speaks to the Chinese...meaningless slaughter just because sure sounds like Mao; exploitation for the manufacture and sale of crap; and, of course, war and militarism. From another point of view, the most subversive song Dylan ever wrote, the one that changed popular culture, music and the way a lot of people thought was the first encore...Like a Rolling Stone. Maureen probably doesn't really get Dylan. Remember, we're roughly contemporaries, and I'm sure she was into Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, the Beatles and Laura Nyro over at Catholic University. Hell, I could picture her feeling daring drinking a 3.2 beer and singing along to "Danny Boy" on St Patrick's Day. Or that fucking Unicorn thing...

Then there's the dueling budget issues. I wish Obama wouldn't be so damn subtle...his speech that got Boehner and Ryan and Fox News all upset about his tone was what we need to hear him say about most stuff, and needed to have him say during the whole first two years. Hey, collegiality is nice, but calling bullshit and backing the call with facts is critical to the survival of the any Civil Society. And, the Ryan plan is bullshit. The delays in changing programs are sops to a special interest group -- old bastards. Like me. My wife. My sister. Our friends...to paraphrase the President when the mic was left on -- do we really think that was an accident -- do they think we're stupid? Well, yeah, they do. And, in general, we've justified that...the Tea Party consists of ignorant old farts who are confused about the government role in things like Medicare and Social Security, funded by people who'd just as soon go to a world run like the unpublished and lost fouth volume of Ayn Rand's Atlas saga,  Atlas Jacked Off a Mongrel Dog and Swallowed the Cum, where poor people were taken to rendering plants when they're dying for dog food and the human version of whale oil. The Republicans have encouraged not only the plutocrats, but the goddamn loonies to excess...People like Barbara Boxer, Anthony Weiner, Barney Frank and the branding iron-toting governor of Montana are peforming a great service by being vocal and direct, but the Bully Pulpit belongs to the President. As long as he's trying to be vague, collegial and inspirational, the Fox News gang is able to be crazy...and asshats like that clown from Texas who's had a career now ranting at people about how much he hates the American Flag from the steps of the capital in Austin need to be answered. I'm actually amazed that nobody has pistol whipped the clown and his compatriots yet. Where the fuck are Walker, Alex and Trevette when you need them? Or, Tom FUCKING Landry?

You know what I'd like to hear? Someone like Jim Clyburn of South Carolina or maybe Eugene Robinson say what they're really thinking, and what most of us are feeling. Every time somebody says Obama and birth certificate and Kenya what we hear is "Nigger." That's really what it is...why are we kidding ourselves. Everytime someone claims that all Muslims are evil, what we hear is "Nigger..." Everytime someone talks about Eastern Elites, what we're really hearing is "Kike..." Abortion complaints, unintended to be factual statements about Planned Parenthood, and similar nonsense about Gays -- all should be understood in one simple way -- "Eine Partie, eine Stadt, eine Volk! Seig Heil..." Look, the Celts in this country have been there -- NO IRISH NEED APPLY and No-Nothingism is as American as toxic waste and as corrosive. We just forget, a lot. We need to remember, say what we're thinking, stop being silly and get focused and stay goddamn focused.

If you're not rich, you need to get your ass to the polls and vote Democratic. If you're a soldier, sailor or Marine, you need to get your ass to the polls and vote Democratic. If you're a woman, you're gay, you're in a minority, have a job, have children, have parents, want the roads to work, the sewers to work, the power lines to work, the food to be edible, people to have jobs, people not to lose their homes and on and on and on and on...you need to get to the polls and vote Democratic.

If you're a Democratic lawmaker, you need to pass laws that are punitive to those who hurt the nation. We don't need a goddamn Flag-Burning Amendment. We need an Amendment to the Constitution stripping corporations of the legal fiction of them being people. If a kid selling or possessing a rock of crack cocaine can get 10 years to life, a bank executive who led his company on a spree of fraud, deceptive and predatory lending, and the destruction of lives and hopes and jobs and aspirations needs to do 10 years to life. Mandatory sentencing for white collar crime...similar to that for drug possession. I wonder how many years Countrywide Executives would be looking at ...

Unprecedented level of violence in Mexico...

Really? Unprecedented? Let's see...Well, there is Somalia. Iraq a few years ago. And the 30 Years War in Germany (Austria, Bohemia, et. al.); the period leading up to the Fall of the Roman Empire and immediately afterwards. Lots of stuff in Asia, and in Africa. However, Mexico is possibly leading some category for "Bloodiest goddamn clusterfuck in the Western Hemisphere..." except for places like Detroit of course. In 2006, Detroit had a far higher rate per 100K in population than Mexico. On the other hand, Mexico has a lot more people, far poorer reporting and -- oh yeah --most of the violence clustered along the border and just south. Still, supposedly, they're only number 6 on the murder charts worldwide...of course, that includes places like South Africa which has been suffering from a crime and homicide rate that makes Detroit look like Vatican City. Which has a pretty high white collar crime rate, I suspect...

Terry Jones is to Charlie Sheen what Afghanistan is to Detroit

As a college student in the 60s, there was a lot of concern that we were going to lose the war in Vietnam because of the home front – that Jane Fonda and Abbie Hoffman were giving material comfort to the enemy. I’ve spent a lot of my life thinking about that, and the nature and extent of Free Speech, as well as about the nature of personal responsibility. When the Founders wrote the Constitution, they were under a set of assumptions based on the thought of people like John Locke, Thomas Paine and Hobbes. Paine as the citizen of the world was arguing from the point of view of maximum freedom with a strong dose of personal responsibility. Locke, the philosopher looking at the world from the point of view of post-Restoration, Protestant England, was seeking balance and responsibility for individuals. Thomas Hobbes wrote a bit earlier than Locke, and he wrote against a background of chaos, fear, war and the attendant issues of the 16^th Century. Hobbes was less interested in personal freedom as in the need to control that freedom, and was firm in his belief that a lot of people really can’t be trusted to think for themselves…unless you like war, chaos, fear and the attendant issues.

We seem as a culture to have mistaken license for the balance of freedom and personal responsibility. The American Philosopher, Richard Weaver, wrote a treatise that echoed both CS Lewis and Albert Camus in 1948 —Ideas Have Consequences. While it’s a treatise against the modern world, the decline of the west and William of Occam, the title sums it up. Freedom without personal responsibility is a denial of the possibility of consequences.

I wrote last week about an online video called Obey the Walrus that I didn’t understand and found disturbing. Now granted, there’s a lot of stuff on the Web that I don’t understand and there’s probably more disturbing content there than not. But, I was wondering that if by linking to it, was I contributing to some level of cruelty that I don’t get. As the T-Shirt says, “My idea involves midgets and porn – Ask for details.” The video had turned up on a relatively benign site, This Picture is Unrelated, which I recommend to anyone with a sense of the ironic and strange. I found it a logical transition to a discussion of a variety of music videos.

Then that weird Mephistoplean  Rednecked Preacher with the Walrus Sideburns/Mustache and the somewhat dubious ethical and criminal history in Gainesville decided it was a good time to burn a Koran. Hilarity in the Muslim world ensued, particularly in our hottest war. General Petraeus presents a fair and balanced response through the Wall Street Journal. And, of course to make it special, Hamid Kharzai decided to make it a big deal. As it obviously is – 22 dead so far.

The Taliban just needs to surf along on the rage of the Afghani people. In Afghanistan’s troubled history, about which I’ve thought too much in my lifetime, lots of people have had great ideas for the future of that conglomeration of tribes with a flag. Most of them – hell, all of them – have shuddered to a halt because of a basic lack of understanding of the terrain, both physical and human. The English got to conquer it three times because of that failure to get it; the final time, they basically declared victory and left. The Soviets had such a wonderful time that they basically said, Pogue Mahon, and left. General Petraeus has an excellent idea of the terrain both human and physical – and he knows that a few more incidents like this, and the whole Counter-Insurgency thing will go the way of Vietnamization and the Sunni Awakening and the banning of white settlers from the Black Hills.

“Every security force leader's worst nightmare is being confronted by essentially a mob, if you will, especially one that can be influenced by individuals that want to incite violence, who want to try to hijack passions, in this case, perhaps understandable passions," Gen. Petraeus said in the Sunday interview. "Obviously it's an additional serious security challenge in a country that faces considerable security challenges."

Back in September, when Terry Jones of the World Dove Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., first announced his intention to burn Islam's holy book, Gen. Petraeus publicly urged the preacher to abandon the plan, saying it would be exploited by the Taliban and endanger the lives of American soldiers. Rev. Jones's church shelved the idea at the time. But then he reversed course and his church held a "trial" of the Quran and incinerated the book in a videotaped ceremony March 20.

"This was a surprise," Gen. Petraeus said. The Quran burning in Florida, he added, was "hateful, extremely disrespectful and enormously intolerant."

The murder of UN Peace Workers and Nepalese Guards when security measures went south in a previously peaceful part of the country is kind of a wakeup call. For us. If we want to allow people like this Jones dweeb as we have the Phelps dweeb and the Trump Dweeb and the Bachmann-Palin-Overdrive Dweebs to do things that are outrageous to the Afghani people and the Muslim world, we need to say, “My bad. Later, Gator, and get the hell out of that benighted place.

While it may seem a reach, this guy Jones really reminds me of Charlie Sheen. Not so crazy as it seems; in fact, Sheen’s current masturbatory tour bears a striking resemblance to the whole Terry Jones and Congregation “Gonna Burn Me a Koran!”Magical Mystery Tour and hatefest. It’s about shock and ego because I can. You’re not the boss of me!

Sheen is a danger to himself but probably no one else. However, Terry Jones and his Love Doves are a danger to our soldiers in Afghanistan and the rest of the Muslim world as well as presenting a material danger to US interests. I don’t think that Paine would be down with declaring the publicity seeking demagogue a terrorist threat and shipping his ass off to Guantanamo. But, I’m pretty sure Locke, Hobbes, Madison, Hamilton and Jay would be. We might as well get some use out of the goddamned place – certainly the Muslim world regards it as a terrorist act, and what the hell…it is.

Or, declare victory and get ourselves and our allies the hell out.

 

Shudder

I admit that I don't quite get some aspects of our contemporary culture...but what the hell is that all about? And, am I enabling something evil? Or just confusing? I'm so confused...

And now for something completely different...but equally bizarre. These are from Power Pop, the great Steve Simels site and what the hell were they thinking?

And this madness? Granted, the Sid Vicious cover of Sinatra is the epitome of the worst cover ever but still...

And then, remember when we thought Sting was a serious musician instead of a papparazi-baited wanker wannabe?

Actually makes this one make sense...sort of...I mean, did we ever take Elton John seriously? But, Springsteen? Really...