April 23, 2012

Rich bastards

I'm not jealous or envious of rich people. I could give a rats ass about all their stuff.

What pisses me off is the concentration of wealth and how they have used their money and power to simply extract the money out of every enterprise they end up owning.

Vulture Capitalists, Predatory Capitalists. Sociopaths that gladly wipe out a company town in the name of ever more profits above all else.

The distribution of wealth figures for the last thirty to fifty years clearly show that their ever increasing slice of the pie is being taken from the share of the bottom 99%. Middle class income has grown 2-3% in the last 30 years while the wealthiest has seen their incomes grow in the neighborhood of 50-100% in the same time period.

They're already wealthy and want even more and have figured out a way to take it from working people.

Thom Hartmann has a clear understanding of how this came to be. Progressiveism and Progressive Taxation is the way out of this and all us lefties should school up on the principles of progressiveism as it relates to tax policy.

A return to progressive taxation will be welcome for all of us in the bottom 99%.

And it's due. Like Rachel says on her radio commercials - Trickle Down Economics has had a generation to work, and it simply DOESN'T! Enriching the already rich is asinine and stupid and hurts our country and our people..

And we now have one of the most outstanding Vulture Capitalists running for President and he's actually beating Obama in an occasional poll!

Just how fucking stupid are us average Americans, anyway? There should be riots in streets all over America from the filibuster of the Buffet Rule last week. I would guess 90% of Americans don't even know it came and went.

I really can't fathom why the Presidential race is even close. Romney should be utterly repellant to all but millionaires.

-90% Jimmy

April 22, 2012

A celebrity quote that nutshells who Romney is

"Some people get so rich, they lose all respect for humanity. That's how rich I want to get." Rita Rudner

I didn't vet this. I hope it's bona fide. It does summarize Romney's entire existence on this planet, don't it?

-90% Jimmy

April 20, 2012

A nation of laws?

Why should any of us respect any of our laws if people that knowingly lied us into unnecessary war are not prosecuted for treason and crimes against humanity.

Why is there no modern Nuremburg Trials right this very minute?

There are so many things wrong with the fallacious "we have to look forward not backward" childlike reason for giving the GW Bush criminal cabal.

The most profound misery from this corrupt decision will be in the future. When we get a President that gets to start his own vanity war taking advantage of all these "IF THE PRESIDENT DOES IT, IT'S NOT ILLEGAL" Doctrines that are basically a license to commit genocide. To the apparent benefit of only the Dick Cheney's, Eric Prinze's and Mitt Romney's of the world.

We have seen repeatedly in recent history how flawed laws repeat disastrous time bombs in the future. I'm thinking specifically of the repeal of Glass-Steagel in the late 90's, which led to the economic depression of 2008-2009.

The free pass given to these traitors insures more of the same in our future. And we will stand for this? Is this how we as a country honor the lives of all those that served to protect the Constitution and the American way of life?

I find the whole thing infuriating.

-90% Jimmy

An irony to this tragedy is that I have read there have been 750-1000 contractor casualties from this Iraq c-f**k. Were they mercenaries or dedicated patriots or people desperate to make big money as quick as possible knowing the risks? I don't know, but those poor dead people are off the radar of the entire country and media, from my vantage, anyway.

April 15, 2012

Rachel's first book is about this

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/books/review/drift-by-rachel-maddow.html?_r=1

The current state of American War conduct kind of reminds me of an original Star Trek episode where there were two planets at perpetual war. Each side would march the required victim count into the death chamber. Made it invisible.

Captain Kirk advised them to do it the old fashioned way - hand to hand combat by the masses. Get the war up close and inconvenient for all. That will stop it quick!

I am utterly amazed by people like Santorum, that denigrate Obama for being ANTI-WAR. Well, if you're a decent educated compassionate human being, it's a moral imperative to be anti war. duhhhhh.

War as just another instrument in the foreign policy tool bag is obscene.

Our World Leaders opening debating nuking Iran is also obscene. In these times We the People must fear our leaders. They're stupid venal aggressive idiots that like to shoot first and ask questions later - WITH FUCKING NUCLEAR BOMBS!

WAR IS HELL. Seek out any veteran of the last ten years. They'll be able to tell you how much it sucks. Two recent examples in my life I didn't exactlyu have to hunt down to find out about -a votec kid at work has a cousin messed up from having to kill a little girl that came after his platoon with bombs strapped to her chest. I know another woman that has a boyfriend that flipped his Humvee and lost his long term memory. Permanent Ground Hog's Day for the poor guy. Hell on earth, pure and simple.

Not to mention multiple deployments. That's treating our brave volunteers like animals! It's also extremely unprecedented in American history, except perhaps the Civil and Revolutionary Wars?

Is it true that there's soldiers out there that have had twelve deployments to our war zones? Simple mathematical probabilities make that a suicide mission!

-90% Jimmy

April 14, 2012

Gee, thanks

"I wish we could get that on the news to all the sheeples out there with their heads in the sand or up their asses watching Faux News."

This is where studying Zappa for 41 years can pay off. The simple answer is that WE CAN GET THIS NEWS OUT TO THE SHEEPLE by simply following Zappa's credo for his career.

First, DON'T STOP

Second, KEEP GOING

Franks artistic efforts were littered with things that failed. Sabotaged collaborations and projects with incredible potential - playing a concert for the Vatican, for one, being asked by Bob Dylan personally to produce an album for another. Mounting an on-broadway play for another. Running for President for another, Getting permission from the Beatles in 1968 to use a satire version of the Sgt. Pepper album cover for another. (They refused so the inside pic of the Mothers in drag was used as the outside) The break-up of the third leg of the 1988 tour for another.

My paltry efforts to whack American sheeple over the head with our creeping fascism is simply to continue to strive to be objective and reasonably well informed. Engage anybody that indicates a willingness to have a discussion about "current affairs", bumper stickers, lawn signs, Democratic Town Committee Meetings, involvement in town boards and commissions, contributing to heroic politicians like Grayson and E. Warren, dogging my Congressman when ever he is holding meetings in our district, and lastly, preaching to the choir on DU. (I also do it because I like to write and it helps collect my thoughts. It is a lot of fun to write stuff that you know at least some people will read. The internet rawks and I seem to be a little OCD about internet message boards)

I haven't changed a single thing that I can see so far, but, you got to stand for what you believe. I do get some satisfaction about going to John Larson's engagements and standing up and telling him I would have preferred a Mafia Godfather in the White House to GW Bush, because at least the people that run the Mafia are smart. (West Hartford Town Hall, 2003, before the Iraq invasion even began)

I do have to practice this Zappa wisdom more in my own life - I just turned 58 and I got a staggering bucket list I better get going on.

I do have to get the time and courage to visit an OCCUPY event, so as to stand for what I believe by possibly getting arrested and sexual humiliated by the police for exercising my Constitutional Right to peaceably assemble with the brave people of OCCUPY.

Here's one thing I did that changed nothing other than being true to myself. I carried a 24" by 24" sign at the September 10, 2009 Tea Party Rally at the Hartford Capital that read:

TEABAGGERS ARE ASTROTURF PUPPETS OF FASCIST CORPORATIONS

(It should have been TEA PARTIERS instead of BAGGERS, as this was the time when they started to realize that their name was also a synonym for a sexual act. It was unintentional disrespect on my part and all people deserve respect.)


I was the only counter-protestor on the grounds that I could see, and it wasn't pleasant, but, part of my beliefs are that us bottom 99% have a lot more in common than our differences, and both sides have to come together as the bottom 99% to overthrow the tyranny of the Top 1%. Our country came to be in part to escape tyranny, so in these times it helps to turn to our Founding Fathers and their intentions to provide all of us for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (In the words of Dr. Phil; "Hey, America, how's that American Dream workin' out for yah?)

-90% Jimmy

PS - one thing I don't do is write local newspapers. I don't even read them, but, maybe I should at least pick one up now and then. A guy at work brings in his local paper (I work 40 miles from home) and it's actually got some neat stuff in it, these newspapers.

now, get off the net and back to the bucket list, Jim!

April 14, 2012

Some logic here

What is it about life in America that forces us all to seek some form of medication in the form of alcohol and prescription drugs and recreational drugs?

This is part of a response Frank Zappa published in the L.A. Free Press when the Mothers were starting to go big time in the mid 60's. There were some in the M.O.I. entourage that advocated drug use (this is 1966 L.A., keep in mind) Frank didn't like drugs and wanted to set the record straight.

THE SORT OF HIGH YOU WANT IS A SPIRITUAL HIGH AND YOU ARE BULLSHITTING YOURSELF IF YOU TRUST ANY CHEMICAL AND/OR AGRICULTURAL SHORTCUT TO DO IT FOR YOU. YOU CAN’T BE BUSTED YET FOR AWARENESS.

Maintain your aristocratic coolness –

Sincerely,
Frank Zappa, for the Mothers of Invention


It appears to me we have this medieval and draconian system of idiotic drug laws simply to enrich the prison-industrial complex. Unnecessary human misery is the pink slime like by-product of this greed/stupidity. 50,000 Mexican casualties on the Mexican side of our war on drugs is making at least 50,000 families pretty fucking miserable I would think? At least when our country sacrificed 50,000 servicemen in pursuit of the domino theory they got a fucking Wall in Washington for it!

It boils down to this

OUR INSTITUTIONS RE INFESTED WITH GREED AND CORRUPT SOCIOPATHS

I am also deeply disappointed that Holder/Obama are so extremely on the wrong side of history with marijuana prohibitions. Don't they have other skyscraper sized fish to fry first?

While I'm on those two, I think their failure to prosecute GW Bush White House war criminals and traitors for crimes against humanity will prove to be a time bomb in the manner of the repeal of Glass-Steagal in 1999 led to the Depression of 2008. These precedents that give the President the powers of a King goes with the OFFICE not the INDIVIDUAL!

-90% Jimmy

April 14, 2012

Romney compared to the Kennedy's

OMFG!

JFK was a compassionate LEADER that was at the forefront of a new American era of Peace and Prosperity for all. He was a beacon of hope for a better future and for what America could be for all of us.

Bobby in his later years was simply a beautiful and compassionate person. His speeches during the 1968 Presidential Campaign and his Indianapolis speech the day M.L. King was assassinated was filled with love and hope and compassion for others and greatness. There were riots all over the country from the killing, but there was no such thing happening in Indianapolis, perhaps from Bobby's compassion alone?

Teddy was the Liberal Lion for his entire Senate Career and crafted legislation to help the less fortunate all the freaking time.

And then the second generation Kennedy's - gets a little fuzzy info wise for me here, but Bobby JR. is a beautiful person doing beautiful work on behalf of the less fortunate all the time. Still plugging away for justice and fairness any way he can.

Romney-the-Vulture-Capitalist is a different can of worms. He seems to be compassionate only about growing his already staggering fortune even further regardless of the human misery and wrecked lives his form of "enterprise" creates.


I find Mitt to be the epitome of everything wrong with America today. The poster boy of crony capitalism and greed is good and dismantling perfectly fine companies so as to extract the maximum amount of money, wrecked human lives and livelihood be damned.

Why the hell America should even be considering such a SOCIOPATHIC GREEDHEAD for President is beyond my comprehension. Mitt and his Country Club Crony Capitalists are the the root cause of the economic inequality we are currently immersed in at record levels of unfair weath distribution.

Has anybody ever made a body count of jobs Mitt destroyed vs. jobs he created in his business pursuits? That would be one hell of an interesting factoid!

We are the 99% and our country is seriously considering electing a member of the .01%; the fuckers that wrecked everything for all of us? THAT DOES NOT COMPUTE!

All they got us money. We got numbers and boots on the ground. If 99% of us can't beat these 1% fuckers in an election, then we'll deserve our fate! I hope we as a nation aren't that fucking stupid!

-90% Jimmy

April 14, 2012

Speaking of Any Way The Wind Blows

Original Freak Out Version

Reuben and the Jets version

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Note the fantastic Ray Collins vocals on both versions. Listen to "Anything" from Reuben and the Jets for more of Ray,

Flo and Eddie Mothers slow version

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I was present at this exact performance at Stony Brook University. This concert was my first exposure to Zappa live, and inspired me to go out and get Just Another Band from L.A. which had the same songs and personnel from this show. The rest is 41 years of my personal quest for Zappa Conceptual Continuity.

Sonics version




thanks for the wonderful and interesting responses.


-90% Jimmy

April 14, 2012

Captain Beefheart featured on Lawrence O'Donnel Thursday Night Romney coverage

Willard has to cope with the Republican's war on women. In Lawrence's segment about this, I was flabbergasted to hear this song in the background:

Which leads me to think somebody on Lawrence staff is a Beefheart fan, as I don't think you'd come up with this song without deep prior knowledge. It would have been the 3,896,786th hit on a google search, so it wasn't dumb luck that led to the selection.

Also on this album, Beefheart's first, is one of the most remarkable songs in rock history:

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Remarkable first for Beefheart's (Don Van Vliet) astounding voice and also one of the pioneering uses of the theremin in a rock song. (Beach Boys also used the theramin, particularly on "Good Vibrations", which may have predated this song?)

Beefheart's "big break" could have come from the revolutionary Monterrey Pop Festival that broke Hendrix and a lot of others. It wasn't meant to be, as Ry Cooder had been brought in to the group by the producer to contribute some musical discipline and chops. Cooder found Van Vliet so erratic and bizarre that he thought he would be risking his musical career if Don flubbed the performance. Don had stage fright issues at the time and Ry probably made the right call for his career, but the wrong call for what could have been another awe inspiring Monterrey breakout performance.

All part of the incredible Beefheart/Zappa folklore that make them such interesting people to know about in rock history.

-90% Jimmy

April 12, 2012

Interesting

Speaks strongly to the difference between reason and emotion.

I'm getting weary of our institutions playing fear on all of us, instead of paving the way for greater life, liberty and happiness pursuits.

For example, I'm a baby boomer and grew up during the cold war. I was trained as a first grader to survive a nuclear attack (the ole' duck and cover bullshit)

Mr. Gorbachev tore down that wall and whoopie, the threat of destroying every living thing on the planet has gone away.

BULLSHIT - now we got world leaders actively suggesting nuclear war as a means to solve the "Iran problem".

They talk like it's just another tool in their "diplomacy" arsenal when it's really something that should never ever be used again on this planet! They seem just too plain stupid to comprehend the misery and death such actions would cause.

All they do is give us shit to worry about. And we elected them!

Fuckers!

-90% Jimmy