Variables and Votes

I’ve heard a worrisome number of liberals and progressives say that they’re not voting in the 2020 elections.  They don’t vote. Both parties are the same. There’s no difference among the candidates.   I would genuinely like to know why.  Do they really believe that both parties and all candidates are 100% alike?  And if they …

Notes of A Mad Blogger

Welcome! If I may repeat myself, I recently (as of 10/25/2019) repurposed my old, basically dormant blog (fka WAR DURING LIFETIME) to be a (mostly) music blog.  I have a large archive of stories, poems and essays here, for now at least.  But due to my obsession with music and my proclivity for writing, it …

Let It Burn

Tonight, I thought about certain kinds of people who, because of the state of our country, whether they are Left-of-Sanders Lefties (as I am) or Trump supporters who have no ideology but white privilege and supremacy, say, "Let it burn." I thought about these people, who think the U.S. is doomed if it doesn't and …

Other People’s Words (3/7/11 Edition)

 Franklin Delano Roosevelt: "The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by …

Why Don’t We Just Sell Texas?

Ahh.  Back to work today.  I've been getting jerked around by a small town police department on my quest for a chauffer's license.  Yes, it was my own damn fault that I waited until my third week to seek out something I was required to have by my fifth.  Yes, I'd experienced the indifference and …

Book Excerpt

"After the second lap we ducked into JD’s class, where I met the teacher, N-----, and three other students: D-----, J----- and R-----.  They were all African-American boys between 10 and 14.  Jerry and Reggie were both remarkably overweight, the result of their personalities meeting with their parents' or guardians': the boys liked to eat, …

Childhood

Sarah Palin tweeted a non-existent word, "refudiate", and quickly deleted it after the mistake was deleted from her Twitter account.   In other news, the Oxford American Dictionary just not only decided to include "refudiate" in new editions, but has named it their "word of the year."  The "word" is, of course, not needed, as we …

Jackie Gets Out of the Motorcade Alive, Scathed

Mr. Kennedy your head shot was the worst of all.  A nation cried together.  You had promise, but Vietnam would have happened much the same way, except maybe shorter if you'd stopped it.  Would you have called for a Great Society, passed the Civil Rights Act?  Would you have passed universal health care like the …

Dirty Words & Gilded Rage

"If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to own it." -Woodrow Wilson, 1913 I've long considered myself at least a liberal, and at most a radical.  Tearing off layers of my propagandized view of politics and policy, the wool glued over my …

Hooked

I can't do it. I can't kick politics. I have little to no hope that the U.S.'s political system can affect change in any useful manner.  I think political discourse in this country has all the weight of celebrity feuds or high school clique battles.  I think the majority of citizens, conservative or liberal, have …

Political Death

I'm sick.  Honestly, during the Bush years, I never felt as much disgust, anger and despair about the country I call home as I have since Obama's inaugaration (which I listened to live on the radio, not having TV at the time, petrified that at any moment someone was going to shoot the poor bastard …

New Coffee

How ya been? I gotta get off ya, Charlie. I'm trying new coffee. I'm trying new coffee.  It's awful, but it's cheap.  In spite of? Extra! Vote Republican!  Don't you want Christian fascism and this new thing called Ruling Class of Rich White Men? Hear, hear! Democrats!  Third parties! Toss a stone in the ocean, See …

MSNBCUP

I just got pissed off at MSNBC, finally, for the first time.  (I don't watch Morning Joe, and otherwise I've only been mildly bothered.)  But on the Ed Show, which show's existence I was psyched about, after listening to Ed Schultz on WCPT for several years, there was a phone poll wherein the question and …

Ghostface Wasilla

As I made a small chunk in the project that is Making My Apartment Inhabitible today, Sarah Palin resigned from her current post as the insigniftcant-at-best Governor of Alaska.  Joey sent me a text message wondering MY thoughts on what that shrill woman's plans are. Hopefully I answered, "Reality TV?" Obviously this move is yet …