When is a Nazi a Nazi?

draft

When is a Nazi a Nazi?  Do you have to wait until they kill 6 million innocent people?  Or is it sufficient for them to kill as many of their scapegoat ethnic and other group(s) from "shithole" countries as they can get their hands on?

Was Adolf Hitler a Nazi before the extermination camps?  Of course he was.  For those who say he was not, you are just excusing your moral laziness.  You should not have to wait for all the murders to happen before you should be willing to stand up and oppose them.

You can send me all the holocaust porn you want, and it doesnt change a thing.  Your sophistry does not excuse you from failing to oppose these murders.  You are complicit with their crimes.

Fat and Unhappy

draft

Letter to my friend Andy about being overweight.

The situation about losing weight seems to be somewhat complicated. It doesnt seem to be so much about the "healthiness" of the food I eat, although that is part of it, but is probably about the amount/calories thereof. I have been cooking at home every meal for about 15 years. I am a lacto vegetarian (which means I eat cheese and butter, but avoid eggs and of course meat of any type). But I have decades of bad food habits, big meals, and medicating anxiety with food. I have a sweet tooth. My metabolism has changed with age (my father warned me of this) and my exercise per day has gone way down. If you subscribe to the calorie theory of weight loss (and I only sortof do), then you realize to your horror that one scone may be the total calories permissible in a day. To that add the interesting evidence of calorie restriction and life extension, and you realize that you (or me, rather) is / are fucked. I have a variety of different cost/quality equations that I use to control my expenditures and I am most excellently knowledgable about reducing cost in this area, but sadly that would reduce fresh fruits and vegetables and increase carbohydrates. Bad. So I increase costs and eat healthy home made soups, stews and salads. Non fat dressing. Olive oil when an oil is used. Try to keep a lid on the amount of cheese, use half the butter a recipe calls for. On the other hand, life is short, and food is a big part of the pleasure I am permitted to get in this disgusting world we live in. With the orange moron as president and my life and career a ruin, who would begrudge me a half a stick of butter to make blueberry ersatz scones once in a while? Is that so much to ask from life?

So I am fat and unhappy and that is not the way its supposed to be.

Add to that the local culture where all the people here look like they just stepped out of a Nike catalog (and possibly did) and the situation is worse. And everyone here eats kale and my feeling is that the only people who are qualified to eat kale are people from the South, probably black, and they use a lot of tasty pig fat when they do so, and cook the shit out of the stuff. I dont go with this healthy kale thing.

So Now We Wait

draft

So now we wait. Is it the apocalypse or just another example of the dysfunction and stupidity of our government? I have no idea. But presumably if the hammer comes down it comes down in 1-3 weeks. I am guessing we will only know it is bad if we start hearing stories of hospitals filling up. Or not filling up, as the weeks go by. Idiots.

Jim Houston, RIP, Damn It

draft

Jim Houston died unexpectedly last Thursday at the age of 61.  Cause of death is still a little uncertain but it is probably from complications from a stroke.  He was young, had years more left to him, but he was not taking care of his health and that is a proximate cause.

I will elaborate this post with pictures and so forth as I get them.

At some point there will be a memorial service out here, but in the time being, he will be buried in Pennsylvania.

Jim and I talked perhaps once / week and I am really annoyed. 

Scenario for the Failure of Recent Democratic Coalition

draft

So this is my argument for why the most recent democratic coalition will fragment after the next election.

Lets run through a few scenarios. In all scenarios, assume that there is some percentage of democrats who we might call Sanders/Warren supporters and that Biden is nominated, as he certainly will be. I also assume that the most important factor holding the Democratic coalition together for this next election is fear of a Trump 2nd term. In the first scenario, Trump defeats Biden through a combination of obvious vote repression and russian interference or possibly just obvious judicial interference as we saw in 2000 and really in all elections since then by the failure of the judiciary to correct obvious abuses. The usual finger pointing results, with the so called mainstream democrats blaming the sanders/warren faction for the loss. But the sanders/warren faction will say you guys really didnt give us anything with Biden, just like you didnt with Clinton, and your only hold on us is that you claim we have to stick together to win elections. Well, screw that. And the Democratis party becomes essentially two parties that never talk to each other (through a process I could not begin to predict). It goes without saying that the conversion of this country into a right wing dictatorship will be completed trivially in the second Trump administration, but that is a different topic, and besides, its pretty close already. In scenario two, Biden wins and utterly fails to address the progressive agenda except through obviously insincere and insufficient acts, utterly failing in all regards, including even to reverse trump exec orders. He does do a few things, like maybe something at least superficially to help his major blocks such as unions and the african american vote, but very little to help the sanders/warren crowd. To be fair, since Biden is just a stooge of the right wing neoliberal faction just like Obama, it would be wrong for him to do anything else. But he is certainly better than Trump. But in that scenario the sanders/warren crowd will also say "what the fuck is this", and walk. Again, two democratic parties, unable to unite beyond certain very specific elections, the Democrats refuse to reform (the DNC has been incredibly bad in the last two years) and thats the end of that. The Republicans romp through the next 2-4 presidential elections because their minority, a solid 35-45 percent, always unite behind whatever traitor or idiot they nominate, and they win. This may or may not apply to the individual states, each of which has its own situation.

Now maybe Biden will pull the party together, unlike Clinton who failed utterly at that, because after all at this point even a pretense of democracy will be gone and people may unite because the situation is so dire, but by then it will be too late anyway, probably.

So that is why I think the most recent incarnation of the democratic coalition will pretty much cease to exist after the next election.

As always, I tend to be too optimistic, but whatever.

The Long Term Effects of COVID-19 (part 1)

draft

There are many issues regarding COVID-19 and whether it will affect America in the long run. There is a clear answer from American history because there are some very interesting case studies we can review including the Civil War, the Pandemic of 1918, the Depression, World War II and Vietnam. I am going to focus here on the Depression but the others would each have their own story to tell. The Depression is particularly noteworthy because it was a prolonged disaster, it affected everybody, and I have some personal stake in the matter.

The short answer is this: the effects of the Depression were profound for those who lived through it, but tended to go away over time as new people entered the world who had not directly experienced it. Until today, its most notable expression are some fascinating art and infrastructure projects that have remained behind to baffle, uplift and mystify us.

My father told me stories about his time during the depression.  It was very hard to relate to, and ultimately I found them colorful but not necessarily applicable to my experience.  In that, I was wrong, because when I realized that I had, unwittingly, taken chances with my own economic survival because I thought I was, somehow, exempt, I blamed myself even more.  Why?  Because I had been warned and I had not listened.

Ultimately, everything about the Depression was ignored by our various right wing governments as unions were attacked and financial institutions and procedures deregulated.  The common people may have an excuse for this, but our elites never.

And yet, now and then one sees something like the Hoover Dam, or these fabulous remanants of the WPA and one has to wonder, how is it that our corrupt and crass government(s) went out of their way to sponsor such interesting art and architecture?

Some Biden Questions

draft

Some Biden questions:

1. Will he take a fitness test to prove he is physically and mentally competant? (same question for Trump, of course), 2. Where does he stand on prosecuting russians and traitors, 3. Where does he stand on prosecuting Trump and his family? 4. Where does he stand on prosecuting people like Barr, Pruitt, Nunes, etc? 5. Where does he stand on term limits for justices and what will he do to help make that happen? 6. Where does he stand on the electoral college, changing it to see that we are not victimized by it ever again, 7. Where does he stand on changing statute of limitations? 8 As more crimes of the Trump administration come out (torture, destruction of records, etc), where does he stand on prosecuting those people, 9. Where does he stand on prosecuting big tech for their crimes (FB putting Trump in power, for example) and criminalizing behavior like Twitter and hate tweets, etc.)

Of these, I think that #1 would be hard to do because Trump would never agree to be tested, not really.  Also #9 is perhaps controversial.

Do we know the answer to any of these questions? Yes, of course I will vote for Biden over Trump, but then who wouldnt?

Are Interpretations of Silence a Form of Delusion of Reference?

draft

I do perhaps 99 percent of my social interaction via "electronic mediation" whether that be texting, email, Facebook, telephone or instant messaging.  Sometimes a friend does not reply and then time passes and he/she does not reply to another message and then months go by and he/she does not respond to another message (email, whatever) that may be particularly chosen to be easy to reply to and relevant, entertaining, whatever to his/her interests.

Obviously I wonder if I am being ghosted.  But there are lots of reasons a friend might be doing this beyond the possibility that one is being ghosted, ostracised or rejected.  He/she may be going through a particularly intense time in their family or in their career or in other areas of their life. They might be helping a friend or themselves get through a serious illness. They might be travelling or trying to make a deadline that is not happening for them.  There are lots of things that may be going on.  After all, it is likely that you are not the center of interest in their life even if you are a friend for many years.

But since sometimes you are being ghosted, or at least that has happened to me in the past, and so the question is, is it a delusion of reference to interpret silence as a signal of social rejection? Maybe "delusions of reference" lite?

Delusions of Reference on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideas_of_reference_and_delusions_of_reference

[Addendum: the best algorithm I have found for evaluating if you are ghosted, is as follows: You send short emails at a constantly increasing interval: e.g. 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, etc. Each email is constructed to be easy to respond to. No major questions that require thought. Then if you still dont hear from him after some long period of time, you assume you are ghosted and try not to worry about it.]

[Addendum: my friend got back to me, so I am not exactly ghosted, and he is probably just very busy.  However, it definitely makes me wonder if I have overstepped some bound, so we will see.]

Michael and the Saxophone of St. Timothy

draft


I know you will find the following story hard to believe but I swear every word of it is true. I am of course oversimplifying since what had occurred is not spelled out well in our sources but I am loathe to elaborate freely. Many decades ago, a young boy tried to learn three musical instruments and failed at all three. The first was a cheap recorder which he had bought at a gift shop and which made plausible pleasant noises but nothing coherent. The second was his brothers 1959 Fender Stratocaster with which he could make chord changes and even some version of the rhythm accompaniment of some songs but it mutilated his fingers and he stopped. But the third was the most frustrating and confusing. It was his brother's clarinet and all he could ever do was to have it make horrible squeaking noises. The young boy was crushed and knew he was a complete failure and withdrew from society and lived in total isolation in the horrible wilderness in N San Diego County. But one day, many decades later, he took a very rare trip to the north and staying at the house of his friend Tom, a house filled with music, he happened to mention to his friend that he could never figure out how to play a reed instrument. One of the sons of the family overheard him and being a trained musician and filled with the spirit of hospitality, undertook, on his own initiative and at his own expense, to show the visitor whom he had never before met or even heard of, how to play a reed instrument, an antique saxophone. To the hermit's astonishment he was able to, with the instruction of his friend's son, immediately make plausible if unrefined saxophone sounds. This so amazed him that his depression and sense of failure dropped visibly from his shoulders like some great winter coat and he was inspired to go out into the world and help many of the poor and downtrodden. His name was Michael and as you may have guessed this is the origin of our famous story that every child knows, "Michael and the Saxophone of St. Timothy". I swear every word of this is true, so help me God.

Betrayal and the Virus

draft

I feel betrayed by our government's failure to use reason and science and experience to help set policy and to be proactive in this pandemic.  We have had years to improve our medical system in general, and years to improve our system's response to an unspecified pandemic.  We knew that a pandemic was a risk, possibly even an increasing risk, based on history and a number of factors (international air travel being only the most obvious).

But specifically we lost 2.5 months at the beginning of this pandemic when we knew we had a respiratory illness on our hands.  Training health care workers in this specialty and possibly increasing the number of respirators in hospitals are two obvious things that could benefit from those 2.5 months.  Another, mentioned so many times in the press, is the issue of testing.  You need testing to know what is going on or you are flying blind.

The point is, we pay our government and its elites to deal with a number of very difficult problems.  Many of those problems include uncertain risk.  Classic examples are the risk of nuclear war, the risk of earthquakes, and so forth.  We spend a lot of money preparing for these disasters even if we dont know that they will happen for sure and when.  To make decisions about these things requires a lot skill, expertise and judgment.

I am going to give an example of this.  Los Angeles is not known for planning for the future and yet they have spent a fair amount of money preparing for an event which is sometimes called the 50 year flood and the 100 year flood.  These are events where there is so much precipitation that the normal water management capability is overwhelmed.  I can point you to many examples of infrastructure hidden in plain site where the city has prepared emergency water diversion infrastructure to accept a huge amount of water overflow until the normal system can process it.  And this is Los Angeles where corruption and failure to deal with important known issues is infamous.

I propose to you that our federal government has been given ample warning of various pandemics and could have done a better job preparing for this threat.  Thats their job.

The Sepulveda Dam in the San Fernando Valley is one of the City (or County?) of LA's emergency water diversion sites.

So Here It Comes Again

draft

So here it comes again. The Democrats nominate a "moderate" guaranteed to allow no change and support the rich. Their candidate will fail to prosecute criminals on Wall Street, any change to the economy will be minimal. (Editor's note: Michael is just blowing off steam again).

So Its All Over

draft

The country failed and armed revolution is the only solution. Not aware of any argument against this. (Editor's note: Yes he is.)  Its too bad. Also I tried as a citizen to find a way to participate but failed. No one had any ideas and I sure didnt. (Editor's note: Yes he did.)

Is It Wrong to Accuse Someone of Violating a Law That Does Not Exist?

draft

I asked a friend the following hypothetical question:

Imagine the following. Person A is an official of our government charged with, among other things, the responsibility to abide by and enforce the law. In the course of normal politics, Person A accuses his/her enemy, Person B who is also an official of the goverment, of a crime.  Lets say that Person A accuses Person B of putting pesto sauce on his kale on Fridays. "Thats outrageous, its against the law!". But as far as anyone knows, the laws about kale make no mention of pesto sauce, nor has there been any case about pesto sauce and kale in all of recorded history, and it is reasonable to expect Person A to know this.  In other words (a) the issue is not at all subtle, and (b) Person A is responsible in some sense of that word in his official capacity, to understand, in broad strokes, the state of the law about kale and pesto sauce (and if he was confused, he could go ask somebody).  The question is, has Person A, in accusing Person B of violating the law, in fact violated the law himself?

And my friend the Harvard-trained entertainment attorney replied:

You are right that there is an idea that people in office are supposed to understand and respect the law, but mostly it’s just aspirational, not a legal standard to which they are held. It’s probably not a crime for a public official to make outrageous statements claiming violations of the law that he knows are not violations at all. If you and I (i.e someone not protected by making a statement relating to duties in a public office) did the same thing, it might be defamation because it is defamatory to wrongfully state that someone committed a crime, though maybe not because if he really did put pesto on his kale and the only falsehood in my statement is that in doing so he committed crime, it is possible that might not be considered defamation, because defamation usually goes to the truth of the underlying act not to its characterization as good/bad or legal/illegal. In making the statement in his official capacity and even in wrongfully prosecuting a case for violation of a law that he knows that he is making up, he is probably immune from prosecution under several different theories, but it could be grounds for removal from office.

To which I said:

We must thank our friends the Russians for their help in improving Democracy by stress testing it. It wont be possible to indulge this kind of behavior going forward now that we have endured Trump. Sadly, even lawyers, and particularly lawyers in positions of trust, must now be held to a higher standard. But that does not necessarily mean an orange onesie learning new skills, it may merely mean they are not permitted to be Attorney General or POTUS.

Guidelines for Crossing Into Canada for a Conference

draft

This is what I learned from being unable to cross the border into Canada to attend an academic conference.  I probably did everything wrong.  You can learn from my mistakes.

The guiding principle is to avoid the appearance of someone who is going to cross into Canada and then become a "problem", someone who intends to stay in Canada and who may need financial assistance or try to get or take a job from a more deserving Canadian citizen.  In order to sniff out these potential miscreants, the border officials have certain things that they look for and I managed to get a perfect score, I think.

To that desired end of convincing the nice people at the border to let you through, the following guidelines are suggested:  1.  Fly directly, do not use the bus from Seattle to Vancouver. I attempted to cross the border via the regular bus shuttle from Seattle because I thought it would allow me to be more flexible and save money.  A false economy, I think.  Had I flown directly to Vancouver, I think I would have appeared to have more financial means and to put more value on my time which is the sort of thing they look for when separating the wheat from the chaff.  2. You should have booked a return ticket and be able to prove it on paper without any hesitation.  I did have a return ticket, but it was from Seattle to Santa Barbara, my plan was to return by bus to Seattle and did not make a reservation since I was not completely sure when I wanted to return. Definitely a mistake. 3. Have documentation for where you plan to stay.  Avoid the appearance of improvisation.  Have your hotel reservation confirmed and carry paper documentation. 4. Carry lots of cash on you. These days most of us rely on getting cash on demand from an ATM.  They want to see plenty of financial responsibility in overt ways.  $1,000 in cash and maybe $1,000 in travellers checks would not be out of place.  5. Dress like you are going to the bank for a loan.  6. Do not carry your dinner and think you are going to take it over the border with you.  7. Have documentation about the conference you are going to attend.  In this case, that would mean a piece of paper that demonstrates that you have preregistered for SIGGRAPH (and spent your $1,000 US in Canada, already).  And, finally, 8. When they ask you if you are employed, do not tell them the truth, that computer animation has failed to provide steady employment for so many people, but say that you are self-employed.

Beyond that, it would have been nice if SIGGRAPH had perhaps a volunteer with a car who could escort people from the border to the conference center, as once you are held back for further review, the logistics of getting into the city are non-trivial even if they do let you through.

To recap, the Canadian border officials want to have some confidence that you are not planning to come to Canada to stay, but will come only briefly, spend money, be respectable and go home.

Some Ideas Beyond Voting

draft

Since democracy has failed in the USA, by which I mean the will of the majority of people in this country is ignored, I am collecting ideas for what to do about it. Short of armed rebellion (which I personally think wouldnt work), two other ideas are to (a) move people into states where the Republicans are working to purge voters from the rolls in order to add a few hundred or thousand votes on the side of righteousness and (b) buy a politician or two (how much do they cost? I really dont know). None of these would be enough to restore democracy (see for example the problem of the right wing nuts in the judiciary), so I freely admit these ideas are half baked but nevertheless submit them here in the hope it may stimulate ideas. I wonder if they sell politicians on the dark web?

Voting is Not a Solution

draft

Whenever someone tells me to "Vote!" as a solution to the current right wing dictatorship in this country, I have the following comments. 1. For one reason or another I have voted Democrat in all major elections since and including 1972 (I have missed some midterm elections), 2. In one election, 2000, my vote was ignored when the Supreme Court made their right wing stoodge, W. Bush, president over the wishes of the people, 3. In another election, 2016, Russian interference and the insane electoral college (which should have been fixed long ago) was used to put the moron king into power, again my vote was ignored, 4. The supreme court has enshrined Citizens United and destroyed the Voting Rights Act. Without these being reversed and enforced in law and in the field, there can be no reason to think that an election has been fair. 5. By allowing Republicans to put their right wing tools in the judiciary, you can count on any legislative or executive action to restore freedom will be reversed. Therefore any plan to restore freedom has to include a way to get these right wing nuts (like Kavanaugh, Thomas and Gorsuch just to name three) out of the judiciary and review and reverse any decisions they have made. Those three are just the tip of the iceberg. 6. Therefore, any plan you have that does not deal with these issues, the electoral college, citizens united, the voting rights act and the right wing judiciary is just wishful thinking. 7. I will be happy to vote but it is a sucker game as far as I am concerned. 8. Enjoy your dictatorship. I was in Washington protesting the right wing coup d'etat in November, 2000. Where were you?

Script for Video (People I Worked With at Abel's)

draft

As part of an application to an MFA program, I am supposed to include a 60-90 second video of me explaining or describing some event that was important to my development as an "artist" or something like that.  I plan to describe some of the people I worked with when I went to Abel's.  For that video, I have prepared a list of some of the people.  Some of these were full-time, some were project based, some were clients.  The list could easily be twice as long.  In this list we have at least 5 academy awards (between three people) and probably more than I realize.

Bob Abel,
Clark Anderson,
Richard "Doc" Baily,
Tom Barron, 
Steve Cooney, 
Rod Davis,
Allen Debovoise,
Richard Hollander,
John Hughes, 
Judy Kaiser,
Pat Kenly,
Bill Kovacs,
Rob Legato,
Tandy Martin, 
Kenny Mirman, 
John Nelson, 
Con Pederson,
Randy Roberts, 
Terry Schwartz, 
Jim Shaw, 
Richard Taylor (client on Tron),
Frank Vitz,
John Wash

A Package Gets Mislaid and I Know Why

draft

A package got mislaid on its way to me and I know why, but no one will listen even though I have been doing this for a few years now.  It goes like this: if the package is important for any reason,  and there is any cheapness (e.g. sending it in a non-trackable way) then it will get lost or delayed.

Every time.

But no one listens.

Should We Obey the Law in Trump's America

draft

A friend who is charming and completely reckless (but doesnt appear to be on the surface) endangers peoples lives in ways that he understands is a direct violation of law, in order to enable a client of his to run parties in a wildly non-code space. The fire department has come down hard on him but he is ignoring them. The Oakland tragedy of a year or so ago means nothing to him, because he makes a few thousand every time they hold a party.

At first I told him "stop doing this, this is crazy, you know its a mistake" but then I thought, hmmm, what would our president do? Would he violate the law in order to make a few bucks? Isnt that the New American Way? Shoddy, cheap, stupid, dangerous, get the money?

So I told him, he should follow the lead of our Great President who will lead us to Paradise via the imminent Rapture, rebuilding of the Temple and the arrival of the Savior to send sinners to the last judgement and thus to hell. If he makes a few bucks by violating fire code after being cited for his crimes many times, but it helps bring the Savior and punish sinners like those who oppose our Great President, who am I to stand in the way?

Paul Rother & Mark Sylvester

draft

At a birthday party for a friend, I ran into Paul Rother (he recognized me!) and Mark Sylvester.  I havent seen Paul for a very long time.

There was a company there called MirMir all set up to take pictures with funny glasses (which are a clue).  Mark and Paul look shorter than me because they had to sortof kneel to fit into the picture.

At the party, one of the event photographers was named Madison and although she was shooting digital (of course) revealed that she had attended Brooks here in Santa Barbara and owned a Contax 645 medium format (film!) camera.  Thats just remarkable.

Organize to Oppose Tyrrany?

draft

Should I be disappointed in my friend's failure to organize to defeat tyranny in the endless nightmare of the Trump/Republican right-wing coup d'etat and abomination?  Or should I have faith that they are doing everything that they can and that in fact they are organizing behind the scenes?

Should I be disappointed that they do not involve me in their clever plans or realize that I am probably just too unreliable for them and they are keeping their own counsel?

Lets not forget that the best way to keep a secret is to not tell anyone.  When I suggested that a friend add secret passages to his magnificent new house he is building with my patron, he replied that if he did he certainly couldnt tell me about it because then they wouldnt be secret anymore.

This made me sad.

Stigma and Stigmatic

draft

As we proceed inevitably to that automatic or machine-assisted diagnosis of eccentricities and other traits that have in the past been used to stigmatize people, can we say that that such algorithms and devices are "stigmatic"?

Yayoi Wakabayashi and Harvie Branscomb

draft

The film that was thought lost and which had been in a refridgerator for over a decade covered in Reynolds Wrap was found, processed and scanned.  There are a number of different pictures that have sentimental value.  A few seem particularly entertaining.  These are from the time when Yayoi, Harvie and I went golfing in Escondido CA a long, long time ago.

Are All Trump Supporters Stupid or Mean?

draft

Michael Wahrman No but honestly folks, cultural diversity, its not just another haircut or spicier food. Lots of people in this country. But at some point we have to ask, at the end of the day, what you are fighting for. What do you believe in? Sometimes there are no good choices as any southerner who knows their history can tell you. In this case we have a clusterf*ck of bad things some intentional and some not that have come together and if it has a happy ending I will be very surprised.

Everyone Present?

draft

Well, here we are again. The end of another formal year. Everyone present? A few of us are missing. For those of you still here, I appreciate your comments and posts. Its a hard time we live in, the failure of our society, the rise of the right wing dictatorship, one of many stages of the disaster that is global climate change, and the realization that we, as a society, could have been so much more, have been so much better, than we turned out to be. To have worked against racism, inequality and poverty instead of seeing it rise (at least in this country), the growth of sheer stupidity, that is part of the age we live in. I hope that as individuals we are better than that. I know its hard, or at least it is hard for some of us. Good luck in the new year, I look forward to hearing from all of you!

Daniel Segovia Gross, ?-2019, RIP

Draft

Daniel Segovia Gross passed away in paris a few days ago.  I did not know him well, but I liked him a lot.  It makes me very sad.  Clearly if Daniel can pass away, then any of us can.

Perhaps the Real Meaning of "Louisiana, 1927"

draft

One of the great things about a prophecy is that the listener is free to interpret what it is about, what is being talked about in the riddle from the oracle? I propose that Randy Newman was talking about the current political situation when he wrote the song "Louisiana, 1927", writing not about the flood that destroyed part of Louisiana but the flood of corruption and treason that we must endure, writing more than 30 years before it happened.

By the way, I disagree with Mr. Newman, I think his best version by far is the original one on the "Gold Old Boys" album, before the orchestra was added and he just has a piano to accompany him.

An NPR interview with Mr. Newman on the 10th Anniversary of the Katrina disaster.


https://www.npr.org/2015/08/12/431807506/years-later-randy-nemans-song-about-hurricane-katrina-is-still-poignant

The Protestant Reformation in England

draft

To distract me from our own little disaster here at home and the failure of our republic, I have been reading a book on the Protestant Reformation in England. Holy Moly. I really did not understand. It goes on and on, and make a wrong move, say the wrong thing about the Eucharist or the Holy Rood and its the tower for you! Off with their heads!

Nothing like being burnt at the stake to see what someone is made of!

This will add a tremendous amount of nuance to my next trip to the UK, I can tell you!

Yay!

My Response to the Fear Mongerers

draft

Every time I read or hear so-called moderate (right wing) collaborationist "mainstream" Democratic pundits fear monger that Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders are left wing socialist nuts who will reelect Trump, I give another $25.00 to their campaigns. I encourage you to give to the candidate(s) of your choice. We arent rich, so by definition we are slaves in America, but just like our pathetic vote, every little bit helps, and miracles do happen even if only infrequently and you cant count on them.

Two Product Ideas

draft

To paraphrase Agent Coulson, I lack the courage of my convictions.

Agent Coulson confronts Loki in The Avengers (2012)

If I had courage, I would do these two products, or at least one of them.  Lack of money would be no obstacle! 

1. Spoof web pages into showing different advertisements

Instead of annoying ads being show, trick the browsers and ad agencies to show you things of interest such as private jets or cool power tools.

2. Scrape Social Media to Run a Make on Someone

Just what it says.  A tool for amateurs to gather information about a person of interest.

Dont bother me with the trivia that this has all probably been done.  That has never been an obstacle to success, so far as I can tell.  Being original and / or first is very overrated.

The Role of the Peaceful Protest in American History

draft

I reviewed the bonus march because I wanted to know more, specifically what the bonus marchers did to incite the response and what result they had. What I learned was both a surprise and not a surprise. The only thing the bonus marchers did was to refuse to go away and die. They were then murdered, treated with contempt and overwhelming force, and then slandered from the highest office in the land. Their march accomplished nothing. Their service, loyalty and the justice of their cause meant nothing to our government.

The only thing that made a difference was that FDR won by an overwhelming margin and the fact that they needed soldiers for the next war. Had the margin not been overwhelming, FDR would likely not have won because as we know, in general, and on the margin many of our states do not have free and fair elections. Had the war not happened, probably nothing would have been done for the men, in fact, I am still not clear on whether or not anything was actually done for the veterans of that war.

Therefore, those who want change should know that a peaceful protest will only generate contempt on the part of the government. If they expect change, it can either happen through an election if you believe you have fair elections, or violence.

Bush/Gore, Clinton/Trump, the Republican voter purge atrocities, and the right wing supreme court failure to address gerrymandering proves we do not have fair elections.

What does that leave?

Bio 16

draft