The Linear Canvas

I wrote Hard Change about the influence of corporatist power over government in America. In our case the corporatists have seized the power of religion and the media to keep the fear of fear in the weakest among us. Always keeping us fearful of all the Emmanuel Goldstein’s out there. Real or imagined.

The truth is it will never change. There’s something about being mega-rich and powerful that makes men want more riches and more power. Some would say communism would be the answer, but the truth is men are men and behave the same no matter the style of government. The common citizen is always left holding the check at the end.

“Hard Change”

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“When fascism (corporatism) comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” 
–Sinclair Lewis, in 1935

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military (and congressional) industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
-President Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) in 1961

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”
-President Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) in 1932

–

The analog tracks were originally recorded in about 1994 (?) on a Yamaha MT-100 II 4 track cassette recorder using high speed (3.75 IPS) and dbx noise reduction.

I think the acoustic guitar I played was a Takamine. I played electric guitar on a Fender Stratocaster and maybe an Ibanez Les Paul (?). The bass was a Rickenbacker 4001. I recorded the percussion more recently using my Paiste and Zildjian cymbals and because of my ankle injury, I had to add the drum parts using a Yamaha MIDI drum pad and Session Drummer 3.  I also added some cow bell.

It always has really bothered me when someone would say they hated history in school. The nicest thing I can say is, that’s dumb. The other is that because so many people feel that way, we are doomed to repeat the lessons America has already learned, but also lessons that other nations have learned and sometimes had to re-learn.

Yesterday my wife called me with a question about which U.S. president signed the Declaration of Independence first. Her company was having a contest featuring Independence Day trivia. The choices were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or John Adams. Only two future presidents signed the document, Jefferson and Adams. So that would eliminate George Washington from consideration entirely.

There were two procedures in place for the signing of the Declaration of Independence:

1. The colonies’ (states) delegates signed first in the order of north to south.
2. The signers signed the document from right to left.

The only exception was John Hancock, the president of the Continental Congress, who signed first.

The only reason I can think of for this procedure was a possible compromise to allow the northern states the honor of actually signing the document first, but it would appear to the British or any other interested party at the time, that the southern states had that honor. It probably was to keep everybody happy at the meeting. If you didn’t like history in the 21st century, It certainly would appear that the answer to the question, reading left to right, was Thomas Jefferson.

Knowing the procedure in place, at the time, would not allow you to come to that conclusion though. As John Adams was from Massachusetts and Thomas Jefferson from Virginia, looking at a map would show Massachusetts north of Virginia and looking at the document will show John Adams’ signature on the upper right at the bottom of the page.

Therefore the answer is John Adams.

When my wife returned home, she told me that the “official” answer she was given was Thomas Jefferson. I suppose someone just looked at the document and figured that it was signed left to right and John Adams must have arrived late to the meeting.

The world will not end because of that error. But it saddens me that July 4th in America is more about contests and mattress sales than remembering our country’s independence from the distant rule of kings, queens, and the Church of England. Many love the fireworks just to see something get blown up more than the symbol of our Independence they are.

I only expect the situation to get worse in the future.

"Rich People pay Fox (News) People to make Middle Class People hate Poor People."
-John Fugelsang (comedian)

After the healthcare bill was signed into law on March 23, 2010, there were a number of acts of violence and vandalism involving those that were aligned with corporate interests in preserving the status quo in healthcare. These persons resorted to violence and intimidation mainly because they just didn’t get their way on this. (childish?) In addition, the political representatives of this group were in charge for the last ten years and ran the country into the ditch, that it is still in.

I must say that those politicians did this with the help of the same lunatic fringe that is now threatening our democracy with violence, unless they get their way. (treason?) Most of these same political “leaders” have never responsibly denounced this violent behavior, only excused it. This is of course how they governed as well, irresponsibly.

For a few years after September 11, 2001, I rarely would talk about, and often hid my political and religious views from strangers, family, and co-workers. After I "exposed" myself as a Democrat in 2004, I was confronted by co-worker’s twice. Both were near physical confrontations about me being pro-abortion, although I am anti-abortion. But these individuals were convinced that "Libruls" were all the same.

The intimidation by the right wing is only ratcheting up, it has been fomenting since the Reagan days. As long as they have a cable channel and an overly compliant mass media to disseminate their corporate propaganda to their minions, this will only get worse. And I’m sure it will.

I don’t have any issue with gun owners or gun ownership. During the cold war, I used to fantasize that if the Russians ever attacked us, the NRA members would be an asset. Now I think if we were attacked, by one of their corporatist allies (Saudi Arabia?), the right wing propaganda machine, and the NRA, would be aligned with the attackers, against the “Libruls”.

My impression is that some of these people committing violent acts feel empowered and dominate as long as they are armed, and that a weapon gives the armed citizen one more vote than the unarmed. If they’d gone to government class in high school instead of skipping out, they’d realize that’s exactly what can kill a democracy, not save it.

No matter what you think about the current administration or the previous one, the problem with our government has always been the level of corporatist influence in it and the corruption that it has caused. But I just don’t believe that it has ever been this bad and out in the open. The last thirty years has been a real bonanza for the well connected corporatist

The end of the broadcast fairness doctrine and relaxing media ownership concentration rules certainly played a part in this, as the watchdog of investigative journalism was finally under the control of the corporate owned media conglomerates with no equal time for dissenting opinions and any real fact checking. Other factors are the uncontrollable propaganda that 500 different cable channels could broadcast, again without any requirements any of it be true, or fair. The fairness doctrine never covered cable, so that was never an issue anyway. Another is that corporations have long been about controlling whatever government agencies and branches they could, to extinguish labor and safety regulations and their resulting law suits and other responsibilities. Corporations know that it’s hard to market a defective product when people know the truth about it and them.
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One of my favorite entertainers is radio host Stephanie Miller. I have pretty regularly listened to her radio show since its beginning in 2004. She is witty and very funny. I am the “Official Cable Guy” of The Stephanie Miller Show. Here is the best of Stephanie Miller from 2009 (so far) from her many TV talk show appearances.

If the video player does not appear or work, click here (part 1)

If the video player does not appear or work, click here (part 2)

Wanda Sykes generally gets it just about right while still making it funny. How she got a job on Fox Network mystifies me. Rupert Murdoch is rolling in his grave, even though he isn’t dead yet.

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I’ve always liked Al Franken, No matter what Fox Network (they’re not news) says about him, he’s funny and smart. More so than any of the Fox-licans that hate him. I used to listen to his Air America radio show because it was informative and funny. I quit listening in it’s last year because he started running for the US Senate and the funny suffered. I can get informative from anywhere.

Here are a couple of cool videos taken recently at the Minnesota State Fair, of Senator Al Franken. The first one, he talks down a Tea Bagger mob with logic, reason, and knowledge. The second he draws a USA map from memory. I’d like to see Bill O’Reilly do either.

Senator Al Franken calms down health insurance reform opponents

Senator Al Franken draws a map of the USA from memory

I am so glad that Ohio finally got rid of the Pay Day Loan racket. They were only in poorer areas and preyed on those that could least afford it. There was a time that loan sharking was illegal everywhere. I am not sure how all this got started, but I know these people are aggressive in recovering loans. I’m not sure anyone got their leg broken like a loan shark might do. But abuse and harassment take many forms.

Quite a few states still have legal Pay Day Loan businesses. Back in high school, I can remember speculating that we would have small privately held bank’s someday and they would be called something like…Bob’s Bank. Little did I know that someday there would be that type of bank, but I never anticipated they would be evil. Even more evil than corporate banks! That’s alot of evil.

I am sure that Pay Day Loan defenders would say the up to 400% interest that Pay Day Loan sharks are charging is because of the service they are providing to their customers. And that without that service how would these people get by?

It turns out, many that borrow money from a Pay Day Loan racketeer, enter a cycle of borrowing, paying back, and borrowing again, that some people may never pay off. Even when the debt is finally paid, it ends up costing many times the original loan amount. Is this how we should be treating our poor and needy? This type of service only enriches those that have, at the expense of those that have the least. If that isn’t a crime, it should be.

The video link is to a report done by Katie Couric on the The CBS Evening News about the Pay Day Loan racket in the U.S.

click above or here to watch this video

I am currently reading Richard A. Clarke’s book "Against All Enemies".  I highly recommend it. It is well written and mostly easy to follow. Mr. Clark is a former long time government employee who had worked in the consecutive administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. He routinely held positions that required the highest of security clearance. It would include being Chief Counter-Terrorism Adviser on the U.S. National Security Council. That made him a member of the executive branch on 9/11. Published in 2004, the book is about his involvement in helping to direct the counter-terrorism strategy for the United States, through his retirement in 2003.

I came across these two paragraphs in the book. The context was a discussion on how some theories about government conspiracies were true while others were fabrications or distortions:

Another conspiracy theory intrigued me because I could
never disprove it. The theory seemed unlikely on its face: Ramzi
Yousef or Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had taught Terry Nichols how to
blow up the Oklahoma Federal Building. The problem was that, upon
investigation, we established that both Ramzi Yousef and Nichols had
been in the city of Cebu on the same days. I had been to Cebu years
earlier; it is on an island in the central Philippines. It was a town in
which word could have spread that a local girl was bringing her American
boyfriend home and that the American hated the U.S. government.

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I guess I should have known that the threats to withhold campaign contributions, and whatever other methods the corporate insurance elite have been using to get the current administration back in line would work eventually. Now there’s talk that President Obama will announce his surrender to them on the health care issues that I think would have the biggest impact, Single Payer and/or the Public Option. I sent an e-mail to the White House this morning and this is what I wrote:

President Obama,

I am a life long Democrat. I supported you through most of your campaign. I have never voted for a non-Democrat for president.

Now that you have decided (?) to surrender to the medical cartel, first on single payer and now on a public health care option, my only thought is that how “they” have won and “you (alone)” have failed. Do you think Fox News will ever let you live this down? Fox and their paymasters have beaten you and they know it. I, for one, am ashamed. I am ashamed that lies and money have finally gotten to you. Maybe I am the one that failed in believing that you were capable or willing to change anything.

This was your Waterloo and you did not win. You just managed to have an orderly surrender.

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