Class Warfare In America

A stark visual aid to illustrate the co relation of the prison population, the so called "war on drugs" and then the way it fuels the profits of the corporations that run the prison system in America. The first modern privatized prison was in Hamilton County, Tennessee in just 1984. The graph indicated the beginning of the sharp upwards spike as judges became more and more owned by the corporations and became all too eager to feed the human fodder that provides the profits that pays the kickbacks they get.
As of December 2000, there were 153 private correctional facilities (prisons, jails and detention centers) operating in the United States with a capacity of over 119,000.
The trend toward privately operated correctional facilities has continued with 85,604 adults (3.7% of the total US prison population) now housed in 107 privately operated prisons.  Companies operating such facilities include the Corrections Corporation of America, the GEO Group, Inc. (formerly known as Wackenhut Securities), and Community Education Centers.
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has a capacity of more than 80,000 beds in 65 correctional facilities. The GEO Group operates 61 facilities with a capacity of 49,000 offender beds. The company owns or runs more than 100 properties that operate more than 73,000 beds in sites across the world.
Most privately run facilities are located in the southern and western portions of the United States and include both state and federal offenders.

Ancient Wisdom

The recent North Korean crisis seems to have petered out, but it leaves the 
rest of the world wondering, what the fuck? Who is in charge there?Yesterday, for the second time in a year, the North Koreans had to apologize to the Chinese for the abduction of Chinese boats and their crews in neutral waters by members of the North Korean Military who then tried to demand a ransom.
Isn't there some ancient eastern proverb that states, "when you only have one friend in the
world, don't piss them off!"

The Fat Ass Hattery Flat Tax Proposal

Who Will Win The Golden Turd 2013 Award?

Kenneth Starr wasted well over 70 Million Dollars of your tax dollars on his unsuccessful witch hunt attempt to bring down a successful Democrat President. His actions shut down the government and empowered his party to do what they do best, obstructionism for the sake of sheer power and greed. 
The amount of money the Republicans have wasted over their attempts to re energize their "base" over the repeal of "ObamaCare" is now well over 50 Million Dollars and rising fast. How much money has been wasted on the now discredited attempt to destroy the Obama Administration and derail the political future of Hillary Clinton over the Benghazi Embassy Attack? I am trying to find out a real figure for that one, but given the cost of inflation and the fees that John McCain is collecting for his Sunday morning Television appearances alone, we've blown the past figures out of the water, easy.

Oh yeah right, it's mediamatters video of CBS News Taking points, so maybe Jennifer Rubin

is gonna demand that I just pul the plug on the truth, which of course contradicts her Fox News

Paycheck financed version of how she peddles her FLAT ASS! Time to pay up, if you gonna play, babe!

Soundtrack to this trauma provided by Sir Vivian Stanshall, my current hero.

 It doesn't stop there of coure, the cost to you, the taxpayer over the sequestration BS, the cost to you because the Teabrains want to bring down the government because they attracted the focus of the IRS...no matter that any number of Socialist Librul groups had the same scrutiny....they want their tea stained buttocks licked. I think I'm gonna fall off my little stool here, so I'd better stop ranting......
Obviously, the Republican strategy is "If you can't govern, then just obstruct." But who pays for this? We do! Look, my proposal is simple: If you wanna be an asshole, then you gotta pay to play.....
I'd say this would be a much more fiscally responsible move than any number of socially repressive libertarian policies to take aid from education, health care and destroy the Social Security System and Medicare and the physical infrastructure of America to enrich a bunch of already rich Conservative Assholes at the expense of our national welfare and security. But, I guess that makes too much sense....
The Fat Ass Hattery Flat Tax....You gotta pay to play......Am I right? Huh?

A Depression Named Bob

There he is, Bob, off in the North Atlantic on May 15, 2013. Now Bob is sitting squarely over this part of Europe. It rains and rains, the wind blows and it's cold, nothing is growing except for the weeds and the grass. Sigh.

Something's Broken In The Promised Land

Brother Wayne Kramer explains what went wrong in the Promised Land. It's all about jobs, right? It's all about fiscal responsibility? Right? Look, if you've followed this blog and have any idea of who I am, you have to realize that I define myself as a Detroit, Michigander...no matter where I have been, no matter what I have ever done, the stain remains the same, and I am proud of it. Detroit has always been an industrial dumping ground. In the 1880s' it was the place where the buffalos were finally processed when they were exterminated.

Following the wholesale slaughter of buffalo on the Great Plains, settlers earned money by gathering the skeletons. “The bones are shipped East by the carloads,” reported the Dodge City Times. “where they are ground and used for fertilizing and manufactured into several useful articles.” This mound of buffalo bones at the Michigan Carlson Works in Detroit, c.1870, suggests the extent of the devastation.
It is almost a historical by note that the historical corporate geneology of the Michigan Carlson Works links it to the Oxbow Corporation which is owned by the third Koch Brother, William I. Koch. The Oxbow Corporation  is currently responsible for the newly rising mountain of potentially hazardous Petroleum waste now incrementally growing on the shores of the Detroit River. 

As reported in yesterdays, May 18, 2013 NY Times, a three story mountain of Petroleum coke has rapidly grown on the shore of the Detroit River since the Koch Brothers owned, Koch Carbon Corporation started importing and refining Alberta, Canadian Oil Sands since just this last November. I guess it's just a small and almost irrelevant foot note that this is almost the same location that the mountain of buffalo skulls was located in 1870, or for that matter, who even remembers the massive refinery fire that occurred on April 27, 2013, uhh, that would be just three weeks ago for all of you with limited attention spans, at the Koch Brothers owned Marathon Oil Refinery that is processing the Canadian tar sands only a few blocks away.

The logic being spewed to justify using Detroit as a toxic waste dump facility is that the Oxbow Corporation is going to export this stuff to China, India and Mexico to be used a a cheap energy source for low tech, polluting industrial energy for brick making among other things, because they just don't care about sissy environmental stuff like air quality. The promoters of this logic are touting the fact that Oil Sand Petroleum Coke can be used to be mixed with concrete and, get this, to be burned in American electrical generating plants. Somehow, magically, it is generating revenue and jobs for Michigan while the pile keeps growing and the run off pollutes the already compromised ecosystem of the Great Lakes. Well, I suppose if you look to the future, if there is one here, someone is going to have a job cleaning up this mess. The Marathon Oil Refinery explosion created a mini disaster that required  almost 1.2 square miles of down river Detroit to be evacuated. The all ready decimated emergency managed Fire Department had to cope with the emergency. I hope they are at least getting overtime here. The bottom line is the only ones making money here are the Koch Family Corporate Enterprises and they are getting a free ride courtesy of YOU!

Eurovision 2013

Last night I watched the entire Eurovision 2013 Competition in my usual state of numbed fascinated horror. Why? Every year I say, "Never again!" But, it's the sick part of my brain, my obsession with trash pop culture that draws me back again and again. As usual, the performances and the songs all kind of ran together in one over produced Euro Trash Pop brain numbing mantra. For diversion, there was a musical tribute to Sweden, the host of this years festivities that featured giant dancing Swedish meatballs. There were two countries that stood out. Greece, which for my money, should have won with a little ditty called Alcohol Is Free and then this! Cezar from Romania! This performance defies description! Immediately following Cezar was Englands traditionally pathetic entry. The plump aging diva, Bonnie Tyler, horribly embarrassing herself and even more unfortunately, wearing the same dress as Cezar. He wore it ever so much better.
Below is the song that should have won!  Greece's entry, Alcohol Is Free! 

Parking 101
I have to take a driving test next week to get an official
French License...so I've been watching these instructional videos.

L'Age d'Or

Hey Yah...

I've started to realize that there is a striking resemblance between
Toronto Mayor, Ron Ford and the Mayor of Springfield,
Diamond Joe Quimby. Below is a list of quotes from Diamond Joe
and Ron Ford? Can you identify who actually said what?

On Thursday, Gawker’s John Cook reported the existence of a video that allegedly shows Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. Since entering public service as a city councilor in 2000, Ford has been known for his odd and improper public behavior and comments, a habit that only got worse after he was elected mayor in 2010. Whether he’s accosting out-of-towners at a hockey game, offering to help procure OxyContin for a constituent, or railing against streetcars and anti-poverty activists, Ford has consistently tested the limits of “mayoral behavior.”
In fact, the public servant Ford most closely resembles is the fictional mayor from The Simpsons, Diamond Joe Quimby. Both men are heavyset. Both are often at odds with constituents, colleagues, and the press. And both are prone to saying outrageous things in public.
I’ve prepared a 20-question quiz of quotes from Ford and Quimby. Which mayor said which wildly inappropriate thing? Answers are at the bottom.
1. “Are these morons getting dumber or just louder?”
2. “It’s hard to hide 300 pounds of fun.”
3. “People don't want to see their mayor stuck in an office all the time, they want to see him right at their door.”
4. “We'll blow up our dams, destroy forests, anything! If there's a species of animal causing problems, nosing around your camera, we'll have it wiped out.”
5. “Demand? Who are you to demand anything? I run this town. You’re just a bunch of low-income nobodies.”
6. “Let’s call a spade a spade. The left would have taken it and just wanted to spend it on crazy, stupid things like more social programs ...”
7. “Oh my god, I never want to hurt a bike. That’s the last thing I want to do, precious little bikes.”
8. “I ordered the re-opening of this prison to send a message to the criminals of [name of city]. If you commit a violent crime in my town, you are going to end up here. To demonstrate what you're in for, I will now strap myself into this electric chair, which was deactivated over 30 years ago, and, I can only assume, still is.”
9. “Water is the healthiest form of liquid.”
10. “By the way, this woman is not my wife, but I am sleeping with her. I'm telling you this because I'm comfortable with my womanizing."
11. “I'm sick of you people, you’re nothing but a pack of fickle mush heads.”
12. “Tuesday, Nov. 27, I’m going to be playing hooky from City Hall.”
13. “Those Oriental people work like dogs. … They're slowly taking over.”
14. “Now on to the next item, the proposal for putting term limits on public office. All those in favor say, ‘I have sex with animals.’ ”
15. “I’d love to see us sell the zoo and make money on it if we can. ... Keep the elephants here and take it from there.”
16. “You don't scare me, that could be anyone's ass. Now beat it! I'm calling the shots.”
17. “I will retract the word ‘ass.’ ”
18. “Very well, if that is the way the winds are blowing, let no one say I don't also blow.”
19. “You are tampering with forces you can't understand, we have major corporations sponsoring this event.”
20. “I’m as clean as the days are long.”

ANSWERS:

Ford: 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15, 17, 20

Quimby: 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 14, 16, 18, 19

Vivian Stanshall

The last real eccentric Englishman. I first heard of Vivian Stanshall from a truly strange Scottish fellow, Geoffrey Inveriarty who somehow was transported to Toledo, Ohio due to asome kind of time/spacial warp in 1970. We never could figure out what Geoffrey was doing there and neither could he. He did give me a few Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band records in appreciation for the metaphysical assistance I was able to provide before warp sucked him back to Inverness. I think Stanshall profoundly altered the way I related to the rest of the universe, forever. 

Happy Birthday, Jack

Jack Bruce, one of the great musicians of our time, turns 70 today. 

A great composer and multi voiced musical voyager whose ship is still sailing into the unknown.

These jazz pieces were composed by him 60 years ago, when he was 15. The video above was made around 1970.  The original recordings were on a record called Things We Like. It was a quartet the same personel in this trio, John Heckstal-Smith on Saxophones...yes, Heckstal-Smith was a student of Rashaan Roland Kirk, he practiced circular breathing and could play multi voiced sax parts by playing two instruments at the same time. The Drummer is John Hiseman. On the original record, John McGlaughlin plays guitar. John and Jack went on to play in the seminal Jazz Fusion Group, The Tony Williams Lifetime. Incredible music from an incredible musician. Jack influenced the music we listen to by being the ultimate outsider. A classically trained tenor vocalist and pianist who rewrote the way rock bass was played by playing rock as if it was avant garde jazz. Happy Birthday Jack. I's so glad he is still around today and playing!

Incase you missed Jacks earlier work, here he is live at The Whiskey a Go Go in 1967 with a little band he was in called Cream.