Acknowledging A Small, But Major Victory

You really have to acknowledge small victories. This story first came to my attention on Monday and I reposted the link I read in Americablog on Facebook and got a lot of likes. It seemed like another hopeless, mindless unstoppable home foreclosure by the cruel monolith, Citibank.  

I read the story of Colleen Mckee Espinosa, the single mother of three who was facing foreclosure after CitiBank refused to accept payment on her mortgage, after they moved up the due date for her payment without her knowledge. They also added thousands of dollars in attorney fees because the home went into foreclosure, making it impossible for her to catch up.

There's an update now on the Espinosa's situation, from Occupy Homes Minnesota:

After media coverage in the Minneapolis Star Tribune,  Crooks and Liars,Americablog and blogs all over the world urging people to contact Citibank, Citibank officials contacted the family, and assured them they were doing everything they could to resolve the case, assigning them a contact in the “executive response unit.” Despite this, the bank is moving to auction the home at a sheriff’s sale this Wednesday at City Hall, after which time the bank would have no legal obligation to work with the family.

But in the  eleventh hour, finally, good news:

An official with CitiMortgage’s Executive Response Unit contacted the Espinosa family with news that Citibank had approved a loan modification that would keep the family in their home and reduce their payments by one-third on a 7.5 year payment plan. The dramatic news came less than 24 hours before the house was to be sold at auction on Wednesday, June 13.

The Espinosa's give thanks to all their supporters, and offer hope to others facing similar circumstances:

“I am deeply grateful to everyone from across the country who stood with our family as we fought our foreclosure,” said Nick Espinosa, Colleen’s son, and an organizer with Occupy Homes MN. “I’m inspired by the outpouring of community support, and it renews my commitment to stand with other families who are struggling to stay in their homes.”

“I’m incredibly proud of what this family has accomplished,” said Anthony Newby of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change. “They’ve managed to rally hundreds of community members to stand with them to save their home. Their campaign will undoubtedly empower other families to stand up and do the same.”

Colleen Mckee Espinosa continued, “When I first learned we were in foreclosure, I felt ashamed and isolated, and sure we were going to lose our home. As I resolved to fight, I realized I had nothing to be ashamed of. If anyone should be ashamed, it’s the banks for tearing apart our communities after we bailed them out with our tax dollars. When we stand together we can win, and I believe thousands more will.”

Nick Espinosa continued, “This negotiation represents a victory not just for our family, but for millions of families facing foreclosures across the country. Countless families could stay in their homes if banks simply modified their loans based on the actual market value and reduced their principal, instead of the price to which banks inflated them before they crashed our economy. As with Monique White and Bobby Hull here in Minneapolis, and others standing up across the nation, we see that when a community stands behind a family and draws attention to their case, the banks are more than capable of solving it. If they can fix it for our family, they can fix it for millions of others.”

Occupy Homes Minnesota has been an amazing lifeline for the people of their state, and they remain dedicated to helping victims of bank fraud and foreclosure. To learn more about them and what they're up to, please visit their website Occupy Homes Minnesota: http://www.occupyhomesmn.org/

You have to stop and ask, why did this story have the ending it had when so many honest Americans in the same situation find it tragically impossible to deal with the mechanical cruelty of the banking cartels. They won't negotiate and make it impossible to for most people to deal with them simply because it is much more profitable for them to foreclose and take homes away from people. The scam the insurance industry because the mortgages are insured by the banks...they make more money by foreclosing than by honestly dealing with American home owners.

This story had a happy ending because enough people became involved and Citibank realized it would cost them more in the short and the long run to go ahead. When they realized they were gonna get burnt, the impossible suddenly became a snap...You have the power, we have power, but it's our collective power.

[Photo: Colleen and son Nick Espinosa, via Occupy Homes Minnesota.]

Swing You Sinners

One of the greatest surreal animated cartoons ever made. The Fleischer Brothers, working in a loft studio on Times Square, created some of the most awesome animation we will ever see...

Awesome because of the marriage of image and music, some of most the unbridled surreal associative imagery ever unleashed as popular entertainment on an all too willing public.

I found this because the tune, Swing You Sinners, was recorded by Milt Brown and his Musical Brownies in 1930, featuring Bob Dunne and probably is one of the first uses of amplified solid body electric guitar in recording. It was an aluminum Rickenbacker.

Wind Map

An invisible, ancient source of energy surrounds us—energy that powered the first explorations of the world, and that may be a key to the future. 

The wind map shows you the delicate tracery of wind flowing over the US. 

You can see a real time wind map here and pinpoint the pattern of the wind and it's speed

where ever you live in the continental USA Here.

Read more about wind and about wind power. 

Don't Mean A Thing....

Joe Jackson is releasing a tribute to Duke Ellington on June 26th.

This cut, It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing,

features Iggy Pop and Joe....Jackson really makes it work!

Josephine

Dear Chief Zombie His Excellency Governor Scott

Dear Gov. Rick Scott,
Take note of this photograph. On a June day in 1963, Alabama Gov. George Wallace stood in a schoolhouse door to keep black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama. He refused U.S. Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach’s request to move, stepping aside only after President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard and ordered Wallace to let the students enroll.

This June, the governor of another Southern state is challenging the federal government’s authority. Nearly 50 years after Wallace’s showdown, you are standing between Floridians and their right to vote as U.S. citizens. We agree that only citizens should vote, but your approach to cleaning up the voter rolls is fatally flawed. The U.S. Justice Department and county supervisors of election have reached the same conclusion and told you to stop, yet you persist.

Gov. Scott, we do not believe you share Wallace’s hateful views on race. Nor are we equating young African-American students of the ’60s with non-citizens of today. But it was wrong then to deny those students their right to a public education, and it is wrong now to use an inaccurate database that could deprive U.S. citizens of their right to vote. Of nearly 2,700 voters the state identified as potentially ineligible because they were not citizens, hundreds already have proven they are citizens. Only a handful have been confirmed as non-citizens, and many Floridians who are citizens stand to lose their voting rights by not responding to threatening letters from elections officials. The practical result disproportionately affects poor and minority residents and prevents them from voting in much the same way that black students were denied entry to public schools and universities in Alabama.

Wallace spoke of states’ rights and defended the indefensible by portraying the federal government as the enemy. Your administration’s intemperate letter to the Justice Department strikes a similar tone. The rights of U.S. citizens to vote in Florida elections should not be compromised by your continuing political fights with the Obama administration.

Florida should not be at war with Washington, and Floridians should not have to rely on the Justice Department to prevent their rights from being compromised by their state government. Governor, we again join in the call for you to stop this flawed purging of the voter rolls. To continue this approach puts at risk the image of this state, the rights of its citizens and your own reputation.

Letter courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!

I actually have a few of these coins from the same time. I obtained them in 1961 as an 11 year old neophyte numismatist. Spanish Silver Reales, minted in Mexico were what came to be called "pieces of eight", because they were commonly cut into sections to "make change". Probably a good investment, I have no idea what they are worth today.
Fisherman Jerry Murphy and his crew snagged ­something unexpected while trawling the Gulf of Mexico one afternoon in 1993. At first glance, the fishing net appeared weighted down with rock and debris.
Upon closer inspection, some of those rocks were actually piles of silver coins, which had fused together while underwater. Realizing that he may have stumbled onto a deep sea treasure trove, Murphy dialed up his lawyer to attain rights to the booty, then contacted maritime history experts to determine the source of the coins
A year later, researchers concluded that Murphy’s discovery — which occurred, ironically, in a boat named Mistake — was the ruins of a warship called El Cazador, or “The Hunter,” that disappeared at sea in 1784

El Cazador set out from Veracruz, Mexico, loaded down with 19 tons (17 metric tons) of newly issued silver reales, or Spanish currency. King Carlos II of Spain ordered the money to be transported from the mint in Mexico to New Orleans, the capital of Spain’s Louisiana colony. The king needed to pay his soldiers and government officials in charge of the city, but the paper money circul­ating in New Orleans had lost much of its value.
Not surprisingly, the city that lives by the motto “laissez les bon temps rouler” (let the good times roll) didn’t always follow the letter of the law during colonial times.
Situated in a relatively remote locale and settled by a fascinating hodgepodge of immigrants from France, Spain, Africa and the West Indies, New Orleans quickly developed its signature culture — and a dash of Cajun corruption. A rash of counterfeiting and a shortage of hard currency devalued the cash in circulation, and left the Spanish government scrambling to compensate its employees.
On Jan. 11, 1784, El Cazador left Mexican shores, headed for the bayou. In June, the ship was declared missing, lost in murky depths for nearly 210 years.
The more than 400,000 silver reales on board wasn’t exactly pocket change for the Spanish government. That unlikely shipwreck gave King Carlos pause about whether the Louisiana Territory that Spain won from the French 20 years earlier was a worthwhile investment.

An Abuse Of Faith

Repeatedly, the Catholic Church pushes and oversteps the defined constitutional limits on the separation of church and state. When has a religious organization lost it's non taxable status by directly meddling in politics in America? That's the constitutional law, but politicians treat religious organizations as if they were voodoo. To criticize or try to legally prosecute a religious organization for political activity is seen as the kiss of death. Messin' with Voodoo! 
 A political video created by a conservative Catholic group has gone viral over the past few weeks. The Advocate and Huffington Post report that Catholics Called to Witness commissioned a video called "Test of Fire: Election 2012." Produced by Creative Lab, the video urges Catholic voters to vote for "life" and "marriage" in November, although it does not mention presidential candidates by name. According to its website, Catholics Called to Witness is a faith-based organization that encourages Catholics to be active in the public square. Its political leanings are decidedly anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, and pro-parental rights.
“Test of Fire” depicts a blacksmith hammering metal words in his forge amidst swelling music, as messages about principles and voting appear on the screen.

"In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. This generation of Catholics must do the same."At first, the blacksmith forges words such as JOBS, TAXES, and ECONOMY as the video discusses issues at stake in the 2012 presidential election. "But some issues are not negotiable," the video asserts as the blacksmith forges new words such as LIFE, MARRIAGE, and FREEDOM. "Forcing the Church to buy insurance that goes against her teachings is a violation of religious freedom," the video insists, reminding Catholics that their votes will be "recorded in eternity."

The message, in a nutshell, is that Catholics have a religious obligation to vote against reproductive rights and LGBTQ equality. One cannot wonder if the video's repeated use of fire imagery is a reference to hell. It's very easy to make the simple minded propaganda connection here, "Vote correctly or you will go to hell."

What two votes can save Catholics from eternal damnation? Demoting the rights of gay Americans and stripping women of their own health-care choices, of course! And by all means, let's enrobe it in the pretense that Catholics have lost their liberty (in fact, their liberty is only constricted when they seek to use public funds for their anti-gay, anti-women agenda). But the Catholic Church is the victim here, we're told, so American Catholics need to rise up! 
To me, I see all of the tools of classic fascist propaganda at work here. The all too familiar tactic of casting the oppressor as the victim. The sheer emotional manipulation and the abuse of faith for political ends is all too obvious. The video will no doubt appeal to members of the Religious Right who oppose reproductive freedom and LGBTQ rights, but will it resonate with a wider audience? Given that LGBTQ equality is becoming more and more accepted in the U.S., and that most Americans (including many Catholics) support contraceptive use and contraception coverage, I wonder how well “Test of Fire” will be received. You can look at their web site if you wish and judge for yourself whether they violate the separation of church and state.

Uhh Ohhh...I think some Republican Congressmen are gonna be in hot water....

Baby's On Fire

Another piece by Die Antwoord, this is a message from the suburban slum world of your future.

It's interesting in a pathetically amusing way to read the reactions of American hip hop purists (they don't rap right...they break all the rules...) when confronted by the  brutal futurist brilliant art of Die Antwoord. The Answer...From their new self released recording, TENSION.

This is true cultural fusion/confusion. Like England has been in the past, South Africa is a dysfunctional out of control laboratory environment. This isn't an experiment, this is a steroid infused hyper hot house...condition RED! All the trends of our modern world accelerated and running gleefully and violently amok. This is language beyond words. As my friend, Johnny Bubble said many years ago, 
"It's Hot, It's Wet  and You Can Dance To It!"

Your Next Liar In Chief?

DJ and social commenter Jay Smooth, whose work can be found at WBAI 99.5 FM in New York, illdoctrine.com, YouTube and NPR, argues that people should be much more afraid of Mitt Romney than they currently are. In his latest web video, Smooth makes the case that Romney is comparable to Woody Allen's character in the movie Zelig, in that he morphs into a copy of the people he is surrounded by.

Smooth points out that, according to Colin Powell, Romney has been surrounding himself with the worst people who were associates of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Cheney's associates, in particular, were architects of much of the worst policy that was put upon the country during the Bush administration. Smooth says that Romney's greatest power is to appear to not be particularly offensive or dangerous, but that if he surrounds himself with this group of people, we are likely to see a return to the types of policies that got us in so much trouble in the last decade, and that people should be much more afraid of this outcome than they currently are.

The real story of the Republican Presidential campaign, up to now has been the constant clammering of Romney's opponents, Gingrich, Trump, Perry...the entire clown bus screaming that Romney is a liar. But that is beginning to be seen as his real asset. He is morally unencumbered of any need to tell the truth. 

His biggest detractors in his party all are supporters now and seem to admire his naked aggressively driven ambition to buy the presidency at any cost. The alternative news services, the mainstream news services daily point out his shoveling of heaping loads of baldface lies in speech after speech...it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to them that his campaign can't spell America...because he seems to be running for the leadership of an alternative place in another universe called Amercia.

I pointed this out earlier in a post on the Mormon doctrinal position of the the need to tell the truth. The truth is just an inconvenient detail when you are trying to subjugate an unruly planet. 

But, let's go a little deeper. Here is Mitt talking about his religion:

One of they key tenets of the LDS Church is that in 1820, God appeared to Joseph Smith. In fact, what differentiates Mormonism form other religions is the fact that they believe that God has spoken to, and through prophets from Joseph Smith and Brigham Young to Gordon B Hinckley and Thomas S Monson.

In fact, they also believe that there are other General Authorities that speak with God. They believe in personal revelation -- the concept that God can speak to them to guide them in their lives.

So why, in 2007, did Mitt Romney tell a Boston TV station in 2007 that he didn't think God had spoken to anyone since Moses?

Surely Missionary Mitt taught the first vision to people in France. He probably even taught them about living prophets on the earth today speaking with God.

So, does Mitt Romney really believe that God hasn't spoken to anyone since Moses?

Or is he willing to lie about ANYTHING to become President, even his religion?

I think the answer is clear.

Girolles June 2012

Yesterday mornings girolle pin up photo

Actually, this was from Friday, yesterday, Saturday, I got up again and went out at 8 am and found more. 

The early hot pre spring, then the brutal freezes, with alternate periods of heat, cool, dryness and rain might be wreaking havoc on the gardens, but I think the trees and the wild life of the region seem to have only benefited from the cold and rain. We are experiencing a very lush early bloom of girolle mushroom.

I think so far, I have found almost 4 kilos and we are cleaning them and letting them dry then freezing them. They should keep quite nicely frozen for about a year. Today, the rain returned with a vengeance and it looks from the forecast, that we will have 4 days of cool non stop rainy weather.

Today was also the first tour for the legislative elections here. The Mairie in Badefols was packed and full of good cheer. We are a little commune, perhaps 800 registered voters, but I guarantee a 87% turnout. I think the Socialistes are going to take the legislature. Here in the Aquitaine, The Ecologists (there are 3 "green" parties) are going to make a strong showing for the first tour. Next week, in the run off, those votes will go to the Socialistes. Probably the most watched election will be in Henin-Beaumont in Calais, where Jean-Luc Melenchon, the charismatic leader of The far left Fronte Gauche is challenging Marine Le Pen of the far right borderline fascist party which was formerly known as Le Front National, now renamed and repackaged as the more user friendly Party Blue-Marine. Melenchon picked his battle well. He was LePens biggest nightmare in the Presidential election, intellectually and ideologically destroying her in debates. She is fighting back using underhanded il;legal propaganda and outright lying. She seems to echo the tactics of Mitt Romney in her lies, she is to her credit, much more intelligent than Mitt Romney, but she has not denied her tactics and boldly acknowledged them when confronted in the press with aggressive pride. The upshot is though, that things look good for Melenchon and pretty bad for LePens Party, what ever they call themselves. Like Greece's fascist party, they rode the wave of economic discontent in eastern France to a seeming revitalization, but they may end up with out any base after the legislative elections...Next week may be the next nail in the coffin of the one time Front National and the nascent LePen attempt at a fascist xenophobic French dynasty.

So what does one do with all these girolles? A Girolle omelet is a wonderful thing...simple, Girolles must be cooked as little as possible. Pommes de terre Saute aux Girolles is a classic...cook the girolles fast, separately, saute the potatoes in a little duck or goose fat and add the girolles at the end with fresh parsley and some garlic if you dare! Yum!

I did a Poulet Saute aux Girolles....pretty simple...I have a few versions, but this is the one we had last night:

Take a cut up chicken, or as I did last night, chicken legs and thighs cut up and fry them in a pot which you can cover and put in the oven. I lightly salted them. Fry them in oil and a little butter and let them get golden.
Cover the pan and put it into a 220 degree oven for 20 minutes or so. When they are done, take the pan out of the oven, remove the chicken pieces and keep them warm.
You can pour off some of the grease if there is too much, but you will need some to saute 500 grams of girolles and a chopped shallot on the stove top. Cook them quickly. The girolles will give off a bit of liquid. Make sure to scrape the pan as the girolles cook to get the crusty chicken bits off the bottom and incorporate it into the liquid.
When the liquid almost evaporates, add a splash of cognac or armagnac and flame it.
When the flame is out, only a few seconds of terror...add 30 cl of cream and stir over the heat until the cream thickens. This only takes a few short minutes.
Put the chicken back in the pot and coat with the sauce and serve!
This is really good with Pureed potaotes.

You can saute chicken breasts with out putting them into the oven and do basically the same sauce on the stove top.
You could use regular mushrooms, but girolles are especially good like this and a rare seasonal treat!

A sequence from Marcel Duchamp's 1926 film, Anemic Cinema.
The film is a sequence of his kinetic art pieces and animated puns.
This is a roto relief, a painted cardboard disk spun on a turntable.

Kings Lead Hat

Totally brilliantly demented fan produced video for Brian Eno's 1977 piece,
 Kings Lead Hat from the recording, Before And After Science.

Kings Lead Hat is an anagram for Talking Heads, who Mr. Eno was collaborating with and producing at the time.

The Utter Idiocy Of Austerity #3

A good clip from the BBC's Newsnight program last week. The basic conservative arguments used in favor of austerity here are being used more so in Britain, to not surprisingly disastrous results.

Jeremy Paxman is joined by Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, venture capitalist Jon Moulton and Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom to discuss whether austerity is always the best method for resolving a country's national debt problem.

Moulton brought up the Estonian 'miracle' at the very end, which was dismissed by Krugman. The Estonian President Toomas Ilves has since gone on a twitter war against Krugman for his comments.

In The Year 2001.....

Fahrenheit 451
1966 Francois Truffaut

"How rare it is for a writer to walk into a motion picture theater and see his own novel faithfully and excitingly told on the screen. Stop. Truffaut has given me back a gift of my own book done in a new medium by preserving the soul of the original. I am deeply grateful." - Ray Bradbury

Telegram of August 31, 1966

Tart aux Fraises

I was trying to pick the sexiest photo of this tart.  I think the red on red wins. I haven't posted much about gardening, though I just took some pics of the wildly obscene goat orchids in the garden, which I will publish later. It's been a very difficult gardening year. too hot, too cold, too dry, too much water...things just seem to be getting under way now and I am in the midst of some fairly herculean tasks.
My raspberries really suffered from the late profound freezes we had, but are beginning to set fruit. On the other hand, the winter freezes seemed to do something for the vitality of the roses. Incredible, everywhere.
And, I have never had such an abundance of strawberries. I have worked hard to get them to produce, but nature did a lot with the conditions. We have been making strawberry ice cream and freezing it. Last night, we had this classic Tart aux Fraises. You want the recipe?
Make some Pate Sablee and prebake it for the crust This is for a 25 cm tart. You really need a low tart pan for this! The kind with a removeable bottom is the best.
The Crust:
Mix together 125 g. of soft unsalted butter (actually, I melt the butter, but you have to let it cool down before you mix it with the flour and sugar or the crust will be tough.)
250 g. of flour
100 g. of sugar
1 egg
I press it into the tart pan, poke it with a fork and bake it at about 375 for say 15 minutes...until it is golden!
While it is cooling, you need to make a batch of creme patissiere:
2.5 cl of milk
75 gr of sugar
10 gr of flour
15 gr of cornstarch
1 egg
a quarter teaspoon of vanilla

Mix together the sugar, flour, cornstarch and the egg.
Bring the milk to a boil and add the vanilla. Then add the sugar and flour, egg and cornstarch and cook it for 2 to 3 minutes. It will thicken. Cool it down and when it is cool, spread it in the cooked tart crust.
Then arrange the fresh strawberries...the littler berries in the tart are wild strawberries which grow like a ground cover here! Then glaze it. Here, I used our home made raspberry/cassis jelly heated and thinned with a little water, but the professionals use thinned red currant jelly. Voila.......

Elton Is Still The Real Frikin Queen!

Well, Elton may still be the real Queen of Great Britain,
but Grace Jones is still the Goddess!

I find it a bizarre anomaly that there are still countries that support royalty. Tradition, well, it has its good points. There are European countries that still have royalty, but the fetish of Britain is just that. A fetish! The fetish that propels one of the most divided class economic systems on the planet. A shrinking concentrated ulta rich less than 1% presiding over one of the most controlled desperate and depressed welfare states on the planet. Who would ever guess that it's a Tory government running the UK? Anyone with a sense of decency and respect for the hard times in the UK would want to scale back if not postpone a celebration for the monarchy, but we are talking about the British royal family after all.

It's absurd to imagine any taxpayer money funding a "party" for one of the richest families in the world. It's even more absurd to bus unemployment recipients to London, ask them to sleep under bridges and then work for such an event. Royalists are naturally claiming that the event generates millions for the economy, no doubt using the same twisted logic that sports teams use when they spend millions to move a team into a new location.
Smile, you're working for the queen now.
A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.

Up to 30 jobseekers and another 50 people on apprentice wages were taken to London by coach from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth as part of the government's Work Programme.

Two jobseekers, who did not want to be identified in case they lost their benefits, said they had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday. I suppose they used authentic starving orphans on treadmills to power the busses to complete that traditional medieval festive atmosphere. 

Still, in spite of the load of stinking pop shite shoveled out on the masses, (Yes,  The more massively bloated than ever Elton John proved again that he still was the real frikin queen, in sparkling purple satin drinking champagne out of cut crystal glasses on stage!),  Grace Jones, the 64 year old living icon managed to blow everyone away. I was reminded of the words of John Lennon, in 1963, when the Beatles performed for the Royal Command Variety Performance for the Queen,

"For our last number I'd like to ask your help: Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewellery ..."

The Grouch Bag

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) has proposed “reducing the penalty for public possession of small amounts of marijuana” from a misdemeanor to a violation. Under the measure, which still has to be approved by the legislature, individuals caught with under 25 grams of marijuana could face a fine of up to $100, but woud avoid stop-and-frisk searches and criminal charges. State law already treats private possession of marijuana in such a manner. “There’s a blatant inconsistency,” Cuomo said on Monday. “If you possess marijuana privately, it’s a violation. If you show it in public, it’s a crime.” Eighty-two percent of New Yorkers arrested from stop and frisks were either black or Hispanic.

You know, I don't want to be cast in the role of being a drug advocate, but we all know that almost every one has smoked pot at one time or another. I smoked pot when I was young. Smoking pot caused me some pretty massive problems. It wasn't the pot that caused the problems, but living in a small town and being different enough to be singled out and persecuted by the local police force. I got busted in my loca high school through a strange series of events when I was 18. I spent some time in jail and 2 years on probation for possession of a few grams of marijuana. The enforcement of drugs laws in America, especially for small quantities is very selective and in most cases a class issue.  I really don't want to write much more about this, because, I would not want to be seen promoting pot use. Frankly, I feel that the biggest negative reason not to smoke pot is a health issue. I don't smoke cigarettes and won't smoke pot. 

But that's me today...I would not wish that any young person experience what I went through when I was 18 at the hands of small town fascist law enforcement system run amok.  On the other hand, I am a much stronger person for the experience.

It's a very big part of what created the monster I am today!!!GARRRR!

The Simplest Solution?

sometimes the simplest solution is to just take it out in back of the barn and shoot it

 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath--Matthew 13:12

Last Wednesday, I posted the documentary, Inside Job, which dangerously dissects the causes and the names the players who created the current dire financial situation we find ourselves dealing with one way or another all over the planet. Last night, I watched the full PBS Frontline documentary, Money, Power & Wall Street. I highly recommend these as a crash course in understanding the planetary economic mess. How did this happen? How could anyone see it happening? How could it be stopped? What do we do now? Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising to find that the very forces that empowered this disaster have been rewarded and are still in control! Many people I talk to think that there is nothing to be done anymore. Let the system destroy itself, as it will and then we can pick up the pieces. But that's not reasonable, rational or realistic. If undisciplined, unbridled greed created this mess, then we can only expect unbridled undisciplined greed to triumph. I really wish you would watch these documentaries and let me know your take on this. Obviously, austerity is not an ideology, but a scam to further empower the cycle of greed that is destroying our socio-economic reality. We have the power to save ourselves, but we have to be know what we are dealing with. If you watch these documentaries, you realize the criminally irresponsible greed driven corporate financial monsters who are raping our planet had no idea of what they were dealing with or what they were really doing. It was more like, hey, shit happens....

  In the 19th century, America was agricultural and most folks knew how to grow vegetables and raise chickens. In the 20th, America was industrial and countless shade tree mechanics tinkered with machines. Today, in the 21st century, America is financial--and people can barely reconcile their checkbooks, let alone wise up to what’s happening on Wall Street. 

    Given our dismal knowledge of the dismal science, we are suckers for trash talk about economics. Politicians right and center and pundits corporate and conservative batter us daily with nonsense about the money and how it gets used and abused.               

    Though it all sounds confounding (confusion helps keep us docile), there is a constant but unspoken central message at work: the rich don’t have enough while the rest of us have too much.  This message cannot be openly proclaimed because it doesn’t sound right or proper. Willard Romney or Obama buddy Robert Wolf can’t just announce that they’re depending on the sacrifices of ordinary Americans to make them richer. At least, they can’t say it quite yet.

    Nevertheless, that goal is the main reason why Wall Street and its rented pols in Washington do what they do. Take any of the economic issues in the news: there’s debt (though only government debt is defined as a danger), there are bank bailouts, there’s the ongoing Fed gift of free money to big-time stock and bond players, there’s austerity, there’s ‘entitlement’ reform, there’s rewriting our tax system, and, as ever, there’s beefing up our military.         

    The CEOs, senators, tea baggers and such we hear raising alarms about this stuff like to affect an air of civic responsibility. They’re forever warning us about the awful price our kids and kids’ kids will pay for our profligacy unless we get our finances in order. Carefully unmentioned is that each of the items above is, in fact, designed to make our progeny poorer. For it turns out, on the even slightest examination, that they are nothing more than schemes to transfer wealth from the bottom, middle and top to the top of the top.  

    For instance, our debt will impoverish our kids only if they keep paying it off to wealthy creditors who keep producing ever more of it. For instance, our military burden will keep growing only if we keep playing the imperial game. 

    Like our obesity epidemic, our economic situation is not complicated and has a simple solution. For the former, it’s eat less and better food and exercise more.  For the latter, it’s spread the wealth.

    Unfortunately, the simple solutions are often the hardest to do.

The Austerity Scam

As I have been trying to imply for the last few years, the conservative ideology  that masquerades under the term "austerity" is not an ideology at all. It is a blanket term that covers the attempt to empower utter greed at any expense. It is a term used to manipulate you into voting in your worst interests. It is a technique to dismantle social programs, take your money and give it to the corporations. It is in the terms of the damage it is creating now in our societies and to our planet , The Crime Of The Century. Currently, the budget bill before the Canadian Parliament (Bill C-38) does a bunch of things that don't seem to have much to do with the budget--including completely gutting Canada's federal environmental laws. The Environmental Assessment Act is being completely repealed and replaced with a regime that gives the government the power to basically approve any project they want without any environmental review--including mining projects in Alberta's Athabasca Tar Sands and the Canadian portion of the Keystone XL pipeline. And while environmental protections are being slashed, $8 million is going to the Canada Revenue Agency to audit charities (with the understanding that the main targets will be environmental charities--which the government has labelled as money launderers working for foreign interests). By putting this in a budget bill, the Conservative government has ensured that there will be minimal debate on these changes, and they will almost certainly be passed by the majority-Conservative parliament. Canada's largest environmental groups have organized a website blackout on June 4 to protest and raise awareness of these changes.

Find out more about Bill C-38 and what you can do to help the groups of Canadian ecological organizations fighting it here.

Syd Barrett, an artist so outside of his own time that he still is 40 years later

There is no such thing as  a "still life".

some buttons to play with in between power outages here today...
major weather change! 100 degrees at 4 pm today, now it's maybe 55?
We lost power 3 times already...

no future

way too little to like at all

Arretez-moi quelque'un!

Arrêtez-moi quelqu'un! ("Someone stop me!") is a site where Quebeckers and their supporters around the world can post photos of themselves holding signs in which they state their intention to violate Special Law 78, which suspends the right to freedom of assembly in Quebec: "Nous nous engageons à continuer à lutter; à rester mobilisé·e·s, en vertu des libertés fondamentales. Si cela nous vaut des poursuites pénales en vertu de la loi 78, nous nous engageons à y faire face."

I have written a few pieces about the student protests in Montreal. The government wants to raise tuitions in the Universities by 80% which would put the cost of a college education out of the ballpark for most Quebecois. The students started demonstrating 3 months ago and the conservative Quebec Government refused to negotiate and has enacted the draconian, fascist Emergency Law 78, which attempts to outlaw any unauthorized public manifestation. This of course is a step too far for almost any Canadian. Read my post from Monday on the phenomena of the Chiviari demonstrations  now occurring nightly in Quebec cities and towns. People from all walks of live are making unauthorized illegal noise. I haver another post from March 22 from a demonstration in Montreal with the great song, On Lache Rien...here it is again:

In my March 22, post, I translate the lyrics for you....

Here's a link to celebrity photo gallery the Toronto Globe and Mail which seems to have become a pretty hialrious hip commentary on what is going on in Quebec...It is an outlet for the way most Canadians are viewing the repression of Premier Jean Charests exercise in Fascism. Thousands of students have been illegally arrested. The customs officials at Canada's borders are harassing journalists or anyone they deem suspicious from entering Canada. This obviously is not the sane democracy we grew up respecting. Something very ugly is going on and maybe if Quebecs' very important tourism industry suffers this summer, more people will realize that Jean Charest is not acting in his countries best interests.

You can show your support by having your picture posted on the Arretez-Moi page with a message. As of now, there are 5426 pictures from all over the world posted. Just photo your self with a message and upload it to the page...very simple...I did!

There are only two countries that have

child poverty rates over 20%: Romania and the United States.

Note: data reflects only the world’s 

“advanced industrial economies.”

But, then again, sometimes I am just so fuckin' Mel Torme!

I Walked With Governor Scott, Last Night....

All in the same week in the same state....Zombie Apocalypse Florida Style?

Soundtrack: I Walked With A Zombie by the still miraculously living legend,

Rocky Erikson

5/16: McArthur High School HazMat Situation
Students, Teachers Decontaminated After Breaking Out In Rash
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/16/mcarthur-high-school-contamination_n_1521764.html
5/19: No confirmation on chemical at Fort Lauderdale International Airport
http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/terminal-2-evacuated-at-fort-lauderdale-airport-in-hazmat-scare

5/21: Police: Man bites woman in Westchesterhttp://www.mysuburbanlife.com/westchester/newsnow/x639948018/Police-Man-bites-woman-in-Westchester

5/23: I-285 reopens after hazmat incident
http://www.wesh.com/r/31112110/detail.html

5/23: Man Bites Cousin’s Nose Off
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Man-Bites-Cousins-Nose-Off-153100125.html

5/24: Second Broward school reports mystery rashhttp://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/24/2815003/second-broward-school-reports.html

5/25: Hazmat Called After Kids Exposed To Pesticide On Bus: Hazmat, EMS Respond To Lake County, FL School
http://www.wesh.com/r/31112110/detail.html

5/25: ‘Disoriented’ passenger subdued on flight in Miamihttp://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/25/passenger-restrained-on-flight-to-miami-arrested/

5/26: Naked Man Allegedly Eating Victim’s Face Shot And Killed By Miami Police
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/26/naked-man-eating-victims-face-killed-miami_n_1548359.html

5/26: Florida Doctor Spits Blood at Highway Patrolmen After DUI Arrest http://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-doctor-spits-blood-troopers-face-dui-arrest/story?id=16436402

And now, ugly rumors are surfacing that Florida Governor,

 Rick Scott is actually a Zombie! 

“Le Roi du maquillage” - Georges Méliès (1904)

My Feets Too Big

Fats Waller around 1939...

Story of my life!

Inside Job

One of the most dangerous films I have seen in a long time. It is dangerous because it explains coherently the way the world banking crisis evolved. It interviews most of the major players and lets them incriminate themselves with their own words.

'Inside Job' provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. It was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China.

the general idea

I worked for quite a few years as a neon installation technician...not that I really knew what I was doing...but I worked with Rudi Stern's,  Let There Be Neon Gallery on West Broadway in Soho, Manhattan, NYC. I became a member of the 15,000 volt club...you had to be a survivor to be a member. I probably bought, transported and installed the last lots of Uranium Glass available (not necessarily) legally in the USA. Uranium glass was a unique material which created a range of florescent green tints that have disappeared today. Like the legendary Cadmium pigments of classical oil painting. We now are protected from the brutal beauty of these potentially harmful substances. Like smelling tobacco in a cafe...like the florescent display on a pre 1960 wristwatch.... reduced to evocative memories of a sensation

The two tubes here create spectacular effects of electricity in a near vacuum. These are a recreation of Geisslers original display of his technical discoveries. He invented neon lighting. Geissler not only managed to evacuate and seal off the tubes without contamination, but made use of the coloured effects of different gases, flourescent liquids and uranium glass. Unfortunately the originals are slightly radioactive because of the uranium glass so cannot be displayed.

God Save The Queen

This song was released on May 27, 1977 on Queen Fucking Elizabeths Silver Anniversary. It was the #1  selling single in Britain, but the music industry was so freaked out that they suppressed it. So The Sex Pistols hired a boat on the date of the Jubillee, June 7, 1977 and cruised up the Thames playing this song live. The police boarded the boat and arrested everyone. 35 years late and it's the same fucking Queens 60th Anniversary and England is still dreaming and there still is no future!

But the song is better than ever and has just been reissued as a classy 7'" picture disc.

The TSA’s SPOT program, which trains agents to identify terrorists by reading faces and body language, costs taxpayers more than $1 billion and hasn’t helped nab, well, anyone.
But the record of these behavior-detection officers is disappointing, to say the least: not a single terrorist nabbed. In fact, 16 passengers allegedly tied to terror plots passed 23 times through airports — and not one was picked out of the crowd. 
And a federal watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office, is warning that SPOT’s miserable record probably won’t get any better, at least any time soon. Frankly, I fly a few times a year and I have perfected travel zen attitude. I become no one, I am somewhere else. I smile pleasantly. It's breathing and meditation. It works. Perhaps, I could market the technique.

Bang A Drum!

Each night in Montréal, and now in other cities and towns in Québec, the locals are treated to the loud din of thousands of protesters taking to the streets. The video above is from last night, and was relatively peaceful with only a handful of arrests but so far a staggering 2500 have been arrested in the standoff over student tuition and now draconian law enforcement. The Pots Protest ("Manif de casseroles") began earlier this month in response to the Student protests, which are now over 100 days old, see no sign of abating any time soon, and in fact are only growing in numbers -- and volume. The protests started with the planned 80% tuition hikes by Quebec Universities proposed by the Conservative Quebec Government led by Premier Jean Charest. In response to the initial protests, The Quebec government adopted the draconian "emergency law" #78, which gives the government unlimited powers to suppress any form of protest.
Traditionally, Quebec because of it's rural economy and ancient French Catholic heritage had the  fewest Universities and college student population per capita of all the Canadian Provinces. It's only been in the last 25 years that the student population has begun to catch up with the rest of Canada. The rate increases will make the dream of college out of the question for another generation of Quebecois. The Conservative government criticized the students as abusing a privilege and used the code word "entitlements" to try to paint the protests as the irresponsible actions of an over privileged population.
What started as a protest which mainly involved students, who are directly affected by the tuition increases, now has grown to include Quebecois of all varieties. The governments hard line refusal to tolerate protest or even engage in negotiations with students is now threatening Quebecs tourist season.

“The government made a big mistake adopting Law 78… we have gone from a debate about university financing to a debate about fundamental rights,”  stated Jocelyn Maclure, professor of political philosophy at Laval University in Quebec City.

The law has been condemned by Amnesty International. This illustrates the basic differences between the way democracies operate in different systems. A Parliamentary system, like France or Canada has more direct power concentrated at the top. When a government changes, policies can change very swiftly as opposed to the American system. The election of the Socialistes in France is swiftly effecting a shift from oppressive right wing nationalism to a more liberal attitude. Conversely, we have always thought of Canada as being our nice neighbor of the North...But 5 years of Conservative politics have created a repressive environment on the verge of enacting some of the most draconian internet censorship laws on the planet. But, then things change. The Canadians are beginning to react to their economically manipulated shift to the right. It will be interesting to see the results of the next wave of elections in Canada.

 Here's another great recent video ofMontrealers engaged in charivari, a form of protest involving beating pots and pans in the streets.  This form of protest was widely used in Chile after Pinochet banned public protest. The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt writes from Montreal:

"I'm very surprised at what's happened," said Kevin Audet-Vallee, a 24-year-old history student who had attended tuition fees protests before bill 78 was introduced.

"Now that the ordinary citizens are in the streets I think the government is really in trouble, because the middle class is in the streets. At first [critics of student protesters] were saying we were radicals. These are not radicals."

Indeed, at the pot banging near the Jarry subway on Friday night the age range of the crowd was strikingly diverse. Sensibly dressed fortysomethings wearing hiking boots and kagools intermingled with long-haired students wearing only shorts. Men and women pushing young children in prams were flanked by hipsters on fixed-gear bikes.

The range of protesters was matched by the diversity of utensils they chose to create noise. Some had reached past the saucepan and wooden spoon, with the Guardian spying such unlikely pairings as a colander and a drumstick, a pan lid and a pair of chopsticks, and a barbecue lid and a pair of tongs all being put to alternative use.

As the protesters marched for more than four hours through various Montreal neighbourhoods, many people had taken to their balconies in support, bringing their own kitchenware and adding to the din.

remember, at least 30 minutes of aerobic workout everyday!

1954

1954 Kaiser-Darrin

Made in Toledo, Ohio. Only 435 of these dream machines were ever built and most are still

around today. A futuristic fiberglass body, 90 hp, 161 cube three speed on the floor transmission.

Top speed of over 100 mph with a 25 mpg fuel consumption. More like a T Bird than a Corvette.

This is a boulevard cruiser, not a true sports car. Another great reason that illustrates why 1954

might have very well been the apex of American car design. It's all been downhill from there.

Frankly, I'm Not That Nasty.....

Sometimes you read something that really pisses you off, so much that you have to walk away and think about it. Did I understand the implications, the complexities...am I over reacting? Well, uhh, no...I don't lose my temper easily, but I think I've really lost it here.
Some personal background: I have been afflicted with the curse of asthma for over 55 years. To the point where I have ended up in emergency rooms as a teen. I've tried to deal with it as best as I could, perhaps in some way it has inspired me to constantly go beyond my fears, to push myself. It is what has made me a 62 year old long distance biker. I have to admit, that it wasn't until I started living here in France and dealing with the French medical system that I felt it was actually under control. For me, it's pretty easy...a daily dose of cortisone and the use of salbutamol inhaler when I need it. I have another prescription, an inhalable powder called formoterol which I use occasionally. I dealt with some very bad doctors in the USA and the medicine I used had some very nasty side effects. It was very expensive. Here in France, I spend about 120 Euros a year out of pocket, but through my Mutual program, almost all of it is reimbursed. My doctor tells me that I am much better than when he started treating me and I know he is right, because I simply am. I run, I swim, I am a long distance biker and in pretty good shape these days.
For you information, the salbutamol inhaler is a lot less dangerous than the old style ephedrine inhalers sold ovder the counter in the USA. The ephedrine inhalers caused had many side effects and abuse could cause heart problems. Salbutamol is used regularly by asthmatic athletes as a precompetition treatment. You cannot "get high" from a Salbutamol inhaler, but in most cases it will give immediate relief from a severe attack.
But, as I said at the beginning of this piece, I have experienced severe life threatening asthma attacks in the past. I know what it is like to be practically unconscious, semi coherent, unable to breathe.
So I read this story today, about an incident that occurred in a Deltona, Florida Public High School on Monday. A 17 year old kid, Michael Rudi had a severe asthma attack in school. He asked to go to the school nurse because his prescrption Salbutomol inhaler had been consficated from his locker in a security search a few days earlier. The inhaler was in it's original packaging, with his name on the prescription. It was given to the nurse for safe keeping. He was supposed to have his parents sign a form that allowed him to use it in the school. He hadn't returned the form yet.
So Michael goes to the nurse as his attack gets worse. The nurse refuses to let him have the inhaler. He begs and begins to collapse. The nurse, who is being protected by the Deltona School Authorities, closes and locks the door of her office and watches him from behind a window. What did the school authorities do? Did they even call 911 so trained professionals could deal with a real medical emergency? No. They called Michaels mother, who drove to the school and found her son collapsed, semi conscious on the floor of the school hallway outside the nurses office.
Michael stated later that he felt he was dying. The school had his medical records and knew of his condition. Mrs' Rudi said that she tried to press child endangerment charges with the police, but the school is trying to stonewall it because of the lack of the signed form. But, the bottom line, the kid could have died and they didn't even call 911. I believe that the so called nurse betrayed the trust to carry out even the most basic resposiblities of her purported role. I believe that if Michael Rudi wasn't Hispanic in the so called Rick Scott unreality George Zimmerman show state of Florida and had gone to a school in a wealthy neighborhood, this could have never happened. Right now, I have absolutely no sympathy for the so called nurse. I would like to see her lose her job and be prosecuted for her negligence for not calling medical authorities at the very least. Actually, I'd like to know if her professional equipement includes a taser, because you know, in Florida, this could have easily turned into a case of, "Well, yer honor, the perp started to behave in a erratically violent irrational manner and started to demand his drugs, so I just had to do away with him...you understand..."
I could say that I wished the so called nurse could have the experience of knowing what a full blown asthma attack is like, but frankly, I'm not that nasty........

The Mount St. Mary Concert

If you care to listen, this is a 1 hour plus recording of a concert of orchestral music presented by a 22 year old Frank Zappa at Mount St. Mary's College, Los Angeles in 1963. The music is totally unique, but the remarkable part is the question and answer period at the end, where Frank talks about his compostional techniques and influences. 

MOUNT ST. MARY'S COLLEGE

DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC
presents
THE EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC
OF
FRANK ZAPPA
 
Sunday, May 19, 1963
8:30 p.m.
 
Little Theater
 
Mount St. Mary's College
--------------------------------------- 
Program
 
I. Variables II for Orchestra
II. Variables I for Any Five Instruments
Intermission 
III. Opus 5, for Four Orchestras
IV. Rehearsalism
V. Three Pieces of Visual Music with Jazz Group
 
Question and Answer Period

The Culprit

Due to popular demand, my annoying little buddy, the Huppe...or Hoopoe...what ever he would like to be called is making his appearance here. For years, in the I would hear huppes making their repetitive, almost totally mechanical territorial chant...hoop, hoop, hoop....hoop, hoop, hoop...hoop, hoop. hoop...etc, etc...Occasionally, I would see a huppe...they like to hang out in the same place everyday. Usually a bright sunny location. They like to take dust baths. I'm told that their best defense, if cornered is projectile vomiting. They are the snazziest dressers. The flashy mohawk crest instantly unfurls when they show the least bit of emotion. They have the one of the coolest scientific names I have ever run across, Upupa epops. A very small family of birds that are comprised of 3 species that extend from Madagascar into Eurasia. This little guy is called in French, Le Huppe fasciee.  So, on Friday, I was in the house and heard what I thought was an electronic device beeping away in the attic. It was so regular, it sounded like someone's cell phone beeping....
I could not figure out what it was and went into the attic to see if there was something making the noise. The noise stopped. Later, it started again. Back up into the attic, then, I realized it was coming from outside...I raced out and saw a huppe on the chimney! Hoopin his little brains out...
After a an afternoon of patient stalking, with my wife's good camera, I got this photo...He was back again..Hoop, hoop, hoop....hoop, hoop, hoop...hoop, hoop, hoop...hoop, hoop, hoop...I think he likes it here...............