Day 117: Silencing is the new Conversation

Today after a day of blog silence, lots of words.

For good news on donations and quiz answers you can skip to the end of the post.

I just can't let go of the Harper's Letter on Justice and Open Debate. See July 9 and July 10. As you will recall over 150, writers, artists, and  academics affirmed that "the free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted. While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty."

Having heard this, the intellectual community breathed a sigh of relief, thanked the author Thomas Chatterton Williams for his thoughtful analysis of this complex issue.

Thomas Chatterton Williams

JUST KIDDING

Here is what has been happening in the last week.

• Jennifer Finney Boylan, one of the signers retracted her signature because J.K. Rowling was one of her co-signers. 
• Daily Beast offered cogent analysis: "Forget the pandemic, movement for Black lives, soon-to-come spike in homelessness, and the looming recession. These entitled famous people want you to stop being so mean to them!"
• A writer on Medium: "How Did the Organizers of the Harper’s Letter Mislead Some of the Signers? (It’s About Ethics in Open Letters)"
• From the Atlantic"Therein lies the central paradox of calls to return to an (always unspecified) era of civil discourse: What is the value of a debate that considers some human lives mainly as theoretical quandaries? Statements like the Harper’s letter rely on a key assumption—that the romanticized concept of “open debate” is inherently democratic or even “open” at all. (Such arguments dovetail neatly with the media’s industry-wide obsession with mythic objectivity.)"

Most notably on July 10, a different set of 150 writers and academics ( published a lengthy counter letter) that originated in a Slack channel called Journalists of Color, posted by the Objective.

This excerpt highlights the critique of the Harper's Letter. "The letter reads as a caustic reaction to a diversifying industry — one that’s starting to challenge institutional norms that have protected bigotry. The writers of the letter use seductive but nebulous concepts and coded language to obscure the actual meaning behind their words, in what seems like an attempt to control and derail the ongoing debate about who gets to have a platform. They are afforded the type of cultural capital from social media that institutions like Harper’s have traditionally conferred to mostly white, cisgender people. Their words reflect a stubbornness to let go of the elitism that still pervades the media industry, an unwillingness to dismantle systems that keep people like them in and the rest of us out. "

According to the critique, the Harper's letter is bigoted, racist, elitist, and exclusionary. Essentially, the "haves' want to maintain the status quo under the guise of Justice and Free Speech.

And here is what has happened in the last three days.

Bari Weiss, a signatory of the Harper's Letter and former editor of the New York Times Op/Ed page, resigned. In her letter she writes, "Op-eds that would have easily been published just two years ago would now get an editor or a writer in serious trouble, if not fired. If a piece is perceived as likely to inspire backlash internally or on social media, the editor or writer avoids pitching it. "

Bari Weiss

Nick Cannon, Actor- comedian -rapper -director -writer -producer -television host has been fired by ViaCom for whom he hosted Wild ‘N Out and Lip Sync Battle Shorties. For those with massive time of their hands, here is a transcript of the Podcast with Richard “Professor Griff” Griffin, formerly of the Public Enemy. Here is sample...

Nick Cannon:
When we talk about the lies, the deceit, how the fake dollar controls all of this, then maybe we can get to the reason why they wanted to silence you, why they want to silence Minister Farrakhan, and they want to throw that we are having hate speech when it’s never hate speech, when it’s not. You can’t be anti-Semitic when we are the Semitic people, when we are the same people that who they want to be, that’s our birthright.
Richard “Professor Griff” Griffin:
It’s our birthright.
Nick Cannon: 
So if that’s truly our birthright, there’s no hate involved.
Richard “Professor Griff” Griffin: 
It’s not.

Blake Neff: Writer for Tucker Carlson resigned after it was revealed that he had been posting as  XOXOhth, on an unmoderated message board. As recently as June 24, Neff or XOXOhth wrote '"Honestly given how tired black people always claim to be, maybe the real crisis is their lack of sleep."

Dianna Ploss brokered time for the last 2 1/2" years on a radio station WSMN in Nashua, New Hampshire. Ms. Ploss filmed herself speaking to landscapers in Nashua saying, "It is America, you should be speaking English.  They work for the state, you should be speaking English.” WSMN station stated that Ploss“is no longer associated or affiliated in any way "with the station.

Dianna Ploss and friend

Silencers can know be sold to foreign buyers thanks to lobbying efforts by Michael B. Williams, one time general counsel of the American Suppressor Association and current White House lawyer.

Knox Williams, founder and president of American Suppressor Association. brother of Michael

Ok. Enough. Time for some good news.

Carol Cann,  MA, LCPC, CADC, entered the "know your Elites contest" and knew a lot of them. She entered the contest after the winner had been chosen but if you read Don's Basement you are always a winner.

This morning The Lincoln Project and The Ark received donations.

The Lincoln Project 'is holding accountable those who would violate their oaths to the Constitution and would put others before Americans." Founded by George Conway, among others, this group of primarily Republicans through advertising, podcasts and other advocacy programs seek to stop Donald Trump from being reelected.

I had a bizarre Twitter experience (oxymoron?) yesterday. I saw this.

my parents are forcing me to delete social media so this is my last tweet. apparently, i don’t have a platform! it’s fake! love you all so much. keep fighting. ❤️

— CLAUDIA CONWAY (@claudiamconwayy) July 14, 2020

Claudia Conway, 15 year old daughter of George and Kellyanne, had 127,000 Twitter followers.

The Ark, on the other hand,' has been the community’s safety net since 1971. Each year, The ARK cares for more than 4,000 people every year from all facets of the Chicagoland Jewish community. '

And finally, WE HAVE A WINNER...

On Sunday, I asked who said..."we're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age," and to whom were they referring?

The answer...

General Curtis Lemay, (1906-1990).

The winner is Benjamin Shearn, editor, producer, director. Mr. Shearn will be sharing his designated cause with us shortly.

Day 115: Who wants a Fair Fight?

Anyone interested in free, fair and secure elections this year?

Dr. Susan Altfeld is. As the winner of the Harper's Letter -name your elite quiz-, Dr. Altfeld (or Susan if you are into the whole informality thing) selected Fair Fight, the organization started by Stacy Abrams.

Today, on behalf of Susan, Don's Basement donated $25.00 to Fair Fight.

Fair Fight essentially began the night of November 6. Stacey Abrams  narrowly lost her bid for governor of  Georgia to then republican Secretary of State, Brian Kemp. 

Ms. Abrams fell short of winning by 55,000 votes or 1.3% of the total vote. She acknowledged the result but did not concede the election.

Ms. Abrams and others have pointed out some possible irregularities in the years proceeding the election.

• 1.6 million voters were purged from the voter rolls from 2010-2018, leaving them ineligible to vote.

• Nearly 30,000 voters were forced to vote on a provisional ballot, most of which did not count.
• 53,000+ voter registrations were held hostage in "pending" status. 
• Thousands of absentee ballot applications were lost of rejected, disenfranchising voters, particularly voters of color.

Among other voter protection and registration efforts, Fair Fight has challenged Georgia's voting policies with a law suit, Fair Fight v  Raffensperger (Georgia Secretary of State) in hopes of restoring the Voting Rights Act to Georgia.

Despite her narrow defeat, Stacey Abrams increased her national profile. She is still being considered as Joe Biden's choice for Vice President but her chances have been dimming. Here are the current  odds of VP choices by sports betting site and analysis by bookies.com.

2020 Democratic Vice Presidential Betting Odds

( 'minus' odds on Kamala Harris means that to win $100 you have to bet $134. For the other candidates, your $100 bet would yield $400, $700 etc.  Thus Stacey Abrams is a 33 to 1 shot get the nod)

Candidate Odds
Kamala Harris -134
Susan Rice +400
Tammy Duckworth +700 Go Tammy Go
Val Demings +900
Michelle Obama +1000 ??????
Elizabeth Warren +1000
Keisha Lance Bottoms +1700
Stacey Abrams +3300
Michelle Lujan Grisham +3300
Amy Klobuchar +5000
Gretchen Whitmer +5000

A few other notes...

In reviewing the Georgia governors of the past I found this odd anomaly. All of the governors have been white men.

Thanks to suggestions by Dr. Howard Rossman, Don's Basement will be donating to a number of new causes. More to come on that.

Still waiting...

For an answer to the 'bombing into the stone age' question.

Hints:

Vice Presidential Candidate
He called for the bombing of Cuban missile sites in 1962
Fictionalized as Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove.

Sterling Hayden as Jack D. Ripper

Day 114...FACEBOOK style...The Stone Age (I couldn't help myself)

While the felon Roger Stone is free to meddle in our elections, today I'll highlight a few other stones.

"Please take a 'you got this!' stone if you or a loved one is in need."

This one is pretty classy

• Neo Stone Age (2020-?)

Now everything's a little upside down

As a matter of fact the wheels have stopped

What's good is bad, what's bad is good

You'll find out when you reach the top

You're on the bottom...B. Dylan 1975

And what language did they speak in the Stone Age?






On Monday, I will reveal the winner of the Know Your Harper's Elite Quiz and introduce their cause of choice.

Today's quiz for a $25.00 donation to your favorite cause or charity, who said ..."we're going to bomb them into the Stone Age," and to whom were they referring?

If you look this up in your set of Encyclopedia Brittanica, World Book, call a reference librarian or go online, I will know and tell God.

Now it's really Day 113. Don fesses up and begins to give back

By now, most of you have heard the story of my famous Trump bet. It is a giddy, silly tale and one that I have delighted in telling (and retelling and retelling). I am going to tell it again but this time with a purpose.




Last week, I donated $50.00 to the causes of two Don's Basement readers. I will continue to donate $50 a week through the end of 2020 to the causes of quiz winners, contributors,  and commenters through the vanity project that is Don's Basement. 

Now to our story already in progress.

Actually 2015....

Remember back then. June 2015.

Jon Stewart knelling over the comedy gold that was Donald Trump

It was a big joke. Donald Trump, the national punchline runs for president. Back then I had a job working for some men for five days a week, 9 hours a day including lunch. Lunch meant usually eating at one of the following places.

Not necessarily in that order.

On a Tuesday in June of 2015, I remember the lunch bunch dined at Kaiser's. We always ate at Kaiser's on Tuesdays. In fact, the last time I saw the lunch bunch was Kaiser's in March of 2020.

On that Tuesday in 2015, we started talking about Trump's candidacy for president. It was uniformly scoffed as a publicity stunt or a protest vote or brand building. Anything but a serious run for president. One of the occasional lunch bunchers said, "he doesn't have a chance. It's a 1000 to 1."

Being able to sense of low risk gamble, I took the bet. "I'll put up five bucks." And we all laughed.

As the months progressed, Trump's numbers went from 3% to 13% to the low 30s and finally well above 60% before he finally prevailed over Cruz and Kasich.

Now, I had a dilemma. $5,000 was a lot of money back then. I started feeling guilty. But I consulted with my long time friend and enthusiastic gambler in Las Vegas. He explained to me that a real gambler pays his debts before he pays his mortgage. 

Alrighty then.

While the Trump surge was going on, the guy I bet with started getting nervous. He offered me about $100 in Las Vegas chips to settle up before the election. I think I countered with a $1,000. No deal. As you will recall Hillary remained the favorite to win in 2016 until she lost.

It was with a heavy heart that I accepted my win. I was not a Trump supporter and still am not. But money is money. I agreed to accept $1,250 a year for 4 years. 

My first installment was in 2016 and I gave some money to my kids and to a few of my favorite causes. 

Asperitech,  'a world-class QA testing company that empowers individuals on the autism spectrum to fulfill their potential through meaningful employment combined with social opportunity.'

Steep Theatre:.. 'To bring out the everyday truths in the stories we tell through ensemble work and to reach out to non-traditional theatregoers by seeking out stories and creating experiences relevant to them.'

Old Town School of Folk Music

My second installment came in 2017.  I bought a Bristol guitar. And had a big trip planned to California with my kids and grandkids. Disneyland. Universal Studios. Venice. Santa Monica. 

Awesome.

Then on May 11, 2017, I was told to leave the place where I worked. My job had been eliminated. Kind of surprised. Shook up. Concerned.

And I thought it would be a good idea to get some extra cash so I settled for an additional payout of $1,250 making the total $3,750.

Thus it stood. But in the back of my mind, I felt that I owed the world $1,500. Last week, I offered a challenge to anyone who could remember who did the song, "Signs." One of you answered on Facebook and I had a way to pay my debt. 

So going forward for the remaining 26 weeks of 2020, I will donate $50.00 a week to a charity or cause. I will have contests and games. I will accept suggestions. And if nobody responds to anything, I pick something myself.

It's not the least I can do but it's close.

Stay safe and sane.

Day 113: Getting to know your elites--again with the Harper's Letter

By now the news cycle has passed by this discussion of "Justice and Open Debate." We are now on to the discussion of why people signed in, who didn't sign it, why they shouldn't have signed  it or what they should have written instead.



Now that I have internalized this issue I will go return to being on brand and do trivia.

As in how many of these "elites" do you really know without looking them up.

My answer will be revealed at the end of this post. If anyone knows more of these elites than I do, I'll send $25.00 to the cause or charity of their choice.

First a few thumbnails of the names I know.

Martin Amis. He's a writer. His dad was the British writer Kingsley Amis. I've never read either of their books.  Although, Kingsley is said to have been mildly anti-Semitic. "I've finally worked out why I don't like Americans.... Because everyone there is either a Jew or a hick." I guess that's mild.

Margaret Atwood. Wrote the Handmaid's Tale. Tried to watch it because Elisabeth Moss (Peggy in MadMen) is in it. Couldn't get through the first episode. Too disturbing.

David Brooks. I've read his columns. Either he has gotten more liberal or I have gotten more conservative but I like what he has to say about civility. I like his column today about Personalism, "the earnest and ongoing effort to see the full depth and complexity of each human person."

Noam Chomsky. Not a fan. I have a distinct memory of being in Williamsburg at a bookstore in September 2001 while the ashes still floated in Manhattan and beyond. This may have been an excerpt from the article I read. It may have been a expert analysis but seemed pretty cold-blooded in light of what had just happened.

Malcolm Gladwell. Author, podcaster. I've learned the following from him.

1. Hockey players born earlier in the year have an advantage due to the vagaries of youth hockey, (This has been disputed widely.) From Outliers.

2. "Hip Hop and Country are both tightly knit musical communities and when you’re speaking to people who understand your world and your culture and your language, you can tell much more complicated stories, you can use much more precise imagery, you can lay yourself bare because you’re among your own." King of Tears, RH Podcast, Highly recommended.

3. “To assume the best about another is the trait that has created modern society,” Gladwell writes. But we often fail to read others correctly. Gladwell demonstrates how this can lead to catastrophe. (From a review of Talking to Strangers)

Wynton Marsalis. Is he the only Jazz Icon of this era? It's his family. His collaborations. His music. I hope he's a good guy. He seems like it.

Letty Cottin Progrebin Columnist, author. Writes on feminist and Jewish issues. Catchy name.

J.K. Rowling. Coincidentally, I started reading the first Harry Potter a few days before the Harper's letter. I didn't get too far. Not a big fantasy reader. I don't see any of my favorite authors on this list. Lee Child. Michael Connelly. John Grisham. Jeffrey Archer. Lawrence Block. I knew that Rowling had offended the LGBTQ community but didn't know why until the letter controversy.

Salman Rushdie Bought Satanic Verses. Never read it. Anyone else with that experience? Also know that Iran issued a fatwā against Rushdie for that book. It was my first encounter with a fatwā, thus a very special time.















Dahlia Lithwick is a podcaster and writer for Slate who covers the Supreme Court. I listened to her more before the Trump administration. Now she is so angry at Trump that it makes me so angry with him. And one thing that I don't need is to be more angry at the incompetent, lying, race baiting, country dividing, person who is currently the President. Not her fault.

Randi Weingarten. President of the American Federation of Teachers. Weingarten has a regular column in the New York Times but I don't see it anymore since we stopped getting the print edition. I think the reason I've heard of her is that Woody Allen made a joke about her predecessor, Albert Shanker.

As you will recall, Allen's character had been asleep for 200 years before he came to.

Dr. Aragon (played by John McLiam): “Now this is the Central Parallel of the American Federation. This district is what you you’d probably call the Southwestern United States. That was before it was destroyed by the war.”

Miles Monroe (played by Woody Allen): “War?”

Aragon: “Yes. According to history, over 100 years ago, a man named Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear warhead.”--Sleeper (1973).

How many elites does it take to change the conversation?

Of 153 signatories of the Harper's Letter on "Justice and Open Debate." I was able to recognize and correctly place 24 of them. My initial tally was 29 but I have to disqualify myself not the following.

1. Jennifer Finney Boylan:  Kind of knew the name but couldn't remember anything about her.
2. Dexter Filkens: Thought he was an African America writer but he isn't. I don't think.
3. James McWhorter: Confused him with General McChrystal.
4. Steve Pinker: There's another author with a connection to 'pink' but I can't figure out who that is.
5. Bill T. Jones: Heard the name, couldn't place him.

Play the Name Game:

How many elites can you recognize without checking on or offline? Here's that list again.  Tell me in comments (don't use Safari), FACEBOOK or E-mail. Whoever has the most names that exceed my 24 is the winner. I will send a $25.00 donation to the charity or cause of your choosing. And remember, if you cheat and use the Internet, you will go to Hell.

Day 111: Here's something we can all agree on. Justice and Open Debate

Except that we can't.  

Who do you respect enough to administer justice? The police. The courts. The government. The resistance. Twitter.

One person's open debate is another person's hate speech. I wouldn't debate a Holocaust denier.

The Harper's Letter on Justice and Open Debate raises important questions about intellectual inquiry, the artist and their work, about sensitivity and courage.

My video is a riff on "Murder Most Foul" and using names from the letter.

Day 110: If Tweets came from birds and commented on Kanye West's presidential aspirations

Whilst walking around HP this morning and listening to the birds, I thought that Twitter would be better if instead of tired, hackneyed, vindictive, spiteful, clever and stupid words, there were bird sounds instead.

And if tweets sounded like birds, I think it would go something like this...




Need more unusual presidential candidates.

I don't.

But I posted about them last week.

Here it is.

Day 109: Statue of Limitations

On June 19, individuals in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park tore down a statue of Ulysses S. Grant (nee Hiram Ulysses Grant;1822-1885).

Before and After

I was pretty cool with Grant until I wasn't.

I found the story of his SF statue on the website Public Art and Architecture from Around the World. The June tear down was not the first time this statue has fallen.

In 1885 just weeks after President Grant died, a committee was formed to erect a memorial to him. Grant spent 1853 and 1854 in Fort Humboldt which stood on the south side of Eureka, California. Grant was not happy there, drank to excess and appeared drunk at an official Army function.  Rather than face court-martial, Grant resigned his commission.

Then Captain disappears from history until 1861 when a number of Southern states secede from the United States, thereby triggering the Civil War. 750,000 combatants died in battle or from disease between 1861-1865. The Union or The North needed trained military personnel and Captain Grant was given a series of commands finally becoming a Lieutenant General in 1864 and commander of all Union forces.

Here is General Grant accepting General Robert E. Lee's surrender of what is still the bloodiest and deadliest conflict in US History.

In 1868, Grant was elected President and served two terms. His record on civil rights as President was pretty good.

1. In 1869, he signed a law which granted equal right for black people to serve on juries and hold political office,
2. In 1870, he signed the Naturalization Act that gave foreign blacks citizenship.
3. He advocated for the 15th Amendment that said that states could not disenfranchise black people.
4. In 1870, he created the Justice Department to prosecute the Ku Klux Klan.

Back to the statue.

The committee planned to dedicate the statue on Memorial Day, 1896. To save money granite portions of the statue had been cut and decorated by inmates of Folsom Prison. Members of the stone cutters union were outraged at the use of prison labor and tore down the statue. The statue was rededicated either in 1894 or 1896 or 1904. And there it stood for around 120 years.

My Initial Response...

Ulysses S. Grant really? Although a child of abolitionists, Grant did marry into a slave holding family. In 1858, Grant's slave holding father-in-law "gave" William Jones, a 35 year old black man, to Grant. While not an abolitionist, Grant was disgusted with the concept and freed Mr. Jones without compensation.

Did the individuals who tore down the Grant statue on Juneteenth, the celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation know that President Lincoln was able to put forward the document because of Grant's success in capturing Vicksburg, effectively dividing the Confederacy and leading to its ultimate defeat? Did they know about his sheltering slaves who escaped their bondage while Grant's army slugged their way down the Mississippi river? Did they weigh those accomplishments against the one year that he reluctantly was a slave holder?

My guess is not so much.

But it did lead me to start reading, Grant by Ron Chernow. And as I read on, I grew more and more pro-Grant. While certainly a man of his times and certainly not 'woke', he struck me a fair and open minded. And he led a bloody and horrific war to preserve the Union which had the effect of ending slavery.

Not bad.

Until General Order No. 11 (1862)

As the war continued, the need for Southern cotton increased for the Army, Northern commerce and foreign trade. The Union issued licenses for cotton traders to accompany the Army as it advanced southward. This created a lucrative market for cotton which was exploited by soldiers, officers and unlicensed traders. In Grant's analysis, much of the corruption was the fault of Jewish traders. Thus he signed this order.

I.. The Jews, as a class, violating every regulation of trade
established by the Treasury Department, and also Department
orders, are hereby expelled from the Department.
II.. Within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order
by Post Commanders, they will see that all of this class of people
be furnished passes and required to leave, and any one re-
turning after such notification will be arrested and held in con-
finement until an opportunity occurs of sending them out as pris-
oners, unless furnished with permit from Head Quarters.
III.. No permits will be given these people to visit Head
Quarters for the purpose of making personal application for
trade permits.

My first thought upon reading this...FUCK that anti-semite bastard.

Conclusion:

Draw your own.

Day 108: More Signs from the Five Man Electrical Band

By now, I am sure you are all aware that Harriet Hoffer-Rose correctly identified the Five Piece Electrical Band as the performers of the 1970 hit, "Signs."

In recognition of Harriet's knowledge of the Canadian rock band, Don's Basement has contributed 25 dollars (US) to the Illinois ACLU.

Thank you for your support of the Roger Baldwin Foundation of the ACLU of Illinois. Your gift enables us to remain vigilant in a year of high stakes activity surrounding civil liberties and civil rights. Your support ensures that we can continue to stand firmly for what we believe in, as we always have.

If you are likewise inclined, here is their website. https://www.aclu-il.org/

And the sign said, 'Long-haired freaky people need not apply.'"

Ottawa native, Les Emmerson, lead singer for the Staccatos and then the Five Man Electrical Band, took a road trip on Route 66 in California. He couldn't help but notice the billboards that were as he later wrote 'Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind."

As he pondered this 'bummer', he penned the song that would become eventually reach #4 in Canada and #3 in the US. In August 21, 1971, "Signs" peaked trailing only "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?" Bee Gees, and "Take Me Home, Country Roads", John Denver.

Although released on their 1970 album 'good-byes and butterflies', Signs' was not deemed single worthy until it surfaced at the "B" side to "Hello Melinda Goodbye." DJs and the public flipped the switch and "Signs.' went into pop history.

Here are the arguments in "Signs."

1. "And the sign said "Long-haired freaky people need not apply."

The narrator sees the signs, tucks in his long hair, and then is accepted by the employer. This kind of superficial judging of people by their appearance is anathema and the narrators dismisses the offer, '"Imagine that. Huh! Me workin' for you!"

2. "And the sign said anybody caught trespassin' would be shot on sight"
Here he questions the very notion of property rights. What gives anyone the right "to keep me out or to keep mother nature in." As his justification, the narrator uses the Almighty..."If God was here he'd tell you to your face, man, you're some kinda sinner." Which raises the kinds of existential and theological questions that are beyond the scope of my analysis.

3. "The sign said you got to have a membership card to get inside."
Not only is there a dress code...the loathed shirt and tie, emblematic of conformity and middle class mediocrity, but you need permission just to get access to the place.

4. "And the sign said, "Everybody welcome. Come in, kneel down and pray"
Finally, we arrive in church. Rather than finding peace, the narrator is confronted with the implicit and explicit solicitation of funds. Because he doesn't have any funds available, he writes his own sign, '"Thank you, Lord, for thinkin' 'bout me. I'm alive and doin' fine."

I am surprised by the religiosity of "Signs." 'Signs and Wonders' are cited 18 times in the New Testament as proof of the existence of Jesus as the Saviour.  This is no coincidence.

You oldsters will recall that back in the 60's and 70's when the counter-culture starting counting there was blow back from the 'straights.'

In 2014, 'Signs' had a revival. Here is a new version recorded for the Friends of the Earth  The signs this time point to the dangers of climate change. Good on them!

Day 107: FACEBOOK STYLE...Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind

Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?

Does anyone remember who recorded this 1971 #3 Billboard Hit? Without looking it up. I am willing to bet that NO ONE knows this. In fact, I will donate $25.00 to a cause or charity of your choice. But remember, if you look it up and submit it as a guess you will go to Hell.

Here are some signs  I've seen around the neighborhood.

I can dig it.

This one hits close to home,

A tad overwrought?

La propriété, c'est le vol!

Not a swing voter, I presume.

I think the same is true for signs.

We can ALL get behind this one.

Day 105: Hard hitting political commentary: Don digs in...

Today is the Federal observance of Independence Day. Whatever your political affiliation or lack thereof, no one can deny that today is the Third of July.

Day 102: Alt-Candidates...Whose Your Favorite Candidate Now!

Doesn't take much to be President.

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. Article 2, Section 1, The Constitution of the United States


Here are a few of my fave candidates.