Roth's Last Dance

Referring to himself in the third person as he ponders his career, Nathan Zuckerman, through whom Roth so often spoke, ruminates in Zuckerman Unbound: “All he wanted at sixteen was to become a romantic genius like Thomas Wolfe and leave little New Jersey and all the shallow provincials [behind].” But as it turned out, “he had taken them all with him.”--SM

Nice piece here on Philip Roth's love affair with his home town of Newark, NJ.

Roth has always been one of my favorite writers.  At 84 he says he's published his last book.



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Tight

The Beavs fall but have another chance tomorrow.  The CWS is a double-elimination tourney and OSU has split a pair with LSU.

Rubber match...

This is quality baseball worth watching.  Things will be tense in Omaha tomorrow.

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Bell and Boucher to Golden State

The NBA champions Golden State went after Jordan Bell in the draft with the 38th pick, then signed Chris Boucher to a two-year deal.

Damn, the Warriors know what they're doing.  Might be why they're the champs. With the B boys in the fold there'll be hell to pay for opponents attempting to get to the rim.

Add two shot blockers to that already great team?

Won't be fair.


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Rall Again

“I am not a member of any organized political party,” Will Rogers said ages ago. “I am a Democrat.”

So frustration with America’s officially-licensed nominally liberal political party is not new. Even for them, though, I can’t imagine that any party ever worked as hard to pull defeat from the jaws of victory as the Dems are doing now.--TR

The mess is blooming.

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Psychopathy Explained

Can't seem to face up to the facts
Been so nervous can't relax
Can't sleep bed's on fire
Don't touch me I'm a real live wire.


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Van the Man

It was time
again today
to escape the torrent
the fading away
the fortune tellers' lies
and empty noise.


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Santa in PDX

The Sandpoint, Idaho photographer, Lee Santa, was in Portland last week to shoot the Joe Lovano concert.  See the photos here.

We published Santa's "A Journey into Jazz: Anecdotes, Notes and Photos of Jazz Fan" in 2014.  The book has earned wide praise, and you can buy it here.



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'Tis True

We’ve seen this before. Muhammad Ali, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Craig Hodges, Tommie Smith and John Carlos all faced similar treatment after using their platforms to take principled stands. Kaepernick has made millions of dollars in the NFL, so he will be fine either way. But there are many lessons to be learned from this situation.

One important lesson is how the owning class relies on patriotism to help protect and secure its position in society. The notion of patriotism is one that tells the American working class that they have a deep, common bond with the American capitalist class. This, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth. As being consistent with capitalism, the owning-class minority has driven the working-class majority into widespread deprivation in order to secure more and more wealth for itself. One way to hide this reality is to create an artificial bond based on geographic and cultural nationalism—patriotism.--CJ

A Colin Jenkins piece at Truthdig.

On the college front, Oregon has the number 10-rated class for 2018 at this time.  Maybe the new coaching staff can get 'er done, right?


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Yep

The not-so-new Democratic Party had its claws on the People’s Summit this past weekend in Chicago. Readers might think that after so much greed and profit from war and after such loss of human resources, that someone would stand up and shout: “What’s the matter with you people… can’t you see the obvious… can’t you see the handwriting on the wall!”--HL

Good piece.

Rall on fire.


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Home

Hedges in Portland, KBOO benefit.


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Push

The question now is whether the Democrats will change.

So far, despite the title of the New York Times article, the answer is no. Although there is widespread voter support for single payer, Nancy Pelosi says the party is not going there and is funneling advocates’ energy to the state level, even though state single payer systems are not possible without federal legislation. At the national level, Democrats are paying lip service to Medicare for All: “We need to get there eventually but right now our task is to fix the ACA” is the current talking point.

The reality is that the political currents have shifted. The public is not going along with the con. People want solutions to the healthcare crisis, not more tinkering with the current failed healthcare system. Across the country, the message is clear that the public supports National Improved Medicare for All. And whichever political party in power embraces this will see a surge in popularity.--MF

Corporate Dems can't figure it out, or refuse to at any rate.

B is for bone.


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Another View

Scheer has been there and done that.  The 81 year-old maestro is still strong.


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Summer Ahead

CounterPunch mandate.

Read it all every day.

While you're at it.

We need real clarity now more than ever.

That's all. Very sketchy WiFi these days.


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Go Beavs!

OSU is blowing Yale away.

Been 10 years since the Beavs won the CWS.  Is it ordained?





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