Suddenly Thrifty USA

Tom Price was too expensive.  Now, how about the Pentagon and the endless wars?

Well, liberals are happy for a moment, but when will they quit supporting Wall Street's wars?

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Say Hey!

In 1954, the year Willie Mays made his epic Game 1 catch at the Polo Grounds in New York, the most replayed highlight in World Series history, there was no World Series most valuable player award.

The first World Series MVP was awarded in 1955 to the Dodgers’ Johnny Podres.

Now, the award will be named after the great Mays, starting this season — the Willie Mays World Series most valuable player award.--SF Gate

One of my earliest childhood heroes, along with Muhammad Ali.

It's always refreshing to hear that an award is named after a human being rather than a major corporation.

The big picture.


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The Commies are Everywhere!

Make no mistake about it: The United States has entered an era of a New McCarthyism that blames nearly every political problem on Russia and has begun targeting American citizens who don’t go along with this New Cold War propaganda.

A difference, however, from the McCarthyism of the 1950s is that this New McCarthyism has enlisted Democrats, liberals and even progressives in the cause because of their disgust with President Trump; the 1950s version was driven by Republicans and the Right with much of the Left on the receiving end, maligned by the likes of Sen. Joe McCarthy as “un-American” and as Communism’s “fellow travelers.”--Robert Parry

This is an important essay.

I cringe every time someone starts talking about Putin and his "meddling" habits. The word is useless because there is scant evidence to back it up, and were it true in any case what are you going to do about it?

Bomb Moscow?

The talk always comes around to this: "The Russians have compromised our democracy."

Folks, we don't have a democracy to compromise.

Here's a word I like to use on occasion: "prattle," defined as foolish or inconsequential talk.

You hear a lot of it these days.


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Wrapped in a Flag

The Boycott

A one-act monologue

Character: the Fan

Place: A New York Giants fan's man cave. It's decked out in all the regalia a football fan's man cave can hold--all of it thematically related to the fan's love of his team.  Life-sized posters of his NFL heroes are plastered to the walls, there's a bar, and a big-screen television, shelves of Giants' memorabilia, a Giants-themed pinball machine and pool table, refrigerator, the works.

Time: the present; kick off time on a Sunday in the Age of Trump.

Scene: As the stage lights come up a brawny, hairy, unshaven, slovenly man is sitting in his recliner in front of the television, which is turned off. He's naked except for the large American flag that is wrapped around his shoulders, torso and knees. He's wearing slippers with the Giants logo on them. His big belly protrudes from the red and white striped fabric like a sinister omen of an impending heart attack.

He retrieves his remote and flicks the television on. It's pregame, with the FOX gang of football experts talking about the upcoming Giants' game.

The fan flips the experts a "fuck you" finger and flicks the TV off again.

He goes over to the pinball machine and starts a game.  He pulls a beer out of the fridge and drinks half the bottle in one long swill.

Fan: (to himself, rambling on) I'm boycottin' my team.  You bet I am.  Trump is right.  Those sons-of-bitches are wrong.  They got no right to kneel like that.  Disrespectin' the flag.  Disrespectin' the military that fights for their freedoms every day!  I'm boycottin' all right.  The NFL can shove it.  As of today, I am not a fan. Who do they think they are? They need to just shut up and play football. Why all of a sudden are they politicians?  They're not anything but football players.  They don't know anything but football.  I ain't gonna use the N-word because I'm not racist.  I kinda like some of them boys.  Some of them are sons-of-bitches, though.  The ones that kneel are SOBs, that is for sure. Why can't they just keep their mouths shut and play football?  Isn't that what they're supposed to be doing? Isn't that what they're paid millions to do?  And who gives them all that money?  We do.  Or did... In my case... Go ahead and bite the hand that feeds you, right?  How stupid is that?  Pissin' off guys like me, guys like me who support them when they just play football and don't act up like... Well, I won't say it, because like I said, I'm no racist. I'm with Trump.  The SOBs who kneel need to be fired. There oughta be a rule. No kneelin'.  No protestin' and no disrespectin' the flag and the military.  That's what gets me riled. Disrespectin' the military like they do.  It's pretty simple isn't it?  The soldiers who fought for their freedoms in every war since day one allowed them the right to play football!  I'm sick of it.  I'm boycotting...

The Fan switches to his pool table and racks the balls, breaks, and starts shooting.

Fan: Well, the NFL is finished, kaput, over and out, goodbye football and hello... uh, what?  It all started with the Kaepernick SOB.  Before he came along everything was fine.  That big hair of his and his big head got him in trouble, though, didn't it?  That kneelin' bullshit when he was the only one doin' it?  Then it started up, a few others. Now look at what you got.  Now look at the idiot.  He's out of football, his career is over, and the moron can't find a job!  Haha.  That makes me laugh. Kaepernick makes me sick...They're all gonna be out of work here soon. 'Cause me and a whole lotta people like me have a say in this deal.  We ain't gonna stand for it no more. Crappy Kaep started all this and we're gonna finish it.  Not a dollar more for them!

The Fan's phone rings.  He picks up and says hello, listens for a few seconds.

Fan: Jesus, Jess, no I don't have the Giants game on. I told you I was gonna start my boycott and stick with it as long as I have to. (pause) You're kiddin', Beckham scored?  Manning is playing lights out?
(pause)  Well, did Beckham kneel? (pause) You're not sure?  Why weren't you watching? (pause) What, you were boycotting and then changed your mind.  How can you do that?  Jesus H. Christ, Jess... (pause) What?  You're kidding me!  Fumble returned for a touchdown!? (pause) Oh, Jesus Jess, I wish I could watch.  I wish those SOBs wouldn't have sat out the anthem.  I could support them then.  Not now. Not now. (pause) Okay, Jess, good talkin' to you, though I don't think you should be watchin' the game. But you can call me again with the final score if you want, maybe talk me through what happened? (pause) Well, I didn't say I wasn't interested, did I?  I mean, I can know the score can't I? You can tell me the highlights can't you?  Like you were just doin'. (pause) Okay, Jess, talk to you later.

The Fan hangs up.  He goes to the fridge for a second beer and walks over to his easy chair.  He looks blankly at the television for a long minute.  He picks up the remote and flicks the TV on.  He switches immediately from the game to a Sunday morning talk show.  Some general or another is being interviewed about the next war.  The Fan flicks the channels again.  A cooking program. Again. The History Channel.  He flicks through all of the stations.

Fan: Son-of-a-bitch... There ain't nothin' on worth watchin'...

The Fan halts his remote search at the Giants game just as Odell Beckham catches a ball for a first down.

Fan: What a catch!  First and ten...!

He reaches for the potato chips and stuffs his mouth with them.


The End

Silliness

Whenever silly debate begins to rage about the meaning of the American flag I feel obliged to reprint this poem from my collection Cello Music and Other Poems:

Thirteen Ways of Looking at the American Flag

As a sari while scrounging
For food in America’s dumpster.
As down payment on a hospital death bed.
As promise to suspend habeas corpus.
As camouflaged team uniforms in the “war on terror.”
As message from God.
As wistful memory of the imaginary American Dream.
As dubious plot to make all men equal when they
Are surely not, never were, and never will be.
As walk-off home run in a nuclear war.
As jealous amateur in a chili cook-off.
As highlight film in a vacuum-sealed
Plastic container in Baltimore.
As ideology before common sense.
As the silly advancement of technology.
As Bob Hope’s nose.


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The Past and the Present

The war of words between the president and black athletes is about competing historical narratives.--CH

Chris Hedges nails it, as usual.

Someone at CounterPunch questioned why a thinker (read leftist) like Noam Chomsky wasn't invited to address the causes and consequences of the American War in Vietnam in the new Ken Burns series about the unspoken American genocide in Southeast Asia.

Obviously his inclusion would have competed with Burns and the filmmaker's corporate-guided/sanctioned narrative.

Chris Hedges and Chomsky are brilliant historians, and to ignore their views on Vietnam is akin to living in a burning house and insisting that the flames are irrelevant.

Folks, PBS is a propaganda wing of the oligarchy.

Nothing more.  Nothing less.


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Take a Knee

My Oregon Ducks lost to an ASU team they should have beaten last evening.  Oregon's talent just isn't there yet, and it appears the team's first three opponents were more than awful.

Oregon will have difficulties all season.  Hoping for 6 wins and a low-level bowl, but nothing is guaranteed.

Most college teams stay in the locker room when the national anthem is played in college stadiums.  I wonder how many collegians would protest by remaining seated.

Today many pros knelt or remained seated during the anthem. Good, finally.

I hope the "take a knee" movement in the NFL continues and grows. I'd like to see more white players join their teammates in protest.

Jingoism in sports has long bothered me. I hate the national anthem and the crass unfurling of a field-sized flag prior to the games.

It's flat out stupid, and the "patriotic" people who support it are very, very stupid. It's not acceptable.

Trump is very, very stupid. He is not acceptable.  He's a very bad person.  Very bad.  Bad, bad...

A couple of anthem singers joined the protest, which was cool to see. One even gave the black power salute, a clinched fist raised, at the end of the song.

I support the protests rippling through the league now. It's past time.

Here's a piece I wrote last year, which pretty much says all I have to say on the matter for now.


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Ugh

I've been kind of sick and knocked low by life lately.

I'll get back to this in the future.




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Bad Read, Good Read

So someone has ghost-written another Hillary Clinton memoir. My biggest question when I picked it up was: Did Hillary stiff the writer out of the final payment as she did Barbara Feinman, real author of “It Takes a Village?” You don’t have to read any further than the cover of the book to answer the question posed by its title: What Happened: Hillary Clinton. Glutton for punishment, I took a masochistic dive into its dark pages anyway.--JSC

The editor of CP doesn't approve of HRC's new book.

The consensus among reviewers nationwide seems to be that HRC has written (or had ghost-written) the year's worst book thus far, a real stinker.

No big surprise there.  Anyone with half a brain would agree, if the excerpts I've read are indicative of the whole book, which they apparently are.

While HRC's new book is selling like peanuts at a ball game, this one by Nancy MacLean, who happens to be a lot brighter than the failed pol, is also doing well.  I'm reading it, and I recommend you do as well.

Many of HRC's ideological pals are featured in it, though there is not a word about Bernie, Comey, Putin or the "deplorables" in it as far as I've read.


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Team Identity

The Oregon Ducks are a sensational story now in the college football world as pundits and ordinary fans attempt to figure the team out after two wins--an expected blowout of Southern Utah, and a bizarre victory over an evenly matched Nebraska team.

The Nebraska game was bizarre because of the way it played out in two halves of vastly different styles of football--fast and sluggish.

A first half that conjured memories of the hyper-frenetic Ducks under Chip Kelly, when the team's explosive offense scored quickly and often. And a second half that prompted memories of recent ignominy--namely last season when Oregon finished 4-8 and had the worst defense in all of college football.

That last year's team actually won four games and came close in a couple of others was a testament to the talent level of the Ducks' young offensive players.

That talent was demonstrated again on Saturday--at least in the first half--and Oregon will have a chance again to win more than they lose.

But they need to play fast both halves, which they did not do against Nebraska. Kelly seldom slowed his teams down, unless he was nursing a lead in the fourth quarter, or didn't want to embarrass the other team.

Oregon played the second half to not lose--which is as old-fashioned as an offensive huddle.

Oregon's defense is only slightly better this year but has some nice new parts, with the addition of some beef up front and a couple of mega-talents in the secondary.

Oregon's "gonna have to score a ton," as ex-Oregon coach Mark Helfrich might say, because the defense is being rebuilt from the ground up.

I think you'll see more close games this year, and fewer blowouts like last year's Washington game at Autzen when the Huskies slapped 70 on a Duck team that quit, thus starting the countdown to a coaching change.

The Ducks have good to great talent scattered throughout their roster. They're looking for identity and cohesiveness and the next step forward.

Willie Taggart is the man now, and he's going to have his coaching chops tested in a very powerful league for the first time in his career.

We'll see how it goes.

(Photo by the Oregonian)

And now for something completely different.


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Lunacy

The greatest football play of all time happened yesterday in a college game.  See it here.





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Charlottesville

Open carry?

Walden's pond.  The dickhead supported the armed takeover of Malheur.

Think about that.

Is he a fascist or a Republican?  Is there a difference?


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Eagle Creek Fire

Prosecute the parents of the 15 year-old whom witnesses said started this massive fire?  Highly unlikely, lawyers claim.


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Hanging Out with Street and Levine

So primary challengers aren’t supposed to challenge at all.  They are supposed to be thoroughly cowed patsies for the front-runners.  No, they are supposed to act out the same role The Washington Generals played vis-a-vis The Harlem Globetrotters: perpetually failed props. As one correspondent wrote me last Tuesday, reflecting on Mrs. Clinton’s cold ingratitude: “How dare [Bernie] have acted like a primary was meant to be anything other than a foregone conclusion? Really, Hillary Clinton is giving the strongest support for the concept of ‘sheepdog candidate’ that I’ve ever seen, and she’s offering it willingly.”--PS

Putting a bad book in its proper place, Paul Street mocks Clinton.

The 2018 midterm elections are still more than a year away, but, according to press reports, Democratic “hopefuls” are already courting “the donor class” in anticipation of the presidential election in 2020.

It is the same old same old that got us a Trump-Clinton election in 2016 and, worse, that stifled or derailed many of the most promising progressive initiatives of the preceding years.--AL

The always feisty Andrew Levine takes the reader on a joy ride.

This stuff is too good to ignore, so don't. And then there is me, lollygagging around behind the good stuff.

Enjoy your football this weekend, and be sure to kneel during the national anthem.


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Smoke No Smoke

The wind has shifted, blowing east.  The smoke is gone for now.  I can see blue sky again.  This is a welcome respite.  How long will it last?








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Go CoCo!

When Kiki Vandeweghe played for the Trail Blazers in the 1980s he was my neighbor for a time on Hoyt Street in Northwest Portland.

Kiki, like Bill Walton before him, was one of a handful of Blazers who opted for urban living accommodations during their Portland careers, calling the old neighborhood home before the mobile nature of the business sent them on to their next addresses.

This was well before the old neighborhood gentrified and turned into the boring, sterile shopping mall it is today.  In the 70s and 80s the neighborhood was rough and diverse.  Now it's overrun, like America in general, with money and idiocy.

Kiki, like Walton, went to school at UCLA.  Maybe they learned something there?

Most pro ballers in Portland back in the day headed for the suburbs and their mansion/cribs in gated terrain, just as they do now.

Kiki's niece, CoCo Vandeweghe, is making a run at the U.S. Open tennis championship.

Go CoCo go!


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The Crying Game

The woman is so goddamned delusional she needs to be hospitalized and put on reality-based drugs to help her come to her senses.

I had people call me sexist and a misogynist simply because I didn't support her.  I am neither, but I can tell you that the level of political discourse throughout 2016 was at its lowest ebb in my lifetime.

What an insufferable and miserable human being she has become, and her supporters are in lockstep.

I'm really, really happy she's not our president.  She offered absolutely nothing in her campaign and wonders why she lost?

Sanders and the Russians did it!  Well, inept people do often blame everyone but themselves.  Her enablers are as deplorable as Trump's, albeit more arrogant, self-serving, privileged and entitled.

Trump is awful obviously, but much of the population has a better understanding now of what has been happening since Reagan, who was senile when he took office, fucked America over.

A pol like Clinton wouldn't have changed anything for the better--that's the unacceptable reality. This country needs to change, and both political parties are unwilling to address our problems. They would rather gloss them over with the fantasies--in variant and sick lies--that Clinton and Trump both want you to believe.

Ever heard of a two-headed coin?  Every time you call tails, you'll lose.


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Epitome

Oregon is on fire, and what a drag it is.

A kid has been fingered for setting the Eagle Creek blaze--a dumb shit playing with fireworks in the forest.

Really...


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