Prine in His Prime

As of this writing, Prine is in critical condition with the Coronavirus. He's a tough customer, but I don't know about this one.

Ed. Note: Prine died April 7.  He was 73.


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Cats

I was reminded the other day about a funny incident that happened years ago when the noted Nation Magazine columnist Alexander Cockburn was introduced to the famous American poet Charles Bukowski. My memory of this was sparked by the appearance of Laura Flanders, radio journalist in her own right and the niece of Cockburn came to speak at a KPFK radio event at the Palos Verdes Art Center.--JP-A

Here is a remembrance of the first time Charles Bukowski and Alexander Cockburn met, by the man who helped pull the communion together in 1992.

I've always been a Bukowski fan, so I appreciated this little story and its weird ending.  When you read the story keep in mind that Buk wasn't really very political--he loathed politicians, but he loathed a lot of people, including the politically correct, or those who deigned to have the answer to political conundrums

Leave it at this: Buk was probably an anti-social anarchist.  Whatever else he was, Cockburn was not an anarchist at all.  He was likely a socialist, a real honest to god variety.

So sparks should have flown between the two great writers, right?  As you will read, they didn't.

One of the great memories I have is of catching Buk at a reading in the San Francisco Public Library in 1975.  It was bawdy, hilarious and sensational.  A tub filled with Heineken sat on the reading table next to him on one end.  A lone potted cactus sat on the other end.

A well-organized group of homosexuals yelled obscenities at him repeatedly during the 2-hour performance. They in turn were shouted down by people who came there to listen. It felt like violence and mayhem might break out at any moment.  Thankfully, it didn't.

I've lived with that memory a long time, and over the years I met many Buk aficionados.  I've counseled young people who have heard the legend of Bukowski and want information about him. I've talked to newbies who've had their "minds blown" by their first encounters with the author.  So many young folks have cried, "man, I can relate to the guy.  I feel like I'm living his life!"

On and on, with the occasional dissenter, literary snobbery on high.

And then there are the simple dullards.  They don't read literature at all, never mind Factotum or Moby Dick. That's a huge segment of the population, btw.

And then came the biggest puzzle of all for me.  In 2005 I was in school at Portland State, reading history.  I had a U.S. Cultural History class, and we were studying the usual canon, from indigenous folk music to recent Bob Dylan.

My name was called to go to the front of the lecture hall to pick up an essay I'd written.  "Pretty good," my prof said as he passed the graded paper to me. I took that as an opportunity to talk to the professor.  I told him we should get into some Bukowski.  He looked at me blankly.

The U.S. Cultural History PhD had never heard of him.

True story. I guess that's how you scrub often vilified yet culturally meaningful authors from memory.  Just ignore them.


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Heroes

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The Year of the Plague

The response of the federal government and many state governments to the coronavirus pandemic ramped up dramatically this week.

Part of this was a result of changes on the ground, as confirmed cases in the U.S. surged. And part of it was the result of a report by prominent British scientists.--DP

Eighteen months, and the vaccine might not work even then.

Stay safe, folks. Esta es una madre total, as our friends along the border say,


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North and Hedges

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Top U.S. Health Experts: ‘Hold On To Your Fucking Seats Because This Bitch Hasn’t Even Thought About Starting Yet’

STANFORD, CA—In response to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, top U.S. health experts warned the nation Thursday to hold onto their fucking seats, because this bitch hasn’t even thought about starting yet.--The Onion


Alright, it is getting serious now.


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March Sadness

We’re watching unprecedented stuff here. NBA season suspended. NFL workouts scrubbed. High school sporting championships shut down. And now, the most electric tournament in all of sports — March Madness — turned into March Sadness.--JC

An excellent column from John Canzano of the Oregonian.

I'll miss March Madness, my favorite time of the year, like a child missing Christmas because Santa Claus changed the rules.


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How To Beat Trump in One Easy Lesson

Sanders is wounded. The oligarchs will go in for the kill. They will subject him to the same character assassination, aided by the courtiers in the corporate press, that was directed at  Henry Wallace in 1948 and George McGovern in 1972, the only two progressive presidential candidates who managed to seriously threaten the ruling elites since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  The feckless liberal class, easily frightened, is already abandoning Sanders, castigating his supporters with their nauseating self-righteousness and championing Biden as a political savior.--CH

So get up all ye nauseating, self-righteous Bidenites, grab those ignorant Sanders' supporters by the napes of their scruffy, unwashed necks--and, by-god, make them see the light!. A narcissistic and vulgar clown for a demented, foolish clown--a trade made in the name of organizing holy, one-party rule!

Choice?  Damn you, little wankers.  That hasn't existed in decades. Time to stop worrying about it, my little bed wetters. Get with Biden or be scorned as you deserve, you temper tantrum-throwing misfits!


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Pick One

The gaffe machine Biden’s brains have been coming out of his ears for years and it’s only going to get worse in coming weeks, months, and years. His lack of impulse control is a telling sign of his dementia. His body men struggle to prevent him from rubbing women’s’ backs and sniffing their hair. He told a Warren supporter in Iowa that he was “too old to vote,” calling the gentleman “fat” along the way. He called a young woman a “lying dog-faced pony-soldier.’ He accused the centrist Joy Reid of wanting a leftist “physical revolution.”

He loses his train of thought in mid-sentence. He forgets what state he’s in and what day it is. He idiotically defends his past alliance with a racial-terrorist segregationist senator by saying that “he never called me boy.” He boasts that he would have beaten up Trump behind the gym in high school. He tells outlandish stories about past swimming pool confrontations with angry young Black men named “Corn Pop.” He babbles idiotically about young Black children who like to watch the hair curl up his legs. He calls for the use of “record players” as a solution to inner-city poverty. He has to rescind a preposterous claim to have gotten arrested trying to visit Nelson Mandela in apartheid South Africa.--PS

So this is what seemingly is going to happen?  A half-wit will become president next year.  Either Trump or Biden, take your choice. This is the U.S., where you get no choice, wrapped in illusions and cheap propaganda. It's who we are, and it is tragic.


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Tuesday Night Massacre?

Come on people now.  Get out and vote for that old Jewish fart today. Get together now.


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State Your Case, Maj. Danny

Furthermore, British law states that extradition may not move forward if the requesting nation’s criminal charges are “politically-motivated,” which, the defense team asserts the case against Assange is. Of course, it is patently politically-motivated. However much the administration’s lawyers deny it – “the lady doth protest too much?” – Assange’s real crime, from the perspective of the government, was to embarrass them by exposing widespread US war crimes and concomitant coverups. All information, mind you, that We the People had a right to know.--DS

War crimes?  What war crimes?


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