Recent Months

I'm a blocked artist much of the time, but I think this is my best picture in recent months.  Strangely, it is an exact replication of the evening view I have across the courtyard in my apartment complex, believe it or not.

I call my ability to capture the essence "ultimate realism."


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Lost Ball Trick

Everyone can agree, we've never seen anything like this before.

Baseball is back, with all of its wicked weirdness.

Well, you can't blame this one on Steve Bartman.


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From Russia, With Love

How dreadfully depressing life has become in almost all of the Western cities! How awful and sad.--AV

Essay of the day, by the author of several intriguing works.

I'm reminded of H. Miller's The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, a not unpleasant reaction.


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50 Year Ago

My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettos of the North over the last three years, especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked, and rightly so, “What about Vietnam?” They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.--MLK

King's greatest speech.  He was assassinated a year later.


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Ruthie

I found this cover of Black Sabbath's classic in St. Clair's weekly "Roaming Charges" column at CP.

No shit, I've always thought a great singer (Ozzy wasn't) could make hay with this song, like Eddie Vedder and Lucinda Williams have with Dylan's "Masters of War."


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Ducks Fall

The sad news is that Oregon lost to UNC and the Russians control your mind.






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Cruise Control

However, the American polyarchy has suffered more than most; in the United States, plutocracy is out of control.

Of the many reasons why, perhaps the most important is the inability of the American state to limit political spending.  The Supreme Court’s infamous Citizens’ United ruling nowadays gets all the attention, and it deserves all the blame it gets. It should be remembered, however, that this is only the latest in a series of Supreme Court decisions, going back at least to Buckley v. Valeo in 1976, that effectively identify political spending – and therefore political corruption – with Constitutionally protected speech.--AL

On plutocrats and the rise of the oligarchs.

Be sure to read the material Levine has referenced from the New Yorker, which is reflective of what happens in every election now as the war among the elites is ignited by big money.

More than the Russians influencing or corrupting American politics, this is where the real investigations should begin.

Alas, that would be political suicide for anyone wanting to hold on to even the rudimentary power of a seat in the House of Representatives.


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Awwwwwww...

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Super Fans

The story.


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Temp Work

I worked part time for a monthly community newspaper shortly after I moved to Portland.  I always needed a second job, so one winter I did this through a temp employment agency.  The scale was slightly smaller as my crew changed the Memorial Coliseum from hockey arena to basketball venue--and back again repeatedly--overnight. This is Phoenix University Stadium.  The good seats are all temporary and spendy.  From the highest seats Saturday the players in the Final Four will look like tiny ants scurrying around on a minuscule dance floor.  Those tickets are also spendy.


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Work to Do

11, 13, 8, 4. Points, rebounds, blocks, assists.

Remember those numbers.  Jordan Bell will have to duplicate or better them if Oregon is to beat North Carolina Saturday in the Final Four.

It'll be tough because UNC is big, the best offensive rebounding team in the country.  Oregon has scraped by without Chris Boucher, thanks to Bell's board work and Tyler Dorsey' shooting.

Can they carry the load again?

As expected, Oregon's women were clobbered today by UConn in the round of eight.


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Ghosts

Right before our eyes, we are seeing the transformation of single payer Bernie Sanders into public option Howard Dean.

During the 2016 Presidential campaign, Sanders took off like a rocket, fueled by the promise of a single payer, Medicare for All single payer system.--RM

Bernie Sanders takes the pragmatists' neoliberal bait--again.  The US is rife with industries that exploit people, none moreso than the health insurance and big pharma scams that control our healthcare system today.

I heard a congressman on NPR early one sleepy morning last week. He blamed American divisiveness on the Russians who poisoned our minds late last year.

The interviewer let it slide in silent agreement.

Among thieves, it is always the other guys' fault, you know?


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The Women Advance

Could Oregon have two national champions in basketball this year?

I watched the women play earlier and know Oregon has a few gifted players new to the program, with more on the way.

But this?

Out of blue, the Oregon women are in the Elite Eight after upsetting Maryland today!

Bad news, which means nothing in this instance, they now get U Conn, winners of 110 in a row.

That's the equivalent of having to play Kansas on the men's side of things.

Miracles need to happen for the men and women of Mighty Oregon!


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Heart and Soul

My Sweet 16 bracket exploded and now I must revert to the heart.

I'm betting my soul that Oregon beats Kansas today!

I may be a soulless man come sundown.

The truth is Kansas has much better talent than Oregon, and it's not even close.  Had Boucher not been hurt it might have closed the gap, but not by much.

But you cannot say with certainty that Oregon would have landed in the Elite Eight had Boucher been available.  He might have under performed, taken Dorsey's shots and missed...

This is not science, thus fell UCLA and the over-hyped Lonzo Ball. Kentucky had two freshmen on the floor who outplayed him.

But I think Josh Jackson is the best freshman playing now, and if Oregon can't handle him...woe unto the Mighty Ducks.

Ha!

P.S. Be sure to read the weekend CP.  It's full of leaping, dazzling, clear-headed playmakers who know the score.


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Why?

Worth a watch.

A companion piece by CJ Hopkins.


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