Monthly Archives: September 2020

Brass in Pocket

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I will finally fully reveal myself as the hidden prankster at Marquette’s School of Dentistry, from 1990-94. I always had to be careful, because the deans & faculty who ran the school were largely out to get me. But they didn’t catch me. If you know GnR, you know the rest…

I was living with Matt, my 3-year roomie, in a 2nd floor, two bedroom, shared bathroom apartment on the corner of 20th & Wells. Tough neighborhood, and a long cold walk in the winter. It was still early fall when Matt was telling me about his day around the engineering building, and so forth. He had obtained a roll of orange special stickers, and was tagging the campus with them.

We’re both having a beer, and a few laughs, so I asked for a few and he tore off a nice roll for me. As a first-year dental student (D1), you quickly learn that the dental school is your new ‘home way from home.’ We’re always there, Mon-Fri from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and then often after– for lab work or whatever. It’s all serious from the start when they tell you, “Look to the person on your left, and then the right. One of you won’t graduate in 4 years.”

That makes it cut-throat among the students, especially those who want coveted residencies such as oral surgery or orthodontics. Student loans only add to the pressure. I quickly discovered that I wasn’t going to be a top-GPA dental student. I just wanted to keep the academic scholarship I had earned, and get through.

There is a lot of favoritism in dental school, and it sorts itself out early. For instance, we had a dental prodigy who could wax-up a tooth so beautifully that he was offered the Marquette prosthodontics residency (highly coveted) within a month. He accepted, and sailed through dental school. Now, he’s a world class prosthodontist in Miami.

We had a talented class, for sure. I don’t even have to include myself for that to be true. Talent reveals itself early, and after a few weeks everyone pretty much knew where they fit in with this hierarchy. I had a lot of support from classmates, and we were a generally supportive group, but there are always rats, snitches & gunners in professional school.

I was living on the edge, as the ruling faculty didn’t like me, and there were plenty of rats willing to endear themselves to power by snitching on me. Student government is where these types tend to exist, as it gives them liaison power with faculty, and hides their mediocrity. I was always the biggest enemy of mediocrity, and was made a target because I refused to conform.

Professional schools try to break you. If you don’t obey, they punish you– one way or another. That pressure can be enough to prevent a student from getting their diploma. It’s easier to conform. It gets you through, but the long-term costs are significant. It’s a character thing in my mind.

All this & more, is why I was really excited to start plastering Marquette’s dental school with orange special stickers. I was going to kick ass, have some laughs, and get away with it. A dental school is a busy building with around 350 students, plus faculty, administrative personnel, and so forth. No witnesses is rule number one in tagging. Since it’s so busy, I determine that it’s best to place a limited number of strategically placed stickers, versus carpet bombing. In the evening it’s quieter, and that’s mostly when to strike.

The lecture room we sit in, hours on end all week, gets a sticker on the face of the lecture rostrum. So as Dr. Austin goes on & on about cranial nerves & other gross anatomy, everyone sees that bright orange sticker. I think that’s hilarious. To our left, up on the wall, is the clock that shows the time– and to the left of that is an orange special sticker. People get bored, look at the clock, and are thinking to themselves, “Wow, that must be a tall person placing those stickers. I’ve been seeing quite a few of them…”

We had several vending machines in the student lounge, located in the basement bowels of the dental school. I’m referencing the old Marquette dental school on 16th, off Wisconsin. I made sure the milk machine always had a special. Also the snacks machine, which featured such salty delights as cheddar cheese Combos & Gardetto’s pretzel mixes were constantly on special.

Soon, I noticed the stickers started disappearing almost as fast as I could put them up. Someone who is serious and has power doesn’t like this. “Be careful,” I kept saying to myself. This could get me kicked out. One of my favorite gags was the ‘Special Patients’ clinic sign in the basement. I got that one– twice. The second time, I went back a few minutes later, and the sticker was already gone. BE CAREFUL– LOL!!!

I’d look forward to getting back to my crappy apartment in the evening, and telling Matt what was going on. He’d be cracking up, and then say, “I’m getting another beer, you want one…?” Yeah, sure….

This went on for a few weeks. Another classic gag I came up with was tagging the inside elevator door. I’m inside alone, anytime. When the door opens the sticker disappears. As people go in, I get out, and when the door closes everyone inside sees how special they are. Matt LOVED that one, and adopted it in the engineering building.

One day we’re in lecture, and the blackboard the doctor wants to write on is covered up by the projector screen. He pulls up the screen, and BANG, there’s an orange special sticker on the blackboard! He picks up the chalk to write and there it is. He kinda glances sideways at it, and then moves over to his right to start there instead. I’m sitting next to a very pretty girl named Stephanie, who was really cool and I was sweet on. She sees this and half-whispers, “What is up with those stickers? I’m seeing them EVERYWHERE!” I’m trying to control my internal laughter, while looking at her & wanting to ravish her.

At this point, it had become a student-liaison/faculty issue. The uptight nerds were getting very restless, and the faculty wanted this stopped immediately. It’s Friday at lunch, and we’re all in the lounge. I’ve decided to give myself up, but only to a good woman. Stephanie is to my left, talking whatever with her friends, so I interrupt to ask to see he notes for reference. As I said, she’s cool, so she passes her binder over, and doesn’t look back at me. I pretend to be poring over them, and make sure no one else is looking, while I place an orange special sticker in a blank space by her notes a few pages earlier. Then I fold everything up, and give it back to her. I knew Stephanie always reviewed her notes before going out to meet us on Fridays.

Around 6:00 PM, I walk into the Ardmore bar, and Stephanie is arguing loudly with two of our buddies– Vijay & Tim. One of the tallest dental students is our class president, Randy. Randy was a muscle-bound dork who thought he was funny, and was always trying to goof in front of the class. His act wore thin, and by this time he was sitting with the geeks up front. Many of these folks were openly accusing Randy of being the prankster. Vijay & Tim were convinced it’s Randy too. Stephanie is standing there– 100% sure it is not. “How do you know?!” Tim & Vijay are exclaiming as I approach.  I play it straight and ask, “What are you talking about?”

Vijay & Tim face me, and blurt out what Stephanie has told them, and say, “It’s Randy, right?” I’m just looking at Stephanie, who isn’t in love with me (I now know), who is ready to explode with laughter. She points straight at me. and exclaims, “It’s Ric!” Vijay & Tim look puzzled, as their jaws hit the floor. I smile to all three of them, then shrug my shoulders and say, “Surprise.”

Lots of laughter after that… Vijay is Indian-Canadian, and my best friend in dental school. He keeps feeding me beers to get the full story, and is just shaking his head. Then Cele comes in, and wants to know what’s up… Cele is Philippine-American, and went to Madison for his undergraduate. He’s cool, and is one of us. Cele loves gossip, and now he knows. I had to make sure he didn’t pass it on too freely, otherwise I’m caught in the danger zone. He didn’t, to his credit.

By next Monday morning, most of our group knew, but no one else. The heat was boiling over by that point. Randy was beside himself, hands in the air, insisting he didn’t do it before the first lecture. There were more than a few nags who were reading him the riot act, when in exasperation, Randy looked towards us for help. and he called out, “Come on, will someone say I didn’t do this? Everyone is accusing me here…”

I’m seated on the opposite side of the room, with Stephanie to my right. I look dead into his eyes, and firmly say, “Well I guess this is what you get for being the class clown?” Randy looks back for a second, and then collapses in defeat. Stephanie is head down, hiding behind her gorgeous hair, quivering in laughter. She whispers softly to me, “You… are … so… bad.”

And that’s it. The last time I visited that building was in 2002, and in the back stairwell on an ‘Exit’ sign remained an orange special sticker. I had to jump down the stairs to tag that one. You can’t reach it with a ladder, because the stairs are directly below it. A janitor tried to get it, but only ripped it down the middle. Someone up high, badly wanted it gone. All I can say is that if the sign is still there, then the sticker is too.

The one that got away (and there’s always one, right?), was when the grades for the semester were being posted. On the first floor there’s a glass cabinet, where the top-5 GPA’s in each class (D1-D4) were listed each semester. It was a great honor to be on that list, and I was never close to it– until the day I was walking by it from the Science Library. I saw it wide open, with the keys still in it. The grades were posted, but the janitor had presumably left to run an errand….

I’ve got my right hand in pocket, peeling the orange special sticker off inside. I’m going to place it next to our class, and when it’s locked under glass, everyone will see & know just how special the Class of 1994 is. Just as I’m about to pull it out, a secretary comes down the stairs and up the hall. I stroll by and duck into the student lounge for a minute, then go back up, but the case was locked up by then. I still wonder sometimes, if it was the one that got away, or it was the one that would have given me away?

Campus Phone gag: There was a time in Marquette dental school (D2, D3) when we had to be in the Science Library a lot. I’m a stairs person, but on this day I took the elevator from the first floor of the dental school to the 4th floor, which spills into the Science Library. The Science Library elevator had an emergency phone with no listed number. As I’m going up, it rings, so I opened the box and pick it up. It’s some girl on campus trying to reach her friend. I tell her it’s the wrong number, and then ask for the number she dialed. She tells me, and I jot it down.

The elevator opens, I see my friends sitting at a table together and go over to join them. I do whatever I have to do, and then I’m waiting. It’s Vijay, Stephanie, Cele, and maybe a few others. Cele was usually the first to end his studies, and go do something else, and that’s what happened. Cele packed up his stuff, and said goodbye. He’s heading towards the elevator, when I say to the rest, “I’m gonna get Cele back here right away,” and get up to use the campus phone behind me. Someone says, “Cele just left, you can catch him if you hurry.” I reply, “No, I”m going to call him.”

This was around 1992, before cell phones truly existed. I dial up the number, and my buddies are ignoring me like I’m nuts. It rings once and Cele answers, “Hello?” Without missing a beat I say, “Hey Cele, it’s Ric. I just wanted to tell you what a great guy you are, and how I appreciate our friendship, it means a lot to me.” Then I hang up.

Thirty seconds later, Cele comes busting out of the Science Library elevator. “How did you get that number?!” Everyone else is wondering what’s going on, and I can’t stop laughing. But when I do, I explain the situation to everyone, and give Cele the number. He’s now excited to prank someone, but I explain it has to be the right person. Some people won’t pick up the phone.

Soon enough Stacey, a semi-friendly, brown-nose type moves towards the elevator, and I alert Cele. As the doors close, Cele dials the number, and Stacey picks it up. It went something like this. Stacey: “Hello.” Cele replies: “Hey Stacey, it’s Cele. How are you doing?” Stacey: “I’m fine. Why are you calling me here?!” Lots more laughter after that, until it’s time for me to go. I then tell Cele I’m taking the stairs, so don’t even think about calling me in the elevator.

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2020 Political Math

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Seated at a table are the following: a Black Lives Matter protester, a #MeToo feminist, a LGBT activist, and a Biden-Harris voter; along with a Blue Lives Matter advocate, a US military fanatic, a Christian fundamentalist, and a Trump supporter.

The zombie petty bourgeois reductionist insists the score is 4-4, good vs. evil (either way), with an urgent need to appoint a tie-breaker. The Trotskyist knows it’s 8-0, in favor of political reaction, against the working people & youth.

I don’t answer dumb questions anymore, unless I’m paid to do it. The problem with dumb questions is the selfish nature of the person asking them. The are needy of attention, and always have follow-ups. Once you answer one (1) dumb question, the floodgates are open.

It’s the kid in class who won’t stopping raising his hand, and in the process slows down everyone else’s learning. These are special-needs children, who need special help. Read serious books to avoid asking dumb questions, or saying stupid stuff.

For those ramping up their personal politics because a Presidential election is near, beware there are people who take politics seriously ALL THE TIME. Trotskyists know the issues & facts, and consider those who parrot dumb stuff to be dilettantes.

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg: a brief political obituary

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Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020) is just another reason Marxists and hard working people don’t listen to liberals. Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her 27 years on the Supreme Court (1993-2020) supported killer cops, immigrant detention, and the reactionary #MeToo campaign. She was considered the most “left leaning” of her peers, which says much more about the US Supreme Court’s composition as a whole.

Liberals idealize their heroes, just like conservatives boost Trump, because they have no real answers– just half truths, evasions & outright lies. That’s the two-party straitjacket of American politics. No real dissent is allowed. That’s why Green Party & Socialist Equality Party candidates have been kept off the November 3 ballot by the Democrats in Michigan, Wisconsin, California & Pennsylvania. The US Supreme Court has refused to hear these cases.

The law says, “Innocent until proven guilty.” That’s an enlightened principle, for those who have read books. The #MeToo campaign says, “All women must be believed,” and that there can be no blowback when a woman accuser makes false & slanderous claims against a man. What kind of judge is that? A politically motivated judge, by definition, can not be fair to the Constitution or law. RBG was just another faithful servant of the ruling class, so don’t believe the hype.

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The Banksy effect

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As an artist, you either own your work, or you don’t. Taking ownership strengthens its power. Hiding from ownership weakens it. When you graffiti someone else’s property, that isn’t ownership.

There’s a fine line between street art & vandalism. When you court bourgeois society, as Banksy has done, you are no longer a street artist. Banksy is an opportunist, full of contradictions, to the point where his only message is political confusion. In the art world, this is known as the “Banksy effect.”

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Reading & Politics

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My genius is reading comprehension. This allows me to completely absorb anything I set my mind to understanding, as long as it isn’t abstract mathematics, heavy science, or a foreign language. I also have performing genius, in that I’m a natural, and don’t get nervous in front of an audience. The tougher the audience, the better I get. That last part is character, physical conditioning & strength of will.

So when it comes to English language literature, I’m well read. Beginning in fiction, I’ve read Dr. Seuss, Peanuts, and plenty of kids stories. All the classic short stories from middle school including The Power of the Written Word, The Lottery, The Most Dangerous Game, etc… were absorbed. High school stuff like Lord of the Flies, The Pearl, The Iliad, Odyssey, etc… were read & comprehended.

Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Jack London, William Shakespeare, Daniel Defoe, Herman Melville, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy & Naguib Mahfouz have been experienced. You should read them too. John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell, Ernest Hemingway & William Faulkner are major 20th-century novelists. Also read Brave New World, Catch-22, Invisible Man, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, A Scanner Darkly, etc… to be (minimally) up-to-date modern. As far as fiction goes, just about all the great novels have already been written, so that’s where you start if you want to be literate.

As for non-fiction: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, V.I. Lenin & Leon Trotsky as essential political writers & theorists. If you haven’t read them, then you are politically ignorant. Marxism, specifically Trotskyism, will carry you through philosophy, so you can overwhelm all the pseudo-intellectual nonsense of post-modernism, structuralism, etc…

In short, all these false philosophical systems of bourgeois ethics are post-WW2 constructs, meant to apologize for capitalism’s destructive & unequal class nature. It is purely subjective irrationalism, with the unknowable always flowing back to ‘god’– therefore rejecting science & rational thought. The hypocrisy of it all is that these post-modernist university intellectuals compose their treatises on computers, and would be lost on facts without the internet. Most never attend church.

Reading the World Socialist Web Site daily, is now a requirement to be a modern Marxist. What you come to learn over time & diligent study is that many of the arguments, tactics & strategies with which the ruling class uses to attack & manipulate the masses have already been done before. This is where that cliché’, “you need to know history in order not to repeat its mistakes,” comes into play. Once armed with Marxism down to your marrow, then you can go out and become a significant political force in the world, instead of becoming someone else’s pawn.

In the 21st century, the written word is now consumed online, and blogs changed news delivery forever. What is a blog? A blog is anything the creator wants it to be. My imagination took this to mean a blog to be an online newspaper, or newsletter. In the 1900’s, news was delivered by print newspapers, magazines & books. Books took the longest to publish, meaning they were the most out-of date, but the most in-depth. Magazines split the difference by being more in-depth & timely, while newspapers were up-to-date with headlines, but the least in-depth.

With a 21st century blog, a blogger can publish up-to-the-moment articles, and then expand upon them with a scrolling blog such as mine. There’s also social media now, which revolutionized information sharing. A good 20th century newspaper had quality in all sections: News: global, national, state & local; Sports: MLB, NBA, NFL, tennis, and anything else relevant to American sports fans; Arts & Entertainment: music, film, television, video games, etc; and a Comics section: meaning can you make your readers laugh?

The question then becomes: is it serious? Most politics is a joke. The entire establishment media is fixed by big money. The billionaires control both political parties, and no one else can even get on the ballot anymore, much less any media coverage. This is due to extreme political prejudice in the judicial system from the same kind of professional liars that are attempting to extradite Julian Assange.

How do you feel about Julian Assange? That reveals your true political position. Black Lives Matter is a campaign run by the Democratic Party, the same at #MeToo. It’s purpose is to divide the workers & youth racially, to prevent them from unifying in solidarity against the ruling class. That is the propaganda war which the Trump administration & the Democrats are threatening to escalate into a shooting war.

Trump’s provocations come in a daily torrent of hatred & ignorance, yet they go unchecked by the Democrats. The mass media message is vote Biden on November 3. Trump’s ordering the assassination of Michael Reinoehl, an anti-fascist protester from Portland gunned down Sept. 3 by police belonging to the federally-led Pacific Northwest Violent Offenders Task Force, is not grounds for impeachment according to the Democrats. Phony “Russian collusion” charges are impeachable offenses for the Democrats. Both sides are evil, and 100% wrong in the mad charade. Meanwhile COVID-19 rages unchecked, as do wildfires & global economic catastrophe.

The only rational & serious solution is Permanent Revolution. The ruling governments, and their corporate-military-intelligence-police apparatuses must be smashed. The police & military must be broken up, and reorganized into a working people’s militia. The Nazis must be rooted out, and disarmed. The intelligence apparatuses, from the NSA, CIA, FBI, ICE, must all be disbanded, and their dirty secrets exposed completely– names, photos, dates, places, etc…

 

This is the only serious political solution to prevent the ruling classes from starting a World War. The American economy needs to be shut down, with massive unified strike action from workers & students, to halt this murderous back-to-work (school) campaign. This means overthrowing the union labor bureaucracy. These parasites with mafia backing must be outed and brought to justice. This criminal underworld has historically worked with J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, and the CIA, in countless blood-stained adventures which have been kept hidden from the American public since their inception. Every union apparatus is corrupt, in that they always partner with corporate ownership, while betraying their rank-and-file constituents.

The workers & youth of the world will not tolerate a uncontrolled coronavirus pandemic as the “new normal.” Global warming has reached a tipping point, where if we don’t get serious now, it’s going to be a bleak future. The mass majority rejects this presidential ‘race’ with only the choices being between an ignorant unstable sociopath, and a zombie Wall Street warhead.

The Socialist Equality Party is running Joseph Kishore for President and Norissa Santa Cruz for Vice President. The point of this campaign is not to win the Electoral College, since that is impossible under the US two-party straitjacket. The SEP is the party of Trotsky, which means international revolutionary socialism.

That is a policy which EVERY ruling class around the world fears & despises. That is why Trotskyists are blacklisted, and Marxism slandered. Trotskyism has nothing to do with terrorism & the BLM campaign, and yet every act of political violence by anarchists & provocateurs against the establishment, is taken by Trump as an opportunity to incite his fascist supporters to shoot their guns at Marxists. That’s how fascist propaganda works, and the Democrats are all-in on it.

This is the reality of being a Trotskyist. It takes a lot more than intellect & learning. It also requires true courage & fortitude. This is the polar opposite of publicly wearing a BLM slogan. That is opportunism, and it pays well for a reason.

Not a single supporter of Black Lives Matter can seriously explain the assassination of Malcolm X or Martin Luther King, Jr. The primary reason is because so few BLM advocates have actually read their works. Therefore they don’t understand their positions. Instead, they rely on others to tell them what these leaders meant. The problem there is that the leaders of the Nation of Islam (black militants), and the future NAACP (black Democrats), were involved in these political killings, with help from the NYPD & FBI. What about the killings of Tupac & Biggie? If black lives matter, then black lies matter. None of these fakers can face that, or the greater truth, which is that all lies matter.

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Cuties (2020)

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This movie hits hard, and is outstanding– five stars.

Cuties is about children living in abusive situations, and how they act out to reclaim themselves. It’s young girls, doing what all young girls naturally do, which is pretend they are women.

The twerking is intentionally in-your-face. If you like porn, it will turn you on. If you have moral hang-ups, and like to dictate them to others, then you will be offended. If you are someone like me, who loves a great movie and has no preconceptions, then Cuties will knock you on your ass.

Pornography doesn’t have character development, complex storylines, and serious motifs. The dirty dancing in Cuties is a kids’ imitation of any Super Bowl halftime show or Dallas Cowboys cheerleader routine. Everyone watches & talks about these events without batting an eyelash, so it’s nothing but hypocrisy from the moralist camp on Cuties. This movie is a mirror, in the sense that it reflects what you bring to it.

Cuties is an instant classic. See it for yourself before you comment on it, as this is serious film-making merging with hot-button social issues. It’s on Netflix, and runs 94 minutes. Gorgeous soundtrack.

One spoiler: When Amy impales a boy classmate’s hand to his desk for talking trash, it evokes Anne Parillaud in La Femme Nikita (1991) screaming, “My name is cutie!”

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“9-11”

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9-11, 2001
Does anyone remember how it begun?

9-11 it was a terrible scene
9-11 what did it all mean?
9-11 crashed out of the sky
Although statistics had proven it was safer to fly
9-11 I think intention was clear
Surgical strike and a climate of fear
9-11 it was an unfair tactic
To hijack and crash commercial air traffic

9-11 is was a fatal sign
It was organized it was by design
9-11 it was a TV show
The more you watched the less you know
Where investigators say there’s hardly a trace
Broadcaster reports with a solemn face
It’s those dirty Arabs it’s a pretty clear case
All over the news what a bloody disgrace

The president said we will retaliate
This cowardly act we mustn’t tolerate
These are worthy dead not acceptable losses
We’ll punish who did this whatever the cost is
Afghanistan is where the terrorists hide
Let’s launch an attack and win back our pride
We keep upping the stakes with no going back
Never checking ourselves before we react

And a word or two for the commercial airline
Committed to profits and arriving on time
Are the airlines safe? We ask the FAA
Spokesperson response: It’s not appropriate to say
It just seems to me they could shed some light
With fanatics hijacking planes left and right

9-11 many didn’t survive
Osama bin Laden wanted dead or alive
9-11 it’s a terror war
Nothing like this had ever happened before
It’s out in the streets it’s up in the sky
These people are serious and they’re willing to die
9-11 and it wasn’t a joke
Thousands left dead under the rubble and smoke
In the heaps of slag and the mountains of ash
What does it all mean, does anyone ask?

From Magnified. Recorded in summer 2011. Beats & production by Jay Stanley.

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Not missing the fans

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I’m okay with no fans in the stands for MLB & the NBA. What anyone will quickly discover is that much of the bias in umpiring & officiating disappears when the fans are removed from the equation. So when I hear an announcer begin by saying, “We miss you– the fans in the stands,” I don’t identify with that. That’s mostly just what they are made to say, but there is some truth in their words. They miss the revenue, They miss the adulation.

I don’t miss the noise. I don’t miss the drunken & abusive fans, especially at places like Fenway Park & Yankee Stadium. I like the Rays/Yankees games much better when idiots like Yankees manager, Aaron Boone, can’t start provocations by throwing at Rays hitters, and then incite the home crowd. No home fans, diffuses Boone’s cheap-shot antics. With no fans in the stands, it makes it MUCH easier for umpires to do the right thing, and throw out a Yankees pitcher in Yankees Stadium, for throwing at opposing hitters. It removes a LOT of East coast bias, and makes the game much more fair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B6-iKZsMb4

All sporting contests should be between the players and coaching staff (when allowed) only. If you are a player who needs the crowd to “pump you up,” then what are you doing out there? Too much of sports is hype. Too many athletes, teams & organizations well-past their prime are held up as dynasties. Sponsors want the marquee names, and the biggest-market teams playing for championships. It’s what drives ratings, as well as corporate & league profits. This is why the Boston Red Sox don’t get punished by MLB for sign stealing, the way the Houston Astros did. The Red Sox are old guard, and therefore have all the bias in their favor.

With no home park advantage, and no Mookie Betts & David Price either, the Red Sox aren’t so intimidating at Fenway. They are going to finish last in the AL East in 2020, and will be second-division for awhile, as they have a barren farm system & lots of veterans with hefty contracts. This is an organization that needs fans back in the stands more than anyone. They are screaming for it behind closed doors.

I’ll bet if you asked the NBA & MLB players privately, they would share these same thoughts & narratives. The NBA is the most manipulated game in sports, as a home court advantage is worth 8-12 points for the host team. That’s the crowd influencing the calls, and in tough arenas it can be even more extreme. Now, in the Disney bubble, there’s none of that. These 7-game series don’t shift back & forth between host cities this year. It’s going to come down to who has the best team in the playoffs, and nothing else, which is the way it should be. My perspective is that of a real sports fan.

When these professional baseball & basketball seasons’ end, there’s going to be serious discussions about next season. Money, viability & safety are all issues that have been put off, but linger into our uncertain future. The NFL is going to try fans in the stands for its upcoming season, and that will be a social disaster. When I see fans in the stands these days, I’m turning it off. That’s my message to NASCAR, MLS &  football.

It’s the same with these fake protests, led by the Black Lives Matter campaign run by the Democrats, against the fascists incited by Trump. If you don’t have a good reason to be out, then you should not be mingling with others, especially without wearing a mask. When I see people intentionally misbehaving, I just don’t want to meet them. I don’t miss seeing them, and running into them at the ballgame either. Neither do most of us.

No fans in the stands means Next Gen players completely rule. Next Gen fans want to see Fernando Tatis, Jr.– ‘mic’d up’ again. This is a 21-year old phenom, playing MLB shortstop, wearing an earpiece & mini-microphone, listening to & answering questions between Chris Paddack pitches. Paddack had lost command of his fastball, so Tatis had to be ready– and he was, with laughable ease. He shows everyone why he is so great, right from the start, talkin’ back to Eric Karros about his dad’s feat. More of that makes MLB more marketable to fans. Notice that fans in the stands (AKA, haters) interfere with that. It’s much more like a video game experience, without fans in the stands. That’s the youth appeal.

San Diego Padres manager Jayce Tingler is good with all this, which makes him an asset– a rare bird in a MLB dugout. Tingler has been the target of some unfair East coast bias, cited on Wikipedia, which is deep-state controlled by now. On August 19, 2020, Padres manager Jayce Tingler publicly (& mildly) criticized SS Fernando Tatís Jr., for breaking an “unwritten rule of baseball,” by hitting a grand slam on a 3-0 pitch while the Padres were leading the Texas Rangers 10-3 in the top of the 8th inning.

Jayce Tingler faced a hailstorm of fake media criticism for his remarks, when he was simply trying defuse a tense stand-off situation with his former team. Tingler & Padres GM A. J. Preller, both came from the Texas Rangers organization. That’s why Preller hired Tingler to replace Andy Green, after a disappointing 2019. I still think Green is very good, but Preller needed a bi-lingual dugout manager, so he hired Jayce Tingler, whom he already knew. Tingler played college baseball in his home state, at the University of Missouri, and later managed teams in Latin America for the Rangers organization. He is fluent in Spanish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mou39CjB7XI

 

Jayce Tingler’s current Padres team responded to this fake media criticism of its young superstar, by hitting grand slams in the next three games to “grand slam sweep” the Texas Rangers, and set a MLB record with slams in four consecutive games. Shown below is a screenshot of the current Wikipedia page for Jayce Tingler, and it doesn’t add any of this further context in his San Diego Padres section. It criticizes Jayce Tingler as being weak, but I ask, “Who is really weak here?”

To indicate how unserious this is, Wikipedia uses a fan tweet as a link (#20). In short, it’s very shoddy & disrespectful. East coast bias for sure.

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