Author Archives: admin

Pete Rose (1941-2024)

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Pete Rose was a mess, a person who exemplified the difference between a great ballplayer and a great man. 4,256 hits is an unbreakable record, but who cares after what he did? Even his old teammates abandoned him, at least for a time, and some never forgave him. It wasn’t just the betting on baseball, it was his lying & evasions to fans who wanted honest answers. That’s at the heart of how Pete Rose betrayed the game he loved, and in that sense he’s a tragic figure. I have written that despite his transgressions, he still deserved the HoF, but that point is moot now. There’s no point in honoring a dead man when you had plenty of chances to do that while he was still alive.

Pete Rose is a black mark for MLB because of how they handled him in the aftermath of Bart Giamatti’s ruling. At some point for MLB, some measure of forgiveness was in order, but that never happened. Like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, etc, he’s been excluded from the game because a scapegoat was needed, and this was decided largely by people who never played the game– namely media & owners.

From 1985-87, MLB owners engaged in a covert operation to restrict free agency, agreeing amongst themselves not to bid on free agents from other teams, effectively suppressing player salaries and limiting player movement. This is known as the ‘collusion era’ in MLB. When the Pete Rose betting scandal broke, it was used by MLB to deflect attention away from ownership & executive collusion.

Decades earlier, when Cardinals CF Curt Flood fought against the reserve clause in 1970, and asked for player support from stars such as Pete Rose, he was refused by all of them. When free agency came to MLB after Marvin Miller represented Dave McNally & Andy Messersmith in 1976, Pete Rose eventually left the Reds as a free agent to sign with the Phillies for more money. Rose was that kind of person, someone who doesn’t help another player in an important struggle because he’s too selfish & ignorant, but takes the benefit for himself later, long after the fight is over.

He was a bit overrated as a player, but still a HoFer. Pete Rose was the first modern utility player. He made lots of errors, in the field & on the bases, but gave championship effort at 2B, 3B, LF/RF, and then finally 1B. Charlie Hustle was an act, but also a team guy who would move to a new position to accommodate a better player such as Joe Morgan. Rose hung on way too long chasing Ty Cobb’s record, which is a player’s choice, but is painful to watch as a fan. Pete Rose was a lousy manager for the Reds, and deserved to be fired long before the betting scandal sunk him. As you can see I’m conflicted on Pete Rose, and so is everyone else and that’s why he’s so relevant.

Pete Rose came up with the Reds in 1963, in an era where heroes were still deified. The rise of 24/7 sports media with ESPN changed it to creating heroes, then tearing them down. Pete Rose, OJ Simpson, Tiger Woods, etc, became part of this phenomenon. Even the greatest players (workers) can be sacrificed as scapegoats, but the people on top, pulling the strings, they get to keep their power, money & prestige. Meanwhile, today’s fans bet for & against their heroes in every sport.

Pete Rose and many of his teammates took “greenies,” amphetamine pills in a candy bowl available to any player in the clubhouse on every team. So who is to blame? What is a “clean” player? What is the ‘PED era’ and how far does it extend back? These are uncomfortable questions that MLB avoids which are all personified in Pete Rose.

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Just a Bit Outside: The Story of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers (2024)

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If you are a sports fan in Wisconsin, go see this movie.

According to Google, Marcus Theatres is the only place to see Just A Bit Outside: The Story of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers. There are currently no other distribution deals in place. That’s a shame because this documentary film is about something bigger than baseball. In 1982, the people of Milwaukee, and the entire state of Wisconsin, got behind the Brewers with Bob Uecker on the radio all summer and it was an unbelievable energy.

This was a blue collar team from a beer drinking city, that fans became part of. It was fan energy than propelled the True Blue Brew Crew past the California Angels in the ALCS. Every Brewers fan knows if Rollie Fingers & Pete Vuckovich weren’t injured, they would have beaten St Louis. This was when the Brewers were in the AL East and had to beat the Yankees, Orioles, Tigers, Red Sox, etc, just to make the post-season. It was perhaps the most exciting pennant race ever.

The city of Milwaukee held a parade for the Brewers the day after they lost Game 7. Compare that to Boston in 1986 and how they treated Bill Buckner, or Philadelphia in 1993 with their treatment of Mitch Williams. When you cheer for a team like Wisconsin did in 1982, you don’t quit on them if they come up short. Note that if you go see this movie, you’ll be in the minority if you aren’t wearing Brewers gear. The best sports documentaries are the ones that tell a story that is bigger than the game.

The Brewers made the post-season in 1981, the strike season where the team with the best record in MLB (Cincinnati Reds) didn’t make the playoffs. The Brewers lost to the Yankees in the divisional round, which the owners rolled out after the in-season strike was settled.

Some championships in sports really don’t count, because the game became so distorted it wasn’t even real anymore. MLB in 1981 is one. MLB (& NBA) in 2020 are another, and in the NFL & NCAAF it happens regularly. The 1981 MLB players strike isn’t mentioned in Just a Bit Outside, but it’s the reason that team isn’t nearly as remembered.

Another weakness is owner Bud Selig being too nostalgic & stale, but give him credit for going for it when they had their chance in 1982, by acquiring HoF RHP Don Sutton (1945-2021) from the Astros at the trade deadline for a young RF Kevin “Smallmouth” Bass. The problem wasn’t the one that got away, but what the Brewers traded Sutton for after 1984, and this documentary doesn’t go there either, which lets you leave the theater happy. Orson Welles once said, “If a movie has a happy ending, it finished too soon.”

Bud Selig bought the hapless Seattle Pilots after their inaugural 1969 campaign of futility, forever brought to life in Jim Boutin’s Ball Four (1970)– one of the best baseball books ever. The Brewers weren’t good until 1981, and exhausted themselves in 1982. The Brewers fell just short the the Orioles in 1983, and were never competitive thereafter in the AL. Poor payer development, bad free agent signings & trades, etc, defined the Brewers front office, as Bud Selig whined about needing a new stadium to be competitive. Still at County Stadium, the Brewers finished last in the AL East, 26 GB the Blue Jays led by DH Paul Molitor in 1993, their last year in the AL.

Bud Selig was MLB commissioner by that point, and the Selig family held the team until 2004-05 when it was sold to current Brewers owners Mark Attanasio for $223M. Under GM’s Doug Melvin, then David Stearns, the Brewers have become a low-payroll sustainable model for MLB. They probably can’t win a World Series, but they can win their division consistently. Most die-hard fans recognize this and that’s why the 1982 Brewers are so beloved. It’s the closest they ever got, and likely will ever get. They gave it their all, but bad luck & injuries got them in the end.

It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but being in the same state as the Green Bay Packers provides a different perspective to sports fans in Wisconsin. Cheeseheads have experienced NFL titles & Super Bowls to the extent that Vince Lombardi is on the trophy. Baby boomers & generation-X Packers fans also remember the down years of the 1970’s & 1980’s. They weren’t good, as WR James Lofton was their only great player in a long era of losing & mediocrity for the Packers. Fans still sold out every game at Lambeau, and regional TV revenue has always been strong. This was the grassroots support the Milwaukee Brewers finally tapped into in 1982.

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Trump assassination attempt in PA: Murky murky

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Sat 13 Jul 2024 08:20 PM CDT

Insane news, just breaking. Someone tried to shoot Donald Trump during a campaign rally in PA earlier this evening.  Evidentially the shooter is dead, and a rally attendee was killed. You can see someone go down in the audience to the above right of Trump after shots were fired. Trump was grazed by a bullet to his right ear, but is okay, according to reports. All this violence plays into the hands of the far right, which is why all socialists condemn assassination as a political weapon.

The US Secret Service has probably already identified the shooter, but aren’t releasing any information to the public yet. Everything is kept secretive in events like this. A narrative needs to be established (behind close doors) that doesn’t make Uncle Sam look bad before info can be released. Any unpleasant facts (ex-military, far-right, etc) will be buried, or at least overlooked in the media. This is standard operating procedure.

I was just chatting this afternoon with someone who has to work downtown next week, with all the security restrictions surrounding the Fiserv Forum & beyond. There are “red zones” you can’t go into, “pedestrian zones” surrounding that where no vehicles are allowed, etc. Parking & traffic downtown is always a problem, as everyone who lives in Milwaukee knows, and now it’s going to be much worse for the week of the RNC.

There are ~50,000 Republicans coming to town, who all think they are VIPs and demand immediate service. Everything is gonna be way worse now, after this. For instance, this could affect the ability of prostitutes to get to the major hotels and service clients. That would cause outrage among these politicians.

These streets & buildings that Milwaukee taxpayers don’t have access to for the next week are to be used for a gigantic orgy of wealth & debauchery. This shooting that Trump was a target of today is a result of his countless incitements to violence. He has himself to blame for this, but he will blame the far-left & socialists, as always.

If there’s anything crazy that ties the Trump shooter to the US military or Intelligence, it’s being deep-sixed right now. This tampering of evidence was prevalent during the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando back in 2016. The shooter’s father had ties to US Intelligence in Afghanistan. The bin Laden family was protected and flown out of the US after 9/11, etc. Controlling the information the public gets during murky events such as these prevents uncomfortable truths from becoming widely known. This censorship & withholding of facts is essential to news propaganda.

It feels like Trump has angered so many dangerous people that this was inevitable. self reflection is important here. The whole world wants to know who this asshole was, but the US Secret Service/FBI have things locked up tighter than the Virgin Mary. Where is the network reporting here? They all still have nothing and it’s nearing midnight, hours after the event. These media lapdogs are too used to being spoon-fed stories to know what to do here. National security BS. A witness says he informed agents and they just stood around as the shooter was bear crawling onto a rooftop with a rifle.

I keep mentioning the Black Hand as a powerful force that works imperceptibly to the public eye. That’s active now. Keep you eyes open & a clear head. “Two officials told The Associated Press that the shooter was not an attendee at the rally.” Officials must know the identity of the shooter to make that statement. Still nothing to the public…

Well after midnight, the shooter was finally identified to the public as Thomas Crooks, a while male age 20. He was a registered Republican.

Sun 14 Jul 2024 11:30 AM CDT

Thomas Crooks was killed by Secret Service snipers. The FBI is still keeping his motive airtight. Why? How did he get the weapon & ammo? Why did he do it? We are being kept in the dark on that by the FBI– standard procedure. Narratives were being created & crafted in the meanwhile.

Apparently in 2017, Crooks donated $15 to ActBlue a centrist-Democrat PAC. Crooks obviously drifted to the far-right since. The fake media describes ActBlue as “left-leaning,” when it is actually centrist. A 2017 donation means Crooks was age 13 when he donated $15 to the Dems. Why was this information released, instead of facts & a motive?

The concealed motive of the FBI, Biden & Trump will be to cover-up anything embarrassing and blame the left. Trump has incited & encouraged this type of violence for years, while Biden has stood silent. By all indications, this Trump shooting was blowback. The US government doesn’t want to talk about that– especially during an election.

Try to imagine being grazed in the ear by a bullet. Trump was speaking as a megalomaniac in front of his die-hard supporters when he discovered there are people who really hate him and are willing to act on that. One supporter died hard and two others are critically injured. Trump is fortunate that shooter wasn’t steady & accurate because he reacted very slowly, lowering himself to the ground awkwardly after being hit. He didn’t realize. The JFK shooters [!!] would have gotten Trump easily.

Of course, now Donald Trump is a martyr to his fanatics. Sad really. We won’t see Trump for awhile, he’s never endured such physical pain in his life. Perhaps worse is the psychological pain he can never get rid of. A near-death experience teaches you are vulnerable. It also reminds Trump he is hated. This will affect him personally & politically.

Historically, Trump is Hitler. When a group of top Wehrmacht officers tried to assassinate Adolph Hitler in July, 1944, he was injured & shaken by it. The Wehrmacht was then ruthlessly purged. Serious questions need to asked on all sides. What Thomas Crooks teaches us politically is that the Republicans are just as divided as the Democrats. Crooks was a registered Rep… killed by US Secret Service. Murky murky

Lawmakers this morning are urging people not to jump to conclusions, the FBI is on it, etc. That’s their “leadership” on this. Let’s see this kid’s social media posts, online activity, etc– PRONTO! Perhaps that would help people understand better. Where & how did he get the military assault rifle & ammo? This could be a black eye for the NRA.

Lots of security questions being covered up presently, that’s for sure. Murky murky. Ex-presidents get Secret Service protect for life. Evidentially, Trump’s assigned security team isn’t entirely enthusiastic about protecting him. Agents were told there was a threat and they apparently didn’t act. I imagine there are those who feel the same way whose job it is to protect Joe Biden.

Sun 14 Jul 2024 08:00 PM CDT

Final update: Thomas Crooks was a registered Republican who was a bullied loner, according to classmates. The political conclusion is that he took his right-wing anger & violent aggression out on the chief bully of the Republican Party. Trump is lucky the kid was a confirmed lousy shot. That’s hard for certain people to say or admit.

Joe Biden blathered on & on to us again about the importance of unity with Republicans on national TV. He did this after 1/6, but had taken the opposite position during his 2024 “campaign,” stating that Trump is a tyrant who condones violence, etc. This was Joe Biden’s political position as recently as last Thursday evening… But when this violence he encourages blows back to Trump directly, Biden is there to defend him & prop him up. It’s the ‘presidential’ thing to do. The shooter is a “monster” and Trump must be saved, that’s all we need to know.

Unasked question to Joe Biden: Why do you keep flip-flopping on Trump?

Where did Thomas Crooks get his gun & ammo? It been over 24 hours and the public still hasn’t been told. And what about his politics? The FBI, etc, absolutely know. “Don’t listen to online chatter,” we’re being told by leading politicians & pundits. Instead listen to the people who told us Jeffery Epstein committed suicide in prison. Anything else is a conspiracy theory to be ridiculed.

Trump was lucky, but a firefighter & two others weren’t. Violence begets collateral damage, which becomes propaganda. That’s where everything is going here in the fake media and both parties of capitalism. This completes the propaganda cycle and another dramatic episode in the US civil war election campaign.

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The Electric Cat: advance promo

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I have fans on all inhabited continents. My demographic is 18-24, girls & boys. The messages I receive from them are mostly, “Wow!! How come I’ve never heard of you? You’re amazing!!” These are serious young kids who have been scouring the internet for new acts, kinda like the kids who devoured the fanzines & watched MTV obsessively back in that day. My reply to them is, “I’m too good & too far left, so I’m blacklisted. Read all about it on my site.”

That’s how I’ve marketed & promoted myself over the years. Eventually the platform cuts me off from my fans as a power grab and that’s when I stop on that platform because you can do anything without a true connection to the fans. The industry rule is: there is no money for Ric Size so every platform steals my juice to pump themselves up & put me down.

In the real world, I’m blacklisted from every venue and even if I could book something, that venue would soon get pressured to drop the show. That’s the nefarious influence of the CIA Democrats. No one will pay 100% in advance, non-refundable to an artist, so I’m being unreasonable there, etc. It’s impossible for me to do business with anyone and that’s why I don’t perform live. I have covers and can do-it-all solo, but too few people in the business even respect that anymore. The fans are the ones who suffer the most. Mainstream music today sucks and it’s been that way since the late 1990’s.

With that introduction, I’d like to advance announce the latest Ric Size single, “The Electric Cat”. This is the cover image and it was created with artificial intelligence (AI) by my producer. I’ll be publishing much more on this exciting & powerful new technology.

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Artists are the culture

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Film, music & art are highly personal & aesthetic tastes. With that said, there are objective processes to all of them. It’s the objective material forces of imperialist capitalism that are acting on all artists, and what we get is a reflection of that in their work. The best artists understand imperialism from a Trotskyist perspective and can make great art that will have lasting influence. The creators of House of Cards (S1-5) are an example of great art. Those who can’t (won’t) understand the world as it really is are limited by that. That’s why most movies & television today is unwatchable.

The Velvet Underground (2021) documentary speaks about 1960’s music, art & culture. The VU, Andy Warhol, Captain Beefheart, the Stooges, Sun Ra, etc, were considered & labeled ‘subculture’ by the mainstream press & entertainment industry. But Jonas Mekas makes it clear in that film that these artists were (& still are) the culture. These are the visionaries who pushed things forward in an era of Beatles-style hippie idealism. Drummer Maureen Tucker speaks about how the VU despised naive hippies who thought they could change the world by wearing flowers in their hair & smiling at everyone. They were right.

And gay rights, that started with Andy Warhol & the VU– as Lou Reed was bisexual. David Bowie pushed through his sexuality in the 1970’s and by the end of the decade it was okay for Elton John to be gay, at least in Hollywood. These are the true artists who re-invent our culture. To carry that artistic torch, you have to be influenced by them.

Under capitalism, corporations eventually appropriate the culture (created by these mostly unattributed artists) for itself. It censors what it doesn’t like, and filters any progressive content into its propaganda through identity politics. It was female alternative-rockers & hip-hoppers in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s that established women as artistic & earning equals in music entertainment. When Madonna was attacked for “Justify my Love” and such, she became alternative-influenced and arguably made her best albums while the feminists mostly hated on her.

In sports, it was the 1999 USWNT that made ‘soccer moms’ a phenomenon that has stayed. They did it all with passion, as there was very little money. For years when the USWNT were WC champions (1991) and #1 in the world, no one knew or cared. It wasn’t any easier for race car driver Danica Patrick, who broke though by competing against men (and attracting sponsorship) for many seasons in Indycar & later NASCAR. The feminist crowd had nothing do with any of these iconic sporting moments & cultural advances, as they ignored Danica Patrick getting intentionally-wrecked weekly in NASCAR, yet they claim the be the infallible arbiters & guardians of all culture. That’s their big lie. The artists & athletes create the value, but only those who “play ball” are recognized & compensated. Corporate wins in all these cases.

By the 1990’s, the kids had gotten the message, largely through music & sports culture: men & women are equal, don’t be a gay bigot or racist Nazi skinhead, etc. Gay-themed shows started appearing on network TV making homosexuality mainstream because the kids had (largely) already accepted it, but that didn’t stop the networks from taking credit for this sudden phenomenon of gay awareness. That’s what they do.

Since then, it’s been about getting MORE rights for these elite gay, feminist & black groups, so they can be more equal than others in Orwellian doublespeak. Identity politics is about unequal rights for those making the demands. Equal rights isn’t good enough for them, and that’s the fundamental issue with all reactionaries & philistines.

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Indianapolis 500: 2024 notes

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I now watch the Indianapolis 500 annually. That event far eclipses anything NASCAR has to offer. The political purpose of the race is to promote nationalism & militarism on Memorial Day weekend. I try to block the politics out and focus on the sporting event, but that’s somewhat impossible in racing. All this high-performance machinery was developed by (& for) the military, and professional circuit racing is an ancillary of this.

People love racing, and that isn’t going to change, but I watch these spectacles to observe the spectacle in all its glory & decadence, not because I love motorsports. Going fast doesn’t appeal to me, but I do appreciate the innovation and what it can do for humanity– if it’s equally shared. When the sponsors & mouthpieces for the Indianapolis 500 talk about “tradition & respect,” they use the same tone & moral authority that Genocide Joe & university officials use to talk down to student protesters before sending in the police. With that said, it was a great race and congratulations to the winning driver & team.

As for the NBC broadcast: I love Mike Tirico, he’s the best (with Jim Nantz) so you hardly notice his corporate shilling. Danica Patrick is now becoming stiff. NBC needs her for sure, but she asks fake questions with fake interest & name-drops too much. Jimmie Johnson, who had to leave early for the Charlotte 600, wasn’t fooled. She does much better when the race starts as that’s her passion & aptitude. You can see that Danica Patrick lives entirely in an elite bubble, surrounded by security & handlers, even during the broadcast with all those fans there. Class divisions are out in the open & in your face every year at the Indianapolis 500.

One of my favorite broadcast moments was pre-race when NASCAR’s Jeff Burton was trying to explain how important it was for Kyle Larson to run in the Charlotte 600 that evening. “It could affect his playoff points,” etc. All complete nonsense, as Kyle Larson has won a race which locks him into the playoffs, and from there it’s about finishing well & winning in each round, not “bonus points” going in. I think Jeff Burton’s idea was for Kyle Larson to skip the Indy 500 when the rains came. Hilarious NASCAR stupidity & arrogance, promoting the idea that the Charlotte 600 is more important than the Indianapolis 500 to Kyle Larson. Kim Coon (whom I love) stood next to Jeff Burton, but stayed quiet on that…

Storms held off the race (and pre-race ceremonies) in Indianapolis for ~4 hours, so it’s a long day just to watch. “Adjust your schedule and do something else” is my attitude when that happens to an event I want to watch on TV. When the race finally got going, it was a mess for the first third or so. Danica Patrick correctly stated that too many drivers appeared to be too caffeinated coming out of the rain delay. For me it was like a ballplayer popping too many greenies, and then having to wait out a rain delay when wired to go. Adderall (or an equivalent) is the PED choice of professional race car drivers.

I’m getting ready for bed, and I decide to flip on Fox one last time. It’s total darkness in Charlotte and NASCAR has their jet-dryer trucks mopping up the track after a spring deluge. No sun to dry the cold, wet track; so Mike Joy & Kevin Harvick (love them both) are talking about the Ricky Stenhouse Jr/Kyle Busch team fight last week and how NASCAR promoted it to the point where no one remembers who won the million dollar All-Star race. I’m thinking, “They’ve run over half the race, why haven’t they called it? They can’t get this track dry! No bleeping way I’m waiting for the ‘re-start’ they are promising fans. Christopher Bell is the winner of the rain-shortened Charlotte 600.” Click.

I wake up Monday morning, and check ESPN dot com to learn they called the race sometime after. This was all about Kyle Larsen getting into his car and driving laps at Charlotte. That (& the fight) are the only things NASCAR old-guard cared about promoting on Memorial Day weekend. Having some “sports sense” will tell you when a story is over and thus spare you the agony of staying up late for nothing, such as the finish of the 2024 Charlotte 600 with Kyle Larson running laps.

Kyle Larson’s performance illustrated the difference in competitiveness between Indycar & NASCAR. If you make a mistake which sends you to the back, you are finished in Indycar. In NASCAR, Kyle Busch & Denny Hamlin are regularly caught speeding on pit road, etc, and are sent to the back of the field, but they always get right back up front after not-too-long because their cars are so much faster than two-thirds of the grid.

At Indy yesterday, we saw a few engines blowout & some rookie mistakes in the back, but you had to have a great car with not too many driver mistakes just to be top-20. Kyle Larson was busted for pit road speeding and that took him from top-5-ish, to a lap down and he finished 18th. Actually, it was a very good performance for a rookie at the Indianapolis 500, but NASCAR is humbled by it. He’ll try again next year. NASCAR hates it on a certain level which I’ve explained, but they also recognize how it helps them so there’s nothing they can do to stop him.

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Graham Parker @ Shank Hall

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Graham Parker is playing a solo set for his Last Chance to Learn the Twist (2023) tour. He played 4-5 songs from his latest album (“It Mattered to Me”, “We Did Nothing”, “Lost Track of Time”, “Them Bugs”), then one song from the rest of his records. For this set is was “Back to School Days” from Howlin’ Wind (1976), “That’s What They All Say” from Heat Treatment (1976), title track from Stick To Me (1977), “Discovering Japan” from Squeezing Out Sparks, (1979), etc. I’m a fan, but don’t have all his records, so when he introduces songs from Up The Escalator (1980) and Steady Nerves (1985) I’m basically hearing them for the first time and they are holding up with the rest. I’m saying to myself, “I’ve got to get the rest of his records,” and that hasn’t happened to me in a long time.

I’ve been to a lot of shows in my life and seen many great bands & performers, but the truth is most live shows disappoint in many respects. Often the performance isn’t good, and doesn’t reflect the standard set with their studio versions, videos, etc. Most bands & acts need a great producer to prop them up a bit. It’s one thing to be able to record yourself well, it’s another thing to translate that into a live performance that commands an audience. Graham Parker does all that & more.

Shank Hall is general admission, doors at 7:00, show at 8:00– and yes, there are Spinal Tap (1984) reminders all over the place. Legendary venue. I arrive just before the doors open and there’s already a line of a dozen people. Mostly men, my age or older. Once you’re in you can sit anywhere and the people ahead of me mostly go for the tables. I let everyone go ahead, then walk down to the front row and select the chair directly in front of the microphone. Best seat in the house. I order a Guinness and relax. More people now start seating themselves up front.

Graham Parker’s set-up is a telecaster electric (not electrical!) guitar plugged into a Fender combo amplifier that is microphoned to the house PA. He uses one effect box, which I didn’t identify. He came out on stage with an acoustic/electric guitar that fed into the house soundboard, while wearing a harmonica rack– ala Bob Dylan. He substitutes a kazoo for harmonica on an encore number “Them Bugs” that brought the house down.

I have tried the harmonica rack in the past for live performance, and I can tell you it is one of the most difficult things to well as a rock musician. It’s extremely difficult to get comfortable on stage when your strapped in with that thing, as you feel like a restricted paraplegic. You can’t dance around to distract the audience or naturally to release tension. You have to be completely into the music and focus everything on delivering the song no matter how uncomfortable you are feeling. Graham Parker does this very well and makes it look relatively easy, which is quite a trick.

Graham Parker has the magic, by that I mean he can focus his songwriting spirit, singing voice, guitar playing & (when necessary) harmonica playing into one sound which fills up the room & captivates the audience. I’ve never witnessed an original rock performer who was more relaxed and 100% sure of themselves than Graham Parker. That is a total artist.

There are two basic situations which make it difficult to relax on stage. First is if you have a tough crowd and no friends in the room. You have to handle that FAST, otherwise you’ll get run off stage. I’m sure Graham Parker has dealt with that in the past and knows what to do. You have to have a chip on your shoulder and then let it rip. If you can do that, you can play anywhere.

The other case where it’s tough to get comfortable on stage is when the crowd loves you. There’s a lot of excitement & anticipation which infects the audience, and the artist feels this. That is perhaps an even tougher pressure to deal with, because you’re fighting yourself. You want to do well for this crowd that adores you and expects a great show. It’s very tough to relax and live up to those expectations. I’ve never seen anyone handle that better.

Graham Parker didn’t even play 20% of his best songs, and everyone (newbies & longtime fans) left that show saying to themselves, “That guy is amazing, I definitely underrated him!” Graham Parker played for 90 minutes, and performed about 20 songs– 4-5 from his new album, and 15 classics he decided he wanted to play that night. What that means is that his next show where he still promotes his new songs (as he should), he can play 15 entirely different songs from his catalog of classics and that show will be just as good. He can do this at least 2-3 more times before he runs dry or starts repeating. How many artists can you name who can do that? There are very few, and most of them are dead. Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello & Thurston Moore are among the living artists who are in Graham Parker’s class.

This leads to another point, which I had in discussion with a longtime fan before the show. You have to survive to be this great, and that’s not easy. The music industry will kill you, and few know this better than Graham Parker. You can hear it in his music. There’s always an intellect working and the music has soul. This no longer exists in the music industry because everything revolves around superstar performers like Taylor Swift & Beyonce. Nothing exciting or original can be allowed to interfere with these mega-releases. The industry can’t afford that, so there are no original rock bands anymore, and songwriting has been pushed to the side in favor of American Idol winners.

I can’t imagine Graham Parker kissing Simon Cowell’s ring in order to get a record deal. I don’t think it would happen, and furthermore I know it wouldn’t work. A young songwriter like Graham Parker isn’t allowed to exist in the music industry today. The corporate blacklist on originality & meaningfulness in music is complete. So for all these reasons, I highly recommend Graham Parker in concert. The title of his latest record leads one to believe there may not be many chances left to see such a true artistic genius as his. Don’t miss it.

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Bond Market backs Trump

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Digital World Asset Company (DWAC) is the blank check company that partnered with Donald Trump for his IPO of Truth Social– the shitshow social media platform he formed after he was banned from Twitter & Facebook for his coup attempt on Jan 6, 2021. A blank check company is a publicly traded company that has no operations or assets at the time of its IPO. Also known as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), these are people with money to burn and no ideas of their own, but always with a political axe to grind. That axe is being sharpened to cut down working class opposition to fascism, which is the billionaire class preference over Genocide Joe Biden.

Truth Social (DJT) reaches <2% of Americans, and by all metrics it is hemorrhaging active users. Truth Social lost over $50M last year, and only had $5M in total revenue. Five million dollars is a fair measure of what Donald Trump’s grassroots support is worth in a year. But as always, it is the cost of Donald Trump that decisively outweighs any of his cash flow.

Trump Social (DJT) as a publicly traded company is grossly overvalued & insanely out-of-proportion with its underlining business metrics– because of politics. Trump reportedly owns about 79 million shares of Trump Media, 70% of the total. Trump Media stock closed at $57.99 on Tuesday, March 26, giving the company a market value of roughly $8 billion. That is the bond market speaking. Donald Trump will not be threatened with asset seizure, prison time, etc, due to debts he can’t pay. The bond market backs Trump. That eight billion bucks surely isn’t coming from his grassroots supporters.

In an illuminating side note, one of the partners in the deal, Patrick Orlando the former CEO of Digital World is already suing Trump, claimed he was short-changed. Patrick Orlando, Digital World, and Trump Media are all “no comment” on this– it’s a ruling class affair. After the deal was signed last October, Trump fired CEO Patrick Orlando, changed the company name to Trump Media, and replaced its board of directors with Trump loyalists. The SEC approved the Trump-Digital World merger last month.

According to the bond market, the “leftist” credentials of Bernie Sanders, AOC, etc, have been worn out, and Joe Biden doesn’t inspire any confidence, so it’s time to prepare for fascism in the form of Donald Trump.

There is no need to talk of the Republican Party anymore. Republicans are now the Trump Party, which is the right-wing, anti-science lunatic fringe. Donald Trump has purged the entire Republican Party of those deemed insufficiently loyal, and is in control of its political machinery & bank accounts. It’s the Trump Party & the Democrats now.

The right-wing “independent” campaign of RFK, Jr represents more of a ballot-box threat to the Trump campaign than to Joe Biden & his Democrats. It’s the Democratic Party that is going after the RFK, Jr campaign with everything it has got because their job is to disorient the working class and pave the way for Trump. Democrats are always moving to the right.

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Bibi & the bond market

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In Israel, at least one-third of Jews oppose Bibi & his criminal Zionist regime. Anti-semitism is defined as hated & persecution of Jews. Jews in Israel who oppose Zionism are branded ‘antisemitic’ in the Western propaganda media, which is nonsense. Jews for peace in Israel are dismissed & marginalized because they don’t correspond to the interests of Western imperialism.

Photo credit: Matty STERN/U.S. Embassy Jerusalem

Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu is a Jew who is a Zionist. Bibi is a criminal because he is the leader of a reactionary tendency that uses the Holocaust as political cover for genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. This is a class issue– first & foremost. Bourgeois politicians & its corporate media partners are the capitalist class that consciously introduces nationalism, racism, religious fanaticism, feminism & sexual orientation into politics– as a tool to divide & disorient the international working class.

You may have seen the term “left anti-semitism” come into the fake media recently. To start, “left anti-semitism” is an oxymoron, a political big lie. It is the technique of the Black Hand– the elitist hidden class that runs US intelligence & the military through Wall Street finance.

Current US national debt is over $34.5T. This debt created & inflated the global bond market, the most powerful expression of capitalism. The bond market is all-powerful & can not be defied under capitalism. The bond market decides US elections long before voters go to the polls in November. But when a revolutionary & united international working class says, “We the working people of the United States & the rest of the world, are canceling all monies owed to the super-rich and declare ourselves debt free,” that will kill the bond market. That’s a revolution. The rest is BS.

For those who ask (and I’ve been asked), hyperinflation is defined as rapidly rising inflation, typically measuring more than 50% per month. Right now inflation in the US (depending of whose numbers you read) is 5-10% annually. If US inflation reaches even 20% annually, there will be masses in the streets demanding serious change, because most people can’t afford even those price increases.

Hyperinflation happens in the third world, with Turkey being the latest example. The third world is where the US State Department & CIA exert their nefarious influence to make sure things don’t get out of control as far as workers organizing, etc– all under the banner of “fighting communism.” This keeps Wall Street happy, and makes sure the trains run on time.

The main issue with inflation is workers’ wages, which aren’t keeping up with the cost-of-living. The Federal Reserve Bank has tools to prevent runaway inflation through interest rate hikes, but this cools the economy by putting people out-of-work, which increases the available labor pool and thus suppresses workers’ wages. This is a downward spiral for which bourgeois economists & politicians have no answer.

One last point, whenever you read the Fed is “fighting inflation” by raising interest rates, what they really mean is they are trying to control the inflation of workers’ wages. The price of sellable goods going up (traditional inflation) means more money for corporate, which is good according to the Fed. But a rise in workers’ wages cuts into corporate profits, and therefore is unacceptable “inflation” which must be squashed.

You can not defy the bond market or the Federal Reserve Bank, which transcend political parties & their puppets. You can’t protest against it to any effect. This financial oligarchic set-up is the real power that is oppressing humanity & destroying our planet. You can’t compete playing their game, because everything is rigged for them to win, until everyone loses.

Organize the revolution by thinking outside-the-box. Assume that 100% of what you see & hear in the corporate news is fake. Learn to understand the motive behind the lies, and ask out loud, “Who benefits?” These corrupt institutions, which control the critical levers of capitalist power, rely on being hidden & unaccountable. As soon as sunshine is cast upon their numerous misdeeds, they lose their moral authority to rule.

Political philistines have this notion that revolutionary leaders are the ones who browbeat politicians, chant slogans at rallies, or bang their fists in fury in the tradition of Che Guevara, when history has proven that to be a reactionary dead end. Revolutions aren’t negotiated by liberals and they don’t come from a gun barrel, although guns are always necessary to defend revolutions against liberals who are with the fascist bourgeoisie trying to strangle it.

The bourgeoisie will always seek to attack & kill revolutions with all their venom & hatred, and this must be met with firm & unwavering workers’ resistance with a will-to-win in permanence. Revolutionaries are the ones who educate people by telling them the truth in all things. This has always been the true definition of a revolutionary.

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Talkin’ Padres 2024 hot stove

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TRADE DETAILS
Padres receive: RHP Dylan Cease
White Sox receive: RHP Drew Thorpe (MLB Pipeline’s No. 85 prospect; SD No. 5), OF Samuel Zavala (SD No. 7), RHP Jairo Iriarte (SD No. 8), RHP Steven Wilson

Love this deal consummated yesterday for the San Diego Padres. AJ Preller used the top pitching prospect he didn’t like in the Juan Soto deal (Drew Thorpe) as a primary trade chip to acquire a front-of-the-rotation starter. RHP Dylan Cease is not as good as Corbin Burnes, but the Padres get two years of affordable team control without surrendering their top prospects.

Padres gave up three prospects and a reliever in the deal: RHP Drew Thorpe, a high floor soft-tossing top 100 pitcher with a 3rd starter ceiling; RHP Jairo Iriarte, a riskier high-ceiling top 100 pitcher and the key to this deal for the White Sox; OF Samuel Zavala, a 19yo lottery ticket; RHP Steven Wilson, a decent cheap reliever. If you are interested in winning, you would rather have Dylan Cease than what the Padres gave up.

This keeps the Padres competitive AND under the luxury tax, so they can reset after splurging and coming up snake eyes. Teams pay huge penalty amounts for being over certain tiers of payroll, and it’s difficult to get back under without tearing a team apart. For example, in 2020 the Red Sox traded RF Mookie Betts to the Dodgers and dumped LHP David Price as part of the deal. Red Sox ownership was no longer willing to pay the penalty for being over the payroll threshold, especially for a team that didn’t win. Red Sox haven’t been competitive since and currently are a mess.

Splurging in free agency sure ain’t what it used to be. Teams lose multiple draft choices and/or international draft money for signing free agents that rejected qualifying offers, especially when the signing team is over certain team-payroll tiers. That’s why the Yankees are locked-in with ace RHP Gerrit Cole now on the IL for ~3 months. GM Brian Cashman can’t sign LHP Blake Snell even though they desperately need him after losing out on Cease. The Yankees luxury tax on any Blake Snell contract would be 110%, meaning if they offer him $30M/year, the Yankees must also pay MLB another $33M in tax penalty. Plus, they lose their 2nd & 5th round amateur draft picks in the 2024 & international draft money [!].

That hurts, and it’s what happens when you spend yourself into a corner. What really hurts the Yankees is the Padres using trade capital (Drew Thorpe) from the Juan Soto deal to get Cease. If the NYY pitching staff falls apart, Soto is long gone after 2024. Padres dumped Juan Soto to the Yankees (because they had to) and acquired three pitchers who are going to fill out their 2024 rotation in Micheal King, Jhony Brito & Randy Vásquez. C Kyle Higashioka for CF Trent Grisham was an even swap based on the Padres need for a reliable veteran catcher; and Drew Thorpe reduced the Padres organizational cost of acquiring Dylan Cease to flame-throwing pitching prospect Jairo Iriarte.

The DSG bankruptcy in 2023 cost the Padres an estimated $60-80M in TV revenue, and caused them to operate at a financial loss of over $50M for the season. The death of majority owner Peter Seidler after last season reset the Padres onto a ‘get younger & cheaper’ trajectory. Padres GM grade: A+

The Padres are replacing veterans they lost with younger players, especially on the pitching side. The only opening day hole that remains is LF after trading Juan Soto, the rest they are filling internally. They even filled their manager vacancy internally, which I like.

Several years ago the Padres had the consensus ‘best farm system’ in baseball, but only Fernando Tatis Jr remains from that crop. The rest of those prospects were traded and most disappointed. This time around the Padres have drafted better & improved their player development, yielding a farm system that can feed more of its own talent onto their big league roster instead of becoming exclusively trade chips. It’s all about developing young talent in a way that helps a team win. It helps there is an organizational foundation now, because when AJ Preller arrived in San Diego there was little-to-nothing.

Trading Juan Soto to the Yankees helps the Padres because they won’t have the “will Soto resign” questions all season which was a distraction for the team in 2023. The Yankees get that headache in 2024. LHP Blake Snell was reportedly offered a 6-year deal at $28M/year by the Yankees in December, but refused it on the advice of his agent Scott Boras. Yankees then pivoted to RHP Marcus Stroman on a shorter deal.

Yankees, Giants, Angels & Rangers have been reported as being interested in the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, but no team wants to give up draft picks and international pool money for him on a short-term free agent deal, and no team will match the Yankees earlier offer for Snell. That’s how a professional athlete overplays his hand in looking for the big payday while not understanding the market and letting greed go to his head.

Those teams I listed as being in on Snell are it. Padres, Cubs, Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers are all taking a pass. No other teams are interested because 1) too expensive in dollars/win, and/or 2) too costly in draft capital. For what it costs in draft capital, you have to get at least a 4-year deal on Blake Snell. Maybe $20M/year at this point. Snell says he prefers the Angels. Rangers, Giants (& Yankees) need him more. Significant risk he busts.

If Blake Snell really wants to be an Angel, then he shouldn’t have retained Scott Boras (pic above) as his agent. Boras clients (Juan Soto, etc) go where the money is highest. I feel like Blake Snell is yet another case of an elite-level athlete who is very confused and it’s costing him dearly. At this point, he needs to think outside the box, possibly a deferred money deal like Shohei Ohtani with the Dodgers.

As a bookend, this is the first significant trade AJ Preller has made with the White Sox since he dumped RHP James Shields in 2016, eating half his remaining contract to get a prospect to go with injured LHP Erik Johnson. AJ Preller selected a recent international signee, not yet ranked on any organizational prospect list– Fernando Tatis, Jr and the White Sox agreed to it. Before long ESPN was asking, “Who is Fernando Tatis, Jr?” and that was the LAST time an old-school MLB franchise got robbed of a generational prospect. So it is fitting that the White Sox firesale from this failed era ends with AJ Preller getting just what he needs at a price he likes.

This winter I read a series of articles on Fangraphs written by their prospect guru Eric Longenhagen. For the record, I respect his method & scouting reports for young players whom I can’t see personally and don’t have time (or inclination) to research. One thing Eric Longenhagen admitted (that I very much agree with) is that player/prospect evaluation in the minors has taken a quantum leap in the last 5-10 years. It used to be so much guesswork and biased opinions of old school scouts, where now there is more raw data & video out there that can be analyzed & used.

This is good because it used to be that organizations such as the Yankees, Red Sox & Dodgers could hype their latest top prospects on TV and thus fool rival GMs into thinking they were better than they actually were. Today, input from analytic understanding fans on social media & blog sites won’t allow that crap to gain traction.

Prospect rankings are much more of a science now, with the clear understanding that a few organizations have outstanding farm systems, while most will be mediocre, spotty, or weak. Top prospects across organizations aren’t equal and depth is just as important in terms of winning. Top talent is identified more readily in this ‘stathead fan’ era, but sleepers still do exist, and that’s a GM focal point in most player-for-prospects deals.

It’s not that teams are less willing to trade prospects today, it’s teams valuing their prospects more correctly (more highly) than in the past. It started for real when the 2016-17 hot stove season froze out non-superstar free agents, and the analytic ‘Moneyball’ philosophy was proven correct. Young players were more highly valued by most GMs by then, and so the market for veteran free agents cratered. Guys who thought they were getting 4/$80M were settling for 2/$16M or 1/$8M. Free agents who refused qualifying offers were shunned by a majority of teams that valued draft picks & young prospects above expensive veterans.

There was huge player anger at MLBPA leader Tony Clark in spring training 2017 for him signing CBA’s (since 2003 when tax thresholds were first set) that allowed a de facto salary cap on free agents through a Competitive Balance Tax (CBT) on team payrolls by MLB. A competitive balance or luxury tax was first levied upon the five highest-payroll teams from 1997 to 1999, in response to Florida Marlins ownership buying a World Series in 1997 and then selling off the team before Opening Day 1998. That was a wild card team that got hot in October and so their title wasn’t respected by many baseball purists.

In the 2000’s a system was put in place to ensure the biggest spenders would eventually be reigned in by CBT penalties, while the pretenders could collect MLB revenue sharing and be profitable with 90-100 losses per season. Commissioner (and former Brewers owner) Bud Selig was hailed as a genius for this and installed into the HoF for keep the peace among the owners during this boom period in MLB revenue due to satellite TV & internet streaming.

What the old system of MLB free agency (1977- 2002) always relied upon was another willing spender. Today, at least a third of MLB franchises are in survival mode. The A’s don’t have a home, Marlins never draw, Rockies can’t develop pitchers at high altitude, Brewers, Pirates, Reds, White Sox, Tigers, Royals have cheap owners… When a top talent goes on the market, it’s always the same teams getting the cream. The smartest teams budget & plan for it.

The Rays are the best at developing and dealing their young talent. Rays say they can’t afford to pay top arbitration salary, so they deal early and look for sleepers in other systems they’ve scouted. They are the best at the modern Moneyball game. Everybody respects them, but they never quite have enough in October. The last homegrown ‘small-market’ team that won it all was the Royals in 2015. That was less than ten years ago and yet that era of baseball seems a lifetime away.

It’s fear that drives many of these decisions. Fear of being wrong and crucified in the media & on social media. Fear of losing your job. GMs who operate based on fear are doomed. You can’t win like that. It’s the boldest and most ruthless organizations that are able to exploit the fears of those who are just happy to survive. In between the haves and have-nots, there are a few interesting teams like the Rays, Orioles & Diamondbacks who know what they are doing. It makes this unpredictable game more predictable than ever in terms of who will win in 2024. Is that progress? It depends on who you ask.

Tue 19 Mar 2024 10:30 AM CDT

MLB sources now report that LHP Blake Snell is about to sign a 2-year contract worth $62M, with a player opt-out after 2024. Blake Snell rejected a QO from the Padres, so the Giants will lose their third-round draft pick in 2024, as well as $500,000 from their international bonus pool for the upcoming signing period. San Francisco had already forfeited its second-round pick (and international pool $) after signing 3B Matt Chapman, who declined a qualifying offer from the Blue Jays.

For the Giants, this is an expensive price to pay for what could be one year of Blake Snell. If Snell pitches well in 2024, he can re-enter the free agent market and try his luck again, without a QO tag attached to him. If Snell pitches poorly this year, he will pick up his (overpriced) 2025 option. That $31M option for 2025 makes Blake Snell tougher to trade at the Aug 1 deadline if things fall apart for the Giants in 2024. They would have to eat significant contract to deal him for any prospect value in return. Deals that are so costly, and lock a franchise in like this, are extremely risky. That’s why most teams stayed away.

Blake Snell didn’t get the long-term deal he was seeking because he played his cards poorly, and/or he was never serious about joining the Yankees. He didn’t wind up with the Angels either, which was his preferred destination. Most MLB players who are fortunate enough to reach free agency, only get one chance to negotiate a deal of a lifetime and Blake Snell blew it with Scott Boras as his agent.

The only way the Giants can win this deal is if Blake Snell pitches great and leads them on a deep post-season run. Every other scenario pans out with the Giants losing value & paying the price. When you do risk assessment as a GM, this screams, “DON’T DO IT”, but teams can’t help themselves. They have billionaire owners who want to win, pushing the front office to foolishly go for it when it’s a bad risk, which if it fails will set the organization back. That’s what Scott Boras & MLBPA executives have always counted on, but it’s getting harder to pull off. That’s the current dynamic in MLB.

Final thoughts: If QO free agents can’t find the long-term deal they are seeking, the next-best option is to take a 1-year deal for maximum money with a player option for a second year in case they have a bad season or get hurt. Teams have WAR/$ projections, injury risk analysis, etc, for every MLB player, so coveted players really don’t need an agent to represent them. Players simply need to understand their true value– warts and all (particularly the QO tag)– to determine what the market is and what they can get.

Scott Boras & the MLBPA executives represent the star players (& now top prospects) of MLB. The young players & non-star players are the majority who sacrifice themselves the most for these superstar salaries & MLB owner profits. Most MLB players are well-underpaid for their first 6 years, and since 2017-18 they have been squeezed in free agency, as it is well understood that (in most cases) veterans can be adequately replaced with younger cheaper players. This is how MLB free agent salaries have been driven down for the majority of the players, while a thin layer of superstars get mega-deal$.

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