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Intersecting Hollywood dramas & documentary filmmaking

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I have written previously that the 21st century is the beginning of the golden age of documentary filmmaking. The internet now provides ambitious artists with the means & material necessary to make a movie on any subject, and distribution is more readily available. This means the rules have changed, and of course the Hollywood film industry doesn’t like this. In fact, it is fighting this with everything they’ve got as Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now their main tool (weapon) of choice in creating new dramatic films.

But technical gadgetry & AI special effects can only take filmmaking so far, and its limitations are already being reached. The quality of Hollywood films now is generally poor. Audiences who thirst for challenging & stimulating content aren’t finding it in the multiplexes, whose vapid content is generally a form of dumbed-down propaganda.

Sports movies: a critical analysis

Hollywood sports movies are generally disappointing because they fail to capture the “spirit of the game,” emphasizing fictitious drama over hard realities. See Moneyball (2011), perhaps the best baseball book ever published (2003), which became a watered-down sports-drama starring Brad Pitt. Actors aren’t professional athletes, and their attempts to portray them are usually unconvincing & clichéd.

To this movie-lover, the best Hollywood sports movies are The Longest Yard (1974), Bull Durham (1988), and The Great White Hype (1996), which had engaging scripts revealing a deep respect & understanding of that particular sport. Most of the rest of Hollywood sports movies are lame-to-unwatchable because they lack these qualities. Note that this phenomenon also applies to films about musicians & artists. Documentaries on such subjects are almost always more worthwhile because of the authentic footage, voices & artistry on display. Hollywood sports flicks suffer from a lack of genuineness created by an inherent weakness in these types of movies that few filmmakers can overcome.

The difference from other subjects of Hollywood films is that the public is usually very familiar with celebrity athletes, sports, music, etc, so the audience is harder to fool on the big screen. Movies are about creating an ‘illusion of reality’ with scripts, actors, special effects, etc. Network (1976) & House of Cards (2013-2017) are brilliant examples of bringing political reality to life through film fiction. Politicians & business executives generally hide their intentions & actions, so Hollywood filmmakers can exploit that gap in understanding more readily & effectively because the public is often unaware of these realities. Conversely, sports are rabidly followed by the masses, and thus their level of comprehension is far greater from the start, which makes sports movies unsatisfying to many movie buffs, especially sports fans.

War movies: documentaries vs dramatic re-enactment

War movies are an area of filmmaking that provide room for Hollywood-type dramatization and documentaries to be artistically successful. This is because the subject is far too broad for just one genre to tell the whole story. The best documentaries on war include The World at War (1973), a 26-part UK production on WWII narrated by Laurence Olivier. The authentic footage & participant interviews are its greatest strengths. But what is missing are the individual acts of bravery, heroism & drama, and that’s where dramatic films can fill in the gaps.

Das Boot (1981) is a German/UK production on the life of a German U-boat crew in 1943, a perilous time for these sailors. It has riveting action & drama, bringing their terror to life on the big screen. The World at War has a chapter titled “U-boats in the Atlantic,” which relates the objectives, strategies and history of this war theater. The U-boats had the potential to win the war for Nazi Germany if Hitler had used them properly, and it wasn’t until mid-1943 that the Allies solved the U-boat problem by exploiting aircraft with radar. This is an instructive filmmaking example of a documentary & a fictional thriller complimenting each other. If you’ve seen them both, then you have a much greater understanding of the subject from both a military & human perspective.

Midway (1976) is a Hollywood war movie that splices actual US Naval war footage with dramatic Hollywood filmmaking. The Navy war footage was shot in 16mm, and then blown up to 35mm and weaved into the fictional drama. This movie has many stars, but the editing-in of authentic war footage is what makes it all come together. Film clips from war dramas 30 Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) & Tora Tora Tora (1970) were also used, along with newly shot warbird & aircraft carrier footage at sea. Miniature models were filmed on a lake in California to great effect for recreating the destruction of the Japanese carrier fleet at Midway in June 1942. Midway is one of the best Hollywood war movies because of how it edits authentic Naval footage with dramatic film scripting.

Ken Burns best documentary project is arguably The Vietnam War (2017), and probably the best film on the subject to date. In the Year of the Pig (1968) is the other essential Vietnam War documentary. Many dramatic Hollywood Vietnam War movies had been made previously, the most notable & popular include: Apocalypse Now (1979), Platoon (1986) & Full Metal Jacket (1987). Until Ken Burns’ definitive documentary, these Hollywood productions were among the best film documents on the subject. What Ken Burns did was to render these Hollywood productions less important by creating a definitive documentary. Apocalypse Now and Platoon no longer have the impact they did when they were released because a documentary has artistically eclipsed them.

What this process reveals is that just about any important film subject (based on non-fictional events) needs a definitive documentary, and when it is made, it renders all Hollywood dramas on the subject less vital. This is a dialectical process of discovering truth, first through fictional drama, then through documentary authentication. This is why documentary filmmaking is the true future of movies as an artform.

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WNBA CBA issues coming this fall

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The WNBA is now a speculative bubble, and the only way players can significantly increase their salaries is to take ownership of the league for themselves. Expansion fees are now so high that owners won’t agree to any significant payroll increases during the next CBA negotiations starting this October. WNBA expansion fees for the newest franchises in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia were $250 million each, compared to $50 million paid by the Golden State Valkyries who began play this season.

How can the new owners in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia afford payroll increases with a $250 million entry fee? They can’t. Therefore that franchise value must go to the players who create the league value, otherwise the disparity between ownership revenues and players’ salaries will become highly contentious, threatening a destructive labor stoppage. The NFL, MLB & NBA have all experienced work stoppages in the past which hurt their leagues. At this crucial point in its development, the WNBA can ill-afford one itself, yet that is where it is heading.

WNBA franchise valuations have ballooned, with the average team value jumping from $96 million in 2024 to $269 million in 2025, according to GoLocalProv, a 280% increase in value in just one year [!]. The jump in WNBA valuation is entirely attributable to irrational exuberance & TV money, as the WNBA has secured a new media rights deal worth $2.2 billion over 11 years.

Caitlin Clark (2025 averages: 16.5 pts, 5.0 reb, 8.8 asst, 1.6 stl), personifies the irrational exuberance, as she has become the face of the league. Caitlin Clark adds value to the WNBA because: 1) she’s a transformative basketball player, and 2) she’s white– not necessarily in that order. The racialist aspect of this is not a good sign for the WNBA. Note that this is not Caitlin Clark’s fault, it’s the fault of ESPN and the media executives who encourage this.

WNBA minimum salary for players with 0-2 years of experience is $66,079, while players with 3+ years of experience have a minimum salary of $78,831 for the 2025 season. The highest-paid players can earn the super maximum salary, which is currently around $241,984, according to ESPN. The players naturally want a bigger piece of the pie as the league grows, but it is likely that the WNBA has already had its biggest growth spurt. It’s impossible to keep growing at a rate of 280% per year. The only other industry that does that is crypto.

So what the WNBA players face is a political choice of insisting on owning their league, or being salary-stunted by traditional ownership. “Pay us what you owe us” is an empty protest that will fall on deaf ears, as owners want to make money, and with such a high WNBA start-up cost the only way to do that is for owners to keep players’ salaries depressed. The only fair solution is for the players to become owners in the franchises they play for, as that’s where the money is.

But instead, the WNBA players have taken up a protest campaign, which may rally some support initially, but history shows that when the CBA negotiations come around, fans won’t be so sympathetic. Sports is entertainment, nothing more, and if these WNBA players strike over salaries that are already higher than what many fans make, they will be seen as greedy & selfish, just like the MLB players in 1994, the NFL players in 1987, etc.

When this much money is involved, it becomes a Marxist issue of worker control over production vs. exploitation. Instead of complaining about this unfairness, WNBA players need to take control of their game by becoming owners themselves, otherwise they will get cut out of the profits and be castigated by casual fans who view striking players as unappreciative of their privilege.

After all, sports is entertainment, and fans can turn off the TV and do/watch something else anytime they feel like it. What basketball players do isn’t essential, so the only way working people & youth (the vast majority of their fans) will get behind them is if they take a revolutionary stance at the next CBA– demonstrating actual leadership against ownership oppression. Any other position is acquiescence to the status quo, which inspires no one and is a losing proposition for the players.

NFLPA corruption: A serious lesson for the WNBA players

When it comes to representation in CBA negotiating, the WNBA players would be well advised to look at the current NFLPA situation where union representatives withheld evidence of ownership collusion from the players after QB Deshaun Watson signed a five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million contract in March 2022. Owners clearly colluded to suppress NFL player contracts after that deal and the players weren’t informed of this by their union representatives after evidence came to light in the courts. The NFLPA kept ownership collusion a secret from the NFL players for three years, until ESPN reporter Pablo Torre, broke the story a few weeks ago.

Union representatives who aren’t rank-and-file members, in any industry including the WNBA, are tools of management & ownership whose job is to keep labor in line and working for suppressed wages. These union representatives are nothing more than well-paid lackeys who collaborate with ownership to maintain their cushy jobs, salaries & benefits. This applies to teachers, auto & factory workers, municipal employees, etc.

This is why the emerging WNBA CBA is now a cutting edge sports issue. The WNBA’s new found success presents the current players with an opportunity to take control of their industry by representing themselves. For this they need to be a united fist of rank-and-file players, insisting on a fair stake in ownership, otherwise they will eventually be crushed by ownership duplicity with union/management collaboration.

These same issues apply to every industry globally, but they are more highlighted here because because sports gets so much media attention. WNBA players taking control of their negotiations and insisting on becoming the owners of the game they’ve created & built themselves is the key to a labor victory for the players. It is the only way to garner lasting public support for their cause without alienating their fans.

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The Jeffrey Epstein cover-up & MeToo campaign complicity

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The Epstein ‘client list’ which had been promised to be revealed by Donald Trump has now been officially denied by Attorney General Pam Bondi. The public outrage over this ranges from grassroots MAGA Trump supporters who feel they’ve been lied to, to everyday people who want justice for these crimes of pedophilia & sex trafficking. What has been notable this past week has been the silence from the MeToo campaign, which purportedly claims to be protecting women from such predators.

The fact is the MeToo campaign is a political tool of the Democrats who have no interest in exposing Jeffery Epstein’s client list, as many of its supporters and party members were connected to this criminality. Bill Clinton, Donald Trump & Prince Andrew are among the most prominent names on that undisclosed list, which now officially doesn’t exist.

Most people with any intellectual faculty believe Jeffery Epstein was murdered in prison in August 2019, and everything since has been a FBI cover-up. The MeToo campaign which came to prominence in November 2017 has made no statements on the recent government denials of any Epstein client list. How is this to be explained?

The MeToo campaign is an attack dog used by the Democratic Party to silence left-wing artists & political dissent. It uses terms such as safe space for women to justify attacking men, particularly working class straight white men. For nearly a decade it’s been a propaganda war, with MeToo claiming women are always the victims, women are always to be believed, facts don’t matter, etc.

But this propaganda only holds true for MeToo when accusing someone outside the ruling elite. Within the ruling class lurks the most dangerous sexual predators who are protected by their wealth & privilege, and MeToo has shown no interest in prosecuting those individuals. A Google search of ‘MeToo & Jeffery Epstein’ shows no recent articles.

MeToo is the political flipside of MAGA Trump racism & sexism. MeToo is meant to attack & divide working people, through toxic feminism, while offering no real justice against those sex offenders who are most dangerous to the public. MeToo prosecutions are always politically motivated to silence any real dissent on the left.

The MeToo campaign began in earnest with taking down Kevin Spacey on false sexual assault charges because of his role in House of Cards (2013-2017, season 1-5), a powerful political streaming series on Netflix that educated viewers on the inner workings of government corruption at the highest levels. This revealing series had become intolerable to the ruling establishment. After Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016, MeToo became a primary propaganda vehicle for the Democratic Party in its attacks on leftist figures.

MeToo claims to be a movement, but there is no popular support for this reactionary feminism which has nothing to do with equality & justice. The MeToo campaign is really about Democratic Party led feminist oppression of men and deflecting the blame for its own political & social criminality. It’s a tired act based on false narratives.

MeToo is largely despised by the public at this point. Democratic Party DEI initiatives dovetailed with the MeToo campaign to create a reactionary climate where white supremacists could reasonably claim they were being discriminated against, thus creating a social groundswell for Trump’s politics. This was a major reason Biden/Harris lost to a fascist in 2024.

The MeToo campaign has nothing progressive to offer. It is a slander campaign meant to intimidate & subdue the masses through false narratives & political intimidation. Exposing MeToo lies gets you branded as a ‘woman hater’, the same way those protesting Zionist genocide of the Palestinian population are slandered as ‘antisemites’. MeToo is a slander campaign with ruling class bias, attacking the truth while protecting class privilege.

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The Blend

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In musical artistic terms “the blend” refers to how your voice is integrated with the instrument you are playing. In my case it’s guitar. The blend is correct instrument playing & vocals which are projecting your true voice. You don’t have to be a 4-octave vocalist to be an influential singer. You don’t need to be Eddie Van Halen on guitar either, but you do need to blend like Jimi Hendrix. Blending means you have no weakness which limit your ability to communicate with an audience. All aspects of performance have to be at a high level of competency to be able to effectively blend.

Jimi Hendrix is still that standard for perfect rock blend, an unbeatable guitar prodigy who found his songwriting voice which is now imitated by everyone. No one can match Jimi Hendrix, so take what you can from that and realize he didn’t leave a blueprint to follow– for if you try to live like Jimi, you will die like Jimi. Hendrix had so much pure talent (which none of us have), meaning you can’t surpass him artistically– only be inspired by his greatness & learn from his mistakes. Jimi Hendrix was too far ahead of his time to be understood, but he was also human with fallibilities like the rest of us.

Blending on guitar means playing the notes well along with using volume & syncopation. Volume helps create drone effect, which the Velvet Underground perfected with John Cale, while Jimi Hendrix mastered drone by controlling amplifier feedback. See his famous Woodstock solo performance of “The Star Spangled Banner” posted below, as it’s the drone effect which hypnotizes the listener. He’s so natural.

Syncopation comes more into play as a solo performer who favors an acoustic approach with no drummer. Artistically & stylistically it can be considered the difference between Bob Dylan & Jimi Hendrix. Bob Dylan can’t play guitar like Jimi Hendrix, but he is a better songwriter, so he turns down the volume (even in his electrified coming out era) as compared to the Velvets or Jimi. Bob Dylan favors syncopation (beats in his head) over feedback. Bob Dylan achieves drone effect on harmonica, and is one of the most prolific harmonica players ever. Bob Dylan came from folk music & the blues, and when he found his songwriting voice (which he also blended as drone) became arguably the biggest rock star ever. It’s because he could blend.

John Lennon is another brilliant example of blend. Whether it’s on guitar or piano; with the Beatles, solo, or with studio musicians John Lennon could create songs with anyone who had talent. He could always blend.

Understanding the recording process & production is part of the blend. If you can do this then surely you will perform better to a live audience. The studio is where a lot of good musicians feel intimidated and can get overwhelmed. The art of blending comes when nervous, but talented musicians are on the clock in the studio. A new song is uncharted territory which can be scary. The leader is the one who blends by getting their part (in my case guitar & vocals) well recorded in a way that makes everyone else’s job on the song easier. If it needs a click track, for the drummer & bass player to add later, then it must be done to a click track, otherwise they won’t be able to blend with the song. Figure out what the song needs and pick your blend.

If the lyrics are tight & engaging that will inspire creativity from everyone involved. Everyone wants to be part of something great, especially in the music business. It is the songwriter’s responsibility to give the musicians & producer what is needed for them to blend their talents into the project. You can’t do it all by yourself, but you can learn how to do as many things as possible, making everyone else’s job easier.

Blending is about leadership. In rock music you start everything by writing a new song, then you find the right people to help and inspire them to be creative. It really can’t happen any other way. Blending isn’t allowed to happen anymore by a music industry that has been locked-up tight since the late 1990’s & American Idol. What’s happening now is all about professional songwriters & producers who are completely out of touch. Technically they have the chops, but there is no heart, soul, or real love in any corporate music anymore. It’s all canned product. The producers deserve most of the credit for any catchy hit that is made anymore. As a musical artist, it feels like K-Pop has now been mainstreamed into American popular music. K-Pop is about sexual exploitation, human trafficking, drug trafficking & the fashion industry but no one is allowed to say that.

Blending a songwriting voice with guitar in this era means understanding the politics of our time and being a leader. This means you will have fans & haters, so deal with both appropriately. What we have politically is fascism under Trump with the Democrats acting as Vichy collaborators. Writing new songs from this Marxist perspective keeps an artist on the path of truth politically, making the music more influential & easier to blend over time.

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Crypto legislation & Trump’s coup attempt

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Crypto legislation was passed this week, with the GENIUS Act getting Senate approval, and the CLARITY Act moving out of House subcommittees. What this means is their passage is now inevitable. This will set the stage for another bitcoin bull run, followed by a crypto industry bailout when things inevitably go south. That bailout language is in the Senate-approved GENIUS Act.

Also, Trump will be allowed to profit on stablecoins without restriction. The crypto industry spent an estimated $130 million buying lawmakers to get their legislation passed. Opposition was tepid at best in both Houses of Congress, as few politicians wanted to take on the crypto PACs, which threatened to throw money against opponents during the next election cycle. It was politics as usual in Washington.

Right now, finance capital is salivating over the potential profits it can make issuing their own crypto, backed by US treasuries & the dollar, all now fully guaranteed by the US taxpayers in event of failure.

What we have under the Trump administration is the wholesale pardoning & rehabilitating of the crypto industry. Crypto criminals have been absolved, while Trump deploys the national guard & marines against the population protesting ICE Gestapo raids. The 1st, 4th, 5th & 6th amendment to the Constitution have been rendered invalid, as president Trump’s long-planned coup attempt to establish a police state dictatorship now enters its critical phase.

Democrats are doing nothing to stop this, in fact they are aiding & abetting Trump. Millions of Americans are facing higher prices due to Trump’s tariff war, which affects working class people disproportionately. This has thrown tens of thousands of people out of work, on top of the millions who are struggling to find a decent job already.

Every political action from Washington favors the wealthy, as Trump attempts to divide the population between US citizens & immigrants using ICE, DHS, etc, as a fascist spearhead. No culture, art, or any form of protest is to be tolerated by the fascist Trump regime, while Democrats preach “law & order.” This class inequality has become intolerable to the vast majority of the population, and the only serious answer is an international general strike. The violence in Israel/Gaza, Ukraine/Russia, and the Middle East & beyond is simply the foreign policy expression of Trump’s fascist agenda. A war on China would be the culmination of this madness.

Workers need to protect themselves, since the police & military are being brought in to attack them. Organize workers, students & neighborhoods into safety committees to resist ICE abductions & police state violence. The wealth of society is created by the workers, not the billionaires. An organized working class is the international power that must be harnessed to stop fascism.

I see this as my final article on crypto, as there is nothing more for me to say on the subject. It’s now time for organizing & action. Before Trump re-took office, I began explaining the importance of crypto to the incoming Trump-Musk administration. Elon Musk is a crypto whale and probably the largest holder of bitcoin in the world. I estimate he holds 40-75% of all the available bitcoin. No one in the fake media will ask him these questions, and he’s not giving out any good answers– that’s for sure. History will have the final say.

The much hyped Trump-Musk break-up has since been reconciled. The reason for this is these two crypto fascists need each other. They can no longer exist independently. Certainly neither will jump to the other side of the revolutionary barricade in this war. Trump needs Elon Musk’s crypto expertise & influence, while Musk needs Trump to not crush him with his power of the state.

Trump-Musk crypto fascism is the transitional form of government in America right now. It’s an attempt to establish a police state dictatorship under Trump. The American people are resisting en masse, and that will only continue to grow. The American people have been put into a political slumber for a long time, especially those who have supported the Democratic Party. Those on the left, who trusted the Democrats, now find themselves without a political voice and are searching in the direction of socialism. The Socialist Equality Party (SEP), and their political organ the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) is the only political organization that represents the true left. All other variants, DSA, Green Party, etc, orbit the Democrats.

Contact the SEP/WSWS to join the war against fascism, which includes defeating Vichy cohorts known in America as the Democratic Party. Only class struggle can stop fascism. United as an unbreakable international force, the workers of the world can defeat fascism & free mankind through a socialist revolution. The Trotskyists are the true socialists, that’s why you never hear Leon Trotsky (pic above) mentioned in bourgeois politics & the mass media. Trotsky is hated by the Stalinists & the bourgeoisie because of his internationalism.

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Eric Meeker & bad girls

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I was born in Oshkosh, WI, and lived in the township of Vinland, located in the Winneconne school district, which I attended K-8. It was am excellent school system back then (I can’t speak for since), particularly in English, science, math, physical education, music & art.

By my senior year in high school at Lourdes Academy, I lived in Oshkosh and stayed there during the undergraduate summers & holidays I attended Marquette University. I learned a lot about life in Oshkosh, including this emotionally traumatic childhood event I will now relate.

I was 6 years old, and just finished kindergarten in Winneconne, so it was summer. My mom often took my brother David & I to go shopping in Oshkosh, because there isn’t much in small-town Winneconne. My mother was always proud to show off her children to everyone, especially other mothers.

One day, a “friend” who had two daughters, one my age & one my younger brother’s age, asked if “Eric could come over and play.” My younger brother wasn’t requested, it was specifically a request to have me come over & play for the day. My mom agreed, and dropped me off at their house one sunny summer morning.

It was the age-6 daughter that really wanted to play with me. The younger, 5-year old daughter quietly acquiesced & followed her older sister in everything we did– watch TV, coloring books, go outside & play, go back inside & see mom for lunch, etc. By the early afternoon I had grown tired of the older sister’s bossiness. When she declared what we were going to do next, and I didn’t feel like it, I instead went into the living room and starting coloring in the pile of coloring books.

A few seconds later, the younger sister came to me, quietly sat down and started coloring with me. [!!] What happened next I will NEVER forget, although the names & faces are long gone. The older sister starts screaming, “NO!! You can’t play with him. You have to do what I say!! That’s not right! No, no, no…!!”

Mom hears this and immediately rushes into the living room and takes the older daughter up the stairs, then right-to-left down the banister hall into her bedroom at the end and locks her in. I can hear her pounding on & screaming through the door, “No! No!! It’s not fair…” over & over as mom rushes down and whisks her younger daughter away.

Mom comes back into the living room where I’m standing stunned and says sternly to me, “Sit over there, I’m calling your mother to come get you now.” No apology or explanation as to what just happened. It was an interminable 30-minute wait for my mom, and a quiet ride home. Who was the victim in that incident? Answer: It was the 6-year old boy, and that’s when I learned how certain girls feel about me, and how crazy they can get when I don’t do what the want.

Bad girls exist, and have existed for a long time. It is inherently prejudicial to believe women are always right & to be believed. That just isn’t true and anyone with life experience knows this. I have experienced it many times since I was first introduced to a bad girl at age 6. Many motives exist for all of us to be deceptive, manipulative, or just evil. To cynically claim this can’t be true is to stand reality on its head.

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Stablecoin legislation update

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The fake media is reporting today, “Despite the charted course for GENIUS Act passage by the end of the week, one amendment proposal threatens to derail plans. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is pushing to insert the text of the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) into the stablecoin bill, drawing the ire of several lawmakers. The CCCA, introduced on the House floor in 2023, has failed to pass through the legislative process. The bill seeks to mandate major banks to use a payment network apart from Visa and Mastercard, but an amendment proposal to merge it with the GENIUS Act has generated dissent.”

In other words, leading Democratic lawmakers are unwilling to stand up and state to the American people that crypto is a Ponzi scheme. Their only resistance to crypto is to sneak an unrelated poison pill amendment into the GENIUS Act.

Let’s be clear, every Democrat in Congress knows crypto is a scam. Since FTX/SBF in late 2022 this has been acknowledged by everyone, outside the Kool-Aid drinkers. There is massive public opinion against crypto, especially with Trump’s brazen conflict of interest in establishing his own crypto exchange & tokens. Yet the Kool-Aid drinkers are about to get their stablecoin legislation, legitimizing crypto as money and setting up bitcoin for another bull run.

The Laken-Riley Act, the Big Beautiful Bill, and crypto legislation are all together as part of the Trump-Musk crypto-fascist plan to transform our US constitutional democracy into a dictatorial police state. The Democrats are Vichy collaborators in this crypto-fascist process. That’s the rest of story which needs to be understood.

* An amendment requires a simple majority to be approved in the Senate. The Credit Card Competition Act is considered politically toxic because it pits finance capital against restaurants & retailers. Bourgeois politicians don’t like that. So if a Senate majority votes the CCCA amendment in, it’s a signal the GENIUS Act is dead, because everyone votes against the CCCA. This is how Democrats are playing both sides of the legislative fence in this crypto debate.

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The Eric Meeker

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Dr. Robert Cade at the University of Florida developed Gatorade in 1966. His laboratory potion had the right electrolytes & salts from the start, but it didn’t taste good, so the football players who needed it often wouldn’t drink it. Dr. Cade took home an early batch of Gatorade to his wife, who recommended cutting it with lemon, and thus sports science was changed forever. Sometimes a brilliant doctor just needs a good woman to help him out. Gatorade won QB Steve Spurrier the Heisman Trophy in 1966, and “The Sweat Solution” is one of the best ESPN 30-for-30 shorts.

Arnold Palmer popularized professional golf and invented his own drink, now commonly referred to as an Arnold Palmer– which is ice tea with lemon. There are arguments about how to proportion an Arnold Palmer, but Arnie says it is mostly ice tea with the lemon garnishing the drink. Some people prefer an Arnold Palmer with half lemonade or more, so it allows that flexibility and there are various acceptable preferences.

The most delightful moment in this ESPN 30-for-30 short is when Arnold Palmer reveals the moment he finally gave up and started referring to his favorite drink as an Arnold Palmer. His attributed concoction became so accepted & widespread that every waiter/waitress now knows what an Arnold Palmer is, so he gave up and started ordering it as an Arnold Palmer– laughingly hoping that no one will recognize him. It’s a great lesson in how to handle fame and giving up false humility from one of the most beloved athletes of the 20th century.

With that introduction, I am now sharing a drink I invented, which I have named after myself. An ‘Eric Meeker’ is half apple cider & half high-pulp orange juice. Individually orange juice and apple cider are very acidy, which limits  consumability, but surprisingly when these two are combined the acids mellow each other out and you are left with a fruity burst of natural sugar rich in vitamins & minerals your body needs. In this sense it is much better than Gatorade because it is organic. It’s superior to an Arnold Palmer in that it is much healthier, while being comparably delicious.

The Eric Meeker is a 50/50 mixture, and leans no more that 60/40 in either direction. The drink’s inventor says it’s better to have more apple cider than orange juice in an Eric Meeker, and you definitely need high-pulp OJ. Also, apple juice doesn’t work like apple cider. Perhaps the most beautiful thing about an Eric Meeker is its economy & easy mixing, with ingredients that are always available in any decent Midwest food market. The nutrient burst you receive from a cool Eric Meeker will replenish your body with what it needs– and fast.

For years Arnold Palmer didn’t self-reference his favorite drink when ordering it, but I’m skipping past all that. As I’ve learned, it’s a hoot to have invented your own drink, and this blog allows publication of the recipe with all the nuances, so enjoy!

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Classic comedy & crypto-fascism

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Mind if I show you a little something? I’ve been watching you, to see what the hell you’re up to, and this is what I see…

Caddyshack (1980) is the funniest movie ever. Beyond that, it was the first movie with a modern soundtrack, featuring the music of Johnny Mandel and also containing two hit songs from Kenny Loggins: “I’m Alright” the film’s classic theme song, and “Mr. Night” the caddy pool-party song. This christened a new movie soundtrack style for the decade, which showed-up in features across all genres including: Flashdance (1983), Ghostbusters (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985) & Dirty Dancing (1987) to name just a few.

Caddyshack is about class lines & the differences between country club members and the caddies who serve them. The class bite gets hidden somewhat underneath all the laughs. Danny Noonan represents the young, unmotivated everyman who see little reason to work hard because there is little-to-no reward for him.

Bill Murray delivers the best scenes, often by himself, and they live in golf lore– as every golfer loves Caddyshack. If you don’t laugh with the Caddyshack audience, then that audience is laughing at you. Few comedies can twist you up like that, and Caddyshack sets the standard.

And to clarify a Caddyshack point regarding Donald Trump, he is a real-life amalgamation of Judge Smails & his grandson Spaulding– meaning they are cheaters at golf, not golfers. This is why you have to be careful when someone asks you to kill every golfer on the course.

Rodney Dangerfield & Ted Knight represent the battle of new money vs old money in Caddyshack. Ted Knight never had a better or more memorable role. Rodney Dangerfield was in one other classic comedy, Back to School (1986), which is relevant to this discussion. Back to School is an underrated movie, with a stellar cast including: Sally Kellerman, Ned Beatty & Robert Downey Jr.

Sam Kinison helps students of history appreciate what happens when you give a good answer to a difficult question, but it isn’t the answer the teacher is looking for…

Robert Downey Jr. as Derek Lutz intervenes at his college homecoming rally to “point out that football is a crypto-fascist metaphor for nuclear war.” Somewhere very recently, that line got me thinking and helped me theorize Trump-Musk crypto-fascism. This proves the arts & laughter are food for thought & meditation, so take a hike all you elitist fraternity scumbags…

The latest on crypto-fascism: Stablecoins are seen as “low hanging fruit,” so that’s the current top priority for the crypto industry. Congressional legislation in May has multiple crypto bills being circulated, as the financial media is finally beginning to see the priority of crypto in the Trump-Musk administration. Increasingly it is apparent that crypto is a primary economic & foreign policy driver for the Trump White House.

Stablecoins are a way of connecting worthless crypto to tangible assets such as the US dollar, Treasury notes, etc. In short: stablecoins are a gateway to a crypto-fascist billionaire heist of the US Treasury. Not one “stablecoin” has ever held its 1:1 peg to whatever it’s tied to. STABLE & GENIUS are the crypto bills currently being “debated.” Political blowback has already started as the ‘crypto PAC money Democrats’ are starting to sway due to increasing public concerns. Crypto is a political fight where an educated public can really benefit the cause of revolutionary socialism.

April 2 was “Liberation Day” when the Trump tariffs were announced. The tariff plan was to declare economic war on the nation of China, along with a cost-of-living & jobs war on the international working class. A side benefit for Trump was the chaos it provoked in the news cycles, which deflected attention away from his hidden crypto agenda. The crypto-fascist plan was for the STABLE & GENIUS bills to already be passed, or at least well on their way by now. But these bills have been “paused” instead. Crypto works best in secret, and the timelines on these events (tariffs & crypto legislation) suggest they were part of a coordinated fascist plan. Any public disclosures & analysis of crypto-fascist criminality damages Trump immeasurably.

Lou, dressing down his troops in Caddyshack: I’m gonna lay it right on the line. There have been a lot of complaints already– horsing around on the course, bad language, smoking grass, poor caddying! You wanna get fired, be replaced by golf carts– just keep it up.

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The 2025 Colorado Rockies & franchise mismanagement

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Preface: The 2024 Chicago White Sox finished 41-121, which ranks among the worst MLB seasons ever. Projections all indicate the White Sox will lose at least 110 games in 2025. Currently they are 9-24, worst record in the AL. Their Pythagorean W-L: 14-19, -25 run differential, indicates they have been quite unlucky early on, which may or may not turn itself around. When you are as bad as the White Sox, you can’t just expect luck to turn itself around. You have to play better to create more of your own luck, so Pythagorean W-L is not as reliable an indicator when a team is this extremely bad.

The 2025 White Sox still have a bunch of guys who can’t hit, including CF Luis Robert, Jr (.182/.300/.345) who is now officially untradable after being shopped for years Their pitching staff is a bunch of young arms with plenty of veteran flotsam mixed in. It’s going to be another long season for the South-siders, but it won’t approach the historical badness of 2024. This team is younger and will finish stronger than in 2024, where the White Sox had three major losing streaks, a 14-game streak (May 22-June 6); an AL-record-tying 21-game streak (July 10-August 5); and a 12-game streak (August 23-September 3). That’s hard to replicate in baseball, no matter how bad you are. The 2024 White Sox were really bad, and they had awful leadership on top of that, which turned them into a historical disaster.

The 2024 White Sox were completely demoralized by management & ownership, starting in Spring Training when they dealt their ace RHP Dylan Cease to the San Diego Padres. This unexpected trade (March 13, 2024) challenged everyone on the White Sox pitching staff to step up and fill a slot, and when they couldn’t it quickly collapsed. The key pitching prospect in the Dylan Cease deal, LHP Drew Thorpe, made nine starts for the Pale Hose until he came up Tommy John surgery. That’s how things started death-spiraling for the 2024 White Sox.

After unloading anything they could at the Trade deadline, the front office was unable to deal their most-coveted asset– young LHP Garrett Crochet, so the team had to ride out the rest of the season with their best pitcher on an innings-limit, so he would remain a valuable trade commodity in the winter. Garrett Crochet was dealt to the Red Sox for four prospects in December. The White Sox now have a top-10 farm system, so they will get better, which isn’t saying much but it is somewhat of a relief.

Setting the mark for most losses in a MLB season and putting your team in the discussion for ‘worst MLB team ever’ doesn’t happen every year, which makes the 2025 Colorado Rockies all the more remarkable. The 2025 Colorado Rockies are already a contender for worst MLB ever. The modern list starts with the 1962 New York Mets, managed by the great Casey Stengel, who were 40-120, with a .250 winning percentage. The 2024 White Sox lost one more game, but also won one more game and had a better winning percentage at .253. Mathematically speaking, as bad as the White Sox were last year, the 1962 Mets were a fraction worse. Futile teams from the dead-ball & pre-integration MLB eras include: 1916 Philadelphia Athletics 36-117, .235; 1935 Boston Braves 38-115 .248: 1904 Washington Senators 38-113 .252; so there are historical teams with a lower winning percentage than the 1962 Mets but they are of a completely different era.

Currently the Colorado Rockies are 6-27, with a Pythagorean W-L: 8-25, and a -83 run differential, by far the worst in MLB. This basically means the Rockies are who they are at this point. Their 8-25 expected winning percentage (Pythagorean) is .242, which over a season projects to 39-123 for the Colorado Rockies. But the Rockies are 6-27, which is a .182 winning percentage, which means they have to start playing a lot better just to get to 40 wins in 2025.

Looking deeper into this futility only reveals more bad news for Colorado Rockies fans. The White Sox have the good fortune to be in one of the two Central divisions in MLB, which are qualitatively less completive than the East & West behemoths in both leagues. By contrast, the 2025 Colorado Rockies are in the toughest division in MLB.

Furthermore, it is impossible to discuss Colorado Rockies baseball without understanding what high altitude does to the game, particularly pitchers. Coors Field fastballs don’t ride as much, sinkers don’t sink, and sweepers don’t sweep. The thin air doesn’t allow spin to work as effectively. It’s about survival, so Rockies pitchers have to pitch differently in their home park, and they all look forward to starting on the road. How can a baseball team win with that?

The altitude also affects conditioning, meaning shorter outings, more fatigue buildup during games and over the course of a season in Denver. With advanced metrics normalized across MLB, they now prove beyond any doubt that it is impossible to build a winning team in Denver, Colorado due to these conditions. The Rockies need to move their franchise (Oakland?) to ever have any hope of competing. They haven’t made the post-season since being ousted in the 2018 Divisional series, and have only fallen further from contention since. The last Rockies free agency splash was Ian Desmond in 2017, signed to play SS but had to move to 1B/DH, he produced -2.8 WAR in three seasons before retiring. Their 2007 World Series appearance is a distant memory.

Can you name one current Colorado Rockies player? Most MLB fans outside of Colorado can’t, and they aren’t intersted in learning, which is the problem. This is a boring, homegrown team that never makes a free agency splash anymore, because (outside of OF Larry Walker) none have worked. Since Bret Saberhagen, Denny Neagle & Darryl Kile, top free agent pitchers never list Colorado as a desired destination during hot stove season, and the same goes for position players who need to waive their no-trade clauses to be dealt– they NEVER authorize a trade to Colorado. How can a GM build an organization up against all this? It’s tough enough to beat the Dodgers at sea level, just ask the Padres, Giants & Diamondbacks, who are trying.

The Rockies have a beautiful ballpark, top-5 by MLB standards, and they fill it up with fans every year, so this comes down to a discussion about what is best for the game. Is it okay for a team that sells-out and has a beautiful modern ballpark to play where the game really isn’t baseball? Baseball in Denver is arena baseball, a distorted pinball version of the game. How long will Colorado Rockies fans put up with the inevitable futility on the field? These questions will grow louder & louder if the Rockies continue to play as they have.

We should not see two consecutive seasons of historic futility in MLB anymore, which is troubling for fans. This can only mean that in an era where sports is more competitive & lucrative than ever, it is now becoming commonplace for teams to completely give up before the season starts. The White Sox did it in 2024, and now it’s the Rockies in 2025 and possibly beyond. The Colorado Rockies are #18 in the latest MLB farm system rankings, but what does that mean when NONE of their pitching prospects can develop into real MLB pitchers?

Baseball is the most unique game, the only game where the defense has the ball, and that’s why you can’t play baseball at high altitude. You can play football, basketball & hockey in Denver, and it affects the game for sure, but it doesn’t handicap a NFL, NBA or NHL franchise from winning a title– which the Broncos, Nuggets & Avalanche have done. The Colorado Rockies aren’t anywhere close to that class of winning and never will be. It’s completely unfair to pitching prospects to be drafted by the Colorado Rockies, which is the worst place in the world to go as a young pitcher. That should have been recognized long ago, but MLB is run by owners & front-office executives who don’t understand the game because they can’t see past their ticket sales.

NBA mismanagement 101: This situation isn’t as extreme as the Colorado Rockies or Chicago White Sox, but it deserves attention from sports fans nonetheless. The Milwaukee Bucks have mismanaged themselves into a situation where they are about to lose their superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo. It really began after the Bucks were defeated in the playoffs by the Celtics in 2022. Instead of getting younger around their two studs, Giannis Antetokounmpo & Jrue Holiday, the Bucks front office kept their aging, diminishing-returns roster together.

Most disastrous was the Damian Lillard trade in 2023, as Jrue Holiday is one of the most valuable players in the NBA as far as winning a championship goes. Steve Kerr knows that, and that’s why Jrue Holiday was on the 2024 gold medal US Olympic team, while Damian Lillard wasn’t. Lillard is now out for the next season-and-a-half, with a torn ACL, while ace defensive stopper Jrue Holiday (pic above) is trying to help the Boston Celtics to another championship. Plus, the Bucks gave up a first-round pick (and two potential swaps– more below) to acquire Damian Lillard, the inferior player in the deal.

The Milwaukee Bucks with all their fruitless wheeling & dealing since 2021, do not have a first-round pick in the 2025 draft. Their 2026, 2028 & 2030 first-round picks are subject to potential swaps with the New Orleans Pelicans & Portland Trail Blazers, meaning if the Bucks hit the lottery in those drafts, the Pelicans (in 2026) or Trail Blazers (2028, 2030) will get their pick. The Bucks do not have first-round picks in 2027 or 2029, which means their next available first-round pick is in 2031. When the Bucks trade Giannis Antetokounmpo this summer (as they now have to) they will be a lottery team for several seasons, in which their top picks will be going to other teams. That’s about about badly as a GM can mismanage a championship roster in four years.

The 2025 NBA draft lottery is Monday, May 12. The Houston Rockets & San Antonio Spurs have been rumored to be the teams most interested & able to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Bucks. It’s the ‘Cooper Flagg draft’ in the NBA this year, so the Bucks can shift directly into a rebuild with the young stud from Duke by dealing Giannis for the top 2025 pick, but it depends on how the draft lottery goes, so everyone in basketball will be watching.

Any of the teams involved can win the draft lottery, no matter what the “odds” say. There are years where it may have been rigged, going back to the first draft lottery in 1985, and there are too many instances where the team with the lowest odds has won the draft lottery for it not to have been rigged. In 2025: Utah, Washington, Charlotte and New Orleans are the top-4 favorites with the best “odds,” but none of them are thrilling options for the NBA in the Cooper Flagg draft. After that it’s Philadelphia, Brooklyn & Toronto which isn’t any better for media conscious NBA executives.

After that, San Antonio has a 6.7% chance of winning over two picks– 6.0% from their own, and 0.7% from the Atlanta Hawks. Houston has a 3.8% chance of winning, with rights to a Phoenix pick via Brooklyn. The Spurs or Rockets winning would be the most exciting draft lottery outcome for the NBA on May 12, but also among the least likely statistically– a 10.5% composite likelihood. Look for it anyways, since this isn’t fair play, it’s a ruthless business.

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