Category Archives: Economics

Get Back (2021)

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I just watched Get Back (2021) and it’s amazing! Get Back is directed & produced by Peter Jackson, who takes the vast film footage & audio material originally captured for Let It Be (1970) a documentary of the album by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, whose 16mm cinematography is stunning. Get Back seamlessly transports you back in time, while the digital editing & titles give it a clean modern look. Pushing eight hours in length, it never gets dull. It was all filmed & recorded in January 1969, and then finally put together just recently, but everything about this Beatles documentary is timeless.

Michael Lindsay-Hogg was a pioneer in music film production, who makes his face seen & voice heard in Get Back. For instance, there’s a debate among the band over 35mm vs 16mm for filming. Paul insists it should be 35mm, or else it won’t look right. Michael Lindsay-Hogg then interjects that 16mm will be fine, and that’s it. Watching in early 2022, it looks like Get Back was shot a few months ago, and put together quickly. Of course it was all shot 53 years ago, and took 4 years to produce. There are no flaws in the moving images, and the camera framing is exquisite, giving Get Back an authentic appeal.

This is mostly a testament to how well the original film crew & Michael Lindsay-Hogg did their jobs. This made the digital transfer much easier, and the result is one of the great rock documentaries ever, maybe THE best. And to think, it sat “in the can,” wasted & unused for decades. In many ways it compares to the Netflix release of Orson Welles’ famous unfinished film, The Other Side of the Wind in 2018.

Get Back is Disney property, which maintains strict monopoly distribution of its content. I’ve got friends who have pirated it, because that what happens when you try to “own” something that really should be public domain. Everyone has the right to see this film, as the Beatles are part of the fabric of our popular culture. I know it’s being called a TV series by Disney, but really it’s a 3-part movie that runs 468 minutes total. That’s too long of a film for most people, so it’s marketed as a TV-series.

This definitive Beatles documentary of their early break-up phase has an unending cast of interesting characters; Mal Evans, Peter Sellers [!] & (of course) Billy Preston are a few of my favorites. There’s plenty to choose from as each of the Fab Four comes to life under constant camera & microphone recording, which (in retrospect) was their recording of Let It Be, released in May 1970; after Abbey Road (September 1969), and after their break-up was officially announced by Paul in April. Paul is the one who tries the hardest to prevent their inevitable break-up, because he profits the most from working with John. Everyone loves Ringo, so it’s George that’s made the target of Paul’s frustrations.

The real war in Get Back is between Paul & John for band leadership. John had always been the leader of the Beatles, but increasingly Paul feels he is more than qualified to lead. The disagreements are creative, as well as financial. Linda Eastman makes her first appearance on the scene during filming, and becomes another of the cast of characters fans will come to know better in time. There’s a scene featuring Paul working out a song on piano, with Linda & Yoko talking in the background so we can’t hear them. As far as popular music & human interest goes, it hard to get much more fascinating than that.

Paul always had a tough time with Yoko, which meant a conflict with John. This is early tabloid era, where you just needed to refer to them by their first names. Nothing ever again approached 1960’s Beatlemania, not even K-pop. The Beatles separate oldies & doo wop from classic rock. The Beatles flipped the switch, and music went from AM to FM; from mono to stereo. John sings “Revolution” in different ways, single vs. album. The Beatles changed cover art & lyric writing. The Beatles led the counter-culture & anti-war movements. In a word, they forever changed everything in popular culture.

As a diehard Velvet Underground fan, I take the Beatles as the pop standard no one can match. The Velvets did their underground Factory multi-media show with Andy Warhol & Nico in 1966. The Beatles were attempting to put on some kind of TV show in Get Back, but mostly it’s bad ideas, and then the drama of George leaving the band for a few days over Paul’s harassment. Artistically, the Velvets were far ahead of the Beatles in many important ways, but they were both broken-up (around the same time) by the same industry forces.

George was always the weakest link in the Beatles, and not coincidentally he’s the one who was most taken-in by Allen Klein in his post-Beatles career. George has a weakness for mysticism and is most-influenced by John, whom he idolizes for his songwriting & emulates in his singing style. George also is in awe of Paul for his prolific songwriting, musicianship & sweet singing voice; and thus covets his respect & approval.

Allen Klein is introduced to John & Yoko on the evening of January 26, 1969, and it’s referenced, but not filmed in Get Back. It helps if you know your Beatle-ology here, as Allen Klein is one the most notorious & prolific conmen in music business history. Allen Klein made a career for himself by ripping-off artists such as Sam Cooke, and then the Rolling Stones with his ABKCO Records, but his ultimate ambition was to manage the Beatles. Eventually he would, over Paul & Linda’s strenuous objections. It was definitely one of those times in Beatles’ history where Paul was right. Allowing Allen Klein to manage Apple Records for just a few years, led to bad personnel decisions, millions in lost royalties & endless lawsuits.

In Get Back, Paul has ideas for his new songs, that George can’t get to. It’s a truth of the Beatles that John is their best guitar player. George offers little when it comes to being a “lead guitarist,” and that’s why in his early solo career he worked with Eric Clapton so much. By 1969, George is a rhythm guitarist & aspiring songwriter, who is of little use to Paul. This is why Billy Preston is the key to making the Get Back sessions work, as the “Fifth Beatle.” As Paul acknowledges, “Billy Preston solves a lot of problems,” meaning his musicianship helps Paul realize his songs more fully, which eases George back into the band and relieves the pressure, which was immense.

Most Harrisongs aren’t Lennon-McCartney quality, but any attempt at songwriting is always welcome in any serious band. John encourages it, while Paul mostly dismisses George’s new ideas. The hardest thing to do is produce good new material. The Beatles did this for a dozen albums, all classics, due to an amazing songwriting team in Lennon-McCartney, which gave them a freshness & unique sound that always put them at the cutting edge, from mop-top sensations, to rock pioneers of studio recording.

A lot of people like to slag Paul, but I’ll take him in my band any day. Bass players are hard to find, and prolific songwriters are even rarer. That’s why John latched onto him when they were the Quarrymen. To have talent means you recognize it in others. The hard truth was that most of George’s new songs weren’t that good, but he had colleagues (outside the band) who were telling him they were, so egos start flying.

One can argue that it was George Harrison who broke up the Beatles, as he wanted to do a solo album of songs that Paul wouldn’t do, and John wasn’t crazy about. Or you could just Let It Be. For those who don’t know, writing songs is serious business, and the true artists who can do it don’t hand out free passes just because you’re a bandmate with ambition. You have to deliver, repeatedly, at a high level. These lessons in collaborative creativity & artistic standards remain relevant today.

The confusion that permeates their first rehearsal location, as well as the Apple Records studio are brought into focus when George Martin finally arrives, and promises the band in his assured & professional style that he will get all the sound issues straightened-out by the next day. The band finally breathes a sigh of relief as they leave. This is how it was.

The Beatles never really had a manager who could handle everything, because nothing like the Beatles had ever happened before. Brian Epstein had their best interests at heart and guided them to stardom, but he wasn’t tough, and he died in August 1967. Apple Records was established in January 1968, with no leadership, which meant the Beatles financial issues wouldn’t start to get resolved until the mid 1970’s.

But they always had a great producer in George Martin, and that’s more important, because if you don’t make great records then no one cares. Great records start with great songs, which means the producer has to recognize it, and then record an inspired performance. Then it can be produced. Get Back proves once again that no matter how gifted you are creatively & musically, you need a producer with a clear head.

The legends of decadence & excess at Apple Records are confirmed in Get Back, with all kinds of stoned employees, gay groupies & other hangers-on, etc, occupying the studio. Who are these fucking people? Answer: It was the 1960’s. Many appear well-meaning, but too many are wasted and none can handle the Mafiosos constantly in the background, rubbing their hands over how much money they were going to make. It should be noted in retrospect that it’s this lack of attention to security that ultimately got John killed.

Perhaps the best part of Get Back is when the Apple employees handle the bobbies, as the Beatles are playing their final concert unannounced on the rooftop of Apple Records in London. “It’s making quite a bit of racket… We’ve had over 30 complaints already,” claims the UK cop immortalized in the footage. Apple Records receptionist Debbie, and Beatles road manager, Mal are priceless here. So much love went into this music created by John, Paul, George, Ringo & Billy with their ever-producer, George Martin, and yet it’s the businessmen who are raking. That’s how it is when you’re an artist, and it’s all in the film.

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Following your footsteps

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It’s best to follow in your footsteps, particularly in the snow. It’s my first Wisconsin winter since 1993-94 and it’s cold, but not as sustained cold as it used to get. The summers are milder too and that’s the global warming I’ve noticed in Milwaukee, WI. In Central Florida the summers have become guaranteed scorchers which start in May and last through hurricane season which keeps getting longer & more intense.

What is proven by Hurricanes Charley-Francis-Ivan-Jeanne (2004), Sandy (2012) and then Irma in 2017, is that you can not sustain a direct hit from the eye, and the storm surge is now HUGE on both sides of the Florida peninsula. The panhandle and the Keys are the most dangerous places because they are exposed and too often in a hurricane’s path. Something needs to be done, but nothing is.

In 2019 Hurricane Dorian stalled over the Bahamas for 48 hours with a wind forces that exceeded the Saffir–Simpson scale in which a Category 5 starts at 157 MPH. The rating scale starts at 74-96 MPH for Cat 1, with ranges in the mid-to-high twenties of sustained MPH through Category 4 at 130-156 MPH. Sustained winds for Dorian were over 180 MPH, with gusts of 200+ MPH. Dorian was a Cat 6, and I was relieved it didn’t hit where I was, but my relief is someone else’s misery.

I have a simple rule for establishing residency in Florida: Have you ever been in the eye of a hurricane? It will teach you to be ready in EVERY way. With that said, I’ve met a lot of great snowbirds and have no prejudice against them for going back North during the Florida summer. Everyday people are great everywhere is what I have learned.

I really feel for loved ones, colleagues & friends who still live in Florida. It’s an amazing place with so many great people… but it’s been fucked-up by elites who don’t care about anything except profit for themselves. Anyone who has lived there will tell you that it’s a good ol’ boys network and if you ain’t from the Sunshine State (or relatively close) then you’re not-so-welcome by the people who own it. They’ll take your money and get you to work for them, but they don’t like you. Many of them are still fighting the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. You have to beat them at their own unfair game, which I did. Then they really hate you.

That’s what I ran up against from the start in Central Florida. Now, Florida is run by Donald Trump from his Mar-a-Lago compound though his puppet Ron DeSantis in the governor’s mansion. For me it’s like that April Wine song “Sign of the Gypsy Queen” where you better see the red flags and MOVE.

On April 17, 2021, directly upstairs to my Sanford apartment, I witnessed my angry neighbors bringing in at least 3 assault rifles in hardshell cases around dusk on a clear Saturday. I had seen what looked like cases of ammo when they were unloading their U-haul trailer, shortly after they had moved-in months earlier. These haters never smiled, and always tried to provoke & intimidate everyone. That upstairs armament incident happened the weekend Drivin N’ Cryin played in Sanford. They were great, but the local music scene has become so toxic that it’s impossible for me. No respect from the gatekeepers, with too many jealous wanna-be’s, manipulative hangers-on, etc. I’m a pariah for being a revolutionary. All this told me it was time to go.

There’s no regrets on leaving Florida, and no complaints about the good people I worked with across all the professions. I met & worked with some amazing dental specialists, world-class practitioners; along with amazing hygienists, assistants, office staff, lab specialists, etc. I’m a humble bread-and-butter dentist, but with musical talent. Everyone who was there knows. Since I’m grateful to escape, my policy now is what happened in Florida stays in Florida. That’s the kind of state it is, and if you respect that you can get by, but you always have to be ready for the rough & mean.

I also worked with some serious musicians, all of whom I didn’t always see eye-to-eye with. Being a professional is about doing a first-class job whenever you are hired, no matter how you feel about that person, the material, etc. Music for me has been about finding my collaborative soul mate, as I’m deficient in certain key areas. Everyone knows that Tom Pearce is my musical partner. You need a producer.

Tom is the older brother I never had as a kid, so we disagree about stuff… but it’s the love & respect that carries us through. It certainly wasn’t about the money because there wasn’t any for what I did. We just wanted to be free and make music. Today, Tom has many side projects and has benefited tremendously from our collaboration. It’s the only way I can pay him anymore. We’d love to re-master everything onto a multi-disc CD anthology with a booklet and all that, but there needs to be money & distribution. Tommy Mottola & Co. have it all locked up. The music business is a mafia.

Friends who helped in music & dentistry have moved on and are pursing their lives, hopes & dreams. I hope they understand life is a journey as well as a conscious choice. I gave it my best, but there’s no money or prospects for me, so I had to move on. That’s my attitude and it’s rational, but it’s also hard to concisely explain. Concision is such a virtue.

So whenever you’re going somewhere you’ve never been, learn to follow your footsteps. It covers your tracks and keeps you warm, clean & dry. It gives you something that is your own to follow & believe in. It marks & remarks where you’ve been, in a silent way. You can live to cover many miles by following your footsteps.

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Novax the sick Djoke

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Preface: Omicron isn’t mild. That’s a political lie meant to numb you to the dangers of letting the virus rip, which has been the US government’s policy from the start, first with Trump, and then continued under Biden/Harris. We need a Zero COVID strategy, globally, to end the pandemic.

The Novak Djokovic ruling in Australia reinforces an anti-scientific & eugenics stench among the capitalist governments. For those not up-to-date on the situation, tennis star Novak Djokovic who is unvaccinated, has been allowed entry into Australia, despite strict entry requirements– which Novax doesn’t meet. He was allowed to work a deal with the Australian Open organizers and government officials, despite the protestations of the VAST majority of Australians who have been living under some of the toughest COVID mandates in the world. It’s been widely seen for what it is: another generous exception granted to the privileged, while the rest of us have to “live with it.”

Last week, Novax arrogantly posted on Instagram that he had obtained a visa to travel to Australia and would be participating in the Open. This incited a firestorm of opposition among the people of Australia, who have been living under stringent COVID mandates on vaccination, travel, masking, etc, for months in an effort to contain Delta & Omicron. It was this mass eruption of democracy that forced the Australian government to temporarily rescind Novax’s visa when he arrived.

The fake media keeps writing it up as if there was a “mix-up” or some government confusion over their visa policy, etc. The toiling masses can’t be given credit for preventing a corrupt anti-vaxxer from buying (& lying) his way into their country and being allowed to do whatever he pleases because he’s privileged. That’s not a narrative the fake media is interested in, but it’s what happened. The reactionary court ruling to allow Novax entry, overturns the will of the Australian people.

What it confirms is that if left up to the courts, a right-wing agenda will always be validated– from Julian Assange to Kyle Rittenhouse. This can be traced all the way back to Bush v Gore in December 2000. Anti-vaxxers are free to spread COVID as an ideological pillar of class rule. Vaccines, lockdowns, masks, testing, and science in general, are vilified as violations of “individual rights,” while the social rights of the VAST majority are dismissed. Novax is the $220 million martyr for the anti-vaxxers. Oh how they pity him & his suffering! The hypocrisy is staggering.

This situation was turned into a nationalist issue for reactionary purposes. Serbian leader Aleksandar Vucic wrote last week, “Our bodies are doing everything to see that the harassment of the world’s best tennis player is brought to an end, immediately.” Novax’s father, Srdjan Djokovic lashed out at the Australian authorities, claiming his son is a martyr comparable to Jesus Christ, “Our Novak, our pride. Novak is Serbia and Serbia is Novak… They are trampling over Serbia and by doing that, they are trampling on the Serbian people… The leader of that faraway land, Scott Morrison … dared to attack Novak and expel him before he had reached their country. They had wanted to throw him to his knees, and not just him, but our beautiful Serbia… We Serbs are a proud European people. Throughout history, we have never attacked anyone, we only defended ourselves.” Djokovic’s mother Dijana claims her son is a “revolutionary” who was “changing the world.” All this because Novax won’t get vaccinated.

Anti-vax Nazis compared Novax to Julian Assange during this drama, which was ludicrous. Assange is a hero for telling the world the truth about imperialism. Assange is suffering in a real prison for that. Novax is just another entitled reactionary, grandstanding for himself, a symbol of hope for the hopelessly ignorant. Anti-vaxxers all claim “natural immunity” as their defense. If natural immunity was enough to stop COVID, then the pandemic would be over already. But it isn’t.

The anti-vaxxers uncritically accepted Novax’s claim that he had ‘natural immunity’ from COVID, by testing positive on December 16, 2021. It’s now very likely that his ‘positive test’ claim was a lie to get Novax around the vaccine requirements for a visa. The timing couldn’t have been better for an unvaccinated individual wanting to participate in the Australian Open.

A fake positive test can be obtained the same way a fake vaccine passport can be manufactured. If ex-Tampa Bay Buccaneers WR Antonio Brown tried it, then why not Novax? One of the requirements for a visa is that you don’t bring danger or harm to any of citizens of the country you are entering. The Australian government wasn’t interested in any of this, or asking Novax about not masking/isolating after his supposed positive test. Those facts & questions would be very inconvenient.

Novax has now been confirmed as unvaccinated by the government of Australia. If he was actually COVID positive on Dec 16th (which is highly questionable), he refused to wear a mask or quarantine himself, as required by Serbian mandates. That’s not a national hero or a martyr, but a selfish & ignorant elitist. Anti-vaxxers & COVID denialists are the political equivalent of flat-Earthers & holocaust deniers. That’s why the vast majority must reject them and their Malthusian ideology.

The bigger issue is that this AO event shouldn’t even be held, until we’ve eliminated COVID. To all the people attending indoor public places & outdoor super-spreader events without a mask, I must insist that you just don’t get it. I’m talking about the BIG picture. This isn’t coming from jealousy or any other form of hatred, but from science. You’re too wrapped up in your personal interests, and this is what is perpetuating & worsening the pandemic.

I am the first person to publicly call this pandemic what it will be known as in history: the Coronavirus War. It’s the war to prevent WWIII. Please step back and look at the big picture, which starts with how WE are going to end this pandemic. It can’t be just a few of us, it has to be the VAST majority of people who have ethics & respect science, along with all those willing to sacrifice for a better world. Join the fight on the good side of the Force, because WE deserve better than 2021.

Fri 14 Jan 2022 09:22 AM CST

Breaking update: Novax’s visa was cancelled a few hours ago, for a second time on the basis that his presence could “excite anti-vaccination sentiment”. His legal team is appealing the decision of Alex Hawke, the Australian immigration minister. Novax will soon be interviewed by Australian immigration officials, with a full hearing to take place on Sunday morning (Melbourne time), the day before the Australian Open begins. The chances of the immigration minister’s ruling being overturned are remote according to legal experts.

The sick Djoke presented false information on his visa form, saying he hadn’t traveled outside Serbia for the 14 days before flying to Australia, but social media has photos of him in Marbella, Spain over the holidays. As a rule of visa law, no one gets away with that. That’s not a “minor oversite” or “mistake” in filling out a visa form, but a false declaration to gain admittance. The political pressure this situation has created for the Australian government has been enormous.

On Monday (Jan 10), Der Spiegel claimed that when it scanned the QR code belonging to Djokovic’s PCR test at 1.19pm German time on December 16, it said: “Test result Negative.” However an hour later, after another scan, it said: “Positive.” Several others – including New York Times journalist Ben Rothenberg – reported the same findings, with Rothenberg also posting a photo of the two different results. When anyone tried on Tuesday it returned universally positive results. It’s now clear that Novax’s ‘positive’ COVID test is surely a fake, as many of us suspected from the start.

Novax always has a convenient excuse for his lies & blatant disregard for the health of others. It gets to the point where no one believes him anymore, just like the little boy who repeatedly cries wolf. If Novax keeps trying to press his luck with his legal appeals, staging fake protests, etc, Australia may decide to ban him for 3 years. Most foreigners would have already received this ban, if they tried to pull what he did. The Australian government doesn’t want to do this, but this sick Djoke was never very good at reading the political situation.

Fri 14 Jan 2022 4:034 PM CST

There’s a lot to digest from all this, and since the verdict is now assured with only a few footnotes to be added, I’ll make my final comments & sign off.

What offends the most from start-to-finish are several things. First is the fanaticism masquerading as seriousness in discussion by the anti-science crowd. Everything is right-wing talking points, junk science & attacks from the anti-vax mob. They don’t want any kind of rational discussion of the facts, they just want to rant & then fight. In a word, they are impossible. These Stalinists & Nazis are working together as the Axis around US/UK imperialism in the Coronavirus War.

My second irritation is with Novax, as all-around this was a shoddy production from him. Sloppy, lazy, ill-conceived & poorly planned. It’s execution could only end in failure & ignominy, with Novak Djokovic being played as a political pawn. From the side of science & democracy, we made an example out of Novax. Didn’t want to do it, felt we owed it to him… He thought because he’s such a great tennis player that he could transcend international politics by doing whatever he wants during a pandemic and get away with it. The people of Australia said, “Fuck you” to that, and Novax will soon be on a plane back to Serbia.

His family back home have been shameless conspirators in this fraud Novax tried to pull off in obtaining a visa. Right-wing nationalist elements all rallied around Novax & his lying family. All of them were in on this conspiracy to obtain an Australian visa by fraud because they all knew Novax was unvaccinated. All the anti-vaxxers supported every Novax legal argument, document & positive test as facts. If I’m the Australian PM, it’s a 3-year ban as stated by law. These transgressions warrant it, as (scientifically speaking) this was an attack on your border.

It’s the smugness that rubs raw with Novax. He expected to get away with it, so he didn’t make sure his COVID test indicated “positive” instead of the actual negative result. Anyone can (& will) check that QR code, and SCREENSHOTS will be the proof. Lazy & stupid people helping this sick Djoke in his camp & at the highest levels of the Serbian government. All because he won’t get vaccinated and can’t admit it. Marxists call that political cowardice. For all the anti-vaxxers reading this, I ask, “At what level does the hypocrisy get so ridiculous that you bail on him?” Intelligence & the far right have a preconceived limit on when to stop talking and start fighting, but they don’t want to admit it or identify where it is.

If your strategy to get into the Australian Open is to falsify documents & a COVID test, then at least do it right. Since your consider yourself a professional, and clearly have the money, then have a serious plan that can succeed or else don’t try. Don’t go out in public maskless after the proclaimed positive date. Stay isolated as mandated, and no one can dispute your story. Don’t travel to foreign countries within 14 days if the rules stipulate against it. For the respect of the Australian people whom you expect to welcome you into their country, it’s not asking too much. It insults EVERYONE’S intelligence when you disrespect people like that.

Once these documents in question were released to the media, it was too easy to investigate and expose all the inconsistencies & lies. It took like half a day, which begs the questions, “Why didn’t the government of Australia figure this stuff out since is wasn’t that hard? Don’t they have people who know how to investigate & handle this stuff at their borders?”

The best explanation here is that this was a backroom pay-off deal Novax set-up with the Australian Open & government officials, that went bad. Cinematically speaking, it compared to the end of La Femme Nikita (1990), except no Anne Parillaud & no style from Novax, who never spoke directly to the media nor answered their questions during this murky affair in which everyone got bloody. It was his lawyers, family and right-wing extremists that spoke for Novax, and they were never believable. That’s why it ends like this.

It’s an election year Down Under, so the 9-time AO champion has to leave in order to soothe the discontent of the Australian voters. A warning lesson from all this is that if Novax hadn’t been so careless & stupid, he could have easily gotten away with it, but it was the power of the people speaking their voices that sent Novax home before the Happy Slam begins.

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Is it safe?

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This blog does not tolerate violence, harassment, or hate speech; yet it can’t be called a safe space for certain readers. That’s because there is too much content that is upsetting to snowflakes, and it doesn’t contain the requisite trigger warnings. There is nothing more hysterical & shrill than a snowflake who has been set-off, due to lack of trigger warnings.

This blog discusses many forms of art including music. But for me to identify with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, etc, is considered unacceptable cultural appropriation by the snowflakes– particularly the black racialists. This will lead to media attacks, censorship, de-platforming & blacklisting. Liberal racialists insist on separation, much like the racist Alabama Governor George Wallace (pic below) meant when he insisted on “separate but equal” institutions in the 1960’s. Black racialism is the flipside of the white racist coin.

Critical Race Theory, is a re-working of the post-modernist school of Critical Theory, which insists that everything is subjective. This means there is no historical truth, no such thing as facts, and that idealist narratives can replace rational thought in all things. Lazy liberals gravitate towards this ideology because they never really learned anything, as this post-modernist construct elevates them, while hiding their ignorance. In short, liberal ideology has become right-wing reaction, peddled as progressive thought.

 

In America, this nonsense is funded by the Democratic Party & corporate elitists, who seek to divide & dumb-down the working masses & youth with dead-end identity politics. These aren’t genuine grassroots movements, but instead are well-funded astroturf campaigns.

For example, intersectionality is considered inherently progressive, because women are always to be believed, and black people are always the victims of racism. This means that Jay-Z & Beyonce, despite their fabulous wealth & celebrity power, are oppressed by the white colonialist patriarchy that is in our DNA.

If you disagree with the above statements, then you are a class reductionist, which automatically means you are racist, misogynist and/or homophobic. This is the state of the American media today. This is why movies, television & music suck so hard. It’s also why there is no discussion outside of these “safe space” boundaries in academia, pop culture, or politics.

So in answering the title, “Is it safe?” one reminisces Dustin Hoffman about to be tortured in The Marathon Man (1976), with Laurence Olivier playing the Nazi by asking a question that can’t be answered–“Is it safe?”

A healthy response is to shout down this woke mob, and all their witch-hunting, book-burning fake politics. To those philistines who want to cancel Shakespeare, etc, we contemptuously ask, “What have you done?” Seriously, what the fuck have you done?

 

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Screenshots from Facebook Prison

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This is my Facebook homepage:

Here’s my Page Overview, which says I have 1,485 followers, and that in the last 28 days I’ve had 28 reaches on all my posts– combined. That’s called being in Facebook prison.

I’m censored because I’m too good. Mark Zuckerberg hates Ric Size. He’s been taught that by Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill & Hillary Clinton, Mark Warner, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, etc. Those are the people who run the Democratic Party. For these elitists, 99.9% control isn’t enough.

That’s why I keep getting these notices, shown above.

Since less than 0.1% of my audience is being reached due to Facebook censorship, I don’t get too upset when they threaten to delete me for violating their “Community Standards.”

Above: Ric Size Facebook demographics on gender & leading urban markets

Censorship of this social media page began immediately when it was established in 2012. There was a qualitative increase in online repression in the summer of 2016, as this blog became more widely read. The DNC email Wikileaks were severely damaging, and demanded a strict censorship response from the political establishment. When Donald Trump won the Electoral College in November 2016, the World Socialist Web Site, Julian Assange, and myself were their top targets.

The #MeToo & BLM campaigns have also targeted this site for blacklisting, de-ranking, de-platforming, etc. This has occurred on all platforms, including Google, YouTube, Amazon & Disqus.

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Coronavirus Vaccination: A case study

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My first vaccine report card is below. It was a painless injection with no initial side effects. WUCF 89.9 was playing Ella Fitzgerald’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” on my drive home. Irony?

There is a lot of misinformation, which is creating hesitancy to get vaccinated. As a doctor, I categorically state that everyone should get vaccinated, and take whatever brand you can get. They are ALL better than being unvaccinated. It’s the only way to end the pandemic.

Until we can get all 7+ billion people on this planet vaccinated, this pandemic will continue. This coronavirus is a deadly flu strain, which is mutating before our very eyes. The problem is that too many people remain willfully blind. These people are known as anti-vaxxers & capitalists, and they must be politically defeated forever to win the Coronavirus War.

Here’s a truth: you need to be ready to be vaccinated, physically & mentally. There’s no question about that, so forced vaccinations aren’t the answer. Everyone has to be educated with real science, and when they are, they will realize they need to be vaccinated. It’s a political struggle against ignorance, reaction & fascism on one front, and a battle to educate the international working masses & youth on the other.

If you are obese, alcoholic, have heart problems, liver, kidney, etc, issues– then you will have more adverse reactions to any of these vaccines. This is a nasty virus, and the vaccines are made of its bits & pieces. It’s your immune system that needs to be ready. You need to be rested, not stressed, when you get vaccinated. It helps to be in good shape, outside & in.

With all the mutations, we may need boosters in the future. That means we need to change our way of thinking entirely. There is no “getting back to normal” anymore. That’s a big lie. This pandemic has been a world-historic “trigger event” which leads to revolution, as every nation’s leaders, especially the US, have no answers for humanity in this struggle to defeat coronavirus.

It is clear this is foremost a political battle. The technology is there to win easily, but capitalism can’t bring humanity together to get it done. It only wants to make profits for itself.

That’s why I just go into Walmart, and get my shot, then leave. Walmart is part of Florida’s pay-to-play vaccine rollout program. Vaccines are distributed at places like Walmart to get people into their stores. They ask for your insurance card, and if you don’t have one, then you sign a form and you’re good to go. The shots are free, but this delivery model boosts the economy in the right direction. Walmart gets the insurance money (if possible), and since you’re already in their store, you might as well go shopping! Convenient, huh?

First dose: Wed 21 Apr 2021 ~9:30 AM EDT

Doctors make the worst patients. When the nice Puerto Rican woman who was injecting everyone pre-swabbed the site with alcohol, I screamed in pain. She jumped back, until I winked at her and said through my mask, “Just kidding.”

She injects, then peels off the injector target, and says, “Oh, a bleeder– that’s rare.” She gets a band-aid and places it on the site. I say to her, so that all the other patients in the room can hear, “I heard that if you get a bleeder, that means you received a placebo.” She’s stunned, and doesn’t know what to say, until I reply, “Just kidding.” You’re supposed to stay for 15 minutes, and they hand you a timer, but I just put it on a table and left. Leave ’em laughing, I say.

A few hours later, there’s a bit of swelling & tightness in my left triceps area. You know something has been injected there. The histamines have been inflamed, and my body is processing the vaccine to achieve a level of immunity. I think I’ll get the second dose in my right arm for comparison. I hope I don’t get a bleeder. The next appointment date is on the back of the card, and it can be time-scheduled online, or just walk-in that day.

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Amazon unionization campaign fails in Bessemer, AL

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Of nearly 6,000 Amazon employees at the Bessemer, Alabama facility, only about 55% of the workers cast ballots, all by mail. A simple majority is needed to approve unionization under the RWDSU. So far the “no” votes lead 1,100, to 463 for pro-union. The unionization campaign, backed by significant elements of the state, is heading towards catastrophic failure.

It seems the Amazon workers don’t want the retail workers union bureaucrats representing them, and they certainly don’t want to have to pay union dues to these corrupt betrayers.

The campaign to bring the RWDSU in at Amazon is supported by Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders & Marco Rubio– all of whom are enemies of the working people. It’s an attempt to bring the workers under control of a corrupt union apparatus.

The SEP/WSWS has countered this campaign with a call to form rank-and-file workers committees, which the ruling class fears above all else. The SEP activities have been entirely blacked-out in the fake media. The apparent defeat of this unionization drive is largely due to WSWS organizing efforts, which is alarming to the elites.

For more background see: “The class issues behind the unionization drive at Amazon,” published by the World Socialist Web Site on March 26, 2021. They have published other articles on this too.

This is all part of a much wider struggle to organize workers of all industries, races & nationalities under the banner of revolutionary socialism. It’s called Trotskyism, and it lives in the Fourth International, whose daily political organ is the World Socialist Web Site. Become a reader, supporter & member. It’s the only place to get real labor news & analysis. This is the only way forward, as opposed to the never-ending barbarisms of capitalism.

As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, mostly uncontrolled, it’s the workers who are facing the brunt of its consequences. Increasingly unsafe working conditions, with double the work at half the pay, is the “new normal” from corporate. More & more, it’s becoming about survival. The working people must realize that this is a war, and that the dividing line is economic class. Workers of the world must unite in order to win the Coronavirus War.

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The unreality of identity politics in sports

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You don’t think we asked for more money? I mean, what are we screaming about? Nonstop! –– Megan Rapinoe

In case you haven’t noticed, women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe has been on the offensive in the media. She claims the USWNT deserves equal pay to the men, when it has already been proven in court that the women have been paid MORE than the men in the past decade. This lesbian athlete, now activist, has Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton & Joe Biden behind her, so she’s hard to stop at this time.

Draymond Green is correct in what he says, but politics are there in the media to distort the argument in favor of Megan Rapinoe’s reactionary agenda. All this is being driven by something much bigger than her.

It’s so easy to be bold when the field has been cleared for you. Megan Rapinoe always claims to be so educated, as compared to whomever she’s attacking. Yet she distorts facts, and won’t listen to reason, in any sense. For example, under capitalism (and Rapinoe is surely a capitalist), you are paid as an athlete according to what you can bring in economically. That was Draymond Greens’ central point during his Twitter storm, and Megan Rapinoe never honestly addresses it.

The NCAA basketball tournaments have just concluded for the men & women. Both were broadcast on TV networks & big cable channels. They were also available for free streaming on the internet. Basically, everyone who wanted to watch had access.

The 2021 NCAA men’s basketball championship game attracted 16.9 million viewers to CBS on Monday (April 5), as Baylor beat undefeated Gonzaga 86-70. It wasn’t even that close, as the refs really helped the Zags stay in it. That hurt the ratings as Gonzaga had an Off Night.

This was a 14% decline from the 2019 game. The 2020 tournament was canceled due to the pandemic, and the Virginia-Auburn (2019) championship game went into OT.

The two women’s Final Four games on Friday (April 2) averaged 2.2 million viewers for ESPN, and Sunday’s championship game between Stanford–Arizona brought in 4.05 million viewers. Both are up from 2019, with the semifinals improving by 22%, and the title game by 10.5%.

The men’s Final Four average audience for Saturday’s two games on CBS (11.81 million) was down 14% from 2019. The men’s Final Four suffered smaller drops than the most recent World Series, NBA & NHL finals, and college football’s national championship game.

But as we can see from the raw numbers, even under these media trends (women up, men down), women only draw ~ 20-25% of the viewers that men do. The truth is the interest isn’t as intense for the women sports, unless there’s a transcending superstar such as Mia Hamm, the Williams’ sisters, Maria Sharapova, or Danica Patrick.

Megan Rapinoe isn’t in that class. Being hyped “elite” anymore, ain’t what it used to be. There are egos & big money involved here, so people will be dishonest, but Megan Rapinoe’s appeal is very limited. She’s abrasive, and not beautiful. How do you market that to a mass audience?

In a rare moment of candor she notes, “We are getting obnoxious to ourselves, to be honest.” Think on that for a moment. This is a half-educated individual, with half-baked ideas, fed to her from half-hearted liberal supporters. Megan Rapinoe is a puppet on a string, and the worst kind, in that she doesn’t know it.

She represents a very limited strata of well-paid American athletes who believe they should get more, and are completely oblivious to everyone outside of their own interest group. Megan Rapinoe can tap into the reactionary #MeToo campaign as a woman, AND the LGBTQ…WXYZ campaign as a lesbian. Identity politics is still searching for its Holy Grail, a gay black women who is an athletic superstar. But as the song goes, two out three ain’t bad.

So all of you women teachers, don’t be fooled by this selfish poser. She’s a jock, which means she didn’t study in school, and speaks only for herself & the sponsors. All you women Amazon workers, don’t buy into this feminist crap which only seeks to divide men & women.

Feminists don’t care about workers on the job. You’re supposed to shut up & work, and then cheer for all of them on the weekends. All you girls in school, does that colored-hair phony have anything to say concerning crushing student loan debt? How about COVID-19 in the classroom? Girls are very affected by this.

Megan Rapinoe pontificates, “You know, just generally, the issue that we have with voter suppression in this country, I think everybody and every business and everything should be at the disposal to make sure that we’re influencing those laws in the right way.”

My first questions are: Who are “we,” and in whose interests are the laws to be influenced? She’s certainly not talking about working people, who are the ones that create all the value with their labor. By “we” she means her elitist colleagues. There needs to be more diversity amongst the oppressors. That’s the bottom-line argument of identity politics.

Then there’s is the issue of voter suppression. Socialists are systematically kept off election ballots– by the Democratic Party. This is an inconvenient political fact, which the likes of Megan Rapinoe always ignore. But facts are stubborn things. Any left-wing alternative to the Democratic party is censored & attacked by the deep state apparatus.

It doesn’t matter too much who the President is, because the deep state runs the show. The proof of that is the current US president clearly has dementia, and the VP is a puppet. So who’s running the country?

On October 31, 2019, former Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin (above) said to a live audience with reporters in the room, that he was grateful for the deep state’s role in prompting the Ukraine-gate impeachment of President Trump. “Well, you know, thank God for the deep state,” McLaughlin responded, provoking laughter and applause.

Until that day, those of us who had proclaimed its existence & massive influence were deemed “conspiracy theorists.” The deep state still isn’t completely acknowledged by the liberal media, as a cover-up for this nebulous institution, where all the political & economic levers-of-power are held.

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Pay to Play vaccinating

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As far as getting serviced in Florida goes, it’s pay to play, it’s always been that way. That’s why Publix, Sam’s/Walmart, CVS, Winn Dixie, etc, have made deals for exclusive vaccine distribution in many areas. The hospitals have little-to-no public vaccinations available, which makes no sense.

This is all insurance & Medicare driven, for profit, in bed with the pharmaceuticals. Of course, there is a lucrative black market too. That’s often called a “pop-up site,” and they always seem to happen in wealthy zip codes. It’s a mystery where those millions of missing doses went.

The CDC website to find vaccines in your area is by zip code. My zip code says there are 29 sites available within 10 miles, but only 4 have vaccine in stock, and none ever have appointments available. This is mostly an exercise in data collection it appears.

The pharmacy & grocery chains don’t have full-time medical staff, so this choice of distribution model is curious from a logistics standpoint. Why aren’t mass vaccinations happening at every hospital? The answer in Florida appears to be that COVID-19 vaccines are being used to draw people into stores. That’s why these ill-suited businesses, which all contribute mightily to governor Ron DeSantis, are at the center of Florida’s disastrous vaccine rollout.

In Sanford, FL a few weeks back, there was an evening event at the downtown Civic Center, where teachers who were willing to teach in-person were vaccinated. This is how the vaccine is being distributed in the Coronavirus War, which disproportionally affects the working poor.

Whenever you see FREE*, check you wallet. Lots of FREE* vaccinations available, if you have insurance. All this make you wonder how the global pandemic will ever get solved? One thing that’s certain is this mess will not be resolved under capitalism. It will only get worse, until working people organize & rise up.

A global pandemic requires a globally coordinated response, but the opposite has happened. Mutating strains threaten to put humanity back at square one, precisely due to the class variegated nature of the response & rollout. The leaders of all nations are responsible and must be held accountable by the international working masses. Only a proletariat with an international socialist program of permanent revolution will conquer the coronavirus pandemic.

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Easter Sunday explained

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Of all the American holidays celebrated, Easter is the most vague. What date does Easter fall on? Virtually no one can tell you that Easter falls on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere. In other words, the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after March 20. That wraps moon gazing & cyclical calendar events into the ancient myth of Jesus Christ.

For those of us who aren’t Christians, we seldom pay attention to Easter Sunday and all its rituals, such as everything with eggs– which is a traditional Church symbol of rebirth. That got extended into the Easter Bunny, chocolate rabbits, etc, which are modern marketing creations to sell us more junk.

Easter roughly coincides with Passover, as Christianity imitates Judaism. Passover is where: if you have the Jewish sign at your doorstep, then the avenging Angel of Death ‘passes over’ your home and spares your first born child. For this reason, it’s important to be Jewish during the week of Passover.

What are Christians celebrating when they assemble for Easter Sunday mass? Zombie Jesus Day. It’s been hyped as “The Greatest Story Ever Told” for nearly two millennia. Yet no Roman (pagan) scholars or recorders-of-events ever mentioned ANY of the alleged miracles claimed to be performed by Jesus Christ in the holy Gospels. There are no Christian writings before those of the gospel of Paul.

Saint Paul founded several Christian communities in Asia Minor & Europe from the mid-30s to the mid-50s AD. It is indisputable through scholarly research that one-quarter of the New Testament books are authentic writings of Paul, with possibly as many as half of its 27 books being written by him.

Easter Sunday, and in fact all of Christianity, is a worship of Paul the Apostle, who is worshiping a mythical Jesus Christ. For the record, Paul’s writing style is beautiful, and stuff like Corinthians 1 & 2 helped give early Christianity a big boost.

Are you that different sort of person who constantly gazes into the night sky, noticing the gibbous moon waxing towards fullness in early spring while saying to yourself, “What a silly & confusing way to mark an event.”

Easter was invented back when ancient societies were still using lunar calendars, and mankind had little-to-no science. Religion provided an origin explanation/myth, which we know today to be false. The real question is, “How & why does this ancient ritualistic nonsense still survive?”

Easter is an example of soft power. It doesn’t coerce you, it just is. It’s there every year, like daylight savings time, an event we must adapt to for no rationally explainable reason. The Church is the origin soft power. With its historical decline in influence, this soft power is usurped by the bourgeois state under capitalism.

For example, why the hell is a Polynesian island in the South Pacific with a thousand ancient monumental stone statues (called moai), named Easter Island? It’s because it was “discovered” by a Dutch adventurer, Jacob Roggeveen, on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1722. The Rapa Nui are the indigenous Polynesian people of Easter Island, and they weren’t Christians, but they were wiped out in part by Christian slave traders. The remote Easter Island has belonged to Chile since 1966, and the US has owned Chile for much longer.

The Fabergé egg was an Easter symbol of Russian tsarism. An expensive indulgence in delicate art, meant only for the rich. As many as 69 Fabergé eggs were created, with 57 known to survive today. High maintenance & self indulgent to the extreme, the bejeweled eggs were produced by Peter Carl Fabergé from 1885 to 1917. The most famous are his “Imperial” eggs, 46 of which are known to survive, made for the Russian Tsars Alexander III & Nicholas II as Easter gifts for family.

This Fabergé egg tradition ended with the Russian Revolution, as Nicholas II & his ignorant & cruel family were shot dead as murderous criminals on March 15, 1918, just before Easter, by the newly formed Red Army under the command of Leon Trotsky.

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