There was another shooting inside CHAZ Seattle on Sunday night, where the perpetrator(s) again remain unknown & at large. After the early Saturday morning double shooting, paramedics were unable to get to the victims, as the police could not secure the area to ensure the safety of the first responders. That’s why the victims were transported by private vehicles to the hospital. One died, and the other is in critical condition.
The Sunday evening victim was also transported by private vehicle and is in serious condition. The police are an instrument of class rule, and need to be revolutionized into a publicly controlled militia, to protect the population. Abolishing the police, with nothing to replace them, is anarchy. This CHAZ/BLM garbage (All Cops Are Bastards, etc) is reactionary to its core, while presenting the cops as our saviors is also false. Racialism & class issues must be clarified & dealt with, for any progress to be made.
CHAZ is a political stunt by Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan & governor Jay Inslee, both Democrats. This is where black lives matter, meets blue lives matter, which means it’s toxic. This can’t last much longer, as the 30,000 residents who are being held hostage mostly wish it was over. Citizens, businesses & residents have been being terrorized for two weeks by racialist gang-bangers sanctioned & funded by George Soros. Working people of all colors need to unite & reject the reactionary poison.
On tearing down statues, Trotskyists must address the racialist narrative with Washington & Jefferson, both of whom were slave owners. The points in their favor are excellent, and must be emphasized with the understanding that no one is perfect, and circumstances were much different back then.
Thomas Jefferson wanted slavery banned, but knew it wouldn’t pass, so as the primary author of the Declaration of Independence & US Constitution he did his best by laying the foundation for the abolition of slavery. Freedom from colonial rule was the primary issue for the founding fathers. Slavery was still too divided an issue in Jefferson’s lifetime to be settled, much less discussed. If the newborn US would have fought a civil war over slavery back then, the US would have been defeated in 1812 (or sometime later) by the British, and re-colonized.
The same rationale applies to George Washington. These black lies anarchists have no respect for the people who froze at Valley Forge, and those who truly sacrificed. Ask any veteran, and most will agree with this. The difference between Trotskyists & pseudo-socialist anarchists is that when a statue needs to come down, we are ready to suggest suitable replacements, for majority discussion & approval. Anarchists just tear shit down on their own, and then run wild because they are protected by the police state.
Since no one is a saint, we can’t make it the standard for statues, or else they all must come down. We look at Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Grant & Washington in bronze, and think about all this– the good, the bad & the ugly. It’s important to remember. We pick the best of each era, with the understanding that time progresses our thinking, so we can’t apply the same standards to by-gone eras in terms of morality, because their circumstances are unimaginable to most of us. We keep statues up to connect us with this historical past and educate ourselves into the future.
One final point that needs to be understood is that much of the slave trade was a business arrangement between African tribal leaders; with Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, French & English slave traders. Yes, there was much brutality & terror inflicted on Africans, and Trotskyists have always condemned that, but the slave trade really flourished when African leaders cooperated, which defined much of its era. This makes 400 years of American history more of a class issue. Racialists need to own these black lies, before tearing down monuments.
The Democrats went all-in on Joe Biden a long time ago. They’ve been given many warning signals from the left to abandon him, but have always doubled down instead. The party machinery propped him up & saved him. Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States, because their primary was fixed– again. And now Biden outraised Trump, with $80.8 million to ‘only’ $74 million for the incumbent in May, according to Politico. The mood is definitely dump Trump.
But Joe Biden is semi-senile, and likely afflicted with dementia. That’s a problem for the Democrats. The party needs a reliable, right-wing VP to fill his shoes, if/when the time comes. Michelle Obama & Hillary Clinton fit that description, and can’t be counted out. They are certainly influential in the process, yet we hear nothing from them. They aren’t mentioned because they are deeply hated by the masses.
It’s these kind of backroom political discussions which the fake media hides, but are certainly real, that determines who will get the nod. Since Joe Biden declared it would be a woman for VP, it’s felt like a political striptease. We’re finally into the top-5. Expect this to drag along until the virtual convention. The more the Democrats keep the focus off of Biden, the better for them, so it’s good zombie management.
The Democratic party strategy is multi-pronged, with full fake media support. First, the way Trump has mishandled COVID-19 will cost him any chance at re-election. CARES is actually bi-partisan policy, but Trump is President & ultimately accountable. I wasn’t politically conscious for Nixon-Kissinger, but this appears to be the most criminally corrupt & incompetent administration in American history.
The aforementioned Democratic VP striptease is their second prong, and whomever emerges, will largely depend on the conditions, so I don’t believe they’ve made a choice from their secret ‘short list.’ The more Biden opens up a lead outside of the margin-of-error in battleground states, the more the Democratic leadership will push for a hard right-wing VP. Democratic leadership is not bound to anyone in this choice, so they can float as many pretty balloons as they want, and then announce their frog. The choice for voters will then be made clear, abandon the Democratic party as they are completely reactionary & hopeless.
The third prong that can be observed is black lies matter, which is tied into CHAZ in Seattle, where a self-styled ‘warlord’ controls six blocks of the inner city. Raz Simone has a rap sheet for drugs, guns, pimping and crimes against children. Raz Simone is on a federal child porn watch list, and yet no police, fire department, or sanitation crews are allowed in.
These hoodlums have armed forces patrolling, manning checkpoints, and stopping citizens at gun point. They a have a supply system for food, water, ammunition & chemical weapons. The best comment on this I read was, “They should rename it Seattle Hill Independent Territory and call it SHIT.”
This is all funded by George Soros through the Democratic party as “BLM activism.” This is no longer a secret, as kids, workers & civilians are learning this firsthand, and sharing their experiences on social media. This anarchy is meant to divide people racially, terrorize the population, and then provoke a police crackdown. These terrorists will be the first to vacate when that happens, in fact, they’ll have advanced notice, as they are mostly provocateurs & government agents. This has been coordinated & allowed by Democratic machinery which runs Seattle. All lives matter, and all lies matter.
I did this crazy white stuff for a year or so, and never took it too seriously, but it did have an influence.
The franchise was created by Gary Gygax. To ‘get involved,’ a player must start with these three (3) fundamental D&D books. Then you can play, with characters you create, in game modules. I honestly found these books, particularly the Monster Manual to be more interesting on their own, and was less interested in gameplay. I still feel the same way.
The Players Handbook shows you how to score-rate each character type (wizard, warrior, elf, dwarf, etc) & traits: such as strength, intelligence, constitution, charisma, etc; and apply then in fantasy battle situations, where your character can earn glory (through higher rank, booty, etc), or get killed.
For example, if a fire dragon torches your 7th-level ranger, you must immediately tear up that piece of paper, which you spent weeks developing in gameplay. It’s very sad & tragic, or silly & comic, depending on your perspective.
Action is moderated by a dungeon-master, who is supposed to know the rules better than anyone, so he (it’s never a she), can direct the players and keep this adventure moving along. He reads & directs from a game module, which other players are not supposed to have seen, so they don’t know what’s coming. Many players cheat on that. It took imagination, and often ended up in feuding, and/or players dropping out quickly. That was my experience.
This is a game module, and one of its original classics. The fact that I know that, makes this a confession in many ways.
Question: What do you do if a demogorgon attacks you with psionics?
Answer: There is nothing you can do to prevent your head from exploding, unless you are at least a 12th-level character with psionic ability, in which case, your best odds of repelling his attack & countering with a slaying psionic blow are no better than 1-in 20. Don’t go there.
I’ve been informed by a hardcore GM/DM that psionics are not allowed in D&D, since the 1st edition. That’s a good ruling. But despite its cheesiness, psionics are intriguing, one must admit. Brain bionics, telekinesis, using the Force, etc. Too powerful for most players to control, so the final ruling is that psionics are strictly for jedis, and not allowed in D&D. I did not know that.
Final confession: I had a fleeting vision of composing my own game module, where I would line-up the most awesome & powerful devils, demons, and evil creatures from the Monster Manual. It would entice every adventurous player, with the lure of the most magnificent treasure & gains in experience points– and then kill everybody. This “Impossible Dungeon” would have slayed any army.
I came up with this idea, because I figured the game had to have an end. But it didn’t, so I ended D&D for myself by not writing the module. I watched T.J. Hooker instead.
I’m sure no player would have entered my dungeon anyways, so it would have been a waste of time, which makes me feel better about William Shatner.
Let’s talk about N-words. This is the term white people must use, as they can’t say the original slur word without being racist, and since black people use it everyday to refer to themselves. We need to let white people in on this discussion, to avoid being racialist & make progress. And for the historical record, ‘R-words’ are the Native American racist slur equivalent to N-words. As for Hispanics, there are so many impoverished sorta Ricans & so forth, that it’s only fair to let them use this ghetto slang too.
One thing I know about black power is that when you get a bunch of crazy & motivated N-words together, shit goes down. A ‘crazy N-word’ is defined as someone who volunteers for a suicide mission, gets the job done, and then comes back & says to you, “What else you got?” When that hooks up with Trotskyism, major shit will go down. I’m somewhere between Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor & George Carlin on this. Anyone else laughing?
The title & content is racialist, but it’s to make a point. The truth is all lies matter.
With all the Black Lies Matter fake politics going on, it is helpful to review this classic WSWS piece by Philip Guelpa, published August 3, 2016, titled, ‘The anti-scientific character of “race” as a concept.’ We need to use science & history against the black racialists.
The bourgeois corporate media is one dimensional in everything they do. They can only broadcast one narrative at a time, which reduces everything to false choices. In 2020, it’s been the Democratic primaries, then COVID-19 & getting people back to work, now it’s channeling the death of George Floyd into Black Lies Matter. Trotskyists are the only ones who discuss all these complexities, and how they relate together.
The Democrats are countering Trump with their reactionary Black Lies Matter campaign. This is augmented on the ‘left’ by the Tom Steyer & George Soros funded Antifa campaign, which deserves serious ridicule. The Capital Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Portland, OR took over a few abandoned blocks, and announced the revolution with “free meals, culture & arts for all.” So the homeless people came, and cleaned them out of food in one night!
The next morning CHAZ was soliciting food donations in the form of organic oats, soy, vegan meals, etc. CHAZ also attacked kids who were tagging (graffitiing) their walls, which they had put up for unexplained reasons. The requested donations on social media never materalized, so CHAZ gave up & went home by the next evening. The same garbage is happening with CHAZ in Seattle.
Black Lies Matter is perhaps best personified by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the author of the ‘1619 Project,’ developed by the New York Times in 2019. She’s also intimately tied-into the reactionary #MeToo campaign. The goal of the ‘1619 Project’ is to re-write American history, with a racialist narrative. It makes reactionary assertions, such as “racism being in the DNA of America,” and that Abraham Lincoln along with all the white soldiers who fought & died died to abolish slavery during the American civil war, were racists. Nikole Hannah-Jones was just awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, for her contribution to this pack of lies.
Above: Bill Cosby, family entertainment & children safe
Below: White Helmets (2016)– Tagline: Al-Qaeda wins the Oscar for best short documentary. I know they’re not black, but their lies matter too– and it all fits in.
On the fourth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre:
Omar Mateen’s father is a deep state asset, so there was never any justice for the 49 killed during the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, FL in the early hours of June 12, 2016. The OPD had to use drones to finally kill Omar Mateen. Police on the scene after it ended, described the eerie sound of cell phones buzzing throughout the club– never to be answered. If gay lives matter, then gay lies matter. Why doesn’t the LGBT campaign support prosecution of the deep state for its part in this horrific crime? Explain this conflict of interest.
Sports may be the biggest black lie. Here’s a quick round-up since my last update.
‘Maybe I should send UFC fighters out there to stop this sh*t’ – Dana White on George Floyd unrest
Maybe the fighters won’t go, the way UFC godfather Dana White pays & treats them.
Below in italics was my post on Dale Earnhardt, Jr’s Fakebook page, when NASCAR’s banning of the Confederate flag on their property was the hot topic. The comments section was turned into an airport, where ‘fans’ announced their departure from NASCAR forever over this. It remarkable how no one misses Nazis when they go away. It’s also remarkable how they always slink back when no one is looking.
Banning the stars & bars was a demand from corporate sponsors, and is tied into the Black Lies Matter/Joe Biden presidential campaign. NASCAR is so bankrupt, that it had to finally cave-in on the Confederate flag, just to assure themselves that there will be fans at the races, starting at Homestead [Miami] this weekend. That’s the biggest social significance, the allowing of mass fan gathering for sports, while the COVID-19 pandemic is still raging. People are upset, but for all the wrong reasons.
On the push to hold the US Open tennis tournament this September in New York, one must engage the most foul racialist & feminist in sports: Serena Williams & her camp.
To coach Patrick Mouratoglou: Roger Federer just has knee surgery, so that’s how older athletes are affected [by the time off]. Especially her [born September 26, 1981], as she’s a red-flag injury risk. Her motivation is the same as ever, as the Serena Williams camp is pushing the Black Lies Matter & back-to-work campaigns, out of self interest. She is well-paid, but this also creates an opening for the US Open to happen, where only a limited number of top players would compete, due to international travel restrictions, unsafe conditions, players boycotting, etc. More than anything, Serena Williams wants that elusive 24th (& 25!) major, and she’ll do anything to get that. She is the most despicable, manipulative & disgraced figure in modern professional tennis, and history will prove that.
Update: Thursday June 18, 2020, 1 PM EDT:Serena Williams yesterday released a video statement (ESPN/tennis) saying she will play the US Open, as I predicted. The millstones of history grind slowly, but exceedingly fine. This is how fake black power will be crushed into black powder for worker use.
There’s been a lot of stories on college football ramping up to re-start in the fall, and it’s effect on universities & their finances. The week of June 1, there was a report on the Alabama Crimson Tide holding a practice where 5 players were COVID-19 positive. “The workout included nearly 50 players. They were tested Tuesday, practiced together Wednesday, and received the test results Thursday.”
This means they practiced, with five COVID-19 positive players, before the results were known. University of Alabama football braintrust, personified by head coach Nick Saban, couldn’t even wait TWO DAYS for test results, so the infected players could be quarantined to ensure the safety of his team. What kind of leader is that?
The NBA announced it’s ‘bubble dome’ plan to finish the 2019-20 season, but all is not assured. This is to be held at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex, outside of Orlando, FL. Over 100 NBA players held a conference call, in which opposition was expressed to Chris Paul’s privately negotiated deal with the owners, which player reps rubber-stamped last week. There appears to be significant opposition over logistics, player health, and why they are trying to do this during an uncontrolled pandemic?
There is also player frustration over being excluded from the process. Of course, money is an issue, and both sides are ready for war. I don’t see the NBA getting re-started, and if it does, it’s going to fizzle quickly.
And finally, Governor Ron DeSantis has just announced the moving of the Republican convention from Charlotte to Jacksonville. Of course, this is a huge mistake, the kind a madman makes, when he’s running out of time & options. There will be a Jacksonville historical anniversary involving the Ku Klux Klan during this convention. It’s called “Ax Handle Saturday,” and in happened on August 27, 1960, as Klansmen terrorized & violently attacked a civil rights sit-in, and then rampaged against black civilians.
This is the base Trump is seeking to whip up, for his fascist coup plot. It’s the only way he can retain the White House, which he can see slipping away from him daily. The COVID-19 pandemic has killed the global economy, and no country in the world has been hit harder that the United States. This is a capitalist failure, and the biggest political failure in the world is Donald Trump.
Every country in the world has turned their media guns on Trump. This is a Nazi who threatens the survival of humanity, and he must go. The question is, what will replace him? A ‘ Joe Biden/reactionary-old-feminist’ ticket doesn’t do it, and the masses & youth know it. We have a revolutionary situation developing, and it’s global in dimension. Only a party with international roots & perspective can guide the long-suffering masses to victory.
The Joe Biden campaign has been teasing the public on VP. This allows zombie Joe to stay in his basement, where he belongs. He has been completely incoherent in the few statements he’s tried to make on topics including: the COVID-19 pandemic & the police murder of George Floyd. If Democratic party leadership liked his VP choice, they would be promoting it. But they aren’t, so what does that tell you? I expect we’ll be teased until the virtual convention. Right now, black lies is winning for Biden, so why throw a wet blanket on that? That’s the DNC strategy, and it paves the way for a hated reactionary such as Hillary.
The fake media keeps trying to present everything as black & white, in order to divide workers & youth. It’s really a green thing, meaning how much money one has, determines how much ‘justice’ one will get. This has become patently absurd when zombie billionaires, who are bankrupt under a mountain of debt, still insist the game be rigged in their favor– and get bailed out again. Parasites have nothing of value to offer. Their lies of every shade have been exposed. These are white lies that matter.
If black lives matter, then black lies matter. That’s because all lies matter. White lies are ugliness that’s hidden because people think the truth hurts too much. Black lies are an open attempt to divide workers & youth with racialist propaganda. All lives matter, and all lies matter. That’s the dialectical truth.
It’s time for workers & youth to claim their labor power, and halt all non-essential work. Essential workers must be tested & quarantined as needed, with full pay & benefits. The trillions of dollars that were just handed to Wall Street criminals through CARES, must be confiscated & re-allocated towards society’s most pressing needs: inequality & fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
Self-interested politicians must be shouted down, and eventually arrested for their crimes against humanity. The same applies to the media, deep state apparatus, and the military brass. National Guard troops that were sent to Washington DC, to fight the population are largely demoralized. It’s largely the same with the police.
The time is ripe for revolution as the existing ruling class has proven itself hopeless. Join the fight by becoming active on all fronts. This includes social media, and in your own streets & neighborhoods. We must learn to rely on ourselves & work together, because we know Biden & Company aren’t going to help poor blacks, whites & Hispanics when it gets rough.
I’ve had crazy experiences in my dental career, but none more bewildering than an affair I had with a dental hygienist, while working as an independent contractor. I’ll start from the present, and work backwards, as that’s the most coherent way to explain what happened.
Most recently, I sent this message (through their website) on May 30, 2020.
To Douglas A. Huhn, DMD & staff: my name is Eric Meeker, I’m a DDS who has practiced for 25 years, mostly in Lake County. I have worked as an independent contractor since 2014. I worked with Terri Liddel, RDH at Classic Dental in Lake Mary after she left your practice in 2017. I’ll bet you’re wondering why she left, and what happened that day when the Feds showed up and whisked her away during office hours?
It turns out, she’s in the Witness Protection Program, because she’s the ex-wife of a Terre Haute, Indiana mafia leader who turned federal witness. He tried to enter the state of Florida that day, and the Feds were notified and took ‘Terri’ to a safehouse until he was located and returned to Indiana. I know this because I’m the one she fell in love with and told everything to, in an attempt to be with me permanently. I refused, and soon after, never saw or heard from her again. I just thought you should know. Longtime staff at Classic Dental, including Dr. Garcia can confirm this.
I receive this short & confusing reply a few days later:
June 1, 2020 9:57 AM Subject: Dental request
Hi Eric
We received your information on Terri Liddil , Terri hasn’t not been employed in our office since September 01, 2017.
Dr, Huhn’s Office
So I replied that afternoon:
If you haven’t already, you should check Terri Liddil’s SSN & references, etc, which are all phony, so you know what to look for in the future. Her first & last names can be spelled many different ways with the same pronunciation, which helps when she’s moved around so much. I haven’t seen any CE or dental school curricula on this.
It would be professional courtesy to share your stories & findings with me, since I told you something you never would have known otherwise, and it included personal information to authenticate. You don’t have to, but realize it’s about respect. Our profession shouldn’t be a dumping ground for government agents, FBI cloak & dagger, etc. Dentists don’t deserve to be played as dupes in their own offices. How does Dr Doug Huhn & staff feel about that?
I’ve received no further reply, and I’m not expecting one. An owner dentist can always claim HIPPA regulations, etc, as privacy protection, and that’s their right. Here’s an explanation of HIPPA from a former dental practice owner.
It’s a bureaucracy formed in the early 2000’s, supposedly designed to protect patient & employee privacy. It applies to leaking sensitive personal/medical information, full names, SSN, etc, to other people in the waiting room, or office records being hacked online, and other such disclosures. Basically, businesses have to respect customer & employee’s right to privacy, while in possession of sensitive information.
But I have too have rights, and I’m not afraid to exercise them. For instance, what about my right to know about government agents being planted in the dental offices I’ve worked in? These are dangerous individuals, who know other dangerous individuals, and therefore put practitioners in danger, without their knowledge or consent. Why am I the only dentist who has a problem with this?
I sent that message to Dr Huhn, because I knew Dr’s Butch Garcia & Jim Flatley hadn’t. They were both told of this circumstance & happening in April 2018, a month after my final break-up with Terri. They had to believe me, because the evidence was overwhelming, yet they refused to completely believe it, because it cut across their political ideologies.
Most dentists are politically conservative, and thus, think the deep state is a ‘left-wing, nut-job’ conspiracy theory. That’s how small-minded so many dentists are, as they mostly only care about their practices, personal lives & making money– and are blind to greater realities. That’s why I don’t attend dental meetings like I used to.
I have no illusions about the profession of dentistry in 2020. It has been destroyed by COVID-19. It is no longer safe for practitioners to practice, without generating huge amounts of medical waste, even for the simplest procedures, and this isn’t sustainable. The ADA is a sellout bureaucracy which has no answers; kept fat, dumb & happy by the insurance companies, dental suppliers & corporate dental.
As for dating someone in the Witness Protection Program, that was a learning experience. What I thought was a safe romance with an attractive older woman, turned reality on its head. When she told me the truth about her life, after a night of intense sex (just like a woman), I was stunned and didn’t know what to think.
Flashing to the present, I just finished watching Jeffery Epstein: Filthy Rich(2020), and in hearing all the stories of these survivors of his sexual abuse, what strikes me is how similar I feel to them. I felt like I was taken advantage of, lied to, and led down a dark path. What the WPP is doing to professional offices, and the workers who staff them, is abusive. This is what angers me, and when other professionals are informed of this, they choose to stick their heads in the sand. That’s a measure of how messed-up the profession of dentistry is today.
I have no tolerance for spinelessness, and I don’t appreciate being left alone on an island with the truth. Dentists are supposed to tell patients the truth, and then fix the problem, at a fair fee. The same respect principle applies with peer relations. I didn’t want to have to write this story up, but I’ve been made to, by all those who live in fear, who have degraded the profession of dentistry & medicine, by refusing to admit they’ve been abused– like the rest of us.
I don’t have that problem, so here’s what you need to know. Medical & dental offices are dumping grounds for WPP/FBI plants. Agents are given accelerated training, in programs such as dental hygiene, and in a few months are placed into volunteer clinics– all under 24/7 federal surveillance. The agents are well-trained, and the irony is that Terri was actually a great hygienist. This gets them noticed, and then hired into private practices. She cleaned my teeth, and it felt great, I have to admit.
Others felt the same way. For instance, here is a Google patient review from Stephanie Mirsky, which I’ve copied & pasted.
4 years ago I’ve been coming to Dr Huhn’s for over 7 years. Always great service, great staff and hygienists (Terri is awesome!) and Dr Huhn genuinely cares about his patients. Highly recommend!
I’m not violating any HIPPA rules, because this information was publicly released, and “Terri” doesn’t really exist.
I call her Terri anyways, because that’s the only name I ever knew her by. I never got any pictures, and now I know why. WPP agents are trained to avoid contact with others. Taking lunches alone, in their vehicle if necessary. Don’t socialize after hours. If you are asked to be in a picture, and can’t get out of it, then stay on the edges, and look plain. It goes on & on.
Of course, the FBI understands that people do fall in love. There’s no stopping that, but there is procedure. First, the agent must identify the love target for a thorough background check. The target is completely unaware. Once cleared as “clean” by the Bureau, the WPP agent can engage in seduction, without revealing their true identity.
It was always clear to me that Terri fell in love with Dr. Meeker, and had no interest in the music & political activities of Ric Size. But the FBI knew. This made Terri an unwitting agent, meaning she’s gathering intelligence for the FBI, without understanding their intentions.
It all went well enough, until she revealed… the rest of the story. Terri married very young, and had no college education. She knew what she was getting into, as this was a handsome, intelligent & powerful man who was the brains of the mafia in Terre Haute, Indiana. That’s a big mob town, I’ve come to learn, going all the way back to the Teamsters & Jimmy Hoffa.
He’s also ruthless & abusive, and so they were divorced. It was not made clear when this happened, before or after he was busted. Anyways, he’s working at a Whole Foods in Indiana under a new identity. Whole Foods is owned by Amazon, which also owns the Washington Post, and has government contracts with intelligence agencies, if you need more context on how this all ties in. I asked Terri, and was always refused, when I inquired about his real name, a photograph, or even a description of what this jealous & dangerous sociopath looks like.
That will kill a boner. Along with realizing all your conversations are being intently monitored. If the agent makes a mistake on the phone, by revealing information the FBI deems “sensitive,” then your call gets instantly dropped. The agent then gets a text from Big Brother reminding her, so when you call back, it’s a completely different conversation.
I’m like Captain Beefheart, I don’t like to talk about my women, but I’m gonna do it anyways. That’s because much of this relationship wasn’t with her at all– it was with the FBI. These are the final text messages from our relationship.
This time she let it slip, that when she flies back to Indiana to see her daughter, she uses Leesburg Airport. I’m not supposed to know that Leesburg Airport is a transport hub for WPP/FBI agents, and neither are you. Here’s my final text thread with Terri, from March 4, 2018, starting at 9:31 PM. I’m in blue.
And that was it. I never saw or heard from her again. All WPP agents are given a code word to text to loved ones, in case they have to be taken to a safehouse for an extended period of time, just to let them know they are okay. That word got changed, so it’s no longer “papaya” for Terri.
Terri was forced by the FBI to move in haste, out of the central Florida area, as her cover had been blown, when she was ultimately rejected by the love target– me. Terri left her expensive hygiene instruments at Classic Dental, and never claimed them, which was most curious to the staff which was still unaware, but is FBI protocol to those who know.
A month or so later, I went into the office on an off Friday, and took the Dr’s & an assistant out to lunch to explain the whole story. It was the female dental assistant who actually best understood & accepted the facts. The women in the office [!] had suspected Terri & I were having an affair, and this confirmed it. The men were clueless, and then it turned to denial & jealously, as this made them look weak & stupid. They only grudgingly acknowledged it, and then buried it afterwards.
I wrote this, because it’s not fair to be carrying all this myself. The FBI & US government deny all this, because that’s what they do, and people are naive & sheepish enough to believe them. Most doctors can’t handle the truth, which is sad. But I’m not one of them. Much of what is happening in dentistry today is an illusion. The only way to grow is to learn to accept hard truths.
In conclusion, I believe the Witness Protection Program must be exposed & dissolved. My experience gives me a personal & professional perspective on this, so it deserves serious consideration. This is a criminal operation, which is allowed to inject itself into society, creating havoc & bad feelings all around. Deception & lies never lead anywhere good. The entire principle to this deep state operation is rotten with corruption, and deserves to be rejected by everyone. Let this be a start.
Once upon a time there was an ugly princess who wanted to be President. Even as a little girl, she told everyone, “I don’t want to be in the kitchen baking cookies, I want to be President!” Everyone laughed & laughed, which only re-doubled her resolve.
This ugly princess came from a wealthy family, and married to achieve her dream. One day when she was walking alone in a dark forest, an ogre approached her with a deal. He proposed, “I have the chops & political connections to be President. You have the money & family name. Let’s get married, so I can be President, then I’ll make you President.”
The ugly princess was delighted to be made such an offer she couldn’t refuse. This was a kingdom where anyone could be elected President, and her husband served two terms in that capacity, making himself the most powerful member of his political party.
But things never quite worked out for the ugly princess. It was as if the deal she made with the ogre was cursed. For instance, as First lady, she was publicly cuckolded, as her husband was impeached by the House of Representatives for lying about getting blown by an intern. But what could she do? She wanted to be President, so she stood by her man. It was the only way.
As a member of the imperial Senate, the ugly princess was viewed as a thoroughly establishment figurine, instead of the rising Presidential hopeful she desired to be. It was a dark star that rose in her place, and cruelly snatched the party nomination away from her. The ugly princess howled & screamed during the process, but eventually was made to understand the realpolitik, and became Secretary of State.
At the same time this was going on, there was a handsome, wise & courageous prince who was forced to live as a pauper. His unfortunate situation came about very early in life, when he was walking alone through a dark forest, and a wicked witch bumped into him & took offense. The wicked witch hated beauty, so she said to the handsome boy prince, “I’m going to cast a spell on you, so no matter how smart you are, no one will believe you, until you are kissed by a beautiful princess.”
Then she waved her hands & cackled, “Fee-fi-fo-fum; this man shall be wise, but people with think he’s dumb,” and with that, and a ‘poof’ she was gone. The boy studied hard, took all the toughest classes, and never let the establishment crack him. But the wicked witch’s spell took hold, as every time success seemed within his grasp, it would evaporate. The goalposts were forever moved back & narrowed, to the point where it was futility to attempt financial success.
The handsome, yet poor, prince told everyone of these truths, but few, if any listened. They ignored, blocked & de-friended him for telling the facts. This was indeed a nasty spell, cast by an evil sorceress. There were deep state campaigns, in which the ugly princess attacked the handsome prince on every front, political, economic & personal, with dirty tricks campaigns, spying & blacklisting.
When it was finally the ugly princess’ time to run for President again, the field was presumably cleared for her, by her powerful husband. But an old windbag making leftists sounds took the lead, and the ugly princess was again drowning. So the Black Hand again intervened, with a nefarious squeeze play, to get the old windbag to sabotage & abandon his campaign– in a bow of respect to the ugly princess & her ogre husband. This was revealed by WikiLeaks, as DNC staffers leaked damaging emails & speeches to Goldman Sachs by the ugly princess, implicating them in rigging the 2016 primary.
Nazis had indeed taken over the White House, and over the next three years, chaos & hatred was broadcast everywhere. The ugly princess did everything she could to shift the blame for this catastrophe onto anyone but herself. It was mostly the “Russians” and “internet trolls” that were blamed, as “fake news” came into our lexicon. The handsome & wise prince suffered more than ever. The problem for the ugly princess was that no one believed her lies, despite her monopoly grip on the media narrative.
So the courageous prince never stopped broadcasting the truth, and eventually more & more people started paying attention, as censorship can’t hold forever. The resourceful prince took up the guitar, and became the Pied Piper, but that’s another fairy tale. Anyways, the wicked witch’s spell had finally been broken, so when it came time for another Presidential carnival campaign, the ugly princess was left out of the primary.
But the ugly princess still had her ogre husband by the royal jewels, so she again demanded, “I want to be President.” As luck would have it, just as the political campaign season was going into full swing, a horrible & incurable black plague swept over every land. This crashed the global economy, which was already on a knife-edge– about to be swallowed up in a mountain of unpayable debt. This crisis ruined any re-election hopes for the Nazi incumbent.
As far as the party primary went, again the old windbag ranted about inequality & unfairness, while offering nothing of substance, before ceding to leadership and betraying his followers. A zombie placeholder was made the presumptive party nominee for President. The zombie was made to declare that his running mate for Vice-President will be a women.
This creates a situation where the ugly princess can still become President, by removing the semi-senile imbecile after the election victory, through dirty tricks party maneuvering, and a media attack led by the #MeToo campaign. The most useful tools for the ugly princess are: #MeToo & Black Lives Matter. The LGBT liberals have no power, because conservative don’t care about fags, so they have to support the “liberals.”
The problem for the ugly princess is that she, and her favorite tools, are considered toxic by party leaders outside the palace, as well as all the voters. This puts their Presidential campaign back into the margin-of-error, which is alarming. Any time an election falls within the margin-of-error anymore, the right-wing party wins, because it’s about dirty tricks and they are more adept at that game. The last time a left-wing party won the Presidency within the margin-of-error was Camelot, and that’s another fairy tale too.
The announcement of the ugly princess for VP will be unacceptable to the masses. It will ultimately lead to a revolution, where all the evil & ugly people are exposed, prosecuted & then thrown into a dungeon for the rest of their days. The working people will be the leaders in gathering together & socializing without the distinction of classes, to create a better society where everyone lives happily ever after.
Preface: I cover the big three US sports: football, basketball & baseball– as well as NASCAR, because I live in Florida. This gives a fair cross-section of American athletics & values. Sports are king in Florida. Republican governor Ron DeSantis has declared its facilities are available to any league or event series that needs a venue. UFC & WWE events have already been held in Florida, as lockdown restrictions were lifted. Everyone knows DeSantis is Trump’s puppet in Florida, and Trump wants sports, because they are essential to his survival.
The back-to-work campaign is a bi-partisan propaganda offensive designed to lure & coerce workers to operate under unsafe coronavirus conditions– permanently. Neither political party has done anything significant to see that an adequate number of tests are being done to isolate hotspots, to break the chains of infection. Getting sports leagues, circuits & tours going again, is part of this deep-state campaign to make us feel safe about working again.
The NBA & collegiate hoops were the first to shut down, and have their respective seasons cancelled. The NBA is still currently trying to work out a play-off model the players will accept, but apparently it’s hopeless. The NBA players got most of their seasons’ salary, so they are good, and mostly unwilling to risk their health, and that of their families. That’s the player chatter I read. October is a long way off, but the question already hangs– will there be a 2020-21 NBA season? What about free agency? Signing bonuses to draft picks? Etc…??
Final edit:On June 5, 2020, it was announced by ESPN that the NBA will return, to be played at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex located outside of Orlando, FL. Star players were forced to give in to the sponsors & ownership. It will be a disaster for all the reasons I’ve discussed.
As for college hoops, what do you do about eligibility, since March Madness never happened? Will the universities even be open by fall? This quickly bleeds into college football. As far as the NFL & NCAAF go, there is no way to ‘social distance’ these games. Football is where two sides with 11 players each, line up and smash each other in the mouth to impose their will-to-win. Only one side can be victorious, unless it’s a tie.
American football starts with training camp, and practices on a field where young men go chest-to-chest in the hot sun. With an unchecked COVID-19 pandemic still raging through its first wave, every team’s training camp will have coronavirus infections by the second or third week.
This has probably already happened in NASCAR. The angle for the owners of all these sports operations is to keep tight control of information, so no news of athletes testing positive gets to the media & public. The ‘protocols’ being set in place are to keep athletes, trainers, coaches, staff & all other workers tight-lipped, and in-the-dark as to the whole truth. This safety model also applies to auto workers, meat packers, Amazon hub workers, delivery drivers, grocery clerks, etc. There’s trillions for Wall Street, but nothing for worker safety, or those 40 million workers thrown out of work since mid-March.
The truth is ugly, and well as scary, because it’s real. But big business owners don’t care, because it’s not their lives that are being put at risk, and they got their bailout money already. But, these moguls need these leagues to operate, otherwise all their profits will disappear, and they will go bankrupt. Just like that. That’s the ‘labor value of athletes in sports’ by Karl Marx.
Here’s another observation from a fan turned sportswriter. Getting these traveling circuses operational again, without fans in attendance, is a loser. Television is being turned off by everyone, and streaming is very easy to walk (or click) away from. People have to be there, and show interest (by paying money to attend), otherwise it just isn’t the same.
For instance, I watched Kevin Harvick (pic above) in his video interview after he won the initial comeback race for NASCAR at Darlington, and he was shocked at the joylessness of it all. No fans cheering. No celebration with teammates. Just an interview with masks on for those watching ‘live’ on television (or streaming later), and then go home. If athletes don’t get to enjoy the win, what’s the point– besides money?
Major League Baseball was the sport that never got started, so they occupy a unique position. Since COVID-19 shut everything down in March, baseball never got through its spring training, meaning only one or two player paychecks went out in full before the shutdown. MLB players get paid bi-weekly during the season. So in professional baseball, we have athletes who were ready to go, signed to guaranteed contracts, but aren’t allowed to play.
Like everything else, it’s going to come down to money. Here’s the pay scale MLB ownership proposed, and the MLBPA rejected: Player salaries at $563,501 to $1 million paid at 72.5%; $1,000,001 to $5 million paid at 50%; $5,000,001 to $10 million paid at 40%; $10,000,001 to $20 million paid at 30%; $20,000,001 and up paid at 20%.
There is no way MLB superstars are taking a prorated 80% pay cut, as these are the players with the strongest union support. Furthermore, the logistics of playing baseball are impossible. The players & owners are too far apart. There will be no MLB in 2020, and the ‘guaranteed’ contracts of all the MLB players is going to be a HUGE fight. Look for it to end up in court.
Also, many minor league players have been cut off from their paychecks, and are about to be unemployed permanently, as MLB is scaling back the minor leagues to save money. The Oakland A’s have already stopped paying their minor league stipends.
Miscellaneous stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HKw4-KOJBs
An unidentified white male broke a window to ex-Cleveland Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith’s vehicle, so he beat his ass, and then let him run away. My thoughts on that, are that if someone broke the window to my vehicle in front of me, I’d do the same as J.R. Smith– as any man would. The problem is that police don’t serve & protect the public, so people are now taking the law into their own hands. America (and everywhere else) is about to break out into civil war– workers vs rich people. The cops & military are the stormtroopers for the ruling class.
I recommend that you don’t rely on icons & celebrities. Stop all hero worship. When I see stars from the past posting muddled & reactionary thoughts, I feel an urge to expose them. They preach peace & equality, just don’t take away their mansions & status. The problem is capitalism, and Michael Jordan is a capitalist. So is LeBron James, and anyone else paid over $20M a year. So don’t expect any substance from them, as they’re all pawns of the Clinton-Obama Democrats.
Blowback is a bitch. And it comes quicker & harder than ever– with global warming, COVID-19, and everything else we have going on. So don’t be talkin’ all gangsta, when you don’t know the situation & circumstances. It just feeds ignorance & hate. Black Lives Matter is toxic black racialism, the same way Blue Lives Matter is sick white supremacy. Everyone with an ‘authorized’ media voice takes one reactionary side, or the other, but they are all losers.
The only way to defeat Nazis is to reject identity politics in all forms. Democratic party leaders such as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton & Barrack Obama are black Nazis, along with OJ Simpson, Bill Cosby & Kanye West. They conspire with white Nazis such as Bill & Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden & Donald Trump to unleash police violence and COVID-19 upon us.
You never hear sports celebrities speak like this, because they can’t. The sponsors have them all by their gonads & bankbooks, so they can only issue timid blather– that feeds either into the Democratic or Republican party. As if Joe Biden will save us! This isn’t leadership, it’s a celebrity pacification campaign, and we are the targets. We deal with the realities, while they sit it out in their mansions, private islands & yachts.
If you aren’t out in the streets, talking to real people, and seeing what’s really going in your area, then you are useless in this process. You are letting others tell you how to think & act, because they are so good at dunking basketballs & throwing touchdowns. Some may think that’s the pinnacle of human achievement, but it isn’t.
There are far more important activities than professional sports, and none of these games are essential to our economy. We can get along without them for a time, until we resolve all these issues of class inequality & violence. Sports never take precedence over class politics, and in a revolutionary period such as now, they lose much of their social significance. That’s an unreported sports truth you need to know, during the coronavirus shutdown.
My parents were both born in 1939, and were squares. They missed Elvis & the Beatles, settling for easy listening & classical. That’s what I grew up with in Wisconsin. There were two kindergarten classes in Winneconne when I went, and both had nice teachers, Mrs. Broderick & Mrs. Kontos. I had Mrs. Kontos, who played piano, and got us singing as a group to “Old McDonald”, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and other children’s standards.
Looking back now, I can see that it was her job to stimulate as many senses as she could in all of us. By doing this, Mrs.Kontos & Mrs. Broderick could recognize who had ability, and who needed help. Thus, no one got left behind. By 1st grade, the kids had been sorted by ability, and a few were already recognized for their prodigy talents. I had a Winneconne classmate who was a math & science genius, and everyone knew it. We rode the bus together.
We were were introduced to music class in first grade, and it was mandatory through fifth grade. The teacher was Mrs. Alberta Doverspike, a hard but passionate Irishwoman, who loved kids & teaching music. She also played second-row violin in the Oshkosh Symphony Orchestra, which was nationally recognized at the time.
Mrs. Doverspike mostly played the piano in class, while teaching from the songbook we all had in our laps, and always stayed in the classroom. She was the Winneconne elementary, grade 1-5, music teacher for decades, and beloved by many. We viewed these crazy film-strips on the treble & bass clefs, with notes calling out in the night to a kid asleep, and then the journey to follow these sounds & discover the musical scales. We all laughed & learned.
It was the same songbook year after year, with old-school classics such as: Stephen Foster’s “Oh Susanna”, and “Land of the Silver Birch”, a traditional 1920’s Canadian folk song. “Hi diddle unakum feedle” is an Irish ballad I repeatedly requested, to the irritation of other classmates– also known as “The Tailor and the Mouse.” On Fridays, we always sang a song (I think) called “Friday-day” which goes like this:
1st verse: Hooray, hooray, today is Friday day. All week long without a blooper, hit the books and come out super. Friday we’re all in a stupor. What’s today? FRIDAY DAY!!
*2nd verse:Hooray, hooray, today is Friday day. Five full days to get some learning, and we never stop our yearning. but by now our guts are churning. What’s today? FRIDAY DAY!!
3rd verse:Hooray, hooray, today is Friday day.Other days are overrated, all those classes that we hated, five long days we’ve sat & waited.What’s today? FRIDAY DAY!!
* I’m not entirely sure on this verse, so I improvised. That’s all I got on that one, as I can’t find the complete lyrics anywhere. I want that songbook.
In 3rd grade I was made to take private violin lessons, and showed little interest. My mother wanted me to be a classical musician– only. My dad was a good man at heart, but an alcoholic. He was functional, but his addiction took away from his interest in being a father to either of his sons. My younger brother was forced to suffer these violin lessons with me, and had even less interest & ability.
We ‘performed’ once at an Oshkosh recital, and we were the first ones to leave the stage, so the really good kids could play. They were brilliant, but I remember thinking to myself that I didn’t want to be with them. This leads to a major point I’ll make about music, and anything else. Go with your strengths & your heart. I never felt the passion for classical music, that I do for rock, so I instinctively knew where to draw the line.
Anyways, these private lessons lasted only 2-3 months, and were then dropped, because I had stopped practicing. That’s how it is in an alcoholic family. No one can just talk it out. Everything is manipulated & distorted, so you have to find unhealthy ways to express yourself. This is what one must recover from, to become a healthy adult.
Back to grade school music class, one day in maybe fourth grade, Mrs. Doverspike found the generosity in her heart to let one of us finally pick a song, so I raised my hand and called out “Yellow Submarine” by the Beatles, with the page number. Everyone got REALLY excited when they turned to it, and when we hit the first chorus, you could hear our class singing boldly & in unison all the way down the hall. Mrs. Doverspike knew talent when she saw it, and I was placed into a leading role for every grade school production.
I was a “Drummer Boy” for every Christmas concert. I did it because it got me out of the chorus for a few songs– supposedly to warm up. I really didn’t need to ‘get loose’, but I learned early to grab rock star privileges wherever you can get them. Each year it became another song I had to drop out of, to prepare for my bit with the hand drum & mallet. I never thought I was great at percussion, and always wanted guitar lessons, but despite being from a privileged family (upper-middle class), I would have to wait. My parents didn’t want that noise.
At Winneconne back then, young Wolves were allowed to take a real art class in 4th & 5th grade, which I did. It was Mr. Griffin, then Mr. Bartelt [?] in middle school, I don’t remember either of their first names, but both were excellent. I went to a different high school in a different town, and the teachers in these subjects weren’t nearly as good in my judgment, so that’s when I stopped with music & art classes.
In middle school you had to take either: marching band, chorus, or music appreciation every year. I opted for the last. Overall, Todd Oxley was very good, but he weighted towards ragtime, tin pan alley, early big band & opera– his favorite. Mr. Oxley had a problem with anything that came after the Beatles. An interesting movie on a new musical tool called the synthesizer, made an impression, but that was as current it would get.
Mr. Oxley was adamant that heavy metal was ‘devil music,’ and was playing AC/DC records to the class a grade ahead of us, as a study in Satanism. One day I walked into class, sat down in the back center chair as always, and saw “AC/DC”, “Black Sabbath” & “Ozzy Osbourne” on the blackboard. I got excited, and said loudly, “I like them, what’s that about?” Mr. Oxley snapped back, “That’s devil music hidden in distortion,” while angrily erasing the board. The kids (myself included) laughed at him, and told everyone in the school. The next year, he removed Satanism from his music curricula.
This is the most influential children’s record for me. I listened to all the Disney animation records as a kid, and The Jungle Book (1967) outclassed all of them. It holds up because of its genius musical soundtrack, and unforgettable characters. The gate-fold packaging, with artwork, was superb for all the Disney releases. I didn’t see The Jungle Book movie until it was re-released theatrically in North America in 1978. That’s how it was with Disney back then, and that’s why these records were so popular.
Only The Lion King (1994) comes close as a musical & film, and it largely depends on what you grew up with, in choosing a favorite. The original Jungle Book record is narrated, with character dialogue and the famous songs you know & love weaved in: “Trust in Me” by Kaa, “The Bare Necessities” by Baloo & Mowgli, “I Wan’na Be Like You” by King Louie & Baloo, and “That’s What Friends Are For” by the Singing Vultures & Shere Khan. Rhythm, groove, crazy rhyming, alliteration, and other songwriting tools come through. It takes brains & brawn to deliver these hooks, and The Jungle Book is loaded with both.
I rode the school bus, grades 1-8, and it was by far the roughest bus in the Winneconne school system. It was for the kids furthest out, and most lived on family farms. It carried grades K-12, so you had big kids mixed in with grade-schoolers, and a bus driver with a laissez-faire approach to discipline. He didn’t believe in constant supervision, he believed in not crashing the bus, so he mostly let us work our stuff out amongst ourselves. Only (maybe) twice did Gus-the-bus-driver, stop and take action in all my years. He would handle most of it by looking up into his rearview mirror to eyeball the situation. It was a tough & thankless job with all types of crazy.
I was first picked-up, and last dropped-off, every year until 8th grade. I spent a lot of time on that bus, and the radio was always going. For years it was 1280 WNAM, which was AM, top-40, conservative talk radio. For those who don’t know: FM is stereo radio; AM is mono. I think Gus-the-bus-driver was a fan of Paul Harvey, who rambled on every morning with, “The Rest of the Story”.
I heard countless broadcasts, and can’t ever recall him getting to a point. I would usually stop listening after a minute, and look around only to see that everyone had already given up too. NONE of the kids liked Paul Harvey. This is what happens when someone who doesn’t like music is put in charge of the radio. I was part of the rebellion that finally got our school bus radio station switched to 105.7 WAPL, which is FM rock.
Like I said, it was a tough bus. It had a primitive communication system which worked something like this. If you were sitting next to the heater in the rear, in January, and it was getting too hot, you just yelled “TURN OFF THE HEAT,” and Gus would flip a switch– and there was no more heat. If you later called for it to be turned back on, he wouldn’t be so quick to hear you, if he did at all– so you learned when. That’s an example of the responsibility that came with sitting in the back of our school bus.
Just to show how cruel boys can be, we called the fat girls “heifers,” which has a nasty sting coming from America’s Dairyland. Around 1982, we had a few high school heifers sitting in the back, in what was cool, but rough territory. For reference, sitting up front was for grade-schoolers, and it was how to be ‘on gool’. Gool is imaginary sanctuary. For instance, “You can’t touch me, I’m on gool!” This works well enough in 2nd grade, but evaporates by middle school. Anyways, when Joan Jett and the Blackhearts hit big with “I Love Rock ‘n Roll”, the intro drumbeat & riff would start, and one of the heifers in back would scream “TURN IT UP,” and Gus would turn it up. It was a rockin’ school bus– in every sense.
The point I’m making is that music education happens everywhere, because music is constantly around us. Network television & radio were the media back then. They worked together, as television brought new music to kids, even before MTV. The three network channels CBS, NBC & ABC (along with PBS), all programmed the same time-slots, with 3:00-5:00 in the afternoon being for kids. So while we were watching re-runs of Gilligan’s Island, commercials from K-tel Records would appear, and impact us.
K-Tel was a budget record label that would put together sampler albums, and advertise when we were watching. K-tel mostly sucked, and kids didn’t buy into much of it. But in 1980, K-tel released their three best (and most remembered) albums: The Rock Album, Rock 80, and Power Play. Seeing & hearing Debbie Harry sing, “Call Me” in this commercial, still jolts me. It was meant to. K-tel’s Power Play brought Blondie, punk, and new wave to the midwest & many other places.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xpwPyL1jb0
Columbia House was the original subscription music service. When you signed up, you’d get a bunch of ‘free’ albums for a penny, and in turn you promised to buy a set number of albums over the coming year– whether you realized it or not. The box of records, cassettes, and/or 8-track tapes arrived a few weeks later, along with the real bill.
This is called as “negative option billing,” which is defined as an unfair business practice by the FTC. It’s where customers are given goods or services that were not previously ordered, and must either continue to pay for the service or specifically decline it in advance of billing. The reason Columbia House (and later BMG) could offer such steep discounts was because they obtained a copy of the master tapes from all the other labels, and manufactured their own records, tapes & CDs to sell. The artists did not get paid for any of these sales.
The biggest problem for me as a consumer with all these ‘music house clubs’ over the years was their poor selection. Their titles were mostly lame & old. Columbia House was always in TV Guide, meaning it was in nearly every household with a television, for two decades. I would look through and mark the ones I wanted, but it was always only 2 or 3, and you needed to pick a lot more, so I always tossed it away as trash.
BMG was the competitor of Columbia House, who bought them out in 2005. BMG would slip in their catalogs with a purchase of any Sony stereo component, since they are partners. It would be packed-in with the instruction manual & warranty card. I finally went for it, when I got my new Sony CD player around 1992, at the point when BMG offered “10 CDs for the price of half,” meaning you could get 10 CDs for $27. Their selection finally included titles from alternative artists, so it was a GREAT deal. In the entire history of Columbia House & BMG, this was the only time to ever try this deal with an honest approach– IMO.
It was at the end of 7th grade, when I finally took guitar lessons. Becker Music at the end of Main St, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It’s been a family operation for decades, and I learned from Roger Becker, the son. They were all old-school taskmasters, but he was the most mellow. They could get abusive, especially the mother & father, and that’s why I finally quit as I was starting high school. That reason, along with my parents getting divorced, which takes the fun out of everything.
I had learned a lot in a year-and-a-half– all the basics on chords, notes & technique. It wasn’t until dental school that I started getting back into playing guitar. Lots of other students played, and Guitar Player started publishing tablatures of songs in their monthly magazine. Also, album songbooks which they accurately transcribed with permission from the artist, became the best way learn to play a great record like Nirvana’s Nevermind, for only $20, and some time.
At Marquette University back then, Kinko’s photocopying shop on 17th & Wisconsin was the place to take songbooks, magazines, etc, and get yourself an educational copy at low cost. I still have many of those photocopied tabs.
I was starting to practice a lot again in dental school, by myself as a study break activity. As the dental school years went on, I took more & more study breaks. It wasn’t until my final semester of dental school, in January 1994, when all my requirements were completed and I was one of many of us who were just marking time until graduation, that I was introduced to marijuana.
I grew up straight. My first beer was in my sophomore year of high school. That’s the way I partied through college & dental school, until weed. But that night, my guitar & amp were around, as I first got stoned with my friends. I then picked it up, plugged in, and started playing more freely & naturally than ever. I was age 25. Since then, marijuana has been my preference. It’s a gateway to another part of the mind, that helps me relax & be creative. I have never tried anything stronger, prescription or illicit. I believe I’ve lived ethically, and have no regrets on that.
I took the Florida dental boards in May-June 1994. By August, I was working as a professional dentist in Orlando, FL. A year later, I began writing songs, and conceived becoming a musical artist. I made an attempt in 1997-98 to make a record, which was pressed as a cassette tape. I had passion, and some great songs, but no clue what I was doing– so it failed. Around 2000-2002 I attempted a self recording, using two borrowed recording consoles: one digital & one cassette tape. I studied, and learned some more useful stuff, but the final recordings hastily pressed to CD, still weren’t good enough. Another expensive failure, and lesson learned.
Then, for a period of 7-8 years, I focused on personal & dental professional aspects of my life, and music was set aside. I spent this period intensely studying dentistry, as well as Marxism, history, film, music, art, and science. But I never stopped writing songs. When one came, I would get it down on the back of an envelope, or whatever. I had purchased a digital 8-track console, and recorded all my songs onto it, so I knew I had demos. It was these songs from this console, that I burned onto CD and gave to Jay Stanley, when I went in to record Magnified in the summer of 2011. All my music history since then, is already on this site.
No discussion of music education is complete without a few thoughts on ethics. I’ve discussed the Columbia House & BMG scams already. While researching, I was reminded of all the ways my friends had cheated them, and even learned a few new ones. There was never any ethical dilemma amongst kids when it came to shorting the industry. They were overcharging us, and advertising their garbage everywhere, so we learned to take back when & where we could. Sneaking into shows, moving up from bad seats, recording albums onto cassette tape, ripping CDs & DVDs, etc, was all good.
Napster changed everything from 1999-2001, because you couldn’t put a mp3 in your hand, nor could you trace its source. How you feel about what happened to that revolutionary website, says a lot about your musical ethics. Napster was cool, and for the kids. The music industry ramped up its corporate & political machinery to kill Napster so Harvard graduate Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, could rule the ‘authorized’ streaming & download market with iTunes. That’s when pirate sites like Bittorrent, Limewire, Kazaa, etc, popped up like mushrooms to replace Napster.
Most music today is shared via streaming services. Sharing mp3’s illicitly is new radio, so keep doing it. But it is not cool to steal from artists selling their physical product. It isn’t cool to steal from record stores & vendors, as they work to keep music available, and need to be paid fairly. To hide coveted records in obscure bins, until you have enough money to buy it, is to cheat not only people looking for that record, but also the establishment as it keeps the store from making a sale. As a rule, tip musicians generously when they move & entertain you. Unless it’s superstar level, or near that, pretty much every musician is underpaid. Music is what gives us joy & hope. It gives us strength & courage. We need music to get through this COVID-19 pandemic, and help guide us to something better. Always be honest with music, and it will infinitely reward you.
