Just saw an ad for a car with 360-degee cameras. Isn’t this a bit too much? What are we supposed to watch? What’s happening out the windows or the tv screen in the middle of the dash? Or maybe we should start switching between the two in a state of panic? You can be sure some people already are.
I have a friend who turned off his car’s warning system designed to keep drivers between the lines. The thing was going off every time he crossed a white line. Turns out there are lots of white lines out there besides those on the highway and it was driving him crazy. Sometimes, less is more?
I think these computer/tv screens in the middle of a car’s dash are a bad idea. Stupid, even. Basically, idiotic. If the accident rate shoots up, automakers will change, but not until then. It’ll have to either hit them in the pocket book or they’ll have to feel push-back from the insurance industry. Hope it happens soon and they go back to cars that are driver friendly. Until then, they will undoubtedly keep adding more and more of the highest tech they can find because they think more buzzers and bells will move more product.
The truth, is that we need to keep our eyes on the road and not on an icon-filled screen in the middle of the dashboard. We need to look behind our vehicles, before backing up.
They should keep the backup cameras though, as they can potentially save children playing in the street or in the driveway. They should also keep the feature that hits the brakes before the car hits someone in a crosswalk. That’s worth keeping. The rest of it though, well, somebody’s gotta draw a line, cause these car geeks are outta control. They’re adding features not because they should, but because they can. And in the process, all the basics, the stuff that matters most, is apparently being forgotten.
People, need to get off their cell phones, stop looking at the damn screen, and keep their eyes on the road. Just like they taught us in driver’s ed in high school. Something that should be mandatory for every person in every state before they are allowed to get behind the wheel. Maybe it already is. I don’t know. I do know there are a whole lot of distracted drivers out there and more screens and cameras and hi-tech gizmos probably won’t make us any safer. When in doubt, shut up, slow down, and keep your eyes on the road. Focus on your driving. It should be just that simple, shouldn’t it?
When you think about it, why would any sane person do anything to distract the attention of the operator of a 3-thousand pound glass and steel vehicle full of people hurtling down the highway at 70mph? That would be…you know…crazy, right?
The pot’s boiling over in France, where people are in the streets protesting the move by their president to raise the nation’s minimum retirement age from 62 to 64. Doesn’t seem like such an unreasonable demand when compared to some other nations, like the United States, where the current full retirement age sits at 70. Unless, of course, you opt to take early retirement, which lowers the benefit amounts. In other words, you’ll receive lower payments in your “golden years.” But to the French, money, apparently, isn’t the only issue at issue. Apparently, the French see this as being a much larger lifestyle issue.
You might say the French, work to live, while those of us in the United States, the U.K., and elsewhere, live to work? And that, brings us to the so-called “French Paradox,” and what may be a central question in the current dispute that has all those people out in the streets of France.
Heart disease, continues to be the biggest killer of both women and men in the U.S. where we largely, “live to work.” However, in France, where I’m led to believe there is more of an attitude that one should “work to live,” that’s not the case. Consider the following regarding the so-called “French Paradox.”
“The French paradox is an apparently paradoxical epidemiological observation that French people have a relatively low incidence of coronary heartdisease (CHD), while having a diet relatively rich in saturated fats, [1] in apparent contradiction to the widely held belief that the high consumption of such fats is a risk factor for CHD” – Wikipedia
Yes, the French drink more red wine and walk more than we do. Nevertheless, the question must be asked: Are the French healthier because of their general attitude about work? Might we be better off if we followed their example with less as opposed to more work in our lives?
Taken logically, based upon the evidence, especially as regards the issue of stress, the answer would appear to be “yes.” That said, whatever your belief about the matter might be, it is a question we will all be forced to deal in the very near future as artificial intelligence gobbles up more and more of the work that used to require human hands and minds and corporations continue to barrel headlong into ever more cost-cutting layoffs, freeing us up to do and be what? Potentially healthier people who can’t afford adequate healthcare due to the absence of good paying jobs?
The ultimate paradox might deal less with heart disease and more with why, after so many years and so many lessons, our species, in so many ways, continues to be its own worst enemy, as marchers fill the streets of Paris, while in New York and in Los Angeles, thousands of writers, who have lost much of their income to streaming video, prepare to go out on strike. The cost-cutting thing works real well for a tiny percentage of shareholders at the top of the economic ladder, and not so well for millions of others who continue to be told, “If you rest, you rust!”
“You know, for a couple of old guys, we don’t look too bad.” -Richard Riordan
Dick Riordan, was more like a friend than a politician. Somebody you could call if you had a problem. It was a call, in fact, that started our association, me as a reporter and Riordan, as the Mayor of Los Angeles.
“Ron Olsen calling” I said, “I’d like to speak with somebody in the office about the Mayor’s….” I was suddenly cut off. “One minute, Mr. Olsen, I’ll put you through” the voice at the other end of the line said. Then, following a beep and a click, the Mayor picked up the line. “Ron! How ya doin?” It was Mayor Riordan, who thought I was his close friend, Los Angeles attorney Ron Olson, and not yours truly, a reporter from KTLA, looking for a story.
I let the Mayor go on for fifteen or twenty seconds before cutting him off and informing him that I was a reporter and not the attorney. I could feel his shock traveling down the line as he handed me off to one of his press people.
Later, a deputy mayor who was also a friend, told me in no uncertain terms that Riordan was impressed that I had cut off the conversation before he spilled the beans about something. About what, I never learned, but apparently he was about to say something that was in no way for public consumption. All I had to do was to keep listening. The feeling in the Mayor’s Office, apparently, was shock that there was at least one ethical reporter left in Los Angeles. You have to remember that in most circles, politicians see journalists as being the enemy, and generally speaking, we are. It’s our job to try and keep them honest, but I wasn’t going to corrupt my ethics to do it. At least not that one time and not under those circumstances.
And so it was that the Mayor and I became buddies of a sort. I’d be out at an event and the Mayor would walk up, several of his aides in tow, wanting to talk. And talk he would, as his aides virtually melted down, as the Mayor told me things they felt I shouldn’t be hearing. God, it was fun. He never told me anything I felt obligated to put on the air, something our viewers were entitled to know even though it wasn’t public knowledge. But his aides still went nuts when we talked, and I loved it. He might have too. That could have been why he did it. Just for kicks. I’m really not sure.
And if he ever did feed me a story because he liked me and I ran with it…well, you’ll never learn about it from me.
Then there was the gorilla in his backyard. You might expect an elephant maybe as he was a Republican, but why a gorilla?
I was at his house doing an interview about the ongoing move to renew downtown Los Angles, when he got a sort of twinkle in his eye and asked me to accompany him out into the backyard. Once there he guided me over to a very high circular hedge. “Check it out” he said. Take a look at what’s in there.” With no idea what to expect, I peered around the shrubbery to see a life-sized replica of a very large gorilla looking back at me. I’m not sure how I reacted, but Riordan thought it was all too funny as he nearly doubled over laughing. Not bad, Mr. Mayor, not bad…
It was on that same visit to his house when, since the tape was rolling, I decided to ask him how he wanted to be remembered. Sadly, the video is apparently lost and I have no memory of what he said. Probably that he did the best he could in bringing back the City from the Rodney King beating and the terrible destruction of the riots, followed by the Northridge Earthquake and then the O.J. Simpson trials. I can attest to his leadership in overcoming the earthquake damage, getting contractors to finish their work not just on schedule but ahead of time. I can also attest to the way banks and other businesses began returning to South Los Angeles, under the stewardship of Riordan and his business buddies, who had more than a little pull in the community.
There was more, like the need for computers at the Los Angeles Unified School District. So Riordan ponied up with the cash via his foundation. Another project he wanted was a giant pillar in the downtown area, somewhere around Bunker Hill, with an angel at the very top overlooking the City of Angels. It might have been similar to Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square, with the Admiral looking out over the City of London. But he never got that one. He was too religious in an increasingly secular world apparently. Perhaps we sometimes take ourselves too seriously? I haven’t seen the inside of a church in years, and yet I think it was an interesting idea. Considering its size, L.A., could use another landmark. But it never happened. The City of Angels, still doesn’t have its angel. But Dick Riordan, tried.
There was also the arrival of the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles in 2000, even though the City had a Republican mayor. A moderate Republican, maybe one of the last, who believed in doing what was best for everybody, and not for just a few. Or for the party.
Hollywood, was also revitalized while Riordan, was mayor. I have no way of knowing how much or how little he had to do with it, but the fact is, it happened while he was mayor. Hollywood, came back from the brink of being a wasteland with the sign falling down and hookers on nearly every corner of Hollywood Boulevard. I was there. It’s not an exaggeration.
Dick Riordan, wasn’t perfect, but as has been noted elsewhere, he left the City better than he found it. And that, probably, is how he would want to be remembered. A moderate Republican who believed in the common good. A man with a smile on his face and a gorilla in the back yard. You’ve gotta go some to beat that.
In a rare and possibly uncalled for departure, I will now post a second piece in the same day.
An old friend and former colleague from Los Angeles, Steve Weakley, just posted a story from the New York Times in Facebook. It’s an obit for Mary Quant, the “Mother of the Miniskirt,” who has died at the age of 93. Mary was British, and her invention of the Miniskirt was a pillar of the “British Invasion” with Twiggy, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones dropping a cultural neutron bomb on the United States. She was that big, may she rest in peace. Whatever you might think of her taste in fashion you must admit that she really started something. If you weren’t there, you might not understand so you’ll just have to trust me. The miniskirt caused a revolution in women’s wear.
Her passing might not mean much, except that I just heard yesterday that Tupperware might be going out of business. So those of us who made it through the 60’s are loosing at least two icons within the space of a couple of days. Which is kinda sad, don’t you think?
I’ll be off to our local bowling alley now, trying to reinforce or maybe recapture a tiny piece of what I used to be. For me, bowling is something from days gone by. Something I didn’t have time for while in the heat of battle for so many years. It’s like an old friend who was still there. Could be a need for tradition. We all need something to fall back on, I suppose.
We’re told we should expect a high of 84, here in Maryland today. Feels like an average day back in Los Angeles. I love these “what to expect” articles. It’s gonna be warm, that’s what to expect. Guess I’ve only noticed since retirement how fear based so much of the news is. Or maybe it’s become more fear based with the passage of time? I’m not sure. I know I don’t appreciate what appears to be a trend.
It’s nice seeing Joe Biden going to Ireland, simply because he wanted to. I mean, there doesn’t appear to be any crying need for him to be there, other than he’s Irish, and he wanted to visit the old sod. So he went, and everything is quiet, and that’s kinda nice for a change, a U.S. President going somewhere without an immediate crisis as motivation. At least it’s something that can’t be passed along as fear based news.
There’s a wonderful photo in my hometown paper, The Paynesville Press, accompanying an article about local folk volunteering their dogs to be used as therapy dogs for those in need. The photo shows one of the locals proudly posing with his three Great Danes. I had to imagine those three giants bounding into a room where someone was trying to recover from surgery. I guess it might scare the patient back up on his feet and out the door. The exercise might be good for him.
The Great Dane’s owner, Michael Chmelik, is quoted as saying, “One day I was going into a room, and there was a curtain drawn across the front of the door. I knocked, and the nurse jumped about two inches off the ground because she didn’t expect to see a huge Great Dane standing in the doorway, chuckled Wayne.”
All of it strikes me as being very funny. Therapy dogs, Minnesota style. Stop complaining, get your ass outta bed and get moving.
It’s like something Garrison Keillor would have dreamed up for one of his Wobegon books, except this is for real. Not that at least some of his writing isn’t based upon Minnesota reality. Made me smile, anyway. Not a bad way to start the day. Nice to know there’s a place where people care enough about others to offer up their pets as therapy animals. I’m sure it’s done elsewhere as well, but good for them. That’s all I’m saying. Good for them.
Feeling pretty good. DJT has been indicted, arrested and arraigned. Rupert, is being slowly undone in court. Wisconsin, has a majority in its State Supreme Court for the first time in a decade, while MTG was ejected from New York City by native folk who let her know just how unwelcome she was on 5th Avenue. As the New York Intelligencer put it, “New York City Hates Your Guts’: MTG Drowned Out At Trump Rally.”
Then there’s Clarence Thomas, who isn’t worth our time. Beyond saying it’s past time for him to go. Stand by truth seekers, momentum is building. He went for years on the bench without asking a question, why would he start talking now? His wife probably told him he’d be just fine if he just kept his mouth shut.
Would love to see their tax statements, just how much their joint income has ballooned while Thomas was on the bench. Full disclosure of their finances is the only real way to keep any of our public officials honest, isn’t it? It would be a place to start at least. How else to fight all that “dark money” that’s out there since the supreme’s decision in the “Citizens United” case? We badly need a set of regulations, telling these guys what they can and can’t do, as apparently some of them aren’t smart enough to figure it out for themselves.
I recall a moment long, long ago, several decades at least, when a colleague in the news business, a former PoliSci Professor told me, “The conservatives are going after the Supreme Court….they’re gonna stack it with their own. After that, nothing’s gonna matter. They’ll own the country.” Since then, we have watched it happen, with the right holding an immoral majority on the court, trying to roll things back to the 1950’s.
Why would the Chief Justice John Roberts favor self-regulation for the justices, when it’s clear that something more is needed? Welcome to Neverland, where fantasy becomes reality and reality is whatever they think it should be. The absence of real regulation and oversight controlling our court of last resort, leaves us all at the mercy of avarice, with the uber-wealthy standing in line with their private jets and super yachts to influence the justice’s views on just how the country should be run.
This doesn’t mean there isn’t hope.
A report just out in the New York Times, indicates that Trump, Guiliani and their Republican pals down in Georgia, could end up facing RICO charges. Wouldn’t that be fun?
It feels like the planets are lining up, like things are coming back into balance after years of nonsense. Years of downright insanity, ignorance and immorality. Years without proper accountability.
Things are looking up despite the lopsided court. So take a deep breath. This is still a great country. Go bowling. Weather permitting, shoot a round of golf. Watch the Premier League on Peacock or the USA Channel instead of the NFL. The Premier League. That’s soccer. Like Ted Lasso on Apple TV. It’s still tribal warfare, but a more civilized version, without the bone crushing, blood letting, generic primal violence we’ve been programmed to watch each and every Sunday, which is what most of us have been doing instead of going to church. You’ll feel better. You’ll have a clearer head. You won’t feel like going out and assaulting somebody once the game ends. It might change your life. No resurrection story or egg-laying bunny necessary.
I’m sorry. I tried watching “Everything, Everywhere” and thought it was horrible. But there was a big Hollywood buzz about it. So I tried watching it again. Thought it was even worse the second time around. After last night I suppose I should attempt a third screening but I have a feeling the emperor has no clothes.
At the same time, I remain gobsmacked by the performances of Austin Butler in “Elvis” and Cate Blanchett in “Tar.” Maybe it’s just me.
What’s the point in making a movie nobody wants to watch? What’s the point in holding an awards ceremony that is losing its audience? We’re in a period of heavy change. Sometimes, as with “Everything,” the emperor is running around naked while the Academy hands him another Oscar. And so the Academy becomes increasingly irrelevant.
What happened to “The Woman King?” Wasn’t that supposed to do something? Good grief, the audience on Tomatoes gives it a rating of 100% fresh. Or was that last year? Must have been. Surely the Academy wouldn’t have overlooked it?
Not sure what’s happening to the movie biz, but I’m pretty sure I’m not alone. It’s happening to music, too. Rap, which is not even music, is poisoning the Grammys. Bad movies are being touted as examples of excellent film making at the Oscars. It’s all more than a little worrisome, what with art being a reflection of reality and all.
Los Angeles river in Sherman Oaks. Millions of gallons of water on their way to the sea.
It’s being reported that California Governor Gavin Newsom, has ordered for water to be diverted into groundwater basins to help replenish groundwater levels. Good for the Gov. But first, a little history-
The state doesn’t have enough reservoirs. As a consequence it has suffered through repeated, prolonged periods of drought. Orchards have been ploughed under, farmers have yelled at city dwellers and city dwellers yelled back at the farmers, while water has been rationed.
My former colleague at KTLA-TV, the late Hal Fishman put out the call repeatedly in his commentaries. “The State of California” he would say, “needs to build more reservoirs.” Or he might have been calling for Los Angeles County to build more reservoirs, I can’t remember and it doesn’t really matter. The point it, he was right. He would very logically and intelligently point out that every time it rained, there were millions of gallons of fresh water flowing out into the ocean. But nobody listened, at least not to the best of my knowledge. At least not in Southern California.
Thing is, I lived there for 33 years, and watched the cycle continue. The first part of the cycle, was for state and local officials to carp on about the extended drought for years on end. And then, Viola!, it would rain! And not just a little bit. The place would damn near float away, causing everybody to forget about the drought. And so it continued. Every time it looked as though life as we knew it was over, Charlton Heston, would shake his staff at the sky and summon up the rain gods and all of us would be taking our kayaks out of storage to get to the market to stock up on bread, cheese and chardonnay. It’s just the way things were. It was the California cycle of near death by dehydration and then re-birth through some magical gift from the gods. We knew how bad things were, but we knew not to worry. The rain would come to save us. It always did. In a State where everyone is waiting for the inevitable 8.0 earthquake, the “Big One” to come and knock everything down, expecting a little help from the rain gods now and then is no big stretch.
So, here we now are, watching it all happen again, but this time, with the amount of snow in the mountains and rain in the valleys, in proportions that remind you of Zeus calling forth the Kraken, or Moses parting the Red Sea. This is almost biblical.
On the other hand, if it worked in the Bible and then in the movies, why not in the San Fernando Valley?
Not long ago, I saw a photo of what appeared to be water backing up in the Sepulveda Flood Basin. Like all the traffic on the 405 being funneled down into a single lane, all that lovely fresh water that had drained down from the mountains was backing up into the flood basin. There was just too much of it for the single concrete channel, colloquially known as the L.A. River to handle.
But never mind all that. Before long, perhaps within weeks, hydrologists will be advising Californians that the drought is by no means over. There are still too many people using a limited supply of fresh water and there just isn’t enough of it. Los Angeles residents, still won’t be able to water their lawns at will, wash their cars in their driveways or hose down their property. They’ll still have to request water in the City’s restaurants. The words of former Los Angeles Mayor Dick Riordan, continue to resonate, ‘If it’s yellow, let it mellow…..If it’s brown, flush it down!”
Even with a near-record snowpack in the Sierra above, and neighborhoods flooding out below, the drought will likely continue. It has to, you see, because groundwater levels have dropped so low for so many years, that the state has been nearly sucked dry. Making matters worse, the Colorado River is turning into a creek, and to date, no one that I know of has found any kind of permanent solution. Like building more reservoirs. Or a monster pipeline coming in from the east. More reservoirs might not be a total fix but they might be a place to start. They might even name one after Hal Fishman, may he rest in peace.
Until then, take heart, California. Governor Newsom, has ordered water to be diverted into the existing groundwater basins. He’s following in the steps of his predecessors, finding a temporary partial fix to a long-term existential problem.
Chris Rock, was rough, raw and at times even nasty. Also, some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever seen. This is adults only comedy folks, in the tradition of Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce. While he may make you cringe, Chris Rock’s message is a comedic gut check America needs.
He wields the truth more like a crusader with a broad sword than a surgeon with a scalpel. His style will offend the sensibilities of a whole lot of people. He’s gonna get a lot of blowback on this one, which could be precisely what he wants.
Joe Biden did a great job with the State of the Union. I’m still in shock. He was on fire. That said, the speech, generally speaking, is about as memorable as whether the groundhog sees its shadow. A day or two later, and it’s forgotten. One of the pundits said Thomas Jefferson’s idea was to simply put the speech on paper and deliver it to the Congress. Might be a good move.
Got up today and wanted an analysis of Biden’s speech. Other than my own. I went to CNN. Same old, same old, except that they’ve brought Bill Maher on board. I then tried MSNBC. Again, it was the same old, same old but with Rachel Maddow as an occasional guest host. So, I went to Keith Olbermann’s podcast. Biting, intelligent and most refreshing. Somebody needs to put Keith back on the air.
I took a selfie today, because it’s what people are doing, and who wants to be left out? It was horrible. Hi-def photography, is not our friend. At least it’s not for those of us of a certain age.
I’m generally burned out on memes, but one arrived today that really hit me. It’s a photo of a guy pouring hot sauce in his eyes. The caption, is, “Things I’d rather do than watch the Grammys.” After trying to watch this year’s awards, I tend to agree. Metaphorically, of course.
Finally, if a small sub-set of Republican House members insist upon acting like idiot fans at a wrestling match, then the Congress needs to draw up a set of rules for all those attending The State of the Union Address. Those who cannot abide by standards of general adult decorum, can watch the address from a separate room with a big screen tv where they can act out to their heart’s content, without feeling the need to act like angry spoiled children to impress their donors while embarrassing both their party and the nation.
If you feel like you can’t get what you need from commercial television via a nightly newscast or the 7-24 news channels anymore, there’s a good possibility that you aren’t alone. According to more than one source, the ratings of CNN and MSNBC combined don’t equal the ratings of FOX.
It’s not like they aren’t trying. The guy who is now running CNN, brought in Bill Maher, to try and bump up their numbers with some comic relief. Which is what it’s all about. Better ratings bringing in higher paying commercials. That’s why it’s called “commercial television.” That’s why American tv switched in a comparative blink of an eye from “family tv” shows to shows targeting young women and mothers and then finally teens as their prime demographic. More profitable commercials. Plenty of disposable income and superstores loaded with lots of crap to spend it on.
Point is, a whole lot of us are not in anybody’s target demographic or “demo” as the sales guys like to call it. At least that’s what they called it when I was still in the biz.
All of it has left some of us behind, grateful that the BBC, France24, Sky News and Al Jazeera are out there on streaming video, providing us with some variety of actual world and national news and not just the latest on Trans M&M’s, which politician inadvertently left classified documents stashed away in the bathroom at his beach house or how many murders there were in the inner-city over the weekend.
The networks keep hammering away on the same two or three stories again and again, day after day, and they wonder why their ratings are dropping? What we used to refer to as giving our viewers a “balanced diet” of news and information has been transformed into turning the news into whatever some executive thinks might get a better number. Meaning, friends and neighbors, we are now just inches away from Sybil the Soothsayer as portrayed in the prophetic movie “Network.”
In desperation, and thanks in no small part to Los Angeles radio personality, Ken Minyard, I found some relief. The place to go, is to that magic podcast button on your smartphone or streaming video device.
I follow Minyard on Facebook, so I knew he and his son, Rick, had started a podcast, but I had never listened to it because I just never got into listening to podcasts all that much. I grew up with Sky King, Mr. Greenjeans and Edward R. Murrow and old habits, like turning on the 6 o”clock news and expecting the news to be there, are hard to break. Then, the other day, Ken Minyard mentioned something about Keith Olbermann’s podcast on Facebook.
Olbermann’s departure, left a giant hole in the MSNBC lineup – one that has not been adequately filled – and so, I found his “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” podcast refreshing. It’s not like he’s back on MSNBC, which is where he should be and would be if the people running the place had the courage to overcome whatever political nonsense led to his departure, but at least he’s there in cyberspace with a podcast, providing a voice, a point of view, that’s badly needed.
I’m also now a listener of the “Minyard & Minyard Do a Podcast.” Again, they provide a point of view that is needed and is no longer being provided by our commercial media, because, apparently, they no longer have the courage and (or) common sense to provide it. Apparently they’re afraid those on the right will yell about big media giving a megaphone to those on the left, and, as we all know, those on the right feel they’re the only political entity deserving of any voice at all. Bringing us to our current situation – a general condemnation of anyone with the courage and intellect to search for the truth and then report it out. Even if that means infuriating those on the right, many of whom can’t handle the truth and would rather hear about space lasers and Hunter Biden’s laptop and any other claptrap Fox News happens to be promoting because it gets them a big number.
Is denying the truth because some on one side or another find it to be objectionable a valid reason to avoid it altogether? Or is pursuing the truth and reporting it out – “telling it like it is” as we used to say – still a worthy goal regardless of whatever impact it might have on an outlet’s profits?
If money matters more than the truth, then the truth will go begging, leaving us all ignorant and at the mercy of a relative handful of wealthy tyrants who care only about growing their wealth.
If you’re disappointed in what used to be called television, if you feel defeated in your search for the truth, feeling MSNBC and CNN which has just brought a professional comedian on board, are coming up short on what you need, then you might try podcasts. There are plenty of them out there, and some, like Minyard & Minyard, don’t have any commercial announcements, so they don’t have to worry about losing advertisers should they offend someone’s delicate sensibilities. Others, like Keith Olbermann, will give you what he sees as the best available version of the truth regardless of what any advertiser might think, which could be why he is no longer on the air at MSNBC. Or maybe someone who is still there is afraid he’d be too popular? Either way, they need to put Keith, back on the air. Until then, he has a podcast. But you’ll have to look for it.
I’m now afraid to go down in the basement. Not sure what might be down there, except for a lot of boxes filled with documents I collected as a reporter over the years. Worried there might be something that could get me in trouble. I know I have John Glenn’s home address down there, but he and his wife are both dead, so I don’t think that really matters.
RIP and God bless you, John and Annie Glenn.
The second thing, is the Abrams Tanks issue. The U.S. Government, or Joe Biden, if you will, has given the green light to send a number of Abrams Tanks over to the Ukrainians. Apparently, this is what the Germans were waiting for, meaning they too, will now send a number of their high end “Leopard Tanks” to Ukraine.
This is serious stuff, folks. We’re already sending short-range missiles and anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, but the tanks are where Vladimir Putin, drew a line in the sand, implying that once we started sending tanks, he’d consider taking things to the next level.
Putin’s playing international chess, so who knows what he means. Which is what he wants us to think. If we send in the tanks, will he nuke somebody? That would be insane of course, but who’s saying that Putin hasn’t lost at least some of his marbles? At best he’s a sociopath, who murders or imprisons his political opponents, and at worst, who knows? Thing is, here we are, standing at the doorway to what could be World War III, and much of the media it appears, really doesn’t get it. At all. They’re more concerned with what are probably meaningless documents intellectually overloaded politicians inadvertently took home. Or were sent to their homes by someone else.
The classified documents, are turning into a big joke. The truth, probably, is that there are classified docs scattered all over the place, and it’s really no huge deal, except for MSNBC and CNN, who are continuously carping about how terrible this missing documents situation is. Is it really all that serious, or is it just something that’s easy for you to cover? And carp about. Continuously?
The tanks, and the potential for what’s happening in Ukraine to lead to a world war, are far more unpleasant to deal with, but it’s probably time to give these issues a little more air play. That way, if Putin does nuke somebody, your viewers will understand why.
Oh, and there were just three mass shootings in California in as many days. Is there some way to keep this problem of slaughter in our streets alive other than waiting for the next mass shooting to talk about it again? Also in California, the new Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, is trying to deliver on her promise of getting thousands of homeless people off the streets. One report says she wants to find housing for 15,000 homeless in her first year. As part of that, she’s started a count of homeless persons in Los Angeles.
They think there are about 40,000 in the city, with another 30,000 or so, if you include L.A. County. That’s 70,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County. Maybe more. The count is underway. Here in America. A wealthy country. Do you suppose this might be worthy of discussion as opposed to acting like the world is threatened by a few misplaced papers in the home of a former VP?
And so David Crosby is dead at the age of 81. And it feels like a personal loss, going back to the 60’s, and the Byrds, and then Crosby, Stills and Nash, with Neil Young eventually joining in with traces of Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell on the periphery.
I interviewed David Crosby just once, about his struggles with drugs and alcohol. He wanted others to know how dangerous it could be, but that they could find a path out of the darkness and back into the light. He needed a liver transplant to keep going. I also heard three remaining members of the Byrds at what I think was their last performance together at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium at a fundraiser billed as “A Gathering of the Clan – 2000.” Eveybody knew Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn and David Crosby were all there, but I don’t think anybody knew they were going to play together – until Crosby stepped up to a mic and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, The Byrds.” With that McGuinn and Hillman joined him onstage, one last time, playing “Mr. Tambourine Man.” It was the Byrds first hit in 1965. I was a senior in high school.
Things like that just happen sometimes. If you happen to live in L.A., and just happen to be at the right place at the right time.
I never expected to see the Byrds during my lifetime. Didn’t think they’d ever play together again, but there they were. Playing the music that marked our lives. Which is what Crosby did. He was part of so much of the music that marked our lives, from the protests in Chicago in 68, to “Four dead in Ohio,” to Woodstock, to a world we were going to change for the better. Well, some of us tried.
The words of Graham Nash echo: “You, who are on the road, must have a code that you can live by….and so, become yourself, because the past, is just a goodbye….”
Goodbye, David, and thanks for everything. This one, feels personal.
The Guardian reports that after millions of years, time may be running out for the Japanese Giant Salamander. Kinda begs the question of whether maybe its time is up? Also, does the world really need the Japanese Giant Salamander? They are apparently highly reclusive, so it’s doubtful they’ll be missed.
All these classified documents that keep popping up, first at Mara Lago and now in Joe’s garage, or in a space nearby, will, I predict, turn out to be irrelevant. “A mere bag of shells,” as Oliver Hardy, might have put it. At first I had questions about whether DJT might not be selling stuff out of his back door, but now, seeing how Joe Biden is having the same problem, it appears reasonable to assume high government officials have probably been ferreting stuff away at home for years with nobody raising a fuss. Frankly, we should probably be more concerned with information on the JFK assassination the government has locked away.
We will probably get the truth about who killed JFK at the same time they decide to admit to us that lizard people from Beta 4 in the Zenon Quadrant, gave us technology for the transistor and suggested the possible use of vaccines to stop worldwide polio epidemics.
As nutso as that sounds, there are a few folks out there who will think it’s for real. You know, the Jewish space laser, Pizzagate nutballs. The same folks who gave us the real world zombie apocalypse on January 6th of 21, many, or maybe most of them, because they really believed it was the right thing to do.
All of it is beginning to look like one gigantic out-of-control joke on all of us, particularly those of us who would like to retain our government and all that goes with it, including law and order, the military and a tax system that makes our civilization possible. Trouble is though, increasingly, it feels as though we’ll have nothing to say about whether we can hang onto what we’ve got, or whether, with so many nutjobs out there, and a truckload of them now in the Congress, the whole damn thing might not just slip away into the night and we’ll wake up one morning to face the devil, all by our lonesome selves. Won’t that be a corker?
More than ever, we need Hunter S. Thompson. Chances are, he might now, finally, believe that things had gotten weird enough, even for him.
Drove down into Baltimore yesterday. Per usual, saw not one cop until we got to Johns Hopkins University, and there, to my shock and surprise, was a Hopkins University patrol car. Is this new, something I missed because I rarely watch local tv news?
It’s a step in the direction of bringing the City back from the brink, in my opinion. Can’t understand the pushback coming from some sectors of the community.
Hopefully, Hopkins police supporting the Baltimore PD, new laws banning “squeegee workers from some City streets and a new State’s Attorney, will help turn things around. At the same time, the State, with its huge surplus, might think about hiring road crews to clean up the litter that keeps getting worse along state routes through and around the City. What an unacceptable mess. Put some people to work with decent paying jobs and clean it up.
How are people supposed to feel good about where they live, when the place looks like a dump?
Of course more will be needed, like funneling more money into City schools and after-school programs to keep kids off the streets, more funding for the State’s Attorney’s office and many other parts of an equation that aims to solve problems that have been building for years.
What the City and the State have done or failed to do, clearly, has not worked. In the short term, somebody had to get things started, and Hopkins, it appears, has taken the lead.
