Hellwaukee's Best

Last night's memorable dream occurred in a place called "Hellwaukee." I'll spare you all the harrowing details. But I LIKE the Brew City, and haven't even been listening to any Alice Cooper lately.

Follow God!

The game was held on Sunday In Jesus' own backyard Jesus playin' quarterback and Moses playin' guard The angels in the bleachers Oh boy how they did yell When Jesus scored a touchdown Against the boys from Hell Follow God! Follow God.... Jesus on the two-yard line Moses Doin' Goddamn fine Follow God! Jesus soak 'em Holy Smoke 'em Follow God! -Michael Wiltgen

In Hog You Ration Day

Barack WHO? Do you mean Mr. Obama, the "Peace Candidate," who did, in all fairness, warn the peaceniks, me included, that he would escalate in Afghanistan? And who escalated so massively he pushed the bill for Amerika's Af-Pak debacle well over a trillion smackers. And the death count from Big Brother Barry's "anti-Taliban" crusade is getting up there too, starting to give the Iraq War's roster of dead "Heroes" a run for its money. And Obama, the suave killer, who wages a number of somewhat shadowy wars, too, in Somalia, Yemen, and now in support of the French. Turns out the US is playing a hefty role in support of the current Blitz directed against Mali. And yes, you can criticize me with much justification, since I did vote for the evil of two lessers. I just figured Romney and Ryan meant what they said about "We need to attack Iran sooner rather than later." Well, at least it hasn't come to that. Yet. And it hopefully won't. Then there's Vice Lord Biden, who promised us he wouldn't (totally) privatize Medicare, unlike Paul Ryan. And the "Democratic" administration, hasn't, yet. Gawd only knows if they will. And the Obamarama Machine that said Social Security is "off the table," in the ongoing Austerity, or "Fiscal Cliff" brinkmanship maneuvers. Then they put it back on the chopping block, a sacrificial lamb to assuage bloodthirsty Republican butchers. But one can only imagine what the Mormon-in-Chief would have done to the ragged remnants of the safety net by now. Yes, I acknowledge I bear my share of the responsibility. I hate to be such a pragmatist, measuring the likely bloodshed from one scenario against another. But I thought I needed to, in order to have the effect of contributing the least amount of harm. Ah shit... I don't know what the fuck I'm doing anymore. I know it isn't enough to rationalize the deed by saying: "Jill Stein will not be inaugurated January 20th," as much of a trite certainty as that always was. Harry Truman, LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama; they've ALL given us Change We Can Believe In. It's called Perpetual War, supposedly for Perpetual Peace.

Take off the cap!

Social Security isn't going broke anytime soon; it has $2.7 trillion in its trust fund. But the present cap on the amount wealthy individuals pay into the system is insanely low, at about $113,000 annually. It must be raised in the interest of both fairness and future fiscal stability. An even better idea would be to remove the cap entirely.

L'affaire d'Armstrong

"Chronic remorse, as all the moralists have agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean." -Aldous Huxley, from the foreword to "Brave New World." Maybe Lance Armstrong understand this now. For my part, I "forgive" him. I am NOT defending his unethical acts. But I never had any real, personal reason to hold his offenses against him. In any event, George W. Bush is culpable for FAR greater crimes. And Oprah is a criminal just by virtue of her being a billionaire. It's time to move on, America!

Art Deco declamation

I've spent much time in Miami, and especially love the Art Deco District in Miami Beach. I even took photos, including a great shot of this very house on Star Island. (Gotta upload my Miami pics to Facebook.) But I bet the homeless living under the freeways of Miami-Dade County, of whom there are many, would take exception to Doctor Leonard Hochstein's claim: “'The house is not habitable, and renovating it, while keeping the shell, is also not possible,' Dr. Hochstein said. 'It’s not a home that can be preserved.'” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/us/miami-beach-preservationists-push-to-protect-home.html?_r=0

How will the World remember US?

I'd like to be forgiven for commenting at such great length on the state of my state, but Wisconsin's fate is a subject dear to my heart. Almost up to the very end of the Twentieth Century, Milwaukee's murder rate was measurably lower than many (most?) American cities of comparable size. But beginning about 1975, the factories started to close, one by one. The CIA-sponsored crack cocaine epidemic of the mid-to-late 1980s contributed to astonishing, by our reckoning, bloodshed and mayhem, particularly in the urban ghettos of our tougher towns. Rampant discrimination and repression directed at the Black and Latino minorities, always a serious problem, became severe. We were saddled with Tommy Thompson's Republican administration - remember, this was years before Scott Walker - whose answer to the manifest social disintegration was putting many more thousands of the disadvantaged in prison. The gunfire in our slum streets, always there, always a vile and despicable scourge, got louder by the year. But it is still, despite all its horridness, a symptom of an even greater malady. Example: The Pentagon, and its trillion-dollar budgets, year after frustrating year. Decades of interminable wars against almost totally illusory "enemies." Schools so scandalously underfunded and inadequate to the purpose, they don't confer a decent education to the children. You Republicans, stop blaming the teachers! Why, we were one of the ten top manufacturing states in 1970 - that is so long ago now, and what a sad, sad memory of loss, of incalculable loss. I regret to inform you, as if you did not know already... What we're talking about is... End of Empire, with all the fear, hatred, scapegoating and ruthlessness that comes with. So sorry, but the truth is just that, and of course, mine, as I see it. On that note, don't lose hope, keep hope alive, even though I have so precious little of it left for my US of America. But you know something? It wasn't always nearly THIS bad, before Scott Walker and the billionaires who were instrumental in installing him in the Governor's mansion set out to remake our comparatively Progressive state in the image of truly barbaric US states... Texas, Alabama, Arizona, for example. As most of you know, we had strong labor unions, relatively good public schools, tens and tens of thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs, some of the best health care available in America. An excellent, by national standards, public university system. Ah, but all of that has come under increasing attack, especially since the 2008 recession set in, permanently, it appears. Oh sure, this was the wild frontier right up until 1860 or thereabouts, and the deer-hunting culture has been exceedingly strong ever since the White Man's burden was imposed by theft and extermination upon the Native Americans. But now? Hey, you can't have a cell phone, or wear a hat, or carry a camera in the Senate Gallery. But worry not - the signs are prominently posted, informing you just where you can carry your concealed pistol in that imposing Capitol. We're devolving, MAGNUMficently!

"The Mummy Speaks!"

It's interesting that there seems to be no test, put into actual practice, of whether or not a sitting US Supreme Court justice is competent to hold that high office. I question Clarence Thomas's competence, to say nothing of his character. Many others also have their doubts, with ample justification. Also noteworthy is the fact that the case itself, (a capital case out of Louisiana) which may have elicited a hearty guffaw from "Justice" Thomas, centers around the ominous possibility that some SCOTUS justices may be entertaining thoughts of overturning, or dramatically altering the ruling handed down in 1963's landmark Gideon v. Wainwright. "Gideon" had the effect of mandating that states provide legal counsel to defendants accused of felony offenses. Prior to Gideon, the state of Florida, whence the case originated, only mandated that an attorney be appointed to indigent defendants in capital cases. Several other states were equally negligent in providing defendants their constitutionally-guaranteed right to counsel. I shiver when I imagine an American legal landscape devoid of the progressive results finally obtained by the historic case brought by Clarence Earl Gideon. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/14/clarence-thomas-speaks_n_2473316.html

Our leaders should keep their missiles in their pants

I would very much like to see Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden practice Drone Control during the high-level foreign policy meetings that take place inside this Nation's White House.

1897 Minneapolis and Broken Candy glass

Thank Goth it's Friday! Maybe I shouldn't share this, but I might feel a little less sea-sick if I do. Last night's (this morning's) dreams were so utterly melancholy, I was nauseous when I awoke. I'm actually kinda proud; it seems I outdid myself. First part I can recall took place in a slum-laden, mythic 20th-Century Minneapolis. But underlying the entire dream sequence was a strong and definite awareness that I was really in the 19th Century... magnificently Kreeeepy! Yes, Minneapolis, with a large number of tenements (mid-western variety - brown brick, only two-three stories, with broken windows, the broken glass a very strange configuration). I found me wandering the "Number One Twin City" streets, trying to connect with someone for a ride back to Madison. Then the scene switched to a kind of Black River Falls, Wisconsin, population circa 3500. But it could have also been some mythic, unincorporated Wisconsin village. I was trying to communicate with people who may have only been spectres, in the most complex, dreaming sense that implies. The happiest part was kind of in the middle of January 11th's fantastic, illusory montage of truly memorable images; I was on the far East End of Madison, near farm fields. I was grown up but still a child, accompanied by some mischievous friends of the same conflicted age-set. We all climbed a 200-300 foot high radio transmission tower, knowing we were gonna get in "Big Trouble." A fine and astonishing view from the top, and when we climbed back down, the "authorities" ended up letting us "off the hook." Last memory was of trying to climb the stairwell in a 15-level Downtown Madison office building, entertaining same kind of psychic conflict: "Are we really allowed to do this...?" I've never seriously felt it was necessary for me to give up watching Rod Serling's "Night Gallery" prior to drifting off into that Great, Grand Unconscious; now I have my wonders. Totally Icky-Sicky and Totally Groovy!

Wisconsin State Journal caters to the lowest possible demographic.

In my Gmail inbox Monday, January 7, 2012 from Madison.com: "In 2012, madison.com predicted the world would not end, President Obama would hold a beer summit, and that algae-fueled jetliners would rule the skies! Two out of three is pretty good, isn't it? So stay ahead of the curve in 2013 with a madison.com digital subscription. A subscription entitles you to unlimited access to madison.com on the web, mobile, and in iPhone or Android smartphone apps for just $4.95 a month or $49.95 a year." Sorry, Madison.com, but No Way. If it were only the Capital Times's website, I might consider paying. The Capital Times is thoroughly decent and Progressive, for lack of a better term. And they print my letters with almost no editing whatsoever, and zero ideological censorship. But unfortunately, I'd NEVER pay Madison.com one thin dime. Madison.com is a webpage that primarily contains the Wisconsin State Journal's "news & opinion." I'm more inclined to pay five bucks a month in order that they NOT deliver the State Urinal's rabidly Republican-leaning, Nuclear-power-loving, anti democratic, idiotic, reactionary, Romney- endorsing "content." And those censoring "editors" at the State Journal recently stopped printing my letters altogether. So I'm overjoyed the State Journal's newspaper box was removed from in front of our local coffee house the other day; it was removed by POPULAR DEMAND, no doubt!

About Obama's Drones...

Drone warfare is the coward's way that remote-control "weekend warriors" stationed in Nevada wage unjustifiable war against a civilian populations thousands of miles distant. It's a means of continuing to illegally occupy Afghanistan and other countries the US has invaded without cause, with fewer boots on the ground. The victims usually are people who had never so much as contemplated committing any violent acts against Americans. However, after all the wedding parties that have been "mistakenly" targeted, I can only assume such victims experience a new-found hatred for all things emanating from the USA. http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6180 http://www.troymessenger.com/2013/01/02/children-pay-cost-of-u-s-attacks/

House Speaker John Boner: "Go f*ck yourself!"

Wow, take one blessed day off from the internet, and the poltical scene goes bananas. We temporarily avoided the most drastic spending cuts associated with The Ruling Class's "Austerity Cliff," and that seems to stimulate the worst sort of rhetorical erection from the aptly-named John Boner. The good thing is the Congressional Repubs seem to be in a state of major disarray - one can only hope, and pray if so oriented - that this spells the beginning of the end for the GOP as a viable criminal enterprise, one totally worthy of being abolished. They really went too far - yet again - refusing to allow a vote for aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy. But it seems they had to change their tune somewhat, after New Jersey's Chris Christie and Republican Peter King of New York blasted their OWN PARTY! Well Peter King was RIGHT, for once; nobody should EVER donate a single penny to the GOP! And can anyone legitimately object to me calling the House Speaker "John Boner" now, since the vicious drunk from Ohio is now on the record engaging in some extremely vile and vulgar "Cheneyisms" like that reported below? http://www.businessinsider.com/report-john-boehner-told-harry-reid-to-go-f----himself-in-final-days-of-fiscal-cliff-fight-2013-1