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THE ABSURD TIMES
This is why they us "person of interest" today. Whose is interested?
PROTO-FASCISM
by
HONEST CHARLIE
Thank you, Robert Reich. That is the first time I heard that word, or at least remembering it. It describes the powers behind the Republican Party and Donald Trump is just a tool. That explains it all.
So, I've been thinking too many things to keep up with, so no time to write anything. Maybe you're relieved. I was. But it is still goddamned 2021. Next year may be worse. We are already up to the Ω uh kron varient. What language do we use next?
I heard a great story from the last agent Roger Miller ever had. When Roger signed with him, his last agent congratulated him and wished him the best of luck, and this is a very competitive business and Miller was Hot. A week later, the guy called the prior agent and asked "When does this fucker sleep?" // The answer was "I don't know. I was his manager for only 2 years."
That leads me to another story. Groucho was sitting in for Johnny Carson one night and Roger was the "Guest". Finally, Roger sat down and Groucho started the commercial. The audience almost went berserk, and Groucho held up the mouthwash bottle of the sponsor and said "I got some news for ya. We don't hawk this mouthwash, there aint gonna be any more music at all!" The audience laughed and then shut up. When they came back, Roger did KANSAS CITY STAR, and then walked off the stage saying I got other places to go."
That was the second best live television thing I ever saw. The best was Oscar Levant talking with Jack Parr. That was a long time ago. Then Alan Dulles had JFK shot and things have been going down ever since. I didn't even see a TV for 15 years, but I was glad that Newton Minnow was around. He made it a law that you couldn't sell an AM radio unless it also could receive FM. If there is a God, it was him trying to make up for Alan Dulles.
It helped.
We have this proto-fascism all over the world, except Germany is trying to break out of it. I guess they remember what happened last time? I remember a black blues singer going to D.C. to record for Lomax and the library of congress. He could not find a place to stay until finally he found one with Woody's help (yeah, Guthrie). Woody wrote the first few lines of the BOURGSIE BLUES for him. I know this because Studs Terkel told me and Studs was always straight on. Woody would not take any credit. The best lines are: "The land of the brave, The home of the free,/ I AINT GONNA BE MISTREATED BY NO BOJG WAHH ZEE/Woo, I got duh BOURGSIE BLUES…" and so on. If you can't believe it, just tell me how Hudie Ledbetter knew that much about Marxist terminology. Woody was another story.
Some good things came out of this plague of Trump's. Lots of people got laid off like usual and corporations figured they would be begging to come back. Well, actually, they didn't. They had lots of Republicans and proto-fascist forces saying it was the help they were getting from the government (heaven forbid anyone should get any help for the government as Ronald Ray Gun was quick to point out). And then, a freeze on rent, which had little to do with it. Actually, people stayed at home and once in their lives thought about it. Well, there is no labor shortage! There is a living wage shortage, a properly paying salary shortage, good working conditions shortage – that's the shortage. Now, even now, I see signs up at McDonald's and such places with opening wages at 15 bucks an hour. A lot better than the 7.50 they were paying before. And don't tell my any different.
Tutu is dead. People will talk about him a lot, so why bother here?
Harry Reid is dead. One nice thing about him is that when he tought the phone call was over, he hung up. People got upset because he never said goodbye. He would just hang up. When they complaqined to people who knew him, they said "Get used to it."
Israel sells Pegasus spyware to anybody. I think I should be the only person who could decide who had it. Well, evil wins again.
Now, there will be a bunch of editions, I think, coming out the next few days. Please be ready to pass them around. Then I'll stop for a long time.
