Maggie Brennan And Uke Man say, "Support WCBE 90.5"
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Saturday @ Little Brother's
Hey Folks!
My good pal, Chris Barton is working overtime to entertain and raise funds for the Red Cross and WCBE. He’s got a “Tom Waits-a-Thon” benefit going on this coming Saturday, Oct. 1 at Little Brother’s - $6.00 (and I’m payin’ even though I’m playin’).
Everyone plays a few songs; so if you don’t like what’s going down at any moment, it will soon change – just like Ohio weather.
I kick it off at 9:45 with two songs and will be followed by:
Bobby Sauls
Rezzin
Big Ass Yard Sale
Steve Perakis
The Skilletlickers
Champiple
Medicine Wheel
The Midnighters - (in THAT order)
Please stop by, enjoy Tom Waits’ great catalog, and help out hurtin’ people and the best radio station in the land !
- Uke Man
My good pal, Chris Barton is working overtime to entertain and raise funds for the Red Cross and WCBE. He’s got a “Tom Waits-a-Thon” benefit going on this coming Saturday, Oct. 1 at Little Brother’s - $6.00 (and I’m payin’ even though I’m playin’).
Everyone plays a few songs; so if you don’t like what’s going down at any moment, it will soon change – just like Ohio weather.
I kick it off at 9:45 with two songs and will be followed by:
Bobby Sauls
Rezzin
Big Ass Yard Sale
Steve Perakis
The Skilletlickers
Champiple
Medicine Wheel
The Midnighters - (in THAT order)
Please stop by, enjoy Tom Waits’ great catalog, and help out hurtin’ people and the best radio station in the land !
- Uke Man
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
The "Dictator" has "subverted democracy" by helping the 80% of his people who are destitute and - more importantly - by not kissing Uncle Sam's ass.
Chavez from the Imperialistic Perspective
Below is a column from the Sept. 28 Columbus Dispatch. What crap! Fox distortion in Wolfs' clothing!
I wrote the author; he wrote me; I wrote back. So far, that's it. Everything is here in the order of occurrence.
- Uke Man
U.S. need not panic over Chavez and his revolution
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
DOUGLAS SOUTHGATE
Like Middle Eastern despots who insist that extravagant spending on the military and secret police is needed to counter the threat from Israel, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez claims that the dictatorship he is establishing for himself is largely a response to U.S. plans to invade his country. He raised the specter of invasion most recently on Sept. 16, during an interview on ABC’s Nightline.
Chavez clearly has subverted democracy in Latin America’s largest oil-producing nation. Opponents have been purged from all major institutions, including the military-officer corps and the state oil company. And now that the commission for overseeing elections has been packed with the dictator’s cronies, prospects for free and fair voting are dim. This assault on democracy has been facilitated by high oil prices, which have allowed Chavez to ramp up government programs that benefit Venezuela’s poor. After declining or stagnating living standards during the 1980s and 1990s, these programs are a welcome relief.
Chavez is keen to export his "Bolivarian Revolution" throughout the region. Aside from being cozy with a rogue’s gallery of tyrants and U.S. enemies, including Iranian ayatollahs and Saddam Hussein, he has a close friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and hopes to adopt key elements of Cuba’s "people’s democracy," as Chavez insists on calling it. Elsewhere, Chavez sees a kindred spirit in narco-populist Evo Morales, who stands a good chance of becoming president of Bolivia.
So, what is to be done about the leader of Venezuela? The choice is not between assassination and invasion, as TV evangelist Pat Robertson seemed to suggest during a slow-news day in August. Instead, containment is the best solution. In large part, this involves good relations between the United States and Venezuela’s neighbors. Consider Brazil, where President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has signed commercial pacts with Chavez and often shares the stage with him. Lula has been weakened, however, because his party, which has been chagrined by the government’s departures from leftist doctrine, faces serious corruption charges. In Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, who eked out victory in a presidential election in which just 22 percent of registered voters participated, is playing every populist card at hand in hopes of future electoral success.
Leaders such as Lula and Kirchner may applaud Chavez when he promises to "flood the region" with cheap Venezuelan fuel. But embarking on a neo-Marxist crusade against the colossus of the north is unlikely as long as the United States avoids panic and maintains normal commercial and diplomatic ties.
A more active element of the strategy for containing Chavez is to provide aid and technical assistance to Colombia, which, with 25 million people, is Latin America’s third-most-populous nation (after Brazil and Mexico) and where fighting among multiple sides threatens the existence of a national state. A close alliance with Colombia makes many Americans uncomfortable. Especially controversial are the efforts of President Alvaro Uribe, who has grown popular as progress has been made against guerrilla forces, to reach a demobilization agreement with rightwing paramilitary groups.
One obstacle is that the United States wants to extradite some of those paramilitary leaders suspected of dealing drugs. Another concern is that many of them have abused human rights. The solution, applied in a number of nations, is to grant amnesty only to those who confess their crimes. Some are uneasy about this approach, which resembles the nonprosecution of Confederate officers after the Civil War. But if an amnesty is needed so that the Colombian military can concentrate on leftists of the Revolutionay Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who these days resemble a criminal gang more than anything else, so be it, especially if disintegration of Venezuela’s western neighbor would unleash Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution regionwide.
If Chavez, an ardent FARC sympathizer, is effectively contained, as seems likely, then economic forces will gradually erode his regime. Sooner or later, Venezuela will be in the same position as the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, when two rubles’ worth of natural resources produced socialist output worth one ruble.
Several years may pass before Bolivarian socialism reaches this dead end, but Chavez’s demise is inevitable.
Douglas Southgate, a professor of agricultural economics at Ohio State University, works frequently in Latin America.
southgate . 1 @osu.edu
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dear Prof. Southgate,
Your column on the situation in Venezuela is academically and intellectually dishonest, fit for sophists pimping for think tanks, but clearly not the product of an academician attempting objectivity. Say what you will, it is stunningly obvious that you are grinding an axe, not shining a light.
Yours - Tom Harker, Ukulele Man
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Thanks for the feedback, Tom, but I'm a little confused about your position. Are you siding with Pat Robinson's call for deposing Chavez? O eres partidario de la Revolucion Bolivariana?
Kind regards, DS
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Well Doug,
My point was that an honest commentator would write from neither Robertson’s nor Chavez’s partisan perspectives. I think you know where I’d stand personally if pressed to state it, and your column clearly shows where you personally do stand.
My point was that the column reflected your personal ideology rather than an attempt at objective exposition. I could run through numerous examples, but I’m sure you know what you are doing. Much of what you said could be applied to the Bush administration as well as to Chavez. Much of what you said is far from established; indeed some of what you say has more evidence against it than for it. Much of what you say depends on the notion that the government of Venezuela serves America first, then its own people. Nevertheless, you plow right on.
If you were writing for a think-tank, I wouldn’t have responded to your column; you’d just be doing your venal job. You, however, were identified as a professor at my alma mater. That seems a conflict of interest to me. Think-tank flacks are what they are, and I would hope that academics were what they are supposed to be. One seeks to manipulate by distorting reality; the other tries to liberate by improving our understanding of reality.
?Esta bien?
Yours - Tom Harker, Ukulele Man
I wrote the author; he wrote me; I wrote back. So far, that's it. Everything is here in the order of occurrence.
- Uke Man
U.S. need not panic over Chavez and his revolution
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
DOUGLAS SOUTHGATE
Like Middle Eastern despots who insist that extravagant spending on the military and secret police is needed to counter the threat from Israel, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez claims that the dictatorship he is establishing for himself is largely a response to U.S. plans to invade his country. He raised the specter of invasion most recently on Sept. 16, during an interview on ABC’s Nightline.
Chavez clearly has subverted democracy in Latin America’s largest oil-producing nation. Opponents have been purged from all major institutions, including the military-officer corps and the state oil company. And now that the commission for overseeing elections has been packed with the dictator’s cronies, prospects for free and fair voting are dim. This assault on democracy has been facilitated by high oil prices, which have allowed Chavez to ramp up government programs that benefit Venezuela’s poor. After declining or stagnating living standards during the 1980s and 1990s, these programs are a welcome relief.
Chavez is keen to export his "Bolivarian Revolution" throughout the region. Aside from being cozy with a rogue’s gallery of tyrants and U.S. enemies, including Iranian ayatollahs and Saddam Hussein, he has a close friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and hopes to adopt key elements of Cuba’s "people’s democracy," as Chavez insists on calling it. Elsewhere, Chavez sees a kindred spirit in narco-populist Evo Morales, who stands a good chance of becoming president of Bolivia.
So, what is to be done about the leader of Venezuela? The choice is not between assassination and invasion, as TV evangelist Pat Robertson seemed to suggest during a slow-news day in August. Instead, containment is the best solution. In large part, this involves good relations between the United States and Venezuela’s neighbors. Consider Brazil, where President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has signed commercial pacts with Chavez and often shares the stage with him. Lula has been weakened, however, because his party, which has been chagrined by the government’s departures from leftist doctrine, faces serious corruption charges. In Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, who eked out victory in a presidential election in which just 22 percent of registered voters participated, is playing every populist card at hand in hopes of future electoral success.
Leaders such as Lula and Kirchner may applaud Chavez when he promises to "flood the region" with cheap Venezuelan fuel. But embarking on a neo-Marxist crusade against the colossus of the north is unlikely as long as the United States avoids panic and maintains normal commercial and diplomatic ties.
A more active element of the strategy for containing Chavez is to provide aid and technical assistance to Colombia, which, with 25 million people, is Latin America’s third-most-populous nation (after Brazil and Mexico) and where fighting among multiple sides threatens the existence of a national state. A close alliance with Colombia makes many Americans uncomfortable. Especially controversial are the efforts of President Alvaro Uribe, who has grown popular as progress has been made against guerrilla forces, to reach a demobilization agreement with rightwing paramilitary groups.
One obstacle is that the United States wants to extradite some of those paramilitary leaders suspected of dealing drugs. Another concern is that many of them have abused human rights. The solution, applied in a number of nations, is to grant amnesty only to those who confess their crimes. Some are uneasy about this approach, which resembles the nonprosecution of Confederate officers after the Civil War. But if an amnesty is needed so that the Colombian military can concentrate on leftists of the Revolutionay Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who these days resemble a criminal gang more than anything else, so be it, especially if disintegration of Venezuela’s western neighbor would unleash Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution regionwide.
If Chavez, an ardent FARC sympathizer, is effectively contained, as seems likely, then economic forces will gradually erode his regime. Sooner or later, Venezuela will be in the same position as the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, when two rubles’ worth of natural resources produced socialist output worth one ruble.
Several years may pass before Bolivarian socialism reaches this dead end, but Chavez’s demise is inevitable.
Douglas Southgate, a professor of agricultural economics at Ohio State University, works frequently in Latin America.
southgate . 1 @osu.edu
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dear Prof. Southgate,
Your column on the situation in Venezuela is academically and intellectually dishonest, fit for sophists pimping for think tanks, but clearly not the product of an academician attempting objectivity. Say what you will, it is stunningly obvious that you are grinding an axe, not shining a light.
Yours - Tom Harker, Ukulele Man
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Thanks for the feedback, Tom, but I'm a little confused about your position. Are you siding with Pat Robinson's call for deposing Chavez? O eres partidario de la Revolucion Bolivariana?
Kind regards, DS
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Well Doug,
My point was that an honest commentator would write from neither Robertson’s nor Chavez’s partisan perspectives. I think you know where I’d stand personally if pressed to state it, and your column clearly shows where you personally do stand.
My point was that the column reflected your personal ideology rather than an attempt at objective exposition. I could run through numerous examples, but I’m sure you know what you are doing. Much of what you said could be applied to the Bush administration as well as to Chavez. Much of what you said is far from established; indeed some of what you say has more evidence against it than for it. Much of what you say depends on the notion that the government of Venezuela serves America first, then its own people. Nevertheless, you plow right on.
If you were writing for a think-tank, I wouldn’t have responded to your column; you’d just be doing your venal job. You, however, were identified as a professor at my alma mater. That seems a conflict of interest to me. Think-tank flacks are what they are, and I would hope that academics were what they are supposed to be. One seeks to manipulate by distorting reality; the other tries to liberate by improving our understanding of reality.
?Esta bien?
Yours - Tom Harker, Ukulele Man
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
*The*Free*Press* book review
Appearing in the July-August 2005 issue of the Columbus Free Press, was my review of Bob Avakian's recently published memoir, "From Ike to Mao and beyond."
It was recently reprinted nationally in the September 25 edition of Revolution, the "voice of the revolutionary communist party, USA" ( http://rwor.org/a/015/bob-avakian-memoir-review.htm ).
That seems like a good excuse to reprint it here. Check it out (keep an open mind - there are worse things to keep).
- Uke Man
Book Review
Rethinking the “Unthinkable”: An updated view of communism
By Tom Harker
From Ike to Mao and beyond
by Bob Avakian. 449 pp. 2005
How does a good California boy of the 50’s, an elementary school “Traffic Boy” who loved Smilin’ Ed’s “Froggy the Gremlin,” a high school quarterback (“a little guy, brimming with confidence”), a serious fan of basketball and music, and the son of a prominent judge go from a nine-year-old supporter of Eisenhower to a supporter of Mao Tsetung and the Chairman of today’s Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP)?
Bob Avakian lays it out in his memoir “From Ike to Mao and Beyond.”
Most of us don’t really know much about Communism. Growing up, we have all been taught to fear and disparage it. Like Avakian, many Americans practiced hiding under their first grade desks in case of nuclear attack by “godless Communists.” Like Avakian, many of us lived through the McCarthy witch hunts that found communists under every bush darkly working for the destruction of America.
Younger folks missed that, but they may have been around for the “Domino Theory” of Viet Nam (“gotta stop the communists now, or they’ll eventually be invading us through Mexico). Folks younger yet, may remember Ronald Reagan, “the Gipper,” ordering “the Evil Empire” to tear down the Berlin Wall.
In any case, most living Americans have never heard much of anything positive about Communism. In a sense, Avakian’s book provides a refreshing rejoinder to the overwhelmingly one-sided view many of us have taken as a given.
Reading through the author’s chronology, the fact of his progression from Eisenhower to Mao and beyond - far from sounding inexplicable - seems the most natural, rational, and heroic path he could have followed.
As a youth, confronted with the blatant racism of the time and the related dissembling of politicians (including Kennedy), Avakian chose to side with the people and with rationality. Living in Berkeley, fate brought him together with Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, and Huey Newton (movers in the emerging Black Panther Party). Avakian writes that his friends “saw themselves as heirs to Malcolm X . . . They had this revolutionary stance, they were indicting the whole system – that’s what they got from Malcolm X – but they were calling for revolution too.”
The Panther’s view was, apparently, more radical than the contemporary Communist Party of that time (the Communist Party, USA – the CP), which the author characterizes as less radical than Malcolm X, dedicated mainly to working “palatably” within the system, trying to appeal to the “mainstream,” “the lowest common denominator.”
At this point in his life he was not a communist but was searching for something that made sense, something that offered a real chance of addressing the overwhelming problems of the time. Not an easy undertaking.
We humans seem to be wide-awake searchers in our youth, but somewhere along the way arbitrarily shut down and glom on to something, anything - the nearest “life
raft” - that offers some hope of respite from thinking, wondering, and doubt. From that point on, we need not think beyond the common propaganda shared by all who cling to our own particular delusion. Like pet parrots, we can eat, sleep, and rejoice within our cage of secure certainty.
That is what makes Avakian’s path “heroic.” A fundamental aspect of the “Communism” he describes is a steadfastly rational, scientific approach to understanding the world (no faith-based initiatives here). As such, bending the reality observed by his senses to the “reality” demanded by the moment, or the media, or by the dominant culture, or by intellectual fatigue; or even by the iconic example of Mao himself; was not acceptable – regardless of the consequences. This stubborn insistence on facing the facts as they presented themselves led, inevitably, to his leadership of the RCP.
In 1967 visiting Eldridge Cleaver’s apartment, the not-yet-communist Avakian was startled and confused by a large poster of Mao Tsetung hanging prominently on the wall. Cleaver explained, “We have that poster of Mao Tsetung on our wall because he is the baddest motherfucker on the planet earth.” That was a start.
Avakian reiterates throughout the book a major theme: the Marxism/ Leninism/ Maoism he espouses is based on the foundation of science and truth. Today, perhaps more than ever, self-serving spin is promoted over truth in nearly every venue, and the scientific method is replaced by “faith” - faith in our leaders, our nation, and religious authority. It was pretty much the same in Avakian’s formative years, and he deserves credit for resisting it, demanding to search rationally for the hard facts of the situation we faced then.
Apparently, not blind “faith” or patriotism, nationalism, personal need, peer pressure, or anything else could turn him from his effort to honestly appraise the world he found around him. And, importantly for those who have heard nothing but negatives regarding communism, Avakian let the criticism he developed fall wherever he thought it was merited; addressing not only the brutality and imperialistic lust of the ruling class, but also the shortcomings of leftists and communist groups he felt had lost sight of the goal or historically had made honest mistakes in judgment along the way.
True to the notion that Marxism is a scientific effort, open to the development of a higher understanding that can allow avoidance of the mistakes of the past, Avakian readily admits the mistakes of earlier attempts at establishing a world free of “people who so viciously rule the world [and] oppress and exploit people in the most ruthless and murderous way,” a world “under the domination of this system and the way it twists and distorts the relations among people and turns people into instruments either to be used for the amassing of wealth on the part of a relative handful, or else just to be thrown onto the scrap heap like so much useless material.”
In addition to recounting a life lived during very interesting and important times; in addition to recounting his involvement with significant historical figures and events; beyond sharing his personal story; in “From Ike to Mao and Beyond,” Bob Avakian offers a fresh, new look at a system of thought that has, by some, been consigned to the “ash heap of history.”
As we presently experience what many of us see as the demolition of everything America has claimed to be and to stand for over the years; as we experience the demonizing of gays, the suppression of women, the scapegoating of minorities, the “Christianizing” of what has been a secular, tolerant, diverse, open, and progressive society; as we witness the steady degradation of working people, the poor, the elderly, and the disabled; perhaps we are ready to entertain some doubt about all the negativity heaped on “Communism” over the years by folks like those presently destroying what many of us believe in.
Bob Avakian’s new and innovative conception of “Communism” deserves consideration.
Dunkle's Digest: read this book!!
It was recently reprinted nationally in the September 25 edition of Revolution, the "voice of the revolutionary communist party, USA" ( http://rwor.org/a/015/bob-avakian-memoir-review.htm ).
That seems like a good excuse to reprint it here. Check it out (keep an open mind - there are worse things to keep).
- Uke Man
Book Review
Rethinking the “Unthinkable”: An updated view of communism
By Tom Harker
From Ike to Mao and beyond
by Bob Avakian. 449 pp. 2005
How does a good California boy of the 50’s, an elementary school “Traffic Boy” who loved Smilin’ Ed’s “Froggy the Gremlin,” a high school quarterback (“a little guy, brimming with confidence”), a serious fan of basketball and music, and the son of a prominent judge go from a nine-year-old supporter of Eisenhower to a supporter of Mao Tsetung and the Chairman of today’s Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP)?
Bob Avakian lays it out in his memoir “From Ike to Mao and Beyond.”
Most of us don’t really know much about Communism. Growing up, we have all been taught to fear and disparage it. Like Avakian, many Americans practiced hiding under their first grade desks in case of nuclear attack by “godless Communists.” Like Avakian, many of us lived through the McCarthy witch hunts that found communists under every bush darkly working for the destruction of America.
Younger folks missed that, but they may have been around for the “Domino Theory” of Viet Nam (“gotta stop the communists now, or they’ll eventually be invading us through Mexico). Folks younger yet, may remember Ronald Reagan, “the Gipper,” ordering “the Evil Empire” to tear down the Berlin Wall.
In any case, most living Americans have never heard much of anything positive about Communism. In a sense, Avakian’s book provides a refreshing rejoinder to the overwhelmingly one-sided view many of us have taken as a given.
Reading through the author’s chronology, the fact of his progression from Eisenhower to Mao and beyond - far from sounding inexplicable - seems the most natural, rational, and heroic path he could have followed.
As a youth, confronted with the blatant racism of the time and the related dissembling of politicians (including Kennedy), Avakian chose to side with the people and with rationality. Living in Berkeley, fate brought him together with Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, and Huey Newton (movers in the emerging Black Panther Party). Avakian writes that his friends “saw themselves as heirs to Malcolm X . . . They had this revolutionary stance, they were indicting the whole system – that’s what they got from Malcolm X – but they were calling for revolution too.”
The Panther’s view was, apparently, more radical than the contemporary Communist Party of that time (the Communist Party, USA – the CP), which the author characterizes as less radical than Malcolm X, dedicated mainly to working “palatably” within the system, trying to appeal to the “mainstream,” “the lowest common denominator.”
At this point in his life he was not a communist but was searching for something that made sense, something that offered a real chance of addressing the overwhelming problems of the time. Not an easy undertaking.
We humans seem to be wide-awake searchers in our youth, but somewhere along the way arbitrarily shut down and glom on to something, anything - the nearest “life
raft” - that offers some hope of respite from thinking, wondering, and doubt. From that point on, we need not think beyond the common propaganda shared by all who cling to our own particular delusion. Like pet parrots, we can eat, sleep, and rejoice within our cage of secure certainty.
That is what makes Avakian’s path “heroic.” A fundamental aspect of the “Communism” he describes is a steadfastly rational, scientific approach to understanding the world (no faith-based initiatives here). As such, bending the reality observed by his senses to the “reality” demanded by the moment, or the media, or by the dominant culture, or by intellectual fatigue; or even by the iconic example of Mao himself; was not acceptable – regardless of the consequences. This stubborn insistence on facing the facts as they presented themselves led, inevitably, to his leadership of the RCP.
In 1967 visiting Eldridge Cleaver’s apartment, the not-yet-communist Avakian was startled and confused by a large poster of Mao Tsetung hanging prominently on the wall. Cleaver explained, “We have that poster of Mao Tsetung on our wall because he is the baddest motherfucker on the planet earth.” That was a start.
Avakian reiterates throughout the book a major theme: the Marxism/ Leninism/ Maoism he espouses is based on the foundation of science and truth. Today, perhaps more than ever, self-serving spin is promoted over truth in nearly every venue, and the scientific method is replaced by “faith” - faith in our leaders, our nation, and religious authority. It was pretty much the same in Avakian’s formative years, and he deserves credit for resisting it, demanding to search rationally for the hard facts of the situation we faced then.
Apparently, not blind “faith” or patriotism, nationalism, personal need, peer pressure, or anything else could turn him from his effort to honestly appraise the world he found around him. And, importantly for those who have heard nothing but negatives regarding communism, Avakian let the criticism he developed fall wherever he thought it was merited; addressing not only the brutality and imperialistic lust of the ruling class, but also the shortcomings of leftists and communist groups he felt had lost sight of the goal or historically had made honest mistakes in judgment along the way.
True to the notion that Marxism is a scientific effort, open to the development of a higher understanding that can allow avoidance of the mistakes of the past, Avakian readily admits the mistakes of earlier attempts at establishing a world free of “people who so viciously rule the world [and] oppress and exploit people in the most ruthless and murderous way,” a world “under the domination of this system and the way it twists and distorts the relations among people and turns people into instruments either to be used for the amassing of wealth on the part of a relative handful, or else just to be thrown onto the scrap heap like so much useless material.”
In addition to recounting a life lived during very interesting and important times; in addition to recounting his involvement with significant historical figures and events; beyond sharing his personal story; in “From Ike to Mao and Beyond,” Bob Avakian offers a fresh, new look at a system of thought that has, by some, been consigned to the “ash heap of history.”
As we presently experience what many of us see as the demolition of everything America has claimed to be and to stand for over the years; as we experience the demonizing of gays, the suppression of women, the scapegoating of minorities, the “Christianizing” of what has been a secular, tolerant, diverse, open, and progressive society; as we witness the steady degradation of working people, the poor, the elderly, and the disabled; perhaps we are ready to entertain some doubt about all the negativity heaped on “Communism” over the years by folks like those presently destroying what many of us believe in.
Bob Avakian’s new and innovative conception of “Communism” deserves consideration.
Dunkle's Digest: read this book!!
Note to those of you who comment here:
I’ve been getting a flood of spam comments (you may have noticed); so I’ve turned on the filter to stop machine-run spam. Sorry to do it, but please just type in the code and keep on commenting!! Hopefully, only good folks like you will get through now!
Yours - Uke Man
Yours - Uke Man
Letter to the Columbus Dispatch
To the editor,
Why am I not surprised that your recent editorial on the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation mentions “employers” (four times), insurance companies, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, privatization, and the “marketplace,” but never ONCE mentions workers?
The only oblique use of the word is found in the naming and defining of the Bureau of “Workers’” Compensation.
That could be corrected, however, by simply changing the name to “Bureau of Employer Uber Alles.”
- Uke Man
Why am I not surprised that your recent editorial on the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation mentions “employers” (four times), insurance companies, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, privatization, and the “marketplace,” but never ONCE mentions workers?
The only oblique use of the word is found in the naming and defining of the Bureau of “Workers’” Compensation.
That could be corrected, however, by simply changing the name to “Bureau of Employer Uber Alles.”
- Uke Man
Monday, September 26, 2005
The Tour
What a trip!! What a wonderful time!! What music!!!
We left Wednesday and returned Sunday, but we packed a lot in between!!
Below, you’ll find a posting for each of the three days.
We left at 8:30 Wednesday night and drove as far as Duboise PA (pronounced: do-Boyz) and the Duboise Manor a fine flophouse.
Next morning it was off to NYC and the fabulous hotel Gershwin – recommended by my friend Ron Hester and his friend Sarah. The place is an art-lover’s dream!! Quite exciting and pleasant.
Quickly we were off to the Bowery Poetry Club where Jason & Ted / Sonic Uke got us off to a warm, cheery, and theatrical (a costume change) start.
We were up next and had a terrific set! Maybe the best we’d ever played!! I was high!! What a band!!!! You’ll eventually be able to decide for yourself; Jason filmed it and will put it on his TV/Stream show (http://www.ukuleledisco.com/live 9:00 p.m. every other Tuesday – next show Oct. 4 ) and archives ( http://www.ukuleledisco.com/ ) sometime in the future.
Then it was my friend from Rhode Island, Rick Russo, the Ukulele Crooner! He blew everyone’s mind with his unbelievable voice and styling.
Then Bostonians Craig Robertson and the Sob Sisters put on a classy “Noir” set with cellos, ukes, classic songs, and the Noir look.
We finished the evening with the inimitable whirling dervish, Mr. Energy, Ukulele Lloyd!!
We had a great, enthusiastic crowd! Saw a lot of friends! Made some new ones! What a night!!!
We left Wednesday and returned Sunday, but we packed a lot in between!!
Below, you’ll find a posting for each of the three days.
We left at 8:30 Wednesday night and drove as far as Duboise PA (pronounced: do-Boyz) and the Duboise Manor a fine flophouse.
Next morning it was off to NYC and the fabulous hotel Gershwin – recommended by my friend Ron Hester and his friend Sarah. The place is an art-lover’s dream!! Quite exciting and pleasant.
Quickly we were off to the Bowery Poetry Club where Jason & Ted / Sonic Uke got us off to a warm, cheery, and theatrical (a costume change) start.
We were up next and had a terrific set! Maybe the best we’d ever played!! I was high!! What a band!!!! You’ll eventually be able to decide for yourself; Jason filmed it and will put it on his TV/Stream show (http://www.ukuleledisco.com/live 9:00 p.m. every other Tuesday – next show Oct. 4 ) and archives ( http://www.ukuleledisco.com/ ) sometime in the future.
Then it was my friend from Rhode Island, Rick Russo, the Ukulele Crooner! He blew everyone’s mind with his unbelievable voice and styling.
Then Bostonians Craig Robertson and the Sob Sisters put on a classy “Noir” set with cellos, ukes, classic songs, and the Noir look.
We finished the evening with the inimitable whirling dervish, Mr. Energy, Ukulele Lloyd!!
We had a great, enthusiastic crowd! Saw a lot of friends! Made some new ones! What a night!!!
Day Two - Boston & the Sky Bar
Next morning it was off to Boston, where we stayed with Erin, a sweet young lady who had worked with Melissa Starker; and with Pete Cassani who had – along with Bobby Ray - formed the Peasants there twenty-some years earlier.
That night it was off to the Sky Bar for “Ukulele Noir 6.” Craig Robertson & the Sob Sisters, Rick Russo, and our band were on stage again; and we – I swear – played even better!! Hott damn!!! (it’ll be on Midnight Ukulele Disco in time too).
We also were privileged to hear Davis Sweet & August, Melvern Taylor & the Meltones, Robert Wheeler, Mark Occhionero, and Tim Mann – backed by Greg Hawkes (of the Cars).
But what really blew me away and pumped me up for my set was the rendition by my friend Dave Wasser – co-founder of the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum – of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Over the Rainbow” arrangement. Dave’s voice was perfect for the piece, and he delivered it with a depth of feeling commensurate with the lyrics!!!! His wife, Sue, helped out on a few songs too – a nice touch.
That night it was off to the Sky Bar for “Ukulele Noir 6.” Craig Robertson & the Sob Sisters, Rick Russo, and our band were on stage again; and we – I swear – played even better!! Hott damn!!! (it’ll be on Midnight Ukulele Disco in time too).
We also were privileged to hear Davis Sweet & August, Melvern Taylor & the Meltones, Robert Wheeler, Mark Occhionero, and Tim Mann – backed by Greg Hawkes (of the Cars).
But what really blew me away and pumped me up for my set was the rendition by my friend Dave Wasser – co-founder of the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum – of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Over the Rainbow” arrangement. Dave’s voice was perfect for the piece, and he delivered it with a depth of feeling commensurate with the lyrics!!!! His wife, Sue, helped out on a few songs too – a nice touch.
The Last Day - And Home Again
On our last day east we were the guests of Pete Cassani of the Peasants. He and his band had played “The Pit” on Harvard Square all summer, and he was kind enough to let us alternate sets Saturday night right there on the Harvard campus!
A lot of young people (smart ones) and some old people too. We had a great time under the stars, played well, had fun, and made a little money too (thanks, Pete!). What’s more, I can now honestly say, “I went to Harvard!”
From there it was 13 hours on the road heading home – there and back again, as Bilbo would say. Yep, we're back in the Shire, and safe in our Hobbit holes.
- Uke Man
p.s. We also met Leon - a member of Ben Harper's Band - at our first pull-over for gas – it’s quite a story – I’ll tell you more later.
A lot of young people (smart ones) and some old people too. We had a great time under the stars, played well, had fun, and made a little money too (thanks, Pete!). What’s more, I can now honestly say, “I went to Harvard!”
From there it was 13 hours on the road heading home – there and back again, as Bilbo would say. Yep, we're back in the Shire, and safe in our Hobbit holes.
- Uke Man
p.s. We also met Leon - a member of Ben Harper's Band - at our first pull-over for gas – it’s quite a story – I’ll tell you more later.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
DC Rebellion Sept. 24
The life of Kkkarl Rove has proved one thing and, I believe, is about to prove another.
Kkkarl has demonstrated well beyond doubt that a single-minded sociopath schooled in marketing can sell the people anything – even a shit sandwich – which they will eat (after giving thanks) and then ask for more, please.
I believe that this weekend’s attack on DC, on the politics-as-usual crap perpetrated by the Republicans and blessed by Democrats – by their silence in some quarters and by their active support in others – will start to prove the second fact inherent in the life of Kkkarl Rove.
The DC rebellion - followed soon on Nov. 2 by the “World Can’t Wait – Drive Out Bush” uprising - will demonstrate the following:
Yes, you can sell the people shit sandwiches,
one after the other, on and on.
But, feed them enough shit, and eventually
they will puke it all back up in your face!
- Uke Man
Kkkarl has demonstrated well beyond doubt that a single-minded sociopath schooled in marketing can sell the people anything – even a shit sandwich – which they will eat (after giving thanks) and then ask for more, please.
I believe that this weekend’s attack on DC, on the politics-as-usual crap perpetrated by the Republicans and blessed by Democrats – by their silence in some quarters and by their active support in others – will start to prove the second fact inherent in the life of Kkkarl Rove.
The DC rebellion - followed soon on Nov. 2 by the “World Can’t Wait – Drive Out Bush” uprising - will demonstrate the following:
Yes, you can sell the people shit sandwiches,
one after the other, on and on.
But, feed them enough shit, and eventually
they will puke it all back up in your face!
- Uke Man