(https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/dnc-sues-trump-russia-wikileaks-over-2016-email-hack-n867801)
". . . The DNC is seeking recompense for what it says was millions of dollars in damages from Russia’s hacking of its internal emails, which were then published by WikiLeaks, with the encouragement of then-candidate Trump and his campaign. . . The civil complaint, filed in federal district court in Manhattan on Friday, is unrelated to the criminal investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, as well as congressional investigations into Russian meddling. . ."
(from https://www.mintpressnews.com/green-party-senate-candidate-margaret-flowers-crashes-two-party-debate/221860/)
". . . Dr. Margaret Flowers, a Green Party candidate for Senate from Maryland, interrupted a televised debate to protest her exclusion from the forum . . .“I’m a candidate on the ballot. I have a statewide campaign. I don’t understand why I’m not up here,” Flowers declared as she briefly occupied the debate stage. . . Flowers is running for the seat long occupied by Democratic incumbent Barbara Mikulski, who announced her retirement earlier this year. . . During the direct action, Flowers took the stage amid loud applause from the audience and shook hands with her opponents, Democratic nominee Chris Van Hollen and Republican nominee Kathy Szeliga, both of whom agreed to debate Flowers. . . Despite being welcomed by her opponents, the organizers of the debate, CBS Baltimore and the University of Baltimore, refused to allow Flowers to participate. . . "
. . . who is threatened by an open debate among ALL candidates?
My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(http://www.dw.com/en/bernie-sanders-brother-wants-david-camerons-job/a-19571557)
". . . (Bernie)Sanders' older brother Larry is preparing to stand for the Green Party in a by-election to replace former UK Prime Minister David Cameron. . . Larry Sanders, who moved to Britain in 1968, is a retired lawyer and social worker. Married until the death of his wife in 1983, he holds joint US-British citizenship. . . The 88-year-old has been a member of the Green party since 2001, after several years as an activist with the main opposition Labour party. He is currently the Green party's health spokesman. . . was educated at Harvard and Oxford universities, said he was inspired by his brother's success in the Democratic race for the White House . . . "
My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
. . . yes Virginia, there ARE more that TWO!!! . . .
Justice Party
The Justice Party is committed to eliminate the systemic corruption in government caused by the undue influence of concentrated sources of wealth (both corporate and individual), which has led to many serious ills in our society, including widespread poverty, infant and maternal mortality, expensive and inaccessible healthcare, record incarceration rates, and environmental destruction.
Green Party
Vote Green Party. We understand that it IS hard to believe anyone who wants to run for office, because we have been in this corrupt system for SO LONG. But there is a way out. Keep the faith … we have. Register Green as a commitment to your own best interest.
Libertarian
Libertarians believe in the American heritage of liberty, enterprise, and personal responsibility. Libertarians recognize the responsibility we all share to preserve this precious heritage for our children and grandchildren.Libertarians believe that being free and independent is a great way to live. We want a system which encourages all people to choose what they want from life; that lets them live, love, work, play, and dream their own way. The Libertarian way is a caring, people-centered approach to politics. We believe each individual is unique. We want a system which respects the individual and encourages us to discover the best within ourselves and develop our full potential. The Libertarian way is a logically consistent approach to politics based on the moral principle of self-ownership. Each individual has the right to control his or her own body, action, speech, and property. Government's only role is to help individuals defend themselves from force and fraud. The Libertarian Party is for all who don't want to push other people around and don't want to be pushed around themselves. Live and let live is the Libertarian way.
Americans Elect
Politics aren’t working for people. This problem must be addressed at the root by fixing the way we elect our leaders. Changing the system by creating the first nonpartisan, national online presidential primary is a daunting task—changing history usually is. Millions of people now support Americans Elect, and we are humbled by that. We are confident that our founding idea can lead to the change Americans are seeking. There is much more to do.
Citizens Party of the United States
Do you think that both major parties are excessively dominated by money and overly influenced by lobbyists and single-issue groups? Are you concerned about the continued assault on the American middle class by the failed policies of both major parties? Do you feel that neither of the two major parties truly reflect the aspirations or will of most Americans? Do the two party career politicians appear unwilling or unable to address the many issues and challenges facing our nation? Have you grown tired of the polarization and alienation created by the two major parties?
The Communist Party
Founded in 1919, the Communist Party USA has championed the struggles for democracy, labor rights, women’s equality, racial justice and peace for ninety years. The Communist Party has an unparalleled history in the progressive movement of the United States, from the struggle against Jim Crow segregation, the organizing of the industrial unions, from the canneries of California, to the sweatshops ...
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)
My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
I swerved to miss a turtle
As he watched the traffic hurtle
Past him from the center of the street
I saw him stick his snout out
Pulled off and played the Boy Scout
And snatched him from the jaws of defeat…
It was just a single swerve
And surely didn't deserve
A hundred-dollar fine for Careless Driving
But the Highway Patrol
Said “Think of it as toll --
Now please drive on, sir, I’m advising”
Just one swerve, that's all it took to
Get written up in that little black book
Just one swerve, what can I say?
One small turtle
Made it through another day
If you’re a Hindu or a Buddhist
You know there is a karma list
Good actions always earn you more
God, always thinking green,
Will use your soul again
In some new creature, depends on your score…
Just when you think you're
Doing the right thing
Life is a bumblebee
Administering a sharp sting
So with very little drama
I’m storing up good karma
One hundred-dollar turtle at a time!
But that Patrolman’s karma’s bad
It almost seems a little sad
That he’ll come back as a bug next time…
Just one swerve, that's all it took to
Get written up in that little black book
Just one swerve, what can I say?
One small turtle
Made it through another day
Swerve
(demo recording)
Lyrics by Rod Deacey
Music by Ray Jozwiak
. . . the cop let his friend off with a warning, after reviewing her license and registration, allowing 'just one swerve' before getting an actual ticket next time. Shouldn't everyone be allowed 'just one swerve'?
I swerved to miss a turtle
As he watched the traffic hurtle
Past him from the center of the street
I saw him stick his snout out
Pulled off and played the Boy Scout
And snatched him from the jaws of defeat…
It was just a single swerve
And surely didn't deserve
A hundred-dollar fine for Careless Driving
But the Highway Patrol
Said “Think of it as toll --
Now please drive on, sir, I’m advising”
Just one swerve, that's all it took to
Get written up in that little black book
Just one swerve, what can I say?
One small turtle
Made it through another day
If you’re a Hindu or a Buddhist
You know there is a karma list
Good actions always earn you more
God, always thinking green,
Will use your soul again
In some new creature, depends on your score…
Just when you think you're
Doing the right thing
Life is a bumblebee
Administering a sharp sting
So with very little drama
I’m storing up good karma
One hundred-dollar turtle at a time!
But that Patrolman’s karma’s bad
It almost seems a little sad
That he’ll come back as a bug next time…
Just one swerve, that's all it took to
Get written up in that little black book
Just one swerve, what can I say?
One small turtle
Made it through another day
Swerve
(demo recording)
Lyrics by Rod Deacey
Music by Ray Jozwiak
". . .Beginning with the unforgettable "Green Green Grass of Home", Curly Putman has written or co-written an endless stream of smashes, including the million air-play, "My Elusive Dreams", "D-I-V-O-R-C-E", "Blood Red And Going Down", "It Don't Feel Like Sinnin' To Me, "It's A Cheatin' Situation" and "He Stopped Loving Her Today", just to name the #1's.
Curly wasn't born and raised with "great future staring him in the face," like the TV Waltons. Curly was the son of a sawmill man, reared on a mountain that bore that family name. About six or eight families lived on Putman Mountain, mostly descendants of a one-armed Methodist preacher named Jesse Putman, who first brought the holy writ to the mountain. . .
. . . After his discharge (from the service), Curly started picking with a band in Hunstville, AL, and there during one of his gigs, he met his future wife, Bernice. Soon, they started going together and were married in 1956. Thus began a long odyssey of discouragement and frustration remarkably echoed in Curly's "My Elusive Dreams: (You Followed Me To Texas/You Followed Me To Utah/We Didn't Find It There So We Moved On). The places were changed, but the pain was the same. "We moved to Chicago, but I didn't like it there too well, so I moved back to Alabama, working in the sawmill with my dad and going to trade school in Decatur, tried to learn piano tuning…anything to stick to music in some way. "We were barely getting by, so we moved to Huntsville and I went to work for the Thom Mcan Shoe Co. Eventually, Curly had a couple of songs recorded by Marion Worth and Charlie Walker, so he jumped at the chance to sell shoes in Nashville. After a short time in Nashville, however, he was transferred to Memphis. "I was so discouraged about having to leave Nashville," Curly recalls, "that I quit Thom Mcan in Memphis and went back to Huntsville and took a job in a record shop owned by a local radio personality. At night I played steel in a local band.
In the fall of 1963 Curly's luck took an abrupt change for the better. While visiting Nashville, during the annual DJ convention, he ran into Tree Publishing company executive Buddy Killen, whom he had known slightly in earlier days. Buddy casually mentioned that Tree might have a song plugging job open after the first of the year. "I came to talk to Buddy and Jack Stapp (the owner of Tree) and started working for them in January of 1964
"I guess I learned as much about writing by plugging songs for Tree as anything else I've ever done," says Curly. Yet month after month was passing and nothing was happening save a few small, inconsequential records. Was the elusive dream about to become undone altogether?
Then, one day about a year later, a bit of sheer magic struck. "One Sunday afternoon, I came up to Tree's office. No one was around. I just started fooling around and suddenly it fell in place. The surprise ending about dreaming made the song. I guess I worked on it for about two hours. I felt like I really had something, because it touched me very deeply. But, I didn't know how commercial it was because it was such a down-home song." The down-home song was "Green Green Grass of Home.
"I played the song for bunches of people over five or six months before it was ever cut, first Johnny Darrell," said curly. Then things began to happen. Porter Wagoner covered the Darrell record and had a top five country hit. Then, Jerry Lee Lewis had a chart record on the song. Tom Jones heard Jerry Lee's cut and was so impressed that he recorded it. His record became a top five pop smash in the united stated and number one almost everywhere else. The Tom Jones record sold between ten and twelve million copies throughout the world. Since then, over four hundred other artists have recorded the song in most of the world's major languages.
Since "Green Green Grass of Home," Curly's songs have been recorded by multitudes, including Charlie Rich, Tammy Wynette, dean martin, Wayne Newton, George Jones, Charley Pride, Conway Twitty, Dolly Parton, Bobbie Gentry, Glen Campbell, Nancy Sinatra, Roger Miller, T.G. Sheppard, The Kendalls, Andy Williams, Jim Nabors, Issac Hayes and Millie Jackson, Johnny Duncan, Bobby Vinton, John Conlee, Roy Clark, Elvis Presley, George Jones and almost every other country artist of consequence. And still, he continues to write, patiently and well, unable to fill the melancholy hole in his heart that refuses to ever let him rest satisfied and content to rejoice in a job well done. . ."
(from Wolfgang Mieder)
". . . This proverb certainly belongs to one of the most commonly used proverbs
in the English language. This should not be surprising since it
expresses the only too human idea of discontent, envy, and jealousy in a
metaphor which is easily understood. Interestingly enough, the proverb
is also literally true as has been demonstrated by James Pomerantz in a
scientific article on "'The Grass is always Greener': An Ecological
Analysis of an Old Aphorism" (1983).3 This scholar proves that optical
and perceptual laws alone will make the grass at a distance look greener
to the human eye than the blades of grass perpendicular to the ground.
The "truth" of this metaphorical proverb can, of course, also be
observed often enough in the countryside when a cow or a horse is trying
to get at that juicy green grass just on the other side of the fence.
And since people are equally dissatisfied with their lot in life, it
should not surprise anyone that a modern psychologist has spoken of "the
'greener grass' phenomenon"4 by which modern individuals continually
evaluate supposedly better alternatives for themselves.
The proverb thus expresses a basic behavioral truth in a rather
universal metaphor - after all, grass and fences aren't exactly anything
new. This should imply that the proverb belongs to those ancient bits
of wisdom that everybody knows, but when one consults the standard
paremiographical works, it comes as quite a surprise to see that the
earliest recorded reference stems from 1957! This appears absurd, and
there are bound to be native American speakers who will instantly claim
that they have heard or even used this proverb long before the 1950's.
But that claim needs to be proven in light of what Archer Taylor has
called the apparent "incompleteness of collections of proverbs". The
following remarks will present a few precursors to this proverb as well
as some synchronic variants, and it will be established that the "grass
is always greener" proverb is at least a bit older than proverb
collections would have us believe. In addition to tracing the
lexicographical history of the proverb it will also be studied in its
traditional and innovative use as the title of novels, plays, and
magazine or newspaper articles. Its iconographic depiction in cartoons,
caricatures, comic strips, postcards, and photographs will also be
analyzed with a special emphasis on modern parodies. . ."
I have a day-to-day calendar called "S is for Stupid" by Leland Gregory which displays one factual and truly stupid fact for each day of the year. Very amusing. Sometimes controversial. ALWAYS stupid.
While driving home from an Oho rehearsal the other night, I spotted something that could very well qualify for the cover of the day-to-day calendar "S is for Stupid". At least it appeared stupid to me in its imprecision as well as its chauvinism. I really don't know what the man was trying to tell me. I also do not believe he is a member of the Green or the Justice political parties.
I don't recall the exact punctuation, but the message, appearing on the spare-tire cover mounted at the rear of an SUV stated:
"Women, Guns, Freedom - America"
I believe I will be writing to Leland Gregory very soon.
