Looks Like . . .

. . . Bernie's right. . .


(from bernie@bernie.org)
It is not acceptable that a handful of right-wing extremists in the House have shut down the government and are now pushing for the United States, for the first time in our history, to not pay its bills -- precipitating a likely international financial crisis.  It is widely believed that there now exists in the House a majority of members (virtually all Democrats and some moderate Republicans) who are prepared to vote for a clean continuing budget resolution which would immediately re-open the government.  House Speaker Boehner must allow the House to have that vote.

It is also important that people understand that the real issue here is not just the desire of Republicans to defund Obamacare. At a time when the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing, these right-wing ideologues want to repeal virtually every piece of legislation passed in the last 80 years which protects the elderly, the children, the sick, the poor and the environment.  The truth is that ending Obamacare is just a small part of the right-wing extremist agenda, which is heavily funded by the Koch brothers and other very wealthy and powerful special interests.  Their full agenda includes privatizing Social Security, ending Medicare as we know it, slashing Medicaid funding, eliminating the EPA and the Department of Energy and abolishing the concept of the minimum wage.  Needless to say, they also want more tax breaks for the rich and large corporations.  It should be clear to everyone that their long-term goal is to move this country into an oligarchic form of society in which billionaires completely control the economic and political life of this nation.

(from wikipedia.com)
Bernard "Bernie" Sanders is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from Vermont. Before serving in the Senate, he represented Vermont's at-large district in the United States House of Representatives and served as Mayor of Burlington.

(Can't help but mention that one of the comments on YouTube about this video, "It's a bad time when satire does a better job of reporting the story than the actual news reporters" hits it right on the head.)

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Little Men. . .

The poet said "Trailing clouds of glory we come
and we go
What do we really know
Smiling so brightly
Betraying the years they have yet to try
Those little men with that glory
Riddles and bedtime stories
Little men with that glory in their eyes

Innocence and wisdom coexist inside their minds
Together with appreciation for the things we miss
In our haste and our big business
Always in awe of the wheels spinning round
And a laugh for the foolish things big men do

The poet said "Trailing clouds of glory we come
and we go
What do we really know
Smiling so brightly
Betraying the years they have yet to try
Those little men with that glory
Riddles and bedtime stories
Little men with that glory in their eyes

Everybody thinks about the world and what the future brings
Who really knows the plan and all its subtleties
We're really smart at least that's what we think
Going our own way in blissful retreat
From the prospect of seeing things too clearly.

The poet said "Trailing clouds of glory we come
and we go
What do we really know
Smiling so brightly
Betraying the years they have yet to try
Those little men with that glory
Riddles and bedtime stories
Little men with that glory in their eyes

Little Men
©1993 Raymond M. Jozwiak

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Scream. . .

Robert Parry (http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/19242-the-white-mans-last-tantrum) presents a fascinating, still not unbelievable hypothesis that the government shutdown and potential default on U.S. credit may very well be a desperate attempt on the part of certain Republican and/or Tea Party members at white supremacy.

Paraphrased, in brief, the diverse makeup of their opposition (Democrats) is eroding the political domains of the 'white conservatives and white racists' of the former. William Buckley's principle, expressed in relation to the southern U.S. states in 1957, says “The white community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically.”  Present-day Tea-Party-controlled Republicans are applying the Buckley rule on a national level. Some examples of this are "ballot security", reduction of voting hours, recent gerrymandering, endless Republican filibusters in the U.S. Senate and denial to DC citizens of congressional representations.  Right-wing billionaires are establishing and supporting a propaganda machine never seen in U.S. history. . . and now the ultimate solution of government by extortion is the result. Their message, put simply, is . . . "if the American people insist on electing Democratic presidents or enacting federal legislation to “promote the general Welfare,” the Tea Party will respond by making the economy scream. . ."

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Broken. . .

(from http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Shutdown_Blues?src=soc_fcbks[By Charles P. Pierce])
". . . This is what they came to Washington to do -- to break the government of the United States. It doesn't matter any more whether they're doing it out of pure crackpot ideology, or at the behest of the various sugar daddies that back their campaigns, or at the instigation of their party's mouthbreathing base. It may be any one of those reasons. It may be all of them. The government of the United States, in the first three words of its founding charter, belongs to all of us, and these people have broken it deliberately. The true hell of it, though, is that you could see this coming down through the years, all the way from Ronald Reagan's First Inaugural Address in which government "was" the problem, through Bill Clinton's ameliorative nonsense about the era of big government being "over," through the attempts to make a charlatan like Newt Gingrich into a scholar and an ambitious hack like Paul Ryan into a budget genius, and through all the endless attempts to find "common ground" and a "Third Way." . . ."

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Dear Dave. . .

Writing to (once again) query about a booking on Late Night with David Letterman.

My two current musical endeavors (of which either can be booked but hopefully both [[on different shows, of course]]) are my solo, acoustic piano performances of "Gonzo Piano" and my ensemble performances of original music by rock group OHO (consisting of Jay Graboski, David Reeve and Ray Jozwiak).  OHO began as Baltimore's answer to Pink Floyd, an American underground icon, a band that came out of nowhere playing music the chroniclers swore was years ahead of its time. OHO sneaks around the musical conventions that have mummified so many others, unleashing sliders where you'd expect curve balls, fast balls where you'd expect change-ups. Part of it is their sense of humor, part of it their unerring humanity. A curious anomaly, the band was totally out of synch with current musical trends when they formed in late 73, a five-piece multi-instrumental, avant garde, acid-progressive band from Baltimore with a do-it-yourself lifestyle and album/label/outlook who were either seven years too late or seventeen years too early.  After almost forty years of evolution from precocious prog-rock darlings to pre-punk garage rebels, to female-lead-folk-jazz free fliers to power-trio original and sophisticated-covers band, OHO (now consisting of founders Jay Graboski and David Reeve, reunited with thirty-year musical collaborator [1970s Ful Treatment] Ray Jozwiak and occasional, special, when-available, musical guests) now belts out a bevy of thought-provoking original material blended with classics and the cream of current, intelligent rock and roll, spiced with musical influences from everywhere-including the kitchen sink- for your dancing, dining, drinking (and listening) pleasure. 

To hear a track by OHO, simply click on this hyperlink (or copy-and-paste it to your internet browser)  http://soundcloud.com/rayjozwiak/shouts-in-the-street-oho.


Creative Musician Ray Jozwiak's new, digital-download only, solo, instrumental piano music release  BLACK & WHITE then BACK transports you to aural locales inhabited by emotions, sentiments, memories, hopes, joys and challenges we've all encountered. You may even hear a snippet of a song you remember from childhood, have flashes of your first date, recall aromas from the kitchen when you visited your grandmother, remember your favorite summer vacation or when you fell in love. BLACK & WHITE then BACK is available through digital distribution only at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3.

To hear a track by Ray Jozwiak-Gonzo Piano, simply click on this hyperlink (or copy-and-paste it to your internet browser)  http://soundcloud.com/rayjozwiak/01-cheer.


Hoping to have the opportunity to perform for your fine audience on Late Night with David Letterman in the near future.  Looking forward to hearing from you.  A CD of the current incarnation of OHO and free a download card (to experience the rich history of OHO) and a CD (burned copy of digital release and or a free download card of Ray Jozwiak-Gonzo Piano's latest release Black & White Then Back) can be sent by mail at your request. 

Very truly yours,
Ray Jozwiak


P.S. I hope the fact that I have never been married to John Lennon will not adversely affect your decision.

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Detectives . . .

. . . Quotes from The Thin Man (movies). . .



(from http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1336952-the-thin-man)

“The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two.”

“Nora: "How do you feel?"
Nick: "Terrible. I must've gone to bed sober.”

“The people who lie the most are nearly always the clumsiest at it, and they're easier to fool with lies than most people, too. You'd think they'd be on the look-out for lies, but they seem to be the very ones that will believe almost anything at all.”

“Nick: "Don't you think maybe a drink would help you to sleep?"
Nora: "No, thanks."
Nick: "Maybe it would if I took one.”

“Nora said: "She's pretty."
"If you like them like that."
She grinned at me. "You got types?"
"Only you, darling - lanky brunettes with wicked jaws."

“Men came in and dragged us apart. It took us five minutes to bring Nora to. She sat up holding her cheek and looked around the room until she saw Morelli, nippers on one wrist, standing between two detectives. Morelli's face was a mess: the coppers had worked him over a little just for the fun of it. Nora glared at me. "You damned fool," she said, "you didn't have to knock me cold. I knew you'd take him, but I wanted to see it."
One of the coppers laughed. "Jesus," he said admiringly, "there's a woman with hair on her chest.”

"Whatever you're giving me," she said, "I hope I don't like it."
"You'll have to keep them anyway, because the man at the Aquarium said he positively wouldn't take them back. He said they'd already bitten the tails off the...”

"Charles isn't a Greek name."
"It's Charalambides," I explained. "When the old man came over, the mugg that put him through Ellis Island said Charalambides was too long...too much trouble to write... and whittled it down to Charles. It was all right with the old man; they could have called him X so they let him in.”

"Waiter, will you serve the nuts. . . will you serve the guests the nuts"

"Someone here to see you dear."
"That's good.  I was afraid I would have to go to sleep."

"Nick.  Nicky. . . "
"Yes."
"You asleep."
"Yes."
"Good.  I want to talk to you."

"Nice food, isn't it?"
"Yes. It's the best dinner I've ever listened to."

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Lakes. . .

(from wikipedia.com)
". . . Keuka Lake is an unusual member of the U.S. state of New York's Finger Lakes because it is Y-shaped, instead of long and narrow. Because of its shape, it was referred to in the past as Crooked Lake. Keuka means "canoe landing" in the Iroquois language and "lake with an elbow" in the Seneca language. Keuka Lake empties into another Finger Lake, Seneca Lake, from a stream, called Keuka Lake Outlet, at the lake's northeastern end in Penn Yan, New York. The stream empties into Seneca Lake at the village of Dresden. At one time the outlet was developed into a canal, the Crooked Lake Canal, connecting the lakes. This canal was later replaced by a railroad branch line which is now a hiking and cycling trail.

The lake is about 20 miles (32 km) long and varies in width from a half mile to two miles (1–3 km). The length of the shoreline is about 60 miles (96 km). It has a surface area of 11,730 acres (47 km²), and a maximum and mean depth of 186 feet (57 m) and 101 feet (31 m) respectively. This body of water possesses large and healthy populations of lake trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, landlocked salmon, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and yellow perch. The productive fishery is supported by huge numbers of baitfish, most notably alewives (sawbellies), and is a very popular lake with area fishermen. . ."


(from http://www.priweb.org/ed/finger_lakes/nystate_geo3.html)
". . . The Finger Lakes originated as a series of northward-flowing rivers that existed in what is now central New York State. Around two million years ago the first of numerous continental glaciers moved southward from the Hudson Bay area, initiating the Pleistocene glaciation, commonly known as the "Ice age."

The Athabasca Glacier in Alberta, Canada, is an example of a present-day glacier. The "Ice age" was really a series of many advances and retreats of glaciers. The Finger Lakes were probably carved by several of these episodes. Ice sheets more than two miles thick flowed southward, parallel but opposite to the flow of the rivers, gouging deep trenches into these river valleys. Traces of most of the earlier glacial events have vanished, but much evidence remains of the last one or two glaciers that covered New York. The latest glacial episode was most extensive around 21,000 years ago, when glaciers covered almost the entire state. Around 19,000 years ago, the climate warmed, and the glacier began to retreat, disappearing entirely from New York for the last time around 11,000 years ago.

The most obvious evidence left by the glaciers are the gravel deposits at the south ends of the Finger Lakes called moraines and streamlined elongated hills of glacial sediment called drumlins. Moraines are visible south of Ithaca at North Spencer, along Route 13 west of Newfield, and near Willseyville. Drumlins are visible northeast of Ithaca at the northern end of Cayuga and Seneca lakes in a broad band from Rochester to Syracuse. . ."


Keuka
©2013 Raymond M. Jozwiak




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