Category: Uncategorized

  • A Billionaire Has to Go to Jail

    I think I have written before on how I disagree with the common belief that when Ford pardoned Nixon, it was in the best interest of the country as a whole. That somehow, Nixon going on trial was a bridge too far for the American people to handle. The resignation and pardon where the period of that era in history, and we all decided to move on, and be Americans again, with never having to speak of Watergate again. I have heard this thought all through my schooling, and still it gets brought up whenever Watergate is mentioned. I agree that the pardon allowed people to move on, but there were unforeseen consequences.

    What I hold to is that Ford’s pardon of Nixon set a precedent for all Presidents; that they are above the law, and Presidents will protect their own. Clinton could have release information on Reagan over Iran/Contra but didn’t. W Bush could have released information on Clinton but didn’t. Obama could have released info on W but didn’t. And if one group is above the law, why not another group?

    This is now bleeding into the world of business, and as Bernie would say, the billionaire class. No one who orchestrated the Crash of 2008 went to jail. Obama and Holder can continue to tell me that banks paid a price for their misdeeds, but those CEO’s are still running those banks, and are creating a new bubble. Hell, even though journalists have been writing about Jeffery Epstein for some time, only now are people coming around to the realization that a billionaire is getting away with a crime that he should have been sentenced to life in prison for.

    The cure to this problem is simple; a billionaire has to go to jail. A President who breaks the law has to be put on trial. The rule of law has to be upheld.

    Kind’a simple.

  • After Thanksgiving

    I have never really understood the excitement of Black Friday. I understand that there are people out there who love to hunt for a bargain, and who treat shopping like a sport. Fine, that’s your bag, and go to town with it.

    Since the advent of online shopping, which I guess was the late 90’s, it now feels like we have this almost week-long celebration of consumerism that is covers Black Friday to Cyber Monday… 4 Amazing Days of Shopping!!! There have been stories in the news for over a week of how much money will be spent, and how to find the best deals. I would not be surprised that in 50 years we will have a new holiday that comes out of Thanksgiving and is all about shopping. The government shuts down, and there will be no taxes, and it will be like the Purge, but for capitalism.

    A friend of mine from college, Lori Fox who is an artist and jewelry designer, put the following picture up on her Instagram page…

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    Her statement that accompanied the image is as follows:

    “Think before you buy- it’s not a “good deal” if you don’t need it. Thanks @adbusters.magazine and @makesmthng for helping raise awareness about our often mindless consumption that leads to so much environmental waste and pollution. Be aware this holiday season 👀Have you started any new holiday traditions in your family that don’t involve buying loads of new stuff?”

  • Morning in America

    Woke up this morning to the news that there was another mass shooting.

    Remember when the big news was the firing of Jeff Sessions?

    And remember when the big news before that was Trump’s weird confrontational press conference?

    And Remember when before that the big news was the mid-term elections?

    I find living in this country now is like having the attention span of a dog looking for a squirrel while being bi polar at the same time.

    I am starting to give up on the idea that we can return to a time when things were “normal.” I think it is past and this is the new normal that we live in.

    I always wanted to be the person that looked to the future, as that will be the better place to work for. Now, I am very nervous about what the future will hold. I keep thinking that we will reach a breaking point, when people will have enough of mass shootings, and a president who flouts the rule of law, or a political party that is becoming openly racist.

    But… no…

    I still can’t get over people who would vote for Ted Cruz. I mean, no one likes Ted Cruz, but he got re-elected… And no one likes him.

    I keep reading and watching the news, reading up on my history and political philosophy, thinking that there will be some new insight that will come to me, but I keep feeling despair. And the House flipped, bringing at least some over sight, but that hasn’t made me feel any better.

    It’s the gun violence. It’s like it just will not subside in this country, and after each shooting, the feeling grows that it is a ticking time bomb that will one day explode on each of us. And we will wonder how it got this bad, and didn’t we do anything before.

  • A Lot Has Happened

    So… I have been away for a month, and that wasn’t my intention. I have had several life changing events happen to me and my family, and it has taken a bit of time for me to get adjusted to my new reality.

    Not that I am trying to be mysterious, but one of the bigger things that has happened is that a decision was made, and the wife, I and the kid have moved to the west coast, and we are Californians.

    Goodbye, New York City.

    Hello, Golden State.

    My wife got a really badass job, and it was just too big of an opportunity for her to pass up. It took a lot of work, but we were able to get all of us out, and now I am learning how to deal with people who are not perpetually angry all the time.

    I’m also learning that I was perpetually angry all the time. And that I have to start learning how to let go of so many things that I thought were important, but really weren’t. I see now that I was stopping myself from enjoying life, and the people I chose to share it with. I can’t fully blame New York for that, I made the decision to be that person. Now I have the opportunity to reinvent myself. In a place where it is sunny, often.

    There are so many things that I need to write about, and now I will add changing locations to the mix.

    Let’s see what happens.

  • I Just Got Paid

    Today, I got paid for writing. It was only five dollars, but this is the first time that I received any money for something I wrote. I have no idea if the piece will ever see the light of day. Maybe, maybe not. This also was the first time that someone was like, “I will pay you at least something for your writing,” and not “the exposure will help your career.”

    Living and working in the arts is awful, but I can’t leave it, and I really don’t want to do anything else. So… I’m stuck.

    So much of my career in the arts, and I will group all of it together; theatre, writing, painting, arts management even, has been predicated by someone asking me to work for free. Until I moved to New York, most of the payment I received had come in the form of beer. It took me about two years in New York before I earned my first check from performing.

    I know that I am not the first person to write about this, but the arts and capitalism really don’t mix. Payment is slanted to the very few that are on the top, while the majority fight for… well… five dollars. I am also not going to claim that I know a solution to this problem, other than capitalism doesn’t solve all problems. People will continue to ask others to work for free in exchange for hope.

    The truly tragic thing about earning five dollars today is that I can’t find a beer in Manhattan for that price.