Rage Against The Truth!

These are the people who matter. One mattered on a national stage 27 years ago and one mattered on a national stage last week. One was steamrolled by a patriarchal old boy network of men, including some Democrats, and her nemesis, a despicable unqualified lackey named Clarence Thomas was put on the Supreme Court for life. Thomas has had one mission since 1991, to own the libs. To follow another cynical conservative uninterested in anything except restoring 1783. Anita Hill courageously tried to stop the appointment of this toadying circuit court judge but failed. The rest is history. The country is lesser because of her failure. I thought the country was better because of her courage.

Cut to 2018. Yet another toadying questionably qualified Judge is being rammed through the Senate process to take a seat for life on the Court. A Judge who has had hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt wiped out overnight. A Judge who appears to lie with impunity. A Judge who believes a President cannot be indicted or even charged with a crime. A Judge who sat in judgement of Bill Clinton and reportedly wanted to know many more details of a blowjob than anybody else. A Judge who stated, even in his 40s, that what goes on at Georgetown Prep stays at Georgetown Prep. A frat boy, a privileged punk intent on being a drunken jerk and proud of it.

Christine Blasey Ford had lived for 35 years with an incident occurring at age 15 that involved a couple of prep school bullies named Judge and Kavanaugh. How appropriate. We all know what allegedly happened that night in that room. We heard a woman describe it in great detail. We heard Dr Ford be polite and deferring and insistent without raising her voice. Now we all know had Dr Ford shown an inner anger or began weeping over a justifiable reason to do just those things, her demeanor would have called "hysterical" and most old white men would have dismissed her.....Oh wait thats exactly what they did anyway.

Within minutes of coming back from a break, Christine Blasey Ford was dismissed from the memories of 11 white males intent on getting a man onto the Supreme Court who would protect their cult leader forever. Intent on putting into power a man who would own the libs forever. A man who would vote to overturn civil rights laws, keep gerrymandering legal, protect traitors, keep the iron fist of maleness upon womans health and bodies, and with no consequences, accept gifts from his handlers.

The woman was no longer relevant. In fact the woman hired to protect the white men from backlash, Rachel Mitchell, was also dismissed once the old men yelling at clouds decided that huffing and puffing and defending sexual assault was going to work with the Republican base of cretins, male boneheads and traitorous females. Dr Ford was no longer even remembered. Her testimony was erased from their politically demonized brains.

Then came the man. The Judge. The beacon of fairness. Sober as a Judge? Ridiculous.

We all saw it. The blustering, the screaming, the snideness, the cheap shots, the water drinking, the Jekyll and Hyde personality. It was like every woman's worst nightmare coming out from behind the curtain. The raging drunk. The crying remorseful jerk. The frat boy who became a different person around his entitled "brothers". Yeah, ladies, you all know this guy. You've hopefully jettisoned guys like this long ago. But there he is. As of this moment, still a favorite to be put on the Supreme Court to affect everyone's life forever. Especially women.

We havent really progressed much in 28 years, have we? The one progress made in the last 100 years is voting. If women vote, we win.

Think about last Thursday in terms of the reality of the world. A soft spoken, reasonable woman with a long standing record of reporting this incident to friends, therapists, a husband and the press as opposed to a screeching, smart ass, cheap shot artist playing to an audience of one (The Assaulter in Chief).

Who would YOU rather be in the same room with? Reason and intelligence (Hill and Ford) or out of control rage (Thomas and Kavs)? The world depends on your answer. Vote!

Marty Balin!

Marty Balin was always third banana in the Jefferson Airplane behind Grace Slick and Paul Kantner. While Grace sang and Paul played guitar, Marty kind of stood off to the side and waited for his turn. Most people just remember Marty as the guy who got knocked out by the Hells Angels at Altamount. In fact other than Somebody to Love and White Rabbit, the Airplane is largely forgotten now. But Marty Balin has died at age 76. Paul Kantner died a couple of years back and Grace Slick is in exile doing who knows what.

The Airplane pretty much became irrelevant after 1968. They got some good footage out of the Woodstock movie (Migawd Grace was hot) but they ended because Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady wanted to play real music and the group broke up. Then came the Jefferson Starship which featured just Kantner, Grace and Marty with a band of hired Bay Area musicians. Then came Miracles. That was Marty's song. Then came Mickey Thomas and Marty was out again.

RIP Marty Balin. You never got the credit you deserved.

#Why I Didn't Report!

Did you read any of them? Did you? The twitter storm of women telling their stories of being sexually assaulted and why they never felt confident enough to report it were truly telling. I read them until I couldnt read them any longer. Look, I'm a guy. I went to an all boys high school. I've been around a culture of entitlement that I still cannot get over. I never joined a fraternity back in college because of this culture of male superiority (and the crazy homo-erotic pledge shit). Men run this fucking world and goddammit, they aint giving the power up without a fight.

This Kavanaugh thing is a wake up call to men. Decent men. You can wave it off as "horseplay" or remember maybe an incident in your past of which you believe would bring you down. But come on for chrissakes. If you dismiss this allegation, you dismiss ALL women and their memories and their stories. You dismiss crimes. You dismiss the degradation of someone's daughter or mother or sister or friend or grandmother. How dare you?

The Republican Senate doesnt give a shit. Led by the truly despicable Mitch McConnell (Sub-Human-Ky) this band of frat boys and their female collaborators are perfectly willing to ignore Doc Ford's story to confirm this creepy handsy motherfucker to a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

Let's face it. This is ALL about one thing. To keep control of women's bodies in the hands of men who care nothing about women. To make abortion illegal in a true 19th century dominance. To overturn Roe V Wade no matter how or by whom.

The Republican base has become a truly horrific band of people who see conspiracies around every corner, see women as temptresses, see minorities as a threat to their privilege, and see abortion as white genocide. The Republicans with brains have abandoned ship. The Republicans who only care about their own money have abandoned ship. Republicans who have true conservative beliefs yet have no axe to grind have jumped overboard. Basically all that is left is racists and the truly stupid who are dazzled by this talking orange cult leader and insanely believe this Elmer Gantry will restore a life they really never had. They hate minorities, they despise intelligence, they are in fear of losing the only privilege they still own, their whiteness, they hate the press that tells them the truth, but mostly they just enjoy driving the "libtards" crazy. Its really the only "power" they have. To say something so fucking dumb, or to praise a dimwitted bigot, and know that a lib will cringe makes them so happy.

This base that is left are snake handlers, believers in a Patriarchal Gawd, kool aid drinkers who have no sense of reality. That is why this panel of CNN Republican women saying some of the dumbest fucking things about sexual assault, including what boy didn't do this in high school (uhhhh me you idiotic woman) was so appalling. For this bunch of gender traitors, yes I mean that, to say this stupid shit about "all boys" committing sexual assault in their past is an insult to men. We arent all sexual assaulting drooling monsters and for these evil dames (thats a word you old biddies women like right?) to imply this simply to put the hammer down on young women they may or may not be jealous of is just wrong.

I am not only appalled at the fact these creeps in the Senate and their base of old bags women and hateful men are ignoring Doctor Ford, but are poo pooing every women and whatever horror haunts them in their dreams. I'm not sure I know a woman who DOESNT have one of these #WhyIDidntReport stories. So fuck you McConnell, Grassley and Hatch and Graham. You evil assholes need to step aside at best and be shunned at worst.

Ignore women at your own peril, guys. If they ever wake up and realize the power they potentially have, watch the fuck out.

The world might become a better place. In fact, it would be.

Brett Kavanaugh!

This picture is all I ever needed to know about Brett Kavanaugh. His refusal to shake the hand of Fred Guttenberg, a man whose child was murdered by a 2nd Amendment enthusiast at Parkland School, is all anyone should need to know about Brett Kavanaugh. To be quite blunt, fuck Brett Kavanaugh and the unicorn he rode in on.

But now a woman has come forward to save the nation. Kavanaugh, one of those entitled frat boy to bes while at an all boys Jesuit school back in high school, liked to drink. When he drank, he and his buddy, an erotic novelist wannabe named Mark Judge also felt like any woman, errr girl, wanted them so bad. According to the woman, the two lured her to a room during a party, where Kavanaugh and Judge attempted to remove her clothing and have their way with her because hey who wouldn't wanna fuck a slobbering 17 year old punk and a guy named Brett? The two drunken Prep school boys succumbed to what Prep school boys do best, get so drunk they cant function. The woman escaped. But did she? Living with an attempted sexual assault the rest of her life is hardly an escape. Meanwhile, Kavanaugh went on to Yale, Yale Law and where he was a member of some group called "Truth and Courage" aka "Tit and Clit" which is again all I need to know about Brett Kavanaugh.

Kavanaugh went on to work for Ken Starr and get all prissy over that bad bad Bill Clinton and his blowjob. Asking Ken Starr to ask sexually explicit questions of Bad Bill also tells me all I need to know about Brett Kavanaugh. What the fuck dude? The repression is gonna kill you. We know that when you're drunk as a skunk, you wanna get down with the babes whether they like it or not. You're a wild man, Brett. Embrace your inner frat boy, oh yeah you already are one.

Look, I went to an all boys high school. There is not one doubt in my mind this allegation is 100% true. The things I witnessed, the people I knew, the entitled aura, the sexual repression, the bullshit braggadocio , the homophobia. Going to an all boys high school is a recipe for disaster for many of those who already feel entitled. They just take whet they want and damn the consequences. The joke was how many zeroes need to go on this donation check to make this go away.

Did a 17 year old Brett Kavanaugh assault the 17 year old girl? Not a doubt in my mind.

Georgetown Prep. Tit and Clit. Ken Starr. Fred Guttenburg. Fuck him.

And thats not even mentioning perjury, gambling debts and $200K debts that suddenly disappeared.

Metallica!

I had never seen Metallica. They dont come around the sticks very often and when they do it sells out in minutes. They came to Lincoln last night and yes it had sold out in minutes but I was ready back in March and scored a couple of tickets for whoaaaaaaaaa, how much??? Never mind because it was worth every penny.

Jim Bruere, ex SNL cast member, he of Half Baked fame, opened the show by telling jokes. Mostly about being old and at a Metallica show. He has balls, I'll give him that, because opening for the best metal band ever cannot be easy. We are a polite folk and Bruere didnt get heckled off the stage.

At 8:38 pm the foursome that is Metallica took the stage and launched into a hodge podge of noise called Hardwired, a tune off the new album. Followed by Atlas Rise, another tune so LOUD I couldnt get my old ears to adjust to. I was scared this would be the whole concert, my old ears unable to adjust to the volume.

Then James Hetfield spoke to the 15 thousand or so assembled devotees. We have some new songs and a few old songs. BANG! Seek and Destroy. The ears adjusted immediately and the next thing that happened was this old guy screeching "Searchinggggggg, Seek and Destroy". It was fuckin great. I was in my 20s again listening to the band of Bay Area misfits I have loved since I first heard Fade To Black at 3 am back in 1984 or so.

The concert featured a bunch of graying 50 something men play their asses off. Hetfield was in fine voice, growling the lyrics and knowing when to step back and let the crowd take over. He has his choice of 8 microphones and 8 different angles to sing as the concert was in the round as they say. Lars Ulrich was his usual man possessed pounding a drum kit that made him appear even smaller than he is. He is the best. Kirk Hammett, the guitar master of this gang, was shredding it all night and James Trujillo, one of the most animated bass players out there. kept the rhythm going even when the others went offstage to drink water I assume.

There were 60 year olds and 8 year olds within one seat of each other head banging together, Yes, the 8 year old had headphones on which I only asked to borrow once. A half assed mosh pit formed on the floor in which people rammed into each other very softly and politely and then got tired and stepped back.

Highlight-- hearing For Whom the Bell Tolls and Fade to Black back to back. I almost couldnt stand the happiness I felt screaming along with two of my favorite songs. Its been a bad 18 months, folks. This made it better.

Weirdest Moment-- before the show began, a bunch of 40 somethings with shaved heads and an irate Hispanic guy apparently saw Husker head coach Scott Frost in a luxury box right above us and became irate. Screaming at him and flipping him the bird with the energy of people half their age. It was strange. Now I really have no clue if it was Scott Frost in that box above us cuz I couldnt actually see, but why the hell else would 4 guys not together all know this guy named "Scott" and decide they all hated him?

Low Point-- The inevitable time when a bass player solos to give the rest of them a break. The lines for the bathroom were long as hell and i had to stand in a pile of piss to pee. Great. Oh and Nothing Else Matters cuz I always confuse it with Wherever We May Roam. One I love, and one I tolerate. Guess which is which.

No Surprise--it was a complete sausage fest. There were 4 men to every woman. But as I used to say 30 years back if you're a dude who liked Metallica you were ok in my book and if you were a woman who liked Metallica Im not sure I should be around you. Of course that was a long time ago. Now I think if a woman likes Metallica, she's cool too.

Most Moving--the pictures on the overhanging drones of World War I faces, film of armies, and the scenes from Johnny Got His Gun during One. Many just rocked out, but it made me think of the waste of war. Those were real people who died for nothing. Ok stop thinking so damn much. Hey remember the 1989 Grammys and their performance of One?

Disappointment-- they didnt play Welcome Home (Sanitarium) which in my opinion is their most underrated song. Oh well, I cannot complain. And that Lady Gaga dint run out on Moth into Flame.

And then after 2 1/2 hours and Enter Sandman they were gone. Probably for years. I will treasure again an experience of being with Max at a concert with a band I love he now loves. Theres nothing like seeing yourself in a kid throwing his hair around and throwing his fist in the air screaming Master of Puppets.

Its so cool!