Beatniks, Peaceniks and WarMongers!

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Welcome to “Rhetoric-ville”, the Land that time forgot.   Sometimes after watching an exhausting day of  “Trumpster News” on every channel and seeing that lovely orange hair on fire, with that ugly mug and the down turned mouth….you gotta ask yourself just one question:  No, we are not going to use the Dirty Harry line…”So forget about it!” as Ray Liotta might say.

“For the evil that men do is interned in their bones……but the Government of the people, by the people – shall not perished from the earth!” with our great apologies to Abe Lincoln…of course.  This country of ours has far exceeded being a laughing stock.  We have gone from an elegant, nuanced, sophisticated, virtuous appearing nation – to a new low standard of falsehoods, trick Willie behavior, dodgeball lawyering, turncoat Constitutionalists, paid off International Lobbyist Organizations and of course, downright fraud and theft in Government.

Ah, but perhaps we should start with the beginning:  Shelly Berman may have said it best in the 1950’s:  “So, the lady came to me and said:  My son is a thief, what should I do?  I told her; don’t worry he will either get good at it or get caught!”  We long for those days of introspection and all the great comedy that included “Time for Beany!” with Stan Freberg, Jonathan Winters and even “Howdy Doody”!  We really loved Princess Winter-Spring-Summer-Fall.  We also loved all the cowboy shows, like “Paladin” with Richard Boone, “Wanted Dead or Alive” with Josh Randall-Steve McQueen, “Gunsmoke” with Doc and Kitty, Matt and Chester!  “Maverick” with James Garner. “Brave Eagle” with Keith Larson.  “The Cisco Kid” with Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carillo.  “Hopalong Cassidy”, Roy Rogers and Dale and Gene Autry!   Ah yes, those times were so much richer in character.  It got to be a little sugary and over the top with shows like “The Rifleman” with Chuck Connors, “Wagon Train”, “Sugarfoot” or “The Rebel”…..but then we had all those wonderful teenager programs like:  “American Bandstand” with Dick Clark and Peter Potter’s “Hit or a Miss”!  Snooky Lanson’s “Our Hit Parade”!  Yeah, life was so much simpler then, as we watched all those babes and guys dressed in black, going to the various Coffee Houses dressed up as Beatniks.  Pipes and long cigarette holders!  Beatniks, you know the folks that thought that we should be more cerebral and think deeper and find introspection and engage in dialectical exchanges of ideas.  The list of hot Coffee Houses around Southern California and Northern California was amazing.  Mort Sahl was even playing at Dino’s Lounge on the Sunset Strip….The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart……Frustration was very big in our society, all under the service, all waiting for the big explosion that was to come with the 1960’s!  The hypocrisy was so obvious that even most reclusive person got to take a long look in the mirror of a society drenched in bigoted ethnic separation and resentment.

Then came WAR…..oh sure, we had war in the 1950’s, remember the Korean War, which they characterized as a Police Action?  Yep Kim Jong Un wasn’t even born yet when that happened.  So, they took a bunch of old guys, left over from WWII and put them back in the trenches with their M-1 Rifles and even brought back Ted Williams to fly F-86 Fighter planes on 30 or so missions…before he got to back to the Boston Red Socks to finish off his career.  Patriotism?  Hey, the President wants to go to war…..why not?  So, when the 1960’s came around people were starting to question WAR…..and maybe ask occasionally – “Why are we going there again?”  TV had to put out a bunch of propaganda with shows like “Combat” with Vic Morrow or “Rat Patrol”.  However, the stories of captured soldiers in Korean prison camps were coming out and mentioned either soldier turncoating or others crawling up in a ball and dying from dysentery and “GiveUpItis” and it was oozing into the social fabric of our country and if anyone questioned their government….on WAR….you might be considered a Peacenik!  So, a bunch of the same folks that came out of the Beatnik Coffee Houses, searching for themselves through Group Therapy or Psychiatric help and Mildown pills….well, soon became part of the new Peacenik movement.  You go out there, carry a sign, protest anything, let your hair grow and get laid with one of your fellow protesters!  Smoke a little weed….join a Commune……get out in the Country and live off the land……Drop Out and Live the Simple Life!  Hang out with some cool intelligent friends…..Socialize……Get Hip!!  Play Guitar, join a Group….like Charles Manson did….ooops….we did have a few over the top Groups in the 60’s and 70’s …like the Sibonese Liberation Army, the Red Army Faction, Bader Meinhof –  in Germany and of course a huge bunch of Revolutionary countries, like Cuba, Angola and then boom right into Vietnam and before you know it, you might get drafted.  President Trump had this gig all figured out.  He already had done Military School…..where he failed miserably….and he knew all the babes were home in the US while the Flower of our Youth and the Independent Thinkers all got sent to fight and die in Vietnam.  Why do?  Become a pseudo Peacenik! Labels!!  Soon everything was getting a label….like Bosco, Ovaltine or Fruit Loops!  Captain Midnight liked Ovaltine and you could send for a DeCoder Badge….for .35 cents and postage!  The Peace Sign and Smiley face soon arrived on the scene and it was “The first day of the rest of your life”!  We even had to listen to Rod McQuen songs!  Thank God for the “Lovin Spoonful” and Muscle Cars to save us!  Dream Car:  1963 Corvette Stingray!  Dream Job:  Aerospace at Cape Kennedy!

So, as President Dwight D. Eisenhower said:  “Beware of the Military Industrial Complex!  Bob Dylan caught on to these words early with his great song:  “Master’s of War” and “Talkin World War III Blues”.  The music would sustain us, we thought!  As long as we had our music, we would have a voice, new knowledge to grow to and from.  Music would keep us alive…..until the day the music died.  It was around 1971 when “American Pie” by Don McClean came out.  It was shocking, and it shook our soul.  We may not have known what it really meant, but it just felt important.  Don told us that the day of the ’55 Chevy were over!  The Eagles even came out with song called “Old ’55” about the car that brought them both to Hollywood from Texas….Glen Frey and Don Henley that is!  We had Linda Ronstant, we also had some wonderful country and western music with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Buck Owens, Kris Kristopherson, Willie Nelson and seemingly endless numbers of Nashville sounds.  Then came Disco – Donna Summer…..the Arab Invasion…..with all their oil money.  The Japanese…..with all money from their transplanted USA  Manufacturing and the beginning of sending more jobs to the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea and even China.  That was the 80’s folks.  Raytheon, General Electric, Monsanto and Dow Chemical were all over our new quiet War Economy.  Perhaps it did start in earnest in Iran in the 1950’s with the Shah.  Maybe.  We think it was far more invasive than Aramco in Saudi Arabia.  We think it was far more invasive than having Richard Nixon extend the Vietnam War, for what wound up to be seven more years.  We think it was far more invasive than sending what they used to call “Soldiers of Fortune” to places like Angola and all the other African Nations.  Yeah, the US of A had become the largest provider of war machines since World War II.  We were selling aircraft, missile systems, tanks, armaments and weapons of every description …to every country of the world….at least that didn’t want Russian equipment.

The facts are that we are a hollow economy without being at WAR.  WAR is good for business at home and abroad.  AS we now live in a Global Economy we need to sell Drugs and Firearms to anyone that will buy them.  Hey, our country cannot exist alone.  When we were bringing in lots of immigrants….they bought food, cars, houses, Costco and Walmart items.  They paid more taxes, pumped our Social Security Lock Box and inflated our property values and kept the Used Car Salesmen supporting their families.  They kept the Car Insurance Companies making good money and provided lots of jobs to people working at grocery stores and the .99 cents store.  They kept our Schools full of students, our Healthcare facilities working overtime and our road repair folks happy as clams.  Even the Toll Road people loved all the traffic created and the cops got to write a lot more tickets.  Ah, but something is happening around all this glorious Geopolitical Fun and Games:  it is called New Technology.   Before The Millennium they called it The Paradigm Shift.  Before that they called it:  “Reordering our Priorities!”  Before that they called it:  “Farm Subsidies”!  Then the called it :  “The Singularity” or before that “Future Shock”.  Now everyone around seems to be writing books and articles about AI, AV, Drones, Quantum Nano Technology, 3-D Manufacturing, Stem Cell Regeneration, Cell Transfers and the like.  The truth of the matter is that there are some very important changes coming to our Global Citizenry.  Yes Virginia, we will have Terminator Personalized Explosive Drones that can target anyone on the planet.  Yes Virginia, we will have massive biological drone attacks on population centers.  Yes Virginia, we cannot hold back progress.  But can we hold back WAR?  One thing is sure…if we bring back all our manufacturing, we are going to bring back all our pollution.  Welcome to the days when you can’t see across the room.  Keeping manufacturing in China, India and Africa will keep us out of War….at least in those countries!  The Orange Blob wants to go to war with Iran and North Korea.  Hey, what’s a few million dead folks….we have billions!  As Hyman Roth said:  “Michael, we are bigger than US Steel!”

The truth of the matter is that we really need to retain our ethical and moral compass at this time.  They may have ruined our Music, so we cannot understand much any more.  They may have ruined our News, so we cannot understand much any more.  They may have ruined our Government, so we cannot understand much anymore.  Most importantly they are trying to ruin our economy and confuse it to the point, that we cannot understand that any more.  So, our job is simple…..grasp some clarity out of the chaos.  We had eight good years of understandable and reasonable government.  Now we have to face upwards of seven more years of hell on earth.  No biggie, we have met this enemy before. There is nothing new under the sun, they say and we totally agree.  The Lord will provide…they say and we are hopeful that is true!  So, lets do something for a change rather than sit back and watch the world go by!  The Primary Election is June 5th, here in California.  Let’s do something crazy and vote all the incumbents out of office.  We know they are backed up by people in the bull pen just as bad and just as paid off…..but let’s see some new faces.  What can it hurt at this point?  Let’s go back to the days of George and Laura…..when folks got elected because they “were nice”!  Let’s dump every mean spirited elected official in the State and the Nation.  Enough is enough.  Take our music….fine…we will go back in time.  Take our news….fine…..we will find our own news.  Take our Government….and bucko that is where we draw the line.  You might have had it for 30 years that we didn’t know about …..but we are starting to get the picture.

Beatniks, Peaceniks and WarMongers!  Yeah, we have done all that…..how about you?