HIT HARDER!or You're STILL Wrong,Mykel's October 2022 Blog
by Mykel Board
There’s
nothing wrong with a screw that a hammer can’t fix.
--Mongolian
proverb
An
Indian grandfather is talking to his grandson.
He says it’s as if two wolves are
fighting in his heart. One wolf is vengeful and angry,
and the other wolf is understanding and kind. The young
man asks his grandfather which wolf will win
the fight in his heart. The grandfather answers,
"The one that wins will be the one I choose to feed.” —
Pema Chodron
Violence
is as American as apple pie – H. Rap Brown
There
is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield
of the law and in the name of justice. - Charles-Louis de
Secondat
-----
It’s
that scene where Al Pacino sprays the room with bullets. You know..
the gritted teeth, the flying blood, the… what the fuck? He
dissolves, the whole scene dissolves into little boxes… stuttering
picture… squares shifting… a jigsaw puzzle from hell.
I
sit up… lean over … smash my fist against the side fo the TV.
CHUMP! CHUMP! CHUMP! It only makes the picture worse. I get out of
bed… pad barefoot to the kitchen… a frying pan… that should do
it. WHACK! WHACK… A scar appears on the side of the TV. The black
metal frame glints silver. Scarface has completely disappeared…
just a gray screen… not black… the TV is on… but gray…
refusing to show color.
To
the closet! A hammer! WaTOOM! WaTOOM! WaTOOM! The TV glass cracks,
sprays itself over the bed… Somewhere a small spark ignites.
Flash
to someplace in Alabama: I can’t remember the town’s name…
a small town. It’s on the news. A 20-something year old guy shot
his family. Body count: Mom, Dad, older Sister, and much younger
brother.
The
sheriff is making a statement. “We believe we have the perpetrator
in custody. He has a record… convicted of a crime with a gun. He
only served a year for that crime. If he was still in jail, like he
should have been, that family would be alive today.”
OUCH!
I just slammed the heel of my palm into my forehead. How can people
think that way? It’s like fixing a TV with a hammer if your fist
doesn’t work.
If
people commit crimes after being released from jail, it doesn’t
mean that they should spend more time in jail. It means JAILS DON’T
WORK! Jail takes away homes, jobs, friends, dignity. What’s left
after getting out? CRIME! That’s what.
What
it comes down to is that, in America, jail isn’t to cure or prevent
crime. Jail is to make the victims of crimes feel better. Jail is
about revenge… codenamed justice or being held
accountable. Often it’s a training camp… and the only place
inmates will feel comfortable in their future lives. Prison is HOME.
Now
what happens when the victims become the judges and juries. Any idea
of justice flies out the window like my errant TV.
Take
the January 6 fratboy riot at the capitol. They’re planning to
overthrow the government… with bear spray? They’re violent
insurrectionists... with plastic zip ties? Seems to me that
insurrectionists shoot people They use guns. Only one person was shot
at the capitol… and she was shot by the cops.
Congressional
trials by victims? You bet your horned hat. Congress will throw the
book (and encourage local jurisdictions to throw several years) at
these guys. Boo hoo hoo. Some congressfolks had to hide in a bomb
shelter. Big fuckin’ deal! But the victims are the judges and jury.
FLASH:
imagine that the newly formed Amazon Workers Union, has a
rebellion... a piss-in... creating a stream of urine-soaked inventory
to call attention to Amazon’s refusal to give time off for its
drivers to use the bathroom. Workers rebel. Pissing on books and
kitchenware and whatever else Amazon sends trucking through America.
Now
imagine the pissers are rounded up… dicks and twats milked for DNA
matching with what’s found on the products destroyed. And, get
this, the jury is made up of Amazon’s board of directors. And the
judge? You guessed it: JEFF BEZOS!
That’s
what happened in Washington with the rioters. A couple windows
broken… some furniture moved… that’s it! But a former
president’s home is raided. One
of the rioters gets 7 years in prison! News programs scream “It
was revolution,” as if George Washington carried plastic twisties
with him.
In
1968, in Chicago, the Yippies and others came together to wreck the
Democratic Convention and call for REVOLUTION. I was among
them. There was lots of publicity… no one went to jail. An no
Democrat had to hide under their Chicago desks.
In
2022 Who conducts the congressional inquiry? Why the Congressfolks
themselves. Anti-abortion, pro-Iraqi War, 90% Trump supporter and
Congresswoman Elizabeth Cheney wields the gavel. Suddenly, she’s
the heroine… the love of the Democrats. Principles be damned…
THEY ATTACKED US! VICTIMS RULE.
REVENGE!
If
this riot were in a school, you’d hardly hear about it. If it were
at Amazon headquarters, you probably would be cheering on the perps!
(I would be!) But in Washington, where the “victims” become the
judge and jury, you switch sides.
Google
“slap on the wrist” and you’ll find dozens of complaints about
punishments that aren’t severe enough. Try “revolving door
justice” and you’ll get the same.
REVENGE!
REVENGE! REVENGE!
It’s
not a Department of Corrections… but a
Department of Punishment.
The
calls for vengeance… usually known by its drag name justice…
come from all sides. Depending on how the press frames the crime,
those calls come from the left, right and center. George Bush the
First was elected by videos of a black guy with an Afro going round
and round in a revolving door.
More
punishment. More blood! It’s the American way. The World Trade
Center is destroyed by Saudis… Well, attack Iraq! All those people
died. SOMEBODY’S got to pay, right?
In
2020, the black guy wasn’t going around a revolving door. He was
under a cop’s knee. This time the calls came from the other side,
but they were no less hateful and demanding.
Black
Lives Matter is right. I
marched on their first
demonstration that year. I
still support them. People
need to see victims of crime… NOT to have revenge against the
criminals, but to prevent the crime in the first place. It is so much
more important to have awareness that some groups of people have been
considered disposable, than it is to have one or two scapegoats for a
system gone wrong.
You
think the cries for Donald Trump to be “imprisoned for his crimes”
are because people want him to be rehabilitated????
I
remember when the cops broke into Jello Biafra’s house… tearing
the place apart looking for pornography to help their case against a
graphic record insert. We were rightly horrified that the cops smash
the door to someone’s house without their permission... just tear
up the place... steal documents… electronics, and then be free to
use what they steal to press charges instead of being prosecuted
themselves for the destruction.
But
let it happen to someone you don’t like. And a cheer goes up. Let
it happen to someone accused of fomenting false conspiracies. False
conspiracies grow from the opposing side. Did you know that the FBI
found Trump was selling US nuclear weapons-making instructions to the
Russians? Can you get more evil than that?
Of
course, no one found anything like that. The closest we get was a
MAYBE that the president took home some papers on the nuclear
capabilities of other countries… nothing about how to make
atomic bombs with ammonia and old lightbulbs. But people will believe
anything if it fits the narrative.
So
the news stations that reported that the president took home American
nuclear secrets apologized when they were proven wrong. Yeah right.
Did you get calls from THE OTHER SIDE for something called the
CONSTITUTION which says people should be secure in their homes? You
bet your MSNBC you didn’t! HATE rules the day! More cheers and
emails in my inbox telling me how wonderful Liz Cheney is and how
much she needs me.
That
woman is so cold that an ice cube wouldn’t melt in her ass. That
woman, who according to PoliticsThatWork
opposes taxing businesses, consumer protection, environmental
protection, financial sector regulation, gun control, public health,
humane immigration policy, labor rights and wages, lgbt rights,
racial equality, taxing the wealthy, countering Russian
interference, women's rights and supports big business, and
war whenever possible.
She
needs me?
People
who should be opposed to everything she stands for… are suddenly in
love with her. Why? Because she’s getting revenge on somebody they
HATE.
These
days they say HATE is a crime. You can even be arrest for it. But the
law-writers pick and choose their hate. You’re not allowed to do
that.
See
you in hell.
Mykel
Board
ENDNOTES:
[You can contact me on facebook
or
by email at mykelboard@gmail.com.
Through the post office: send those... er... private DVDs..or music
or zines... or anything else (legal only!) to: Mykel Board, POB 137,
New York, NY 10012-0003. If you like my writing, you can be notified
when anything new is available. Send
me an email with
SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Back blogs and columns are at
https://mykelsblog.blogspot.com]
→ Four
strikes and you’re out dept: As more states stupidly fight
crime with baseball-like “three strikes and you’re out” laws,
those laws make even judges cry.
Timothy
Jackson was
caught shoplifting a $159 jacket from a New Orleans department
store. At the time Jackson was a 36-year-old restaurant cook with a
sixth-grade education and a drug addiction problem.
Since
this was not Jackson’s first offense, the Louisiana Court made use
of his “criminal past”, (3 robbery-without-violence convictions,
one as a child), and sentenced him as a fourth-strike
offender.
The
judge wrote, “This sentence is constitutionally excessive in that
it is grossly out of proportion to the seriousness of the offense.”
Unfortunately, she was unable to deviate from the mandatory life
sentence without parole required by law.
→ Hey!
That’s Jeff Bezos’ tuna dept: The ACLU reports
that in Texas, in 2010, Larry Dayries stole a tuna sandwich from
Whole Foods while wielding a knife. He had prior convictions for
burglary and theft, so the sandwich incident landed him a 70-year
sentence. Larry will be 111 at the end of his sentence.
Yeah,
sure he’ll be 111. He’ll be DEAD at the end of his sentence.
See
you in hell, redux,
MB
THE
NATION AGAIN
I’m
a long-time subscriber to the The
Nation.
It’s the only lefty publication that I find myself not only
agreeing with, but also getting
inspiration
from. There are
two articles in the current issue I’d like to recommend herel
Strangely, when I post this stuff on facebook, no one looks at it. My
“friends” would just rather call me a “Trumpist” or a
“Republican” for all the times I don’t follow the party
line.
One article
is
a great one (though I disagree with some parts of it, of course).
It’s
about “How
the US leads by helping other people kill each other.”
There’s
also
a
good
one about Liz Cheney,
with a slightly
different point of view from
mine.
LINK
TRADE DEPARTMENT:
I
read that the search engines like lots of links... and it's also nice
to support my friends and enemies in their blogs. So facebook
me or email
me
if
you have a blog, webpage or something else to connect to. I add you.
You add me.
Here's
a start:
First take Sid Yiddish. There’s
a great interview with him on YouTube. You can check it out here.
Here’s
Richard Goldberg:
goldberg.wordpress.com
Poetry
and humor fans will like Justin Martin in The
Latency
And
my friend Mike R has a nice site with recipe hits from the past! (He
cooked for me once... great stuff.) Check out Yesterday's
Recipes.
And
here's one by a member of ANTI-SEEN... a tour
diary of
sorts.
Andy
Shelton has an interesting blog here.
Savage
Hippie is a guy who has been YouTubing
for a long time. Our opinions largely overlap... but he complains
that I'm a Communist. I'm not! I'm a communist.
Chris
Stecher publishes a zine called PRECIS.
You can see the back issue links there... and he promises a new issue
soon.
George
Fertakis has a very nice graphics-heavy blog... with music and books
featured prominently. If there’s no link here (I can’t find it
temporarily), then Google… er… Duckduckgo him for information.
And
my long-term pal Sid Yiddish contributes again with his Mishegas
Master Blog.
And
connect to TRUST Zine, a long-running German punk zine… that STILL
PRINTS!!! Yeah, they have a website too… of course! It’s here.
Here
are a couple video links.
This
from Jon Cox https://squelchchamber1.bandcamp.com/album/down-so-low
And
this
one from
my very long-time friend Roger Armstrong.
Jim
Testa moved his long running zine, Jersey Beat, to the blogosphere
awhile back. You can read it here.
Jim also recommended a kind of unique album… in a style you don’t
see to much of these days… or any days. Neo-Hassidic Rock Opera.
You can stream the album here.
Kyle
Nonneman is in prison in Portland. At least he can’t be kidnapped
by the secret police… I think. I post his
blog
for him, he can’t do it from the klink. Lots of stuff about noise
metal… and some very weird politics that will either fascinate or
repulse you… or both.
My
long time pal, Jim Hayes rightfully complained about my leaving out
his blog. He’s a great writer, so it was a tragic omission. Here
it is.
Oh
yeah, then there’s me.
I have a blog of stuff I’ve written mostly from last century. You
might enjoy it. Then again, you might not. It’s here.
Let
me know if you have a blog… or a print zine… or a YouTube and
want to be added to the list. You show me yours… you’ve already
seen mine. god@mykelboard.com
There’s nothing wrong with a screw that a hammer can’t fix.
--Mongolian proverb
An Indian grandfather is talking to his grandson. He says it’s as if two wolves are fighting in his heart. One wolf is vengeful and angry, and the other wolf is understanding and kind. The young man asks his grandfather which wolf will win the fight in his heart. The grandfather answers, "The one that wins will be the one I choose to feed.” — Pema Chodron
Violence
is as American as apple pie – H. Rap Brown
There
is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield
of the law and in the name of justice. - Charles-Louis de
Secondat
-----
It’s that scene where Al Pacino sprays the room with bullets. You know.. the gritted teeth, the flying blood, the… what the fuck? He dissolves, the whole scene dissolves into little boxes… stuttering picture… squares shifting… a jigsaw puzzle from hell.
I sit up… lean over … smash my fist against the side fo the TV. CHUMP! CHUMP! CHUMP! It only makes the picture worse. I get out of bed… pad barefoot to the kitchen… a frying pan… that should do it. WHACK! WHACK… A scar appears on the side of the TV. The black metal frame glints silver. Scarface has completely disappeared… just a gray screen… not black… the TV is on… but gray… refusing to show color.
To the closet! A hammer! WaTOOM! WaTOOM! WaTOOM! The TV glass cracks, sprays itself over the bed… Somewhere a small spark ignites.
Flash to someplace in Alabama: I can’t remember the town’s name… a small town. It’s on the news. A 20-something year old guy shot his family. Body count: Mom, Dad, older Sister, and much younger brother.
The sheriff is making a statement. “We believe we have the perpetrator in custody. He has a record… convicted of a crime with a gun. He only served a year for that crime. If he was still in jail, like he should have been, that family would be alive today.”
OUCH! I just slammed the heel of my palm into my forehead. How can people think that way? It’s like fixing a TV with a hammer if your fist doesn’t work.
If people commit crimes after being released from jail, it doesn’t mean that they should spend more time in jail. It means JAILS DON’T WORK! Jail takes away homes, jobs, friends, dignity. What’s left after getting out? CRIME! That’s what.
What it comes down to is that, in America, jail isn’t to cure or prevent crime. Jail is to make the victims of crimes feel better. Jail is about revenge… codenamed justice or being held accountable. Often it’s a training camp… and the only place inmates will feel comfortable in their future lives. Prison is HOME.
Now what happens when the victims become the judges and juries. Any idea of justice flies out the window like my errant TV.
Take the January 6 fratboy riot at the capitol. They’re planning to overthrow the government… with bear spray? They’re violent insurrectionists... with plastic zip ties? Seems to me that insurrectionists shoot people They use guns. Only one person was shot at the capitol… and she was shot by the cops.
Congressional trials by victims? You bet your horned hat. Congress will throw the book (and encourage local jurisdictions to throw several years) at these guys. Boo hoo hoo. Some congressfolks had to hide in a bomb shelter. Big fuckin’ deal! But the victims are the judges and jury.
FLASH: imagine that the newly formed Amazon Workers Union, has a rebellion... a piss-in... creating a stream of urine-soaked inventory to call attention to Amazon’s refusal to give time off for its drivers to use the bathroom. Workers rebel. Pissing on books and kitchenware and whatever else Amazon sends trucking through America.
Now imagine the pissers are rounded up… dicks and twats milked for DNA matching with what’s found on the products destroyed. And, get this, the jury is made up of Amazon’s board of directors. And the judge? You guessed it: JEFF BEZOS!
That’s what happened in Washington with the rioters. A couple windows broken… some furniture moved… that’s it! But a former president’s home is raided. One of the rioters gets 7 years in prison! News programs scream “It was revolution,” as if George Washington carried plastic twisties with him.
In 1968, in Chicago, the Yippies and others came together to wreck the Democratic Convention and call for REVOLUTION. I was among them. There was lots of publicity… no one went to jail. An no Democrat had to hide under their Chicago desks.
In 2022 Who conducts the congressional inquiry? Why the Congressfolks themselves. Anti-abortion, pro-Iraqi War, 90% Trump supporter and Congresswoman Elizabeth Cheney wields the gavel. Suddenly, she’s the heroine… the love of the Democrats. Principles be damned… THEY ATTACKED US! VICTIMS RULE.
REVENGE!
If this riot were in a school, you’d hardly hear about it. If it were at Amazon headquarters, you probably would be cheering on the perps! (I would be!) But in Washington, where the “victims” become the judge and jury, you switch sides.
Google “slap on the wrist” and you’ll find dozens of complaints about punishments that aren’t severe enough. Try “revolving door justice” and you’ll get the same.
REVENGE! REVENGE! REVENGE!
It’s not a Department of Corrections… but a Department of Punishment.
The calls for vengeance… usually known by its drag name justice… come from all sides. Depending on how the press frames the crime, those calls come from the left, right and center. George Bush the First was elected by videos of a black guy with an Afro going round and round in a revolving door.
More punishment. More blood! It’s the American way. The World Trade Center is destroyed by Saudis… Well, attack Iraq! All those people died. SOMEBODY’S got to pay, right?
In 2020, the black guy wasn’t going around a revolving door. He was under a cop’s knee. This time the calls came from the other side, but they were no less hateful and demanding.
Black Lives Matter is right. I marched on their first demonstration that year. I still support them. People need to see victims of crime… NOT to have revenge against the criminals, but to prevent the crime in the first place. It is so much more important to have awareness that some groups of people have been considered disposable, than it is to have one or two scapegoats for a system gone wrong.
You think the cries for Donald Trump to be “imprisoned for his crimes” are because people want him to be rehabilitated????
I remember when the cops broke into Jello Biafra’s house… tearing the place apart looking for pornography to help their case against a graphic record insert. We were rightly horrified that the cops smash the door to someone’s house without their permission... just tear up the place... steal documents… electronics, and then be free to use what they steal to press charges instead of being prosecuted themselves for the destruction.
But let it happen to someone you don’t like. And a cheer goes up. Let it happen to someone accused of fomenting false conspiracies. False conspiracies grow from the opposing side. Did you know that the FBI found Trump was selling US nuclear weapons-making instructions to the Russians? Can you get more evil than that?
Of course, no one found anything like that. The closest we get was a MAYBE that the president took home some papers on the nuclear capabilities of other countries… nothing about how to make atomic bombs with ammonia and old lightbulbs. But people will believe anything if it fits the narrative.
So
the news stations that reported that the president took home American
nuclear secrets apologized when they were proven wrong. Yeah right.
Did you get calls from THE OTHER SIDE for something called the
CONSTITUTION which says people should be secure in their homes? You
bet your MSNBC you didn’t! HATE rules the day! More cheers and
emails in my inbox telling me how wonderful Liz Cheney is and how
much she needs me.
That woman is so cold that an ice cube wouldn’t melt in her ass. That woman, who according to PoliticsThatWork opposes taxing businesses, consumer protection, environmental protection, financial sector regulation, gun control, public health, humane immigration policy, labor rights and wages, lgbt rights, racial equality, taxing the wealthy, countering Russian interference, women's rights and supports big business, and war whenever possible.
She needs me?
People who should be opposed to everything she stands for… are suddenly in love with her. Why? Because she’s getting revenge on somebody they HATE.
These days they say HATE is a crime. You can even be arrest for it. But the law-writers pick and choose their hate. You’re not allowed to do that.
See you in hell.
Mykel Board
ENDNOTES: [You can contact me on facebook or by email at mykelboard@gmail.com. Through the post office: send those... er... private DVDs..or music or zines... or anything else (legal only!) to: Mykel Board, POB 137, New York, NY 10012-0003. If you like my writing, you can be notified when anything new is available. Send me an email with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Back blogs and columns are at https://mykelsblog.blogspot.com]
→ Four
strikes and you’re out dept: As more states stupidly fight
crime with baseball-like “three strikes and you’re out” laws,
those laws make even judges cry.
Timothy
Jackson was
caught shoplifting a $159 jacket from a New Orleans department
store. At the time Jackson was a 36-year-old restaurant cook with a
sixth-grade education and a drug addiction problem.
Since
this was not Jackson’s first offense, the Louisiana Court made use
of his “criminal past”, (3 robbery-without-violence convictions,
one as a child), and sentenced him as a fourth-strike
offender.
The judge wrote, “This sentence is constitutionally excessive in that it is grossly out of proportion to the seriousness of the offense.” Unfortunately, she was unable to deviate from the mandatory life sentence without parole required by law.
→ Hey!
That’s Jeff Bezos’ tuna dept: The ACLU reports
that in Texas, in 2010, Larry Dayries stole a tuna sandwich from
Whole Foods while wielding a knife. He had prior convictions for
burglary and theft, so the sandwich incident landed him a 70-year
sentence. Larry will be 111 at the end of his sentence.
Yeah,
sure he’ll be 111. He’ll be DEAD at the end of his sentence.
See you in hell, redux,
MB
THE NATION AGAIN
I’m
a long-time subscriber to the The
Nation.
It’s the only lefty publication that I find myself not only
agreeing with, but also getting
inspiration
from. There are
two articles in the current issue I’d like to recommend herel
Strangely, when I post this stuff on facebook, no one looks at it. My
“friends” would just rather call me a “Trumpist” or a
“Republican” for all the times I don’t follow the party
line.
One article
is
a great one (though I disagree with some parts of it, of course).
It’s
about “How
the US leads by helping other people kill each other.”
There’s
also
a
good
one about Liz Cheney,
with a slightly
different point of view from
mine.
LINK TRADE DEPARTMENT:
I read that the search engines like lots of links... and it's also nice to support my friends and enemies in their blogs. So facebook me or email me if you have a blog, webpage or something else to connect to. I add you. You add me.
Here's a start:
First take Sid Yiddish. There’s a great interview with him on YouTube. You can check it out here.
Here’s Richard Goldberg: goldberg.wordpress.com
Poetry and humor fans will like Justin Martin in The Latency
And my friend Mike R has a nice site with recipe hits from the past! (He cooked for me once... great stuff.) Check out Yesterday's Recipes.
And here's one by a member of ANTI-SEEN... a tour diary of sorts.
Andy Shelton has an interesting blog here.
Savage Hippie is a guy who has been YouTubing for a long time. Our opinions largely overlap... but he complains that I'm a Communist. I'm not! I'm a communist.
Chris Stecher publishes a zine called PRECIS. You can see the back issue links there... and he promises a new issue soon.
George Fertakis has a very nice graphics-heavy blog... with music and books featured prominently. If there’s no link here (I can’t find it temporarily), then Google… er… Duckduckgo him for information.
And my long-term pal Sid Yiddish contributes again with his Mishegas Master Blog.
And connect to TRUST Zine, a long-running German punk zine… that STILL PRINTS!!! Yeah, they have a website too… of course! It’s here.
Here are a couple video links.
This from Jon Cox https://squelchchamber1.bandcamp.com/album/down-so-low
And this one from my very long-time friend Roger Armstrong.
Jim Testa moved his long running zine, Jersey Beat, to the blogosphere awhile back. You can read it here. Jim also recommended a kind of unique album… in a style you don’t see to much of these days… or any days. Neo-Hassidic Rock Opera. You can stream the album here.
Kyle Nonneman is in prison in Portland. At least he can’t be kidnapped by the secret police… I think. I post his blog for him, he can’t do it from the klink. Lots of stuff about noise metal… and some very weird politics that will either fascinate or repulse you… or both.
My long time pal, Jim Hayes rightfully complained about my leaving out his blog. He’s a great writer, so it was a tragic omission. Here it is.
Oh yeah, then there’s me. I have a blog of stuff I’ve written mostly from last century. You might enjoy it. Then again, you might not. It’s here.
Let
me know if you have a blog… or a print zine… or a YouTube and
want to be added to the list. You show me yours… you’ve already
seen mine. god@mykelboard.com
