HIT HARDER! or You're STILL wrong... Mykel's Blog for October 2022

 

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

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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