Repeating Myself or Mykel's Blog for May 2023

 

You’re STILL Wrong

or

Mykel's May 2023 Blog/Column 

Repeating Myself

by Mykel Board

“Tomorrow you promise yourself will be different, yet tomorrow is too often a repetition of today.”
                                  - James T. McCay

Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat It.                                     – George Santayana

“Don’t repeat yourself. It’s not only repetitive, it’s redundant, and people have heard it before.”
                                  - Lemony Snicket,

The nouns go first. Proper nouns…names.

I lie in bed… turn on my side… raise a hand to touch my face… instead I touch skin… someone else’s... warm, supple. I raise the hand to a shoulder... round and soft with a little roughness… maybe a pimple just above the scapula. I pull my body next to the other one. Bury my face against the neck beside me.

“Ah you are wonderful. You are my… my… my… “ The name? I can’t remember the name.

“Oh Mykel,” comes the answer. “I never want to leave you. It’s not only this…” A hand comes between my legs and squeezes gently. “It’s you. You. Yes Mykel! Mykel! Mykel!”

I want to answer with a name… but I can’t remember it! It starts with an M… I think. One syllable… a nickname… Max? Maybe two syllables… Mani? Morgan?

That’s what I want to write about this month. Not only my own ever-failing memory. (Did I tell that story before?) But my writing… and more… our COLLECTIVE memory where, if I hear the word unprecedented one more time, I’ll bite the tits of the utterer… hard!

It’s mostly on the news. With unprecedented climate change, unprecedented insurrection, unprecedented aggression… and more.

FLASH TO 1968, May 17. Nine Catholics, including Philip and Daniel Berrigan. both priests, go to the Catonsville office of the Selective Service… the army draft center. They restrain an employee while gathering records into wire bins, They then take the bins to the parking lot and set them on fire. After that, they recite the Lord's Prayer and explain to news crews that they’re protesting the Vietnam war. Three hundred and seventy-eight draft records are destroyed. Destroying government property! Wow! That never happened before… or since… right? Can you say January sixth 2020?

FLASH TO ME! (Did I already write about this? I don’t remember.) I’ve just graduated from High School... on my way to my first year at Beloit College. But before that, a stop in Chicago… the Democratic Convention. I spent the last year or so in New York… as a Yippie. Going to meetings by Union Square, hangin’ out with Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman… reading their books.

I listen to/read Jerry Rubin telling me to just DO IT! Then there was Abbie Hoffie talking about Revolution for The Hell of It. We’re going to change everything. Overthrow the government… but with a smile. We’re pranksters too.

Abbie jokes about a plan to put LSD in the Chicago water supply. They… the press… the government believe our joke. The army corps of engineers comes to see if it’s possible. It could be done, they report… the suckers.

Wait! Is that QAnon revealing child-sales at the Wayfair Furniture Company? Is Hillary Clinton funneling children through a pizza parlor? Get it? QAnon is the yippies of the 21^st Century… as funny as costumed pirates throwing British tea in Boston Harbor.

Back in the 60s there were trials… one main trial actually... the Chicago Seven… with a side trial of Bobby Seale who is gagged and tied to his seat. I remember Jerry Rubin appearing dressed as a South American guerilla… with shoulder bullet belts over his naked chest. Abbie Hoffman is draped in an American flag. Sound familiar? Maybe like a fur vest and hat with horns on it?

Is there a Congressional investigation of the Yippies? Calls for years in prison? I don’t remember any. There is a big trial… with Judge Julius Hoffman pounding the gavel and calling contempt... as prejudiced as any Liz (What’s her name? Wait, I’ll look it up.) Cheney. There are some convictions and sentences… some exonerations. They call it a circus… kangaroo justice.

On appeal, in 1972, all of the criminal convictions were reversed. The majority opinion of the appeals court unanimously found several errors by Judge Hoffman and censured the judge and the prosecutors for their conduct during the trial.

After the battle of Chicago, we are more convinced than ever that there’s going to be a revolution and “Amerikkka” will never be the same. We’re going to lead the insurrection.

But wait, there’s more:

In 2022, The Shadow runs a story by Paul DeRienzo. It’s titled The Time The Left Took The White House. You can read it here. In short, the story talks about a left-wing invasion of the White House in 1982, during the Reagan regime… government property destroyed! Eeeek!

Get it?

The costumed invasion of Congress is nothing new. And the destruction of government property by the capitol invaders. What a horror! Destroying government property… just like the Berrigan priests.

Let’s take those lefty Catholic protesters… again!

On September 9th, 1980, the brothers Berrigan entered the General Electric missile factory in Pennsylvania. They hammered on two nuclear nose cones... poured their own blood on warhead documents and order forms, and prayed for disarmament and peace.

You think that’s different from pissing on a congressman’s desk?

And then there are whistle-blowers. Chelsea Manning went to jail for exposing the evils of the Afghan war. Barack Obama, in one of his few good moves, pardoned her. Still, whistle-blowers have a bad rep these days. They’re vilified as Russian spies or enemies of the state. They’re not new.

In 1969, Marine Corps veteran Daniel Ellsberg released stolen top secret government papers, later known as The Pentagon Papers. They revealed that, early on, the government knew that the war most likely could not be won. Further, as an editor of The New York Times wrote, these documents "demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public, but also to Congress.”

Ellsberg was a hero… all charges against him were dismissed. Today’s whistle-blowers, like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, following the same kind of heroic journalism as Ellsberg and Manning, are vilified by Democrats and the (barely) left as enemies, and “Trumpists.”

It all repeats. Down to the Hunter Biden scandal.. an errant member of the presidential family. How embarrassing! THAT never happened before. Can you say Billy Carter? The brother of my favorite president was up to his pupik in scandal from alcoholism to secret deals with foreign countries. Hunter Biden’s laptop and his dealings with Ukraine is a rerun of Billy Carter’s adventures in Libya... and his love of booze. It doesn’t stop!

History repeats itself, you see. But it gets reported from different sides. And most of the people who supported the originals, now tsk tsk over the reruns… with a new cast.. Or even worse, they deny that the reruns are reruns at all.

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]

→ Legal but not moral dept: Dorothy Parker and I were discussing the idea of privacy last week. And I just came across this article about protesters picketing the house of a State Senator because they didn’t like his stance on some climate and other issues. Every person should have the right to be secure in his living place. It’s so easy to be driven out of a neighborhood… or harassed by neighbors.
              In the 1990s, A. J. Weberman (yes, THAT A.J. Weberman) spray painted the outside of my building Mykel Board Is A Nazi, because he found my name on the mailing list of a rightwing racist newspaper… as if reading what other people think makes you one of them.
           I would never advise you to go over to his place and spray paint on his building in retribution. If any of my friends can dig up his address, please post it on facebook as a comment so people know where NOT to go to pay him a visit. I repeat, I’d never advocate such a thing.

→ I was wrong department: I’ll admit it. I’m pushing 80, and during that ¾+ century I’ve been wrong at least twice. Once was when I complained about Political Correctness. It was PC this and PC that. It became a kind of shorthand, and without explanation I used PC-itude to dismiss behavior I didn’t like… lazy thinking.
So, in my annoyance at someone using the word houseless when it should have been homeless. I wrote, Anybody heard the word "houseless" or "unhoused" as the woke word meaning "homeless?" This is just crazy! I live in a tiny NYC apartment. I rent. It's an apartment not a house. Am I houseless?
    In response, someone sent a photoshopped picture:

Okay, you’re right. I learned my lesson. If I use the word again, you have my permission to insert a thick-but-sterile wire into my urethra. That should get me woke.

And, oh yeah, a nice cartoon from In These Times. Wokeness Explained: 

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. 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. If it’s printed in THE NATION, it should give me street cred, right? Yeah right.

This time there’s a great article that involves true investigative reporting. The Democratic war-masters blast the Russians for helping steal Hillary Clinton emails to support Trump in his election. But there was another country involved in the spying and promotion of Trump. The NATION reveals who it is.

Then there’s a nice column by Adolph Reed Jr. (people still name their kids Adolph???) about the stupidity promoting diversity among rich people… or others who do bad things… like real estate developers.

And finally, the often correct Jeet Heer, takes aim at those Republican AND Democratic government officials calling for a US invasion of Mexico. And you thought it was the Russians who were invasion happy. Maybe the US will get support from Ukrainian troops in the invasion.

Late addition: There’s a great editorial by Jeff Faux about the US and Joe Biden’s love of war and its cost to Americans. War is, lately, something most everybody can get behind. Right? You wavin' your Ukrainian flag?

LINK TRADE DEPARTMENT:

I did a nice interview with The Aither zine. Interesting questions, complete, and questions I’ve never been asked before. You can read it here. It’s a good one.

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:

Jason Rodgers sent me his book Invisible Generation… free! And I lost it. Jason, a long-time partner of Suzy Poe, has been bugging me to review it… and I can’t. So the best I can do is promote it. I have a lot of respect for Jason… he is a libertarian (in the best sense of the word), and a super-smart guy. When/if I find the book, I’ll give you some more details.

Video of the week: My long-time friend Sid Yiddish appears on a YouTube DatingGame-like video. Guess who wins the bachlorette!

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 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.  mykelboard@gmail.com

Scientific Consensus and YouTube (Mykel Board's February 2021 Blog)

 

Scientific Consensus

 (Mykel Board's February 2021 Blog)

 YOU'RE STILL WRONG.. 

MYKEL'S JAN. 2021 BLOG

OR

Scientific Consensus

by Mykel Board

It’s Last Week Tonight with bespectacled British comedian, John Oliver. I don’t get HBO, but I can watch on YouTube. I do.

Oliver sits behind a desk. As he talks about Climate Change® the upper left corner of the screen flashes pictures of fires, melting polar caps and the obligatory polar bear stranded on an ice-floe. Then the comedian complains about network coverage of the phenomenon.

“It’s always one-on-one,” says Oliver, “the moderator in the middle, Bill Nye, the science guy, on one side, and some schmuck on the other side.”

Oliver claims this presents an unfair picture of climate science. He says that 97% of climate scientists agree that global warming is human-made-- far from the 50-50 implied by only one guy on each side.

To make the presentation more fair, Oliver brings in two people who agree with the schmuck… and 97 people who agree with the science guy.

The audience laughs.

Now, before we go on, I want to make my own position clear on this.

1. Climate change is real. Just watching weather reports over the last 10 years should prove that. It’s something every Eskimo who sees his igloo slowly melt knows instinctively.

2. With the exception of the Eskimo who never leaves his refrigerator in Point Barrow…

No educated people deny that the climate is changing. They don’t think climate change is “a hoax.” The climate has always been changing. There is only denial on the cause of the change. Oliver’s 3% believes that cause is not humans. Climate change killed the dinosaurs for fuck’s sake. Was that because of the gasoline engine?

3. I believe things are more complicated, and while there is natural climate change… and it’s probably happening… humans are responsible for making it much more destructive and faster-acting.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

I’m at the podiatrist’s. My passion for long walks.. and my love of army boots and cop shoes has injured my left foot. The doctor is putting a cast on the foot. He talks to me through a black mask over his mouth and nose. I talk to him through a blue one.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “Would you mind removing your mask? My hearing is lousy and I can’t understand what you’re saying.”

He takes off his mask. I see that he’s smiling.

“I’m happy you don’t care about that mask stuff,” he says. “I know the government and the medical establishment don’t want people to feel helpless in the midst of this pandemic.”

“I prefer to call it a plague,” I tell him.

He laughs… and continues, “If people feel there’s nothing they can do, they’ll panic. You’ve got to give them something to hold on to. Some way they can believe they have control over this pandem… er… plague.”

I laugh. “You got it!” I say.

On facebook, I connect to a video of a doctor lecturing about how useless masks are… and how they might, in fact, spread the disease. She gives the example of going out to eat, taking off the mask, setting it on the table next to the food, possibly contaminating fingers, the table, the dishes, etc…

Soon after I post the video on facebook, come the answers:

“Yeah, Mykel, you found a doctor who doesn’t believe in masks... one in a hundred. Leave it to you.”

“One in a hundred? Who do you think you are?” I don’t ask. “John Oliver with the Science Guy?”

Now before we go on, I want to make my position clear:

1. COVID-19 is real. I know several people who have had it, and the father of one of my best friends has died from it.

2. I don’t think most people who are against mask-wearing think COVID is “a hoax.” The virus is real and a killer. But they believe mask wearing… especially the paper things and kerchiefs you see on the street… are not effective against it. They are a palliative… and may actually spread the disease. (Watch the video)

3. I believe things are more complicated. In many ways, the virus is nature’s way of keeping house. Cleaning out humankind… the most destructive force on earth. We can mitigate the effect, but we should not over-react. 

Lockdowns kill people, depriving them of income, doctor visits, and the security of not being isolated. Lockdowns drive people nuts, impoverish the nation, instill a fear of other humans as deadly. They spread a philosophy of “Don’t Wait... Separate.” Social Distancing is anti-social. 

FLASH TO POLAND 1514: There’s Nicolaus Copernicus up on roof of the student dorms. Looking through a telescope… making notes… checking and double-checking.

He sketches the sun… its path through the sky… the stars… the way they move. Then checks and double-checks.

“It must be,” he thinks… in Polish. “I’ve done the research. I’ve confirmed it… tested it. It must be. The earth revolves around the sun… not the other way around. It’s the only explanation.”

For weeks, young Nic checks and double checks his figures. He tells a few close friends. Most pooh-pooh his theory… call him a nut. A few agree to go with him, to check their own telescopes… to check their own figures... and see if they match. They do.

FLASH AHEAD TO 1633, Italy: The Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, has heard about the Copernican theory and bought his own telescope to check it out. Amazingly, it checks out. He can see with his own eyes and his own figures that it is the earth moving in an orbit… not the sun.

Galileo is not as shy as Copernicus was. He broadcasts his finding. Italy is stunned. His fellow astronomers gather to condemn the man… call him a conspiracy nut… a follower of the mythical PeeAnon.

“But it moves,” Galileo famously says, talking about the earth traveling around the sun.

The Polish nation turns to TuTube to watch La Scorsa Settimana Stasera where Johanus Oliverus talks about astronomy. He talks about the earth-centric deniers… and how the SCIENCE says that earth is the center of the solar system.

On one side of the host is Galileo, on the other side is The Pope. Johanus introduces each side, then explains (in Italian)… that in order to make an accurate representation of scientific consensus, he will bring in two astronomers of the sun-is-central Galileo school… and 6483 followers of earth-is-central Papal school. And the debate begins. Galileo loses.

Get it? Science isn’t politics. It’s not a democracy. That a majority of scientists believe something, doesn’t make it true. Science is always going back on itself. There are a few dissenters and either they disappear, or get a bigger following… then there are more dissenters. Isaac Newton, then Albert Einstein, then Max Planck… All right in their theories... until a few dissenters show they’re not.

To quote a great dissenter: “John Oliver… YOU’RE WRONG!”

=============================
I want to write a little about the Capitol protests. I’m writing a few days before the inauguration, and state capitals (and capitols) are on high alert.

I’m disgusted by the whole thing, but not surprised. A fratboy protest, complete with costumes and facepaint, is called “an insurrection.” Four people die…so it’s a DEADLY insurrection. One protester is shot by the cops. One cop is hit in the head by a flying fire extinguisher. Three protesters die from their own excessive stupidity... wall climbing, balcony jumping… like that.

An effigy noose is “evidence” that the protesters planned to hang the vice president and the speaker of the house. Despite the rope’s non-useability as a hanging device.

Insurrectionists do not wear Viking hats... unless they're real Vikings. They enter firing. They’re soldiers, not jocks…. But Congress takes its revenge. In the name of healing®, they impeach the president ten days before he leaves office anyway. In 50 years, this’ll be a Netflix comedy. It’s already a very sick real-life one.

Time has passed. It’s now 8:10 on the day of the inauguration. Looks like I was mistaken. Here’s the apology I post on facebook:

“I want to apologize for my earlier skepticism. I just didn't see the coordinated rebel attack on every state capitol, the violence in the streets, the machine gun fire in Washington. I was making fun of this whole "armed revolution all over the country" bit. I thought it was incredibly stupid panic, by a population over-reacting to little more than a fratboy party gone wrong... but these massive attacks have proved that I was mistaken.”

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]

–> Go vegan and smoke dept: Research done in India seems to show that vegetarians and smokers are less susceptible to the disease than others. When that was reported in the US… vegetarians went on an I-TOLD-YOU-SO rampage. You can see the carnage… er… vegage... all over facebook and twitter. But smoking? Few people will dare believe that smoking can lower your risk. But it moves,” say the few brave doctors.

–> Meanwhile dept: The trusty New York Post reports that two Chinese boys died while (and likely FROM) wearing masks while doing strenuous exercises. In their case, heavy running. The masks restricted their breathing. How many kids are going to suffer brain damage from their parents trying to protect them?
According to The Post report about the Chinese deaths,

The death certificate listed the cause as sudden cardiac arrest, but no autopsy was performed.

The boy’s father said he believes that the mask his son was required to wear to school played a role in his death.

See you in hell… again,

MB

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:

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.

Rock-writer and historian extraordinaire, Jim Testa, has continued his great zine online. Jersey Beat is still going!

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 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.

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.

I have a very occasional blog about how rich people are just like us… same needs, same desires, you know. You can read it 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