You’re STILL Wrong Mykel's July 2018 Blog/Column "An Honorable Profession"

You’re STILL Wrong

or
Mykel's

July 2018 Blog/Column

An Honorable Profession

There's no requirement that jobs be meaningful. If there were, half the country would be out of work. --Max Barry

Dexter is a colored guy... about 6’ tall… missing his four top center teeth. He usually wears one of those horizontally striped polo shirts that make people look fat. At least they make short people look fat. Dexter is as skinny as my paycheck, and no kind of shirt is gonna hide that.

Today, however, he wears a white t-shirt with the word MERKEL in thick dark type across the front. I don’t know whether that’s a department store or the chancellor of Germany.

As usual, Dexter stands on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 41^st Street… in front of the Korean deli. I pass him on the way to the subway from school.

“Yo Mykel, how’s it goin’?”” he says when he sees me… holding out his fist for me to bump with my own.

“Busy, poor, the usual,” I tell him. “But what the fuck is Merkel?”

He frowns.

“On your t-shirt,” I remind him.

“Oh that! Who the fuck knows? I got the shirt in one of those bins you see on the street… mostly in Brooklyn?”

“You mean you figured out how to raid those things?” I ask. “They’re supposed to be for charity.”

“And I’m not charity?” he replies.

“Got me there,” I laugh, pulling out my wallet and handing him my usual buck.

Not Dexter... Dexter is camera shy

He bumps fists with me again.

“I can always count on you, Mykel.” he says.

Actually, he probably says Michael not Mykel. He’s never seen my name written, and since both sound the same….

“I gotta run,” I tell him. “I gotta get to the subway… someone’s waiting for me at a bar down in The Village.”

He smiles and shakes his head like an indulgent parent.

“It’s always a bar, Mykel (Michael),” he says. “You take care of yourself.”

“You too,” I tell him looking over my shoulder as I’m halfway down the block.

Before I get to 42^nd street, I hear it…. behind me.

Leave me alone and get a job!

What the fuck?

I turn around. There’s this guy… mid-thirties, I’d say... maybe a little taller than me, standing in front of Dexter. He’s wearing a dark gray suit, white shirt, tie… loosened at the neck. Surprisingly enough, he’s not carrying a briefcase, but a backpack. Nope, not Jansport… it’s something that looks expensive... a hoity toity backpack. In a circle woven onto the back it says: Fjällräven Kånken.

I walk back to Dexter's corner to talk to the business guy… actually yell at him. “What are you talking about? You know this guy? You think it’s any easier living on the street than it is cheating retirees out of their life’s savings?”

“Who the fuck are you?” asks the suit.

“I’m a friend of Dexter’s,” I tell him. “And what’s your job?”

“I’m a real estate agent,” he says, waving his arms at the skyscrapers around us. “I’ve done THIS with my life. What has your pal Dexter done with his? Or you, for that matter.”

I don’t hit him. He’s bigger than I am.

“Dexter has done no harm. He's made no money off people who need a place to live... or work. He hasn’t destroyed homes to make the street safe for real estate companies. He hasn’t cost one cent in environmental damage. He’s cheated no one. Never made a dirty penny. You can’t say that?”

“I WORK for a living!” he shouts at me, then points to Dexter. “HE can’t say that!”

“You work?” I shout back, “You think that makes you noble? You hurt people. You charge them for things they need…. or maybe you just waste space that people could be living in... making offices where workers shift ones and zeros from one computer to another. You waste heat, electricity... physical places… all kinds of shit. Dexter wastes nothing!”

“Your friend is SCUM!” he says, “a waste of a human being.”

He stomps off before I can think of a clever answer… Whoa! I’m writing this, I can make myself say anything I want! I am my own God!

“Your friend is SCUM!” he says... “a waste of a human being.”

“Scum is what’s left over when the usefulness is gone,” I tell him. “You’re the scum. Your usefulness is gone the second you check into the office. Dexter is a hero.”

There, that’s better.

I LOVE street people. It’s a tough job… being outside in all kinds of weather... having to put up with assholes who think that standing on the street and asking for money is not A JOB. And… maybe worse… watching the hundreds of pairs of averted eyes… pretending they don’t see this big man standing in front of them with a partially toothless smile… asking simply Can you help me out?

Is there another job that does so little (no?) damage to the world? Is there another job that makes customers feel so good about themselves when they hand over their cash? Where else do you spend a buck, two bucks, a quarter and buy nothing that was made by slaves, nothing that wastes anything? Nothing that does anything bad… nothing that puts anyone in danger.

Besides street beggars, what else is there? Well, there are whores. Another noble job. Another person who… like a beggar… works only to give pleasure. No resources squandered-- except maybe a few inches of latex. Sex whores sometimes work for pimps or madams… that’s a problem… and a reflection of the capitalist slave system. But when they work for themselves… choose their own streets… their own working hours… their own customers… they join beggars in becoming models for how we should all live.

The first principle of Google-- and doctors-- is First do no harm. Both Google and doctors routinely violate that principle under pressure from THE MARKET PLACE and insurance companies. The market has created an incentive to do harm. Google cannot earn money unless it watches you and sells your every on-line action to the highest bidder. Doctor can’t earn money if they PREVENT disease. It’s only by finding disease, or making you sick, that they earn their BMWs.

Whores may unintentionally spread disease, but that’s not part of the job. The ONLY purpose of a whore is to give pleasure. Not the artificial pleasure of OWNING THINGS... not the destructive pleasure of bossing a slave to do something later sold for “added value...” but REAL direct pleasure.

You’ve got beggars who give pleasure in making their customers feel good about themselves. You’ve got whores who give pleasure in making their customers feel good. The world has two noble professions... beggars and whores. That makes the rest of us ignoble, don't you think?

-end-

ENDNOTES: [You can contact me on facebook or by email at god@mykelboard.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. Subscribe to the MYKEL'S READERS Yahoo group readmboard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com]

Gavin McInnis

→Restaurant attack dept: There’s been a spate of Trump supporters thrown out of restaurants: They tossed Fox's Gavin McInnis for wearing a MAGA hat. Aaron Schlossberg was thrown out of a deli-- and his job-- for complaining about Spanish Speakers. A DC chicken place threw Sarah Huckabee Sanders out for… well… for being Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Some are justifying the expulsions and saying they don't compare to expulsions based on race or sexuality because the latter can't help who they are.

I say, that's a worse reason. It means, if you COULD help it, you would... and who in their right minds would CHOOSE to be black or gay, right? Jeezus fuckin' Christ!

→Red dot not feather dept: I’ll be going to India in October and staying there for 6 weeks. Anyone with tips or connections, please let me know by email or facebook. If you’ve got a couch... or a dancing cobra... that’s even better.
I just read a true story about a rat that got into an Indian ATM machine and ate $20,000 worth of rupees. I wonder what happened when someone made a cash withdrawal…. confetti? It'll be an adventure... you'll read about it.

→ Good behavior dept: There is a jail in Austria where prisoners get rewarded for good behavior with the right to “conjugal visits” with loved ones in a private space. There’s even been a report of a prison doctor prescribing Viagra to help out a prisoner.

But the good citizens of Austria certainly won’t tolerate a speck of compassion. Though no country is as vengeance-loving as America, there are those everywhere who glory in PUNISHMENT and REVENGE. Fuck good behavior.
So the locals are lobbying the new Austrian right-wing government to prohibit the visits. They probably will succeed. What’s most interesting to me, is that in the US, it would be the LEFT-WING citizens who would be outraged at the compassion... unless, of course, the perpetrators weren't white.

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:

• David Goldberg's Busy Microbes Blog
• And another Goldberg: goldberg.wordpress.com
• I post a blog for Kyle Nonnemon, in prison for a ton of shit. He's a smart guy, with a passion for industrial metal and a general detestation of humankind. You can read his blog at: apothelema.blogspot.com
• Poetry and humor fans will like Justin Martin in The Latency
• Sometimes I contribute to an interesting multi-talented blog called OgFomK Arts. See me there!
• 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 ANTISEEN... 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 capital C Communist. I'm not! I'm a lower case c 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.
• And my long-term pal Sid Yiddish contributes with his Mishegas Master Blog.

See you in hell, Mykel Board

Let's Talk Race or Mykel's Post MRR Blog #25

YOU'RE STILL WRONG

POST MRR COLUMN 25

Let's Talk About Race

by Mykel Board

"We had grown up believing white to be the color of all the important things , like ice cream, aspirin, ribbon, the moon, the stars.” – Lloyd Jones

I'm happier than a young feminist firing an old Jew. Let's Talk About Race... the new fashionable topic... right up my alley... I talk about it often, but it never gets the attention it deserves. 

Race's kissin' cousin IMMIGRATION is getting a lot of cyber ink lately, especially thanks to Donny Trump. I'm gonna talk about that too.

The SCENE: You have a medium-priced apartment in a low rent part of the city. Yeah, it's far from downtown, but it'll do. There's a bodega down the block... beer and chicharones. There's a bar on the corner where they know you by name and pour out that pint of Yuengling when you walk in the door. It's a place you can live.

A truck pulls up to the next building... a moving van. You lean out your window to check on the action. Behind the van is a big black SUV. A Negress, hair done up in a bright-colored headscarf-- wearing a matching dress-- slides heavily out of the passenger seat. She opens the back door. Four screaming little black kids-- two of each gender-- pile out onto the street. A very proper-looking colored gentleman is the last to leave the car... from the driver's seat. Wearing a black suit, with a stiff white shirt and tie, he puts his hands on his hips and bends back to look at the building.

You think, “Yes!! Safe!!”

When colored people (or Mexicans) move into a neighborhood, what do people think? "FUCK, it won't be long before I can't live here anymore? It'll be too expensive. All the shops I know... my friends... NOBODY will be able to stay. Rents will go up like penises at a strip club. Food will go up. I'll be forced out."

I don't think so. That's not gonna happen.

But let some white bearded guy, with too skinny jeans and a topknot, move in and... it's the end! Next come the organic bakery, the hipster hat shop, and STARBUCKS! Let's get this clear. White people make neighborhoods unlivable. There, I said it.

Little known fact: except for Godfather's Pizza (and I'm not sure if that qualifies), every fast-food chain in America has been started by and presided over by a whiteguy. But walk into one of those restaurants and see who is actually doing the work. It sure ain't white guys. The ones MAKING, SELLING, CLEANING UP, are not white! White people don't work. They sit there and OWN... that's it. White people wouldn't know how to work if you paid them... and you do!

Take my local bank... please! I walk in and a black guy greets me at the desk. I walk past him... up to the Indian woman behind the safety glass... ask her how much money I have left. Not a white guy in sight! But my credit card late fees are NOT paying these guys... the guys who are actually working. They're paying some white gym bunny to sit on his ass and watch internet porn in between NASDAQ trades. THAT IS NOT WORK.

Those knee-jerk defenders of white people talk about crime. They talk about black on white crime... black on black crime. They talk as if reducing the number of pickpockets and dope smokers was REDUCING CRIME.

White-guy supreme, Rudy Giuliani, brags about REDUCING CRIME in New York during his regime. He brags that the city has become safer because of his war on Negroes.

Let's get this straight: GUILIANI did NOT reduce crime in New York. He reduced crime STATISTICS. While he was gathering up homeless people and shipping them off to Camden or Newark, there were a bunch of white guys at Citibank and Chase, committing crime after crime. They were stealing from bank customers, defrauding homeowners, MAKING people homeless. Eventually the feds stepped in and made the banks pay billions in fines. Unlike the single-joint marijuana smoker under Mayor G... none of the white people went to jail. Jail isn't for white people.

Clearly more people were hurt by the banking crimes of (mostly) white guys, than by any Negro stealing a hubcap in the South Bronx. But for Mayor G... That ain't a crime.

Want to limit crime? Then make some laws. It's not Broken Windows that are the problem, but Louvered French Windows. My proposal for the first new law under President Sanders: Establish a MAXIMUM PERSONAL WEALTH. If you have ten billion dollars, you don't need ELEVEN billion dollars. Come on white guys... give it up.

The rich are destroying America. They make prices go up, buy up real estate, force people out of their homes. Wealth creates poverty. If you have money, go away... leave... NOW! Move to Russia. I don't care, but don't buy up The United States. Live in Beverly Hills if you want, just don't move to my neighborhood.

As long are there are rich people, crime will not end in America.

FLASH TO IMMIGRATION:

What about immigration? It's related to race because every immigrant to the US belongs to some race or other. I say Donny Trump has the right idea: A WALL. I wish! But we can't build a wall where it really belongs... in the North Atlantic. We need a flotilla!

Yes! I'm talking about EUROPEANS. 

In 2010 there were almost 5 million European immigrants in the US... enough to populate every hipster hair salon in New York... for a year! These were only the official ones... the ones in the records. Millions more came on tourist visas... and... er... forgot to leave. And the legal ones? Many of them work in “higher-skilled occupations.” (This from immigrationpolicy.org.)

You know what that means? NON-WORK. They diddle away at banks and IT companies, getting incredible salaries for making ONES and ZEROS... pushing numbers from one computer to another... doing NOTHING that will make your life-- or the life of anyone you know-- better.

How do so many Europeans enter the US? EASY! All they have to do is register on-line, show a passport and POW! They're in. Do we stop the ones ready to drop puppies? Anchor babies for French or Germans or Brits? You bet we don't. They'll be Americans... little European-Americans ready to make space to bring their parents and who knows what other Daddy Warbucks over here.

Let's make this clear. I have nothing against immigrants... if they qualify as REAL IMMIGRANTS. What does it take to qualify? The answer is built right into the statue of liberty, composed by Jewess, Emma Lazarus:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me

That doesn't mean investors, property owners, millionaires, bankers. Huddled masses are not bearded IT execs. Wretched refuse doesn't refer to insurance actuaries, or suits with a summer villa in The Hamptons. Poor! Get it? Homeless! Understand? Take your bankroll and spend it elsewhere. Please!

If I were President Trump, I'd add a few more requirements to the ones listed on Ms. Liberty. (Not many-- I think the lady got it mostly right.)

Extra Requirement One: Immigrants must have REAL JOB SKILLS: carpentry, roadwork, restaurant bussing. Things involving people, tangible things, services everybody can use. "Creating a lunch-break scheduling app" is NOT a REAL JOB SKILL.

Extra Requirement Two: Immigrants must speak Spanish. MOST of the Western Hemisphere speaks Spanish. People spoke Spanish in America before they spoke English. Europe is a hodgepodge of languages. Walk ten miles and people speak something else. For the sake of a unified hemisphere, EVERYONE should be able to speak Spanish. At least we can make sure our NEW AMERICANS can do that.

Look, I don't want to blame Europeans for the accident of their birth. They can't help it. And if they want to visit the US, I have no problem with that... though I'd insert a microchip under the skin to make sure they don't overstay their welcome.

In Montana, we could make a EUROTOWN. Move all those $700 a night hotels, those ridiculous Fendi and Coach shops... those $300 a dinner hoity-toidy restaurants hosted by celebrity chefs from the Food Network... Put 'em there. Europeans-only hotels, where for $700 a night, the white travelers could have a bed, a bathroom, and a souvenir bar of Ivory Soap at their jacuzzi.

Meanwhile, in real cities, we take back real estate for bodegas and taquerias. Open a bikini bar or punkrock club. Have a thrift shop. Make the city a place to live again.

Yeah, buckaroos, let's talk about race and immigration. There's a lot that needs to be said.

ENDNOTES: [You can contact me by email at god@mykelboard.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 by subscribing to the MYKEL'S READERS Yahoo group readmboard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com]

-->Kiss this dept: A study by anthropologists at the University of Nevada and Indiana University surveyed 168 cultural groups and found that only 46% "kiss in a romantic or erotic way." Among those kissless groups are many countries in Black Africa, New Guinea and the Amazon. Some Pacific cultures have fake kisses involving "passing mouths over each other without making contact. What's with the lack of eating face?

"Some of these people never go to the dentist," says William Jankowiak, one of the study authors, "They never brush their teeth."

-->Tarred prayers dept: Mayor Tony Tarber of Jackson Mississippi has a solution to the city's pothole problem. With repair estimates at $743 million, Mayor Tarber offers a cheaper solution.

"Yes, I believe we can pray potholes away," he tweeted. "Moses prayed, and a sea opened."

–> What's in a label dept: This from Utne Reader:

There are over 300 different eco-labels on packaging. Those that rank with "virtually meaningless" include HYPOALLERGENIC; the word is a creation of cosmetics advertisers in the 1950s.

FRAGRANCE FREE merely indicates that a product doesn't have a conspicuous scent, substances that cover up or neutralize odors can still be present.

A product labeled NON-TOXIC "won't kill your kids if they ingest it, but still might contain chemicals that can cause serious health problems.

More: BIODEGRADABLE has no enforcement nor clear definition. The manufacturer is free to decide what exactly NO ADDITIVES means.HORMONE FREE has no legal standing and can be used on beef even if it contains hormones such as testosterone. NATURAL, CRUELTY FREE and FREE RANGE, all have no legal meaning and can be applied at the manufacturers' discretion.

The label CORPORATE SCUM, while usually not found on packaged goods, has, on the other hand, a clearly defined and identifiable meaning.

-->Long overdue dept: Sid Yiddish reminded me that I should thank my friends at PORK magazine in Portland for printing some of my columns. They're quarterly, so they can only do one out of four... but THAT'S a big help. Thanks guys. It takes balls.

-->Keeping the Pressure on Dept: And on the side of the ball-less... take Maximum Rock'n'Roll... please!

I want to thank reader George Metesky for suggesting a continuing Bring Back Mykel effort directed at Maximum Rock'n'Roll for censoring me. Send your comments to mrr@maximumrocknroll.com (or post on their facebook page) with the subject line: BRING BACK MYKEL! Let me know how they answer.

-->Happy 5776 dept: I had a nice Rosh Hashanah dinner with friends, including Mr. & Mrs. George Tabb. George is another veteran writer recently canned from MRR.
“Every columnist there now is a transsexual feminist,” he told me.

“What about Lefty Hooligan?” I asked. “You know, the old guy-- a goy-- willing to sell his father to keep his column.”

“It's Leftisha Hooligan, now,” he answers. “Didn't you know?”

-->And: I'm still on a massive clean-up/divest kick. I'm giving away DVDs, cassettes, VHS videos, CDs, posters, and a few 7-inch singles. Just pay separate shipping and handling. Details at: MykelsGiveaway

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