Alvin Lee Message & Discussion Board
Thanks for joining in the conversation!
Being anti-establishment is VERY political, in my view, Dale! How is it not? How are you defining "political"? And to hell with Tricky Dick and J. Edgar and their paranoid machinations, but when was Lennon ever actually a communist?? Remember that famous mocking line of his about 'Chairman Mao' in "Revolution"! Lennon was too much into artistic and personal freedom, even license, ever to buy into any form of totalitarianism, I'd say! Many hippies were obviously communally-oriented and loosely and benevolently socialistic, but that's a far cry from advocating the Iron Curtain! Many of us hippie peace activists got sick and tired of getting pegged as "commies" when what we wanted was a REAL democracy in which we wouldn't be spied on and written up or seen as "subversive" or "unpatriotic" for engaging in freedom of thought, speech, protest, etc., and for disagreeing with the government or a particular administration as we saw fit. Doing those things is part of how this country got started, after all!
J. Edgar & Nixon thought of John Lennon as radical.
(leftist peace activism a subversive, communist)
On the Joan Jett subject.
She played at a July 4th event here, about 300 people showed up.
A few weeks later I saw her at The Iowa State Fair, it was wall to wall people.
Peace,
DLM
Don't forget the album Neil Young put out about 6 years ago, Dale and Victor...the entire thing was an anti-Bush extravaganza with great no-nonsense titles like "Let's Impeach the President" and "Lookin' for a Leader"! So... now it seems Ian Hunter is stepping up to the plate, ha. Too bad he can't really, unless he was born here...another birther scandal? ;-) CSN&Y had the famous "Ohio" song decades back. Saw Joan Jett at the Iowa State Fair several years ago, and she was no slouch at criticizing Bush in at least one song...Pink had a similar song a few albums back. And-- anybody heard of Bob Dylan? He's been a rocker almost as long as he's been a folkie! "Masters of War", "Blowin' in the Wind", etc., etc. The personal is political!
Dale, your analogy in #3 below might be apt if the US economy were only as small as a baseball club, and with as few "players" and considerations... but it's not. Admittedly I was bored stiff by my high school Economics class, and am certainly no whiz on the subject, but apparently I passed with some grasp of the basics, and anyway, I think my opening assertion just stands to reason. Don't you think our economic situation is just a bit more complicated than the Chicago Cubs? Damage that was done under Bush's 8 years isn't going to disappear magically in 3 and a half. NO president is ever able to fulfill all his campaign promises, either. It makes Obama a human being, not Superman, certainly not sleazy. So...ARE you voting for Romney, or for someone else, or for nobody? Or aren't ya tellin'? A street protester outside a recent Romney appearance in Des Moines carried a great sign that got mentioned in the newspaper write-up: "Is it true you paid no taxes at all for 10 years?" Ha. Makes me wonder, since the Romneys have refused to release those particular records. Romney people kept trying to cover up this guy's sign, so a cop took him in hand and escorted him to a corner across the street where they weren't to bother him. Btw, I saw part of an interview with Romney's wife last eve, and she was going on about how they wouldn't release the 10 years of tax records in question because it would only set them up to be attacked and criticized further. Ooh, poor, poor them! Talk about a sense of entitlement! She acted as if they were laboring under a wrongful imposition, for Goddess' sake. If you're for workers and the middle class, surely you're not for Romney and tax breaks for millionaires!?
3.
Barack Obama blaming the former administration for the shape this country is in is like Dale Sveum blaming the former manager of The Cubs for the shape they are in.
4.
Do I need a tin foil hat also?
No Romney isn't the answer neither is Obama.
Yes I am voting, but it isn't November yet.
Of course, it is not legally required to release 10 years of tax returns, it is only done as a matter of... tradition? Expectation? A game of "chicken"? A game of "Got'cha!"? It all started with Richard Nixon as the VP candidate in 1952. Since then, it's become expected. It changed the unwritten rules.
Obama is not a politician.
Peace,
DLM
oh yeah,
The anti-establishment protesting sentiment was more about the culture and values than politics back in the sixties.
A little bird reminded me of this.
Mrs. Romney (Ann?) mentioned in the interview I saw that she and the Mitten Man had released the "required" amount of tax returns, whatever that's supposed to be, and would release no more. I sure wouldn't be thrilled about having to release mine, but then, I wouldn't run for prez if I had that big an objection to doing it. Given all the factors at hand, including the "tradition" of tax transparency, however and whyever it came about, the point is, if your opponent(s) release(s) more tax info than you're willing to do, it just plain looks bad-- especially if you're a Daddy Megabucks advocating tax breaks for the wealthy during an economic slump with high unemployment rates among the middle and working classes. As for the '60s anti-establishment, Dale, or for that matter, that of the '50s or the '70s, it was often vastly political. I know, because as I was growing up, some of my relatives and the relatives of some of my friends were involved in it. But even if they hadn't been, the movement was demonstrably, observably political as it manifested in various media. You and I must just be defining "political" very differently, Dale. It's not just about voting and running for office and passing laws in Congress, of course. You mention anti-establishment culture and values... OK, let's take the music. Much of it was anti-war and pro-civil rights-- those are values, and very political! I was singing folk and protest songs myself with a guitar myself by age 13. What do you think "the Establishment" was? Organized religion; big business; restrictive social and sexual mores; conservative literary, artistic, fashion, and living standards; the military; and-- the government. When you have values and create culture at odds with all those things, you're being political. The personal is ALWAYS political, in the highest sense of the word.
Yes I am voting, but it isn't November yet.
Of course, it is not legally required to release 10 years of tax returns, it is only done as a matter of... tradition? Expectation? A game of "chicken"? A game of "Got'cha!"? It all started with Richard Nixon as the VP candidate in 1952. Since then, it's become expected. It changed the unwritten rules.
Obama is not a politician.
Peace,
DLM
oh yeah,
The anti-establishment protesting sentiment was more about the culture and values than politics back in the sixties.
A little bird reminded me of this.
For me - and a lot of other people who are going to vote for Obama, it's still more about culture and values than politics, Dale. Always has been for me, actually. And Romney/Ryan simply and very clearly to do not share my values. Obama mostly does - and he's the only candidate who supports the things you say you want in your point #1.
By the way, I don't post those rock musician statements because they are anti-Obama; if Romney brought out insanity in any over the hill rockers, I'd be happy to post those comments too.
culture
Yes I am voting, but it isn't November yet.
Of course, it is not legally required to release 10 years of tax returns, it is only done as a matter of... tradition? Expectation? A game of "chicken"? A game of "Got'cha!"? It all started with Richard Nixon as the VP candidate in 1952. Since then, it's become expected. It changed the unwritten rules.
Obama is not a politician.
Peace,
DLM
oh yeah,
The anti-establishment protesting sentiment was more about the culture and values than politics back in the sixties.
A little bird reminded me of this.
Thank you.
Point=counter point.
That's the way it should be.
Peace,
DLM
“My president,” he told the crowd, making a dramatic gagging gesture, “is trying to pass a gun ban. So he’s staging all of these murders, like the ‘Fast And Furious’ thing down at the border, in Aurora, Colo., all the people that were killed there, and now the beautiful people at the Sikh temple… I don’t know where I’m gonna live if America keeps going the way it’s going because it looks like it’s turning into Nazi America.”
I'm speechless.