How the Media Brainwashes Us Constantly

All of us probably get tired of being exposed to the same old Crap endlessly.  But the trouble it isn't just the right wing that's in an "echo chamber" but those on the left can fall into that trap, too.  I don't want to listen to Free Speech TV if it's only an endless stream of things I already believe and have been told repeated endlessly.  It dawned on me that Society is continuing to sink into a social and moral cesspool because we are all so segmented now.  We are segmented by religious tastes, our musical tastes and most certainly by our Twitter friends.  And everything today can be bought for a price.  Even the things we think we came to Believe on our own.  Twitter ran an experiment putting sad posts and adds on certain people's account, and the comments these people made to all their friends took on the same downcast quality.  We are told of course that Twitter filters remarks to "the sort of remarks from us we've responded to before".  So if you're a cat person you're bombarded by remarks and adds about cats.  Just imagine what a network, like FOX news, could do if they - - oh, were to set their mind to it that we need to get back into a War in the Mideast.  When Nazi Germany did these sort of "social experiments" on their citizens back in the thirties we called it mind control.  But now the Capitalists are doing it.  We say we "search the internet for information".  But we are shown only those internet sites the Search Engine WANTS us to see.   They think they are doing us a favor but some times people need GOOD advice that they did not necessarily ASK for.  For instance this 'bubble' hysteria in the stock market.  Everyone and his dog is scared paranoid thinking there is going to be a major crash any day - - or month - - or year now.  And I am the Lone Wolf saying they're all fools.  Apparently it was George Orwell who said "In a brainwashed society, he who dares to Tell the Truth is guilty of a Revolutionary Act".  (Selah)   Here's another tid bit of advice you didn't ask for.  Rush Limbaugh was absolutely right this morning on his show.  He said that certain people will "Pronounce a certain problem Solved" and therefore you are to vote for them.  When in truth nothing at all has been done.  I've had this crap pulled on me by people and I'm enough a believer in the Golden Rule not to want it pulled on others, either.  Fred Price says if you're facing a major problem in your life, just make a positive confession and "Thank God that he has already solved the problem and you have what you want".  The problem is that when you actually start working and sweating, laboring, fretting, whatever over this problem you wish you could pray "God help me with the next step" but according to Fred Price this would "Cancel your positive confession" because it shows you really "Didn't have Faith when God's word said the problem was solved".  It may be the one area I am in sympathy with Sarah Palin on when she speaks of "How's that hopey changy stuff working for you".   Rather than "The Audacity of Hope" a better title for Obama book would be "Sticking your head up your Ass".   What really ticks me off is people who "disengage themselves from you mentally and emotionally".  You saw this today on John Fugelsang telling this caller "Don't shout at me" when the guy wasn't shouting.  It's a stunt, a ploy to use when you're losing the argument in a conversation, kind of like fainting for women, or something.  (no offence)  It's this shit beaurocrats pull at some government office, when you'd rather be anywhere else.  So I think if nothing else this writer will continue to "Tell you what you need to know, whether you want to hear it or not".  (Selah)

Racial tensions are still very relevant.  Here is a Thom Hartman little story kind of like “Ballad of Hattie Carol” by Dylan, where you have to wait for the punch line.   There is one case of a man who underwent some raid at dawn by undercover cops with a “no knock” policy, busting into his home looking for drugs.  The guy had no drugs.  But the man had a gun and fired and injured or killed one or more cops.  There is another case there the same thing happened to another man in a dawn raid of no knock policy in Kileen Texas.  This time marijuana was found.  But again this guy had a gun and began firing at the cops hurting or killing some.  The upshot is that the first guy- - where no drugs were found- - was charged with murder and held on a million dollars bail.  The second guy – where marijuana was found- - who did the same thing- - he was cleared of any wrong doing.  The upshot is that the first man, who was charged- was Black.  The second man was White.  Here is a clear indication of racism in our criminal justice system.  With this “stand your ground” law, there is about a three or four to one conviction rate of Blacks using it, over Whites who use it.  Clearly this is a situation where you have a bad working law.   Don’t have warrantless “no knock” and then allow people to have a gun and free to fire at intruders.  Someone is going to end up dead.  If Trayvon Martin had had a gun- - then technically he’d be fully within his rights to shoot and kill George Zimmerman because he truly was being threatened.  Think about it.

John Fugelsang debated with two callers today of rightward persuasion.  The guy after the top of the hour- - needed to have his meds changed out because obviously he was jumpy to the point of paranoia- - and dysplasia or whatever- - his thoughts were so scrambled he was just spouting all the FOX talking points right and left he could remember.  This guy seemed incapable of actually being in the “here in now’ of the conversation, responding to a direct question.  But I do agree with the man’s stance on abortion in that it is wrong in almost all cases.  One could argue that it is “a wrong’ in ALL cases but it’s justifiable evil in certain cases, like if the life of the mother is threatened or it’s rape or incest.  In this case the Evil done to society allowing the pregnancy to come to term, is greater than the sin of loss of unborn life.   We now move to the other caller on the Hobby Lobby thing.  This guy was “trying to be reasonable”, but Fugelsang handeled the caller vary differently from the way I would have.  I would have said “Well traditionally a business can cover whatever they care to- - or not cover it- - in terms of health coverage.  But we have Obama Care now and the matter is taken out of the hands of the employer, so this should end the argument.  I would further state that we aren’t just arguing about Four types of birth control but all twenty or however many kinds there are.  The Court gave the green light to banning ALL birth control.  I would further stress that it isn’t “Free Stuff” (that Sarah Palin phrase) because it’s part of a Health Insurance Plan, that you PAY for with your Salary and work.  It isn’t free, but a contractual obligation.  But Fugelsang was arguing with this guy endlessly over minutia, and he too would not answer a direct question such as “Why should Viagra be covered when birth control for women employees is not?”  Humm?

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of Lyndon Johnson's signing of the 1964 Civil Rights bill. My Dad always used to like to tape LBJ's speeches on things like Voting Rights,  and back in those days Presidential speeches were commonplace at six o clock at night.  My memory of that phone call that Hartman found in the LBJ library (and by the way the LBJ sounds like an excellent place to visit, and I haven't had the pleasure yet) but President Johnson in one speech said that we have labored to be a Free society with equal protection under the law.  And then went on to say that the Declaration of Independence forbids discrimination.  The fourteenth amendment to the Constitution forbids it, and the Law I am signing tonight- - Forbids discrimination.  I often think of how far we have fallen from those lofty and indeed idealistic times.  And I don't think it's just because I was only fourteen or whatever when all of this stuff was passed.  Clearly even the young people today recognize that those times WERE unique times, that it doesn't look like we'll ever get back to.

They say that "If you actually remember the sixties- - you weren't there".   Or stated the other way "Nobody who actually lived through the sixties, remembers it".  We have more false memories for you.  Because they say that the Velvet Underground's first album wasn't till 1966 and yet I remember this tape my brother Al had I'm sure was recorded summer of 1965 and it had a portion of "Heroin" by the Velvet Underground in it.  It was a five inch 900 ft reel of "Allegro" tape.  I remember it was 1965 because they had the Olympics version of "Good Lovin" because the Young Rascles version wasn't out yet.  On this tape I also remember hearing a rocked up version of "The Times they are a Changing" the Dylan composition.  But I had not heard the Dylan version.  This version was by "The Leaves" or someone- - and it's very distinctive.  I think other tracks on this tape were things like the Turtles "It Ain't Me, Babe" and "You were On My Mind' and a song called 'Laugh at Me" by Sonny Bono.  And possibly this tape also had the hard rock live Dylan version of "I Don't Believe You" and this is another case where I had never heard the original accoustic version.   Memory is strange.  The first time I remember seeing "Sha-boom" in a song title listing was on an album called "In the Beginning" which was a version of the Beatles Hamburg recordings.  The only problem is, the Beatles did NOT record "Sha-boom".  I used to go eastward to the Montgomery Wards sometimes when I'd get out of group therapy (Mondays) early and had time before dinner - and that's where I saw it, in early 1970.  If you want something stranger, the song "Don't say Goodnight, Tonight" the Mc Cartney track we just talked about- - the first time I read this as a song listing was as the flip side to "Live and Let Die".  I had never heard of the track, and indeed the song would not be out for several months, and as it turns out it is NOT the flip-side.  At least now.  But I felt certain I could confirm that the track was recorded in 1973 if I only researched it.  But it seems that Norman Goldman was erasing tapes again- - because there was nothing about 1973 in this discription.  Only in my mind.  And then we come to World War I.  I was surprised to learn that the War started in June 28th 1914 and we just passed the One Hundredth anniversary of that event of the Asssasination of Arch Duke Ferdenand of Austria by a Serbian on June 28th.  I thought it was July and I told Joe Disco "I was SURE that World War I started in AUGUST of 1914 and not in June.  Strangely Joe Drisco had this common mental delusion that I did and that's when HE remembers the War starting.  But then again People think that Abraham Lincoln actually WON the Lincoln Douglas debates when in fact he lost.  At least that's what the history books are saying now.  But then again back when I was in school there were in nine planets.  Now there are eight.  But I really hate to say that "History is subjective" or "History is ONLY when push comes to shove, the memory of the person telling the story".  It makes us all feel a little helpless.  We know how FOX news and the tea party are rewriting all sorts of history, and it's alarming.

I would like to belatedly salute Lou Reed.  When Fugelsang said that Lou Reed had died it a stop the presses moment for me.  I had to go right away and research when Reed died.  it seems to have been in late October of last year, 2013.  Obviously I have had no "after death" contact from Lou Reed.  He was a musical pioneer who trod where rock stars have not gone before in terms of really expanding the envelope, lyrically as well as musically.   Cosmically Reed was a "Druanian" if you care, and you probably don't.   He's probably one Artist who is under represented in the many Rock Compilations we have done over the years, and the bulk of them on line is the spring of 2006.