Thursday, January 10, 2019

— Nearly a million federal workers are furloughed. That means hundreds of thousands of families not knowing when to expect their next paycheck. Thomas’ daughter, Katie, is one of those employees. Though Thomas and Katie don't agree on much politically, they agree that when the government shuts down, the wrong people pay. Sign their petition to demand that Members of Congress face direct financial consequences when the government shuts down. Dock Congressional Pay When Government Shuts Down

Change.org<change@mail.change.org>
To  alfredjohnson34@comcast.net  
 — Nearly a million federal workers are furloughed. That means hundreds of thousands of families not knowing when to expect their next paycheck. Thomas’ daughter, Katie, is one of those employees. Though Thomas and Katie don't agree on much politically, they agree that when the government shuts down, the wrong people pay. Sign their petition to demand that Members of Congress face direct financial consequences when the government shuts down.
Dock Congressional Pay When Government Shuts Down
Petition by Thomas Howard
United States
 266,259 
Supporters
Sign now with a click
My oldest daughter came to visit on Christmas day with the expectation that she would be receiving a furlough notice after the holidays. I am a retired transportation executive and a former Marine in my early 70's. Katie has worked for the federal government for almost 27 years. We disagree on most domestic political issues, and we vote for different parties. But we found common ground when we started talking about the current partial government shutdown.

Our country is in a difficult place. We are divided on so many issues, even within our families. But we can all agree that when the government shuts down, the wrong people pay for it. It’s time for Members of Congress and their highest-paid staff members to be docked salary when they don’t decide on annual budgets before the start of a new fiscal year.

Continuing resolutions and government shutdowns waste taxpayer dollars year after year. Congress should be making tough decisions about how much the government should spend and for what. When they refuse to make decisions about the annual budgets of federal agencies, they create waste and chaos - without facing any consequences. Members of Congress and their senior staff are receiving their salaries during the shutdown even though they created it. Federal workers did their jobs, but they are not.

When we were together over the holidays, Katie shared some frustration about working under Continuing Resolutions year after year, regardless of which party has a majority in Congress. In the 26+ years that she has worked for the government, it has been shut down six times. Every time it looks like federal employees might be furloughed because of lapses in federal appropriations, agencies have to prepare furlough notices for thousands of employees and develop shutdown plans. This wastes millions of dollars and thousands of staff hours.

While the things we want Congress to fund and tax are different, my daughter and I agree that Congress's failure to make decisions is seriously bad for the health of our democracy.

This is not the first time Katie has been furloughed, but when it happened in 1995 she was single and had no children. Twenty-three years later, she and her husband have three kids, two of whom are still at home. He is also a federal employee. It's scary not knowing when the next paycheck is coming, even when you are pretty sure that the money will come eventually.

Wherever you stand on the policies and funding that are being debated during this shutdown, please join us to make sure every Member of Congress, every Senator and every senior member of the Administration knows that We the People expect them to do their job. And if they're not going to do it, then they shouldn't be paid.

The House of Representatives should introduce a bill to change Congressional pay regulations so future Members of Congress and their highest-paid staff members will face direct financial consequences when they cause a government shutdown.
Sign now with a click
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The Trump shutdown is about to become the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.

Robert Reich<moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
To  
Dear MoveOn member,
The Trump shutdown is about to become the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.
FDA food safety inspections have been canceled.1 The FAA has stopped checking to make sure that airplanes are safe.2On Friday, hundreds of thousands of federal employees will not get a paycheck. And soon after, funding for food stamps will begin to run out.3
Donald Trump's solution? Go on television and lie. Then, the next day, storm out of a meeting with Democratic leaders when they don't give in to his childish demands to fund a wall that he promised Mexico would pay for.4 And all the while, threaten to declare a sham "national emergency" to seize expanded executive powers.
Here's the reality: This shutdown WILL NOT END until Republicans stand up to Trump and say "enough." A few have started to crack, which is how I know there's an opportunity to break this wide open and end the stalemate.
That's why MoveOn is focusing on Republicans in Congress—especially those facing tough re-elections in 2020. Will you chip in $3 to help turn up the heat on Republicans to end Trump's shutdown?
It's clear that there's no point in trying to reason with Trump. He's completely off the rails, listening to no one but Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity.
But Congress doesn't need Trump to end this shutdown. Congress has the power to override a presidential veto and open the government tomorrow. All they have to do is pass the Mitch McConnell-authored appropriations bill that the Senate passed unanimously in December, which mirrors the bill the Democratic House already passed last week.
And Republicans are facing enormous pressure to do just that, because the American people are feeling very real pain—and it's about to get much, much worse.
That's where MoveOn comes in: MoveOn will take that pressure and crank it up even higher. Here's what MoveOn has planned:
  • Commission polling to show vulnerable Republican senators who are up for re-election in 2020 that their constituents don't want a shutdown, don't want a wall, but do want their senators to stand up to Trump and reopen the government.
  • Flood the Senate with calls demanding senators vote to reopen the government. Only hours before Trump decided to shut down the government, the Senate voted unanimously to fund the government without building the wall, but now Mitch McConnell refuses to stand up to Trump and put the same bill up for a vote. MoveOn members have already made thousands calls to their senators, and MoveOn will continue to drive even more calls to make sure that these elected officials know that there will be consequences unless they take action.
  • Support Senate Democrats who are blocking every single bill that comes to the floor until the government is open. Even with Democrats in the minority in the Senate, they have major power to stop McConnell's agenda by blocking any bill that comes to the floor that is not about reopening the government. To keep the pressure on, it is critical that Democrats remain strong and committed to this strategy, even as Trump continues to shift the blame.
  • Produce videos and digital ads detailing the real impacts of the shutdown. Over 800,000 workers are not getting paychecks, TSA agents forced to work without pay are calling in sick, and thousands of low-income workers who work for government contractors will very likely never receive back pay for the work they have done during the shutdown.5 Highlighting these stories of the real impact of Trump's shutdown will help to focus the conversation and remind people across the country who is truly to blame for this mess.
  • Prepare to launch MoveOn's Crisis Response Network if Trump declares a state of emergency. If Trump takes this extraordinary step, it may also allow him to enact other brazen anti-democratic policies, which is why hundreds of thousands of MoveOn members are ready to mobilize in protest if Trump tries to seize broad new authorities by declaring a state of emergency to build his wall.
It's time to end this shutdown, and with enough pressure, we can force Republicans in Congress to do it. Will you chip in $3?
Thanks for all you do.
–Robert Reich
Sources:
1. "See How the Effects of the Government Shutdown Are Piling Up," The New York Times, January 10, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/61922?t=4&akid=224307%2E38417624%2EuNKQ7a
2. "Air travel may be less safe during the government shutdown, federal inspectors warn," The Miami Herald, January 4, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/61923?t=6&akid=224307%2E38417624%2EuNKQ7a
3. "Food stamps covered through February, but no promises for March if shutdown goes on," NBC News, January 8, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/61924?t=8&akid=224307%2E38417624%2EuNKQ7a
4. "Trump Storms Out of White House Meeting With Democrats on Shutdown," The New York Times, January 9, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/61925?t=10&akid=224307%2E38417624%2EuNKQ7a
5. "Amid shutdown, more TSA agents are calling in sick. Here's what you need to know," CNBC, January 5, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/61920?t=12&akid=224307%2E38417624%2EuNKQ7a
Want to support MoveOn's work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn?
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
This email was sent to Alfred Johnson on January 11th, 2019. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
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Boston: Rally Tomorrow to End the Shutdown Friday, January 11th 11:45 am Post Office Square in Downtown Boston Called by American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3428 Announced in Boston Globe Article: "As Shutdown Drags on, Consequences Mount in Massachusetts"

Socialist Alternative<boston@socialistalternative.org>
To    

Boston: Rally Tomorrow to

End the Shutdown



Friday, January 11th

11:45 am

Post Office Square in Downtown Boston



Called by American Federation of Government

Employees (AFGE) Local 3428

Announced in Boston Globe Article: 
"As Shutdown Drags on, Consequences Mount in Massachusetts"




Socialist Alternative demands:


1. End the government shutdown - Immediate back pay for all federal workers

2. No Furloughs - No Slavery - No Wall

3. Full restoration of all federal assistance programs, including food stamps

4. Defend immigrant rights and the right to asylum
 
Website
Facebook

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When Radio Ruled The Waves-Woody Allen's "Radio Days" (1987)-A Film Review



DVD REVIEW

Radio Days, Directed by Woody Allen, 1987

I am a first generation child of the television age, although in recent years I have spent more time kicking and screaming about that fact than watching the damn thing. Nevertheless I can appreciate Director (and narrator) Woody Allen’s valentine to the radio days of his youth. I am just old enough, although about a half generation behind Allen, to remember the strains of songs like Paper Dolls and Autumn Leaves that he grew up with and that are nicely interspersed throughout his story as backdrop floating in the background of my own house.

I am also a child of Rock and Roll but those above-mentioned tunes were the melodies that my mother and father came of age to and the stuff of their dreams during World War II and its aftermath. The rough and tumble of my parents raising a bunch of kids might have taken the edge off it but the dreams remained. In the end it is this musical backdrop that makes Radio Days most memorable to me.

Let’s be clear- there something very different between the medium of the radio and the medium of the television. As Allen’s film poignantly points out the radio allowed for an expansion of the imagination (and of fantasy) that the increasingly harsh realities of what is portrayed on television do not allow one to get away with. There is, for example, the funny sketch here involving the ‘scare’ caused by Orson Welles narration of War of the Worlds. Today the space wanderers would have to be literally in one’s face before one accepted such a tale.

Allen’s youth, during the heart of World War II, was time when one needed to be able to dream a little. The realities of the world at that time seemingly only allowed for nightmares. My feeling is that this film touched a lot of sentimental nerves for the World War II generation (that so-called ‘greatest generation’) whether it was his Jewish families (as portrayed here) on the shores of New York’s Far Rockaway or my Irish families on the shores of North Adamsville, Massachusetts. Nice work, Woody.
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For Rosalie Sorrels *In Defense Of Whimsy, Part Two- The Music Of Priscilla Herdman

For Rosalie Sorrels *In Defense Of Whimsy, Part Two- The Music Of Priscilla Herdman



If I Could Be The Rain I Would Be Rosalie Sorrels-The Legendary Folksinger-Songwriter Has Her Last Go-Round At 83

By Music Critic Bart Webber

Back the day, back in the emerging folk minute of the 1960s that guys like Sam Lowell, Si Lannon, Josh Breslin, the late Peter Paul Markin and others were deeply immersed in all roads seemed to lead to Harvard Square with the big names, some small too which one time I made the subject of a series, or rather two series entitled respectively Not Bob Dylan and Not Joan Baez about those who for whatever reason did not make the show over the long haul, passing through the Club 47 Mecca and later the Café Nana and Club Blue, the Village down in NYC, North Beach out in San Francisco, and maybe Old Town in Chicago. Those are the places where names like Baez, Dylan, Paxton, Ochs, Collins and a whole crew of younger folksingers, some who made it like Tom Rush and Joni Mitchell and others like Eric Saint Jean and Minnie Murphy who didn’t, like  who all sat at the feet of guys like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger got their first taste of the fresh breeze of the folk minute, that expression courtesy of the late Markin, who was among the first around to sample the breeze.

(I should tell you here in parentheses so you will keep it to yourselves that the former three mentioned above never got over that folk minute since they will still tell a tale or two about the times, about how Dave Van Ronk came in all drunk one night at the Café Nana and still blew everybody away, about catching Paxton changing out of his Army uniform when he was stationed down at Fort Dix  right before a performance at the Gaslight, about walking down the street Cambridge with Tom Rush just after he put out No Regrets/Rockport Sunday, and about affairs with certain up and coming female folkies like the previously mentioned Minnie Murphy at the Club Nana when that was the spot of spots. Strictly aficionado stuff if you dare go anywhere within ten miles of the subject with any of them -I will take my chances here because this notice, this passing of legendary Rosalie Sorrels a decade after her dear friend Utah Phillips is important.)

Those urban locales were certainly the high white note spots but there was another important strand that hovered around Saratoga Springs in upstate New York, up around Skidmore and some of the other upstate colleges. That was Caffe Lena’s, run by the late Lena Spenser, a true folk legend and a folkie character in her own right, where some of those names played previously mentioned but also where some upstarts from the West got a chance to play the small crowds who gathered at that famed (and still existing) coffeehouse. Upstarts like the late Bruce “Utah” Phillips (although he could call several places home Utah was key to what he would sing about and rounded out his personality). And out of Idaho one Rosalie Sorrels who just joined her long-time friend Utah in that last go-round at the age of 83.

Yeah, came barreling like seven demons out there in the West, not the West Coast west that is a different proposition. The West I am talking about is where what the novelist Thomas Wolfe called the place where the states were square and you had better be as well if you didn’t want to starve or be found in some empty arroyo un-mourned and unloved. A tough life when the original pioneers drifted westward from Eastern nowhere looking for that pot of gold or at least some fresh air and a new start away from crowded cities and sweet breathe vices. A tough life worthy of song and homage. Tough going too for guys like Joe Hill who tried to organize the working people against the sweated robber barons of his day (they are still with us as we are all now very painfully and maybe more vicious than their in your face forbear). Struggles, fierce down at the bone struggles also worthy of song and homage. Tough too when your people landed in rugged beautiful two-hearted river Idaho, tried to make a go of it in Boise, maybe stopped short in Helena but you get the drift. A different place and a different type of subject matter for your themes than lost loves and longings.  

Rosalie Sorrels could write those songs as well, as well as anybody but she was as interested in the social struggles of her time (one of the links that united her with Utah) and gave no quarter when she turned the screw on a lyric. The last time I saw Rosalie perform in person was back in 2002 when she performed at the majestic Saunders Theater at Harvard University out in Cambridge America at what was billed as her last go-round, her hanging up her shoes from the dusty travel road. (That theater complex contained within the Memorial Hall dedicated to the memory of the gallants from the college who laid down their heads in that great civil war that sundered the country. The Harvards did themselves proud at collectively laying down their heads at seemingly every key battle that I am aware of when I look up at the names and places. A deep pride runs through me at those moments)


Rosalie Sorrels as one would expect on such an occasion was on fire that night except the then recent death of another folk legend, Dave Von Ronk, who was supposed to be on the bill (and who was replaced by David Bromberg who did a great job banging out the blues unto the heavens) cast a pall over the proceedings. I will always remember the crystal clarity and irony of her cover of her classic Old Devil Time that night -yeah, give me one more chance, one more breathe. But I will always think of If I Could Be The Rain and thoughts of washing herself down to the sea whenever I hear her name. RIP Rosalie Sorrels 


CD Review

Star Dreamer, Priscilla Herdman, Alacazam Records, 1988

Every once in a while I run into a CD or DVD that, for lack of a better term, is just plain whimsical. This detour started a couple of years back with a review of film about Miss (Ms). Beatrix Potter and her artistic talent, especially of illustrations for children’s books. And, in that spirit, we will just let it go at that. The CD under review, "Star Dreamer", by singer/songwriter Priscilla Herdman, in any case fits that description. I have described her work previously in a review of her 1998 CD, “Moondreamer” and the sense of that review can fit here:

“Sometimes you find out about a singer straight up, through a record, on the radio, a concert, or…”YouTube." Sometimes the route is more circuitous. That is the case here with singer/songwriter Priscilla Herdman. I first hear her doing a duet with the old Wobblie, singer/storyteller/ folk historian Utah Phillips on his song “I Remember Loving You.” Of course, for this old folk devotee anyone that has Phillips’ imprimatur on him or her bears further investigation. That is part of the reason that I know about the work of Kate Wolf, for one.

So here we are. And what we have with this presentation are lullabies and other “soft” songs for adults and …children. Well, that is okay, too. Sometimes this is just the kind of “dreamy” music that fits those moments just before slumber time, for adults and kids alike.”

The best to do just that here are “Waltzing With Bears,” “Time To Sleep,” “The Moon,” and “The First Star Lullaby”. End of whimsy…for now.


*********

Waltzing With Bears lyrics and chords

Waltzing With Bears


I went to his room in the middle of the night

I crept to his side and I turned on the light

But to my surprise there was no one in sight

'Cause my Uncle Walter goes waltzing at night


G-CG/D- -G/G-CG/CGDG

chorus: / " /D-G-/ " /CGCG/CGDG


He goes wa-wa-wa-wa-wa waltzing with bears

Raggy bears, baggy bears, shaggy bears too

There's nothing on earth Uncle Walter won't do

So he can go waltzing wa-wa-wa waltzing

He can go waltzing, go waltzing with bears.


We bought Uncle Walter a new suit to wear

But when he came in it was covered with hair

And lately I've noticed there are several new tears

I'm sure Uncle Walter's been waltzing with bears


Chorus


We told Uncle Walter that he should be good

And do all the things we said that he should

But I know that he'd rather be off in the woods

I'm afraid that we'll lose Uncle Walter for good


Chorus


We begged & we pleaded oh please won't you stay

And managed to keep him at home for a day

But the bears all barged in and they took him away

Now he's dancing with pandas and he can't understand us

And the bears all demand at least one waltz a day


Chorus
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Will The Real James Bond Stand Up-With Pretty Boy Brosnan’s James, James Bond “Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997) In Mind

Will The Real James Bond Stand Up-With Pretty Boy Brosnan’s James, James Bond “Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997) In Mind 




DVD Review

By Leslie Dumont

[Since Leslie Dumont was only recently hired to begin to yank the overwhelming male “good old boy club” previous character of this blog from its moorings she is naturally outside the truce agreement. Although, unlike recent hire Alex Radley also outside the agreement, strange as it may seem since she was very close, was a companion for several years of Josh Breslin who also writes in this space, and who was extremely close to the previous site manager she knew the previous site manager very well. Nevertheless that manager refused to hire her full time after she had been a stringer for a few years. Fed up she went elsewhere and finally got a by-line at New York Today. I deliberately assigned her this film which she accepted with good grace to finally get a woman’s view of this skirt-chasing fool Bond, James Bond. Greg Green]    

Tomorrow Never Dies, starring Pierce Brosnan, 1997

As my old friend and now fellow writer here Phil Larkin is fond of saying –WTF. (I have to laugh every time I think about his growing up moniker Foul-mouth, if ever a name.) In the year 2018 after all we have heard in gruesome detail about the misogynies of half the powerful men in Hollywood-land and who knows who else or what else it is rather fitting to be able to review a film that comes out of a series via the pen of bloody old British Empire aficionado Ian Fleming (did he ever may “Sir”) based on the character of one of the most cravenly misogynous men in fiction or film, Bond, James Bond (sorry Greg I couldn’t resist mimicking you).
Although it probable does not matter on these formula-driven vehicles now over the twenty hump in number this one is entitled Tomorrow Never Dies which is probably not true but at least gives this beast of a film a title. Another thing that clearly does not matter is who is playing the lead, the Bond, James Bond lead from Her Royal Highness’ the Queen’s first guy handsome Johnny Sean Connery through to whoever is doing the hard-scrabble chore these days. Pretty Boy Brosnan did four in the 1990s or so this one the second. Before I get into the play-by-play I should reference this silly little pissing contest that Sandy Salmon and Alden Riley both who should know better about who the real James Bond is have been having since Greg decided to run the road with this batch of films. Between from what I understand the two finalists Connery and Brosnan.

Beyond Phil’s classic WTF who cares. More important, more important for the future sanity of this space, why did neither of them even if only by implication if they were afraid to actually come out and say it that both these guys are twerps, male chauvinist pigs in second-wave feminist speak when it comes to what Josh (through the late Peter Paul Markin who I never met but who I heard a million too many stories about when Josh and I were bedmates) calls speaking the true no matter how bitter.         

It seem crazy to build the MCP case for something that is so obvious and has been through twenty something episodes but I will soldier on. Start with the main action (after ten senseless minutes of Jimmy proving he has metal blowing up terrorist supply dumps on the Russia border to show his “cred”). Sin number one as the “real” action opens up he is bedded with some alleged Danish professor, hell Jimbo probably couldn’t spell Danish or maybe thinks it was that awful breakfast treat before duty calls to prove his “cred” as a skirt-chaser, womanizer, stud, and not a latent homosexual as various academic feminists have speculated about over the years. And the every useful male chauvinist pig of blessed memory. Not only that but he answers that duty call, dutifully, in the middle of, well, let’s just call it coitus interruptus and move on. Like whatever the goddam assignment from that female MI5 boss of his couldn’t wait since everybody in the world knows or should be expected to know that when J.B. is on the case it is open and shut. Done.          

Jimmy only adds insult to injury by bedding an old flame who just so happens to be married to the arch-enemy in this saga, a Rupert Murdoch-type guy who wants to own the universe, or else. Finally he beds a commie agent. No, not the old time Soviet nemesis, the Russians, come on now this film is dated 1997 well after after the USSR went up in smoke and shot guys like Ian Fleming, John Le Carre and Tom Clancy’s reasons for existence all to hell. This young woman a versatile, brave Chinese agent who is far too bright for him but who after the action is over starts the inevitable action post-coitus pillow talk waiting for help to arrive. Funny because I have seen maybe five of these Bond things to get a sense of what the hell is the draw and guess what they all have this same 1950s era formula of bedding women who are just waiting to go down and dirty on the satin sheets. Like the women’s liberation movement now getting a third wind never existed never change the nature of the game.  Never let women be anything but vessels for male inadequacies (I already mentioned that latent homosexual point so I don’t need to repeat it here.)          

Oh yeah, yawn, the plot. Seems this guy Murdoch, no, Carter is setting up World War III between God Save The Queen England and the commies, remember not the USSR guys they are kaput, the Red Chinese as they said in the old days. Purpose? To sell a zillion newspapers, to run the rack on the world media market, and, hell, just to prove he can do it. (I will save my WTF on these reasons until later) The set-up is to sink a HMS ship and blame it on the nefarious Chinese Reds, grab a nuclear weapon from said sunken ship and then throw it at China and let the games begin. He is also looking for regime change backing a renegade Red General who will take over to avoid that WWIII. Reason? To break into the huge Chinese media market where he had been shut out by the wily Reds. Yeah, two things yawn and now that WTF.      


Like I tried to telegraph to you the reader so maybe you will go read a recent article I did for New York Today instead of going down this vagrant trail Jimmy and the Chinese agent kick, blast, fight, motorbike chase, detonate, sky-dive, leap tall buildings at a single bound, kick again after avoiding enough spent ammunition to have kept WWI going for another ten years without a scratch or even sweat on the upper lip on the way to that pillow talk at the end. I know I am rolling that Promethean stone up some fairly steep hill but isn’t 2018 the year to start pulling some thumbs down to this sullen silliness.         
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