Album Notes for "Four With Forest"

My son Forest (1972-2008) and I did a lot of home recording together for a couple of years in the early century. Yeah, it was a special time for us. Forest played piano, keyboards, percussion (on whatever was at hand), and that excellent bass. Oh, he also sang his ass off in the background.
I've taken the digital recorder we used into studios to clean up the sound. Some of our work is on "Texas Socialist Infiltration Dance Songs" and now I've a digital release called "Four With Forest." I went to the fine Elephonic Studios in Albuquerque and worked with Jesse Korman on these four songs. Hear the full songs here at CD Baby The EP opens with "Williwas," a song inspired by the famous Southeastern Alaska winds and crab fishing. Hey check it out below. I'd like the song to appear on The Deadliest Catch; that'd be nice. If it does I'll owe a lot to Forest's keyboard riffs. "Gale winds 40 knots, still pullin' crab pots. Captain calls all the shots; he's dry, we're not. Willie was."

The second song is "That's Why I'm So Shook" with Forest at his honky-tonk finest. "I don't need your thoughtlessness; I've grown cold to your hard caress."

I wrote "I Didn't See You" right after my first trip to Alaska on a state ferry, the Wickersham. Dig Forest's bass line and Hammond organ. "Maybe you were in a bar in New York City or loving Louisiana living with a Bourbon Street high. Maybe you were on that same boat with me, and I passed with a far-away look in my eye."
"In the End" resonates today in ways I wish it did not, but in the end, we lost Forest and all that good music he never got to play.
It's up on Spotify, CD Baby and all the usual suspects.

Album Notes for "Texas Dance Songs"

I miss the mere size of old lp records with pictures you can see and notes on the back you don't have to unfold and squint at. These are the album notes for my CD I call "Texas Dance Songs."
Every third of July as I grew up I watched my Uncle Joe Dunn play his fiddle and lead a band of Dunns through some fine old songs and hymns. When the '60s Folk Boom hit I was primed to learn guitar and when I heard Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan - well it was all over. I was twelve and I taught myself to play, but of course I had been playing violin since the fourth grade so I thank the Amarillo, Texas Public School District for teaching me to read music.
...
Well, in 2011, my wife Rosemary encouraged me to go to Austin and see if I could get something going. I found the open mic at the Cheatham Street Warehouse run by the great Kent Finlay. He had a studio, the Woodshed, and could get you any backup musician you needed. It all depended on how much you could pay the player. Rosemary was eager to pay for a record. I thought that if I could get some recognition I could bring my son's songs to the attention of the world.
I thought I'd get a country band sound complete with fiddle and steel guitar, but then I heard Big John Mills play an acoustic set at Cheatham Street. My God, what a talent! Kent's son Sterling is a fine upright bass man. I thought about one of my favorite old records - Gordon Lightfoot's first album. It's all Gordon singing and playing guitar, a lead guitar, and an upright bass, so that's how we did it. I even copied Gordon by having one song that was just bass and voice - "Pack Rat Nest." Sterling and I did that in one take.
I was determined to play ensemble style, not lay down track by track. The first song we recorded was "Cockroach Fever."  Nailed it in two takes. I labeled it as explicit when I listed it with CD Baby which I wish I hadn't done especially because if you see the album on Amazon they have every single song labeled "explicit." My favorite cousin, a strict Southern Baptist loves it so it sure ain't dirty.
As that first day sailed along we recorded most of what became "Texas Dance Songs" and several of the songs on "Texas Socialist Infiltration Dance Songs." I was mighty proud that I kept up with Big John and Sterling. We clicked. Late in the session we were playing some song and my mind drifted into how amazing it sounded and - I fucked it up. After that I bowed out for two songs. I had lyrics and chords written out. I played a few bars of each song to give them the idea and then they played. What came out was beautiful, but it wasn't those two songs anymore so I put them on the back burner.  After Big John and Sterling left I laid down my guitar part for Rosemary's two favorites - "I Never Waltzed With You" and "In Our Dance" - because I was afraid I wouldn't capture the lilt of those two songs in the ensemble setting.
The second day we finished up. Then Big John laid down electric lead parts on some songs that Forest and I had recorded around 2000. 'Round and 'Round is one of those. More on that when I write notes on "Texas Socialist Dance Songs."
It had been a prolific session. I was happier than I had been for a long time.
Next year, 2012, was also a prolific year. I wrote seven new songs in a month or so. After recording that album (Contrary) I sat in a motel room and wrote four chord progressions using the common chords from the diatonic scale - major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished. It was an exercise for old three chord Burl. I asked Big John to play those chords but didn't specify how. Then Johnny Arredondo added drums. I was so amazed with the results that I offered Big John the chance to own half of the copyright and performance rights in exchange for free work later. I tried to offer that twice, but each time, before I even got the whole concept of the deal out of my mouth he turned it down. It makes me think of all those guys going to the California Gold Rush (me) who went broke and the one who set up a supply store (Big John) and made fortunes. The two best of these songs are on Texas Dance Songs: "Top Down" and "Just Us Chickens."
 All my albums can be heard on Spotify and some other online stations. All my albums can be downloaded from iTunes, amazon, CD Baby and others.  I go by my middle name, Burl, because if you google "Burl Dunn" it's easy to find. Try it! Thanks.

Album Notes for "Texas Socialist Infiltration Dance Songs"

I titled this album with tongue slightly in cheek. Most of the songs are fun and non-political. But, I do not believe that “In the beginning God created heaven and the earth” so that T. Boone Pickens could own and control the water. I do not believe that “And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good” so that Monsanto could co-opt the sacred process and become the god of seeds.
I do believe in the Public Library, Public Health Departments, and Community Fire Departments. You see, much of what Socialism does is to provide a democratic control of things that, by logic and By God belong to the People and for the People. The early basis for laws governing broadcast radio and later TV, was that the “airwaves” belong to the People. I see no difference now that we have cable and the internet. The electromagnetic spectrum was always in the “airwaves.”
Many grandparents and great-grandparents of today’s Texans were farmers and they knew exactly who their enemies were: national banks, corporate and private monopolies topped the list. Lampasas and Parker Counties were hotbeds of activity for populist causes like cooperatives and water rights. And, Texas was the only southern state whose Farmer’s Alliance was open to black farmers!
Remember, before George W. and Rick Perry the Governor of Texas was Ann Richards. Jim Hightower was the Commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture. Mr. Hightower (who, by the way, has great taste in hats as well as quips) managed the presidential campaign of the great Oklahoma Senator Fred Roy Harris. In one of Senator Harris’ novels an Okie grandmother expresses Biblically based disgust at the practice of making money from loans instead of work.
So just put it out of your heads that Texas is nothing but a bunch of gun-nut, racist yahoos. It’s half progressive and overdue for a progressive comeback. So keep on coming to Austin in the springtime. Keep on being the freak you are and don’t let the current national insanity overwhelm you. Don’t blame Texas.
If you take out the tragedy of the Viet Nam War from the legacy of LBJ he was one fine president. I am no more a party-line Socialist than I am a party-line Democrat. As to the title, I'll quote an old Seattle friend named Robert Smith, "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke!"
Before I had my albums replicated by CD Baby I burned them on my computer. Naturally, after the first year I recorded with Big John Mills and Sterling Finlay I put all the songs I liked from that year on the CD. I had Contrary replicated first because it was all such a fresh creation and I was so proud of it. My wife did not like Contrary's guns and threats and murder AT ALL, but I put it out first. When I was preparing Texas Dance Songs I followed Big John's advice. He said why put in a controversial song or two on an album that otherwise is dance music? So I saved all my political stuff. "Demand and Supply" was recorded the first or second day of the first year. Big John counted us in at a tempo way faster than I had ever played it and man, it improved the song 100%. You can just hear how much fun we had. And, by the way, the song is about private property rights - sorta strange for a socialist album, eh? 
Neither Big John nor Sterling said a word about "I Wasn't Born in the Homeland," and trust me, if Big John was offended he would have let me know one way or another. I'm not saying they agreed with every word, just that they played it quite sweetly. By the time we did "My Magical Horse" Big John was so into his big lyrical sound that I stopped the first take and said, "Hey man, it's just a simple folk song. It doesn't need to sound majestic." 
In 2011 engineer Russell Tanner fed and mixed some recordings that my son, Forest Arturo Dunn, and I had recorded on an early Roland digital workstation. Forest added so many tracks that he had to do a lot of bouncing and Russell worked hard with some fancy plug-ins to bring out some aspects, such as Forest's piano playing. Big John used his Tele to overdub parts on "The Real Thing" and "Bar Talk."
Forest spent his last years in Tucson and he had a great drummer friend named Rick Moe. Forest told me that the first tracks he did for Bar Talk was Rick's drums. I wasn't there and Forest did not play along. Imagine that! He somehow communicated every nuance of that song to Rick and Rick wailed out every beat and every change. Then Forest added all his parts and finally I came to town and did rhythm guitar and sang as the very last things! That's the kind of talent we lost when we lost Forest. And Rick, I sure hope you are in a great band in New York City or wherever you are now. Nobody sounds like Rick Moe except Rick.
Kundalini Baby and Don Felp's '65 Ford were the only songs on this album from the 2013 session. I heard Don in Austin and fell in love with his songs. Don is a real deal cowboy tall drink of water writer and I thank him for working out publishing so that I could record his song without it just being a handshake deal. It's published by Don and registered with BMI. 
All my albums can be heard on Spotify and some other online stations. All my albums can be downloaded from iTunes, amazon, CD Baby and others. 

Album Notes for "Contrary"

In the winter of 2011 I first took my best friend, the rez dog Edy, with me to Texas. We went to Padre Island where I had memories of my baby Forest Arturo Dunn in a Snugglie on Mama's chest and sea birds flying over his head. I practiced up on old and new songs that I thought might go well at open mics in Austin. As I described in the album notes for "Texas Dance Songs" I ended up recording with Big John Mills and Sterling Finlay at the Woodshed Studios of the Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos, Texas. Russell Tanner, engineer.
With the thrill of a successful session in memory I was more inspired about writing than I had been for decades. For 2012 I had an idea for a song cycle - concept album - whatever you want to call it. I had some of it written but mostly I finished it on the beach. I scattered some of the few ashes I had of my son's body on the beach. I drank, wrote, played, and walked with dear old Edy who was obviously in her last years with me.
My concept was highly influenced by the news. I had been reading so many stories of men released from prison after DNA evidence proved their innocence. I was wondering how many poor innocent victims had been tortured at Abu Ghraib and were being tortured at Guantanamo and at secret prisons around the world. I knew in my heart that America was creating future terrorists by these actions. When reading about Americans released after being cleared of rape, murder, and other crimes by DNA evidence I was always struck by the statements and apparent attitudes of these men. Where was their anger? Had it been burned out by religion? Had they become passive due to an overload of injustice?
I wrote "Confession" from the point of view of a man who was confessing that, by God, he was going to kill that damn, lying judge who sent him away unjustly. But as I began "Tattooed With Regret" I knew I didn't want to finish the album with the concept of killing. And I knew I wasn't going to have the man find religion. No, I turned to a theme close to my heart - the idea of living invisibly - the theme of many of my short stories like "The Meadow." It's only in the last two songs that it becomes clear how the man will end up.
As a country murder ballad, I'm very proud of "Fear the Man." "Riverside Blues" is actually a song I wrote around 1969 and I use it as the turn-around moment when he turns his heart from hatred to his strange future.
Anyway, here's the story of the recording of "Contrary." I said to Kent Finlay, the American Treasure, patron of songwriters, that I wanted a drummer who just used a snare drum, but who used every inch of it - like I've seen on the streets and in the bars in Mexico. Poor guy who only has that snare drum, sticks, and brushes. And wails, Man. And I wanted to start with a song that is only drums and guitar. Kent said it was unusual but he got me Johnny Arredondo. Thanks Kent!
So Johnny shows up with a nice big kit and cases of percussion instruments. Oh well. Russell Tanner sets us up in separate rooms but where we can see each other and we work out for a bit. The sweet drum intro is where he was at about a minute into my original idea. He counted me in - 1,2,3,4."
I must say, I was not shy in asking to do something in the studio. I had recorded - the most important being the lovely year when Forest Arturo Dunn, my son, played with me. I'll talk more about those for the album notes of "Texas Socialist Infiltration Dance Songs Instigated and Agitated by Burl Dunn."
When we did the first track of "Light My Last Cigarette" I just played a 12 bar blues hitting one chord per measure on the first beat. The track was meant to be dropped, I just wanted to give Johnny free reign on how he played it. The next day (half drunk) I said, "Johnny, can you turn this s*** into wine?" But after about few minutes he asked, "What do you want me to do with this?" I said, "Play it like it's 1962 and you're backing the stripper at Jack Ruby's club in Dallas." And he grinned and did.

I laid down "Riverside Blues" on my nylon string guitar and wanted to try a better take the next day, but Johnny and Russell kept saying leave it so I did. I can't remember how many tracks they used for the drums and percussion. I just drank beer and enjoyed my money's worth! (As an aside, I'll tell you that working with pros at the Woodshed can be more affordable than you'd imagine.) Uh, that's not a dispersion on Johnny's playing. Russell must have told him that it was my daughter Hannah's and her brother's favorite. When he finished he said, "I'll live forever 'cause I played on that song." I wish it didn't look sappy on the printed page. Johnny treated me totally as a peer.
The last two songs where my twisted ideas appear have a funny musical story. Big John Mills, on about 10 seconds of hearing my playing before turning it over to him, improvised a sweet song along with Sterling Finlay. I rewrote the words and melody accordingly. "Let's Go Now" is the same chords as "Round and 'Round." ! You'd have to listen to them back to back to get the irony of that!
I was working on the lyrics to "Let's Go Now" in a motel early one morning. Rosemary was sleeping and I had headphones on. I forgot that my voice was something she'd hear. So she wakes up to me saying, "Shhhh, are you ready? Let's go now? Are you ready? I've got the feeling, I've seen the light..." Rosemary is fun.

If you google "Burl Dunn" that's me. Or just type my name into your favorite download page. I'm a "CD Baby." All albums on Spotify.
BMI
My Pandora station just added a lot of new songs from my two albums there.

Donald Trump proves Gore Vidal right.

Before the rise of Donald Trump I thought the Republican Party was rigged and under the thumb of an elite group. I believed that Al Gore and John Kerry were elected President and the elite Republicans robbed them. I believed George W. Bush was an inevitable candidate. The rise of Trump would have been impossible in such an organized conspiracy. Oh, Gore and Kerry were robbed all right, robbed by officials in states such as Ohio and Florida, robbed by the Supreme Court majority, but no Republican nation-wide conspiracy would have allowed a loose cannon like Trump to emerge. When Trump puts down Bush for allowing 9/11 I sit in amazement that I can actually agree with the man on something. No Republican elite could have allowed such a candidate.
Recently, I watched a documentary in which the late, great man Gore Vidal predicted that we were seeing the downfall of the Republican Party. (Gore Vidal: the United States of Amnesia) He felt that John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Mitt Romney were the harbingers of doom. Vidal was always one step ahead of the common politicos, who now say that Trump is the sign of Republican doom. Donald Trump is the proof, not the sign. Who knows how the Grand Old Party can recover? Vidal is gone, but he already made his statement. The GOP can't recover at a national level, but they can still pull the electronic levers in critical states. They can still pull dirty tricks that win close elections. Will they go all out for Trump in the end if he wins the nomination? Won't they have too?
May God and sane Americans overwhelmingly elect the Democratic nominee. May they give us a big majority in Congress. We must leave Donald Trump and the Republicans in the dust bin of history where Gore Vidal knew they were heading.

Is this a Chamberlain Moment or Zen at the Oregon Standoff?

Just musing, but what can one forecast about the Bundy militia standoff in Oregon? Well the weather forecast for the next four days calls for a good chance of snow with low temperatures in the low 20s. That won’t do it. If the weather is to play a factor in ending the standoff, we need lows around and below zero and highs below freezing. We need them to burn up their fuel and get miserably cold.

Forecasting other things? Chancy, but don’t we all have our thoughts? I think the power company should rewire the junction that is shared with ranchers. Isolate the wildlife refuge’s power and shut ‘er down. Surely the government has not been allowing truck loads of wood to the militia. Or, God forbid, a propane truck. 

But who knows? The feds are not leaking to the press or announcing to the public and I won’t complain about that. They obviously want a peaceful solution, but in the long run is that possible? As I said in my previous blog some future militia (or armed group of whatever name) could have the county sheriff’s office siding physically with them. Everybody wants to be a hero. Is this a Chamberlain Moment?

So I forecast this: The government will cut the electricity. Disallow anything or anyone coming in unless it is a driver with food and medicine. No arctic clothes; no coats. The counties allied together will block the road; federal officers, SWAT, etc will stage from wherever the strategists think best (not to would be insanity). An Arctic coldfront will hit. As freezing people approach the staging areas bullhorns will blast out the conditions: Keep your guns out of your hands. You will keep your guns. You will be served with charges and escorted out of state. You may go home.

That’s what I predict. It’s hard to imagine my government just let them walk, but… as long as I’m musing I’ll predict what the militia will do. The Bundy group will come out peaceably; outside militias are another story. In my scenario of how cops and feds, etc. (National Guard?) are deployed, the rear could become a new front. Roads come in and roads go out. Outside armed people are coming to “help.” It’s already happened. Won’t they be stopped? If all of them are allowed in to talk to Ammon Bundy then I can’t fathom the minds of the feds, but that could happen because of reluctance on the part of our government to use armed force? Or else the plan is pure Zen – let them all cage themselves in and fester? The more the merrier? Forever? 

No, no, then send in the whiskey.

Can another Bundy break the law and walk away from it?

Political tactical perspectives I would expect in the Oregon standoff:

1. The Federal government can’t let another Bundy break a law and just walk away.

Because No Justice; No Peace

2. If the Bundy Brothers refuse to surrender to any writ or warrant or anything there will be escalation.

Because what can the Fed do? Build a wall around it and let it fester? Hmmm.

3. Escalation will create martyrs and fuel other militias.

Because militias demand utter capitulation from government or, in their minds, they must fight on. Also, because (see number one).

Musing, what if the Bundy Brothers are taken into custody or die in the Oregon standoff? Daddy Bundy has motivation to plan a new battle. It’s not that they could ever win in a battle with a truly motivated Federal government. It’s how big a ruckus they can stir up. If they ask for death forcefully enough the militias might get some.

Chilling thought: What if the Bundy Brothers expect to die and Daddy’s in on it? Revolution seems to be their business. 

There is no tactical depth in the Bundy Brothers takeover of a federal building

It may well be that the best federal response to the federal building takeover in Oregon is to be low-key and slow to act. This is not acceptable to anyone who supports Black Lives Matter or to anyone who has ever been harassed while protesting. At least the differences must be duly noted, the most cogent being that the Bundy militia is white.

My main interest in the event is in the on-going anti-government movement and, especially, it’s strange ties to government itself. Right now in the United States there is a movement among some law enforcement personnel in the Oathkeeper’s association. Most Oathkeepers, who swear to not uphold federal gun laws should they become more restrictive, are in the employ of county sheriffs. It just so happens that the sheriff of Harney County is not an Oathkeeper. I base this on the quote from the Guardian today (link to story here):  “These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers when in reality these men had alternative motives, to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States,” said Harney County Sheriff David Ward.

With no apologies to the Bundy brothers, I predict that the big battle will occur when a militia stands up in such an illegal manner in an Oathkeeper county. Then the feds will be up against a fully armed sheriff’s department, possibly armed with military grade equipment from “Homeland Security.” Then they will be in a county populated by enough right-wingers to keep that OathKeeper county sheriff in office. From what I have read the majority of the populace are not supporting the Bundy militia.

Methinks the Bundys wanted action and didn’t think the whole thing through tactically. Or, the chilling possibility exists that they expected to be dead by now.

The truth probably lies in between, but the Feds have created a tactical situation by allowing the standoff to begin, by not acting immediately.

The onus is on the militia to finance and staff a standoff, to not fire a weapon, start a fire, or misbehave at the grocery store.

Drill it, mine it, melt it

The ongoing drama in the Arctic presages much in the battle to fight global warming. It includes, but goes beyond, the contradiction of President Obama using Alaska as an example of the horrors of climate change while at the same time calling for offshore oil drilling. Every country that has any history of Arctic exploration and usage is involved in a fight for access to Arctic resources. They want to drill and mine; they don't talk much about saving the wildlife. The United States will have its share of the pie regardless of consequences.
Someday, after the Arctic is ravaged, the battle will shift to Antarctica where that pristine landscape will truly show the devastation of resource gathering without proper clean-up and prudence. The Arctic has not been pure for over a century. Mining and oil detritus is common there. When we humans attack the Antarctic the contrast of before and after mining and drilling will be crystal clear to anyone who looks. Will enough people care?
Few of us go to the polar regions and out of sight is out of mind. When it comes to saving the earth versus government-fueled capitalism the die is cast. Big corporations can only be stopped by big government. In the words of that country song, "The race is on and here comes pride up the backstretch. Heartache is gaining on the inside."

The "Christians" who will devil us to Armageddon

            I grew up as a Southern Baptist and fell out as a teenager over the same issue that I see as the primary failure of most Christians – they do not follow the most simple advice of Jesus as found in the Sermon on the Mount. To me then and now, Jesus was advocating a humble, loving, merciful message. Jesus was a Pacifist. Jesus said to “resist not evil.” I can’t accept the current messengers who overlook the simple message of Jesus and replace it with complexity. I am still enough of a Christian to believe that the New Testament replaced the Old in matters of behavior. You can’t take and “eye for an eye” and claim to follow Jesus.

            This essay assumes some familiarity with the Bible. I won’t quote chapter and verse as if I were preaching. I want to share with you, or those of you not familiar with the subject, an introduction to Dominion Theology or Christian Reconstructionism. I’ll even point you right now to a Youtube video that can save you the reading of this blog. Here it is. This is only one of many videos on the subject on good old Youtube.

            If you don’t mind reading a highly intellectual article on the subject go here toSalon.com’s article on the subject. I had to take notes from that article to prepare myself to write this essay. Unfortunately, the Salon article as it exists this moment is poorly edited, but you can still get the facts from it. The article is based upon an interview with Julie Ingersoll and her book Building God’s Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstructionism.

            Essentially, Christian Reconstructionism seeks to establish a society based upon Biblical Law with a huge emphasis upon the Old Testament dictates - even the most outrageous dictates such as stoning to death homosexuals and adulterers. They seek dominion over all of society, exactly as a fundamentalist Muslim would. Different Bible, same radical control. Rational Age-of-Enlightenment thinking, upon which US founding documents are based, is to be superseded by God’s Law as revealed in the Bible. Not however, the teachings of Jesus which touch upon mercy and empathy. I don’t know how these people dance around that, but believe me even Baptists do that kind of dance! The job of humans is to enact God’s will through the family, the church, and the government in order to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. The husband rules the family, the church rules all humans, and the government should do not much more than maintain a powerful military.

            These people believe that all knowledge arises from presuppositions. There is no such thing as fair, reasoned, scientific, humanistic thought. Reason is the enemy. The will of God as revealed in an inerrantly true Bible is the only true starting point for truth. You can’t arrive at truth any other way. Once again, I cannot tell how they dance around the Sermon on the Mount. I imagine they simply ignore it. Oklahoma’s famous Ten Commandment statue is right up the Dominion Theologian’s alley. Who needs all these laws based upon the Constitution and Democracy? We have God’s laws and lots of stones!

            The famous Left Behind series of books is right up the Christian Reconstructionist alley, too. They are post-millennialists – they believe that there will be an end of history, that the book of Revelations is among the biblical predictors of how it will end, and that it will end with the dominion of Jesus Christ and his believers over all else. It is the job of these believers to build that Kingdom of God. They can’t wait for God Himself to do the job. The Christian’s job is to bring about the prophesies of the Bible – including Armageddon. Speaking of Armageddon, the above Youtube link will explain to you how George W. Bush is linked to these people. In recent years there has been an interesting link between Christians and Jews. Why? Because Reconstructionist Christians believe Israel will play a major role in bringing about the End Times.

            These people are against the Constitutional precept of separation of church and state. They believe everything is religious – and not just to them. Non-believers must submit to their view of right and wrong. They are against birth control so you can’t have it.

            Understanding this stuff at it’s philosophical level is tedious, but essential because it seeps into our culture in dribbles and drabs. The recent reworking of the Advanced Placement History exam is an example of society caving in to these people. The idea of “a thousand points of light” replacing the social safety net is an example of their influence. Christian home schooling is a tool, but they want to destroy public education.

            Ultimately, I see no difference between ISIS or the Taliban and Christian Reconstructionists. They both favor barbaric punishments, the rule of preachers (Imams), male dominance, and the use of violence to achieve their ends. They are the greatest danger in the world today. They will devil us to Armageddon.

            

Demand public toilets or live in squalor

Buenos Aires and other thoughtful cities have sidewalk toilets. Mexico has many public toilets that cost about a dime to use. The United States has newspapers and TV stations that publicize and shame homeless people caught peeing in public.  In the US, one must go into a place of business and ask to use a toilet. I duck into fast food joints, but when I encounter the need to ask an employee for the key I'm usually ok even if the sign says "For customers only." I guess I get by because I am well dressed. And white. Homeless people are in a bind and what are they going to do? Not go?
As a society, Americans are edging toward trouble. Sooner or later I think we will begin to jail more and more homeless people for unavoidable crimes. The cost of toilets is much cheaper than jailing, but since there are privatized jails and prisons, the pressure on lawmakers will be to jail ever more people. Common sense is a tough sell.
If cities would provide many more public toilets and pay to clean them daily you would see that everybody would use them -  the middle class and the rich get "caught" in need, too. It would cost some money and we have an entire class of citizens who can afford to pay more taxes. No one gets rich without society because "No man is an island." The rich cannot always avoid the messy realities of life. What kind of a society do we want and how can we possibly have a decent society without facilities for the poorest of the poor?

Sandra Bland and the curse of standing up for your rights.

It took seeing the first few minutes of the Sandra Bland ticket video for me to understand. The cop initiated a discussion about how she felt instead of simply issuing the traffic citation. Then he upped the ante by asking her to put her cigarette out. Then he simply bullied her. I don't think anything except complete humility on Ms. Bland's part could have protected her from this man. This kind of behavior can be expected more and more from the people in society who are elevated to "hero" status simply because they wear a uniform. In their minds they deserve not just obedience but also respect, not just respect but jovial politeness. Sandra Bland might have gotten away from her traffic stop if she had "yes sir" and "no-sired" the hell out of the man. Might. But her tone of voice could have become an issue, too. His attitude and her anger put them on a collision course right on the cutting edge of American racial politics.
I am reminded of a statement I read in an Eli Lilly worksheet on mental illness. According to the drug maker Lilly, "I know my rights and I will stand up for them" is a statement that indicates possible mental illness. I have already blogged about what a disgusting belief that is. It's anti-freedom; it's totalitarian, but, if you want to live on to fight another day it is an attitude you should control. Take your ticket, then go to court to fight it and make your statement there. Going one-on-one with cops is not the answer. Be polite. Then, if you must, be jovial and self-deprecating. It's wrong; it goes against your beliefs, yes. But that's how you get away to fight another day.
I've walked or driven away from police encounters with this jovial technique where I was detained and bullied for over 30 minutes, but then I'm white. The odds are with me from the start. I'm sorry to say it, but Sandra Bland would be alive today if she had "eaten crow." But then, Jim Crow is a bitter dish and poor Sandra Bland had had enough.

The Fate of Dylann Roof's Roommate

By the day after Charleston's Emanuel AME church shooting I was seeing quotes from "Dylann Roof's Roommate." The poor fellow seems to have jumped right into his 15 minutes of fame - and, I think, the police. He admitted being aware of Roof's plan for 6 months. Should he have called police? Will he be contrasted to the woman who identified Roof in North Carolina and called police?
Is the Pope a socialist? (sorry) I believe the answer to all 3 is - yes.
The man should have called police at least after Roof actually had a gun in hand. But he won't get to be an "un-indicted co-conspirator." They'll paint him with guilt beyond what the man can comprehend. I'm not in that debate.
My thoughts are running, beyond the irony of his confession, to this - will the roommate be considered part of the hate crime or even terrorism? Does a terrorism charge both enhance punishment and lower standards of proof beyond a reasonable doubt? (If this blog gets hits I'll research that myself. Better- how about you leave a comment?) And let's be more clear in our culture about the laissez faire hate language of so much of the media. Father Coughlin ain't in it. If the roommate should have reported prior to Roof's possession of a gun, then there are over a hundred more haters out there broadcasting hate to untold numbers of Dylann Roof-types. They will not be indicted.
Nor will the politicians who ignore common-sense modern solutions to gun control such as mandatory insurance tied to each gun and gun locks that only respond to the owner. They will not be indicted.
The roommate will pay a price and he earned something, but just what? Will it have an impact on friends of violent people with guns to call police? Ha. I can just see the rash of folks crushed by local right-wing, freedom-loving cops.
Every mass shooting must continue to lead to rational people speaking out about solutions. Thanks to President Obama for pointing out that other leading countries in the world don't have so many of these massacres.
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State..."
Let's insure each gun and require all new guns to be manufactured with personalized locks specific to the buyer. (The hand print technology is there.) Let's mandate police reports from whistleblower friends who hear of actual plans- and follow-up with suspects.
There will always be a million reasons why we can't do these things until - someday - we will do them and wonder what was wrong with us all along.

Were exchanges established by the states or by the State?

We The Poor of the United States await the ruling of our masters, the Supreme Court on the issue of federal subsidies for Obamacare. The line in the law that allowed the rabid nine to jump in talks about exchanges "established by the state." Thirty-four states did not establish the exchanges. Will the entire law be in jeopardy because of the lack of capitalization? To me, "the state" means individual states whereas "established by the State" could conceivably refer to the State meaning 'the government' in which case the Federal Government would meet the requirement. I think the entire mess can be laid at the feet of the Democratic Party. How could they have been so careless?! There is no room in law for careless mistakes. They will lose this decision and the culpable party will be lost in the translation. People will howl about the court and how it should not have accepted the case, but it's like giving a seven-foot-tall East European basketball player a set-up for a slam dunk. They just hang under the basket for this. They live for this. They'll cram the decision down our throats and all the yelling about subsidies for roads and disaster relief and big oil will be moot. The point is the Democrats blew it. Why? That will be the subject of many a book. How? That only takes this short blog by a long hair leaping unknown. Maybe it's the lower-case "s." Maybe it's just the use of the word "state" instead of "federal government."
I suspect that some lobbyist created this mess and the Democrats fell for it.

Four Burl Dunn songs with son Forest Arturo Dunn

My son Forest (1972-2008) and I did a lot of home recording together for a couple of years in the early century. Yeah, it was a special time for us. Forest played piano, keyboards, percussion (on whatever was at hand), and that excellent bass. Oh, he also sang his ass off in the background.
I've taken the digital recorder we used into studios to clean up the sound. Some of our work is on "Texas Socialist Infiltration Dance Songs" and now I've a digital release called "Four With Forest." I went to the fine Elephonic Studios in Albuquerque and worked with Jesse Korman on these four songs. Hear the full songs here at CD Baby or here:
The EP opens with "Williwas," a song inspired by the famous Southeastern Alaska winds and crab fishing. Hey check it out below. I'd like the song to appear on The Deadliest Catch; that'd be nice. If it does I'll owe a lot to Forest's keyboard riffs. "Gale winds 40 knots, still pullin' crab pots. Captain calls all the shots; he's dry, we're not. Willie was."

The second song is "That's Why I'm So Shook" with Forest at his honky-tonk finest. "I don't need your thoughtlessness; I've grown cold to your hard caress."

I wrote "I Didn't See You" right after my first trip to Alaska on a state ferry, the Wickersham. Dig Forest's bass line and Hammond organ. "Maybe you were in a bar in New York City or loving Louisiana living with a Bourbon Street high. Maybe you were on that same boat with me, and I passed with a far-away look in my eye."
"In the End" resonates today in ways I wish it did not, but in the end, we lost Forest and all that good music he never got to play.
It's up on Spotify, CD Baby and all the usual suspects.

A beautiful law in France

I live in the country, Navajo land where people spread out and yet turn empty spaces into flea markets and sell food by the side of the road. There are two supermarkets near me, both part of large chain store operations. One of them stocks food items exactly as you would expect to see in Phoenix or Albuquerque. The other is more strictly Navajo oriented. A "traditional" Navajo meal would include mutton, fry bread cooked in lard, corn and squash. Spam is big here. Potatoes and chile peppers, too.
When I go to the other store I find these items, but there are also massive displays of mushrooms, bok choy, expensive steaks, and so many items that are unknown to many Navajos or are too expensive. I've often felt that that chain was sending items to the Rez (reservation) as a last step before dumping them and writing off the loss on their taxes. That's the American way, right, tax breaks for the large corporations?
But now France has a law in place to force food stores to give away old-but-edible foods to charity. Read about it here. Such a simple and elegant law. If such a law were to be proposed in the US we'd hear why it would ruin the supermarket economy, why the poor don't deserve free food, and on and on with the Greed and Hatred that, increasingly, is becoming the definition of American culture.
We hear that France is a rigidly secular society, that church attendance is down, wayyyy down. We hear that America is a Christian nation, that Christian charity is "a thousand points of light." Yet we have hungry children, homeless children, and precious little Christian charity. Things necessary for decent society do not spring forth, at least not in great numbers; they must become mandated by law. Perhaps some of our more forward-looking states will pass laws similar to this French law. Feeding the poor will not bring down the empire.

It's one thing to wish Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in hell; quite another to build that hell.

That Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers are using the conditions of America's supermax prison in Florence, Colorado as a plea to avoid the death penalty for their client interests me. What is done to men there is worse than death. I think that's the point and it speaks volumes about America.
Once upon a time death was the punishment for the unspeakable crime. Now, the punishment is hell. We do not assume the role of God only when we kill. No, we now claim the right to consign souls to hell. The hell of this facility, and other, American prisons is not only in the design of incarceration, it's also in the hell what prison guards, acting the role of minor devils, can get away with doing. Who is going to say the inmates don't deserve it? They are bad people. Well, except for the reality that innocent men are punished all the time. 
If the only goals of incarceration for the normal inmate were penitence and successful reintroduction to society then we would not laugh about prison rape and other prison violence. If the only goal of a supermax prison was to avoid escape it could be achieved without solitary confinement and mental torture. What is behind the desire to inflict pain and suffering to no good end? Isn't it rooted in these two extremes of human nature: barbarous tribalism and religion? The savage human wants revenge beyond what the law allows. The religious human wants to play God. 
We are not so different from a Kabul mob beating or stoning a woman to death for a crime we don't even know she committed. The inner barbarian is happy and the religious feel their bloody hands are closer to God.
The fact of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's guilt of a heinous crime does not change my argument. I am not at this moment editorializing against the death penalty. I'm asking why do we dream up fates worse than death? And why is it that mercy in America is not being preached by the Christians? I think the inexcusable death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police is directly tied to the very existence of a prison system which does not allow mercy to exist, even unto the least of these. "Whatsoever ye do unto the least of these ye have done unto me," said Jesus. 

Buck It, Mr. President

Anyone who hasn't seen President Obama's 2015 White House Correspondents' Dinner speech, run don't walk to this link on youtube. What a riot! I love his "bucket list" segment. Buck It. Obama should add to this list. He's obviously in the mood.
Mr. President, release the political prisoners. You're immune to the criticism. Buck It.
Free the tortured prisoners in Guantanamo. No one else will have the political capital (nerve) for eight more years. Buck It.
Shut down all the "black" op prisons. Start with Chicago. Buck It.
Free the non-violent offenders whose only crime was marijuana possession. Buck It.
Mr. President, your legacy will not have legislative victories. You tried. We know. The media can pretend until the "End Times" that Democrats did not reach out, but I'm part of that camp that was frustrated by seeing you rebuffed and humiliated, yet still reaching out to Republicans. Buck It. Be yourself, have some fun. Buck It.

We're out of TPP

The people who didn't want my grandson to have affordable health insurance, who want the open carry of guns, who want to sell infrastructure paid for with tax dollars to private interests, who live and breathe to give more and more breaks to the top 1%, who don't care if the Earth is despoiled by pollution -  these people, Republicans, now support Obama in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It's got to be a bad deal for the 99% and great for the 1%.

As homelessness grows - some help

Ever hear about the traveling toilet so ubiquitous in some African countries? A plastic bag. Tie the top and hurl it away. That's all most of us think of - get that stuff away from me. I am amazed that I have seen so few signs of outdoor defecation and urination. The homeless are actually doing something more than America's truck drivers. I've seen a lot of full bottles of urine tossed out by the roadside. Two solutions are appearing: portable toilets placed near areas where the homeless congregate (link here) and tiny public housing (link here).
Public Health is a concept that defies the capitalistic tendencies. In order to protect your family from disease you must provide some basic care to the needy. If you don't, their sickness can transfer to you. Is the United States going to bypass common sense until there is a public outcry? Then, are we going to take some kind of punitive action that costs far more than paying for simple human dignity?