First off, I am not mad at anyone here. Not at all.  I so admire all the true participants here (except for a couple, but luckily, they rarely pipe in).  There have been so many exceptional members over the years and I really wish they would be more active, but I fear we have run some of them off with how the focus on the horrendous state of America has led to influencing aspects of even here. 

Sometimes, this place reminds me of Al Pacino's remark in The Godfather III when he states how every time he gets out of the mob, they pull him back in. That is lately what is occurring within me when it comes to some of these very serious issues.  I try to bring in more things that used to be discussed here much more often than what is going on now, but then end up getting captured by this or that and get pulled right back into the misery of not only everyone's passion but fear as well.

I know we are now in a horrible place in more ways than one.  I really do.  Every day I wake up concerned about how far off track this country has become, but the focus of that is really creating problems for myself and the struggle to find good coping mechanisms. I mean, in this day and age, how have we gotten to a place where a man like Trump and MAGA have been so horrible that family members no longer associate with other family members or others that they once admired? I don't think people here will ever fully understand my deep anger at police officers who continue to support this man and movement and they disgust me, especially my co-workers. I wish I had the fortitude of Ed Lorah to declare on FB that he had no interest in maintaining no contact with MAGA people.  I wish I could make such a declarative statement like that, but I can't, and that further distresses me because, in reality, such a statement IS warranted. 

Anyway, I think of the most active people here now and feel we are so fortunate to have the diverse group we have.  We have this new wonderful and dedicated true social activist in Andi, whose fierce determination, I feel is inspiring us all.  I don't want to go down the list because I will, of course, miss someone, but my goodness, over the years we have had people here from all over the world (I miss Kathryn's regular input and love hearing from her neck of the world - and if you get a chance, read some of her daughter's writing.  She is an exceptional writer). 

Then, of course, we have the main man (sorry, Dan, though you too are a 'main man,' I'm referring to David).  Now, fuck Mick when he says I'm offering DB a slobbery ass kissing, but man, I'm serious when I type this - never in a million years would I ever thought that a person like David would be willing to climb into this pit of yahoos (though I'm sure he has met many, many more wackos than are here) and participate with us and then share such utterly personal stories.

And the music; I can't express how it has not only touched me over the years but how the mere exposure of it and him, have actually influenced me in different ways, many of them to be a better citizen (hell, when I bought the Triage album and read about FBI files and the FOIA, I filed my own FOIA request just to see what they had on me - the only thing in mine was a mention that I once filed out a pre-application form with the FBI to get an FBI Special Agent application - I should post a copy of the letter I got back from the FBI after that pre-application request.  I listed my youthful drug use and the fuckers sent me this nasty reply about how "THEY" were a law enforcement agency and my admission of such a massive history of illicit drug use eliminated me from FBI Special Agent consideration.  Which consisted of smoking marijuana 7-10 times, hash twice, and speed 2-4 times, all before my 21st birthday! I went wild on the drugs, man -  - in other words, because I was an obvious Pablo Escobar in waiting, they wouldn't even send me a real application.

Oh, sorry, got distracted.  But I think I made the main point of what not only the music of DB has meant to me, but also his graciousness in even appearing here.

I bring this up because, for the longest time, this site was about passion, music, all the things we loved, and culture, but now, because of the horror of the current state of America, we are all scared shitless and it influences the atmosphere here. 

Yes, technology has changed, but I absolutely loved the DBIS Burn Disc period (oh, shit, I forgot, someone wanted me to post some of the song listings on the cds I still have.  I'll get that done soon, I promise).  And what is confusing about this, is that with the technology changes, this should be so much easier to do nowadays.  Actually, I do believe Spotify allows the sharing of playlists, so maybe a wise user here knows more about how to do that.  Thinking about that makes me believe we could curate different themes of music in a playlist. 

For anyone that has gotten this far, I do take such perseverance as a wonderfully, complimentary thing, I think that I have decided, in the future, that for me, I am going to be quite limited in my political postings here.  Now, I absolutely hate when some site throws up crap like "no religion, no politics, blah, blah, blah" (get this, Jackson Browne's fan site on FB will not allow people to discuss his politics - how the hell can a legitimate fan site prohibit talking about Jackson Browne's social activism, which is a very large part of his entire being?). To me, this is sort of a personal choice for a person to decide whether to participate or not (I have always loved Steven Van Zan Zandt's line of how there is nothing more personal than one's politics.  That is so true).

So, my focus moving forward, and largely for my own mental health, I am going to limit my political postings and post more about the things I enjoy and hope others will enjoy, too.  There is so much beauty in the world and so much time is wasted because we dwell on the horror too much of the time. 

Years ago, I read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, and I don't think I was mature enough to fully embrace his words (I was too geared to how can one find such meaning when surviving a horror and not be completely filled with vengeance and an overwhelming drive for not revenge, but to get even).  So, the last couple of days, I've been thinking a lot about that era, and my point is, if Jewish people can survive that horror and later prosper, then we will be okay even if Trump is re-elected.  Yes, it will be four years of hell, and maybe, just maybe, this hell will be the death knell of MAGA.

And yes, the thought of an even more extreme and corrupt US Sup Ct is frightening as hell, but this all could be a huge Pyrrich victory for those who believe in Democracy. 

One thing that I have found is a constant in politics is that political parties that feel a temporary hurricane-like tail-wind behind their extremism, while captured within their echo chamber, ALWAYS overreach, and I think we are seeing some of that now.  These fuckers think they are set with the behavior of their US Sup Ct, so they will be pushing even more extreme measures up to November.  I think we are even seeing some of the Right's hubris right now (and we need to encourage those fuckers to keep doing this because I feel it will not bode well for them on the trip to Nov). Also, Democrats MUST run their election against the US Sup Ct because the majority of Americans see its current corruption, so they need to use these recent rulings as much as they can.

I sincerely hope that if the second debate with Trump even happens (and I don't because Trump is now in the driver's seat and he now has everything to lose. Imagine if Biden stays in the race and has a fabulous debate.  I think such a thing would be a new game-changer and Trump knows that. Frankly, if I were Trump, I would bow out of the second debate and then hammer on how the US has already seen enough of the "decrepit and demented Joe."  Hell, I might even throw in, "Did you all hear when he crapped his pants on stage?" and then play that clip where one of the two of them had a wet-sounding fart (mostly likely, it was fucking AI, but we know, MAGA believes everything they hear from Trump).  By the next debate, I hope the Dems will have "worked the ref" moderators well enough to make them ask Trump directly, "Do you feel that if you are re-elected in November the US SUP Ct has given you the authority to assassinate Joe Biden?"  And if they do, he will either say yes or make some sort of statement about how that should only happen if a rival is trying to harm the US - and that would be a major Trump kerfuffle.

Anyway, this is such a special place and I would never be one to declare its time has passed, and am going to try to stay on the shiny side of life. 

Very best wishes to all of you, and the next post is going to be about a movie I just watched........