The revelations of our invasion plans for Iran that the Trump secret documents detailed glaringly reveal the total loss of control we have over our government.

An image of hist first one 50 years ago ..

Patriotism?

What is patriotism? The standard dictionary definition reads “love of one’s country.” However, it seems that patriotism is often confused with nationalism.

Nationalism is about power: its adherent wants to acquire as much power and prestige as possible for his nation, in which he submerges his individuality. While nationalism is accordingly aggressive, patriotism is defensive: it is a devotion to a particular place and a way of life one thinks best, but has no wish to impose on others (Orwell 1968, 362)

Based on Orwell's definition, the US is full of nationalists rather than patriots. I like the idea of loyalty to place. I think America the Beautiful would be a better national anthem celebrating our natural beauty rather than our bombs bursting in air.

America
A Poem for July 4.
1904 version

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

Afternoon folks!

This week we're starting off with a late 60's album from James Cotton, when apparently his producer was going for a jazzier sound. After that there's a live album of Stax artists performing at the Apollo Theater (I think in 1964) including Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas and Ben E. King.

We've got a bunch of blues-rock with Delaney & Bonnie with Eric Clapton (I think that the gods of copyright blocked the last tune, a nice Little Richard medley), followed by Steppenwolf's first throwing in the towel album (Rest In Peace), followed by Dr. Feelgood's first album.

Then there's a hard to classify album by Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan, respectively a very talented harmonica player and a very talented acoustic guitarist.

We finish off this week's bounty with some Oakland soul from Tower of Power.

Enjoy!

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

Only 4 hours late. not a great start to the day.

The pattern of taking over societies, nations, tribes and loosely structured groups over the centuries has not changed dramatically. The technological tools have changed. One of the essential elements has been ignorance of the pattern by the targeted group.With the current level of information technology around the world it is harder to find naive populations to exploit with the simple concept of trust us we are only here to help you.

Soldiers of fortune were an essential part of Europe's success of taking to the seas to build worldwide empires.