[Verse 1]
I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away
Drag back home and drown my troubles away
[Pre-Chorus]
It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is
[Chorus]
Livin’ in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do
‘Cause your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end
‘Cause of rich men north of Richmond
[Verse 2]
I wish politicians would look out for miners
And not just minors on an island somewhere
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat
And the obese milkin’ welfare
[Verse 3]
Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Young men are puttin’ themselves six feet in the ground
‘Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin’ them down
[Pre-Chorus]
Lord, it’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is
[Chorus]
Livin’ in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do
‘Cause your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end
‘Cause of rich men north of Richmond
[Outro]
I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
I listened to a couple of his other videos. He’s doing good, writes some good lyrics, has good musical instincts even with his choices of some non-standard picking. His non-standard instrument, a short-necked resonator guitar, he plays it well. it may sound unpolished, it may sound quirky, but it’s all from the heart.
He’s an American Scots-Irish original. We shall see whether he can keep it real and authentic with fame crashing down upon him. Fame is a hell of a drug to get addicted to. I remember reading somewhere that the first Elvis recordings, before he became a breakout star, have that special sound that can never be recaptured.
jdAugust 15, 2023, 6:51 AM
Thank you, John Fleming. I think you are correct in thinking Gerard would have appreciated him. Just sent it off to our son who needs it. Hope he listens.
Casey KlahnAugust 14, 2023, 10:43 AM
Talent in young people is probably the one thing I enjoy more than my family, kids, and art. This guy burns as a candle to our survival as a species.
It’s raysist as hell, though. sarc/ The War Between the States lives on.
None of this conspiracy shit compels me very much, however Maui Police Chief John Pelletier is the same fellow who oversaw the mass shooting incident in Vegas. I’ll just let that one hang in the air. Maybe it’s a Twitter lie?
OK, I got another one. Maybe somebody already said this but the assassin who the FBI waxed last week turns out to have been 75 years old, and 300 lbs of worthless. Who’re the assassins there?
Last question: will the best defense from an energy weapon turn out to be a tin foil hat?
John A. FlemingAugust 14, 2023, 8:09 PM
The conspiracy stuff is just crazy. It may be Hawaii, it may be the USA, but out there they are are living on the far edge of the world, and on island time. Part of going native is learning to accept that. There’s not a lot of backup, so when the situation is hopeless, there’s nothing to worry about. The old god Maui decided to bring it to the people living on his island. Life was getting too easy, the people needed to be reminded just who runs things out there. Now we’re going to find out who the real natives are, and who runs back to the mainland and away from his clutches.
Casey KlahnAugust 14, 2023, 11:27 PM
So hard to see truth with all the crazy chaff. “The trees are untouched but the houses burned”. That’s actually not unusual in big fires. Energy weapon? Good grief. Just the atmosphere, and any moisture like a cloud or even humidity, blocks rays. An energy weapon needs a platform, and anyway what a crock.
However the shit about wanting to make Maui new as a “smart” community. That is evil times seven. Rich entities buying up destroyed land – that’s capitalism at its core, bitch.
I do believe that there are fucktards in Oregon, Hawaii, and many other “Blue” regions, who will light fires. That ought to be explored. And Biden’s indifference to Hawaii is world class hubris and POTUS deserves whatever political fallout he can get from this. Unfortunately, we live in Bizarro World and Biden will be lionized for his whatever response to Hawaii.
John, I always loved the quote by Bod Dylan, when he said: “I don’t dig nature. You can’t trust it”.
Smart Kitchens for Dumb People
=======================
I’ve designed a few kitchens, and educated a few people in the process.
The fail in this article happens immediately with the “Kitchen is the heart of the home” screed and goes downhill fast from there.
Notice, the article is from the perspective of the “head of SmartThings, a subsidiary of Samsung” (Mark Benson) so there’s a lot of built-in bias.
Mark doesn’t give one dam about the functionality of the kitchen because he never uses it except for the most banal of things, like getting something to drink out of the fridge, after first analyzing his phone from the living room to see what’s available.
I have talked to people after the fact that bucked my suggestion to avoid “smart” appliances and without exception all of them have admitted they erred. Several have corrected their errors by jettisoning the smart junk and getting stuff that functions, like what is required in a heart of a home.
What is the function of a kitchen?
A place to prepare food, right?
Secondary, would be a place to store foods and the tools for working with them.
Notice I said “working”. Good work requires time, effort, materials, concentration.
And NO distractions. Distracted people are almost worthless as far as acceptable work goes.
People that claim the kitchen is the heart of the home are mostly showboats that rarely use them if ever. A proper kitchen controlled by logical people is more like a work shop where productivity is paramount.
“Smart” things are major distractions and as far as I can tell provide very little in quality return.
People that use their kitchen as a heart, rather than a workshop, are not serious people and the best they can do is assemble pre-made, pre-packaged consumer goods for fast consumption by like minded automatrons. A simple kitchen table will work for people like that and be a lot less expensive too.
Seriously, when you use the last serving of peanut butter and throw the empty in the shitcan are you going to remember to plug that entry into the smart screen on the fridge so that when it calls into walmart next week and makes an order for delivery the new peanut butter will be part of it? Come on man! You know you better than I do.
Another thing I cannot stand, besides “smart” shit, is “energy star” bullshit. When I go to the appliance store, I always ask the salesman if he has any appliances that are not Energy star rated, which is always answered in the negative. Govt. regs. Everything begins when the customer pushes up the chain and management finds out that his customer base is not all made up of sheep.
My 96 year old mother in law cooked farmhouse cooking for whatever many years; was it 50 years? My own mother was a restaurant and cafe cook, and my dad could keep up in the kitchen with the best of them. I look back on my whole family, including aunts and uncles and grandparents, and those futher muckers could all cook and I mean good! The smart in those kitchens was the person whose hand was on the skillet.
Speaking of sending push-back up the line, my retired nurse prac wife is telling me horror stories of the care her extended fam is getting at doctors offices. Closer to home, she is wanting to get knee number two replaced, and her surgeon, whom she liked for the first knee, was bitching about how they can’t schedule surgeries except for several months out, and the reason being they’ve no one working at the hospitals. From the janitor to the nurse to the anesthesiologist, they lack personnel big time. It’s a damn good thing I wasn’t there in that office visit. I’d have hit him point blank with the following: “doctor, did you ever once push back up the line to resist the whole Covid and vax mandate bullshit?” The govt and public corporation responses to Covid absolutely ruined the institution of medicine. It revealed the character of the doctors and administrators and nurses: they all became neo-fascists overnight, and those of us out here in the heartland who view it have nothing but disgust. that fukn pussy. The worst part is, he’s “smart”. It says so on his diplomas.
ghostsniperAugust 15, 2023, 9:16 AM
Nothin’ but Pixels All the Way Down
=========================
Back in the 90’s I hired our teen son to create a website for me and I gave him all the info, graphics, etc., to make it happen. I also told him I want ONE (1) red pixel to pop up randomly on the screen whenever anyone perused the site. That red pixel, when someone mouse clicked on it, would bring this up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9jTonnpRo0
Don’t know if anyone ever clicked on that red pixel and that site was shut down a few years later when I got my own domain and I hired him again to construct the site but without the red pixel that time.
Remember the ad for blank cassette tapes back in the 70’s by a company named Memorex?
“Is it REAL, or is it Memorex?”
I did a lot of music recording in the 70’s and Memorex and TDK were my blank tape providers.
Anyway, zoom ahead about 50 years and cassette tapes are no longer a thing but pixels are. So the question is, “Are the pixels real or fake?”
Apparently “fake” has been a thing, for the US gov’t, and others for a long time. Maybe most of the important stuff we thought we were sure about weren’t Memorex at all. Maybe they were all viking kittens.
Gentlemen and Ladies of this goodly site,I believe that an investment in the aluminum foil aisle may be a very good thing indeed. Not joking.
We witnessed Gerard’s Paradise lost in similar fashion.
John A. FlemingAugust 16, 2023, 1:20 AM
In China I have read, the ruler must have the “Mandate of Heaven” to be considered legitimate. Here in the USA and perhaps other Western societies, we have the “consent of the governed”. If our government loses consent, it is considered illegitimate. The Chinese throughout history acted as when the Mandate was lost, rebellion, overthrow, and the installation of a new ruler must follow. Both consent and the Mandate, are decided by We the People. Jefferson called it our duty to replace an unjust government.
I therefore think that the peaceful thing to do is to withdraw consent, to make it clear to the sociopaths infesting government that they have lost our consent. Withdrawal of consent must come first. Only then afterwards it is not insurrection, but rather overthrow and replacement. Taking out the trash.
Enough of us must withdraw consent to initiate the preference cascade. Loss of consent causes, forces the government’s response actions to become increasingly illegitimate. It is an unstable feedback loop.
The danger of course is that if too many withdraw, the loyal opposition disappears, and those in positions of power become unconstrained in their acts. The government becomes a kakistocracy, yet they know they are considered illegitimate, and if they push too hard, overthrow and replacement will occur. The recent unsuccessful rebellion in Hong Kong is instructive. You know the CCP wanted to go all Roman on the protestors, but they didn’t lest their Mandate be lost.
I don’t have a nom de plume. I don’t advocate for any specific acts. Each of us interacts with the civil authority in our own way. Each citizen must decide for themselves if, when, and how to make it clear to the government that consent is no longer given, and all actions by the citizen are made only under duress. Government employees have lives. It would be dispiriting to normal government folks to realize that a great fraction of the people they interact with despise them. The sociopaths and psychopaths of course don’t care, the worse the better.
It is happening. The breakdown of the rule of equal justice and equal law, the weaponization of the organizations of government, the looting of the Treasury, the insane desire to seize the children away from their families. Governments that consider their mandate to work for the criminal and the illegal immigrants, and not the ordinary citizens. The acts of the kakistocracy are becoming apparent and unavoidable. The inevitable next step is the burgeoning withdrawal of consent. It will start small at first.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
Coming up from behind Jason Aldean we have Oliver Anthony with “Rich Men North of Richmond”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSA-SY5Hro
[Verse 1]
I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away
Drag back home and drown my troubles away
[Pre-Chorus]
It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is
[Chorus]
Livin’ in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do
‘Cause your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end
‘Cause of rich men north of Richmond
[Verse 2]
I wish politicians would look out for miners
And not just minors on an island somewhere
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat
And the obese milkin’ welfare
[Verse 3]
Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Young men are puttin’ themselves six feet in the ground
‘Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin’ them down
[Pre-Chorus]
Lord, it’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is
[Chorus]
Livin’ in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do
‘Cause your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end
‘Cause of rich men north of Richmond
[Outro]
I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
Mr. Gerard might’ve liked this guy Oliver Anthony and what he has to say: Oliver Anthony introduces himself.
I listened to a couple of his other videos. He’s doing good, writes some good lyrics, has good musical instincts even with his choices of some non-standard picking. His non-standard instrument, a short-necked resonator guitar, he plays it well. it may sound unpolished, it may sound quirky, but it’s all from the heart.
He’s an American Scots-Irish original. We shall see whether he can keep it real and authentic with fame crashing down upon him. Fame is a hell of a drug to get addicted to. I remember reading somewhere that the first Elvis recordings, before he became a breakout star, have that special sound that can never be recaptured.
Thank you, John Fleming. I think you are correct in thinking Gerard would have appreciated him. Just sent it off to our son who needs it. Hope he listens.
Talent in young people is probably the one thing I enjoy more than my family, kids, and art. This guy burns as a candle to our survival as a species.
It’s raysist as hell, though. sarc/ The War Between the States lives on.
Reading Maui shit on Twitter this morning. People are losing their shit and conspiracy viewpoints are raging faster than wildfire. This meme seems to sum them up:
https://twitter.com/MrUnZenlenskyyy/status/1691137633496276992?s=20
None of this conspiracy shit compels me very much, however Maui Police Chief John Pelletier is the same fellow who oversaw the mass shooting incident in Vegas. I’ll just let that one hang in the air. Maybe it’s a Twitter lie?
OK, I got another one. Maybe somebody already said this but the assassin who the FBI waxed last week turns out to have been 75 years old, and 300 lbs of worthless. Who’re the assassins there?
Last question: will the best defense from an energy weapon turn out to be a tin foil hat?
The conspiracy stuff is just crazy. It may be Hawaii, it may be the USA, but out there they are are living on the far edge of the world, and on island time. Part of going native is learning to accept that. There’s not a lot of backup, so when the situation is hopeless, there’s nothing to worry about. The old god Maui decided to bring it to the people living on his island. Life was getting too easy, the people needed to be reminded just who runs things out there. Now we’re going to find out who the real natives are, and who runs back to the mainland and away from his clutches.
So hard to see truth with all the crazy chaff. “The trees are untouched but the houses burned”. That’s actually not unusual in big fires. Energy weapon? Good grief. Just the atmosphere, and any moisture like a cloud or even humidity, blocks rays. An energy weapon needs a platform, and anyway what a crock.
However the shit about wanting to make Maui new as a “smart” community. That is evil times seven. Rich entities buying up destroyed land – that’s capitalism at its core, bitch.
I do believe that there are fucktards in Oregon, Hawaii, and many other “Blue” regions, who will light fires. That ought to be explored. And Biden’s indifference to Hawaii is world class hubris and POTUS deserves whatever political fallout he can get from this. Unfortunately, we live in Bizarro World and Biden will be lionized for his whatever response to Hawaii.
John, I always loved the quote by Bod Dylan, when he said: “I don’t dig nature. You can’t trust it”.
Casey: Not a Twitter lie.
https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/las-vegas-police-captain-named-police-chief-in-maui-hawaii-2454245/
Smart Kitchens for Dumb People
=======================
I’ve designed a few kitchens, and educated a few people in the process.
The fail in this article happens immediately with the “Kitchen is the heart of the home” screed and goes downhill fast from there.
Notice, the article is from the perspective of the “head of SmartThings, a subsidiary of Samsung” (Mark Benson) so there’s a lot of built-in bias.
Mark doesn’t give one dam about the functionality of the kitchen because he never uses it except for the most banal of things, like getting something to drink out of the fridge, after first analyzing his phone from the living room to see what’s available.
I have talked to people after the fact that bucked my suggestion to avoid “smart” appliances and without exception all of them have admitted they erred. Several have corrected their errors by jettisoning the smart junk and getting stuff that functions, like what is required in a heart of a home.
What is the function of a kitchen?
A place to prepare food, right?
Secondary, would be a place to store foods and the tools for working with them.
Notice I said “working”. Good work requires time, effort, materials, concentration.
And NO distractions. Distracted people are almost worthless as far as acceptable work goes.
People that claim the kitchen is the heart of the home are mostly showboats that rarely use them if ever. A proper kitchen controlled by logical people is more like a work shop where productivity is paramount.
“Smart” things are major distractions and as far as I can tell provide very little in quality return.
People that use their kitchen as a heart, rather than a workshop, are not serious people and the best they can do is assemble pre-made, pre-packaged consumer goods for fast consumption by like minded automatrons. A simple kitchen table will work for people like that and be a lot less expensive too.
Seriously, when you use the last serving of peanut butter and throw the empty in the shitcan are you going to remember to plug that entry into the smart screen on the fridge so that when it calls into walmart next week and makes an order for delivery the new peanut butter will be part of it? Come on man! You know you better than I do.
https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/%E2%80%98the-pendulum-has-swung-back%E2%80%99-in-the-return-to-cities-says-simon-barry-of-harrods-estates-1691405864405
Another thing I cannot stand, besides “smart” shit, is “energy star” bullshit. When I go to the appliance store, I always ask the salesman if he has any appliances that are not Energy star rated, which is always answered in the negative. Govt. regs. Everything begins when the customer pushes up the chain and management finds out that his customer base is not all made up of sheep.
My 96 year old mother in law cooked farmhouse cooking for whatever many years; was it 50 years? My own mother was a restaurant and cafe cook, and my dad could keep up in the kitchen with the best of them. I look back on my whole family, including aunts and uncles and grandparents, and those futher muckers could all cook and I mean good! The smart in those kitchens was the person whose hand was on the skillet.
Speaking of sending push-back up the line, my retired nurse prac wife is telling me horror stories of the care her extended fam is getting at doctors offices. Closer to home, she is wanting to get knee number two replaced, and her surgeon, whom she liked for the first knee, was bitching about how they can’t schedule surgeries except for several months out, and the reason being they’ve no one working at the hospitals. From the janitor to the nurse to the anesthesiologist, they lack personnel big time. It’s a damn good thing I wasn’t there in that office visit. I’d have hit him point blank with the following: “doctor, did you ever once push back up the line to resist the whole Covid and vax mandate bullshit?” The govt and public corporation responses to Covid absolutely ruined the institution of medicine. It revealed the character of the doctors and administrators and nurses: they all became neo-fascists overnight, and those of us out here in the heartland who view it have nothing but disgust. that fukn pussy. The worst part is, he’s “smart”. It says so on his diplomas.
Nothin’ but Pixels All the Way Down
=========================
Back in the 90’s I hired our teen son to create a website for me and I gave him all the info, graphics, etc., to make it happen. I also told him I want ONE (1) red pixel to pop up randomly on the screen whenever anyone perused the site. That red pixel, when someone mouse clicked on it, would bring this up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9jTonnpRo0
Don’t know if anyone ever clicked on that red pixel and that site was shut down a few years later when I got my own domain and I hired him again to construct the site but without the red pixel that time.
Remember the ad for blank cassette tapes back in the 70’s by a company named Memorex?
“Is it REAL, or is it Memorex?”
I did a lot of music recording in the 70’s and Memorex and TDK were my blank tape providers.
Anyway, zoom ahead about 50 years and cassette tapes are no longer a thing but pixels are. So the question is, “Are the pixels real or fake?”
Apparently “fake” has been a thing, for the US gov’t, and others for a long time. Maybe most of the important stuff we thought we were sure about weren’t Memorex at all. Maybe they were all viking kittens.
Read what Miles says about the current brewha. Got DEW? (where my tinfoil hat iz???)
http://mileswmathis.com/maui.pdf
Gentlemen and Ladies of this goodly site,I believe that an investment in the aluminum foil aisle may be a very good thing indeed. Not joking.
We witnessed Gerard’s Paradise lost in similar fashion.
In China I have read, the ruler must have the “Mandate of Heaven” to be considered legitimate. Here in the USA and perhaps other Western societies, we have the “consent of the governed”. If our government loses consent, it is considered illegitimate. The Chinese throughout history acted as when the Mandate was lost, rebellion, overthrow, and the installation of a new ruler must follow. Both consent and the Mandate, are decided by We the People. Jefferson called it our duty to replace an unjust government.
I therefore think that the peaceful thing to do is to withdraw consent, to make it clear to the sociopaths infesting government that they have lost our consent. Withdrawal of consent must come first. Only then afterwards it is not insurrection, but rather overthrow and replacement. Taking out the trash.
Enough of us must withdraw consent to initiate the preference cascade. Loss of consent causes, forces the government’s response actions to become increasingly illegitimate. It is an unstable feedback loop.
The danger of course is that if too many withdraw, the loyal opposition disappears, and those in positions of power become unconstrained in their acts. The government becomes a kakistocracy, yet they know they are considered illegitimate, and if they push too hard, overthrow and replacement will occur. The recent unsuccessful rebellion in Hong Kong is instructive. You know the CCP wanted to go all Roman on the protestors, but they didn’t lest their Mandate be lost.
I don’t have a nom de plume. I don’t advocate for any specific acts. Each of us interacts with the civil authority in our own way. Each citizen must decide for themselves if, when, and how to make it clear to the government that consent is no longer given, and all actions by the citizen are made only under duress. Government employees have lives. It would be dispiriting to normal government folks to realize that a great fraction of the people they interact with despise them. The sociopaths and psychopaths of course don’t care, the worse the better.
It is happening. The breakdown of the rule of equal justice and equal law, the weaponization of the organizations of government, the looting of the Treasury, the insane desire to seize the children away from their families. Governments that consider their mandate to work for the criminal and the illegal immigrants, and not the ordinary citizens. The acts of the kakistocracy are becoming apparent and unavoidable. The inevitable next step is the burgeoning withdrawal of consent. It will start small at first.