We’re Republic. They want us to be a democracy that is why they substituted the words decades ago.
Like the snake in the garden trying to
manipulate the people with word play.
Like gender affirmations.
Confusion & chaos.
Much like them saying that our forefathers after fighting a bloodbath against a tyrannical government drafted the 2nd amendment to for hunting purposes only.
And today’s ignorant people believe everything they’re told.
Because if the department of education creating employees, followers, non thinkers.
Schools were designed to turn out workers, followers not leaders.
Brian, well said! Most people do not know the difference between a "democracy" and a "democratic republic" and are completely ignorant of the true founding of the American Re;public.
Monica, America is both a constitutional republic and representative democracy, these terms are not mutually exclusive. And ultimtaely they are liberal and revolutionary forms of govermenr, whose values and foundations have subverted the hierarchical, traditional, and moral order of old - the same decay and degeneracy you reject today comes from these revolutionary forms of government....
Tell me honestly what good being a Republic has done for America and what these liberal governments have done for the world, they seem to only care for death be it spiritual/physical death and we can see this through the normalization of abortion...
I will be happy, Theo, to give you my honest answer to what a republic has done for America. We are based on a Constitutional Republic where the laws are made by our chosen representatives but they must comply with the Constitution. Obviously, at this point some of the laws being made now are not complying but the intent was otherwise. In a pure democracy, laws are made by the voting majority which can lead to the rights of the minority largely unprotected. The Constitution is our lifeline to protection and sadly it is being ignored by a good portion of lawmakers these days. The Founders were not ignorant of the past types of governments throughout the world and came up with the best they could to have a free society. I know that your leanings are to have a dictatorship under the Catholic church but that has been tried and tested already.
Yes Monica, when one advocates for a theocracy they need only look to a disaster like Iran. Iranian society was at its high in the 70’s under the Shah. It was often revered as being modern like Europe. That was until the religious zealots took over, removed the Shah and installed a religious leader in the form of the Ayatollah.
We now see the results, minorities murdered, women and gays tortured and a regime out of control.
Religious government has been tried multiple times in history and failed miserably.
"Religious government has been tried multiple times in history and failed miserably."
Your response is not only deflection but also disinegnuous - I very clearly advocate for a Catholic monarchy as a Carlist. Criticizing an Islamic regime to attack my views for a moral society is lazy - and as I have previouslly called out, you once again deflect from my arguments, are you ever going to honestly engage my Carlist perspective?
Our constitutional republic allows unborn children (who have no voice) to be senselessly slaughtered in the womb. There is nothing moral about voting, about the secular document that is the constitution, or about our revolutionary form of government. It is clear from a Christian and traditional perspective that republics/democracies have failed in upholding any semblance of traditionalism and familt values, pornography, drug use, contracpetion, abortion, fornication, divorce etc is rampant....
Christian monarchies worked in upholding moral values, none of the horrible things we see today woule have been deemed acceptable under these moral societies of old.
"Freedom" removed from morality and social obligations is tyranny.
And why is voting good in any capacity? It allows moral evils to exist without them contradicting any relatistic standards.
How cares about the will of sinful people when the will or God is eternal.
We have had several pioua and Saintly monarchs who prove that autocratic but ultimetely theocentric monarchies do work, St. Louiw IX, St. Jadwiga of Poland, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Olaf of Norway, Blessed Karl of Austria....
Good Article…unfortunately most of these “stars” have sold their souls in order to be lifted to the stardom ranks. And, our clandestine government entities take advantage & promote messaging using their stardom. This has been going on for decades. Mike Benz was just speaking about this the other day after the Taylor Swift (perfectly timed) endorsement of Harris… https://x.com/gc22gc/status/1834001429373264117?s=61
They made many current/former enslaved children famous. Brainwashed. Hollywood is filled w/ them. Actors, Models, Singers, Musicians, +++
They think you are STUPID.
They think you will follow THE STARS.
They openly call you SHEEP/CATTLE/GOY
THERE WILL COME A TIME NONE OF THEM WILL BE ABLE TO WALK DOWN THE STREET.
BIGGEST FEAR…PUBLIC AWAKENING…
And, we now have arrived. Authorities worldwide are terrified of those that can see beyond their bullshit, and the numbers is growing by the hour…THE GREAT AWAKENING!!!
Rock, rocked it! Yes, it’s quite a fallacy to suggest “Rock Stars” know better than their fans about a wide swath of public issues. They seem to use their “celebrity “ to preach to us about peace, war, love, hate, environment and politics. Yes, the conversation is always one sided and consists of them often screaming into a hot mic in a drug crazed state, with us, the public, in no position to debate. Do I really need to hear about their lefty views when I buy a ticket to one of their shows?
Sure, music especially, has been a literal stage for musicians to voice their opinion, which are almost always ultra liberal…surprise! Baez, Dylan, Young, Springsteen, O’Conner, the list goes on and on.
Ironically, months back I waited in line at the Bowl for 6 hours for Foo Fighter tickets, only to be sold out by the time I made it to the ticket window. The only time I couldn’t get tickets for a show at the Bowl. It’s obvious now the wait was NOT worth it!
I find it ironic that these “Legends” are so quick to use their position of power to lecture us about health and the environment. Ya, what BS telling me about global warming when they jet around in a Gulfstream G500. Also, don’t call me out about health policy when you are in drug rehab for heroin addiction and inked up like a Circus Clown!
Lastly, Taylor Swift may have just committed the equivalent of harry carry for dissing her conservative fans, she seems to have taken the bait. We’ll see.
Sly like a fox playing five moves ahead, Trump flushed out the Taylor Swift endorsement today. It is not left dangling as an October Surprise. Now Swift owns the rest of the Harris campaign. While others like Goldman Sachs have already been forced to distance themselves from the Harris debate lies..
We don't know who owns Taylor. After all the mega stars who we found out were owned and in some cases virtually imprisoned - from Michael Jackson, to Britney Spears to Elvis - you'd think people would look at Taylor and say, God gave her talent and I bet she's paying for it rather than paying for her. We don't know and won't know until years down the road.
sad to see so many beautiful young talents gobbled up by the entertainment industries…Methinks Taylor was led to the door of Satan…she made the decision to push it open & walk through for fame & fortune…sad to see… https://yandex.com/video/preview/10496284717063046373
I honestly have not found her musical or vocal talent. I put her phenomena in the category of no one ever went broke under estimating the bad taste of Americans. Not a snobbish judgement, but a genuine mystification.
I do like her one statement regarding her remarkable success….”I am smart and I work hard.” Given lie however, by her premature Harris endorsement. But confiscating her untaxed capital gains might make me change my mind.
Taylor has an interesting family history with a master investor father who knows how to market ‘globally’. There’s much more to Taylor than her writing her life thoughts and feelings to music. We sat with Taylor & her mom for brunch the day before the 2010 Grammy Awards. I learned much. Don’t underestimate the globalist agenda and its celebrity promoters.
No doubt investors associated with Taylor would like to put their hands around Taylor's throat. Think about an advertiser using her as an endorsement. Or anyone that makes money off of her existence. Her income could take a hit. But many kids have brains full of mush, so maybe not so much a financial impact.
Mark is on to something here. I grew up in the 1960s and 1970's during the Vietnam era and the age of the hippies. We wore the mantle of anti-establishment counterculture warrior with pride. We looked at anyone in authority with extreme suspicion and caution. Yes, we took our rebellion against authority too far, but it created an ethos in us that I thought would define our generation forever. I was wrong. My contemporaries are now all baby boomers in their 70's, and many of them are ultra liberals slavishly devoted to govt and authority. I truly don't recognize them from the kids I use to party with and shared our outrage against an older generation that was trying to handcuff us with their unthinking rules and social mores. Now these same people are the sheep, passively falling in line with our govt overlords. How depressing. As a conservative and govt skeptic, I feel I have kept faith with my generation far more than my former hippie comrades, who became the exact people they were rebelling against so long ago.
Hey, I used to like some Dems and some radicals, and sympathized with (and learned from) some of what they said and stood for. Nowadays, though, I realize that I liked ‘em when they were in opposition. When they’re in charge of things, good Lord, they turn out to be worse than the dullest righties.
No Lou, you were the establishment... to be truly counter cultural means to reject the entirety of liberal, secular, and modernist foundations and insitutions of the world... the true counter cultural individuals lies with the Catholic counter revolutionaries who wanted a return to moral, hierarchical government, a close relationship between Church and state, and the protection of traditional and family values - these are timeless and reflect divinely revealed Christian truths, contempory counter cultural movements are merely the same liberal rebellion of old...
Thank you for writing so eloquently; a pleasure to read; your thoughts are persuading. My more simpler comments on the Foo, et al is a definition: hypocrisy- The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falsehood.
Excellent rant! And what bewildering and bizarre, topsy-turvy times we live in, eh?
Here’s a question for everyone: to what extent is the previous counterculture (rock, edgy novels and poetry, “dangerous” philosophin’, etc) responsible for today’s situation? I mean, the dissenters of the ‘50s thru ‘80s had their glories and did some exciting work. No point in denying that. But then a lot of them moved into positions of power and responsibility and got dull and oppressive. They became the new bad guys. Is that development inevitable? Does it mean we should be wary of any and all countercultures? Or — my pref — should we be worldly adults, shrug wearily and expect things like that to occur? It’s just the nature of things and time. “That counterculture’s over … OK, so now where do we find the new, current counterculture”?
To my mind, today’s true counterculture burbles forth in Game blogs (OK, Game blogs are a spent force now, but they were amazing for a few years), in krazy accounts on X, in memes made by anons, on Gab and the chans … Probably on TikTok and in Telegram (but I use neither) … All of them, in any case, make mainstream outlets — maybe especially the ones that try to be cool — look stodgy and dull.
Donald could have probably avoided this whole Swift issue by not re-tweeting/Instagramming other folks stuff that he probably knows wasn't true. Swift wrote:
"Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. ..... It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth...."
He punched himself in the eye with this one. She has nearly 300 million followers on Instagram (I'm not one). But they are younger folks who might not have voted that now might be motivated to.
I think not Thomas, Trump would not have avoided the whole Swift issue by not re-tweeting/Instagramming other folks stuff that he probably knows wasn't true. We are in the mist of an information war and Trump is playing the game. The other side (DS) is going to throw everything they’ve got at Trump, including mis (dis) [mal] information, whether or not he fights back. All war is deception & Trump is a master at communication.
PS. A large portion of “Swifties” are white women (and men), which will vote for Trump, given the ongoing exposures between now & Nov 5.
DLD, you and I have very different takes on mis (dis) [mal] information. But thanks for showing the white card we all know is one of Trumps strong holds. Back to Swift - yeah, most are probably white. But most are millennials which are
Probably 60% Dem - 35% Republicans. I'm betting the MAGA ones will vote for Trump. But even if 1 million of her 285 million followers (I'm sure lots aren't in the USA) are persuaded to vote for Harris - that's a big deal.
TJ. Most of the 23 million government employees will never support Trump. This is a given. Many are white, many are women. Be sure to drill down any anti-Trump claim. Thanks for reminding us about the government dependency make-of the TDS crowd. Bears repeating.
Upside is Ms Swift can no longer be an October Surprise. She played her hand and now owns the Harris/Walz ticket. She does have curious track record for bad picks, according to Babylon Bee…where the art of satire meets real life.
I just read about his extramarital trysts in the New York Post. Had I known that before publishing the piece, that could have been a third twist: the Foo Fighters catch COVID after being vaccinated and the drummer ODs on heroin - but they know what’s best for your health. Now, “My Hero” Grohl is caught cheating on his wife - bringing humiliation and embarrassment to her (and their children), and shame upon himself. Just when I thought he couldn’t sink any deeper into the pit of contempt, he somehow manages to grab the shovel and keep digging.
"This time however, the sociological significance was not a celebration of subversion – not a raw display of broken boundaries, of constraints upended, of theretofore unexplored artistic and paradigmatic possibilities"
Counter cultural? How can you honestly call yourself counter cultural when you embrace wordly ideas, push forth subversion of traditional values/social norms, and rebel against hierarchy/legitimate authority? The True Counter Culture lies in the rejection of the world and of obedience to Christ. People who continue what the classical liberals, enligtenment thinkers, and revolutionaries of old did by embracing free expression, individualism, and the rejection of moral and social boundaries are just painting over what the first modernists had done and rebranding it - the Avant Garde and Free love movement did what these artists of the Cold War era long ago...
If you embrace any liberal/modernist beliefs or foundations you are the establishment - just as the classical liberal revolutionaries destroyed the true traditionalists on the gullotine and replaced them with conservative puppets (who embraced the same foundations), conservatives much like all these contemporary/past cultural, political/social falsey belive themselves to be fundamentally different when they're all just reskins of classical liberals....
Punk Rock; We uh.... are fighting against the man because.... we can... we have no higher purpose or values - we rebel for its own sake and fall into nihilism
Carlists; Dios, Rey, Patria, y Fueros! Por la patria y por la fe adelnate el requete!
Years ago I had a company in Santa Monicas & came into some piss-away money so I thought a Hollywood gig would be fun. Strictly a vanity project - didn’t need the dough, just wanted to glitz a little & maybe get laid.
I hired a well-known, B-list actor/producer/director who had the juice to get doors opened and phones answered, several well-connected writers, ’talent’, camp-followers etc.
It took about 3 months to figure out the whole crappy scene was bogus. Ninety percent of the people I had to deal with were flakes, hustlers, weirdos and charlatans who didn’t know who they were, their word wasn’t worth a siht, and a complete waste of time.
I closed up the operation, took my purse and Buck my Golden Retriever and hit the road! No more ‘show biz’ for me!
Love this story, Earl. Isn't it amazing that any performer survives this? One of the worst stories of course is The Beach Boys - their own father screwed them over. I'm grateful for whatever great music comes out of this.
'Supporting' Trump? I'm his absolute _biggest_ fan! Except for George Washington, the genius who put this whole gig togeteher, I believe Trump was the best president we ever had. Lord help us if he doesn't make it again - the Commie-Dems will flush our beautiful America down the toilet fer sure!
Me too, straight politicians mostly perfect how to get elected and before you know it, they are back to self-advertisement for the next election. Trump's business sense is needed now and more Trump types in the future; people that can handle money and remove themselves stealing taxpayers' money. Government doesn't know how to spend wisely.
Thank you, Mark, excellent piece. The only thing I have as a comment is that I just don't take performers seriously about politics. If I like a performer's work I shut out their politics. Any really good actor or musician I've ever encountered has a personality disorder - in male performers it's narcissism and in women it's borderline personality disorder. Without those disorders they wouldn't be any good as performers, and with those disorders they're stupid and craven where politics go.
If anyone reading this has never taken an acting or performing class of any sort, they should. You will never see performers as normal human beings again. And you'll forgive them their political stupidities.
I wanted to write for actors so I began taking classes in NYC when I lived there. Sitting among the actors the first day in class I was turned on by their looks - even if they weren't handsome or beautiful they had this presence. They were sexy.
And then they opened their mouths and I couldn't believe how dumb they all were. I sat there thinking I was easily going to be the best in the class because I was so much more intelligent than they were.
Then I was called on to do a cold reading - a short Chekhov scene - with another actress. We sat together going over the scene. She actually asked me who Chekhov was. I explained. She looked blank. I was so confident that I would reign in this scene study - that I would immediately be told to get to the Public Theatre and become a great star of the stage. The next Meryl Streep.
We got up to do the scene study. In that short walk I watched this actress suddenly transform into her character. I was still intellectualizing what I was going to do. She demolished me in the scene. She was her character. I was simply trying to act. She got an ovation. I slunk, unapplauded back to my seat.
I have never looked at performers the same way again. And that goes for musical performers. They are these strange, often tragic creatures who don't know who they are until they have a role or song to sing. And the actors who can go onto politics, like Reagan, are almost always lousy actors. The one exception I can think of is Shirley Temple.
Robert De Niro gave some astonishing performances. I haven't lost any respect for him as an actor because of his anti Trump rants and I don't think he's a real person so I don't judge him as a fellow human being. I just wish someone would give him a long running role on tv so he'd be too busy to think about Trump.
I enjoy what singers and actors can do and wish they'd shut up when they aren't onstage. I also wish it was always 72 degrees and sunny. It's not. It never will be.
Ditto Polly on your thinking about actors/musicians; enjoyed the story of your personal experiences. Listening to the Dems reviewing Harris's "performance," I thought, "Is it really all about performance?" The Dems think it's all about being a game of "performance" without stating any requirements of "substance." In there thinking, it's important to get under Trump's skin, as they state and obtain a "reaction." So it is less about substance, more about reaction ... gee, that's going to help the country a lot. Has politics always been about "performance"? I don't think so. Myself, I prefer to examine the integrity, sincerity, intelligence, earthiness of a candidate ... these sorts of things, lastly is the word "performance" on my mind. But the Dems did put on an organized performance with NY Times coming out in minutes after the debate that Harris "won." But won what? Thinking she smashed Trump? And Taylor Swiftless making herself appear as a brainless twit by announcing Harris as her favorite ... so whoopee! Hope she cut her popularity in half. On the Dem side, it was all pre-planned such as the instant NY Times publication that "Harris Won" and the Swiftless endorsement. Frankly, I firmly believe Harris is in the bottom 10% of all women that could give the best "performance." For those that think Harris provided a "performance" people would go out of their way to pay for, then I have lollipops I'd like to sell you at $10 per lick. I mean these are really, really good pops and will make you forget all about the Harris's "performance." You'll be saying, "Who's Harris?" after you have the first lick of my most delicious secret recipe lollipop to die for.
Meanwhile, MAGA Party (RINO) lawmakers in Congress have subpoenaed VA over its efforts to register Veterans to vote at medical facilities before the upcoming presidential election (STARS AND STRIPES, September 10, 2024).
This is just another example of MAGA's voter suppression efforts in the old Dixie and "swing states." MAGA's draft-dodging leader (German: "Fuehrer") has called veterans "suckers" and "losers" and disparaged the sacrifices made by Senator John McCain, a Vietnam POW who refused release by his Communist captors because of his "celebrity status" as the son of a U.S. Navy admiral. Instead, he remained in the Hanoi Hilton in solidarity with his fellow American POW's. "He's not a hero" mewled cadet Bone-spurs tRump. This racist POS is not fit to be C-in-C of America's armed forces. More of my fellow Republicans are realizing this and speaking out against this deranged lunatic and his horde of misguided sycophants who would have us believe that LEGAL Haitian immigrants are "eating our pets" and that immigrant violence is a greater danger to our children than right-wing gun-nuts and their mouth-breathing progeny. Trump had 4 years to secure the border and build a wall "that Mexico would pay for." NEITHER HAPPENED. Illegal immigration is now trending down, along with inflation, mortgage rates, and the cost of eggs and milk. The only thing going up is the stock market and the number of vile lies spilling out of Trump's mouth.
Oppressing freedom of speech is one of your main points. Can you tell me how many Independents and Dems are banning books? Can you point to a talk show host who said Hulk Hogan doesn't have a right to back Trump like Fox's Fascist Five (Pierro in particular) said Swift doesn't have that right to choose and promote a candidate? Maga is the party of curbing free speech, not the dems,
LOL, Gene. Your recent memories of Democrat massive censorship is reaching Biden level dementia. Shall we engage in the specifics of the past four years, just starting with Hunters laptop?
Freedom of speech isn't a Christian value, it's a classically liberal one. Banning subervise books and perverse materials is fully in line with my Carlist beliefs.
Fascism has an actual meaning, and the core foundations of fascist states include the centralization of state authority (and the state is viewed as the highest authority, not God), the promotion of corportists economic values (private property is allowed, but the economy is structured by the use of corporations that are state operated and are used to empower the state), nationalism and the rejection of local cultures/autonomy is generally disregarded... people on Fox are not fascists...
“oppression in the name of “saving democracy.”
We’re Republic. They want us to be a democracy that is why they substituted the words decades ago.
Like the snake in the garden trying to
manipulate the people with word play.
Like gender affirmations.
Confusion & chaos.
Much like them saying that our forefathers after fighting a bloodbath against a tyrannical government drafted the 2nd amendment to for hunting purposes only.
And today’s ignorant people believe everything they’re told.
Because if the department of education creating employees, followers, non thinkers.
Schools were designed to turn out workers, followers not leaders.
Brian, well said! Most people do not know the difference between a "democracy" and a "democratic republic" and are completely ignorant of the true founding of the American Re;public.
Monica, America is both a constitutional republic and representative democracy, these terms are not mutually exclusive. And ultimtaely they are liberal and revolutionary forms of govermenr, whose values and foundations have subverted the hierarchical, traditional, and moral order of old - the same decay and degeneracy you reject today comes from these revolutionary forms of government....
Tell me honestly what good being a Republic has done for America and what these liberal governments have done for the world, they seem to only care for death be it spiritual/physical death and we can see this through the normalization of abortion...
I will be happy, Theo, to give you my honest answer to what a republic has done for America. We are based on a Constitutional Republic where the laws are made by our chosen representatives but they must comply with the Constitution. Obviously, at this point some of the laws being made now are not complying but the intent was otherwise. In a pure democracy, laws are made by the voting majority which can lead to the rights of the minority largely unprotected. The Constitution is our lifeline to protection and sadly it is being ignored by a good portion of lawmakers these days. The Founders were not ignorant of the past types of governments throughout the world and came up with the best they could to have a free society. I know that your leanings are to have a dictatorship under the Catholic church but that has been tried and tested already.
Excellently said.
Yes Monica, when one advocates for a theocracy they need only look to a disaster like Iran. Iranian society was at its high in the 70’s under the Shah. It was often revered as being modern like Europe. That was until the religious zealots took over, removed the Shah and installed a religious leader in the form of the Ayatollah.
We now see the results, minorities murdered, women and gays tortured and a regime out of control.
Religious government has been tried multiple times in history and failed miserably.
"Religious government has been tried multiple times in history and failed miserably."
Your response is not only deflection but also disinegnuous - I very clearly advocate for a Catholic monarchy as a Carlist. Criticizing an Islamic regime to attack my views for a moral society is lazy - and as I have previouslly called out, you once again deflect from my arguments, are you ever going to honestly engage my Carlist perspective?
Our constitutional republic allows unborn children (who have no voice) to be senselessly slaughtered in the womb. There is nothing moral about voting, about the secular document that is the constitution, or about our revolutionary form of government. It is clear from a Christian and traditional perspective that republics/democracies have failed in upholding any semblance of traditionalism and familt values, pornography, drug use, contracpetion, abortion, fornication, divorce etc is rampant....
Christian monarchies worked in upholding moral values, none of the horrible things we see today woule have been deemed acceptable under these moral societies of old.
"Freedom" removed from morality and social obligations is tyranny.
And why is voting good in any capacity? It allows moral evils to exist without them contradicting any relatistic standards.
How cares about the will of sinful people when the will or God is eternal.
We have had several pioua and Saintly monarchs who prove that autocratic but ultimetely theocentric monarchies do work, St. Louiw IX, St. Jadwiga of Poland, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Olaf of Norway, Blessed Karl of Austria....
Wanting a democracy instead of a Constitutional Republic is the reason they are hellbent on eliminating the Electoral College.
Good Article…unfortunately most of these “stars” have sold their souls in order to be lifted to the stardom ranks. And, our clandestine government entities take advantage & promote messaging using their stardom. This has been going on for decades. Mike Benz was just speaking about this the other day after the Taylor Swift (perfectly timed) endorsement of Harris… https://x.com/gc22gc/status/1834001429373264117?s=61
They made many current/former enslaved children famous. Brainwashed. Hollywood is filled w/ them. Actors, Models, Singers, Musicians, +++
They think you are STUPID.
They think you will follow THE STARS.
They openly call you SHEEP/CATTLE/GOY
THERE WILL COME A TIME NONE OF THEM WILL BE ABLE TO WALK DOWN THE STREET.
BIGGEST FEAR…PUBLIC AWAKENING…
And, we now have arrived. Authorities worldwide are terrified of those that can see beyond their bullshit, and the numbers is growing by the hour…THE GREAT AWAKENING!!!
So true
Rock, rocked it! Yes, it’s quite a fallacy to suggest “Rock Stars” know better than their fans about a wide swath of public issues. They seem to use their “celebrity “ to preach to us about peace, war, love, hate, environment and politics. Yes, the conversation is always one sided and consists of them often screaming into a hot mic in a drug crazed state, with us, the public, in no position to debate. Do I really need to hear about their lefty views when I buy a ticket to one of their shows?
Sure, music especially, has been a literal stage for musicians to voice their opinion, which are almost always ultra liberal…surprise! Baez, Dylan, Young, Springsteen, O’Conner, the list goes on and on.
Ironically, months back I waited in line at the Bowl for 6 hours for Foo Fighter tickets, only to be sold out by the time I made it to the ticket window. The only time I couldn’t get tickets for a show at the Bowl. It’s obvious now the wait was NOT worth it!
I find it ironic that these “Legends” are so quick to use their position of power to lecture us about health and the environment. Ya, what BS telling me about global warming when they jet around in a Gulfstream G500. Also, don’t call me out about health policy when you are in drug rehab for heroin addiction and inked up like a Circus Clown!
Lastly, Taylor Swift may have just committed the equivalent of harry carry for dissing her conservative fans, she seems to have taken the bait. We’ll see.
I remember the phrase “shut up and sing” lovingly
I remember Question Authority. “Covid” certainly taught us that one again.
Sly like a fox playing five moves ahead, Trump flushed out the Taylor Swift endorsement today. It is not left dangling as an October Surprise. Now Swift owns the rest of the Harris campaign. While others like Goldman Sachs have already been forced to distance themselves from the Harris debate lies..
We don't know who owns Taylor. After all the mega stars who we found out were owned and in some cases virtually imprisoned - from Michael Jackson, to Britney Spears to Elvis - you'd think people would look at Taylor and say, God gave her talent and I bet she's paying for it rather than paying for her. We don't know and won't know until years down the road.
sad to see so many beautiful young talents gobbled up by the entertainment industries…Methinks Taylor was led to the door of Satan…she made the decision to push it open & walk through for fame & fortune…sad to see… https://yandex.com/video/preview/10496284717063046373
I honestly have not found her musical or vocal talent. I put her phenomena in the category of no one ever went broke under estimating the bad taste of Americans. Not a snobbish judgement, but a genuine mystification.
I do like her one statement regarding her remarkable success….”I am smart and I work hard.” Given lie however, by her premature Harris endorsement. But confiscating her untaxed capital gains might make me change my mind.
Perhaps it's a generational thing? I don't care for her either - but I'm 100% older than her. And you're probably the same?
Taylor has an interesting family history with a master investor father who knows how to market ‘globally’. There’s much more to Taylor than her writing her life thoughts and feelings to music. We sat with Taylor & her mom for brunch the day before the 2010 Grammy Awards. I learned much. Don’t underestimate the globalist agenda and its celebrity promoters.
No doubt investors associated with Taylor would like to put their hands around Taylor's throat. Think about an advertiser using her as an endorsement. Or anyone that makes money off of her existence. Her income could take a hit. But many kids have brains full of mush, so maybe not so much a financial impact.
Mark is on to something here. I grew up in the 1960s and 1970's during the Vietnam era and the age of the hippies. We wore the mantle of anti-establishment counterculture warrior with pride. We looked at anyone in authority with extreme suspicion and caution. Yes, we took our rebellion against authority too far, but it created an ethos in us that I thought would define our generation forever. I was wrong. My contemporaries are now all baby boomers in their 70's, and many of them are ultra liberals slavishly devoted to govt and authority. I truly don't recognize them from the kids I use to party with and shared our outrage against an older generation that was trying to handcuff us with their unthinking rules and social mores. Now these same people are the sheep, passively falling in line with our govt overlords. How depressing. As a conservative and govt skeptic, I feel I have kept faith with my generation far more than my former hippie comrades, who became the exact people they were rebelling against so long ago.
Word to all the above.
Hey, I used to like some Dems and some radicals, and sympathized with (and learned from) some of what they said and stood for. Nowadays, though, I realize that I liked ‘em when they were in opposition. When they’re in charge of things, good Lord, they turn out to be worse than the dullest righties.
No Lou, you were the establishment... to be truly counter cultural means to reject the entirety of liberal, secular, and modernist foundations and insitutions of the world... the true counter cultural individuals lies with the Catholic counter revolutionaries who wanted a return to moral, hierarchical government, a close relationship between Church and state, and the protection of traditional and family values - these are timeless and reflect divinely revealed Christian truths, contempory counter cultural movements are merely the same liberal rebellion of old...
Thank you for writing so eloquently; a pleasure to read; your thoughts are persuading. My more simpler comments on the Foo, et al is a definition: hypocrisy- The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falsehood.
Michael C. Schaumburg
Excellent rant! And what bewildering and bizarre, topsy-turvy times we live in, eh?
Here’s a question for everyone: to what extent is the previous counterculture (rock, edgy novels and poetry, “dangerous” philosophin’, etc) responsible for today’s situation? I mean, the dissenters of the ‘50s thru ‘80s had their glories and did some exciting work. No point in denying that. But then a lot of them moved into positions of power and responsibility and got dull and oppressive. They became the new bad guys. Is that development inevitable? Does it mean we should be wary of any and all countercultures? Or — my pref — should we be worldly adults, shrug wearily and expect things like that to occur? It’s just the nature of things and time. “That counterculture’s over … OK, so now where do we find the new, current counterculture”?
To my mind, today’s true counterculture burbles forth in Game blogs (OK, Game blogs are a spent force now, but they were amazing for a few years), in krazy accounts on X, in memes made by anons, on Gab and the chans … Probably on TikTok and in Telegram (but I use neither) … All of them, in any case, make mainstream outlets — maybe especially the ones that try to be cool — look stodgy and dull.
Very thoughtful analysis.
Donald could have probably avoided this whole Swift issue by not re-tweeting/Instagramming other folks stuff that he probably knows wasn't true. Swift wrote:
"Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. ..... It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth...."
He punched himself in the eye with this one. She has nearly 300 million followers on Instagram (I'm not one). But they are younger folks who might not have voted that now might be motivated to.
I think not Thomas, Trump would not have avoided the whole Swift issue by not re-tweeting/Instagramming other folks stuff that he probably knows wasn't true. We are in the mist of an information war and Trump is playing the game. The other side (DS) is going to throw everything they’ve got at Trump, including mis (dis) [mal] information, whether or not he fights back. All war is deception & Trump is a master at communication.
PS. A large portion of “Swifties” are white women (and men), which will vote for Trump, given the ongoing exposures between now & Nov 5.
DLD, you and I have very different takes on mis (dis) [mal] information. But thanks for showing the white card we all know is one of Trumps strong holds. Back to Swift - yeah, most are probably white. But most are millennials which are
Probably 60% Dem - 35% Republicans. I'm betting the MAGA ones will vote for Trump. But even if 1 million of her 285 million followers (I'm sure lots aren't in the USA) are persuaded to vote for Harris - that's a big deal.
not sure what you mean by the “white card” … are you insinuating rasism?
53 daze until Nov 5…let’s see what happens
Not at all. Just that Trump does have seem to have strong support with some Whites.
TJ. Most of the 23 million government employees will never support Trump. This is a given. Many are white, many are women. Be sure to drill down any anti-Trump claim. Thanks for reminding us about the government dependency make-of the TDS crowd. Bears repeating.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1372984/taylor-swift-fans-by-political-affiliation/
Upside is Ms Swift can no longer be an October Surprise. She played her hand and now owns the Harris/Walz ticket. She does have curious track record for bad picks, according to Babylon Bee…where the art of satire meets real life.
Grohl just proved himself to be a low-life, cheating scum. Nice example for your daughters, ya rat.
I just read about his extramarital trysts in the New York Post. Had I known that before publishing the piece, that could have been a third twist: the Foo Fighters catch COVID after being vaccinated and the drummer ODs on heroin - but they know what’s best for your health. Now, “My Hero” Grohl is caught cheating on his wife - bringing humiliation and embarrassment to her (and their children), and shame upon himself. Just when I thought he couldn’t sink any deeper into the pit of contempt, he somehow manages to grab the shovel and keep digging.
Well written piece.
Happy to be a member of the anti-elite party, though technically it doesn't really exist yet.
So, still independent.
but rather a call for allegiance to government dictates.................................................
Does this sound like Sacramento demanding the destruction of the state through RHNA?
Does this sound like you will destroy streets because we demand it regardless of failures like State St. and most recently Old Town Goleta?
But then again most voters do not seem to take any real time to see what they are voting for.....but it has to be good because Sacramento says it is.
Nirvana I think not.
"This time however, the sociological significance was not a celebration of subversion – not a raw display of broken boundaries, of constraints upended, of theretofore unexplored artistic and paradigmatic possibilities"
Counter cultural? How can you honestly call yourself counter cultural when you embrace wordly ideas, push forth subversion of traditional values/social norms, and rebel against hierarchy/legitimate authority? The True Counter Culture lies in the rejection of the world and of obedience to Christ. People who continue what the classical liberals, enligtenment thinkers, and revolutionaries of old did by embracing free expression, individualism, and the rejection of moral and social boundaries are just painting over what the first modernists had done and rebranding it - the Avant Garde and Free love movement did what these artists of the Cold War era long ago...
If you embrace any liberal/modernist beliefs or foundations you are the establishment - just as the classical liberal revolutionaries destroyed the true traditionalists on the gullotine and replaced them with conservative puppets (who embraced the same foundations), conservatives much like all these contemporary/past cultural, political/social falsey belive themselves to be fundamentally different when they're all just reskins of classical liberals....
Punk Rock; We uh.... are fighting against the man because.... we can... we have no higher purpose or values - we rebel for its own sake and fall into nihilism
Carlists; Dios, Rey, Patria, y Fueros! Por la patria y por la fe adelnate el requete!
Years ago I had a company in Santa Monicas & came into some piss-away money so I thought a Hollywood gig would be fun. Strictly a vanity project - didn’t need the dough, just wanted to glitz a little & maybe get laid.
I hired a well-known, B-list actor/producer/director who had the juice to get doors opened and phones answered, several well-connected writers, ’talent’, camp-followers etc.
It took about 3 months to figure out the whole crappy scene was bogus. Ninety percent of the people I had to deal with were flakes, hustlers, weirdos and charlatans who didn’t know who they were, their word wasn’t worth a siht, and a complete waste of time.
I closed up the operation, took my purse and Buck my Golden Retriever and hit the road! No more ‘show biz’ for me!
Love this story, Earl. Isn't it amazing that any performer survives this? One of the worst stories of course is The Beach Boys - their own father screwed them over. I'm grateful for whatever great music comes out of this.
…yet here you are supporting Trump.
'Supporting' Trump? I'm his absolute _biggest_ fan! Except for George Washington, the genius who put this whole gig togeteher, I believe Trump was the best president we ever had. Lord help us if he doesn't make it again - the Commie-Dems will flush our beautiful America down the toilet fer sure!
I'm with Mr. Brown.
Me too, straight politicians mostly perfect how to get elected and before you know it, they are back to self-advertisement for the next election. Trump's business sense is needed now and more Trump types in the future; people that can handle money and remove themselves stealing taxpayers' money. Government doesn't know how to spend wisely.
Nice try, Peter. Take your blinders off. No one is selling or has sold a perfect candidate. Elevate to policies; not personalities.
And all the so-so "artists" want to be fed till death by the government. They think the Dems will feed them, but the Dems mostly provide lip service.
Thank you, Mark, excellent piece. The only thing I have as a comment is that I just don't take performers seriously about politics. If I like a performer's work I shut out their politics. Any really good actor or musician I've ever encountered has a personality disorder - in male performers it's narcissism and in women it's borderline personality disorder. Without those disorders they wouldn't be any good as performers, and with those disorders they're stupid and craven where politics go.
If anyone reading this has never taken an acting or performing class of any sort, they should. You will never see performers as normal human beings again. And you'll forgive them their political stupidities.
I wanted to write for actors so I began taking classes in NYC when I lived there. Sitting among the actors the first day in class I was turned on by their looks - even if they weren't handsome or beautiful they had this presence. They were sexy.
And then they opened their mouths and I couldn't believe how dumb they all were. I sat there thinking I was easily going to be the best in the class because I was so much more intelligent than they were.
Then I was called on to do a cold reading - a short Chekhov scene - with another actress. We sat together going over the scene. She actually asked me who Chekhov was. I explained. She looked blank. I was so confident that I would reign in this scene study - that I would immediately be told to get to the Public Theatre and become a great star of the stage. The next Meryl Streep.
We got up to do the scene study. In that short walk I watched this actress suddenly transform into her character. I was still intellectualizing what I was going to do. She demolished me in the scene. She was her character. I was simply trying to act. She got an ovation. I slunk, unapplauded back to my seat.
I have never looked at performers the same way again. And that goes for musical performers. They are these strange, often tragic creatures who don't know who they are until they have a role or song to sing. And the actors who can go onto politics, like Reagan, are almost always lousy actors. The one exception I can think of is Shirley Temple.
Robert De Niro gave some astonishing performances. I haven't lost any respect for him as an actor because of his anti Trump rants and I don't think he's a real person so I don't judge him as a fellow human being. I just wish someone would give him a long running role on tv so he'd be too busy to think about Trump.
I enjoy what singers and actors can do and wish they'd shut up when they aren't onstage. I also wish it was always 72 degrees and sunny. It's not. It never will be.
Sadly I have lost respect and a desire to see some performers, Bette Midler and Robert DeNero come to mind.
Ditto Polly on your thinking about actors/musicians; enjoyed the story of your personal experiences. Listening to the Dems reviewing Harris's "performance," I thought, "Is it really all about performance?" The Dems think it's all about being a game of "performance" without stating any requirements of "substance." In there thinking, it's important to get under Trump's skin, as they state and obtain a "reaction." So it is less about substance, more about reaction ... gee, that's going to help the country a lot. Has politics always been about "performance"? I don't think so. Myself, I prefer to examine the integrity, sincerity, intelligence, earthiness of a candidate ... these sorts of things, lastly is the word "performance" on my mind. But the Dems did put on an organized performance with NY Times coming out in minutes after the debate that Harris "won." But won what? Thinking she smashed Trump? And Taylor Swiftless making herself appear as a brainless twit by announcing Harris as her favorite ... so whoopee! Hope she cut her popularity in half. On the Dem side, it was all pre-planned such as the instant NY Times publication that "Harris Won" and the Swiftless endorsement. Frankly, I firmly believe Harris is in the bottom 10% of all women that could give the best "performance." For those that think Harris provided a "performance" people would go out of their way to pay for, then I have lollipops I'd like to sell you at $10 per lick. I mean these are really, really good pops and will make you forget all about the Harris's "performance." You'll be saying, "Who's Harris?" after you have the first lick of my most delicious secret recipe lollipop to die for.
Meanwhile, MAGA Party (RINO) lawmakers in Congress have subpoenaed VA over its efforts to register Veterans to vote at medical facilities before the upcoming presidential election (STARS AND STRIPES, September 10, 2024).
This is just another example of MAGA's voter suppression efforts in the old Dixie and "swing states." MAGA's draft-dodging leader (German: "Fuehrer") has called veterans "suckers" and "losers" and disparaged the sacrifices made by Senator John McCain, a Vietnam POW who refused release by his Communist captors because of his "celebrity status" as the son of a U.S. Navy admiral. Instead, he remained in the Hanoi Hilton in solidarity with his fellow American POW's. "He's not a hero" mewled cadet Bone-spurs tRump. This racist POS is not fit to be C-in-C of America's armed forces. More of my fellow Republicans are realizing this and speaking out against this deranged lunatic and his horde of misguided sycophants who would have us believe that LEGAL Haitian immigrants are "eating our pets" and that immigrant violence is a greater danger to our children than right-wing gun-nuts and their mouth-breathing progeny. Trump had 4 years to secure the border and build a wall "that Mexico would pay for." NEITHER HAPPENED. Illegal immigration is now trending down, along with inflation, mortgage rates, and the cost of eggs and milk. The only thing going up is the stock market and the number of vile lies spilling out of Trump's mouth.
Oppressing freedom of speech is one of your main points. Can you tell me how many Independents and Dems are banning books? Can you point to a talk show host who said Hulk Hogan doesn't have a right to back Trump like Fox's Fascist Five (Pierro in particular) said Swift doesn't have that right to choose and promote a candidate? Maga is the party of curbing free speech, not the dems,
LOL, Gene. Your recent memories of Democrat massive censorship is reaching Biden level dementia. Shall we engage in the specifics of the past four years, just starting with Hunters laptop?
Freedom of speech isn't a Christian value, it's a classically liberal one. Banning subervise books and perverse materials is fully in line with my Carlist beliefs.
Fascism has an actual meaning, and the core foundations of fascist states include the centralization of state authority (and the state is viewed as the highest authority, not God), the promotion of corportists economic values (private property is allowed, but the economy is structured by the use of corporations that are state operated and are used to empower the state), nationalism and the rejection of local cultures/autonomy is generally disregarded... people on Fox are not fascists...