They should do a crossover with Supergirl and call it "X-Rated Vision"

This isn't something that normally happens to me, but I've become interested in a tv series.  Not enough to watch it, I don't have a television and certainly won't pay for whatever internet sites there are that play shows, but I have watched the trailer a few times.  In fact, today I even discovered there was a second trailer which is probably why I'm writing this.

Even more unusual, this is an extension of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  If you have a television, you probably know what I'm referring to, but that's not even the strangest part.  I have never had the slightest interest in the Vision and Scarlet Witch, none, zero, zip, zilch.  Yet I must admit that this show looks fantastic.

Part of it is just the special effects.  I've never seen a tv show with that much visual effect and it looks very good, particularly since they mostly aren't doing things that are seen in the superhero movies.  There is some of that and I assume it's part of the plotline for the next phase of Marvel media, but most of it is done like a sitcom, either parody or straight-forward.  I can recognize a few of the sitcoms they're taking stuff from and I'd probably remember more if I had a memory.  I used to pay attention to that stuff.

It's the sitcom part that interests me the most.  There's no clue what the actual series is about but it sure looks like it would be worth watching in its own sake.  Even the name, WandaVision, is very clever, seemingly made for the 21st Century.  If I find out that it's 90% about reusing stuff from classic sitcoms and adding superpowers, I'll probably wind up buying the first season collection when it comes out.

That doesn't mean much, I had a similar reaction to the trailer for the first Wonder Woman movie.  I've never been remotely interested in her either, but I thought it was very interesting and watched it multiple times.  Then the movie came out and I paid no attention to it, the sequel has come and mostly gone at this point.  But at least the trailer was neat.

So that might be the same thing here.  There's no clue what they're doing or why they got here.  I slightly liked Wanda in the Avengers movies.  She didn't do much but she is one of the most classic Avengers outside of the founding members.  Then again, so is the Vision and he contributed nothing.

They changed his origin to being a computer program based on Tony Stark's childhood butler - obviously Jarvis - then made by Ultron and given one of the six stones.  Roy Thomas had created him as a way to mix together other characters, the Golden Age Vision, the Golden Age Human Torch and Wonder Man.  Apparently Ultron built him too, an example of Marvel keeping the original source material as much as possible.  They don't do it often but just seeing any of it is surprising given the years of superhero movies before this.

Wanda isn't that lucky.  To my knowledge, she's never used the term "Scarlet Witch" in the MCU.  Nothing about her makes any sense.  She's a mutant, the closest there is to a sensible origin, she was born with superpowers.  But that's all.  She has "hex power" which makes no sense and literally means she can do anything the plot requires.  How convenient.  She's also a sorcerous.  I never really understood how she got that in the comics but she did, so she's got even more power that allows her to do anything the plot requires.  And she's married to a robot.  They have kids, depending on what the current continuity is.

The powers that can do anything and marrying a robot are the only things I can see that are being used in this version.  I have to wonder if her father will ever show up, that would probably be worth watching.  Apparently Marvel spent a long time trying to make her a supervillain's daughter and they decided to go with Magneto, probably because she and her brother Pietro first appeared as members of his gang in an early Lee&Kirby X-Men.

I haven' t looked it up to be sure, but I've always suspected that they were the first real change Marvel had made to the superhero genre, they were both bad guys but they weren't really into that.  They owed Magneto a debt, that's why they stuck around.  He was taken away by an alien in on of Kirby's last issues and they were glad to be free, joining the Avengers very shortly after that.  Wanda and Pietro make a much more interesting team than she does with the Vision.

The two of them even broke boundaries of movie rights, being sold to 20th Century Fox as muties while simultaneously being sold to Disney as classic Avengers.  I've wondered if the two studios decided to split the pair, Pietro's first appearance in whichever X-Men movie it was was very memorable [I've actually seen it which is not common] and he's been used in more since then while obviously Wanda is part of the Disney mob.  As far as I know, the closest there's been to Wanda being in the X-Men movies was as a little sister sitting on Pietro's lap while he watched tv in that first appearance.  Pietro was a much bigger part of Avengers 2 but he died at the end and hasn't come back.  Maybe they'll use him in the tv show.  The Vision was still dead at the end of Avengers 4 but obviously that isn't relevant.

I have to admit, I've found it very odd how Wanda and the Vision have gotten here with so little development from the previous movies.  Looking it up, the 'Jarvis' personality was created back in the first Iron Man movie so they've obviously been planning ahead for this.  Through the Iron Man movies through Avengers 2, he was just a voice.  Then plot reasons came together to create the Vision.  This movie was Wanda's first appearance, she and Pietro had been given powers by Hydra and totally weren't muties.  Except for a brief shot of Wanda looking at the Vision, presumably with attraction but isn't specified, they had nothing to do with each other through the whole movie although they were both on the team at the end.

One plotline of Captain America 3 [I've seen it!] involved trying to figure out what to do with Wanda because the US government wanted to take over but she wasn't American, so the immediate decision was to keep her locked away and it was up to the Vision to distract her so she never notices.  She finally does, bashes the Vision and escapes which leads up to the big superhero fight-scene which was totally worth the price of admission, but Vision wasn't involved in that.  Then in Avengers 3, they're obviously having a hidden relationship in a short scene, then he gets killed by Thanos who takes the final stone.  Wanda briefly appears in Avengers 4 and that's the build-up.

Obviously with that many characters, there was no way to actually develop any of them but come on!  Then again, Jim Shooter always said all the characters were great, it was just up to the writers and artists [and directors, screenwriters, actors, etc.] to work with them.  Here's where they get to prove it, I'd bet Wanda and the Vision had less than an hour of screen time through the entire MCU, now they have to do a half-hour every week.  Then again, even I'm tempted to watch so there may be something to that.

Lives his life like it's a coma and I don't think he wants ta...

Still pondering Guns'n'Roses Axl Rose's lack of productivity.  So I decided to look at how much the Rolling Stones have done.  It obviously wouldn't be fair to compare the two acts and not just because one is full of hard workers, so I've limited it to when the younger band formed, three and a half decades ago.

If you've been paying attention, I've already covered G'n'R's released work, 94 songs total.  That's everything, live covers, "Don't Cry" and "You're Crazy" each count as two songs, backing Alice Cooper on a movie soundtrack, an interview with Axl or Slash on the B-side of a single counts as a song although it's obviously not, the simplest guitar tracks from the re-release of Appetite.  And that gets 94 songs in their entire history.  

The Rolling Stones were basically ready to break up when G'n'R formed in 1985.  They were still able to record Dirty Work, an album of 11 songs but the singles only had album tracks on the B-side.

Three years later, they released Steel Wheels, an album with 12 songs and three B-sides.  This was when they had gotten back together, even getting G'n'R to open for them in a few concerts.  Obviously they had an advantage since they were an established band with a recording contract for several years already.

In 1991, they released a single, "Highwire" which was attached to their live album.  Three years after that, they released Voodoo Lounge, the album I started listening to them at.  I'd heard and liked the singles on the radio before that, but this was my first Stones album and is still my favorite.  I saw them on that tour too.  It had 15 tracks along with four non-album B-sides.  A year later they released a live album which included their cover of "Like a Rolling Stone," a song they still play to this day.  I saw them do it in 2019 and it was awesome.  They also released a live video which had another cover song.

By this point G'n'R had released their last new song with Slash and Duff.  They'd done five of the six albums that exist under the G'n'R name.  69 of the 94 songs they'd ever release had already come out and there would only be fifteen more new songs up through today.  The rest would be live covers or recordings that had already been made by then

The Stones were definitely past their most productive era but at least they occasionally showed up to work.  In 1997, they released Bridges to Babylon, an album with 13 songs and one non-album B-side.  The same year, they did a song with B.B. King on his new album and there was another cover song on a live album.  That's 62 songs so far from a band who didn't need to make music.  Mick and Keith both turned 54 years old in 1997, they must have needed to take a rest.  Charlie's even older, he was born two years before them.  Ronnie is the young guy, he was born in 1947 and only turned 50 that year.

The Rolling Stones celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2002, releasing a greatest hits album that included four new studio tracks.  The following year, they released a live video which included four live covers and the year after that they released a live album which included another two live covers.

Then in 2005, they released A Bigger Bang with 16 new songs.  There were no non-album B-sides but two bonus tracks were included on a special edition which I didn't know existed until just now and I want to buy them.  There was a live video with another cover song and they released a new song for charity as part of the Hurricane Katrina fund.

And with that, they'd released 94 separate songs in less than 20 years, the same number as G'n'R.  Well, not Slash and Duff and whoever else has been part of the band, just the guy in charge.  There are times Axl has appeared on someone else's album.  You can basically count them on one hand but they do exist.  However they're not called "Guns'n'Roses" and he's the guy saying that the name matters so whatcha gonna do?

In 2007, the Stones appeared on an AC-DC live album doing a cover with them.  There was also another live video with five more covers and the following year had a live album with a cover.  101 songs released between G'n'R's formation and the release of Chinese Democracy.  You can complain about the covers but they also had a lot more originals from this era and some like "Jumping Jack Flash" are counted in the list of G'n'R songs.  But Axl's the "ARTISTE"???

In the last decade, the Stones haven't released very many songs, original or covers, but obviously they still beat G'n'R because work is work.  In 2011, they did a song for an Ian Stewart tribute.  Their former keyboard player had died in 1985 without ever knowing G'n'R existed.  In 2012, they had another greatest hits album which added two more songs, one of which you might have heard in Avengers:  Endgame.  In 2016 they released their last album so-far, 12 covers they recorded over a couple days.  They've said for years that a new album is being recorded but there's no sign of that happening, except for the one song released last year, "Living In A Ghost Town."

Right there they've reached 117 songs released during G'n'R's existence, even if you ignore everything they did before that.  Actually it's 119 because in the last several years, they've released two live albums which include one cover each and were recorded in 1994-5, back when Slash and Duff were actively working on the next G'n'R album.

But there's still more.  There are bands who are not like G'n'R who record songs that they don't feel like releasing immediately, but they do eventually let the public hear them.  In the last decade, the Rolling Stones have re-released Exile on Main Street, Some Girls and Goats Head Soup with a total of 24 recorded songs that had never been heard before.  You know, sort of what Axl was promising to do with Chinese Democracy for the last twenty years.  The difference is that the Stones are capable of doing something, G'n'R isn't when Axl is in charge and he's always been in charge.  I have no idea why they didn't release the song "Scarlet" with Jimmy Page on the actual album, maybe he wasn't famous enough.  Who would buy a song with Page on it in 1973?  There's also one with Eric Clapton but I haven't counted it because it's just an alternate take of a song we've already heard.

But it's still not all, another six releases have live versions or demo tracks of 15 more covers done in the 1960s or 1970s.  So if we count this old material that the band had never under any circumstances insisted we'd hear, "soon is the word," that brings the total up to 158 songs.  Not counting their solo work.  Not counting their appearances on other people's albums.  Nothing but the Rolling Stones playing a song we haven't already heard from the Rolling Stones and they were very very rich and famous before a group of drug-users in LA ever met.

To the best of my counting, in the years since 1985 when G'n'R formed, the Stones have released six studio albums, six live albums, six compilation albums and fifteen boxed sets which aren't simply updated versions of previous releases.  Then there's another twenty official bootlegs and thirty-seven video releases, alot of which were flat-out made after 1985.  It is iffy to determine which ones those were, but the sheer effort required maintains the band's legacy far more than anything Axl pretends to do.  Where would the Rolling Stones be today if they had his work ethic?

All we are saying is give Rococo Coffee a chance!

□ [“Biden Inaugural Like Baghdad: Green Zone, Red Zone, Military Checkpoints to Enter and Leave Downtown D.C., Bridges Into City to Be Closed"]

Reportedly we have more National Guard members in Washington DC now than we have in Iraq or Afghanistan.  Apparently there's some "federal emergency" going on.  Can't just send troops from every state according to the governors' orders, they'd have to be federalized to do this.  Who's in charge of the troops when that happens?

Is this this the most complex military operation in history that LTC Miller mentioned?  I doubt it but this is the only hope I have.  There's no reason to have let this gone on for so long or to take so many losses elsewhere.  I can't see any reason to fake this out the way Trump and co. have for months.

They're building a 12-foot fall around the Capitol despite all these years of saying that walls don't protect anybody.

I've been thinking lately about money.  Not for the obvious reasons, but trying to figure out how it was established and eventually becoming capitalism as we know it.  As with "leftism," I'm not a big fan of the term "capitalism" although that's probably also a losing battle to try to change it.  Money is clearly a system for co-existence that maximizes individual rights.  You can spend money on what you choose to spend it on, with exceptions like taxes and Obamacare.

It's a valid question whether it matters where the money comes from and one that I certainly can't answer.  Is government-ordered paper better or worse than using gold and silver?  Are there other options or is this the only way the system works, where people who have more money than most of human existence refuse to give up a penny but demand others give everything?

It's self-evident that without capitalism, we wouldn't have any of the freedom, liberty, technology or anything else we've demonstrated in the last couple centuries which is what the left is trying to destroy.

Joe Biden Holds Inaugural Celebration on YouTube — Only 24K Tune in to His Channel — Trump Holds YouTube Speech at Alamo and Got 804,000 Viewers While He Spoke
January 16, 2021

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Joins NY Gov. Cuomo on “Reopen Economy” Bandwagon
January 16, 2021

He's a rebel and he was never any good.

□ [“Betty White turns 99 Sunday"]

Definitely the closest to a 'founder of television' still around.  I know she was on tv in the 1950s and an adult at the time, records say she had been on earlier but that's effectively where tv started.  Two decades later she was on the Mary Tyler Moore show and is probably the only main cast-member left.  Twenty years after that she played an old woman on Golden Girls and that was thirty years ago.  I'm not sure I've ever seen in her in anything else, but she was certainly a likeable actress.

□ [“Phil Spector: Pop producer jailed for murder dies January 16 at 81"]

Then there's this guy who was basically to rock'n'roll what Betty White was to tv.  More legendary but less likeable.  Near as I can tell, he was the first one to take advantage of a recording studio in and of itself.  Again I'm being too lazy to look up the specific details, but I think he started with an attempt to be part of a singing group but realized very quickly that he'd rather be behind the mixing board and obviously had the hits to justify it.

Spector was obsessed with making all the decisions, very much opposing the audience making any decision on how to listen.  I think it was headphones that he really didn't like, either that or how to arrange the sound on the speakers.  At his best, he made good decisions on this but never mind his ego, he quickly ran out of ability when the recording studio became more complicated than the ones he had pioneered.

There's the downside of expanding technology, keeping track of it is a full-time job, much less using it, much less competing against other producers or musicians who create and record their own songs.  He was cutting the curve in pop music at the time but it's sounded old-fashioned for several decades now.  I'm currently listening to the Ronettes "Baby I Love You" and it's great but noisy.  Even a generic rock band would sound better a decade later.

Then there was his ego which is mind-boggling in its own right.  I'm totally amazed at how he was able to work with the Beatles at all, much less continue with John and George on some solo work.  To this day Paul McCartney has always hated what Phil did to "The Long and Winding Road," although that I can' t agree with that, the official release is awesome and Phil's the one who made that happen.  John's first solo album was extremely basic in music and instruments and I can't imagine how Phil accepted it.  "Instant Karma" was a much more typical sound from him.

After that he was done.  The few people who tried to work with him quickly gave up.  He did inspire Jim Steinman but Phil hated Steinman's work which shows how far away he was from reality.  Very little was heard of him for the next few decades until he shot Lana Clarkson, a minor actress who I know best from her two appearances on Night Court even though looking it up right now, I can't remotely remember what she did.  Apparently one of the two episodes was where Markie Post became a regular character and Selma was gone.  [The previous episode was the last one with Ellen Foley who is best known for this show and for appearance on Jim Steinman works.  Wheels within wheels...]  She was also on an episode of Wings which I know I saw when it was new but remember nothing about anymore.

I'm increasingly suspicious that large conspiracies have been going on in Hollywood since before Betty White was born and I definitely think Phil Spector was involved in them.  He even made a cameo in the 1969 movie Easy Rider which is definitely where Hollywood changed in some aspects.  Of all the things Phil didn't do with his life, he suddenly decided to be filmed playing a drug dealer by two unknown actors?

Ok, the actors weren't completely unknown, one of them had a famous father and both had been in movies before that which even I've seen, not a common thing.  But they weren't remotely major stars.  I'm looking them up now and it's definitely not possible to find a direct path.  You start with one actor and lead to others, other movies, other people and those are just the famous one listed, nothing to do with Phil Spector or any unknown person.  How do you determine a pattern from there?  For example, the third creator of Easy Rider was the writer Terry Southern who went back to Dr. Strangelove which gets into Stanley Kubrick who was probably as insane as Spector but less violent and just as private.

If I could think of a fictional story to tell about this, I'd probably go for it totally because I suspect that, not counting whatever I totally made up, I'd probably be right about a lot of things and this would be the best way of describing them.  This is the sort of stuff I think about.

It was a dark and stormy night...

Trump receives Morocco’s highest award, the Order of Muhammad, for Middle East peace
January 16, 2021

Out of curiosity, what skin color are the people of Morocco?  Do they have a skin color liberals pay attention to or do they just know something liberals don't?

Harvard Students Launch Petition to Revoke Degrees of Trump Supporters in Government
January 16, 2021

Biden to Offer Pathway to Citizenship for 11 Million Illegal Aliens in First Few Days in Office
January 16, 2021

Time seems to be moving even more quickly than it did last year, we're already over halfway through January.  However, any time we can expect it to become more like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

A is no longer A. The left demands it.

LTC Miller was there when Iraq needed to see what a real election was like.  The first elections were in January 2005 and didn't go well, the next were in December when LTC Miller was deployed (as was I.)

He had a clue what it takes to beat people like Moqtada al-Sadr and all the foreign intervention.  So what's he doing now?  That's what really worries me, that he's on the other side.

□ [“Democrat Pennsylvania Lt. Gov: You Do Not Have the Right to Say Election Was Rigged, ‘Not Protected Free Speech’"]

Speech itself is an individual human right, he's both opposing free speech and supporting the attack on it against anyone he disagrees with.  Where has he been for the last four years when leftists said exactly that?  He was supporting that.  It's the exact opposite of freedom and rights and either he's too stupid to know that or it's exactly what he's after.

□ [“President Trump Declassifies Russia Collusion Documents"]

I like the way he seems to be still getting stuff done but it may be just a way to fill time.  Could this be an example of the Iraq elections (and a few others, I think, but don't specifically remember which) of showing how the bad guys were when they were in charge.  Was this something we knew had to happen here.  That actually makes sense and would explain why Republicans suddenly went along with this.  But what does that lead to?

There had to be people who saw this coming and would look for the best way to fight back.  But where are they?  I don't see any upside in demoralizing the nation this way.  Human nature says it's impossible that they could all be in on this so what are we missing?

I won't claim to know if we're in the 'latter days' now, but obviously this is a long-brewing struggle.  If it's not for EVERYTHING, close enough for government work.

Funny how there's no complaint about Russian influence in the election...

Not sure what I'll say tonight.  I probably have a bunch of headlines and although I'm thinking about stuff, that doesn't really give me anything to write.

Communist China President Xi Jinping Signs ‘War Preparedness’ Order, Calls US An ‘Enemy’
January 14, 2021

President Trump’s Executive Order from Yesterday Directly Impacts the Bidens’ Investments in China
January 14, 2021

Jovan Pulitzer Releases Report — Confirms Numerous Countries Interfered In the 2020 Election – Millions of Invalid Ballots Inserted Into the Election
January 13, 2021

Dr. Fauci Now Warning About ‘Possibility’ the U.S. has Its Own Super-COVID
January 13, 2021

DC Police Reject FOIA Request For Records Related to Their Probe of Siege of Capitol – Insider Leaked Maps, Internal Docs to Help Assist Rioters Navigate Building
January 13, 2021

FLASHBACK: Hundreds Of Violent Left-Wing Rioters Smashed Windows, Set Limousine On Fire In Washington DC During President Trump’s Inauguration In 2017; Government Later Dropped ALL CHARGES Against The Rioters
January 14, 2021

We can basically see that the supposed violence at the Capitol was faked.  For the last few years, the media has been calling all the violent riots by leftists "peaceful" and despite no previous Trump rally having any violence at all and Trump specifically saying to be peaceful, this one is accused of violence.  All those millions of people just hadn't thought of it like the left did?

That's how the left operates.  They're also banning any talk of the election being stolen despite the right to freedom of speech and despite the fact that, according to them, anybody could prove it wasn't by showing that all the voters were alive, legally registered and only voted once each.  Of course they couldn't because they've already destroyed the votes according to brand-new laws which didn't apply to previous elections, but in theory they could do that.

They just see no reason for it and won't.  That's unity.

□ [“GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Introduce Articles of Impeachment Against Joe Biden on January 21 Over Abuse of Power"]

This won't go anywhere, even as a demonstration much less reality.  The left will now fully ignore the Constitution, except in the rare example of needing a defense.

They don't know any other way and they like it.

□ [“Media Silent: Enraged Black Lives Matter Militants (Biden Supporters) Surround Capitol, Scream at Police"]

So this is what we're in for now.  They'll get away with anything but anyone they falsely accuse of doing what they're doing must be punished.  The real question is still 'who's in charge of this?'  I'm beginning to suspect it's China.  If so, within a year they'll probably be sending troops to California.  To, you know, help.

□ [“Louie Gohmert DUNKS on Pelosi – Quotes Her Support for Black Lives Matter Riots on House Floor– Liberals Freak Out!"]

The rest don't have a clue what they're doing.  They've been told to oppose whatever, so they do, even when their own junior-leaders were applauded for doing the same thing.  The quote was from Nancy on June 14, 2018 saying "I just don’t know why there aren’t more uprisings all over the country and maybe there will be."  And there's been all these violent uprisings with no complaints.  Until now.

There's reportedly an announcement of a right-wing get-together next weekend and it's already being said on the internet 'don't show up, it's a trap.'  Why not do it again?  It worked last time.

I have been wondering why no one has put together a collection of all these quotes from leftists in favor of violence who magically became offended by leftists getting access to Congress last week.

"The whole point of protesting is to make people uncomfortable." - AOC

□ [“Next Target — Freedom of the Press: Ocasio-Cortez Says Congress Will Look into Initiatives to “Rein In Media” and Unapproved Press Reports"]

They aren't in overall control of the entire nation so their own supporters will be the first to feel the tyranny although most of them will continue to support it no matter what.  They really don't pay attention to what they've been doing which is why every year is a "Year Zero."  And this generation is definitely not capable of waiting for anything.  Even my generation had to wait a whole week to see a new tv show.

□ [“Pence Formally Rejects Pelosi’s Attempt to Invoke 25th Amendment"]

They're going to stay going after Trump.  I assume assassins will be there before long if they can't just jail him for whatever made-up reason comes to mind.  They have to keep their leftist audience in thrall or else they might find something else to do with their lives.

I do have to wonder if leftism is fundamental human nature and rightism is the exception.  I don't think so but it's not like that's proof.  But then where does this insanity come from?

“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up.  And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out, and you create a crowd.  And you push back on them.  And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.
 - Maxine Waters, 2018

"Before I end, that’s my call to action here.  Please don’t just come here today and then go home.  Go to the Hill today. Get up, and please get up in the face of some congresspeople."
- Cory Booker, 2018

“Fight [Trump] and challenge him in every way that we can in the Congress, in the courts, and in the streets and protests.”
- Joaquin Castro, 2019

“You have to be ready to take a punch, and you have to be ready to throw a punch.”- Nancy Pelosi, 2020

This is real and it's very accurate.  It's how the left wants it.

Year 0 just keeps getting longer...

These are the show trials they're setting up, they're going straight for Trump and his supporters.

□ [“Hillary Clinton Labels Trump Supporters “Domestic Terrorists” Who Need to be Tracked and Surveilled Following Chaos at US Capitol"]
□ [“DC Attorney General Is Looking at Charging Trump and Others for Inciting Violence"]

All these months of supporting people who burn down black businesses and now Democrats are united in opposing nothing of the kind.  You can even drop bombs on the US Senate and only spend a few years in jail before Bill Clinton pardons you as Linda Evans and Susan Rosenberg, who by the way have funded Black Lives Matter.

It's being noticed that they're behaving like fascists as much as communists.  Obviously the two weren't that far apart, which is probably why they hated each other so much.  I've noticed for a while that the anti-nazi propaganda still remains after all these decades and have suspected it came from Russian spies.  WWII possibly wouldn't have started if Russia and Germany hadn't worked together to conquer Poland and not long before that, they'd been ready to go to war against each other.

As it is, communists would be openly ready to destroy Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other big businesses because big business must be destroyed according to communists, but there's nothing like that here.  The leftists in charge of the government will totally work with big business and, coincidentally enough, have been destroying small businesses all over for at least the last year.  That's fascism.

□ [“Freshman GOP Rep. Who Replaced Justin Amash Already Betraying His Voters, Says He’s ‘Strongly Considering’ Voting for Impeachment"]

They're bringing everyone in on this and what's really scary is wondering how many there are and how long they've been hiding until this moment.  I'm not going to start naming any names - other than my fears about LTC Miller - of who's been preparing for this all along but it's looking like they're all in on it.

□ [“Biden’s Choice to Lead DOJ’s Civil Rights Division: 'Melanin Endows Blacks with Greater Mental, Physical and Spiritual Abilities'"]
□ [“PBS' Counsel Opines That He and His Government Friends Should Use Government Power to Take Republicans' Children Away from Them"]

At this point, the only place I see any hope is in their fundamental insanity.  All the common plans are back, purges, show-trials, detention camps, all intensified by the leftism they've been building up for all these decades.  They've been trying to destroy the family, marriage, parenthood, religion, anything the government fundamentally can't control.

It will fail.  Human individuals are too complicated for any form of this rule in the long run, but it's the short run that will ruin the rest of us.  Democracy is about allowing people the freedom to ruin themselves while no one else is required to take part and that's exactly what the left opposes.  They're not capable of seeing where this is going but they want to force everyone else to obey.  This is what the left has always been about and, as they've embraced fascism, is another reason why I don't like the term "the left."

Another day closer to death...

BLM-Antifa Thugs Violently Attack Female Journalist in NYC – Police Stand by and Do Nothing
January 10, 2021

GOP Lawmakers Block Pelosi’s Effort to Force Traitor VP Pence to Invoke 25th Amendment
January 11, 2021

I've been trying to think of a specific Stalinist example of what's going on, demanding everyone jump on Trotsky (or whoever.)  Obviously they're going to keep going.  They've already spent the year throwing away the law, changing voting rules without legislative consent, ignoring the mayor/governor's rules on wearing a mask if they're the mayor/governor who made it, shutting down businesses, burning down more businesses, trapping people at home, seizing power at every turn, they aren't going to stop now.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who saw us headed towards civil war but I don't think any of us saw it coming like this.  I think we were expecting more of an increase in last year's riots when Trump won.  Now they're going to keep everything locked down and attack anyone who disagrees.  They'll ban guns for people who don't work for them.

What do we do?  They've got the businesses in place - just like Fascists, oddly enough, who only differed from communists in that they knew the nation needed to remain if they were to stay in charge - so it must be difficult to connect to anyone, even when you have a clue who you can connect to.  The purge may have already started.

"We are all socialists now" or else the state will punish us.

Leftists are ruling social media, government offices, the Catholic Church...  They've possibly had people waiting for a full-takeover like this in the FBI, Congress and even the Defense Department.  And now they have everybody afraid to do anything, wondering who will turn on them.

They probably already have methods of reporting on people, as in if they're ranting about Trump and you don't openly agree with them, you'll be put on the list and the authorities will come after you.

How long has this been in the works?  The real answer is probably 'longer than we expect' but I'm working on the 'history project' and going through the last several decades of literature and wondering how many of these people were involved right from the beginning of their careers.  How many only got involved later on when push came to shove?  How many remained completely ignorant of the conspiracy [conspiracies?] even as they spent decades filling their role?

Obviously Hollywood's been in on it for the whole time and pop culture in general.  The only people who can succeed are those who go along with their socialist masters and once they've had enough success to buy mansions and so on, they're stuck there.  This is where fascism and leftism are united, get the large businesses to go along with them against the people.

This post has no title

Don't have much to say today.  Leftists are already preparing to ban guns, the next step will be detention camps.  They're going to go straight there, no hesitation.

FBI Claims Jurisdiction and Yesterday Took Control of Shredded Ballots Being Analyzed in Georgia – Sends Them Back to Shredder
January 9, 2021

They've always wanted it this way, they just stopped pretending otherwise...

□ [“Police Officer Directing “Lethargic” Leader of Small Mob, Dressed In All Black, To Senate Chambers…Why??"]

So they were all working on this for months.  Hence Biden not bothering to campaign, hence the insistence that a victor not be mentioned until enough votes from dead people who only wanted Biden, not even voting for other offices.  Hence him picking a Veep candidate even Democrats didn't vote for and didn't even try to win.  The cities run by Democrats for decades shut down the vote counts, supposedly, kicking out any Republic observers.  And the useful idiots were brought into Congress so that there was the automatic blame which no city run by Democrats and being rioted for several months ever got.

Over 300 people barged into Congress on October 4, 2018.  Of course they were leftists protesting the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation so nobody objected.  Would anybody be surprised if some of those people made their second visit this week?

□ [“BREAKING: General Flynn Has Been Kicked Off Twitter"]

Naturally they're using large business to impose their will.  For all the claims of supporting small business (to the extent the pretend to support any) it's always the huge companies they turn to first when it comes to silencing people.  Trump has been banned from Twitter, I assume Facebook is going with that, they're already banning people who use the "not my President' rhetoric that they had no problem with for the last four years.  There is no "treating people equally," there is only obeying their will.

Nancy is trying to impeach Trump again.  The FBI is reportedly arresting people all over although it's not clear who yet.  The left brought guillotines to leftist riots this summer, now they'll be trying to use them for real.  It's not like they have to bother with actual elections.  Notice how no Democrat thought anything was remotely odd about how the election went, just as they didn't mind Hillary working with Russia to falsify claims against Trump.

Democrats never liked it when the revolutions are against them.  They're going to get a reminder.  This won't be pretty.  At a guess, they'll get China's help.  Slave owners have traits in common and they always voted Democrat.  Now I have to worry if the Civil War 2.0 I've been predicting for sixteen years is about to become World War III.  I even started looking for jobs out of the country which I never thought of doing.

Party's over...

I wonder how many of the people involved in this are "useful idiots."  That would be where Antifa and BLM come from and they would be following Mao's "Phases of Insurrection."   This is mostly just a note-to-self to follow-up on, about all I have to post at the moment is headlines about the upcoming collapse of society.

Pelosi Calls for Trump to be Impeached or Removed By 25th Amendment as House Democrats Draft Articles of Impeachment to Remove Trump and Ban Him From Second Term
January 7, 2021

The fix is now in.  The Veep certified Biden's election theft.  The media has claimed everyone is turning on Trump, even his cabinet and chief advisers.  Whether or not that's true, we'll probably never know.  Everything's falling apart.

It's coming out that the leftists had infiltrated the rally yesterday.  What I don't get is how this wouldn't have been figured out in advance.

□ [“VIDEO: Capitol Police Removed Barriers and Allowed Protesters to Walk Right Into the Capitol"]
□ [“Another Video Surfaces of Capitol Police Leading Protesters in Washington Into the Capitol"]
□ [“Activist Interviewed by CNN Who Stormed Capitol Building Is Radical Leftist from Utah Who Threatened on Video to 'Rip Trump from White House'"]

So yes, this was planned.  The Democrats were totally in favor of this.  It's why none of the leftists got together to fight the rally, they would have lost easily.

□ [“AOC’s Comms Director Asks Twitter To Ban Users From Citing AOC’s Support For Violent Riots"]

So this is what they've been doing all along.  Of course they currently pretending that none of the violence they've openly supported actually happened.  And of course Republicans have gone along with it.  I've been trying to find the Saul Alinsky quote about making the enemy follow his principles while those in the revolution don't have any, they just want to win.

How can LTC Miller and the rest not seen this coming?  Are they the ones supporting it?  A small part of me still believes this is part of the plan to lure the left into a trap but obviously that's a delusional part of myself.  This is a total disaster and should never have been allowed to go forward.  At this point I'm trying to figure out where to find people I can stay with and support for the rest of my time because this won't work and the left will accept nothing else.

Just a note, I'll try to follow up more tomorrow, but it's starting to look like the bombers were indeed Antifa pretending to be in the crowd.  Not sure if they're the ones who actually entered Congress but if I had to bet, that's where I would go.

And just like that, this year is already worse than 2020

Obviously everything's starting to fall apart.  Rioters got into Congress and it wouldn't surprise me if they were disguised Antifa invited by Nancy.  It wouldn't surprise me if they were turning against everyone.

Oddly enough, the left isn't calling this a "mostly peaceful protest" or saying it's "just a building" like they've said when their own supporters burned neighborhoods down and killed people.

So far I don't know if Congress actually got through finalizing the election results.  The Veep said he wouldn't get in the way.  Was he waiting there all along to turn on his boss?  What was that comment by LTC Miller about the war?

President Trump’s Early Morning Tweet: “If Vice President Mike Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency”
January 6, 2021

VP Pence Just Unfollowed President Trump on Twitter
January 6, 2021

Defense Sec Miller Says He Discussed Deploying National Guard With Pelosi and Pence — NOT President Trump
January 6, 2021

Twitter Deletes President Trump’s Video Calling for Peace – LOCKS OUT ACCOUNT – Threatens PERMANENT Suspension!
January 6, 2021

And Democrats are flat-out stealing the Georgia run-offs.

As GOP Pulls Ahead in Georgia Senate Races, Democrat County Stops Counting Votes for the Night
January 5, 2021

It’s Happening Again – Total Vote Counts in Georgia Senate Race Reported at 79% Then Suddenly Reduced to 76%
January 6, 2021

And it's coming out now that China was supporting Biden all along via Hunter.  He's gotta get his drugs and slaves somehow.

So what was the plan?  Is there any sign whatsoever that any of this wasn't exactly what the left wanted?  I've seen some comments that Congress has been moved to safety and have not made any public statements at all, suggesting something is up with that.  This is not an alternative to dictatorship, this is making the dictatorship more open.

The night before...

Radical Democrats Are Turning Minneapolis Into A Violent Wasteland
January 4, 2021

Dominion Machines Breaking Down in Several Georgia GOP Precincts; Voters Told Workers Will Scan Ballots Later
January 5, 2021

Directions To DC In Advance Of Massive Trump “Stop The Steal” Rally Are Suddenly “NOT AVAILABLE” On Apple Maps
January 5, 2021

Stacey Abrams Brags About Lack of Signature Verification in Georgia
January 5, 2021

DR. DRE Suffers Brain Aneurysm ... In ICU at L.A. Hospital
January 5, 2021

Chinese Dictator Xi Jinping Orders the Peoples Liberation Army to Prepare for War At Any Second
January 5, 2021

So this is what we're up against.  Obviously Democrats would support China invading.  After all, China supported Biden and owns slaves so what could Democrats object to?  We've already been seeing how willing they are to tear down anything keeping them from power.

I heard a leftist today basically say that hating right-wingers (the one he was talking to specifically) was more important than anything else, he didn't consider his own life as important as hating that guy.  Human beings actually have other things to do besides hatred, even the most emotionally-ruled humans have emotions besides hatred.  But that's not what the left aspires to.

This isn't who we're at war with.  I wouldn't mind it if the guy was shot on sight but he's not the enemy, it's whoever's in charge of him.

□ [“First female Green Beret charged in Colorado with accidentally shooting into neighbor's apartment"]

Ok, that's hilarious.  Once upon a time, I was assigned spend most of a week working on a firing range and a green-hatter made basically the same mistake.  Any soldier who fired a weapon any direction other than a target was in big trouble and that's basically doubled for Green Berets who are supposed to be better than us average soldiers who were already trained well enough to not make any mistakes.  That guy was totally humiliated and was immediately sent back to the unit so he could tell his team what he'd just done.  I think he was fairly new, but he looked totally embarrassed.

Oh, and this lady fires at civilians because she hadn't bothered to keep track of her weapon being loaded?  Oh that's so much better.  The article only lists her as being at 1st Group in Colorado, no sign that she was assigned to a company, much less attached to a team.  Of course the article wouldn't specify anything but it does make you wonder if anyone actually wanted her on the team.

Fish books, fish books, roly-poly fish books / fish books, fish books, read them up, yuck

Well, if there's nothing else to say about this year, I received the eighteenth book I've published in the last decade.  The last thirteen books are from the last four years.

Many covers were created specifically for their book, Life and Polonia, Revolutions, President Present, New Fun, 11, Big Fish and Uncivil War.  The rest are all just Microsoft Paint images I had made earlier, usually much earlier.  Out of Context and What I Learned were just a merger of older images and The World Turned Right-Side Up is the original image, I just had to add a background to make it fit the cover.  With Samizdat, I just didn't have a copy of the original image that could be used so I had to remake it from scratch.  Insecure Public Server was unusual in that I had only made the image a few months earlier, the rest were either many years old or had been made specifically for a book.

Revolutions literally took several days to make, if I had been doing a 40-hour week on that, I would have gotten overtime.  I was so sick of the effort it took that I immediately knocked out President Present afterwards in about 20 minutes.  Then I went back to the extra work for New Fun and that's probably why I started staying with pre-existing images after that.  I literally hadn't planned 11, I had finished the previous book and discovered that I had another one ready to go which is why I went with the most-obvious and simple title and cover.

I do say that, at one level, this is all one book and I just break it up for convenience.  But in another sense, the books are obviously designed to be their own piece of work.  I'm still amused by the fact that Life and Polonia was the only book I intended to do at all.  It was a stand-alone novel, I just thought it was a neat idea to add a B-side of other material.  The problem was deciding what material to use because I had so much written.  I finally decided to limit it (mostly) to stuff I'd written in the same seven weeks it had taken to write the novel's first draft.  That did keep bothering me because just before and just after, I was writing neat stuff about comics or the Rolling Stones and kept asking myself why I shouldn't add that.

So I decided to add two more books.  I had a lot of my fiction available and there was all the stuff I'd written on this blog and Facebook, why not just do one book about pop culture, another about history/the War on Terror and include fiction in both?  This was where I decided to use the actual terms "A-side" and "B-side" so in 2011, when I finally finished editing the novel, I could get started.  But I ran into problems very quickly.

There was just too much stuff.  I wanted to keep the same format as the first book so I had to cut out a lot of pages, mostly comics and music, ideally keeping the best of "pop culture" in general.  The editing went well-into 2012 and given the current events I had written about, I basically had as much material left when I finished it as I'd had when I started.  This was where I had to start realizing what I was actually trying to do and Double is where I basically came up with the conscious format decisions that carried on from Life and Polonia.  Then I started Revolutions and ran into the same problem, too much stuff.

At that point I was realizing that I wasn't going to just limit the books.  I don't remember specifically when and how I came up with the decision, but it wasn't too long into the editing.  I edited all the material at once but did realize that if I figured out specifically how to split the books and one was ready, I'd just finish that.  That didn't happen until I'd finished the third draft, some time in early 2014, but that helped me finish the third book and quickly bang-out the fourth.  If I wasn't doing a book a year, at least I was averaging it.

So by that point, I was realizing that I would just keep doing this.  I started putting the fifth book together.  My intention was to pick up all the stuff about comics for Side A and use the rest of what I had on pop-culture for Side B, but there just didn't seem to be enough non-comics material.  There was a lot of music stuff but that would be too many pages for one book.  Double had already showed me the page limits so I decided to just just make New Fun as a book that's mostly about comics with other pop-culture essays here and there.  I was actually close to finishing the book in early 2015 but some things came up like an Army deployment where I worked on other projects.  It was November before I actually had a finished copy.

The following year I left the Army and had to find a job/place to live so I didn't get any books done.  But I did write a lot and edit what I had so the sixth book ready by early-2017.  I was able to go through all the material and pick the most appropriate so I knew wasn't even limited to the stuff on music for Side-B of Invasions, it was all pop-culture again.  The music was used for the B-side of Leading From Behind where I was able to pick the most appropriate current events for the A-side.  Then I followed up with Samizdat which was just current events on both sides, just as President Present had been after I finished Revolutions.  It seemed like a nice 'cleanse' to just use material that I hadn't found any other use for.

By this point, since I had a job and apartment, I was able to start accessing a lot more of what I'd written.  To be honest, by this point I was just moving through each book so much that I don't really have any memories or comments about them.  Pop Cultural Stew was put together so fast, I hadn't even finished editing the proof copy of Samizdat which is how I made the deliberate decision to stop editing it.  The material was all building up to the 2016 election and we'd already known who'd won so there was that, but it also made the book feel like 'underground publishing' where I had to just call it done or else the authorities would catch me.

Soon it was 2018 and I had finally gotten through enough material to reach 2017.  I had the idea for Big Fish around that time, stringing together conspiracy theories, so a lot of the next few books were just cutting out material that didn't fit.  The World Turned Right-Side Up was focusing on the 2016 election, 11 was right there from the best of the available material, the next two books were finished so quickly that once again I had two proof copies that needed to be edited.  This time I forced myself to go through both and not just cut one short.  Don't worry, there's still plenty of typos in both.

Finally it was 2019 and it took a long time to finish Big Fish.  I still don't think I really filled out the conspiracy theories but it was the best I could do.  I was the first time the A-side was shorter than the B-side because I just couldn't justify swapping them.  I even removed the dates on each essay to make them seem more in-line with each other, whether or not that worked.  It was the end of May before the final copy was printed.

After that, there's not much to say.  I did continue writing, except for a few months after the brain problem.  I had What I Learned mostly done by that point and since I'd already finished a book that year and eight books the previous two years, I wasn't in a big hurry.  After finally coming home from the hospital, I finished the book because, well, what else did I have to do?  Then 2020 was back to turning out every book I could.

I don't expect to finish a book in 2021.  I know I said that repeatedly last year but this time I mean it.  Hopefully I'll change my mind at some point but for now I expect to just write enough material for one or more books and work on a few other projects.  My goal is to do at least one book a year and hopefully use minimal "averaging" in the process.  Averaging means either I've done a book-per-year through 2028 or else 2004 through 2021.

The goal is to do at least one book a year as much as possible for as long as I can.  If I miss a year, make it up the following year but if I do more than one book a year, yay, I still have to do one next year.  Near as I can tell, that's what I'm here to do, observe, analyze and record what's going on along with whatever else I happen to be thinking about.

Words are like all tough to do an' stuff.

Don't have much to say at present.  I don't expect this to be a good week.

□ [“All Living Former Secretaries of Defense Warn Trump Over Election Fight"]

Part of me has to wonder if this is just a show and the real decisions were already made behind the curtain.  Are they serious about this or just trying to lure the enemy?

I have some history thoughts bouncing around in my mind but nothing to work out at the moment.  Try again later.

When a mommy century and a daddy century hate each other very very much...

Nancy Pelosi is still House Speaker.  Naturally all the Democrats who said they should get a new speaker voted for her because they were so serious.

□ [“Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler Is Finally Figuring Out He Can’t Appease Antifa Rioters"]
“The who: violent antifa and anarchists.   Why?  This is the hardest question of all to answer.  Why would a group of largely white, young and some middle age men destroy the livelihood of others who are struggling to get by?"

They were doing that a month ago and he didn't mind.  Two months ago, three months, four, five, six, seven...  What's changed?  He didn't say a word, much less lift a finger, to stop destroying livelihoods in all that time.  And he gets away with it.

Working on the "History project," I've been going through the history of France.  Not looking at detail, I'm not remotely far enough into the project to do that, but I did run across the French Revolution and had to wonder how many of them were executed within a few years of overthrowing the King.

I looked it up but still haven't found much.  Of course I haven't tried that hard.  I found a few names that lived much longer that expected.  Of course Robespierre was executed two years later, having established "The sentiment that led me to call for the abolition of the death penalty is the same that today forces me to demand that it be applied to the tyrant of my country."  If it's alright to execute the leader when you're in charge, they can do it to you too.

The same thing happened to Philippe Égalité, Louis XVI's cousin, who voted for execution.  A year later, his son was accused of treason and being related to your son was all that was needed to get one's head chopped off.  Funny, his son would grow up to be King of France.  Briefly, but still...

The French Revolution has always been seen as a follow-up to the American Revolution but there have always been noticeable differences.  The US didn't execute people for disagreement being one obvious difference.  Then there was the fact that we didn't need or want any kind of king or dictator.  George Washington could have gotten away with that but he didn't want it either.

France obviously had a lot more history to build this up than the US did but it's always seemed like a more overt leftism than anything else, no doubt why the left is still into that.  They like executing people who have some relation to someone else and don't see anything that could go wrong with that.  Everyone else just has to suffer from their wishes, they wouldn't have it any other way.

Just a minor note but France also shows how that continues on over generations.  They overthrew the king, then the real tyranny got started and lasted for years until they finally went with a military dictator who wasn't even from France.  Then the real war got started and lasted even longer.  By the time France was beaten, they tried again with a king but it ended before long.

I'm a little iffy on the details and a lot lazy to look them up, there were the 1830 and 1848 revolutions.  I think the king lasted through the first one but fled to England for the second.  Napoleon's nephew had always wanted to become dictator and had failed before - also fleeing to England - but now he came back and got to join the new democratic government.  In a few years, he became dictator and although he stayed there for a long time, ending by giving Germany a goal to unify which had its own consequences a few decades later.

And that's how the 20th Century was born.  It's still being repeated.

Facebook Removes 1.7 MILLION Member Group “Joe Biden Is Not My President” Without Warning — But Anti-Trump “Not My President” Page Still Up After 4 Years
January 3, 2021

I forgot to push 'publish' again. Damn you, 2021!

Probably just a bunch of headlines.

Police Show Up to Home in Quebec After Neighbor Snitches on Residents For “Illegally Gathering” – Drags Man Out by His Neck
January 2, 2021

Iran Threatens President Trump’s Life On Anniversary of Soleimani Killing
January 2, 2021

Portland Antifa Ring in the New Year by Hurling Molotovs at Federal Courthouse, Destroying Small Businesses
January 1, 2021

Mitch McConnell’s Home Vandalized With ‘WERES MY MONEY’
January 2, 2021

“We Want Everything”: Pelosi’s San Francisco Home Vandalized With Pig’s Head and Spray-Paint
January 1, 2021

□ [“Democrat Rules Package for the 117th Congress Proposes Removing ‘Gendered’ Terms Like ‘Father,’ ‘Mother,’ ‘Son,’ and ‘Daughter’"]

Yes, Nancy Pelosi is pushing this.  Yes, she calls herself "mother" and "grandmother" in her own biography and twitter account, exactly what she's trying to forbid other people to do.  What are the odds she's even going to notice?  What kind of world would it be if the laws she imposed applied to her?

It's like Democrats opposing Congress for approving the Electoral College vote of the POTUS just as they did in 2016, 2004 and 2000.  They forbid Republicans from doing the same thing, what don't you get?

I'm not really that curious about the attacks on Pelosi and McConnell's homes, mostly because we'll never know the truth.  Is it real, did the right do it, is it faked?  2021 hasn't learned anything.

Funny how everything is Rose's because he took ownership of Guns.

Can't believe it, I'm still thinking about Axl Rose's lack of productivity.  It's his comment about non-album B-sides that stuck out with me this time.  Bands used to do that.  Maybe they still do, I don't exactly pay attention to new singles.

But Queen has been my favorite band ever since high-school when Wayne's World came out and I noticed a long time ago that they very rarely used non-album songs on their singles.  So, with nothing else to do, I decided to look up how many songs each band has created.  It's going to get a bit weird for one band but you can probably see that coming.

I'll even try to write it like a competition, just to have more fun.  I haven't actually listened to a lot of Queen in quite a while so let's see how my memory works.  I will look up the basic facts and things like which song is on which album.  Let's go...

The first G'n'R release was the Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP on December 16, 1986.  It had four songs, none of them that special.  My understanding is that it was basically a record company attempt to make the band look independent and get a sense of how popular they were.  I assume the EPs are worth a lot of money on ebay now.

Queen's first release was their self-titled Queen album on June 3, 1973.  Obviously it was a more complicated work.  It had ten songs.  Queen had a more deliberate approach.  The band-members were slightly older than most newbie bands getting a recording contract and they were smart enough to save money by being available whenever there was open time at any studio they could get into.  That helped, they may have just finished a concert but if they get a call that Paul McCartney or whoever hadn't showed up that night, they'd get a cheaper rate.  The studio didn't want to waste its time so this worked out best for everyone.

Freddie was also learning how to play piano and songs like "My Fairy King" were written at the studio while recording and showed off Queen's "art rock" style which would soon go away.  I'm guessing he also started writing "Seven Seas of Rhye" during this time, the unfinished version was included on the album for some reason.  My favorite songs on the album, because I know you're curious, are "Keep Yourself Alive," [duh] "Great King Rat" and "Liar."  I'm not much of an art-rock fan but this was where Queen ruled as a hard-rock band.  Oddly, Roger's "Modern Times Rock and Roll" sounds great but it just doesn't fit the rest of the album, even though it's also hard-rock.  Go figure.

The Queen singles were all songs from the album, no extra ones.  The G'n'R release basically was a single so it all counts.  Queen:  10    G'n'R:  4

G'n'R released Appetite for Destruction which is what they're still known for and always will be.  I actually don't think many of the twelve songs are that good but I'm weird that way.  They sound amazing, isn't that all that's needed?  I... dunno.  Obviously "Welcome to the Jungle," "Sweet Child o'Mine," "Paradise City" and "Rocket Queen" are among the greatest ever while "Nightrain," "Mr. Brownstone" and "My Michelle" have high merits, "It's So Easy" would be awesome if I'd never heard the fuller version on the anniversary re-release, now I can never go back.  Even the weaker songs are clearly from a band that represented everything good or bad about rock'n'fuckin'roll.

G'n'R was also releasing more EPs around this time, mostly with live version of the album's songs if not just the album versions.  There were also live versions of "Shadow of Your Love" and covers of AC-DC's "Whole Lotta Rosie" and Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door."  I won't count the last one for an obvious reason.

Queen II had eleven songs and even included a non-album track on the B-side of "Seven Seas of Rhye."  This was where their art-rock style was most obvious.  Brian wrote Side A, Roger wrote the last song on it, Freddie wrote Side B.  Roger stayed in his hard-rock style and is still good, "Nevermore" and "March of the Black Queen" are probably my favorites.  I do love "Seven Seas" but I've never liked the ending, singing a 1907 song, "I Do Like To Beside the Sea Side."  Why???  That could be where the band ends and what would that look like?

Queen:  22      G'n'R:  18

As a way to help the band's still-increasing popularity, the record company released G N' R Lies.  Side A was the four songs from the original EP, Side B were four new songs written and played on acoustic guitar.  It was a very different sound than you'd expect from the previous album.  "Used to Love Her" is just a fun song and "Patience" is of course "Patience."  "You're Crazy" is just an acoustic version of the song from Appetite but I'm counting it as a new song.  I did that with "Seven Seas of Rhye," that's fair.  The B-side to "Patience" included an interview with Axl which I'm also counting as a song, that might not be quite as fair.

Queen radically changed on their third album, Sheer Heart Attack.  The thirteen songs were a mind-boggling variety of different styles across hard rock, art rock, ballads, music hall, a full feast for the ear.  "Killer Queen" was an even bigger hit than "Seven Seas" and they would play "Now I'm Here" and the "Brighton Rock" guitar solo for the rest of their career.  "Tenement Funster," "Flick of the Wrist," "Lilly of the Valley," "Stone Cold Crazy," "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" and the revised "Lap of the Gods" are all delightful.  I don't like "She Makes Me" but I've known people who do, it's like there's something for everyone here.

Of course Queen didn't have any non-album B-sides.  Queen:  35     G'n'R:  23

After three years of work, G'n'R finally released their next album, or two albums actually. The first was Use Your Illusion I with sixteen songs.  Some were not new, they had been left over from the previous album but they were now such megastars that nothing could be done about that.  Izzy's songs are generally fun, "Don't Cry" and "November Rain" stand out as power ballads and the last several songs are wholesome hard-rock building up to the epic "Coma."  Despite Axl's claims that there would be extra tracks on the B-sides, enough to put together another EP, these singles only had live-versions of earlier songs or, in "Don't Cry"s case, the alternate version of the song.

A Night at the Opera was basically Queen doing more of the same for another album but I mean that in a good way.  Obviously "Bohemian Rhapsody" is what made them the legends they still are but each of the twelve songs probably has fans somewhere.  I'm basically so tired of listening to the album that this is the first time in years that I've given much thought to its various tracks, "You're My Best Friend" was basically the only song available to release as a follow-up single but I've never liked it much - until the instrumental version was included on the anniversary re-release a few years ago - or "Sweet Lady."  The overlapped vocal middle of "The Prophet's Song" has annoyed me for quite a while but I like the rest of the song as well as all the others on the album.  It's not remotely my favorite Queen album but a lot of people disagree.

Queen:  47     G'n'R:  39

Use Your Illusion II finished the G'n'R as we know it.  Most of the songs are good and even the ones that aren't have something going for them, it's just the question of why they're doing this?  This is as far as the band gets in playing different types of music and it's mostly good but confusing and not helped by Axl's addition of lengthy self-absorbed lyrics.  This album had fourteen tracks and the B-sides were all live versions, album versions and one interview with Slash.  Yes, I'm counting that as a song again.

A Day at the Races had ten songs and no bonus tracks even though Queen followed it up with an EP of their own, one song from each of their previous albums except the first one.  That actually sounds clever as a promotion for the styles they'd demonstrated.  I am totally sick of "Tie Your Mother Down."  It's a great song but I won't mind if I never it again.  They probably played it when I saw Brian and Roger in concert in 2018 and I obviously would have loved that but you get my point.  There's also "Somebody to Love," "The Millionaire Waltz," "Good Old Fashioned Lover-Boy" and "Teo Torriatte"  I think I've always gone back and forth on Roger's "Drowse," make of that what you will.

Queen:  57     G'n'R:  54

Six years and eleven months since their first release, G'n'R put out The Spaghetti Incident, thirteen cover songs.  Technically there were more, I think one or two were a mixture of two or three songs but it's not interesting enough to check.  The album did get me to start listening to Iggy Pop and the New York Dolls so I can't totally criticize it but even the songs I like aren't remotely interesting once you've heard the originals.

Queen needed a break after their hard work on the last few albums.  They deliberately limited recording sessions for News of the World before they would tour in promotion of it so they spent less time on the songs and production.  It's also said that this was a reaction, consciously or otherwise, to punk rock.  Either way it worked and arguably this is where Queen really came into what we know them as, having already produced so much by this point.  Obviously they added "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions," "Spread Your Wings" and "It's Late" are other great works.  "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" is just goofy fun, I absolutely do not like "Get Down, Make Love" and find "My Melancholy Blues" more boring than you'd expect from this band.  You either like Roger's songs or you don't, I could go either way depending on what mood I'm in.  John's "Who Needs You" is almost dorky but that's part of its charm.

Queen did eleven songs and no bonus tracks.  The anniversary re-release did include "Feelings, Feelings" which I've always liked but I will not count it because they waited so many years before we could hear it.  Shame on them.

Queen:  68     G'n'R:  67

G'n'R released a cover of "Sympathy for the Devil" on a movie soundtrack.  The B-side was another song from the soundtrack that they had nothing to do with.  Slash has said this recording shows why the band broke up.  I've seen different dates given for its release, either mid-December 1994 or early January 1995.  To this day, it's the last new work we have heard from Slash, Duff and Axl.

Queen kept going on their simplistic mode on Jazz with exceptions like "Mustapha" which is popular in Muslim countries.  There's "Fat Bottomed Girls" which is, of all things, an Eagles parody, "Bicycle Race" which is delightfully goofy, "Jealousy," "Don't Stop Me Now."  John's "If You Can't Beat Them" is good rock'n'roll, Brian's "Dreamer's Ball" is indescribably lovely, Roger gives the album a good ending with "More of That Jazz" even if the song itself isn't that good.  Still no non-album B-sides.

Queen:  81  G'n'R:  68

On November 2, 1999, G'n'R released "Oh My God."  I've written about it before, it's totally horrible.  It was on a soundtrack to an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie and I assume Axl only permitted its release to bizarrely distinguish from the upcoming live album made by a bunch of people he wanted nothing to do with.  It wasn't a single.

Queen released Live Killers, a live album (duh) which I've never liked.  I doubt that I've heard it in over half-my-life but I have no interest in hearing it again.  With few exceptions, I'm not that interested in live albums anyway.  I almost always prefer the studio versions of songs and Queen didn't include covers, at least not on this record.  Live versions of albums with a lot of studio repairs, boring.

Queen:  81     G'n'r:  69

On November 23, 1999, G'n'R released Live Era '87-'93.  It's basically the same thing I just said about Queen, the sole exception is that there's a brief cover of Black Sabbath's "It's Alright."  I actually liked it and I really don't like the original so there's something, I guess, if you care.

Queen was having a hard time and I think it shows from The Game.  They had actually started releasing singles before the album was finished and the songs that weren't singles are not good.  They started using synthesizers on this album and had their biggest hits in the United States before or since.  "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Another One Bites the Dust" yet again went in directions you don't expect from this band.  Weren't they just doing opera a few years ago?  And gospel?  And blues, waltzes and rap?  [Face it, "We Will Rock You" is rap music.]  Now they're doing Elvis and disco.  "Save Me" is one of their best songs, "Sail Away Sweet Sister" is really the only other one on the album I like and that's mostly because Brian sings lead except for the bridge where Freddie intervenes.  "Play the Game" is all right.  Their biggest hit and one of my least favorites.

The album had ten tracks but "Play the Game" had a non-album B-side, "A Human Body," only the second time in their career they'd done this.  I'm definitely too lazy to look it up right now, but around this point Queen was fully forming their co-owned company that ran the band's business and made them the highest-paid executives of any company in Britain.

Queen:  92     G'n'R:  70

On November 23, 2008, G'n'R released Chinese Democracy.  14 songs, nothing else.  I've just gotten Queen out of the 1970s, the most productive part of their career but still less than half of it.  With these albums, they put together their first greatest hits albums which is one of the biggest selling albums in history.  It might not have sold as much as Appetite for Destruction - Wikipedia says Appetite has sold 30 million copies, Queen's Greatest Hits 25 million - but which band had more going for it after seven years of work?

Queen released the Flash Gordon soundtrack right after The Game.  Eighteen songs, all but two of them instrumental and mostly on synthesizers.  You have to buy it if you're a total fanboy, otherwise you don't miss anything.

Queen:  110     G'n'R:  84

In 2014, G'n'R released a live album from their November 21, 2012 concert in Las Vegas, Appettie For Democracy.  It had 25 songs, two of which were covers - "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2" and "The Seeker" - and two were songs from the then-members solo albums.  I have no interest in hearing it.

In 1982, Queen made what is widely considered to be their biggest mistake in an album, the mostly-disco Hot Space.  "Staying Power," "Back Chat" and "Body Language" actually work in that style, hard as it may be to admit it, even if disco was already out of style.  "Action This Day" is just a weird track of whatever Roger was into those days but I quite like it.  There's Freddie's tribute to John Lennon, "Life Is Real," Brian's ballad "Las Palabras De Amor" and, of course, "Under Pressure" which even had a non-album B-side, the utterly worthless "Soul Brother" which must be one of Queen's worst songs ever.  They probably just cranked that one out quickly because they hadn't started the album yet but needed something for the B-side and it's not like they would just use an interview.  Who does that?

Queen:  122     G'n'R:  88

In 2018, G'n'R released the 30th anniversary version of Appetite For Destruction (a year late) with a bunch of bonus tracks.  Most of them are live or alternate versions of songs they've already released and no matter how much I like some of them, they won't count here.  But there are two covers, "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Jumping Jack Flash" as well as three tracks that never became finished songs, whatever their worth.

In 1984, Queen released The Works.  Every single song was released as an A-side or a B-side and they even had non-album tracks involved.  There were nine songs, "Radio Gaga," "It's a Hard Life," "Keep Passing the Open Windows," "Hammer to Fall" and ""Is This The World We Created" being the best.  I love the bridge to "I Want To Break Free" but not the rest of the song.  "I Go Crazy" was the non-album B-side to "Radio Gaga" and "Thank God It's Christmas" was a non-album A-side released the same year.  This album even included the first co-writing credits, Freddie and Brian wrote "Is This The World...", Brian and Roger wrote "Thank God It's Christmas" and "Machines (Back to Humans.)"  Talk about the works!

Queen:  133     G'n'R:  93

In 1986, Queen released A Kind of Magic, the soundtrack for the first Highlander movie.  Again there were weak songs and no non-album B-sides but as usual, the best songs made everything ok.  "One Vision," "A Kind of Magic," "Friends Will Be Friends," "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "Princes of the Universe" stand out.  I love it so much that I will not include "Forever" as a separate song since it's obviously just Brian playing the song on piano.  That's how much I care.  Why are you looking at me that way?

Queen:  142     G'n'R:  93

Live at Wembley '86 wasn't released until 1992 but I'll just include it here.  This is a live album I liked although it was the second Queen album I'd ever heard after Classic Queen [the US version of their second greatest hits album] so I was still young and gullible.  I don't remember if the original version had all five cover songs but they're usually fun and even after all these years since I've heard it, "Big Spender" still comes into my head.  Ew, that doesn't sound right...

Queen:  147     G'n'R:  93

It's not clear if Freddie knew he was dying of AIDS yet but he was entering middle age and tired of the concert scene.  Queen had taken a break on their solo careers - and you notice I'm not counting those in their totals! - but now they got back together where they'd stay for the rest of his life.  The Miracle was the result.  Ten songs with four more as non-album B-sides which, now that CDs were a thing, were just added to the album anyway.  Who cares, it's Queen.

Queen's last few 80's albums had made a point of going in all directions and this was no exception.  "Party" is rap, "Khashoggi's Ship" is hard-rock named after one of the most infamous people in the world, "The Miracle" was one of Freddie's ballads, "I Want It All" was Brian's taking on the Who, "Breakthru" and "Scandal" were just fun pop songs and "Was It All Worth It?" was Freddie's epic conclusion.  Only he wasn't done yet.

Queen:  161     G'n'R:  93

Innuendo was Freddie's final release.  "Delilah" is the only bad song, Freddie's ballad about his cat.  The rest, some numbers are weaker than others but wow, this is magnificent.  "Innuendo," "These Are the Days of our Lives," "The Show Must Go On" are all different types of music that the worst you can say is that Queen's already done opera and soft ballads and rock songs.  "Bijou" is a lovely guitar/synthesizer song with Freddie only doing vocals on the bridge, "All God's People" was an outtake from his Barcelona album duet with Montserrat Caballe, "Innuendo" was an epic Led Zeppelin-style opera, "Headlong," "I Can't Live With You," "Ride the Wild Wind" and "The Hitman" were great rockers, "Don't Try So Hard" was a gorgeously touching ballad, "I'm Going Slightly Mad" was just goofy fun.  And there was even a non-album B-side, "Lost Opportunity."

Queen had gotten to a high level early on and basically stayed there for the rest of their career.  They were nearing their twentieth anniversary for forming as a band, a little bit before John joined.  The album came out in February 1991.  Freddie would die in November but he at least tried to get more work done to leave for his bandmates.  I'm rather skeptical on how much he actually finished but there was still more.

Queen:  173     G'n'R:  93

After Brian and Roger did some solo work, they got back together with John to make the final Queen album, Made In Heaven.  It's still Queen, don't get me wrong, but it's definitely a step-down.  With few exceptions, the remaining members just added their instruments to things Freddie had recorded for various solo projects - singing lead on one of Roger's solo tracks for instance - or short clips he had recorded years earlier.  One track, "You Don't Fool Me," was literally created by the producer putting together a bunch of small clips, and even though it's not remotely my favorite, it sure sounds like a straightforward Queen disco track.  But they're all basic mid-tempo songs with a lot of synthesizer, the very thing Queen was famous for not using for so long.  Oh well, if that's the best they can do, it's still Queen.

One track is literally just Freddie going "Yeah" and isn't even the entire word which is spread out over the former and latter tracks.  I'm counting it anyway.  There was a non-album B-side, "Rock in Rio Blues" but I'm not counting it because I cannot remember which of the live guitar solos it was.  There weren't many but it was the same as one of them, just a different name.  So there are eight songs that, for all intents and purposes, were created for this album.  "It's a Beautiful Day" is quite nice as is Freddie's last complete song, "A Winter's Tale."  "My Life Has Been Saved" sounds better than the original version as the non-album B-side of "Scandal."  I generally like the versions of the tracks taken from solo albums except for "Too Much Love Will Kill You" which I can't stand.  Brian's version is one of my favorite songs ever and this track adds drums, too much synthesizer and Freddie sings it too happily for such a downbeat song.  I can understand why they added it but if Queen had asked for my advice, I'd have said "don't do it."  Maybe that's why they didn't ask.  What other reason could there be?

Queen:  181     G'n'R:  93

So by the end of their eighth year as recording artists, Queen had already released as many songs as Guns'n'Roses has ever released and they were only halfway through their career which still took less time than Axl has spent promising us a trilogy.  I'm not even saying this to insult G'n'R, I'm sure they'd be the first to admit that they'd never reached Queen's level.  But I am saying that there is no productivity.  There is whatever zeitgeist they managed to get through with Appetite and then everything went straight downhill.

A band can start out with their biggest hit and then never reach that level again, it isn't unheard of, but there's never been one as successful as G'n'R and so far away from reality as Axl has been for most of his life and he just gets away with it.

This is our last dance, this is ourselves... under pressure...

Objective reality is what I've been thinking about, reality exists whether or not you consent to it.

If you don't believe that, go up to the rooftop, announce that you don't believe in gravity and start walking.  Let me know how it works out.

Simple as that, it's not like reality requires you to put oxygen in your body to live.  It's not like reality wants you to expel feces from your butthole.  Unless reality actually involve that and you're not smart enough to acknowledge that.  But those are never included as exceptions by the people who claim there's no such thing as objective reality.  They will make such statements if it might give them political advantage, or if they are ordered to by the people in charge of them.

That's basically it.  There can be no progress without acknowledging reality.  You can't hear without sound and sound requires an atmosphere.  There are individuals who can't hear even with sound and atmosphere but deafness is an established fact for those individuals and does not disprove reality.  Quite the contrary, it is only possible to learn this via acceptance of reality which is quickly discovered to be much more complicated than the people who claim there is no objective reality ever admit.

This is quite possibly where the fundamental distinction is, people who acknowledge reality have an advantage over those who don't.  Those who don't can never be persuaded otherwise without their own individual consent and these traits continue through history.  The leftists have to accept reality one way or another just to be in charge but no matter how they try to impose their view on everyone, there remain individuals who recognize reality for what it is.  By the same token, I don't think it's possible to remove denial of reality any more than it's possible to remove individualism.  If nothing else, people will always disagree and at least one of them will be wrong because reality is too complicated to fully perceive.  Western civilization was built by men who understand that even if it wasn't conscious for them.  So was any other civilization, they couldn't have done it without reality.

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2020 won

Just a note to myself in case I ever have a reason to write about Star Wars again.  I know, I know, that's not very likely but you never know:

I just ran into an article listing tidbits of the One, True Trilogy.  For some reason, what stood out were the dollar figures given to Harrison Ford for each appearance.  They're very basic numbers so I'm skeptical but it's a place to start.

$10,000 for bringing the world Han Solo.  It's in 1977 money but that's still a lot more than many people make even now.  Of course it was never expected to be a hit and he wasn't remotely a star so that was probably a decent paycheck for the work.  He also got, and I have no idea how he pulled this off, .5% of the ticket sales.  Wouldn't surprise me if that was technically more than George Lucas made.  Alec Guinness got a percentage and James Earl Jones refused a percentage, did anybody else have the slightest chance of making that much?

I'm surprised to look this up, he'd actually made at least a dozen tv appearances and Star Wars was his seventh movie.  He got $100,000 for Empire Strikes Back, obviously a natural increase.  It was filming this movie that Lucas and Spielberg decided to hire him as Indiana Jones.

So with that, he had three massive hit movies under his belt.  He got $500,000 for Return of the Jedi.  I can't find any record on him getting any percentages - well he did for Indy - but that could go either way.  Having the up-front money would deny him the profits but no-one had the slightest idea there would be any.  Sequels were not as popular as the original movies, that was a given.  Taking the percentage could also require a lot of extra work just to keep track of the percentage.

Then he gets $20 million for appearing in The Force Awakens.  Who knows, maybe even a percentage.  It's tough to think of a movie where the actor has more strengths in making demands.  The character can't be replaced and neither can the actor.  Wikipedia says it was $25 million + .5% of the revenue.

I do assume that for that much money, Ford had to go through all the tedious business aspects, showing up at every convention, interviews, if Han appeared in a video game, he'd have to do the vocals.  I also assume that the sequels were included in the contract, hence his appearance in the final movie.  They couldn't have given him another $20 million+ just for that.

I guess that's enough for now.  I've been thinking of other stuff to write but I'm still not sure I have the words.  Maybe later.

This was a year. There are many years like it but... Wait, scratch that.

It's over.

There are firecrackers going off in several places around me.  I was out watching them at midnight but didn't feel like standing around in the cold so I've come back in.

Didn't get much done today.  [I know it's technically a new day but I've never really thought of that until I wake up the next morning.]  I doubt few people have.  Now we get to see what happens next and I don't expect we'll enjoy it.