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.

Just think, in six months we'll be saying 'boy I miss 2020, things were so much better back then.'

I've actually put up all (most?) of my books on Amazon Kindle.  I'd done some of them before but now every one of them should be available as an ebook as well as the printed edition.  I've just gave them very generic covers already available on the website, the actual covers will only be available on the printed copies for the time being.  For now, there probably won't be any change until I become rich and famous enough to have a secretary take care of that stuff.  But who knows what 2021 will be like?

A lot of people are noticing that leftism is basically opposition to the individual.  That could possibly be THE source of the beliefs and, by extension, the avoidance of reality.  "Individualism means tyranny" is an actual claim they make [I literally just saw the quote for the first time while writing this paragraph although I assume I've heard it elsewhere in an Ayn Rand novel or something] which any sane person could see is demonstrably false, it's a claim that's intended to impose tyranny on everyone else.

God created us as individuals, any alternative is a defiance of God's will.  We can even choose to defy God, freedom makes it possible and that is not supported by the people opposing individualism unless they think it's a way to gain more power.

Barely a half-century ago, feminism was a big deal and now women-with-vaginas have to shut-up and take whatever the women-with-penises want.  Gay marriage was just a step on the path to pretending there are however many dozens of genders they're claiming exist now.  That's an example of ignoring reality, just as the new term "systemic racism" ignores individuals.  Skin color and pretending to be some brand-new gender is fine with them, they get power that way.  Individuals are too difficult to comprehend and there are too many of them to get anywhere.

That's one reason I think the military is the greatest institution, it's actually the closest to working socialism and reduces the concept of individuality as much as possible.  However it's also intelligent enough to know that individuality continues to exist and can't function without an unequal rank structure.

One problem is that I just don't think it's possible to stop leftism.  Flat-out executing anyone who believes in it isn't possible and wouldn't work even if it was.  'Individual' does apply even to them, no matter how much they pretend otherwise, and it's already been proven by freedom how complicated the individual is, only God could comprehend it to the fullest.

I'm starting to think of how the left - I still want a better term than "left" but "anti-individualism" just doesn't come off well - actually works this way but I still can't put it into words.  Obviously that's what I'm going to be writing about for the foreseeable future, at least as long as they permit us to do this.

Homeless Advocacy Group Takes Over Washington Motel And Demands Local Govt. Foot The Bill
December 30, 2020

Another Wave Of Portland Police Quit Amid Massive Spike In Shootings And Stabbings; Fire Dept. Responding To 10+ Homeless Tent Fires A Day
December 31, 2020

Brexit Deal With EU Becomes Law As The Queen Gives Official Royal Assent
December 31, 2020

We never see Clark Kent and Axl Rose together. Clark prefers hanging out with Slash.

Joe Clark, NJ principal, "Lean on Me," age 82
December 30, 2020

Dawn Wells, Mary Ann of "Gilligan's Island," age 82
December 30, 2020

Time is short.  About 30 hours left in the year.

I'm still focusing on Axl Rose's failure to do anything.  Slash made a comment recently that he was preparing for another solo album, about 20 songs were in preproduction and they'd get back to it at the beginning of the year.  He also added that work had been done on a new G'n'R album, a much less detailed and specific description of progress being made compared to what he'd just said about his latest solo album.

On August 26, 2002, Axl said "You'll get 18 songs and about 10 extra tracks.  And when that's done, when the record company feels that has run its course, then you'll get it all over again.  By that time, I should be done with the third album."  He had already been talking about the upcoming album, the cover art was ready, the songs for the album had been chosen and sequenced.  It just needed to be wrapped up.

That was 6702 days ago and Guns'n'Roses has released one album with fourteen songs.  6702 days before Axl said this, there was no Guns'n'Roses but band-members of L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose were moving back and forth and demos of "Anything Goes" and "Shadow of Your Love" had already been recorded in January 1984.

6702 days after Elvis recorded his first release, he'd gone through his early career, his army career, his movie career and his marriage to Pricilla.  Michael Jackson's first wife was over 4 and a half years old by then.

6702 days before John Lennon died, the Beatles were getting ready to fire Pete Best and get a new drummer.  They were still a little over two months away from recording their first single.  To be fair, Lennon did flat-out take several years off to focus on his son.  You wouldn't catch Axl doing that.

6702 before Freddie Mercury died, Queen's first album had been released for six days.  Their entire career can be contained within the time since Axl was ready to release the first album in his "trilogy" and that's not counting the nearly-eight years that had already passed since Axl's previous release, the "Sympathy for the Devil" cover, January 2, 1995.

And at least they had long careers.  Jim Morrison died 1642 days after his first release - 24.5% of the 6702 days since Axl's comment - and he'd already released as many albums as Axl ever has.  Hell, the Doors have released six live albums since Chinese Democracy came out, seven if you count the one that came out a week earlier than Chinese Democracy.

Jimi Hendrix has released three studio albums since Chinese Democracy came out and his career was even shorter than Morrison's.

David Bowie has release six studio albums since G'n'R's "Sympathy for the Devil" cover and he also took several years off.  Two of those albums came out after Chinese Democracy and did have bonus tracks.

Prince has only released old material since he died in 2016 but he still had seven albums after Chinese Democracy came out.  Some are bizarre but you'd expect that from Prince.  One album is actually a double-album that includes a third album by someone Prince was working with.  That's not what Axl does.

The point is that work needs to be finished and there's nothing to gain from keeping it away from the audience.  Even if we pretend that the people I've mentioned never did anything worth listening to in their entire lives except for "If I Can Dream," "A Hard Day's Night," "Bicycle Race," "Touch Me," "The Star Spangled Banner," "Ashes to Ashes" or "7," they still did other stuff for the sake of getting it done.  That's what made them the legends they were.

Music, and art in general, is not about sitting for years on expensive creations and pretending they'll be out shortly.  In one of his rare promotions for the album he'd been promising for years, Axl said the first music video would be out in a week or so.  It was just footage from a 2007 concert.  That was 12 years ago and he hasn't even bothered to explain why he made such a ridiculous claim in the first place.  Or any of the other ridiculous claims.

We don't need another hero. But here it is anyway.

□ [“Sammy Hagar and the Circle - "Heroes"]

Hey, yet another new Sammy song!  Ok, it's a cover of one of David Bowie's best-known songs and they only do two verses, but still, it sounds awesome.  They'll be releasing an album of this year's tracks in early-January.

How can they do that and no one else can?  I'm exaggerating a little, I'm pretty sure some others have done something, but it's kind of ridiculous that there's so few of it.  They've already lost the profit of selling music thanks to Youtube and other internet sites, now they've lost the money that came in from live shows.  Sammy and his crew still just want to make music, where is everyone else?

Every rose has its thorn but not every thorn has a rose.

□ [“Mike Pence Intends to Count the Electoral Votes on a Dominion Voting Machine"]

So now the rumor is that January 6 will be the crucial point, the Veep is the one who officially confirms the election and Pence will flat-out fake the votes using the machine Democrats claim to trust as long as they win.  Obviously they'd want to fight this but how would they do it?

I like the idea but I don't believe it for a second.  We saw Biden confirm the election in 2017 but obviously Democrats hadn't made any plans.  That won't be the case this time.  Trump may be a showman but I don't think he's remotely stupid enough to have deliberately held this off for so long.  If nothing else, why would he put Pence in that position?

I can't make any predictions though.  Even if by some miracle, the election fraud is overthrown, it won't stop, and either way I don't have a clue what's going to happen in the new year.  The closest I see to a plan is to get the left to tear down everything its standing on but how do we get to that?  They're all about denying reality, they always have been.  The best they can do is fall short of the goal as individuals.

Boston Removes Statue of Lincoln That Celebrated Emancipating Slaves — Because He Was White
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Epic Anti-Mask Flash Mob Takes Over CVS Shouting ‘FREEDOM’
December 29, 2020

Even the article specifies that it's not clear where this took place.  How odd.

What do we want? Peas! When do we want them?

Pennsylvania Certified Results for President Are Found in Error – The Error Is Twice the Size of the Difference Between Candidates
December 28, 2020

There's a few headlines about Trump signing the massive-spending bill and the House over-riding his veto of... a different spending bill?  I'm not paying close attention to this stuff.  Whatever else may be said about Trump, his opposition to spending went out the window early on so that problem remains growing larger every day.

□ [“Woman Has Courage to Say What Millions of Americans Are Thinking 'I’m Done' With this COVID Insanity"]

Will this be any kind of turn-around point?  I've heard bits of her comments - made to women in nurse outfits, suggesting they were either spreading virus from their patients or would be going back to work with virus for their patience - and she's not saying anything impressive, just the fact that she's doing it is making a big deal.

I'm positive people are tired of this nonsense.  I don't wear a mask unless I go someplace where everyone else is wearing one, but I go to few places anyway.  A virus is too small to be seen on a microscope, it's not going to be stopped by the cloth people put on their mouths.  Nor are they deadly to people who don't already have serious health issues.  This is all about faking a problem to increase government power over everyone and we've already noted the many government officials who get caught not wearing a mask.

Which is what the left wants.  They've been doing this for a long time.

□ [“Biden Goes Full Green New Deal Tyrant: Carbon Emissions Threaten 'the Very Existence of our Planet'"]

We release carbon from our mouths whether we're wearing a mask or not.  He could stop right now and save the planet but no one will catch him doing that.  He just gives orders everyone else must obey without question.  It doesn't sound like he ever had any questions either.

Just following up on my previous post, of course I listened to "Another One Bites the Dust."  I'd forgotten that Brian did a lot more on guitar than I'd expected, it's just mostly for background.  It's not a typical Queen song except in the sense that a lot of Queen songs aren't "typical Queen songs" but the guitar is noticeable, as are the drums which aren't remotely like Roger played them, very simple, very straightforward yet quite loud.  Music is rarely formed by the bass yet there it is and the frontman does his usual great job.  

You can pay attention to the song or to the individual parts of it, they're all right there.  You don't get that from Sinatra music.

Frank is sending some stooges to meet me when I get done tonight? Oh boy!

Not sure what this says about my current movie, but I've listened to two music albums today.  The first was Iggy Pop's first album with his original band, The Stooges.  The second was Frank Sinatra's most-infamous album, In The Wee Small Hours.  The former was decent rock songs made by a band who was very limited in talent but knew how to use what they had.  The latter was for a singer whose early success was in the past and had to figure out what to do next, probably not helped by a marriage to Ava Gardner.

[On the one hand, she's Ava Gardner.  On the other hand, having to marry Ava Gardner?  Call that a tie and just be grateful Frankie took one for the team.  Or be grateful to her, at least she quit being married after this.  Frank still had two more to go and hadn't even met Mia Farrow yet!]

Sinatra can certainly sing but there are places where he seems to be avoiding a genuine tune and others where he's amplifying his voice.  The band is almost entirely just background, just appearing briefly in places like "Ill Wind."  Iggy doesn't have either of those issues, his band is doing most of the work and he's having to use every technique he can think of to keep up as the frontman.

These are examples of talent and experience not meaning much.  The Stooges are a group of young adults throwing everything they have into the mix, Frankie knows songs and production but it doesn't add anything.  I've listened to enough Sinatra lately to really be disappointed in how it's all about the singer.  Obviously this is decades of hindsight, but it's like elevator music when it's not about Frankie.  At least Iggy and the boys have something to go on.  And frankly, I think they win as far as making decent pop songs.

Still, neither act are among my favorites and this is probably a good example of why.  I do like bands with talent and also that make full use of their songs.  As always, I cite Queen, each member being among the best in the world in their field, all capable of writing songs that are impressively catchy.  "Another One Bites the Dust" isn't remotely among my favorite Queen songs, but thinking of it just now as a random example (even as Frankie is still singing whichever tune this is) and the intro jumps out in my head, the bass-line is the main part, the drums keep it going, Brian didn't add much guitar but Freddie does a fantastic outward performance singing each verse in a different way that does what Iggy only wished he could do and Frankie never even tried.  I'm gonna have to listen to that song after I'm done with Sinatra and I don't even like it!

Another issue, I'm not sure how major it is, is that the albums came from a vastly different direction.  Full albums were still new when Frankie got into this so there is that much and to be fair, I haven't heard many others from the era, but still, it's just a bunch of love songs put together.  There's little difference in mood or production from one to the next, nothing the audience can hear anyway.  Most of the songs came from the 30s so they were already as old as Frankie's career.  That is another difference, back then it was said that the song was the important thing, the singer or band weren't.

Iggy and the Stooges came in as bands were expected to make up their own music.  Albums were still only a half-hour or so long but had already become works in-and-of themselves, not just collections of a couple hits and filler.  The previous decade had showed the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Simon & Garfunkel, none of whom sounded like the Stooges.  Hell, Iggy has always cited the Doors as his biggest influence and they didn't sound like the Stooges either.  Say what you will about rock'n'roll, it had already expanded the possibility and diversity in far less time than its predecessors.

For this debut, the Stooges didn't even have enough songs to be approved and had to crank out a few more in a week to get into the recording studio.  The new songs are weaker because the band hadn't learned how to make their limited talents work on them yet but the overall sound still comes through and I assume there are fans who prefer those songs over "1969" or "I Wanna Be Your Dog."  And yeah, there's plenty of reason to complain about the band as a bunch of talentless newcomers, but I think the same complaints could be made against Sinatra's band who weren't remotely talentless newcomers.

That's the thing about music, there's a level where ability isn't determined by knowledge, skill or experience.  In the long-term, it's better to have all that, but even there it's not required.

I'm enjoying the naughty girl Santa gave me. She is soooo naughty...

Less than 103 hours left in 2020.

□ [“330,000 Americans Die ‘With’ China Coronavirus – CDC says Number Who Died “From” Coronavirus Is Much Less, Around 6 Percent"]

It's been a hoax all year to increase government power, undoubtedly with China's help.  China knows how to rule communists and how to own slaves, all Democrats can do is go along with it.

□ [“Attorney Sidney Powell Releases 270 Page Document on Massive 2020 Election Fraud Involving Foreign Interference"]

Is this any more than a summery of the stolen election?  Can it be used for anything further or at least have other aspects underway?

I've been working on the "History project" and waiting for the new book to arrive.  It's what I do.  I'll hold off a little bit on the next book, I'll keep writing for it of course, but I plan to wait a while before putting it together.  I've already got about 16 pages done in a little over the last 10 days.

Right now, I'm assuming the next book will be the next batch of material I write.  I might change my mind as time goes by, particularly if I can put together other material I've already written but haven't published yet.  At some point I have nothing else left until I've produced a brand-new 200+ pages but I'd like to get as much done before then.  My goal is to average a book a year and there won't be any problem with that if I keep writing this much.  As I said, it's what I do.

Even with the brain problem, writing is still what I'm best at and what I enjoy most.  It seems to be what I'm here for, to notate current goings-on and add a few other thoughts and observations of whatever I'm thinking about at the moment.

I think I'll end this post now, we're almost down to 102 hours remaining.  I really don't expect next year to be any better but at least there's a chance.

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BREAKING: Police Responding to Bomb Threat at Empire State Building
December 27, 2020

Nashville Bomber Anthony Warner Perished at Scene, DNA Was Found at Site of Explosion: US Attorney
December 27, 2020

Self-identify as a left-handed black, homosexual Jew with a vagina and see how society reacts

Giuliani: Election fraud evidence 'going to blow up' after Christmas, become clear 'all at once'

December 25, 2020

Dr. Fauci justifies lies, saying Americans can't handle the truth

December 26, 2020

Staying low seems to be how the year will end.  Emotionally, physically, just wondering what's going to happen next.  Things like LTC Miller now running the military and the odd bombing in Nashville, an hours drive from where the LTC ran Special Forces, these do suggest something will happening, like Giuliani's claim that something will come out after Christmas.  On the other hand, it could have come out a month or two ago and the election would still be stolen.

The point is to prevent disaster, not wait until afterwards to do something.  I keep making this point, but Biden could flat-out admit to stealing the election and however-many people were alive when they voted for him would still be saying he's already POTUS.  I would very much like to see this reversed but I do not see how it can happen.

I have started coming up with some theories about what's going on, but nothing that I really even have words to start on, much less full description and all the trimmings.  The only place I can start is a theory on the Jews.  But then, that's probably the best place to start.

The Jews are God's "chosen people."  They don't qualify as a race, a nationality or even an organized religion.  Yet whatever they do, as a group or as individuals, they always reach or at-least near the top of any organization.  As individuals, they naturally provide a lot more examples of 'bad people' than any other group.  As a group, they're always blamed, sooner if not later, for any problems.  Notice that leftists have all agreed skin color is the most important thing and without hesitation, unanimously agreed that Jews are all white.  Thousands of years in the Middle East mean nothing, they're white.  That's how skin color works for the left.

You'd have to ask God why He chose them or what point they made against His adversary.  I'd ask but it's above my pay grade.  But that is what happened, under Egypt, Rome, Muhammed and today.  I think Jesus and Muhammed were specifically chosen as follow-ups to this message but it's been noted that any man, woman or child can choose to become Christian or Muslim at any point in their lives, the Jews are born that way.

Israel is still a work-in-progress.  It's been a success for many years but there are still people living who were born when the land was an empty desert with a few small towns in the region.  The Jews have had success like that before and it's always fallen eventually.  I do hope it won't happen in the lifetime of anybody reading this but it will sooner or later.

And so this is Christmas... The war is just getting started.

A truck exploded in Nashville early this morning.  Bodies have been found inside it although no details.  It was an RV and apparently an alarm had been going off for half an hour before it exploded, repeating "If you can hear this message, evacuate now."

A strike against the enemy?  A strike by the enemy?  

□ [“We Are Being Told The 'Scary' Mutant COVID In South Africa Is Even More Dangerous Than The 'Super COVID' In The UK"]

This is obviously just trying to keep people afraid and locked down, except for the leaders anyway.  The Black Plague and Spanish Flue had over 50 million deaths each.  Even if we pretend that the worldwide death toll is correct, less than 2 million people have died from this one.  Planned Parenthood has killed a lot more and that's just counting blacks.

Nothing much else to say.  It's obviously not much of a day for me.

A massive explosion ‘linked to a vehicle’ rocked downtown Nashville early Christmas morning
December 25, 2020

Texas gives vaccination priority to elderly over essential workers, ditching CDC guidelines
December 25, 2020