Bob Dylan

I left the U.S. in 1969. The idea of Nixon being the president was too much for my 20 year old sensibilities. I traveled the world and eventually wound up living in Amsterdam. While I was in Afghanistan my sensibilities were further assaulted while a northern Democrat, Louise Day Hicks-- from Boston no less-- ran on a racist platform and was elected to Congress. She only remained for two years before being defeated by a non-racist Democrat.

If the Trump Regime were running up mega-deficits by improving the country's healthcare system or educational system or by improving the infrastructure-- all promises he made during his campaign and then tossed away as soon as he got into the White House in favor of massive tax cuts for the wealthy (another campaign promise broken)-- I wouldn't mind the

One of Trump's most ardent-- and despised-- Republican antagonists is George Conway. Yesterday he penned a piece for The Atlantic, Unfit For Office, to be read with Bob Dylan's classic "Subterranean Homesick Blues" playing in the background. In short, Kellyanne's husband's message is the same message he's been tweeting for over 2 years, namely that Señor Trumpanzee's narcissism makes it impossible for him to carry out the duties of the presidency in the way the Constitution requires.

Latino Decisions surveyed Latino registered voters in Florida, Arizona and Nevada for a new memo released by Priorities USA this week. They will likely be an Anti-Trump bulwark in all three states, but could provide the Democrats with a much bigger share of the votes, if the Democratic Party were to magically come alive and start acting something like a political party.

Edward Curtin reviews the movie, “The Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story.” By Edward Curtin Edwardcurtin.com  “He wears a mask and his face grows to fit it.” – George Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant” The lobby of the temple of time…Read more →

He wears a mask and his face grows to fit it.
— George Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant”, 1936

I have been pondering lately the significance of two elder visionaries who have exerted a lasting influence on me – Noam Chomsky (90) and Bob Dylan (77) – the former because he is an intellectual ‘rock of Gibraltar’ now in his ninth decade, and the latter because I recently saw the Nobel Laureate perform in concert more than half a century after the lyrics of his timeless classics became etched in my youthful brain.

Last night I had a  long working-dinner with a world-famous author and neuroscientist whose new book on the aging brain is coming out early next year. He was explaining to me why the average person reports that their happiest years were around 80, if they live that long. There were quite a few reasons but one big one had to do with a tendency to shut out negativity and to focus exclusively on good news and happy memories (or happy manufactured memories). This is working out extraordinarily well for Biden, whose support among extremely old Democrats is overwhelming.

On Friday, just as Spain was preparing to vote, Bob Dylan played at the Bizkaia Arena in Bilbao. His set list as been unchanged for the whole European tour-- until the Friday night gig when he added a rare song he doesn't play much, "Dignity." An old friend married a donostiarra and settled in her hometown, San Sebastián, about an hour and a half from Bilbao. They drove there for the concert with their 3 kids, all of whom took the song as an anti-fascist message in the middle of an election where the fascists were making a comeback attempt through the Vox party.

Hunter Walker, Yahoo News' White House correspondent reported last week that Bernie is set to announce that he's running. My sources inside the gestating campaign told me Walker is just guessing.