Beyond The Door

It’s safe to say Juliet Mills, who played the wholesome limey nanny of the 1970 ABC sitcom Nanny And The Professor, never kissed any of her three adolescent charges in that show the way she kisses her character Jessica’s son in Beyond The Door:

Beyond The Door is a 1975 Italian horror movie. . .so, yeah, it looks and sounds cheap, has the type of *huh?* script that invites the viewer to question it in nearly every scene (example: Jessica, her husband and two pre-teen children live in a posh San Francisco apartment, and the Satanic attack they endure provokes such NOISE, furniture and other objects crashing around in rooms shaking with earthquake force, ear-splitting demonic laughter, children wailing, husband and wife screaming. . .but none of the neighbors ever bother to step out into the hallway to see what the fuck is going on in the madhouse that has become apartment 1508, or to ask them if they could tell Satan to please keep it down a little, people are trying to sleep and have to go to work in the morning!), poorly dubbed and poorly culturally translated (example: the greaseballs who made this flick try to capture ‘70s SanFran Americana by having Jessica’s 10 year old daughter speak in an absurdly foul-mouthed Manson-girl hippie-ese).

The film is an obvious rip-off of both Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, the convoluted plot as follows: Jessica is taken to a Satanic ceremony where she watches a nude girl writhe on an altar while listening to the whispers of the mysterious Dimitri, who we later learn has sold his soul to Satan. Jessica, sadly for the audience, runs away before being raped. Years later Jessica is living happily in San Francisco with her milquetoast husband and two brat kids when she learns she is pregnant. The pregnancy proceeds at hyper-speed with hyper-pain, which alarms Jessica’s doctor. . .but, not so much. Anyway, the baby, surprise!, is Satan’s, and Satan tells Dimitri if he goes to Frisco and makes sure the baby is born, he will extend his life. Why would powerful Satan need Dimitri’s help? It turns out he don’t, he just wants to fuck with Dimitri one last time before taking his soul.  Hey, Satan wants to have a few kicks, too!  Meanwhile, Jessica suffers all sorts of Linda Blair-type indignities while carrying Satan’s child. And. . .that’s pretty much it.

Yet despite the film’s ample limitations, I liked it back in 1975 when I first saw it, and I liked it last night when I watched it again for the first time in 46 years on Shudder. The film has a couple original creepy effects and enough random bizarre moments (Jessica’s simpering husband is hounded by a demonic trio of negro San Francisco street musicians, Jessica’s son gobbles green pea soup straight from the can, her daughter carries around multiple copies of Erich Segal’s Love Story) and interesting experimental shots and abrupt cuts to keep it in the mildly amusing *good* bad horror movie category.

And yet the highlight remains, at least for the boomer crowd, seeing Juliet Mills (looking like a proto Kirsten Dunst) playing a projectile vomiting whore of Satan. I watched Mills as the goody-goody Nanny when I was ten, and then at age 15 I see her floating in the air, face disfigured, legs spread-eagle, begging Dimitri to reach up and rip Satan’s baby from her snatch?? Pretty trippy back then, and throwback trippy, now! 

The GameStop Madness

I've always been of the opinion the *stock market* has no relation to the *real economy,* the real economy being the paycheck-to-paycheck monetary existence of the tens and tens of millions of us chumps chained in wage slavery, us chumps who trade 40 or more hours a week of our lives at twenty bucks or less an hour.  Us chumps, to sum it up brief, who know the price of a Little Caesars pizza or a gallon of gas.

The *stock market* is a dump for the rich.  The rich dump the loot they steal from us chumps (example: the chump has to buy a shitty used car to drive to his shitty job, and the rich offers him a piece of shit that he can't buy without financing, so the piece of shit which is price-tagged at $7500 actually ends up costing an additional 3.9% or whatever).  The rich toss this loot in the dump, turn it into a company with a fancy name, then trade it back it and forth among themselves, giving each other *earnings,* which is what they call the money they create out of the thin air through which they play catch with each other's gold. 

The rich get richer and richer off this usurious Ponzi scheme until it collapses, with whatever small loss on their huge gains they incur written off to their additional benefit on their crooked tax returns, and then they turn right back around and start it all over again. . .

But in the last couple weeks, the *stock market* has actually reflected the *real economy.*  The reddit wallsreetbets GameStop madness, in which the rich got sloppy with their *short* usury and didn't buy way too much of a worthless GameStop stock they pretended they were going to buy, and got put in a David-and-Goliath squeeze by some reddit nerds, with the result that the GameStop stock became an albatross around the necks of some of the rich, and a goose laying golden eggs for a few reddit nerds (if you want all the technical details of this nonsense, read this) became a sad sign of the times.

By the time the average poor chump heard of the GameStop squeeze and rushed to wallstreetbets to find out how to make some EZ money, the Game had already Stopped.  The $4 stock had almost hit $500, and was starting to slide back down when a rampaging mob of chumps tried to join the party.  Unfortunately, when the chump mob hit wallstreetbets, they encountered false prophecy after false prophecy predicting that GameStop was headed for another squeeze, and the stock would shoot back up past $500, then to $1000, $5000, $10000.  The chump mob was convinced a $4 stock priced at $300 was still a *ticket to the moon!*  Convinced?  No.  Not unless you believe half-a-dozen rocket emojis at the end of a day(trader)dreamer's fantasy is convincing.  

No, the chump mob wasn't convinced, it was inculcated. . .

Ha, the chump mob saw Satan fall like lightning, and became initiates into the cult of usury, imagining they, too, could use the same magic as the rich, and transform into the rich. . .

So the wallstreebets GameStop madness must surely be a sign of the times, and a true reflection of the *real economy,* for only a mob of chumps driven nearly senseless by the unrelenting hopelessness of the *real economy* could latch on to such a desperate, mad belief.  

Can you imagine the defeat, the impossibility of realizing a dignified income, the futility of paying your masters, that would provoke a mob of chumps to scrape and scratch, to beg, borrow or steal for one single $300 share of a dangerously combustible stock of GameStop in the hope it would turn into $5000 or $10000 in a couple day's time?  What kind of *real economy* produces such madness?  Only a broken economy, a economy beyond fix, an economy that may only be a $1200 stimulus check away from complete collapse.

It's an economy of great divide, the chasm now between the vast poor and the few rich so great, only a GameStop rainbow could bridge it. . .

No Faith

14 January 2020: As lawmakers prepared to impeach Donald Trump for inciting a mob to attack the Capitol and D.C. readied for Joe Biden's inauguration, Cliff Dyrud wasn't focused on man-made actions. He was listening for the words of prophets. Five years ago, a prophetess Dyrud follows said she'd gotten a message that Donald Trump would be president and save Christian America. Trump would be "as fearless as a lion being robbed of its cubs," and cause the "tall and lofty mountains" of establishment types to fall, her prophesy went. And Dyrud, a 73-year-old missionary, saw her words come true. So last week, he brought his "Appeal to Heaven" flag from Fargo to D.C., and marched with thousands of other Christians: Christians who, like him, believe another dimension - high above the news frenzy - is in charge, a supernatural one where God reigns, and where Donald Trump has very clearly already been prophesied to serve a second term.

"Anyone who think this ends tonight is totally mistaken ... you are still the president and we need you to stay on the front lines, sir," prophet Mario Bramnick, one of Trump's faith advisors, said Jan. 7. "We thank God for exposing and foiling all the plans of the enemy set against him. We affirm his lawful election and pray for four more years with Donald Trump as our President!" the 24/7 National Strategic Prayer Call, a 10,000-member Arkansas-based ministry that hosts weekly live prayer calls,told its listeners Monday.

"What's different from the past [of apostolic, charismatic Christianity] is it's just so wound up with the person and presidency of Trump," says Peter Montgomery, who has studied and written about right-wing religious movements for decades. "Many of these prophetic leaders in 2015-2016 said Trump was anointed by God, divinely assigned to save America and protect religious freedom. And now with them believing that Trump is standing in the way of Christianity being criminalized in the United States, this is an existential moment."

Dyrud says he was not at the Capitol when the riot took place, and is doubts the mob was made up of Trump supporters. He has been active in Tea Party events, and said he's very concerned that what he sees as an overzealous government reaction to the coronavirus that "took people's rights to businesses and jobs." He believes in Q-like prophesies that there is a large, hidden cabal of people who want America to be subsumed into a global system of government. To him, persecuting Christians is an obvious part of this plan.

With Trump's future in doubt, prophets and their believers Wednesday were working hard to discern God's will in the events this month - and to look for the next prophesy. A couple have apologized for wrong predictions (though "it doesn't make me a false prophet," said Kris Vellotton, senior associate leader of the massive prophetic church Bethel, in Redding, Calif.) By Monday, Wallnau was urging followers to focus on true prophesies and disregard conspiracy theories making the rounds on prophetic sites - such as one about Trump being about to declare martial law, or another about how major social media sites are about to go black. In December, Wallnau said on a prayer call that God would "overturn" the election because Trump's "assignment" from God has not yet been completed. Later that month, in a video on his Facebook page, he said Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) congratulating Biden on his victory was just another example of the deep state that Trump was sent to fight. Now, Wallnau said Monday, the prophetic word he's now hearing is "enlargement." How God is just about to "enlarge his sphere on Earth." As far as the false predictions, he asked: "Why is it our people are so vulnerable to this stuff?"

Well, that is an easy question to answer. . .

The people do not have the faith of Jesus Christ.

People who lack faith seek *signs and wonders.*

Two thousand years ago, the *religious,* standing right next to the Lord Jesus Christ, hearing His words, seeing His ministry of service, could not recognize His absolute authority, and lacking faith, pestered Jesus for *signs and wonders:*

The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired Him that He would shew them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And He left them, and departed.

Today's MAGA *religious* are the same.  They have no faith.  They need heretics, deceivers, charlatans to tell them God is here in the person of Donald Trump to save them, they saw his election in 2016 as a confirmatory sign, and what they imagine to be faith, they placed in Trump, and of course now they cannot accept Trump's defeat, which would expose their own duping, and force them to acknowledge their worship of a cheap idol.  An idol so crude, so false, even the heathen were able to discern his worthlessness.

Yes, the godless abortion lovers and sodomites were right, and they, the elect bride of Trump, were wrong!  

When Trump is out of the White House, we can imagine some of the MAGA *religious* abandoning the cult of Trump, they will see that as a *sign!*. . .and will promptly begin looking for the next false Christ.  Have no fear for them, for God will send them a strong delusion, to confirm their damnation.

Others of the MAGA cult will continue to profess the anointing of Trump, and will wander their spiritual desert eternally lost, insisting, as they do at this very moment, Trump will be returned to the Throne of God (which they blaspheme by placing it in the White House. That is their abomination of desolation).  False prophets will tell them the military will arrest Biden and restore Trump, or he will be re-elected in 2024, or any of a number of absurd fantasies.  They will await the second Presidency of their savior Trump as a sick, hellish inversion of the true faithful's waiting for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ha! These faithless seekers of signs and wonders, with their love and worship of the MAGA myth, fulfill the last words of the Apostle Paul:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Becky

Despite a plot that makes QAnon’s Storm seem believable, Becky is a mostly enjoyable revenge/gore flick due to the energetic performance of the kid actress who plays the titular character.  A group of neo-Nazis escape from prison, then head to a vacation home nestled in the woods in search of a key that will unlock something (the viewer is never told what) that will make all their skinhead dreams come true.  The house is inhabited by a newly formed interracial couple with two kids, one of them being thirteen-year-old Becky, who still grieves for her recently deceased mother, and alternates between sullen silence and explosive rage over her father’s many failings, and impending black step-mother and step-brother.  While brooding away from the others in a nearby tree house, Becky just so happens to find the key shortly before the arrival of the neo-Nazis.  This sets off the increasingly illogical torture/revenge plot which leaves Becky as the only member of the unBrady interracial Bunch capable of fighting the skinheads.  Hellbent on taking out all her pent-up rage on the Aryan gang, Becky discovers her inner Hit Girl. With a native instinct and quirky flair (she chooses a chipmunk hat for her battle helmet) for combat, and armed with a wooden ruler, colored pencils, zip line, Nerf Super Soaker and lawnmower, Becky manages to more than hold her own against the bad white guys.  The kid actress who plays Becky is named Lulu Wilson, and her live wire performance as the angsty/angry adolescent gives the film enough juice, along with a couple imaginative gore set pieces, to overcome the silly plot and the rest of the cast’s inept performances, chief of which is Kevin James as the neo-Nazi ringleader.  The flabby James is about as menacing a Nazi as those from Hogan’s Heroes. Movie Formula: Last Tree House On The Left ÷ Kick-Ass.

Separation From Reality

Separation from reality. . .

This characterizes a fairly large segment of the American population. 

The woman in the video, Juliette Kayyem, is the other side of our current American coin, the flip side of the MAGA hillbillies.

That such a person can appear on a national television outlet (CNN) and present such a gross distortion ought to be alarming.

Donald Trump is an incompetent President, a sore loser, and guilty (through his immature thinking) of reckless endangerment.  But he is certainly not the Operational Leader of a Terrorist Organization.  This, in fact, is as stupid as the ludicrous charge MAGA hillbillies bring against Joe Biden when they call him an agent of the CCP.

How is it that so many Americans, whatever their imaginary political differences  (because at core they embrace the same crude material system of life), can not process reality?

This is the result of a way of life.

*Americans* are not real.  Human beings are brought into existence through haphazard mating and some find themselves birthed *here,* and from their unfortunate birth are entered into a way of life that teaches them to identify themselves as Americans, and to embrace being American, to acknowledge its priority, and strive after Americanism (gross material existence, gained through the exploitation and murder of external others, who are identified as enemies.  We are good, they are evil, now go on untroubled about the business of America). 

This way of life becomes the crutch on which the sheeple limp through their lives. . .too terrified of the unknown to try to find a genuine foundation for existence of their own.   

Such an artificial existence is easily subject to emotional disturbance, as is evident in the American rate of suicide, addiction (chemical and physical) and neurosis.

In a time of trauma, such as living under the shadow of the virus death, the sheeple lean ever more heavily on their crutches.  Thus the MAGA hillbilly embraces ever more fervently his savior Trump, who diminishes the virus.  If Trump were to be removed, then they are left alone to face the virus in its true form.  The MAGA hillbillies are literally fighting for their lives as they storm the Capitol to overturn the electoral fraud that threatens their savior.

Likewise, unhinged leftists such as Juliette Kayyem feel threatened when the *terrorist* Trump, who has denied the virus and failed to protect the sheeple from it, tries to cling to power and block their leftist savior, Biden, who will acknowledge the virus and protect them from it with *good* government.

Fear clouds the sheeple's vision. . .

We must also consider one other not insignificant factor: the dishonesty of American government.

When the truth is not told about traumatic events such as Ruby Ridge and Waco, the sheeple will attempt to piece together a narrative that enables them to take control of a situation that shakes their way of life.

It's shameful how Timothy McVeigh has not been referenced in our current state of illusion, for the MAGA hillbillies of today are practicing McVeighism.  The government has failed them in their time of trauma, and it is now up to them to take their own action to safeguard their way of life.

The same dishonesty hangs over from *9/11* to this day.  When truth is abandoned, then everything is open to question, and thus nothing in America is real, anymore.  Every traumatic event is now questioned, examined for *crisis actors,* *false flags,* *psy-ops.*  Every traumatic event becomes occult, hiding a sinister true core that threatens the sheeple's ideological existential crutch.  Thus a virus can be a *hoax,* and a close election held in the midst of a virus trauma threatens each side's belief system. The leftists are trying to wipe out conservatives by stealing the election from Trump, who protects them from the reality of the virus, the right-wingers are trying to over-turn the will of the people and leave democrats at the mercy of the virus-denying Trump!  This is the cracked mirror of the American fun house.  And it's no surprise to see the vampire of *9/11,* Rudolph Giuliani, reanimated from the fear of our current trauma.  The more things change in America, the more they stay the same.

American Underground Literature, Volume 2: David Morgan

In days long ago, before the electronic age, there existed *zines.* Amateur paper magazines self-published by oddballs. Most of them were terrible, consisting of horribly written tales of self-pity xeroxed and mailed out to dozens of other self-absorbed scribes in the underground fanzine world.

There were a few noteworthy exceptions, one of them was Social Deviate, a compendium of esoterica published by David Morgan. Featuring intelligent inquiry into a fascinating mix of subjects, every issue was a showcase of Mr. Morgan's curiosity, creativity, and wit.

Mr. Morgan's *real life* odyssey has been equally intriguing, with his adventures taking from the USA to Europe, Asia and South America.

After losing contact with Mr. Morgan for a few years, I recently caught up with him via electronic mail, and asked him if he would share his old zine and zine scene memories, plus opinions on various personal interests and contemporary issues.

Mr. Morgan currently lives in Peru and may be contacted through his Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1794887-cwn-annwn-13

Interview With American Expatriate Writer David Morgan

Q: What prompted you to start your zine Social Deviate? Was the reaction what you expected? And then, why did you give it up?

A: I honestly can't remember for sure or the specifics of why I had decided to start publishing a Zine so I have to speculate a bit. I had been aware of what Zines were since the '80s but most I had been exposed to were lame music scene type stuff. I enjoy different types of music but I could care less what any of these scene queens have to say about anything. I do remember finding a copy of the old Zine review Zine Factsheet 5 in a bookstore in Louisville and ordering some stuff out of that that sounded interesting. One thing about Factsheet 5 that you have to give them credit for is they had a very open format as far as what type of stuff they would review. So there was variety in what was reviewed there as opposed to only the boring music scene gossip trash or things from a left-only political perspective. Plus they had fairly good distribution for what they were. I was somehow able to find a copy of it in a bookstore in Louisville which is kind of a bumpkin place. But I believe the roots of me publishing a Zine were most likely from being exposed to some of the more interesting and unique publications I found via Factsheet 5. I have never considered myself or wanted to be a writer but at the same time throughout my life I have always found myself writing. I always liked writing letters, conveying my thoughts, sharing my life experiences through writing and I also appreciated the D.I.Y independent way of doing things so I guess it fell together like that. Overall publishing a Zine was a fun unique hobby I had for a couple of years although I would almost certainly cringe in embarrassment at some if not most of what I wrote at that time. Some of the things I wrote then I certainly don't agree with now. If anybody has any old copies of Social Deviate please burn them! Haha.

As far as reaction it was what it was I guess. I think the most copies I ever sold and/or distributed of any issue was over 100 but never even near 150. That's including giving issues away and doing trades through the mail with other Zine publishers. I think you called Zine publishing "The Oddball Penpal Club" or something like that. That's about the truth when you get down to it. Haha. A lot of the stuff that came out of that scene was entertaining or interesting for its time. Probably a very tiny percentage would actually stand the test of time and still be worth reading now but I am sure some of it would.

As far as stopping publishing the Zine it had just run its course and it was time to shut it down. Around this time I was riding motorcycles, competing as an amateur boxer and had started a motorcycle related website that I was using as a creative outlet so doing a Zine just wasn't holding my interest anymore.

Q: You then wrote a remarkable livejournal page, Cwn Annwn, where one could stumble across an eclectic array of entries, everything from book reviews to observations on life in Denmark, Scandinavian metal bands, Odinism and pre-Christian religions, coonhounds, boxing, anything and everything. Sadly for its readers, you abandoned that as well. Why?

A: I was a little burnt out on that format. I had also started using Facebook which was more convenient and there was more person to person interaction whereas LJ was more like an obscure corner of the internet. Which is both good and bad.

I am of the opinion that personal and webpages with a niche focus killed zines, blogs killed personal webpages, and social media, Facebook in particular, killed off blogs. Facebook for all the censorship and Orwellian issues it has, the format itself is well done. Although a lot of the stuff I would write on LJ would get me banned from Facebook.

Q: Is there anywhere you are currently active on the internets?

A: I am active on Facebook. I post something or other more or less every day on FB. For all the censorship and Orwellian issues it has the format itself is very good. I stay out of the quagmire of arguing about politics or social issues for the most part and post pics or sports or training related stuff and sometimes talk about stuff going on in my life. I make an effort to stay low key in my online presence but at the same time I can be an open book when I feel like it. The most useful thing about FB to me is I can save my pics and keep in touch with friends. I live a gypsy lifestyle and have lived on 4 continents with only two years being in America since 2004 so otherwise a lot of people I have known for many years would not be able to keep up with me and vice versa.

I also have a Twitter but I don't do much with it but follow boxing, sports, training stuff. I probably only look at my Twitter once a month and post something very rarely.

Q: The internets destroyed the zines. Isn't it amazing that the internets, which offer limitless possibilities, have basically been reduced to porn sites, news aggregators, job boards and a few social media sites? Are the internets now the greatest force for conformity in the history of the world?

A: It does seem that way at times. Political discussions are more like cheering for your favorite sports team to most people. There is opposition to the other teams cheerleaders and taking the position of your favorite team on every issue. They are like dogs chasing their own tail and sports fans cheering for their favorite team. Even beyond the mainstream all these internet based subcultures that seem fringe or very strange to most people have their own dogma within their own circles. Most people are chicken shit conformists really. It's always been that way I suppose.

I used to think the internet made people smarter because you had millions of people that literally never wrote anything ever were now at least sending emails, texting and reading news articles but even with instant information on every subject under the sun at your fingertips now I have to wonder. It probably does make potentially smart people dumber. I like to read books but I would probably read five times as many books if it wasn't for the internet. At the end of the day stupid people are going to be stupid no matter what you do with them but outside of people who are just genius level which comes from somewhere inside themselves typical people who are potentially intelligent have to cultivate it.

Q: You always had an interest in the fringe and the esoteric. The fringe exists on the internets, but it's even further on the fringe than it was in pre-electronic times. Why haven't oddballs been able to make greater use of the internets?

A: A lot of stuff that was considered fringe in the '90s and 2000s is mainstream now. Especially the SJW type of thought. But from all over the spectrum a lot of formerly fringe ideas and figures are mainstream now. Most Americans probably know who Alex Jones is but I remember him when he did shortwave radio and had only a small presence on the internet. I remember him acting like the sky was going to fall because of Y2K. Lol. But I guess some of the oddballs are just better at marketing themselves and their ideas using the internet. In the '90s I remember getting newsletters in the mail from all sorts of fringe figures. People like Texe Marrs, Michael Hoffman, or you'd get some guy thinking UFO's and Aliens were the Biblical Nephilim or some Christian Identity kook doing a newsletter. Just all kinds of stuff. It was fun to read because it was different. Some of them were total crackpots but they were unique entertaining crackpots whereas now most people gravitate to these mostly internet based subcultures where there is mass conformity. It's good to have set beliefs while still being able to think outside the box but most of these "fringe" people seem to lock themselves into a box.

Q: The printing press was the singular achievement of human technological history, all that came after would be impossible without it. Yet Americans hold little regard for the printed word. I know you are an avid reader. Are you able to explain your interest in books? Are you a reader by nature, or was there one particular book that generated your interest? Also, let us know the works that have had the greatest influence on your life.

A: I have more or less always been a reader even in my early childhood. My parents were more or less idiots but one thing I will give them credit for is there were always books around both parents places and every birthday or Christmas I always got a few books among my gifts. Plus a Grandmother in eastern Kentucky would send a package of random stuff a few times a year and there were always at least a few books in it. Pretty cool stuff too. Like big Jack London and Sherlock Holmes anthologies or The Hobbit. Stuff like that you can't go wrong with. Plus even as a kid I always haunted libraries and bookstores. I always made use of libraries even as a child.

But as far as stuff that's had a big influence to me most of it is stuff that I first read as kid or teenager that I still go back to now and holds the test of time. Jack London was and is a big one to me. The Fantasy genre as whole, especially Tolkien. Robert E. Howard. I started buying the old Conan paperbacks with the Frazetta covers when I was 13 years old. Now I have a full back piece tattoo of one of Frazetta's paintings that was the cover of one of those Conan books I bought when I was in my early to mid teens. Michael Moorcock's Elric stories were a big influence. Homer's Odyssey a huge influence. I try to model my life around that book in some ways. Norse and Greek mythology and various Icelandic sagas were huge influences. All these entertained me as well as inspiring and influencing my world view and mentality. But I read all kinds of stuff. Not just fantasy and mythology. Whatever looks interesting I give it a chance. Fiction, non fiction, history, biographies, niche subjects. I try to put aside at least a little time for reading every day. I used to have a huge home library with 100s of physical in the flesh books but now the only books I have are stored on my Kobo ereader. I miss the feel and smell and look of having shelves full of old books but given my lifestyle ebooks and an ereader are the only viable option if I want to continue being an avid reader.

Q: Most Americans believe America is the greatest nation that has ever existed, and cannot imagine there being anywhere else beyond its shores that offer a better way of life. Strangely, even Christians adhere to this belief, in fact, more fanatically, as they would prefer not to die and be with Christ in the glory beyond, but remain alive with Donald Trump forever under the star spangled banner. How is it that you escaped the spell of the American Way of Life? You actually left America, the Shining City on the Hill. When did you first suspect there might indeed be other forms of life out there?

A: My ex-wife was Danish so that is why I was able to leave America and live in Denmark. I was there close to 10 years. I probably would have stayed there the rest of my life but their immigration fucked me over and I ended up getting deported. I had been split up with my ex-wife over two years and out of the blue I got a letter from their immigration which said my legal right to reside there was because I had been married to her and because we were no longer married I no longer had the legal right to live there. They actually concluded the letter by saying I had 30 days to leave the country. This is after having lived there creeping up on a decade. Lol.

Needless to say I told them to fuck off and said if you want me to leave I am going to make you go through all the cost, hassle and legal process of deporting me. It took them about 9 months to find me. I probably could have gotten away with living there illegally for years but there was a murder attempt on me and some other things going on which put me on the police radar. It all came to an end when I woke up one morning at my girlfriend-at-the-times's place with three cops standing over the bed asking for my passport and they took me away. They held me for about a month before they actually deported me.

I was back in America for a little under two years. Pretty much dead on the water. It was depressing. Both for myself and seeing what had become of most of the people I knew. I ended up going to Korea and was there for nearly 4 years flipping a tourist visa taking a boat back and forth from Korea to Japan and back working illegally to survive. Now I am in Peru where a world of adventure awaits me if the world ever gets back to normal if this covid shit ever passes.

Q: Do you prefer to remain outside America for the rest of your life?

A: You never know what fate will toss our way but most likely I will not live in America again. The potential of interesting life experiences in South America are seemingly endless. Really anybody can see and live all over the world no matter how poor they are if they have balls and a spirit of adventure. The worst things that can happen that come to mind for most people, poverty, getting locked up, deported, homelessness, death. All these things suck but I have experienced them all except being dead and that will happen eventually anyway. So I am willing to take the risk even though there is no soft landing pad for me if things go wrong. It's just people from western countries won't leave the nest unless they are guaranteed American middle class comfort and security. This is why 95% of the expats you meet in foreign countries are spoiled trust fund types or people with well-paying corporate positions that arrive with everything laid out for them as soon as they arrive. A good percentage of the lamest human beings I have ever met in my life were western expats in foreign countries. I don't have much common ground with these people and I am cut from another cloth.

Q: You recently lived in South Korea. What was it like during the coronavirus pandemic? Did you see anybody drop dead in the street?

A: I left Korea 9 or 10 days into March 2020. Right before the whole world totally shut down. I got into Peru two days before they froze all flights going in or out of the country. But I was there in Korea when the world epicenter of the covid outbreak was in Daegu which was an hour and a half away from where I was in Busan. Korea literally cordoned all of Daegu off for a while where people were limited as far as being allowed to come and go from the city. I didn't worry too much about catching it because Busan itself had a very low rate of the virus. I rode the subway and went out drinking beer, going to karaoke places, out to eat, etc., the last week I was there. But most places were shut down and people were hesitant about going out so I couldn't have the proper send off to Korea that I wanted. I wore a mask when I went out but didn't worry about catching it because at that time I don't think there had been even 100 cases in Busan which has something like 5 to 7 million people so I figured the odds were slim I would catch it. But it still was surreal at the time because so little was known about it and most businesses were shutting down, people not working, etc.

In retrospect the outbreak in Korea was miniscule. It's been inconceivably worse here in Peru. Even though for several months they had a full national quarantine being enforced with soldiers holding machine guns in the streets in every neighborhood they still have one of the world's highest infection and death rates here. Things have loosened up as far as restrictions but they are still far from normal and you can't do much of anything yet.

Q: Do they have wet markets in South Korea? If so, what was the strangest thing you saw for sale?

A: They have American style supermarkets in Korea but I did 95% of my food shopping in traditional markets. (I assume that is what you mean by wet market). Koreans eat some things that initially seem strange to westerners but it's not like all the wild shit like you hear about people eating in China. At the outdoor traditional markets I'd buy vegetables, eggs, apples, etc. So it was pretty normal fare. One old lady would have the cheap cabbage and bean sprouts, another had eggs, another made homemade kimchi that was good. They always remembered me and treated me well because I was the only foreigner that came through. But as far as strange things I saw at those markets I remember one lady would have a bucket of frogs sometimes. But I ate frog legs many times when I lived in the States. I ate squirrel and other wild game many times in America. Once a friend of mine made a pizza with cougar meat on it that I helped him eat back in the '90s. So I don't know if the Asian diet is all that weird compared to what an adventurous eater in the States eats. Korean food is actually very underrated cuisine. Anybody that doesn't like Bulgogi or Korean BBQ has something wrong with them.

But I think the most fucked up thing I ate when I lived in Korea was they have these canned beetle things they eat there that I tried once. I bought a can just to try them. I wasn't sure what to do with them so I cooked them in a stir fry with a few random ingredients. I was beyond the mind fuck that I was eating a bug but they just tasted horrible. A nasty bitter taste. Actually one of the best things I had in Korea is I would go to the Jalgachi fish market in Busan often. That was actually my favorite place to go to eat and party in Korea because it was real Korea there. There were all kinds of bizarre fish and sea creatures they would eat there. But I would get these eels and eat those. You'd sit in an outdoor booth and these old ladies would fish them out of a tank, skin them alive and chop them up and they would still be moving as the ajumah cooked them for you even though they were skinned and chopped into several pieces. They would fry them up with all this spicy stuff and it was amazing. I loved going there with friends or women I was running around with. I have my share of bad memories about Korea and a lot of criticisms of the culture but Koreans are so much fun as far as going out to eat and then drinking and partying it up all night.

But back to food honestly the worst food monstrosities in Korea are their alterations to western foods. I saw pizza places that offered pizza with blueberries. They had pizza with Oreo cookies on it. They would put corn on pizza. It's fucking disgusting. Lol. Also sugar on garlic bread. Sugar coated corn dogs. Like I said Korean food itself is good but when they tinker with western foods it's a unintentional comedy disaster.

Another thing I should mention is the dog eating in Korea. That is rapidly being phased out. I know they shut down the markets in Seoul and Busan that sold dog meat during the time I was living there. The people that would eat dog in Korea were mostly old Korean guys that believe eating dog soup a certain time of the year will give them raging boners and sex power. Not joking or making this up. One thing you have to understand is Korea was a very very poor country that turned into an economic powerhouse over night. Never in world history has there been anything like this happen so rapidly. So in many ways Korea is still catching up. You have a huge amount of the population, especially the older people, that are living 50 years in the past that the world passed them by and they are never going to catch up economically or socially. And at the same time you have lots of people that had nothing and made obscene amounts of money very quickly that are like the Asian version of the Beverly Hillbillies and even with their wealth come off as very trashy and backward. Lots of bad plastic surgery, and buying obscenely overpriced luxury brands, and loutish tacky behavior etc.

Q: I also know you to be a student of the Sweet Science, the sport of boxing. What do you make of its sad decline? And what do you think of this newfangled deviation, where boxing is combined with kicking, elbowing, facesitting. They call it, preposterously enough, Ultimate Fighting, I believe.

A: There is blame to go around at every level of the sport. Promoters who won't let their fighters fight anybody they don't promote. Sanctioning bodies that create bogus "World Championships." Disorganized badly run amateur boxing programs which makes it hard for fighters to fight often enough to develop. Trainers that don't know what the fuck they are doing. Boxers themselves not wanting to take risk and take tougher fights. And society as a whole just being soft. You have to be cut from a certain special cloth to box.

As far as Mixed Martial Arts I am a boxing guy so I am not much of a fan but I do respect what they do. They are tough guys, work hard at what they do and many of them are very athletically gifted.

Q: Do you have any interest in the lady fight scene, as apparently this is also fairly popular now?

A: I am the type of guy that will watch all levels of the sport. I'll sit and watch some four round fight on the undercard of some obscure Argentine card that comes on the Argentine sports channel here or look in YouTube for some prospect fighting out of Russia that nobody really has seen. But anytime I see a female match, I skip it. I just don't like watching women beat the shit out of each other. These fights are made worse because the talent pool in women's boxing is so shallow that you get so many horrible mismatches that it's really bad to watch and flat out dangerous for the girl that can't fight who has been thrown to the Wolves.

I learned to box in old school gyms from old school guys. Occasionally a female would come in wanting to learn to box and they would politely be told to get lost. They didn't want anybody bringing their girlfriends in when they trained. It was like bad luck and also a distraction. Years later although I don't want to watch lady boxing I did learn to respect the ones that train and attempt to do the sport. I remember a woman would come in a gym in Denmark I trained in and she would work as hard as anybody in there. She was fighting at the lowest level of amateur boxing, was like 30 with a real job, a nice seemingly intelligent person. So she wasn't the usual demographic boxing pulls from. She was never going anywhere in the sport but still worked hard at it. So respect to her. People have no idea how much work goes into even a 3 round amateur fight and the bravery it takes to get in a boxing ring.

Q: Was Aaron Pryor the greatest boxer of All-Time? If not, who was?

A: Pryor absolutely was a great fighter but to me he doesn't have the resume to be ranked with the elite all-time greats. He won the title from a decent but not great Champion in Cervantes and the only great fighter he ever beat was Alexis Arguello who was past his prime and undersized for the weight class he fought Pryor at.

To me the greatest ever comes down to Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, and Ray Leonard. They all three beat such a high level of competition, faced adversity in and out of the ring. Just unbelievable resumes for who they fought and beat. Honorable mentions off the top of my head are Roberto Duran, Henry Armstrong. Maybe Harry Greb also when you look at his resume but I am hesitant to rank him too high because there isn't any footage of him fighting.

Q: Can you compare Muhammad Ali's true social justice work with the posing of today's athletes, who think they save the world by putting a dead black person's name on their shoes or jersey? Also, do you believe Ali knew that Elijah Muhammad gave the assassination order for Malcolm X?

A: You can't be taken seriously when you take 10s of millions of dollars every year from companies that make their products in third world sweatshops and in some cases literally use slave labor. The biggest phony of all is Kaepernick. Kap is a phony system-approved rebel cleverly marketed to you by billionaires and corporations. I believe he made 50 mil in 2019 off the NFL settlement and the Nike deal and will certainly make a lot more than that off a deal he made with Disney/ESPN. He makes more money off his martyr image than he would playing football. The idea he is blackballed is a joke. He was washed up to begin with but the NFL bent over backwards for him and gave him an open try out and he acted like a diva and blew them off. I never had an issue with him kneeling because I believe in freedom of speech and self expression. Plus I am not a patriotard. I have an issue with him being the phony that he is. A corporate sponsored rebel. Lol.

I think police behavior from murdering people to the general arrogant asshole attitudes they have is a legit problem that needs to be dealt with but if I was black the only reason I would go to a BLM event would be to throw rocks at all these arrogant virtue signalling yuppie white breads that attend their rallies.

With BLM being openly funded and endorsed by billionaires and corporations and ran at the administrative level by whites, jews and well off Ivy League educated Obama-type blacks that grew up in comfort I tend to think BLM is a conspiracy against blacks that actually have to deal with cops. These people have nothing in common with working class people black, white or any other race that get jacked up by the cops and fucked over in the court system. It's certainly a mechanism to dictate, control and take away their voice. I'm not so arrogant or racist like these billionaires and white breads to think I have to tell a race of people what to think or what to do.

As far as the Ali comparison there is none. Every public action and statement from the Kaps and LeBrons of the world is contrived and must be approved by their masters. Ali had sympathizers and allies within the liberal media establishment but he was a genuine guy that did legitimate charity when no one was looking. I'm from Louisville. I have heard plenty of firsthand stories. I knew one old boxer who when he was down on his luck Ali gave him an all expenses paid trip to the first Tyson vs Bruno fight in the '80s. I remember the old guy at the Schwinn bicycle shop telling me about how Ali would often come with a bunch of ghetto kids and buy a bike for every one of them. Sometimes he would have a whole busload of them. This was no photo op. Just him alone with a bunch of kids. He really was that kind of guy. Those type of stories about him are endless.

As far as him knowing about the N.O.I whacking Malcolm X, I can't say. There are all kinds of questions around that assassination anyway. I think it's been pretty well proven that the people that actually went to prison for that didn't actually do it. Elijah Muhammad's son managed Ali the majority of his boxing career and wasn't robbing him as far as I know of. I've heard stories of Fruit of Islam beating the shit out of Don King after he shorted Ali money after a fight and them hurting mafia guys representing fighters Ali fought who tried to intimidate Ali into taking a dive. I know they almost killed a mafia guy representing Ernie Terrell when he pulled that shit. N.O.I wasn't to be fucked with by anybody back then and they did legitimately look out for him.

Q: Who do you believe would win an Ultimate Fight between Donald Trump and the world's strongest midget?

A: My money would be on the midget. You'd probably have to go all the way back to Teddy Roosevelt to find a President that's ever been in a fist fight their entire life.

Q: A favorite of both of ours was the grossly obese radical feminist Andrea Dworkin. What do you think she would make of our #MeToo age?

A: I used to read Dworkin just because what she wrote was so extreme it was entertaining. Now most of what she said is almost mainstream. I remember one website I looked at with all this radical feminist stuff that I actually thought it was parody site. Like an article by an Asian woman angry that she was stereotyped as having a tight pussy. Or one where some woman speaks with pride about neglecting personal hygiene and shaving which segways into her internal debate about whether she is racist for appropriating black culture because she has dreadlocks. I thought it was funny clever satire. Then I found out it was real not satire. 😂

Then you have you have the feminist obsessed men's rights metoo guys who are really pathetic and unintentionally funny too.

Q: Any comment on the MAGA hillbillies who wandered into the Capitol, took selfies and souvenirs, and disrupted the electoral certification for a few hours, only to abandon the revolution when it got too cold outside?

A: I am not really sure what to think about all that as the dust hasn't even really settled but it was funny as shit. I don't rule out the whole thing was set up as some sort of psy-op. The most photographed people aren't exactly hillbillies. More like the types of actors if some Hollywood jerk-off needs people to play rednecks in their movie or TV show. Out of the ones that have been id'd there are resumed actors and singers in bands. So the most visible ones aren't exactly coal miners.

But if it was legit then good. I hope it put fear in the politicians. There was a pic I saw that was taken while all of this was going on of a group of political figures huddled together in a panic. These are the same people that coldly vote to bomb countries and kill people. I have no sympathy for them. I hope they live in fear because they deserve it.

But one thing I will say is while Biden and the Democrats are pieces of shit and scum beyond all comprehension I don't get this rednecks supporting Republicans thing. The roots of all things economic that are rotting America and have put people that had they been born in an economy the boomers were born into would be middle class but now live in poverty all lay with the Republican party. From Kissinger and Rockefeller's summit that set up China to be a world capitalist slave plantation in the early '70s to Reagan's Union busting, to open borders with Shrub to McConnell vetoing a bigger stimulus check. I don't pretend to have any answers for this clusterfuck but I know you can't win or even improve things in a real tangible way with any of these assholes. A lot of people seem to live for political discourse on the internet but at the end of the day I feel like it's a waste of my time to invest much time into thinking about any of this shit.

Q: What do you think of the supposed radical democratess, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?  Is there anything genuinely radical about her?  Also, I believe I remember you mentioning once years ago you were attracted to Hispanic women. . .if that recollection is correct, would you give AOC a second look if you passed her on the street? 

A: She's phonier than a 3 dollar bill. She has probably been groomed for the role she is playing since she hit the campus of the privileged Ivy League school she went to. She grew up in a well off suburb and went to an Ivy League school. Netflix spent millions making a "documentary" about her that is more or less a promotional infomercial. She has nothing in common with working class people or real Latin people. I live in Latin America and have a Latina girlfriend. Come at real Latin people with that whitebread egghead elitist university campus "Latinx" bullshit and they are going to laugh their ass off at you. AOC should change her name to Becky or Ashley. She may have brown skin but she is as white as they come. A chocolate on the outside white on the inside milkdud playing a role. 😂

As far as her looks I think she is good looking but given my location and what I see every day I wouldn't look twice at her walking down the street. I am into Latina's but I am more into the big booty Brazilian porn star look than what AOC looks like.

American Spring

Don’t you just love the smile on this guy’s face?  I mean, it’s clear he’s having the time of his life.  Turns out he’s a woodworker from Florida, married to a doctor.  There might be some domestic woes ahead of him, and perhaps some legal troubles/jail time, but. . .I just get the feeling he wouldn’t trade the memory of the moment pictured above for anything.  I mean, don’t most people live gray lives, doing what they are told so they can. . .what? Live in a house with a spouse who won’t yell at them, and maybe have the privilege to work a meaningless job?  If he goes to jail, will he have lost more than he gained in the one shining moment pictured above?  I don’t know, I don’t know.

Anyway, yesterday’s *American Spring* was a comical mix of MAGA hillbillies and keystone cops, neither side knowing what to do when they found themselves thrown together in the Capitol.  Make no mistake, this was no *insurrection,* it was a tour bus of rednecks delighted to find easy access to the Capitol, and they promptly took selfies (and souvenirs) to document their own wonder.  One hillbilly from Arkansas wandered into Nancy Pelosi’s office and seemed as awestruck as if he had just encountered indoor plumbing for the first time. 

Joe Biden in a stern tone scaremongering about insurrection and sedition?  Please!  This was American tomfoolery, plain and simple, no better and certainly less worse than the mischief of our 2020 BLM summer.

The only bummer to the day’s event was once again the result of America’s trigger happy police.  A luckless white woman the victim this time.  Ashli Babbitt.  While others were able to frolick in a Don’t Tread On Me LARP, this poor woman was shot to death by another representative of our cowardly police. Babbitt was a True Trump Believer, mind-controlled by Q nonsense, and fell so deep into the MAGA rabbit hole she lost all contact with reality.  In a bitter, bitter irony, in her last pro-MAGA tweet she claimed: nothing can stop us. . they can try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours. . .dark to light.  Of course, she was the one person fate singled out to stop.  Life is strange, very strange.

And as if to add insult to death, her god Trump betrayed her less than 24 hours after egging her into the Capitol and proclaiming he would never quit fighting, never concede.  Today, fearful of being arrested on inciting-a-riot charges, he meekly promised to vacate the White House on January 20, and, like a squishy New Ager, called for *healing and reconciliation.* Never have so many MAGA hillbillies been so badly served, but especially so the poor Ashli Babbitt, who is eternally past the point of healing.