100 People In a Room, Commercial Break: gagablog #163

I saw the headline, something like "Madonna savagely disses Gaga" a few days ago, when the story was new, then I wrote my first edition of this in months. Then yesterday I had to write an update and remembered this headline and decided to look it up and see what the fuss was about. I was still not sure if I should bother, after I looked it up, but decided I might as well say a whole bunch of stuff about it  - it's a spell, ha ha. But I might have still put it off except that I was watching the local news entertainment show, for some reason  -oh, because the Partridge Family was on, and they played "Just Dance" while going to commercial break - and I had decided before I looked it up that the Madge "feud" was probably "a commercial" -which fits with the previous idea for this gagablog that I would write an edition about the commercials on Antenna TV and call it "Commercial Break" - I just turned back to it and Major Healy says something about psychic powers, Master says not to believe in crystal balls, Jeannie says they are real and puts him in one, for a second. Now they are talking about Michaelangelo and Rembrandt - this is confirmation, "triumph of matter over mind" the psychiatrist just said, that my transition, like the end of one episode to the beginning of the next, will cover the span between psychic phenomena and art, these two fun forms of magic.

But back to the commercials - Oasis is on, now, and one of my favorite lines is coming up "Oasis, they killed a man, they helped me out, they-they gave me my life back."  - He actually says "they killed it man" but it always sounds so much like "killed a man", like they killed someone who was coming after him. G4 by Golpa is on, now, and he has some funny lines, too: "We walk around with a computer in our pockets but still struggle to eat a sandwich" - I need to get into this stuff at the end and talk about Madonna and Gaga, first, I have too much to say about too many commercials on Old Folks TV, Antenna TV - its always shocking when I see one on regular TV. I didn't know they were trying to sell ya'll those "Milinneal" MVMT watches, too. Crazy. Crazy for thinking...

Anyway, the last Auction Jeannie went to was in Mesopotamia and they were selling slaves. Master says they aren't selling slaves, as matter-of factly as if he said they weren't taking a walk. Anyway, they are selling art.

Back to Gaga, the feud. This scathing diss - I really can't just talk about this as much as I can, just want to say other stuff, but then again, okay, here goes. Might as well not hold back at all.

I didn't know what to expect. I had my own intuition - maybe Madonna felt like she did more for Hillary than Gaga did  - wasn't she going to kiss or fuck anyone to reward them for voting for Hill? I forget. I guess she has a point, Gaga could have won it, for Jill (or Bernie) anyway, with that offer, maybe for Hillary, too -kidding, Gaga would have won it. Ok, stop getting sidetracked, that isn't what it was about. I didn't REALLY think it was -

I thought it would be kind of lame to be going back 2-3 years, to 2016, to "make beef" about something.

I asked my lover what she thought the beeftweet could be about, since she had seen the headline, too, but hadn't clicked it, either. She said maybe over eating meat or wearing fur, or something about the messages of Gaga's music versus Madonna's? I had to question that but I won't go through the questions, here, but save it for a more meaningful discussion, not just about commercials.

But it wasn't about something from 2 years ago. It was about something from 30 years ago.

I don't really have any "fault" for Madonna becuase, after reading 2 articles about the New Feud, I don't see what she said to "diss" Gaga, much less "savagely." I even took the advice of the Madonna fan, whose tweet happened to be quoted in both articles - maybe they consider "research" for articles just including the top tweet response or something. It didn't make sense to me - I'm not very cultured, like Groundskeeper Willie. "To all you 11-year old Gaga fans, if you don't know why Madonna is mad, Google SWF." So I did that - I knew it was a movie, but didn't get the pop culture reference, having never seen it or heard it referenced enough to know the plot. The first lines of the summary - without having to click any of them - weren't revealing. But the trailer was.

It has Bryan in it. Bryan, from Wings. As an actor in the movie, like the Main Actor.

I rest my case.

I mean, you told me to look up a movie that has Bryan in it. Anyway, maybe YOU need to Youtube /Antenna TV up some Wings - 1 AM Eastern Time, I believe.

The point it I eventually got her point. I asked my lover about it and after we determined that she hadn't said "Desperately Seeking Susan," the Madonna movie, but had indeed said SWF we both recalled that the famous plot-line from that movie was that one girl went psycho and stole the identity of another.

I pointed out that this theme is something that happens in plenty of TV shows - that it's not the most compelling theme but also there are plenty of other examples about it "As you Americans would say, Wild Horses couldn't drag me away" Jeannie just said, disguised as an Art Expert, an old man with a beard. I wonder if she should tweet a complaint about the Rolling Stones? I'm getting off track - as far as I can tell Madonna never actually "complained" - that's just Entertainment News "reporting"

On Bewitched, Samantha has an "evil cousin" who has dark hair and is slutty and wonderful - damn I can't remember her name, now - but she often impersonates or becomes Sam to woo Darren or some other hijinks. She really is the same actress in another Look. My lover mentioned that it happens on Sabrina The Teenage Witch.

I mentioned there are versions of it for male characters, too - The Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride was the first one that came to mind but it seems like there are dozens of examples on the tip of my tongue.

The Poshmark commercial is on, the newer one, with the girl who ends the last three seconds of the commercial with her eyes closed, laughing at herself for how much she likes Poshmark. And she has a beautiful friend who is there to laugh along with the Poshmarking and just loving it, just there to laugh and smile and have the best time ever while her friend is changing her closet inventory.

I guess guys really like seeing other guys get new trucks in commercials? Gotta be a corollary

But these are just comments about the well-reported RESPONSE tweet from some random fan about "SWF" - I still can't get over it, Bryan in a movie, I HAVE to watch this someday. But "A Star Is Born," first.

Was Madonna saying anything like this? Maybe she really dissed Gaga - maybe she SAID something in her tweet that was insulting to Gaga - but the articles didn't mention it.

They just said she tweeted a link to the clip from the interview where she says a comment "If there are 100 people in a room and one of them doesn't like me/it (what she did) I'm focused on (or "I'll remember"  - I can't remember) that one"

Ok, I guess one reason it is taking me so long to get into this is because I feel kind of bad for Madonna and her fans and don't want to rub it in too much.

There is this TERRIBLE Credit Karma commercial where the sister asks the other sister if she wants to live with Mom and Dad forever and she reflects on when she is reading and her mom runs the blender and announces "I'M MAKING SMOOTHIES" and its one of those lines that will stick with you for life, that I reference to my wife for whatever reason.

But magically I can see a comment on two sisters "arguing" about their life choices, advising each other on "how to get out"  - when they're both probably just trapped in different ways, one with her parents and the other in the world her parents made. But we always make fun of it because she is so ungrateful - all her mom does is vacuum under her yoga, make smoothies, and play the drums - basically taking care of her.

I don't feel bad for Madonna, really, unless she is actually upset - it's publicity for her, too. Gaga really benefits from the publicity since she is in a current movie and Oscar buzz for it and the soundtrack album - that show earlier mentioned her song "Shallow" from it which I haven't even heard yet, it made me jealous that the show's hosts had seen it but not feel too bad that one of them still wanted to see the movie and hadn't yet.

Surely Madonna knows it's all ultimately publicity for Gaga's projects, and hers too but Gaga is more in the spotlight. "If you can't remember the exact words then you can't break that spell and neither can I!" Samantha just told her aunt who turned Darren into a monkey. Which reminds me I should get to the words they said, eventually.

I just want to point out that most feuds between artists can be seen as manufactured by the industry to hype their work - if they are actual, naturally occurring feuds, over real issues or things people actually say to each other - principled disputes - they can be "better" because they actually address some sort of issue.

Will this "new flare-up of the feud" (supposedly, I don't believe it) between Madonna and Gaga - or more accurately their fans - actually address any Issue? I can kind of see one, negativity versus positivity, if I ever get to what they actually said - and I'm sure there will be other issues discussed because of it, if only because according to those articles people are making memes about the whole 100 and 1 concept. And there is a mystical "code" to it, a biblical parable from Jesus: he leaves the 99 sheep to seek the lost one but we can save that tangent for later, too, and talk about commercials.

So this "feud" is a free commercial for Gaga and brings up this whole long-running idea many have expressed that she is "copying" Gaga, I mean, Madonna. In one sense this is because of who and what they both represent, a form of the Goddess that includes sexuality, so long repressed in our culture, who "comes out" and breaks through some of those social barriers and structures. Other women have done this as well but there is a connection between Madonna and Gaga in the way they really gained the spotlight in popular music and being at The Top while being that Goddess energy we've lacked so long. The repressive, anti-sexual, anti-love, anti-woman forces are strong and Madonna deserves plenty of credit for helping liberate everyone from them but it's not like they went away or were fully overcome - they keep re-asserting their control and need new challengers.

Madonna's video, the clip of her saying that about 100 people in a room, is being viewed and gaining more and new kinds of exposure for her, out of all of this. The meaning of what she says isn't what Gaga used the phrase to say, it's kind of the opposite, but the difference is worth talking about.

First I have to point out that just tweeting the link is in no way a "diss" to Gaga, much less a "savage" one. I see how they want to make up headlines and stories, make up these "feuds" or stoke what naturally happens between fanbases online - but it just seems like a lie, that she is even "dissing" Gaga - how do we even know she is upset? One article included that Madonna also posted a pic with the caption of something like "don't fuck with me Monday" but I don't know how they say it is related.

I guess one way to know is if they reported all of this, and Madonna didn't correct them, then I guess there is a connection, she thinks Gaga is fucking with her, or whatever, is upset about the quote.

What she said was that she would focus on the one person out of a hundred who didn't like her or didn't like her work/performance, something like that. It's a perfectionist and negative attitude, also shows the perspective of someone who expects to or is used to pleasing everyone. A Madonna quote from the 80's is her greatest stardom, in my memory, and I assume she was used to being totally famous, wildly popular, and could easily expect 99 people in a room to love her, already - so she wants to focus on winning over that one. I say it is negative because it focuses on the negative, the one negative perspective, seeking that out instead of focusing on the positive, the 99 who love you. It's Jesusy - these are fine, lets get that lost one - and it shows she wants to grow and develop as an artist to have a larger appeal. But I really don't know exactly what she was talking about, haven't seen the interview or even the clip, just read the quote.

One article pointed out that Dita Von Teese has a quote that "you can be the juiciest, most delicious peach in the world but there will always be someone who doesn't like peaches," or something. They say it is the same principle as what Madonna said, you can be the best but there will be someone who still doesn't like you. The meaning is closer to what Madonna said than what Gaga said, but it's still very different. Dita is accepting that some people won't like you, or what you do, just due to their taste or whatever. Madonna is saying she focuses on that person - to win them over?

Maybe I am just assuming that. Maybe she just is saying it hurts her even if one person doesn't like her, that is what she feels.

To me it reminds me of perfectionism - which for ME, has been damaging, holding me back from doing the art stuff I really want to do because I want to feel or be "more perfect" - but for her, if it is perfectionism, she has got it to work for her

"Newsflash, nobody's perfect" the girl on the liberty Mutual Commercial just said.

"You know that expensive watch you always wanted? It only costs a fraction of that to make!"

"We thought that was crazy, so we started our own watch company" "...launched at fair prices.."

The MVMT commercial just came on again and I can't avoid it anymore - I even wanted to make a parody video of it, it's so classically terrible to me.

"I'm too young to be making my father's noise!" Kotter just said. Ok, here's my Larger Point: There used to be all these fancy watch commercials on TV, at least certain times of year. Now I never see them - at least not on Antenna TV. But every commercial break I see one, on Antenna TV. It seems like other watch companies just decided to hire these guys and rebrand, to try to sell to a younger market. But since I always see the commercial on Old People TV I can't believe they think they can actually fool actual millennials with these millennials, but of course they must be.

Maybe these two douchebags really did make a watch company, they aren't just a front for some old fuddy-duddy watch company - if so, good for them, that's really cool. But the way they look, that one guys line in his hair and both of their faces - well, anyway the point it "We thought that was crazy, capitalism" - then we decided to do it, just not as bad. I guess this is what the mean by "fair prices"

The other commercial that says "fair prices" - or used to "I was a pretty fair basketball player when I went to school here" Kotter just said. - is the brooklinen commercial. They say sheets are set at "fair prices" and the whole commercial just seems super millennial. I assume the connotation of the name is Brooklyn, where Kotter is, but now seems to have a hipster sound - to me, anyway. Maybe it's just the commercial. And why do I say it is millennial? It doesn;t have people kayaking and cliffjumping and scubadiving and cliffjumping more in the commercial, like the MVMT one does - but it's like the only commercial besides that one on Antenna TV that isn't all for super old people, Life Insurance, etc, so I pair them up.

What did Gaga say? She said out of a room of 100 people, if only one of them believes in you, that can make all the difference. It's a positive statement, focusing on the positive even if it is only one in a hundred or one percent. And it comes from an outside perspective, one used to being ignored or left out or denied or excluded, not given a chance. It speaks to people who feel that way even if there are far more than one percent of us, now. The 80's was a decade famous for excess and affluence and there was certainly plenty of poverty and struggle, then, too, but the image we had of ourselves as a country was Rich and Madonna was the most famous star, along with Michael Jackson, at that time. She was, and continues to be, extremely popular but at that time it is understandable that she would have to speak about "everyone" liking her and everyone did - maybe it was a statement of humility that she still focuses on that one. But it presumes almost everyone likes you and you can win over the rest. Gaga's statement presumes almost no one likes you, or likes you or expects something of you in a specific capacity - in this case, as an actress. She said Bradley Cooper was the "one person" who believed in her, that it made such a difference to her.

It's a point I'm really glad she is making because so many people are aspiring artists but only a few have "made it," relatively, and the reality remains that one of the best ways to recognition and fame is to have someone "inside" let you in, bring you in by "discovering" you - it's not like you were hidden but they always credit the established artist who introduces a new artist by saying they "discovered" them like they had to risk something on a bold dangerous adventure in listening to a song and tweeting it out, or whatever. And is it even risky enough to have that connotation, discovery, when it seems like anyone who gets "discovered" gets famous? Its not like anyone, ever, has been like "bad discovery, dude, never shoulda sailed there."

She's showing gratitude to Bradley Cooper for believing in her - and sure she is already recognized worldwide for her talent but not necessarily as an actress, and now she is, and it is thanks to him for believing in her. I can imagine how many people it takes to convince to make a movie and how many folks have a say in it, how hypothetically, or actually, dozens of those people, most all of them, 99, would not think Gaga was the natural choice for the role but one, Bradley Cooper, did.

I can see how it could be the best, most respectful way to give him credit for believing in her, to show that he was taking a chance on her, being the one to persuade the others.

When discussing this with my love she said "why not say seven people in a room? Wouldn't that be more the size of a group that makes movie decisions?" I said it might be that it is more like 100 people - it's a big movie, involving many people. And that it reflects how much of an outside chance she had, how she got the part against the odds.

I suppose it is true that even with her acting experience on AHS and other parts she would have a tough time winning the part over more established actors. I don't really know the details, I guess I imagined that he had decided to make the movie in order to cast her in the role, etc.

But I do respond to the perspective she is coming from, of being left out or underestimated, of not yet having "a break" and wanting to be "discovered" by someone. I think millions of people relate to that.

There are more of us who relate to that, of being someone who hopes one in a hundred people will appreciate and encourage, than can relate to feeling super-popular but wanting to win over that last person. And I wish we all had Madonna's problem instead of Gaga's, I think it is a sad commentary on society and how we don't appreciate art that more people do feel this way, left out and undiscovered and unappreciated.

And we truly can live in a society that values art and artists and leads to everyone feeling appreciated for their own creative sides, where anyone can imagine who there "room of 100 people" is and that those people like them. That is a world we can have, far more than we were pretending "everything was great" in the 80's and loved stars for whom everything could be great so we could live vicariously through them.

that's part of the way we got Trump, by the way.

One reason I love Gaga is that while I feel she appreciates the fact that her fame gives her riches she wants to be in touch with her fans who still struggle and seek recognition and enough to get by, themselves. She has always encouraged us to follow our dreams and become the artists we are - not by flaunting riches to tempt us but with direct encouragement in the messages she conveys, and just countering the social common knowledge that you can't make a living on art by saying yes, you can.

I imagine Madonna is also encouraging, in this way -but does she put out the message that "You, too, can be like me?" It's just more part of her brand that She is the Only One, that no one can be like her. Or, if Gaga in some ways is "being like her", she doesn't like it.

I hope I can be like Gaga, I hope she likes it.

So I think the difference between Gaga and Madonna's "100 and 1" comment is positivity versus negativity, outsider versus insider, and encouragement to others versus setting yourself above others. But that's one way to look at it.

Benson was abducted by aliens, now he's glowing.

Mike Ditka died, he used to sell us Car Shield in pretty impressive ways, on his commercial, now the generic one is on with various old people, including the lady I call the English teacher because she says she was elated with their service, more than happy - she just said it as I typed it. Nothing more to say about it except its bad magic when this guy says "something goes wrong with your car - because it will - " don't say that. I know your selling insurance. Which is mostly what they sell, healthcare insurance and life insurance. I've got some shit to talk about them, at the end. But finish with Madonna, first.

So I think there is a principled difference between these two quotes that is worth talking about, about what each one means, the mindset they lead to. But stepping back from that I think it's odd that THIS is what the "feud" is about, when if Madonna wanted to make the news you would think it could be about something that mattered, in the world, more.

Why can't all celebrities, of good conscience, all be doing all they can to stop the fascism of the Trump administration, since the politicians are putting up mostly token resistance.

Now the press has leaked the Governor's alien sighting, on Benson - which reminds me of a Johnny Carson bit from last night. He said that Ronald Reagan, upon leaving office, warned against the "Iron Triangle" of the Media, Congress, and something else for driving up the budget. Carson said if you want to blame a shape, the Pentagon seems more likely responsible for the deficit. Great joke, true as can be. But he also said that Reagan's "Iron Triangle" imagery "will probably long outlast Bush's 'Thousands Points of Light'"  - which is not true because I never heard of Reagan's Iron Triangle but the 1000 Points of Light was referenced for at least a decade and even in recent years Trump has, for some reason, probably KKK agenda like everything he does, been making fun of Bush's 1000 Points of Light, even up to the week he died, so the news media mentioned, which is how I know.

So it was just magical to see Carson say that, the week he is being buried, and know he was wrong. He also mentioned that presidents like to warn us of things when they leave - Eisenhower warned of the....what was it... (took him a while to recall  - not good to forget a warning like this) Oh right the Military Industrial complex.

The Governor just said, in times like those, the 80's, he would welcome aliens - we need all the outside help we can get. They ride a "fudgesicle" shaped ship and communicate with music "Maybe they don't know the lyrics" Benson said - the Stars and Stripes forever. The Gov is saying "We don't know anything about them" because they just came and went, but Benson says they at least know they are honest - they returned his watch. "Might as well go home, now" - then they sit back down in the field and look up for more. Reminds me how once we miss the aliens we still have nature.

Most of these commercials are about Life Insurance or Medicaid Choices and don't bear any mention. One does because it is super racist. They say that if you use a different company you could end up with a doctor who "you aren't so comfortable with" and shows the spokesman with a shaman doing a stereotyped Indian dance and smudging, and the white man, spokesman, racist, says "I'm not so comfortable." I couldn't believe they were trying to diss traditional medicine with this portrayal, in the first place, suggesting that any company would send you to a Medicine Man instead of just pumping you with pill medicine was a Lie, too - but suggesting it would be "bad" is an even worse lie. Others must have complained some of the things I felt, and more, I'm sure, if it was a direct insult to their culture and beliefs. They changed the commercial, just that segment, so now when they do the "not so comfortable" part it is a lady who says she isn't so comfortable in the room where the "doctor" is birthing a cow. So this is how they "fix it," by replacing the "shaman" with a veterinarian? It is like they are saying "Yes, we were calling you savages, animals. We won't say it directly any more - sorry about that - we will replace that part, the part that had a doctor for you, with a veternarian, a doctor for animals." I could go on about this -I guess my point is that racism makes people so fucking stupid they just don't understand things, even if you point it out to them they can't quite get it, they will continue to reveal that stupidity.

Like Trump tried to claim it wasn;t a Muslim ban when he was always calling it a Muslim Ban - and even if he renames it, it's still bullshit.

Speaking of renaming I forgot to say this, last time, talking about Rock Hudson: can we stop saying AIDS is, or ever was, a "Death Sentence"? Like, I know what they MEAN by that but the term, Death Sentence, implies that it is a punishment - presumably for sex, sharing needles, being born, or having a blood transfusion. But why say that? It's not a "sentence" - you didn't do anything wrong, you didn't go to court or get judged for it and get AIDs as a punishment.

Its not a punishment but the fact that we still casually say that, how it "used to be" a death sentence or still is in some parts of the world. Its just not, but the fact that we say that shows, basically, that we accept the idea that we should be punished for sex.

The last thing I want to say about the Madonna Gaga "feud" is that it only seems like a "feud" because the magazines want you to click the article so they make something out of nothing - but it's good advertising. Did they plan it, between them, like so many "feuds" in entertainment? If so, well, done - they did it without any real animosity and let the fan base and article writers take over. If not I kind of feel bad for Madonna. She played into it when Gaga used her phrase multiple times and "spoke up" (linked up) and then the fans had their flurry. But if she really is "steamed" about it, it just makes her look bad, it makes her look like she is jealous of Gaga's spotlight and can't get over it. And it reminds me of when Taylor Swift wanted to copyright "H8ers"  - it's just silly, you didn't even invent the phrase and can't ask for royalties or anything, it wasn't the source of Gaga's current fame or anything.

It's just the source of why anyone is talking about Madonna, now - she should be thankful! And I just don't see the evidence that she was "mad" about it - so if they both just decided to do this it was well done, a "feud" without any actual animosity. But if Madonna does feel animosity, or her fans do, it just makes them look silly.

The worst commercials I see every break on Antenna TV are the Life Insurance ones and the SoClean machine. Alex Trebek does the worst Life Insurance ones, for Colonial Penn, and doesn't have a mustache, which is weird enough. In one version he points out that $5,804 dollars is the average cost of a funeral - in other commercials they say gov benefits only pay $250. One of the worst things Trebek does is say that the money can help pay credit card bills - but these actually die with you, you don't have to pay them, and this just serves as a scam to enrich credit card companies for anyone who believes they have to pay those debts. Then he has another one where he says all these old folks need to know the "Three P's of Life Insurance" but the Three P's are Price, Price, and Price - all the same thing. It's like he's treating old people like they need to be talked to like toddlers. These people keep asking "What's my price?" and the answer is always $9.99 a month - it's just stupid advertising repetition but done to a ridiculous degree, making old folks look like idiots.

And he says "you won't be alone, 500,000 people called last year." Well, calling their number actually doesn't make you less alone or in touch with any of those people, but old people are often lonely so way to exploit that sadness. The MVMT watch duo want you to feel like part of a community, too, "join the movement" - like it's some revolution against the BigWig watch guys (even though I suspect they are just a rebranding) - its a common pitch in advertising. Because what we all truly crave more than anything else, community, belonging. But we don't really get it from a watch or life insurance policy or sheets.

The SoClean commercial, for cleaning a device you wear for breathing at night, a CPAP machine, is terrible because it reminds you that you are watching old people TV - but also good because you better stop smoking. But its bad because of the testimonial people, all of whom have southern accents. The first is a nurse who says she wondered why she was getting sick from this device that was dark and damp and reflects "as a nurse, I should have been concerned" with this expression like "what was I thinking?" but it makes you wonder, what about all those patients who you just weren't remembering basic biology to protect them from infection? The very worst is the strongest southern accent on the guy who says "If you get a CPAP machine don't even take it home until you've got your SoClean machine right with it because they're a marriage made in heaven." I can't express why that is so offensive to me but if you hear him I think you'd feel it, too. I guess part of it is the Southern, Southern Baptist super-resistance to gay marriage and saying marriage is sacred, so the idea that marriages are made in heaven, especially in that accent, conjures up those hateful feelings to me, but saying its fine to talk about these machines getting married makes a mockery of the whole "marriage is only a man and a woman, holy union concept." Mostly it's just how he says it.

I see a lot of car accident lawyer commercials, too - Jeff Gullinson is on now and the best thing he says, though it is all good because he talks funny, is "I like to think of myself as a real lawyer for real people" - as if he's admitting he's not legal he just thinks of himself that way, like Rand Paul thinks he is an eye doctor and Trump thinks he is the Emperor. "A good price is you're on a tight budget or fixed income," Alex Trebek says so convincingly, you can trust this smart guy who is so smart every day on his gameshow - except what would he know about a fixed income or what is a good price? The other great Gullinson line is "I was a victim of accidents myself so I know what it is like, and over the years, a few accidents turned into thousands of accidents" and it gives that impression that after having, being in a few accidents, he was then in thousands of more accidents, though of course he really means he represented thousands  - it just sounds like they were all his, like maybe he just runs around causing accidents like Jessica Fletcher.

The other main guy, now that Frank Azar doesn't run as many Strong Arm commercials, is a guy who has a Hall Of Fame Bronco player doing his ads with them, they say "its an All-Pro Move!" for a catchphrase, and often the camera keep zooming in on them, in stages, throughout the commercial so they get bigger and bigger on the screen, and seem to have magic powers in the way they point.

I kind of ignore them all because, sense my car accident a year ago, I have ptsd from it and I don't like to think about it, be reminded of it.

There are some other really bad commercials and I guess I've mentioned enough, none of the other ones come to mind at the moment and I don't really want to watch more to be reminded of them, I want to play some Smash Bros before work. But I love the funky version of the Gimme a Break Theme song so I'm watching that, now.

This is another "we will sign you up with medicare" commercial - there are lots of them and none of them really make sense, they just seem to reflect how mush waste is in our health system. They're claiming, for Medicare.com, that their service is free - the most trusted, informative, and easiest resource, according to their study - saving half the money - finding an average of $540/year in savings - and they aren't associated with any government agency. So they get these savings, and somehow have a business model - yet if you don't go through them, or some similar service, you could easily pay over $500 a year too much, there's that much just being "taken" because you don't know better how to sign up for the government plan, Medicare. Then there is another company that says they will save you $6,000 a year! So if you call one instead of the other I guess they can take that difference, the extra $5,500, even though it is "free" for you to call.

Just a basic, trying to understand what they are selling you in the commercial, understanding shows that this whole health care system is a big scam, with most of the money going to all these forms of "administration" and very little of it directly benefiting anyone's health. We should just nationalize it all, simple - and half of these commercials would go away. All that money just spent on trying to get you to save money, that your probably entitled to anyway, so they can skim some, too - and there is that much money to pay for half the commercials. How much better things could we be doing if they weren't spending this much on ads and everything to compete over who gets to scam our money from government programs and the healthcare racket?

In one sense the feud between Madonna and Gaga is a commercial for A Star is Born and Gaga's soundtrack album for it, and for her to win the Oscar. In another sense it is an "ad" for two ways of thinking, an old "I'm the best and will prove it to everyone until all agree" attitude, from the past, and a "Everyone can be more than they are if someone just believes in them, that can make all the difference" attitude, to focus on the positive, for the future. One focuses on being The Best, over everyone else, and the other focuses on how Everyone can Succeed, they just need one person, even against the odds, to believe in them to help out, to make it. It's hopeful, helpful, and inclusive instead of negative, critical, and inclusive. Its good if this is the "new version" of something said in the pasr, I appreciate Gaga saying this.

And if Gaga, who has let us know she studies fame, intentionally used those phrases and repeated them to get Madonna's attention, well it seems to have worked according to plan.

But I do wish both of them, and all of us, could be making effective plans to end repression, fascism, war and greed in this world  -and we can! But it takes anyone, even one person in a room of one hundred, to believe, and bring in those who have always believed and are trying to convince others, and we can really change, and save, the world.

Oh, the Jesus Parable context of Gaga's quote is that the 99 are fine with the way things are but if you can connect with that one - if one strays away, or as the Shepherd, leaves the flock, to find you, to take a chance on you, leaving those who are fine with the status quo to take care of themselves in their comfortable stable, but going for the one who was lost, who was left out. And Gaga is that Shepherd, for me - she always has been. But by recognizing how Bradley Cooper was a savior for her, in this way, and using Madonna to amplify the message, and all the media and animosity of envy in a culture starved for inspiration fighting over who is truly inspiring, Gaga got the message out even further, by giving the glory to someone else she also gives it to us, gives the ability to seek recognition, or give it to someone.

It reminds me of a story on the BBC radio that brought a tear to my eye   -about the Buddy Bench. Its a movement that has really taken off in Ireland, especially. They make a bench on school playgrounds called The Buddy Bench. If you are feeling sad, or lonely, or shy, or don't have anyone to play with you can sit on the Buddy Bench and other kids will come up to talk with you or invite you to play.

It shows a focus, a concern, in the whole society, the environment - the playground - for the outcast or lonely person, or person dealing with an issue. It revolutionizes the typical dynamic that tends towards bullying and boundaries of inclusion and exclusion. It made me cry to hear about it and more to hear the report, the way the kids responded to the idea and how many of them said they would go to talk with the kid on the bench, like 80%. It shows a new, positive direction for our culture, and it relates that everyone matters and we can each help out in helping everyone feel included and good.

In this way it kind of reveals the same meaning in Madonna and Gaga's quotes: if 99 kids are happy on the playground, but one isn't, on the Buddy Bench, Madonna would go and talk with her, play with her - that would be her focus, help whatever the problem is. And in the Buddy Bench context, from the perspective on the Bench, if Gaga is watching 99 kids play happily by themselves, but just one kid comes over and talks with her, it can make all the difference.

In the end, the feud doesn't matter - but the Buddy Bench does.

This reminds me of a Father Knows Best I saw the other night. Bud is talking about his friend's parents, how they fight all the time, how exciting it is there, how they throw furniture at each other, while his parents never fight. His sister quotes Shakespeare, that the road of true love is rocky, or something, and the parents are glad they don't argue - but of course in this episode they start arguing. At the very end they are both yelling at each other and the three kids are all watching from the stairs. They finally turn around and see the kids there and they are embarrassed, but the eldest daughter starts clapping "Bravo! Very well played! Can't you see, they were just pretending to fight - they did this for your benefit, Bud, to show you how silly you've been acting, so you appreciate that your parents don't fight - isn't that right, Father?"  - something like that. Of course they were really fighting - even the "best" couples fight - but when given that opportunity, seeing how shocked his children are, Father says yes, they were just pretending. And Mother agrees, and says it was a bad idea.

If only we could see all conflicts this way - as acts we end up in, even if we don't mean to. Its an act, and a lesson can be learned from it. But if we don't realize it's an act - and a bad act - we can take it personally and not be able to get out of it. If we DO see all conflict and argument as "just an act" - why would we EVER have the kinds of fights, wars and such, where people actually get hurt and killed? All over an act because we can't admit we are being silly?

I guess in this way I'm glad Madonna and Gaga aren't fighting over anything serious - and in another way I want us ALL to be fighting, peacefully, magically, artistically, and COLLECTIVELY, in Solidarity, against the evils that threaten us all and our very planet. Maybe it's just up to me and I'll stop talking about it and do my part -

thanks for reading and sharing whatever this does for you!

Trump - Going Off The Deep End: gagablog #162

I was going to turn off the TV when I noticed "What's Happening Now!" was the worst episode ever, the one where Raj takes over a little league team and goes crazy with it trying to "give them a winning attitude" and ruins it for everyone, Frankie feels like a losers and quits the team, and Raj admits he was wrong and says what he said about winning being all that matters is wrong, that what really matters is having fun. "No matter how bad something seems, there's always a way to find something funny in it," he just said. I realized it is a perfect model for what I wanted to say about Trump today - and about all of us. In Raj's case he is "set off" by the return of his high school bully, Buddy, played by Arsenio Hall, and he "got carried away trying to beat Buddy Carlson." It just ended and Raj gives the good coach his job back, then he tells them that two of Buddy's players were disqualified so they, the Ranger's, won, and he beat Buddy after all!

What does this have to do with Trump? It's a model of exactly where he is, now, where he has been his whole presidency - going off the deep end trying to "win", ruining everything for everyone, just like Raj, before he realizes how wrong he is. If you want to be sympathetic to Trump you can imagine how he must have been bullied in his life, to become such a bully, how much fun he must have missed out on to miss the point so badly, that it's all about having fun and doing good. You can imagine he is being bullied by Putin, and others, even now. So, like others who can't see a way out, a way to beat the bullies not at their own game, but with a better game, he became as big a bully as he can be - and it's not what we need. It's based upon overcompensating for feeling shame in life: Raj feels ashamed that Buddy bullied him so badly, and is back, bullying him again talking shit about the little league game. But in the end, after telling the kids there is humor even in the worst situations, when Buddy comes in to rub it in, the victory he thought he had, Raj wins by joking that he used to always give him noogie's and asks him to give him one, now - and all the kids are like "give me one, too!" They use humor to turn the tables on the bully and he gets uncomfortable and leaves before the reveal that his team also lost the game.

Trump could do the same thing, realize he is wrong and change course completely - I've always predicted that is the best course he could ever take, after doing so much wrong having a true Come to Jesus moment or whatever revelation or enlightenment it is for him so that he undoes it and goes good, instead. And lets the right folks take over. I did think it was a magical connection that "two" players on Buddy's team were "disqualified" for being too old and one thing I wanted to mention here, since I forgot yesterday, was that Michael Cohen, Trump's crooked lawyer, plead guilty last week and they are charging Trumps campaign manager and other Fixer Paul Manafort with breaking his deal and lying to them, all last week. But in Trump's case there are more than two being indicted, etc, but these "main two" were an interesting echo of those two "too old" teammates.

Trump's whole problem is that his ideas are too old, they don't work any more. Tariffs are from like Colonial times. He's just way stuck in old, wrong ways of thinking - greed and racism and sexism at the core, sure, but whole collections of bad ideas. Some recent examples: after he lost Congress and they idea that the Legislative Branch would finally do their part of checks and balances and investigate him, Trump said he could "play that game" better than the Democrats - and a few days later Stormy Daniel's lawyer was arrested for domestic violence charges. If that is true he should have been arrested but it just seemed, after Trump's comment, that this could be an example of him "using his power" to "play the game." He could be so corrupt that he sees everything against him as a ploy, that he can just do more corrupt things and "out-maneuver" them. But this just drives him further "off the deep end."

It's his "win at all costs" attitude that got him where he is today but he's not in a good place. He needs to learn the lesson that he is missing the point, taking all the fun out of it, and ruining it for everyone, by insisting it is all about winning. And he's only doing that because he's a bully giving into and playing the game of other bullies - the oil companies, the military, Putin, Hillary, etc.  You would think that, like Raj when Frankie quits, he would lose something he cares about, something bad would happen and put it in perspective, and he would wake up to the erroneous rage he is in. I guess he doesn't care about California - I really thought the fires there would teach him the error of his ways, even if the awful storms lately hadn't. But he's entrenched and basically needs the "whole team" to turn against him to realize he's wrong and change course. "The man is a bigot!" Nell just announced on Gimme a Break! and the dumb cop said the police don't condone those attitudes, their force is 12% black, 5% higher than the national average and they have two and a half Hispanic Latinos, or something. The blonde daughter says "there is no prejudice in Glenlawn - we have four Chinese restaurants." They get a representative to meet them, he mentions the whole rainbow of people they need to fight for opportunity for - but it turns out the employer wasn't racist after all - but he was sexist. After that the rep went off with him, to talk about a job offer - retiring from the Equal Employment office. They don't have any recourse so when the employers wife calls they tell her that the man went off to console some woman he rejected for a job, to get him in trouble with her, at least, for revenge. This symbolizes how, in an evil patriarchal system, maybe we can't get justice through the system but in clever ways around it.

I was thinking about calling this edition the "Not So Synchro" edition after five "Perfect Synchro" editions - I don't think I ever made my larger point, last time, that you can feel these magical connections with details within the world that remind you how everything is magical - but if you really get into the magic of the world it become more powerful, more fantastic and surprising - the more surprises you expect the bigger they get.

After I wrote yesterday's gagablog I got in the car to go to work and heard the news about the Trump administration having Canada arrest Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Huawei, China's largest tech company, who is also the daughter of the company founder. To me this was a sign of one thing: Trump had recently claimed to work out deals to forestall the trade war he was starting with China but the follow-up information seemed to suggest he was lying or making it up. And I guess he thinks he can arrest people and use all his "power" to help "negotiate." China was immediately calling it a Hostage situation and that sounds about right, sounds like what we complain about Iran and North Korea doing, arresting people as bargaining chips for political contests.

But what if China arrests of kidnaps Ivanka? Will Trump realize the error of his ways or start dropping bombs or other dumb shit? He doesn't realize he is going Bowser, first, stealing a powerful woman and corporate royalty? This makes him the bad guy.

Why hasn't anyone arrested Mark Zuckerberg if we can just arrest powerful business folks, now? I'm not saying we shouldn't arrest them - but I don't recall any bankers going to jail after causing the financial collapse in 2008, for instance. It seems like the rarest stuff ever actually gets pinned on powerful business folks, since it seems like they, the corporations, "really" run the world - at least run all the systems that keep us all in their "control."

But they can overplay their hand - ignoring climate change, continuing to foment wars. Or just killing the wrong journalist in the wrong place like when the Saudi's killed Khashoggi in Turkey when Erdowan wants to take MBS down - and probably will. Why did they kill him? They felt like they were so powerful they could get away with it, like nothing could stop them or there would be no consequences - and so far they may feel like they are right.

But I have to point out that while I predicted the war in Syria would be the Last War in Earth History there are obviously more, especially in Yemen where the UN says 14 million people are on the brink of starvation making it the worst current humanitarian disaster in the world. But after they murdered Khashoggi and there was international attention on Saudi Arabia they are actually paying attention to their war with the Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, there in Yemen. It's no surprise they never made much news about it before - America has been selling them the weapons and refueling their airplanes with our ships there, apparently, for years, so it's Our War in Yemen, too, that has killed thousands and is about to starve millions - so of course we don't want to talk about it.

But after the killed that One person the tables start to turn, they can't just get the whole country to ignore our role in helping the Saudis fight a war in Yemen if we are asking Trump if he will cancel the arms sales, even if he says he won't - at least they have to ask and more people are exposed to what is going on. And we can force him to change his mind if we actually do things. I happened to see a clip of a Colbert show where he is addressing Trump's recent statement that he has no business dealings, personally, with Saudi Arabia so it is not for THOSE reasons that he won't cancel the arms sales to them - but Colbert showed a clip of him from a campaign rally where he brags that he does 40-50 million dollars in business with Saudi Arabia and they are so close, etc.

And his argument about why he won't stop the arms sales, that he is protecting jobs, is proven to be a lie, too. And the more people talk about it the more it can become clear that protecting 300 arms jobs, or 300 coal mining jobs, or any hundreds of any jobs of work that should have been obsolete decades ago is no reason to hold back  millions of green energy and new technology jobs.

Clinging to scraps of the past is no reason to hold back from the bounty of the future.

And that's all Trump ever does and he's ALWAYS gone off the deep end but he keeps going further. All I've seen so far in response is that the stocks are falling, again, which reminds me of a tweet when Obama was president that Trump sent saying he should resign because the DOW lost 2,000 in two days, which happened earlier this year, and I think I heard a week or so ago that recent drops had erased all the stock gains of the whole year.

I certainly wish and had hoped that all his blatant racism and misogyny and general threat to humanity and the planet would be enough to get everyone to oppose Trump and all he stood for - I thought this would be how he inadvertently helped us turn the corner to become a good and loving society. But it wasn't. Maybe in this culture of  - whatever you call it, following people on social media - we really don't care about "issues" or problems that seem "too big for individuals" and just trust our governments to take care of them - they've got us right where they want us, like that, and never have to improve anything if we don't hold them accountable. But even so, we DO care about individuals.

It reminds me that yesterday I heard on the radio, in NPR, an interview with an author of a biography of Rock Hudson. He mentioned that an expert who wrote a book on the history of AIDS said there were two eras, AIDS Before Rock Hudson and AIDS after Rock Hudson. When the news came out that this beloved star had AIDS it changed the "general perception" of AIDS - it changed the way the culture saw AIDS and its victims. Because before they were demonized or ignored, part of the full-throttle homophobia the culture promoted at that time. But then it broke through to people, through him. Important details include that Ronald Reagan ignored it for years and defunded research and programs to stop it, until Rock Hudson died and his friend Elizabeth Taylor became president of an AIDS organization and personally lobbied Reagan to address the issue until he finally did two years after Hudson died, bringing it to the national awareness in a new way and then funding was restored to address it, as well.

Thousands of people had died of AIDS before Rock Hudson but because of who he was - not that he is any more important than anyone else, just because of who he happened to be, his fate changed the fate of the world, and of whole communities.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels have killed thousands of people in Yemen - they've been off the deep end, there. But mad with power MBS went a step to far and killed Khashoggi - and Trump went another step too far continuing to support him in defiance of international consensus and American intelligence reports. Khashoggi isn't more important than all those other millions of people whose lives will be effected by his death - but it IS important that, in killing him, they may have to stop killing thousands of people in Yemen.

they went too far, off the deep end. "Donald Trump move over - Mary Jenkins is in the(...bank?)!" Mary just said on 227. She sold her cookie recipe for $15,000 but then found out Geraldine, what's his name, swindled her because he just sold the same recipe for $100,000. Pearl says "at least i was smart enough not to sell him my sponge cake."

AIDS went to far, when it killed Rock Hudson, if it wanted to Lay Low. Trump went too far, arresting Meng Wanzhou. You would think he would have gone too far when he locked up all those migrant kids, or sending the army to tear gas the kids and mothers and fathers and other folks on the border - but that was not "too far" for enough folks, I guess. Well now he's gone too far against China - and maybe "the whole world" still won't care - but I think this might be one of the final straws.

He went too far helping cover up the murder of Khashoggi  - MSB went too far and Trump went too far. Hopefully, the attention on Saudi Arabia, and consequently finally attention on the war in Yemen, may be the breaking point that ends the war: After two years they are finally holding peace talks, in a castle in Switzerland, I think, between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels, this week. I don't know if there is a government of Yemen, if they are involved, or not. But the point is, that one person's fate can affect the fate of another whole country.

And arresting Meng Zhou is a classic example of abuse of power, overstepping your abilities, and going off the deep end. He just said "I guess the devil made me do it" which I think is an old catchphrase of his. Flip Wilson, that's his name! And the cookie recipe ultimately belonged to Famous Amos so their scam didn't get them the $100,000 after all.

Don't these world leaders watch TV? You don't "get it all" without losing it all by the end of the show - might as well have some dignity while folks are watching.

When he is already so far off the deep end it seems weird to talk about Trump going more off - but he does, and at some point it has to be "too much" lets hope its long before war or nuclear disaster. We can all feel relatively sane to not have that much power wrapped up in doing that much wrong and trying to justify it.

Yet we all have our own versions of Trump's problem: We Do have so much power, and a lot of it is wrapped up in wrong ways and justifying wrong ways  - I'm not going to imagine criticisms, just consult your conscience, you know what I mean. We can all be better by freeing our power from underserving (*undeserving, thanks, typo fairies) ideas and just becoming better, doing better things.

We can all rise up into the air, help others out of the surf, and even help others out of the deep end. And we can help ourselves out, too - recognize when we are serving some larger, but wrong, idea, like Raj and his insistence on winning.

Recognize that when we do wrong it is because we have been hurt and make mistakes going the wrong way about addressing it.

Trump thinks he is being "patriotic" or Nationalist but really he is just serving large, but wrong, ideas of racism and Super-Greed: protecting the unjust privileges of the rich at the expense of the rights and happiness of the People. Unfortunately this HAS been too much of America's identity - of our HISTORY, racism and greed, all along - but it is not part of our FUTURE. And while Trump fully represents the culmination of that evil side of America, the Ugly America, the Beautiful America, the one on the Dream, is the ideals that we have yet to live up to.

But we finally have the chance to live up to the dream, to shed this old shell. We need to rebrand after Trump has ruined our brand the way he does.

When your brand has become intimately associated with rape and kidnapping and murder and cover ups you just can't recover - but Trump is just the final expression of all that evil that was there all along but was never the whole story. That evil kept itself in power, kept itself at the top, but evil is always doomed to failure if it can't be redeemed. So Trump is the pinnacle, then we fall off and hopefully that whole mountain of crap crumbles away after he goes away or changes.

In the meantime we can realize that more is up to us than we are taught to think, that we can help ourselves out of the same overpowering, destructive ideas.

Find ways to have fun again, find the humor in bad things - we get so many great jokes making fun of Trump, making fun of ourselves and what we have become. Because we know it's not the Way, but remembering that we can also know how we can get back to it.

There was a news story yesterday about Madonna criticizing Gaga for something  - I didn't read it, but I will now and include any comment. But if it doesn't bear mentioning I'll just say that even if Trump, or anyone, seems to live their life off the deep end there is still a deeper end they can go off, that is too deep until even the biggest sea monster has to turn around and ask for help, to come back to the community and doing what is best for everyone.

Ok I guess it was the "100 people in a room and one of them..." comment and I can't decide if I should not mention it at all or write a whole edition about it - I was going to write about the commercials on Antenna TV in this episode but decided I will probably wait and do it another time, next time, even - just call it a Commercial Break. But yeah, I will talk about it then.

Thanks for reading, please share, comment, or whatever!

*Note - my spellsheck on Blogspot spells blonde without an "E" and some of the other highlights included Ivanka, Bowser, and Zuckerberg

Gaga I guess it has gotten used to or always knew <3 nbsp="" p="">

Gaga/Oz Magic: Perfect Synchro 5, Fire and Climate Change - gagablog #161

It's been over a month (4 months?) since I've written this when I felt, in this Perfect Synchro series, like I would get to writing weekly or even daily. A lot has happened in that month to zoom out and broaden my focus from these details where life, art, and entertainment have echoed each other around me, making notes of how things connect: and I've kept making notes, I kind of want to gather them all up as much as I can find and mention all of them, but first I want to talk about the Bigger Picture.

The Biggest Picture is we are in danger of blowing up the world, eradicating ourselves from the planet, and catastrophic effects of climate change and Donald Trump is who we have to worry about not doing it or finally doing something, waking up - he seems to be the one in place holding our entire race and planet hostage. But maybe he'll wise up. We feel helpless in such a situation and prefer not to think about it, but there IS something we can do, all of us. I call it magic because for all of us there are magical ways of discovering and doing things, different for all all of us but with certain themes, magical themes - and certain goals, most importantly the magical goal of saving us all and bringing us all together.

In my own big picture there was something in my family I tried to mention here but I will edit out, it's not really something I feel comfortable sharing about, but it effected me and made me not want to write this for a while because I didn't know what to say about it. I said what I thought to say and think I will remove it or make it vague instead. But it helped me deal with it when my best friend moved away, it put it in perspective where I can handle that better than I usually would.

And here I've been talking about all sorts of other things - I've been avoiding Gaga now for two years, the Trump years, but I want that to end.

I've been ignoring, neglecting, avoiding, boycotting Gaga since the whole Hillary thing - I chose to boycott everyone who supported Hillary over Bernie, or Jill, and for Gaga I was always, online, trying to get her (or little monsters) to connect with the Bernie campaign, then Jill campaign and had made a "deal" that if they didn't switch over from the whole Hillary/Trump show to support an actual chance out of that mess I would boycott them - so I quit watching Colbert, etc. But I've seen his show a few times since then, saw his "Boat" book and wanted to order it, just last night a friend had it at his house and I even read it. I've broken the boycott. I did break down and buy "Joanne" sometime this year and listened to it once, as I document here, and lately I've been ready to listen to it again, to end the boycott. A Star is Born came out and did well - but I haven't seen it. I want to see it and am thinking about going to see it almost every day now while it is still in the theaters or going to the Elvis theater, our "dollar" theater which costs like $2.50 or $3.50. Gaga made the news and got great reviews for the movie, I'm sure, but I haven't really heard much specifically, except that she should win an Oscar and other awards - so I'm really excited to see it and really happy for her. Summing up my "boycott" just now, remembering those months of online desperation when I felt sure that Bernie was our only hope - until Hillary finished stealing the nomination and it seemed Jill was our only hope remaining to avoid Trump - I do feel "silly" in a way - I even forgot to mention Kill, *Jill, thanks typo fairing *fairies, thanks again - when I first mentioned it - and was totally not planning on mentioning it. As I type that I am reminded to turn on my TV by second Facebook pop-up in 5 minutes telling me I have 99 notifications - now it JUST popped up a third time - still there, I kind of want to screenshot it but I only remember how to do that on a phone anyway I've only done it once or twice on a computer.

So a lot happened. What happened for me, personally, kind of left me with a shock and "excuse" to avoid writing this, to postpone "Perfect Synchro 5" - I'd rather sum up that time, vaguely, instead of going back to 2016 right now. What happened? Well, so I don't forget - in no particular order - I was at the mall 3 times and each time, while walking around the same corner, from the Gamestop / Foodcourt area towards the Lego Store - they were playing a Gaga song. I'm pretty sure the first time it was... no I forget, could have been "Edge of Glory" or that was the second time, the third was "Just Dance." I do wish I was writing these regularly, and making them short and sweet, but I guess I am glad I have "so much to say". Except that of course some of it is bad and scary - there was the worst fire in California history and another one in Malibu and Gaga made the news because she was evacuated - I think her house was spared I heard Neil Young and Miley Cyrus and others lost their Malibu homes, but I haven't heard anything else about it. Except one thing - I was going to mention how I was taking the message that she was evacuated - because it struck me that Gaga almost always makes the news on her own terms  - facebook just reminded me a 4th time - I guess they will keep doing that every time a new one pops up - and this time she was "making the news" just like everyone else as a fire victim. But before I could write about that she did make the news on her own terms, with an act of her own choosing - she delivered pizza to a shelter for Californians displaced by the fire. I don't say it that way because she did it to make the news, I imagine she just thought it was a sweet and wonderful idea and takes advantage of the fact that it will make the news. I know she's known to get pizza for her little monsters waiting in line to see her, too, it's kind of a theme. It's the first thing I attempted to share on social media after my first 30-day ban from facebook expired, and the only thing I've done there since then, too, until sharing a random gagablog, #36, there just before writing this. I'll get back to the ban / boycott later - but it's no surprise it should be caught up in all this "boycott" magic especially if I'm drawing it to an end - facebook's agenda / structure was the whole reason I was trying to tell "Berners" and "Greens" about the Gaga connection - since we were always talking politics there (6th notification, just now) it seemed to make sense to get their focus on the idealism and magic, to mention it to little monsters in their life - but I see now how I was playing into facebook's game to corral all the likeminded folks under false shepherds who scattered and diverted their flocks - I should have just been in little monster groups trying to talk politics with them until it became obvious to most of us how many ways we are allied with the progressive movement. But nevermind - that is to say allowing Trump and all this evil to continue is more my fault than Gaga's or Colbert's or anyone who was in any way duped into the idea that Hillary was our only chance to avoid Trump. I could have played that all differently and I'm trying to shift my own shortcomings onto others but I want to take a higher road, now..

It's time to claim and use all the most powerful magic we have. I will stop digressing, if I can, and get to some points.

I quit writing for a month because of a surprising incident in my family - I don't want to go into the details. I was going to, that is, but then this happened and it just threw me off. On the radio, for weeks, had been a commercial for an interview with a local comedian who had a lot of national, international, Netflix, I think, success, and  (7th notification - 8th right after I finally just exxed it out) and his sister had committed suicide. I didn't want to hear it but every time I heard the ad it made me think how bad I felt that I had lost touch with my family - we hadn't spoken in months. But it didn't remind me to call them. At the time there were news stories about psychadelic drugs, mushrooms curing depression, and experts talking about how they light up parts of the brain, etc - all the details were perfect for Perfect Synchro series and I felt like they were the worlds magical response, reward, for me mentioning psychedelics in my last gagablog. And meanwhile the commercial to hear the interview about the book this guy wrote, "Tragedy Plus Time", was a reminder to call my family, but I have some "excuse" to not do it when I can.  And I hold myself back in ways I want to learn this same "lesson" from - mainly that I am so eager to blame someone else. I could have called my family more. I didn't have to blame someone else I could have accepted that things hurt sometimes, things hurt because of things we've done and feel bad for, need to atone for, etc, but as long as we think we could always do it later, we don't. We take it for granted that we, or others, will be around instead of seeking forgiveness, or to forgive them, while we can.

George H. W. Bush died and it seemed like the days of media attention were all one message: "See? 'Everyone' will love you, eventually, at least all say nice things about you, IF you aren't a total unmitigated asshole" - and I always thought both Bushes were big enough assholes that I won't ever be "nostalgic" for them but I get it, lets use a funeral to make fun of Trump, whatever. I'm disappointed the Democrats can't put up a stronger opposition to such openly rapist, racist, obvious KKK Nazis.

Oh, right, Facbook: facebook banned me for 3 days for no given reason but it happened when I was sharing the story about Joe Manchen voting to confirm Kavanaugh - I had shared it about 4 or five times and was sharing it again and was booted for three days. About a week later, in time that a 30 day ban would keep me off facebook through the midterms, I got my first 30-day ban. The 3 day ban was my first "actual" ban - facebook did a LOT to censor me in 2016 but never an official ban. This is how I got it: I was in Star Wars Sithposting - a "shitposting" group where people generally talk a lot of shit and has a preponderance of Imperials, or Nazis, or whatever they call themselves, Trumpers. Well, I had posted a meme in comments, Spidey pointing at Spidey, "When the cops show up at the KKK rally" and someone I've never noticed before replied "Shitty meme" to which I, naturally, said "you're just jealous that it is better than you and your entire white trash family for 17 generations." I was banned within minutes and got the screenshot that it was for that comment. I asked for reviews - it wasn't harassment, it was our first interaction, and if "white trash" meets the level of "hate speech" I think they have a white bias because they allow lots of other slurs. It fits with my conclusion that facebook VERY intentionally uses censorship to PROTECT White Supremacists, Russian Patriarch Trolls, etc, then pretends they don't  - "We didn't know this was happening" - I've known from experience how much effort and sneaky tactics they do to suppress progressive thought but they are finally getting busted for being straight Nazi - and no surprise since Nazi, Neo-Nazi, and KKK preferred results have been all that is produced, in America, Europe, Brazil, and elsewhere, I'm sure, ever since they "influence" has been so dominant.

And they moved into an office here in Denver - "facebook uses censorship to protect Nazis and fascists" would fit on a signboard but I think I need to refine it before I protest them in person.

I can guarantee you, as a psychic fairy witch and as a person who is intuitive and just pays attention, that the "protest" within facebook that it "discriminates against employees expressing right-wing views" is a ruse, a scam, probably written by that Gordon Luntz loser - you know what I mean - there is ONLY discrimination against the left on the actual platform, its TOTAL all-out promotion of right-wing agendas - just call that their algorithm but rest assured there are ACTUAL living Nazis who might not call themselves Nazis but who are doing Nazi work by deciding who gets banned, etc, in individual cases. And it's obvious that is their agenda. So they have a fake protest of their "right wing employees" - just like the whole Trump phenomenon is the whining of the privileged racist whites pretending that if they protest against "racism against white people" their "victimhood" will trump actual victims of their racist institutions. Its a ruse, the same way Trump pretends he is "bullied" by the media.

My first post when facebook let me back on was going to be the screenshot of the "report" for saying White Trash and calling them out for protecting White Supremacists - and I kind of don't want my whole account deleted and I'm kind of just lazy and more than any of that I'm ready to transfer any "boycott magic" energy to facebook: in the month since I have been banned the head of their communications has resigned and "admitted" (claimed) that he was the ONLY one who hired some Nazi agency, Directions, or something, Diversions, to discredit anyone who was criticizing facebook over letting Russian hackers make Trump seem popular. I think another bigwig at the company was arrested or had his documents seized in Europe over the Cambridge Analytical scandal.

These are signs of what is to come, Justice, I just want to go ahead on record and call them the Nazis they are, KKK, point out they were in collusion with Trump and the Russians all along - they know where Rubles come from.

Anyway, I quit smoking cigarettes, too - I had set it up as a spell to End All War  -or in the meantime end the NRA, when I quit smoking. I got 2-3 days into it, finally actually quitting again, and Bush died. I must have started smoking around 1988 so "end of an era" etc - a nice magical reminder that as long as Bush, etc, was plaguing America I was plaguing myself with cigarettes, too, but no more. Ok I will go out and finish one that I smoked a little of yesterday, now - but I really want to quit and don't want to do ANYTHING to hold up the collapse of patriarchy. The next day some bigwig navy general in the Middle-East died, too - it made the news but they said not due to foul play, supposedly. But I really want to quit smoking, completely, and see the collapse of Patriarchy coincide with that in a major way.

Just exposing, busting, taking over facebook would be one significant sign in that vein - but I'm thinking bigger, too - I need to write that book about Aliens, and ghosts and fairies and angels etc - before it's Too Late! That is, before its not Early anymore - its fun to tell people things and then they come true!

So We HAVE to know that the evil Patriarchal system is collapsing but we can't take it for granted, we have roles to play and most likely discover, first. I can write things and make them happen, for instance, but it always works the BEST when I'm writing the best possible things - I hold myself back because I'm not feeling my best but just going for it makes everything better - especially when you're into using talents and gifts for their magical powers.

I never wanted to say really how I felt the "last time I had a crush" - I think I knew that it was mostly magic, not any kind of love from the girl I thought I liked. I can even say that now and not feel like a "betrayal" or whatever, like I'm afraid I'm jinxing it - love is way more than we can think it is and the ways we try to think about it are always going to come with more lessons - 9th notification. I wonder if I will go back on facebook after this or continue Boycott them, shift my boycott from Gaga and other Artists to this Network that actually deserves it because it knew what it was doing all along. I could have seen her last night and I just didn't feel like - I feel like she accepted me being nice to her and liked it but never liked ME at all and it hurts my feelings, that's I guess all I have to say. I kind of wish I had written about the way it made me feel to have a crush back when I had it, because the feelings were good, the inspiration it gave me was good, but it made me sad to not be able to show it to anyone, no one wanted to read it. I can feel that way about hypothetical art or books I might write or make but to have the one person you want to read something not read it, oh well. It just feels like there is no way they could ever appreciate you.

What was I saying? Bush Dies, Trump looks like a big buffoon. But why can't we call him out, more, for being KKK? Because to do so would show how badly we need to do the opposite of what he does? I forgot to smoke that cigarette. It's 9-11 on my computer, really 10:10 - I forgot to turn on the TV, too.

I took a few drags and smoked a bowl instead "Money isn't everything the best things in life are free" Danny just said on The Partridge Family, then gave his sister all his Spider-Man comics, etc - he's having an operation. Stan Lee died - I have too much to say, thanks, Make Mine Marvel, 'nuff said.

I was disappointed in the Democrats for tamping down expectations, running the same ole awful folks like McCaskill, I don't think they wanted to win the Senate, they would have had to stop Trump and they would rather just play the game of fake opposition. But I'm proud of the ones who won, the ones who are still going for it, and proud of Stacey Abrams who did, or would have won, to be the first black female Governor, and the mechanisms they used to stop her she is going on to challenge. Other developments like that WILL reform our system but we all have roles to play.

I'm proud of Jared Polis and Colorado for electing him - he was our first openly gay congressman and is now the nations first openly gay governor and is progressive, supported Bernie, seeks medicare for all, starting with our state, and will help the cannabis revolution, too.

My role is not to get so bogged down in that stuff, the power of words, music, and art is so much greater like living in heaven versus squabbling in hell. I have so many notes from TV shows and radio, mostly, but I've also read, finished reading "The Mystical Path to Cosmic Consciousness" which was pretty good but I think still suffers from some old ways of thinking that you "can't change the world" when it takes mystical knowledge - and certain actions from that - but it does happen. It was a pretty good book and got me more in the mood to write my Aliens book - I kind of feel like I just have to get some of this gagablog "out there" in 2018, specifically to finally finish the Shirley Fairies series - then finish talking about Artpop, finally focus on Joanne and even catch up with A Star is Born, MAYBE, before she has a new album - but I want to get back up to that speed to do it all.

I started talking about the fairies in Shirley as a spell to avert nuclear war with North Korea. Now Trump and Kim Jong Un are best friends, lovers even. I half-drew my coloring book about Kim saving the world and I want to finish that, too, before the year's end. But the "important thing" is that North and South Korea have committed to "ending the war" before the end of the year - if only America will let them.

This is a model for all of our relations - we, as individuals, as souls, when we can see each other that way, just need to resolve things and build trust between ourselves. Nations can do this between their "individual" selves, too - but the path of "Sovereignty" and "America First", the path of "Nationalism" is merely a method to keep a bullying system in place where some are Above others and make their decisions for them. In any argument two people, two sides, can come to mutually beneficial agreement, UNLESS one of them has some "higher power" they are answering to.

Another example of this in recent news is the shifting political dynamic - supposedly, or theater of the same - regarding Saudi Arabia killing that Journalist. Trump is on their side, so is Putin. At the recent summit the media pointed out Putin and Trump "ignoring" each other and Putin joking and laughing with MBS - they can be openly chummy about their ability to kill with impunity. Trump can't laugh along because it makes him look bad but they're all on the same team. They can think they will 'always get away with it" but they could just turn the world against them, or if the rest of the world is just faking indignation about it they could end up with the real People of the world turned against them, too. They are supposedly having a summit to really address climate change, now, for the next week or so. They will presumably come out with some plan that they have calculated will appease people to believe they are finally addressing the problem - but if the People, if the World, is not convinced, it could easily be the trigger to taking over the entire world, from Every government.

Isn't there a riot in France over gas taxes now that threatens to topple the government? Isn't Brexit just a ruse, distraction - as I initially predicted, they probably just won't go through with it -but surely all the attention wasted on it, if spent another way, could have made better progress towards Green Energy than Macrons Gas Tax ever would?

It's like Russia thinks they are some kind of World Chess Masters who can "win" by weakening every other government, while promoting Autocrats, like we will get back to the Old Days of Czars and Kings. I'm not saying Putin is a COMPLETE dumbass, he might be smart in lots of ways, but when all of those smarts are anchored to an old, unrealizable ideal he's just going to become extremely effective at his own undoing.

If weakening all "liberal" countries by trolling them, etc - they are trying to convince Danny to use a Dancing Bear instead of a whale on The Partridge Family as I type this. Ok, you weaken the EU with Brexit, you weaken America by exposing and electing our White Supremacist core - but if we get rid of that, have a change of heart, we will come back stronger than EVER before, cutting racism and misogyny out of our core. And maybe the EU will stay intact and point out that Brexit was a Russian ploy which would make them stronger than before, too, uniting them against you and all the ways you've promoted fascists in Europe and around the world. A revolution in Brazil, too, to overthrow Balsanaro might be another version of the same lesson. You keep clinging to Power, a patriarchal power of intimidation, violence, and fear, but we the more you "get your way" the more we get sick of it and will ultimately overthrow you.

A cooperative network of governments that actually addresses global warming and saves the planet, probably by also ending war and poverty to make the most of all resources, would deserve to stay in place.

Anything that is just a fake version of that will get overthrown.

Anything that is a return to some Kingdom, Feudal, or Warring Nations model of the world will get super overthrown. Like, we wont be as nice about it, Fearmonger, you'll reap what you sow.

So the Russian game of Preserving Patriarchy, despite all their recent "victories" is a Losing Game. Brexit is a big mess right now partly because it is so complicated - part of their ploy just to waste time and resources and divert focus from real things, a "self"-inflicted ("seeing yourself in Mr Flicker Shirley just said to Danny, who realized he wanted to exploit whales not help them, but now he does) injury - but if all that complication gives them the chance to see it differently, all their "concerns" and examine why Russia, in a ploy to weaken them, would promote it, maybe Britain or whoever they are can form a NEW, more inclusive sense of identity that is not prey to such Supremacist enticements.

Maybe America can, too - well, of course we can. If some leaders actually speak up and call out the fascism, and the system "allows" them or is overwhelmed to let them actually rise to the top, we can reform our government. Otherwise we can just scrap it and start over, if they insist on fascism or fake opposition to it.

"What good is money when Nature needs me?" They got Howard Cosell to put Mr. Flicker on the spot so he would have to donate his song proceeds to the whales, too, because he is on the spot on TV - he looks orange, too. And he said "Land of the home and free of the brave", just a garble of "patriotalk". There was something on the radio about current illegal shark-killing fleets being exposed recently and the news story talked about how all the whale mania in the 80s was instrumental in changing policies and ending most whaling so we would not make them extinct. So thanks for your role in that, this episode, Partridge Family. Spock might never have saved them, too, if not for you.

A lot of my notes on TV mention Donald Trump - a run of shows all mentioned him for some reason a few days in a row, according to the level of celebrity he had in the 80s. Its just weird, "innocent" in a way, to not be all about racism, etc, like his news today (10th notification.)

I feel like I need to give more detail about why my family issues relate to all of this. It made me feel completely silly how much time I had spent thinking about that girl I had a crush on, too, seemed to put that in perspective that I was taking for granted people who were actually IN my life, who I really hoped so strongly would always be part of my life that I guess I took them for granted. And then a month or so later my best friend who I've been friends with for the last 10 years or so, and my bandmate for Foxzen, Calvin, moved away. He would often talk about moving somewhere else and of course I always did my best to talk him out of it. This time I realized that at least we would stay in touch, feeling so out of touch with my family made him just moving away seem not so bad. At least he still wanted to talk with me even if we won't see each other for a while. We never managed to play a show while we lived in the same town - if we manage some success with the band to play a show it will be exciting to find out how, where we will do it. It just means we will have to focus on different ways to make it and maybe that will turn into a unique opportunity. And if its a little harder to focus on making music, as it was when we didn't hang out as much, we can still do it just require more effort, therefore it will mean valuing what we are doing and that focus can make the music even better, really caring about it. Basically not taking it for granted.

I keep wanting to say what the Main Point of this, why its called Perfect Synchro - I guess the message of this one is that while the details and little experiences of life can coincide in ways that make you feel more attune, in tune, with the world, the real connection is with everything, with the whole Big Picture, and you can feel more perfectly in "your part" of it all, which is wonderful, but also involves feeling more perfectly connected with it ALL and sometimes bigger things, world events, can pull you out of your place like a fire calls you to evacuate.

I realize how much this is "not about Gaga" and how I got here and how I want to get back to what I truly believe in: The Goddess, Love, Nature, Art. I've felt like "working a job" has been my "excuse" for decades for not doing my real Work, living my real Life, making art - I've been delivering Pizzas for two years. And I feel good about it, I like it, except I do still feel like I am holding myself back from my real dreams and true destiny - or have a dream, as I did a week ago, about putting my paintings into pizza boxes. But at least I was making paintings, in that dream! And I do have time to write, I wrote a ten page fairy tale over the last month. "Their leader is a beautiful princess and they're going to take my master away" Jeannie just said. And I'm finally getting back to write this "I'm writing a book on Captain Nelson's behavior and a sequel on Healy" the psychiatrist just said. But i need to get Back to Gaga, connected, and not have so much "other stuff" to say here, or say it quickly in shorter installments, in order to have more writing time to write stories and books I have in mind. When Foxzen gets us rich and famous I will have plenty of time to write and also find the right times to make music and art. Just saying that makes me want to wrap this up and get on with it- I just want to mention any notes I can find and feel "caught up" and then the final notes about the fairies mentioned in Shirley.

There was a story about whether people would prefer the superpower of flight or invisibility, how men tended to prefer flight and women invisibility and other connotations of the choices - but I think I wrote about that, and about the next note, Descartes Daughter, and the uncanny valley and if we fear if we qualify as "real" compared to them or how real we are or how mechanical our thinking - but these ideas were brought up again in the Mystical Path to Cosmic Consciousness book, too. And my book, the one I want to write, is about becoming More real - so we don't feel those threats or fears but actually feel as real, as alive, as connected, as we can.

On Oct 2nd there was a Jack Benny Show rerun where he says due to flipping channels we will raise a generation of safe-crackers, and mentions a story he heard during one commercial break that reminds me of how I write this blog, "bibliomancy" with a TV: " A skinny mop fell for a washing machine with an acid stomach and they got two matching cemetery plots"

The comedian who wrote the book about his sister dying was on an hour long interview and I heard a lot of it, focusing on the part where he said he felt she was contacting him and his mom though birds and other signs, especially one kind of bird appearing and poignant or weird times to both of them, talking about it, and a medium telling him she had to talk to him, to pass on messages from his sister. I've always taken signals from birds. For example when my friend and I would take hikes in the mountains, years before we even thought we would make music together, the topic of making a band would come up and inevitable a hawk or two would fly over head, every time. I recently was made aware of the connection between Owls and Hecate and have been paying more attention, noticing more owls in images, got a crystal owl fetish at Denver Pagan pride - then a few nights ago I was driving and an owl swooped down over my car and was flying a few feet in front of my windshield for about a block, lit on a telephone pole and then again on top of a house, where I got a picture of it.

When I felt foolish for not contacting my family and wanted to avoid hearing that program I felt so stupid but decided to listen to it when it came on instead of turning away and I'm glad I did. We stay in touch with people beyond death and that is one way we can become more spiritual, by realizing this.

The Ghost of George Bush seems to be haunting Trump, for instance, in the most metaphorical way - and maybe literally, too. We might all naturally believe in ghosts but talk ourselves out of it, rationalize it away, with the same system we use to rationalize war and greed, etc. If the people you are responsible for hurting or killing start to haunt you, you probably can't keep doing bad things. So if you can make a system to block them out you can prolong injustice.

that system just can live much longer, it's getting exposed.

They're admitting that the object that came into our solar system a few months ago, that was too oblong to make sense to us in any known way, also had its own power, therefore it had to either be an alien ship or part of an old alien ship - there are definitely very advanced alien civilizations, "or were" - but we are truly just at the verge of discovering the whole rest of the universe.

And I want to predict it all to show how natural it all is. And just finish this and the fairies of Shirley and have peace and happiness spreading exponentially through the world with whatever works of love and art are required to make that happen.

On 10-26 there was a rerun of Benson that had an old lady who had met aliens and tells them she also had laser beam eyes that can melt you. "Watch out for her Death ray eyes!" Benson tells the General, who replies "You don't believe in that stuff, do you Benson?" and he says "No" and the General says "Good, everyone knows star people aren't violent."

This is the basic Cosmic Principle, like a principle of conservation, that I have hinted at for years, decades: You can't have interstellar travel until you outgrow violence.

All of our history, as long as I have been alive, has been clinging to a system of violence when all the signs are there that we can, and must, transcend it, including going to other planets - but not with violence. We just have to get over it and we can go, we can truly live. Instead we have entrenched greedy structures keeping the "debate", the doubt, the fear - the Violence in place. This is why in my song "Savior Mom" from 2008, I think, I sing "Lady Gaga's love's for everyone and love is the reason all the little monsters came to life and now it's our season men of violence tried to silence love and hid it so low but Lady Gaga is here with us now so on with the show"

On 10-30 there was a musical celebration of the Musical "Wicked" and I don't want to get into it, it makes me mad, a perversion of Oz as far as I understand it. To be fair, the movie is also a perversion of Oz, slightly, anyway - I have idealistic standards and some things fail to live up to them. Suffice to say now that I have heard some of the songs my intuitive opinion is reinforced.

In contrast, on Halloween the next night they showed an episode of Bewitched where Endora is punishing Darren by making him look like a cliched ugly witch and as part of making the point that that stereotype is rude and wrong Samantha invokes Glinda the Good Witch who is beautiful. On the same day, on the radio on NPR there was a program about stoicism that mentioned their belief that what is Good is beautiful and what is Bad is Ugly.  I don't want to get distracted complaining about how Wicked "challenges" this with some kind of "revolt of Brunettes over Blondes" - I want to talk about beauty as the Only Good Desire as I understood from reading Suzuki's "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" and the first sign I mentioned of Gaga's divinity in the piece I wrote for my friend's book "The Pomegranate Prophecies" - and my general belief in and devotion to beauty.

There was a story on last night about the #escapethecorset movement in South Korea. They say the #metoo movement had "largely bypassed" South Korea, that it is one of the most beauty-obsessed cultures in the world with the highest per capita expense on cosmetic surgery and also one of the more patriarchal societies with lots of abuse of women and very little punishment for it. They mentioned that the average newscaster age difference was 40 years between men and women, that just last week a female news anchor for the very first time on South Korean TV wore glasses on air. And they mentioned that it is one of the most cyber-connected cultures in the world and that is how the feminist movement is spreading. My understanding is that it is defying patriarchy generally by specifically challenging beauty standards and insisting women don't have to dress up for men. They reported that some South Korean male singing / rapping stars are responding to the movement by saying women who aren't trying to be beautiful aren't real women. They also mentioned that male Korean pop stars are beauty-obsessed and use a lot of cosmetic surgery, too. It makes me want to ask those rappers, etc - are you not real men if you don't get dolled up like the K-Pop stars, too? And it makes me want to question the movement, too - what's wrong with beauty? I feel like I can appreciate the idea almost as much as a male who does not have those experiences can but I still feel uncomfortable with the aspect that "beauty" is "wrong" - I agree it can be misused to exploit people, can be used cruelly. But if the movement is "understood" as anti-beauty, how can you have solidarity with beautiful people? Why should people who want to be beautiful be seen as "against" the cause?

I'm asking because I think there is a greater cause, to liberate the feminine, and beauty, and goodness, and sex, all at once by overturning an evil system built on demonizing them, on demonizing Nature.

The fires in California prove the problem of climate change. Over Thanksgiving weekend the dozen or so government agencies released there report that climate change will basically destroy our economy if we don't address it and at the same time the theme at the climate summit seems to be if we don't do something the whole world is in danger, every government is threatened or wont be necessary if we make ourselves go extinct. Yet Trump, etc, are still trying to deny and distract and do anything except doing anything about it.

My clock says 11:11 so its just after noon. I finished that cigarette and smoked a bowl, reminding me of an incident a  week ago when I was "quitting" but had a spare smoke and decided to light it and just as I did the rapper on the radio, a song I'd never heard, said "smoking cigarette after cigarette". And reminded me one of my successful days of going cigarette free was when I rolled four joints first thing in the morning - as I added this in in the editing stage, at almost six PM, my lover is reading the news that Trump's business are all being investigated, finally. For profiting from his presidency, the emoluments clause, I believe. Just another example of his whole presidency being unconstitutional  meaning he might have "won" according to the rules but has ruled entirely in defiance of the constitution, every single thing he is trying to do. Which fits in with the next news story from a TV show from the 50's or 60's.

I'm just glad to be catching up, getting through these notes even if it doesn't make sense. or if the sense has to be patched together.

On 11-1 a rerun on The Joey Bishop show his wife is running for office and he wants to trap her and says "do you not agree that anyone who wants to be in politics should know about the constitution? If she doesn't know the constitution they will know she has no business in politics". This statement fits a theme for Trump for his entire presidency but this was the same day that he announced that he could change the 14th Amendment with an executive order. And in the next weeks he got into a fight with Chief Justice John Roberts about "Obama Judges" and "Bush Judges" that every report mentioned Trump fails to understand the most basic things about the constitution.

As I read over this Archie Bunker said he had a dream that George Bush said the only way to fix El Salvador was make it the 51st state...

On 11-30 on the Partridge Family there is a musician who breaks into their house and jams and they hook him up with a lyricist who is weird and writes a song about "Stefani" which reminded me of Gaga but the two musicians being an unlikely pair reminded me of me and Calvin, of Foxzen, just a few days after he moved away. At the end of the show they go on to Hollywood which I took as a good sign even if Calvin is the only one of us who moved away.

On the same day there was a I Dream of Jeannie which I think I mentioned in the gagablog before: its the Day of the Ram and they must go to Mecca to renew her powers - every 2000 years when Jupiter and Mercury line up. The actor who played Klinger on MASH is a Thief, they eventually find the right spot, just in time before getting arrested, and say the magic words: "Bottle to Genie, Genie to Master, Master to Mecca, Ramda" I think it stands out to me in this context of establishing harmony, connection with the natural order, alignment. You can connect with things and the more connected the more powerful you can be, and there are larger frameworks of connection that you align with for whole new worlds of power.

On Archie Bunker's place, now, his lawyer is doing some Casablanca references  - reminding me just yesterday 227 did a whole Casablanca episode staring Billie Dee Williams. I should see that movie - and A Star Is Born!

I feel like I've been on the factory floor, just working, maybe trying to persuade anyone to see things differently, but I need to just do my real work, take a role that is more directional of the whole process than just going through the same motions.

I found a few more note cards, notes I may have already mentioned in previous gagablogs, but to be sure I will include them: There was a Family Ties Christmas Carol episode where Jen is the Ghost of Christmas Past and says "Of course I'm a ghost if I was a person I would have come through the door" and I include it because ghosts do typically go through walls, etc. On My Two Dads Nicole asks "Can Santa talk to Angels?" - her parents - and someone says "aren't you tall for an elf?" and "I hope you get the permanent job"  - I forgot what that's about / bad notes but now it reminds me of the contrast with "aren't you short for a stormtrooper?" and basically there are good guys, elves, and bad guys, fascists. And all the Good Folk, on all Sides, are on the Same side, calling us to paradise. On Wagon Train they have a Santa and someone asks how he visits without chimneys, I think, and they say Santa comes down the pines in the west. I guess just mystical reality taking whatever form is necessary, not regarding lower concerns. Samantha is trying to give Darren confidence by taking the form of a beautiful French lady and flattering him as I type this. I think I included all of these for notes on Ghosts and Fairies and Angels for my book.

On 10-15 on NPR there was a piece with a singer and rapper talking about growing up playing with the toy car The General Lee from the TV show The Dukes of Hazzard and how it normalized the rebel flag and how he realized that was wrong as he grew up. The next day on a rerun of "Alice" Boss Hogg guest stars and takes over Mel's Diner and makes it the Boar's Head West and there are rebel flags on the tables. That show, both of them, were from the 80's and the same thing is going on today: that guy who ran over people and killed that girl Heather Hayer at the White Supremacist rally in Charlottesville went on trial this week. Trump emphasized good people on both sides or some KKK crap. It's still really obvious how much they are trying to normalize it - IF you know it is wrong. If you notice it it becomes painfully obvious that more people don't oppose it more strongly. But we will - I need to do my part better, write better.

That same day, I think, 10-16-18, they reran a Late Show where Johnny Carson mentions "should we sell AWACS to the Saudis?"  - this was from the 80's or early 90's - and it's the same story today. I don't know when, exactly, Trump was "discussing" how far off the table any notion of cancelling arms sales to Saudi Arabia was, they've been dragging out the murder "investigation" so long, which Trump himself called the worst cover up. And he's making it worse. But also everyone is letting him gt away with it, there's way too much condemnation to go around and they haven't all gotten their spots. It was magically noticeable that this episode aired around the time he was nay-saying cancelling military contracts, either the same day or a few days before or after - but the message came from almost 30 years ago. We're just so overdue for learning the lessons of peace.

Supposedly we decided, as a World, after World War 1, and again after World War 2, that we would Never have war again, would end it all. But I guess we are choosing to "forget" that to enrich a few arms dealers. We can't afford another lesson, another test. We need to remember the lessons w already taught ourselves, the price we paid, and end war already. I heard, I believe our new congressman, saying on the radio that no one wants to avoid war more than soldiers because they know the true cost of it but the existence of soldiers implies we believe war is always inevitable or necessary and it just isn't, we can outgrow it. There is a medium on Alice and she might give Alice the evil eye if she does not take her disbelief elsewhere, as I add this paragraph in - oh, also the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1 was commemorated this month and Macron "called out" Trump and other nationalists for being the opposite of patriots. But no one is really going all out to stop the fascism, yet. And there is apparently a way to talk a good game but still just protect the rich which gets you, and the causes like Environmentalism you falsely claim to support, to be hated by the People. Its okay for them to hate you if you are a false leader but the real problem with "Liberal" leaders who obstruct progress is they make the actual good causes look bad. Like when Obama gave 300 million dollars to a solar company that went bankrupt the next week in order to "show" that Green Energy won't work - they're just protecting the fossil fuel companies long enough to last until Trump took office to Frankenstein the whole evil industry.

Around that same time, mid-October, after work one night, my coworkers and I were watching videos on our phones and one of them showed the SNL "Black Jeopardy" Episode with Tom Hanks, for whatever reason, and for whatever reason I also showed them the Simpson's scene of Flander's parents, the beatniks. Then a few days later, on 10-20-18, there was the rerun of the same SNL episode, I saw that scene and started watching, and it also had Lady Gaga performing on it. And the new Simpsons on 10-18 had a reprise appearance of Flander's Beatnik parents. It was interesting to have seen those before they came on, as a rerun SNL and new Simpsons, but I also had not seen Gaga's performance there, before, so it does seem like I'm getting over this long distance.

I do enjoy seeing these little signs but really I'd prefer doing things that helped everyone recognize these things, a magical duty and chance to save the world in some way, in much more obvious ways than details from TV shows that only I watch.

On 10-15-18 they replayed a Carson from 1988 with Sandy Duncan and the last joke of the monologue was all about the Dukakis / Bush debate - and on that episode he told a joke about the actual news story that Donald Trump had bought an airline and said something like "tomorrow, Eastern Air, in the future, the Space Shuttle" which I thought was a weird presentiment of his presidency and also of Space Force. And of the bankruptcy of Eastern Air? That everything he touches is eventually destroyed? Like that girl in Goldfinger? Another Trump joke he told, in the 80's or 90's, but replayed last week, was about a fragrance someone wore to Leona Helmsley's party where Donald Trump sniffed it and told so and so and it became a sensation - I'm not sure what the connotation is other than it stinks of corruption. I probably wouldn't have felt like mentioning it but the same day on another rerun channel Alf made a Trump reference, too, and it seemed like there was another one, too - all from the 80's. Its a funny image to recall. Meanwhile all these folks are recalling the dignity of Bush, compared to Trump. Looking back on those years like they were somehow "good" compared to now. Anyway. I can ramble on forever but it's time to finish this and get to real work, to real writing.

I have a card I may have already written about, but who cares, this one is all pretty random, from August - on the 15th they showed a Becker where he mentioned beanie baby riots. I made a note of it. On the 14th there was a My Two Dads where I guess Nicole wanted her babysitter to be one of the dad's Lover (? I don't understand my notes) and I guess he is explaining to her that when there is enough love to go around it spills over to whoever is around, that she loves her dad and her babysitter and wants them to love each other - she tells them to "TRY HARDER!", which I love - and she feels bad that the girl dumped him and doesn't want him to resent her for it  and at the end he says "We're a set, whoever loves me has to love you, too." and she asks "does she have to love Joey, too?" and he said "...No." in that way he says stuff that is funny. I guess this reminds me of love spilling over and even distorting how we see some things when we aren't able to express it all, when there is "too much to go around" - which "ironically" in a love-starved culture, there is always too much to go around. Even for Joey - especially for Joey, the artist, whom Michael says "no she doesn't have to love Joey" just because he is jealous Joey was always the Hot One.

I'm just going to actually go back over this, believe it or not, and edit some things out that were too personal and ultimately unnecessary to mention. The main message I keep getting is if I'm going to write this much I might as well write books. I like these little quirks but I'm stuck on them long enough, examining these details in the world, in TV and radio, instead of making my own themes and characters and everything in art and stories and songs and poems.

I do feel like, despite my brattiness, Gaga has stayed in my life and come back into my notice even in unexpected ways. I felt a certain magic to hear the news story that she delivered pizzas, it makes what I've been enjoying doing for work seem magically honored, in a way - but it also reminds me I don't want to have that in common with her as much as I want to be a musician, an artist, a Goddess, too - that we all can want that and have our own ways to realize it if we just come to believe in it. Butt I do appreciate her delivering pizzas, both for showing care for the fire victims and magically, for me.

And I hope they not only get back to comfortable living everywhere that is damaged by climate change but we also, all of us, demand that we stop making it worse and actually fix the problem, fix all the problems that contribute to it, with top priority. We can do it, and realize that ending poverty and war, etc, will go along, naturally, with this goal of restoring humanity and humanity's harmony with nature.

Doing the spellcheck I remembered one more thing I forgot to mention, then forgot it again. On Alice she was about to spend $39.50 to buy an anti-hex charm from the medium, Sima, and she tells her son it was in his head that he jinxed himself over tests, psyching himself out. She knows he was studying the presidents for days and so he recites them for her, in order, all the way up to "present", with Carter. "But you forgot Nixon" she said. "Oh, everyone's trying to forget him" he jokes. Alice calls Sima out as a huckster - maybe by the time I write this again we will have called out Trump and destroyed the power Fear is holding over us? Or, imagine, if Trump died today, or whenever he dies - you just can't "gloss over" what he did and focus on the Good Stuff, not yet anyway, since he's been nothing but bad. The best things he's done have been when he undoes stuff. And "the System" does "keep him in check" - somewhat - but allows him to continue without strong opposition just to win points "next time", to be able to promote less progressive candidates, not actually meet folks demands, because the More Evil options are SO evil. We won't let them play these games anymore, though. Remember how long the 2016 campaign was? 2 or 3 years? Do we even have any idea who will run against Trump in two more years time, now? Shouldn't we have MANY strong people to choose from, when the opposition is so fraught with evil? But no they want us to feel desperate enough to go with whoever they approve. We are actually the most powerful ones, we've just been duped into this system. Maybe this gagablog doesn't have the right clues to prove this to you, but I will write it better when I'm living up to my other writing callings and getting this back in tune with Gaga, community, and family of all kinds with whom I've fallen out of touch.

But mostly I need to get back to who I really am, to my true dreams and calling. My love for Gaga reawakened that in me in the first place but there was still a lot of "lesser me" to work through. And I did live up to more of my dreams than ever before with the two Foxzen albums we made, plus I am getting back into writing. I believe in freeing myself and becoming a Way Out for others, too - but it's past time for musing and time for Arting, for magic, in its fuller forms.