The Goddess and "God": A Star is Born, Spider-Man; gagablog 166

The Goddess creates and supports all life and brings us to fruition. "God" is a dangerously bad idea, a limited, corrupted conception of the divine that produces all the problems we suffer from. The Goddess is Nature and Love and Magic and Art - the natural way of things. God is an illusion of punishment, a grand artifice, Hatred, Disbelief, Fear and destructive, un-creative to begin with and jealously destructive.

I don't want to get into too many examples of this - at least not of the evil myth of God - but I do want to get into one example of it, of the way the myth of God is used to suppress the truth of the Goddess - in A Star is Born. And I wanted to mention the counter-example of liberating power I saw in Spider-Man.

The Goddess is everything - all power, all existence, all past, future, and present. God is a distraction from this, a diversion, a corruption or dead-end, getting caught up in a lie, a trap, a falsehood. The way out of this trap is all around us and within us - its the Goddess. But we have been trapped by the fake God ideas and it's lesser powers are what actually motivate and control us instead of the far greater, more powerful, Good and Beautiful power of the Goddess.

The Goddess is liberating. While people think of "Gods" as higher powers, and they therefore have the ability to feel liberating, connected to a greater power than the ones we are subject to, currently, God promises an "escape" - but it is not true liberation, the way of the Goddess, it is merely a way "out" and into a larger trap.

I thought about writing this after realizing it is a point I want to make about A Star Is Born, my big complaint with the movie, that it glamorized an abusive relationship.. I realized it while watching a few minutes in the middle of an episode of Rawhide that was on - there was a prophecy that an Aztec princess would appear and the guys who are looking for her divine by the signs that she is a girl ho *who- thanks typo fairies is working in the saloon - the mayor is cheating on his wife with her and just gave her a necklace made of gold Mexican coins. I think she gets "sacrificed," somehow, by the end of the episode so it is probably not a feminist message in the whole episode - I imagine the message is she is killed partly as a result of her greed because the mayor tells her, in their first scene, "always stay as you are, young and greedy" since I guess he realizes the only reason she likes him is he brings her things. The Wings crew, as I type this, are trying to get Barry and his wife back together, since he is the only "non-crazy" contractor on the island, but when her conditions are "let's move to Florida" they, Helen and Joe, are upset - they didn't really care about Love, the marriage, they just wanted Barry to stop being sad and build their house - they were only in it for their own concerns.

The reason this scene from Rawhide hit me is when they tell the lady "You're a princess" she asks "So am I rich?" and they say "No your mother was poor you will always be poor, too, but you can save your people" and she laughs it off, turns to the saloon keeper and says "You must be the King of Texas!" like it means nothing if there is no money in it.

This had a lot of mystical meaning to me and "The government should stop hounding Microsoft and get the greeting card companies off our back" - Becker just now, on the subject of Valentine's Day - how did that turn out, who won, Microsoft or the Government? Nevermind - it honestly won't matter in the future. Back to liberating the Goddess from God:

"You know how to whistle, don't you?" - Bob "Yeah, put my lips together and blow" - Reggie "....Wow, what a hot way to put it" - Bob

When she thinks being a poor princess of prophecy is just a joke, that it is better to be "spoiled" as the mayor's  mistress, it reminds me of this idea of God:

We all live in a restrictive, repressive world. "God" seems to offer a way out of that, into a Slightly Larger, differently or slightly less restrictive, or even more restrictive, way to be. But what the Myth of "God" really provides is a abusive dependent relationship of lies. They will call it "Unconditional Love" and tell you the conditions immediately after getting your attention. But its a lie.

Unconditional love is Good, and comes from the Goddess. "Today's secret admirer is tomorrow's stalker... I'll be lying in a warehouse nude and tied up in the middle of a pentagram." - Becker just now. Kind of cute, a 90's attempt to make magic seem "scary," I guess.

It IS what they are truly afraid of, that people will rediscover magic, rediscover sex, rediscover connection with nature and spirituality. That is why They, the Evil folks and "powers" in the world, are always using Gods on us: Gods are presented as Liberators when they just show you to another cell, solitary confinement, or some open-air prison.

In the Rawhide episode, that scene in the saloon where they tell her she is an Aztec princess, anyway, the principle was suggested to me that while they invite her to a new identity, a Goddess who can help her people, she insists on only seeing herself in terms of the people she had been living with, the Texan cowboys and townsfolk, and feels her power as a popular saloon girl is better than being a Goddess.

We all have this offer, this possibility, to promote the goddess within ourselves, but we sell ourselves short with inferior ideas, restricted ideas, about the best we can be, based on restrictive, harsh, and punishing ideas of God - even if we don't think we, personally, believe in God we are aware of the way his personality traits are revealed in cultural ideas of God and know how he's a dick.

In today's news, as I edit this and finish it on at 5:25 AM on !2-23-18, there was a story about a shrine in India that had prohibited women from entering for some time but a recent supreme court ruling months ago said women should be allowed. Toady's news was that a march of women to enter the temple was blocked by a protest of hardliners who have prevented women from entering even since the ruling. In the end the news was that hundreds of men had prevented what turned out to be eleven women, at least who made it to the end of the march, and they were blocked from entering, again. Apparently this has been going on for months but made the news the day I wrote this - and it just makes me ask, in this context, what makes you and your God such dicks?

"A Star is Born" was an example of this "Belief in God" issue and all the problems with it. Jackson Mayne "lets Ally out" of her service work and local performing life and into Fame and Stardom - and an abusive relationship with him. He is an analogy for our dangerous "God" idea and before I say too much more about what I hated about the movie let me say what I liked about it.

I'm now finishing this at 5:30 AM. There was an owl who often hoots in my backyard and as I listened to it while smoking a bowl I decided She was asking me to go ahead and finish this.

I loved Gaga in A Star is Born, her voice in every song pierced my heart and she was wonderful in the role, never left you a moment to doubt her or question her - she was perfect and amazing and deserves all the awards she will get, and more, and more, better roles in the future, everything she wants - and that is not based upon my love for Gaga, though of course I can't separate that, it's just my genuine assessment of how wonderful and powerful her performance was.

I don't even want to say she did as well as she could do for the role because she totally transcended the role and made the movie worth watching because aside from her there was just so much terrible about it. She was amazing, divine, and made the movie good, but she is about all I have good to say about the movie.

The message of it was just so bad, and there were so many complaints I had with the story, too, but those are just bitching compared to the problem with the message, supporting these bad ideas that remind me of the faults of God-belief and the faults of abusive relationships promoted by our culture that is based in that belief.

Before I say how I really felt about the movie I should acknowledge how I expected to feel about it. I really only had three notions about the movie before I saw it: It was a classic movie that had been remade twice over the decades and this would be the fourth incarnation. Bradley Cooper was the director and responsible for getting the part for Gaga - it seemed like I heard these things a year ago and it gave me an initial, intuitive impression that he just wanted to make a movie with Gaga, that was the whole reason for the project. I could kind of respect him for this, because I would want to do that, too, if I were him and had the connections to do that - but I wondered what kind of movie it would be, how the movie would treat her and how he would treat her in it.

I guess the movie treats her well, you are sympathetic to her in the movie and make an emotional connection with Ally - but i personally just feel so bad for her throughout it because of the way he treats her. Since I knew the movie had been remade three times but I never saw any of the other versions I assumed that much of the story would be determined, already, and I would have to assume as well that they were all basically the same story with updated aspects for different decades - but I just knew I would have no way to know what was unique to this version.

I guess I should have been more wary of how I would feel about seeing Gaga in a relationship movie with a plot from the 1940's or whenever - how could the relationship be good enough to see her being treated that way, no matter what the "era" - because things haven't gotten nearly better enough even in a century - if the plot of the movie is that she is in a manipulative relationship?

Even if the plot was that she was in a wonderful relationship, I might have found some flaws, wanting her to be treated even better in the movie, whatever that movie would have been - but as it was all i could do was object over and over to how Jack was treating her and how she accepted it.

And all of this was made far worse, far more impactful on my experience of the movie, by something that Gaga said while doing publicity for the movie. I already had the sneaky suspicion that this was just Cooper's attempt to manipulate, take advantage, or just otherwise get close to Gaga - and maybe they were already great friends or she just loves him, personally, so this could easily just be my paranoid intuition. And when I gathered that the plot, from the 1930's or 40's or 50's, was that the Star gave the new star, and Love interest, her Big Break - and that the "story" of the movie was being played out in the Real Life of Gaga - that, just as Ally became a super Music star, in the movie, because of the movie, in Real Life, Gaga is becoming a super Movie Star - but did he also want them to have a relationship that imitated the movie?

I got most concerned by this by the one other thing I knew about the movie before i saw it, that Gaga saved a shirt of Jack's, because she just couldn't let go of the character, she loved him so much. Before I saw the movie or had any ideas of the real details of it this made me very concerned and upset to think that this kind of relationship is all Gaga has ever had, that one guy after another has treated her this way and it's just what she thinks "relationships" are and accepts it and doesn't expect anything different - it happens to everyone who is in abusive relationships, they are very surprised to realize that a relationship can be SO different from that, can be so Good instead of Bad.

I just assumed that Gaga had, at least since becoming world famous, found some good relationships. But my instinct was that Jack was going to be a jerk, that was my only impression of the movie even before I knew any more of the plot than "star helps make a star, have relationship, then self-destructs" - but I couldn't believe that, how could she really "cling" to that character?

And I have to allow that maybe she just said that for good publicity, or to drive monsters like me who love her crazy. But I just hate to think that Gaga has really only had bad relationships that are so bad that Jack seemed like something "special" to her instead of just another terrible abuser.

I don't blame Gaga for being in a movie that justified or glorified abusive relationships - to the extent that this is what the movie is, I blame the plot, the movie as it always has been, our culture, ad Cooper for remaking it and retaining those elements. Because you CAN remake a move and change a lot, or just make a different movie where you can still give Gaga her big break but put a better message out there. Maybe it's just an Oscar recipe, and in that case she does deserve credit for bringing it to perfection.

For all my criticism of the movie i can never get away from Gaga's stellar performance and how she made it all so real that I actually care about all of the things I have to say about it even though I have to admit I just love seeing and hearing and experiencing Gaga but otherwise really disliked the movie.

It wasn't just seeing Ally manipulated and abused, though that was by far enough, it was also never seeing what was supposed to truly be attractive or redeeming about Jack, and then all the other details of things I didn't like about it just made those things even worse. But this is how I reacted to seeing her condition and character development in the movie - SPOILER ALERT and I don't care the plot is like 80 years old.

We first see Ally breaking up with her boyfriend on the phone which gives us an impression that she is sure of herself and uncompromising in her passion and while she is asserting independence we know she is about to start a new relationship so we can't help thinking she is also "vulnerable" at this time. This reminds me I really do want to see the other versions of the movie and see what is standard - does she always start the movie breaking up with her boyfriend? - and what is different, and what the implications are, in every circumstance.

The main problem, throughout the movie, for me, underlying the abuse, is that there is never anything attractive about Jack. He just never does anything likeable and I imagine you have to be physically attracted to him to like him. Still, Gaga still acts the part of Ally so well that we can accept that, somehow, for some reason, she DOES love him. I just can't love him, ever, at any moments.

The ONE thing that is attractive about him is that he is successful. So it's just not all that admirable that this is why Ally likes him. You could say he is nice to her, or is being "normal" or "humble" by dating a "normal" girl - but as he reveals later he DOES think he is doing her a favor, when in fact no matter how rich and famous he is he should realize how lucky he is to have a chance to be with a girl like Ally and he never seems to appreciate her, for her beauty or really for her talent.

I need to go ahead and say it, it's just a complaint I have with the plot and the way they told the story, but he keeps saying she has a message, "something to say," but they never say what that IS - the closest thing she has to a "cause" or principle is that celebrities shouldn't get their pictures taken. They maybe edited out the part where she says what her message is, or I just missed it, but they keep referring to how she has something to say and I just never heard that part. It made me think he was just telling her that, "lying" to her.

And this is what relates to that "God Lie" - God is saying you are special, but is lying. It's not a lie because you aren't special, you are special. But God lies to you by saying you are special in a certain way, or need to be more a certain way to truly be special, when that way is a restrictive way of a God instead of the liberating way of the Goddess.

 You ARE special, but when God, or anyone, says "You have to be THIS way to truly be your special self" - they are trying to trick you. Or, a phrase I came up with this year, anyone who takes you too seriously, including yourself, is trying to con you.

Jack was somewhat "humorous" with Ally but his humor was always demeaning and invasive, always smearing donut creme on her face or stroking nose and tracing her profile - sometimes in ways that could be seen as "gentle" but even then taking charge and making comments to play on her insecurities, as if he is the only one who will "overlook" her "flaws."

It reminds me of something awful said on a baking challenge show, a lady whose backstory was that she had been diagnosed and told she would die young, but chose to defy the doctors and keep living, and did. When she talked about this in context of meeting her husband she said that he told her she was "like the dented can in the supermarket, he got the best deal on me." It's not really complimentary at all, or it's a backhanded compliment, to remind you that he is "compromising" because he is better.

This is one way God is a lie - God usually tells men to dominate women, allows them to, excuses them, whatever. It's all based on the idea that men are "better" than women and should "stoop" to their level and "guide" them- when of course the opposite is true, we can all generally recognize that throughout human history the feminine nature has been "good" while the masculine has been dangerous, destructive, and evil by comparison. 

If we DID prefer the feminine instead of the masculine, life would get better, not worse - simple as that. You can see the remnants of believing in the masculine, still fucking everything up today.

I just had a smoke break and saw a beautiful sunrise.

So the most attractive thing about Jack is his fame and ability to make her famous, but Ally doesn't date him to take advantage of that but because she really likes him - Gaga acts so well we believe in her love for him even if I can't see why. Love is often like that, we can't see why from the outside - but also an abusive relationship that we call "love" usually looks totally fucked up from the outside and if you can just get some perspective you could realize it and want to change.

He fully reveals the worst ways he is in the worst scenes of his mistreatment of her but the signs of that attitude are there all along: sending his driver to force her to go to his show - this is part of the one thing he does you can see as romantic, really pushing her to get on stage and sing her song and the idea that her confidence and love for him grows to help her become a star performer - but she was already a star performer and just needed some way to get more audience. Always talking about her insecurities like he is the one to see her as beautiful and convince the world, but his opinion is key - like when he talks about how he wishes the billboard was just her nose, and always stroking it. Mostly mushing food in her face like that is cute but it gets less cute and becomes a symbol of his jealousy.

This reflects something about beauty and jealousy. As a superstar who obviously thinks he is hot and is treated like he is really hot he is still, naturally, jealous of Ally for being way hotter than him, way "too hot for him" - in the same way she is more talented and destined to be more famous than him. He can't stand it, he's jealous, and while he is privileged as a male he has to try and keep her down and maintain the "superior" position he believes himself in when she is obviously better than him in every way.

This is an analogy for God's jealousy of the Goddess and why He is such a dick, too, and ends up perpetuating abusive relationships with and among his followers.

Jack keeps criticizing Ally for becoming fake, leaving her true self and message behind. This might make more sense if I had any idea what her message WAS. As it is, i didn't ever know what he meant when he said she had something to say so I couldn't tell when she stopped saying it, I just knew she sang beautifully and sounded amazing every time she sang. As far as her pop song, about some guys ass in his pants, that was the closest thing to a "message" in the movie that I actually agree with, being pro-sex, in this case by what you might call seeing men as "sex objects." I think the real secret in life, and overturning the evil oppressive system, is sexual liberation. So I'm really looking forward to hearing the whole song on the soundtrack and hearing more of all of her songs on it.

But I have another issue with Jack criticizing ally for becoming "fake" that relates to another general complaint I have about the whole movie. Who the fuck is He? What's HIS message, for that matter? He and his music doesn't seem to stand for anything, nothing that comes to mind - the one song that sticks out to me is the one she sings at the end and the lyrics of it basically imply "I will haunt you and continue to abuse you with this 'love' from beyond the grave." He just doesn't seem to have a message  -and neither does she - but if we assume she does, that he is throwing such fits over her losing, what is HIS message?

Or is his insistence that she stick to her "message", what HE thinks she is, just another version of him claiming he is the only one who can REALLY find her nose beautiful? Is it just another way to control her, "you are who I really know you really are?" Reminds me of God.

And you just know you're more than that - but no one can blame you for trying to stay in it, in a role or old identity or relationship, because of "love."

The other general complaint I have about Jack is "Who is he supposed to be?" It's supposed to be modern times, I believe, but he is supposed to be a megastar "rocker" like..... Keith Urban? I just really can't think of any "superstar" guitar player in the 21st century, the megastars of the last two decades, or three, are not in that genre. It just doesn't make any sense for someone in that style to have lots of "everybody knows them" hits, in modern times. I can see how, when Bradley Cooper was growing up - because he is probably around my age - there were Rock Gods, or had just finished being Rock Gods, in the 70's and 80's, and we were aware of that image as a "Superstar." But since the superstars since then have been in pop and hip hop and other genres it just isn't a believable character, most popular performer, as a Rocker/Singer/guitarist, in the 2000's.

It reminds me of when the Foo Fighters won a Grammy, in the 90's or 2000's, and made some dumb speech about how Rocking was a dying art and whining that everyone was just using computers, now, or whatever. And they were about the last "famous" rockers like that and their award was kind of a "side" award, by then, instead of one of the main ones - Best Rock Album probably used to be top tier - in the 70's and even 80's - but by the 90's that had pretty much become more of a niche genre compared to the new mainstream.

I interpreted Dave Grohl's whining as a gripe against Hip-hop, too, which is what replaced Rock as the most popular music genre. And I mention this, now, because Hip-hop has always been message music - rock has been, a lot, too, but the popularity of rap, worldwide, is that it has always been message music and people have things to say, everywhere, and rap is a format that allows everyone to make their own styles if they just have something to say.

I think the rockers who resent their loss of audience are really just bitter because they don't have something to say - those who really do will be heard and appreciated, in any genre.

So maybe it was like the Foo Fighters - because Jack didn't have anything to say all he could do was try to criticize Ally for losing her message and act like she had to "stick with him" to stay true to herself.

I just wish she had left him and his character and story went away but I guess that is not "the story."

I guess i can feel good for her, in the end, that she is rid of him and has her life as a star, but of course I don't like her conclusion that she won't love again - she hasn't even loved, and really been loved, yet.

Jack let her out of the "working" and club life, let her into the Star Life, but then had to control her - this is an analogy for God, seen mystically. It's "the system", run by Insiders, that forces everyone to work shitty jobs in the first place, that doesn't already encourage everyone to follow their dreams. So an insider gives a "normal" person a break and they are supposed to be grateful for their transition, and the rest of us are supposed to be glad to vicariously dream of that, hope we are the "lucky one" someday.

One of Jack's messages from the movie is that while everyone has "talent" only the rare few really have "something to say" - maybe everyone has something to say but almost no one is encouraged to speak their truth or promoted, allowed a way to do so.

Maybe everyone has talent and something to say but we all buy into a system that insists we only listen to those who "make it" or fit into the system, are allowed into the system.

It makes me wonder about things like Ally's decision to ask the dancers not to go out, for which she is reprimanded by her manager - is that really being true to herself, as I interpreted in the movie -or now that i think about it, was it trying to conform to Jack's image of her, to stay in the "genuine" or "soulful solo" role instead of the "production" of the really big show - a way of keeping her "down." Because I got the idea she enjoyed the dancing, the work of it and connections with the dancers, at least as implied by the end, or what I infer about Gaga and her dancers in real life.

I would like to compare Gaga's A Star is Born with the other versions, and rewatch it with comparisons in mind, both with those "Allys" and with what I feel like I know of Gaga, herself. Because she seemed so real I felt like she was "acting herself", in a way, anyway, and I want to know if I was just taken in that much by her performance that I assume she would have the same feelings and expressions.

But I also want to compare the message of A Star is Born, which to me is the message of God - a caution -with the message of Spider-Man which to me was a more Goddess message, an inspiration.

The last thing I want to say about A Star is Born is Gaga was amazing, in every way, and I loved seeing her all the time and would like a copy of just her scenes, of just her, from the movie. Also her message, that it just takes one person to believe in you, IS a good message - but I want to add that if the conditions for that person recognizing you are exploitative or abusive, know that someone else, someone better, WILL believe in you, too.

Someone who really believed in Ally would love her even more, would become better himself instead of becoming jealous of he success. You can blame it on addiction, which is a disease, but Love, the potential to be with an amazing person, CAN be enough to get you to change your life and even heal addiction IF you respect it enough and value it enough to remind you to value your own life and go for good things.

Spider-man was an amazing movie, I had a great time and loved everything about it - but in this context I loved the message that we all have this power within us and the story was more of a Goddess story about growing into that power, using it to change the world and help people, and you have to believe in yourself and be willing to challenge the ways of the world to become your true and best self. And we might get a special power activated in us by the radioactive spider bite - a symbol of the goddess and nature and magic - but even if that kind of thing only happens to "rare" people those people can be "anybody" there are no specifics or limits or boundaries, the Spider-hero in each dimension is a different "kind of" person. Its all about inspiring and helping each other become heroic, powerful, magical, purposeful. And it's all about coming together over our differences.

About an hour ago the mother on Father Knows Best made a comment that "we come together over our weaknesses more than our strengths" or something like that, which reminds me how all the tough guy, asshole Trump talk, etc, is all about division, being afraid of coming together, or afraid of admitting the weakness and vulnerability that can allow us to bond.

The last thing I will mention is about ancient belief in the stars and sun, but before that one thing about news of the world. Since Trump announced removing troops from Syria his secretary of Defense and others are resigning in protest. I'm a pacifist and believe in ending wars, ending war entirely. I hear the argument that these decisions create power vacuums and allow terrorists and other terrorist and imperial governments like Russia to take over. One specific example is supporting the Kurds fighting ISIS in Syria. angering the Turks who have been at war with the Kurds for years and giving the Kurds lots of weapons. They have been using these to fight ISIS but could use them against Turkey, too. Turkey has long said it would invade and take over the towns that the Kurds took from ISIS and were apparently about to, recently, until Trump's announcement postponed his plan - now he will wait until American troops leave then kill our other allies, the Kurds, and take those towns. And part of Trump's plan to remove the troops was an agreement with Turkey to let them take over the fight against ISIS - from the Kurds/Us. So we won't be supporting the Kurds anymore, won't be expected to fight ISIS, will be expecting Turkey to do that. But we did give them a bunch of weapons they will certainly use against Turkey, fighting over the Syrian towns they already fought and died to take from ISIS and also in their existing war in Turkey. And it will probably enrage the Kurds against us for abandoning them - surely there was an expectation that after being our best allies in the region, against ISIS, once that threat was removed America would support them in their claims with Turkey - but now its just obvious we used them. And gave them a bunch of weapons and more reasons to be angry with us, and with Turkey, who we chose to start treating as a "real country" compared to them who we betrayed. So they will fight all the harder against Turkey, take their anger at us on them, and America, too, in the future.

So we just made more war, made a recipe to make the war between Kurds and Turks much worse. Who does that benefit? Weakening Turkey by committing them to more of the war in Syria AND making the Kurdish revolution there much more deadly uses Turkey's focus and resources, weakening them and therefore helping their rival/"ally", Russia. And it helps their rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia - also Oild Countries, like us and Russia.

Trump pulling out of Syria most benefits and serves Russia who support Assad and are using the country as their puppet / war laboratory. But it "serves Russia" in the sense that Putin thinks the world is a big game of Risk. Of course if you pull out of an area the enemy invades and takes it over - this is how you win Risk, make your enemy use their forces in one area to weaken another so you can take it over.

But the world isn't a game of Risk - not anymore. Putin might win that Game but he will lose the world - its like he's getting to the Top of the Crime Syndicate - but right as it is about to go on trial, to take the fall for it all. I don't think Trump is smart enough to be tricking Putin - he's totally being played by him. But Putin isn't as smart as he thinks he is, his smarts work for an old world that is over and he will just be more "history" the more he keeps winnings that outdated game.

The last thing I want to mention is something I heard on the radio about ancient beliefs in from the area that is now Southern California. The saw the cosmos as a Game between The Sun, The Morning Star, The Evening Star, and the Star Coyote (I think) which was the North or Polar star - and the Moon was the Judge. They didn't give a lot of details but mentioned that the Sun was the Jerk of the four, that if the Sun won the game - determined every winter Solstice, or two days ago (when I started writing this) then it would be bad for people the next year.

But if the Star Coyote won, he would pour all the blessings he had won down through the North Pole and onto the world, it would be really good for the world.

I love that I heard that story right after the Solstice and right before Christmas, since it reminds me of Santa. And they said all the magic people do was to try to sway the game, to help the Star win instead of the Sun.

I hope my magic, here, has that effect but more than that I want to live up to these words, honor the Goddess and become the person I'm truly meant to be. I want to thank Gaga, again -and everyone - for helping inspire me and bring me to this point - but I also want to call out those ideas, and the people who get corrupted by those ideas - that hold us back and threaten what can be so wonderful, such paradise.

What brings us all out to ourselves, what brings us all together, is the Goddess. God tries to play favorites and sew strife but the Goddess rules, leads, coaxes with Love and only real Love. The fact that we accept such inferior, damaging relationships and call them "love" shows how badly Gods and their lies have twisted us up. When we feel love that truly opens us up to more of ourselves, more of others, more of nature, the world, art, magic - more Love itself, we know it is true and can let that knowledge, that connection with Love, guide us to everything Good and Better. 

And I HAVE to add, P.S., that I love Gaga so much and hope she really finds better love, wish she would find love with me, and anyone who can love her with Good Love, instead of the demands of oppression, abuse, and dependency, so that these lovers no longer break her heart or hurt her at all, so that as the Goddess of Love - as we are ALL the Goddess of Love - she can do her part to heal the whole world -as we all can. We can all "wear the mask" and be heroes - and we can remove the false God Mask muffling and muzzling the world and reveal the True Goddess within and beyond.

Magic Confirmed: gagablog 165

A basic magical principle of this gagablog is "writing things and they come true." Anyone can do this, it's a magical power of words, works better if you mean it and works the very best if you talk about what you really, really want. It works perfectly when you can realize the best best, the thing that is best for you and for the whole world - because what is the very best is the best for everyone.

And what is bad, while it can seem "good" for some, is bad for everyone.

I want the end of the bad stuff, making way for the good stuff. I focus a lot on the bad stuff because we have to expose it and call it out if we want to get rid of it so it doesn't come back.

But the best focus on bad things comes from a good place, a mystical or future perspective that KNOWS the bad stuff is doomed, that our future IS filled with goodness.

You get sidetracked and bogged down addressing bad stuff, evil, that's the nature of it. "Didn't you ever see the movie The Wizard of Oz? You remember the part where she meets the guy in the wagon? ...I just told you, it was from the photo, it was a trick!" "Then how do you explain the melting witch?" (Coach and Dauber on Coach, just now - explain later.) My last gagablog was about "Russians" because the recent news was all about new developments in the investigation into Trump colluding with Russia for the 2016 campaign.

I tried to make the point that Russia was just providing the troll experts for the Same group of people, the same Agenda that is promoting right wing nationalists all over the world - obviously fascists, all of them. And obviously the pawns of, conspirators with the Oil Companies and Military Industry.

It's not "Russia" the country, it's the Russian Government - a gang of crooks protecting the Oil Companies and Military, etc. The American Government is "also" a gang of crooks protecting the Oil Company and Military - the same companies, ultimately, and all the same gang.

Oil Companies just buy the governments but Military sales require wars and killing to keep justifying their existence at all - and the gig is basically up. They just pretend they are at war with each other and get "other" people to do the killing and dying - this has always been the way of war but now its just too obvious that all the "leaders" are in the same club.

A lot of folks, even Republicans, opposed Trump before he became president but many of them have joined his team, his gang of criminals. This is good because it ultimately shows how ALL of their ideas are bad and lead to evil, no matter what excuse they have for them.

I was trying to say, but said too much, last time, that the news of the day, of the last 4 years, and the common thread of the agenda of Russian trolls throughout the major events, showed that the Evil Gang consisted of Russia, Trump-America, and Saudi Arabia - with others. I talked a lot about the various campaigns the Russian trolls were trying to influence but forgot to contrast these with another protests last week, started by school kids in Australia, to stop a mining operation. I believe we can trust the things kids believe in - the most hopeful among us, those with the most to live for, are the best to guide where we need to go.

I wanted to write that my accusation was confirmed by the news the next day that Russia, America, and Saudi Arabia were the countries who insisted the scientific report on climate change merely be "noted", not considered, at the recent climate change summit in Poland, drawing the ire of the rest of the world and making the BBC radio news as a top story.

It proves who the bed (*bad guys, thanks typo fairies) guys are - the Oil Companies and Military Industry and these major Governments, and their crooks, who keep them in power.

"you're into psychics?" - Luther "I don't know how you play pro football if you're not... my last coach banned my psychic from the locker room" - Tom "Doesn't that just punch a hole in your aura?" - Coach, who was ragging on psychics the whole episode until he realizes the player he wants to sign is into them and is actually considering their team after Luther told him about his psychic's prediction.

His team - now Coach's team, now that Coach "switched" sides and joined team magic, is going to the Superbowl... This is how you REALLY win, join the Good Guys, leave the bad guys.

All these folks are leaving Trump's administration, or getting fired, even Chris Christie isn't crooked enough to take over  - it's a sign of leaving the bad behind, letting only the worst go down with him. Hell, even Lindsey Graham was condemning MBS, calling him a madman with a "smoking saw" this week. The Senate voted to blame him for murdering the journalist and to stop selling offensive weapons to Saudi and stop refueling their planes. But of course Trump is on Saudi's side and the side of the Military Industry. He's really close to MBS, his whole family is, and of course Putin was laughing it up with MBS at their last meeting - when he had to look away from Trump for even pretending to be interested in justice and calling it a cover-up. A cover-up he is now part of. The rest of the world will see through these crooks and isolate them.

All of this can be summed up as the Old Ways don't work, the New Way is emerging. We will get rid of fascism, Militarists, and Oil Companies, all at once.

I'm doing a spell to quit smoking and end all War - as well as ending The NRA - as I typed that Frank on Murphy Brown just told her that Biden was announcing his run for president with Gephardt as his running mate. Last week the news reported that the Russian spy who worked with the NRA who was arrested in June is now cooperating with the investigators - this could be the end of the NRA and along with it this whole gang controlling Russia, America, and the Oild Comapnies and Military Industry. ("Oild" thanks type fairies! - I think the Biden run was a ruse to fool Murphy, I didn't pay close enough attention)

I wanted to write this just to gloat that the news about Saudi Arabia, Russia, and America blocking the climate report proved my point, last time, that these were all the Real Enemy of ALL People, of the whole world. It didn't seem like enough to say, then there was an episode of Welcome Back Kotter on this morning that convinced me to write it - then I got busy with errands and playing video games and didn't have time, was going to work, until my work called and said I could come in two hours later. So I decided to write it and the "echoes" of the Wizard of Oz on Antenna TV, "Coach" as I wrote it, quoted above, seemed to confirm that it was the right idea.

Here is a summary of the Welcome Back Kotter episode that proves the theme that the Old Ways don't work, but the New Way does: because all these evil leaders and corporations can keep "winning" and getting away with what they are doing but their whole system is wrong and doomed to being swept away - we just need to get the brooms.

Kotter is having a rap session instead of "traditional school teaching" - they are all sitting in a circle on the floor talking, and Kotter points out that this is how the Ancient Greeks and other ancient folks learned - so it IS more traditional.

This reminds me of, on the radio the other day about feminism in India, that "hardliners" and right-wing religious folks in India act like Patriarchy and sexual repression is their "tradition" but it is actually just perpetuated from British Patriarchal Colonial times, not their true traditions at all.

So Kotter opens the floor up for discussion and Horshack says "I saw the Wizard of Oz last night - for the 14th time" - and I started taking notes at this point. It reminds me how they showed the movie Annually on TV, how this was something I wanted to point out in my book about Oz magic, that for half a century before people had their own recorded media it was a "common experience" literally shared by millions, like a holiday. Horshack WOULD have seen it 14 times, in 14 years.

Kotter says that the point of the movie was that "they were all going for something that they already had." This is, in essence, the problem with humanity - much of our striving is to dominate the natural order when living in harmony with it, with what we already have, can allow us to provide comfortable living for ALL creatures on the planet.

They point out another magical quality I want to talk about in my book, how each of the characters represents people, too, or how you see yourself in the characters. They decide that Kotter is the Lion because he needs courage, for instance. This is the magic I have a lot to say about, getting into the story, making life real by making Real Stories, even of the most fantastic kind.

They ask who everyone wants to be and Barbarino says he wants to be Marlon Brando and does a Godfather scene with Epstein. He comes to the hearing about Kotter in drag - because of course Kotter gets suspended and the principal tells the Sweathogs they can't go so they have to sneak in so he is dressed as a cleaning woman.

Epstein and Washington are in painters outfits and Washington says that he likes how Kotter teaches because he asks them to get their own answers, and there's not just one right answer, so his answers can be right instead of wrong. Horshack looks like Harpo in a curly blonde wig, comes in as a window washer, and says he doesn't want education to be like a vaccine, where you get it and never do it again, rote repetition, bu wants to actually learn.

Then Kotter defends himself and he says he wants to prepare them to survive in the world of the future and if they learn how to learn they can survive anywhere. It's 30 years in the future, now, and the education system is slowly waking up to this same truth and finally starting to end it's insistence on the "Old" ways, the ways that don't really work - or can be easily replaced by technology.

After his speech Kotter says that copies of it will be available from Farkle Press, which I thought was funny since I wrote it down.

The older lady who has to decide whether Kotter can keep his job after his unorthodox methods - and imitating Groucho Marx - says that in her day she was considered radical, too. "I've been teaching 40 odd years - 40 of the oddest years of my life!" she Grouchos her way out, after she tells him he can keep his job, she respects that the kids all self-motivated to defend him and his methods were working. She just made him promise to use the old, boring, outdated, bad books. (Humor unites us, like magic, is the message of the Groucho reference)

So the kids all challenged Kotter - why did you agree to use the books? "We thought the Wizard was going to give you courage" - they say, bringing it full circle, invoking the Wizard within. Kotter says he didn't tell her HOW they would use the books, has them all balance them on their heads and says they will learn better posture with them.

We DO already have what we need -sunlight, not oil, etc. But the point of THIS Oz-referenced episode is that the Old Ways don't work anymore, the New Ways, the way that works, will take over.

Trump is really ONLY being racist and greedy and appealing to other racists and greedy folks and his whole empire will topple - hopefully we will all see through it enough to build a new world without those evils. Meanwhile he is throwing fits about his border wall - if they just put resources into actually processing everyone who is trying to come into the country, legally, to make it actually possible to do, that would solve the "problem" - because the government creates the problem. The problem isn't immigrants, the problem is immigrants being stopped and prevented from their rights and accessing due process.

But his lawyer. Cohen, just got his sentence, three years, and others keep getting indicted. Plus all of Trump's organizations are under criminal investigations.

I can only hope that it goes all the way to the top when it finally All Comes Down - not just to Trump but to Putin and the whole Military/Oil Cabal. Just looking at them all as a gang of crooks, holding the whole world hostage, will easily explain all of their motivations - and ultimately show us our way to get OUT of this trap they have us all in. As I typed that I believe Mel Brooks, on Johnny Carson, is talking about a Jack Benny tribute and mentioned escaping a concentration camp. Now he's talking about how George Burns "persecuted" Jack all the time. Jack came out dressed as an Indian and George says "Hi Jack - working?" and Jack couldn't go back on stage. Carson chimes in that at a party George leaned over and told Jack "You know what would be really embarrassing? If when the host starts singing, you laughed" so of course Jack burst out laughing when she sang and he had to leave the room.

If it was "all in fun" it wouldn't be so bad to be persecuted, owned by someone. But when the system is our persecutor, persecutes us all, even its administrators and benefactors, eventually, and truly hurts us, hurts the whole world - it's not fun. But we are about to turn the tables, the joke will be on them. Mel says he wanted to play Omelette, not Hamlet - the Jewish version of Hamlet. I figured that was a joke-flipping reference. And they show a clip of "To be or not to be"

"So many hours with those Nazi censors - they want to cut out the gypsy part, they don't want gypsies in theater. Without gypsies and Jews, there is no theater." They need someone to play a Nazi - "Don't look at me, don't look at me" he says, refusing, cut to a Nazi flag swipe, him in Nazi uniform "Look at Me!"  - now talking to Carson "I also play Hitler" I think this proves that Trump and Putin are truly that caliber, we need to treat them - and the Gang they protect, as what they are - Evil.

Oh, that reminds me - The Social Media and Media are "presented" or characterized as "leftist" -  but just like the "leftists" politicians, who actually gain power, they are only "faking" it and are therefore Nazi Censors, promoting that same fascist agenda. We need to call them out, too, and take them over with true leftist, Universalist, Nature-protecting, World-Saving agenda - the opposite agenda - instead.

"He came in to do 1000 faces and only did 806!" - before they go to commercial Mel asks if he can show his mom, who thinks it's all real, and goes back and knocks on the cardboard, winter scene backdrop.

Hopefully these knocks on the backdrop will show people, these crooks aren't real, just evil. We can get rid of them, we can make the world the Good Place we all sense in our hearts.

Stalewar Stalemate and Russia Today: Trump, Brexit, Bolsonaro, Yellow Vests?; gagablog #164

First I want to congratulate Gaga on her Grammy and other award nominations and wish her the best winning them! And I want to congratulate the Wizard of Oz movie for being declared the most influential movie of all time.

I heard on the radio yesterday that the top General, or somebody - the Top Guy - said that America's war in Afghanistan was at a stalemate. I don't believe in War - I mean I believe it exists and shouldn't exist, I believe in Oz, a future without war or money. But I don't see how anyone can believe in War with this "news" that it is a stalemate between America and whoever we are fighting in Afghanistan.

Just put it in perspective. It is America's longest active war, 17 years. It's now at a stalemate, after 17 years. "A house fell on her sister I haven't seen her since," Becker just said. America has a bigger military than like the next 39 countries militaries put together. Afghanistan is somewhere far down on the list, I imagine. But the biggest military the world has ever seen, with unimaginably horrible destructive power, hasn't been able to defeat - somebody, I don't even know who, now - in Afghanistan for 17 years.

Is it because the people are completely incompetent? No - it's because war doesn't work.

War itself doesn't work.

Totally destroying the other side is not a victory or Good, fighting to a stalemate is the best you can hope for - and it's a stupid outcome to a stupid endeavor.

I said when the Syrian revolution started that it would only prove that violent revolutions, those kinds of wars, just don't work anymore, either. Even with all the American military support - which is basically what turned a non-violent protest led by women into a war - the rebel forces in Syria can't beat Assad.

Maybe they have right on their side - but they can't win, with violence. Because war doesn't work

They especially had right on their side before they took sides with America, before they took the weapons and path of violence. Iran recently condemned America for flooding the middle east with weapons.

When Russia was at war in Afghanistan they were at the height of their military power and fought there for ten years - while America supported the Mujaheddin or Taliban or whoever to fight against them - and didn't win. We've been there for 17 years, with an even more powerful military, and no one nearly as powerful (militarily) as America was in the 80's supporting Afghanistan's opposition  - but we can't "win"

Because "winning" wars doesn't exist anymore - so war shouldn't exist anymore.

But we just need to get rid of the forces that insist on keeping War  - and fossil fuels, etc - in place. Which brings us to Trump, which brings us to Russia.

The news yesterday was that details from the memos about the Mueller investigation into Trump's collusion with Russia showed Michael Cohen had meetings with a well-connected Russian agent who promised a meeting between Putin and Trump would be good politically and financially. They also showed Cohen's guilt in paying off Stormy Daniels and other women was at Trump's direction - that Trump broke the law, too. That's big news and may be what ultimately takes Trump down but for now I want to focus on the Russians.

Before I forget, I see it as more of a kidnapping or hostage situation that Trump is trying to arrest Meng Wanzhou, it's blatantly a brutish attempt to take a political bargaining chip, the same thing we accuse Iran and North Korea of doing. I have to emphasize: How can she be arrested for making a fraudulent company, to sell things to Iran, but Mark Zuckerburg is running around free after enabling and profiting from Russia hijacking our democracy, in America, UK, probably Brazil and now France  - how is HE free, if CEO's and such can be arrested?

Why not nationalize Facbook? Why doesn't each country just nationalize their own segment of facebook - America would still be "first!" I think the #nationalizefacebook hashtag would make some crazy things happen, too, including what I actually mean by it.

Also I don't want to forget that I need to correct myself, from earlier, since I was duped into thinking the war in Yemen was a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Apparently that is the western news slant paid for to favor Saudi interests. According to someone on BBC last night, i forgot his name but he was a senior correspondent for the Gaurdian, Iran is barely involved but Saudi Arabia tells that story to "justify" invading Yemen which is in a civil war. He said Iran told the rebels not to take the capital, for instance, but they did anyway (war doesn't work.) And he said if Saudi Arabia had caught any Iranian agents working in Yemen they would have made a big show of it, but in fact they are just invading while a revolution is going on in Yemen, with our support, putting millions at risk of famine and killing countless people - and getting our support by saying it "opposes Iran."

We know now for a fact that Trump's election was influenced by Russian trolls and the same trolling was used to enact Brexit. I suspect the same trolls are the ones who got Bolsonaro elected in Brazil  - because it fir the same pattern as Trump - online trolls in orchestrated ways making his support seem much greater than it really was in society, feeding on the worst, most racist and sexist and homophobic and authoritarian elements in society while making it all seem "normal" and popular.

And I suspect Russian Trolls are behind the Yellow Vest protests and riots rocking France now since they were organized online and insist there aren't, and "can't be," any actual leaders - the ones who have tried to come forward to represent the movement have gotten death threats and stepped aside. It just sounds like another Russian Troll scheme, to me, and the best way to diffuse the situation - and maybe avoid revolution there - could be to expose this and call it out.

If the people of France could look around and say "We have been duped, online, by the Russians - we were duped exactly like the English were" - I think if they said that they would relax and chill and stop revolting.

It hasn't made the news that Russian trolls hijacked the Brazilian election to put Bolsonaro in office - it's just my intuition and it just makes sense. Bolsonaro calls himself a Brazilian Trump and it fits: he's a racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-environmentalist, pro-police repression, anti-human rights fascist asshole just like Trump.

So if Russia wanted such a racist, fascist leader in America, why wouldn't they also want one in Brazil? It did make the news that facebook or Twitter deleted 100,000 fake accounts that were spreading false information and trying to influence the election in Brazil - just a few days before the vote. It sounded like Russia behind it, to me, all along, except in this case, unlike Trump, they managed to be predicting a win for him for months - due to that online activity, I'm sure.

While there IS evidence Russian trolling was the reason Brexit passed, they are only now, years later, considering revolting after wasting so much time, energy, and new coverage on what amounts to basically being scammed by a hostile government. Only when they've kept trying, and gotten about what could be expected - which will result in huge losses for Britain - do they finally realize it's just a terrible idea.

If they can just look at it from the Russian perspective - why does Russia want us to do this? - they can see through it.

We MAY be finally getting ready to get rid of Trump but no matter how much longer he is in office we can probably understand what he has been doing best, and learn the most lessons to avoid it in the future, by asking "Why would Russia want him to do this?"

Maybe because they have video of Russian prostitutes, the best in the world according to Putin, peeing on Trump  - or maybe because they have billions of dollars in various deals with him - it seems to make the most sense if you just look at Trump as Putin's puppet. It makes all of his actions fit with an easy explanation - he's destroying America as much as possible. To be fair, I still consider him to be Hillary's puppet - she might be Putin's puppet, too, kind of like when Kang and Kodos ran for president on The Simpsons.

If we just look at these events and ask "What Would Russia Do?" we can see the pattern, see their agenda: In each case they are using the weakness of people in the country against them. In America, and I guess Brazil, one of our greatest flaws and weaknesses is racism. Trump, Russia, exploited that to hype up an ignorant "base" of white people who feel victimized and want to blame other races instead of their real persecutor, the system. Too many British people also, apparently, at least in England, feel some kind of Superiority and were sold Brexit on ideas of control and fears of immigrants, etc. The French may be keen to revolt and maybe a coordinated campaign on ANY issue could spark a revolution in the social media area - but the fact that this Yellow Vest revolt has some initial connection, supposedly, with protesting a gas tax it has that Clue that it is the work of Russia / Big Oil - that everyone is upset about Macron's attempt to shift to Green Energy.

That's a bad way to do it, just tax the rich, and while i have sympathy for any rebellion that is "for poor people" I do suspect the Russian trolling scheme is really behind the Yellow Vest revolution - and the best way to get the people to reconsider what they are doing is to see how they are falling for a Russian ploy.

Nothing against the people of Russia, just the government are obviously patriarchal oil and military baron assholes, like ours. What they don't realize is that having Trump eventually exposes the worst evils in our society and government  -so we can root them out.

And we will. Historically, "Brexit" will be known as a huge waste of time, falling for a Russian ploy. Hopefully this Yellow Vest revolution will be exposed, soon, too - not only to end it but to get everyone aware that the trolls keep trying this - and succeeding if we don't expose them.

Their goal seems to be diminishing the power of their greatest "rivals" - I don't know what they're doing in China or India - maybe China has too much internet protection and India not as internet-saturated population - but maybe they helped elect Morsi in the old traditional ways - I feel certain that America did.

Which brings out the larger point: It's not The Russians, like they rule the world, now - it's Russian Trolls as part of All Fascism, worldwide - The Russians might be the best at trolling to influence things, now, but that is just one wing of the whole Fascist Agenda. We, in America, for example, have the guns and other weapons - that's our specialization in worldwide fascism.

The fact that Russians keep having this same agenda, and eventually will get "caught" for it, should show how these bad ideas are interwoven, in any culture. Greed and bigotry and anti-environmentalism and War are all hand-in-hand.

The fact that the Russians are "so good" at trolling just means they go too far, do it too much, and make it that much easier to expose them, in the end.

This is always the way with evil, it becomes it's own undoing.

Which is why War - hot, cold, cyber, trade - just doesn't work -it just punishes the "little guys" as the effect of Trump's trade war with China on farmers is proving. It always proves that the ones who push it just don't care.

If we see through it - see how it doesn't work, just leads to the destruction of others and ultimately ourselves - we can see what DOES work: working together, seeing ourselves as interconnected, with each other and with Nature.

"There are some Russian language tapes I want to o over' The guest star just said on The Joey Bishop show - he has recordings to hear as he sleeps to learn Russian. The magical message is, as we sleep and ignore how trolls are exploiting our weaknesses we just end up like them: more patriarchal, more oppressed, more tied to oil, military, and the corruption that goes with them. It just happens to be "Russian" but it's any of these anti-human, troll "languages" that hold the human race back: greed, bigotry, sexism, pollution, etc. 

"I went to sleep last night 100% American I woke up I'm part Russian" Joey says, not knowing that he heard the record through the traincar wall while he slept. "He's captured by the enemy, and they brainwash him"  - Lawrence Harvey in a movie. Now they are speculating that, years ago, some Russians that got Joey to drink vodka, and were smiling when he woke up, must have brainwashed him, and might wait years then "trigger" him to go back into the hypnotic state with a signal.

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!