11/27/24

Strange symmetry, I visited my paper restorer this morning and without me saying a plaintiff word about my current fiscal condition, he told me that not only was he sixteen hundred dollars in the hole but he owes another 4k on his truck and has been diagnosed with myasthenia gravis.

My pal has been doing work for me for over 30 years, has four full time employees and many part time. He is really good at what he does. He will survive the financial crimp, as I will. The tough thing is that his medical condition is affecting his eyesight and a restorer who can't see so good is a bad problem.

The doctors wanted to give him a shot that costs $150k. Such a world we live in. Dentistry, veterinary care, medical care, the costs have just exploded. Far cheaper to die and many people are taking that route, fuck it, I give up.

They know they won't see the great Trump renaissance but they will just have to well, live with it.

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We went out for sushi last night, to the best place around, in Temecula. A young couple came in, she a thirty something, pretty blond, he a rather long haired guy with a MotoX hat. They were talking about how much they loved the Garbage Pail Kids when they were kids and I mentioned that they might enjoy the currently streaming American Gladiators unauthorized documentary.

Somehow talk went to the WWE and she started going off on how great Linda McMahon was going to be for our country at the Department of Education. 

"That girl has spunk, she will get things done."

And I choked down my albacore a little and asked her if she knew all the sexual abuse allegations directed at McMahon and her husband? She said something nasty under her breath about the Clintons.

Like this one. 

A recent lawsuit alleges Linda McMahon, who President-elect Donald Trump tapped to lead the Department of Education, knowingly enabled the sexual exploitation of children by a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) employee as early as the 1980s — allegations she denies.

McMahon is the former CEO of the WWE, which she co-founded with her husband, Vince. As head of the WWE, Linda McMahon oversaw its transformation from a wrestling entertainment company into a publicly traded media empire. She stepped down in 2009 to run for Senate, but she lost in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012.

As McMahon — who co-chairs Trump’s transition team — vies to be confirmed as Education secretary, a recent lawsuit raises questions about her care for children’s safety at the WWE.

The suit alleges McMahon, her husband, the WWE and TKO Group Holdings, the league’s parent company, knowingly allowed employee Melvin Phillips Jr. to use his position as ringside announcer to sexually exploit children.

The filing alleges Phillips would recruit children to work as “Ring Boys,” helping him set up and take down wrestling rings at WWE events. However, the job was a guise for sexually exploiting the children, which Phillips would do even in front of wrestlers and executives in the locker area, the lawsuit alleges. He also would often film his sexual abuse, according to the filing.

The suit was filed in October in Baltimore County, Maryland, on behalf of five John Does, who say they were ages 13 to 15 when Phillips met and recruited them to work as “Ring Boys.” Each of them say they suffered mental and emotional abuse as a result of the alleged abuse.

“Phillips lured and manipulated the young boys with promises of meeting famous wrestlers and attending the highly popular wrestling shows, experiences that were otherwise unattainable for these kids,” the lawsuit alleges. “(The McMahons, WWE and TKO Holdings) allowed Phillips and others to engage in, and foster, the WWE’s rampant culture of sexual abuse.” 

Both Linda and Vince McMahon were aware of Phillips’ abuse, the lawsuit alleges. Vince McMahon admitted that he and Linda were aware as early as the early to mid-1980s that Phillips had a “peculiar and unnatural interest” in young boys, according to the filing.

This is not the first time there have been similar allegations. The other ones involve her husband's sexual behavior.

Allegations of sex trafficking and abuse have followed Vince McMahon for some time. In 2023, Vince McMahon paid a multimillion-dollar settlement to a former employee who accused him of rape, and he stepped down this year as executive chairman of TK Holdings following allegations of sexual assault and trafficking. He has denied the allegations.

Most recently, Vince McMahon is a subject in a federal criminal investigation and a separate lawsuit in federal court in Connecticut.

So why do you pay millions of dollars if you aren't admitting guilt. Must be a very rich guy?

The Journal reported Thursday that McMahon completed a settlement last month with Rita Chatterton, its first female referee, who accused him of raping her in 1986.

She demanded $11.75 million in damages for the alleged rape, per a November letter provided to the Journal. However, a single unnamed source told the Journal that she “agreed to a lesser amount in the millions of dollars,” although the exact amount of the settlement is unclear. 

Of course rumors have surfaced for years that Vince McMahon is gay and that Linda is a beard. He admitted to a gay experience in an early interview with a now deceased wrestler. Whatever. 

Admittedly these sexual allegations involve her husband and not the one time Trump cabinet member. But do we really want to put somebody who was willing to look the other way at the top job in the Department of Education, with its responsibility to the well being children of America?

Screw them, word is that we are going to get rid of the whole Department of Education anyway, transfer all the money to the religious charter schools that discriminate.

Anyway back to my sushi, which Leslie bought me for my birthday since I was in San Francisco at the time. It was so much easier in the 60's and 70's when long haired people tended to be uniformly liberal in nature. 

I have seen too many men wearing ponytails with MAGA hats the last couple years to make that supposition again.

We were obviously sitting next to some serious Trumpers and not wanting to hurl a lovely supper, we got up and left.

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I have been reading a lot about Sarah McBride, the trans congresswoman who has caused such a stir among some because of House bathroom accommodations. Give me a break, who cares? I have been in many unisex bathroom situations, notably when on Grateful Dead tours and nobody cared. Just wash your hands. 

Dave said that he and Jeff once got a standing ovation from the women in the Grateful Dead restroom for handwashing, they were apparently the anomaly.

I don't care where you or anyone else pees, but I still don't want biologically born males competing against girls in sports. Never will, it is not fair. But lay off the congressmen and the kids.

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My cousin Linda back in sent me this cool shirt that she made:

Do you note the family resemblance?  We Weinrobers are obviously a subversive lot. No wonder they kicked us out of Romania. Hope that we can withstand the coming purge as well.

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As I noted earlier, I am in my winter depression mode which is odd because it is still autumn until the 21st. Thought I would get a jump on things. And while I feel a bit tawdry and guilty for emotionally spilling when I am feeling in print while so distraught, several wrote to tell me that they admired my willingness to go public with my misery.

The great sage Mike Halter once shared with me that the ancient Chinese sages said to treat your victories like funerals. Not to go off about your plaudits and to soft pedal your success.

Is it equally true that one should not treat your funerals like victories? Just asking, for a friend...

I would consult the I Ching but it is currently not taking my calls. Never want to importune the sages, or so I have been told.

And the tower is just a bit too baroque for my modern constitution and has been for the last forty years or so.

Going to have to gut this one out on my own.

*

I got a letter from a friend who has a friend who is a recording engineer with a funny request; listen to the Grateful Dead with him. 

He has never really liked them that much and he wants me to help me explain my affinity. 

He wanted to invite me to a listening session.

“...Are we asking Robert?  I would love to do a deep dive with him on the Dead.  I never caught the bug but in his recent email to me he cited this song and a particular part of it that I thought was *excellent.   Good writing and lyrics.  Frankly, the vocal quality was superb as were the harmonies, etc. Over the many years in the Audio business I have had multiple friends who I respect tell me to do more Dead  listening.  Anyway, I was just thinking it might make for a fun night to add into the jazz and the other usual genres that we listen to.  Plus I like the guy.”

Now I am honored and really like the gentleman as well but I am not so sure the deed can be done. You either like them or you don't.

And I can't help but go back to myself at an early outdoor Dead concert where I was grokking on the corrosive quality of the tie die and the garish and almost pagan ideography and I absolutely remember having the particular thought in my psychedelic wave stream that if you were not tripping there was no way for the stuff to make much sense.

Now I know that there are A.A. deadheads and Christian deadheads and GOP deadheads and a whole lot of different flavors but I still think the lion's share got at least one dose along the way to put them on the bus.

And while most of us stopped using psychedelic substances long away, I think the memory of the excursion is still fresh enough to make the necessary nexus between the music and the interstellar travel part.

Why do people dislike the Grateful Dead? There are many reasons. Keith Richards said they aimlessly noodle or something like that. John Fogerty says that they put people to sleep. Steve Miller said that he despised their music and then jammed with them anyway. 

Many are put off by their country and bluegrass underpinnings. Jerry copped a lot of his sound from his early time as a banjo picker. He listened to a lot of "Stony Stoneman's" violin work and transcribed a lot of it to guitar. He also studied the Bakersfield sound of Don Rich and Roy Nichols and integrated a lot of that telecaster sound into his playing.

Many people can't stand country music. Well, the Grateful Dead is full of the idiom. Lots of twang, not very sophisticated to the urban elite.

My jazz friends find the song structures somewhat elementary and I can also see why.

I guess my point, if I have one, is that the Grateful Dead were best listened to live when they were jamming. It was the music between the songs and the notes for that matter that were the most beautiful. The way they listened to each other and usually found the perfect note. So while Keith Richards thought the noodling was meaningless, it was the only thing with meaning for me and I saw them hundreds of times.

Every Other One, Playing in the Band or Darkstar had the possibility of turning into something gorgeous and bigger than life. Any song really was a departure point for a long musical adventure.

I thought about bringing some music for my friend to listen to, to try to help Henry "get" the dead. I thought a nice Estimated Prophet/ Eyes of the World from 1977 might open up a veil, when Jerry was a at what I considered to be his peak. Or maybe a Brokedown Palace or High Time, something slow and poetic but rich with emotion.

Or should I play a Help on the way or Terrapin? Or just make him smoke a joint and go right to a 1969 full cranial Dark Star?

Of course, I am projecting. Get them really high and it will all make sense. Dave B. did mushrooms and saw them and still thought they were terrible. Just not for everybody. Not sure it can be done at this point, bringing people into the fold. I'll give it my best shot, I promise.