1.
Behind the scenes there’s been a paradigm shift toward using the government for the greater good which goes against the philosophies of the old Washington guard, and especially the GOP and libertarians, who see government as the ‘problem’ rather than one of the solutions.

An article in the July 5 edition of New York Magazine, titled Biden’s Big Left Gamble, lays it out. Progressive economist Heather Boushey, who worked with the Clinton campaign before 2016, was part of an economic team “planning infrastructure legislation that was half traditional bridge-and-road stuff and half unprecedented support for America’s wobbly child-, elder-, home-, and community-care systems through a mandated paid-leave policy, caps on child-care costs, and increased wages for caregivers — long-elusive feminist priorities.”

Felicia Wong, president and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute, organized quarterly assemblies of new and younger thinkers, and the mission of the group was “how to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime paradigm shift in economic thinking.” One of the group members, Darrick Hamilton, a professor of economics and urban policy at the New School, put it succinctly: “to change the way government uses its power. That involves a willingness to forge new leaders, rather than to change the old.”

What is most interesting here is that the Biden Administration has taken on many of these people in leadership roles. The article states, “He has injected new ideological blood, much of it from the lineage of his primary opponent Warren, who has long believed that personnel is policy; Biden brought in these wonks to implement his economic agenda. He is seeding the next 40 years of government. Biden not only nominated 32-year-old Khan, a leading advocate of antitrust enforcement of tech monopolies and a vociferous foe of Amazon, to the FTC; in a genuinely hard-core move, on the day she was confirmed, he made her the chair. Khan and the many regulatory enthusiasts she is bringing with her are what Biden wanted. He wasn’t just checking a box; he was building a bench.”

I, for one, am totally on board for the government actually being of the people, by the people, and for the people. It’s a Lincoln thing…

2.
Furthermore, Heather Cox Richardson’s post on July 5th penned a similar note that, while the orange nutjob sidelined the country's public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Biden’s team used the pandemic to prove to Americans that the federal government could, indeed, work for everyone. This after two generations of lawmakers who refused to use federal power to help ordinary Americans.

In his July 4th speech, Biden said, “Each day, we’re reminded there’s nothing guaranteed about our democracy, nothing guaranteed about our way of life. We have to fight for it, defend it, earn it…. It’s up to all of us to protect the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; the right to equal justice under the law; the right to vote and have that vote counted; the right.... to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and know that our children and grandchildren will be safe on this planet for generations to come… the right to rise in the world as far as your God-given [talent] can take you, unlimited by barriers of privilege or power.”

Compare this to the speech given only a year before by the orange con man: “We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and the people who, in many instances, have absolutely no clue what they are doing, We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children. And we will defend, protect and preserve (the) American way of life, which began in 1492 when Columbus discovered America.”

3.
During the Australian tour of 1999, I was emailing my misadventures to my wife-to-be, Connie, on an almost daily basis. This was one I sent Monday, October 11, 1999.

Did I tell you about an act known as THE SINGING AND DANCING BLIND CHILDREN FROM INDIA whom were on the bill with us at the Victor Harbor Folk Festival? Our last night at the festival Nancy, Kevin, and I and were on our way out of the Hotel for a midnight stroll when we happened upon the room where they were lodged. They were singing and playing games so we made our way into the room and hung out there for a bit. They were singing Krishna this and Krishna that, beautiful voices and heartfelt, Nancy and the promoter Keith trading out, taking turns singing some indigenous folky songs as well and everyone cheerful as can be. Well, after a bit, I had to leave because I really wanted to walk out to this island and see the nocturnal penguins so I left and hoofed it for some kilometers across this foot bridge into the sea where I was alone with all of these bird and other creature noises late at night and it was so cool, the chance that I could be flippered to death and nobody would find me for weeks because I would be dragged under these huge rocks by these man-hating mini-penguins, only 10 inches tall, by their teeth, which I did manage to get some photos of without them baring their teeth and surviving to tell the tale but back to THE SINGING AND DANCING BLIND CHILDREN OF INDIA where Nancy did stay and had a thing or two to report in the morning. See, just that afternoon, she was very indecisive about purchasing this nice wooly yak stocking style hat for $14. I kinda talked her into it, good color and all and we are going to the East Coast in December, so she buys it and is very happy to have it and wearing it proudly and such so she's wearing it when we stop by the room where THE SINGING AND DANCING BLIND CHILDREN OF INDIA are staying because she had all intentions of viewing the Penguins with me but stayed and sang. It was during my absence that when she got up to leave, she inquired about the hat she must have set aside when the MOTHER SUPERIOR of THE SINGING AND DANCING CHILDREN OF INDIA said rather quickly and abruptly; "YOU WEREN'T WEARING A HAT WHEN YOU CAME IN!" Well...ain't that a pisser...so Nancy is hatless. Kevin had left too but he said if he was still there he would have slammed the door open and said in his best John Wayne; "OK, NOBODY LEAVES DA ROOM TIL YA COUGH UP DA HAT, BITCHES!"

4.
Author James Purdy died in 2009. I'll always remember a line of his from an early 80s interview from Interview magazine; "Never tell stupid people the truth." I then read every book of his I could find.

His writing was difficult, only in the sense that he had a way of cutting deep to the bone of all our vanities, greed and other types of vice. He was one of the few writers able to make you take a hard look at yourself in novel form.

Here is one of his final, crusty interviews from the March 24th, 2009 issue of Interview magazine. And I mean assuredly crusty: “No one looks at a television, and no one hears it. It’s a poison. Television masturbates its audience even though the audience is not really watching. It masturbates orifices the audience doesn’t have. It sticks holes in the viewer and masturbates in those holes. Then it finally gets into the brain and masturbates there, too. This will finally end in the whole culture having softening of the brain. So I don’t think it’s like eastern mysticism, which leaves the person whole.  It’s really another form of cancer, television.”

5.
One of the images below might be art. You decide.

6.
And lastly, one of my favorite bands, Los Lobos, will be releasing Native Sons on July 30. New West Records says, “In a nod to their neighborhood, Native Sons opens with the wide-eyed frenzy of ‘Love Special Delivery’ by Thee Midniters, an East L.A. garage band and one of the first Chicano rock groups to ever score a major hit in the U.S. From there, it features favorites and deep cuts by other Los Angeles luminaries such as the Beach Boys, WAR, Buffalo Springfield, Jackson Browne, The Blasters (whom counted Steve Berlin as a member before his joining Los Lobos) and more. The album’s title track is its sole original song, a loving homage to Los Angeles that sounds right at home amid so many classic tracks.”

Have a listen: Jackson Browne’s Jamaica Say You Will.

And now, arendt you glad I’m posting this?