I have heard other folks claim that anyone who says they are an "activist and freelance journalist" to actually be "a layabout and sponge".
I wonder if it's true. Does it have any basis in fact? Is it just the words of a jealous old fogy?
Sometimes I wonder.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Thursday, January 29, 2015
STANLEY TURRENTINE, Summertime
Recorded live at Minton's, New York, on february 23 1961. Stanley Turrentine (tenor saxophone); Horace Parlan (piano); Grant Green (guitar); George Tucker (bass); Al Harewood (drums).
Horace Silver - Calcutta Cutie
Horace Silver — piano
Blue Mitchell — trumpet
Junior Cook — tenor saxophone
Eugene Taylor — bass
Roy Brooks — drums
John Coltrane - Locomotion
John Coltrane tenor saxophone
Paul Chambers — double bass
Kenny Drew — piano
Curtis Fuller — trombone
Philly Joe Jones — drums
Lee Morgan — trumpet
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Wall Street’s Threat to the American Middle Class
The latest from Robert Reich - follow link to original.
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http://robertreich.org/
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http://robertreich.org/
Presidential aspirants in both parties are
talking about saving the middle class. But the middle class can’t be
saved unless Wall Street is tamed.
The Street’s excesses pose a continuing danger to average Americans. And its ongoing use of confidential corporate information is defrauding millions of middle-class investors.
Yet most presidential aspirants don’t want to talk about taming the Street because Wall Street is one of their largest sources of campaign money.
Do we really need reminding about what happened six years ago? The financial collapse crippled the middle class and poor — consuming the savings of millions of average Americans, and causing 23 million to lose their jobs, 9.3 million to lose their health insurance, and some 1 million to lose their homes.
A repeat performance is not unlikely. Wall Street’s biggest banks are much larger now than they were then. Five of them hold about 45 percent of America’s banking assets. In 2000, they held 25 percent.
And money is cheaper than ever. The Fed continues to hold the prime interest rate near zero.
This has fueled the Street’s eagerness to borrow money at rock-bottom rates and use it to make risky bets that will pay off big if they succeed, but will cause big problems if they go bad.
We learned last week that Goldman Sachs has been on a shopping binge, buying cheap real estate stretching from Utah to Spain, and a variety of companies.
Not incidentally, Dimon recently complained of being “under assault” by bank regulators.
Just weeks ago a three- judge panel of the U.S. court of appeals that oversees Wall Street reversed an insider-trading conviction, saying guilt requires proof a trader knows the tip was leaked in exchange for some “personal benefit” that’s “of some consequence.”
Meaning that if a CEO tells his Wall Street golfing buddy about a pending merger, the buddy and his friends can make a bundle — to the detriment of small, typically middle-class, investors.
That three-judge panel was composed entirely of appointees of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.
But both parties have been drinking at the Wall Street trough.
In the 2008 presidential campaign, the financial sector ranked fourth among all industry groups giving to then candidate Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee. In fact, Obama reaped far more in contributions from the Street than did his Republican opponent.
Wall Street also supplies both administrations with key economic officials. The treasury secretaries under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush – Robert Rubin and Henry Paulson, respectfully, had both chaired Goldman Sachs before coming to Washington.
And before becoming Obama’s treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner had been handpicked by Rubin to become president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (Geithner is now back on the Street as president of the private-equity firm Warburg Pincus.)
It’s nice that presidential aspirants are talking about rebuilding America’s middle class.
But to be credible, he (or she) has to take clear aim at the Street.
That means proposing to limit the size of the biggest Wall Street banks; resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act (which used to separate investment from commercial banking); define insider trading the way most other countries do – using information any reasonable person would know is unavailable to most investors; and close the revolving door between the Street and the U.S. Treasury.
It also means not depending on the Street to finance their campaigns.
The Street’s excesses pose a continuing danger to average Americans. And its ongoing use of confidential corporate information is defrauding millions of middle-class investors.
Yet most presidential aspirants don’t want to talk about taming the Street because Wall Street is one of their largest sources of campaign money.
Do we really need reminding about what happened six years ago? The financial collapse crippled the middle class and poor — consuming the savings of millions of average Americans, and causing 23 million to lose their jobs, 9.3 million to lose their health insurance, and some 1 million to lose their homes.
A repeat performance is not unlikely. Wall Street’s biggest banks are much larger now than they were then. Five of them hold about 45 percent of America’s banking assets. In 2000, they held 25 percent.
And money is cheaper than ever. The Fed continues to hold the prime interest rate near zero.
This has fueled the Street’s eagerness to borrow money at rock-bottom rates and use it to make risky bets that will pay off big if they succeed, but will cause big problems if they go bad.
We learned last week that Goldman Sachs has been on a shopping binge, buying cheap real estate stretching from Utah to Spain, and a variety of companies.
If not technically a violation of the new Dodd-Frank banking law, Goldman’s binge surely violates its spirit.
Meanwhile, the Street’s lobbyists have gotten Congress to repeal a provision of Dodd-Frank curbing excessive speculation by the big banks.
The language was drafted by Citigroup and personally pushed by Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase.Not incidentally, Dimon recently complained of being “under assault” by bank regulators.
Last year JPMorgan’s board voted to boost Dimon’s pay to $20 million, despite the bank paying out more than $20 billion to settle various legal problems going back to financial crisis.
The American middle class needs stronger bank regulations, not weaker ones.
Last summer, bank regulators told the big banks their plans for orderly bankruptcies were “unrealistic.” In other words, if the banks collapsed, they’d bring the economy down with them.
Dodd-Frank doesn’t even cover bank bets on foreign exchanges. Yet recent turbulence in the foreign exchange market has caused huge losses at hedge funds and brokerages.
This comes on top of revelations of widespread manipulation by the big banks of the foreign-exchange market.
Wall Street is also awash in inside information unavailable to average investors.Just weeks ago a three- judge panel of the U.S. court of appeals that oversees Wall Street reversed an insider-trading conviction, saying guilt requires proof a trader knows the tip was leaked in exchange for some “personal benefit” that’s “of some consequence.”
Meaning that if a CEO tells his Wall Street golfing buddy about a pending merger, the buddy and his friends can make a bundle — to the detriment of small, typically middle-class, investors.
That three-judge panel was composed entirely of appointees of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.
But both parties have been drinking at the Wall Street trough.
In the 2008 presidential campaign, the financial sector ranked fourth among all industry groups giving to then candidate Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee. In fact, Obama reaped far more in contributions from the Street than did his Republican opponent.
Wall Street also supplies both administrations with key economic officials. The treasury secretaries under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush – Robert Rubin and Henry Paulson, respectfully, had both chaired Goldman Sachs before coming to Washington.
And before becoming Obama’s treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner had been handpicked by Rubin to become president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (Geithner is now back on the Street as president of the private-equity firm Warburg Pincus.)
It’s nice that presidential aspirants are talking about rebuilding America’s middle class.
But to be credible, he (or she) has to take clear aim at the Street.
That means proposing to limit the size of the biggest Wall Street banks; resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act (which used to separate investment from commercial banking); define insider trading the way most other countries do – using information any reasonable person would know is unavailable to most investors; and close the revolving door between the Street and the U.S. Treasury.
It also means not depending on the Street to finance their campaigns.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
The Jazz Messengers - Soft Winds
Horace Silver (p), Art Blakey (d), Hank Mobley (ts), Kenny Dorham (tp), Doug Watkins (b)
Stan Getz at Storyville 1951 - Full Album
Stan Getz, ts. Jimmy Raney, g. Al Haig, p. Teddy Kotick, b.
Tiny Kahn, dr.___ 28. Oct.1951
A Night In Tunisia - Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker at 1945 Concert
Musicians Line-up: Dizzy Gillespie - Trumpet Charlie 'Bird' Parker - Alto Sax Al Haig - Piano Curley Russell - Bass Max Roach - Drums Symphony Sid - MC Recorded at Town Hall, New York City, June 22nd, 1945
Friday, January 16, 2015
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Route 66 - Nat King Cole Trio
The 1946 version of this classic song composed by Bobby Troup the same year..
Nat King Cole Show Feat JATP C Jam Blues
Nat King Cole Show Presenting for the first time on television Norman Granz's Jazz At The Philarmonic
Roy Eldrige,Trumpet
Flip Philips,Tenor Sax
Illinois Jaquet,Tenor Sax
Oscar Peterson,Piano
Ray Brown,Bass
Herb Ellis,Guitar
Jo Jones,Drums
Blues for Greasy - JATP Jam Session 1950
Ella Fitzgerald (scat vcl), Harry Sweets Edison (tp), Lester Young, Flip Phillips (ts), Bill Harris (tb), Hank Jones (p), Ray Brown (b), Buddy Rich (d)
Flip Phillips & Roy Eldridge Flip and Jazz
Live recording from WNEW Saturday Night Swing Session, March 1947
Roy Eldridge - trumpet
Flip Phillips - tenor sax
Mike Colicchio - piano
Al Casey - guitar
Eddie Safranski - bass
Specs Powell - drums
Fats Navarro, Charlie Ventura, Buddy Rich High On An Open Mike
Live recording from WNEW Saturday Night Swing Session, May 1947
Fats Navarro - trumpet
Charlie Ventura, Allen Eager - tenor sax
Bill Harris - trombone
Ralph Burns - piano
Al Valente - guitar
Chubby Jackson - bass
Buddy Rich - drums
Monday, January 12, 2015
Haredi Newspaper Censors Female World Leaders From Iconic Paris Unity March Photo
All religions suck!
French Catholics destroyed the "Piss Christ" assemblage when it was displayed in France. Muslims have destroyed world treasures because they were statues -- of Buddha.
Now an Orthodox Jewish Newspaper removed the images of WOMEN in their "photos" of world leaders marching in solidarity against the massacre in Paris.
These folks are ALL anti-human, anti-woman, anti-reality, anti-free speech.
ALL INSANE!
----------------------------------------
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2015/01/haredi-newspaper-removes-female-world-leaders-from-iconic-paris-unity-march-photo-234.html
The Israeli haredi daily HaMevasser photoshopped an iconic photo of yesterday's Paris unity march, removing female world leaders from the photograph.
Walla! News was the first to detect and report the photoshopping. Mediaite then picked up the Walla! story.
French Catholics destroyed the "Piss Christ" assemblage when it was displayed in France. Muslims have destroyed world treasures because they were statues -- of Buddha.
Now an Orthodox Jewish Newspaper removed the images of WOMEN in their "photos" of world leaders marching in solidarity against the massacre in Paris.
These folks are ALL anti-human, anti-woman, anti-reality, anti-free speech.
ALL INSANE!
----------------------------------------
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2015/01/haredi-newspaper-removes-female-world-leaders-from-iconic-paris-unity-march-photo-234.html
The Israeli haredi daily HaMevasser photoshopped an iconic photo of yesterday's Paris unity march, removing female world leaders from the photograph.
Walla! News was the first to detect and report the photoshopping. Mediaite then picked up the Walla! story.
Friday, January 9, 2015
Charlie Hebdo
About the Charlie Hebdo Massacre. I cannot believe folks actually went to kill cartoonists. They did.
Now, when I see insulting, demeaning, vile "comedians" attacking women (most seem to think that's a surefire way to get laughs), I either change the channel or leave. I won't listen to that radio show, nor buy that publication.
I will not go out to kill the person.
Please recall the furor over the "Piss Christ" art, or what happened to "The Dixie Chicks" after the comments about George Bush. How about what happened to Bill Maher?
We may have defended their freedom of speech --- but careers were ruined.
Perhaps that's why the (alleged) "Catholic Loon" Bill Donahue said the terrorists were "provoked" -- he may want an excuse for possible violence on the part of some of his followers.
How about all the "right to life" folks who support the killing of "abortion Doctors" -- aren't they also terrorists?
Isn't it time to stop giving ALL terrorists any sort of excuse? Isn't it time to stop ALL religions from affecting public policy, public health issues, judicial decisions?
We are not ancient goat herders -- even though too many of us act as if we are.
Now, when I see insulting, demeaning, vile "comedians" attacking women (most seem to think that's a surefire way to get laughs), I either change the channel or leave. I won't listen to that radio show, nor buy that publication.
I will not go out to kill the person.
Please recall the furor over the "Piss Christ" art, or what happened to "The Dixie Chicks" after the comments about George Bush. How about what happened to Bill Maher?
We may have defended their freedom of speech --- but careers were ruined.
Perhaps that's why the (alleged) "Catholic Loon" Bill Donahue said the terrorists were "provoked" -- he may want an excuse for possible violence on the part of some of his followers.
How about all the "right to life" folks who support the killing of "abortion Doctors" -- aren't they also terrorists?
Isn't it time to stop giving ALL terrorists any sort of excuse? Isn't it time to stop ALL religions from affecting public policy, public health issues, judicial decisions?
We are not ancient goat herders -- even though too many of us act as if we are.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, to face whipping
I do not want to hear anymore about "The Religion Of Peace" -- ENOUGH!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.lisadaftari.com/saudi-blogger-raif-badawi-faces-whipping/
Saudi blogger and activist Raif Badawi, sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam, is set to receive the first set of 50 lashes tomorrow. Badawi will be flogged after Friday prayers tomorrow and continuously over a period of 20 weeks as the remainder of his sentence is carried out, according to Amnesty International. Badawi, co-founder of the “Saudi Arabian Liberals” website and a well-known thinker and blogger, was sentenced in May 2014 to ten years in prison, and 1000 lashes after he was found “guilty of writing anti-Islamic discourse online.” He was also fined him the equivalent of $266,000, in a verdict Amnesty International called “outrageous.” In September Badawi lost his appeal against his sentence. This afternoon U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called on Saudi Arabia to review Badawi’s case and “cancel this brutal punishment.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.lisadaftari.com/saudi-blogger-raif-badawi-faces-whipping/
Saudi blogger and activist Raif Badawi, sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam, is set to receive the first set of 50 lashes tomorrow. Badawi will be flogged after Friday prayers tomorrow and continuously over a period of 20 weeks as the remainder of his sentence is carried out, according to Amnesty International. Badawi, co-founder of the “Saudi Arabian Liberals” website and a well-known thinker and blogger, was sentenced in May 2014 to ten years in prison, and 1000 lashes after he was found “guilty of writing anti-Islamic discourse online.” He was also fined him the equivalent of $266,000, in a verdict Amnesty International called “outrageous.” In September Badawi lost his appeal against his sentence. This afternoon U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called on Saudi Arabia to review Badawi’s case and “cancel this brutal punishment.”
Criss, Sonny Black Coffee
Sonny Criss, alto sax
Walter Davis, Jr., piano
Paul Chambers, bass
Alan Dawson, drums
Saturday Morning - Sonny Criss 1965
Sonny Criss (as) Hampton Hawes (pf) Clarence Johnson (b) Frank Butler (ds)
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Lee Konitz - You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
Album: Motion(1961)
Personnel:
Lee Konitz (as)
Sonny Dallas (b)
Elvin Jones (d)
Dexter Gordon - Cheese Cake
Album: Go
Year: 1962
Label: Blue Note
Dexter Gordon - tenor sax
Sonny Clark - piano
Butch Warren - bass
Billy Higgins - drums
Wardell Gray - It's The Talk Of The Town
Wardell Gray (ts), Al Haig (p), Jimmy Raney (g),
Tommy Potter (b), Charlie Perry (ds)
rec. 1949 NYC
Wardell Gray - Dexter Gordon Live 1952 ~ The Chase
Dexter Gordon - Tenor Sax
Wardell Gray - Tenor Sax
Bobby Tucker - Piano
Don Bagley - Bass
Chico Hamilton - Drums
Dodo Marmarosa - Charlie Parker Septet 1946 ~ Ornithology (Take 1)
Personnel:
Charlie Parker - Alto Sax (head only)*
Miles Davis - Trumpet
Eli "Lucky" Thompson - Tenor Sax
Arvin Garrison - Guitar
Michael "Dodo" Marmarosa - Piano
Vic McMillan - Bass
Roy Porter - Drums
* This was Charlie Parker's second studio session as a leader.
Pianist Joe Albany and bassist Red Callender quit this session
suddenly, forcing Parker to spend valuable rehearsal time
finding replacements.
This was the first of 3 takes of Ornithology.
There was no Parker solo.
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