Recommendation for readers, young and old.

I've recently talked to a few people who don't read fiction.

That eliminates the following wordsmiths

Charly Dickins
James Fenimoore Cooper
Edgar Allen Poe
Rudyard Kipling
Agatha Christie
Louis L'Amour
John Grisham
Dean Koontz
Kurt Vonnegut
Jimmy Lee Burke
Bobby Lewis Stevenson
Johnny Steinbeck
Ernie Hemingway
Tommy Wolfe
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Elmore Leonard
Stevie King
Jack London
James Michener
and
on
and
on
and
on.

Of all the above listed authors (and there are hundreds of more names that could and should be added to the list) I want to highly encourage an excursion into the world of
LOUIS L'AMOUR

The development of the Western United States before, during, and after the Civil War is one of the most intriguing periods in our history.

Generally people's knowledge of the West has been obtained through the art of Cinema and early television....which means John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gunsmoke, Bonanza and the 1993 Tombstone film probably constitute most people's know how of how the West was developed.

Yeah...it reads know how of how.....deal with it.

Mr. L'Amour bio reads as follows:

Louis Dearborn L'Amour (/ˈluːi ləˈmʊr/; March 22 1908 –June 10 1988) was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels (though he called his work 'frontier stories'); however, he also wrote historical fiction (The Walking Drum), science fiction (The Haunted Mesa), non-fiction (Frontier), as well as poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into films and John Wayne once made the dubious assertion that L'Amour was the most interesting man in the world. L'Amour's books remain popular and most have gone through multiple printings. At the time of his death almost all of his 105 existing works (89 novels, 14 short-story collections, and two full-length works of nonfiction) were still in print, and he was considered "one of the world's most popular writers".^[1][2]

His research into the time period is extensive and his naming of characters is unequaled.  For example
I just finished reading The Cherokee Trail and the hero's name is....Temple Boone.

The stories are generally 4 to 5 hour reads and I suggest reading every word and put your speed reading abilities on hold.

Take a break from present day social and political happenings....flop down in your easy chair, put your feet up, grab some green tea, dim the lights and be ready to envision yourself traveling to an unknown land with people whose entire existence was based on starting a new life while encountering other people who had lived on the continent for thousands of years.

We know how things turned out but we quite often forget or don't care how the process unfolded.

Well researched historic fiction is a genre that should not be overlooked.
And nobody does the genre of how the West evolved better
than
Louis L'Amour.

It will take your mind off of how the GOP is attempting to rewrite the future of America...if only for a few hours at a time.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

November 8 2017

One year since America chose a new direction.  Hopefully the direction changes soon....like during mid-term elections.
Maybe even sooner.
From my words
to
God's ears.

Baseball and a lifetime memory

Dear Sean,
     I'm pretty sure we attended Dodger games after the opening day of the 1988 World Series but for obvious reasons that game will always have a unique place in my memory bank and of course....my heart.

   

    You had just completed your first year in the Majors of Santa Monica Little League and as a 10 year old you held your own and displayed your talents against 11 and 12 year olds.  The Dodgers had returned to the World Series for the first time since winning the whole thing in 1981. We were very fortunate to be given two seats in the last row of the right field pavilion.  It would turn out that the right field pavilion would be immortalized every time video's would replay the infamous Kirk Gibson home run.  I've watched the replay at least a few hundred times since 1988 and every time I know that you and I are jumping up and down and high-fiving each other and everyone around us.  It was an epic moment for baseball and continues to be regarded as one of the greatest moments in World Series history.  Of course it becomes a moment in our history that will never be extinguished....along with every moment we shared in the 15 years 10 months and 3 days of your physical reality.

You wrote a paper for your English class as a freshman at Loyola entitled "It's never over until the 54th out" and I didn't actually discover the paper until sometime later in the summer of 1994.....which turns out to be the year that no World Series was played because of a contract squabble between owners and players.  The fact that the baseball season was shortened and no World Series played made perfect sense to me after what had happened on February 3rd 1994.   To be honest I hadn't even followed baseball that year for the first time since I was 12 years old.   Life was testing me in areas that had very little to do with sociological distractions, such as sports and politics.

I was very busy learning about non-physical reality and trying to understand why the Universe had decided to attack the very core of my existence. 

I've created many various artistic and literary answers, whether or not they are valid is entirely up to the audience, and I am somewhat content to report that many of those answers make sense and allow me to continue believing in a Universe that is dominated by love and particle expansion while at the same time displaying an abundant amount of chaos and decay.

But for this letter I want to remember the shirt incident as we arrived for the first game of the 1988 World Series.  (If you save the picture and then zoom in you can read what Sean's shirt says. Sean is the only one standing in the above picture)

As we drove up the road to go into the stadium there was a guy hawking tye-dyed tee-shirts that said....Fuck Oakland on the front.  The price $10. We went into the parking lot and as we got out of the car you said, "Dad, I really want one of those shirts."  My answer was, "I'm not about to drive all way back there" and you said, "give me the 10 and I'll run and be back in a flash."  Since you were an extremely fast young man it seems like you did it in record time.  I don't remember waiting very long for you to return. You waited until we got to our seats before you put the shirt on and to this day I'm not sure if you wore it throughout the entire game or not.  All I know is the Dodgers fucked Oakland big time in that game and throughout the series that only last five games.

Coaching you and watching you play baseball over the next five years is easily one of the great memories of my life.  It's a memory that is only tarnished by the fact that we can't physically chat about not only those moments but all the other moments we shared as Father and Son.

Watching you develop your baseball IQ was really enjoyable for me and to be honest I was usually coaching the team but you as an individual were the glue that held the team together.  

I realize how talented you were as an artist and as a writer but I always understood that those two things would simply improve as you got older.  I didn't know how far you could go in the baseball world because no one can predict the outcome of a 12, 13, 14 or 15 year old baseball player unless they have names like Bryce Harper and Clayton Kershaw. Most of the 750 players in the major leagues 

get there through extreme hard work and predicting how much work an 18 year old wants to spend to improving their baseball skills is almost impossible.

But you were a natural and your motion was always correct and you never really tried that hard because the talent was just there.  I think you were starting to realize what it might take but of course the Universe had another plan.

And since the mysteries of the Universe will always far out number the known realities I'm not unsure that you aren't appearing in this World Series as some explosive 23 year old stud.

It would make sense on so many levels....and I defy anyone to prove that reincarnation isn't a reality.

My awareness of physical reality and my belief in non-physical reality allow me to view the first Dodger World Series experience in 29 years in a 

new

and

exciting

way

IT'S A QUANTUM EXPERIENCE AND I'M DIGGING EVERY SINGLE MOMENT

and every baseball game I've watched since your first year in T-Ball at the age of six has included thoughts of you

I'm just

once more

overwhelmed

by

the love

I have for the game of baseball

and

of course

that

is

all

because

of

you.

I love you son

and thanks for bringing the Dodgers back into the 

big show.

I don't expect a victory but neither did you or I expect to see a limping number 23 approach the plate in the 9th inning with two outs trailing 4-3 on October 15th 1988 and create a moment that will live forever in the annals of baseball history.

Love

Dad

Neo-Illumination #19

When I try to understand the essence of the Republican party I always seem to get to a point where there is one huge aspect that seems to be missing.

Understanding a group ideology isn't very easy to do so one must start with attempting to understand a single individual.

Understanding a single individuals actions can prove to be extremely hard...especially if those actions seems to be missing certain ingredients.

So therefore, while I dance around this problem, it becomes clear that trying to summarize Republican behavior is extremely difficult because something is missing.

AND once more I return to a Neo-Illumination that explains what might be missing.

                NEO-ILLUMINATION #19

UTILIZE THE ESSENCE
OF
LOVE
IN ALL
OF
ITS POSSIBILITIES
AND
TRY
TO
SPEAK THE TRUTH

                                BASED ON
                                        PRIORITIES

SOMEWHERE, SOMETIME, SOMEHOW
THE LOVE
WE ALL POSSESS
MUST
COME INTO PLAY
AND
START
TO
DOMINATE OUR
LIFE
STORIES

the Republican Party appears to have a limited capacity for stretching their personal emotional algorithms that allow them to include others not immediately attached to their own tribes.

Their priorities are limited to personal realities
and
if Neo-Illumination #19 has any reality then 
truly what seems to be missing
is
a
wider and much broader
form
of

LOVE
or a strange interpretation of
priorities

The question that probably needs to be answered before the our species moves to the next stage of human evolution.

Are personal priorities more important than species priorities?

That might be the defining difference between the two main political parties in our country.....and it could apply to the global situations concerning both political and religious entities that seem so widely divided on so many different core values.

The more I study and learn about Quantum realities the more convinced I become that 
political and religious solutions will not be solved by groups who don't look beyond their immediate and personal interests.

That's a HUGE
DUH!

I started out trying to understand the mind of the Republican Party and 
ended up
with a bigger 
issue.

Mind Jazz really is the perfect title for my blog and once more I must thank Jack Neworth of the Santa Monica Daily Press for coming up with that name 12 years ago.

And yes folks.....The DODGERS are back in the World Series.....and in the next few days I will explain why that is important
to
the Universe....and maybe not so important
to
you
and
you
and
you

but REALLY important to
YOU
and 
YOU
and
especially
YOU!

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Fake News Spin

Now that the President thinks NBC should lose their broadcasting rights because of reporting fake news I think it's time to remind people what fake news is.

Misdirection, turn aside, divert, deflect, draw away, avert, switch, sidetrack, branch off, distract, preoccupy, divaricate and of course the big one.....LIE....and yes, maybe hallucinate should be included.

These are simply a few words that describe why fake news is created.  Of course often times fake news is created simply to increase readership or viewership.

Alex Jones is a prime example of someone who just does it for the publicity and then later ends up in court apologizing while in the meantime thousands of people have repeated his bullshit and urban legends are born.

Our President has used name calling and ridiculous allegations since he first started running for the office.  I'm also going to guess that throughout his business career he has made up stuff to further his personal coffers.  An extensive research into his business dealings will most likely result in many people not being a big fan....such as the people who enrolled in his pretend college.

Remember this is the guy who said he wrote a book who actually didn't write the book, Art of a Deal.

The only story that I wish was fake news 
happened on November 9 2016 

The newspaper headline read

TRUMP WINS ELECTION. 

The entire first 9 months of this administration has been so weird
that fake news seems
normal.

So many ways to spin the truth and so many more ways to spin a lie.

It really does get confusing and explains why people don't pay attention and it really explains how someone like Donald Trump can get elected President of the United States.

The entire situation seems like a huge FAKE NEWS SPIN.

Ouch!

I'm pretty sure the guy heading our country is insane

And being sure means it's just time for some change of pace

And this will be the first of many...hopefully

I'm sure he makes some people happy and content but there's a missing ingredient.....

When our President gives an important speech, at an important location, as was the case yesterday at the United Nations, there are obviously millions of people in this country that say "BRAVO, LET IT RIP, TELL IT LIKE IT IS, SHOW THOSE BASTARDS THAT WE CAN'T BE PUSHED AROUND."

Imagine how well George Patton and President "Biff" would have bonded.

Let's get back to people who cheered his speech at the UN.  Like I said there is a sizable amount of people who like everything he says and does, but the simple fact is THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE IN OUR COUNTRY WHO CAN'T STAND ANYTHING HE SAYS.

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but listening to "Biff" give a speech is like listening to a bad performance in a not very good movie directed by a first time director who just finished High School.

AND THE FACT IS....EVEN IF YOU LIKE THINGS HE SAYS, IN YOUR HEART YOU KNOW HE SHOULDN'T BE SAYING WHAT HE SAYS.

HE'S F**KING PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND HE SOUNDS LIKE THE DIPSHIT FROM NORTH KOREA.

HAS HE NEVER LOOKED UP THE WORD 
                                                                DIGNIFIED?

And maybe that explains why he had a successful campaign.
Does he think his golden chairs and golden banisters and golden toilets are an acceptable sign of dignity?
I listen to him and think of people like Nero and the guy who ran the gas station outside of Tupelo, Mississippi in 1958.
(sorry Miss, but you've had some issues over the years....but you did give us Elvis so that warrants an apology)

Do his supporters care about dignity?  
Perhaps they simply needed someone who doesn't process the concept of dignity.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES MUST HAVE DIGNITY

If that statement is wrong then I truly have been completely fooled by every single President in my life time.

Even Bush Jr. had a moral compass when it came to displaying dignity because his father was extremely dignified.

YOU CAN HAVE POLITICAL DIFFERENCES AND STILL RESPECT THE PERSON 
IF
THEY
DISPLAY
DIGNITY

Quite often when I'm having a heated political confrontation with someone, either on line or in person, I completely lose any dignity that I might posses and within a short time the situation has been reduced to either rumble or I've failed to make the point that was intended.

But I'm not the leader of the most powerful country in the world.

WHAT IS PRESIDENT "BIFFS" POINT?

We had to listen to a year and a half of him telling us that America was not great anymore and that he would make "America Great Again."

Now he steps in front of the United Nations and reminds the world that we are the top of the food chain and we will do whatever we want anytime and anywhere we want.

That's what an asshole bully says to the skinny kid as he kicks his ass all over the school yard.

The difference between Donald J. Trump
and
Barack H. Obama
is
so
obvious
and
the
word
is
DIGNITY

Now one thing that really bothers me is that there is a political sense of decorum that generally resides at the highest office in our land and how other countries and other leaders react when that political decorum is absent........can be a problem.   

If you operate a country that is being challenged on almost every level of modern day sociological and economic development and the biggest and the most secure country in the world sounds like a vigilante from a TV western in the late 50's...you just might say......F**K IT!

And one last thought.....if you have studied history and you run a country that is at odds with the US and eventually it leads to a major confrontation, then after we destroy you we will help you reconstruct your new future.

Check with Germany
Check with Japan

Hopefully there isn't some major history Professor who has the kid's ear in North Korea.

By the way have you noticed that 
Kim Jong un
seems
to 
also
lack

DIGNITY!

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Since he's already running for 2020

The 2020 election has begun.  

President "Biff" filed his reelection papers the day after he took office so it's time to get busy.

The best slogan I've heard so far for the other "team" is.......

NEVER TRUMP

It's obviously too late to reverse the last election, even though he seems to be trying his very best to make sure the first term doesn't run its course, so I'm thinking we should add a small word to the above phrase.

NEVER TRUMP again!  
And we apply it to any type of person with any slight assemblage to "Biff."

This is one of the shortest articles I've ever written and I could go on and on but let's just allow the
NEVER TRUMP again!
slogan
sink
in
and
hopefully
take
hold.

We need voices and this is one of the greats.....the new Dolly

Truly one of the great female singers

and

almost

the 

new

Dolly

but as you already know

there's only

one

DOLLY

Harvey, North Korea and Mrs.Biff

Watching the First Lady walk off the airplane with President Biff, as they landed in Houston, made me feel slightly queasy.

She was dressed like she was attending an afternoon outing in Palm Beach.

I'm sure they told her about Harvey and what level of disaster had hit the area.

I'm thinking Biff told her to dress casual because everyone in America would be watching them exit the plane...and her answer was, "oh you mean with a Versasce blouse and Michael Kors pants?"

His answer was....."stay away from that Kors crap....they are having financial problems......go with the Armani pants and the Tom Ford sunglasses sweetpea."

"Oh you are so good with style lambie pie."

"Perception my honey bunch....it's all about perception."

"Should we be worried about going to Texas.....I heard it didn't work out for that other handsome President who flew into Dallas.'

"Aw shucks baby doll.....these are the people that got me elected."

Just then one of the remaining aides runs up to Biff and tells him North Korea just launched another missile over Japan.

Biff waits a few minutes and then says......"Japan caused a lot of problems awhile back....maybe this will force them to lower their prices on the Lexus....and besides they keep dumping all that radioactive water into the ocean and it just gets in the current and goes straight to California.....OH WAIT A MINUTE.....on second thought send them a thank you note."
As for North Korea....how many missiles could they possibly have?
They have to be running low."

And then Mrs. Biff chimes in...."Unless China keeps replenishing their stockpile."

And our esteem leader turns to his wife and says......."Honey, I'd appreciate it if you stayed out of my business.....I don't want to fire you, but I will if I have to.  There are millions and millions of women who would take your place in a heartbeat, now go fetch me a martini with two olives."

"Yes dear."

AND THE BEAT GOES ON.

By the way...it can and probably will get
weirder
and
weirder
and
weirder

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Names you don't probably know but should.....but for all the wrong reasons.

Everyone knows the name David Duke and MOST people know he has an association with the Ku Klux Klan.
The following names are people that should be thought of in the same context when hearing the name David Duke.

AND I FULLY BELIEVE THAT THESE FIVE PEOPLE
ARE MUCH MUCH MORE DANGEROUS THAN DAVID DUKE.

RICHARD SPENCER
ANDREW ANGLIN
CODY WILSON
CHUCK C. JOHNSON
PAX DICKINSON

These men have Internet sites that "raise awareness" and FUNDS for their causes.

I will not name the sites.

I will explain their concept of "raising awareness" by asking you to visualize 1930 through 1936 in Germany.

Imagine for one second if the Internet had existed for Adolph and his friends.  It took awhile to canvas the countryside explaining how the Jews were destroying Germany and creating the economic and social demise of their glorified Germanic Aryan race.

If one is attempting to express hate of another human being to large numbers of people, whether it be an individual or a group.....it can be accomplished within a few hours.

And spreading their hatred to young people is the key to expansion and that is very scary.

And then depending on the level of your hate it can virtually go viral within a few days.

WELCOME TO REALITY OF

SPLOE

SMART PHONE LIFE ON EARTH

Apparently the men listed above have found their audiences and are not only raising money to fund their hatred, they are actually calling people to arms in order to promote that hatred.

Obviously the target of a white supremacist is the black community but as I look into this issue a bit more, I'm seeing a much broader hate than just for African Americans.

It almost seems to me that these men listed above HATE EVERYONE.....except each other and their immediate families.

BUT WAIT!

IT'S ALSO POSSIBLE THAT THEY ARE DOING WHAT THEY ARE DOING JUST TO MAKE MONEY!

I know that can't be the actual reason because it just doesn't make sense....but over the years I've watched people do some pretty amazing, corrupt and harmful things to try and make money.

Of course spreading hate and declaring another human being to be inferior because he or she has a different shade of skin color, or belongs to a different religious organization, is probably at the core of their behavior....and the money part is just a bi-product of their actions and their thoughts.

Looking at the images from Charlottesville I notice TOO MANY young people on the side of the bad guys.

LET'S BE CLEAR HERE.   BOTH SIDES, AS "BIFF" LIKES TO SAY, ARE NOT THE SAME

AND ARE 

NOT

RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SITUATION.

ONE SIDE IS BASED PURELY ON HATE

THE OTHER SIDE IS BASED ON TRYING TO PREVENT THAT HATE FROM

GETTING TOGETHER AND CAUSING MORE HATE.

And that can create a vicious circle.....but the world has seen what happens when people allow people to spread stupidity and hatred to large numbers of human beings.  And I'm not just talking about Germany in the 30's.

Look at the 2016 Presidential Election

Look at ISIS 

Look at The Taliban

Look at every terrorist group on the planet

WHERE'S GANDHI 

WHEN YOU NEED HIM?

The prime word missing from last weekend and from every type of similar behavior and from every utterance or post by those men listed above is.....

LOVE

Those assholes will try to tell you that they love their heritage and if you love being white than you need to protect the future of the white race.

I humbly prefer to be right not white 

and practicing love 

is

right

I'm fairly certain that most of those assholes were taught how to hate by a close family member that somehow convinced them that other types of people were preventing them from achieving success or from being happy.   

Those assholes were not taught how to challenge themselves and be competitive in whatever they were attempting to achieve.

They were not taught how to honor and respect human beings.

WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER

AND

WE

ARE

7 BILLION

STRONG

with about 2 billion

wrong

Which leaves 5 Billion of us doing the best we can to make Heaven on Earth.

I might be off by 1 billion and I always remind my readers that I thought McGovern would cream Nixon in the 1972 election. (He did win the county where I lived at the time, so I wasn't the only idiot....check it out.  McGovern won Marin County)

BUT THE BIGGER ISSUE AT THE MOMENT, IN MY HUMBLE OPINION,

IS

THE

DECISIONS BEING MADE

BY

THE

HEAD OF THE

EPA.

The hatred of one group of people for another group of people probably won't be fixed anytime soon....I gather that the next stage of human evolution will take care of that problem.....

BUT

THE DECISIONS BEING MADE BY THE HEAD OF THE EPA, WITH THE DEEP BLESSING OF OUR PRESIDENT

WILL

AFFECT

THE HEALTH OF

YOUR CHILDREN

AND YOUR GRANDCHILDREN

AND 

THAT'S AN ISSUE

THAT CAN

BE SOLVED

BY STEPPING UP AND LETTING YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS

KNOW THAT 

YOU DON'T WANT

PROTECTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN PUT IN PLACE TO

HELP

CREATE

CLEAN

AIR 

AND 

WATER.....

TO BE REVERSED OR SUSPENDED.

BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT SCOTT PRUITT IS DOING RIGHT NOW

AS YOU THINK ABOUT

NORTH KOREA

AND CHARLOTTSVILLE.

The entire North Korea bullshit could be a diversion tactic to take your mind off of the bullshit "President Biff" is pulling off with his pen.

IF YOU STAY QUIET

THEN

YOU

DON'T CARE

IGNORING

IS

ACCEPTING.

CALL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIAL TODAY AND SAY THAT YOU DON'T WANT ANY FURTHER ACTION TAKEN BY THE EPA UNLESS IT BENEFITS THE HEALTH AND WELFARE OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS LIVING IN AMERICA.

IT IS NOT A DEMOCRAT VS REPUBLICAN ISSUE

IT'S CLEAN AIR AND CLEAN WATER AND CLEAN RIVERS AND CLEAN OCEANS

VS

CORPORATE

GREED

I'd like to see more rallies and more people gathering to protest the EPA actions

but

that's

just

me.

I'd really love to see a million person march on WASHINGTON regarding the new direction of the EPA.

Hopefully you can make a call to your Senator or your Congressman or woman, or your Assembly person or your Mayor or ANYONE who was elected to protect you and your families well being.

Hate will lose out to love eventually.......it might take a few more thousand years but it will happen.

Toxic 

AIR 

and 

WATER

Harder

to

neutralize.

But do make note of those assholes listed at the start of this piece because they are trying to reach your children with horrible messages of hate.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

THE CLEAN AIR ACT

This might be the straw that broke the GOP back.

TRYING TO REPEAL
THE CLEAN AIR ACT
WILL NOT
BODE WELL FOR THE NEXT MID TERMS
AND
PRESIDENTIAL
RACE
OF
2020

I'M JUST
SAYING

The rotation continues

I have to admit....

watching the chaos within the White House is
entertaining.

I've always heard that you get what you pay for......

I'm not really sure we deserve this
but
obviously

it
is
what
it
is

And suddenly finding it 
entertaining somehow makes it
acceptable.

I never thought I'd say that about this administration
but
the
material
is
endless

And history will have a field day with our second celebrity President.

(FIRST and LAST)

RR was more than a celebrity because he got his feet wet as gov.

Late July relaxation and other feelings

The music is playing and the fat lady is warming up for President "Biff".

Seriously kind of embarrassing....

Embarrassing?

That's the only word I can think of when contemplating how our sitting President makes me feel, especially when I think of him encountering heads of other countries. Throughout my adulthood I have had many different emotions displayed while thinking of Presidents.  When I consider the different personalities there are obviously ones that aroused strong emotions such as Richard Nixon.  Tricky Dick was more scary than embarrassing even though his ultimate fate created an overall tone of embarrassment for the entire country.  George the second wasn't really embarrassing just kinda goofy.

AND THEN....

DJ JR. just made the news and one more bell gets rung.

HOW MANY BELLS WILL BE RUNG?

Time for some music

We need more of this and less embarrassing moments from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

The latest attack on the health of your children and their children

Combine DOW CHEMICAL with The White House appointees and rest assured that the future holds some health questions for the safety of every family in America.

The word to focus on is
CHLORPYRIFOS

Let

me

take

this

very

slowly

for

you


Chlorpyrifos was first developed prior to WW II and has been used as a pesticide since the 60's.

DOW CHEMICAL manufactures Chlorpyrifos and sprays more than 6 MILLION pounds every year on CITRUS FRUITS
APPLES, ALMONDS, CORN, ORANGES
and many many many other crops.

It also might be a direct cause of CCD.....

IT IS ONE OF THE MOST WIDELY USED PESTICIDES IN THE WORLD

Are you paying attention or do you already see where this is going? Will this be just another piece of information that you don't need to know about and right now you are questioning whether or not
this Mind Jazz piece will completely f**k up your holiday weekend.

So if you decided to continue here's the problem.

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is run by Scott Pruitt.
Scott Pruitt filed 14 lawsuits against the EPA before he was appointed head of the organization.

The EPA has it's own scientist that have concluded that ingesting Chloryrifos, even tiny tiny amounts, can
INTERFERE 
with the brain development of fetuses and infants.

In the year 2000 Dow withdrew Chlorpyrifos as a home insecticide and in 2012 the EPA said it could no longer be sprayed around schools and other sensitive sites.  (So farms that supply our food are not considered sensitive sites?)

The American Academy of Pediatrics (66,000) has asked that the product be taken off the market.

In 2015 President Obama proposed revoking the use of the pesticide when a risk assessment memo issued by nine EPA scientists concluded that.....
"There is a breadth of information available on the potential adverse neurodevelopmental effects in infants and children as a result of prenatal exposure to CHLORPYRIFOS."

In late March of 2017 Scott Pruitt announced that he was DENYING a petition to BAN
DOW CHEMICALS use of Chlorpyrifos.

The CEO of Dow Chemical, Andrew Liveris, heads a White House manufacturing group that was formed by the new President shortly after he entered the White House.

IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE HEALTH OF YOUR CHILDREN OR YOUR GRAND CHILDREN OR ANY CHILD BORN..... 
YOU WILL RESEARCH THIS ISSUE AND REACH YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS.

And as you do your research please concentrate on the issue of 
COLLUSION among BUSINESS CRONIES.
and
HOW SELECTING THE WRONG PERSON TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES CAN
ALTER
THE COURSE
OF
THE
HUMAN SPECIES.

Keep in mind that our President has repeatably stated 
that he is not a politician...he is a businessman.

And I simply ask you..........what could possibly go wrong with that scenario?


Michael Timothy McAlevey








I

Health Care and the GOP

Since the  beginning of the Affordable Health Care Act Republicans have been screaming about IT.

What everyone needs to understand is that IT represents, to Republicans, a paradigm shift in the basic fabric of our economic system......which happens to be Capitalism.

Moving toward health care coverage for everyone means, to the GOP, that the next step is complete socialism and then of course....communism. 

The fact that capitalism can't include adequate health care for the poor and disenfranchised indicates to me that perhaps our form of capitalism lacks empathy and compassion.

The fact that Republicans think this is one step from becoming socialistic and then two steps from becoming commies indicates to me that stupidity might be a new app.

We have seen in the last 30 years that with increased information and awareness, mainly due to technological expansions, the political system known as communism will never survive nor flourish unless a dictator somehow isolates an entire population;  as in North Korea and even that situation sits on the very edge of disaster.

The commie fear factor, which seems to have been the only reason for the lost of 50,000 American lives in Viet-Nam, is such an outdated fear that I actually have no valid response to how one can overcome that fear.

Tweaking our Capitalistic Free Enterprise system so that everybody has medical treatment is not a movement toward changing the entire system.

It's just the type of tweak that makes life a bit less stressful for those who need it the most.

From all indications there are groups in Congress that think the new Trump Care Bill doesn't go far enough toward eliminating health care for the poor.

Trying to read between the lines it seems that the new plan is simply being put in place to reduce taxes for the higher wage earners.  It also seems that reducing health care is a way to pay for increased spending on the military....which is needed about the same way as making another John Wick movie.

I'm trying to summarize and therefore I'm jumping to conclusions.

Here's my latest conclusion:
The political atmosphere from the White House to the GOP controlled House and Senate is simply one of
hostility.

Mitch McConnell is a prime example of that behavior.   He doesn't appear to be a nice person and yet he keeps getting re-elected.  Since he represents the state of Kentucky I'm sincerely starting to question if the people who vote in Kentucky are nice people.

Again...jumping to a conclusion but what else is one to think?   I know there are beautiful farms where they breed race horses but maybe those people don't even think about anyone who doesn't like horse racing....or blue grass.  Is there really blue grass?

Something is wrong in that state when a man like Mitch McConnell can still be in office after first being elected in 1985.

HE IS THE LONGEST RUNNING SENATOR IN THE HISTORY OF KENTUCKY....and please note that after all this time in the Senate he has managed to accumulate a net worth of $22 million.  Maybe he just saved his per-diem lunch money.

And another weird fact.  Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by approximately 300,000....which means there is a large number of asshole Democrats living in the state of Kentucky.

Maybe that's what makes America so unique.  Assholes can come in any shape, size and political affiliation.

From the White House to the beautiful rolling hills of Kentucky, from the fishing villages of Alaska to the Florida Keys.....there is no question that assholes can be anywhere.

I would just like to see less of them in Congress.

The argument has been around for awhile.....JUST GIVE EVERYONE IN AMERICA THE SAME HEALTH COVERAGE THAT AN ELECTED OFFICIAL RECEIVES. THEN LET'S MOVE ON TO SOLVING PROBLEMS THAT DEAL WITH OUR ENVIRONMENT, OUR FOOD SAFETY AND OUR HIGHLY ABNORMAL OBSESSION WITH PRESCRIPTION DRUGS.

A new bumper sticker.......

Stop electing ASSHOLES
there's definitely enough nice people available

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Fathers of shortstops and baseball. baseball and more baseball.

                He thought possibly he had come to understand the axiom You just live with it.
                Yes, he thought, you don't confront and overcome it; you don't accept it stoically;
                 you just carry it around like a tumor and ignore the black lines that spread along
                 the veins.
                                        James Lee Burke
                                        (From short story Taking a second look)


Summer officially started yesterday and millions of people will increase their interest of our national pastime.....Baseball.  The debate can be made for most popular sport but after everything is said and done, nothing comes close to how baseball resides in the national psyche.  Now of course the expression everything said and done opens a very wide chasm regarding who thinks what about what and who is one person to say what someone else thinks regarding what millions of people might or might not be doing during the summer.

It's a conundrum of sorts but then again please let me know what isn't a conundrum of sorts except of course that at this very moment in time you are reading these grouped letters.....and in truth you might just have stopped reading these grouped letters and decided you have much better things to do.

I can't worry about that and therefore I shall continue with the simple idea that not only are you still reading but you might be asking yourself.....wtf?  And where's the baseball stuff?

Please remember that I get three strikes before heading back to the bench so imagine that the count is 3-2 and I'm about to foul off 20 pitches in a row.

Whether I get a hit at the end or make an out matters little if I manage to consume that much of your precious time.  You are the umpire of this piece and hopefully an instant replay won't be needed.

There are approximately 2.6 million Little League participants in America and about 6 million total baseball players between the ages of 6 and 17 when you add other baseball organizations. That number increases even further when you consider kids playing outside of organized teams.  Let's just round the number up to 8 million and include all softball players.

If you then mix ages 17- 22 and include every high school and college team and then throw in adult leagues and professional teams from Independent leagues and finally add teams that are affiliated with Major League Baseball from Single A to the parent team, of which there are 30 members, you probably have close to 10 million participants in the sport of baseball.

Now add 74 million people who attended Major League Baseball games in 2016 and there is no denying that the sport of Baseball plays a major role in who we are as Americans.

The fact that there are only 750 adult males in the United States who play the sport at it's highest level should give you an indication of how difficult the game is......

Every father who coaches in Little league and has the privilege of watching his son or daughter be the shortstop of his team has a unique perspective of the process.

The shortstop is the heart of the team when it comes to youth baseball.  That actually doesn't really change as the level of competition rises but arguably other positions can start to dominate depending of course on the individual talent of any one player at any one position.  Right field is where you try to hide your weakest player but tell that to Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth. The center fielder can become legendary but most likely he was the shortstop in Little League.

IN FACT.....I'M GUESSING THAT EVERY ONE OF THE 750 PLAYERS IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYED SHORTSTOP ON THEIR LITTLE LEAGUE TEAM. THEY WERE ALSO MOST LIKELY THE BEST PITCHER.

SHORTSTOP IS THE STARTING POINT WHEN YOU ARE THE BEST BASEBALL PLAYER
AND THAT ONLY CHANGES AS YOU START ENCOUNTERING BETTER SHORTSTOPS.

Catchers end up being managers and coaches but that's another story for another time.

Today we are focusing on shortstops and what it's like to have a son as your shortstop.

The pride of having a son who is also the shortstop can only be experienced by a father whose son is the shortstop.  In the last 15 years there are most likely some fathers whose daughters are the shortstop and that pride settles on another level.

I'm not diminishing the pride that any parent has for their child, no matter what position they play in any sport, but having the shortstop be your child just sits on a slightly higher plane.

I can't even imagine how a father feels whose son is still playing shortstop at the Major League level.

Currently there are only 30 of those men.....and probably only 20 who feel secure that their son will the shortstop next year.  Shortstops have a tendency to move to third base or the outfield due to the simple fact that another shortstop comes along who is just a tad bit better.

The memories of my son playing shortstop have taken on entirely new dimensions and have reached heights of flawless perfection that I know can't possibly be real.  The reasons for this potential inflationary perspective is quite simple.....he only got to a certain level before he changed levels in a much bigger game so I've enhanced every single moment because....I've just had to live with it.

Life can be compared to a game when one considers rules, regulations, expectations, practice and execution and when I recall how Sean approached the game of baseball from the age of 3, I fully understand why he was the shortstop.

The physical fluidity with which he moved on the field was easily recognized by anyone who loved the game of baseball.  His throwing motion was correct and his fielding was as smooth as smooth can be.
In my opinion he would have become a center fielder because his natural ability to go catch fly balls was simply obvious.  He taught himself at the age of four how to catch balls that he threw in the air....and he would do it for hours on end.  By the time he was 6 and entering T-Ball he could catch fly balls better than most 12 year olds.

Little League shortstops are also usually the best pitchers and Sean had some amazing moments on the mound but generally wasn't excited about pitching.  He found it very hard to accept players making errors in the field, while he was on the mound.  He much preferred to be in charge of the infield.

But when I look back on those times I can remember when his pitching exploits made him really proud and excited.  The look on his face after pitching 9 innings in Malibu during the All-Stars tournament against North Venice is still something that I will always remember.  He was in charge of his emotions and he knew how to fool batters as well as blow them away.  It was an epic moment and I think he proved to himself that he could go as far as he wanted in the sport. Advancing up the chain of competition in baseball is a hard thing to predict and it usually comes down to an individuals desire to work harder than anyone else.  After high school the competition becomes unbelievable due to the fact that all the shortstops are now playing other positions and they are really really great baseball players.

Imagine an All-League shortstop at a Los Angeles High School goes to a college and his competition is an All-State shortstop from Ohio and then he gets drafted and reports to a Single A minor league team and his competition is an All-American shortstop from Stanford....and then he makes the Major league team and his competition is Corey Seager.  Baseball is an extremely hard sport to excel at and predicting any players future at the age of 15 is really a crap shoot....except for Bryce Harper who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was 16.  That's just a flat out freakin anomaly.

Being proud of my son was not hard since most everything he did he did well.  His writing ability was obvious and his artistic renderings are still captivating to look at.  He drew things in min-scale and math was easy for him so his spacial perspective was spot on and he planned on being an architect....after his baseball career was finished, of course.

I've often told people that he was the best shortstop I've actually ever personally known and I get odd looks from time to time depending of course how on little or how much the person I'm talking to cares about baseball.  If I'm talking to a father who had the honor of coaching his son and who actually played shortstop then that person knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Knowing that we will never know how good he could have become as a shortstop
just makes it an incomplete baseball story.  Wondering about what he could have accomplished as a human being makes it an incomplete human story.

The baseball part of the story has actual memories.

I've had many people in the last 23 years ask how I've been able to deal with it and I always make remarks like......"who says I have?" But last night while reading a short story by James Lee Burke the words at the top of this piece just made complete sense.

"YOU JUST LIVE WITH IT"

Every baseball game I watch and every baseball game I listen to has a moment when I see Sean field a ball or stretch a single into a double.....that's just the way it his when you lose your shortstop long before the game has ended.

Things he might have achieved in life as an adult don't really come up because I never saw him as an adult....but I sure saw him play shortstop and he was really really really good.
The best shortstop I ever personally knew......

......and the only son I will ever have.

"You don't confront it and you don't overcome it.....you just live with it"


Michael Timothy McAlevey

By the way.....if you haven't read James Lee Burke....shame on you.
Sentence construction and descriptions...... best I've ever read
from living writer.

Waste that just won't go away

If you've read Mind Jazz in the past than you already know that Nuclear Waste is one of my more depressing topics.  The Superfund cleanup sites are probably going to be even more ignored under the the new EPA leader Scott Pruitt. 

I'd like to watch a video of Mr. Pruitt walk through a Superfund clean up site and listen to his comments on how cleaning up the mess is bad for business.

I'd like to see Mr. Pruitt examine a coal mine and tell us that it seems like a good idea to be working in a coal mine....and then once more repeat how burning coal is good for business.

This is a map of Superfund sites

This is a map of Nuclear Waste sites

You can quickly notice that Superfund sites outnumber Nuclear Waste sites by a rather large margin

but the odds of cleaning something up at a Nuclear Waste site are so far off the chart that it's hard to calculate.

When something goes wrong with Nuclear ANYTHING then all hell breaks loose and YET

THIS SUBJECT

NEVER

GETS

DISCUSSED

BY 

ANY

ELECTED 

OFFICIAL

and is

very rarely brought up by political reporters during interviews.

It's hard to discuss things that don't have answers and what to do with Nuclear Waste is one of those subjects that doesn't have a solvable solution....except to bury it somewhere and usually that somewhere is somewhere where someone else doesn't want it buried.

Every so often a story might appear in the newspaper like last week on Page 5 in the LA TIMES.

(An article entitled TOXIC WASTE VS CLIMATE CHANGE by William Yardley) It's worth reading if you need to be a bit more nervous about President "Biff" and Scott Pruitt.   The fact that a Climate Denier is head of the EPA makes me want to put a pillow over my head and sleep until 2020.

Every time I bring this topic up I think of Japan and the 54 Nuclear Reactors built on a volcanic mountain and wonder what could possibly go wrong there........

By the way have you ever considered the irony regarding Nuclear Waste that continues to be dumped in the ocean at Fukushima and then enters the ocean currents and travels directly toward......the western United States.  Are they giving us back radiation from 1945 events?

Seems extreme doesn't it?  Kinda like an Alex Jones thought....which seems so wrong that it's time for some music.

Michael Timothy McAlevey