Greetings to all, wherever you are.
It’s Sunday evening again and you know what that means, time for another BAK Sunday Open Thread. Click through for news, views and items of interest from around Tucson and Greater Baja.
This week’s tune:
This was recorded back in ‘02 at the Boondocks Lounge which closed last week. The story in the Star says it was owned by the same people for the last 20 years but I know it had been around for a lot longer than that. Anyway, the slide guitar on this track was played by Stefan George who also, sadly, is no longer with us. While you’re listening, here are 18 other restaurants that closed this year.
A rant …
The local fishwrap has been running installments of an Associated Press series called Why It Matters. The Star ran this one Thursday. I couldn’t find it at their site so here’s a link to the Daily Mail website where it appeared on August 31: Why It Matters: The Role of Government. Here's a sample:
WHY IT MATTERS
The tentacles of government reach into every aspect of our lives: The roads we drive on, the schools our kids attend, the dollar bills we spend. Government creates and protects national parks and provides health care for our veterans, the indigent and the elderly. And operates a military to protect the country.
Government also takes our money — lots of it. For the 2016 budget year that ends Sept. 30, the federal government is expected to take in $3.3 trillion in revenues while spending $3.8 trillion, according to a recent White House report. That means the government will rack up roughly $600 billion in debt, adding to the more than $19 trillion burden already saddling taxpayers of the future.
Where do you start with this horseshit ? Well first, note the title: The Role of Government. In the olden days, before Neoliberalism went bipartisan, back when we still called it "Free Market” economics, anytime anyone used those words you knew right away that they were far-right, Reagan Republicans. Chapter 2 of Milton Friedman's wacky free-market, anti-government screed, Capitalism and Freedom is entitled The Role of Government in a Free Society. He goes on and on about how all government involves coercion and infringes freedom. By the 90s, of course, Neoliberalism had achieved cultural hegemony and it was a Democratic president who famously declared that “the era of big government is over.” So look at the blockquote, “government” has tentacles, like it’s a squid or something and it “takes our money — lots of it.” We're not chipping in via taxation to provide the services we all need on a non-profit basis, oh no, we’re being robbed. Government “saddles taxpayers.” This isn’t journalism and it’s not a public service, it's Neoliberal propaganda. These people hate all government, especially democratic government. Notice how they don’t differentiate between types of governments. To them your local school board or city council is just as odious as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under Stalin. The truth is that without government there is no democracy and Neoliberals hate democracy. They’d just as soon have the Business Roundtable choose our leaders for us without our input. Then government would be just the right size.
Upcoming events
We’re thinking about going to the 31st Annual Butterfield Overland Stage Days in Benson next weekend. It’s the same weekend as Tucson Meet Yourself but it's possible to do them both. We’ll see. There are two good events the weekend after that too, and we’re definitely doing both. On Saturday, the 15th, it’s the Tucson Classics Car Show, we always go to that one. On Sunday it’s the 32nd Annual Blues Heritage Festival at Reid Park. Los Lobos del este de L.A. are the headliners this year. It’s a decent band and it won’t be much of a drive. We’ve already got our duckets. Can I get a volunteer to write the Open Thread that day ? And finally, from the I Wish I Had the Money file, Rancho de la Osa in Sasabe is on the auction block, photos ☛ HERE. Maybe I should do a community fundraiser.
Alright …
That’s all I got for this week. Please check in and let us know what’s going on in your neck of the woods (and feel free to tip and rec).