With this tumultuous government shutdown over the last month or so you seemed to get a feeling that America had two sides, two sides fighting for their point of view, but also, two tribes, one for government workers, toiling away without a check, and one, pupils dilated, thinking about how much they enjoyed the chaos and that it was affecting political rivals so it was just fine…

I’m not old, this wouldn’t have happened with Obama-McCain, or Obama-Romney. Maybe I am old, I remember Bush and Gore and 9/11 and I even worked phones on the Kerry campaign. But here we are, with a clear signal, this President was willing to sacrifice the pay for government workers to get a wall that has less popularity than a vanilla ice video.

Alright I’m old, and to start this manifesto I started out young, at least watching The Daily Show when I was in 6th grade, your parents can mold your politics, but they can’t define them, luckily, I was able to spread my political views wider and louder because I knew my parents had my back.

People that enjoy the suffering of government employees going without a paycheck are a plague upon society, yes they exist in our workplaces, but they should not be allowed to propagate a message of hatred, be it subtly or unsubtly about immigrants or about anyone. These are the people to avoid.

If I had to take a stand, I would do as Nancy has done so far, deny, win, and force Trump to be a Tsar.

Love that Bloc Party song, but yet again, my non-existent audience, here we are. I’ve been back in Columbus since July and I couldn’t be happier. I was never in combat, definitely not Vietnam or Afghanistan, but I did do two years in Delphos, OH, and I would give it a yelp review on par with either of those other places.

I really bit the bullet to get back here, taking a shitty call center phone job and was lucky enough to have an old friend who needed a roommate. He has been great, and I was fortunate enough to find a better job almost right away.

Since being back, I have voted, drank, eaten, wandered, had sex reasonably recently, and even visited the library. That being said, on this MLK weekend, I might even dream. I am planning a California trip for next year that should finally check all the boxes on my bucket list, that way, I can keep making excuses for doing nothing.

I hope I’ve found some kind of stability that I can live in for a long time, but I’m not so ignorant to know it could all be snatched away on a moment’s notice. So I’m savoring every second I can think to remember, and doing my best to keep the ship going in the right direction. It’s Morning in America again.

From a backward perspective, I cannot state more strongly or pathetically; depending on your logic, whether Andrew Katbi and I would ever be in a band. What I can tell you with evidence is that we were completely into music from the time we became roomates and had ‘Guitar Hero 2.’

A Playstation 2 conveniently lent to me by my cousin, and 2 guitar controllers later we were off.

It wasn’t enough to get five star completion of the songs in the game, it required a college and internet try that many wouldn’t believe.

Fifty dollars and ambition later, we had modded our Playstation, as to become the ultimate guitar hero custom machine…

And mod the playstation we did, an infinite quantity of shitty songs that people had, ‘Charted’ as they say.

I would give a shout out to the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ creator, except that it crashed on the solo part….every single time.

This was my, very, very well researched guitar hero tab for The Strokes ‘Heart In a Cage.’

Flashback to 2007.

Thankfully, we live in a society that generally does believe that the earth is spinning, and also around the sun, despite religious groups disputing the topic.

Civilization has proven so many things, both negative and positive, but overwhelmingly or under-whelmingly, we have survived both.

Flash forward to modern America, of course there are political, economic, and social differences that compose the modern United States.

Here is the difference that brings everyone together: Climate Change.

I am not going to argue the point. There is enough research available to prove the point that if you want to argue this basic truth, you haven’t read enough, or you are reading something that is either a heavily funded by a lobby group, or a settlement as a result of an energy company and a victim.

I want to change my posts from complaining about what people aren’t doing and can do, to what they are doing and they can do.

I started this over a year ago somewhat passively, by buying a 2012 Prius C.

(Insert your joke here)

I’m never going to tell you that I’m better than you for buying a Prius C. To be honest, it’s work, but work I’m willing to do. It is also work, that a fiscal conservative would praise.

The amount of money that I save between my 2003 Camry and the 2012 Prius provides all you need to know: I not only save the planet, I save almost twice the money per trip to the station!

Short trips, I can go all electric, and after a fill-up of the meager 9 gallon tank, I can still reach 340 miles. I’m trying to figure out what I would want to ever do that wouldn’t be within 340 miles…

Selfishly, this doesn’t count in the US, because we have 2 coasts with amazing destinations that I would only have to stop a few more times for.

I guess the point is, if you care about the country and the world, the 2012 Prius C is for you!

My first childhood memory of music was hearing U2 humming from the speakers outside my room at 110 N. State St. Delphos, OH. That would be the beginning of my interest in it, and later in this story, I’m sure you’ll all have a laugh.

Rock’n’Roll was what I was brought up on, my dad loved The Stones, so how couldn’t I? Music was always around, whether it be the radio, vinyls or this whole new concept called ‘CD.’ I have so much respect for my parents because of this influence, because it formed who I am musically, that is a fact.

When you’re from the middle of nowhere in America, you can be trapped by the social isolation to certain types of music. Thankfully, I was born to a family where my grandfather was a lawyer, and a jazz drummer on the side. This has always stuck with me as a point of pride, and a reason that I took up an instrument myself.

People grow up fast on music in the states, and as I grew into my teenage years the prevailing winds turned to rap music. I have a bit of nostalgia for some of it, but there was a lot of garbage. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t avoid it among my peers. I grew to like some of it, in a bite-my-tongue kind of way.

Fast forward to high school, we were all downloading free music on Napster, Kazaa, imesh, and the like. Teenagers dying for music, and also dying for a connection to anything other than their current existence. I had joined Sony BMG music club and I remember ordering every Oasis album I could after hearing, ‘Wonderwall.’

I can remember the exact moment that I heard my favorite song of all time. I put the first Oasis record ‘Definitely Maybe’ on my 3CD Stereo and pushed play. I liked what I heard, but after enjoying the beginning of the record,  I turned from my computer and squinted to see which track it was on that disc, It was number 3.

So I got up and checked the song, ‘Live Forever’ it was. In so many ways, this was the beginning of the rest of my musical life. This was at a point when I had never seen a band live, I was so into sports and I was okay with that at the time.

My first concert was ‘The Foozer Tour’, with Foo Fighters and Weezer. I had the opportunity to see them in Cleveland with Kaiser Chiefs, who are very good.  For the money, I can’t really compare it to other shows I’ve been to. It was amazing, road trip and all.

Then we all went to College…

We started drinking and then there were games and then we woke up and then there were games.

Well, for me, that was Guitar Hero.

In college I was up to party whenever, but one weekend we made a road trip to Bowling Green to see some friends. To tell you the truth, this 2 bedroom apartment is the ground zero of me learning to play guitar.

A friend of mine and I stayed up way past midnight playing a game that had just come out called, ‘Guitar Hero’

The next week I went and bought the game, unwittingly annoying the shit outta my roommates at the time.

At the end of that semester, I got a message from my best friend, asking what dorms were the best at Toledo. His name was Andrew Katbi.

At this point, I put in transfer papers on the first day it was available, and lucked out. Now my best friend would be my roommate.

It was amazing, he was extremely frustrated that I dominated him in guitar hero at first, but with our competitive nature and history, how could you expect any less?

By the middle of the Semester, we were both on expert guitar hero, and I was bored. I ordered a squire telecaster to learn the real thing. It took forever, but yes, I did learn it, and at this point, we need to fast forward a bit.

In our Senior year of College, we find a singer, and possibly the best one ever. Let’s call him Mark. After we found Mark, we knew we had a singer. The only problem was he was a pre-med student and had limited practice time. Putting the rest of us into a subservient role.

By ‘the rest of us’, I mean, Andrew, Kurt, Geoff, and myself. After a year of disorganized ‘jamming’, we started to get serious. Every free weekend I had, I would make the journey down I-75 from Toledo to Ada. I was the only one traveling, so I would bring only the essentials, Natural Light, Bread, Mayo, and Ham. Mark would eventually coin the term, ‘Miracle Whip Rock Fuel.’

The five of us would go on to practice for hours Friday night, Saturday night, and whatever hours that Mark could provide. This setup often ended up with us ‘practicing’ after the bar. I have to say, some of those sessions were pretty good, despite the lack of an audience, and the unfortunate appearance of the police.

The goal was always to have our show, ‘polished.’

By the time we got a gig at Little Mexico in Ada, OH for the first time, we were polished.

I could do a list of 100, but I don’t want to drive away passive readers and listeners. These are the best, you’ve heard some, others you may need to youtube. As a musician who has been obsessed with this band since high school, and is the reason I picked up guitar, give it a shot.

1. Live Forever
2. Wonderwall
3. Champagne Supernova
4. Supersonic
5. Slide Away
6. The Masterplan
7. Lyla
8. Talk Tonight
9. Cigarettes and Alcohol
10. Don’t Look Back in Anger
11. Stand by Me
12. Whatever
13. All Around the World
14. Acquiesce
15. Cast No Shadow
16. The Importance of Being Idle
17. Morning Glory
18. D’you Know What I mean?
19. Go Let it Out
20. The Shock of the Lightning
21. Stop Crying Your Heart Out
22. Carry Us All
23. Don’t Go Away
24. Let’s All Make Believe
25. Rock’n’Roll Star

This is a great start, but only scratches the surface of their greatness. Go to youtube or your favorite music avenue and check these tracks out. I know I’m not wrong, this is the greatest band of the 90s.

That is the base salary of the 2016 Cleveland Browns.

That is the salary that to this point, has yet to produce a single victory.

That is enough money to produce 18,032,058 individual humanitarian meals. Certainly these could go to better use than a team that has yet to prove anything on the field, and has given away several late-game leads. How is it possible that a league built on parity could produce a product so vile as the 2016 Cleveland Browns?

Possibly the only thing worse than Donald Trump’s future White House stint is the state of this sack of burning feces that is the Browns. I want to just stomp it out, but I feel like it might be better to let it just burn itself out. So far, we have rotated quarterbacks like a blind man with a rubix cube, and wasted the career of arguably the greatest left tackle of all time, Joe Thomas.

I am not of the opinion that athletes make too much money, not at all, especially in the NFL. They deserve every cent, and they earn it with pain and work. That said, I don’t understand how you can spend nearly ninety million dollars and have such a sad result. Who is fucking this up so badly?!

This may be the time to just take up soccer Cleveland fans. The European leagues are just hitting their stride, and The Champions League will keep you entertained until the Cavs are in the playoffs next Summer. I have been a diehard fan since the reinstatement in 1999, and I’m reconsidering whether I will watch at all next year.

I have memories of elation from the night that Barack Obama destroyed the opposition in 2008. The beer was flowing and the excitement was palpable. I also remember exactly where I was when the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, catching cable news on my way upstairs for a shower.

The benefits that have been enjoyed by people my age are almost immeasurable in the wake of that historic legislation. Not to mention that of those who had previously been denied treatment due to a pre-existing condition. We are now at a crossroads, and believe me, we cannot afford to opt out after an unexpected, but predictable loss in 2016.

The next two years will be marked with what I can only imagine is an unprecidented level of pullback from the policies of the Obama administration. The Affordable Care Act is on the cutting board, the environmental policies are going to take a 180 degree turn, and the rights extended to the LGBT community are in question.

Don’t lose hope. Don’t give up on voting.

Get ready to fight. Look into your local elections. Remind yourself that we are still a democracy, despite how angry you are about the Electoral College. Donald Trump doesn’t have to be here as our executive leader for 8 years, so educate yourself on how you can make this a one term presidency.

-JC

I was driving down the road the other day, listening to my Oasis discography and I caught a B-side that really struck me. “Carry Us All,” the flip side of, the British number one single, “Sunday Morning Call” was enough to flip my brain on and not just listen to pass the time.

I am a Secular Humanist, and this song falls perfectly in line with my belief structure, as well as being a good tune to listen to. Noel Gallagher is by far my favorite songwriter, and this isn’t the crowd-friendly sing-along that he is known for, but for those who have studied him, it makes perfect sense.

There is the reference by the religious-lyrical lexicon such as, ‘Prophet,’ ‘Sin,’ and ‘Keeper of right and wrong.’ The song provides an optimistic theme of hope, “Have faith in what you’ve got, and it will carry us all.”

For me, it’s much more satisfying to hear an optimism of hope, than a blind belief in a power that will never be. Make the best of your days, only you are able to live them.

From Donald Trump’s RNC Acceptance Speech:

“They..(‘Evangelicals and Religious community’) have so much to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits. An amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson, many years ago, threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views. Their voice has been taken away.”

Disguised in Disgust

Somehow,  this rhetoric was cheered for in a room following a man who wears contradictions like the unvaccinated toddler of a Christian-Scientist wears chronic diseases. While Trump spends so much of his time speaking out against immigrants from nations that endorse religious tyranny, it seems he may want to welcome our brand of it here.

When I heard this segment of his fear-riddled acceptance speech, I was blown away by both the pandering to middle America and the hypocritical nature of what he was proposing. The more this language swirled around my head, the more I could imagine a Trump Theocracy, a nightmare with no end.

XXXit

With all the social progress we have made since 2008, I would hate to see us once again turn over the keys of the most powerful government in the world to people who would see the evangelical pit that is middle America assert it’s absurd biblical agenda upon people who are supposedly in a free nation of choice.

Try getting an abortion in North Dakota or a porno mag in Alabama. If Trump continues on this road courting the Religious right, I hope, and I feel that it will crash and burn. One cannot rise to the level of presidential candidate without a bit of contradiction, but for a New York real estate elitist to fool the flyover states into thinking he is one of them is a grand fabrication, closely held together by non-disclosure agreements.

Over The Hill-Are-We

While it remains to be seen what will happen at next week’s Democratic National Convention, one can expect a tight and precise performance by the candidate and supporters. I hope to see something that will raise a motivation to vote for Hillary, but I have reservations.

That being said, I have never seen an issue dragged around like a dead horse in the town square so long that it made glue like the Hillary e-mail scandal. She may not be the best candidate the Democratic party has ever produced, but for Christ’s sake evangelicals, you know Trump was pro-choice once right?