Gordon Lightfoot, the legendary folk singer whose silvery refrains told a tale of Canadian identity that was exported to listeners worldwide, has died at 84.
…
“We have lost one of our greatest singer-songwriters,” tweeted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau late Monday.
Zoomer chick pop, who knew? The other day, I randomly stumbled across the talented and lovely Olivia Rodrigo and “Good 4 U”. This highly-up tempo little ditty heled me blast through writing the second half of something. (See if you can spot it!) Anyway, it’s a song about a crazy ex girlfriend as sung eponymously. Obsessing n’ projecting just a tad. If one watches the official video, the cinematography fits perfectly if a bit teeny-bop-ishly. I found it a light-hearted, somewhat funny lyrical take on a fairly disturbed but not unheard of scenario. The music strikes me as … let’s see. Imagine a good, old-fashioned original pop tune – like a solid Tommy Roe number, or the female version thereof – jazzed-up to 80s-90s standards. It’s catchy. There’s the fine guitar hooking. Blabbity, blabbity, here it is:
Screening The Competition: A Look Around (A Mysterious Loop Around 1980)
The girl had serious competition from gals with names like Lynda Carter, Mary Tamm, and Catherine Bach. I mean, circa 1980, that was camera-melting serious competition. Still, for the crime of stealing his little heart, if a boy had to identify one lone perp from the lineup, then this one would have pointed a giddy finger at Lalla Ward.
The 2020 US presidential contest was stolen – the crowning achievement of the deep state’s decades-long quest to totally control electoral politics. How many decades? At least, we are now certain, four. Information and revelations have just surfaced proving a prior theory of mine that The Actor was installed by the dark state at Jimmy Carter’s expense. I just wasn’t sure exactly how they did it. Now we know. I get a little defensive about Jimmah if, for no other reason, he is the only President I have ever met (he and Miss Rosalynn are two of the sweetest people I’ve ever encountered). Now knowing that external events were used to sway the 1980 election, I consider whether internal events were used to degrade Carter’s whole tenure and administration. I wish I could consider this over a decent number of Billy Beers.
On the heels of last week’s analysis of the debt apocalypse, the Piedmont Chronicles requested an exclusive follow-up article. I sent one wherein I delved a little deeper into the derivatives casino bubble. Here’s the Big List of who gambled what, as of the end of 2022. Note that Goldman (No. 1) and JPM-Chase (No. 2) together account for a derivatives H-bomb over five times the size of the reported US annual GDP. No. 10 PNC had an exposure equal to the entire federal budget of 1980. While the real number of banks at systemic risk might be “all of them”, 200(!) are known to be in grave danger. The trouble is international: “UBS has offered to buy Credit Suisse for up to $1bn, with Swiss authorities planning to change the country’s laws to bypass a shareholder vote on the transaction as they rush to finalise a deal before Monday.” That, by the way, is Clown World “democracy” in action, “democracy” meaning the hasty rigging of laws to circumvent votes.
Rigged elections. Rigged banks. Rigged shareholder votes. What else is going on? How about rigged schools and lawsuits?
Multiple failed US government “school” systems are suing Big Tech, allegedly on behalf of their students, for nuisance, negligence, and, interestingly, unfair competition. Read San Mateo County’s Complaint against EweTube, Goolag, et al, HERE. There’s a crisis in the “schools”!
Charged with the care and education of the nation’s children, educators in San Mateo County are on the frontlines and face the brunt of a crisis they are compelled to address. Like other schools across America, schools in San Mateo County have had to deploy extraordinary and unprecedented resources and measures to protect and restore the health and safety of children in their care. Our local schools have had to divert precious resources away from traditional pedagogical goals to address this immediate and pressing crisis. But a tragedy for some is a bonanza for others. As schools and families are dealing with an exploding crisis wreaking havoc on the health and safety of the nation’s youth, social media companies enjoy an explosion of revenue.
…
…Social media companies quickly realized that these unique vulnerabilities make young people an especially lucrative market because their reward pathways hardwired for healthy social development can be readily hijacked to keep them on their platforms for excessive periods of time. Over time and continuing to today, Defendants have adjusted and optimized the underlying algorithms and features of their platforms to exploit these vulnerabilities.
(San Mateo Complaint, at 5-7).
Despite this allegation coming from a US “school” system, some of it is accurate, like the part I emphasized above. I covered the neuro-physical impact of “screen” watching over two years ago.
Professor Hikaru Takeuchi, a neuroscientist at Tohoku University, Japan, published a startling study about exactly what television does, long-term, to a child’s brain. The changes morph from chemical to physical, with abnormal growth in the frontal lobe, frontopolar cortex, hypothalamus, septum, sensorimotor, and visual reception centers. So altered, the child is increasingly susceptible to the symptoms of ADD or ADHD (pre-existing or not), lowered visual perception, increased aggression, depression, decreased vocabulary capacity, decreased linguistic ability, lowered reasoning ability, and even lowered general IQ.
Is the BAD part clear now? If not, I’ll keep going.
Research released this year, by scientists in Hungary, exposes the horrific damage done by screens to Generation Alpha (the post-Z kids, born 2010 and after). While it’s a little predictable, I’m happy they finally have a common title. They also have a common problem. Our youngest generation has, if one thinks about it for a second, grown up in a world entirely awash in electronic entertainment and information. Here, I could write another entire column or a book. Why can’t Johnny read? He can’t even go outside!
The good Hungarians found that screen-addicted children – and it is an addiction – by and through the aforementioned mechanisms, grow up or into entirely different thought patterns and processes than they would have normally and naturally. Beyond the horrors delineated by Takeuchi, newer studies show a stark, uniform shift from “right-brain” thinking to left. That means children become more detail-oriented at the expense of creativity and overall abstract reasoning abilities. It’s cliche but the researchers are correct in saying the kids “can’t see the forest for the trees.”
The CIA, the advertising industry, and television studios understood the susceptibilities of the mind and the narcotic effect of moving pictures thereon decades before the advent of social media. The socials are arguably worse than TeeVee and ordinary webbery because they are more readily accessible, interactive, and personalized. They are addictive and psychotropic, just like the amphetamines the schools force many children to take. They are damaging like the fake vaccines the schools force on many of the kids. They are spirit-crushing, just like the act of sitting in stupid classrooms for twelve years, as forced on all the kids. Does pot meet kettle? Jealousy. No wonder they’re claiming unfair competition; ruining the minds and lives of children is the educators’ job, right?
There’s also a very uncomfortable relationship, unmentioned in the Complaint. In civil law, there is such a thing as the “empty chair” defense, whereby a defendant attempts to shift culpability to some other party unnamed in the plaintiff’s cause of action. In many or most cases, the CIA, DOD, FBI, etc., founded, funded, owned, and/or operated the social media companies. These agencies have an inordinate influence on the “schools” as well. These are cases likely going nowhere, unless there is a deeper plot to further, rather than combat, the very real crisis in the schools. Let all of this stand as another reason in an endless list why no child should ever set foot in an organized school.
Along with so much else, the ill effects of social media in the classroom are fully covered in THE SUBSTITUTE, the novel of which you should buy at least 10 copies. In Chapter Eleven, Tom Ironsides explains why the schools failed:
Towards the end of class, a quiet, well behaved boy asked him a simple and direct question: ‘Mister, why are our schools so bad?’
In hindsight, Tom could have made a more tactful response. But he was hot then and given to honesty in general. He looked the boy in the eye and without hesitation said: ‘Because they’re run by feminists, queers, and communists.’
Back in 1980, Tom was, of course, his high school’s star quarterback and student. He survived, but things were different then, and he’s exceptionally exceptional.
And now, to honor Brian Hendrix’s fascinating Southern country apologetics at Reckonin’ and MB’s Musical Minutes at TPC, I offer a little neo-Celtic folk rock from some of the loveliest, most talented young ladies in Belfast.
“Red Button”, Dea Matrona:
“You’re So Vain”, Carly Simon (cover by Dea Matrona):
How it wasn’t a hit in the US, back in … 1980, I don’t know. Yet, as a bonus, here’s Martha and the Muffins with “Echo Beach”:
And around 1980, Martha Ladly, the other Martha, the Martha on keyboards, did look a lot like Lalla Ward! Yandex or Brave it, and, yes, these two beauties still look alike. And beautiful. “Echo Beach” was a Top 10 hit in the Muffin’s native Canada and Ward’s UK about the time Ward was in the middle of her run as the second incarnation of Romana, Tom Baker’s Dr. Who’s rare, peer-level Timelord companion. Come to remember it, Ward shared an episode in, I think, 1979 with Tamm (RIP). In 1972, or, excuse me, eight years before 1980, Ward also shared the big screen with the extremely beautiful and, later, falsely-maligned Lynne Frederick (RIP) in Vampire Circus, perhaps the last of the classic Hammer horror flicks. Neither sweetheart got enough speaking time, but we all recall the exciting scene where Ward’s Helga cruelly but cutely taunts Frederick’s Dora. It’s a shame we don’t have enough time for… Heck, here it is:
That’s all for now. Join me as we fade out lyrically:
For reasons or for no reasons, I shared the following tune with the FPC gang. It’s from Le Roux. In 1982. And it will keep you … from feeling blue. Unless you recall that 1982 is now 40 YEARS(!) in the rearview mirror. Great song from a great, underrated band:
Sometimes, we all need a little blast from the past. Don’t you give up…
Not gonna lie; the lyrics are downright vulgar – but hilarious. Do consider they are based on and almost precisely track what Adams screamed at a fan. I think she’s vindicated now.
And, no. Few, if any papers will dump Dilbert and the MSM will let the crazed attack slide because the heart of the matter involves an ardent acolyte of the Hoax who came around to the total BS of it all (even if he couldn’t quite bring himself to admit he’d been wrong).
Whether it was the death jab or the primary phase engineered virus, he was one we didn’t need to lose. Of course, given the size and wildness of things, it’s a miracle he made it this far. Let’s have a song!
I’ll admit that this one may need to grow a little on me. But, the boys have added more talent – Chris Hawk on guitar!
If you’ve listened to Darkstream (UATV) episode 788, Ride It Out, then it’s the same Hawk who did the really cool guitar amp-up of “Sweet But Psycho.” Both tunes come along towards the end of that particular show. By the way, “sweet but psycho” or the alternate line “hot but psycho” perfectly describes most of my former … never mind. Just listen to the tunes.
You must be logged in to post a comment.