TheAccountant

The Racket: A Rogue Reporter vs. The American Empire by Matt Kennard This originally came out in 2015 but I was lucky enough to snag a 2nd edition that was released in 2024. I say lucky because my edition contains the original book, plus an addendum that the author wrote in 2016 plus a new forward that Chris Hedges wrote for the book in 2024. The drawback to it having been original written in 2015 means that some parts of what Kennard wrote about (e.g. the Arab spring) are a bit dated. But that does not take away from his descriptions of what neoliberal capitalism has done to Haiti, Palestine, Mexico, Bolivia, Turkey, Columbia, Egypt, Tunisia, West Virginia & native Americans (among others) and how some have tried to resist it. The front of the book has praise for it from Noam Chomsky, Julian Assange (of WikiLeaks), Asa Winstanley (now with The Electronic Intifada), Owen Jones and Naomi Klein. Get them praising it, plus the amazing (IMO) Chris Hedges writing the forward, and the topic its on and you bet I would read and enjoy it. Did I learn a lot? Not really - perhaps it gave me a greater distrust of the IMF and World Bank then I already had. But again, I am fairly well versed in the thinking from the author, Chris Hedges and those who praised the book. So its meat and potatoes for me - it may not be for others.

Worked from home for part of the day so that gave me another chance to dig through the moving box's. First out: The Who - Its Hard Hmmm. I like The Who - a lot - but this is not a really good album for my ears. It has "Athena", "Eminence Front" and "Cry If You Want" which are sort of ok. The rest is basically filler. Next out of the box: The Who - Who Are You The title track is excellent. "Sister Disco" is ok. The rest off the album is nothing special though. Last out of the box for the day: The Who - Odds & Sods This has the excellent "Long Live Rock" plus the very good "Naked Eye". The rest of the album may not have awesome but it was consistently decent. By strange luck the best album of the day was the last one I listened to and the first album listened to was the worst of the batch.

Hell no!!! HYF is my 3rd favorite Rush album. Only 2112 and Power Windows are better (IMO).

Worked from home today (for part of the day) so that gave me a chance to pull more vinyl form the moving box's. Unfortunately it turned out not to be the best of days. First out: Jefferson Airplane - Jefferson Airplane I should like this. It came out in 1989, so it came out in an era I enjoy. The bands line up is classic - Marty Balin, Grace Slick, Jack Cassidy, Paul Kantner. So it should be good. The songs have some interesting lyrics and Grace Slicks vocals. But somehow nothing really wowed me. It was ok in sort of a decent filler way. Not terrible - just there. Next out of the box: Kingdom Come - Kingdom Come Been more than a few years since I listened to this and listening to it reminded me why folks called this group Kingdom Clone. They really have the Zepp thing going. Again, the album is from the 1980's - generally a big plus for me. The music is decent but the vocals - no thanks. Keep in mind that I dislike Robert Plants vocals with Zepp so it should be no shock the vocals here would be a turn off. Again, its overall ok but in sort of a decent filler way. Not terrible - just there. Last out of the box for the day: Autograph - Sigh In Please This does have "Turn Up The Radio" which is enjoyable. It also as "Send Her To Me" which is ok. "My Girlfriends Boyfriend Isn't Me" is sort of ok. The rest is totally forgettable. So the Autograph album has the individual best song but the other 2 albums were overall the better albums (basically a tie between them). But a tie between nothing really impressive. Ah well - I still have a lot of duds in my collection and this was a day for them.

Yes - I read about it in the local paper. He passed away peacefully in his sleep in the nursing home he was living in (if you want to call being in a nursing home living - buy thats another story). Somewhat ironically, the nursing home was in Woodstock NY. Yes, that Woodstock. RIP.

Ichiro was a no brainer. Why somebody voted against him involves a no brainer of a different sort (if you catch my drift). Dave Parker should have been in a long time ago. No issue with Wagner or Allen. CC is the questionable one for me. I agree with 1-0-0-1-0-0-1 that 251 wins over 19 years basically does not do it for me. The 3,000 K's does make me consider him but basically I would have been a no on him. Might have voted for some of the guys that did not get in this time instead.

For me - I guess I can say the final 4 had me fairly happy. No problem with Penn State, ND, Ohio State or Texas. Of the 4 I guess my preferred teams are ND & Penn State so I was guaranteed 1 of them would be in the finals. That being said, I grew up in the 1970's and 1980's (plus early to mid 90's) enjoying college football but drifted away after the bowl alliance ended. For those who don't remember it, under the bowl alliance the South West Conference champ (usually Texas, but sometimes SMU or perhaps another school) was locked into the Cotton bowl. The winner of the South East conference (usually Bama but sometime Auburn or Georgia) was locked into the Sugar Bowl. The Big 8 campion (usually Oklahoma or Nebraska but sometimes Colorado) was locked into the Orange Bowl. The Pac 10 champ (usually USC or UCLA (more likely USC) but sometimes Stamford) went to the Rose Bowl where they played the Big 10 champ (usually Ohio State or Michigan but sometimes Michigan State, or Iowa or Wisconsen or even Northwestern). Then the rest of the best including the independents (Notre Dame, Penn State, Miami (booo - hisss), Boston College, Pitt etc) would fill in the other spots on the New Years Day games (including the Fiesta Bowl). Plus BYU always seemed to be locked into the Holiday Bowl. Not that many cared but I remember one year it made a difference and they won part of the National Championship. I say part because back then you had both the AP and UPI had polls so you could have split championships - fun for the entire off season as folks could argue endlessly as to who really was the national camp. Plus New Years day was fun because it seemed like everybody always had something to play for. If a #1 ranked team was playing late in the day perhaps the #2 was not playing them but might be playing a very good team early in the day and looking to win and win big. Then hope the #1 lost or only squeaked by. Even more fun would be if the #3 ranked team won big against the #4 ranked team and the #2 ranked team (lets say they were basically playing a home game) barely won vs. the #8 ranked team and the #1 ranked team was also basically playing a home game and they barely beat the #9 ranked team (maybe with the aid of some blown calls by the ref's). Now lets assume 1, 2 and 3 all had 1 loss and #3's loss was to a much better team then 1 and 2 had lost to. So who really is #1? The arguing that ensued in schoolroom cafeteria's and bars over that was something I really enjoyed and miss. Sorry to go down a habit hole - its obvious I miss those days. Guess I will sort of support ND in the finals - they have not won since 1988 and were robbed in the early 1990's. That was the year they beat FSU in ND, then lost to BC the following week on a last second field goad and then won the Cotton Bowl of Texas A & M. FSU the barely beat Nebraska in the Orange bowl (last minute field goal and a missed filed goal at the last second) but those should not have mattered. FSU was awarded a TD earlier in the game and the replays showed the FSU player had fumbled the ball away before breaking the plane of the bowl line. If the ref's had gotten that right Nebraska wins. Yes, then Nebraska would have been camps - but they would have won it clean. As things turned out FSU was given the National championship. Now way - should have been a split pool between the team that beat them (ND) and the team that should beaten them (Nebraska) No problem if Ohio State wins though - I have family that live in Columbus and went to college there. I know they will be routing for Ohio State.

Got to work from home for part of the day today (1st time in a long time) so I got a tiny bit of time to listen to one album that I yanked out of the moving box. The album was: Foreigner - Foreigner 4 This has "Urgent" on it which got air play - but the song does nothing for me. It has "Waiting For A Girl Like You" which is decent and "Juke Box Hero" which is very good. It has one deep cut ("Girl On The Moon") which was ok. The rest was just filler that did nothing for me.

Tonight on youtube: Nightwish - Yesterwynde First I have listened to it since it came out. Got to admit I really like Nightwish but have viewed them as a band in a downward spiral for some time. Jukka leaves, his replacement (Kai) is not a bad drummer but he just does not bring the same something to the group that Jukka provided. Marco leaves (a huge loss), plus they put out Human Nature which was just a terrible album. So with all that (plus I have been kind of busy) I took my time getting around to this album. What did I think? The first 3 songs did not do much for me & I was just about to give up when the 4th song ("The Day Of") came on and I started listening to it. It just pulled me and with that the album caught fire. The songs just fit together and they were very, very good. I just keep listing and saying "I am shocked! This is very good. Floor is Floor but Thomas still had some creative gas in the tank. This is really good. Dang, call me impressed! Shocked is an understatement!!! This is very, very good. I can't believe how good this is." From "The Day Of" on to the end of the album their was just not a bad song and one very enjoyable song after another. Don'y take me wrong - its not Wishmaster / Century Child or Once. But its light years better than Human Nature and better than Oceanborn (which I don't really care for). So its in with the pack consisting of Angles Fall First / DPP / Imaginarium / Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Which is fairly high praise - those are all enjoyable albums. Its reminded me why I used to so enjoy Nightwish. Honestly, its been a while since I pulled out Nightwish to listen to so its hard for me to rank it exactly (esp. with only 1 listen). But it is very good. Shockingly good given the downward spiral they have been on. Somehow they reached back and found the magic that used to be Nightwish.

Good thought & I would likely pick up that album. A few thoughts I would toss out for consideration / comment. 1. The Lee / Lifeson Project or The Lifeson / Lee Project? I agree with you - The Lee /Lifeson Project is more appealing. Just tossing the question out for consideration. 2. A vocalist? IMHO please yes. Geddy's voice was great at one time but 10 years on from the R40 tour (which was the 1st tour I missed since the T4E tour)? I would question how much vocally he has left - esp. if they got wild and crazy and tried to play some live shows. I vote yes for a vocalist. 3. If you go with a vocalist, do you go with somebody who is established (a "name" vocalist) or somebody out of left field? Do you go with somebody who sounds like Geddy once sounded (for example somebody from a Rush tribute band) or do you go with somebody who sounds totally different from Geddy? I think Geddy & Alex would go with somebody they know (the "name" vocalist) but I would vote to shake things up. Go with somebody out of left field that nobody has ever really heard of. I think working with somebody they are not familiar with might be interesting. As to sounding like Geddy once sounded or not just get somebody who can sing and perhaps has some stage presence in case they actually do play live. If pushed to make a choice I guess I might lean to getting somebody who sounds like Geddy once sounded as that would reinforce the Lee is the title and make folks think of Rush. But I would be fine either way. 4. As for a drummer, again, do you go with a name drummer or do you pick a dark horse? I suspect they will pick a name drummer they are comfortable with. No argument here - just so long as its a good drummer. To me the drummer and vocalist are the most important positions in a band. SO the drummer better be good (esp. since they will get compared to The Professor). But again, getting a dark horse they don't know might shake things up creatively. SO I might vote that as the way to go. 5. Finally, the song writing. Geddy and Alex could write the music. But who writes the lyrics? Geddy & Alex? The entire band? Somebody else? The cool thing (but I suspect it wayyyy to much to hope for) would be that The Professor had some poetry he wrote that has never been published and could be turned into songs. They did that with one song on S & A. But I consider it very unlikely. Guess the song writing will just have to take care of itself. Thoughts anybody?

Nemesis: The Last Days of The American Republic by Chalmers Johnson Got this as a Christmas gift back in 2006 when it came out and read it at the time. Now that I have read the first 2 books in the series I re-read it. Its ok. Only ok. The first 3 chapters are good, the next 3 chapters are forgettable and the last chapter is very good. Glad I read the entire series but not certain I could recommend it - although he does make a lot of good points.

Good point. Leonard did a ton of running and holding. Plus the occasional flurry to try to steal rounds. Just terrible scoring.

The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy & the end of the Republic by Chalmers Johnson The 2nd book in the Blowback trilogy. Starts a bit slow - the first 8 chapters are ok but nothing great. The last 2 chapters are excellent however. Next up, I will re-red the 3rd book in the trilogy.

Got another one and this one should be my number 2 - bump the Jordon games back to #3 on my list. Can't believe I over looked this one the other night. It is the scoring of the Sugar Ray Leonard Vs. Marvelous Marin Haglar fight. No way Leonard Leonard won that fight. I watched at the time and scored it 6 rounds to 5 for Marvin with 1 round (the 9th) even. After that I did not watch the fight again till 2021 when I moved back home with my parents. Then one night I caught the fight on ESPN late at night. Since I found the crowed noise obnoxious I muted the sound and scored the fight. What a difference in the scoring!! Since then I have watch the fight about a dozen times on youtube. A few times with the volume on, most times with the volume muted. If I watch it with the volume on I get a score that is about how I originally scored it. Either 6-5 (with 1 even) or 7-5. But Hagler wins either way. If the volume is muted I have Leonard winning rounds 1 & 4 cleanly. I almost always have him winning round 12 - but its close. If you scored it even or gave it to Marvin (and I never do) then I don't think you are nuts. I have Marvin winning rounds 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 & 11 clean. Round 9 is hard to score. Generally I score it for Leonard but some times I score it even. If you gave it to Marvin I have no issue with that. So if the fight was scored correctly it would have been at least 8 - 4 Marvin. Perhaps 8-3 with 1 even. Perhaps even 9-3 Marvin. The crowed clearly influenced the judging. Even the judge who had it 7-5 Marvin got it wrong and the other 2 judges were completely wrong. In no sane world did Leonard win that fight and its not even close. Marvin was out and out robbed.

Ichiro is the only one of the new nominees I would vote for. Maybe Pedroia - I would have to think about him. Perhaps Felix. Maybe As for the holdovers - hmmm. Now it gets interesting. I would vote for Omar Vizquel (excellent defense alone gets him in) & Billy Wagner. I would have to think about K-Rod, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, David Wright, & Bobby Abreu, Andrew Jones, Manny & Carlos Beltran. Not certain I would vote all or even any of them. But think about them - yes. A lot of good players there. HOF's? Hmmm maybe yes, maybe no - and I tend to like a large HOF. Also - the roid era impact them (as does Many's corked bat).

(1) The NBA Western Conference finals between the Shaq, Kobe, Phil Jackson LA Lakers vs. The Sacramento Kings of Chris Webber, Pagea S. Mike Bibby, Rick Adelman & Vlad D. This series was in (if I recall correctly) 2001. The referring through the entire series was terrible. Many talk about game 6 & game 7 - both of which were blatantly called in the Lakers favor - and they are correct to to so. But frankly there were a number of bad calls earlier in the series as well (I can recall some in game 1) which, if they had been called correctly we might not even have needed a game 6. Let alone game 7. Not a Kings fan - I am a Celtics fan so no love for LA here. But esp. after this series, no love for the Lakers. Shaq always got away with tons and tons of fouls. So it was to be expected that he would get away with stuff. But it was just over the top in this series and Kobe got away with running his elbow through Bibby's face late in game 6 at a ky moment. It would have been a flagrant fowl on Kobe but instead they called a personal on Bibby. The poor Kings - it was like they were playing against LA and the ref's through the entire series. One NBA ref who latter went to prison for throwing games to pay off gambling debts latter claimed that the series was rigged. Not certain if it was by the ref's or at the instructions of the NBA (he had nothing to do with the series) but it makes sense. The refing was so bad it could have been the ref's or, since it was bad through the series, it could have been at NBA instructions. The eastern conference final was my Celtics (some what of a shock that they got there - real down period in Celtic history) vs. the Nets. The NBA would have preferred Lakers v. Celtics. But the Nets would have at least had the NYC market. Good for ratings. The Kings? Forget about it - bad for ratings. The NBA might not have wanted them there. I remember Bill Walton made comments about the reffing. Folks in my office (mostly Knicks fans) thought it was very suspect. Even the LA fans (my office had a few) thought the calls were questionable through the series. You can tell - this series really bugs me. (2) Basically anything involving Michael Jordan but esp. his push off against Utah.

Actually it technically only sent them to the NFC title game. They had to go into LA to play the Rams who they beat 37 - 7. Pitty for the Rams in a way. The Rams of that era could beat the AFC teams (or at least were very competitative the one time they got to the Supper Bowl). They just could not beat the Vikes or the Cowboys - and those were the teams they had to keep going through.

RIP to the greatest base stealer and (IMO) the greatest lead off hitter of all time. A lead off hitter with almost 300 HR's (including the most lead off HR's of all time), over 3,000 hits, the most stollen bases by a mile and the 2nd most walks of all time. Only Barry Bonds has more and if he had not resembled the Incredible Hulk due to all the raids and HGH he was on a doubt he would have gotten all the intentional walks he got and Ricky would be #1 in that category. His walks came from a good batting eye and his crazy stance that resulted in a strike zone that was (as I recall somebody once saying) "smaller than Adolph Hitlers heart". Most remember him from his days with the A'smand the Yankee's. Some from his Toronto days. Me, I most clearly remember him from hid days with the Mets in 2000. He helped get the Mets in =to the playoffs and eventually to the NLCS where they lost a great 6 game series to the Braves. Sadly he had a falling out with the management and they traded him early in the next year. Dumb move, but thats my mets - they make lots of those kinds of moves. A great character as well. RIP

Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by Chalmers Johnson In 2006 I read "Nemesis" by Chalmers Johnson (my mom gave it to me for Christmas). While reading it I discovered that it was the 3rd book in an unplanned and unintentional trilogy he had written. I thought about reading the first 2 but somehow I never got around to getting them. Until now. I recently heard them mentioned by somebody I was listening to on youtube and that prompted me to go to my local book store and get this book plus the 2nd book in the series. This one (the first in the series) was written in 2000 (its now out of print but they got me a used copy that is in good shape) so it is interesting to read somebody talking about Osama bin-Laden pre September the 11th. Good and interesting book. I also agree with many of his points. On to the 2nd book in the series......

Just got in from seeing Gladiator II. Ok movie. Nothing special. Glad I saw it but would not see it again. Thought it was worth watching once in the theater. Not even remotely close to the original but then again that move is a top 10 all time movie for me. Heck, it likely a top 5 all time movie for me.

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges. When Hedges speak, I listen. What he writes, I tend to read. This was one I had never gotten around to but finally did. Worth taken the time to read it. Plus the art work by Joe Sacco was very good.

Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America by Brendan Ballou Ever wonder what Private Equity firms are? Read this book. Ever wonder how Private Equity firms make the money they make? Read this book. Spoiler - they are parasites. They are leaches. They attach themselves to other entities (companies and having read this book, I would argue society) and drain the life from them. Ever wonder about Private Equity impact on other companies? Read this book. Spoiler - The author mentioned a long list of companies private equity took over and drove into bankruptcy. Many of the companies I remembered and when he mentioned when private equity took them over I was like "hmmm, thats about when I remember the company starting to go down hill". Ever wonder about the impact of private equity on both the country and its people? Read this book. Ever wonder how to fight back? The author has a long list of things that could be done. He brakes it down by state and by Federal government agency. Very interesting book. The author also does not get hyper detail driven so you don't have to be involved with finance or tax's or an attorney to understand how private equity works. Well written.

Yes - like I said, I thought it started a bit slow but got better and better as it went along. The best work (for my taste) was at the end of it. The 2nd best stuff was actually the slower ballads that were the 3rd and 4th songs on the record. BTW - if you like the sister in the band, I just found out she has a side project. Its called Good Harvest and its very different from Brothers of Metal. Its just her and one other gal with acoustic guitars. They do some covers of songs by Joni Mitchel and CSN (not CSNY - IMO it was only when Neil Young joined CSN that CSNY became great). They also do a lot of original music and have several albums out. They have a very folk music / country music vibe. I found out about them last night and listened on youtube to a few songs by them. Not bad. Very mellow. But it put BOM's lead singer in a very different music light. Worth checking out if you really like her voice. The other gal has a heck of a voice as well.

Tonight on youtube" Bothers of Metal - Fimbulvinter New Brothers of Metal. YES!!!! The year started with me looking forward to albums that were going to come out from my 3 favorite new groups. Those being Unleash The Archers, The Warning and Brothers of Metal. The album from Unleash the Archers was decent, but nothing special. Not close in quality to the 2 albums that proceeded it. The album form The Warning was a disappointment. Not remotely close to the 3 albums that preceded it. Brothers of Metals first 2 albums were excellent. So, did I get a good album, a disappointing album or what? I would say this was the best of the 3 albums form these 3 groups that came out this year. As good as the first 2 Brothers of Metal albums? No. But still very good. I will have to go back and listen again but its very enjoyable. Better than the album from Unleash the Archers and way better than the album from The Warning. Lot of good songs here. The first couple of songs are a bit tough going but after that it turns into a very good album. Clearly enjoyed this album.

Ralph Nader - Lets Start The Revolution: Tools for Displacing the Corporate State and Building a Country that Works for the People Ralph is 90 or older & still going. Decent book. Nothing earth shattering through.