MM2S005: Season 1, Episode 5
By: Ken Boone In Job 19:20, the King James Version of the Bible says, "My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth." Needless to say, 2020 was quite a wild ride that tested our health, finances, relationships, and spiritual and mental well beings. And for those of us who survived… congratulations and take a bow! But there’s still the question of “what happens next”? On one of my other podcasts, “Freelancer Survival Stories”, I start by asking the question, “how did we get to this spot”? Although it could easily take hours to itemize, my episodes are brief and I won’t change that now.
Hell, she was the first woman elected, period! So, what does all of this mean? It means that 2021 is the year we roll up our sleeves and get to work. You hear the economists and politicians talk about Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. And what’s GDP? The main components of the GDP are:
It’s a fluid equation. Simply put, add up all of the factors and you reach an answer of 1! So, for example, if consumption decreases, because, say, you lost your job, one of the other factors have to increase to bring us back to one. The most obvious one is G (for government). If the government injects something of value, say a $2,000 stimulus check to all eligible Americans, we will pump that money right back into the economy. If the government offers support to those small businesses in crisis, many of them will still be standing when we come out on the other side. That includes restaurants, bars, retail establishments, and for our exercise, independent performance venues. For the past several months, I’ve been lending my voice in support of the independent artists and venues here in the USA. While I’m not in a position to help financially, I’ve been sharing their posts on social media. Many of the artists have taken to live streaming events, and I’ve been more than happy to pass the word, and links, along to my followers. On the venue front, I’ve been supporting the National Independent Venue Association in their Save Our Stages campaign, where they lobbied congress to include aid in their Covid-19 relief bill. It was an uphill climb, but I’m happy to say that it worked! And here’s a message of gratitude from the National Independent Venue Association: Thank you for helping to #SaveOurStages! You responded in an overwhelming fashion. NIVA thanks those across the country who sent 2.1 million emails to their elected officials expressing their support for the Save Our Stages Act. All 535 Congresspeople heard from their constituents through SaveOurStages.com. Without your support and continued attention, we could not have accomplished this goal. Our gratitude also extends to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) in the Senate, Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) in the House, champion leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and 230 bipartisan cosponsors in Congress. The Save Our Stages Act will provide emergency relief to independent venues and promoters that have been devastated by the pandemic’s shutdown. This legislation will enable these mom-and-pop businesses to hold on until it’s safe to gather, reopen fully, and once again return to serving as the economic engines for their communities. The legislation provides critical help to shuttered businesses by providing a grant equal to 45% of gross revenue from 2019, with a cap of $10 million per entity. This grant funding will ensure recipients can stay afloat until reopening by helping with expenses like payroll and benefits, rent and mortgage, utilities, insurance, PPE, and other ordinary and necessary business expenses. WHAT’S NEXT? NIVA hopes to work with the Small Business Administration to ensure the emergency relief is dispersed as Congress intended, that the instructions and process to apply for grants ensure that the process is implemented accurately, fairly, and as expediently as possible. Since it could take many weeks, even months for the funding to flow, the NIVA Emergency Relief Fund, with The Giving Back Fund as its 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor, continues to raise money to assist the venues at greatest risk of permanently going under as we wait for the grants to be issued. If you want to get involved in this organization, I urge you to go to the NIVA website: www.nivassoc.org or www.saveourstages.com As we enter the new year, let us not forget those we’ve lost in 2020. All of the unnecessary heartache inflicted upon people of all ideological stripes. Going forward, let’s try to listen to one another. Let’s try to repair the damaged relationships. Let’s try to focus more on the things that unite us and less on the things that divide. Today's Quote This is the first time in I don’t know how long that I’ve come even close to caring what happens next. I guess you could call that hope. Author Amy Reed
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MM2S004: Season 1, Episode 4
By: Ken Boone I don’t know if a concession has been given by the time this episode is published (we know how they are), or if any votes, or states have been overturned. All I can say for sure is that they’re doing their best impression of Bagdad Bob. But here’s the deal,
In 2016, for reasons that still don’t make sense to me, Donald Trump broke through “The Big Blue Wall”. He barely eked out wins in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio. The autopsy revealed a whole lot of crap that’s still happening here. In 2020, Joe Biden took back Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. We didn’t get Ohio back, and we may never get it back, which is sad. Not to worry, we flipped two deep red states: Georgia and Arizona! We could not have flipped any of these states without huge turnouts from their major cities. The City of Detroit withstood a barrage of negative, belittling rhetoric to help deliver Michigan to the win column. Let’s not forget the effect Milwaukee and, prophetically, Kenosha, had on Wisconsin coming back home. And while we are still in the flipping mood, let me draw your attention to the great state of Arizona, led by Phoenix and the suburbs of Maricopa County. A special shout out to the late Senator John McCain and his widow, Cindy McCain. In this episode, I’ll take a dive into the happenings in Philadelphia, PA and Atlanta, GA. Among other things, I have close familial ties to both beautiful cities. A Philadelphia Story For decades, my brother called Philly his home. My coolest brother-in-law lives just north of Philly in Bucks County, with my sister-in-law and their super precocious daughter. More from him a little later. I even have more Facebook friends who live in the Metro Philly area! Why do I cast today’s spotlight on Philly? For one reason, right now, I’m embarrassed to say that I’m now a North Carolinian, and we didn’t win the or and lost a very winnable Senate race to one of the Comic Book Villains I talked about in an earlier episode! I can’t blame their behavior on the polluted water. Or the smog-filed skies because they don’t exist here. It’s the gullibility of these wonderful people, some who I consider dear friends. What are those words? Oh yeah… “WELL BLESS YOUR LITTLE HEARTS”! Or, lurching toward the biblical… “FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY NO NOT WHAT THEY DO”! You see, Billy Bad-Ass, aka the Commander-In-Chief, made it a point to single out Philly as a place where voter fraud could happen. He also thought I was a good idea to hurl threats at them, saying that they were being watched. He thought sending in his berserkers, with the loud trucks, flags, and long guns would scare them. Did someone in his brain trust tell him that he picked the wrong city to mess with? They have their own unique brand of bad asses. Like the ones who booed Santa Claus and cheered well an Eagles opponent was writhing on the field with a broken leg. I can tell you from first-hand experience that Philadelphians are some of the friendliness, most loyal, and smartest people I know. And they are some of the best musicians on the plant, just for good measure. But they are not soft. They are not cowards. They will knock your ass out if you cross them or their loved ones. And if they’re in a good mood, they help you up and feed you before kicking you to the curb. I’m originally from New York City, and we don’t mess with Philly. Let me say it a different way – they’re not bullies. They don’t start trouble. But, boy, can they close the deal! Oh, did I mention that Wilmington, DE is just 37 miles away from Philadelphia. My brother and his son commute from Wilmington to Philly for work in the many jazz clubs. My brother also teaches at Temple University, also in Philadelphia. The two cities are very close. Here’s further proof: Via AMTRAK: Yes, there is a direct train departing from 30th Street Train Station and arriving at Wilmington Amtrak Station. Services depart every 30 minutes and operate every day. The journey takes approximately 17 min. Via SEPTA: The Wilmington/Newark Line is a route of the SEPTA Regional Rail commuter rail system in the Philadelphia area. The line serves southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware, with stations in Marcus Hook, PA, Wilmington, DE, and Newark, DE. It is the longest of the 13 SEPTA Regional Rail lines. A lot of people think of Wilmington, DE as a suburb of Philly. And guess who else is from Philadelphia – President-Elect Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. For someone who very carefully places himself within friendly confines to talk his smack, he walked right on his opponent’s front lawn and proceeded to talk smack. And he likes to brag that he went to Wharton. I guess he forgot that it is in Philadelphia. Speaking of the University of Pennsylvania, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement also calls Philadelphia it’s home! The Anonymous "BIL" – FB 11/11/2020 What kind of idiot would taunt Philadelphians by riffing that "bad things happen in Philadelphia" while running for re-election? WTF did he think would happen? Philly has handed him his ass by voting for his opponent in a landslide as any semi-conscious person would have been able to predict in advance! Oh, and it has taken a long time to count them because:
So, tell me... is it "Patriotic" to actively suppress votes? Is it "Patriotic to make it harder for your opponents’ supporters to vote? Is that how "democracy" works? Is This a Civil War? (Atlanta, GA) The home of my son, the often-mentioned Kenny and his daughter, who is definitely a source of great personal pride, Atlanta has held been a fascinating place in my book. In fact, many friends who are a helluva lot smarter than me made the pilgrimage there years ago and are currently doing quite well for themselves! Political reporters Mark Niesse and Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote an article entitled “A Georgia GOP clash over Trump’s defeat deepens with attacks on the vote”. Greg wrote another article titled “Facing new attacks, Senate Democratic contenders embrace unity in Georgia”. What’s happening here is simple – Georgia flipped blue in the presidential. And for their next act, they will be deciding the Senate as well as the entire balance of power in Washington, DC. This beautiful, yet still red state is in the throes of change, and change can be quite uncomfortable for some. There will be a runoff election on January 5, 2020, to decide the last two seats in the Senate that are up for grabs. In one corner are an incumbent who has more money than she can count and her tag team partner, one of those Comic Book Villains I previously talked about. In the other, the PhD-holding pastor of the church once headed by none other than Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who holds along with a 33-year-old Investigative Journalist who has a bachelor’s from Georgetown and a master’s from the London School of Economics. Gee, who would I vote for if I lived in Atlanta? Our opponents are so scared that they, among other things, demanded the resignation of the Republican Secretary of State. Yeah, the same people who regularly purged voter rolls, changed voter locations in the middle of the night as an opening act. And when that didn’t work, they went to the old standby of anonymous death threats. REALLY?!?! Is that the best you’ve got? I won’t spend any time talking about the outside influences on these races because there are too many of them coming too fast to keep up with, and I believe that the people of Georgia will decide their fate. As well as that of this very nation. So voters of Georgia, we need you one more time! I will briefly talk about someone who, although not born there, has become one of the most influential political figures in Georgia, as well as the United States. She is one Stacey Yvonne Abrams! Born in Madison, WI and earning her bachelor’s from Spelman College, followed by a J.D. from Yale, Ms. Abrams, through her organization Fair Fight is credited with registering 800,000 new voters. And they thought it was a good idea to rig the Georgia gubernatorial election in 2018? Didn’t think that one through… did they? And let us not forget the work of the late, great Representative John R. Lewis. I won’t get into his mountain of accomplishments. I wouldn’t be able to do it justice. I will, however, refer you Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham’s book titled “His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope” available on Amazon! Parting Shots I know the leader of our friends on the other side of the aisle want to fight to the end. It’s their right, and they have the power to do so. And they can drag it out for as long as they deem necessary. But history keeps repeating this here theme: Frauds always get exposed! 40 plus years of grifting is coming to an end. You’ve been chased out of your beloved NYC. And the sad part is you will be taking some well-intentioned people down the drain along with you. Now I’m speaking as a native New Yorker. We saw it coming. We tried to warn you. I remember in 2012, when Barack Obama ran against Mitt Romney. I told my wife that although I was voting for Obama, I and the country, would be okay if Romney won. I didn’t feel that way about 45. So, be gentle with him while showing him to the door. Don’t be too angry when you discover that the past four years was just a scam. Remember, he can’t take a punch! Today's Quote: Fools multiply when wise men are silent." Nelson Mandela |
About the HostKenneth E. Boone, Sr. is a writer, podcaster, music lover, sports enthusiast, and retired accountant. Archives
May 2024
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