Why We Can't Get No Satisfaction

by Steve Balaban

I like to rethink issues that are unwanted yet persist.  I believe that the best solutions come from looking newly at old problems that won’t go away. Most intractable issues remain stuck due to the notions of scarcity, no solutions and inevitability.

So think about this for a moment.  Imagine that at this very moment, there is an angry man, probably white….he could be younger or he could be older.  But almost certainly he is angry.  And he is almost surely white. (Shocker: spoiler alert-the most recent shooter was not white)

He owns guns. He spends time hiding out. His family, neighbors and friends would say he’s a nice guy. Quiet. Keeps to himself a lot.  He spends time online, in deep web chat rooms and on social media, sharing his anger and the only solution he can think of….murder fantasies…with his anonymous, like-minded virtual friends.  They tend to be racists, bigots, anti-Semites, “incels”…..basically people that “can’t get no…no no…no…they can’t get no…no…no…no…they can’t get no…SATISFACTION.  And there is someone they blame for this. 

Others may get sucked into watching their stock portfolio online, or shopping on Amazon or eBay, or watching porn.  Not him.  His  serotonin releases come from fantasizing about acting on his murderous impulses.  

He stews over how unfair it is that he can’t get laid, or how he was wronged by co-workers or how fun it would be to walk into a class of 6 year olds and blow them away.  He’s not happy that people who are different than he is exist.  Oh yeah. He’s gonna show them.  And just imagine what a hero he will be in the eyes of his fellow angry, white co-conspirators.

He may or may not be mentally ill.  He may or may not play violent video games. But for sure he is angry and probably white.

One only need turn on the TV.  Or wait a few days and then turn on the TV.  And you will witness the coverage of another in a seemingly endless string of mass shootings. 

Today, we didn’t need to wait. Today it is the murder of 12 innocent city works in Virginia Beach.(ok, this shooter happened to be black...exception to the rule?)  Yesterday it was a school or a movie theater, or a concert or a church or synagogue.

We, the people, ask why nothing is being done.  Those who run things, say we can’t violate our 2nd amendment rights.  An organization, the NRA, buys off politicians to silence them. The gun industry profits.

The left and the right are at a stalemate over doing anything about this problem.  All of the focus is on why or why we can’t have sensible gun laws.  After all, other countries have these laws and they don’t experience this problem the way that we in the United States do.

We regulate other things, such as driving a car or owning a boat and that seems to make us safer.  But nope, sensible gun laws would be a slippery slope right into an authoritarian government. I mean what would we do without this well-regulated militia? 

But let’s get back to our angry, friend who is, as we speak at his computer celebrating, yet another mass killing as he inches ever closer to the moment when it’s his time to shine….as he takes out as many innocent victims has he can before he ends his own life or is killed by the swat team.

So, let’s try to re-think this issue.  Let’s go back to square one and look at the problem with fresh eyes.  What can we do?

How can we intervene? How can we interrupt this deranged thought process? How can we disrupt this person’s impulses?  

This issue, this strain of like-minded people is a disease of society.  How do you cure a disease? You vaccinate, you inoculate, you operate, you treat it in the best way you can.  You look for biases and obstacles. You consider your own blind spots. You collaborate with others. 

It starts with acknowledging there is a problem, studying the problem and then being open minded to dealing with it as best you can.  You test possible solutions until you discover the treatment or treatments that are effective.  But we must start with acknowledging the problem and committing to the possibility of a solution. Something our leaders, with their own vested interest of political donations and getting reelected don’t seem to be able to do.

How can we interrupt the thinking and ultimate action of mostly angry white men? I think there may just be something to the idea of a vaccination.  Not as an injection of a serum into the bloodstream.  But rather as a way to fight fire with fire.  What is it that is at the source of this anger where their only solution is acting on a violent fantasy that destroys the lives of innocent victims?

I have no answers? Just questions that I think might lead us to answers.  I suspect there are a million and one possible solutions to the problem.  But we must first generate the will, both at a personal level and at the political level to discover solutions.

What say you?

Supreme Injustice

My father, Leonard “Red” Balaban, was an “interesting” character. When he died five years ago, we mourned the loss of a father and husband and a jazzman who loved to fish and follow baseball stats. But what is on our minds today is that we also lost an important voice in the progressive movement. 

Red Balaban wrote brilliantly about politics, government and history. He wrote with a wit, historical perspective and clarity that helped us see more clearly and left us wanting more. 

Today, we always ask what dad would be saying about this or that. We say he’s got to be rolling in his grave. 

And today, he walked out of his resting place and right into my psyche. What would dad say about who Donald J. Trump is, what he’s doing to our country and how we can Make America Kind, Respected, Admired and Sane Again.

If you never had the chance to read any of his writing, you can find them in the blog archivel.

What would Red say?

In the history of this experiment in democracy, America has never been perfect.  But we have always aimed toward perfection.  The ideals of this nation have always been; freedom, equality(for most) and the chance to make a buck.  

But her emails? What about his hypocrisy?

An election that Hillary had in the bag, certainly affected by and possibly determined by Macedonian troll farms carrying out Putins orders.  He never expected to win.  He wasn’t ready to win and hell, he didn’t even want to win.  But he won.  And we lost. And we are living in the steamy pile he dumped on us.

Behind the reality show presidency is the money of the Koch Brothers, the complicity of the spineless GOP congress and obstruction started by Mitch McConnell the day Barack Obama was sworn in.  McConnell's concern for party over country spanned the 8 years of the Obama administration and peaked with his stealing the supreme court seat ultimately filled by Trump with Gorsuch.

He has no shame. Today we witnessed one of the boldest displays of hypocrisy ever witnessed when McConnell stood in the senate chamber with a straight face and just took to the Senate floor to decry Democrats' "unfair tactics" in seeking to block a SCOTUS nominee.

All of this is historic. Expect a battle for the ages. We can call on our elected leaders to hold firm and hope for the best that a single Republican senator with a soul and a conscious is courageous enough to save our nation from itself. Either that or pray to be saved by Robert Mueller exposing the 45th president of the United States for what he is.....and then make sure the Dems take back the house and the senate.  

Balaban & Cat!

These two items showed up recently.  First, many of us got an email from one of Red's best friends...Daniel D'Imperio.  This is a fascinating podcast, a deep dive into the inner world of Eddie Condon's.  Listen and enjoy.

The other item was forwarded by my cousin, David Balaban.  David produced this half hour cable news show documenting the genesis and inside scoop on the club back in 1980.  It's really great to hear Red and his compadres discuss the club, Eddie Condon and the world of jazz in NYC from that time.  Watching this, I can feel the energy and excitement of the club...I hope you will take the time to listen and watch these.

By the way, there will be an evening of jazz at the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, CT on July 28th.  I hope you can make it there.

   neighborhood  music school • 100 audubon street • new haven, CT 06510

Please join us to celebrate a legend!  Neighborhood Music School presents "A Night at Eddie Condon's" featuring the Red Balaban Tribute Orchestra on Tuesday, July 28, 2015 at 7:30 pm.. This very special evening of jazz will honorthe late jazz legend, Leonard "Red" Balaban, bassist, tuba player, house band leader at Eddie Condon's and friend of NMS. Featured musicians include Paul Bempke and others who performed with Red throughout his career. The concert will also celebrate the 86^th birthday of Red’s wife, Micki Balaban.

The concert will take place at Neighborhood Music School, 100 Audubon Street, New Haven in the Recital Hall and Park of the Arts behind the school.  Picnic dinners with delectable sandwiches and confections will be provided by Chestnut Fine Foods, and cash wine and beer bar is also available. 

Tickets prices are $30 each, including reserved table seats and picnic suppers.  For information, contact Sue Davison or Julius Stone at Neighborhood Music School, 203-624-5189. Tickets go on sale June 1 to the general public; family and friends of the Balaban family should call asap to reserve their seats.  More details to follow soon online at neighborhoodmusicschool.org.

Good times.

Who Dat Sound-Podcast #32 featuring Eddie Condon's and the Commodore-Red Balaban

From Red's best friend, especially in his later years:

I have my own Podcast radio show called "Hip To It". I just put up my 32nd show and I did a tribute to Condon's and featured a remembrance of the club during my tenure there. You'll all dig it. I relayed some of my times spent with "The Commodore".

When you click on the site (below) click "Enter Here"....you will then see the most recent shows below my visage from the CD "Hip To It". At the top of the list is Eddie Condon's "Diversity of the 3rd Incarnation". 

Click on that and enjoy the show. I know "The Commodore" would approve.

Danny D'Imperio

http://www.whodatsound.com

End of an Era-Final Post to Fare and Fowl Blog

I wanted to be in touch with all of Red Balaban's friends and contacts to let you
know there will be no more Fare and Fowl entries to follow. Dad passed away
at 9am est this morning.  His last days were peaceful.
He'd been in the hospital for a week and we  knew he was fading, but we also
expected at any moment for him to come out of it and start demanding to be
let out of the hospital immediately.

We are making arrangements.  We will be having a funeral in the on Sunday January 5th in West Haven or New Haven, followed up with a, yet to be determined, memorial celebration.  We
would like to know who among you would be interested in an invitation to
either.

Both events will be held in or near West Haven, Ct.

Please respond to this commodoreljb@gmail.com (Red's email that I will be monitoring) or my email at cosmo46@earthlink.net or call Micki(my mom, Red's wife) at 203-934-5186.

Thank you for reading and following this blog.

Steve

Friends and Frenemies

Some of you may may be wondering about the absence of my letters. The fact is I've been quite ill the past month. With what? I could answer "take your pick" or "congestive heart and kidney problems." My GP would be more apt to answer in more moralistic terms. From my point of view I'd be tickled to be able to vote in the 2016 elections.

Leonard "Red" Balaban

(note-Leonard is home from the hospital and recovering.  He finally got back on the computer and put this together for his friends and readers.  Please feel free to send him an email to see how he's doing.

commodoreljb@gmail.com )

Not Again

Yes, I’m afraid it’s more about the Affordable Care Act. After all that’s the big news these days, unless you’re fixated on George Zimmerman’s latest escapades, so here’s the latest on what I, and some of the public may have  learned since my last version.

Barack Obama was not lying when he said that people could keep their insurers and doctors if the ACA became law.Whatever policies were in place when the law was passed, even if they had sky high deductibles and extra limits to the people and conditions covered, were grandfathered from having to meet the higher standards set by the ACA. Of course premiums can change, insurers can terminate policies or simply go out of business and doctors can retire or die. But that’s always been par for the course.

The only policies subject to cancellation were written during the three years after the law was passed and before it took effect that didn’t meet or weren’t modified to meet minimum ACA standards. Obama has just extended the deadline for compliance an additional year. Surely insurers worth their salt knew that these contracts had a limited life and had an obligation to inform their prospective clients all of whom may not have read the “small print” in the law, although given the direct stake of consumers in this legislation the small print is deceptively bold.

While some of the holders of these inferior policies have been duped by unscrupulous insurers I strongly suspect many of the “victims” are plants, the more pathetic the anecdotes the better. Some of them are ringers. I saw two of these poster boys in business suits on Fox, where else, pleading personal hardship who were later identified on MSNBC, where else, as corporate executives.

Republican spin masters have been referring to this scenario as “Obama’s Katrina,” a bit of a stretch to equate a malfunctioning website and deadly storm in the Gulf of Mexico. Then too this president’s has yet to say to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sibelius, “Katy, you’re doing one heckuva job.”