The Importance of Education

It is more important than ever for us to stay informed. Misinformation is being shoveled at us at an alarming rate. We cannot count on mainstream media to filter out the lies or to even do basic fact-checking. It is up to us to be educated.
A True Pickle
Well, the Republicans have ousted their own Speaker, Kevin McCarthy. The idiocy of such a move cannot be overstated. Remember, it was less than a year ago when we went through an excruciating process of 15 ballots before McCarthy was elected. Republicans have a slim majority in the House. Within the Republican Party, there is this small faction of about 40 Republican members that make up the Freedom Caucus. It is the Freedom Caucus members who are holding the House hostage and, therefore, holding America hostage. The major problem is nobody can please all of the Republicans all the time. Kicking McCarthy out is fine, but there is nobody to replace him. The other problem is nobody wants to compromise. This is bad.
Wenner is a sexist and racist
Jan Wenner helped start the Rolling Stone magazine back in 1967. He has a new book coming out called The Masters. It is about the founders of rock ‘n’ roll. He interviews rock ‘n’ roll legends like Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger. So, Mr. Wenner did an interview with the New York Times in which he was asked why Blacks and women musicians were excluded from his book. He stated that none of the women he knew were “articulate enough” to be included in the book. Of course, to add insult to injury, he went ahead and lumped black artists into the category of too inarticulate to be included, also. Mr. Wenner, who was on the Board of Directors of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, has been fired, removed, or dumped.
If you do some superficial research on the origins of rock ‘n’ roll, you invariably end up somewhere around 1954 to 1956, when rock ‘n’ roll really became American popular music. Artists like Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lee Lewis come to mind. As a matter of fact, there are some “authorities” that will argue that Bill Haley and his song Rocket 88 (which was written and first performed by Ike Turner of Ike and Tina Turner fame) was the origin of rock ‘n’ roll. Well, like many things, if you read more and dig deeper, you find that rock ‘n’ roll music with a danceable beat supported by the drums and prominent guitars, piano, and/or saxophone has been around since the early 30s. There is no doubt that rock ‘n’ roll is a mixture of gospel, rhythm and blues, and country music. Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s 1938 gospel hit Rock Me sounds very RnR’ish (is that a word?). Her 1944 tune, Down by the Riverside, features her playing a wonderful guitar solo with a distorted guitar sound, which would be copied a decade later by Chuck Berry and others.
I’m not saying that Sister Rosetta Tharpe is the founder of rock ‘n’ roll. I’m saying that with just a little research, you will find that Blacks (Big Joe Turner, Fats Domino, Arthur Crudup) and women played a critical role in helping to develop the music that we call rock ‘n’ roll. All American music comes from gospel music. Gospel gave birth to jazz, country, and rock ‘n’ roll. Okay, back to Jan Wenner, he is a racist and a sexist. There are plenty of good books on early rock ‘n’ roll. Don’t buy Mr. Wenner’s book, please!