America's 15 Minutes of Famish and Other Hot Takes

I think you'd have to go back to the last year of the George W. Bush presidency (2008) for a time when the United States seemed as completely on the brink of collapse as it does right now. Mr. Bush and his late VP Dick Cheney presided over two failed wars, assaults on civil liberties in the name of protecting national security, an ill-defined and never ending "war on terror," a housing crash, the worst economic crisis since the great depression, and taxpayer bailouts of corporate crooks who should have been prosecuted for wrecking the economy. It's no exaggeration to say that the Bush/Cheney Administration created the conditions making the emergence of a faux populist like Donald Trump inevitable. Historians of the future will have a field day trying to explain how the political rehabilitation of Bush Cheney and the whitewashing of their crimes was carried out not by Republicans, but by establishment Democrats who required from them only tepid and hypocritical criticisms of Trump. 

As America crumbles, here are four hot takes to help you cope. 

Hot Take #1: America's Fifteen Minutes of Famish. The late countercultural icon Andy Warhol once famously (pardon the pun) declared "in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." During the recent government shutdown, which set a longevity record of 43 days, we learned just how much of a hunger crisis exists in the United States. Even though bad faith actors on the right, from Donald Trump on up, lied continuously about who actually gets food assistance, it became impossible for any sane person to deny the problem. Not surprisingly, when the shutdown ended the [already limited] serious conversation about hunger in America ended with it. The result? The 43-day shutdown did not lead to any new policy ideas to address hunger, the Republicans persisted in providing hunger misinformation and disinformation even when called out on it, and establishment Democrats did little more than virtue signal and eventually cave to end the shutdown. In Warholian fashion, the shutdown reduced hunger in America to a spectacle; the food insecure got their "15 minutes of famish." Sad. 

The Oshkosh Area Community Pantry assists around 2,800 families per month at the 2551 Jackson St. location. 

Hot Take #2: Trump's East Wing Edict. So apparently a president of the United States can unilaterally tear down a historic addition to the White House without having to go through even a minimal review process. Who knew? An ABC News poll showed the general public is not happy about it. In Wisconsin, 59 percent of respondents in the Marquette Poll said the East Wing should have been preserved, which included 69 percent of Independents and 90 percent of Democrats. 

75 percent of Republicans told the Marquette poll that the East Wing demolition was an "appropriate modernization." The Republican response got me thinking. Back during the first Trump term, I had an African-American student who enrolled in multiple classes with me at UW Oshkosh. After every Trump excess, he would approach me after class and say, "seriously, do you think Obama would have gotten away with that shit?" I'd usually laugh and say something like "probably not," but if that student were around today and had asked me the question after Trump's East Wing edict, my response probably would be "FUCK NO." 

In all seriousness: does anyone honestly think that if Obama had torn down the East Wing, without any meaningful review of the architectural plans or opportunity for public comment--while doing it with private money from oligarchs with clear interests in manipulating public policy for their own ends--does anyone really think that 75 percent of Republicans would call Obama's edict an "appropriate modernization" of the White House?  If you say "yes" you are either a liar or delusional. A more likely result would have been the Republicans in the House and in right wing media spaces accusing Obama of domestic terrorism and immediately opening up an impeachment inquiry. I can hear Sean Hannity: "In taking the wrecking ball to our beloved East Wing, Barack Hussein Obama was able to accomplish the one thing Osama bin Laden could not on September 11: demolishing the People's White House." 

The Washington Post provided a partial list (behind paywall) of the donors to President Trump's ballroom project. What do they oligarchs expect in return? 

I tend to agree with 82-year-old Ron Winter of Appleton, WI who recently wrote this letter to the Appleton Post Crescent: 

My fellow Americans and patriots,

It’s an outrage. At 82, I never thought I’d see the White House damaged without a shot being fired or a bomb dropped. It wasn’t done by the “enemy without” but by the “enemy within.” While presidents have redecorated the White House from time to time, this was a demolition by our own president.

When will the GOP people remind President Trump that the White House isn’t his; it’s “the people’s house” which belongs to “We the people.” Presidents get to live there temporarily for four to eight years.

President Trump’s demolition of the East Wing raises questions. Who gave him permission to do this (even though he himself initially promised the White House wouldn’t be touched)? Did he have the necessary permits? Isn’t damaging government property a crime? It’s doubtful the average citizen would’ve gotten away with this.

Hot Take #3:There Are NO Poor Major League Baseball Teams. After the Los Angeles Dodgers won their second straight World Series crown, we heard some of the predictable grumbling about how "large market" teams like the Dodgers and Yankees have so much of an advantage over "small market" teams like the Brewers and Guardians. I'm always amused by this discussion, because it unwittingly adopts the narrative of greedy owners--who refuse to pursue high priced free agent stars or invest sufficiently in player development while singing the small market blues and hardly providing affordable tickets for families. Meanwhile the average Major League team is worth $2.62 billion, and in the 2024 season team revenues ranged from a low of $296 million (Miami Marlins) to $705 million (New York Yankees). The Milwaukee Brewers, who like many other teams received substantial taxpayer support to build their stadium, are now valued at $1.7 billion and pulled in $337 million in 2024. In 2021, Brewers owner Mark Attanasio had a net worth of $700 million. Today, according to Forbes he is worth $1.9 billion. 

I think Matt Snyder of CBS Sports said it best in 2023: 

"Owners have every right to run their business as they see fit. They are, after all, the owners. I will submit, however, that if there is an owner out there proclaiming that his/her group can't afford to keep up with the salaries if Major League Baseball, there's a very simple answer: Put up the team for sale. Every single team sale in major professional sports results in a veritable killing for the previous owner. Remember the small market that is Kansas City? David Glass bought the team for $96 million in 2000 and sold it for $1 billion in 2019." 

Forbes published the valuation data for each Major League Baseball team. The "poorest" team is still valued at $1.05 billion. 

Hot Take #4: Bill Gates Finally Gets on Trump's Good Side? For me the defining moment of Donald Trump's second inauguration was the outsized presence of oligarchs. All the super rich (and super entitled) tech bros, from Jeff Bezos (worth $239 billion) to Mark Zuckerberg ($211 billion) to Elon Musk (might soon be the world's first trillionaire) looked on lovingly at Trump (except for Zuckerberg, who seemed more concerned with Lauren Sanchez's chest.). Other tech giants taking in the festivities included Google co-founder Sergey Brin ($154 billion), OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ($1.1 billion), and Apple CEO Tim Cook ($2.2 billion). This sickening spectacle reminded me of those moments during televised pro football games, when the director all of a sudden orders the cameras to show the reaction of the team owner in the stands. Those camera shots always serve as a not-so-subtle metaphor of who really owns America. 

As I watched the oligarch fiesta, I wondered what Bill Gates ($115 billion) might have been thinking: "Hey, I'm a tech bro! I should be there too! What do I have to do to get on Trump's good side?" Well, he finally figured it out: Tell "Three tough truths about climate" which toned down almost everything he had said about climate change for the last 20 years. Gates released his missive right before the start of the COP30 conference, ensuring that the UN Secretary General's warning that humanity faced "devastating consequences" from lack of sufficient climate action would get lost in the media firestorm over a billionaire's change of heart. 

Climate scientists were not thrilled with Gates' about face, but you know who was? You guessed it: Donald Trump. On Truth Social he wrote: "I (WE) just won the War on the Climate Change Hoax. Bill Gates has finally admitted that he was completely WRONG on the issue." Of course Gates admitted no such thing, but he wrote his piece in such a way so that a bad faith actor could easily portray his "shift" in the worst possible light. 

So congratulations Mr. Gates, you finally got Donald Trump to hate you less. Who knows, maybe if you make a big enough contribution to the Ballroom construction you might get invited to what's left of the White House. 

Somehow Bill Gates calculated that by undermining his own well established views on the climate, he would be taken more seriously by the tech bro oligarch enabler in the White House. Good luck with that. 

Resolution Designating November 4, 2025 as the "National Day of Remembrance for Victoria Leigh Soto"

Not long after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, US Senator Rick Scott of Florida put forth a resolution designating Mr. Kirk's birthday (October 14, 2025) as the "National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk."

As is well known, Charlie Kirk was a staunch defender of gun rights, even going so far as to rationalize the deaths of innocents as a price for protecting the Second Amendment: "It's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights." In a tragic irony, Charlie Kirk was killed while answering a question about gun violence.

While I disagreed with Charlie Kirk on virtually every major issue, I take no joy in his passing. Indeed, the tendency of people across the political spectrum to gloat about the deaths of their real or perceived enemies, or make glib statements about how the deceased "got what they deserved" or "the world is a better place without them," is part of the profound sickness of our time. People so wrapped up in echo chambers and so robbed of their basic human decency that they cannot see how their righteous cruelty feeds into the digital hate culture makes more murders inevitable--including murders of people that they admire and approve of.

If the Republicans want a national day of remembrance for Charlie Kirk, so be it. They have the right to recognize individuals they consider to be heroic.

If I were in the United States Senate, I would move to designate a national day of remembrance for my hero: Victoria Leigh Soto. Ms. Soto was a 27-year-old first grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School who died shielding her students from the bullets of a crazed assassin who never, ever should have had access to guns. As a classroom teacher myself, I wonder every day if I would have the courage, integrity, and unconditional love for my students to do what Ms. Soto did on December 14, 2012.How unfortunate that we live in a society that makes all teachers (along with all mall shoppers, religious ceremony attendees, movie goers, and pretty much everyone who leaves their home for any reason) wonder about this. 

Victoria Leigh Soto received a number of accolades after her death, but a national day of remembrance would perhaps force our society to have meaningful conversations about whether it is in fact "worth it" to have a number of gun deaths each year to protect an interpretation of the Second Amendment that the founders (who lived during a time when single-shot, muzzle-loading muskets and flintlock pistols were the most common types of guns) would have found absurd.   

For information on how to keep the heroic Victoria Soto's memory alive, visit Teamvickisoto.com.    

Victoria Leigh Soto, American Hero, died tragically while shielding her first-grad students from the bullets fired by a disturbed young man who never should have had access to guns in the first place. 

RESOLUTION

Expressing support for the designation of November 4, 2025, as the ‘‘National Day of Remembrance for Victoria Leigh Soto’’.

Whereas Victoria Leigh Soto was a champion of education, personal integrity, and unconditional love;

Whereas Ms. Soto consistently promoted the values of kindness, love of neighbor, the importance of civic engagement, and the defense of innocent children;

Whereas Victoria Leigh Soto was recognized by her first-grade students at Sandy Hook Elementary as a dedicated, creative, and endlessly caring teacher who made learning an adventure;

Whereas Victoria Leigh Soto left a lasting impact on every child who had the privilege of being in her classroom;

Whereas Victoria Leigh Soto had a firm belief in the transformative power of early childhood literacy, and understood that books were tools that unlocked imagination, fostered understanding, and opened doors to new opportunities;

Whereas Victoria Leigh Soto willingly and heroically sacrificed her life in an attempt to shield her precious students from an unimaginable act of violence;

Whereas Ms. Soto’s life’s work has contributed to reminding our society of the folly of placing the love and protection of weapons above the love and protection of children; and

Whereas Ms. Soto’s life work, especially her passion for education and her unconditional love for her students, cost her her life by means of an assassin’s bullet on December 14, 2012: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Senate—

(1) supports the designation of November 4, 2025, as the ‘‘National Day of Remembrance for Victoria Leigh Soto’’;

(2) recognizes Victoria Leigh Soto for her contributions to childhood education and public service; and

(3) encourages educational institutions, civic organizations, and citizens across the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs, activities, prayers, and ceremonies that promote civic engagement and the principles of faith, love, and family that Victoria Leigh Soto championed.

Free Press In Crisis

Note: I had the good fortune of being asked to participate in "A Constitution Challenged," a September 18, 2025 Constitution Day panel at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. My role was to talk about current challenges to the free press. Below is a summary of my remarks. --Tony Palmeri 

In 1787 the Founders gave us a First Amendment that made it against the law for the Congress to abridge the freedom of the press. Yet just a decade later, in 1798, the Congress abridged the freedom of the press. The Sedition Act made it a crime for American citizens to "print, utter, or publish...any false, scandalous, and malicious writing" about the government.

A number of dissenters were prosecuted under the Sedition Act, but it did expire in 1800. Still, for much of American history the press practiced self-censorship. That was because the First Amendment was interpreted as only limiting what the Congress in Washington could do; states and local communities thus felt empowered to abridge the press as much as they wanted. Even after the Supreme Court ruled, in the 1925 Gitlow v. New York decision, that the First Amendment did apply to the states, political leaders' threats of libel and defamation lawsuits continued to muzzle the press significantly. 

That all changed in 1964 with the landmark case of New York Times v.Sullivan. Justice Brennan wrote that "we consider this case against the background of a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.” Further, "an unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment.” 

NYT v. Sullivan created a high bar for public officials to be able to prevail in defamation lawsuits against the press. The official would have to prove "Actual Malice," meaning that the accused press knew what they published was false, or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. The hard hitting, sometimes blistering journalism and punditry we came to know (and take for granted) from the 1960s until today was only possible because of NYT v. Sullivan. 

Justice William Brennan, widely recognized as one of the great free speech champions of the United States Supreme Court, wrote the majority opinion in NYT v. Sullivan

Today the free press is in crisis. The crisis did not start with the Trump Administration, but President Trump is challenging press freedoms in a way we have not seen in many years. I will briefly cover six areas of crisis: 

1. President Trump’s Defamation Lawsuits
2. Attacks on Press Independence
3. The New Federal Communications Commission
4. Dismantling of Support For National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting
5. Attacks on Public Access to Information
6. Attacks on the Student Press

 Trump Defamation Lawsuits

• In 2023 Trump sued CNN for $475 million, claiming that the network defamed him when they referred to his election results denialism as a “Big Lie” technique. A federal judge threw out the lawsuit.
• In July President Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, claiming that the paper's story about the birthday card that Trump sent Jeffrey Epstein is false, malicious, defamatory fake news. Lawyers for the WSJ asked a judge to throw out the suit, arguing that "This meritless lawsuit threatens to chill the speech of those who dare to publish content that the President does not like." 
• President Trump filed a $20 Billion lawsuit against Paramount over the manner in which an interview with Kamala Harris was edited by “60 Minutes." Even though there was nothing at all unusual about the way the interview was edited, Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle. Shari Redstone was the Chair of Paramount, and the rumor is she wanted to settle the suit so that the federal government would approve an $8 billion dollar merger between Paramount and Skydance. Paramount also announced that the Late Show With Stephen Colbert would be canceled at the end of this year. In July the Federal Communication Communication Commission approved the merger.
• Trump sued ABC News for defamation over comments made on-air by George Stephanopolous. Instead of saying that Mr. Trump had been found liable for the "sexual abuse and defamation" of E. Jean Carroll, Stephanopolous said Trump had been found liable for rape. ABC agreed to donate $15million for the Trump Library to make the defamation lawsuit go away. 
• Trump sued the Des Moines register for publishing an election poll that predicted Kamala Harris would win Iowa.
• Recently Trump sued the New York Times for $15 billion over their 2024 coverage of the presidential campaign. 

Attacks on Press Independence

• The administration banned the Associated Press from the White House press pool for not using Trump’s "Gulf of America" rebranding of the Gulf of Mexico. A federal judge ordered the White House to restore the newsroom’s access in April on the grounds that the ban violated the First Amendment. However, that decision was temporarily delayed by the D.C. Circuit with an appeal currently pending.
• Coverage of the White House. The White House Correspondents Association for 100 years managed the selection of reporters to cover the White House. In February the WHCA ceded control of that responsibility to the Trump Administration. That's why we are now treated to absurdities like a pro-Trump sycophantic "reporter" asking President Zelensky why he is not wearing a suit: 

The New Federal Communications Commission

• President Trump appointed Brendan Carr, the lead author of a chapter in Project 2025, to lead the Federal Communication Commission.
• Carr has  launched a number of investigations into media sources that president does not like, and Paramount as well as Verizon and T-Mobile ended DEI programs.

 Dismantling of Public Support For National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting

• These attacks include a $1.1 billion cut in public broadcasting funds to NPR and PBS stations in a recission bill. 
• Trump's Executive Order which accused the media outlets of failing to create “fair, accurate, or unbiased” reporting.
• The Corporation For Public Broadcasting will probably close in 2026. Ironically, the populations hit hardest by this loss will be rural areas that voted in huge numbers for Donald Trump. 

Attacks on Public Access to Information:

• More than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen government agencies have been purged. That makes it impossible for journalists to do their jobs. This is like an Orwellian Ministry of Truth. 
• The purge is being carried out so incompetently that even images of the Enola Gay (World War II B-29 bomber) were censored, apparently because of the word "gay." 

 Attacks on Student Press:

• Rumeysa Ozturk is a Turkish national and graduate student at Tufts University in Massachusetts. After co-authoring this op-ed, she was detained by ICE. The ability to write an opinion piece without fear of arrest is at the core of what the First Amendment is about. 
• Chilling effects: The Heights, which is the Boston College student newspaper, said that international students are too afraid totalk to the paper for fear of having their visas revoked.
• In April, student media groups warned of unprecedented threats to the student press. 

We close with this depressing statement from Reporters Without Borders: "After a century of gradual expansion of press rights in the United States, the country is experiencing its first significant and prolonged decline in press freedom in modern history, and Donald Trump’s return to the presidency is greatly exacerbating the situation."

Finally, a piece of advice: be careful about celebrating the silencing of the press that you don't like. The next day it will be press that you DO like that will be censored. We must all work in solidarity to ensure freedom of the press remains free of government censorship and other forms of bullying. 

Minnesota Tragedy: NOT The Hate That Hate Produced

We are witnessing a fascinating and predictable transformation in the way the political right wing responds to mass shootings. For decades the strategy has been to deflect from any discussion of the kinds of gun control measures needed to reduce or eliminate such tragedies. Deflection responses have typically been along the lines of: (1) let's offer thoughts and prayers for the victims, (2) the shooter was a mentally ill person that no gun restrictions would have stopped, (3) the only real solution is to have more guns in society so that there is always a "good guy with a gun" around and ready to take out the bad guy. 

Those three "arguments" remain prominent in right wing discourse, but in the last few years we have seen a fourth.  It goes like this: "we are experiencing an epidemic of mass shooters who identify as transgender, and as such have been indoctrinated into a violent cult."  The Southern Poverty Law Center and other organizations have tracked how anti-trans rhetoric is used not only to deflect from discussions of gun safety, but also to sell guns. 

Not surprisingly, when the shooter in the most recent and horrific massacre in Minneapolis turned out to identify as trans, the right wing anti-trans hate machine went into overdrive. This is spite of the fact that (1) there is not an "epidemic" of trans violence in America, (2) trans people are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of it, and (3) the Minneapolis shooter had apparently been obsessed with school shooters and Nazism since middle school, a much more likely motivation than gender ideology for the killing spree. 

But just as a thought experiment, let's indulge the right wing fantasy in this post. If trans people are truly becoming more violent and vindictive, what would be the cause of that? Whenever I hear the argument that trans people are inherently violent, I am reminded of Mike Wallace's infamous 1959 television special "The Hate That Hate Produced," a five-part documentary that examined the rise and popularity of the "Black Muslims" led by Elijah Muhammad (leader of the Nation of Islam) and his fiery representative Malcolm X. Even though Wallace provided no evidence that Nation of Islam members had ever committed physical violence against Whites, the message of the program to White viewers was clear: Elijah Muhammad and his followers hate you, want to separate from you, and speak in ways that make violence against you inevitable. 

Unlike the Klan, southern politicians, and other assorted racists, Wallace did not frame Black violence (real or imagined) as something inherent to people of African descent. As Wallace put it in a 1998 interview, "If they felt that hatred, it was in reaction to the hatred that they felt had been directed against them, therefore, The Hate That Hate Produced."

So if, as the right wing fantasies insist, there is a cabal of evil trans activists out there fomenting hate and violence against cisgender people, what might produce that hate?  Imagine being a trans person living in the United States this decade. Consider these facts: 

• The Human Rights Campaign has been documenting violence against trans people since 2013; attacks against trans people of color, especially, can truly be called an epidemic. 
• In 2024 the Republican Party spent over $80 million on transphobic political ads. 
• Hundreds of anti-trans bills have been proposed in state legislatures across the country.
• In United States v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court essentially held that the principle that medical treatment is a private matter between the person seeking care, their family, and their doctors applies to everyone except trans youth and their families. 
• Donald Trump has signed a number of executive orders seeking to ban transgender people from public life. 
• In August the US Air Force denied early retirement benefits for transgender members with 15-18 years of service, escalating Trump's attempt to rid the military of any trans presence. 

Anti-trans rhetoric, legislation, and scapegoating has had significant impact on public attitudes. As of February 2025, according to Pew Research, 66% of Americans favor laws and policies that require trans athletes to compete on teams that match their sex assigned at birth. Similarly, 56% support laws or policies that ban heath care professionals from providing gender transition care to minors. The most frightening finding, however, is the one that some pro-trans people and allies saw as encouraging: "56% of adults express support for policies aimed at protecting trans people from discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces."  ONLY 56 percent?(!). Imagine in 1933 a poll of German citizens that found, "56% of adults express support for policies aimed at protecting Jews from discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces." 

Given all of the above, we might expect that transgender people would be as violent as cisgender men. But that is not the case. 

Make no mistake: hate and cruelty are prominent in the contemporary United States, fomented and acted on from the highest office in the land to local communities. The Minnesota shooter without question was motivated by hate, but the evidence suggests it was a hate driven by identification with fascists and finding in the experience of prior school shooters a model of how to exact vengeance against "enemies" and get media attention while doing it. That kind of hate is all too common in the United States and is not unique to any one social class. To blame the Minnesota tragedy on something intrinsically evil about trans people, or to blame the overall rise in hate and cruelty on the trans population--a group that faces an existential threat--is the most extreme level gaslighting possible. Or as argued by Abby Vesoulis in Mother Jones Magazine, after noting that 134 of the 141 mass shootings tracked by Mother Jones from 1982-2023 were carried out by men with no known history of identifying as trans or nonbinary, "to blame the unnerving prevalence of mass shootings in America on the existence of trans people here isn’t just a dangerously stigmatizing, politically motivated take. It’s also bad math."

Interviews With Mike McCabe

I recently was fortunate to do two interviews with Wisconsin author and democracy activist Mike McCabe for the Media Rants podcast. Mike was executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign for a number of years. After leaving the organization he wrote a great book: Blue Jeans in High Places--The Coming Makeover of American Politics. He ran a spirited campaign for governor in 2018, earning almost 40,000 votes in the Democratic Party primary. He then wrote another book, Unscrewing America: Hints and Hopes From the Heartland. Mike's most recent book is his first work of fiction: Miracles Along County Q. Mike also maintains a substack called Ebiyan House. 

Part 1 of our conversation is about Miracles Along County Q: 

Part 2 is a discussion of Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers' legacy and Wisconsin politics: 

You can support the Media Rant podcast by subscribing. Go here. 

Ozzy Osbourne and the Liberation of Auden's Unknown Citizen

This post is going to make a connection between the recently deceased rock singer Ozzy Osbourne, his band Black Sabbath, and the late, brilliant British poet W.H. Auden. Trust me, it will make sense. Here goes . . . 

In the early days of so-called "Heavy Metal," four singers were widely recognized as pioneers in the genre:  Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, Roger Daltrey of The Who, and Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath. To this day, it is hard to find a male metal singer not influenced at least in part by one of these rock gods. [Note: Most critics would not call The Who a heavy metal band. If we were just talking about their studio albums, I would agree. Their live act at the time, however, was literally the loudest in the world and featured the distorted guitar and driving rhythm section characteristic of Metal proper.]. 

Ozzy recently passed away at the age of 76. As front man for a metal band, he was unique in that there were no prior performers to whom he could be directly linked. Plant, Gillan, and Daltrey all gave off vibes that called to mind Little Richard, James Brown, Elvis, Tina Turner, and Mick Jagger (who was himself inspired by the same stars.). 

So what to make of Ozzy? In this post I write only for myself, as someone who was fortunate to engage the music of Black Sabbath when it was at its most raw and vital. At that time (i.e. the mid-1970s) I was in a Catholic High School and, like all teens, struggling to find my way in the world. While discovering Sabbath, I was also into the literature of Herman Hesse and the polemical works and fiction of George Orwell. All three of them, for me anyway, provided comfort for a young person filled with anxiety over the prospect of having to survive in an absurd world that rewards stupidity, scorns independent thought, reduces love to Hallmark card cliches, and induces fear of authority and of the unknown. The fact that Black Sabbath was censored on FM radio at that time only increased my tendency to elevate them to the level of more "serious" poets, pundits, and polemicists. 

My personal fascination with Ozzy had nothing to do with the "Prince of Darkness" and "Madman" brands, both of which struck me as nonsensical, music industry hype to sell records, merchandise, and concert tickets. My guess is that Ozzy too, in the early days at least, was at best amused by his public image. Unfortunately his alcoholism and drug addiction made it difficult, for most of his adult life, for him to take full control of his persona and personal narrative.   

For those of us who bothered to listen to Black Sabbath in their classic period (1969-1975), there was  something quite profound going on in the music. The metal genre, with its loudness and distortion, mimics a chaotic environment that any working class person can identify with. When I learned that Sabbath were from Birmingham, England--a distinctly working class town--their music made even more sense to me. I have no idea what the band THOUGHT they were doing in those early days, but for me Sabbath seemed to be about provoking us working class folks to reflect on the depravity of our condition and the social forces that create it. Ozzy did not write all or even most of the lyrics back then, but it did not matter: his voice was a literal instrument that spanned the emotions of despair, longing, anger, confidence, and ecstasy in ways that few vocalists have ever been able to pull off. Black Sabbath songs are notoriously hard for other bands to cover NOT because of the guitar and rhythm section, but because it's almost impossible to do justice to Ozzy's original vocal interpretations. 

The album that introduced me to Sabbath was Volume 4 (originally released in 1972), which I probably started to get into around 1974 or 1975. Imagine what an alienated teen like me--steeped in Catholic guilt and reading Hesse and Orwell, would have thought when hit with Vol. 4's opening tune,  "Wheels of Confusion": 

Long ago I wandered thru my mind
In the land of fairy tales and stories
Lost in happiness I knew no fears
Innocence and love was all I knew
It was an illusion

Soon the days were passing into years
Happiness just didn't come so easy
Life was more than fairy tales and daydreams
Innocence was just another word
It was an illusion

Lost in the wheels of confusion
Running thru valleys of tears
Eyes full of angry delusion
Hiding in everyday fears

So I found that life is just a game
But you know there's never been a winner
Try your hardest, you'll still be a loser
The world will still be turning when you're gone
Yeah, when you're gone

What's particularly brilliant about that song is that after they drop that deep message on you, the song closes with an extended instrumental jam that gives listeners a chance to reflect on what they just heard. 

I then got into Sabbath's first album, which included "Wicked World:" 

The world today is such a wicked thing
Fighting going on between the human race
People got to work just to earn their bread
While people just across the sea are counting the dead

A politician's job they say is very high
For he has to choose who's got to go and die
They can put a man on the moon quite easy
While people here on earth are dying of all diseases

A woman goes to work every day after day
She just goes to work just to earn her pay
Child sitting by but his life's much harder
He doesn't even know who is his father

Then the Paranoid album, with the classic "War Pigs": 

Generals gathered in their masses
just like witches at black masses
evil minds that plot destruction
sorcerers of death's construction
in the fields the bodies burning
as the war machine keeps turning
death and hatred to mankind
poisoning their brainwashed minds, oh lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
they only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor

Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait 'till their judgement day comes, yeah!

Now in darkness, world stops turning
as she is aware there's bodies burning.
No more war pigs of the power
Hand of god has sturck the hour
Day of judgement, god is calling
on their knees, the war pigs crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings
ALL RIGHT NOW!

Then the "Masters of Reality" album with the anthemic "Children of the Grave" 

Revolution in their minds
The children start to march
Against the world in which they have to live
And all the hate that's in their hearts
They're tired of being pushed around
And told just what to do
They'll fight the world until they've won
And love comes flowing through, yeah

Children of tomorrow live in the tears that fall today
Will the sun rise up tomorrow bringing peace in any way?
Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear?
Can they win the fight for peace or will they disappear? Yeah

So you children of the world listen to what I say
If you want a better place to live in spread the word today
Show the world that love is still alive, you must be brave
Or you children of today are children of the grave, yeah

That song is now over 50 years old but it could easily be a Generation Z anthem. 

After Ozzy Osbourne got fired from Black Sabbath in the late 1970s, I pretty much stopped listening to them. The band continued to make some good albums with a number of great singers, most notably Ronnie James Dio and Ian Gillan. But without Ozzy there was something missing, and so I pretty much lost interest. 

Then in graduate school, I just by chance happened to read some of the old works of British poet W.H. Auden. I learned that Auden spent much of his youth in Birmingham, England--where the members of Black Sabbath were from. When I read Auden's poem "The Unknown Citizen" (originally published in 1939), I immediately thought of Sabbath's early records again. 

Here is the full poem: 

W.H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen

(To JS/07 M 378  This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State)

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be

One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

What I found remarkable about that poem was its powerful mockery of the manner in which modern society made humans into "unknown citizens" for whom happiness is a matter of doing what you're told and not rocking the boat. [Notice how Auden dedicated the poem to JS/07 M 378--signifying his revulsion at how modern society reduces us to numbers].  

In my view, early Black Sabbath--like Auden--were angry at this pathetic state of affairs. I did not necessarily think of it this way in my teenage years, but I came to believe that early Sabbath was provoking me to be anything BUT an "unknown citizen." Auden said, "When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went." What I heard Ozzy saying was, "when there's war, there's war pigs starting it."  

Ozzy Osbourne was many things, but "unknown citizen" was not one of them. The dream of early Black Sabbath, and really all heavy metal at its best, is that none of us will be unknown citizens. Rather, each of us should strike out against the pressures to conform and should instead become KNOWN.  Known for what? For thinking independently and maximizing our individual creativity in whatever we pursue in life. 

In a real sense, early Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne liberated Auden's Unknown Citizen. Thank goodness for Birmingham, England. 

Media Rants Interview With Dr. Chu May Paing

 

New Media Rants Interview: Menasha, WI Mayor Austin Hammond

Tony talks with Austin Hammond, who in April of 2024 became the youngest Mayor in the history of Menasha, WI as well as the first Native-American to get elected to that office. Tony and Austin talk about youth involvement in politics, as well as responsibilities of local government and the challenges that make it difficult to meet them. More information about Menasha: https://www.menashawi.gov/

Celebrating the Music of 1975, Part 2

Back in April I identified 25 albums worth celebrating, all of them now 50 years old. Most of these artists and albums I listened to at the time they were released, a time when the general excellence of FM radio empowered record labels to take risks on artists daring to challenge the conventional 2-3 minute pop song format of the AM dial. The purpose of these celebrations is not only to relive my youth, but to expose younger generations to artists and albums that represent the foundational sounds at the root of today's music. Here are links to prior entries in the series: 

• Celebration of the Music of 1972, Part 1
• Celebration of the Music of 1972, Part 2
• Celebration of the Music of 1973, Part 1
• Celebration of the Music of 1973, Part 2
• Celebration of the Music of 1974, Part 1
• Celebration of the Music of 1974, Part 2

And now 25 more albums from 1975:  

#25 Earth, Wind & Fire: That's The Way of the World. Soul giants Earth, Wind & Fire in 1975 gave the world an album that can be described accurately as almost 40 minutes of pure joy. The band's signature song, "Shining Star" was so popular that it overshadowed almost everything else on the album, including the epic title song. "Shining Star" had a resurgence in 1996, when Seinfeld's Elaine Benes created the iconic little kick dance. The song's core message is something that should be taught to children as early as possible: 

You're a shining star
No matter who you are
Shining bright to see
What you could truly be

Earth, Wind & Fire Shining Star

#24 The Who: The Who By Numbers. Not the best Who album of their classic period, nor even one of my personal favorites. What's special about it is the fact that it is guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend's attempt to come to grips with his alcoholism and other personal demons. After writing two epic albums about tortured characters ("Tommy" and Jimmy from "Quadrophenia"), Pete finally concluded that his own torture was worthy of artistic treatment. 

The Who: However Much I Booze

#23 The Eagles: One Of These Nights. This was the last Eagles album to feature the band's country-rock sound. The next year guitar hero Joe Walsh would join and send the band in a new, grittier direction. "One Of These Nights" includes "Lyin' Eyes," the late Glenn Frey's greatest song IMHO. 

The Eagles Lyin' Eyes

#22 Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes: To Be True. It's difficult to believe that there was a time when FM rock radio actually played soul groups. The song "Bad Luck" from "To Be True" got extended play on FM rock radio, at least in New York City where I was living at the time. Teddy Pendergrass, whose voice could stop a train, was one of the greatest vocalists in the history of recorded music.  

Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes Bad Luck 

#21 Elton John: Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy. Here we get Elton John nearing the end of his classic period. As with so much early 1970s rock-pop, the album is highly autobiographical and personal. Includes the epic "Someone Saved My Life Tonight." 

Elton John Someone Saved My Life Tonight

#20 Joni Mitchell: The Hissing of Summer Lawns. In the early 1970s Joni Mitchell moved beyond her folk-rock foundation and ventured into jazz and other unconventional sounds for 1960s icons. The Hissing of Summer Lawns did not spawn any major radio hits, but it is extraordinarily creative throughout. "The Jungle Line" is one of her most underrated songs. 

Joni Mitchell The Jungle Line 

#19 Bob Seger: Beautiful Loser. Even though this was Seger's 8th album, it did not break him into the mainstream. That would not happen until the next year's release of "Live Bullet," which featured energetic concert performances of many of the songs on "Beautiful Loser." 

Bob Seger Beautiful Loser 

#18 Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. When guitar giant Blackmore announced in 1974 he was leaving legendary metal band Deep Purple, the expectation was that his next project would be something substantially unlike a Purple jam. Surprisingly, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow debut album in 1975 featured tunes that could have easily been on a Purple album. What makes the album important in rock music history, though, is that it placed singer Ronnie James Dio on the international metal map. A case could be made that Dio is the greatest metal singer in the history of the genre. 

Rainbow Man On the Silver Mountain

#17 ZZ Top Fandango. In vinyl terms, this album featured a live sidc and a studio side. One of the major records that reminded listeners of the blues roots of rock-and-roll. Helped to establish conclusively that Billy Gibbons was right up there with Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, and Page as the great blues-rock guitarists of the era. 

ZZ Top Tush

#16 The Grateful Dead: Blues For Allah. I was never the biggest Dead fan in the early 1970s, but thanks to the heavy play this album received on FM radio, I ended up getting into the band's entire catalogue. "Franklin's Tower" from Blues For Allah remains as one of my all time favorite songs. 

The Grateful Dead Franklin's Tower 

#15 Renaissance: Scheherazade and Other Stories. Just a classic example of the "progressive rock" of the times, which (I know I have written this many times) was only able to be heard because of the excellence of FM radio at that time. Annie Haslam sang with a kind of urgency that you don't hear very much these days, while the band blended classical, jazz, folk and other genres to come up with something unique. "The Vultures Fly High" would be a good resistance anthem for modern anti-fascist movements. 

Renaissance The Vultures Fly High 

#14 War: Why Can't We Be Friends? A soul-pop classic. The title song, which should probably be revived in our polarized era, was actually beamed to outer space during a meeting of American and Soviet astronauts. I also remember it being played at Yankee Stadium when legendary manager Billy Martin would come out and kick dirt on an umpire. 

War Why Can't We Be Friends 

#13 Stanley Clarke: Journey To Love. One of the greatest bass players of all time, Clarke is a foundational figure in jazz fusion. My favorite piece on this amazing album is "Hello Jeff," featuring Clarke's thumping bass and the blistering guitar of Jeff Beck. 

Stanley Clarke Hello Jeff 

#12 KC & The Sunshine Band: KC & The Sunshine Band. The breakthrough album from one of the most iconic disco bands of the era. In 1974 I was probably too cool to admit to liking this music, but given how modern dance music pretty much all sounds the same, KC somehow sounds fresher fifty years later. 

KC & The Sunshine Band That's The Way I Like It 

#11 Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention: One Size Fits All. In 1975 Frank Zappa released two of his all time greatest albums. "One Size Fits All" featured a new Mothers Of Invention line-up, including elite musicians like keyboardist George Duke and percussionist Ruth Underwood. The epic song "Inca Roads," in classic Zappa fashion, is kind of a like a satire of the progressive rock of the era. 

Frank Zappa Inca Roads 

#10 Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention: Bongo Fury. Vaclav Havel, the Czech playwright and dissident who eventually became president of the Czech Republic, told Zappa that his music was a lifeline when his country suffered under totalitarian rule. He also told him that Bongo Fury was his favorite album. The album is filled with typical Zappa satire, and his guitar solo in "The Muffin Man" is one of the greatest in rock history. Of all the rock stars who have left the Earth, Zappa is the one I most wish was still with us to help resist Trumpism. 

Frank Zappa Muffin Man

#9  Peter Frampton: Frampton. Guitar hero/vocalist Peter Frampton would attain international superstar status the next year, with his "Frampton Comes Alive" album.  But 1975's "Frampton," which largely flew under the radar, is for me a masterpiece of rock-pop. I especially loved it in 1975 because it seemed to be inspired by the best rock of the 1960s while also revealing a completely original sound. 

Peter Frampton Nowhere's Too Far

#8 Bad Company: Straight Shooter. I would like to dedicate this one to the late guitarist Mick Ralphs, who passed recently and who was one of the shining lights of Bad Company. My favorite song on this album, "Shooting Star," could be about Mick. It's also hard to imagine a rock singer better than Paul Rodgers. 

Bad Company Shooting Star

#7 Donna Summer: Love To Love You Baby. Given the sexual excess of so much modern music, it's difficult to appreciate how racy and scandalous Donna Summer's music was in the 1970s. Literally every dance music star since then owes a debt to Donna. 

Donna Summer Love To Love  You Baby

#6 The Kinks: Schoolboys In Disgrace. I was not totally into this album when it came out (probably because it deals extensively with boy/girl school relationships and I was in an all boys high school), but have come to look on it very fondly. Ray Davies--guitarist, vocalist, and leader songwriter for the Kinks-- in the 1970s wrote a number of provocative tunes filled with social commentary. "Schoolboys in Disgrace' I think should be given all members of Generation Z as a kind of pop culture evidence of what school was like before cell phones and artificial intelligence.  

The Kinks I'm In Disgrace

#5  Steely Dan: Katy Lied. A transitional album for Steely Dan, written and recorded after Donald Fagen and Walter Becker made the decision to stop touring and instead focus on perfecting the art of studio recording--which allowed them to work with the best session musicians in the world. Katy Lied establishes the sound that, in my view, the band would bring to perfection in the 1977 "Aja" album.  

The song "Throw Back The Little Ones" on Katy Lied includes one of my all time favorite lyrics: "Hot licks and rhetoric don't count much for nothing." As someone who has been teaching Rhetoric for 40 years, that line always hits home! 

My favorite song on Katy Lied has to be "Doctor Wu," which for me is the definitive Steely Dan sound of the period. 

Steely Dan Dr. Wu

#4 Patti Smith: Horses. Punk rock of the 1970s came to be defined by loud guitars and defiant lyrics. But in the 1970s there was also an "artistic" punk that tried to revive the innovative, bohemian style of 1960s groundbreakers like the Velvet Underground, the Doors, and early Bob Dylan. Patti Smith was in the vanguard of the artistic punk movement, and "Horses" is a foundational recording in the genre. 

Patti Smith Birdland

#3  Black Sabbath: Sabotage. The last truly great album by Black Sabbath, in my opinion. Features all the original members, and some of Ozzy Osborne's best writing. I have no proof, but I am convinced that literally every song ever recorded by Metallica and other "Nu Metal" bands of the 80s and later was inspired by "Symptom of the Universe." 

Black Sabbath Symptom of the Universe

#2 Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks. Somewhat of a comeback album for Dylan in 1975, though much more deeply personal than anything he had released to that point. When I assign students classic albums to review in my "Rhetoric of Rock and Roll" course, "Blood on the Tracks" is one that often becomes a revelation to the student assigned it. I think that's because the idea of love as a source of great joy and great pain--a theme embedded in Blood on the Tracks--is something that always has and always will connect with youth. 

Bob Dylan If You See Her, Say Hello

#1 (Tie) Pink Floyd: "Wish You Were Here" and Kraftwerk: "Radioactivity."  In terms of sheer impact on future music, these two albums would have to be the best of 1975. "Wish You Were Here," which is informally dedicated to the band's founding and troubled member Syd Barrett, is the archetype of the tribute album. Filled with amazing melodies, brilliant instrumentation, thoughtful lyrics. 

As for Kraftwerk's "Radioactivity," it's hard to minimize the influence it had on future music. Modern music fans think that electronic music is a digital era phenomenon. Not so. Kraftwerk did it all--and did it better--50 years ago. 

Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here

Kraftwerk Radioactivity