text:
Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
The Topless Dancer, Slavery and the Origins of Capitalism
Filed under: Counterpunch,humor,Pekar,transition debate — louisproyect @ 3:56 pm
COUNTERPUNCH WEEKEND EDITION JUNE 5-7, 2015
The Tide is Turning
by LOUIS PROYECT
Although I've written thirty-five articles about the origins of capitalism over the years, I never suspected that my first for CounterPunch would be prompted in a roundabout way by my relationship with a topless dancer forty years ago.
In the middle of May, I blogged an excerpt from an unpublished comic book memoir I did with Harvey Pekar in 2008. It covered my experience in Houston in the mid-seventies, part of which involved an affair with a comrade who had been dancing in Montrose just before I arrived, a neighborhood that mixed bohemia, gay and topless bars, and apartment complexes geared to swingers in double-knit suits.
About a week after the excerpt appeared, someone directed to a Facebook page that belonged to a well-known ISO dissertation student who having posted a link to my blog frowned on the idea that I would write a memoir without ever having done anything. Since the memoir was written under the direction of Harvey Pekar, who toiled for decades in obscurity as a file clerk in a veteran's hospital in Cleveland, I doubt that the student had a clue about the memoir's intention. It was not a saga about exemplary deeds in the revolutionary movement but recounted instead the humdrum life of a rank-and-filer who felt deeply alienated by what amounted to a cult. Plus, lots of jokes. After all, it was a comic book as Harvey insisted on calling his work.
Parenthetically I would advise against reading the blog of someone you hate. It is bad for your mental health. As a recommendation to the young dissertation student or anybody else with a grudge against me, let me paraphrase what Jeeves said to Bertie Wooster, substituting "Proyect" for "Nietzsche": "You would not enjoy Nietzsche, sir. He is fundamentally unsound."
They deserve each other
Filed under: Pekar — louisproyect @ 12:24 pm
Joyce Brabner
They deserve each other:
[Joyce] Brabner is also returning to her social justice roots, reuniting with Alan Moore on a series of 13 comics that neither will talk much about. But Moore says he enjoys working with Brabner again because she "avoids cheap dramatics and empty stylistic flourishes in [favor] of the keenly judged placement of words and images."
Cleveland Magazine, September 2013
Comics god Alan Moore has issued a comprehensive sign-off from public life after shooting down accusations that his stories feature racist characters and an excessive amount of sexual violence towards women.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/21/superheroes-cultural-catastrophe-alan-moore-comics-watchmen
Galley-Wag, a character in Moore's "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"
A 1920s Golliwog perfume bottle
A postscript on my work with Harvey Pekar
Filed under: Pekar — louisproyect @ 8:13 pm
Probably the best thing that came out of being interviewed by Cleveland magazine for an article on Joyce Brabner was getting to know Tara Seibel, another human being unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a Brabner vendetta.
Work done by Harvey Pekar and Tara Seibel. Why is Joyce Brabner determined to suppress such fine art?
I first learned of Seibel's problems through a NY Times article written soon after Harvey Pekar's death on July 12, 2012 from an overdose of antidepressants. Dave Itzkoff reported that Seibel worked with a team of artists on the Pekar Project, an online version of his work that they collaborated on. When they began discussions about turning this into a book, Brabner stepped in to warn them that Seibel was to be excluded. Why, you might ask. Here's what Itzkoff said:
No one in their artistic circle believes the relationship between Mr. Pekar and Ms. Seibel crossed professional boundaries, but some could see how it strained Mr. Pekar's marriage.
"A part of him was enjoying the attention he was getting from this very good-looking young woman," said Mr. Parker, one of the Pekar Project artists. "And, naturally, Joyce, how could she enjoy that? You don't have to be a psychologist to see that one's not going to be good."
In rereading Itzkoff's article and in light of a phone conversation I had with Seibel, I am now convinced that my problem was never with Random House but with Joyce Brabner who simply did not want a book about me in print even if Harvey was proud of it. Itzkoff quoted Brabner: "I'm the one who decides about what gets published and what doesn't in any venue." In other words, I got Seibelized.
I should add that the one phone call I had with Brabner reinforces this interpretation. In her hour-long, profanity-laced tirade, most of it was about me having no business contacting Random House about their plans for the memoir. But a good part of it was also her belittling my socialist credentials, lumping me in with Robert Avakian's cult. She was the real revolutionary, not me. Based on the Avakian comparison, I concluded that she had never read the book I did with Harvey since every page contradicts her.
I can't say that I am surprised that Cleveland magazine mangled what I told them even after a fact-checker followed up with a phone call shortly before the article appeared. The article states:
When Pekar died, he was under contract to write a graphic novel about New York-based blogger Proyect's humorous tales of his summers growing up in New York's Catskills. Pekar's death halted the nearly finished project, which Random House was set to publish. Upset, Proyect made confrontational comments about Random House on his blog. Brabner responded by denying Proyect's request for permission to shop the book around and run excerpts online.
Not exactly. I was upset because Random House refused to tell me if they had plans to publish it or not. At my wit's end, I wrote an article pointing out that the Bertlesmann group in Germany, the parent company of Random House, used Jewish slave labor during WWII. It was probably this article that provoked Brabner to call me up. How dare I expose Harvey Pekar's publisher as war criminals? I guess that was the same kind of question David Letterman had for Harvey when he made an appearance and focused on G.E.'s role as a weapons and nuclear reactor manufacturer. Why are you being such a pain in the ass, Harvey?
And most importantly, Brabner told me in the phone call not to bother Random House or the book would never be published. She led stupid me to believe that she would be handling everything and that I jeopardized the book's future by annoying Harvey's editor there. So I took her at her word and stopped sending email to his editors asking for a status report, and left everything in her capable hands. Little did I suspect that she probably told Random House to flush the memoir down the toilet. After a year elapsed, I discovered through the grapevine that they had abandoned plans to publish—probably on directions from her. When I emailed her for permission to serialize the book on my blog if and only if she had no plans to present to other publishers, she wrote back a nasty email basically telling me it was up to her what happened next and that I had to live with that. She warned me that if I divulged her email, that would be the end of the project. After four years of getting played for a sucker, that was it for me and I told her so.
Speaking of the Letterman show, Pekar decided to stop making appearances because he was tired of being a sideshow that Dave could make jokes about. Looking back in retrospect, I wonder if my work with Harvey fell into the same category. When he proposed the idea of doing a comic book, he said that the text had to be short since it was the pictures that people really dug. They were, as he put it, a bunch of idiots. Instead of a lot of political analysis, he was looking for some good jokes.
To accommodate him, I left out a lot of the political substance that was important to me such as how the SWP turned into a cult. Frankly, if I ever worked on another memoir that would be the main topic just as it was in Les Evans's memoir. I believe it would be a lot more interesting and a lot more amusing than Saïd Sayrafiezadeh's "When Skateboards will be Free". I can guarantee you this, however. When I begin writing it, it will appear as a serial on my blog. If Joyce Brabner had given Random House the green light, the book would have sold 2000 copies and then went into the remainder bin especially with the two-bit publicity campaign they would have mounted. On a good day, my blog gets 2000 visits and over the past 8 years or so since I have been blogging, I have gotten over 4 million visits. I haven't made a penny out of this but who cares? I'm a throwback to the 60s when making money was less important than making a statement.
Even though I knew that I would not have gotten a penny out of sales of the comic book, I now understand that I expected a kind of "intellectual capital" to be accrued, to use Bourdieu's term. When Random House publishes a comic book about your life using your own words, that means something—I guess.
There's a guy named Mike Feder who used to have a sort of confessional talk show on WBAI in the 1980s. He was always going on about the contacts he was making with publishers about turning his monologues into print. He explained why books become so important to people, especially if you don't have children. It is a way for your identity to continue after you are dead, like your children carrying on your genes. It is a way of achieving immortality.
Now that I think about it, there was something about this ambition that went against my core values. There was a kind of inner appetite that gnawed at me. I was hoping to be a "celebrity" attached to Harvey Pekar's coattails, as if his life as a comic book author, a trained monkey on the Letterman shows (as he put it), and a flunky job in a veteran's hospital made him special. I always admired Harvey but there was something about his never-ending search for money and recognition that I always found a bit off-putting. They say that crack cocaine is the most addictive drug. I would rank celebrity first. A guest appearance on the Charlie Rose show goes straight from the vein into the brain.
Tara Seibel
The Cleveland magazine article is generally respectful of Brabner but provides some eye-opening details on her thuggish behavior toward Tara Seibel and a local sculptor named Justin Coulter.
After Pekar died, Brabner says, Seibel began incessantly calling her. Within months, Brabner called the Cleveland Heights law department, which told Seibel not to contact Brabner…Brabner has scrubbed Seibel's work from an online showcase and a traveling exhibit of her husband's works. She has warned a comics publisher not to publish Seibel's collaborations with Pekar or there could be possible legal action.
Seibel feels Brabner's efforts stem from jealousy over the hours Seibel spent with Pekar. Seibel says she believes Pekar's memory continues through her work. "My legacy is being sprung out of his legacy," she says.
The Cleveland cops? Legal action? This is some "leftie".
Joyce was just as petty and vindictive toward Coulter.
She selected local sculptor Justin Coulter to create the memorial [for Harvey Pekar], but they clashed.
"I wouldn't hear from Joyce for weeks or longer," Coulter recalls. "Then all of a sudden I'd hear from her, demanding something the next day."
At a certain point, a team of artists and Coulter's mentors finished the project. Brabner says Coutler was supposed to finish it. Coulter disagrees, saying it was always meant to be a group project, and that he was hired to sculpt the bronze head and cartoon and did so.
During the memorial's dedication last October, the library's director called police to report a disturbance, and officers arrived and spoke to Coulter, a police call for service report shows. Coulter says when he arrived at the unveiling, he was surrounded by cops and escorted off the premises.
Something tells me that Coulter was not the one who started the disturbance. You can bet that Brabner told him to get lost and he refused to leave.
The Harvey Pekar memorial
I will survive Joyce Brabner's fatwa as will Justin Coulter and Tara Seibel. Tara is a very talented artist whose work with Harvey should have been encouraged by Brabner if she was really serious about his legacy. You can see her work at http://thealternativeproject.blogspot.com/, a sample of which graces this article.
With talent galore and an unconquerable sprit, I am sure that Tara has a very bright future.
An exchange with Harvey Pekar's widow
Back in 2008 the late Harvey Pekar stayed at my apartment for an evening. My old friend Paul Buhle, who had been collaborating on comic books with Harvey, had asked me to put him up while the two were in town to meet with publishers.
In the course of the evening I told him about growing up in the Catskills and joining the SWP in 1967, trying to get a job in industry, etc. People familiar with my writings know that I like to make jokes about my political experiences, sort of keeping in line with the title of an old Lester Young record, "Laughin' to keep from cryin'".
About 3 weeks later Harvey called me and asked if I would be willing to write all this up as a comic book memoir. He would use the artist Summer McClinton who he had been working with lately and spoke highly of.
I agreed to work on the project but told him from the outset that I had misgivings about print publishing after my experiences with blue-chip journals published by James O'Connor and Immanuel Wallerstein, as well as a humiliating experience with St. Martin's Press involving their failure to respond to a submission for a book on Marxism and the American Indian that my friend Michael Perelman had recommended to his editor there.
I told Harvey repeatedly that I would have never approached an outfit like Random House if he weren't involved. Don't worry, he said, I have a contract for two books that will be coming out in 2009 or 2010 at the latest. One is Huntington, West Virginia "On the Fly", the other will be yours. I figured that with his track record and the clout of a written contract, I would have no problem. I then spent 4 months writing a memoir geared to the comic book format, with a lot more dialog than I would have used ordinarily as well as a lot more jokes.
Unfortunately for me, and a lot more unfortunately for him, Harvey died on July 12, 2010. A NY Times article written in September about the The Unfinished Tale of an Unlikely Hero described two upcoming posthumous works coming out of Random House. One was "On the Fly" and the other was a guide to achieving a happy marriage, based on the Harvey Pekar-Joyce Brabner relationship. This made me feel anxious. What was the status of my memoir that should have come out already based on Harvey's promise to me in 2008?
I contacted the artist I had worked with who said that she could put me in touch with Harvey's editor at Random House. But first she had to get his clearance that it was okay for me to email him. When I heard that, a shiver went down my spine.
It probably would have made more sense for me to contact Joyce Brabner who had inherited Harvey's work. I didn't even raise that subject with the artist because the NY Times article described her as a willful and vindictive person:
Mr. Parker said he was contacted by Ms. Brabner, who wanted to "cut Tara out of the equation" of the Pekar Project's work. Other people with direct knowledge of the project's operations, but who did not want to speak for attribution for fear of offending Ms. Brabner, said she would not allow a book to be published if it included Ms. Seibel's contributions.
(Seibel was an artist in Cleveland who Ms. Brabner regarded as a rival for Harvey's affections.)
For approximately a year I tried in vain to get a status report from Random House. Were they going to publish the book or not? If not, I wanted to serialize it on my blog. After all, the title was "The Unrepentant Marxist".
After one particularly frustrating experience with Harvey's editor, I blogged about Random House and what a bunch of dirt-bags they were, informing my readers that it was owned by the Bertelsmann Group in Germany that had used Jewish slave labor under the Nazi regime.
About a week after this post appeared, I received a phone call from Joyce Brabner that demanded that I stop "bothering" Random House. If I didn't behave myself, the work would never be published. It was like being told by your mom that if you didn't clean your room, you would not be able to watch "Leave it to Beaver"—and the mom was Joan Crawford in "Mommie Dearest".
Robert Crumb drawing of Harvey Pekar, as well as how I felt after getting a phone call from Joyce Brabner.
So I stopped "bothering" Random House for a year in the vain hope that somewhere along the line I would be given word about the progress or lack of progress on the memoir.
After finally learning that Random House had abandoned the project, I wrote Joyce Brabner:
Dear Joyce,
I learned from Summer McClinton that Random House has abandoned plans to publish the memoir.
I have no idea what your plans are at this point but would simply request your permission to serialize it on my blog if you have no plans to shop to other publishers.
I know that you don't like me and that nothing will change that but it would be a shame for the work to never see the light of day. I am sure that you can agree that Summer's artwork is a delight and deserves to be seen. Also, even though the work is not about Harvey's life, it will be of great interest to his fans, many of whom are readers of my blog. I see it as a contribution using the Internet along the same lines as what Jeff Newelt and others have worked on.
This was her reply:
You may not publish, serialize or otherwise excerpt this work on the Internet or elsewhere.
I do not give you the permissions customarily allowed to reviewers or scholars.
That means you may not copy or post even one panel of this work, as you did in April. What you did there was illegal.
You may not print or circulate paper or electronic copies of the work in part or in whole.
I am willing to have one more conversation with you about the future of this project. If so, you will have to check your ego, listen to me with respect, accept responsibility for a good deal of the mess you created at Random House and in other ways co-operate and move forward, conducting yourself within guidelines I am willing to spell out to you: acceptable, professional and constructive behaviors that would be in the best interest of this project and would not compromise either of us– the only way you would get to see this work published in your lifetime.
If I find you disagreeable, obstructionist, melodramatic, rude or tiresome, I hold the book back until you are dead. Then I re-sell the book, cash the check and release it for publication or, if you outlast me, it gets published by the young woman we raised as our daughter, who will inherit our combined literary, etc. estates.
If you disclose the contents of this letter, especially in your blog, there will be no book. It's no problem for me to resell the work. I've already had enough offers to be able to conduct an auction. However, you have been a real pain in the ass and I will not let you become my pain in the ass.
Bitch about me to your wife or girlfriend or best friend and get it out of your system. Then swallow a humble pill and if you think you can handle a phone call, as described, send me your phone number. You're half way there, because you e-mailed me.
I should explain that the panel referred to in her email appears here. Apparently as is probably the case with the other readers who have registered three and a half million visits to my blog, Ms. Brabner finds me both reprehensible and irresistible.
Well, this is probably the right time to dump the project since Ms. Brabner's "guidelines" make me feel like a disobedient chihuahua on Cesar Millan's "Dog Whisperer" show who needs to be taught to be calm and submissive. Shhh, Louis, shhh. Arf-arf. In fact I had come within a hair's breadth of telling Random House that I refused to give them permission to publish anything about my life several weeks after Brabner's phone call. My old friend Richard Greener, author of the superb Locator series of novels that has been adapted for the Fox television network, told me that I should have done so much sooner to save myself the tsuris.
In a way it is too bad that she has chosen to provoke me into throwing the kill switch. Out of the tens of thousands of different people who have read my blog, I am willing to bet that maybe 2000 or so would have bought the memoir. Add to that Harvey's fans who would have paid money to read a comic book in his name, you are talking about a pretty piece of change.
I imagine that Ms. Brabner thinks that being in print is supposed to provide some kind of validation, as clearly was the case with her late husband. However, I made a decision about 10 years ago to only write for my blog and grass roots online publications so I could care less about a comic book about my life being shit-canned. My validation comes from the praise I get from readers on my blog as well as the curses. Furthermore, I will be remembered mostly by my deeds after I am gone: the antiwar demonstrations I helped to build in the sixties and the brigades I helped send to Nicaragua and southern Africa. That is what I hope to be remembered for, not some comic book.
At any rate, I plan to serialize my own memoir dispensing with Summer McClinton's artwork and including material that would have been unsuitable for a comic book, such as how to understand the Brenner thesis, my mother's ultra-Zionism, and most importantly my secret for a happy marriage now in its 10th year with a Turkish Delight.
My pig snout sandwich days
Filed under: food,Pekar,Trotskyism — louisproyect @ 6:06 pm
I don't know how many of you are aware that Doug Henwood began blogging a while back at http://lbo-news.com/. Bookmark it if you know what is good for you.
A post on April 13 (http://lbo-news.com/2012/04/13/the-nation-moves-money-again/) skewered the Nation Magazine in Doug's inimitably informed and witty fashion:
Forgive me if I'm looking obsessed, but someone has to do it. The Nation was out with an email blast this morning touting its branded affinity VISA card issued by UMB Bank in Kansas City. The magazine's associate publisher, Peggy Randall, helpfully identifies UMB as "a small, regional bank recommended by the Move Your Money project, a project we support," and therefore in accordance with the goals of the Occupy movement.
So who is UMB Bank, really? It's yet another iteration of the classic Money Mover's institution: flush with more money than it can invest locally, it loads up on securities. (Parenthetically, why should a magazine based in New York encourage doing business with a bank 1,200 miles away on localist grounds?) According to its latest annual report, 46% of UMB's money is invested in securities, and another 6% is on deposit with other banks—which comes to over half. They don't provide details on the securities, but they're almost certainly a mix of Treasury bonds, mortgage bonds, and corporate bonds—utterly conventional financial market stuff. Just 37% is out in loans—and 0.8% in small-business loans, beloved of the small bank fanclub. They are big regional players in mutual funds, wealth management, and private banking, all moderately to seriously upscale stuff. And, like the big guys, they're looking to make more money out of fees, rather than traditional deposit-taking and loan-making.
Although Doug was looking for a somewhat different answer to the question "So who is UMB Bank, really?", I can offer these additional insights. When I was working at this bank in November 1978, I turned in my resignation from the SWP. By day I was a computer programmer but in the evenings I was studying milling machine and lathe at a local high school. That was to prepare me for a job in industry as an entry-level machinist. As this snapshot from my memoir–done in collaboration with the late Harvey Pekar and that is due to be published by Random House sometime in the 22nd century–would indicate, this was not the kind of training that came easy:
(That's me to the right, with beard and eyeglasses.)
By some miracle I graduated from the classes with a certificate and was urged to apply at Bendix by my milling machine instructor who developed a liking for me. He understood that despite my not having any kind of industrial job in the past, I was able to learn how to grind a piece of steel to a thousandth inch tolerance. Unfortunately, I would never get past a security clearance at Bendix since the plant's main business was building casings for nuclear weapons.
In late November, the branch organizer—a typical hack who had bet my best friend in the branch $10 that I would never be able to get a job in industry—gave a plenum report that clarified what kinds of jobs comrades should get as part of the "turn to industry". It went something like this:
Comrades, we are about to make a turn within the turn. In the past too many comrades have been taking skilled jobs like machinists or welders. This does not put us in contact with the most oppressed layers of the working class. So from now on the priority is on jobs in garment, meatpacking and other unskilled arenas.
After going to night school for 3 months, this was not the news I wanted to hear. I turned to my friend and said, "I feel like I am in the back seat of a car going down the interstate at 80 miles an hour and there's nobody in the driver's seat." I resigned a couple of days later.
As should be obvious from the picture above, the memoir covers my Chaplinesque attempts to save my soul by getting a job in industry, but Doug's reference to United Missouri Bank (UMB) persuaded me to say a few words about this job since it was like all my programming jobs—something to remember.
United Missouri Bank is in downtown Kansas City, a warren of nondescript office buildings and parking garages. Once upon a time it was a thriving section of town with department stores and nightclubs that could be reached by streetcar, the most common mode of transportation. I have vivid memories of taking the streetcar to downtown Kansas City with my mom when she was staying at her mother's house on Linwood Avenue, about 30 blocks to the north, during a trial separation from my cold and laconic father. Even as a 5 year old, I could tell that Kansas City was a rocking place.
My job at UMB entailed working on the software for the bank's NCR ATM machines. I was a kind of assistant to a 300 pound farmer's boy named Danny who reminded me a lot of Baby Huey. He used to come to work on Saturday in bib overalls and hump the machines for laughs.
About a month after going to work for UMB, our boss asked me to make a change to the software that I screwed up. The net result was that when someone was issued a new card, the machine would reject it under the impression that it was expired. I wrote "greater than" some date in my program rather than "less than". I was lucky I didn't get fired since the people whose cards failed to work probably were skeptical of electronic banking to begin with.
I actually have fond memories of the people I worked with who generally were as disgruntled with management as any place I have ever been. The new department manager was someone who had been recently promoted from their ranks and was acting like a real shithook. They loved cracking jokes about him in the cafeteria at lunch.
My favorite guy there was K.O. Barnes, who looked kind of like a bulldog as his name would indicate. K.O. stood for Kenneth Orville but his nickname was "Smitty", as I recall. In an attempt to raise some funds when I was in K.C., I sold my newish Datsun to my best friend and bought a 12 year old Impala sedan from K.O. that had belonged to his dad, a gas station owner. It was what they called a "mechanic's special". I wish I had held on to it. It would probably be worth $50,000 today.
K.O. had returned to Kansas City from Cincinnati, a city that he found lacking. He once put it to me this way in his Missouri drawl, "Louis, in Cincinnati they roll up the sidewalks at 10pm. There ain't nothin' happening there."
As was the case when I worked for a bank in Houston when I was in the SWP, my workmates viewed me as a kind of "exotic". After all, how many people moved from New York to Houston or Kansas City? If I hadn't been a member of the SWP and assigned to go to these places, I would have stayed in New York where I was destined to be like a minor character in a Woody Allen movie. I should add that the only reason I chose Kansas City is that I was born there. When given a choice between my birthplace and Morgantown, West Virginia where I would be expected to get a job as coalminer, Kansas City was number one by far. I figured that if my political life was coming to an end, as I anticipated it would, why not let it end in my birthplace?
One day my workmates, including K.O. and Danny, decided to play a kind of practical joke on me. They organized an excursion to Agnos's Sandwich Stand about 10 blocks from UMB where I would be able to buy a local treat. They assumed that a New Yorker would be appalled by what it turned out to be: pig snout sandwich.
It looked exactly what it sounds like, a pig's nose between two buns. Since I had pretty much the same attitude toward food that contestants on "Fear Factor" have, I wolfed it down much to the surprise of my workmates. I don't know if they have the analogy of "good old boy" in Missouri but that was what I became that day in their eyes.
They did not know that part of the motivation in going to Agnos was its connection to Charlie Parker, arguably Kansas City's most famous denizen. In "Bird Lives", Ross Russell writes:
The same area was also a permanent location for one of the lunch wagons owned by John Agnos, who, under Pendergast, enjoyed a monopoly of after-hours on-the-street sales of food and light beverages. The menu listed food items and unusual sandwiches served only in Kansas City in those days—crawdads, "short thighs" (of chicken), and a choice of sandwiches made from chicken wings, brains, pigs' feet, and pigs' snouts. Everything was priced at a dime. Jars of homemade hot sauces were provided for garnishment according to the customer's taste. Charlie Parker picked up his nickname Yardbird when the Basie band was working at the Reno Club. Parker used to hang out in the rear lot, mostly to listen to Lester Young, and his favorite food was the "short thigh" served by the lunch wagon. Chicken was known colloquially as yardbird. Later the nickname was shorted to Bird. It stuck with Parker throughout his life.
Agnos sandwich stand
Harvey Pekar remembrance
Being played for a sucker by Random House
Filed under: capitalist pig,Pekar — louisproyect @ 5:26 pm
Chris Schluep, Harvey Pekar's editor
This morning I feel beat to shit.
I woke up at 3am last night and began obsessing for a good two hours over Random House, the scumbag publishers and their editor Chris Schluep who keeps giving me a run-around on the book I did with Harvey Pekar. Harvey always spoke well of Schluep but I can't help but think of him as a cog in a big machine that I never would have had any dealings with had I not been assured by Pekar that he was under contract for two new books, including the one I was doing with him.
My take on publishing jibes with the one depicted in the movie "Wolf", starring Jack Nicholson as a top editor who gets shafted by a Rupert Murdoch type media mogul who has just taken over his company. After being bitten by a wolf, Nicholson not only becomes a werewolf, he develops the aggressiveness needed to succeed in the publishing business. In one memorable scene, he pisses on the shoes and pants legs of a rival who has landed his job after the takeover. That, to me, smacked of verisimilitude.
I first got warnings that the book was going to end up shit-canned after seeing an article in the NY Times titled "The Unsettled Afterlife of Harvey Pekar" that dealt with some prospective posthumous projects. It refers to a couple of Random House possibilities, but not mine:
Random House is publishing at least two more of his graphic books: one, called "Huntington, West Virginia, 'On the Fly,' " in which Mr. Pekar reflects on promoting his movie and other books, and a second, written with Ms. Brabner, called "Harvey and Joyce's Big Book of Marriage."
Now I can understand why Random House would have prioritized these books since they appeal to his fan base, people who could never get enough of his tales of woe about working as a file clerk or butting heads with the rich and the powerful—like David Letterman. Too bad I don't know how to draw; otherwise I'd have come up with a comic strip about my own frustrations dealing with a colossus like Random House.
I always felt skeptical about the idea of Random House coming out with a book about my own life. Who in their right mind would spend good money to read about the trials and tribulations of a Marxist activist when there were all sorts of books by celebrities like Bettheny Frankel or Rob Lowe that you could read on the beach?
As it turns out, Pekar decided to do something with me because he was probably tired of writing about himself. Like his earliest collaborator R. Crumb, he was exploring new ways of expressing himself. Crumb eventually wearied of doing comics about his own neurotic sexual and racial obsessions; likewise I am sure with Pekar's sad sack tales. At least that's my take. He told me numerous times that he was seeking to become the Studs Terkel of our generation. My story amounted to the sort of thing you can read in "Working" or any of his other "as told to" classics. Too bad that Harvey didn't live into his nineties like Studs. And too bad for me that I got drawn into a project that had no future after his death.
What steams me up the most is the feeling that I have been ripped off. I spent a good four months writing and rewriting the material that would eventually be illustrated by Summer McClinton, a young and very gifted artist whose work Harvey raved about. Now Random House's contract was with Harvey and not me obviously. His widow Joyce Brabner and the artist have been paid off, fulfilling Random House's obligations for a book that is now dead and buried. A year ago Schluep assured me that the book would be published. It turns out he was probably bullshitting me. It would have been better for me not to have been left hanging. When I raised the topic with him again two months ago, he said that a decision had not been made but he would get back to me within the month. Of course, he did not get back to me. Like Jack Nicholson in "Wolf", he has the power to piss on me metaphorically speaking. I am not under contract and under capitalism that is how things operate, as any lawyer will tell you.
I imagine that Schluep is not comfortable with all this, having assured me a while back that he is "not a scumbag". I suppose he is not but the company he works for surely is.
In 1998 Random House was taken over by Bertelsmann, a German media company with 103,000 employees. Now Bertelsmann has a most interesting history—just the sort of venue for a memoir by an unrepentant Marxist as the BBC reported on October 8, 2002:
Bertelsmann admits Nazi past
German media giant Bertelsmann has admitted it lied about its Nazi past and that it made big profits during Adolf Hitler's reign in Germany using Jewish slave labour.
A commission set up by the firm found Bertelsmann rode the rise of the Nazi party to restructure itself from a religious and school book publisher to supply millions of anti-Semitic texts.
The IHC found Bertelsmann had targeted the youth market with its "Exciting Stories" series and the "The Christmas Book of the Hitler Youth" annual which pushed its sales up 20 fold.
The IHC said the company's "legend" that it was a victim of the Nazis was a lie.
The Commission found that Bertelsmann made "indirect" use of Jewish slave labour in Latvia, and Lithuania but not at its German headquarters.
The then head of the company, Heinrich Mohn, also made donations to the SS, Hitler's special forces and concentration camp guards.
The company had close ties to the Nazi regime, particularly the Propaganda Ministry, and printed 19 million books during World War II, making it the largest publisher for the German army.
Bertelsmann used its "revised" history when it took over the biggest US book publisher Random house in 1998.
Harvey died before I had a chance to share this information with him. As a proud but non-observant Jew, I am sure he would have had a word or two to say about being under contract to a company that used Jewish slave labor.
There were signs that Bertelsmann's infatuation with Hitler continued well after WWII. In 1983, Stern Magazine, part of the German publisher's empire, came out with the Hitler Diaries that turned out to be a hoax. A Nation Magazine article dated November 8, 1999 reported:
In 1980 Bertelsmann's Stern magazine published poems and illustrations supposedly written and drawn by Hitler during World War I under the title "Rhymes by Private First Class H" ("Gereimtes vom Gefreiten H"). Dirk Bavendamm, a 61-year-old German historian who had been instrumental in helping Stern obtain the material, wrote an accompanying article noting that the poems and drawings show Hitler as an ordinary soldier. In one illustration a German soldier gently holds a baby; in another, a soldier helps a mother lying in bed while a baby nestles in a cradle. Subsequently the poems and drawings were determined to be forgeries. (Later, Mohn gave the green light to a Bertelsmann division to purchase the Hitler diaries, by the same forger, which also showed a milder Hitler. They were published in Stern in 1983.)
Bavendamm's career was not affected. His book Roosevelt's Way to War (Roosevelts Weg zum Krieg) was published in 1983. Rewriting history, he stated that Roosevelt, not Hitler, had caused World War II. He also wrote that American Jews "controlled most of the media," and he claimed they gave a false picture of Hitler.
Even if Bertlesmann did not have Nazi skeletons in its closet, its role in turning Random House into another "bottom line" oriented corporation of the sort that has left the USA economically and culturally impoverished was obvious to Andre Schifrin, the founder of the New Press and a sharp critic of the publishing industry. In a February 17, 2003 Nation Magazine article titled "'Random' Destruction", Schifrin commented on the firing of Ann Godoff, the head of Random House whose "mistake was to adhere to the higher standards of Random's past."
Bertelsmann sought to turn Random House into something much more commercial in the pursuit of higher profits, pumping out the kind of tripe that can soar to the top of the best-seller list. The NY Times reported that Godoff "considered her unit's books above the merely commercial popular fiction published by other divisions. She candidly told associates that she felt little personal interest or affinity for commercial romances, thrillers and other page-turners–the meat and potatoes of much of the publishing business." Hmm. Maybe that was my mistake. I should have put more steamy stuff into the memoir. I did include my romance with a comrade in Houston who had been working as a go-go dancer before I got to town. Harvey told me that I needed to put as much as that stuff in as I could.
In defending itself against charges that it was turning into the publishing counterpart of People Magazine, a Random House spokesman stated "Random House will continue to do many, many books for a niche audience, books that will continue to appeal to the literary critical world." Sigh, if only that was true. On the other hand, maybe I've been selling myself short. They say that the Communist Manifesto became a best-seller in Germany in 2007, around the time that capitalism began its worldwide collapse. Maybe the Bertlesmann CEO decided that it was not in his class interests to publish anything favorable to Marxism, even if it appeared in the style of a Jewish stand-up comedian favored by both Harvey and me.
Ultimately Peter Olson, the guy who ran Bertlesmann's American operations and who fired Ann Godoff, figured out that it was in his own interest to make Random House follow the short-term dictates of the market. Like so many of the crooks responsible for the collapse of the housing market, mass unemployment, and deepening class inequalities, he figured out what side of the bread was buttered: his own. Schifrin writes:
And there is yet one more factor that cannot be overlooked. Obviously, as the Times and others noted, Olson has "his own targets to meet" His compensation is based on his "success in meeting annual targets each year." Thus, the personal income of a handful of managers is an essential factor in deciding what the future of American publishing will be.
I suppose I only have myself to blame for getting suckered into this time-wasting business. There's a mystique about being published that is really quite powerful. It appeals to your sense of vanity in the same way that an appearance on the Letterman show might. If you read Harvey's account of being in the limelight, however, you will be struck how ambivalent he was. While he hoped to get the word out about his comic books on Late Night, he mostly felt exploited—the butt of Letterman's frat boy humor.
That's what happens when you put yourself at the mercy of a powerful corporation. It will find one way or another to fuck you over.
My experiences with print publishing over the years are pretty negative. After submitting a book proposal to an editor at St. Martin's on Marxism and the American Indian about 12 years ago, I never received a reply. I have to wonder whether editors get some kind of training when they go to work at places like St. Martin's or Random House on how to make an unheralded writer feel like two cents. It's about the same story with leftist academic journals that tend to treat you like a dissertation student, subjecting your submission to peer review—as if getting printed in a journal that has a circulation of 2000 is of any importance to me. I get that many visits to my blog every day.
As everybody knows, print publishing is going through a deep crisis. More and more of Harvey's work began appearing on the Internet through the auspices of The Pekar Project that defines its role this way:
Harvey Pekar's been mining the mundane for magic for more than 30 years in his autobiographical American Splendor comics. Now he has teamed with SMITH and some remarkable artists to create his first ongoing webcomics series—and some of his jazziest work to date. The new stories will appear every other week, with interviews, creator spotlights, and behind-the-scenes goodies, as well as essays and art from Pekar collaborators and inhabitants of the extended Pekarverse.
Obviously with Harvey's death, the future of this project is very much in doubt. Clearly, I have the responsibility to make the work I did with him available to the general public on the Web. Ironically, Harvey never used a computer, finding it too confusing. He once told me that Joyce forbade him from using hers. I am quite sure that he would have been gratified to see "The Unrepentant Marxist", the title of our collaboration, appearing on my blog. After all, that is the title of my blog and the best place for it to appear, all things considered.
Chris Schluep is no longer at Random House.
A Very Public Sociologist
Cedar Lounge
Cheap Motels and a Hotplate (Michael Yates)
Cold and dark stars
Comrade Thad Workers' Library
Connection/Comedieus (English/French)
Doug Henwood
Fred Murphy
Ken McLeod: Early Days of a Better Nation
Lars Henrik Carlskov
Reading the Maps
Resolute Reader
About Louis Proyect
Adolph Reed Jr.
Allen-Farrow dispute
anti-Communism
Armenians
autonomism
black bloc idiots
Black nationalism
bourgeois revolutions
Brian A. Mitchell
British SWP
Bukharin
capitalist pig
Christian fundamentalism
class-reductionism
Cochranites
Comintern
conspiracism
cops/agent provocateurs
CPUSA
Crimean Tatars
Critical Muslim
cruise missile left
crypto-Stalinism
democratic centralism
Dotty Nation Magazine writers
electoral strategy
former Soviet Union
Harper's Open Letter
history of the Marxist internationals
imbecile trolls
imperialism/globalization
Introduction to Marxism class
Jeffrey Marlin
jingoism
Karl Marx biography
Kautsky
Kevin Coogan
Koch-Lorber
Left Forum
Malinovsky
Marxist literature
Marxist memoir
Marxmail
mechanical anti-imperialism
New Economic Policy
Noel Ignatiev
nuclear power and weapons
parliamentary cretinism
Paul Pines
Pham Binh
Phiiippines
Political Marxism
Popular Front
postcolonialism
Red Plenty
Red-Brown alliance
revolutionary organizing
Richard Aoki
right-left convergence
Russiagate
Samuel Farber Cubanology
separated at birth?
Soldiers/Veterans
student revolt
subaltern studies
transition debate
Trolls/stalkers
Tucson killings
two-party system
ultraleftism
ultraright
urban crisis
utopian thought
Werner Angress
Workerism
year end summary
Zizek


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


I saw this idea over on Design Sponge when Wren Handmade was guest posting and knew it would be easy and fun.
While watching TV last night I made 5 stylish storage jars with nothing more than some glass jars from the recycling bin and decorative paper. You could also use wrapping paper, brown paper bags, maps from vacation, color copies of photos, fabric scraps...basically anything you want.
1. cut paper circle a little bigger than the lid 2. Use mod podge to affix the lid in the center of the paper circle 3. cut slits all around the paper edge 4. using more mod podge on the lid and the paper, wrap the paper around the edge of the top into the lid one strip at a time till all strips are wrapped around lid edge 5. to finish brush mod podge on the top and sides of the lid to seal in place 6. wait till dry and repeat, 1-2 coats should be good.
Now holds extra tape, file folder tags and folder labels. When I get more jars I'll make him a few more.
Now go save your glass jars from recycling and turn them into new stylish storage for those odds & ends you have hangin' around.
Awesome idea - these are right up my alley.
That is too cute. the dang trash man just came..maybe next week!
These are adorable! I must try it.
Right up my alley! I save a lot of jars for these exact types of projects. They look great!
That's such a cute idea! I have an old spaghetti sauce jar holding my clothespins. But even after thoroughly washing the lid and jar (in the dishwasher too), it still smells like sauce. Any suggestions for eliminating odors or food residue before making the lid toppers?
so cute! I love it! I am so going to do this! So many bits and bobs kicking around our house!
um, I cannot thank you enough for this... i have several empty duke's mayonnaise jars i use for my son's snack foods i have been DYING to do something creative with...i searched online briefly and obviously just didn't use the right words! lol... anyway, thank you so much for this, love it!
great idea!!! i love it.
what a great upcycle! i love the silver faux animal print you used on them; they will look great in an office!
Cute Cute Cute. I need to go through my recycling bin!
I dream of doing...you actually do. And that is why I love your blog. Great post!
I have been wanting to try this... yours looks great.
i love them!!!!! so great!!!! will definitely have to try some this winter!!!!
i love the flower paper you chose!


The Ken Carr Blog: Anthony bends over, I take photo. The end.
It's Sunday, the dinner and grocery store day for Anthony and I.
Our budget is super tight this pay period, so we ate McDonald's food at home that Anthony went and got us, and then it was a very quick trip through the Walmart Neighborhood Market at 22nd and Craycroft. Because it was so quick, I didn't have much of a chance to get the usual product photos but I did get a picture of Anthony bending over. You can check that out below.
I didn't do much of anything all weekend besides laundry, catch up on sleep, take Lucky out to poop, watch TV, and avoid being near Anthony because he's had a sore throat and on and off headache for three days. I've washed my hands about 100 times in the last few days to try and keep from catching whatever he has. My hands are so chapped you could sand wood on them.
I feel fine... so far, so good.
with a spectacular sunset as a backdrop.
a drink, I take photo.


Many travellers are searching for Things To Do North Of Phuket, Phuket Thailand is quite a large province, a very popular part of the country for vacationers. It's definitely a way for you to immerse yourself in the culture of the country and get to know the customs and traditions of the locals. You can imagine all the markets you can visit for shopping and all the beach adventures you can enjoy. You can find Things To Do North Of Phuket travel information.
Things To Do North Of Phuket, First, have you been informed about where Phuket can be found in Thailand? It's southern Thailand, in the west coast. Will you consider visiting any other areas of Thailand while you're there? You'll need to know where those locations happen to be in proximity to Phuket and just how you intend on getting around. Now, let's take a look at those things for you to do while you're there.
First, you are likely to be privy to a minimum of 140 gift shops and specialty shops, including RK Fashions and Tailors and InStyle Fashion. Imagine having clothes tailored and fit to create, and think of all of the unique souvenirs you will find while you're there. That is quite a few shops available, but you do desire to remember again that Phuket is a rather large and popular province. Still, you can't go far without running into something fun to do.
After you're done shopping, it's a chance to go to some attractions. We'll talk specific beaches here within a minute, however look at the specific beach adventures you may have. For instance, while vacationing in Phuket, you are able to go on different scuba and snorkeling adventures. One popular place is Simba Sea Trips, and there is Super Divers, Aussie Divers Phuket and much more. You may also carry on different boat tours, offered by Two Sea Tour, Phuket Sail Tours plus more. Simba Sea Trips offers the boat tours and also the diving and snorkeling adventures.
Wat Chalong is within Phuket Town, along with the area looks beautiful. This building is actually a temple according to the reviews, and folks describe gorgeous Thai architecture. One of the other attractions is nearby, too, a major Buddha. Some of the reviews discuss firecrackers, which sounds cool when you're surrounded by beautiful scenery.
Talking about beautiful scenery, you must visit Karon View Point, and this is evidently associated with the Big Buddha. Reviewers describe the views as breathtaking, and that should help you realize you're likely to have ample photo ops while vacationing in Phuket Thailand. The viewpoint offers you an effective layout of your land, a vantage point should you will, and you can even begin to see the coastline.
Are you currently planning to see some great animals? You must begin to see the animals of Thailand, right? It's gonna be distinct from simply visiting a zoo in the US. So, one cool destination to get in Phuket if you're planning to see some animals is definitely the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project. You'll see much more than animals there, too. The beautiful scenery continues using a waterfall and anything else the national park is offering its visitors.
These animals are rehabilitating in their natural habitat, and I'm sure it's really cool to find out a task that way. You can take a look in to the wildlife that are in Thailand. It's time to look at those famous beaches you read about that Thailand offers. Phuket Thailand has some of the finest beaches for certain. As an example, there is Kata Noi Beach using its white sand and clear water.
That's the particular beach you want to visit while you're on holiday, right? Well, there are several others as well so do not forget that as you're planning your days around the beach. Evidently, this is among the beaches in Phuket where the waves can become big in line with the reviews. People also mention jet skis, and whatever beach you visit, you certainly want to check out the activities available.
Nai Harn Beach can be another recommended beach stop when you're in Phuket. It's actually regarded as being the best beach in Phuket and the top attraction or 'thing to do' also. You can anticipate the same type of beach in lots of ways, and there are vendors there. Lifeguards are saved to duty in line with the reviews, and swimming and the body surfing is quite popular there.
Back to the animals! Specifically dogs are the subject of the next attraction in Phuket. It's the Soi Dog Foundation, which is a rescue center that also features cats. Isn't it cool how 2 of the top attractions handle rescuing animals? It's really neat they have managed to make it an area that people would like to visit, and also the reviews speak about the event being heartwarming.
The Important Buddha was mentioned earlier, but the attraction hasn't been formally introduced. It's the Phuket Big Buddha, and it is quite large indeed. The monument is made from white marble. I for one don't like visiting other attractions that take care of religion, but you will find others who wish to start to see the attraction, that is rather new furthermore.
Irrespective of what you want to do while vacationing in Phuket, there is certainly plenty to learn. You will discover a nightlife there, and you can imagine there will be some really awesome restaurants serving up local cuisine and more. There are also spas there. Is it possible to imagine obtaining the experience of every day spa in Thailand? It may be quite distinctive from the kinds of health spa services offered by one in the home.


text:
iVote
Sensible gun laws, a safer environment, campaign finance reform, affordable access to health care, and many other progressive priorities are supported by an overwhelming majority of the American people. But they aren't the law of the land. That isn't an accident. Republicans know they don't enjoy popular support. So, keeping certain people from voting is at the heart of their election strategy. We have to fight voter suppression, but we can't just play defense anymore. iVote is going on offense to fight to expand access to voting to ensure more people vote... because if everyone voted our democracy would finally reflect the will of all its people.
https://twitter.com/ivotefund
https://www.facebook.com/iVoteFund
www.ivoteforamerica.org
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Biden taps voting rights advocate Kristen Clarke for senior DOJ role
Kristen Clarke, a prominent voting and civil rights advocate, was nominated Thursday to serve as President-elect Joe Biden's assistant attorney general for civil rights.
If confirmed by the Senate, Clarke will lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, helping to enforce civil rights laws and ensure equal justice for all Americans. She currently serves as president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a national nonprofit that played a critical role during the 2020 elections.
The Lawyers' Committee helped voters navigate changes brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, understand voting procedures and safeguard against voter intimidation. The organization's Election Protection hotline, available in 11 languages, fielded a record-high 229,000 calls by Nov. 3.

"This job is about justice. It's about equality. And under our DOJ, we'll move closer to the TRUE meaning of equal justice under law," Clarke tweeted, adding that she was honored to have been nominated.

Clarke is no stranger to the Justice Department. Before leading the Lawyers' Committee, she was an attorney in the Civil Rights Division and a federal prosecutor in its Criminal Section. While there, she worked on cases involving hate crimes, human trafficking and police misconduct. She also worked in the Voting Section on voting rights and redistricting issues.

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This job is about justice. It's about equality. And under our DOJ, we'll move closer to the TRUE meaning of equal j… https://t.co/bYl4aB7Qv2
 — Kristen Clarke (@Kristen Clarke)1610027893.0

Previously, she worked in the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Attorney General's Office and at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

"Kristen Clarke is a force of nature. She has been working tirelessly, around the clock, morning, noon and night to ensure that all Americans share the same rights and privileges as equal members of our society," said Shira Scheindlin, a federal judge in New York and co-chair of the Lawyers' Committee's board.

The army of lawyers ready to protect the election - The Fulcrum ›
Civil rights groups, prosecutors prepare for Election Day - The Fulcrum ›
Congressional Hearing: The Impact Of Covid-19 On Voting Rights ... ›
Biden Said to Pick Merrick Garland as Attorney General - The New ... ›
Merrick Garland Is To Be Joe Biden's Nominee For Attorney General ... ›
President-elect Biden Announces Key Nominations for the ... ›
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President-elect Biden has previously supported broad reform initiatives, like HR 1.
Reform groups renew unanswered call for support from Biden
Democracy reform advocates, still hoping for a significant statement of support from Joe Biden, have asked the president-elect to kick off the new year by pledging to prioritize their agenda.
One week after the election, 170 good-government and voting rights groups called on Biden to back their proposals. They believe that tackling corruption and strengthening democracy are of the utmost importance following the still-contentious presidential election. But Biden has yet to elevate that agenda.
While Biden cannot take any official action until Jan. 20, the 117th Congress convened Monday and can begin legislating right away So these groups are also hoping Speaker Nancy Pelosi keeps her word and once again focuses the first House bill on broad election, anti-corruption and voting rights reforms, like she did two years ago with legislation known as HR 1.

Fifty democracy reform groups sent a letter to the incoming administration before the new year, asking Biden and Harris to back their agenda and use the bully pulpit to boost public support for reform efforts. Both Biden and Harris have previously supported HR 1 and other reform initiatives, but Biden less than other Democratic presidential contenders.

Four issues top the groups' agenda: safeguarding voting rights by ensuring every person can cast a ballot safely and securely; ending the corrupting power of big money in politics by increasing transparency around dark money and strengthening election oversight; restoring ethics and accountability in Washington by reducing the power of lobbyists and fortifying conflict-of-interest rules; and protecting the rule of law by restoring the Constitutional system of checks and balances.

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In November, Pelosi said in a letter to Biden and Harris that reform proposals such as these would be her first priority in the House, and legislation would be introduced and passed on the first day of the new Congress.

In addition to supporting legislative proposals, the groups urge Biden to also use executive orders to encourage broader transparency around White House affairs and election spending. They also suggest Biden appoint someone on his staff to lead these democracy reform efforts.

"Too many Americans have lost faith that their elected officials can address our country's challenges," the groups wrote in the letter. "By supporting, championing and prioritizing bold reforms like HR 1 and implementing comprehensive ethics and transparency plans for your administration, we can restore ethics and accountability in government."

American Promise, Common Cause, End Citizens United/Let America Vote Action Fund, MapLight, RepresentUs and 45 other civil society groups signed the letter.

Democratic ticket hasn't pushed the reform agenda - The Fulcrum ›
Democracy reformers press Biden to make more of their causes ... ›
Biden unveils his democracy reform agenda - The Fulcrum ›
Biden Announces A First Priority for a Biden Administration Will Be ... ›
The case for major government reform and how Biden can make it ... ›
Obama Couldn't Fix the System. Biden Must. - The Atlantic ›
Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
Because ... 2020.
Think you know how democracy fared in 2020? Test yourself.
The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic calamity will be remembered as the top stories of the year along with an extraordinarily contentious presidential contest — which faced extra challenges from Covid-19 and the incumbent president's unprecedented crusade to discredit American democracy. But the system survived, even as it got set back in some ways and improved at the margins in others.
How well do you remember the big moments in the world of democracy reform this past year? Take this quiz to find out.
2020: The Year in Review | Time ›
2020: A Year in Review ›
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After an election in which more voters than ever before cast ballots by mail, Georgia Republicans want stricter voting rules in the new year.
Voting made easier in Senate races, but Georgia GOP wants rollbacks after that
Under pressure from voting rights groups, Georgia's third largest county will make it slightly easier to vote in the crucial Senate runoffs.
Cobb County planned to open only five instead of the usual 11 places for early in-person voting, which civil rights organizations complained would suppress the Black and Latino vote in the Atlanta suburbs. On Wednesday the county conceded the problem by moving one polling location and adding two more, but only for the final week of early voting.
But that partial victory may soon be overwhelmed by a bigger challenge to the cause of civic participation in the nation's newest big purple state. Top Republicans say they'll soon launch a bid in the General Assembly to reverse many of the policies that made voting easier this year.

Making the ballot box accessible to all who are eligible has long been a central tenet of the democracy reform movement, but it is of particular short-term importance in Georgia because who votes in the twin Jan. 5 runoffs will determine which party controls the Senate next year — which will decide whether any aspect of the good-governance agenda stands a chance in Congress.

Six voting and civil rights groups sent a letter Monday to Cobb County officials asking for all 11 voting centers that were used in the general election to also be open for the runoffs.

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The new plan doesn't go as far as the groups hoped. Instead, one voting center was relocated to the southern part of the county where there is a higher Black population. And two more locations, one in the north and another in the south, will be open the final four days before early voting ends on New Year's Eve.

The county elections chief, Janine Eveler, said staffing shortages because of the holidays and the coronavirus surge made it impossible to do more than that. "We have simply run out of people," she said. "Many workers told us they spent three weeks working 14- or 15-hour days and they will not do that again."

Meanwhile, the Republican majority caucus in the state Senate promised Tuesday to make a tightening of election laws one of their top priorities in the new year.

They said they were responding to "the calls of millions of Georgians who have raised deep and heartfelt concerns that state law has been violated and our election process abused" in the general election.

Many in the GOP base are furious and suspicious about an election where Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry the state in seven elections and neither of the GOP senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, was able to muster the 50 percent the state requires for re-election.

The GOP lawmakers said they would push legislation to eliminate no-excuse absentee voting, bar the use of drop boxes to return mail ballots and add a photo ID requirement for those seeking to cast an absentee ballot.

These proposed changes are in direct response to the Nov. 3 election in which many more voters than ever before — in Georgia and across the country — decided to cast their ballots by mail due to the Covid-19 pandemic. President Trump and many other Republicans have repeatedly and falsely asserted that widespread mail voting leads to fraud. There has been no evidence before or after this year's election to back up that claim.

The Republican legislators are also requesting an investigation and additional audits into the Nov. 3 election. Three counts of presidential ballots so far have produced the same result: Biden won by about 12,000 votes.

Major Georgia county closes half of early balloting centers - The ... ›
200,000 Georgia voters wrongly purged, says lawsuit - The Fulcrum ›
Late rush to register young Georgians for Senate runoffs - The Fulcrum ›
Cobb County in Georgia adds 2 more early voting sites after outcry ... ›
Trump's Election Conspiracies Create Problems For Georgia GOP ... ›
Georgia Republicans vow legislation to limit mail voting despite no ... ›

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


ClutchWave LLC launches PricePlow.com, a highly-organized free price comparison service created to help users find the lowest-cost supplements, vitamins, and weight-loss products from various fitness stores on the Internet.
Los Angeles, CA – November 24th, 2008 — Today ClutchWave LLC announced its launch of PricePlow.com, a free online service to help supplement and vitamin users find the best deals through a well-categorized price comparison listing of over 20 online fitness stores.
PricePlow.com was created for weightlifters, athletes, dieters, and health-conscious individuals who have a hard time determining where to find the lowest supplement prices on the Internet. Users can browse products such as whey protein powders, creatine supplements, multivitamins, fish oils and essential fatty acids, nitric oxide, amino acids, fat burners (both with and without stimulants such as ephedra), gift certificates, and much more.
The site contains the entire product lines of top brands such as Optimum Nutrition, BSN, Universal Nutrition, Cytosport, Prolab®, Gaspari Nutrition, Hammer Nutrition, and MuscleTech, along with additional products from NOW Foods, Scivation, SciFit, Species Nutrition, and others. More brands and products will be added in the near future.
In order to ensure the highest value on a reduced budget, PricePlow.com allows users to sort by various characteristics such as grams of protein per dollar or servings of vitamins per dollar. The users can also read ratings left by other uses, or give ratings and use the product commenting system to discuss the pros and cons of each supplement.
Brian Arenschield, a beta user from Cleveland, OH, gave extremely positive feedback, saying, "I love your site. It was easy to use and saved me money, what more can you ask for?" Brian has since gained 6 pounds of muscle in three weeks thanks to his Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Protein from A1Supplements.com.
PricePlow.com partners with several stores with the finest customer service, including Bodybuilding.com, AllStarHealth, A1Supplements, SupplementsToGo, WorldClassNutrition, Supplements101, VitaminAisle, and many more. BulkNutrition and Discount Anabolics are coming soon. Users get to rate the companies and discuss them in a commenting system as well.
Along with the Recommended Supplements page, PricePlow is starting a blog at https://blog.priceplow.com which will discuss various supplement research studies and reviews of new supplements, along with postings about operating in the world of the supplement industry.
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IL 47 Reconstruction from Reed Road to Kreutzer Road Stanley Consultants coordinated with the Illinois DOT, McHenry and Kane Counties, and the Village to widen 2.7 miles of IL Illinois Route 47.
IL 47 Reconstruction from Reed Road to Kreutzer Road Stanley Consultants coordinated with the Illinois DOT, McHenry and Kane Counties, and the Village to widen 2.7 miles of Illinois Route 47.
To help improve the safety and vitality of the Village of Huntley, Stanley Consultants coordinated with the Illinois DOT, McHenry and Kane Counties, and the Village to widen 2.7 miles of IL Illinois Route 47. The existing two-lane roadway was reconstructed and widened into a four-lane roadway with improved turn lanes at major intersections, including at-grade railroad crossings at the Main Street intersection. Village officials, as well as business and property owners, were consulted on ways to improve and maintain access to shopping, which encourages economic growth. Other improvements included traffic signal modernization, new lighting, and a bridge replacement over the South Branch of the Kishwaukee River.


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Polyanskiy brothers dominate podium at Tongyeong World Cup
By Nicola Hargreaves on 22/09/12 at 7:03 am
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Polyanskiys dominate podium in Tongyeong
Russia's Dmitry Polyanskiy claimed his second Tongyeong World Cup title in a row finishing ahead of Poland's Marek Jaskolka. Polyanskiy was joined on the podium by younger brother Igor Polyanskiy who took his first ITU World Cup medal with bronze.
The Polyanskiy brothers worked together on the swim and bike to set each other up for the run. Within the first lap, Dmitry dropped his challengers and never looked back all the way to the finish line.
"I'm very happy, I have the victory again. It's a very good swimming course here, fast water and Raoul had the best swim today. The bike course is a little hilly so for me it's very good too," said Dmitry. "Today I think I showed a good performance and I feel rested after the Olympic Games. I think I will be ready next week in Yokohama."
A gutsy performance by Jaskolka placed him among the leaders throughout, but it was his final push on the run that secured him silver. Igor established his third place early in the run and held on for bronze 40 seconds behind older brother Dmitry.
The men dove into Tongyeong Bay mid-morning for a non-wetsuit swim in 22 degree waters. France's Raoul Shaw was the strongest swimmer of the day, leading the field around the course. The Polyanskiy brothers tucked in behind Shaw along with Benjamin Shaw and the group of four entered T1 with the edge over the field.
By the second bike lap the slight advantage had disappeared as a large pack of 16 riders had formed including Korea's Ju Seok Kim, Akos Vanek (HUN), and Australians Ryan Fisher, Kenji Nener, Ryan Bailie, Drew Box and Taylor Cecil. Behind, a smaller chase pack of nine was trailing 40 seconds which included Aliaksandr Vasilevich (BLR) and Japan's Syogo Ishitsuka.
The leaders gained even more time on the chasers all the way to the bell lap when a breakaway attempt was made by Fisher who steamed through the transition area. Bryce McMaster and Ju Seok Kim took the bait and went after Fisher, but the effort was short lived when the main group reformed to enter T2.
Raoul Shaw began the run first closely followed by Box, but Dmitry Polyanskiy soon showed his strength overtaking Shaw to take the lead on the first lap. Thirty seconds behind the Russian, the other two podium positions had also been decided with Jaskolka moving into second position and Igor dropping runners to move into third. Shaw began to lose time on the run for an eventual ninth place finish.
Dmitry appeared strong throughout the four lap run before cruising over the finish line for gold in a time of 1:48:39. Jaskolka celebrated his silver down the finish shoot for his second World Cup medal.
"I'm very happy it's my best international result so far," said Jaskolka. "I had a really good swim today, but I felt really tired on the bike. On the run I tried not to push too hard on the first lap because I knew it would be really hot and I struggled really on the last two laps. I thought I would come a bit closer to Dmitry, but Dmitry is a really tough guy and I didn't have a chance, but I'm still very pleased with the result.
"In Ishigaki I got the bronze medal in 2011 and it's nice to have another medal, now silver even better especially after the Olympics where I was really disappointed with my result."
Igor Polyanskiy claims his first World Cup medal and is proving that he has become a close competitor for Dmitry, while at the same time working together.
"I'm really happy, I came here wanting to be on the podium," said Igor Polyanskiy. "It all went well for me, we stayed just behind Raoul on the swim and on the bike we tried to go away but we couldn't because there were too few people. I was ready for the run and I did what I wanted by coming third.
"My brother helped me in the whole race, on the swim we swam together on the bike we worked together the whole time. We are happy because we are both on the podium."
Poland's Sylwester Kuster just missed out on the medals in fourth, while Korea's Ji Hwan Kim had a great race to please the home crowds to finish in fifth.
1. Dmitry Polyanskiy RUS 01:48:39
2. Marek Jaskolka POL 01:49:06
3. Igor Polyanskiy RUS 01:49:22
4. Sylwester Kuster POL 01:49:40
5. Ji Hwan Kim KOR 01:49:51
6. Ákos Vanek HUN 01:49:54
7. Ryan Fisher AUS 01:49:59
8. Ryan Bailie AUS 01:50:06
9. Raoul Shaw FRA 01:50:21
10. Drew Box AUS 01:50:25
View Full Results >>
Find more details about this event - 2012 Tongyeong ITU Triathlon World Cup
22/09/12 - Nicky Samuels soars to gold at Tongyeong World Cup
17/09/12 - ITU World Cup season shifts to Tongyeong, Korea
world cup series | tongyeong | dmitry polyanskiy | igor polyanskiy | marek jaskolka | sylwester kuster | ji hwan kim


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All Rheumatology
IBD-Associated Arthritis
Osteoarthritis and Bone Disorders
Raynaud's Syndrome
Vasculitis and Giant Cell Arteritis
Rheumatology Topics
Rheumatology nurses central to addressing childhood vaccine concerns
Carolyn Zic
ORLANDO — Although proper vaccination is crucial for all patients with rheumatic diseases, rheumatology nurses who work with children often contend with parental concerns regarding vaccines and must know how best to approach vaccine hesitancy and debunk vaccination myths, according to a presentation at the Rheumatology Nurses Society Annual Conference.
"Vaccines are critical in maintaining patient health, as our patients, in particular, are at high risk for complications from these diseases," Carolyn Zic, RN, BSN, CPN, a pediatric rheumatology nurse at Comer Children's Hospital at University of Chicago Medicine, told attendees. "So why don't parents vaccinate? There are often a whole host of reasons. Sometimes, it is simply a lack of knowledge about vaccines — or an overabundance of Google searching. But more often, parents have safety concerns about the vaccines and medications, which is fair — these are their children and they should express those concerns."
Zic noted that additional reasons for vaccine hesitancy or refusal include the belief that vaccines are not necessary, concerns with pain associated with receiving multiple injections during a single visit, distrust of health care professionals or the government, and lingering concerns regarding the disproven vaccine and autism link.
"What can you do?" Zic said. "Listen — listen to what the parents' real concerns are and see what you can do to help. Take this opportunity to provide parents with education and anticipatory guidance, where possible, to promote vaccine adherence. Even if you are not the one prescribing them, you can promote the vaccines, promote knowledge about vaccines and what to expect. Educate the parents about vaccines and why they are especially important to immunosuppressed patients, and explain to them why you are concerned about withholding vaccines."
Rheumatology nurses who work with children must know how best to approach vaccine hesitancy and debunk vaccination myths, according to Zic.
Source: Adobe
However, she cautioned, try to maintain an open mind when dealing with obstinate parents. "The minute we shut them down and don't listen to them, they lose a lot of respect for us or just won't talk to us about vaccination," she said.
According to Zic, the key role of the rheumatology nurse in vaccine monitoring is as keeper of information between patients and their primary care providers.
"The biggest thing that we can do, is to actually obtain the immunization information," Zic said. "Also, it's important to develop close ties with the patient's primary care team; when the primary care doctor's office is worried about administering the patient's vaccines, take the call from them. Reassure them that, if it's not a live vaccine, its fine to proceed. This is what I have repeatedly encouraged among my patients: 'If your doctor's nurse has a problem, or is concerned, tell them to call me.'"– by Robert Stott
Zic C. Immunizations in rheumatology across the lifespan. Presented at: Rheumatology Nurses Society Annual Conference; Aug. 7-10, 2019; Orlando.
Disclosure: Zic reports no relevant financial disclosures.
See more from Rheumatology Nurses Society Annual Conference


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Every Man Remembered
Raise Money When You Shop Online
Virtual Poppy Garden
Newsletter & merchandise brochure
Every Man Remembered: a unique opportunity to honour a Serviceman or woman who fell during the First World War
Poppyscotland, together with The Royal British Legion, is proud to be working alongside the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to keep the memory of the Fallen alive for future generations.
Our aim is for each and every one of the 1,117,077 Commonwealth Service men who laid down their lives while serving in the First World War to be remembered by those alive today.
You can visit the Every Man Remembered, incorporating Every Women Remembered, website to look up a specific person, such as a family member, or by searching to find an individual based on name or location. Information on the person you are looking to commemorate can be also be viewed. You'll also be able to find more information by searching the Commonwealth War Graves website: www.cwgc.org.
Every Man Remembered: for those who serve today
Poppyscotland (formerly The Earl Haig Fund Scotland) was founded in 1921, in the aftermath of the First World War. Today the Armed Forces community can still call on us for help with almost every aspect of daily life.
We spent £3.1 million last year on support services in Scotland for those who need us. And in the coming years, demand for all our welfare services is set to continue to grow as all those men and women who come home from conflicts face new battles – whether that's adjusting to life after losing a limb, starting a new career after leaving the Forces, or coping with post-traumatic stress. Just as veterans did after the First World War, many of them will continue to need us for the rest of their lives.
If you'd like to take part in this unique act of Remembrance, together we can make sure that every Commonwealth man and woman who died during the First World War is remembered. You will also have the opportunity to make a donation to support our work with the Armed Forces community or can do so by visiting our donation page.


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This entry was posted in Maui Vacation Rental Deals and Discounts and tagged Lahaina Vacation Rentals, Maui Vacation Rental by Troy. Bookmark the permalink.


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Q: XmlException was unhandled on C# Windows Phone 7 I'm attempting to open an XML file which is copied as content to the IsolatedStorage when I compile my app and am having some issues with it;

Data at the root level is invalid. Line 1, position 411.

I'm not entirely sure what this means and a trip to my local search engine only expanded my confusion, could anybody please tell me if I'm doing anything drastically wrong or if my data structure is bad please?
Here's my function that loads the data from the file and parses it into variables:
private void ReadData()
{
    using (var store = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication())
    {
        if (store.FileExists("appdata.xml"))
        {
            IsolatedStorageFileStream fileStream = new IsolatedStorageFileStream("appdata.xml", FileMode.Open, store);
            XDocument document;
            using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(fileStream))
            {
                if (reader != null)
                {
                    document = XDocument.Load(reader); // <-- Error occurs here
                    ListBox listBox = new ListBox();

                    var data = from query in document.Descendants("myData")
                               select new DataHolder
                               {
                                   CashData = (string)query.Element("CashData"),
                                   LandGoData = (string)query.Element("LandGoData"),
                                   FreeParkingData = (string)query.Element("FreeParkData"),
                                   CircuitData = (string)query.Element("FullCircuitData"),
                                   AuctionData = (string)query.Element("AuctionData")
                               };
                    listBox.ItemsSource = data;

                    StartCashRule.Text = (string)listBox.FindName("myData");
                }
            }
            fileStream.Close();
        }
    }
}

And here's my xml document:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<RootPath>
    <CashData>Value1</CashData>
    <LandGoData>Value2</LandGoData>
    <FreeParkData>Value3</FreeParkData>
    <FullCircuitData>Value4</FullCircuitData>
    <AuctionData>Value5</AuctionData>
</RootPath>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Thanks to Steven Spielberg and his film Lincoln, we've been hit by a new wave of management wisdom supposedly gleaned from the film's central character. Business Week ran a piece titled "Career Lessons from Spielberg's Lincoln"; the New York Times called theirs "Lincoln's School of Management.". . .


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Trophy hunt ends in victory for Guinea's forest elephants
Written by Tim Knight
Tim has worked closely with FFI since 1999. He has edited &FFI (formerly Fauna & Flora magazine) since its inception in 2001 and is the author of With Honourable Intent - A Natural History of Fauna & Flora International, published in 2017.
Trophy hunting. It's one of the most emotive and divisive issues in conservation today, but Fauna & Flora International (FFI) had no hesitation in endorsing a trophy hunt with a difference earlier this month that saw a number of teams go toe to toe in the heart of the West African rainforest in a bid to claim their pint-sized elephant prize.
World Elephant Day is held each year on August 12th and – without the intervention of FFI and partners – its significance might well have escaped those living in close proximity to the last remaining population of forest elephants in Guinea. With that in mind, FFI staff hit upon the idea of marking the occasion by holding a local football tournament in collaboration with the government wildlife authority, Centre Forestier de N'Zérékoré.
One of the teams holds up a banner promoting World Elephant Day. Credit: FFI
The goal was to raise community awareness – particularly among local youths – about the plight of the pachyderms on their doorstep, to change their perceptions and to kick-start their involvement in protecting these magnificent animals.
As their name implies, forest elephants favour a very different habitat from their more familiar savannah-loving cousins. Forest loss and fragmentation is therefore one of the main threats to their survival. As their habitat is eroded by logging and agricultural encroachment, elephants are increasingly coming into contact with people, and these human-wildlife interactions can often be problematic, with both sides paying a heavy penalty.
Forest elephant caught on camera trap. Credit: FFI/FDA
Local communities in and around Ziama Man and Biosphere Reserve have a complex relationship with the remaining forest elephants, which have enormous cultural and ecological importance in this area. Some people have fallen victim to crop-raiding or suffered other damage, which can lead to retaliation; others have become afraid. FFI is working closely with affected communities to mitigate these issues and ensure that people and elephants are able to live harmoniously side by side.
Ziama represents one of the last remaining large tracts of natural habitat in West Africa and, as such, is a vital refuge not only for a significant proportion of the region's remaining elephants, but also for numerous other forest-dependent species. With support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change (WA BiCC) programme, FFI is working with local partners to preserve the integrity of this crucial landscape and protect the forest elephants that it harbours as part of a transboundary project with Liberia, which aims to maintain forest connectivity between the two countries.
Community engagement is vital to the long-term success of the project, and outreach activities such as this football gala to coincide with World Elephant Day form an essential part of that process, helping us to tackle the root causes of poaching and habitat loss.
The large crowd included hundreds of youths and children. Credit: FFI
As the organisers had hoped, the occasion drew a large and enthusiastic crowd. In a welcome departure from convention, the players wore kits emblazoned with trumpeting elephants – and a slightly less ostentatious FFI oryx – rather than the usual logos of corporate sponsors, thanks to the generous support of USAID.
Koighae Toupou, FFI's Acting Project Manager, Ziama Forest, was delighted with the turnout: "World Elephant Day was an inspiring and emotional occasion for everyone in Sérédou. With over 700 people – men, women and children – participating in the day's events, this promises to be a turning point for Ziama's elephants."
Needless to say, all the teams gave 110%. The proceedings culminated in a pulsating final, eventually won by the boys in blue. To the accompaniment of a chorus of "Allez les bleus!" the victorious captain collected the trophy and held it aloft. All that was missing was a rendition of "We are the (elephant) champions."
The winning team holds aloft the elephant trophy. Credit: FFI
For the losing teams, there was ample consolation in the knowledge that they had contributed to a highly entertaining spectacle. At the end of the day, it was a victory for everyone involved.
In the long run, however, we hope that the real winners will be Guinea's forest elephants. If the tournament – and the goodwill it generated – can help bring an end to the sequence of losses these magnificent animals have suffered, that will be a great result. And it's fair to say we'll be over the moon.
Humans are inextricably linked to the environmental landscape within which our daily lives unfold. We depend completely on nature for a stable climate, clean air and water, and food.
Species on the brink
Almost 8,000 species of fish, amphibian, reptile, mammal and bird are officially categorised as globally threatened, and over 9,600 tree species are in danger of extinction.
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Written by: Tim Knight Senior Writer
Rolling news – Ten species to watch in 2023
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It's found on the Apps screen.
Choose the Device category from the top of the screen.
Don't sweat if you don't see that category; not every Settings app features the category tabs.
On the left side of the Settings app screen, select Lock Screen.
Select the Multiple Widgets item.
Normally you'd be disappointed at this point because you don't see the lock screen brimming with widgets. Silly. You have to add them. To do that, you need to first lock the tablet.
Unlock the tablet, but on the lock screen, swipe the Clock widget (it's really a widget) to one side or the other. You'll see a large plus icon. Touch that plus icon, and then choose a lock screen widget from the displayed list, such as Calendar, Gmail, Digital Clock, or what-have-you.
Multiple widgets can be placed on the lock screen, though you can see only one at a time. Swipe the screen to see others.
To remove a lock screen widget, long-press it. Drag the widget up to the Remove icon and it's gone. You can even remove the Clock widget, in which case only the large plus icon appears on the lock screen.


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Q: How can I map two elements of a tuple to each other using a dictionary in Python? Let's say I have a tuple that has the two elements
(a, b)

How can I create a dictionary that maps the first element to the second so it looks like
{a : b}

I have tried
new_dict = {tup[0]:tup[1]}

but I receive a

TypeError: unhashable type 'list'

A: The error you're receiving means your key a is a list, which can't be used as a key. Something like this
(['item'], 'value')

When what you probably want is
('key', 'value')

Typically, dictionary keys are strings, though not strictly so. They can also be integers or other immutable types. "Immutable" means it can't be updated in place. A list can be updated in place by adding or removing an item, so it can't be properly hashed and, subsequently, can't be used as a key.

A: Your error message suggests that the first item of your tuple is a list. Lists are mutable and therefore can't be dictionary keys, but tuples can. So, convert the would-be key from list to tuple:
new_dict = { tuple(tup[0]), tup[1] }


Did You Know Seasonal Changes To Your Mood, Weight And Overall Hormonal Levels Can Also Impact Your Skin? | HK Butterfly!
Home / Health / Did You Know Seasonal Changes To Your Mood, Weight And Overall Hormonal Levels Can Also Impact Your Skin?
Did You Know Seasonal Changes To Your Mood, Weight And Overall Hormonal Levels Can Also Impact Your Skin?
The holidays are over, the new year is upon us, and ss Old Man Winter really gets rolling here in Colorado, many people across the state will no doubt notice disturbing signs of the times, such as weight gain, or an uptick in fatigue and other hormonal/metabolic symptoms that are no fun to endure. Those with eczema know it's one of the worst times of the year.
Drier skin, which can lead to cracking, chafing and eczema.
Less natural exposure to (safe) amount of sunlight, which can predispose you to lower vitamin D levels, which can in turn hormonally influence the body in diverse ways.
Uncomfortable clothing. The clothes that people tend to wear during the winter can have bad effects on the skin. Wearing wet gloves, for instance, can dry out and damage the skin on the hands. Certain fabrics such as wool can irritate sensitive skin as well, leading to an even itchier winter.
Whipping wind can impact the blood vessels in the face and nose, causing redness and puffiness. The wind further dries out the skin as well.
But the season can have more subtle, indirect effects on all sorts of tissues. For instance, historically, the amount of body fat that people carry fluctuates to a significant degree during the different seasons.
Researchers now believe that this tide-like rise and fall may have something to do with seasonal influences on hormonal systems, in particular on our body's regulation of insulin and blood sugar. As these levels fluctuate, they can cause us to store more fat and feel more lethargic and also potentially influence skin health in many ways.
For instance, too much blood sugar can lead to vascularization problems, which can in turn influence the way your skin looks and how it heals when it encounters damage. Blood sugar levels and other hormones and enzymes can also influence the body's level of inflammation, which can have a dramatic influence on skin health as well.
Immunity levels may also fluctuate during the winter; overexerted immune systems may have a harder time fighting off bacteria, viruses, and fungi that can cause certain skin blemishes.
Obviously, there is no one size fits all answer. However, by paying attention to your whole body health – including your diet, your exercise plan, your family history, and your lifestyle and genes, you may be able to fend off some problems and stay in control of your health.
Of course, it's important to have effective, qualified medical allies help you with your journey to overall wellness (and skincare health). To that end, if you're in need of a dermatologist in Colorado, consider calling or emailing the team here at Mountain View Dermatology to schedule a consultation with our team. Let's make 2015 a productive, fun and above all else healthy year.
This is a guest post by the boulder dermatology office of Mountain View Dermatology – A company offering a wide variety of skin care services including skin cancer treatment.


Lovely low mileage 5dr Golf with excellent service history having just been serviced by ourselves here. The car will come with a new MOT prior to delivery and is in excellent condition both inside and out. This has not been smokers car and is free from pet/dog smells etc.
Stunning looking car in excellent condition both inside and out. Has had one owner from new who has had the servicing done with Renault main dealers. Drives as well as it looks and is a real credit to its former keeper who has not smoked in it or had pets inside.
What a lovely condition car . Hardly a mark inside or out. Has only done 59000 Miles with good history and comes with 2 keys and a new MOT.This car has not been smoked in or had pets inside.It was purchased by ourselves direct from the Volvo garage it was part exchanged at.
Stunning example both inside and out. These must be the best driving small hatchback on the market. Very spacious inside and very appealing to the eye. This comes with great spec including colour sat nav and Bluetooth prep for phone and audio.
Eyes Wide open for this little beauty!!!!! This Qashqai is in superb condition both inside and out and is a real credit to it's previous owner. If you've never owned one of these then you'll just love how well they drive.
STUNNING!! 49000 MILES ONLY with the exceptional 1.4 Tsi engine and 6speed gearbox. Fabulous example both inside and out and has not been smoked in or had pets inside. The car comes with 2 keys full book pack and a fabulous service history and LONG MOT.
Absolute cracker. Full leather seats on this cabriolet along with a fully electric panoramic roof. Seats are in great condition and are a nice colour than the photos suggest. Recently had all new Pirelli tryes and has 8 services in the book to verify the low mileage.
Absolute cracker. Hardly a mark on the car inside or out. It has been cherished by previous keeper who has had all 7 services done with Drive Vauxhall. It has not been smoked in or had pets inside and really is a fantastic example.