Jazz was invented in 1902 by Jelly Roll Morton. Or, so Morton claimed to the editors of ‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not’. They believed it.

Ever since, this music has found itself at the center of controversy. The great pianist, Ignacy Paderewski, called it “a terrible revenge by the culture of the Negroes on that of the whites.” In the 1920’s, the editor of ‘The Etude’ linked jazz to America’s crime rate. Russia’s Maxim Gorky described it in terms of “wild screaming, hissing, rattling, wailing, moaning, cackling.” “Bestial cries are heard,” he wrote; “Neighing horses, the squeal of a brass pig, crying jackasses, amorous quacks of a monstrous toad…” John Philip Sousa charged that “Some of it makes you want to bite your grandmother.”

South Bay BBQ (Pig Bar) — open mic, 8:30 p.m. – Wednesdays (360)943-6900
Live (select) Jams by Music Church — 6:30 -12:00 a.m. — Mondays (fluid!–true jam)
619 Legion Way, SE, Olympia, WA.

Westside Tavern — open mic, 9:00 pm – 1:00 am – Mondays (360) 915-7839
1815 Harrison Ave NW 98502 info@thewestsidetavern.com (Scott Lesman – 3 songs)

Arbutus Folk School — open mic (acoustic), 6:30 – 9:00 pm, 2nd Mondays
Info@ArbutusFolkSchool.org (Mark Iler) details (360) 867-8815
610 4th Ave E., Olympia, WA 98501

Drumming, et al jam @ Hoodsport Library Tuesdays — 6:30 – 9:00 pm
40 N. Schoolhouse Hill Rd, Hoodsport, WA 98549
hosted by Drew Hilsted (360)877-2196

Tugboat Annie, Westbay Dr, Oly, WA — open mic, 9:00 – 12:00 midnight Tuesdays (360)943-1850
2100 West Bay Dr, NW, Olympia, WA 98502

Oly Underground — open mic, 8:00 – 12:00 a.m. Tuesdays (Scott Lesman)
(360) 352-7343 olyunderground.com
109 Legion Way SW, Olympia, WA 98501

Blue Goose Tavern — open mic, Tuesdays @ 6 – 9 p.m. (360)895-8171
1931 Bay St, Port Orchard, WA (Harmonica Dave)

Robin Hood – open mic, 7:00 pm – Wednesdays (360)898-4400; ask Tracey
[normal biz]: Wed, Thurs, Sun 4-8 pm, Fri – Sat, 4-9 pm, closed Mon-Tues
6790 Washington, Rte: 106, Union, WA

Alderbrook Golf & Yacht Club – open mic, 6-8 pm – Thursdays (360) 898-2560
300 E Country Club Drive East, Union, WA 98592 (Randy Baugh)

Hoodsport Coffee Co – jam/open mic, (no longer current)  (360) 877-6732
Thomas & Ruth Beavan (owners/host) serve coffee, sandwiches, rolls, etc–no alcohol
24240 US-101, Hoodsport, WA 98548  (Thomas plays horns & drums)

Oly’s Rhythm & Rye, jazz jam/open mic — Wednesdays @ 9:00 pm (360) 705-0760
311 Capitol Way NE, Olympia, WA (Scott Lesman)

The Manette — open mic, Wednesdays @ 9:30 – 1:00 p.m. (360)792-0801
2113 E. 11th St, Bremerton, WA myspace.com/openmic21 (Lee & Mike)

Brother Don’s — open mic (original), Wednesdays @ 7 – 10 p.m. (360)377-8442
4200 Kitsap Way, Bremerton, WA (Jeff Tasin jefftasin.com)

Bethel Square Restaurant & Lounge — open mic, Wednesdays @ 7 – 10 p.m.
(360)876-1157 (Bobby Inocente) 3965 Bethel Rd, SE, Port Orchard, WA

Oly’s Rhythm & Rye, jazz jam/open mic — Thursdays @ 9:00 pm (360)972-2278
(by Tarik Bentlemsani) (360)705-0760 (This is a fairly structured ‘jam’/open mic)
311 Capitol Way NE, Olympia, WA (or Scott Lesman)

Grove Street Brewhouse — open mic/jam, 6-9, Thursdays (360) 462-2739 (family venue–last jam on 5-5-16, Rick going to El Serape on N. side.)
233 South 1st Street, Shelton, WA 98584

Buzz’s Bar & Grill, jam/open mic — Thursdays @ ~8:30 pm (360) 866-8335
5018 Mud Bay Rd NW Olympia, WA 98502

Slaughter County Brewing Co. — open mic, Thursdays @ 6-9 p.m. (360) 329-2340
1307 Bay St, Port Orchard, WA http://www.slaughtercountybrewing.com

Peace Band’s Jam @ Oly’s Percival Landing (Kissing statue) Fridays, 5:00 – 6:00 pm (Artesian Rumble Arkestra)

40 et 8, Blue Ox Room, downtown Shelton, WA — Where: 40 & 8…in the blue ox room
When: Fri & Sat at 8 pm. to 10:15 pm–open to all acoustic instrument players & public. (bluegrass venue?) 360-426-5060
(This is a year round jam. Contact Duane l. Wilson (360) 426-1782 for info, or email duanelwison@gmail.com w/’shelton jam’ in the subject line to get on the jam reminder list.)
113 W. Cota St, Shelton, WA 98584

Alderbrook Restaurant, alternate Fridays 6:00-9:00 pm (360)898-5500 (360)898-2200
10 E Alderbrook Dr, Union, WA 98592 (gigs…not open mic)

Drumming, et al jam @ Hoodsport Library Saturdays — 5:00 – 9:00 pm
40 N. Schoolhouse Hill Rd, Hoodsport, WA 98549
hosted by Drew Hilsted (360)877-2196

MoonDogs — open mic, Saturdays @ 2 – 5 p.m. (360) 895-2300
714 Bay St, Port Orchard, WA http://www.moondogstoo.com

Fresh Start Deli, alternate Saturdays –Sold/Closed (360)462-4620
2810 E Spencer Lake Rd, Shelton, WA 98584 (cooking classes also offered/held)
(organized by Mick & Laura McCartney, singer/songwriters – Rhythm & Sass,
rhythmandsass.com – (360)463-1840 (Mick’s cell); (360)801-7079 (Laura’s cell)
(pre-jam begins at ~4:00 pm)

Blue Heron Bakery, Oly, WA – open mic (4-6 pm) – SUNDAYS (360)866-2253
4429 Harrison Ave, #108  www.blueheronbakery.com
Olympia, WA 98502

2 Margaritas Restaurant, Union, WA – open mic, (6-9 pm) –  Sundays (360)898-2462;
Hours: Sunday- Thursday 11am-10pm; Friday-Saturday 11am-11pm
5121 E. Hwy 106, Union, WA

O’Malley’s, Oly, WA (bowling alley) — open mic/jam, 6-9, Sundays (360)943-8807
Westside Shopping Center, 2200 Garfield Ave NW, Oly, WA 98502 (Blues Bentley band)

Hi-Fidelity Lounge — open mic, Sundays/Thurs @ 8 – ? p.m. (360)627.9752
2711 6th St, Bremerton, WA 98312 hifidelitylounge.wordpress.com

Rhythm & Rye — Stone Soup jam (invitation), Sundays @ 8 – 12 a.m. (360)705-0760
311 Capitol Way NE, Olympia, WA (Dan Tyak)
https://www.facebook.com/events/269015036614713

Red Dog — jam, Sundays @ 7 – 10 p.m. (Steve Cooley w/Dangerfields & Shawn on sax)
(360)876-1018
2591 SE Mile Hill Dr, Port Orchard, WA 98366

Oly’s Traditions Cafe, 2:30-5:30 pm, 2nd Sundays (Jazz open mic) (360) 705-2819
Song Writer’s Circle, 1st Tuesdays, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
3rd Sunday Bluegrass Jam 2-4:30 pm, at Traditions Cafe (www.traditionsfairtrade.com)
A Bluegrass and Acoustic Music Jam
(This is a 3rd Sunday monthly jam of bluegrass and acoustic musicians)
Intermediate & up, Contact Jordan Bell (bellja6@hotmail.com)
Traditions jams/event schedule
300 5th Ave SW, Olympia, WA 98501

Presbyterian Church (Vince, horn player) open mic, 3rd Sun, 6 – 8 pm (360)432-8696
1430 E Shelton Springs Rd, Shelton, WA 98584

Olympia Jazz Central (events & sessions)

Olympia Folklore Society (events & sessions)

(OFS promotes the preservation of traditional music and folk arts and stands ready to assist in these areas with a pool of knowledgeable advisors, volunteers, and, sometimes, funding.   Call Burt Meyer for info: 866-4296)

***Please leave additional venues to be added in the ‘Comments’ below.***

Jail or No Jail, ‘Outlaw Cook’ Will Feed the Poor

A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT 

Olympia, WA (11-23-14) — Homelessness, drugs, @narchists, poverty, hunger, street violence…they all make for a volatile mix when it comes to public safety and hanging onto the blood of one’s labor. There is a nexus involving the above and a property theft network that stretches throughout the Pacific Northwest, including Olympia–perhaps especially Olympia, when it comes to the spike in car prowls, burglaries, bicycle thefts and related crimes. Professional car thieves…move over! Automobile chop shops now have competition in the form of stolen bicycle chop operations hidden in covert wooded encampments operated by gangs/’families’ of the homeless seeking an income from bicycles stolen from area residents, college campuses, shopping malls, and city streets. Even locked bicycles are not safe in public venues. It’s the new gold rush among the more criminally inclined poor and dispossessed. A surfeit of hypodermic needles gives stark silent testimony of how bad lawlessness in Olympia’s tenderloin district has become. City police seemingly are not able to control it. Area merchants complain, but some may be encouraging or even participating in the problem behind the scene.

Not only is heroin (now cheaper per day than marijuana or booze) plentiful on the city’s streets along with commercial sex, but stolen items hawked by many street denizens. Unfortunately, this includes expensive musical instruments and bicycles. Nor are the merchants of crime’s ill gotten gains necessarily homeless or poor. Some are shop owners, tavern proprietors, and landlords. Huh? Yeah–you heard right: Some of the master thieves are fences and business owners, even musicians and well known personalities familiar to the community.

Here’s how it typically works:  A self absorbed miscreant raised by indulgent parents/grandparents who was never held accountable for his/her actions as a child grows into a deplorable adult who thinks nothing of indulging him/herself at the expense of others. In a community over saturated with misapprehensions of entitlement, it’s easy for these grifters to delude themselves into believing all property is ‘theft’ and, thus, they are merely ‘liberating’ it. A habitual burglar in Brinnon, for example, will steal from homes only occasionally occupied in this remote rural area to fence the stolen goods to his pals in Lewis County who will pay him with drugs he then sells when he returns to Brinnon, etc. They, in turn, will transport the goods to a gas station, et al, in Portland where the stolen merchandise is sold to buyers who have a touch of larceny in their own heart. Today, the internet, Craig’s List, E-Bay, Amazon, and many other online auctions are used to fence the goods to unsuspecting buyers using the shield of anonymity or frequent name changes to shield the criminals from discovery. Sometimes the items, especially music instruments, are destined for Olympia, not Portland. There are 2nd hand stores in the State’s Capitol that knowingly sell them. Again, look for any buffed out or filed identifying marks, brands, make, labels, etc.

These operations needn’t be isolated to only fencing stolen goods, but can involve alternative payment in the form of drugs, alcohol, forged identity documents, marijuana, counterfeit currency, guns, and even other stolen goods. And, they sometimes involve business owners/shop keepers who appear to be simple proprietors manning tattoo shops, 2nd hand music shops, and internet traders. Evidence of identifying trademarks, brand names, and serial numbers being removed/defaced should be a red flag for any honest customers. But, the vendors of these purloined items count on the larcenous client as well as the fatuously ignorant.

How To Determine If A Musical Instrument Is Stolen:

Musical instruments can be large investments or have intensely sentimental value. With such an investment, it can be heart breaking when an instrument is stolen. It can also be a major headache to purchase a musical instrument only to find out later that it was previously stolen and must be returned, often for only a limited refund if a refund is available at all. This article lists the steps necessary to avoid the purchase of a stolen musical instrument.

Instructions

Violent Predator Released Into Olympia After Slap On The Wrist

Kiel S. Duggins

Olympia activist ‘long haired’ David Fawver

David, circa 2005 @ Oly’s Artesian

by Tahoe Jones

Olympia, WA (11-13-14) — RE: The dual assault on Long Haired David

David had told me of a person who owed his next door neighbor payment for a bicycle. The neighbor is disabled, and David took it very seriously. I was sitting on the leaf bench with Steven La’Fontaine, and David pulled up on his bike and parked it. offered us some cupcakes, which we declined, so he walked back to his bike to put them away. He stood there for a bit. That man apparently was walking by last night 11/13/14 at about 10:30.
David confronted him over the debt. There was an escalating heated argument. But then, the man broke off the altercation and walked away towards Franklin St.

I turned to Steven, and said that it looked like it was over, no need to intervene. The guy got about 15 foot away, then turned and rushed back and up to David. He grabbed David by the front of his vest, then while screaming in his face, slowly leaned both of them through the window. Both locked together.

I rushed over, and tried to pull the guy off of David’s chest, but they were so tight in each others grip, I could not move them at all. There were huge glass shards left hanging down. I feared they would come down on them and me, so I grabbed the biggest ones and yelled for the people behind me to pull them out. Three guys grabbed and yanked them together out of the opening.

Oly’s Cafe LOVE

The guy ran off, again towards Franklin, his original direction before anything. I helped David over to the bench, he sat down, and was livid about the incident. There was no visible blood I could see. I went back over to the window to see what I could do about those hanging shards before someone else got hurt. As I turned back to look at David, he got up and took three steps towards the street, when Kiel ran out and punched David in the side of the head. It was a serious “prize fighter” stance and blow. Then he ran away around the corner. David was unconscious from the punch. He made no gesture to protect himself from his head hitting the street. He did not move at all. I rushed over beside him, counting seconds since I saw him go unconscious. he was out for 9 seconds. He was breathing, and finally responded when I said his name. I kept him from getting up until the paramedics showed up, but when they did, he insisted on sitting up. brushing bloody hair from his face, he slowly realized where he was, remembered the window.

At that point I stood back and answered OPD’s questions and whatever else I could do. The police chief said they had caught Kiel a couple blocks away on Fifth. I do not know the name of the first guy who pushed David through the window. It had been told to me twice, but I did not remember it.

David Helping Homeless Man

Duggins’ Earlier Assault On An Olympia Metro Bus Driver

(Circa 2-27-14) Man Attacks Olympia Bus Driver after Confrontation | Brutally Hit attacked by Passenger

Brutal Olympia Bus Attack Caught on Camera | Driver Get Beaten Terribly by Passenger

Brutal Olympia, Wash., bus attack caught on camera A simple route along the west side of Olympia became a ride from hell Tuesday afternoon.

Surveillance video from the Intercity Transit bus shows a horrific attack on a driver after a confrontation and yelling turned into a beatdown.

The video shows a man swearing and harassing passengers, which drew the attention of the driver.

“I told you once. I’m not gonna tell you again,” the driver said to the man, warning him to tone down his language or else he would be thrown off the bus.

Shortly afterward, the driver pulled the bus over and went to the back of the bus to get the man to leave.

“If you hit me in the face, we will fight to the death,” the man said to the driver.

The driver continued to tell the man to leave and he came close, standing right next to the open door. But the man would not leave and the driver eventually tried to shove him out.

The man then began to pummel the driver, hitting him more than two dozen times. One passenger tried to pull the man off but the man paused only long enough to mock the driver.

“You bleeding? Is that real blood? Let me taste it,” he said.

The man eventually left the bus and the passengers and the driver called 911. The driver went to the hospital. Suspect in custody after brutal attack on Olympia bus driver (w/video) A transit bus driver in Olympia is at home recovering Wednesday after he was beaten by a passenger.

Intercity Transit spokeswoman Kris Fransen says the driver suffered cuts, bruises and a fractured nose. He was treated at a hospital and released.

The 24-year-old passenger accused of beating the driver is being held in Olympia City Jail on investigation of third-degree assault. He has a court hearing Wednesday.

KOMO-TV reports (click–>REPORT) the Tuesday afternoon violence aboard an Intercity Transit bus was captured on the bus’s surveillance video.

After verbally warning the passenger to tone down his language, the bus driver stopped the bus and walked back to tell the man to leave.

In the video, the driver finally appears to try to shove the man out. That’s when the man started hitting the driver. One passenger tried to pull the man off.

When the man eventually left the bus, passengers and the driver called 911.

The driver has worked for the transit agency for seven years.

Surveillance video shows brutal attack on bus driver An Olympia bus driver was attacked by a rider after an argument between the two erupted. The violence was caught on camera Tuesday afternoon. WARNING:Video contains graphic language and some viewers may find it disturbing.

Police said the Intercity Transit bus driver was on his route on the west side of Olympia when he and a rider began to argue. The driver then stopped and ordered the man off the bus.

Surveillance video showed the two men at first pushing one another. The rider then began punching the driver in the face multiple times while screaming obscenities. The rider then fled.

Witnesses called police, but officers couldn’t find the attacker. He was found nearly two hours later at an IT transit center downtown after transit employees who saw photos of the incident recognized the man and called police. He was arrested and taken to the Olympia City Jail on third-degree assault charges. RAW VIDEO: Passenger beats bus driver in Olympia, Washington A surveillance camera captured a beating that injured a bus driver in Olympia, Wash.

Intercity Transit spokeswoman Kris Fransen says the driver suffered cuts, bruises and a fractured nose in Tuesday’s attack. He was treated at a hospital and released.

The 24-year-old passenger accused of beating the driver is being held on investigation of third-degree assault. He has a court hearing Wednesday.

After warning the passenger to tone down his language, the bus driver stopped the bus and walked back to tell the man to leave. In the video, the driver appears to try to shove the man out. That’s when the man started hitting the driver.

One passenger tried to pull the man off. Passengers and the driver called 911. The driver has worked for the transit agency for seven years.

NOTE: The video shows graphic violence, viewer discretion is advised. Video Captures Bus Passenger Attacking Driver Kris Fransen Attack on Bus Driver Bus Driver Attack Bus Attack Video Olympia Bus Attack Washington Crime Caught on Tape Crime News
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A surveillance camera captured a beating that injured a bus driver in Olympia, Wash.

Intercity Transit spokeswoman Kris Fransen says the driver suffered cuts, bruises and a fractured nose in Tuesday’s attack. He was treated at a hospital and released.

The 24-year-old passenger accused of beating the driver is being held on investigation of third-degree assault.

by Tahoe Jones (11-14-14)

Olympia, WA — When Kiel was first released after the bus driver beating, I went to him and tried to assess his condition and attitude. I decided to keep an extra sharp lookout over him, and warned any potential persons of the danger.

He was remote, and non-committal. Not quite what you would call stable. Two-three times a day I would see and talk with him a bit.

I spoke with Kiel moments before the first argument. He was walking by and I asked him where he was heading, did he have a place to sleep. He said he didn’t have one, and I made a couple of suggestions for cover. At that point the argument started, and Kiel walked off around the corner. I did not see him come back, and never expected anything like this. As far as I can tell, Kiel and the other guy did not know each other. Kiel was not involved in any way, before he rushed out and hit David.

Someone with influence, needs to make sure that he is not medicated, cleaned up and certified out the door, into our laps again. He was gone 90 days for that bus driver beating. The powers that be, will see this as a “lesser” offence, if you let them. And put him back out. Don’t let them do it. I for one, am tired of watching over him. Waiting.

Long Haired David Fawver hospitalized following altercation

by Amelia Dickson (Daily Olympia journalist)

Downtown Olympia activist David Fawver, who goes by the name Long Haired David, was hospitalized Thursday night following an altercation outside of Cafe Love, according to the Olympia Police Department.

Kiel S. Duggins, a 24-year-old Olympia man, was arrested for second-degree assault following the incident, and is being held at the Thurston County Jail. Thurston County Superior Court Judge Anne Hirsch set bail at $50,000 at a Friday afternoon court appearance.

Department spokeswoman Laura Wohl said the altercation began with a dispute over a bicycle in front of the cafe, located on the 200 block of Fourth Avenue. Fawver and another man began shoving each other and fell through the cafe’s front window.

Several people rushed forward and pulled the two men out of the glass, Wohl said. When Fawver stepped back onto the sidewalk, he stumbled into Duggins, who had been watching the altercation.

Duggins responded by punching Fawver in the head, causing Fawver to lose consciousness.

“It sounds like he just hauled off and hit him,” Wohl said. “And he hit him pretty hard.”

Fawver was transported to Providence St. Peter Hospital with a concussion and broken facial bones, Wohl said.

According to the Olympia Police Department, Duggins is the same man who assaulted an Intercity Transit bus driver Feb. 25. The man was sentenced to eight months in custody Sept. 25 with credit for time served.

Hirsch made note of the previous case during the Friday afternoon court appearance, and cited it as a reason for the high bail.

Rob Richards, program manager for the Downtown Ambassador Program, said one of his employees has been in contact with Fawver since the incident, staying with him overnight in the hospital. He said Fawver regained consciousness, and was released from the hospital Friday afternoon.

“This morning he asked my employee to contact a glass shop so that he could pay for the replacement of Cafe Love’s window,” Richards said. “He felt so bad that the window was broken that he wanted to pay for it. So I know he’s going to be OK.”

Fawver’s friends and community members donated enough money to cover the cost of the window replacement on Friday, Richards said.

Fawver became a fixture of the community in 1998 when he co-founded the Emma Goldman Youth and Homeless Outreach Project, Richards said. Since then, he has continued his work with that project and other organizations.

He’s also been a proponent of needle exchange programs, launching a one-man protest when Thurston County cut back its program in 2005.

“He’s always been a figurehead and a well-respected, beloved person in the downtown street community,” Richards said.

Tahoe Jones, a voluntarily homeless activist, is a friend of Fawver’s and witnessed the incident around 10:45 p.m. He said two giant shards of glass were hanging down after the first man grabbed Fawver after an argument and pushed him through the window. However, a second man rushed over and punched Fawver in the head, knocking him out cold, Tahoe said.

“It was totally out of the blue,” Tahoe said.

Cafe Love co-owner Joe Hickox said the plate glass window measured 9.3 feet tall by 3.6 feet wide. He is miffed at paying a $250 insurance deductible, but glad to learn Fawver is recovering and will return to the downtown community.

“He’s a nice guy. Everybody knows him,” Hickox said. “He’s out there helping people all the time.”

Kiel S. Duggins

We’ve all known someone who is remarkable by virtue of being totally indifferent to the suffering of those they manipulate in their belief worrying about work should be avoided at all cost because somebody else will always take care of that–and if you haven’t, then you should. Life would be incomplete without one Cecilia or Gold Dust Woman to grant us perspective. After all, without them, how would we ever appreciate the genuine and true lover in our lives?–be they homespun and plain, artists or masters of refrain, divas or sultry dames, fundamentally…they’re all the same.

Rock on Gold Dust Woman.
Take your silver spoon, dig your grave.
Heartless challenge, pick your path and I’ll pray.
Wake up in the morning,
See your sunrise loves go down.
Lousy lovers pick their prey but they never cry out loud.
Did she make you cry? Make you break down?
Shatter your illusions of love?
And is it over now? Do you know how? Pick up the pieces and go home.
Rock On ancient Queen–follow those who pale in your shadow.
RULERS MAKE BAD LOVERS.
You’d better put your kingdom up for sale…up for sale.
Did she make you cry?
Make you break down?
Shatter your illusions of love?
Well, is it over now? Do you know how? Pick up the pieces and go home.
Well, did she make you cry?
Make you break down?
Shatter your illusions of love?
Now tell me, is it over now?
Do you know how? Pick up the pieces and go home.
Go home.
Go home…..

JUBILATION!–She Loves Me Again!!

Woman gets life for killing, cooking neighbor

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla — A Florida woman accused of cooking her neighbor after strangling and dismembering him has been sentenced to life in prison.

A Volusia County judge sentenced Angela Stoldt, 42, on Dec. 5. She was previously convicted of first-degree murder.

Authorities say Stoldt tried to cremate 36-year-old James Sheaffer’s body in April 2013 by putting several body parts in an oven and in pots on the stove. When that didn’t work, she put his body parts in bags and threw them in the trash.

Authorities say Stoldt relied on Sheaffer for money, although their relationship was platonic, and that money was the motive for the murder.

According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Stoldt said she killed Sheaffer in self-defense.

DEBTORS’ PRISONS AMERICAN STYLE

This is the story of Hali Wood (et ux), a seventeen-year-old from Columbiana, Alabama who is deeply in debt to the private probation company, JCS.

FT. LAUDERDALE: “If you’re poor–just STOP being poor!”

[Like Olympia’s Ben Charles, a resolute native American pastor with a street ministry that insists on feeding the hungry in the face of municipal opposition, Good Samaritans are under attack by ordinances across the nation making poverty a virtual crime and those who attempt to assist the poor, criminals.]

by Katie Zavadski

Fort Lauderdale, FL (11-4-14) — Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, wasn’t kidding about its new law, which established strict regulations on where organizations can feed the city’s homeless residents. Two local pastors and 90-year-old Arnold Abbott were cited for violating the ordinance Tuesday, and each face up to 60 days in prison and a $500 fine.

The city has about 10,000 homeless residents, but as of last month, outdoor food stands need permits or special permission and can’t be closer than 500 feet to a residential property. (Owners must also provide toilets.) Proponents of the law say that distributing food to the needy is “sanctioning homelessness.”

These restrictions don’t sit well with Abbott, who runs a nonprofit called Love Thy Neighbor, which he founded after his wife’s death. He intends to be out there feeding the homeless again on Wednesday, whether the police cite him again or not.

Volunteers with Love Thy Neighbor were given notices to appear for sharing food with homeless people under Fort Lauderdale’s new “sharing ban” regulations. They were forced to shut down the sharing and relocate to private property. Unfortunately the people most in need of food aid are in this area where the sharing ban enforcement is being focused…

[“But, if you feed them, they will come! The poor have no ‘skin’ in the game!” Yeah, that’s the problem with the poor, they have too much skin left.]

Is Olympia beholden to a neo-liberal cabal of kontrol freaks?

Declined — Try Again?

Olympia, WA — Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Lenny Bruce and George Carlin were luminaries in fighting for the right of performing artists to fully exercise their inalienable rights pursuant to 1st Amendment principles. Not surprisingly, they were pursued and persecuted for doing so–Hell hath no fury like a scorned prude…so much so that Lenny succumbed to the badgering by ending his own life. Although a seminal figure in the free speech movement, and a turning point in American jurisprudence, this historical fact seems to have fallen on tin ear in Olympia’s environs.
(http://amicuscuria.com/wordpress/?p=15987)

At a jazz jam session in Olympia’s Traditions Cafe (3rd Sunday of each month @ 2:30p – 5:30p) across from the Capitol Campus Heritage Park, a participant recommended Oly’s Jazz Central website to stay in touch with the local jazz scene and venues calendar. It seemed like a good enough idea to invite a very polished local jazz trumpet player, C Davis, to check it out. C wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic about those behind the digital site. The conversation instantly came to mind when ‘Oly Jazz Central’ sent an e-mail declining the bid to join the menage because the chosen avatar (above image) was deemed ‘inappropriate’. [That’s a euphemism for “my biases are more important than yours”.]

The following retort was sent and is posted here by way of educating the public as to how the rights we hold as inalienable in America must be exercised or we will lose them. Olympia is a classic example of how this erosion of fundamental liberties takes hold in fact.

Message:

Olympia Jazz Central, in truth, is hardly the only malcontent when it comes to the free speech of others in Thurston County. The State’s Capitol is rife with latte’ swilling, gun snatching, gender bending sanctimonious hypocritical constipated kontrol freaks and…performing artists, no less. One example can be seen in Heather Wood, an aspiring professional vocalist, artist, and bee colony environmentalist who recently graduated from TESC.

Heather Wood

Prior to a tempestuous parting, Heather was greatly indulged to help her meet basic needs for herself  and 7-year old daughter, including 2 bicycles, purchase of a TCTV membership, tools for her bee hive production, dinners, transportation, business consulting, and a mutual pledge of cooperation. As a small recompense, a pop-up ad containing the above avatar image was accepted by her on her evergreen bee sanctuary web site, only to be deleted without notice upon the 1st criticism by a complete stranger in an internet cafe. Loyalty, gratitude, and respect for free speech/expression are foreign currency in Olytown.

Censorship, it would seem, goes hand in glove with Olympia’s march toward becoming a virtual gated city, not only in law, but culturally and in spirit. The State Capitol’s mean streets are replete with criminalizing an entire underclass (the homeless) by definition, skyrocketing property crime rates, deliberate failure to provide public restrooms after hours as a vacuous effort to bring law & order including censorship by this bastion of privileged upper middle-class white swells who stand as gatekeepers against the uncouth and great unwashed.

The lowdown on Montana’s most notorious lowlifes:

by Eric Dietrich

Henry Plummer

In May 1863, Henry Plummer was elected sheriff of Bannack, the town that would become Montana’s first territorial capital. The following January, he was hanged on his own gallows by Vigilantes, who blamed him for organizing a criminal gang responsible for more than 100 murders.

The truth of his guilt is far from settled — though some say he shed some light on the matter when, approaching the noose, he offered to trade his life for his weight in gold from a hidden stash. When his effort at bargaining failed, he asked his executioners instead for “good drop,” meaning a quickly broken neck.

It’s unclear whether he got the swift death he wanted, but his corpse didn’t get to rest easy itself. His skull, stolen from the grave by a pair of drunken coal minors, is reported to have ended up displayed for several years in a saloon before disappearing.

Jack Slade

Jack Slade, another victim of Montana’s Vigilantes, had spent much of the late 1850s and early 1860s as a superintendent for stagecoach routes between the East and California. He developed a reputation for enforcing order with often-brutal methods — shooting and killing at least one subordinate, for instance.

After being fired by his employer for drunkenness, he ran afoul of Virginia City’s vigilantes in 1864, where he was lynched for disturbing the peace. [A metaphor for TCTV?] His widow, swearing that he wouldn’t be buried in this “damned territory,” shipped his remains to Salt Lake City with a keg of whiskey.

Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan

Harvey Logan, or “Kid Curry” as he is better known, came to Montana when he was 16. He led a reportedly lawful existence at first, trying his hand at ranching south of Landusky. That came to an end when a feud saw him shoot a saloon owner.

After skipping town for Wyoming, Kid Curry ended up as part of a gang eventually known as the Wild Bunch, along with George Parker and Harry Longabaugh, better known themselves as “Butch Cassidy” and the “Sundance Kid.”

The Wild Bunch’s string of legendary robberies included one of the most successful train robberies in U.S. history, when, in July 1901, they held up a Great Northern Railway train west of Malta, and got away with $41,500 in unsigned tender.

Kid Curry was arrested later that same year in Tennessee for forging bank notes. After escaping from prison in 1903, his path is somewhat unclear, but some say he ended up dying in a gunfight after a botched 1904 train robbery in Colorado.

Christopher William “Shorty” Young’

“Shorty” Young was broke when he arrived in Havre in 1894. Over the next 35 years, however, he built an operation that was said to rival the vice empire of famed Chicago mobster Al Capone.

After making enough gambling to buy out the boss he had operated a roulette wheel for, Young built up gambling and prostitution establishments, including the Mint Saloon and the Montana European Hotel and Grill, more commonly called the Honky Tonk. During the Prohibition, his ruthless “Havre Bunch” trafficked liquor from Canada through Havre, reportedly delivering to every state except Maine.

Young’s empire, however, began crumbling after Montanans voted to end prohibition in 1926, and he was raided by federal agents in 1929. When he died in 1944, only 50 friends attended his funeral. In an act of civic generosity, he left his property and remaining money to Havre’s “poor and needy.”

Ted Kaczynski

A one-time Berkeley math professor, Theodore Kaczynski came to Montana in the 1970s, living in a 10-by-12-foot cabin outside of Lincoln.

He acquired the nickname by which he is better known, the “Unabomber,” through a series of 16 mail bombs he sent between 1978 and 1995, killing three people and injuring 23, apparently in an attempt to protest the impact of industrialization and modern technology.

He was apprehended in 1996, after the FBI persuaded the New York Times and Washington Post to publish his 35,000-word manifesto on industrial society and his brother, David, came forward with his suspicion about the Unabomber’s identity.

Now 72, Kaczynski was sentenced in 1998 to life without parole and is held in a supermaxium security prison near Florence, Colo.