One year ago today: June 24, 2017, Winter Haven.
Five years ago today: June 24, 2013, real pumpernickel is $9/loaf.
Nine years ago today: June 24, 2009, lose those credit cards!
Random years ago today: June 24, 2008, I’ve done this before.
Still no contact with Twood, the other guitarist. Once again, for how many times now, I find myself taking stock of where things are going. I simply, no matter how hard I try, cannot put on a good show playing only the guitar. What I do have is a unique bass show and what it takes to solo with it. After watching “Coyote Ugly”, maybe I should hit a few local open mics, the traditional way to meet other musicians. The drawback to that is historically the venue has not produced better results, and in some ways is an expensive and time-consuming option that attracts guitarists who excel only at mediocrity.
I was infuriated to read a Tampa headline that stated a defendant hurt his case by acting as his own counsel. I believe the courts should be required to drop a lot of procedural rigmarole when that happens. Otherwise, the temptation for the courts and lawyers to indulge in job protectionism by over-complicating the trial process is irresistible. I think the old saying that only a fool defends himself can only mean if the court is allowed a free hand to make it so. As it was, the court and newspapers ridiculed the man for stating that the police witnesses against him had lied and there was no proof he had committed any crime. Instead of following up on these points, they disallowed them because he presented them in the wrong order or some equivalent bullshit.
That’s correct. Even if what he said was true, they used procedure to quash his defense on those grounds. Each of these incidents gnaws away at public respect for the courts, and each is another step toward defining the enemies within, the enemies “domestic”. A court system is corrupt it if does not allow the best possible defense for an individual if that means defending himself. It is also a major fail. I think the guy was indeed guilty of heroine trafficking, but that is not the topic being discussed here. Some may say we cannot allow the courts to fall into the realm of allowing self-counsel, but yes we can if that is the price of liberty. Even saying we cannot is precisely the type of dishonest job racket that I’m pointing at by letting the courts write their own ticket.
As it was, the court used their own system to sidestep having to prove the cops didn’t lie, which is like pretending if they did lie, it is a separate issue. Sorry, there is only one side of that whole formula that is Constitutional. Or how about the Tampa Bay times publishing that letter to the editor where the lady said she was glad white people would lose their majority status in America by 2045 instead of 2050. She said good, because white people had it coming. Her last name was more than twelve letters long and if she had said the same about anybody non-white, it would be classified as hate literature. She’s the type that once the white man is gone, she thinks somebody else is going to keep on signing the welfare checks.
Perseverance Valley.
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There it is. At noon, the e-mail from Twood. Rehearsal is set for Wednesday. He’s 70, you know. And he still works for a living. This happens in America more than most people think, but then most countries don’t have the social programs that make working until you drop such a lamentable event. He’s still enthusiastic, so that’s a plus. It’s almost as if his lack of playing for the past twenty years is a good thing, meaning less damage that needs undoing. The twenty songs we’ve already played were musically consistent and above average. That’s all I’m asking for, above average. We don’t have to outrun the bear.
I accidentally bought the wrong brand of Raiman. I eschew anything beef flavored, but there must have been a package mixed in with the chicken. Guess who bought it? From years of not eating beef, it was a peculiar experience, because it doesn’t taste like what I remember. We had steak so often growing up that I never associated it with being a treat, or not something you’d drive downtown for on a special occasion. The fact that the aroma of food is documented to evoke memories, it also means it might be possible to forget a flavor. Anyway, I’m posing the question in case anybody out there knows another explanation why beef flavor doesn’t taste so real to a former consumer of hamburger in great quantities.
Anyway, back to Twood. He’s proof you don’t need to be fantastic on the guitar, just do the homework. We already sounded better than the last several bands I’ve heard, so let’s see what he’s learned since last month. As for the rest of today, the summer rains have arrived. If you’ve never been in the tropics, it’s hard to imagine a blinding rainstorm while it’s 96°F outside. Earlier I had driven up to Twood’s place and left a note on the door. Nobody home, no car, but maybe he was in church. On the return leg, I stopped in Auburndale to find that Cowgirl’s pub. It is just seven miles from Twood’s place. I think I found it and snapped this picture. That’s a cowgirl silhouette, wouldn’t you say?
Dang, my battery didn’t perk. That means $60 for a new unit, with trade-in. I bought the primer for the interior and with these purchases, just over half the allocated startup money will be spent. The books are set up, I used the “factory” model to design the method. That’s where you take direct materials and direct labor, and add overhead to assemble a product available for sale. It’s not ideal, but it’s the easiest for non-accounting types to fathom. It separates variable costs from fixed costs, which makes the most sense to most people. From an accounting standpoint, well, separating costs can lead to certain inaccuracies.
ADDENDUM
Of the business structures available, I’ve chosen the LLC. The C and S corporations had advantages, but not so a propreitorship or partnership. And in this age of less than perfect credit scores, there is also a need to protect business information at the ownership level as well. For all the legal hoopla about the rules, just keep in mind if you are a corporation, you must behave like one. This is not a problem for me, but I recall the days when people would set up corporations just for the tax advantages. I had originally planned on doing this.
People would buy a yacht or airplane on credit, declare it as their office, then write it off as a deduction. They would run up bills all over town, then declare bankruptcy, and start over again the next day. Credit cards came pre-approved in the mail, it was not uncommon for people to walk out of bankruptcy court and next week receive new credit cards. Bankruptcy meant they were not in debt, so their credit was good again. Of course, just around the age when I could have done this legal scam, the bankruptcy laws changed. Now, the debt follows you for life. But there was a time when it was too good to be true.
It was an argument I’d had many times with my parents. Don’t be stupid, they’d say, if that was that easy, everybody would be doing it. That was a cop-out, of course. Like brain surgery, it is easy to those who have learned how to do it. These days, you never really recover from bankruptcy. You might think this was a new thing from the creditor standpoint, but it has a precedent that is thousands of years old. Remember “The Coffee Trader”? Jews can only declare bankruptcy to non-Jews. This condition was merely expanded to include everybody.
There are other facets of corporations that changed, and you be careful because few sources stress the importance of this. When it comes to retained earnings and tax deferrals, for instance, your operations must act like a corporation, or the authorities can declare it was not a real corporation at all. If you don’t have adequate capitalization, or don’t pay the bills on time, or fail to file the annual articles, that could be reason enough to lose your corporate status. Then the collectors will go after your personal assets.
I’ve always been leery of food service due to the danger of being sued. Thus, I’m taking no chances. An LLC has members, not partners. So unlike a partnership, each member has his own limited liability, so I can’t be sued for the negligence of others. One thing I don’t like, however, is the requirement to file details of each member. Hence, I may form two LLCs, once again to keep personal data from prying eyes. As I’ve repeatedly said, if you are not protecting your private information, nobody is doing it for you.
Mind you, there was that decision that the cops require a warrant to triangulated cell phone data. This barely made mention, but trust me, it will become a landmark in regards to personal freedom and liberty. It is the most momentous legal decision of the century and I believe it was heavily influenced by events in Europe. But I still think until the exact wording of what the cops say to get a warrant signed are made available to the defendant, along with the judge’s warrant-signing history, even that is not going far enough. And the case should be dropped if the police over-word their probable cause, or the judge shows an established pattern of favoritism away from presumption of innocence.
[Author’s note: this is not a clear notion to many people. A warrant must be based on reasonable and probable cause, not merely suspicion. The mere fact of crime should never be enough for the police to get a warrant, there is supposed to be a direct link between the crime and the suspect, and all too often the warrants are signed without this provision. As it stands, there is no obligation for either the police or the judge involved to reveal their conversation that led to the warrant.
I’m also against the allowance of victimless “plain view” charges when they arise from a warrant issued for other purposes. That would be where the police get a warrant to search for stolen goods and unexpectedly discover a marijuana plant or something. If it isn’t on that warrant, it is not plain view, therefore there was no reasonable or probable grounds. They should confiscate or destroy the plant, but as for pressing charges, not if I was in charge. The important word here is “victimless”.]
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