Skip Kaltenheuser: We Surely Need an Army of Howies Now

This continues our tributes and reminiscences about DownWithTyranny's founder Howie Klein. For others in this series, click on the tag "Howie" at the end of any of these posts.

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Howie Klein, by Nancy Ohanian

By Skip Kaltenheuser

I write this from the Philippines, reflecting on our intrepid traveler who has traveled on. Perhaps Howie is revisiting the Hippie Trail from London to New Delhi and other routes of the far flung days of his youth.

I didn’t know Howie during his impressive career in music, and wasn’t aware of all the amazing musicians and bands he helped gain a foothold, from his DJ days to his years successfully shepherding Reprise Records, the venerable label created by Frank Sinatra.

I didn’t know the accolades that found him as a champion of free speech and an advocate for progressive voices. Those can be partially surveyed in obits by Variety: "Howie Klein, Top Executive at Sire and Reprise Records, DJ and Political Activist, Dies at 77", and Billboard: "Howie Klein, Longtime Reprise President and Free Speech Advocate, Dies at 77".

I stumbled across Howie's wild and free-roaming blog, DWT, with its intriguing offerings on everything under the political sun. A slow writer, I was stunned at how Howie fired words like a Gatling gun, one topic falling after another. When I reached out to him pitching a piece promoting Bernie in the 2016 primaries, Howie was welcoming. For better or worse, his encouragement was what got me scribbling on politics again, which I will always appreciate. Even better, Howie allowed me to murder the elements of style. No prosecutions thus far.

Here’s my first piece for Howie: "Reflections on an Election Year When It Finally Hit the Fan Reflections on an Election Year When It Finally Hit the Fan". Like the majority of my offerings, it appeared in his older DWT format, now mostly lost to the Internet’s UpsideDown.

I didn’t always agree with Howie on every point. For example, I never really bought Russiagate. I couldn’t swear Howie did, it might have been just too good a needle for him to resist. That doesn’t mean I was above having fun while hinting at my skepticism. It’s touched on in this scribble on the first inauguration of Cheeto Caligula: "Inauguration Day Weather Forecast: 54 Decrees, Cloudy, Light Wind, Chance of Golden Showers".

I was frustrated that Russiagate was such a focus for many Democrats at the expense of time better spent explaining to the public the real damage and corruption underway behind the scenes. Not Howie’s sole focus, I hasten to say. His Gatling gun strafed the waterfront.

But for Democrats like Schiff and Schumer and their media support dogs, so earnestly repeating their recycled talking points, one couldn’t help but wonder if they were running interference for a different culprit of foreign influence. Certainly I believed in Israelgate. Howie let me fire away. With the horror we all see every day, that corruption is as painfully obvious as stepping on a nail. Unless you’re in the bought and paid for bleachers of Congress, or in media intimidated by the billionaire bullies.

The great irony of Russiagate, one Howie would appreciate, is that Cheeto Caligula couldn’t be doing any more damage to Americans and their freedoms, or to the world at large, than if Putin had a walkie-talkie under Cheeto’s pillow, suggesting, “Why don’t you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?" The demented grifter has already set in motion measures that, unchecked, will speed the deaths of millions around the globe.

Early on, I also quibbled over the play of Trump as Hitler, thinking it over the top. How quaint of me that is now. Howie knew the likes of Trump, and of the Steve Miller ilk, and what they'd get away with if allowed.

To paraphrase Sun Tzu, you know people by their enemies. Howie's rogues' gallery was unsurpassed. Fearless as his road trips in the dicey far flung, he happily alienated the purveyors of bipartisan hypocrisy, assailing the corporate Dems who foisted GOP-lite candidates on us, selling us out to the Big Money.

As I’d missed much of his writing of late, I wondered what Howie most wanted to impart as he raged against the dying of the light. Going back and reading Howie’s posts of the last half year, the distillation of the values he prioritized, the importance of his uncorrupted voice was clear. I appreciated the insights into his life, the around-the-corner correlations that Howie shared toward the end.

• This piece from September 29th, which starts “Although the first time I went to Morocco I was hanging out with Jimi Hendrix…”

• His Cancer Diaries, natch, which show how to rage, rage against the dying light, but do so with class and humor. They're for anyone who has already struggled, personally or with the helplessness of a loved one’s struggle.

• In particular, this, from August 29th: "Cancer Diaries: Agency In The Face Of The Unthinkable— Negotiating With My Own New Body". [I strongly recommend reading this; it's one of Howie's best pieces. –TN]

• Reading the comments to his work, it's clear his personal revelations touched many as we inevitably contemplate mortality, allegedly a unique human enterprise. (But I wonder, what of elephant graveyards?)

• There are also his settled opinions on musical meanderings, like this one from Sept. 13, "Sorry To Say So But The Beatles Built Cathedrals, While The Stones Built… Bonfires". [Another great read. –TN]

• Howie’s August series on failed republics and their comparisons to America, were among his warnings on hitching a ride in a handcart to Hell.

• Recent columns stepped up his revulsion at our forced complicity with genocide. From July 30th, "AIPAC Is A Reverse Litmus Test Now— No Progressives For Genocide".

• He personalized his own situation on Sept. 9th: "Living on Edge— And Thinking About Gaza’s Endless Siege". [From the piece: "My own suffering feels small by comparison. And yet, in some tiny way, it connects me to theirs." –TN]

No doubt Howie realized early on that once a country covers for and enables genocide, it has tumbled into anything-goes territory. As we now see, in Trump’s America anything goes.

• His jabs against bipartisan hypocrisy on this matter showed no quarter. Knives out for Schumer and Jeffries were extra rusty. From Sept. 14th, "How Is Hakeem Jeffries’ Silence On Gaza Genocide Any Less Complicit Than Trump’s And The GOP’s?"

• From August 11th, "America’s Real Enemy Isn’t Just Trump… It’s Also The Democratic Party Establishment’s Cowardice".

[TN: Here's the lead image from the Jeffries piece. It shows Howie's feelings about Democratic complicity with the genocide.]

Where would Howie be training his gatling gun now? Perhaps he’d be reminding us of the warnings of George Orwell as billionaire bullies like Keith Ellison purchase legacy media.

His targets would likely include the despicable among Democrats and their Big Money contributors who can claim big credits for Israel’s success in getting America’s political structure to mirror Israel’s — one page after another copied from the authoritarian's handbook.

I’ve read recently that Rahm Emanuel is testing the waters for a run for President. Do a search on him at DWT for an idea of what Howie would do to him now to warn the Democrats.

Gavin Newsom wouldn’t fare much better under Howie’s gun. Do we really need any more political leaders who say, at this late stage, they’re confused over what genocide is?

Howie was a master at connecting the dots. He reminded me of the late artist Mark Lombardi, whose intricate drawings bewildered viewers, including law enforcement, as he made connections to the farthest reaches of the political and economic scandals of his day, providing substance to conspiracy. Lombardi is well worth a search.

My best offering to Howie was introducing him to the amazing artist Nancy Ohanian, NancyOhanian.com. Her tribute to Howie appears at the top of this piece.

We surely need an army of Howies now.