{"id":4238,"date":"2026-02-24T23:15:46","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/adventure\/?p=4238"},"modified":"2026-02-24T23:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:17:16","slug":"skip-kaltenheuser-we-surely-need-an-army-of-howies-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/adventure\/skip-kaltenheuser-we-surely-need-an-army-of-howies-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Skip Kaltenheuser: We Surely Need an Army of Howies Now"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Howie Klein, by Nancy Ohanian<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Howie Klein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t know Howie during his impressive career in music, and wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t 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<\/a>“, and Billboard: “Howie Klein, Longtime Reprise President and Free Speech Advocate, Dies at 77<\/a>“.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I stumbled across Howie’s wild and free-roaming blog, DOWNWithTYRANNY!<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s my first piece for Howie: “Reflections on an Election Year When It Finally Hit the Fan<\/a>“. Like the majority of my offerings, it appeared in his older DWT format, now mostly lost to the Internet\u2019s UpsideDown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t always agree with Howie on every point. For example, I never really bought Russiagate. I couldn\u2019t swear Howie did, it might have been just too good a needle for him to resist. That doesn\u2019t mean I was above having fun while hinting at my skepticism. It\u2019s 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<\/a>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s sole focus, I hasten to say. His Gatling gun strafed the waterfront.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for Democrats like Schiff and Schumer and their media support dogs, so earnestly repeating their recycled talking points, one couldn\u2019t 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\u2019re in the bought and paid for bleachers of Congress, or in media intimidated by the billionaire bullies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The great irony of Russiagate, one Howie would appreciate, is that Cheeto Caligula couldn\u2019t 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\u2019s pillow, suggesting, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you pass the time by playing a little solitaire<\/a>?” The demented grifter has already set in motion measures that, unchecked, will speed the deaths of millions around the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019d 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n