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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Douchecanoe of the Week

Open Thread: Douchecanoe of the Week

by | 143 Comments

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Jeff Hamilton, the “artist” calling himself Xvala:

… Los Angeles artist XVALA will showcase some uncensored images of the stars, among others, as part of his new exhibition, titled “No Delete,” next month at Cory Allen Contemporary Art’s The Showroom in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“We share our secrets with technology,” XVALA said in a statement describing the project. “And when we do, our privacy becomes accessible to others.”…

The exhibit immediately drew criticism and accusations of exploitation for displaying the stolen explicit photos in a public space. “We don’t condone anybody hacking or taking advantage of anyone. This is not about that. The artist is trying to make a statement,” said publicist Cory Allen, who owns the gallery….

XVALA doesn’t appear too concerned about consequences. “I hope we don’t need an attorney,” he told LA Weekly. “I’m taking them off the Internet and putting them into a new medium that is transformative. I’ll be using them as commentary.”…

Dude, just smear the canvases with the contents of your diaper. That’d get your “message” across just as effectively, and at least you’d be able to honestly say you’d contributed something to the work!

Reader Interactions

143Comments

  3. 3.

    Amir Khalid

    I was surprised to read of this exhibition. Those selfies are the subject of a criminal investigation, because it looks a lot like they were illegally acquired and shared. How does this “XVALA” person have any legal right to display them? Does he actually want the FBI knocking on his door?

  7. 7.

    Mnemosyne

    @Baud:

    More likely “right of publicity,” especially if he doesn’t alter them enough to claim that it’s parody. You can’t just use someone’s image without their permission — even the people in free stock photos have signed releases.

  8. 8.

    WereBear

    @Mnemosyne: It’s not pre-Code, but Jules Dassin’s Brute Force is what I’m watching now… a fine prison movie with some excellent camera tricks to get across the brutality without tripping the censor.

    Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, early Ann Blyth and even Yvonne De Carlo, who did a lot of obscure film noir.

  10. 10.

    Steeplejack

    You know what’s a strong whiff? When you’re closing the Pup-Peroni bag and you squeeze it to get out the air and you get a blast of something that purports to be, but can’t possibly be, pepperoni.

    Note: This would be good pizza aversion therapy, if there was ever a call for such. Which I hope to God there isn’t.

  13. 13.

    Mike in NC

    I’m seeing Luke Russert on MSNBC for what must be the first time. The very definition of a clueless hack.

  17. 17.

    Mnemosyne

    @WereBear:

    I think you’ll enjoy it — the author looked at the correspondence between the studio and the filmmakers for specific movies to see what specific compromises the Code office demanded. It’s also written for a popular audience, so it’s pretty free of jargon.

  19. 19.

    Mandalay

    @Amir Khalid:

    How does this “XVALA” person have any legal right to display them?

    He is not simply displaying the internet images. He is blowing them up to life size, and printing them on canvas with the words “fear Google” on the side profiles of the canvases.

    IANAL so I have no idea whether that those efforts are sufficiently transformational to get him off the hook legally, but he can’t really lose. Undoubtedly he will have some lawyers from movie stars sending him nasty letters, but all he has to do it take down the images for those specific stars, and the show will go on. He may even be hoping that some lawyers chase him so he can make the suppression of certain images part of his show.

  20. 20.

    ronin122

    Speaking of the title, plagarizing Buzzfeed editor is now going to National Review Online. As a wingnut, his lack of regard of stealing from others makes perfect sense!

    From Huffpo: Link.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    There’s jumping on the bandwagon, and then there’s simply being a publicity-seeking, money-grubbing schmuck.

  22. 22.

    ronin122

    Double-response to check what FYWP’d me:

    According to <a href="Speaking of the title, plagarizing Buzzfeed editor is now going to National Review Online. As a wingnut, his lack of regard of stealing from others makes perfect sense!

    From Huffpo: Plagarizing editor off to NRO. Wingnut who steals without caring? Must be another day that ends in Y.

  27. 27.

    raven

    @NotMax: Do you know about Vivian Maier’s Work?

    The story of the street photographer Vivian Maier has always been tangled — she worked much of her life as a nanny, keeping her artistic life a secret, and only after she died in 2009, at the age of 83, nearly penniless and with no family, were her pictures declared to be among the most remarkable of the 20th century. Now a court case in Chicago seeking to name a previously unknown heir is threatening to tie her legacy in knots and could prevent her work from being seen again for years.

  28. 28.

    tsquared2001

    @efgoldman: Saturday mornings make me feel not so bad about my huge cable bill since if there are cameras involved, I can see every game. Even this K-State game.

    What a hit.

  33. 33.

    tsquared2001

    @raven: Minnesota in the house and I feel your pain.

    The worst part of TCF Bank stadium is looking at the all the names and trophies and accolades and coming to the realization that I was 5 years old the last time my Gophers were relevant.

  34. 34.

    jayboat

    @NotMax:

    There’s jumping on the bandwagon, and then there’s simply being a publicity-seeking, money-grubbing schmuck.

    In some circles I guess it is what passes for ‘art’ these days. Kinda like fox and ‘news’.

  35. 35.

    Anya

    @raven: I haven’t been watching is Brown getting a lot of free press? His stock should be down since EW handed him that defeat. Sometimes, I don’t get American voters.

  37. 37.

    tsquared2001

    @Anya: That sounds like some bullshit with a topping of crapola sprinkles. Just trying to pump up some interest in a lost race.

  38. 38.

    Richard Fox

    In addition to being a painter my other talents (jobs) include licensing photo rights for books. Let’s just say simply: I do hope this fellow has a fine lawyer. Truly stupid move.

  39. 39.

    raven

    @NotMax: They just showed the film here but there was only one screening and we missed it. Looks like maybe it goes on ice for a while.

  40. 40.

    Roger Moore

    @Amir Khalid:
    The whole point is to do something controversial and possibly illegal to draw attention to himself. He would probably love it if the FBI came knocking on his door, since it would let him claim to be a victim of government oppression and otherwise play himself up in the press.

  41. 41.

    JPL

    If there is no right to privacy on the internet, why is it that so many people bank online? Maybe the rules are different because you have to use passwords. If I have mail delivered to my house, in error, it’s not mine. It’s the person to who the mail is addressed.

  42. 42.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Nothing douchecanoe-y about this. I find it encouraging. And a very cool idea!

    I’m in Boston — went to a game at Fenway last night, which the Red Sox won 9-8 in ten innings — heading out in an hour for a chamber music concert, then off to Maine on Monday (via Salem) and to Vermont later in the week. Wonderful trip so far!

  43. 43.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @jayboat:
    The world of making a gigantic buttload of money off of art is pretty much a giant con game. Rather like the current Supreme Court is for lawyers, it’s embarrassing for small time artists to see the top money and acclaim go to grifters.

  44. 44.

    tsquared2001

    I really should be volunteering my lack of any construction skills to my neighbor who is putting shingles on my garage but whateves,

    Plus, that K-State touchdown was some BULLSHIT. Booooooooo.

    Franken’s people are in the neighborhood and I had to assure the canvas worker that there will be NO worries from me about voting. I vote in primaries and went to the neighborhood caucus before I was even eligible to vote.

  45. 45.

    Librarian

    How do you know the guy is a conservative? There’s nothing in the article that indicates his political orientation one way or another.

  46. 46.

    tsquared2001

    @SiubhanDuinne: Was that the game where Ortiz squared to bunt and got Jeter on the move? Saw a GIF and laughed even though it is Fuck Boston and Really Fuck the Yankees in my household

  48. 48.

    muddy

    @Steeplejack:

    You know what’s a strong whiff? When you’re closing the Pup-Peroni bag and you squeeze it to get out the air and you get a blast of something that purports to be, but can’t possibly be, pepperoni.

    It’s better than when you do that with a poop bag. I did that once. Once.

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    @Karen in GA: What’s going on with Iggy? He hasn’t been writing very much, and I haven’t heard anything about the heart worm treatments after the back-and-forth tests that led them to conclude he has a mild case.

  50. 50.

    Mnemosyne

    @gogol’s wife:

    Yes! It probably won’t be until tomorrow, though.

    ETA: I may even throw in Gold Diggers of 1933, since Steeplejack and I ended up live commenting on it last night. We’ll see. Sadly, I have been less than impressed with Robert Osborne’s and Alec Baldwin’s commentary so far.

  56. 56.

    Bob In Portland

    What a day that lies before me. USC at Stanford, Michigan State at Oregon, and then Oregon State plays in Hawaii tonight. We need teams in Guam.

  59. 59.

    WereBear

    And Burt Lancaster just threw Hume Cronyn off the guard tower. And he deserved it!

    Talk about Hume Cronyn as you’ve never seen him before… (Brute Force.)

  61. 61.

    MomSense

    @Mnemosyne:

    Yes, please do let us know when you post something about them.

    @Anya:

    I have spent a lot of time campaigning in NH over the years and it is a crazy place.

  62. 62.

    Roger Moore

    @Anya:

    Speaking of Douchecanoe, can someone explain to me how and why is Brown suddenly closing the gap on Shaheen?

    I would be at least a bit skeptical of the most recent poll for at least a couple of reasons. One is that it was commissioned by American Crossroads, which makes it essentially a Republican house poll, and those always lean pretty strongly Republican. The other is that it has the Libertarian getting 9% of the vote, which seems awfully suspicious. I’m not saying that the race doesn’t bear watching, but I would wait for at least one more non-partisan poll that shows it tightening before getting worried.

  64. 64.

    MaryRC

    @ronin122: Yes, I saw that on Gawker and clicked through to the original Politico article that Gawker was quoting, much to my regret. Talk about douchecanoes, there’s a hotbed of them right there.

    Really, though, why be surprised that NRO would be willing to overlook Johnson’s multiple counts of plagiarism? It’s not like they’re big on original thought themselves.

  66. 66.

    Iowa Old Lady

    On a used car lot this morning, I saw a fire truck for sale. Can anyone just buy a fire truck? If you had enough money, could you just buy it and drive it to work?

  68. 68.

    Amir Khalid

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    Is it just the truck, or does it come with all the firefighting gear? Is it for sale only to a fire department, or can anyone walk in and buy it?

  70. 70.

    Jay C

    @efgoldman:

    Jack Burkman, a conservative lobbyist, says “thousands” of right-wing Christians will protest…

    These numbers are, of course, calculated according to ancient, but obscure analysis of various Biblical texts, wherein the term “thousands” is actually used as a convenient translation for uncommon Aramaic and Koine Greek terms meaning “multiples of twelve”.

  71. 71.

    Amir Khalid

    @Roger Moore:
    Ah. In my country there is but one, national, Fire and Rescue Services Department, and there are no collectors of antique fire engines.

  72. 72.

    scav

    @efgoldman: Are they the same as or in addition to the thousands of right-wing Christians already protesting the spousal/partner abuse, general violence, drug-use and immorality of other NFLers? Or, clearly, are all those behaviors mainstream acceptable in the eyes of the Lord, as are the likely secretive homosexuals in uniforms — the unforgivable act being openness and truth to self?

  73. 73.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Amir Khalid: I don’t know because I was driving past. It has a 90 painted on the windshield, meaning it was made in 1990, so I’m assuming it’s just like any other vehicle on the lot. I was just startled.

    @Roger Moore: Yet another sign of the maldistribution of wealth.

  74. 74.

    skerry

    Just want to say that my passive-aggressive teenager is driving me bat shit crazy today.

    Thank you for listening.

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Yet another sign of the maldistribution of wealth.

    I think it’s pretty low on the list. I asked the Great Gizoogle about driving antique firetrucks, and it sounds as if they’re generally pretty cheap. By the time fire departments retire them, they’re old enough that the only people bidding against the collectors are scrap yards. If you don’t plan on using it as an everyday vehicle, the insurance shouldn’t be too high, either.

  77. 77.

    Bob In Portland

    Here is a blog about the ceasefire in Ukraine by Vineyard of the Saker. I find his posts are a lot better informed than most posts from the MSM, and because he provides more information about what is actually happening on the ground he’s had a much better track record about what comes next.

    Has anyone heard anything about the report on MH17? The air traffic controller recordings? The black boxes? Ukraine’s radar? The US’s satellite intel? Maybe even a photo from DigitalGlobe?

  78. 78.

    Randy P

    Hey BJers, would you like your own train station?

    So I’m riding Philly’s SEPTA (commuter) train a couple of days ago and as I pull into Market East station, I hear the announcement say something about “… mumble mumble Jefferson Station”. Jefferson Station? Where the hell is that? I step out of the train and see the signs announcing “Market East is now Jefferson Station”. It has been called “Market East” since pretty much forever.

    My wife immediately announced her suspicion that Thomas Jefferson Hospital had paid SEPTA for the naming rights. TJ is a hospital and medical school in that neighborhood which is apparently doing pretty well and has been flexing economic muscle in other ways. They basically caused an entire block of retail to be closed down so they could build their own shopping/parking facility in that block.

    So it turns out she’s right. (Not surprising, since she’s pretty much always right). And SEPTA has sold naming rights before:

    In a similar deal in 2010, SEPTA sold the naming rights for Pattison Station on the Broad Street Subway, rechristening it AT&T Station. That five-year deal cost AT&T $5.4 million, of which SEPTA received $3.4 and its advertising agent, New York-based Titan Worldwide, got $2 million.

    So I’m thinking, why not replace the boring name of “30th Street Station” with “BJ Station”? C’mon BJers, are you up to the challenge?

  79. 79.

    BubbaDave

    @Jay C:

    It all depends on how he goes about it. Don’t mention Michael Sam, just say “We’re organizing to protest Jerry Jones’ personnel moves” and they might get hundreds of thousands.

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    @Roger Moore:
    If it’s just an old fire truck, say 30 yrs old, I’d bet the operating costs would be a tad high. Gas. sorry, fuel mileage in the single digits most likely, parking a bit of a bitch, especially in urban areas, tires probably in the $300-$500 range and there are probably 6 of those. They do last a while but still, an oil change can run at least a couple hundred. I’m guessing insurance to be a minor issue.
    ETA All bets are off if it is a ladder truck. Now you also need to add in the real backseat driver.

  81. 81.

    drkrick

    My dad had a friend (a car salesman if I remember right) who had a couple of old fire trucks. They weren’t exactly every day drivers, but if you’re the kind of person who likes to be in parades and things like that it was apparently kind of fun.

  83. 83.

    Roger Moore

    @Ruckus:
    Sure, but most of those problems are the kind you’d encounter if you drove it a substantial distance. If it spends most of its time parked and only goes on the road to go to events, you won’t put many miles on it, so the cost for fuel, tires, oil changes, etc. won’t add up to that much. It sounds like it’s a hobby that’s within the reach of ordinary middle class folks, which makes me think it isn’t a sign of our income distribution gone amuck.

  84. 84.

    Bob In Portland

    @Amir Khalid: Amir, I read Slate every day. As Slate is the bastard child of WaPo it’s a good source to monitor Washington insider thinking. Saletan is particularly good at directing sheep to accept the general wisdom inside the Beltway.

    I’m not sure what revelation you found there. Most people believe Russia is responsible for the downing of MH17. Most people don’t follow Ukraine’s seizure of the recordings of the air traffic controllers and their continued refusal to release them. Most people don’t know about the Ukrainian fighter planes accompanying MH17 moments before the shoot down. Most people don’t know about the airliner changing course to fly directly over the war zone, and no one seems to know why the pilot would do that unless he was told to by the air traffic controllers. Most people don’t know about the Russian radar or the bulletholes in the cockpit and the lack of a contrail. And most people forget about MH17 except that “Putin! Putin! Putin!”

    So, yes, I read Slate, Salon, TPM, NYT every day. I also read BBC, the Guardian and a couple other British sources, a couple of English language German sources, any Russian English-language sources (both pro and anti-Kremlin). I like to check in on Burdens of a Bachelor because although he seems a little too wedded to the NYT he generally is good at cutting through its bullshit.

    But if you want to know what’s happening in Ukraine you need to read Vineyard of the Saker on a daily basis. Over the last nine months the best source of news on the ground in Novorussia.

  85. 85.

    grandpa john

    @Anya: depends on who is doing the polling, the closere is only one poll(repub company) better results comes from aggregation of polls not just the last one out

  87. 87.

    A Humble Lurker

    @Bob In Portland:

    I find his posts are a lot better informed than most posts from the MSM, and because he provides more information about what is actually happening on the ground he’s had a much better track record about what comes next.

    Which automatically makes him right about what he reports? I mean it’s not like traffic helicopters can give you a much better idea of a traffic jam than the people stuck in it. Oh wait.

    Has anyone heard anything about the report on MH17? The air traffic controller recordings? The black boxes? Ukraine’s radar? The US’s satellite intel? Maybe even a photo from DigitalGlobe?

    Who ever would have thought it would take time to see what happened. (Especially when investigators were initially kept away from the site.) Or would you rather they just leap to the most obvious conclusion (that Russian separatists are to blame) without examining the evidence thoroughly?

  89. 89.

    NCSteve

    @Baud: Yeah, Jeff Koons, this grifter’s spiritual forefather in the school of “artists” who create nothing themselves but nonetheless get paid vast sums of gullible rich dilettante money, found that out the hard way.

  90. 90.

    Bob In Portland

    @A Humble Lurker: What you do is read what the Saker writes and wait a day or three to see how the same information gets reported in MSM. He has on occasion warned about getting too wedded to Russian sources.

    Regarding MH17, some of the initial delay was because the Ukrainian army was shelling the area where the wreckage landed and the investigative team didn’t want to go in. But MH17 went down on July 17, and the black boxes (which the investigative got sometime around the 20th or 22nd) had not been tampered with. In ground crashes (as opposed to ocean crashes, where recovering the boxes are delayed or they’re lost and where they are more likely to be damaged) preliminary results usually come within a day or two of recovery. There was a UPS or FedEx plane crash in Cincinnati and they had preliminary information by the end of the day.

    But remember, the Kiev government seized the air tower recordings immediately after the crash, and the last story I’ve seen about it is that a government official said he didn’t know where they were, which should be pretty suspicious for the news consumer.

  91. 91.

    Original Lee

    @Mnemosyne: Could you remind me of your site? I recently found out a friend has become very interested in film noir and want to send him a link.

  92. 92.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Bob In Portland: Bob! How are you, old buddy?! Had your coffee yet?

    You know, you wouldn’t have to keep asking the same questions over and over again if you would read the replies that people post here on Balloon-Juice!

    Here

    Again, the preliminary report will be out in 3 days, with the final report out in less than a year.

    HTH!!!11

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  93. 93.

    Roger Moore

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
    It’s not obvious why he’s so excited about the report anyway; it’s not as if it’s going to change his belief about what happened. If it agrees with what he already believes, he’ll accept it. Otherwise, he’ll denounce it as politically motivated propaganda.

  94. 94.

    lurker dean

    @Randy P: sigh, I hadnt heard of this, it annoys the heck out of me that everything is for sale. how long until we have the comcast liberty bell.

  95. 95.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Roger Moore: Unpossible!!11 Bob in Portland is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  97. 97.

    Bob In Portland

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: You have any information about when the air traffic tower communications will be revealed?

    You have no suspicions about that? Even here it’s after three in the afternoon, so your ongoing “joke” about coffee hardly even makes sense. It’s like the dolts who think that by repeating “Hodor!” that it somehow reflects on me when it reflects that they can’t talk intelligently about the subject. Cheers.

  98. 98.

    Roger Moore

    @lurker dean:
    On a more serious note, I have mixed feelings about this kind of thing. I’m less opposed when the thing being named is something new, and the money that pays for its name is able to cover a substantial portion of the cost of building it. Renaming existing things can be really crass, but the case of Jefferson station seems like it’s less of an open-and-shut case. Transit stations are often named after nearby landmarks because it helps people to understand where they are. If the hospital is taking over the whole neighborhood, maybe it’s now a better landmark for the station than the market. At the very least, renaming a station for a major nearby company is a lot more defensible than just selling naming rights to anything that you can.

  100. 100.

    Bob In Portland

    @Roger Moore: Well, it will be interesting to see what the report says. I doubt that they’ll admit to the Ukraine fighters shooting down the airliner. A month and a half would be plenty of time to manufacture evidence. The problem is that Russia’s already produced their radar showing the Ukie fighter planes.Russia probably has plenty of other proof if there’s a forged report. It wouldn’t be surprising if the report, whenever it comes, is incomplete. In the immediate aftermath of the downing of MH17 the Russian military asked ten questions. So it will interesting to see what the report says.

  103. 103.

    lurker dean

    @Roger Moore: yeah, I guess there are economic benefits and some names that make some logistical sense, but the monetization of everything stills annoys me. in the case of the jefferson station, tj hospital is a couple of blocks away and imho the station being renamed is more identifiable with the reading market and chinatown. the story also mentioned the att station, which i dont think had any existing presence where the station is.

    i’d rather just raise the highest marginal rax rate to 90% and make GE and the rest actually pay taxes so we dont have to give corporate names to all of our public places. :o)

  105. 105.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Bob In Portland: The coffee is a friendly suggestion to help you wake up.

    Why not wait until September 9 and read the report for yourself? Or do you need to read Putin Today RT’s take on it, first?

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  106. 106.

    Roger Moore

    @lurker dean:
    I agree with the basic point. I don’t like the commercialization of everything, and I especially don’t like it when government gets forced into the game because we’re starving it of the resources it needs to fulfill its basic functions. Unfortunately, international capital mobility is making it ever harder to make big businesses and the ultra-rich pay their fair share.

  107. 107.

    Bob In Portland

    @Gin & Tonic: I would have to ask when the Twitter feed occurred, and in what context. Since there is no fighting now (you know, the truce) then I wouldn’t expect it to fall unless the Ukrainian forces surrender or retreat, and considering what’s happened over the last couple of weeks that’s certainly not an impossibility.

    Poroshenko’s biggest problem is not on the battlefield, although that’s been a big problem. The rebels don’t have enough troops to march to Kiev so I don’t see them expanding their territory anytime soon.

    The problem is what Poroshenko does next. Do the oligarchs rebel against the sitting government? Does the US change horses again, maybe put in someone more closely aligned to the fascist elements? Does the US prevent resolution of the gas problems facing Ukraine and Europe? If, as seems to be the case, the US’s second favorite outcome after defeating the rebels would be to create chaos on Russia’s border, then allowing the gas to be cut off works just fine, although you’d think that there would eventually be blowback from Europe.

    Then there are the other problems. The Carpathian region is not particularly happy with Kiev. I know that Odessa is much more cosmopolitan than the people who have been waging this war. Kolomoiski is the big oligarch in that area, and we saw the heavy hand of fascism in Odessa last May. But fear versus starvation and freezing to death can motivate the most fearful. And this goes more so for the interior of Ukraine.

    Fascism works by intimidation, and when the fascist army is defeated the intimidation factor disappears. Does Kolomoiski (or someone else in Odessa) start a rebellion against Kiev? Do the Hungarians in Carpathia or the Poles farther north get a little uppity?

    It’s good that the Ukrainian army has stopped destroying eastern Ukraine’s infrastructure and killing civilians, but sources suggest that the army’s losses have been a lot higher than what’s been reported, maybe more like 30-40K. If such is the case, it would better explain the anti-draft demonstrations. I’m not quite sure of what the correct term is. Anti-mobilization? Women are worried about their husbands and sons dying.

    When Fogh Rasmussen says he has absolute proof about anything, do you believe him?

  109. 109.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Bob In Portland: Here’s what the DPR’s Twitter said about 2.5 hours ago (i.e. midnight, Ukraine time): Вооруженные Силы Новороссии берут Мариуполь.

    I’ll let you put that into Google Translate yourself. It’s in Russian. That is the full extent of their message.

    So, are they telling the truth? If there’s a cease-fire, why is one side “taking” a city they didn’t control at the start of the cease-fire? That sounds like war, no?

    And hey, what about Russia admitting they crossed the border into Estonia. That spells fun for Estonia, doesn’t it? Or didn’t RT admit to that?

  111. 111.

    danielx

    Douchecanoe of the Week

    And so many candidates, too.

    @Librarian:

    No rule saying that being a douchecanoe and being a lib/progressive are mutually exclusive, although wingnuts do seem to have about 95% of that particular segment covered.

  113. 113.

    Tara the Antisocial Social Worker

    @bargal20: Awesome. The gallery owner deserves one too. I love how he assures us that he “doesn’t condone” the exact thing that he’s actively profiting from, and how it’s “more about how we exploit ourselves.” (And by “we,” he means himself, and by “ourselves,” he means Jennifer Lawrence et al.)

  115. 115.

    Bob In Portland

    I don’t read Russian or Ukrainian. But let’s say that in fact the rebels surrounding Mariupol are violating the ceasefire. So? There were reports of the Ukrainian artillery not immediately observing it. The last I heard both Donetsk and Mariupol are quiet. The rebels are not boy scouts. I’ll wait until tomorrow to see how the story covered by both sides, or if it’s even covered.

    Why do you think Poroshenko agreed to a ceasefire if his army was on the verge of wiping out the rebels two weeks ago?

  116. 116.

    different-church-lady

    “I’m taking them off the Internet…

    Because everything on the internet is public domain!

  121. 121.

    Mnemosyne

    @Original Lee:

    My site is linked in my name, but it’s The Insufferable Movie Snob. My current obsession is Pre-Code Hollywood, which is about 20 years before film noir. Self-Styled Siren is a really great all-purpose old Hollywood blog that can probably point your friend to some film noir specific blogs.

    Fun fact: a lot of the classic gangster films are actually not films noir but are instead Pre-Code movies, including Scarface, Little Caesar, and The Public Enemy.

  122. 122.

    Bob In Portland

    @different-church-lady: Without any more information yours is just an ad hominem. As an atheist I could say that belief in a higher being is a kind of conspiracy theory of sorts. Certainly, you know better than to follow footnotes, which is why religion teaches you not to read certain dangerous texts.

    I believe in the 1930s Germany “conspiracy theorists” were called “alarmists.” I think Milton May wrote about it. In connection with the Nazis’ “salami tactics.” You became an alarmist if you pointed out what direction the country was drifting.

    That’s one of the major problems with people just accepting that JFK was killed in a coup by our military and intelligence services. If you admit to that, you then have to question not only the legitimacy of our government but also who the government actually represents. Now, you may not like the rise of the oligarchs in the our political process over the last fifty years. You may not like our country’s incessant warring. But you refuse to do the math, because if you do all the pleasant little myths on which you base your world will be shattered.

    Say a prayer for me.

  124. 124.

    Bob In Portland

    @Gin & Tonic: No, you link to something I can’t read. It wouldn’t be the first time that someone in a civil war violated a ceasefire. The best I could confirm was this from the NY Times:

    Col. Andriy Lysenko, the spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told a briefing in Kiev on Saturday that the southeast was “generally calmer” and that the Ukrainian forces had not suffered any losses since the cease-fire went into effect.

    From that it sounds like if there was a violation of the ceasefire, it was minor. But the NY Times has been notoriously bad in covering the Ukraine and Lysenko is a notorious liar, too.

    And speaking of telling the truth, care to share with us why you speak Ukrainian?

  125. 125.

    Bob In Portland

    @different-church-lady: And when you die, if you don’t break the rules, you’ll be among the harps and angels.

    So you call people names instead of discussing things. You know what I say? “Hodor!” Because you might as well be saying that.

  126. 126.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Bob In Portland: Is Reuters approved by the Party?

    A Reuters reporter heard prolonged artillery fire late on Saturday to the east of Mariupol, a key flashpoint in the past week of fighting, and then saw a truck, a gas station and an industrial facility ablaze within the limits of the city.

    The reporter also saw trucks rushing eastwards conveying agitated-looking pro-government militia volunteers. Tanks and armored personnel carriers also headed in the same direction.

    “There has been an artillery attack. We received a number of impacts. We have no information about casualties,” a Ukrainian officer told Reuters.

    The area had previously been quiet since the ceasefire took effect on Friday evening, but many residents and combatants in Mariupol and in Donetsk, the other main flashpoint in the conflict, have expressed doubts that the ceasefire can last.

    […]

    Although the ceasefire had mostly held during Saturday, citizens in the other main flashpoint, the rebel-held industrial city of Donetsk, complained of sporadic shelling and gunfire, especially near the airport, which remains in government hands.

    No doubt the Ukrainian government is shelling their own positions as instructed by their all-powerful masters in the CIA and the Trilateral Commission. Amirite?

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  127. 127.

    Bob In Portland

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: And you’re confident in the report before you see it? Do you think the report will address everything, or just kind of narrow it down to a, “Well, we think that the Russians or the rebels did it but we can’t say for sure”?

    I’ll be interested in the report, but more interested by the world’s dissection of it.

  128. 128.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Bob In Portland: No, you link to something I can’t read.

    This is tired, Bob. I linked to something which is exactly five unambiguous words long in Russian, six unambiguous words in English translation. I provided it to you in the original, and provided you the link to the source so you could see I didn’t make it up. You know how to use Google Translate, don’t you? Copy-pasting five words is not a Herculean task. It was from the official Twitter account of the press office of the “Donetsk People’s Republic.” In case you’re lazy or don’t know how to use Google, they said “Armed Forces of Novorossiya taking Mariupol.”

    I am taking the rebels at their word. Aren’t you? If their press office says something, why wait until tomorrow to see what some third party says about it.

  131. 131.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    Hey Bob, is Amnesty International approved by the Party?

    Ukrainian militia and separatist forces are responsible for war crimes, Amnesty International said today. The organisation accused Russia of fuelling separatist crimes as it revealed satellite images indicating a build-up of Russian armour and artillery in eastern Ukraine.

    Despite a fragile cease-fire, the situation on the ground remains fraught with danger and Amnesty International calls on all parties, including Russia, to stop violations of the laws of war.

    “All sides in this conflict have shown disregard for civilian lives and are blatantly violating their international obligations,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, who travels to Kyiv and Moscow in the coming days.

    “Our evidence shows that Russia is fuelling the conflict, both through direct interference and by supporting the separatists in the East. Russia must stop the steady flow of weapons and other support to an insurgent force heavily implicated in gross human rights violations.”

    […]

    (emphasis added)

    I forget – is Amnesty International part of the CIA and Bilderberg Group conspiracies, too?

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  132. 132.

    Bob In Portland

    @Gin & Tonic: Okay, after the reference to Reuters I started looking around and the BBC reports it too. You have absolute proof that no Ukrainian force within Mariupol has fired anything? No. We are still stuck with the same problem. Reports repeated in the MSM about something. Even without the Mighty Wurlitzer it’s hard to know moment by moment what is happening in a war.

    So what do you want me to say? That all rebels are terrible because someone may have broken the ceasefire? You haven’t shown much concern about the Ukrainian military shelling eastern Ukraine all summer. Or their deliberate targeting of civilians. You seem to not notice the Nazis in the Kiev government or at least are very casual about these alleged atrocities.

    Since we’ve had three invasions of Ukraine by columns of Russian tanks in the last month, I’ll note the story and the sources and see how it looks in the light of day.

  133. 133.

    Bob In Portland

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Okay, a picture of a field with something in it. I think the caption includes the words “probably.” But let’s look at this a little closer. As far as I know the rebels and Ukraine don’t have intel satellites, and as far as I know neither does Amnesty International. I followed the link of the pictures but there was nothing that I could find about who took the photos. The story doesn’t make reference to Amnesty International’s expert on reading satellite photos. Who is that?

    Let’s take an educated guess. These photos were taken by one of the US’s intelligence agencies or one of those privatized outfits like DigitalGlobe. So how do we know who is operating the equipment or where it came from? We don’t.

    But let’s just say that the Russians have been supplying the rebels with both weapons and men. How is that different from the US providing SAMs to the Mujahadeen or training and weapons to al-Nusra/ISIS or flying into Syrian territory to bomb ISIS? Or shooting missiles into Afghanistan, as Clinton did? How about sending SEAL teams into foreign countries without their permission to capture or kill people? What’s different about spending five billion in Ukraine for regime change? What about all the military aid that the US provided to Georgia before it invaded North Ossetia? What about Iran-contra? What about those death squads in El Salvador? What about US support for the generals in Argentina or the Cocaine Coup in Bolivia?

    The US violates international law and you get bent out of shape because Russia may be supplying the rebels with aid. That speaks to the power of the propaganda which you have dutifully consumed over the decades.

  134. 134.

    Bob In Portland

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Of course, there’s the other question that arises. If the US is taking satellite pictures of Ukraine, where are the pictures of the downing of MH17? If the US were running a campaign to blame Russia and the rebels for the downing of the airliner, they wouldn’t be prevented from sharing pictures before the report comes out. In fact, it would be the most logical thing to do. And they were running a campaign to blame the Russians and the rebels. And the skies were clear that day. Oh my. Cheers.

  135. 135.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Bob In Portland: (You keep forgetting to mention the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission, and John Dillinger.)

    So, Amnesty International is part of the CiA conspiracy then? Ok. Thanks. Good to know.

    I’m waiting with great anticipation to hear you tell us the real story on the Dutch Safety Board preliminary report on ML19 on Tuesday September 9. It’ll be out at 0800 UTC. Don’t hold back and be coy with leading questions, please. Let us know the real story as soon as you can, please!!11

    Thanks!!11

    Cheers,
    Scot.t

  136. 136.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @tsquared2001:

    No, that was in New York (FTFY). The game I saw was Toronto Blue Jays.

    This afternoon, I went to a concert by an amazing, fantastic, conductorless chamber music group, A Far Cry.

    Tomorrow, a Patriots’ kick-off party, and then I am off on more travels in New England during the week.

  140. 140.

    jl

    OOOOhhhhhhhh…. I get it. I’ll read the comments more carefully. And sometimes I can be pretty slow.

    Congratulations bargal20. We have an artiste in our midst. I like the DuChampesquey restraint, the minimal dada of it.

  141. 141.

    JR in WV

    bargal20 now eligible to own the innertubes, shipments to commence Monday at 0800.

    Wow, I wish I had thought of that! Jealous is not a strong enough word at all.

  142. 142.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    Schedule is beginning to get a bit crowded, but I’ll see if I can fit it in (preferably on a day when they are not programming specifically for home schoolers, a group to whom they appear to cater). I enjoy places like that, so if I can, I will. Thanks for the suggestion.

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