The original, possibly apocryphal Vicar was a careerist cleric who, when accused of having no principles after changing his ‘faith’ several times depending on the political winds, replies “I have always kept my principle, which is this – to live and die the Vicar of Bray.”
Troutmouth Bob Woodward likewise has but one principle: He intends to live and die the ‘Wise Chronicler of the Permanent Government’.
It being an election year, Woodward has consumed a vast quantity of first-person roughage, and by peristalsis produced another doorstopper nicely timed for September release. Like sparrows after a carthorse, the Media Village Idiots descend to pick tasty granules from the copious product…
For his new book, Bob Woodward "obtained 25 personal letters exchanged between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that have not been public before," says an Amazon description.https://t.co/4yR1GYdapj
— William Gallo (@GalloVOA) August 13, 2020
Woodward says he has *25* Trump-Kim letters. That's not a small amount of personal correspondence!
— William Gallo (@GalloVOA) August 13, 2020
And so, instead of discussing matters of actual impact — the ongoing pandemic, Trump’s declared intention to rig the election by voter suppression, his administration’s many & various abuses, the Democratic attempts to restore assistance to desperate citizens — the pundits get to chirp at each other about the Very Serious Revelation that the Oval Office Squatter has been in correspondence with the North Korean Dictator. Imagine the important content: Letters! So many letters! But are they truly real? What exactly are their contents? Is it true that Donald drew little hearts over the closing, using his signature gold Sharpie?…
Forgive me for further spreading this not-news, but to me Woodward is a mosquito bite welt in an unscratchable place. This latest dispatch, as ever, does nothing to persuade me against the Watergate-era ‘conspiracy theory’ that Woodward never actually detached himself from his original job in national security; he has made a rich career out of reassuring the Very Serious gatekeepers that all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds, barring the occasional easily-memoryholed aberration. I would cherish fantasies of someday dancing on his grave, but individuals like Bob Woodward (look at Henry Kissinger or Dick Cheney) may outlast everyone but the postnuclear cockroaches.
Furry Friends: Introducing Henry Adams
cain
This is just the kind of year 2020 has turned out to be. We have shown ourselves to the world as being completely divorced from reality with a fucked up set of priorities.
Barbara
Who cares? Seriously.
Villago Delenda Est
Come The Revolution, Booby here is on the tumbrel manifest.
Mary G
This is spectacular, AL. Every time I see that fishface, I feel angry again that a young Robert Redfield was wasted playing that. It’s beyond disgusting that the usual suspects are all bowing down and being sure that Rage will be even better than Fear. We can show you rage, asshole.
NotMax
Wolverine to AL: “Wow, nice claws.”
:)
oatler.
Reminds me of Ursula LeGuin’s “The Farthest Shore” where populations are driven to despair and savagery, all for a promise of eternal life.
Baud
@oatler.: I would kill for eternal life.
JPL
Golden showers and kissing ass.. November third can’t come soon enough.
Elizabelle
@Barbara:
I know.
*snore* zzzzzzzz
Tony Jay
@cain:
If it’s any consolation at all you’re very much not alone in that, plus you get to be part of a national effort to kick the Right out of power.
We had an opportunity to do that last year, but as a nation and a culture we didn’t so much fail as we faceplanted into solid concrete with all the grace and lithe sinuousness of a misappropriated cadaver.
You’ll do better.
Brachiator
Ha! I think this nails it.
Brachiator
@oatler.:
Isn’t this just religion?
piratedan
how is this asshat in possession of personal correspondence between two leaders without this being some kind of classified material violation?
Elizabelle
Snore re Bob Insufferable Woodward. I am good with him and Andrea Mitchell Greenspan sharing a tumbrel. They would both feel honored.
But: JPL put up the site for Michael Cohen’s book about the trump: Disloyal. It’s got a link to the foreword, and for purchasing a hard copy.
Which book is likely to be more entertaining?
Brantl
Baud
@piratedan:
NK could have released them to show what a putz Trump is.
Baud
@Tony Jay: Thanks for the encouragement!
Elizabelle
Our local botanical garden’s Fidos after Five event was cancelled for tonight, because it was raining fiercely this afternoon.
Now it’s clearing out there, and the sun is bright. Torture. Oh well. Everyone would have had wet, muddy (happy) dogs.
SiubhanDuinne
Well done. Perfect, in fact.
***
And thanks a bunch, Anne Laurie. Now I have “The Vicar of Bray” as an earworm.
Kay
Political media really going to do this again. We once again are going to be forced to listen to Donald Trump question the legitimacy of a black candidate.
I mean, Jesus Fucking Christ. How much of this bullshit can we possibly choke down? Can they show some mercy and maybe NOT endorse this again? Wasn’t once enough?
Baud
This is a well versed post, AL.
senyordave
At this point IMO Covid-19 dwarfs every other issue. I don’t think Woodward’s book will have any real impact, nobody cares anymore about anything he has to say. I think it will have a shelf life of a couple of weeks at best.
JPL
@Elizabelle: ha Brian Stelter of CNN had a link to the site but didn’t include anything about the substance.
tom
@Tony Jay: are you sure?
JPL
@Kay: My dog wants Biden so he doesn’t have to hear his master scream fu
Baud
@Kay:
It’s a little poetic that he’ll go out the way he came in.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: and this:
VeniceRiley
Michael Cohen, people. Here is the forward to his book:https://disloyalthebook.com/download-the-disloyal-foreword-written-by-michael-cohen/
Kay
@JPL:
Oh, don’t worry. They’re “fact checking it”. After asking him about it and screaming his responses from the rooftops they’ll scribble a couple of sentences and issue the “fact check”.
They can’t ask President Trump why he’s deliberately destroying all postal service in the United States, but they have time to promote a birther theory. Priorities!
Baud
@tom:
They don’t call him the Oracle of UK for nothing.
Spanky
@Baud:
Maybe that was the plan, and now that Booby has ruined it, Lil Kim is arranging a little accident for him.
Pass the popcorn!
Elizabelle
@Kay:
trump decoder: He’s got a penis. Or so I assume.
Who told him Kamala Harris “does not meet the requirements”? Judge Jeanine Pirro? When she’s not prognosticating about Joe Biden?
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay: There’s a mayor of some small town in Virginia who wrote (on Twitter or FB or something) that Biden “had picked Aunt Jemima” as his running mate. So fucking sick of these racist, sexist, entitled, white male assholes.
piratedan
@Kay: can someone at least disbar the POS from California that dropped this into the national discourse?
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Hahahahaha!
Kay
@Baud:
Birtherism is vile. That these people are all going to pretend that it isn’t intended to deligimitize people is just the most cowardly thing. It is intended to confer second class citizenship. That’s why they do it.
It isn’t a delightful quirk of wacky Donald Trump. It’s vicious.
ljdramone
hey, wasn’t there a time when Woodward used his Awesome Journamalism Skillz to uncover the unsuspected truth: that the cast of Saturday Night Live did a whole bunch of drugs back in the day?
Oh right, yes there was.
oatler.
@Brachiator: LeGuin left religion out of her novels but you may be right. Think of the churchgoing MAGAts assaulting people who wear masks.
Ken
Screaming and covered in blood and slime?
Kay
@Elizabelle:
The Trump Family rose all the way to US Presidency on this vile hatefulness and political media are going to subject us to it AGAIN.
Can they possibly not promote it this time? Is that too much to ask? I mean, Christ. One would think they have plenty to talk about!
Baud
@Kay:
Yes it is. Like I said yesterday, I pity the “journalist” who decides to ask Kamala about it.
Baud
@Ken:
That’s another interpretation.
MattF
Pleased to say, I’ve never read any of Woodward’s ‘books’. And never will. Tamsyn Muir’s novels about lesbian necromancers in spaaace are more relevant and, presumably, better written.
patrick II
I just read the forward to Cohen’s book, and, strangely, it is beautifully written. I encourage everyone to read it. And then I came here and read Ann’s post. So much remarkable writing.
Kay
The funniest response to Newsweek promoting a new birther narrative is “I will no longer read Newsweek in the dentist’s office”
Guffaw.
prostratedragon
AL’s first few paragraphs deserve a prize for extending a metaphor.
dmsilev
@Elizabelle: The lawyer in question lost the primary to be the guy to lose the election for CA AG to Harris several years ago. Oh, and he wrote a similar op-ed about Ted Cruz four years ago, and mysteriously came out with the opposite conclusion.
So, yeah, racist partisan shitheel. Or possibly partisan racist shitheel.
Baud
@Kay:
Maybe the Newsweek editors didn’t read it first. That seems to be a thing.
Kay
@patrick II:
I found him sympathetic in his congressional testimony, with his big droopy dog eyes.
I know he’s a weak person and that’s how he got sucked into the sleazy Trump Family but there’s something redeemable there.
MisterForkbeard
@MattF: Harrow the Ninth is really good AND kind of impenetrable… and also much better written than this.
Very sad. Maybe Newsweek would do better with more focus on immortal lesbian space necromancers and less on birtherism.
prostratedragon
@Mary G: This was not likely the intention of whomever cast Redford in that movie, but if it’s any consolation he’s usually played these glorious-looking characters with significant feet of clay.
Kay
@Baud:
Cancel culture! We all must promote Donald Trump’s vile, mean-spirited racist bullshit or people will think we’re “close minded”
JPL
Betty Cracker trying to outdo Doug about golden showers
Alison Rose
Dolly Parton to racists: “Don’t be a dumbass.”
Be more like Dolly, everyone.
Baud
@Kay: Teach the controversy!
Calouste
@Kay: The shitgibbon is doing what shitgibbon a does, which is throw shit at the wall. His attention span is so short that he is probably not going hang around to see if it sticks, and he is going to throw different shit at the wall tomorrow, which will take the media’s attention away from this. Repeat 80 odd days until the elections.
prostratedragon
@Brachiator: Not mine.
patrick II
@Kay:
My sense was that he loves his family and at some point that made him ashamed of himself. He decided to be a better man. But regardless of his morality either he is the best gangster/writer I have ever read, or he has a hell of a ghost writer.
LesGS
@patrick II: I read Cohen’s foreword and it’s very good. If it’s not ghost-written, he should have gone into writing, not crime. Not as much money, but probably less jail time.
VeniceRiley
@JPL:
Cohen’s book also mentions golden showers in Vegas right in the forward!
https://disloyalthebook.com/download-the-disloyal-foreword-written-by-michael-cohen/
satby
Meh, birtherism is going to get even less traction this time than it did last, which is to say virtually none. It would be nice to have an adult media instead of the D-student gossip girls we’re stuck with.
JPL
@VeniceRiley: I know and read about that earlier. Both Betty’s and Doug’s twitter feed are filled with innuendos.
jl
Strong principles conveniently aligned with self-interested pursuit of sure and easy success is an almost irresistible force.
Elizabelle
@Kay: We live in strange times, because I find myself rooting for Michael Cohen too, and maybe he is one of the few people in Trump’s orbit capable of change. To see.
Sean Spicer also seemed troubled by having to lie on behalf of Trump, but he still did it. And the three press secretaries who followed him — every one a woman — have all been horrible. The Possum Queen turns out to have been the best of those three.
Only the best, in Trump’s orbit. Maybe Cohen will get another chance, since he too was ejected from it.
MattF
@satby: Birtherism is just one more time-tested way to insult people with brown skin. And that’s all it is.
jl
@JPL: insinuendos and implifications
jl
@Elizabelle: Well, Spicer got some TV show time, and Cohen got jail, so possibly an explanation on who spills and who doesn’t.
Kropacetic
If these letters contained any sort of actual classified material, my guess would be that Trump selectively declassified the ones that show him in the best light* expressly to have them published.
*From his delusional perspective
J R in WV
@Kay:
Despicable~!!~ All I can say about these racist idiots, despicable! All of them…
currants
@AL, your writing makes me laugh. Thank you!
JPL
@jl: John used to print the best responses and we could vote on them. Red Kitten would win them all. Anyway, I’d love to see a show down between Doug and Betty Cracker tweets .
Skepticat
Apart from the minor fact he needed a proofreader for his foreword, Cohen does write well, and it seems he (finally) has a grip on reality. Were that more people did. I won’t buy the book, but I’d like to read someone else’s copy. A friend sent a PDF of Mary Trump’s book, but I don’t think I have the strength to get into that. The problem is that we are not the people who need to hear these things.
Kropacetic
It’s almost as though he has a seriously limited set of tools, or else he denies the legitimacy of any black candidate on principle.
Another Scott
Eric Katz at GovExec – What’s Really Going On at the Postal Service.
As usual, things are more complicated than one might believe from the headlines. But still, as always, Donnie’s people have made it much worse.
I don’t know if it’s the full story, but it’s a good read. And reasons to demand they fix their delivery issues and stop trying to break the USPS (via, e.g., eliminating overtime, throwing management into chaos) during the pandemic – when it’s more important than ever that it work well.
Cheers,
Scott.
PsiFighter37
As I have read elsewhere, mark it down – 2020 was the definitive end of the American Century. So depressing.
jl
@Alison Rose: Thanks for the link, interesting interview with Parton. After its use as an explicit symbol for racism and segregation and white supremacy up until the the early 1960s, the Confederate battle flag was sanitized in popular culture. Think ‘rebel outlaw’ stereotype in country and some rock music, Dukes of Hazard, NASCAR. Started to have different messages for different people. Maybe the difference was knowledge of history and degree of conscious commitment to segregation and white supremacy, and probably those with conscious commitment had a far better knowledge of history.
Some whites knew the history and understood precisely how the battle flag was used historically, and how that flag could still be used as a tool to promote racism, others didn’t. I have no clue how many were which of the two groups, which was the majority, but both groups were large.
Sounds like Parton was in the latter. But she’s much smarter, self-aware, and perceptive than most people.
prostratedragon
@patrick II:
My sense was that he loves his family and at some point that made him ashamed of himself.
This is precisely what I’ve been thinking since seeing him in Congress. In addition to the shame, having them placed in jeopardy from those goons made him see the error of his priorities. Maybe he’s got out while there is still something of himself left.
geg6
@patrick II:
YeahI read it, too, and found it strangely compelling. He seems genuinely contrite, I must say. But he does dramatize a bit too much for my taste, so I wouldn’t call it beautifully written. Compelling, I think, is the better word.
Elizabelle
@JPL: I wish Red Kitten would come back.
She’s Canadian, right? So maybe Samkitten can go back to primary school this fall. Not up on how that’s going… but Samkitten might be in kindergarten or first grade or even older by now!
JustRuss
What is: “Proof that the good die young”, Alex?
Martin
Just came back from a rare and lengthy errand to discover that Oakland isn’t in the United States.
Strange how this keeps happening.
Steeplejack
I had to Google Trump’s press secretaries, because I literally could not remember the one before McInany. Felt slightly better to see that it was Stephanie Grisham, because didn’t she set a modern record for not doing anything at all? Rhetorical question.
Had a slightly out-of-body experience yesterday when I saw something that reminded me of the (black) birder and the (white) Karen in Central Park. I had completely forgotten about that. Felt like a reminder from 10 years ago—but 10 years ago in a parallel universe.
The unending tide of bullshit and my decaying sleep hygiene is starting to get to me. Might need to experiment with some sort of “schedule,” assuming I can remember what that is.
JPL
@Elizabelle: I’m guessing he’s about eight, but have no specific facts to base that on. She also has another one who is a few years younger. I think she’s from Newfoundland so life is getting back to normal, but I assume with masks
holy crap august 13, 2009 the miracle of google
Elizabelle
Michael Cohen or Bob Woodward?
Better, more ethical writer? You decide.
Danielx
@VeniceRiley:
As ever, it would be irresponsible not to speculate.
jl
@Elizabelle: We’ll see who is telling the more essential truth more reliably. Late is better than never. Turning around and going straight is better than endless trimming after initial honest success.
jl
@Martin: “Just came back from a rare and lengthy errand to discover that Oakland isn’t in the United States.”
Counties in SF Bay have reciprocity agreements. You probably don’t go to Kern Basin, so don’t have to pass through the check points.
Suzanne
@senyordave:
Well, yeah. Bob Woodward is about 8,000 years old, only Boomers GAF who he is, and everyone already knows that Trump is psycho. I cannot imagine anyone being on the fence at this point who is willing to read some dense, boring doorstop who doesn’t already have their mind made up.
geg6
@Elizabelle:
Oh, no contest! Cohen, for sure! Just ask John Belushi’s widow or Dan Ackroyd about that. Plus, IMHO, Bernstein was always the star of Woodstein. Woodward was a cub reporter and he’s never gotten any better.
Danielx
A boil on the neck of the body politic.
Martin
@Another Scott: Things are not more complicated, really. That’s a standard bureaucratic technique for killing some program – invite it to be underfunded while promising the moon. You’re out before the bill comes due, and once it’s failed you negotiate for its replacement but the objective is now done.
The GOP have been trying to privatize the USPS forever. This way he promises cost cutting, shifts election mail to bulk rate since they only guarantee delivery of first class, shred all of the bulk rate mail – so your ballot just goes in the trash. They’re still meeting their first class mandate, they completely collapse the USPS for packages and everything else and then outsource all the busted bits to the company he used to run and still owns stock in, and then he returns to run that company.
The GOP gets everything they wanted, as does he. And so long as they win in Nov, nobody gets convicted.
Be warned, the more willing they are to break laws to win in Nov, the more desperate they will be to cheat to win in Nov, and the more egregious they will get. This doesn’t improve – it only gets worse.
Martin
@jl: That would explain it.
debbie
@Kay:
Hearing this on the news this afternoon pissed me off almost as much as hearing Trump’s admission he would not fund the post office just so there couldn’t be mail-in voting. How can there not have been lawsuits filed already? ? ? ?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Bob Woodward is the Norma Desmond of politics. “I’m still big, Mika, it is the scandals that have gotten small.”
You have to hear that in my killer imitation of Woodward’s flat, adenoidal drone.
debbie
@Kay:
Wasn’t one of Trump’s parents an immigrant? Shouldn’t Trump be deported along with all the others?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Shit’s about to get real. LaJoy is about to find out what happens when you fuck with the Collins Concern
There will be platitudes.
debbie
@Baud:
Easy. “I want to give you an opportunity to respond to the smear leveled at you about…” She can’t get angry at the journalist for wording it that way.
Libby's Person
Since it’s an open thread, I’d like some guidance. There’s a company selling poly-cotton face masks printed with famous artworks. I’m thinking of ordering one with the classic Great Wave print by the Japanese artist Hokusai both because that artwork is amazingly beautiful but also as a representation of the Democratic Blue Wave we’re working and hoping for. Would it be considered cultural appropriation or insensitive to wear a picture of an artwork so totally linked with another culture? (I’ve actually wondered this in the past about things like mass-market clothes made from African- or First Nations-inspired fabrics.) Thanks!
Mallard FIlmore
@PsiFighter37:
Maybe not yet. It won’t be official until China pushes us off the world stage. They prefer Biden as President, so they are not ready yet.
JPL
@debbie: Truthfully when Bret Baier even questions the latest attack you know it’s not gonna work. Joe need an ad about this.
also. I’m so surprised Baier’s name hasn’t been used in NYTimes puzzles. Of course, I could have missed it.
schrodingers_cat
Bob Woodward has such an annoying voice. Other than his book on Watergate I haven’t read any other book of his.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: You need the healing paw of a kitteh.
Kay
@prostratedragon:
Not all criminals are bad people. True! You like some of them.
When he got out of prison (for furlough or whatever reason- I didn’t follow that mess) the reporter who was talking to him described the young man who was helping Cohen as Cohen’s “bodyguard”. Cohen said “that’s my son”.
I just find him very relatable :)
schrodingers_cat
I can totally relate to this sentiment.
Luciamia
Well, just saw on CNN ‘s website that the Pentagon is launching an investigation into UFO sightings. I mean…the fuck??
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
He talks too slow. He wants to extend the audience’s praise and adulation for as long as possible.
Danielx
@Martin:
Perzackly.
If they win, they’re golden and can go on looting the country and treating their real and perceived enemies* with unchecked viciousness. If they lose, a substantial number of people are looking at losing a lot of money (see gold mine, Bristol Bay), civil and criminal liability, and dog knows what other consequences. So their overriding concern is to win, laws and morality be damned.
*in Trump’s case this would include anyone insufficiently worshipful of his disgusting person and diseased personality, which would definitely include your humble obedient servant.
Patricia Kayden
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
Too soon! I haven’t even had a chance to do some road-tripping yet.
Ken
@JPL: Careful. Only a few people know that the cruciverbalist cabal actually runs the world, pulling strings to get useful names in the news.
debbie
On my walk today, I counted 25 Biden signs. Slow but steady increase. One of the houses is owned by an older couple who are always puttering around in their yard. Back around when Biden first announced his candidacy, they put up a small (as in 8 by 10 inches) sign which said “Byedon 2020.” It took me a while to figure out what was being said, and ever since, I get a chuckle every time I walk by. There are now 3 “Bye Don 2020” signs in the yard. Today I noticed a new, small sign: “#Kamala Harris VP.” Pretty cool for an old guy!
frosty
@patrick II: Agreed. The Forward was a helluva read. Makes me want to read the book, and I’ve passed on every other Trump book out there.
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
As bogus as the lawsuit brought at Michigan. The attorneys made noisy objections to admitting minorities with the same GPA as the plaintiff, but never mentioned that other white kids with worse GPAs had been accepted.
Baud
@debbie:
I don’t know what we would have done if Biden hadn’t won the nomination.
Kay
@debbie:
I got a call today from a woman I gave a sign to. She needs another one. Hers was stolen. She said “is that TRESPASSING?” I mean, it is, it’s also, btw, THEFT but I don’t think we have time for this true crime episode. I had my youngest bring her over another. She’s pissed though- they try it again I bet she nabs them.
debbie
@Baud:
He probably would have walked up the block to ask the homeowner where he had gotten his “Dump Trump” sign!
JPL
@Ken: hahah That will be a clue one day on trump times.
Baud
@Kay:
Can’t she shoot them? Ohio has a GOP governor. It’s allowed!
debbie
@Kay:
I’ve seen one slightly battered Biden sign, but it’s the two nervous homeowners constantly shifting their Trump/Pence signs around their yards and in and out of their houses that really cracks me up.
Kay
Whoever recommended Caste, thank you. Was it raven? Anyway, I’m getting it. I loved The Warmth of Other Suns, so much so that I took my youngest to the Toledo library to listen to the author. Back in pre-Covid days when we… went places. Sigh.
Kay
@Baud:
My favorite thing as a lawyer is people asking about OFFENSES. “Isn’t that SLANDER?” God, I don’t know. Perhaps. It’s something bad, that’s for sure.
frosty
@debbie: Lucky you. I’ve counted 11 Trump signs and flags in my neighborhood. And a Gadsden “Don’t Tread On Me”. Not a single Biden sign. I’ve only put them out for D Congress candidates, who nobody knows. Just keeping my head down. :-)
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Read the Annihilation of Caste by B. R. Ambedkar, the Chair of the drafting committee of the Indian Constitution to get a sense of the caste system in India.
He went to both Columbia and the LSE. And was inspired by the Harlem Renaissance
Brachiator
@Patricia Kayden:
The Trump administration is playing all the greatest hits from “Racism Golden Oldies.”
Elizabelle
@Kay: Cole recommended it. My copy arrived yesterday but I keep forgetting to go pick it up.
Raven might be reading it too.
Isabel Wilkerson is another Kamala Harris type. Has it all going on. And very beautiful and elegant, too.
CaseyL
@VeniceRiley: That is very well written. I’m… not too surprised. Competent “fixers” need to be eloquent, resourceful, and intelligent.
I’m not sure I want to read the book, mostly because I already know enough about Trump to loathe and despise him. My greater anger these days is aimed at his enablers, who also know what he is and have eagerly allied themselves with him.
WaterGirl
@Libby’s Person: I just approved your comment. I am fairly certain you have commented before, but WordPress doesn’t like apostrophes in nyms, so every comment has to be manually approved if you have an apostrophe.
I’m saying all that because you’re comment shows up at the time you made it, not at the time it was approved. So I suggest that you pose your question again so people will see it.
Splitting Image
@Alison Rose:
Parton’s a smart lady, but I think I see the flaw in her argument here.
Brachiator
@Ken:
An idiot coworker once tried telling me and a buddy that x group really controlled the world, and I guess expected agreement or at least acknowledgement. Instead my friend and I both agreed that we thought that group x should be doing a better job and asked the guy if he had the phone number for World Domination headquarters so that we could talk to someone in customer service.
Kathleen
@Kay: Your comment reminds me of Elijah Cummings’ closing remarks at Michael Cohen’s hearing. He spoke directly to Cohen who got very emotional. Very powerful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=72gy-LZ4UN0&app=desktop
JPL
@Kay: The Warmth of Other Suns was so good and I’m sure the new book is the same. The reason I haven’t read it yet is simply that I’m trying to fill my spare time with trash. I’ve read all of the NYtimes Thriller Beach reads and now working my way through some top sellers. This is what trump has caused..
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl, @Libby’s Person:
And maybe change your nym to Libby*s Person or some such.
Kropacetic
Depends. How much understanding do you have of the work? the creator? the culture? Do you perceive wearing it as potentially belittling any of the above?
If done with respect; it isn’t cultural appropriation, it’s cultural appreciation.
SiubhanDuinne
@Luciamia:
Now that Jared’s brought peace to the Middle East, what else are they gonna do?
Elizabelle
@Libby’s Person: Go for it! Now I want a Blue Wave mask, too.
We had a big painting of that Blue Wave on the wall at Abigail Spanberger’s campaign HQ in 2018. And it worked!!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
@Danielx:
Wouldn’t such a blatant move create massive backlash, even violent backlash?
Kay
@Elizabelle:
Wilkerson said at the library that when she wrote the book she didn’t know it would become her life. I was really struck by that- how she felt pulled along by it, no longer in control of what she had created. It must be strange – “this is now what people ask me about, forever”.
Elizabelle
@Libby’s Person: From the FTF NYTimes, but this was spectacular. Worth a click.
Interactive about Hokusai’s “Ejiri” woodblock print, of a wind catching travelers (ie. walkers) in a marsh. NYTimes title is “A Picture of Change for a World in Constant Motion.” Mount Fuji is just two curved lines with a top of the mountain.
counterfactual
@Libby’s Person: Not Japanese, but I’ve watched enough anime to know that the Japanese themselves plaster The Wave on about anything.
Kropacetic
@Libby’s Person: I’ll also point out that there is a lot of bilateral borrowing between Japan and America, if cultural products like language and art are any sort of indication.
Elizabelle
@Kay: I’m sad the authors cannot do in person book tours, but it’s fun seeing them on Zoom, all over the world.
Here’s Ms. Wilkerson with John Dickerson at a NY Public Library event last week. Program starts at 8:16 in. It’s about an hour and ten minutes. Haven’t watched it yet.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Libby’s Person: I think Hokusai belongs to the world, and I doubt the Japanese will care. And I love the symbolism of the Blue Wave!
Sure Lurkalot
@Martin: You’re talking to us like a common Adam Silverman. The truth, it hurts.
Booger
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, the town of Luray, best known for it’s caverns and as the current home of “Cooter’s Garage.” Beautiful part of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia; sad for their mayor to bring infamy on them as the town has been having a bit of a small-town renaissance of late.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
Hell, that happens to everybody who becomes very famous. Think about actors or singers/musicians. Star Trek/general sci-fi actors have it particularly bad for some reason.
Star Trek is mostly the only thing anybody knows William Shatner for. I doubt most people ask him about his time on TJ Hooker, Boston Legal, or even when he was on an episode or two of the Twilight Zone way back. Just ST.
I’m sure Jim Parsons is going to have to deal with idiots screaming “bazinga!” behind him for the next 20 years or so.
Popular bands and singers are perpetually having to play their same hits over and over again. With older acts, the fans don’t want to hear the new stuff. My parents found that out the hard way at Jackson Brown concert a few years back. They were expecting all the old hits they liked Brown for, but he wasn’t in the mood for that, so he played his newer, more politically aware material instead. He was probably sick of the same old same old
The way I see it, fame is a double-edged sword. It’s a blessing and a curse all at the same time. I’m sure many celebs probably appreciate the fact that they have fans and have touched so many lives with their talents. But my god does it not seem worth it when having to deal with paparazzi, weirdo fans or hell even the nice fans (having to be “on” all the time in public and scrutinized has to be tiresome)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Buadon, just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Kropacetic
Personally, I’d be more inclined to ask about Boston Legal. TOS is my least favorite Star Trek.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Many people know how the non-violence movement inspired the US civil rights movement. But I had no idea how the US Civil Rights movement may have inspired Ambedkar.
This article about him suggests that even his decision to go to Columbia represented a different path.
And this stunned me. The first?
In the 1940s, he had a brief correspondence with WEB DuBois. A shame the two men never met.
Is there a good biography for Mr Ambedkar?
raven
@Kay: Yes, I’m really liking it!
raven
The description of MLK’s reaction to being called an “untouchable” on his first visit to India is instructive.
Steeplejack (phone)
Weird. I was talking to a friend earlier this week about The Great Wave and dug up a link for her to a short (five minutes) NHK documentary about it. Worth a look.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: He was quite prolific and wrote both in English and Marathi. I will find links to his writing and ask some Ambedkarites I know about a good biography.
He had several differences of opinion with Gandhi, who had a paternalistic attitude towards both women and Dalits.
BC in Illinois
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
In March 1972, I went to see the Beach Boys at the Univ of Maryland. They wanted to play their new stuff. The crowd wanted Little Deuce Coupe and Help Me Rhonda. The tension grew with every song. They would introduce a new song that they wrote while they were in Europe [I actually don’t remember where and how Brian Wilson was at that time, but I do remember something about Europe], and the crowd yelled out for I Get Around.
The U of Md student newspaper had a scathing review of the crowd in their next issue. Something along the line of, “If you went to hear the Beatles, would you demand that they sing ‘I want to hold your hand’?!?!”
The next time I saw the Beach Boys, in 1973 — and every time since then — they sang Little Deuce Coupe and I Get Around.
raven
Someone tell Rachel that reading text on slides you are viewing is bush league.
JPL
The local fire police chief is in the ICU with the virus and although I wish him well, I also know that the first thing he asked for was hydroxychloroquine. That’s not really true, but knowing his policies, I can presume that.
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It hasn’t thus far. Doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon.
We are trusting democratic institutions that quite frankly don’t function any longer. Maybe they’ll come around, maybe we’ll just follow them off the cliff. Not sure.
This has always been the risk – we never really needed to worry – the checks and balances always came through. What would the day look like when they didn’t? We have no fucking idea. Maybe this is it. We won’t know for sure until it’s too late. That’s the risk. We’re racing to an election to solve this, trusting that it’ll happen in a proper manner when every fucking signal suggests it won’t. Yeah, I trust CA will find a way to make it work – but CA doesn’t solve the problem. Pennsylvania needs to make it work, and North Carolina, and Michigan, and I really don’t have much faith they can fight the feds and win, or even that many of their state legislatures or governors want to.
My worry is that if any president had ever even hinted in the most minor way that an election wouldn’t happen, there’d be calls for impeachment. But we’ve just blown through an overt threat to do that, and an overt statement to undermine the vote by manipulating the USPS. We’ve blown through so many of these red lines, that I don’t have much faith we’ll recognize which red line is the last one we’ll be afforded.
Martin
@raven: She gets a lot of audience through her podcast which is just a rebroadcast of her show without video. Increasingly common.
Martin
@Sure Lurkalot: This is why people usually don’t like me. My NYC bluntness comes out when I get frustrated.
Oddly, this has been one of the happier days of the last 6 months, not sure why it’s coming out now. Maybe I’m better able to face these thoughts.
raven
@Martin: Ah, so she’s “repurposing” it! It still is annoying as hell as someone who tried mightily to get faculty NOT to do that at our conferences.
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
The worst sci fi fans live in a weird fandom bubble. They only want to know their heroes for their science fiction roles. One of the Shatner Twilight Zone episodes has always been hugely popular. It was even remade as one of the stories in the Twilight Zone movie. TJ Hooker was a bit of a campy tv hit with some viewers. I even remember him as a spy in an old tv series, “The Barbary Coast.”
You’re right that some actors get typecast, but others have substantial bodies of work that their most devoted “fans” don’t know about at all.
Some soap opera fans are just as bad.
Baud
I’ll always remember Shatner for the music.
Martin
@raven: Yes, it is annoying, but as usual, anything in sacrifice to efficiency.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
Just because something hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t it mean it never will. Americans are not fundamentally different from anybody else that has toppeled their governments.
If Trump “wins”, we should not despair, but instead become angry that the election was stolen. The Democratic Party should not accept the results of an obviously fraudulent election and work to undermine the GOP and admin as much as possible, while rallying the public to our side. Our allies as well as the international community should also be called to condemn the GOP and place sanctions on the US federal government
The George Floyd protests demonstrated that people do care. The successful fight against Trump’s goon squads showed they can be fought and defeated
Martin
@Baud: That legit is the most memorable if anyone has ever heard it. Nimoy as well.
And I profoundly, sincerely apologize to anyone who clicks that link to discover that for the first time.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Martin: also, satellite radio audience
@Baud: Lucy… in the sky… with diamonds!
Elizabelle
@raven: I am impressed if Rachel is reading the slides.
In my experience, she would be filibustering all over the place to get to the point while the slide is there. And requires seven words to address it.
All these excess words, while the slide is right there, and does not need the excess verbiage.
JR
Did anyone know that Tom Wolfe published like a bunch of more books after Bonfire of the Vanities? Anyone remember those books? Anyways, that’s my take on Bob Woodward.
“Certainly a phenomenon in all walks of life”
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
NGL, I actually liked his spoken word version of “Rocket Man”. The different interpretations of the lyrics was actually very creative
Elizabelle
Has William Shatner ever read any of Trump’s “remarks” over bongo drum accompaniment?
Because Trump is even worse than Palin. Indecipherable.
BC in Illinois
@BC in Illinois:
And some of you might recall that on an earlier thread a day or two ago, I mentioned that my brother in Maryland was in intensive care for Covid. He is now in a room where he can walk around, talk to his wife, and say that he’s getting better. He even responded with a wisecrack about a text/video that our younger brother sent of his dog fetching a huge stick. All of it good signs.
raven
@Elizabelle: She is reading slides that are direct passages from Cohen’s book. On and on and on.
raven
@BC in Illinois: My brother in LA had it and recovered and my older cousin in AZ was in ICU and he’s out.
Baud
@BC in Illinois: Glad to hear it.
Baud
@raven: Glad to hear it.
Another Scott
@Libby’s Person: Hello (from a former) apostrophe person. (Take WG’s advice to heart – apostrophes in ‘nyms cause problems.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa#Influence
It’s beautiful and tells a compelling story. Use it with appreciation of great art.
Cheers,
Scott.
Martin
True. But I also believe that Americans are not fundamentally different from anybody else who has been subjugated by theirs either.
But I think it’s fair to say, and Adam would have a better sense of this, that Americans are extraordinarily complacent regarding rule of law, orderly transition of power, checks and balances, and all that. We’ve checked through a hell of a lot of those in the last 4 years with the only real result being a bit of a slowdown, but not a correction.
Quite literally the election is the last opportunity. If it doesn’t work, violence will be all that’s left.
Martin
@BC in Illinois: So good to hear! Yay!
raven
I was at the pharmacy today and they have flu shots so I got one.
JPL
@BC in Illinois: So pleased that you updated us. I was thinking about you earlier.
raven
@Martin: Pretty decent chance of violence if we do win.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack (phone):
Fascinating. Thank you.
Dan B
@Libby’s Person: The Great Wave of Kanegawa (sp?) was caused by a massive earthquake off the Washington coast. We’ve been many times to a resort a couple miles from where the origin of the quake was discovered. The seafloor off the coast dropped 60 feet. We’re due for another 9 pointer.
Martin
@raven: Bill Gates can read your thoughts now.
Martin
@raven: Yeah, that’s the other risk. Sometimes there’s no good way out.
Baud
@Martin:
Looking forward to the clip of Bill Gates saying “Fuck LBJ.”
SiubhanDuinne
@BC in Illinois:
Very glad to hear it! I hope he continues to improve daily. Thanks for sharing the hopeful news.
Kay
US Mail Not for Sale. The postal worker union’s new site.
They want us to call Congress. Friday would be a good day for that :)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
The funny thing is, the only reason Shatner had a comeback was because of the success of the ST movies in the 80s. There would’ve been no TJ Hooker or Boston Legal for him if he wasn’t on ST. It ironically saved his acting career after killing it for a bit. I think I remember reading that his career was already in a slump when he was offered the role of Kirk
Granted. I guess my wider point was that even big time actors like Tom Cruise get “type cast” (having to play similar roles because that’s what makes money) I guess and have to deal with the negative aspects of fame.
Comedians like Robin Williams and Tom Hanks all eventually transitioned to drama. I can’t remember the last comedy I saw Hanks in. The Oscars tend to look down on comedy for some reason and that’s probably why Williams and Hanks took more dramatic roles later on
Dorothy A. Winsor
@BC in Illinois: Excellent! Keep it up, BC’s brother!
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
@BC in Illinois: Wonderful news! May things continue to get better.
patrick Il
@geg6:
I reread it and I agree that compelling is a more accurate description. I also think I hear Cohen’s voice in the writing, so I am going with well edited, not ghostwritten –
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Tom Cruise tends to produce his own movies these days, so he’s playing those roles because he chooses to. He’s basically a one-man studio that lets him pick his scripts, roles, and who directs him.
And Cruise is the kind of person I want to dislike, but I tend to really like his movies a lot. It’s clearly working for him.
Another Scott
@BC in Illinois: Good signs, indeed.
Sending good thoughts. Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
James E Powell
@Martin:
I’ve never recovered from the 2000 selection and I’m still angry that so few people were angry. The supreme court said not to bother even trying to count the votes in a state where the candidate’s brother was the governor and his campaign manager was in charge of the voting. The press/media were delighted because they hated Gore. And pretty much the whole country just said, okay, no problem.
We lost something there and we may never get it back.
Baud
@Martin: His stunt work is amazing.
trollhattan
Six more NCAA conferences postponed fall sports ’til spring today. NCAA president: “We cannot, at this point, have fall NCAA championships.”
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Michael Cohen’s book will take a big piss on Woodward’s book.
Steeplejack (phone)
@BC in Illinois:
Great news!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
I’d argue a lot of that complacency comes from still having creature comforts. The pandemic has taken many of those away for a lot of people. Sports are looking increasingly unlikely to continue for the foreseeable future. That’s one less distraction for a lot of people. I’d bet a million dollars that part of the reason the George Floyd protests happened is because sports were postponed and people were already frustrated about a bunch of other hardships associated with the pandemic. People saw it and got really mad about it.
I don’t think people are just going to meekly accept the results of an election where the USPS has been actively fucked with to benefit Trump. There will be mass protests at the very least
Brachiator
@BC in Illinois:
This is great news. I hope that improvement continues.
CaseyL
@BC in Illinois: Fantastic news, and I hope his recovery continues without a hitch!
@Martin: Which is exactly what the Purity Progressives claim to want: an actual revolution. I look forward to their being first at the barricades.
If it comes to that, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m not exactly fighting fit, though I guess I can lay down in front of a tank with the best.
zhena gogolia
OMG, Cauvin does a Michael Cohen impression — brilliant!
Elizabelle
@BC in Illinois: Keep improving, BC’s brother.
Glad to hear it. I hope he keeps on the mend, and does not have lasting effects. How scary for your whole family.
Please keep us apprised.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
My question tonight is simple – why has “very talented, very respected lawyer” John Eastman made it this far through his disgusting, mediocre life this far without being justifiably clubbed to death like a baby harp seal?
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: He is good.
“Excuse me, excuse me.” Olga!
Steeplejack (phone)
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Apparently the Claremont Institute is a no-kill zone.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Brachiator: This is great news for McCain!
Oh wait.
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
This is not entirely true. Look at the man’s filmography. It was always pretty substantial.
Leonard Nimoy noted that after Trek he was always able to make a good living as a working actor. Maybe this was true of Shatner as well to some degree.
But Shatner was working steadily after Trek and before Hooker, and had a starring role in at least one tv series.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (phone):
Were you as disappointed in Endeavour as I was? Shaun Evans is not a director and the new composer is terrible.
Baud
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Tenure.
Dan B
@BC in Illinois: Thanks for the good news! We have a deficit of good: news, prognosis, fun, etc.
Cacti
Bush v. Gore was easily the most corrupt SCOTUS decision of the last 100 years, and should have been an early warning of the GOP’s transformation into an anti-democracy movement.
Nelle
@James E Powell: Agreed. I admit I wasn’t on the streets, yet no one was. We got this pap about how wonderful we were to have an orderly transition. No one fought it. (At 7:15, Central Time, NPR was interviewing an R official about declaring Florida for Gore. He said, in the flattest tone, “That’s not right.” Not “Wait for all the votes to be counted! We think we’ll pull this out.” Nope, just a flat tone of we’ve got this. I felt a sickness come on that the fix was in.
But Kerry said, in 2004, he would fight shenanigans. And there were shenanigans in Ohio. But he folded. My husband started looking for jobs overseas and we left the country.
(And came back so he could fly instruments and then came grandbabies. And now we sorely miss living in a sane country. New Zealand. They may have their Lord of the Rings myth but they damn well know the difference between fantasy and reality. On the whole.)
Martin
@CaseyL: I’ll admit to being a bit preoccupied with the question of ‘who starts a revolution’? It strikes me that they are spontaneous events from personal interaction, and not really something that may be able to arise out of a bunch of people facebooking at each other.
I’m certainly not fighting fit either, but I lost my sense of self-preservation ages ago, so I doubt it matters. I’m the idiot that will charge the line armed with a 3-hole punch. But how do I know when it’s time? Can you have imposters syndrome over being a revolutionary? It’d really help if Adam would front page a memo telling us its time to start burning shit down, because that’s what I respond best to.
patrick Il
@James E Powell:
I agree about the terrible effects of the 2000 election. I was also disappointed that Gore, and to a degree Clinton, didn’t fight harder. Republican leadership was much more aggrssive in their fight for the presidency.
patrick Il
@BC in Illinois: That is wonderful. Every day the number of deaths is published butyou can’t count the pain and loss to families. I am very happy for all of you for his recovery.
Dan B
@patrick Il: My partner insists that John Roberts was in the Brooks Brothers Riot that pounded on the window demanding the Florida recount be halted.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
Huh. Didn’t know he starred in a show between ST and Hooker. I know he and Nimoy both guest starred in Columbo
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Maybe. My sense though is that preservation of democracy is something other people do. We’ve outsourced the hard stuff. Maybe that’s the same thing as getting the creature comforts, but I look at how quickly people in other countries really start speaking out angrily. I mean, French firefighters set themselves on fire and then go beat the shit out of the cops at the drop of a hat. France isn’t some oppressive regime, but damn, I admire that determination to get a point across. The teamsters never showed that kind of moxie. As democracies go, they’re our fraternal twin, but they started with beheading and we started by vandalizing some Earl Grey, which we recount with great pride. Sometimes I wonder if we ever really committed to the idea.
zhena gogolia
@Dan B:
I think Kavanaugh was involved, I never heard Roberts.
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I have no idea what this means or what it is supposed to accomplish. The Constitution does not provide any guidance for a totally contested election. And rejecting an election might mean an end to the American experiment with democracy, which would probably make Trump happy.
Sanctions on the US government. That would be interesting to see. And Putin would laugh his ass off at the idea of the US as a pariah nation.
Hoppie
AL, loved the redolent metaphor. Sweet, as one might say. Also too, V of B.
Omnes Omnibus
I find it interesting how much power people seem to be ceding to the Trump and the right. We have agency too. So let’s use it. Then no one needs to worry about whether or not they can stop a hover-round cavalry charge with a stapler.
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
No there won’t. Not for more than a couple of days.
The Maidan movement that caused a change in government in Ukraine took three months, in the middle of winter. People occupying the center of the capital city day after day, week after week, in the freezing cold, from mid-November to mid-February. About 100 of them were killed by government forces and pro-Yanukovych hired thugs. Sorry, but Americans don’t have the stomach or the endurance.
Cacti
Yep. If the above happens, the U.S. is a failed Republic. And bad things are very likely to follow.
Omnes Omnibus
John Lewis and a shitload of other people did. So, in their way, did the people who stood in line to vote in Milwaukee in April. So have the moms and dads standing at the front of protesters in Portland. So, very politely, you can cram it up your ass.
patrick Il
@Dan B: He was in Florida, ostensibly to work on the court cases,but there is a picture of the crowd threatening the vote counters that show him or his doppleganger in that crowd.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
It will end anyway if Trump wins by cheating and faces no consequences for it. We’re slouching towards authoritarianism and we can’t keep playing appeasement with Republicans. It didn’t work against the Nazis and it hasn’t worked with the GOP. It’s a political movement that has absolute contempt for us.
It means we have to take a stand, to show the world what we’re truly about and fight for it by any means necessary. The Dems need to rally the public and our allies to our cause in opposition to the corrupt Trump regime. By leveraging both, we can try to pressure the GOP from power by gumming up the works
Sanctions were placed on South Africa. Look what happened. While they’re not perfect, the oppressive apartheid regime was dismantled.
And Putin can go fuck himself. He’s going to get to live long enough to see the catastrophic effects of climate change on Russia and the rest of the world. He’s probably doomed humanity at this point with his actions
Amir Khalid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Shatner was in Barbary Coast with Doug McClure, if I recall correctly.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
Well, I was going to ask if you’re opinion had changed in light of the George Floyd protests and the Portland/Seattle occupations, but I guess not.
Hell, unarmed protesters defeated Trump’s goons as well as the asshole police. They got their teargas canisters thrown back at them. Normal, ordinary people stood in solidarity against them to protect other protesters. Yes, I know it’s not the same level of brutality faced by those in Ukraine for example, but have more faith in people
Brachiator
@Omnes Omnibus:
People want to see the elections play out. Of course, the problem is that Trump is undermining democracy with the connivance of the Republicans. Unfortunately, it is hard to see a solution that does not also call for the undermining of democracy.
Do you have any suggestions?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Cacti:
Then perhaps for the last 20 or 30 years all we’ve been doing is delaying the inevitable
SectionH
@debbie: Ah, sweet memories. 2008, ppl in LEX weren’t getting all the Obama signs they wanted (well, blue island…) So I didn’t wait, designed and printed one out put it onna frame I had from some previous election: “THAT ONE”. Taped it up, stuck the sign in our yard. The next day, our new neighbor across the street came over and So wanted to know where he could get a sign like that. I made one for him. Definitely happy to welcome him with an Obama sign.
Last November, I was back there, and our neighborhood had Beshear signs out the wazoo. I’m sure there are already a ton of Biden/Harris signs there now. Of course, if our neighborhood, and Lexington, Louisville, Richmond, and Berea weren’t swamped by the red tide, Mitch would have been toast years ago. Still, Kentucky voters threw Bevin out last year, who knows? It could happen.
gwangung
@Gin & Tonic:
White Americans don’t
Black Americans…do.
We’ll see about the rest.
Omnes Omnibus
@Brachiator: Among other things, win by enough that they can’t credibly try to steal it. Make sure everyone who wants to vote can do it. Etc.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
This. Thank you. We need to move haven and earth to make it nearly impossible to steal in the first place
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I’m too old for fairy tales.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Who can forget Shatner’s performance in Incubus filmed in Esperanto?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhgl7wL8h-8
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Sigh. How old are you, again?
Trump acts a fool. The GOP continue to back him. Now what? In practical terms, what would you suggest be done to establish a new government? This romantic notion of people taking to the streets is fun rhetoric, but actual revolution is a nasty, bloody business with an uncertain outcome.
Sanctions on the US government. That would be interesting to see. And Putin would laugh his ass off at the idea of the US as a pariah nation.
How many years did it take for sanctions to have some effect?
OK, now I got some real doom and gloom for you. If Trump goes full autocrat, he pulls us out of the UN and all other international agencies. Post pandemic world, the US is still a major power. There are no governments willing to impose sanctions which might result in retaliatory tariffs.
The positives: in theory, the states, if they remained sane, might be able to establish a new Congress, and cite constitutional authority. The new Congress could then vote for president and vice president.
The negatives: if the majority of the states back the Republicans, then the only real remedy would be civil war. Other nations would not get involved. We would be on our own.
I have no idea who would command the US military, or whether they would sit back and refuse to get involved, or come down on one side or the other.
This is probably the least bloody alternative.
So, let’s all be happy, work toward voting Trump out of office, and presume that he is too much of a coward to try to pull any bullshit.
dopey-o
@Libby’s Person:
Yes. But do it anyway. People may die.
Jesuz, KILL ME NOW!!!
Omnes Omnibus
@dopey-o: Christ, it’s not as though Libby’s Person is saying this mask or nothing. They wanted an opinion as to whether a particular design might be seen as insensitive.
debbie
@SectionH:
I’m really hoping Mitch leads a very large group of his buddies out of politics for good.
TS (the original)
@piratedan: And why is it all kept to make money from his musings rather than released to the public when available?
Does trump or one of the minions sell such items to an adoring media?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
upthread I compared Bob Woodward to Norma Desmond. Trying to think of a movie analogy for this….
Baby Jane Hudson letting it be known she’s available for film and television?
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think that not responding is a response, Ralph.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Jesus, that’s sad.
Jay
@Gin & Tonic:
Portland does. Seattle does. You need to adopt the Portland Motto, Keep it Weird.
debbie
@Libby’s Person:
It’s a work of art, so no. If you were to start painting masks in that style, I think that would be appropriation. My iPad cover is Van Gogh’s painting of almond blossom branches and no one’s accused me of appropriation yet.
SectionH
@debbie: Mr S is still thinking about re-registering in Kentucky to vote against Mitch One.Last.Time. I’ve told him go ahead if he wants to. Absolutely legal, we still own that house in Lex, and we’ve spent 6 months in the last year there (trying to get it sale-ready of course, but still). I don’t care, I’m not switching out of my permanent mail voter status in California, even to vote against Mitch again. I worked hard to get here.
I have serious doubts enough Kentuckians will be pissed off enough to throw Mitch out – especially because Gov Beshear kept the Covid from speading so badly early on… but I don’t think it’s completely impossible.
debbie
@SectionH:
They may turn out if he doesn’t save the post office.
Aleta
@Another Scott: Serious stuff in PA:
Another Scott
@James E Powell: Florida wasn’t going to be awarded to Gore even if the SCOTUS stayed out of it – as they should have when deciding on whether the recount should continue – for the reasons you state. Because it was so close and so many circumstances required judgement calls, the FL government and legislature was going to decide who won under state law. So, W was going to get it.
The lesson is that Democrats need to turn out in sufficient numbers so that it’s out of the hands of partisans and the courts.
My $0.02.
[eta:] and what OO said above.
Cheers,
Scott.
Aleta
@Libby’s Person: I think Hokusai’s image is different from First Nations’ cultural property, and OK to have on your mask. I think your question is a decent, considerate one.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: at least we learned, and no one ever listened to “not a dime’s worth of difference” arguments again.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: People can learn. But, yeah, it’s really hard.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
dww44
@Elizabelle: @raven: Am watching the midnight replay of the RMS show. I think her reading of the slides of the text from Cohen’s intro to his new book were effective, not overly long, and provided a great segway to the next segment with the defense department analyst, Kyle Murphy, who has resigned from his position to call out Trump’s recent moves to further undermine our democracy.
Her objectives seem clear… to warn us of the dangers we face and, personally, her dramatic readings make those warnings much more impactful.. I’m calling my 3 GOP congresspersons tomorrow .
BruceFromOhio
In other news, water is wet, and sun rises in east. Pictures at 11.
Anne Laurie
@Libby’s Person: Late to this, as always, but…
The artist (Hokusai) specifically made the series of prints that includes the Great Wave to be sold to foreigners as well as his fellow Japanese. So I would say it’s perfectly appropriate to repurpose his image, even as a Gaikokujin.
RedKitten
@Elizabelle:
Hey there! Believe it or not, SamKitten actually turns 11 today. He’s a full-on, Minecraft-loving tween.
Uncle Cosmo
Anyone interested in what our self-confessed American Baka** looks like can find a mugshot in Webster’s Illustrated Dictionary accompanying the word jejeune.
**FTR, Japanese for “fool.” Aptly chosen? Opinions differ…
Uncle Cosmo
@Brachiator: IMO the “least bloody alternative” with a prayer of working would be a coup à la Turque:
I happened to be touring Turkey the last time the Ordu[2] intervened in government, in 1996, when no one was hanged and no troops were deployed. It was a coup de Powerpoint – the Army would call in leading citizens & show them presentations warning that then-PM Necmettin Erbakan and his Refah (Welfare) Party intended to transform Turkey into an Islamic state, and we don’t want that, do we?[3] Soon enough a protest movement arose (notably the people of Istanbul who’d come out on their balconies the same time every evening banging pots and pans) which toppled Erbakan’s government.[4][5]
Could that happen here? Highly unlikely. The US military has neither a history of intervening in politics[6] nor any basis in law or tradition to style itself “the caretaker of the republic.” And the forces high & low are (like the electorate in every state of the Union) drastically divided on their views of the current Maladministration. (E.g., IIUC the USAF is shot full of evilangelical fundanazi Trumpisti.)
[1] I.e., the Turkish equivalent of “Don’t make us come in there!”
[2] FWIW this is a cognate of the English “horde.”
[3] See note 1.
[4] By which time I was long gone. Had nothing to do with it, swear to Dog…
[5] Unfortunately the Islamofascist Erdogan learned the lesson, & upon taking power started removing secularists from the army, & eventually a failed coup attempt by those remaining allowed him to finish the job.
[6] For which we may be eternally grateful; cf. Butler, Smedley.