Ta-Nehisi Coates: Storytellers have the right to answer any question they choose. But we do not need to wait to examine all the questions that are not being chosen: What if John Brown had succeeded? What if the Haitian Revolution had spread to the rest of the Americas? What if black soldiers had been enlisted at the onset of the Civil War? What if Native Americans had halted the advance of whites at the Mississippi? And we need not wait to note that more interesting than asking what the world would be like if the white South had won is … Continue reading Confederates or, Who You Are in the War
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère by Edouard Manet, 1882.
It’s my birthday today. We’re planning a relatively quiet day with dinner at one of the great restaurants in New Orleans, Brigtsen’s. It’s located in an Uptown cottage, not far from the river. The service is great and the food is even better.
A note on the featured image. I’m such a Manet fan that I named a black female cat Manet. She was long-lived and lovable. We had a game that we played together wherein we compared artists. I’d ask “who do you like better, Picasso or Manet?” The answer was always the same: “Manet.” She lived to be twenty, dying in 2005 not long before Katrina. I’m glad she missed the upheaval and disruption of our nomadic evacuation. It’s hard to be a grande dame when you’re on the move.
It’s sad how few pictures we have of our pre-digital camera era cats. This is a good shot of Manet in her Dowager Empress period:
Holy lagniappe catblogging, Batman.
August 1st was the 75th anniversary of Jerry Garcia’s birth. I miss Jerry, which is why the Garcia-Hunter tune, Touch of Gray, is this week’s theme song. It was the Dead’s only genuine hit single, which is remarkable given their longevity and popularity.
We have two touches of gray for your listening pleasure: the VH1 pop up video of their skeletony promo video and a live version from 7/4/1989 in Buffalo. Notice Jerry and keyboard player Brent Mydland touching their own gray hair before launching into the song. Oh well, a touch of gray, kind of suits you anyway. Literal but still swell. Brent died in 199o. I’ve often said that being the keyboard player in the Dead was much like being the drummer in Spinal Tap. I don’t believe in jinxes but this one has a kernel of truth.
Oh yeah, both videos were posted by someone who spelled gray with an E. So it goes.
Now that I’ve made y’all feel old and decrepit, let’s limp to the break.
The buzz about Stephen Miller’s “cosmopolitan” comment to Jim Acosta had me thinking about the reason he can actually get away with something like that. It’s the same reason why Gov. Scott Walker gets away with ripping the University System and it’s the same reason I usually tell people I “work at the U” in hopes that they think I’m a janitor. We have far too many people who get excised about perceived slights and publicly draw attention to things that so many others would just look at and say, “Really?” This week, I was trying to dodge summer grading … Continue reading I got defriended by a “nice young lady in a blue shirt.”
Della Street loves it when we shop at Costco. They provide a variety of boxes for her sedentary amusement. This box originally contained two twelve-packs of Urban South beer. It’s a New Orleans brewery, which means that Della is boxing … Continue reading Friday Catblogging: Beer Boxer
In addition to my “duties” (it’s no duty, it’s a pleasure) here at First Draft, I’m pleased to announce that I will be joining the Bayou Brief as a contributing writer. It’s a brand spanking new progressive news site focusing … Continue reading The Bayou Brief
I wish I were writing about the drink they were obsessed with on Sex and the City or the magazine of that name. Not that I’d drink a cosmopolitan since they contain the demon vodka. I’m referring to comments by … Continue reading The Fog Of Cosmopolitan History
The war in Afghanistan is…like renovating the 21 Club in Manhattan. Seriously. Trump told his advisers that the restaurant, Manhattan’s elite ’21’ Club, had shut its doors for a year and hired an expensive consultant to craft a plan for … Continue reading This Week In The Annals Of Being Presidential
I was watching Americans Pickers the other day and one of the pickees was a collector of movie ephemera. Mike Wolfe spotted a poster for a flick that I had no idea existed: Werewolves on Wheels. It was a biker … Continue reading Pulp Fiction Thursday: Werewolves On Wheels
The Insult Comedian gave a rather chummy interview to the Wall Street Journal the day after the Trumpers Jamboree speech. The WSJ declined to post the transcript so I’m obliged to thank Tiger Beat on the Potomac for doing so. I … Continue reading Your President* Speaks: Boy Scout Bullshit Edition
Another Wednesday, another Sixties psychedelic album cover. I’m familiar with the loopy grandeur of Manfred Mann’s hit version of Bob Dylan’s The Mighty Quinn but I’d never seen the album before. It has a wicked cool cover by Victor Moscoso … Continue reading Album Cover Art Wednesday: The Mighty Quinn
07.31.17 Anthony Scaramucci RESIGNS as White House Communications Director Comes less than a week after hiring
JULY 31, 2017 Washington, DC (ABC/WBEN) Anthony Scaramucci resigns as White House Communications Director.
This comes the same day John Kelly was sworn in as Chief of Staff. Sources tell ABC Scaramucci resigned, asking to be redeployed at the Export Import Bank as chief strategy officer.
Scaramucci had not been on the job less than a week. It may be most memorable for an expletive-laden conversation with a New Yorker reporter that disparaged other members of the Trump team.
SCARAMUCCI FIRED by John Kelky(sic)Twitter ^ Posted on 7/31/2017, 1:47:31 PM by tellw
Then, it’s :
Trump Removes Anthony Scaramucci From Communications Director Role The New York Times ^ | July 31, 2017 | By MAGGIE HABERMAN, MICHAEL D. SHEAR and GLENN THRUSH
WASHINGTON — President Trump has decided to remove Anthony Scaramucci from his position as communications director, three people close to the decision said Monday, relieving him just days after Mr. Scaramucci unloaded a crude verbal tirade against other senior members of the president’s senior staff.
The decision to remove Mr. Scaramucci, who had boasted about reporting directly to the president not the chief of staff, John F. Kelly, came at Mr. Kelly’s request, the people said. Mr. Kelly made clear to members of the White House staff at a meeting Monday morning that he is in charge.
Well, WHICH IS IT?? Did the mooch resign, was he fired by Kelly, or was he shitcanned by The Darnold?
This news hit Freeperville like a string of firecrackers being tossed into an Open Carry demonstration.
Everybody’s sharing this Kevin Williamson piece and it’s horseshit: Trump is the political version of a pickup artist, and Republicans — and America — went to bed with him convinced that he was something other than what he is. Trump inherited his fortune but describes himself as though he were a self-made man. He has had a middling career in real estate and a poor one as a hotelier and casino operator but convinced people he is a titan of industry. He has never managed a large, complex corporate enterprise, but he did play an executive on a reality show. … Continue reading They Knew What Trump Was. They Liked It.
