Month: April 2019

Athenae, Congress, Faith2 Comments

Joy is Part of the Fight

Allison Hantschel

As we are all, rightly, quarreling over the defense of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a reminder that when we politicize people’s faith and make them symbols, we don’t just create misery. We poison ordinary human joy:  I wrote my second book because I wanted to read a story where a young queer Muslim girl’s story was not about pain or suffering. I wanted the things that got in the way of her love story to be the everyday kinds of things that get in the way of many of our own love stories. The misunderstandings. The fear of vulnerability. The aching … Continue reading Joy is Part of the Fight

Adrastos, Comedy, Diary, Film, Fog Of History, Music, New Orleans, Odds & Sods, Television

Saturday Odds & Sods: Stop Breaking Down

Peter Adrastos Athas
Golconda by Rene Magritte

I’ve been busy putting the finishing touches on an epic piece I’m writing for the Bayou Brief about movies set in the Gret Stet of Louisiana, which is why this week’s outing will be relatively short. Hey, stop cheering out there.

The Jazz Fest merry-go-round keeps on spinning out of control. Stevie Nicks has pneumonia and Finnwood Mac have cancelled the rest of their US tour including Jazz Fest. They’ve already been replaced. That means Jazz Fest has descended down the rock evolutionary scale from the Rolling Stones to Fleetwood Mac to Widespread Panic. The last band’s name aptly described how promoters must have felt upon hearing about Stevie.

This week’s theme song was inspired by the Jazz Fest mishigas. Robert Johnson recorded Stop Breaking Down aka Stop Breaking Down Blues in Dallas in 1937. God only knows when it was written. Johnson was not big on record keeping.

I have two versions for your listening pleasure. Robert Johnson’s original and the Exile On Main Street version by noted Jazz Fest drop-outs, the Rolling Stones:

Ordinarily, I’d call a tow truck after breaking down but let’s hop, skip, and jump to the break.

Continue reading “Saturday Odds & Sods: Stop Breaking Down”

Athenae, So Called Liberal Media1 Comment

Who You Could Be

Allison Hantschel

Jeffrey Toobin is an idiot, okay, and is rightly taking all kinds of .gif heat for this bullshit, but there’s something else at work here that overshadows the majority of the coverage of the Trump administration and the equally infuriating rehabbing of the Bush administration: .@JeffreyToobin calls Trump “the great reputation killer.” Kirstjen Nielsen “was a reasonably admired bureaucrat. For the rest of her life people will look at her and think, ‘Oh, that’s the woman who put children in cages.’” https://t.co/LSkSsWzjTF pic.twitter.com/rCKeMObkzZ — Jeffrey Toobin (@JeffreyToobin) April 8, 2019 The sickness here is in Toobin’s ability to empathize and … Continue reading Who You Could Be

Stupid Republican Tricks, Tommy T6 Comments

Today on Tommy T’s Obsesssion with the Freeperati – MestaMachine edition

Tommy T

Having horrible back/neck issues – so a blast from the past for you, since the never-ending Freepathon is back up and running.  Hopefully I’ll be back next Monday. ******** Today’s Obsession is about an ex-Freeper – someone who was there for six long years. Then, she got sick.  Really sick.  Is-she-ever-going-to-leave-the-hospital sick. A good friend set up a Paypal donation account and freepmailed fellow Freepers with the info. Many helped. After several hospitalizations, Mestamachine put a link to the account in her FR profile info. Alas, on Free Republic, only Jim Rob gets to rake in the ducats, and he … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsesssion with the Freeperati – MestaMachine edition

Athenae, Congress, Elections3 Comments

Mitch Mitch Mitch, OUT OUT OUT

Allison Hantschel

I wrote this back in 2016 and I’m still on that shit, as the kids say.  In fact, I’ll go one further: The entire Resistance ™ should focus much less on ousting Trump and throw its entire weight behind ruining Mitch McConnell’s existence into and through the afterlife.  Without Mitch, Trump couldn’t do jack dick. Without Mitch and his pets in the howler monkey sanctuary we call the Senate, we wouldn’t have Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. We’d have Merrick Garland and yeah, probably some borderline fascist but COME ON. Get rid of this turtle fuck and a few of his circle-jerking … Continue reading Mitch Mitch Mitch, OUT OUT OUT

Athenae, Big Damn Heroes, Law/Justice, So Called Liberal Media

Not Everything Sucks

Allison Hantschel

Some people are making newspapers for people in prison:  It was the publication of that essay that led to me walking through the office doors of The Marshall Project two months later—having finally won parole—to talk with their staff about my experiences. That conversation led to me joining their team and to the creation of News Inside—a collection of TMP’s award-winning journalism that relates directly to incarcerated lives. In the past month, we began distributing the pilot edition of this print publication to prisons and jails; to date it is circulating in 30 facilities in 19 states. I wanted to … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks

Adrastos, Diary, Fog Of History, Music, New Orleans, Odds & Sods, Political Crack, Sports, Television

Saturday Odds & Sods: Don’t Get Me Started

Peter Adrastos Athas
My Brother Imitating Scherzo by Andre Kertesz

New Orleans is a city of extremes. We do everything in an outlandish fashion and that includes the weather. I’ve been bitching about the pollen and the need for rain for months, but when it finally rained, it was a deluge. There are times when moderation is a virtue but it’s hard to find in this town. Oh well, you know what they say: “April showers bring the flowers that bloom in May.”

Traffic cameras have been one of the main topics of conversation locally.  Mayor Cantrell campaigned against them. She seems to have changed her mind as well as the rules governing them in school zones. The speed limit is 20 MPH but the city used to cut motorists some slack and didn’t issue tickets to folks within 5 MPH of the limit. They changed the rules without informing the public, which resulted in an angry debate on social media once the cat got out of the proverbial bag. Nobody likes paying $75 for going 3 MPH over the limit, after all.  This debate beats the hell outta talking about murders, mayhem, and the price of Jazz Fest tickets. Btw, the band whose latest iteration I call Finnwood Mac is replacing the Stones at Jazz Fest.

This week’s theme song was written by Rodney Crowell for his 2005 album, The Outsider. Don’t Get Me Started is something I find myself saying frequently in the Trump era. Don’t get me started about Herman Cain on the Fed, y’all:

Now that we’ve shared a rockin’ rant, let’s jump to the break or is that break to the jump? I hope break dancing isn’t involved: I’m not flexible enough to spin about on the ground. I leave such gyrations to young Paul Drake and the dude in the Andre Kertesz photograph above.

Continue reading “Saturday Odds & Sods: Don’t Get Me Started”

Adrastos, Campaign Notes, Political Crack, Stupid Republican Tricks, The Darnold

The Man Without A Plan

Peter Adrastos Athas

The Insult Comedian continues to flail, wail, and fail. My favorite recent moment was his “threat” to close the border, which almost no one took seriously. The Trump base likes their guacamole and tequila as much as the rest of us. As always, Trump caved and issued a “one-year warning” instead. I somehow doubt that President Obrador aka Amlo was shaking in his boots. It was non-starter from the git-go. It’s time for a reminder that Trump is the man without a plan. He wings it, improvises, and pulls stuff out of thin air. The only plan he has is … Continue reading The Man Without A Plan

Adrastos, Fog Of History, Political Crack, The Darnold, Twitter2 Comments

Tweet Of The Day: Dementia Edition

Peter Adrastos Athas

Donald Trump is a horrible person with whom it’s hard to empathize. Those without empathy receive little in return. I’m not a doctor, but yesterday he showed  clear signs of age-related mental decline. He clearly intended to denounce the “origins” of the Mueller but instead said “oranges.” On one level it was funny given that his own skin color resembles Kraft singles after spending time on the White House tanning bed. However, when one remembers that there’s a family history of dementia, it’s not as amusing. Then there’s the matter of his latest mantra: “I’m very normal.” Like such past … Continue reading Tweet Of The Day: Dementia Edition

Athenae, So Called Liberal Media3 Comments

People Cared About Their Newspapers and Newspapers Pissed That Away

Allison Hantschel

This is making the rounds of journo Twitter and everybody’s all HEE HEE HEE but honestly, it illustrates the saddest thing about the newspaper debacle currently grinding its way to a miserable end: Overheard on the scanner: a woman called to complain someone stole her newspaper. She has it on video. That means someone wanted a newspaper bad enough to steal it. AND someone was mad enough about their newspaper being stolen they called to report it. THERE IS HOPE, PEOPLE. — Kaitlyn Krasselt (@kaitlynkrasselt) April 1, 2019 People cared about their newspapers. They always did. Newspapers had generational brand … Continue reading People Cared About Their Newspapers and Newspapers Pissed That Away

Free Republic, Immigration, The Darnold, Tommy T3 Comments

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati -Darn old Darnold edition

Tommy T

Good morning, everyone! I can’t help wondering if the bloom isn’t off the rose Marmalade Shartcannon just a bit.

After a week of crowing and high-fiving over The Darnold’s not being perp-walked out of the Oval Office (hey, when that sounds like a win….) , suddenly the party is over and the hangover has begun :

Latest Trump H-2B Increase Again Betrays American Workers
Center for Immigration Studies ^ | 29 March 2019 | Preston Huennekens

Posted on 3/29/2019, 3:58:41 PM by zeestephen

Today’s decision increases the H-2B cap by “only” 30,000, rather than the full 67,000 Congress authorized, but this surge nonetheless increases the cap to 96,000. Not even under President Obama did H-2B visas rise to such high levels….President Trump continues to increase the number of H-2B guestworkers every time he has the opportunity. This is entirely his own administration’s fault. He could, at any time, direct Secretary Nielsen to not increase the cap.

1 posted on 3/29/2019, 3:58:41 PM by zeestephen
Hey – look at the bright side.
At least none of those coal workers are going to be replaced at their jobs.
To: zeestephen

 

That’s what we need, more Asian techs. Damn it!

2 posted on 3/29/2019, 4:02:26 PM by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, that’s how you sell clothing.)

FryAsianTech
To: King Moonracer 

If this is true, it’s antithetic to everything he’s run on.

You sound surprised.

Why give in on only this issue when he hasn’t on others?!

You don’t get out much, do you?

There’s no dearth of good tech workers here.

Duh, motherfucker.

There’s an abundance of companies, however, who don’t watn to pay good salaries.

3 posted on 3/29/2019, 4:03:46 PM by dp0622 (The Left should know if.. Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR)

TrickleDown (2)
To: dp0622

 

There’s an abundance of companies, however, who don’t want to pay good salaries.

Don’t hear much these days from those FReepers who defend big businesses cutting their costs to the bone, by hiring “cheaper labor” (read foreign workers) in order to make more profit, do we?

10 posted on 3/29/2019, 4:18:40 PM by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing))
Oh, I’m sure they’ll show up here in a minute or so…
To: King Moonracer

 

H2B is for hotel maids, basically.

H1B is for techs and is a far more concerning program, given that they’ve completely nuked the wage scale in what is arguably our single most important industry today, and flooded it with foreigners who have no loyalty to the USA.

20 posted on 3/29/2019, 4:50:15 PM by thoughtomator (The Clinton Coup attempt was a worse attack on the USA than was 9/11)

OtherwiseOK
To: King Moonracer

 

These aren’t Asian tech workers, they are the temporary workers that stuff Trump’s clubs and pick the grapes in the Trump family vineyard during peak season.

And yes, if they paid enough they’d have plenty of Americans to do the work. Even if college kids who could work their studies around the schedule. (Much of it is summer or fall labor.)

8 posted on 3/29/2019, 4:15:05 PM by 9YearLurker

TrumpMelatoninBanHim
To: zeestephen

 

This, bumpstocks, and red flag.

I am very close to becoming an opponent of Trump.

12posted on 3/29/2019, 4:21:03 PM by old-ager (anti-new-ager)

“I swear – if he hits me just one more time, I’m leaving him forever!
More after the link thingy…

Continue reading “Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati -Darn old Darnold edition”