Read all of this and then meditate with me upon the COMPLETELY PREDICTABLE ALSO SAD right-wing freakout over “how can we possibly remember our history if it’s different than what we remember?” The very first person to die for this country in the American Revolution was a black man who himself was not free. Crispus Attucks was a fugitive from slavery, yet he gave his life for a new nation in which his own people would not enjoy the liberties laid out in the Declaration for another century. In every war this nation has waged since that first one, black … Continue reading 1619
I survived jury duty. I even got a diploma of sorts. I’m uncertain if it’s for good behavior; more like bored behavior. I was called upstairs for voir dire on the last day. I tweeted about it after graduation:
Two odd things about my last day of jury duty: First, I was juror #3 and hit it off like a house afire with jurors 1 and 2. Wish I'd met them before voir dire. Second, I think I wasn't picked less for my past life as a lawyer than for my writings about Canny.
Canny is Leon Cannizzaro, Orleans Parish District Attorney. Here’s what I said about him in the Bayou Brief in 2017:
He’s a notoriously hardline, tough on crime District Attorney with the demeanor of an irritable undertaker and the strange uncharm of a grim Dickensian authority figure such as Mr. Murdstone. I had dealings with Canny when he was a criminal court judge and I was lawyering. He was arrogant, biased, rude, and dismissive. His success in electoral politics has always been a mystery to me but some people confuse assholery with strength. The Current Occupant of the White House is the best example I can think of. At least Canny has better hair.
Well, they asked for full disclosure…
People have been asking me if I planned to write at length about the 50th Anniversary of Woodstock. The answer is no. Why? Too many people focus on things other than the music and mud. Too many get bogged down in generational politics; one of the dullest subjects on the planet. It’s dull because it’s cliche laden: not all Baby Boomers sold out, not all Gen-Xers are slackers, and not all Millennials are twitter obsessed airheads. More importantly, not all members of the greatest generation were all that great. I often thought that my late father’s motto could have been, “We won the war so we don’t have to listen.” That concludes my rant about generational stereotypes.
This week’s theme song was written in 1933 by Al Dubin and Harry Warren. It was featured in the 1934 movie Moulin Rouge and sung by blond bombshell Constance Bennett. Ooh la la.
We have three versions of this torchy torch song for your listening pleasure: Constance Bennett,Tony Bennett, and Diana Krall. Ooh la la.
Constance and Tony are not related. His real name is, of course, Anthony Benedetto.
It’s time for a trip to Disambiguation City with a song written for the 2004 American Idiot album by the boys in Green Day. Same title, different song. Ooh la la.
Now that I’ve shattered your dreams, let’s jump to the break. Ooh la la.
We recently watched the 2017 movie IT, which is based on the Stephen King novel. I wasn’t terribly familiar with that terrible tale except for the sinister clown Pennywise. I loved the movie and realized that it was remade for two possible reasons: the popularity of Stranger Things and the rise of Trumpism. Pennywise the evil clown (is there any other kind?) thrives on fear. He gets stronger the more he fearmongers. It’s what emboldens him to get out of the gutter and come into the open. The Insult Comedian never leaves the gutter BUT he too thrives on fear. … Continue reading President* Pennywise
Let’s set the dial on the Wayback Machine to 1999. Here’s a picture of your humble blogger with our 6-pound torti, Window, on my head. It beats the hell outta being an Insult Comedian with a dead nutria pelt atop … Continue reading Friday Throwback Catblogging: Cat Hat
Dr. A and I saw Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood last weekend. We both loved it. I thought it was his best movie since Jackie Brown. Anyway, Sharon Tate is a character in the movie and went … Continue reading Pulp Fiction Thursday: The Wrecking Crew
I went down a YouTube rabbit hole and watched a pretty good documentary about Denny McLain. McLain was the last pitcher to win 30 games and won 2 Cy Young Awards. He was also a egenerate gambler and wannabe bookie. … Continue reading Album Cover Art Wednesday: Denny McLain
This is my goddamn TED talk and the only plank in my policy platform: Placed at about 40 randomly assigned public-housing developments across the city, the lights led to as much as a 59 percent nighttime decrease in serious crime, according to a working paper circulated this week by the National Bureau of Economic Research. For context, the drop is about the scale researchers would expect from a 10 percent increase in police staffing. It suggests that spending on improved living conditions may be a more effective way to reduce crime than spending on increased police presence. The researchers placed an average of seven … Continue reading A Presidential Candidate Should Run on Doubling The Number of Building Inspectors
It’s news YOU CAN USE! It’s not that journalists don’t know how to provide actionable information; we do this all the time, just only for certain people. In the era of paid-referral links, many of our most respected news sources have put journalists to work on a kind of information-concierge service for the consumer class, offering detailed recommendations for the best standing desks and smart-home appliances, but little health advice for those who work all day on their feet or juggle bills to make rent. We hear a chorus of hot tips for “smarter living,” and near silence on how … Continue reading Journalism for the Consumer Class
Muslim women are playing polo and kicking ass: “I want ladies to say: ‘Yes, I started playing polo because Aisha did.’” Aisha Ahmad Suleiman, a polo player from Nigeria, describes how she faced many challenges as a muslim woman when she first started to play the game. pic.twitter.com/28v1F0slSt — BBC News Africa (@BBCAfrica) June 24, 2019 A. Continue reading Not Everything Sucks
Twitter locked accounts belonging to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s and several prominent conservatives Monday, after they posted videos of left-wing protesters gathered outside McConnell’s Kentucky home — with one demonstrator calling for someone to stab McConnell “in the heart” and for McConnell to break his “raggedy” neck.
The episode prompted the McConnell campaign, known as “Team Mitch,” to slam Twitter for political bias, saying the social media platform had effectively blamed the victim.
Meanwhile, observers noted, Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro remains active on Twitter, even after he posted the names of San Antonio residents who donated to Trump.
“This morning, Twitter locked our account for posting the video of real-world, violent threats made against Mitch McConnell,” McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden said in a statement. “This is the problem with the speech police in America today.”
McConnell, 77, has been resting at home since tripping on his patio fracturing his shoulder on Sunday — and the Team Mitch account posted images showing him at his residence.
In the wake of this weekend’s deadly mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, the hashtag “Massacre Mitch” trended on Twitter — and some activists took their case to McConnell’s residence.
So are you posters ready for some Freeper self-examination of “Maybe that was a shit-stupid thing for McConnell to retweet”?
To: Helicondelta
What the hell are you GOP eunuchs waiting for? Social media is a utility and its major players are monopolistic. Regulate it.
3 posted on 8/7/2019, 10:36:28 PM by Antoninus (“In Washington, swamp drain you.”)
I didn’t think so.
To: EinNYC
I don’t do Twitter, but it seems there could be a conservative-run alternative to Twitter. Why hasn’t some conservative group been working on this? Why is Twitter being allowed to control and humiliate conservative members?
Why isn’t there one total conservative TV station owned or funded by rich conservatives?
For now. I guarantee they are going to ban him for his “racism” before the campaign gets going next year.
When it comes to Trump, they are in a pickle. If they deplatform him, his campaign will start an alternative to Twitter and every last one of his millions of followers will auto-deplatform and join the new-start.
Works for me – but – what to call this startup alternative?
Twatter?
Trumpter?
Trump University? (I hear that one’s available)
Das Sturmer?
Doing that would be the beginning of the end of monopoly social media. Hopefully, they’re stupid enough to do it.
93 posted on 8/8/2019, 9:34:53 AM by Antoninus (“In Washington, swamp drain you.”)
Hopefully, YOU’RE stupid enough to try it.
To: All
I fully expect them to suspend Trumps account next year using the excuse of “fairness” during the upcoming election. I have no clue what Trump will do.
This fucking week, honestly. “Maybe next time we have a week, they can try not to pack it completely to the fucking brim with explosions, mutilations, death, manhunts, lies, weeping, and the utter uselessness of our political system,” said basically every person in America who isn’t comatose or a complete sociopath. “You know, maybe try to spread some of that total misery across the other 51 weeks in the year. Just a thought.” “Gotta hand it to this week, though,” added the entire American populace, laughing and crying at the same time. “It’s a motherfucker.” Members of the press, what … Continue reading The World Is Ever Ending
It’s the final day of one of the greatest musical festivals in the world: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. Dr. A and I attended the event’s 40th anniversary in 2007. We actually took a tour, which gave us insider access including a chance to hang out with the super-nice members of Fairport Convention: Dave Pegg, Simon Nicol, Ric Sanders, Chris Leslie, and Gerry Conway. Nancy Covey’s Festival Tours organizes tours for people who don’t like tours. It was the trip of a lifetime and we formed many friendships that still endure. End of travelogue.
This week’s theme song was written by Richard Thompson in 1968 for Fairport’s What We Did On Our Holidays album. Meet On The Ledge is a song about death that is somehow life-affirming. It’s often played at funerals and is typically the last song played at every Fairport Convention show. At Cropredy, a cast of thousands joins the band onstage for an epic sing-along.
We have three versions for your listening pleasure: the Fairport original with Sandy Denny on lead vocals; a solo acoustic version by Richard Thompson, and Fairport and friends closing Cropredy in 2017 with Simon Nicol and Iain Matthews on lead vocals
Now that we’ve met on the ledge and seen all of our friends, let’s jump to the break.
In honor of Toni Morrison, who never stopped working, who published a book this year, who kept looking straight at a world that hates and polices black women’s bodies and telling that world what she saw, for God’s sake, do something today to make somebody else free. “I tell my students, ‘When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a … Continue reading Free Somebody Else
I just: During the goal celebration after he scored in today’s D.C. United-Philadelphia Union match, Union midfielder Alejandro Bedoya picked up a pitch-side microphone and said into it,“Hey Congress, do something, now! End gun violence!” “Congress” isn’t going to do shit. THE DEMOCRATS have been passing bills and urging action since THE DEMOCRATS banned assault weapons in the first goddamn place. Republicans are holding hearings about how anime porn makes you violent or something, this morning, about how mental illness is to blame, like my crazy ass can shoot you with a trigger lock on. Hey Congress. Are you kidding … Continue reading Hey Congress, Do Something
It’s been awhile since I wrote about an American mass shooting. The reason is genuinely horrible: they’ve become so commonplace that we’re *almost* getting used to them. That’s an appalling place to find ourselves in, but that’s how things stand in the summer of 2019. The El Paso shooting is particularly horrific: the shooter went to that Walmart because so many people cross the border to shop there. It’s what happens when Mexicans are demonized by a sitting president* for his short-term political advantage. As always, the GOP is offering thoughts and prayers without informing the public what will happen … Continue reading Still Numb
You’d think that by this time, the Freeper predilection for blaming the dirty mooslimes for everything would have collapsed under the weight of its own stupidity.
.
Right?
To: Kevin in California
And, the liberals are going to ignore the raghead aspect and focus on the gun control cult.
They’re still flooding into USA too. It’s long past time to repatriate the Muslims to their own wonderful peaceful civilized krapistans.
11 posted on 7/29/2019, 2:11:20 PM by faithhopecharity ( “Politicians are not born; they are excreted.” Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
To: Kevin in California
And………..it’s a moslem.
Again.
He killed an 8 year old.
12 posted on 7/29/2019, 2:11:27 PM by combat_boots (God bless Israel and all who protect and defend her! Merry Christmas! In God We Trust!)
To: Kevin in California
So was this guy a Muslim or not?
That’s the only thing that matters.
21 posted on 7/29/2019, 2:21:20 PM by Neanderthal (As you import the third world, you become the third world)
The only. Thing. That. Matters.
To: Kevin in California
Islamic imagery?
Well, that’s that!
Round up ALL the muzzies in the country and deport them.
Every last one of them.
If every gun in America is a potential mass murderer, and is guilty of all the shootings across the nation, then every last muslim in the country is responsible for the murders and terrorism of this terrorist.
Even today. Even now things are being done: Gun control activist groups, already in D.C. for a leadership conference, converged on the Capitol after news of today’s mass shooting in El Paso. ABC7’s @KatieKyros has live coverage from the protest. pic.twitter.com/yi4hsRMz85 — ABC 7 News – WJLA (@ABC7News) August 4, 2019 I saw it again, this stupid dumbass tweet being shared by people I respect, and I can’t tell you how angry it makes me on behalf of the people who are fighting and working and busting their asses every day to change this. I can’t tell you how angry … Continue reading Even Now
Salome With The Head Of John The Baptist by Aubrey Beardsley.
My first day of jury duty was uneventful. We waited to be called for voir dire but the call never came and we were out of there by 11 AM. They’re trying fewer cases at Criminal District Court since the DA’s office stopped prosecuting possession of small amounts of weed. An odd but effective move by our old school tough-on-crime DA. Ironies abound.
This week’s theme song was written by a very young John Hiatt for his 1979 album Slug Line. It was so long ago that he had a full head of hair as well as a unibrow.
We have two versions of Washable Ink for your listening pleasure: the Hiatt original and a cover by the Neville Brothers.
Let’s check if this spilled ink is really washable. Color me skeptical: black, red, or blue.
Do they still call newspaper reporters ink-stained wretches? Probably not but it was swell slang.
Time to ink up and jump to the break. I’m not sure what ink up means in this context, but I’m always talking shit. Y’all should know that by now.
One red hat in particular was seeing red in Cincinnati yesterday, which is the home of the red-hatted baseball Reds: https://twitter.com/ProudResister/status/1157146365324959744 How much courage does it take for a 29 year-old to attack a 61-year-old-prostestor? Nary a scinitilla in Cincy. This incident shows how dangerous it is for the president* to conflate attacks on him with attacks on the country. His rallies consist of non-stop incitement speech. It needs to stop but we all know it will not. That’s why incidents like this are not incidental and must be called out. The idiot who jumped out of the truck is … Continue reading Tweet Of The Day: Trumper Thuggery Edition
Today would have been Jerry Garcia’s 77th birthday. I don’t believe in astrology. I do, however, get a kick out of sharing a sign with Jerry. Us Leos have to stick together, dead or alive. The only fitting salute to … Continue reading A Salute To Jerry Garcia
