Here’s some more Billy May for your entertainment. This time it’s a mildly salacious ditty sung by show biz legends, Der Bingle and Satchmo:
First Draft
Liberal Politics, Media Criticism & General Mayhem
“Fuck You” Nation
(Note: I had this in the hopper last week, but out of respect for the Katrina posts, I decided to sit it out. This was what I had, with a recent rewrite of the back end. — Doc)
As I drove through the Fox Valley last night, I passed a local car dealership with three giant U.S. flags that flew at half-staff. Truth be told, I can’t remember the last time they were at their full height, due to the wide array of mass shootings and homicides we have experienced lately as a country.
I moved past the dealership, onto the freeway’s on ramp when some guy in a fast red car flew up behind me and practically attached himself to my bumper. As soon as ramp emptied onto the freeway, he cut past me and sped off, glaring at me through his passenger window.
The expression on his face said one thing.
Fuck you.
If there’s one thing that synthesizes our culture of guns, our fixation with Donald Trump and our general attitude toward intellectual achievement, it’s this Joe-Pesci-like attitude that continues to grow like a destructive weed.
The shooting of two journalists on live television cut to my very core this week. These people could have been my students (and, in fact, I do know a few of their former instructors) who were doing a lite-brite story when chaos claimed their lives. Some local reporters asked, “What could have been done to prevent this?” as stations across the country considered banning live shots and sending security with their journalists.
The NRA’s answer is: Fix the mental health system. The guy was nuts.
Almost everyone else’s answer is: It’s the guns. Do more to crack down on weapons.
Truth be told, the answers are the same:
Fuck you.
If you take a single gun away from a single person, you have violated MY right to own and bear arms, which is carved in stone and written in blood in the Bill of Rights. If you criminalize guns, only criminals will have guns. You think you can do that to all of us patriotic Americans? Fuck you.
If you think that the Founding Fathers thought equipping the mentally unstable (read: most of you gun nuts) with as many automatic weapons as possible to help you blow your load every day, you’ve got to be as nuts as we say you are. Your right to buy guns, own guns, pet guns, love guns and shoot guns needs to weigh against my right to not be afraid that every asshole out there will shoot me for not noticing the light just turned green. You think your rights are more important than mine? Fuck you.
And this is where Donald Trump comes in.
He’s not really anti-women, anti-immigration, anti-Korea, anti-China or whatever else he seems to be about.
He’s actually pro-“Fuck You.” And he’s giving a voice and a face to that “Fuck You” movement.
His “Go back to Univision” line to Jorge Ramos was a thinly veiled version of “Go back to where you came from, you illegal immigrant fuck.”
His “blood coming out of wherever” line about Megyn Kelly is bro-code for “What a cunt. She must be on the rag.”
His “He’s not a hero… I like people who didn’t get captured” line about John McCain is the epitome of the current American ethos: You think you’re special? You think you’re better than me?
Fuck you.
Too many of us no longer appreciate the differences and the skills that other people can bring to the table. Whenever someone can do something we can’t, it gets belittled, discarded and treated as less than.
Teaching? Anyone can teach. Just put them in front of a room.
Photography? I got an iPhone. I’m just as good as that Ansel Adams prick.
Writing? I bang out a hundred texts a day, bitch.
It’s that old song of “Anything you can do I can do better.” If I can’t, it doesn’t matter and you’re probably a fag…
This pathological desire to demonstrate power and dominion over everyone else in every important way leads us back to the WDBJ shooting.
By all accounts, Vester Lee Flanagan II (also known as Bryce Williams) was an angry and disturbed man. His 23-page manifesto referenced terrorism, racism and betrayal. He tweeted about perceived slights at his former station (WDBJ) and referenced his previous problems with coworkers at his previous stops.
According to articles published in the wake of his rampage, he sued for racial discrimination, accused coworkers of placing a watermelon within his sight line and fought relentlessly with colleagues who he felt were beneath him. He was aggrieved and arrogant all at the same time as his life continued to spiral out of control.
In some ways, he reminded me of Oscar Isaac’s character in “Show Me a Hero.” The HBO miniseries showcased Isaac as Nick Wasicsko, a 1980s-1990s politician in Yonkers during a period of racial upheaval. Wasicsko found himself on the city council as a protracted legal battle over low-income housing raged. He became mayor on the promise he would appeal the court’s decision to place this housing in the white part of town, only to find he had no legal ground to stand on. After he lost his mayoral post, he made a series of odd decisions in his flailing attempts to stay in city politics. During each of these attempts, he would range from all-mighty to wounded puppy, as each move betrayed more people and undercut his overall purpose of being.
After his last attempt to stay in office, a failed attempt to “primary” one of his best friends out of her job, he was paranoid and rage-filled during an investigation into a misappropriation of funds by one of his former underlings. He so hated the people he thought were intent on his ruination, he angrily confronted several of them at City Hall. He then went to the grave of his father where he killed himself.
The parallels run equal throughout in my mind, although only in that simple character arc fashion. However, the thing that stuck out in my mind was that Wasicsko’s despondence led him to a quiet end while Flanagan’s led to a furious public outburst.
I remember seeing all those old movies about suicidal characters and people who felt they had fallen too far or lost too much or were hurt too badly to recover. The common statement used to be, “They’ll be sorry when I’m gone.” It was as if the suicide itself was both a release for the person and a bit of justice against those who remained. However, it now seems as though the potential reflective punishment isn’t enough. A blaze of glory, with a destructive-filled wake must happen.
You think you’re getting away with this? You think I’m going to quietly leave this Earth? You think people are going to let me trickle away, another unknown story?
Fuck you.
Taking away the guns would make it harder for these explosions to occur.
Less sensational coverage of every whack job who decides to shoot up a church, race bait or run for president would tamp down their enthusiasm for the “Dig Me” show.
More cops, stricter laws, more public awareness …
None of that will ever matter, however, if we can’t get past this sense of angry self-determination that places each of us at the center of the universe and demands others get pushed down harder and farther. We have to stop thinking that not only should “I” succeed but also I must make “you” fail in the process. This zero-sum game of socialized punishment will only seek to further our spiraling decline as a people.
We can’t continue to be a Fuck You Nation and live to tell about it.
Friday Ferretblogging: Na Ga Take Ma Picture
Claire is such a brat.
A.
Friday Guest Catblogging: Cat Tableau
Della Street is in time-out for excessive body slamming of the bedroom door, so it’s time for another edition of Guest Catblogging. This week’s felines live with my friends Lex and George and, as you can see, they’re highly decorative objects. From left to right: Rose age 3, Eris age 16, and the kitten in the kaboodle, Puck who is 4 months ago. Notice the leg extension, I think he’s going to be a big boy.
Thursday Night Music: This Time The Dream’s On Me/It’s Only A Paper Moon
Another day, more Billy May. This time two with Ella Fitzgerald from the Harold Arlen Songbook:
Show Me An Anti-Hero…
…and I’ll show you a reformed sinner with a martyr complex. Why does it martyr?
I think Mary Elizabeth Williams nails the whole Kim Davis affair:
So she never imagined she’d be in this position? When at the time of her mother-in-law’s death, six U.S. states already had marriage equality? I think that Davis might either be a very poor planner or she’s not being entirely honest here. I do, however, believe her “heaven or hell” imperative. I believe she is convinced that she has transgressed profoundly, and that her belief in her forgiveness is what is driving her now. Who but a person who honestly believes she’s done things that would merit eternal suffering would be so very steadfast in refusing to do anything she thinks would put her back in such grave danger? Who but someone with such an apparent terror of the Lord’s retribution would be so resolute about refusing to uphold the Constitution of the United States, as she promised she would?
As Dan Savage notes, “It’s a pretty neat trick: If I bring up Kim Davis’s four marriages, I’m being rude and mean-spirited and her first three marriages are in the past and she’s saved now.” But I believe it’s more complicated. For Davis and her cohort, her past is both her shame and her credentials. They are evidence of her sin and her repentance, the things that grant her permission to judge others, and leave her no other choice but to do — and not do — as she chooses. She’s like an ex-gay who believes himself “cured” — her own perceived sins give her a sense of authoritative horror at the actions of others.
Even though she appears to be an opportunist and a hypocrite, Kim Davis is really a fanatic. She’s consumed with outrage like a reformed smoker in a cigar bar; a reformed alcoholic in a dive bar; or a reformed junkie in an opium den. She’s absolutely convinced of the rectitude of her cause. Additionally, she had a “revelation” when her mother-in-law died; how Mormon of her. She’s, of course, not LDS, but people will do crazy, self-defeating things when they think God is sitting on their shoulder, whispering in their ear. I call her an anti-hero at the top of the post but she’s like the people behind the Scopes monkey trial, and firmly believes in her own heroism. The judge in this case doesn’t give a damn: the law is on his side.
Thus far the reaction on the Right has been underwhelming. Sure, Gov PBJ and former Arkabilly Gov Huck Upchuck have supported Ms. Davis but many GOPers just wish this issue would go away. Does that mean it’s gone for good? Hell no, we find ourselves discussing contraception right now; many of the right’s issues are put in the deep freeze next to Walt Disney and Ted Williams (both ardent right-wingers, sorry BoSox fans) to be revived at a later date. Yes, I know that Uncle Walt’s body isn’t frozen but in this instance I’m like the editor at the end of Liberty Valance: “When the the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
Time to circle back to the post title, which was influenced by David Simon’s Show Me A Hero. This saga of massive resistance to public housing in Yonkers, NY in the 1980’s is eerily relevant to many things that are going on today, including Kim Davis’ uncivil disobedience in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The pols who support her are pandering opportunists just like the hacks in Yonkers who fought with their mouths. If you haven’t seen Show Me A Hero, check it out OnDemand and HBOGo. The title comes from a quote from Scott Fitzgerald “Show me a hero, and I’ll write you a tragedy.”
As I said before, Davis herself is a true believer and reformed sinner, not a hypocrite. That does not make her massive resistance any less odious but it explains why she’s doing it. She’s also delusional and poorly advised by lawyers who are every bit as fanatical and wingnutty as she is. Her resistance is doomed to fail, if she’s unwilling to follow the law, she should resign.
One more thing. Why is it always necessary to comment on a woman’s appearance and clothing when they’re in the news? The fact that Davis is dowdy has nothing to do with the issue at hand. We never hear about what male pols are wearing or the fact that Senator Aqua Buddha has pubic hair on his head. Perhaps the Insult Comedian with cotton candy piss hair is a break through in that regard. The MSM is obsessed with his hair and the fact that Trump collection ties are made in Mexico. Now there’s a hypocrite and opportunist.
I’ll give the last word to Da-Da-David Bowie:
UPDATE: Kim Davis has been found in contempt of court and is in the custody of the US Marshal’s service until she complies with the Judge’s order to issue marriage licenses to *everyone* in her jurisdiction.
Romneybot To Save The GOP Bacon?
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| From Album 5 |
Well, no, of course not — there’s no chance in hell or on earth that Mitt will be back — but that the Romneyshambles 2012 (beta version) is even being mentioned would in a normal political landscape be the reddest of red flags signaling a train wreck for the ages. Duh.
But of course, the “story” that has the Washington insiders swooning on the fainting couch and reaching for the smelling salts is … the nothingburger Hillary Clinton’s email non-scandal (the scattershot aspect of the “revelations” should tell you everything you need to now about that, i.e., Clinton Rules writ large: oooh, she’s exposed classified information, but she deleted items so we can’t see, ooh, it’s personal information, but it’s national security information…Huma Abedin!…gelfite fish!…oh my!), but I digress.
Anyway…just a thought, but suppose the tables were reversed: let’s say, oh, I don’t know, it’s not an exact fit, but let’s say someone like Jeff Bezos was sucking up all the oxygen as a Democratic candidate for president (while going full bore Libertarian) to the extent that old guards waxed nostalgic for one of their own…like Dick Gephardt, or — god, please no — Joe Lieberman. You can bet the screaming 96 point type headlines would be something like “Democrat [sic] Party’s Epic Failure” to the exclusion of anything else. But…IOKIYAR, and…Benghazi…and heaven help us if there’s an email about that in the next batch that gets released…
Pulp Fiction Thursday: Rumble At The Housing Project
We just finished watching David Simon’s new show for HBO, Show Me A Hero. I was relieved that it was closer in quality to The Wire than Treme. It’s about politics, the law, and public housing. And it inspired this week’s choice for PFT:
Wednesday Night Music: To Keep My Love Alive
It’s time for a brief return to Billy May day here at First Draft. This tune comes from an album called Anita O’Day and Billy May Swing Rodgers and Hart. Talk about truth in advertising.
On the surface, To Keep My Love Alive is a chirpy show tune until, that is, you pay closer attention to the lyrics. That’s the sardonic tone Lorenz Hart brought to his collaboration with Richard Rodgers. It’s another reason I’ll take their stuff over the other H in Rodgers’ life: Hammerstein. I do, however prefer Hammerstein’s first name: Oscar, Oscar, Oscar. So does my cat.
Presidential Pet Peeves
Last week New Orleans was awash in robustly resilient bullshit and Presidents, current and former. My buttons were pushed by the manner in which the Oval Ones were referred to. Bullshit is, of course, bullshit whether it’s robust, resilient, or just plain ridiculous. Those are the three Rs of contemporary New Orleans.
Where the hell was I? Oh yeah, the two common misuses of the language regarding Oval Ones that drive me crazy. First, civilians referring to the sitting President as the Commander-in-Chief. They’re only in command of the military, not us. There was, in fact, considerable confusion over an ad taken out by malakatude hall of famer Harry Shearer in the dead tree edition of the New Orleans Advocate:
It was published on the day the sitting President visited and, as you can see, asked the “Commander-in-Chief” to admit to Federal responsibility for the flood, which President Obama did. There was a lively debate on my social media feeds as to whether it was aimed at President Obama or the Texas Napoleon who returned the next day to his Waterloo. I was pretty sure he was referring to Obama but, once again, neither the current Oval One nor his incompetent predecessor is the “Commander-in-Chief” of anything but the armed forces. In short, we don’t gotta salute. Now that I think of it, W deserves a one-finger salute…
My second Presidential pet peeve: referring to ex-Presidents by the title. There’s only one President at a time. Harry Truman preferred to be called Judge or Mr. Truman. When asked why by a college kid, he said, “There’s only one President at a time, son.” Harry was right and didn’t even engage in the robust bullshit for which he was known. Try fact checking Merle Miller’s Plain Speaking some time. Let’s just say that Harry was an old-fashioned storyteller in the vein of Sam Clemens…
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the media started calling ex-Oval Ones by the title and addressing them as Mr. President. For example, TR was *always* called Colonel Roosevelt as a former President. My hunch is that this imperfect practice was perfected between 1993 and 1994 when we had a bumper crop of former Presidents: five count ’em five. And two of those ex-Oval Ones, Nixon and Reagan, were notorious for an almost fetishistic love of the ceremonial side of the office. I suspect Nancy would have objected to people calling Ronnie Governor or Mr. Death Valley Days Host. He would have been okay with the Gipper…
I know, I know, people have been misusing the title for many years. That doesn’t make it right or any less annoying. One thing I love about the interwebs is that you can find stuff such as the Protocol School of Washington’s, Honor & Respect: The Official Guide to Names, Titles, and Forms of Address. It’s a mouthful, I know. I must admit that consulting it makes me feel oddly like Miss Manners. Here’s how the author, a chap named Robert Hickey, answered the question of how to address a former President:
I have been directing people to refer to former presidents as President (last name). Is that correct?
— Anna McDonald, Stafford, Virginia
Dear Ms. McDonald:
This issue is complicated since we hear former Presidents referred to as President Clinton and President Bush on the media all the time; Here’s what is the correct formula as it appears in my book (assuming they didn’t have an honorific other than Mr./Ms. to go back to … as General Dwight D. Eisenhower did.):
Former President of the United States
Envelope, official:
The Honorable
(Full name)
(Address)
Letter salutation: Dear Mr./Ms. (surname):
Conversation: Mr./Ms. (surname)Here’s the WHY behind the correct form. This is the traditional approach for any office of which there is only one office-holder at a time. So, with officials such as mayors, governors or presidents … only the current office holder is addressed as Mr. Mayor, Governor, or Mr. President … formers are not addressed that way.
That’s not to say some reporter might not call a former mayor Mayor Smith or a former president President (Surname). But doing so is incorrect and confusing to the public. The former office holder is no longer due the precedence and courtesies we extend to the current office holder. He or she speaks with the authority of a private citizen. We honor former office holder’s service, but the ‘form of address’ — which acknowledges the responsibilities and duties of office — belongs only to current office holder.
Uh oh, looks like Harry was wrong about that whole Judge Truman thing. Since I’m going all Miss Manners and Perry Protocol on your asses, I might as well post Mr. Hickey’s answer as to how to address a former Oval One in person:
Greeting from Canada. I will meet President Clinton in a few weeks in person. What should I call him when I meet him or when I introduce others to him: Mr. Clinton, or President Clinton? Thanks for your help.
— Politico, TorontoHi Politico:
Former Presidents of the United States are most formally directly addressed as Mr. (Name) and are identified as “President of the United States from Year-Year”.
You will hear the media say President Clinton in a news story to be clear who is being discussed. The media using “President (Name)” in the third person makes many think it is a correct form of address.
The correct form for formal introduction — e.g. from a podium before his speech to the audience would be something like … It is my pleasure to introduce The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton.
In conversation address him as Mr. Clinton.
If you make an introduction say Mr. Clinton may I present…— Robert Hickey
This Robert Hickey chap seems to be the Dear Abie of the protocol set. He is absolutely correct. There is only one President at a time unless, that is, Hillary is elected, then Bill may try to do some finagling. It won’t work: she’s banished him to the couch before and would have no problem doing so again.
I’m an unlikely person to be a stickler for protocol. I am, however, a stickler for the proper use of the English language. Additionally, I believe in honoring the modesty inherent in small r republicanism. (That makes me what Gore Vidal called a citizen of the Old Republic, not the Empire.) The President is not a hereditary monarch who holds the title even after abdication. The people are sovereign, the sitting President is the temporary occupant of the White House.
The moral of the story is: don’t believe everything you see on teevee or read in the newspapers or online. Mister is good enough for former Presidents until, that is, we have our first woman former Oval One, then Ms. will be good enough for her.
Album Cover Art Wednesday: Billy May
Billy May is best known as a stellar big band arranger who worked with Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Anita O’Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, Bing Crosby, and Peggy Lee among others. He also had a solo career as a band leader playing swingin’ instrumental space age pop in the 1950’s and ’60’s. Here’s a May album cover sampler:
Btw, that album predated the parade in New Orleans by some 14 years. May day will continue after the break.
The Rules You Have to Pretend Exist: Both Sides Do It
Ron Fournier really outdid himself yesterday morning:
Trumpmania is what you get after the conservative wasn’t compassionate and the liberal abandoned hope for change. He’s a symptom, not a cure— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) August 31, 2015
Yes. Liberals bear equal responsibility for a xenophobic whackjob making a mockery of the already mock-worthy electoral process because liberals somehow “abandoned hope for change” while ushering in universal health coverage, marriage equality, two more women on the Supreme Court and the end of two damn wars, while conservatives were busy debating just how many blood draws it would take to get $200 a month in food stamps for your hungry children.
I can see the equivalence there, can’t you?
This Trump thing has really brought out the desperation in the old guard of the Beltway press corps. As long as they could treat politics as a tennis match between two equally matched and equally worthy opponents, in which the only doubt about the outcome is whose name gets engraved on the trophy, they were free to not pay attention very much. Go to all the parties, stay at the ones with the hottest women and the best food. Watch the tussles happening on the House floor with detached amusement; it’s not like any of this MATTERS, right?
They’ve spent their whole lives like this, following these rules that they created and pretended were ironclad: Both sides deserve mention, both sides are equally good or bad, both sides are equally to blame for any failing. This allowed pundits like Fournier to bounce back and forth between Democratic and Republican camps being, if not everybody’s friend, at least nobody’s enemy. He followed the rules and therefore was virtuous.
Then along comes Donald Trump, who rips the fucking doors off the whole thing. Whose rhetoric is so utterly hateful and whose campaigning is so nakedly greedy and small that it just gobsmacks the people who expect the rules to be followed. Trump’s candidacy would, if they had the self-awareness God gave a carrot, force people like Fournier to confront the polite fictions that keep everything running smoothly, question the bullshit he feeds himself and his readers, and begin to consider that perhaps there is a difference between a president who tried to close Gitmo (even if he failed) and one who wants to put all of Mexico in there.
If he did start to question that, though, the fucking earth might cave in underneath him, so Fournier twists himself into knots trying to make Donald Trump the fault of liberals AS WELL AS conservatives, because that way Fournier can go about his business and nothing has to change.
A.
Not So Stormy Monday
We survived the influx of teevee crews, MSM reporters, carpetbloggers, disaster tourists and former Presidents. I stuck to my guns and avoided the hype as much as possible. I did, however, make an exception for President Obama’s outstanding speech last Thursday wherein he acknowledged the man-made nature of our post-K disaster. That was something his feckless predecessor never did.
Other than the sign I posted last Friday, I ignored the Texas Napoleon’s return to his Waterloo. I made an exception, however, for pictures of W dancing with a high school principal. He moves like a white preppie who went to Yale and learned to dance for Debutante balls and Cotillions:
Photograph by Chris Granger Nola.Com/Times-Picayune.
I nearly captioned that picture Dancing On Our Graves, but decided to credit the photographer instead. The good news was that W was here for a few hours and his presence only made us a bit crankier. It was always destined to be a tough week in the city I used to call Debrisville.
I was true to my word and avoided all official and unofficial events. Instead, I went to a party thrown by some very dear friends on the tenth year anniversary. We spent the day grilling, drinking, playing cards against humanity (the game is clearly fixed since I didn’t win) and swapping the odd Katrina exile story but we mostly kept it light. That was aided and abetted by some adorable rug rats splashing in the pool while the grown ups drank and ate sausage and pulled pork. Thanks again, Greg and Christy. You rule as well as rock.
The star of the day was my favorite 2 year old hellion who is alternately solemn and silly. After splashing too much for his big sister’s taste, my nephew by choice Nate wore what we call his old Cuban man outfit:
Bubbly Nate. Photograph by Dr. A.
We all drank and ate too much but it beat the hell out of being resilient with the Mayor and the boosterazzi. Passing the day with friends and extended family was the way to go.
I was trying to resist the urge to humble brag but decided to go for it. Last Monday’s post Katrinaversary Blues: Of Resilience Tours, Carpetbloggers & Disaster Tourists seemed to strike a chord with my fellow New Orleanians and it was shared around Facebook as if it were a cat video. I think Della Street was jealous. I was also honored by the good people at Word Press with a slot on their FreshlyPressed showcase page. It brought us quite a bit of traffic as well as some new readers.Thanks for all the kind words and comments both here at First Draft and elsewhere on the interwebs. I hope y’all will return for our regular fare: my colleagues Athenae, Tommy T, Michael F, and Doc are all outstanding writers. Please check them out.
Now that I’ve humble bragged, here’s a little touch of the blues to justify the post title. Actually, a whole lotta blues:
Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – gruesome grab-bag edition
Morning, everyone!
Well, I was going to do a bit on the Perd Hapley Bryce Williams shootings, but Ms. A made that superfluous.
So – that leaves us with Trump.
Not trying to say he’s sucking all the air out of things, but he’s sucking the air out of things. Freeperville is no exception. The non-nutjobs have given up for the most part, and the Trumpaholics have taken over. Something horrible was said by The Darnold or reported on?
Good news for Trump!
Former Ku Klux Klan Leader David Duke Throws Support Behind Donald Trump
The Wrap ^ | August 25, 2015 | Itay HodPosted on 8/26/2015 1:03:22 AM by 2ndDivisionVet
Trump is “the best of the lot,” Duke says of GOP frontrunner
GOP frontrunner Donald Trump can count on at least one die-hard fan: former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.
Self described “racial realist,” Duke, praised Trump during a recent rant during his online radio show, calling the business mogul a “good salesman.”
Duke, who ran unsuccessfully for president as a Democrat in 1988 and later served in the Louisiana House of Representatives, also said he liked Trump because of “the fact that he’s come out on the immigration issue,” adding, “he’s an entrepreneur and he has a good sense of what people want to hear, what they want to buy.”
While Duke admitted Trump’s proposals could be a political ploy to get the nomination, he agreed with the real estate mogul’s policies aimed at mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, calling him “the best of the lot” among the crowded GOP primary field.
After complaining about the “Jewish domination” of the media, Duke said Trump is telling it like it is.
“Trump, he’s really going all out. He’s saying what no other Republicans have said, few conservatives say.”
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Listen to Duke’s comments on Trump below
************************
You can’t stop someone from endorsing you. I wouldn’t put it past Karl Rove or someone similar paying Duke to do this.
Karl Rove’s fault!
To: re_nortexHe’s simply a liberal.
Of course he is. “White Power” has been the rallying point for liberals since August 6, 1965.
Like half the country, and doing what liberals do. Mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. Husbands and wives.
Liberals ALL belong in cages for the safety of the human race.
4 posted on 8/26/2015 1:11:21 AM by Norm Lenhart
He seems nice.
.
To: Norm LenhartLiberals ALL belong in cages for the safety of the human race.Frankly I consider liberals as less than human and, therefore — like you — think it is wise and prudent to secure them in cages and/or detention camps.
Yeah, yeah – we get it. Untermenschen and all that. Fuck me Freddy – can’t you nincompoops get through one thread without making Godwin throw up?
To: 2ndDivisionVet
Sorry I asked.
To: 2ndDivisionVet[Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.]
For once, Team Trump may be stumped.
Should be interesting to see how Team Trump handles this.
They better answer fast, or else the media may smell blood in the water, or wherever.
11 posted on 8/26/2015 1:19:44 AM by Vision Thing (“Community Organizer” is a shorter way of saying “Commie Unity Organizer”.)
I see what you did there.
.
One Freeper tries to have it both ways, and the cognitive dissonance is like a slow-motion car wreck:
To: 2ndDivisionVetWe’ll be seeing a lot of these ‘he must be a racist’ by association hit pieces in the near future.
But with the excesses of this clown negro regime the danger of a ‘critical mass’ moment exists revealing the so called racists of our distant pass(sic) were absolutely correct on the condition of black culture and their devastating effect on civilized society.
Thank god you escaped being associated with racism. That was a close one.
.
Of course, “re_nortex” (ah, how I love ya) knows who’s really to blame:
To: Reno89519
Seriously, KKK?As was in the 19th and 20th Centuries, so it remains in the 21st Century:
The Ku Klux Klan is a Democrat outfit!
Um, not since the Southern Strategy, no. Duke did indeed run as a Democrat in 1975, but failed miserably.
You guys always leave out that he switched to the Republican Party in 1988 and immediately started winning, although his myopia on issues like Da Joos (who for some reason, mostly vote Democratic – perhaps they didn’t get the memo), and drug-testing for welfare recipients (an infamous Republican bette’ noire) and his penchant for raising money and gambling it away brought him down.
They’re on the side of the abortion industry and seek to exterminate Jews
(see above)
and blacks.
Heh.
Their goal is nothing less an all-white America, populated by fellow leftists.
Jesus fuck – have a care you don’t pull a muscle doing those obscene mental gymnastics.
Duke has spoken of his affinity for Russia. Why? Because it’s white — but above all, liberal!
25 posted on 8/26/2015 1:41:37 AM by re_nortex (DP – that’s what I like about Texas)
That’s right, sheeple!
Russia, home of oligarchs, the Stasi, political prisons (like the Freeperati think we should be in), persecution of LGBT people, where dissidents are routinely imprisoned and murdered, is a liberal dreamland.
.
I’d also like to point out that you guys are the ones routinely jerking off over manly bear-riding man Putin, not us.
.
More bullshit after the Duke boys…
Denying Birth Certificates to Children
There’s really no level of mean we won’t go to, to prove we just want to be mean:
Six U.S.-born children and their Mexican citizen mothers who lack legal status were the original plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed by the Texas Civil Rights Project. The lawsuit has since expanded to 17.
The state has said it is enforcing laws already on the books requiring specific types of identification that the women don’t have. The state says it does not accept the Mexico government-issued matrícula consular ID card from parents wanting to obtain their child’s birth certificate.
Families have also said they have been unable to present non-U.S. passports to obtain the birth certificates.
“We have a system in Texas in which people who are born here are being relegated to a second-class status because of who their parents are,” said Manny Garcia, executive director of the Texas Democratic Party. The state’s elected offices are held by Republicans and the attorney general, Ken Paxton, who has been enforcing the identification requirement, is Republican.
Which is the same party that will tell you, in a voice from the depths of hell broadcast through the mouth of Scott Walker, that a child conceived of rape or incest is blameless for the actions of his or her biological parents. But apparently if that baby’s parents are illegal immigrants, put its day-old ass on a bus to the border, it’s obviously got the Mexican cooties or something.
A.
‘They made a decision not to be a viable newspaper’
Here’s yet another example of “newspaper companies made the choice to destroy newspapers which means newspaper destruction was inevitable due to randomness and things like ‘change’ that we are not going to explain or quantify or really research anyway, here is some mush:”
Hurricane Katrina dealt a staggering blow to New Orleans 10 years ago this week. A far lesser, but still lingering, punch came in late 2012 when Advance Publications, the owner of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, launched a bold strategy to arrest the paper’s financial free fall.
A bold strategy. Firing a shitload of people is a bold strategy now. Because nobody else has ever tried that before. Bold!
And financial free fall? Hardly. The Times-Picayune was profitable at the time Advance brought the axe down, but you’re not going to read about that here.
What are you going to read about? If you guessed “corporate weaselmouth nonsense,” congratulations, you win this bucket of bullshit!
“Our company recognized that iteratively changing the business culture was not going to solve the problem,” says Mathews, whose face appeared on mock “Wanted” posters at the peak of the “Save the Picayune” campaign. “We could no longer do it incrementally.”
What the does that even mean? Changing the business culture? Let’s review: They knifed a bunch of dedicated people in the back, made home delivery incomprehensible and inaccessible, switched up their printing schedule three times in a year, and then blamed their customers for not throwing money at them. That has tits-all to do with the business culture or incremental changes, and everything to do with you guys being morons who could screw up a popsicle stand on the hottest day in July.
It’s certainly not news that America’s newspapers have been battered by the Internet and the recession. Over the past decade, the nation’s 1,300 daily newspapers have lost about 25 percent of their revenue and an equal percentage of their daily subscribers, according to the Newspaper Association of America.
Which still does not tell me if that leaves them with enough revenue to do their jobs. “Less” is not “insufficient” and it’s incredibly lazy to use the two terms interchangeably. The conventional wisdom is not the same as fact.
Farhi goes on to note that cutting print has meant cutting the thing that makes the money, but somehow that didn’t factor into his assessment of the Advance strategy (if you can call “let’s hope nobody notices we’re just greedy bastards because the Internet is here for us to blame” a strategy):
Asked whether the “digital-first” strategy is succeeding, the normally voluble Mathews pauses. “I don’t think you can say that,” he replies. “There’s not a finish line that any of us see in the near future.”
But hey, at least it’s BOLD!
A.
Sunday Morning Video: Fats Domino Live In Holland
Now that we’ve gotten past the Katrinaversary, it’s time for some good old New Orleans rock and roll. This show aired on Dutch teevee in 1976. Dig the crazy plaid jackets on the sidemen:
TEN YEARS
Saturday Odds & Sods will return next week.
Texas Napoleon Returns To His Waterloo Redux
Here’s a picture of a man protesting outside Warren Easton High School where former President George W. Bush is making his only K10 appearance. The sign says it all:
Photograph by James Karst. He wins the day.
Glad this guy has an oversized barf bucket. He may need it.
Friday Guest Catblogging: Boris In The Box
Boris is back and fluffier than ever:
Photo by her human, Paul.
