MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
In Europe, war had been regarded as more or less the normal state of things: “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” European societies developed monarchies, bureaucracies and standing armies to fight wars, and regimes of treaties and rules to regulate wars
http://www.thedailybeast.com/davidfrum.html
I feel petty sometimes.
Frum pisses me off because for eight years, in my mind anyway, I watched the President of the United States on the telly and I swear to Almighty God, every frickin time he showed up he lied.
And David Frum wrote a bunch of those speeches.
So I kind of link him with Avlon and McKinnon and others who claim to be 'middle of the roaders' or 'neutrals' or 'neutered' as far as I am concerned.
But my God,
ONLY THE DEAD HAVE SEEN THE END OF WAR
That's it for me.
I mean I am reading Bertrand Russell's The History of Western Philosophy and I am sure Plato or Alcibiades or Thales or somebody must have said this somewhere sometime.
I mean Frum put quotes around this great line but I have no money for his book and I assume he is quoting someone.
But I really don't care.
I mean the guy wrote this Patriots thingy and I will purchase the tome at discount in the next few years because the left just loves it!
Anyway, back to being petty.
I read a rather long article at WP by Woodward and Bernstein which is really just an advertisement for their new book or something. I mean they have not jointly authored anything in thirty eight years for chrissakes.
The article underlines what a pure prick Nixon was. The guy was angry at the media, at the dems, at the college students, at Teddy, at LBJ, at the Jews....
On June 17, 1971 — exactly one year before the Watergate break-in — Nixon met in the Oval Office with his chief of staff, H.R. “Bob” Haldeman, and national security adviser Henry Kissinger. At issue was a file about former president Lyndon Johnson’s handling of the 1968 bombing halt in Vietnam.
“You can blackmail Johnson on this stuff, and it might be worth doing,” Haldeman said, according to the tape of the meeting.
“Yeah,” Kissinger said, “but Bob and I have been trying to put the damn thing together for three years.” They wanted the complete story of Johnson’s actions.
“Huston swears to God there’s a file on it at Brookings,” Haldeman said.
“Bob,” Nixon said, “now you remember Huston’s plan? Implement it. . . . I mean, I want it implemented on a thievery basis. God damn it, get in and get those files. Blow the safe and get it.”
Nixon would not let the matter drop. Thirteen days later, according to another taped discussion with Haldeman and Kissinger, the president said: “Break in and take it out. You understand?”
The next morning, Nixon said: “Bob, get on the Brookings thing right away. I’ve got to get that safe cracked over there.” And later that morning, he persisted, “Who’s gonna break in the Brookings Institution?”
For reasons that have never been made clear, the break-in apparently was not carried out
VIDEO | In a question-and-answer session with AP editors on Nov. 17, 1973, President Nixon declared "I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got."
Nixon’s anti-Semitic rages were well-known to those who worked most closely with him, including some aides who were Jewish. As we reported in our 1976 book, “The Final Days,” he would tell his deputies, including Kissinger, that “the Jewish cabal is out to get me.” In a July 3, 1971, conversation with Haldeman, he said: “The government is full of Jews. Second, most Jews are disloyal. You know what I mean? You have a Garment [White House counsel Leonard Garment] and a Kissinger and, frankly, a Safire [presidential speechwriter William Safire], and, by God, they’re exceptions. But Bob, generally speaking, you can’t trust the bastards. They turn on you.”
I mean this guy hated everybody. And his plan to become total dictator of the universe had only been put off for eight years based upon his grand Underwood prop exhibited a decade prior to that.
And forty years ago a million bucks was going to be the weapon used to exact his vengeance.
Nowadays, I believe that three thousand times that amount will be used by the powers that be to pummel each other.
There will be salaries for those who wish to stuff ballot boxes and hide big boxes of ballots and misrepresent and misstate and misquote and mis-communicate and mis-transpose and mis....whatever.
There will be salaries paid to those organizations called upon to robo-call the electorate and indicate that our voting day has been called off.
There will be salaries paid to those who feign expertise in economics and feign expertise in polling and feign expertise in unemployment figures and feign expertise....in whatever.
There will be salaries paid to 'neutrals' who are nothing but shills for one side or the other.
There will be 'town hall meetings' that are staged and where the participants will be forced to sign loyalty oaths.
Back to petty.
Mel Gibson is worse that anyone would have thought. At least according to Joe Eszterhas.
I mean this lowlife hires an expert on the Holocaust to write a script for him that will bring all Jews to the realization that only an Essene will help THEM find the true way?
Mel really does hate the Jews and the Gays and the Blacks and his ex-wives and all women and....
SPITE
But the real reason for me even getting into this subject has to do with Repub Representative Steve King from Iowa.
I do not understand him.
I have written about his propensity for racist chatter and classist crap but there was something in my memory that really bugged me.
And all this had to do with something I read sometime in the last two weeks and forgot about.
The Hill’s Cameron Joseph has more:
King compared the Capitol Hill janitors who replaced the light bulbs in his office with lower-energy bulbs to the East German communist secret police, describing them as "Nancy [Pelosi]'s Stasi troops," and complained of a water-saving showerhead in his shower.
"I drilled it out and now my 12 minute shower is now a three-minute shower and I have nine minutes every day to beat up on the liberals," he said to strong cheers and laughs from the highly partisan crowd.
See, this fellow gets into office and the first thing he is going to do for his constituents is not only replace light bulbs and shower heads in his official DC office but degrade janitors.
Why?
If we ever figure out the why, we might be able to find a way to work with those fellows (and a few ladies) on the other side!
You see Nixon had already reached the pinnacle of success. Why on earth should he be bothered by the ramblings of the heirs of Gutenberg?
Mel Gibson had already reached the top of the Hollywood pyramid. I mean Mel made a movie about the worst days of our Lord & Savior and used only an ancient dialect long lost for dialogue and made half a billion bucks after everyone told him he was nuts.
Steve King had achieved his dream of becoming (like Cincinnatus being crowned following his departure from his fields) and all he could think about was light bulbs and shower heads.
But Steve, do you not see that a percentage of wattage was saved by these new bulbs and a percentage of water usage was save by these shower heads and do we not all have a civic duty....
The only reason I can come up with in regard to the actions of Tricky Dicky or Mel or Steve has to do with pettiness.
Now am I being petty in bringing up all this pettiness?
If I were famous, I am sure that FOX would make that point!
But I am not important enough for the media to focus on me.
So I can say almost anything I wish.
FUCK TRICKY DICKY, FUCK MEL AND FUCK STEVE.
Comments
War serves only one purpose. To protect the elites and bourgeois of one group/nation/state from the elites and bourgeois of another.
It is of no benefit to the general populace who are the ones who suffer. Pettiness is a main personality trait of those groups as well.
by cmaukonen on Sun, 06/10/2012 - 8:19am
I was so struck by that quote by Frum; of all people.
There is sooooooo very much moolah to be made by offense contractors; by the masters of war. And we saw a defense contractor put in the office of Vice President of the United States of America and watched as his corporation (with Caribbean paper corps) make tens of BILLIONS of bucks based upon his neocon/fascist/warmongering perspectives.
And nobody went to prison!
by Richard Day on Sun, 06/10/2012 - 4:06pm
1. It was MacArthur who apparently made the "War" quote famous, and attributed it to Plato. Later research found it was from Santayana.
2. Pettiness, bitterness, spite, jealousy, envy - that whole league of emotions and stances - my friends and I have long been convinced that the best way to understand the Right is to go digging into those roots. (As you love to explore in your pieces, Dick.) And the master, when it comes to this field, is Nietzsche, and his work on ressentiment. A person feels weak or inferior or frustrated somehow, and reacts by blaming those who are freer or stronger or more full of life. Worse, they follow this up by building an entire morality as a negative image of the stronger/freer other, and even build their own identity up around it.
And you couldn't find a more perfect character to portray this than Nixon.
3. As for Frum, I've given some background before, but it makes him an interesting example himself. Raised Canadian, Frum's mother was the absolutely beloved central voice of the CBC. That is, a publicly-owned, socialistic, broadcaster. Cronkite would be the equivalent, I guess. I mean, they dismantled her entire news show when she died, because she couldn't be replaced, and the atrium at CBC headquarters is named after her.
That is, after David Frum's Mum. Think about that.
But. And here's a key. The family has moved back and forth to the US for 3 generations. And.... even though at the CBC... Barbara Frum was very very conservative.
So Barbara had to squish her conservatism while at the CBC. And gently brush dust over her American links. But she always seemed to have this... frustration... working it's way up to the surface, as she would interview famous people. They even had a whole comedy character built up around her who loved the line "But are you bitter?" And the answer was, yes, she was.
Which gives us young David. Who starts off as a teenager trying to be a good NDP leftie, then supposedly 'sees the light' and become a screaming young Reaganite. It's a wonderful story, seen 1000 times, of a teenager trying to fit the official culture and official position of his family... but then "rebelling"... except the rebellion is really just carrying out all her repressed bitterness. Saying the things she would always have wanted to say. Being against peace and against community and against good government.
I mean, the idea of a Canadian referring to "the Axis of Evil"... and MEANING it... would pretty much reduce people to giggles up here. If someone said it, you'd sortof look quietly at one another, and wonder if this person needed help. So, Frum created a speech-writer character, and clearly a whole persona, that just spewed resentment. From the WSJ to Forbes to the AEI, marrying the daughter of the hard right Sun newspaper chain, buddies with Richard Perle and Conrad Black - the guy jumped headfirst into the trough.
And then, it appears that he just... broke.
Which, if he continues on some sort of interesting curve out of the Right, will be instructive. Especially, I would say, if he begins to seriously look at why and how we went to the Right, and then left it.
We could use a few million people like that.
Here ends today's pseudo-psychological speculation, Dick, but thank you for providing space and setting the tone.
And in conclusion, Fuck Richard Nixon, and may he burn in hell.
by quinn esq on Sun, 06/10/2012 - 10:25am
Thank you for this background on Frum.
You put it so clearly.
I know this is why Frum intrigues me. He hopefully will provide some light on trends I have problems understanding.
And you are correct.
We need a million of these guys.
by Richard Day on Sun, 06/10/2012 - 1:26pm
I miss you Quinn
Nobody will read this.
It is tooooo toooo old.
I laugh as I read this old blog.
But you see, there is truth in all of this and it is two years plus old.
The comment just got to me today.
We could use a few million people like that.
I mean what a line.
We do not as a species really understand what a million actually means.
But yeah, we need a few million to change the world.
Again, I found this by accident.
We cannot change the world but a few million might.
by Richard Day on Thu, 11/13/2014 - 4:58am
a
by Richard Day on Thu, 11/13/2014 - 5:02am
King has now lost the janitor vote in his district.
You do a have a point, Mr. Day, about the pettiness. When you are at the top, when you are the victor, what purpose does it serve to tarnish your achievement by being assholish? If I live to be a hundred and twelve I will never figure it out. Still, I always have hope.
by wabby on Sun, 06/10/2012 - 12:24pm
Let us attack the folks who clean our floors and toilets and replace fuses when our spaces become dark!
In most sports, most athletes on the winning team praise their defeated opponents.
They do this because if they were to simply diss their competitors their victory would be hollow indeed!
by Richard Day on Sun, 06/10/2012 - 1:30pm
Shakespeare talked about this in Macbeth.
When someone knows that they only have power because they stole it from somewhere, everything they do afterwards are the actions of a thief.
When you steal a knife or a shovel from a particular person, it is pretty much your shovel or knife from that point on. You can easily forget why you even own those things. But when you steal from everybody, that is a different matter. You become a pretender, owned by the spirits of your victims.
by moat on Sun, 06/10/2012 - 2:29pm
You know every time I get Q and Moat to comment on one of my blatherings, there must be something there.
I hope this does not sound petty but I have to render unto Moat the Dayly Line of the Day Award for this here Dagblog Site, given to all of him from all of me.
I am treating the entire comment as a 'line' of course.
"...owned by the spirits of your victims"
Damn.
I am copying and pasting this short thought for future consideration!
by Richard Day on Sun, 06/10/2012 - 2:50pm
Too much communion wine (Spirits) ?
by Resistance on Sun, 06/10/2012 - 7:36pm
Moat can get spooky at times?
Ya know?
hahaha
by Richard Day on Sun, 06/10/2012 - 9:12pm
Beware.. Don't twist Moat's tail. The retribution can be swift and terrible. Be very afraid.
You've been warned.
by Flavius on Sun, 06/10/2012 - 9:33pm
You know he is such a nice guy; was so nice to me at Cafe.
He did get pissed at me once for screaming at some other commenter.
I miss Cafe sometimes.
I think people read me because I was so excited about this medium.
Anyone, anyone can participate in the Open this week. I mean you have to qualify and all that but Tin Cup was and is such a turn on.
The outside hope that you could just play like you never played before; that the gods would instruct your pimpled orb to enter the cup; that you could surpass the greatest with a clean slate on number one....
WHAT THE HELL WAS THE QUESTION AGAIN?
by Richard Day on Mon, 06/11/2012 - 1:52pm