The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Bring on the Lepers

    By PeraclesPlease on Thu, 12/22/2016 - 6:02pm | Politics, Social Justice

    I stopped by an exhibit in the station this eve, a nice large format profile of dozens of homeless and the sheltered, their stories - the guy who finds out he's adopted when he finally gets his various documents on leaving high school, the woman who manages to free herself from an abusive husband only to lose her leg to disease and get thrown out of guest work in England, another who can't manage to stay off the juice, one's a mechanic who works hard but always finds himself on the wrong end of some scam or people who don't pay the bills. They describe their day, how they survive and pass the time. I see similar folks in front of the station, handing out their magazines trying to earn a few coins of respectable money in return for their soup and sandwich. Some have started giving tours to tourists and locals, showing the city from the homeless point of view, even though one's a struggling male prostitute with AIDS, others have different impediments that make it unusual for them to mingle and present their world.

    "There are a million stories in the naked city - this has been a few of them". A few that cut through.

    Topics: 
    Politics
    Social Justice
    Michael Maiello's picture

    The Rage and Outrage Economy

    By Michael Maiello on Thu, 12/22/2016 - 4:57pm | Politics

    The Daily Beast asked me to write about the relationship between Carl Icahn and Donald Trump.  I responded with a piece about how Icahn's decades of shareholder activism are the foundation for Trump's corporation-focused Twitter rants.

    Topics: 
    Politics
    Danny Cardwell's picture

    The Hug Heard Round America

    By Danny Cardwell on Mon, 12/19/2016 - 8:58pm | Social Justice

    On December 15th 79-year-old John Franklin McGraw plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge of assault that stemmed from the well-timed forearm shiver he delivered to 26-year-old Rakeem Jones at a Trump rally in March. He was charged with a misdemeanor for a crime that had felonious intent. North Carolina state law allows such offenses to be classified as misdemeanors, so I can’t blame him, but let’s be honest: he was sentenced to unsupervised probation for committing an assault captured on video. If you're reading this and believe Rakeem Jones would have received such a lenient sentence had their roles been reversed you should do a quick Google search of this continent's history.

    Topics: 
    Social Justice
    William K. Wolfrum's picture

    Man positive oncoming train won't really hit him

    By William K. Wolfrum on Fri, 12/16/2016 - 4:51pm | Humor & Satire, Politics

    When Norm Rixon woke up this morning, he expected it to be like any other morning with some coffee, news and time with Shifty, his dog. Instead, he awoke tied to train tracks in a dusty location outside Joshua Tree, Calif.

    "I did not expect that," said Rixon, 32.

    Despite his predicament, Rixon said he felt confident things would work out for him.

    Topics: 
    Humor & Satire
    Politics
    Michael Maiello's picture

    Truth Before Transition

    By Michael Maiello on Thu, 12/15/2016 - 9:46pm | Politics

    Barack Obama will hold a press conference tomorrow at 2:30 pm EST, before his family heads on their annual (well-earned) vacation to Hawaii.  We can hope for something important tomorrow as the White House has now made the following statements about Russia's election hacks:

    Topics: 
    Politics
    Doctor Cleveland's picture

    In Defense of Ebeneezer Scrooge

    By Doctor Cleveland on Mon, 12/12/2016 - 10:13pm | Arts & Entertainment, Personal, Politics, Religion

    Oh, joy. The War on the War on Christmas is back. People are hollering that now that Trump has been elected, everyone is going to have to say "Merry Christmas" all the time and have "Merry Christmas" said to them all the time, whether they like it or not, and they don't like it, screw them anyway. What better way to express the meaning of Christmas? It's so very far from the spirit of Christian humility and love that I find myself, against all odds, ready to mount a defense of Ebeneezer Scrooge.

    Topics: 
    Arts & Entertainment
    Personal
    Politics
    Religion
    Danny Cardwell's picture

    Hegemony, Demographics, and "Populism"

    By Danny Cardwell on Sun, 12/11/2016 - 11:55pm | Politics

    "And before we knew it we were totally outnumbered at the family gatherings and consigned to a corner of the sectional, whispering and ducking among the flying hands, feeling rather small and blind, like moles or voles trembling in the shadows of the raptors."

    When I first heard Paul Hostovsky's poem "Hegemony" I was so caught up with the in-group out-group role reversal narrative that I completely missed the poems lesson: communication. In the poem the protagonist has three deaf cousins who were largely ignored by the rest of their family, but through a series of marriages, births, divorces, and new marriages the biblical narrative of "the first shall be last and the last shall be first" was manifested. The deaf cousins found themselves the center of attention. The "small and blind" feeling the new minority of the hearing felt was based solely on their response to their new position within the family. The majority's willingness to ignore the minority left them on the outside looking in. Maybe we need to start communicating better and read more poetry? 

    Topics: 
    Politics
    Michael Maiello's picture

    That Nicaragua Feeling

    By Michael Maiello on Sun, 12/11/2016 - 3:50pm | Politics

    It's already become a transition cliche that Donald Trump is turning the US into a banana republic.  We've got the situational diplomacy, the crony appointments and the massive conflicts of interest as the president-elect clings to his global real estate and branding business even as he is about to take power.

    Topics: 
    Politics
    Ramona's picture

    Dear Funny Mr. Smith

    By Ramona on Wed, 12/07/2016 - 11:13am | Personal

    Terrible news to report this morning, fellow Daggers. Our dear friend Mr. Smith (Michael Tracy Smith) died yesterday, a day before his 66th birthday.

    As some of you may know, he suffered for many years with Spondylitis, a degenerative disease that fuses the spine. Through it all he kept his big heart and his delicious sense of humor.  He was a master of the art of Haiku and made his amazing haikus a regular Friday feature here at Dagblog, a gift for which we probably didn't thank him enough.

     

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