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

Blog Posts

Bill Clinton is not Bill Cosby nor Donald Trump

By PeraclesPlease on Sun, 10/30/2016 - 6:35am |

CNN's front column this morning jumps into the Comey/FBI fray by saying Hillary brought this one upon herself - if she'd just used proper State Department servers, none of this witchhunt would have ever happened. As Bill Cosby used to say, "Riiiggghtttt". Even now, the Bill & Hillary "Body Bags" count has been extended to 4 more lame ties to "suspicious" deaths of somehow DNC-related people - pimped on by Wikileaks, of course.

Year of the Dick

By PeraclesPlease on Sat, 10/29/2016 - 2:52pm |

In the year that was primed to be either the Revolution or the Year of the Woman (aka Breaking the Glass Ceiling Part 2), we'd deviated into the Year of the Pussy - and lots of it - grabbing, bragging, bleeding, breeding - especially with the Republican candidates misadventures in misogyny coming up along with the expected parade of Bill's women brought to bear.

And just when it seemed like both Michelle Obama and the alliance of Nasty Woman would reclaim the word, claim the higher ground, we get our delayed October Non-Surprise - once again, as promised, or "same as it always is", meet the Dicks.

Campaign Thoughts (pt 2)

By PeraclesPlease on Thu, 10/27/2016 - 5:16pm |

Did Bill pave Hillary's way to the White House? His impeachment didn't help, nor overall did his affairs/accusers, triangulation along with NAFTA & the crime bill have haunted her as once did Whitewater and her failed attempt at health care. And then there's the Iraq vote & Libya invasion on her own. Thinking back on it, it's a bit hard to figure out how she even got here. (Hint: she's a process person)

Campaign Thoughts (pt 1)

By PeraclesPlease on Sun, 10/23/2016 - 5:40pm |

I got to thinking about Republicans being "strict constructionists" when it comes to the Supreme Court, and it seems true - by the time they finish obstructing Hillary's choices, the court'll be back down to its original 6 members.

Much as I love Michelle's speeches and support and her example as a fun and instructive First Lady, she helps draw attention to one key problem we have with politics, where people confuse giving a great speech with being a great representative.or lawmaker or administrator. Our contests are largely about speechifying, about exciting the masses - while governing is largely a closed-off office matter. The only exceptions are that occasionally some actual policies slip through in the campaign speeches so the public can vet these (if the candidates aren't lying or hedging their bets, the usual assumption), as well as some of the clever positioning between candidates gives an idea how they might deal with world leaders in office. Despite Michelle's successful singing, dancing and health programs, these aren't success factors for President quite yet.

Hillary's Watershed: Deplorables

By PeraclesPlease on Mon, 10/17/2016 - 8:12am |

It's been a pretty uninspiring campaign season, waiting from the end of the primaries to the convention buildup, then watching Hillary fritter her lead away on Clinton Foundation questions until it looked like she might be a goner - and then video by video, confession after confession, Trump melted down. Or is that how it went?

6 weeks ago Hillary let her "Deplorables" tag slip, and much of her fan base and hopefuls let out a collective gasp - it's one thing to attack Trump, but not his followers and independents she was trying to attract. After all, it was common knowledge that millennials were none too thrilled with her, so she'd be making good on that Republican Lite reputation - only here she was pissing in that stream too. And classic Hillary style - not "jerk", "low-life" or even "vulgarian" - she chose a word that half of America had to look up and the other half pondered whether it was even a noun. But most felt it was a way too risky move.

It's Magic: Make America Grate Again

By PeraclesPlease on Sun, 10/09/2016 - 6:39pm |

In what looks like the most amazing Rick-Roll of all time, we have to come to grips with the possibility that Trump is creating his own October Surprise with the results he wants. While some have speculated it was his wife who gave up his 20-year-old tax form, it would be much easier for him to do it. The recording? Pull it out of his archive.

Why would Donald go to such effort to self-destruct? Because he was never a real candidate to begin with. Everything he's done was a hyperinflated version of what a real stupid conservative Republican might do - turning up the IOKIYAR meme to 11 was sheer brilliance. Or at least good fun.. That's right, Donald Trump is the political equivalent of Spinal Tap - Spinal Trump, anyone? - compleat with little miniature stonehenges and a bizarre appearance at the Armory. And a tribute to fat bottom girls. 

Donald Drops the Mic

By PeraclesPlease on Mon, 10/03/2016 - 7:48am |

Seems Donald's falling back on the "sun was in myeyes, rock in my shoes, moderator up my ass" level of excuse making. While it's possible someone screwed up the audio levels, it's also possible that someone just doesn't know how to talk into the mic (or put it close to their mouth) - see pic below. (I presume he or his team checked the podium before the debate - my real guess is he wasn't yelling as assertively as usual). Unforced error #14.

Hillary & the Paradox of Teamwork

By PeraclesPlease on Sun, 10/02/2016 - 3:19am |

The trend towards greater teamwork has been extolled in business & management schools for well over 2 decades now, But still when we consider executive pay, leadership, innovation and other qualities, we're laying on sparse praise to the team, hard praise to the leader. It's not the team that makes Facebook - it's Zuckerberg (at the exclusion of even his co-founders). The ghost of Steve Jobs still hovers over Apple, but it's Tim Cook that reigns, not some more amorphous "team". When we talk about Microsoft's success, it's what Bill Gates and Paul Allen did, and what Steve Ballmer and later didn't do.

Shoutout to Maiello: Wrestling

By PeraclesPlease on Fri, 09/30/2016 - 4:10pm |

[Meant to post this days ago, but may be better now]

Okay, Devega made the claim that Trump's modeled himseslf on the badguy wrestler (who the crowd cheers for) - so we need the Maiello deconstruction of 1) what to expect, 2) how Hillary can counter it, and 3) whether wrestling motifs are the future of all American political contests. (And of course anything else you want to riff on).

Pages

Personal Information

Superpowers
Defies gravity Can spit really far Almost touch my toes Can cut a fly's legs off with a beer cap from 20 paces Know how to say useless stuff and prattle on in a dozen languages Don't know when to shut up
Favorite Quotes
To be for or against the Plague, it's much the same thing. Fiddledee, how a body shure do get around - just 2 weeks ago I was in Mississippi and now I'm all the way to Tennessee... Eat or Be Eaten Better to be pissed off than pissed on.
Biography
Born in swaddling clothes (designer, of course) at the confluence of big waters, my first recorded words were "Dad, can I have the keys to the car?" Raised a Southern Pedestrian, my musical talents were recognized at an early age, leading to my being exiled to the shed out back with a stack of books that became my eddykayshun - advanced readin', writin' & ritmytick, creating a major quandary of "what will I do, oh what will I do?" (Gunslinger) As an old black man advised in song, "You Gotta Move", so move I did, traveling the byways sideways even a lot of driveways, picking up sticks and psychological tics, even movin' to Beverlee through a quaint misunderstanding of the seriousness of TV series, until finally I blew up so big the carry nation incarnation tarnation couldn't hold me no more, so I fixed my sights on yonder sitar, and like Queequeg and Paul Bowles and one of those abducted kids by the Pied Piper of Hamelin, I ventured forth to the larger world, pickin' and grinnin', doin' me some reckonin' and naughts from naughts, occasionally rightin', building me some buildings and wiring and just trying to understand the babble comin' out of people's mouths and heads, I finally ended up in what Rummy quaintly calls "New Europe", which ain't so new from what I sees, but that pit in my stomach from lack-of-moving-sickness finally disappeared, and instead I sit behind a whopping big desk stacked with missives from all the chiefs with big whampum around the world telling me "what's going on". Which seems like a load of boolshit to me, but I guess that's what keeps me busy and entertained now, separatin' the weeds from the chapstick. So my name is Perry Keys, or Peracles to you, and since my mammy always said, "say please and thank you", I added the please, but I'm holdin' back on that thankee until I feel you've earned it. But do welcome, and I hope we's a gonna have a real good time. It all starts with, "I wuz born a poor young white chile livin' in the South..." and we cycle through again, like Nietzsche and his infernal regurgence. So enjoy, and let's spin a spell...

History

Blog
View recent blog entries
Member for
12 years 9 months