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

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Trump Punts on Administration

By PeraclesPlease on Fri, 09/30/2016 - 3:07pm |

When asked by Fox who he'd invite to be in his Administration, Trump responded "Menstruation? That's disgusting. And I'll have you know I have no problem with women, do really well if you know what I mean, really well, without having blood come out from wherever. That's for these sad sack losers, I don't have to get all soft and sensitive to have lots of beautiful women. When they have that time of month, I'll be on the golf course driving the wood, if you know what I mean"

Japanese Whispers: The Swift Boating of Hillary

By PeraclesPlease on Sat, 09/24/2016 - 7:06am |

In 2004, after losing the post-9/11 2002 mid-terms, the Democrats fielded a decorated Vietnam veteran against an incumbent president who was revealed to have gone AWOL on his National Guard service, a service in itself that was a bypass of the regular draft.

Instead of accepting the stacked deck, conservative Republicans immediately went to work reframing - parading a group of veterans to call into doubt Kerry's service, while finding a magic unicorn forged document to derail the otherwise overwhelmingly compelling evidence that Bush had failed to complete.

Flagging Relief

By PeraclesPlease on Wed, 09/14/2016 - 2:24am |

I've never quite gotten the flag, and growing up, I thought that was part of the point. Didn't everyone else sit through history class and learn how country after country had followed jingoistic rhetoric, crass manipulative symbolism and other tricks of the trade to go get slaughtered? I once read the final chapter to "Johnny Got His Gun" on air - at one point, that was required reading, no?

Hillary takes a shit

By PeraclesPlease on Mon, 09/12/2016 - 2:45pm |

Faced with condemnation from David Axelrot for not being more forthcoming about her pneumonia, Hillary Clinton's team has put the traveling press corps on notice that they will be receiving regular updates on bowel movements, including floaters vs sinkers, as well as any gassy bloated moments, painful urination, drowsiness, irritability, and other possible flaws of human nature and physiology.

Blackmailing Big Brother?

By PeraclesPlease on Wed, 09/07/2016 - 2:45am |

It's hard to see why Assange's current approach to Hillary's records isn't illegal - the emails were obtained illegally, the material isn't presented as news but as a threat, a form of harassment and libel. He'll be putting out "teases" and it could have a "significant impact" on November. He's trading in stolen information to harass a candidate for our highest office - behind his walled protective space in a London embassy with no repercussions. It's a kind of pain free extortion or blackmail or simply a peculiar gaming site on the hill with ability to target characters and sling fireballs and explosives at them one by one. Julian at 13, forever and ever.

Pay Equality

By PeraclesPlease on Tue, 09/06/2016 - 4:39pm |

So Gretchen wassername has now earned about 50% more than Hillary's speeches over 5 years through a harassment suit, and Ailes has earned twice that amount for quitting. Shame they're not demanding his transcripts. But thebiggest scandal remains the Clinton Foundation, where unlike Fox they trade non-access for non pocketed money. Why do they do it?

Wild and Wilder

By PeraclesPlease on Tue, 08/30/2016 - 6:43am |

Since everything must be about Trump these days, and I've previously compared Trump to some kind of Willie Wonka (though more the bizarre psychically-damaged Johnny Depp version), the passing of Gene Wilder is a sad moment. I remember my joy at being able to turn my kids on to the original Willie Wonka, and his role in Mel Brooks' absurdly popular farting, Cole Porter tap-dancing, German kvetching deconstructionist comedy about the Wild Wild West, after too many billion movies applauding the destruction of a civilization with hardly a moment of second thought or self-doubt. It was arguably part of our national turn in the 70's - Jimmy Carter's "malaise" tied to Taxi Driver and Nixon's resignation and other signs that something wasn't quite right even in Tinseltown, that our 60's celebration was off the rails.

OpenThread: hacktivism, Soros...

By PeraclesPlease on Fri, 08/19/2016 - 11:36am |

Ironic that the new hacktivism is taking on Open Society, the one that did so much to promote transparent organizations after the wall. But the target seems to be Soros' promotion of arguments for the Ukrainian protesters in Maidan - a rather contentious issue that pitted the US left against US government actions as rather colonialistic (unlike Russia's continued influence over Ukraine, which is simply

Likeability

By PeraclesPlease on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 6:31am |

Okay, as this keeps coming up, I thought I'd put together a list to help us track the seemingly all-important metric of "likeability" as it concerns our public servants and cultural heroes.

More likeable than Hillary: Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Pope Francis, Al Franken?, Elizabeth Warren, Eric Snowden, Christiane Amanpour, Stephen Colbert-Jon Stewart-Samantha Bee, Joe Biden (or so they say), Elon Musk, Angelina Jolie, the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi, Richard Holbrooke?, Tom Tomorrow, Barbara Jordan?, Kofe Annan

Moderation vs. Violent Mood Swings

By PeraclesPlease on Thu, 08/04/2016 - 5:29am |

It's been the perceived wisdom this season that Americans are outraged, and that solutions need to be drastic. But perceived wisdom, especially among self-interested media types, isn't always accurate, and doesn't always reflect what the populace expects. And change often comes when a dam bursts, not with steady trends - watching the water rise often does little to predict the outcome. (Plus my experience with earthquakes tells me that an aftershock can be worse than the original quake - effects do ripple).

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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...

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