All right, it's been 3 weeks without a posting. Busy, as we finally move back home after 6 months in exile. And sure, there's plenty going on in the world. Which I'll comment on soon, once my 3-week lobotomy has had a chance to settle in. (All hail Vlad and the New USSR and Vlad's orange-quisling U.S. prophet!)
Okay, meanwhile, got time for some humor and fun? There's a LOT of cool links, below!
Let’s start with this clip… Simply one of the best things I have seen, maybe ever! Supporting my view that ‘pre-sapient’ consciousness is very, very common… and breaking through the glass ceiling to our level must be very, very hard.
== Distractions! ==
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/why-6
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/law-4
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/profile
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/cult-2
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - LLM And an exceptionally on-target whimsy cynicism from SMBC…
You'd also likely enjoy XKCD, which is generally even more science oriented. Might as well start here and just keep clicking the one-step-backward button till you tire of the cleverness!
I mentioned Electric Sheep Comix by Patrick Farley. All his serials have such different styles you'd be sure they must have different artists. And all are brilliant!
== And seriously, now ==
Briefly serious and then more lighthearted stuff!
Here’s a tip and a tool worth spreading. The Canadian Women's Foundation has created a hand signal for those who are victims of domestic violence which can be used silently on video calls during the coronavirus crisis to signal for help. But not just for video calls, as illustrated in this earlier video.
And while we’re talking inspiring ways to move ahead… Big star Bruce Springsteen’s Jeep commercial paid homage to the ReUnited States of America… a lovely sentiment! (Calling to mind “malice toward none” from Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural address, one of the top ten speeches of all time.)
It also called to mind - for not a few folks who pinged me - resonance with the “Restored United States” of my novel (and the film) “The Postman.” Which has itself been “restored” or refreshed, edited and updated with TWO new Patrick Farley covers and a new introduction.
(Let me append -- below -- a relevant passage from The Postman, in which -- in the 1980s -- I predicted many of the rationalizations of the would-be lords seeking to re-impose 6000 years of dismal feudalism)
On the other hands, the dumbing-down continues. In 2022, the National Council of Teachers of English declared: “Time to decenter book reading and essay-writing as the pinnacles of English language arts education.” Instead, teachers are urged to focus on "media literacy" and short texts that students feel are "relevant." ??? I am well-versed on the 'newer' language arts and helped invent some. And this leads to the moronic world that Walter Tevis ('The Queen's Gambit') portrayed in his great novel MOCKINGBIRD.
But oh yeah. who reads novels? Or tracks coherent, complex thoughts?
Dig it. This is part of the Great Big War Vs Nerds that's primarily on the Mad Right... but also has long had a strong locus on the postmodernist left.
Books r 2 hard 2 reed and shit ...
…but sure… now back to fun!
== And more spritely and musically now, to cheer you up! ==
And now something completely different. I assert that Gilbert and Sullivan were master musicians. And in each opera they has at least one pas-de-deux... where you take two seemingly completely independent songs, hear them separately, and then lo! They get woven together in beauty & irony. This one combines unhelpful encouragement (!) with courage-despite-terror. You'll see (and hear) what I mean at about 3:30. Play it loud!
This version with the incomparable Linda Rondstadt!
And yes, a few of you (too few!) will deem this familiar from a scene in BRIGHTNESS REEF!
And let’s have another. Here’s one of my utter-favorite songs, by Vangelis. The Jon Anderson version is great. Donna Summer’s is even better!
Less perfect but a fun variation is Chrissie Hynde’s version with Moodswings.
Then there’s this way-fun bit of grunting nonsense by Mike Oldfield, that should be redone by Tenacious D!
Three more faves recommended by my brother, with my thumbs way up.
Johnny Clegg with Nelson Mandela.
Patty Smith, People Have the Power.
Cornershop ‘Free Love.’
======
== And now that promised POSTMAN lagniappe ==
So it had been that way here too. The cliched "last straw" had been this plague of survivalists--particularly those following the high priest of violent anarchy, Nathan Holn.
...
The irony of it was that we had things turned around! The depression was over. People were at work again and cooperating. Except for a few crazies, it looked like a renaissance was coming, for America and the world.
But we forgot how much harm a few crazies could do, in America and in the world.
--… and later in the book… --
“How did he get away with pushing a book like this?”
Gordon shrugged.
“It was called ‘the Big Lie’ technique, Johnny. Just SOUND like you know what you’re talking about—as if you’re citing real facts. Talk very fast. Weave your lies into the shape of a conspiracy theory and repeat your assertions over and over again. Those who want an excuse to hate or blame—those with big but weak egos— will leap at a simple, neat explanation for the way the world is. Those types will never call you on the facts…”
Want more? I'll post another, longer, section of the book, soon. You'll likely not see a better pre-diagnosis of the hell we are in now, verging on possibly much worse. But yes, we will win.
Thrive. And persevere!
96 comments:
Thanks for the comics, but none of the links are working properly- looks like they have some extra stuff at the end that needs removing.
Ah yes, shifting boxes: a pleasure I have pending when my daughter comes back from Sydney at the end of the year!
Having just done my monthly news roundup of environmental/political matters for this month, I'm happy to go light on the state of the world as well (not that it's *all* bad, mind)
Piltdown Man knew how to rock it! (... would have known, that is) I recall using the grunts as inspiration for naming a D&D character 'Floogle M'gwaff'. It's doubly amusing that a vid showing Kate Bush performing 'Wuthering Heights' comes immediately after ("You had a temper, like my jealousy..."). Taran-tara indeed.
Another comic worth mentioning is 'Runaway to the Stars', which is managing to combine hard SF with some comedy, interspecies issues, and hints that 'wokeness' has always been part of the scene.
I think I fixed most of the weirdly messed up smbc links
I had fun with the first set of this series - Spacetrawler - about shanghaied Earthlings
https://www.baldwinpage.com/spacetrawler/
Pappenheimer
The link labeled Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - LLM seems broken still but the others are good now.
Linda Ronstadt? Incomparable indeed!
This live performance makes me cry. Her voice is amazing.
Linda Ronstadt - Blue Bayou
And, as Willie Nelson allegedly said, "There are two kinds of men in this world. Those with a crush on Linda Ronstadt and those who never heard of her."
My wife and I watched AVATAR 2 on Saturday night. It's over 3 hours long and we only planned to watch half of it. We watched the whole thing. It was a lot better than we expected.
The last hour is one long battle scene. In most movies, battle scenes are boring, CGI filled bloat. When it started, we were so far from the end of the film that I thought this was going to be a mid-film fight. Nope…it was the big battle. Thing is, it was interesting. Cameron made the battle into a long, episodic story. Yay! We understood what was happening, where people were, what they were trying to do.
I just re-read SHOGUN by James Clavell. Mae and I watched the HULU mini-series a few weeks ago and were very disappointed. The costumes and sets were amazing, but the story was dumbed down version of the novel. We watched the 1980 mini-series last year and that was much better. The actor playing Blackthorn in the HULU series walked around like a doofus. At one point he was asked about his experience with land battles and the HULU character said that he had none. Whereas, in the novel, Blackthorn had been in several land battles and was highly experienced and capable. I read that the writers dumbed his character down so that he would not come across as a “white savior.” What a load of nonsense. Blackthorn in the novel was a brilliant intellect as well as a navigator and pilot. But his skills were tools that Toranaga used. Anjin-San was not a white savior, he was just a character who was our point of reference for a very different world.
Most entertainment these days seems to be written for easily bored, stupid, shallow people. It’s rare that we come across something really thoughtful or entertaining.
For happy fun movie music I'd like to nominate the scene from Belfast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld3X1GmPjl4&list=RDld3X1GmPjl4&start_radio=1
"The actor playing Blackthorn in the HULU series walked around like a doofus."
Yeah that was something i did not like about the mini-series. I wanted to shout at the TV "Sure its a different culture and language but learn to read a room before you open you mouth you idiot!"
What was excellent was the portrayal of Lady Mariko and her arch rival Lady Ochiba. Both of them out smarted Lord Ishido, though Lord Toranaga remained the supreme strategist.
When Mariko destroyed Ishido in front of the council only Ochiba understood what she was doing, and was taken aback by her audacity. Ishido was clueless even as he was being destroyed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTm6Qaz029I
And yes female samurai like Mariko were also willing to die for their lords
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbMC_Yg27gk
Willie Nelson has three rules: "1- don't be an asshole 2- don't be an asshole 3- don't be a fucking asshole."
At the Venn diagram where "hippie" overlaps "redneck" Willie Nelson stands alone and supreme.
Whether he sings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWOEfE22wow&list=RDOWOEfE22wow&start_radio=1
(And there is no love song like a cowboy love song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxXki4OV7d0&list=RDsxXki4OV7d0&start_radio=1
Or is being sung about
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX-7QejAi8M&list=RDpX-7QejAi8M&start_radio=1
Willie is true country, from a bygone era when county music wasn't just pop music wearing a cowboy hat.
Is "Duty Calls" (XKCD #386) the funniest single panel ever?
The LLM link is still broken.
Another film that surprised me recently was the 2016 film THE ACCOUNTANT starring Ben Afflick. I was flipping through films on streaming and saw this scene and was hooked.
https://youtu.be/CLrWCc-75j4?si=Uh4UIrEV6796gN1Q
This is my area of expertise. His use (mis-use) of tax reporting had me ROFLOL and I knew I had to watch this film with my wife. This is exactly the kind of BS that an unethical tax preparer would use.
We enjoyed it. Yes, it was a fairly dumb, action film along the lines of the REACHER TV series. But the characters were interesting and the film had a number of surprising plot twists. You expect it to go in one direction and it goes off in another. And it has the wonderful John Lithgow…I’ve been following him since the 1976 Brian DePalma film, OBSESSION (one of my cousins was an investor in this flick).
Another great flick is the Audrey Hepburn/Cary Grant film CHARADE. You can find that one streaming in full on Youtube because the studio made a mistake when it was released in 1965 and the film went into the public domain when it was released. Here is one version. You can probably find higher def versions if you look hard.
https://youtu.be/x5WLVlJjgSE?si=1W0oT7RWAoXZy2uG
Well worth 1 hour and 53 minutes of your life. I have a MP4 of this film saved on my phone, I love it so much. Some people say that it is the best Alfred Hitchcock film not directed by Alfred Hitchcock; it was directed by Stanley Donen.
In most movies, battle scenes are boring, CGI filled bloat.
...Nope…it was the big battle. Thing is, it was interesting. Cameron made the battle into a long, episodic story. Yay! We understood what was happening, where people were, what they were trying to do.
You know what else was like that (in a good sense) ? The final X-wing vs Death Star battle in the original 1977 Star Wars.
Larry, excellent observation. Yes, the 1977 battle over the DEATH STAR was an excellent battle sequence.
Sadly, things went off the rails around 2000. When Ridley Scott’s edited GLADIATOR, he wanted to tone down the violence for his R rated film so that women would not be repelled by it. The result was battle scenes made up of short shots set to music. Lots of films followed that path. It was the biggest thing I hold against MASTER AND COMMANDER. When I watched BAND OF BROTHERS, the scene where they take out the German gun emplacement on D-Day should have been a simple, sensible battle. Instead, it was a confusing rush of scenes. The viewer has no situational awareness and no idea what is happening.
Yes Larry! Absolutely YES!
Darrell, that included most gay guys!
Avatar 2 is the same exact film with whales slaughtered for immortality drug rather than trees fo unobtanium. But in my category of "watch it stoned and enjoy." See VIVID TOMORROWS: Science Fiction and Hollywood - http://www.davidbrin.com/vividtomorrows.html
"White savior" is an idiotic phrase meant to maintain sanctimony high resentment toward films that are actually about "ONE white guy gets disabused of his prejudices by learning better by going native in admiration." And "All you white folks sharing his point of view will now do so, as well." What stunning malarkey.
Of course we all love CHARADE. Cary Grant is Cary Grant to the T by being utterly sexless and semi-rejecting (!not possible!) Audrey Hepburn.
We need a mashup of AVATAR 2 and STAR TREK IV
Sadly, things went off the rails around 2000. ...
They went off the rails long before that.
As mentioned, the long battle against the Death Star was choreographed in such a way that the viewer can follow the strategy and progression of the action. Likewise, though it was a win for the Empire, the battle on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back.
However, the climax of Return of the Jedi featured a special-effects-laden spectacle but a completely frivolous one that had nothing to do with the fall of the Emperor or the fate of Darth Vader. One more reason I consider the prequels to be prequels of RotJ, all of which exist in a separate universe from the original* and its only true sequel.
* "And damned be he who first cries, "Episode IV'".
"And is there a Mrs. Cruikshank?"
Yes, ... my mother.
I am relentlessly forced to explain simple things my parents all knew: It is SO much more complicated. Yes, Marx admired capitalism for creating wealth-making means of production and called capitalists utterly necessary in order to steal enough value from workers to invest in new productive capacity. Meanwhile, workers would have to be educated and become 'advanced potetariate' in order to functionally work in those factories. At which point they would begin to actively resent the theft of labor value.
When the Means of Production were finally 'finished'... a concept we now know to be utterly absurd... Marx asserted the prols would simply seize control. He could not imagine it happening peacefully or democratically, so he predicted that capitalists would narrow down to a few master families recreating a system that Karl understood... feudalism.
What he never understood or considered possible was Fradnklin Roosevelt and his generation seizing most of the main political power peacefully and democratically, an event that rendered Marx's "return to feudalism" penultimate stage moot and cast Karl into the dustbin...
...for 80 years. Till a generation came along that knew none of this. And actively voted for conditions that are leading to ... Marx's end game of skyrocketing disparities in wealth and immiseration of the proletariate. An EDUCATED and advance proletariate that knows cyber, nuclear, bio, nano and the rest.
By discarding Rooseveltean bourgeois democratic-egalitarianism, today's oligarch prove that they never read Marx, which almost everyone in my father's generation had. Worse, our new lords seem bent on setting up the Marxian end game EXACTLY as he predicted. Proving that our would be New Lords are truly dumb-ass fools, who are summoning their own tumbrel rides to the guillotine, alas.
https://malcolmnance.substack.com/p/trump-has-betrayed-us-the-greatest
...
Mark my words. When we peacefully win the Second American Revolution (and it’s coming), the name Donald Trump will be equal to Benedict Arnold over the next two and a half centuries.
Arnold died penniless and in disgrace in 1801. Every year, I make a point of pilgrimaging to Battersea Church in London, where he and Peggy Shippen are interred in a basement crypt that has been turned into a daycare/nursery.
There, I spit on his grave.
Let’s see if we can all start doing that at the sound of the name Trump. It’s a good start to a revolution.
From Malcolm Nance's lips to God's ear.
You are given a *very* clear idea of what's going down in the Palmo's Central Square on Ghorman.
Well... If you judge a man by his intents and attempts, then Benedict Arnold deserves to be an icon of betrayal. But PRACTICALLY, the man SAVED the Revolution at least three times before becoming an utterly incompetent - and likely self-defeating - traitor. A fact that I have mulled often as an example of life's ironies.
... narrated by David Attenborough:
"Now, we are almost out of time. Indeed, the ocean is in such poor health that I would find it hard not to lose hope.
Were it not for the most remarkable discovery of all..."
I was quite entertained by Bodies, a Netflix time travel miniseries. Make sure you are very attentive in the last moments.
GMT -5 (Hugh) said...
"And it has the wonderful John Lithgow…I’ve been following him since the 1976 Brian DePalma film, OBSESSION (one of my cousins was an investor in this flick)."
It's a polarizing film, most either love it or hate it, but to see John Lithgow in his finest role, and I'm not entirely kidding about that, you must see The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. A hilarious film and Lithgow kills it.
The best things I've come across on "TV" lately are a couple of documentaries.
A few weeks ago I came across Beastie Boys Story on AppleTV+. It's actually from 2020. It was really good. Directed by Spike Jonze, very interesting format. It was live. The two remaining Boys came out on stage in front of a live audience and told there story, with lots of pictures and video clips of course. Even for people that are not familiar with their music, or even don't like their music, I think most would still enjoy this documentary and be moved by it.
Just last night I watched Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan, which is by, and on, Netflix. I was really surprised at how good it was. I recommend this to everyone. I always sort of knew that Sullivan was a good guy but never knew much about his or his show's story. Suffice to say that Sullivan is a fricking hero, if there are any heroes.
I think pretty much everything about the documentary will rub MAGATs and adjacent the wrong way, but there were also several moments when things were said that would also piss off some on the extreme left as well. I was surprised how straightforward the documentary was about racial issues and what people like Sullivan, JKF, MLK and others said and meant. For example things like, "A person should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin." Clearspeak, as it were.
Oh, and if you are a softie like me, might want to keep a tissue or hanky at hand. Lots of moving moments. At least for me.
Another good music documentary with lots of stuff I'd never seen or heard before even though I've been a big fan of their music since about 13 years of age, Becoming Led Zeppelin. Also on Netflix. It doesn't cover their whole career, just their origins on until they hit the big time.
I have a rare TEAM BANZAI headband. "No matter where you go, there you are."
"She lives in Detroit. You'd like her. She'd like you."
Gone are the days before CGI existed when a producer could hire the Soviet army, put them in Napoleonic uniforms and weapons, train them in Napoleonic tactics, and bull dozer an entire region of Ukraine to resemble the terrain of Waterloo while accurately rebuilding the farmhouses that Wellington turned into fortresses - and have to two perfect actors to play Wellington (Christopher Plummer) and Napoleon (Rod Steiger) - while recreating a coherent historical narrative.
The final assault of the French Imperial Guard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt4mYUKjzn0&t=510s
British infantry squares
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DMhH-DWZ5A
This classic shows why the recent Napoleon movie sucked.
BB: "Give her your jacket."
Perfect Tommy: "Why me?"
BB: "Because your perfect."
Perfect Tommy: *pause* "You've got a point there."
"Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai etc." is, somehow, near perfection.
I would, as an aside, recommend 'The Lighthorsemen", which is a very good replication of the WWI charge of Australian mounted infantry on Turkish lines in a desperate attempt to seize the wells at Beersheba. It's been suggested the charge went so well because the Aussie troopers assumed that beer and sheilas were at the other end.
Here's the crux -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HC8esnim9U
never mind the music, you hear that everywhere these days.
Pappenheimer
P.S. it is also my opinion that Trump is implicated in the Epstein files
Evil! Pure and simple, from the 8th Dimension!
Laugh-a while you can, monkey-boy!
Tumbrel rides, would those be from Lyft or Uber?
Ah, that explains some of the current crop of Know-Nothing congresscritters.
NASA has been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve. It's sad that we are turning the programme in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation and stimulation it provides to young people. - Neil Armstrong
Happy Birthday Neil, wherever you are
Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose - NPR
https://apple.news/AxvsT49YMTGyglsBXk7m88Q
From article: "It is unclear why the Trump administration seeks to end the missions."
It's a mystery...
Since there's a lot going on out there, I'll just leave this refresher music here for people to unwind to.
I'm glad to see Texas Dems finally stand up to MAGA. It's about time we played as dirty as Republicans.
Sorry Michelle Obama, but "When they go low we go high" is stupid. We Dems should get down in the mud with Republican. And bring our switchblades.
So if Abbot wants to gerrymander Texas to give the GOP five more House seat, then Cali, Mass and Illinois should go them one better and bury them in gerrymandered Dem reps.
Any idea what would happen if Red States and Blue states went nuclear on gerrymandering? Red states except for Texas have insignificant populations and are already gerrymandered or culturally republican. They can't squeeze more blood from that stone. Whereas Blue states tend to rely on unbiased fair commissions to draw district lines.
Fuck being fair.
If the more populated Blue states went full gerrymander they'd have a lock on the House.
Just detected"Ion Tichy: Space Pilot", based on Stanislav Lems Star Diaries on You Tube.
It is hilarious. It is absurdist. It is wonderful.Wonder if there ever was an English version.
Something interesting, hope there'll be a release in english : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeobVshbQpA "The Stars My Destination" From a "file 770" post.
Apparently red heifers are necessary to usher in the apocalypse and trigger the second coming of Jesus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JK6VtA4tag
These MAGA Christians and fascist Israelis are fucking nuts.
Sorry Michelle Obama, but "When they go low we go high" is stupid.
It seemed like a good idea at the time. The times are different now. Adapt or die is the call of the day.
So if Abbot wants to gerrymander Texas to give the GOP five more House seat, then Cali, Mass and Illinois should go them one better and bury them in gerrymandered Dem reps.
I'm not sure Illinois can gerrymander for Dems any more than we already have. :)
I'm in agreement with you as long as we don't push our luck. Texas is expecting 5 new Republican seats based on 2024 voting patterns in which Latinos swung for Trump, many of whom may already have been deported or more likely not to approve of Trump's handling of racial profiling and deportations of legal residents and citizens without due process. Gerrymandering more districts means watering down the Republican majority in those districts from a relatively safe 55% to something closer to 50%, and in a blue wave or an anti-incumbent wave, Texas may well lose some of those supposedly-safe districts. Electoral-Vote.com has been calling that a "dummymander".
So let's not do the same thing and give them wins.
If the more populated Blue states went full gerrymander they'd have a lock on the House.
Republicans are calling BS on us for the Texas Dems decamping to Illinois, "which does gerrymandering itself." Well, they're not protesting the gerrymandering of the every-decade redistricting after a new census. I mean, we hate that too, but we concede that it happens. They're protesting the attempt to change the playing field mid-decade. And only Republicans ever do that.
I heard some Republican congresswoman say with a straight face that they (Rs) are only playing by the rules, and when a reporter asked specifically about it being mid-decade, she said, "There's nothing that says we can't." Well, there's nothing that says we can't either.
Fuck being fair.
No, fuck being conciliatory. Playing by the same rules that they do is fair.
https://www.threads.com/@stonekettle
When this is over, we need to seriously implement Nuremberg style trials for these bastards.
And I'm not talking just the obvious fascism, but the lunacy that just ended research into mRNA protocols that could have FUCKING CURED ALZHEIMERS.
You have no idea how much I hate these goddamn people.
Oh, yes I do.
Testify!
As an apocalypse follow here is the perfect description of trump from revalations 12:12
Woe unto the inhabitants of the earth. For the Devil has come down to you, and he is filled with rage, because he knows that he has only a little time left."
"These MAGA Christians and fascist Israelis are fucking nuts." See how I portrayed that in 1985 in HEART OF THE COMET.
GERRYMANDERING works... until it suddenly doesn't It calls for GOPpers to cram Dems into hugely dem districts while most others are winnable by the GOP by a comfortable 5% + margin. But if there is a BIG swing of say 6%+ then it means they could be completely wiped out. God willing.
I do NOT favor retaliating by gerrymandering in blue states. For one thing, blue votes have banned the practice in a majority of blues anyway! Illinois and Maryland are outliers who should also quit, so it becomes a purely Republican crime.
See: Here's a proposed legal argument that demolishes the "Roberts Doctrine" that he concocted to protect gerrymandering. https://david-brin.medium.com/the-minimal-overlap-solution-to-gerrymandered-injustice-e535bbcdd6c
...and a more general deep-dive into this wretched crime: https://www.davidbrin.com/nonfiction/gerrymandering1.html
GERRYMANDERING works... until it suddenly doesn't It calls for GOPpers to cram Dems into hugely dem districts while most others are winnable by the GOP by a comfortable 5% + margin. But if there is a BIG swing of say 6%+ then it means they could be completely wiped out. God willing.
The Texas thing pushes that even further. To get five more Republican seats, they have to lower that margin to something like 52% or even lower. If Latinos who voted for DJT last time swing the other way, they could end up losing those districts.
Illinois and Maryland are outliers who should also quit, so it becomes a purely Republican crime.
I know where you're coming from, but I'm on the other side, and this is why. Republicans will only back a change if the status quo is hurting them. If gerrymandering becomes a game that they can lose, then they'll join Democrats in banning the practice nationally. As long as it is a purely Republican crime that pays, they'll wear it proudly.
We're past the point where losing honorably is anything but a ticket to the concentration camp.
It's why I wanted President Biden to use the supreme court's king powers to do outrageous things like have the army shut down FOX News. Not because I wanted to cheat, but because I wanted to force them to say, "He can't do that!" and set into stone the precedent that there are things a president is not allowed to do. Likewise, a concerted Democratic gerrymander campaign might force the supreme court to rule that gerrymandering is unconstitutional. They won't do that as long as it is a purely Republican crime. They approve of purely Republican crimes.
That said, I'm not worried about Illinois gerrymandering further, because we're probably as gerrymandered as we can be without it becoming a losable "dummymander". But I'm also not in favor of unilaterally disarming.
And I know that non-partisan districting worked out well in California, leading to a better brand of Republicans in the districts that they win. That may be true locally. But in the US House, none of that matters. What matters is whether Republicans or Democrats hold the majority. The best Republican congressmen on individual issues will not break with their party line on giving in to Donald Trump. Even the ones who vote with us make sure that their vote is not decisive before they do so. In that sense, it is absolutely true (sadly) that there are no good Republicans in Congress.
I know this is meant to be a more lighted hearted posting, but this is what came through my feed this morning alone...
On top of the gerrymandering imbroglio, the SC has just been outed for its plans to repeal the Voting Rights Act. Fancy that!
Why was Trump wandering around up on the roof yesterday? The official explanation is that he was checking the plans for the Big, Beautiful Ballroom. Why is this on his mind? Possibly because, as has been noted, Vanz can't dance. Meanwhile, Vance seems to be living the Potemkin dream, courtesy of the US Engineering Corps.
... oh, and the Constitution seems to have been attacked by moths<.a>. How'd that happen?
Interesting... despite being malformed, that last link still works!
From the Voting Rights Act article linked above:
It’s a perverse argument. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to enforce the vision of equality that animated the 14th and 15th Amendments. Indeed, the VRA was enacted under Congress’ express authority to use legislation to enforce the equal protection and voting rights guarantees of the post-Civil War amendments to the Constitution. Now, Republican lawyers are attacking the law, arguing that equal treatment of minority voters is actually discrimination against white voters.
It's as I've been saying for years, and locumranch has also been saying in a different sense. White supremacists claim that being white supremacists is part of their white identity, and that therefore equality for all identity groups before the law discriminates against them.
It's a laughable argument except, to mangle Nixon, "When the supreme court does it, it's not laughable."
As to parts of the Constitution being deleted from the government website...
"We've always been at war with Eastasia."
Dang. This makes AI worthwhile!
https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1090633425848968
May...be, when you've got some dilithium to power the holodeck.
Until then...
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2025/Items/Aug07-2.html
Also noteworthy is that the organization that worked the hardest for having independent commissions draw the maps, Common Cause, is now reconsidering its position. There is a battle going on within the organization about what to do when one party is pushing gerrymandering to the hilt and the other is offering good government. Is that fair? The term "unilateral disarmament" is being bandied about as never before.
Just sayin'
That does bring up an interesting aspect of AI-generated content. The ability to portray the actors as they appeared in younger days.
Harrison Ford is getting awfully long in the tooth for the kind of roles we're used to seeing him in. Sean Connery had aged out of the James Bond role in the 70s, and in Roger Moore's last 007 film, he was too old to be credible. Even Carrie Fisher in her final Star Wars appearance evoked nothing less than 2016-era Hillary Clinton.
New appearances by actors like those in their prime would be a game changer.
https://bsky.app/profile/rexhuppke.bsky.social/post/3lvphb5db2c23
I wasn’t a big fan of J.B. Pritzker when he became governor of Illinois. But he proved me quite wrong, and my respect for him keeps growing. Assuming we have another presidential election, he’s going to be a very formidable candidate.
Rex Huppke was a Chicago Tribune columnist until the paper urged most of their columnists to take a buyout a few years ago. He knows Illinois, and he agrees with me.
39% tariff for Switzerland? Someone should remind Trump what the Helvetians did to the last guy who tried to strong-arm them.
39% tariff for Switzerland?
Sounds like something that could awaken a sleeping giant.
Well ... I' d strongly advise against invading it. They have decided not to retaliate openly , though.
That said, I could imagine that this move could bring them closer to the EU.
Plus, possibly indiscretions about shadier financial transactions could suddenly surface. Or, they guess that all those ill-gotten gains Trump & his allies try to steal need a save haven, after all.
There's a bumper sticker meant to shame tailgaters which reads, "Do you follow Jesus this closely?"
I'd like one with "Jesus" crossed out and "Trump" written over it.
We've always been at war with Eurasia!
And the choco ration is going up along with job numbers!
For anyone arguing that we need to counter gerrymandering in Texas with more gerrymandering elsewhere... No. Hell no.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVdQjqUXuDc
If one tailgates too closely,
they’ll go to Heaven sooner.
@Alfred,
If the goal of Democratic gerrymandering was to also win by cheating, I would agree with you. I want it for a different (and hopefully temporary) reason. I want it to be clear to Republicans that the strategy might work to their disadvantage, which just might make them ok with banning it nationwide.
I am in favor of banning it nationwide. What I'm not in favor of is letting them win because not doing so is distasteful. As I said up above, the current branches of government are all proudly in favor of "purely Republican crimes." The only way they will act to prevent such crimes is if they think Democrats might win.
And it's not just me. Repeating from above:
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2025/Items/Aug07-2.html
Also noteworthy is that the organization that worked the hardest for having independent commissions draw the maps, Common Cause, is now reconsidering its position. There is a battle going on within the organization about what to do when one party is pushing gerrymandering to the hilt and the other is offering good government. Is that fair? The term "unilateral disarmament" is being bandied about as never before.
So just as Thanos "used the stones to destroy the stones," I am in favor of using gerrymandering in order to destroy gerrymandering.
And another thing...
The video you linked to makes the point that when candidates know they are in safe districts for their party, they don't worry about losing in a general election, but they do worry about losing in a primary to someone even more extreme than they themselves are.
I maintain that that is true mainly of Republicans, because their voters are FOX-devouring extremists. A Democrat in a safely-Democratic district in (say) Central Illinois or suburban Chicago isn't necessarily going to lose a primary to someone more leftist than they are. Our voters just aren't like that.
Pritzker is fine. Newsom even better. Alas. A Californian or Illinoisan will rile MAGAs to supreme effort.
Blues should absolutely high road on gerrymandering. Because it was mostly blue VOTERS who erased the outrage in western blue states.
Absolutely not Newsom. He's not at all trustworthy and his ex-wife is now Don Jr's squeeze. Newsom is a blackmail magnet.
David keeps up his track record of idiotic political advice with his "no reciprocal gerrymandering" demand.
We are in a civil war.
We should not disarm our political options.
DO NOT listen to David's political advice. His record is crap.
Blue voters want a level playing field with no gerrymandering by anyone. Republicans want gerrymandering because with it, they win. Blue voters are not happy with "We won't do it even though you do because your win is not honorable."
Show me a path by which we get to "no gerrymandering by anyone" without showing that we can do it too, and then you can convince me.
I believe that blue voters thought that if we went first in foregoing gerrymandering, all other states would eventually feel compelled to follow. Perhaps it seemed like a good idea at the time. The trouble is that Republicans aren't ashamed of winning dishonorably. In fact, they are proud of "having the courage" to do so.
And they approve of "purely Republican crimes."
The rhetoric coming out of Texas and other red states that are preparing to follow suit is that "We're a red state, so we deserve more representation." Their goal seems to be a winner-take-all system like the electoral college, where the party who wins a state gets all of that state's representatives. Of course, the minute it becomes possible for Democrats to win Texas, the Republican legislature will do away with winner-take-all and go back to representation by acre,
How does allowing Republican representatives from Illinois and Maryland while Democrats from Texas and South Carolina are erased help us take back Congress and begin to restore democracy?
In related news, guillotine futures went up in heavy trading today.
Australia's experience with gerrymandering comes from Queensland, which was a more crude matter of shoving the 'undesirable' voters into fewer electorates. This is what kept the conservative parties in power for so long.
The irony is that the system was inherited from its creators, the (state) Labor Party. So, yes, there is a lesson for the Texan gopshites there.
I wonder if something like the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact could be the right approach for political gerrymandering, where states would pass laws that they can only do political gerrymandering if some x% of states (or congressional districts) are doing it too, presumably with some general guidelines for what sort of independent redistricting it should look like. Then it could be a clear statement of what they are trying to achieve, which is really to get rid of it, without the unilateral disarmanent that is going on now.
I was very happy when CA passed the independent redistricting and it bothers me that we're having to talk about changing it now. But at the time it looked like we were potentially on a path for the courts to clarify that political gerrymandering was not acceptable. Now we've gone so far round the bend in the other direction that I don't know how else to compensate, although it really bugs me how everything political is being dragged down into the gutter.
Actually our experience is more with malaportionment than with gerrymandering proper. Queensland and South Australia had smaller rural electorates than urban electorates. Gerrymandering is squiggly electoral boundaries and packing and cracking. There has not been much of that. The only one that I know of is when Labor unintentionally gerrymandered the boundaries against itself in the Federal elections in the late 1940s. Influential sitting members tried to make their own seats safer at the expense of the rest of the party. The Coalition just left the gerrymandered boundaries in place.
Perhaps they are trying to do what they can convince themselves is an act of fiscal prudence even though it is the opposite.
I would suggest diversifying your portfolio. Bengal fires, hemp ropes, Molotov cocktails, pitchforks, tar & feathers are also excellent investment opportunities.
We have also revised our Valkyrie 1944 briefcase model to include a portable nuclear warhead and a Blackberry specially suited to plan and coordinate your putsch. Free cyanide capsules not included.
You're right about the malaportionment and, yes, it was Qld Labor who started it (and then had cause to regret it for a long time afterward!)
matthew get bent you vapid nothing. I do more in this fight in any day than you have, in.a decade.
As for gerrymandering Blue states in the east still do it bu CA, OR, WA and others have seen voter revolts against it, over-ruling dem politicians... and the DP those states DID NOT LOSE A SINGLE CONGRESSIONAL SEAT.
What did happen is that the DP's reputation soared and also RADICALISM among elected Republicans declined.
Every year, dems in Congress introduce bills to end it nationwide and it's torpedoed by GOPpers and by a few dem pols who rely on gerried districts. And of course by the Roberts court.
But none of that is said in order to sway an insipid little putz. It's for sapient others.
CA, OR, WA and others have seen voter revolts against it, over-ruling dem politicians
You're talking about a steady state or long term paradigm. I'm with you on that. But I don't see how we ever get there nationally unless Republicans are incentivized to do so.
What did happen is that the DP's reputation soared and also RADICALISM among elected Republicans declined.
I see both of those as one-way streets.
As I said to Alfred, safe districts for Republicans means they have to go as radically to the right as possible to avoid a primary loss. Safe districts for Democrats don't force them to go far left to win a primary. Except in specific districts, doing so would harm their chances, not help them.
And Democrats' reputations soar when they play fair. Republicans' reputations soar when they win by any means necessary.
Every year, dems in Congress introduce bills to end it nationwide and it's torpedoed by GOPpers and by a few dem pols who rely on gerried districts. And of course by the Roberts court.
And I completely support eliminating gerrymandering nationwide. Those few dem pols are doing what you argue against--gerrymandering for the sake of their own self-interest--and I'm as against that as you are. The Republicans and the Roberts court need to be shown that they could lose before they'll change anything.
https://www.threads.com/@stonekettle
HOUSTON: “The owner of Trump Burger arrested by ICE and now faces deportation.”
Who to root for? :)
David has a record of being spectacularly wrong on politics, tech-bro billionaires, and the US surveillance state. Go back and look at the stuff he said five, ten, twenty years ago.
He is so wrong that it is either the work of the most useful idiot in the room, or it is enemy action. His actions and words regarding his tech "friends" and the intelligence agencies / DoJ that he loves to tout lead me to believe that he is *not* acting honestly anymore, if he ever was.
David says he does more to help the fight every day than the "little people" like me do in a decade.
OK, David, what did you do yesterday that was so damn great? Put up or shut up.
If I had to bet what you did yesterday, I'd lay money that you were kissing ass on the techbois that are pushing AI fraud and the spies that are collecting a dossier of undesirable liberals to round up. Maybe with some time to try and apologize to your "former friend" that does the Nazi salutes for doubting his genius.
You are an ass-kissing crony and sycophant to the most evil men in the world. You certainly are no fucking savior.
There is not such a thing like a moderate fascist. Only because California goppers can eat with a spoon and a knife without hurting someone and only are moderately publicly racist and corrupt does not make them less deserving of the gallows.
I have it that Steve Miller and the techbroligarchs are mostly Californians?
That said, even Hitler had non-politicals who served him faithfully, , like the officer corps, Speer and even Eichmann.
"Magnifico is this weedy clown out there on the stone walk, fartin' out tunes that hurt my eyes."
- Randu Mallow, FOUNDATION S3E5 (said to Bayta in a Southern drawl)
Pure ambrosia. And the production costs must be off the charts.
zzzzzzzz what a dismal creepy gnat. Not read
Popcultural questions:
1) How popular were series like "Dynasty" and "Dallas" at their height?
2) Did they have a cultural impact on the current state of affairs?
Injuries
Der Oger I sort of address that in my next posting
onward
onward
Yes. Civil war. So... don't arm your opponents by acting on stupid plans.
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