;)
The Commentariat -- October 5, 2017
President* Urges Senate to Intimidate Free Press. Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump urged Congress Thursday morning to launch an investigation of the news media, wondering online 'why so much of our news is just made up.' 'Why Isn't the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks in OUR country to see why so much of our news is just made up-FAKE!' the president wrote on Twitter Thursday morning. He did not single out a specific story or media outlet that he believed to be guilty of inaccurate reporting."
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump comforted the victims of Sunday's deadly mass shooting and paid tribute to those who tended to them, taking up on Wednesday a harrowing duty of the modern presidency that has nevertheless become numbing in its regularity.... Mr. Trump has been uncharacteristically subdued about the Las Vegas shooting, one of the deadliest in American history.... Mr. Trump stuck to a presidential script in speaking about Las Vegas." ...
... Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Stunned by the mass carnage caused at a country music festival by one heavily armed gunman and embittered after years of fruitless attempts at gun control, congressional Democrats on Wednesday unveiled new narrowly tailored proposals to ban devices used in the shooting and revived old ideas to close loopholes and restrict some gun purchases. The fresh push comes at a fractured moment in American politics, but Democrats believe that the sheer scope of the carnage might make a difference. Some senior Republicans dismissed talk of new gun legislation as insensitive or premature, but ardent Second Amendment supporters said they are at least open to discussing new laws -- and one senator said he supports banning certain accessories used in the shooting. Even President Trump might be open to a debate. While he campaigned as a fierce defender of gun rights, this week he said, 'We will be talking about gun laws as time goes by.'" ...
... Sheryl Stolberg & Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "Top congressional Republicans, who have for decades resisted any legislative limits on guns, signaled on Wednesday that they would be open to banning the firearm accessory that the Las Vegas gunman used to transform his rifles to mimic automatic weapon fire. For a generation, Republicans in Congress -- often joined by conservative Democrats -- have bottled up gun legislation, even as the carnage of mass shootings grew ever more gruesome and the weaponry ever more deadly. A decade ago, they blocked efforts to limit the size of magazines after the massacre at Virginia Tech. Five years later, Republican leaders thwarted bipartisan legislation to expand background checks of gun purchasers after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Last year, in the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre, they blocked legislation to stop gun sales to buyers on terrorism watch lists. But in this week's massacre in Las Vegas, lawmakers in both parties may have found the part of the weapons trade that few could countenance: previously obscure gun conversion kits, called 'bump stocks,' that turn semiautomatic weapons into weapons capable of firing in long, deadly bursts." ...
... Mark Berman & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The girlfriend of Stephen Paddock, the gunman who opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas earlier this week, said Wednesday she had no warning about his plans to carry out the massacre and pledged to cooperate with authorities struggling to determine what sparked the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.... [Marilou] Danley said Wednesday she had traveled to the Philippines because Paddock bought her a ticket to visit family there. Paddock then wired her money, she said, saying it was meant to help purchase a home for Danley and her family. 'I was grateful, but honestly, I was worried, that first, the unexpected trip home, and then the money, was a way of breaking up with me,' she said her statement, which was read aloud by her attorney. 'It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone.'" ...
... Justin Glawe of the Daily Beast: Mandalay Bay security guard "Jesus Campos had no firearm when he found Stephen Paddock and approached his room on the 32rd floor of Mandalay Bay on Sunday night. Paddock, who had rigged cameras in the hallway and on the peephole of the door, saw Campos coming and fired through the door, hitting him in the leg, said Dave Hickey, president of the International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America.... When Campos was hit, he radioed casino dispatch and told them his location -- and Paddock's. 'We received information via their dispatch center .. that helped us locate where this individual was sequestered,' Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters Tuesday. ...
... Elizabeth Preza of the Raw Story: "The man who carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history shot two massive aviation fuel tanks near the location of the Route 91 Harvest festival, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The bullets 'did not penetrate' the tanks, the report notes, meaning festival attendees were spared 'from a potentially massive explosion.'" ...
... Michael Moore has a proposal to repeal & replace -- the Second Amendment. ...
... AND Whodathunkit? Neo-confederate Bret Stephens of the New York Times also proposes to repeal the Second Amendment. Very neo, one supposes. That's what you get from an "East Coast elite." Well, good. ...
... Steve M.: "I think wary liberals like me resist boldness on guns not just because we fear electoral failure, but because we expect blood in the streets -- literally. I think there'd be civil war if serious restrictions on guns were imminent (and certainly if there was a serious possibility that the 2nd Amendment could be repealed)." ...
Ed O'Keefe: "The White House on Wednesday asked Congress for nearly $30 billion in new funding to pay for a wave of natural disasters, including hurricanes in Texas, Florida and island territories and wildfires scorching western states. The funding request includes $12.77 billion for the federal disaster relief fund; nearly $577 million to address wildfires; and a request to raise the federal flood insurance program's borrowing limit by another $16 billion and dramatically overhaul the program." ...
... When the Moron Speaks, Wall Street Freaks. Ben White & Colin Wilhelm of Politico: "On Tuesday night..., Donald Trump casually told Geraldo Rivera on Fox News that the United States would have to wipe out $75 billion in debt owed by Puerto Rico to bondholders around the world. Wall Street promptly freaked out, sending Puerto Rican bonds into a tailspin and leading the White House to move swiftly to clean up Trump's seemingly offhand remarks. On Wednesday, the Trump administration indicated it has no current plans to take the unprecedented, politically dangerous and probably illegal step of wiping out the owners of Puerto Rico's bonds in the wake of Hurricane Maria's devastation. Trump's own budget chief quickly walked the president's comments back. 'I wouldn't take it word for word with that,' OMB Director Mick Mulvaney said on CNN. 'We are not going to deal right now with those fundamental difficulties that Puerto Rico had before the storm.'... Trump's comments aside, there is already a process in place for dealing with Puerto Rico's crushing debt burden. Congress passed a law last year to grant the commonwealth what essentially amounts to a super-bankruptcy, in an effort to allow Puerto Rico to begin its recovery from that debt...." ...
... Arelis R. Hernández & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "The Puerto Rico that President Trump saw during his four-hour visit on Tuesday afternoon was that of Angel Pérez Otero, the mayor of Guaynabo, a wealthy San Juan suburb known for its amenity-driven gated communities that was largely spared when Hurricane Maria hit nearly two weeks ago. Pérez Otero led Trump and his entourage on a walking tour of a neighborhood, where high-speed winds had blown out some second-story windows and knocked over a few trees -- but where life seemed to be returning to normal, thanks to assistance from the government. Neighbors stood outside their homes ready to warmly greet the president, their phones powered up and ready to snap photos.... After the neighborhood tour in Guaynabo, Trump traveled to the nearby Calvary Chapel, an evangelical church that's especially popular with conservatives and mainland Americans who have moved to Puerto Rico. The church, which has a number of locations across the United States, has received large shipments of donated food, water and survival gear to distribute.... If the president had traveled a little deeper into the island, to the communities that sustained some of the heaviest damage, he would have witnessed a very different Puerto Rico. Ten miles southeast of Guaynabo is the city of Caguas..., with homes built densely on the edges of gravity-defying slopes. These hills were stripped naked by Maria's malicious winds, leaving the trees without leaves and fruit.... Houses that withstood tropical rain and wind for decades were blown off their foundations and destroyed by toppled vegetation. Twisted metal roofs landed in creeks all over the once-lush region.... It took more than a week for a trickle of supplies to reach the town. For days, the shelters had no generators. The hospitals were without water. With the roads covered in mud and debris, help was not coming...."
Dana Milbank: "Excerpted from 'The Me-Driven Life: A Narcissist's Guide to Helping Others Understand It Is All About You,' by John Barron. Reprinted without permission. Chapter 12, 'Coping with Natural and Man-Made Disasters,' pp 269-277"
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: "John Barron" was a fictional publicist for Donald Trump who had a voice & speech tics that, for some odd reason, sounded exactly like Donald Trump. Ben Jacobs of the Guardian, May 26, 2016: "Less than two weeks after denying that he ever pretended to be a publicist named John Miller or John Barron in promoting his business affairs with reporters, Trump admitted on Wednesday that 'over the years I have used aliases'. He added 'I used the name Barron' and explained that was the inspiration for the name of his youngest son, Barron Trump." Poor Barron: he's named for a fake Trump supporter. Anyway, Milbank's Barron's Chapter 12 is pretty funny. Hope Trump doesn't sue Milbank for copyright infringement.
Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Trump administration will repeal the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's effort to fight climate change, and will ask the public to recommend ways it could be replaced, according to an internal Environmental Protection Agency document. The draft proposal represents the administration's first substantive step toward rolling back the plan, which was designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector, after months of presidential tweets and condemnations of Mr. Obama's efforts to reduce climate-warming pollution. But it also lays the groundwork for new, presumably weaker, regulations by asking for the public and industry to offer ideas for a replacement."
Tillerson Tries to Appease Moronic Boss with Surprise News Conference. Louis Nelson of Politico: "Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that he has never considered resigning his position, disputing an NBC News report that he was on the verge of such a move over the summer. 'The vice president has never had to persuade me to remain as secretary of state because I have never considered leaving this post,' Tillerson said in remarks delivered from the State Department. Tillerson did not directly address whether he had called Trump a 'moron,' as NBC reported. 'We don't deal with that kind of petty nonsense,' he said when asked about the report." Mrs. McC: CNN said its reporters had confirmed the "moron" remark, which we all know is accurate. And, no, it isn't "petty nonsense" when the Secretary of State expresses his belief that the POTUS* is a moron. It's cause for international concern. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... BUT Did He Grovel Enough? Krishnadev Calamur of the Atlantic: "Rex Tillerson's forceful defense of President Trump, after an NBC News report said the secretary of state had called the commander-in-chief a 'moron' and seriously considered quitting his job, offered few clues about his eventual fate. From Sean Spicer to Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus, it's not uncommon for Trump's aides to defend the president -- right before being shown the door. Tillerson, the top U.S. diplomat, may be in a category by himself -- but as he reminded everyone on Wednesday: He serves at the pleasure of the president." ...
... Maybe this will work: Eric Levitz finds an op-ed by Rex Tillerson titled "Donald Trump Is a World-Historic Genius." Droll. Thanks to MAG for the link. ...
... Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "The moment was as remarkable as it was unprecedented: A sitting U.S. secretary of state took to the microphone to pledge his fealty to the president -- despite his well-documented unhappiness in the job and the growing presumption in Washington that he is a short-timer.... But Tillerson's move on Wednesday to reassure Trump of his convictions may well be too little and too late for the long term, according to the accounts of 19 current and former senior administration officials and Capitol Hill aides.... Tillerson's public remarks Wednesday came after months of disagreements between Tillerson and the White House over staffing and administrative matters at the State Department and a disconnection over what Trump saw as Tillerson's conventional approach to policy matters.... 'Tillerson has no help. No team, no natural allies, and he's not hiring anyone,' one former senior official said. 'There's a kind of death spiral.'" ...
... Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "Moments before Tillerson's press conference, Trump took to Twitter to address the NBC report: 'NBC news is #FakeNews and more dishonest than even CNN. They are a disgrace to good reporting. No wonder their news ratings are way down!'" ...
... Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: As ... Rex Tillerson took to the microphones Wednesday morning to address reports that he had called ... Donald Trump, a 'fucking moron,' aides in the White House held out hope that he would offer his resignation. Tillerson ... insisted that he wasn't going anywhere either, much to the chagrin of three White House officials who vented to The Daily Beast in real time about how they wished he would 'just leave,' as one put it. 'In a perfect world' he would have quit right then and there, another said. The wish of certain White House officials to be rid of Tillerson ... is a sentiment shared among many in senior staff.... Tillerson struggled in his tenure at Foggy Bottom, doesn't have many fans in Trump's inner circle, and has been widely viewed with skepticism among Trump loyalists." ...
... Uri Friedman of the Atlantic: "In response to an NBC News report on Wednesday that he had called the president of the United States a 'moron' and considered resigning over numerous personal and policy disagreements with Donald Trump, Rex Tillerson projected a united front.... He blamed unspecified actors in Washington, presumably including NBC News's sources, for seeking to 'sow dissension' within the Trump administration to 'advance their own agenda.' What Tillerson didn't say was that among the most prominent of these actors in Washington is his own boss.... The president has helped enshrine dissension as a defining feature of his administration, recognized by allies and enemies alike." ...
... The Three Musketeers -- All for One & One for All. John Hudson of BuzzFeed: "One US official expressed confidence in Tillerson's status due to a so-called 'suicide pact' forged between Defense Secretary James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Tillerson, whereby all three cabinet secretaries vow to leave in the event that the president makes moves against one of them. Other Trump insiders point to the potentially hefty tax bill Tillerson would have to pay if he resigns before serving a year in government." ...
... Tara Golshan of Vox: "Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), who hasn't been afraid to speak his mind about Trump or his administration lately, told reporters Wednesday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly are 'those people that help separate our country from chaos,' whereas others in the administration act without considering national security. Corker, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who last month announced he would not run for reelection in 2018, was responding to a question about Tillerson's rumored desire to resign from the administration.... He went on to say those three top Trump officials are key to the 'national security of our nation.'" ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Suggesting that there would be 'chaos' if not for the generals and Tillerson is to suggest that not only is Trump not a steady leader, but that things are basically ready to unravel behind the scenes. This reinforces a whole lot of reporting and what a whole lot of people already believe about the administration, but it's striking to hear it directly from a GOP senator who, according to his Tennessee colleague, has talked to Trump more than any other senator.... Given ... Corker's past commentary on Trump and what Corker said Wednesday, it's pretty clear whom he was talking about when he referenced 'chaos.'"
Zack Ford of ThinkProgress: "The U.S. State Department responded Tuesday to questions as to why it opposed a United Nations resolution that condemns the discriminatory use of the death penalty, such as in cases of adultery and same-sex relations. Spokesperson Heather Nauert said the U.S. had 'broader concerns' about the resolutions language regarding the death penalty...UN Ambassador Nikki Haley further insisted on Twitter that when the U.S. voted against a resolution condemning the death penalty for homosexuality, it was not voting for the death penalty for gay people." --safari
Alice Speri of The Intercept: "As hundreds of undocumented immigrants were rounded up across the country last February in the first mass raids of the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials went out of their way to portray the people they detained as hardened criminals, instructing field offices to highlight the worst cases for the media...On February 10, as the raids kicked off, an ICE executive in Washington sent an 'URGENT; directive to the agency's chiefs of staff around the country. "Please put together a white paper covering the three most egregious cases,' for each location, the acting chief of staff of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations wrote in the email. 'If a location has only one egregious case -- then include an extra egregious case from another city.'" --safari
Swamp Creatures. Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency's chemical and pesticides office [Michael Dourson] refused Wednesday to pledge that he would recuse himself from decisions connected to the companies for whom he worked during his long career as a toxicologist for the chemical industry." --safari...
... AP: "Rebuffing the Trump administration, a federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Interior Department to reinstate an Obama-era regulation aimed at restricting harmful methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands. The order by a judge in San Francisco came as the Interior Department moved to delay the rule until 2019, saying it was too burdensome to industry." --safari ...
... Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "Secretary of Energy Rick Perry authorized up to $3.7 billion in taxpayer-backed loan guarantees to finish building the last remaining new nuclear plant under construction in this country. This loan, to the Southern Company's Vogtle plant in Georgia, is on top of $8.3 billion in previous federal loan guarantees for the troubled $25-billion nuclear plant. That means if -- or, rather, when -- the project goes belly up, U.S. taxpayers will have to bail out Southern Company and its partners with a record-breaking $12 billion...That is more than 20 times what the $528 million loan to solar tech company Solyndra cost taxpayers after the company collapsed. Of course, Solyndra failed because other U.S. investments in solar panels helped make them so cheap that Solyndra couldn't compete." --safari
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. How'd They Do That? Erik Wemple of the Washington Post on how Politico's Rachana Pradhan & Dan Diamond nailed high-flying Tom Price. It required stakeouts & some skulking behind bushes.
Gail Collins: "This week the House of Representatives voted 237 to 189 to make it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion on a woman who has been pregnant more than 20 weeks. Meet Tim Murphy, a Republican congressman from the Pittsburgh suburbs who has a doctorate in psychology.... Murphy is a co-sponsor of the anti-abortion bill. At about the same time it was passing, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a note his mistress had texted in January, complaining about the way he kept putting pro-life messages on his Facebook page 'when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week....' Whoops. This is not actually a unique story. There's a history of lawmakers who are eager to restrict abortions in every case not involving their own personal sex life." ...
... John Delano of CBS Pittsburgh: "Congressman Tim Murphy, of Upper St. Clair says he won't seek re-election."
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee delivered a stark warning on Wednesday to political candidates: Expect Russian operatives to remain active and determined to again try to sow chaos in elections next month and next year. At a rare news conference, Senators Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina and the committee's chairman, and Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and its vice chairman, broadly endorsed the conclusions of American spy agencies that said President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia directed a campaign of hacking and propaganda to disrupt the 2016 presidential election. 'The Russian intelligence service is determined -- clever -- and I recommend that every campaign and every election official take this very seriously,' Mr. Burr said."
AND Today's Best Headline comes from Joe.My.God: "Man Whose Life Was Saved By Married Lesbian Cop To Speak At National Convention Of Anti-LGBT Haters." The "man," of course, is Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who is scheduled to speak at some Tony Perkins gay-bashing extravaganza. The cop is Crystal Griner. She was injured in the shoot-out.
News Lede
Guardian: "The novelist Kazuo Ishiguro has won the 2017 Nobel prize in literature. The Swedish Academy hailed Ishiguro for his 'novels of great emotional force' in which he has 'uncovered the abyss beneath the illusory sense of connection with the world'." At 7:15 am ET this is a breaking news story. Mrs. McC: I'm pretty thrilled about this.
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Reader Comments (16)
Just read the witty excerpt from "John Barron's" best seller courtesy of Dana Milbank.
For a similar reading amusement try: "Donald Trump Is a World-Historic Genius: An Op-ed by Rex Tillerson"
By Eric Levitz over on New York Magazine.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/10/trump-is-a-world-historic-genius-an-op-ed-by-rex-tillerson.html
If the word "moron" shows up in too many articles and, heaven forbid, gets picked up by Saturday Night Live, Tillerson is toast!
Trump can believe his loyalist Tillerson never said it, which he seems to have convinced himself of, but once it sticks as a useful moniker to explain our presidunce*, Drumpf will lose it. The origin of this nasty swipe will still go back to ol' Rex, who will have to get the boot for his original sin. I doubt he could fire Rex personally though, he'll probably hide behind his Tweets from a safe distance and make him "self-deport" from the administration through a thousand-cuts approach of bravado and infantile ridicule...you know, presidential style.
We must admire DiJiT's restraint in LV. I expeced him to lob pressure bandages, tourniquets and morphine syrettes to the crowd. To his great credit, he refrained. Whattaguy!
safari, the word 'moron' will become a major part of politics. Editorial in today's NJ Star Ledger:
"U.S. chief diplomat tells it like it is: Trump's a 'moron' with foreign policy".
In the movie "The Princess Bride", the character Miracle Max, played hysterically by Billy Crystal, has made his wife (the equally hysterical Carol Kane) promise never to say the name Humperdinck, reminding him of the evil prince who fired him from his job as royal magician. Still, when Max demurs from helping the heroes, she chases him around the house shouting "Humperdinck, Humperdinck, Humperdinck!" clearly enjoying it.
I thought of this yesterday listening to Robert Siegel on NPR reporting on the Tillerson story. As much as we are all in agreement that calling Trump a moron is letting him off lightly, and is an insult to all real morons (most of his cabinet), it was still rather startling to hear the president of the United States referred to on a major news outlet as a "moron". Siegel, channeling his inner Carol Kane, seemed to delight in actually being able to say this on a national broadcast. He must have repeated it four or five times.
It reminded me of an incident with a young nephew who, upon being told that he shouldn't say the word "damn", found a way, during his promise never to say "damn" again, to say it half a dozen times. "I'm glad you told me that damn was a bad word and I promise never to say damn again so people won't be mad if I say damn..."
Oh what the hell, moron, moron, moron!
That felt good.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X90qKQAMh8A
@AK: when I was wee my mother washed my mouth out with soap for saying "shit." It has become my favorite word for all time––I drop a plate, it breaks, "shit" come tumbling out. "Lovely" my mother would say sarcastically when I delighted in saying it in front of her as an adult. In some ways we never really grow up or perhaps we never tire of sticking it to whomever. I read somewhere that swearing is healthy–-releases a lot of angst–-I'll buy that any day.
STATES OF DENIAL:
Here is a long piece by Matthew Shaer whose interviews are excellent. . He ventures into southern territories and finds that the counties that will pay the highest price for climate change are also the deepest red politically. and those who support Trump are the very Americans who will be hurt the most by his climate change denial.
https://newrepublic.com/article/144966/states-denial-crop-failures-killer-storms-southern-supporters-paying-price
This climate controversy along with the gun regulations are two of the most divisive dividing factors in this country and I'm afraid it will remain so until it will be too late to prevent what is sure to come down the pike in terms of disasters–-whether by weather or shootings.
Interesting that the Tony Perkins hate Convention of Anti-LGBT
haters is scheduled for Friday the 13th. I'm not personally
superstitious concerning that date, but what the hey, I wish them
the absolute worst of luck.
PD,
In this Age of Trump, a horrid time filled with horrid, unctuous twits, running their mouths, unmolested by neither decency nor discernment, one is reminded of both the power of words and the distress at their misuse. The little king's habit of hurling puerile insults in a sad, fearful attempt to keep from dealing with actual issues and ideas is a hallmark of the age, a distillation of the sort of insulting rhetoric practiced by most right-wing talking heads who would otherwise describe each other as "nice people".
Which reminds me, speaking of "bad language", a thing "nice people" deem useful only by the lower classes (and liberals), of several books on the topic. As a teenager, in the throes of exercising a newly discovered facility with such socially frowned up discourse, I came across Ashley Montagu's "Anatomy of Swearing". Contrary to its potentially prurient title, it's a largely academic, historical, philological romp through the Elysian Fields of profanity. An excellent read which takes the mickey out of those "nice people" who look down on users of the sort of language mothers, historically, have attempted to soap out.
I was most encouraged to discover that some of the greatest talents in the literary, artistic, and political worlds have also been accomplished and original masters in the art of swearing.
Another adventurous soul in the world of swearing and insults (as opposed to the Trumpian sort--vulgar, unimaginative, and, frankly embarrassingly stupid--is Robert Graves (he of "I, Claudius" fame) who, in "Lars Porsena: On the Future of Swearing" repeats Samuel Butler's description of "nice people" as people with dirty minds. Rather like this scurvy fellow, Tim Murphy, who priggishly nods his head and wags his finger publicly about abortion but, in private, at the drop of a pregnancy test strip, orders his mistress to get an abortion. This, of course, is bad behavior (according to the Nice People) on steroids. Not only is he an adulterer, but he then foments abortion as a solution to all his problems.
Finally, I would point to "On Being Blue" by that exacting magician of words and finely gauged sentences, William Gass. Reading a Gass sentence is like stepping into space. It's a heady experience and you're not sure where your foot might land next but you don't really care because it's all so much fun. Regarding bad language Gass suggests that the first problem with dirty words is that there aren't enough of them. The second is that too many people using them are prudes and numskulls (and, like Trump, unimaginative in the extreme), and therefore, unsuited to their usefulness.
Then again, there are some, like the Captain of the Pinafore, who avers that despite the dangers of life at sea, he never says the "Big, big D", to which his sailors ask, incredulously, "What, never?", prompting the captain to re-frame his original declaration by admitting "Well, hardly ever." An honest man. And not unimaginative, I might add.
But bad words, like bad notes, have their use. B.B. King once said there's no such thing as a bad note (having played a few notes from hell in my time, I might have to disagree), it's all about what you do with them.
Here is where I need to put in a word about authenticity of expression and the sensibility that calls up so-called bad language. Letting loose with an "oh, shit" after breaking a plate, is about as authentic an expression of the moment as one can imagine. "Silly pudding!" just doesn't do it. "Crap" is okay, but tepid and timid. Now if the plate was good bone china, an "Oh! Fuck me!" might be properly called for. But perhaps not in front of Grandma. Or small children.
Nonetheless, as a fairly regular employer of bad language, I try, at the least, to mix it up (à la S.J. Pereleman) with a more respectable, not to say recondite vocabulary. The combination of earthy and refined has always appealed to my sense of democratic discourse.
As for Trump, his use of language is anything but authentic. In fact, his sense of language is bent and bogus. He uses it as a bludgeon or a jimmy, to get him places he has no business being.
The little king's philo-illogical (sorry) use of language deserves its own complete comment. Let us just say that it is, to swipe a phrase from an old Irish cousin of my dad's, the height of fucking roguery.
So, wingers, smoke on your pipe and put that in.
The rest of us, have at it.
Forrest,
The combination of Friday the 13th and the name Tony Perkins makes me wonder whether perhaps some Confederate cross dresser will show up dressed like Crazy Mom, assaulting conference goers in their shower stalls.
Trump and the Lower Classes
This being Friday, the end of another long week of being pissed on from on high by the little king and his abettors, a week in which he visited hurricane tossed Puerto Rico only to insult her citizens, American citizens, mind you, and hand out goodies to the rich, a week in which hundreds were shot in a mad rampage, a rampage that is sure to be repeated because the powerful and rich do not deign to suffer a small loss in riches so that the lower classes can live, I thought I would offer something different.
With that in mind, and sure of further proof of the enormous disparity between them that gots and them that doesn't, I offer this song, written by a leader of the Chartist Movement in England in the mid 1840s, Ernest Charles Jones. Jones was imprisoned for several years for daring to speak out about the rights of workers and the underclass. We've spoken of the Chartist Movement out here on RC before. The sentiment has never gone away no matter how many Trumps come down from their thrones to spit on and kick the poor while demanding more and more from them.
I first heard this piece, the Song of the Lower Classes, on a recording by British folk junkie and music historian, Martin Carthy. Here is the song, and here the words. The song outlines the lives of the poor people, like those who pick our crops and those in Puerto Rico who clean the mansions of the rich, those too low for Trump to bother with, those "far too low to vote the tax, not too low to pay."
We plough and sow we are so low
That we delve in the dirty clay
Till we bless the plain with golden grain
And the vale with the fragrant hay
Our place we know we are so low
Down at the landlord's feet
We're not too low the bread to grow
Too low the bread to eat
Down down we go we are so low
To the hell of the deep sunk mine
But we gather the proudest gems that glow
When the crown of the despot shines
Whenever he lacks upon our backs
Fresh loads he deigns to lay
We're far too low to vote the tax
Not too low to pay
Watch this and try not to have steam coming out of your ears thinking of the little king and his minions in congress who harumph about the poor and wag their fingers at them and set up barriers to a decent life, while lecturing them on morality and the success that "hard working" people like themselves have "earned".
Oops....it's not Friday. I'm ahead of myself. These weeks of Trump seem so long.
Anyway, if you have a chance to listen to the song posted above, then read that Confederates in congress are "open" to doing something about bump stocks, the little item used in the Las Vegas massacre that turned semi-automatic weapons into functional automatic weapons, allowing for a far more murderous spray of ammunition into the bodies of concert goers.
They're not saying they'll ban these things, mind you. They're saying they're "open" to talking about it. Mighty goddamned white of them.
The fucking nerve of these scumbags. Sitting on their thrones in Washington, making decisions, only if they're allowed to by the wealthy gun lobby, between saving lives and handing more money to the merchants of death.
The "crown of the despot shines". It does, verily.
Dear Mrs. Bea McC:
Just read the Guardian story about the Nobel prize in literature for 2017 going to Kazuo Ishiguro.
Loved Salman Rushdie’s response: “Many congratulations to my old friend Ish, whose work I’ve loved and admired ever since I first read A Pale View of Hills,” Rushdie said. “And he plays the guitar and writes songs too! Roll over Bob Dylan*.” (Italics added).
*(last year’s controversial selection of the singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.)
Dear Ak: The Song of the Lower Classes speaks volumes.
Someone over on WaPo came up with a new definition of MAGA. 'Twas something like Morons Are God Awful
...or maybe it was Moron And Grifters Annoy.
Wonder what else could we come up with if we started a competition.
@MAG; You're turning Akhilleus on with a word competition.
Tune in tomorrow.
MAG,
Okay, I'll bite.
Don't have time for much today, but may have more tomorrow.
Macabre Amoral Grifters Abound.
Malignant Anuses Gut America
Malingering Asshats Garotte Accountability
Mendacity Assists Gnat-like Abominations
More Anaphylaxic Grumblings Anon.
@AK: thank you for all your comments, history lessons, and that video which just increased the normal amount of steam that is always coming forth in me––but the picture of the woman lying flat against the earth next to a loved one's gravestone did it for me. It signified the waste and the grief–––how we continually use people and how those same people are the ones who make things hum–-makes things work –-how we take them for granted–-how they are defined by their lower status as though they matter less. As the Irish say–-"and that's the way of it"–-and it will be ever thus. And that's what's damnable!
Hmmm ..... I would never want to offend a moron by calling him a moron, and I wouldn't use the word moron to describe the president of the United States. Even if he were a moron. That might upset morons. If he were a moron, would he know he was a moron? Would morons identify with him as a fellow moron? Would people who aren't morons already know he was a moron anyway so you don't need to call a moron a moron. No, I wouldn't call the president of the United States a moron. Perhaps a fucking moron.