lucius septimius 8/12/2020 5:37:29 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 8/12/2020 6:16:54 AM

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This five-minute clip from Morning Sedition, in which the Rhode Island Secretary of State discusses the "security" of Rhode Island's mail-in ballot plan, is chilling.

My favorite part?  A toss-up between the casual and unsupported re-assertions that "vote fraud has never been proven," and the statement that "the people's constitutional right to vote must be preserved at all costs," when the people's constitutional rights to peaceably assemble, to attend a house of worship, or even to go to work are being casually trampled on left and right.

buzzsawmonkey 8/12/2020 6:17:52 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 1:

Do you know anything about this Marjorie Greene, Republican primary winner in Georgia, who NPR is slagging as a "QAnon conspiracy monger?"

lucius septimius 8/12/2020 7:25:54 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 3:

I don't know much, but I don't imagine campaigning against the Deep State will hurt her in her district.  She's not part of the state Republican establishment, which is a good thing since they are the Palooka Party par excellence.  

It's noteworthy that she's hammered for a couple of statements about QAnon.  How about asking Democrats where they stand on Antifa and BLM, both of which are widely perceived as terrorist organizations.  But you wouldn't see a CNN, NYSlimes, WaPo or other outfit heading a story about a Democratic candidate with "Notorious Antifa Apologist wins Primary."

JCM 8/12/2020 7:35:37 AM

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In #2 buzzsawmonkey said: "vote fraud has never been proven,"

Isn't a core tenant of left that Russians hacked the election and thus DJT is illegitimate?

Occasional Reader 8/12/2020 7:53:17 AM

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In #5 JCM said: Isn't a core tenant of left that Russians hacked the election and thus DJT is illegitimate?

Clearly you are not sufficiently skilled in doublethink, comrade.

Occasional Reader 8/12/2020 7:54:54 AM

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In #1 lucius septimius said: WSJ declared Kamala to be the black Geraldine Ferraro.

Perhaps you already saw this, I think it was the Atlantic from about three or four days ago that ran a story declaring that if Biden picked a woman, it would be the first Democratic ticket since Mondale and Ferraro to feature both a man and a woman. You can imagine Hillary‘s reaction when she read that.

JCM 8/12/2020 7:59:31 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 7:

Poor Hill on the trash heap of history already.....

JCM 8/12/2020 8:02:33 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 6:

I'll just head to room 101 for re-programming.....

Occasional Reader 8/12/2020 8:02:34 AM

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Reply to JCM in 8:

i’m guessing an empty Chardonnay bottle  was thrown. Maybe two.

lucius septimius 8/12/2020 8:08:32 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 7:

It was Maureen Dowd in the NYT.  Remarkable lapse.

lucius septimius 8/12/2020 8:12:45 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 8/12/2020 8:31:47 AM

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Oh, by the way---Kosh, in particular, will like this.  There was a throwaway comment on Morning Sedition today to the effect that HP Lovecraft, "while an important figure in the fantasy and science fiction genres," had---gasp!---"problematic racial attitudes."  

They only just got around to figuring this out?  Lovecraft was a racist and white-supremacist par excellence---a real one.  For that matter, so was Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian (read his short story "In the Valley of the Worm"), who was inspired by, and corresponded with, Lovecraft.  Howard might be saved from being shoved on the Cancel Culture Train with Lovecraft because his works are better known/have passed through more hands, and because he was a probably-homosexual mama's boy who killed himself when his Mom died.

Occasional Reader 8/12/2020 8:35:14 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 13:

if I recall correctly, Lovecraft was also quite brazenly anti-Semitic, but nevertheless went on to marry a Jewish woman?

buzzsawmonkey 8/12/2020 8:41:16 AM

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In #14 Occasional Reader said: if I recall correctly, Lovecraft was also quite brazenly anti-Semitic, but nevertheless went on to marry a Jewish woman?

Brazenly antisemitic, yes---at least, my recollection from reading him years ago was that there were some...disturbing passages in some of his stories.   I didn't know about his marriage.

While we're listing brazen bigots who were giants of the fantasy genre, let us not forget Sax Rohmer, author of the Fu Manchu stories, "Tales of Limehouse," and "Grey Face."  I wish I still had those books; he's not only all-in on the Yellow Peril, he doesn't care for blacks or Jews either, and was not particularly fond of Germans either.

buzzsawmonkey 8/12/2020 8:50:36 AM

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Many years ago, when I had a larger collection of the books of Rohmer, E. Phillips Oppenheim, and others, and "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" was a new phenomenon, I considered writing a piece on the antisemitic and generally-racist origins of adventure and fantasy fiction. 

He-Man disturbed me not only because his "transformation" into He-Man appeared to be a symbolic invocation of becoming born-again, when he uttered, "By the Power of Grey Skull!", but because He-Man sported an Iron Cross on his chest, and Beast-Man, one of He-Man's enemies and one of Skeletor's henchmen, looked like a medieval antisemitic caricature---hunchbacked, hook-nosed, and red-bearded.  A friend of mine, now dead, claimed that Skeletor embodied certain elements of the Wandering Jew legend, in that he was the always-present, never-defeated malevolent outsider.

I do still have a copy of Oppenheim's "The Treasure House of Martin Hews," which is a lulu of a story that involves a struggle between a malevolent dwarf art collector and his nemesis, an East End gang of Jewish art thieves.

buzzsawmonkey 8/12/2020 9:16:44 AM

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lucius septimius 8/12/2020 9:41:03 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 17:

I've been trying to finish up research on hyperinflation in the 1620s.  I now have the full range of values and can start crunching some numbers.

buzzsawmonkey 8/12/2020 9:54:13 AM

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In #18 lucius septimius said: research on hyperinflation in the 1620s

If you throw 1619 in there, you can make big money...

lucius septimius 8/12/2020 10:02:39 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 19:

That, oddly enough, is the base year for the series.

buzzsawmonkey 8/12/2020 11:26:43 AM

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By the way...heard something on NPR this morning about a ballet company in Nigeria or Burkina Faso or somewhere, teaching young African children ballet.

Isn't this the dreaded "cultural appropriation?"  Can we doubt that if there were a dance company in Akron teaching white kids traditional African tribal dances that the media---not to mention BLM and its affiliates---would be beside themselves with rage at this "cultural appropriation?"

JCM 8/12/2020 1:17:06 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 21:

No that's Imperialism!

Us forcing our culture on them!

Occasional Reader 8/12/2020 1:17:24 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 21:

classical ballet was actually invented by ancient African, and then stolen by white people. Obviously.

Occasional Reader 8/12/2020 1:17:45 PM

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In #23 Occasional Reader said: by ancient African

...s

lucius septimius 8/12/2020 1:36:13 PM

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In #23 Occasional Reader said: classical ballet was actually invented by ancient African, and then stolen by white people.

It came in handy when they were flying around the pyramids.

doppelganglander 8/12/2020 2:25:44 PM

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I subjected myself to Biden's announcement of his token VP pick. Surprisingly, he got through it without going on a rant about leg hair or something. He actually sounded like a competent adult reading a script. He hit all the usual talking points, lied about Trump's comments on Charlottesville (today is the anniversary), and had zero excitement. I turned it off before Kamala started talking.

After they send Joe back to the basement with an extra pudding cup for being a good boy, I expect Kamala to live up to her nasty reputation as the campaign's attack dog. She's about as likable as Hillary and has less self-restraint.

Kosh's Shadow 8/12/2020 3:55:02 PM

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In #15 buzzsawmonkey said: Sax Rohmer, author of the Fu Manchu stories

Flu Manchu?

buzzsawmonkey 8/12/2020 4:32:46 PM

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In #27 Kosh's Shadow said: Flu Manchu?

I can't recall whether any of the Fu Manchu stories involved his trying to release a plague on the West---I mostly read Rohmer's short stories, which were about all I could stand.

The fascinating thing, however, is the invariable template of brilliant, malevolent evildoers---Fu Manchu was Rohmer's favorite, but there were also demonic Jews and middle-Europeans or Russians---who were opposed by stupid, obtuse, dunderheaded Europeans (usually British) who, despite their impenetrable stupidities, finally manage to triumph (for a time) over the wily, evil, threat posed by the intelligent and educated outsiders.  

Alice in Dairyland 8/12/2020 4:39:17 PM

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WI DNR requires masks for teleconferences  

My state has gone completely insane!  Nobody here likes the DNR anyway, but this is just crazy.  The best comment referenced it should only be on Windows machines because everybody knows how open they are to viruses.

JCM 8/12/2020 4:53:25 PM

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Reply to Alice in Dairyland in 29:

You'd better be wearing gloves to comment too!

*facepalm* Mask for teleconferences..... truly insane.