The Scarlet R
This content was originally posted October 4, 2016. … Bloggingheads.tv released a chat with Glenn Loury and John McWhorter. With the election 35 days away, there was lots of talk about Donald and Hillary. It only took 1:44, to learn what is expected. The assignment is to call DJT a racist, and lament what a terrible thing that is. This is political discourse in 2016.
At 3:28, there was an aha moment. The line was that DJT, instead of an orange haired ogre, was really just a seventh grade bully. When I was in seventh grade, there was a mean person who gave him problems. This individual is now a facebook friend, and regularly posts memes supporting DJT. I like to know what the “other side” thinks. Ignoring the memes is always an option.
At 9:22, the importance of identifying racism in others is stressed. This is said to totally justify the appeal of DJT. Once you call someone a racist, you no longer have to work to understand their motives. When the scarlet R is super glued to somebody, that is all you need to know.
The Scarlet Letter is the rip roaring tale of Hester Prynne. She got caught fooling around, and had the scarlet A, for adultery, pinned to her chest. It was pinned to her chest, and she could see who did the pinning. In today’s “woke” world, the scarlet R, for racist, is super glued to the back of the terrible person. The person never knows who gave them this dreaded, irrevocable, label.
At 21:28, John tells an amusing story. He was talking to a well meaning white woman, said to be helpful in selling more books. At some point, the woman felt obligated to say that “we don’t like to talk about race.” John was too polite to laugh in her face.
The truth is that talking about race is the new national pastime. Does anyone listen? In all that talk, is anything worthwhile said? These questions are considered rude, and probably racist.
At 31:09, John said the n word. It is not known whether it ended with -er, or with -a. Since John is a POC, he has permission. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Dorothea Lange took the social media picture in November 1938. “Sunday morning, Kern County, California. Many Texans, Oklahomans, Arkansans are settling in this county. Their cultures and forms of religious expression are being transferred with them” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
The Pursuit Of Truth
This content was published October 4, 2014. … There is a Radiolab episode called The Fact of the Matter. It is about a man who likes to separate fact from fiction. “The pursuit of truth properly considered shouldn’t stop short of insanity.” After an hour or so plumbing the digital depths, I began to appreciate the truth of that comment. Does anyone have a recipe that uses a can of worms?
The show is about a photograph from the Crimean War. “The valley of the shadow of death” was taken by Roger Fenton. on April 23, 1855. TVOTSOD was taken near a place called Balaclava. (Балаклавский) Today, this is in Ukraine. (Update below) Balaclava was the site of a nasty battle in the Crimean War. Today, a Balaclava is a colorful ski mask. It is the fashion statement of Pussy Riot.
I cannot understand why this picture is a big deal. The Library of Congress has a collection of the Fenton Crimean War Photographs. The Fenton pictures were one of the first collections in the LOC that I worked with. The picture of a road, with cannonballs, did not catch my eye.
The podcast is a detective story. It seems that there are two versions of the photograph. One has the cannonballs in the road, the other doesn’t. Were the cannonballs tossed on the road to make the picture more dramatic, or were they removed? They could have been removed to clear the road for wagon traffic, or to recycle the balls. In 1855, people picked up used cannonballs.
A very good question is why anyone would care? A man named Erroll Morris cares. The link is to a very long article at the New York Times about the picture. Mr. Morris went to Ukraine to investigate the pictures. It is possible that his pursuit of truth did not stop at the boundary of insanity.
The podcast mentions this famous picture, with a second shot that casts doubts. I went to the LOC, and found the famous picture right away. The second shot proved elusive. I viewed all 263 pictures in the Fenton collection in a slide show, and could not find the second picture. I began to think that maybe the second picture was the fake. The New York Times article by Erroll Morris has a copy of the second picture. The possibility remains that the second picture is a fabrication.
The podcast says that the location of some rocks changes in the two pictures. In the picture without the cannonballs on the road, the rocks are higher up on a hill, than they are in the famous picture. To Mr. Morris, this is evidence that the famous picture is a fake. I have examined the two images. Perhaps this search for truth will be called off before the onset of dementia.
The show has an amusing exchange between producer Jad Abumrad (جاد نيكولاس أبومراد) and Errol Morris. JAD: Hi. Is this Errol Morris? EM: I think it’s me. JAD: Hello, this is Jad from—from Radiolab. EM: Hi. Thank you for your very, very nice but somewhat disturbing email. JAD: What disturbed you in the email? EM: The term “truth fascist.”
Controversies about famous images are not new. Many people think the flag raising on Iwo Jima was posed. Just today on facebook, there was a link to a feature, The Kissing Sailor, or “The Selective Blindness of Rape Culture”. The idea is that the nurse did not want the sailor to kiss her on VJ day.
This feature was originally published in 2012, with LOC photographs of the Crimean War. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, including Balaklava. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in February 1942. “Meeker County, Minnesota. Farmers’ dance in crossroads store” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Oscar Wilde
October 16 is Oscar Fingal O’Fflahertie Wills Wilde’s birthday. On that day in 1854, he appeared in Dublin, Ireland. Oscar is one of the most widely quoted people in the english language. Some of those quotes are real. Since Oscar was a published author, it should be easy to verify what he really said.
One night in 1974, I was talking to someone, and did not know who Oscar Wilde was. The man was horrified. I quickly got educated, and learned about a misunderstanding with the Marquess of Queensberry. Soon the “Avenge Oscar Wilde” signs made sense.
Mr. Wilde once made a speaking tour in the United States. One afternoon the playwright met Walt Whitman. Thee and thou reportedly did the “Wilde Thing.”
The tour then went to Georgia. A young black man had been hired as a valet for Mr. Wilde on this tour. On the train ride from Atlanta to Columbus, some people told Mr. Wilde that he could not ride in the same car as the valet. This was very confusing.
After his various legal difficulties, Oscar Wilde moved to Paris. He took ill, while staying in a tacky hotel. Oscar looked up, and said “There is a duel to the death between me and my wallpaper. One of us must die. It will be him or me.” (« — Voyez-vous, ma chère enfant, me disait-il, il y a un duel à mort entre moi et mon papier de tenture. L’un de nous deux doit y rester. Ce sera lui ou ce sera moi. ») Soon, Oscar Wilde passed away.
This birthday celebration is a repost, with pictures from The Library of Congress. Marion Post Wolcott took the social media picture in September 1938. Coal miner (Polish). Capels, West Virginia.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
The Velvet Warlocks
This content was published October 20, 2024. … I was listening to disgraceland episode#64, about the grateful dead. I was at a stopping point with multi tasking, and decided to look something up. The show mentioned the first show by the Warlocks, later known as the Grateful Dead. This was 50 years before “dead name” was a dirty word.
“On May 5, 1965 ‘The Warlocks’ … played their first show, at Magoo’s Pizza Parlor in Menlo Park, California.” This was the day before I turned 11. Lyndon Johnson was settling in for his elected term as President. The Braves were playing their lame duck season in Milwaukee. Combat troops had been in Vietnam for a little over two months. This was the start of the escalation. “By the end of 1965, more than 184,000 American troops were in Vietnam.”
At 27:44, dg-gd dropped an item that could not be ignored. The Warlocks had to find a new name. Someone else was called the Warlocks, and there were complications. It seems as though the warlocks … a pretty obvious name … was also an early name of the Velvet Underground. Other early vu names included the primitives and the falling spikes.
”When they (vu) finally did come across a name which stuck, it was thanks to a contemporary paperback novel about the secret sexual underworld of the 1960s that Tony Conrad, a friend of John Cale, happened across and showed to the group. The novel, written by Michael Leigh, remains in print. This is probably because a band appropriated its title. “Had Lou Reed and John Cale not seen a copy of this book in a New York City gutter (fittingly) and decided to use its name for their group, this little volume would have been justly forgotten. Written in a style which titilates while decrying the scene it describes, it’s a piece of blue-nosed junk.”
The rest of the show rolled on. Jerry stuck his finger in a dictionary at random, and found Grateful Dead. It was the name of a story. The band played at the acid tests, which mostly went well, until they did not. Pigpen drank rotgut to excess, until it killed him.
This is a repost from 2020. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in January 1941. “Card Games in corner beer parlor. Ambridge, Pennsylvania.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 selah
Tasteful Stories
This content was posted October 30, 2012. … The Memory Palace is a source of entertainment. The stories are based on history, and are likely to be true. Maybe they are plugged into The Akashic Record, the eternal archive of everything ever said and done. According to Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of radio, everything ever said still exists.
In 1915, after the Titanic, laws were passed requiring sufficient lifeboats. A boat on Lake Michigan was retrofitted with these life saving facilities. The only problem was, the boat was not designed to have the extra weight on the top deck. It capsized, and over eight hundred people drowned.
Jenny Lind was the vocal superstar of her era. Today, she is lost to history. None of her performances were recorded, because records had not been invented. Another forgotten star is Sarah Bernhardt. Tom Waits tells a story about her. Late in her career, she had a leg amputated. P.T. Barnum got the leg, put it in formaldehyde, and displayed it. The leg made more money than Sarah Bernhardt did.
Perhaps the most tasteful of the stories is about Lewis Keseberg. By all accounts, he was a drunk with a nasty temper. This does not mean that he was a cannibal.
Mr. Keseberg was going to California in 1847. The wagon train got stuck in the mountains. When Mr. Keseberg was rescued, the story spread that he had killed, and then eaten, Tamsen Donner. This reputation made the rest of his life difficult.
While I was listening to these stories, a remarkable collection was coming to life. The pictures were from the Farm Security Administration collection, at The Library of Congress. The photographs were taken in October, 1941, by John Collier. A typical caption is French-Canadian stevedores. Oswego, New York. These men unloaded cargo at a port on Lake Ontario.
The term stevedore is seldom heard today. I read it in Mad magazine as a kid, and have not seen it since. Container ships have made the job all but obsolete. The always tasteful Urban Dictionary adds:
“Literally “one who stuffs”. Originally referred to longshoremen or cargo workers in the maritime industry since before the industrial revolution. Nowadays in common usage it describes someone who swears profusely or who garners a lot of poon tang.”
Getting Bari Weiss
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10/7 · microsoft 365 basic · in custody · potp fuentes · zack
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xNicolasJx is a bot. His sales pitch line: Authenticity is rare..let’s be real together. · This is another monday morning reader. As usual, the best thing here is the pictures. Jack Delano took the picture below in August 1942. “Nashville, Tennessee. Lunch time in the tail assembly section. Vultee Aircraft Corporation plant” · @RepHankJohnson I am gratified that Hamas has agreed to release the hostages. Hamas is responsible for the ongoing genocide being undertaken by the State of Israel, and I call on the Trump administration to force a stop to that atrocity, and to prevent Israel from annexing the West Bank. Progress can then be made towards a peace agreement that includes the establishment of a homeland for the Palestinians. · I quit listening to your show with @coldxman at 56:00, when you discussed this. He said dentists gave more money to congress than the “Israel lobby”. Therefore, Israel did not influence us to invade Iraq. I had enough of his sophistry, and turned off the show · I just drove down Ponce De Leon avenue. There is a trendy looking apartment on the site of that hustler bar you used to go to, whose name escapes me. The Ponce de leon hotel has been renovated, and is now “Wylie Hotel Atlanta, Tapestry Collection by Hilton” There is a chichi restuarant there called Mrs. P’s. You can’t make this up · A couple of days ago, Coleman Hughes and Dave Smith discussed the Israel-Palestine conflict. I quit listening when Mr. Hughes said that Dentists spent more on lobbyists than Israel did · i am usually not up at 2am, but here i am … i went to a poetry reading in L5P, and bought a large cup of coffee to be polite. Partying isn’t what it used to be … I did get a blog post of original content up · There are reports that Israel created, and supported, Hamas. The idea was to create divisions among her enemies, in the same way that a bloody war between Iran and Iraq was facilitated 45 years ago. · This is a story from 1976. The pictures are better than the text · @ZaidJilani There’s always an exception for Israel, like it’s the 51st state or something. But would they really want that? Then they’d only have 2 Senators · If the Confederates had won the war between the states, then North America would be like Historic Europe … a collection of small countries who were constantly at war · This is a collection of posts from 2008. The original title of one piece was “David Crosby Lives.” There was some editing involved · the anagram for diahhrea is dear hair · Maybe the SJW is trying to reassure themself that they are not racist. They are like the homophobe who badmouths gays to cover up for their own repressed homosexual desires. Is the SJW a closet racist? · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Marjory Collins took the social media picture in August 1942. “ New York, New York. O’Reilly’s bar on Third Avenue in the “Fifties” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
One More Chat About Racism
It was a typical morning. Work on pictures, and listen to audio product. I was tired of youtube suggestions, and chose to listen to RISK. The first story is a South Asian lady, Nimisha, going to have lunch with her Jewish mother in law, Elaine. The two ladies have an uneasy relationship. Before the wedding, Elaine asked David, her son, if Nimisha was black. (Did David have a black girlfriend before this?) Nimisha was upset when she heard about this. Now Nimisha was going to have lunch with a RAY-SISST. It is not known if Nimisha ever called Elaine a racist to her face.
I am tired of hearing people referred to as racist. Since there were plenty of other shows to listen to, I turned off the story. A few minutes later, I wondered what I was missing, and turned on the story again. Soon enough, Nimisha complained about going to lunch with a RAY-SISST again. I pushed forward, and listened to the next story. It was about an experience at an AA meeting in Los Angeles. I wanted to share the story with a friend in the AA program. Here is the email I sent with the link.
This is a link to a story. It is an AA war story. It starts at 20 minutes. There is another story here. The first story in this show is about an Indian lady, who does not like her Jewish mother in law. At ten minutes into the show, the bride says “I am going to have to spend the day with a racist.” At this point, I turned off the show in anger. I am sensitive to the term racist, for perfectly obvious reasons. I did not want to listen to the rest of the show. When I decided to send you the link, I had to listen to the part of the show around the 20 minute mark, so I could know when the war story started. I set the timer for 18 minutes, and listened to the end of the mother in law story. There is a twist in the story, and everyone is friends now. The bride says “I am ashamed of reducing her to her racism.”
David, Elaine, and Nimisha went to a deli in New York. Nimisha (who seems to have other entitlement issues) is militantly vegetarian, and not pleased with the deli. At one point, Elaine orders a sandwich “bigger than her fist,” and starts to, accidentally, spit bits of meat in Nimisha’s face. Next, Nimisha looks at Elaine, who has tears in her eyes. Elaine thanks Nimisha for coming to lunch. Nimisha looks at her hand, which has an engagement ring once owned by Elaine. Nimisha realizes that Elaine is more than her comment about race, and is actually a pretty good lady. End of story. Elaine is much more than a racist, she is the mother of David.
The real fun starts when I post the email to RISK! Podcast Fans Discussion Group on facebook. People are proud of calling *others* racist. When you suggest that this is not a good idea, they get angry. WAAAAA!!! He said I can’t say wassist!!! WAAAA!!! I have heard the r-word many times. I was not in the mood to hear a vegetarian princess repeat that slur about her mother in law.
As you may imagine, the facebook conversation got ugly. The 2018 post has TLDR quotes from this discussion. When people want to be seen as fighting racism, they behave badly. “The behavior described in the story was racist. I don’t know you or your circumstances, but your words so far seem to imply that you’re more offended by the word “racist” than actual racism.”
“you’re more offended by the word “racist” than actual racism.” This is a common comment in social justice discussions. “Imagine it happening all the time, simply because of the color of your skin. What you’re experiencing right now is *nothing* compared to what people of color experience daily.” The simple truth is that two wrongs do not make a right. Insulting a white person, by calling them racist, will have little impact on creating economic opportunity, or curtailing police brutality. Saying racist is merely a couple of kids on the playground swapping insults. To pretend otherwise, to confuse name calling for effective social justice action, is an exercise in self delusion.
People in discussions about racist/racism often feel the need to demonstrate their distaste for racism. Usually it is without being asked. People just assume they need to signal virtue, and are offended if someone abstains. “Being racist is wrong. Full stop. I’m not sure if we’re on the same page about that, but in case my thoughts weren’t clear, there they are.”
When you challenge the performative nature of racist citing, you can expect feedback. “I don’t understand this post. But i fully support the continued and loud-mouthed calling out and labeling of racists wherever they be, regardless of some feathers getting ruffled. Had the protagonist of this story been correct in her assumption, i wouldn’t be holding it against her. In this case she made an assumption and was corrected by facts, but i certainly don’t hold the using of that term against her.” ” “ritual condemnation of racism” is a funny way to put it, as if condemning such is a kind of bigotry. It’s not a “performance” when I condemn it. Um… I MEAN it.”
Why are people, mostly white, so eager to demonstrate their distaste for what they perceive as racism? This virtue signalling is to be loud, and must be seen and heard by others. Maybe this virtue signalling is not done for the benefit of others. Maybe the white savior is trying to reassure themself that they are not racist. They are like the homophobe who badmouths gays to cover up for his own repressed homosexual desires. Is the white savior a closet racist?
The problem with anti-racism was published by chamblee54 a few years ago, when a dark skinned man was POTUS. It discusses the closet racist concept, and other ways in which anti-racism is detrimental to society. After a 2014 repost, chamblee54 received a remarkable bit of confirmation. An anonymous commenter, speaking from an .edu address, said “why don’t you get your white sheets and come out.” Since this comment was made by a white cis male (the last time I had contact with them), it might not be appropriate to respond “I am so sorry that you felt racially targeted by me. Can you please help me understand what I did to make you feel that way?”
I made one last comment in the facebook thread. It is unlikely that he changed any minds. The concept that the word racist is offensive to human beings, and should be used with caution, is alien to many people. It might be compared to telling a person sixty years ago that saying the n-word is a bad idea. Here is the closing comment. “There is going to be a blog post about this discussion, which will answer a few of those questions. Or, and this is more likely, merely raise more. I have known many, many POC. Friends, enemies, good people, terrible people, and a thousand levels in between. In the end, it is my experience. I don’t even understand it myself. I cannot expect someone who reads a facebook thread to understand my life. I just get tired of the promiscuous, boastful, performative use of the r word. Nothing good comes of it.”
In typical blogger fashion, I gave two links. “This post Are my attitudes about race any of your business, might help explain a bit of this.” “Here is another post that might help, James Baldwin and the six letter word. (This post makes an amusing connection between the n-word, and the r-word. The words of James Baldwin were used, perhaps in a way the author would not have intended.) … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Esther Bubley took the social media picture in September 1943. “A Greyhound bus that has been stopped while the driver fills the water tank at a gas station on the road between Gettysburg and Pennsylvania” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Our Bohemian Lifestyle
This content was published October 31, 2008. … Ten Clues you are too old to Trick or Treat: 1 – You get winded from knocking on the door. 2 – You have to have another kid chew the candy for you. 3 – You ask for high fiber candy only. 4 – You keep having to go home to pee. 5 – People say: “Great Boris Karloff Mask,”And you’re not wearing a mask. 6 – When the door opens you yell, “Trick or…”And can’t remember the rest. 7 – By the end of the night,you have a bag full of restraining orders. 8 – You have to carefully choose a costume that won’t dislodge your hairpiece. 9 – You’re the only Power Ranger in the neighborhood with a walker. 10 – When someone drops a candy bar in your bag,you lose your balance and fall over.
This content was published October 19, 2008. … The answering machine was flashing when I got out of the shower. Even though the internal caller id told me it was Uzi, I listened to the messages before calling. The scheduled entertainment for the afternoon was a walk through little five points. … After a while, the honda was parked behind Manuel’s, and the walk to ElfivePee began. Is the Halloween Festival over, and could we tell the difference? Coming down Seminole Avenue, into the closed off street by the pizza places, the thought came to go to the Vortex. No, that is a bad idea, they may be enforcing the no idiot policy.
The artist was urging the sunday visitors to Buy Art, and help support our bohemian lifestyle. I needed to use a restroom, and thought the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club would be atmospheric enough. Past that was the former Bass High School, now a loft community. When WRFG went on the air, their transmitter was so weak that they could not be heard north of the high school. … Crossing Euclid Avenue required waiting for the cars to pass by. The former Sevananda/A&P/Piggly Wiggly of Miss Daisy fame is now a Rag store. They have stenciled parking spots, across from the mural infested wall of the Variety Playhouse. Uzi was once going to pay to park for a concert there. The parking attendant recognized his friend and gave them a prime spot for free. He does not remember who was playing.
The parade of the hairstyle enhanced trendoids continued down the well trod sidewalks. Uzi was in the mood for a chocolate ice cream from Zestos. I waited outside, and took pictures of ivy falling down in front of a brick wall. We crossed Moreland, and found a bench to sit on. It was across from the former fountain, which now has cactus growing inside. A dog got loose, and scampered down Moreland Avenue, while the traffic screeched to a halt. The pet went down Euclid into oblivion, as Uzi finished his ice cream. Deciding that they had enough hipness for the day, we went back to Manuels, and to the S&S cafeteria in the relative safety of Embry Hills.
This content was published October 28, 2009. … I finished part two of the David Crosby autobiography, “Since Then“. This book is evidence that truth is stranger than fiction. For those who just tuned in, David Crosby was one of the Byrds, and is the Crosby of Crosby, Stills, Nash and (sometimes) Young. … David Crosby (no relation to Bing Crosby) is a part of the counterculture. The hair, the fringe jacket, the drugs, the sex, these are the surface parts of the puzzle. The man has been described as a complex bottle of red wine, taking a long time to mature. The hair is still there, he is in love with his wife (and probably would be dead without her), and smokes the occasional doobie. With any luck at all, the fringe jacket is in a landfill, and not reproducing.
The book has three fonts. The primary one is the voice of Crosby. Comments from third parties are indented, and the co author, Carl Gottlieb, speaks in italics. The story moves in more or less chronological fashion, although there is a bit of cutting back and forth between scenes. … At the start of the book, LA is hit by a major earthquake. This destroys a house Crosby has. If the earthquake doesn’t get the house, the IRS will. An accountant has not done his job, and Crosby owes major bucks to Uncle Sam. If its not one thing, its another.
Moving along, a son given up for adoption finds Crosby, and winds up playing guitar in a band called CPR. Crosby wrecks his motorcycle and nearly croaks. Crosby’s liver goes haywire, and he almost croaks. Ditto heart attack, and arrest for felony gun possession. … One of the last visitors before the liver transplant was Graham Nash. As he is leaving, Nash tells Crosby ”If you leave me alone with Stills, I’ll f***ing kill you”. For all the pretty music in CSN, there are some strong personalities. Stephen Stills is renowned for his attitude. David Crosby is known to have an opinion or two.
Getting back to the David Crosby story…there is just too much to sum up here. At the end of the story, Crosby is still going. He stopped at two artificially inseminated babies, to go with four (at least) kids produced the old fashioned way. The opinions have not stopped coming out. Crosby likes World War W as much as I do. Crosby has always held doomsday views about the American experiment. … David Van Cortlandt Crosby met his maker January 18, 2023. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in February 1942. “Meeker County, Minnesota. Farmers’ dance in crossroads store” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Tulsi And Joe
This content was posted October 16, 2022. … @BrandonLBradfor “The larger your platform the more I think you have a moral obligation to the people that listen to you. I give Rogan criticism but he’s just an idiot that’s willing to talk to people, Kanye is a vindictive, desperate, dumbass, and don’t blame this on his mental health.” @chamblee54 “Actually, Joe R**** is an i**** who is willing to listen to people. Twitter questioned my first reply. I censored the two words that were possibly offensive. If listen is offensive, then I am in trouble.”
Joe Rogan Experience continues to be a popular feature, except with #selfrighteoustwitter. This week saw two guests that stood out. On Tuesday, JRE featured Tulsi Gabbard. On Wednesday, the guest was Rick Rubin. I listened to all three hours of the Rubin show.
Rick Rubin is a music producer, and around cool dude. He played a huge role in the rise of hip-hop, from Bronx parties to a worldwide phenomenon. His podcast, Broken Records, utilizes the long interview format, with music stars of all persuasion. Mr. Rubin is also well spoken, with a pleasant voice. Just turn on the microphone, and get out of the way
Tulsi Gabbard is a bit more complicated. Early in the show, Joe repeated an urban legend about teachers putting litter boxes in bathrooms, for students who identify as cats. The tale has been repeatedly discredited. Joe and Tulsi began talking about trans excesses. This is a legitimate subject for discussion, but had a rude tone here. Soon, I turned off the show in anger.
Tulsi was on JRE during the 2020 Presidential campaign. She did not seem to be electable, but made a lot of good points. Her primary issue was the damage done by wars of choice, and the military industrial complex. This is an issue that Democrats and Republicans, aka the Uniparty, seem to agree on. One gets the sense that the “culture war” issues are a distraction, taking attention away from the massive influx of borrowed warbucks.
Soon after this appearance, I went to a get together at Manuel’s Tavern. I mentioned that I liked Tulsi Gabbard, and her anti-war position. A voice at the other end of the table started to angrily shout. Tulsi Gabbard was a Russian asset, and a terrible, terrible person. This seems to be a popular opinion in Democratic circles. Genuine dissent must not be tolerated.
At some point in the conversation, Tulsi got onto the military industrial complex, and the War in Ukraine. Tulsi thinks we are headed for a nuclear conflict. A NYC psa was shown, about instructions for a nuclear disaster. The instructions were like the “duck and cover” drills from second grade. Hiding under your desk was going to protect you from radiation. Today’s non-planning for a potential nuclear war may mean the end of civilization as we know it.
Chamblee54 has written about Joe Rogan. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Marion Post Wolcott took the social media picture in March 1940. “Hired help resting after day’s work in Upwey horse farm. South Woodstock, Vermont.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
October 7, 2025
Today is the two year anniversary. I learned about the tragedy from a @JDVance1 tweet: “Praying for our friends in Israel this morning. Just an awful situation.”
As the scope of the tragedy became apparent, I knew two things. One, Israel would exponentially over-retaliate, killing thousands of Palestinians for every Israeli that died. (In my wildest conspiratorial imagination, I would not have thought that Israel would kill hundreds of its own citizens.) Two, there was going to be a tsunami of toxic rhetoric. Israel has known how to play to American public opinion for a long time. This second aspect of this calamity is what today’s post will focus on. Specifically, “Dave Smith vs. Coleman Hughes Debate: Israel and U.S. Foreign Policy.”
Coleman Cruz Hughes supports Israel. Dave No-Middle-Name Smith supports the Palestinians. CCH has been critiqued at chamblee54 before. 010224 030324 In case you have any doubts, I should state upfront that I am on team Dave here. There will be no attempt at being fair. If you want to see pro CCH commentary, look to any x discussion of this event.
The concept of these discussions being a smackdown sport is “part of the problem.” Gotcha mongering takes the place of thoughtful discussion. People make points that appeal to their buddies, and do not address the concerns of those on the “other side.” The rhetoric from CCH displays many of the bad faith tactics that Hasbara is known for. This post will focus on two examples.
I did not listen to very much of the CCH-DS smackdown. My phone was acting up, and switching to other shows without warning. When I returned to CCH-DS, I would skip over large parts of the show. Finally, after the second incident, I grew weary of the entire affair.
The first incident took place early in the show. CCH was discussing the reasons for the 9/11 attack, specifically the fact that Arabs were offended at American troops in the Islamic holy land of Saudi Arabia. CCH mentioned that South Korea was not offended at the presence of US troops in their country … an apples to oranges comparison. This is a tactic of bad faith argument: to make any possible argument you can, never mind that it usually is not relevant to the discussion.
Somehow, this led to a discussion of terrorism. ”DS – There were Irish terrorists. There were Jewish terrorists. Uh, of course, as you know, in the leadup to the creation of the state of Israel. … CCH – Those were local ethnic disputes between the Irish and the British, between the Jewish and the Palestinians. What justifies going abroad, flying planes into buildings thousands of miles away … “
There was Zionist terrorism after the end of World War II, and the creation of the State of Israel. The British governed Palestine at the time. The Zionist terrorism was directed at the British authorities governing Palestine, as well as the Arab population. This was the same time as the Nakba, which was a “local ethnic dispute”. Maybe that is what CCH meant.
This is a bad faith tactic. Flood the playing field with dozens of details. Some of them are going to be either misleading, or outright lies. It is impossible to respond to all the details being raised.
The other incident concerned the role of “the Israel lobby” in the decision to invade Iraq in 2003. CCH brought up a book by John J. Mearsheimer. CCH claims to have read the book, and was not persuaded. We have to take CCH’s word on having read the book.
CCH went into a monolog about how much money TIL had actually spent. “During the entire George W. Bush administration, the Israel lobby spent $17 million lobbying Congress. Now, that might sound like a lot to me or you. It is absolute chump change on the scale of uh domestic lobbying. To put it in perspective, the tobacco lobby spent $200 million, so more than 10 times that amount over the same time period. And they couldn’t even stop Congress from passing a federal tax hike on cigarettes in 2009. Now during the Obama era, the Israel lobby spent 30 million and they were outspent by the dentists. The dentist lobby spent 32 million. This is all according to OpenSecrets.org which is usually the standard source people go to for such figures.”
My gut sense is that this is a distraction. There may be other ways to measure the influence of TIL than the amount of money they spend on lobbying congress. Or maybe not. If you google “How much did the Israel lobby spend lobbying congress in 2003?”, you are directed to a chart from OpenSecrets. “$1,500,000 Total Spent on Pro-Israel, 2003” Is this the total, or there is more that we don’t know? I honestly don’t know, but don’t trust the way CCH is throwing this out.
When I heard CCH say that Dentists spent more on lobbyists than Israel, I decided I had heard enough. Technically, on some level CCH may be correct on some of his points. However, I just don’t trust him. I wonder how many minds are going to be changed by this discussion. The initial reaction on x was that CCH “won”. However, in the last day or so I am seeing more people who agree with DS. It will probably boil down to people agreeing with who they agreed with going into the debate.
There was a controversial discussion of the “clean break” strategy, which I missed entirely. DS has released an episode of his own show, Part Of The Problem, that deals with this. I have not listened to this episode of POTP.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in January 1941. “Steelworker at grievance committee meeting. Steelworkers organizing committee office. Aliquippa, Pennsylvania” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Just Collapsed
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Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken September 9, 1948. Victory Motors Used Cars · This is another monday morning reader. The picture below is from the GSU library. This is Victory Motors Used Cars on September 9, 1948. · @MaxBlumenthal The best ‘conservative’ influencers Israel can buy? Emily Austin participated in the Epstein binders hoax, and joined Netanyahu’s recent influencers meeting Xavaier DuRousseau attended the secret Hamptons influencer summit with Bill Ackman, then junketed off to Israel · Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the Sword; He is searching out the hoardings where the stranger’s wealth is stored; He hath loosed his fateful lightnings, and with woe and death has scored; His lust is marching on · Did the translators and scribes get it wrong? Maybe Jesus did not say to love your enemy. Maybe what Jesus said was to show kindness to everyone. This is a practice thing, rather than a belief thing · You spend the first five minutes telling a story to “make a point” I quit listening at 8:39, when you were telling us about the Philippians. (Thank you spell check) Right now the entire Charlie Kirk tragedy is on my mind. Mr. Kirk was using Jesus in ways that many of us are put off by. The only mention of Mr. Kirk is the cognitive dissonance of what his wife said at the funeral, to what Mr. Trump said. I could discuss this at great length, but it would not make me happy. You are entitled to your opinion. · Listened to the barroom episode this morning. Was Charlie Kirk playing the same game as Jeffrey Epstein? By that I mean getting megabucks from the same sources, with similar strings attached. Both men made deals with the devil. · Those “text messages” are full of problems. Saying “vehicle” is one of the milder ones. That said, @RealCandaceO is also full of problems. She lost me when she started trashing Leo Frank · If he became convinced tomorrow that coming out for cannibalism would get him the votes he needs so sorely, he would begin fattening a missionary in the White House yard come Wednesday. The American Mercury (March 1936) – referring to Franklin Delano Roosevelt · “If he became convinced tomorrow that coming out for cannibalism would get him the votes he needs so sorely, he would begin fattening a missionary in the White House yard come Wednesday.” Henry Louis Mencken, The American Mercury, March 1936 · “Only two rooms were adequate, all others contained a film of dirt on everything, stained carpets, and strange odors. The bed comforters had questionalbe stains on them and hair. … The swimming pool was green with algae and there was a dead bird · This quote is not on the Huxley wikiquote. “Propaganda” is mentioned 8 times. “All war propaganda consists, in the last resort, in substituting diabolical abstractions for human beings. Similarly, those who defend war have invented a pleasant sounding vocabulary of abstractions in which to describe the process of mass murder. “Pacifism and Philosophy” (1936) · anthonydissenrd@gmail.com · slow and steady wins the race, sacred or scared leaves no trace, the whore and the madonna are in, the same body and ready for sin, yahweh is both allah and god, the worship religions are both so flawed, charlie kirk got wasted for a reason, this is not the time or the season · manley pointer start, ring around the roses tonight, gotta start somewhere · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture in August 1942. “Nashville, Tennessee. Lunch time in the tail assembly section. Vultee Aircraft Corporation plant” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Motel One Star Reviews
I was listening to a podcast. Some of the action took place in a tacky motel. The narrator mentioned a review of this motel. A guest said he complained to the staff about roaches in the room. The motel employee said the roaches were high, and that they would not bother anybody.
This got me curious, which is never a good idea. I googled “high roaches motel.” I could not find the comment from the podcast, but did find reviews of two motels in Texas. A later search for “worst motel in Georgia” turned up a third suspect. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Today’s pictures are all white men. The older, and the gnarlier, the better. Marion Post Wolcott took the social media picture in November 1939. Tobacco auctioneer (in white gloves) and buyers during auction sale in warehouse in Mebane, Orange County, North Carolina”
Beachtree Motel, 3126 Avenue S, Galveston, Galveston Island, TX 77550
“The tub was so disgusting we were better off bathing on the beach! Dust..outdated tv…bootleg rigged plumbing and lights… and to top it off the owner walked around all night and his wife checked me out with crust in her eye and no bra!”
“It was filled with junkies and Acoholics hanging in the doorways asking for cigarettes. I could not sleep all night because the drug people were up all thur the nite slamming doors, shouting and fighting and starting up their cars to go make their drug buys. The furniture looked like it came out of the goodwill store from the 50’s.”
“We went for a girls weekend and stayed in this awful place. It was so disgusting! We killed several bugs, water bugs and roaches! We had to go buy sheets because theirs were so gross, bought towels because theirs were covered in hair and bought lysol and bleach wipes to wipe everything down! Not to mention the meth heads that wondered the parking lot and came back so drunk and high from the bar they kept trying to walk into our room.”
“Jigsaw the clown would be disgusted to lock you up in here”
Gulfway Motel, 365 Hwy 124, High Island, TX 77623
“Dead bugs and dirt along with a couple of paint chips around the sink. The light fixture above the sink would not work and it was rusty. There were two bulbs missing out of it. I took a bath and ended with paint chips all over me because the poorly painted bathtub was not just beginning to flake apart, it appeared that it had been doing so for some time. … I also had to walk through bird poop(a good ammount) to get to my room. This is because a bird nest was right in front of my door and every time the bird takes off it has to fly over this spot.”
“The first thing to hit us was the odor. Many couldn’t place it, but it seemed like insecticide … The next thing that greeted us was three dead sewer roaches–not the little brown things, but the two-inch guys that look like they belong more in the Amazon jungles. No amenities, cracks in the tub base and elsewhere–obviously where this monsters hang out during the day, one meager bar of soap, a quarter roll of toilette paper with no additional roll. I knocked on the office door, the dog barked, but no one came out. I finally borrowed an extra roll of T.P. from another trip-mate’s room.”
“Only two rooms were adequate, all others contained a film of dirt on everything, stained carpets, and strange odors. The bed comforters had questionalbe stains on them and hair. … The swimming pool was green with algae and there was a dead bird”
Super Inn, 301 Fulton Industrial Cir, Atlanta, GA 30336.
“Nasty i moved the sheets back and found things that are used for drug use ..so dirty i tried to post pics of the lube on base of lamp i mean alot if it”
“We arrived after 11 pm so didn’t notice this hotel was surrounded by strip clubs…luckily we were fine once inside, but when my partner went outside for a smoke he was propositioned by a prostitute…the second time he went out there were 2 prostitutes fighting and the one was threatening that her pimp was going to come down (from the hotel)…one of them had a small board with nails as a weapon. My partner was too scared to try to intervene in the fight and just came in to warn us not to come out.”
“There are at least three strip clubs right across the street, in which, prostitution is going on too and they end up at Super Inn. … They kept slamming the doors in the hallway ALL NIGHT!!!!! It didn’t stop until 5 a.m.”
“Upon arrival, we were greeted by multiple prostitutes and their pimp/ drug dealer. The place is located in an alley with several strip clubs in sight. After making my way past the prostitutes, there was no one in the lobby. A prostitute informed us to knock on the door to get the office managers attention. Against my better judgment, I took the key and made my way past more prostitutes smoking pot in the main hallway/lobby. Once in the room, I found at least FIVE car air fresheners hanging throughout the room trying to cover the musty/smoky smell in my “non smoking” room.”
“With the stares we got from the men and prostitutes coming in and out of the hotel I felt like fresh meat among a pack of wild dogs. The taxi driver stated he could not leave us here so we got back in the vehicle and drove back to the airport.”
“First of all there are 4 strip clubs across the road from the hotel. Secondly, there was about 5 prostitutes at the entrance of the hotel. When we went into the lobby we asked the clerk if it was safe there and he said, “of course, why do you ask?” and I said, “because there are about 5 prostitues standing at the entrance” then he said, ” NO, they don’t come on my property, you have nothing to worry about. They aren’t allowed in this hotel”. We believed that until that night when we saw him give the prostitutes a room key!!!!! The whole weekend stay the prostitutes were cold I guess so they were prostituting from the lobby of the hotel! Their pimps were outside bringing in the customers. I saw this with my two very own eyes!” … UPDATE: Google currently lists the Beachtree Motel as “Temporarily closed”. The Gulfway Motel is apparently open. The Super Inn was demolished August 30, 2024. ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
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