The Problem With Greg Palast Part Two
“Until a couple of days ago I hadn’t heard of Greg Palast in years … Having now forced myself to look at his pernicious writing, it seems like the deranged ramblings you might expect to find pushed out from under the door of a locked ward. … Crawl back under your rock, Mr Palast!”
It all started on the way to Picadilly cafeteria. My Sunday Dinner Buddy saw a youtube video. Thom Hartman told of voter suppression in the 2024, primarily against voters of color. If these people had been allowed to vote, there is no doubt that Kamala Harris would have won. It sounded fishy to me, but I made a mental note to check it out later.
When I got home, I did a youtube search for Thom Hartman. A video came up, “DID TRUMP LOSE? Shocking Proof Trump Rigged 2024 Election w/ Greg Palast.” When I saw that Mr. Palast was the source, I knew this was nonsense.
In 2018, Stacey Abrams lost to Brian Kemp in the race for Governor. Voter Suppression was her main issue. After Stacey’s non-concession, the devil Greg Palast went down to Georgia. The claims Mr. Palast make now are similar to the claims he made in 2018. The Palast style … the hyperbole laced text, the high octane personality, the nasty hat … is just as obnoxious today as it was six years ago.
I sent SDB a text. “I looked for t.hartman … greg palast said same thing about stacey … he is full of shit” I included a link to the text report. SDB replied, asking if I had read the report.
“TRUMP LOST. Vote Suppression Won. Here are the numbers from investigative reporter Greg Palast…” is the text report. I noticed right away that there are no links to support the claims. You have to take Greg Palast at his word. That is a red flag right there. If your claims are legitimate, you should have the receipts. Greg Palast does not have the receipts.
“4,776,706 voters were wrongly purged from voter rolls according to US Elections Assistance Commission data.” This is the central claim to this narrative. If you go to EAC.gov you see that it appears to be devoted to helping elections run smoothly. A quick look at the site does not show any data. Distributing data about voter suppression does not appear to be the job of EAC. Of course, Mr. Palast did not supply a link to support his assertion.
“There are also the uncountable effects of the explosive growth of voter intimidation tactics including the bomb threats that closed 31 polling stations in Atlanta on Election Day.” This is a bit easier to investigate. “Voting hours were extended at multiple locations in Georgia’s Fulton County and DeKalb County after hoax bomb threats that officials tied to Russian sources. … Fulton County officials said that 32 bomb threats via phone and email targeted polling locations in the county, while DeKalb police said they checked six polling locations for bombs. The polling locations were all cleared and no bombs were found. Voting re-opened and hours were extended in both counties.”
The Palast report made numerous claims, none of which were backed up with links. There were some mumbo-jumbo calculations, and claims of how many votes were suppressed, and how many of them would have voted for Kamala. The claim was made repeatedly that this suppression was racially motivated. This race baiting impresses many “progressives.”
Ultimately, the individual has to make up their own mind what to think. It is feasible that there was some electoral malfeasance, and that some of the claims are correct. It is also possible that someone is paying Greg Palast to make these claims. Since the election is certified, and the winner installed in office, these tales of a stolen election are conjecture. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the featured photograph in July 1941. “Putting samples of wheat into sack of central sampling office. Walla Walla, Washington.”
I’ll Furnish The War
This is a repost. The telegram incident was included in Citizen Kane … “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” – WR Hearst, January 25, 1898 It is part of the Hearst legend. “Frederic Sackrider Remington, the famous artist who brought to life American images of the west, was hired by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst to illustrate the revolution erupting in Cuba. He wrote back to Hearst one day in January 1897: “Everything is quiet. There is no trouble. There will be no war. I wish to return.” Hearst sent back a note: “Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” Chamblee54 readers should know where this is going to go.
Mr. Remington was sent to Cuba, along with correspondent Richard Harding Davis, to cover the rebellion against the Spanish colonial government. At the time of this purported exchange, the conflict between Spain, and the Cuban rebels, was rather lively. This is at odds with the initial comment by Mr. Remington. One item which modern observers will find odd is the fact that Mr. Remington drew pictures. He was not a photographer. Apparently, in 1897 journalism, a hand drawing was acceptable evidence of a conflict.
Not likely sent: The Remington-Hearst “telegrams” is a thorough debunking of this legend. The source of the legend is “James Creelman, On the Great Highway: The Wanderings and Adventures of a Special Correspondent. (Boston: Lothrop Publishing, 1901), 177-178.” “Creelman does not … describe how or when he learned about the supposed Remington-Hearst exchange. In any case, it had to have been second-hand because Creelman was in Europe in early 1897, as the Journal’s “special commissioner” on the Continent.”
“It is improbable that such an exchange of telegrams would have been cleared by Spanish censors in Havana. So strict were the censors that dispatches from American correspondents reporting the war in Cuba often were taken by ship to Florida and transmitted from there.”
… correspondence of Richard Harding Davis — the war correspondent with whom Remington traveled on the assignment to Cuba — contains no reference to Remington’s wanting to leave because “there will be no war.” Rather, Davis in his letters gave several other reasons for Remington’s departure, including the artist’s reluctance to travel through Spanish lines to reach the Cuban insurgents. … Davis’ letters show that he had little regard for the rotund, slow-moving Remington, whom he called “a large blundering bear.”
The purported Remington-Hearst exchange, moreover, appears not to have been particularly important or newsworthy at the time … the anecdote seems to have provoked almost no discussion or controversy until a correspondent for the Times of London mentioned it in a dispatch from New York in 1907. He wrote: “Is the Press of the United States going insane? . . . A letter from William Randolph Hearst is in existence and was printed in a magazine not long ago. It was to an artist he had sent to Cuba, and who reported no likelihood of war. —You provide the pictures, I’ll provide the war.'”
“Hearst, indignant about the report, replied in a letter to the Times. He described as “frankly false” and “ingeniously idiotic” the claim “that there was a letter in existence from Mr. W. R. Hearst in which Mr. Hearst said to a correspondent in Cuba: —You provide the pictures and I will provide the war,’ and the intimation that Mr. Hearst was chiefly responsible for the Spanish war. … “This kind of clotted nonsense could only be generally circulated and generally believed in England, where newspapers claiming to be conservative and reliable are the most utterly untrustworthy of any on earth. In apology for these newspapers it may be said that their untrustworthiness is not always to intention but more frequently to ignorance and prejudice.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Stacey Abrams And Raphael Warnock Got Caught
News came out that the New Georgia Project had settled an ethics complaint with the State of Georgia. NGP, the signature non-profit creation of Stacey Abrams, was accused of spending millions of dollars supporting her run for Governor in 2018. This is not surprising to people that have been paying attention to @staceyabrams.
“Abrams founded the New Georgia Project in 2014 as an offshoot of another nonprofit called Third Sector Development. … Raphael Warnock chaired the organization for more than two years, from when it first became an independent 501(c)3 in 2017 to January of 2020.”
Chamblee54 wrote two posts about the problems with NGP. 112118 102622 These articles are based on a 2015 story in Creative Loafing, The New Georgia Problem. When Ms. Abrams emerged in 2018 as a Gubernatorial candidate/media sensation, her work with NGP was usually mentioned. It turns out that NGP had a LOT of problems. To be fair, Ms. Abrams was mostly a fundraiser. She had little to do with the day to day operations of NGP.
Atlanta Magazine also ran a 2015 story about the problems at NGP. “William Perry, founder of Georgia Ethics Watchdog, believes the lawmaker should make her financial records from her voter registration work public, especially now that more than a year has passed since the 2014 election. One issue that concerns Perry is the lawmaker’s potential ability to use different funding sources—which include a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, a 501(c)(4) advocacy group, a political PAC, and personal campaign funds—to further the cause of voting registration.
Apparently, the money goes both ways here. Just as money intended for political campaigns can go for voter registration, money intended for voter registration can be diverted to promote a candidate. In the words of William Perry, “It gives cause to worry when there’s someone stirring so many pots. In a perfect world, anything you’re doing that would influence a campaign or an election should be disclosed. It’s a glaring example of what makes people sick about politics.”
Atlanta Magazine had another amusing item in 2015. “Nsé Ufot, executive director for New Georgia Project, declined to share a copy of Third Sector Development’s latest financial records. “Our 990 [form] will be publicly available in the coming months,” she told us in an email. When asked about her latest fundraising effort, Abrams declined to comment.”
Ms. Ufot was mentioned in 2023. “The move comes as the group’s tax filings indicate that its former executive director — who was hand-picked by Abrams in 2014 but fired last year without notice — owes the organization thousands of dollars in “non-work-related” reimbursements. The former director, Nsé Ufot, who left the group last year after heading it for eight years, denies owing money and calls the allegation “a fucking lie.”
In 2018, Voter Suppression® … and implied racism … was the central issue of the Abrams campaign. In the earlier investigation of NGP, spokesman Raphael Warnock was eager to cry racism. ”Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor at First Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and a spokesperson for NGP, said that many people of color in Georgia saw the tactics as part of a long history of voter suppression. “This narrative of voter suppression is one that communities of color understand and understand deeply, and it will backfire on those trying to suppress votes.”
“But there is an aggressive subpoena that, Abrams says, “essentially demands every document we have ever produced.” She calls it a “fishing expedition” meant to “suppress our efforts.” A spokesperson for the New Georgia Project, the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church, was a little more explicit. “I see this move by the secretary of state as the latest effort in voter suppression in the state of Georgia.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Martha McMillan Roberts took the featured photograph in March 1941. “Good Humor man comes to trailer camp on Saturday afternoon. These children are sons of torpedo plant workers in Alexandria VA”
Drinking From A Firehose
This is a repost from January 2020. Many of the youtube links no longer work. Sam Harris continues to get mixed up in controversy. … “You’re drinking from a firehose of bullshit.” Someone is talking. They are full of confidence. The speech gets faster, and faster. They have lots of data points that support their point of view. You suspect there is something wrong with what they are saying. The logic just follows too quickly. If you stop to think about point one, you will miss points two through eleven. It is persuasion, by intellectual bullying.
Sometimes, a good phrase used to support a not-so-good cause. The FOB quote is from Sam Harris. He was on the Joe Rogan Experience, talking with Abby Martin. (The opening clip is from this compilation.) Mr. Harris says the Iraqi casualties, after Operation Iraqi Freedom, were around 200,000. Ms. Martin says the casualties are closer to 2,000,000. Either figure is too high. Mr. Harris displays a certain heartlessness in his argument.
JRE #1419 – Daryl Davis washed up on the digital shore yesterday. Mr. Davis is a black man, who somehow befriended KKK members, and showed them the error of their ways. Here is an npr segment, How One Man Convinced 200 Ku Klux Klan Members To Give Up Their Robes.
Yesterday’s appearance came at an synchronistic time for Mr. Rogan. Last week, Bernie Sanders tweeted a clip from Mr. Rogan, along with a comment. “I think I’ll probably vote for Bernie…” Joe Rogan There was a reaction. @CNN “Bernie Sanders is facing a backlash from some Democrats after his campaign trumpeted an endorsement from comedian Joe Rogan, a popular podcast and YouTube talk show host with a history of making racist, homophobic and transphobic comments”
As Rogan listeners know, Joe is all over the place. The Sanders quote is from JRE #1415 – Bari Weiss. During that show, Ms. Weiss unleashed an FOB in support of Israel. This contrasts with Abby Martin, and other JRE guests, who severely criticize Israel.
The Davis show was an FOB. There were history lectures, that leave discerning heads shaking. (The term white supremacist was first used in 1896.) The firehose kept gushing, until there was one comment that could be easily checked out. “President Warren G. Harding was sworn into the ku klux klan in the green room of the White House”
Warren Gamaliel Harding is known, with some justification, as one of our worst Presidents. “One aspect of the Harding administration that is not well known is his attitude about race. In the years after World War I, America was engulfed in race hatred. The Ku Klux Klan had a revival. “In a speech on October 26, 1921, given in segregated Birmingham, Alabama Harding advocated civil rights for African Americans; the first President to openly advocate black political, educational, and economic equality during the 20th century.” Mr. Harding supported an anti lynching bill, which a Democratic filibuster kept from passing.” (This 2012 quote is based on a wikipedia article, that has been edited.)
“Not only was Harding’s alleged membership in the KKK never mentioned in the contemporary records of anybody who knew him, his public opposition to anti-Catholic agitation and his vehement support for anti-lynching laws, make him seem like an unlikely recruit. In fact, the only evidence that Harding was a Klansman comes from the deathbed confession of a former Grand Wizard, who may have made the whole thing up to get even with Harding for the late President’s anti-racist public stance.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Hollywood’s Eve Part One
Lilianne O’Likk: “I have a problem with objectivity. I always think it’s a pose. Why would I be moved to spend five or six years of my life on a subject that I was neutral about? With this book, I clocked my subjectivity from the start. Cold-eyed subjectivity is what you need to write a good book. I’m extremely tough on Eve. The fact that I love her doesn’t mean I’m going to be soft on her.”
This quote is from “Lili Anolik on Eve Babitz …” It is one of the podcasts I found yesterday, while writing a book report on Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L.A. Hardcover, by Lili Anolik. The book is all over the place. This book report will follow suit.
A primer is in order. Eve Babitz was a groupie. A pretty young lady in California, who partied with many famous people. Eve wrote a few books. One, Slow Days Fast Company, is pretty good. After the eighties hit, and she joined AA, a slow decline set in. In 1997, she set herself on fire, and nearly died. The next twenty four years were spent processing all that input. Chamblee54 wrote book reports on SDFC and I Used To Be Charming, a collection of magazine articles written by Eve.
“The adjective scale goes descriptive, comparative, superlative … good better best … i am not sure which one is applies to normal.” This thought came up in a chat conversation, and is a good way to start this appreciation of Hollywood’s Eve … I am not sure how this is going to work, which is another Babitz Bestie. Eve … I would say EB for the middle-nameless Eve, but Eve is only one letter longer. We should be grateful that Sol and Mae did not have a son named Steve . … maybe i should just listen to the podcasts I found with Lili Anolik, dig dirt on google, and finish this post later. I can always find something in the archive for chamblee54.
I am validating my admiration for Lili Anolik. First, it is pronounced Ann-o-lick … vaguely suggestive, but not anal ick. (Maybe Eve thought Lili was Miss Anal-Ick when she decided to answer the phone calls, and they bonded over the analickiness.) I found a bunch of podcasts that she did while self promoting. Lili Anolik on … was only 10 minutes long. It provided the tasteful quote above.
How Long Gone is two over-the-hill potheads talking trash, until their guest appears. The babblethon at the start is going to last longer than the first podcast. At 22:47, they send Lili a “zoomie”. I listened to about ten minutes of Lili talking about what shoes her husband … a New York Dermatologist … wears. Listening to this pablum is too much work, even for art.
I thought it would be cool to include a link to Dr. Anolik. When googling “Lili Anolik husband”, the first result is When You’re Married to a Dermatologist, All You Need Is Eye Cream. When the pothead podcast opens, they are hustling Soft Services Buffing Bar, a skin care product. One of the young men cannot afford to use SSBB on his XXL butt. Product promotion is a lifestyle choice.
Fortunately, a third podcast had some solid information. The Eve story has a clear beginning, middle, and end. When Lili connected with her, Eve was a mess. The next passage is a google-docs-transcript from podcast number three. It has been edited for easier reading, not accuracy. Just like Eve.
“I finally did get to her, she was living in, it wasn’t squalor, it was so much more extreme. It felt almost like she was a cave dweller. I mean the level of filth, and the darkness of that apartment, and the stench of that apartment, was so extreme, it was just despair…. it was madness, she smelled like madness. I mean it was beyond anything I’ve ever experienced in my life and if I went into that apartment, I don’t think I’m a squeamish person, but I would have to walk around the block like four or five times before I call a cab or Uber.” …
Lili mentioned the Eve aroma in the book, but not in such graphic terms. The book was published in 2019, and created in the years before that. Eve died December 17, 2021. She had Huntington’s Disease, which may have been a factor in the squalor that Lili saw. At some point before her death, Eve went into assisted living.
This is a repost from 2023, which was a more simple time than today. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. The Hollywood’s Eve series is available. two three four
A Book About Woodstock
This is a repost from 2011. … I read The Road to Woodstock, by Micheal Lang, ghostwritten by Holly George-Warren. Mr. Lang was one the the producers of the Woodstock music and arts festival in 1969. Mr. Lang was a Brooklyn kid, who got turned onto the counterculture in 1959. When he decided that college was not for him, he did what Jews do … he moved to Miami. Before long, he owned a head shop, and was promoting a rock festival. The Miami Pop Festival, in 1968, featuring Jimi Hendrix and a big rainstorm, was sort of a success.
Micheal Lang was back in New York soon. Mr. Lang met Artie Kornfield, who was in the recording business. They started to talk about ventures, and had an idea for a recording studio in Upstate New York. They met some guys with capital, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman. The four of them became Woodstock Ventures. A music festival in the country got started.
Fast forward to 2010. I am in a waiting room at the Department of Labor. A book is a handy companion in a waiting room. I brought a notepad along. … I am reading a memoir about the Woodstock festival, and it is a gold mine of trivia. Did anyone know that Joan Baez was pregnant? Jim Morrison would not appear because he was afraid of an on stage assassination. The promoters kept Pete Tomnsend up until 8am to convince him to play.
I got my business done at the DOL, and the festival on Yasgur’s farm went off. There was a lot of chaos and ignorance, but good will saw the thing through. The first act to perform was Richie Havens. He was playing an acoustic set while the electric PA was set up, and was not allowed to leave the stage. Finally he ran out of material, and just started to say the word Freedom and jam. This is what appeared in the movie. … I saw Richie Havens in 1974, at a nightclub in Atlanta called Richards. Havens played a Guild guitar, which he strummed, hard, across the front of the instrument. He would wear holes in the front of his guitar, which apparently did not last for more than a show or two. The crowd … this was the second show of the evening, starting at 2am … kept yelling for Freedom.
In Woodstock, the town of Walkill kicked out the festival, and, with a few weeks to go, they met Max Yasgur. Max rented the farm to 50k. Bethel approved the festival July 21, one day after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. The festival was August 15-17. … Back to the dairy farm. The story is familiar by now…it was a free concert, they ran out of food, and tie dye was perfected. Abbie Hoffman jumped on the stage during the Who, and Pete Townsend hit him upside the head with a guitar. Stephen Stills did not need a laxative. After Jimi Hendrix played the final set, the crowds went home, and the workers wanted to get paid. A series of meetings took place to settle the business end of the festival. Lang and Kornfield were bought out, and Roberts and Rosenman owned the franchise.
The Woodstock festival was a milestone of sorts. Richard Nixon was new to the Presidency, and the war in Vietnam was going strong. The moratorium in the fall of 1969 was the high water mark of the anti war movement. Soon, the government started to withdraw troops, and look for “peace with honor.” Promoters found festival sites with sturdy gates. And so on and so forth. The sixties were too beautiful to live, and too profitable to die.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The featured photograph was taken September 1863.
“Culpeper, Virginia. William H. French and Staff”.
Sixty Dumb Quotes
This repost was originally published January 08, 2012. At that time, no one could have forseen the prophecy of quote number four. The idea that Donald Trump’s (seldom mentioned) first wife could have said “Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything” was marginally noteworthy in 2012. There is a saying, life is bad fiction. Donald J.Trump is an example.
· Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life. – Brooke Shields
· If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure. – Dan Quayle
· So, where’s the Cannes Film Festival being held this year? — Christina Aguilera
· Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything. – Ivana Trump
· I’m convinced the Beatles are partly responsible for the fall of Communism. – Milos Forman .
· When I’m a blonde, I can say the world is purple, and they’ll believe me because they weren’t listening to me. – Kylie Bax, Model/Actress.
· The internet is a great way to get on the net. – Bob Dole
· You guys, line up alphabetically by height. – Bill Peterson, football coach
· I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada. – Britney Spears
· I think war is a dangerous place. – George W. Bush
· I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father. – Greg Norman, Golfer
· It’s nice, it gives you a feeling of security so that if something breaks we know we can always call a guy over and he’ll bring a drill or something. – Brooke Shields
· Rotarians, be patriotic! Learn to shoot yourself. – Gyrator, Chicago Rotary Club journal
· These people haven’t seen the last of my face. If I go down, I’m going down standing up.
Chuck Person, NBA Basketball player
· I’m so smart now. Everyone’s always like ‘take your top off’. Sorry, NO! They always want to get that money shot. I’m not stupid. – Paris Hilton
· I think gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman
Arnold Schwarzenegger
· Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can’t help but cry.
· I mean I’d love to be skinny like that but not with all those flies and death and stuff.
Mariah Carey
· Predictions are difficult. Especially about the future. – Yogi Berra
· My sister’s expecting a baby, and I don’t know if I’m going to be an uncle or an aunt.
Chuck Nevitt, basketball player
· The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation’s history. I mean in this century’s history. But we all lived in this century. I didn’t live in this century. – Dan Quayle
· And now the sequence of events in no particular order. – Dan Rather
· Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods. – George W Bush
· The doctors X-rayed my head and found nothing. – Dizzy Dean
· I was in a no-win situation, so I’m glad that I won rather than lost. – Frank Bruno, Boxer
· I have opinions of my own –strong opinions– but I don’t always agree with them. – George Bush
· I want to rush for 1,000 or 1,500 yards, whichever comes first. – George Rogers, NFL RB
· I do not like this word “bomb.” It is not a bomb. It is a device that is exploding.
Jacques le Blanc, French ambassador
· The word ‘genius’ isn’t applicable in football.
A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein. – Joe Theisman
· Half this game is ninety percent mental. – Danny Ozark, Philadelphia Phillies manager
· Be sure and put some of those neutrons on it.
Mike Smith, Baseball pitcher, ordering a salad at a restaurant.
· If I sold all my liabilities, I wouldn’t own anything. My wife’s a liability, my kids are liabilities, and I haven’t sold them. – Ted Turner
· They misunderestimated me. – George W Bush
· I don’t diet. I just don’t eat as much as I’d like to. – Linda Evangelista, Supermodel
· Facts are stupid things. – Ronald Reagan
· What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful.
How true that is. – Dan Quayle
· That’s just the tip of the ice cube. – Neil Hamilton, BBC2
· A bachelor’s life is no life for a single man. – Samuel Goldwyn
· I may be dumb, but I’m not stupid. – Terry Bradshaw, Former football player/announcer
· It isn’t pollution that is hurting the environment,
· It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it. – Dan Quayle
· I’ve never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body. –
Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward.
· The only happy artist is a dead artist, because only then you can’t change.
After I die, I’ll probably come back as a paintbrush. – Sylvestor Stallone
· Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.
Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC
· We are not ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur. – Dan Quayle
· Will the highways on the internet become more few? – George W Bush
· Traditionally, most of Australia’s imports come from overseas.
Keppel Enderbery, Former Australian cabinet minister
· There is certainly more in the future now than back in 1964. – Roger Daltrey
· We’re going to turn this team around 360 degrees. – Jason Kidd
· I’ve never really wanted to go to Japan. Simply because I don’t like eating fish.
· And I know that’s very popular out there in Africa. – Britney Spears
· Pitching is 80% of the game.
· The other half is hitting and fielding. – Mickey Rivers, baseball player
· I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix. – Dan Quayle
· Put the ‘off’ button on. – George W. Bush
· So Carol, you’re a housewife and mother. And have you got any children? -Michael Barrymore
· Food is an important part of a balanced diet. – Fran Lebowitz, US writer
· We’ve got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need? – Lee Iacocca
· For NASA, space is still a high priority. – Dan Quayle
· He’s a guy who gets up at six o’clock in the morning regardless of what time it is.
Lou Duva, veteran boxing trainer
· If it weren’t for electricity we’d all be watching television by candlelight. – George Gobel
· If only faces could talk… – Pat Summerall
· Every minute was more exciting than the next. – Linda Evans, actress
· I’m not anorexic. I’m from Texas. Are there people from Texas that are anorexic?
I’ve never heard of one. And that includes me. — Jessica Simpson
DISCLAIMER: The accuracy, legitimacy, and context, of these quotes is not known. They have not been verified. Quotes were originally published by 2Spare , a digital facility that advertises “Endless entertainment to spare”. I do not know where 2Spare got this content. 2Spare is for sale. Even though most of the quotes originated in English, the possibility of translation errors exists. The original title was “60 Dumbest Celebrity Quotes”. The use of the superlative is questionable, as is the celebrity status of Dan Quayle. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. William Morris Smith took the photograph in November 1865. “Arlington, Va. Band of 107th U.S. Colored Infantry at Fort Corcoran.”
LATAWNYA, the Naughty Horse
Today’s feature is a repost from 2014. … Awful library books is one of the actors in this drama. It is a good waste of your time. On top of the shelf today is Lee the Rabbit with Epilepsy. Other uplifting volumes on the front page include Isn’t One Wife Enough?: the Story of Mormon Polygamy and When Cavemen Go Bowling. Awful Library Books retired in 2023.
The book that Awful Library Books chose to “weed” was Latawnya, the Naughty Horse, Learns to Say “No” to Drugs. The links in the original post no longer work, so google was enlisted to find a replacement. Believe it or not, this galloping tale has a wikipedia page.
The original book was targeted at African American youth. The author has daughters named Latawnya and Chrystal. The author has sued amazon, wikipedia, and urban dictionary.
A possibly illegal reproduction is found using the link. One of the comments tells a cautionary tale: “It seems that many of these comments are viciously lampooning the work of a genius. I, however, see the visionary work of Mrs. Gibson. This insightful masterpiece presents the very real dangers of horse peer pressure. Just last week my daughter, Amber, was walking to school on a normal, idyllic day in suburbia. Then out of nowhere a Clydesdale galloped brazenly over to my precious princess and offered her a 40 oz bottle of Olde English 800 and a marijuana cigarette.”
Clydesdales have long been used to promote the products of the Anheuser-Busch company. (When you click on that link, a page pops up: WE NEED TO CHECK YOUR ID YOU MUST BE OF LEGAL DRINKING AGE TO ENTER THIS SITE) When I was younger, I worked on the mall maintenance crew at Northlake Mall. One day, the Budweiser Clydesdales made a visit. I was given a shovel and bucket, and told to walk behind the horses.
Courtesy of Awfullibrarybooks, we can see today “LATAWNYA, the Naughty Horse, Learns to say “No” to Drugs“. This uplifting story is about the afternoon when Latawnya goes out to play with her sisters Daisy and LaToya. Suddenly they meet four strange horses, Connie, Chrystal, Jackie, and Angie. They like to drink and smoke drugs.
The author of this tale was born in Mississippi, and lives in California. She says “Thank you, G-d”.
One of the reasons for the drug problem is drug education. Many of these programs, while well intentioned, make the problem worse.
In 1986, there was an oversupply of cocaine coming into America, and new ways of using the product were needed. Someone had the idea of making crack. The media did its part, by running scare stories about the new drug sensation. “One puff makes your head feel like it is exploding”. The stories had the combined effect of scaring parents, and making crack cocaine irresistible to certain people. Crack became a part of the life.
The first time I heard about oxycontin was a drug education flyer at work. It promised an overwhelming rush to the user who injected the substance. I imagined the reaction of some of the druggies he had known to this promise…where can I get some?
I am in the detoxed, old fogey stage of his life. Millions of others are not. When they read stories about horses who drink and smoke drugs, they learn to believe the opposite of what the drug educators tell them. Many will not live to be detoxed old fogeys. The pictures for this tale of drug-free stallions are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library
Twenty Three Thoughts
Twenty Three Thoughts was originally published January 23, 2009. … “23 skiddoo” is said to be the first national slang saying. It’s origin is is bit uncertain, making 23S with mythmakers. One story
involves a place on 23rd street in New York, with a lot of wind blowing about. The legend is that men would hang out on 23rd street, near the Flatiron building, to see the wind pick up ladies skirts. UrbanDictionary goes along with this story.
23 is a prime number. The only way to get it through multiplication is 23×1. However, using division, we see that 69/3 is 23. 69 sometimes refers to an act that involves two people. The concept of 69 divided by three is rather gruesome. · UrbanDictionary calls 23 the greatest number of all time. · 23 is an odd number. · Psalm 23 is one of the high points of the Bible. · 2 divided by 3 is .666 · 6+6+6+2+3=23 · The number 23 in the alphabet is W. If you can’t say anything good, say it about him. · Dr. Pepper is the combination of 23 flavors. 10+2+4 =16. If you add lucky 7, you get 23.
Willie Shakespeare was born April 23, 1564. He died April 23, 1616. · Samuel Morse sent the first telegraph message on May 24, 1844. “What hath God wrought” was from the Bible passage Numbers 23:23 · On January 23, 1973, Richard Nixon announced a peace accord for the Vietnam War.
On January 23, 1978, Terry Kath (Guitar player for the band Chicago) came home from a night of partying. He picked up a 9mm pistol, and held it to his head. He said, “ don’t worry, it’s not loaded.” He was mistaken, with fatal consequences. · Human DNA has 23 chromosomes. 23andMe can tell you more about where those 23 chromosomes came from.
23 enigma is one phrase for this vortex of coincidence. William S. Burroughs is credited by some for first noting the 23 enigma. “I first heard of the 23 enigma from William S Burroughs … According to Burroughs, he had known a certain Captain Clark, around 1960 in Tangier, who once bragged that he had been sailing 23 years without an accident. That very day, Clark’s ship had an accident that killed him and everybody else aboard. Furthermore, while Burroughs was thinking about this crude example of the irony of the gods that evening, a bulletin on the radio announced the crash of an airliner in Florida, USA. The pilot was another captain Clark and the flight was Flight 23.”
“Clyde Champion Barrow and Bonnie Parker were shot to death by officers in an ambush near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana on May 23, 1934.” · The Library of Congress supplied the photographs illustrating this post. Russell Lee took the featured photograph in May 1942. “Japanese-Americans being evacuated from certain West coast areas under United States Army war emergency order, and waiting for transportation to the reception center. Salinas CA”
Walmart Suicide Video
This is a repost from 2015. … I was stumbling through facebook when I saw enthusiastic praise some. Against my better judgement, I clicked on the video. Within seconds, it was familiar.
Paige Yore (she wants you to know her name) made a video about an incident at Walmart. The video was shot in that annoying cell phone style, with a skinny image in the middle of a blank screen. In the story, Ms. Yore was at walmart, when a lady before her had a problem with a cashier. Ms. Yore intervenes, a unicorn army parades through the store, and all is well with the world.
It was just another inspirational video, until the lies got thick. “The young cashier stopped in his tracks and began crying. He came from the bagging area and began hugging Paige. He told her that his mother committed suicide that morning. He said he had to work because he has to pay rent and bills. “This woman is yelling at me and I don’t even have a mom anymore,” said the young man.” At this point, I realized it was a fraud.
Apparently, other people were not fooled. A local tv reporter did some checking. Walmart found a surveillance video of the incident. The lady did not hug the cashier, whose mother is still alive.
The perpetrator of this video is unrepentant. “I just want everyone to know that I am here to inspire people. I’m not here to cause any problems. I’m just a normal girl from Idaho, just another cow girl, and just happened to go viral. Did I plan on it? Absolutely not. Did I want that? Probably not.” In another comment thread she adds “I’m not bipolar and never been diagnosed.”
People, don’t believe everything you hear. If you want inspiration, look at the sky outside, and marvel that a creature that can see this exists. Don’t let people pull your chain all the time. Cynicism is ugly. But when you are lied to repeatedly, it is what is left. Pictures by The Library of Congress.
The Cynic’s Word Book R – S
What follows are selections from The Devil’s Dictionary, by Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce. TDD began as a newspaper column, and was later published as The Cynic’s Word Book. TDD is in the public domain. TDD is a dictionary, going from A to Z. Today’s selection covers R to S. More selections are available. A – D E – G H – I J – L M – O P – R Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
REPORTER, n. A writer who guesses his way to the truth and dispels it with a tempest of words.
RESOLUTE, adj. Obstinate in a course that we approve.
REVERENCE, n. The spiritual attitude of a man to a god and a dog to a man.
RIME, n. Agreeing sounds in the terminals of verse, mostly bad. The verses themselves, as distinguished from prose, mostly dull. Usually (and wickedly) spelled “rhyme.”
RIOT, n. A popular entertainment given to the military by innocent bystanders.
R.I.P. A careless abbreviation of requiescat in pace, attesting an indolent goodwill to the dead. According to the learned Dr. Dubious Drigge, however, the letters originally meant nothing more than reductus in pulvis.
ROAD, n. A strip of land along which one may pass from where it is too tiresome, to be to where it is futile to go, with a maximum of expense and aggravation.
RUM, n. Generically, fiery liquors that produce madness in total abstainers.
RUSSIAN, n. A person with a Caucasian body and a Mongolian soul. A Tartar Emetic.
SACERDOTALIST, n. One who holds the belief that a clergyman is a priest. Denial of this momentous doctrine is the hardest challenge that is now flung into the Epistolarian teeth of the Episcopalian church by the Neo-Dictionarians.
SAINT, n. A dead sinner revised and edited.
SCRIBBLER, n. A professional writer whose views are antagonistic to one’s own.
SCRIPTURES, n. The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.
SELF-ESTEEM, n. An erroneous appraisement. Spell check suggestions: appeasement, entrapment
SELF-EVIDENT, adj. Evident to one’s self and to nobody else.
SELFISH, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.
SENATE, n. A body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and misdemeanors.
SLANG, n. The grunt of the human hog (Pignoramus intolerabilis) with an audible memory. The speech of one who utters with his tongue what he thinks with his ear, and feels the pride of a creator in accomplishing the feat of a parrot. A means (under Providence) of setting up as a wit without a capital of sense.
Scimitar
SCIMITAR, n. A curved sword of exceeding keenness, in the conduct of which certain Orientals attain a surprising proficiency, as the incident here related will serve to show. The account is translated from the Japanese of Shusi Itama, a famous writer of the thirteenth century.
When the great Gichi-Kuktai was Mikado he condemned to decapitation Jijiji Ri, a high officer of the Court. Soon after the hour appointed for performance of the rite, what was his Majesty’s surprise to see calmly approaching the throne the man who should have been at that time ten minutes dead!
“Seventeen hundred impossible dragons!” shouted the enraged monarch. “Did I not sentence you to stand in the market-place and have your head struck off by the public executioner at three o’clock? And is it not now 3:10?”
“Son of a thousand illustrious deities,” answered the condemned minister, “all that you say is so true that the truth is a lie in comparison. But your heavenly Majesty’s sunny and vitalizing wishes have been pestilently disregarded. With joy I ran and placed my unworthy body in the market-place. The executioner appeared with his bare scimitar, ostentatiously whirled it in air, and then, tapping me lightly upon the neck, strode away, pelted by the populace, with whom I was ever a favorite. I am come to pray for justice upon his own dishonorable and treasonous head.”
“To what regiment of executioners does the black-boweled caitiff belong?” asked the Mikado. “To the gallant Ninety-eight Hundred and Thirty-seventh—I know the man. His name is Sakko-Samshi.” “Let him be brought before me,” said the Mikado to an attendant, and a half-hour later the trembling culprit stood in the Presence of the Mikado.
“Thou bastard son of a three-legged hunchback without thumbs!” roared the sovereign—”why didst thou but lightly tap the neck that it should have been thy pleasure to sever?” “Lord of Cranes and Cherry Blooms,” replied the executioner, unmoved, “command him to blow his nose with his fingers.”
Being commanded, Jijiji Ri laid hold of his nose and trumpeted like an elephant, all expecting to see the severed head flung violently from him. Nothing occurred: the performance prospered peacefully to the close, without incident.
All eyes were now turned on the executioner, who had grown as white as the snows on the summit of Fujiama. His legs trembled and his breath came in gasps of terror. “Several kinds of spike-tailed brass lions!” he cried; “I am a ruined and disgraced swordsman! I struck the villain feebly because in flourishing the scimitar I had accidentally passed it through my own neck! Father of the Moon, I resign my office.” So saying, he gasped his top-knot, lifted off his head, and advancing to the throne laid it humbly at the Mikado’s feet.
This uplifting passage is borrowed from The Devil’s Dictionary, by Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce. TDD began as a newspaper column, and published as The Cynic’s Word Book. TDD is in the public domain, and was named one of “The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature” by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration.
When you google “Shusi Itama,” you are directed to Sushi Tama, a restaurant in Los Angeles, CA. If you persist in searching for Mr. Itama, you learn that ITAMA stands for “Institute of Traditional Asian Martial Arts, East Lansing, MI.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress
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