|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 21, 2020 12:53:48 GMT -5
That was awesome. He's back. Yeah. He's happiest in these environments. Quite adept in weaving his strong willed, self centered, self assured message. Truth be damned. But he's convincing on the surface of it. I flipped back and forth tween Fox, MSNBC, & CNN. Fox showed the whole thing uninterrupted. MSNBC, and CNN showed NOTHING of the speeches. They had coverage outside the arena. But not a live word of the speech. I was disappointed in that. A thought occured to me; he rants and raves against anarchists. Antifa. Now I don't in any way support anarchy. But I have to think Trump is the greatest anarchist of all. He's out to tear down government. Well, he's sure as hell out to replace it with an emperor - himself. Btw, I also was surprised that neither CNN nor MSNBC carried the speech live. I think I understand their reasoning: it would have amounted to giving the campaign two straight hours of free prime-time propagandizing. However, I think not carrying it was a mistake, because its news value (in my opinion) outweighed that objection. I wanted to see it myself, as it happened, so I could form my own judgments. I watched the whole thing on Fox.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 20, 2020 16:25:22 GMT -5
So, the current state of play: Barr says he's asked Trump to fire the guy, and that he has now done so. Fifteen minutes later (give or take), Trump says he's not involved in the matter, and refers all questions to Barr.
Send in Abbott and Costello.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 18, 2020 17:18:43 GMT -5
I wonder if there are any special precautions being planned for the air circulating near the podium. Maybe some positive air pressure, a source of fresh air, or ventilation set up so that any air is always moving away from it, rather than towards/across it, from the audience. I've been having similar thoughts. I wonder what one of those photos that show droplets spraying out of people's mouths would look like at that rally, however long it will last. Many (maybe billions?) droplets will be microscopic, and could float around inside the hall for hours. Epidemiologists say the longer the exposure, the better the chances of infection. I wonder if Trump has gotten any cautionary advice from CDC about this. Not whether it has been taken, but if it has been given. Knowing Trump's bad reaction to advice he doesn't want to hear. I wonder if Pence or other high-ranking officials who will be in attendance have been advised of the danger, and what if anything they plan to do about it. I wonder if the Secret Service, which is supposed to protect the president, has had anything to say to him. I wonder of the Secret Service agents will be wearing masks, or if they're just expected to take a microbe for the president. It seems like keeping the air moving around would be a good idea, but with the numbers of people expected, it might take a hurricane to do much good. Another possibility, of course, this is all just media hype. I guess we'll see.
|
|
|
Riddle
Jun 16, 2020 18:48:41 GMT -5
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 16, 2020 18:48:41 GMT -5
Dang. Bruce beat me to it.
|
|
|
Riddle
Jun 16, 2020 18:48:01 GMT -5
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 16, 2020 18:48:01 GMT -5
The correct answer is 1 in that sentence.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 15, 2020 22:38:33 GMT -5
Looks good. Echoes of Doctor Zhivago. Russian poet-aristocrat snarled up in the revolution.
A coincidence: In my novel, The Constable's Tale, I referred to a little 18th-century booklet, The Rules of Civility, that a teacher made young George Washington copy out to teach him about etiquette. (True fact.) I researched the title to see if I might run into copyright problems, and came across a 2012 book of the same name by this author, Towles - his first novel. It looked good, so I made a note to read it, and went ahead and used the title in my book. (Generally you can't copyright a title.) Towles' Rules is still on my to-read list.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 11, 2020 10:30:21 GMT -5
Happy birthday Todd lad. In celebration, I've already started on your third cake.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 10, 2020 11:19:07 GMT -5
Happy birthday friend. Thanks for all the enlightenment and good sense you bring here.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 8, 2020 22:25:07 GMT -5
I saw it just now. Bad taste. Very bad taste. It's an abhorrent picture. The guy should be severely reprimanded, given one of those embarrassing and stern "one more time" talks, forced to give a sincere public apology, all of that stuff. But he shouldn't have been fired. We are all living through tough times, and we are all bound to make mistakes. All of us. Many of us have. We can't fire people for mistakes like this. You're being awfully magnanimous, Todd. I guess where I come down on the matter of to fire or not to fire depends how closely the dude is linked with Fender in the public eye. If it's close, and that seems to be the case, certainly in the guitar community, Fender really had no choice but to take decisive action and fire him, lest it be thought they think posting such an obscenity fits in with their corporate culture. I don't think a slap on the wrist would have been taken seriously by anybody, including him.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 8, 2020 16:58:48 GMT -5
Thanks for posting this, Todd. Given the circumstances, I might have fallen for it too, and I'm no idiot, so to speak.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 8, 2020 15:10:06 GMT -5
I haven't read every word of this thread, so forgive me if the subject of endgame has already been discussed, but that never stopped me before. I think the odds are slowly improving that Trump will continue blundering through life in the White House until his Republican support in the Senate collapses and he agrees to resign in return for a pardon from Pence. Exactly the pattern followed by Nixon in Watergate, which already bears many similarities. The scandal kept simmering through the summer of 1974 until at last the missing tape turned up. That pushed Senate Republicans over the edge. A small group of GOP power centers including House committee chairmen and led by Senators Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott as the senior wise old heads met with Nixon in the Oval Office on August 7 and told him the gig was up, he could not avoid impeachment and expulsion.
We're still a long ways from that kind of ending, but that's the direction things are heading, in my opinion, witness the embarrassed stampede of GOP senators the other day to escape a press stakeout to get reaction from them about Trump's handling of the whole Floyd protest episode, especially the charge of the light brigade by mounted park policemen to clear the way for Trump's biblical photo op. Also the parade of highly respected retired senior military leaders and their blistering attack on Trump's use of National Guard and various federal paramilitary forces.
Yes, I know the standard comeback from some here is, boy, will you be surprised when Trump gets re-elected.
We'll see.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 3, 2020 14:04:19 GMT -5
Sounds like open civil war will be declared at 5 PM today. In that case I'd better see if I can dig out Great Grandpap Jim Owens's old uniform and see if it fits. He was one of Jeff Davis's bodyguards.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on Jun 1, 2020 21:44:05 GMT -5
Report from the front at 10:30 pm Monday 6/1. All is quiet on Logan Circle.* A knot of relatively peaceable protesters rolled through Thomas Circle four blocks to the south of us about an hour ago, but, thankfully (for us), they circumnavigated Thomas and headed back off in the general direction of the White House. Judging from news vids at Thomas, they looked pretty worn out from the earlier festivities at Lafayette Square, including the charge of the light brigade. Hoping they'll call it a night now.
EDIT: Except for choppers and the odd low-flying jet.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on May 31, 2020 18:59:43 GMT -5
I was thinking two emergency shipments of Big Macs, the first chopper with burgers, the second with fries, Diet Cokes and shakes. I've been on the lawn of the White House. No matter what stupid jokes you want to make about it, if you're trying to be a hero about it, you're a fucking dead man walking. Not a good place for a pasty faced white boy dressed in black with a silly mask on trying to be a hero of the resistance. Aqua: Not sure what all that means, but, hey, even a president has to eat.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on May 31, 2020 18:57:50 GMT -5
Just showed up on my iphone with an alarm at 7:50 pm 5/31/20: Mayor Bowser has ordered a curfew in DC from 11 pm tonight to 6 am. tomorrow. She's also activated the DC National Guard to support local police.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on May 31, 2020 18:29:56 GMT -5
See, they swore me to secrecy on that.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on May 31, 2020 18:21:24 GMT -5
UPDATE ON HELSIT (helicopter situation) on Logan Circle: Everything back to normal. I don't know what happened to the loud choppers. C. 200 protesters are peacefully marching on the White House eight blocks away. A couple hundred sunbathers are soaking up rays in the park in front of my house, seemingly oblivious to what's going on elsewhere in the world.
As you were.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on May 31, 2020 16:41:09 GMT -5
Four minutes later: There went another one.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on May 31, 2020 16:40:24 GMT -5
A giant helicopter (by its sound) just flew very low over my house 8 blocks from the White House flying in that direction.
I hear choppers overhead every day, but this one sounded especially ominous.
I'll let you know if the balloon is going up.
|
|
|
Post by Chesapeake on May 31, 2020 16:30:38 GMT -5
Nice story Bill.
I know the covid is not supposed to be a food-borne disease, but I still haven't gotten up the nerve to order anything. If and/or when I do, I think I'll microwave it just to be on the safe side.
|
|