You kept asking so we brought it back! Now available in all sizes, get yours now at https://t.co/KdDVU6UxLJ pic.twitter.com/oORxNmyZhn
— Insane Clown Posse (@icp) June 16, 2020
OK, OK, if you need to keep your monuments to pro-slavery traitors, fine, but they need to include this “decoration”
[Confederate Memorial in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina] pic.twitter.com/ji4Vjlzlor— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) June 13, 2020
Will no one think of the pigeons? pic.twitter.com/xx5kB5UB1T
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) June 13, 2020
I should mention that now and then Congress approves statues that fall under their own jurisdiction and play games with the placement. There's a Rosa Parks statue that's deliberately positioned so that it looks like Jefferson Davis is glaring at it, disturbed
— Gorilla Warfare (@MenshevikM) June 13, 2020
So why are Republicans complaining? pic.twitter.com/8AyiDLPz2W
— Eric Kleefeld (@EricKleefeld) June 12, 2020
RWers: bet you libs don’t wanna see a statue of Robert Byrd torn down!
Libs: Yeah, tear it down
RW: suddenly when it’s someone you love as much as we love Jeff Davis!
Libs: tear it all the way down!
RW: I mean what’s good for the goose…
Libs: Tear. It. Down!
RW: owned
— Michael Huckins (@MichaelEHuck) June 12, 2020
Sidebar from a professional art historian:
Perspective: Pulling down Confederate statues is a powerful statement.
But it won’t erase the shame. https://t.co/z0q9u6DMSW
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 12, 2020
Mary G
Baud
Forget it, AL. It’s a lost cause.
MisterForkbeard
I’m always surprised that Republican see Democrats saying “Yep, that was awful even if the guy was a Democrat” as some kind of massive failure.
No, Democrats are actually moral, consistent people. Learn from us, you imbeciles.
Patricia Kayden
Omnes Omnibus
I am very conflicted about the ICP stuff.
Brachiator
@MisterForkbeard:
Well, the modern Democratic Party, after 1972, has been pretty good, but no political party has a monopoly on virtue.
The difference is that conservatives want to insist that the myth of American Exceptionalism, including moral perfection, is a real thing.
laura
I enjoy every single time this particular blog shouts out Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope – they stand up for our Constitutional Rights on the regular. It takes all kinds to make this world go round and I’d rather a juggalo than a “those types of people with the arms” but you wont see me at a gathering – not that there’s anything wrong with it if that’s your thing.
MisterForkbeard
@Brachiator: Oh, sure. And we have our fair share of stinkers.
But the modern party has been pretty good, and on a huge upward trajectory since the 30s. Almost every public good has come from us, and we’re willing to admit when we fucked up.
Martin
@MisterForkbeard: Somehow they think the ‘Democrats founded the Klan’ is some kind of owning the libs, when pretty much all of us know that the last of them moved to the GOP under Nixon.
Another Scott
Cheers,
Scott.
Wyatt Salamanca
To any Joyceans out there, Happy Bloomsday!
Molly Bloom Soliloquy
Short Version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii_aZ6djNkM
Long Version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2BP_I6kuOw
Omnes Omnibus
@MisterForkbeard: It comes from taking American Exceptionalism and the “Shining City on a hill” imagery as aspirational not as a given.
Martin
Policing reforms need to extend to what happens after arrest.
laura
@Wyatt Salamanca: OMG are you listening to the you tubing?
https://www.symphonyspace.org/events/virtual-bloomsday-on-broadway
Mike in NC
I’ve driven past that Confederate statue in Wilmington, NC many times. I believe the crackers in the NC legislature rammed through a bill to protect that sort of crap several years ago. Fortunately there are very few like it in this part of the state, which was wilderness until the 1960s. Maybe a blue wave in November will set things right.
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus: I’d apologize to you (& Billin), but I figured the whole point to ICP is that clowns are terrifying.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie: If we can accept Never Trumper Republicans as temporary allies, I guess we can accept clowns too. But I’ll be watching them.
kindness
It’s funny when the Insane Clown Posse is shown to have higher standards of patriotism than most conservatives.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Mr Davis is merely jealous that Mrs Parks looks better in a shawl than he does (When the US Army captured Davis he was wearing his wife’s shaw)
Martin
@kindness: When you set a low enough bar…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: I share your feelings on this.
Wyatt Salamanca
@laura:
Hi,
Bless you for sharing this link! I didn’t know that Symphony Space was holding the event this year. Kudos to them for doing so. I’d also like to extend a big FUCK YOU to WNYC FM and WBAI FM for not simulcasting this event. There actually once was a time when these 2 radio stations simultaneously aired dueling Ulysses marathon readings.
Jeffro
Lincoln Project just dropped another hit on trumpov, “ #trumpisnotwell
OUCH
HumboldtBlue
I think I have found mnemosyne, who knew she was living undercover in Ventura County and was always a secret Trump supporter?
And the white flag on the traitor’s memorial is a brilliant touch.
Brachiator
@MisterForkbeard:
The Democratic Party had made a deal with the devil in accommodating racist Dixiecrats. The public good, even during the era of FDR, often excluded black people, or was not fully inclusive. However, the party had the guts to look inward and began wrestling with it’s racism.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
It’s an interesting question how some of these historical figures should be remembers; sure Braxton Bragg is an utter, pathetic joke of a man, but take Churchill for example ; The Black and Tan in Ireland, messing the British Economy over by putting it on the gold standard and India. On the other there is leading the fight against the Nazis. There has to be a nuanced way to deal with them so there is no rehabilitation in the future.
SiubhanDuinne
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Oh, thank you. The short version of Molly’s soliloquy is achingly beautiful (I’ve bookmarked the longer version for late-night listening).
Thrilled to know there are other Joyceans amongst the Jackals.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@HumboldtBlue: Doesn’t look like her, but IIRC she does have a brother in TO.
SiubhanDuinne
@laura:
Thank you so much for this.
Brachiator
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Ah, yes. A fun little read, Ulysses.
HumboldtBlue
@Jeffro:
Here ya go
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I thought she was a far better singer, and yes, I believe she mentioned local family when we were commenting on the Simi fire where I have kin.
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I feel you should be aware of this recent LA Times story:
How do clowns survive the pandemic? Joke through masks, perform on camera — and disinfect those balloon animals
They’re in your neighborhood!
L85NJGT
I’m starting to believe that Kim Jong Un is dead or incapacitated, and Kim Yo Jong is trying to secure her place on the throne.
Patricia Kayden
Jeffro
@HumboldtBlue: yup
firing for effect now
Brachiator
@Martin:
In social media, this is always tied to some rigid “America is not racist” or “Democrats are the real racists” bullshit.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@HumboldtBlue: I grew up in TO.
@dmsilev: OMG, I was just walking the girls and one house had a big “Day Care” banner.
SiubhanDuinne
@Brachiator:
When my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he decided that what he most wanted was to have me read Finnegans Wake aloud to him every night. I made it almost all the way through in the two or so years we had before he died.
There are three huge gifts my father left me: (1) Joyce, especially The Wake; (2) Wagner, especially The Ring; and (3) baseball, especially, but by no means exclusively, the Braves.
I’m actually working on a book/long essay/writing thing about the commonalities among the three gifts. There’re more similarities than you might guess.
HumboldtBlue
Make a lane! Make a lane!
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Well, be warned that clowns may be lurking within. Take any and all necessary precautions.
SiubhanDuinne
@Patricia Kayden:
If that’s true, it is — as everything is these days — both tragic and enraging.
rikyrah
I will miss their talent when they go work for Willard.
HumboldtBlue
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I think I knew that from the fire chat.
Patricia Kayden
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne:
If I squint real hard, I might see a connection to Wagner, but baseball?
That essay sounds very interesting. Hope you get it completed.
SiubhanDuinne
@HumboldtBlue:
I love that there are adorable little calves running side by side with wheezy, grunting, out-of-shape elders. Circle of fucking life v
trollhattan
@Patricia Kayden:
Barr v. Bolton in a ratfucking competition–talk about conflicted!
SiubhanDuinne
@Brachiator:
The BJ community will be the first to know! And, yeah, baseball for sure!
Yutsano
@SiubhanDuinne: Notice how even the weaker elders at the back are doing their best to keep the younglings in line? They’d been doing this a long time before any of us ended up coming to their habitat.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Bless your dad.
I’m leaving my kid with love of the Seahawks and Larry David, repugnance towards beer and a vague sense that the world doesn’t need men. And no Oxford comma.
laura
@Wyatt Salamanca: Sharks and Jets man – what’re ya gonna do?
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
I love the line “We’re not doctors, but …” to accompany a photo of the weirdo Doc Feelgood who wrote a letter attesting Trump’s robust health AT TRUMP’S DICTATION!!
SiubhanDuinne
@Yutsano:
It’s lovely, innit?
Mary G
Democrats out with a good commercial:
Learned a bit from the Republicans with the scary narrator and all.
laura
@SiubhanDuinne: Every year I aspire to really Bloomsday it up – and every year I have negotiations or a hearing or a something I cant get out of. Today’s no different, but at least I can drop in for a reading or three and my heart soars. Dustiest book on the bedside table.
HumboldtBlue
@trollhattan:
This an example of what’s wrong with this country today. This is what is being taught, nee — FORCED DOWN THE THROATS OF OUR CHILDREN — in schools.
No wonder the bad men win.
trollhattan
@HumboldtBlue:
Wow, that’s a big dang list of what she’s not. I have a few thoughts on what she is.
What must the transcript look like?
SiubhanDuinne
@laura:
I know. It’s glorious, exquisite prose.
Another Scott
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: And the RMS Lusitania:
True? Dunno.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Yutsano
@Mary G: ALEXA! ORDER ALL THE FAINTING COUCHES!
Ooh the press is going to have a field day here. “Why is Joe Biden going negative at a time when we need unity?” Mrs Greenspan will be quite bovvered tomorrow methinks.
trollhattan
@HumboldtBlue:
She has decided White Claw is a-okay. [Head hangs in shame.]
TBF we’ve had her sip various wines and describe what she tastes for awhile, encouraging her to use whatever adjectives she wishes. She’s good, with a very discerning palate, could possibly do the sommelier track if ever so-inclined (an area with very few females).
Another Scott
@Patricia Kayden:
Yeah, they’re that petty and malicious.
Cheers,
Scott.
HumboldtBlue
@trollhattan:
Can you imagine what the first rough drafts were like?
@SiubhanDuinne: @Yutsano:
I know less about bison than I do Joyce but I thought the first black-haired bull was exerting dominance, was that just “hey stay in line dumbass!”?
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
All three require an ass of steel in order to get to the end?
;)
Wyatt Salamanca
@Brachiator:
It ain’t beach reading, but it hits the spot for me
Martin
@Another Scott: If the goal is to get Bolton killed by feral Trumpers, I can live with that.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
I don’t know. I put this next to assertions that FDR deliberately let Pearl Harbor happen.
However, I recently read a review of a book about other efforts Churchill made to get the US to assist Britain.
Cannot remember the title and a fast search did not pop it up. Drat!
Ken
Rooting for injuries isn’t enough?
Wyatt Salamanca
@SiubhanDuinne:
You’re welcome, glad you liked it.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@dmsilev:
Oh.
As a bona fide clown-hater from the time I was 4, I was hoping that the pandemic would wipe every one of the creepy fuckers out for good.
mrmoshpotato
On this Bloomsday, a tale.
Old Dan and Little Ann
New Cole is trending #2 on Twitter. For a split second I thought our gracious blog host really hit it big.
Wyatt Salamanca
If any of the Joyceans among you are also Walt Whitman fans, this year’s marathon reading of Song of Myself is posted here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FE8NtxQ8_g&feature=emb_err_woyt
Yutsano
@HumboldtBlue: There are several males at the head of the herd who are the most dominant and determine the direction. Along the way there are males and females of various maturity who keep the juveniles and the calves with the herd. You can see about 20 seconds in where one gets “told off” for wandering off course. The elders keep up the stragglers in the back.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Another Scott:
I’ve heard that one for years.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
Looking at the pictures from the Colorado counter-protests from earlier today, I noticed all sorts of Gadsden flags…from people openly supporting unchecked abuse of power by government officials. If there’s one good thing Trump did, it was ripping the mask off all the faux libertarians, revealing the authoritarians underneath.
Freedom for me but not for thee.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Aha! Another commonality!
Wyatt Salamanca
@SiubhanDuinne:
I love this list, your father had great taste.
Speaking of baseball, did you know that Ken Burns’ Baseball documentary can now be streamed for free at this link
https://www.pbs.org/show/baseball/
Krope, the Formerly Dope
Pretty consistent the last few years. It’s nice to see celebrities with such a committed following using their influence for good.
SiubhanDuinne
@Wyatt Salamanca:
I’m OD-ing here.
Thanks. Another bookmark.
HumboldtBlue
@Yutsano:
Thanks.
SiubhanDuinne
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Awesome. One of my great memories is watching Baseball with my dad, a few months before he died.
The Moar You Know
@L85NJGT: Funny you should mention. I saw the news about Kaesong this morning and thought “oh, this is a done deal”. Kim Jong Un flat-out would not have done that.
Wyatt Salamanca
@HumboldtBlue:
@SiubhanDuinne:
This reminds me of a quip I once heard from someone that Joyce scholars like to joke that there are more people in the world who understand Einstein’s General and Special Theories of Relativity than there are people who understand Finnegans Wake.
Yutsano
@The Moar You Know: Okay I know I’m still in hospital and all but what the French toast did I miss?
EDIT: answered my own question. HOLY SHITBALLS…
(FYWP won’t let me post in edit)
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan:
So *you* are history’s greatest monster. Good to know.
Villago Delenda Est
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: They’ve always been neo-feudalist fucks.
NotMax
@Wyatt Salamanca
The select society of Finnegan’s woke?
;)
Wyatt Salamanca
@laura:
As a lifelong New Yorker, I hate seeing signs that the city’s cultural life is on a downward trajectory.
trnc
That’s correct. There was a big focus on Silent Sam at UNC Chapel Hill, so that statue stayed up a lot longer than it would have. IIRC, the supported removing it but had to resign when it happened because it was technically illegal. She was also constantly at odds with a right wing Board of Governors, one of whom NPR would run to with a microphone for every bit of controversy.
Gin & Tonic
@Wyatt Salamanca: An old college roommate, who went on to get a PhD in physics, was also a member of a reading group dedicated to Finnegans Wake. He may have been one of the people who understood both.
Jeffro
Amazingly, the WaPo’s hack of hacks Marc Thiessen is still trying to argue that football players kneeling during the national anthem is a dis to the country, as opposed to a protest against police brutality.
Even though the NFL itself (and the majority of the country) have already said that and understand that it’s about the brutality.
Good luck, hack! You are completely and utterly pissing in the wind here.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
I’ve long described the outcome of Libertarian policy ideas as creating the conditions for feudalism monarchy sans a constitution. My Libertarian buddy gets mad, insisting that’s not what he wants. I’d tell him it doesn’t matter whether he thinks that’s what he wants, that’s the most logical outcome of absolute laissez faire capitalism.
SiubhanDuinne
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Those Joyce scholars are having fun. The last thing in the world Finnegans Wake wants is to be “understood.”
My younger siblings are all named after one or another of my father’s lifelong passions: twins Joyce and Steve are in tribute to James Joyce and his alter ego Stephen Dedalus, and our youngest brother Rick was named for Richard Wagner. I’m the only one who wasn’t named after anybody ?
Wyatt Salamanca
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m so pissed at these goddamn owners and players for screwing us over and denying us the gift of baseball. A 50 game season would be a fucking travesty.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
I can’t believe these people mean for us to take their concerns over looting and rioting seriously to the point of overriding the message of peaceful protesters when they’ve consistently fought against all forms of peaceful protest as well.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jeffro:
Oh, Lordy! I made the mistake of clicking on that earlier today (I usually make a point of not reading Thiessen; I must have been stupefied with sleep).
Insane, illogical, and downright stupid.
Bruuuuce
Bugger bugger bugger dammit. Not that I expected to beat Sasse anyway, but at least not handing him the seat on a silver platter would have been nice.
Senate Democratic candidate urged to drop out after sexually graphic texts about staffer
Wyatt Salamanca
@Gin & Tonic:
Yes, he occupies very rarefied territory.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Coupla thoughts for today:
1. Andy Barr’s dishy wife kicking the bucket today? I think I’ll give as much of a fuck about that as he gave about kids in cages and stranded asylum seekers.
2. I had a college lit teacher assign some Joyce by making us read Ulysses. I thought it to be overweight, pretentious slop, suitable only for a doorstop.
Wyatt Salamanca
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yes, those guys have a good sense of humor.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I was supposed to be at the Yankees – Pirates game tonight in Pittsburgh. Of all the things I had planned this summer, this one bums me out the most. He’ll be 77 in August and we have not seen an MLB game together. He hates the Yankees which will make most here happy. I’m the lifelong Yankees fan.
Jeffro
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: Yup, it’s kind of unbelievable. We had the same discussion going in a family email exchange yesterday and today, with all of the ‘olds’ weighing in for all the rah-rah Amurika stuff and the ‘not-olds’ going, “You’re totally missing the point and no form of protest is acceptable to you anyway, so see ya!”
It was great!
Miss Bianca
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: Yeah, it becomes pretty obvious…to everyone except them, of course.
Wyatt Salamanca
Even though Joseph Strick’s film adaptation is an incredibly condensed and abbreviated version of Ulysses, I’d still recommend it to any Joyce fans. it reminded me a lot of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Jeffro
@SiubhanDuinne: I know, right? it had the feeling of being soooo…’last week’. So out of touch. So completely ignorant of where the vast majority of Americans are on this issue.
Miss Bianca
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yeah, I’m kind of with you on Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake...they don’t do a damn thing for me…but Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist both made a HUGE impression on me as a youth, and I still think Dubliners in particular is one of the most perfect examples of its art out there.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Bruuuuce:
I agree that sucks. I’d love to see every single Rethuglican in the House and Senate have to work hard to keep their seats.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
@Wyatt Salamanca: Maybe they’ll still pull it out somehow. Most of us know the difference between problematic ally and someone openly fighting for exploitation and further entrenching existing broken power structures.
And god knows the other side doesn’t blink when one of their own demonstrates sexual indiscretions.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Miss Bianca:
You should check out Joseph Strick’s adaptation of A Portrait of the Artist. John Gielgud nails it as the preacher delivering that fire and brimstone sermon.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Don’t sell doorstops short, I can always use another one.
Miss Bianca
@Wyatt Salamanca: That sermon SCARED THE MOTHERLOVIN’ CRAP OUT OF ME when I read it in high school! I remember writing in tiny little letters in my journal something about “I don’t want to go to Hell.”
ETA: No longer believe in Hell, and I bet JG delivering the old fire and brimstone would *still* give me nightmares!
Brachiator
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
A common misconception.
My favorite English course, over multiple terms, had us go into training to get ready to wrestle with Joyce. So we began with the Odyssey, then Dante and the Inferno, some Shakespeare, Ibsen, Yeats, a few side trips and then Portrait of An Artist, Dubliners and finally Ulysses.
A co-worker got into the novel by reading it out loud. There’s music in the language and quite a few puns, some quite dirty.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Missed out on being named Dizzy? Or Satchel?
Or (fates forfend) Sieglinde?
:)
Wyatt Salamanca
@Krope, the Formerly Dope:
I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that this year’s Election Day results leave me with the same feeling of (“unrestrained fucking joy” h/t Bob Ley) that I have whenever I watch the final scene of It’s a Wonderful Life.
Brachiator
I also meant to throw in that the Citizen, in the “Cyclops” episode of Ulysses is the spiritual ancestor of Trump and all his ignorant, bigoted base.
Sab
My local Republican owned grocery store chain was selling t-shirts : ” be a good neighbor, stay over there.” Of course the CEO went to Westpoint and then served in Iraq before he came home to the family business, so he is not your typical Republican.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Brachiator:
Yes, excellent spot on connection you made there! I hadn’t thought of that one.
PST
@Gin & Tonic: Three quarks for Muster Mark,
James E Powell
@L85NJGT:
Remember when that was The Big Story? Seems like last year.
The CBS story I saw called North Korea Trump’s “signature foreign policy initiative.” Does anyone but Trump see any good in his interactions with Kim Jong Un?
James E Powell
@Miss Bianca:
Love Dubliners and Portrait. I’ve been saving Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake for some future incapacitated convalescence.
eric
@Wyatt Salamanca: exactly
eric
@James E Powell: I think Eveline is the most masterfully paced read i have yet encountered.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Miss Bianca:
I hope Hell exists because i want Trump, his whole fucking family, and all of his spineless, gutless, goddamn enablers to end up there.
@eric:
Great, thanks so much for posting this video!
KSinMA
@SiubhanDuinne: Late to the thread, but I’m looking forward to reading your book.
Sloane Ranger
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: You’ve left out sending troops to the Rhondda during the 1910 miners strike and editing the Government propaganda rag, the British Gazette, during the 1926 General Strike.
As someone once joked, Churchill was on the wrong side of all the key issues of the early 20th century- except the most important one, where he was right long before anyone else.
IMO we should teach all the negative things about him but his statue should remain up. Staying in the fight against fascism despite all the pressures to negotiate a peace deserves recognition.
J R in WV
@SiubhanDuinne:
I was thinking you were named after the Pleiades, Subaru Diane, that and an ancient Greek goddess. ;-)