With the world more or less crashing down around our ears, it’s more than nice of the New York Times to crank out one of those quasi-pissy, sometimes bitchy, behind the scenes political insider reports, “How It All Came Apart for Bernie Sanders”. As I’ve said, well, many times, I really don’t like Bernie Sanders,…
Author: Alan Vanneman
When William Gladstone died, did something else die too?
Somewhere or other I remarked that my “hobbies” include reading books about dinosaurs and British prime ministers. Well, I do, and recently I read my third biography of one of the greatest, William Gladstone, a Victorian figure second only to Victoria herself, born in 1809 and entering Parliament at age 22, where he would serve…
Bernie Sanders is going to be a very sore loser
A lot of “concerned” people, like New York’s Jonathan Chait and the Bulwark’s Jonathan Last—Jonathan V. Last, as he likes to call himself1—are telling Bernie Sanders to get the hell out of the Democratic presidential race—Johnnie V, who once studied molecular biology, making the impeccable point that Bernie’s continued campaign is a danger to public…
Taylor Donaldson Big Band—“Let’s Cool One”
Saxes: Michael Johancsik, Jason Stillman, Annie Dominique, Ted Crosby, Philippe Côté Trumpets: Alexis French, Nic Boulay, Art Kovalchuk, Scott Bevins Trombones: Nico Therrien, Taylor Donaldson, Alex Desjardins, Jean-Sebastien Vachon Piano: Andrew Boudreau Bass: Sebastien Pellerin Drums: Guillaume Pilote Arranged by Michael Johancsik. Recorded live at Café Résonance on July 14, 2015. Audio recorded by Padraig…
Of course it’s by Norman Rockwell. Can’t you tell?
Well, certainly, I can’t. This painting, “Southern Justice”, was painted by Rockwell in 1965 to commemorate the murders of three civil rights workers in Neshoba, Mississippi—Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Cheney. I was entirely unaware of its existence until I read a very long article on Rockwell that appeared recently in Vox, “The awakening…
Neocons suffering withdrawal symptoms in Afghanistan
There are about 13,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Now that number is coming down to about 8,600. Yet from the growls n’ howls emitted by unrepentant neocons like Thomas Joscelyn of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, writing in the anti-Trump Dispatch—“No Deal Is Better Than a Bad Deal”—and Iranian-born Shay Khatiri, writing in…
AMIDSTTHENOISE—“Let’s Cool One”
Felician Erlenburg, alto saxophone; Yussif Barakat, bass; Louis Potal, drums. Posted by franzsendet. Need more Monk? Of course you do, Go to Mostly Monk
Mysterious chuckling reported in the vicinity of Karl Marx’s grave
Yeah, Herr Karl got a lot of things wrong, but his prediction that economic collapses would prove endemic to capitalism has yet to fail. Six months ago, if someone had asked you how likely it was that a mysterious epidemic arising in a major country would give rise to fears of a major global economic…
Bernie versus the Media: An Update
Yesterday I wrote a little piece making fun of Ben Smith, the New York Times’ newly installed in-house media critic, for uncritically endorsing Bernie Sanders’ sweeping (and, in my opinion, banal) denunciation of the “capitalist” media. In my brief beatdown of both Ben and Bernie, I neglected to remark that if Ben wanted to point…
New socialist strategy at the New York Times: We will BORE you! To death!
That seems to be the plan at the “Business” section, no less, of the New York Times, or perhaps it should be the New Woke Times. “What Bernie Sanders Gets Right About the Media” is the latest and greatest from former BuzzFeed dude and now NYT “Media Equation” dude Ben Smith, who loudly champions everybody’s…