Brilliant stuff, Roy. Your grasp of the '40s vernacular is sterling -- I heard it in my head being read in Humphrey Bogart's voice, which made it pure perfection. Yeah, Bogie was a bit of a commie, but it still worked, LOL
I especially liked the eternal rightwing schtick of goalpost moving: first they tell you the bad thing will never happen, then they tell you the bad thing might happen but it isn't *really* so bad, and when it does happen they tell you the bad thing is really a GOOD thing, actually. Today, Ross Douthat is a master of that grift.
Top drawer stuff, my friend. In the contemporary vernacular I think they call this 'relatable content', at least it is if you're up on your world history. Trebles all around!
Having grown up with the Depression and WWII generation, I can say that there were many Americans who thought like your characters before and during the war. They hated Roosevelt, blamed him for the Depression (I know, I know), thought he provoked the Japanese to get the US into the war, was a Jew who was only against Hitler because Hitler exposed the Jewish Rothschild banking conspiracy. They thought America should join with Hitler in attacking the Soviet Union, shouldn't do anything about Japan and should expel all the Japanese and Chinese in the US. Some hoarded ration stamps, some hoarded gasoline and fuel oil (a friend's back yard had to be removed a few years ago because the WWII owner had stored illegal fuel oil in an underground brick cistern that leaked), some had secret deals with farmers for rationed food items. I could go on. Some of these things various family members believed but more were tales they told on their neighbors. The Greatest Generation had a lot of weasels, fascists and sociopaths, and don't you forget it, buddy! We sanitize all parts of American history, not just slavery and the Civil War, but the genocide of indigenous people, our imperialism, our anti-intellectualism, and our phemomenally dysfunctional, illogical and corrupt system of justice. The true history of America during the Depression and WWII is much darker than we are led to believe.
Roy, are you a prophet? Or a wizard or something? I just can’t fathom how you continually marry biting, clever satire with an uncomplicated, entertaining prose that frankly embarrasses my own modest efforts. Like I managed not to spill soup on my keyboard today, and that’s a win
We're absolutely headed towards a "Plot Against America" scenario. It seems pretty unlikely that Ukraine will win their war with Russia by themselves, or that the US, NATO, and the EU will intervene in the only way that will win that war in time for Ukraine to survive, by getting involved in the fighting. That will leave the recriminations over this lost war to sour and divide our politics for the 2024 election. "We should have been more involved and maybe Ukraine would have survived." some of us will say. The response will be, "All your do-gooder interventionism managed to do was to sucker Ukraine into the mass pointless deaths in Kyiv after it was encircled and starved out. Better to have never gotten involved at all someplace we weren't going to really start a war with Russia over, and really, what place should the US risk nuclear holocaust to defend, other than the US itself?". Of course the latter argument is going to have to cover its inherent cowardice by blaming it all on the Jews or some other scapegoat. It was really Zelensky's fault, him and Soros, for unnecessarily provoking the Russians.
Nix on that "Rendezvous with Destiny"
All right, Roy, what doucments described in what obscure doctoral dissertation from an Ivy League school did you dig that text out of?
Brilliant. Just... brilliant.
Brilliant stuff, Roy. Your grasp of the '40s vernacular is sterling -- I heard it in my head being read in Humphrey Bogart's voice, which made it pure perfection. Yeah, Bogie was a bit of a commie, but it still worked, LOL
I especially liked the eternal rightwing schtick of goalpost moving: first they tell you the bad thing will never happen, then they tell you the bad thing might happen but it isn't *really* so bad, and when it does happen they tell you the bad thing is really a GOOD thing, actually. Today, Ross Douthat is a master of that grift.
My kind of column! Full of Mugs and Good time Charlies. Hobos and Bunko Artists.
Chumps and their floy-floy need a one-way ticket to Palookaville is what I'm sayin'.
Top drawer stuff, my friend. In the contemporary vernacular I think they call this 'relatable content', at least it is if you're up on your world history. Trebles all around!
#ClivedenSet
That gave me chills, and not in a good way.
"...the place was a mess — plenty of crime and inflation, and full of Bolsheviks and fancy-pants artistes and fallen women and lady-boys..."
Oh, come on. You stole that from the latest RNC talking points, didn't you?
Having grown up with the Depression and WWII generation, I can say that there were many Americans who thought like your characters before and during the war. They hated Roosevelt, blamed him for the Depression (I know, I know), thought he provoked the Japanese to get the US into the war, was a Jew who was only against Hitler because Hitler exposed the Jewish Rothschild banking conspiracy. They thought America should join with Hitler in attacking the Soviet Union, shouldn't do anything about Japan and should expel all the Japanese and Chinese in the US. Some hoarded ration stamps, some hoarded gasoline and fuel oil (a friend's back yard had to be removed a few years ago because the WWII owner had stored illegal fuel oil in an underground brick cistern that leaked), some had secret deals with farmers for rationed food items. I could go on. Some of these things various family members believed but more were tales they told on their neighbors. The Greatest Generation had a lot of weasels, fascists and sociopaths, and don't you forget it, buddy! We sanitize all parts of American history, not just slavery and the Civil War, but the genocide of indigenous people, our imperialism, our anti-intellectualism, and our phemomenally dysfunctional, illogical and corrupt system of justice. The true history of America during the Depression and WWII is much darker than we are led to believe.
"sexed-up snail-eaters on the Seine"
2 marks! Tho a bit too je ne sais quoi for a band name.
The photo is cherce, too. That was a flick too far for some folks...
Roy, are you a prophet? Or a wizard or something? I just can’t fathom how you continually marry biting, clever satire with an uncomplicated, entertaining prose that frankly embarrasses my own modest efforts. Like I managed not to spill soup on my keyboard today, and that’s a win
Hate to click "Like" on something that's so Sad But True. Great writing is what I'm trying to applaud.
LOL a child's garden of 1940s-isms!
We're absolutely headed towards a "Plot Against America" scenario. It seems pretty unlikely that Ukraine will win their war with Russia by themselves, or that the US, NATO, and the EU will intervene in the only way that will win that war in time for Ukraine to survive, by getting involved in the fighting. That will leave the recriminations over this lost war to sour and divide our politics for the 2024 election. "We should have been more involved and maybe Ukraine would have survived." some of us will say. The response will be, "All your do-gooder interventionism managed to do was to sucker Ukraine into the mass pointless deaths in Kyiv after it was encircled and starved out. Better to have never gotten involved at all someplace we weren't going to really start a war with Russia over, and really, what place should the US risk nuclear holocaust to defend, other than the US itself?". Of course the latter argument is going to have to cover its inherent cowardice by blaming it all on the Jews or some other scapegoat. It was really Zelensky's fault, him and Soros, for unnecessarily provoking the Russians.
Excellent. Rendezvous with Destiny is WWI. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45077/i-have-a-rendezvous-with-death
Never heard of Lord Haw-Haw until now...thank you, Roy!