Why Trump Won, Why He'll Win Again, and How to Beat Him (According to David Hume)

As I may have mentioned previously, I've been working my way through Fr. Frederick Copleston's 11 volume, 5,344 page A History of Philosophy...one of my Bucket List items. Today I read page 2,332, on which I found this bit from David Hume: "...reason alone can never be a motive to any action of the will." And I immediately thought, "That's explains Trump's win."

I have self-identified as a Liberal for a very long time. Since the age of 14 or so, when I first attained some dim consciousness of a political reality in the world. So 46 years of that. I should probably add (with some satisfaction) that more than a few others (so-called friends and such) have labelled me a Radical. Which is bullshit, of course, and says more about the pathetic, milquetoast political spine of those people than about my beliefs, but hey...when you live in the suburbs with two kids and a cat and drive a Honda Civic, you take what you can get. I'd have to add, though, that in recent years I have become more and more disenchanted with my "fellow Liberals." It seems to me that many of them are drinking the same Kool-Aid that Neo-Conservatives imbibe...putting facts onto the Procrustean Bed, ignoring inconvenient truths, etc. I could go on, and probably will in the near future, but for now let's just say that I am Somewhere Between Being and Nothingness in my political affiliations.

So when Liberals describe Trump supporters as stupid or mean or evil, I have to take a step back from that. Because we are talking about WAY too many people to be comfortable labeling them in those ways. In fact, doing so seems to me to be exactly what the worst of the Conservatives do to foreigners, people who are not gender-typical, etc. Which leaves me with a big brown steaming problem in my lap: Why on Earth did these people vote for Trump in the first place, and why do they continue to support him?

Because in my mind there is no doubt that Trump is stupid. And mean. And evil. 

Enter Hume. Arguing against Trump or arguing with his supporters on the basis of reason alone is not a winning approach. His appeal to his supporters is not based on reason. And because it isn't, it gives them room to stick with him through a lot of thick and even some thin. (Although I think the detention of babies thing showed that the thin can become so attenuated that light does begin to enter in and splash on the retinal wall.)

I watch Trump whenever he gives a speech within my reach. And he most certainly knows how to connect with people. He speaks in terms which demand applause. He says things which resonate in the hearts of people who are sick and tired of dirty, self-serving  politicians. And I have even seen flashes of his charm. And if you don't think that he has any, then you are not properly armed to do battle with him.

So pointing out the flaws in his reasoning is as useless as labelling the people who support him as stupid, mean, or evil. As George Lakoff has repeatedly pointed out, that process only serves to amplify Trump's message. 

Here's another bit of David Hume from the 2,333rd page of AHoP:

"Reason is...the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them."

That's why Trump won. And that's why he'll win again. Unless Liberals...and Conservatives, because true Conservatives are not on his side, as we've seen time and time again--though fear has often kept them in line, admittedly...use this same information to beat him.

You beat Trump by appealing to the passions of those who support him. That's why the images of detained children had more power than the obvious fact that Trump committed acts of treason in order to cheat Hillary Clinton out of the presidency. We should be seeing a lot more pictures of unsavory events. They most assuredly are not hard to find. And yet...even though I watch at least an hour of news every day--rotating between TYT, MSNBC, CNN, FOX, and CBS  --I have yet to see sustained coverage of Standing Rock...and every time I see pictures of Young Immigrants in Chain Link cages I see boys on a couch playing video games and kids with cafeteria trays in their hands, which doesn't exactly further the cause against Trump, does it.... 

There are so many things that should be covered. Maybe this is where social media has a part to play. If the major media outlets are content to give us the same paltry images over and over again, which essentially robs them of what little power they once had, since repetition always breeds apathy...then maybe it's time to Tweet and Post and whatever the fuck those other platforms do:

 This is Trump's America: 

[picture of baby crying in detention center]

[picture of Native Americans attempting to defend their water source]

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

And keep at it. New images. New sounds of suffering.

But insulting his supporters, using reason to dismantle his stupidities, all of that? Well...how do you react when someone calls you stupid? Do you rock onto your heels and ponder the possibilities of that assertion, or do you fight back? And when someone mocks your heroes, do you incline your head 45 degrees and start a mental check list or do you take up the thrown gauntlet and get down get down?

Mmm-hmmm.

Just sayin', sir.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Books

Read
(With and To Joe,   Solo)

          Not Yet Read

1 Minidoka 1903

2 A Princess of Mars 1911

3 The Outlaw of Torn 1911

4 Tarzan of the Apes 1911

5 The Gods of Mars 1912 

6 The Return of Tarzan 1912

7 At the Earth's Core 1913

8 The Cave Girl  1913

9 The Cave Man 1914

10 The Monster Men 1913

11 The Warlord of Mars 1913

12 The Mucker 1913

13 The Mad King 1913

14 The Eternal Savage / Lover 1913

15 The Beasts of Tarzan 1914

16 The Lad and the Lion 1914

17 The Girl from Farris's 1914

18 Thuvia, Maid of Mars 1914

19 Pellucidar 1914

20 The Son of Tarzan 1915

21 The Man-Eater 1915 

22 Beyond Thirty 1915

23 Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar 1915 

24 The Rider 1915

25 The Return of the Mucker 1916 

26 Jungle Tales of Tarzan 1916

27  The Oakdale Affair 1917

28 The Land That Time Forgot 1918

29 The People That Time Forgot 1918

30 Out of Time’s Abyss 1918

31 Tarzan the Untamed 1918

32  The Moon Maid 1922

33 The Moon Men 1919

34 The Red Hawk 1925

35 The Efficiency Expert 1919

36 Tarzan the Terrible 1920

37 The Chessmen of Mars 1921

38 The Girl from Hollywood 1921

39 Tarzan and the Golden Lion 1922

40 Beware! / The Scientists Revolt 1922 

41 The Bandit of Hell's Bend 1923

42 Tarzan and the Ant Men 1923

43 Marcia of the Doorstep 1924

44 The Master Mind of Mars 1925

45 The War Chief 1926

46 The Tarzan Twins 1926

47 You Lucky Girl! 1927

48 Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle 1927

49 Apache Devil 1927

50 Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins with Jad Bal Ja, the Golden Lion 1928

51 Tarzan and the Lost Empire 1928

52 Tanar of Pellucidar 1928

53 Tarzan at the Earth's Core 1928

54 A Fighting Man of Mars 1929

55 Jungle Girl / aka The Land of Hidden Men 1929

56 Tarzan the Invincible 1930

57 The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County 1930

58 Tarzan Triumphant 1931

59 Tarzan and the Leopard Men 1931

60 Pirates of Venus 1931

61 Tarzan and the City of Gold 1931

62 Lost On Venus 1932 

63 Tarzan and the Lion Man 1933

64 Swords of Mars 1933

65 Tarzan's Quest 1934

66 Back to the Stone Age 1935

67 Tarzan the Magnificent 1935

68 Carson of Venus 1937

69 Tarzan and the Forbidden City 1937

70 Synthetic Men of Mars 1938

71 Land of Terror 1938

72 Tarzan Clans of America Handbook 1939

73 Tarzan and the Madman 1940

74 Escape On Venus 1940   This was my last ERB book. Finished it 7/1/19.

75 Llana of Gathol 1940

76  Savage Pellucidar 1940

77 Beyond the Farthest Star 1940

78 Tarzan and the Castaways 1940

79 The Wizard of Venus / Pirate Blood 1941 

80  I Am a Barbarian 1941 

81 John Carter of Mars 1941

82 Tarzan and the Foreign Legion 1944

83 Tarzan and the Lost Adventure 1946

84 Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder



Also...

"The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw" by Edgar Rice Burroughs (published separately, but most certainly not "a book" at a mere 30 pages) It was first printed in Argosy Weekly February 20, 1937 (Vol 271 #1).  Its only book appearance was in Tales of Three Planets (1964, 1974), though the original, pre-editorial intrusion version ("Elmer") appeared in Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder. 

Master of Adventure: The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs by Richard A. Lupoff 


Tarzan Forever by John Taliaferro Lots of information reference unpublished works...and published works which were never collected into book form.

Famous Authors: Edgar Rice Burroughs by KULTUR VIDEO, Directed by Malcolm Hossick 40 minute biography. Poorly done--starts, goes chronologically, then goes back and starts again. Also, the same pictures were shown two or more times. If they didn't have enough pictures to go around, surely they could have put in some video clips (of which there were almost none) of people talking about ERB or Tarzan or something. One interesting thing, though: there were quite a few pictures of drawings by ERB. If I have the patience to do it, I'd like to go back and screenshot each one of these. Can't share, of course, but I'd still like to have it for my own amusement / edification. Maybe show them to a friend or two if anybody's interested. But all in all--information poor, bad presentation, glad I was able to use my points to get it for free.

Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan Volumes I & II by Irwin Porges
A most excellent biography...far better than the Lupoff and Taliaferro books. Made me feel for ERB, who was pretty much trapped by his success (in that publishers were unwilling to let him write anything outside of what they considered to be his wheelhouse...which is why he wrote so many Tarzan books). Also made me long to read the uncollected and unpublished Burroughs works...of which there are one hell of a lot. Maybe someday? Probably not. But I can dream.

Brother Men: The Correspondence of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Herbert T. Weston, edited by Matt Cohen
Sometimes interesting collection of letters, but (1) an unbearable editor who (2) mistimes just about every one of his footnotes...some of which are extremely un-useful, and (3) a whole lot of tedious stuff in-between the interesting stuff. (I thought an editor did more than put things in order and write stupid footnotes, but I guess I was mistaken.) 

Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds by Matt Betts

I have to admit that I was pretty jazzed when I saw a promo for this book...even though I'm not a big fan of "Fan Fiction," even if it is Professional Fan Fiction. But you know what...I tore through this book, really enjoyed it, and am ready, willing, and able to read more. This volume also included a related short story, "Pellucidar: Dark of the Sun" by Christopher Paul Carey which was okay-ish. Anyway, the experience of reading it was good enough that I decided to have a go at The Wild Adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs series. Going to start with the second book, though, since the first one isn't available on kindleunlimited, and I have a free trial for that which will get me through seven of the nine books in the series. 

Tarzan on the Precipice by Michael A. Sanford

This was the second book in The Wild Adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs series. (Free via a free trial of kindle unlimited, whereas the first book you had to buy, hence....) I would recommend that you skip this book, though. Some of ERB's later Tarzan novels were not good, but they are masterpieces compared to this novel. It's really just a light re-working of the same things you find in pretty much every Tarzan novel: a lost civilization, women who need rescuing, a group of apes who are friendly, then not, then there's a fight and Tarzan becomes their leader. It was nauseating. I am still going to try to read some more of the books in the series, but since the next two are also Tarzan books, I think I'm going to skip over to number 4. One thing keeps popping up in my brain: why on earth did the ERB people allow this awful book to be published? (It had their blessing.) I don't understand it.

Comic Books:

Pellucidar At The Earth's Core #1 (American Mythology)

Fear on Four Worlds #1: Carson of Venus (American Mythology)
Fear on Four Worlds #2: Moon Maid (American Mythology)
Fear on Four Worlds #3: Pellucidar (American Mythology)

Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond #1 (American Mythology)

          Sorry to say, but even though American Mythology continues to produce comic books    

          based on ERB stories, I had to give up on them. The combination of terrible, amateurish 

          art coupled with silly or even downright stupid stories was too much for me. 

Tarzan / Carson of Venus (Dark Horse)

Edgar Rice Burroughs' At the Earths Core (Dark Horse)

Carson of Venus by Len Wein and Michael Kaluta (DC)

The Greatest Adventure (Dynamite)

I Love . . .

Okay, I'll admit it. I 💘 Rachel Maddow. I try to watch TRMS every night on MSNBC. I have come to depend on her for a significant portion of the news that I consume per diem.

It hasn't always been that way, though. 

In fact, when I first caught some glimpses of The Divine Miss M, I had a real aversion to her. I thought that she was mannered. Pompous. Even arrogant. In fact, it got to the point where when her show came on, I immediately flipped to another channel.

Usually to CNN.

But the more I watched CNN, the less I liked the way that they worked. There were some exceptions . . . Ana Cabrera and Chris Cuomo chief amongst them . . . but for the most part I found the CNN anchors to be more interested in promoting themselves and / or each other's new books than in reporting the news. And I thought that they were consistently unfair to their guests. So I watched less and less CNN . . . and more and more MSNBC. And I started to notice that if I gave her the benefit of the doubt, Rachel Maddow was actually not any of the things that I thought that she was. In fact, quite the opposite. She was unabashedly nerdy. She was genuinely funny. She was passionate. But she was fair. And respectful. I started intentionally watching her show.

A couple of days ago just as her show was about to end she was handed a report about the government seeking to open a 4th "tender age" concentration camp for immigrant babies. She started crying and had to hand off to the next anchor. She has since apologized for that, but when she choked up . . . that's when I started to love her.

There are plenty of people who don't give a shit about much of anything these days. 

Rachel Maddow is not one of those people. And I love her. And I will watch her show every night.

Unless there's a guest host. Then it's iffy.

I also love the way that when she hands off to The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, they always talk for a minute or two. Because you can tell that they really care about what they're reporting, and that they respect and love each other.

You come, too.

Fingerprint

So here's the thing: that fingerprint could have been made 91 years ago, when this book was first published. Of course, it could also have been made just a few years ago, right before I bought it from Half-Price Books. (I can't remember when I bought it, but I know it's been sitting on my shelf for at least a couple of years.) But if it was made when the book was freshly printed . . . then that person is most assuredly dead now. And all that I will ever know about him (or her . . . but probably him) is that he read at least 205 pages of The War Chief. 

I'd noted previously that the tone of this book was vastly different from my first ERB Western, The Bandit of Hell's Bend. Here's a paragraph that kind of sums up that difference:

     "A sergeant, beneath a hail of lead, brought in a wounded officer. Twenty-five years later he was awarded a Congressional Medal, which arrived in time to be pinned on his breast by an attendant at the poor house before he was buried in potter's field."

Damn, is that some cold shit or what? It's also amazing to me that the way we treat our veterans really hasn't changed all that much in the past century. 

Must get back to the novel now. 170 pages to go, and I would really like to finish it tonight if possible.

And then read another ERB novel, of course. But I may be ready for a change up from the Western genre. I've been eyeing this thing on my shelf entitled Beyond the Farthest Star . . . .  

Edgar Rice Burroughs's Carson of Venus Rides Again

Today is the day: American Mythology's Carson of Venus #1: Fear on Four Worlds should be hitting the stands of The Great Escape in just a couple of hours.

The "#1" is a bit deceptive, as this is a one of one one shot, but I guess that's just how it goes in comic book land. Besides, the good news is that the story will continue in three other one shots: Moon Maid #1, Pellucidar #1, and The Land That Time Forgot #1, so yes indeed, we have a Burroughsverse thang going on. 

Have to admit that I'm pretty excited about that.

As for this American Mythology . . . well, it looked a bit shit to me when I spotted the first issue of Pellucidar at the Earth's Core a few weeks back, but I picked it up despite the awful cover, and the script got me past the sub-standard interior art, and I ended up buying it. And enjoyed it enough to want the second issue. Matter of fact, I've caught myself looking for it several times, thinking, "Shouldn't issue 2 be out now?" So good sign there.

Good timing for me as well, since Joe and I have just started reading the last Pellucidar novel and intend to start the Carson of Venus series next. So the more Carson the better.

Again, The War Chief

"A few of the Mexicans, less fortunate than their companions, still lived. Upon these Geronimo, Juh and their fellows wrought hideously. Gripped, seemingly, by a cold, calculating frenzy of ferocity, that in another day and among a more enlightened race would have passed for religious zeal, they inflicted unspeakable torture upon the dying and nameless indignities upon the dead that would have filled with envy the high minded Christian inquisitors of the sixteenth century."

Another thing that seems much more prevalent in Edgar Rice Burroughs's writing here than in previous books I've read (keeping in mind that this is my 48th ERB book, so I speak with some context): he has honed the edge of sarcasm to razor sharpness. 

War Chief by Edgar Rice Burroughs

As previously mentioned, I was quite taken with my first Edgar Rice Burroughs Western, Bandit of Hell's Bend. So taken that I decided that I needed another ERB Western right away. And fortunately I had some of that at hand. I'd purchased the The Edgar Rice Burroughs Western MEGAPACK from Amazon (for a mere 99¢ . . . and when I went to fact check this bit I saw that it is now selling for a merer 55¢) which included The Bandit of Hell's Bend, The War Chief, Apache Devil, and The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County, so I was all full up there. But I also had two copies of The War Chief in solid form--one a lovely (though a bit worn) first edition hardback

and the other a very nice Ballantine paperback

I decided to go for the hardback version, though I occasionally open up the paperback just to check on things.

That hardback, though . . . .  91 years old. I can't help but wonder how many other people have held this book, thrilled to the adventures of Ish-kay-nay / Shaz-Dijiji. It boggles my mind. 

I am not very far into the book at this point . . . maybe 60 pages of 

380+ . . . but it only took a page or two for it to hit me that this was radically different from The Bandit of Hell's Bend. In fact, everything that I loved about Bandit is missing here: the humor, the romance, the snappy adventure stuff. Which is not to say that I am not enjoying The War Chief. Quite the contrary. This book is more like a historical novel than a Western adventure, though, and it is pretty much deadly serious. Burroughs does several things here which are a bit astonishing considering the date of its initial publication: he uses quite a few Native American terms in his story, and he is writing from an American Indian point of view. Which is not to say that he is sanctifying the AIs . . . not at all. Amongst them are some seriously cruel people. But it is also very clear that he sees the Whites as the invaders who stole the land from the Native Americans, constantly betrayed them, and ruthlessly tried to exterminate them. 

This seriously reads like it was written by Dee Brown. And I don't think I can give a higher compliment than that.

ANYway . . . have to get back to The War Chief now. Just thought you should know. 

[Cue the Colombo voice]: Just one more thing. I am asTONished that no one has to date made a movie based on this book. It would be so fucking awesome. The scene with the young ones hunting the jackrabbit alone would be worth the price of admission. So if there are any rich folks out there reading . . . think about it. Okay? Okay.

This Week's Comics: June 20, 2018

Looks like another slim pickins week. 

From Comixology there's Injustice 2 #63. Which was great. Okay, I'm not going to give you any context, but just in case you're not reading this book, here's a little incentive for you: Lobo is given a power ring, and he uses it to create a big green dick which he hits a bad guy with--whilst exclaiming, "Beware my power, Green Lantern's Dick!" I am not kidding. Although they did bleep out the word "dick." 

Tom Taylor does ha ha better than anybody else that I know of who is currently writing comic books. And he can do the other end of the emotional stick, too. But I really like his ha ha.

From The Great Escape there was Cave Carson Has An Interstellar Eye #4. Which was kind of off for me, but I might could guve it another go to see if ut was just my funk.

And that was going to be that...until I spotted two new books that looked interesting: Shanghai Red and The Lost City Explorers. Both were $3.99 books, and I probably wouldn't have bought them if it hadn't been such a light week, but they were both interesting books. Shanghai Red was a pirate story, and had good art (which reminded me of Michael Lark's work--big compliment there) and an okay story. A little too heavy on the brutality shit for my tastes, but I'm a bit sensitive on that issue these days. I should also mention that once again Image broke out the good deal here: 28 story pages, no ads. You don't ever get that from Marvel or DC these days. I doubt that I'll be back for issue 2, but I'm not sorry to have bought this one.

The Lost City Explorers, on the other hand, was my cup if tea. I haven't bought manyAfterShock books to date, but the title of this one appealed to me, and once I got hold of the premise, the money just jumped out of my wallet (so to speak): a scientist and his team has found an underwater entrance to the lost city of Atlantis beneath the island of Manhattan. Mmm-hmmm. They had me at under Manhattan. The guy who wrote this previously wrote Eclipse and Port of Earth, both of which were pretty kick ass. The art  on TLCE was just functional for me...good enough, but nothing special. But hey, I'm usually in it for the story, so as long as the art isn't bad, I can deal with it. I'm quite (QUITE) interested in seeing where this story goes and mos def will be back for issue two.

Somersaulting Horses & Flying Wheel-less Wagons

40-some books into the Edgar Rice Burroughs oeuvre, I've had several opportunities to experience his sense of humor. There have been occasions when he has made me laugh old loud--which is no mean feet. (Whilst reading, I tend more to be the smiling and saying, "That's funny" type.) But the humor has been a small element in all of those 40-some books--and even absent from some of them. Which was not a deficit; these were action / adventure stories, after all, not comedies. 

The Bandit of Hell's Bend is a Western. My first ERB Western . . . and maybe only my third Western novel ever. (There was Shane from way back when--elementary school, I think--and Welcome to Hard Times--E. L. Doctorow's first novel, which I read when I did my Doctorow binge about seven years ago. (And read all of his books--which is a thing well worth doing, nudge nudge wink wink.) And after finishing it, one of the foremost thoughts in my mind is that I need to read another Western. Pretty much right away.

This might be my favorite ERB book ever--even though the e-version I read had almost 100 typographical errors. Literally. (LITERALLY literally.) It was funny as hell, for one thing. But it also had an exciting plot, strong characters, a little romance, some good dialect, and some great one-liners. Like "I wisht he had nine lives like a cat, so’s I could kill him a few more times.” And "You ain’t wuth shootin’, with cartridges the price they be.” And that's just the tip of the ha ha iceberg.

 Man, I need to read another ERB Western right away. 

BTW,  I checked  and this was actually my 47th ERB book. Past the halfway point and then some!

Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I've been reading Edgar Rice Burroughs books for the past 9 1/2 years or so . . . usually four days of the week. Which has taken me (and Joe, to whom I have read most of these books) through all of the John Carter novels, all of the Tarzan novels, and is about to take us through all of the Pellucidar novels. Which will be 44 books total. And yes, Carson of Venus is on deck.

But I've read a few books on my own. Mostly hard to find stuff, like Marcia of the Doorstep and You Lucky Girl! (both acquired via interlibrary loan, both pretty forgettable works) and the Miniature Book Tarzan Jr. (which I found online--apparently it was created by ERB for a fan, and only one copy exists!). But I also found a limited press run thing called Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder (which printed "all of ERB's non-Tarzan short stories") awhile back. I started reading it, but pooped out when I discovered that it just wasn't very good. Most of the stories had never been published, and it seemed to me that the reason was that most of them had never been finished and were not ready to be published. But despite all of the books already read and Joe and I being near the end of the Pellucidar series,  the other day I realized that that still wasn't enough ERB for me, so I pulled out my copy of Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder to have another look at it.

As I said, this was a limited edition book from a small publisher--only 1,045 copies were printed, and I guess it didn't sell well, as it looks like you can still get one directly from the publisher for a mere $59.95 (plus $3.99 for shipping and handling) . . . even though I also see it listed on eBay and on various online bookstores for 2 times that price or more. Hmpf. It pays to shop around. Amazon has copies for sale prices ranging from $170 to $780. [Note to my readers: I will sell you my copy for slightly less than $780. And it is in fabulous shape.]  I was pretty highly motivated to read this book for some reason--even though I am reading several other books right now which I like very much--and went through it in a couple of days. And . . . it still wasn't very good. There are eleven stories and then a series of "mystery puzzles." It goes like this:

"An Autobiographical Sketch"--which is okay. Kind of amusing. ERB writes with a smart alecky tone, makes up a lot of shit, and clearly has fun with this. This piece actually had been published previously--In Amazing Stories June, 1941.

"Jonathan's Patience"--Not much of a story. Interesting only in that it was written "circa 1904" . . . meaning that it predates ERB's professional debut by about 8 years, so written when he was about 33 years old. A very young 33 years old in writer years, I think.

"The Avenger"--from 1912, so still very early on . . . and it shows. Not a very good story. Some pretty disgusting violence, too, when a guy beats another guy's face in--literally. (Literally literally.) Not my cuppatea on that count, but also just not much of a story. The big twist at the end was not even close to being a surprise.

"For the Fool's Mother"--1912, and a pretty decent little Western. 

"The Little Door"--1917 and funny, I was about to write "a decent World War II story based on a very stupid premise" when it hit me that it was a World War I story. Felt more II to me. But I guess those Germans just kept invading France. This one had some pretty gross violence in it, too, but at least most of it was offstage.

"Calling All Cars"--1931 crime story. Another twist ending thing. But I didn't really care about this story at all. It just seemed to stumble along from one unlikely event to the next, and then it stopped. Strange, as by the time he wrote this ERB had been at the game for a while and had produced some notable and good works. Must have been an off day.

"Elmer"--1936, and this is the original, no-editor-fucked-with-it version of "The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw." (Which I have also read--and which is not, contrary to some bibliographies, a novel. Not even a novella.) And even though it had its share of ridiculousness, it was quite enjoyable. Never published in this version previously, and I'm glad that it was included here. (Though I'd also give two snaps up to the published version.)

"The Strange Adventure of Mr. Dinnwiddie"--1940, kind of a Walter Mitty-esque sea cruise story, and surprisingly entertaining. I wonder if this was a case of ERB thinking that readers just wouldn't accept this kind of thing from him, as it is quite out of the Action Adventure stuff he is known for.

"Misogynists Preferred"--1941, and in case the title isn't enough for you to infer, it's not very good. Kind of an ocean going adventure story, but with the war of the sexes twist thrown in. Also seems not to be complete, as it stops at the high point and just has a little tagged on "ending" in summary form.

"Uncle Bill"--1944, kind of a murder mystery, but not really. Not very good, either.

"The Red Necktie"--1932, short--just four pages long, and so forgettable that I had to go back and have another look at it, even though I just read it a day ago. It's really the first Mystery Puzzle story, but since it doesn't feature the character of Inspector Muldoon (as the others all do), I guess it was separated. It suffers from the same things that all of those Mystery Puzzles suffer from: repetitive plot elements, no character development, and incredibly stupid dialogue. Apparently ERB wanted to work out some math puzzle stuff, so characters will answer queries, such as, "How old are you?" (and why on earth would a detective ask that question, anyway?) by saying things like, "I'm half as old as my brother's wife's oldest nephew." And that shit piles up until you can "figure out the murderer." I never cared enough to even try. This story--and all of the ones in the rest of the book which fall under the banner title of "Murder: A Collection of Short Murder Mystery Puzzles"--are just bad. Embarassingly bad. They also account for pages180 to 283, which is 36% of the book, so . . . waitaminute. Actually if you leave out the introduction, the book starts on page 19, so that you really only get 161 pages of other stuff . . . and 9 of those pages are illustrations (not very good ones, unfortunately), so you really only get 152 pages of Not Mystery Puzzle stuff . . . and those pages are not all full . . . and did I mention that the book is on the small side (5 1/2" x 7 3/4") . . . with some generous margins . . . and uses a fairly large font . . . and has headers on every page . . . . Shit, man, this is probably less than 100 pages of real book on the Not Mystery Puzzle end of the stick. 

So while I'm not sad to have parted with $60 for my copy, I don't know that it is worth the price. I enjoyed reading it . . . but yeah, I will definitely sell it to you for $700. That's an $80 savings just for you!

Hmmm. I think I'm going to go read The Outlaw of Torn now.

This Week's Comics: 6/13/18

Talk about your slim pickens. This week, I got Injustice 2 

# from Comixology . . . and that was it. Not a single dingle print comic book from The Great Escape.

Sigh.

Of course, I do have that The Walking Dead from last week that I haven't read yet. But no, I want to save that for a little while longer so that the gap between TWD issues isn't so long.

So I borrowed Stray Bullets Volume 1: Innocence of Nihilism from Comixology Unlimited, and I'll read a bit of that. And I'm still reading The Unwritten, which I've gotten from the library. (I'm currently on Volume 5 of 11.) And am enjoying the shit out of that.

But you know how it is. There's just nothing quite like a brand new comic book that you picked up from the stands.

Saw some stuff I'm interested in, at least. I don't want to buy Milk Wars, but I would like to read it. I'm hoping that it will show up at the LFPL . . . or that there will be a hellacious sale on Comixology. Also saw an image book entitled Scales & Scoundrels which looked interesting, and I was just about to buy an issue, possibly even the first collection, but I checked with LFPL first and there was Volume 1, so I'll go that route instead.

Yep.

Guess that's all this week.

If They Say Why, Why, Tell Them That It's Human Nature

I went down to the basement to scoop out Jet's litter pan, and she followed me, presumably to maintain quality control. I looked at her and said, "Everybody loves you, but I'm the only one who scoops your shit." Yeah, I know, but let's not dwell on it. This is about human nature, not personal foibles. 

In other scooping shit news, I recently decided that it would not make sense to buy my sister one of the usual birthday presents as she really doesn't have time for that stuff and does not need another knick knack, and, inspired by my son on Facebook, I set up a Fundraiser for her rabbit rescue and put a hundred bucks in to get it started.

Unbeknowst to me, just about simultaneously one of the rabbits nearest and dearest to her--who had been with her for seven years--had just died. When I looked at her Facebook page I saw this, and saw that 59 people had commented on her announcement of this bunny's death. 59 people.

I have to admit I immediately wondered how many of them were up to the shit scooping duties.

I went back to her page several times over the next few days. Facebook had posted the information about the fundraiser directly above the obituary notice. Would you like to guess how many of those 59 people donated money to her rescue?

I'll spare you the suspense. One. My son. (My daughter-in-law and one of my nieces have also contributed, by the way. And that's all so far.) The other 58 only had words to give. No scooping of the shit.

Which made me think. You know, if every one of those 58 had given her fifteen bucks each, she would have hit the goal of $1,000 that I naively set for her. Fifteen bucks isn't nothing to me, as I come from pretty modest means and have stuck close to that standard in my dotage, but still  . . . I'd spend more than that if I took my kids to the movies, even at matinee prices, and it wouldn't be a big fucking deal, you know?

But that's human nature, isn't it? Hero of Alexandria didn't invent the steam engine, he just externalized it. 

public domain

Sanford, Trump, and MSNBC Things

I started the day with MSNBC's Morning Joe. Big mistake. One of the topics du jour was Mark Sanford's loss in the South Carolina Republican primary. And once again, MSNBC did not play fair. They talked about how Trump's anti-Sanford tweet sank Sanford's campaign and led to his defeat. This was seen as evidence that this is why Republicans are afraid to stand up to Trump . . . because anyone who opposes Trump falls. And maybe that is true. It sure does explain something that I find incomprehensible: why no Republicans seem to be willing to act like decent human beings in the face of Trump's non-stop idiocy. But as for stating that Trump's tweet killed Sanford's political career?

That's just a lie. In fact, yesterday there was a story on MSNBC about that same Trump tweet . . . but that story was making fun of Trump for tweeting so late in the day (4:12 pm), so close to when the polls would close (7 pm), suggesting that Trump had forgotten about the election. And The New York Times reported that "It is not clear how many voters saw the president’s 11th-hour endorsement and how many of them it swayed." (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/us/politics/mark-sanford-      trump.html) I just flipped over to CNN to see what they have to say about this, but to be honest, this is just pro forma: my experience with watching CNN assures me that they will be slightly more anti-Trump than MSNBC.

I really really really dislike Trump. I have no respect for him whatsoever. He is a bad president, a bad man. He is damaging the United States of America every single day he remains in The Oval Office, and I pray (literally literally) that he is kicked out in the very very very near future. But I don't think that MSNBC and CNN are helping us by twisting the truth. You don't fight the Prince of Lies by lying. In fact, that just gives him ammunition to use against you. 

Come on, motherfuckers. Tell the truth.

Tell da trufth!

ADDENDUM: And CNN says . . . well, first they had to do a story about a raccoon scaling a skyscraper--apparently that is news, and worthy of several minutes worth of coverage (including video footage and several still pictures, and a promise to "follow this story") . . . and then there was the Singapore Summit, and then . . . well, I just got sick of watching it, so I guess I'll never know. 

Harvey's House Rabbit Rescue

Me sainted sister runs a rabbit rescue name of Harvey's House, and for her birthday I would like to pump up the volume on donations to help her out. She spends a huge number of hours taking care of these fragile creatures, and she could use some help if you've got some to give. Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/donate/1831914946864936/10216527155915915/

She also has a cool webpage you can check out here:

http://www.harveyshouse.org

Lesson 45 of ___ Lessons

If you are born into wealth and privilege  and if you are willing to relentlessly and remorseless bully, belittle, and bludgeon those who stand in your way, you can be very successful. Maybe even President of the United States of America. 

Speaking of Good Music From Rutland, Vermont . . . .

Hey, ya got a dollar? 

What does that buy nowadays, anyway? A candy bar if they're on sale. Part ownership in a can of Coke. Parking for 43 minutes. That's about it. 

OR you could buy a download of this song and give a little early Christmas cheer to four hard-working Vermont musicians. Hmm?

 Good little song, too, btw. Guaranteed to taketh your toes tappeth.

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/missguidedangels

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/missguidedangels

This Week's Comics: June 6, 2018

Last Week on Comixology . . . 

In Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye #10 we find out why he has that cybernetic eye. And it was a pretty decent pay off. Definitely a novel idea. Which has raised my opinion of this book up a notch. And involving The Metal Men and Doc Magnus was definitely worth another notch. And did I mention that Wild Dog is a regular cast member? The real Wild Dog, too--not the bastardized Arrowverse version. So as I enter the clubhouse turn in this collection (issues 11 and 12 of 12), I have to say that I'm quite pleased with this book. I'm glad that the revamp (Cave Carson Has an Intergalactic Eye) nudged me into rereading those first four print issues, and I'm glad that that nudged me into wanting  to read the other 8 Cybernetic issues, and  I'm glad that Comixology had the collections on sale. Glad, glad, glad. Nudge, nudge, nudge. Now if I could just get my hands on a complete run of those The Brave and the Bold and Showcase issues of CC. Ha ha. >nerd alert<


This Week's This Week:

Injustice 2 #61, of course. Yep, still worth doing. Even with Lobo. 

And from the library, The Unwritten Deluxe Book 1, because I've been enjoying Mike Carey and Peter Gross's The Highest House so much that I wanted more from that team. And? It was really good. Got the next three volumes of the trade paperbacks from the LFPL (apparently there is no nor will there ever be another Unwritten volume in the Deluxe format). We'll see how it goes from there. But it looks like the whole series is available, so . . . .  

Sorry to say it was a very thin week at The Great Escape. How thin was it?

Well, ir looked like it would just be The Walking Dead #180.
Yep. And to add injury to that injury, this is the last issue of the "New World Order" storyline, which means it's my last print issue purchase. Which means that two months from now I'll be able to buy issue #181 for $1.99 instead of $3.99. $2 a month means $24 in a year. That's a palpable hit for moi. Shit, that's more $ than you'd make in a year's worth of interest on $10,000 in a 5/3 savings account.   It's also kind of a big deal for me, as it will be the first time I've switched from print to e- on a book I've been buying for a long time . . . or on a book that I'm sure that I like. But I've been unhappy with TWD since they kicked the price up to $3.99 an issue. I didn't read this issue yet, though. I want to decrease my wait time, so to speak. I did read the letters pages, though. Kind of entertaining, but pretty much the same old shit.

It will be hard to go a month without my Rick Grimes fix. Shit, it's been eight years since I had a Walking Dead-less month. But hey, I quit smoking and I lost 90 pounds. I can do this. Lady Willpower? It's now or never. Give your love to me.

When I got to The Great Escspe, I ended up with two more books: Dazzler #1 and Justice League #1. I actually had no interest in either book going in (even though I do have a complete run of the 1980s Dazzler comic, blush blush), but that changed when I spotted a Bill Sienkiewicz variant cover on Dazzler and saw a panel featuring Kamandi and Dr. Canus in Justice League. Unfortunately that was all of K and DC for JL, and the rest of it was kind of shit even though it was written by Scott Snyder. And Dazzler was just fuckin' terrible. Who'd have thunk it?