#MoscowMitch

Why I love Bernie Sanders, #734:

The Math

Let's do the math.

Trump got 62,984,825 votes in the 2016 election.

In 2020, 32 million Hispanics and 30 million blacks will be eligible to vote.

Come on, people, now. Smile on your brother. 

More Black Boy

"Negroes are told, in a language they cannot possibly misunderstand, that their native land is not their own. And when they, acting upon impulses which they share with whites, try to assert a claim to their birthright, whites retaliate with terror...."

Richard Wright

Black Boy

Obviously "Negroes" is a term so dated that it is now unacceptable, but if you feel the need to correct Richard Wright, then your arms are longer than mine are. That said, it's stunning to me how topical these words...published in 1945...are today in 2019. 

We have a president who has told four women of color to Go Back to Where They Came From--

--and we have a crowd of people who not only applaud him for it, but who take up a chant of "Send her back!" This with respect to three women who were born in the United States, and one who became a U.S. citizen when she was 17 years old. 

I'm ashamed of our country right now. I am ashamed that over one third of my fellow citizens support a man who acts in such hateful ways to non-white people. 

I don't like playing The Hitler Card, because hyperbole is a dangerous two-edged sword, but with the disclaimer that I do not think that Trump is a Hitler at this point, I do have to say this:

Many times I have thought about Nazi Germany and wondered, "How on earth did the people of Germany allow this to happen?" Well, Trump's presidency has given me the answer to that question. It happens in degrees, and it happens because regular folk either have no power or feel that they have no power. I'm inclined to think it's more of the latter than the former, especially when I see images of the protests in Hong Kong wherein millions of people took to the streets day after day, and refused to back down from confrontations with the police. 

Where is our outrage?

I don't think that we can depend upon the justice system or the ballot box to fix this. I think we've got to do it ourselves.

Black Boy

I've known Richard Wright for a long time, but only via Native Son. Which is, I am sure, one of the greatest novels of all time...but which was so horrifying and unsettling that I wasn't driven to try to read all of Wright's works...which is my usual reaction to such greatness.

But I found Black Boy on downloadable audiobook from the library a couple of weeks ago, and I've been having at it regularly since then. Which has gotten me to the end of Part One ("Southern Night"), so I guess I'm at the halfway point. (It's hard to tell without page numbers.) And? It's powerful, powerful stuff. It's Must Read stuff.

This morning I heard a part wherein Richard was talking about a time when, as a very young man, his employer was trying to trick him and another black worker into attacking each other. When that didn't work, the employer offered to give them five dollars each if they would box each other for four rounds. Richard didn't want to do it, but the other black guy told him that he really needed the money, and eventually convinced Richard to throw down. I haven't made it to the end of the fight yet, but when Richard was describing how excited the white guys were when Richard finally agreed to fight...how they started offering to train him and feed him, and once the fight commenced how they howled with joy and excitement and encouraged the two boys to hurt each other...and of course it made me think about that opening scene in Invisible Man (which Black Boy preceded by 7 years, by the way...though that's not really salient with respect to the boxing story)...but a moment later it made me think about professional football and basketball. A bunch of white people cheering as black men go at each other. And, at least in the case of football, attempt to hurt each other. It made me feel like never watching another professional football game. (I never watch the NBA, so I can't swear off that.) 

The Order Changeth!

This Week's Comics. Last Week's, Too, Come to Think Of It.

I'm experimenting with a new, Comic Books Only blog, so if'n you want to check it out, go here: 

https://theintelligentmansguidetocomicbooks.blogspot.com/2019/07/this-weeks-comics-july-19th-2019.html

Wanted: Grains of Sand

Will it do any good? I don't know. But here's what I do know: (1) Trump's attacks against Representative Ilhan Omar make me sick, (2) I fear that one or some of his Followers will resort to physical violence against Omar, and (3) to do nothing is to be complicit.

So I wrote letters to Senators McConnell and Paul, and another to The White House.

Not that I think my voice makes the tiniest bit of difference to any of these people. I am a grain of sand to them. 

You remember what happened to the statue of Ozymandias in Percy Shelley's poem?

Yep.

That was sand. Grains of sand. Lots and lots of them. 

Add yours to the wind.

Here's what I wrote if you want a skeleton:



Dear Senator McConnell, I implore you to intervene in the series of attacks perpetrated by President Trump against Representative Ilhan Omar. As a fellow worshipper at Southeast Christian Church, I am sure that you do not share President Trump's views with respect to Representative Omar, and while I understand that it might not be politically expedient to stage a public admonition of President Trump, it is obvious that you wield more than enough power to address this outrageous behavior off-stage. I share the fear of others that Mr. Trump's criminal incitement to violence will be transmuted to deeds in our current bipolar political environment. Thank you.
Your supporter, 



Dear Senator Paul, I implore you to intervene in the series of attacks perpetrated by President Trump against Representative Ilhan Omar. As a fellow libertarian, I am sure that you do not share President Trump's views with respect to Representative Omar, and while I understand that it might not be politically expedient to stage a public admonition of President Trump, it is obvious that you wield more than enough power to address this outrageous behavior off-stage. I share the fear of others that Mr. Trump's criminal incitement to violence will be transmuted to deeds in our current bipolar political environment. Thank you.
Your supporter, 




Dear Mr. President,
I implore you to cease your attacks against Representative Ilhan Omar. I share the fear of others that verbal attacks against her will be transmuted to deeds in our current bipolar political environment. My friends and I have discussed this, and we all agree that we cannot support you in 2020 if this kind of vitriol continues.
Your supporter, 


I decided that the way to go here was to keep restrained, to slightly tailor each letter to the specific person, and to put "Your supporter" as the closing...because I am supporting the move away from violent rhetoric, and because you catch more bees with honey than vinegar. 

Ex-Post Burroughso

I've finished all of Burroughs's books, but I'm not finished with Burroughs...not by a long shot. For one thing, I'm still reading Burroughs out loud to Joe four nights a week. And for another, I've still got some "other stuff"--either about Burroughs or about his works or stories written by other people about Burroughs's characters. I just finished one of those "other" books: Brother Men: The Correspondence of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Herbert T. Weston, edited by Matt Cohen. 

It had some moments, for sure. The best of those moments being a narrative about Burroughs and some friends playing tennis while watching the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. (He was living in Hawaii at the time, obviously...and he was very close to the bay while it was being bombed. Why he and some other people wanted to keep playing tennis while bombs were falling is beyond my capacity to comprehend, but there it is.) 

And at heart this was the story of ERB's friendship with Herbert Weston from December 30, 1903 (when the 28 year old Burroughs was working with his brothers at the Sweetser-Burroughs Mining Company in Idaho, and had no intention of being a writer) through December 7, 1945 (when Burroughs had less than four and one-half years left to live, and was struggling with massive health problems and not able to do much--if any--writing). 

The not so good aspects of this book primarily concerned the editor, Matt Cohen. I suspect that this book began (and perhaps ended) as a degree thesis, because the introduction is so full of high falutin shit that I almost had to put it aside. But I bulled my way through, and once I got to the actual letters, I only had to deal with two Cohen distractions: (1) his incredibly stupid footnotes, most of which were mis-timed, and many of which were just unnecessary, and (2) the fact that he did no editing whatsoever of the letters, so there was quite a bit of repetition, trivial stuff, etc. That last objection can be forgiven, of course, because who wants to chop away parts of ERB's writing, after all...but on the other hand, what the hell is an editor for?

ANYway...I'm not sorry to have read this book, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is not a real Burroughs enthusiast. You know, the kind of person who would read all 84 of his books and still want some more.

Al...most...there....

For fuck's sake, can't you all just go see it one more time so we can get this over with?

Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volume II

0

Day 152: 7/14/19

And so the Buckle story continues with Volume II. This one is a bit longer than the first volume, so I should have more than two months with this lovely tome.

The bad news: this might not be a hell of a lot of fun to read. Just finished the first ten pages, and it consisted of about 30 paragraphs, each one a few notes on a small topic. Like the etymology of "Huguenot." Clearly these were notes Buckle took on what he was reading. I'm going to keep at it, if I can, but those were ten very long pages today. Alcohol might help with that.

10

Day 153: 7/15/19

Ten pages...but only about half as many entries, which made it a little better. Although one of those entries was written entirely in French, so that was kind of a bust.

20

Day 154: 7/16/19

Well...back to the short entries today. Mmm-hmm.

30

Day 155: 7/17/19

All I could think after reading that bit was, "And a mere 761 years later in the U.S. of A. we have The Emancipation Proclamation. You'd think we could have led with that....

In other news, I thought this bit of etymology was pretty interesting:

The word "curfew" comes from French thusly:

Fear of a Talking Heads song caused people in days of yore to have a standing order to cover the fires at night, and eventually the exhortation to "Cover the fire!" became the way to say "Get the hell off of the street!"

So that was some rail larnin' t'day.

Also, at page 40 I have now read 94 entries (the last one I read was numbered 97, but for some reason numbers 4, 19, and 27 are MIA), so the average length of these entires is 2.35 per page, and I don't think any of them has been a full page. It's a very ADD kind of reading experience. 

40

Day 156: 7/18/19

50

Day 157: 7/19/19

60

Day 158: 7/20/19

Buckle made mention of a book by Thomas Moore entitled Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion which sounds muy interesante to me. Checked and it's available, so it might could happen.

70

Day 159: 7/21/19

80

Day 160: 7/22/19

90

Day 161: 7/23/19

100

Day 162: 7/24/19

Interesting couple of references to one Charles Blount, who wrote Anima Mundi: OR, AN Historical Narration OF THE HEATHENS Opinions of Man's SOUL after this Life. Wouldn't mind having a look at this...and I can (and you can, too) as it is online at https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A28430.0001.001?view=toc.

110

Day 163: 7/25/19

Buckle quotes someone...perhaps the aforementioned Charles Blount...who says that the concept of the Trinity is not mentioned anywhere in the New Testament, and that it does not appear to have become church doctrine until well after the Christian religion had been established. Interesting. Perhaps worth some research. A quick Wikipedia check shows that while there was talk of a triune God from about 100 A.D. on, the doctrine was not formalized until the fourth century. Hmmm.

120

Day 164: 7/26/19

130

Day 165: 7/27/19

140

Day 166: 7/28/19

As for this blank verse...this so-called blank verse.... According to Buckle's Day Book entry...

Which struck me as a bit curious. Not that I remembered anything which contradicted that per se...because my memory's not all that great...but because it just didn't feel right. I thought that the story went that Christopher Marlowe was the first to use blank verse, but according to Wikipedia that didn't happen until 1587 with  Tamburlaine the Great. But still.... Well, I poked around a little more and found this: "The first documented use of blank verse in the English language was by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey in his translation of the Æneid (composed c. 1540; published posthumously, 1554–1557)." (That's also from Wikipedia--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_verse--but being a go(o)d kissing carrion, I confirmed it on Oxford Scholarship Online.) So Buckle...or the person he was quoting here...was wrong. But Google was in its primitive stages in the mid-19th century, so I think he can be forgiven. 

BTW...Shake-speare is often credited as the person who brought blank verse to English literature, and it's easy to understand why, as he certainly perfected its use. Kind of like the way that he is even (literally) nominally seen as the inventor of The Shakespearean Sonnet...when, in truth, he was not. That honor actually goes to...Henry Howard. Hmpf. Small world, ennit? Oh, also btw...those two Big Things that are associated with Shakespeare but were created by Henry Howard? HH was Edward de Vere's uncle. Interesting coinky dinky.

https://deveresociety.co.uk/pdf/OxfordPedigreeTree.pdf

150

Day 167: 7/29/19

160

Day 168: 7/30/19

170

Day 169: 7/31/19

180

Day 170: 8/1/19

190

Day 171: 8/2/19

Oh, my, this is just too perfect: 

200

Day 172: 8/3/19

210

Day 173: 8/4/19

220

Day 174: 8/5/19

230

Day 175: 8/6/19

240

Day 176: 8/7/19

250

Day 177: 8/8/19

More etymologies...with a side order of Bubonic Plague. Also, some information on St. Vitus. 

260

Day 178: 8/9/19

270

Day 179: 8/10/19

This is only disturbing if you happen to have a cat named Jet:

My cat, Jet.

280

Day 180: 8/11/19

290

Day 181: 8/12/19

Lots of French entries in today's ten pages...and one in Latin...so a quick one.

300

Day 182: 8/13/19

On the Road: Syracuse, N.Y.

310

Day 183: 8/14/19

320

Day 184: 8/15/19

In Rutland, Vermont.

330

Day 185: 8/16/19

Still in Rutland, Vermont.

340

Day 186: 8/17/19

And still in Rutland, Vermont. *

There's a note on Pope Benedict IX which says he was 9 years old when he was chosen as Pope. That didn't sound likely, so I had a look-see and found this: he was the youngest pope ever, and may have been as young as 12, but was probably 20. Also interesting is that he was pope three times: October 1032 (first term), April 1045 (second term), November 1047 (third term). I didn't even know that that was a thing.

Also, here's a line (no pun intended) I liked: "...have their kick at the dead lion."

350

* Though after reading today's ten, I went for an overnight in Queens, New York. 



Day 187: 8/18/19

Back in Rutland.

360

Day 188: 8/19/19

On the road again: Mentor, Ohio.

370

Day 189: 8/20/19

Hey, it's good to be back home again. Oh, yes it is. 

380

Day 190: 8/21/19

Encountered several particularly interesting things today.

(1) Another mention of Edward de Vere:

(2) This rather startling detail about the size of a library during the the reign of Henry VIII: 

"The 'highest library' at Greenwich contained...three hundred and twenty-nine volumes...." 

I have more books than that in each of the six rooms of my house (aka every room excepting only the two bathrooms and the kitchen).

(3) Someone named Gifford is noted as saying that Ben Jonson had the best library in England. Which kind of makes you wonder all over again about the absence of any Shakespeare library, doesn't it? (As a matter of fact, we can't even ascertain that Shakespeare owned a single book. There certainly was no mention of any books in "his" will, and no one has ever found a book with his name inscribed in it. Hmmm.)

So this was a particularly good Buckle Day.

390

Day 191: 8/22/19

400

Day 192: 8/23/19

410

Day 193: 8/24/19

420

Day 194: 8/25/19

430

Day 195: 8/26/19

A landmark...of sorts. 

(There were some skipped numbers, so it's not really the 1000ths entry...but pretty close.)

440

Day 196: 8/27/19

450

Day 197: 8/28/19

If I were a real writer, this would be the title of my next novel:

460

Day 198: 8/29/19

470

I was just thinking...I started my Daily Devotional reading on November 2, 2017, and so far as I can recall I have only missed one reading in all that time...when I was in the hospital (2/22/19). So we're coming up on two almost contiguous years pretty soon. And in that time I've read all eleven volumes of  A History of Philosophy (5,344 pages), all three volumes of History of Civilization in England (1,650 pages), and over 1 1/2 volumes of Buckle's Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works (1,068 pages as of today). That's 8,062 pages. Not bad for twenty minutes a day.

And with "only" 1 1/2 volumes of Buckle left to me, I am starting to wonder where to turn next for my Daily Devotional. There are lots of possibilities, of course. I think I want to stick to non-fiction for this project, though, so I guess that cuts down the possibilities by one half...kind of. 

Hmmmm.



Day 199: 8/30/19

480

Day 200: 8/31/19

490

Day 201: 9/1/19

Well, shit, I'd messed up my numbering and thought that today was Day 200, but this morning I recalibrated and found out that I missed my chance for The Big Par-Tay. Sigh. Well...there's always Day 300, right?

But in celebration of Buckle Day 201, how about this bit:

Nothing like that old time religion to get you going, am I right?

500

Day 202: 9/2/19

Sorry to say that Jet is not alone in this reaction to Mr. Buckle's work, but I'm used to wearing out things that nobody wears.

In further WTF is up with religion news, check this out:

510

Day 203: 9/3/19

520

Day 204: 9/4/19

530

Day 205: 9/5/19

You know, it's funny. I've pretty much given up on writing, playing music, going to church, and other things...at least in part because nobody seemed to give a shit about whether I was doing it or not. I just didn't have enough inner drive to keep me going without support. Which I know is my weakness, not anyone else's. No one is obliged to be my cheerleader squad. But when it comes to reading...I don't think anybody I know gives a shit about that, either, but I don't think I'd ever give up on reading. In fact, this morning I was feeling particularly shitty...in a fuck, I will probably die in the not so distant future way...and one of the thoughts that crossed my mind was, "To hell with all of this reading and all of these books. I just read them and forget them, anyway. I'm just not going to waste my time on them any more." And after a minute, the horror of that thought was enough to make me go sit down and read my ten pages of Buckle way earlier than I usually do. 

Speaking of which...only 160 more pages in Volume II of Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle. That's just a little more than two weeks! Very exciting.

540

Day 206: 9/6/19

550

Day 207: 9/7/19

Hey, look: Buckle said something nice about Catholicism:

560

Day 208: 9/8/19

First, from the world of fashion:

So...that's kind of an early 19th century weave, ennit?

570

Day 209: 9/9/19

580

Day 210: 9/10/19

Two things of particular note in today's Daily Devotional:

1. Buckle corrects a French quotation:

2. As for this death...this so-called death...

So hey...thanks, Christianity.

590

Day 211: 9/11/19

600

Day 212: 9/12/19

Read this--

--and thought, TREAcle? isn't that molasses? How can molasses be deadly? So looked around, didn't find anything about poisonous molasses because I happened upon this bit in Wikipedia--

A traditional Cornish fisherman's celebratory drink is "Mahogany", made from two parts local gin—now usually Plymouth Gin—mixed with one part black treacle.

--and had to pursue that instead. My goodness. Can you imagine? Hmmm. I might could give that a try, actually. We'll see.

610

Day 213: 9/13/19

620

Day 214: 9/14/19

630

Day 215: 9/15/19

Well, this took me by surprise:

640

Day 216: 9/16/19

I've thought it before, but today it really hit me: monasteries, monasteries, monasteries. There's an awful lot of information about monasteries in this book. What's up with that?

650

Day 217: 9/17/19

More monasteries and monks...but in the last section I read for today there was an interesting little discussion as to whether the Egyptians were Negroes or Caucasians. The conclusion seemed to be that the ruling Egyptians were Caucasians, but that the Sphinx was a Negro. And that the Egyptians kept black slaves. Hmpf. 

660

Day 218: 9/18/19

670

Day 219: 9/19/19

680

Day 220: 9/20/19

690

Well, lookee there: unless something goes awry, I'll be finishing Volume II tomorrow. That's pretty exciting!



Day 221: 9/21/19

704

AKA...The End

It has been a bit of a slog at times, but I'm still glad that I hung in there for it...and I did gain a bit of something from the experience. At least enough to say, "Bring on Volume III!"

But first...

P.S. I had to make it a bit skinnier than I'd have liked due to the fact that my finished file exceeded the tonnage that ImageFlip allows freeloaders to have. Still looks good, though, right?