So it goes

vonnegut

By WhskyJack, a Trail Mix Contributor

Thinking about recent comments started me on a search for a Vonnegut quote. Why? This is his year.  We are living in a Vonnegut novel. Crazy , funny and dark.

OK, time for a trip to the basement where my books sit row by row.  Which one, which one………

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”  From Mother Night, Kurt Vonnegut

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82 thoughts on “So it goes”

  2. beautiful, jack!

    just a tho’t on last thread’s “deplorable” perhaps it was used in the old latin sense of “to weep for, to bewail, to grieve deeply for”…

    she may have been lamenting the sad darkness of those basket cases.

    probably trying to quote the sentiment of some jewish guy once who mumbled something about “forgive them for they know not what they do”

  3. from Bokononism terminology —  we are currently in a pool-pah election cycle.  I know the trail karass has been the best at ferreting out the fomas.

     

  4. enjoying the gossip of powell’s personal/public/political emails…the cyber fly on the wall.  I still believe powell dodged a big bullet for his service to GWB, same with Rice.  the ruskie hackavists continue to control our prez election with cyber hacks…DC Leaks is a ruskie front.  Reminds me of the old Outer Limits opening —

    There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to… The Outer Limits.

  5. Don’t Be Shocked. Mike Pence Has Always Been A Bigot.
     Michelangelo Signorile

    In 2000, as a member of Congress, Pence proposed cutting off funds for HIV prevention, and instead diverting the money to “ex-gay” therapy programs. This, he said, would ensure that “federal dollars were no longer being given to organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus.” Instead, “resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.”

    He also said, “Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexuals as a ‘discreet and insular minority’ entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities.”

    In 2006, Pence said in a speech that marriage equality would lead to “societal collapse,” and called homosexuality “a choice.” Stopping gays from marrying wasn’t biased, he said, but was rather about compelling “God’s idea.”

    These are just a few among a long list of positions and actions Pence has taken against LGBT people, minorities and women. Most remembered in recent times has been Pence’s signing of an extreme anti-LGBT “religious liberty” bill in Indiana last year, which was met with an intense backlash from business leaders across Indiana and around the country.

  6. Ahhhh…. how wonderful to click on Trail Mix and see a picture of one of my favorite authors.  Yeah…  he would have had much to say about this crazy election cycle.

    I not only highly recommend any of Vonnegut’s books…  I also highly recommend his recent biography from Charles Shields, “And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut A Life”.  Rick and I actually found his old house in Barnstable Massachusetts a few years ago after seeing a picture of it in that biography.

    Great quote, Jack!

  7. the guardian: ‘You don’t fit the image’: Hillary Clinton’s decades-long push against a sexist press

    From the beginning of her career in the public eye, Clinton presented herself as an independent and ambitious woman – and the heat she got for it burnt her

    [….]

    But the idea that she avoids the press during this election because she hates them isn’t fair, he  adds, explaining that he thinks the press simply isn’t her priority.

    “She’d much rather spend her time trying to communicate with voters, I think the press senses that and gets offended by that,” Boehlert said.

    He also contrasts Trump’s treatment of the press in this campaign. “She respects their role. She’s not banning people from her rally, not insulting them in every speech, she doesn’t herd them into metal pens, and yet the press seems to be upset with her. They don’t seem to be upset at Trump,” Boehlert said.

    He also notes that when Clinton wasn’t covered by the DC beltway press, such as during her time as secretary of state when the diplomatic press reported on her, the reporting on her was more neutral and favorable. Vigil points out the same thing happened during her time as a US senator for New York, when it was mainly local press focusing on her work.

     

  9. Pat

    HRC could walk on water and certain members of the washington press core would wonder why she couldn’t find a boat.

    Donald Trump could piss in the drinking fountain and the press would run with the lead  that HRC was an elitist because she insisted on bringing her own bottled water.

     

    Jack

  10. flatus, what say you about the drumpf twitting “We can do much better!” in re the good general?

    [p.s. before you post it, don’t forget craig’s trail rule on ad hominems and excessive vulgarities] 🙂

  11. new ad according to huffpo is set to air on CNN Thursday night, uses Trump’s own words to paint him as impulsive and violent, a criticism his political opponents have frequently made.

    Fenton Communications, a public relations firm known for cause-related marketing, created and paid for the ad. The firm said it’s not working with any presidential campaign.


    Published on Sep 15, 2016

    Donald Trump has been called a threat and a danger, not just to America, but the entire world. His words, “You’re fired” will take on an entirely new meaning if he becomes Commander in Chief.

    Right now, this ad is just an ad. But on Election Day, it’s up to you to make sure it doesn’t become a reality. A recent statement signed by 50 former Republican national security officials said Trump “lacks self-control and acts impetuously…He has alarmed our closest allies with his erratic behavior. All of these are dangerous qualities in an individual who aspires to be President and Commander in Chief, with command of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.”

    At Fenton, we feel compelled to respond to the violent atmosphere being stoked by Donald Trump. This ad was created and paid for as a public service. Fenton (http://www.fenton.com), a social change agency, conceived the ad along with writer and advertising veteran Josh Gold, who was Creative Director on the spot with the assistance of production house Ballast.TV.

  12. raw story:  A panelist on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” delivered a righteous, “mad as hell and not going to take this anymore” rant about the insipid media coverage of Donald Trump’s scandalous foreign entanglements.

    A bombshell Newsweek report revealed the extensive ties between the Trump Organization and investors closely tied to foreign governments — which could potentially pose a national security conflict, if Trump was elected — and MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski expressed doubts about the Republican candidate’s ability to show the proper character to serve as president.

  13. Donny Deutsch was great this morning.  He really went off on Trump.  Mika was almost as up in arms.  Joe wasn’t there today so they were able to get a word in edgewise.  In any case, it took them long enough to locate their conscience.

     

  14. Pat

    I knew General Powell professionally and personally; I would trust him not to waste troops under his command. At the same time, I have no doubt that he would commit our people to brutal combat if that was the ‘right’ way to achieve important objectives. He was never closed minded in preparing plans; but, once the plans had been made and orders issued, the time for discussion was over.

    He and Alma gathered in one of our homes to meet socially with all of Fort Leavenworth’s sergeants major and their spouses so that we could know them on a human level. Doing that earned him deserved respect. And he was comfortable standing-up in the kitchen drinking beer around the kitchen table while the ladies were yakking in the living room.

    The poor guy was used to working within a military society where screwing-over one’s buddies was totally unacceptable. Naive? Probably. Ill-served by his civilian associates? Definitely.

  15. well done, flatus.  not one cuss word by you (so justifiably deserved had you said it) towards he who cannot tell the difference from a good general and a bad generalization.  I do hope his twitter just lost him a few of those 88 so-called “military leaders” of his.

  16. speaking of the good general,

    from cbs:
    “I have a great deal of respect for Colin Powell, and I have a lot of sympathy for anyone whose emails become public,” Clinton said in response to a question from CNN’s Don Lemon on the Tom Joyner radio show. “I’m not going to start discussing someone else’s private emails. I’ve already spent a lot of time talking about my own, as you know.”
    Asked again, Clinton said: “I’m not going to comment on anything that is said in a private email.”

    Trump, meanwhile, took to Twitter Wednesday night to disparage Powell, seemingly in response to harsh words from the former Bush administration official.

    later in that same link on a different subject:
    Clinton also declined to answer whether she would ask for President Barack Obama to take back Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court should she win in November.

    “I think we should stick with one President at a time,” Clinton said. “I’m going to let this President serve out his term with distinction and make the decisions that he thinks are right for the country. I think he’s got a pretty good track record, and he’s earned that right.”

  17. The timing on the free Snowden is all wrong and all they are going to do is cause a big giant mess

    Trump= Oogie Boogie

  18. Oogie Boogie was the main antagonist of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, voiced by Ken Page. He was a burlap sack filled with insects, two spiders and a snake for a tongue.

  21. Mrs Greenspan the reason it’s close is because you have failed to do your job and because you have given Trump thousands of hours with no fact checking

    you suck

  22. Orwell, of course.

     

    Hey, didn’t Powell lie through his teeth on the floor of the UN to justify a bullshit war?  All Nader did was run for President.

  25. Vonnegut gifted me Breakfast of Champions, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Welcome to the Monkey House. I absolutely loved those works. And yes BW, he taught me how to travel in time, too. If he would have just given me the instructions on how to start, stop and go where and when I wanted, it would have been a whole lot more convenient.

  27. sorry for that but

    “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
    ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

  28. He knew he was lying, pat.  I knew he was lying.  Everybody knew he was lying.  Hundreds of thousands died as a result of that speech.

  29. Drumpf disses Colin, whose shoes he is not qualified to shine, and who advocated the war drumpf supported at the time as he told Howard Stern. What a load of craptastic bs. I never bought the mobile germ warfare bs Powell sold to the UN, and certainly didn’t buy the mushroom cloud fear and loathing that came from his colleague Condi.  And I absolutely disagreed with him and her and their bosses shrub and darth.  I’ve come to respect Powell but none of the others.

  30. Trump gives up the black vote by attacking the black pastor who stopped his speech –

    he claims she had it planned . she also stopped a heckler. Trump invited himself to thank her for the work they’d done but now he is attacking her

  32. pogo & bink, you must not have seen or believed what col. Wilkerson said in this cnn story August 23, 2005:  Former aide: Powell WMD speech ‘lowest point in my life’

  33. kgc, he dissed the pope (leader of 1.27 Billion worldwide and 69.5 million u.s. catholics some who might be voters) and got away with it sooo what’s such a big deal about dissing a pastor of a smallish (in comparison) black church? anyway, she’s a woman so what does he care?

    that tweet re powell doesn’t help him either with African americans

  34. well patd he also got in a lot of trouble talking about the Khans and I think this will be made an issue

  35. politico:

    Donald Trump “is a human leech who will bleed the country and sit at his golf resort laughing at the money he has made,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.

    In remarks from the Senate floor, Reid (D-Nev.) called Trump “a spoiled brat” and “a notorious con artist.” And he argued that the GOP nominee’s history of dubious business practices would carry over into a presidential administration.

    “Let’s be clear about Donald Trump. He’s a spoiled brat, raised in plenty, who inherited a fortune, used his money to make more money, and he did a lot of it by swindling working men and women,” Reid said. “Why would he change as president? The answer is simple. Trump won’t change. He is asking us to let him get rich scamming America.”

  36. huffpo:  Harry Reid: Trump Barred From Casino Business In Nevada Due To Sordid Record

    “I may not be an expert on a lot of stuff, but I’m an expert on gaming licenses,” Reid, a former chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, told Post reporter Ben Terris. “You can’t have filed 14 bankruptcies, cheat people out of stuff. In gaming circles, if somebody does something bad once, you can’t get a gaming license. He’s done something bad his whole life.”

    Terris’ story notes that Trump did, in fact, secure a gaming license from the state in 2004, but has chosen not to use it. Reid, however, insisted that the state would not allow Trump to build a casino now, even if the real estate mogul wanted to do so.

  37. Yeah…  I remember Colin’s UN speech also.  I remember thinking…  “gee, I respect this guy, but I think he’s fabricating this whole story”.  I too have regained some respect for him.  But Condi…   she’s supposedly some kind of genius and yet she willfully played ignorant….   no excuse, IMO.

  39. RR

    I knew the UN speech was wrong but even though totally opposed to the invasion, I gave Powell the benefit of a doubt along the lines of possibly some other knowledge.  My son served under him.  To this day, he considers Powell a truly good man and great leader.  So if he wants to have a snit fit at Hillary now that’s okay.  He knows the GOP left him and as long as the majority of that anger is directed at Trump that is even better.

     

  41. harry wasn’t the only one giving ’em hell on the senate floor today

    politico: Elizabeth Warren scolds Trump for not coughing up tax returns

    Furthering her feud with Donald Trump, liberal firebrand Elizabeth Warren took to the Senate floor on Thursday to chide the Republican nominee for not releasing his tax returns.

    Warren mused about what may be buried in the 12,000 pages of tax forms Trump has declined to release. The New York businessman has eschewed the tradition of transparency for presidential nominees to disclose their tax returns, citing an ongoing audit.

    “We know he has gotten Russian oligarchs with close ties to Vladimir Putin to fund his businesses. Is he still doing that? We know that he has financial ties to political dynasties in Turkey,” Warren said, citing news reports and the scant publicly available information. “We know that he’s wrapped up in aggressive pipeline plans in North and East India. The list of countries where Trump has financial conflicts is staggering: South Korea, India, Turkey, Libya, Russia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates.”

    [….]

    Would his tax returns show how deeply Donald Trump’s personal financial interests run directly counter to the national interests of the United States of America?” Warren asked. “No one knows.”

  42. Bink, do you think there was some reason at that time that Powell should have distrusted george tenet and doug feith ?

  43. Read the Newsweek article   His business interests in Turkey are in direct conflict with the interests of the US

  44. Back in Orlando with our crazy Toby Dog — she can actually stand up and walk! Beginning to think maybe she ran away from the circus, quite the performer.

  47. OK, this is a real world mystery. Imagine 5 people sitting in a bar in New Orleans.  The 1st is from Cleveland Ohio, a 50 something Female lawyer, the 2nd (me) from Birmingham Alabama, a 60 something male lawyer, the third from San Antonio Texas, a 30 year old female Baker, the 4th a 20 something black woman from Mississippi semi-professional and the 5th a 60 something gay bartender from Indiana. Four of the five people support Hillary Clinton, and one supports Donald Trump. Figure out which one supports Donald Trump and why.  Have fun.

  49. Pogo, I’ll guess that the gay bartender from Indiana is for trump, cuz trump ‘is pro-life.’

    It’s the most preposterous answer I could come up with on the spurt of the moment.

  51. Friend of mine once was on tour with a Gatlin Bros/ Oak Ridge Boys set-up…..he and his player buddies on the tour had T-shirts made up reading

    on Tour With The Oak Ridge Brothers

    and

    The Gatlin Boys

    guess who didn’t think it was funny.

    didnt help any that Kenny Rogers made had them the villains in his “Coward of the County”

  54. New info.  The black woman is a dentist, and a 6th person figures in, he’s a 30 something black male employee of the dentist. Only one person supports Trump.

  58. Why does Mrs P say not trump? He’s a dishonest asshole.  What did the one who supports trump state as a reason (and this should give it away) drum roll … “What have I got to lose? He’ll lower my taxes.”

  59. Al right it is the 30 year old Texan.

    My guess is that he/she was military, has recently changed professions and has found out the rude facts of life in the restaurant service industry.  Every where they treat the low level staff like crap and it is legal. Ya gonna be a chef you are gonna put in long hours at low wages with the promise dangling in front of you of fame and fortune. Given it is in San Antonio every time they ask for a raise or ask why they aren’t making more they are told “we can hire a Mexican cheaper, so be glad we even hired you”.

    So he/she wants to build a wall to keep the Mexicans out even though  he/she’s father is a Mexican immigrant.

    And if that ain’t the story it ought to be };-)

     

    Jack

  60. The dentist although someone should tell her Trump has removed the 15% tax limit on small business

  61. There’s a sucker born every minute, in Texas. Was this Baker related to jim baker or bobby baker ?

  63. Pogo is out for dinner and cocktails, he won’t be back for a while.

     

    dinner and cocktails in New Orleans and I’m here in KC by myself chewin’ on a burger.

    Enjoy

    Jack

  64. First Bologna presidential poll…after four weeks of neighborhood strolling, it has been observed that 60% of passersby smile and give a greeting to B-lo and her sign…the other 40% do not smile or make eye contact.   One mumbled that it is a good thing that dogs can’t vote…that deserves a vote. So, in my hood…Clinton is ahead by many more smiles.  PS Craig….noticed the classic Kong dog toy for T on the table.

  65. Jack, Kc, yes. The dentist is trump’s black person. NONE of the 4 white folk, whether working class, business owner of strong or struggling businesses or professional type employes understood her belief – beyond any facts put forward by the candidates, even her husband, a black libertarian throwing his vote away on Johnson, don’t get it.  But the mojitos were good and all is well.

  66. Blonde: “noticed the classic Kong dog toy”

    Yep, Blonde, after much trial and error, found that King Kong chew toys the only ones she can’t tear apart. That one in the pic is her favorite.

  68. just got a text from Mrs Jack, she is  in California this week, she sent me picture of where she is eating  dinner, on the beach.

    It is our anniversary, at least one of us got out for a good meal.

     

    Jack

  71. Happy anniversary Jack (ours is tomorrow – which is why we found ourselves in a NOLA bar talking politics.)

  73. Pogo,

    Please, tell that sTrumpette that because of her I’m boycotting dentists.

    And, a premature Happy Anniversary to Mrs Pogo and you !

  76. pogo, dentists for trump? not surprising given they are use to dealing with foul mouths on a daily basis.

  77. “chew toys the only ones she can’t tear apart”

    craig, try the toughest nylabones. billie bob loves her big ring chew bone.  indestructible.

  78. and bobo was partial to their galileo.  being part chow she really had a jaw for chewing the toughest of stuff and she met her match with this version of the nylabone and their ring.

    I order them thru our trail connection with mr. Bezos. 🙂

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