Welcome Back to Pottersville: February 2021

Saturday, February 27, 2021

Pottersville Digest

(What a dour, unsmiling political hack.)

So, these French diaper delivery trucks are going to be the new look, huh? I'm frankly amazed DeJoy hasn't taken us back to the Pony Express.

The incredible story of Sarah Rector, the little black oil tycoon who'd outwitted greedy white assholes in Jim Crow Oklahoma. If you're boning up on black history during the month devoted to it, this is a wonderful addition to your store of knowledge.

Mizz Lindsey just doesn't get it. Raising the minimum wage lifts everyone's boats, including the business owners who cater to working class people.

To Trump, it's all fun and games until people start getting killed. Then it's still fun and games.

Your Karen o' the day.

Your Brad o' the day.

Oh, this is rich. The projection is strong with this one.

Cy's got the receipts. Heh heh.

Excuse me, who's the "moron", again?

The white entitlement of these right wingers is breath-taking.

Your MTG outrage o' the day.

"Then after that, she said we need a white history month." In Oklahoma, racial pride is only for white people, apparently.

Tell a lie enough times and people will believe it.

These are the same assholes that included tax breaks for private jet owners in the last stimulus bill.

Someone needs a Mexican vacation.

Florida Man, the world's worst superhero.

This will certainly provide a nice pinnacle for the GOP dustbin of history.

John Boehner is an ongoing object lesson as to why friends don't let friends drink and narrate audiobooks.

"According to associates, she needed to remain Trump's biggest champion, while privately insisting to those in the real world—the world from whence she came—that she was a fellow sane person who understood that Trump was a mess," writes Peretz, adding that when she was the company of "certain White House people," she referred to Trump "multiple times as 'a total fucking misogynist.'"

Bottom line: Nope.

So, this is the hill the sadistic Republican Party wants to die on next year, huh? Fine.

Yes, Republicans' obsession with Biden conspiracy theories is actually getting people killed.

Children will be children.

If you've ever wondered how MTG got to be so spectacularly insane, look no further than her old man. Blame the parents, I always say.

The annual CPAC pirate/clown show that kicked off yesterday with a screaming Ted Cruz, are essentially pirates clinging to Donald Trump's political rotting corpse to stay afloat simply because they have nothing else and nothing left.

Ted Cruz kicked off his campaign for president of the Napoleon Ward of the mental hospital.

Matt Gaetz (R-Do You Know Who My Father Is?) proves once again why Republicans should never attempt humor without adult supervision.

Yep, he landed the lead role, all right- As defendant in his own trial.

Yes, this asshole actually tried to use the Nuremberg Defense. "I was only following orders."

The FBI knows who killed Officer Sicknick. They're just not releasing his name.

The golden calf was made in Mexico Gee, just like his shitty suits.

I guess karma's still a thing in India.

A very partial recounting of just some of the idiocy during and after the capitol riots.

In keeping with his entire life of right wing scumbaggery, Trump tried to run out the clock in turning over his taxes by trying to run out the statute of limitations.

There were two highly contagious plagues that swept America in 2020- Coronavirus and Qanon.

"I think the Republican Party is -- we are watching a dying political party. We're watching a political party die, before our very eyes. This Republican party is like one of those far-right, European parties. I think it's done as a national party. What used to be fringe in the Republican Party, this bigotry and this intolerance, the culture war, as you call it -- it's now the base of the party. It cannot be fixed. It cannot be reformed."

When teabagger psychopath Joe Walsh becomes the voice of reason in the GOP, you know the Republican Party's circling the drain at warp speed 10.

Who cares what Alabama thinks and does? Kind of brings to mind Nazi Germany leaving the League of Nations in 1939 just before it invaded Poland.

“(Matt Gaetz) is not an adult.” Duh, thank you, Senator Obvious. And finally...

Gee, any coincidence that CPAC's center stage looks just like something out of a 1940 Nuremberg rally?

Friday, February 26, 2021

Worship the Fatted Golden Jackass

(By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari .)

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest—

...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Drink and the devil had done for the rest—

...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"

Usually, right wingers pretend the New Testament was never written. This time around, they're also pretending the Old Testament was never written, either.

Otherwise, how else to explain why they'd wheeled, in full public view, a golden statue of Donald Trump, complete with red, white and blue board shorts and a full head of hair he doesn't own, at CPAC in Florida today? That would be the same CPAC that was hijacked decades ago by Matt Schlapp who, during the Age of Trump turned what was already an annual mini Nuremberg rally into the right wing version of the Che Guevara Show.

It kicked off today with a screaming Ted Cruz, Cancun sand still between his toes, clutching his head and howling about the Biden administration and the media's plan to dominate the world with a 1000 year reign of terror (Like the 3rd Reich, get it, get it?). To show you how far Fredo has fallen on the GOP's organizational map, he's been reduced to being the warmup act for a Japanese con man who heads a cult that actually thinks he's a reincarnated alien from Venus who'd created all life on earth.

All that remains to be seen is if Donald Trump, a guy who has more impeachments than presidential election victories, will hug his own hideous statue as he'd treated the American flag like a drunk Playboy bunny at CPAC two years ago. The smart money would say yes, he will turn that monstrosity into a DNA bank.

So, it only follows that CPAC would've been moved from Washington DC and its stringent COVID restrictions to a state inexplicably tied to pirate culture. Because that's what the right wing essentially is, these days- A motley collection of pirates and wouldbe pirates without a ship on which to commit their countless acts of attempted mutiny.

That's why they're clinging to the rotting political corpse of one Donald J. Trump, a guy who's being chased by more prosecutors than the Gotti, Gambino and Lucchese crime families combined. This is how pathetic the GOP is: They're still clinging to Trump because they have nothing and no one else that they think can prevail against a Biden-Harris ticket in 2024. They also need someone who can always be relied upon to tell them how to think.

"Don't blame me. I voted for Himmler!"

To paraphrase Brokeback Mountain, they just can't quit him.

Fox "News" interrupted some attendees at random while they were busy making Trump figurines out of their belly lint to ask them if they wanted Trump to be the Nazi nominee in 2024. (As if to answer that question for them, Moscow Mitch already said he would "absolutely" support Trump if he was the GOP nominee just a couple of weeks after saying of Trump's role in the January riots, "Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.") A surprising number of them said no.

One said, "I really like Ron DeSantis in '24. I think President Trump has a huge role in our party fundraising and helping candidates get elected. His America First policy is still a very strong sentiment." IOW, as long as he keeps bringing in the parishioners and the collection plates full, I'm happy with his involvement. Otherwise...

Another said, "The way it stands right now, if I were to make my very own prediction, my hopes as a native Floridian is it's going to be our very own Ron DeSantis." That would be the ambulatory organ donor who's on pace to kill 100,000 Floridians with his nonchalant response to COVID-19. Yo ho ho and a bottle of Koolaid.

But the main takeaway from this is that, while they still want his involvement, they don't want him getting too involved. And, of course, being hidebound right wing nut jobs, they'll bow their heads and bend over the barrel in the extremely unlikely event he gets the GOP nomination (considering he's not cooling his heels in a Super Max by then).

And they honestly don't care that just seven weeks ago, he led an insurrection in the nation's capitol that claimed five lives including that of a cop. They don't care that he's being chased by an army of US attorneys, Attorneys General and DAs. They don't care that one of them now has his taxes in his hot little hands and will soon reveal to the world what Trump has been bitterly and viciously hiding for six years.

They don't care that he's responsible for the needless deaths of over half a million Americans and that the ones that have died since January 20th are still on his tab and that he has his own neglect to blame for that. They don't care that Trump thinks they're "disgusting" and that he painted a target on the back of his own Vice President because he wouldn't violate the Constitution for him (which alone ought to give any wouldbe Republican second banana pause before accepting the dubious honor of being his running mate). They don't care that Trump has never felt that the unconditional loyalty he demands of others is reciprocal.

They just want to be part of the transaction (and all of Donald Trump's relationships, for want of a better word, are transactional in nature as long as they're beneficial to him), one that doesn't have the slightest problem with murdered and mutilated cops, dead supporters killed doing his bidding and would love nothing more than to supplant our democratic republic with something that values only one life and where none of the laws matter any more.

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Pottersville Digest

(Buffalo girls, won't you come out tonight?)

It was the January 2nd phone call to Raffensberger exposed by Maggie Haberman of the New York Times that torched her legal career.

Was Ted looking on his phone for frequent flier deals to Cancun?

"More divisiveness"? Because she opposes fossil fuel usage?

Joe Manchin is literally a poor man's version of a Democrat.

Right wing hypocrisy on roller skates. That's Ted Cruz in a nutshell.

"They're beating police officers with Blue Lives Matter flags."

Oh, man, define irony.

I know Lawrence Ferlinghetti lived a very long life but this is still sad.

"The GOP civil war's been canceled"? Oh, really, now? Well, Ricky, somehow the memo never got to state-level GOP hit men who are still going after their own for their impeachment votes. I guess Trump never got it, either, since he's still planning on starting his own Nazi party.

"Tense traffic stop"? The fucking psycho had his gun drawn and said he was going to kill the driver. Yeah, cops get road rage, too. Shocking, I know.

A Ted Cruz piñata. Therapy and exercise. What more could you ask for? And it's cheaper than a gym membership.

I hope I live long to see Qanon's death by misadventism.

"I'm terrified of election integrity." Yes, Rand Paul actually said this. Out loud. On live national tv.

Your Brad o' the day.

It's pretty telling that the NYPD never picked up this eye-gouging asshole even though his fat ugly puss was on a wanted poster for over a month.

God help Texas if they're ever stupid enough to elect this asshole as their governor. This is the same genocidal Nazi who said almost a year ago that old people should sacrifice themselves by re-entering the work force.

Sure, over a half a million of us have died during this pandemic but during that time, the top 1/10 of the 1% got nearly a trillion and a half dollars richer, so there's that. And finally...

If anyone will flip on the fat man, it'll be Fredo.

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

What John Keats Taught Me

The Argentine poet Jose Luis Borges once said that his first exposure to John Keats was a powerful moment that stayed with him his entire life. I have to make the same claim.

For me, that moment came in May 1977 in Mr. Ed Taussig's English literature class at East Meadow Senior High School. It was my final month in high school and in four months I'd enlist in the Air Force. But that first day, the only one in which we'd covered Keats and several other Romantic poets, was one that changed the emotional, creative and intellectual trajectory in my life.

That was because, although we'd studied other great writers prior to the Romantic period starting with the epic poem Beowulf, it wasn't until discovering Keats that I got my first dim realization of the true power and potential of English. The textbook's author(s) were wise enough to include as a sample Keats' magnificent opus, "Ode to a Nightingale". While I was still 19, I fell in love with that poem so much I declared it my favorite poem, Keats my favorite poet and that has not changed in the ensuing 44 years. By 19, I'd already had every word of its 80 lines fully committed to memory. In fact, taking a cue from F. Scott Fitzgerald and his novel, Tender is the Night, I'd derived the title of an upcoming novel, "Darkling, I Listen" (The second book in the Meghan McNamara trilogy) from "Ode to a Nightingale."

Most importantly, it had made me decide to become a writer, a profession that since 1977 has been my sole constant in life.

It may surprise you to know that your snarky blogger who declaims on much of the assclownery in the shit-stained political arena started his adulthood as a poet fully intent on making his mark on the world. Over the ensuing 19 years until 1996, when I'd abruptly stopped writing poetry for reasons I can't explain today even a quarter century later, I'd met or had corresponded with some of the finest poets and versifiers in the nation.

Perhaps my poetry going nowhere and my getting forced-fed a steady diet of "No!" letters from the editors of literary magazines that never seemed to pay more than contributor's copies had something to do with my exodus from the foothills of Parnassus. Or perhaps it was my first novel getting me a literary agent that same month that had led me to abandon poetry for prose. I had an agent who was placing my novel in the hands of some of the most powerful acquisitions editors on the planet and I was perhaps spoiled for success that would elude me for the next 25 years.

Be that as it may, poetry, poetry magazines, poetic criticism and biographies of poets from Keats and Shelley to Wilfred Owen to Sylvia Plath were meat and drink to me and I read little if anything else. And I owe that to the handsome little Cockney fellow born in Moorgate in 1795. Keats made me want to become a poet and writer in general. Another possible reason I abandoned poetry in 1996 was because, right around the time I got my first agent, I discovered Caleb Carr through his ground-breaking novel, The Alienist, and I knew I wanted to be a historical novelist. Ergo, my creative trajectory got abruptly pin-balled off in another direction.

As the years went on, I gradually began to derive inspiration not just from Keats' literary example but by the way he'd conducted his very brief but astonishingly fruitful life. Keats' entire existence was plagued with adversity and it's easy to compare him to certain characters from another writer who'd come a bit later: Dickens.

Between vicious critics with an agenda, namely John Wilson Croker, the Dave Chadwick of his day (a scurrilous little no talent wretch whose work has obviously not stood the test of time and was bitterly jealous of those whose work would), who'd shown his true colors in a hit piece on Keats' epic poem, "Endymion", Keats' entire life became a nearly masochistic, Job-like exercise in how much adversity one human being could stand.

He'd battled a crooked executor of his grandmother's estate, Richard Abbey, that money being owed to him and being his sole hope of solvency. He'd battled literary critics and blockheads and, in one famous instance in his adolescence, a butcher boy twice his size whom he'd caught torturing a kitten.

He thought so little of his work, he chose as his epitaph a line from Beaumont and Fletcher's "The Philaster", "Here lies one whose name was writ in water." Yes, Keats never thought his work would ever amount to a hill of beans. And yet, the little fellow never gave up because poetry was his own meat and drink. During dry spells he'd repeatedly told his correspondents of a pressure building up that only writing poetry, however poorly it went, could alleviate. And poor, vindictive or nonexistent critical reception and near constant poverty never deterred him from his true path, one of the greatest and most glorious in the annals of English literature.

There's a lot to be learned and a lot of inspiration to be mined from such a stubborn insistence on putting one foot before the other and to not let the cocksuckers win. "Kick against the pricks", as he'd once termed it.

And the reason I'm writing this in what is fundamentally a political blog is because Keats died painfully of tuberculosis in Rome 200 years ago today. I do this to memorialize not his death but the example he left behind and because I'd feel guilty if I didn't commemorate such a momentous milestone in world literary history in a honor of a man who, without possibly knowing it, changed the course of my life for the better. As the years and decades ticked by, I suppose I always knew I'd write something in the future on February 23rd, 2021 and that I'd always hoped, and still do, that the little guy would approve of what I'd write.

Monday, February 22, 2021

Pottersville Digest

(OK, one more swittens meme.)

What, Ted, you couldn't find any paper towels to throw at them?

Your Dr. Karen o' the day.

Oh well, it was Virginia, so I'm sure they were very fine people.

If Jessica Watkins and the Oath Keepers weren't coordinating with the Secret Service, then how come she was able to get within 50 feet of the stage?

Jesus Christ, Donnie Dumbo, Kim Jong Un on AF1? That's a Harrison Ford movie waiting to happen.

Trump's SCOTUS fails him again.

Shorter Susan Collins, professional concern troll: "She said mean things about me on Twitter so I'm gonna be mean to her back."

Oh, this will make his 70s porn star mustache twitch.

Biden and Gates? Fake snow in Texas? You just can't make this up. That's the conspiracy theorists' job.

Essentially, Meghan wants Biden to fire Fauci because she doesn't know when she'll get her vaccine. The white privilege of this bitch is breath taking.

Ted Cruz needs to go away for a while. I hear Cancun is lovelt this time of year.

They were able to arrest him through the email he'd sent to the DNC bragging that he wouldn't get caught for shooting up a DNC office.

This is what happens when you act in bad faith and are in the minority in both chambers.

Senators Susan Collins, Mitt Romney and Joe Manchin have made it clear they won't tolerate nasty tweets from anybody except for Republican swinging dicks.

Your MTG outrage o' the day. And finally...

Today, we surpassed a half million who've died from COVID-19. Brianna Keilar cried on national tv because of this.

Sunday, February 21, 2021

Interview with Malcolm Archibald

"We have a murder at Balcumbie Golf Course.” Mackay smiled faintly. “You play golf, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir.” Watters said.

“At Balcumbie?”

“No, sir. That is the elite course in Dundee. I play at the Dundee Artisan Course.”

“Ah,” Mackay said. “I thought golf was a democratic game.”

“In theory, sir, but some courses are not.”

“Well,” Mackay said. “You will have your chance to place your plebeian boots over their hallowed turf. There is a dead body on the thirteenth green.”

“You said it was a murder, sir?”

“As the man was stark naked and ripped to shreds, I’d say so.” -Murdered On the 13^th, by Malcolm Archibald

For only the third time (the first two times Christine Asbrey was the honoree), a Scottish crime author has made the cut and named Author of the Month. This month, I profile Malcolm Archibald, who, as with C.A. Asbrey, has written extensively in both fiction and nonfiction on Scottish and UK crime.

15) Malcolm, I have to ask- Since you’ve devoted your literary life to Scottish and UK crime almost to the exclusion of all else, what were you before transitioning to writing full time?

I have been many things, from a travel agent, to a policeman (short career!) to a postman in rural and urban Scotland, to a college lecturer. My last job was a lecturer, teaching history and communication (basic English.) However, I do not write exclusively about crime; I also write about the whaling industry- non fiction- and historical military fiction with my Windrush (19^th century) and now MacKim (18^th century) characters.

14) I’d first like to talk about Sergeant Mendick, your earlier series character. What makes Sgt. Mendick tick, what are his strengths and weaknesses and will you continue the series?

Mendick was a man with a haunted past, as his wife and daughter died. He was a soldier in the 26^th Foot, the Cameronians (same as an uncle of mine) and saw action in the Far East during the Opium War. The first book in the series, ‘The Darkest Walk’ was long listed for the People’s Book Prize and short listed for the Roma FilmFest. His strengths were his determination and humanity, and his weaknesses – he was never a genius! The second book gave more of his background and how he got his name, and the third, Golden Voyage, introduced a man named George Watters.

‘Darkest Walk’ was based on the events around the Chartist troubles of 1848, when Mendick had a conflict of interest between his duty and his conscience, and Golden Voyage was based on an actual event, when a very clever gang stole a ship and sailed the world stealing cargoes. However, there are no plans to continue with Mendick.

13) That takes us to Det. Sgt. Watters, who also chases criminals but roughly 10-15 years after Mendick’s adventures. I have to ask the same questions of him- Strengths, weaknesses? What motivates Watters to chase the most dangerous criminals of 1860’s Scotland?

Watters is a spin-off from Mendick. He is a different character, a happily married man with an interest in playing golf. He likes to walk and think at the same time, is more convivial than Mendick and possibly more intelligent. He tends to get involved in complex cases –usually based on historical events – and works them out with a mixture of a hands-on approach and a lot of spadework, plus the use of informers. His most recent published case, Murdered on the 13^th, began with a murder on a Dundee golf course and brought Watters to investigate illegal prize fighting (not unknown in Dundee), prostitution and the fishing industry – all topical for the period.

12) Since the two series transpire within reasonable proximity to each other, are there any plans to write a crossover featuring the two?

Golden Voyage has both men. I have a vague idea of bringing Mendick into a later Watters investigation, but nothing concrete.

11) As I’d hinted above, you’ve extensively written about Victorian era Scottish crime in nonfiction books such as Bloody Scotland, A Sink of Atrocity, The Real Mean City, Whisky Wars, Riots and Murder and Fishermen, Randies and Fraudsters. What accounts for your fascination with Victorian-era crime?

I fell into it by mistake. I was working on my degree dissertation (as a mature student), which was on the social side of Dundee whaling men, and I found the whaling men had a reputation for violence. While looking for aspects of their criminality, I developed an interest in Victorian crime; not just the big-name Jack the Ripper type, but the clever thieves, the types of pickpockets and the fraudsters and fringe people. I try to include the less obvious criminality in my books, as well as the pests who were so unpleasant for the ordinary people.

10) Have any real crimes in 19th century Scotland ever made it into your fiction at least as a plot device?

Yes: the theft of the ship Squirrel is the mainspring of Golden Voyage and in Murdered on the 13^th, Watters uses an old technique to find a thief in a large house. The technique belonged to the 17^th century, but worked. The pickpockets devices in The Atlantic Street Murder and in 13^th were genuine, as were the shop-breaking ideas

9) Lest I pigeonhole you as exclusively a crime author, you’ve also written a five part series featuring Melcorka, who abandons her life of luxury to defend her native Scotland from the invading Vikings. What induced you to venture into historical fantasy?

An Irish author named Maurice Walsh! When I was much younger, I was wandering about Scotland and was marooned in Scrabster, waiting for the boat to Orkney. Bad weather had prevented any sailings, so I read a book named ‘Sons of the Swordmaker’ – the idea stayed in my head and many years later I wrote ‘Shadow of the Wolf’ and the ‘Swordswoman' series.

8) What is it about Scottish true crime that you think distinguishes it from that of other countries and why does it appeal to you so much as a novelist?

Crime is universal. Both Mendick and Watters worked in London as well as in Scotland. However, Scottish crime has a certain uniqueness as it incorporates social and cultural differences: what one section of society views as criminal, another will not. Whisky smuggling or poaching were frowned on by some classes, yet welcomed by others.

7) Plotter, pantser or plantser?

I plot for weeks, with chapter by chapter details, then start to write and end up with something completely different!

6) While growing up in Scotland, who were your favorite authors? Have any of them had an influence on your own development as an author?

Too many to list, but RLS is high there, with Kipling and Hogg, Robert Service and Neil Gunn, George MacDonald Fraser and Walsh; C S Forester and Tolstoy; Dickens and Walter Scott. I’d like to think that Stevenson is there, somewhere.

5) It must be a strange and mystifying experience for a non-writer to be married to an author. How much input does your wife of 40+ years have on your work?

She still listens to my ranting when my researches find something I think is interesting. I admire her patience, although I can see the glaze come over her eyes when I ramble on – and I can’t blame her for that. Just by being there, I draw comfort from her.

4) If possible, discuss what your typical writing day is like. Do you draft exclusively in a notebook, straight to the laptop and do you set daily word goals?

I am up about half past five, check emails etc, and set to work. I am on the computer about 10 hours a day and take hand written notes in the evening, or write small pieces; ideas come to me in the shower or in the garden – all sorts of inconvenient times! Yes, I have daily and weekly work goals, and I hate editing!

3) Do you see Scottish noir (aka Tartan noir) one day getting as big as Scandi noir?

I would like to think so. There are many very talented Scottish authors who produce some very impressive work.

2) You and your wife live in a pretty wild area of northern Scotland. How conducive is that for your writing?

Any part of Scotland is fantastic for stimulation. The cities are redolent with history, the landscape crammed with folklore and atmosphere. Where we live now, I have a Pictish fort, the site of a fairy abduction, the site of a supposed 15^th century cannibal, an 11^th century battlefield, a standing stone and two castles within a three mile radius; add two golf courses, a 19^th century fishing harbour and a view to a smuggling coastline – what more could a writer wish for?

1) So, what’s next for Malcolm Archibald?

Another Watters, another Windrush military book, another MacKim military book and maybe some more non-fiction. As long as the ideas keep coming. . . and thank you for reading this diatribe.

If you’re interested in Malcolm Archibald’s work, follow the handy links below to his novels’ product pages and author sites:

http://mybook.to/mot13th

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DY1QV94

http://mybook.to/dreadful

http://mybook.to/awildroughlotpb

http://mybook.to/TheFireraisers

http://mybook.to/lokissword

http://mybook.to/atlantic

http://mybook.to/aotq

http://mybook.to/bloodoath

http://mybook.to/midlothian

http://mybook.to/AWildRoughLot