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Post by kungfuzu on Jun 23, 2021 19:28:38 GMT -8
The farthest north of Lovelock I ever got was Winnemucca. I can mainly remember the black, mineral-laden water coming out of a truck-stop bathroom's faucet. This was apparently common across north Nevada.
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Post by artraveler on Jun 23, 2021 20:06:04 GMT -8
Jane by Robin Weigert in the Deadwood series
It was I think, the result of very good research by Robin Weigert. You really have to get into a character to portray one so well. History, at least the popular history, skips over the flaws in many historical characters. I guess their flaws are forgotten in an effort to not speak badly about the dead. Books and movies often clean up the image. Just look what movies and TV did to the Earp brothers. Not to mention Bat Masterson and many others. The Lone Ranger is based on an actual US Marshall, Bass Reeves who worked out of Fort Smith for Judge Parker and was far from heroic, more of a legalized bounty hunter. The radio and later TV series forgot that Bass Reeves was a black man who in his youth had been a slave. Polite society does not want these people around just like they do not want our warriors around. They find them useful when there is unknown territory, or a war to be fought but its like Kipling says: We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too, But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you; An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints, Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints; While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an` Tommy, fall be'ind," But it's " Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the windThere's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind, O it's " Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind.We need them much more then they need us. A society without misfits is a society that is dying.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 24, 2021 7:08:30 GMT -8
The first two seasons are pretty good. But the barrier for most is the intense foul language. The word is that creator David Milch first attempted to use period-accurate language. But all the “dagnabits” and other equivalents made (according to him) all the characters sound like Yosemite Sam.
So he inserted modern cuss words. Whether he overdid the cursing, even in a frontier town such as Deadwood, I don’t know. I expect he did, but then I wasn’t there.
Ian McShane is terrific in this as one of the founders of Deadwood. He keeps a gambling/whorehouse establishment. He’s also involved in various murderous business transactions on the side. He’s a bad man through and through.
I think the third season goes into the gutter with the introduction of the George Hearst character. I figure Gerald McRaney has been a part of ruining two series. The other was Longmire.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 24, 2021 7:16:05 GMT -8
Great poem by Kipling. Yes, we need the warrior. And living in the town that I do, we live the opposite of that poem. It is common to thank the sailors and Marines who are in abundance. It’s just how things are here. If anyone is denigrated it’s the faithless women of these warriors. And there are apparently plenty of them. They are called “Bremaloes,” a combination of “Bremerton” and “Buffalo.” In the absence of the men they grow fat and indulgent.
That’s the stereotype. And I really couldn’t tell you how accurate it is.
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Post by artraveler on Jun 24, 2021 7:50:43 GMT -8
He’s a bad man through and through. I am the last to defend Al Sweargen he is a criminal, pimp, drug dealer but he also reflects a level of compassion for the crippled girl Jewel. He equally hates just about everyone, McShane plays him as a complex character. You have to wonder as Al is dying if he has any regrets as people he took as enemies care for him. MHO the Hurst character is more evil and deadly than Sweargen. The third season took on a very different feeling when he came in. As to the language, well I heard worse my first day at MCRD San Diego. I think it was Patton who said, "when I want them to remember it. I give it to them loud and dirty". Also Col. Gay his aid once said, "General these men don't know when you're serious or when you're acting". Patton replied, "They don't need to know, as long as I do".
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 24, 2021 14:03:21 GMT -8
Considering some of the things that Swedgin was involved in, to the outsider it’s going to look like six of one, a half-dozen of the other. Al did at least have a code of ethics. It was mostly a truce regarding the co-founders. He wouldn’t touch them. And he did indeed seem to have a soft spot for The Gimp.
But certainly Hearst was a very rotten individual. He should have been murdered on day one but they strung him along. I guess they were following the real history (I think). Even so, Dan should have taken him out at Al’s orders at 9:15 a.m, day one.
The reality of that Old West is there there wasn’t much room for the righteous man. Still, Doc Cochran was a pretty good guy. He may have been in charge of keeping the whores in good shape, but he did care about his charges. One of my favorite scenes is this one:
This is Brad Dourif’s best role. “Don’t you be the doctor.” Great stuff.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jun 28, 2021 14:33:02 GMT -8
For around 50 years, I have advocated the USA withdrawing from the U.N. It is simply a talking shop and institution used for extracting money from the USA, and a few other wealthy countries, in order to pay bureaucrats, businessmen and politicians in poor countries. U.N. says BLM must be supported
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Post by artraveler on Jun 28, 2021 16:17:08 GMT -8
My suggestion is the property be turned over to the Trump organization for development and the UN offices rotate between third-world countries.
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Post by artraveler on Jun 30, 2021 6:38:13 GMT -8
Tucker Carlson Monday night Tucker announced on his show that a whistle blower inside NSA revealed that NSA was monitoring Tucker's personal electronic communication and those of his nightly show. He claims verification by providing email evidence that could only be known to Tucker and the person receiving. Needless to say, this is an outrageous infringement of the 1st and 4th amendment and at another time even the ACLU would scream about the infringement. In the Wally-world media of today the silence can only remind you of the silence of the lambs. I am not surprised. For years I have assumed every communication I make is recored for posterity on some server of the government. I don't have to like it and I don't. If Tucker doesn't or hasn't assumed the same he is more naive than smart and I don't think this is so. I won't wait until the MSM takes up the story. www.mrctv.org/blog/tucker-carlson-says-fed-govt-whistleblower-told-him-biden-admin-spying-him-attempt-takeshow
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Post by kungfuzu on Jun 30, 2021 9:54:07 GMT -8
We are living in a, more than incipient, police state. This has been clear for some years now.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 17, 2021 8:44:16 GMT -8
Austria bans Muslim Brotherhood. The USA should do the same thing. Adios
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 17, 2021 15:19:27 GMT -8
A 30-second clip which reminds us how communists i.e. today's Demoncrats work. This is exactly why these people cannot be negotiated with. Advice from the CPUSA Here is an example of this type of activity. Anti-this, anti-that V.P. of local NAACP.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 21, 2021 7:27:01 GMT -8
I grew up on the space program and have always been an enthusiastic supporter. However, I thought the Space Shuttle was inefficient and a gigantic waste of money. Worse is the international space station where the main point is kumbaya and they run a few experiments to try to pretend otherwise. Both are yuge technical achievements. But the bang-for-the-buck isn’t there. Recently Jeff Bezos took a joy ride into the atmosphere. National Review has a brief editorial about it. But this comment by Deputy28 resonated with me: Yes, blah blah blah. It’s probably a good thing to have private enterprise enter the realm. But I remain cynically underwhelmed at the moment.
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Post by artraveler on Jul 21, 2021 9:20:04 GMT -8
I grew up on the space program So did I. I remember when the clod-hopping Soviets put Sputnik in orbit, we stood on the street and watched a spot of light fly overhead. As a pre teen in those days I was not aware of the impact that basketball sized satellite would cause. In the space of about a year the focus of American universities changed from liberal arts to engineering and science. Men and women who might have otherwise gone into business and become the heirs of Rockefeller and Ford instead became engineers and rocket scientists but they maintained the basic qualities of businessmen for organization and focus. I applaud Bezos, Branson and especially Musk who have made billions of dollars and are willing to commit billions more to a dream. It will be the most useful expense of their vast fortunes and will cement their names in history as the men who sent other men to the stars. Yes, they are arrogant and somewhere hubris will strike them or their companies. As for NASA, a better use of its money and facilities would be to divide it up between the three or make it available to any company exploring space and let them run with it. NASA has outlived the very narrow purpose it was created to accomplish. It is time to let real explorers do the job.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 21, 2021 14:02:11 GMT -8
Well, your answer is the good one, the grander one, the more magnanimous one. But I’ve just hit my limit on Bezos.
As for scrapping NASA and giving the money to private companies, that would probably be a good thing.
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Post by artraveler on Jul 21, 2021 16:21:27 GMT -8
I will never disagree that Lord Bezos is an ass, but so were Ford, Jay Gould and J. P Morgan. Amazon does what it is intended to do, provide a low cost alternative to the big box retailers. As did Ford, Central Pacific RR and New York banks. Not one person will be made richer if the government steals all of Bezos wealth or that of any of the other rich guys. No one will sleep better, drier, warmer, or eat better, yet many who do will never have opportunity to improve their circumstances.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 21, 2021 18:46:44 GMT -8
This is the stock reply given by many "conservatives" particularly those of the Austrian School bent of mind. It doesn't begin to address the situation properly.
To begin with, I would say that the claim is glaringly false. I have no doubt that many government officials, their families, many clients who depend on them and lots of others down the food chain, would be wealthier with some of that money confiscated from Bezos and his ilk. Our present tax system is all the proof one should need to see this to be true. I am not commenting on the ethics of the present tax system.
In any case, my main concern is not about asses like Bezos and Branson having so much money that they can fill their garden fountains with Krug. Rather it is what they do with the extraordinary power their wealth gives them.
You mentioned Ford, Gould and Morgan as examples of the spiritual ancestors of Bezos and his ilk. Let's have a look at what they did with their money. Ford supported the Nazis. Hired questionable people to crack heads when workers got his his way. Gould appointed Boss Tweed director of one of his railroads and got the Tammany Hall machine to pass legislation favorable to himself. He also got questionable loans from the federal government. Morgan was probably a better man than either and he still worked to put together monopolies in railroads and steel. At least he saved the financial system in 1907.
Of course, the greatest of them all was John D. Rockefeller who, having been nothing more than an accountant, put together the greatest trust of all. This company did so many criminal things with price fixing and destroying competition that it was finally broken up. At one time, Standard Oil made up something like 17-18% of the American GNP.
My point is that the problem is not simply one of these people becoming enormously wealthy, it is the power it gives them and we all know Lord Acton's saying regarding power.
Such people are generally by nature, egotistical maniacs. Success does nothing to curb their egotism, rather is tends to increase it.
Our present group of entrepreneur ego maniacs, Bezos, Gates, Soros, Zuckerberg, Musk and the lot, have power unlike anything the so-called Robber Barons had. They buy and sell people on an unheard of scale. Zuckerberg dropped about $400 million of his personal money fiddling in the November 3rd elections. He gave money to government entities handling elections. This is illegal, but he hasn't been touched. Gates and Soros push the KFF panic and make money on it. To my mind, Musk's greatest talent has been his ability, like Jay Gould, to get government money to fund his business. Telsa would have been dead years ago, had he not had some sort of magic line to federal funding. As for creating wealth, the greatest creator of wealth over the last 60 years or so was probably federally-funded research in the space program (touching on your NASA theme) research at places like Bell Labs or Lawrence Livermore and defense spending in general.
Some fifty years ago, I used to say that I thought it should be forbidden for anyone to have a personal fortune above $20 million because, the only thing one could buy with more than that amount of money was power. Today, I would raise the amount to about $200 million. Of course, I know that this will never happen and I am not at all sanguine about government having all the money, but the principal idea holds.
Unfortunately,we are now in a situation where money is more concentrated than it has been for years. In the past, wealth and power was vested in numerous areas which vied with each other, thus keeping a sort of balance. Add to this the incredible growth of government and its invasion of all aspects of our lives. This combination is extremely dangerous.
What we are seeing play out today is a decadent uni-system in which power and money is devolving from the people to two grasping groups working together against the majority. While they work to take power from the people, these groups are competing with each other for even more money and power. On the one side are the Marxist/progressives and on the other side are the Corporatists. Neither have the slightest interest in the good of the people. They are only in it for themselves and are willing to crush anyone who gets in their way.
Both groups need to be fought. And if we are to have any hope of winning this fight, we need to start understanding the complexity of life and what we are up against. We then need to address things accordingly.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 21, 2021 21:20:36 GMT -8
Artler, I can’t argue against what you’re saying about some of the pragmatic aspects of this. I guess I just get tired of people profiting from the free-market system while effectively working to lock the rest of us into Communism via their endless “Progressive” politics.
This goes for a guy making just $40,000 a year as it does to a guy making billions. Our country is full of “nice” people who are morally gutless when it comes to facing down the racists of BLM or the thugs of Antifa. And everything in between. We have an entire society (as least the white section) vying to become the last man eaten by the alligator.
What has Bezos wrought (arguably with all our help)? He’s helped to devastate the mom-and-pop shops. He’s devastated a more personalized America where people bought things from people they actually knew. I’m not saying online shopping should be outlawed. But I see him as a vandal.
For all the ill deeds that Rockefeller did, he arguably kick-started (or accelerated) American industrialism. Yeah, he screwed over a lot of people on the way. But at the end of the day people had cheap oil and lots and lots of museums and other products of Rockefeller’s philanthropism.
What does Bezos do? He funds the undermining of our state. And he shoots himself up in a rocket, all for the glorification of his massive ego.
The robber barons of old at least had an ethic among themselves to give back. And Carnegie, Rockefeller, and others did in substantial and beneficial ways. What does the evil asshole Bill Gates do? He “gives back” by helping to finance the overthrow of decency, common sense, apple pie, and The American Way with all his “Progressive” (read: Communist) garbage.
I put Bezos in the same category. These guys are Progressive flakes. They are not just corrupt in business. They are corrupting society as a whole. At the end of the day, Rockefeller was a traditional Christian man who took no prisoners on the business side of things. But he had the kind of core decency (yes, he was bipolar in this regard) that these other flakes and assholes (Bezos, Gates) do not.
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Post by artraveler on Jul 22, 2021 6:43:54 GMT -8
He’s helped to devastate the mom-and-pop shops. You put me in an unusual position. I don't defend the predatory tactics of big business but there is an evolutionary element too, and business is by it's very nature predatory. I remember when Wal-Mart started expanding in Arkansas. The same argument was made. In fact Wal-Mart strategy when they first opened was to never open in a metro area but only in towns under 15,000. The thinking, I think accurately, was that people in small towns did not have stores that could provide quality goods at low prices. So the mom-n-pop stores have already been eliminated by an Amazon competitor. And yes it is true these small business could not compete on a price basis. However, they did find methods of providing goods and services Wal-Mart could not, or would not do. I recently wrote about Harp's Grocery their success story is in spite of Wal-Mart, Amazon and the rest. A fairly recent addition, 20 years ago, is the Dollar General Stores. Walk into a DG anywhere in the country and you will experience something like Wal-Mart in the 60s. DG has picked up the WM strategy of servicing small towns and isolated communities. The best indication of DG success as a competitor to WM is an example of how to fight back. I find Jeff Bezos politics disgusting as I do most of the filthy rich. But, you must ask yourself do their companies provide quality good and services at reasonable prices? Overall, I have to say yes. Until a competitor provides the same at lower prices and better services I will continue to do business with them.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 22, 2021 7:06:59 GMT -8
I hear what you're saying. Bottom line: Right now we are living in a society (at least in the Northwest) where business can't find people to hire because the Communist state is paying them to stay home. Mom and pop shops (or just medium-sized businesses) are being squeezed.
The system is rotten as it stands now, public and private.
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