Zorral

Could Trump Go to Prison? If He Does, the Secret Service Goes, Too Officials have had preliminary discussions about how to protect the former president in the unlikely event that he is jailed for contempt during the trial. April 23, 2024 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/nyregion/trump-trial-hush-money-prison.html But, if ----

About 2 hours ago the cops moved in on NYU. Lordessa the whacking of the helicopters.

Not news. So many have known this for so long. No one buys books Everything we learned about the publishing industry from Penguin vs. DOJ. https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books? What I can't figure out is why we still get royalties. The only thing I can figure is we did our books before digital entirely ate everything. However this is why we aren't writing new books. This has happened with the music biz too. Indeed, self publishing is the only way to go, but you gotta have something going already to make it possible for enough buyers to know or care. Just like with music.

Helicopters scouring like mad over us. Not for the rapist from last night, not for the calls by we know who for massive protests to stop the trials of him for whom laws are not a factor, but because of some tents in front of the Stern business school at NYU set up by the protestors of the I/P war.

There has been some chatter about this very thing showing up as of yesterday and today. But that's all it is so far, speculating how far SS can extend to someone even kept out of prison by a hung jury of a criminal case.

This is how it has been turning out concerning so much.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/22/israel-unrwa-staff-terrorist-links-yet-to-provide-evidence-colonna-report

That's when I said, "Self, stop now," and Self did stop. Also because they had levitated flatbed trailer to put stuff on, but were doing everything else by hand, all to a sound track of music that must have its roots thousands of years ago. Film and tv sf just cannot conceive of future agriculture in any remotely believeable manner, but shove in some fantasy recreation of some fantasy European/US farming of the late 18th > 19th century, including how farmers dress. Firefly was particularly ridiculous with that.

"The alternate reality Trump lives in is crumbling" with first criminal trial: ex-federal prosecutor "I think that Donald Trump is probably trying to get himself thrown into prison" https://www.salon.com/2024/04/22/the-alternate-reality-lives-in-is-crumbling-with-first-criminal-trial-ex-prosecutor/

I waited for this, which was pretty clear even prior to the release of the full video recording of the incident, from the accounts of it I'd read before that release.

So he's already miserable, and has weeks of it ahead of him. Never before has he been situated in such squalid conditions and surroundings -- and he cannot leave. They fear he will not be able to handle it. Trump’s Trial Challenge: Being Stripped of Control The mundanity of the courtroom has all but swallowed Donald Trump, who for decades has sought to project an image of bigness and a sense of power. Shared Link. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/us/politics/trump-trial-analysis.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mU0.6kXR.sRq15f9u9uNW&smid=url-share

Do Tanks Have a Place in 21st-Century Warfare? As explosive drones gain battlefield prominence, even the mighty U.S. Abrams tank is increasingly vulnerable. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/20/world/europe/tanks-ukraine-drones-abrams.html

Come, come, that doesn't fit into our remit to always be humble when those who are never wrong inform us we always do not know of what we speak/experience.

Republican governors lash out against organized labor Governor Ivey & Other Southern Governors Issue Joint Statement in Opposition to United Auto Workers (UAW)’s Unionization Campaign https://governor.alabama.gov/newsroom/2024/04/governor-ivey-other-southern-governors-issue-joint-statement-in-opposition-to-united-auto-workers-uaws-unionization-campaign/ Damn those outside agitators! In the meantime, they don't have the UAW in their states, and those plants, which they have vowed over and over through the decades, to get working -- well, they are still empty. These are the neoconfederates for whom paying for labor is the number one anathema, which has been their faith and doctrine since 1619. They'd rather not have jobs and manufacturing rather than have the labor paid a fair deal.

Ha! What is it about possessing enormous power gets so many rulers lusting to be stage performers? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyotomi_Hideyoshi Following Rikyū's death, Hideyoshi turned his attention from tea ceremony to Noh, which he had been studying since becoming Imperial Regent. During his brief stay in Nagoya Castle in what is today Saga Prefecture, on Kyūshū, Hideyoshi memorised the shite (lead role) parts of ten Noh plays, which he then performed, forcing various daimyō to accompany him onstage as the waki (secondary, accompanying role). He even performed before the emperor.[33]

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-04-21-2024-8c027f2587c2c433d0fde41b63a0e0c3 Rafah - bombs killed 22 people, 18 of them children.

nvm -- something about these Japanese music videos the forum no like!

The above is a force instance of what I meant. You say 'real history' but I am unclear whether this is from documented sources or from the novel.

At least at the time of Shōgun's publication (1975) people were more than willing to accept that Japanese were governed so entirely by manners of politeness, performing everything correctly according to Shinto and Buddhist and whatever else traditions -- as if we all shouldn't have been educated into how quickly political, economic and military gains-- even fulfilling your lust for your father's wife! -- has individuals ignoring the traditions of anything. The courts of Versailles of the 17th and 18th centuries, or even history of the Roman Empire teach us that. But this always correct behavior and following of rules was very large part of building the exotic Japanese world that was the attraction the novel provided those generations of readers. Soon after though, that began to change quickly with the "Japanese menace" of economic ascendancy in the 1980's, which made them villains again -- though in a sense 'exotic' villains. For those of us too young to recall: Anatomy of a Scare: Yellow Peril Politics in America, 1980–1993 M. J. Heale Journal of American Studies Vol. 43, No. 1 (Apr., 2009), pp. 19-47 (29 pages) Published By: Cambridge University Pres This is the period of Cyberpunk's fascination with the Yakuza (and the Russian gangs too -- Sterling in particular was all up with that!), heavily influenced by film, like Gibson was with Blade Runner (1982), which he told me he watched over and over, alone, during the day, at the university movie theater where he worked. Adelstein's semi-fictional experience/memoir of 1993, Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan (2009) came along at the tail-end of that. By then the the 'West's' fascination burgeoned with the boy bands, girl bands like pop-punk Shonen Knife, girl Cuban salsa band, Chicaboom (which probably introduced a segment of young males here to salsa which Cuban salsa -- or Puerto Rican salsa bands, never could), and a whole lot of other Asian pop culture phenomenon, such as manga, or the Studio Ghibli features. A while back there was an endless Chinese period romantic soap opera that fandom was obsessed with -- dayem, at the moment it's title escapes me. Anyway, they'd watch all the seasons and all episodes and start over again. I could never find the charm and enchantment they insisted it has - to me it was both silly and dull. (This is why we have lots of different forms!)* The consequence is that by the beginning of the 21st C, we’re all swimming together in this global pop culture influence, cross-influence as a matter of course. But it was a very different world here in the 'West' back in 1975, despite all the fathers and grandfathers still quite vital back then, who served in Japan post WWII, and later, even uncles, perhaps, who were stationed in Korea when they enlisted upon graduation from h.s. * ETA: I remember the title -- Nirvana in Fire. (2015) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5141800/reviews The endless Turkish series, Ertugrul, of Osman's father, is far more to my taste than this, which was also, to my sensibility, way over precious. I kept wanting to say the title as Snowflake. Yikes. My friends who adore this series would never forgive me if I called it that!

What is your opinion of this novel in terms of the history it covers? It's been saved to my list to read for maybe three years now. But other books turn up that feel more pressing for my/our immediate concerns all the time -- like now I have to immerse myself in Morocco's history and that of the Maghrib!

Which is very interesting as well in light of the further comments from Remnick's NYer piece linked to above: "what at he values most—his own future, his intense desire to stay in office and out of court ..."

The War Games of Israel and Iran While Netanyahu and the Islamic Republic exchange ballistic “messages,” the question of Palestine demands the moral and strategic courage of actual statesmen. By David Remnick Ihttps://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-war-games-of-israel-and-iran

C.S. Harris's latest Sebastian St. Cyr novel is out: What Cannot Be Said (2024). It's lively from the first sentences, confirming the impression of the preceding volume that the author's back in form after a few rather sleepy books. My guess is that the bam-bam-bam of military, political and environmental catastrophes for the world, and particularly for a sensitive person for whom New Orleans is truly in the blood and bone, have been hard for the creative mind to come back from to function as it did before Katrina. For New Orleanians particularly, not 9/11, but Katrina was the signal of end times. There's a detailed map of 1815 London and environs on the end papers of this volume, with the great Thames running through. This has to bring to mind of one who knows both cities, London and New Orleans, to notice this great similarity for the history of both, even though one is so much younger than the other. It's 1815 -- Waterloo has been fought and won, in which London rejoices. In fact, it is toward the end of the Napoleonic wars that New Orleans population exploded, due to the flood of French refugees from both San Domingue, and Cuba, where they successful relocated with their sugar and coffee slaves and technology -- until France declared war on Spain. So, at this period, New Orleans is changing its character from Spanish to colonial San Domingue French, thanks to the wars and the insurrection that turns the island's name to Haiti, and the incursion now of Virginian protestant rule. I had to stop myself from reading late into the night, forcing myself not to gulp What Cannot Be Said in one go!

How Did Fan Culture Take Over? And Why Is It So Scary? Justin Taylor’s novel “Reboot” examines the convergence of entertainment, online arcana and conspiracy theory. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/books/review/justin-taylor-reboot.html https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/justin-taylor/reboot-taylor/ https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/194803857 https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/profiles/article/94361-justin-taylor-s-ip-in-the-end-times.html

Why yes, as commented above, we must consider if a lot of people think they are seeing something something is there. No smoke w/o fire! Ha! But in case the above isn't clear, I am agreeing while attempting sarcasm.