Mon, Nov 17

2008—Citigroup announces it will sack 52,000 workers. 2006—“We’ll succeed [in Iraq] unless we quit,” says George W.[MD] Bush. 2003—An Austrian muscleman becomes Governator of California. 1995—President Clinton, multitasking, speaks on the phone with a Congressman while violating his marriage vows with an intern. 1995—The Commander of the Pacific Fleet calls the rape of an Okinawan girl “stupid.” The culprit should have hired a prostitute instead, he says. 1992—Dateline broadcasts a rigged video of a GM truck exploding. 1973—Speaking to newspaper editors at Disney World, Richard M. Nixon says, “I am not a crook.” 1965—First Cav survivors of the Ia Drang are marched into an ambush; …

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Sun, Nov 16

2000—Bill Clinton goes to Vietnam — finally, when it’s safe, as President. 1989—U.S.-backed pro-government “freedom fighters” in El Salvador murder six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and the housekeeper’s daughter. 1969—President Nixon’s Communications Director Herb Klein says he opposes government intervention in the news, but the networks are asking for it if they don’t regulate themselves. 1966—Strasbourg students blow the student government’s annual budget to publish a pamphlet, “On the Poverty of Student Life.” Hilarity ensues, including the Situationist Movement. 1965—With 79 KIA & 121 WIA, U.S. units in Ia Drang say “mission accomplished, let’s withdraw.” Gen. Wm. Westmoreland says “No, stay.” 1890—George Seldes is born. …

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Editor on Editor Violence

HARTFORD, CONN., Nov. 16 – Dr. Birdsall, editor of the Hartford Telegram, was cowhided tonight by Allen Willey and L.P. Smith of the Sunday Globe, in return for a long article in the Telegram accusing the Globe of blackmailing operations. The punishment was inflicted with rawhide, chiefly about the head and face. After the assault, Birdsall drew a pistol and fired in their direction. KANSAS CITY, MO., Nov. 15 – The bodies of five witnesses whose testimony convicted Walker, the Bald Knob leader, of murder, were found hung to a tree on Barn Creek this morning. The entire district is again terrified. KEENE, N.H., Nov …

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“Let Them Eat Candy”

Dear Editor, It’s November 1st as I write this, 26 days before Thanksgiving. The fascist regime is currently under court order to release emergency funding to feed the tens of millions who rely on SNAP benefits to stay alive. This is funding the dictator’s sniveling lying hypocritical little ChristoNationalist lapdog, aka the Speaker of the House, denies is available, even as the dictator is marbleizing the Lincoln bathroom and bulldozing the East Wing while bellowing we owe the fat demented bastard $230 million for hurt feelings. As if that weren’t enough to boil your blood, the useless, feckless, wimpy leaders of what some refer to …

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“There Is No Safe Place to Hide”

by W.D. Ehrhart In recent years, I have been writing frequently in support of the people of Palestine. A few years ago, I was introduced to the poetry of Mosab abu Toha by my Jewish American friend and university professor Ammiel Alcalay, and have written about Mosab and his poetry on multiple occasions, especially taking note of his two books in English, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear and Forest of Noise. But my connection to what is happening in Gaza and the Occupied Territories became much more personal this past spring through another friend of mine, the American playwright Naomi Wallace, who …

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The Art of the Sleazy Deal

Our newsroom, every time we publish, stands briefly poised between two fortnights, one just past, and one to come. Two weeks ago, the calendar caused that transition to occur on Halloween, the day—or night—when the mundane rubs up against the mystical. Some subtle synergy between those cycles apparently induced a state of irrational editorial exuberance. For a brief, joyous moment, certain members of the staff were convinced that the nation was about to break out of its moral, political, and economic crash dive, and begin to level off; the Republic would soon be spared, before it augers in. A real-world event sparked this extravagant hope: …

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