Monthly Archives: May 2021

GENESIS OF QANON

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Hunter Thompson originated QAnon. He advanced the Thompson Report concept in a book or periodical proposal to his publisher in 1968, The Gonzo Papers, Vol II, p. 15-16. Thompson called it root-hog journalism:

[15] “We have to keep in mind that various outrages are in fact being planned, and that I probably wouldn’t have much trouble getting a vague battle plan…but of course that wouldn’t be enough. I’d have to mix up fact and fantasy so totally that nobody could be sure which was which. We could bill it as a fantastic piece of root-hog journalism – The Thompson Report, as it were. This courageous journalist crept into the sewers of the American underground and emerged with a stinking heap of enemy battle plans – and just in time, by god, [16] to warn the good guys what to watch for. Oh, I would have a ratlin good time with it…I could even compost a fictitious interview with Guru Bailey, the Demo chieftain, during which I try to warn him of this impending disaster and he reacts first in anger, then with tears, throwing down hooker after hooker of gin during our conversation. And a private chat with Johnson, who heard of my dread information and summoned me to the White House for a toilet-side interview with two recording secretaries – a bracing fag and a nervous old woman from New Orleans – taking notes on a voice writer(s) – echoing my words, and Lyndon’s, for the private record.

…(The Case of the Naked Colonel…did you ever see that? A fantastic story and absolutely true..a Pentagon colonel found naked in his car, passed out on the steering wheel with a pistol in each hand… no explanation.)

…Richard Nixon… calls me at my Chicago hotel, during the course of my research and offers me $20,000 for my information…then a meeting with Nixon and his advisors, they want to exploit the freak-out…but an argument erupts when one elf Nixon’s aide makes a crude remark about his daughter – undertones of drugs and nymphomania, Julie, caught in the 14th green at Palm Springs with a negro caddy at midnight, the caddy now in prison, framed on a buggy count.”

It is shameful that the Republicans can originate nothing of their own. The Reps have to reach into the 1960s and Hunter Thompson’s prowess for their journalistic ideas to produce fantasies. The Nixon fact might be raw in 1968, but today anything goes, do your own thing, I have freedom. Every Rep. believes that. They bare all and welcome any overt violence by fragile white people, exhibiting truly hippy behaviors like those manifested during the 1960s in San Francisco., and later elsewhere. Indeed, most of the participants of January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol in Washington DC looked like hippies – unshaven, unclean, sneering, uncontrollable, likely on meth…

Thompson’s media proposal is being used by the Reps today.

DAWN OF BELLE EPOQUE, TWILIGHT OF BELLE EPOQUE

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MARY MCAULIFEE

These books tell of a completely defeated France (1870), loser of the Franco-Prussian War, and for the next 44 years France’s imagination became culture and industry reinventing its thinking, culture and society, and somewhat its politics. Those achievements in the Arts, in literature, education and scientific endeavors (Pasteur, Pierre, Marie Curie) drove France into the Twentieth Century.

The innovation of this history is an original telling in its approach, beginning in 1870 and year after year going through 1918 (end of World War One). Culture enters the story and artists, including industrialists, struggle for recognition, succeeding as years pass. Politics and foreign affairs are included but not emphasized. Georges Clemenceau, a friend of all the painters and writers, gets the most attention.

The text is easy to follow. Its argument builds with humor, and terrific antidotes, while the Art, society and politics progress. One wonders how Paris was livable. Of the many histories I’ve encountered, this is a brilliant survey presentation. Its style gives the essence of France and the French in a studied, flippant, and charming manner.

THE BROWNSVILLE AFFAIR

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ANN J. LANE

Upon leaving the Presidency Theodore Roosevelt wrote a thoroughly enjoyable, well written Autobiography. The text gives a gleaming glow and presentation of the man, except

Roosevelt failed to mention the incident at Brownsville, Texas, 1906. Newly arrived companies of African-American soldiers were accused of shooting up the town, and killing a bartender. It did not matter no one could identify who the shooters were, or that witnesses failed to see or identify the shooters/rioters. It did not matter that those companies of soldiers did not have access to weapons on their base. None had revolvers. Rifles were locked up.

Roosevelt discharged, without honor, all the newly arrived African American soldiers despite knowing of these facts supporting non-participation by these soldiers.

The Brownsville Affair should be read along side of Roosevelt’s Autobiography to determine how rashly, imperial, erratic, and simple-minded that President was. Roosevelt had not been educated to understand the rules of evidence: What is proven; what is not proven. Instead, he accepted myths, fantasies, fancies and fears of Texas white people about those soldiers. He supported the conventional wisdoms common amongst all whites. Suspicions of assaults, rape, discourtesies, proud men seeking social equality and sneakiness and deception: Keys to guns were left untended and obviously the soldiers had access and used the rifles, although there was not time to do everything. All whites knew the soldiers were quick-change artists, like actors. They could be in two places at once.

Roosevelt did not, but should have, asked himself, What would Abraham Lincoln do? Lincoln would have required evidence, not guesses, speculation and fantasy, and Lincoln would have known the prejudices and Southern hatred for African-American soldiers would sully truth.

The Brownsville Affair has been a guide for racially-related incidents since 1906. Take George Floyd’s murder. Chauvin the cop said he was threatened by the bystanders on the curb, pleading that Chauvin get off Floyd’s neck. How was Chauvin threatened? Some of the bystanders were African Americans. Some of the bystanders were taking photos and making film. Some were asking questions. Some were reporting the incident to the police department. BUT without the cameras and film and the audio, would that trial have turned out the same way?

It is disappointing to read of an incident in 1906, and realize the similar or same language and prejudices are within America and Americans today. It is time to change. If no one believes it, read, The Brownsville Affair.

HUE

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Frank Bowden

This excellent telling of the battle of Hue (Vietnam, February 1968) needs to be read.

(1) What happened? (2) Lies the American government and military told itself and Americans about the Tet Offensive (February 1968) and Hue. (3) The gallant, unselfish, courageous fighting of United States Marines against forces more than three or four times their number. (4) The lies the North Vietnamese told themselves to pursue fighting in Hue. (5) The military mistakes made by the Vietnamese, South and North, and Communist Part during the offensive in Hue. (6) Mistakes of the North Vietnamese were not capitalized on by the Americans. (7) The effect on the residents of Hue during the four weeks of fighting. (8) The small forces the South Vietnamese had and went through the daily grind of fighting for four weeks.

Somehow Bowden tells of combat, of wounds and of deaths (mostly Americans): Marines, where they came from, their training, their units, companies and a few battalions, where Marines were supposed to go – target, eliminate the opposition, and whom Marines were fighting against. Suddenly, a wound or a death of a Marine, introduced and ended that story. It was combat in a small city, not in the jungle. Everyone was crammed together, ill-supported except for weapons and ammunition, no washing, no hygiene, no clean clothes. Marines asked for tanks and sometimes never had any or enough; they fought with hand-held delivery of artillery, beginning with hand grenades.

There were no drones, no surveillance devices, no way of looking and locating the enemy. There’s no GPS. Hue was an old-time battle.

This book is well-written. Reading it at once takes the reader to the year 1968 and gives readers the sense of what Hue Marines went through, as well as the North Vietnamese, during those four weeks.

The book lacks comprehensive maps, on which every location mentioned, is on a map. There is no listing of maps in the Table of Contents, and what each map represents. NOTE, these omissions help tell of the battle. Every combatant, Marine, U.S. Army, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were strangers to Hue, and truly did not know where they were: Where was one landmark or building in relation to any other landmark. Indeed, a Marine Lt. Col. took off the wall of a gasoline station, a map of the City (large distances per millimeter) to help orient him and organize his advance to eliminate the opposition.

CIVIL POLITENESS: FINISHING SCHOOL

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This education is little taught today, being replaced by immediate offense, banishment, laws and litigation.

However, upon reading a biography of Grace Kelly-Princess Grace, I realized this girl/woman had gone to finishing school, and learned! Two examples.

1). During her first movie with Alfred Hitchcock, Dial M for Murder, the director told an obvious, vulgar joke to Ray Milland, the male star, while Grace Kelly was within earshot. Hitchcock wanted to observe the nice, proper, blonde actress’s reaction. Grace responded, I went to a Catholic Covent school as a teenager, and I heard that joke eight years ago.

Hitchcock liked the response.

2) Marilyn Monroe posed for an early issue of Playboy, and later a reporter asked her, What do you wear to bed? Monroe’s fabulous response: “Chanel No. 5.”
Later, a reporter asked Grace Kelly what she wore to bed. Kelly: I don’t think that’s anyone’s business, because if it became known, my life would be laid out like it was in a magazine.