RIP Mort Sahl

[Paul Brancato]

2 hours ago, David Andrews said:

FDR's logic in appointing old Joe as SEC chairman was, reportedly, "Set a thief to catch a thief."  The rutting old pr*ck made Erich von Stroheim a cuckold decades before Billy Wilder did (on film in Sunset Boulevard) by stealing Gloria Swanson away and hiring the then-unemployable von Stroheim to direct her in Queen Kelly (1929), a film von Stroheim proceeded to sabotage to the extremis of his talent for perversity.

Really, in a world where GHW Bush invaded Panama to cover his own involvement in international drug trafficking and money laundering, mere bootlegging was beyond Joe Kennedy because his sons were handsome and idealistic?

That’s funny logic David. Sure it want beyond JOe, but that doesn’t mean he was. Highly recommend Rfk Jr’s book American Values. What FDR reportedly said? To whom? When? 

[David Andrews]

10 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

That’s funny logic David. Sure it want beyond JOe, but that doesn’t mean he was. Highly recommend Rfk Jr’s book American Values. What FDR reportedly said? To whom? When? 

'FDR viewed the SEC as a means to national recovery from the Great Depression. He believed Kennedy, a moneymaking scoundrel of the first order, an ideal candidate to contend with all those other Wall Street characters.'

https://www.thegazette.com/columns/on-topic-joseph-kennedy-outfoxes-the-foxes-as-first-sec-head/

'When FDR asked his advisors their recommendations of who was to lead the new agency, which was to be one of the most powerful of the federal government, he was provided a list, with Kennedy’s name at the top, “because of executive ability, knowledge of habits and customs of business to be regulated and ability to moderate different points of view on Commission”. FDR supposedly likened the appointment of Kennedy as an example of the adage “set a thief to catch a thief” though there are many different versions of the quote, in different times and places, and whether the president actually made the comment first is questionable, though the observation was certainly apt.'

https://historycollection.com/the-curious-relationship-of-joseph-kennedy-sr-and-franklin-d-roosevelt/6/

On the topic of Old Joe, we are all, to an extent, operating on the kind of belief-system assertions that get published over at T**** D**.

Edited November 4, 2021 by David Andrews

[Paul Brancato]

And how was his job performance? Have you read RFK’s book, or do you join the chorus of his detractors now that he dared to question Vaccines? 

[David Andrews]

9 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

And how was his job performance? Have you read RFK’s book, or do you join the chorus of his detractors now that he dared to question Vaccines? 

I have listened to RFK Jr.'s anti-vax internet presentations, and I share his distrust of the ingredients, of the haste to formulate vaccines, and of the profiteering involved.  I support Americans' right to choose, and oppose all forced vaccination plans.  Now watch me be attacked.

It all reminds me of...Prohibition.

I regard historical bootlegging of the Old Joe era as a victimless crime in a time when some individual liberties were criminalized in order to rein in the industrialized workforce for the likes of Henry Ford.  We stand today at the brink of criminalizing people for their health preferences, and - as during Prohibition - creating an industry to prosecute and surveil them.  Look at the Texas abortion thing.  Considering this country's extremist fervor, I'm amazed the AIDS crisis passed over us without our criminalizing the behaviors said to be involved.

I love and mourn JFK and RFK as much as any man here (since we've driven all the women away).  I love them so much, I won't stand to see them hagiographed by people who, in Bob Dylan's words, "push fake morals, insult and stare."

But we are distant from the topic of Mort Sahl (or are we?) and I yield the floor.

 

Edited November 5, 2021 by David Andrews

[Paul Brancato]

Thanks David - I won’t be attacking you because I agree with you. I hope you didn’t feel I was. 
Didn’t mean to hijack Sahl. I mentioned that I went to see him speak just a few years ago in Mill Valley where he lived. What I didn’t mention was how old fashioned sexist he was in his comments. Of course I don’t remember anything he said, but it was his tone. When granted a short audience with him after his show I asked about his work with Garrison, and he said Garrison was a real American hero, which I agree with. 

Edited November 5, 2021 by Paul Brancato