Doc Paperback

if you haven't read moonflow yet, perhaps it is time you did 🤔 www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/bitte...

"Have you watered the brains today, Igor?"

Sean Connery in a kilt, sitting in front of bookshelves.

Today a book fell on my head. I have only my shelf to blame.

Time for another "bookshelfie."
Please feel free to ask about the books you can see here.

It can be said fairly that the creation and operation of an agency to chill the expression of unpopular views is itself dangerously un-American. Free speech and thought are emi-nently American, not because all words and ideas are correct or even deserving of much attention, but because a democratic system cannot operate otherwise [...] The answer is not to find scapegoats for national problems but to undertake a serious search for their solution, drawing on all of the intellectual power and energy we can find. The answer is not restriction on the right for its damage to others, but leadership which encourages the expression of all points of view. In sum, the priority aim of government should be to invite more freedom of speech, not less, and to instill widely the understanding that those who espouse the unusual are not only exercising legitimate rights but performing a patriotic obligation to share the truth as they see it. Senator George McGovern Foreword to Only Victims by Robert Vaughn Putnam, 1972

There are points on which I would argue with Sen. George McGovern, but his words here, from 1972, give the lie to those powerful people within the current American regime who say "Free Speech" but who cynically and hypocritically shut down that very freedom with every action they take.

In 1970 actor Robert Vaughn completed a PhD. His thesis on the effect of McCarthyism on live theatre was adapted as a monograph in 1972. I decided to make it my bedtime reading and found much of it still relevant to 21c American politics.
#McCarthyism #MoralPanic #NapoleonSolo #PhD

I have your cigarette lighter.

I might just break a habit and actually watch it.

This is important! We've been here before. We need to stand up to the whippers-up of racial hatred.

a group of men are posing for a picture together . ALT: a group of men are posing for a picture together .

Trump says Starmer is no Churchill. He isn't. But then Trump is no FDR.

Bring her to trial. Bring 'em all to trial. Bring 'em all to trial like we did at the end of WW2.

If someone can wage an illegal war against a country with a regime you detest, he can wage an illegal war against you. Don't forget that.

You honestly think Trump couldn't be so stupid as to do something this huge and vile for so petty a motive? Look at the guy we're talking about - someone with the mentality of a spoilt toddler who lashes out petulantly. Yes, he might have done this anyway, but don't write off his pettiness.

Serious question here:
Granted that, as you say, we owe it to people not to treat their lives as cheap, do you really think Trump & co could not actually be so stupid that they MIGHT think of doing it as a distraction?

Would @archivetvmusings.bsky.social know, I wonder?

Is this Philip Madoc?
#movie #actor

Please watch.

It was years ago that I started referring to it as the 'Tea-Klux-Klan'.

Straight up!

Broadly speaking, there are 2 political factions. Not Labour v Tory/Reform, Republicans v Democrats etc, but an economic elite, operating globally, versus all of us. Though they are small in number, through the power of the political, media and social media systems they control, they keep winning.

Peter Mandelson, the Russian superyacht and the scandal we completely misread When Britain's most powerful political fixer was caught on an oligarch's boat in Corfu, we called it Yachtgate and moved on. The Epstein files now reveal the full picture: a web of Russian money, paed...

NEW: This is a terrific deep dive into Epstein & Russia by @professorshaw.bsky.social for @thenerve.news which starts with ‘Yachtgate’, Mandelson’s 2008 scandal involving Nat Rothschild, George Osborne & Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska
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www.thenerve.news/p/peter-mand...

Essential watching for anyone who imagines that we have EVER treated transgender people fairly in this country.

"Phew! What a scorcher!" 🤣🤣🤣

Achetez ce livre!
-- Charles de Gaulle

It's all right, pal - we like to make fun of you too.

It hasn't shifted me one micron rightwards. And as long as there's a battle to be fought I'm not abandoning that front.

a black and white photo of a man looking at a painting ALT: a black and white photo of a man looking at a painting

Jonathan Harris: PLEASE stop waking me up every time the name 'Smith' is mentioned!

E.E. 'Doc' Smith: Lensmen
Smith: specially bred to be leaders
Smith: They all have auburn hair and tawny eyes
Smith:
Smith:
Jonathan Harris: Oh the pain, the pain!
Robot: WARNING! WARNING!