“The Democratic Party is an exhausted and empty shell, a corpse sucked to the very edge of death by moneyed donors, a pale jumble of consulting firms trying to sell unflavored broth at the Gumbo Festival.” — Hamilton Nolan, “A Television Show Called the USA”
“In the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, you can learn that the first animals with backbones evolved during the early Cambrian Period, 525 million years ago. Outside of that museum, few backbones can be found in Washington, DC.” — Hamilton Nolan, “A Television Show Called the USA”
“Stop trying to reinvent Twitter.” — Dave Winer
“The critics panned [Mickey] Spillane, but he didn’t care. He said, ‘Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar.’ He said he never had a character who drank cognac or had a mustache, because he didn’t know how to spell those words.” — Garrison Keillor [writersalmanac.publicradio.org]
James Davis Nicoll reviews “Galactic Empires,” a two-volume 1976 science fiction anthology of stories about (you guessed it) galactic empires, edited by Brian Aldiss. I loved those books. [jamesdavisnicoll.com]
Strike, or Else: As Trump tosses out the TSA union contract, everything is on the line. [hamiltonnolan.com]
Capitalists hate capitalism [pluralistic.net]
Patti Davis, on her father, Ronald Reagan: My Father Spoke to Me Only Once About Why He Led This Nation
Davis writes about a conversation with Reagan in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House the night of his 1981 inauguration. According to Davis, Reagan told her:
“I really believe I can make this world a safer, more peaceful place. That’s why I ran for president.” When he left and the stillness of Lincoln’s bedroom folded around me, with all of its history and stories, I was struck by the fact that he spoke about the world, not just America.
I’ve thought about that night a lot lately, as America becomes more isolated, as we back away from allies and tensions grow. I’ve thought also about the lessons my father imparted to me as a child. He taught me at an early age about the Holocaust and that no country is immune to horrors like that. He told me that America’s democracy, while strong, is also fragile and to remain strong, we had to recognize that. He believed our democracy was a “grand experiment” and as such, it should be treated carefully.
A Haunting Coda: The 7 Days Gene Hackman’s Wife Could No Longer Care for Him: The exact details may never be known, but Mr. Hackman, 95 with advanced Alzheimer’s, was alone for about a week after his wife and sole caregiver died. [nytimes.com]