(1) POTTER SCROLLS. I made a mistake about the lead item in yesterday’s Scroll. The people behind Harry Potter and the Sacred Text are not going to sit in the Sixth & I synagogue for 199 weeks talking about Harry Potter. They’re doing a 199-episode podcast – matching the total number of chapters in the seven Harry Potter books – and the Sixth & I appearance is one of many live shows on a country-wide tour. (Specifically — Washington DC Tuesday July 18th @ 7pm — Sixth & I.)
The presenters also have several sample videos on their YouTube channel that demonstrate the lessons they illustrate with Rowling’s stories.
(2) WRITER UPDATE. When we last heard from Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, she had just come out with ”Strange Monsters”, (which Carl Slaughter discussed at Amazing Stories). Since then, she has been nominated for a Nebula for “The Orangery” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies; won the Grand Prize in the Wattpad/Syfy The Magicians #BattletheBeast contest, which means her story will be turned into a digital short for the TV show The Magicians; sold ”Needle Mouth” to Podcastle; and sold “Maneaters” and “Something Deadly, Something Dark” to Black Static.
(3) WHEN IN VROME. John King Tarpinian and I joined the throngs at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena tonight to hear the wisdom and humor of John Scalzi and Cory Doctorow, and get them to sign copies of their new novels The Collapsing Empire and Walkaway.
A bonus arriving with the expected duo was Amber Benson, once part of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, now a novelist and comics writer, who also voiced the audiobook of Scalzi’s Lock-In.
Amber Benson, John Scalzi, and Cory Doctorow.
Amber Benson, John Scalzi, and Cory Doctorow. Photos by John King Tarpinian.
(4) GAME CHANGER. Hard to imagine the sff field without her, but apparently it might have happened: Rewire tells “Why Mary Robinette Kowal Traded in Puppets for Science Fiction”
A “catastrophic puppeteer injury” wouldn’t mean the beginning of an award-winning career for most people—but Mary Robinette Kowal is a different sort of someone.
… Thus began 25 years as a professional puppeteer. Kowal toured the country with a number of shows, including another production of “Little Shop of Horrors” (she’s been a puppeteer for seven “Little Shop” productions). While helping again to bring killer plant Audrey II to life, Kowal popped a ligament in her right wrist.
For most, a bum wrist is an annoyance. But for a puppeteer, it’s a catastrophic career interruption.
(5) THE CHOW OF YOUR DREAMS. Scott Edelman is back with a new Eating the Fantastic podcast.
Actually, this one’s going up a little early. I’d normally have posted it Friday — but since I’ll be at StokerCon then, where I will either win my first Bram Stoker Award or lose my seventh, thereby becoming the Susan Lucci of the HWA — I figured I’d better get it live now so I had no distractions while aboard the Queen Mary.
In Episode 35 you’re invited to “Eat one of George R. R. Martin’s dragon eggs with K. M. Szpara”.
K. M. Szpara
I was glad to be able to return for a meal with K.M. Szpara, who has published short fiction in Lightspeed, Shimmer, Glittership, and other magazines, and has recently completed his first novel. He edited the acclaimed anthology Transcendant: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, about which Kirkus wrote that it “challenges readers’ expectations in ways that few have managed to do before.”
Listen in and learn about his formative years writing Hanson and Harry Potter fanfic, which darlings he had to kill to complete his first novel, why rewrites are like giving a floofy poodle a haircut, what he didn’t know about short stories when he began to write them, the many ways conventions are like big sleepovers, the reason he was able to eat one of George R. R. Martin’s dragon eggs, and more.
(6) SCRATCHED. Like the rest of America you probably weren’t watching, so you won’t need to start now – SciFi Storm has the story: “Powerless indeed – NBC pulls show from schedule”.
From the “never a good sign” department, NBC has abruptly pulled the DC comics-tinged comedy series Powerless from the prime-time schedule, without any word on when the remaining episodes may air. The show, which starred Vanessa Hudgens, Alan Tudyk, Danny Pudi and Christina Kirk, struggled to find an audience from the start, despite the success of comics-based series of late.
(7) I WAKE UP STREAMING. Although NBC is shoveling a DC flop off its schedule, Warner Bros. is launching an entire service built around DC Comics properties.
Deadline.com says DC Digital will launch with a Titans series from the guy who does the shows on The CW and a Young Justice animated series: “DC Digital Service To Launch With ‘Titans’ Series From Greg Berlanti & Akiva Goldsman And ‘Young Justice: Outsiders’”
The DC-branded direct-to-consumer digital platform, in the works for the past several months, marks the second major new service launched by Warner Bros Digital Networks — the division started last year with the mandate of building WB-owned digital and OTT video services — following the recently introduced animation-driven Boomerang. The DC-branded platform is expected to offer more than a traditional OTT service; it is designed as an immersive experience with fan interaction and will encompass comics as well as TV series.
(8) SUSPENDED ANIMATION. Digital Trends sums up “‘Star Trek: Discovery’ 2017 CBS TV series: Everything we know so far”. What we know is nobody can say when it’s going to air.
The first episode of Star Trek premiered 50 years ago, and the beloved sci-fi franchise is now scheduled to return to television in 2017 with a new series on Netflix and CBS — or more specifically, on CBS All Access, the network’s new stand-alone streaming service.
CBS unveiled the first teaser for its new Star Trek series in early 2016, and the show’s official title was revealed to be Star Trek: Discovery during Comic-Con International in San Diego in summer 2016. With the latest movie (Star Trek Beyond) in theaters this past summer, many Star Trek fans are wondering exactly how the television series from executive producer Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) and showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts (Pushing Daisies) will fit into the framework of the sci-fi franchise as it exists now.
Star Trek: Discovery was originally slated for a January release, but the network subsequently pushed the premiere date back to an unspecified date in mid- or late 2017. Here’s everything else we know about the series so far….
(9) IT TOOK AWHILE. Disney’s Gemini Man may be emerging from development hell says OnScreen in “Ang Lee to helm sci-fi actioner Gemini Man”.
Acclaimed director Ang Lee has entered negotiations to helm the long in-development sci-fi action thriller, Gemini Man.
First developed by Disney back in the nineties, the story sees an assassin forced into battle with his ultimate opponent: a younger clone of himself. Tony Scott was previously set to helm Disney’s take, based on a pitch by Darren Lemke. Several writers have taken a pass at the project over the years, including David Benioff, Brian Helgeland, and Andrew Niccol.
(10) TODAY IN HISTORY
- April 25, 1940 — Batman’s arch-nemesis The Joker debuted in Batman #1, published 77 years ago today.
- April 25, 1950 — The board game Scrabble trademark was registered.
(11) LEFT ON. The London Review of Books’ Russian Revolution book review includes China Miéville: “What’s Left?”
…That person, as it turns out, is China Miéville, best known as a science fiction man of leftist sympathies whose fiction is self-described as ‘weird’. Miéville is not a historian, though he has done his homework, and his October is not at all weird, but elegantly constructed and unexpectedly moving. What he sets out to do, and admirably succeeds in doing, is to write an exciting story of 1917 for those who are sympathetically inclined to revolution in general and to the Bolsheviks’ revolution in particular. To be sure, Miéville, like everyone else, concedes that it all ended in tears because, given the failure of revolution elsewhere and the prematurity of Russia’s revolution, the historical outcome was ‘Stalinism: a police state of paranoia, cruelty, murder and kitsch’. But that hasn’t made him give up on revolutions, even if his hopes are expressed in extremely qualified form. The world’s first socialist revolution deserves celebration, he writes, because ‘things changed once, and they might do so again’ (how’s that for a really minimal claim?). ‘Liberty’s dim light’ shone briefly, even if ‘what might have been a sunrise [turned out to be] a sunset.’ But it could have been otherwise with the Russian Revolution, and ‘if its sentences are still unfinished, it is up to us to finish them.’
(12) ALT-MARKETING. Most of you know that two weeks ago Monica Valentinelli refused to continue as Odyssey Con GoH after discovering the committee not only still included a harasser she’d encountered before (their Guest Liaison!), but she was going to be scheduled together with him on a panel, and then, when she raised these issues, the first response she received from someone on the committee was a defense of the man involved. The con’s other two GoHs endorsed her decision and followed her out the door.
Normal people responded to that sad situation by commiserating with the ex-GoHs, and mourning Odyssey Con’s confused loyalties. Jon Del Arroz set to work turning it into a book marketing opportunity.
First, Del Arroz discarded any inconvenient facts that didn’t suit his narrative:
A couple of weeks ago, an invited headlining guest flaked on a convention, OdysseyCon. No notice was given, no accommodations were asked for, simply bailing two weeks before it happened, leaving the fans without an honored guest. The Con responded professionally and nicely, trying to work things out as much as possible, but that wasn’t enough for this person who took to social media, and got a cabal of angry virtue signallers to start swearing, berating and attacking anyone they could.
Then he showed his empathy by arranging a book bundle with the works of Nick Cole, Declan Finn, Marina Fontaine, Robert Kroese, L. Jagi Lamplighter, John C. Wright (“nominated for more Hugo Awards in one year than any person alive”), himself, plus the Forbidden Thoughts anthology, Flyers will be handed to attendees at next weekend’s con telling them how to access the books.
Because Jon evidently feels someone needs to be punished for the unprofessionalism of that guest. After the fans at Odyssey Con read those books, they can tell us who they think he punished.
(13) RUN BUCCO RUN. Major League baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates have a huge new scoreboard and an interactive video game to go with it.
After the fifth inning, the team debuted a new feature on PNC Park’s renovated digital scoreboard, which runs the length of the Clemente Wall in right field: “Super Bucco Run.”
Inspired by the hit mobile game, the Pirates had one of their fans running and “bashing” blocks while “collecting” coins and items on the scoreboard. Keeping with the tradition, the flag went up the pole at the end of the segment when the fan completed the challenge….
It was a genius bit of mid-game entertainment that the Pirates plan to rotate with more videoboard games throughout the 2017 season. Over the offseason, they updated the old scoreboard with an 11-foot high and 136-foot long LED board with features like this in mind….
https://twitter.com/Lokay/status/850423705150861312
(14) ROCKET MAN. More on the Fargo Hugo, the story that keeps on giving.
Gloria grabbed a Hugo award to use as a club!
— edpell (@edpell) April 23, 2017
Is that a Hugo Award that Gloria grabs in Ennis's house in the @FargoFX premiere?!?
— Mary K (@purdymaryk) April 24, 2017
Hugo Award in the first episode, season 3 of #Fargo shaping up to be ????
— Cillian McGillycuddy (@cillianmac) April 24, 2017
I spent a whole lot of time looking at @HugoAwards this weekend because of @FargoFX. See what I learned, @pajiba https://t.co/ninMmS8YhT
— Genevieve Burgess (@rustyheadedgirl) April 24, 2017
And here is Genevieve Burgess’ post for Pajiba.
The silver rocket on a base follows the exact specifications laid out for the Hugo award trophies which means that someone did their research on how to fake a Hugo. However, it does not MATCH any of the Hugo Award trophies that actually exist, which means someone did even more research to make sure they weren’t exactly copying one.
(15) FACTS ON PARADE. Yahoo! Style has a gallery of the best signs from the March for Science.
[Thanks to JJ, rcade, Stephen Burridge, Martin Morse Wooster, Jon Del Arroz, Carl Slaughter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day rcade.]
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@Techgrrl1972 – We have no idea if Flynn will be indicted or not. No indictment in less than 100 days is thin gruel to base your hopes on.
The “Clinton Foundation” was a thinly described bribe machine for the Secretary of State and her family. Much of that was shut down after she lost. Surprising that.
@Most of you – amazing how you wish to ditch the rule law against your political enemies (Trump, Flynn, etc…) because it is “obvious” to you that they should go to the slammer. Holding that opinion simultaneously with the opinion that the other side wants a “dictatorship” is laughable.
And the excuses for the debacle in Venezuela by many suggest an inability to grasp reality. How many modern states have people fleeing the country because they lack food? In absence of a war? But it is still not the fault of idiot decisions by strongmen and socialists? And from a country that on a per capita basis was rather well off compared to other countries in their region until they started making boneheaded economic decisions?
@airboy
Who here has suggested ditching the rule of law against Trump, Flynn, or etc.? Are you extrapolating that from some people here thinking that it’s likely Flynn is guilty? If so, that’s ridiculous. If not, then what?
Indeed, we’d like the law to apply to them.
Lucky Lurkertype on meeting Frewer; I didn’t know he was even at the con until I happened on his table, and unfortunately for me he was away from it and not going to be back for a bit.
amazing how you wish to ditch the rule law against your political enemies (Trump, Flynn, etc…) because it is “obvious” to you that they should go to the slammer.
It’s kind of funny that you are so shocked that someone might think that Flynn, Trump et al should be jailed for the rather well-documented crimes they appear to have committed, given that they were leading baseless chants of “lock her up” last summer.
Here is my prediction: Hillary will never spend a day in prison. Multiple people who led the “lock her up” chants will serve lengthy sentences.
While I doubt the episode would’ve lived up to it, I did think the title for one of the no longer scheduled Powerless episodes was truly inspired; “Win, Luthor, Draw”.
Airboy – Your problems with communist countries don’t extend to their possible collusion with the highest levels of our government, and instead should be only leveled at authors discussing past revolutions? I for one am shocked. Pardon me my fainting couch awaits.
About meeting authors, specifically Harlan Ellison: In San Jose, in 1976, May 23nd, I think–a Sunday for sure–I asked him a question which he told me was a stupid question. But he signed my book anyway and, on reflection, it was a stupid question, so I can’t get too upset about it. In fact, I was over it before got back to Hayward.
What was great was that he read two stories, “Emissary from Hamelin” and “Mama”, and that during one of those stories–I think “Mama”–a small kid, sevenish give or take a year–was behind him making noise (heckling ProTip–always heckle from behind if you can) and being distracting, and Harlan turned around and said
then turned back toward us and resumed reading. For a few seconds. Till the terrified kid began to howl uncontrollably. Harlan had to stop the reading again and convince the kid that no, he wasn’t really going to break every bone in his body. It was a really good reading and an awesome spectacle.
Thomas Disch I never met, but I’d enjoyed what I’d read of his work until just recently, when I picked up an omnibus volume with The Genocides in it. That was a harrowing novel even to browse. I don’t think I’m going to read it straight through. I’m not saying it’s bad. Just the opposite. And also a book I don’t want to read. I begin to understand why not everyone wants to read Kaleidoscope Century, in my gut and not just my brain. Oddly, I picked up Greener Than You Think by Ward Moore (an abridged version it says on the cover) off the same free table at church a month or two later. It’s a little bit funny and easier to read without getting the shakes.
@Eli, imnotandrei, et al: The way I say it is:
Well, maybe not cheerfully, but you get the idea.
@airboy — there seems to be a pretty clear case that a lot of laws are being broken by various players in the current administration, up to and including the POTUS himself.
I’m suggesting that the current Justice Department isn’t the least little bit interested in investigating and charging these players, then following up with prosecutions in a court of law where guilt and innocence may be established.
IN COURT OF LAW, airboy.
I could not vote for the megalomaniac (Trump) or the sociopath (Hillary). I understand how the horror of one of them (Trump or Hillary) resulted in someone holding their nose and voting for the other.
@Matt Y on April 26, 2017 at 6:53 pm said:
Airboy – Your problems with communist countries don’t extend to their possible collusion with the highest levels of our government, and instead should be only leveled at authors discussing past revolutions? I for one am shocked. Pardon me my fainting couch awaits.”
I have no idea what you mean by “collusion with the highest levels of our government.”
I have very little sympathy for anyone today being enamored of the USSR. The USSR and other communist countries were the greatest mass murderers of the 20th Century.
@airboy: I didn’t regard Hillary with horror. She’s just an average neoliberal Democrat who I think would like to have been better than that. The worst thing about her was that she was married to perjurious, sex-harassing, human-shaped piece of shit for over forty years. That he never spent a night in jail after lying under oath by doing the sort of word-parsing you expect from a Sovereign Citizen just shows what money, power, and patronage buys you. But if she’d married someone decent, or even just clocked him good with that vase when the Lewinsky thing broke and divorced his ass, she might’ve been president some time back. Especially if he had visible facial marks from it.
I’d planned all along to vote third party, unless Bernie or Elizabeth Warren won the Democratic nomination, until Trump started egging on violence (rough treatment, if you’re an enhanced interrogation kind of guy) against protesters at his rallies, at which time he went from the best of a bad bunch to uniquely evil in our moment. He’s unleashed terrible things by violating norms that seemed (not entirely, to me) to be firmly accepted. They aren’t going back into the box any time soon. This article sums up exactly how bad it is–and how weird it got!
Things probably were gradually getting better, too slowly, but in the right direction. And then Trump. It undoes decades of work.
Just this decade, I thought American racism might have two centuries at the most left.
or the sociopath (Hillary)
We already knew you were an idiot airboy. You didn’t have to go and out your stupidity explicitly like this.
Airboy
You missed the stories on Flynn, Manafort, various members of the Trump campaign, the current investigations from multiple departments into it and more? No kidding. You’re putin me on.
Matt Y —
Airboy doesn’t see what he doesn’t want to see, and he doesn’t hear what he doesn’t want to hear, you dig?
And he can assure us that the Clinton Foundation, which got phenomenal ratings from people who actually pay attention to such things, was a criminal operation, because he really really doesn’t like her. The rule of law in his world is apparently that if they don’t like you, you must have done something illegal, and if you’re on their side and don’t get indicted by your buddies then the law is being upheld.
To rule is for their team, the law is to keep everyone else in line.
airboy:
Oh, it is absolutely a work of idiots and socialists. People who saved no money for worse times and had large budget deficits every year. If we instead look at Bolivia, we see smarter socialists that aren’t as stupid and save money instead. In Bolivia, extreme poverty has gone down from 38% to 17%.
I wouldn’t say that Venezuela was well off before Chavez. A poverty level of 50% is not well off.
(12) So… some guy who admires the Sad Puppies has come out in favor of sexual harassment. (His revisionist version of events certainly comes across to me as pro-harassment.)
Hm… Next we’ll find out that water is wet.
@Tom: It really was sheer luck; I didn’t know Frewer was there either and as I was passing by the tables on my way through the room, there he was! With no line. So we had a lovely 5 minute chat. He was exactly as you would hope (I saw you across the dealer’s room once, but it was a ways across and we were going opposite directions).
Someone who gets all their foreign news from Rupert Murdoch is opining untrue things? Golly, that never happens.
Da, is Putin.
Who are you even talking about?
For that matter, I regarded Hillary with horror. She was complicit in one of the great genocides of modern times, the sanctions against Iraq that killed over one million persons, half of them children below five years old. She was complicit in the war against Iraq that killed close to a million more. And then poured gasoline on the fire with the invasion of Libya. She has helped to destroy a whole region of the world.
Of course, Trump is also having neocon fun right now, increasing the death tolls of civilians in all countries US has invaded or helped invade. Not much difference.
@Hampus:
I am rather more concerned about Trump starting WWIII through sheer blind ignorance than I would be about Clinton doing so at all. I’m not saying either one’s flawless, but given the choice between a shit sandwich and lethal injection… pass the mayo.
And I don’t even like mayonnaise. (Maybe a little on a fried chicken sandwich, just to keep it moist, but that’s it.)
I mean, I was really hoping the Democrats wouldn’t run Hillary. I’ve seen how much Hillary-hate energizes the GOP base for over twenty years; there’s simply no reason to give the opposition that gift. I disagree with some of her policies and decisions, but the one thing I couldn’t call her is unqualified. I mean, she’d already been in the White House for eight years; I doubt there’s anyone on the planet who knows the job better and hasn’t already held it.
And then there’s Trump, who’s pretty much her polar opposite. Ignorant, racist, sexist, tone-deaf, and proud of all of it. Every sin the GOP assigned to Hillary that he was capable of committing, Hair Gropenführer had tripled down on it, and more besides. He lies so much I don’t think he knows what the truth is, and he acts as if the idea of consequences is utterly alien to him.
And that is what horrifies me. I get the feeling that to Trump, the world’s just another set in the reality show of his life, and that if he screws something up, a few union guys in hard hats will fix it overnight. This is not what I look for in a leader.
I don’t care what he says his policies are; he’s reversed them so often that I don’t think he actually has any principles beyond Enrich Donald Trump and Get Applause. Everything else is for sale to the highest bidder. Flatter him and give him money, and he’ll do whatever you want.
Maybe someone should offer him $100 million to resign…
Rev. Bob:
From an american perspective, I absolutely understand why Clinton was a much, much, much better choice for US. But I’m not an american. If US looses 5% of GDP and doubles unemployment and get additional sexism, and whatnot, I’m still happy with that as long as new countries aren’t bombed to pieces.
Only problem is that Trump is as warlike as Clinton. So all the bad stuff from her in addition to his own.
@Hampus: “Only problem is that Trump is as warlike as Clinton.”
I think he’s rather more warlike, myself – and, as I said earlier, there’s the complicating ignorance factor to consider. (Remember how he blundered with China over Taiwan before he was even sworn in? I guarantee you that (a) it was accidental and (b) Clinton wouldn’t have made that mistake.)
I may not approve of every decision Clinton has made, but I think it’s safe to say that her instinct is to negotiate first and bomb second… and she’s pretty good at diplomacy. Trump seems not to value diplomatic solutions, relying instead on bluster and threats. (Part of me thinks this is related to how long diplomacy takes; Trump isn’t known for his long attention span, and launching a few missiles is fast.)
Or, in sum: Clinton may have been more prone to get involved in conflicts than I’d like, but I was confident they’d be smaller and there would be decent reasons for them. Trump demonstrates a carelessness that I think lends itself to big – possibly globe-threatening – conflicts. I think we’re several steps closer to the possibility of nuclear confrontations now than we would be if Hillary had won.
Rev. Bob:
Exactly. In my opinion the problem is not that Trump is warlike, it’s that he doesn’t understand diplomacy. Both things like that Taiwan phonecall, and unclear messages on e.g. the role of NATO – and USA’s commitment to NATO – make World War-by-accident depressingly likely.
In terms of foreign policy, the stance on climate change is also a big deal. If left unchecked, climate change can have catastrophic results for civilization. Having a US president who don’t believe in science is a big problem.
Hillary may not be the perfect politician to lead USA, but there’s nothing in her past to suggest that anything she might have done as president would be crucial in making the world much worse place.
Rev. Bob:
Libya and Iraq are examples of the exact opposite. Killing arabs for geopolitical reasons might be reasonable for an american, but not for me. 500 000 dead children under five years old. Allying herself with Albright and Kissinger. There are no excuses.
Johan P:
Actually, both her involvement in the genocide of Iraq and the destruction of Libya were good indications of how destructive she would be. This together with her neoconservative stance on Iran, Yemen and Syria.
@Hampus: “Killing arabs for geopolitical reasons might be reasonable for an american, but not for me. 500 000 dead children under five years old.”
Perhaps it is cold, cruel, and provincial for me to be more concerned with the millions of immigrant Mexican-American families Trump wishes to directly rend asunder than with the millions of people in the Middle East whose fates as casualties of sanctions and war were most likely sealed in September of 2001… but it is true nonetheless.
Sanctions are supposed to induce change at national levels through pressure caused by pain inflicted on the general populace. So, too, is warfare. Of the two, I prefer sanctions over bullets, but both can cause widespread suffering and death. At least with sanctions, the people have a better chance to escape; bombs are far less forgiving than borders.
Of course I would prefer a world in which all people lived in harmony, where all were adequately provided for and neither war nor sanctions were necessary. I know of few who would not. However, that is not our world, and sometimes there are no right answers. There are only bad and worse – and as bad as Clinton may have been, Trump is far worse.
Or, to be perfectly blunt – if my only choices are between half a million dead kids in a place I’ve never seen and seeing my own country go up in flames, I can only choose the former. Doesn’t mean I like it or approve of the choice or the circumstances which led to it – but just as you prefer that Americans suffer rather than Arabs, I prefer it the other way around. I am, after all, one of those damned Americans.
There are issues where Hillary would have been neither worse nor better than typical US policy the last couple of decades. That’s not the same as her making the world much worse off than it is. Actually, in the context of a comparison to Trump, it’s practically glowing praise.
But when you criticize Hillary over Libya I have to ask: How do you think USA and NATO should have responded to the rebellion against Gadaffi, and what do you think Libya would have looked like today if that reaction had happened instead of bombing? I mean, looking at Syria (where NATO didn’t help the rebels), I find it difficult to say that the intervention in Libya was clearly wrong.
Rev. Bob:
You have studies the genocidal Iraqi sanctions, I guess? After US had bombed all water purification plants during the Gulf war, the sanctions refused Iraq to buy parts for repair. Iraq couldn’t buy medical supplies. Iraq couldn’t buy parts to repair their oil industry. US doomed the population to famine, diseases and starvation. 1 million people died, half of them children.
To support that is on par of supporting the policies of Pol Pot. Nothing else.
Johan P:
Many things would have happened. First, IS would not be nearly as much a threat as they are now in Syria. They weapons they use are those they got from US in Iraq and in Libya. Libya would also have a government and basic services instead of being an anarchy. Last, the rebellion would have been quelled. Some people would have died, but compared to the level of destruction and the policies of the new dictators, nothing says that anything remotely like the now existing chaos would exist.
And to say that NATO didn’t help the rebels in Syria is just wrong. US has had advisors there since the beginning, helping and educating the rebels. US has also shipped arms by way of Saudi-Arabia. US is deeply involved in the Syria conflict. Right now, US is allied with Al Qaida there against IS.
@many, re authors in person: a friend with a speech impediment observed that Ellison tried to make sure they were included in the conversation (at dinner around a Readercon). I suspect he has more of a discrete public persona than many authors. And I found Mieville entirely willing to talk without flamage shortly after we’d had a public disagreement about facts (on a panel, so neither of us could pull out hard evidence). I also note that it’s easy to catch someone who can survive working largely solo at a time when they’ve had more crowd than they can really cope with.
And wrt the tortured artist: Damon Knight wrote multiple stories arguing that the best art comes out of torment, but he was a gentleman in person. Some people make art without demons, some can turn all their demons into art, and some have too many demons to do that.
@Hampus: I think your hatred for US policies has blinded you to the staggering incompetence of Qadaffi (or however we’re transliterating Arabic this week).
You have studies the genocidal Iraqi sanctions, I guess?
The question one must ask is exactly how did Hillary meaningfully support such sanctions. The sanctions were imposed when she was not in any elective or appointed office, and even before her husband held any national office (or had even begun to run for a national office). They were imposed by U.N. mandate, voted on by the entire U.N. security council in 1990, after which the only legislative actions taken in the U.S. were to alleviate the sanctions – none of this process involved Hillary in any way, as she did not hold any actual elected office until 2001. Are you suggesting that Hillary is responsible for the policies implemented by her husband? That seems to be denying her any actual identity of her own.
Many things would have happened.
Yes, comparing reality to the fantasies in your head always means that reality comes up short. The formal name for this sort of thinking is the Nirvana fallacy. Given your comments here, I am fairly confident that had the U.S. not chosen to provide support to the Libyan rebels, you would be lambasting Clinton for that decision as well and saying that if only the U.S. had stepped in the world would have been a much better place.
She did support the sanctions in several speeches. She also voted for the Iraq war as a senator. Also, she has been cozying up to Madeleine Albreight who was one of the main architects of the child genocide.
Ah, so you are the person living in a fantasy world and projecting that on me. As a matter of fact, I was out on the streets in Sweden demonstrating against an intervention in Libya. Just as I was before the Iraq war. While the warmongers were happy to bomb even more arabs.
She also voted for the Iraq war as a senator.
Along with about three-quarters of the members of Congress at the time. Are you going to attack all of them as well? Basically you’re not saying you’re horrified by Clinton so much as you’re saying you’re horrified by American politicians.
But in any event, that’s not support for sanctions. That’s support for military intervention. You specifically accused her of helping impose sanctions, and now when it turns out that your claims are built on tissue paper, you change the subject.
Also, she has been cozying up to Madeleine Albreight who was one of the main architects of the child genocide.
You really have no idea what you are talking about. Albright didn’t become Secretary of State until three years after sanctions were imposed. Also, you seem not to understand what the job of the Secretary of State actually is – she had no authority to impose or remove sanctions – only the U.N. could do that with the consent of Congress.
I was out on the streets in Sweden demonstrating against an intervention in Libya.
And had there been no intervention, I am confident that you would have been out on the streets complaining about that. Much more confident than I am that your fantasy scenario about how much better Libya would have been without U.S. involvement.
Absolutely. This is very much true. And no, I did not change the subject. I said that she supported the sanctions in several speeches.
Ah, no. It is you who have no idea of what you are speaking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0WDCYcUJ4o
You really want to make the appearance of being a total idiot, don’t you? I have been part of the Swedish peace movement for over 25 years now. That means protesting against the belief that bombs are solutions. That bombing countries actually helps them.
The only thing you have proven is that you are confident in groundless fantasies you have picked from your ass.
Ah, no. It is you who have no idea of what you are speaking.
That was an interview given six years after the sanctions were imposed. The only thing Albright does is in the interview is defend the sanctions – which was something she was required to do by administration policy, and which at the time she was working to alleviate via the oil for food program (a program that the Iraqi government had repeatedly rejected, but was adopted later that year). You claimed that Albright was the “architect” of the sanctions – but she had no role in creating them or imposing them – she wasn’t even in office when that happened. As Secretary of State, she had no power or authority to remove them without direction from the President and Congressional action. In short, you have zero idea what you are talking about. Your notions about how U.S. government works appear to be completely incorrect.
You really want to make the appearance of being a total idiot, don’t you?
Thus far, the only person spouting idiocy has been you. You constructed fantasies about Libya and Iraq that have no basis in fact. You are flatly factually wrong on the assertions you have made, and woefully uneducated on the subject you have been trying to opine upon.
@Aaron/Hampus
I’m pretty sure you can have this discussion without calling each other idiots, etc.
Defend the genocide you mean. And a real humanist would have quit before defending genocide. Which is what Dennis Halliday at the UN did as to not be complicit in the murder of children. Your defense for her is “She was just following orders”. I do not accept that as a valid defense.
Well, as you just proved that all your confidence in your opinions are based on fantasies, I see no problem in letting you wallow in your ignorance and your prejudices against others.
And we are reminded again of the specialness of being American.
Mark:
If someone again asserts to have knowledge about me that goes directly against my core values, I will absolutely call that person an idiot again. There are limits.
Let me shorten that for you:
Unfortunately for us, history likes sequels.
Defend the genocide you mean.
She defended the policy of sanctions – a policy that she was actively working to alleviate at the time – alleviation which the Iraqi government had rejected repeatedly for several years. That sanctions policy was one that, among others, Bernie Sanders actively supported with his votes in Congress.
Your claim that Albright was the “architect” of the sanctions against Iraq is flatly untrue. She was not in office when those policies were created, and had no role in developing them. She didn’t come into office until three years after sanctions were imposed – and those sanctions were imposed by U.N. mandate. She had no authority to change them, modify them, or remove them on her own.
While we are tallying things up, Sanders also authorized the use of force by the Bush administration in 2001, voted in favor of the Libyan intervention and advocated for greater U.S. involvement in Syria. Would you have been “horrified” had Sanders been the Democratic nominee for President?
You scream about Clinton and Albright’s “support” for policies that they had little to no role in creating or imposing, and which neither had any authority to actually change, but don’t really seem to care much about the votes of people like Sanders, who actually took meaningful actions to pass those same policies into law.
Come to think of it, the sequel already has a theme song:
If someone again asserts to have knowledge about me that goes directly against my core values
You have no core values. All you have is a bundle of falsehoods and misinformation.
She defended sanctions that killed half a million children and half a million more adults. It would have been easy and the only thing any decent person could do to remove the sanctions on medicines, on repair equipments for the water plants, for the electricity plans. Hell, it was even illegal to export pencils to Iraq.
Dennis Halliday did the decent thing and resigned to protest the killing of children. Albright defended them. There are no excuses.
I do not “scream” more than you are gnashing your teeth and hollering in wrath.
And oh yes, if those are policies Sanders supported, I would be as pissed at him as of Clinton. Even in Sweden, I vote more based on foreign policy than on anything else.
It is impressive how low you can go.
It would have been easy and the only thing any decent person could do to remove the sanctions on medicines, on repair equipments for the water plants, for the electricity plans.
Which Albright had no authority to do on her own. She was, at the time, actively working to alleviate the sanctions and do exactly what you are saying should have been done. She did accomplish what you claim you wanted accomplished, and yet you spend your time calling her the “architect” of sanctions she had no role in creating.
The blunt truth here is that you have no idea what you are talking about with respect to Albright or the Iraq sanctions.
Dennis Halliday did the decent thing and resigned to protest the killing of children.
Halladay removed himself from being able to have any effect on those policies. Two years later. Albright stayed in her position and actually took actions that ameliorated them. She did the hard work of getting the U.N., the Iraqi government, and the U.S. Congress to change the policy, because she could not do it herself. Halladay ran away from the problem, leaving it intact and in place. Yet you laud Halliday and lambaste Albright. You have no principles.
And oh yes, if those are policies Sanders supported, I would be as pissed at him as of Clinton.
In short, you would have been “horrified” by any U.S. politician who ran for the Presidency in 2016, because all of them had similar (or more hawklike) histories.
@Hampus Eckerman: Welcome to America!
Let’s be clear.
Albright defended sanctions in 1996. So did Halladay. In fact, Halladay became the U.N. coordinator in Iraq in 1997, after Albright’s interview. Halladay didn’t resign until 1998.
How is Halladay more admirable again?
Halladay had an enormous effect by gathering public opinion from all over the world, putting pressure on the US and creating acceptance for the countries that broke the genocidal sanctions by sending repair equipment and medicine anyhow. If it hadn’t been for him and other whistleblowers, US would most likely never have changed their policy. Now they only did it under great pressure.
Both Hans von Sponeck and Jutta Burghardt also resigned, both with the explanation that they wouldn’t be complicit in genocide. And both of them were a great help in creating pressure on ending the sanctions.
Most likely.