Nora Roberts writes more books than anybody

 

In The Guardian's book section this week,

Alison Flood

Wed 27 Jan 2021

^^  Nora Roberts speaks out after attacks on casting of Alyssa Milano in adaptation

-------------------- The bestselling novelist says she is 'sincerely appalled' by some readers' anger at news that the #MeToo activist will star in a Netflix adaptation of Brazen Virtue

____________________________

[Guardian article] Bestselling novelist Nora Roberts has said she is "simply and sincerely appalled" after hundreds of her fans posted threats and abuse online in response to the casting of actor Alyssa Milano in an adaptation of one of her novels.

Milano is to play mystery writer Grace in a forthcoming Netflix adaptation of Brazen Virtue, the 1988 thriller by Roberts, who has written more than 200 books that have sold more than 500 million copies around the world.

Within an hour of sharing the news on her Facebook page, Roberts received almost 1,000 comments about the casting, with hundreds of her fans attacking Milano for her role in igniting the #MeToo movement and her vocal criticism of Donald Trump's administration.

In a typical comment, one of Roberts's fans criticised Milano for "casting 80 million people to the curb with hateful spite".  Others said they would never watch the film, while others announced they would stop reading Roberts's novels, with one even promising to burn all of their copies.

On Wednesday, Roberts released a statement on her website.  "By and large I keep politics off my pages.  That's my choice.  Now many readers have dragged their own politics onto this page, so I'm going to state, for the record:  I'm a liberal Democrat.  Always have been, always will be," she wrote.  

     "And as one, I've always believed everyone has a right to their political beliefs, and has a right to express their opinions.  But I don't have to tolerate insults and ugliness on my page."

She said she was appalled at "the vitriol, the hatred, the anger, the bitterness and the demands" that followed the announcement.

"Some will never read me again because Milano will headline this adaptation.  One reader stated she intended to BURN all my books in her collection for this choice of actress.  Think about that.  Burning books.  Get a visual?  I sure do," she wrote.  "Another claims she can only support 'like-minded' artists.  

Really?  

     I only imagine the books, songs, movies I'd have missed if I felt this way and refused to read, watch, listen to those who contributed to or performed them who hold different political viewpoints from my own."

She said the "viciousness...hurts my heart".  She added:  "And realizing because I'm a liberal Democrat, many of those comments are directed at me for that reason alone is a real eye-opener," she said.  "Watch the movie when it comes out, or don't.  

But lobbing nastiness at an actress or threatening me doesn't do anything but illustrate your own limitations."

Milano's representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

[End, Guardian article]

----------------------------------------------

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all too familiar

 

It Can't Happen Here

     a political novel written by American author Sinclair Lewis, and published in 1935

------------------------ [Wikipedia, excerpt] ---------- The novel was published during the heyday of fascism in Europe, which was reported on by Dorothy Thompson, Sinclair Lewis's wife.  

The novel describes the rise of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and "traditional" values.  

     After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government and imposes totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force, in the manner of European fascists such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.  The novel's plot centers on journalist Doremus Jessup's opposition to the new regime and his subsequent struggle against it as part of a liberal rebellion. ----------------- [end - excerpt]

__________________________________

-------------------- [excerpt from the novel, It Can't Happen Here] ------------------ On the whole, with scandalous exceptions, Democracy's given the ordinary worker more dignity than he ever had.  That may be menaced now by Windrip--all the Windrips.  All right!  Maybe we'll have to fight paternal dictatorship with a little sound patricide--fight machine guns with machine guns.  Wait till Buzz takes charge of us.  A real Fascist dictatorship!"

     "Nonsense!  Nonsense!" snorted Tasbrough.  "That couldn't happen here in America, not possibly!  We're a country of freemen."

     "The answer to that," suggested Doremus Jessup, "if Mr. Falck will forgive me, is 'the hell it can't!'  Why, there's no country in the world that can get more hysterical--yes, or more obsequious!--than America.  Look how Huey Long became absolute monarch over Louisiana, and how the Right Honorable Mr. Senator Berzelius Windrip owns his State.  

Listen to Bishop Prang and Father Coughlin on the radio--divine oracles, to millions.  

Remember how casually most Americans have accepted Tammany grafting and Chicago gangs and the crookedness of so many of President Harding's appointees?  

     Could Hitler's bunch, or Windrip's, be worse?  

     Remember the Kuklux Klan?  

Remember our war hysteria, when we called sauerkraut 'Liberty cabbage' and somebody actually proposed calling German measles 'Liberty measles'?  And wartime censorship of honest papers?  

Bad as Russia!  Remember our kissing the--well, the feet of Billy Sunday, the million-dollar evangelist, and of Aimée McPherson, who swam from the Pacific Ocean clear into the Arizona desert and got away with it?  Remember Voliva and Mother Eddy?

 . . . Remember our Red scares and our Catholic scares, when all well-informed people knew that the O.G.P.U. were hiding out in Oskaloosa, and the Republicans campaigning against Al Smith told the Carolina mountaineers that if Al won the Pope would illegitimatize their children?  

Remember Tom Heflin and Tom Dixon?  

Remember when the hick legislators in certain states, in obedience to William Jennings Bryan, who learned his biology from his pious old grandma, set up shop as scientific experts and made the whole world laugh itself sick by forbidding the teaching of evolution?

. . . Remember the Kentucky night-riders?  Remember how trainloads of people have gone to enjoy lynchings?  Not happen here?  Prohibition--shooting down people just because they might be transporting liquor--no, that couldn't happen in America!  Why, where in all history has there ever been a people so ripe for a dictatorship as ours!... --------------------------- [end of excerpt]

____________________________

{It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis.  Doubleday, Doran and Co.  1935.}

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contemplating frontiers

 

Tell me why, I love you like I do,

Tell me who, can stop my heart as much as you,

Tell me all your secrets and I'll tell you most of mine,

They say nobody's perfect but that's really true this time

I don't have the answers,

I don't have a plan,

I'm mad about you, baby

So help me understand

What we do,

You can whisper in my ear,

Where we go,

Who knows what happens after here,

Let's take each other's hands,

As we jump into the final frontier,

I'm mad about you, baby

Yeah, I'm mad about you

________________________________

"Final Frontier" -- written by Paul Reiser and Don Was.

Vocalist:  Andrew Gold

_______________________________

---------------------------------------

in The Washington Post today:

^^  Homeland security bulletin warns Americans about violence by grievance-fueled domestic extremists

reader comment:

Holding Trump accountable for inciting a terrorist attack on the US capital is pretty damn important if you want to continue having a functioning democracy.

This is like a 9-11 moment:  Either Trump is held accountable now, or the MAGA terrorists who are embedded in the GOP will do it again when Trump runs again, or some future Trump-like figure (Hawley, Cruz, etc.) pops up as the new leader of the Republican party in 2024.

It will happen again.  Bet on it.

Republicanism is a violent fascist movement now, and they intend to keep immunizing Republican crimes in hopes that those crimes will be more successful next time around.

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fiction more real than fact?

 

After the rather surreal events surrounding the 2020 election and its aftermath, I'm having a sorbet for my mind and spirit by re-watching "Mad About You" - 1992-1999 TV series, on Amazon Prime Video.

Great theme song.

-30-

when Saturday rolls around...

 

Sherrod Brown, Donald Trump

I don't know how I found this one video on You Tube--or maybe it found me--the title is:

Jim Zirin - How Does Sherrod Brown Do It?

uploader:  JimZirinTV

It's an interesting interview (26 minutes) with U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio.  He discusses the dignity of work, and he has a book out called Desk 88.

Mr. Zirin asks the senator if he wants to run for president; Brown says no.  He says he has never had a great need to imagine himself in that position--he says, "I'm happy in the Senate."

That reminded me of the time when I was sitting on a bench in the hallway of our state capitol, and all these state senators were passing in a sort of "wave," because their caucus had just ended.  

     I asked the power-and-light utility lobbyist who was sitting there, if he thought a particular new senator who was "making his mark" might run for governor someday.

He answered me, beginning by saying my first name very distinctly, as if to make sure I was listening closely, and then added--"...all of these bozos want to be governor."

     If I had asked him about the U.S. Senate and how many of those fine gentlemen (and ladies) might run for president, he might have answered similarly.  But he would not be able to include Senator Brown from Ohio in that.

(And since Brown has made that clear, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won't need to tell him off like she did Hawley and Cruz!--"Let me give you a sneak peek"--lol....)

____________________________________

------------------------ [excerpt from Desk 88] -------------- Almost two decades ago, I addressed a Workers Memorial Day rally in Lorain, Ohio.  I stood in front of a fifty-foot-high pile of black iron-ore pellets where the Black River empties into Lake Erie.  

After the event, the steelworker Dominic Cataldo handed me a lapel pin depicting a canary in a birdcage.  "This pin," he told me proudly, "symbolizes our decades-long fight for worker safety."  

Ever since, I've worn my canary pin to honor the millions of Americans who have fought for traditional American values, and to celebrate the dignity of work....

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a day of nice weather

 

I watched, on You Tube, a good video:

How Biden's Inauguration Day will differ from past presidents'

uploader:  CBS News

     They have a history professor on, it's fun.  (I think it's about 14 minutes.)

---------------------------------------------

_____________________________

     Reporting on Joe Biden's Inauguration included several light-hearted fashion stories:  Jill Biden, Kamala Harris, etc. wore interesting, brightly colored coats.

     Popular entertainers were part of the event--Lady Gaga; Jennifer Lopez....

     What do you and I have in common with President Biden?

     ...We all have to wake up tomorrow and get ready and go to work.

We have to Do It Again;

he has to Start Doing It.

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will you be back?

 

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy and John F. Kennedy on Inauguration Day in 1961

-----------------------------------------

"This #MLKDay, instead of sharing quotes, let's honor Martin Luther King's memory by committing to fight for and pass a new Voting Rights Act - this year."

~ Arnold Schwarzenegger on Twitter

____________________________________

     Arnold Schwarzenegger is an interesting phenomenon.  He came from Austria, began as a bodybuilder, "built" that into a movie career which has lasted decades, married a Kennedy, and became governor of California, from 2003 to 2007.

     (Connecting Schwarzenegger's political office with his movie role as "the terminator," some wits dubbed him "the Governator.")

_____________________________

General movie quotes printed on my memory during formative years--

Judy Garland:

"There's no place like home."

^^^

Ali MacGraw:

"Love means never having to say you're sorry."

^^^

Woody Allen:

"My analyst warned me, but you were so beautiful I got another analyst."

^^^

Arnold Schwarzenegger:

"I'll be back."

________________________________

I didn't even see the "I'll be back" movie, but the quote was well-used in popular parlance for a while, in the '80s....

___________________________

After the U.S. Capitol insurrection, Arnold Schwarzenegger put a video on You Tube where he discussed the incident, and compared it to Kristallnacht, "night of broken glass" in Germany.

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no more, please

 

On You Tube there is a video titled:

Inside the U.S. Capitol at the height of the siege

uploader - Washington Post

One of the Commenters said:  "The most clear timeline of the incident."

     Anther Commenter, Sara, wrote - "I always wanted to live through historical events that was a big mistake I take it back no more please"

_____________________________

Another video on You Tube which I thought was enlightening is titled,

How researchers are identifying suspects in the U.S. Capitol siege

uploader:  CBS News

___________________________

recent headlines

____________________

CNN

Analysis:  TV news is realigning, with Fox's ratings sagging and CNN's soaring

Forbes

Fox News Viewership Plummets:  First Time Behind CNN and MSNBC in Two Decades

The New York Times

After Capitols Become Fortresses, Far-Right Protesters Are Mostly a No-Show

The New York Times

'I Answered the Call of My President':  Rioters Say Trump Urged Them On

CNN

Trumps' snub of Bidens historic in its magnitude

USA Today

Paleologos on the Poll:  Inauguration Day isn't the end of the Trump era.  It's just the beginning.

USA Today

As DC stays quiet, gun rights caravans roll into Richmond, Virginia

The Washington Post

'No stone unturned':  Pentagon vows to vet National Guard for extremist ties ahead of inauguration

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today and every day

 

(January 8, 2021)

Art World

Art Industry News:  Curators Assess the Damage to Art in the US Capitol After This Week's Pro-Trump Mob + Other Stories...

Darren Walker's Take on Storming of the Capitol--In a public letter published yesterday, the president of the Ford Foundation makes an impassioned plea for the preservation of democracy, calling it "the greatest threat to the ideology of white supremacy."  

He goes on to write that "neither can long endure in the presence of the other.  That is why today--and every day--we must renew our commitment to protect our democratic values and institutions from all enemies, foreign and domestic, especially those falsely disguised as patriots."

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our beautiful neoclassical Capitol building

 

[Washington Post article]

     Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said it was "not an exaggeration" to say many members of Congress were "nearly assassinated."  

     She described what she called "acts of betrayal" by some members of the U.S. Capitol Police who appeared to side with the mob, saying that to run for safety and "not know if an officer is there to help you or harm you is also quite traumatizing."

Ocasio-Cortez reserved particular anger for Senators Ted Cruz (Republican-Texas) and Josh Hawley (Republican-Missouri) for challenging the legitimacy of Joe Biden's victory, saying they "do not belong in the United States Senate" and should resign if they are not willing to accept the results of a democratically conducted election.

     "This isn't about the truth to them," she said.  "This is about whether they want to be president in 2024.  Let me give you a sneak peek:  You will never be president."

...Earlier Tuesday, Representative Ayanna Pressley (Democrat-Massachusetts) said that she had reservations about the sheltering plan.  

     "The second I realized our 'safe room' from the violent white supremacist mob included treasonous, white supremacist, anti masker Members of Congress who incited the mob in the first place, I exited."

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slouching toward Washington

 

Yesterday here, having consideration of the Yeats poem (so scary!) -- I remembered the 1995 movie Nixon.  This scene where Sam Waterston recites the poem -- he skips part of it, then finishes off with the ending... "slouching..."

In this scene I'm going to share, U.S. President Richard Nixon (Anthony Hopkins) and CIA Director Dick Helms (Sam Waterston) meet in Helms's office.  They really spar:  deal-making, lobbying, jostling...  There's a moment with those flowers that is so spooky--and I'm not altogether sure if it's real or symbolic, and what it's supposed to mean...  Intense.

And Waterston saying the poem from memory, to Pres. Nixon--what a voice!  What an actor!  What a scene!

On You Tube type in

Nixon (1995) HQ "Do you ever think of death, Dick?"

uploader:  1 accon

It's 10 minutes, 44 seconds.

-30-

hardly are those words out...

 

Rudy Giuliani:  "Let's have trial by combat!"

New York State Bar Association:  "Hold my beer."

__________________________

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst 

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming!  Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight:  somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

_________________________________

The Second Coming

by William Butler Yeats

-30-

they should've covered the clock!

 

"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

~ Maya Angelou

_________________________________________

Internet Comment:

~~  Watching from London, 800 billion on defence and people with pots and pans raided your capitol.

______________________________________

Last week I heard on the news that on Wednesday, January 6th, after the riotous mob was cleared out of the U.S. Capitol and Vice President Mike Pence and the necessary legislators went back in to finish counting and approving the electoral votes--by the time they finished it was 4 in the morning.

     Someone expressed disappointment because they had really wanted to finish the process before midnight so that they could say they finished the job on the day it was supposed to get finished, January 6th.  Like -- to push back against the rather large "interruption" to their work which had been perpetrated.  Like, 'don't let them win.'

     But since it went overnight, it was technically January 7th when they got done.

Hearing this made me remember a custom in the state legislature where I live:  if it's the last day when something has to be passed and it gets toward midnight and they aren't finished debating, amending, etc., they can cover the clock and whenever they finally pass the bill, even if it's after midnight, it still counts as passing it on the original day.

     The clock they cover would be the big, round, ornate clock high on the wall in the legislative chamber.  I don't know how they would get to the clock, come to think of it--maybe go up in the balcony above the clock and drop a jacket or coat down onto it.

One of those "quirks" that got added to the rule-book some year back in the past when they had a deadline to pass something and couldn't get all the work done, and deals made before the stroke of midnight, so somebody got creative.

-30-

Europe and elsewhere

 

one Reader Comment in The Guardian

______________________________

The events in the USA should be a warning to us in Europe and elsewhere.

Suddenly we were made aware of how paper-thin the veneer of civilization and democracy is - even in the supposed protective power of the so-called free Western world.

Yet glaring contradictions have accompanied the U.S. since its beginnings.

Having just escaped the unjust feudal conditions in Europe, the new settlers had nothing more urgent to do than to let African slaves toil for them.

As an aside, the troublesome indigenous people were almost completely wiped out.

That the unspeakable racial segregation was still common practice until the 60's of the last century is also hardly comprehensible.

Black GIs were forced to risk their lives side by side with their white comrades for "freedom" in the fight against fascist racists in World War II.

Afterwards again at home, however, they had to use separate [restrooms] only for blacks.

Aspiring black star Sammy Davis Jr. was only allowed to use the front entrance and main elevator in Las Vegas instead of the back entrance after Frank Sinatra intervened.

Not to mention the systemic racism in the current U.S. police system.

A revenge-based penal system and in addition commercialized prisons with a logical consequence:  among the highest per capita prison population in the world.

Democracy is not a state, but a constant process of development and, above all, it has to defend itself - always.

-30-

a clear and present danger

 

-30-

extract of Galt

 

January 6, 2021

Eric Trump:

"This is Donald Trump's Republican Party."

Giuseppe Conte, President of the Italian Council of Ministers:

"I am following what is happening in Washington with great concern.  Violence is incompatible with the exercise of democratic rights and freedoms.  I am confident in the strength and robustness of the institutions of the United States."

Frank Figliuzzi, retired FBI agent:

"Trump will become more and more desperate as he's increasingly isolated.  We'd better be planning now for an involuntary extraction of this president."

-30-

please, New York Times!

 

Reader Comments in today's Times:

GH 

Colorado

Please, NYT, Trump and the Republicans' attempts to destroy democracy in America is not "unjustified" and "brazen".  It is criminal and seditious.  How long did it take for you to allow his lies to be called lies?  Our country needs truth, not bothsiderism.

Mford

Atlanta

Truly, doing the right thing shouldn't be such a test.  Trump and his minions are absolutely in the wrong, and Congressthings are either for or against at this point.  Just do the right thing, folks.

J

USA

These "Republicans" participating in this Coup attempt should be barred from ever holding public office again.  Their employment should be terminated immediately, their citizenship eligibility should be reviewed and potentially revoked.  

     There is no need to allow the American version of the Taliban to grow any further.  It is time to move back in the direction of a healthy Democracy.

Casey

New York, NY

The economic wing of the Republican Party has always kept the populist wing at bay, other than an occasional pander for votes.  They need the populist wing as they vote and don't look any closer than the marquee positions.  The economic wing can then pass tax cuts and destroy consumer protections with impunity.  

Sadly for the economic wing, the populist wing is off the leash and being baited by the head of the GOP.  They aren't used to this and don't know what to do....

JD Athey

Oregon

Here's the really terrifying thought:  If the House had not gone Blue in 2018, there would be no controversy now.  No amount of protesting by Democrats would make any difference.  

With Congress in Republican hands, they would simply select new electors, change the Electoral College outcome, and Trump would remain as president and dictator-in-waiting.  Putin could then be invited to the Oval Office for a celebration.

Laura

Oregon

This was my first thought this morning when I heard about everything going on.  And with it, the fear that if Republicans win the House back in '22 (which seems possible if not likely with the map they'll have), they could coup successfully 4 years from now.

Samuel

Seattle

The solution may be simpler than it looks.  Murkowski, Portman and Blunt should simply switch parties....

Laura 

Oregon

As an Independent who voted for Biden, I'd love to see something like this.  Reasonable Republicans forming a governing coalition with centrist/moderate Democrats, so the far left and far right couldn't hold up all the legislation we need over the next several years.

-30-

Bellow, Bernstein, Bouvier, Burma

 

Recently the idea came to me that you can learn some stuff and recognize some patterns and remember some forgotten history, just by reading in the Index at the back of a history book or biography.

Reading a book's index kind of sounds like reading the phone book--not high on our list of Things To Do.  But if you read part of an index for a minute, you see there is value in it.

The day I thought of that, I typed in this blog a post which was an excerpt of the index at the back of All The President's Men, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward.  When I finished typing, I had an additional perspective that I didn't have before I started.

So--now, checked Indexes of three other books on Amazon.

_________________________________

Mrs. Kennedy

by Barbara Leaming

[Index excerpt]

Bellow, Saul

Ben Bella, Ahmed

Berlin

Berlin, Isaiah

Berlin, Mrs Isaiah

Bermuda

Bermuda Conference

Bernstein, Leonard

Beyond the Fringe (theatrical show)

Billings, Kirk LeMoyne ('Lem')

    in Hyannis Port

    Indira Ghandi and

    at dinner-dance

    and JFK's birthday party

    on holiday with JFK 

    to accompany JFK to Virginia

Bissell, Richard

Blanch, Lesley, The Sabres of Paradise

Black, Eugene

Blough, Roger

Bohlen, Charles

Bolton, Oliver

Boothby, Diana (née Cavendish)

Boothby, Robert

Boudin, Stéphane

Bourguiba, Habib

Bouvier, Jack (father)

    marital difficulties

    nature of

    and Jackie's childhood development

Bouvier, Janet see Auchincloss, Janet

____________________________

_____________________________

How Did We Get Here?

    from Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump

by Robert Dallek

[index excerpt]

Batista, Fulgencio

Bay of Pigs invasion

Begin, Menachem

Belgium

Berlin, partitioning of

Berlin blockade

Bernstein, Carl

Biden, Joe

big-stick diplomacy

Birmingham, Alabama

Blackmun, Harry

Borah, William

Bork, Robert

Bradley, Tom

Brady, Jim

Brands, H.W.

Brezhnev, Leonid

Brown, Edmund G. "Pat"

Brown v. Board of Education

Bryan, William Jennings

Buchanan, James

Bull Moose Party

Bunch, Ralph

Bundy, McGeorge

Bureau of Corporations

Buren, Martin Van

Burma

Bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama

Bush, George H.W.

Bush, George W.

Butterfield, Alexander

_____________________________

____________________________

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

by William L. Shirer

[index excerpt]

Bardia

Barmen

"barons' cabinet"

Barth, Karl

Baruch, Bernard

Basel

Bastogne

Batum

Bavaria

Bavaria, Kingdom of

"Bavarian Joe"

Bavarian People's Party

Bavarian "People's State"

Bayerlein, Gen. Fritz

Bayreuth

BBC

"Beast of Belsen" see Kramer, Josef

Bechstein, Carl

Bechstein, Helene

Beck, Col. Józef

Beck, Gen. Ludwig

    opposes Hitler's military plans

    resigns as Gen. Staff Chief

    in anti-Hitler conspiracy

    named head of First Army

    July 1944 bomb plot

    death

Becker, Dr. 

Beer Hall Putsch

Beethoven, Ludwig von

Beigbeder y Atienza, Col. Juan

Belgian Army

Belgian government in exile

Belgium

    German plans for invasion of

    invasion and battle of

    king surrenders

    German occupation

    liberation

Belgrade...

___________________________________

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