A lot of Red House Painters’ songs have creepy lyrics, so I can’t say I’m super surprised.
6 Likes
Until you mentioned “Red House Painters” I had no idea who this dude was. That article was chilling.
8 Likes
I only have a passing familiarity with them, so…
Wasn’t it?
6 Likes
Gotchya. Early 4AD kind of group.
@NukeML: He toured by himself with a guitar at the end of the 90’s. I friend and I got tickets to the Detroit “show”. It was…odd. The venue was Magic Stick, which is a pool hall up stairs from The Majestic. There were only a few dozen attending, and we were expected to sit on the floor (so gross in a pool hall) while Kozelek sat on a stool playing his guitar. I don’t recall if we stayed for the whole set.
7 Likes
Usually up my alley then, music wise. 4AD is generally a mark of quality for me…
Must not have been very memorable then! 
Dudes with guitars being all “deep” is probably a played out genre anyways… 
5 Likes
It was the sitting on the floor part that really has me thinking we left early - it was physically uncomfortable.
5 Likes
Weird about the sitting on the floor part… Like… why not just have people stand, especially in a pool hall? Maybe it’s something about the venue… was there no stage there, even a small one?
6 Likes
There’s not. If he wanted a small venue, Shelter would’ve been more appropriate.
5 Likes
Maybe he was trying to be more “authentic” by having it in a pool hall? 
6 Likes
Somehow I missed this earlier:
It bothers me that many women feel they have no choice. The consequences for fighting groups of cyberbullies have always been bad, and seem to be getting worse despite the lessons of Gamergate. Nigel Ng has asked his fans/followers several times not to harass Hersha Patel, which might help, but those folks often have an ugly agenda of their own. She’s been caught up in something because he decided to make her the butt of his joke, so I hope the impact on her life will be more positive than negative in the long run.
19 Likes
That’s fair. I saw this as more of a “white people, amirite?” thing than a “women, amirite?” thing but if she was subjected to anything worse than a gentle ribbing then that’s not cool.
8 Likes
Another day where it seems like we need an international database…
12 Likes
Lots to unpack here.
A 19-year-old “leftist” candidate for a state House seat in Kansas just beat a seven-term establishment candidate for the Democratic primary race.
When this 19-year-old was in middle school he was basically a monster. After acquiring nude pictures of a 13-year-old girl, he tried to blackmail her for more and published the pics he had online when she refused. He also called a 6th grader fat, advising she should kill herself.
Now, normally I’m not one to let a person’s bad behavior as a child define the course of the rest of their lives. But in this case the “youthful indiscretions” were only five years ago. Apology or no, I’m not convinced he’s had enough time to grow into a person who can be entrusted with any kind of public responsibility.
Now he’s got people like Glen Greenwald backing him on Twitter, saying there’s something seriously wrong with the Democratic establishment if they can’t get over the idea that their new candidate did a little “bullying” in middle school because, hey, he was a kid at the time and apologized for it.
15 Likes
This begs the question of whether Grrenwald would speak out to say that it shouldn’t be held against him if he was right wing or centrist.
10 Likes
Indeed.
We tend to give way too much leeway to people who appear to share our political values. There were a lot of people on this very forum who were passionate defenders of Julian Assange for years after his horrifying personal behavior came to light because they thought he shared their ideals on government transparency. (Spoiler alert: he absolutely doesn’t.)
19 Likes
Hell no. Based on the article, I doubt that gentleman has learned any lesson at all in the bare handful of years it’s been since his admitted crimes. Yes, revenge porn is a crime, not merely “a little bullying.” And if hounding a classmate into a suicide attempt isn’t a crime, it should be. His actions have left scars on his victims that will last their entire lifetimes. Giggling over the idea of Republicans dying from Covid? As much as I could wish karmic justice on those whose actions have willfully harmed others, I can’t imagine giggling to be an appropriate public response from a leader. Nor do I really wish death on anyone; it’s better they get a painful lesson and improve themselves, if at all possible. He’s got some nerve calling himself leftist or progressive when he doesn’t give a damn for anyone but himself. He doesn’t share Democratic values either. They supposedly support women. He doesn’t.
If I was in that district, I’d write in the incumbent. I’m not fond of establishment Dems, but that would be far, far better than electing that [expletives deleted.]
15 Likes
I agree, even if he had truly made amends for the revenge porn thing his conduct continues to demonstrate he isn’t emotionally mature enough for that kind of public office yet.
12 Likes
What is it with allowing people that young to even run for office? There are age requirements for many elected positions already. People will vote for outliers just because, without really seeing what those candidates are like.
While I certainly don’t think this guy has shown the responsibility or temperament for the job, I actually don’t have a problem with young people running for certain elected offices, especially as a representative in a legislature. Many founding fathers were quite young and still played crucial roles in the birth of the country. Hamilton was only 21 in 1776, Burr was 20, and the Marquis de Lafayette was only 18.
In many ways young folks are their own constituency with unique needs and viewpoints, and deserve as much a chance as anyone else to have someone who best represents them within a legislative body.
8 Likes
Depends on the position and the candidate. A 19 year old on the school board - maybe.
But this is a statehouse position- and the number of voters is pathetic.
“ The final count was 823 to 809” That’s less than a blocks’ worth of people in my neighborhood.
9 Likes
