THE ART of the TRUMPIAN LIMERICK
And other creative & offbeat ways to talk politics | tues.oct27.2020
Welcome. If this newsletter was forwarded to you or you found it online, subscribe for free at: westvirginiaville.substack.com. | Douglas John Imbrogno, editor & co-founder
1 | Projecting Justice
Maybe you’re as weary of headlines and as freaked out as I am. How do you hold on in the exhausting endurance race of Donald Trump’s so-called presidency? For me, it’s good friends. Supportive family. Fuzzy cats, including a kitten christened Olive Marie, who ping-pongs about so madly she earned another: ‘Bonkers.’ Plus, good coffee and good cigars. Which speaks to my personal saying: ‘Life is too short for bad coffee, bad cigars, and lousy presidents.’ And The Justice Project. The project is WestVirginiaVille’s answer to this tweet by Josh Marshall, editor of the indispensible TalkingPointsMemo, whose coverage and commentary I turn to first when politics get weird(er):
2 | Throwing Molotov Limericks
EDITORIAL: The Art of the Trumpian Limerick | West Virginia writer, performer and graphic artist Colleen Anderson has chronicled Trump's misrule for four years—in limericks. I sat down with her to chat about life in the limerick trenches. Chief videographer Bobby Lee Messer captured our talk, as Colleen performed a few of the 500 limericks she has produced these past four loooooong years.
2 | (Attorney) General Call to Arms
EDITORIAL: “The West Virginia Hills” and the Race for WV Attorney General: On the hand in this year's West Virginia elections, you've got Attorney General Patrick Morrisey—and his Trump-Adoring, Big Pharma connections, and Affordable Care Act Torpedoing Ways. On the other, there's labor lawyer Sam Brown Petsonk. Here is 1 minute and 57 seconds of pointed video about that—with a bonus excerpt of “West Virginia Hills,” in a duet between Petsonk and cherished WV performer Randy Gilkey:
3 | Good for Nothing
EDITORIAL: “The Silent Senator Capito,” A Justice Project Video: Waiting on WV Sen. Shelley Moore Capito to do the right thing—not just mouth the right thing—you may notice your hair turn another color and not from hair dye. So, WestVirginiaVille points its second Justice Project video at her. We offer up this free, no-cost campaign motto, if she wants it: “SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO. Nothing—It’s What She Does’:
4 | Chatted Out
EDITORIAL | John Mandt Jr., Uncensored: In the debut of The Justice Project, we took a musical walk-through of chatroom comments that led WV delegate John Mandt Jr., to resign. He has since said he’d serve if re-elected on Nov. 3. Judging by his homophobic comments and disrespectful remarks about fellow West Virginian politicians, voters might thing twice—and thrice—about that:
5 | Coming Up
“HILLBILLY ELEGY” DISSENT: Teresa O’Cassidy, a genuine West Virginia hillbilly, studied West Virginians as hillbillies at Marshall University. She focused on stereotyping, image formation, image change, and idea campaigns. She has a few things to say to Ron Howard, J.D. Vance, and you, about Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” and Howard’s video adaptation of the book for Netflix.
“GIVING UP WHITNESS”: Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher, a writer and editor of The Longridge Review, interviews former state resident Jeff James, author of “Giving Up Whiteness.” It’s a book by a white author that explores white privilege and critical race theory. One reviewer described it as “a disorienting investigation of what it means to be white in twenty-first-century America.”
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Send feedback and suggest stuff to: heythere@westvirginiaville.com. Subscribe for free: westvirginiaville.substack.com. | Wear a mask in public like a superhero or superheroine. Be well, stay safe. | Douglas John Imbrogno, editor & co-founder, WestVirginiaVille.com