Category Archives: Politically Incorrect

Its a little ironic that the Democratic Party that in 2016 nominated a losing presidential candidate who was heavily identified with the partys shift away from working-class politics and toward corporate neoliberalism would now seek belatedly to counter its failure with new messaging.

With great fanfare in a tiny white and rustic Republican town, Berryville, Virginia, Democratic leaders unveiled what their pollsters and consultants tell them is a winning slogan to try to encapsulate what they stand for: A Better Deal.

A Better Deal contains a lot of vague promises, such as raising the minimum wage and providing health care for all, designed to ring in the ears of Berniecrats and progressives while not putting off the corporate pro-business wing of the party that remains wedded as ever to the same neoliberalism voters rejected.

I suppose the pollsters who came up with this new brand read about TRs Square Deal or FDRs New Deal to concoct a prepackaged catchphrase going forward that might make the Democrats appear to have ideas again and to stand for something now that theyve lost he whole enchilada.

But the new zippy slogan raises the obvious question: A Better Deal compared to what? Are Democratic leaders finally copping to their three-decade failure (despite controlling the government from 1993 to 1995 and from 2009 to 2011) to do anything meaningful to make the lives of most working Americans better in any way? For thirty years theyve been too busy to worry about giving working people A Better Deal.

Theyve been too busy deregulating Wall Street banks and then bailing them out; facilitating corporate mergers and global trade deals that batter workers and the environment; supporting military build-ups and trillion dollar wars; and beating up on teachers unions and welfare recipients. A Better Deal would seem to conflict directly with the Democratic Establishments loving embrace of everything neoliberal.

Democratic power brokers including Hillary Clinton and Debbie Wasserman Shultz were so busy transforming their party into Republican-lite and serving largely the same billionaire and corporate donor class that bankrolls the GOP to notice that the American working class was being chewed up and spit out by the neoliberal policies and transactional politics to which they are beholden (and are now attempting to re-brand).

While Democratic leaders party in the Hamptons with Trump officials and supporters theyve failed to notice that we face a crisis of values as a nation and as a people and no change in simple messaging will be adequate to address this crisis. Some big questions keep being ignored in our era of transactional politics and plutocracy despite the nice sounding rhetoric we hear to the contrary every election season.

Are we going to be a nation where people take care of and support one another as fellow citizens in a republic? Or are we going to fragment into a set of mini-states where most Americans are forced to go it alone while a ruling elite uses governmental power to serve its narrow class interests condemning the rest of us to fight against each other in a race to the bottom? And what does the term A Better Deal even mean at a time when we are facing so many social injustices and grotesque inequality?

Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan represent a pathology in American society with roots deeper than we wish to acknowledge. Self-reflection has never been a strong suit in exceptional Merica. We seem incapable of understanding the meaning and ramifications of the United States deadly actions in Afghanistan and Iraq (and elsewhere), the economic injustices exposed by the Wall Street rip-off of 2007-2008, and the racial injustices symbolized by events in Ferguson Missouri and Flint Michigan.

To get beyond this pathology we must first begin to recognize and reinforce the values that created Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and build on these with a national health system where everybody has a human right to health care; a society that understands and celebrates our interconnectedness despite our racial, ethnic, and sexual differences.

An empty slogan concocted by Democratic pollsters cannot even begin to provide an alternative to the real struggles involved in acknowledging and ultimately overcoming this crisis in values. Talking about A Better Deal in a little white Republican town in Virginia isnt going to begin to chip away at the Far Right juggernaut we now face.

The Republican Party of Trump, McConnell, and Ryan doesnt so much govern as it does twist every institution within its icy grasp to serve the power and class interests of a ruling corporate and banking oligarchy. The people who run the GOP as it stands today in the Trump era are in favor of further impoverishing those who are not already rich and stripping health care away from millions of working and low-income people. They dont value the arts or humanities, or science, or anything with the word public attached to it. Theyre against basic privacy rights and net neutrality. They promote a 19th Century capitalism that preys on its own people and destroys the planet with abandon. Trump Republican values are best symbolized by some of the worst scenes of poverty in a Dickens novel combined with the self-congratulatory claptrap of Ayn Rand.

All of their values are subordinated to one overarching value: the use of state power to throw as much money as possible to the already rich while ensuring that working people lead harder, grubbier, less secure and increasingly impoverished lives. The end result of all of this deconstruction of the administrative state can be nothing more than a nation with larger and more desperate pockets of extreme poverty, where working people breathe dirtier air, drink dirtier water, send their kids to crappier for-profit schools, work longer hours for lower pay, and get ripped off by every corporation or bank they come into contact with.

Its All an Ego Trip for Them

The Republican donors and Trump Administration officials are already so wealthy they could choose to do anything they want. But for their own ego-driven weirdo reasons they choose to finance campaigns and candidates and propaganda forums like Breitbart or head off to Washington themselves to carve up those parts of the government that serve to protect people and the environment from craven exploitation to make it easier for corporations to plunder nature, oppress workers, prey on sick people, and profit from war.

Their contempt for democracy is clear. Theyve created a voter suppression commission filled with characters out of a parody headline from The Onion. Kris Kobach played a pivotal role in disfranchising as many as two million voters prior to the 2016 election and he heads the commission. Another member is Kenneth Blackwell who is notorious for suppressing the Democratic vote as Ohio Secretary of State (and Bush-Cheney campaign state chair) that threw the election and gave us four more miserable years of President George W. Bush.

So what is A Better Deal when compared to this onslaught of greed, social pathology and death? The Trump Republicans are behaving exactly like the rapacious capitalist ruling class that leaps from the most lurid descriptions by Karl Marx or Vladimir Lenin. The billionaire donor class is filled with aging baby boomers who view their fellow citizens with contempt and see them as little more than another resource to be plundered. After deconstructing the welfare state theyll turn their attention to shredding Social Security and workers pensions, suppressing voters they cant bamboozle, and privatizing everything from schools to prisons to citizenship itself.

Trump Re-centers the White Male

On a superficial level, after eight years of the Obama presidency there appeared to have been accomplished what academics tucked away in English and Cultural Studies departments had been theorizing about for decades: the decentering of the white male. Remember the hours of breathless commentary on MSNBC and other so-called liberal media outlets about what a big mistake Trump was making by alienating non-white voters?

With Trump weve seen what might be called the re-centering of the cis white male (with a vengeance). And Trump accomplished this feat with the support of 53 percent of white women voters who preferred a pussy-grabbing misogynist over the first real chance in American history to elect a woman president. According to the two journalists who wrote the book Shattered about the Hillary Clinton campaign, on election night Democratic consultants and strategists were stunned when the results came pouring in from counties in Florida and elsewhere long considered bellwethers of the white vote with Trump driving the white vote up nearly ten times the tally of votes Mitt Romney received in 2012. (Shattered, 2017, p. 375)

With Trump and Pence, Bannon and Priebus, Price and Pruitt, Ross and Mnuchin the rich cis white guys are in control now and they along with their ultra-wealthy backers like the Mercers and the Kochs are aggressively doing everything in their power to cement their current institutional advantage well beyond the next eight years.

And squaring off against this rich white male, politically incorrect corporate juggernaut the Left (whatever that means in 2017) will soon have no choice but to organize in workplaces, in neighborhoods, in districts and in counties, and seek to unify those Americans who are NOT rich or male. We will need to weaponize the intersectionality weve heard so much about in recent years, turn it into an electoral force and a form or resistance. We must band together in unapologetic and fierce resistance to counter the resurgence and dominance of the rich white male Christian political order we now live under or else were sunk.

Partying at the Hamptons with Trump supporters and then flying off to Virginia to launch the new A Better Deal brand isnt going to work for an anemic and defeated political party mostly run by hacks and overpaid consultants. Were in an existential battle to save American democracy, not searching for A Better Deal.

We are now ruled by people who have nothing but contempt for democracy, for working people, for the rule of law, and even for common decency. The tone of the President of the United States tweets is that of a spoiled pre-adolescent boy and an embarrassment to the world.

Meanwhile, the inflammatory rhetoric that comes from Trumps supporters on right-wing talk radio, Fox News, Drudge, Breitbart, Reddit, and 4chan has the tone of eliminationism: liberals arent only seen as the enemy, but as a cancer in society that must be totally obliterated. And with control of the House, the Senate, the White House and the Supreme Court, this new brand of immature authoritarianism, Trump Republicans can very well succeed in vanquishing the opposition through means that a few short years ago would seem outside the bounds of whats possible in the United States.

Despite it all, people who consider themselves part of the Resistance or the opposition or whatever we want to call ourselves have no alternative but to choose optimism over despair. But that doesnt mean we have to sugarcoat the dystopian moment in which we find ourselves. The new Democratic party slogan, A Better Deal, despite its best intentions, is simply not up to the task to counter the rising authoritarianism in the Trump era.

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A Better Deal Isn't Going to Cut It - HuffPost

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From killing the enemy to KILLING IT in business - Florida Weekly

Given their particular sensitivity to the triumphant mightiness of the pen, its profoundly disturbing to note where lines are drawn and exceptions made.

Linda Sarsour, the lefts darling of the day, posted a widely-shared picture of Palestinians praying in the streets of Jerusalem, an act protesting the placement of metal detectors outside the Al Aqsa Mosque. This is resilience. This is perseverance. This is faith. This is commitment. This is inspiration. This is Palestine, Sarsour wrote. Denied access to pray at Al Aqsa Mosque in their own homeland, Palestinians pray on the streets in an act of non-violent resistance. They are met with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Absent from her platitudinous prevarication was any mention of the inarguably violent act that led Israel to construct the metal detectors in the first place, the recent killing of two Israeli police officers at the Temple Mount. Also absent: any reference to the three Israelis who were brutally murdered in the settlement of Halamish on Friday night. It was a far cry from nonviolent resistance when 19-year-old Omar al-Abed entered a home, saw a family finishing a Shabbat dinner, and began indiscriminately stabbing his victims.

Sarsours rhetoric is dangerous precisely because she understands her audience and how to appeal to their emotions. She peppers her statements with a few felicitous bromides like non-violent resistance and hopes no one notices the inconsistency of her arguments. Others on the left are slightly more honest about their intentions.

Writing in Al Jazeera, Stanley Cohen called on Israel to accept that as an occupied people, Palestinians have a right to resistin every way possible. He begins by telling his readers: long ago, it was settled that resistance and even armed struggle against a colonial occupation force is not just recognized under international law but specifically endorsed. His entire article is predicated on a false premise in that it demands the characterization of Israel as a colonial occupation force a characterization that is categorically incoherent.

Cohen cites a 1982 UN Resolution which reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle. He does not mention which countries voted for and against this resolution.

Among the countries that voted for it: Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Qatar, Niger, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq.

Among the countries who voted against it: Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States.

On college campuses, the call for armed struggle has become the Cri de Coeur of leftist students who are otherwise hypersensitive to the impact that intangible words can have on corporeal beings. On Columbias campus, students who form the backbone of the BDS movement have successfully blurred the line between incitement and impassionedalbeit severely misguidedopinion. In 2016, the Columbia/ Barnard Socialists concluded one social media post by declaring: long live the intifada. As recently as Sundayafter the Halamish attack the Students for Justice in Palestine shared the Al Jazeera article calling for armed resistance. Where are the outraged professors, administrators, and students concerned for the safety of the student body? Where are the charges of bigotry and racism, the calls to silence this speech, to stop this violence?

Nowhere does the idea that speech can constitute violence find more support than on elite liberal arts colleges. But regardless of whether they have intellectual or moral merit on their own, calls for safe spaces, trigger warnings, and micro-aggression-free environments that come from groups or individuals who not only condone, but use their words to quite literally call for violence, must be ignored, and the hypocrisy highlighted.

From the safe confines of an ivy-covered campusor from the relative safety of this country, for that matterits easy to preach justice and retribution, to portray armed struggle as the necessary means that will find justification through a righteous end. But especially those who are sensitive to the power of language should understand: euphemistic terminology does nothing to mitigate the violent nature inherent in this rhetoric. There must be no confusion. The lefts glorification of armed struggle is nothing short of approval for those Palestinians who target and kill innocent men, women, and children. Those who proclaim to speak for social justice have been damningly silent.

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Challenging Violent SpeechUnless It's About Israel - Commentary Magazine

I have read a few published letters and books criticizing Christian beliefs and practices. Most people know the greatest history book of all is the Bible. I used to use it to teach my military history classes as a command sergeant major in the U.S. Air Force. It records many other ancient historical events, such as the fall of many city, states and countries.

In elementary school in the 40s and 50s, our teachers used the Bible to teach us how to read and comprehend. Our wonderful country was primarily a Judeo/Christian nation. That has changed. We have, as a nation, drifted far from those fundamental beliefs this country was founded on. Christians and Jews are being called politically incorrect and being denied the right to pray in public. A former president even announced to the world that the United States of America is not a Christian nation! I have been made fun of because I said grace before a meal.

I would recommend to those who oppose Christian beliefs to refer to that history book call the Bible and find out what ever happened to all those countries that did not heed or replaced Biblical teachings and prophesies with their own. I see the Biblical prophesies coming back again in our country as we continue a downhill slide to disaster. Our leaders no longer represent those who elected them. When our judicial system supports and defend unnatural acts and the murder of the unborn, we are in dire straits as a nation.

I urge everyone who reads this to refute it by reading what has happened to those countries that have refused to live by those Biblical rules.

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Biblical lessons in history - Temple Daily Telegram

My British lunchmates on a recent Sunday in Edinburgh, Scotland, were exceedingly polite when my order arrived. Amid their tableau of salads and artfully filleted fish, my plate held Welsh rarebit, the venerable dish that assembles melted cheese, ale, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce atop a slice of bread. I sensed that my companions eyes were averted from my selection. Then, someone decided to be more direct and asked, Do you like British food?

I always answer this question with an emphatic Yes! While this sometimes incites gobsmacked silence, when I interviewed Anthony Bourdain a few years back, he sanctioned my unfashionable palate. To eat a nicely aged grouse with bread sauce followed by a nice Stilton theres nothing better than that, he said. Yet even his approval didnt banish a twinge of guilt that I associate with my adoration of stodgy Anglo fare. My ambivalence is shared with others whose nostalgia for a bygone cuisine, architecture, or literature was shaped by imperialism. I grew up in Singapore, which was established as aBritish trading foothold in 1819 and, except for its occupation by the Japanese empire from 1942 to 1945, remained a British colony until shortly before gaining independence in 1965.

My nostalgia isnt just outdated it can sometimes come across as politically incorrect. But Im not alone in cherishing certain cultural holdovers of colonialism. Today, some vestiges of British rule are among Singapores most lovingly preserved landmarks from lavish Victorian hotels to 19th-century government buildings that are now national treasures. And, though its true that Singaporeans prize their indigenous cuisine blending Indian, Chinese, and Malay flavors, many feel historic kinship with bangers and mash and scones with clotted cream, which were as much a part of my gastronomic education as fish-head curry and chili crab.

Many Singaporeans tend to think back with warmth on the countrys relatively benign subjugation. Landmarks throughout the city are named for Sir Stamford Raffles, who founded Singapore as a British colony. School history books essentially laud him, along with the good ol East India Co., for transforming the island nation from a speck of a trading post along the Malay Archipelago to a prosperous port city that is one of the most expensive stretches of real estate on Earth. In Singapore, some of the best secondary schools are named Raffles. The court system is based on British law, and the cricket club plays regularly on the Padang, an expansive green in the heart of downtown. On Saturdays, pubs fill up with the English Premier League faithful. Singlish, the local patois, brims with Britishisms. One of the most common terms to talk cock, which can refer to either shooting the breeze or bullshitting is derived from the British phrase cock and bull story.

Even at an intimate level, outmoded influences and relationships linger. In researching my recent novel, Sarong Party Girls, I investigated the term SPGs, said to have been coined when British colonial armed forces would invite local women, often clad in sarongs, to their parties. These days, it has taken on a derogatory meaning as a reference to Singaporean women who seek out expat white (often British) men, whom they view as being of a higher status than locals. Jane Austens world is, in some ways, alive and well in the nightclubs of Singapore.

In countries with bloodier colonial histories than Singapores, discourse about the structural legacies of imperialism has justifiably gained traction. An Indian MP has called for the dissolution of Indias Westminster parliamentary system, for example. And, in Western democracies, we are compelled to interrogate ever more closely what we eat, wear, and dance to. Pop stars Katy Perry and Gwen Stefani have been criticized for lifting from Japanese civilization the former for a geisha-inspired performance in 2013 and the latter for her Harajuku Girls phase in 2004. This year, nonwhite women on a California college campus faced a backlash when they demanded that white girls refrain from wearing the hoop earrings said to be part of a non-Anglo aesthetic. And on a nationalistic note, I still bristle whenever I spot Singapore noodles on any U.S. (or Scottish) menu. This spicy noodle dish is a pure invention of the West it simply does not exist in my homeland.

In light of such tensions, a longing for colonial relics can feel indefensible, or at least subversive. And in these hyperattuned times, we are forced to ask whether our yearning should be indulged and divulged in public.

But my nostalgia isnt some form of cultural appropriation, an attachment to products, TV shows, and cuisines that are both tainted and not my own. Aspects of British culture are, in fact, part of my personal and national history. And perhaps this feeling is more akin to the nostalgia in China for 1960s Albanian films or propaganda collectibles. This dates back to an alliance between the two countries that thrived during Chinas Cultural Revolution, resulting in transcultural exchanges through film.

At a dinner I attended in Lasswade, Scotland, an Indian-American offered to entertain with a song. This man, who grew up in India, delivered, by heart, a stirring rendition of Scotland the Brave. When the applause subsided, I asked, Where did you learn that? His answer: Madras. Where else? He then explained the influence the Scots had in his native Madras during colonial times and the cultural breadcrumbs that lingered.

When I asked an English friend what he thought of my nostalgia for British food, he shrugged. All nostalgia is for something bygone. And, on a recent Saturday, I tested his theory. I picked up some Scotch eggs Id been eyeing at I.J. Mellis, my favorite cheese monger in Edinburgh: a traditional version and two unconventional variations, one vegetarian and one featuring chorizo. I invited a Scottish and an English friend to taste them.

After one bite of the spicy vegetarian version, the Scot ran to the sink to wash out her mouth. Oh, thats vile, she said. Both friends agreed: The boring old traditional Scotch egg tasted the best. The reason? Its the way to make a Scotch egg its just the way to make it.

Perhaps sometimes we just want what we want, whether its steak and kidney pie or an old Scottish anthem. Everyone has an individual history for which they cannot be entirely answerable. And no one should expect otherwise.

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2017 issue of FP magazine.

Illustration by Matthew Hollister

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For the Love of Welsh Rarebit - Foreign Policy (blog)

Knockout comedy isnt necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Germany. But German-American actress Lucie Pohl has turned it into a hit satire with her autobiographical showHi, Hitlercurrently proving an off-Broadway hit at downtown Manhattans Cherry Lane Theatre.

Born in Germany, Pohl-who is legendary 20th century German playwright Bertolt Brechts great-niece-moved to New York as a child. She hilariously dissects her upbringing in the show- her mother is a Romanian singer and her father a German playwright- taking on 45 different characters inHi, Hitler. As well as chronicling her obsession with theFhrer, Pohl also tacklesDavid Hasselhoffs pop career.

The show premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world, last year before moving to London.Pohls other credits include a small role in Harry Potter blockbuster Fantastic Beasts and Were to Find Them and the lead in Turkish horror movie Magi, alongside Stephen Baldwin and Michael Madsen, an experience which she turned into another one-woman stage show Apohlcalypse Now.

We spoke with Pohl, 34, about Hi, Hitler which closes on July 30 and is directed by Kenneth Ferrone and produced by Rebecca Crigler and David De Almo.

How did Hi, Hitler! come about?

I was waiting tables and at an existential point of What am I doing? I was auditioning for the parts of One-legged pregnant woman, nudity required- you have to stab your eyes out. I started writing stuff down and it vomited itself out of me. I thought that I never wanted to do an autobiographical show because I come from a European theater family and thats not really a thing there- oversharing- especially in Germany. Its not seen as artistry almost and is frowned upon. I thought Id never do it but it came out. I had half an hour of a show and I applied to festivals and started getting in. I was like, Oh s**t now I have to write the rest of it! But I got good reviews for the show in Edinburgh and then did it in Leicester Square [London]. It has changed my life. Everything changed after that.

Have you had any reaction to a show that is entitled Hi, Hitler?

Karen Koren [a key Edinburgh Festival luminary]said, Im not sure about the title. I think it might put people off. I said, Youre wrong. The title is what has gotten me so much attention and press and Im Jewish, theres more than just a joke in there. Theres a deeper resonance: Hi Hitler, were still here! We made it through. Its a fish out of water story, a search for identity and what your heritage means for you. The title is obviously a joke- as a kid I thought it was a greeting, that people were saying Hi Hitler! In a way, they are saying Hi Hitler! He looked funny to me. My mother asked me when I was four or five what I wanted to be for carnival and I was like, Hitler. She said, I dont think thats a good idea, maybe something else. Apparently I just said, Ill be a spoon then! Theres alot of comedy in that man. Tragic comedy obviously.

What is your take on the increasing trend for famous comedians to be attacked on social media for politically incorrect jokes? It seems misguided.

I agree. Its interesting because I think why are going after these people that are trying to make people laugh. Go after the people that actually mean it and are actually doing bad shit. Why dont you tear them apart? Thats not to say that we shouldnt take seriously the disadvantages that minorities face. But stereotypes are not a bad thing as long as theyre not mean-spirited and theyre funny.

Speaking of stereotypes, Germany isnt renowned as a comedic nation.

I always say they dont have too much of a sense of humor because they killed all the funny people! Most people are very serious when it comes to Hitler but laughing about something doesnt mean its not serious. My dads a playwright so Ive learned a lot just living in that world rather than specifically being related to Bertolt Brecht. The biggest thing is the sense of doubt and the fact that struggle never goes away. Even Brecht would throw his plays away, like The Threepenny Opera which Helena Weigel [Brechts second wife] picked up out of the trash. Its being aware of where you come from which in my family was always a big thing whether it was Brecht, Nazis or displacement. And now Im baring it all.

http://www.hihitlershow.com

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Pohl-ing Off the Joke! German-American Actress Scores Big With Hitler Stage Satire - Heat Street

The Hindu

Ideate, interrogate, speculate The Hindu I felt a desire to write a politically incorrect, pulp, theoretically-catatonic, narrative about bug-eyed-monsters-from-outer-space, which had no social or literary aim except one: the invasion has begun! As a genre, SF movies (good ones) are ...

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Ideate, interrogate, speculate - The Hindu

Coxcon, a U.K.-based gaming event taking place over the weekend, has become a lightning rod of controversy after an attendee was ejected for asking organizers an offensive question during a Q&A session. Someone asked the events founder, Jesse Cox, if traps are gay. The fallout from the question overshadowed the event in its entirety, which was to provide YouTubers and gaming streamers a platform to reach out to their fans.

In Internet lingo, a trap is a transgender person who manages to pass as a woman. To ask the question, are traps gay? is a popular, if politically incorrect, meme on social mediaYouTubers and other streamers are often asked for their thoughts about it. Progressive social justice warriors consider the question, as well as the term trap, to be both offensive and bigoted towards transgender people.

At Coxcon, most of the panels audience reacted in laughter upon hearing the question. Their amusement at the joke was not shared by Jesse Cox, who responded in shock. When the question was once again repeated, he remained visibly offended.

Popular video game YouTuber John TotalBiscuit Bain, who is another of the conventions organizers, escalated the issue by issuing a public condemnation of the person who asked the joke.

We condemn the transphobic question asked at the Coxcon panel, he wrote on Twitter. If anyone knows the identity of the person please inform a member of staff.

Following his call for someone to snitch, Bain discovered the identity of the thought-criminal and removed him from the convention.

The person has been identified and is being removed from the event, wrote the YouTuber, who engaged with his detractors by telling them their opinions were of no consequence.

We will not tolerate that bullshit in our event, ever, he said.

Bain followed up by stating that he donated the cost of the ejected persons ticket to a U.K.-based LGBT organization called the Albert Kennedy Trust, adding that Internet edgelords are not welcome in the event we paid to host and if you think any other opinion matters you are delusional. Thanks.

Its not at all surprising that the kind of people that would oppose our action are the kind of people we wouldnt want here anyway, he concluded.

In 2015, Bain, who now appears to be crusading for politically correct speech, mocked the concept of transgender identityin a tweet thatas many have pointed outaged poorly.

John TotalBiscuit Bains criticismcomes as a surprise to many on social media, who respected him for his willingness to say it like it is, and for his open support of the GamerGate movement for ethics in video game journalism.

Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter.

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'Are Traps Gay?' Question Sparks Furor At YouTube And Gaming Event - The Daily Caller

With most successful comedians, theres a team behind the scenes that helped them reach their full potential. Al Canal is one of those background players. The St. Louis man with the memorable moniker has left an indelible impression on the world of comedy.

Now the general manager for the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, the 58-year-old says his career in comedy on the stage and as a booking agent happened completely by accident.

Canal graduated from Horton Watkins High School in Ladue and says he often felt lost as a child. He was born with a speech impediment (a tick which has never been explained, he says) that was often ridiculed by classmates.

I took a lot of flak growing up for the way I speak, but now I know that my impediment has been a blessing its me, Canal says through a grin.

In fact, it was his lack of elocution that captured the attention of a young Pauly Shore, the actor and comedian.

I dont mean to be politically incorrect when I say this, but when I first met Al, I thought he was a short bus person, and I still do, Shore says. In all seriousness, Al is an awesome person, and I enjoy hanging out with him whenever I play the Midwest.

Gallagher performs for a sold-out crowd at the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Ill. on Saturday, June 24, 2017. Photo by Jon Gitchoff

Canal never set out to be a stand-up comedian, but a couple of serendipitous things helped set the stage.

One of those: his last name, which was given to him by a group of friends in 1977. He had been joking about a root-canal procedure that he was upset about. The name Canal stuck.

(His real surname? He prefers to keep that a mystery though caller ID will give him away.)

A short time later, as a joke for his friends, he ordered a batch of custom hats from a University City printing shop. His catchphrase I Know Al Canal. Do you? was born.

Canals introduction to comedy came in 1980 while sitting in the audience at a little Clayton club called Bilbos Back Room. Local comedian Craig Hawksley invited him onstage to answer a simple question. Canals answer got a laugh from the crowd, and that was enough to hook him.

Comedy is a big commodity, but the bottom line is entertaining people, he says.

He performed stand-up for nearly a decade. A 1981 Post-Dispatch article described his act as built around outrageous props, such as a beginners bowling ball with training wheels, a Hare Krishna outfit for airport travelers and pet food for designer shirt emblems.

He also expanded his line of I Know Al Canal memorabilia to include red bumper stickers, which have found their way onto cars and lamp posts all around the world. Forty years later, Canal estimates that there are at least 10,000 of his stickers in circulation.

Even legendary comedian Bill Engvall admits to having one of them in his possession.

Canals stage days came to an end when he started booking talent for the Funny Bone at West Port Plaza, from the late 1980s to the mid-90s. In 1988, a Post-Dispatch writer called Canal the governor of dreams because of the power he wielded in determining which open-mic comedians got onstage at the club.

I call it the selection of the good, the bad and the ugly, he told the Post-Dispatch then. Ive got to make sure the audience sees a good show.

Theres no school for being a comedian. The open mic is where the dues are paid.

Today, Canal lives in Creve Coeur with his wife of 28 years, Peggy. They have a 24-year-old daughter, Madeline. Those are the accomplishments he says hes most proud of.

For nearly a decade, Canal worked as a booking agent, meeting talented comedians who went on to bigger things. After a while of booking these acts every week, its like having an old friend come to visit you, he says.

Popular performers such as Kathleen Madigan (a Florissant native) and Ron White have been touched by his hand. White even asked Canal to be his manager at one point.

My only regret is probably not taking Ron up on his offer to become his manager, Canal says, but I declined, knowing he would need someone who could take him further than I could have.

Some of the comedians hes worked with, such as Latin King of Comedy Alex Reymundo, even consider Canal to be part of the family.

I met Al in 1989 when mullets were cool, and we both had one, Reymundo says with a laugh. We have become so close that my wife even refers to the guest room in our home as Als room.

Hes just a class act both personally and professionally, and Im always amazed by how many people love him. He is just a wealth of knowledge.

St. Louis comedian Jessie Taylor says he resisted the idea of opening his own comedy club

Jessie Taylor, a local comedian who owns the Laugh Lounge in Florissant, has known Canal for nearly three decades.

He is a legend and the last of the great booking agents, Taylor says. Al books by funny, not by color, and if not for him there is no way people like (St. Louis native) Cedric the Entertainer, Percy Crews and (the late) Rahn Ramey would have been able to be booked at the bigger clubs.

At the Funny Bone, Canal was the first booking agent in the Midwest to hire Jason Stuart, an openly gay comedian, to headline in the 1990s. Im proud of that, because before that, Jason could only get work on the East and West Coasts during that time, Canal says.

Comedy magician Mac King, who has opened for the past 17 years at Harrahs in Las Vegas, credits Canal for his popular show.

Al has flown out a number of times over the years, and Im always amazed by the vision that he has, King says. He has given me a few suggestions for my show, and they work every single time.

Canal also spent time working as a traveling consultant for comedy clubs. But everything changed in 2013, when he attended a show at the Wildey Theatre. He was instantly taken by the historic venue, and when he learned it needed a general manager, the rest fell into place.

Since taking over the Wildey in March 2014, Canal has managed to turn a profit.

General manager and talent buyer Al Canal (right) chats with comedian Artie Fletcher in the lobby of the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Ill. before a sold-out show on Saturday, June 24, 2017. Photo by Jon Gitchoff

Its a good gig, Canal says, but its a joint effort, and at the end of the night when the audience, artist and staff is happy thats my gratification.

Edwardsville Mayor Hal Patton is pleased with the changes Canal has brought to the 108-year-old theater. After a restoration, the city reopened the long-shuttered venue in 2011.

Al has a passion for entertainment, always focusing on professionalism with the performer and the satisfaction of the guests, he says. He brought the old theater back to life. His energy and quick sense of humor create a great atmosphere at the theater and our city.

The 326-seat Wildey is no stranger to sell-out crowds for a variety of acts, from comedians to musicians. Canal has elevated the quality of the shows, and a buzz has been building among entertainers who would like to play there.

The long-running rock band Gypsy chose the Wildey to be the setting for its final shows Nov. 3-4.

Edwardsville is lucky to have Al, says James Walsh, the bands founder. Hes the real deal, and you feel like family with him.

Weve been around for 50 years, and we could play our final show anywhere in the country. But because of Al, we are choosing to play our last show at the Wildey.

Go! Magazine's go-to guide for the weekend's best entertainment in and around the Lou, delivered weekly to your inbox.

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Do you know Al Canal? St. Louis booker has shaped comedy careers for decades - STLtoday.com

KEVIN Bloody Wilson doesnt want to be number one.

Because you can never get any better, he said.

When you are almost awesome, there is still room for improvement.

And this is the basis for his new, aptly named, politically incorrect Almost Awesome Tour.

Wilson will be back on the Echuca Paramount stage on August 18 and aims to help prevent global boring.

I have 18 albums to choose from so audiences can expect all the favourites like do you f### on first dates, he said.

There are ones that will always be a part of the show, but after that it is anyones guess what will happen.

Wilson said audiences can expect anything to happen.

There will be lots of full frontal nudity from me, he joked.

The show revolves on its own axis, I never know night from night what is going in the show.

A lot of ad-lib goes in, it depends what is happening in the world between now and then.

His extensive back catalogue includes fan favourites such as D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F, Dicktaphone, I Knew the Bride (When She Used to be a Mole) and Living Next Door to Alan.

Wilson hasnt been to the twin towns in two years but said the facilities were state-of-the-art.

Last time I was in town there was a fabulous audience in a fabulous theatre.

Which sounds like total showbiz bulls### but its actually a fact.

Wilson will be joined on tour by his daughter Jenny Talia and said there is only one downside.

I have her and my wife all sitting in the car with the f###ing GPS woman all telling me where to go, he said.

But apart from that I love it because she lives in Chicago and it is great family time for her and us.

The comedic musician has been at it for 33 years and said doing shows in country Australia was a nice change.

Echuca has such a great theatre and setting, he said.

But going out and playing on the back of trucks or in little pubs is always a nice change of scenery to the typical theatres that you always go to overseas.

Almost Awesome will kick off from 8pm with tickets available by calling 5482 3399 or going to http://www.echucaparamount.com

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It will be a bloody riot of live, loud comedy - Riverine Herald