Words of wisdom from Hunter Thompson

[cali]

[bonemachine]

1. A observant man...

“The real power in America is held by a fast-emerging new Oligarchy of pimps and preachers who see no need for Democracy or fairness or even trees, except maybe the ones in their own yards, and they don't mind admitting it. They worship money and power and death. Their ideal solution to all the nation's problems would be another 100 Year War.”

[PatrickforO]

19. Money and power and death. Wow. That hooks you right in the guts.

Great prose.

I think I need to take some Hunter down off the shelf, dust off and re-read.

[SheriffBob]

2. love Doctor Thompson

Trickle down economics reminds me of the dark ages when the lords of the manner would declare a holiday for the peasants and offer them grease droppings from their castle walls.

[Diremoon]

30. That was the whole idea

Trickle down, Supply side, whatever you want to call it, was designed to re-establish a modern feudal system. Anyone who doubts this need only look at the income inequality that has taken place since Ronnie unleashed Art Laffer's supposed epiphany on the country. Extrapolate that with the high unemployment of the millenials, the zero wage growth for the last 35 years, and most of the money being funneled to the wealthiest .01 percent, and the idea of a new serfdom begins to emerge. Gig econonmy will lead to who will do what for the lowest price, with starvation going to all bidders. And since the moneyed interests OWN the government at every level, stopping it is very unlikely.

[SheriffBob]

39. Add to that

fighting wars without taxation to pay for them will eventually lead to the fall of our country.

[pinboy3niner]

3. I actually met him back in the early '70s

He spoke at USC and then did a brownbag lunch with us journalism students. He was in character with his beer and cigarettes.

[cali]

5. I spent quite a bit of time with Hunter over the period of a year

in the early 70's. I was working as an au pair for the political editor of RS, and Hunter and I bonded over Malcolm Lowery and Walker Percy. We spent time in Maine, Nevada and D.C. He was quite kind to me. I was all of 20. One wild night we took a ride to buy weird crap for all these RS writers at a confab in Reno. The drugs he had along were.... mindboggling.

[First Speaker]

7. Wow--how cool is that?

...he was the greatest political writer of our era, bar none. That must have been an amazing experience...

[cali]

8. He just kind of looked after me for some reason

maybe because he saw that a lot of guys (older, pols, creeps) were hitting on me and because we definitely shared literary loves.

He acted much nuttier in public than in private. He was an awfully nice person. In D.C., I was way over my head. I was living at Hickory Hill, Ethel Kennedy had loaned the house to my boss. And it was a crazy wild scene. I was a pretty naïve 20 year old in some ways.

In Maine, he got me to shoot a 357 magnum in this barn. I'd never shot anything but a bb gun. I didn't like it at all. He warned me about the kick, but I didn't expect what I got.

[panader0]

14. Very cool cali

My neighbor named his son Hunter for the Dr.

[TeamPooka]

23. very cool! nt

[kentuck]

28. Cali...

It sounds like you might have a book in you ?

[pinboy3niner]

10. I surrender

My contact with him was tangential and not even memorable--except for his beer and smokes.

For you, spending time wih him must have been a trip! I'm impressed to hear your story, and especially by his kindness to you. That's a personal touch we don't often get.

I also remember Hickory Hill from when I lived in Mclean and went there for their annual public event, with Art Buchwald as Master of Ceremonies.

[cali]

12. hey, it's not a competition. I was a lowly au pair girl

But he was so nice to me. (and no, it wasn't anything sexual) He was dead impressed that I knew Malcolm Lowery's work and could quote it. He was nice enough not to ignore me as part of the furniture- a glorified servant and we just started talking books. He was a big bibliophile. Anyway, we both loved 'Under the Volcano' by Lowery:

He wrote his own epitaph:

Malcolm Lowery, late of the Bowery
His prose was flowery and often glowery
He lived nightly, and drank daily, and died playing the ukulele

[pinboy3niner]

13. That's still way cool

And Lowery's epitaph has to rank as one of the very best.

[DinahMoeHum]

22. Have you read the biography by William McKeen?

Outlaw Journalist
https://www.amazon.com/Outlaw-Journalist-Times-Hunter-Thompson/dp/0393335453/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470695379&sr=1-1&keywords=outlaw+journalist


That book, plus McKeen's other book involving Thompson Mile Marker Zero looks at the Gonzo's so-called "lost years" in Key West.
https://www.amazon.com/William-McKeen-Marker-Moveable-Hardcover/dp/B00ACOXKH4/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470695418&sr=1-2&keywords=mile+marker+zero

If so, what did you think?

[cali]

34. I never have. I will now. Thank you so much, Dinah.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

31. How incredibly cool!

I'm woefully behind on my Hunter S Thompson awareness! Basically, the movie "Fear and Loathing".

I'm gonna go to the library and get acquainted!

[callous taoboy]

21. I was very lucky to ride Further with the Dr. and Ken Kesey out to Kesey's farm.

There were about a dozen people on board. It was after HST did a lecture at the Hilton ballroom in Eugene. I was walking home and the bus came pulling into a parking lot in front of me for some reason. Kesey had gotten out to fiddle with something on the bus so I ran over and jumped in and just sat down on the floor. Nobody said a word. Next thing I know away we go out to Pleasant Hill. Kesey, Babbs, HST and another prankster or two were playing poker in the back at a table. Someone handed me some electric punch on the way out there. Uncle John's Band was playing, then some Ray Charles. Spent the evening sitting around Kesey's kitchen table listening to HST and Kesey hold court. This was during the first Gulf war, so they had plenty to talk about. We stayed there until the wee hours, HST kept handing me shots of Wild Turkey, Kesey made some silver dollars appear and disappear in his hand. Fucking surreal. And you're so right, Cali, he was really the nicest guy. I had a chance to chat with him out on the front porch (needed some air, the punch was pretty intense) because HST had stepped out a moment later and he was asking me about my student teaching experience, wanted to know if kids were getting high in Jr. High, and it was raining buckets. Finally someone with a ride took us all back to the Hilton. As I was leaving I stuck out my hand to Hunter and we shook and he said, "Goodnight, son." I was 25. It was damned amazing. The weird thing is when I moved to Eugene (there from 89 - 92) I knew I was going to meet Kesey, but I never figured on that kind of a meeting.

[DLevine]

4. K&R. nt

[colsohlibgal]

6. If Only He Was Still Here

He would have had a field day with his orangeness.

He is right about who really creates the vast bulk of the debt and what really drives it but thanks to right wing talk saturation enough people have been buffaloed into believing it is a few welfare queens and Medicaid.

The viability of the right wing depends on enough dummies believing the big lie. Getting enough folks to realize the real truth will be exceedingly hard unless we reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine.

It has been described as the " Two Santa Claus" strategy, republican presidents balloon the debt then when dems are in the WH they become deficit hawks.

God do I miss HST, Matt Taibbi is the closest thing going to him now but what a tough act to follow.

[PatrickforO]

17. Yes, Matt won me over with Griftopia.

I like the tone and style of his no bullshit writing. But, yeah, there was only ONE Hunter S. Thompson.

[bonemachine]

38. I'm truly curious what he would have thought about Bernie

and the obvious McGovern parallels...

[Warren DeMontague]

9. I can only imagine the choice adjectives he would come up with to describe the spectacle of decades

of the GOP diligently farming its worst, baser instincts--- finally coming home and eating the party whole, this year.

[Augiedog]

11. The most important and accurate thing here is that republicans don't believe in democracy. Spot on

[PatrickforO]

15. Hunter Thompson had STYLE.

And, I liked his books.

[thucythucy]

16. "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

I always loved that quote.

Miss him miss him miss him.

[mjvpi]

18. Thomas Paine on Acid

[bucolic_frolic]

20. "Trickle down, trickle down, is anybody wet?"

-Zell Miller, at an Al Gore rally in GA, 2000.

[Cary]

37. I admit that I see their game and take advantage of it

My labor isn't worth snot, but capital over the past 10 years has done amazingly well. That's not right, but when in Rome and all of that.

[Motley13]

24. trickle down economics=the rich get richer & the rest of us get tricled down on

[smirkymonkey]

25. +1000

[LuckyLib]

26. I went to hear him at a university in the 70's. He walked onstage completely plowed

and sat down at a small table with a bottle of Wild Turkey. He didn't talk for 10 minutes, then said, "Any questions?" And inane questions from undergraduates began. HST answered with equally goofy responses. Folks started leaving; I left after 15 minutes as did many others. Wanted to hear him, not our peers. He was best read, not heard!

[shadowmayor]

27. He warned us all

After lil' bush was anointed Prezdint, Hunter said "Big Dark Soon Come"

[BlancheSplanchnik]

32. I remember reading that remark.

It gave me a cold foreboding, like my heart stopped, froze and sank into my gut.
Reinforced and articulated the bad bad feeling I had already, actually.

[CaptainTruth]

29. Damn I love Hunter. And it's Hunter S Thompson (gotta get the S in there).

Absolutely brilliant, one of the best sculptors of the English language in modern times. I have all his books, including his letters.

He truly inspires me as a writer, gives me a goal to aspire to. If I can ever craft a story close to the way he did I'll consider it a satisfying accomplishment.

[burrowowl]

33. K&R!!!!!!

[malthaussen]

35. True as far as it goes.

As far as letting the MIC loot the public treasury, though, are Democratic administrations much different? LBJ comes to mind quicker than RMN.

-- Mal

[Cary]

36. Evil! n/t

[SheriffBob]

40. "where the buffalo roam"

A very funny movie about the doctor, with music by Neil Young.