I am really annoyed at the beatification of AOC

AOC = Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I deeply resent the coverage which pretends that it is she who invented the Green New Deal, that is it she who first touted higher taxes on the rich.

The flea-circus faux socialist website, Jacobin, has not one, but two articles today fawning over the completely phony AOC. I call her completely phony because she went out of her way to praise John McCain, because the bartender meme is a complete fraud - she went to BU and interned for Teddy Kennedy. It seems that this callow thirty year old is being annointed by the fake left wing press (The Nation, Huff Post, Jacobin, etc.) as a genuine voice from the socialist left.

The two articles on Jacobin today are:

Hope and Dread in 2019, which places AOC's very existence as the very first of "13 points of hope". The second point of hope is the Green New Deal, which is portrayed as springing full-born from the brow of Zeus, I mean from the brow of AOC. Gag me with a spoon. The Green New Deal has been around for over a decade. The fawning over this phony woman is sickening.

The other article is This Is How We Do It. Its leadin paragraph is:

Mainstream politicians and media are losing their minds over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They're terrified of how her approach could transform American politics.

It sure looks like AOC is going to be the next sheepdog for the leftwing of the Democratic Party, and the obvious Hispanic Woman (pardon me for not using the IdPol "Latinex" word.) lightning rod of the nativist right(which, of course, guarantees her even more publicity). The mainstream media and the fake leftwing media are pulling out all the stops to put this "Obama in a dress" into the public's mind as the spokes-fraud for the "left". Her guaranteed-to-fail opposition to Nancy Pelosi stunt is tolerated by TPTB both because it couldn't possibly succeed and to give her more fake left cred.

The idea here is to "suck up all the oxygen" from anyone on the genuine left, and let this proven phony play sheepdog. I continue to be nauseated. Your mileage may vary.

Cue the obligatory defense of AOC by suckers.

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divineorder's picture

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

arendt's picture

@divineorder

...its fun to watch the doofuses get punked. But don't believe for a minute that there will be any meaningful outcomes, unless TPTB want them.

My basic rule in this Kabuki is to remember that the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend.

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detroitmechworks's picture

@arendt If they'd just start offing each other openly like every late empire does.

Judging by the people's taste in entertainment, they'd be all for it.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dd1w--R0TI]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

arendt's picture

@detroitmechworks

the coming Mafia-style gangwars among our so-called "officials".

The level of violence in very popular entertainments has appalled me for over decades. It is all just about gangs killing each other. The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, and all the copycats and spinoffs. Not to mention Ultimate Fighting and all the other bloodsport. Slasher movies are pathologically sadistic, with inventive ways to torture and kill being highly rewarded.

The next time the MIC whacks an American politician, they will openly take credit for it, with a coup.

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detroitmechworks's picture

@arendt One thing I really like about Judo is the emphasis on safety and respect. Trash talk and excessive violence gets you thrown out. Not asked to stop, thrown out. Quite literally if you make it an issue.

This constant glorification of cruelty and wanton dishonesty in media is frankly troubling. My daughter enjoys crime dramas, which is a source of friction between us, as I refer to them as "Panted exposition and Screaming" shows. Fortunately she doesn't seem to enjoy the torture porn garbage that so many teens enjoy, so there's that at least.

I guess what's bothersome to me is that all of these "OOOH, betrayal" things are perfectly predictable, if you just assume that everyone in modern entertainment is a sociopath. We're watching a chorus of Iagos and Falstaffs, interspersed with the worst moments of Jacque's depression. Not enjoyable, for the most part. Interestingly enough the most recent show I did enjoy was Shakespearean, so my bias may be showing a bit.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=MwnMhSRZk5A]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

arendt's picture

@detroitmechworks

things are perfectly predictable, if you just assume that everyone in modern entertainment is a sociopath.

Having said that, there is so little media worth watching that we constantly check out cop shows, rejecting the ones that are formulaic shootups. What follows is a plug for one good show.

----

The only really perplexing/engaging crime drama I've seen recently was the original Danish version of "The Bridge". For 8 episodes, the entire police force (and the audience) couldn't figure out who was doing the serial killing. There were red herrings galore. It was very much a "procedural" show, with the violence being the unavoidable starting point for the investigation. (Yeah, starting with a two half bodies arranged on a bridge is definitely sick nonsense; but there wasn't much in the way of actual blood or violence.)

Of course, the stunt personality is a basic trope of cop shows. (That's because, over the course of a century of crime dramas in film and television, they've beaten the basic characters to death, so they need to come up with new angles - e.g., the paraplegic, gay, obsessive compulsive cop.) The Bridge had a really innovative stunt actress: a policewoman who was definitely on the Aspbergers spectrum - completely socially inappropriate.

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Cassiodorus's picture

@detroitmechworks Remember, though, how the Roman Empire went down in the West. The magister militum, Flavius Stilicho (this was the guy in power in the West in the year 402 -- the emperor in the West was an eleven-year-old idiot) decided to strip the border guards, the limitanei, to wage war on Alaric the Visigoth, who apparently needed to be reminded of his role in Stilicho's scheme for defense of the Empire. At a later point Stilicho decides to buy Alaric's loyalty with a gift of four thousand pounds of gold. The Roman Senate didn't like this, and someone was found to get the 11-year-old idiot emperor to sign Stilicho's death warrant.

Meanwhile another invasion of Goths, not led by Alaric but instead by a fellow named Radagasius, devastates Italy before it is vanquished, and a number of usurpers seize power in Britain and in Gaul. And then a very large contingent of Germanic peoples crosses the Rhine River, frozen in mid-winter, on New Years' Eve 406-407. The Germanic peoples are never driven back across the border.

The guy had both trouble with and trouble without, and eventually he ran out of resources. When he was killed, his army fled to join that of Alaric the Visigoth, and the Empire in the West lost large portions of its tax base. I suppose total economic collapse and a lack of trust in the Federal government (amidst incompetent leadership) might do it nowadays.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

detroitmechworks's picture

@Cassiodorus And here we are, with our 11 year old idiot (Adjusted for maturity) gleefully trying to remind Mexico of its role in our defense scheme...

Aaargh, now I'm tempted to start quoting Yeats as he watched the devastation.

Edit: Typo

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

@detroitmechworks

Complete with Cher for celeb value.

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CS in AZ's picture

@divineorder

This is a media trend that does really annoy me. First it was Elizabeth Warren and now Ocasio-Cortez. All led by Hillary’s everything is sexist campaign.

Guess what ladies? Male politicians also get judged on their likability.

It’s a main criticism of Bernie Sanders, and also the severely unlikable Donald Trump.

Calling it sexist is just stupid. Sigh.

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arendt's picture

@CS in AZ

As you say, she has to drag sex into a completely unrelated discussion. Her intent is to derail a discussion of economics and replace it with a dogfight about gender politics.

Disgusting.

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Anja Geitz's picture

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Cue the obligatory defense of AOC by suckers.

Of course I'm still a sucker for Bernie, so I must b a HUGE fool.

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arendt's picture

@gjohnsit

I'm not going to say anything because I respect your massive contributions to this board. Thanks, and keep the stories coming.

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wait to apply judgement (sometimes final) to a person before we have taken or given the time to see meat grow on the bones.

Let's give her some time to ACT as a representative in Congress. The rest is meaningless until we do that.

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

arendt's picture

She already has a track record, and its one of a trimming sheepdog.

Here's the list again. Tell me why I need to not be a complete skeptic about her.

1. The infamous support for McCain:

US House candidate, NY-14
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Retweeted Washington Post

John McCain’s legacy represents an unparalleled example of human decency and American service. As an intern, I learned a lot about the power of humanity in government through his deep friendship with Sen. Kennedy. He meant so much, to so many. My prayers are with his family.

https://twitter.com/Ocasio2018/status/1033538876370046977

2. Various statements AOC made immediately after winning the primary

this woman came out of the Democratic Party machine, out of Ted Kennedy’s office and Bernie Sanders campaign. Does that not tell you something? But third, there is something curious about her whole story. And her web page says her father was a small business owner and other places it says he is an architect. None of this matters, mind you, except that she is certainly not well known in the Bronx by activists or anyone else. She strikes me, personally, as culturally a Westchester County product, not the Bronx. And I guess I find her a bit too telegenic, too perfect an image. Not to mention she is already parroting DNC rhetoric about Russiagate and already making friendly with the fascist opposition against Venezuela. One would think a Latina would know better, no? The U.S. is, after all, on the verge of a possible military intervention in Venezuela — and house and senate Democrats are perfectly aligned with this thinking. When did anyone last hear a Democrat voice support for the Bolivarian revolution? Then there is the fact that her most intense support came from white affluent gentrifiers in her district. So a radical she is not.

- John Steppling The Wisdom of Serpents

3. Her recent glowing endorsement of and vote for Nancy Pelosi

4. Her strong support for Rashida Tlaib's low class, rabble rousing "Impeach the mother******".

5. Her completely reversing her stand on ICE:

most recently, campaigning to 'abolish ice', then backing to 'creating a kinder, gentler ICE', now voting to fund DHS and the border patrol makes her look silly.

- Wendy Davis, in comments to this OP. Thanks Wendy!

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Azazello's picture

That is, are the sheepdogs in on the scam ? Did Bernie agree to play the sheepdog for the corporate Dems ? Did the Wall St. Dems allow AOC to win her primary so that she could be a sheepdog ?

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

arendt's picture

@Azazello

1. Bernie

I think Bernie was genuine when he started his run for the presidency. Of course, his foreign policy was utterly conventional MIC, and he loved the F-35 work in his state. But his domestic policy was awesome, and it went off like a fuel-air bomb in the US political space.

I think that after they realized they couldn't beat him honestly, and could barely contain him dishonestly, they "showed him the Bill Hicks movie" just before the convention. Reports at the time describe him as "visibly shaken". He changed his tune completely. Made no challenge at the convention, and has been a loyal Hillary sheepdog ever since.

----

2. AOC

In the case of AOC, as in the case of Obama, I see deep long-term planning. Someone is given all the right background, just enough cover to pass inspection by the mildly curious. Then they are routed through various events to raise their profile in a carefully calibrated manner. (I distinctly remember the 2004 Democratic Convention speech by Obama, who was merely a senatorial candidate. That was TPTB introducing him as "a shiny new face" with all the politically correct features. At the time, I questioned why this nobody was being pushed so hard.)

As for AOC's primary victory (which guaranteed a general election victory), I find disturbing paralells between the "overconfident" and "absent" Crowley and Obama's GOP opponent for the Senate in 2004, Jack Ryan (please, the same name as a Tom Clancy superhero!). Ryan self-immolated in a sex scandal revealed by sealed court documents well into the election campaign. He was replaced on the GOP ticket by nutbag, Allan Keyes - a guaranteed loser.

As I've said above, Boston University is an elite school. People work very hard to be admitted, especially in the arts, although the science is first rate too. BU was reshaped by the rightwing asshole, John Silber, who fought Howard Zinn tooth and nail. It is a very mainstream elite school. You don't just take a degree from there and become a bartender.

Also, you don't just get to be an intern for Teddy Kennedy and then go become a bartender.

AOC's resume is a pile of sheepdip, a "legend" created for a long term operative.

----

So, basically, you can sign up to be groomed as a sheepdog, or you can be bullied into being one. I'm sure you can also ingratiate yourself into the role by writing a lot of starry-eyed verbiage for TPTB, as Thomas Friedman did.

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Azazello's picture

@arendt
Could be, I suppose.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

arendt's picture

@Azazello

(KGB? Must we slander the Russians? Why not CIA?)

She's like Obama, a telegenic person of color with a minimal track record and a lot of PR behind her. Obama turned out to be a complete fraud who sold us out to Wall St., the MIC, and the cat food commission and is now collecting million dollar speaking fees and hanging out with Richard Branson.

I'm not saying AOC is that dangerous at this point in time. But I certainly don't like here trajectory. I will be damned if I let them run the same scam on me and the public a second time.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Azazello

in Bernie's case, it's pretty obvious he wasn't initially a sheepdog, and that they let him run as a Dem because they had complete contempt for his chances. They initially treated him the way the establishment always treats a threat: with blackouts and brownouts, interspersed with character attacks and trivialization. Then his campaign mushroomed and they got pissed off. They had to scramble with a whole bunch of character assassinations, trollery, and enough different kinds of fraud that I thought they were putting on a fraud clinic for the benefit of the American public. Then, when they'd bashed his campaign in the head enough times, they explained to him what his future role was to be, and he fell in line.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

arendt's picture

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

to beat down the actual left with accusations of racism, sexism and purity-ponyism.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Shahryar's picture

it suggests that any airing of issues/problems/solutions is sheepdogging because it gets reported. If anyone brings up what's wrong with the world and if that gets in the press/TV then it must be sanctioned by the powers that be. Therefore the only "genuine leftist" points MUST be unreported so they stay "genuine" and "leftist".

AOC is being compared to others, like Obama, who sounded good but turned out to be frauds. If you don't like her because she said something about McCain, fine. But judging her on what Obama did or didn't do would be the equivalent of me dismissing this entire discussion as a plant written by an infiltrator *because* infiltration has happened in the past.

and back to this "genuine leftist" thing...you should know that that's horribly elitist and self-defeating. In order to bring about change we'll need masses, most of whom would reject you simply on the basis of using such a phrase.

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arendt's picture

@Shahryar

there are some logic problems here

it suggests that any airing of issues/problems/solutions is sheepdogging because it gets reported. If anyone brings up what's wrong with the world and if that gets in the press/TV then it must be sanctioned by the powers that be. Therefore the only "genuine leftist" points MUST be unreported so they stay "genuine" and "leftist".

Most of the people here do not need the corporate media to tell us what is going on in the world. In fact several posters have explicitly stated that they avoid the corporate media. So your "logic problem" does not apply to the people on this board.

But judging her on what Obama did or didn't do would be the equivalent of me dismissing this entire discussion as a plant written by an infiltrator *because* infiltration has happened in the past.

We are not judging her on what Obama did, we are judging her on what she did (or rather what the corporate media has done for her). Do you want us all to dismiss obvious patterns in the data? That is perilously close to the Obama dictat to "move forward, not backward."

and back to this "genuine leftist" thing...you should know that that's horribly elitist and self-defeating. In order to bring about change we'll need masses, most of whom would reject you simply on the basis of using such a phrase.

Wow, the purity police have arrived. Look, this board has a pretty clear grasp on genuine vs fake leftist. The words are not elitist, because it is part of the vocabulary here.

You show up way late to this thread and start in with the standard armamentum of deconstructionist rhetoric. I played these word games in the 1990s. I am tired of them. This is the last response you will get from me.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Shahryar

is one tell among several: an important one. And obviously, it's not just a question of whether a person gets coverage or not, but a question of what kind of coverage they get. The coverage of Ocasio-Cortez, while not the same as the coverage of the pink pussy hat march, is also not the kind of coverage given to Occupy, or to Bernie (pre-Convention).

The more definitive tell is Ocasio-Cortez' vote for Pelosi as Speaker.

Either way, it is inexplicable and disturbing that people are making character attacks on other people because they are skeptical of a politician; that the "purity" talking point is actually popular here now.

The "purity" talking point was what drove us off Daily Kos.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be on rachel's show tonight to give her response to trump's speech. Oy vey. Looks like you were on to something arendt.

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NYCVG

arendt's picture

@NYCVG

I misunderstood. Being on Rachel is more of the shame Russiagate/IdPol schlock that she's been peddling for years now. Not many minds are going to be swayed by two "feminists" getting together to bash Trump. We've heard that song ever since Trump was elected.

However, it is more free exposure for AOC.

The party is so bereft of leadership and experience that they let someone with a week in office rebut the presiden't speech?

Transparent. Pathetic. I wonder how many long-serving Dems are seething at this.

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However, she might do something that makes me warm up to her.
At the first tangible sign some working class or poor person's life, in which working class includes me, is improved because of her, I will like her.
The media exposure is very similar to other political stars that got ratings. Obama. Trump.
In context, she resembles what has come before.
In reality, we have little to go on with her individually.
So far, she has had no effect on anybody via legislation. Nothing.
I easily ignore her. She is nothing at all to me, and vice versa. My life did not improve win she swore in.
I am trying to care less about her, and simply can't, because media.
She is not an individual anybody on this site thatshould cause us to draw some line in the sand.
She is obvious, evident, but of no consequence in our daily lives.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

arendt's picture

@on the cusp

I've seen this media creation of celebrities to the detriment of the left too many times to just let it go by silently.

I am trying to care less about her, and simply can't, because media.

Yeah, because media...is a dangerous tool of TPTB.

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JTC hasn't weighed in on some of your insulting comments, like "duh," and "wake up and smell the coffee."

I get called out for stuff like that.

But the topic is interesting anyway. I fall on both sides - tired of the beautification, but I also want to give her a bit of room.

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dfarrah

arendt's picture

@dfarrah

when a thread gets this long, managing is very difficult. I tried hard to contain myself, but at a few points, after spending minutes trying to locate one post, I expressed my frustration with some folks who got on my nerves. Sorry if one of them was you.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@dfarrah

any of my criticisms/opinions take that room away from her. I am skeptical. She has plenty of room to convince me. My opinions are subject to revision when new info comes along.

But the debate over Ocasio-Cortez as an individual is just the tip of the iceberg. She could be the most moral woman in the world and it still wouldn't change my opinion of her as a change agent. You have to be able to actually make changes if you want to be a change agent, and that doesn't involve giving more power to Nancy Pelosi. If you have to give power to Nancy Pelosi in order to function as a member of Congress, and you vote for her on that basis, you should 1)say so and not retread old DLC talking points from the 90s, and 2)consider whether it's possible to make change within the Democratic party at all.

The progressive insurgency, in order to reform the Democratic party, has to take power away from the people who have led that party for upwards of twenty years now, unless we now believe that the current leadership just needs a little nudge to engage in the reforms we all want. I doubt very many people on here believe that, after watching what they did to Bernie Sanders. Is there a point in sending Ocasio-Cortezes and Rho Khannas to Congress if they are going to vote to keep the Pelosis and Schumers of the world in power? If there is a point, does it have to do with anything other than a visibility exercise? Visibility is important, but if that's all we're doing, we need to be clear on that, as well as on the fact that visibility does not equal change.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Anja Geitz's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Is there a point in sending Ocasio-Cortezes and Rho Khannas to Congress if they are going to vote to keep the Pelosis and Schumers of the world in power? If there is a point, does it have to do with anything other than a visibility exercise? Visibility is important, but if that's all we're doing, we need to be clear on that, as well as on the fact that visibility does not equal change.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

AOC say that people are getting too caught up in facts and semantics instead of what is moral.

How ridiculous. One uses facts to guide conclusions and policy.

She really needs to learn how to think. Maybe she should go to law school and learn the difference between what is and what is not.

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dfarrah

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@dfarrah

But if she said what you've just reported her as saying, she's on the other side--from me.

Morality without truth is not something I want to see.

But thanks to Ocasio-Cortez for stating the problem with the New Left so admirably.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

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