Remember “10,” the charming romantic comedy from 1979 that made a zillion dollars, inspired way too many white girls to try cornrows and introduced the world to both Ravel’s “Bolero” and Bo Derek? Seriously, that’s her opening credit: “Introducing Bo Derek.” You don’t see that so often these days.
I just turned it on, to see if it holds up. I remember seeing it more than once in the theater, and loving it irrationally, although I never tried cornrows.
It opens with Dudley Moore being led into a dark house, which turns out to be a surprise birthday party for him. After the gaiety and the cake, he’s enjoying a quiet moment with his girlfriend (Julie Andrews) by the fire. He laments his advancing age, and the birthday party, which only reminds him he’s old, old, old.
He’s 42. Julie, we learn a beat later, is 38.
Suddenly, my perspective is radically shifted. I was 21 for most of 1979. Forty-two must have seemed ancient.
Don’t think I’ll watch it all the way through. As I certainly know by now, life is short, and I have books to read.
Oh, here’s a singing scene, with Julia. God, what a voice. And face. A true gamine, clear until…38. Just realized, when she made this movie, she was 44. I wasn’t really buying her as 38, but not because of her looks. She’s one of those women from an earlier generation who simply seemed more mature.
Speaking of more modern entertainments, pro tip: If you’re a podcast fan, go find “Missing Richard Simmons” and subscribe, pronto. It’s based on the mystery of where Simmons has been for the last three years; early in 2014, Simmons essentially “ghosted the world,” i.e. went into his house and hasn’t come out. All of which would be one thing, but Simmons had many close friends and associates, and none of them know where he is, either. Please don’t Google; I did this morning and suspect I know what happened, but I’m still listening, because it’s very well-done, not too long and, as you might expect, about a lot more than just Richard Simmons.
Sherri posted this in comments yesterday, but I don’t want anyone to miss it — it’s very good. Laurie Penny’s account of traveling on the Milo bus, and what she saw there.
Otherwise, this is a midweek slump, and anyway — I’m older than 42.
brian stouder said on February 22, 2017 at 9:59 pm
I loved loved loved “10” – back in the day. When Moore tumbles down the hillside from his home….or when he tries to talk on the phone after the visit to the dentist’s office….good stuff!
‘course, I was an 18 year old senior at South Side High School at that time, and the world I inhabited was entirely different from the one within which I reside nowadays
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Kaye said on February 23, 2017 at 12:07 am
Steel-cut oats in your rice cooker on the porridge setting = perfection. Bonus: keeps them warm for a few days
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Sherri said on February 23, 2017 at 1:32 am
I’ll have to try that, Kaye. I’ve only used my rice cooker for rice so far (which i love it for.)
Kara Swisher is rapidly becoming a must read for me. Here she is on the latest Uber scandal: http://www.recode.net/2017/2/22/14700114/is-uber-lost
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Jakash said on February 23, 2017 at 2:02 am
Sherri,
Your saying “I’ve only used my rice cooker for rice so far” reminded me of this 2008 blog post by Roger Ebert. Uh, he was quite a fan of using a basic rice cooker to cook all kinds of stuff:
http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/the-pot-and-how-to-use-it
Full disclosure: we don’t have a rice cooker, I just remember this post…
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alex said on February 23, 2017 at 7:04 am
That movie was Bo Derek’s introduction and her farewell too. And Julie Andrews still had it going on when she appeared topless in a movie two years later at age 46. (I remember a magazine photo caption from the period that read “Titzapoppins!”)
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Danny said on February 23, 2017 at 7:58 am
Thirty-eight?! Wait, I thought she was sixteen going on seventeen…
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Danny said on February 23, 2017 at 8:20 am
Steel-cut oats. Have you ever noticed that a modifier in front of a food item always makes it sound yummier? You mainly see this with geographical modifiers: Chilean sea bass, eastern littleneck clams, Maine lobster, Black Forest truffles. The wife and I sometimes play a game at restaurants where we try to couple common geographies with common foods.
Hoboken bologna, Eastern shore scrapple, Portland porridge, Fort Wayne spicy kale balls. You get the gist.
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ROGirl said on February 23, 2017 at 8:53 am
Did Richard Simmons get fat? That was myfirst thought. Or he has dementia
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nancy said on February 23, 2017 at 9:08 am
No, I don’t think so, ROGirl. The podcast emphasizes how close he was with the people he worked out with — every day — in the class he taught, not to mention friends and other associates. And he never gave a single indication he was retiring/pulling back, whatever. He just was there one day and gone the next, with no explanation. He’s almost certainly alive, but beyond that, few if any know anything.
However, I think there’s a mental issue afoot, and my Googling may have turned it up. I won’t spoil, though.
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coozledad said on February 23, 2017 at 9:19 am
Republicans are traitor filth.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/320753-house-measure-forcing-release-of-info-on-trump-conflicts-likely-to-die-in
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alex said on February 23, 2017 at 9:19 am
On one of those crap-ass celebrity gossip shows a while back they had a piece suggesting that Simmons has been somehow incapacitated by a female personal assistant who has been given power of attorney over his medical care and finances and that she has managed to separate him from his family and friends. Similar to what Casey Kasem’s children alleged with regard to Kasem’s last wife.
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Heather said on February 23, 2017 at 10:12 am
I loved that Laurie Penny article too, and then I saw it being torn apart on Twitter for being too focused on the white feminist viewpoint. It seemed like people thought she was excusing these young white guys’ behavior–I certainly did not read it that way. She made the point that white males tend to get a pass for their lack of emotional maturity and behavior in a way that others . . . don’t. People seem to be attacking her for her “empathy,” whereas I thought she was also calling them out for the need to both be accountable and to show how they were being manipulated.
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coozledad said on February 23, 2017 at 10:29 am
My wife and I hosted this film at the Kirby Theater in Roxboro last night. Attendance was heavy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzJNewokPJA&index=2&list=PLTshmuCmDX31GkKmRqSkJ62ktOmS2g0Qu
It’s worth viewing for the clips of Reverend Barber alone. It’s also worth noting that Barber occupies nearly the same space in the current civil rights battle as King did in his era. Whether this is because the old wounds were consciously reopened by the Scalia-Roberts court or Republican America will always devote itself to the cause of injustice is moot. What is abundantly clear is where you come down on these issues today is a strong indication of which side of the firehose or attack dog you’d have been on in 1963.
The NAACP is becoming America’s last best chance to overcome a Republican administered Russian satrapy. We’ve actually managed to secure the ouster of Duke Energy’s lickspittle from the governorship, and we did it without waving guns around, like your typical tea traitor hacks.
I suspect it’ll be the focus of Brietbart style attacks by the GOP.
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Suzanne said on February 23, 2017 at 10:35 am
Laura Penny’s article was worth the time to read. Very good points and I think she is correct about the alt-right’s immature outlook on life. I’ve heard many people say they like Trump because he shoots from the hip, tells it like it is, and the like, never mind that he shoots from the hip about crap. It’s the same mentality that says the fact that someone leaked information about Flynn talking to the Russians pre-election is more egregious than the fact that Flynn talked to the Russians. In other words, I’m not mad I’m doing illegal and immoral things, I’m mad you found out and squealed about it.
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Julie Robinson said on February 23, 2017 at 10:35 am
You might expect me to love Julie Andrews since we share a name, and I do. She and Carol Burnett are my show-biz heroes–talented, funny, down-to-earth, and classy broads. I’ve read her memoir and learned that her early life was very difficult. She overcame it all, then had her voice stolen from her by medical incompetence. Yet she fought back and moved into other areas of creativity, still working in her 80’s.
BTW she was on Stephen Colbert a few nights ago and they played a clip of her performing on the Ed Sullivan show in 1961, singing from My Fair Lady. What a voice indeed.
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coozledad said on February 23, 2017 at 10:42 am
Sebastian Gorka Nutjob:
http://www.newsweek.com/sebastian-gorka-white-house-terrorism-adviser-angry-call-559805
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coozledad said on February 23, 2017 at 10:52 am
Listening to that phone call, it becomes clear that the administration has adopted a public balls-out stance, while cultivating the same cowards-in-attendance as every other totalitarianism that is forced to adopt murder as policy, simply in order to stay afloat.
If that phone call doesn’t sink the current regime, then America may be too gutless to preserve.
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susan said on February 23, 2017 at 11:32 am
And down the rabbit-hole we go.M
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Jakash said on February 23, 2017 at 12:04 pm
Danny @ 7,
That sounds like a fun game. Although Hoboken bologna sounds kinda like something that might be uttered at a mayoral press conference.
Dorothy, Jeff (tmmo) or others might be familiar with Trail Bologna, however. An Ohio Amish country savory treat named after the hamlet where it originated. Accompanied by some Swiss cheese and crackers, it makes for a swell snack, or the Breakfast of Champions. ; )
Gotta say, it would take a lot to diminish the visual appeal of the “10”-era Bo Derek, but the cornrows almost managed it. Those ages are depressing to contemplate. And Anne Bancroft was 36 when she played Mrs. Robinson… Of course, I’ve never quite gotten over random teens or twenty-somethings calling me “Sir” and that started happening in the previous millennium!
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BItter Scribe said on February 23, 2017 at 12:21 pm
I never could stand “10.” Talk about objectifying women. Plus Dudley Moore was great playing the stooge with Peter Cook, but I never bought him as any kind of actor, comic or otherwise.
Although I have to add: Moore had/has mad piano skills. If he hadn’t gone into comedy, he could have been a concert pianist. I never thought simply playing the piano could be funny, but this bit about how Beethoven might have interpreted the theme from “The Bridge Over the River Kwai” is just genius.
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coozledad said on February 23, 2017 at 12:37 pm
susan: Trump’s describing these efforts as “a military operation”, so there goes the idea that border patrol agents aren’t his Stasi. Ted Cruz is also saying there’ll be another Supreme Court opening by this summer: Is God talking to him again?
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Deborah said on February 23, 2017 at 12:40 pm
Bitter Scribe, loved that You Tube link, of course there were links to Victor Borges on the page which I now have to go back and watch again. I had a friend in college who used to entertain us by playing hymns (Lutheran college) on the piano in honky tonk style. We were easily amused.
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Jakash said on February 23, 2017 at 12:42 pm
Love that clip, Scribe. A funny idea, brilliantly developed and executed. Thanks for adding it to the mix!
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susan said on February 23, 2017 at 12:47 pm
The Border Patrol’s area of infiltration extends 100 miles from the borders. That encompasses something like 66% of the population now living in a Constitution-free zone.
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coozledad said on February 23, 2017 at 12:56 pm
Popping off like a common Andropov:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38560438
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Sherri said on February 23, 2017 at 12:57 pm
If he’s going to declare it a military operation, then does Posse Comitatus apply? New ways for the ACLU to sue!
Donate if you haven’t, donate more if you can. They’re busy and hiring more lawyers to keep up.
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alex said on February 23, 2017 at 1:02 pm
Hooray for Booty-judge!
A nice counterpoint to My Pants, for Indiana and the nation.
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coozledad said on February 23, 2017 at 1:07 pm
Trying to wipe their ass on the constitution:
http://www.joemygod.com/2017/02/23/arizona-gop-senate-passes-bill-arrest-advance-seize-assets-people-planning-protest/
The cops would go along with this, if only for the expansion of asset forfeiture.
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coozledad said on February 23, 2017 at 1:35 pm
Sherri: I don’t know of any legal exemption for the Border Patrol under the Posse Comitatus law, because they’re a designated law enforcement agency, as opposed to The National Guard. But the Mango Pout is going to be packing the court, with near universal Republican assistance.
It’s certainly in direct contravention to the spirit of the law, which Republicans of the post Eisenhower era don’t give a flying fuck about.
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Scout said on February 23, 2017 at 1:39 pm
The cops in Phoenix are always very cooperative with peaceful protesters. This is a shit law that hopefully will die on the vine, but if it doesn’t, I’m still showing up to #resist.
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Peter said on February 23, 2017 at 1:53 pm
From the Laurie Penney article: “I’m pretty sure Milo has three times the brain capacity of Donald Trump,”
Out of the mouths of babes, although it may not be saying much….
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Charlotte said on February 23, 2017 at 2:23 pm
That border patrol thing is terrifying — what could/would you do? Refuse and have them haul you off to jail? And what’s with Border Patrol/Customs anyhow? Have the white nationalists just been infiltrating those agencies for years now? It would make sense from a tactical standpoint (well, their kind of sense).
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coozledad said on February 23, 2017 at 2:56 pm
Making America a cracker methlab shithole, courtesy your Republican Party:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kansas-triple-shooting-suspect-adam-purinton
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alex said on February 23, 2017 at 4:04 pm
Days like these make me wanna play with dolls.
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brian stouder said on February 23, 2017 at 4:13 pm
Today’s bon-bon. I read this passage, and re-read this passage; and I thought someone in NNc-land could make the best joke out this set-up from President Trump’s Chief Strategist and unshaven Wife Beater, Steve Bannon, and lap-dog Priebus:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/23/cpac-2017-bannon-predicts-daily-fight-with-media-as-trump-pursues-agenda.html
“We share an office suite, we’re basically together from 6:30 in the morning to 11 at night,” Priebus said, adding that one of Trump’s big achievements has been to unite the Republican Party and the conservative movement.
“I can run a little hot on occasions, and Reince is indefatigable, it’s low key but it’s determination,” Bannon said. “Reince is always steady.”
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coozledad said on February 23, 2017 at 4:15 pm
Alex; Out on Wonkette, I mistyped neurosyphilis as nerosyphilis. One of the other commenters replied,”If you feel Rome burning when you piss, see a physician immediately.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/140702/medical-theory-donald-trumps-bizarre-behavior
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Sherri said on February 23, 2017 at 4:19 pm
Cooz’s world, where the illegitimate legislature is working hard to undermine the governor.
http://www.journalnow.com/news/elections/local/gop-legislators-threaten-to-issue-subpoenas-to-get-cooper-s/article_96c7f323-59fd-58b5-8815-8115a72ed55b.html
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Sherri said on February 23, 2017 at 4:31 pm
I think it’s going to take more than a couple of high profile investors to change things at Uber.
https://medium.com/@mitch_freada/an-open-letter-to-the-uber-board-and-investors-2dc0c48c3a7#.z6qv3l969
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David C. said on February 23, 2017 at 5:45 pm
Alex @27. I heard Pete Buttigieg on “Pod Save America”. I was really impressed. If I had a vote I’d pick him over either Perez or Ellison. Perez seems to be the choice of the Obamabots and Ellison the choice of the Bernie Bros. If it was just between them I’d side with the Obamabots, but really do we want any more retreads? I don’t.
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Charlotte said on February 23, 2017 at 5:50 pm
David C — I heard that same interview and was really impressed. I think he’d be especially great for those of us in the mixed states.
Did you all see Montana’s turn on Rachel Maddow last night? She did a terrific piece on our local activism, and the controversy over mail or in-person ballots going on (oh, and our MIA Senator Daines). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuSUvWbI2To
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on February 23, 2017 at 7:01 pm
Had the pleasure of escorting Rev. Dr. William Barber around Columbus a year ago last summer; we brought him to town for our denomination’s General Assembly (he and I are both Disciples of Christ pastors), and he brought a message about heart attacks, heart failure, and the hope of restarting our dying hearts for the poor, the weak, and the oppressed, in Ohio and the nation and the world. A powerful preacher, but more so a skilled organizer, keeping a movement going in North Carolina even as he’s still pastoring a congregation back home. Preaches there three Sundays a month or so while keeping up a brutal travel schedule. He’s a Christian with a heart for good news to all.
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Deborah said on February 23, 2017 at 7:18 pm
I listened to the podcast interviewing Pete Buttigieg that has been mentioned by some here. I gotta say, I’m completely convinced, the guy is fantastic. I’m for him, I haven’t felt this way since Obama was running for senator for IL. This Buttigieg guy is smart as can be, is young and extremely well educated. This is what the dems need, desperately. Oh please, please, let this guy win.
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Deborah said on February 23, 2017 at 7:29 pm
I might add that I did a bunch more research on Buttigieg than just the podcast, he’s the real deal.
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Sherri said on February 23, 2017 at 7:31 pm
I haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but what I’ve read about Buttigieg earlier made me impressed. He and Jason Kander of Missouri are two people I really noticed coming out of this mess.
Spicer says the federal government is going to come after recreational marijuana, which is unsurprising given how Jefferson Beauregard Sessions feels about the substance. I don’t think Washington is going to give up on ~$300 million/year (and growing) in tax revenue that easily, though.
As we know, states rights only matter when Republicans want to keep the wrong people from getting help or voting.
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alex said on February 23, 2017 at 8:15 pm
Cooz @ 36–
Good thing you didn’t spell it nyrosyphillis. That burning when you piss would make for some serious Wedding Bell Blues.
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devtob said on February 23, 2017 at 9:32 pm
Sherri — every state marijuana law (recreational and medical) is in danger, with Jefferson (traitor) Beauregard (traitor) Sessions waiting a decent interval before sending the DEA in to put the marijuana stores out of business.
For Sessions, it’s not just about the wingnut culture war against the 60s, it’s even more about keeping the coloreds in their place — prison. Punching hippies is a bonus.
But, for the first time in forever, marijuana legalization is more popular than not, so Sessions’ new war on pot will backfire with lots of voters, including many who supported Trump.
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Sherri said on February 23, 2017 at 9:40 pm
Our AG has already sued trump once and beaten him, and he won’t hesitate to sue again (plus, I think he’d like to be governor in 4 years, and marijuana legalization passed with a healthy majority). Sessions can send his thugs, when he’s not busy covering up FBI investigations of trump misconduct, but can they pack the courts fast enough?
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devtob said on February 23, 2017 at 9:58 pm
The courts are already packed with federal judges who will support a Supremacy Clause argument. No hope there, on this issue.
Obama decided to look the other way on state pot laws. Trump and Sessions will not.
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Sherri said on February 23, 2017 at 10:11 pm
Huh. Who could have guessed that vouchers provided for attendance to private schools with little to no accountability would be an educational disaster.
Maybe the free market just isn’t very good at providing some services. Who knew? Certainly not Milton “Free to Choose” Friedman and his acolytes. If it weren’t for Kissinger, he would be my nominee for most damaging Nobel Prize laureate ever.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/upshot/dismal-results-from-vouchers-surprise-researchers-as-devos-era-begins.html
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coozledad said on February 24, 2017 at 8:28 am
Gorka’s involvement with the far right includes co-founding a political party with former prominent members of Jobbik, a political party with a well-known history of anti-Semitism; repeatedly publishing articles in a newspaper known for its anti-Semitic and racist content; and attending events with some of Hungary’s most notorious extreme-right figures.
http://forward.com/news/national/364085/exclusive-senior-trump-aide-forged-key-ties-to-anti-semitic-groups-in-hunga/
One of my uncles was part of an esteemed group who used to parachute behind German lines and garotte Nazis. Another one was killed at Anzio. Real Americans kill Nazi shit. Nazism isn’t an ideology, it’s a pathology that renders its victims worthless protoplasm that responsible humans are duty bound to capture, try, and hang.
Now they run the Republican party.
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brian stouder said on February 24, 2017 at 9:28 am
Most of the extremists have enough sense to disclaim nazism, but there’s another genocidal precedent that they are openly proud of
http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2017/02/23/protester-grabs-confederate-flag-live-tv-orig-vstan-dlewis.cnn
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coozledad said on February 24, 2017 at 9:48 am
Most of the extremists have enough sense to disclaim nazism
Assumes facts not in evidence. Nazism locates its genesis in the Confederacy. Hitler himself used to bait his American critics with this fact. Forced, unpaid labor and racial genocide as practiced by the nascent enslaver state is the fucking model for Hitler’s merger of the corporate will with executive power. Our whole current notion of meeting production targets in an anarcho-capitalist framework was used as a pattern by the Nazis and even moreso during the end of the regime, when Old South style slave labor was used in the production of vengeance weapons at Peenemunde and Nordhausen.
What enslavers used was a system of measurement and negative incentives. Actually, one should avoid such euphemisms. Enslavers used measurement to calibrate torture in order to force cotton pickers to figure out how to increase their own productivity and thus push through the picking bottleneck. The continuous process of innovation thus generated was the ultimate cause of the massive increase in the production of high-quality, cheap cotton: an absolutely necessary increase if the Western world was to burst out of the 10,000-year Malthusian cycle of agriculture. This system confounds our expectation, because, like abolitionists, we want to believe that the free labor system is not only more moral than system of coercion, but more efficient. Faith in that a priori is very useful. It means we never have to resolve existential contradictions between productivity and freedom. And slave labor surely was wasteful and unproductive. Its captives knew it wasted the days and years and centuries extorted from them. They would never get those days back. Yet those who actually endured those days knew the secret that, over time, drove cotton-picking to continually higher levels of efficiency….
We don’t usually see torture as a factor of production. Economics teachers don’t put it on the chalkboard as a variable in a graph (“T” stands for torture, one component of “S,” or supply). But here is something that may help reveal how crucial systematized torture was to the industrial revolution, and thus to the birth of the modern world. It’s a metaphor offered b a man named Henry Clay, after the architect of the “American System.” Born into slavery in the Carolinas, moved west as a boy, Clay recalled after slavery ended that his Louisiana owner had once possessed a machine which by his account made cotton cultivation and harvesting mechanical, rapid, and efficient. This contraption was “a big wooden wheel with a treadle to it, and when you tromp the treadle the big wheel go round. On that wheel was four or five leather straps with holes cut in them to make blisters, and you lay the negro down on his face on a bench and tie him to it.” When the operator pumped the treadle to turn the wheel, the straps thrashed the back of the man or woman tied to the bench into blistered, bloody jelly. According to Clay, the mere threat of this whipping-machine was enough to speed his own hands.
…Clay was using a metaphorical argument to say that every cotton labor camp carved out of the southwestern woods used torture as its central technology. Every single day, calibrated pain, regular as a turning gear, challenged enslaved people to exceed the previous day’s gains in production. Planters and entrepreneurs rarely talked about how other human beings actually picked cotton, but they didn’t need to. They had only to deploy and tune the technology of the whip, steelyard, and slate in order to force people to focus their minds on inventing new ways to perform repetitive and mind-numbing labor at nearly impossible speed.
-Edward Baptist: The half has Never Been Told
To put this in more modern terms, if you were African-American, the entire antebellum South was a concentration camp.
-Mike the Mad Biologist.
I’d only add, the entire American nation was neck deep in the slave enterprise, from the morcellation and collateralization of black bodies, to the weaving of burlap clothing and manufacture of cheap cardboard shoes for the inarguable basis of the entire American economy.
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Deborah said on February 24, 2017 at 10:08 am
I had to look up morcellation. Lordy, what a horrible mental image that is.
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coozledad said on February 24, 2017 at 10:25 am
Deborah: It has a dual meaning. Morcellation is also an old word for subdivision of property as well as cutting a body into shreds. Slaves were the original collateralized debt Obligation, and they were bundled and traded as stocks worldwide, even after the European states had proscribed slavery. until the end of the civil War, the economy of abolitionist Great Britain was utterly dependent on raw American cotton. during the war, northern senators granted themselves power to facilitate the cotton trade with the belligerents.
New York mayor Fernando Wood wanted the city to secede along with the slave states.
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Deborah said on February 24, 2017 at 10:33 am
http://abc7news.com/1766412/ What a great idea, if congress won’t do it, city councils can start the domino cascade.
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Suzanne said on February 24, 2017 at 11:02 am
It will be interesting to see where all this immigration stuff goes. Like the old South being dependent on slaves, too many business interests are dependent on immigrants, legal & illegal, to function & be profitable. The rust belt rednecks who love Trump are not going to embrace the jobs that immigrants do any more than the Southern White Trash would have picked cotton pre-civil war days.
I enjoy reading about history; I hate living through it.
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brian stouder said on February 24, 2017 at 11:06 am
Suzanne – amen
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Deborah said on February 24, 2017 at 12:59 pm
Hilarious, The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IEWWRbn4zG0
I had forgotten about this movie. What a cast.
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Scout said on February 24, 2017 at 1:27 pm
This might be interesting.
“As I said, maybe I was marked forever back in the John Sirica Days, but this seems like something that could be the beginning of the end of the end of the beginning. Or something. You can’t use the FBI like your own private spin team. You can’t have an office in the White House and even think you can do that. If the idea ever crosses your mind, you should immediately hand in your hard pass, walk out to Pennsylvania Avenue, and catch the first bus to the nervous hospital. ”
…
“First of all, Priebus has to go. Today. Even if there’s nothing illegal in what happened—and even, as seems completely implausible, the request was made out of simple anger at inaccurate reporting instead of abject terror that accurate reporting was getting too close to where the borscht got made last year—Priebus is revealed as a guy who should not be allowed to spread butter with anything sharper than his thumb, let alone run the staff of any White House, including Camp Runamuck. This is, or ought to be, a career-ender.”
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a53406/reince-priebus-fbi/
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Jolene said on February 24, 2017 at 1:44 pm
Deborah, I loved that movie too. Was the beginning of my life-long crush on Alan Arkin.
And speaking of movies, here’s a fun, Oscars-related WaPo article in which they review the list of previous Best Picture winners and identify the movies that should have won. A great basis for arguments and also a reminder of lots of old movies that you always meant to see or want to see again–not that, in this age of too much good TV, we need ideas about more things to watch, but still fun.
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Deggjr said on February 24, 2017 at 1:55 pm
The idea of replacing illegal immigrants working on farms with prisoners is appearing in my Facebook feed. One example: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C41HgOqUcAEKzlq.jpg. Bring back slavery! There are statistics about white/black use/arrest for marijuana that illustrate how slavery would work going forward.
Those statistics make me reminisce; in four years at a predominately white college I never heard of a student getting arrested for marijuana possession or use. The college certainly was a target rich environment.
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coozledad said on February 24, 2017 at 2:19 pm
https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/835205443861549056
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Danny said on February 24, 2017 at 2:22 pm
Okay, if someone were arrested for marijuana possession and then were assigned to labor in marijuana fields, would that be irony meets serendipity or what?
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Sherri said on February 24, 2017 at 2:28 pm
The ACLU has been deluged with people wanting to volunteer since the election, and so has been working to figure out what to do with that energy (as have many orgs.) Here’s the launch of their program: https://go.peoplepower.org/signup/join?source=root
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Scout said on February 24, 2017 at 2:47 pm
Uh-oh…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/us/politics/white-house-sean-spicer-briefing.html
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Scout said on February 24, 2017 at 2:49 pm
In case you’ve hit the pay wall, here’s the nitty:
“Reporters from The Times, CNN and Politico were not allowed to enter the West Wing office of the press secretary, Sean M. Spicer, for the scheduled briefing. Aides to Mr. Spicer allowed in reporters from only a handpicked group of news organizations that, the White House said, had been previously confirmed to attend.
Organizations allowed in included Breitbart News, the One America News Network and The Washington Times, all with conservative leanings. Journalists from ABC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Fox News also attended.
Reporters from Time magazine and The Associated Press, who were set to be allowed in to the briefing, chose not to attend in protest of the White House’s actions.”
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Jolene said on February 24, 2017 at 2:52 pm
President Obama was in NY today. Unsurprisingly, people were happy to see him.
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Sherri said on February 24, 2017 at 3:24 pm
Jay Rosen has been advocating for some time for news organizations to “send the interns” to WH press briefings, because they’re not worth it. Personally, I think that’s cruel to the interns. What’s the point of going to record Spicer’s lies and to let him humiliate you?
This White House can’t be covered in the old ways. Adjust and find the stories. What the Spicer says from the podium is not really the story.
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Sherri said on February 24, 2017 at 4:07 pm
You don’t need a union! I’m going to give you frozen yogurt stands and a roller coaster!
https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolineodonovan/musk-slams-union-drive-in-email-to-employees
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Sherri said on February 24, 2017 at 4:13 pm
Despite today’s banning media outlets from the gaggle, I bet the White House Correspondents’ Dinner goes on as usual. They’ll suck up to them, and tell themselves it’s to build a better relationship and raise money for scholarships.
You can’t build a better relationship with people who want to destroy you, and they’d raise more money by cancelling it and creating a gofundme.
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Sherri said on February 24, 2017 at 4:16 pm
It’s not about Gorsuch. It’s a stolen seat. When will people figure out that Shadow President Bannon is waging all out wariness American institutions and democracy? He just said so yesterday at CPAC.
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/02/23/prominent-colorado-attorneys-call-for-neil-gorsuch-confirmed/
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Peter said on February 24, 2017 at 4:17 pm
Scout – I was going to comment on that as well.
Well, it seems like Fearless Leader is in full snit mode.
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Peter said on February 24, 2017 at 4:26 pm
I hope the WH Dinner does go on as scheduled.
I don’t know why, but I would think at least one comedian (Colbert, Lewis Black?) would have the balls to go full bore on Cheeto Benito, and that at least someone in the crowd would call Donald out in his rebuttal.
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Sherri said on February 24, 2017 at 4:27 pm
Wayne LaPierre says the going rate for left wing protestors is $1500/week.
Is that what he pays, or does he think left wingers are more expensive?
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Sherri said on February 24, 2017 at 4:40 pm
The town in question is 98% white, unsurprisingly.
http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article134722264.html
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Deborah said on February 24, 2017 at 4:49 pm
Scout, I think the msm needs to keep Trump out of the news for a while, because he really likes being on it and in it. I realize some shenanigans will happen that won’t be reported but it seems like there are enough moles hidden in there, that it will get out anyway, maybe not on the nyt but who cares. He will be begging them to come back and keep him in the public eye 24/7. What an embarrassing asshole.
Plus, Lakeoff says when you write about him or show him on TV and internet constantly you are helping him because he’s wearing a groove in our brains that normalizes his crap. So the press should give it a rest. We don’t need it 24/7.
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coozledad said on February 24, 2017 at 4:59 pm
https://twitter.com/marinatos/status/835240506850422785
If anyone believes John McCain wouldn’t suck Trump off on national TV, they don’t remember how he mouthfucked the Bushes after they boned him in the arse. Republicans don’t even nominate people of courage for office.
Cowardice is a goddamn requirement for membership in the party.
Don’t wait for those traitors to do something, and don’t wait for the media to grow some balls. Neither of those things is going to happen.
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Scout said on February 24, 2017 at 6:09 pm
Deborah – I agree with you 100%. The MSM needs to declare a blackout on all PR coming out of the WH. And they ESPECIALLY need to stop talking about his twitter twatting. For like, a week. It’ll all still be there after the giant orange tumor starts whining because he isn’t getting any attention.
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Sherri said on February 24, 2017 at 7:59 pm
So far, evidence support Cooz: cowardice is a requirement for membership. The WH, unsuccessful at getting the FBI to downplay the Russia story, turned to Burr and Nunes, the chairs of the Senate and House Intelligence committees, who were happy to talk to reporters anonymously.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-sought-to-enlist-intelligence-officials-key-lawmakers-to-counter-russia-stories/2017/02/24/c8487552-fa99-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html
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Sherri said on February 24, 2017 at 8:16 pm
The white supremacist murdering a South Asian engineer isn’t going to make our immigrant community here feel any better, either: http://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/afraid-and-confused-legal-immigrants-backing-out-of-seattle-area-home-purchases/
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Rana said on February 24, 2017 at 10:52 pm
Oh, I don’t think they’re cowards, those folks in the GOP. I think they are complicit, and working hard to get as much of their agendas advanced as they can before they toss their designated scapegoat to the wolves.
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Sherri said on February 24, 2017 at 11:20 pm
They think they’re in control. They’re afraid to face Dems at town halls. How are they going to stand up to riled up trumpies if they try to stop him?
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Sherri said on February 25, 2017 at 12:30 am
This thread, on how what trump says radicalizes people like the shooter in Kansas: https://mobile.twitter.com/AnandWrites/status/835338124859441153
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beb said on February 25, 2017 at 12:53 pm
While a blackout on Trump news seems like a good idea Josh Marshall (I think) suggests that the less Trump is in the news the better people think of him. So to keep his negatives up and to mobilize the Democrats we need to focus on every inane, insane Trump does and says.
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Jakash said on February 25, 2017 at 1:43 pm
From the thread Sherri posted @ 83:
“In other words, the least vulnerable Americans screwed the middlingly vulnerable, and Trump’s answer is a war against the most vulnerable.”
That seems to sum things up pretty succinctly.
Two other tweets:
“Conservatives’ evergreen rallying cry is ‘but what about protecting the rights of the people who want to deny other people rights!'”
which drew a John Kenneth Galbraith quote in reply:
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
https://twitter.com/behindyourback/status/834800087427665925
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Deborah said on February 25, 2017 at 6:53 pm
Beb, do you have a link about the Josh Marshall suggestion that when people don’t hear abou Trump, they think better of him? I looked on TPM and can’t find it. I’m not at all sure I agree with that. Brain scientist have a different opinion. Also I’d like to hear more about Bannon, than Trump, he’s the one pulling the strings it seems.
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Deborah said on February 25, 2017 at 7:51 pm
I realize people poo poo his theories based on neuroscience but when you hear him talk about it, it seems worth giving it a shot, I mean what have the Democrats got to lose? This was on pbs a couple of weeks ago http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/professor-cognitive-science-george-lakoff/
It’s by no means the magic bullet, nothing is, but at least it’s a tool. There’s some advice to journalists in the segment, I’d like to hear what many of you here think.
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Sherri said on February 25, 2017 at 8:24 pm
I’m not sure it’s so much that people dismiss his theories based on neuroscience, it’s that when Lakoff talks about neuroscience, he’s way off base. As most people outside the field trying to justify their claims based on neuroscience are. “Our brains are wired to think this way” is almost always a specious claim, based on bad or no science, that oversells whatever is being claimed. “This has been demonstrated through practice to be an effective communication strategy” is different.
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Sherri said on February 25, 2017 at 8:43 pm
No, you’re not trusted again.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/25/us/ice-immigrant-deportations-trump.html
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Deborah said on February 25, 2017 at 8:50 pm
Sherri, I’m not finding that Lakoff is way off base, believe me I’m looking for it. I’m finding that science backs him up. Is this brain science denial like climate change science denial? I really don’t know?
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Sherri said on February 25, 2017 at 9:12 pm
The sense I’ve gotten from reading neuroscientists on Lakoff is that he makes claims from neuroscience beyond what neuroscience can support at this point. Neuroscience is still a young a fuzzy field. It’s very easy to see what you want to see out of it. I don’t think Lakoff is necessarily wrong about everything, but there is a just so character to his work that makes me skeptical.
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beb said on February 25, 2017 at 10:05 pm
Deborah: it took me a while to find it since the title is somewhat different from the conclusion I took away from it.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/how-unpopular-is-trump
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Deborah said on February 26, 2017 at 11:17 am
I read this on the Awl last night about the “Brilliant Jerk” phenomenon, there’s one in every organization https://theawl.com/if-it-walks-like-a-jerk-and-talks-like-a-jerk-2b19b965e14f#.7mgvf2bmz and then I read this https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/25/opinion/what-does-steve-bannon-want.html. And I was just saying a few comments up that I wanted to see more in the press about Steve Bannon because he seemed to be the one pulling the strings in the White House. There you go.
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Sherri said on February 26, 2017 at 12:32 pm
I think the problem with getting rid of the brilliant jerk is that the brilliant jerks run the companies. The CEO asshole model has been dominant in Silicon Valley since Steve Jobs’ success at returning to Apple. Add Zuck and his hoodie, and you get the prototype asshole frat boy Valley CEO.
Kalanick, the quintessential asshole CEO of tech, is now at least going through the motions of responding to scandal because he needs to go IPO, not because he’s seen the light. Uber’s latest round of financing was at junk bond level, debt at high interest, so they need the money raised from an IPO. “Every month or so we have a massive PR disaster which blows up and people start deleting their accounts” is not a great thing to have to disclose in the risks part of your S1.
Not that asshole CEOs are new or limited to tech. Jack Welch literally wrote the book on it.
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Jakash said on February 26, 2017 at 12:58 pm
Speaking of which, any other fans here of “Silicon Valley” on HBO? I’m about as far from being a techie or computer nerd as you can get, but we find it hilarious, having just finished catching up with Season 2…
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Deborah said on February 26, 2017 at 1:47 pm
I couldn’t finish but I just put myself through the maschistic experience of watching one of Bannon’s documentaries that was mentioned in the NYT article, The Zero Generation, or something like that, I don’t want to go back and look up the title, they don’t deserve another click. I don’t recommend anyone to watch it, incredible blatant propaganda. A totally ridiculous world view. Hard to fathom how people can watch that and fall for it. Absurd. I only had about 15 mins left to watch when I finally shut it down. It’s an hour and a half long. I’m trying to know my enemy, but man is it painful.
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Jerrie said on February 26, 2017 at 4:04 pm
Deborah, I’m not sure if someone cited the Washington Post op-ed, “Where did Steve Bannon get his worldview? From my book,” by Neil Howe, co-author of The Fourth Turning but you might add it to your list:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/where-did-steve-bannon-get-his-worldview-from-my-book/2017/02/24/16937f38-f84a-11e6-9845-576c69081518_story.html?utm_term=.d8f1c5c80ad7
Many of the comments are more thoughtful than the article.
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Deborah said on February 26, 2017 at 7:21 pm
Yes, Jerrie, that book was the basis of Bannon’s documentary but it was presented in the most over the top hyperbole you could imagine. People like the discredited asshole Dick Morris and his ilk were presenters as if they knew what they were talking about, it was ridiculous. I have yet to read the comments of the article you linked to, but I will.
I needed a cleansing so I went out to Abiquiu for a bit today, but returned for the Oscars. Little Bird has a bad cold.
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