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Sunday Night Open Thread

I had another Trump-free news weekend, it was so pleasant not thinking about him.

I hate the new layout of Google News -- I would switch to Yahoo but it's worse -- at Yahoo, they make their ads appear to be news articles and they then put one after every second or third headline.

I'm looking for a substitute (in addition to Lexis Nexis which I use to fact-check and find interesting details.) Any ideas?

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

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    I recommend The Onion (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by McBain on Sun Jul 30, 2017 at 09:26:58 PM EST


    i read a new poll (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by linea on Sun Jul 30, 2017 at 10:27:13 PM EST
    that listed 'employee misclassification' as one of the top issues for voters. i've posted here on that topic though i didnt know this was the correct term for it. i checked the democratic party platform and it is not addressed.

    is there a reason this issue is being ignored by the democratic party? being cynical, i could assume solicited political contributions from corporations and the 'liberal' wealthy is the reason but i hope that's not the case.

    Employee misclassification is the practice of labeling workers as independent contractors, rather than employees. The practice allows employers to avoid paying unemployment and other taxes on workers, and from covering them on workers compensation and unemployment insurance.


    I have trouble believing "employee (none / 0) (#3)
    by oculus on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 12:19:35 AM EST
    misclassification" is "one of the top issues troubling voters."

    Parent
    sorry (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by linea on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 12:40:14 AM EST
    i found the article.

    these were the main issues:

    • Stopping Outsourcing
    • Addressing the Opioid Crisis
    • Passing Paid Family and Medical Leave
    • Expanding Overtime
    • Paid Sick Days
    • Ending Employee Misclassification
    • Saving for Retirement
    • Making It Easier to Unionize


    Parent
    Interesting findings. (5.00 / 1) (#15)
    by KeysDan on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 10:55:18 AM EST
    But, the polled voter's concerns are conflictory, or, at least, inflicted with "bothsiderism," (cf. Key Finding Number 5).

    Paul Krugman's column entitled "Who Ate the Republicans Brain," (NYTimes, July 31, 2017) seems apt to this discussion, wherein he notes "it's Republicans, not the 'political system.'  

    The polling presents voter's concerns that are an anathema to Republicans, but were set forth as goals in the Democratic platform.

    Dr. Krugman presents, for example, the analysis of Trumpcare by Lindsey Graham (R. SC): "terrible policy and horrible politics," "a disaster," and a "fraud."  He voted for it anyway, and so did 48 of his Republican colleagues.  No Democrat voted for it.  

     

    Parent

    Thanks for the link, Dan (5.00 / 3) (#16)
    by Ga6thDem on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 11:08:37 AM EST
    Krugman is 100% right. However I think the larger problem is that Republican voters have allowed the GOP to lie to them for decades. I mean if their voters didn't stand there and take it they wouldn't have been able to get away with it for so long.

    Parent
    Issues of greatest interest and concern (5.00 / 1) (#20)
    by Peter G on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 01:02:56 PM EST
    to Ohio voters when polled by a work-related-issues organization, according to your link, Linea. I imagine the formulation and framing of the questions asked is what produced that work-life-focused list of top issues.

    Parent
    Being cynical ... (none / 0) (#11)
    by Yman on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 10:13:53 AM EST
    ... I assure it's because Bernie didn't want it included in the platform, but I hope that's not the case.

    Parent
    "assume" (none / 0) (#12)
    by Yman on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 10:14:31 AM EST
    I'm BAAACK (5.00 / 7) (#9)
    by Repack Rider on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 09:57:39 AM EST
    ...from my lecture tour (six events, 17 days) in the UK.

    Adventure of a lifetime, hard to pack it into a blog comment because I'm already up to 2500 words in my article for publication, and I'm hardly done.

    Condensed version: barnstormed all over England with my best mate of 45 years, saw Stonehenge and Hadrian's Wall and lots of castles, rode mountain bikes in Sherwood Forest and other places, was the subject of full page articles in the Chorley Guardian and the Lancashire Post, drank expensive single malt Scotch from the bottle while playing guitars around a roaring fire, met wonderful people, went to a lot of pubs and never had to pay for my own beer, slept variously on floors and in fine hotels, visited multiple museums (admission was always free), covered my expenses and made a little money on top.

    Also, I get a mention in the current issue of Sports Illustrated.

    Welcome back, RR. (none / 0) (#14)
    by KeysDan on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 10:33:16 AM EST
    Sounds like your travels were everything you hoped for, and much more.  

    Parent
    Hugs Repack (none / 0) (#18)
    by Ga6thDem on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 12:23:49 PM EST
    I'm glad you had a wonderful time!

    Parent
    Welcome home, sir! (none / 0) (#41)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 05:21:35 PM EST
    It's always been one of my goals to spend a summer in the British Isles. Unfortunately, our expenses and calendars are such right now that any foreign travels are on hiatus for the next year or two.

    We've been putting a lot of money into substantial upgrades and renovations of our house here in Hilo, which screamed "1970s!" when we first bought it. And I just started my Ph.D program at UCLA, while my wife is presently looking at getting into the Ph.Ed program next fall at UH-Manoa.

    Can't complain, though. Our choices are our own, and I for one don't have any second thoughts about making the move to the Big Island. Living here has been everything we thought it would be and more.

    Anyway, it sounds like you had a grand time in Merry Olde England. I look forward to hearing more about it. London is one of my most favorite cities in the world. Did you spend much time there on this trip?

    Aloha.

    Parent

    The Mooch, (5.00 / 1) (#24)
    by KeysDan on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 01:38:48 PM EST
    we hardly knew ye.  Kelly ousts the Mooch after a full ten days on the job.

    I guess a general trumps a mooch... (none / 0) (#27)
    by Anne on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 01:45:47 PM EST
    makes me wonder if Kelly made dumping Scaramuuci a condition of taking the CoS job.

    Which is not to say The Mooch won't show up somewhere else, but this was a pretty big power play.

    Parent

    Everything is topsy turvy (5.00 / 2) (#30)
    by KeysDan on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 01:56:53 PM EST
    in Trumpland.  The Mooch didn't resign to spend more time with his family, the family resigned to spend less time with the Mooch.

    Parent
    Sanity prevails. (none / 0) (#28)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 01:52:40 PM EST
    At least, it did this time.

    Parent
    Pretty sure it's only temporary... (5.00 / 3) (#34)
    by Anne on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 02:09:02 PM EST
    the real problem isn't getting the personnel right in the Communications shop, it's the giant orange id holding forth from the White House.

    John Kelly is not a nice man - he's brought a new level of cruelty to DHS.  And he's the same man who didn't think Mike Flynn had done anything wrong.

    Parent

    And reportedly is okay (5.00 / 2) (#43)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 05:32:44 PM EST
    With Bannon's white nationalist movement. A pretty hideous guy.

    Parent
    John Kelly is a U.S. Marine ... (5.00 / 2) (#46)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 05:53:58 PM EST
    ... who epitomizes the term "jarhead." From everything I've heard, read and seen of the man, he's the sort of commander who tends to live on in the nightmares of his own subordinates.

    Parent
    Situational sanity (none / 0) (#45)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 05:35:59 PM EST
    Cue (none / 0) (#29)
    by FlJoe on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 01:55:52 PM EST
    up Jeffery Lord et al, to tell us all how this is normal.

    Poor sap, lost his job and his wife in the past few days, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

    Parent

    So he will be (5.00 / 2) (#31)
    by Repack Rider on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 01:57:13 PM EST
    ...spending more time with his family...lawyer.

    Parent
    How does one choose to not be present ... (5.00 / 3) (#42)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 05:31:18 PM EST
    ... for the birth of one's own child, and instead prefer to spend that time in the company of Donald Trump? Further, what kind of guy responds to the news of said birth with a text to his wife which says, "Congratulations, I'll pray for our child"? I mean, why not just sign a Hallmark card and mail it to her instead?

    Merciful heavens, but these people are truly demented.

    Parent

    so (5.00 / 3) (#57)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 08:56:11 AM EST
    its August 1st and i am celebrating doing all the things the insurance company said i needed to do BY AUG FIRST if i wanted to keep my house insurance.

    i may procrastinate but eventually i get it done.

    woo hoo,  time for a morning "break"

    then a nap.

    Congratulations, Howdy. (5.00 / 2) (#62)
    by caseyOR on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 11:40:01 AM EST
    Excellent work.

    Parent
    A Trump "knee slapper." (5.00 / 1) (#71)
    by KeysDan on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 01:01:40 PM EST
    Did you hear the one about the president of the USA who urged police officers to rough up suspects arrested?  

    Two Corinthians walk into a bar, and being immigrants, are arrested.  The president says not to be too nice as they are loaded into the "paddy wagon" (a quaint term once used for police wagons that took away immigrant Irish).  And, take no care to avoid hitting their heads on the metal of the police vehicle. After all, they are animals.

    That's a good one, don't you think?

    Trump outdid himself on this base-stoking demagoguery--the immoral of the story: constitutional law enforcement is inconsistent with public safety. And, of course, police brutality gets a presidential green light..those arrested are guilty and the punishment can't start too soon.  

    Trump picked Suffolk County Police for his speech, a department that, in 2013, agreed to DOJ oversight amid charges that it had discriminated against Latinos.  And, last year, the Suffolk County former chief of police, James Burke, was sentenced to federal prison in connection with beating a man who had stolen a duffel bag from his car that contained his private collection of sex toys.

    Many police officers in attendance applauded the President's beautiful speech; but there has been backlash from police leaders across the country. Wonder about some of the rank and file?  Hope they  prefer Groucho for their belly laughs.

    someone pointed out that (5.00 / 2) (#72)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 01:06:46 PM EST
    that video of the cops applauding could and almost certainly will be used as evidence if any of those  applauding cops are ever charged with brutality or excessive force.

    Parent
    The video could also (5.00 / 1) (#89)
    by oculus on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 02:57:03 PM EST
    subject  Suffolk Co. to punitive damages.

    Parent
    Not to mention (none / 0) (#126)
    by Peter G on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 12:57:42 PM EST
    I thought djt was addressing county sheriff's (none / 0) (#159)
    by oculus on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 10:33:46 PM EST
    dept.

    Parent
    Am I wrong in thinking that cities and counties (none / 0) (#161)
    by Peter G on Thu Aug 03, 2017 at 08:55:48 AM EST
    are subject to the same 11th Amendment rule, per SCOTUS?

    Parent
    But I was incorrect re punitive damages (5.00 / 1) (#165)
    by oculus on Thu Aug 03, 2017 at 10:17:01 PM EST
    against the county under 42 U.S.C. 1983.  City of Newport bars punitives.

    Parent
    You are correct. (none / 0) (#163)
    by oculus on Thu Aug 03, 2017 at 09:56:47 PM EST
    You are correct. (none / 0) (#164)
    by oculus on Thu Aug 03, 2017 at 09:59:22 PM EST
    Bivins

    Parent
    This is exactly (none / 0) (#80)
    by NYShooter on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 02:01:02 PM EST
    the kind of thing Kelly will demand be stopped, like, Yesterday!

    I really think Trump would be seriously worried about General Kelly publicly resigning over this kind of stupidity. And, if Kelly goes, well, there are lots of Generals in Trump's cabinet.

    4-Star Marine General John Kelly is definitely  NOT Psycho-Scaramucci.

    Parent

    But he was a Trumper Shooter (5.00 / 1) (#166)
    by Militarytracy on Fri Aug 04, 2017 at 07:06:34 AM EST
    We know one of McMaster buddies here too and McMaster was also a Trumper.

    Donald Trump was a heinous lying nasty vile candidate who any military officer ought to have been appalled by. Most were, particularly those long in tooth. McMaster and Kelly will be judged by their original sin of supporting a lying unethical mysogynist lunatic. They may be attempting to keep Trump straight now, but they are complicit in thinking this guy was a good idea.

    If this was low energy Jeb Bush they supported they wouldn't in the end pay the price their reputations are going to pay on this.

    I'm not kidding, McMaster's buddy told a room full of peers last week that yeah, Trump is bad, but still not as bad as a President Hillary would have been. The whole room groaned out loud at the pathetic grappling.

    Parent

    i think thats exactly right (none / 0) (#81)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 02:14:48 PM EST
    and i think it probably has zero chance of changing the behaviour of Trump in the long run.

    if we have seen anything confirmed over and over no one can control Trump.  not even Trump.  or especially Trump.

    Parent

    Kelly can demand all he wants... (none / 0) (#82)
    by kdog on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 02:25:43 PM EST
    but now he takes orders from Private Pyle.

    Kelly may not be Scarymucci, but they have at least one thing in common...they agreed to work for this piece of work, and not for lack of other options to pay their rent, and knowing full well the type of man he is.  That says a lot about them.

    Parent

    Kelly is not my cup o tea (none / 0) (#83)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 02:29:41 PM EST
    but i am willing to cut some slack.  he has a pretty impressive career.

    i think its possible he sees the peril the republic is in and really wants to step into the gap.   if you think about it that way he looks pretty good.  because, as you rightly point out, there is very little upside for him in this.

    its possible this aint so.  and he is as craven and evil as the rest.

    time should tell.

    IMO he had a pretty good first day.


    Parent

    I don't know what's so impressive... (5.00 / 2) (#87)
    by kdog on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 02:51:11 PM EST
    about being paranoid delusional about terrorism threats and immigration...if I had to guess, he ain't about protecting the republic from peril...Trump's Border Wall is in peril and I think that's what he's in it for. Another Pence who views Trump as a (not so useful) stooge to implement his agenda.

    Parent
    I have to agree with Kdog. (5.00 / 1) (#93)
    by Chuck0 on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 03:21:30 PM EST
    Anyone with any real integrity and/or self respect would flat out refuse to work for this clown.

    Parent
    It is not all (none / 0) (#86)
    by KeysDan on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 02:47:12 PM EST
    that re-assuring to me when we need generals to keep an eye on our elected president in the hopes that the democracy survives.

    Parent
    Kelly called Comey after Trump fired Comey. (5.00 / 1) (#88)
    by oculus on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 02:53:32 PM EST
    Comey and Kelly were not friends.  Kelly told Comey he might resign. Comey sd., don't.  

    Parent
    Well, maybe Kelly (none / 0) (#94)
    by KeysDan on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 03:26:53 PM EST
    is saving his heroics for when Trump fires Mueller.

    Parent
    True enough (none / 0) (#91)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 02:59:47 PM EST
    Still
    Would it be less reassuring if he didn't?

    Parent
    Pragmatically, (none / 0) (#98)
    by KeysDan on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 04:10:53 PM EST
    we need all the eyes available to keep on Trump.  But, it is a sorry and scary state where Trump's incompetence makes us happy to give over important aspects of the executive branch to the generals, and probably, right wing generals. (note: Sessions just appointed a general to head the nation's federal prisons).

    Parent
    Rank and File... (5.00 / 1) (#76)
    by kdog on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 01:41:26 PM EST
    reaction seems to be mostly positive on the 5-O message boards.  Link

    Police leaders are a little more politically adept, and politically correct, than Trump or Joe Friday after all.  

    I haven't figured out yet if I appreciate the honesty or if I prefer to be lied to;)

    Parent

    this is much discussed (5.00 / 1) (#79)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 01:45:41 PM EST
    ill tell you why it matters.  if we are lied to at least the veneer of respect for individual rights is maintained.

    it might not be much but it at least it sends the signal that what they are doing if f-ed up and illegal.

    as opposed to the opposite.

    Parent

    you must really (4.67 / 3) (#84)
    by MKS on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 02:39:20 PM EST
    be driving peter nuts.  you know, your e. e. cummings style.  but it is cool with me.

    Parent
    Apparently E.E. Cummings rejected (none / 0) (#90)
    by oculus on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 02:57:59 PM EST
    all lower case of his name.

    Parent
    I capitalize names too (none / 0) (#92)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 03:02:59 PM EST
    Usually

    (I'm now on the device with spell check)


    Parent

    Probably worth remembering (5.00 / 2) (#96)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 03:42:43 PM EST
    This is the same man who, in 1989, purchased a full page in the NYTimes to advocate bringing back the death penalty for 5 innocent young men.

    So...

    Parent

    That case (none / 0) (#102)
    by Chuck0 on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 07:48:03 PM EST
    is one of the reasons I so despise him.

    Parent
    Yeah (none / 0) (#103)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 07:52:12 PM EST
    Me too.

    I was living in Manhattan at the time

    Parent

    Just kidding (none / 0) (#99)
    by Lora on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 04:12:11 PM EST
    Coast Guard - transgender members (5.00 / 1) (#101)
    by Yman on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 07:20:12 PM EST
    The Coast Guard is standing by its transgender members.

    Coast Guard 'will not break faith' with transgender members, leader says.

    Coast Guard officials reached out personally to their transgender service members to express support after President Trump's announcement of a new policy barring transgender people in the military, according to Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft.

    "The first thing we did is we reached out to all 13 members of the Coast Guard who have come out" as transgender, Zukunft told attendees at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event in Washington.

    Zukunft said he contacted Lt. Taylor Miller, the Coast Guard's first openly transitioning officer who was featured in a Washington Post article last week.

    "If you read that story, Taylor's family has disowned her. ... And I told Taylor, I will not turn my back. We have made an investment in you and you have made an investment in the Coast Guard and I will not break faith," Zukunft said.




    She's BAA-ACK! (5.00 / 2) (#109)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 09:10:55 PM EST
    My longtime nemesis, local GOP right-wing gadfly and Fox News reporter Malia Zimmerman, is once again back in the news for all the wrong reasons.

    This time, she's front and center in a lawsuit filed against Fox News by its longtime contributor Rod Wheeler, who claims that Zimmerman deliberately manufactured false quotes subsequently attributed to him to propel a fanciful but baseless story that DNC employee Seth Rich was murdered by party operatives, perhaps at the behest of Hillary Clinton:

    NPR Morning Edition | August 1, 2017
    Behind Fox News' Baseless Seth Rich Story: The Untold Tale - "The Fox News Channel and a wealthy supporter of President Trump worked in concert under the watchful eye of the White House to concoct a story about the death of a young Democratic National Committee aide, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The explosive claim is part of a lawsuit filed against Fox News by Rod Wheeler, a longtime paid commentator for the news network. The suit was obtained exclusively by NPR. Wheeler alleges Fox News and the Trump supporter intended to deflect public attention from growing concern about the administration's ties to the Russian government. His suit charges that a Fox News reporter created quotations out of thin air and attributed them to him to propel her story. Fox's president of news, Jay Wallace, told NPR on Monday that there was no 'concrete evidence' that Wheeler was misquoted by the reporter, Malia Zimmerman. The news executive did not address a question about the story's allegedly partisan origins. Fox News declined to allow Zimmerman to comment for this story." (Emphasis is mine.)

    This sounds exactly like classic Malia, who's long been no stranger to questionable journalism and its accompanying controversy. (I've written extensively in the past about my run-ins with her out here in Honolulu, one of which ultimately led to her firing by the Pacific Business News.) Only this time, this particular escapade has very serious and profound implications for her employer Fox News, if Wheeler's allegations are proved to be true.

    Aloha.

    Ed Butowsky (none / 0) (#121)
    by jondee on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 10:34:49 AM EST
    fronting for Fox and trying to cover his own as*, is now using the getting-worn-out 'just kidding' defense..

    He says that when he texted Wheeler that the Whitehouse had seen and approved of the story, he was speaking "tongue in cheek" to make Wheeler feel better because, according to Butowsky, Wheeler was desperate to curry favor with Trump in the hopes of being offered a job.

    Parent

    The key point here is that ... (none / 0) (#124)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 12:49:54 PM EST
    ... Fox News eventually pulled Malia Zimmerman's story and admitted publicly that several key elements could not be substantiated -- but not before flogging it as true for the better part of a week via Sean Hannity, et al.

    As I noted, Zimmerman fits neatly into Fox News' modus operandi. In a front-page article in the February 15, 1999 Pacific Business News -- there is no online link; I have it in my own archives -- she had brazenly insinuated that Hawaii Democrats had committed electoral fraud on behalf of then-incumbent Gov. Ben Cayetano during his 1998 re-election campaign against then-Maui County Mayor (and future Gov.) Linda Lingle.

    The story's genesis originated as a simple protest filed with the State Office of Elections by Democratic State Rep. Merwyn Jones' regarding his 21-vote margin of defeat by GOP challenger Emily Auwae in the 1998 general election. But within three months, Zimmerman had seized upon that pretext to level her specious allegations, which then snowballed into an official legislative inquiry. The state legislature then authorized a completely unnecessary statewide ballot recount to determine whether any failure of the State's optical scanner vote counting machines caused any flawed results.

    Zimmerman charged in her Feb. 1999 article that "[t]he state is no stranger to voter fraud," offering as evidence previously discredited allegations by GOP state Rep. Mark Moses that "the Immigration and Naturalization Service had confirmed that almost 30% of voters in some districts in 1994 had been aliens."

    Moses's assertions were completely false. In fact, then-NS Director Don Radcliffe had earlier written Duane Yoshina, then-director of the State Office of Elections, on August 15, 1996 and stated categorically that "nowhere has INS confirmed the existence of any ineligible voter in the State of Hawaii."

    Zimmerman further included some unsubstantiated claims of misplaced ballot boxes, an allegation which had been leveled by KHVH-AM right-wing talk show host Rick Hamada in his "Rally for a Recount" at the Hawaii State Capitol earlier that week. Although Zimmerman claimed in her article that "over 1,000 business people" had attended this particular event, I can personally attest that the actual number that day was much closer to 100, of which more than half were GOP legislative staff.

    Zimmerman also included inflammatory but otherwise unverifiable hearsay from Jane Riggs, a wealthy Kahala matron and local Republican crackpot, who baselessly accused Hawaii union leaders of filling out absentee ballots on behalf of their own members:

    "Jane Riggs said that two of her friends vote in every election by absentee ballot, including the 1998 election, but they do not know for whom they actually voted. They don't know, she said, because union officials fill the absentee ballot out for them and then mail it. They said if they did not let the union vote for them, they will not work ... their union would know for whom they voted because of the number assigned to their ballots."

    Lacking any evidence to support this dubious assertion, Zimmerman instead offered the "authoritative" opinion of none other than Voting Integrity Project President Deborah Phillips, a right-wing GOP operative who had worked extensively with convicted Watergate burglar Charles Colson:

    "If a state reports that absentee votes account for more than 6 percent of the total votes. there has very likely been fraud involved.  Hawaii reported more than 18 percent absentee votes in the 1998 general election, or three times higher than the acceptable percentage. Once voting is taken out of the voting place, it opens up a Pandora's box of potential fraud. Unions or any organization or political party can abuse absentee voting."

    Zimmerman then plunged headlong into the realm of farce with one priceless pièce de resistance:

    "Jeff Grotstein disclosed to this reporter that his friend, a bookie in Chinatown, was taking bets on the gubernatorial election. The bookie said there would be a 5,000-vote difference between Cayetano and Lingle, with Cayetano as the victor. The bookie said he was told the election results were fixed and all the bookies knew the final outcome. ... The bookie would not return calls to PBN."

    But when subsequently tracked down and contacted by the late investigative journalist Bob Rees of the Honolulu Weekly, Grotstein insisted that he had repeatedly implored Zimmerman not to use this information because it was entirely hearsay and further, that he had neither given to Zimmerman his bookie friend's phone number, nor had he disclosed to her the names to any of his Chinatown acquaintances.

    Zimmerman then appropriately concluded her vicious litany of bull$chitt with an outrageously over-the-top and wholly unfounded warning from VIP's Phillips:

    "The way things are now in Hawaii, the safety of all elections are in serious jeopardy. The problems are that serious and a challenge to the very foundation of the political process."

    Such patently irresponsible nonsense, published as it was on the Pacific Business News's front page and then flogged prominently on VIP's website and the then-fledgling Fox News, served only as further pretext for Zimmerman to inflame public opinion by recklessly impugning the integrity of those individuals in charge of the electoral process.

    Following the March 15, 1999 statewide recount of the 1998 vote, then-State Legislative Auditor Marion Higa and federal officials publicly announced that only seven out of 400 voting machines had malfunctioned during the election, that not a single race had been affected, and that there hadn't been the slightest credible evidence to demonstrate fraud. Higa noted in her news conference, "This election had integrity."  

    Higa's audit might just as well have never even taken place, as far as Zimmerman was concerned. Even though VIP had monitored the recount and seemed to initially accept its results, Zimmerman announced only three months later, once again on the front page of the Pacific Business News (June 28, 1999), that Phillips and her organization would formally investigate the 1998 Hawaii gubernatorial election.

    Zimmerman's boyfriend, then-married GOP State Sen. Sam Slom, was named chair of VIP's Hawaii advisory board. Phillips announced that "we have a team in place on the ground in Hawaii so we are ready to rock and roll with our investigation.  We have already identified the key areas we plan to look into in order to pinpoint any fraudulent activity."

    Zimmerman also noted that Phillips retained the talents of I-Group, Inc., a GOP-affiliated private investigation firm employing retired FBI agents. This same firm had only recently been implicated in a 1996 Florida political scandal, when its investigators had attempted to bribe employees of an Orlando janitorial service to allow them access to the trash from U.S. Sen. Bob Graham's local district office.

    Zimmerman was invited by Phillips to discuss voter fraud in Hawaii as a member of a panel at VIP's annual conference in Washington, D.C. on March 31-April 1, 2000. While there, she received that organization's "Election Integrity Award" for "excellence in the field of investigative reporting" from the conference's keynote speaker, Wall Street Journal editorialist John Fund. VIP cited her Hawaii credentials in their program, which also included an award from Small Business Hawaii, the organization synonymous with Sen. Slom.

    The existing evidence did less to raise questions about voter fraud in Hawaii, than to fuel suspicion about Zimmerman's apparent collaboration with Slom, Phillips, VIP and the Hawaii Republican Party to manufacture a phony controversy out of whole cloth.

    Zimmerman was on record as having taken several trips to VIP's offices in Washington, D.C. prior to the publication of her infamous February 1999 PBN voter fraud story, ostensibly to do research. On Bob Hogue's KCCN-AM radio program after Zimmerman had finally been fired in April 2000, then-Pacific Business News editor Gina Mangieri strenuously denied that her paper had financed any of Zimmerman's trips back east, or otherwise did anything to encourage her involvement with Phillips and VIP. That denial only further begged the question: Who did?

    As I think I just showed, I know an awful lot about Malia Zimmerman. That woman is pure political poison, as far as I'm concerned, and is never to be trusted at all as either a reputable source of information or as a responsible mainstream journalist, because she's neither. And quite honestly, if I have my way, her next professional gig will be as a swing shift waitress at IHOP.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    As Flaubert once said.. (5.00 / 3) (#141)
    by jondee on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 02:11:19 PM EST
    I didn't have time to write a short missive, so I wrote a long one.

    Parent
    If you want short missives, jondee, ... (none / 0) (#157)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 07:09:28 PM EST
    ... then you can log onto Twitter, which requires everything to be expressed in 140 characters or less. Not surprisingly, 95% of all Twitter threads / sub-threads are the online equivalents of Mel Brooks's "Harrumph!" scene in "Blazing Saddles." But if you want to have a clear picture of what something's about, well, some matters tend to defy short and pithy answers.

    I posted this lengthy recounting about my own personal experiences with Fox News reporter Malia Zimmerman, so the reader can see exactly what how she operated in Hawaii. I did so because I thought that it provides the sort of context that can allow a person to better understand:

    • Zimmerman's longstanding penchant for engaging in this sort of unethical behavior;
    • Her possible motives and incentives for even writing that ginned-up story about the late Seth Rich's murder in the first place; and
    • Why Rod Wheeler's lawsuit against Fox News potentially has some very serious legs.

    If you're really not interested, then please move on.

    Parent
    I'm interested in you starting (none / 0) (#162)
    by jondee on Thu Aug 03, 2017 at 09:53:14 AM EST
    on that book, Donald. And I'm not even kidding.

    Time to knock off the procrastinating.

    As John Lee Hooker said, you got it in you, and it's got to come out.

    Parent

    so (5.00 / 1) (#116)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 09:20:45 AM EST
    the other Trump son, whats his name?  Zeppo?

    anyway, he was on FOX NOOZE saying spineless republicans need to do more protect his brave father.

    "more" was a little vague.


    I hope this isn't true. (5.00 / 1) (#132)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 01:42:10 PM EST
    Former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) is presently under federal indictment for alleged campaign finance violations. I'm hard-pressed to see what relevance his sexual orientation might have to the charges that are currently pending against him.

    Whether or not the all-too-suspiciously-hunky "Downton Abbey congressman" is actually gay matters nothing to me. But absent any evidence that his sexual orientation has anything to do with those offenses he purportedly committed, any decision to publicly disclose that particular aspect of his personal life should rest entirely with Aaron Schock, and not be left to the discretion of those federal investigators and prosecutors who are actively pursuing this case.

    Aloha.

    i will really try (none / 0) (#139)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 02:02:10 PM EST
    to give  damn about outed right wingers.  

    really.

    Parent

    Well, it could (none / 0) (#140)
    by Ga6thDem on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 02:04:33 PM EST
    be a case where the fact that he was gay was something that he wanted to hide and the money laundering had something to do with that. I guess we shall see.

    Parent
    after reading that TPM thing (5.00 / 1) (#146)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 02:50:51 PM EST
    it sounds to me like he decided to use the "you are persecuting me because im gay" defense.  going on about "speculation in the press".

    that from a closeted right winger rubs my rhubarb.

    NEWSFLASH a guy who does his office in a Downton Abby theme eliminates the need for speculation.

    he suddenly decided it might be useful sounds to me.

    Parent

    yeah (none / 0) (#144)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 02:45:58 PM EST
    Schock's lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against him that alleged prosecutorial misconduct, arguing that by quizzing witnesses on Schock's sexuality, the prosecutors could have shaped the opinions of witnesses and members of a grand jury.

    how exactly "shaped opinions"?  

    and hes not that hunky

    Parent

    Trumpo is now receiving phantom phone calls... (5.00 / 4) (#154)
    by desertswine on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 03:46:32 PM EST
    "The border was a tremendous problem and they're close to 80 percent stoppage. And even the President of Mexico called me," Trump claimed. "They said their southern border, very few people are coming because they know they're not going to get through our border, which is the ultimate compliment."

    But...

    In a statement to the Telegraph newspaper, Peña Nieto's office said the Mexican president "has not recently communicated with President Donald Trump by phone" and last spoke to him at the G20 summit in July.

    And then...

    "President Donald Trump said the Boy Scouts called him after his highly criticized speech at the National Jamboree and told him it was "the greatest speech that was ever made to them."

    But...

    But the Boy Scouts told Time that officials are unaware of that phone call.

    The greatest speech, the ultimate compliment; where are the guys with the big butterfly nets?

    The layout of Google news has not (none / 0) (#4)
    by oculus on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 12:20:21 AM EST
    changed on my devices.  

    Is there a "Legacy" setting (none / 0) (#6)
    by jmacWA on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 05:59:29 AM EST
    When google voice changed recently, I was not happy with the new layout, but it turns out there is a setting in Google Voice for "Legacy google voice" which reverts to the old layout.  Now, who knows how long that will be there, but it might be worth a check for you to see if the Google News has a "Legacy" setting also.

    Just a thought.

    Parent

    No there is no legacy setting (none / 0) (#22)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 01:30:55 PM EST
    I've complained to google as many other people. I'm following the thread at Google News forums and Google confirmed there will be no legacy setting.

    The new layout has no "Tools" Button at the top. The tools button let you request a time frame for a news search -- last 24 hours, last week, last month, etc. The new layout has no Tools button.

    Personalizing your news is now meaningless. If I type in, say, "El Chapo" I have no way of getting the most recent articles. Now the only way to do that is to open google itself (get out of google news), and click on news, and then click on tools to put in the date.

    Such a stupid system, and the new layout has big pictures accompanying every article which means fewer news article per screen. It's horrid.

    Parent

    Large pictures and graphics ... (5.00 / 1) (#47)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 05:59:19 PM EST
    ... are the journalistic equivalent of filler, like rice in a burrito. Look at the front pages of newspapers today, and compare them with those from 40-50 years ago. What's often been sacrificed in favor of these eye-catching visuals is actual information.

    Parent
    AHA! (none / 0) (#59)
    by Chuck0 on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 10:03:02 AM EST
    So I am not the only one who recognizes that rice in a burrito is just obnoxious filler. Rice has no business in a burrito and whomever started that should be flogged.

    Parent
    On mine it most certainly has, (none / 0) (#21)
    by Peter G on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    and I agree with J that the new layout is grossly inferior. Lots more pictures and graphics, much less information and choice.

    Parent
    me too (none / 0) (#48)
    by linea on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 08:45:07 PM EST
    i swiched from google to yahoo too. what i hate more than the 'sponsored' news-y headlines are the sensationalized news headlines specifically selected to outrage (not sure if im describing this correctly).

    Parent
    Saw a great t-shirt over the weekend. (none / 0) (#7)
    by Chuck0 on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 08:17:43 AM EST
    "Transgender Veteran"
    "I fought for your right to hate me."


    don't know any better sites (none / 0) (#8)
    by Lora on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 09:46:42 AM EST
    I go back and forth between AOL and MSN with my speakers turned off. (Why on earth would I go there, you may ask!) Probably because I'm looking for a little entertainment along with all the horrible news.  I'm pretty sure that both sites feed me what they think I want to see.  When I click on an Honest to Paws story for that tugging-at-your-heartstrings-cute-animal-rescue-story, it seems like the next time I'm on AOL there are 15 more in the feed.

    I just deal with the auto videos by turning off the speakers.  I also will tape a paper strip down the right side of my screen to block the annoying gifs and visuals from ads, stories, etc that incessantly pop up.  That little strip of paper works wonders for my peace of mind.

    I also will not click on anything from Boredom Therapy or Lifescript.  Way way too annoying. Livestrong is not too bad for health and food items.

    I keep my speakers off too (5.00 / 1) (#23)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 01:37:26 PM EST
    didn't think of the paper for the right side of the screen, I may try that too.

    I'm looking at Newslookup.com which lets you have a free limited version, but on the free version, I can't search very well. Still it has a lot of sections and sources.

    Parent

    Plenty of Articles on Presidential Pardon Powers (none / 0) (#10)
    by RickyJim on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 10:02:02 AM EST
    For example.  Could he pardon future crimes?  For example, issue such a pardon for himself and then whip out a gun and ......  As long as he does the crimes on federal property, it seems that it might be constitutional.

    Not sure he needs it (5.00 / 3) (#13)
    by MKS on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 10:17:59 AM EST
    When has supporters that will tolerate  and justify anything.

    Know anyone like that?

    Parent

    History will judge (none / 0) (#167)
    by Militarytracy on Fri Aug 11, 2017 at 08:23:51 AM EST
    Many of my friends have switched to (none / 0) (#17)
    by NYShooter on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 12:20:20 PM EST
    the browser, "ducuduckgo"

    Link

    If you use IE, you can link to it there. It's been several months now, and my buds swear by it. I've used for a couple of months and it's my first choice as far as browsers go.

    Worth a try.

    did you mean (none / 0) (#25)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 01:38:56 PM EST
    duck duck go?

    I used to use it as a search engine, I didn't know it was a browser. I'll check it out.

    Parent

    that's not popular (none / 0) (#51)
    by linea on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 10:32:10 PM EST
    i believe the popular search engines are; google, yahoo, and the nerdy WolframAlpha which appears to have a mobile/ipad app.

    Parent
    RIP, Sam Shepard (1943-2017). (none / 0) (#19)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 12:36:17 PM EST
    The award-winning playwright and actor, who won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize in drama for his play "Buried Child" and received a 1983 Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor for his portrayal of famed test pilot Chuck Yeager in "The Right Stuff," died yesterday at his home in Midway, KY after a long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease). He was 73.

    Sad. Also, (none / 0) (#26)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 01:43:30 PM EST
    he was with Jessica Lange for 29 years (until 2009) and they have two children, Hannah and Samuel, ages 30 and 31. Condolences to the family. AARP published this interview with her a few hours before his death.

    Lou Gherig's disease is terrible.

    Parent

    Yes, it is. (5.00 / 1) (#35)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 02:14:26 PM EST
    My aunt died of ALS in January 2010. Mercifully, she went pretty quickly, passing only seven months after her diagnosis. But she had clearly been suffering from its symptoms for several years prior. It's a difficult path to follow for both victim and family.

    Thank you for linking that interview with Jessica Lange. She's truly a role model for accomplishment through perseverance, having diligently worked 40 years ago to overcome her own disastrous film debut in King Kong (1976) -- a cheesy performance which would've otherwise sunk an actor of lesser character -- to since become one of the most acclaimed actresses in Hollywood today.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    Jeralyn, singer Patti Smith just penned ... (5.00 / 3) (#104)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 07:59:25 PM EST
    ... a gorgeous and very poignant tribute to her longtime friend of five-plus decades (and onetime lover) Sam Shepard, "My Buddy," which was published online today by The New Yorker:

    "Long, slow days passed. It was a Kentucky evening filled with the darting light of fireflies, and the sound of the crickets and choruses of bullfrogs. Sam walked to his bed and lay down and went to sleep, a stoic, noble sleep. A sleep that led to an unwitnessed moment, as love surrounded him and breathed the same air. The rain fell when he took his last breath, quietly, just as he would have wished. Sam was a private man. I know something of such men. You have to let them dictate how things go, even to the end. The rain fell, obscuring tears. His children, Jesse, Walker, and Hannah, said goodbye to their father. His sisters Roxanne and Sandy said goodbye to their brother.

    "I was far away, standing in the rain before the sleeping lion of Lucerne, a colossal, noble, stoic lion carved from the rock of a low cliff. The rain fell, obscuring tears. I knew that I would see Sam again somewhere in the landscape of dream, but at that moment I imagined I was back in Kentucky, with the rolling fields and the creek that widens into a small river. I pictured Sam's books lining the shelves, his boots lined against the wall, beneath the window where he would watch the horses grazing by the wooden fence. I pictured myself sitting at the kitchen table, reaching for that tattooed hand.

    "A long time ago, Sam sent me a letter. A long one, where he told me of a dream that he had hoped would never end. 'He dreams of horses,' I told the lion. 'Fix it for him, will you? Have Big Red waiting for him, a true champion. He won't need a saddle, he won't need anything.' I headed to the French border, a crescent moon rising in the black sky. I said goodbye to my buddy, calling to him, in the dead of night."

    Aloha.

    Parent

    BLOODLINE (none / 0) (#105)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 08:11:12 PM EST
    was one of the last things he did.

    It's excellent.

    Parent

    It's in color! (none / 0) (#106)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 08:17:37 PM EST
    Thank heavens! (5.00 / 3) (#111)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 09:28:23 PM EST
    Otherwise, some people wouldn't watch it.

    Parent
    I'm sure we agree on that (5.00 / 1) (#113)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 06:12:14 AM EST
    Nothing black and white worth watching.  Not missing a thing.

    Good choice.  

    Parent

    seriously (2.00 / 1) (#117)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 09:23:55 AM EST
    tried to watch Citizen Kane once just to see what all the hoopla was about.

    BOOORing.

    Parent

    Rent or buy yourself a copy (5.00 / 2) (#125)
    by Peter G on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 12:55:05 PM EST
    of "The Thin Man."  Or "Bringing Up Baby." Or "Duck Soup." Just f'rinstance.

    Parent
    That's one of the few old movies I really like (none / 0) (#122)
    by McBain on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 10:38:26 AM EST
    The Seven Samurai is another.  But my favorite era for film is the late 60s to early 80s... pretty much all my favorites came out of that.. all color.  

    Parent
    Really (none / 0) (#123)
    by jondee on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 11:03:47 AM EST
    imo, The Seventh Seal makes any American in-living-color film made in the last few decades look like an ABC mini-series -- with the possible exceptions of Malick's films, the Godfathers I and II, and Apocalypse Now.

    But thats just me.

    Parent

    psycho (none / 0) (#127)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 01:10:40 PM EST
    sunset blvd
    casablanca
    schindlers list
    the third man
    to kill a mockingbird
    all about eve
    the seventh seal
    the manchurian candidate

    etc

    Parent

    Did I fail to detect the ironic intent (5.00 / 1) (#134)
    by Peter G on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 01:43:50 PM EST
    of your comments #113 and #117, Cap'n?  If so, my bad.

    Parent
    If so, my bad too (5.00 / 1) (#135)
    by jondee on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 01:45:33 PM EST
    sadly (none / 0) (#136)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 01:55:10 PM EST
    the age of Trump has killed irony.   but i am actually pained that you would believe i was serious.

    pained.

    :)

    Parent

    Dr Strangelove.. (none / 0) (#131)
    by jondee on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 01:37:31 PM EST
    yeah (none / 0) (#137)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 01:56:38 PM EST
    and with the exception of your entry i was just doing english language.

    Parent
    the virgin spring (none / 0) (#138)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 01:58:49 PM EST
    the bicycle thief

    etc

    and then there is silent.  that count?  probably.

    Parent

    I'm an aficionado of film noir. (none / 0) (#128)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 01:12:18 PM EST
    Some of the true classics of that genre are black-and-white films from the 1940s and '50s, such as two of Billy Wilder's masterpieces of that period, "Double Indemnity" (1944) and "Sunset Boulevard" (1950). Both Barbara Stanwyck and Gloria Swanson arguably gave the finest performances of their respective careers in those movies, each actress uniquely epitomizing the "fatale" in "femme fatale."

    Parent
    i would say (none / 0) (#129)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 01:16:34 PM EST
    ALL of the great classics of film noir are b/w

    Parent
    well (none / 0) (#130)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 01:19:54 PM EST
    ok maybe VERTIGO

    Parent
    I'd call Chinatown color-noir.. (5.00 / 1) (#142)
    by jondee on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 02:20:40 PM EST
    and maybe from the eighties, Body Heat (with William Hurt and Kathleen Turner Overdrive)

    Parent
    i suppose (5.00 / 1) (#143)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 02:40:04 PM EST
    i will stick with all the great noir classics are b/w

    Parent
    is this on netflix? (none / 0) (#53)
    by linea on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 11:23:50 PM EST
    this looks like something i would enjoy (assuming it's not in b-w).

    Buried Child is a play by Sam Shepard first presented in 1978. It won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and launched Shepard to national fame as a playwright. The play depicts the fragmentation of the American nuclear family in a context of disappointment and disillusionment with American mythology and the American Dream, the 1970s rural economic slowdown, and the breakdown of traditional family structures and values.


    Parent
    Shepard's works have a dark streak to them. (none / 0) (#54)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 02:37:16 AM EST
    Think of Robert Redford's Oscar-winning 1980 drama "Ordinary People," only instead of taking place in the post Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, transpose it 45 miles west to the rural town of Marengo, IL. For some reason in the late 1970s, the disintegration / implosion of the American family appeared to be all the rage in American drama. Even Woody Allen, fresh off back-to-back successes with "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan" and at his comedic peak, switched gears and went all Ingmar Bergmaneque on us with "Interiors."

    Parent
    It all goes back to Eugene O'Neil (none / 0) (#60)
    by jondee on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 10:24:59 AM EST
    Long Days Journey Into Night..The Iceman Cometh..

    Parent
    That its genesis on the stage. (none / 0) (#85)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 02:43:21 PM EST
    Even in early part of the 20th century, playwrights generally had more freedom to maneuver than did their counterparts in film, the screenwriters. A simple comparison of Tennessee Williams' intended staging of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" with that play's 1958 film treatment shows the constraints under which screenwriters labored at the time.

    This was in large part due to the infamous Hays Code (aka the Motion Picture Production Code), which had heretofore imposed so-called "moral guidelines" upon the U.S. motion picture industry between the years of 1930 and 1968, before it finally expired under the weight of its own obsolescence and increasing irrelevance.

    Prior to its thankful demise, filmmakers and performers who flouted or even mildly pushed the boundaries of the Hays Code's highly arbitrary guidelines risked real threats of boycott and blackballing. The casting aside of its chains and shackles finally allowed filmmakers and screenwriters the artistic freedom to explore in much greater frankness, detail and depth those subjects which were once considered generally off-limits for decent and fit public consumption.

    In addition to more open and realistic depictions of human sexuality (most all of it then of the heterosexual variety), one previously taboo subject which proved rich for mining was divorce. Others were infidelity, psychological depression, suicide, cancer and other life-threatening and terminal illnesses, the lives of unmarried women, teenaged angst and eventually, homosexuality.

    While films prior to 1968 may have touched on these topics, it was often ancillary and in passing, and they were almost never the focal point of a storyline or plot. Look at the films "The Children's Hour" (1961) and "The Boys in the Band" (1966) which defied social norms of the time with then-shockingly frank treatments of homosexuality. Although both are considered groundbreaking works today, moral scolds back then mostly succeeded in marginalizing their immediate impact.

    Liberation from these questionable constraints and antiquated social conventions, which had previously hindered and hobbled film and television productions and often left them adrift and awash in a sea of banality, is what in many respects led to the 1970s and early 1980s becoming a true "Golden Age" for Hollywood.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    It's much more than a dark "streak," (none / 0) (#108)
    by oculus on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 08:45:38 PM EST
    I'd say.

    Parent
    Sam Shepherd (none / 0) (#107)
    by MKS on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 08:40:00 PM EST
    played a good cowboy.  My favorite western actor......

    Parent
    Nothing but the best people.. (none / 0) (#32)
    by jondee on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 02:05:29 PM EST


    Scaramucci out! (none / 0) (#33)
    by NYShooter on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 02:08:56 PM EST
    Steve Mnuchin is very stiff (none / 0) (#36)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 03:03:02 PM EST
    And unsure speaking of undemocratic process and on behalf of Venezuelan oppression.

    A sort of crisis. I guess we will see how this is handled.

    HR very passionate about voter oppression (none / 0) (#37)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 03:04:18 PM EST
    HR? What is your boss up to with voters?

    Parent
    can you tell me what (none / 0) (#50)
    by linea on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 10:14:07 PM EST
    HR means please? thank you.

    Parent
    I think HR means HR McMaster, Trump's (5.00 / 2) (#52)
    by caseyOR on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 10:57:24 PM EST
    National Security Advisor.

    Parent
    Are the TrumpCabinet Members (none / 0) (#38)
    by KeysDan on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 03:10:14 PM EST
    worried?  Ralph Dollinger, of Capitol Ministries, has reported that he conducts a weekly Bible Study meeting with Betsy DeVos, Jeff Sessions, Rick Perry, Sonny Perdue, Tom Price, Mike Pompeo, and Mike Pence (when his schedule permits).  Does Trump show up? Dollinger just says that he is invited. Probably pretty busy with the two Corinthians.

    WHAT A FREAK SHOW THAT'S GOING DOWN (none / 0) (#44)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 05:35:04 PM EST
    its the end times (none / 0) (#58)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 09:11:26 AM EST
    no doubt.  last night on PREACHER he was talking to a soapbox endtimer who used Trump as a sign of the end times.  hard to argue.

    Parent
    the actual quote (none / 0) (#64)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 12:23:46 PM EST
    was something like

    "..i see things.  the Cubs win the World Series, Trump!
    but there is always an explanation.  good pitching.  the KGB."

    Parent

    HR and friends completely riled (none / 0) (#39)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 03:10:34 PM EST
    About Venezuelan voter suppression while the administration they serve is fighting for and championing United States voter suppression.

    If the press doesn't eat them alive on this we have no functional press.

    If only they wanted ALL THE BROWN PEOPLE (none / 0) (#40)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 03:13:39 PM EST
    To vote in their own country. Phucking evil hypocrites

    Parent
    this article (none / 0) (#49)
    by linea on Mon Jul 31, 2017 at 10:03:28 PM EST
    has a lot of interesting information on the republican women who helped defeat the 'skinny' anti-obamacare legislation.

    Collins, McCain and Murkowski: Republican trio who defied party to vote no on health bill. [thegaurdian.com]

    Susan Collins
    Collins is the most consistently moderate Republican in the Senate, and one of just five Republican women. She and Murkowski formed what could be described as a team of two on healthcare - both voted against bringing the "skinny repeal" to the floor, and both are from largely rural states that have struggled to contain healthcare costs.
    ...
    Collins has broken with her party on major issues including the environment, background checks for gun sales, same-sex marriage, funding for Planned Parenthood and, notably, Donald Trump.

    Lisa Murkowski
    The Alaska senator endured especially focused pressure from the Trump administration to support the health repeal. When she joined Collins to vote against bringing the skinny repeal to the floor, Trump attacked on Twitter. "Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!" he said.
    ...
    Alaskans have had one of the toughest times with healthcare. The very rural state has some of the nation's highest monthly payments for health insurance - $904 per month for a mid-level plan. The state also has a high proportion of people on Medicaid, a health insurance program for the poor.


    Chris Christie got into yet another public spat with a heckler this past Sunday, this time confronting a Chicago Cubs fan at a baseball game at Milwaukee's Miller Park.

    And as usual of late with the now-overwhelmingly unpopular New Jersey governor, public reaction was swift, brutal and merciless. And the award for best public response goes to -- OMG, it's a tie!

    Josh Jordan: "This is the most Chris Christie picture ever. It's like he commissioned someone to take the one photo that summed up his entire life."

    John Fugelsang: "And don't ever again question Chris Christie's humanity after seeing him cradle those nachos like a mother primate cradling its young."

    Honestly, I don't know what the media ever first saw in this guy seven years ago that made them swoon over him. He was his same old obnoxious self last Sunday in Milwaukee that he's been in public so many times before.

    Al least they're all now over his shtick.

    morning joe (none / 0) (#56)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 08:53:43 AM EST
    opened the showntoday with something called

    "Previously on the Trump Administration..."

    with goofy music and a laugh track.  it was pretty great.  i hope they do it every day.

    I might have to start watching (5.00 / 1) (#66)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 12:41:22 PM EST
    I watched yesterday morning and they were going over some of Donalds old tweets criticizing Obama for things he's now doing to an even greater degree.

    Parent
    Did you see (5.00 / 1) (#67)
    by Zorba on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 12:43:45 PM EST
    Stephen Colbert's farewell to the Mooch, including Stephen singing?

    RollingStone

    Parent

    yes (none / 0) (#69)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 12:54:55 PM EST
    The only (none / 0) (#61)
    by Ga6thDem on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 10:52:31 AM EST
    good thing I can say about the last 7 months is the humor it has produced has been awesome and probably it will become legendary years from now.

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    The Third Man (5.00 / 1) (#63)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 12:18:45 PM EST
    Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly.


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    Lime on the Ferrris wheel (5.00 / 1) (#133)
    by jondee on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 01:43:33 PM EST
    reminds me of the Bush era neocons and Koch brothers libertarian types: "Look at those insects milling around down there"

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    here ya go (none / 0) (#70)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 12:57:23 PM EST
    How long? (none / 0) (#74)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 01:19:04 PM EST
    How long can Trump behave and be without chaos under Kelly's thumb until he sets a cat on fire?

    I'm looking forward to a tiny vacation but trying to prepare also.

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    enquiring minds (none / 0) (#77)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 01:41:40 PM EST
    want to know!

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    FOX News lawsuit (none / 0) (#65)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 12:38:18 PM EST
    A lawsuit alleges that President Donald Trump and top White House officials knew about a Fox News story related to the murder of a Democratic National Committee staffer before it was published and aired

    A lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that White House officials including President Donald Trump knew about a since-retracted Fox News story about a Democratic National Committee staffer's death before it was published.

    The suit against Fox, filed by Rod Wheeler, a contributor for the news network, alleges that wealthy Trump backer Ed Butowsky and Fox aimed to use the story about Seth Rich to deflect attention from the probe into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.



    its said (none / 0) (#68)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 12:53:57 PM EST
    the things revealed in the process of discovery in this lawsuit will be spectacuar and explosive.

    and made piblic.

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    Wow (none / 0) (#75)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 01:21:34 PM EST
    Wasn't this the sort of thing Jared was doing with that little raggy newspaper he bought way back? Smearing people in the big apple he wanted to get a leg up on?

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    i was just listening to a discussion (none / 0) (#78)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 01:43:09 PM EST
    about this.  this sounds like it might just be the biggest problem they have.   its all wrapped up in the june meeting and the revealing of the stolen DNC info.

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    I'm just glad I'm not the type of person (none / 0) (#73)
    by jondee on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 01:17:07 PM EST
    who wishes harm on other human beings, otherwise I might be inclined to wish Hannity slipped and fell into a corn thresher, or was run over by a particularly slow-moving road grader.

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    ... having discovered that an old and not so fond acquaintance of mine, Malia Zimmerman, figures front row and center in this scandal. Having known Malia personally since 1994, I can attest that she's fully capable of doing exactly what's been alleged by the plaintiff, Rod Wheeler. While she plays at journalism, she's actually one of the most vile, dishonest and disreputable GOP operatives I've ever had the misfortune to run across in all my years in politics out here. So, it naturally figures that she's now working for Fox News. Those two go together like a wooden match and a Molotov cocktail.

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    Wating. (none / 0) (#95)
    by KeysDan on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 03:38:57 PM EST
    For Trump to sign the Russian Sanctions bill (includes sanctions on Iran and North Korea). The bill passed the House (419 to 3) and the Senate (98 to 2...Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul where the no votes).   The bill attests to the lack of confidence in Trump, usually implementation would be up to the executive.

    Sarah Huckabee S. now says Trump will sign. It would look even worse if he did not and a Trump veto was overridden.

     If Trump sits on it and takes no action at all, and 10 days pass (not including Sundays), the bill becomes law without the president's signature.

     However, if Congress has adjourned before the 10 days passes and without the president's signature, the bill fails (a pocket veto). The bill was sent to the President, Thursday, July 27.

    It's a pickle (5.00 / 2) (#97)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 03:55:02 PM EST
    If he signs it Vlad daddy will be upset. If he does not he will look even more like a feckless wimp than Noonan describes -

    "Half his tweets show utter weakness. They are plaintive, shrill little cries, usually just after dawn," Peggy Noonan wrote in Murdoch's Wall Street Journal in an article entitled "Trump Is Woody Allen Without the Humor."

    The President's primary problem as a leader isn't that he is brash and stupid, "It is that he is weak and sniveling. It is that he undermines himself almost daily by ignoring traditional norms and forms of American masculinity."

    "He's not strong and self-controlled, not cool and tough, not low-key and determined; he's whiny, weepy and self-pitying. He throws himself, sobbing, on the body politic. He's a drama queen. It was once said, sarcastically, of George H.W. Bush that he reminded everyone of her first husband. Trump must remind people of their first wife."



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    So funny (none / 0) (#100)
    by Ga6thDem on Tue Aug 01, 2017 at 04:55:28 PM EST
    because Noonan is one of the ones that brought us to this situation. I read it in her comparisons of Trump: cool and strong. It's the whole persona that the GOP has created and the GOP base bought into with Trump until Russia came into the forefront and we get a lot of whining.

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    Trump finaaly got to sign (none / 0) (#149)
    by KeysDan on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 03:29:44 PM EST
    a bill into law:  The Russian Sanctions Act. Took a few days, maybe he had trouble getting through to Putin to apologize. But, he did add two signing statements, one written seemingly by lawyers, the second, smacks of Trump originalism: " I built a truly great company worth many billions of dollars.  That is part of the reason I was elected.  As president, I can make far better deals with foreign countries than Congress."

     Guess he thinks the law involves negotiating sanctions with Russia (North Korea, Iran).

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    on the same day (none / 0) (#152)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 03:37:04 PM EST
    Sanders admits there was no call from the Boy Scouts.

    and it would all be funny except for things like this


    Gen. McMaster On North Korea Intercontinental Ballistic Missile


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    If there is sound (none / 0) (#156)
    by Chuck0 on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 04:32:42 PM EST
    emanating from Cheeto's mouth, he is lying.

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    What a Dump. (none / 0) (#114)
    by KeysDan on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 08:26:00 AM EST
    Trump says the White House is "a real dump."

    Well, I do seem to recall that (5.00 / 2) (#118)
    by Anne on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 09:49:06 AM EST
    Melania said the WH would be the smallest home she's lived in since she married Trump.

    Okay, so fine - it's not all coated in gold leaf, but anyone else - and I do mean "anyone" - would perhaps have said, "it is such an honor to live and work in a place with so much history."

    Just when I think I can't be more disgusted...

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    Well, in a way... (5.00 / 3) (#119)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 10:00:48 AM EST
    If you fill the Taj Mahal with garbage, it's a dump.

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    Scuse me (5.00 / 1) (#120)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 10:03:29 AM EST
    Garbage should be TRASH

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    it is now (none / 0) (#115)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 09:06:14 AM EST
    lets hope to god hes out of there before he can coat everything in gold leaf

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    Architectsky (5.00 / 1) (#145)
    by KeysDan on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 02:48:47 PM EST
    hired to redo the dump--renderings.

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    prefer that (5.00 / 1) (#147)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 02:53:04 PM EST
    Well, that (none / 0) (#148)
    by KeysDan on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 03:18:05 PM EST
    gold matches the showers.  And, the new Oval Office, which has pizzazz, although Pence and Mother may not like the lighting.

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    wow (none / 0) (#150)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 03:31:03 PM EST
    take those paintings away and i could totally live there

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    Naw, the paintings (none / 0) (#151)
    by KeysDan on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 03:35:54 PM EST
    are what makes it.  That, and the color..Benjamin Moore #666 Comedy Gold.

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    the (none / 0) (#153)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 03:38:26 PM EST
    Gereralissimo one is pretty awsum

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    THE SINNER (none / 0) (#155)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 04:11:53 PM EST
    with Bill Pullman & Jessica Biel starts tonight on USA.  it looks really good.

    In a TV era increasingly defined by trauma and violence, The Sinner still stands out. There's only one savage act in the pilot of this USA Network drama about a woman named Cora Tannetti (Jessica Biel) who kills someone seemingly without motive, and it's comparatively brief: It's the incident that drives the rest of the show, a police procedural that's mainly interested in psychology. But it's staged with such unglamorous suddenness that the first time I watched it, I looked away from the screen. The second time I watched it, sitting in the audience at the television festival I programmed, I looked away again.

    It's not a matter of gore. The cutting between actions and reaction shots makes it hard to see exactly what's going on. You know it's horrendous, but the staging spares you physical particulars that it will reveal momentarily. It's more a matter of timing: Every violent action occurs slightly before or after you think it's going to, and that's what makes it so upsetting. I skipped the scene entirely when revisiting The Sinner to write this review. I'm a lifelong horror fan, so this degree of aversion is rarely an issue for me. It's a testament to the way that series creator and writer Derek Simonds and pilot director Antonio Campos staged it: If you've ever witnessed real violence, the kind that seems to erupt from the dull fabric of everyday life like magma from the earth, and that is as clumsy as it is shocking, you'll appreciate how this moment has been executed. It rattles the viewer as well as the community within the show, and that makes us invested in the police's attempts to figure out how something like this could have happened.

    TRAILER


    A while back (none / 0) (#158)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 08:32:01 PM EST
    I said 10-15% of Trumps base was open to persuasion.  This was one of the interesting things in that new Q poll that has him at 33%.

    Trump's numbers declined more among Republicans than they did among Democrats, who had already viewed the President unfavorably. In late June, 84% of Republicans approved of Trump's performance -- now, 76% of Republicans say the same. Seventeen percent of Republicans now say they disapprove of the way Trump is performing in the job.


    I think a lot of (none / 0) (#160)
    by Ga6thDem on Thu Aug 03, 2017 at 07:15:34 AM EST
    it is Trumpcare. I wonder how many of those are because they didn't want Trumpcare and how many of them are people who are mad at Trump because the repeal of Obamacare didn't go through.

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