Third Estate Sunday Review

The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."

Monday, November 07, 2016

Truest statement of the week

In fact, as it turns out, there are very sound reasons to oppose Clinton, including -- if not especially -- from a feminist perspective.
Many feminists have offered extensive critiques of Hillary Clinton’s record, notably Zillah Eisentein and the authors in False Choices, the anthology on the faux feminism of Hillary Clinton edited by Liza Featherstone. The arguments are too numerous to repeat here, but consider one example: Walmart.
When Clinton was brought onto the board of Walmart, the company was facing serious problems of gender discrimination. At every level, women were paid less than men, leading to the largest sex discrimination class-action lawsuit in history. As Featherstone wrote, while “Clinton’s presence on the board helped to make the company look like a better place for women, there is no evidence that she took any measures as a board member to address Walmart’s systemic sexism.”
This example captures the essence of neoliberal feminism — the placement of women in leadership positions of institutions dedicated to maintaining unequal, sexist, and discriminatory practices. While it is sold as a “trickle-down theory,” in reality, women in these positions -- Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, Carly Fiorina -- only serve to reproduce the unjust and unequal institutions they head.
Building on the buzz of corporate feminism spurred by women like Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, the Clinton campaign has masterfully deployed feminist tropes and identity politics to promote Clinton as a feminist icon. However, Sandberg’s claim that conditions for all women will improve as women enter high-level positions is simply not borne out by reality.

-- Deepa Kumar and Patrick Barrett, "The Art of Spin: How Hillary Clinton backers deployed faux feminism and privilege politics to divert attention from her destructive politics" (JACOBIN).

Truest statement of the week II

Clinton’s Big Tent is not a temporary, election season dwelling. It is how she plans to govern. The exodus from the GOP has suddenly transformed the Democratic Party into the primary political instrument of the ruling class, while at the same time the party nominally represents most of the folks who are abused and misused by that ruling class. It is an inherently unstable arrangement, and will soon be wracked by splits, as a post-Trump GOP attempts to lure its fat cats back and the darker and poorer constituencies consigned to the latrine area of Hillary’s high class tent break to the Left for air.
But in the interim, Clinton will have a unique opportunity to cut grand austerity deals with all the “big elements” of Simpson-Bowles, to renege on her corporate trade promises, and to wage war with great gusto in the name of a “united” country. Ever since the Democratic National Convention it has been clear that the Clintonites are encouraged to consider everyone outside of their grand circle to be suspect, subversive, or depraved. Their inclusive rhetoric is really an invocation of a ruling class consensus, now that Trump has supposedly brought the ruling class together under one banner. In Hillary’s tent, the boardrooms are always in session.

-- Glen Ford, "Hillary’s “Big Tent” is Obama’s “Grand Bargain” on Steroids" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).

A note to our readers

Hey --

Sunday.

Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's K itchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

What did we come up with:

Peace,

-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I

Editorial: The war's supposed to help who again?

Thirteen years later, the Iraq War continues.

‏@UNICEF

#Mosul: Children are paying a heavy price for a conflict not of their making. @UNICEFiraq

3 replies112 retweets104 likes

And what have we learned.

Clearly, not one thing.

Yet again, the military moves on a city and no one has properly planned for the civilians.

Supposedly, the operation on Mosul is about freedom and rescuing the civilians (Mosul has been held by the Islamic State since June of 2014).

But if that's the case, why wasn't time spent preparing for an obvious reality: Attacking a city creates refugees?

TV: FOX struggles with Sundays

Is FOX the new NBC?

Actually, it's much, much worse.

NBC owned Thursday nights in the 90s through the early '00s with its line up which included hits such as FRIENDS, SEINFELD, WILL & GRACE, JUST SHOOT ME and MAD ABOUT YOU.

For the first two hours of prime time Thursday, the comedy block ruled.

Despite the fact that the network couldn't serve up two hours of quality most Thursdays.

THE SINGLE GUY, UNION SQUARE, VERONICA'S CLOSET, SUDDENLY SUSAN, CAROLINE IN THE CITY, UNION PARK, DADDIO, BATTERY PARK, CURSED, HOPE AND GLORIA and STARK RAVING MAD are just some of the travesties NBC aired on Thursdays during fourteen or so years of success.

It shouldn't have been so hard to build a successful block of programming.

But year after year, NBC struggled to provide a two hour block of solid programming.

FOX has had its problems on Sunday nights.

While THE SIMPSONS has provided FOX with a hit for 28 seasons and over 600 episodes, FOX has repeatedly struggled to effectively build a block of solid programming.

In the last ten years, the big problems have included THE CLEVELAND SHOW, GOLAN THE INSATIABLE, BORDERTOWN and SIT DOWN SHUT UP on the animation side and MULANEY, COOPER BARRETT'S GUIDE TO SURVIVING LIFE and THE WINNER on the live action side.

It's been a disaster.

Show after show that led viewers to switch to other channels.

It didn't have to play out that way.

KING OF THE HILL was a hit show when FOX axed it (to make room for the hideous CLEVELAND SHOW).

Currently, we've heard grumbles about SON OF ZORN.

But this show -- a blend of animation and live action -- is actually funny.

It's also delivering ratings.

The lowest rated show for Sunday nights on FOX remains the live action LAST MAN ON EARTH.

Unlike BOB'S BURGERS, it doesn't have to pull in an audience due to being a lead in show.

In fact, LAST MAN ON EARTH follows the highly rated FAMILY GUY.

But week after week, it is the lowest rated program on FOX's Sunday night schedule.

Now in it's third season, the hope that adding more characters would round out the show and make it more entertaining has vanished.

The show is not new, viewers do not need time to get to know it.

Viewers know the show and, most importantly, they avoid it.

SON OF ZORN remains new -- both in that this is the debut season and that the blend of animated and live action is a new are for a TV series. ZORN is at its best when Jason Sudeikis' Zorn is completely over the top and being pulled back down to earth by his ex-wife Edie (Cheryl Hines) or his boss Linda (Artemis Pebdani) or when his son Alan (Johnny Pemberton) has reached his exasperation limit with his father.

Tim Meadows, as Edie's new loves, deserves praise for hitting all the right notes in a role that could easily go wrong and alienate viewers.

His Craig is a better earner than Zorn, a better father figure than Zorn, a better romantic partner than Zorn -- just about better in every way.

Strutting through the role would turn the audience against Craig. Meadows manages to hit the humor notes with a light but sure touch.

There's nothing light or sure about LAST MAN ON EARTH.

The on camera talent is solid -- Will Forte, Kristen Schaeal, Mary Steenburgen, etc. But the premise was over the top from the start.

Possibly with scripts that also went over the top, the show would be a merry, comic ride.

Instead, the scripts focus n the mundane.

Each episode plays out like a SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE skit that was heavily padded instead of trimmed.

The alleged humor never materializes.

And it's been given plenty of time to find an audience.

What the ratings explain is that this show loses more viewers each season.

The answer for FOX might be another animated show -- though not from Seth MacFarlane. If so, the answer isn't to clone/rip-off THE SIMPSONS. That's been done repeatedly (mainly by Seth). It hasn't worked. KING OF THE HILL and BOB'S BURGERS resulted in loyal viewers because they were something different.

But if it's going for a live action show, it might need to copy.

Specifically, it should probably copy the most popular Sunday night live action show it ever had: MARRIED WITH CHILDREN.

A live action, multi-camera comedy about a family might work the trick -- provided it had strong female characters engaged in the comedy (Peg and Kelly Bundy and Marcy Rhoades D'Arcy were strong characters who delivered laughs -- a far cry from what FOX tried repeatedly after with programs like THE WAR AT HOME).

Can THE MICK be that sitcom?

Probably not.

FOX is going to debut that program Sunday, January 1st.

IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA star Kaitlin Olson stars (and gets an executive producer credit) as an aunt stuck with her sister's kids due to a financial scandal.

Do you feel the laughs?

We don't either.

Nor has anyone who saw the original edit of the pilot.

Every moment seemed leaden and wrong-footed.

That tends to happen when you're doing a single-camera sitcom -- especially with actors not used to doing sitcoms. A live audience could have helped tremendously.

Instead, a drastic re-edit of the pilot was done in an attempt to create comedy beats that weren't present.

The show is now deemed watchable by the suits but no one's expecting it to take off.

Which begs the question: When will FOX get it together?

We were told it's really hard to build a successful bloc of programming.

Even if it's really, really, really hard, it's also their job.

And it's one they better get good at pretty quick. Viewers have indulged FOX on Sundays much longer than they did NBC on Thursdays but that can't last forever.

Film Classics of the 20th Century

In this ongoing series on film classics of the last century, we've looked at BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER, TEA WITH MUSSOLINI, THE LATE SHOW, SUMMER STOCK, THE FULLER BRUSH GIRL, The Net, Your Friends & Neighbors, Shampoo, The Player, Dick Tracy, How To Marry A Millionaire, Blow Out, You Only Live Twice, Sleeper, Diamonds Are Forever, Sleepless In Seattle, My Little Chickadee, Tootsie, After Hours, Edward Scissorhands, Christmas in Connecticut, Desk Set, When Harry Met Sally . . ., Who Done It?, That Darn Cat!, Cactus Flower, Family Plot, House Sitter, and Outrageous Fortune. Film classics are the films that grab you, even on repeat viewings, especially on repeat viewings.

NEVER BEEN KISSED is a romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore as journalist Josie Geller. High school was a living hell for her where she was dubbed "Josie Grossie" while her brother Rob (David Arquette) had no problem fitting in.

In the script written by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, Josie has to confront her demons and fears of high school by returning there when her editor assigns her the task of going undercover as a student.

Undercover, she meets various students including James Franco in his film debut and the amazing (but now retired) Leelee Sobieski (above) in a magical performance.

Josie falls for her English teacher Sam played by Michael Vartan.

Barrymore, Franco, Sobieski, Jessica Alba, Vartan and Arquette are just some of the great actors in the film.

Molly Shannon and Gary Marshall are two more.

At the prom, Josie's crowned prom queen and her date prom king.

But Josie's heart only really comes to life when she dances with Sam.

Outing herself at the prom to keep another student from being picked on, Josie is left alone.

She finishes her article for the newspaper, noting that she's never been kissed -- not even at the most recent prom. But she'll be on the baseball field, hoping that Sam shows up.

Sam does show.

The comedy was a hit with ticket buyers in 1999, making back over double its $25 million production budget and it has remained a comedy staple in the years since.

Giant terrorizes London

Secretary Kerry Arrives at London Mayor Khan's Office at City Hall U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrives at the office of London Mayor Sadiq Khan before they met and held a question-and-answer session about foreign affairs with young Londoners, British residents, and American visitors on October 31, 2016, at London City Hall in London, U.K. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

Tweet of the Week

‏@wikileaks

It’s ignorant to vote for Hillary Clinton without reading WikiLeaks 
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/11/02/its-ignorant-to-vote-for-hillary-clinton-without-reading-wikileaks/ …

RETWEETS20,228
LIKES21,509

7:42 AM - 6 Nov 2016

20,228 retweets21,509 likes

Whiny ass Gloria Steinem

Last month, the woman who slept with Henry Kissinger felt the need to whine publicly to the editors of THE NEW YORK TIMES:

In a titillating lead into an otherwise accurate article about why I love New York, John Leland writes that I started my career as “a C.I.A. operative,” got my “break as a Playboy Bunny” and married the father of a movie star.

Get over it, Gloria Steinem.

You were a CIA operative.

For years, you and your harridans have managed to distort and silence that reality.

Your hold over the conversation has vanished.

You should have gotten honest on your own and honest long ago.

You and your clique demonized women who told the truth.

Sad thing for you is that you and your clique no longer control the discourse.

You have been outed.

There is no going back in.

Last month, THE SACREMENTO BEE ran a column entitled "The Feminist Was A Spook."

Get used to it.

And grasp that when you die, even more truth will be told -- truths you won't be able to silence.