Grimes’ plea deal adds to the extraordinary circumstances in the
run-up to the expiration of the contracts at the Big Three auto
companies. He is the ninth UAW or corporate executive who has pleaded
guilty in the corruption investigation so far. Last week, FBI raids
targeted the homes of current UAW President Gary Jones and his
predecessors, Dennis Williams.
The UAW is exposed as a bribed tool of corporate management, run by a
criminal syndicate that has conspired with the companies to impose
concessions contracts. And yet this organization is supposedly
“negotiating” with the auto companies on behalf of the workers.
-- Jerry White, "Ten days before contract expiration, top aide to UAW GM negotiators pleads guilty to taking $2 million in kickbacks" (WSWS).
Monday, September 09, 2019
Truest statement of the week II
This week, no one is more surprised than President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Trump succeeded in turning an innocent mistake about the weather into a
giant lie and then, after days of determined effort, into a
full-fledged scandal. Biden succeeded in denying his own words in
support of the Iraq War. Falsely describing the path of a hurricane can
be a serious matter, if not corrected. However, lying about hurricanes
does not cause more hurricanes. Lying about wars is one reason we have
so many of them.
-- Jonathan Turley, "Joe Biden lying about Iraq shows why our nation has so many wars" (THE HILL).
-- Jonathan Turley, "Joe Biden lying about Iraq shows why our nation has so many wars" (THE HILL).
A note to our readers
Hey --
Early Monday, except on the west coast where we are a few minutes until midnight so it's still Sunday.
Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
And what did we come up with?
Peace,
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Early Monday, except on the west coast where we are a few minutes until midnight so it's still 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 Kitchen, Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
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 Kitchen, Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
And what did we come up with?
Jerry White gets another truest.
As does Jonathan Turley.
Joe Biden can't stop lying.
Ava and C.I. tackle AMAZON PRIME -- and report the reality that you get more HBO choices if you add the channel to your HULU account than if you add it to your AMAZON account.
Another roundtable.
We continue what's become a popular new feature.
MINT PRESS gets it.
People are offended by AMAZON's JACK RYAN now that season two has started. I (Jim) will ask the obvious: WTF were all of you when season one was airing?
What we listened to while writing.
Green Party coverage.
Press release from US House Rep Susan Davis' office.
Green Party coverage.
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.
Peace,
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Editorial: His lies matter
Joe Biden can't stop lying about Iraq. He can't justify his actions, so he lies about them. But now he's getting push back on his lies.
Yes, David Sirota is candidate Bernie Sanders' speechwriter. But David's not the only one pushing back. The push back comes after Joe told an especially big whopper in an interview. Joseph Zeballos-Roig (BUSINESS INSIDER) explains:
Yes, Joe lied.
Referring to the Iraq War, Biden said, "immediately, the moment it started, I came out against the war at that moment."
That’s not the case. The public record shows that immediately before and after the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, Biden supported the president. He also on multiple occasions for years justified his vote on a resolution that authorized the use of force against Iraq.
Biden lamented that the United States did not have the support of more nations and gradually criticized the Bush administration’s strategy. But his claim of an "immediate" opposition to the war isn’t accurate.
We rate his statement False.
David Axelrod
Joe got real push back and he deserved it. He was flat out lying. And it does matter. It matters because it's the public record. It matters because he's distorting the truth. It matters because it goes to character.
Joe Biden is suddenly now insisting he opposed authorizing the Iraq War -- when in fact he was the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman who actively led the fight to help the GOP authorize the Iraq War. bernie.substack.com/p/bern-notice-…
Yes, David Sirota is candidate Bernie Sanders' speechwriter. But David's not the only one pushing back. The push back comes after Joe told an especially big whopper in an interview. Joseph Zeballos-Roig (BUSINESS INSIDER) explains:
Former Vice President Joe Biden said in an NPR interview that he opposed the Iraq War shortly after it began in March 2003, but he didn't publicly come out against it until 2005.
The leading Democratic presidential candidate voted to authorize
the use of military force against Iraq in late 2002 as a US Senator
from Delaware. He's been strongly criticized for that vote to support
the war throughout the Democratic primary.
Yes, Joe lied.
Asher Stockler (NEWSWEEK) countered, "Although during the time preceding and following the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq, Biden, in fact, did not oppose the broader war effort. In many instances, he openly supported it." Paul Blest (SPLINTER) covered the lie as well and offered, "Here’s a fun game to play at home with your friends and loved ones: Is Joe Biden lying, senile, or both?" Eoin Higgins (SALON) went with, "As Khalid pointed out in her report from the interview, that's not backed up by the historical record." Nathan McDermott and Andrew Kaczynski (CNN) observed, "In recent speeches and interviews defending his past foreign policy decisions, former Vice President Joe Biden has misrepresented his past position on the Iraq War." At POLITIFACT, Miriam Valverde examined his lie and provided a walk thru of the public record before concluding:
That’s not the case. The public record shows that immediately before and after the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, Biden supported the president. He also on multiple occasions for years justified his vote on a resolution that authorized the use of force against Iraq.
Biden lamented that the United States did not have the support of more nations and gradually criticized the Bush administration’s strategy. But his claim of an "immediate" opposition to the war isn’t accurate.
We rate his statement False.
Pollster James Zogby Tweeted:
Sep 3
Just saw on CNN that Biden claims to have been against the Iraq War, before it began. Hope they’re mistaken. Cuz if he did, it’s not a mistake or a gaffe. It’s a whopper. (& btw, this isn’t about age. I’m 74 & remember quite clearly who was for & against)
Other Tweets include:
David Axelrod
It’s one thing to have a well-earned rep for goofy, harmless gaffes. It’s another if you serially distort your own record. @JoeBiden is in danger of creating a more damaging meme.
"9 months ago, I voted with my colleagues to give the president the authority to use force & I'd vote that way again today," Joe Biden, 7-31-03.
"I am opposed to giving the President a blank check to launch a unilateral invasion and occupation of Iraq," Bernie Sanders, 10-09-02
I honestly can't believe that @JoeBiden, who voted for the Iraq War, and then support the occupation for years, is claiming that he opposed the war after the invasion.
There's a word for this.
Lying
Nominate someone who doesn’t lie so much, creating a “both sides do it, so don’t bother voting” narrative. businessinsider.com/biden-opposed-…
Biden's role in leading us into the Iraq War was a disaster then and deeply troubling for his decision making now. He was Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in better position than anyone to expose the lies. Instead he trusted Bush. FULL: youtube.com/watch?v=yTXA9v…
Joe got real push back and he deserved it. He was flat out lying. And it does matter. It matters because it's the public record. It matters because he's distorting the truth. It matters because it goes to character.
And it matters because, all this time after the Iraq War first started, if we can't get honest about it now, when can we?
As Jonathan Turley observed, "No level of revision of history will change the cost of that war for thousands of families or the country."
TV: The confusing AMAZON PRIME
There's so much that confuses us about AMAZON.
But it's not just AMAZON. For example, is ABC hoarding content for a new streaming service of their own? That's what we've long wondered. The passing of "Carole Lynley" last week made us wonder even more.
See, Carole Lynley made many films but she also made many television movies -- in fact, her first TV movie was 1968's SHADOW ON THE LAND which aired on ABC. ABC, in fact, aired their MOVIE OF THE WEEK from September 23, 1969 to May 14, 1975 and featured original, made for television movies. It might be an unsold pilot masquerading as a movie or it might be some entertaining diversion. Nick Nolte made two of those in 1974 WINTER KILL (with Andy Griffith) and THE CALIFORNIA KID (with Michelle Phillips, Martin Sheen and Vic Morrow). Every now and then, you'd get a true classic like Karen Black's TRILOGY OF TERROR.
Though ABC ended their MOVIE OF THE WEEK in 1975, TV movies continued to air on the network (as well on other networks). Point of fact, Mare Winningham. TIME magazine dubbed Parker Posey "the queen of the indies" due to her dominance in independent film. Mare? From 1976 to 2005, she made 39 TV movies including THE WOMEN'S ROOM (based on Marilyn French's acclaimed novel) and our three favorites: OFF THE MINNESOTA STRIP, AMBER WAVES (she won an Emmy for this one) and FREEDOM (which also features her singing).
39 TV movies? Mare's work could provide a bingeable streaming experience. But where is it? Where is all of Tuesday Weld's TV work? Like Carole, Tuesday starred in theatrical films and TV movies. On TV, she starred in productions such as THE CRUCIBLE with George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst, REFLECTIONS OF MURDER with Joan Hackett and Sam Waterston, MADAM X with Eleanor Parker, SCORNED AND SWINDLED with Keith Carradine, Sheree North and Peter Coytoe, CIRCLE OF VIOLENCE with Geraldine Fitzgerald and River Phoenix, F. SCOTT FITZGERALD IN HOLLYWOOD with Jason Miller, MOTHER AND DAUGHTER: THE LOVING WAR, SOMETHING IN COMMON with Ellen Burstyn and Don Murray, THE RAINMAKER with Tommy Lee Jones, A QUESTION OF GUILT with Viveca Lindfors and Lana Wood and THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT with Donald Sutherland and Teri Garr. Tuesday Weld is an important actress, a true original, whose work provides not only entertainment but also inspiration because her technique really deserves examination and study.
There's a reason this is the the third time we've noted her TV work. You can also refer to 2013's "TV: The Death of the TV Movie" and 2017's "TV: The TV movie." From the latter:
Some actresses might stay with the movie of the week genre for a series of films -- Mare Winningham, Donna Mills, Elizabeth Montgomery, Victoria Principal and Lindsay Wagner, to cite a few.
It was a genre actresses could make a mark in with defining performances delivered by Farrah Fawcett in THE BURNING BED, SMALL SACRIFICES and BETWEEN TWO WOMEN; Marlo Thomas in THE LOST HONOR OF KATHRYN BECK and NOBODY'S CHILD; Jane Fonda in THE DOLLMAKER; Angela Bassett in THE ROSA PARKS STORY; Glenn Close in SOMETHING ABOUT AMELIA and SERVING IN SILENCE: THE MARGARETHE CAMMERMEYER STORY; Diana Ross in OUT OF DARKNESS; Ann-Margaret in WHO WILL LOVE MY CHILDREN? and A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE; Cicely Tyson in THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN; Bette Davis in WHITE MAMA; Vanessa Redgrave in PLAYING FOR TIME and SECOND SERVE; Alfre Woodard in UNNATURAL CAUSES, THE PIANO LESSON, MISS EVERS' BOYS and A MOTHER'S COURAGE: THE MARY THOMAS STORY; Barbara Hershey in A KILLING IN A SMALL TOWN; Halle Berry in INTRODUCING DOROTHY DANDRIDGE and THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD; Jessica Lange in NORMAL; Liza Minnelli in A TIME TO LIVE; Lynn Whitfield in THE JOSEPHINE BAKER STORY; Sigourney Weaver in PRAYERS FOR BOBBY; Natalie Wood in THE CRACKER FACTORY; Queen Latifah in BESSIE; Mary Tyler Moore in LIKE MOTHER LIKE SON: THE STRANGE STORY OF SANTE AND KENNY KIMES; Elizabeth Taylor and Carol Burnett in BETWEEN FRIENDS; and Cher, Demi Moore, Sissy Spacek, Anne Heche and Jada Pinkett in IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK.
But what happens if all this great work just vanishes? That's very possible. And all the streaming platforms these days -- CRACKLE, TUBI, PLUTO, NETFLIX, HULU, ROKU, AMAZON, etc. -- hasn't resulted in past product popping up.
Until recently.
AMAZON's discovered a few. We stumbled onto the fact after bailing on the so-bad-it-stinks movie THE AGENCY. This Canadian film was available in very few US theaters -- for good reason -- and would make a stronger impression when it popped up on HBO two years after its 1980 release. It's not just the acting that stinks. "No sweat, no sweat!" the actors seem to be singing (it's very hard to hear the soundtrack -- speaking or singing) as they dance around -- the guys in assless chaps of some kind -- in a TV advertisement that Robert Mitchum pronounces, "Perfect. That's money well spent." Someone should have passed the commercial over to Lee Majors. We first see Lee huffing and puffing as he takes his morning run. Valerie Perrine pulls up alongside of him in her car. He hopes in, takes off his sweat suit jacket, sprays some deodorant in his armpits and then pulls on a dress shirt for work. Shortly after, Valerie tells him, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, grown man." She also says "disgusting" -- she's not talking about his b.o., but she might as well be. Lee may be talking about his body odor when he tells her, "People are more appreciative when I arrive." We believe the term for those kind of people is "scent pigs."
Watching THE AGENCY, we thought at first it was a TV movie. Again, the soundtrack is awful -- it crackles at times. And the film has a washed out visual as though the copy has been overexposed during processing.
That look is there in a number of TV movies AMAZON's added for AMAZON PRIME members. Leonard Nimoy stars in 1973's BAFFLED! which isn't very scary but is interesting entertainment for a number of reasons -- including viewers getting to see Nimoy's take on Jane Fonda's famous KLUTE shag hair-do. The TV movie was actually a British TV pilot that didn't get picked up(in the US, the TV film aired on NBC). Leonard's speeding around a track in a red and white number 37 race car when he suddenly can't see what's in front of him and instead has a vision of "a gravel road" leading to a British manor. After he wipes out on the track, his vision changes to Vera Miles "screaming her head off and a girl, I guess you'd call it a sly grin, smirking at her." From there, the search is on to figure out who is trying to torment Vera Miles. SPOILER: It's not Alfred Hitchcock.
Kate Jackson and Robert Wagner star in DEATH AT LOVE HOUSE a tight little thriller that holds your attention due to the cast which also includes Dorothy Lamour, Sylvia Sidney, Joan Blondell, John Carradine and Bill Macy. Kate and Robert are a married couple and Robert's envious of his father (Wagner plays dual roles of Junior and Senior). The film opens with a Hollywood tour bus traveling through a neighborhood to the late actress Lorna Love's home. The bus driver explains it is "a 36 room mansion built at a cost of over three million dollars for the beautiful and world famous actress whose tragic death in 1935 saddened her many fans across the globe. The day after Lorna's funeral, a shrine was built directly behind the trees up there. Folks use your imagination. Think of Lorna as beautiful as ever, as you remember her, her body embalmed up there in her shrine. Lying up there forever."
His speech is interrupted by Robert Wagner who explains, "We'd like to get off here." When the driver says no, Robert insists that Kate is pregnant, while she adds, "And I'm feeling a little sick." Consider it a bit of misdirection, sleight of hand, that opens the film on a light note and let's you enjoy their putting one over on the bus driver. They're actually going to be staying at the estate -- while they write a book about Lorna. Bill Macy introduces them to the home and, in a foreboding moment, a door closes shutting Kate out of the house. Kate will become more shut out and more victimized as this 1976 Spelling-Goldberg production moves along.
Kate was hot off THE ROOKIES and a household name when ABC aired this movie on September 3, 1976. She was also already connected to CHARLIE'S ANGELS -- the pilot having aired twice in March of 1976. On that show, she would act alongside Cheryl Ladd for two seasons. They did not get along offscreen. Nor had they gotten along in 1973 when they were both in the Spelling-Goldberg TV movie SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. ABC aired a remake (with Kate Jackson, Taraji P. Henson and Shannen Doherty) in March of 2000 but the original remains a horror classic -- one that is also available on AMAZON PRIME. Pamela Franklin plays Elizabeth who goes looking for the reason her sister Martha is hanged. She refuses to believe the death was a suicide. "I can't accept that," she tells the police who tell her the case is closed.
"Not for me, it isn't," she declares as she heads off for The Salem Academy For Women.
It all ends in the school's basement despite head mistress Jo Van Fleet insisting to Pamela Franklin and Kate Jackson, "No, you can't go down there. No, you can't go down there! That's why I'm in trouble! Miss Abigail doesn't let anybody go down there. No, please, please, don't go down there. She'll think I sent you. Please don't go down there. Please."
What do they find in the basement? What do you think they find in a movie called SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS?
Kate's the star of TV movies on AMAZON. Along with those two vintage TV movies, AMAZON PRIME members can also stream HARD EVIDENCE (which was JUSTICE IN A SMALL TOWN when NBC aired it September 23, 1994 -- her co-stars are John Shea and Dean Stockwell), they can stream A MOTHER'S TESTIMONY, a LIFETIME 2001 movie and they can stream 1998's SWEET DECEPTION (also LIFETIME and co-stars include Joan Collins, Jack Scalia and Joanna Pacula). The image quality and the soundtrack is better in these later films. That's also the case with the three TV movies starring Lindsay Wagner that AMAZON PRIME offers for streaming: CALLIE & SON (CBS, 1981, co-stars include Michelle Pfeiffer),1988's NIGHTMARE AT BITTER CREEK (CBS, 1988, co-stars include Tom Skerritt) and FIRE IN THE DARK (CBS, 1991, co-stars include Olympia Dukakis).
And it's the case with one Marlo Thomas TV films offered by AMAZON PRIME -- ULTIMATE BETRAYAL (CBS, March 20, 1994, co-starring Ally Sheedy and Eileen Heckart) while the other, 1977's IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (ABC, 1977, co-stars include Cloris Leachman and Orson Welles), again suffers from the quality of the print being streamed. The same can be said of Farrah Fawcett's MURDER ON FLIGHT 502 (co-stars include Polly Bergen, Ralph Bellemy and Theodore Bikel) whose blurry print is only matched by the underwhelming quality of Danny Bonaduce's emoting while declaring "I always sit alone" and "I bite." Fernando Lamas declares, "The possibilities seem very limited" and it's hard not to take that as a critique of Bonaduce's performance.
One notable exception of the vintage TV movies offered by AMAZON would be GIDGET GROWS UP. As Karen Valentine's Gidget drops out of school and goes to work at the United Nations, she looks gorgeous and so does Paul Petersen as Moondoggie. This is one print that's neither faded or blurred but as sharp and in focus as it was when ABC first broadcast it on December 30, 1969.
We don't understand why AMAZON can't get better prints to stream for most of the vintage TV movies or why they can't offer more movies from that period.
But we also don't understand AMAZON and HBO.
If you're subscribing to HBO via AMAZON, let us break the news to you: You're being ripped off.
There are so many films and specials offered by HBO online that you will not have access to if you subscribe via AMAZON.
HBO: FEATURED MOVIES on AMAZON, for example, offers 200 choices -- some of which are TV series and not films.
If you click on "HBO" from "Your Channels," you are presented with HBO: Series, HBO: Movies, HBO: Documentaries, HBO: Comedy movies and specials, HBO: Kids series, HBO: Kids and family movies, HBO: Sports, HBO: Latino Series and Watch Live -- which provides you with eight boxes (eight live HBO channels).
"HBO: MOVIES"? Again, it provides you with 200 choices. "HBO: Comedy movies and specials" provides you with 200 choices as well -- but seven of those are trailers or promos.
Those are not the full movies and specials offered to HBO subscribers.
If you subscribe to HBO via HULU? You can go to the "Movies A-Z" and get a full listing of the films being offered. You will find 930. That's 730 more choices than you're getting via AMAZON -- and that's despite the fact that both services charge you $14.99 a month for HBO.
If you subscribe via HULU, however, you will get access to those films and specials. Since the subscription cost for HBO is the same at HULU as it is at AMAZON, we're confused why anyone would subscribe through AMAZON unless they just didn't know better.
Oh, and remember those eight live streaming HBO channels? If you subscribe to HBO via HULU, you're going to get 14 live streaming HBO channels.
We're always afraid, each year, that, come summer, we'll run out of something to write about. There's not a great deal of new shows offered in the summer (though more today than when we started). So, for years, we've tried to think up what to write about if we run out of topics in the summer. We usually compile a list in April and it's usually a list of five topics. This year, we put down "streaming services" with the understanding that we'd spend time providing overviews. We didn't get around to that but we did get around to adding HBO to the AMAZON PRIME subscription and SHOWTIME to the HULU subscription thinking we'd compare and contrast those two (HBO and SHOWTIME). We assumed that they'd offer the same content they offered on every platform.
But we were on the road and bored at one point this summer as we were looking at scripts for two fall sitcoms when we wanted to see something actually funny. So we pulled up AMAZON and the HBO channel there intending to watch Tracey Ullman. Not TRACEY ULLMAN'S SHOW -- which is very funny, but we've already seen all three seasons several times. Tracey's worked a lot with HBO so we didn't think we'd have trouble finding other offerings. But we couldn't. We kept hitting the advance key on the remote and scrolling forever right (which always ticks us off anyway -- both for the mind numbing nature of it all and because we tend to tilt left, if you haven't noticed) but nothing.
How could that be?
Because AMAZON doesn't offer all the HBO content.
Go to comedy at HBO on HULU and, look, there's TRACEY ULLMAN'S SHOW, but there's also TRACEY ULLMAN IN THE TRAILER TALES and TRACEY ULLMAN: LIVE & EXPOSED. Oh, and look, there's ELLEN DEGENERES: HERE AND NOW and ELLEN DEGENERES: THE BEGINNING. We couldn't find those clicking through HBO offerings at AMAZON either.
'Okay, but surely you can find this stuff on AMAZON and stream it without having to pay since you're paying for HBO via AMAZON?"
Some of it you can find. But, yes, you have to utilize the "search" feature and search all of AMAZON. On some of the results, it will note that the film, special or series is HBO and that you can view it without an additional cost. On others, you won't see that on the outside results and will have to click on the item to find that out. But, again, that's only on what shows up in the search results and not all of the HBO content is showing up.
If you're going to subscribe to HBO, it's better to do it with HULU which will give you more HBO live streaming channels and more HBO offerings. And you'll get those without having to search all of HULU for an item you want to watch that HBO has.
As we said at the beginning, there's so much that confuses us about AMAZON.
But it's not just AMAZON. For example, is ABC hoarding content for a new streaming service of their own? That's what we've long wondered. The passing of "Carole Lynley" last week made us wonder even more.
See, Carole Lynley made many films but she also made many television movies -- in fact, her first TV movie was 1968's SHADOW ON THE LAND which aired on ABC. ABC, in fact, aired their MOVIE OF THE WEEK from September 23, 1969 to May 14, 1975 and featured original, made for television movies. It might be an unsold pilot masquerading as a movie or it might be some entertaining diversion. Nick Nolte made two of those in 1974 WINTER KILL (with Andy Griffith) and THE CALIFORNIA KID (with Michelle Phillips, Martin Sheen and Vic Morrow). Every now and then, you'd get a true classic like Karen Black's TRILOGY OF TERROR.
Though ABC ended their MOVIE OF THE WEEK in 1975, TV movies continued to air on the network (as well on other networks). Point of fact, Mare Winningham. TIME magazine dubbed Parker Posey "the queen of the indies" due to her dominance in independent film. Mare? From 1976 to 2005, she made 39 TV movies including THE WOMEN'S ROOM (based on Marilyn French's acclaimed novel) and our three favorites: OFF THE MINNESOTA STRIP, AMBER WAVES (she won an Emmy for this one) and FREEDOM (which also features her singing).
39 TV movies? Mare's work could provide a bingeable streaming experience. But where is it? Where is all of Tuesday Weld's TV work? Like Carole, Tuesday starred in theatrical films and TV movies. On TV, she starred in productions such as THE CRUCIBLE with George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst, REFLECTIONS OF MURDER with Joan Hackett and Sam Waterston, MADAM X with Eleanor Parker, SCORNED AND SWINDLED with Keith Carradine, Sheree North and Peter Coytoe, CIRCLE OF VIOLENCE with Geraldine Fitzgerald and River Phoenix, F. SCOTT FITZGERALD IN HOLLYWOOD with Jason Miller, MOTHER AND DAUGHTER: THE LOVING WAR, SOMETHING IN COMMON with Ellen Burstyn and Don Murray, THE RAINMAKER with Tommy Lee Jones, A QUESTION OF GUILT with Viveca Lindfors and Lana Wood and THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT with Donald Sutherland and Teri Garr. Tuesday Weld is an important actress, a true original, whose work provides not only entertainment but also inspiration because her technique really deserves examination and study.
There's a reason this is the the third time we've noted her TV work. You can also refer to 2013's "TV: The Death of the TV Movie" and 2017's "TV: The TV movie." From the latter:
Some actresses might stay with the movie of the week genre for a series of films -- Mare Winningham, Donna Mills, Elizabeth Montgomery, Victoria Principal and Lindsay Wagner, to cite a few.
It was a genre actresses could make a mark in with defining performances delivered by Farrah Fawcett in THE BURNING BED, SMALL SACRIFICES and BETWEEN TWO WOMEN; Marlo Thomas in THE LOST HONOR OF KATHRYN BECK and NOBODY'S CHILD; Jane Fonda in THE DOLLMAKER; Angela Bassett in THE ROSA PARKS STORY; Glenn Close in SOMETHING ABOUT AMELIA and SERVING IN SILENCE: THE MARGARETHE CAMMERMEYER STORY; Diana Ross in OUT OF DARKNESS; Ann-Margaret in WHO WILL LOVE MY CHILDREN? and A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE; Cicely Tyson in THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN; Bette Davis in WHITE MAMA; Vanessa Redgrave in PLAYING FOR TIME and SECOND SERVE; Alfre Woodard in UNNATURAL CAUSES, THE PIANO LESSON, MISS EVERS' BOYS and A MOTHER'S COURAGE: THE MARY THOMAS STORY; Barbara Hershey in A KILLING IN A SMALL TOWN; Halle Berry in INTRODUCING DOROTHY DANDRIDGE and THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD; Jessica Lange in NORMAL; Liza Minnelli in A TIME TO LIVE; Lynn Whitfield in THE JOSEPHINE BAKER STORY; Sigourney Weaver in PRAYERS FOR BOBBY; Natalie Wood in THE CRACKER FACTORY; Queen Latifah in BESSIE; Mary Tyler Moore in LIKE MOTHER LIKE SON: THE STRANGE STORY OF SANTE AND KENNY KIMES; Elizabeth Taylor and Carol Burnett in BETWEEN FRIENDS; and Cher, Demi Moore, Sissy Spacek, Anne Heche and Jada Pinkett in IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK.
But what happens if all this great work just vanishes? That's very possible. And all the streaming platforms these days -- CRACKLE, TUBI, PLUTO, NETFLIX, HULU, ROKU, AMAZON, etc. -- hasn't resulted in past product popping up.
Until recently.
AMAZON's discovered a few. We stumbled onto the fact after bailing on the so-bad-it-stinks movie THE AGENCY. This Canadian film was available in very few US theaters -- for good reason -- and would make a stronger impression when it popped up on HBO two years after its 1980 release. It's not just the acting that stinks. "No sweat, no sweat!" the actors seem to be singing (it's very hard to hear the soundtrack -- speaking or singing) as they dance around -- the guys in assless chaps of some kind -- in a TV advertisement that Robert Mitchum pronounces, "Perfect. That's money well spent." Someone should have passed the commercial over to Lee Majors. We first see Lee huffing and puffing as he takes his morning run. Valerie Perrine pulls up alongside of him in her car. He hopes in, takes off his sweat suit jacket, sprays some deodorant in his armpits and then pulls on a dress shirt for work. Shortly after, Valerie tells him, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, grown man." She also says "disgusting" -- she's not talking about his b.o., but she might as well be. Lee may be talking about his body odor when he tells her, "People are more appreciative when I arrive." We believe the term for those kind of people is "scent pigs."
Watching THE AGENCY, we thought at first it was a TV movie. Again, the soundtrack is awful -- it crackles at times. And the film has a washed out visual as though the copy has been overexposed during processing.
That look is there in a number of TV movies AMAZON's added for AMAZON PRIME members. Leonard Nimoy stars in 1973's BAFFLED! which isn't very scary but is interesting entertainment for a number of reasons -- including viewers getting to see Nimoy's take on Jane Fonda's famous KLUTE shag hair-do. The TV movie was actually a British TV pilot that didn't get picked up(in the US, the TV film aired on NBC). Leonard's speeding around a track in a red and white number 37 race car when he suddenly can't see what's in front of him and instead has a vision of "a gravel road" leading to a British manor. After he wipes out on the track, his vision changes to Vera Miles "screaming her head off and a girl, I guess you'd call it a sly grin, smirking at her." From there, the search is on to figure out who is trying to torment Vera Miles. SPOILER: It's not Alfred Hitchcock.
Kate Jackson and Robert Wagner star in DEATH AT LOVE HOUSE a tight little thriller that holds your attention due to the cast which also includes Dorothy Lamour, Sylvia Sidney, Joan Blondell, John Carradine and Bill Macy. Kate and Robert are a married couple and Robert's envious of his father (Wagner plays dual roles of Junior and Senior). The film opens with a Hollywood tour bus traveling through a neighborhood to the late actress Lorna Love's home. The bus driver explains it is "a 36 room mansion built at a cost of over three million dollars for the beautiful and world famous actress whose tragic death in 1935 saddened her many fans across the globe. The day after Lorna's funeral, a shrine was built directly behind the trees up there. Folks use your imagination. Think of Lorna as beautiful as ever, as you remember her, her body embalmed up there in her shrine. Lying up there forever."
His speech is interrupted by Robert Wagner who explains, "We'd like to get off here." When the driver says no, Robert insists that Kate is pregnant, while she adds, "And I'm feeling a little sick." Consider it a bit of misdirection, sleight of hand, that opens the film on a light note and let's you enjoy their putting one over on the bus driver. They're actually going to be staying at the estate -- while they write a book about Lorna. Bill Macy introduces them to the home and, in a foreboding moment, a door closes shutting Kate out of the house. Kate will become more shut out and more victimized as this 1976 Spelling-Goldberg production moves along.
Kate was hot off THE ROOKIES and a household name when ABC aired this movie on September 3, 1976. She was also already connected to CHARLIE'S ANGELS -- the pilot having aired twice in March of 1976. On that show, she would act alongside Cheryl Ladd for two seasons. They did not get along offscreen. Nor had they gotten along in 1973 when they were both in the Spelling-Goldberg TV movie SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. ABC aired a remake (with Kate Jackson, Taraji P. Henson and Shannen Doherty) in March of 2000 but the original remains a horror classic -- one that is also available on AMAZON PRIME. Pamela Franklin plays Elizabeth who goes looking for the reason her sister Martha is hanged. She refuses to believe the death was a suicide. "I can't accept that," she tells the police who tell her the case is closed.
"Not for me, it isn't," she declares as she heads off for The Salem Academy For Women.
It all ends in the school's basement despite head mistress Jo Van Fleet insisting to Pamela Franklin and Kate Jackson, "No, you can't go down there. No, you can't go down there! That's why I'm in trouble! Miss Abigail doesn't let anybody go down there. No, please, please, don't go down there. She'll think I sent you. Please don't go down there. Please."
What do they find in the basement? What do you think they find in a movie called SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS?
Kate's the star of TV movies on AMAZON. Along with those two vintage TV movies, AMAZON PRIME members can also stream HARD EVIDENCE (which was JUSTICE IN A SMALL TOWN when NBC aired it September 23, 1994 -- her co-stars are John Shea and Dean Stockwell), they can stream A MOTHER'S TESTIMONY, a LIFETIME 2001 movie and they can stream 1998's SWEET DECEPTION (also LIFETIME and co-stars include Joan Collins, Jack Scalia and Joanna Pacula). The image quality and the soundtrack is better in these later films. That's also the case with the three TV movies starring Lindsay Wagner that AMAZON PRIME offers for streaming: CALLIE & SON (CBS, 1981, co-stars include Michelle Pfeiffer),1988's NIGHTMARE AT BITTER CREEK (CBS, 1988, co-stars include Tom Skerritt) and FIRE IN THE DARK (CBS, 1991, co-stars include Olympia Dukakis).
And it's the case with one Marlo Thomas TV films offered by AMAZON PRIME -- ULTIMATE BETRAYAL (CBS, March 20, 1994, co-starring Ally Sheedy and Eileen Heckart) while the other, 1977's IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (ABC, 1977, co-stars include Cloris Leachman and Orson Welles), again suffers from the quality of the print being streamed. The same can be said of Farrah Fawcett's MURDER ON FLIGHT 502 (co-stars include Polly Bergen, Ralph Bellemy and Theodore Bikel) whose blurry print is only matched by the underwhelming quality of Danny Bonaduce's emoting while declaring "I always sit alone" and "I bite." Fernando Lamas declares, "The possibilities seem very limited" and it's hard not to take that as a critique of Bonaduce's performance.
One notable exception of the vintage TV movies offered by AMAZON would be GIDGET GROWS UP. As Karen Valentine's Gidget drops out of school and goes to work at the United Nations, she looks gorgeous and so does Paul Petersen as Moondoggie. This is one print that's neither faded or blurred but as sharp and in focus as it was when ABC first broadcast it on December 30, 1969.
We don't understand why AMAZON can't get better prints to stream for most of the vintage TV movies or why they can't offer more movies from that period.
But we also don't understand AMAZON and HBO.
If you're subscribing to HBO via AMAZON, let us break the news to you: You're being ripped off.
There are so many films and specials offered by HBO online that you will not have access to if you subscribe via AMAZON.
HBO: FEATURED MOVIES on AMAZON, for example, offers 200 choices -- some of which are TV series and not films.
If you click on "HBO" from "Your Channels," you are presented with HBO: Series, HBO: Movies, HBO: Documentaries, HBO: Comedy movies and specials, HBO: Kids series, HBO: Kids and family movies, HBO: Sports, HBO: Latino Series and Watch Live -- which provides you with eight boxes (eight live HBO channels).
"HBO: MOVIES"? Again, it provides you with 200 choices. "HBO: Comedy movies and specials" provides you with 200 choices as well -- but seven of those are trailers or promos.
Those are not the full movies and specials offered to HBO subscribers.
If you subscribe to HBO via HULU? You can go to the "Movies A-Z" and get a full listing of the films being offered. You will find 930. That's 730 more choices than you're getting via AMAZON -- and that's despite the fact that both services charge you $14.99 a month for HBO.
If you subscribe via HULU, however, you will get access to those films and specials. Since the subscription cost for HBO is the same at HULU as it is at AMAZON, we're confused why anyone would subscribe through AMAZON unless they just didn't know better.
Oh, and remember those eight live streaming HBO channels? If you subscribe to HBO via HULU, you're going to get 14 live streaming HBO channels.
We're always afraid, each year, that, come summer, we'll run out of something to write about. There's not a great deal of new shows offered in the summer (though more today than when we started). So, for years, we've tried to think up what to write about if we run out of topics in the summer. We usually compile a list in April and it's usually a list of five topics. This year, we put down "streaming services" with the understanding that we'd spend time providing overviews. We didn't get around to that but we did get around to adding HBO to the AMAZON PRIME subscription and SHOWTIME to the HULU subscription thinking we'd compare and contrast those two (HBO and SHOWTIME). We assumed that they'd offer the same content they offered on every platform.
But we were on the road and bored at one point this summer as we were looking at scripts for two fall sitcoms when we wanted to see something actually funny. So we pulled up AMAZON and the HBO channel there intending to watch Tracey Ullman. Not TRACEY ULLMAN'S SHOW -- which is very funny, but we've already seen all three seasons several times. Tracey's worked a lot with HBO so we didn't think we'd have trouble finding other offerings. But we couldn't. We kept hitting the advance key on the remote and scrolling forever right (which always ticks us off anyway -- both for the mind numbing nature of it all and because we tend to tilt left, if you haven't noticed) but nothing.
How could that be?
Because AMAZON doesn't offer all the HBO content.
Go to comedy at HBO on HULU and, look, there's TRACEY ULLMAN'S SHOW, but there's also TRACEY ULLMAN IN THE TRAILER TALES and TRACEY ULLMAN: LIVE & EXPOSED. Oh, and look, there's ELLEN DEGENERES: HERE AND NOW and ELLEN DEGENERES: THE BEGINNING. We couldn't find those clicking through HBO offerings at AMAZON either.
'Okay, but surely you can find this stuff on AMAZON and stream it without having to pay since you're paying for HBO via AMAZON?"
Some of it you can find. But, yes, you have to utilize the "search" feature and search all of AMAZON. On some of the results, it will note that the film, special or series is HBO and that you can view it without an additional cost. On others, you won't see that on the outside results and will have to click on the item to find that out. But, again, that's only on what shows up in the search results and not all of the HBO content is showing up.
If you're going to subscribe to HBO, it's better to do it with HULU which will give you more HBO live streaming channels and more HBO offerings. And you'll get those without having to search all of HULU for an item you want to watch that HBO has.
As we said at the beginning, there's so much that confuses us about AMAZON.
Roundtable
Jim: Roundtable time again. . Remember our e-mail
address is thethirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com. Participating in our roundtable are The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava, and me, Jim; 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); Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz); Ruth of Ruth's Report; Trina of Trina's Kitchen; Wally of The Daily Jot; Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Betty's kids did the
illustration. You are reading a rush transcript.
Jim (Con't): So Joe Biden. He's a uniter. There are Dems and Greens here and not one of us would ever pick Joe to head a presidential ticket. Thoughts?
Cedric: Joe is brussel sprouts. No one would choose to have him. No one's looking for a place with the best sprouts. I hear you laughing but I'm serious. I do block walk each mid-term and general election. I am one of the get out the vote people. And I cannot imagine how hard that will be in the fall of 2020 if Joe is the nominee.
Dona: Cedric, you're a Democrat. You're a young one, in your early 30s, and you're African-American. The thought is that Joe's base is solid among older African-Americans. Do you have thoughts on that?
Cedric: I don't think it's solid at all. They do, in my church and in my neighborhood, have warmer feelings towards him then people my age and younger but it's not solid. If Kamala Harris, for example, came in second in Iowa, a lot of African-American elderly support would go to her immediately. And if Cory Booker came in third -- third, he could come in that low -- in Iowa, you'd see a lot of African-American support go to him immediately.
Jim: So these are guesses?
Ann: No. My husband is Mr. Democrat. He polls on this. At church, in the parking lot after the service or if there's a church pot luck, he's going table to table. Cedric is always asking everyone who they'd vote for and who after that and stuff like that. It may be just the mood of our community in our specific area but Cedric knows that community. Which sounds like a great thing until your the mother of two young children and you have to dash into a grocery store on a Saturday morning and haven't turned yourself out because you're hoping to dash in and out before you bump into anyone you know. Being married to Cedric means everyone knows you.
Jim: Thank you for that, Ann. I bet Cedric would have humbled on out of that if you hadn't been here to answer.
Ann: I'm sure.
Jim: Betty, you've got relatives in Atlanta. What do you hear about Joe Biden and his support among the African-American community there?
Betty: Well, let me note, as I think you know, Joe doesn't have strong support among Blacks here in California of any age group. Back in Atlanta? I see fondness among the elderly. A portion of them. Now some of that will turn on a dime and you're crazy and don't old people if you don't know what I'm talking about. Like the couple on IN LIVING COLOUR who would turn on a dime when it was just the two of them. But some are generally fond. But generally fond a year out and what you're going to do when push comes to shove are two different things. In 2007, Hillary Clinton had huge Black support. All it took was Barack winning the Iowa caucus and the support for her crumbled a great deal. She still had support from some but the bulk went over to Barack when he looked electable because of Iowa.
Rebecca: It's interesting, what Betty's talking about, because Joe's campaign doesn't think he can win the first caucus, Iowa, or the first primary, New Hampshire. Last week, they began speaking to the press about how they didn't think they could win either. They were trying to lower expectations because they're sure they're going to win South Carolina -- they're sure they will have the African-American vote -- and they're hoping that if the campaign can hang on until then -- South Carolina will be the third to vote -- after Iowa and after New Hampshire -- that the press will not treat Joe's campaign like the mess that it is.
Cedric: And if he loses Iowa and New Hampshire, it will be a mess.
Jim: Even if he wins South Carolina.
Cedric: Yes. But I don't think he wins South Carolina if he loses those two. I think Betty's exactly right about push comes to shove. He lacks the charisma of Bill Clinton and I just don't see him losing the first two and any community, let alone the African-American community -- still standing with him in South Carolina.
Marcia: I'll jump in to say that I agree with that conclusion. He'll smell like a loser and people will flee. The African-American community? I know older people -- even in my family -- who have been convinced of Joe's electability. They say they'd like to support Kamala, Cory or Bernie -- those are the three second choices among the elderly in my family -- but they want us to get rid of Donald Trump. If Joe doesn't come in first in Iowa, expect to see even elderly African-Americans start to walk away. If he then also loses New Hampshire, his support crumbles.
Jim: Okay. Trump time. Cedric's "How stupid is Alyssa Milano?" and Wally's "THIS JUST IN! A HEAD OF CABBAGE HAS MORE BRAINS THAN ALYSSA!" went up earlier tonight. The idiot Alyssa Milano wants to impeach Donald Trump because he had invited leaders of the Taliban to Camp David. Now the meeting got called off. Any thoughts?
Elaine: If he's going to end the war in Afghanistan -- which it now appears he won't be attempting -- he's going to have to meet with leaders of the Taliban. Alyssa's an ahistorical idiot who really needs to stop Tweeting. Does she not know about the series of talks between the US and Vietnam? She's stupid. She has no education and she should have gotten herself into community college as soon as WHO'S THE BOSS went off the air. I hope she gets that outside of her tiny group of followers, the rest of us see her as an idiot. That's not just the right-wing, that's also those of us on the left. We hate her. She does not know everything but she thinks she does. There are thousands of topics I never cover at my blog. I don't pretend to know everything. She does and she knows damn little.
Trina: Which is to be expected when you grasp that except for the ages of 9 to 12, she never attended a school. Jodie Foster was a child actor -- no, she was better than Alyssa, Jodie was a child star. And Jodie's mother ensured that she didn't just get on the set 'school.' On top of being enrolled in a real academic school, Jodie then went on to college. All of that did not make Jodie an expert. It did give her resources to help her examine issues. Even so, she's not ever presented herself as an expert on everything. Alyssa's the loud drunk at the bar that won't shut up.
Stan: She had a career. Had. Once. Ceric and Wally often call her a "hagtress" in their joint-posts and that's a pretty accurate description. You know she has to wake up every day hating Jennifer Love Hewitt. JLH was still a child actress when she joined PARTY OF FIVE. After that show? She's starred in THE GHOST WHISPERER, THE CLIENT LIST, CRIMINAL MINDS and now 9-1-1. In terms of films? Jennifer's had hits with I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, THE TUXEDO with Jackie Chan and HEARTBREAKERS with Sigourney Weaver and Gene Hackman.
Kat: Well both women have released four albums. Unlike Alyssa, Jennifer has charted on The Hot 100, making it all the way to number 59 with 1999's "How Do I Deal" which also made it to number 36 on the pop chart. "Barenaked" made it to number 35 on the pop charts. So she has had two hits. Alyssa has had zero hit singles. She's had ten singles, none of them charted in the US. None of her four albums have made BILLBOARD's Top 200 sales list. Jennifer's BARENAKED made it to number 37. Alyssa's a failure and that's obvious in her Tweets. She's bitter and she's angry because her career's over. She can't have a Tina Turner comeback because she's got nothing to comeback to. She's a failure as a singer. She's a failure in films. She's a failure in TV.
Betty: I would just add that she's an idiot and a hypocrite. She's got a Tweet whining that the GOP is changing rules and primaries to keep Donald from having a challenger. So now the hagtress is interested in ballot access and fair primaries? Don't recall her complaining about the DNC rigging the primaries last go round for Hillary. Never seen her Tweet about the need for third parties to have fair ballot access. She's a hypocrite. She's an idiot. She really needs to just grasp that she's helped the whole world hate her with her gross stupidity and her foul mouth.
Trina: Let me jump back in. I agree with Betty but if we're going to talk about that idiot for even one more minute then it's time to talk abortion. Everyone here is pro-reproductive rights. We support a woman's right to an abortion. But Alyssa's bulls**t recently? She was the stereotype, the poster child for the right-wing when it comes to abortion. She brags about two abortions in one year? That's using abortion as birth control. She brags about how she's happy she did them and how she wouldn't have had her career without those abortions? Can she feed into the stereotype the right-wing has of women who have abortions any more than that? I'm sick of her.
Rebecca: She's desperate for attention. She's desperate for anything that she can ride to fame. She's a child actress -- not even a child star -- whose career is over.
Ty: Rob e-mailed that the fall season's about to start and he said that he's excited about USA's TREADSTONE "with SENSE8's Brian J. Smith." And he wonders if anyone has any thoughts on any other new programs?
Ava: Rebecca. Rebecca's weighed in on THE UNICORN with "women should reject 'the unicorn'."
Ann: And she's right. I'm so sick of these unattractive men being cast in roles where women are supposed to swoon over them. He's ugly. What woman is that desperate?
Rebecca: And remember the premise of the show is that, quoting from the CBS press release, "he becomes the most sought after single guy due to his description as an attractive working father."
Ruth: There is nothing attractive about the actor Walton Goggins. He looks like Clint Howard's ugly son.
Dona: SLATE's reporting that the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are set to formalize impeachment proceedings:
The House Judiciary Committee is getting ready to vote as early as Wednesday to formalize the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump. The resolution that will be up for a vote is set to lay out the procedures that will be used in the investigation with the goal of deciding by the end of the year whether to recommend articles of impeachment to the full House of Representatives. Although the probe has really been ongoing, the vote this coming week would set to increase the “officialness” of the investigation, a source tells Politico. At the very least, the vote would clear up the confusion in Democratic circles about whether the impeachment proceeding has actually been launched.
Dona (Con't): Any thoughts?
Mike: I have never heard of anything so stupid in my life. November 2020, a little over a year from now, we will have a presidential election. And Democrats want to waste the time the party's candidates for president should be making their case to the people by stealing focus with an impeachment? I'm so sick of this crap. Since before he was sworn in, the talk has been impeachment. I'm sick of it. Stop wasting our time.
Ruth: This is going to make the party look stupid. Voters have been clear in poll after poll that they want to see Democrats addressing issues -- kitchen table issues. This is a huge mistake.
Isaiah: I would agree. The only thing this will accomplish is energizing Donald Trump's base and making a number of independents feel sympathetic towards him.
Jim: Okay, we're going to wind down with that. This has been a rush transcript. Thank you to Ava and C.I. for taking notes for this transcript piece.
Jim (Con't): So Joe Biden. He's a uniter. There are Dems and Greens here and not one of us would ever pick Joe to head a presidential ticket. Thoughts?
Cedric: Joe is brussel sprouts. No one would choose to have him. No one's looking for a place with the best sprouts. I hear you laughing but I'm serious. I do block walk each mid-term and general election. I am one of the get out the vote people. And I cannot imagine how hard that will be in the fall of 2020 if Joe is the nominee.
Dona: Cedric, you're a Democrat. You're a young one, in your early 30s, and you're African-American. The thought is that Joe's base is solid among older African-Americans. Do you have thoughts on that?
Cedric: I don't think it's solid at all. They do, in my church and in my neighborhood, have warmer feelings towards him then people my age and younger but it's not solid. If Kamala Harris, for example, came in second in Iowa, a lot of African-American elderly support would go to her immediately. And if Cory Booker came in third -- third, he could come in that low -- in Iowa, you'd see a lot of African-American support go to him immediately.
Jim: So these are guesses?
Ann: No. My husband is Mr. Democrat. He polls on this. At church, in the parking lot after the service or if there's a church pot luck, he's going table to table. Cedric is always asking everyone who they'd vote for and who after that and stuff like that. It may be just the mood of our community in our specific area but Cedric knows that community. Which sounds like a great thing until your the mother of two young children and you have to dash into a grocery store on a Saturday morning and haven't turned yourself out because you're hoping to dash in and out before you bump into anyone you know. Being married to Cedric means everyone knows you.
Jim: Thank you for that, Ann. I bet Cedric would have humbled on out of that if you hadn't been here to answer.
Ann: I'm sure.
Jim: Betty, you've got relatives in Atlanta. What do you hear about Joe Biden and his support among the African-American community there?
Betty: Well, let me note, as I think you know, Joe doesn't have strong support among Blacks here in California of any age group. Back in Atlanta? I see fondness among the elderly. A portion of them. Now some of that will turn on a dime and you're crazy and don't old people if you don't know what I'm talking about. Like the couple on IN LIVING COLOUR who would turn on a dime when it was just the two of them. But some are generally fond. But generally fond a year out and what you're going to do when push comes to shove are two different things. In 2007, Hillary Clinton had huge Black support. All it took was Barack winning the Iowa caucus and the support for her crumbled a great deal. She still had support from some but the bulk went over to Barack when he looked electable because of Iowa.
Rebecca: It's interesting, what Betty's talking about, because Joe's campaign doesn't think he can win the first caucus, Iowa, or the first primary, New Hampshire. Last week, they began speaking to the press about how they didn't think they could win either. They were trying to lower expectations because they're sure they're going to win South Carolina -- they're sure they will have the African-American vote -- and they're hoping that if the campaign can hang on until then -- South Carolina will be the third to vote -- after Iowa and after New Hampshire -- that the press will not treat Joe's campaign like the mess that it is.
Cedric: And if he loses Iowa and New Hampshire, it will be a mess.
Jim: Even if he wins South Carolina.
Cedric: Yes. But I don't think he wins South Carolina if he loses those two. I think Betty's exactly right about push comes to shove. He lacks the charisma of Bill Clinton and I just don't see him losing the first two and any community, let alone the African-American community -- still standing with him in South Carolina.
Marcia: I'll jump in to say that I agree with that conclusion. He'll smell like a loser and people will flee. The African-American community? I know older people -- even in my family -- who have been convinced of Joe's electability. They say they'd like to support Kamala, Cory or Bernie -- those are the three second choices among the elderly in my family -- but they want us to get rid of Donald Trump. If Joe doesn't come in first in Iowa, expect to see even elderly African-Americans start to walk away. If he then also loses New Hampshire, his support crumbles.
Jim: Okay. Trump time. Cedric's "How stupid is Alyssa Milano?" and Wally's "THIS JUST IN! A HEAD OF CABBAGE HAS MORE BRAINS THAN ALYSSA!" went up earlier tonight. The idiot Alyssa Milano wants to impeach Donald Trump because he had invited leaders of the Taliban to Camp David. Now the meeting got called off. Any thoughts?
Elaine: If he's going to end the war in Afghanistan -- which it now appears he won't be attempting -- he's going to have to meet with leaders of the Taliban. Alyssa's an ahistorical idiot who really needs to stop Tweeting. Does she not know about the series of talks between the US and Vietnam? She's stupid. She has no education and she should have gotten herself into community college as soon as WHO'S THE BOSS went off the air. I hope she gets that outside of her tiny group of followers, the rest of us see her as an idiot. That's not just the right-wing, that's also those of us on the left. We hate her. She does not know everything but she thinks she does. There are thousands of topics I never cover at my blog. I don't pretend to know everything. She does and she knows damn little.
Trina: Which is to be expected when you grasp that except for the ages of 9 to 12, she never attended a school. Jodie Foster was a child actor -- no, she was better than Alyssa, Jodie was a child star. And Jodie's mother ensured that she didn't just get on the set 'school.' On top of being enrolled in a real academic school, Jodie then went on to college. All of that did not make Jodie an expert. It did give her resources to help her examine issues. Even so, she's not ever presented herself as an expert on everything. Alyssa's the loud drunk at the bar that won't shut up.
Stan: She had a career. Had. Once. Ceric and Wally often call her a "hagtress" in their joint-posts and that's a pretty accurate description. You know she has to wake up every day hating Jennifer Love Hewitt. JLH was still a child actress when she joined PARTY OF FIVE. After that show? She's starred in THE GHOST WHISPERER, THE CLIENT LIST, CRIMINAL MINDS and now 9-1-1. In terms of films? Jennifer's had hits with I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, THE TUXEDO with Jackie Chan and HEARTBREAKERS with Sigourney Weaver and Gene Hackman.
Kat: Well both women have released four albums. Unlike Alyssa, Jennifer has charted on The Hot 100, making it all the way to number 59 with 1999's "How Do I Deal" which also made it to number 36 on the pop chart. "Barenaked" made it to number 35 on the pop charts. So she has had two hits. Alyssa has had zero hit singles. She's had ten singles, none of them charted in the US. None of her four albums have made BILLBOARD's Top 200 sales list. Jennifer's BARENAKED made it to number 37. Alyssa's a failure and that's obvious in her Tweets. She's bitter and she's angry because her career's over. She can't have a Tina Turner comeback because she's got nothing to comeback to. She's a failure as a singer. She's a failure in films. She's a failure in TV.
Betty: I would just add that she's an idiot and a hypocrite. She's got a Tweet whining that the GOP is changing rules and primaries to keep Donald from having a challenger. So now the hagtress is interested in ballot access and fair primaries? Don't recall her complaining about the DNC rigging the primaries last go round for Hillary. Never seen her Tweet about the need for third parties to have fair ballot access. She's a hypocrite. She's an idiot. She really needs to just grasp that she's helped the whole world hate her with her gross stupidity and her foul mouth.
Trina: Let me jump back in. I agree with Betty but if we're going to talk about that idiot for even one more minute then it's time to talk abortion. Everyone here is pro-reproductive rights. We support a woman's right to an abortion. But Alyssa's bulls**t recently? She was the stereotype, the poster child for the right-wing when it comes to abortion. She brags about two abortions in one year? That's using abortion as birth control. She brags about how she's happy she did them and how she wouldn't have had her career without those abortions? Can she feed into the stereotype the right-wing has of women who have abortions any more than that? I'm sick of her.
Rebecca: She's desperate for attention. She's desperate for anything that she can ride to fame. She's a child actress -- not even a child star -- whose career is over.
Ty: Rob e-mailed that the fall season's about to start and he said that he's excited about USA's TREADSTONE "with SENSE8's Brian J. Smith." And he wonders if anyone has any thoughts on any other new programs?
Ava: Rebecca. Rebecca's weighed in on THE UNICORN with "women should reject 'the unicorn'."
Ann: And she's right. I'm so sick of these unattractive men being cast in roles where women are supposed to swoon over them. He's ugly. What woman is that desperate?
Rebecca: And remember the premise of the show is that, quoting from the CBS press release, "he becomes the most sought after single guy due to his description as an attractive working father."
Ruth: There is nothing attractive about the actor Walton Goggins. He looks like Clint Howard's ugly son.
Dona: SLATE's reporting that the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are set to formalize impeachment proceedings:
The House Judiciary Committee is getting ready to vote as early as Wednesday to formalize the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump. The resolution that will be up for a vote is set to lay out the procedures that will be used in the investigation with the goal of deciding by the end of the year whether to recommend articles of impeachment to the full House of Representatives. Although the probe has really been ongoing, the vote this coming week would set to increase the “officialness” of the investigation, a source tells Politico. At the very least, the vote would clear up the confusion in Democratic circles about whether the impeachment proceeding has actually been launched.
Dona (Con't): Any thoughts?
Mike: I have never heard of anything so stupid in my life. November 2020, a little over a year from now, we will have a presidential election. And Democrats want to waste the time the party's candidates for president should be making their case to the people by stealing focus with an impeachment? I'm so sick of this crap. Since before he was sworn in, the talk has been impeachment. I'm sick of it. Stop wasting our time.
Ruth: This is going to make the party look stupid. Voters have been clear in poll after poll that they want to see Democrats addressing issues -- kitchen table issues. This is a huge mistake.
Isaiah: I would agree. The only thing this will accomplish is energizing Donald Trump's base and making a number of independents feel sympathetic towards him.
Jim: Okay, we're going to wind down with that. This has been a rush transcript. Thank you to Ava and C.I. for taking notes for this transcript piece.