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."

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Truest statement of the week

There has been no sea change in the Black American world view since 1995, although eight years with a Black family in the White House clearly enhanced -- during Barack Obama’s tenure, at least -- Black folk’s identification with the U.S. State. When Obama threatened to bomb Syria in 2013 for allegedly carrying out a chemical attack on civilians, more Blacks (40%) than whites (38%) and Hispanics (31%) favored bombing Damascus. (see BAR, 18 September, 2013, “Black America More Pro-War Than Ever.”) However, majorities of all three groups were opposed to bombing Syria: Blacks 56%, whites 58%, Hispanics 63%.

A much clearer picture of Black anti-war sentiment – when not clouded by racial loyalties – was revealed by a Zogby poll conducted in early February of 2003, just a month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The pollsters asked: “Would you support or oppose a war against Iraq if it meant thousands of Iraqi civilian casualties?” A solid majority of white men answered in the affirmative, as did more than a third of white women. Only seven percent of African Americans favored a war that would kill thousands.

Hispanics lost some of their bloodlust when confronted with the prospect of mass Iraqi civilian casualties; only 16 percent are willing to support such an outcome. (Text from The Black Commentator, February 18, 2003 .)

If only 7 percent of Blacks could countenance mass carnage of Iraqi civilians, then war fever was an entirely marginal sentiment in the Black polity, which was fundamentally different than white America on issues of war and peace. Specifically, Blacks saw Arabs as human beings, even after two years of Arab-demonizing in the wake of 9/11. We at BAR maintain that the Black American consensus remains overwhelmingly anti-war, in both comparative and actual terms.

“Only 7 percent of Blacks could countenance mass carnage of Iraqi civilians.”

But you won’t get that kind of insight from #BlackLivesMatter name-giver Alicia Garza’s Black Census , which is the largest survey of Black public opinion in history but asked not one question on U.S. foreign policy -- as if Black people have no positions on war and peace. The Census was paid for by the corporate philanthropy that has poured into Black Lives Matter-labeled coffers to yoke the movement into the Democratic Party – which prefers that Black people let white folks do foreign policy. Garza is glad to oblige and has become a major player on the corporate side of the Party. (See BAR, 5 June 2019, “Black Lives Matter Founder Launches Huge Project to Shrink Black Lives.” And BAR, 3 Oct 2019, “The Corporate Democrats’ (and Alicia Garza’s) Get-Sanders Slanders.”)

So, while too many of BAR readers, including some of our closest friends and collaborators, will on November 3 be rewarding one of the duopoly parties for its record of opposing and actively stifling the vast bulk of Black public opinion on war and peace and social justice issues, please also consider giving support to those organizations that reflect the actual majority – and profoundly Left -- Black American worldview.

Below is posted the Black Is Back Coalition’s ground-breaking 19-point National Black Political Agenda for Self-determination, a document that will be highlighted at the Coalition’s November 7th and 8th “Black People’s March on the White House,” an annual event since the organization’s founding in the first year of the Obama Administration; and the Black Alliance For Peace’s demands for all elected officials and candidates in the 2020 elections. (I am a co-founder, and member, respectively, of BiB and BAP,) The anti-war positions taken by BAP and the self-determinationist stance of Black Is Back reflect the opinions of large majorities or very strong pluralities of Black people, as measured by the surveys and studies cited in this article. Those sentiments are marginalized and muted by the corporate duopoly with the collaboration of the mostly Democratic Black Misleadership Class, who are the undeserving recipients of Black and Left votes every election cycle – recurring cycles of despair and fear.

-- Glen Ford, "Peace, Black Self-Determination, and the Duopoly Trap" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).

Truest statement of the week II

Their favoritism showed itself again recently when a story of Joe Biden’s personal corruption was resurrected. The New York Post obtained photos and emails from a laptop that once belonged to Hunter Biden. The younger Biden is best known for profiting off of his father’s name.

In 2014 after the Barack Obama helped to overthrow the elected president of Ukraine, Vice President Joe Biden became the point person for all issues regarding that country. His son was appointed to the board of a Ukrainian gas company and was paid $50,000 per month in this capacity. He had no discernible experience that qualified him for this position. In recent years the younger Biden is best known for personal scandals and drug addiction. Documents in the laptop indicated that despite his many denials, Joe Biden may have met with Ukrainians doing business with his son. That is a clear conflict of interest by any definition.

Facebook and Twitter responded to the story by doing their best to make sure no one saw it. Anyone attempting to share the New York Post article on Twitter was denied the ability to do so and some users had their accounts locked. Facebook limited distribution of the article without saying exactly what that meant.

The end result is that millions of people who depend on these platforms for news missed out on a relevant story. Joe Biden may have lied about contacts with people connected with his son in a country which had become a de facto U.S. colony under his control. Despite all the talk of Republican fascism, it is Democrats and the technology companies which support them that are doing most of the censoring that is identified with fascist societies.

Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine are not a new story. The emails in the laptop just give more details about what he and his father were up to. The fact that the story appeared in the conservative New York Post thanks to Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon, meant that it automatically lacked credibility in the eyes of many people. Even so, the public had a right to read it and decide its importance for themselves.

Twitter hypocritically claimed that it won’t provide access to leaked or hacked material, but they rightly gave access to the recent leak of Donald Trump’s tax returns. The lies and the double standards are breathtaking and that is cause for concern.

-- Margaret Kimberley, "Freedom Rider: Biden and Liberal Censorship" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).

A note to our readers

Hey --

Tuesday morning. At last.

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.

And what did we come up with?

Peace,

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

Editorial: It must be nice to live in stupidity and avoid Iraq

Day after day, the Iraqis suffer. Day after day, the US war and occupation goes on. But if you live in the US, your lucky in that the media shields you from what's going on. They let you live in ignorance so you don't realize how much damage the US government has done in Iraq or how much we, as citizens of the United States, are responsible for the crimes that have taken place in Iraq and the crimes that continue to take place in Iraq.

This week's example of the abuse of the Iraqi government the US has imposed upon Iraq?

Reporter Suadad al-Salhy is being targeted. She reports for MIDDLE EAST EYE and she's previously reported for ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS, ALJAZEERA and THE NEW YORK TIMES. The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights Tweets:

@MAKadhimi
 must protect the journalist, Suadad al-Salhy, who is facing a lawsuit over her newspaper articles.  Al-Salhi is one of the most important and prominent Iraqi journalists.

@RSF_inter
 @AmnestyIraq
 @hrw
 @CPJMENA
 @SaadoonMustafa

11:21 AM · Oct 23, 2020

This is not an exception. The Iraqi government, regardless of whom is prime minister, targets journalists and has done so over and over. Martin Chulov, Hadi al-Mahdi, and Ned Parker are only a few examples of journalists who were targeted while trying to report in Iraq.

Now it's Suadad.

At the start of this year, Reporters Without Borders noted:

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is extremely concerned about the increase in attacks on journalists in Iraq, where three have been killed in the first month of the year and a fourth narrowly escaped a shooting attack yesterday. The Iraqi authorities must provide journalists with more protection, RSF said.

In yesterday’s attack, several motorcycle gunmen opened fire on TV presenter Ashteaq Adel on a Baghdad street without managing to hit her. She nonetheless had to be rushed to hospital in a state of shock.

Ashteaq presents a segment on Baghdad-based Asia TV’s “Extra” programme in which she explains news developments. In her segment on 8 December, she called on the authorities to accept their responsibility for the heavy death toll in the wave of anti-government protests that began last October. According to Amnesty International’s latest estimate, around 600 protesters have been killed.

‘’The Iraqi journalists covering the protests are no longer the only ones to be targeted because now even those who talk about the protests during their studio programmes are also in danger,” RSF’s Middle East desk said. “The Iraqi authorities must do everything possible to shed light on this attempt to murder Asia TV’s presenter and to protect not only her but also all the reporters and photographers who are being openly targeted.”

Photojournalist Youssef Sattar was not as lucky as Adel. He was killed by a shot to the head while covering a protest in the central Baghdad neighbourhood of Bab Al-Sharki on 20 January.

Two Dijlah TV journalists, reporter Ahmad Abdelsamad and cameraman Safaa Ghali, were fatally shot while covering anti-government protests in the southeastern city of Basra on 10 January. Abdelsamad died instantly while Ghali died of his injuries after being taken to hospital.

January’s three deaths have brought the total number of journalists killed since the start of the wave of protests to six.

Iraq is ranked 156th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

This is a pattern of real suppression in Iraq. The same US media that obsesses over everyone of Donald Trump's Tweets and insults refuses to note the reality of actual threats to journalism that have taken place in Iraq and continue to take place in Iraq.

Suadad should be a rallying cry. Her story is the story of a war against journalism. Her life is on the line for reporting in Iraq. And yet the US media can't be bothered with telling you that story.

Its guilt over its role in selling the Iraq War must be immense -- and should be.

Media: NPR doesn't trust its listeners

There is no justice in the mass media. If there were, for example, the NETFLIX streamer JACK WHITEHALL: TRAVELS WITH MY FATHER would have long ago ended with Jack buck naked yet again but this time over Whitehall Sr.'s lap taking a long overdo spanking for episode after episode of what can only be termed elder abuse.

And that's just the entertainment side of the equation. NPR doesn't do justice and they really hates the listeners. They think their listeners are stupid. They made that clear

Thursday, Shawn Langlois (MARKETWATCH) reported:

When the New York Post first reported unconfirmed allegations of influence peddling by Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, with a Ukrainian company, Twitter and Facebook FB, +2.39% took steps to limit its spread across social media.

Now, with Biden opponents touting fresh developments and promising the release of more information, mainstream media outlets are left to grapple with how to handle what has become an explosive topic heading in to the November election.

He goes on to note NPR ombudsperson Kelly McBride's Tweet and we're going to ignore the Tweet -- it just links to the NPR newsletter -- and instead quote from the NPR newsletter she linked to where she writes:

Responding to the New York Post

Carolyn Abbott writes: Someone please explain why NPR has apparently not reported on the Joe Biden, Hunter Biden story in the last week or so that Joe did know about Hunter's business connections in Europe that Joe had previously denied having knowledge?

There are many, many red flags in that New York Post investigation. NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik detailed most of them here. Intelligence officials warn that Russia has been working overtime to keep the story of Hunter Biden in the spotlight. Even if Russia can’t be positively connected to this information, the story of how Trump associates Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani came into a copy of this computer hard drive has not been verified and seems suspect. And if that story could be verified, the NY Post did no forensic work to convince consumers that the emails and photos that are the basis for their report have not been altered.

But the biggest reason you haven’t heard much on NPR about the Post story is that the assertions don’t amount to much.

“We don't want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don't want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions,” NPR Managing Editor for News Terence Samuel told me. “And quite frankly, that's where we ended up, this was … a politically driven event and we decided to treat it that way.”

The handful of stories that NPR has produced about the NY Post investigation have been limited to how Facebook and Twitter are restricting distribution of the story or how families of those seeking treatment for addiction are impacted by the portrayal of Hunter Biden's struggle. — Kelly McBride

What a load of garbage but that is all Kelly McBride is really. She's supposed to be about ethics. That's why she's the ombudsperson. But reading her nonsense about Nina Totenberg and the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it was clear that Kelly didn't get Nina's job or her own. In the column, she repeats Nina's claim that her long friendship with RBG didn't influence her coverage. Guess what? That's not Nina's call. Nina cannot both conceal the friendship in news reports and then be the one who determines that there was no conflict. Listeners should have known, in every report in which she mentioned Ginsburg, that Nina was close friends with her. They should have had that knowledge so they could evaluate the report.

Kelly should grasp that as public editor but it's clear that she doesn't. It's clear not just in that report in Nina but in many reports -- reports where Kelly interjects someone from POYNTER. Yes, Kelly discloses her relationship with that organization; however, she's there to serve NPR listeners, not to be part of a circle-jerk where she promotes the other organization she works for. In fact, as public editor, she shouldn't be quoting anyone from POYNTER -- it doesn't come off fair and it doesn't come off impartial. More to the point, since POYNTER is already helping the helpless Kelly by doing research for any column she writes for the listeners, they're already weighing in. They don't also need to be quoted.

A lot of what she does is wrong -- including ignoring the gender imbalance on NPR's ALL SONGS CONSIDERED (we reported on that most recently here). Take the way, in the newsletter we just linked to, she refers to an interview with a guest: "But over on Twitter, many listeners were cheering Inskeep on for putting Anton in his place." It's the purpose of NPR to put guests they invite on 'in their place'? That's an interesting way of looking at it. Equally wrong for the listeners' advocate is devoting a column to the concerns of 'journalist' James Fallows. He shouldn't be taking up listener's time to begin with. The public editor is supposed to be serving the listeners. Does Fallows not have enough room at THE ATLANTIC to say what he wants already? Has his time on NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED WEEKEND broadcasts not given him plenty of airtime? More to the point, shouldn't Kelly -- having just written of Nina's friendship with RBG -- be disclosing her own long friendship with Fallows?

He's not just a journalist, he's a friend. Maybe that's why he's allowed to leap over all the serious genuine concerns NPR listeners bring to Kelly? Why he gets to cut in line?

And why does reality get sidelined by McBride? The report by THE NEW YORK POST and the later press announcement by Tony Bobulniki didn't result in reporting, they resulted in character assassination. It was a replay of the Tara Reade story. She brought her allegations of assault by Joe Biden when she worked for his Senate office to the public. Instead of investigating her claims, the press investigated her. They were 'helped' (fed) by Joe Biden's campaign -- a detail that they either buried in their reporting or hid outright. The same is true of all the attack pieces that have been written -- especially by POLITICO. It's good that Joe's friends in the press work so hard for him -- if not for the American people. Serious charges have been made against Joe and those charges deserve to be addressed and examined.

A real public editor might explore that. A real ombudsperson wouldn't make some weak-ass statement about how the story wasn't corroborated. After all, NPR reported extensively on E.J. Carroll. She's the woman who says Donald Trump raped her. Excuse us, rape is "sexy," she later told Anderson Cooper. So who knows what the crazy loon is claiming. But what is known? NPR covered that story extensively. Are they ashamed by that coverage? The would explain why a search turns up this E. Jean Carroll page and lists only three stories about her. For example, she appeared on WEEKEND EDITION June 23, 2019. That wasn't NPR's first reporting on the story -- two days earlier, Jessica Taylor reported on the allegations. Neither of those stories are listed on the E. Jean Carroll page. Oh, look, here's an ALL THINGS CONSIDERED report on Carroll from June 27th that also doesn't make NPR's E. Jean Carroll page listing 'all' the stories they've done on her.

She's treated a real -- this despite her comments on live TV about rape being "sexy." This despite her boasting of herself on her website, "First woman to come up with a workable plan for getting rid of the male sex." Once upon a time, crazy talk like that would have gotten you labeled crazy.

Maybe Kelly McBride could explore that? Or how the press always is a circle-jerk? Not only does Kelly practice it but they all do. That's why nutty E. Jean Carroll got coverage in the first place -- she is a journalist. They didn't rush to rip her apart, did they? No, they saved that for non-journalist Tara Reade.

Tara Reade is not going to go away -- nor should she. Here's the really scary thing: The press isn't going to change either. Should Joe Biden win the election, the press is going to continue to cover for him. If they couldn't investigate him during a campaign for the presidency, they're not going to suddenly start after he's sworn in. In fact, they're far less likely to -- it would require them admitting they'd made a mistake and hadn't done their jobs. As we've seen with regards to the Iraq War, confessing to malpractice isn't in the journalist make up.

Video of the week

#TheJimmyDoreShow

Why Journalism Sucks In America!

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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): First up, we did "200 Best Comedy Films" and "500 Greatest albums of the rock era" recently and there are a number of e-mails. One, from Rita, says she bets C.I. is more bothered by the album list than the film list and bets "after C.I. recently posted multiple videos by the Pointer Sisters" that she's bothered that they were not included.

Ty: I think Rita may have missed the fact that The Pointer Sisters made the 500 -- in fact, their album BREAK OUT came in at number 64.

Ruth: That was a long, long list. The album list. I do not remember the effort in doing the film list as taking as much time or being as difficult. I would say we were all in agreement with the bulk of the comedy list -- that is all of us, the readers who participated, Dallas and everyone participating in this roundtable -- than we were with the album list.

Stan: Even with 500 slots?

Ruth: Yes.

Elaine: I would agree with Ruth. I'm okay with Stevie being top of the list with TALKING BOOK. I might have preferred his SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE being number one. But there are a number of albums that I love which didn't even make the list. I'm much more comfortable with the film list -- maybe because I'm much more into music than I am films. Stan, do you think the converse could be true for you?

Stan: You're probably right there. I watch movies constantly. I really enjoy music but I am a film buff. So, yeah, I was more bothered by the film list.

Jim: Specifically?

Stan: I would've liked us to either have labeled it American films or to have included more British films or even MURIEL'S WEDDING from Australia. As it is, if C.I. hadn't championed Peter Sellers' THE NAKED TRUTH, I don't think that would have even made the list and it's one of the few non-US films to make the list.

Jim: Marcia, did you feel similar?

Marcia: No. If it had been a sy-fy list, I would have been more vested. I do really like comedy films, they're my second favorite after sy-fy, but I felt like at least 100 of the 200 choices were films I would've picked all by myself.

Rebecca: We should also note that the movie list wasn't a 'shock' or 'new.' By that, I mean films have long been covered and discussed here. Basically any comedy that made our FILM CLASSICS OF THE 20th CENTURY series made the list. And we'd done movie lists here before. We used to do a lot of music pieces in the first ten years of the site. Especially the first five. But that tapered off. So while movies have been discussed and debated here -- and even in the community newsletters -- it's really just been Kat and Elaine noting music for the most part over the years.

Kat: That's a good point. Over 15 years, we have built a consensus among ourselves and with our readers on what our tastes were in films. I love Goldie Hawn, for example, but I didn't nominate one of her movies for the top 200. That came from readers on the group I headed. That's not that I don't like Goldie, I love her movies and they belong on that list. But it's an argument we long ago made here, that Goldie has made some of the funniest films. I would've honestly nominated TOWN AND COUNTRY and would love a piece on that film at some point in the future.

Mike: And picking up on that theme, Jane Fonda had a number of films on the list as well. Everyone that made the list had a piece on it written by Ava and C.I. for this site. Remember that, in 2005, Jane Fonda's first comedy film in years was released. In the lead up that film opening, MONSTER-IN-LAW, Ava and C.I. did a weekly piece where they reviewed a Jane Fonda comedy film. What Rebecca's getting at, that the list was the product of a 15 year discussion, is true.

Jim: What I'm getting from this is that we haven't done enough music coverage but, curiously enough, the one feature suggested in this discussion, by Kat who covers music, is that we do a piece on the film TOWN AND COUNTRY.

Kat: C.I. has proposed we do a group piece on a Cher album and has proposed that every edition for the last six weeks.

Jim: That's true but in this edition the only feature suggested for an upcoming week has been about a film. Okay, the election is breathing down our necks. Any predictions?

Ann: I agree with the point Ava and C.I. make in their media piece, a press that refuses to hold Joe Biden accountable or investigate him when he's the candidate for president is not going to, if he's elected, suddenly start doing their job.

Jim: Tara Reade had an online conversation today. Any thoughts on media coverage?

Betty: The media's going to ignore it. The most we or Tara can hope for is that in ten or so years when there are different columnists, someone will stage whisper in a column "I believe Tara Reade."

Isaiah: I think Betty's right. I was thinking about Juanita Broaddrick. There is a large consensus now that she told the truth. I believe her, by the way. But I don't see the press, not even the ones claiming to believe her, doing interviews with her or rushing to report her story. It's like they say, "I believe her," and they feel they've done their job. I think Tara's got supporters today and that their number will grow over the next few years but unless there's a sea change in the press, that's all it will be, public opinion on Tara's side but the press refusing to offer anything more than a simple declarative single sentence.

Marcia: And it's too bad because Tara's telling the truth. I believe her.

Jim: We all do, all of us participating.

Ann: As Ava and C.I. point out, the press did the same thing to Tara that they've done regarding Joe's e-mails. They've refused to address and investigate the charges. Instead, they've attacked the people who came forward.

Rebecca: The press is in Joe Biden's pocket.

Ruth: Which makes it very difficult for them if Donald Trump wins. They are biased against President Trump. Their coverage has been biased and they have defined their role as defeating his re-election. So if he is re-elected, he gets a pass because a lot of people are not going to believe the press, even if they are telling the truth about Mr. Trump, because of their past history of bias -- that is real and perceived bias. That is why you do not takes sides if you are the press. They could have a real, a true, explosive report on Donald Trump in 2021 and a lot of people would not believe them because of their past bias against him.

Cedric: They have shot themselves in the foot.

Ruth: Exactly.

Cedric: And that's true of the 'faux' resistance as well. They became the little boy who cried wolf because they seized on every rumor and every Tweet as something to impeach over. They went to that well over and over and they made themselves a joke.

Wally: On the election, Stan made a point last week that I wanted to echo. In his post "HAPPY DAYS and STAR TREK," Stan noted that he was tired of this nonsense of people using TV shows and films we love to raise money for Joe Biden. I'm tired of it too. I'm tired of people trying to turn everything into a partisan activity. If you're promoting your new show or movie tomorrow, make it clear to me that ten or twenty years from now you plan to use the project as a way to fundraise for a politician, let me know then because I am not okay with it. Don't use my being a fan of STAR TREK or whatever as your way of fundraising for your candidate of choice. That's not the relationship I entered into with the TV show. You want to raise money as individual, go for it. But don't try to use a TV show or film to do that. It sullies the art.

Dona: Good point and thank you, Stan, for catching that. I don't think anybody else has really explored that topic. Trina, you haven't spoken. Election thoughts?

Trina: I will be so damn glad when the election is over. Hopefully, WSWS will drop the crazy and return to normal and I can read it and enjoy it again. I'm tired of their covert attempts to pimp Joe Biden with loony conspiracy stories about Donald Trump. I really don't get it because I do believe that there is enough wrong that Donald Trump does that you do not have to make up s**t. And all making up s**t does it make it harder to hold Trump accountable when he is doing wrong.

Jess: Very good point. I'll speak on the election as a Green. Ann's a Green too so she might want to jump in. But at this site, we have always been welcoming of Greens. I hope that would be the case even if I wasn't here at the beginning. But it's what we've been. And as I survey the landscape, I see so many trying to bully or shame Greens. That's disgusting. It's very disgusting that Amy Goodman refused to bring Howie Hawkins on her show this year. He is the Green Party's presidential candidate. In her pathetic attempt to elect Joe Biden, she has shut down free speech and kept Howie off her program. As Ava and C.I. have reported, she didn't even note it in headlines when he got the party's presidential nomination. This is outrageous and it shouldn't be allowed to pass for normal.

Ann: I would agree, Jess. Green Party members are real people. We're not rushing to vote for Democrats. We are our own party and for Democrats to ignore us or put us down is outrageous. I'm tired of the bullying and shaming and tired of getting it from so-called 'progressives' who are not progressive enough to allow someone to vote for their own beliefs.

Jim: Great points and this was a planned brief roundtable so we're going to stop it there. This is a rush transcript, thank you to Ava and C.I. who took notes for this transcript.

Knots Landing

Earlier this month, some cast members of KNOTS LANDING (including Michele Lee, Joan Van Arc and Donna Mills) got together online to talk about the show.

And what a show it was, running 14 seasons.

Some of our favorite moments?

When Val gave birth but the twins 'died' . . . but were really kidnapped.

When Abby brought home the twins.

When Val gave Lilimae a home perm.

When Lilimae and Cathy confronted Lilimae's son (and Cathy's husband) Joshua and he fell off the roof to his death.

When Abby confronted her daughter Olivia over drug use.

When Abby and Gary finally slept together.

When Karen first met Mac.

When Laura forgave Val and made plans to leave town before her illness worsened.

When Anne was homeless.

When Paige would dash into Karen's kitchen offering to help -- dash in as soon as she knew all the dishes had already been washed.