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.
Marcia: Praise Jesus, praise Jesus.
Jim: You really loathe Matt Damon.
Marcia: I do. And it includes his queer baiting as well as his long history and the stunt he pulled this summer where he gave an interview to THE TIMES OF LONDON stating that he was having dinner recently with his family and he was tossing around the f-word when his daughter told him the word was unacceptable. He dismissed her -- according to him -- and she gave him a presentation on how that was hurtful and unacceptable so he stopped using the f-word. Then he got flack for it --
Betty: As he should have.
Marcia: -- an he then tried to say, oh no, that's not what I said. Whatever. What a liar.
Ty: And he does do the queer baiting. Whenever he's trying to sell a movie it's time for him to act like he's gay or he might be gay or he might do something gay. So for THE LAST DUEL it was, "Ben and I wrote a kiss for this movie at the end but didn't film it." Who cares? Just shut up, Matt. He's really become so annoying. He might have been okay if it was 1992 but time moved on even though he didn't.
Jim: I'm really getting hatred for him. And that's fine. But is it just about this or are there other things?
Rebecca: He's thick necked and short and people keep claiming he's a movie star when he isn't. His name doesn't sell tickets. Long ago, C.I. established that at THE COMMON ILLS. She even noted that BOURNE got more popular with each film indicating that people avoided it when it was just a Matt Damon film. He can't fill a movie theater. He's not popular. And people continue to call him a movie star when he's never been that.
Stan: I would agree and I would say that two strikes in a row might end his film career -- his summer film and now this -- but he's had so many flops and it's never stopped him. He's Patrick Dempsey in that he starred in one flop film after another. Let's be clear that he does not deliver at the box office and he's irritating. He went through that whole phase of 'why do people say I'm gay!' not that long ago.
Elaine: Why? Well they're joking but maybe they joke because you go on WILL & GRACE and say you're dating your high school boyfriend Ben. Maybe that's why?
Ty: And all the queer baiting. Which we tolerated, gay men tolerated. We did so because we thought he was a friend. Now, years later, we learn that he was using the f-word and so comfortable with it that he had no problem using it at the dinner table around his own young children. I mean, go away, Matt, go far, far away.
Trina: To be clear, no one feels this way about Ben Affleck, none of us here. But Ben's a lot more laid back in public and has yet to give an interview whining that some people think he's gay. Ben has a lot more common sense than Matt and Ben actually has been a movie star.
Cedric: I would agree with that. And the films Ben's made that were bad -- like REIGNDEER GAMES -- they usually have something that makes them worthwhile.
Ann: I'll go ahead and say it, Cedric and I have both grown fond of GIGLI over the years.
Isaiah: Ben has films that deliver. CHASING AMY, for example, ARMAGEDDON, GONE GIRL, THE TOWN, THE WAY BACK, JUSTICE LEAGUE, THE ACCOUNTANT, STATE OF PLAY, DAZED AND CONFUSED, FORCES OF NATURE, BOUNCE, CHANGING LANES, the one with Uma Thurman --
Betty: PAYCHECK. And when Ben's in a film, he's better than Matt which is obvious when they're in the same film. DOGMA? Ben has presence. Matt's the short guy that you wish would get out of the way so you could see more of Ben.
Jim: C.I.?
C.I.: I know both of them personally. I like Ben and I long ago gave up on Matt.
Ava: He's as irritating in real life as he is interviews.
Ruth: If George Clooney were the leader of a new rat pack, Matt would be damn lucky to be the Joey Bishop of the group.
Jim: Okay. Okay. Let's see. Iraq held elections. Thoughts?
Jess: I don't blame the voters for being apathetic. Over half of the registered voters refused to vote. I forget the percentage.
C.I.: As of Monday, they're stating that 43% voted. If that's correct. I'm saying what they're stating because I haven't done my own math. If that figure is correct, then 57% of registered voters elected not to vote.
Jess: I don't blame them.
Elaine: They've never been treated like citizens, not by their own government. They suffer to this day and that's just with regards to the basic services like electricity and water you can actually drink.
Trina: And the current prime minister --
C.I.: Mustafa al-Khadmi.
Trina: Thank you. He has done nothing to protect the young people of The October Revolution. They began protesting in the fall of 2019 and they were attacked by the government's security forces. They were wounded. They were killed. They were kidnapped. They were disappeared. This forced the sitting prime minister out. C.I.?
C.I.: Hayder al-Abadi.
Trina: Thank you. And Mustafa comes in as the new prime minister with all these promises about protecting the protesters and he doesn't. The kidnappings and killing continue. He does nothing to protect them or to protect the people. He acts like he's afraid of the militias.
Ruth: I would 100% agree with that. And it is awful how those young people have been treated. They are standing against corruption and pulling for a better Iraq. They need applause, they need support. They get none.
Wally: They really don't even get attention from the US.
Isaiah: They sure as hell don't. I mean, that Iranian thug that Donald Trump killed? He was treated by CODESTINK and others like a wonderful man -- a poet, they insisted. No, a thug. A thug who went after young people who were protesting for a better country. And, let's point this out, these were young adults but there were also some children present at these protests -- people under the age of 18. But to thugs that didn't matter. And I am appalled by CODESTINK but even I would never have believed that they would turn a killer of young people into a saint. For shame. For shame.
Marcia: I wish our country had supported the protesters.
Wally: But our government wouldn't even step up to the plate and say, "Stop killing these young people."
Marcia: No, they wouldn't.
Mike: C.I.'s had this point for some time that it's like the US government's goal is to exhaust the Iraqi people. Like if the US military just stays on the ground long enough, at some point the Iraqi people will all forget about what they had before the 2003 invasion and just accept the system and the leaders the US has imposed upon them.
Jess: Yeah, I can see that possibility too. Don't think it will happen but, yeah, the US government is stupid enough to believe it might.
Dona: I cannot believe that Jess, Jim, Ty, Ava and I were in college when this site started and we thought the Iraq War would be over before we graduated. Ava and I have children now. And the war is still going on. It's outrageous.
Ruth: And people seem to have accepted that as the norm, in the United States, people seem to have accepted it.
Elaine: Well that's in part because a lot of whores and hustlers tricked the people. Leslie Cagan and her nonsense of United for Peace and Justice and their decision, a day after the 2008 election to close shop because Barack Obama was elected president. They're whores. They don't care about peace and justice and they don't care about the Iraqi people.
Mike: It's funny to remember who used to grandstand on the war and acted like they gave a damn, they really gave a damn and watch them today. The Laura Flanders, the Norman Solomons, all the fake asses.
Betty: I feel like we owe the Iraqi people an apology for this war. I also feel we owe them an apology for all the Americans who walked away from the ongoing tragedy instead of demanding that US troops be pulled.
Jim: What happens when US troops leave?
Dona: The propped up government probably collapses.
Ty: I would agree with that. And I'm okay with that. This isn't the government the people wanted. Let them create their own government. Killings and kidnappings are taking place constantly so stop pretending the current system is good or necessary. It really is as though the US government is trying to run out the clock on Iraqi memories and resistance with the hope that, at some point, they'll just go along with whatever the US wants.
Cedric: No offense to anyone here. but I don't want to be here 10 years from now still having this conversation about how US troops need to leave Iraq. That needs to happen now. We need to be demanding it now. I can't believe how misleaders have pulled focus from an ongoing war.
Betty: Amen.
Jim: Okay, on that note, we'll wind down. This is a rush transcript. Our best e-mail address is common_ills@yahoo.com.