Truest statement of the week

The years long Russiagate investigation is responsible for ordinarily sensible people losing their minds. Hardly anyone recalls that the charge of collusion was actually disproven, that Robert Mueller only indicted for process crimes, such as those which occur when people let down their guard and talk to the FBI. Most Americans who know the name Paul Manafort think he was a Russian spy but don’t know that he went to jail for tax and bank fraud. Propaganda works very well when it is repeated over and over again.

Worse than the silly Trump inspired derangement is the way that those who call themselves left or progressive have chosen to defend federal law enforcement and bad legislation like the Espionage Act. The Espionage Act is a relic from the earliest days of the cold war, and Woodrow Wilson’s infamous Palmer Raids which targeted the left for persecution and prosecution. Barack Obama used it more than all previous presidents combined in order to prosecute journalists who published what the state didn’t want us to know. As for the FBI, its Counter Intelligence Program, COINTELPRO, created dissension in the liberation movement, targeted individuals for prosecution, spied on Martin Luther King and told him to commit suicide, and killed Fred Hampton and Mark Clark among others. The FBI continues to use informants to entrap Black people in phony terror cases.

It is truly shameful to see Black people exalt the FBI and act as if punishing Trump is the organizing principle of all political activity. The Trump organization is also under investigation by the New York Attorney General and the former president refused to answer questions put to him in a deposition. The right to remain silent is one of the most important in American law and should be used a lot more often. But copaganda television shows and Trump hatred have caused their own form of insanity, and his exercise of a fundamental right was widely lampooned. No one should ever be condemned for utilizing their fifth amendment right, not even Donald Trump.

Of course, this spectacle is also used to deflect from Biden administration failures. His approval rating is still low, for the simple reason that he didn’t do what he claimed he would for American voters. He continues to pour public money into the losing effort in Ukraine and needlessly provokes Russia and China. But who is paying attention if there is speculation that Trump put files in Ivana’s casket?

-- Margaret Kimberley, "Trump Derangement Syndrome Returns" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).

 

 

A note to our readers

Hey -- 

Monday night.

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.

And what did we come up with? 

• Truest statement of the week
• Was the War in Iraq All About Profit? | WHILE THE ...
• TV: The more you watch, the more you question?
• Take away his keys and license
• No truth in advertising (Dona)
• Jim's World
• Non-Beatitudes on Gratitude
• Tweet of the week
• This edition's playlist

Peace,


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

 

 

 

 

Was the War in Iraq All About Profit? | WHILE THE REST OF US DIE

 

TV: The more you watch, the more you question?

TV watching is a question generating occupation.  Like why doesn't comedian Matteo Lane already have his own NETFLIX special?  And, on NETFLIX's new INSTANT DREAM HOUSE is the audience supposed to be attracted to Danielle Brooks, Adair Curtis, Erik Curtis, Paige Mobley or Nick Cutsumpas?  Or when being undercover, how difficult is it to keep your stories straight?

That last one is generated by both EPIX and NETFLIX.  What follows, FYI, will be spoilers.

 

 

CONDOR is an attempt to tell James Grady's SIX DAYS OF THE CONDOR without using either a CIA asset behind the camera or in front of.  As a result, it contains a lot less CIA propaganda.  And doesn't try to fool you about some 'good apple' in the bunch.  The lead character Joe Turner (played by Max Irons) is better off -- in terms of ethics and sanity -- when he is out of the CIA.  As in the film, the lead character is an analyst for the CIA. He didn't want to join the CIA but he's 'recruited' in college.  Not like sometimes happens.  He's not set up on a lunch by a fairly famous 'leftwing' professor.  Instead, his uncle Bob (William Hurt) tries to recruit him.  Joe says no.  So Bob blackmails him by having Joe, his roommate and his girlfriend arrested.  It can all go away if Joe will only do what Bob wants.  

He creates ill will by not explaining to his roommate and his girlfriend why he's joining the CIA.  

His best friend Sam (Kristoffer Polaha) is in the CIA and can't tell his wife (Mae played by Kristen Hager) much more than that.  It's all secret in the secret spy biz and super secret about the corruption going on -- led by Brendan Fraser's Nathan, among others.  They torture, they lie, they blackmail.  It's pretty accurate portrayal of the CIA.  At one point, a group using the CIA for their own profit (a recurring them throughout the first two seasons) has a member who feels badly that they may have gone too far.  May?  When Sam and Nathan find out, it's time to kill the man.  

Sam can kill his friend but when it's his best friend, he struggles.  In the end, he gives his life to save Joe.  

Joe is framed for Sam's murder and for the murders that take place at the cut-off office the CIA is using.  All of this is in the first season, early in the first season.  Early on, our only quibble was Joubert.  In the 1973 film, Max von Sydow played the assassin.  In the series, Gabrielle Jourbert is played by Leem Lubarry.  The first episode, it seemed like miscasting.  But as the storyline settled in, Lubarry more than made the role her own.  

It's two strong seasons of twist and turns -- with a third on the way -- and highly entertaining.  

Also realistic.  Season one ends with Joe out of the CIA.  Like Al Pacino says in THE GODFATHER PART III, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."  And as he sinks deeper into the CIA, he becomes someone that he likes less and less.  He goes from someone with a clear line of what is right and what is wrong to someone willing to do whatever it takes to get the result he wants.  It's a story of corruption.

In season two, there's a mole within the CIA.  And the mole is very good about hiding and concealing.  As season two moves along, the mole finally is revealed by a slip up.  The mole is speaking to a boss about the boss' inside source (known only as "Phoenix") and the mole refers to the source as "she."  Accurate, but also a secret.  With that pronoun, the mole has slipped up and been revealed.  (You know the mole long before the slip up, by the way.)

Which prompts the question of how difficult is it to be a double agent?

That slip up exposes a great deal.  Prior to that, the mole was just trucking along with no one the wiser.

The only slip up and it exposes everything.

We bring that up because ECHOES on NETFLIX is all about secret identities.  Leni and Gina (both played by Michelle Monaghan) are twin sisters.  Early on, they begin switching.  Only their mother could tell them apart, she did by noticing that Gina was the more emotionally responsive while Leni tended to present a stony affect.  As adults, they continue this action at Leni's insistence.  

To be Leni, either twin pulls her hair to one side and speaks with a southern drawl.  To be Gina, the hair's parted in the middle and there's no drawl.  Leni's married to Jack (Matt Bomer) and they live on a farm with a lot of acres and horses.  Gina's married to her former counselor Charlie (Daniel Sunjata) and they live in LA where Gina is a best selling writer.  Every year, at Leni's insistence, they switch places on their birthday.

Jack has no idea.  Remember, we warned you about spoilers, Charlie keeps it hidden but he has caught on.  

And we're surprised by this.  Not Charlie catching on but Jack not catching on.  

Leni, pretending to be Gina, never wakes up by accident speaking in her own southern drawl?  Sure, you could pass that off as a joke once or twice, but they do this for decades.  And Gena never forgets to be Leni which she first wakes up in bed with Jack?

Maybe Jack's supposed to be slow because he's from the south.  We're not saying people from the south are slower than non-southerners, we're just trying to figure out how they keep the act hidden. Especially when Gina is prone to nightmares.  It's hard not to picture Jack having to spend a great deal of time repeatedly comforting Gina (who he thinks is Leni) during any year she's posing as his wife.

A trained spy, in CONDOR, during the one year on the show.  But Leni and Gina are able to pose as one another their whole lives.

Gina doesn't want to do it.  And, she really turns on this practice once she learns that Leni's done several things that hurt her sister -- like running off an old boyfriend.

ECHOES is a melodrama -- the type that might star Bette Davis in an old WARNER BROTHERS film (which, if made today, would be immediately shelved by WARNER BROS DISCOVERY in an insurance scheme).  It's a solid melodrama.  They bill it as "a limited series."  As much as we enjoyed it, we hope that's what it is.  The Emmy a few years back for limited series went to BIG LITTLE LIES -- and a Big Little Lie was told on the voters because the show was renewed for a second season after the award was handed out.  A second season might have sounded like a good idea but it was not.  First off, the show needed Alexander Skarsgard's energy.  He dies in season one.  They needed an actor similar to him in energy.  Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and the rest still gave strong performances but there was a needed energy missing.  Worse, they made a move too many shows make: Create a new character and give the new character as much time as the returning cast.

If there's a season two, the point should have been giving Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz) more to do.  (We like Zoe and know her, we also like and Know Nicole, Laura, Alex and Renee.  And we know and like creator David E. Kelley.)

Instead, every one was in a holding position with more or less the same amount of time in the story.  Bill's role was filled by Meryl Streep.

Meryl's been applauded for and accused of many things but "high energy" has never been one of those things.  She was a sink hole that destroyed season two.  She was a new character (playing Alex Skarsgard's mother) and it was like the final season of THAT 70'S SHOW bringing on Josh Meyers to play Randy -- no one wanted to see it.  The show didn't need Meryl and viewers didn't want her and she killed any thought of a third season.

ECHOES works as a self-contained series.  Yes, the ending is such that we could have a part two but, honestly, it's not needed and would probably tear apart all the grace notes the series rang.

Which brings us back to INSTANT DREAM HOUSE.  This is NETFLIX's best entry in the home remodel genre so far.  The twist here is that the remodel is done in 12 hours or less. And the home owners don't know that it's happening.  They entered -- or were entered by someone they know -- a contest for a home remodel.  And they are then informed that they didn't qualify.  Actually, they did and team (led by host Danielle Brooks) has an insider (another show with an undercover mole!) who is a friend or a family member.  That friend or family member is tasked with keeping them away from the home for 12 hours.  

Danielle then leads the team: Nick Cutsumpas (landscaping), Erik Curtis (construction), Adair Curtis (interior design) and Paige Mobley (special project; something to make the house pop) as they rush through a remodel of the yard, the outside of the house and the interior while the family is briefly away.  In one case, they assemble a kitchen in the warehouse -- with a floor and walls -- take down a wall from the house, and slide the remodel kitchen (new floor and walls and all) into the home.

Troubles can emerge.  The kitchen, for example, before it's slid in, they're not sure the house can withstand the weight.  Another time, they've opened up the attic by planning windows on the roof that open up but when trying to move the roof towards the home, they have not traction and have to instead use a helicopter to bring the windows in.  These are troubles specific to the project.  There are also routine troubles -- primarily, difficulty keeping the home owners (and dwellers) away long enough to do the remodel.

We've been rooting for the home owner who yells, "Blue! I hate blue! I never would have selected blue as a color!"  But so far, no one has been offended by the choices made in the surprise remodel.  We see no more than a few seconds of the people applying for the contest.  This may all be covered in the intake interview thereby avoiding the Rhoda (Valeria Harper) scene with Mary (Mary Tyler Moore) where Rhoda tells her, "Yes, Mary, you now have the car you love in the color you hate."  In THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW's "Mary and the Incredible Plant Lady" episode (written by Martin Cohan), Rhoda borrows money from Mary and, instead of paying her back, decides to buy her a new car -- a new yellow car, not knowing that Mary doesn't like the color yellow.

We liked the show.  So do a lot of people we spoke to.  Danielle Brooks has quite the following from this show -- the terms most often applied to her were "sexy" and "fun." And she is.  And we understand why Nick Cutsumpas has a following -- no one should be that good looking.  Adair Curtis and Paige Mobley also have their followings.  For us, we'd go with Erik Curtis as our pick.  Not as pretty as Nick, no, but few on this planet are.  But he's got a nice lived in quality that makes you root for him -- and he does have more disasters on this who than anyone except Hillary on LOVE IT OR LEASE IT -- that may be part of his appeal, watching him shift gears and overcome?  Again, TV watching prompts many questions. 

Take away his keys and license

In the news today?  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's husband:

The husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pleaded guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor driving under the influence charges related to a May crash in California's wine country and was sentenced to five days in jail and three years of probation.

Paul Pelosi already served two days in jail and received conduct credit for two other days, Napa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Solga said. Paul Pelosi will work eight hours in the court's work program in lieu of the remaining day, Solga said during Paul Pelosi's sentencing, which he did not attend.

So he drove drunk and he had a wreck.  And that's it?

He's 82 years old, he got drunk, got behind the wheel and had a wreck.  That's your warning sign.  He's 82, take his license away.  He is not a kid and he should know better.  The fact that he didn't and doesn't argues you to remove him from driving. He's 82, take the keys away.

He and Moneybags Nancy can certainly afford to hire a driving service.  

Take the keys away and make him surrender his driver's license. 

On gun control, Nancy insists:

Upon taking office, every Member of Congress makes a solemn pledge: to protect and defend the American people. This is the most important oath we take as elected officials – and to honor this promise, we must do everything in our power to keep our children and our communities safe from the threat of gun violence.

 

 

Yet when it comes to car violence caused by her drunken husband, she's not so concerned about protecting and defending the American people or keeping our communities safe from her alcoholic husband.

No truth in advertising (Dona)

Do you hate commercials?  

I don't hate them hate them -- in most cases.

But, let me be clear, I will never, ever buy any clothing from H&M active wear.

A few years back, I noted Jane Fonda's WALKOUT and how effective I found it to be.  I kept waiting for an update but haven't found one.  (And to save you time, if you didn't read it, I loved the beginners but loathed the advanced which was more like a dance class despite this being a self-proclaimed walkout.)  So we dropped DISNEY+ -- as Jim is writing about this edition.  And we can add on a new streamer.

When I watch PLUTO lately, and especially during JUDGE JUDY, I see a commercial where Jane Fonda is working out.   

 

 

So I assumed Jane had joined with some streaming service and we would have access to her workouts.   I was thrilled.  She was walking.  This would be great.  The company was H&M MOVE.

I made a note -- on a note pad, an actual note, not just a mental one or something in my phone -- and went to check it out.

It's for clothing.

Clothing I don't need.  Walkouts?  I do need.  Now I have noticed some of her workout videos -- mainly from the 80s and 90s -- are on AMAZON PRIME.  But I wanted walking.  

And H&M active wear misled me with the commercial so they can forget me ever buying from them.  If you come across a misleading commercial, I hope you boycott it as well.  Truth in advertising may be a lost cause but I'll treat it as a serious one.

Jim's World

Earlier this month, VARIETY reported that DISNEY+ was claiming 125 million subscribers.  Hmm.  Had to wonder if they include me on it?  We got it because it was DISNEY and we're parents.  But the MARVEL shows starring females are insulting -- as Ava and C.I. have long noted here.  Stan's also noted it at his site.  Equally true, the offerings are pathetic.  THE SIMPSONS?  Don't I already have that by subscribing to FX?  (I do.)  I kept waiting for the stuff that they used to show on DISNEY on ABC when I was a kid.  Never saw that or the films my dad loved -- basically all the Kurt Russell films.  Kept waiting.  Kept being disappointed.

So am I one of the 125?

I lost the card I subscribed on.  I use that card for all of our streaming -- YOUTUBE TV, NETFLIX, APPLE+, etc.  And I used it for DISNEY+.  When I got my new card, I updated everything. 

Well almost.  I spoke with Dona and we didn't see the point in keeping DISNEY+ because we really don't like their programming.  So I didn't update my credit card information and, in the next billing cycle, we were dropped.

From streaming, we were dropped.  But, though this took place back in April, DISNEY+ keeps e-mailing me as though I am a subscriber. 

In May, they sent me three e-mails, all with the same subject line "Please update your payment information."  They sent five in the month of June, all with that same heading.  In July, they only sent three (on July 21st, July 23rd and July 29th) with the same heading.  The first day of August, they sent me another "Please update your payment information" e-mail and then, on August 8th, they sent me one with a heading of "Your subscription will soon be cancelled."

It hasn't been already?

We stopped watching the week we decided not to update our payment info.  

Again, that was in April.  

By May, they knew that.  By June, they knew that.  By July, they really should have known it.

But, at least as of August 8th, I was still considered a subscriber.

That's why I wonder when they claim to have 125 million subscribers.

 

August 20th, "Your subscription will soon be canceled" arrived in my inbox:

 

 

Get back to streaming. We've been unable to process your payment. Because of this, we've placed your Disney+ subscription on hold. To regain access, please update your payment information. If you do not do so shortly, your subscription will be canceled.

 

 

We haven't paid since April, we haven't streamed since then, but they continue to count us as one of their subscribers.  No one should take their claim of 125 million subscribers seriously.

Non-Beatitudes on Gratitude

Gratitude -- too often overlooked.  Due to time or self-ishness or what have you, we really do not give thanks the way we should.

One thing we should all be thankful is the way Brian Stelter elected to go out on his CNN program on Sunday.  Throwing a huge hissy fit, he called out his bosses on air.  Now most of the time, we'd look the other way and hope a parent will show up and handle the unruly brat.  But we loved watching Brian Stelter throw his tantrum.

Want to know why?

You saw it, we saw it, future employers saw it which makes it all the more difficult for Stelter to end up on the air again -- at least on any credible outlet.  Would you hire him and put him on air knowing now that the way he plans to go out is to embarrass the company he had worked for and to trash the bosses?  

Then there's Texas Governor Greg Abbott.  There are two words he will not say -- no, not "love" and "freedom."  He probably won't say those either but we're talking about two words he does known the meaning of but runs from: "Climate change."

If you missed it, he's "signed a disaster declaration for 23 counties impacted by Monday's severe flooding."  But he won't say "climate change."  Instead, he runs from reality with a banner (or sash?) declaring the flooding is an event that happens "one-in-a-thousand-years."

We don't think Texans will put up with that kind of ignorance as they see, in the coming years, more and more damage from climate change.  So we are grateful that Greg Abbott is willing to play the fool publicly in full view of everyone so that they can grasp just how uninformed and ignorant someone like that is.  And, hopefully, they'll grasp that the last thing that we need is people like that -- fools like that -- in office.  

Tweet of the week

Ajamu Baraka Tweets:

We must not let the democrats confuse people with deceptive marketing ploys like the "inflation reduction act," that is neither an inflation reduction bill nor a climate bill.

blackagendareport.com

Why the Inflation Reduction Act is Less a “Climate Bill” and More a Poison Pill for Black and...

Among other problematic issues, the so-called climate provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act allow for more oil drilling on federal lands. Greenwashing and Democratic party duplicity are nothing...

8:36 AM · Aug 20, 2022

This edition's playlist

 

 

 1) Harry Styles' HARRY'S HOUSE.

 

2)  Diana Ross' THANK YOU.

 

3) Harry Style's FINE LINE.

4) George Ezra's GOLD RUSH KID.

 

5) Chrissie Hynde's STOCKHOLM.   

6) The Pretenders' THE SINGLES.

 

7) Adele's 30. 

 

8) Chase Rice's THE ALBUM.

 

9) Rod Stewart's  FOOTLOOSE AND FANCY FREE.

 

10)  Janet Jackson's UNBREAKABLE.