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."
We're upping the book coverage this year, like we did a year or so back. So my contribution tonight is two books.
I
Like What I Know: A Visual Autobiography is a book Vincent Price wrote
which was first published in 1959. As most of you know, I love syfy and
horror. And this is a book by one of my favorite actors: Vincent
Price. This is Vincent reflecting on how he was influenced by art. How
he felt everyone should have access to art. His mother was an
influence though she was not a big fan -- she liked photos, he explains,
especially of relatives, especially if they were in front of a national
monument. He became an art expert and voice offscreen due to this book
-- as his daughter explains in the preface to the book.
Vincent
Price is a legend. He died in 1993 at the age of 82. His films
included The Fly, The Last Man on Earth, Witchfinder, The Abominable Dr.
Phibes, The Pit and the Penulum, The Haunted Palace, House of Wax,
Edward Scissorhands and Laura.
I
liked Vincent's book. And I liked Vincent Price. I was always excited
when one of his films would come on TV on a Saturday afternoon when I
was a kid. And I still will go to Amazon and search out his videos and
watch them.
I always knew
he was bi. His daughter revealed that in 2015. That he was bi. I
actually believe he was gay. But I just felt at one with him watching
his great films (I'm a lesbian), even as a little girl. And, staying
with youth, mine was almost over when Thriller came out. No one but
Vincent Price could have pulled off the rap that is in the Michael
Jackson song (the title track to the Thriller album). He was one of a
kind and he wrote a very enjoyable book.
I
wanted to like John L. Flynn's book. But I really didn't. His book is
entitled 75 Year of Universal Monsters. And it should have been right
up my alley. I certainly loved the section on Dracula. I found the
section before on The Phantom of the Opera interesting -- especially how
the silent film version gave you the horror and underscored it --
keeping his face a mystery and then, when revealing it, letting you
react and then letting the female see it and react. But while it had
some interesting information it also had pictures.
And
maybe they work in the hard copy version. But in the Kindle version,
they don't work. They've got white spaces running horizontally through
every photo. Spaces? Bars, white bars. You can't enjoy any of the
photos. And the more I went along in the book, the more of a problem it
became.
Universal produced so many great horror films. Hammer
Films (UK) would take the lead on horror in the 50s and maintain it
well into the 70s. I wish that Flynn's book had offered more and been
better. I'll be talking with Ava and C.I. about the book and probably
go into more there.
If you're going to read one of the two books, go with Vincent Price's book.
April 7, 2023. A major truth about an Iraq incident emerges and NPR can
now report that Duncan Hunter is responsible for the deaths of two US
soldiers, Clarence Thomas is corrupt and exposed but look at our
'straight talkers' (grifters who've moved from the left to the right)
who just can't find that story, not even for a Tweet -- all this and
Tara Reade puts the food down long enough to fan girl over Marjorie
Taylor Greene.
Well I guess if you
scream and call them out loud enough, if you shame them just enough,
even idiots like Tom Bowman can belatedly due their damn job. Online,
I'm referring to "Tom Bowman acts our War Porn while NPR pushes for the money shot" from March 26. Offline, I'm referring to endless conversations with friends at NPR.
Tom
Bowman is supposed to be a reporter but he filed a 'report' March 16th
that was nothing but porn. His fellow reporter was too busy
impersonating a US soldier -- that should be as big a crime as civilians
who try to scam people for money. Graham "G" Smith acting like he's a
soldier with his use of "Man, . . ." and "bitch" thinking he's
sounding like a solider. WTF was that? how insulting to the
enlisted.
I can remember the first time I
went to an AIDS hospice. A friend put it together -- this was back when
many were encouraged to fear people with AIDS and told to be wary of
even casual contact. So I applaud the others who went with me but one, a
fortyish TV actor, immediately sat down on the floor in a main area,
removed his shoes and socks and thought this was a 60s rap session. And
I looked at the people there and noticed them staring at his bare feet
with dismay. This was their home and he thought he was cozying up to
them but he actually was insulting some of them with his actions --
which were overly familiar.
That's "G" Smith. Or should he have been billed on air as "G" Dawg?
If you missed it, here's the opening of the critique we gave:
Here's how it
started: A tip to Tom about the US military (when? This year? we're
never told). The tip was about events on April 12, 2004 in Falluja.
The US military lied. They concealed details of a death. They didn't
just conceal it in real time. When Bowman and NPR made an open records
request, they were told that there were no records.
This should have been big. It should have been huge.
A report like this should have ended with the family of the dead
Marine -- or his friends -- speaking about how disgusting it was that
the US military concealed his death for 'optics.' It should have had a
comment from Senator Jack Reed who is the chair of the Senate Armed
Services Committee.
It didn't. Instead we got a lot
of nonsense. Including the fact that no one ever needs to hear NPR
reporters tossing around the term "man" as though they're buddies with
the veterans. Graham Smith and Tom Bowman aren't part of the Marines.
They are journalists -- someone should have reminded them of that.
They use the 49 minutes to serve up war porn.
And to make themselves the stars.
You
can listen to the report and find out about how what books and
documents the two 'reporters' went through. As though that's the
story? Because that is what they made the story.
Not
the death, not the cover up. In fact most people listening to this
garbage may not grasp at the end, after 49 minutes, that Bowman and
Smith never revealed what the story needed revealed.
Here's Tom Bowman yammering away early in the porn:
I might run into a colonel I knew in Afghanistan or a general
visiting from his overseas command who can tell me what's really going
on. But there are some things, well, people just don't want to talk
about in the building. So I might call them at home at night, or...
(SOUNDBITE OF DRINK POURING)
BOWMAN:
...We might meet up at a bar, which is what happened one night at a
whiskey bar in D.C. Actually, this very bar, a guy who spent a lot of
time in Iraq told me a story very few people knew. He told me that early
in the Iraq War, there'd been this tragedy. U.S. Marines had dropped a
mortar or a rocket on their own people. That's what they call friendly
fire. Now, in this case, he said, one Marine was killed and another
seriously wounded. Friendly fire deaths - they happen. They happen in
every war throughout history. That's not what made his story shocking.
Here's the thing - he said that the Marine brass had actually covered it
up, burying the truth about this terrible incident because, he said,
the son of a powerful politician was involved in the screw-up.
"SOUNDBITE OF DRINK POURING"? That was needed to drive home that the two are trying for entertainment not not news.
A death was covered up. And it was covered up because "the son of a powerful politician was involved in the screw-up."
We need to know why the cover up and we need to know son of a politician.
They can add sound effects and they can brag on themselves but Bowman and Harris can't deliver the basic facts.
This is shameful.
49
minutes on this and they never told you a damn thing. It opened with
the tip. 49 minutes later, they had not asked anyone with DoD for a
public response, they had no response of outrage from no members of
Congress -- and we're never told who the son of the politician was.
But
we got sound effects! We got "G" Dawg talking in a manner he assumed
is how soldiers speak. We got "bitch" on NPR, didn't we? We got so
much -- so very much of nothing.
And
as I've noted here, my conversations with NPR friends were not just me
complaining. A large number of people at NPR were bothered by that
nonsense as well.
So Tommy
Bowman and "G" Dawg were put back on the story but this time with a
chaperone -- Chris Haxel. With a designated adult on the team, 22 days
after their 'report,' it can finally be told: Duncan Hunter.
22
days later. Despite the fact that Tom Bowman was told it was Duncan
Hunter on day one, NPR can finally release the name. I knew the name
back in March. A friend at NPR and I were on the phone and he told me a
listener or two had written in asking if it were Beau Biden. I said,
"No, it's not Beau, he wasn't even in Iraq that year. If someone wants
to figure it out, it's not going to be that hard, there weren't a lot of
children of Congress members in Iraq. There's Duncan Hunter --" and he
cut me off with, "I didn't say that." And his nervousness made it
clear that it was Duncan. They were working on getting a report on the
air and I said I wouldn't put it up here until they did. I wasn't
trying to 'scoop' them, my point was that it needed to be public
knowledge.
On the night of April 12, 2004, a deadly explosion rocked a
schoolhouse in Fallujah, Iraq, where U.S. troops had set up a temporary
base. Two Marines died and a dozen were wounded, some severely.
But as seared as the fatal explosion is in the men's memory, to the Pentagon it's as if it never happened.
An NPR investigation found that the explosion at the schoolhouse in
Fallujah was a tragic accident — the worst Marine-on-Marine "friendly
fire" of recent decades. Officers determined almost immediately that the
explosion was caused by an errant 81 mm mortar fired by the victims'
own comrades, yet the families of the dead men weren't told for years,
despite Marine Corps regulations. Some of the wounded have never been
told.
Three officers involved in the deadly mortar fire were
recommended for punishment, but that was rejected by the Marines' ground
commander in Iraq — Maj. Gen. James Mattis. Consequently, no one was
ever disciplined.
And NPR found another secret: An officer who was part of the confusion,
but was not cited for discipline, was the son of an important and
powerful member of Congress. Then-1st Lt. Duncan D. Hunter was working
in the command center that mistakenly approved the mortar launch. His
father — U.S. Rep. Duncan L. Hunter — was then-chairman of the House
Armed Services Committee, responsible for oversight of the war.
For those who don't know of nepo-baby Duncan Hunter, from WIKIPEDIA:
In 2017, the Department of Justice began a criminal investigation into Hunter and his campaign manager and wife Margaret Jankowski, for alleged campaign finance violations.[1][2] In August 2018, both were indicted on charges including conspiracy, wire fraud, and violating campaign finance laws.[3] In
June 2019, Jankowski pleaded guilty to corruption and named him as a
co-conspirator in using campaign funds for personal expenses.[4]
Also
in June 2019, federal prosecutors showed that from 2009 to 2016, Hunter
had spent campaign funds on extramarital affairs with five women,
including lobbyists and congressional staff.[5][6] In December 2019, Hunter changed his plea to guilty on one count of misusing campaign funds.[7] On January 7, 2020, he submitted letters of resignation to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California Governor Gavin Newsom, that took effect on January 13, 2020.[8] On March 17, 2020, Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison, scheduled to begin in January 2021.[9][10] He was pardoned by President Donald Trump in December 2020.[11][12][13] The next day Trump pardoned Hunter's wife.[14]
Maybe
if old "Mad Dog" had done his job, we wouldn't have had to endure
Congress member Little DD Hunter. But Mad Dog never did what he was
required to which is why it was embarrassing to watch some rush to
praise him just because he was an enemy of Donald Trump.
NPR's
in the news and not for the right reasons. Twitter has labeled them
government funded or something like that. They do need to be labeled
that way, they do get government money. And the whining over it -- not
every friend at NPR agrees with me on this (obviously) -- has been a
distraction all week long. We didn't comment, there was no reason to do
so, we had serious issues to cover. But since we're noting NPR right
now -- first time this week, we'll note that.
And
thank you to everyone at NPR who worked so hard to get the truth out --
the truth that Tommy Bowman and "G" Dawg never thought was all that
important.
49 minutes about a cover up and they couldn't tell you Duncan Hunter.
Now
let's go to the Glenneths. Starting with Glenneth Greenwald himself.
Not one tweet about Corrupt and Crooked Clary Thomas. But the
transphobes like Glenny insist that there are real issues and it's the
transgendered people who are distracting us from them. Okay, let's go
to John Stauber.
So
five videos on the topic -- one's a CBS NEWS report -- went up here
last night and this morning. Last night, it was the topic of the
roundtable for the gina & krista round-robin. And many community
sites covered it.
Tonight, I have a question: What do you have to do to get
impeached if you're on the Supreme Court?
Your
wife being part of organizing a riot doesn't appear to be an issue.
You're breaking the law doesn't appear to be an issue. Ken Meyer (MEDIATIE) notes:
ProPublica appears to have sparked a looming media uproar with their bombshell report on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ acceptance of luxurious perks from a Republican megadonor, which Thomas never disclosed as required by law.
The report delves into multiple instances over the years where the conservative justice and his wife, Ginni,
were treated to lavish vacations, yacht cruises, and flights on a
private jet, all on the dime of billionaire real estate developer Harlan Crow.
ProPublica analyzed flight records, internal documents, and interviews
with dozens of Crow’s employees to track his access to Thomas and the
number of times he schmoozed with Crow and his friends while accepting
princely trips to exclusive locations.
Crow
gave ProPublica a statement on his friendliness with the Thomases while
claiming he and his cohorts “never sought to influence Justice Thomas
on any legal or political issue.” However, ProPublica reports that
Justice Thomas never revealed anything about this in his financial
disclosures, which raises the possibility he violated ethical norms
along with a law requiring public officials to disclose these kinds of
gifts.
He
needs to be immediately removed from the bench. He cannot effectively
rule on others and other issues when he himself cannot follow the law.
He needs to be removed. Their should be zero tolerance. This is not a
kid. This is not someone who doesn't know the law.
Clarry T is not only supposed to know the law, he's supposed to rule on it.
If
he can't follow the law himself, no one should have any confidence in
him as a judge. He needs to be removed from the Court immediately.
Failure on the part of Congress to take action would constitute a
dereliction of duty.
Thomas,
a conservative who joined the nation's highest court in 1991 and is
currently the longest-serving member, has accepted the trips from real
estate magnate and Republican donor Harlan Crow nearly every year for
more than two decades, ProPublica reported, citing flight records,
internal documents, and interviews.
According
to the report, Thomas has vacationed with Crow on his 162-foot yacht
around the world, flown around on Crow's Bombardier Global 5000 jet, and
stayed at his private resort in the Adirondacks almost every summer.
A
June 2019 Indonesia vacation that Thomas and his wife went on, thanks
to Crow, could have cost more than an estimated $500,000 if Thomas had
chartered the yacht and plane himself, according to the report.
This
is corruption plain and simple. He needs to be off the Court
immediately. There is no excuse for doing it and there's no excuse for
failing to report it. This is corruption and this is betrayal of the
public trust. There is no way that he can continue to serve on the
bench. If Democrats allow him to they're spitting on the rule of law.
Everyone is accountable and no one is above the law.
He needs to go. This is grossly offensive. He needs to go. He needs to go immediately.
Now
for some news. Elaine's writing about PROPUBLICA's expose on Crooked
Clarence. Thomas has not been reporting many ''gifts'' such as private
jet travel. He is dishonest, he is shady and he needs to resign. John Wagner (WASHINGTON POST) reports:
Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) vowed in a
statement that his panel would take action in response to the ProPublica
report, calling the behavior of Thomas “simply inconsistent with the
ethical standards the American people expect of any public servant, let
alone a Justice on the Supreme Court.”
Durbin
and other Democrats renewed calls for the Supreme Court to adopt a
strict ethics code that would include a process for investigating
alleged misconduct, and some Democrats called on Thomas to resign.
“This
cries out for the kind of independent investigation that the Supreme
Court — and only the Supreme Court, across the entire government —
refuses to perform,” tweeted Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who has
sponsored legislation that would direct the court to adopt an ethics
code.
Sen.
Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who is chairman of the Senate Appropriations
subcommittee on financial services and general government, promised to
use the appropriations process to ensure that the Supreme Court adopts a
code of conduct similar to other members of the federal judiciary.
“The
Supreme Court should have a code of ethics to govern the conduct of its
members, and its refusal to adopt such standards has contributed to
eroding public confidence in the highest court in the land," Van Hollen
said in a statement.
“Is
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas corrupt? I don’t know,” Rep. Ted
Lieu (D-Calif.), a member of the House leadership team, said in a tweet.
“But his secretive actions absolutely have the appearance of
corruption. … For the good of the country, he should resign.”
Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who has previously called for Thomas
to step down, renewed her call Thursday, saying “[t]his degree of
corruption is shocking — almost cartoonish.”
He resigns or he
gets impeached -- those are the only two choices. He's made a mockery
of the law and he's no longer fit to preside over it. Resign or be
impeached. And shame on anyone who doesn't have the backbone to push
impeachment if he refuses to resign. We either have a Supreme Court
that follows the law or we don't. And his corruption reeks.
This
is not minor. The con artists have slammed transgender people and have
told us that they are a distraction. There are important issues to
focus on, they insist. As they focus on Donald Trump and how wrong his
case is. What case? He's been charged, he hasn't been tried but
they're acting as though he's behind bars on death row. They can't make
time to defend the transgender community and, in fact, they ridicule
it. And they're just calling balls and strikes, understand. This isn't
about partisanship.
Really?
Clarence is an embarrassment for the Republican Party so they just all happen to ignore it?
No, they're exposing themselves.
What Clarence did is outrageous.
And they have no comment. Not even a damn Tweet.
He
needs to resign and if he won't resign he needs to be impeached. The
Supreme Court is for sale -- that's the message Clarence has sent with
his actions. He cannot rebuild the public trust.
He needs to go.
But they can't say that. I guess they haven't gotten their marching orders yet from Tallahassee?
Let's
stay on Jonathan Turley for a moment because he came up in a Zoom
yesterday and I made a point that I didn't realize wasn't well known.
It goes to how outrageous his transphobia has been. I was talking about
how disgraceful that this person holding the Shapiro Chair of Public
Interest Law at George Washington University had been. A young man
asked me what "public interest law" is? That's a good question.
Public interest law is defined as anything affecting the well-being, the
rights, health, or finances of the public at large, most commonly
advocating for those living in poverty or marginalized populations.
While it can be tireless work, and the financial rewards are not great,
on campuses across the country, the desire to “give back” is growing.
Jonathan
holds the chair and spends all of his time obsessing over millionaire
Donald Trump. In the last 12 months, he's only offered one defense (and
that was last week and only because his image of a transphobe is
building across the country) -- and a weak one -- of the attacks taking
place.
Every week, that community is attacked.
This is QUEER NEWS TONIGHT from yesterday.
Jonathan
Turley is not fit to hold that chair. He's a Trump apologist who does
nothing to defend the powerless. He's taken more recently to attacking
schools and public education. He's sold his soul to FOX "NEWS."
He
and the others have exposed themselves, have shown their true nature.
Their silence on Clarence Thomas should be the last clue anyone needs.
Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, "Ava" started out this site as five students enrolled in journalism in NY. Now? We're still students. We're in CA. Journalism? The majority scoffs at the notion.
From the start, at the very start, C.I. of The Common Ills has helped with the writing here. C.I.'s part of our core six/gang. (C.I. and Ava write the TV commentaries by themselves.) So that's the six of us. We also credit Dallas as our link locator, soundboard and much more. We try to remember to thank him each week (don't always remember to note it here) but we'll note him in this. So this is a site by the gang/core six: Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. (of The Common Ills).
