Truest statement of the week

So it turns out that classified documents have now been found in the garage of the Wilmington, Delaware, home of U.S. President Joe Biden. They were caught red-handed, rooming with his Corvette, but he’d like everyone to know that it’s “a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street.”

Oh, in that case, carry on, then. Maybe just put them inside the Corvette, in a child’s car seat, and make sure that the car has a wheel lock on it. Unfortunately for Biden, having classified material under lock and key at home doesn't actually excuse its presence there. But if it’s really not that big of a deal, then let’s see it and judge for ourselves. I won’t hold my breath.

-- Rachel Marsden, "If classified docs found at Biden’s place are no big deal, then let’s see them" (TRIBUNE AGENCY). 

Truest statement of the week II

Biden is the leader of a supposedly democratic government that is buried in secrets, many of which are known to other governments in the world, but are not made known to the American people. As far as the US ruling class is concerned, the American people must be kept in the dark about how US wars are prepared and what the trillion dollars in annual US military-intelligence spending is really buying. It fears that if the American people knew what crimes were being carried out, they would rise up in anger and outrage.

That is why a courageous exposer of secrets like WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is being held in a British dungeon on a US extradition warrant: his “crime” was to make public evidence of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, records of torture at Guantanamo Bay, diplomatic cables documenting conspiracies to subvert and bully governments around the world, and CIA techniques for hacking and surveillance.

The American corporate media has turned the Biden documents affair into a further justification for suppressing secrets and keeping the American people ignorant of what is being done in their name.

The World Socialist Web Site will not join in this campaign. We base ourselves on the tradition of the Bolshevik Party. When the working class took power in the 1917 October Revolution, one of the first actions of the new government was to publish the secret diplomatic agreements of the Tsarist regime, in which the world was to be carved up among the imperialist powers. That is how the international working class must be defended against the provocations of world imperialism.

 

-- Patrick Martin, "Biden and the secrets of the national security state" (WSWS).

 

 

 

A note to our readers

Hey --

Tuesday 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

Rachel Marsden gets a truest.

• Truest statement of the week II

Patrick Martin gets another truest.

• Editorial: This has been their moment

A proud moment for the Iraqi people.

• TV: It's a disaster

Ava and C.I. take on VELMA.

• 10 worst sitcom characters of all time

Top ten lists.  We should do them more often.

• Books (Marcia, Ava and C.I.)

Marcia discusses the book she reviewed.

• Not father of the year

Hunter Biden is a nightmare.

• TV show we'd love to see

A GOLDEN GIRLS reboot?

• Marcia reviews THE SEWING CIRCLE

Reposting Marcia's book review.

• Hundreds of ultra-short private jet flights to Dav...

Greenpeace.

• Tweet of the week

Ajamu Baraka gets the Tweet of the week.

• This edition's playlist

 What we listened to while writing this edition.

 

Peace.

 

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

 

 

 

Editorial: This has been their moment

Thursday, the Arabian Gulf Cup continues as Iraq faces Oman.  However the match goes, Iraq's accomplished a lot.  Including winning last Thursday and again on Monday.  

Ameen Al-Dakhil is one of many young Iraqi talents to look forward to watching in England soon. However, one superstar in the making that every fan needs to be keeping an eye closely on is @Ali_Hayder29 at U21 Stoke City.

Bags of fresh Iraqi talent! 🇮🇶 pic.twitter.com/JxDjaMAxm0

— Iraq Football Podcast (@IraqFootballPod) January 13, 2023

Behind the scenes before and during the match at the Basra International Stadium yesterday in the Lions of Mesopotamia's final group match of the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup. 🇮🇶 🇾🇪

📹 @IRAQFA#خليجي25#خليجي_25#خليجي_25_بصراوي pic.twitter.com/C1q2lSNivj

— Iraq Football Podcast (@IraqFootballPod) January 13, 2023

Dressing room celebrations after the 5-0 win over Yemen at the Basra International Stadium. 🥳

Have a look at Amir Al-Ammari, though! The midfielder might have been born in Sweden but he's 100% Made in Iraq 🇮🇶 😂

pic.twitter.com/nQBYDgs6sV

— Iraq Football Podcast (@IraqFootballPod) January 12, 2023

FT: 🇮🇶 #Iraq 5-0 #Yemen 🇾🇪

Our Lions top Group A with a crushing victory! Bring on the semi-finals! 💪#IRQvYEM #GulfCup2023 pic.twitter.com/9gXjeOnRs4

— Soccer Iraq (@SoccerIraq) January 12, 2023

Iraq fans in Baghdad celebrate as the Lions of Mesopotamia score past Yemen in Basra! 🇮🇶 🦁

📹 @IRAQPCes#خليجي_25 pic.twitter.com/hlZ3RngOmT

— Iraq Football Podcast (@IraqFootballPod) January 12, 2023

@AFP TOPSHOT
An aerial view shows Iraq supporters gathering in a designated fan zone in Iraq's southern city on January 16, 2023 to watch the Arabian Gulf Cup semi-final football match between Iraq and Qatar.
Hussein FALEH / @AFPphoto pic.twitter.com/9jM8ExccnD

— Hussein Faleh | حسين فالح (@Hussein_Afp) January 17, 2023

Iraq Beats Qatar To Set Gulf Cup Final Showdown With Oman - https://t.co/Tj63QKnsOh #PeterObiInChathamHouse/Honda/#NSPPD/THE LORD HAS HELPED ME/Ronaldo/#MondayMotivation /Kenneth Okonkwo/Arsenal/Reno pic.twitter.com/rUO3ZPqdgL

— Kapital FM Abuja 92.9 (@kapital929) January 17, 2023

#Iraq Goal 2-1 #Qatar in Arabian Gulf Cup.https://t.co/AS4ZPGFLHh

— Adhara Kasem (@KasemAdhara) January 17, 2023

#Iraq's Ibrahim Bayesh, celebrates with teammates after scoring their opening goal at the Arabian Gulf Cup's semifinal football match between Iraq and #Qatar at the Basra International Stadium in Basra, Iraq.https://t.co/LBgzQmS35t

— Adhara Kasem (@KasemAdhara) January 17, 2023

Watch the moment when the referee blows the final whistle as Iraq reach their first Arabian Gulf Cup final in 10 years! 🇮🇶 ❤

📹 @ADSportsTV pic.twitter.com/l6013ASGhe

— Iraq Football Podcast (@IraqFootballPod) January 16, 2023

This is their moment and they should be thrilled.  Now if only the government had the same energy and drive that the team and the fans do.

TV: It's a disaster

HBO MAX killed off the film BATGIRL, the TV shows MINX, WESTWORLD, RAISED BY WOLVES, LOVE LIFE, BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER, MADE FOR LOVE, CLOSE ENOUGH . . .  And so many more.  But somehow they let VELMA air.

If there's a bigger waste of time and money than VELMA on TV, we're hard pressed to name it.  

For those who aren't aware, the Velma of the title is the Velma who debuted back in 1969 on SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU back in 1969.  And VELMA brings on like Shaggy, Fred and Daphne but leaves out Scooby making it like watching an old episode of WELCOME BACK, KOTTER filmed after John Travolta has left the series.

HBO MAX released (like bad gas?) two episodes last week and plans to release two a week until all ten episodes are released.  And then?

It should be immediately dropped and forgotten.

Velma Daisy Dinkley has been many things over the years -- including Jewish and bi-sexual.  On this show, Velma has been mid-dated and is now a lesbian and an Indian-American.  

Mid-dated?

That's one of the biggest problems for the show, mid-dating.  

Mindy Kalig.  Boys and girls, many, many years ago she appeared on the cult series THE OFFICE and THE MINDY PROJECT.  She seemed fresh then.  She's gone stale now.

VELMA has Velma offering 'pop culture criticism' that might be of interest if this were the nineties or even the early aughts.  Time has moved on, even if Mindy can't.  At 43, she seems to think that what was going on when she was a child will pass for a current pop critique.  It's as though she never saw 1996's SCREAM -- or, for that matter, 1993's SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE.

In one voice over after another, Mindy's Velma is belaboring tired points that were made decades ago.  It's as if someone hacked into JEZEBEL yesterday and started posting the embarrassing doodles from the early '00s FEMINISTING.  

There's also something very smutty about a show, a cartoon, that wants to call out sexism while also showing multiple women speaking naked in the shower as the camera objectifies them.  And while butts are shown, boobs are ridiculously covered up with some sort of body wash that works like the whip cream on Chris Evans' pecs in NOT ANOTHER TEEN  MOVIE.  It gets worse as a corpse is discovered and we've still got naked women -- including a poorly drawn Daphne.  Can someone explain, by the way, if all the animation attention was supposed to go into drawing Velma and that's why the look of the other characters appear half-thought out?  

Not much thought or care has been taken visualizing those characters or, for that matter, writing them.

Instead, we're supposed to focus on the character people call "Velma."  But it's not "Velma."  Velma's been around for 50 years, this isn't her.

 

If Mindy had created this show based on a new character, it probably would have worked better. Some are bothered that Velma is gay. That's not a concern for us. But we are bothered by how Mindy portrays Velma -- as though she's sporting a chip the size of Utah on her shoulder. And, jinkies, Velma is and has been many things but bitter was never one of them.  

10 worst sitcom characters of all time

1) Goober Pyle (THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW and MAYBERRY RFD)

2) Randy Pearson (THAT 70S SHOW)

3) Gary Levy (RHODA)

4) Jack Nagle (CURSED) 

5) Jeffrey P. Brookes III (THE ROPERS)

6) DJ Tanner (FULL HOUSE and FULLER HOUSE)

7) Hazel Burke (HAZEL)

8) Katherine Calder-Young Papadolis (WEBSTER)

9) Nick Tortelli (CHEERS and THE TORTELLIS)

10) Vicky Bradford (THREE'S A CROWD)

 

 

Books (Marcia, Ava and C.I.)

 

 

 Last week, Marcia's "The Sewing Circle" went up and we're talking to her about the book, Michael Madsen's THE SEWING CIRCLE.  So what did you think?

Marcia: I just didn't know what to think.  There were so many errors.  And I was so eager to read the book.  I'd heard about it for years.  And I wanted to love it.  But then they'd say someone who died of a suicide and I'd look it up and he died of a heart attack -- brought on by a tennis game.  Or the author would tell me George Cukor and William Haines were arrested together and they were named in news accounts so it destroyed William Haines career and I'd read up and find that George Cukor was not reported on -- if he was there.  It was very disappointing.

Do you recommend the book?

Marcia: I didn't find any errors regarding the women and the women are the focus of the book -- THE SEWING CIRCLE is about Hollywood lesbians from the golden age.  

And you weren't trying to fact check?

Marcia: No.  The author said X died from suicide and it was because his voice didn't transfer to sound.  I thought, "How sad."  I wanted to learn about him and what sort of success he had in silent films.  So I go to WIKIPEDIA and find out that he did make the transfer to sound and that he didn't take his own life.  This book was published in 1995, you would have thought corrections would have been made to it.  And it's a rather infamous book.

William J. Mann's BEHIND THE SCREEN: HOW GAYS AND LESBIANS SHAPED HOLLYWOOD.  It's not going to have the star power that THE SEWING CIRCLE does, but it is a riveting account.

Marcia: I'm going to have to look that one up.

Star power.  Talk about some of the women covered in THE SEWING CIRCLE.

Marcia: Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Nazimova --

Nancy Reagan's godmother.

Marcia: Yes, she was.  I get your point.  We need to make it clear that despite the work of the Marjorie Taylor Greenes, the LGBTQ community was part of society even to the point of being the godmother of former First Lady Nancy Reagan.  Anyway, I keep coming back to the question of do I recommend the book?  Yeah.  If only to satisfy curiosity because it's a book that comes up in a lot of conversations.  It might be more talked about than read but people should give it a read.

 

Not father of the year

 

 

In case you missed it, US President Joe Biden has risked a great deal -- a huge deal -- to protect his son Hunter Biden.  He has defended Hunter when Hunter did not deserve it.  He has praised Hunter when few would do so.

We bring that up because how the hell does someone like that turn into such a hideous father?

Navy Joan is Hunter's daughter.  It is not her fault that Hunter was too drugged out to remember her mother.  Apparently, he has had many women using dildos on him and cannot remember Navy Joan's mother.

But he is the father.  

When he refused to pay child support, he was hauled into court and he was forced to take a paternity test.  He is the daddy.

Instead of welcoming her into the family, he has ostracized her and treated her like garbage to be left at the curb.

He is attempting to lower his court ordered monthly child support payments.  Deadbeat claims he can't afford them.  Maybe deadbeat needs to get a real job?

And now?

Her mother wants Navy Joan to have the Biden name.  Why not?  Her father is Hunter Biden.

But Hunter is insisting that this cannot happen.  

For someone who pumped and dumped and refuses to see his own daughter, he sure has a lot of demands to make.

We'd all be embarrassed if Hunter was our son.  How does Joe manage to put up with it?

 

 

-----------

 

 

Illustration is Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Hunter Biden Finally Gets A Little Press Attention." 

 

TV show we'd love to see

 

Above is a video from CBS SUNDAY MORNING where Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sally Field and Rita Moreno appeared to promote their new film 80 FOR BRADY.  

Genny Glassman (REALRUNDOWN) notes:

"You know I walked into that damn room and I got turned on," Moreno joked in the clip shared on the @etalkctv, speaking of the moment when she walked into the Patriots locker room (for the movie, of course).

"Ay, Here we go!" Sally Field exclaimed. 

"I knew you'd say that," Moreno fired back. "She doesn't like it when I talked about my sexuality," she joked. And from there things only got better. The group talked about everything; roles that never came to be, their past with each other, and even the fact that most of them don't really like people (which is of relatable TBH). 

The video has since been watched over 550,000 times and people were obsessed. "Hear me out.. Golden Girls reboot! Done and done!" one commenter exclaimed. "I hope they make more films together. They are each fantastic!" someone else wrote. "I cannot wait to see this movie it is gonna be so good… I love all these ladies," a third commenter chimed in. "Rita is saying her milkshake brought all the boys to the yard back in her day and it probably still does," someone else teased. 

Not a bad idea at all.

Rita's work on ONE DAY AT A TIME resulted in three Critics Choice nominations for the actress.  When Sally starred in BROTHERS & SISTERS, she added a third Emmy to the two she had previously won.  Most recently, Jane and Lily were doing GRACE AND FRANKIE -- a show that garnered 11 Emmy nominations.  The four of them in a remake of THE GOLDEN GIRLS would be an instant classic.

 

 

 

 

Marcia reviews THE SEWING CIRCLE

Marcia reviewed THE SEWING CIRCLE last week:

The Sewing Circle

The Sewing Circle is the book I read this week.  Axel Madsen wrote it.  

Do I seem unexcited?  I am.  

I was enjoying it.  It's a look at lesbians in Hollywood during the early days of movie making.  And it's lively and it's interesting and . . .

Is any of it true?

I ask because the book tells us that George Cukor and William Haines were among a group chased out of town and it was reported with their names and that ended Haines' career.  I wondered, since the book tells me it got press coverage, how did it not ruin Cukor?

 Because Cukor wasn't at the 1936 June event.

And writing about the transition from silent films to 'the talkies,' he writes about how various actors didn't survie the transition and then comes this sentence: "Milton Sills became the first suicide."

But?

According to Wikipedia:

Sills had begun to make the transition to sound pictures as early as 1928 with the part-talking The Barker. His final appearance was in the title role of The Sea Wolf (1930), a performance called "incisive" by The New York Times.^[9]

Death and legacy

Sills died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1930 while playing tennis with his wife at his Brentwood home at the age of 48.^[1] He was interred at Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum in Chicago. In December 1930, Photoplay published a poem found among his personal effects.^[10]

So which is it?

Too often, The Sewing Circle reads great but when I look up something, it's not accurate.

To be clear, I wasn't trying to fact check the book.  I was looking up things I found interesing in the book to learn more.  

I repeatedly learned (I have twelve more examples) that what was in the book wasn't accurate.

Hundreds of ultra-short private jet flights to Davos revealed, as global leaders head into World Economic Forum

From Greenpeace:

Amsterdam, Netherlands – As lobbyists, corporate bosses and political leaders head into the World Economic Forum 2023 (WEF), new analysis commissioned by Greenpeace International reveals the ecological hypocrisy of its attendees. While the WEF claims to be committed to the 1.5°C Paris Climate Target, its attendees arrive in droves of private jets. 

Klara Maria Schenk, transport campaigner for Greenpeace’s European mobility campaign, said:

“Europe is experiencing the warmest January days ever recorded and communities around the world are grappling with extreme weather events supercharged by the climate crisis. Meanwhile, the rich and powerful flock to Davos in ultra-polluting, socially inequitable private jets to discuss climate and inequality behind closed doors. Davos has a perfectly adequate railway station, still these people can’t even be bothered to take the train for a trip as short as 21 km. Do we really believe that these are the people to solve the problems the world faces?”

The research, commissioned by Greenpeace International and conducted by Dutch environmental consultancy CE Delft, found that during the week of last year’s World Economic Forum 1,040 private jet flights arrived and departed out of airports serving the Swiss luxury ski resort Davos, with about every second flight attributed to the meeting. 53% were short-haul flights below 750 km that could have easily been train trips, with 38% flying ultra short distances of under 500 km. The shortest flight recorded was only 21 km. Countries with the highest number of arrivals and departures out of Davos airports included neighbouring countries Germany, France and Italy.[1]

Researchers found that all private jet flights to and from airports serving Davos during the World Economic Forum 2022 caused a total of 9,700 tonnes of CO₂, equivalent to the emissions of about 350,000 average cars in a week. Researchers attribute a majority of these to private flights undertaken by WEF participants. Climate-damaging emissions from private jet flights quadrupled during the one week of the meeting compared to the weeks before and after the event.

“Given that 80% of the world’s population has never even flown, but suffers from the consequences of climate-damaging aviation emissions, and that the WEF claims to be committed to the 1.5°C Paris Climate Target, this annual private jet bonanza is a distasteful masterclass in hypocrisy. Private jets must be consigned to history if we are to have a green, just and safe future for all. It’s about time our political leaders start to lead by example instead of producing hot air in secret meetings with big business,” added Schenk.

Private jets are not regulated in the EU, even though they are the most polluting mode of transportation on the planet per passenger kilometre.[2] For the first time, in 2022, several EU countries have started to push for an EU-wide regulation of private jet emissions. Greenpeace is calling for a ban on private jets and short-haul flights with train alternatives in the EU.

The issue of private jets garnered global public attention last year after several public figures faced criticism for taking ultra-short trips by private jet. The analysis released by Greenpeace International comes days before political and business leaders head into Davos to attend the 2023 World Economic Forum, with its self-proclaimed goal of wanting to tackle climate change and other “ongoing crises” calling for “bold collective action”.

ENDS

Notes

[1] The basis of the analysis by CE Delft is data on private jet flights to and from airports in the vicinity of Davos, including the airports of Zürich, Geneva, Altenrhein, Dübendorf, Samedan, Friedrichshafen, and EuroAirport Swiss. The data of private jet flights has been provided by aviation analytics company Cirium. To determine the number of flights during the week of the World Economic Forum 2022 (May 21 – 27), researchers compared the flights in the WEF week with the flights in the weeks before and after. The CO₂ emissions of all flights in the WEF week were calculated using the Eurocontrol Small Emitters Tool.

[2] According to a study by Transport & Environment, private jets are 5 to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes (per passenger), and 50 times more polluting than trains. In 2018, 50% of all aviation emissions were caused by only 1% of the world’s population.

Contacts

Klara Maria Schenk, transport campaigner, Greenpeace CEE, spokesperson for Greenpeace’s EU Mobility For All Campaign: klara.schenk@greenpeace.org, +43 664 881 72267

Marianne Lämmel, Communications Lead, Greenpeace CEE, EU Mobility For All campaign: marianne.laemmel@greenpeace.org, +43 664 881 72 245 

Follow @greenpeacepress on Twitter for our latest international press releases

 

 

 

Tweet of the week

 

The U.S. should drop its' commemoration of Dr. King's birthday because there is no relationship between Dr. King that the Black freedom movement created & violent, warmongering U.S. settler-colonial state. The King birthday is a colonialist expropriation that should be rejected.

— Ajamu Baraka (@ajamubaraka) January 16, 2023

This edition's playlist

 

 

 1) Harry Styles' HARRY'S HOUSE.

 

2)  Diana Ross' THANK YOU. 

3) Robbie Williams' XXV. 

 

4) Diana Ross' THE BOSS.

 

5) The 1975's BEING FUNNY IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE.

 

6) Chase Rice's THE ALBUM.

 

7) Diana Ross & The Supremes' REFLECTIONS.

 

8) George Ezra's GOLD RUSH KID. 

 

 9) Diana Ross' FORCE BEHIND THE POWER.

10) Bob Dylan's ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS.