Third Estate Sunday Review: May 28, 2023

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Media: The Stupid, The Fake Asses and The Cowards

The stupid are always with us. And if public education attacker Jonathan Turley gets his way, they'll be with us in much larger numbers.

Like most WARNER BROS properties since being purchased by DISCOVERY, TCM has been sporting a lot of stupidity. Take this past weekend.

Starting Friday, at 8:00 pm EST, TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES began 'honoring' Memorial Day -- and running off viewers -- with one war movie after another.

It was their way of pretending to care.

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the US (pay attention to that -- "in the US" -- it will be important later) that was originally known as Decoration Day with the intent of honoring the Union soldiers who fought in America's Civil War. Get it? Because TCM doesn't.

First off, no one needs days of war movies. This wasn't a celebration of those who have suffered and given. This was a glorification of war.

It certainly wasn't for veterans and your big clue there was that there are no veterans -- not as hosts of TCM. Not a one of the five regular hosts served in the US military.

Is that why TCM overcompensates and tries to treat Memorial Day as though it's Christmas?

The notion that a bunch of bad films -- with actors and directors who did not serve -- is somehow celebrating Memorial Day is laughable. But leave it to TCM to take the whole thing in an even dumber and dishonest direction.

Among the films aired in their glorification of death and destruction?

IN WHICH WE SERVE.

Some of you may be confused because -- like most war films -- this is a minor offering that few -- even film scholars -- especially fans of good films -- have ever heard of.

Noel Coward directed it. That should raise a flag right there.

No, we're not referring to his sexuality. We're referring to his citizenship. He was British.

The film itself is nothing impressive. But pretending it was a 'big statement' allowed it to beat out CASABLANCA among the New York Film Critics Circle.

CASABLANCA, of course, stars American Humphrey Bogart as the main character, Rick, an American stuck in Casablanca and profiting from the war around him.

How many Americans, TCM, were featured in the cast of IN WHICH WE SERVE?

Zero.

It's not about an American battle. It's a play that Noel Coward has updated for the film to include an actual British event. No Americans in the cast, no Americans at the actual events.

Can TCM explain to us how this bad movie has a damn thing to do with Memorial Day? Repeating, Memorial Day is a federal holiday -- a US holiday -- to honor those Americans who served in war. Americans. Not British people in British battles.

Maybe the fact that none of the hosts served in the US military is why they didn't grasp that Memorial Day is a US-only holiday?

Next up, TCM celebrates July 4th by airing 1971's THE TROJAN WOMEN.

That would make about as much sense.

Maybe next year, they can spare us their fake-ass posing and instead just air their regular fare for Memorial Day?

And maybe Jonathan Turley can use his forums to educate his right-wing followers. Stock rigging is illegal. We spent Saturday pouring over the ups and downs of Target stock with three friends who are accountants. We then went back to Budweiser.

If you missed it, Target is now a target because the people who are too cheap to shop there are angry that the store notes Pride Month. So angry, in fact, that they lied about what Target had on sale.

Angry people do a lot of stupid things -- especially if they follow Jonathan Turley in his current right-wing incarnation.

It appears stock rigging took place with regards to Target. Jonathan might want to inform his readers that this is illegal and, that if the SEC gets involved, people can face charges.

The same minds that attacked CBS over the Bully Boy Bush 'service' story have been at work again and will no doubt be at work again targeting other outlets and companies.

The whole point of the attack on transgendered persons is to destroy the LGBTQ+ community. That truth slipped out last week. John Russell (LGBTQ NATION) reported:

Amid recent, highly publicized conservative backlash to several corporations partnering with LGBTQ+ artists and activists, two far-right commentators are saying the quiet part loud: Their goal is to make support for the LGBTQ+ community “toxic” to brands.

On Wednesday, Matt Walsh, a host for far-right media outlet The Daily Wire and one of the most virulently anti-trans voices in the country, kicked off a tweet storm about recent calls to boycott brands like Bud Light and Target by explicitly outlining what he says has been the goal from the start.

“The goal is to make ‘pride’ toxic for brands,” Walsh tweeted. “If they decide to shove this garbage in our face, they should now that they’ll pay a price. It won’t be worth whatever they think they’ll gain. First Bud Light and now Target. Our campaign is making progress. Let’s keep going.”

On his own Daily Wire show, host Michael Knowles reiterated Walsh’s point. “This has been the point that has been building for months now, which is we need to make that symbol toxic, the Pride flag symbol, we need to make that toxic,” Knowles said. “We need to have companies think twice about it.”

“Everyone was talking about the Dylan Mulvaney incident as being harmful to the Bud Light brand,” he continued. “That’s true. But more importantly, it was harmful to the Dylan Mulvaney brand. Now, other companies are going to think twice before sponsoring Dylan Mulvaney because they don’t want to lose $6 billion in market cap in two days. That’s what we got to do. And then once we make these things culturally toxic or as we’re making these symbols culturally toxic, we’ve got to bring in the cavalry, we’ve got to come back in with more political force to ban some of this stuff and to say no.”

The Bud Light debacle started in early April, when the beer brand partnered with Mulvaney, a trans influencer and popular target for anti-trans trolls, sending her a one-off commemorative beer can with an image of her face on it. Transphobes both online and in the media quickly called for a boycott of parent company Anheuser-Busch’s products. The corporation’s lackluster response to the backlash drew criticism from the LGBTQ+ community and led the Human Rights Campaign to downgrade Anheuser-Busch’s previous 100 percent rating on the organization’s corporate equality index.

On Wednesday, Walsh also tweeted that, “The Bud Light boycott will prove to be one of the most significant conservative victories of this decade. It was never just about Bud Light. It was about sending a message.”

The American people were sold a lot of lies about how this was about protecting children. The lies included all these surgeries on children of a single-digit age -- surgeries that were not happening. And the lies also included attacks on medications and their supposed risks -- medications that have deemed safe for decades (plural) and are used on children for various things (including on children who have cancer). Freaks like the man obsessed with BTS and who had repeated surgery to change his face from its natural European-White look to Asian was amplified by FOX "NEWS" -- he's not an American citizen and he doesn't live in this country but, hey, he's saying what you want, that trans is bad!!!

All of this nonsense and hysteria was whipped up by FOX "NEWS."

Jonathan Turley knows all about it. His blog is nothing but a text equivalent of what FOX "NEWS" broadcasts. He pretends he's interested in fairness and free speech. But when Proud Boys attack an LGBTQ+ person or one of their allies, he never writes about that. Somehow, however, he manages to write about every attack on the right-wing -- real and imagined.

He also slices the truth. He grasps that the extreme right-wing is stupid and that he needs to keep it simple to fool them. So he'll give half of a story and pretend he went over all the basic facts.

He'll alarm them -- intentionally -- and outrage them.

And then he'll pretend he's non-partisan and just telling it like it is.

Try not to notice, that if he's not linking to himself to back up his questionable claims, he's linking to FOX "NEWS."

You're dealing with an outraged people. This bears noting.

It's not the vaccines that they're really raging against. It's not even the lockdowns that were originally put in place.

The outrage stems from this fanatical bunch grasping that they were not in control. And they never would be.

It was too scary for them to handle.

The world was not going to bend to their will.

The pandemic was scary for many. But most manage to keep their s**t together and some were smart enough to grasp that the world is chaos.

For the extreme right who believe that everything that goes wrong for their enemies is due to God's punishment, the pandemic was a shock and left them especially scared.

Now, after it's all over (the lockdown, the mandates), they realize what cowards they were and try to talk big and pretend like it didn't happen.

Too bad, it did happen and you behaved like cowards. No kisses on the boo-boos are ever going to change that. No matter how loud you get and how much you attack gays and transgenders, you're still going to be the little cowards who didn't fight back against the things you now claim were so destructive.

To feel so impotent was scary to them and now they need revenge. Now they need to show power and prove strength, so they target a minority population -- like the LGBTQ+ or, for that matter, African-Americans and Jews.

They think persecuting these people will somehow restore their strength.

But it won't restore strength because they have no strength. They were cowards then and they're cowards now. Even now, as they attack gay people, for example, they hide behind attacks on transgender people. They don't have the guts to come out publicly with what they really want because they're backstabbers who lie and hide.

And that's what their rage derives from -- their impotency and the realization that they're hypocrites.

And we do see it, all around you, we see your hypocrisy and your cowardice.

Lauren Boebert was exposed last week. Her husband was beating her son. Her son called 911. He then ran to Lauren's home (she and her soon to be ex were already living apart at that point). Lauren immediately made him call 911 again and retract his statements. He didn't do a very good job of it, so Lauren grabbed the phone and retracted it.

This is the woman who says she's protecting children by attacking the LGBTQ+ community -- a mother who can't even defend her own child from an abusive father?

No, it's never been about protecting children.

It's been about a huge group of wimps looking in the mirror and seeing with their own eyes just how pathetic they are. Unable to live with that reality, they attack the LGBTQ+ community, African-American and Jewish people.

The Stupids, The Fake Asses and The Cowards will always be with us. We'd be smart to accept history's teachings and grasp that the only way you silence these bullies is by standing up to them.

A note to our readers

Hey --

Still Tuesday on the west coast.

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?

Media: The Stupid, The Fake Asses and The Cowards

Ava and C.I. wrote this thinking we'd post Monday and then had to fix it when we didn't.

Books (Marcia, Ann and C.I.)

This is part of the community's book coverage.

CRAPAPEDIA

Ty pulled this for a quick feature. No one wanted this to spill over to Wednesday night.

Tina Turner

Noting Tina's passing.

2023 Passings

A list of passings noted in the community this year.

Books

A list of books reviewed in the community this year.

Tweet of the week

Goes to Lupaq.

An aging queen writes a bitter book about The Way ...

Marcia's book review.

Gay actor George Maharis passed away

Stan's obit.

Peace.

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

Books (Marcia, Ann and C.I.)

1summerread

We're attempting to again increase book coverage in the community. Marcia's "An aging queen writes a bitter book about The Way We Were " went up Sunday. THE WAY WE WERE was a weepy from the 70s, a melodrama that like LOVE STORY, scored at the box office. Marcia, to start, talk about why you read the book and Stan.

Marcia: Stan was reading it. My cousin Stan. And he couldn't believe how, from the start of the book, Robert Hofler was dismissive and insulting of women and gay men. If a straight male was mentioned, we got their credits -- big and small. A woman who wrote or co-wrote eight films -- five starring Greta Garbo, for example -- is 'credited' as Greta's lover and only that. When you get near the end of the book, it'll change a bit. But he slights women throughout and he is anti-gay. I don't know if he's gay but he seems like a very bitter queen.

Among the women slighted is Barbra Streisand.

Marcia: Correct. And without Barbra you don't have a hit film. Robert Redford is the co-star and you pair him with bland women like Mia Farrow and you've got a box office disaster. When he was making lovey eyes at Paul Newman or a woman with real talent, he had a hit. Those days are long over. His career ends in the eighties in terms of being a leading man. He fooled himself that he was a leading man in INDECENT PROPOSAL but he was just an old man paying for sex in that film. He rips apart Barbra repeatedly including insisting that she has no sexual appeal. He's a snide little bitch and, if he's not gay, he's a homophobe. But please remember, elderly gays can be homophobes.

It was a bad book?

Marcia: It was a very bad book. Question, why did Barbra Streisand not win the Oscar for THE WAY WE WERE? C.I., I'm asking why the script writer Arthur Laurents said she didn't.

Oh. Well he always said the scene where her character begs Hubble to come over, where she's on the phone, that her face wasn't emphasized enough. That it was blocked by various things including camera work. Why?

Marcia: Rebecca told me to ask you that. I was telling her about the book and how the writer attacks Arthur Laurents throughout and says at one point that he got it all wrong and that Sydney Pollack insisted that deleting the scenes on campus when Katie, as a grown up, sees a young woman who reminds her of herself and the one where Katie catches him in bed with another woman prevented Barbra from winning.

Those were part of his complaint but his chief complaint, to me, over the years was the phone scene and the failure to have Barbra's face fully visible.

Marcia: The book is just one error after another and there are parts from WIKIPEDIA and Randall Riese's HER NAME IS BARBRA. It's a really bad book. It's dull, it's riddled with errors and it's sexist and homophobic. It came out early this year. Pretty much no one bought it which is why you can read it for free on KINDLE.

But you don't recommend that people do?

Marcia: I don't. In November, Barbra's autobiography is supposed to be released. Wait for that instead. It also tries to talk about the blacklist and that era and gets it wrong over and over. That's only a surprise if you don't read his end notes and discover that right-winger Paul G. Kengor is the 'source' for his (mis)understanding of that period. If you don't know the name, get used to it. Later this year, his book of lies about Ronald Regan comes out as a film and shame on Dennis Quaid and the others participating in those lies.

Tina Turner

That 2006 illustration has been used here several times over the years as we've noted Tina Turner. Last week, the Queen of Rock and Roll passed away.

Tina's passing was noted in the following community posts: "Iraq snapshot," "Tina Turner (1939 to 2023)," "The groundbreaker Tina Turner," "Tina Turner," "Lauren Boebert gets burned by AOC," "MAX and NETFLIX, Eva Longoria," "Tina Turner, Eric Swalwell, John Roberts," "They've ruined their reputation," "Hate merchant Tulsi Gabbard," "tina turner passed but the hideous gop lingers," "Tina " and "The wrong people are dying" -- The community notes the passing of Tina Turner.

CRAPAPEDIA

The world's biggest source of lying remains WIKIPEDIA. Carl e-mailed us about this claim made about Marvin Gaye's LIVE AT THE LONDON PALLADIUM:

In late 1977, Live at the London Palladium remained in the top 10 for thirteen weeks and went on to sell two million copies becoming one of the top ten best-selling albums of that year in America

"Seems strange," he wrote. "Wondered what Ava and C.I. thought."

What do they say?

1) The sourcing goes to notes in a CD booklet. That's suspicious.

2) It was not a best selling album. It could not have been. That's reality. It's a three disc album. Multi-disc albums always struggle to sell. Whether it's a live, five disc Bruce Springsteen album or Fleetwood Mac's TUSK (released one year after Gaye's live album). They may make the charts -- especially in the 70s when the charts were based upon the number of albums shipped to stores each week and not what actually sold -- but they don't sell the way a single album disc album does. The pretense that a three-disc album could have been a best seller is really difficult to believe.

3) By the second half of the 70s, MOTOWN was finally paying to have their albums certified and, for auditing purposes, artists were demanding it -- especially at MOTOWN where artists long complained that they were ripped off. Check the RIAA certifications for Marvin Gaye and you'll find it did not even go gold.

4) Because it was a multi-disc, to go gold, it only needed to sell about 160,000 copies. The rule on a gold album is that it has to sell 500,000 . . . if it's a single-disc album. This was a three-disc album so it only needed to sell 160,000. It didn't even sell that.

5) On BIlLBOARD's best selling albums for 1977, it came in at number 45. Number 43 was Rita Coolidge's ANYTIME . . . ANYWHERE to provide some context.

2023 Passings

Lisa Presley -- Elaine noted her passing.

Christine McVie -- Kat covered her passing.

Adam Rich -- Marcia noted his passing.

Jeff Beck -- Kat noted his passing.

Lance Kerwin -- Rebecca noted his passing.

Barrett Strong -- Ruth noted his passing.

Lisa Loring -- Rebecca noted her passing.

Burt Bacharach -- Rebecca noted his passing.

Raquel Welch -- Elaine noted her passing.

Stella Stevens -- Rebecca noted her passing.

Richard Belzer -- Ruth noted his passing.

Kevin Alexander Gray -- C.I. notes his passing.

Pat Schroeder -- Kat noted her passing.

Lance Reddick -- Mike notes his passing.

Darcelle XV -- Elaine notes his passing.

"Mark Russell" -- Ruth notes his passing

"Elizabeth Hubbard" -- Trina notes her passing.

"Mary Quant and more Peabody nominations" -- Elaine notes a passing.

"Harry Belafonte" -- Kat notes a passing.

"Gordon Lightfoot" -- Kat notes a passing.

"jacklyn zeman, rose schlossberg, john travolta and..." -- Rebecca notes the passing of Jacklyn Zeman.

"Iraq snapshot," "Tina Turner (1939 to 2023)," "The groundbreaker Tina Turner," "Tina Turner," "Lauren Boebert gets burned by AOC," "MAX and NETFLIX, Eva Longoria," "Tina Turner, Eric Swalwell, John Roberts," "They've ruined their reputation," "Hate merchant Tulsi Gabbard," "tina turner passed but the hideous gop lingers," "Tina " and "The wrong people are dying" -- The community notes the passing of Tina Turner.

"Gay actor George Maharis has died" -- Stan notes the passing.

Books

1summerread

"Mafia Wives (Susan Williams' WHITE MALICE)" -- C.I. reviews this book.

"The Sewing Circle" -- Marcia reads Axel Madsen's THE SEWING CIRCLE.

"Ellen Sander's The Lifestyle That Classic Rock Unleashed" -- Trina reviews this book.

"Phyllis Diller 1917 – 2012: News, Quotes, Interview" -- Ann reviews this book.

"Call Her Heroic (Ava and C.I.)" -- Ava and C.I. review this book.

"Boze Hadleigh's Hollywood Gays" -- Marcia reviews this book.

"Robert Sellers wrote a book of garbage" -- Kat reviews HOLLYWOOD HELLRAISERS.

"SCREAM VI and THE BOYS" -- Stan reviews Ron and Clint Howard's THE BOYS.

"the world according to joan" -- Rebecca reviews this book.

"Elton John and Whitney Houston" -- Kat reviews Elton John's autobiography and a biography on Whitney Houston.

"DON RICKLES: THE MERCHANT OF VENOM" -- Isaiah reviews this book.

"Crispy Calamari in the Kitchen" -- Trina reviews AIR FRYER COOKBOOK FOR BEGINNERS: EFFORTLESSLY GRILL, ROAST AND BAKE HOMEMADE MEALS: YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS WITH QUICK, TASTY & HEALTHY RECIPES.

"Vincent Price and Universal" -- Marcia reviews John L. Flynn's 75 YEARS OF UNIVERSAL MONSTERS and Vincent Price's I LIKE WHAT I KNOW: A VISUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

"3 books to skip" -- Kat reviews Bertill Nordahl's CAT SEVENS, CARLY SIMON AND LEONARD COHEN AND ALL THE OTHERS, David Redford's NEIL& JONI: 2 LIVES, 21 ALBUMS and Ellen Sanders' ROCK AND ROLL WOMENHOOD: CASS ELLIOT, GRACE SLICK, LINDA RONSTADT, FANNY AND MORE.

"THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: AN UNNATURAL HISTORY" -- Mike reviews Elizabeth Kolbert's THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: AN UNNATURAL HISTORY.

"Paul Kupperberg's DIRECT CONVERSTIONS: TALKS WITH FELLOW DC COMICS BRONZE AGE CREATORS" -- Isaiah reviews this book.

"JOAN BAEZ: THE LAST LEAF" -- Ruth reviews this book by Elizabeth Thomas.

"A JOYOUS TRANSFORMATION: THE UNEXPURZGATED DIARY OF ANAIS NIN, 1966 -1977" -- Ruth reviews a book by Anais Nin.

"An aging queen writes a bitter book about The Way We Were" -- Marcia reviews a bad book about THE WAY WE WERE.

Tweet of the week

On this #MemorialDay I remember the fallen soldiers in the US govt ongoing war against the poor, those martyred in the war against Africans at home and abroad, and my own radical Momma, Grandma, my beloved Abdus, and yeah even our furboy Bruskie.
— Luqman Nation Media (@luqmannation1) May 29, 2023

An aging queen writes a bitter book about The Way We Were

Marcia reviews a book:

An aging queen writes a bitter book about The Way We Were

Did you watch 2019's Tales of the City on Netflix? It concludes the Tales of the City series. I liked it. But a scene stuck with me when I watched and it has remained with me.

Charlie Barnett plays a new character Ben. Ben is a couple with Murray Bartlett's Mouse (a character in all the Tales installments). They go to a dinner party at Harrison's home -- Harrison is Michael's old lover.

Now Ben's young and he's African-American. The other men are in their 50s (or older0 and White. And at the table 'jokes' are made. They're not jokes to Ben -- or to me. They're racist comments. And the old gay White men think that because they went through rough times and discrimination -- for being gay -- that they're allowed to make racist remarks and that Ben's the one with the problem.

Sadly, that is how some old people are. In this instance, they thought they could be racist because it was 'light racism' and they'd battled other things in their lives.

I bring this up because I am pretty sure that Robert Hofler is gay. But he's a bitter old man and he thinks that being gay makes it okay for him to make homophobic comments throughout his new book The Way They Were: How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen.

He trashes Arthur Laurents for a letter to his publisher about a memoir where Laurents notes that he had sex with Tyrone Power and left it out of the memoir, but it's Robert Hofler who uses John Saxon for a sentence. Laurent's boyfriend Tom Hatcher won't put out for agent Henry Wilson so Henry tells him he's not that good looking, takes him to an apartment to show him good looking, strips the sheet off the bed to reveal a man in his nude glory and then leaves with the man -- in the leaving sentence, Holfer reveals the man is John Saxon.

Throughout the book, Hofler repeatedly attacks Arthur Laurents. To read the book, you'd think Arthur was a hack. No, he was responsible for some great entertainment -- that includes West Side Story on Broadway and Gypsy on Broadway. He was Tony nominated for his writing on the first and Tony nominated for his directing on the second. He directed the Broadway musical I Can Get It For You Wholesale -- the play that brought Barbra Streisand her first Tony nomination and her success in it finally led Columbia Records to offer a contract. He wrote the book (the talking) for the musical Hallelujah, Baby! which won the Tony for Best Musical -- by the way, I learned that from Wikipedia. Not from Hofler's bad book which repeatedly tries to treat Arthur as a failure. When Gypsy was brought back to Broadway in the 1974 revival, Arthur was Tony nominated for Best Director. For the 2008 revival, he would again be nominated for a Tony for his directing. That's three versions of the play that he directed and he was Tony nominated each time. That has to be something of a record. He won the Tony in 1983 for Best Director for his directing of La Cage aux Folles.

Though the trashing of Arthur begins in the first chapter, it's page 200 and something before he gets any credit for his long career. And don't expect to see women credited. There's a woman who wrote the screenplay of many early classic films but her sole credit is boiled down by Hofler to having been Greta Garbo's lover.

Barbra Streisand was an idiot to speak to the author because he trashes her by refusing to admit her greatness and allowing snide comments throughout -- including about her acting. It's especially appalling that he believes only gay men found Barbra sexy. She and Elliot Gould have a child so presumably he found her sexy. She's married to James Brolin and apparently he did as well. I am sure many straight men found Barbra attractive. She's got beautiful eyes, a great chest, a cute smile. (I'm African-American which means I don't have a button nose. Meaning, I've never had a problem with Barbra's nose.) She's a highly attractive and sexy woman. I'm a lesbian and I find her sexy in What's Up Doc, Up The Sandbox, The Main Event and The Mirror Has Two Faces.

"Will you just relax!" the author has Pollack wanting to tell her when she 'pesters' him with questions. Barbra was the bigger star. The Way We Were came out near the end of 1973 (October). By that point, Barbra was on the top ten box office for 1969, 1970 and 1972. Robert Redford? Until The Way We Were, he'd never made it on the top ten box office actors -- he and Barbra both made the list in 1973 as a result of The Way We Were. Paul Newman and Steve McQueen were two who made the top ten in those multiple years like Barbra. Robert Redford did not. Barbra was the reason the film was being made but Sydney Pollack was always too busy on every film holding Bob Redford's cock to give any attention to actresses. (I love Meryl Streep's lie about Robert Redford. Her praise is in contrast to every nasty thing she's ever said about him. She does realize, right, that Cher loves to talk?)

Hofler has a hard on for Robert Redford.

Redford is a sexist which isn't noted in the book -- though over the weekend, Jane Fonda was in the news for noting Redford doesn't like women. A detail more actresses are beginning to tell. (C.I.'s told it for several years now.) He's also a vain pretty boy which Hofler pretends is just not the case. Dumb Ass Hofler must have missed Pauline Kael pointing out that in Brubaker, 'star' Redford won't get the necessary prison haircut and has a scene added to the script where he bribes the prison guard not to give him the required cut. That's the story of that priss' life. He's a lousy actor and always has been. He used women (Natalie Wood among them) and he delivers the same hammy performance in every film.

And let's stop pretending about Sydney Pollack. The director funneled weapons to Israel -- which could have gotten him sent to prison in the US. And he wasn't a good director. They Shoot Horses Don't They? That's supposed to be his hit. But his part (directing) is lousy. Jane Fonda delivers an amazing performance. But not only does Pollack not help shape it, he undercut it by shooting 'softeners' at the request of the studio. All the life goes out of Three Days of the Condor the minute Faye Dunaway's character is out of the film. The Firm is a joke propped up with cameos. Out of African is a hideous film. Absence of Malice and The Electric Horseman are not films, they're movies that coast along on the start power of Jane Fonda and Sally Field. Sabrina, Random Hearts and Havana are bombs that should have ended his career. Tootise is the only film I'll give him praise for.

Yet Hofler can't stop praising Pollack and Redford. It's Barbra and Arthur that are at fault.

Hofler is a bad writer. And that includes constructing sentences: "Some of them he would win. Almost all of them he would lose." Okay . . .

"Few he would win"?

He's even worse at what he calls facts. That's really hilarious because he trashes Arthur for fudging the facts and yet he's got it wrong so many times throughout this book on The Way We Were.

Here's just one example: He claims Shelley Winters was fired from Arthur Laurents' play Invitation to a March. Jane Fonda, in the cast as well, might know something about that. C.I. said Shelley quit and gave notice based on what Shelley told C.I. years after the fact. (This real time article notes that Shelley had just learned her current husband, number 3, was having a serious affair with another woman and she left the play due to the hurt and also to lose weight. This real time Harvard Crimson article notes there will be one more night to catch Shelley in the play in Boston because she's given her notice and quit. And on October 15, 1960, Louis Calta reported for The New York Times that Shelley had quit.)

Again, I think he's gay. I hope he's gay. If he's not, he's a huge homophobe. (He is a right-winger, C.I. passed on.) I think he's just a self-loathing gay and a lot like that hideous Harrison in the last Tales of the City.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Friday, May 26, 2023. The American Taliban continues their war on democracy and on the United States, a royal visits Iraq, and much more.

The American Taliban is out to destroy democracy and freedom. They lie and pretend they're "doing it for the kids" but they're no Robbie and Kylie.

And their not "doing it for the kids." Their actions and their remarks make clear that's not the case.

What they are doing is damaging children. Beth Hawkins (THE 74) reports:

In the opening weeks of the 2023 legislative season alone, more than 400 pieces of legislation aimed at LGBTQ people— most of them targeting schools — were introduced throughout the country.

It’s no surprise that queer students in Republican-dominated states where these laws have passed are profoundly impacted. But less visible is the dramatic effect the steady drumbeat of headlines has had on youth in places with even strong anti-discrimination laws. Newly released data from the advocacy groups GLSEN and The Trevor Project show increases in hostility, victimization and discrimination experienced by students in blue states as well as red.

The effects are devastating. Nearly half of LGBTQ 13- to 17-year-olds considered suicide last year, as opposed to some 19% of high school students overall, according to The Trevor Project. Eighteen percent actually attempted it. Seventy percent report anxiety, and 57% experienced depression.

Strong in-school relationships are a well-known protective factor. LGBTQ students who say their teachers care a lot about them are 37% less likely to consider suicide and 43% less likely to be depressed than those who don’t feel cared for, according to The Trevor Project.

Rates of self-harm are much lower among students who feel affirmed in school, and acceptance of LGBTQ students had risen steadily — if unevenly — following legal recognition of same-sex marriage. But the number of youth who see their schools as affirming has fallen dramatically over the last four years.

In California — where the first gay couples married in 2008 and schools began teaching LGBTQ history a decade ago — a statewide survey of students found that the number who reported hearing homophobic remarks from adults in school rose from 12% in 2019 to 49% in 2021. That’s an increase of 408%.

In Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage has been recognized for almost 20 years, the number of youth exposed to anti-LGBT remarks is up 686% over the same time frame.

Yeah, but, hate merchants, keep pretending that your concern is for the kids. Scarface Tulsi Gabbard might try having kids -- before it's too late, she's 42 -- since she's so obsessed with other people's children. Or is Tulsi too manly for pregnancy? The report notes:

A new data analysis by The 74 shows how this political wedge issue, aimed at a relatively small population of students, is having an outsize effect. The number of youth who identify as something other than cisgender is growing, but it’s still a tiny number of children.

Of the approximately 16 million high school students in the United States, an estimated 1.8 million, or 11.6%, identify as LGBTQ. Just 300,000 are gender-nonconforming.

Ten years after same-sex marriage became widely recognized, a sizeable majority of Americans are comfortable with gay, lesbian and bisexual co-workers and neighbors. Experts say it’s harder to attempt to undo LGBT rights overall than to capitalize on confusion about the experiences of a very small subset of people.

And unlike past campaigns to vilify LGBTQ people, this time, the rhetoric targets kids, not adults. Even though some of the new policies take aim at bathrooms and gymnasiums, the impact spills over to classrooms, hallways and libraries, affecting a much larger number of children.

They are bullied and assaulted; subjected to increasingly negative remarks even from teachers who are supposed to protect them; silenced from raising LGBTQ topics — even talking about their families during class discussions; discouraged from participating in sports or other activities; forbidden from wearing clothing with supportive messages or forming gay-straight alliances or other affirming student clubs; disciplined for identifying as LGBTQ and for wearing clothes deemed “inappropriate” for their gender.

It's like the 70s all over again. As I've noted before, not long ago, a group of gay adult malea at one group we were speaking to in the last 12 months, brought up what life was really like for them in high school and middle school. Teachers and principals mocked them and made fun of them, publicly ridiculed them. My response was sue. I don't care if it gets kicked out for whatever reason. Get on the record so that these failures do not get to enjoy their retirement but instead everyone grasps that these failures weren't just intolerant, they were actively betraying their legal obligations.

I would recommend the same to the families of any children currently in school and experiencing this. File immediately. Let's identify these people who think they can abuse their jobs and harass students.

That's the only way this will stop.

The American Taliban is brave when egged on by a bunch of hate merchants but when they find out it's not Tulsi Gabbard that's having to pay for the actions, but themselves, they'll learn to conduct themselves as educators are supposed to.

Laura Meckler (WASHINGTON POST) reports:

Rowan Johnson learned what it meant to be transgender not from a parent or a teacher, but from Jerry Springer.

Home from school one day when they were about 8 years old, Johnson caught Springer’s often-raucous daytime talk show. “There are girls here to tell their parents they want to be boys,” Johnson recalls hearing at the top of the hour.

That’s something a person can do? Johnson thought. They had sensed already that something was different about their own gender identity but didn’t know what. “I didn’t have the words for ‘transgender’ or ‘nonbinary’ or any of this.”

Most trans adults went to school at a time when there was little or no discussion of gender identity. If the subject came up, it was on tabloid television or in schoolyard taunts rather than in conversation with caring adults. Now, as Americans debate policies that affect trans Americans, there’s disagreement over how — or whether — to broach these issues in schools.

For transgender children, this question can be urgent. A Washington Post-KFF poll conducted in late 2022 found that about 1 in 3 transgender adults was 10 years old or younger when they began to understand that their gender was different from their sex assigned at birth. Forty-five percent of them said they felt unsafe at school, the place where they spent most of their time and where acceptance or rejection can make a deep impression. The isolation and discrimination that many trans people experience can lead to depression, substance abuse, self harm and suicide, experts say.

[. . .]

In other words, what trans Americans say is needed appears at odds with what many Americans appear comfortable providing. That’s unsettling to the trans community at a time when gender identity has taken center stage in the culture wars and Republican lawmakers have attacked the very existence of trans people.

“If I had had the opportunity," said Johnson, "to learn that it’s normal and common to question your gender identity and to want to experiment and explore your gender identity, I think it would have saved a lot of emotional pain.”

The poll found support for teaching these issues in high school, with more than 6 in 10 saying it was appropriate. Americans were divided when asked about middle school. But at the same time, nearly 7 in 10 Americans supported laws that would bar discrimination against trans people in K-12 schools.

The American Taliban is in the minority -- just as they are on abortion. But what the people want doesn't matter to these authoritarians. They want to destroy the country and destroy democracy. The right to privacy got shredded in DOBBS and they planned and conspired for years to get to that point. They're coming after every right and you're insane -- or married to Max Blumenthal (which may be the same thing) -- if you can't see that.

Meanwhile Nathaniel Meyerson (CNN) reports:

Target on Wednesday said it was removing some products that celebrate Pride Month after the company and its employes became the focus of a “volatile” anti-LGBTQ campaign.

The company said threats against employees impacted their sense of safety and well-being, but Target did not specify which products it was removing, the nature of the threats, or where they occurred. Target said it removed from shelves “items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”

For a decade, Target has celebrated Pride Month in and around June. The company runs advertisements to appeal to LGBTQ customers and employees, and it sells t-shirts, coffee mugs and merchandise with rainbow flags and other symbols of gay rights.

“Pride Month at Target is a time of affirmation and solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community,” the company says on its website.

A few things. Openly homophobic people? They can't afford Target and don't shop there regularly. Threats against employees? Those need to be reported to legal authorities and done so immediately. Isn't it interesting that Jonathan Turley is no where to be found yet again.

He's like FOX "NEWS" -- emphasizing everything that will scare the elderly but nothing that will enlighten or educate. He's an old whore slinging it for FOX "NEWS."

The backward and inbred homophobes who study online with Professor Turley pretend to care about democracy. But it's not really a democracy, is it, if you're threatening violence because you don't want people to have the option of buying clothing? That's reality and it's not an angle Turley is going to share with his cult or, for that matter, that FOX "NEWS" plans to share. Target clearly noted threats of violence to the staff. But here's FOX BUSINESS "NEWS" 'covering' the topic and leaving that threat out. CNN could -- and did -- note the threats. USA TODAY did as well. AP did as well. BLOOMBERG NEWS did it. But not FOX "NEWS." This is how FOX "NEWS" lies -- they don't present most stories and when they do present a story they lie and they leave out significant details. A half-wit could park themselves in front of the TV, watch six hours straight of FOX "NEWS" and still be a half-wit when they turned the TV off.

A right-wing outlet (tiny and we're not promoting it) wants you to know that conservatives are "successfully" boycotting Target. Homophobic conservatives don't shop there. Try the Dollar General. This is the same crowd -- small and vocal -- that Nancy Reagan sneered at (they were focused on ending abortion when she was First Lady) and this crowd buys beers and Fritos but, as demographics make very clear, they don't have the income to spend at Target. Walmart is a big treat for them. So, no, they're not "successfully" boycotting a store that they don't actually shop at. If they did shop there, they would have noticed, years ago, that Target celebrates Pride every June. Bad news for them, Walmart did last year too. May have done so before last year but last year Walmart even offered a Pride ice cream. For this crowd, Dollar General and Dollar Tree and Dollar whatever are their go-tos. Again, that's demographics. This is the group that loved FOX "NEWS" but couldn't find it in their budget to pay for the streamer FOX NEWS NATION.

This is a war on freedom carried out by the American Taliban. They are not patriotic and they do not believe in democracy. They're for tyranny and oppression.

California Governor Gavin Newsom called out the war on the LBGTQ+ and hate merchant Marjorie Taylor thought her response was called for.

Good for Gavin. As for Marjorie? Yes, she is the space laser person. Let's again note Chelsea Handler on MTG.

Marjorie Taylor Greene: I have people come up to me and say crazy things to me out of the blue in public places that they believe because they read it on the internet.

Chelsea Handler: Well if that's not the pot calling the kettle QAnon. This woman thought 9/11 was a hoax, that the Clintons killed JFK Jr. and that Jews are in charge of space lasers. But please, don't come at her with some crazy ideas -- she might believe them.

Crazy Marjorie will continue attempting to destroy this country. Paul Rudnick noted Crazy Marjorie this week.

This is not about helping the kids. It's not helping children, first of all, but that's just their cover story.

John Russell (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

This is a war declared by the American Taliban.

Acceptance of gays and lesbians has increased and most Americans grasp that. So these hate merchants seized upon the "T" and worked overtime to lie and scare the easily frightened over transgender persons and pretend that there are all these five-year-olds having gender surgery.

They lied -- and they were helped by THE NEW YORK TIMES and other outlets -- and they've scared a country.

And on the left we get idiots like Max Blumenthal's wife offering smears on transgendered person because the left doesn't want to her February event which was putting a convicted pedophile on stage. Grasp that Mrs. Blumenthal can't defend transgender people (and has a pinned Tweet attacking them at the top of her feed since February) but she will gladly share the stage with a convicted pedophile who was sent to prison.

And, of course, Marjorie had the pro-pedophile working for her. These anti-Trans people are the ones hanging around with child molestors.

This war is doing great harm. Applause for Gavin and everyone who is standing up right now. Shame on those -- especially if you claim to be left -- who are silent or, even worse, encouraging this war. Daniel Villareal (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

A cisgender mother helping her cis disabled son use the restroom was prevented from entering a Kansas library’s women’s restroom with him, even though they’ve done that for years. The mother thinks that the state’s recently passed anti-transgender bathroom bill is to blame, but the library has called the incident “a mishandled customer service moment.”

On May 20, Karen Wild entered a women’s bathroom in the Wichita Public Library’s central branch with her son, Ellis Dunville. She was assisting her son, who is on the autism spectrum, has a seizure disorder, and is nonverbal, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

A male security guard told her that her son couldn’t enter the restroom. Wild said they had used the women’s restroom together for years without any issues. However, she also noted that another person in the women’s restroom objected to her son’s presence.

Shortly after, a female library employee entered, said the library had policies regulating restroom use, and asked Wild if she and her son could use the building’s gender-neutral family restroom, which Wild never knew existed.

Wild told the aforementioned publication that she suspected the incident might have occurred because the legislature recently passed S.B. 180, a law that bans trans people from using bathrooms and other facilities matching their gender identity.

“There isn’t anything I can think of that has changed except that they heard about that law and decided they needed to be emboldened by it somehow,” she said. “I can’t explain it any other way.”

Let's turn to Iraq. BBC NEWS notes:

The Duchess of Edinburgh has become the first UK royal to visit Baghdad - as part of her work to support survivors of sexual violence in conflict.

Buckingham Palace said Sophie had spent two days in Iraq's capital to learn of the challenges women and girls face.

She visited a girls' school to hear from pupils about their education.

After meeting Iraq's women young and old, Sophie visited President Abdul Latif Rashid and prime minister Mohammad Shia Al Sudani.

She was praised for being the first member of the Royal Family to visit Baghdad by the UK's ambassador to the country, Mark Bryson-Richardson, whom she spent most of the trip with.

Sophie, who gained the title of Duchess of Edinburgh when her husband Prince Edward took on a new role in March after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, has said in the past that she is passionate about supporting women and gender equality around the world.

Really not sure what to say here. First, Sophie's visit brings attention to Iraq and that is a good thing.

But there's more than just that.

Why are we supposed to be enthused? The current king of England visited Basra in 2009.

More the point, England destroyed Iraq as much as the United States did. Are we ignoring that as we rush to celebrate a ruling class figure visiting the country they destroyed?

Let's wind down with this from Jeffrey St. Clair (COUNTERPUNCH):

+ As most readers of Roaming Charges know, I’ve been skeptical of Seymour Hersh’s reporting on the sabotage of the Nordstream pipelines. Some of his initial assertions were easily disproved and others seemed highly speculative and thinly, very thinly, sourced. Hersh’s narrative was problematic and antiquated. One of the most glaring issues to me was: why use scuba divers, like something out of a 70s Bond movie, which require decompression tanks and conspicuous naval support, when you could deploy the weapon de jour: underwater drones controlled by a joystick and a laptop? Now comes James Bamford, an intelligence reporter whose credentials are at least as accomplished as Hersh’s (and somewhat less tarnished), with a detailed and persuasive account in The Nation that explains how it’s much more likely that Ukrainian intelligence operatives, trained in underwater demolition techniques by the Brits and the US, blew up the pipelines using submersible drones, with the probable assistance of Poland. Where Hersh is vague, Bamford is specific. Where Hersh relies on a sole anonymous source, Bamford meticulously builds his piece from documents. Bamford explains in compelling detail how it was done, the kind of drones used and why both Ukraine and Poland wanted to take the pipelines out. Bamford also suggests that both Russian and US intelligence knew that a plot in was the works and that the US kept quiet because the sabotage had been committed by its allies. This is deeply informed journalism and also a terrific read.

The following sites updated: