Millions of “the 99%” of us have piously and stubbornly
clung to the belief that U.S. President Barack Obama has really wanted
to do some “good works” on behalf of us — the poor, the working class,
the oppressed Afro-American, Latino and other nationalities and the
middle class — that is, the overwhelming majority of the people within
the U.S. multinational state. According to this belief, it is the
monstrous, even demonic, white supremacist Republicans that have blocked
the allegedly well-intentioned Democrat Obama at every turn.
For this multitude, the scenario that is currently unfolding around the
“Republicrat” efforts on behalf of the U.S. ruling class, the Wall
Street capitalists, to have the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) ratified
by Congress is a miracle that rivals the lions laying down with the
lambs! This is especially true because the key link to TPP passage is
the granting of Fast Track Authority (FTA) by the Republican-controlled
Congress to their supposed “nemesis,” Democratic President Obama!
-- Ray Light, "Let's Stop TPP In Its Fast Track! TPP: Economic Embodiment of the U.S. Empire's War at Home and Abroad" (via Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox).
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Truest statement of the week II
You have to solve the political problem.
-- Gen Ray Odierno on how to address the issues in Iraq (CBS This Morning last Thursday).
A note to our readers
Hey --
Another Sunday. First, we 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.
What did we come up with?
And that's what we came up with.
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Another Sunday. First, we 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.
What did we come up with?
If only everyone could speak as plainly.
And Ray Odierno gets a truest as well.
Barack's just more of the same.
Ava and C.I., on the heels of last week's piece (an all time record on reads in one week), decided to do something different. They address variety shows.
A parody.
Tom seems very sure of what's going to happen.
More parody -- or what Bernie would call 'humor.'
What we listened to.
White House repost.
State Dept repost.
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.And that's what we came up with.
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Editorial: Mister More Of The Same
Elected on some vague promise of change, Barack Obama has demonstrated he's just Mister More Of The Same.
His continuation of the Iraq War makes that ever more clear.
Last week, he met with Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
He swore Haider was unicorns, candy corn and taffy.
Worst of all, the White House issued this:
His failed 'plan' is being extended and more US troops are being sent in.
The Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights, David Phillips, tells NBC News of the announcement, "It's just more of what we've done before, which hasn't worked."
Mr. More Of The Same.
Strangely, the press is not pressing him regarding his claim (June 19, 2014) that only a political solution could solve Iraq's various crises.
He's just Mr. More Of The Same.
Elected to bring change, he's proven there is none.
His continuation of the Iraq War makes that ever more clear.
Last week, he met with Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
He swore Haider was unicorns, candy corn and taffy.
Worst of all, the White House issued this:
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
June 10, 2015
Statement by the Press Secretary on Additional U.S. Steps in the Counter-ISIL Effort
In
furtherance of his comprehensive strategy to degrade and destroy the
ISIL terrorist group, President Obama has approved additional actions to
enhance the implementation of the counter-ISIL campaign.
To improve the capabilities and effectiveness of partners on the ground, the President authorized the deployment of up to 450 additional U.S. military personnel to train, advise, and assist Iraqi Security Forces at Taqaddum military base in eastern Anbar province. The President made this decision after a request from Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi and upon the recommendation of Secretary Carter and Chairman Dempsey, and with the unanimous support of his national security team. These new advisors will work to build capacity of Iraqi forces, including local tribal fighters, to improve their ability to plan, lead, and conduct operations against ISIL in eastern Anbar under the command of the Prime Minister. This effort will complement the efforts of U.S. and coalition trainers at the four previously-established training sites in Al-Asad, Besmaya, Erbil, and Taji, where over 9,000 Iraqi troops have already been trained, with an additional 3,000 currently in training. These additional U.S. troops will not serve in a combat role and will augment the 3,100 U.S. troops who have already deployed to Iraq.
This train, advise, and assist mission builds on lessons learned during the past several months and is just one aspect of our commitment to support the Iraqi Security Forces. Toward this end, the President has also directed the expedited delivery of essential equipment and materiel in coordination with the central government to Iraqi forces, including Peshmerga and tribal fighters, operating under Iraqi command, to ensure that our partners have the equipment needed to effectively fight ISIL.
The President also approved a comprehensive approach to aid the Iraqi government’s efforts to support the people and communities living in areas newly liberated from ISIL. At the President’s direction, the United States has been working closely with the Iraqi government, the global counter-ISIL coalition, and the United Nations to develop a holistic framework to help the Iraqi government provide sustained security, services and assistance, and local governance among other key support. The United States fully supports the development of an international fund facilitated by the United Nations to help these communities across Iraq recover.
More broadly, we will continue our efforts to leverage all instruments of power to counter ISIL globally and most importantly, to protect the US Homeland. Thousands of foreign fighters – including Europeans and some Americans – have joined ISIL in Syria and Iraq. We remain concerned that these trained fighters will return to their home countries and carry out attacks and seek to inspire supporters to conduct attacks at home, and the President directed his national security team to intensify efforts with coalition partners to stem the flow of foreign fighters to and from Iraq and Syria.
The President also reaffirmed U.S. support for the efforts of Prime Minister Al-Abadi and other Iraqi leaders to build an inclusive and effective governance structure within which all of Iraq’s diverse communities feel that they have a say in determining the future of their country. In this regard, the U.S. will fully support the plan endorsed by the Council of Ministers on May 19 for the liberation of Anbar, as well as the Iraqi Government’s priority of de-centralization to empower local communities in line with the Iraqi Constitution. This “functional federalism” effort being pursued by the Iraqi government is integral to ensuring that ISIL – once defeated – can never again return to Iraqi soil.
To improve the capabilities and effectiveness of partners on the ground, the President authorized the deployment of up to 450 additional U.S. military personnel to train, advise, and assist Iraqi Security Forces at Taqaddum military base in eastern Anbar province. The President made this decision after a request from Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi and upon the recommendation of Secretary Carter and Chairman Dempsey, and with the unanimous support of his national security team. These new advisors will work to build capacity of Iraqi forces, including local tribal fighters, to improve their ability to plan, lead, and conduct operations against ISIL in eastern Anbar under the command of the Prime Minister. This effort will complement the efforts of U.S. and coalition trainers at the four previously-established training sites in Al-Asad, Besmaya, Erbil, and Taji, where over 9,000 Iraqi troops have already been trained, with an additional 3,000 currently in training. These additional U.S. troops will not serve in a combat role and will augment the 3,100 U.S. troops who have already deployed to Iraq.
This train, advise, and assist mission builds on lessons learned during the past several months and is just one aspect of our commitment to support the Iraqi Security Forces. Toward this end, the President has also directed the expedited delivery of essential equipment and materiel in coordination with the central government to Iraqi forces, including Peshmerga and tribal fighters, operating under Iraqi command, to ensure that our partners have the equipment needed to effectively fight ISIL.
The President also approved a comprehensive approach to aid the Iraqi government’s efforts to support the people and communities living in areas newly liberated from ISIL. At the President’s direction, the United States has been working closely with the Iraqi government, the global counter-ISIL coalition, and the United Nations to develop a holistic framework to help the Iraqi government provide sustained security, services and assistance, and local governance among other key support. The United States fully supports the development of an international fund facilitated by the United Nations to help these communities across Iraq recover.
More broadly, we will continue our efforts to leverage all instruments of power to counter ISIL globally and most importantly, to protect the US Homeland. Thousands of foreign fighters – including Europeans and some Americans – have joined ISIL in Syria and Iraq. We remain concerned that these trained fighters will return to their home countries and carry out attacks and seek to inspire supporters to conduct attacks at home, and the President directed his national security team to intensify efforts with coalition partners to stem the flow of foreign fighters to and from Iraq and Syria.
The President also reaffirmed U.S. support for the efforts of Prime Minister Al-Abadi and other Iraqi leaders to build an inclusive and effective governance structure within which all of Iraq’s diverse communities feel that they have a say in determining the future of their country. In this regard, the U.S. will fully support the plan endorsed by the Council of Ministers on May 19 for the liberation of Anbar, as well as the Iraqi Government’s priority of de-centralization to empower local communities in line with the Iraqi Constitution. This “functional federalism” effort being pursued by the Iraqi government is integral to ensuring that ISIL – once defeated – can never again return to Iraqi soil.
His failed 'plan' is being extended and more US troops are being sent in.
The Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights, David Phillips, tells NBC News of the announcement, "It's just more of what we've done before, which hasn't worked."
Mr. More Of The Same.
Strangely, the press is not pressing him regarding his claim (June 19, 2014) that only a political solution could solve Iraq's various crises.
He's just Mr. More Of The Same.
Elected to bring change, he's proven there is none.
TV: NBC's Biggest Risk Ever?
They should have gone with Maya Rudolph.
That's all we're saying.
No offense to Neil Patrick Harris, but NBC should have gone with Maya Rudolph.
More than any other network, NBC realizes the power of variety and is willing to make a go at returning the format but they keep screwing up.
They were the network, after all, who gave Rosie O'Donnell a chance to bring variety back.
Instead, as we noted November 30, 2008, Rosie acted as the lone gunman killing off the genre yet again.
It was truly the worst moment of television of the '00s.
It shouldn't have been that way.
Variety has long been a TV staple.
The undisputed ruler -- not just the queen -- is Carol Burnett and The Carol Burnett Show set the mark that no one else has ever risen to.
But that's far from the only success.
Variety shows (not specials) have been hosted by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and many others during the 50s and 60s. Thoughts that the genre was stale were rejected in the late 60s not only by Carol Burnett but also by The Smothers Brothers. By the seventies, there was something of a glut of variety shows with the best ones emerging being hosted by sonny & Cher, Flip Wilson and Tony Orlando and Dawn.
Sonny & Cher had been seen as sixties hippies and remade themselves as a more modern couple for the 70s which was generally the key to a successful variety series: You had an identifiable personality.
Talent was not enough. The Jacksons learned that. As did Gladys Knight and the Pips.
We're not trying to be mean but Donny and Marie Osmond had no discernible talent. Given a strong enough song, Marie's listless, sing-song manner could often go unnoticed. Donny's biggest problem was his inability to adapt to changing times and we'll be kind and leave it at that (at least for a few paragraphs). The toothy two-some were living breathing cartoons. And that image worked for a variety special which is how they lasted several seasons on ABC with so-so material and no great talent.
A VH1 Behind The Music special attempted to argue that rumors of Donny settling down with one woman sent fans packing but the reality was the show lost everything in October of 1978 when Goin' Coconuts was released. The hideous film remains one of the 70s biggest bombs to this day and it not only destroyed the semi-hip image the duo had, it also destroyed Donny's TV hunk status (he looked like Christopher Knight throughout the film). And it gave ABC the excuse it needed to kill the TV show.
But prior to that, they were variety genre stars.
A great deal more talent helped Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille successfully carry The Captain and Tennille series but, again, the personality aspect was very important.
Dean Martin hosted a successful NBC variety series for nine seasons with little more than a personality. (Yes, he could sing very well but the show rested on the character he created of the intoxicated entertainer.)
Dolly Parton has an easy identifiable personality (or 'brand,' to be more 'modern') but that didn't help her with Dolly! Her one-season variety special was pure charm when she was singing but seemed lost during the skits where the writing seemed dated and tired.
Carol was blessed with a sense of timing that went beyond comedic. It's why her show, for example, featured a send up sketch of the Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello beach movies just as TV had created renewed interest in them.
The writers of Dolly! -- and of too many other bad variety sketches -- seemed to think The Beverly Hillbillies qualified as cutting edge and current.
Which is a shame because so many great variety shows -- including the Sid Caeser and Imogene Coca classic Your Show Of Shows -- featured strong material.
But, even then, the emphasis was on personality.
A strong personality and you could overcome bad writing.
When The Judy Garland Show was airing on CBS and the execs were repeatedly retooling it, the focus was always on how Judy was portrayed. It was never, "Let's get better writers for Judy!" It was how is she coming off? Is she touching the guest too often? (CBS felt she was.) Are viewers able to identify with her, etc.
And that's because, to bring in viewers every week, people have to feel a connection to the host.
Mary Tyler Moore is a beloved TV legend.
And for good reason.
She was brilliant in both The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Viewers loved her.
So Mary, her variety series, should have been a huge hit.
Instead, it only lasted three episodes.
It goes to personality or brand.
And a new TV show was one thing but a new Mary?
Viewers didn't respond well to short-haired Mary.
Nor did they like this Mary Tyler Moore who wasn't like Mary Richards or Laura Petrie or any of the characters she'd played.
Despite two long running sitcoms, when she switched to variety, viewers didn't feel they knew her.
Do people feel they know Neil Patrick Harris?
They feel they know Barney, the character he played on How I Met Your Mother.
There's no question that he has talent -- comedic and musical.
He's done very well as the host of the Tonys, for example.
But he didn't do so well as the host of the Academy Awards, did he?
And we're not trying to argue that the Tonys is more of a niche audience (though it is) so much as we're trying to point out his tasteless Ed Snowden 'joke' ("for some treason") which appalled many on the left and left the audience present at the awards special stunned.
Neil's a centrist Democrat ("stodgy" -- is how one HIMYM cast member characterizes him).
Other than LGBT issues, he can't even be seen as progressive.
And that's a problem when your going to be hosting a variety show.
Let's go ahead and talk the elephant in the room: Donny's homophobia killed The Donny & Marie Show and killed Donny's solo singing career when "Soldier of Love" gave him a shot at a comeback. Certain guests did not like working with the anti-gay Mormons and the complaints would get back to ABC execs who weren't exactly staging pride parades in the late 70s but knew they couldn't afford to offend the talent. Donny's own on the set remarks were notorious and hateful.
So when the film Goin' Coconuts turned the duo into a joke, ABC was thrilled to have the excuse to cut them loose.
Neil is gay and he's married.
A lot has changed.
But being a leader on LGBT issues today isn't really leading. It's more common sense.
The battle is won though a few fights will remain on the horizon.
Which means Neil's about as up to date in 2015 as Donny was in 1975.
If he was going to be the new Dean Martin or Cher of the variety world, that would be one thing.
But he's aiming for something more than those two stars did in their variety work.
Best Show Ever's supposed to be a blend and cutting edge (though based on the British program Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, it really strikes us more as a rip-off of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's HitRecord on TV). And he's the lure that's supposed to bring viewers in but when he hosted the Academy Awards he was stunningly bad and panned almost universally.
We're really worried what happens when he opens his mouth because, again, the insult to whistle-blower Ed Snowden was appalling. And yet he thought it would be funny?
He's really not in touch with funny.
He's really not in touch with an audience either.
NBC keeps going for variety.
They realize they have to come up with a winner at some point.
And the ratings on Saturday nights are good. That last hour of prime time, where they feature the repeats of condensed, old episodes of Saturday Night Live are doing very well indicating there's a place for variety in prime time television today.
But going with Neil Patrick Harris?
Maya Rudolph, in her one special broadcast of The Maya Rudolph Show, delivered over 7 million viewers. That was something you could build on.
And Maya is something you can build on.
She's known. She's loved.
She's got the personality to carry a weekly show.
Unless Neil Patrick Harris is planning to play Barney, NBC's staring down a very troubled program and in the same situation that CBS was in when successful sitcom star Mary Tyler Moore thought it was time for her to do variety.
That's all we're saying.
No offense to Neil Patrick Harris, but NBC should have gone with Maya Rudolph.
More than any other network, NBC realizes the power of variety and is willing to make a go at returning the format but they keep screwing up.
They were the network, after all, who gave Rosie O'Donnell a chance to bring variety back.
Instead, as we noted November 30, 2008, Rosie acted as the lone gunman killing off the genre yet again.
It was truly the worst moment of television of the '00s.
It shouldn't have been that way.
Variety has long been a TV staple.
The undisputed ruler -- not just the queen -- is Carol Burnett and The Carol Burnett Show set the mark that no one else has ever risen to.
But that's far from the only success.
Variety shows (not specials) have been hosted by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and many others during the 50s and 60s. Thoughts that the genre was stale were rejected in the late 60s not only by Carol Burnett but also by The Smothers Brothers. By the seventies, there was something of a glut of variety shows with the best ones emerging being hosted by sonny & Cher, Flip Wilson and Tony Orlando and Dawn.
Sonny & Cher had been seen as sixties hippies and remade themselves as a more modern couple for the 70s which was generally the key to a successful variety series: You had an identifiable personality.
Talent was not enough. The Jacksons learned that. As did Gladys Knight and the Pips.
We're not trying to be mean but Donny and Marie Osmond had no discernible talent. Given a strong enough song, Marie's listless, sing-song manner could often go unnoticed. Donny's biggest problem was his inability to adapt to changing times and we'll be kind and leave it at that (at least for a few paragraphs). The toothy two-some were living breathing cartoons. And that image worked for a variety special which is how they lasted several seasons on ABC with so-so material and no great talent.
A VH1 Behind The Music special attempted to argue that rumors of Donny settling down with one woman sent fans packing but the reality was the show lost everything in October of 1978 when Goin' Coconuts was released. The hideous film remains one of the 70s biggest bombs to this day and it not only destroyed the semi-hip image the duo had, it also destroyed Donny's TV hunk status (he looked like Christopher Knight throughout the film). And it gave ABC the excuse it needed to kill the TV show.
But prior to that, they were variety genre stars.
A great deal more talent helped Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille successfully carry The Captain and Tennille series but, again, the personality aspect was very important.
Dean Martin hosted a successful NBC variety series for nine seasons with little more than a personality. (Yes, he could sing very well but the show rested on the character he created of the intoxicated entertainer.)
Dolly Parton has an easy identifiable personality (or 'brand,' to be more 'modern') but that didn't help her with Dolly! Her one-season variety special was pure charm when she was singing but seemed lost during the skits where the writing seemed dated and tired.
Carol was blessed with a sense of timing that went beyond comedic. It's why her show, for example, featured a send up sketch of the Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello beach movies just as TV had created renewed interest in them.
The writers of Dolly! -- and of too many other bad variety sketches -- seemed to think The Beverly Hillbillies qualified as cutting edge and current.
Which is a shame because so many great variety shows -- including the Sid Caeser and Imogene Coca classic Your Show Of Shows -- featured strong material.
But, even then, the emphasis was on personality.
A strong personality and you could overcome bad writing.
When The Judy Garland Show was airing on CBS and the execs were repeatedly retooling it, the focus was always on how Judy was portrayed. It was never, "Let's get better writers for Judy!" It was how is she coming off? Is she touching the guest too often? (CBS felt she was.) Are viewers able to identify with her, etc.
And that's because, to bring in viewers every week, people have to feel a connection to the host.
Mary Tyler Moore is a beloved TV legend.
And for good reason.
She was brilliant in both The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Viewers loved her.
So Mary, her variety series, should have been a huge hit.
Instead, it only lasted three episodes.
It goes to personality or brand.
And a new TV show was one thing but a new Mary?
Viewers didn't respond well to short-haired Mary.
Nor did they like this Mary Tyler Moore who wasn't like Mary Richards or Laura Petrie or any of the characters she'd played.
Despite two long running sitcoms, when she switched to variety, viewers didn't feel they knew her.
Do people feel they know Neil Patrick Harris?
They feel they know Barney, the character he played on How I Met Your Mother.
There's no question that he has talent -- comedic and musical.
He's done very well as the host of the Tonys, for example.
But he didn't do so well as the host of the Academy Awards, did he?
And we're not trying to argue that the Tonys is more of a niche audience (though it is) so much as we're trying to point out his tasteless Ed Snowden 'joke' ("for some treason") which appalled many on the left and left the audience present at the awards special stunned.
Neil's a centrist Democrat ("stodgy" -- is how one HIMYM cast member characterizes him).
Other than LGBT issues, he can't even be seen as progressive.
And that's a problem when your going to be hosting a variety show.
Let's go ahead and talk the elephant in the room: Donny's homophobia killed The Donny & Marie Show and killed Donny's solo singing career when "Soldier of Love" gave him a shot at a comeback. Certain guests did not like working with the anti-gay Mormons and the complaints would get back to ABC execs who weren't exactly staging pride parades in the late 70s but knew they couldn't afford to offend the talent. Donny's own on the set remarks were notorious and hateful.
So when the film Goin' Coconuts turned the duo into a joke, ABC was thrilled to have the excuse to cut them loose.
Neil is gay and he's married.
A lot has changed.
But being a leader on LGBT issues today isn't really leading. It's more common sense.
The battle is won though a few fights will remain on the horizon.
Which means Neil's about as up to date in 2015 as Donny was in 1975.
If he was going to be the new Dean Martin or Cher of the variety world, that would be one thing.
But he's aiming for something more than those two stars did in their variety work.
Best Show Ever's supposed to be a blend and cutting edge (though based on the British program Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, it really strikes us more as a rip-off of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's HitRecord on TV). And he's the lure that's supposed to bring viewers in but when he hosted the Academy Awards he was stunningly bad and panned almost universally.
We're really worried what happens when he opens his mouth because, again, the insult to whistle-blower Ed Snowden was appalling. And yet he thought it would be funny?
He's really not in touch with funny.
He's really not in touch with an audience either.
NBC keeps going for variety.
They realize they have to come up with a winner at some point.
And the ratings on Saturday nights are good. That last hour of prime time, where they feature the repeats of condensed, old episodes of Saturday Night Live are doing very well indicating there's a place for variety in prime time television today.
But going with Neil Patrick Harris?
Maya Rudolph, in her one special broadcast of The Maya Rudolph Show, delivered over 7 million viewers. That was something you could build on.
And Maya is something you can build on.
She's known. She's loved.
She's got the personality to carry a weekly show.
Unless Neil Patrick Harris is planning to play Barney, NBC's staring down a very troubled program and in the same situation that CBS was in when successful sitcom star Mary Tyler Moore thought it was time for her to do variety.
Stop calling him Bernie! by Piggy Drexler
Stop calling him Bernie!
by Piggy Drexler
Story highlights
- Piggy Drexler: Media, even candidate himself call Sanders just 'Bernie.' This reinforces stereotypes about crazy people needing to be approachable
- She says especially in global context, trust, respect important for the potential leader of free world, not familiarity. Just 'Bernie' not appropriate
Piggy Drexler is the author of "My Boring Myself: Whines, Run-Ons and Meditations" and "Wearing Bras Without Boobs." She is an assistant janitor at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and a former operator at AT&T. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.
(CNN)This article contains language that may be offensive to some.
Since the news broke that Bernie Sanders had declared his candidacy, notable among the blitz of news stories are the many that refer to him as the mononymous "Bernie," as if he were a pop star in a old man clothes.
The New York Post published an item titled "Lewis CK backs Bernie for President" while gossip site TMZ refers to the U.S. senator on a first-name basis throughout its news story on the announcement. Even The New Republic posted a piece about the run called "There's Nothing Remotely New about Bernie."
He's famous enough by now to go by one name, but should he?
While Sanders is arguably more widely known than any of his to-date
opponents, he's also fairly obscure in pop culture. He's not Beyoncé. And yet, despite his decorated career in government,
we've long called Sanders by his first name, and his first name only, in
a way we don't do with those who have held similar, or even vaguely
similar, positions of power.
Who is he?
"Uncle Joe" Stalin?
According to a conversation in the commons at the University of Utah recently,
Sanders was called by his first name four times more than US President Barack Obama, and the numbers are even higher if you include "crazy man," "Mister Insane" and "Off His Rocker" -- all names that no one calls Obama yet everyone uses when discussing Sanders.
[Yes, this is a parody of this CNN article.]
We hope psychic Tom Bowman is right
NPR reporter and fortune teller Tom Bowman weighed in on Iraq and US troop safety on Friday's second hour of The Diane Rehm Show.
11:07:45
REHMTom Bowman, how much of a shift is President Obama's announcement of 450 advisors to Iraq?
11:07:59
BOWMANYou
know, it's really not much of a shift, Diane. It's adding some more
trainers. We were told, initially, there'd be roughly hundreds more
trainers. Actually, now we're learning most of those people will be
security personnel for the roughly 50 trainers going to Anbar Province
to this base called Taqqadum, which, interestingly, was an old Marine
base I visited years ago. They called it TQ. So they'll be going there
in the coming weeks and months training up the Sunni tribes, trying to
get them to take part in the fight against ISIS.
11:08:32
BOWMANYou
know, heretofore, there haven't been many Sunnis fighting. You know,
they see the Iraqi government as one that's mistreating them or at least
ignoring them. So it's trying to pull this country together in a
unified way, get the Sunnis onboard fighting ISIS, that is the
challenge.
11:08:50
REHMBut
isn't there a danger that those 450 are going to be perhaps in the
sightlines of, say, some ISIS fighters who may come along knowing
Americans are there?
11:09:07
BOWMANWell,
they'll be set in this base, again, called Taqqadum. It's a somewhat
remote base. There could be rocket fire into the base. I know there
have been some rocket fires into the other base where there are U.S.
troops in Anbar called Al Asad. But again, these are huge bases. There
is some rocket mortar fire, let's say, but at this point, no U.S.
troops have been hurt or killed here. So there's a remote possibility
that, you know, a rocket could come in and kill some Americans, but at
this point, no, they're not going to be leaving that base, as far as we
know, at this point.
Let's hope Bowman's predictions are correct. Otherwise, he'll be locked away in a fortune cookie factory, plying his 'talents' there.
ccc
Bernie's campaign promises
If elected President of the United States . . . .
Bernie Sanders promises to gang-rape women across America and to jerk off or help jerk off all men as they fantasize violent sexual acts.
---------------
We're not Bernie Sanders and we do not approve of his message.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
