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 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?  

 

• 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.)

 

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

 

"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