Media: The intended and the unintended jokes

Laughter, which nut job Robert Kennedy Jr. probably insists causes autism, is often referred to as "the best medicine."  And many of us love to laugh.

 

 

Many?

 

Not all.  Among the chief points we've made over the two decades and counting here is that too-cool-for-school Water Cooler Set hates funny and doesn't get funny.  They are the Donald Chumps of comedy audiences -- too stupid and too self-involved to get a joke or anything that isn't about them.  

 

Actual laughter is too much for them.  And they're not just at keyboards, they also include a friend we have who entered the '00s as a very important behind the camera talent on sitcoms.  But he didn't like working so he wanted single-camera.  It's so much easier to do a single-cam show. Now?  Now he has no career. He churned out a few sitcom disasters -- one single-cam non-laugher after another.  And the career has ended.  He even sent out resumes last year trying to drum up work, noting his past sitcom work, the awards that resulted from it, and much more.  But he hates funny.  And now he can't get hired.

 

The single-cam movement?  Something idiots like the guy at THE HUMANIST REPORT still rally for out of racism and hated towards Desi Arnaz who developed the taped multi-cam sitcom format with I LOVE LUCY?  It produced a lot of forgettable shows.  Worse, networks learned the hard way that  there's no big money in single-cam 'comedies.'  It's not just that the timing is off in every scene, it's also that people don't want to watch.  

 

Oh, sure, there's always the small number of freaks who love THE OFFICE -- one of the shows that destroyed NBC's MUST SEE TV Thursday nights.  THE OFFICE is not big in syndication.  In fact, the ratings were so low after the show went into syndication that local channels immediately began burning episodes off in the one a.m. to four a.m. hours and returning older sitcomes to the late night schedule.  It also was not a hit show on NBC.  During the nine seasons it was in production, the show as never a top forty hit.  Seasons five, six and seven found the show coming in for 52nd of the year, 52nd of the year and 53rd of the year.  Those were its 'highest' rankings. The other six seasons didn't even make it into the top 65. 

By contrast, ABC's THE CONNERS is wrapping up its final season.  It's one of the worst sitcoms ever but it is a multi-cam one so it did deliver viewers.  Four of the previous six seasons made the show one of the top fifty watched programs. Its lowest was last season when it fell to the 52nd most watched program.  Reminder, THE OFFICE had its best ranking at 52 for the year and its worst season was when it was the 102 'most watched' program (second worst season found it coming at 94).

 

No one wants that garbage.  And, equally true, we're all offended at how the great film work of Christopher Guest got ripped off by minor talents  without any credit being given. 

 

These garbage boats stink up syndication and run off viewers but they also never become the big sitcom of their year.  In three of MODERN FAMILY's eleven seasons, it made it into the top 20 watched shows for the year (15 for season three, 18 for season four  and 19 for season five).  

Contrast that with CBS' THE BIG BANG THEORY -- it ran for 12 seasons -- beginning with season three, it was in the top 13 watched shows for every season -- five seasons it was the second most program on TV, one season it was the most watched program on TV.  

People who actually love sitcoms watch to laugh not to nod or go "Hmmm."

 

It's the difference between people at a comedy show actually laughing or resorting instead to applause. 

 

At present, MID-CENTURY MODERN is your best bet for intended laughs.  HULU has been doing original programming since 2011.  Sadly, this is only the second funny sitcom they've had.  If you want to cheat, you could call it their third.  Cheating would mean giving them credit for THE MINDY PROJECT -- a sitcom they did not develop nor did they air it originally.  TMP ran for three seasons on NBC and then three on HULU.  The first funny sitcom HULU had was DIFFICULT PEOPLE about best friends Julie (Julie Klausner) and Billy (Billy Eichner) terrorizing NYC and anyone they met there -- which included guest star Nathan Lane in one episode playing himself.

 

On the new sitcom MID-CENTURY MODERN, Nathan is one of the four stars.  He plays wealthy Bunny who lives with his mother and who invites friends Jerry (Matt Bomer) and Arthur (Nathan Lee Graham) to move in following the death of a mutual friend.  The two Nathans and Matt are being referred to as "a gay GOLDEN GIRLS" and the show is that funny -- GOLDEN GIRLS level funny.  Episode after episode, it does not disappoint.  

 

That's not surprising since the off screen talent is as strong as the onscreen.  David Kohan and Max Mutchnick created strong sitcoms like TWINS and PARTNERS and they created one of the all time classic sitcoms WILL & GRACE.  On that show, they worked with legendary director James Burrows.  Few TV directors ever attain the level of fame or the level of respect in the industry that Jim has.  His past directing credits include on classic sitcom after another -- such as THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, THE BOB NEWHART SHOW, RHODA, LAVERNE & SHIRLEY, PHYLLIS, TAXI, CHEERS,

The three comedy geniuses behind the camera team with the four on camera and the result is a hilarious program.

We've only named three stars, though.  What of the other?

The fourth star was Linda Lavin who played Bunny's mom Sybill.  The actress was famous for many things including Broadway but, for TV viewers, she was best known as Alice on the TV show of the same name. She also delivered on the sitcoms CONRAD BLOOM, SEAN SAVES THE WORLD, 9JKL, B POSITIVE and  SANTA CLARITA DIET.
 

 
MID-CENTURY MODERN is a strong swan song for Lavin who appears in eight of the ten episodes.  She had chemistry with all three of the leads and she was so centered in her character.  It was a wonderful performance and watching her will remind you all over again of (a) how talented she was and (b) how easy she always made it look.

 

Donald Chump and his administration make it look easy as well -- make comedy look easy.  Certainly make playing the fool and the Global Village Idiot look easy. But what they deliver would be unintended jokes. 

 

There opposite of intended jokes?  Sick jokes like the so-called commander-in-chief Convicted Felon Donald Chump.  Jennifer Bowers Bahney (RAW STORY) explains:

 When news broke of the leaked Signal group chat detailing an impending strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen, critics called for heads to roll for potentially putting U.S. service members at risk. But instead of expressing concern over soldiers who could have been killed due to the leak, President Donald Trump immediately went on the defensive, standing firmly behind his national security adviser and secretary of defense, with no mention of American soldiers.

West Point graduate Lucian K. Truscott IV wrote in a new column for Salon that the Signal chat incident proved just how little the Trump administration cares about the fate of soldiers who have no choice but to follow Trump's commands.

"Trump's national security team cared so little about the pilots they sent into combat against the Houthis that they used the insecure civilian Signal app to plan the mission," Truscott wrote.

 That's bad, that's really bad.  But Chump's always eager to play the buffoon.  For example, last week Steve Benen (MSNBC) noted:

 

The details are still coming into focus, but the publicly available information is clearly alarming. Four U.S. soldiers, who were conducting tactical training, recently went missing while training in Lithuania. The Associated Press reported, “The U.S. Army said the Hercules armored vehicle the four U.S. soldiers were in during a training exercise had been found submerged in a body of water. It said recovery efforts were underway by U.S. Army and Lithuanian Armed Forces and civilian agencies.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte initially said the American troops had perished in the incident, though he soon after clarified that the search is ongoing. As if this weren’t serious enough, there’s also the relevance of the location: The exercise was conducted at a training ground roughly 6 miles from the border with Belarus — and Belarus is closely aligned with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Given all of this, it stands to reason that Donald Trump would be up to speed on the details and the status of the search for the American service members. He is, after all, the president and the commander in chief of the armed forces. And yet, HuffPost noted:

Donald Trump appeared unaware on Wednesday that four U.S. soldiers had gone missing during a NATO training exercise in Lithuania. When asked by a reporter if he had been briefed on the situation that began to unfurl hours before, the president replied, “No, I haven’t.”

He didn’t elaborate. In fact, the president simply moved on to another question.

Four US soldiers were missing last week and the sick f**k and sick joke that is Donald Chump wasn't even aware of it.  Is it senility or just more evidence of the contempt he has for the US military?

 

Tonight, Alex Sundby (CBS NEWS) reports:

 

All four U.S. soldiers who had been at the center of a recovery mission in Lithuania for a week after their armored vehicle sank in a peat bog near the border with Belarus have been found dead, the Army said. The fourth missing soldier's body was recovered Tuesday, a day after the three other soldiers were found, the Army's Europe and Africa Command said in a statement.

 All of the soldiers were assigned to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division and were permanently stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia.

Three of the four soldiers were identified by the military Tuesday as Sgt. Jose Duenez, Jr. 25, of Joliet, Illinois; Sgt. Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, California; and Pfc. Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam. The identity of the fourth U.S. Army soldier is being withheld pending confirmation of notification of next of kin, the 3rd Infantry Division said in a statement. 

 

Lucian K. Truscott IV (SALON) observes, "The loss of four soldiers from the Third Infantry Division is a tragedy. That the president of the United States had not even heard about it a day after it happened is sadly typical, especially of this president, who has repeatedly expressed his disdain for members of the military under his command."

 

MID CENTURY MODERN delivers what is promises, strong laughs, belly laughs.  All Chump ever provides is the punchline to a sick and dirty joke.

MEDIA: The closet cases are now going after AOC, ready to call them out now?

The way you know the latest series from Shonda Rhimes is a comedy is that a death takes place in DC and people care.

Kamala Harris' presidential campaign was killed and no one gives a damn.

Grasp that.

You give a damn?  Of course, you do, you're intelligent.  We have the smartest readers in the world.  

But are you a podcaster?  Are you a writer for some magazine or online site?  

Kamala's career was killed by Socialists posing as Democrats.  It was a media circle jerk involving Amy Goodman and so many others.  

Dog-faced girl Kshama Sawant was the missing piece there.  

In Shonda's THE RESIDENCE, bird watching police consultant Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba) arrives at the White House because A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito) is dead.  A suicide!  Nope.

And though everyone wants to rush her to a finding, she wants to know what happened.

What happened in 2024?

Norman Solomon (DSA) was his usual cranky and lying self.  He wanted Joe Biden gone and he started that effort in 2023.  It went nowhere -- like so much of Norman's life.  October 7th found Israel attacked by Hamas (designated as a terrorist organization since 1997 by the US government). The attack resulted in 1200 people (including children) being murdered and 254 people being kidnapped.  The Israeli government might have garnered some sympathy for the attack.  However, Benjamin Netanyahu's response was not a response targeting Hamas.  He instead carried out collective punishment -- a legally defined War Crime -- and began bombing Gaza, bombing hospitals (also a legally defined War Crime) and acting like a terrorist.

The US government wasn't concerned with War Crimes after 9/11 and it remains a dark and shameful part of our history.

The crimes against Gaza laser focused the world's attention on the plight of Palestinians.  And, for the first time, the US had to catch up with the rest of the world when learning that there were human rights issue at stake.  Former President Jimmy Carter had attempted over the years to raise this serious issue.  Refer, for example, to his 2006 book PALESTINE: PEACE NOT APARTHEID. 

The issue wasn't helped over the years by losers like public nuisance (and Donald Chump supporter and Proud Boy supporter) Susan Benjamin (better known by her stage name Medea). Around the same time as Jimmy's book, you had the male controlled 'women's group CODEPINK encouraging women to fast because apparently there are no eating disorders in this country.  And they were raising money for a trip to Iraq where they were going to visit with parliamentarians to talk about peace and -- 

Wait.

The fast was off.  The trip was off.  They were doing a flotilla to Gaza!!!! 

And that's how it went.  Gaza was a concern of the left . . . until something else came up or . . .  It was never a steady focus.  It was just one more stop for lazy leftists hitch-hiking along a highway of causes.

For over a year Netanyahu savaged Gaza (and despite Susan Benjamin's multiple orgasms while moaning "CHUMP!," he has started back up) and it made it difficult for Americans to turn away.

The left has no real brains.  Did you not notice that?  Maybe you don't remember when one of the closests things we have to a brain, Naomi Klein, was talking about the economy and how you couldn't waste a crisis?  That's their idea of brains.  

So this was a monumental moment in the US.  Leave it to the left to f**k it up.

Norman was probably the first.  He brought back his anti-Joe Biden movement and now wanted to soak it in the blood of Gaza to try to give it meaning.  Rashida Tlaib and her sister were happy to help him out and be the public face of the 'movement.'

The support for a cease-fire was something Americans could get behind in large numbers.  The same couldn't be said for two-state solution and other issues.  Which is too bad because a lot of people have died (and are still dying).  America, finally waking up from its collective slumber, could have finally been a force of positive change for the region.

But Norman's honey pots (come on, Ray McGovern, that's how you always insult women) didn't want to deal with reality.

Reality was: Elect Kamala president and let's get to pressuring her and saving some lives. 

Kamala was the strongest voice in the administration calling out the actions of the Israeli government in meeting after meeting.   We knew that.  We're not the only ones who did.

But if you didn't, that still doesn't excuse you if the tricksters fooled you.

Donald Chump was not a person of peace (despite the orgasms Susan Benjamin has moaning his name).  Donald Chump had led an insurrection against this country.  He had imposed a Muslim ban during his first term as president (1/2017 to 1/2021).  He had made clear in one statement after the other that he was not a friend to the Palestinians. 

But Rashida and her gang of fools told people not to vote for Kamala.  What could they do?  They could vote for serial liar Jill Stein. They could not vote.  They could vote for Chump.

The not vote was the real message, by the way.  They lied and whores like Amy Goodman brought them on to lie and they'd speak -- as Democrats -- about how they couldn't vote for Kamala.

But they weren't Democrats, they were Socialists and that was part of the con game.  And it's how they depressed turnout.

Democrats are not the party of the rich.  That would be the Republican Party.  Dems do have the numbers.  But to win, we have to get out the vote.  Rashida and The Frauds worked to depress turnout.

They gave Chump a second term.  That's the horror we live with every day.

And stop a moment with us.

You've seen Chris Hayes 'analyze' the results and what happened.  You've seen THE NATION do the same -- the Marxist NATION because Katrina put a Marxist in charge.   You've seen corporate media analyze and YOUTUBE analyze and you've seen a lot of lying.  A lot.

Us?  We feel like THE RESIDENCE's Cordelia Cupp because we stuck to reality. 

A lot of people flat out lied and did so intentionally.  After every election cycle, for example, you get regressive Dem A who uses their hatred of this or that civil right to insist that this cost the election and the Democratic Party has just gone too far left for the country!

They spew their lies knowingly and they get on TV and online at 'magazine' sites and it happens every four years.  If you're like us, you long ago realized that it's all a game.  Why do we say that?  If the candidate was really too left, flairs would have gone up because pre-election polling would have shown that the candidate was grossly out of step with the country.  You can also just use common sense buecase no true Democrat running for president in a general election is ever going to be too left for the American people -- or at least not in our lifetimes.

Then you get the other group and we're a little more forgiving of them.  They lie to try to keep the party titled left (however small that tit may be).  And we're more forgiving on them because they are in the minority and only one or two will break through in corporate media while the bulk will have to make the point online.  But they argue, "This candidate didn't _____ and it cost them ____!"  

For 2024, that type of liar would be anyone whining -- yes, whining -- about Gaza because the reality was and remains that the Democratic Party was never of one mind on Gaza.  Any presidential candidate was going to have to walk a tight rope when it came to that issue.  

But the scramble after the election -- especially in the first two months after -- is never about reality, it's about scoring points and trying to force the party in the direction you want them to move.

Which is why it's liars to the left of us, liars to the right, stuck in Chump Land here we are.  And we'll be stuck somewhere even worse if we don't start dealing with reality.

Over the weekend, MEIDASTOUCH NEWS' Ben Meiselas did a segment exposing the liar running for judge in Wisconsin, Brad Schimel,  noting how the man that Musk was backing had repeatedly lied and insisted he wasn't MAGA.  Ben observed, "Here's the thing, if you're Trumpy, just say you're Trumpy.  Let the voters decide."

Exactly.  Couldn't agree with Ben more.

Also over the weekend, THE BULWARK did a segment entitled "President AOC!? VP BERNIE!? Dem Influencer Under Fire for FLIRTY LIES! (w/ Jessica Burbank) | FYPod" and let's note the introduction:

Tim Miller:  I'm Tim Miller.

Cameron Casky:  And I'm Cameron Casky

Tim Miller:  And we're here with yet another friend of Cameron -- unclear if they're bisexual -- so far all of Cam's friends have been bisexual, I think.  And so I'm very excited to meet her.  She, I can tell, from a brief social media glance is Marxist adjacent which is exciting We're going to hit all -- we're going to hit the whole ideological spectrum over the next two weeks because I think we have a MAGA guest coming next week.  So I'm very excited to meet Jessica Burbank.  What's up girl?

Jessica Burbank:  Thanks for not calling me liberal.  You've got a good political education if you've know that.

Tim Miller:  I'm the lib now.  I'm the lib.  And you guys are different. 

Do you see what they did there?  

No?

Well they didn't pull a Chris Hayes.  Last week, on MSNBC, Chris brought on the disgusting Waleed Shahid.  The Socialist hates Kamala Harris and worked overtime to demolish her chances at becoming president (which, use your logical skills, means he worked to put Chump back in the White House).  Chris is fully aware of that and he's known Waleed is a Socialist forever and a day.  But there was Waleed, brought on to talk the state of 'our party.'  No.  

If you're a Trumpy, say you're a Trumpy.  If you're a Marxist, own that as well. 

But they won't do it.  They cover for each other. 

If a Socialist wants to weigh in on the Democratic Party why can't they be honest that they're not Democrats and why do hosts like Chris Hayes lie for them?

We analyzed the Kamala Harris campaign in real time which is why we didn't have to scramble to figure out what went down when she lost.  A network of Socialists joined together to lie about her, to pose as Democrats, to use their programs to pretend that these people were Democrats.  

Now, as in THE RESIDENCE, new pieces of evidence and new angles emerge over time.

Kshama Sawant.

Not being women who grow out our armpit hair and then braiding it, we really didn't know or care about Sawant.  She was just another freak. A little uglier than most, but nothing that stood out to us.  She stood out to some people -- like Kyle Kulinski who's been bringing her on his YOUTUBE program for over 11 years.  You know Kyle, the trickster, who, with Cenk started a group for Socialists but called it "Justice Democrats" because without the lie most of them couldn't have gotten elected. 

Sawant?   She's a psycho freak who accomplishes nothing and never will.  She managed to make it onto a city council, Seattle, where she got the year book credit (a Socialist makes it onto a city council!) but she did nothing.  A foul looking freak, she was part of Socialist Alternative.

She left them.  She infiltrated DSA -- Democratic Socialists of America.

And when we learned that last week, a lot of things started making sense.  A writer at THE NATION insisted they told us about her infiltration in 2023.  We don't remember that.  A friend at THE PROGRESSIVE said the same thing.  We told both of them that what we recalled of that conversation was how the wrong elements were joining DSA and steering it from its original purpose.   We could be a lot more concrete than that -- and were on the phone -- but we don't want out the two who were warning us all along and who were the first to explain to us that Katrina vanden Heuvel (co-owner of THE NATION, bad writer, everyone she touches dies, etc etc) was determined to sink Kamala's campaign -- told us that back in July.  

So Arm Pitty Sawant and her freak followers infiltrated DSA and that's how they ended up pulling this nonsense.

They did in 2000 as well.  That's when Ralph Nader was going to save them and the country.  Nader, of course, helped lead to the Iraq War. 

This go round has led to even worse.  In Chump Land, everyone's in the cross hairs -- children, women, people of color, immigrants, veterans, farmers, seniors, scientists, journalists, attorneys, go down the list.  

And that's due to the hideous Sawant.

At one point, in THE RESIDENCE, the obvious is there for everyone to see.  Or they think it is.  They know how and why, they insist.  But they don't.  

And that's what we think of the Chris Hayes types who are enabling DSA.  DSA is not DSA.  

DSA is now Sawant.

And she and her gang are bound and determined to sink AOC.  As a House member, as a senator, as a presidential candidate, it doesn't matter.  They want to destroy her.

Does that alarm you, Chris Hayes?

The purity test that they imposed on Kamala, they're now planning to impose on AOC.

Why?

Because The Politics of Destruction is all that Sawant and her followers know.  So they attack Bernie Sanders and AOC as they go around the country speaking about the abuses in Chump Land. 

MS KOHUT, Kim Crawley, ‪Erik Powery, annasuzanna, ‪Nietzsche Nomad, ianmcgecko, warner crocker and so much more garbage.  They're already gunning for AOC.  They're all over TWITTER and BLUESKY spreading their toxic lies and garbage.

You really going to let Sawant and company get away with what they did in 2024?  Let them work to destroy AOC?  Will people like Chris Hayes enable this destruction again?  Or will they stop lying to their followers and finally start telling the truth.

"If you're a Trumpy, say you're a Trumpy," said Ben.  Exactly.  Say what you are.  Stop hiding in political closets.  And journalists need to stop enabling them.  

If that happens, maybe we can all laugh together in relief as 2028 winds down -- laugh because we will have sent The Convicted Felon packing. Remember, going along to get along and allowing people to hide in political closets got us Chump back in the White House.  These  closet-cases need to be called out.  We are not fighting the same battle in any manner -- there are those of us who want to work for a better world that is fair to all and then there are the freaks who want to burn it down.  Kamala wasn't good enough for these freaks because they didn't want to build anything better, they only wanted to tear down and destroy.  Right now, look closely, AOC isn't good enough for them and that's due to the fact that no one will ever be good enough for them. They are not our allies, they are not our friends. 

Remember, as is noted in episode three of THE RESIDENCE, "You can't be betrayed by someone who was never on your side."

MEDIA: Taylor Lorenz doesn't do analytics or journalism (at least not in any meaningful manner)

There's a moment in episode seven of PEACOCK's LONG BRIGHT RIVER where the whole mood seems about to shift as the mini-series appears to be on the verge of toppling over into absurdity and parody.  We thought about that today as two YOUTUBERS came close to doing the same with one actually toppling over the cliff.

  

 

Taylor Lorenz and Keith Edwards are the two YOUTUBERS and while we have hope for one, we are washing our hands of the other.

We were unfamiliar with Taylor's work until, following her dismissal from THE WASHINGTON POST (no, it was not a mutual decision, nor was it Taylor's decision), she ended up doing a YOUTUBE program.  We'd never read her work -- not her writing at THE DAILY MAIL, THE DAILY BEAST, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE POST, etc etc.  

By the time she got to YOUTUBE, we knew her name but not really any of her writing or anything at all other than she was a 'tech' writer.  The only thing other than her name that we knew about Taylor was that she had been the target of gendered attacks.  Out of a sense of solidarity as a result of those attacks, we made a point to catch her YOUTUBE show and post videos of it at THE COMMON ILLS.  

We enjoyed the videos.  She was a good host and conversationalist.  Watching her discuss an issue with a  guest didn't feel like time wasted.  And maybe that's what she can move over to?  Doing interviews?  Because that's apparently all she has any skill for.

Today, she posted a very lousy YOUTUBE video.  How lousy?  We're scrapping the piece we wrote Sunday (it'll run in Friday's the gina & krista round-robin) about the media's attempt to create and sell a martyr so we can instead focus on Taylor and Keith.  And writing a new piece meant more time and more work especially since we knew Taylor was hiding something -- much more than being fired from THE POST -- which meant we had to work the phones.

But don't worry, Taylor, we're not writing a biography about you so most of your secrets will remain safe (including your true age)

There are certain words and phrases that always stick out when you pay attention.  In the video she posted today -- nearly 25 minutes of garbage entitled "The Rise and Fall of 'The Resistance'" -- Taylor made clear that she possessed no analytical skills and also strongly demonstrated why she's usually out of a job within two years.

To be clear, we were never part of The Resistance or 'The Resistance.'

We called out Donald Chump.  We didn't like Donald Chump.  We actually knew the Convicted Felon before he was president and didn't like him then.  It's why, when we wrote about THE APPRENTICE here, we didn't lie and pretend he was a great business person. Or even a good one.

We felt the never-ending 'reporting' of his Tweets was pointless and counter-productive. 

So to read the title, we thought, "This is going to be informative!"

And it was.  In all the wrong ways.

Taylor has no analytical skills but she does have a ton of generational grievances. 

We were told, repeatedly, in calls today that she's very proud of her targeting of baby boomers.  If there was ever a reason to note Tayor's age, this would actually be it.  But we'll be kind and just note that she also hates on Gen X.  

She actually hates on a lot of people.  

'The Resistance,' she uses air quotes, she wants you to know, were all grifters and they were never left-wing and that's why they've gone on over to the right where the money is now.

She has some examples.  BrooklynDad_Defiant, she explains, felt the judicial system was biased against fathers due to his own personal experience.  That's all it takes for her to insist he was a right-winger who changed to pretend he was something else.  

We're not Taylor Lorenz.  Meaning?  We're not ridiculous enough to be a gossip columnist whose beat is social media and confuses that with reality.  

Though not social media addicts, we were aware of Brooklyn Dad.  Call it coincidence, luck or some high power steering us to him with the belief we'd need to know this at some point in the future, he did not wait until after the election of 2016 to post about left issues.  

Why is she lying?  Or is Taylor just stupid?

And why is some father feeling, based on what he went through,, that the court system is biased towards mothers a sign of right-wingery?

We have no idea what he wrote that Taylor found so objectionable -- she had nearly 25 minutes and never offered one example -- but, reality, the courts are biased towards mothers and against fathers when it comes to child custody. 

That's because courts are biased towards norms, mores and, yes, stereotypes.  

The one pro-bias women have legally had has been that a mother is seen as a more important parent than a father and, no (Keith), we're not going to worry about prettying that up.  We're feminists, we've got a body of work behind us which predates Taylor's high school graduation.  We're not going to worry about saying something we believe -- especially not when we can back it up.

Taylor can't back up much of anything.

Time and again, we marveled at Taylor's ignorance.

For example?

Brooklyn Dad has written picture books about Donald Chump.  She can't offer her take on them but she does read a review from "Joe" on AMAZON.  We're familiar with review bombing (is she not?) so we immediately did due diligence and "Joe" didn't even buy the book ("verified purchase" would be by his  review if he had).  Joe's done nine reviews.  Only two are one-star reviews.  He hated Brooklyn Dad's book about Chump and, surprise, surprise?, he also hated John Lithgow's book about Chump.  The seven other reviews?  All verified purchases.

Who trained Taylor in what she thinks passes as journalism?

Let's stay with Joe one more minute to really show you how Taylor doesn't understand research.

She quoted a review attacking Brooklyn Dad's book.  A review by nobody "Joe" who is not a top AMAZON reviewer and has only done nine reviews and who is not even someone who bought Brooklyn Dad's book.  If she'd read Joe's review of John Lithgow's book she would have seen that Joe hates "woke" and if she'd read this review, she would have known he was a Trumper.  Do not let the title of the book fool you, it is not pro-Democrats -- it's by a DAILY WIRE writer and it's the kind of garbage the thankfully deceased Rush Limbaugh would've written (the DAILY WIRE writer guest hosted on Rush's program before Satan called Rush home).  It is a book that Donald promoted and so did Ben Shapiro. Click here and scroll down but, knowing that's too much work for Taylor to do, let's just copy and paste below:

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A great book for your reading enjoyment." -- Tweet from President Donald Trump

"Thorough." -- Ben Shapiro, New York Times bestselling author of Bullies

“Michael Knowles perfectly documents what's inside the minds of Democrats. A real page-turner!” -- Michelle Malkin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sold Out

“I read it twice!” -- Dennis Prager, New York Times bestselling author of The Ten Commandments

“Brilliantly argued! You will not find a more enlightened defense of liberalism. Ever.” -- Jason Mattera, New York Times bestselling author of Obama Zombies

“Insightful, yet remarkably easy reading!” -- Guy Benson, bestselling author of End of Discussion

"The most efficient way to learn about the issues that Democrats really care about. This is a must read." -- Katie Pavlich, New York Times bestselling author of Assault and Flattery

"The reasons to vote for Democrats can be subtle and complex, but Knowles boils them down to their essence." -- Andrew Klavan, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Good Thing

Watching the segment and watching her co-sign on Joe's review of BrooklynDad, you have to ask if she's not the grifter and if she's not existing to help the right-wing?

It's over for boomers and Gen X, she wants you to know.  And Millennials are limping off to old age as well.

They don't understand things like RUMBLE!

That's their big problem, she insists smugly -- the kind of smugness that derives from knowing nothing.

At this point in time, social media is still just a form of communication.  That's all.

She may need to lie to justify her pathetic work.  Maybe she has to pretend it's so much more to avoid dealing with how empty and shallow her own life and interest are?

Instead of grasping that she's no investigative reporter -- just a gossip columnist folded into the travel and leisure section of a daily paper -- she wants you to know in this latest video that Democrats are over and they're evil.  They did this and they did that.  And only the out of touch -- unconnected people with actual lives -- fail to see this.  

And never will see it because they're aging out of 'the cool kids' generation.

The only one worried about aging out is the Taylor Lorenz who lies about her age.  

The rest of us, we're pretty much okay with aging especially, as they say, considering the alternative. 

But Taylor has no actual life which is why so much of her 'analysis' is devoted to Lindy Li.

Lindy Who?

She's a relative nobody who never had any real influence and whose name we didn't even know until after the 2024 election.  But to Taylor, she's one of our most prominent Americans.

Time and again, Taylor makes a point to shower publicly in her own stupidity.

Sorry to break it to her, but the "famous" boy yodeling at Wal-Mart?  Until today, we'd never heard of him.  Your goal posts are not ours.  You have wrongly decided your freakish fancies are mainstream and you ignorantly refuse to grasp that voters are not to be written off or mocked because they don't keep up with this year's MySpace.  

She's a sad, troubled and deeply stupid person.

Keith?

Keith Edwards is just troubled. 

We didn't realize how much until we were going to post videos at THE COMMON ILLS.  We realized that YOUTUBE was recommending a lot of garbage.  Again.  Not sure how that works but more garbage.  And while we were going through and doing "Do Not Recommend Channel Again," we realized that Keith wasn't showing on our YOUTUBE page.  Had he not done anything in the last 48 hours? No.  We went to his channel and he had new videos.  We were going to leave a note about this on his BLUESKY feed so we hopped over there only to discover he'd written a piece "How the Big Tent Became a Gated Community: Making people feel heard is more powerful than making them feel wrong."

Keith worries that were too quick to call out bad behavior.

Keith, take a breath and think on that.  When is it ever wrong to call out bad behavior?

Second, don't cite the CATO Institute  if you want Democrats to take you seriously.  

Third, what were you trying to say here:

Recently I watched the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards, and it struck me how cool it was to be a Democrat. Madonna, Dr. Dre, TLC all embodied progressive causes. By contrast, Republicans – personified by the square, ancient (72 used to be old for a politician) Bob Dole – were the butt of every other joke. Today, it’s decidedly less cool to be a Democrat: Kamala Harris of course barely beat Donald Trump among 18-to-29-year-olds, and some of the most popular podcasts and Twitch streamers among young men are conservative.

WTliteralF do you think you wrote there?  

We have no idea how to disect that?  Should we go with an awards show isn't reality?  Should we go with all of Dr. Dre's legal issues and his terrorizing women?   

You feel like you can't express yourself.  Oh, life is so hard for you.  You are, right, the first person ever having to watch their words, right?  No one could ever know how you feel, right?  Certainly not Blacks in the south under Jim Crow.  No, it's just you, just now, for the first time ever.

It was so wrong, you write, when you got push back:

Amid the recent shakeup at MSNBC, I contested the idea that the personnel changes were due to the hosts’ races. To be clear, I knew exactly what I was getting into: I’ve been doing social media for a long time, and I have a good idea when something will go viral, and a good idea when something will touch off a war in the comments. So when I pointed out that several minority hosts were in effect receiving promotions amid Joy Reid's firing, I was not surprised to receive many responses like the following (emphasis added):

The responses told him he didn't know what he was talking about.  And they were right.

"Several minority hosts were in effect receiving promotions"? 

One of the women  'promoted' is Symone Sanders-Townsend.  She may appear Black to you; however, you are not the Black community.

She doesn't read Black.  Not to the Black community.  Joy did.  Now Symone reads Black to a White progressive like you because she's got dark skin and she is  DSA and so much more.  Her speech, her points of reference, all speak to the fact that she grew up in one of the least diverse cities in the country -- the White dominated Omaha, Nebraska. She went to a Catholic school and a more-than-majority White university.  She's also a liar who just announced she was leaving the Democratic Party to become an "independent."  She was DSA -- that's a Socialist organization.  It is not the Democratic Party.

The second female host?  Alicia Menendez.  Ann's dubbed her father Shady Menendez.  You now Bob The Indicted  Bob The Crook?  She's not Black.  (Cuban on her crooked dad's side, Anglo White on Mom's side). 

And then you have the third host, Michael Steele.  A Republican Black male is not representative of the average Black man although Republican Black males have traditionally been over represented by the media when it comes to guesting and hosting chat and chews.

So you had an authentic Black woman who read Black.  And now you've replaced her with three people -- two of whom have dark skin but neither of whom reads Black.  

And there's another point to this.

Most people don't realize how ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY was birthed.  TV GUIDE had been a dull little publication for years and years.  Then they got a little spunk and started writing truthful pieces.  Like the one where JOANIE LOVES CHACHI star Erin Moran learns she's not the star of the show but cries -- tears, cries actual tears -- as she insists she's more the star of this show than she was of HAPPY DAYS.  Too many truthful pieces like that led to firings and a whole group of writers free to start ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY.

Do you get the point, Keith?

It's a point Don Lemon got when he was demoted on CNN.  He lost his own show and was moved to mornings where he had to co-host with two others.

No, Keith, Joy hosting her own show is not the same as a three hosts hosting one show.

Keith writes:

I believe we learned the wrong lessons from the Obama years. Between 2008 and 2016, we elected a Black president, we as a country began to recognize the pernicious role of institutional racism, and gay people earned the right to get married. It became easy to believe the good guys had won the culture war, and now it was simply a matter of enforcing the new norms.

We didn't learn the wrong lesson but you clearly did as evidenced by your insisting that "gay people earned the right to get married."  Earned?  

Oh, well you're just so much more worthy than Jack Baker an Michael McConnell, right?  Those shifty and lazy men who applied for a marriage license in 1971. If only they'd taken the time to earn it, right?

We are feminists.  We are fully aware that women won the right to vote.  Won.  

Earned?  

Maybe your fear over the response people might have to what you say stems from your inability to use the appropriate words?

LONG BRIGHT RIVER is set in Philadelphia and stars Amanda Seyfried as a police officer Mickey Fitzpatrick who is struck by the deaths of several women and seeing that they're connected.  She is helped along the way by Nicholas Pinnock's Truman Dawes. SPOILER, as the series gets close to winding down, we're suddenly told that Truman's the killer.  He's fortunately not.  Had he been, the show would have truly jumped the shark and make us fear for the future of twist-and-turn TV thrillers.  At this point, they're still somewhat grounded in reality.  At this point.  And LONG BRIGHT RIVER is a series worth streaming.

As for YOUTUBE?

Keith isn't as bad as Taylor Lorenz -- though both could stand to do more research.  But what makes Taylor worse -- and now worth ignoring -- is her lack of common sense and her sheer stupidity.  In today's video, she wanted you to know that White women were grifters as well, fake members of 'The Resistance.'  She shows them marching on DC after Trump's 2017 inauguration.  And then they, per Taylor, got over it.  While a huge number of White women did vote for Donald Chump, the reality is that those who elected to go to DC in January 2017 to demonstrate against Chump did not, in 2024, get on board with him -- not in any serious or large number and you'd have to be an idiot to make that claim.

 

Truest statement of the week

Minority students — and especially low-income minority students — already face barriers to higher education. Explicitly enforcing those barriers to equal opportunity is an unforgivable step backwards.

This was never about combatting discrimination. The administration is intentionally removing pathways for marginalized students to attend school and do research — preying on minority students and targeting the programs that make our most vulnerable classmates feel at home at Harvard.

In the uncertainty following the initial Dear Colleague letter, students and clubs faced murky waters seemingly governed by vague, fickle orders from the White House. Such confusion does indisputable harm to education and student life — in a forest of threats and ultimatums, progressives tread carefully, which is exactly what our aggressors want.

-- "The Ed Department Is Coming For Diversity," HARVARD CRIMSON editorial board. 

A note to our readers

 Hey --

Monday.

Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen, 

Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

 

And what did we come up with?

• Truest statement of the week

We didn't get much done this weekend and were going to just do Ava and C.I.s media piece this week.  But, as we scrambled, we thought of somethings to include.  Ava and C.I. were the ones who picked this.

• Media: Some returns work better than others

Ava and C.I. cover a sitcom (HAPPY'S PLACE) and a train wreck (Donald Chump).

• Books (Isaiah, Ava and C.I.)

Isaiah discusses a book he reviewed with Ava and C.I.

• Book List

Books reviewed so far this year at community sites.

• You can learn a lot on BLUESKY

Repost of Marcia's post.

• 2025 passings

Some of this year's deaths we felt needed noting. 

• Last week's Senate moment you should have caught

Senator Elizabeth Warren. 

• Elections have consequences

It's amazing how they raged against Kamala Harris supporters and told them to go to hell but now the freaks expect Harris voters to help them.  

• Where's the accountability?

Know the enemy and hold the enemy accountable. 

• BLUESKY chuckle

Ha ha.

• Video of the week

MTN.

• BLUESKY reality

We actually did not intend to note this twice.  But it's good enough that we'll consider our mistake the universe telling us to note it more than once.

• This edition's playlist

This is what we listened to while writing tis edition.

Peace.

 

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

Media: Some returns work better than others

HAPPY'S PLACE?  

Is there such a thing in the US these days?

On TV, there is.  NBC on Fridays has been where to find it, Reba McEntire's third attempt at a sitcom. First up was REBA which lasted six seasons and 127 episodes and still plays daily on CMT and other channels.  Next came MALIBU BEACH which only lasted one season and 18 episodes.  Now HAPPY'S PLACE and, with a second season renewal, it's already doing better than her second sitcom.

Reba and her character Bobbie were strong and steady from the start of this series but other elements took a bit and, around episode three, the show found its stride.  Teaming up Reba and Melissa Peterman again was a smart move.  Peterman played Barbara Jean on REBA and was a source of angst and tension on that show.  They've got a Christine and Barb chemistry (THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE) and that's not easy to create.  Joining them is Belissa Escobedo as Bobbie's half-sister Isabella, Reba's real life husband Rex Linn (the two previously worked together on the TV series BIG SKY), Pablo Castelblanco as accountant Steve and Tokala Black Elk as Takoda who works at the bar.

The bar was left to Bobbie and Isabella by their late father and it's HAPPY'S PLACE.

Maybe, in The Age of Chump, the only place Americans can find happiness -- or some approximation -- is at a bar?

Makes sense to us. 

In fact, we find that easier to grasp than the recently found ruins Mahendraparvata -- the capital of The Khmer Empire (802 to 1431).  

Mainly because putting up with Convicted Felon Donald Chump's attacks on our country and our way of life requires that you hit the hard stuff.  A lot.

For some that may be booze, for others it might be sweets.  Everyone's got their own thing and we're all in need of a fix.

It's really the only way to stomach all the lies.  

Such as?  How about JD Vance, Second Lady in Waiting, claiming he was chased over the weekend.  Chased?  Chased involves running.  Have people not seen Vance's ass?  He can't run with that thing.  And he didn't. Nor did have to.  As Vice President, he has a Secret Service detail with him where ever he goes.  But if Miss Sassy couldn't milk the drama with his own two hands, he'd have to use a breast pump.

Even more out of touch are the Republicans in Congress who were given the advice -- and so far have wrongly taken it -- to stop doing townhalls and encounters with their constituents.  

Their constituents are their bosses.  It's not smart to avoid them.  Avoidance makes it clear that you don't respect them, makes it clear that you aren't connected to them and most likely will make it clear to them that they shouldn't vote for you.

Infected with a toxic case of MAGA, the members of Congress believe this to be good advice.

Adam Gabbatt (GUARDIAN) reports:

After Roger Marshall, a senator from Kansas, was hounded out of his own town hall event last week, Republican party leaders had had enough. Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, and Richard Hudson, the chair of the GOP’s fundraising body, decided the embarrassment had to end, and they told Republicans to stop holding the public events.

But while that might save some Republican politicians from public humiliation, it could also deprive Americans of opportunities to interact with their elected officials, experts said, and prevent people from letting their representatives they are not happy with the increasingly divisive direction of the Trump administration.

“It’s certainly a unique view of representation that representatives should hear only from constituents who agree with them,” said Marjorie Hershey, professor emeritus of political science at Indiana University Bloomington.

“But it’s entirely in keeping with the recent direction of the Republican party: to become more and more extreme because they listen only to their far-right base.”

Johnson and Hudson’s edict came after several Republican town halls were interrupted in recent weeks. Scott Fitzgerald, a four-year congressman, faced an angry crowd at an event in West Bend, Wisconsin, in late February. Fitzgerald was repeatedly booed as he defended the role of Elon Musk, in particular.

Apparently misjudging his audience, Fitzgerald said Musk is “getting rid of the DEI”, to loud jeers, before receiving a similar reaction when he praised “the fraud and abuse that has been discovered” by the department of government efficiency.

A video from TMJ4 showed attendees carrying signs including “Presidents are not kings” and “No cuts to Medicaid”. Glenn Grothman, also from Wisconsin, received similar treatment at a town hall a couple of days later, being loudly booed as he claimed that “across the board [Trump] has done some very good things”, including birthright citizenship and – using the same phrasing as Fitzgerald – “getting rid of the DEI”.

Now maybe we overindulged -- or maybe having not been infected with MAGA, we're not suffering from swamp fever -- but we're having a really difficult time seeing how a member of Congress avoiding their constituents does anything but piss them off.  However, those suffering from the scourge of the West, insist that it won't and believe that avoiding the voters and the issues they raise will pacify the voters and make them forget.

Amnesia is the Donald Chump strategy when it comes to voters.  And he's convinced that, if everyone will stop talking about the high costs of eggs, people will stop noticing the huge increase in the cost of eggs and other groceries.  JD Wolf (MTN) explains:

As Americans continue to grapple with soaring grocery prices, Trump shared an article that downplays concerns over the rising cost of eggs. In a Truth Social post, Trump reposted an opinion piece by right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk, titled "Shut Up About Egg Prices — Trump Is Saving Consumers," which dismisses the outrage over the price hikes.

The article acknowledges that “a dozen currently costs around $7, up from just $2 in October,” but argues that inflation under Trump is not as bad as critics claim. Telling voters to shut up about high prices in the Trump economy may not be a winning strategy. 

Charlie Kirk, noted racist and evil doer, thinks ignoring inflation is "a winning strategy"?  That tracks. Mainly because Charlie Kirk is just stupid enough to believe that.  The brain's been warped by MAGA and he no longer remembers that his first act of activism was in high school when they went up on the price of a cookie and the hissy fit he threw.  If he only had a brain, he'd remember how angry that increased cost made him and grasped that trying to bottle that anger is not going to work -- not for him or his pin up and man crush Donald Chump.

It wouldn't for Charlie in high school and it's not going to work for Chump.  Prices do not just remain high, they've gotten higher and they are continuing to climb.  Not talking about inflation will not erase it from our minds.  Ed Mazza (HUFFINGTON POST) makes an important point:

However, Trump campaigned heavily on not just cutting prices, but doing so on his very first day in office. 

“I will immediately bring prices down starting on Day 1,” he said on Aug. 15, for example. “Starting the day I take the oath of office, I will rapidly drive prices down,” he promised later that some month. 

He backed away from that last month. 

He promised it.

There's another point that needs to be made there.  

It's true that many politicians break promises.  It's also true that those running for president often make very big promises and then fail to deliver.  But while you might cut slack for a first time nominee, Chump occupied the office of president from January 2017 through January 2021.  Meaning?  He was no starry eyed first timer.  He knew from experience what was possible and what was not.  He also knew what he had to say -- which lie to tell -- in order to garner votes.

He lied knowingly and willingly.  He got back into the White House and he no longer cares about the needs of the people.  

HAPPY'S PLACE finds Reba back on TV and she's a crowd pleaser, yes,  but, more than that, she's also a better actress now and can offer more than personality.  Chump?  He never had personality to coast on to begin with.  And he's got nothing to offer -- nothing that any sane person wants at any rate.

Books (Isaiah, Ava and C.I.)

 

 

As we did in 2021 and 2023 and 2024, we're attempting to again increase book coverage in the community. This go round, we're talking with  Isaiah about his review of  Chaz Gower's "STAN LEE LIED: YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO EVERY LIE IN THE ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS.".  You recommend it?

Isaiah: I do.  I recommend it for a number of reasons.  First, it's a fascinating book.  Gower gets very detailed and involved and you'll love the amount of information he presents.  Second, Stan Lee has stolen credit over and over from others so I recommend it because it sets the historical record straight.

And that's important.

Isaiah: It's very important.  The truth does matter.  That's what so many of us respond to in your writing.  And look at the impact -- "California Dreamin'" was the Mamas and the Papas biggest hits.  But it took you two pointing that out at THIRD for WIKIPEDIA and others to grasp it.

To be clear, for any late to the party, "Monday Monday" was a number one hit for one week.  "California Dreamin'" -- the group's first single -- peaked on different charts around the country at different times and never hit number one on the national weekly chart.  But it is the bigger hit because it made to number one on BILLBOARD's singles chart for 1966 -- the number one selling song of the entire year.  It sold two million more copies than "Monday Monday."  It is the band's biggest hit.  What was Stan Lee's biggest hit?

Isaiah: When MARVEL started reprinting older comics and he got to add his name to them as writer even though Jack Kirby wrote and drew his own comics.  People were credited in the original editions.  But when those 60s editions were reprinted a decade or more later?  Suddenly, they had Stan Lee's name on it.

Why?

Isaiah: Because he was a glory hog who had no glory and because he was related to the owner.  And putting his name -- falsely -- on these books meant he and MARVEL could retain the intellectual rights.  He's just a liar.  And it's interesting how lies get started and who they're used against.  The book reminded me of the stuff you two have written about THE WIZ and how it's been falsely attacked regarding money and regarding Diana Ross.

You can talk about that if you want, we're probably not going to very much because we've actually traced down another lie on that, the original lie that popularized it online.  And we plan to write about that soon.  But we will again note that the film was not a bomb.  And that the film was released beyond North America even if no one wants to ever note the overseas box office. But it is cute how IMDB is the basis for box office for CRAPAPEDIA and CRAPAPEDIA calls CONVOY, released the same year as THE WIZ, a hit and they call F.I.S.T. a hit when THE WIZ is 21 for 1978, right between CONVOY and F.I.S.T.  It's part of the attack on Black history and Black artists to downgrade THE WIZ and to attack Diana Ross.

Isaiah: Without Diana, there is no movie.  It would never have been made.  Can we talk about that?  I know it's not books but as a Black man I've gotten really sick of all the attacks and that was before you guys started writing about how these attacks were based on lies.  

Sure.  Rob Cohen, the producer,  knew that Diana as Dorothy meant two things -- the film got made and Diana would get a million dollars for her portrayal.  Diana was the first box office actress to be Black.  She twice made the list of the 20 box office stars.  And without her, the film wouldn't have been made.  It would have been another successful Broadway show with an all Black cast or even a majority Black cast that got optioned throughout the seventies but never got made.  Diana meant box office.  A film that brought in that amount -- and this is film rentals, not ticket sales -- is not a bomb. 

Isaiah:  It brought in basically four times the box office that Richard Pryor's BLUE COLLAR did the same year. But NETFLIX didn't mention that in the 'documentary' where they slammed Diana and accused her of ending Black movies.  And, to bring it back to the book, Chaz Gower's book does a real service, for the record, for truth, for Jack Kirby and others who've seen their credits watered down or outright stolen. 

------------------------------

Previous book discussions:

"Books (Jess, Ava and C.I.)"

"Books (Stan, Ava and C.I.)"

"Books (Trina, Ava and C.I.)"

"Books (Rebecca, Marcia, Ava and C.I.)"

Book List

 Book coverage continues in this community.  For earlier lists of books covered see 2021's  "Books," 2023's "Books" and 2024 "Book List"

Books reviewed in the community this year.

1) "bob hope should be a lesson" -- Rebecca reviews Richard Zoglin.  

2) "Shattered Love: A Memoir" -- Marcia reviews Richard Chamberlain's insipid autobiography. 

3) "Help! My Apartment Has A Dining Room Cookbook: How to Have People Over Without Stressing Out" -- Trina reviews a cookbook.

4)  "Media: OWNED finds Eoin Higgins owned by bad journalism" -- Ava and C.I. take on Eoin Higgins bad book.

5) "Sly's awful books proves Questlove a liar" -- Stan reviews Sly Stone's memoir. 

6) "THE LIFE AND HARD TIMES OF HEIDI ABROMOWITZ (Jess)" -- Jess reviews a humor book by Joan Rivers.

7) "STAN LEE LIED: YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO EVERY LIE IN THE ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS" -- Isaiah reviews a book documenting truths.