The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."
Though calls within the Democratic Party for Biden to step aside
ramped up in recent weeks, many progressives advocates and voters had
been telling Biden to pull out of the race for months due to his support for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, which has alienated a significant portion of his base.
Ava and C.I. finished this at 9:00 AM this morning. Then got a tip that Joe might make his announcement to step aside later. He did. That meant rewriting the last half of their piece. It's a great one.
Jess did this piece for the last edition but was working on typing it when Ava and C.I. published "" to avoid having to rewrite it after Joe Biden's TV address on the shooting in Pennsylvania ("Media: Reality versus the lies the media loves to spread").
C.I. piece we planned to highlight last week. Didn't because the only piece was "Media: Reality versus the lies the media loves to spread" which Ava and C.I. rushed to post when they got a ten minutes heads up to the address Joe was about to make.
A new Oxfam report reveals how Israel has been systematically weaponizing water against Palestinians in Gaza.
The report, Water War Crimes,
finds that Israel’s cutting of external water supply, systematic
destruction of water facilities and deliberate aid obstruction have
reduced the amount of water available in Gaza by 94% to 4.74 liters a
day per person – just under a third of the recommended minimum in
emergencies and less than a single toilet flush.
Oxfam analysis also found:
Israeli
military attacks have damaged or destroyed five water and sanitation
infrastructure sites every three days since the start of the war.
The
destruction of water and electricity infrastructure and restrictions on
entry of spare parts and fuel (on average a fifth of the required
amount is allowed in) saw water production drop by 84% in Gaza. External
supply from Israel’s national water company Mekorot fell by 78%.
Israel
has destroyed 70% of all sewage pumps and 100% of all wastewater
treatment plants, as well as the main water quality testing laboratories
in Gaza, and restricted the entry of Oxfam water testing equipment.
Gaza
City has lost nearly all its water production capacity, with 88% of its
water wells and 100% of its desalination plants damaged or destroyed.
The
report also highlighted the dire impact of this extreme lack of clean
water and sanitation on Palestinians’ health, with more than a quarter
(26%) of Gaza’s population falling severely ill from easily preventable
diseases. In January, the International Court of Justice demanded that
Israel immediately improve humanitarian access upon finding that South
Africa had brought plausible claims under the Genocide Convention. Since
then, Oxfam has witnessed firsthand Israel’s obstruction of a
meaningful humanitarian response, which is killing Palestinian
civilians.
Scott Paul, Oxfam America’s Associate Director of Peace and Security, said,
“Oxfam’s new analysis leaves little doubt that Prime Minister
Netanyahu's government has systemically obliterated Gaza’s clean water
supply and infrastructure.
“Today,
Palestinians in Gaza have almost no water to drink, let alone to bathe,
cook, or clean. Prime Minister Netanyahu must restore sufficient water,
food, electricity, and other vital assistance for all people in Gaza.
Instead of granting him the platform to double down on his deadly
offensive to Congress, US leaders must cut off the supply of bombs that
are being used to kill civilians and destroy Gaza and with it, any hope
for peace.”
Oxfam Water and Sanitation Specialist Lama Abdul Samad said it was clear that Israel had created a devastating humanitarian emergency resulting in Palestinian civilian deaths:
“The
deliberate restriction of access to water is not a new tactic. The
Israeli Government has been depriving Palestinians across the West Bank
and Gaza of safe and sufficient water for many years,” she said.
“The
widespread destruction and significant restrictions on aid delivery in
Gaza impacting access to water and other essentials for survival,
underscores the urgent need for the international community to take
decisive action to prevent further suffering by upholding justice and
human rights, including those enshrined in the Geneva and Genocide
Conventions.”
Monther Shoblak, General Manager of the Gaza Strip’s water utility CMWU, said:
“My
colleagues and I have been living through a nightmare these past nine
months, but we still feel it’s our responsibility and duty to ensure
everybody in Gaza is getting their minimum right of clean drinking
water. It’s been very difficult, but we are determined to keep trying –
even when we witness our colleagues being targeted and killed by Israel
while undertaking their work.”
Oxfam is
calling for urgent action including an immediate and permanent
ceasefire; for Israel to allow a full and unfettered humanitarian
response; and for Israel to foot the reconstruction bill for water and
sanitation infrastructure.
Benjamin Netanyahu is a
War Criminal. Next week, he'll address Congress because that's how
whorish this country is. We've invited a War Criminal to stand before
our branch of government that makes laws. What's Netanyahu planning to
do? Stick out his tongue and say nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-han?
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to visit
Washington, D.C. next week, an American legal group on Friday pressured
the U.S. Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into him
and other officials for committing or authorizing genocide, war crimes,
and torture targeting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Since Israel
launched its retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7, Israeli
forces partly armed by the U.S. government have killed at least 38,848
people and wounded another 89,459—according to Gaza officials—while
destroying civilian infrastructure and restricting the flow of
humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.
"We believe ample
credible evidence exists to sufficiently establish that serious crimes
falling within U.S. criminal jurisdiction are systematically being
perpetrated in Gaza," says
the Center for Constitutional Rights' (CCR) 23-page letter to Hope
Olds, who leads the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP)
of the DOJ's Criminal Division.
"Given the frequent travel of
Israeli officials and citizens to the United States resulting in their
presence within U.S. jurisdiction, and recalling that HRSP is part of a
coordinated, interagency effort to deny safe haven in the United States
to human rights violators," the letter states, "the Department of
Justice must urgently investigate and hold accountable those responsible
for war crimes and other serious crimes being committed on a wide-scale
basis in the occupied Gaza Strip, including potentially U.S. and
U.S.-dual citizens."
As the violence continues, the deaths pile up. Today's deaths include a journalist. THE NEW ARAB notes:
An Israeli air strike in north Gaza has killed the journalist Mohammed Abu Jasser and his family, Palestinian medical officials announced on Saturday.
The journalist’s home in the Jabalia area
was targeted at dawn, making him the latest of 161 journalists to be
killed in the enclave since the start of Israel’s latest war on Gaza on 7
October.
Local Palestinian media reported his two children and wife were also killed in the strike.
Inside
the home of the family of the martyr journalist Mohammed Abu Jasser,
who was martyred this morning with his family members in the Jabalia
refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. https://t.co/aHtUBQ66EE
Palestinian
journalist Mohammed Abu Jasser along with his family members by Israeli
occupation airstrikes in North Gaza, bringing the number of journalists
killed since the start of the Israeli genocide in #Gaza to 161. pic.twitter.com/FHJR4ycOb3
Another Israeli attack on Gaza today resulted in a journalist being injured.
🚨
The journalist Mahmoud Aki was injured after IOF warplanes targeted a
residential tower east of Al-Nusseirat Camp in the central #Gaza Strip where journalists were covering.
This comes hours after journalist Mohammed Abu Jasser ascended to martyrdom along with his wife,>> pic.twitter.com/K3uGe8C7aE
AP notes, "At least 13 people were killed in three Israeli airstrikes that hit refugee camps in central Gaza
overnight into Saturday, according to Palestinian health officials, as
cease-fire talks in Cairo appeared to make progress. Among
the dead in Nuseirat Refugee Camp and Bureij Refugee Camp were three
children and one woman, according to Palestinian ambulance teams that
transported the bodies to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. The 13
corpses were counted by AP journalists at the hospital." This as a
potential health crisis lurks. Edward Carver (COMMON DREAMS) reports, "Poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples at six locations in the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization said on Friday, following announcements from both the Israel and Gaza health ministries." ALJAZEERA reminds, "Health advocates have also warned of the spread of diseases because of sewage spills around displaced people’s encampments."
The International Court of Justice said Friday that Israel's decadeslong occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful and must end "as rapidly as possible."
The court's nonbinding
advisory opinion
was read aloud by ICJ President Nawaf Salam, a Lebanese judge and
academic. Salam said the court determined based on "extensive evidence"
that Israel
is guilty of confiscating "large areas" of Palestinian land for use by
Israeli settlers, exploiting natural resources, and undermining the
local population's right to self-determination under international law.
The court pointed to "Israel's systematic failure to prevent or punish"
settler violence and "demolition of Palestinian property" in the West
Bank as part of its case that the Israeli government's actions in the
occupied territories are indicative of an attempt to permanently annex
land and forcibly transfer Palestinians from their homes.
"Israel is not entitled to sovereignty in any part of the occupied
Palestinian territory on account of its occupation, nor can security
concerns override the prohibition on acquisition of territory by force,"
said Salam.
The ICJ vote against Israel's occupation was 11-4. The court also voted
to call on Israel to evacuate all settlers from the West Bank.
In a 12-3 vote, the ICJ said that all nations "are under an
obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the
unlawful presence of the state of Israel in the occupied Palestinian
territory and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the
situation created by the continued presence of the state of Israel in
the occupied Palestinian territory."
THE GUARDIAN reports, "Iceland’s foreign ministry has said Israel should 'cease all activity
that violates international law' after the international court of
justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories was against international law." THE NATIONAL notes:
The
UAE has welcomed an advisory opinion of the International Court of
Justice (ICJ) that regards Israeli policies including the expansion of
settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a violation of
international law.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
expressed the UAE’s rejection of all measures aimed at altering the
historical and legal status of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and
all practices in contravention of resolutions on international
legitimacy, which threaten further escalation and instability in the
region, and impede endeavours to achieve peace and stability.
The
ministry stressed the need to support all regional and international
efforts to advance the peace process in the Middle East, as well as end
illegal practices that undermine the two-state solution, and the
establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
ALJAZEERA observes, "Friday’s ICJ ruling was groundbreaking – but it has not changed the violent reality on the ground."
Yousaf said he’s “been on many other medical missions but never one where the population we were treating was trapped.”
In Gaza, Yousaf said he was faced with the constant sound of bombs,
and drones and the sight of injured and lifeless people, describing it
as a “zombie apocalypse.”
“We saw exposed brain matter. I saw eviscerated children. I saw kids
without limbs and their parents all had the same look on their face
like, ‘Help me fix this problem.’”
Gaza remains under assault. Day 288 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza
by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.
But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge
for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel,
the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover
for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily
basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to
school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe
Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll.
The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom
believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The
slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US
Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned
the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of
Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted,
"More than
1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza --
have
been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million
women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million
people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed 38,919 Palestinians and
wounded 89,622 since October 7, the enclave's Health Ministry said on
Saturday. The toll includes 37 people killed and 54 injured in the 24-hour reporting period, the ministry added." Months
ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained
on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000
Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of
their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe
Lazzarini Tweeted:
April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as
killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000
Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has
estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into
Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
As for the area itself? Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive
has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole
neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been
blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are
still standing, but most are battered shells." Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery
by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and
Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing
destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate
of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second
World War."
Turning to Iraq . . .
In other Iraq news, people grow further alarmed by the Turkish government's continued attacks on the Kurdistan. Amberin Zaman (AL-MONITOR) reports:
Iraq’s first lady sharply condemned Turkey’s ongoing military
operations against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the
Kurdish- administered north of the country. Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed, wife
of Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, took to Twitter on Wednesday to
spout her anger amid reports that Turkish troops had penetrated 15
kilometers (about 9 miles) into Iraqi territory, in a fresh offensive
that was mounted in early July to encircle PKK fighters holed up in the mountainous Metina and Gare region lying south of the Turkish border.
Ahmed
echoed claims that some 20 square kilometers (7.7 square miles) of
agricultural land had been burned and thousands of civilians had been
forced to flee their homes as a result of the Turkish airstrikes, with
some 602 villages, including those populated by Assyrian Christians,
under threat. The Iraqi public is entitled to know whether “there is any
agreement between Ankara and Baghdad, or Ankara and Erbil, which
permits a neighboring country to treat Iraq as its own territory,” she
said. "If there is such an agreement, then public outrage should be
directed at Iraqi or Kurdish authorities."
Fun
fact, Shanaz may be the world's only First Lady who has a sister that
was also a First Lady. Jalal Talabani's wife Hero was First Lady of
Iraq from 2005 to 2014. Hero is Shanaz's sister.
It's a world too often ruled by fear. And not even rational fears.
Take MORNING JOE for instance. Last Monday, MSNBC prevented the program from broadcasting, removed it from the schedule. Punitive measures for something the on airs said? No, preventative measures -- apparently worried that something like this might take place:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: So a lot to cover this morning from the weekend. For example, there was a shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Right. It was a rally for Donald Trump that was cut short when --
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Stop.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: What? I was just going to say who the shooter was.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: No, no, no. We don't do that. We're not naming him. We don't celebrate failures in this country.
Joe and Mika have been on the air for how long? But MSNBC doesn't think they can be trusted with a live show after a Trump rally goes wrong?
THE WASHINGTON TIMES, substituting their fevered imagination for journalism as usual, proclaimed this was proof of the show's leftist radicalism. The paper of Sam Francis (that's Saint Sam to Donald Trump) accusing MORNING JOE of something other than centrism is in keeping with the other lunatic claims from the Moonie owned tabloid.
The hosts were mad and they had every right to be. MSNBC decided to drag the country into the land of Philip K. Dick -- specifically, into Dick's short story MINORITY REPORT where the police unit precrime arrests people before they commit crimes, not after.
This being censorship, we thought for sure that CJR -- COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW -- would have weighed in during the week decrying this action; however, as usual CJR had everything on their mind . . . but journalism.
Or maybe, like so many others, they were just ruled by fear as well.
Fear, after all, explains how Harry Connick Jr. ended up like that onscreen in NETFLIX's new film FIND ME FALLING.
'You talking about his wooden acting?'
There's always been that. James Burrows spent a lot of time with him on WILL & GRACE early on trying to teach him to act. Harry, a singer, thought acting just meant saying lines. Harry at least followed James suggested line readings and was able to vary his voice. But he never was able to carry off body movement. Think about WILL & GRACE and how the main cast and the regular guest stars don't just say lines, they move, their bodies sing. Blocking was difficult for Harry and around the time of "Last Ex To Brooklyn," when Harry kept flubbing the simplest of blocking, they changed it to him just entering and exiting. And he was told to storm off. If you watch the episode now -- and should, it's a classic -- you'll notice he just lumbers around lazily on stage. Jodie Foster had been frustrated by his inability to live in his body when she directed him in LITTLE MAN TATE back in 1991.
So if we're not talking about his wooden acting as he plays a rock star, what are we talking about?
Earlier this year, did you see that awful ROAD HOUSE with Jake Gyllenhaal? It was supposed to be Jake Gyllenhaal anyway. Didn't look like him. Scene after scene with his shirt open or off and some baby smoothed middle aged man playing the lead. Where was Jake? Where was hairy chested Jake?
You could ask the same about the ridiculous looking Harry Jr. Hair has not been Harry's friend for some time. He used to have a hairy chest and you can check out the photos Bruce Weber shot of him to verify that. By the end of the 90s, Harry's chest hair had started to gray and he wanted to look younger so he's removed it ever since. He looks ridiculous with the bald chest -- especially when you combine that look with the fake hair on his head.
Fear of looking old, left Harry looking ridiculous.
It's a look many sported last week as they attempted to shut down truth and democracy in Wisconsin.
With a seating limit of approximately 18,000, the number who could attend the hate rally was severely limited -- especially when you factored in that US House Rep Marjorie Taylor Green's cottage cheese upper arms counted as one person each.
Vance has expressed opposition to codifying same-sex marriage rights. He said he would vote against the Respect for Marriage Act, which aimed to protect same-sex and interracial marriages.
Vance once co-authored a letter to the U.S. Census Bureau objecting
to the addition of gender identity questions in the American Community
Survey. He referred to gender identity as a “harmful ideology” and “unscientific and untrue”.
He also introduced the “Protect Children’s Innocence Act,” which
would ban gender-affirming care for individuals under 18 and make
providing such care a federal felony. He proposed the “Passport Sanity
Act,” which would prohibit the use of “X” gender markers on passports
and limit gender options to only male or female.
When not attacking the LGBTQAI+ community, the speakers attacked women (and constantly used the phrase "working men" -- apparently women either don't work or aren't supposed to), attacked immigrants, attacked reproductive rights, attacked equal opportunities for all regardless of race, attacked --
You know what? Not since the 1992 GOP convention -- which included but was not limited to Patrick Buchanan's infamous speech -- has a political party put so much hate onstage.
Underlining it all was the hurt feelings and fear of a group of bitter people scared of not just the future but also the present.
While many on the right live in a fear-based world, last week offered up reminders that there were some on the left who couldn't deal with reality either.
US President Joe Biden announced today that he would not seek re-election and was stepping aside from the race:
My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats -- it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.
Democrats. That would include us. It does not include a lot of liars online who are already attacking presumed nominee Kamala Harris. Brie-Brie has already she would vote for Jill Stein. Ajamu Baracka and Margaret Kimberly are not Dems and were planning to vote for Jill as well because, well, whores gotta whore, right? Jill stands zero chance of getting elected so why not use your symbolic vote to reward an African-American who stands for something like Cornel West? Because Margaret and the rest are still working on the plantation for Miss Jill while hurling the c-word (rhymes with "boone") at other Black people who won't fall in line and attack Kamala.
Expect more of that from the fake-ass whores who, should Kamala not become the nominee, will pivot to immediately attacking whomever the nominee is because they hate and loathe the Democratic Party. A detail they like to hide when they're trying to influence an election.
Those weren't the only ones being ruled by fear and/or hate. Roland S. Martin and Joy Reid were among the people who refused to read the writing on the wall. 2024 is an election that will require the Democratic Party to turn out as many votes as possible. Joe was a drag on the ticket. He was such a drag that not only were swing-stages in play -- and talk of even New York being in play -- but the lack of enthusiasm for Joe and the concerns over his fitness for the job were effecting the chances of Democrats running for other offices.
Instead of taking a brave step into the future, these fearful fraidy cats -- and include OCCUPY DEMOCRATS on that list -- insisted that Joe must be the nominee.
Presented with the shot at a do-over, these idiots couldn't see beyond their own fear.
But as bad as they were, there was AOC.
We often wonder why she smears so much makeup on her face. Watching her idiotic video last week, taped from a low angle, we realized why: She looks like James DeBarge. Take away the makeup and she's a dead ringer for the rhythm and blues and pop singer who shot to fame in the eighties.
Fraud Squad leader AOC made a video of herself lying last week. She apparently wanted to expose herself. She lied that Joe could not step down. Today, he did just that. She lied that it couldn't happen because of various deadlines. Again, it could happen and it did happen.
She put whatever was left of her tattered and disappointing image on the line as she insisted it couldn't happen, as she declared "But I do think people are talking about this without having two eyes wide open" and as she launched into crazy talk about it being a "conspiracy" and she had to figured it out. Not content to let AOC burn in the flames of crazy all by herself, OCCUPY DEMOCRATS ("AOC Exposes Hidden Motivation Of Dems Who Want To Replace Biden") and MEIDAS TOUCH MEDIA ("AOC drops MUST-SEE TRUTH BOMB every DEMOCRAT needs to see") rushed to join her.
Fortunately, not everyone was whoring or riddled with fear. Strong work was done by THE MAJORITY REPORT, THE HUMANIST REPORT and SECULAR TALK. In addition, we often trash talk THE VANGUARD so let's take a second to note that they were among the few on YOUTUBE seeing through AOC's garbage in "AOC Gaslights the Left and Does PROPAGANDA For Joe Biden in Paranoid Livestream."
Yes, Gavin and Zac got it right when others who should have known better went along with lies.
You can't let fear rule your life. Let it be a lesson for all.
As
we did in 2021 and 2023, we're attempting to again increase book coverage in the
community. This go round, we're talking to Trina about her "Diet Clam Chowder in the Kitchen." Trina?
Trina: Robert S. Cox and Jacob Walker's A HISTORY OF CHOWDER: FOUR CENTURIES OF A NEW ENGLAND MEAL came out in 2011 and the authors provide a history of chowder and how it has changed over the years. Despite claims that it came from the French, this doesn't appear to match the historical record. It's a food that may have been taken from the Americas by early European travelers because, in its original form, it was easy to make on ships -- you could use shark for the meat, for example.
Though it's now clam chowder, it didn't start out that way originally.
Trina: No, the authors explain that while Native Americans ate clams and oysters, the European settlers might eat oysters but saw clams as beneath them. Early chowders used a fish of some kind such as cod -- no clams. The canning methods of the early 1800s helped popularize the use of clams in chowders and other dishes.
And "sea biscuits."
Trina: Right. You'd use grease, some form of fish, water and sea biscuits which are made from salt, water and stone ground flour. Those ingredients would be mixed into a dough and then put in a hot oven to cook for a half hour before being removed and left out to harden. Think of them as thicker crackers.
And as chowder became popular in New England other ingredients were added.
Trina: Yes, from the 1700s forward, New Englanders added to the ingredients. Potatoes were the most popular and lasting ingredient after clams themselves. It's hard for us today to imagine a chowder without potatoes but it was not an original ingredient. It took about a half a century of chowder in this country before people began adding potatoes to it.
Hard to imagine. And it's hard to imagine it not having clams.
Trina: Due to clams being so available in the area, they were eventually used, most likely by poorer people. Clam chowder is, of course, delicious and it quickly became a requirement for most chowders. By the way, early Europeans who settled in New England also looked down on lobsters and considered this "Satan fish" to be fit only for pigs to eat.
And there is today Manhattan Clam Chowder and New England Clam Chowder.
Trina: Right. Among the ingredients experimented with were tomatoes. Many communities closer to New York loved the tomato as a base and that's how you end up with today's Manhattan Clam Chowder. The white New England Clam Chowder has a thicker base and no tomatoes.
You really enjoyed the book.
Trina: I did. It's a great read and I recommend it strongly.
Jess: This isn't a roundtable. I watched the latest OLAY & LOLO and thought it might make a good roundtable but the only one else who'd watched it was C.I. So this is just a discussion between us. Here's the video.
Jess: Okay. So Lolo is Alex Peter and Olay is Olayemi Olurin. In the video, they discuss a number of things but it was the social media aspect I thought worth talking about. Olay has stepped away from social media. I don't do a lot of social media. I learned she was off social media from a post at THE COMMON ILLS on July 3rd, in fact. It's been very upsetting for her and very time consuming. So what are your thoughts on that C.I.?
C.I.: I can't answer all of that in one response. That's several different issues. I'll throw out something to start and then we can move onto other aspects. She's been getting a lot of online abuse and you can't be a woman online without knowing what that's like. There seems to be a greater attitude or belief that you can say anything to a woman online but you don't do that to a man. The whole Jill Biden needs to tell Joe to drop out, for example, I called that out two weeks ago, I think. What is this nonsense? If your problem's Joe Biden, it's Joe Biden. But there is this attitude that you can threaten women and you can bully them and you can savage them. If you think about, it's always been that way online and it's people who got prominence early on that encouraged that and that fed it. Bob Somerby did some good work, some so-so work and some really bad work. But as I started pointing out over 15 years -- almost 20, where does the time go? -- anyway, years ago, men make mistakes but women are evil; men can redeem themselves, but women rot in hell. That's how he has run that site and helped set up the pattern that women still have to deal with today. A female reporter or journalist or head on TV gets something wrong and is is felony -- a crime that can only result in capital punishment. Tim Russert, while he was alive? Five weeks after he makes the same error a woman does, Tim can be brought back into the fold. True of every man Bob covered. They always have the shot a redemption that's denied the women. So, just in terms of the attacks she faces online, I do get Olay's point there.
Jess: So that's general. Specifically, she doesn't see the point of social media. I agree with that, honestly. I'm not -- and have never been -- on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tik-Tok or whatever. When I was in college, MySpace was big. I wasn't even on that. I have no interest in it. I'm sure it's good for some people but the only time I think about Twitter is when we do a Tweet of the week here at THIRD. You?
C.I.: I'm on Twitter as THE COMMON ILLS. I'm not on Twitter otherwise. I have no interest in social media. Let me take longer than I planned by the way. In June, for the first time, I learned that you could see if people were following you. That's how little I use Twitter. When that was explained to me, I went and clicked follow on everyone who had followed me because that's supposed to be the polite thing to do. I didn't do that with THE COMMON ILLS. Meaning I never did link trades. I don't know why anyone would want to follow that Twitter account -- which doesn't even highlight stuff going up at THE COMMON ILLS -- but it was kind of them so I did follow almost everyone. I did not follow my CAA agent. I did call my agent and say, "Unfollow me immediately. My support for Palestinians will cause a problem for you and CAA." But the whole reason I got on Twitter is because of Paul Rudnick whom I loved before I ever met. He'd just published his first novel and ROLLLING STONE interviewed him and he did a devastating and hilarious take down of 'novelist' Patti Davis. He is very funny in person as well. But I got that first novel, SOCIAL DISEASE and talked it up but didn't do so enough, there were other things going on. So that was the 80s. All this time later, he's hilarious on Twitter and now I know him and TCI on Twitter was really just started to amplify him. I amplify other friends as well -- of course, Diana Ross. There are people who live on Twitter -- and anyone signed with CAA is 'encouraged' to be a social media personality. People are cast in roles over other people sometimes due to their number of social media followers. And that's nonsense because all social media can do is help get the word out. It can't sell tickets, it can't make people watch a TV show.
Jess: Alyssa Milano tries to a queen of social media and no one watched her NETFLIX or anything else she does. They're just agreeing with her on politics or whatever. They're not even fans of her work so there's no real pay off.
C.I.: I would agree with that.
Jess: And I think that's what Olay was trying to explain to Lolo about when he was talking about his book that he's hoping to sell.
C.I.: Right. People who follow you on Twitter for free aren't necessarily going to spend money. That's true of TV actors as well. You may be very popular on broadcast or cable TV. But that doesn't people are going to spend money on a ticket and actually get out and drive to a theater to see you in a film.
Jess: I hope everyone streams the video but if they don't, Lolo's got a book, a novel, and he's bothered because he does have followers but when he tries to work the book to get it published, his feedback is generally to write a book instead about the topics he covers online. And his first problem is that people don't necessarily buy your book because they follow you online.
C.I.: Right. And he's bothered by the fact that they want X amount of an option fee should one come about -- should a studio or production company option the novel to turn it into a film or series. I don't remember if he was bothered by the money or not. But here's the thing, in the entertainment industry -- which does include the publishing industry -- you're mainly asked to do what they already know you can do. You were an action hero but want to do a drama? Uh, do this action film for us and we'll give you a little development money -- just seed money -- to work on that other idea and see if you can shape into something we might be interested in. And in terms of money, untested you never make as much at the start as you will on your second and third efforts. You don't really have a quote to demand because you're not established.
Jess: Can you give an example?
C.I.: Sure. Let's do one everyone can grasp. Barbra Streisand got a million dollars for a film before she'd ever been on the big screen in a movie. HELLO DOLLY. So any actress could have gotten that, right? Wrong. Barbra got screwed by COLUMBIA RECORDS starting out -- and that was partly due to wanting artistic control. But she got screwed. And she became a huge seller, her albums brought a lot of money in for the company. Her first Broadway play, I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE, did not pay her a lot of money. During all of that, she is touring the country with concerts and she's becoming established on TV as a guest star on talk shows and variety shows and she's the biggest thing in the world of pop culture and huge media-getting personality. She gets a Tony nomination for I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE and is the only reason that the show sold tickets, she turned a supporting role into a show stopping performance. She wants the role of Fanny Brice in Broadway's FUNNY GIRL. At this point, she is an Emmy nominee, a Tony nominee from a play that she carried, a best selling albums artist and a two time Grammy winner and she still doesn't get paid for FUNNY GIRL what she's worth. So when she's not sure if she wants to make HELLO DOLLY, she was happy to walk away from it, didn't need it, so she and Marty Erlichman said, "A million dollars and she'll do it." Not expecting that the offer would be accepted. It was. And that's also another point -- one we've talked about frequently here -- The Power Of No. If you're not ready to say "no," you're never going to get what you're worth. But what confused me about Lolo is why doesn't he self-publish? He doesn't want an agency taking this percent for the deal and he doesn't want to give out any money he might be paid if someone put an option on the novel. It's the 21st century, why doesn't he just self publish. He could completely skip physical copies and just make it a digital book on KINDELL, for example. He can promote it on his own social media -- most first time authors with publishing houses don't get a big promotion push unless the book's seen as an easy sale. It would make more sense for him to do that. Look at Matteo. NETFLIX wasn't interested in Matteo Lane's comedy for a special. What did Matteo do? He made his own and put it on YOUTUBE. He now has three of them in about 12 months or so and I know the first one easily sailed past one million views.
Jess: That's true. 3.6 million views on the special that posted a year ago. 897,000 on the second one and 681,000 on the one that went up a month ago. Back to Olay, so will it hurt her being off social media?
C.I.: I don't see why. She states the two or so weeks so far have allowed her to come up with ideas and plans for other work that she needs to do -- YOUTUBE videos, columns, a book -- and Alice Walker talks about the need to refill the well. You've got to pause for that. You can't just let it pour out without refilling.
Jess: Says the person who writes daily at THE COMMON ILLS for how many years now and does a media piece with Ava every week here since 2005 and does all those columns for the community newsletters.
C.I.: And I'm exhausted and forever afraid nothing's going to come out, that the well's going to be completely dry. It's smart of her to do this -- forget doing it for her own sanity which is reason enough. But if it's letting her refill the well that's a reason for it.
Jess: I was a little surprised by the way she talked about her audience. And I know she doesn't fill that they're her audience, the people who are expecting this from her or that. What do you think there
C.I.: When you realize how much you've lost because you're now a known, it can be very disturbing. And I think that's what she's discussing.
Jess: You've not done that offline or online.
C.I.: Offline, we're talking about becoming known decades ago. I never refused an autograph. I still don't. I knew those people made me and I was fortunate that they did. But those people spent money. It's a different level of fame. Olay's talking about people who want to use her to increase their own fame and about people who want her to be something she can't be. On that last part, if I were talking to her, I would point out the good part about the people who want her to be something she can't be: They see your strength and it inspires them. You provide a lot to their lives that you're not realizing. I love Goldie for always being aware of her audience -- much more so than me with mine. DECEIVED? I love that movie. But she notes that people would come up to her and tell her it wasn't what they expected from a Goldie Hawn film. And they meant comedies that made them laugh and gave them peace and joy. In a crazy world -- and it's only gotten crazier -- providing peace and joy -- not to mention laughter -- is a great gift. And Goldie realizes that and looks at comment like that as a positive. I have an audience, I'm not talking about as "C.I." because they liked me and I like them back. I'm grateful to them. When you're not, ask Tori Amos, they will leave.
Jess: Talk about that. I was hoping you'd use an example of someone who didn't appreciate their audience.
C.I.: There's nothing something sadder than a fifty-something year-old woman trying to recruit her daughter's age group as her new fans after having pissed on the people who were with her from the start. She can't talk rationally anymore and everything is Tash or Tash and her boyfriend or Tash and her friends. How stupid are you, woman? No teens are dying to hear from your 50-year-old mind. The ones who did care about your lived experience that could be informing your art are people you ran off. The ones in the south, you insulted. At concerts that they paid to attend. You took their money and insulted them onstage by -- when you thought they weren't responsive enough -- playing a mocking "I wish I were in the land of cotton . . ." Really? She called her audience out as racists. As though racists were going to show up a Tori concert -- Tori the controversial woman who took a pig to her tit to nurse in a photo for her BOYS FOR PELE album. There was her tantrum at the end of the 90s over fans smoking -- being permitted to smoke -- at her concerts. There was her presenting as a feminist but refusing to be part of Lilith Fair and then, worse, insulting LF, the conflicts she had on the joint-tour with Alanis -- where Tori wanted to treat her like the opening act when Alanis was outselling Tori -- and her refusal to work with women in her band. Grasp that the only woman she really works with in her long musical career is her daughter who is a nepo-baby and has yet to demonstrate any real talent. Lilith and the Alanis problems cut her audience in half. You can see that in the album sales. By the time of TO VENUS AND BACK, she's no longer able to sell a million albums in the US.
Jess: TO VENUS is a platinum album.
C.I.: If it sold a million copies, it would be double platinum. Multi-disc albums are certified by sales and the number of discs. It's a two disc album, so platinum status on that album means it sold 500,000. She had four platinum albums in a row and then 1999's TO VENUS broke the streak and 500,000 has been the best she could do -- the best she could hope for. Her follow up to TO VENUS was STRANGE LITTLE GIRLS and it didn't even get 500,000 because she's supposed to be a feminist but that whole album was cover songs and cover songs written by men at that. 12 tracks, not one song written by a woman. The follow up was SCARLET'S WALK -- her singing her own songs and it sold 500,000 and was a gold record. By pissing off her audience, that was now that she could get even with a great album like SCARLET'S WALK -- her last classic album. So she apparently decided to abuse her remaining audience, to punish the ones who stuck around. THE BEEKEEPER had maybe four songs worth hearing. And it didn't even sell 300,00 copies. Each album got worse and the music more downbeat and tired. When she finally returned to 'form' musically with 2014 release, it wasn't just that it was too late, it was that the lyrics were garbage. I'm sure her daughter Tash found them intriguing but those of us who long ago grew out of "Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pale of water" were left with the reality that she couldn't even write an interesting lyric anymore, let alone a good one. She has no imagery left in her and it's the most simplistic word choices in the world. She abused her audience and when they turned on her, she abused her art. And you see it with each studio album up as the sales drop and drop and drop until 2021 rolls around and her album only sales 10,000 copies in the US. She was very talented once, maybe she still is? She needs to grow up and realize she's not her daughter's age, she's lived a life and she should have something to say about it.
Jess: Kat's going to love that. She'll probably repost it at her site. Are you going to pull it before we get ready to publish.
C.I.: I think Ava, Betty and I are the only ones who've never pulled something we've said from a transcript piece.
