It is NOT the job of the federal government to dictate how teacher
education programs are run. Note Duncan isn't about to go after law
schools or medical schools--only colleges of education in the attempt to
abolish them in order to limit educational access for the masses.
-- Susan, "Once Again Arne Duncan Breaks the Law" (On The Edge).
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Truest statement of the week II
It should come as no surprise that President Obama has secretly extended
the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan. Empires do not retreat unless
they are defeated. This is especially true of U.S. imperialism, which,
like no other empire in history, seeks to bring the entire planet under
its control. That’s why the United States maintains 900 military bases
in 130 countries. It’s why Washington is methodically subverting
international law, which it views as an impediment to its goal of global
domination. And, that’s why President Obama never had any intention of
withdrawing from Afghanistan, the longest war in American history.
Barack Obama is no different than any other U.S. imperial leader – except that he is a more accomplished liar than most. He spoke with forked tongue back in May, when he promised that, after the end of this year, U.S. troops would have no combat role in Afghanistan, aside from hunting down the all but nonexistent forces of Al Qaida in that country and training Afghan government forces. Actually, all Obama really planned to do was a paper-change, reclassifying the 10,000 U.S. troops as “non-combatants” on paper, while continuing to deploy them against the Taliban.
-- Glen Ford, "War on the Down-Low: Obama’s Afghan Lies" (Black Agenda Report).
Barack Obama is no different than any other U.S. imperial leader – except that he is a more accomplished liar than most. He spoke with forked tongue back in May, when he promised that, after the end of this year, U.S. troops would have no combat role in Afghanistan, aside from hunting down the all but nonexistent forces of Al Qaida in that country and training Afghan government forces. Actually, all Obama really planned to do was a paper-change, reclassifying the 10,000 U.S. troops as “non-combatants” on paper, while continuing to deploy them against the Taliban.
-- Glen Ford, "War on the Down-Low: Obama’s Afghan Lies" (Black Agenda Report).
A note to our readers
Hey --
Sunday.
First, we thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
And what did we come up with?
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Sunday.
First, we thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
And what did we come up with?
Susan gets another truest.
As does Glen Ford.
Barack never came up with a plan and now Iraqis are rejecting his action.
Ava and C.I. cover sitcoms and Blackish.
Crapapedia struggles with Janis Joplin's same-sex affairs.
We answer a reader.
We almost forgot this feature.
Short feature!
One film reminds us of another.
Iraq.
We repost Stan's analysis.
From Senator Patty Murray's office.
From Great Britain's Socialist Worker.
From Workers World.
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Editorial: Today, we're all Condi Rice?
Not quite.
But a number of losers and idiots -- Joel Wing among them -- will soon be following in Condi's footsteps and insisting, "No one could have guessed."
Outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Chair of the Joint-Chiefs General Martin Dempsey and Pentagon press spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged weeks ago that the Islamic State was adapting to Barack Obama's aerial bombings of Iraq.
It was no surprise.
Similarly, it's no surprise that Iraqis are now beginning to speak out.
No one could have guessed?
From the October 14th Iraq snapshot:
During Nouri al-Maliki's first term as prime minister of Iraq, Turkey began bombing northern Iraq.
They did so with the help of the US government which, among other things, provided 'intelligence.'
For Iraq it wasn't a big deal at first. By the time Nouri was in his second term, it was. Iraqis -- not just in the north where the bombings took place -- were outraged by the attacks on their sovereignty and by the civilians being killed in these bombings.
Maybe AFP and others have to lie today because they don't want you to know that Barack's bombings today will soon meet the same fate with Iraqi citizens calling out their 'leaders' who allow the country to be bombed and innocents to be killed.
No one could have guessed?
Anyone could have guessed if they were paying attention.
In Chuck Todd's new book The Stranger: Barack Obama in the White House, the host of Meet The Press argues that Barack dilly-dallies and flip-flops and is unable to come up with concrete plans of action.
He never came up with a plan for Iraq this year.
Despite sending troops in starting in June.
Despite getting feedback.
What he did was decide to start a bombing campaign and pass that off as a plan.
Dropping bombs from the sky is not a plan.
And like his other actions, this one lost any effectiveness it might have had some time ago.
The Islamic State quickly adapted to it.
And today, Rudaw reports, cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr is calling for an end of US involvement in Iraq.
Moqtada has power because he speaks for the people. He's not famous for speaking on behalf of Iraqi politicians but he is famous for speaking on behalf of many of the Iraqi people.
Barack's 'plan' hasn't worked and now it may need to be re-routed.
But a number of losers and idiots -- Joel Wing among them -- will soon be following in Condi's footsteps and insisting, "No one could have guessed."
Outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Chair of the Joint-Chiefs General Martin Dempsey and Pentagon press spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged weeks ago that the Islamic State was adapting to Barack Obama's aerial bombings of Iraq.
It was no surprise.
Similarly, it's no surprise that Iraqis are now beginning to speak out.
No one could have guessed?
From the October 14th Iraq snapshot:
During Nouri al-Maliki's first term as prime minister of Iraq, Turkey began bombing northern Iraq.
They did so with the help of the US government which, among other things, provided 'intelligence.'
For Iraq it wasn't a big deal at first. By the time Nouri was in his second term, it was. Iraqis -- not just in the north where the bombings took place -- were outraged by the attacks on their sovereignty and by the civilians being killed in these bombings.
Maybe AFP and others have to lie today because they don't want you to know that Barack's bombings today will soon meet the same fate with Iraqi citizens calling out their 'leaders' who allow the country to be bombed and innocents to be killed.
No one could have guessed?
Anyone could have guessed if they were paying attention.
In Chuck Todd's new book The Stranger: Barack Obama in the White House, the host of Meet The Press argues that Barack dilly-dallies and flip-flops and is unable to come up with concrete plans of action.
He never came up with a plan for Iraq this year.
Despite sending troops in starting in June.
Despite getting feedback.
What he did was decide to start a bombing campaign and pass that off as a plan.
Dropping bombs from the sky is not a plan.
And like his other actions, this one lost any effectiveness it might have had some time ago.
The Islamic State quickly adapted to it.
And today, Rudaw reports, cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr is calling for an end of US involvement in Iraq.
Moqtada has power because he speaks for the people. He's not famous for speaking on behalf of Iraqi politicians but he is famous for speaking on behalf of many of the Iraqi people.
Barack's 'plan' hasn't worked and now it may need to be re-routed.
TV: Blackish proves ABC still doesn't know from funny
When it comes to sitcoms, there are a lot of lies.
For starters, that Blackish is a hit.
Wednesday nights, The Middle opens ABC's prime time schedule and does so repeatedly with higher ratings than Blackish. Meanwhile, Blackish follows ABC's giant hit Modern Family and manages to not only score less viewers than The Middle but also to run off an average of three million viewers.
The only real ratings question is will Blackish's rating continue to fall making it the least watched ABC sitcom on Wednesday nights?
ABC's struggled with sitcoms throughout the fall. There was Manhattan Love Story, for example, which became the first cancellation of the season. There was also Selfie which got the axe weeks ago.
ABC has a problem, it's the same one NBC has and why both struggle to break open new sitcoms.
They don't know funny and they think they're better than the format.
The sitcom format is funny.
To make sure you're funny, you rehearse, rehearse and then tape before a studio audience.
This let's writers and performers sharpen the scripts as the week progresses and fix, during taping, trouble spots.
This is not revolutionary or a format that just emerged.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz perfected the formula when they basically invented the modern sitcom with I Love Lucy. But everyone thinks they know better than Lucy and Desi.
The ratings prove otherwise.
As does the fact that I Love Lucy has never stopped airing since it went into syndication.
NBC's 'hit' from last year, About A Boy, is struggling badly in the ratings which only makes Marry Me's so-so ratings on the same night look incredible. Like ABC, NBC thinks it knows better than the likes of Lucy, Desi, Roseanne, Mary Tyler Moore and so many others.
The only network that even slightly has a clue is CBS -- the network that aired I Love Lucy.
The Big Bang Theory, Mom, 2 and a Half Men, 2 Broke Girls, etc get the kind of ratings Selfie and About A Boy couldn't even dream of.
The other thing the CBS shows have in common -- besides being hits -- is not trying to screw with the formula. They're recorded in front of a live audience.
This formula means that their bombs aren't huge bombs. For example, The Millers just got the axe. It's 'low' ratings? 6.31 million viewers.
Compare that to NBC's two highest profile failures -- The Michael J. Fox Show which posted 1.99 million viewers -- and on a new episode -- and The Paul Reiser Show which set a record low for Thursday nights when the second (and last aired) new episode clocked in with 2.37 million viewers.
Those are bad. So is 3.23 million. That's how many viewers Selfie got three days before ABC announced it was killing the show. 2.62 million was the number of viewers that Manhattan Love Story had for its final episode. With those kind of ratings, maybe ABC should have stuck by Better With You -- a series that averaged 6.60 million viewers for its season, one that got strong reviews and one that was taped before a studio audience.
Ratings should be an issue.
So should satisfaction.
The only thing working on Blackish is Tracee Ellis Ross. Eight seasons on the sitcom Girlfriends, filmed before a live studio audience. let Tracee hone her chops. She's hilarious in the way only someone who's performed regularly before a live audience can be.
A recent episode found her character and Anthony Anderson's character concerned their kids had it too easy and Tracee required to point to each child and tell them they were getting a job.
If Anderson had been given the line it would have died.
With Tracee, she turned it into a sing-song, made it funny and brought to life.
She does that with little bits and pieces in episode after episode.
Anderson doesn't know from funny. A bit player on one season of The Bernie Mac Show didn't allow Anderson to learn funny.
He's merely adequate.
If Blackish were filmed before a live studio audience, there's a chance Anderson would relax, come across less stiff and learn how to play comedy.
He has natural charisma.
What he's not being given is the format to explore and hone his talent.
And that's the other thing about these single-camera 'sitcoms.'
They're not funny, yes. But it's also that they really don't try.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus was hilarious on Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine.
She was so-so on Watching Ellie and she's so-so on Veep.
Big difference?
When you're performing in front of a live audience, you can't phone it in unless you want egg on your face. You have to try.
On the single-camera shows, they get the shot -- funny or not -- and quickly move on.
If Lucille Ball put the funny in sitcom, Fred MacMurray killed it.
As funny as I Love Lucy was, that's just how dead My Three Sons was.
Fred wanted a single-camera show because he wasn't interested in being funny or spending too much time on a sitcom. He filmed all of his scenes in two blocks of ten weeks. The rest of the cast was filming the other scenes while Fred relaxed.
Relaxed.
That's why the shows just aren't funny.
The Office? Better than The Courtship of Eddie's Father and whimsical but not laugh out loud funny.
For funny on a sitcom, you really have to go all out.
Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Penny Marshall, Freddie Prinze, Robin Williams, Suzanne Somers, Helen Hunt, Nell Carter, Mary Tyler Moore, Roseanne, Valerie Harper, etc. These are sitcom stars.
Marlo Thomas, Bill Bixby, etc? They're popular TV performers. They're not sitcom stars. They made you smile, they failed to make you laugh.
A sitcom in the multi-camera format is one where the actors explore the humor in the script daily and then tape before an audience. A 'sitcom' with a single-camera is where a shooting schedule is followed, not the laughter, not the effort to get the laughter. Just get the scene shot and move on to the next one.
And it really shows.
It's what destroyed NBC's Thursday nights.
My Name Is Earl, The Office and other 'buzz shows' failed to deliver the laughs and failed to deliver the audience.
The Office never made it higher in rank any season than 52.
But NBC suits knew it was a 'hit' because it trended on social media and . . .
None of that crap means a thing if a show can't deliver viewers.
NBC and ABC repeatedly fail with one sitcom launch after another.
And they're never smart enough to notice the common glue for CBS' hit sitcoms.
Instead of giving people what they want, they cater to lazy show runners and lazy performers who seem to think acting is bankers hours and they should be able to work nine to five and if the comedy happens, great, but if it doesn't that someone else's problem.
Someone else?
That would be the viewers.
As it stands right now, if Blackish continues to bleed viewers it won't get a second season. Smartest thing ABC could do right now is switch to multi-camera and a live audience.
For starters, that Blackish is a hit.
Wednesday nights, The Middle opens ABC's prime time schedule and does so repeatedly with higher ratings than Blackish. Meanwhile, Blackish follows ABC's giant hit Modern Family and manages to not only score less viewers than The Middle but also to run off an average of three million viewers.
The only real ratings question is will Blackish's rating continue to fall making it the least watched ABC sitcom on Wednesday nights?
ABC's struggled with sitcoms throughout the fall. There was Manhattan Love Story, for example, which became the first cancellation of the season. There was also Selfie which got the axe weeks ago.
ABC has a problem, it's the same one NBC has and why both struggle to break open new sitcoms.
They don't know funny and they think they're better than the format.
The sitcom format is funny.
To make sure you're funny, you rehearse, rehearse and then tape before a studio audience.
This let's writers and performers sharpen the scripts as the week progresses and fix, during taping, trouble spots.
This is not revolutionary or a format that just emerged.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz perfected the formula when they basically invented the modern sitcom with I Love Lucy. But everyone thinks they know better than Lucy and Desi.
The ratings prove otherwise.
As does the fact that I Love Lucy has never stopped airing since it went into syndication.
NBC's 'hit' from last year, About A Boy, is struggling badly in the ratings which only makes Marry Me's so-so ratings on the same night look incredible. Like ABC, NBC thinks it knows better than the likes of Lucy, Desi, Roseanne, Mary Tyler Moore and so many others.
The only network that even slightly has a clue is CBS -- the network that aired I Love Lucy.
The Big Bang Theory, Mom, 2 and a Half Men, 2 Broke Girls, etc get the kind of ratings Selfie and About A Boy couldn't even dream of.
The other thing the CBS shows have in common -- besides being hits -- is not trying to screw with the formula. They're recorded in front of a live audience.
This formula means that their bombs aren't huge bombs. For example, The Millers just got the axe. It's 'low' ratings? 6.31 million viewers.
Compare that to NBC's two highest profile failures -- The Michael J. Fox Show which posted 1.99 million viewers -- and on a new episode -- and The Paul Reiser Show which set a record low for Thursday nights when the second (and last aired) new episode clocked in with 2.37 million viewers.
Those are bad. So is 3.23 million. That's how many viewers Selfie got three days before ABC announced it was killing the show. 2.62 million was the number of viewers that Manhattan Love Story had for its final episode. With those kind of ratings, maybe ABC should have stuck by Better With You -- a series that averaged 6.60 million viewers for its season, one that got strong reviews and one that was taped before a studio audience.
Ratings should be an issue.
So should satisfaction.
The only thing working on Blackish is Tracee Ellis Ross. Eight seasons on the sitcom Girlfriends, filmed before a live studio audience. let Tracee hone her chops. She's hilarious in the way only someone who's performed regularly before a live audience can be.
A recent episode found her character and Anthony Anderson's character concerned their kids had it too easy and Tracee required to point to each child and tell them they were getting a job.
If Anderson had been given the line it would have died.
With Tracee, she turned it into a sing-song, made it funny and brought to life.
She does that with little bits and pieces in episode after episode.
Anderson doesn't know from funny. A bit player on one season of The Bernie Mac Show didn't allow Anderson to learn funny.
He's merely adequate.
If Blackish were filmed before a live studio audience, there's a chance Anderson would relax, come across less stiff and learn how to play comedy.
He has natural charisma.
What he's not being given is the format to explore and hone his talent.
And that's the other thing about these single-camera 'sitcoms.'
They're not funny, yes. But it's also that they really don't try.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus was hilarious on Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine.
She was so-so on Watching Ellie and she's so-so on Veep.
Big difference?
When you're performing in front of a live audience, you can't phone it in unless you want egg on your face. You have to try.
On the single-camera shows, they get the shot -- funny or not -- and quickly move on.
If Lucille Ball put the funny in sitcom, Fred MacMurray killed it.
As funny as I Love Lucy was, that's just how dead My Three Sons was.
Fred wanted a single-camera show because he wasn't interested in being funny or spending too much time on a sitcom. He filmed all of his scenes in two blocks of ten weeks. The rest of the cast was filming the other scenes while Fred relaxed.
Relaxed.
That's why the shows just aren't funny.
The Office? Better than The Courtship of Eddie's Father and whimsical but not laugh out loud funny.
For funny on a sitcom, you really have to go all out.
Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Penny Marshall, Freddie Prinze, Robin Williams, Suzanne Somers, Helen Hunt, Nell Carter, Mary Tyler Moore, Roseanne, Valerie Harper, etc. These are sitcom stars.
Marlo Thomas, Bill Bixby, etc? They're popular TV performers. They're not sitcom stars. They made you smile, they failed to make you laugh.
A sitcom in the multi-camera format is one where the actors explore the humor in the script daily and then tape before an audience. A 'sitcom' with a single-camera is where a shooting schedule is followed, not the laughter, not the effort to get the laughter. Just get the scene shot and move on to the next one.
And it really shows.
It's what destroyed NBC's Thursday nights.
My Name Is Earl, The Office and other 'buzz shows' failed to deliver the laughs and failed to deliver the audience.
The Office never made it higher in rank any season than 52.
But NBC suits knew it was a 'hit' because it trended on social media and . . .
None of that crap means a thing if a show can't deliver viewers.
NBC and ABC repeatedly fail with one sitcom launch after another.
And they're never smart enough to notice the common glue for CBS' hit sitcoms.
Instead of giving people what they want, they cater to lazy show runners and lazy performers who seem to think acting is bankers hours and they should be able to work nine to five and if the comedy happens, great, but if it doesn't that someone else's problem.
Someone else?
That would be the viewers.
As it stands right now, if Blackish continues to bleed viewers it won't get a second season. Smartest thing ABC could do right now is switch to multi-camera and a live audience.
The Homophobia of Crapapedia
Janis Joplin was a trail blazer who came to fame in the Summer of Love at Monterey Pop (staged by Lou Adler and John and Michelle Phillips). One of the all time great artists, Janis has always suffered from certain men -- especially in death.
Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix were not portrayed as victims for dying of drugs at the same time as Janis. No they were supposed Dionysus, living and dying in a frenzy.
Janis?
The Rock Boys tried to turn her into a cautionary tale to ward off other women.
Ellen Willis and other critics managed to pull Janis' legacy out of that sexist b.s.
But even now, Janis' image suffers.
Did someone say Crapapedia?
Crapapedia doesn't want Janis tagged a lesbian or bi-sexual.
Read their crap here and they think they're doing the world a favor by even (briefly) noting Peggy Caserta, a woman Janis was sexually involved with for approximately two years.
In Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin, Alice Echols writes;
Most accounts of Janis' life have relegated Peggy to the sidelines, but she was one of Janis's best friends, and their on-again, off-again affair was probably the closest Janis came to having a long-term relationship. Those who are eager to heterosexualize Janis would rather write Peggy out of her life, especially in the light of Peggy's embarrassingly overheated memoir, published in 1973. Going Down with Janis opens with the unforgettable line, "I was stark naked, stoned out of mind on heroin, and the girl lying between my legs giving me head was Janis Joplin."
The sexism of Crapapedia knows no bounds.
While down playing her same-sex encounters (other than Peggy, they ignore them), they rush to prop up Janis' hetrosexuality. For example, they have a sentence about an unnamed man proposing to her. Their basis? A book -- a good one -- published after Janis' death.
But Crapapedia doesn't trust women who spoke after Janis' death. The moderator explains, "All the comments attributed to Janis Joplin about her lesbian experiences were attributed to her when she was dead."
Remember, boys and girls, it's Crap -- Crapapedia and it struggles to portray women's lives as anything other than appendages to men.
Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix were not portrayed as victims for dying of drugs at the same time as Janis. No they were supposed Dionysus, living and dying in a frenzy.
Janis?
The Rock Boys tried to turn her into a cautionary tale to ward off other women.
Ellen Willis and other critics managed to pull Janis' legacy out of that sexist b.s.
But even now, Janis' image suffers.
Did someone say Crapapedia?
Crapapedia doesn't want Janis tagged a lesbian or bi-sexual.
Read their crap here and they think they're doing the world a favor by even (briefly) noting Peggy Caserta, a woman Janis was sexually involved with for approximately two years.
In Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin, Alice Echols writes;
Most accounts of Janis' life have relegated Peggy to the sidelines, but she was one of Janis's best friends, and their on-again, off-again affair was probably the closest Janis came to having a long-term relationship. Those who are eager to heterosexualize Janis would rather write Peggy out of her life, especially in the light of Peggy's embarrassingly overheated memoir, published in 1973. Going Down with Janis opens with the unforgettable line, "I was stark naked, stoned out of mind on heroin, and the girl lying between my legs giving me head was Janis Joplin."
The sexism of Crapapedia knows no bounds.
While down playing her same-sex encounters (other than Peggy, they ignore them), they rush to prop up Janis' hetrosexuality. For example, they have a sentence about an unnamed man proposing to her. Their basis? A book -- a good one -- published after Janis' death.
But Crapapedia doesn't trust women who spoke after Janis' death. The moderator explains, "All the comments attributed to Janis Joplin about her lesbian experiences were attributed to her when she was dead."
Remember, boys and girls, it's Crap -- Crapapedia and it struggles to portray women's lives as anything other than appendages to men.
From The TESR Test Kitchen
Reader Amanda wondered if we had any suggestions "with regards to food or whether you just taste?"
That's our suggestion.
When eating tater tots, don't confine yourself to catsup alone.
We love to mix it up by eating them with honey ranch dressing.
That's our suggestion.
When eating tater tots, don't confine yourself to catsup alone.
We love to mix it up by eating them with honey ranch dressing.
This edition's playlist
1) Jackson and His Computerband's Glow.
2) The Mamas and the Papas' The Papas & The Mamas.
3) David Rovics' Into A Prism.
4) Jon Butcher Axis' Wishes
5) Tori Amos' Scarlet's Walk
6) Cass Elliot's Cass Elliot/ The Road Is No Place For A Lady.
7) Radiohead's The King of Limbs.
8) Ben and Ellen Harper's Childhood Home.
9) Prince's Around The World In A Day.
10) Tori Amos' Unrepentant Geraldines.
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