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."
"did hitler live in argentina in the 50s?" -- Rebecca wonders about the long lag between reporting -- as she notes, this was news back in September but suddenly was 'discovered' by the US media last week.
Under the regimes of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, millions of civilians in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and Yemen have been slaughtered, wounded, displaced and made desperately ill with the effects of toxins such as depleted uranium: the "gift" that never ends, literally---it has a half-life of 4.5 billion years.
In the past, America has witnessed “McCarthyism” from the Right and even complaints from the Right about “McCarthyism of the Left.” But what we are witnessing now amid the Russia-gate frenzy is what might be called “Establishment McCarthyism,” traditional media/political powers demonizing and silencing dissent that questions mainstream narratives. This extraordinary assault on civil liberties is cloaked in fright-filled stories about “Russian propaganda” and wildly exaggerated tales of the Kremlin’s “hordes of Twitter bots,” but its underlying goal is to enforce Washington’s “groupthinks” by creating a permanent system that shuts down or marginalizes dissident opinions and labels contrary information – no matter how reasonable and well-researched – as “disputed” or “rated false” by mainstream “fact-checking” organizations like PolitiFact.
But it was this piece that had them saying, "This better go up before we go to sleep. We did not work our asses off on this piece to have it wait all week before going up."
Oh, he was a horror – if, like us, you were on the left.
“He was a lousy actor and he’ll make a worse president,” Bette Davis said to cheers from many of us on the left.
And some of us on the left swore the world would end.
It didn’t.
Yes, the Contras were backed. Yes, there were Dirty Wars. Yes, a lot of good people are dead who shouldn’t be – but isn’t that the reality for every US presidency?
We’re not being flippant or sarcastic.
You can call us cynical.
Or even jaded.
But, to crib from Aerosmith, American presidents, “you’re the one who jaded me!”
Granted, some won’t know about this period. They are too young (that includes some of us writing this editorial).
You can forgive them.
But these people who should know better?
We’re not getting them at all.
And even to the younger, WTF?
You’ve never lost before?
Your refusal to grow the hell up is very embarrassing and makes it appears as though the carping about trophies being handed out just for showing up really was the defining moment of your childhoods.
As to those of you old enough to know better, shame, shame on you.
The best reason to watch LAW & ORDER: TRUE CRIME is Edie Falco.
The Emmy winner is playing defense lawyer Leslie Abramson in NBC's re-telling of the Menendez trial -- where Erik and Lyle Menendez were tried for killing their parents Kitty and Jose Menendez. Leslie Abramson and Jill Lansing (Julianne Nicholson in this series) defended their clients with the argument that the murders were in response to the two boys being molested by their father at an early age and their mother's complicity in Jose's actions.
Leslie Abramson was not seen as a sympathetic character by the press in real time.
Nor were the boys seen as sympathetic.
Part of that was sexism and part of that was the refusal by our culture to address child abuse.
You can see both play out in the trial as the judge attacks both Leslie and the defense she and Lansing offer.
The judge, by the way, is played by Anthony Edwards.
Falco is the stunning lead performance, no question. But Edwards is among the supporting actors who are serving up surprisingly rich performance. To that list, you can also add Constance Marie (as Marta Cano), Josh Charles (as Dr. Jerome Oziel) and Heather Graham (as Judalon Smyth).
Charles and Graham manage to pull off the chemistry required to convince you they could be a couple as well as the nastiness needed to make you believe they could be out to destroy one another when it all went sour.
For Judalon, that's when the doctor ends their affair. That's what prompts her to go to the police and tell them that the Menendez brothers confessed to Jerome that they killed their parents.
Even in reaction shots, Graham sells you on Judalon's thrill at bringing the unethical doctor down. And Josh Charles is playing a character unlike any he's played before -- and delivering completely.
He doesn't try to sweeten Jerome's actions. He plays the man who destroys everything in his path and, in the end, his own career.
A psychologist who allegedly leaked information to his girlfriend and police about the Menendez brothers' shotgun slayings of their wealthy parents surrendered his medical license to the California Department of Consumer Affairs on Friday.
The Consumer Affairs Board of Psychology said Leon Jerome Oziel violated the professional confidence of his clients, Erik and Lyle Menendez.
The brothers were sentenced in July 1996 to life in prison without parole for the murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. Prosecutors said Erik and Lyle shot their parents in August 1989 to gain their fortune. The brothers claimed they were victims of years of sexual abuse and thought they were acting in self-defense when they killed their parents.
The board accused Oziel in 1993 of sharing confidential information with a patient who was also his girlfriend. It said Oziel allowed Judalon Smyth to listen to and reproduce audiotapes of his therapy sessions with the Menendez brothers. Smyth later turned over the tapes to police.
Jerome Oziel is a creep and Josh Charles goes to the mat with this role.
The Menendez brothers?
They really are "there" more than they "are."
Present.
Part of it is the focus, but a lot of it is, frankly, that Miles Gaston Villanueva (Lyle) and Gus Halper (Erik) haven't really thought through their roles. They are the weakest part of the series -- their acting.
But Edie Falco's performance more than makes up for that void. She's so good that she just might take home Emmy number five for this performance.
David Yaffe has a new book entitled RECKLESS DAUGHTER: A PORTRAIT OF JONI MITCHELL but it reads like the unofficial title is PUT THE BITCH IN HER PLACE.
Joni Mitchell is one of America's premier singer-songwriters. Her career is a story of artistic triumphs in a system not given to acknowledging art produced by women. BLUE is her masterpiece but it's one of many classic albums she produced. (FOR THE ROSES, COURT & SPARK, THE HISSING OF SUMMER LAWNS, HEIJIRA, SHINE, DOG EAT DOG, LADIES OF THE CANYON, TURBULENT INDIGO and NIGHT RIDE HOME would be among her other classics.) Listing the classic songs she's written would require an essay in and of itself. But it's worth noting that she created her own melodies and didn't graft her lyrics onto public domain songs only to then put her name to the music she'd stolen. In addition, to those credits, Joni's also an original guitar player whose use of open tunings have influenced many over the years.
A pioneer, an artist, she's accomplished more than most.
And for David Yaffe, the "she" appears to be the sticking point.
Yaffe's got problems with women -- they go far beyond his failed marriage. They probably include his being in his early teens when Annette Strauss became Dallas' first elected female mayor. They certainly include coming of age in a very sexist time period and being known for his dismissive put-downs -- at his arty high school -- of female recording artists.
All of this -- and more -- comes down on Joni Mitchell in his book which is a blend of hack writing and sexism.
Yaffe loathes Joni and that comes through on page after page.
It also comes through in interviews.
If you want to pimp your book and lie these days, where do you go?
So Joni had told me a story about how Judy had offered to take her to the Newport Folk Festival, which was a big deal. Joni had never been! It was a big break. And Joni said that Judy Collins stood her up and that, the next day, she had a change of heart and sent for a car to pick her up. I think the word that Judy Collins used to characterize this story was "horsepucky." She said it was ridiculous; they'd met in April, so why would she make arrangements for something in August? I ask Judy if she thought Joni believed it. She said, I don't know, but I can tell you where this rotten story came from. It came from the fact that Joni couldn't get over that somebody did something wonderful for her. Since then, every time Joni came out with an album, Judy would send her love letters about these wonderful albums. She'd send gifts. Joni wouldn't take her calls, never wrote her back. It was decades of not getting calls returned.
CJR is nothing but crap and that they printed that nonsense goes to why.
That Yaffe repeated it goes to his own stupidity, ignorance and general laziness.
Let's start off first with Judy Collins.
Did she tell that to Yaffe? With her wet brain remembrances?
Go read our "Trapped in an AA meeting with Judy Collins" (a review of her lieography entitled SWEET JUDY BLUE EYES). Judy's not a very honest person, she never has been.
We wrote from our own knowledge about the biggest issue between Joni and Judy -- Judy's worship of the cock has led her to repeatedly downgrade Joni Mitchell's talents in public discussions (as well private ones).
This is not a one time thing, this is a long, long history of rushing to praise this man or that man over Joni. Even asked about a song Joni wrote ("Both Sides Now" -- Judy's only real hit song), Judy will avoid praising Joni and rush to mention some male songwriter instead. (As we noted in our example with Larry King, Judy gave the impression that Leonard Cohen wrote the song.)
Judy Collins was a mean drunk. And she's tried to pretend otherwise in the years since.
But she was a nasty and mean drunk.
It's part of the reason she failed her son (who ended up taking his own life).
Why in the world would you take the word of a drunk over Joni's word?
Especially when this story of Newport did not begin in the 2000s, nor in the 1990s, nor in the 1980s, nor in the 1970s but all the way back in real time when it happened. Joni has consistently and repeatedly told this story as she tells it today.
It is only Judy Collins who has rewritten history.
She's a damn liar and Yaffe's a damn fool.
If you're presented with conflicting stories, you first acknowledge that both can be right. People have different perspectives and that's why eye witness testimony -- even when witnesses tell the whole truth -- can contradict.
You then look to see who is more believable.
Has one person stuck to the same story for decades?
Okay, then they usually get the benefit of the doubt.
This is especially true when, for years, Judy publicly credited Tom Rush with calling her up and telling her he was with a songwriter and she had to hear this song ("Both Sides Now") that the songwriter had written.
For years, Judy told that.
She even printed that in a book.
Only after Tom Rush publicly made a point to note (repeatedly) that it was not him, it was Al Kooper, did Judy 'remember' it correctly.
Wet brain.
If two stories conflict, you investigate.
Judy did not meet Joni Mitchell in April of 1967.
That's a flat out lie.
Was that too much for Yaffe to check out?
Or how about this little fact: The event at Newport wasn't in August, as Judy tells Yafee.
It was July 16, 1967.
Where was Joni in April and May?
Detroit.
With soon to be ex-husband Chuck Mitchell.
Was that too hard for Yaffe to check out.
Al Kooper. That's who called Judy, remember?
Joni met him in the summer of 1967 -- that would be after the "April" in Judy Collins' latest 'recovered memory.'
Most importantly, there is one witness to the Judy-Joni phone call: Al Kooper.
And he has publicly backed Joni's version. "I asked her [Judy Collins] to take Joni in her car with her to Newport, listen to Joni sing her songs on the ride, and see if she could find a spot on the bill for her," he told Sheila Weller for her book GIRLS LIKE US: CAROLE KING, JONI MITCHELL, CARLY SIMON -- AND THE JOURNEY OF A GENERATION.
Not content to call Joni a liar, Yaffe also takes Joni to task for not liking Judy's version of "Both Sides Now." He huffs that she took the money for it. Yes, and David Bowie took his royalties for copies of Barbra Streisand's BUTTERFLY but he still didn't care for her cover of his "Life On Mars." (To ROLLING STONE's Cameron Crowe, Bowie stated, "Bloody awful. Sorry, Barb, but it was atrocious.")
Joni's just despicable, in Yaffe's mind. She's even lying about Woodstock! This despite the fact that all involved tell the same story. Dick Cavett does offer a variation, prompted by Yaffe (fed by him), Cavett insists that Joni was never supposed to be the only guest on the program.
Strangely, Joni's never made the claim that she was supposed to be the only guest.
While we're talking Dick and sexism, could he apologize for harassing Diana Ross? She was in the middle of performing a concert when he snuck out on stage (as a 'prank') and pinched her ass. Is that really appropriate behavior because it strikes us as harassment and we're damn tired of being the only people in the world holding Dick Cavett accountable for his harassment of women (the Diana story is only one example).
Dick and Yaffe are convinced that Dick did Joni a huge favor by having her on his show in August of 1969.
What a prize moment, a failing TV show -- in the days before Tivo and YOUTUBE -- meaning only those watching the last hour of ABC -- the third rated network out of three networks -- prime time were going to catch it.
Failing? It would be cancelled exactly 30 days later. Dick would then resurface with a late night talk show.
ABC?
Two months earlier, she'd been seen by many more viewers as a guest on THE MAMA CASS TELEVISION PROGRAM (she performed "Both Sides Now" and, with Cass and Mary Travers, "I Shall Be Released").
How do you miss that?
Oh, that's right, you're a pig who's pimping the Cavett appearance as the end all be all and Joni's big TV debut.
Even though it wasn't.
You're the same pig who writes, on page 136, "Mama Cass to everyone who knew her."
No, piggie, Cass.
Not "Mama Cass."
Michelle Phillips did not call her "Mama Cass," nor did Cass call Michelle "Mama Michelle."
Only in your uneducated and uninformed fan boi mind did the people who knew Cass as friends call her "Mama Cass."
Russ Kunkel shows up a lot.
We're not sure why.
He played drums on some of Joni's work. He was her employee, yes.
But long before that she knew Cass and, yes, Cass' sister Leah Kunkel.
Where's Leah in the book?
Where are the bulk of women in the book?
No where to be found.
Leah, Joellen Lapidus, etc.
Even Joni's meeting with Georgia O'Keeffe goes unmentioned.
But the author does make time to refer to Joni Mitchell as "a broad."
He also makes time to treat Larry Klein as a gospel of truth.
Why are we believing her second husband -- her now ex-husband -- over Joni herself?
And why all the attention and justification for Klein to begin with.
It's an established fact -- one not argued by either Joni or Larry -- that their marriage died when she miscarried.
Why the non-stop sentences of the authors and of Klein's about how he didn't realize how important that event was?
She's pregnant, she miscarries.
The author finds plenty of time to blame Joni for it -- as does Larry (she smoked horror!).
But we're supposed to excuse the fact that she has to count on a friend to take her to the hospital because days of bleeding do not seem significant to Larry Klein?
We're supposed to excuse the fact that he then leaves her to go to Europe?
No.
What Klein and Yaffe argue is offensive.
So is much of the book. For example, prepare to recoil in horror as Yaffe describes "Cherokee Louise" as a song about "a horrifying introduction to adult sex."
Cherokee Louise is raped by her foster-dad.
Who the hell would call that an "introduction to adult sex"?
Rape isn't about sex. Is Yaffe really that stupid?
RECKLESS DAUGHTER is nothing but a pig playing in a pig pen and calling his droppings a book.
It's not just that Joni deserves better, it's that womankind deserves better.
The rich buy off politicians, who rig the system so the rich get richer and can buy off more politicians... And now:
1:37 PM - 27 Oct 2017
Jill Stein's Tweet linked to Rupert Neate Wealth's GUARDIAN report which opened: The world’s super-rich hold the greatest concentration of wealth
since the US Gilded Age at the turn of the 20th century, when families
like the Carnegies, Rockefellers and Vanderbilts controlled vast
fortunes. Billionaires increased their combined global wealth by almost a fifth
last year to a record $6tn (£4.5tn) – more than twice the GDP of the
UK. There are now 1,542 dollar billionaires across the world, after 145
multi-millionaires saw their wealth tick over into nine-zero fortunes
last year, according to the UBS / PwC Billionaires report.
Ann observed:
The saddest thing about this new gilded age?
Most people won't even admit to it.
You can expect the robber (barons) to refuse to admit it, but so many of
the people being robbed won't even admit to what's happening.
It is happening.
And so many outlets are failing to talk about this reality.
There is so much happening because of this age of corruption.
U.S. rulers also have grand plans -- not for raising domestic or global living standards, but for war. As servants of the Lords of Capital, both corporate political parties promise their citizenry nothing but austerity. The political hegemony of the oligarchs is so complete -- especially since the Clinton years in the White House -- the very idea of governmental intervention on the side of the non-rich has become foreign to much of the public, including the Black political class. Corporate media define “left” and “right” based mainly on so-called “social,” non-economic issues, as if the argument over economic justice has already been settled -- in the oligarchs’ favor. The people’s representatives grovel at the feet of the rich, begging for crumbs that might fall from on high. As of last week, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world with a net worth of $90 billion, has received 238 proposals from local governments across North America begging for a chance to host a second headquarters for his Seattle-based corporation. Nearly every city worthy of name recognition, and some you’ve never heard of, has positioned itself booty-up for Bezos and the prospect of 50,000 jobs. The only states from which no applications have been received are North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Vermont, Arkansas and Hawaii. Bezos is an extortionist. Amazon has already gotten more than $1 billion in local and state subsidies for its warehouse centers around the country, where workers are paid 15 percent less, on average, than other warehouses in the region. According to a recent study, Amazon’s business model has destroyed nearly 150,000 more jobs in retail stores than have been created in its warehouses.
On Friday morning, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos awoke in one of his luxurious mansions nearly $7 billion richer, after Amazon stock rose more than 8 percent as a result of a strong third quarter earnings report released Thursday. Over the course of trading Friday, Amazon’s stock value continued to rise, finishing roughly 13 percent higher than the day before, propelling Bezos’ wealth by $10.4 billion and making him the world’s richest person. His net worth now stands at $93.8 billion, a solid $5.1 billion ahead of Bill Gates. The grotesque enrichment of capitalists such as Bezos expresses the profoundly unequal character of the capitalist system. While Bezos “earned” nearly $7 billion practically in his sleep, tens of thousands of Amazon warehouse workers around the world assigned to graveyard shifts labored under sweatshop conditions, gearing up for the “peak season” of high volume sales during the upcoming holidays. It would take the average Amazon warehouse worker in the US earning $12 per hour roughly 416,667 years to earn as much money as Bezos did in less than 24 hours. Or, to put if differently, Bezos reportedly made more money in a single day than his entire global warehouse workforce of over 300,000 employees earns in a year. In a rational society organized along socialist principles, the wealth funneled to Bezos would instead be put to use for the benefit of society as a whole. With $10.4 billion, clean water and sanitation could be provided to the entire world’s population, roughly 40 percent of which lacks access to these basic human necessities. The real source of Bezos’ wealth stems from exploiting the labor of his workers, who are currently facing intense speed-up and exploitation as Amazon begins stocking up its warehouses prior to the Cyber Monday and Christmas holidays. The company is engaged in a hiring frenzy of thousands of part-time and temporary workers, many of whom will be fired around the start of the new year.
Last week, Dean Baker (COUNTERPUNCH) observed: The United States pays more than twice as much per person for health care as other wealthy countries. We tend to blame the high prices on things like drugs and medical equipment, in part because the price tag for many life-saving drugs is less than half the U.S. price in Canada or Europe. But an unavoidable part of the high cost of U.S. health care is how much we pay doctors — twice as much on average as physicians in other wealthy countries. Because our doctors are paid, on average, more than $250,000 a year (even after malpractice insurance and other expenses), and more than 900,000 doctors in the country, that means we pay an extra $100 billion a year in doctor salaries. That works out to more than $700 per U.S. household per year. We can think of this as a kind of doctors’ tax. Doctors and other highly paid professionals stand out in this respect. Our autoworkers and retail clerks do not in general earn more than their counterparts in other wealthy countries.
We're in the period where the center cannot hold, to quote Yeats.
Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, "Ava" started out this site as five students enrolled in journalism in NY. Now? We're still students. We're in CA. Journalism? The majority scoffs at the notion.
From the start, at the very start, C.I. of The Common Ills has helped with the writing here. C.I.'s part of our core six/gang. (C.I. and Ava write the TV commentaries by themselves.) So that's the six of us. We also credit Dallas as our link locator, soundboard and much more. We try to remember to thank him each week (don't always remember to note it here) but we'll note him in this. So this is a site by the gang/core six: Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. (of The Common Ills).
