Incredibly sad & horrid news sir. Your writing is fabulous, Lucian & I thank you for your work.
And as I've been watching national news, waiting for the latest mass murderer to find his end by his own hand, this aged hippie asks: how DO we get an assault weapon ban?
Does anyone think we can, with the stacked courts & so many folks of influence selling their souls? Hard to have any hope.
Lucian, is it possible that you could do a future article directing people like me to the best organizations to volunteer to for gun control. Perhaps I'm kidding myself but change has to begin with action, and I need something to do with my hands and even a tiny bit of spare time.
In the past I've driven people to polls. This year I'm resolving to do it again for the 2024 election. It's not much money to rent a 10 passenger van. Call my local party's office, collect fellow minded voters. Buy a few burgers & get the vote out. Start there I guess, beats doing nothing....
The last time I posted a reply I was totally struck by how many people were encouraging me to continue speaking up.
Love & peace, hoping for more in our future. Take care people.
Corky, what you are doing is monumental. I do similar things to beef up the vote, and if everyone did a bit, you know, just what they can, there would be a whole lot more people voting. A voting snowball, if you will.
OK I have as a creative person long dealt with low levels of intermittent depression that I can work my way out of with my photography and some travel and some recreational weed. But this year? I have never felt this hopeless and angry. I think it was the election of that Cristo fascist to run the house that really finished me. Have you read what that man stands for? I didn’t realize he was the deranged human who suggested that women were aborting babies as they were being born. He thinks Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Then there is the Koch org working behind the scenes. They’ve already packed the Supreme Court under Trump and there are some very important cases coming up. And the upcoming elections. You can see how the media has been really bought and paid for by dark money because no matter what he does Biden is portrayed as a doddering old man. The latest figures on job growth just fall on deaf editors.
So I got to ask, does anyone see anything besides the death of democracy the death of Israel the death of all civilization coming our way? It’s not even going to matter when Trump is gone and he will be. I think that the criminal and financial and election cases are going to closing on him I think even he knows that he looks absolutely fried. Fani in particular has him nailed. But it was his influence that put Johnson in the speaker position and I can’t think of anybody worse. So am I the only one? Does anybody see a scenario that’s gonna work out by 2024?
Please convince me we are not doomed. I was thinking once the GOP is fully in charge and they’ve killed Social Security and Medicare well, then I’m gone. There’s no other reason for me to be in America but where else is there to go anymore? And I sure don’t have the funds to Expat like a king.
Looking way back, I think Eisenhower's biggest mistake was letting that Baptist evangelist Billy Graham into the White House. It gave legitimacy to all their primitive thinking and beliefs. I'm now 81 and I remember asking my father what the heck a Baptist was. He told me it was a Southern religion for poor, ignorant people. I never knowingly met a Baptist until I was in the military, and they were all Southerners. Now they are running the House and a lot of the Senate. Where does the South begin? 10 miles N,S,E, or W of any urban area of more than 200,000 people.
And compared to his hideous son, Graham was a decent human being. But a Cristo fascist like Johnson has just corrupted and distorted. Any kind of serious religious belief. However I think Reagan really started the country going to hell by taxing Social Security, and making sure rich people weren’t paying their share. You can draw a line from before Reagan, and after where the money all started going way up to the top. Normal working people can’t afford to live anymore, which is what’s created all the resentment and disenchanted anger that was capitalized on so perfectly by Donny boy and the forces driving him. It’s all big money now.
Tom Skerritt's great line about Methodists, "Baptists that can read." From the movie, "A River Ran Through It." My recovering Baptist wife and I laughed for quite a while over that one. You need to see the movie to appreciate the context.
The Catholic Church has done as much or maybe even more harm than the Baptist. We need to get all religion out of politics. Churches are using their money to get certain people elected instead of for humanitarian causes. TAX the Churches!!! Separation of church and state must be enforced. I was raised Baptist therefore I am no longer religious at all. Any church that doesn’t want members to question their beliefs and actions is dangerous to humankind.
That would almost make this a clash, of a religious influence? war? I'm curious, what are you referring to that the Catholic Church has done? Are you referring to political maneuvers?
Where does the South begin? 10 miles N,S,E, or W of any urban area of more than 200,000 people. lmrao.
My fav Max Headroom moments from those folk are, the unborn and the reborn aka born again. And last but not least, the undead aka Lazarus Effect or the Resurrection. Which segues to:
Another tell of their whereabouts are the high number of teevee and print ads for incest attorneys. The religious right's version of ambulance chasers?
Yet another is some of their schools of higher and highest education, 4e.g. Billie Bob's Radiator & Banjo Repair and Beau Bo's Cesspool Pumping Technical School.
FTR: The old and new old South traitors lost its last US Army Base, Fort Gordon to Fort Eisenhower. Makes it 9 fer 9. The To Do List ain't finished. Next up schools, roadways, etc.
If only more people could get it through their heads that Baptist vs. Catholic doesn't matter -- as feminist theologian Mary Daly wrote decades ago, patriarchy is the religion of the planet and Baptist, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, etc., are its denominations.
AJ, Some say this will hand the election to the democrats. I am betting on that. Everything you say is true. But as long as we are alive, all of us here on this forum and other progressive forums, democracy will not die. I am only 74 and in very good health. I live in India. I was married for 25 years to an Indian man. He left and I decided to stay in India where I DO live like an expat queen. It’s not an easy life, but I feel safe here and walk my dog without worrying if some maniac is going to shoot me. OMG.
I sincerely hope that there’s going to be a serious backlash. And I hope that the fight for democracy doesn’t end here but because of how much the game is being rigged,I just don’t feel optimistic. I wish I did. Good for you that you’ve made a life for yourself outside of this country right now. I think about it but I’m not really free to do it at least before 2024 elections
I think many, including myself are experiencing a dark fugue of hopelessness. I often consider leaving and will if it gets much worse. Between millions of seriously unstable gun owners, Trump. the Cristo-Fascist and our Supreme Court, it's hard to believe they will lose when they have already gamed the system against half of the population. I look for hope wherever I can find it but it's getting more difficult. How is it possible that so many Americans actually want a malevolent dictator as their leader?
Thanks for this column. We live in a nation that not only kills its own children but one in which it's harder to buy Sudafed than it is to purchase an AR-15.
Terrifying information. The world is raging, and the US as sanctuary is a joke. I think I’ll pull the covers over my head AFTER I scream VOTE BLUE for the next several months. It might give one some solace to be rid of the smiling snake who is the new Speaker of the House. God help us all (if she’s even listening!)
On another Substack newsletter to which I subscribe, JFK Facts by Jefferson Morley, who has been a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit to force the rest of the thousands of JFK assassination records to be released, with any and all redactions explained by the redacting gov't agencies (essentially that's the CIA and FBI), with the proviso they must follow the enabling legislation's mandate: the burden of proof is ON THEM to show why a document should be withheld almost sixty years after 11/22/1963, NOT on concerned citizens to show why they should be released, only an hour or so ago I had to refute someone - trolling, by the looks of it - who posted what turned out to be some book "blaming International Zionism" for JFK's murder, in effect -
if you click on the link and scroll down you'll see it, the poster simply mentioned a title and an author, "The Unspoken Kennedy Truth," by Laurent Guyenot, googling that quickly led to:
Full Description
"Who cares who killed Kennedy? Plenty of people die all the time!" once scoffed Noam Chomsky.
Americans and people around the world should care about who killed JFK, but also his brother, and possibly his son. The Kennedys are important not for who they were as individuals, or even as a clan, but for what America lost when she was deprived of their leadership, again and again. The Kennedys are important because a rational, comparative study of their murders reveals the ugly truth behind the smoke screen of the "Kennedy curse," and exposes the deep power that has enslaved America ever since.
Content:
1. RFK'S False-Flag Assassination
2. JFK and the Samson Option
3. LBJ, Israel's Best Friend
4. Jack Ruby, Gangster for Zion
5. Jim Angleton, Mossad's CIA Asset
6. Joe, the Cursed Peacemaker
7. JFK Jr., the Slain Prince
8. Forrestal, Kennedy's Foreshadow
9. The Coup that Enslaved America
***** Since I was in a seminar years ago taught in part by Noam Chomsky, while he and Edward Hermann were finishing Manufacturing Consent, and each graduate student allowed in the course was able to spend 30 minutes in a private conference with Chomsky, I was able to rebut that quote directly, since the very first question I asked him - with my advisor, philosophy prof. John Dolan observing as well - about what he knew specifically about the connections in the JFK assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald, and 544 Camp Street in New Orleans (google that and you'll find enough to keep you reading until after the 2024 national elections!), so of course he WAS aware of it, and far from "scoffing" at the assassination tragedy, simply has stuck with his central theory in this instance: that JFK was a cold warrior, albeit with less bellicose rhetoric, and his removal from office did not change anything essential about what was about to take place in Vietnam, for example.
Anyway, yes: those %$#@!s are all over the interwebs, it's damned concerning.
I have been ready and willing to fight for this Democracy, and that will never change.
There has been another seriously dangerous moment in our Country's history, yet here we are. I know I am not alone. It is worth fighting for our freedom and the preservation of the Union. There are always going to be those who would take it away. It is our responsibility as citizens to do what we can to protect it.
Lucian, your absolutely necessary reminder of the slaughter taking place around the world is like a hand around my windpipe. Your commenters Margo Howard and Beth Meredith say it plainly: it's what humans do to each other. In one of Jared Diamond's books (Guns, Germs, and Steel?) he tells of being an extremely rare westerner in a section of Borneo? New Guinea? traveling with a guide. Another person native to the region, approaches from the opposite direction. Diamond's guide and the other man have an animated conversation. Diamond can pick up enough of the conversation to understand it is about family. When he and guide again are on the move, he asks what it was about. The guide replies that he and the stranger were trying to find out if they were related, however distantly. If not, they would have had to fight each other, perhaps to the death. A veneer of American "civilization" (a/k/a "exceptionalism") and an AR-15 means a guy can dispense with such possibly exculpatory "small talk."
And now the Speaker of the House of Representatives is an "uber-Christian," which is an only-slightly sanitized 2020's version of the 1930's belief in ubermensch (apologies for lack of an umlaut).
The world coming apart at the seams? Your readers who love Hitchcock will remember the horrified look on fascist (Nazi)-agent Norman Lloyd's face as the shoulder seam of his jacket tears through, leaving hero Robert Cummings holding an empty sleeve, as Lloyd falls to his death from the Statue of Liberty in the movie "Saboteur." *There's* a word -- saboteur -- which should be applied to all of the Trumpublicans who deny that the 2020 American election was fair and true.
We get to click a heart symbol that illuminates red. I wish we could choose to click a different heart symbol, a blue one with a blue tear coming out of it.
Seventeen-disc set includes Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt, Rope, Rear Window, The Trouble with Harry,The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy, Family Plot, plus seven episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and three episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, documentaries, interviews, screen tests, and more. Standard/Widescreen; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English (SDH), Spanish, French; documentaries; interviews; storyboards; theatrical trailers; screen tests; newsreel footage; more.
Hitchcock stated that Shadow of a Doubt, featuring Theresa Wright and Joseph Cotten,
was his favorite of all the films he directed:
Shadow of a Doubt is a 1943 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. Written by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, and Alma Reville, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story for Gordon McDonell. *****
I will add one more editorial comment / "alert": for all the sheer suspense and shock of all his other films, Frenzy goes into territory even adults in our age cohort should be aware is extremely hard to take, even by current, 2023 film standards. It's psychologically brilliant in many ways even so ("Master of Suspense" is no empty summary!), but consider that before watching if you've never seen it, the entire set is easily worth the $$ to film lovers, with or without Frenzy, by maybe researching the plot or some reviews first.
I got here an hour later than you, but like yours my mind immediately went to music, starting with "Eve of Destruction" and "Merry Minuet." I'm adding "I Remember Everything" to the playlist.
"The world is coming apart at the seams." And I would add, hanging by a thread. Because this country has no exclusive on death and destruction, I've come to accept it is built into humanity. It is, of course, cuckoo - or in some cases, coup-coup. As for "Hope being the thing with feathers," I've accepted that hope is for the birds.
Thanks Lucian for shining a light on all of this. Currently, there are more than 100 armed conflicts that are being tracked today. The world is indeed a mess. The NYT and other media outlets focus on wars that involve those with "western values" effectively dehumanizing most of the rest of the world. The Israel, Gaza conflict is pretty supportive of this fact. Check it out here. https://geneva-academy.ch/galleries/today-s-armed-conflicts
Timely reminder of how uncivilized many truly are. Excellent piece, Lucian.
Hooman history is replete with glorification and romanization of male v. male conflicts not limited to war. Can't change how males act out unless and until males change how and what they think. Literally want to throw up when Pence quotes Reagan's peace through strength BS.
Whadafuq do I know being that am a male merciless savage compared to St. Reagan of Borax?
Is there any way the US can help the civilians with food, shelter, through the UN? Wouldn't helping these countries with their basic needs make them less vulnerable to these sorts of military onslaught? (my own ignorance astounds me)
There are numerous aid organizations that are worthy of our support but the needs are greater than can be met. Climate change and wars have displaced more people than the organizations can take care of. The grain from Ukraine helped many countries but Putin is not allowing shipments to leave port. Mankind is allowing greed and lust for power to destroy our world. Our only World. The money spent on wars should be spent on improving the lives of humans worldwide. Willful ignorance plays a big part in this scenario.
So many people depended on grain from Ukraine. When, if ever, will people learn that keeping everyone well fed, and in at least basic housing, would protect us all from the consequences of malnourishment, disease, and lack of education.
Where do all the billions of dollars in aid go?? Nothing ever seems to be improving in the countries that receive our aid...Afghanistan for instance, Iraq for instance - both countries are worse off than they were before out 'wars'. The money just evaporates??
Incredibly sad & horrid news sir. Your writing is fabulous, Lucian & I thank you for your work.
And as I've been watching national news, waiting for the latest mass murderer to find his end by his own hand, this aged hippie asks: how DO we get an assault weapon ban?
Does anyone think we can, with the stacked courts & so many folks of influence selling their souls? Hard to have any hope.
Lucian, is it possible that you could do a future article directing people like me to the best organizations to volunteer to for gun control. Perhaps I'm kidding myself but change has to begin with action, and I need something to do with my hands and even a tiny bit of spare time.
In the past I've driven people to polls. This year I'm resolving to do it again for the 2024 election. It's not much money to rent a 10 passenger van. Call my local party's office, collect fellow minded voters. Buy a few burgers & get the vote out. Start there I guess, beats doing nothing....
The last time I posted a reply I was totally struck by how many people were encouraging me to continue speaking up.
Love & peace, hoping for more in our future. Take care people.
Corky in KC
What a wonderful idea! It is as you say doing something beside wring our hands and crying “woe is me!” Thank you.
Excellent actions for democracy!! Thank You, Corky!!
Corky, what you are doing is monumental. I do similar things to beef up the vote, and if everyone did a bit, you know, just what they can, there would be a whole lot more people voting. A voting snowball, if you will.
Keep up the good work, compadre.
OK I have as a creative person long dealt with low levels of intermittent depression that I can work my way out of with my photography and some travel and some recreational weed. But this year? I have never felt this hopeless and angry. I think it was the election of that Cristo fascist to run the house that really finished me. Have you read what that man stands for? I didn’t realize he was the deranged human who suggested that women were aborting babies as they were being born. He thinks Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Then there is the Koch org working behind the scenes. They’ve already packed the Supreme Court under Trump and there are some very important cases coming up. And the upcoming elections. You can see how the media has been really bought and paid for by dark money because no matter what he does Biden is portrayed as a doddering old man. The latest figures on job growth just fall on deaf editors.
So I got to ask, does anyone see anything besides the death of democracy the death of Israel the death of all civilization coming our way? It’s not even going to matter when Trump is gone and he will be. I think that the criminal and financial and election cases are going to closing on him I think even he knows that he looks absolutely fried. Fani in particular has him nailed. But it was his influence that put Johnson in the speaker position and I can’t think of anybody worse. So am I the only one? Does anybody see a scenario that’s gonna work out by 2024?
Please convince me we are not doomed. I was thinking once the GOP is fully in charge and they’ve killed Social Security and Medicare well, then I’m gone. There’s no other reason for me to be in America but where else is there to go anymore? And I sure don’t have the funds to Expat like a king.
Looking way back, I think Eisenhower's biggest mistake was letting that Baptist evangelist Billy Graham into the White House. It gave legitimacy to all their primitive thinking and beliefs. I'm now 81 and I remember asking my father what the heck a Baptist was. He told me it was a Southern religion for poor, ignorant people. I never knowingly met a Baptist until I was in the military, and they were all Southerners. Now they are running the House and a lot of the Senate. Where does the South begin? 10 miles N,S,E, or W of any urban area of more than 200,000 people.
And compared to his hideous son, Graham was a decent human being. But a Cristo fascist like Johnson has just corrupted and distorted. Any kind of serious religious belief. However I think Reagan really started the country going to hell by taxing Social Security, and making sure rich people weren’t paying their share. You can draw a line from before Reagan, and after where the money all started going way up to the top. Normal working people can’t afford to live anymore, which is what’s created all the resentment and disenchanted anger that was capitalized on so perfectly by Donny boy and the forces driving him. It’s all big money now.
Graham the younger is the worst!!!
And yet they've convinced the angry white male and their ilk, that poor people and Democrats are the problem. OMG!
Tom Skerritt's great line about Methodists, "Baptists that can read." From the movie, "A River Ran Through It." My recovering Baptist wife and I laughed for quite a while over that one. You need to see the movie to appreciate the context.
The Catholic Church has done as much or maybe even more harm than the Baptist. We need to get all religion out of politics. Churches are using their money to get certain people elected instead of for humanitarian causes. TAX the Churches!!! Separation of church and state must be enforced. I was raised Baptist therefore I am no longer religious at all. Any church that doesn’t want members to question their beliefs and actions is dangerous to humankind.
That would almost make this a clash, of a religious influence? war? I'm curious, what are you referring to that the Catholic Church has done? Are you referring to political maneuvers?
Baptist terrorists
Where does the South begin? 10 miles N,S,E, or W of any urban area of more than 200,000 people. lmrao.
My fav Max Headroom moments from those folk are, the unborn and the reborn aka born again. And last but not least, the undead aka Lazarus Effect or the Resurrection. Which segues to:
Another tell of their whereabouts are the high number of teevee and print ads for incest attorneys. The religious right's version of ambulance chasers?
Yet another is some of their schools of higher and highest education, 4e.g. Billie Bob's Radiator & Banjo Repair and Beau Bo's Cesspool Pumping Technical School.
FTR: The old and new old South traitors lost its last US Army Base, Fort Gordon to Fort Eisenhower. Makes it 9 fer 9. The To Do List ain't finished. Next up schools, roadways, etc.
If only more people could get it through their heads that Baptist vs. Catholic doesn't matter -- as feminist theologian Mary Daly wrote decades ago, patriarchy is the religion of the planet and Baptist, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, etc., are its denominations.
AJ, Some say this will hand the election to the democrats. I am betting on that. Everything you say is true. But as long as we are alive, all of us here on this forum and other progressive forums, democracy will not die. I am only 74 and in very good health. I live in India. I was married for 25 years to an Indian man. He left and I decided to stay in India where I DO live like an expat queen. It’s not an easy life, but I feel safe here and walk my dog without worrying if some maniac is going to shoot me. OMG.
I sincerely hope that there’s going to be a serious backlash. And I hope that the fight for democracy doesn’t end here but because of how much the game is being rigged,I just don’t feel optimistic. I wish I did. Good for you that you’ve made a life for yourself outside of this country right now. I think about it but I’m not really free to do it at least before 2024 elections
Keep me posted if you like. Expat life is another universe.
I think many, including myself are experiencing a dark fugue of hopelessness. I often consider leaving and will if it gets much worse. Between millions of seriously unstable gun owners, Trump. the Cristo-Fascist and our Supreme Court, it's hard to believe they will lose when they have already gamed the system against half of the population. I look for hope wherever I can find it but it's getting more difficult. How is it possible that so many Americans actually want a malevolent dictator as their leader?
They live in Mythicalville
One foot in front of the other, kid. Keep walking.
Yes, and love each other the best we can.
Thanks for this column. We live in a nation that not only kills its own children but one in which it's harder to buy Sudafed than it is to purchase an AR-15.
That last sentence was sure a doozy and so true!
Terrifying information. The world is raging, and the US as sanctuary is a joke. I think I’ll pull the covers over my head AFTER I scream VOTE BLUE for the next several months. It might give one some solace to be rid of the smiling snake who is the new Speaker of the House. God help us all (if she’s even listening!)
I am speechless.
These days, I swear that it only “counts” if it can be blamed on Jews. I am simultaneously heartbroken and ready, at my age, to fight.
On another Substack newsletter to which I subscribe, JFK Facts by Jefferson Morley, who has been a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit to force the rest of the thousands of JFK assassination records to be released, with any and all redactions explained by the redacting gov't agencies (essentially that's the CIA and FBI), with the proviso they must follow the enabling legislation's mandate: the burden of proof is ON THEM to show why a document should be withheld almost sixty years after 11/22/1963, NOT on concerned citizens to show why they should be released, only an hour or so ago I had to refute someone - trolling, by the looks of it - who posted what turned out to be some book "blaming International Zionism" for JFK's murder, in effect -
if you click on the link and scroll down you'll see it, the poster simply mentioned a title and an author, "The Unspoken Kennedy Truth," by Laurent Guyenot, googling that quickly led to:
Full Description
"Who cares who killed Kennedy? Plenty of people die all the time!" once scoffed Noam Chomsky.
Americans and people around the world should care about who killed JFK, but also his brother, and possibly his son. The Kennedys are important not for who they were as individuals, or even as a clan, but for what America lost when she was deprived of their leadership, again and again. The Kennedys are important because a rational, comparative study of their murders reveals the ugly truth behind the smoke screen of the "Kennedy curse," and exposes the deep power that has enslaved America ever since.
Content:
1. RFK'S False-Flag Assassination
2. JFK and the Samson Option
3. LBJ, Israel's Best Friend
4. Jack Ruby, Gangster for Zion
5. Jim Angleton, Mossad's CIA Asset
6. Joe, the Cursed Peacemaker
7. JFK Jr., the Slain Prince
8. Forrestal, Kennedy's Foreshadow
9. The Coup that Enslaved America
***** Since I was in a seminar years ago taught in part by Noam Chomsky, while he and Edward Hermann were finishing Manufacturing Consent, and each graduate student allowed in the course was able to spend 30 minutes in a private conference with Chomsky, I was able to rebut that quote directly, since the very first question I asked him - with my advisor, philosophy prof. John Dolan observing as well - about what he knew specifically about the connections in the JFK assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald, and 544 Camp Street in New Orleans (google that and you'll find enough to keep you reading until after the 2024 national elections!), so of course he WAS aware of it, and far from "scoffing" at the assassination tragedy, simply has stuck with his central theory in this instance: that JFK was a cold warrior, albeit with less bellicose rhetoric, and his removal from office did not change anything essential about what was about to take place in Vietnam, for example.
Anyway, yes: those %$#@!s are all over the interwebs, it's damned concerning.
https://jfkfacts.substack.com/p/david-mamets-coming-jfk-film-stokes/comments#comment-42608107
I have been ready and willing to fight for this Democracy, and that will never change.
There has been another seriously dangerous moment in our Country's history, yet here we are. I know I am not alone. It is worth fighting for our freedom and the preservation of the Union. There are always going to be those who would take it away. It is our responsibility as citizens to do what we can to protect it.
Lucian, your absolutely necessary reminder of the slaughter taking place around the world is like a hand around my windpipe. Your commenters Margo Howard and Beth Meredith say it plainly: it's what humans do to each other. In one of Jared Diamond's books (Guns, Germs, and Steel?) he tells of being an extremely rare westerner in a section of Borneo? New Guinea? traveling with a guide. Another person native to the region, approaches from the opposite direction. Diamond's guide and the other man have an animated conversation. Diamond can pick up enough of the conversation to understand it is about family. When he and guide again are on the move, he asks what it was about. The guide replies that he and the stranger were trying to find out if they were related, however distantly. If not, they would have had to fight each other, perhaps to the death. A veneer of American "civilization" (a/k/a "exceptionalism") and an AR-15 means a guy can dispense with such possibly exculpatory "small talk."
And now the Speaker of the House of Representatives is an "uber-Christian," which is an only-slightly sanitized 2020's version of the 1930's belief in ubermensch (apologies for lack of an umlaut).
The world coming apart at the seams? Your readers who love Hitchcock will remember the horrified look on fascist (Nazi)-agent Norman Lloyd's face as the shoulder seam of his jacket tears through, leaving hero Robert Cummings holding an empty sleeve, as Lloyd falls to his death from the Statue of Liberty in the movie "Saboteur." *There's* a word -- saboteur -- which should be applied to all of the Trumpublicans who deny that the 2020 American election was fair and true.
Saboteurs indeed.
We get to click a heart symbol that illuminates red. I wish we could choose to click a different heart symbol, a blue one with a blue tear coming out of it.
I agree that a blue heart would fit the news and information we receive better.
You can see the film via this route, new and used collections listed:
https://www.google.com/search?channel=ftr&client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Hitchcock+The+Ultimate+Collection
Product details
Seventeen-disc set includes Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt, Rope, Rear Window, The Trouble with Harry,The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy, Family Plot, plus seven episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and three episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, documentaries, interviews, screen tests, and more. Standard/Widescreen; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English (SDH), Spanish, French; documentaries; interviews; storyboards; theatrical trailers; screen tests; newsreel footage; more.
Hitchcock stated that Shadow of a Doubt, featuring Theresa Wright and Joseph Cotten,
was his favorite of all the films he directed:
Shadow of a Doubt is a 1943 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. Written by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, and Alma Reville, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story for Gordon McDonell. *****
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_of_a_Doubt
I will add one more editorial comment / "alert": for all the sheer suspense and shock of all his other films, Frenzy goes into territory even adults in our age cohort should be aware is extremely hard to take, even by current, 2023 film standards. It's psychologically brilliant in many ways even so ("Master of Suspense" is no empty summary!), but consider that before watching if you've never seen it, the entire set is easily worth the $$ to film lovers, with or without Frenzy, by maybe researching the plot or some reviews first.
I have no comment except 🤯🤯🤯🤯. That’s how I’m feeling every day.
I was going to go into a long post about everything and then I just said to hell with it. So here's some John Prine.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L21Tc_DtL6M&ab_channel=JohnPrine
I got here an hour later than you, but like yours my mind immediately went to music, starting with "Eve of Destruction" and "Merry Minuet." I'm adding "I Remember Everything" to the playlist.
Thanks! John Prine, better than kittens.
Love me some John Prine, and I absolutely love this song
"The world is coming apart at the seams." And I would add, hanging by a thread. Because this country has no exclusive on death and destruction, I've come to accept it is built into humanity. It is, of course, cuckoo - or in some cases, coup-coup. As for "Hope being the thing with feathers," I've accepted that hope is for the birds.
War is money.
This has been the bain of
my understanding of life
You, Luc understand that.
Years, a lifetime of watching, no way out
My tired old bones sure do agree with you, Nat.
The truth is we are actually the red planet. We’ve always been. Young men and old men looking for the next reason to fight and finding it.
Will we always be? Looks like it.
Thanks Lucian for shining a light on all of this. Currently, there are more than 100 armed conflicts that are being tracked today. The world is indeed a mess. The NYT and other media outlets focus on wars that involve those with "western values" effectively dehumanizing most of the rest of the world. The Israel, Gaza conflict is pretty supportive of this fact. Check it out here. https://geneva-academy.ch/galleries/today-s-armed-conflicts
I have not even read the article yet, but coming from any other source I would think Huge Grain of Salt.
Timely reminder of how uncivilized many truly are. Excellent piece, Lucian.
Hooman history is replete with glorification and romanization of male v. male conflicts not limited to war. Can't change how males act out unless and until males change how and what they think. Literally want to throw up when Pence quotes Reagan's peace through strength BS.
Whadafuq do I know being that am a male merciless savage compared to St. Reagan of Borax?
Is there any way the US can help the civilians with food, shelter, through the UN? Wouldn't helping these countries with their basic needs make them less vulnerable to these sorts of military onslaught? (my own ignorance astounds me)
There are numerous aid organizations that are worthy of our support but the needs are greater than can be met. Climate change and wars have displaced more people than the organizations can take care of. The grain from Ukraine helped many countries but Putin is not allowing shipments to leave port. Mankind is allowing greed and lust for power to destroy our world. Our only World. The money spent on wars should be spent on improving the lives of humans worldwide. Willful ignorance plays a big part in this scenario.
So many people depended on grain from Ukraine. When, if ever, will people learn that keeping everyone well fed, and in at least basic housing, would protect us all from the consequences of malnourishment, disease, and lack of education.
And war for that matter, too, maybe!
Where do all the billions of dollars in aid go?? Nothing ever seems to be improving in the countries that receive our aid...Afghanistan for instance, Iraq for instance - both countries are worse off than they were before out 'wars'. The money just evaporates??