From the collapse of the celebrity endorsement to the collapse of abortion as a federal issue followed up by a helping of cabinet picks, come sit a spell.
As far as the NYT video goes, it's of a group of people who are in denial about their own irrelevance. This election was the confirming death knell of legacy media, who went to great lengths to display how out of touch with society and reality they have become during the past few election cycles; and this video is further evidence. Being the last bastion of genuine journalism standards, it's Substack's world now.
Eating a slice of humble pie isn't a bad idea every once in a while. It may look unappealing at first, but you never really regret it. Instead the NYT just had to double down again.
I agree. Who pays any attention to the vaporings of these paranoid yuppies other than those who have the same delusions about Trump? They believe he has some sort of magical powers that can bypass the Constitutional restrictions on his office and become a neo-Mussolini.
It is true that the Presidency, for quite a while, has been accruing more power that's exercised through executive orders, and this has led the Biden administration to undo Trump's orders, as Trump will undo Biden's, in a twisted sort of tit-for-tat, but, being a MAGA/MAHA sort of guy, I'm all for Trump doing that, especially since he may well be followed by a Gabbard or a Vance or a Kennedy or a Ramaswamy administration who won't undo any of his EOs.
Trump's tendencies are to create more liberty by defending our First Amendment rights, considering what he's said about stopping the disinformation bureaucracy and its devious recruitment of NGOs, which has these dorks' knickers in a twist. He must be familiar with Taibbi and Schellenberger's Twitter Files, which exposed collusion between Biden administration officials and Facebook, Twitter, and other social media executives. In an address that was aired in March of last year, he said, "We will launch a major crackdown on government leakers who collude with the fake news to deliberately weave false narratives and to subvert our government and our democracy [. . . .] When possible, we will press criminal charges."
You're a retired former English teacher. So is my mother. I'll have to watch the typos more, though Libertarian usually keeps me in line.
Anyway I checked your page to see who you read to make sure I was sharing something you didn't already know about. But SimulationCommander (a wonderful substack in general) shared a video from Trump outlining the steps he's going to take to combat censorship. It's worth a watch (https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/trump-fires-warning-shot-at-censorship).
Thanks for the link. That's the very video from which I got the quotation. Some of the propaganda wing of the DP are soiling themselves because they anticipate the sort of vengeful behavior that they would engage in if the sides were reversed. I believe in the long run the bad talking heads and the legacy media/MSM/dinosaur media/fake news outlets, whatever you want to call hem collectively, will die from lack of audience. I recently heard how much Madcow is payed for her one-day-a-week screed, an obscene 30 million/year. This cannot be sustainable unless really rich patrons keep creeps like her afloat.
BTW, I never police other people's writing or point out anyone's errors unless they're funny or I'm sniping at a political enemy. That habit is a bad rap we English teachers/professors get all the time. "Oh goodness. you're an English teacher. I'd better watch my grammar, tee hee." I find it odd that it usually came from women I was hitting on, back when I was in the habit of doing so.
I used to teach English at the college and edit books for a living. I'm also the queen of the typo. So while I notice, I don't usually point it out, though some things make me nuts, like "irregardless" or "impactful."
We all have our peculiar irritants. There's always "writting," a misspelling I must have seen hundreds of times over the years. "Impactful" reeks of business-speak. My latest howler is the pronunciation of "fentanyl" as "fentanal." Maybe I should spell that last one "fentanawl" to avoid crude comments from other Shane Gillis fans.
I remember the one that flabbergasted me so badly it took me a minute or so to figure out what was going on. A student had written something like “My hands our hurting.” I was befuddled until I realized that most people where I live pronounce “are” and “our” the same.
I forgot about Ken Paxton. He’d be a good choice. Bringing Michael Flynn back, wouldn’t that be the ultimate middle finger? I’ve heard that RFK is going to be in charge of whatever agency supervises the NIH, CDC, and FDA, or they’re going to create a position for him. I also would have loved or would love to see him in charge of the CIA. That would be karma. You’re right that Vivek would also be a good choice of Secretary of State, for similar reasons as Tulsi. He’s not going to promise our “friends” we’ll come riding to their rescue if they start something.
And Jamie Dimon is pretty interesting. He'd probably have to take a steep pay cut and, historically, it doesn't seem like the pressure to succeed is anywhere near as great. Maybe...
I think people are impressed with his relatively grounded take on Trump earlier this year (?). But as Secretary of the Treasury, I won't argue with you.
At one time not too distant I was consumed with Hollywood & the movies & the award shows & the fashion, etc. They have destroyed one of my favorite pastimes & I cannot forgive them. Thank goodness there are still a few celebrities who have enough sense to stay out of the fray but still it’s difficult to find something to watch now. I go for the foreign mostly now & ‘60s ‘70s films although I did recently watched Clickbait & Yellowjackets(yikes!) As for writing screenplays I find myself reluctant to proceed but proceed I will at some future time.
As for NYT they are at the bottom of the barrel along with 60 minutes & the rest of corporate war media. Their reputations soiled beyond cleansing.
Yet today I’m walking on sunshine unburdened by what has been the nightmare of last 4 years.
I think there are more people than I care to imagine, who are easily swayed by celebrity endorsements... up to a point. And we passed that point a while ago.
Crimson red state and legal weed: I live in western Colorado, which skews very conservative, and also has a long history of heavy cannabis usage. Sure, we have hippies, but we also have shit-kicking rednecks who don't care for other people meddling in their recreation.
Escapism: I just read "Very Bad Company" by Emma Rosenblum. I can't tell if it's a good book or not. Probably not, since I couldn't figure out the point of the story or who I should have been rooting for.
On Borderlands, I think most of that hate for that came from longstanding fans of the franchise watching an adaptation butcher their favorite IP, puppeteering their favorite characters in skinsuits that don't resemble their depictions or characterizations in-game and reducing a world with extensive worldbuilding and detailed storylines into something "colorful with things that go boom". Also, Jack Black is ever careening ever closer to being on Seth Rogan's level of comedy.
I’ve never cared a whole lot for Jack Black. I like a few things he’s done (like Jumanji and Goosebumps and Shallow Hal way back), but I mostly forego his films.
And I think you’re right on why people didn’t like the film, or at least one reason. It must be similar to why I have such a hard time with books that get turned into movies: they’re never as fully developed and the characters never come out quite the same way. I’ve heard the same thing about Resident Evil, and I really like that series, but then I never played the games.
Jack Black (political ministrations aside), like Will Ferrell, was funnier once upon a time. Maybe not funny, but a lot better than the anti-comedy patience tests they have moved towards becoming. At least with Kevin Hart he's just flat at his worst.
I think you kind of just have to accept that movies are only adaptations and that they have to make concessions in the sake of runtime. Gone With The Wind left so much depth out of the book when it was put on the big screen, but it's not like the film is light on length. The pacing of a novels and screenplays are not always in alignment. But still, sometimes films also find ways to work around those issues and still accentuate the spirit of the source material. Like with The Prestige, the author Christopher Priest lauded the film for the changes it made.
With Borderlands it's not that the adaptation was bad, but more so that the characters on screen were antithetical to who they were in game. The Jolie Tomb Raider movies and the Jovovich Resident Evil movies were more kitsch than anything else. The Resident Evil TV series however, did fall into the antithetically offensive category. If you haven't played the games, you might want to. All the entries from 2017 onwards (7-8, and remakes of 2-4) are pretty good entries into the franchise.
Did celebrity endorsements ever carry that much weight? It's not like they hadn't been skewing Democratic in 2016 and 2020. Should it be surprising that people who live in overwhelmingly Democratic locations vote Democratic? Is it in anyway unexpected that the singer of the platinum single "LUNCH" (go listen to it if you haven't already) reacted the way she did?
I think the most frustrating part of the celebrity endorsements is how vacuous and insipid they are. Variations of figures using their personal popularity as a reason to get people to vote one way, as opposed to using their popularity as a platform to articulate reasons to vote one candidate over the other. I don't think it's totally fair to characterize everyone in Hollywood as a total dolt. There's plenty of figures who are at least smart enough to not say anything. Because at least with Zachary Levi's endorsement he could actual detail his motivations and beliefs in extended conversations, standing in stark contrasts with some of more tired talking points other endorsements recycled at best.
"I were to avoid every actor or actress that prostituted themselves for the Democrat Party, I’d, well, have to watch nothing made much after—I don’t know—1970."
You have to separate the artist from their art.
Bruse Springsteen and Brian Cranston are on My List.
I gave up at Sam Elliot and Harrison Ford. I like their films too much to boycott them. So, yes, I’m learning that, though I sort of already knew it. I have literally no desire to ever meet any celebrity because I have a feeling in person they are all rather—what would be a good word?—unimpressive, maybe?
"Anyway, do you think celebrity endorsements have lost their power?"
No, largely because:
"...they never really mattered..." and that was certainly true for me. I liked some actors more than others not because of their politics, but how they comported themselves in the public eye.
"Was sending the abortion issue back to the states Trump’s most brilliant political move?"
No, it wasn't, because that wasn't his doing – rather, appointing constitutional originalists (mostly) was, however. They weren't nominated for the sole purpose of reversing Roe v Wade, but sooner rather than later, there was a challenge that made its way to SCOTUS that allowed the argument in favour of returning the question to each state to be made – which is consistent with the manner in which he operates. Love him or hate him, recognize that he's much like the late H. Ross Perot in this – he hires the right person, then leaves him alone to either get the job done or prove why he/she shouldn't have the job any longer.
Re: the Chris Bray (aside from DICK Cheney, is there a more apt surname?) video, the least cynical part of me is going with the first option...but if the last option turns out to be the reason, then we truly have become a banana republic (with apologies to genuine republics, wherever they may be...a parallel universe, maybe?). Along those same lines; once the EV mandate has been killed, the US is out of the Paris climate accord(s), the Keystone Pipeline has been revived, and the J6 political prisoners have all been either pardoned or their sentences commuted; as C-i-C, he needs to immediately relieve every flag officer of duty, strip them of their medals, revoke their security clearances, and charge them with treason. All should be tried by court martial, and if convicted, given the choice of death by public hanging, or firing squad.
"Notice how she didn’t really apologize for the comment."
Well, of course not.
"It’s only historic and laudable when it’s their side."
Exactly. Some day, Anna Wintour is going to be completely irrelevant even to her public of vacuous pinheads who leaf through the pages of that menstrual-blood-stained rag, Vogue (notice I did not say that they read it).
I concur with the view that every cabinet selection should the best possible person for the job who is NOT part of the swamp in any way, shape, or form. All I really want from his cabinet picks are folks who, if they are named to lead agencies slated for elimination (Education, ATF, IRS, FBI, CIA, et al.) that they are committed to that mission.
I agree. Trump didn't "plan" the abortion move so much as it was a natural outcome of a more conservative court, though vowing to leave it as a state issue was smart.
It's nice to see you. Are you working on anything?
And thank you for telling me about Mac of All Trades. I'm looking for a less expensive computer for my mother so she can sit at the kitchen table and play games and read whatever she wants to read, and it's nice to have the refurbished option.
As far as the NYT video goes, it's of a group of people who are in denial about their own irrelevance. This election was the confirming death knell of legacy media, who went to great lengths to display how out of touch with society and reality they have become during the past few election cycles; and this video is further evidence. Being the last bastion of genuine journalism standards, it's Substack's world now.
So you’re saying it’s a tempter tantrum, sort of. I can go with that. That’s actually comforting.
'Unfortunately our constant lying has placed us in a bind, which we will escape with yet more lying' (https://x.com/brianbeutler/status/1633115330955362313)
Eating a slice of humble pie isn't a bad idea every once in a while. It may look unappealing at first, but you never really regret it. Instead the NYT just had to double down again.
That is a very appropriate tweet.
I agree. Who pays any attention to the vaporings of these paranoid yuppies other than those who have the same delusions about Trump? They believe he has some sort of magical powers that can bypass the Constitutional restrictions on his office and become a neo-Mussolini.
It is true that the Presidency, for quite a while, has been accruing more power that's exercised through executive orders, and this has led the Biden administration to undo Trump's orders, as Trump will undo Biden's, in a twisted sort of tit-for-tat, but, being a MAGA/MAHA sort of guy, I'm all for Trump doing that, especially since he may well be followed by a Gabbard or a Vance or a Kennedy or a Ramaswamy administration who won't undo any of his EOs.
Trump's tendencies are to create more liberty by defending our First Amendment rights, considering what he's said about stopping the disinformation bureaucracy and its devious recruitment of NGOs, which has these dorks' knickers in a twist. He must be familiar with Taibbi and Schellenberger's Twitter Files, which exposed collusion between Biden administration officials and Facebook, Twitter, and other social media executives. In an address that was aired in March of last year, he said, "We will launch a major crackdown on government leakers who collude with the fake news to deliberately weave false narratives and to subvert our government and our democracy [. . . .] When possible, we will press criminal charges."
You're a retired former English teacher. So is my mother. I'll have to watch the typos more, though Libertarian usually keeps me in line.
Anyway I checked your page to see who you read to make sure I was sharing something you didn't already know about. But SimulationCommander (a wonderful substack in general) shared a video from Trump outlining the steps he's going to take to combat censorship. It's worth a watch (https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/trump-fires-warning-shot-at-censorship).
Thanks for the link. That's the very video from which I got the quotation. Some of the propaganda wing of the DP are soiling themselves because they anticipate the sort of vengeful behavior that they would engage in if the sides were reversed. I believe in the long run the bad talking heads and the legacy media/MSM/dinosaur media/fake news outlets, whatever you want to call hem collectively, will die from lack of audience. I recently heard how much Madcow is payed for her one-day-a-week screed, an obscene 30 million/year. This cannot be sustainable unless really rich patrons keep creeps like her afloat.
BTW, I never police other people's writing or point out anyone's errors unless they're funny or I'm sniping at a political enemy. That habit is a bad rap we English teachers/professors get all the time. "Oh goodness. you're an English teacher. I'd better watch my grammar, tee hee." I find it odd that it usually came from women I was hitting on, back when I was in the habit of doing so.
I used to teach English at the college and edit books for a living. I'm also the queen of the typo. So while I notice, I don't usually point it out, though some things make me nuts, like "irregardless" or "impactful."
We all have our peculiar irritants. There's always "writting," a misspelling I must have seen hundreds of times over the years. "Impactful" reeks of business-speak. My latest howler is the pronunciation of "fentanyl" as "fentanal." Maybe I should spell that last one "fentanawl" to avoid crude comments from other Shane Gillis fans.
I have actually never seen that misspelling.
I remember the one that flabbergasted me so badly it took me a minute or so to figure out what was going on. A student had written something like “My hands our hurting.” I was befuddled until I realized that most people where I live pronounce “are” and “our” the same.
"They might do their jobs slightly better than AI, but they’re just as artificial." Best line ever!
Thank you!
Secretary of State: Tulsi or Vivek
Attorney General Ken Paxton
HHS or CIA RFK Jr
Secretary of Defense Michael Flynn
Secretary of Interior: Doug Burgum
Secretary of Treasury: Jamie Dimon
I forgot about Ken Paxton. He’d be a good choice. Bringing Michael Flynn back, wouldn’t that be the ultimate middle finger? I’ve heard that RFK is going to be in charge of whatever agency supervises the NIH, CDC, and FDA, or they’re going to create a position for him. I also would have loved or would love to see him in charge of the CIA. That would be karma. You’re right that Vivek would also be a good choice of Secretary of State, for similar reasons as Tulsi. He’s not going to promise our “friends” we’ll come riding to their rescue if they start something.
"Bringing Michael Flynn back, wouldn’t that be the ultimate middle finger?"
Aw, man. That would be just like, maybe even better than, how he restarted the Butler Speech: "As I was saying..."
I like the Paxton and Flynn suggestions a lot.
And Jamie Dimon is pretty interesting. He'd probably have to take a steep pay cut and, historically, it doesn't seem like the pressure to succeed is anywhere near as great. Maybe...
Dimon's like Pompeo - two-faced when convenient. Hard pass.
I think people are impressed with his relatively grounded take on Trump earlier this year (?). But as Secretary of the Treasury, I won't argue with you.
Like Trump, Dimon doesn’t need the $$
Well he said no to Haley and Pompeo, so he's learned something from last time at least.
Also check out Joel Bowman’s “Cry me a Kimmel”.
Just the best😊
At one time not too distant I was consumed with Hollywood & the movies & the award shows & the fashion, etc. They have destroyed one of my favorite pastimes & I cannot forgive them. Thank goodness there are still a few celebrities who have enough sense to stay out of the fray but still it’s difficult to find something to watch now. I go for the foreign mostly now & ‘60s ‘70s films although I did recently watched Clickbait & Yellowjackets(yikes!) As for writing screenplays I find myself reluctant to proceed but proceed I will at some future time.
As for NYT they are at the bottom of the barrel along with 60 minutes & the rest of corporate war media. Their reputations soiled beyond cleansing.
Yet today I’m walking on sunshine unburdened by what has been the nightmare of last 4 years.
As Elon said at MSG:
The future is gonna be AH MAZ ING🤩🤩🤩
"They might do their jobs slightly better than AI"
*Homer voice* ... So Far
https://imgflip.com/i/99tfcv
I think there are more people than I care to imagine, who are easily swayed by celebrity endorsements... up to a point. And we passed that point a while ago.
Crimson red state and legal weed: I live in western Colorado, which skews very conservative, and also has a long history of heavy cannabis usage. Sure, we have hippies, but we also have shit-kicking rednecks who don't care for other people meddling in their recreation.
Escapism: I just read "Very Bad Company" by Emma Rosenblum. I can't tell if it's a good book or not. Probably not, since I couldn't figure out the point of the story or who I should have been rooting for.
I will have to look that book up. I’ve come across a few of those.
And I can’t imagine being swayed by a celebrity endorsement, but then I’m strange that way.
"...but then I’m strange that way."
No, you're not. That mindset puts you right in the middle of the bell curve.
On Borderlands, I think most of that hate for that came from longstanding fans of the franchise watching an adaptation butcher their favorite IP, puppeteering their favorite characters in skinsuits that don't resemble their depictions or characterizations in-game and reducing a world with extensive worldbuilding and detailed storylines into something "colorful with things that go boom". Also, Jack Black is ever careening ever closer to being on Seth Rogan's level of comedy.
I’ve never cared a whole lot for Jack Black. I like a few things he’s done (like Jumanji and Goosebumps and Shallow Hal way back), but I mostly forego his films.
And I think you’re right on why people didn’t like the film, or at least one reason. It must be similar to why I have such a hard time with books that get turned into movies: they’re never as fully developed and the characters never come out quite the same way. I’ve heard the same thing about Resident Evil, and I really like that series, but then I never played the games.
Jack Black (political ministrations aside), like Will Ferrell, was funnier once upon a time. Maybe not funny, but a lot better than the anti-comedy patience tests they have moved towards becoming. At least with Kevin Hart he's just flat at his worst.
I think you kind of just have to accept that movies are only adaptations and that they have to make concessions in the sake of runtime. Gone With The Wind left so much depth out of the book when it was put on the big screen, but it's not like the film is light on length. The pacing of a novels and screenplays are not always in alignment. But still, sometimes films also find ways to work around those issues and still accentuate the spirit of the source material. Like with The Prestige, the author Christopher Priest lauded the film for the changes it made.
With Borderlands it's not that the adaptation was bad, but more so that the characters on screen were antithetical to who they were in game. The Jolie Tomb Raider movies and the Jovovich Resident Evil movies were more kitsch than anything else. The Resident Evil TV series however, did fall into the antithetically offensive category. If you haven't played the games, you might want to. All the entries from 2017 onwards (7-8, and remakes of 2-4) are pretty good entries into the franchise.
Did celebrity endorsements ever carry that much weight? It's not like they hadn't been skewing Democratic in 2016 and 2020. Should it be surprising that people who live in overwhelmingly Democratic locations vote Democratic? Is it in anyway unexpected that the singer of the platinum single "LUNCH" (go listen to it if you haven't already) reacted the way she did?
I think the most frustrating part of the celebrity endorsements is how vacuous and insipid they are. Variations of figures using their personal popularity as a reason to get people to vote one way, as opposed to using their popularity as a platform to articulate reasons to vote one candidate over the other. I don't think it's totally fair to characterize everyone in Hollywood as a total dolt. There's plenty of figures who are at least smart enough to not say anything. Because at least with Zachary Levi's endorsement he could actual detail his motivations and beliefs in extended conversations, standing in stark contrasts with some of more tired talking points other endorsements recycled at best.
"I were to avoid every actor or actress that prostituted themselves for the Democrat Party, I’d, well, have to watch nothing made much after—I don’t know—1970."
You have to separate the artist from their art.
Bruse Springsteen and Brian Cranston are on My List.
I gave up at Sam Elliot and Harrison Ford. I like their films too much to boycott them. So, yes, I’m learning that, though I sort of already knew it. I have literally no desire to ever meet any celebrity because I have a feeling in person they are all rather—what would be a good word?—unimpressive, maybe?
Never meet your heros.
- someone surely famous
Don't know how you expect to eat your heros in life if you never meet them.
Thank you!
It's nice to be seen!
...recovering from periodontal surgery on Saturday...
I have a couple pieces I'm working on simultaneously, hence the slow going!
I'm glad M-o-A-T is proving useful - even refurb'd Macs are not cheap, but they're more affordable than brang-new ones!!
"Anyway, do you think celebrity endorsements have lost their power?"
No, largely because:
"...they never really mattered..." and that was certainly true for me. I liked some actors more than others not because of their politics, but how they comported themselves in the public eye.
"Was sending the abortion issue back to the states Trump’s most brilliant political move?"
No, it wasn't, because that wasn't his doing – rather, appointing constitutional originalists (mostly) was, however. They weren't nominated for the sole purpose of reversing Roe v Wade, but sooner rather than later, there was a challenge that made its way to SCOTUS that allowed the argument in favour of returning the question to each state to be made – which is consistent with the manner in which he operates. Love him or hate him, recognize that he's much like the late H. Ross Perot in this – he hires the right person, then leaves him alone to either get the job done or prove why he/she shouldn't have the job any longer.
Re: the Chris Bray (aside from DICK Cheney, is there a more apt surname?) video, the least cynical part of me is going with the first option...but if the last option turns out to be the reason, then we truly have become a banana republic (with apologies to genuine republics, wherever they may be...a parallel universe, maybe?). Along those same lines; once the EV mandate has been killed, the US is out of the Paris climate accord(s), the Keystone Pipeline has been revived, and the J6 political prisoners have all been either pardoned or their sentences commuted; as C-i-C, he needs to immediately relieve every flag officer of duty, strip them of their medals, revoke their security clearances, and charge them with treason. All should be tried by court martial, and if convicted, given the choice of death by public hanging, or firing squad.
"Notice how she didn’t really apologize for the comment."
Well, of course not.
"It’s only historic and laudable when it’s their side."
Exactly. Some day, Anna Wintour is going to be completely irrelevant even to her public of vacuous pinheads who leaf through the pages of that menstrual-blood-stained rag, Vogue (notice I did not say that they read it).
I concur with the view that every cabinet selection should the best possible person for the job who is NOT part of the swamp in any way, shape, or form. All I really want from his cabinet picks are folks who, if they are named to lead agencies slated for elimination (Education, ATF, IRS, FBI, CIA, et al.) that they are committed to that mission.
I agree. Trump didn't "plan" the abortion move so much as it was a natural outcome of a more conservative court, though vowing to leave it as a state issue was smart.
It's nice to see you. Are you working on anything?
And thank you for telling me about Mac of All Trades. I'm looking for a less expensive computer for my mother so she can sit at the kitchen table and play games and read whatever she wants to read, and it's nice to have the refurbished option.