Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come on, man.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

I really should read my own blog.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / What Could a Mysterious U.S. Spy Know About the JFK Assassination?

What Could a Mysterious U.S. Spy Know About the JFK Assassination?

by | 236 Comments

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Records about June Cobb, an American spy in Cuba during the early 1960s, are to be released soon  (Politico) and apparently have some bearing on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. She worked in Cuba and Mexico, apparently fairly close to Castro.

I am taking this with a grain of salt, but more information is always good. It was easy then for a female employee to be ignored. As you can see in the article, her attractiveness was part of the discussion. Looking forward to seeing what the documents have to say.

What we know about Cobb so far comes largely from millions of pages of other documents from the CIA, FBI and other federal agencies that were declassified years ago under the 1992 law. Within those documents are dozens of files that identified Cobb as a paid CIA operative when she worked on Castro’s staff in Havana and later when she moved to Mexico. Some of the documents tie her to a lingering questions about Oswald’s trip to Mexico City in late September 1963, not long before Kennedy’s November assassination. In Mexico, Oswald came under CIA surveillance when he met there with both Soviet and Cuban spies. Previously released documents also show Cobb’s involvement in CIA surveillance of a U.S.-based pro-Castro group, the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, which Oswald championed in the months before Kennedy’s murder.

There is one document about Cobb that has remained completely off-limits to the public all these years: the 221-page file identified as “FOLDER ON COBB, VIOLA JUNE (VOL VII)” on a skeletal index released by the Archives last year. It is one of the 3,600 documents that were withheld from public view entirely in the 1990s at the request of the agencies that originally produced them—in Cobb’s case, the CIA. The index prepared by the Archives shows that, as of 1998, when her file was last officially reviewed, the spy agency said the document was “not believed relevant” to the Kennedy assassination but could do unspecified harm if made public before the October 2017 deadline.

And open thread!

Reader Interactions

236Comments

  2. 2.

    efgoldman

    It’s only been 54 years. Why shouldn’t the conspiracy theorists have something else to bleat about besides HRC running a white slave/child p0rn ring out of a DC pizza place.
    Is Jim Garrison still alive? Marina?

  10. 10.

    bmoak

    Maybe the file will have mash notes from Cruz Sr. It would be irresponsible not to speculate!

  19. 19.

    efgoldman

    @lamh36:

    forgot to say RIP Roger Moore…

    Sean Connery, the one, true Bond James Bond, will outlive them all.

  24. 24.

    efgoldman

    @trollhattan:

    Whoa, he was young.

    48. From the NYT story today

    A spokeswoman for the Orlando Police Department said that there was nothing suspicious about Kennedy’s death but that it was being investigated. He had been experiencing headaches during the past week, his stepfather, Joe Harris, said in a telephone interview.

  29. 29.

    lamh36

    Alright, I’ll take advantage of the open thread (I can’t stand JFK conspiracy theories…).

    So, apparently, there IS a TOP GUN sequel that will start filming within the next year.

    Um…ok…True Confessions…I’ve NEVER seen the original…so…grain of salt, but how old would that make these people…and have ya’ll seen Val Kilmer or Kelly McGillis? I mean…Tom may have gotten Scientology to slow down the aging process, but not all the originals can say the same..

    @sunriseon7
    WORLDWIDE EXCLUSIVE: @TomCruise just confirmed that Top Gun 2 is happening! “I’m gonna start filming it probably in the next year”. #sun7
    https://twitter.com/sunriseon7/status/867139377314516992

    Admission: since I never saw the original, I don’t really know which characters, if any, died onscreen…hmmm

  31. 31.

    lamh36

    @LawyerRogelio
    Trump plans to set up White House ‘war room’ to battle Mueller probe http://dailym.ai/2qSQKCM via @MailOnline

    @ABC
    NEW: Pres. Trump expected to retain Marc Kasowitz as private attorney representing him on matters related to Russia probe, @ABC confirms.

  33. 33.

    ruemara

    @lamh36: I predict Kilmer & McGillis’ characters will have died in a terrible horrible shaving accident and replaced by Tom’s dueling 25 year old love interests.

  38. 38.

    different-church-lady

    @efgoldman: I think the EON folks missed a golden opportunity: they should have brought Connery back as a… (wait for it) Bond villain!

  42. 42.

    TenguPhule

    @Roger Moore:

    Still posting on Balloon Juice, thank you.

    Although you are actually a shadow projection in a simulation designed by evil aliens plotting to take over the real world.

  45. 45.

    different-church-lady

    @lamh36:

    Trump plans to set up White House ‘war room’ to battle Mueller probe

    Maybe we’ll finally get the pie fight Kubrick was going to end Dr. Strangelove with.

  46. 46.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Trump plans to set up White House ‘war room’ to battle Mueller probe

    Probable violation of Hatch Act.

    Can’t use government assets (office, employees) for political acts.

  50. 50.

    Morzer

    @lamh36:

    John McCain plans to have plastic surgery to upgrade his furrowed brow to nine different possible settings, none of which will result in actual activity.

  51. 51.

    Roger Moore

    @dmsilev:

    Word of advice for Mr. Trump’s new attorney

    He’s not a new attorney; trump has a long-standing relationship with the firm. That’s why it would be so inappropriate for Lieberman to be made FBI director.

  57. 57.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @ruemara:

    Tom’s dueling 25 year old love interests.

    Cruise is incredibly unconvincing in romantic scenarios. In general, he’s a very stiff actor, lacking screen charisma. The only 2 roles he’s been good at are as a stiff emotionless hitman in “Collateral” and as an over the top film executive in “Tropic Thunder”.

  59. 59.

    Mnemosyne

    Meh. Unless it turns out that MLK had the Black Panthers kill JFK, I could not care less.

  61. 61.

    lamh36

    And….now I’m somehow watching Double Jeopardy with Ashley Judd…remember that run of films when Judd played all them BAMF women!!

    It is ALSO confirmed that Tommy Lee Jones has been OLD forever.

  63. 63.

    Morzer

    @TenguPhule:

    I was once described as the thinking woman’s Tom Cruise. I took it as a compliment at the time, but now… well…

  66. 66.

    Roger Moore

    @TenguPhule:

    Although you are actually a shadow projection in a simulation designed by evil aliens plotting to take over the real world.

    There are several other real person Balloon Juice posters (Mnemosyne, BillInGlendaleCA, Ruckus, etc.) who have met me in the flesh. There were even pictures on the blog of the meetups. Of course that’s just the kind of thing a shadow projection in a simulation designed by evil aliens plotting to take over the real world would say.

  67. 67.

    different-church-lady

    @p.a.: Duh! That’s why they needed to keep the file sealed until 2017. Then Trump fucked it all up.

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @TenguPhule:

    I’ve never seen it either. And even more shocking, I’ve never seen The Godfather (any of them). But Fathom/TCM Big Screen Classics are screening the first in the series next weekend (June 4), and I am going to see it. It just looms too hugely in American pop culture for me to stay ignorant of it any longer.

  79. 79.

    lamh36

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: agreed. I was never a fan of Cruise’s “romantic” work…I mean maybe that film he Kidman where they were Irish or something? Otherwise, even when he has a love interest, it’s def NOT convincing…but his action work, I begrudingly admit, I like.

  81. 81.

    TenguPhule

    And a hearty FY to Flynn by the Democrats.

    The Senate Intelligence Committee is issuing two new subpoenas for information from former national security adviser and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s companies and challenging his lawyer’s refusal to comply with an existing subpoena for documents detailing his contacts with Russian officials, committee leaders announced Tuesday.

    “A business does not have the right to take the Fifth,” Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), the committee’s lead Democrat, told reporters as he and chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) pledged to “keep all options on the table.”

    Burr and Warner announced they would subpoena documents from the two Flynn businesses they were aware of — Flynn Intel LLC and Flynn Intel Inc., both based in Alexandria, Va.

    They are also sending a letter to Flynn’s lawyers challenging them on “whether Flynn can take the Fifth as it relates to document production,” and itemizing more specifically what documents they want Flynn to furnish.

    Do you smell what the Warner is cooking? And he’s cooking with gas!

  84. 84.

    Shana

    @efgoldman: I think Daniel Craig is terrific as Bond and I look forward to more movies with him in the role. My mom, on the other hand, would have left my father for Sean Connery.

  89. 89.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @TenguPhule:

    I’m more worried about the horse’s head scene. I will probably just have to avert my eyes for a few minutes.

    I really don’t enjoy watching any kind of violence on screen. I know that’s kept me from seeing a number of great films, but I’d just as soon not. But I will grit my teeth and go see The Godfather despite my qualms.

  91. 91.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @lamh36:

    The Highlander TV show was oddly satisfying in a shaggy, low-budget way. Maybe because I saw it very late at night and it was the least bad thing on.

  93. 93.

    TenguPhule

    @Mnemosyne:

    he’s great in Edge of Tomorrow, sometimes known on video as Live, Die, Repeat.

    And if you hate him, you get to cheer as he’s killed multiple times. And gets his ass kicked repeatedly by a woman in powered armor.

  94. 94.

    efgoldman

    @Shana:

    My mom, on the other hand, would have left my father for Sean Connery.

    Oh, hell, mrs efg would have (still would) done it in a nanosecond.

  96. 96.

    PaulWartenberg

    there’s a possibility Cobb has a connection to one of the more loose threads on the JFK conspiracy weave (to one of the operations attempting to assassinate Castro using hair removal products (I AM NOT JOKING)), but one that would make the fringe guys all freak out.

  101. 101.

    amk

    "My name is Sean Hannity and I'm here to tell you not to trust the CIA, the FBI, or the NSA. Now please welcome Kim dot Com to the show."— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) May 23, 2017

  102. 102.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Mnemosyne: I’ve been meaning to see Edge of Tomorrow, I’ve always heard great reviews of Emily Blunt’s performance.

    I could only watch Minority Report in small bites, not because of Cruise, but because of Colin Ferrell.

  103. 103.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    He also was good (in the stiff, emotionless zone) in Jack Reacher, which was a surprisingly good movie, although it had fuck-all to do with the Reacher character in the novels.

    (I haven’t seen the second Reacher movie.)

  104. 104.

    efgoldman

    @PaulWartenberg:

    one that would make the fringe guys all freak out.

    A cloudy day when the forecast called for sun makes the fringe guys freak out.

  105. 105.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: I don’t have any issues watching them. Doesn’t look as empty as the duck pond did back at the beginning of the series.

  107. 107.

    hovercraft

    @TenguPhule:
    Relax, he does absolutely nothing for me, I’d take Brad Pitt over him and I don’t even like blonds. Give me some George Clooney, Denzel, umm!

  110. 110.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @lamh36:

    Man, I watched Jason Bourne over the weekend, and Tommy Lee Jones looked about 200 years old. Way beyond his usual “grizzled old guy.”

  116. 116.

    TenguPhule

    @PaulWartenberg:

    Highlander taught me two things:
    1) Never fight on Holy Ground
    2) Some people have no idea what Continuity means

    3) If you’re gonna cut someone’s head off, make sure you do the job right.

  117. 117.

    lamh36

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I can def recommend Edge of Tomorrow.

    I saw the first Jack Reacher…didn’t hate it.

    As I said, I’ve begrudgingly found myself enjoying his action films cause of his willingness to do his own crazy ass stunts

  118. 118.

    hovercraft

    @p.a.:

    Hillary killed JFK Jr. too.

    I always knew she was an overachiever, I just didn’t realize she started so young. Or did she borrow Barracks time machine?

  123. 123.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It really is a stunning film. And then you’ll definitely have to see Part 2. Of Part 3 we shall agree not to speak.

  124. 124.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    I have a friend, former co-worker, Brit by birth, who lived in Edinburgh for a while in the late 1950s. They used to have what they called “milk floats” (dairy delivery guys), and the fellow who delivered milk and cream to my friend’s landlady every day was a young and unheralded Sean Connery. My friend Richard used to chat with him occasionally; I believe he saw him at the local pub now and then. Not friends exactly, but affable acquaintances.

  125. 125.

    TenguPhule

    @geg6: Cocktail and Top Gun made him instant heartthrob material for the female demographic. He lost some due to Scientology, but he’s still got enough of a following that speaking ill of him in public is not conductive to one’s health or interactions with the fairer sex.

  128. 128.

    geg6

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Ugh. I hated it. Both I and II. Didn’t even bother with III. Turned me off Pacino for a long time. Always hated Brando, so no harm, no foul there.

  131. 131.

    Ladyraxterinok

    I will never forget JFK’s assassination. Ì was in 3rd year of grad school, studying for Ph.D orals. Friend came bursting into campus study lounge. She had heard it on radio while getting asprin at drug store. The campus memoriel had all the faculty in academic regalia marching into the large, crowded courtyard in front of Mem Chu. It was the first time I had ever seen grown men cry in public.

  134. 134.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SiubhanDuinne: My housemate when I lived in Scotland is from the village right next to the one Connery was from. If I remember correctly one of his cousins went to school with Connery when they were kids.

  137. 137.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @lamh36:

    There were a couple of scenes in Jason Bourne where he looked like the Red Skull playing Tommy Lee Jones’s grandfather.

  138. 138.

    geg6

    @TenguPhule:

    Um, I’m a female of the correct age demo and, no, he was not a chick magnet. Then or now. Lots of men seem to think so but that just goes to show how little men understand women.

  139. 139.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @geg6:

    I admired Brando in On the Waterfront, but can’t remember anything else I actually saw him in. Well, Last Tango, but that was so disgusting I walked out. I’m sure that memory is a large part of why I’ve never bothered to see any of the Godfather movies. But at this point in my life, I do feel the need to find out what all the fuss is about.

    ETA: Just looked at a list of his films and realise I’ve actually seen perhaps half a dozen of them. For some reason, not all that memorable.

  140. 140.

    p.a.

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    but I do glow

    Is there much of a market for that? I’m looking for a little extra scratch, but 30 years at a public utility means I have no marketable (or apparent) skills.

  142. 142.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Steeplejack (phone): I wanted to like Jack Reacher and Rosamund Pike is very pretty/likable, but in the action-paranoia-deep-state genre ( ie “Parallax View” with explosions), Reacher is a shadow in acting and plot of “Shooter”

    I know, I’m a film snob.

  144. 144.

    SFAW

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I mentioned David Niven in an early thread today, right after the news broke, and was told I’d better run away!!

    Not by me, you weren’t!! I’ll fight all them bastids what was giving youse a hard time.

  146. 146.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @SiubhanDuinne: Brando was delightfully charming in “The Freshman”

    eta: also very good in “The Young Lions” and “One Eyed Jacks”

  147. 147.

    lamh36

    @geg6: I agree. Since the Kidman divorce and “i love Katie” couch jumping oh and the shaming of Brooke Shields for admitting to using chemical help for her post partum depression or calling psychology a crazy pseudo science…

    basically since the exposure of just blue crazy and deep he is into scientology def dimmed his hotness if NOT his star power

  150. 150.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @SiubhanDuinne: There’s a really terrible Disney movie from 1959 called Darby O’Gill and the Little People with young Sean Connery doing an Irish accent (I’m not able to judge how good or bad it is, but I suspect not great), and singing.

  151. 151.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @p.a.: Ya know, it premiered Sunday night, but I haven’t seen any buzz about it on my twitter feeds.

  157. 157.

    Steeplejack

    @holaitsmonica:

    After my initial outrage at the trailers, I tried to think of it as just a Tom Cruise action movie and ignore the fact that the character was named Jack Reacher.

  158. 158.

    Gin & Tonic

    Coming in late from an evening with old friends, but man oh man, does this thread need some BiP. Too lazy to read if that’s already come up.

  159. 159.

    Felonius Monk

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I admired Brando in On the Waterfront, but can’t remember anything else I actually saw him in.

    What???? No Stanley Kowalski in Streetcar Named Desire? No Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now?

    ETA: Missouri Breaks along with Jack Nicholson?

  160. 160.

    frosty

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    He also was good (in the stiff, emotionless zone) in Jack Reacher

    Tom Cruise as a tall, blond, 220 lb badass. Ugh. Worst casting since Frank Sinatra in Von Ryan’s Express. A short, dark-haired Italian playing an Aryan-type (hence the von in von Ryan).

    50 years later and I’m still pissed off by it. Way to ruin a good book.

  163. 163.

    lamh36

    Since we mentioned Roger Moore…found something to share from the twitterverse.

    A guy on twitter last night shared his story of meeting Mr Rogers and how nice and kind Mr Rogers was to him, and now here’s a different guy telling his story of the time he met Roger Moore and how kind and nice Roger Moore was.

    It will make you smile from ear to ear!

    https://twitter.com/MattMackowiak/status/867184472504094722

  164. 164.

    p.a.

    @Felonius Monk:

    Missouri Breaks

    Really fine movie. Tom McGuane, Robert Towne screenplay. Been a while since I’ve read McGuane. Probably donated the books somewhere… worth a revisit.

  166. 166.

    Steeplejack

    @frosty:

    Way to ruin a good book.

    That’s what Hollywood does all too often.

    I’m still amazed at how good the movie version of Get Shorty turned out. Apparently John Travolta saved it. He really liked the book and agreed to do the movie. He hated the first script, because they had jettisoned almost all of the book, so he wielded his star power to get them to go back and strictly follow the novel and keep Elmore Leonard’s dialogue.

    I suddenly realize that I have absolutely no provenance for this anecdote or where I read it.

  167. 167.

    Steve in the ATL

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I’ve never bothered to see any of the Godfather movies

    That’s why you’re the Fredo of Balloon Juice, but you don’t even know what that means. Sad!

  169. 169.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Steeplejack:

    I suddenly realize that I have absolutely no provenance for this anecdote or where I read it.

    Which makes it perfect for B-J.

  170. 170.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Steve in the ATL:

    But I do seem to recall that Dubya nicknamed one of his cabinet members “Fredo.” Can’t remember which one, though, or why it was appropriate/funny.

  171. 171.

    frosty

    @Steeplejack: I loved Get Shorty, both book and movie, and if that’s how it got made, kudos to Travolta. The whole concept — that the best training for being an executive producer is skip tracing for a loan shark* — it was Elmore Leonard paying back Hollywood for all the grief they’d ever put him through.

    * IIRC

  175. 175.

    Steve in the ATL

    @frosty:

    Tom Cruise as a tall, blond, 220 lb badass. Ugh. Worst casting since Frank Sinatra in Von Ryan’s Express. A short, dark-haired Italian playing an Aryan-type (hence the von in von Ryan).

    50 years later and I’m still pissed off by it. Way to ruin a good book.

    I’m far, far too young to know this “Frank Sinatra” person, but I’m with you on Cruise. He’s the anti-Jack Reacher.

  178. 178.

    Another Scott

    @GregB: Excellent!

    WMUR:

    In an upset, Democrat Edith DesMarais defeated Republican Matthew Plache in Carroll County District 6, which includes the town of Wolfeboro. The vote total, confirmed by both parties, was 811-755.

    […]

    Democrats said the upset in Wolfeboro was the first time nationally that a Democrat flipped a federal or state legislative seat from Republican to Democrat. The party said DesMarais became the first Democrat ever to be elected in Wolfeboro.

    “Democrats showed that, in 2017 and beyond, we will reject the reckless and irresponsible policies of Donald Trump and Chris Sununu,” state Democratic Party chairman Raymond Buckley said.

    “80% of life is showing up!” Let’s keep showing up.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  180. 180.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Mnemosyne:

    I only like Cruise where his character starts off as an asshole.

    That’s great insight. That’s why he was so good in Collateral and Tropic Thunder.

  181. 181.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Steeplejack: I liked “Four Brothers” – it’s a modern-urban adaptation of “The Sons of Katie Elder”

  182. 182.

    Это курам на смех

    You haven’t seen Sean Connery if you haven’t seen Zardoz.

  185. 185.

    Steeplejack

    @Another Scott:

    Democrats said the upset in Wolfeboro was the first time nationally that a Democrat flipped a federal or state legislative seat from Republican to Democrat.

    That seems wrong.

  187. 187.

    rikyrah

    SATIRE?

    PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.

    Mike Hellgren‏Verified account @HellgrenWJZ

    NYT spoke to administrator & founder of Alt Reich Nation FB group Collins’ accused killer belonged to. They claim it’s satire @cbsbaltimore

  191. 191.

    ??‍? Martin

    @Mnemosyne: Agreed on Edge of Tomorrow. Unfortunately as much as I want to dislike him, more often than not I like his movies and him in them. I tried.

  193. 193.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    As long as we’re talking about movies, one of my favorite film interets is how “The Big Sleep” was adapted and remade into so many good/great films:

    Chinatown
    Night Moves
    Bullet
    The Long Goodbye
    The Big Lebowski
    The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (even Dice Clay couldn’t kill the plot)
    Who’ll Stop the Rain

  196. 196.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    He was good in a very early film, might have been his first, called “Taps.” Also had Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn at the very start of their careers. Film also had George C. Scott playing George C. Scott.

  198. 198.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @p.a.:

    Who plays Trump in the movie? A yellow ottoman?

    Can we get Dick van Dyke to trip over him?

  202. 202.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Tony Bennett and I (and you!) share a birthday. I met him on one such August 3rd many years ago when he was guest artist with a symphony orchestra I managed at the time. It was the Grand Opening for a shopping mall :-)

    Heard him several years later, here in Atlanta, doing a concert with Diana Krall. That was cool.

  203. 203.

    rikyrah

    Kyle Griffin‏Verified account @kylegriffin1

    Trouble for House GOP: Tom MacArthur resigns as co-chairman of ‘clearly divided’ Tuesday Group, cites AHCA struggles

  205. 205.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yes, he was good as a heavy in “Taps”, much better thne Hutton (the angst idealist ) and Penn (the conscience)

  211. 211.

    Steeplejack

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Okay, we’re going to need some documentation on this, because it seems like about 40-70% bullshit.

    Who’ll Stop the Rain is a very good movie that also follows its source novel very well (Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone).

    Night Moves is good too, although it wasn’t quite as good as I remembered when I saw it on TBS recently.

  214. 214.

    Another Scott

    @Steeplejack: Yeah, that stuck out for me, too. I assume some words like “in 2017 since Trump’s election” were elided.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  215. 215.

    Immanentize

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I saw T-Rex open for Three Dog Night. I saw The E Street Band open for Chicago. I saw Bad Brains open for the Psychedelic Furs. I saw U2 play in a bar in Syracuse NY and I sat on a Foosball table to see the Talking Heads in a bar in Vestal. Etc etc etc.

    ETA. But I’m losing my edge….

  217. 217.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    You reminded me that Cruise also was very good in All the Right Moves (1983) as a high school football prospect trying to get out of his Rust Belt town. Even Craig T. Nelson was good as the obnoxious coach.

  218. 218.

    Another Scott

    @Immanentize: In the ’80s saw Rod Stewart quickly walking through LAX with a couple of far too pretty 20-somethings on his arms, followed about 30 seconds latter with a couple of teenagers running after them (apparently hoping to get pictures or autographs)…

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  219. 219.

    Alain the site fixer

    On the movie front, any fans here of Unbreakable? Seen Split? Heard about the sequel to both coming next year? One movie, sequel to both, there is. Glorious!

  220. 220.

    Immanentize

    @Another Scott: Rod Stewart is a short fellow. I sat with the drummer of the Mothers of Invention and another fellow in Austin Texas while they waited for Arthur Brown to get some cancer treatment. Also too, speaking of Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane used to be in Austin all the time in the early 90’s then (Oo la la). He had MS I think….

  223. 223.

    Shalimar

    @SiubhanDuinne: Brando was great in The Freshman, playing a parody of his Godfather role. Other than that, meh. He’s clearly a great actor, and yet I don’t really engage with the roles he played.

  225. 225.

    Another Scott

    Don’t want to mess up the Buddy thread upstairs (you’ve donated, right?), so here.

    WaPo:

    In his proposed budget released Tuesday, President Trump called for spending $200 billion over 10 years to “incentivize” private, state and local spending on infrastructure.

    Trump advisers said that to entice state and local governments to sell some of their assets, the administration is considering paying them a bonus. The proceeds of the sales would then go to other infrastructure projects.

    They’ll try to take everything that’s part of the commonweal and sell it off to their cronies. If it costs $200B to convince states to sell off stuff, it’s “investing in infrastructure” so it’s all good and Democrats should sign on because they keep saying they want infrastructure spending, right?!?

    :-/

    An Australian company owns toll lanes for the NoVA beltway and part of I-95. It can lead to things like this:

    […]

    Where the lanes end on the south side in Springfield drivers can pick up the 95 Express Lanes, which run south about 25 miles to Garrisonville Road in Stafford County. The cost of the 95 Express Lane peaked yesterday at $33.80. For drivers running the full route that entered into the lanes at 5:45 pm the cost was $64.35 for the one way commute from northern Virginia to the last toll road exit in Stafford.

    Disgruntled commuters should understand this is not a form of price gouging. When the express lanes back up, prices rise in order to limit traffic entering the lanes. When the lanes exceed the normal pricing that we’ve been accustomed too often this is an indication that there was an incident in the express lanes. Last night was one of these cases, as a car crash blocked the left lane of the express lanes, driving up the cost to the higher rates.

    For those commuters that find themselves in a situation like last night where the express lanes failed to live up to expectations, there is a way to get reimbursed. Transurbran, which operates the lanes, evaluates refunds on a case by case basis and can be reached through their website. On the website they point out “Toll-paying customers will not choose to pay to use express lanes if they cannot consistently depend on a faster more reliable trip.”

    The express lanes continue to offer an alternative for commuters that want to avoid sitting in congestion, but when commuters see the prices jump above the norms they are used to they should be aware of what potentially lies on the road ahead.

    See, it’s just the market working as it’s supposed to. It’s “not price gouging”, it’s an “alternative”. You get to pay much, much more while you sit backed-up in traffic also too!

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  230. 230.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Shalimar: I know that. I didn’t read the books, so I can’t comment on that, but the movie plots are siblings – same DNA, slightly different traits (like the NCAA’s Samuelson Sisters)

  233. 233.

    Another Scott

    @Immanentize: [Mitch] McConnell is short, too. I saw him walking alone through DCA a few years ago.

    Walter Mondale, though, is tall. I saw him walking in a parade in Chicago in the early ’80s and he was at least a head above everyone else around him.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who enjoys free association sometimes.)

  235. 235.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:

    Really, I only like Cruise where his character starts off as an asshole.

    Does make him a lot more believable. To act as himself.

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