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Accountability, motherfuckers.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

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No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

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… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / KULCHA! / Monday Morning Open Thread: The Kennedy Center Honors

Monday Morning Open Thread: The Kennedy Center Honors

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… A nearly four-hour performance in the Opera House toasted the high points of the careers of the Honors recipients: actress Bette Midler, comedy impresario Lorne Michaels, singer Joni Mitchell, Motown producer Berry Gordy and opera bass-baritone Justino Díaz. Before a packed audience that included Biden, Vice President Harris, several Cabinet secretaries, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and a horde of celebrities, the evening’s medal winners were serenaded and saluted in a Washington tradition that goes back 43 years.

The evening, which will be broadcast by CBS on Dec. 22, was the most high-powered entertainment event in Washington in years. That was partly owing to the attendance of Biden and first lady Jill Biden, the first “first couple” to attend in person since Barack and Michelle Obama in 2016. During President Donald Trump’s tenure, a presidential boycott meant no chief executive or first lady in the president’s box. The pandemic-delayed 2020 ceremony, held in May, was mostly presented virtually…

The production, as is traditional, consisted of five segments celebrating the careers of the award winners. This year’s show, directed by Glenn Weiss, with music direction by Rickey Minor, was as sharp and lively an installment as the franchise has seen in years. It had a passel of prize moments: Brandi Carlile gave resonant lilt to 78-year-old Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” and Brittany Howard and Herbie Hancock united to perform her eternal “Both Sides Now”; mezzo-sopranos Grace Bumbry and Denyce Graves offered heartfelt tributes to the 81-year-old, Puerto Rican-born Díaz. And for the tribute to Michaels, 77, a series of hosts over the decades of “Saturday Night Live’s” venerable “Weekend Update” segment — Kevin Nealon, Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers, and Colin Jost and Michael Che — appeared on a mock-up of the television set to make a hilarious target out of their former (or current) boss…

The evening of encomiums began with Yo-Yo Ma playing a moving opening cello solo of the national anthem and offering an inspirational boost: “The land of the free and the home of the brave,” he declared. “This is who we are.” An irreverent follow-up occurred with David Letterman’s appearance. “It’s nice to see the presidential box once again being occupied,” he observed. After an ovation subsided, he added dryly: “And the same with the Oval Office.”

Political commentary was not high on the menu this night, however. The proceedings moved in polished fashion through the first tributes, to Mitchell and Díaz, but a technical problem required one of the final numbers of the evening, with Stevie Wonder, to be restarted. Seated at a piano, Jones performed a medley of Mitchell songs, including a fine version of “The Circle Game.” The Díaz segment featured a chorus led by Graves, Christian Van Horn, Ariana Wehr and Hannah Shea in the Toreador Song from Bizet’s “Carmen.” And it closed with Van Horn, Anna María Martínez and Matthew Polenzani in the finale of Gounod’s “Faust.”…

Biden, at a separate White House ceremony, got to turn the tables on Michaels. “Finally,” he said, “I get to say something about him!” He added good-naturedly as he gazed at the SNL creator, “If you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re in real trouble. And you make me laugh at myself a lot.”

Reader Interactions

112Comments

  6. 6.

    satby

    Interrupting the thread for a public service announcement: one of the suppliers I use is giving away antibacterial wipes, you only have to pay for shipping. I bought a case for the homeless shelter in town, but I figured if you want to get some to donate to schools, teachers, or a shelter you might be interested too. Shipping for a case of 24 packs was about $16.

    Edit link fixed

  7. 7.

    Just Chuck

    The Presidential Box was empty in more ways than one during the Fat Orange Bastard administration.

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    Regarding the CA parents who sent their COVID-positive kids to school: A school administrator quoted in the linked article:

    “More than ever before, we need to count on people to make decisions that show care and concern for all.”

    I think we can all see the flaw in that public safety plan. We need widespread distribution of rapid tests and to make them available at no cost to people, businesses and organizations like schools. Maybe the feds should send them to people’s homes and businesses nationwide.

    Some folks will do the right thing and quarantine if they test positive. Others will be like the asshole parents in CA, but if everyone had access to rapid tests, families, organizations and businesses that want to act responsibly could keep the infected out without relying on the non-existent “care and concern” of random Americans.

    I’m not sure why free tests aren’t already widely available. It’s a great investment, IMO.

  18. 18.

    satby

    @Betty Cracker: The free tests widely available would be great, but the people who most need to use them won’t, just like they won’t get a free vaccine. And there’s just not a lot we can do about that.

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    @satby: Agreed, but maybe widespread availability of rapid test kits could help people/businesses/organizations exclude willful spreaders at points of entry, and it could definitely give people who would do the right thing the information they need.

  21. 21.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @satby: I think that there is an enormous swath of people who would use the tests if free and delivered. Certainly in my work group there is a great need for it, if for no other reason (and there are other, better reasons) than to allow refinement of policies.

  23. 23.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I’ll bet there are quite a few people who’d use a test kit if they had one in their house. They could be wondering if they just had a cold, but not want to go to the drugstore to get the kit.

  24. 24.

    JMG

    Having just had one Saturday, a rapid test with a negative result is about the best mood elevating drug ever invented. Peace of mind in a nose swab. That’s how I’d market it to the masses.

  25. 25.

    Steeplejack

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    When I went to CVS to get my Pfizer booster shot in early November I bought two two-packs of the BinaxNow tests. Gave one pack to my brother and kept the other one just to have on hand. As you said, if you’re at a point where you want/​need to take a test, you probably don’t want to go out in search of one.

  26. 26.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Schools and daycares already knew that “care and concern” were great, but they need rules. Every daycare I ever used had rules against bringing sick kids, with a whole set of factors. One of the oddest parts of covid denialism is how it’s completely without context. It’s as if these people never encountered daycare/school rules before. Someone hasn’t been reading their daycare parent handbook!

    We have rules in the public school here where they can’t go out for recess on very cold days if they aren’t dressed for the weather. It was never a civil rights issue.

  27. 27.

    Soprano2

    @Chief Oshkosh: I would use them if they were as easy as the ones the university has. You get results in about 2 minutes, and it’s super-easy – just swab, put solution in the little “booklet”, stick the swab in the holes in the booklet, close it, and then wait to see the results. It’s a lot like a pregnancy test without peeing.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Yep, and of course schools have specific rules about vaccinations that no one but a handful of kooks objected to for decades. In 2014, I had to take a day off work and go to a local Dept. of Health office to get an official document confirming my kid had required vaccinations, just to switch to a magnet school within the same county. It never occurred to me to go scream at schoolboard members over it.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    We had an anti-vaxx protest outside the courthouse yesterday. Driving rain and cold but still there were about 25 people. Blue Lives Matter flags, Trump flags, confederate flags and then a big US flag.

    I think it’s wild that conservatives use these altered/failed state flags regularly now, as if they’re the flag of the United States. Remember when they all wore flag pins and it was a big media outrage if you wouldn’t don one? Now they have their own weird, defaced flags.

  32. 32.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Oh, God the PANIC at a slightly elevated temp for daycare at the Y. Panic on my end. I knew they weren’t taking Mr. Snuffellupagus. I should have brought my trusty AR. My RIGHT to infect the whole place is being VIOLATED.

  33. 33.

    Kay

    Christie on stage fright: “You get a little bit nervous when you’re speaking in front of so many people who help to shape public opinion. But I have an antidote for that: For me, at least, I just get on stage, close my eyes … and pretend all of you are MARCO RUBIO.”

    Political media have a full-on crush on Chris Christie. I love how it has absolutely no connection to his popularity with the public – he once was the least popular governor in the country. Like, LOATHED. It’s just pure crush- no public intersect at all.

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: We’ve had anti-vax courthouse protests in my little town too. Same defaced flags! Also signs thanking DeSantis for championing their right to infect others. These people won the argument. Masks aren’t required in schools or businesses. Hardly anyone wears masks at all anymore. But they’re still aggrieved enough to make asses of themselves in public.

  35. 35.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Just Chuck: Leave it to Donny Dumbass to screw up even the ceremonial functions of the presidency. The only way I think of Mushroom Dick surviving this long without drowning is he must have staff that brushes his teeth and bath him.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    We’re now at the political media fond reminiscing for Donald Trump period (swoon!) that they are replay the 2016 GOP primary. 

  37. 37.

    Just Chuck

    “More than ever before, we need to count on people to make decisions that show care and concern for all.”

    If that were a norm, the Republican party wouldn’t exist.

  38. 38.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Kay: Of course they did; remember Trump’s show was on MSNBC so Trump was one them. It’s every pundit’s and Village reporter’s dream to be one of the Very Serious People.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    That’s what I don’t get- they won! We have among the highest rates of covid infection in the state. Our little hospital with 7 ICU beds has 15 now, on an emergency basis. They’ve racked up some numbers! Take the win!

    I don’t care anymore. I was at the courthouse waiting for a hearing to start last week and there were witnesses for the prior (probate) case in the hall- a family I know slightly. They wanted to tell me the vaccine causes heart failure. I just don’t say anything- I keep my face completely impassive, secure in the knowlege that me and mine are vaccinated. I’m not playing this stupid game.

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: He’s horrid and unpopular outside green rooms, but I do relish Christie’s public contempt for Rubio. Speaking of which, Rubio is another Republican whose constituency is the Beltway media. I don’t know why. He’s boring as hell. At least a bully like Christie is good for a zinger.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    Media Matters
    @mmfa
    We’ve obtained the 1023 filing of Parents Defending Education, the Koch-affiliated anti-Critical Race Theory dark money group. Here are some details

    So, you know, exactly what the people who said “critical race theory” was a deliberately drummed up panic said.
    Are the “public intellectuals” who fed this panic ever going to address the fact that they drummed up a panic, dumped it on every public school in the country, then sashayed away to their next “issue”, which was promoting Rittenhouse?
    They’re still running their lucrative substack gigs while public schools take the downside. Gross. Come back and get your stupid panic- no one else wants it.

  43. 43.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I hate that “Blue Lives Matter” flag – it’s a perversion of the American flag. And yeah, 10 years ago they all would howled in outrage if anyone did that to an American flag.

  46. 46.

    Soprano2

    @Betty Cracker: It’s yet another manifestation of their “sore winner” mentality. Even if they win they’re mad because there are still some people who don’t agree with them. They’d be pretty happy in a dictatorship as long as they got to run it – no disagreement with their viewpoint is allowed.

  47. 47.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Kay: He’s a mavericky builder who doesn’t play by the rules.

    Exactly, Trump was the vindication of all their Contrarian Bullshit  the press pushes. Then Trump got into office and press had it rubbed in their face ever White House how worthless this is stuff and the denials started. As always; Contrarianism can never fail, it can only be failed.

  51. 51.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Betty Cracker:

     

    At least a bully like Christie is good for a zinger.

    I have a friend who is a former WH reporter and yes, I give her shit all the time about that bunch. But she’ll say, I hafta agree with her, that one of the main reasons assholes like The Outlaw Jersey Whale are so popular with her and the rest of the Beltway Press Corpse is that he’s a great interview. He is.
    I’d like to toss him into the ocean with several anvils tied around his neck but get him on a talk show, Colbert for example, and he’s really engaging.
    Same with Rand Paul of all people. I’m sure if I lived next door to him I’d wanna beat the shit outta him on a regular basis but he can be exceedingly engaging in a non-political environment.
    And political figures with that skill are why the Press Corpse fawns all over em.

  56. 56.

    Geminid

    trump wants to keep the 2024 field clear, but Chris Christie will run regardless of trump’s wishes. That may be a reason TV producers give Christie show time. They want that fight.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    There’s an east coast, northern bias too. If Trump were from Arkansas and built strip malls and had a southern accent they would have pegged him as a far Right nut immediately. Instead we got the months of denials in the campaign and then a full year where they pretended he was something other than a standard issue far Right Republican.

    It’s the same sort of dumb anaylsis that says “we’re going back to pre-Roe”

    My ass we’re going back to pre-Roe. None of these fucking political professionals have noticed that the Republican Party is REALLY far Right? MUCH further Right than 1972? We’re in uncharted territory as far as womens rights. They put far Right religious nuts in charge of it.

    Now we’re going to have the same boring after the fact “analysis” we got with guns and voting, where it takes them a full year to recognize what is right in front of their noses- that it’s all far Right policy. They’re too slow. No one has time to wait for their cherished fantasies to fall one by one, over 4 years.

  59. 59.

    Gin & Tonic

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    one of the main reasons assholes like The Outlaw Jersey Whale are so popular with her and the rest of the Beltway Press Corpse is that he’s a great interview.

    And my mother always said that Adolf Hitler was the most electrifying public speaker she saw in her life. However….

  61. 61.

    Betty Cracker

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Rand Paul engaging? Sorry, I’d need to see that with my own eyes to believe it. Ron Paul is a kook too, but he presents almost like a regular person. I’ve never seen a clip of Baby Doc where he wasn’t droning  superciliously and making such obnoxious, presumptuous assumptions that it’s a wonder listeners don’t rise up as one to stuff a seat cushion in his gob… 

  63. 63.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Betty Cracker: ​
    I’ve seen him a couple of times on Colbert and he shocked the hell outta me by not being basically as you describe. My friend the former WH reporter confirms that if you get him in the right environment, he’s not how he typically is (as you describe).​
     
    Don’t get me wrong, 99% of the time I see him on the electrical teevee device, I want to channel his next door neighbor into my fist.

  65. 65.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Oh, remember how he was so “pro-gay” too because he was from New York City? The press was so gullible because they were thrilled he was running – he was exciting to cover. I still think part of the reason the press did everything they could to tank Hillary was because they dreaded having to cover “President Hillary” – she was sooooo boooring, and she wouldn’t give them juicy “scoops” all the time.

  67. 67.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: It’s gross and ugly too – they took a beautiful flag and perverted it into something that looks like it should be displayed at a funeral.

  68. 68.

    Kay

    @zhena gogolia:

    b-boy bouiebaisse
    @jbouie
    ·2h
    the “independent state legislature” theory that state legislatures have plenary power to control elections up to and including throwing out the results is well on its way to GOP orthodoxy

    This worries me because Alito has endorsed and promoted it, so we know it’ll pass muster with the (still) further Right Trump judges. This is what passes for mainstream on the Right now. It’s a real threat.

  69. 69.

    Geminid

    @zhena gogolia: I think Christie will have some appeal to blue and purple state Republicans, and they elect convention delegates. I don’t see him getting very much traction in red states, though, especially the south. But he could be one of the last two or three candidates standing. His biggest impact may be to get other candidates off the fence and into the race because they won’t want to see him hogging the spotlight. But some heavy hitters like DeSantis and the newly sleek Pompeo may still defer to trump. The 2028 election will come soon enough.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    It’s this weird ideology that says police are like “super citizens”. This to me was the perfect Blue Lives Matter panic example:

    On the morning of September 1, 2015, police lieutenant Charles Joseph “Joe“ Gliniewicz of the Fox Lake, Illinois Police Department was found dead in a wooded area in Fox Lake. The incident gained national coverage as it was first believed that Gliniewicz was murdered by three unknown assailants. However, after two months of investigation, officials of the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force[1] concluded that Gliniewicz had actually committed a staged suicide after realizing that his many years of criminal activity would soon be exposed.

     

    Fox Lake is (sort of) close to Chicago, and the criminal/police officer set it up to look like a BLM murder. The whole town got caught up in it, and it resonated much further than that -police came from the whole region for the funeral. He killed himself because the town manager was about to find out he had stolen funds, which in turn revealed that the whole set up was corrupt- he basically had a no-show job with police and had it for years.

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    @Betty Cracker: 

    Rapid tests should be at everyschool.

    No, don’t depend upon the parents.

    Get that positive COVID test, give the parents 60 minutes to pick up child before Child Services is called about the neglect of their child.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    I confess the political news I enjoyed most this month is that Tucker Carlson enlisted Hunter Biden in getting Tucker Carlson’s kid into an elite college.

    Just know that it’s all play acting on Fox news. They do it for the money. A lot of money. They are the “elites with special privileges” they rant about. The nice thing about Hunter Biden is he isn’t a phony and a liar like his critics.

  76. 76.

    prostratedragon

    @Kay:
    It’ s nearly 60 miles north of downtown Chicago. Amazingly enough, the exposure was almost as big news around Chicago as the original set-up –complete with Gov. Bruce the Vandal Rauner at the funeral– had been. The whole sad ruse was so preposterous that one would have to be socially isolated within Fox Lake itself or the Fox Lake of the mind to find it credible. Which shows the quality of mind of many of our betters. Black Lives Matter?!! Really?!!!

  77. 77.

    germy

    Tom Holland Confirms He Will Play Fred Astaire In Upcoming Biopic

    Spider-Man star Tom Holland reveals that he will play Hollywood legend Fred Astaire in an upcoming biopic on the beloved actor and dancer.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Conservatism is goofy. “You all MUST wear this flag pin!” – remember the endless flag commentary with Obama?

    Then they make and fly these ugly, altered, cultish flags at their patriotic events. It must be hard to keep up.

  79. 79.

    Betty Cracker

    @dmsilev: Here’s where I first saw the tweet, and I laughed. It has to be fake, but the fact that we’d entertain the possibility that it’s real for more than a nanosecond says all the things about our current timeline…

  82. 82.

    Kay

    @prostratedragon:

    Thanks. I wondered how it played in-state. My oldest son was a police explorer in high school so I’m familiar with the program. They do traffic directing at the county fair and other big events. No “combat training”. I think he liked it, but honestly? I think they gave him special treatment on a car accident he had in high school. Seemed like failure to control to me! No citation.

  83. 83.

    germy

    @Kay:

    I’m old enough to remember when conservatives were very protective of the flag, and what it could and couldn’t be used for.

    You couldn’t wear it as a shirt decoration.  You couldn’t let it touch the ground.  It had to be folded up and put away every day before sundown.

    And now my RW neighbor has about six flags, big and small, in front of his house.  A row of little ones along his front yard (in the winter they’re covered with snow) and a big flag on a pole that waves day and night, rain and shine.  There’s no flag code anymore.

    Didn’t Abbie Hoffman get kicked out of court or something for wearing a flag shirt?  And now we have the likes of Sarah Palin wearing a flag bathing suit.

  84. 84.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: The Christmas card is farcical for sure. trump made some real news this weekend when word went out that former Georgia Senator David Perdue would  challenge incumbent Brian Kemp in the party primary for Governor. Perdue has been encouraged by trump and is counting on an endorsement. I thought this was good news for Stacey Abrams.

  85. 85.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    And now we have the likes of Sarah Palin wearing a flag bathing suit.

    One notable photo was faked, according to Factcheck

    It’s a fake — Palin’s head on the body of a woman who posed for it 2004 as a joke. We have the full story of how this image was created and spread like a virus, fooling many.

  86. 86.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: the absence of Barron, combined with the inclusion of Tiffany,  suggests to me a carefully made fake by someone who didn’t want to generate fake outrage

  88. 88.

    Kay

    @germy:

    Agree! I’m a traditionalist compared to these people. We say the pledge at the local county Democratic Party meeting before the meeting and it makes me sad, because I feel like Democrats in red areas feel they have to prove their patriotism in ways Republicans don’t. The trials and tribulations of red state/county Democrats are under-covered, IMO. It took me a long time to go from being defensive to really embracing political minority status and I wish more of them would do it. It’s better. It’s certainly better than the conservative approach to being a political minority in a given area, where they whine a lot and insist they’re being discriminated against.

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Spider-Man star Tom Holland reveals that he will play Hollywood legend Fred Astaire in an upcoming biopic on the beloved actor and dancer.

    Sure, why not?

    The weird thing is that many younger people don’t have much knowledge of Hollywood history. There is a YouTube channel where people react to “classic” movies, which is generally a narrow range of popular action movies from the 80s and 90s, and stuff like Star Wars and Jaws.

    A group of people reacted to “Rain Main,” and in introductory comments, some of them said “I have no idea who Dustin Hoffman is…”

    One another clip, two friends were watching Casablanca, and one asked the other, “have you ever seen a black and white movie before?” The other friend said, no.

    It’s too bad that Astaire didn’t get to play a character in one of the Star Wars sequels.

  90. 90.

    Mike in NC

    The crude fat slob from Queens and his white trash family had no time for the Kennedy Center Honors. Big surprise there.

  91. 91.

    sab

    Old but weird thing. We used to have a sort of friend on the street behind our house. There is a creek running between the two streets.Over the last twenty years her dogs and my dogs have had an across the creek rivalry. We chatted with her whenever we saw her, often over the barks of outraged dogs.

    She put up a big Trump sign last September. My husband exchanged expletives with her. We stopped walking on her street, because we didn’t want to see her again. (She is not economically anxious. She is a retired banker who could and did buy the house next door and flatten it to get a bigger yard.)

    Since we stopped going down her street to chat, she has started bringing her dog down our street. Now she is friends with all the Trumpers on our street ( all three of them). Weird dynamic but it is there. We are still on good terms with the evangelicals, who are actually religious people with loving religious values. But the Trumpers are still out there and bonding. Husband probably should not have argued with her, but if someone is low tax and racist based in their politics it is hard to persuade them.

  92. 92.

    Brachiator

    @Mike in NC:

    The crude fat slob from Queens and his white trash family had no time for the Kennedy Center Honors. Big surprise there.

    It was another example of Trump’s fragile ego run amok. From an old USA Today article:

    Former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump skipped the show the first three years in office after several of the artists who were honored in 2017, his first year, threatened to boycott a White House reception if the Republican participated.

    This also let him play up his personal grievance as love of clueless ordinary slobs.

  93. 93.

    Another Scott

    @Brachiator: It’s coming, probably.

    Vox (from 2020):

    In November 2019, it was announced that James Dean, who died in 1955, will be “resurrected” via CGI to play the leading role in a live-action Vietnam War movie called Finding Jack. “We searched high and low for the perfect character to portray the role of Rogan, which has some extreme complex character arcs, and after months of research, we decided on James Dean,” the movie’s co-director told the Hollywood Reporter, adding that Dean’s family views this “as his fourth movie, a movie he never got to make,” and that they “do not intend to let his fans down.”

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  94. 94.

    cain

    Next year, I hope we do NOT have a correspondence dinner. It’s one tradition that we should end – we can thank Trump for that. Let’s hope we continue not having it.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    Good interview with the Michigan AG on likely results post-Roe:

    Nessel: In Michigan, the second that Roe is overturned, we have an antiquated abortion law on the books, a 1931 felony law, which will spring back into effect. We have 83 county prosecutors. For those prosecutors who wish to enforce this law, they will certainly be able to do that. They will not only be able to prosecute providers. If women who receive abortions don’t want to cooperate with the investigation or with a prosecution, they can be held in criminal contempt if they don’t honor a subpoena.
    You’re looking at a situation, likely, where providers will stop immediately providing abortions. Abortion would be permissible in Michigan only in the case of saving the life of the mother. However, what I could see happening is [prosecutors] basically saying to a doctor, we can still charge you, it’s up to you to demonstrate that you did the abortion because it was necessary to save the life of the mother.
    Then it becomes a battle of experts. Was this woman going to die? Those that take that chance can be stripped of their licenses. Insurance carriers will say, we’re not going to provide you with malpractice insurance, because you are providing a procedure that you can potentially be prosecuted for or be civilly liable.

    The GOP justices are misrepresenting the effects of this for political reasons- Michigan isn’t a far Right state and the effects would be immediate and radical. People need this information. They should get it.
    It should definitely play a role in a decision on which state one should give birth in- I personally would like to be in a state that doesn’t subject a physician’s medical decisions on emergency care during a delivery to evaluation/approval by a group of far Right religious extremists. I don’t think that’s safe for me.

  96. 96.

    PST

    @Brachiator:

    It’s too bad that Astaire didn’t get to play a character in one of the Star Wars sequels.

    He did portray Starbuck’s father on Battlestar Galactica. Probably not recent enough to help.

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    In November 2019, it was announced that James Dean, who died in 1955, will be “resurrected” via CGI to play the leading role in a live-action Vietnam War movie called Finding Jack.

    Seems like an odd stunt doomed to failure, but I am not entirely surprised.

    This kind of thing would be puppetry, not any kind of real performance by an actor.

    I can see savvy actors having a clause written into their contracts forbidding any kind of CGI fakery.

    ETA: Ted Turner had acquired the rights to many old Hollywood films and decided to colorize them. But he was not able to do it with Citizen Kane:

    The furor was short-lived, as Turner backed down on February 14, 1989 after a review of Welles’ 50-year-old contract with RKO Pictures revealed he had been given absolute artistic control over his first Hollywood film, which it specified would be a black-and-white picture.

    When Disney’s The Lady and the Tramp went to home video, the studio did not want to pay Peggy Lee. They claimed that since the home video medium did not exist when the movie was made, they didn’t owe her a cut of the $90 million the film made in the home market.

    Lee went to court and won big time. In her contract with Disney, she retained the rights to the songs that she contributed to the film. Disney had to pay her $2.3 million.

    Disney wised up:

    For its part, Disney also learned something quite well. Now, its standard contractual language requires that artists surrender rights to their work for exploitation in “all media, now known or hereafter devised.”

    That said, I might actually enjoy new adventures of Disney’s Zorro with a CGI Guy Williams.

  98. 98.

    lowtechcyclist

    @prostratedragon:

    The whole sad ruse was so preposterous that one would have to be socially isolated within Fox Lake itself or the Fox Lake of the mind to find it credible.

    I remember that before the whole thing was unmasked as a fraud, the story was that the cop has supposedly been checking out a report of vandalism to some abandoned factory or something, which made zero sense because any abandoned facility like that had probably been vandalized to a fare-thee-well already.  I was just waiting to see how the whole thing was going to fall apart.

  100. 100.

    Brachiator

    @cain:

    Next year, I hope we do NOT have a correspondence dinner. It’s one tradition that we should end – we can thank Trump for that. Let’s hope we continue not having it.

    I am in total agreement with you on this.

  103. 103.

    trnc

    @Brachiator: Former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump skipped the show the first three years in office after several of the artists who were honored in 2017, his first year, threatened to boycott a White House reception if the Republican participated.

    Just to clarify USA Today’s sloppy writing there, the artists did not boycott the reception because DT was a republican. They boycotted because he cut funding for the NEA and for his failure to condemn Nazis in Charlottesville.

    However, I was shocked to find that, after the boycott threat, the White House sent a gracious statement to congratulate the artists and that they would not have the reception out of respect for the honorees. DT probably never saw that, but still a surprise.

  105. 105.

    Brachiator

    @trnc:

    Just to clarify USA Today’s sloppy writing there, the artists did not boycott the reception because DT was a republican. They boycotted because he cut funding for the NEA and for his failure to condemn Nazis in Charlottesville.

    Very welcome clarification. Provides very good background.

  106. 106.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Brachiator: I wasn’t alive during the era when new movies or TV programs were still in B/W aside from conscious nostalgic exercises, but when I was a kid, B/W TV shows and movies were still a large part of the rerun back catalog of TV stations. That’s not true any more–that stuff is relegated to channels and streaming services for specialized aficionados.

    In some ways going to color was almost as big a break as going to talkies–the old content was immediately marked as “old” and that probably doomed it in the long run. Maybe more significant than going to HD, considering that some shows from before the switchover like “Friends” are still gaining new audiences of young fans.

  107. 107.

    Matt McIrvin

    (duh–it occurs to me that Friends was shot on film, so it undoubtedly got rescanned in HD… I know that some shows like the later Star Trek series where some CGI effects were only generated in standard def present more of a problem.)

  108. 108.

    Brachiator

    @Matt McIrvin:

    In some ways going to color was almost as big a break as going to talkies–the old content was immediately marked as “old” and that probably doomed it in the long run.

    I don’t think this is entirely correct. Great cinematographers and lighting crew were masters of black and white photography.  Technicolor was splashy, especially for westerns, but other color films did not always make stars look as glamorous as black and white photography.

    Processing technicolor films was expensive and the cameras were bigger. So, according to film historians:

    Because of this, Hollywood reserved color for its more prestigious features throughout the late 1930s, the 1940s, and the 1950s. Developments by both Technicolor and Eastman Kodak in the 1950s made it much easier to shoot film in color and, as a result, much cheaper.

    Also TV kept black and white films alive. And then of course, a lot of homes did not have color TVs, so everything was black and white by default.

    When I was in college, I knew people who would never watch silent films, because they just seemed too old timey.  There was a time much later when I knew people who in general had never seen a film made before Star Wars.

    For people born in say, 1990, who became adults in the 2000s, even movies made in the 1960s may seem like dusty antiques.

    And it’s not just color. Early films are too slow, too talky, the special effects are lame and “unrealistic.” This reminds me a bit of how the acting style often seen in dramatic silent films repel some contemporary audiences.

    There is one weird thing I have encountered in a color of online film fans. Some of them cannot bear to watch a film knowing that none of the actors are still alive.

    ETA: In the DVD era, some remastered black and white films looked spectacular. The Third Man is a notable example. Even a cleaned up version for theatrical release looks magnificent. By contrast, some digital remasters of color films are not as vibrant as the original releases.

  109. 109.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: OH, and there’s the one that’s half American flag/half Confederate battle flag. I’ve seen that one around here, too. It’s also a gross perversion of the U.S. flag. Just imagine the outrage if BLM did that – half a BLM flag/half U.S. flag.

  112. 112.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: John Ford’s My Darling Clementine had great black and white photography. I think it would not have been as good if filmed in color.

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