What will win the Palme d'Or? Cannes closes Saturday with awards and a tribute to George Lucas https://t.co/ZE9ETlOX8E
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 25, 2024
The world has indeed changed, because I can remember a Cannes Festival era when the phrase “a tribute to George Lucas” would’ve caused actual physical violence to break out amongst the judges…
The 77th Cannes Film Festival draws to a close Saturday with the presentation of its top award, the Palme d’Or, along with an honorary tribute for George Lucas.
The closing ceremony is set to begin at 6:45 p.m. local time, 12:45 p.m. U.S. Eastern time. It will be streamed live on Brut internationally and air on France 2 within France…
During the brief awards ceremony, Lucas will be given an honorary Palme d’Or. During the festival, Cannes gave the same tribute to Meryl Streep and the Japanese anime factory Studio Ghibli.
The real stars of Cannes may be the dogs https://t.co/s6jizpg1no
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 23, 2024
Me, I’d give an award to Xin, just on general principles…
… Swiss comedy “Dog on Trial” premiered in the Un Certain Regard section, directed by and starring Laetitia Dosch. Based on a real case, the French-language film tells the story of a defense lawyer who takes on Cosmos, an aggressive dog facing legal action, as a client.
The titular dog is played by Kodi, a griffon, who Dosch says is really the star of the movie. It was important to her that Kodi had his name on the credits and the film poster and would be by her side in Cannes. A comedy-drama with a feminist outlook, “Dog on Trial” is about exploitation, Dosch says — and she has an offbeat theory as to what women and dogs have in common.
“Dogs come from wolves and we have been sculpting dogs for 40,000 years to become our perfect friends full of love,” she explains in an interview. “We castrate them also, so they can be peaceful all of the time, so we manipulate them to fit and to be exactly what we need. So, if I replace the word ‘dog’ by ‘women’ and I say the same sentence, it also makes sense.”
Kodi, however, did not get the memo. He spent the interview humping Dosch’s leg and licking her face, sending her earring cascading through the slatted flooring and earning him an eviction from the interview. He was kept away from subsequent red carpet appearances…
Also competing in Un Certain Regard — which curates a lineup of original and daring films — is another dog-centered drama, “Gou Zhen” (“Black Dog”) from the Chinese director Guan Hu. In it, Taiwanese superstar Eddie Peng plays Lang, who’s charged with removing stray dogs from his hometown on government orders ahead of the Olympic Games. One particular dog has a profound impact on Lang — and, as it turns out, on the actor himself.
Peng built up such a bond with his canine co-star Xin, a Jack Russell-greyhound cross, that he adopted her after filming ended and credits her for changing his outlook on life.
“They act truthfully,” Peng says of dogs, on a stroll around the Cannes harborfront with Xin, who accompanied him to France. “They don’t, you know, they don’t put on the mask. They don’t care about who you are or whether you’re famous or not, how much money you make.”
When he comes home, she jumps up like it’s the happiest moment of her entire life: “I think that’s something that we all need to learn from.”
She’s also changed the way he approaches acting, abandoning much backstory and preparation.
“Animals are just so present, you know. It will be so obvious somehow, if you are overacting,” he says.
The “jury of reporters”, however, preferred the scruffy leg-humper:
Palm Dog: Kodi, star of 'Dog on Trial,' is the top dog of Cannes https://t.co/IY9FSbQmjP
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 24, 2024
Elsewhere…
Get an exclusive first look at Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement's 'Time Bandits' TV show starring Lisa Kudrow. https://t.co/t1V5KKFkro
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) May 20, 2024
As an OG Time Bandits fan, I have to admit to a mild case of Hairy Eyeball here:
… Waititi and Clement created the series with Iain Morris, and when it debuts July 24, it will follow an 11-year-old history geek named Kevin (Kal-El Tuck) as he journeys through the centuries with a ragtag group of thieves.
Waititi and Clement tell EW that they’re both major fans of the original film, which starred Gilliam’s Monty Python costars John Cleese and Michael Palin, as well as Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, and Ian Holm. The longtime friends and collaborators remember seeing the original Time Bandits as young kids and getting hooked on its chaotic and darkly comedic tone…
The new Time Bandits reimagines the classic story over 10 episodes, following Kevin as he falls in with a group of marauders led by Lisa Kudrow’s Penelope. Waititi specifically says he’s wanted to work with Kudrow for years, and he and Clement have long admired her work from afar, particularly in HBO’s The Comeback.
“I just love Lisa Kudrow and thought it’d be awesome to see her leading a band of idiots through time,” Waititi explains…
That bigger budget also means that the show gets to travel throughout space and time — with a story stretching literally thousands of years. “There’s some you’d expect and some you wouldn’t perhaps,” Clement teases. “We go from prehistoric dinosaur times to the ‘90s. There are some medieval places like medieval England and medieval Africa. And we go the Ice Age. That’s a fun one.”
Time Bandits will premiere Wednesday, July 24, on Apple TV+.
Wouldn’t it be lovely to think so?…
Two hours of Blanc calling AG Sulzberger stupid. Sign me up.
— The Ghost Of Wade Boggs Goes Back To College (@ThGrsshpprUnt) May 24, 2024
TBone
A little light weekend reading by one of my favorite authors (yes, I downloaded .pdf) to prepare myself against whatever shitshow horrors are about to be
upincoming from the Supremacists Court. The last place you want alternative fact-finding. But here we are. The more you know…https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/whitehouse-details-in-ohio-state-law-journal-roberts-courts-penchant-for-judicial-activism-through-false-fact-finding/
MomSense
I’m drinking coffee before the moving weekend begins. Turned on the news – and that will make you want to stop lazing around and get the fuck away from the tv. I’m loving all these pundits talking about why half the country believes the opposite of reality about unemployment, the stock market, and the economy in general. Now they are talking about how there doesn’t seem to be outrage about trump sharing a video with “American Reich”. They are all looking around like how did this happen? People don’t know what that means. Why are people so misinformed?
Perhaps they have never watched television news? They cannot comprehend how their pathetic constant discussion of gas prices and Biden is old and decades of bothsiderism and serving as stenographers for Republicans may have contributed to our current situation?
TBone
@MomSense: a short pictorial
https://www.webfx.com/blog/internet/the-6-companies-that-own-almost-all-media-infographic/
ETA That’s from way back in 2016
Always remember to consider the source of information.
OzarkHillbilly
Me too. I just don’t see it measuring up to the Terry Gilliam standard.
WhatsMyNym
The Cannes Festival is available live on YouTube here. It’s their official channel.
Baud
I’m glad Lucas is finally being recognized for Howard the Duck.
eclare
@MomSense:
Good luck with the move! I hope you have good weather.
Baud
@MomSense:
Modern pundits are propagandists. What they “observe” is what they want the people to believe.
MomSense
@TBone:
I know it’s just painful watching these people. Now they are moving on to what the Biden campaign has to do to counter/educate the American people.
If only there were broadcasts and publications dedicated to informing the public. Hmmm, we could call it news.
moonbat
I’m glad the new Time Bandits is going to be on Apple TV because I don’t subscribe to Apple TV. When are the bros in Hollywood going to stop remaking every movie they loved as a child?
I hope the The Apprentice wins the Palm d’Or so that TFG has a stroke over it. She said sweetly.
eclare
Season Three of The Bear is being released on June 27. The whole season, yay!
I love Hacks, but I haven’t been watching because I don’t want to take it one week at a time. Enough episodes have built up now, I may try to get through three or four today.
Baud
@MomSense:
Propose massive tax cuts for rich people.
MomSense
@eclare:
Thank you! I’ve been going to the house in the evenings with small loads of all the WTF items and measuring for rugs, etc. We have had a week with high 80s and 90s temperatures and the house is cool inside even upstairs. Huge shade tree on the south side and a constant breeze from the river just down the hill seem to be working. I was worrying about a/c and electricity bills and I think I’m going to be fine without
ETA I met one of my neighbors when I stopped to compliment her wonderful gardens. She works at Fedco and gave me three fruit trees!!
eclare
@MomSense:
Wonderful about the air! What is Fedco? What kind of trees?
And wow, y’all have been way hotter than Memphis.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
At 17, she earned her PhD. Now, she is going to the prom.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/us/dorothy-jean-tillman-chicago.html?auth=login-google1tap&login=google1tap
narya
Well, the big question is whether they’ll get the whole race (Indy 500) before the rains arrive on Sunday; it doesn’t look promising, tbh. We have ponchos, and a hotel room for both Saturday and Sunday nights, so we will be there if they run it Monday. Back in the day, my friend would go down and back the same day, and we did that a few times when I first started going with him (this is my 14th? 15th? year). Then a few years we got a room for Saturday night, which made it less of a scramble to get to the track. In 2018 or 2019, it looked like it might rain on Sunday, so we got a room for both nights, and it is now the only way to go. That shower at the hotel, in place of a long, gritty drive back to Chicago, is heaven.
MomSense
@eclare:
It’s my favorite seed/seedling/tree provider and it’s located in the same town. Johnny’s is in a neighboring town so I’m in garden heaven.
Brachiator
I realize that I don’t know about any of the films or directors at Cannes this year. I used to follow this stuff fairly intently.
The original film was a quirky delight. If I recall correctly, George Harrison was a financial backer for the film.
eclare
@narya:
Enjoy!
MomSense
@Baud:
Seriously I just cannot anymore with the nonsense.
eclare
@MomSense:
Sounds like you really picked a perfect spot.
MomSense
@Baud:
I just love how they refuse any introspection or accountability.
Baud
@MomSense:
It’s the same schtick. Once you get to a certain age, you see the patterns and how they cycle through the same methods. I get it. It works for them. But I don’t have to participate in the show by watching.
TBone
@moonbat: I hope so too. He’s already threatened to sue 🙄😆
lowtechcyclist
@Brachiator:
He might’ve been. I know he was a backer for Life of Brian.
eclare
@Brachiator:
Lisa Kudrow does quirky delight very well, that was her whole character on Friends.
Baud
They’re the real stars in life.
lowtechcyclist
@moonbat:
Come sit by me.
MomSense
@Baud:
I don’t want to watch either but I’ve got to start getting ready for phonebanking season. I try to catch up so I don’t waste calls wondering what they are talking about.
TBone
In keeping with my theme of this weekend, this was an enjoyable (and not too long) read. Entertaining.
https://www.editorialboard.com/clarence-thomas-just-hates-having-all-this-power/
Brachiator
@MomSense:
No one would watch. Many people are too busy entertaining themselves into oblivion.
They prefer political leaders who will pay them on the head and tell them that everything is all right.
Scout211
Speaking of Cannes,
LOL. Props for “fair and balanced.”
Bold added.
MomSense
@eclare:
I love The Bear. At the start of season 2 I wasn’t sure if I liked it as well as the first season, but it won me over. And that Jaime Lee Curtis episode is some of the best acting I’ve ever seen. Just fucking brilliant.
MomSense
@eclare:
One of the local pastors already stopped by, so we’ll see ;)
Scout211
@MomSense: Good luck on the move!
TBone
@MomSense: this site’s regularly posted ’roundup” articles might save you some time and heartache (maybe).
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-round-up-the-human-printer/
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-round-up-an-appeal-to-heaven-2/
Geminid
@Scout211: A “fair and balanced” movie about a feral and unbalanced man.
eclare
@MomSense:
That episode especially had my nerves jangling all the way through, so tense. I also loved the episode where Marcus went to Copenhagen and took care of an invisible 🐈.
OzarkHillbilly
@Scout211: Forget the “fair and balanced,” I’ll settle for honest.
Kristine
Liked the first Knives Out movie. Loved Glass Onion. Very much looking forward to #3. To me it looks like Daniel Craig is having the time of his life playing Benoit Blanc.
Hoping for more Hugh Grant in this one.
Kay
This is who will be deciding what medical care pregnant women are permitted to receive in Texas:
She’ll be drafting the statewide standards of care that every physician will have to follow. How does one practice medicine ethically in Texas? I don’t think it’s possible. Female patients receive substandard medical care in that state, by law and by deliberate design.
Kay
Dr. Skop enthusiastically advocates for 9 year old girls giving birth. If you’re a physician in Texas this is who you wil be taking orders from. I think you have to resign -one can’t both honor the medical oath and live and work in anti choice states. Women come second to fundamentalist religious dogma. They’re getting substandard care.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: I linked to an article about her yesterday in which it was reported:
“Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed.”
eta: Aaaaannnd you got there first.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
She also runs a fake science foundation. Whatever physician you choose in Texas, this physician is actually who you are getting, because she’ll be making the rules for all physicians. This is lowest level quality of care as law. Even if a physician wants to provide modern, evidence based standard of care he or she cannot. Texas has banned that option. I don’t think professionals can accept this level of micromanaging and remain professionals. I think it’s a contradiction and real ethical problem for them. They’re not exercising independent judgment.
Baud
@MomSense:
You’re a good person.
Kay
What you’re buying when you hire a physician (or any professional service) is THAT person’s expert judgment. If you’re in Texas and you’re a woman it doesn’t matter who you hire – you’re getting a Right wing religious extremist, because her judgment supplants your physician’s, by law.
Texas is jamming their low quality hire into the examining room with you and your physician, and she has a veto over any treatment plan.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Fundamentalist religious don’t believe little girls can be raped. They think the sluts tempted the Godly man. That’s why they force them to give birth – as punishment.
OzarkHillbilly
Agreed, I don’t envy their choices. Stay and try to care for people in need as best you can, or leave them behind because the Faustian bargain one has to accept is just too much.
CaseyL
Media Matters is being sued by Musk, aided by the usual clot of RWs hoping to close it down. MM has had to lay off a dozen writers.
It would be nice not to see Media matters go the way of Gawker and Buzzfeed (and whichever other independent press the RW has destroyed), so if you’d like to help them out, you can donate here.
Kay
I knew US media coverage of Gaza would stop once the protests were either supressed or died down with the students no longer in school, and it has. The Palestinian civilian casualties wouldn’t even have been debated or discussed at all (for the short time they were) without those protests. Media had to cover it to smear the protestors or discuss it, but only in the context of Biden’s re-election – now that they’ve beaten those angles to death there’s no reason to continue coverage.
I watch mostly international news now – it’s on my husband’s streaming service he uses for tennis matches- and it continues to be covered by media in other countries.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@eclare:
Never watched the show but she used to be on Maher’s ‘Politically Incorrect’ show back in the day and quirky was her thing on there and it was typically a breath of fresh air.
Little known fact is that she was one of the three spouses that Larry, Darryl and Darryl show up with in the last episode of ‘Newhart’, three stereotypical New Yawker girls with Bronx accents.
AM in NC
@MomSense: My favorite from last year was the Richie episode. I went back to re-watch it, and it drew me into watching the entire season again.
Eyeroller
@OzarkHillbilly: I guess in medical school they don’t learn about things like “diameters” and whether an object can be forced through an opening with a smaller diameter. Maybe they should ask some carpenters about that.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Louisiana governor signs law classifying abortion pills as dangerous substances
eta: @Eyeroller: “Women are made for this.”
kindness
Time Bandits looks fun. I don’t have Apple+ TV. I pay so much for my DirecTv that I am not willing to be dinked another $15 a month by the 5 or 6 ‘networks’ that I’d like to see their stuff. And a new Knives Out? Nice. I really liked the first two. The dog thing was funny. I’ve always had gelding male dogs so I have never gotten the hump the leg thing from any of them.
NotMax
Weekend long watch
Alas internet, we hardly knew ye.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
I think they’re setting the table to charge women in blue states with abortion crimes. They’re never going to be content to just have religious extremists running the states they control – it hasn’t worked – women in red states are getting around the bans. They have to do a national clamp down on all women.
Baud
@Kay:
Yep. Modern version of the Fugitive Slave Act.
narya
I never saw the original Time Bandits–but I very much like the people involved in this version, so I might end up watching it, if you all say it’s good fun. I need some good fun these days.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thinking about these religious nuts providing medical care for women repulses me. They only got into it to punish us. They really seem to delight in our suffering, as if we’re being sacrificed on the altar of their fucked up beliefs. I had the good sense to find them mean spirited and dangerous at six years old and nothing I have seen since has altered that opinion at all. Trust your six year old gut, always. Stay far away from these people. I used to physically shrink when they came near. Make myself smaller. Could not get away fast enough.
Eyeroller
@OzarkHillbilly: As has been discussed here and elsewhere, these freaks referring to preteen girls as “women” is creepy and appalling and a symptom of their mental derangement.
Chet Murthy
@Kay: Blue states need to make it a felony to have voted for laws criminalizing, prosecuted, or judged a woman or other provider guilty, of having provided or aided in an abortion, contraception, or other reproductive care. Anywhere. With 10yr prison time and $1m fine per offense.
These red–state bigots can stay in their red States.
OzarkHillbilly
Black residents in North Carolina county sue to remove racist statue
Oh c’mon, only a snowflake could find “In appreciation of our faithful slaves.” offensive. s//
Dorothy A. Winsor
@narya: It’s a big race weekend. Mr DAW was watching F1 practice.
Chet Murthy
@Eyeroller: It’s just as you say: there are things like “diameters” involved. Just because a child has experienced menarche doesn’t mean she’s capable of bearing a child safely. And hell, the idea that she has no choice in the matter is just offensive. But just sticking to the safety issue, it’s clear that these religious bigots want to reproduce Somalia, here in the US.
Kay
@Chet Murthy:
Blue states have enacted shield laws around medical care for women. I did not pay that mucvh attention to them when they went in but they have become very important and will be much more important if Trump wins and appoints US attorneys to use federal laws to reach people in blue states (that’s what Louisiana is setting the table to do). Illinois is getting ready to expand their shield law – they’re watching red state lawmakers attempt to get around them so can beef them up in response. They may be the only defense women in blue states have. I am so, so glad our lawyers planned ahead.
eclare
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Taylor and Travis are going to be in Monaco tomorrow for the race.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@eclare: Great place to be even on a non-race weekend!
OzarkHillbilly
@eclare: The same wkend as the Indy500??? That’s jus’ down raht unAmurikan!
Chet Murthy
@Kay: These shield laws are a good thing, but I persist in believing that this is just playing catch-up, where we should be escalating. Make it impossible for these lawmakers, judges, prosecutors, and plaintiffs, to impede a woman’s right to control of her body. Make it a felony to have done so, with eye-watering fines and prison terms. Allow anybody in a Blue state to sue to confiscate any property traceable to any of these malefactors.
Do to them, what Texas is doing to women with their anti-abortion laws.
Sure Lurkalot
Word to Clarence and Sam. You can either honor your oaths to defend the constitution or resign believing in your versions where church rules over state and minorities can’t petition for redress.
Baud
@Chet Murthy:
No one is going to outlaw legislative voting or prosecutions, especially in other states. That’s not offense. It’s pure performance art.
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: Hey, Lina Medina gave birth at age 5 years 7 months 21 days. 9 or 10 years is way, way older than that.
What’s the problem??
//
Grr…,
Scott.
eclare
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
He and Patrick Mahomes have invested in an F1 team. I don’t think it’s one of the biggies, like Red Bull, but still, I’m sure they’ll be on the grid before they get on a yacht to watch the race.
Chet Murthy
@Baud: And yet, red States are outlawing driving a woman across state lines to an abortion, or loaning her money for an abortion. etc.
ETA: And nobody’s outlawing prosecuting a woman for having an abortion, as long as you never set foot in a Blue state, never invest in a Blue state, etc. Just live entirely in your red state shithole, and you’re good. But if you want to enjoy the things that (e.g.) California has to offer, then you need to live by California’s rules. I don’t see what the problem is with that
ETA2: It’s true that such laws would produce a lot of chaos for red-staters and their businesses. But hey, that’s the goal! They think nothing of upending women’s lives, they need to get that right back at them.
Baud
@Chet Murthy:
Yes, government gets to regulate people. One state government doesn’t get to regulate another state government.
Abortion should be constitutionally protected and shouldn’t be subject to governmental restriction, but we’ve lost that battle for the time being.
ETA: To be clear, I think a red state regulating what its residents do in a blue state is unconstitutional, but this Supreme Court could make an abortion exception to that rule.
OzarkHillbilly
It even sounds like it’s her fault.
zhena gogolia
@narya: Sad to say, it’s one of the few movies I have walked out of. I was bored stiff.
Kay
@Chet Murthy:
Our lawyers are somewhat constrained because they’re still relying on constitutional precedent and norms. But that will go too eventually. It will have to. Self defense. But the shield laws are quite strong – they’re well drafted.
Trump appointing USA’s should scare the shit out of people. Federal prosecutors are WILDLY powerful people. They will absolutely go after women in all states for abortions, using any legal tool they have. I’m not a prosecutor and I can think of three federal laws they could use right now.
TBone
This whole thing is just so surreal I’d classify it as merely entertainment. But it’s true: the story of a Valley Forge, PA pro-natalist family (an offshoot combo of the effective altruism and tech bro cults). They’re apparently part of a movement AND they’re running for elected office as Rethuglicans here in PA. The detail in this article will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. For instance, they don’t “waste” money heating their home full of small children. And check out the theory on naming their kids.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/may/25/american-pronatalists-malcolm-and-simone-collins
WTF is wrong with the water here in PA? *Faceplam
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
Brainworms from raw bear meat, leprosy from armadillos, … I know it’s controversial, but hear me out: Maybe people shouldn’t be eating those things??
Hey, Leeroy, I’m hungry. How bought we go grab some fungus from the old nuclear dump. Will be wild! YOLO, ya know??
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Jackie
@Brachiator: This got me curious:
Apparently the film received rousing applause by Cannes Festival viewers. TIFG’s attempts to ban it in the USA has me curious…🤔
UncleEbeneezer
Rafael Nadal, in likely his last French Open (a tournament he has won FOURTEEN TIMES!) practiced in a sold-out stadium of chanting fans. For a practice match!! That’s how beloved Nadal is in the sport, and especially at Roland Garros. This is one of the reasons he is the true GOAT on the Men’s side of tennis, imo.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Florida’s surgeon general will come out in favor of eating armadillos because of FREEDOM.
Kay
@Chet Murthy:
Lawyers can be really narrow people but I think there is a recognition that religious extremists at the federal level won’t need “an abortion law” to come after blue state women and providers. They will use other federal criminal laws to reach them. I’m hoping liberal lawyers who are legal pundits will explore this and explain it to people. They don’t need a federal abortion law. Assurances on a federal abortion law are meaningless. That’s not the right question.
eclare
@UncleEbeneezer:
Such a great player and class act, but I wish he would have retired already. I don’t want to see him go out like Federer, in a complete loss.
Baud
@Kay:
Agree.
Doesn’t Project 2025 spell this out in detail?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Since it’s an ‘Entertainment Notes’ thread, Morgan Spurlock died of cancer at 53. If you’ve ever heard of him, it would have been from the documentary ‘Supersize Me’.
His life was shall we say mixed and I never realized that he wasn’t a hard core documentarian but rather a developer of enter/infotainment stuff both before and after that film.
Baud
Via Reddit
3Sice
@Another Scott:
The OG Florida Armadillos were escapees from a Leprosy research lab. So there is that.
Baud
@3Sice:
Lab leak!
TBone
@TBone: PS this is also tangentially about fElon Musk and the Great Replacement Theory. These people are the human cybertrucks of our species.
smith
@Baud: Will be amusing to see how English can be written without pronouns.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Can’t wait ’til they ban adverbs.
Baud
@smith:
Apparently, it prohibits the he/him/his, etc. you sometimes see on some email signatures.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Fixed
narya
@Dorothy A. Winsor: we were going to try to watch qualifying before we leave but I think we don’t have time.
Baud
Via Reddit
Melancholy Jaques
@MomSense:
I saw an item on cnn.com that was “Biden says the economy is doing well, Trump says it’s crashing. Here’s why they are both right.” The article juxtaposed the facts as they are (Biden) with things that people imagine or think might happen in the future (Trump) and deemed them equally valid.
Although I was alone, I did an extended Howard Beale rant.
I am not certain there is a solution to this problem but I think Democrats winning three straight presidential elections might help. It might need four.
Barbara
@TBone: Not to be contrarian, but not heating you home is a time honored Amish practice. The Amish wisely understand for the most part that imposing their culture and beliefs on others (the English) would not go well for them. We have to make sure that’s the outcome for these other freaks who seem not to have learned that lesson.
Baud
@Melancholy Jaques:
I’ve felt this way since Bill Clinton.
M31
first course: armadillo tartare with a raw milk chaser
second course: extra-rare bear meat with a side of mushrooms picked using chatGPT foraging books
maybe some pizza with white glue to top it off
Eyeroller
@TBone: Needless to say, these people are nuts. Among many (many) other issues, it’s impossible to screen a blastocyst (the stage at which they are usually frozen) for “intelligence” or “schizophrenia” or any number of other characteristics for which they imagine they are selecting or deselecting. The genes that involved usually aren’t known, the interaction of genes and environment is more significant (like being abused by being too cold), and epigenetic effects are also likely important.
And also, while a dropping population is a short-term problem, over the intermediate to long term it would mean more resources for everybody with much less environmental damage. So I consider it potentially a good thing. But nobody wants to allow population redistribution, and of course stabilizing at any value could be difficult though we could probably reach a point at which births and deaths were pretty close to equal.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Throw in banning adjectives too and you’d improve the writing in a number of YA books I’ve read lately.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: We’re sleepwalking into a dictatorship.
TBone
@Barbara: did you see the part where they call slapping the kids in the face “bopping” ?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
No one is sleepwalking. People are going to do what they want.
AM in NC
@zhena gogolia: OMG me too! My dad and I went when I was in high school and neither of us got it. It’s the only movie I have ever walked out of.
And I love most of the Monty Python movies unreservedly, and Brazil.
Melancholy Jaques
@Jackie:
Mr. Trump presents himself as a factual biography of Mr. Trump, yet nothing could be further from the truth.
Eyeroller
@Barbara: Don’t they have wood stoves? When he was a teenager my father’s family didn’t heat their home, in the sense we understand it now, because they had no electricity (rural Arkansas in the 1930s) or gas lines. But they had a wood stove so they could congregate in and near the kitchen at least part of the time. But he had stories of hating to get up at 5 am on cold winter mornings and get out of the warm bed into the frigid house to go out and milk the cow.
TBone
@Eyeroller: if they weren’t intent on running for public office to become part of my government, I’d be laughing loudly and moving right along. But: Nucking Futz with real world consequences!
TBone
@Eyeroller: I lived full time in my cabin in the woods with only a 1930s era Heatrola wood/coal stove for heat for a long while before we installed a propane heater so the mornings wouldn’t be frigid, stressful races to get the fire going when wind chill was minus twenty outside. These people in the story are not independent, bootstrap types. THEY ARE GRIFTERS.
Betty Cracker
I loved the OG “Time Bandits” too but am also looking forward to the series. I do not envy Kudrow’s task in following the Monty Python crew, but she did a good job as Hypatia on “The Good Place,” so maybe she can pull it off?
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Lots of people are sleepwalking, because they don’t believe what’s going to happen. By the time they realize it, it will be too late.
TBone
@zhena gogolia: agreed. The proverbial slow frog boil.
Kay
@Baud:
It does. Asking about “an abortion law” is the same error as believing laws banning abortion would only reach people seeking abortion.
People really, really need to broaden their thinking. This was never about banning abortion. It is about controlling women – all women, not just women seeking abortion. I say this all the time but every woman suing the state of Texas for denying medical care was seeking a baby, not an abortion.
Banning abortion reaches all women. They won’t need a federal law banning abortion to reach all women. Trump will appoint whichever religious nuts kiss his ass most as federal prosecutors and they will come after women, using existing law.
Bigger. Broader. Not just abortion.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
There’s always some, but most of those people actually want those things to happen. Perhaps subconsciously, but they want it in their soul. They’re not sleepwalking. They’re lying to themselves and to you.
Baud
@Kay:
Maybe when EMTALA come down, it’ll be a good opportunity for a public education push.
Sure Lurkalot
@Melancholy Jaques:
The Fourth Estate is reaping the whirlwind of flooding the zone with so much both sides fake equivalence bullshit that everyone knows what to believe (whatever fits your priors) and no one can discern the truth (see “what to believe”).
TBone
@Baud: some of them just aren’t that smart, even subconsciously. Truly don’t know any better and furthmore don’t care to know because intellectual pursuits are not cool.
TBone
@Melancholy Jaques: 👍 I hope it gets a distributor by September!
Baud
@TBone:
There’s nothing intellectual about the current situation. It’s all about morals and character.
TBone
@Baud: on one side of the equation that’s absolutely the case. We have some popular intellectual rock stars on our side who don’t “dumb it down.” See my post at #1
Kay
@Baud:
It’s grounded in a disregard for women. To put forth a proposed ban after 15 weeks and ignore the fact that nearly all of the life threatening conditions women suffered in red states happened after 15 weeks is just a complete disregard for facts and the reality of womens lives. The people who have suffered the most under abortion bans are women who wanted children. That’s how poorly considered and thought thru these laws were. But the root cause is a country that simply doesn’t much care what happens to women.
Baud
@Kay: Completely agree
Right wingers have been very good at seducing many people in to believing that the only legitimate and true source of self worth and empowerment is hurting others. And the low hanging fruit if you want to hurt others are those people who have historically been treated as second class people.
karen marie
@kindness: Leg humping has nothing to do with a lack of neutering. My spayed female has been humping my leg for 14 years. It’s an “I’m the boss and you’re not doing what I want” thing.
MomSense
@TBone:
Since I’ve taken to calling cybertrucks Deploreans – it’s not so far from the OG deplorables.
Gonna need a bigger basket.
Kay
I really thought through Roe in law school – considered all sides of it – and realized then that there was no other way to work this problem. There’s just one solution. What I didn’t think about at the time was how much real intellectual effort the pro Roe justices put into it – how seriously they took womens lives. That’s what’s missing in the anti abortion laws. There’s this kind of mean spirited, cavalier approach – they dismiss all the consequences of their sloppy, garbage work as unimportant. Because women aren’t important.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: That’s what a majority of white people in this country want, if you look at their voting patterns.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: And for many white women, the white part comes before the woman part.
Brachiator
@UncleEbeneezer:
This is very cool.
Good luck to him.
The Thin Black Duke
@schrodingers_cat: They think the “white” part designates them as “honorary” white men.
Brachiator
@Kay:
Ironic that a considerable number of women also support these laws.
Jackie
@TBone: I do, too! We know there’s got to be A LOT of things about TIFG, that he’s desperate to not be illuminated to voters who might not vote for him after seeing the documentary. Especially POC and women.
Scout211
@Scout211: @Jackie:
The filmmaker previously said he wasn’t scared of Trump filing a lawsuit (a question from a reporter at Cannes) and he said Trump files a lot of lawsuits but how many has won? LOL. Good answer.
schrodingers_cat
@The Thin Black Duke: Possibly. They also want to preserve white patriarchy for their sons. Historically that was a primary way that women could assert power in a patriarchy.
Eyeroller
@Brachiator: They are good women and will never need an abortion. Only lying sluts will need one, and they shouldn’t be able to get it.
Brachiator
@narya:
The original Time Bandits was quirky fun, but it also had a sardonic and dark melancholy. It was not a straight comedy, nor the offbeat satire of a Monty Python skit.
I don’t know if the TV series will soften the edge of the movie. TV shows often do this since they are coming into people’s homes every week.
Another example. The movie MASH was darker in tone than the TV series.
Eyeroller
@schrodingers_cat: They also gain status for themselves by being married to (has to be married in a patriarchal society, typically) a high-status man. Note that it’s married white women who vote so reliably R. Unmarried white women are much more likely to vote D.
Jackie
@Scout211: 👍🏻
Kay
@Brachiator:
I don’t think it’s odd at all. There’s lots and lots of women who dislike and distrust other women. The strongest factor predicting an anti choice vote is not gender – it’s dislike and (especially) lack of trust in women. All women are aware of this – in the 1980s and 1990s there was even a sort of meme around it – the way to prove your worth to men was to bash other women. That’s only changed in probably the last ten years. When I was a manager at the post office I heard it – it was cool to say you are a woman and you don’t like “women bosses”. It meant you were a cool girl who men would like.
One of the best descriptions of this I have seen was in the documentary about how Nickelodeon sexualized young girls in really creepy ways. They interview two female writers who worked for the shows – they’re comedy writers – and they’re both deeply ashamed of how they laughed along with really gross behavior from men towards women, because to not do so was to risk not being accepted in the club. I thought it was brutally honest of both of them. One of them actually teared up when she described laughing along with a joke from the male writers that completely humiliated her colleague.
schrodingers_cat
@Eyeroller: Excellent point.
Jackie
@Eyeroller: Especially those 10 yr old sluts🙄
Brachiator
@Eyeroller:
More complicated than that. Many women were willing to suffer the consequences of their actions because of their religious beliefs. If they had an unintended pregnancy, they would sneak off somewhere and have the baby in secret. And they would also watch as their daughters dealt with their pregnancies.
And of course there were the hypocrites who would have abortions while denying the right to others.
There are people who believe that we should all just shut up and suffer. Their God is cruel. But it’s for our own good.
TBone
@MomSense: 🥰
JaySinWA
Entertainment can affect politics:
Some comments here have referenced Mr. Bates vs the post office.
It is having a real-time impact on UK politics.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/10/world/europe/uk-itv-mr-bates-vs-post-office.html
PBS has a timeline here
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/specialfeatures/mr-bates-vs-the-post-office-timeline-of-the-uk-horizon-scandal/#
With the original series on Masterpiece (via PBS Passport online)
Drama can reach normies to fire political action for good as well as evil.
Parliament has just passed legislation to effectively override the court system to attempt restitution (and political recriminations).
Kay
@Brachiator:
It’s hard for women to speak up because other women – seeking male approval- will often jump in to discredit them. We had an older magistrate years ago- terribly sexist. He had a disability – trouble walking- so I would be sitting in chambers with a male lawyer and he would hand me paper to take to the clerk. I have to get up and take it to her office. This went on about a year and finally I said “give it to Ryan” (other lawyer). We have to present this with a smile so as not to offend men, so I smiled. The next time I went in there he told me several other women lawyers told him they were fine carrying all his paper. They’re the cool kids. I’m the bitch who complains about being treated like his secretary.
Baud
@Kay:
Good.
Kay
@Brachiator:
It’s like how “Karen” has been weaponized. They now use it to describe any woman who asks for or demands anything. It’s become just another way to shit on women and shut them up. I knew it would. It wasn’t an accident the derogatory term was female and used only on women, although obviously there are both privileged and demanding men. Just women are too demanding. Men never are.
Kay
@Baud:
I saw him at a bar event not long ago. He’s ancient. I was so glad I didn’t have to greet him – I would have had to if I was still in front of him, because I don’t want his sexism towards me to harm my clients.
Brachiator
@Kay:
I’m sure that this is part of it. But it is grounded in the perverse religious ideology of evangelicals and other religious extremists who insist that we must all be obedient to their interpretation of the will of God. And they have made the unborn child a worship fetish.
smith
@Kay: Being demanding is a perk for the entitled only.
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have horror stories about being in the writers room on SNL. There was definitely a corrosive “boys club” atmosphere. But the power imbalance changed when Fey and Poehler dominated the show by being funnier than the dildos in the room.
Brachiator
@Kay:
There are women who don’t simply seek male approval. They fear disapproval. There are men and women, and particularly in America, white women, who want a seat at the table of power, and don’t mind groveling a bit to get there.
JaySinWA
@Brachiator: I think religion is just one part of the social norms that reinforce people’s attitudes towards women. It isn’t the origin of the abuse, just another part of the structure. You don’t have to be religious to think women are inferior and can be abused.
I suspect religion is a lagging indicator, a regressive force in general governing what society expects from people’s behavior
ETA I think religion reflects the culture it is part of rather than creating it. But the reflection is backward looking, like a rear view mirror.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: The leadership of the anti-abortion movement is dominated by white women.
And in liberal spaces, many white women will pay lip service to diversity but stick a knife in your back at the first opportunity. Men are at least upfront about their hostiility. Most men don’t say one thing when they mean another.
Did you see the corollary to men and bear discourse? In professional settings, black women would rather deal with a Chad than a white woman.
Soprano2
@Kay: Our press has always been piss poor when it comes to covering international news, that’s not new. It’s revealing to hear the BBC overnight on our NPR station – I hear about things that are never covered in the US.
Soprano2
@Eyeroller: That was my life in the winter for 33 years; I used a space heater in the bathroom every morning from October through March. I love my gas furnace. The irony is that our utility bill didn’t go up much at all, which is what my husband was always afraid of.
Soprano2
@Kay: I’ve been saying that for 20 or more years, that the anti-abortion movement is about controlling women. People laughed, I don’t think they’re laughing now.
Soprano2
@Kay: At my first full time job the general manager was a sexist jerk. He asked me to serve coffee at a meeting after I’d been out sick for two days. I smiled and said in my sweetest voice “I’m sorry but I’ve been gone and have a lot of work to catch up on. Maybe Duane (man with the same job I had) could do it”. He grimaced, walked away, and had his secretary do it, which is what he should have done to begin with. Everybody was shocked that I didn’t just do it, but I draw the line at things like that. He only did it to humiliate me, he didn’t like me because I wouldn’t knuckle under to his bullying.
Soprano2
@Kay: It’s kind of like this where I work because there are so few women. They joke about having to be careful about what they say because someone might call HR (like they did when they were offended by the Covid cartoons on my office door). I say they should treat their co-workers how they want their mother, wife and/ or daughters to be treated. It’s pretty simple, actually. They act like they’ll get in trouble if they say a cuss word, it’s dumb. 🙄🙄