Tag Archives: comedian

Books, Celebrities, Entertainment

‘Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama’: Bob Odenkirk Memoir exposes his Comedic Origins

Actor Bob Odenkirk, who portrays the iconic Jimmy McGill /Saul Goodman character in AMC’s “Better Call Saul” is currently wrapping up the show’s final season, which is now available to watch (or stream) weekly on AMC . And even though the show is coming to an end, there is still so much more in store for the actor; he is set to star in a new series, an adaptation, also on the AMC Network called “Straight Man”, as well as venturing out on a book tour for his newly released memoir “Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama”. 

Starting to re-watch the series from scratch, it’s easy to see the why the show has been so incredibly successful. Odenkirk it’s a unique star with a wide acting range, playing an easily lovable character that you feel you can stand behind (as he cares for his mentally ill brother), even when he is doing sketchy things (bribing witnesses, forging documents, etc.) to get by. 

Of course, not to be forgotten is the epic and one-of-a-kind construction that made ‘Better Call Saul’ into a 6 season prequel to ‘Breaking Bad’s’ 5 amazing seasons. Since the 6th and final season is currently underway – there will no doubt be an amazing opportunity to watch all 11 seasons in the binge of all binge marathons.

The shared characters and storylines, from Ignacio “Nacho” Varga to Michael Ehrmantraut to Walter White and Jesse Pinkman make for an amazing and truly gargantuan story arc. The final season of ‘Better Call Saul’ even includes a few “flash forwards’ to the post ‘Breaking Bad’ timeframe which currently also has the ‘El Camino’ feature in its time-space dimension.

Rising from his early origins as a stand up comic, then to writing for Saturday Night Live (SNL) to eventually an on-screen debut in “The Ben Stiller Show”, HBO’s “Mr Show with Bod and David” and of course, making his lasting trademark as Saul Goodman in “Breaking Bad”. 

If you want to learn more about Bob’s new memoir, more information about the book with a description from the publisher follows, below.

Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama: A Memoir

Click the photo for more information on “Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama“

Bob Odenkirk’s career is inexplicable. And yet he will try like hell to explicate it for you. Charting a “Homeric” decades-long “odyssey” from his origins in the seedy comedy clubs of Chicago to a dramatic career full of award nominations–with a side-trip into the action-man world that is baffling to all who know him–it’s almost like there are many Bob Odenkirks! But there is just one and one is plenty. Bob embraced a life in comedy after a chance meeting with Second City’s legendary Del Close. He somehow made his way to a job as a writer at Saturday Night Live.

While surviving that legendary gauntlet by the skin of his gnashing teeth, he stashed away the secrets of comedy writing–eventually employing them in the immortal “Motivational Speaker” sketch for Chris Farley, honing them on The Ben Stiller Show, and perfecting them on Mr. Show with Bob and David. In Hollywood, Bob demonstrated a bullheadedness that would shame Sisyphus himself, and when all hope was lost for the umpteenth time, the phone rang with an offer to appear on Breaking Bad–a show about how boring it is to be a high school chemistry teacher. His embrace of this strange new world of dramatic acting led him to working with Steven Spielberg, Alexander Payne, and Greta Gerwig, and then, in a twist that will confound you, he re-re-invented himself as a bona fide action star. Why? Read this and do your own psychoanalysis–it’s fun! Featuring humorous tangents, never-before-seen photos, wild characters, and Bob’s trademark unflinching drive, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama is a classic showbiz tale told by a determined idiot.

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AI, Apps, News, Observation, Politics, Social Media, Streaming, Tech

How Joe Rogan became podcasting’s Goliath

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic

Comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan is caught in a spiral of controversies.

It began when “The Joe Rogan Experience” hosted COVID-19 vaccine skeptic Robert Malone and a number of musicians pulled their music off of Spotify in protest. It has continued with Rogan apologizing for using racial slurs in past years, which prompted the streaming service to remove scores of his old episodes from the streaming platform.

Given the thousands of hours of content that Rogan has produced, the scrutiny is unlikely to stop there. As we argue in our forthcoming book, Rogan’s podcast has long promoted right-wing comedy and libertarian political voices, including some who trade quite gleefully in racism and misogyny.

However, what makes Rogan’s rise particularly important is that it goes beyond the standard partisan political battling that Americans have grown accustomed to in social and broadcast media.

Rogan is not just a purveyor of right-wing ideologies. He is also someone who has built an empire by introducing these ideas – and a wide range of others – to listeners from across the political spectrum. His truly unique skill is drawing in from that spectrum a massive, young, largely male audience that advertisers highly covet.

Ideological whiplash

When the Federal Communications Commission introduced the Fairness Doctrine in 1949, radio and television broadcasters were required to present controversial ideas in a manner that reflected multiple perspectives. However, the combination of cable television, niche consumer targeting and President Ronald Reagan’s deregulatory FCC succeeded in toppling the mandate.

By 1987, conservative talk radio figures such as Rush Limbaugh embraced fully partisan approaches to content creation and audience accumulation. Ignoring their political opponents as potential listeners, they veered further and further to the right, garnering an increasingly homogeneous audience whom advertisers could easily target.

Later, as Fox News’ popularity and reach grew, it took a similar tack, promoting conservative media personalities like Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Greg Gutfeld to preach to the right-wing choir.

Today, some conservative voices such as Ben Shapiro and Steven Crowder take this logic a technological step further, embracing the silo-ing effects of social media algorithms to connect with those users most likely to engage with and disseminate their content. Although such figures certainly offend those who disagree with them, their place in the mediasphere is well-established and mostly ignored by opponents.

Rogan, by contrast, is prone to ideological whiplash.

Initially, he supported Bernie Sanders for president in 2020. Then he flipped to Donald Trump. He interviews and asks open-ended questions to figures ranging from staunchly left-leaning voices such as Cornel West and Michael Pollan to right-wing charlatans including Stefan Molyneux and Alex Jones.

There is no political commonality among these people. But there is a demographic connection. For one, they are all men, as are the vast majority of guests on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

They are also provocative guests that appeal to young people and particularly young men, a group that is notoriously difficult to aggregate, often has disposable income and has a tendency to believe that mainstream political ideas don’t reflect their own.

While Fox News sells politics to TV watchers, Rogan sells a sense of edgy authenticity to podcast listeners. His blend of comedy and controversy certainly has political implications, but from his perspective, it isn’t politics. It’s demographics.

Spotify’s main attraction

Rogan’s economic model of accumulating young male listeners, who make up a good chunk of his 11 million listeners per episode, is particularly powerful in today’s fractured media environment.

Rogan is, for worse and for better, a true outlier in the world of contemporary talk media. Most political and many comedy podcasts employ the business model of finding an ideological space, connecting via cross-promotion and guest selection with similar shows, and allowing the algorithms of social media to drive traffic their way.

“The Joe Rogan Experience” takes this idea and pulls it in multiple, contradictory directions. Media figures left and right have – until now, at least – coveted opportunities to appear on the show. Once a comedian or podcaster has saturated their own political space, Rogan offers a chance to win over new converts and, in principle, have a discussion that breaks free of partisan constraints. For many Rogan fans, this breadth of discussion and freedom from norms is the heart of the show.

Rogan, however, is far from a neutral host of a new public sphere. His feigned naiveté is all too often a cover to promote edgy, offensive and irresponsible theories that appeal to his audience’s self-styled suspicion of authority.

He pushes the boundaries of political discourse by “just asking questions,” but then hides behind his background as just a comedian to distance himself from any undesirable repercussions.

Spotify, like other streaming services, is primarily built on a wide range of content creators, each of whom attracts a small, dedicated audience, but none of whom are, on their own, particularly powerful.

Rogan is the closest thing to a mass cultural product to be found in the podcast world. He is also one of the only names in podcasting big enough to garner headlines, good or bad. For a company like Spotify trying to boost subscriptions, Rogan’s cross-partisan, youthful, mass appeal is very hard to resist.

Rogan’s recent apologies, however, prove that he is not impervious to pressure. We suspect Spotify will try to thread the needle: covering up Rogan’s penchant for misinformation and offensive provocation just enough to meet the minimum standard of acceptable corporate citizenship without tarnishing the comedian’s brand and demographic appeal.

[Like what you’ve read? Want more? Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter.]

Matt Sienkiewicz, Associate Professor of Communication and International Studies, Boston College and Nick Marx, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Colorado State University

This article is republished from The Conversation by Matt Sienkiewicz, Boston College and Nick Marx, Colorado State University under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Hot-Lynx

Chris Rock tests positive for coronavirus -‘Trust me you don’t want this’

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic

In a tweet on Sunday morning the superstar comedian and actor, 56, announced that he had a positive covid result. He also urged his 5.2 million followers to get vaccinated.

“Hey guys I just found out I have COVID, trust me you don’t want this. Get vaccinated.”

In May 2021, Rock divulged that he had been vaccinated while he was being interviewed on The Tonight Show with Jammy Fallon.

He has spoken out previously and often in favor of people and his fans getting vaccinated.

It is unclear what, if any symptoms he may have. So-called “breakthrough” infections – a positive test in spite of already being vaccinated, are somewhat common, with the statistics showing that, though a vaccinated individual can still carry the virus, hence the positive test result, the symptoms are usually mild and seldom require hospitalization.

These are, of course, generalizations, based on various statistics and studies. A danger, particularly of the new “Delta” variant is that a person is easily infected and the severity of the symptoms differ greatly among individuals.

So, the likely potential benefit of Rock having had the Johnson and Johnson vaccination in May, is that he could experience milder symptoms that had he not done so.

IN an interview in January with Gayle King on CBS Sunday Morning, Rock replied to queries regarding his perspective on the issue: “Let me put it this way. Do I take Tylenol when I get a headache? Yes. Do I know what’s in Tylenol? I don’t know what’s in Tylenol. I just know my headache is gone.

“Do I know what’s in a Big Mac, Gayle? No. I just know it’s delicious.”

Recently, in early September, US President Joe Biden initiated new vaccine requirements and criticized the choice of roughly 80 million Americans who had at that time not had the jab.

The new mandate calls for all employers with more than 100 workers must require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly.

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Business, Observation

How The Daily Wire Uses Facebook’s Targeted Advertising to Build Its Brand

Above: photo collage by Lyxotic

The social media giant’s powerful targeting tools appear to be part of Ben Shapiro’s success in growing his audience on the platform

Ben Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire, a conservative media company, has mastered Facebook’s complex algorithms like no one else, posting links to stories from his publication that rank among the top 10 best performing posts on Facebook day after day after day.

What’s the key to his success? 

As a recent NPR analysis shows, The Daily Wire’s sensationalist headlines garner a ton of engagement on a platform that rewards explosive content. But The Daily Wire is also a sophisticated user of Facebook’s advertising targeting tools to pinpoint users likely to be receptive to its outrage-driven brand of conservative content, The Markup has found.

Using data from our Citizen Browser project, we pulled targeting information from 241 Daily Wire ads that ran on Facebook between April 15 and July 15, 2021. We found that The Daily Wire largely chose to target people whom Facebook had pegged as interested in Fox News, Donald Trump, Rush Limbaugh, and other conservative mainstays, as well as individuals Facebook determined were characteristically or demographically similar to The Daily Wire’s existing audience members. (See our data here.)

Citizen Browser consists of a panel of roughly 1,800 Facebook users across the country who voluntarily share their Facebook news feed data with The Markup—providing a rare, albeit relatively small, window into what different people see on the platform. 

By contrast, The New York Times—one of the largest legacy media publications in the U.S.—took a different tack in its Facebook advertising, targeting users according to the topics of the articles. So, for instance, an article about a band could be targeted to Facebook users with “music” listed in their ad interests. (Facebook says it determines users’ interests based on their past activities on the platform but has been somewhat cagey about how exactly this is done.)

Of the two publications, The Daily Wire used interest targeting more frequently than The New York Times did: 39.3 percent of Daily Wire ads versus 23.5 percent of ads from the Times were targeted in this way.  

The table below shows the top 10 interests targeted in sponsored posts from both outlets:

While the Times mostly targets topical interests, of the top 20 interests targeted by The Daily Wire, only one (“American Football”) was not directly tied to conservative media or politics. 

The Daily Wire also frequently made use of Facebook’s “lookalike audiences” feature to show content to new audiences of users who do not follow the page but share characteristics with those who do. In our dataset, 37.9 percent of Daily Wire posts used this type of targeting. The New York Times also used this targeting type, albeit rarely: Only 3.6 percent of its sponsored posts in our dataset targeted lookalike audiences.

“As you’re looking at this dataset, to me it shows that mainstream media outlets like The New York Times are still approaching the internet as a collective space in which you could potentially learn about anything, from ‘research’ or ‘science’ to ‘family and relationships,’ ” Francesca Tripodi, an assistant professor at UNC School of Information and Library Science at Chapel Hill, said. “But Daily Wire, if you’re saying, ‘We only want to target people who are interested in conservatism in America,’ that creates this bifurcated or dual internet, and that allows for information to circulate unchecked.”

Facebook advertising is designed to use personal data points about its users to guess what sorts of products they might like, she said, but there’s a fundamental difference between a food brand serving ads to people who like potato chips and a news brand serving information to people who like conservatism.

“[Daily Wire] is using the same tactics that these corporate entities are using but to create siloed interests around information,” Tripodi said. 

Neither The Daily Wire nor Facebook responded to multiple requests for comment. 

Beyond Facebook’s powerful data-gathering system, The Daily Wire amasses its own information on readers and potential readers. 

The Markup also scanned Daily Wire ads in the Facebook ad library, which contains a broader range of ads than those seen by Citizen Browser panelists but does not disclose targeting information. Over a three-month period, from May through July, the ad library displayed 47 unique ads from The Daily Wire. Of these, 22 were survey-style ads prompting users to respond to emotive political questions. 

Clicking the ad takes users away from Facebook and onto the dailywire.com domain, where they are asked to enter an email address in order to respond.

Over the same time period, no New York Times ads available in the ad library used this technique.

The Daily Wire’s website also contains an unusually high number of data-gathering trackers. 

A scan from Blacklight, a website privacy inspector built by The Markup, on Aug. 4, 2021, turned up 41 ad trackers and 117 third-party cookies on the homepage. By contrast, The Markup’s scan of 100,000 of the most popular websites in September 2020 found an average of seven ad trackers and only three third-party cookies per site.

The site also uses Facebook’s bespoke Pixel tracking code to send data back to the social platform about users who have visited the site, which The Daily Wire can use to further tweak ad targeting and build new lookalike audiences.

“What you’ve shown here is clear evidence of the way in which the radicalization of our society is built on many facets of the algorithm, including the tools provided for ad targeting,” said Cameron Hickey, project director for algorithmic transparency at the National Conference on Citizenship.

Questions about the ethics of using data-driven profiling to target political messages are not new. Perhaps most famously, the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica purported to create detailed psychological profiles of Facebook users and shared those with the campaign of former president Donald Trump. While profiling has been a part of politics for decades to some extent, figures ranging from former Facebook insiders to Federal Election Commission officials have raised alarms over the kind of microtargeting that social media allows. (The European Commission is also considering including a ban on microtargeting in its landmark Digital Services Act package, which is making its way through the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.) 

That said, The Daily Wire’s targeting choices are widely accepted as routine, its success on Facebook more of a feature of the platform’s workings than a bug in the system, said Katie Joseff, a research fellow at the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin.

“These platforms, when you look at Facebook and YouTube in particular, they want people on there who are engaging their users because then there’s more users and user time overall,” Joseff said. “So [The Daily Wire] is definitely playing into the structure as it was created and doing it well.”

By Corin Faife – This article was originally published on The Markup and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

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Entertainment, Movies, Videos

‘Nobody’ is the logical next step after ‘Better Call Saul’ for Bob Odenkirk

Video

Above:Bob Odenkirk in ‘Nobody’ Credit: Universal

John Wick with a milquetoast twist? No, much better than that…

Are you, like me, someone who just has to watch any movie with Liam Neeson after “Taken” where he plays an underestimated character doing mega damage to the bad guys? Was “John Wick” (and 2 and 3 etc) a worthwhile experience but you could imagine a bit of Bob Odenkirk à la mode mixed in? You’re in luck (seriously).

The official blurb from Universal goes like this: Emmy winner Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul, The Post, Nebraska, Breaking Bad) stars as Hutch Mansell, an underestimated and overlooked dad and husband, taking life’s indignities on the chin and never pushing back. A nobody.

Add to this his “particular set of skills” and ominous past and you have an inspired next step in this now established feel-good as the blood-flows genre. (trailer below)

At a time when, metaphorically, perhaps all of us feel like we are bullied once too many times, and when the vagaries of trying to live in peace have us at wits end, watching this could be the antidote to all those pent-up feelings.

However, if going to see it live in a movie theater still seems too dangerous, you will soon be able to stream – if you are willing to pay for video-on-demand.

As of Friday, April 16th you will be able to purchase to stream at the usual VOD outlets (most likely, Apple, Amazon and others) and there’s even a blu-ray disk in the offing which has pre-order options already.

Directed by Ilya Naishuller (Hardcore Henry), and written by Derek Kolstad (John Wick), a great cast that includes Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul, The Post, Nebraska) and co-stars legendary Emmy winner Christopher Lloyd as Hutch’s father, musician-actor RZA as Hutch’s brother, whose own hidden talents aid Hutch in his quest for vengeance.

Here is the description provided on the official web site by Universal Pictures:

Sometimes the man you don’t notice is the most dangerous of all.
Emmy winner Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul, The Post, Nebraska) stars as Hutch Mansell, an underestimated and overlooked dad and husband, taking life’s indignities on the chin and never pushing back. A nobody.

When two thieves break into his suburban home one night, Hutch declines to defend himself or his family, hoping to prevent serious violence. His teenage son, Blake (Gage Munroe, The Shack), is disappointed in him and his wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen, Wonder Woman), seems to pull only further away.

The aftermath of the incident strikes a match to Hutch’s long-simmering rage, triggering dormant instincts and propelling him on a brutal path that will surface dark secrets and lethal skills. In a barrage of fists, gunfire and squealing tires, Hutch must save his family from a dangerous adversary (famed Russian actor Aleksey Serebryakov, Amazon’s McMafia)—and ensure that he will never be underestimated as a nobody again.

Nobody is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Ilya Naishuller (Hardcore Henry), from a script by Derek Kolstad, the narrative architect of the John Wick franchise, and co-stars legendary Emmy winner Christopher Lloyd as Hutch’s father and multi-hyphenate musician-actor RZA as Hutch’s brother, whose own hidden talents aid Hutch in his quest for vengeance.

The film is produced by Kelly McCormick, p.g.a, and David Leitch, p.g.a., the filmmakers of Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Deadpool 2 and Atomic Blonde, for their company 87North, by Braden Aftergood, p.g.a. (Hell or High Water, Wind River), for his Eighty Two Films, and by Bob Odenkirk and Marc Provissiero (Hulu’s PEN15) for Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment. The film is executive produced by Derek Kolstad, Marc S. Fischer, Annie Marter and Tobey Maguire.

Above:”Nobody” official trailer Credit: Universal

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Science, Tech

Does Elon Musk have two Plans to Save Humanity?

Video
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1364905536194572289/pu/vid/640x640/rd4iQkl-Xvef86HI.mp4?tag=10

Having two plans to save the world, and being Elon Musk, the questions are fascinating and a bit bizarre

It was bound to happen, sooner or later. So many fantastic triumphs over evil – starting a company with a goal of accelerating sustainable energy and transportation. And then , not only succeeding at that but challenging the fossil fuel industrial complex, beating them, then basically forcing the major automakers across the globe to finally make the shift into all electric vehicles.

And SpaceX, though launching rockets is a messy thing, at least the Starlink Satellite Broadband internet project is something that will help humans all over the earth to decentralize, potentially a much needed option, if or when the coastlines begin to shrink and overpopulated coastal megalopolises are at the bottom of the ocean.

Forever win streak has an end in sight?

But Mars? There are some questions about that. For example, if the Earth rescue is so important, and if it succeeds (please!) then why would anyone want to live in a place like Mars?

Elon Musk replies cryptically to this lovely Mars Clip

As Shannon Stirone wrote in the Atlantic this week: Mars Is a Hellhole. And further: Colonizing the red planet is a ridiculous way to help humanity. Ok. There are issues. It’s a bit cold, an average surface temperature is a deadly 80 degrees below zero according to the article. Wow, and it has no magnetic field to help protect its surface from radiation from the sun or galactic cosmic rays; it has no breathable air.

Those are all enough for anyone to want to double down on the whole “let’s fix the earth” thing.

Unless…. Musk being the genius that he is, could it be that he is hedging his bets? Has he basically already decided that this whole Climate Change thing has already gone too far? And Earth is beyond saving?

Others have pointed out that by putting even a tiny fraction less effort into saving this planet in order to try and colonize another one, one that is 3.7 billion miles away, btw, could jeopardize the slim chance still there that climate change can be slowed, stopped, even reversed before it’s too late.

A list of goals and accomplishments that dovetail nicely into a world saved, or?

So what is the Mars thing really about then? I have to be honest it might be just fine. Give “Emperor Elan” the benefit of the doubt. Tesla’s are damn S3XY and they are also a perfect first step into transforming the world transportation and even energy generation and storage into something sustainable, and that’s downright perfect: utopia and having the time of your life all at once.

So, why not just throw in Mars and a nice little colony there, just for kicks? The whole mental-telepathy, Neurallink, thing, that’s gotta be useful too and, along with AI and Hyper-loop, let’s do it all, shall we?

Perhaps it does all fit together in some way that is invisible to the rest of us. Why, when Earth seems to need all our attention, particularly with political inaction and even obfuscation and attempted sabotage of the paths to a green future, why put so much into Mars right now?

Hopefully the answer is right around the corner, or at least less than 3.7 billion miles away.

source: twitter @RationalEtienne

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Breaking News, Observation, Politics

Trump’s Best Impeachment Defense: ‘I’m a Buffoon and it was all a Joke’

Laying out the evidence, built up over months and leading to Jan. 6th, makes a compelling case, for anyone not considered a clown

Click here to see
“Tower of Lies“
to help Independent Bookstores. 
Also available on Amazon.

All throughout the so-called “presidency” of DJT bizarre double standards were used, exploited and reinforced by him and his minions. If he made an outrageous, even criminal statement, either on Twitter, or in a publicly available video recording, and outrage or any kind of pushback arose, the go-to explanation was “he was obviously joking”.

Read More: Giuliani’s Wacky ‘Drunk Lady’ is at it again: Running for office in Michigan

No matter if the gaffe was suggesting people inject bleach to combat the corona virus, or when he suggested that the U.S. buy Greenland, there was always a built in escape hatch: he didn’t really mean it, and you are a political hack, or worse, for suggesting that he did.

And, even more ridiculous, if you were a member of the press or a democrat, there were many who would seriously posit that he should not, or could not, be held accountable because he is obviously an idiot or a clown or a criminal mastermind and stable genius that would, therefore, get away with it anyway.

Read More: Don Jr. gasping for breath on Fox News: Ranting & Raving about Impeachment #2

From an interview by NPR titled “What Might Accountability For President Trump Look Like?” with IAN BASSIN, executive director of Protect Democracy:

“But when you look internationally and you look at history, what you find is that the risks of not acting are actually worse. What happens is that abusers return to power often and engage in even more abusive behavior. To put this in terms I think we all could understand, as every parent knows, if a child takes a cookie from the cookie jar when he’s not supposed to, and you just move on, not only will he do it again, but next time, so will his brother and sister.”

Added together with propaganda techniques cribbed from Russia (and others) such as “Whataboutism” and an even more primitive derivative of the idea which comes straight from the playground-bully school: “I know you are, but what am I?”.

”Whataboutism has been common in Putin’s Russia. The Atlantic cited one such example in 2014, noting that when the Kremlin faced criticisms of its treatment of protesters, government officials responded, “What about the United Kingdom? Breaking the law during public gatherings there could lead to a fine of 5,800 pounds sterling there or even prison.”

— DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN for NPR

And then there are the famous Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’ well known axioms: “Accuse your enemy of that which you are guilty” and the “Big Lie” theory:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

One valid reason for this unique out-of-office Impeachment proceeding is exposing the limits for the “Buffoon Defense”

This stroll down memory lane brings us to the current Senate Trial that will lead to a vote to convict Trump and, since he can no longer be removed, to bar him from ever again running for, or holding, public office.

Read More: Trump’s Lawyers submit Legal Docs: Misspelling ‘United States’ – Twice

When the evidence is laid out, as if Trump were an actual president and serious person, which is happening, beginning today on live TV, the effect is shock, not that these things happened, but that the gulf between his actions, and the consequences any other person would receive as a result, ever became so incredibly huge.

This was the drift of the impeachment managers presentation; lay out facts, using words, charts, graphs and even video evidence. Facts that, under any other circumstance, and with regard to any other politician, or any other defendant, would yield a 99.9999% likelihood of grave and serious consequences.

Yet in this bizarre case it is being seen and understood as serious and real by, perhaps, the majority, and at the same time is seen as meaningless or worse, some kind of left-wing conspiracy, by the rest.

What does the success of such obvious propaganda and mind control say about our society and situation going forward?

Even among the most discerning witnesses of the last four plus years it remains hard to determine just how much of the propaganda was planned, orchestrated and understood by the perpetrators with Trump as a figurehead.

Or if it was all a big, insane coincidence, that an actual buffoon could be just smart enough to use the “idiot-card” with such success.

Read More: Conspiracy Theories Are Infecting Millions of Brains – Are they all Toxic?

If there is a book being written on Trump’s true legacy or on the mysteries that he left behind, this core mystery, how much his actual stupidity was a key benefit to getting away with so much crime, so much destruction, and, in the end, depending on the outcome, even murder, should be the central premise.

And this trial, with the articulated goal of accountability for real and very serious crimes, must have as a secondary aim, to expose and deconstruct the lies and the methods of avoiding accountability for all the damage and destruction over the entire tenure of the administration.

It remains to be seen if the ability to use the Buffoon Defense will extend to Sedition and Murder, if so, the larger story will ultimately be the insanity of acquitting a man so obviously deserving of finally being made to face consequences, and that will be rightly seen as the larger crime.

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Breaking News, Observation, Politics

Giuliani’s Wacky ‘Drunk Lady’ is at it again: Running for office in Michigan

Carone claims she wants to bring back “conservative values” 

Even if you don’t know the name Mellissa Carone, most that have social media or watched any television will be able to recall the image or the likeness to this woman.   

Read more: Don Jr. gasping for breath on Fox News: Ranting & Raving about Impeachment #2

Back in December of 2020, Carone, almost instantly became a parody when she appeared alongside Rudy Giuliani during an Oversight hearing. Videos from SNL, TikTok and even Amy Schumer popped up, with the main selling point that she appeared drunk, some coining her the “wine lady” or “drunk lady”. 

Read More: Giuliani’s Dripping Head and ‘My Cousin Vinny’ Dominate Fraud Presser in Desperate Sweaty Stammering Mess

Mellissa Carone is making news again, as the 33 year old Republican is reportedly going to run for the 46th District seat, according to a recent filing with Michigan Secretary of State’s office. 

According to Detroit News:

“I am running on election integrity,” Carone said in a Tuesday interview.

Read More: This Wacky and Wacko Viral humor is a Welcome Respite from Reality that Bites

She also criticized Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the state’s three top Democrats. Michigan needs “conservative values” back, Carone said.

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Entertainment, Lifestyle, Movies, Music, Observation, Politics

James Corden’s Les Misérables send-up a fitting Comedy Tour-de-force

Video

There’s a strange and oddly fitting feeling as Les Misérables spoof soars on a sad yet freeing occasion

On the eve before the final hours of Trump’s bizarre and sick term in office, James Corden and company took the time to put together this video musical spoof that captures the odd combination of joy, disgust and freedom that comes with the knowledge that, going forward, all things Trump will recede in importance, inexorably.

For most of us, that would be along the lines of “the sooner-the-better” that he has finally disappeared from the public discourse and most of all from the political life of the USA.

Read more: As Trump Flees to Florida, Memes Follow

At the same time, many of us, particularly in the media, have had an odd way of life due to this wannabe tyrant dominating the airwaves and news-cycles. It’s become such a daily ritual to follow the outrage and try, in any way possible, to stand up and challenge the criminal ideas and even actions that have swirled around us in a way that has been so consistent that it almost became “normal”. Almost.

It never was normal, and that’s where the odd “joy”, as can be heard in various tenor tones from this song, is also an honest reaction to history, finally, moving forward. And perhaps, there is the ever so faint recognition that we, all of us, played a small part in making sure that this man’s sick and twisted dreams did not continue to impact our reality for more than his four year term.

https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1351714199903236097/vid/1280x720/A_d2F1G10uPrvgV6.mp4?tag=13

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / James Corden

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Breaking News, Politics

Trump Headlines Explode Faster than Anyone can Absorb

The sheer volume of actual news, and the various perspectives is daunting and exhausting

Since the most recent phase of the post election chaos, created by Trump and his absurd and unhinged rejection of the reality that he lost to President-elect Joe Biden, reached crisis status due to the terrorist mob attacking the U.S. Capitol, the development of the various threads of the story have exploded exponentially.

With various legal cases and developments in the search for accountability, for numerous individuals including Trump himself, and with his ongoing defiance of his own guilt and the fate that awaits him, it feels like there are bombshell headlines nearly every hour.

Read more: Headline News: The World Condemns Trump and Attempted Coup at the Capitol

In addition to all of those serious and important threads are the reactions of the famous and the infamous, some trying to deflect or obfuscate, even to make light of the carnage, and the outrageous nature of the crimes. Others are grappling to give voice to the outrage that the vast majority feel, on many different levels at what has happened, and what continues to happen. Most of all: what might happen next.

Read more: Observation: Forget the Alamo: Trump is still trying to incite an Insurrection

Below are various headlines from the last 24 hours, some of which encapsulate the horror and the confusion, as well as the attempts to find clarity in this massive, ongoing and developing story:

”GOP Rep. Peter Meijer says he is ‘considering’ Trump impeachment after Capitol riot”

-USA Today

“Jim Jordan repeatedly refuses to say Biden fairly won election”

-CNN

”New terror threat points to plot to surround Capitol, lawmaker says”

— CNN

”Trump Threatens Violence If He’s Impeached for Inciting Violence”

-New York Magazine

”Analysis: The bonkers Republican logic on why Trump shouldn’t be impeached”

-CNN

”Deutsche Bank won’t do any more business with Trump”

-CNN

“Pro-Trump Attorney Lin Wood Not of ‘Sufficient Character’ to Practice Law, Decides Judge”

-Newsweek

”Was the Capitol Attack a Last Gasp of MAGA Violence or the Beginning?”

-Vanity Fair

”Texas officials worry Trump’s trip could turn violent”

-Politico

”There Will Be No ‘Unity’ Until Republicans Give Up Voter-Suppression as a National Policy”

-Esquire

”Don Lemon: Trump ‘the biggest snowflake of them all”

— The Grio

”Trump Expresses No Contrition for Inciting the Capitol Mob.”

-The New York Times

”Democrats have a new tool to undo Trump’s ‘midnight rule-making.’ But there’s a catch.”

-NBC News

“Facebook Removes ‘Stop The Steal’ Content; Twitter Suspends QAnon Accounts”

-NPR

“Extremists move to secret online channels to plan for Inauguration Day in D.C.”

-NBC News

”How to stop an Insurrection Caucus: These reforms could reduce GOP extremism and save our democracy”

-Salon
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Entertainment, Lifestyle, Movies

Check out the 2020 list for Barack Obama’s Favorite TV Shows and Films: Trailers included

Video

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic

Former President Barack Obama continues his annual tradition, one that he has observed since he was first in office, where he shares his list of favorite TV shows and movies for the year.  Throughout the years Obama has limited his selection to 3, yet he expanded his list to 10 for 2020, apparently because, like the majority of us, he had a lot of extra time on his hands to stream and watch videos. 

In his tweet, Obama said: 

“Like everyone else, we were stuck inside a lot this year, and with streaming further blurring the lines between theatrical movies and television features, I’ve expanded the list to include visual storytelling that I’ve enjoyed this year, regardless of format,”

Among the top TV shows chosen include: “The Queen’s Gambit”, “Mrs. America”, “Better Call Saul”, “The Good Lord Bird”, “The Last Dance”, and  “I May Destroy You”. 

On the film side, Obama’s choices, which not surprisingly also include some of AP’s list of best movies: “Mank”, “Boys State”, Lovers Rock”, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”, and a documentary produced by Barack’s production company, “Crip Camp”.

We’ve included some TV and movie trailers that held the top spots for Obama’s movie list.  All the videos below are currently available to stream through the various platforms: Netflix, HBO, Showtime, Apple TV+ or Amazon Prime Video:

Crip Camp (Netflix)

Good Lord Bird (Showtime)

https://youtu.be/H-Tm63y-S4s

Boys State (Apple TV+)

I May Destroy You (HBO)

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)

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Breaking News, Observation, Politics

NBC Data might show that PPP Loans were Given to Trump & Kushner affiliated firms

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic

Nixon once asserted: “Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal”. The implication was not lost on Trump who has seemingly flaunted the law throughout his life and then appeared to shift into overdrive once in the White House. 

Naturally, as has been evident as well, also even boasted “I don’t pay taxes because I’m smart”, and when money, especially free money gained at the expense of the less fortunate, it seems Trump and his “Jr. partner Jared Kushner might indeed pull out all the stops. 

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that, once details on who received pandemic relief loans were revealed by the Small Business Administration, including the PPP or Paycheck Protection Program, multiple businesses linked to both were allegedly present.

NBC news: Over 25 PPP loans worth more than $3.65 million were given to businesses with addresses at Trump and Kushner real estate properties, paying rent to those owners. Fifteen of the properties self-reported that they only kept one job, zero jobs, or did not report a number at all.

—NBC News

While there have been many reports of fraud and abuse related to this and other pandemic relief programs, most stories on these were slanted towards shaming various individuals who had engaged in fraud to obtain the loans. 

There were also numerous accounts of, in some cases, public companies with access to billions in capital applying for and receiving $100s of millions of dollars in forgivable loans. Names like Shake Shack, Ruth’s Chris, Potbelly Corp. and others were embroiled in controversy when some information leaked, and in some cases the companies, fearing public boycott or backlash, returned funds. While these examples show no specific wrongdoing on any particular company, the appearance of impropriety is nevertheless in question.

Now with more data the headlines are expanding to include potential impropriety , if not possible criminal action of Trump and Kushner seen as bilking the program at will, as well as massive and tragically-comical mismanagement of the “relief” funds with 100s of examples such as loans payed to companies that did not supply a name and many larger companies using multiple subsidiaries to gang together groups of smaller loans into sums totally tens of millions or more. 

According to NBC, All these tricks and potentially more were employed (surprise!) by Trump and Kushner affiliated firms. 

NBC: Sweeping [analysis of] data released by the Small Business Administration…found that properties owned by the Trump Organization as well as the Kushner Companies, owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, profited from the program.

NBC News

The potential abuses, beyond the obvious one that this money was meant to relieve business not connected to government officials, and those who’s business were damaged by the pandemic in general, followed a pattern where the money flowed to those that needed it least (due to massive wealth, such as stories that have circulated about Kanye West) or due to already having existing access to nearly unlimited capital (such as the public companies that lined up to access relief funds rather than use billions they had in reserve).

Other examples of Trump allegedly using and exploiting the presidency are so common as to make it almost redundant to cite these massive, and if true, unethical and potentially criminal abuses. So many have already been noted and cited in the press – from the profits flowing into his properties directly from taxpayer dollars or by diverting foreign officials to them, tax cheating, dirtying money to his daughter and son-in-law, on and on it goes. 

The only question that remains is why there appears to be “no-one home” when it comes to holding Trump and his family of abusers accountable. Much has been made of his soon-to-be gone immunity from federal prosecution, but what about the family? Pardons and tra-la-la? 

That can’t be the way this ends. Otherwise the rest of us are just as corrupt by letting it happen without a response of appropriate magnitude. 

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Observation, Politics

#DiaperDon trends as Trump has a T-day Tantrum behind a Very Tiny Desk

Video
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1333484624622718976/pu/vid/1280x720/4gdQxGKuWowFuQPk.mp4?tag=10


Don’t you know who I think I am?  I’m the President of the United States?! 

It has been well over three weeks since Trump lost the presidential election to Joe Biden, yet like a broken record, he continuously tries to peddle the still unsubstantiated claim that the election was somehow “rigged”.

Trump has been adamant that he will continue the fight to overturn election results, however,  at the same time saying that he would leave on his own accord.

That being, only after Biden has officially been deemed the victor by the Electoral College, which will take place come Dec. 14.  

On Thanksgiving, Trump held a press conference to answer questions from reporters, a first since Biden was called as the projected winner of the presidential election.  

One could easily find humor with just the small desk that Trump sat behind in the Diplomatic Room of the White House. 

But wait, there was more, Trump decided to flip out on a reporter, lashing out saying, “Don’t talk to me that way,” ….“You’re just a lightweight…I’m the president of the United States. Don’t ever talk to the president that way.”

Coming just about as close to a concession as we realistically are ever going to get from 45, he says, “It’s going to be a very hard thing to concede because we know there was massive fraud,” while again spouting lies without backing anything up with evidence.

He continued to ramble on, “As to whether or not we can get this apparatus moving quickly — because time isn’t on our side, everything else is on our side, facts are on our side, this was a massive fraud.” 

The combination of the tiny desk, which many compared it to a child’s desk  and Trump lashing out at a reporter, made for the perfect storm in social media content creativity.  Almost immediately #DiaperDon started trending on Twitter and Donald Trump tried to call upon Section 230 for purposes he deemed at levels of National Security.  Check out the hilarious video 

https://twitter.com/Sobiaah23475954/status/1332249719750483968?s=20
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Breaking News, Entertainment, Lifestyle

Grammys will be Hosted by Trevor Noah in 2021

Video
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1331230470688870404/vid/960x540/5viFhtCoQNs08izY.mp4?tag=13

Above: Video of CBS This Morning – Photo Collage / Lynxotic

Daily Show funny man will bring his many talents to the big show for Music excellence

Trevor Noah, host of “The Daily Show” has been announced as emcee of the 2021 Grammys.

The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards will be broadcast on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021, on the CBS  at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT and will be streamed live on GRAMMY.com at 3:00 p.m. ET / 12:00 p.m. PT.

“Despite the fact that I am extremely disappointed that the GRAMMYs ® have refused to have me sing or be nominated for best pop album, I am thrilled to be hosting this auspicious event, I think as a one-time Grammy nominee, I am the best person to provide a shoulder to all the amazing artists who do not win on the night because I too know the pain of not winning the award! (This is a metaphorical shoulder, I’m not trying to catch Corona). See you at the 63rd Grammys!

— Trevor Noah
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Entertainment, Lifestyle, Movies

Trump Transition Chaos is subject of Obama produced ‘The G Word’: Netflix Comedy

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic

Art meets and imitates life squared in new Comedy series inspired by Trump and Produced by the Obamas

Barack and Michelle Obama are producing a sketch comedy series for Netflix inspired by Trump’s 2016 presidential win and transition. The Obamas’ production company “Higher Ground” will bring in U.S. comedian to host the show, which has been titled,  “The G Word with Adam Conover”. Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions has a multi-year agreement to produce films and series (both scripted and unscripted) for Netflix.

Read More: Barack Obama invokes Navy Seals as way to remove Trump from WH in flashback to Bin Laden Take-down

Click to see “The Fifth Risk”
and help Independent Bookstores.
Also available on Amazon.

The streaming series is loosely inspired by the book “The Fifth Risk” by Michael Lewis. Written in 2018 his book is about the narrative of the Trump administration’s botched presidential transition, and takes us into the engine rooms of a government under attack by its leaders through willful ignorance and greed. 

Interestingly, Barack Obama was himself a topic and participated, to some degree, in the transition and it is interesting to imagine what, if any, insight he may have been able to ad to the comedic potential of the subject matter. 

The Federal Government manages a vast array of critical services that are meant to keep us safe and underpin our lives, from ensuring the safety of our food and drugs and predicting extreme weather events to tracking and locating black market uranium before the terrorists do. Trump’s lack of interest or ability in managing the transition, let alone the Government itself, is the basic fodder for the comedic premise.

BoJack Horseman treatment could yield fantastic and funny results

Adam Conover confirmed the news on Twitter; “Very happy to finally be able to share this news: I’m creating a new comedy series for Netflix about the federal government. It’s called The G Word, and I can’t wait to share it with you.”

Conover is known for “Adam Ruins Everything” and “BoJack Horseman” and will use his comedic chops to blend sketch comedy with documentary elements, as the focus of the show is, in normal times, a pretty serious one,  the government.  

Netflix’s press release shared a little more light into what the show will bring to viewers:

”Using fast-paced visual comedy, Conover reveals the profound power and complexity of the U.S. government, introduces viewers to the heroic civil servants who make it work, and takes an incisive satirical look at its shortcomings.”

NETFLIX PRESS RELEASE

Filming is set to begin sometime early 2021, during the same general time as  Barack Obama’s former vice president Joe Biden will be taking office as the 26th President.  

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Books

John Lithgow’s “Trumpty-Dumpty wanted a Crown: verses for a despotic age” becomes instant bestseller

Robust Laughter will arise from these Verses for the Despotic Age of Trump

Last year, Tony Award winning actor John Lithgow released a playful book of satirical poems titled “Dumpty: The Age Of Trump In Verse.” The collection poked scathing fun at President Donald Trump as well as many of his supporters in Washington, all alongside illustrations from the author.

Click here to see
“Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown“
and help Independent Bookstores.
Also available on Amazon.

Now, Lithgow is back with a follow-up— a new anthology with an even more creative title, “Trumpty Dumpty Wanted A Crown: Verses For A Despotic Age.”

Like Lithgow’s first book, “Trumpty Dumpty” explores the chaos that is the current presidency through poetry. Only now, there are even more characters and topics to delve into, and Lithgow does so with humorous and timely poignancy. 

Read More: Important New Books on WWII, fascism and threats to Democracy

Lithgow’s images take on the same style as those in the first book as well. The author noted in an interview that he grew up wanting to be a visual artist before falling into acting. Clearly, he’s never lost touch with his original passion. For this book, the pictures appropriately look like something out of an old-time newspaper; the author cites political cartoonist Thomas Nast as a primary inspiration.

More than a book of illustrations – prose and rhymes delight as well

As for the writing itself, Lithgow has always held a longstanding passion for stories and verse. The Harvard grad mentions that his father— actor/director Arthur Washington Lithgow—held immense skill in creating rhymes on the fly. Evidently, it must be hereditary, as John never misses an opportunity for cleverness in this cheeky collection.

The author finished writing the book in May, and he read some of the original pieces on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert several months back. However, the accompanying drawings took a bit longer to finish, and the publication process went right up to the bell.

Click here to see “Dumpty”
and help Independent Bookstores.
Also available on Amazon.

Now that the book is out, though, many others are getting in on the fun. In an amusing promotional endeavor, Lithgow organized some dramatic readings from his celebrity friends. Fellow actors Meryl Streep, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Samuel L. Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Glenn Close all showed up, as well as a few figures on the political scene.

With the help of producers B. Swibel, Adam Westbrook, Adam Bankhead, and Tim Van Patten, the team created a series of videos with these notable faces reciting Lithgow’s zany words, the backgrounds all cartoonish facades in the spirit of Lithgow’s art. 

Lithgow says that he had the time to write the book during quarantine, as Broadway theaters shut their doors and film/television productions took a pause due to the pandemic. Poetry kept him busy as the acting business went on hiatus. Only now are productions starting to pick up again. While Lithgow makes a stellar poet and a great humorist, he now looks forward to returning to the thespian world.

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Breaking News, Politics

Trump rejects everything about the final debate yet vows to attend anyway

Rules that favor the sane are clearly unpopular with the chief of interruptions and accusations

The final Presidential debate, currently scheduled for Thursday October 22 will have 90 minutes divided into six fifteen-minute segments. Each segment will have 2 minutes of time for each candidate to speak, guaranteed without interruption, before the topic is “discussed” in open debate format. 

Trump, whining to reporters last night disagreed with virtually everything about the debate: “I will participate but it’s very unfair that they changed the topics and it’s very unfair that again we have an anchor who’s totally biased.”

During an hour long interview with “Fox & Friends” he went further:

‘This was supposed to be a foreign policy debate, and new all of a sudden we’re talking about things that are not foreign policy. And, frankly, it was a change that they made that was far bigger than the mute button, I mean, frankly. But they made a change, and it shouldn’t have happened. It shouldn’t have happened”

Click here to see “Obama: An Intimate Portrait“
and help Independent Bookstores.
Also available on Amazon.

During Barack Obama’s two terms, Pete Souza was with the President during more crucial moments than anyone else — and he photographed them all. Souza captured nearly two million photographs of President Obama, in moments highly classified and disarmingly candid. Obama: An Intimate Portrait reproduces more than 300 of Souza’s most iconic photographs with fine-art print quality in an oversize collectible format.

Click here to see “Obama: An Intimate Portrait” and help Independent Bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

Some are already speculating that Trump will scream and yell and wave his arms during the time that his mic is muted. Alternatively, he could choose to cancel, which appears to be unlikely at this late juncture. Apparently, while the last debate was all about talking over, interrupting and generally trying to disrupt the proceedings, this time it will be about complaining outside the actual performance itself. I guess we’ll all have to tune in to see.

“We realize, after discussions with both campaigns, that neither campaign may be totally satisfied with the measures announced today.  We are comfortable that these actions strike the right balance and that they are in the interest of the American people, for whom these debates are held.”

– The Commission on Presidential Debates

In addition to the 2 minutes of time each is given to speak without interruption there will be an attempt made to calculate the time one candidate loses due to an interruption by the other candidate will be credited back to the candidate that was interrupted. 

Read More: Important New Books on WWII, fascism and threats to Democracy

Since Trump interrupted three times as often as Biden in the first debate; 71 times vs. 22 by the former Vice President, it was always unlikely that these rules would be welcomed by the Trump campaign. The bizarre strategy of “winning by interruption” will have far less potential in the new format. 

The groundwork has been laid to choose to blame and mock the commission and the moderator or simply refuse to attend

On Monday a complaint in advance was already sent to the commission by Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager:

“It is completely unacceptable for anyone to wield such power, and a decision to proceed with that change amounts to turning further editorial control of the debate over to the Commission which has already demonstrated its partiality to Biden,” said Stepien.

Additionally, the Trump campaign appears to be unhappy with the topics that were announced by the debate commission and in the same letter quoted above attempted to steer the debate topics away from the Covid-19 pandemic and into “foreign policy” and other issues. 

Read More: Trump’s Disinformation Propaganda Production fueled by Steroids and Hubris

All the grousing could be a set-up for a last minute cancelation by the Trump camp, as has been speculated.

That would likely only benefit Biden, and speed-up the need for Trump to find a country that would host him in exile.

However, as of last night this quote from  Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien still stands: Trump “is committed to debating Joe Biden regardless of last minute rule changes from the biased commission in their latest attempt to provide advantage to their favored candidate.”

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