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Open thread 6/7/24 — 54 Comments

  1. Very good! For some reason, it made me think of a ‘Bedroom Guitarist’:

    Sophie Lloyd is one of the most prolific guitarists on the world wide web, a trailblazer who is redefining the concept of a “bedroom” guitarist. A talented composer and accomplished musician, Sophie graduated from the prestigious BIMM in 2018 with a First Class Honours BMus in Popular Music Performance, honing and refining a talent she has nurtured since childhood.

    Just noticed that Sophie Lloyd has been nominated for the Best Breakthrough Album category at the Heavy Music Awards 2024: I gave her my vote, even tho am not a Heavy Music fan. Her YouTube is HERE.

    Her SHRED VERSION version of Jimi Hendrix’s – All Along The Watchtower

  2. Lovely, and so timely. Dear friends will celebrate their sixtieth anniversary on Monday.

  3. US news outlets turn to Fleet Street veterans as their troubles mount – that’s X which heads to a paywall…

    The Brits Invade US Newsrooms With a ‘Killer Instinct’ and Fleet Street Ethics

    The crisis in American news media has led to an unexpected result in a very short time: The invasion of executive news suites by British editors, who experts say bring a “killer instinct” to news gathering, while notably downgrading the diversity quotient in news leadership.

    Sounds great! Fleet Street?! Is it like Sesame Street?

    Going Postal

    Will Lewis is quickly losing the confidence of his newsroom.

    The chief executive and publisher of The Washington Post, who took the helm of the venerable newspaper in January — and was initially welcomed by staffers with cautious optimism — has over the course of the last several days alienated his troops and raised larger questions about his fitness to run one of the nation’s most prestigious news organizations.

    At The Post, according to more than half-dozen staffers I spoke with Thursday, morale has fallen off a cliff since Lewis abruptly ousted Executive Editor Sally Buzbee on Sunday .. The Post has hit “rough patches” before, but that the stormy atmosphere hanging over the Washington outlet is unprecedented.

    ooooooooooooooooohhHHH! Maybe Bezos will hold a fire-sale and Musk buys at a discount…

  4. @Karmi:Fleet Street?! Is it like Sesame Street?

    Lol. Fleet Street was once ran along a river, then ran along an open sewer, then ran along a covered sewer, and then became the center of London journalism, probably for convenience of access.

    You cannot hope
    to bribe or twist,
    (thank God!) the
    British journalist.

    But, seeing what
    the man will do
    unbribed, there’s
    no occasion to.

    But their papers make money, and haven’t yet decided to become stenographers for government and PR firms.

  5. trollope called the Times the Thunderer, I haven’t found they have particularly distinguished themselves, the Daily Mail is good in some spots weak in others same for the Express, the Torygraph not as good with the Barkleys brothers as well Conrad Black owned it,

  6. It’s a multi-leveled song:
    ________________________________

    It’s curious how songs begin because the origin of the song, every song, has a kind of grain or seed that somebody hands you or the world hands you and that’s why the process is so mysterious about writing a song.

    But [this song] came from just hearing or reading or knowing that in the death camps, beside the crematoria, in certain of the death camps, a string quartet was pressed into performance while this horror was going on, those were the people whose fate was this horror also. And they would be playing classical music while their fellow prisoners were being killed and burnt.

    So, that music, “Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin,” meaning the beauty thereof being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation.

    But, it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved, so that the song — it’s not important that anybody knows the genesis of it, because if the language comes from that passionate resource, it will be able to embrace all passionate activity.

    –Leonard Cohen
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_Me_to_the_End_of_Love

  7. Re: Fetterman

    Banned Lizard:

    Oh, thanks for that link! Incredible brain recovery by Fetterman.

    I can’t help but say, by his sweatshirt color and by my leather-bound volumes of Tolkien:

    Fetterman the Grey is now Fetterman the White.

  8. huxley:

    Fetterman the Grey is now Fetterman the White.

    🙂 🙂 Seems like Republicans didn’t want him back into the Senate, but now it’s the Democrats not wanting him.

  9. Kate, wish your friends a Happy Anniversary. My Wife and I will “only” be celebrating our 56th tomorrow.

  10. Well…My wife & I will hit 35 years of marriage in about a month’s time.
    My folks hit 60 & hers a bit past 50…the “until death parts us” was what did in both cases.

    Rich blessings abound around us. And Shirehome…leave some breadcrumbs along the trail for the rest of us to follow. Well done y’all! Happy Anniversary!

  11. Fetterman the Grey is now Fetterman the White.

    Fetterman is the Leftist he always was, and his relative support for Israel and Jews on campus doesn’t make him less Leftist or better for America.

    If the standard for Strange New Respect is “not being a flagrant anti-Semite”, all but a handful of the Democrats in Congress do that much.

    He’s still voting for Chuck Schumer for Senate Majority Leader, and until he doesn’t it’s just talk, because support for Majority Leader is the only consequential vote any of them make–the rest of their votes are negotiated outcomes designed to accomplish collective priorities while shielding individuals from responsibility. I mean that’s what the Whips spend all day doing, negotiating with people about how they’re going to vote.

  12. Niketas Choniates:

    I agree that for the most part, Fetterman will still vote the party line. But in addition to his pro-Israel stance, he’s also taken a position more in line with the right on illegal aliens.

  13. Shirehome, blessings on your anniversary, and I hope your wife’s treatment succeeds and gives you many more.

  14. Thanks Kate. She is making great progress. We take it a day at a time.

  15. Fetterman is the Leftist he always was, and his relative support for Israel and Jews on campus doesn’t make him less Leftist or better for America.

    Niketas Choniates:

    I’ve said it before. Conservatives are people who won’t take yes for an answer. 🙂

    Well, it can’t be denied Fetterman has switched his gray hoodie for a white one in that video. Plus, I remain impressed by his recovery from a stroke two years ago.

    So we have a Democrat, who openly supports Israel, opposes open borders and declares he is not a progressive. That’s huge. I say he is remarkable and courageous, even if he is not going to vote a straight MAGA ticket in November.

    I’m an ex-leftie. Fetterman must be receiving a ferocious amount of pressure to get back to the reservation.

  16. @huxley:So we have a Democrat, who openly supports Israel, opposes open borders and declares he is not a progressive. That’s huge…

    It’s words, sir. If he votes for Schumer for Majority Leader, knowing what positions Schumer supports, then those words are simply lies. He utters them knowing that he will do nothing meaningful in support of them. He will be sometimes allowed to vote against things his words didn’t support when Schumer knows he doesn’t need the vote, and the price of his vote will simply be higher when Schumer does need his vote.

    I’m assuming here that his positions are being accurately described and are not right-leaning media wishcasting. I don’t believe “opposes open borders” is an accurate summary of his January words:

    And I think two things can be true at the same time — you can be very supportive of immigration, but we also need to have a secure border,” he continued. “And I really — I think about immigration is we want to provide the American dream for any migrant, but it seems very difficult when you have 300,000 people showing up, encountered … to do that. And I think we need to reset and we have to work together and develop a new comprehensive solution to that.

    It’s the same mush we’ve been served by both parties for 30 years. Now compare with his October words, there’s no change here:

    “I believe that a secure border is can be compatible with compassion…I believe that we need a bipartisan solution for immigration — that’s what I believe. I don’t ever recall in the Statue of Liberty that they say ‘Take our tired huddled masses and put them on a bus and use cheap political stunts about them….I believe we have to develop a comprehensive and bipartisan solution to address our issue here for immigration here in our nation…”

    Fetterman must be receiving a ferocious amount of pressure to return to the reservation.

    Did he lose his committee chair or any committee assignments? What appropriations or appointments proposed by him have been blocked by his party leadership? I’m prepared to believe in this “pressure” if it’s anything but words.

    I like the gang here, for the most part reasonable and serious people. But we are too ready to accept narratives without looking closely at the facts, and we are too willing accept words as evidence of actions in the future.

    As for other positions: gun control, abortion on demand up to crowning, raising minimum wage, wealth tax…

  17. Niketas Choniates:

    Well, you won’t take a yes under any circumstances or to any degree for anything.

    Like I said.

  18. Today I had an interesting sync between “The Longest Day” which I’m watching and a George Lucas quote about Star Wars.

    Lucas was asked long ago and far away about the number of women in Star Wars.

    He didn’t rule out women entirely, e.g. the dynamic Princess Leia, but he noted that in history and in movies like “The Longest Day” (he mentioned specifically) it’s just the reality. Men fight wars; women don’t.

    The show is called “Star Wars” after all.

  19. Niketas Choniates

    If the standard for Strange New Respect is “not being a flagrant anti-Semite”, all but a handful of the Democrats in Congress do that much.

    huxley is correct on this issue – ‘a Democrat, who openly supports Israel, opposes open borders and declares he is not a progressive. That’s huge.’ If you see this as a “Strange New Respect” then you fail to see a crack in the DEMs armor…so to speak.

    I like the gang here, for the most part reasonable and serious people. But we are too ready to accept narratives without looking closely at the facts, and we are too willing accept words as evidence of actions in the future.

    Speak for yourself. I’m not the only one here that does not willingly “accept words as evidence of actions”, and goodness knows many of the Republicans/Conservatives here (and in Congress) also spout a lot of words. 😉

    Personally, I’m looking at Fetterman as a potential Joe Manchin and/or Kyrsten Sinema – rare DEMs that are not always in lockstep with the Democratic party. They can come in handy at times – rare or not.

  20. @huxley:Well, you won’t take a yes under any circumstances or to any degree for anything.

    Untrue. If he voted against Schumer for Majority Leader I’d be convinced. If he lost all his Senate perks for going against his party I’d be convinced. I’m not convinced by platitutdes.

    @Karmi:I’m looking at Fetterman as a potential Joe Manchin and/or Kyrsten Sinema – rare DEMs that are not always in lockstep with the Democratic party. They can come in handy at times – rare or not.

    Lol, the “Maverick Mambo”. When the base wants something the party leadership doesn’t want, the Mavericks are there to defeat it by that Just One Vote–yet mysteriously never lose their perks for “bucking their party”. When the party leadership does want it, the Mavericks are bought off if they’re needed, or they vote their irrelevant Nays if not. Been fleecing the chumps with that dodge since the 2000s.

    The votes in Congress are not the legislative process. They are the outcomes of the legislative process. They are managed.

  21. The latest Acolyte wackiness….

    –“‘The Acolyte’ Star Amandla Stenberg Cracks Up at ‘Gayest Star Wars’ Moniker: It’s ‘So Gay Already!’”
    https://www.thewrap.com/the-acolyte-gayest-star-wars-amandla-stenberg/

    This is the star of the show, non-binary Amandla Stenberg and showrunner lesbian Leslye Headland (former assistant to Harvey Weinstein, ahem) having public laughing fits about how gay “The Acolyte” is.

    Apparently this, from two days ago, is their idea of promoting “The Acolyte.” You can’t say they are sneaking it in.

    Further wisdom imparted — C3PO is gay, R2D2 is lesbian and they are a couple. You heard it here first!

  22. Niketas shure has a lot of words about a politician. I guess he doesn’t realize that is what politicians mostly use, persuasion before action ……

  23. Thanks for the info, huxley. The first time I heard that song, I said, “That’s on the playlist for whichever-of-us-goes-first’s memorial service – no funeral, we’re getting toasted :). His intent came through.
    I’ll repeat what I said elsewhere, Fetterman is an old-fashioned PA Union Democrat. The key to Dem legislative success is the union concept of “solidarity”. It’s been part of the Democratic Party’s DNA for more than a century, and he has it, in spades. He may make some statements you like, but he’ll vote with the caucus 99% of the time.

  24. I’ll repeat what I said elsewhere, Fetterman is an old-fashioned PA Union Democrat.

    buddhaha:

    Sure, I’ll take an old-fashioned Dem partying like it’s 1999! 🙂

    Wouldn’t you?

    Plus Fetterman is supporting Israel from that side. That’s precious. To me anyway. And it further divides Dems on a great wedge issue.

    Conservatives mostly don’t seem to understand how change happens. It’s one percent here, another percent there. Until some critical mass is reached, if that happens and it may not. But it’s better than no change at all.

    “Gradually, then suddenly,” as Hemingway famously put it.

    Glad you appreciated the Leonard Cohen quote.

  25. Man, “The Longest Day” is great. It’s one of those films I watch and I don’t understand why everyone else isn’t watching it too.

    It’s a 1962 film. It didn’t win Best Picture Oscar. It lost to “Lawrence of Arabia” another incredible war epic with David Lean (director) and Peter O’Toole at the absolute height of their considerable powers. TLD did win Best Cinematography which it quite deserved.

    So many wonderful scenes. So much detail packed in. It does make you wonder:
    _____________________________________

    …it was on the one hand an incredible undertaking, on the other a bunch of absolute craziness that had no right to work out as well as it apparently did.

    –Philip Sells
    ___________________________________

    TLD takes pains to point out questions:

    (1) What if the weather had gotten worse?
    (2) What if security had broken and the Nazis expected the attack?
    (3) What if Hitler hadn’t taken a sleeping pill that night and had been available to release the Panzers and Luftwaffe on the D-Day forces?
    (4) What if the Allies had been successfully bottled up on the beaches?

    I haven’t watched a great old-school Hollywood epic in a while. Movies are so terrible these days. Not just for the wokeness, but the current sheer incompetence to tell a coherent story visually.

  26. huxley:

    Another really good one is “The Day of the Jackal.” Young people find it too slow, but it’s great. It was made in 1973. They remade it in a terrible terrible version in 1997. The original is by Fred Zinneman, who did “High Noon.”

  27. Pelosi: Wrong to Invite Netanyahu Before Congress

    “No. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I think this is wrong. Frankly, I didn’t approve of his being invited the last time,” Pelosi told CNN’s Dana Bash when asked if she would have invited Netanyahu. Former House Speaker John Boehner called on Netanyahu to address Congress in 2015. “But the speaker, just on his own, invited him without consulting with the rest of the leadership [in 2015]. And he came and he criticized President [Barack] Obama for the masterful work that he had done with the nuclear agreement regarding Iran to stop them from developing a nuclear weapon.

  28. Kate:

    In spite of Brandon’s intentions four Israeli hostages are freed by the IDF. The Gazamites plans suffer a set back; the four were not intended to survive.

  29. And OJ found the killer. Karmi loves jury nullification. Karmi will be ecstatic if the jury uses Deleware rules to find Hunter Brandon innocent; “laws of man” and all that.

  30. om, wrong and wrong again, are you ever right on anything? You remind me of those tattletale brats in elementary school who were always running their mouths…Jeez.

  31. And OJ had still not found the real killer in Karmi world. “Laws of man,” Karmi, and capital crimes, eh?

    Some are stuck in high school, some get stuck even earlier? You be you. :0

  32. om – you should convert to Islam, which would help provide cover for your horrendous behavior on this blog – Islam would especially provide cover when your ‘Hatred Gasket‘ blows…

  33. Oj was the killer i still hold dershowitz responsible for letting him get away well theres one other member of the defense team still alive barry (something or other)

    It was about an ellroy type screenplay he was writing are you for real the lapd lost a great detective because of this sham two people butchered but because it was oj yay

  34. Are “Inlaws of man” a thing, and are they capital?

    Did OJ ever find the real killer of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman? I still remember where I was the day the “laws of man” verdict was announced. There was no justice on that day Karmi.

    Enough of this idle chit chat, neo posted a Sunday Open Thread!

  35. Agree, “Day of the Jackal” was great. Zinneman also directed “The Search”, “From Here to Eternity” and “A Man For All Seasons”. Under appreciated I think.

  36. yes the remake with bruce willis was terrible, zinneman, was very coy with the way they presented the jackal, who the book suggests is an english mercenary named calvert, played by edward fox, but they leave it in the air as to who he is,

    we know in retrospect, that forsyth, was a stringer for MI-6 when he gathered the material that became Jackal Odessa, and Dogs of War

    he was also very good at adapting From here to Eternity, which is iconic for that scene with Debra Kerr, which was sort of recreated in a TV show in the 80s, with Sela Ward, if memory serves, the screenplay shows the savagery of the peacetime Marines, in the run up to Pearl Harbor,

  37. miguel cervantes:

    The remake of the movie was also extremely violent, whereas in the earlier Zinneman version the violence was not shown, just implied. The early version was subtly chilling, and Fox played the perfect cipher.

  38. thats the difference between a craftsman and just some run of the mill movie maker, besides the ridiculous casting of richard gere as an IRA hitman,

  39. miguel, it was Calthrop whom they thought for most of the book was his real name, but then at the end, after the Jackal had been dealt with and they went to his apartment, it turned out not to be so simple.

    I find Day of the Jackal on one level a deeply depressing read, being completely cynical about humanity throughout. Lebel is one of the only really good people in the whole book. There are a few other kind characters, such as the landlady who feeds the neighborhood cat every day (and whom, IIRC, the Jackal marks down as a minor ingredient in his plan), but only Lebel and perhaps Frey seem to combine decency with real intelligence. Still, I find it a ripping good yarn and reread it every now and again.

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