To honor Presidents Day, which we traditionally do by trying to forget that Barack Obama ever happened, we're taking a Presidential approach to today's blog. Which is to say we're glancing at whatever's on our desk, scribbling a few words which may or may not be salient, then quickly moving on to the next topic so we can finish in time for a round of golf. Except that in our case, it's a round of drinks.
• Mueller's Indictments - After a long (and unfortunately ongoing) investigation, Bob Mueller has revealed that a bunch of Russians had 9-to-5 day jobs which consisted of posting bullcrap on Facebook and Twitter, not to help elect anyone, but just to screw with our heads. An effort which falls somewhere between minor espionage and snickering assholery.
We are shocked - shocked! - to discover that it's not a good idea to get your news from blips and blurps on social media, nor is it a great idea for Americans to forward inflammatory political messages without first checking to see if they're factual.
This is, we suppose, evidence of Russian "meddling" in an election (and not for the first time), but semantics matter (unless you're anti-semantic) and meddling simply means the Russian trolls were sand in America's vasoline - irritating, annoying, and inconsequential. "Meddling" does not mean "affecting the outcome of the election," which flat out didn't happen.
• Trump's Sex Shenanigans - Frankly, my dears, we don't give a damn. We don't know if the accusations are true, but we do know that it's really nobody's business except Donald and Melania Trump. If he's screwing around on her, then he's a cad and a scoundrel. If, on the other hand, he has her permission to enjoy occasional flings and does so with porn stars and Playboy centerfolds, we can only shake our heads and say "it must be fun to be a billionaire."
This represents no hypocrisy on our part when compared to our feelings about Bill Clinton. Trump hasn't spattered the Oval Office with DNA while screwing young interns, he hasn't committed violent rape and then have his wife cover it up, he hasn't lied about it while under oath, and he hasn't done it on taxpayer-funded time. As Hillary was so fond of saying, "it's time to move on."
• Black Panther Movie - This thing is a huge box office success, and critics are proclaiming it to be a great and socially important film because if they didn't, they would be called racists. And for all we know, it's a fine superhero movie which we'll enjoy watching on Netflix someday.
But the mainstream media is arguing that the release of this film is a moment of great meaning in our nation's history, finally giving African-Americans real pride in their cultural heritage of being descended from superpowered comic book characters.
We've got a question: why is it that African-Americans should find meaning and pride in a CGI-packed movie about the imaginary black leader of the most technologically advanced civilization on Earth instead of finding such validation during 8 years of an actual black leader of the most technologically advanced civilization on Earth? Was it that Barry needed a cat mask and ebony bodysuit, or was a Half-Black Panther just a doomed concept from the start?
Again, we're not trashing the film or people's enthusiasm for it. But can we please turn down the volume on the many stories about the movie's importance and its undertones of racial divisiveness?
Stories which, for all we know, were planted by Russians.
AND ONE FROM THE VAULT...
27 comments:
On the Black Pantser, er, Panther, I heard one guy say the movie was "proof" of what a an African country could have done were it not for white colonialism.
Having a large imaginary meteor, filled with an imaginary mineral substance from outer space, land in your imaginary country helps, too!
I'll probably catch it when it hits cable.
Stilton's comments on the Mueller. investigation were very insightful: [I thought that I would choose a few lines to cite, but they're all too close perfect to choose]. I am so grateful for the Jarlsberg team's work.
Spot on regarding the attention Trump's peccadilloes are receiving vs Clinton's criminal sexual behavior - but: that's liberals for ya. Can't see the tree limb in their own eye, but they sure can spot that wood molecule in yours...
In the tradition of Black Jesus, the Wiz, Black Annie, and Black Santa Claus...I doubt this movie will do what the racists seem to keep trying to bring about...Black self awareness leading to inclusion in the American mainstream.
It will make a ton of Green, but I doubt if the longevity of the rush will equal the time it took to realize Obongo wasn't gonna bring us Hope and Change.
Why the hell would the Donald go outside his penthouse yo screw around?
Oh, Never Mind indeed.
We should be honoring presidential greatness on this day. Instead the worst president in history is being forced on us by all types of media. That movie? One I'll NEVER see. As for hill being indicted...never. No one wants to die.
Who on this list of "Stilton's Reprobates" remembers when we celebrated Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays as separate (but equal?) events?
Mueller's Indictments: I'm old enough to remember when Russian meddling with elections was not just assumed, but was sought out and welcomed by Democrats.
But you have to admire the ease at which the Russians have been able to ferment discord in our society with mere thousands of dollars on Facebook. I have to admire their efficiency.
Trump's Sex Shenanigans: I'm with you; Who cares? Yup, Trumps a pig, living an adolescent wet dream. Tell us something else new. Even the most fervent Democrats I know seem to know better than to try running with this one.
The Democrats unwittingly inoculated the nation against future outrage over this sort of thing 20 years ago when they went all-in to save Bill Clinton from his oral office escapades. "It's just sex. It doesn't mean anything" we were told, no, lectured over and over again.
So now that Republicans have become "evolved" regarding sex and don't seem to care about who Trump may or may not have been rolling about with a decade ago, some Democrats expect everyone to become prudes again. Sorry folks. The '90s called and doesn't want your morals back.
Black Panther Movie: As someone who tuned out comic book-based movies decades ago, (I find them tiresome) I really couldn't care less about the Black Panther. Am I now to understand that not caring makes me a racist?
But you really do have to hand it to the marketing people and a pliant media that laps up everything they dispense. They definitely got their money's worth.
...and Florida: I didn't comment on this last week, because I took Friday off for a much needed mental health day. I didn't have anything to add at the time anyway.
But I will say something I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else over the last week:
Once again, notice that the only time we get a big push for gun control is when a mass shooter is a white male.
It didn't happen after San Bernardino. It didn't happen after Orlando. It doesn't happen after a typical weekend in Chicago.
(It didn't happen after Las Vegas, because something else hinkey was going on and it became toxic to the gun grabbers who were likely afraid that the incident would turn out to be an argument for the 2nd Amendment)
@Judi King
LOL...Obama actually lost the election, and it's Donald Trump who is President...one of the greater Presidents of the last 20+ years.
The first I know of to get flack for keeping his campaign promises!
I'd give him a Nobel Prize just on principles! Or for Melania! (A+, Donald.)
@ Fritz
Me! Me! I do!
Proud to be old AND a Deplorable!
@Stilton
I have a large movie collection, which includes the classic "Boss Nigger". "Boss Nigger" is the first film for which Williamson was credited as screenwriter or producer, and stars Fred Williamson and D'Urville Martin...not "Blazing Saddles", but among the great Blaxplotation flicks!
@ Mike aka Proof
You got that right, only you left out one key ingredient...a really spiffers costume from IMAGINARY CREEPY CHARACTERS Costumers. Probably HQd in New York...
I will watch the Black Panther movie, only when I can stream or download it for free online. I have enjoyed previous Marvel movies such as the first Ironman (IMHO: the sequels should never have been made).
I also enjoy waiting to see Stan Lee make his cameo appearance as a minor character as he does in every one of his movies, just as Alfred Hitchcock used to.
Yes! Now it's just "Birthington's Washday", as my uncle once quipped after the calendar change ... a bankers day off.
The rise of the Clintons (and, by extension, Obama Inc.) just brings me back to the thought that Mister, we could use a man like J Edgar Hoover, again...
His files on everyone could've done a world of good to prevent them from rising to power.
The Press has/had similar info on C&O, and should've let us know about it, but they're just collaborators, and pretty much have been since at least the late '50s or early '60s.
Not a peep here from Cuomo or Schumer when a black man shot up a local store last summer either. The hero of the day was a man armed with a car, BTW.
The shooter was standing outside the store. The driver clipped the shooter than gave chase on foot when the man dropped his gun. By that time the cops had showed up and kept the perpetrator from escaping the scene.
Remember when a politician with a brain (can't remember who offhand) suggested that people should mob the attacker instead of running away, and was ridiculed by the left.
Yet every time in a situation like this where the casualties are minimized, that's exactly what people do.
I've not read Mueller's indictments yet, but it sure sounds like dismal news for the lefties who were doing their best Pavlov's dog impression thinking about the horrendous, treasonous, baby harp seal bashing, sex and drug influenced partying, racist, homophobic, xenophobic plethora of proof that Mueller was supposed to vomit up against Trump. They thought they were lighting a stick of dynamite, and it ended up more pathetic than a kid's cheap sparkler. I'll bet Trump giggled himself to sleep the night Mueller made the announcement. And I thoroughly enjoyed hearing that turd, Rosenstein, having to exonerate Trump with his own mouth.
Trump sex scandal? Really? This coming from the party of Bill "blue dress" Clinton and Anthony "bulgy knickers" Weiner? Puh-lease!
Black Panther movie. Who cares. I do agree with Geoff King, though. I still like my Marvel superhero movies, and that is despite libtard morons like Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo being in them. Still, I'll not pay at the box office. It will be on Netflix soon enough for me.
@Big Dick- Theoretically, Melania had just given birth to Barron. Between the last stages of pregnancy and just giving birth, Melania may not have been in the mood.
@TrickyRicky- Yep.
@Judi King- We should be honoring Presidential greatness today, but does anyone still believe in it? Obama wrecked respect for the office for conservatives, and Trump seems to be doing the same for liberals (rightly or wrongly, in both cases).
@Fritz Brohn- I do, I do! Combining the birthdays homogenizes them into a pretty generic day, mostly characterized by white sales. Imagine if Martin Luther King Jr lost his observance day when the government lumped in Rosa Parks and just called it "Civil Rights Day."
@John the Econ- The devil in me does offer a hat tip to the cost-efficiency of the Russian program to weaponize the gullibility of too many Americans. I wish our government programs worked that well!
Regarding Trump, I completely agree that there's no credibility in moral outrage from the left after giving the old wink, nod, and nudge of approval to Clinton's serial, criminal sex offenses.
Re: the Black Panther movie, I watched the extended trailer and saw a lot of the same old, same old. The Black Panther did a lot of leaping from moving car to moving car (with slow-mo crashes!) exactly like Spiderman, Captain America, and others. It's probably a fine popcorn movie, but not much more. And let me be clear, I'm all for black heroes and movie leads and there is some significance when it happens in a tentpole movie. But still...it's based on a comic book, folks.
@Gee M- I've heard of that film (can't quite remember if I've seen it). While not made on big budgets, a lot of those Blaxploitation films are really entertaining - and not in a "laughing at them" kind of way (although laughing with them for sure). And for anyone unfamiliar with the "Blaxploitation" term, it's not meant to be derisive nor to suggest that anyone black was exploited. Rather, like "Sexploitation" before it, it's just supposed to let audiences know that they're in for a low brow good time.
@Geoff King- Hey, I'm looking forward to seeing the movie (via streaming)! And I agree about the Iron Man movies. Seriously, who cares about Iron Man himself when he can produce 20 different versions of fully automated suits that fight alongside him in battle? Comic book movies rarely appreciate the less is more approach.
@David A. Fox- I love "Birthington's Washday" and think it deserves its own place on the calendar!
@Dan- On the one hand I agree with you about Hoover and his files. But on the other hand I think that Hillary and others have abused access to such files. Does anyone remember the first freaking thing Hillary did as first lady? She pulled Craig Livingstone in from Arkansas, grabbed all of the secret dirt files on everyone in Washington (illegally), and had him copying them all in the White House basement. After which she and Bill claimed not to know him or know who hired him. I believe Hillary's been utilizing on those scandal files ever since.
@valvenator- Excellent points. The left's "cower & die" strategy hasn't really paid off.
@Colby Muenster- In general I enjoy the Marvel films, although the last X-Men movie struck me as simultaneously stupid and baffling. And "Logan" was well done, but not emotionally pleasing because it was such a freaking downer.
"Colby Muenster said...
They thought they were lighting a stick of dynamite, and it ended up more pathetic than a kid's cheap sparkler."
I'm more reminded of those stupid "snakes" that made a ton of smoke but left you with a long unimpressive string of ash.
Love the "baby harp seal bashing" line BTW!
@ Fritz: I DO remember when the two Birthdays were celebrated separately. I also remember that Washington's Birthday is Feb. 22, NOT lumped in with President's Day as it is on my calendar.
I can't remember where I read it or who was involved but some official somewhere suggested stockpiling canned goods in schools to pelt a gunman who might be up to no good. I must admit I laughed, but upon contemplation, it might not be a bad idea. Would you like to get beaned in the head by multiple cans? Think about it.
To post one more picture of Obama on President's Day you must be waxing nostalgic for the ole Dead Fly Days. Have a happy PD.
@ Shelly
Seriously? Bring canned goods to a gunfight?
Just the few moments I considered the reality of panicked teens throwing heavy cans at a shooter several yards away firing heavy jacketed rounds rapid fire...even .22 LR rounds would
be infinitely preferable.
There may be a reason we don't hear "fight fire with canned peas"...
I saw "Black Panther" and it was... OK.
I didn't hate the movie and I was initially excited that it was going to show a black hero standing up for those who couldn't stand up for themselves. It tried to get more complicated as far as plot and I'm afraid the main theme, which should have been "Help your fellow man by doing what's right, not what's safe" got buried in the "White people are bad" subtext.
We'll see. I didn't hate the movie by any means, it's entertaining but I rank it somewhere in the middle of the Marvel movies as far as "Epic-ness".
Not sure why but anti-semantics made me laugh out loud.
@valvenator- The problem with those fiery "snakes" is that they left a pretty indelible scorch mark on whatever surface you lit them on. Okay if it's on an empty can...not so cool on a paved driveway.
@Judi King- Nobody really celebrates Millard Fillmore's birthday anymore either...
@Shelly- I saw that somewhere a long time ago and agree with your assessment: it sounds stupid, but it's better than nothing. I'm also thinking that there should be an American flag on a stand in every room...and the pole is basically a metal tipped spear. By the way, a tip I saw on Facebook is actually a pretty practical idea: have kids carry a rubber doorstop in their backpacks. If the SHTF, jamming one under a door might save lives.
@bobtater- Some wounds never heal (grin).
@Gee M- But, but, all we are saying is give peas a chance!
@Tots- I don't intend to blame the actual movie for the sins of the peripheral voices. I'll watch it with an open mind when it gets to cable.
@Titan Mk6B- I like to think of such comic asides as chocolate chips in my commentary cookies. Glad you liked it!
@Gee M- I tend to avoid films like "Selma" or "Ten Years a Slave" or whatever because I don't want contemporary filmmakers using those historical platforms to direct unfair attacks my way. As you point out, the Civil Rights movement could never have succeeded were it not for the participation of good, brave people of many faiths and races. To obfuscate that is to encourage racial enmity.
I remember reading Black Panther comics about 50 years ago. I don't recall much about them, but they were pretty much just like the other Marvel comics. Except that BP wasn't bitten by a radioactive spider. He also wasn't jazzed up with some miracle drugs and machinery like Captain America. He didn't "charge his transistors" (learn some basic electronics, Marvel...) like Iron Man. So maybe he was more special than those guys. Anyway, he did manage to take out the bad guys in a non-normal way. He also had a bit of a problem with living in the modern world, not the backwards world of his home country. I'm not likely to see the movie, though.
My calendar has Feb. 19 as "Presidents Day" AND Washington's B'day. Next year has them both on Feb. 18. Washington's B'day is Feb. 22 and used to be celebrated. He was too great a man to have his history revised. As for Millard Fillmore, an inherited president, I neither know nor care when his B'day is.
quite right on the black panther movie.
people seriously need to get a life.
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