by John Walters
Tweet Me Right
Voter Suppression = Oppression
On the first day of early voting in some parts of Georgia, voters waited more than five hours to cast their ballots. In some parts.
In predominantly white and upper-class Buckhead, though, voters waited up to 15 minutes to cast their ballots.
Meanwhile in Texas, they’re suppressing votes by limiting counties to one mail-in voting box per county.
While in Virginia… I wonder if “accidentally” is an accurate term here.
Things that make you go hmmm….
One Flew Over The Cabbie’s Nest
Last week we watched One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest on Netflix. If you have not seen the 1975 film that stars Jack Nicholson, a reminder that it takes place (and was filmed at) in an Oregon mental hospital in which Randall P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) plays a sane criminal who gets himself dropped into a loony bin. His nemesis is Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) who controls the ward with passive-aggressive domination.
Three notes: 1) This was the first movie since It Happened One Night (1934) to do the five Oscar sweep: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay.
2) This was the first of three iconic films that were filmed in Oregon in the 1970s. The other two? Animal House and The Shining (which also starred Nicholson).
3) A savvy viewer of sitcoms will note that Danny Devito and Christopher Lloyd (his first film) play two of the patients in McMurphy’s sphere. And our first thought was, How cool that they would both go on to star in Taxi. And then we thought about it a little more and had the penultimate epiphany: Taxi is One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest!
Think about it: Mean-spirited dispatcher Louie DePalma stands protected behind a cage prodding and provoking the cabbies. His decisions affect their welfare. Alex Rieger (Judd Hirsch) is the sane McMurphy character dropped into the loony bin who spars often with Louie. The rest of the cast sits around and plays cards and some are highly mentally unbalanced: Latka, Reverend Jim (Lloyd) and Tony (Tony Danza), particularly.
Has anyone made this connection before?
Jim Brown Vs. Lester Maddox
We went down a YouTube wormhole late last night and found a 1970 episode of The Dick Cavett Show in which the guests were retired NFL superstar Jim Brown (I think some would now refer to him as a “social justice warrior”) and Georgia governor Lester Maddox. You must watch these clips.
Note how Brown keeps brushing at his pant leg as a way of maintaining his calm. It’s like a post-hypnotic suggestion. Note when Maddox basically originates the “All Lives Matter” rejoinder. Note how often Maddox interrupts both Brown and Cavett. Note how, in the first segment, Cavett recognizes that this is cracklin’ good television and lets the two combatants slug it out themselves, remaining silent for minutes on end.
Slayer Pete
If you recall back last winter, Mayor Pete Buttigieg was always our choice as the Democratic nominee. He was the smartest candidate, he had the most impressive resume (Harvard and an actual Rhodes Scholar, Ms. McEnany, plus a stint in the military… he volunteered) and he would have been the most confounding opponent for Donald Trump to debate.
In a profile story today, the Los Angeles Times refers to him as “Slayer Pete” and notes that he “walks softly and carries a sling blade.” Well done.
Last week we noted how Mayor Pete just destroyed Fox News hosts on two separate occasions. Here he is again, destroying the semi-informed on the topic of late-term abortions:
Burr-ning Down The House
I can’t remember the last time, if ever, that a Saturday Night Live host probably would have been better off just leaving 30 Rock after the monologue. There may not be a more palm-of-your-hands audience than the one that an SNL host meets, but somehow comedian Bill Burr managed to alienate most of them in seven short minutes. Wow.
Listen, if something is funny, I don’t care whom it offends. And some of this was funny. The months thing at the end, while not entirely original, is somewhat funny. But man, the verbal assault on white women… Wow. Listen for yourselves if you have not yet heard it.
