by John Walters
Kicking And Scheming
On the same day that the U.S. set a new record for coronavirus cases (142,000-plus) and 1,478 Americans died from the virus, there was a report that “Donald Trump does not seem to be interested in his work.”
Has he ever been?
In an interview with Anderson Cooper of CNN, the NYT’s Maggie Haberman, who would rent space in Trump’s soul if he had one, noted that the president doesn’t really have a grand strategy to defeat Joe Biden (problem 1 being that Biden just defeated him), but that he’s willing to keep pushing the envelope, i.e., keep grabbing America by the pussy, to see just how far he can go. When you’re famous, after all, people let you get away with it.
Truly, I’m flummoxed that anyone with a brain is taken in by him. And yet so many are.
A Trump campaign advisor said, ” ‘Concede’ is not in our vocabulary.” Neither are grace, humility, honesty or integrity. But we already knew that. Trump will eventually back down but he’ll act as if he were robbed (he loves playing the aggrieved billionaire and, again, dumbasses buy it) and attempt to make a comeback in 2024. We’re thinking the obesity and the virus and the high blood pressure will do him in by them. We can hope.
The Upside Down
So there it was, Veterans Day, and certainly countless Americans were thinking of their fathers, their uncles, their grandfathers who had fought in World War II. Who had sacrificed their lives or at least put them on the line in order to fight Germany, to fight fascism.
And here we are, 75 or so years later, and the leader of Germany, currently the world’s most stable and economically viable democracy (you read that right), is reaching across the Atlantic to help rescue America from fascism.
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.
80 From ’80
Rolling Stone has compiled a list of “The 80 Greatest Albums From 1980” while making the claim that there may have never been a single better year in terms of worthy albums. As someone who was in his 8th grade/freshman year at the time and experiencing my first real crush with pop and rock music, I cannot disagree. As I went through the list, here are just a few of the songs that stick with me to this day:
“Kiss On My List,” (I’m not kidding), “Against The Wind,” “Turn It On Again,”
“Games Without Frontiers,” “Oh Yeah”, “Pulling Mussels,” “The Spirit of Radio,” “Girl U Want,” “She’s So Cold,” “Crazy Train,” “I Will Follow,” “Private Idaho,” “Brass In Pocket,” “You Shook Me All Night Long,” “Once In A Lifetime” and “Death or Glory.”
If I had to pick a Top 3 that was representative of what my Brophy classmates cranked up most often that year, a Phoenix faves list, I’d go with “Crazy Train,” “You Shook Me All Night Long,” and anything off Zenyatta Mondatta. If I had to make my own, I’d go with “Once In A Lifetime,” “Oh Yeah” and “Turn It On Again.”
But five minutes from now I’d probably give you a completely different list. Suffice it to say that back then the hardest part of picking 13 albums for a penny from the Columbia Record & Tape Club was winnowing it down to 13.
A Christmas For Christmas
Don’t you hate when a couple this good-looking (Penn and Kim Holderness are married in real life with a cute son and cute daughter) is also this witty (they wrote this)? They’ve set a new, er, Hallmark for holiday film parody.
A Whale of A Story
This feels as if it should’ve happened on WKRP In Cincinnati, or perhaps it inspired the famous WKRP Thanksgiving episode.Whatever. Today is the 50th anniversary of this event that will leave you blubbering with mirth. Enjoy.
MAC-tion is BACK-tion
The MAC returned to November week night viewing (as it does annually) and last night’s finish between Toledo and Western Michigan did not disappoint.
Might be your best yet. The 3 videos are perfect for the day.
I forgot the whale story…gold, pure gold.
Thanks for a hearty laugh this am,
I’m not sure you see comments from previous posts, so this is regard to yesterday (I haven’t even read today’s post):
If Trump’s aim is to avoid jail time, instead of creating leverage to get Joe Biden to pardon him, why wouldn’t he just resign before Jan. 20th and have Mike Pence pardon him for anything that he’s done before or during his term in office? Unless the look of quitting is so much more detestable to him than going to jail?
He’s not going to resign. That is am admission of defeat. He cuts deals.
Why would NYT’s Maggie Haberman rent space in Trump’s soul if she’s living rent-free in his head?
You apparently have never seen a Hallmark movie. 1st & this must be a shock, NO leads in a HM movie have ever been pod-people or zombies or robots. 2nd, I’ve watched hundreds of HM movies & maybe, MAYBE a handful of times has the female LEAD (BTW, the LEAD character in HM movies are almost always female & the love interest is the guy, WHOO-HOO, what a freakin change!) cared about the finances of a possible romantic partner. The only females that seem to give a damn about the guy’s money or his financial “prospects” are the evil bitch female support character or the girl’s parents or grandparents. ( And ME of course because are you KIDDING? Support some dead beat guy? I scream at the TV she needs to look at his tax returns!). 😉
Anyone who has REALLY watched Hallmark moves, especially the now plentiful Xmas versions (which started running 24/7 this year on 10/23!) know there is quite a bit that is laughable, formulaic, predictable : city career gal is up for a BIG promotion but has to go home (SMALL TOWN where there is ALWAYS snow on the ground) for the holidays, where she meets a guy with whom she automatically clashes but they are repeatedly thrust together (usually while volunteering for the town’s allegedly famous “Christmas Festival” or “Snow Ball”) & romance eventually ensues. Awwwww. And buh-bye to that big promotion she had so desperately been working for as she NOW realizes her heart is really here at home, with a guy she JUST met not more than 10 days prior. And oh yeah, a new job if not new career just happens to fall into her lap. Happy Holidays! Fade to black. 🙂
And as formulaic as HM Xmas movies often are, they are OSCAR WORTHY compared to the DRECK Xmas movies that the Lifetime channel churns out in their desperate attempt to grab some of those holiday season ratings.
Micah has solid logic in his 2 posts.