Did you know there are millions of women out there who live and think locally, who are mainly interested in getting a spread of butter on their bread, and who don’t give that much of a damn about gender politics? How many millions of women have supported unregenerate bad guys (Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, Ron DaSantis, Brian Kemp) in recent elections? And why?

Could it be because they’re cowed, mule-stubborn, under-educated, racist or just flat-out stupid? Like their dumbshit boyfriends or husbands, they’d rather push back against coastal liberals and multiculturals than vote sensibly or logically, and they don’t give a flying fuck about supporting women’s rights or female candidates.

You want the real truth? An African-American actor friend said this to me a couple of decades ago, and if he were to post this on Twitter he’d be ripped apart by wild dogs: “Many women will bow down to the conqueror.”

From Goldie Taylor‘s “Dear White Lady, What Are You Doing to Us?“, posted on 11.8:

“If we’re going to be sisters, the first rule has to be: Do no harm. [But when you elected] Trump to the White House, you broke that rule. Now, I figured that after nearly two years of this debacle on Pennsylvania Avenue that you would see just how wrong you were about him. I thought it might upset you when the president nominated Brett Kavanaugh for a seat on the Supreme Court and stood behind him even after a highly credible alleged victim, or more than one, said Justice Kavanaugh often drank more than his fill and had sexually assaulted them. I assumed it would make your stomach churn to see families separated at the border and children caged for weeks in makeshift camps. I assumed it would only be a matter of time before you abandoned the prospect of a presidential ‘pivot.’

“You didn’t.

Remember when mass murderers had motivations, however dark or twisted or fanatical? Islamic radicals doing the bidding of ISIS (seven such attacks since 2014), racially motivated murders (the 2015 Charleston church massacre), miserable loner shootings (Parkland, Sandy Hook), INCEL shootings (Isla Vista), attempted political assassinations (Gabbie Giffords, Alexandria baseball game shooting), homophobic slayings (the 2016 Orlando massacre), etc.

Then came the first significant mass murder that was completely unmotivated and made no apparent sense to anyone (and still doesn’t) — the 2017 Las Vegas slaughter by Stephen Paddock.

Last night’s Thousand Oaks slaughter was the same kind of thing — carried out by a guy (28 year-old ex Marine Ian David Long) who had no apparent axe to grind, didn’t love ISIS, didn’t hate gays, wasn’t against this or that politician, etc. The victims of both massacres were country-music fans, and in both instances the shooters killed themselves.

This country has become a never-ending horror film. And it’s mainly the nutter conservative gunnies…the crazy right-wingers who feel they have to push back against the libertines, the lefties, the wily pathan, the multicultural hordes and the Godless pagans.

Before last night’s On The Basis of Sex guild screening I sat down with Bill McCuddy and Neil Rosen of “Talking Movies.” The topic was mainly the Broadcast Film Critics Association documentary awards, which are happening on Saturday in Brooklyn. A few docs that should have been at least nominated were blown off, for some reason. Eugene Jarecki‘s The King, a transcendent doc about Elvis Presley and American culture, was ignored. Matt Tyrnauer‘s 100% brilliant Studio 54 was also given the go-by…why? Ditto a pair of HBO docs — Marina Zenovich‘s Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind and Susan Lacy‘s Jane Fonda in Five Acts. Why didn’t they nominate Divide and Conquer, the phenomenal Roger Ailes doc?

Judd Apatow‘s The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, my absolute favorite doc of 2018 and arguably the best film Apatow had ever made, has been nominated for Best Limited Doc Series. What does that mean? It’s not a series but simply a long film (i.e., 270 minutes).

I was torn over which film to choose in the MOST COMPELLING LIVING SUBJECT OF A DOCUMENTARY category. The nominees are Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, RBG, Free Solo, Bad Reputation, Quincy, Three Identical Strangers, John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection and Filmworker. I kept flip-flopping between Scotty Bowers and Leon Vitali, and finally went with Scotty because Leon wouldn’t answer my numerous inquiries about the 4K 2001: A Space Odyssey doc.

My first thought after hearing about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg breaking three ribs last night was “good God, no…not another Supreme Court vacancy with Trump nominating another Kavanaugh-like partisan…Jesus, please!”

My second thought, of course, was concern for Justice Ginsburg’s well-being. It’s one thing to crack a couple of ribs in your 40s or 50s, but people in their 80s don’t hold up as well. I was actually heartened to read a N.Y. Times account that says Ginsburg “went home after her fall” in her Supreme Court office. In short she didn’t immediately call a doctor because she’s made of sterner stuff. I know it’s not appropriate to call her “a chip off the old Lee Marvin block” but this is how I would handle a fall if I was in her shoes — take the pain, suck it in, brush it off.

But Ginsburg “experienced discomfort over the night” and “was admitted to George Washington University Hospital, where doctors found three broken ribs on her left side,” according to a spokesperson. My head is worried but my heart tells me she’ll get through this.

I suppose I felt particularly startled because last night I watched Justice Ginsburg perform a heroic walk-on at the finale of Mimi Leder‘s On the Basis of Sex, the Ginsburg biopic that will premiere at AFI fest tonight. I attended a guild screening at the SVA theatre on West 23rd Street. The embargo lifts after tonight’s showing.

Members of the White House press corps will have permanently and irrevocably lost their honor and forfeited their Lee Marvin credentials if they don’t walk out of the West Wing in solidarity with CNN’s Jim Acosta. Nothing more to be said — they walk or they’re jellyfish.

CNN’s Jim Acosta following the cancellation of his White House “hard pass” earlier today: “This is a test for all of us. I think they’re trying to shut us down. I think they’re trying to send a message to my colleagues.”

I can’t believe this just happened. This is a president who is rapidly unraveling. pic.twitter.com/0CaUTOvbn0

— Arlen Parsa voted! (@arlenparsa) November 7, 2018

The Breaking Bad feature will be a sequel starring Aaron “tennis-ball head” Paul. An iFilm story: “Over the course of five incredible seasons, no one suffered like Aaron Paul‘s Jesse Pinkman, the meth-dealing loser who lost everything (and everyone) that mattered to him simply because he was unfortunate enough to enter the orbit of Walter White. And his suffering isn’t over yet. /Film has learned that the newly announced Breaking Bad movie will be a sequel set after the events of the series finale, following Jesse as he blazes a trail away from that horrifying finale.”

There’s so much new content pouring out of Netflix, so many features, docs, series, British and German miniseries, old miniseries and classic films, that I almost feel like I’m drowning. That said, Christian Alvart‘s ten-part Dogs of Berlin looks pretty good. Bloody and bruising and grayish in mood, but with a sense of dry humor.

3:25 pm update: President Trump has finally whacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Whoever replaces Sessions will whack Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, of course, and then it’ll be Bob Mueller‘s head on the chopping block. When and if Mueller is discharged House Democrats are reportedly planning to have Mueller testify before Congress in an open televised hearing.

Beto O’Rourke vs. Ted Cruz “was political nitroglycerin from the minute this campaign started,” said Ted Delisi, a Republican political consultant in Austin. “Beto couldn’t have run this race against John Cornyn. He couldn’t have run this race against Greg Abbott. This race had to be run against Ted Cruz, and it had to be run this year. This was a once-every-20-years opportunity.”

Precisely the same dynamic awaits in ’19 and ’20 when Beto runs against Donald Trump for the Presidency, and wins. He’s the only guy with that vaguely Kennedy-esque quality, an Irishman with the right, scrappy stuff. A principled guy who can stand up to the beast. Seasoned, passionate. A charismatic, whoop-ass campaigner.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews mentioned Beto vs. Trump last night. It’s on a lot of people’s minds, trust me. Young enough to engage younger voters but not too young. Played in a band, knows how to skate-board. The perfect opposite of Bloated Orange Cheeto.

HE commenter “East Side Guy” wrote that Beto “certainly seems like a good guy, but I don’t see how he wins the presidency two years after losing the Senate. VP, maybe.”

Will you get this through your head? Barely losing a Senate race in a stubbornly deep-red state like Texas (no Democrat elected to the Senate since ’88) is not a reputation compromiser. Beto ran an inspirational, great-guns campaign that gained national attention and turned people on in all 50 states.

There’s no Presidential training school, no academy. Even those who begin the job with supposedly sufficient qualifications have to go through a learning curve.

The most destructive, no-account asshole to ever occupy the Oval Office — a moron, a tyrant-worshipping fatso, a bullshit salesman, a fake tycoon, an ex-reality-show host — is systematically dismantling our democracy and doing everything he can to carbon-suffocate the planet, and you’re hung up on whether Beto is sufficiently seasoned because he’s a Congressperson and not a Senator?

How was Dwight Eisenhower perfectly prepared for the Presidency after leading uniformed troops in WWII? How exactly was JFK totally prepared after being a U.S. Senator? JFK was elected because he had that X-factor, rock-star thing that people liked and wanted. Same deal with Beto.

Beto is three years older than JFK when elected, and roughly Obama’s age in ‘08. He’s obviously a bright, responsible-minded, articulate lefty legislator who knows how to handle himself.

What was it about Trump’s background that qualified him for the Oval Office? The man is an ADD simpleton. Beto would obviously be an upgrade. He’s the guy, I’m telling you.

Hollywood Elsewhere is due at a reputable Yale hospital for an 8:45 am appointment. You don’t want to know and I’d rather not share. And then down to Westport and into the city for some running around, a 5 pm podcast recording with Bill McCuddy, and finally a 7 pm screening of Mimi Leder‘s On The Basis of Sex (Focus Features, 12.25), the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic with Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer. I won’t be filing until early this afternoon when I’m on the NYC-bound train, but that’s a narrow window. Playing it by ear.

A house full of rabid, rightwing, Trump-supporting Jews at last night’s Israeli Film Festival award ceremony booed and heckled a liberal producer and award-recipient, Jason Blum (Get Out), because he was trashing Trump? In Los Angeles?

Yes, the Israeli Film Festival is sponsored by the Adelson Foundation, the rightwing charity launched by scumbag billionaire Sheldon Adelson, but how could a gathering of Jews do this in the wake of the Trump-inspired Pittsburgh synagogue massacre?

Watch: Jason Blum was booed and physically removed from the Israel Film Festival stage after making controversial political statements about Trump https://t.co/1nAyogEP8i pic.twitter.com/sH80NZVq7B

— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) November 7, 2018

Nobody was seriously betting on the inspirational Beto O’Rourke beating the loathsome, toad-like Ted Cruz, not really. And in the end he didn’t. Too many Texas bumblefucks.

Why did Andrew Gillum, the Democratic rock-star candidate for the Florida governorship, lose to the repulsive Trump ally Ron DeSantis?

Why did Stacey Abrams, the brilliant Democratic gubernatorial candidate from Georgia, lose to her odious, vote-suppressing Republican opponent, Brian Kemp?

Yes, the Dems have won control of the House of Representatives — excellent news, and an overall victory against the Trump corrosion. A lot of diverse new Dems will be heading to Washington. But they’ve lost two seats in the Senate.

Yes, many Dems have triumphed in many tough races all over. But while American voters generally leaned blue in many regions, they didn’t tip blue in a big, decisive way. Too many rural assholes voted in favor of the Asshole-in-Chief.

Dan Lavoie on Twitter: “Tens of millions of Americans looked at what has happened in this country the past two years and said, ‘Yes, more of this, please!'”

Beto ran a world-class campaign, and he could make the difference in 2020. He needs to return to El Paso and flop for a couple of weeks, but starting in early ’19 he needs to take a long hard look at running against President Trump. He could do it — he could win it — he really could. What other prospective Democratic presidential candidate is generating that crackling Beto excitement? Nobody.