A Trump-Sanders smoking gun. South Carolina Trump activists in a much-promoted Facebook video: "We're asking South Carolina Republicans to show their support for President Trump by crossing over and voting in the Democratic primary for Senator Bernie Sanders." pic.twitter.com/FNqEUNXDWq
The primary question is “will Bernie Sanders’ seemingly possibly insurmountable lead result in a McGovernesque debacle for the Democrats next November, as well as the loss of the Dems’ House majority?”
Question2: “Can anything, anyone or any hail-Mary strategy save us from wrack and ruin?” Only Buttigieg seemed to address this head-on.
All I knew last night was that the jabbing and bickering felt repetitve and irksome.
Klobuchar has to withdraw after the South Carolina primary. Ditto Steyer. And Warren, whom I fell for after the Las Vegas debate, has to sit down and think things over.
Lesson #1 of “Three lessons for PleaseNotBernie“, written by N.Y. Times columnist Ross Douhat: “You need candidates who aren’t actually winning primaries to drop out.
“The fatal conceit of establishment politicians facing an insurgency is that because the insurgent has obvious weaknesses, they should hang around and hang around, piling up third-place finishes and minor delegate hauls, in the hopes of gaining…something. What they are actually likely to gain is blame, irrelevance or both; just ask those noted influencers Jeb Bush and John Kasich.
“So if you are, say, Amy Klobuchar, the fact that you have a solid case for your own electability is not a reason to stick around for Super Tuesday if you finish behind Pete Buttigieg in South Carolina as well as in Nevada. If you’re Buttigieg, your strong Iowan and New Hampshire performances aren’t a reason to stay in if it’s clear you can’t compete nationally with Michael Bloomberg and Joe Biden. If you’re Biden, if you lose South Carolina, you should drop out the next day. And so on.
“None of this means that simply consolidating the field will stop Bernie; he might well win a head-to-head race, too. But giving him five or six opponents in every contest makes the solidity of his core support an insurmountable advantage. And if you can narrow the field.”
We all know there’s no real chance to stop Bernie. But there might be a sliver of a possibility if Biden, Klobuchar and Warren quit after the South Carolina primary.
Nicole Wallace: “[What you’re describing] sounds like political suicide.” James Carville: “It is. If you don’t win the Senate back, you don’t get anything. Nothin’ is gonna change. If you don’t push yourself to be a majoritarian party…[especially] if you have 55% of the voters available to you, then you’re making a real mistake.”
So are Democrats really serious about running a candidate against Donald Trump who…
1. Will be 79 years old on Election Day and would turn 80 in his first year of office.
2. Had a heart attack that drastically reduced his life expectancy.
3. Has never passed any significant legislation during his 30 years in office. [HE comment: I thought Sanders had passed two or three bills…no?]
4. May cause several of the moderate House Democrats we elected in 2018 to lose this year.
5. Refused to pay child support for much of his 30s.
6. Wrote [an essay] saying “a woman fantasizes about being raped by three men simultaneously” and blaming cervical cancer on a lack of female orgasms.
7. Complains nonstop about a “Democratic establishment” even though he’s been in Congress for 30 years and is part of that establishment.
8. Supported Fidel Castro and said he wanted to “throw up” when he heard JFK criticize him. [HE question: In what year? Who recorded or documented this quote?]
9. Went to a rally for the Nicaraguan Sandinistas where they chanted “Death to America” and “The Yankee will die.” [HE: Where was the rally? Who reported or reecorded those “death to America” comments?]
10. Honeymooned in the Soviet Union. [HE to Fassler: My ex-wife and I honeymooned in Communist Czechoslovakia in 1987 — no biggie.]
11. Is married to a woman with a history of shady business dealings.
12. Refuses to speak to [reporters for] local papers in his home state of Vermont.
13. Supported a controversial bill that moved toxic waste to poor Latino communities in Texas.
14. Voted for a bill allowing undocumented immigrants to be detained indefinitely pending deportation.
15. Voted against Senator Ted Kennedy’s immigration bill in 2006.
16. Voted against the Brady Bill and received support from the NRA in his initial runs for Congress.
17. Voted against Amber Alerts.
18. Has alienated colleagues in the House and Senate who would otherwise have been his allies.
19. Called Planned Parenthood “the establishment.”
20. Has a campaign staff whose most prominent surrogates either voted for Jill Stein or refused to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
21. Refuses to release either his medical records or his tax returns.
22. Tried to convince superdelegates to give him the Democratic nomination despite losing elected delegates in a landslide.
23. Allowed his supporters to disrupt the convention of the first female presidential nominee.
24. Did only 43 events for Hillary Clinton after she won the nomination – by contrast, Hillary did more than 100 events for Barack Obama in 2008.
25. Disdains identity politics, saying that it’s “not enough to say ‘I’m a woman, vote for me.’” [HE comment: Bernie’s right about that.]
26. Has an army of supporters who frequently bully, dox and harass anyone who criticizes him (i.e., Bernie Bros).
27. Frequently campaigns against more moderate Democrats in favor of far-left candidates—who usually go on to lose their primaries by wide margins.
28. Was helped by Russia during the 2016 election and is being helped by them again today.
29. Has fired staffers within 24 hours of their hiring because of their racist posts. [HE comment: Isn’t that usually regarded as an appropriate response?]
30. Yells at network executives who don’t give him more positive coverage.
31. Disdained Barack Obama in private and tried to run against him in 2012.
32. Refuses to join the party he’s running to be the leader of.
33. Most importantly: Sanders has no idea how to get any of his proposals enacted into law.
Just a few weeks ago, doddering Joe Biden was the Big Daddy, the nationwide poll leader, the safe guy and the presumptive Democratic nominee who could beat Donald Trump.
Tonight Biden came in a weak fifth in New Hampshire. Some African American voters will stick with him in the South Carolina primary, I’m sure, but the heat is clearly off. He’s all but finished and black voters are clueless as to which way to turn. Will they switch their loyalty to Michael Bloomberg? That’s what an MSNBC commentator said an hour ago.
Longtime Biden supporter (texted at 5:28 pm): “I’m moving to Bloomberg.” Jersey City guy: “Amy Klobuchar is the buzzy name. She might lay claim to some of the Biden fallout vote.”
Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer, Michael Bennet…they’re dropping like flies. And by the way, Elizabeth Warren is looking almost as weak as Biden. How long can she last?
The USA as many of us have known it will be set on the road to ruin tonight. Because a Bernie Sanders victory in New Hampshire (followed by a Bernie-Biden victory in South Carolina on 2.19 — thanks, POCs!) will seriously harm the sensible-liberal-moderate Pete Buttigieg brand, which is the only brand that can beat Trump in November, and therefore a Trump victory will be locked down because Bernie can’t beat him.
Typewriter Joe might be able to defeat The Beast, but after tonight he’ll be all but finished. Michael Bloomberg is the only hope right now because you know he’ll keep spending and pushing — he’s indefatigable. But I’m really not kidding. The transformation of the US of A (as many of us have known it) into Trump Nation between January ’21 and January ’25 will be ruinous beyond words. And the journey begins tonight.
If Pete can nudge aside Bernie in N.H. (which he probably can’t manage), there’s at least a chance. But he won’t. All hail the spirit and precedent of Jeremy Corbyn and Gregg Stillson! The bad guys have this! And I’m not just talking about Bernie bruhs and Trump-worshipping bumblefucks, but also Khmer Rouge wokesters and cancel culture fanatics. Together they comprise a perfect storm of catastrophe.
If Bloomberg can’t manage the next-to-impossible, the only way out is for Trump to drop dead of a heart attack or a stroke. Or for fate to (ahem) otherwise intervene. Who would be honestly sorry to see that animal breathe his last?
If Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic nomination, our deranged and grotesque authoritarian crime-boss president will almost certainly be re-elected, and this country will be saddled with a political and cultural tragedy of increasing proportions.
This is not theory, not maybe — it’s real. How can Democrats be so rock stupid as to not see the tragedy that’s currently unfolding and taking shape? The republic is splitting, cracking apart. The end of civic sanity and reason is nigh. And it’s like we’re all covered in a kind of slow-motion glue.
The untested Sanders (a virtual babe in the woods on the national stage) is electoral death. He won’t just get knifed and bloodied by the Trump smear machine — he’ll probably get creamed a la Jeremy Corbyn and George McGovern.
Can anything prevent this nightmare? Not if African-American voters have anything to say about it, and of course they will starting with the South Carolina primary.
Pete Buttigieg recently connected with moderate suburban Iowans, and could theoretically do the same countrywide in the general. But AAs (particularly your older-demo homophobes) are apparently determined to sit on their hands rather than support him. (One more time — thanks, guys!) And of course Bernie bruhs and other progressives hate Pete’s guts. Except Pete or someone like him — a sensible, practical-minded, non-scary moderate liberal or left-centrist — represents the only shot at beating Trump. Who else could become the prime banner-carrier for this kind of approach at this point? Biden, Warren and Klobuchar are too low in the polls — they have no serious heat. Ditto Bloomberg and Steyer. It’s down to Pete v. Bernie, except Bernie is more or less Corbyn.
Filed on Sunday, 2.9 by London Times correspondent Josh Glancy: “At a ‘politics and eggs’ event on Friday morning in Manchester, New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders faced a friendly crowd, who applauded his familiar spiel about the ills of Wall Street, Donald Trump and big pharma. But one voter, Lenny Glynn, had a question.
“’There’s a lot of people in this room that share your anger, your anxiety and your rage,’ Glynn said. ‘But there’s a question in a lot of our minds. Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the British Labour Party, who is very similar ideologically and politically to you, just took them to the worst defeat they’ve had in half a century. How can you assure us that you would not face the same onslaught?”
N.Y. Times columnist Frank Bruni, filed on 2.8: “You can analyze Sanders and assess his prospects in terms of how liberal many of his positions are: the end of private health insurance, the dismantling of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, free tuition at public colleges regardless of a student’s economic circumstances. By that yardstick he’s Corbyn, and, in my view, a hell of a general-election risk.”
“Americans are always worried that when we lose our freedom it’ll look like the movie Red Dawn, with tanks in the streets. That’s not how a republic ends. We keep the names on the institutions, [but] we change what’s inside. We still have trials — we just don’t have witnesses. We still subpoena people — they just don’t show up. There’s still an EPA — it just works for the coal companies now. It’s like the way TV channels sometimes completely change formats but keep the name? MTV — music television — hasn’t had music videos for years. The Learning Channel has no learning — it has Honey Boo-Boo and American’s Worst Tattoos and Family By The Ton.
“When Rome stopped being a republic, it didn’t stop having a Senate. And neither have we. It’s just more like student government now. Because that’s what dictators do. Russia has a pretend parliament. So does China. And North Korea.”
“It is always darkest, John McCain used to say, before it gets totally black. So it is for the American center-left right now. Bernie Sanders is currently favored to win the nomination, a prospect that would make Donald Trump a heavy favorite to win reelection, and open the possibility of a Corbyn-esque wipeout.
“While Sanders has not expanded beyond a minority of the party, he has consolidated support of the party’s left wing, and while its mainstream liberal wing is split between numerous contenders, it is hard to see how the situation is likely to improve soon. Indeed, it could get worse, much worse.
Wiki excerpt: Vincente Minnelli and John Houseman‘s The Bad and the Beautiful (’52) “was shot as Tribute to a Bad Man, but the studio (Dore Schary‘s MGM) began to worry it would be mistaken for a western.
“The title was changed to The Bad and the Beautiful at the suggestion of MGM’s head of publicity Howard Dietz, who took it from F. Scott Fitzgerald.
“Houseman called it a ‘dreadful title…a loathsome, cheap, vulgar title.’ But when the film became successful “it seemed like one of the greatest titles anyone had ever thought of,” he admitted. “It’s certainly been imitated enough: anytime anybody’s hard up for a title, they just take two adjectives and string them together with an ‘and’ in between.”
More wiki: “At the time of the film’s release, stories about its basis caused David O. Selznick — whose real life paralleled in some respects that of the ‘father-obsessed independent producer’ Jonathan Shields — to have his lawyer view the film and determine whether it contained any libelous material.
“Shields is thought to be a blend of Selznick, Orson Welles and Val Lewton. Schary said Shields was a combination of “David O. Selznick and as yet unknown David Merrick.”
“Lewton’s CatPeople is clearly the inspiration behind the early Shields-Amiel film DoomoftheCatMen.
“[Lana Turner‘s] Georgia Lorrison character is the daughter of a ‘great profile’ actor like John Barrymore (Diana Barrymore’s career was in fact launched the same year as her father’s death), but it can also be argued that Lorrison includes elements of Minnelli’s ex-wife Judy Garland.
“Gilbert Roland‘s Gaucho may almost be seen as self-parody, as he had recently starred in a series of Cisco Kid pictures. The character’s name, Ribera, would also seem to give a nod also to famed Hollywood seducer Porfirio Rubirosa.
“The director Henry Whitfield (Leo G. Carroll) is a ‘difficult’ director modeled on Alfred Hitchcock, and his assistant Miss March (Kathleen Freeman) is modeled on Hitchcock’s wife Alma Reville.
Last night’s Virtuoso panel was an all-Millennial affair — the oldest of the eight panelists were 33-year-old Aldis Hodge (the death-row guy in Clemency) and Harriet‘s Cynthia Erivo, and the youngest was 24 year-old Florence Pugh (Little Women, Midsommar).
And in the annals of SBIFF ’20, it was easily the most entertaining. In HE’s…hell, everyone’s estimation the funniest or most spirited were (in this order) The Farewell‘s Awkwafina (31), Erivo and Hodge.
There was a two-minute musical portion in which Hodge, Egerton and especially Erivo totally killed a capella. Erivo delivered a note-perfect imitation of Tina Turner singing the Beyond Thunderdome theme song, Hodge sang two or three lines from Kanye West‘s “Gold Digger” and Egerton imitated George Michael singing “Faith.” [Around the 14:00 mark.]
Moderator Dave Karger pronounced George Mackay’s last name as “Mc-KEYE“, by the way. News to me.
Four of the group — MacKay, Awkwafina, Feldstein and Russell — starred in truly exceptional releases last year. No debate about this, I presume.
Pugh gets special points for Midsommar, a bit less so for Little Women. Rocketman was good, not great. (And Karger didn’t ask Egerton if Jeff Sneider‘s mention about his having inviting the Hollywood Foreign Press Ditto to his birthday party was true or not). The respectable Clemency was overpraised — be honest.
The only bummer part came when Karger asked everyone to name a seminal movie from their youth. Hodge mentioned Lost Boys and Bad Boys. Erivo cited Mahogany and The Color Purple. Feldstein mentioned Funny Girl (and was then advised by Erivo to see Funny Lady). Egerton’s big childhood movie was The Muppets Christmas Carol. MacKay recalled The Jungle Book and Gladiator. Pugh mentioned Bend It Like Beckham. Pugh named My Cousin Vinny and Scary Movie. Russell mentioned Brendan Fraser‘s The Mummy.
Due respect but the Movie Godz are weeping. What a communal film heritage! As in decline and fall of everything, Western civilization included.
Todd Phillips’ Joker has landed more Oscar nominations than anyone or anything — 11 of these babies including Best Picture, Best Director for Phillips and Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix. Which leads one to imagine that it might conceivably win the Best Picture Oscar…right? Best Picture handicappers have ignored this possibility all along, but it’s obviously on the table.
Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman (yowsah!), Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (okay) and Sam Mendes’ 1917 (yup) snagged 10 nominations each. Jojo Rabbit, Little Women, Marriage Story and Parasite landed six each.
The Best Director nominees are all dudes — Martin Scorsese for The Irishman, Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Bong Joon-ho for Parasite, Sam Mendes for 1917 and Todd Phillips for Joker.
Marriage Story and Little Women landed Best Picture nominations (congrats), but no respective Best Director noms for Noah Baumbach or Greta Gerwig. Both, however, scored screenwriting noms — Gerwig for Little Women (adapted) and Baumbach for Marriage Story (original).
No Best Supporting Actress nom for Hustlers‘ Jennifer Lopez! Snubbed, ixnayed, frozen-out, brushed off, given the go-by and the bum’s rush. Everyone thought JLo was locked down. Where exactly did she go wrong? What did she fail to do? Her fans are shrieking, howling, reeling in shock.
Then again Kathy Bates‘ supporting performance in Richard Jewell was nominated; ditto Jarin Blaschke‘s cinematography for The Lighthouse.
Back to #Oscarssowhite…right? With the exception of Harriet‘s Cynthia Erivo being Best Actress nominated, woke quota mandates were pretty much ignored. Gerwig wasn’t Best Director-nominated but who would seriously argue that Harriet director Kasi Lemmons was in any way, shape or form shafted? The universal opinion is that Harriet is nowhere near good enough. The Khmer Rouge quota commissars have a point as far as the overlooking of The Farewell‘s Lulu Wang is concerned.
Best Supporting Actor: Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Anthony Hopkins (The Two Popes), Al Pacino and Joe Pesci (The Irishman), Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time in Hollywood). Pitt has this, of course.
Best Picture: Ford v Ferrari, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Little Women, Marriage Story, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Parasite. Hollywood Elsewhere can read the writing on the wall as well as anyone else, but all will be well as long as Parasite doesn’t win.
Best Actor: Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory; Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; Adam Driver, Marriage Story; Joaquin Phoenix, Joker; Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes.
Best Actress: Cynthia Erivo, Harriet; Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story; Saoirse Ronan, Little Women; Charlize Theron, Bombshell; Renee Zellweger, Judy. What happened to The Farewell‘s Awkwafina? I’ll tell you what happened to her. Her nomination slot was snatched by Cynthia Erivo.
Best Supporting Actor: Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood; Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes; Al Pacino, The Irishman; Joe Pesci, The Irishman; Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Best Supporting Actress: Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell; Laura Dern, Marriage Story; Scarlett Johannson, Jojo Rabbit; Florence Pugh, Little Women; Margot Robbie, Bombshell.
Signed, sealed, delivered — the African American community has decided that Typewriter Joe will be the Democratic presidential candidate. They’re basically saying to X-factor white liberals like myself, “The Iowa caucus isn’t until February 3rd, followed by New Hampshire, South Carolina and then Super Tuesday on March 3rd, but it’s over…it’s settled. You’re going to take Joe Biden and like him.”
I’m a Pete Buttigieg guy, but if we’re taking 60something candidates Tom Steyer would be far preferable to Biden, and if we’re talking 70-plus I’d much rather see Michael Bloomberg become the Democratic candidate. I like and admire Bernie Sanders, but I don’t believe this country is ready to put a tax-and-spend Jewish Democratic Socialist who wants the U.S. of A. to become Finland, as much as I would personally be down with that.
Either way AA voters have decided that it’s Droolin’ Joe, period. And that’s the name of that tune.
“At the family barbecue, I asked why she thought Biden was the person to take on Trump. Her answer left me slack-jawed and remains the best explanation for Biden’s continued strength. ‘The way the system is set up now, there is so much racism that it’s going to have to be an old white person to go after an old white person,’ Aunt Gloria said. ‘Old-school against old-school.'” — from 1.11 Jonathan Capehart column, “Joe Biden leads among black voters for a reason.”