Rather than wait until the last minute, I want to give plenty-enough advance warning about this so that you have time to see this posted and set your DVR. Tomorrow night -- Sunday -- CNN is airing a documentary Three Identical Strangers. It got released theatrically last year, and CNN was involved with it, which is why they have the rights and are putting it on. I suspect it's on their schedule now, just days after the Oscar nominations, because they thought it would get a Best Documentary nomination, and so planned ahead to make it as visible as possible. Alas, it didn't get a nomination. The "alas" is because it was tremendous. And it's one of the few serious shocks (as opposed to mere surprises) I have from the nominations. In fairness, I haven't seen all the other documentaries, so they might be even better. But -- well, let's put it this way: I have an Academy-member friend, and after he saw Three Identical Strangers in the theater he told me he was going to vote for it as Best Picture. To be clear, he didn't mean just Best Documentary, but Best Picture, period. And it won the Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival. But didn't get an Oscar nomination. Well...I hope all the other four are even better. Because this is a gem. I'm not going to tell you what the documentary is about because, while it's very interesting from the first, at one point it takes a bunch of twists and turns that throws you for a loop. And I don't want to give anything away. What I will do is post the trailer -- though if you have any idea in watching the documentary only one day away, I suggest you don't watch it. It doesn't give everything away. But it hints at it, and lays the groundwork for where the twists go. I think only those who are somewhat intrigued but probably don't plan to watch it should. But it's your choice. It airs on CNN this Sunday at 8 PM in Los Angeles. Your time may vary. And by the way, if it's something you really want to see, it worth getting the DVD from Netflix or Amazon Prime. That's because one of the bonus features on the disk is a panel discussion for the movie with most of the participants and filmmakers, and you get some absolutely fascinating updates.
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Okay, so we have a temporary end to the Trump Shutdown. And it all comes to a head again in three weeks, the day after Valentines Day. The general consensus seems to be that we'll have to face this mess once again and go through it all over. And it's hard to go against that general consensus given the mess of things in the Republican Party enabling Trump, and his yammering about his Wall.
That said, My sense – an absolute total guess, of course, based on nothing more than whimsy and limited observation – is that although this is just a temporary end to the shutdown, it won’t start up again in February, but a settlement between Democrats and Republicans will be reached. I say this in part because I heard a favorite Mitch McConnell quote yesterday, something like “There are no lessons from a second kick in the head by a mule.” And having another shutdown would be a second kick in the Republican head by a mule. That's because the only way there would be a second shutdown is if Republicans decide to insist on the Trump Wall again. And yes, I know that Trump wants it, and what Trump wants, Republicans enable. The thing is -- we already saw GOP defections in the Senate for the Democratic proposal last Thursday. Further, Senate Republicans don't want a Wall. If they did, they'd have voted to fund one at any time during the past two years. Moreover, I can’t begin to imagine the national outrage at Republicans if they shut down the government again over that Wall -- which the public doesn't want either and not only has said so overwhelmingly in polls, but it's how they voted overwhelmingly in the mid-term elections, giving Democrats control in the House by a wide margins. (Yes, I know the Trump base was livid about the temporary settlement. But that was the Trump base. They were furious at Trump for wimping out. But the national outrage would be at Republicans for shutting down the government -- again.) And the Republicans in the Senate know that this would be the reaction, they've seen the polls, they've seen Trump's numbers drop, they've seen people at their offices outraged. And Mitch McConnell -- the Senate Majority Leader who controls all this -- has not only seen it all, too, but one of his favorite quotes is: "There are no lessons from a second kick in the head by a mule." So, my total guess -- and one that I wouldn't put any money down in a bet, but it's still my guess -- is that Republicans will work out a deal with Democrats. Yes, Trump will veto it, and Republicans (I think...) will help override the veto. Might Trump actually call a national emergency? Sure. But from all I’ve read that would be challenged and have a very difficult time flying. And it seems to me much more bluster than real. And even if it's real, the end result will be blustery since it won't go anywhere. After all, by the time mid-February rolls around, it will have been two months since this supposed-"National Emergency" was brought up by Trump. And that's a pretty darn long time for a National Emergency to plod along with no effect. In fact, the only National Emergency we've seen is that when the government is shut down for a month, the country is put at risk. Yesterday, I posted a video of Eva Marie Saint as the Mystery Guest on a 1958 episode of What's My Line? and told a story about having a charming conversation with her. After embedding that, I did a search for a video of her at a TCM event talking about that film. While tracking it down, I came across another video which I was fascinated to find. And here it is, a scene from her movie after that, the 1960 film, Exodus, based on the Leon Uris novel. But -- I'm not posting this because of the Eva Marie Saint. That's not what caught my attention. Rather it's because of her young co-star in the scene, 15-year-old Jill Haworth. Now, that name likely won't mean much if anything to most people reading this, though it will to my friend (and occasional reader of this site) John Kander, whose uncle (of the same name) wrote the Broadway musical Cabaret -- among many other shows. That's because six years later Jill Haworth, having grown up, created the role of 'Sally Bowles' in the original Broadway production of Cabaret. And here is Jill Haworth at the 1968 Tony Awards singing that song. The video quality isn't very good, but the song and shortened performance most certainly are -- And so, there it is Roger Stone has been indicted on seven counts and been arrested.
I don't have much to add to this, other than noting the pleasure of seeing the wheels of justice turning on such a lifelong slime bucket. And lifelong, too, very close associate of Trump. That's not remotely evidence of a crime, just noting that Stone carries with him a great-many decades of information about Trump that would likely be damning and worth trading for no legal costs and no prison time.. Stone has said that he'll NEVER testify against Trump, because he's insisted there's nothing to testify about. But then, that's what Michael Cohen said -- before flipping, and also being sentenced to prison. Being faced with long, actual jail time has its way of changing minds. Maybe not in this case. Though Roger Stone is not known for his high ethics, a man so enamored by the ethically-empty Richard Nixon that he has Nixon's face tattooed on his back, so I personally wouldn't rely on him being a Stand Up Guy. Or rely on him for anything. (And let's be clear about something, too: Roger Stone has not said he won't flip and testify against Trump. He has only said he won't lie or "bear false witness" to help convict him. This is hardly the bold statement it appears on the surface. Indeed, I am 100% certain that Robert Mueller not only doesn't want Roger Stone -- but anyone -- to lie under oath.) Trump has had a big meltdown today, of course. And sent out another tweet crying out (again) "No Collusion." The really big problem is that this is the first Mueller indictment that, in fact, actually and specially does point out collusion. You may have seen news stories yesterday about Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, and perhaps even seen footage of his speech on the floor of the Senate. Bennet is a low-key member of that body, know for his conciliatory, quiet nature who yesterday gave a fiery, blistering speech about the government shutdown directed mainly at Trump and mostly at Ted Cruz. Rachel Maddow ran about a minute of it, and then Lawrence O'Donnell had another couple minutes. You likely thought that that was the bulk of the speech, especially during the O'Donnell show Sen. Bennet commented, "One final point." In fact, he was just getting warmed up. Those two segments were during the first four minutes of his comments. His "one final point" went on for another...20 minutes! It was a "One more thing..." moment that would make Columbo proud. I will only single out one brief moment from it, since it didn't get covered in the excerpts I saw, and it's a critical point that bears repeating endlessly. I won't write it with the outraged fury he says it, but feel free to read it that way -- that this is a wall no one in this room wants, that the American public doesn't want, and that even Trump knew it was a promise with Mexico paying for it that he could never keep -- and we've shut the government down over it!!! Here's the whole thing. Do check it out for another, oh, five minutes after what MSNBC showed. Make it to the nine-minute mark. I have a feeling you'll keep watching beyond that. . It's been a while since we've had a Mystery Guest segment from What's My Line?, so let's correct that. And we'll do so in a charming way, with Oscar-winner Eva Marie Saint, who is funny and charming and self-effacing. You can jump right to the segment at the 20:50 mark. This comes from 1958 when she was making her classic North by Northwest -- and what I particularly love (as a writer and because it's so her), when Alfred Hitchock's name is mentioned in the conversation at the end, she makes sure to give credit to the screenwriter Ernest Lehman. It's also worth noting that while host John Daly refers to her at one point as "Mrs. Hayden", they had been married for six years at that point – and had another 59 years go go, being married for 65 years until Dr. Hayden passed away in 2016. Happily, she is still around at age 94. . (six years at that point, 59) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwcfsmR9SzM I go into more detail here about all that because I had the chance to not just meet her about 15 years ago, but talk with her for a while, and she was an absolute, utter joy. (And from what I've since been told by others, that's who she is. And it's how she comes across in this clip.) The odd thing -- and I must embarrass myself to tell this properly about how lovely she was, but then I've told the story here before, so the embarrassment is already out there -- is that we talked for almost 10 minutes and for most of that time...I had absolutely no idea who I was talking to. Just having a nice, friendly conversation. It was at a "viewing party" for a friend who had written a TV movie being shown that night, and I was sitting on a sofa when she came over. In fairness to myself, I'm terrible with faces, and have a very light case of "face blindness," I think. And she was 80 years old, not the 30-year-old Eva Marie Saint we recall from her stardom years. Yes, I should have known better, but I didn't. So, to me, I was just talking with this sweet, friendly lady without an ounce of showiness who was asking far more questions about me than I of her -- and I was asking her plenty of questions -- and just talking about things in general. Finally, as we neared the end of our conversation, thank heavens it at last clicked in with me and I realized, "Oh, my God, this is Eva Marie Saint!!!" So, at least I did figure it out while talking with her. Just barely, but it counts. And she was an absolute treat. As you'll see in this video. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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