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This is one of the weirder sketches you’re likely to see on a late-night talk show. Or on any TV show, for that matter. Or in a bar with three drunk guys making a bet. It’s Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Jimmy Fallon in a Tonight Show sketch titled, “Three Guys from Boston Say Every Twon and City in Massachusetts.” And that’s exactly what it is. Nothing more. And yet they go all out – for a full 4-1/2 minutes. While I don’t expect everyone will watch this for the entire time, I won’t be surprised if most do – because as weird as it is, it is oddly compelling and builds up its own pace. Damon and Affleck are the best, and Ben Affleck especially really throws himself into it. Even if you only watch for a minute, it’s worth checking out just for the audaciousness.
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There is an ongoing story the past week that I think is absolutely stupid. And while the main part of the story is being covered by the news media, the absolutely stupid part pretty much isn’t. It’s hard to express just stunning to me how overwhelmingly stupid I think it is. Actually, it’s really more "hypocrisy" that stupid – but it takes hypocrisy to such a deep level that transcends hypocrisy by so much that it’s morphed from mere, unearthly hypocrisy into sheer, utter, almost-incomprehensible stupidity. What I'm referring to is Trump encouraging protestors in Iran to keep protesting against their government. But it's much more insane than that. And "that" is pretty full-fledged crazy. However, it's not only that he has encouraged protestors in Iran and is still encouraging them, but that Trump is ratcheting up his encouragement, and doing it while his ICE agents are brutalizing the residents of Minneapolis and one agent even shot a woman, Renee Good, to death -- for not even protesting at all, but sitting in her car, telling the agent, “Dude, I'm not mad at you," and trying to drive away is all the more what makes this story so deeply hypocritical that it’s turned into monumental stupidity. And the news media is pretty much only reporting Trump’s encouragement to the protestors. The Iran protestors, that is. Just to be clear. Not the protestors in the U.S. And if any news reports do mention the hypocrisy, it's only been in passing, and not putting it into full context -- which is the whole point -- to shows how profoundly stupid and unaware this is from Trump. And "this" is not just his support of Iranian protestors, but his brutal, even fatal attacks on Americans, including those not even protesting. Here is Trump's most recent statement yesterday on his social media site. The Onion couldn't write more ludicrous satire than this.  Trump is the guy who, in his first term, wanted the military to “crack skulls” and “beat the fuck out” of protesters in Washington, D.C., who were marching against police brutality, and then adding "Just shoot them." Before his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley explained that, no, you can't do that. And the same guy who in this term insisted that the largely peaceful protestors in Portland were supposedly burning all the stores down and that the city was supposedly in flames -- despite reality being otherwise -- and therefore sent in the National Guard over the governor's wishes, in order to quash the protesting. And here is Trump now telling Iranians to not only "KEEP PROTESTING"...but telling them that they should "TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!" And not only that, saying that a list should be kept of all those in the government who are "killers" (!!) and abusers, who will "pay a big price." It's almost as if the man had dementia and was totally unaware of what was going on around him, completely unaware of the killing and abuses that his own ICE and Border Patrol agents were doing to protestors. And this guy who campaign on staying out of other countries, and avoiding national building and America First suggests he will be willing to sent the military into Iran!! To assist protestors against the government!!! This is just massively nuts, a pure lack of self-awareness, so clueless that it's beyond mere hypocrisy and...and...and you can't help by follow this and not think, "Man, this is just the absolute stupidest thing." If it's any consolation to Trump, he should know that Democrats are pretty much following at least one of his admonitions -- and are keeping a list of the "killers and abusers" so that they "will pay a big price" when Democrats get back in control of at least the House of Representatives after the Mid-Terms. Happily, the late night comedians all addressed this. So, now if the news media could point out the mind-numbing hypocrisy and overwhelmingly stupidity of this, rather than just report it as support of Iran protestors and a bizarre, dangerous hint of a military attack, that would be cool, too!! If you didn't see Jon Stewart's Monday hosting of The Daily Show, his Main Story was on -- not shockingly -- Trump's monumentally horrible weekend, basically covering the ICE shooting death of Renee Good, the attack on Venezuela, his plans for future attacks on Greenland, meandering aimlessly around during a public meeting, attempting to sue the Fed Chairman, and much more. It's a furiously angry and wonderfully funny report. This is proof of absolutely nothing. And I fully know it is proof of absolutely nothing. But still, proof aside, there was this headline yesterday --  Once again: this is proof of nothing. What it is, though, is a small level of personal comfort for standing far out on the edge a limb. When I wrote my article here back in early November explaining why I believed that Democrats would pick up 30-40 seats in the House during the Mid-Terms (offering around a half-dozen reasons to defend why I thought that), I knew it risked me being seen as even more foolhardy than usual -- especially since all actual experts at the time were writing how Texas gerrymandering five seats for MAGOPs could guarantee they hold the House of Representatives, and since (as I wrote in the article) that I had wanted to write my prediction several months earlier, but knew it would be seen as transcending ludicrous and risked discrediting my sanity. So, I held off until early November. And despite holding off, I still got a lot of kind-hearted, nurturing eye-rolls from that November column, the kind of look from an adult that a child gets when explaining his theory of gravity that has something to do with stuffed animals, snowfall and his favorite TV shows. My favorite response I got was from a fairly eminent fellow in his field who decided to go pithy and politely replied, very simply, "Bold prediction." For that matter, I also stand by my other predication -- based on Democrats picking up an average of 16 points in every Special Election there's been since Trump took office -- that MAGOPs gerrymandering their states might backfire. A process that has occurred enough that there is a name for it -- dummymandering. In fact, this number has been growing: in the last two state Special Elections (in Kentucky and Iowa), Democrats gained 26 and 27 points. And I can only repeat again -- this is proof of zero. I could still be totally wrong, no matter how many reasons I gave. (I don't think I'm wrong, I stand by all my reasons, but however many reasons I give, I'm just guessing from my amateur status.) But -- it's nice and comforting to know that I'm no longer alone. And if I crash to the ground from my tree limb, there will at least be other bodies to cushion my fall. It's nice too that if there are going to be predictions by experts, that their numbers are going in this direction, and not the other way. For whatever it’s worth, the veteran expert quoted in this news articles, is former NBC political analyst and Congressional aide Chris Matthews. I don’t know what his record is on election prediction. But he is not alone among other experts who I’ve heard say this now. He’s just the latest… (You can read the full article here.) The main thing from this article, though -- the most important -- is that I’m sure MAGOPs in Congress see all these stories and know down to the decimal all the approval polls for Trump. And they must be terrified, or at the very least seriously concerned. Indeed, it's likely why so many have been saying they're not running for re-election. And given his malignant narcissism, it must be driving Trump crazy (or, more accurately, crazier), especially since we now hear him talking about impeachment again if Democrats take control of the House. And it is most surely going to get even worse for them all as Trump's dementia worsens (which it will because dementia is degenerative), he falls asleep more often in public, and he acts even more out of control than he is now which, scarily, is not only possible but probable. And as inflation rises, prices keep going up, more U.S. citizens get beaten and shot by ICE, and Trump's approval plummets. Operation Mincemeat is a British musical based on a totally ludicrous but true story about a oddball plan by MI5 in WWII to trick the Germans into thinking Britain planned to invade Greece, when the real target was Sicily. At the heart of the plan was the use of the dead body of a tramp, designed to be a British officer complete with military plans, official documents and even a love letter from his fake girlfriend. Among the intelligence team was a young officer named Ian Fleming, who of course went on to write the James Bon novels. It’s been adapted into a couple of very good movies, The Man Who Never Was, and most recently Operation Mincemeat with Colin Firth and Matthew Madfadyen. And in 2023, a lively, rambunctious comedy musical opened on the West End, where it was nominated for six Olivier Awards, winning two, including Best Musical. It’s now on Broadway, where got four Tony nominations, including Best Musical, winning for Best Supporting Actor. The casting mix-and-matches genders, with some women playing male character, and several of the mean playing women. My pal, the inveterate Chris Dunn, saw the show in New York, raved about it, and sent me a link to one particular song which is what I want to post here. It was really wonderful, but to put it in a fuller context, I’m going to start with what I think is the opening number. They performed it at both the Olivier and Tony Award telecasts, and it's wildly energetic and, from what I know about the show, is the sensibility of the evening. I’ll add that the song goes very fast, so I’ve never caught most of the words, though you can put on the Closed Captioning option (though it's a bit hard to keep up). This brings us to the song in question. It comes in the story when British intelligence realizes they need to humanize the dead body more. And decide to include a love letter. The first attempts don’t go well. That’s when one of the women officials involved tells a story about herself and a young love she lost in WWI. The story is so moving that she’s convinced to write it as the fake letter. And this is that song. Playing the young woman is Jak Malone – who won both the Olivier and Tony Awards as Best Supporting Actor. (And yes, the show overlaps genders in its casting.) Chris says that it was this number specifically that won Malone the award, that it was so emotional. Comments on YouTube with the video all say the same thing, that in the midst of this boisterous comedy, the song almost comes out of nowhere and overwhelms the audience with its emotion. This, then, is “Dear Bill”. I swear, yes, this is true.  And in response --  P.S. As someone else responded on Twitter -- "Did we win?" And another person replied -- "You can say Merry Protein again." And by the way, was the White House not able to find a better picture of Robert Kennedy, Junior? (At least, I assume that's Robert Kennedy, Junior.) |
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 
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