Happy New Year horseshit, reincarnated children, ‘All Fours’ by Miranda July, and Season 2 of ‘Bad Sisters.’
Another Week: Number 106
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politics
Here is a list of content tagged “politics” on MarkCz.com.
Another Week: Number 104
Outerwear makes all the difference, neighborhood Trump compounds, new glasses are ordered, the Emirates NBA Cup 2024, and holiday pretzel cabins.
Another Week: Number 100
Disappointment awaits, Larry wants my Land’s End jacket, Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Volleyball, ‘The West’ (1996 documentary miniseries), ‘Joan Baez: I Am a Noise’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 98
Buy AirPods, people. Plus: ‘Cool Hand Luke’ (1967), ‘So Rugged and Mountainous,’ by Will Bagley, Election 2024: America’s cancer is back, ‘The Year of Magical Thinking,’ by Joan Didion.
Another Week: Number 97
A new home fragrance solution, Donald J. Trump degenerates further in campaign’s last week, Halloween 2024.
Another Week: Number 96
Imagination gains elasticity. Canvassing and voting. Tim Walz rally in Racine. ‘John McGivern’s Main Streets’ (with Emmy Fink). Michelle Obama’s speech in Kalamazoo. ‘His Three Daughters’ (2023).
Another Week: Number 94
Hurricane Milton follows Hurricane Helene and the GOP disinformation machine goes into high gear. Also: ‘Big’ (1988) and ‘Funny Girl’ (1968).
Another Week: Number 93
Gregg Allman song in a Crown Royal commercial. Trump is a Batman villain. Also: ‘Bend in the River’ (1952).
Another Week: Number 92
More fall-like weather, Hurricane Helene, Mideast turmoil, Republicans stoke hate and fear, Chicago Bears and Indiana Fever lose, and a candidate is ‘mentally impaired.’ Also: ’Will & Harper’ (2024).
Another Week: Number 90
Monarch butterflies and window repair, Bears beat Titans, Pablo Torre: Wright Thompson on Caitlin Clark, Trump/Harris debate, ‘Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos’ (2024)
Another Week: Number 88
Dew points and skincare commercials. Also: CNN’s interview of Kamala Harris and Time Walz, ‘Midnight Cowboy’ (1969), ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975), and ‘Bridesmaids (2011).’
Another Week: Number 87
Some people acknowledge each other, some don’t. Also: Lexie Hull of the Indiana Fever, and the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
Another Week: Number 85
Picnic with Amy’s family, ‘Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes,’ Kamala Harris adds Tim Walz, ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ (1962), ‘Rachel Maddow Presents Ultra,’ Season 2
Another Week: Number 83
A power emerges from the stillness. Racine yard waste hurdles. Joe Biden endorses Kamala Harris. The Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony.
Another Week: Number 82
I have petunias and salvias, but where are the hummingbirds? Also: the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Another Week: Number 80
Fourth of July fireworks out of Apocalypse Now, Jewel on WTF, Presidential immunity and a sense of doom, the Tour de France and Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy.’
Another Week: Number 79
2024 is half-over — and sixty-four years after Kennedy-Nixon, the presidential debate tradition has deteriorated into utter absurdity.
Another Week: Number 75
These beautiful last days of spring are steeped in bleakness underneath. Plus: ‘Do the Right Thing’ (1989) and ‘Little Women’ (2019).
Another Week: Number 72
I have amnesia, my country has constipation, and President Biden visits Racine. Also: ‘Brigsby Bear’ (2017) and ‘The Color Purple’ (2023).
Another Week: Number 70
My backyard continues to occupy my mind. Plus: “How Fascism Works,’ by Jason Stanley, and ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere,’ by Warren Zanes.
Another Week: Number 63
Joe Biden or Donald Trump? Pick one. Four years ago, Trump failed his big test badly. Plus ‘Triumph of the Will’ (1935), ‘Poor Things’ (2023), and ‘The Zone of Interest’ (2023).
Another Week: Number 49
Amy now on Piqray and attempting finger-sticks, ‘Marcel the Shell with Shoes On’ (2021), ‘The ABC’s of Book Banning’ (2023), Trump calls for government crackdown on the free press, ‘Kyle Kinane: Shocks and Struts’
Another Week: Number 43
Amy’s an outpatient with low platelets and edema; ‘Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe,’ ‘We Don’t Talk About Leonard,’ ‘Renfield (2023),’ ‘The Insurrectionist Next Door (2023),’ ‘The Descent (2005)’
Another Week: Number 37
The beginning of fall, the Rolling Stones hype ‘Hackney Diamonds,’ Mehdi Hasan vs. Vivek Ramaswamy, ‘Under the Covers’ (2002)
Another Week: Number 32
Amy released and sometimes headache-free; Bluetooth earbuds: soundcore by Anker Space A40, Trump indicted for conspiring to steal 2020 election, ‘The Quiet Girl’ (2022), ‘Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi,’ ‘Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 31
Caged for a week; Celsius Sparkling Orange caffeinated water; superseding indictment of Donald Trump, ‘Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale.’
Another Week: Number 21
‘The Way to Heaven’ in a McDonald’s bathroom, ‘Lewis Black: Tragically, I Need You,’ ‘The Great’ Season 3, FRONTLINE: Clarence & Ginny Thomas, Tears for Fears: KCRW Live from The Village Studios, ‘A World of Calm.’
Another Week: Number 20
The robin nesting in our backyard, ‘Clarkson’s Farm,’ Season 2, ‘White House Plumbers,’ debt ceiling, ‘Jimmy O. Yang: Guess How Much?,’ ‘Air’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 19
A week of personal ordeals, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ on ‘CBS Sunday Morning,’ ‘Somebody Somewhere: Season 2,’ ‘This Boy’s Life (1993)’
Another Week: Number 18
‘Stutz,’ verification in reverse, ‘Judy Blume Forever,’ ‘In Session: Stevie Ray Vaughan & Albert King.’ And do birds really eat grass seed?
Another Week: Number 16
Gun violence insanity, Chris O’Dowd in ‘The Big Door Prize,’ ‘On a Wing and a Prayer’ (2023), ‘Candy,’ and Jon Favreau’s ‘Chef’ (2014).
Another Week: Number 15
Lamb for Easter instead of ham, ‘Hazy Shade of Winter,’ the price of buttermilk at Walmart, ‘Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence,’ ‘Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields’
Another Week: Number 14
April is the cruelest month, Thai-Namite restaurant in Wauwatosa; Wisconsin congressman Bryan Steil: The hedgehog that roared.
Another Week: Number 8
A death in my family, Super Bowl LVII, ‘Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark,’ Mike Pence fights a subpoena, ‘Nate Bargatze: Hello World,’ Bing + ChatGPT = HAL 9000?
Another Week: Number 7
‘80 for Brady’ bad reviews, website spring cleaning, 65th Annual Grammy Awards, President Biden’s State of the Union Address, Hallie Jackson exits MSNBC, ChatGPT: artificial intelligence for what?
Another Week: Number 3
A shooting close to home, Aaron Rodgers loses to the Detroit Lions, ‘Bad Sisters,’ ‘Physical,’ ‘Elvis,’ ‘Hard Knocks In Season: The Arizona Cardinals,’ ‘The Established Home,’ ‘The Lost Kitchen,’ Dr. Seuss teaches Critical Race Theory, ‘Welcome to Chippendales,’ ‘The Flagmakers’
Another Week: Number 2
NFL anguish, ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ ‘International Falls,’ ‘The Menu,’ ‘Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter,’ ‘Severance,’ ‘This Place Rules,’ House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Another Week: Number 1
William Faulkner’s ‘The Sound and the Fury,’ movies ‘Moonage Daydream,’ ‘If These Walls Could Sing,’ and ‘The Banshees of Inisherin,’ plus Melissa Villaseñor, ‘This Way Up,’ ‘The Big Brunch,’ and Southwest Airlines flight cancellations.
Ron Johnson
Ron Johnson is a threat to democracy. One of Ron Johnson’s top aides attempted to hand off a list of fake electors to Vice President Mike Pence minutes before Pence began counting electoral votes on January 6, 2021. Confronted about this, Ron Johnson kept changing his story.
Joe Biden accomplishments
Joe Biden accomplishmentsBetter than Trump on the economy, oil, and crimeIn this August 15, 2024 segment on Morning Joe, economic analyst Steve Rattner fact-checks several of the lies Donald Trump spewed during his August 14 “economic policy” speech in North...
Trump’s black family on Twitter and alter egos
Grabbing my first cup of coffee this morning, I turned on Milwaukee's NPR station and heard, of course, about Donald Trump and his "Look at my African-American over here!" remark from yesterday. Continuing on to Twitter, I saw that Trump was already beginning to churn...
‘Morning Joe’: Chris Matthews nails Reince Priebus on racism
There was an unusually interesting moment on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning. Hardball host Chris Matthews took on Kenosha, Wisconsin's own Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, over Mitt Romney's thinly veiled appeals to racism — including...
Mitt Romney lying about balanced budget, taxes
Mitt Romney is lying. He and Paul Ryan teamed up for a joint town hall meeting on Monday at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. Here is what Mitt Romney said to the more than 3,000 people who came to hear him: " ... raising taxes slows down growth, and...
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker compares self to Vince Lombardi
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, quoted in an AP story Wednesday afternoon, is now imagining himself as legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. Walker recalls the Packers' 1-10-1 record for the 1958 season, and he cautions that head coach Vince Lombardi was not...
Price of gas when Obama took office: $1.81
$1.81: The price of gas when Obama took office.In the past few days, I have seen this meme spreading on Facebook — and back in September, Michele Bachmann was saying, "The day that President Obama took office, gasoline was $1.79 a gallon." Many Facebook...
Grover Norquist and the tax pledge = Rumpelstiltskin
Watching this 60 Minutes segment on Grover Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform pledge this past Sunday night — "The Pledge: Grover Norquist's hold on the GOP" — it occurred to me that his story has some very familiar aspects. Think...
We Energies coal ash spills into Lake Michigan
Wisconsin news made The Rachel Maddow Show again last night. That's because on Monday, coal ash from the grounds of We Energies' Oak Creek Power Plant was swept into Lake Michigan when a shoreline bluff collapsed during construction — ironically, for an air quality...
C. Peter Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation
It was on The Rachel Maddow Show back on August 10 that I first heard of the New Apostolic Reformation. That segment aired just before Rick Perry entered the 2012 presidential race, and just after his August 6th prayer rally — "The Response" — at Houston's Reliant...
SC Johnson companies pay no Wisconsin income taxes?
Over his 45-year career in journalism, David Cay Johnston has many impressive achivements. Tax reporter for the The New York Times from 1995 to 2006, he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2000 and 2003, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting in 2001 "for his...
Fighting Bob La Follette, Wisconsin State Capitol, Madison
Madison, Wisconsin — Copy of a bust of Robert M. La Follette, Sr. by sculptor Jo Davidson in the rotunda of the Wisconsin State Capitol building at the entrance to the capitol's east gallery. Known as "Fighting Bob," La...
Austerity is dangerous class politics
Watching the riots in England these days, one line from the video above keeps echoing in my mind: There's a term for this: "class politics," and it usually ends badly. Speaking about austerity in the video is Mark Blyth, a faculty...
Federal debt, Medicare, spending, deficit: President Obama’s speech
[President Obama’s speech: White House video and text transcript.] Remarks by the President on Fiscal Policy George Washington University Washington, D.C. 1:48 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.) Please have a seat. Please have a seat, everyone....
Paul Ryan is Dagwood Bumstead
In the video clip above we see Rachel Maddow, aggravated over Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and the tendency of the news media to portray him as a bright and earnest young man on the rise — a numbers-whiz with a sharpened pencil behind his ear who has the guts to level...
Rachel Maddow Show: ‘Shock Doctrine’ used to take over Michigan towns
This segment on last night's Rachel Maddow Show regarding the Shock Doctrine and the governor of Michigan was jaw-dropping. (Read the transcript here.) Apparently, new laws speeding through the Michigan Legislature will empower Republican Gov. Rick Snyder to appoint...
Obama a Keynesian? And Ron Johnson says ‘start digging’
Above is an outrageous Second City Network video from the site of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on Washington D.C.'s National Mall this past weekend. Andy Cobb of The Partisans asks attendees, "Is Obama a Keynesian?" You have to...
Eric Holder and Second Amendment, Eric Holder and firearms
The video clip above, regarding Eric Holder's record on guns, from last night's installment of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, is a fantastic thumbnail of this midterm election. Rachel Maddow took her show to Anchorage, Alaska. The demonstrators shown here are...
Al Franken speech: Obama’s car-in-the-ditch metaphor
Sen. Al Franken is not only one of the best guys ever — he is also one of the funniest comedians and writers of our lifetime because he appreciates absurdity and the hard nugget of truth sometimes concealed inside it. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell is a pretty sharp truth...
Ron Johnson for Senate with no jobs plan?
Ron Johnson, Senate candidate from Wisconsin, is seen in the clip above, from Countdown with Keith Olbermann, addressing the central issue in this year's election: Jobs, jobs, jobs. What is Ron Johnson's jobs plan? His jobs plan is spending cuts. Which is to say that...
Republican tax cuts cost jobs, hurt grandchildren
After failing for 2 years to put forth any serious alternatives to the ambitious Democratic agenda they obstruct, Republicans today unveiled "A Pledge to America," aimed at repairing their image as the Party of "No." In their Pledge, Republicans say they plan to cut...
Financial crisis + 2 years: Obama, the Tea Party, and the US attention span
NPR's Planet Money has been conducting an ongoing case study of a toxic asset, and there was an interesting observation in Friday morning's installment examining the origin of this toxic asset, the housing bubble circa 2005: DAVID KESTENBAUM: How weird would it be to,...
Sarah Palin is a Tic-Tac-Toe playing chicken
For a maverick politician who's constantly trying to portray herself as tough and unafraid, Sarah Palin has spent an awful lot of time hiding behind her Facebook and Twitter accounts, keeping herself as unaccountable as possible while simultaneously hoping to somehow...
President Obama in Racine, Wisconsin
When news broke last weekend that President Barack Obama would be holding a town hall meeting here in Racine on June 30, the area media struggled to understand its purpose. On a national level, there is currently no sharper political analyst than MSNBC's Rachel...
President Barack Obama, Memorial Hall, Racine, Wisconsin
Racine, Wisconsin — President Barack Obama answers a question during his town hall meeting at Memorial Hall. See also: My blog post and videos.
Memorial Hall: President Barack Obama in Racine, Wisconsin
Racine, Wisconsin — An audience at Memorial Hall listens to President Barack Obama during his town hall meeting. See also: My blog post and videos.
Air Force One from Racine, Wisconsin
Racine, Wisconsin — Air Force One, as seen from Lake Ave. near 7th St. outside Memorial Hall, about 90 minutes before President Obama's town hall meeting here. [includeme...
FedEx vs. UPS: ‘Brown Bailout Guy’
This was a highly irritating story on NPR's Morning Edition today: Trucking Rivals Fight Lobbying Battle Over Legislation In short, back in 1996, language was put into a must-pass aviation bill which classifies FedEx as an airline, not a trucking firm — preventing...
The Tea Party and a warped sense of time
Reading an editorial today by Racine's local newspaper, I felt a certain "down the rabbit-hole" sensation that has become increasingly familiar. The Journal Times opinion piece, "State no longer a ‘tax hell’," lauds the news that "Wisconsin's taxation ranking has hit...
Glenn Beck, Eric Massa, and the worst interview ever
The clips included in the clip above really deserve to be enshrined in the Awkwardness Hall of Fame. I'm someone who grew up watching the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon year in and year out. I was tuned in when David Letterman interviewed Crispin Glover and Farrah Fawcett...
Dick Cheney: A record of recklessness
I have mostly ignored Dick Cheney and his torrent of wrongheaded criticism over the last year. Something is obviously broken in the man — namely, any sense of humility that would prompt a rational person to shut his mouth. Reportedly, Cheney criticized the Obama...
‘Let his days be few’: The meaning of Psalms 109:8
To appreciate how boneheaded this mistake is, you first have to actually read Psalm 109 and be able to understand it. Ready? Great. Here are the first eleven verses: God whom I praise, do not be silent! Wicked and deceiving words are being said about me, false...
Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart: Out-crazying Glenn Beck
Keith Olbermann's segments on Glenn Beck's Rockefeller Center lunacy the past two nights have been hysterical. Do not miss these: The clip above is from Thursday night's installment of Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. In it, Keith analyzes Glenn Beck's...
‘Morning Joe’ Scarborough brews up Jon Stewart feud over Starbucks
Former Florida congressman Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC's Morning Joe, may be the electronic media's most tolerable conservative Republican. He may even have a new book, out just yesterday, urging his party back from radical recklessness to a more moderate...
Rick Santelli, CNBC in hot water on ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’
God bless Jon Stewart and the Daily Show researchers and editors for putting CNBC's accuracy record under the microscope following Rick Santelli's anti-bailout rant on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.. I am so sick of...
George W. Bush legacy: 8 years in 8 minutes, by Keith Olbermann
On Thursday evening, before President Bush's farewell address, I spent some time searching YouTube for an apt retrospective of his eight years leading our nation. There were some possibilities, but nothing really summed up the George...
Roland Burris, Senate Trail Blazer
No matter what else I try to do today, my feeble little brain won't stop singing the song in the video above — "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" by Warren Zevon, shown here in his last public performance on The Late Show with David Letterman. [includeme...
Shoes thrown at George W. Bush by Iraqi reporter
High and outside: FishbowlDC posts NBC video and three entries about one Iraqi reporter's goodbye today to President George W. Bush: Reporter Throws Shoe At President Bush VIDEO: Reporter Throws Shoes At Bush Block The Reebok: More From The Scene The official quote...
Election Day 2008: Live blog
9:17 a.m. — I've got some leftover sauce reheating in the microwave. I'll mix it with the egg noodles boiling on the stove and call it breakfast. MSNBC is on my TV, and I can see my local polling place from my living room window. It's 61 sunny and clear degrees...
Early voting in Racine
I voted. Amy voted too. We voted early. We have been receiving the notices from the Obama campaign and seeing how they urge people to vote early. They even have a Web site, VoteForChange.com, to help Americans find out how to vote early. Still, I wasn't completely...
ABC World News: Racine, Wisconsin’s minute in spotlight
ABC's ABC World News with Charles Gibson devoted this past week to a "Great American Battleground Bus Tour" gimmick which purported to give Gibson and his viewers insight into real, live heartland voters in cities like Dayton, Bowling Green, Indianapolis, Davenport —...
The Great Recession of 2008
I cannot process the economic depression is unfolding here in the U.S.A. over the last few days. A crushing, amorphous weight has me plastered to the sofa in front of the TV. My breathing is labored, and my heart stops beating every now and then for ten or fifteen...
Andrew Bacevich on ‘Bill Moyers Journal’: Warning in America
We modern Americans are marvels of indolence. We'll slap magnetic "Support our troops" ribbons on our minivans and surrender our freedoms to telephone companies if that's what it takes to keep from having to protect our freedoms, but let anyone even suggest keeping...
Rick Warren’s Saddleback Civil Forum
There were a number of interesting moments in Saturday night's "Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency," but one that I have not seen mentioned came as part of John McCain's response to a question about taxes. Part 5 of Pastor Rick...
Election 2008: It’s God time
Reading Andrew Sullivan's acclaimed piece pn Election 2008 in last December's Atlantic magazine, I noted the emphasis on Barack Obama's religious conviction and how one Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright introduced Obama to Jesus Christ. Sullivan was wowed: To deploy the...
Matt Taibbi, a breath of fresh air
I'm sitting here 90 minutes north of Chicago in my shorts and flip flops after mowing the lawn on this 77 degree October 21. While waiting for the 60 Minutes story on mega-fires in the American west, I find myself nostalgic for certain individuals, now dead, who used...
‘V for Vendetta’ (Natalie Portman movie, 2006)
Never really into graphic novels (or comic books, as they used to be called), I had some initial resistance to this movie about a vigilante in a Guy Fawkes mask in post-American Britain who uses fantastic swordsmanship and martial...
‘Jesus Camp’ (2006 documentary film)
Jesus Camp is an Oscar-nominated documentary about an evangelical Christian camp for kids in Devil's Lake, North Dakota, and, more broadly, about the political militancy of America's religious right. It was directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing. [includeme...
The grace of Elizabeth Edwards
Back in October of 2004, my wife Amy was working at the Maidenform store in Pleasant Prairie's Prime Outlets shopping center. One morning — October 21st, to be exact — Amy phoned home to tell me that there was some unusual activity in...
Edward R. Murrow: ‘Good Night and Good Luck’ (2005 movie)
As a lifelong news junkie, I think of Edward R. Murrow as a divinity. I don't feel all that strongly about George Clooney one way or another, but I was interested to see what he would do as a director. (I have always meant to see his directorial debut, Confessions of...
Keith Olbermann’s special comments
I watch TV news all day long for a living, so it's unlikely that I would want to watch more of it when I'm finally off work at 7 p.m., and yet that's what I find myself doing these days. Radio legend Steve Dahl was a very early enthusiast of Countdown with Keith...