Weather for the day… nice day, starting out, 59° overcast cool a bit too windy 65° back at home.
Podcast is Rachel Maddow presents Ultra ep., Malmedy Everybody should listen to this podcast. It's our history. It's current. It's a great example of how what is happening today, what has happened before and we should be concerned, aware, and understand, that it can't happen again, or where it failed before, it needs to fail now.
Well, this is interesting. My friend and fellow indie director Kelly Hughes called last night and we talked for a couple hours. He told me about a guy he interviewed who said he found some spare footage lying around, threw it together in a day put it up online and it’s on Amazon Prime now. He’s already made $20,000 off it so far.
I put a lot of effort into my films and it's paid off critically as far as winning awards around the world. But it hasn’t turned into any kind of economic success. In fact, all I’ve been doing is spending money on them.
So it occurred to us both that we may have enough footage just lying around, we could slap something together (separately), and produce something interesting.
My documentary film has issues with music rights. An accident, where I thought I had the public domain but it turned out I didn’t...for one song. For the primary song, 17 minutes of my 28-minute documentary. I tried to negotiate with NAXOS but got nowhere. They were nice however and informative. I did find a free legal service for help on this kind of thing.
For that film and my film noir, the issue seems to be that I’d pushed my video editing software so far to the edge that it caused issues related to configuring for streaming to get up onto platforms like Amazon Prime, or Filmhub, a distributor.
So what if I took some simply produced film and got that online on some streamer like Amazon Prime? We’re looking into that now.
That guy he had interviewed has videos up on YouTube about all this kind of thing and more.
Oh, I noticed MAGA and Trump supporters are pushing out a lot of nonsense that Trump had never said neoNazis and white supremacists are "very fine people", because Snopes has now discredited that. Uh huh...
By the way, in America 1 in 10 are diagnosed with mental illness. According to NIMH 1 in 5 Americans are living with mental illness. The estimate is that 50% of Americans with mental illness are undiagnosed. Donald Trump is one of those. Even his niece Mary Trump, a retired psychologist, author and podcaster, recognizes her uncle's pathologies. Mary Trump worked for one year at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center while working on her PhD research. She is a contributor to the book Diagnosis: Schizophrenia, published by Columbia University Press in 2001. She has taught graduate courses in developmental psychology, trauma, and psychopathology. Thus she has some bone fides, especially in being a family member and knowing Donald Trump very well over her lifetime.
The problem there is that we’re dealing with mafiaSpeak or mobSpeak in how Trump lingo speaks around things, is designed to avoid accountability or legal repercussions. Fundamentally to protect himself as mobsters do, against being recorded or relayed in court, regarding crimes being committed. Damn, has no one seen a mob, mafia, or organized crime movie? Watch any crime film and you see them doing exactly that. Listen to those like Michael Cohen who repeatedly said that’s exactly how Trump speaks... in code.
So when you read what Trump said or watch a video of him saying there were "very fine people on both sides", it doesn’t matter that he didn’t exactly say he was talking about... neoNazis and white supremacists. Even when immediately after that he said the exact opposite, that those people should be prosecuted.
So yes, technically Snopes is right. While fundamentally flawed and 100% incorrect
Therein is the big problem with Donald Trump on our political scene.
When he says things like that, those people clearly hear what he is saying. We’ve even heard they said they heard it, that they got his message and were cheering and celebrating. They had parties over it. The fact that he denied them after his initial comment is something they discredit themselves. It's irrelevant to them. They don’t buy into his denials. They received his message. We received it. But fact-checkers and the law haven't? Can't? That, is a problem. Yes?
The problem there is that we’re dealing with mafiaSpeak or mobSpeak in how Trump lingo speaks around things, is designed to avoid accountability or legal repercussions. Fundamentally to protect himself as mobsters do, against being recorded or relayed in court, regarding crimes being committed. Damn, has no one seen a mob, mafia, or organized crime movie? Watch any crime film and you see them doing exactly that. Listen to those like Michael Cohen who repeatedly said that’s exactly how Trump speaks... in code.
So when you read what Trump said or watch a video of him saying there were "very fine people on both sides", it doesn’t matter that he didn’t exactly say he was talking about... neoNazis and white supremacists. Even when immediately after that he said the exact opposite, that those people should be prosecuted.
So yes, technically Snopes is right. While fundamentally flawed and 100% incorrect
Therein is the big problem with Donald Trump on our political scene.
When he says things like that, those people clearly hear what he is saying. We’ve even heard they said they heard it, that they got his message and were cheering and celebrating. They had parties over it. The fact that he denied them after his initial comment is something they discredit themselves. It's irrelevant to them. They don’t buy into his denials. They received his message. We received it. But fact-checkers and the law haven't? Can't? That, is a problem. Yes?
So in our supporting his contentions that he never said that or he never meant that, is disingenuous at best and disinformation at worst. We have to get a handle on this. Because he’s walking right over a lot of of our historical protections, social contracts and of course, he’s always abused legal contracts.
As I’ve said in previous blogs about Soviet and Russian disinformation and espionage tactics, I find it a bizarre reality today, and in recent history, that what I read and studied being done by Russia to other countries, even to their own citizens, is now rampant in America by the Right, and has spread among countries of western democracy. When that happens, who do you look to? Enemies of democracy, obviously.
Which brings us back to Rachel Maddow's podcast, Ultra. About how this all happened decades ago, before I was even born, before she was born. But if hindsight is foresight, we’re watching this all come on again. We been here before. We're hearing about it. We have to act to stop it.
As I’ve said in previous blogs about Soviet and Russian disinformation and espionage tactics, I find it a bizarre reality today, and in recent history, that what I read and studied being done by Russia to other countries, even to their own citizens, is now rampant in America by the Right, and has spread among countries of western democracy. When that happens, who do you look to? Enemies of democracy, obviously.
Which brings us back to Rachel Maddow's podcast, Ultra. About how this all happened decades ago, before I was even born, before she was born. But if hindsight is foresight, we’re watching this all come on again. We been here before. We're hearing about it. We have to act to stop it.
Before I make this next brief aside, let me say I took "criminal evidence for police" with a bunch of Tacoma Police Department Sergeants at Tacoma Community College when I was about 18. They were probably looking to better themselves for promotion. Our teacher was Joseph Wambaugh's partner in LA for years. Joe was incredibly famous for writing "The Blue Knight" and "The Onion Field" (made into a film), and TV shows like "Police Story".
I took the TPD police tests (written and obstacle course_ at 19, and was their best time on the obstacle course that day by quite a bit. I made #350 out of 650 applicants. I didn't have a chance, but wanted to take the test anyway. I entered USAF as Law Enforcement that next year (I was going to get a job dammit!). But lost the slot for LE during Basic due to having flat feet which should have kept me from enlisting, but the doctor at my physical told me to keep on my socks if I wanted to get in. I was initially tested and vetted for the USAF OSI which was a lot to was over a month or so. However, once accepted I decided to separate from service and go to college. There's a lot more to the why of that but this is the short version. Finally, my university degree is in psychology.
As I recently joked about war criminal Putin's illegal Ukrainian war:
Russia: What can we do to fuck ourselves?
Putin: Let’s attack Ukraine!
I just saw a claim by someone saying that World War III began in 2015 indicating a certain situation had indicated that (sorry, can't remember what it was). I would argue that it started in 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine but no one did anything. Or in 2008 when Russia attacked Georgia. Seeing a pattern here?
I learned even in the schoolyard as a child with bullies, if you don’t put them down ASAP, settle in for a rough ride if not a life of abuse and punishment. Punish them or take the punishment. We did not stop Putin before, we’re only starting to stop him now, while we should’ve started pushing back HARD two years ago, at least. For those who claim we shouldn’t help Ukraine or shouldn’t Stop Putin, they might as well not be Americans. I wanted Hilary to win rather than Trump, in part to be someone who would handle Putin and not play out a modern Neville Chamberlain scenario all over, again for all Western democracies.
It’s interesting in this episode of Ultra, how it’s based around a person who saw himself as a Confederate, who was sympathetic to Germany in post-WWII. Who he saw growing up in his American South, how it was once occupied by the North after the Civil War, a similarity with Germany at the end of World War II. And they tossed that guy into the Nuremberg Trial?
I say it’s interesting because so much of the postbellum South held onto their bigotry, racism, and the belief of being right as slaveholders. Having that taken away from them, many remained allergic to those if not merely different from them, certainly people different from them with dark skin.
All of which seems to have been folded into MAGA, either purposely by Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, and Stephen Miller. I assume Trump did it inadvertently, though he incorporates those beliefs purposely by his political "button men". These are despicable people, just as Hillary Clinton had stated. Conflating it to those who support them wasn’t wholly incorrect about them. Or their illiberal, authoritarian mindset which she was 100% correct about.
Starting mile three…
Rachel’s podcast episode I believe may be detailing the beginning of disinformation in American jurisprudence. Which expanded into actual Nazi murderers and war criminals in Germany seeking a way out of their crimes.
While disinformation has probably been around for thousands of years, I would say the Russians, then Soviets, and then Russians again, are the ones who really perfected it. Great Britain dealt with this and them for over 100 years and became the experts in counter-disinformation, and counter-espionage against Russian disinformation efforts. If not countering it, certinly being able to recognize it and act accordingly.
America learned from Great Britain about Russian disinformation. But even if you’re an expert at countering it, it’s difficult to contend with. As we’ve seen with Donald Trump, MAGA, and their Republican party, ever since the early '90s really, we haven't been able to figure it out very well at all.
We may even now be experts about it in our intelligence community which doesn’t translate out to our public media, or our individual citizens, or political parties.
We have historically been careful about this information within political leadership. Politicians were historically careful about what they said because they KNEW it's not hard to start trouble or cause harm or death. Trump seems not to care about that, and the same with his MAGA leadership. It has been evolving to show disinformation can profit those like Donald Trump who just happened to hit the scene at the right time, with the right skills of a juvenile bully, and the right utter lack of ethics.
Willis Everett, the Southerner Rachel is talking about, came up with a disinformation idea for the criminal Nazis, to help get them off from being executed, after having been convicted and the case three times reviewed. He should probably have a statue in a museum of jurisprudence disinformation. Donald Trump'sstatue should be right next to him on the political side of things. But also in a museum of mob bosses, in having gotten away with so much, for so long, and as well as a Russian "useful idiot", who actually made it, somehow to POTUS.
To be clear, you know you’ve gone off the rails when you successfully get Nazis off for war crimes. Or Donald Trump off for his crimes as president. Or pardon someone like President Nixon for his crimes. While Ford told us back then, because I remember it happening, that he pardoned Nixon because he feared it would tear America apart otherwiwse. Looking back on it now, I don’t think he was correct. I think he should’ve let Nixon suffer the consequences. Because he was not looking at America, he was not looking at our future, he was looking at our past and he was looking at America during his presidency. And that was vapidly myopic.
Consider that Hitler’s Nazis and German supporters during and before World War II were national socialists. Today we have Christian nationalists supporting Donald Trump. We have white supremacists supporting Donald Trump. Nazis were white supremacists and the actual gold standard for eugenics. Nazis were also Christians. And I would assume Christian nationalists. While not all Trump supporters are religious bigots or proponents of eugenics, all those types do seem to support him.
It’s good to know that softer, more modern neo-Nazis in America claim to not believe in eugenics. But in enabling them under Donald Trump and giving them free license as we’ve seen comes to harm others they don’t like, even to kill them? I would assume eugenics and such concepts have been on the rise with such ignorant lowlifes since Trump in 2015.
Interesting, I just hit my home block in being done with my 3 miles for the day and a light breeze blew an obvious but not unpleasant odor of patchouly.
OK so, here's what I wanted to say with those caveats now stated...America needs to become more familiar with the signs of both criminal behavior and mental illness. Because when observing (or hearing about) Donald Trump's behaviors and at times speech, all you can see (or hear) are obvious examples of those two behaviors. At least it's obvious to me.
Speaking of Russia, Ukraine has made some great advancements, and apparently some others disconnected and unconnected from Ukraine in having attacked some religious groups recently in Russia. Some Russian government officials are now trying to blame Ukraine for that. Figures. Like MAGA only in Russia, with Putin rather than the dumber Trump. It just doesn’t make any sense that Ukraine would be doing that. When they’re doing things far more effective and taking out Military resources in Ukraine belonging to Russia and as well within RussiaAs I recently joked about war criminal Putin's illegal Ukrainian war:
Russia: What can we do to fuck ourselves?
Putin: Let’s attack Ukraine!
I just saw a claim by someone saying that World War III began in 2015 indicating a certain situation had indicated that (sorry, can't remember what it was). I would argue that it started in 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine but no one did anything. Or in 2008 when Russia attacked Georgia. Seeing a pattern here?
I learned even in the schoolyard as a child with bullies, if you don’t put them down ASAP, settle in for a rough ride if not a life of abuse and punishment. Punish them or take the punishment. We did not stop Putin before, we’re only starting to stop him now, while we should’ve started pushing back HARD two years ago, at least. For those who claim we shouldn’t help Ukraine or shouldn’t Stop Putin, they might as well not be Americans. I wanted Hilary to win rather than Trump, in part to be someone who would handle Putin and not play out a modern Neville Chamberlain scenario all over, again for all Western democracies.
I know they think they are American and patriots but when you follow the preferences of your country's enemies, how does that make you either American or patriot? It may make you a nationalist or Christian nationalist, neither of those being badges to wear with honor. Certainly not the way they are being executed by the MAGALoon Trump contingent.
SUV just drove by me and I got a strong whiff of vanilla. Perhaps a vanilla latte? Nice.
Starting mile two.
SUV just drove by me and I got a strong whiff of vanilla. Perhaps a vanilla latte? Nice.
Starting mile two.
Wondering if I should start doing 4 miles instead of 3 at some point if I’m walking this daily? Perhaps I should wait a couple of weeks to decide? Because there’s no sense in walking 4 miles if 3 does what I need. It saves me time and it saves me effort. Years ago I was using my elliptical at home doing about two hours at a time. I read some research that seemed valid and said I was wasting my time beyond 45 minutes for what I was trying to achieve. So I cut back to 45 minutes. And it seemed just fine
Rachel’s podcast, this episode about Malmedy is interesting. This often happens with her podcasts. It’s better if you just listen to the whole season because it’s stunning, informative and necessary.
I was just thinking about MAGA who can’t seem to see reality, at times “can’t see the forest for the trees.“ I’ve always seen that as relative to the Republican party. They get so involved in the specifics, the trees, they can’t see where they are any more, or what path they are on, which is the forest.
Which is ironic because they’re so into the "end justifies the means". Do whatever it takes to win, ethics or morality be damned, as long as it harms any or all others other than themselves...of course.
They do seem to get on a path and ideology, and nothing else deters them, even the reality of them being off course, at times. "Mission creep" can be a horribly dangerous thing. Donald Trump (and MAGA) seem to depend a lot on mission creep as well as “throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks.“ This goes back to his “very fine people on both sides“ statement. He throws everything out there and says both sides of the coin, the true and the false, the good and the bad. For others it is seen as insane. When he does that, with his people? It actually supports their belief in his lies evermore.
And that seems to us who are against him, against his lies, against his criminal behaviors and actions, so very obvious.
Rachel’s podcast, this episode about Malmedy is interesting. This often happens with her podcasts. It’s better if you just listen to the whole season because it’s stunning, informative and necessary.
I was just thinking about MAGA who can’t seem to see reality, at times “can’t see the forest for the trees.“ I’ve always seen that as relative to the Republican party. They get so involved in the specifics, the trees, they can’t see where they are any more, or what path they are on, which is the forest.
Which is ironic because they’re so into the "end justifies the means". Do whatever it takes to win, ethics or morality be damned, as long as it harms any or all others other than themselves...of course.
They do seem to get on a path and ideology, and nothing else deters them, even the reality of them being off course, at times. "Mission creep" can be a horribly dangerous thing. Donald Trump (and MAGA) seem to depend a lot on mission creep as well as “throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks.“ This goes back to his “very fine people on both sides“ statement. He throws everything out there and says both sides of the coin, the true and the false, the good and the bad. For others it is seen as insane. When he does that, with his people? It actually supports their belief in his lies evermore.
And that seems to us who are against him, against his lies, against his criminal behaviors and actions, so very obvious.
It’s interesting in this episode of Ultra, how it’s based around a person who saw himself as a Confederate, who was sympathetic to Germany in post-WWII. Who he saw growing up in his American South, how it was once occupied by the North after the Civil War, a similarity with Germany at the end of World War II. And they tossed that guy into the Nuremberg Trial?
I say it’s interesting because so much of the postbellum South held onto their bigotry, racism, and the belief of being right as slaveholders. Having that taken away from them, many remained allergic to those if not merely different from them, certainly people different from them with dark skin.
All of which seems to have been folded into MAGA, either purposely by Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, and Stephen Miller. I assume Trump did it inadvertently, though he incorporates those beliefs purposely by his political "button men". These are despicable people, just as Hillary Clinton had stated. Conflating it to those who support them wasn’t wholly incorrect about them. Or their illiberal, authoritarian mindset which she was 100% correct about.
Starting mile three…
Rachel’s podcast episode I believe may be detailing the beginning of disinformation in American jurisprudence. Which expanded into actual Nazi murderers and war criminals in Germany seeking a way out of their crimes.
While disinformation has probably been around for thousands of years, I would say the Russians, then Soviets, and then Russians again, are the ones who really perfected it. Great Britain dealt with this and them for over 100 years and became the experts in counter-disinformation, and counter-espionage against Russian disinformation efforts. If not countering it, certinly being able to recognize it and act accordingly.
America learned from Great Britain about Russian disinformation. But even if you’re an expert at countering it, it’s difficult to contend with. As we’ve seen with Donald Trump, MAGA, and their Republican party, ever since the early '90s really, we haven't been able to figure it out very well at all.
We may even now be experts about it in our intelligence community which doesn’t translate out to our public media, or our individual citizens, or political parties.
We have historically been careful about this information within political leadership. Politicians were historically careful about what they said because they KNEW it's not hard to start trouble or cause harm or death. Trump seems not to care about that, and the same with his MAGA leadership. It has been evolving to show disinformation can profit those like Donald Trump who just happened to hit the scene at the right time, with the right skills of a juvenile bully, and the right utter lack of ethics.
Willis Everett, the Southerner Rachel is talking about, came up with a disinformation idea for the criminal Nazis, to help get them off from being executed, after having been convicted and the case three times reviewed. He should probably have a statue in a museum of jurisprudence disinformation. Donald Trump'sstatue should be right next to him on the political side of things. But also in a museum of mob bosses, in having gotten away with so much, for so long, and as well as a Russian "useful idiot", who actually made it, somehow to POTUS.
To be clear, you know you’ve gone off the rails when you successfully get Nazis off for war crimes. Or Donald Trump off for his crimes as president. Or pardon someone like President Nixon for his crimes. While Ford told us back then, because I remember it happening, that he pardoned Nixon because he feared it would tear America apart otherwiwse. Looking back on it now, I don’t think he was correct. I think he should’ve let Nixon suffer the consequences. Because he was not looking at America, he was not looking at our future, he was looking at our past and he was looking at America during his presidency. And that was vapidly myopic.
Consider that Hitler’s Nazis and German supporters during and before World War II were national socialists. Today we have Christian nationalists supporting Donald Trump. We have white supremacists supporting Donald Trump. Nazis were white supremacists and the actual gold standard for eugenics. Nazis were also Christians. And I would assume Christian nationalists. While not all Trump supporters are religious bigots or proponents of eugenics, all those types do seem to support him.
It’s good to know that softer, more modern neo-Nazis in America claim to not believe in eugenics. But in enabling them under Donald Trump and giving them free license as we’ve seen comes to harm others they don’t like, even to kill them? I would assume eugenics and such concepts have been on the rise with such ignorant lowlifes since Trump in 2015.
Interesting, I just hit my home block in being done with my 3 miles for the day and a light breeze blew an obvious but not unpleasant odor of patchouly.
One last thing...
Hollywood Horror Museum @horrormuseum
Of all the scenes cut from Aliens, this was the biggest mistake.
Sigourney Weaver was furious and hurt, because it was the whole point of her character. It's often said that cutting this scene is what lost her the Oscar.
But Fox insisted.
On that note, I’ll bid you adieu…and wll leave you with that. It’s noon and time for lunch.
Cheers! Sláinte!
Of all the scenes cut from Aliens, this was the biggest mistake.
Sigourney Weaver was furious and hurt, because it was the whole point of her character. It's often said that cutting this scene is what lost her the Oscar.
But Fox insisted.
On that note, I’ll bid you adieu…and wll leave you with that. It’s noon and time for lunch.
Cheers! Sláinte!
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