Saturday, August 04, 2018

Hollywood Foretells; Hollyweird ignores.

I used to be optimistic about Truth winning out. Now I'm not so sure.




Dear Bette; As an entertainer, you are first rate.  As a commentator on real life, which I am sure you can barely remember, if at all, you are a blooming idiot re real world issues.. 
What is your authority?  Lemme guess, politicians mouthing (usually misinterpreted) media tripe from trough feeding, rent seeking sciencytists.
And NO, none of these disasters are really unusual or happening for the first time, ever.
How did Trump wreck the world environment in 18 months?  Trump has a Time Machine?

Let's TALK about Hollywood vs Trump voters:

To set the stage, why not review a Reality show based on exactly that premise:
Paris Hilton and Nicole Richey's The Simple Life

- If you identified with the two girls and thought their host families were bumpkins, congrats.. you are a bona fide Hollywoodian Democrat wannabe.
- Of the two, I thought Nicole was classier and had the most character. I'm probably not alone.
Viewed dispassionately, though, the girls' disconnect with real life shows how divided the country has become.  They really COULD have believed in Democratic Socialism.

Political prognostication:
If only Hollywood watched and considered the messages in their own fare:

First off:  Idiocracy
Meant to be a hit piece on politics being taken over by the Uneducated and ill-informed (ie Trump voters), it struck  me as an update on '1984' which, btw, conservatives and Progressives also see altogether differently. Take that and Animal Farm then look at college campuses and tell me who's right.

Urban Black Rights
Want to see how big city urban politics works and fails?
Watch The Wire.. uncannily prescient preview of Baltimore's descent into chaos. Really not that hard to figure out. Homicide: Life on the Street said the same ten years prior.
The Good Wife deserves honorable mention for Chicago style politics.




Monday, July 30, 2018

Clickbait - Lazy and Often Fake, leaves you feeling stupid. Now even more so

.. due, most likely to the laziness of the twenty something who put it together,
IMPORTANT UPDATE:  Indeed I do feel stupid now.. because I was all wrong. It's real and that IS a 'DC-4E' flying over Manhattan in 1939.  And it's memorable because the photo is by Margaret Bourke White.
Initial searches for the triple tail plane got me nothing.  Accidentally ran across another photo of that model which made me look harder. 


The whole story which explains my confusion, here
 

But I was right about about the helicopter.  She WAS in a plane to take the shot.. And it would'a been nice if the article told us the whole story.
In my defense I objected because I flew aircrew in DC4 (R5D)'s at Navy Transport Squadron One (VR-1) And the planes I flew in were way uglier and smaller than that one. And btw, once it landed it needed a prop rod under the tail to keep it from assuming 'wheely' position if as few as 3 people went aft.
Of even more interest: That very plane ...
...was sold and shipped to Japan in 1939. Its fate unclear, faded away in the advent of W.W. II. Later it became clear that it was bought to support Japanese studies into a long-range bomber.

****
 My original post, if you care.
Image Source
Slide #1 of a series with fairly ordinary pictures from the past.

Pretty cool huh?  Certainly wasn't an easy task... BECAUSE

That is NOT A DC4, it's a Lockheed L-44, precursor to the Constellation. Note the triple tail and sleek looks, Then find an actual picture of a DC4

It's obviously NOT 1939. Neither plane was in the air at that time  May be 1944 but probably later.

Who said it was taken from a Helicopter?  First commercial choppers were built circa 1942 and were too unreliable to be flown over large cities with no place to set down.  I wouldn't want to do it.
Taken from ordinary plane with high wing, most likely.

So, if you find three grave errors in the very first page, why bother with the rest.

Then I found the one about a soldier encountering a baby moose in the woods.

Do yourself a favor.. The first two pages set it up... the next 38 are filler gibberish.  Change the number in the url bar to 40 and you'll see a rather unusual but NOT RARE story of a lost baby moose
attaching itself to the first animal it found.
- Note that some of the pics show stock shots.. for no reason.  Pretty sure Estonia doesnt have its soldiers wearng US flag patches.

I felt stupider after -once again- falling for a hook I thought might be interesting. 



Saturday, July 28, 2018

In 'You can't Do That' Town, Jerky Boy says "Why Not!"

Performance Review, so far:  Exceeds Expectations - Git'n'er Done


Seems to me things are going the right direction.  Pretty good for someone who is essentially an old-timey Democrat.
Besides his cringeworthy demeanor, my greatest objection to Trump was his view on Trade disparities.  I was sure he would muck things up and get the opposite of desired results.  Now I think it might work.  I expected some corrective action on NAFTA rather than just scrapping it, altogether, but was more concerned about the effect of his tariff threats on EU and China. 
Amazing that EU has already gotten the message.

There's going to be some short term discomfort, as with farmers, but the long term corrections should work for the better.  Assuming he can keep the Lawyers at bay, know what I mean?

TRUMP’S SECRET: How A Can-Do Businessman Roils The ‘Proper Order’ In A Town Immobilized By Attorneys

Someone like Donald Trump is almost incomprehensible to the polished Washingtonian marble buildings and cliquish button down power structure that governs the Beltway. Of course, his indefatigable Tweeting, inarticulate speechifying, obnoxious high school bravado and cheerleading are jarring for all but his most ardent supporters. But the real problem is he challenges the orthodoxy of a town that has become so ossified by the legal profession that process has become far more important than any outcome — the exact opposite of Americans’ self-image of can-do rugged individualism.
- Read the whole article, pretty well on the money




Friday, July 27, 2018

Reason 1 - why no one still gets upset over 'Global Warming'



"Starving Polar Bear"  Remember this picture:  'the face of Climate Change'?

Anyone with a brain knew what was going on, there.  Yet it went round the world as 'Starving Polar Bear' because Global Warming.
If you're an animal lover under 18, you were duped.  Animal lover over 30, you're an idiot!

SHOCKER: National Geographic admits they were wrong about “starving polar bear” video


Ignoramous... nah! Ocasio-Cortez does math that suits her...

..ignores it when it doesn't add up.
Which is ALL the time.

Ocasio-Cortez: I plan to pay for my agenda by … er …

and more:

Trevor Noah Asks Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez How She Plans To Pay For Her Agenda And Her Answer Was Typical


Bottom line:  ALL her proposed increased 'Fair Taxing' won't even pay for one of her proposed programs.

And remember she's an Econ Major!

Sure Road to Venezuela!  'Don't have it, Print it.'

Bonus Snark: