Douglas Caddy

They are really operating a smear campaign against Biden. Senator Cruz says Biden is dodging on the debt ceiling issue because he has "mental problems.." Now this one from Chris C.: Whistleblower’s claims against Biden could be biggest US scandal ever (msn.com)

Are we seeing on the tip of the iceberg of corruption? Clarence Thomas Raised Him. Harlan Crow Paid His Tuition. — ProPublica

New York Times headline: Trump Will Offer No Defense in Rape Trial, His Lawyer Says The lawyer said he would call no witnesses to rebut E. Jean Carroll’s account of being assaulted at Bergdorf Goodman. The case could go to a jury early next week.

A feast of valuable information after the first 10 minutes of inside talk. I learned a lot.

A feast of valuable information after the first 10 minutes of inside talk. I learned a lot.

DeSantis accused of favoring insurance-industry donors at residents’ expense | Ron DeSantis | The Guardian

Leonard Leo used Federalist Society contact to obtain $1.6B donation - POLITICO

Oliver Stone: ‘Putin is a great leader for his country’ | Oliver Stone | The Guardian Stone: “My favorite president was John Kennedy, so if you look at the two Irishmen sideways, you’ll find that John Kennedy is a peace lover. And you find that Joe Biden is a cold warrior in the worst sense of the word.”

Ron DeSantis handed Disney lawyers the ammo they needed to blow him out of the water: analysis - Raw Story - Celebrating 19 Years of Independent Journalism

'I'm suing': Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr sues Republican leadership after censure vote (msn.com)

Tucker's last speech to the ultra-rightwing Heritage Foundation, just before Fox fired him. Tucker Carlson’s Last Speech Before Fox Fired Him (theintercept.com)

SCOTUS justices went on cushy teaching trips to Italy, Iceland, and the UK funded by a conservative law school: NYT (msn.com)

The RFK Jr. Tapes - Tablet Magazine

Lots of laughs. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/30/they-say-im-ancient-biden-speech-to-white-house-media-proves-to-be-one-for-the-ages

Nearly three-quarters of millennials are living paycheck to paycheck: report | CW39 Houston

Jeffrey Epstein’s Private Calendar: CIA Director William Burns, Goldman Sachs’s Top Lawyer, Noam Chomsky - WSJ

David Talbot wrote on Facebook today: The Fall of Tucker Carlson -- I want to share with you a group email from someone for whom I have great respect. (I'm not naming him because he didn't give me permission to use his name.) Like him, I've long been dismissive of Tucker Carlson -- even before his Fox News gig -- because of his racism, sexism, anti-immigrant views and preppie conservatism. But, unlike AOC, who just called for his banning from TV, I thought there was a story behind his sudden expulsion as the top-rated host at Fox News. I suspect that Carlson was not jettisoned by the Murdochs because of a few offensive emails. What bigwig at Fox News is innocent of that charge? (Rupert and Lachlan would have to let go most of the company, starting with themselves.) I think the real reason that Carlson was fired was because he was evolving into a more independent voice on everything from the dominance of the war state -- which goes unchallenged by our media and political elites - to the assassination of President Kennedy. Carlson believes that the CIA was involved in the assassination, the reason that the spy agency has repeatedly flouted the 1992 JFK Records Act and blocked the full release of Kennedy-related documents. Recently, I was approached by another Fox News host, who declared himself an avid fan of my book "The Devil's Chessboard" -- a dark history of the Cold War-era CIA, including the JFK assassination. Let's see if I'm still invited on the network now that Carlson has been unceremoniously dumped. Anyway, as my learned friend points out in his email, many left-wing pundits have come to similar conclusions about Carlson's firing. Here's what he wrote: Lest the following confuse you, I detest Tucker. Nevertheless ... Jacob Hornberger (Future of Freedom Foundation) offers the possibility it was Tucker's JFK stuff that was behind his ouster: "Let me weigh in on another possibility (re Carlson's firing) — that the Pentagon and the CIA may have been the ones who put the quietus on Tucker and possibly signaled to Fox executives that he had to go... "Last December, Carlson broadcast a program on the assassination of President Kennedy in which he accused the CIA of having participated in the assassination. In doing so, Carlson violated a taboo that has existed within the mainstream media since November 22, 1963, the day that Kennedy was assassinated ... ." https://www.fff.org/.../did-the-cia-and-the-pentagon-put.../ Jonathan Cook at consortiumnews.com offers other possibilities that may have played a role in Tucker's ouster. Inter alia, Cook notes that: Here is just a taste of some of the highlights of his time with Fox News: While the rest of the U.S. media ignored a major investigation by the legendary journalist Seymour Hersh, or deflected attention to a crazed, semi-official conspiracy theory involving a rogue crew on a yacht, Carlson dared present evidence that the U.S. blew up the Nord Stream pipelines — an act of unprecedented industrial and environmental terrorism... Uniquely among corporate journalists, Carlson gave airtime to the testimony of whistleblowers from the OPCW, the U.N. body monitoring chemical weapons. The testimony confirmed that, under U.S. pressure, the OPCW rigged an investigation into a gas attack in Douma, Syria, to blame Syrian President Bashar Assad and retrospectively provide the pretext for illegal U.S., U.K. and French air strikes... Carlson recently broke with the corporate media consensus by highlighting the substance of the Pentagon leaks, not least that U.S. soldiers are covertly fighting in Ukraine. He went further, berating fellow journalists for colluding with the White House in helping to track down the leaker and cover up the most significant revelations: As (Jimmy) Dore (a hard left agitator) tweeted after Carlson’s sacking: “No one else in all of corporate news ever brings on anti-war voices, [and] the one that did just got axed. Doesn’t matter that he’s the most watched show in all of news – much like when MSNBC fired Phil Donohue for his anti-Iraq War coverage when he had #1 show on network.” Cook follows with: "But if Carlson’s firing by Murdoch suggests anything, it is that the corporate media had grown increasingly fearful of the extent to which Carlson was becoming a loose cannon and that the kind of independent journalism he hosted and amplified was gaining traction. "Through a rapid rise in his ratings, Carlson proved that there is an appetite, a big one, for stories that question the consensual narrative imposed by the rest of the corporate media, for stories that actually hold the powerful to account — rather simply claiming to — and for stories that refuse to assume Western meddling around the globe is necessarily a good thing. "If it was only white fearmongering that drew audiences and propelled network news hosts to the top slot, then Sean Hannity would surely be king of the ratings, not Carlson. "The reality, the one Carlson confirms, is that there is an audience ready to listen to critical, independent journalism — when it can be found. The job of the corporate media is precisely to stop viewers hearing dissident views, a rule that Carlson played fast and loose with for too long. Now, it seems, he has paid the price." Let me suggest you click the link to Cook's piece and watch the videos he links to. They're sooo far from what is elsewhere "allowed," it's enormously instructive. Given Carlson did ask important questions no one else in the MSM asked, and that he featured radical journalists the "legacy" media abjured, it's a tragedy he was a borderline Christofascist-racist. All reactions: 45Bob Leposki, Dr. Gregg Wager and 43 others

Joseph Mcbride wrote on Facebook today: Joseph McBride· My most satisfying experience as a screenwriter was writing, with producer George Stevens Jr., THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE SALUTE TO FRED ASTAIRE (1981). In the course of my research I saw all of the approximately 200 musical numbers he did in films and television. Each is different, as he kept setting himself new challenges and triumphantly breaking new ground, which is remarkable. He was a great artist, and the response of the audience in the ballroom to the film clips and Astaire in person was overwhelming. Like other AFI Life Achievement Awards shows I wrote (five in all), the Astaire show came out on laserdisc and VHS but unfortunately has not come out on DVD, I assume because of rights issues involving film clips. Here are George and I working with Mikhail Baryshnikov on this speech from the AFI show in which he says, "I've been asked to say something about how dancers feel about Fred Astaire. There's no secret -- we hate him." He went on hilariously in that oblique vein before giving his heartfelt tribute. A well-known Hollywood producer told me he considers this "the all-time greatest tribute speech." George and I had Emmy and WGA nominations for that show; all five of our shows had WGA nominations, and the John Huston tribute won, and the Lillian Gish tribute, which was such a nightmarish experience that it made me retire from screenwriting after making sure it went well, also brought us an Emmy nomination. Those shows, which I considered "film history for the masses," were what made my often exasperating 18 years in that racket worthwhile. It was a rare privilege for a relatively young writer to work with so many legendary stars, directors, and others from the Golden Age and beyond. I did the rehearsing of the speakers and hosts after writing their speeches with or for most of them; once in a rare while a speaker came in with his or her own speech prepared, but most, as George told me on our first show together, needed help: "Joe! These are ACTORS! They need a SCRIPT!!!" The trick was to write the scripts to sound as if the speaker made it all up himself/herself, which meant that most people, including interviewers, didn't realize the shows were written. Bette Davis was an example of a star who needed a speech written for her; when we asked what she might have to say, she couldn't think of anything, since she hated Capra, so I wrote her a speech telling the audience why he was a great director as well as making jokes about their fraught relationship. When she read it, she said, "Perfect!" Then at the rehearsal she asked me if she could change a few words, and I said, "Sure, you're Bette Davis," and she made some good contributions; if I didn't agree with someone, we'd work it out together. Some contributed more than others to this process when I or George interviewed them. Baryshnikov was an ideal collaborator, since I was able to take his own words from a taped interview with George and weave them into a speech he delivered beautifully, with wit and passion. All reactions: 75You and 74 others

Peggy Nonnan in her column, Declarations, in today's Weekend Wall Street Journal titled, "Biden vs. Trump in 2024? Don't Be So Sure", writes: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who announced last week, this week hit 19% support among Democratic voters. That's a lot. Especially for a guy who's been labeled a bit of a nut...And in an odd way his past nuttiness bolsters his believability. [Noonan's physical therapist, who is early middle age, suburban, not especially interested in politics] spoke admiringly of his family -- of JFK, of RFK, the father. She liked them and thought their politics were similar to hers. I asked if she had any living memory of JFK or RFK. No, she said, she was born after they were killed. And yet she spoke of them as if she remembered them. I say watch him. He is going to be a force this year.