• Morning AB, All. As always, thank you AB for doing this thread so reliably and keeping the peace with gentle thread policing. Thank you Bray for weekly written wisdom, Thank all yon contributors for excellent commentary to flesh it all out.
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• Below are the words from my daily political diary. It is quite long so scroll on by if not interested. But do stay around and add your commentary and point of view to the thread.
I remind that our own thread leader, Alas Babylon!, is a great contributor even while overseeing the thread.
Tuesday Date-4/17/18
In fact I did finally go see happaquiddick last week.
The main characters included:
Ted Kennedy-Jason Clarke
Mary Jo Kopechne-Kate Mara
Joseph Kennedy-Bruce Dern
As described on IMDB:
The scandal and mysterious events surrounding the tragic drowning of a young woman, as Ted Kennedy drove his car off the infamous bridge, are revealed in the new movie starring Jason Clarke as Ted Kennedy and Kate Mara as Mary Jo Kopechne. Not only did this event take the life of an aspiring political strategist and Kennedy insider, but it ultimately changed the course of presidential history forever. Through true accounts, documented in the inquest from the investigation in 1969, director John Curran and writers Andrew Logan and Taylor Allen, intimately expose the broad reach of political power, the influence of America’s most celebrated family; and the vulnerability of Ted Kennedy, the youngest son, in the shadow of his family legacy.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5270948/?ref_=nv_sr_1
I did quite enjoy this movie but hasten to add it’s not for everyone. First, the viewer should be around 50 years old or more. The incident occurred in 1969. I was 19 years old.
It was also the year man walked on the moon with one small step for mankind.
The movie showed the accident and provided to me a few things I did not know.
First, I had no idea the water was so darn shallow! All these years I thought the water in which the car plunged was many feet deep, which is part of the reason Mary Jo Kopechne could not get out.
The movie shows the car floating upside down and it’s right there on the surface!
After all these years, I find Ted Kennedy even more despicable than before.
Of course the deaths of Teddy’s three older brothers was part of the movie action. John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy were both killed by an assassin’s bullet, this I knew. I also knew, vaguely and somewhere in the back of my mind, that there was the eldest Kennedy son who died during World War II.
No matter the gossip and scuttlebutt through the years, three Kennedy sons die in service of this country and deserved our admiration.
But America got a little carried away and Ted Kennedy was nowhere near the hero his older brothers were.
Ted Kennedy was a big zero and beyond Chappaquiddick there was the incident of the “waitress sandwich”, the out-of-control beer parties, the secret trip to Moscow to try and rid the world of Jimmy Carter,yes, from his own political party.
The relationship between Ted and his father was portrayed, rather nastily and to my great doubt, for which there is no proof.
Yes, Teddy’s father declared he will always be a loser, which he sort of was.
For Ted Kennedy went on to become the so-called “Lion of the Senate”.
He was no such thing.
I also learned some new details about the Chappaquiddick incident. The main one is the fact that Ted Kennedy told the world, and the world believes it to this day, that he had a concussion the night of the crash, was disoriented, and because of this, he did not recover enough to report the accident until the next morning.
It is believed, and portrayed as such in the movie, that Kopechne did not die of drowning. Instead she managed to find an air pocket and might well have lived long enough had Ted Kennedy gotten help to her.
The tone of the movie does not make one dislike Ted Kennedy. My dislike of the man comes from how I’ve known him through the years. I did, however, like many Americans, adore JFK and his brother Robert Kennedy.
It was Ted Kennedy’s three older brothers, all perceived as being heroes of the country (rumors about JFK swirled after his death. Seems he had quite an eye for the ladies) who might have caused his weakness and belief that as a vaunted Kennedy it is okay to leave a vibrant young woman to die all alone in his car.
I enjoyed the movie, would recommend anyone with an interest in the subject matter, go to see it.
It is a great movie for old political junkees like myself.
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Wednesday Date-4/17/18
Honest and lovable James Comey
Folks, after two days of hearing James Comey’s pathetic and childish rantings, I’ve lost all respect for the FBI.
Not that this is anything new but this man is sad, really sad. I am going to pray for him.
Next week Comey will be forgotten.
It was announced that North and South Korea are going to announce an end to the Korean was.
It’s about time.
The world has tolerated that nutjob Kim-Jong-Un quite long enough. The people of North Korea are eating leaves and trash. That guy, with the worst haircut on the planet, has not one ounce of leadership or goodness in him.
It is to be cautioned that announcing a treaty doesn’t mean there still won’t be skirmishes between the two halves of Koreas.
We shall see.
This is the first airplane mishap since 2009. Most recently, airlines have more problems wlth passengers seated in wrong place and pets onboard.
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Thursday Date-4/19/18
I chanced to watch Alan Dershowitz on the Sean Hannity show recently. Dershowitz gave Hannity hell because he didn’t mention a short conversation he had with Trump private attorney, Cohen.
Dershowitz was really a jerk about it.
Yeah, for a while I was kind of liking Dershowitz but when push comes to shove, he’s got a book out now so he goes on Fox and pretends he’s now on the side of Conservatives.
Dershowitz should have kept his mouth shut but instead he acted like a jerk.
He’s no longer on my list. Click goes TV when he comes on.
Hannity had a one paragraph conversation with Cohen and Dershowitz says Hannity should “reveal” it?
Let’s start with George Steponallofus, who NEVER reveals his $75K he contributed to the Clinton foundation and then work our way through the mob of them.
“Rep. Ron DeSantis (FL-06) today sent a letter, along with several colleagues, to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and US Attorney John Huber, asking them to investigate several Obama-era officials for potential violation(s) of federal statutes. These officials include former FBI Director James Comey, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former Acting Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, FBI Agent Peter Strzok and FBI Counsel Lisa Page, among others. “
Man, it’s about time. These people have broken every law and folks, Jeff Sessions is letting them get away with it.
We will see where this goes.
PDF of criminal referral document below
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Friday Date-4/20/18
There is no need for Rand Paul to vote AGAINST Pompeo for Secretary of State. After all, he voted FOR Pompeo for CIA Director.
All of a sudden garbly mouthed Paul gets on TV with some silly-assed reason why he’s voting AGAINST Pompeo for Sec-State?
Rand Paul, your day is over. Get away from the damn camera!!
So the Southwest pilot who managed to land a plane with passengers struggling to get a woman out of the window to soon be launched into space. With said plane crippled by a missing motor that somehow fell off.
I am no plane expert, but motors are not supposed to fall off an airplane.
The PILOT WAS A WOMAN!!!
Don’t tell Rush Limbaugh that such a fact makes me happy. For Rush launched into a diatribe about how comes the great pilot Sully, who landed a plane in the Hudson river, is not referred to as a male pilot.
Well, Rush Limbaugh is a man. He doesn’t know what it’s like to have a female suddenly become a heroine for doing something that, until the last decade or so, women did NOT do.
I love Rush. But he really does not seem to like women very much.
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Saturday Date-4/21/18
Former first lady Barbara Bush will be buried today.
May she rest in peace. She was a woman of great humor and love.
Heh.
That’s the funniest thing I heard all week.
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Criminal Referral for a whole bunch of former Obama officials requested by Ron DeSantis.
“Rep. Ron DeSantis (FL-06) today sent a letter, along with several colleagues, to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and US Attorney John Huber, asking them to investigate several Obama-era officials for potential violation(s) of federal statutes. These officials include former FBI Director James Comey, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former Acting Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, FBI Agent Peter Strzok and FBI Counsel Lisa Page, among others. “
Man, it’s about time. These people have broken every law and folks, Jeff Sessions is letting them get away with it.
We will see where this goes.
PDF of criminal referral document below
https://desantis.house.gov/_cache/files/8/0/8002ca75-52fc-4995-b87e-43584da268db/472EBC7D8F55C0F9E830D37CF96376A2.final-criminal-referral.pdf
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Nice summary. Thanks for posting
DO NOT TRUST RAND PAUL!™
I took my son to see “Ready Player One” on Friday but I did want to see the Chappaquiddick movie. I’m not into video games but he is. So I suffered through... Lots of 1980s nostalgia but still stupid to me...
The Kennedy-love in 1960s Massachusetts was so thick you needed a knife to cut through it, especially after the assassinations.
They enabled and reelected a murderer, may he rot in peace.
How anyone can believe other wise is beyond me. I was stationed for 3 years on Cape Cod, and people readily admitted it, but still voted for him. Crazy bass turds!
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I guess it's too late to try to sue Seth R.