But don’t you understand, it’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who is the crazy one and who hates America and who wants to ruin it. We need principled centrists like Crowley to show us the way back to sanity. He’s exactly the kind of guy who should have succeeded Pelosi because he’s pragmatic, and God knows the DNC…

Byrne is one of my favorite musicians and artists, period. Definitely an astute, forward-thinking dude, to say the least. Thank you for this.

Ouch. Also not inaccurate.

I hope people read this and take action in their industry. It’s meaningful. There is so much reason why everything has gone to such shit with employment and benefits since Reagan came in and targeted the unions, public education and health care among other things.

I missed that. And it is in fact slightly scary. I am choosing to be hopeful as you say that she’ll influence the “moderate” establishment or ignore them when they try to reign her in on important things. Mostly because she’s given me good reason to be hopeful so far. But it’s definitely something to keep an eye on.

Ocasio-Cortez primarying Schumer is now my new fantasy. It’s better than a blue pill. Oh, Jesus, I think I wet myself.

Thanks. I can imagine you’d be loathe to publicize the link among this... amazing? do they amaze me? sure, amazing... group of commentors. It’s good to know the names of some of the key people and organizations that did this. Serious kudos to them.

Testify. The general principles of power and its application to create and divide classes in order to hoard wealth does not change even if details like the technology of dissemination of propaganda and conditioning do.

Fuck yes. She, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Stacey Abrams are exactly what we need. Hopefully it’s not too late, but also hopefully we all chip in to support them everywhere we can from the coordinated attempts to destroy them. These are the people that should be put forward as heroes. Not perfect people, because that…

I think given all the people involved in his shadiness, including Russian oligarchs and the intelligence agencies and through them Putin, Manafort legitimately has to fear for his life and the lives of his family. Don’t get me wrong, he made his bed and I honestly don’t think anything is too good for him (short of his…

As you point out, the key thing is here is the “gradual.” It’s so believable because it is clearly a tough process in this show. Enlightenment like anything only ever happens in a moment, because there’s nothing but the moment, but at the same time it never happens independent of everything that comes before. The…

If your really want to see the difficult loner genius Sherlock subverted, I recommend Elementary. The first season especially, but even as a whole, it is a series in which characters and relationships grow, and in which one of the world’s brightest men realizes why he must change and learns to seek the help he needs…

And it is such to her credit that she’s not allowing herself to be intimidated from standing up for her principles.

That book’s contents put the love in my love/hate relationship with Hitchens.

Holy shit, is that ever sleazy.

Now that you mention it, I think I recall reading Good as Gold way back when and having a similar reaction. Ah, well... his response to the heckler, if true, is perfect.

What a colossal load of horseshit, right on its face. If there were no other options, you might have a point somewhere in the midst of the rest of that horseshit (a fuckload of people I know definitely WERE active about these issues in 2008 and well before that), but the fact is that we have real progressives who are…

No, so thank you very much for the recommendation. I recently got on a Vonnegut jag for the first time in maybe 20 years or more. Finished I recently and my God was he not only so superb and humanistic, but so ahead of his time in what he was writing. It’s no wonder Saunders made me think of him. Anyway, I’ve been…

I love Clooney as an actor and I have liked him as a director, but doing justice to Catch-22 is a very large hurdle.

I love the Nichols movie. It’s fantastic. And I think Heller is one of the great writers of the 20th Century. In addition to Catch-22, I cannot recommend enough his God Knows, with a kvetching King David on his deathbed still trying to schtup Bathsheba, and she keeps putting him off unless he makes Solomon king.…