THE FURTHER CORRESPONDENCES OF MARC SUSSELMAN PART 29

********

17 October 2024

MS said:

Sizzling! Marlene Dietrich Mini-Concert at Grand Gala du Disque (Complete, 1963) (youtube.com)

Watch it to the end.

During two extended tours for the USO in 1944 and 1945,[41] she performed for Allied troops in Algeria, Italy, the UK, France and Heerlen in the Netherlands,[43] then entered Germany with Generals James M. Gavin and George S. Patton. When asked why she had done this, in spite of the obvious danger of being within a few kilometers of German lines, she replied, "aus Anstand"—"out of decency".[44] Wilder later remarked that she was at the front lines more than Dwight Eisenhower. Her revue, with Danny Thomas as her opening act for the first tour, included songs from her films, performances on her musical saw (a skill taught to her by Igo Sym that she had originally acquired for stage appearances in Berlin in the 1920s) and a "mindreading" act that her friend Orson Welles had taught her for his Mercury Wonder Show. Dietrich would inform the audience that she could read minds and ask them to concentrate on whatever came into their minds. Then she would walk over to a soldier and earnestly tell him, "Oh, think of something else. I can't possibly talk about that!"

Marelene Dietrich left Germany in the mid-1930’s, as Hitler came to power. In 1939, she became an American citizen and renounced her German citizenship.

I hope that many of us do not have to leave the U.S. for similar reasons after November 5.

********

MS said:

Start watching the below link at 14:53:

"https://www.google.com/search?q=youtube%2C+jimmy+kimmel.+October+16&oq=youtube%2C"

********

MS said:

I recommend reading the NYT article at the link below, written by John McWhorter, an African-American opinion writer. In his article, he takes issue with those who were critical of the CBS journalist who addressed challenging questions to Ta-Nehisi Coates regarding statements he made in his new book “Messages” vilifying Israel as an apartheid state. Mr. McWhorter states:

“The idea that Coates should not have been asked such tough questions reflects a pernicious image of Black people, and Black men in particular, that first gained traction in 2020 and 2021, when antiracist virtue signaling too often transmogrified into an extreme grotesque. In a new book, the scholars Craig Frisby and Robert Maranto describe it as part of a worldview in which ‘whites are inherently oppressive, and African Americans (and by extension all ‘people of color , or POCs) serve only as victims around whom whites must walk on eggshells to avoid triggering deep emotional pain.'”

I experienced this “extreme grotesque” phenomenon in my lawsuit against the Beth Israel protesters when I claimed that the indefensible rulings by the African-American federal judge had the appearance of being anti-Semitic (i.e., that the emotional distress of the Jewish plaintiffs did not constitute a “concrete injury,” and that the lawsuit itself was “frivolous,” justifying a penalty requiring that the Jewish plaintiffs and I pay the protesters $158,000 in attorney fees), to which I was asked by a panel of Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals judges where did I get the “temerity” to make such an accusation, and was called upon to make an apology.

********

20 October 2024

MS said:

How things have changed in 65 years. The final scene in “Some Like It Hot” (1959), where Jack Lemon confesses to Joey Brown that he cannot marry him because he is a man would not be considered funny today; indeed, many would consider it insulting. And Maurice Chevalier singing “Thank Heaven For Little Girls” in “Gigi” (1958) would be condemned as the song of a pedophile.

And a man running for President who mocks a deceased senator because he was a POW, refuses to visit a graveyard honoring America’s military dead, calling them “suckers,” and brags about grabbing women by their privates, is not run out of town on a rail, but is considered a patriot and has the support of hundreds of thousands of so-called Americans. They should all be tied down in chairs and forced to watch “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “Meet John Doe,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “His Girl Friday,” and “Thelma and Louise.”

********

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/20/politics/video/donald-trump-arnold-palmer-rally-story-ctm-digvid"

He’s losing it.

But Oh Shit! It’s working!

********

MS said:

If Pete Seeger were alive today, he would rewrite his superb song, “Where Have All The Flowers Gone,” with the following lyrics:

Where have all the true patriots gone,

Long time passing?

Where have all the patriots of democracy gone, long time ago?

Where have all the true patriots gone

Gone to adoring narcissistic fascists everywhere.

When will they ever learn?

When will they e-e-v-e-r learn?

********

22 October 2024

MS said:

Below is the link to the D.C. Circuit decision upholding the conviction of the leader of the Cowboys for Trump rioters (with one dissent, by a Trump appointee).

"https://media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/docs/2024/10/22-3042-2081254.pdf"

********

MS said:

Excellent debate between Mosab Yousef, son of the co-founder of Hamas, and Young Turk Cenk Uygur.

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBgfzygwaqE"

Hear the distortions in Uygur’s claims – that Israel deliberately allowed the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas as an excuse to conquer Gaza; that Israel has started the war with Iran; that the U.S. is occupied by Israel via AIPAC. All nonsense.

********

29 October 2024

MS said:

The link below is to VP Harris’s rally in Ann Arbor Monday.

I was there, and it was great!

Maggie Rogers performed, and she gave a very moving speech at 6:47.

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_bk0GwQL9w"

********

4 November 2024

MS said:

Prof. Alan Lichtman, history professor at American University, is predicting that Harris will win the election based on his 9-point analysis, which has been successful in the past. (He even predicted that Trump would win in 2016.)

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/04/politics/video/lichtman-harris-prediction-trump-election-digvid"

********

MS said:

My wife and I saw the movie Conclave Saturday night.

It was excellent, and I recommend it. It has a twist ending, which I believe you will all appreciate.

********

5 November 2024

MS said:

Prior to going to vote, I was listening to my local classical music station. They began playing Maurice Ravel’s Concerto for Left Hand. The piano composition was commissioned by a pianist who had lost his right arm in combat during WWI. When the pianist proposed making changes to the composition, Ravel became incensed and he and the pianist never reconciled. The name of the pianist? Paul Wittgenstein, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s older brother.

I am about to leave to go and vote. In honor of Paul Wittgenstein, I am going to vote for the left side of the ticket, whoever that candidate may be.

********

6 November 2024

MS said:

"https://time.com/collection/next-generation-leaders/?utm_source=roundup&utm_campaign=20230202&itm_source=taboola.&itm_version:control"

“It has been said that the Weimar Republic died twice. It was murdered and it committed suicide. There is little mystery to the murder. Hitler vowed to destroy democracy through the democratic process—and he did. An act of state suicide is less easily explained, especially when it involves a democratic republic replete with constitutional protections like freedom of expression, due process, and public referendum. As the November presidential election approaches, it is perhaps worthwhile to reflect on the lessons of Weimar and the potential consequences of electing a calculating and calibrating demagogue who promises to make the country great again.”

It appears that history is repeating itself, here in the United States.

********

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/06/politics/video/tapper-analysis-election-ldn-digvid"

I disagree with Jake Tapper. What motivated those who voted for Trump was not the inflation, or immigration. That is what they said, to conceal the real reason. We have had inflation in this country before, and the problem with immigration has been with us for decades. What motivated the people who voted for Trump was misogyny and racism, against a bi-racial woman. Trump’s apparent re-election uncovers the ugliness and amorality at the core of our country.

********

MS said:

The irony of it all. It was in Pennsylvania that Benjamin Franklin warned that the Constitutional Convention had given us a republic – if we could keep it. And it is in Pennsylvania that we lost it.

********

MS said:

Stop Pretending Trump Is Not Who We Are

Carlos Lozada

By Carlos Lozada

Opinion Columnist

I remember when Donald Trump was not normal.

I remember when Trump was a fever that would break.

I remember when Trump was running as a joke.

I remember when Trump was best covered in the entertainment section.

I remember when Trump would never become the Republican nominee.

I remember when Trump couldn’t win the general election.

I remember when Trump’s attacks on John McCain were disqualifying.

I remember when Trump’s “Access Hollywood” tape would force him out.

I remember when Trump was James Comey’s fault.

Advertisement

I remember when Trump was the news media’s fault.

I remember when Trump won because Hillary Clinton was unlikable.

I remember when 2016 was a fluke.

I remember when the office of the presidency would temper Trump.

I remember when the adults in the room would contain him.

I remember when the Ukraine phone call went too far.

I remember when Trump learned his lesson after the first impeachment.

I remember when Jan. 6 would be the end of Trump’s political career.

I remember when the 2022 midterms meant the country was moving on.

I remember when Trump’s indictments would give voters pause.

I remember when Trump’s felony convictions would give voters pause.

I remember when Trump would win because Joe Biden was old.

I remember when Kamala Harris’s joy would overpower Trump’s fearmongering.

I remember when Trump was weird.

I remember when Trump was not who we are.

There have been so many attempts to explain away Trump’s hold on the nation’s politics and cultural imagination, to reinterpret him as aberrant and temporary. “Normalizing” Trump became an affront to good taste, to norms, to the American experiment.

We can now let go of such illusions. Trump is very much part of who we are. Nearly 63 million Americans voted for him in 2016. Seventy-four million did in 2020. And now, once again, enough voters in enough places have cast their lot with him to return him to the White House. Trump is no fluke, and Trumpism is no fad.

After all, what is more normal than a thing that keeps happening?

In recent years, I’ve often wondered if Trump has changed America or revealed it. I decided that it was both — that he changed the country by revealing it. After Election Day 2024, I’m considering an addendum: Trump has changed us by revealing how normal, how truly American, he is.

Throughout Trump’s life, he has embodied every national fascination: money and greed in the 1980s, sex scandals in the 1990s, reality television in the 2000s, social media in the 2010s. Why wouldn’t we deserve him now?

At first, it seemed hard to grasp that we’d really done it. Not even Trump seemed to believe his victory that November night in 2016. We had plenty of excuses, some exculpatory, some damning. The hangover of the Great Recession. Exhaustion with forever wars. A racist backlash against the first Black president. A populist surge in America and beyond. Deaths of despair. If not for this potent mix, surely no one like Trump would ever have come to power.

If only the Clinton campaign had focused more on Wisconsin. If only African American turnout had been stronger in Michigan. If only WikiLeaks and private servers and “deplorables” and so much more. If only.

Now we’ll come up with more, no matter how contradictory or consistent they may be. If only Harris had been more attuned to the suffering in Gaza, or more supportive of Israel. If only she’d picked Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, as her running mate. If only the lingering fury over Covid had landed at Trump’s feet. If only Harris hadn’t been so centrist, or if only she weren’t such a California progressive, hiding all those positions she’d let slip in her 2019 campaign. If only Biden hadn’t waited so long to withdraw from the race, or if only he hadn’t mumbled stuff about garbage.

Harris decried Trump as a fascist, a petty tyrant. She called him divisive, angry, aggrieved. And that was a smart case to make if, deep down, most voters held democracy dear (except maybe they didn’t) and if so many of them weren’t already angry (except they were). If all America needed was an articulate case for why Trump was bad, then Harris was the right candidate with the right message at the right moment. The prosecutor who would defeat the felon.

But the voters heard her case, and they still found for the defendant. A politician who admires dictators and says he’ll be one for a day, whose former top aides regard as a threat to the Constitution — a document he believes can be “terminated” when it doesn’t suit him — has won power not for one day but for nearly 1,500 more. What was considered abnormal, even un-American, has been redefined as acceptable and reaffirmed as preferable.

The Harris campaign, as the Biden campaign before it, labored under the misapprehension that more exposure to Trump would repel voters. They must simply have forgotten the mayhem of his presidency, the distaste that the former president surely inspired. “I know Donald Trump’s type,” Harris reminded us, likening him to the crooks and predators she’d battled as a California prosecutor. She even urged voters to watch Trump’s rallies — to witness his line-crossing, norm-obliterating moments — as if doing so would inoculate the electorate against him.

It didn’t. America knew his type, too, and it liked it. Trump’s disinhibition spoke to and for his voters. He won because of it, not despite it. His critics have long argued that he is just conning his voters — making them feel that he’s fighting for them when he’s just in it for himself and his wealthy allies — but part of Trump’s appeal is that his supporters recognize the con, that they feel that they’re in on it.

Trump has long conflated himself with America, with the ambitions of its people. “When you mess with the American dream, you’re on the fighting side of Trump,” he wrote in “The America We Deserve,” published in 2000.

The Democrats tried hard to puncture those fantasies in this latest campaign. They raised absurd amounts of cash. They pushed the incumbent president, the standard-bearer of their party, out of the race, once it became clear he would not win. They replaced him with a younger, more dynamic candidate who proceeded to trounce Trump in their lone presidential debate.

None of it was enough. America had voted early, long before any mail-in ballots were available, and it has given Trump the “powerful mandate” he claimed in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

This time, that choice came with full knowledge of who Trump is, how he behaves in office and what he’ll do to stay there. He hasn’t just shifted the political consensus on a set of policy positions, though by moving both parties on trade and immigration, he certainly has done that. The rationalization of 2016 — that Trump was a protest vote by desperate Americans trying to send a message to the establishment of both parties — is no longer operative. The grotesque rally at Madison Square Garden, that carnival of insults against everyone that the speakers do not want in their America, was not an anomaly but a summation. It was Trumpism’s closing argument, and it landed.

The irony of one of the more common critiques of Harris — that her “word salad” moments and default platitudes in extended interviews made it hard to know what she believed — is that Trump manages to seem real even when his positions shift and his words weave. Authenticity does not require consistency or clarity when it is grounded in pitch-perfect cynicism.

We don’t call this period “the Trump era” just because the once and future president won lots of votes and has now prevailed in two presidential contests. It remained the Trump era even when Biden exiled him to Mar-a-Lago for four years. It is the Trump era because Trump has captured not just a national party but also a national mood, or at least enough of it. And when Democrats presented the choice this year as a referendum on Trumpism more than an affirmative case for Harris, they kept their rival at the center of American politics.

Harris gave it away whenever she called on voters to “turn the page” from Trump. Didn’t we do that in 2020 when we chose Biden and Harris? Not really. Trump was still waiting in the epilogue.

For those who have long insisted that Trump is “not who we are,” that he does not represent American values, there are now two possibilities: Either America is not what they thought it was, or Trump is not as threatening as they think he is. I lean to the first conclusion, but I understand that, over time, the second will become easier to accept. A state of permanent emergency is not tenable; weariness and resignation eventually win out. As we live through a second Trump term, more of us will make our accommodations. We’ll call it illiberal democracy, or maybe self-care.

“We’re not going back,” Harris told us. The tragedy is not that this election has taken us back, but that it shows how there are parts of America’s history that we’ve never fully gotten past.

In her book “America for Americans,” Erika Lee argues that Trump’s immigration policies and statements are part of a long tradition of xenophobia — against Southern Europeans, against newcomers from Asia, Latin America and the Middle East — a tradition that has lived alongside our self-perception as a nation of immigrants. In his book “The End of the Myth,” Greg Grandin warned of the “nationalization of border brutalism” under Trump, whereby harsh policies at the U.S.-Mexico border would spread elsewhere, an “extremism turned inward, all-consuming and self-devouring.”

When Trump first began his ascent into presidential politics, some readers turned to Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel, “It Can’t Happen Here,” about homegrown authoritarianism in the United States. In the story, Doremus Jessup, a liberal-minded newspaper editor, marvels at the power of Buzz Windrip, a crudely charismatic demagogue who captivates the country and imposes totalitarian rule. The stylistic similarities between Trump and Windrip are evident, but Lewis’s real protagonists are the well-meaning, liberal-minded citizens, like Jessup, who couldn’t quite bring themselves to grasp what was happening.

Jessup tells his readers that the insanity won’t last, that they can wait it out. “He simply did not believe that this comic tyranny could endure,” Lewis wrote. When it does endure, Jessup blames himself and his class for their obliviousness. “If it hadn’t been one Windrip, it’d been another. … We had it coming, we Respectables,” he laments.

For too long, today’s Respectables have insisted on Trump’s abnormality. It is a reflex, a defense mechanism, as though accepting his ordinariness is too much to bear. Because if Trump is normal, then America must be, too, and who wants to be roused from dreams of exceptionalism? It’s more comforting to think of Trumpism as a temporary ailment than a pre-existing condition.

When Hillary Clinton described half of Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables” in September of 2016, she did more than dismiss a massive voting bloc and confirm her status as a Respectable in good standing. What she said about those voters moments later was even more telling: “Some of those folks, they are irredeemable. But, thankfully, they are not American.”

It’s a neat move: Rather than accept what America was becoming and who Americans could become, just write them out of the story.

Are we what we say, or what we do — are we our actions or our aspirations? From America’s earliest moments, we have lived this tension between ideals and reality. It may seem more honest to dismiss our words and focus on our deeds. But our words also matter; they reveal what we hope to do and who we want to be. That yearning remains vital, no matter in what direction our national reality points.

The way to render Trump abnormal is not to insist that he is, or to find more excuses, or to indulge in the great and inevitable second-guessing of Democratic campaign strategy. It begins by recognizing that who we are is decided not only on Election Day — whether 2024 or 2016, or 2028 for that matter — but every day. Every day that we strive to be something other than what we’ve become.

I remember when I thought Trump wasn’t normal. But now he is, no matter how fiercely I cling to that memory.

********

MS said:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

It is now futile to speak out, because not enough people care.

********

9 November 2024

MS said:

How did Elisa Slotkin win in Michigan, but Harris lost?

There are only two plausible explanations:

Suburban Republican women voted for Slotkin, but then voted for Trump.

People who voted for Trump voted for neither Slotkin nor her principal opponent, Rogers. They either voted for a third-party candidate for Senator, or skipped voting for this slot altogether.

Which of the two is more likely?

My guess is the second. I find it hard to explain why Republican women would vote for Slotkin, whose advertisements attacked Rogers on abortion, would then vote for Trump.

********

MS said:

Prof. Wolff must be reeling in disbelief and utter disgust.

Not how he would want the likely last election he would witness in his life to turn out. His socialist aspirations for the U.S. are dead, probably for good.

I am sympathetic with his disappointment and disgust.

********

MS said:

Where does Kamala Harris go from here?

She has a law license. She could start her own law practice in California.

I think it more likely she will run for California governor, or, if a seat opens up on the California Supreme Court, while Newsom is governor, she will be appointed to the California Supreme Court.

I expect that Gavin Newsom will be the leading Democratic candidate for President in 2028.

His opponent? Likely J. D. Vance.

In the meantime, Trump is going to wreak havoc on our country and the world.

While grocery shopping yesterday, I approached an African-American shopper and expressed my disgust with the outcome of the election. He responded that it is going to be alright. That Trump, he said, is all talk. I responded that I did not think so.

********

MS said:

My response to this is to ask, When was any part of the world, during any time in the history of the world, was it great?

When I was young, I believed that if I tried to do the right thing and treat people fairly and with respect, that I would succeed.

But that is not how the world works.

When I was young, I thought that if I were rational and logical in my approach to life and to others in my life, that I would be successful.

But I have learned that is not how the world works.

So, after living for 76 years, I have learned how the world does not work.

Can anybody explain to me how the world works?

********

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/09/politics/video/smerconish-commentary-donald-trump-digvid"

********

MS said:

‘America just broke my heart’

Respondents disappointed with the election results expressed grief over the lack of shared values in the country and raised concerns about parenting children in such an environment, among other worries about the state of democracy.

“My family and I are disheartened. You try and teach your kids the importance of certain values: Honesty, character, integrity, respect, democracy, critical thinking, respect for women, the repudiation of attacks on those different from us, basic human decency. Donald Trump is the antithesis of these values and you hope your children hear you despite watching his behavior rewarded and celebrated at the highest level of our government.” – Daniel Baca in Glendale, Arizona

“Once, when I was a kid, we were playing football, and I got tackled. Hard. I went down face-first into the dirt. Full on bruising, a fat lip, skin peeling off my face. And the wind knocked out of me. I couldn’t breathe, and I panicked. But I was also in shock. And, even at 9 or 10, I knew when the shock wore off the pain would be unbearable. Today, the wind has been knocked out of me and I am in shock, again. And I know the pain that’s coming will be much worse. For my daughter. For generations of young women. It’s unbearable.” – Sherri Emmons

“As a #GirlDad, I’ve got to be nervous and worried about what road ‘female rights’ is about to head down. I don’t vote for just me, I vote for my daughters as well.” – Andrew Dunlay in Maine

 “As I woke up today and read the news, I am saddened for America. I am saddened because I feel like we had a chance at a fresh start. I felt like we finally had the opportunity for something new. I felt like we would finally have the chance for some positivity in this world, rather than the hate and division that Donald Trump continues to bring to our country. It is a sad day for America.” – Christina in Tucson, Arizona

“Absolutely gutted. Gutted for my girlfriend, my sister, all the women in my life and around the country. My dad won’t be able to retire, my girlfriend and I will never own a home, afford to have children. In 2016 I said okay not what I want but let’s give him a shot (couldn’t vote yet). In 2020 my vote helped remove him from office, then witnessed January 6th live. Now 2024 I was hoping my vote would help elect the first female president, a woman who sparked joy and hope all around the country. I am not feeling good about the future of this country. This is definitely a dark day for the United States of America.” – Tim M. in New Jersey

“As a public school teacher, person with a chronic illness, and as a woman, the only emotion I have left in me after hearing that Trump won this election is sadness. I am sad for my nieces who have to grow up in this world. I am sad for my students whose educational rights and freedoms will be challenged. I am sad for myself and for all women in this country who will continue to live with the knowledge that America is not ready for a female leader due to ingrained sexism and racism.” – Marcella Anderson in Los Angeles

“Beyond the policies I hate and the rhetoric I despise, my greatest fear is that the simple act of love is not enough anymore. Dads and boyfriends voted to remove autonomy from the women in their lives. Immigrants voted to remove other immigrants from the county to try to win the horse race of America. The poor will now fight to pick up the scraps of resources left over after the rich have their ways. These are acts of hate. In Trump’s America, hate spreads like a virus and love is not enough to stop it.” – Michael Farris in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

“America just broke my heart. I feel really alone.” – Rachel Pearl in LA

 “As my young son slept fearfully last night, and my teenage daughter stayed up with me watching the election, in her eyes I could see doubt, question, and disbelief. Were all the lessons in her upbringing wrong, as here she was seeing the exact opposite to what we stand for. How could people vote for lies, for unkindness, for deceit? … We heard on the news that people voted the way they did because of the economy, because of immigration, because of safety. But what about the core values of integrity, of honesty, of standing up for what is right, of service, of kindness? We have lost. We have lost in the eyes of our children. We have lost their trust, their faith, their beliefs. And that loss will take much more than four years to repair.” – Visha Rao in Saratoga, California

‘I’m bitter, hopeless and furiously angry’

Other respondents were angry, expressing outrage over the country’s divided opinions. Some felt the election results were seen as a threat to progress, leaving marginalized communities a step behind to handle injustice.

“I feel like my voice, and millions like mine, can’t be heard. We, women who believe in women and for fighting for the rights to our own bodies, are screaming but the door is being shut and the music turned up louder so that the party for the elite and rich in the other room cannot hear our fight and determination. It is a fact that woman are not created equal in this country. While this is nothing new, I am having trouble comprehending how this large a population has voted to endorse this rhetoric. I am feeling a huge wave of distrust in everything and everyone today. I am however, proud of myself and millions of others like me, who accept the results and are not acting like those who lost in 2020.” – Delaney in Napa, California

“Travesty for the foundation of America. The intense devastation we will face is only surpassed by the intense reality of how deep racism and sexism is rooted in our country. Men failed women today.” – Amy in Minnesota

“Seeing the news articles this morning made my heart ache, and my blood boil. At the ripe age of sixteen I realize the morals and ethics of America: greed, religion, and selfishness. Though the population lives for glory and tradition, American citizens who voted for President Trump do not consider nor empathize for those who’ve suffered until they themselves are graced with misfortune. Can we as a nation process the pain and suffering we have induced upon ourselves? … We do not need enemies to deconstruct our nation, for we as a nation have seen to our own demise. ” – Kaylen Garcia

“We are in the vestibule of anarchy waiting to enter an unprecedented descent into a dictatorship with no voting rights, no reproductive rights, no respect for race or ethnic origin, increased censorship, and a corrupt judicial and police system. All this while the middle and lower classes continue to enrich an oligarchy. At 77 years of age, I have seen small, incremental improvement in some aspects of civil life but even these are being abandoned now. You’re damned straight I’m bitter, hopeless and furiously angry.” – Helen Engle in Brockton, Massachusetts

“As a healthcare worker caring for patients who have been victims of sexual assault, I find the results of this election to be very disturbing. Regularly, I see patients who wish not to report sexual abuse because they fear retribution by their perpetrators. Donald Trump is a convicted felon and sexual assaulter and we just elected him as president knowing this. I fear for my patients who don’t have a voice to speak up against their perpetrators because of how easily we allow people like Donald Trump hold the highest office. If he can get away with it, why can’t any other person? Disappointed and angry are understatements.” – Sophia in Chicago

********

10 November 2024

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/10/business/video/s-cold-open-cast-message-for-donald-trump-mgw-digvid"

********

MS said:

Out of curiosity, I checked the inflation rates during prior election years, from 1948-2024, when the incumbent was re-elected.

Source:

"https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/historical-inflation-rates/"

The inflation rate in 1984, when Reagan was re-elected, was, from Jan. thru Dec., with the final average for the year:

4.2 4.6 4.8 4.6 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.1 3.9 4.3 (annual average)

In 1988, when Bush senior was elected, the inflation rates were:

4.0 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 4.0 4.1 4.9 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.4 4.1 (annual average)

In 2024, the monthly inflation rates were:

3.1 3.2 3.5 3.4 3.3 3.0 2.9 2.5 2.4 (Nov. and annual average not yet available)

So, for every month of 2024, the inflation rate under Biden was lower for each month than the inflation rates for each of the same months under Reagan’s first and second terms, but Reagan was still re-elected, and was succeeded by Bush.

This data gives the lie to the claim that Harris lost because of the economy and inflation. In fact, the economy was booming, and inflation was lower than that under Reagan. But Reagan and Bush, white males, still got elected.

This confirms my contention that it was sexism and racism which defeated Harris. The claim that it was the economy is pure bullshit.

********

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/10/politics/video/bernie-sanders-democrats-harris-working-class-trump-sotu-digvid"

This is more bullshit from Sanders. The question is, was it correct on the part of those who voted for Trump that they had a right to do so because the Democratic Party abandoned them? Then he segues into blaming corporate greed and the influence that money has on politics, and blames the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United. How are the Democrats responsible for the S. Ct. decision in Citizens United? Had working class people come out to vote in prior elections and voted in their own best interests, the Republicans who stacked the S. Ct. with Justices who favored corporations would not have been elected. That is not the Democrats’ fault. That is the fault of working class people who were too lazy and too stupid to vote, or to vote for candidates who were in their best interests. Now they are scapegoating the Democrats, including a President who was the most labor friendly President we have ever had.

********

11 November 2024

MS said:

“Joe Biden received approximately 81.3 million votes in 2020. With counting nearly complete in an election that Democrats loudly proclaimed as a final showdown between democracy and fascism, Kamala Harris currently has just over 68 million votes. Democrats need to take a long, hard look at that staggering arithmetic: Thirteen million Biden voters either switched to Trump or, in more cases than not, simply couldn’t be bothered. If that’s not an existential crisis, one of this decade’s most overused terms, then I’ve never seen one.”

From:

"https://www.salon.com/2024/11/07/now-democrats-must-face-the-future-what-do-liberals-actually-want/"

So, does this mean that Americans are no longer interested in defending democracy against fascism? Could FDR have inspired them to vote against Trump? Had the Japanese not attacked Pearl Harbor, would the U.S. not have stood up to Hitler? Is that what it takes - Americans are only willing to fight against fascism if we are attacked on our home turf, even when the threat to our country comes from an American politician?

********

14 November 2024

MS said:

Sexism and racism were not the motivating factors behind Trump’s victory? Baloney.

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/13/us/video/trump-mass-deportations-rosa-flores-dnt-ac360-digvid"

The end of our country as we have known it since FDR was President.

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/12/politics/video/pete-hegseth-women-combat-roles-military-comments-defense-secretary-bernstein-newsnight-digvid"

********

MS said:

"https://forward.com/fast-forward/674875/trump-ag-matt-gaetz-antisemitic/?utm_source=The+Forward+Association&utm_campaign=cdece6bab8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_12_01_04_25_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-1323d6a1cf-288548637"

Trump’s pick for Attorney General debunks the belief of many Jews that Trump will be good for the Jews. I strongly suspect that Harris would never have selected an anti-Semite to be Attorney General, or for any other cabinet position.

********

MS said:

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H. L. Mencken

********

MS said:

It can’t get any crazier. Reports indicate that Matt Gaetz’s nomination as AG was recommended to Trump on the plane flight to Washington by a Republican operative named Boris Epshteyn (yes, pronounced Epstein, as in Jeffrey). Mr. Epshteyn is a Russian born Jew. So, we have a Jew recommending an anti-Semite to become U.S. AG. Oy vey!

********

18 November 2024

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/18/politics/video/ufc-trump-fans-digvid"

Don’t make us read, or preach morality to us. America’s future is in the hands of the ignorant and amoral, i.e., pagans.

********

MS said:

We have elected an anarchist as President, a man who marches to the beat of his own drummer, who asserts his autonomy from all traditional conventions and rejects all restrictions on his conduct.

Isn’t this what Prof. Wolff advocated for in his essay, “In Defense of Anarchsm”?

********

24 November 2024

MS said:

My wife and I saw “Wicked” last night. It is a very timely film about racism, anti-Semitism, and the Wizard of Oz as a duplicitous tyrant. The singing and acting performances by Ariana Grande, as Glinda, and Cynthia Erivo, as Elphaba, were outstanding. I hope audiences appreciate the political and social themes motivating the plot.

********

MS said:

I was thinking of having sweatshirts made with the message below. What do you think? Do you think they would sell?

NOVEMBER 5, 2024

UNFORTUNATELY,

IGNORANCE AND STUPIDITY,

UNLIKE INTELLIGENCE,

HAVE NO LIMITATIONS

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN



********

25 November 2024

MS said:

A sad sequel to the November 5 election. Jack Smith has moved to dismiss the federal indictment against Trump. Trump, a despicable felon and reprehensible human being, has succeeded in getting away with inciting an insurrection against the United States.

In a recent motion I filed in a case requesting that the appellate court reconsider its decision affirming the trial court’s decision, which was against my client, I wrote the following Conclusion in the brief:

We are told repeatedly that America is a nation of laws, not of men. That the law should be applied fairly and objectively, without regard to the social or political status of the parties, or of the judicial officers making decisions. It goes without saying that violation of the law may not be accepted with impunity. By the same token, innocence in light of a fair and objective application of the law should not be punished merely to give the appearance of justice. There is a significant, and important, difference between justice, and the mere apparition of justice. And confusing the two is detrimental both to the administration of justice, and to the welfare of our society.

In the novel The Trial, by Franz Kafka, Kafka gives a scathing view of how the law operated in 1920’s Czechoslovakia. He wrote (The Trial, Definitive Edition (1956), Everyman’s Library, pp. 165-168):

“You don’t seem to have any general idea of the Court yet,” said the painter, stretching his legs wide in front of him and tapping with his shoes on the floor. “But since you’re innocent you won’t need it anyhow. I shall get you off all by myself.” “How can you dot that?” asked K. “For you told me yourself a few minutes ago that the Court was quite impervious to proof.” “Impervious only to proof which one brings before the Court,” said the painter, raising one finger as if K. had failed to perceive a fine distinction. “But it is quite a different matter with one’s efforts behind the scenes; that is, in the consulting-rooms, in the lobbies or, for example, in this very studio.” What the painter now said no longer seemed incredible to K., indeed it agreed in the main with what he had heard from other people. … “We must distinguish between two things: what is written in the Law, and what I have discovered through personal experience; you must not confuse the two. In the code of the Law, which admittedly I have not read, it is of course laid down on the one hand that the innocent shall be acquitted, but it is not stated on the other hand that the Judges are open to influence. …”

What Kafka described as how the law operated in Czechoslovakia one would expect is not the case in the United States, which, as we have been told innumerable times, is a nation of laws, not of men; a country in which the law and actual justice, not just the apparition of justice, take precedence over men, and jurists, and their interrelationships. The Court’s affirmance of the trial court’s decision is not justice; it provides a mere apparition of justice. As articulated above, it is contrary to the law, and contrary to the facts set forth in the record, and is characterized by multiple palpable errors by which the court and the parties have been misled. It should not be allowed to continue to stand, if the aphorism that our nation is a nation of laws, and not of men, is to continue to have any validity.

I will learn soon enough whether this aphorism is still true, assuming it ever was. Odds are that it is not, and perhaps never was.

********

MS said:

What a coincidence! I just received the court’s Order denying my motion for reconsideration, and it only took 6 days! Here’s what the court rather succinctly stated:

“Pursuant to MCR 2.119(F), Mr. Susselman’s motion for reconsideration is denied because it presents the same issues ruled on by the court and he has not demonstrated a palpable error.”

Any bets on whether the judge even read my carefully crafted brief (or even heard of Franz Kafka)?

I now know I should have taken up playing a guitar and joining a rock band, rather than wasting my life in law, or philosophy.

********

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/25/politics/video/jack-smith-drops-trump-election-subversion-case-digvid

Is he right? Didn’t the election show that the majority of the American electorate does not give a shit about justice, that they care more about money, and/or prefer being racists and/or sexists?

********

26 November 2024

MS said:

An Oldie, but Goodie:

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu02pcxoCWs"

********

27 November 2024

MS said:

Sharon Stone speaks out.

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpqM_Tkp0lI"

Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble, Gobble

********

1 December 2024

MS said:

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sowl3uFfDzc"

Piers Morgan does an excellent job as moderator.

********

MS said:

Stuart,

I respectfully, but strongly and vehemently, disagree with you. I resent your suggesting that I am being some kind of apologist for the anti-Semites who criticize Israel and its actions in self-defense in Gaza. My consideration of the legitimacy of Yaalon’s criticism of Netanyahu and how he has been conducting the was does not constitute “virtuous .. . spread[ing] [of] anti-Israel vilification.” I do not have to recite my pro-Israeli bona fides, nor do I have to demonstrate my opposition to anti-Semitism and the price I have paid for that opposition.

Discrediting Yaalon, whose military service in the IDF and as Israeli Minister of Defense are above reproach, because he has been a political opponent of Netanyahu is like discounting Robert Kennedy’s criticisms of how Lyndon Johnson was conducting the Vietnam War because they were political opponents. And discrediting his opinion simply because it has been published in the NYT is not a valid criticism, regardless your distrust of the NYT, and does not constitute a per se invalidation of Yaalon’s statements. In addition to the testimonials which have been issued by the military experts you cite in favor of Israel, there have been numerous reports of Palestinian children being shot in the head by IDF soldiers and of indiscriminate bombing of various facilities in Gaza which are not, in my opinion, justified without question on the basis that Hamas has been operating out of them, or have been using the Palestinians in those locations as human shields. Israel has a moral and religious obligation to minimize these events as much as possible, including using IDF infantry to engage in direct combat with Hamas, rather than engaging in mass, indiscriminate bombing. As far as Netanyahu’s character goes, this disaster happened on his watch, while he ignored the border with Gaza, and paid no attention to warnings from IDF service personnel that something suspicious was occurring at the Gaza border. Hamas is directly responsible for its commission of atrocities, but Netanyahu bears responsibility for his misfeasance as Prime Minister as he was distracted by the dispute over legislation to curb the authority of the Israeli Supreme Court - legislation which inured to his interest to avoid being prosecuted for corruption. While I do not unreservedly agree with Yaalon’s criticism, by the same token I do not automatically discount it – and by doing so you are doing a disservice to the objective search for truth and the advancement of ethical conduct.

What is the alternative to self-defense, you ask? The alternative is vigorously engaging in self-defense while taking every reasonable effort to minimize the death of civilian children, women and men. It does not appear to me that Israel is doing that, and it does not appear to thousands of American and Europeans that Israel is doing that, and they are not all anti-Semites.

********

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/01/us/michigan-ohio-state-football-fight-intl/index.html"

Sore losers! Cry babies!

********

7 December 2024

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/07/us/video/unitedhealthcare-ceo-death-online-reaction-ctm-digvid"

This breakdown in the respect for the law and the promotion of vigilantism is the product of Trump’s openly expressed disdain for the law. Murdering company executives is not the acceptable solution to dissatisfaction with the denial of insurance coverage, and such conduct must be forthrightly repudiated, even by the victims of such fraud.. The proper response is a lawsuit and complaints to the respective state’s administrative agency. There are plenty of attorneys who would take such cases on a contingency fee basis. These videos are a sign of the deterioration of our society. Thank you Donald Trump.

********

8 December 2024

MS said:

Breaking news: Syrian leader flees country as rebels storm capital.

Good riddance.

********

9 December 2024

Michael said:

Setting up a strong market economy inside Syria will take years. A multinational peace enforcement operation would be a disaster since only the Syrians can bring about any quasi-peaceful domestic security. The most important thing for Syria now is to bring in non-government emergency assistance programs & institutions that can distribute humanitarian relief aid. Without that Syria could end up like gang-plagued Haiti if there is not enough winter aid distributed inside Syria to its majority population.

********

10 December 2024

MS said:

A New Low for Netanyahu: He Tells Israelis the Failures of Oct. 7 Will Never Be Investigated

"https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-12-10/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-admits-what-israelis-long-suspected-october-7-failure-wont-be-investigated/00000193-afd3-d37b-adbf-efd77ddb0000?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=Content&utm_campaign="

********

MS said:

A candidate for President of the United States can get away with trying to overthrow the U.S. government. And an individual can get acquitted for strangling a homeless, mentally unstable Black man to death. But the forces of justice will unite to bring the full force of American law down on the head of an individual who attacks corporate America and kills an insurance executive.

********

11 December 2024

MS said:

John Dean, of Watergate fame, is recommending that President Biden pardon Trump. Brilliant! It will drive Trump nuts to be pardoned for a crime he claims he did not commit.

********

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/11/business/video/former-insurance-executive-unitedhealthcare-ceo-killing-rage-digvid"

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/10/us/video/wealth-luigi-mangione-suspect-ceo-killing-tuchman-digvid"

********

15 December 2024

MS said:

Shame on ABC News and George Stephanopoulos. It is being reported in today’s news that they have agreed to settle Trump’s defamation lawsuit against them by paying $15 million to Trump, to be paid to his future Presidential library and to his attorneys. Once more, Donald Trump has succeeded in making truth the victim of his machinations.

What was Trump’s defamation lawsuit about? During the Presidential campaign, Stephanopoulos interviewed Representative Nancy Mace, R-SC, and asked her, since she had claimed she had been raped as a child, why she was endorsing Trump, given that he had been found guilty of “raping” E. Jean Carroll in two federal lawsuits. (P.S.: Rep. Mace is the same individual who has introduced legislation prohibiting biological males from using the women’s bathrooms in the Capitol. The legislation is specifically aimed at Sarah McBride, the first transgender woman elected to Congress. The legislation ignores the fact that there are no urinals in the women’s bathrooms in the Capitol, only stalls. Moreover, as far as I know, no one other than Ms. McBride and her physician and family know whether she has transitioned to the surgical stage.)

Where was the defamation? Trump was not found liable for “raping” E. Jean Carroll. He was found guilty of “digitally penetrating” Ms. Carroll without her consent. N.Y. law defines rape, however, as requiring phallic penetration. Therefore, Trump argued, Stephanopoulos’s assertion that he had “raped” Carroll was factually false, thereby defaming him.

“After the federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, but not rape, Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in a later ruling that just because Carroll failed to prove rape ‘within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”

ABC may justify its agreement to settle on two grounds. First, that a jury could potentially agree that Trump did not actually “rape” her, and therefore would find in favor of Trump. Second, that the risk of losing the trial and having to pay Trump exorbitant damages was not worth taking.

Both rationales are baloney. Under U.S. Supreme Court precedent relating to defamation and freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment – New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), and Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323 (1974) -if an individual claims s/he was defamed by a false statement is a “public figure,” in order to prove defamation the individual must prove that in making the statement, the speaker/writer acted with “actual malice,” defined as “knowledge that the statements are false or made in reckless disregard of the truth.” Trump clearly qualified as a public figure. So the issue comes down to whether when Stephanopoulos asserted that Trump had been found guilty of “raping" Carroll, even though the jury concluded that he had digitally penetrated her, but not phalically, did Stephanopoulos make the statement knowing that it was false, or with reckless disregard for whether it was true or false? Hardly. All ABC had to do was call Judge Kaplan as a witness, and he would have testified that the in the public’s mind digital penetration equates to rape. They did not need to settle. In fact, the likelihood that the jury would rule in ABC’s favor was greater than that they would rule in Trump’s favor.

Moreover, what did they gain by agreeing to pay Trump $15 million damages? Even in the unlikely event they would have lost the trial, it is unlikely the damages would have exceeded $15 million. Given the odds that ABC would have won, why not take a stand in defense of truth and insist on going to trial. No, ABC and Stephanopoulos preferred to cave to Trump’s bullying, reinforcing his tendency to cower people into doing what he wants – a tactic he learned from his nefarious attorney, Roy Cohn.

In addition to succeeding in aiding and abetting Trump in once more desecrating the truth, their agreement to settle will appear to the public that E. Jean Carroll was lying, that she was not even sexually molested. Disgraceful.

********

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/15/politics/romney-trump-state-of-the-union/index.html"

Is his critique of the Democratic Party accurate/valid, and, if so, what can the Democrats do to regain the support of those who abandoned it and voted for Trump? Must the Democrats reject “wokeism” in order to do so, or should they just rely on the Republicans and Trump ultimately not being able to deliver what they promised, convincing the Democrats who abandoned the party to rejoin the fold?

********

MS said:

Surprise.

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/14/politics/video/brownstein-trump-policies-rural-supporters-digvid"

********

MS said:

Swisher has a theory why Bezos and Zuckerberg are having a change of heart about Trump.

This is what they do, and to hell with the rest of us.

Dreams of a socialist democracy are dead.

********

MS said:

I participate in a poetry slam every Friday evening. The participants read poems of their choice via Zoom. This past Friday night, I read the poem below, “Men of England,” written by Shelley in 1819, 47 years before Marx wrote Das Kapital. This past election demonstrates, once more, that the masses are easily manipulated into making choices which are not in their best interests. They persistently fail to appreciate the power they have in numbers. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

A Song: “Men of England”

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

Men of England, wherefore plough

For the lords who lay ye low?

Wherefore weave with toil and care

The rich robes your tyrants wear?


Wherefore feed and clothe and save

From the cradle to the grave

Those ungrateful drones who would

Drain your sweat—nay, drink your blood?


Wherefore, Bees of England, forge

Many a weapon, chain, and scourge,

That these stingless drones may spoil

The forced produce of your toil?


Have ye leisure, comfort, calm,

Shelter, food, love’s gentle balm?

Or what is it ye buy so dear

With your pain and with your fear?


The seed ye sow, another reaps;

The wealth ye find, another keeps;

The robes ye weave, another wears;

The arms ye forge, another bears.


Sow seed—but let no tyrant reap:

Find wealth—let no imposter heap:

Weave robes—let not the idle wear:

Forge arms—in your defence to bear.


Shrink to your cellars, holes, and cells—

In hall ye deck another dwells.

Why shake the chains ye wrought? Ye see

The steel ye tempered glance on ye.


With plough and spade and hoe and loom

Trace your grave and build your tomb

And weave your winding-sheet—till fair

England be your Sepulchre.

********

19 December 2024

MS said:

Why some women justifiably hate men.

"https://www.google.com/search?q=We+have+to+wait+one+hour&oq=We+have+to+wait+one+hour&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQRRhA0gEJNzQ1N2owajE1qAIIsAIB&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:fa9c2e5a,vid:xQT-NDh2FQ0,st:0"

"https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/pelicot-rape-trial-verdict-sentences-12-19-24-intl/index.html"

********

MS said:

Well, Fanni Willis's political career is over. The Georgia Court of Appeals just issued an order removing her from her prosecution case against Trump and his minions.

I feel no sympathy for her. Her prosecutorial overreaching was the kind of conduct which alienated a lot of voters and helped get Trump re-elected.

********

21 December 2024

MS said:

For the Bob Dylan fans:

How Timothée Chalamet transformed into a perfectly imperfect Bob Dylan

How do you become the “voice of a generation”? For the “A Complete Unknown” actor, that meant years of guitar practice and a road trip to Hibbing, Minnesota, not to mention cheek plumpers and nostril expanders.

By Billy Heller

The closed coffee shop in Santa Monica, California, was empty except for two men — one a then-56-year-old New York-born filmmaker and the other a Minnesota native in his late 70s who made his name as a singer and songwriter in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s.

That meeting in mid-2020 would be the first of four or five, each several hours long, between James Mangold and Bob Dylan. Dylan would read the script for “A Complete Unknown,” make notes and then discuss them with Mangold, the biopic’s director and co-writer.

Timothée Chalamet had long been interested in playing Dylan, and he and Mangold had sealed the deal the previous year at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.

And so when the talk in that coffee shop turned to Chalamet, Dylan “knew who Timmy was and knew he was quite good and knew that people thought he was quite good,” Mangold recalled.

“But his thing was just: ‘Can this guy do it?’

“And I said: ‘Yes, I believe he can.’”

The resulting film, in theaters Wednesday, depicts Dylan’s struggle to reconcile his own artistic needs with the demands of others. It opens in 1961 New York and culminates with the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, when Dylan “went electric,” turning off some flustered folk fans while turning on a noisy new generation of rock-and-roll-loving kids.Follow

And Chalamet, 28, is a very credible and charismatic Dylan — both the early, folkie Woody Guthrie acolyte and the later Ray-Ban-wearing, Fender Stratocaster-wielding rebel.

The actor wanted to sing and play live — and he did — capturing the “spontaneity and authenticity” of the era’s folk scene, Mangold said.

“Getting to study and immerse myself in the world of Bob Dylan has been the greatest education I could receive,” Chalamet said this month at the Gotham Awards, where he and Mangold were both honored.

But Chalamet didn’t just emerge as a fully formed “voice of a generation.”

It took a village — and not just Greenwich Village — to get him there.

Bob Dylan performs at the Olympia in Paris on May 24, 1966, his 25th birthday. (AP)

Step 1: Practice guitar

Chalamet got started with guitar lessons in November 2019 with Larry Saltzman. After he connected with his new student, Saltzman, a New Yorker like Chalamet, called his older sister right away.

“When I was 10 or 11, she brought Dylan records into the house. I became obsessed,” he said.

“I never fell out of touch with Bob’s music. Bob’s music is a religion to us.”

And so began a four-year relationship with Chalamet, who went from knowing how to play “just a little” guitar to mastering a compendium of roughly 30 Dylan songs.

Along the way, there was historical context from Saltzman, 71 — from explaining mimeograph machines to decoding song lyrics. In “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry,” Dylan sings about “Flaggin’ down the Double E,” a reference to the erstwhile EE subway line that stopped around the corner from his Village apartment.

The entire production was put on pause when covid roared into the world in March 2020 and pushed back again with the 2023 actors strike.

“That’s a huge amount of prep time where Timmy was carrying his guitar and his harmonica and harmonica rack to London when he was shooting ‘Wonka,’ and God knows where in the world when he was shooting ‘Dune,’” Mangold said.

Stephen McKinley Henderson, Chalamet’s “Dune” co-star, recalls a day in Budapest when the pair were off to the side while shooting a “Dune” scene.

“I heard Timmy singing ‘Positively 4th Street’ or another one. He was singing stuff from that period,” Henderson said. “We chatted, and he and I were saying what a genius lyricist and poet Dylan was.”

Later on, Chalamet was in his trailer singing and strumming with co-stars Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa, and he called Henderson over to help with some lyrics he didn’t know. “That’s when I first found out that

Step 2: Channel that nasal rasp

Eric Vetro is Hollywood’s go-to vocal coach, working with stars from Pamela Anderson to Renée Zellweger. When he and Chalamet were working on “Wonka,” Chalamet was already deep into his study of Dylan, on the side. Then it was all Bob.

“Dylan’s voice is a little more nasal, more raspy,” said Vetro, 68. One vocal exercise he taught Chalamet had him repeating, “Nay, nay, nay, nay, nay — five notes in a descending pattern, allowing it to sound nasal,” he said.

And Chalamet gave his teacher homework, too, telling him to check out, say, a certain documentary. The next day they would watch together.

“Timmy would repeat some of the lines that Bob would say, how Bob would say them, and that really helped him when he’d then go seamlessly into singing.”

It wasn’t all work, though. One tiring day, Vetro recalled, “Just for a second, as a joke, he sang a line from the ‘Wonka’ theme, Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination, as Bob Dylan. We laughed and then it never happened again.”

Timothée Chalamet in a scene from “A Complete Unknown.” (Macall Polay/Searchlight Pictures/AP)

Step 3: Nail down Dylan’s sound

Another singer-songwriter, executive music producer Nick Baxter, invited Chalamet to his Burbank studio in April 2023. “He came in bursting with energy. He’s incredibly well researched, a music lover and an absolute student of this character,” Baxter said.

They spent a lot of days together in the studio working on particular songs for particular scenes, trying to figure out the right sound on the guitar.

In 1961, Dylan arrived in New York lugging his 1946 Gibson J-50, “an incredible, priceless, beautiful instrument,” said Baxter.

While Baxter was in possession of a couple of those, as well as other Gibsons from that time, they ultimately decided not to use them.

(Video: Searchlight Pictures)

“We realized these vintage guitars were almost too warm and beautiful and nice-sounding, like an aged wine that’s complex and wonderful. We needed more of the raw grit of an instrument,” he explained.

And so Gibson built them two new J-50s modeled off Dylan’s, made with the same materials they would have used back then. “Then we could sort of grit ’em up — and not have to worry about breaking a collectible, nearly 80-year-old guitar,” he said.

As far as helpful research material, Baxter said Dylan’s manager, Jeff Rosen, who is one of the producers of the movie, “gave us access to an archive of 16 or 17 hours of unreleased footage. Songs, pictures, recordings, old tapes, different versions we’d never heard before.”

Step 4: Go on a road trip

“Timmy was voracious about research,” Mangold said. “He’s very earnest about trying to be a sponge, to absorb as [many], not just facts, but texture and feelings as possible.”

That research included a road trip to Dylan’s Hibbing, Minnesota, hometown in January “to just tool around in a rental car and go where Bob went to high school,” said Mangold.

That’s where Chalamet met Megan Reynolds, who is in her seventh year as the drama director at Hibbing High School.

The night before Chalamet’s visit, she was told that the actor was in town doing research for the biopic. And sworn to secrecy.

“Of course, Tim wanted to come see the stage where Bob had played — and was kicked off the stage because he was pounding on the Steinway too hard,” she said of his Little Richard cover for a talent show.

Speaking with some two dozen theater students, on break from a rehearsal, the actor asked if they knew much about Bob Dylan. “The response from my students was not remarkable,” Reynolds said with a laugh.

Nonetheless, they spent about 45 minutes with Chalamet “in a shoptalk conversation about theater and acting, which was wonderful — that is before word of his presence got around and he was quickly shuffled out.”

The actor also visited Dylan’s boyhood home, purchased in 2019 by collector and retired pharmacist Bill Pagel, who put together “a little museum” in the basement rec room.

On Chalamet’s drive up from Minneapolis, Pagel said, “every once in a while he’d slip on a little ice on the road and he’d have to slow down. … He said he was trying to get the feel” of Dylan’s Minnesota.

The star of Pagel’s museum is a triple-disc Guthrie 78 set, “Documentary #1, Struggle,” released in 1945. Inside the back cover of the album’s booklike case is a drawing by a late-teens Dylan of himself holding a guitar facing a winding road leading to a city skyline and the words “Woody New York City.” On the bottom corner are handwritten lyrics to Dylan’s “Song for Woody.”

“He was pretty impressed,” remembered Pagel, “blown away.” Mangold said Chalamet immediately sent him a photo of the “absolute incredible object.”

Step 5: Look the part

Filming began in March 2024, and Arianne Phillips was charged with Chalamet’s wardrobe, from his Woody Guthrie-like carpenter jeans and plaid wool work shirts of the early 1960s to thinner Levi’s 501 jeans and then his Chelsea-style “Beatle” boots in 1965, after a visit to mod London.

“I was raised on Dylan’s music, pretty much the soundtrack of my childhood and my adulthood,” the 61-year-old head of the film’s costume department said, adding that Dylan and his girlfriend (Suze Rotolo, renamed Sylvie Russo in the movie) lived right around the corner from her family’s Village apartment on Cornelia Street.

As head of the hair department, Jaime Leigh McIntosh was charged with creating Chalamet’s Dylan coif.

She first met the star before one of his costume fittings with Phillips. “We cut his hair, not completely the Bob we see at the end of the film, but pushing it into that shape, so when he went in for his fittings, there was an essence and a vibe there just to help tell the story from top to tail,” McIntosh said.

His hair might look different coming in each day, depending on how he slept or how it had dried, so McIntosh would “try to give it a little continuity, but not so much because every time you’d see a picture of Bob Dylan, his hair is different. And that worked in my favor.”

Makeup maven Stacey Panepinto, who already knew Chalamet from a previous film, said, “We weren’t ever striving to make Timothée look like Bob. We were just striving to make Timothée look less like himself. We wanted the viewers not to be distracted by Timothée Chalamet in makeup to be Bob Dylan.”

Part of that striving included a prosthetic nose. “We always had a supply, at least a week’s worth of noses in our possession at all times,” she said. They also used nostril expanders for the entire movie, to broaden his nose’s shape.

In the film, not only does Dylan’s music change, but his face does, too. Chalamet wore cheek plumpers for the younger, round-faced Dylan — “a kind of combination of a retainer and plumping mechanism, molded around his teeth for top and bottom,” said Panepinto. Those came out for Dylan’s thinner, later years.

He also seems to have some unshaved patches and even a couple of pimples. This was intentional, according to Panepinto. “Bob didn’t appear like a perfect guy,” she said. “I don’t think he was really taking the time to look in the mirror and groom himself. So we leaned into that.”

********

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/21/politics/video/durbin-scotus-clarence-thomas-samuel-alito-disclosure-laws-abel-digvid"

We are a nation of laws, not of men. Right.

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

********

The End.