A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
Seth takes a closer look at Donald Trump facing backlash from his own party for using taxpayer dollars to air campaign ads and his handpicked candidate for Senate in Texas bashing him.
As for Republicans opposing the war and distancing themselves from Pervert Hoover, I think that's as much because of the war's effect on fuel prices as anything else. I lived through the stagflation of the 1970s and today looks a lot like 50 years ago. It reminds me that people get more upset about inflation than unemployment. That's one of the reasons I used to be all over gas prices; they affect people's mood and political choices, as the GOP is figuring out and Pervert Hoover is ignoring. I think he's too focused on the third thing he cares about after self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment, revenge. He can't get over how Iran has frustrated him.
Donald "Pervert Hoover" Trump's solution won't work. First, as Seth pointed out, it will take too long. Second, natural gas has nothing to do with gasoline. Maybe Pervert Hoover thinks people are as confused about natural gas and gasoline as he is. Sigh. That's a small part of why Ken Paxton is upset with Pervert Hoover, who insulted Paxton, then ran a convention in Paxton's home turf that tied Paxton to Pervert Hoover, when (not my) President has record unpopularity. Jailbirds of a feather may flock together, but they might not like the results.
Pervert Hoover calling the taxpayer-funded campaign ads "public service announcements" (PSAs) once again demonstrates that he has the worst case of L'Etat, c'est moi I have ever seen. As far as he's concerned, he is the country, so what's good for him is good for the country. I doubt he realizes that the reverse might not be true.
Seth found plenty to laugh at in the taxpayer-funded campaign ads, but they deserve a serious examination from Leeja Miller, an actual attorney, who stated Your Tax Dollars Just Paid For Trump's Propaganda.
Trump has spent the last week disseminating propaganda paid for by the US Government and claiming they're all "public service announcements." Is the public service in the room with us? How does this compare to past presidential PSAs and propaganda used by authoritarian governments around the world?
Leeja is right; these are bad PSAs and look more like propaganda by authoritarian regimes. Speaking of which, Leeja "reminds me that I never wrote anything for Outstanding Commercial or the winners of Outstanding Promotional Announcement at the News & Doc Emmy Awards. It's on my to-do list." Stay tuned.
Trump claims a peace deal with Iran is coming any second, but he's been saying that for months. Jon Stewart takes a look at Trump's unimpressive track record as a negotiator, despite being the self-proclaimed best negotiator in the world, and pulls back the curtain on the president's "Art of the Deal" as merely the art of trolling. Plus, the Freedom 250 concert is falling apart as more and more headliners pull out, and TDS News Team alum Olivia Munn stops by to offer Jon Stewart a heartfelt tribute that was definitely not meant for Stephen Colbert.
The first of Kimmel's video descriptions in said "they’re also lining up entertainment for the “Great American State Fair” and the lineup is shaping up to be a real dud," but it's even more of a dud now that acts are pulling out. I'm surprised by Bret Michaels pulling out, as he was a winner on Celebrity Apprentice. Nope, that wasn't enough. On the other hand, Vanilla Ice staying is on brand. I'm not sure what to make of Freedom Williams other than he just wants to perform and doesn't care who for. Oh, and the agent being Jeff Epstein, but not that Jeffrey Epstein — HA! You can't make this stuff up!
Donald Trump is a self-help apostle. He always has tried to create his own reality by saying what he wants to be true. Where many see failure, Trump sees only success, and expresses it out loud, again and again.
His wish might just come true. This works on the social environment, but not the physical and biological environment; it failed to work on the virus during the pandemic. He couldn't bully a virus.
He's also finding out that he can't bully the Iranians and he doesn't know what to do about it except keep hoping for a good outcome.
Colbert being cancelled is not a good outcome, but at least The Daily Show's audience was treated to the funniest thing I've seen Olivia Munn do in response to it (no, I never watched her when she was a correspondent, and her SAG nominations announcement comes close). I guess her new husband Jon Mulaney is rubbing off on her, pun intended.
Today is the first day of June and our nation's newscasters can’t believe it, almost every artist who was announced for Trump’s Great American State Fair has dropped out or said they never agreed to be part of it, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s name had to be removed from The Kennedy Center, Trump granted his daughter-in-law Lara an interview that included a tour of the construction site/UFC arena he’s living in right now, he is still very proud of the word “Dumocrat” that he made up, he took some time to brag about his “extremely good” health report, the primary elections here in California are tomorrow and while Spencer Pratt is a ridiculous choice for Mayor of LA, you have to admit - he makes some pretty good ads!
I don't recall hearing people saying "June" that much on The Handmaid's Tale and it's the lead character's name!
As for Pervert Hoover bragging about acing a cognitive test, again, it isn't the flex he thinks it is. Both Seth and Jimmy pointed out that it's a sign that his behavior is concerning his doctors. It's also not an IQ test, even if Pervert Hoover thinks it is.
Today's primary election in California looks interesting. If this blog hadn't passed its page view goals for June early this morning, I would have covered them for a topical post tomorrow. Instead, I'll wait until I start writing about the general election, which won't be until August.
On the topic of topical posts, the next time I write one of a summary of monologues should be Tuesday, June 30th, so I can share it in July. I have a couple of social media shares of posts featuring late-night talk show hosts I haven't included in a retrospective, so follow over the jump for those.
We are now officially 159 days from the midterm elections, Trump’s approval ratings have sunk to an all-time low even though he has “done more” than any President ever, the DOJ is now going after one of Trump’s victims E. Jean Carroll who accused him of sexually assaulting her, in honor of our country’s 250th anniversary the Treasury Department is looking to print special Trump $250 bills, they’re also lining up entertainment for the “Great American State Fair” and the lineup is shaping up to be a real dud, there will be a mass pardoning ceremony as part of the semi-quincentennial celebration, the US and Iran have reportedly reached another tentative deal to potential[ly] end the war he says we won three months ago, the State Department posted a very upbeat message for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, RFK Jr can’t stop picking up snakes, and another edition of This Week in Florida.
That's a good poll result for participation in this November's midterm elections and a bad one for Donald "Pervert Hoover" Trump, whose approval rating is about what I think he deserved all along. Speaking of approval, I don't think a proposed law to allow his face on a new $250 bill would get past the Senate and given how narrow the Republican margin is in the House, it would be a close call there, especially now that Thomas Massie has lost re-nomination. As for "This Week in Florida," "Florida Man" stories usually involve someone doing something criminal, stupid, and outrageous. Not this week — no criminal activity at all and the Florida Man doing something stupid was the cop. Good thing for the woman he pulled over that his body cam was working!
Trump met with his cabinet amid his war in Iran being a mess and his approval rating being in the toilet, Hegseth got an angry phone call from Trump after he cancelled the deployment of 4,000 troops who were about to leave to be stationed in Poland, Jimmy had a brief back and forth with RFK Jr. online that caught the attention of Fox Business, Senator John Cornyn of Texas lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, he will now face off against Democrat James Talarico, and Spencer Pratt is running for the Mayor of LA.
I've only mentioned Pervert Hoover's narcissismtwice, but Jimmy mentioning that one out of every six sentences in his Cabinet meetings is either praise or an attack on his enemies reminds me of one of the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder, need for admiration. He displays that and all the other criteria in abundance!
As for Jillian Michaels and Fox Business calling Kimmel not funny, then why does this video have 2,721,170 views, the one above have 1,936,029 and counting, and the one below 3,086,200? Conservatives hate-watching them? Yeah, right.
The latest UC Berkeley-L.A. Times poll of likely voters has the three candidates at the top almost within the margin of error so anything could happen leading up to Election Day. The top two candidates will move on in the race.
In the poll, Mayor Bass is at 26%. Right behind her is Nithya Raman at 25%. Then Spencer Pratt at 22%.
The margin of error for this poll is 3% so this race is wide open with a clear top three.
After hearing Jimmy describe Pratt's reaction to the fakeMayanApocalypse of 2012, I hope he comes in third so I won't have to mention him again except in defeat.
The Knicks completed a second consecutive sweep to earn a spot in the NBA Finals, Don Jr and his new bride Bettina were married on Saturday on an island in the Bahamas and Trump did not make it, they have begun construction on the arena for the big UFC fight scheduled for Trump’s 80th birthday next month, we are now on week thirteen of Trump’s “little excursion” in Iran, he posted a message to social media for Memorial Day, he gave himself a glowing report about his health after his physical, RFK Jr. decided to pick up snakes at Dr. Oz’s house, and after months of delays the Trump Mobile phone is finally shipping to customers.
Dumentia — hah! I'm keeping it.
Follow over the jump for top shares of posts about Kimmel on social media during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like King Charles meeting New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani.
I now have Spirit Airlines going bankrupt, again, and shutting down operations on my to-do list. On the other hand, I've already covered the royal visit. I just wish people would stop picking on Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who was born only a few miles from where I grew up and is my favorite royal. On the other hand, keep picking on the Andrew formerly known as Prince. He deserves it.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like a woman damaging a statue in Italy while trying to touch its genitals.
Happy one-monthiversary of the Iran war! With the Strait of Hormuz still closed, Jon Stewart examines how global shortages are hitting everything from grain to helium to pickleballs. Meanwhile, Americans flood the streets for the No Kings protests while CPAC throws Trump his own Yassss Kings rally. Plus, the U.S. finally has a detailed explanation of the president's objectives and exit strategy... for the White House ballroom.
In a Yahoo News essay, Leerhsen describes the Trump he worked with from 1988 to 1990 as mostly "bored out of his mind," a "failing real estate developer who had little idea of what he was doing and less interest in doing it once he'd held the all-important press conference."
Trump was making huge, outrageously leveraged, financially ruinous deals, but day-to-day, he spent "surprisingly large" amounts of time "looking at fabric swatches," Leerhsen writes. "Indeed, flipping through fabric swatches seemed at times to be his main occupation," and "some days he would do it for hours," probably because fabric swatches "were within his comfort zone — whereas, for example, the management of hotels and airlines clearly wasn't."
Leerhsen elaborated Thursday evening on CNN. "At this time, like, things were really going to hell in his business," but "in the center of that was this quiet office where he was going through fabric swatches most of the day, and in the middle of all this Sturm und Drang, he was oblivious to it," he told Erin Burnett.
Nearly 40 years later, he hasn't changed, except to get older and more set in his ways
Over eight million people marched in the third "No Kings" protest, President Trump appears to be making up his Iran war strategy on-the-fly, and the war is causing global economic pain and shortages of resources like helium.
The contradictory announcements for the war remind me of something else I wrote early this month.
Twenty-five years ago, one of my reactions to 9-11 was to look at Bush the Younger's administration and be reassured that at least these people, particularly Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Colin Powell, knew how to fight a war, no matter what my other opinions were of them. It took me two years, after it became obvious they were botching the occupation of Iraq, to figure out that they didn't really have a plan for an occupied Iraq beyond shock doctrine. I have no such illusions about Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump and Pete Hegseth; it's obvious from the get-go that they don't have a plan at all beyond being so intimidating that Iran just backs down. That's not happening. Once again, the voices Trump listens to, both inside and outside his head, are not reliable sources.
Seth takes a closer look at oil and gas prices continuing to soar amid the war in Iran, while Donald Trump and MAGA now insist that paying higher prices is a patriotic duty.
Wall Street is reacting to the war in the Middle East after stocks tumbled Friday to close at their lowest level in over seven months. The Dow Jones, S&P and Nasdaq have all seen continued declines since the start of "Operation Epic Fury" one month ago. NewsNation’s Alicia Nieves shows “Morning in America with Hena Doba” how the market shifts are driving sticker shock at the gas pump.
Welcome to energy prices as examples of "Everything is connected to everything else" and "There is no free lunch."
That's the big picture. I begin my personal update by sharing that my wife suggested I fill up Pearl the Prius the morning after the initial attack and I did; I've seen this movie before and I knew what was coming. I was only surprised that people weren't panic buying and that prices hadn't risen - yet. I was able to drive on that tank for the past four weeks. I was not looking forward to filling up, but did so anyway after attending the nearest No Kings demonstration today and felt lucky to pay just less than 4.00/gallon. How are gas prices where you are?
Follow over the jump for the rest of my personal driving update and the three most read driving update posts during the 2025-2026 blogging year.
Fox 5 Morning News celebrates Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
I'm with you, Shally.
I'm moving on to the blog's 15th birthday, because lingering more on Nowruz would make me even sadder. On that note, I'm sharing a childhood memory in video form, Put Another Candle on My Birthday Cake - Sheriff John Birthday Song sung by
Bruce Kaplan (Claudia and Bruce).
Claudia Russell and Bruce Kaplan perform their version of the Sheriff John Birthday Song aka the Birthday Polka. If you're from Los Angeles and grew up in the 1950s and early 60s, you very likely know this song.
Unless you grew up in Los Angeles during the 1950s and 1960s, you probably don't know who Sheriff John is, so I'll let Wikipedia explain.
Sheriff John was an American children's television host who appeared on KTTV in Los Angeles from July 18, 1952, to July 10, 1970, on two separate series, Sheriff John's Lunch Brigade and Sheriff John's Cartoon Time. He was played by John Rovick[1] who served as a radio operator-gunner in the United States Army Air Corps in World War II, surviving 50 combat missions in the European Theater of Operations. After the war he became a radio announcer, moving to television in its early days. He developed the program's concept himself.
As Sheriff John he began each program entering his office, singing "Laugh and be happy, and the world will laugh with you." He then said the Pledge of Allegiance and read a safety bulletin. He showed cartoons including Q.T. Hush, Underdog, Crusader Rabbit, and Porky Pig; he was often visited by farm animals.[2] An artist, Sketchbook Suzie, drew pictures requested by viewers; he would complete squiggles sent by the children and make a squiggle for them to complete. He also gave them lessons on safety and good health habits.
The show's highlight was the birthday celebration. Sheriff John read as many as 100 names, then brought out a cake and sang the Birthday Party Polka ("Put Another Candle on my Birthday Cake").
I used to watch this show every day after school and have fond memories of it, so when I saw YouTube recommend this video, I knew immediately that it would be today's song. I especially couldn't resist because Claudia and I dated in 1987 when we both worked at the Tar Pits.* It's good to see her again.
That's a wrap for today's double (triple if one counts today as Twitter/X's 20th birthday) celebration. Stay tuned for Marche du Nain Rouge as the Sunday entertainment feature.
*Yes, Claudia is an ex-girlfriend, but she's not the ex-girlfriend I usually mention. As I've written many times, the latter lived in Canada while we were dating, while Claudia and I were both living in Los Angeles. Coincidentally, both have since moved to the San Francisco Bay area. I would find it ironically funny if they have encountered each other while not knowing they both know me.
There are obviously lots of angles to this story, and it’s dangerous to wade into things without knowing how they will play out. So we waited to see if anything positive might emerge after the initial assassination of the despicable Khamenei (whose name was in an early draft of a chorus), and what the Trump administration/regime’s purported rationale was … and over subsequent days as we watched the grotesque media performances by Hegseth, the missiles killing children not just tyrants, and the escalation of damage and casualties without any sign of a coherent policy or endgame, we made the song about how it’s dangerous to wade into things without knowing how they’re going to play out.
If we’d known undead Tony Blair was going to remerge from the media crypt with some pearls of wisdom on Sunday, we would have probably made space to take the piss out of that ... but it would have been counterproductive to just parachute in (a bit like in 2003).
The original track “Eve of Destruction” was only reluctantly laid down at the end of a recording session by a gravelly-voiced Barry McGuire, and the demo leaked to a radio station where it was an instant hit in a country torn apart and increasingly divided over foreign wars and domestic protests in late 1965. Phil Sloan wrote the song months earlier, after the Gulf of Tonkin incident that was central to LBJ’s justification for US escalation in Vietnam. We had it on our radar for a future conflict, but want to give a shoutout to Kevin Ellis for urging us to use it to address this conflict.
If you want to hear a properly mixed folk-pop song of ours about the heroic protest movement in Iran, then you can find “Zan Zendegi Azadi” on our forthcoming album.
With luck, this might not be worth sharing in April, because by then the conflict might be over. High oil prices are bad for the economy and worse for Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump and the Republicans running for Congress. He might just declare victory and quit bombing. All of us should be so lucky.
Jon Stewart dives into America and Israel’s impromptu attack on Iran, Trump’s laid-back war announcement from the Mar-a-Lago basement, and MAGA’s refusal to sell the American people on the plan, purpose, and duration of the war. Plus, Jordan Klepper reveals America’s calculated war strategy: winging it.
Twenty-five years ago, one of my reactions to 9-11 was to look at Bush the Younger's administration and be reassured that at least these people, particularly Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Colin Powell, knew how to fight a war, no matter what my other opinions were of them. It took me two years, after it became obvious they were botching the occupation of Iraq, to figure out that they didn't really have a plan for an occupied Iraq beyond shock doctrine. I have no such illusions about Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump and Pete Hegseth; it's obvious from the get-go that they don't have a plan at all beyond being so intimidating that Iran just backs down. That's not happening. Once again, the voices Trump listens to, both inside and outside his head, are not reliable sources. Speaking of unreliable sources, watching all these people, particularly Tulsi Gabbard, praise Hoover Harding Cleveland for being the "peace candidate" has aged really poorly.
President Trump still hasn't told the American people why he's bombing Iran, the U.S. and Israel have sent mixed messages about whether the goal is regime change, and Secretary Hegseth boasted that the military will disregard customary rules of engagement during this campaign.
Stephen is right; Bush the Younger did sell the Iraq War to the American people and the world and got an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) the year before we invaded. Hoover Harding Cleveland didn't bother. Democracy? Representative government? Rule of law? Who cares? Not Hoover Harding Cleveland!
Not only does Hoover Harding Cleveland have neither a plan (maybe Benjamin Netanyahu does) nor respect for process, he can't even decide on a pretext. I suspect all of his excuses are equally valid or invalid to him. He'd be more honest if he said "I felt like it." That's an emotion, not a reason, but at least he and I would believe it.
Seth takes a closer look at the Trump administration launching a war with Iran without any clear strategy for how it would end, how long it would last or who would take over.
In a Yahoo News essay, Leerhsen describes the Trump he worked with from 1988 to 1990 as mostly "bored out of his mind," a "failing real estate developer who had little idea of what he was doing and less interest in doing it once he'd held the all-important press conference."
Trump was making huge, outrageously leveraged, financially ruinous deals, but day-to-day, he spent "surprisingly large" amounts of time "looking at fabric swatches," Leerhsen writes. "Indeed, flipping through fabric swatches seemed at times to be his main occupation," and "some days he would do it for hours," probably because fabric swatches "were within his comfort zone — whereas, for example, the management of hotels and airlines clearly wasn't."
Leerhsen elaborated Thursday evening on CNN. "At this time, like, things were really going to hell in his business," but "in the center of that was this quiet office where he was going through fabric swatches most of the day, and in the middle of all this Sturm und Drang, he was oblivious to it," he told Erin Burnett.
Nearly 40 years later, he hasn't changed, except to get older and more set in his ways.
Early Saturday morning just after midnight the Pentagon launched “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran, Trump monitored the attack from his bunker at Mar-a-Lago, he claims that the operation in Iran could last four to five weeks or longer, six Americans were killed in the counter-attacks, even Ted Cruz said that he saw “no indication” that Iran was close to getting nuclear weapons, we all thought he was supposed to be the President of Peace, Trump is all of a sudden about toppling regimes even though he thought not being able to make a deal was seen as a negative, he rambled about drapes during a Medal of Honor ceremony, Melania was in New York to preside over a meeting of the UN Security Council, former President Bill Clinton testified for more than six hours about Jeffrey Epstein, and Lauren Boebert explains inflation.
In addition to not having a serious plan, Hoover Harding Cleveland and his maladministration have terrible opsec. That'snothingnew.
I made enough fun of the First Lady in Randy Rainbow sings 'The Fate of Melania' and other parodies, so I'll move on to Lauren Boebert. She caused trouble with the Clinton depositions and couldn't define inflation. As Jimmy K pointed out, she never graduated high school and doesn't follow the rules. She should be happy there are worse Republican politicians, otherwise, I'd make a label for her. Maybe I should anyway.
Whether you're launching Benjamin into manhood or missiles into the Middle East, Mar-a-Lago has all the amenities!
Marjorie Merriweather Post, who build Mar-A-Lago, wanted it to be the Winter White House. That eventually happened, but I wonder if Post would be happy about how that came true and what Hoover Harding Cleveland uses it for. Maybe not, but I'm not holding a seance to find out.
President Trump (James Austin Johnson) and Sec. Hegseth (Colin Jost) speak after the United States launched a series of military strikes against Iran.
I was hoping for a mocking of the State of the Union, but, no, Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump had to top himself just four days later. The result was this cold open with whatever the writers could come up with in one day. They weren't happy about it, either.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week’s biggest news, like American Girl Doll collectors complaining about alleged changes to the dolls.
I wish I were surprised at Hawking being in the Epstein files. If I have learned nothing else from this scandal, it's that Epstein was relentless in cozying up to rich, powerful, and influential men and a lot of those men not only didn't resist his efforts, but seemed to enjoy them. Hawking was one of them. Surprised, no. Disappointed, yes.
Follow over the jump for Weekend Update's interviews and the monologue.
The Critics Choice Association (CCA) unveiled the winners of the Tenth Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards at a gala event in New York City. The Perfect Neighbor won the top award of the evening, Best Documentary Feature. The film also took home awards in four other categories including Best Director for Geeta Gandbhir, Best Editing for Viridiana Lieberman, Best Archival Documentary, and Best True Crime Documentary.
The only category I clearly called for The Perfect Neighbor was Best True Crime Documentary. I thought it was a co-favorite with Riefenstahl and Orwell: 2+2=5 for Best Director, so no clear call, picked Orwell: 2+2=5 to win Best Documentary and Best Archival Documentary, and made no call for Best Editing, although I'm not surprised; editing is what makes a good archival documentary. Just the same, congratulations and good luck at next year's Emmy Awards, either as Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards or Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special/Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards...
The trophy for Best Political Documentary was awarded to The Alabama Solution.
While I thought The Alabama Solution could win, I also thought Orwell: 2+2=5 would win. Nope. Just the same, congratulations and good luck at the relevant Emmy Awards next year.
Neither The Perfect Neighbor nor The Alabama Solution will be nominated at either Emmy Awards because both earned nominations at the Academy Awards, disqualifying them for Emmy consideration. I'm not the least bit upset; this is exactly the kind of wrong I'd like to be. Also, congratulations to the producers and directors of both movies. I'm thrilled for them!
Now that the nominees have been announced, what are their Gold Derby odds? The Perfect Neighbor leads with every expert, 33.3% of editors, and 90.4% of users picking it to win. The Alabama Solution sits in second because it has the support of 5.4% of users and 16.7% of editors. Mr. Nobody Against Putin is actually the other top choice of editors at 33.3%, but only 2.3% of users, placing it third in the odds. Come See Me in the Good Light is currently in fourth as the selection of the remaining 16.7% of editors and 1.0% of users. Cutting Through Rocks has the remaining 0.9% of users. I have the feeling that the editors will consolidate around one or two nominees once the PGA Awards, DGA Awards, and BAFTA Awards have been presented. The Perfect Neighbor is the only Oscar-nominated documentary nominated or longlisted at all of them.
One woman. Dozens of 911 calls. And a close-knit neighborhood caught in a nightmare. What begins as one woman’s relentless harassment of children spirals into a shocking act of violence. Captured through gripping police bodycam footage, The Perfect Neighbor - Winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s Directing Award - delivers a hauntingly powerful experience that keeps you on edge from start to finish.
Yikes! This looks like a real-life version of multi-Razzie nominee Karen. That movie was about racism and harassment, and it's even uglier when it's fact instead of fiction.
Follow over the jump for the trailers of the other four nominees.
This video earned the featured position because it had the best combination of preview image, location reporting, and studio shenanigans. The next video, CBS 8 San Diego reporting Millions around the world prepare to celebrate Persian New Year as spring begins had an even clearer explanation with less silly studio interactions.
Families celebrate Nowruz by gathering around a Haftseen table to mark the start of Spring and the Persian New Year.
The presenter should look familiar; she's Neda Iranpour, who I featured in 2022 and 2023. Welcome back to the blog!
Bita Milanian, Iranian American community organizer, joins KCAL News anchors to share some ways to celebrate Nowruz, which is the Persian New Year. Milanian explains how the new year is a symbol of rebirth and new beginnings.
Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman received the Nobel Prize in medicine for their work on the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine. The two found a way to create a vaccine that would get past the body’s defenses but still prompt the immune system to make antibodies to fight the disease. NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell shares more.
HappyNationalVeepDay! Today is the anniversary of the day when Vice President Gerald Ford became President of the United States upon the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974, the culmination of the Watergate scandal. Last year was the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, so it's no surprise that news organizations produced documentaries about it. It's also no surprise that two of these documentaries, Watergate: High Crimes In The White House and Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal, earned nominations at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards and are the subject of today's post.
The gripping documentary, "Watergate: High Crimes in the White House," premieres 50 years to the day of the infamous break-in at the Democratic headquarters located within the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. What seemed at first a mere burglary grew into an extraordinary story of crime and scandal that took down President Richard Nixon.
CNN will debut Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal, with John Dean offering his first-hand account of the break in that brought down Richard Nixon’s presidency, on June 5.
Dean, former White House counsel for Nixon, serves as an executive producer on the project, with the debut tied to the 50th anniversary of the break in.
As John Dean is quoted as saying, "The criminal conduct of Richard Nixon and his top aides...became the blueprint for what no President of the United States should do." Unfortunately, it became the blueprint for what the former guy actually did, resulting in two impeachments and several indictments, beyond what happened to Nixon, who resigned before he could be impeached and was pardoned before he could be indicted.
CBS 8's Neda Iranpour explains how Persians celebrate Nowruz also known as the New Year. The celebration involves gathering around a table known as a Haftseen an elaborate sight, prepared several days in advance with "Haft" or seven items that start with "Seen" or the letter "S."
Foozool Khan left a comment reminding the station and its viewers that other people outside of Iran celebrate Nowruz.
I am an Iranian-American, thanks for celebrating Norooz and educating your audience. However, please be mindful that Norooz is not just celebrated by Iranians. Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and all around the world, people of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and many more, all are celebrating Norooz. Let's not exclude them from these great traditions.
Thanks for the reminder! Also, the Wikipedia entry for Nowruz lists even more countries that celebrate today.
Astrology is a system of beliefs and practices that seeks to interpret and influence the positions and movements of celestial bodies in relation to human affairs and natural phenomena. It is based on the idea that the positions of the planets, the sun, and the moon at the time of a person's birth can have a significant influence on their personality, character traits, and life events.
Astrology has been practiced for thousands of years in many different cultures around the world. It is often used as a tool for understanding oneself, relationships, and the world around us. Astrology can be used to gain insight into various aspects of life, such as career, love and relationships, finances, health, and spirituality.
There are many different types of astrology, each with its own unique traditions, techniques, and beliefs. Some of the most commonly practiced forms of astrology include Western astrology, Vedic astrology, Chinese astrology, and Mayan astrology.
The narrator shows less respect for astrology in the video, calling it a pseudoscience. That fits with my official positions on astrology, "astrology is bunk, but it's fun bunk" and "harmless but fun nonsense that I'm presenting for entertainment purposes only."
I'm surprised it took me this long to find and use this. It's been up for almost five years. I might also re-use this for MLK Day next year.
I'll continue my celebration of completing another year of blogging and starting another with statistics followed by retrospectives on (Wayback) Wednesdays, (Throwback) Thursdays, (Flashback) Fridays and selected Sundays through the rest of this month and probably all of April. Those will start after I observe WorldWaterDay tomorrow. Stay tuned.
*This is not a coincidence. From the Wikipedia entry for the Solar Hijri calendar: "Each of the twelve months corresponds with a zodiac sign; their names are the same as ancient Zoroastrian names from the Zoroastrian calendar – in Afghanistan on the other hand, the names of the zodiacal signs are used instead."
Younger women are now in the streets. The movement they’re leading is educated, liberal, secular, raised on higher expectations, and desperate for normality: college and foreign travel, decent jobs, rule of law, access to the Apple Store, a meaningful role in politics, the freedom to say and wear whatever. They are quite unlike those who came before them; sometimes they feel more like transnational Gen Z than Iranians: they are vegans, they de-Islamicize their names, they don’t want children. I’ve often wondered what has made them so rebellious, because their ferocious character was evident well before 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Amini, arrested at a metro station by the morality police who enforce the dress code, died after being held in their custody on Sept. 16, setting off the most sustained uprising in the 43-year history of the Islamic Republic. The average age of arrested protesters is notably low—Iranian officials estimate as young as 15. I can only conclude that when a generation’s aspirations for freedom appear tantalizingly within reach, the more humiliating the remaining restrictions seem, and the less daunting the final stretch of resistance feels.
TIME Contributing Editor Angelina Jolie interviews activist Roya Piraei, whose mother, Minoo Majidi, was was killed in Iran in September. Thousands continue to protest the repressive regime there. The protests began in September, when 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Amini died in police custody, after being arrested for not wearing her hijab properly.
The Women of Iran are TIME's 2022 Heroes of the Year.
I found that moving and personalized the movement well. Also, I didn't know that Angelina Jolie is a contributing editor for Time. It's always a good day when I learn something new.
I plan to return tomorrow with the Innovator of the Year for Nobel Prize Day tomorrow and Entertainers of the Year as the Sunday entertainment feature. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here is the Time Magazine cover image for Heroes of the Year.
On the first day of spring Persians celebrate Nowruz, also known as the New Year. On Sunday at 8:33 a.m. it will be celebration time among thousands of families across San Diego and millions across the world.
Before the New Year, Neda wanted to share some of the rich traditions and meanings behind them. So as a Persian herself, she says “khosh omadeen” which means thanks for being here. We hope you enjoy a little taste of Iran.
“Har Roozetan Nowruz, Nowruzetan Pirooz.” That’s the wish for a happy new year from the Persian Cultural Center of San Diego. The Persian Cultural Center of San Diego (PCC) is dedicated to sharing the rich history and culture of Iran with San Diegans.
Shahla Salah, President of the Persian Cultural Center says, “Persian culture is such an ancient culture and it has really influenced culture around the world.”
I've watched a lot of explanations of the holiday over the years and I can say that I really enjoyed this one. Good work, Neda Iranpour!
It's about time I featured a Farsi happy birthday song for my blog's birthday.
I'm not through celebrating the eleventh anniversary of my posting First post: Why this blog? I'll continue with statistics followed by retrospectives on (Throwback) Thursdays and (Flashback) Fridays all the way through April. Those will start after I observe WorldWaterDay tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Nowruz Mubarak! Happy International Day of Nowruz AKA PersianNewYear and happy10thbirthdayoftheblog!* Since I have concentrated on celebrating this blog's birthday the past three years while downplaying Persian New Year, something I foreshadowed in 2017 when I wrote "I'm going to miss celebrations of Nowruz at The White House," I'm going to reverse my emphasis by sharing material about the holiday first, beginning with BBC News' Nowruz: How 300m people celebrate Persian New Year from 2019.
About 300 million people across the world will celebrate Persian New Year - or Nowruz - on Thursday.
The 3,000-year-old festival begins on the first day of the year in the Iranian calendar, and is also a celebration of Spring.
People in countries including Iran, Tajikistan, Turkey and Iraq will be welcoming the start of the year 1398, explains the BBC's Samar Salekipour.
Since 2019 in the common era calendar was 1398 on the Persian Calendar, that means that that today (or actually yesterday, because the actual celebration is on the Vernal Equinox, not today) is now 1400, the end of one century and the beginning of another. That alone justifies the attention to the holiday that I've neglected to give it the past three years.
The BBC News video did a good job of portraying how Nowruz is celebrated during normal times. These are not normal times. France 24 English shows how people are celebrating Nowruz in Persian New Year Nowruz festivities go online because of the pandemic.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wishes everyone celebrating a happy and healthy Nowruz.
Nowruz Mubarak to you, too, Mr. Prime Minister.
Ten years ago today, I posted First post: Why this blog? Since then, I've written 4,673 entries including this one. That's worthy of a bigger celebration than I'm giving it today. Don't worry. I will give the anniversary the attention I always do, with statistics on Tuesday, followed by retrospectives on (Throwback) Thursdays and (Flashback) Fridays all the way through April. That will begin after I celebrate WorldWaterDay tomorrow. Stay tuned.
*Today is also the 15th birthday of Twitter, sort of. I'll celebrate that event when I write about the blog's year on Twitter next month.
