@KDemo Everyone else walks with their wives but he’s obviously just saying “I’ll be replacing her anyway like I always do with my wives” how that asshole made it to office is beyond me. Bet you he’s get off the plane in Florida.
When I look back and study presidents from mid last century through the end of the cold way, I get a bit sad that I missed out on observing such greatness.
@PlacidPenguin WW2 was an interesting time, so many giants strode the stage of history. Was it a confluence of events, random chance, or one of the very few straight up good vs evil national conflicts that elevated these people to greatness?
@KDemo I was never a fan of Reagan as president, but he had many admirable qualities as a man, not the least of them the way he treated his wife with evident love and respect. Even JFK and Clinton, notorious philanderers, managed to treat their wives with respect in the public eye.
Growing up during the depression and coming of age during WWII created a generation quite likely to be willing to forgo self-indulgence, practical in their approaches, and up for attacking problems directly, even if some of their proposed “solutions” were highly flawed or contained massive ethical or strategic blindnesses.
WWII in particular threw all sorts of people who might normally know little of others’ lives together in a live-or-die struggle against foes that directly and immediately threatened the future in a visible way.
So many/most of those people came out of that war seeing people of differing philosophies and backgrounds as people they could work with, and owed respect to.
And coming out of the Depression and then WWII tended to make people the opposite of “entitled”.
The “we or our foes may destroy the world” Cold War created a political climate in which the two parties were often willing put aside manipulative partisan gain in favor of a try at the common good.
The so-called “Greatest Generation” didn’t name themselves that, and would not have done so (it’s more their style to let their achievements speak, than to brag about them).
Even with all their blindnesses and flaws, they do have a reasonable claim to the label.
Part of me is scared and wants to run, right with kitty.
The other part of me can’t take my eyes off it.
I have this fantasy:
the modern world is so addicted to entertainment (including @f00l’s self); that, sooner than we would believe possible, the ozone layer will vanish, the ice caps will melt, extinctions will accelerate wildly, the air and water will be poisoned, everything we do (including our thoughts) will be tracked and sold, and as finally, the missilles are loosed against what’s left, we will stare transfixed at the news, yelling “Wow! Best Reality TV ever! Wow, Game of thrones was nothing! Can you believe this ending? What a great final episode!”
@f00l Your fantasy is, sadly, not outside the realm of possibility. A global effort for moving ourselves off planet needs to begin now. The stars are beckoning and we need to get moving.
@lordbowen I disagree. We won’t deserve a second planet till we are able to care for the one we started with. If we destroy the habitability of this world and the lives of all the other species who share it I very much hope we die with them. The universe should not suffer the spread of humanity like a destructive plague to other habitable worlds.
We and most of life, if not all of it, will be gone. : (
Perhaps something might continue. Fungi? Anyway, something, that with a viable food chain, would be strongly resistant to chemical, heavy metal, and radiation poisoning, massive loss of diversity, loss of environments, loss of food sources, and loss of atmospheric layers, and resistant to nuclear winter, and able to survive who knows what else, might endure in some fashion.
I suppose those species, if such exist then, will be in charge of the new post-apocalypse entertainment industry.
Will this be a favorite film in that era?
Atomic Cafe trailer
Or perhaps they’ll like to watch the last few episodes of our current best-funded, highest-rated reality show.
I finally watched the Atomic Cafe trailer, and it’s not a trailer - I just believed the Youtibe labeling without watching it. The vid above is just clipped footage from early in the film. They had a trailer way back when, but I can’t find it in a quick search on YouTube. I suppose it can be seen on the DVD or at IMDB or someplace.
The Atomic Cafe is a documentary released in 1982 I think, composed entirely of found archival forage and archival commentary. (There are a few text screens setting up a time or context for some upcoming footage. The only other additions I can remember are some titles, credits, and period music overlays.)
It’s been a decade or so since I watched it, but if you can forgive the necessarily iffy quality of some of the archival footage, this film is quite good. The footage tells its own story.
The film was released at the height of the anti-nuclear movement and the “Ground Zero” protests of the 1980’s. The filmmakers had been working on it for 5-6 years by then. They had no idea when they started that Reagan would be elected, or that the anti-nuclear movement, nuclear winter info, and Reagan’s “Star Wars” shield proposal would become huge public issues.
They originally found some bomb footage while researching another project. When they first saw that bomb footage, they simply thought the topic had to be its own feature length film.
They just happened to be nearly ready for release at a moment where the issues were politically dominate. It was a happy accident of timing. They had believed the film would simply disappear commercially, to be known only known to a few activists and some other political and war documentarians. Instead, the film was a commercial success, to their shock.
Most of the archival film is from the US govt archives. Some is news media footage, some public education or civil defense, some cultural setting footage of the various eras.
The primary focus might be described as a contrast between public attitudes and public knowledge, esp as presented to the populace by politicians and and chosen “authorities”, and what nuclear warfare actually is.
In order to create a film that could be shown everywhere, including on PBS, the filmmakers chose to limit truly disturbing medical, post-attack, and other footage to accommodate ratings expectations. This left the plenty of choices. I heard that the filmmakers felt they could have easily made a season long mini-series out of what they would have liked to include, had they access to the needed funds, and to backers or grants to do that, and some sort of broadcasting network commitment. The film was made on a shoestring.
In the “Trinity Test” footage, the tall guy in the hat is Oppie.
Here is the entire film. About an hour and a half, I think?
@moondrake Which is exactly why we need to move to the stars. Reduce the burden on our own planet so it can be better cared for. Mankind can exist both here and in space.
@lordbowen A creature that overbreeds and poisons its natural habitat should not be allowed to spread to new habitats. The idea that we would expand to new planets to relieve pressure on this one without first learning to control our own population expansion, resource exploitation and tendency to exterminate any other living thing that is even remotely in our way is horrifying.
I’ve never been exactly to the trinity spot, but I’ve spent a lot of time messing around in White Sands, and the portions of the missile range open to the public. The person I was with wasn’t willing to go to the explosion point for emotional reasons, and I deferred to that.
It’s a wonderful and seriously spooky area. It was, to me, emotionally, as if the moral weight of the events and their consequences and possible endpoints were present, in the wind, and I couldn’t quite comprehend them. (I was young and had a good imagination.)
I also saw some of the footage that didn’t make it into the film. It was something else.
Oppenheimer has a most fascinating personal, emotional, and intellectual history.
@moondrake Oh yes, the scourge of human progress that provides food, water, and shelter to billions. I’m all about the environment, but let’s not be silly and act like humans do nothing positive.
@Pantheist
Role of a lifetime. And the Washington-based “font of inspiration” yields a range of material for caricature that no writers’ room could have come up with on their own.
@Pantheist @cinoclav
This show is new, isn’t it? Sometimes new shows have to find their feet, so to speak.
About 3 years, 8 months 13 days to go, barring very unusual events. Everyone doing Trump or political commentary will have a lot of time to develop out what they’re doing.
I finally watched this, and laughed for the first time in DAYS. Now I’ll be watching his hands closely, because I have learned to mute him. Thanks, @ACraigL!
@Cerridwyn While driving today I listened to the Radiolab podcast about nukes and I actually wondered if our current leader was immature enough to do something silly like pick up the red phone and try to order pizza. And then you present me with the evidence that, yep, he does.
@djslack
Supposedly he has a red button on his Oval Office desk that he loves to punch without warning present company first, when he has first-time visitors.
The button notifies the Oval Office butler to bring him a glass of Pepsi.
@moondrake
Yeah, I didn’t intend to imply the red-bottom-on-the-desk was evidence in itself of a character flaw.
Although I think he could go in the direction of something more healthful than a cola full of either artificial sweeteners or HFCS.
Looking at him, and knowing about his utter devotion to fast food, what are the odds that he has a pretty notable metabolic disorder, or else arteriosclerosis, or both?
@f00l I’m not in any position to complain about someone eating fast food or drinking soda as those comprise much of my diet. But I am only responsible for myself and two dogs, so there’s that.
@moondrake Oh, that was me implying the character flaw. But to add perspective, I had come fresh off listening to the Nukes episode of Radiolab. It struck me as immature to have something as serious as the responsibility of being the sole decider of the fate of the planet and joke like that about it.
I’m a few days out from that and I can see that it is actually kind of funny. But the issues discussed in that podcast are likely to weigh heavy on anyone that thinks enough about them.
That’s so magnificent, there’s nothing left to say.
Hmmm…
I think with a little more practice, he’ll get pretty good with that.
@daveinwarsh I like his commitment to practicing, but wow, he’s bad right now.
this one still does it for me- it explains sooooooo much
crapness- won’t play here, but worth the click
@alacrity Slow him down, he sounds drunk. Is there a setting to make him not sound like an idiot?
@PocketBrain Mute.
@PocketBrain yep- the “off” setting.
Fun new game: Spot the D-Bag
@KDemo He’s so proud of having this beautiful model for his wife and treats her with such disrespect.
@KDemo Everyone else walks with their wives but he’s obviously just saying “I’ll be replacing her anyway like I always do with my wives” how that asshole made it to office is beyond me. Bet you he’s get off the plane in Florida.
@KDemo
When I look back and study presidents from mid last century through the end of the cold way, I get a bit sad that I missed out on observing such greatness.
@KDemo I see two.
@PlacidPenguin WW2 was an interesting time, so many giants strode the stage of history. Was it a confluence of events, random chance, or one of the very few straight up good vs evil national conflicts that elevated these people to greatness?
@KDemo I was never a fan of Reagan as president, but he had many admirable qualities as a man, not the least of them the way he treated his wife with evident love and respect. Even JFK and Clinton, notorious philanderers, managed to treat their wives with respect in the public eye.
@PlacidPenguin
Growing up during the depression and coming of age during WWII created a generation quite likely to be willing to forgo self-indulgence, practical in their approaches, and up for attacking problems directly, even if some of their proposed “solutions” were highly flawed or contained massive ethical or strategic blindnesses.
WWII in particular threw all sorts of people who might normally know little of others’ lives together in a live-or-die struggle against foes that directly and immediately threatened the future in a visible way.
So many/most of those people came out of that war seeing people of differing philosophies and backgrounds as people they could work with, and owed respect to.
And coming out of the Depression and then WWII tended to make people the opposite of “entitled”.
The “we or our foes may destroy the world” Cold War created a political climate in which the two parties were often willing put aside manipulative partisan gain in favor of a try at the common good.
The so-called “Greatest Generation” didn’t name themselves that, and would not have done so (it’s more their style to let their achievements speak, than to brag about them).
Even with all their blindnesses and flaws, they do have a reasonable claim to the label.
@KDemo I also see two, and their names begin with a “B” and and “H”.
@DarthW - Oops. You’re playing the game wrong, you’re not supposed to call yourself out.
@lordbowen Kitty be scared. Smart kitty. That was awesome.
@ACraigL Cat wasn’t taking a chance with a single one of its lives.
@lordbowen
Part of me is scared and wants to run, right with kitty.
The other part of me can’t take my eyes off it.
I have this fantasy:
the modern world is so addicted to entertainment (including @f00l’s self); that, sooner than we would believe possible, the ozone layer will vanish, the ice caps will melt, extinctions will accelerate wildly, the air and water will be poisoned, everything we do (including our thoughts) will be tracked and sold, and as finally, the missilles are loosed against what’s left, we will stare transfixed at the news, yelling “Wow! Best Reality TV ever! Wow, Game of thrones was nothing! Can you believe this ending? What a great final episode!”
@f00l Your fantasy is, sadly, not outside the realm of possibility. A global effort for moving ourselves off planet needs to begin now. The stars are beckoning and we need to get moving.
@lordbowen I disagree. We won’t deserve a second planet till we are able to care for the one we started with. If we destroy the habitability of this world and the lives of all the other species who share it I very much hope we die with them. The universe should not suffer the spread of humanity like a destructive plague to other habitable worlds.
@f00l As my mother used to say, it will end life as we know it. The earth, however, will continue; it’s just us that will be gone.
@Shrdlu
We and most of life, if not all of it, will be gone. : (
Perhaps something might continue. Fungi? Anyway, something, that with a viable food chain, would be strongly resistant to chemical, heavy metal, and radiation poisoning, massive loss of diversity, loss of environments, loss of food sources, and loss of atmospheric layers, and resistant to nuclear winter, and able to survive who knows what else, might endure in some fashion.
I suppose those species, if such exist then, will be in charge of the new post-apocalypse entertainment industry.
Will this be a favorite film in that era?
Atomic Cafe trailer
Or perhaps they’ll like to watch the last few episodes of our current best-funded, highest-rated reality show.
@Shrdlu
Apologies. Dammit.
I finally watched the Atomic Cafe trailer, and it’s not a trailer - I just believed the Youtibe labeling without watching it. The vid above is just clipped footage from early in the film. They had a trailer way back when, but I can’t find it in a quick search on YouTube. I suppose it can be seen on the DVD or at IMDB or someplace.
The Atomic Cafe is a documentary released in 1982 I think, composed entirely of found archival forage and archival commentary. (There are a few text screens setting up a time or context for some upcoming footage. The only other additions I can remember are some titles, credits, and period music overlays.)
It’s been a decade or so since I watched it, but if you can forgive the necessarily iffy quality of some of the archival footage, this film is quite good. The footage tells its own story.
The film was released at the height of the anti-nuclear movement and the “Ground Zero” protests of the 1980’s. The filmmakers had been working on it for 5-6 years by then. They had no idea when they started that Reagan would be elected, or that the anti-nuclear movement, nuclear winter info, and Reagan’s “Star Wars” shield proposal would become huge public issues.
They originally found some bomb footage while researching another project. When they first saw that bomb footage, they simply thought the topic had to be its own feature length film.
They just happened to be nearly ready for release at a moment where the issues were politically dominate. It was a happy accident of timing. They had believed the film would simply disappear commercially, to be known only known to a few activists and some other political and war documentarians. Instead, the film was a commercial success, to their shock.
Most of the archival film is from the US govt archives. Some is news media footage, some public education or civil defense, some cultural setting footage of the various eras.
The primary focus might be described as a contrast between public attitudes and public knowledge, esp as presented to the populace by politicians and and chosen “authorities”, and what nuclear warfare actually is.
In order to create a film that could be shown everywhere, including on PBS, the filmmakers chose to limit truly disturbing medical, post-attack, and other footage to accommodate ratings expectations. This left the plenty of choices. I heard that the filmmakers felt they could have easily made a season long mini-series out of what they would have liked to include, had they access to the needed funds, and to backers or grants to do that, and some sort of broadcasting network commitment. The film was made on a shoestring.
In the “Trinity Test” footage, the tall guy in the hat is Oppie.
Here is the entire film. About an hour and a half, I think?
@moondrake Which is exactly why we need to move to the stars. Reduce the burden on our own planet so it can be better cared for. Mankind can exist both here and in space.
@lordbowen A creature that overbreeds and poisons its natural habitat should not be allowed to spread to new habitats. The idea that we would expand to new planets to relieve pressure on this one without first learning to control our own population expansion, resource exploitation and tendency to exterminate any other living thing that is even remotely in our way is horrifying.
@moondrake Agree to disagree.
@lordbowen
We will carry ourselves with us wherever we go.
@f00l
Dammit. Too many people with hats that morning. And Oppenheimer didn’t wear that hat (which makes him easier to spot) all the time.
These are him during on site prep in the hat.
@lordbowen Cats are excellent judges of character.
@f00l I’ve been to the Trinity site and out to White Sands to squint at the space shuttle. Anyone not wearing a hat and dark glasses would be crazy.
@f00l This is an interesting article on Oppenheimer and his famous Bhagavad-Gita quote, “I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds”.
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/manhattan-project-robert-oppenheimer
@moondrake
Yea.
I’ve never been exactly to the trinity spot, but I’ve spent a lot of time messing around in White Sands, and the portions of the missile range open to the public. The person I was with wasn’t willing to go to the explosion point for emotional reasons, and I deferred to that.
It’s a wonderful and seriously spooky area. It was, to me, emotionally, as if the moral weight of the events and their consequences and possible endpoints were present, in the wind, and I couldn’t quite comprehend them. (I was young and had a good imagination.)
I also saw some of the footage that didn’t make it into the film. It was something else.
Oppenheimer has a most fascinating personal, emotional, and intellectual history.
One place to start, if someone wants to:
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B000XUBEYS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
@moondrake
The Bhagavad-Gita quote found its way into some google refs when I was looking for the link to that Oppenheimer book.
This showed up.
@moondrake Oh yes, the scourge of human progress that provides food, water, and shelter to billions. I’m all about the environment, but let’s not be silly and act like humans do nothing positive.
Alec Baldwin as Trump never gets old for me.
@Pantheist
Role of a lifetime. And the Washington-based “font of inspiration” yields a range of material for caricature that no writers’ room could have come up with on their own.
@Pantheist It’s going to be one of the all-time great roles. Spicey is close behind.
@OldCatLady “Spicey’s gonna take a big-boy nap” is such a great line.
@Pantheist @f00l @OldCatLady If you haven’t seen it yet, check out The President Show on Comedy Central. Anthony Atamanuik does a damn good Trump. His voice goes off at times but his expressions and hand gestures are great.
http://www.cc.com/episodes/09y5qi/the-president-show-april-27--2017---keith-olbermann-season-1-ep-101
@cinoclav this dialogue is a little rough. does it get better?
@Pantheist I’ve only watched the first episode. It has it’s up and downs but the ups are worth it. Whole show is only about 20 minutes.
@cinoclav alright, I’ll give it another shot. I only gave it a few mins the first time
@Pantheist
@cinoclav
This show is new, isn’t it? Sometimes new shows have to find their feet, so to speak.
About 3 years, 8 months 13 days to go, barring very unusual events. Everyone doing Trump or political commentary will have a lot of time to develop out what they’re doing.
Some ways to deal, depending on preferences:
https://smile.amazon.com/MTS-Trump-Toilet-Paper/dp/B01KGFW01U/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_201_bs_lp_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=DY3K9330XW1HZXG9GF1C
https://smile.amazon.com/Trump-Deserves-Trust-Respect-Admiration/dp/1540743225/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_201_tr_t_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=DY3K9330XW1HZXG9GF1C
(Read the book description)
A Trump Countdown Clock is for sale on Amazon here:
https://smile.amazon.com/Trumps-Last-Day-01-20-21-Countdown/dp/B01MTW7MYA?sa-no-redirect=1
A web countdown clock that can be embedded, but I don’t know how to get it to embed:
https://www.tickcounter.com/countdown/1611151200000/america-new_york/yodhms/FFFFFF3B5998000000FF0000/Time_Until_Trump_Leaves_Office
If anyone feels this is partisan or unfair, google will find similar HRC- and Obama-themed items if they are desired.
I finally watched this, and laughed for the first time in DAYS. Now I’ll be watching his hands closely, because I have learned to mute him. Thanks, @ACraigL!
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-trump-oval-office-interview-cbs-this-morning-full-transcript/
@Cerridwyn While driving today I listened to the Radiolab podcast about nukes and I actually wondered if our current leader was immature enough to do something silly like pick up the red phone and try to order pizza. And then you present me with the evidence that, yep, he does.
Serendipity is weird sometimes.
@djslack
Supposedly he has a red button on his Oval Office desk that he loves to punch without warning present company first, when he has first-time visitors.
The button notifies the Oval Office butler to bring him a glass of Pepsi.
@f00l yep, that. And it’s Pepsi, ugh.
@f00l I dunno, that’s actually kind of funny. That’s the most likable thing I’ve heard about him.
@moondrake
Yeah, I didn’t intend to imply the red-bottom-on-the-desk was evidence in itself of a character flaw.
Although I think he could go in the direction of something more healthful than a cola full of either artificial sweeteners or HFCS.
Looking at him, and knowing about his utter devotion to fast food, what are the odds that he has a pretty notable metabolic disorder, or else arteriosclerosis, or both?
@f00l I’m not in any position to complain about someone eating fast food or drinking soda as those comprise much of my diet. But I am only responsible for myself and two dogs, so there’s that.
@moondrake Oh, that was me implying the character flaw. But to add perspective, I had come fresh off listening to the Nukes episode of Radiolab. It struck me as immature to have something as serious as the responsibility of being the sole decider of the fate of the planet and joke like that about it.
I’m a few days out from that and I can see that it is actually kind of funny. But the issues discussed in that podcast are likely to weigh heavy on anyone that thinks enough about them.
@djslack That’s not serendipity. That’s a nightmare coming to life.
Not even this is amusing right now. The whole health care thing is just a shit show.
I like frogs, but this is just cruel. To frogs.