The Mike Wallace Interview: Rod Serling (1959)

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Erik Schneider

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Rod Serling is obviously famous for The Twilight Zone and that he created it and he created Thriller as well and several other shows. But what I believe is his mark on Hollywood is that he gave millions of Americans the ability and freedom to look at a world that is completely different from their reality. To escape their reality and to see a world that did not exist, to sort of paraphrase The Twilight Zone and even Knight Rider from the 1980s. To stretch people’s imagination and give people the chance to dream.

To me at least watching The Twilight Zone is like having a crazy dream that even adults can remember weeks later if not even longer than that. And in many cases a bad dream if not worst than that and when that half-hour is over, you wake up from the dream. The person or subject in that show comes back down to Earth to see that they are back to where they belong. And the viewers of that episode come back to Earth as well and return to the reality. The Twilight Zone was the ultimate break or escape from realty for millions of Americans.
Mike Wallace Interview

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Gingery Oddity: The Newsroom- Maggie: On Michele Bachmann and Christianity

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Derik Schneider
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Source:Gingery Oddity– “The Newsroom, Maggie on Michele Bachmann and Christianity”

Source:Gingery Oddity

“The Newsroom, by Aaron Sorkin Season 1 Episode 8 (The Blackout, Part 1: Tragedy Porn)”

What the Maggie character from The Newsroom didn’t mention and perhaps didn’t think of, is that perhaps Representative Michele Bachmann’s whose career in Congress will be over in just a few weeks, (counting the days, can’t wait) that perhaps Michele believes her own propaganda.

See, I’m not sure if the distinguished Representative from Minnesota is an escaped mental patient, someone who should be committed, but because she’s married to Markus Bachmann who perhaps should be committed as well, or is not smart enough to see that her dear wife needs professional help. Or is a complete idiot who believes her own, lets say propaganda about, “God wants me to run for President”.

You know, not all politician’s are liars. Which is as difficult to believe that it never snows in Minnesota, or the New York Yankees aren’t from New York, or there isn’t a lot of oil in Texas. But there are politician’s that are simply flat nuts or complete morons, or perhaps in Michele Bachmann’s case a case of both. And yes there are politician’s that lie, well their mouths off, who the only way to know what they think and know about anything, at least important is to always have them on truth serum. I’m just throwing it out there that there are politician’s who are nutty or dumb enough to actually believe their own words and aren’t always lying.

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CBS News: Washington Unplugged: Bob Orr Interviews P.J. O’Rourke – The Lighter-Side of Politics

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Ederik Schneider

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Source:The New Democrat 

“Don’t vote it only encourages the bastards”. Well I guess another way of looking at that would that if you don’t vote, some dumb bastard will vote instead and vote for the crooked bastard that is in office. Voting is not the problem with politics or democracy. Sure, voting is how we get bad politicians in the crooked and incompetent sense. Meaning someone who is simply in office to further their career, or simply not up to and qualified for the job they were elected to. But those politicians tend to get elected by people who vote based on personality and pop culture relevance. “I like Joe or Sally, because we use the same computer or smart phone, or have the same interest in movies or sense of humor”.

It’s the dumb voters and the smart people who are too lazy to vote that are the problem with American politics. Not good people who run for office and get elected, or lose to people, because they didn’t have the funds to fight back against very skillfully attack ads and, well bullshit that was thrown at them from, well a bastard politician or candidate running against them. A crooked candidate or politician’s path to victory is the stupid vote. “If I can win the stupid vote and discourage smart people who know what I’m about and what I’ll do if I win from voting, I’m home free.

The stupid vote and stupid people in general the morons of the month club and their fellow members are what keeps crooks and liars in office. But the worst arch-enemy of the crooks and liars are the smart people who know the crooks are crooks, but feel their votes may not count and the crooks will find a way to get elected and reelected anyway. So you get the smart people to vote, now the crooks and liars have a real problem. “Now not only the smart people are voting and know what I’m about and what I have done, but all I have for a line of defense are morons to defend me!”. The better educated a society with the most educated voters possible who actually vote, the fewer crooks in the system.

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Real Time With Bill Maher; Monarchy & State

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Rik Schneider

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Source:The New Democrat 

For all of you lets say Social Democrats on the Left in America who prefer to be called Progressives, or insult liberalism by calling yourselves Liberals, who want America to be more like Britain with their form of government, imagine a George W. Bush, or here’s a worst nightmarish thought, imagine a Ted Cruz as President of the United States without having to legally report to Congress and be accountable to Congress. Why? Because he’s now a king at least with the power of one, because now America has a monarchy or unitary executive, where most of the power in the U.S. Government is centralized with the White House.

Now of course Britain is a functioning social democracy where executive power resides with a Prime Minister and their government and they at least to a certain extent are accountable to the U.K. Parliament. And the Prime Minister is not king and even though they are more powerful inside of the U.K. Government than the President is inside of the U.S. Government, Britain no longer has absolute power in the national government. Their monarchy instead of now presiding over the country and the government, now is part of the government with ceremonial power. And no longer running the country.

But back in the day the King of Britain or the United Kingdom, was exactly that. The King of that country, a dictator with absolute power that could pretty do however they please without having to report to anyone or get permission. Can you imagine some loony Neoconservative in America with that much power over Americans, a much wealthier and much larger and more powerful country than Britain. Could you imagine Rick Santorum as King of America with the Christian-Right in his back pocket. You could forget about the Federal Republic and Separation of Church and State that Sarah Palin and all of her wisdom sees as a myth if that were to happen.

Bill Maher is correct that Founding Fathers the Founding Liberals of America broke away from Britain, because they wanted to escape authoritarian dictatorial rule from the United Kingdom. And no longer have to live in a country where they had to get permission from the King to blow their nose, use the bathroom, bang their wife or mistress, or even another man. That they wanted to create a free society, a liberal Democracy where the people could make their own decisions themselves. Which is why they created the Federal Republic with the Checks and Balances that they did. So we wouldn’t live under a dictatorship and be free to live our own lives.

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Captain Bijou: I Married a Woman (1958) Starring Diana Dors

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Erik Schneider

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Source:The New Democrat 

I’m going to try to write this post without sounding sexist as a man, but I think especially with this day and age that will be difficult and at the very least it come off as politically incorrect, at least the political correctness Left in America. But this movie you have a women at home who thinks her husband doesn’t pay enough attention to her. Played by the hot, sexy baby-face adorable Diana Dors and her idea of marriage seems to be what she sees from John Wayne in his last movie where he’s spoiling his wife and giving her all sorts of gifts.

She’s married to a man named Micky played by the tiny, but very funny George Gobel. They make a really adorable couple, because Diana is taller than George, but has a baby’s face and her husband almost looks like a little boy next to her. Shorter and smaller than his wife. Mickey is a very busy New York advertising executive with a very big account he’s working on a tight deadline to get it done and works for a boss who only sees the green picture. The money and doesn’t want to hear about what his top ad man by being going through at home.

Mickey loves Janice and Janice loves Mickey, but Janice believes that Mickey doesn’t pay her enough attention. And sees marriage based on what she sees from Hollywood. So Mickey is left with a wife at home who already believes she doesn’t give her enough attention. And an overbearing boss at work who is putting the future of the company in the lap of Mickey. Telling him “if you don’t come through, all of these people who work here are going to be out of jobs and everything else”. And Mickey has to figure out how to balance these new pressure together. A wife who thinks he doesn’t love her enough and an overbearing boss who is putting the future of the company in his hands.

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Blake Wood: The Newsroom- Rick Santorum

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Derik Schneider

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Source:Blake Wood– Jeff Daniels as Newsroom anchor Will McAvoy.

“In this scene from Season 1 Episode 6: Bullies, news anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) goes on the attack about gay rights. While he believed that Santorum was being the bully, through talking to his analyst (David Krumholtz) he realizes that, in this instance, it was him.”

From Blake Wood

Rick Santorum and the broader Christian-Right are exactly why Americans are seen as stupid. We get stereotyped as people who think like them, as people who not only have warped religious and moral beliefs, but people who want to not only enforce those warped values on the rest of the country and do it through law.

Will McAvoy (played by Jeff Daniels) asked a rhetorical question with an obvious answer to it: “How does someone’s same-sex marriage a threat to someone else’s straight marriage or make it less valuable?” The obvious answer is that it doesn’t.

The Christian-Right at least some of their militant members who go out of their way to put down people who don’t live like them, are simply assholes. Now are simply stupid and ignorant and know any better, or are they just rude bastards?

I’m not a mind-reader, so I can’t tell you, but they have a bad habit of saying things about people and different communities that are flat false and as a result have a bad habit of speaking out of their ass. The definition of an asshole, someone who speaks out of their ass. Speaks to things they aren’t knowledgeable about as if they know what they are talking about.

Christian-Conservatives have the absolute constitutional right to look down upon people who are not like them and do not look at the world like they do. Gays case in point, but they don’t have a right constitutional or otherwise to harass people they do not like or even hate. And certainly don’t have a right to force their beliefs on the rest of the country, by law or otherwise.

We live in a liberal democracy (as much as the Far-Right hates that and is against that) and we all have the right to live our own lives and believe what we believe. Not try to dictate how others should live and what they should believe.

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Real Time: Video: Overtime: Bill Maher & Panel Talk About Politics

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Ederik Schneider

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This post was originally posted at The New Democrat on Blogger

I’ve covered this before, but education literally stars at home. If you have parents who could care less about education, especially their own which might be why they didn’t finish there’s and even their kids, good luck to you as a student in school and the rest of life. If you don’t have that person at the top telling you, “put down your iPhone or iPad, or turn off your computer unless you are using it for your homework, because it is time for you to do your homework”. If parents don’t stress education with their kids, why would their kids stress their own education. Especially with so much else in the world, most of it non-educational and considered “like totally awesome” to keep them busy.

Again politicians, you know we get who we voted for, well assuming that is the person who one and the people who counted the votes, well actually know how to count. But society as a whole gets the politicians they vote for and if they don’t like those people, you know what, you can vote for someone else. That is called democracy, or run for office yourself, or recruit someone you like who you think would do a good job to run for office. The crooked politician’s best friends are the dumb voters and the people who don’t bother to vote. Because those people won’t vote against them. The crooked politician’s worst enemy, is the educated voter, because that person will vote for someone better.
Occupy Austin Protest

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Greg Hengler: Video: MSNBC’s Newsroom: Contessa Brewer Interview Catherine Moleski on Britain’s “Free Healthcare”

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Rik Schneider

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This post was originally posted at The New Democrat on Blogger

Social Democrats and single payer health insurance and health care supporters would do themselves a huge favor and perhaps even risk building their support for their movement if they were simply accurate if not honest about how the say their system would be paid for and stop calling it free. There’s no such thing as free anything that government provides. Even if they borrow the money to pay for some service they are giving their people, their people still pays for that in interest on the national debt. When you are spending other’s people’s money even for them, they are paying for the services that you give them.

Contessa Brewer who is not exactly a genius and generally does realty TV and technology related reporting and so-called human interest stories and not hard news, figured out pretty quickly that the U.K. NHS or National Health Service in Britain is not free and neither is their public health insurer that NHS also runs. It is paid for by British taxpayers and they pay for their own health care, just like Americans pay for there’s. But Americans generally pay for their health care out-of-pocket or through their private health insurer. The British pays for their health care in taxes.

Show me free government services and I’ll show you a beach house with an ocean view located in Minnesota. I would prefer however that you go first though, because producing a beach house with an ocean view in Minnesota would at the very least be a tall order. I would probably have better luck trying to swim from New York City to London, England. The whole Milton Friedman line about spending other people’s money is perfectly appropriate here. Because money that government spends of behalf of its people or even at their expense, does not come from some Monopoly game.

Money that government spends for their people doesn’t magically appear from thin-air or some genie wiggles their finger and it suddenly appears. Or they print counterfeit money, well I hope about the counterfeit part, because government does so many things in secret, who knows what they are doing. But we do know that we pay for whatever they’re doing supposedly on our behalf through either taxes, fees or interest on the debt. Government services are as free as cable bills or smart phone bills. Meaning not at all and people who want a government that is big enough to manage our lives for us, need to acknowledge that, if they actually want to have the big government they talk about.
NHS

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The New Republic: Elaine Teng: Congress Blocks Washington-DC Marijuana Legalization

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Erik Schneider

Source:The New Republic

I’ve lost count how many times Republicans and so-called Conservatives talk about the need for federalism, state and local control, but that as long as states and locals governing what the way they approve. Doing things that they approve of. And of course they are going to make the exception that Washington is the nation’s capital and that the Federal Government, including Congress has a role in their affairs, because Washington receives federal aide to conduct it’s city business. But Washington is still a city, a local city with their own government. Their voters legally approved marijuana legalization and they have the right to enforce that.

Now big fat Uncle Sam who apparently doesn’t have enough to do like minding their own business and managing the affairs and business of the Federal Government, should figure out how to govern themselves and make their own big fat government work. Before they try to run someone’s else’s government and manage their affairs. It’s no secret why the U.S. Congress has approval rating somewhere around ten-percent that the Republican Party is going to own in the next Congress now controlling both the House and Senate. Because they are bunch of incompetent assholes, who see compromise as a sin and don’t know how to work with people who don’t always agree with them.

It is a good thing that out Founding Fathers, our founding Liberal set up our Federal Republic with our federal system. Perhaps they were physic and knew that big government statists in the future may try to run the entire country from Washington DC and treat the individual states like children and tell them that Uncle Sammy knows what is best for them and what they can and can’t do and how to govern themselves. If we did have a unitary system and not a federal system, and Washington State along with Colorado and now Washington DC passed their own marijuana legalization laws, big government statists in the Republican Party would try to throw out those laws as well.

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Kittens McTavish: ‘The Newsroom: Spreading Lies’

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Derik Schneider

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Source:Kitten McTavish– Jeff Daniels as Newsroom anchorman Will McEvoy.

“When people say “FOX lies” and “Glenn Beck lies” and “Rush lies,” THIS is what they are talking about.”

From Kitten McTavish

I’m going to start this post off with a few expressions that may sound cheesy today, but explain what I’m getting at perfectly:

“Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”

And the other one being: “Every good reporters gets at least two sources on their story before they run with it”.

The second is definitely true, but since we are now in a twenty-four hour news cycle with the first to report on something considered to be the winner in the Super Bowl of ratings war, even if they are inaccurate with their reporting, that rule is not followed very much anymore. It’s about being first and figuring out what actually happened later.

My point is about Fox News and her’s another expression, take everything that Fox News reports, especially about Democrats, people on the Left or even Republicans and people on the Right that the Tea Party and Far-Right views as RINOS, or fake Republicans, with at least a jar of salt.

Forget about the grain of salt cliché, I mean seriously what can you do with a grain of salt anyway, it probably won’t even make you thirsty. Fox News in name only and they are only there as the official mouthpiece for the Tea Party and Far-Right in America. And perhaps the only cable network that take Representative Michele Bachmann seriously and doesn’t see her as an escaped mental patient.

Everything you saw in this video actually happened. The Newsroom just took from what Fox News and other right-wing media sources reported on air. They just used their own lips, mouths, and pieces, against them.

What’s the quickest way to defeat your opponent in an election or any other political battle? Use their own words against them, but make sure you inform people who are awake, competent and listening to you.

Anytime Fox News claims to report something and you’re someone who is actually interested in news, well if that’s the case you’re probably not watching Fox News, but if you are, check at least three or four real news sources to make sure what FNC is reporting is actually accurate.

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