Ah yes, Les Moonves, the hard-hitting investigative reporter.

Ah yes, those grand old masters of investigative journalism, 60 Minutes. I just did a google search "60 minutes donald trump investigation". Try it yourself. Hard hitting stuff, huh?

The impossibly good looking and ungodly rich: you have my sympathy, always.

This wasn't as bad as I was expecting, given the uproar . I'm sure her heart is in the right place, but living in Hollywood does wonders. Either way, she's a great actress

Technically, Donald Trump _is_ a hollywood actor. He draws better ratings than Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Come to think of it, has hollywood produced an elected official who is not Republican? Outside of Al Franken, I can't think of a single one. This compared to _two_ presidents and the governor of California.

Ventura. Reform and then Independent.

Dems:
Jerry Springer
Melissa Gilbert (Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie)
Ben Jones (Dukes of Hazzard's Cooter)
Kal Penn (Kumar of Harold & Kumar)
Stephen Peace (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes writer/actor/producer)

Polanski only butt-raped one drugged child. Trump is going to butt-rape an entire nation, without the benefit of sedative.

Bringing back quaaludes could be a slam dunk for Trump's PR.

...or even a reacharound!

I would just like to take this time to say Ryan Gosling is not attractive. Long face is looooong.

I'll just go ahead and forward that with a bunch of other garbage to all the people on my contacts list. Blows against the empire!

So if America gets better we have Meryl Streep to thank and not Donald?

The idea that the left isn't composed of working-class people is fucking ridiculous and plainly false. (This wasn't your point, Cena, I know.)

Also, here's this: http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2017/01/fuck-you-rural-elitists.htm l

Can't it be a bit of both?

Anthony Bordain, whose job is to enjoy free meals at fancy foreign restaurants, would like to talk to you about the plight of the working man.

In the article he tried to sound blue collar, saying he did all the dirty jobs in the restaurant business. I'm pretty dubious when blowhards like him try to sound working class, it reminds me of this time Bill O'reilly was complaining about how college kids take loans rather than working through college, and said that he worked at an ice cream stand to get himself through college. Bill, working a summer at an ice cream stand for beer money does mean you put yourself through college.

I'm not sure we need to authenticate the author's bona fides to make an assessment of rural elitism. I'm not particularly impressed with the expressive aspect the diatribe, but I think the author is right in noting there is a rural elitism that wrongly assumes it has a monopoly on working class legitimacy.

Well there's the problem. All those people moved the hell away from that shit to live in the cities, and now, due to the electoral college, their votes are diluted.

About attitudes towards rural America ... there is really only one trait we city folks hate about rural America / small town America / etc, and that is the delight they take in cruelty to marginalized groups. Take that away and we adore them.

Our fictional depictions of rural America are filled with kind-hearted people who, quirks aside, have their heads screwed on straight and are completely bereft of cruelty: Andy Griffith, King of the Hill, even Beverly Hillbillies. And then there's Superman: we buy the notion that he grew up without a mean bone in his body because the Kindly Couple happened to be farmers.

That is the fiction we enjoy, because depicting rural Americans accurately would mean making a good number of them odious creatures. Granny on "The Beverly Hillbillies" is adorable when she's panicking that Ellie Mae's beau (a navy frogman) can turn himself into a frog and her descendants will be half human / half frog. She'd be a lot less appealing if she were mad that the black mailman is attracted to Ellie Mae and why can't Jed go out and shoot him or at least threaten to string him up.

Damn, now you've given me images of Andy and Barney beating up black people for broken tail lights.

Barney was an uptight city cop who never really fit in among the Mayberry people. Here's how I see it:

Barney: So, what does a feller do for kicks on a Friday night in Mayberry?

Andy: I'm glad you asked. Me and Floyd and some of the boys were gonna drive around town, see if we could smash some coon heads in.

Barney: A-andy, are you sure you oughtta be doing that? I mean, you ARE the sheriff, shouldn't you be setting a good example?

Andy: Barn, Barn, Barn, I don't think you see the big picture here. We have a way of doing things 'round these parts, it works pretty well. Last thing we need is some nigger-lover from the city trying to tell us what to do. Best thing for you is to just simmer down. ... And you better not even THINK about making waves, it's REAL easy for a fella to get lost in the woods if you know what I mean.

Barney: O-okay, I guess I got no choice, I'll be a ...

Andy: ... gooooooood cracker!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDyvP2MxQEo

I've lived in rural parts of the Midwest where I didn't hear or see overt racism the entire time I was there - the attitudes in general where close to that of cities I've lived in.

So, battling traffic and eating at good resteraunts doesn't necessarily make one socially progressive. I too felt the need to pat myself on the back for living in a 'cool' city, because it can be soul crushing.

Although, I've driven through small towns in the South and the first pitstop had racist graffiti....

There are things you might not see by virtue of being white, but that doesn't make the racism any less real. You don't necessarily realize that suchandsuch wholesome little hamlet is a sundown town until threats are made to you directly ... which is not likely to happen if you happen to be white. I know of a few in the outlying Cleveland area, not because I was threatened directly, but because I have heard from blacks who were warned to get out of town before sunset.

If you find yourself in Lodi OH, visit the fire station. They've got photos up celebrating their historical achievements ... including Klan photos. Saw it myself just a few years ago. I don't know if that makes Lodi a sundown town, but I don't think I'd want to be black and in Lodi. (There are rumors the KKK still meets in Lodi, but I haven't seen any proof.)

It's not like the Lodi residents go around town saying things like "Hey Marty what's up?" "Nothing much, still hate blacks, how about you?" "Same here, still hate blacks, can't complain." One unfortunate side effect of the Civil Rights Movement is that racists don't always advertise their racism, so sometimes it takes some looking. Side note, NORML also has headquarters in Lodi, which underscores the moral that progressives and racists can live side by side, happily tolerating one another.

>>I have heard from blacks who were warned to get out of town before sunset.

Jesus Christ.

One good thing about cities, obviously, is one can perspectives that are harder to come by in rural areas. I grew up in a small town where people were sometimes casually racist, I'd say a lot of that has to do with not personally knowing minorities. More of a bad taste/ignorance thing, rather than hatred. The most racist people I've met live in stressful and segregated cities and towns. I don't know what my point is, but that stuff is everywhere.

I know idealic looking towns can have an awful undercurrents.

Also, I mentioned how I've found cities to be sometimes soul crushing, but rural areas without industry or higher education are the most depressing places I've ever visited. A lot of the people in those places are casualties, but man, holy shit, are they awful.

I can't type on phone.

For the first several years of my life, my parents lived in Warren OH. Since then, they've muttered darkly that Warren is "The armpit of the world", but they've never been willing to explain what's wrong with the place. The closest they've come is that one time when we were back in Cleveland visiting relatives, we drove through Warren and my parents kept saying "See? See????" I didn't see, although in retrospect the place did look lily-white. (My parents, for all their many faults, aren't terribly racist. Well, no more so than your average American.)

I wonder if Warren was one of those sundown cities.

Warren's not quite as rural as I had in mind, though that of course doesn't knock it out of contention. (Parma isn't rural either but damn if they don't make the place inhospitable to blacks.) Okay, I'll name names: Amherst OH is the one I've heard the worst about. For example, a black dad who was there watching his kid play a little league game, and heard from other people in the stands he'd better not stick around after the game. He didn't.

Here's an interesting list of Ohio towns -- please note that cities are on the list simply for having a low black population, you have to click an entry to see if anyone's got sundown stories to share. For example, Amherst has got stories, while Rocky River does not.

http://sundown.tougaloo.edu/sundowntownsshow.php?state=OH

Speak of the devil! I was born in Parma!

Looks like anti-black is baked into me no matter how you slice it. Damn negros! They've gone & made me racist!

I grew up in Strongsville so I feel your pain about an upbringing in a lily-white town.

...Annnnnnnd just like that the National Football League and Mixed Martial Arts are pissed. I guess I can see it from their perspective - plenty of people have devoted their lives to two legitimate professional sports, not exactly requiring the same skillset as watching paint dry or getting addicted to heroin, but it was an aside: maybe Streep's brother was seriously injured in a football game or I dunno, she just doesn't appreciate watching two nearly naked men simulate sexual positions with each other like everybody else does..

But that wasn't the fucking point, and if you're gonna call out someone on little things like that, it entails that you're pro-"the bigger picture" in this case should folks with developmental disabilities be ridiculed by the one person in the country whose voice and opinion we have to tolerate and listen to. I dunno, let it go like the Packers and Favre, fuck and make up I don't care.

Big fan of MMA. Been practicing since 2006. Competed twice. Don't give a fuck what Meryl Streep thinks or says about it. People like Dana White having a diaper-shitting fit about it does not help anyone.

Captain Fantastic was excellent. Ghost stars for that.

Are you eating enough fiber?

ad hominem and tu quoque in full effect at the Jacobin.

Being mad about a woman's alleged elitism while giving a complete pass to Trump's overall shittiness. Seen it.

The ones calling Trump haters "elitists" are the ones who are clinging to the nutsack of the Manhattanite Billionaire. Trump is an elite who just knows how to pander to working class morons.

Cena saying like what I've seen since the election, some collective amnesia that the guy is a tax-evading earl of financial privilege. All he has to do now is tell all of them that he is doing the work of god himself and he'll get a coronation.

I never paid much attention to "Jacobin" before, but I've read a couple artilcles and holy shit what a rag. The piece on Cornel West and how his popularity has plummeted refuses to even dignify the possibility that West himself might have something to do with it. No, it must be that West is a heroic visionary and all his detractors are corrupt tools of the Establishment.

"But as tragic as West’s crusade can appear, the sincerity of his commitment to a more just and egalitarian world — and the righteousness of his passion — cannot be called into question. Those who, like Michael Eric Dyson, claim that West’s political commitments now derive from nothing more than hurt feelings over unreturned phone calls to Barack are either not paying attention or shamelessly projecting their own guilty consciences onto West."

You hear that? Cornel West is not only right, but utterly beyond reproach. To be critical of him is to reveal one's corruption.