I'm watching the last 30 minutes of "Casablanca".

[trof]

It's a movie I never get tired of seeing.

An older couple in Nick's bar just drank a toast to AMERICA!
They had escaped some country that was now dominated by Nazis.
Now they were in neutral Portugal with passage to the United States.

Tonight I can't drink that toast.
I'm 76.

I've lived through WW II, the Korean "War" (Police Action)...Look THAT UP...
Viet Nam (vet), the Kennedy assassination, Watergate and Nixon's resignation, Gerald Ford's pardon of the asshole, Bill Clinton's impeachment, the 2000 sElection debacle, the first black POTUS.

I've seen a lot.

BUT NEVER ANYTHING LIKE THE SHIT THAT'S GOING ON NOW.

The repugs have gone into full PARTY UBER ALLES mode.

The country...the nation...and our well being no longer means a thing to them.
It's just all keeping in power.

[jehop61]

1. I'm a contemporary

And I agree completely. What's happening to our government?

[trof]

7. I'm in a bright red state

And I feel helpless.
I don't like feeling helpless.

[Big_K]

10. Not to play who has it worse....

But I'm in Paul Ryan's district. In Scott Walker's Wisconsin.

As Rick once said, "I was misinformed."

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. It's something the hell else, isn't it?

I keep thinking (or hoping) that it's not real and it's just some crazy TV show. I'm transfixed, glued to my TV and DU, because if I step away for more than an hour or so some new weird thing happens that I have to catch up with. And it's never something I'd have expected.

If we get through this, though, somebody (maybe Oliver Stone?) will make one heck of a movie out of it.

[Siwsan]

3. I'm watching it, too, and thought pretty much the same thing

However, the scene of the 'battle of the anthems' always brings tears to my eyes.

[Wounded Bear]

4. Well, they weren't in neutral Portugal, but I get your point...

Rick's was in Casablanca, in French Morocco, a Vichy territory.

[trof]

6. Sorry.

[BeyondGeography]

5. As an aside

The last time I saw that movie, which was at least the 10th time, I decided Ingrid Bergman was the glue that quietly held the whole thing together. Imagine a lesser actress in the role of loving two men profoundly and differently...disaster. The next time I see it, I might conclude something else, because greatness abounds in every scene and each performance.

[Sanity Claws]

8. Hedi Lamar was the first choice for

The role of Ilsa

[BeyondGeography]

9. More of a femme fatale

Would have been a different film.

[Big_K]

11. It's Hedley!