November 27, 2021

Tick Tick Boom True Story: The Real Jonathan Larson, Rent & How Much Happened

https://screenrant.com/tick-tick-boom-movie-true-story-jonathan-larson/


Tick Tick Boom True Story: The Real Jonathan Larson, Rent & How Much Happened
Tick, Tick... Boom! is a semi-autobiographical musical based on Jonathan Larson's life, which incorporates his true story and legacy with Rent.
By Jordan Williams

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Jonathan Larson’s True Friendship With Stephen Sondheim

Although it seems incredible that a young artist with Stephen Sondheim routinely reading his work would have trouble getting musicals produced, Tick, Tick… Boom!’s working friendship between Jon and one of the greatest composers of all time is true. When Larson was in college, he came into contact with Sondheim, who famously wrote iconic musicals like West Side Story, Into The Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. After beginning a rapport with his idol, Jon began submitting his work to Sondheim for review, who would often write recommendation letters to producers on Larson’s behalf.

Throughout Tick, Tick... Boom!, Andrew Garfield's character is constantly comparing himself to Sondheim’s timeline of achievements, proving just how much he idolizes the artist. In an important moment, Stephen Sondheim (Bradley Whitford) shows up to see the workshop for Superbia, a show Sondheim really did give Larson notes on. Tick, Tick… Boom! is filled with homages and references to Sondheim, including the song “Sunday” - which features a plethora of iconic Broadway actors in the movie - that Larson composed as a tribute to Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George. The end of Tick, Tick...Boom!’s movie also features Jon getting a call from Sondheim, telling him Superbia is first-rate and has a future, just like Jon. Director Lin-Manuel Miranda told The New Yorker that he originally wrote Sondheim’s voicemail to say “I have a feeling you’re going to have a very bright future,” but Sondheim told him it sounded too cliché. In a poetic appreciation of his once mentee and official rewrite, Sondheim decided to change the final voicemail to commending Jon’s play and future as first-rate, with Sondheim even cameoing to voice himself in the scene.

more...

https://screenrant.com/tick-tick-boom-movie-true-story-jonathan-larson/

November 27, 2021

Bannon Defense Team Makes Odd Request To Make All Case Documents Public

Posted on Fri, Nov 26th, 2021 by Jason Miciak
Bannon Defense Team Makes Odd Request To Make All Case Documents Public


As near all know, Steve Bannon, an off and on member of the Trump camp, has been arrested and charged with felony contempt of Congress due to ignoring a subpoena to appear. The criminal trial will proceed just like any other except with greater scrutiny and more sensitive documents. As often happens in politically charged cases involving executive privilege, attorneys last week agreed that the judge should enter an order that all discovery passed between the parties be kept secret.

But that was last week. This week, Bannon’s team filed a motion requesting that the court release the documents. Bannon’s legal “angle” in this assertion is difficult to discern.

According to the Washington Post:



Yes, as most know, generally, criminal case files are available to the public. This is how the media is able to report assertions and evidence in the case. Though, as said above, it is difficult to precisely discern Bannon’s motive, there is an indication in the language of the document. Bannon wants the “public” (aka MAGAs) involved, such that the MAGAs can put the DOJ and Committee on trial and make the DOJ appear to be operating out of bounds in this case.

more...

https://www.politicususa.com/2021/11/26/bannon-defense-team-makes-odd-request-to-make-all-case-documents-public.html

November 26, 2021

Peter Navarro Says He Wanted 'Baby' Dr. Anthony Fauci 'Strangled In His Crib'

Peter Navarro Says He Wanted 'Baby' Dr. Anthony Fauci 'Strangled In His Crib'
He appealed to former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to boot Fauci because Donald Trump was busy and "I'm an economics guy," he told Steve Bannon.
Mary Papenfuss
11/25/2021 11:50pm EST


Donald Trump’s fervent supporter and former trade adviser Peter Navarro slipped off the rails in a ridiculous interview with Steve Bannon, recounting how he urged one-time White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to “strangle that [Dr. Anthony] Fauci baby in his crib.”

Navarro, who has no background in science or public health, baselessly claimed the nation’s top infectious disease expert had lied repeatedly about COVID-19 and compared him to Adolf Hitler in the interview on Bannon’s “War Room” Wednesday.

He told Trump’s former White House strategist that he urged Trump twice to fire Fauci, but “I’m like ... the economics guy,” and the president had “all this stuff going on,” Navarro recounted.

Meanwhile, he said, “coward” Mulvaney and the White House press office were “quivering in their knees at the thought they might take any blowback if Fauci got fired.”

Navarro said he told Mulvaney: “This is like Churchill with Hitler — strangle that Fauci baby in his crib.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1463892878581714945

more...

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/peter-navarro-steve-bannon-anthony-fauci-strangled-covid_n_61a03f59e4b0f398af10d110

November 26, 2021

Eric Trump Again Lays Claim to 'The Dumb One' By Threatening to Sue for Burner Accusation

https://www.politicususa.com/2021/11/25/eric-trump-again-lays-claim-to-the-dumb-one-by-threatening-to-sue-for-burner-accusation.html

Posted on Thu, Nov 25th, 2021 by Jason Miciak
Eric Trump Again Lays Claim to ‘The Dumb One’ By Threatening to Sue for Burner Accusation


Eric Trump is unhappy and because Eric is a Trump, when unhappy, he sues. Because that’s how one finds happiness.

Yesterday, Rolling Stone published the story that shook the nation, one asserting that January 6th rally organizers paid cash for burner phones and used those phones in a particularly specific manner:



Eric has always been known as the dumb one, which is a breathtaking achievement and one that shouldn’t be blithely assumed, nor handed out without clear evidence setting oneself apart from the others. But Eric is doing his best to lay claim to the title by threatening to sue Rolling Stone for defamation.

Really dumb idea. The smart move would be to simply release a statement saying; “I have no idea why anyone would want a “burner phone” to talk to me about the rally. I took the calls and would have taken the calls from whatever phone. I did nothing wrong.”

more...

https://www.politicususa.com/2021/11/25/eric-trump-again-lays-claim-to-the-dumb-one-by-threatening-to-sue-for-burner-accusation.html

November 25, 2021

The Rittenhouse Verdict Will Backfire on Republicans

https://prospect.org/the-rittenhouse-verdict-will-backfire-on-republicans/

The American Prospect
Home
The Rittenhouse Verdict Will Backfire on Republicans
by Robert Kuttner
November 24, 2021

snip//

But think a little harder. Most Americans do not feel safer with 17-year-old trigger-happy vigilantes patrolling their communities with AR-15s. If Kyle Rittenhouse is the new face of the Republican Party, that’s a win for Democrats.

Most of the white American public is less racist than Republicans would like to believe. The murder convictions in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery demonstrate that even in the deep south vigilantes are not invariably given impunity. After the police murder of George Floyd, two-thirds of Americans approved of the Movement for Black Lives. That approval has declined some, but has stabilized at around 55 percent. After former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of Floyd’s murder in May 2021, three-quarters of Americans approved of the verdict.

Early polls show that a majority of Americans were uneasy about the Ritttenhouse acquittal. A YouGov poll found that a large majority of Democrats and a plurality of independents felt Rittenhouse was guilty of murder.

A Morning Consult poll found that 71 percent of Republicans but only 43 percent of all those polled approved of the verdict. A plurality also said the verdict gave them less confidence in the criminal justice system.

The strategy of lionizing vigilantes like Rittenhouse may deepen Republican support in hard-core Trump country. It will be a gift to Democrats in suburban swing districts where the 2022 midterms will be decided.

November 25, 2021

Fox News In Disarray As Tucker Carlson Is Wrecking The Network

https://www.politicususa.com/2021/11/24/fox-news-in-disarray-as-tucker-carlson-is-wrecking-the-network.html

Posted on Wed, Nov 24th, 2021 by Jason Easley
Fox News In Disarray As Tucker Carlson Is Wrecking The Network


Fox News staff are divided and tensions are growing as Tucker Carlson’s support for political violence and domestic terrorism is splitting the network.

NPR recently reported:



Tucker Carlson Is The New Glenn Beck

History is repeating itself at Fox News. Back in the first term of the Obama administration, Glenn Beck skyrocketed to fame with his chalkboard and Obama conspiracies. Beck was eventually undone by an advertiser boycott, but the ground that Tucker Carlson is plowing is much more fertile for divisive calls for violence and conspiracy theories.

The views of the far-right have become even more extreme since Beck left cable news. Tucker Carlson isn’t spewing his hate at 5 PM with a chalkboard. Carlson is a primetime figure with a willing audience ready to lap up his lies and justifications or racism and political violence.

Just as they were under Beck, the serious news people are troubled by Carlson, as the impossible co-existence between propaganda and news is bringing a crisis to a boil at Fox News.

November 24, 2021

Boebert Challenges Cawthorn to Sprint

Pathetic. How dense is she really, with Rittenhouse as the prize no less?


https://politicalwire.com/2021/11/24/boebert-challenges-cawthorn-to-sprint/

Boebert Challenges Cawthorn to Sprint
November 24, 2021 at 6:52 am EST By Taegan Goddard

November 24, 2021

Eric Boehlert: GOP violence is the most important political story in America

https://pressrun.media/p/gop-violence-is-the-most-important

GOP violence is the most important political story in America
Ripping at the seams
Eric Boehlert
Nov 22


First, some good news.

The New York Times recently ran an important piece about the rising specter of violence within mainstream Republican Party circles. The article was noteworthy not only because it spotlighted the frightening instances of violent rhetoric and actions the conservative movement is eagerly unleashing in America, but because the Times used clear and concise language to tell the story.

Temporarily shedding the lazy Both Sides blanket that so many newsrooms use when forced to acknowledge how reckless today’s GOP has become, the Times piece didn’t waste time trying to camouflage the trend. “From congressional offices to community meeting rooms, threats of violence are becoming commonplace among a significant segment of the Republican Party,” the daily reported unequivocally. “The most animated Republican voters increasingly see themselves as participants in a struggle, if not a kind of holy war, to preserve their idea of American culture and their place in society.”

That’s the good news — some mainstream media outlets are using succinct language while addressing the most important political story in America today. Honestly, it’s one of the most crucial unfolding stories in the country’s history as the Trump-led GOP fuels an unprecedented, multi-pronged assault on U.S. democracy and gleefully flashes the threat of overt violence in the process.

more...

https://pressrun.media/p/gop-violence-is-the-most-important

November 24, 2021

Rude One: Be Thankful for the Health Care Workers Not Being Driven From Their Jobs By Anti-Vaxx Moro

https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2021/11/be-thankful-for-health-care-workers-not.html

The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
11/23/2021
Be Thankful for the Health Care Workers Not Being Driven From Their Jobs By Anti-Vaxx Morons


Last year, the country was filthy with tributes to health care workers - doctors, nurses, hospital staff - who had to deal with the coronavirus-driven near apocalypse of our medical system. The number of patients was overwhelming, a tsunami of death and suffering that tested the limits of available equipment and the strength and nerve of those who had signed up for jobs where they tried to save lives and ease suffering. And, oh, how we appreciated it. Goddamn, how we put out signs and clanged pots and cheered and applauded. We knew we owed them for their sacrifices, so clearly visible in videos and photos, for their own pain and isolation from their loved ones.

Then given a chance to demonstrate how much we cared about them, being asked to do the absolute least to give them some relief, to get vaccinated and wear a mask, millions of us said, "Nah, fuck that. I'm batshit insane and I wanna party." So we have had spike after spike of Covid cases. It would have been more honest for many people to have put out signs that read "Suck it, Doc!" and to have chanted, "Fuck you, medi-bitches!"

As we are seeing our 5th (really?) surge in Covid cases, with hospitalizations rising and at least 1000 deaths a day that we have just weirdly decided is fine, we are getting ready to put the exhausted health care workers through another trip to the hellscape of Covid-overcrowding in the ICUs. Michigan, for instance, is seeing a surge that is coming close to the highest number of hospitalizations it's seen. The state just recorded the highest weekly caseload since the start of the pandemic.

snip//

So. on Thursday, be thankful for the medical workers, the nurses, the aides, the doctors, the staff that cleans the rooms and makes the food, the techs, and more, and maybe offer a toast to them for keeping the country from falling into a complete fucktastrophe over the last 19 months or so. And if anyone sitting around your table isn't vaccinated, ask if they give even a single shit about fact that they are ruining the country's already-unstable health care system, that they are hurting the helpers. Chances are they won't. But they should know what's going to be their fault.

Oh, and if that unvaccinated person happens to be a health care worker? Just stare at them like they are fucking insane. Because they are.

November 23, 2021

Kimberly Guilfoyle's January 6 Role Comes Under the Microscope

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/11/kimberly-guilfoyle-january-6

Trumpworld
Kimberly Guilfoyle’s January 6 Role Comes Under the Microscope
The former Fox News star and Trump 2020 adviser reportedly bragged about raising millions for the rally before the riot—a claim her lawyer disputes—as others tied to events that day find themselves in Congress’s crosshairs.
By Caleb Ecarma
November 23, 2021


In the wake of Steve Bannon’s indictment for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena related to the House investigation into the January 6 riot, a number of Trumpworld celebrities have now found themselves in the committee’s crosshairs. On Monday, the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack issued subpoenas to five individuals allied with Donald Trump, all of whom reportedly took part in or had knowledge of the planning, funding, or orchestrating of the “Stop the Steal” rallies. Those subpoenaed include GOP operative Roger Stone, far-right commentator Alex Jones, Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich, and a pair of pro-Trump organizers, Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lawrence, responsible for amassing hundreds of thousands of members on a “Stop the Steal” Facebook group.

In a Monday statement, Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chairs the select committee, wrote that “the select committee is seeking information about the rallies and subsequent march to the Capitol that escalated into a violent mob attacking the Capitol and threatening our democracy. We need to know who organized, planned, paid for, and received funds related to those events, as well as what communications organizers had with officials in the White House and Congress.”

Budowich, whose current title is communications director for Trump’s Save America PAC, previously worked alongside Donald Trump Jr. and former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle while serving as a senior adviser for the Trump 2020 campaign. In the committee’s subpoena announcement, Budowich is accused of reportedly soliciting “a 501(c)(4) organization to conduct a social media and radio advertising campaign encouraging attendance at the January 6 Ellipse rally and advancing unsupported claims about the result of the election.” It appears that Budowich’s connection to Guilfoyle may be what piqued the interest of the January 6 committee, given that she claimed to have raised $3 million for the January 6 rally that Trump spoke at in the hours leading up to the Capitol riot.

According to a ProPublica report, Guilfoyle, who is dating Trump Jr. and worked as a fundraiser for the Trump Victory committee, made the claim while bragging two days before January 6 that she “raised so much money for this” in a series of text messages. “Literally one of my donors Julie at 3 million,” wrote Guilfoyle in reference to GOP mega-donor Julie Jenkins Fancelli. In a statement to ProPublica, Guilfoyle’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, claimed that his client’s text messages “did not relate to the ‘Save America’ ​rally” and were “inaccurate” and “taken out of context.” As for Guilfoyle’s own actions on January 6, she did passionately address the crowd that gathered to hear Trump and Trump Jr. speak. “We will continue to stand for President Trump,” she said. “We will not allow the liberals and the Democrats to steal our dream or steal our elections.

In a letter to Jones sent in tandem with his subpoena, the select committee highlighted past comments in which the Infowars host admitted to working with January 6 rally organizers by “facilitating a donor, now known to be Julie Fancelli, to provide what [he] characterized as ‘eighty percent’ of the [rally’s] funding.” The committee also stated that while Jones did ask rally-goers “not to be violent,” he was still responsible for leading “a march to the Capitol, where President Trump would meet the group.” Meanwhile, Stone, a self-described “dirty trickster,” responded to the subpoena news by insisting that he “had no advance knowledge of the events that took place at the Capitol on that day.” Stone reportedly promoted his planned appearances at the D.C. rallies held on January 5 and 6—while also being invited to lead “a march to the Capitol,” according to the committee––and asked followers to donate to the stopthesteal.org website to help pay for security costs.