Top 10 Conservative Idiots #7-17: Butt Dialing For Jesus Edition

[Top 10 Idiots]

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #7-17: Butt Dialing For Jesus Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! What’s up Oregon State? How you guys doing? You doing fucking good? Great! Yeah we had that little SNAFU in the scheduling last week which is why we got everyone goofed up. And the people responsible for that error have been sacked. Game 7 tonight guys. And we will get to Trump getting booed at Game 5 in a bit. Happy Halloween everybody!!! Tomorrow is officially the day known as All Hallows Eve. So of course we've decorated the set here with some festive Halloween flare. And my costume - I am going as Rudy Giuliani dressed as Dracula, because with a pair of fangs, he really could pass for Nosfeartu! Of course you know I always love to check and see what the ladies are going to be wearing for Halloween this year since ladies can go as the sexy whatever. For instance there's the sexy Pennywise costume. Then there's the sexy White Claw costume. I would veto this one, maybe don't go as booze, even if it is something trendy right now. Or you could go as sexy Black Mirror, because nothing screams "sexy" more than a blood and guts horror show! And speaking of horror, did you see season 3 of Stranger Things? Well you can go as sexy Scoops Ahoy from the ice cream parlor. Or how about the sexy Beyond Burger? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that food is not sexy. And no, I'm not going to say that there's absolutely no way that you can make Baby Shark sexy. Stop it. There was also sexy Mr. Rodgers and I'm kind of conflicted on this one. On one had it is very sexy and the model is hot. But on the other hand, it's Mr. Rodgers! Though my personal favorites are the sexy College Admissions Scandal costume - yeah nothing is hotter than bribing your way into a university! Or the sexy Popeye's Chicken Sandwich costume, which, just like the actual Popeye's Chicken Sandwich, is sold out everywhere. Will it cause a riot? Probably. OK that’s enough of the intro. We have a lot of idiocy to get to, but first John Oliver is back and he delves into Trump’s horrifying decision to pull out of Syria.

We live in an era of peak television but really folks, real life is that much crazier! In the first slot this week we’re going to do one of our favorite segments and that is People Who Somehow Got Elected, and this week we’re adding Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (1) – whew, seriously Florida Man is a Congressional representative! In the second slot this week we’re still examining the fallout from the impeachment inquiry on Capitol Hill and the 47 republicans who decided to make complete asses of themselves. In the third slot this week is of course the guy who we currently call president Donald J. Trump (3) and he made a rare public appearance out in the wild people! Oh yeah he got booed and mocked relentlessly for it, so go figure! Taking the fourth slot this week is Rudy Giuliani (4). Yeah we have to talk about how he famously butt-dialed an MSNBC reporter and well real life is stranger than fiction folks! Taking the 5th slot this week is our weekly investigative piece Top 10 Investigates (5). While tech companies normally have a love – hate relationship with immigration, why is Amazon working with Trump’s I.C.E.? We will go beyond the headlines and reveal the extremely terrifying truth! In the sixth slot is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit”, and it’s finally here! The new Kanye West album “Jesus Is King” has landed, and our resident pastor is not impressed, and he will match Kanye’s music with an actual gospel choir! In slot #7 this week is an all new “Beating A Dead Horse” (7) and should you be allowed to enjoy superhero movies? A beef is brewing between old school directors like Martin Scorsese and new school directors like Marvel’s Jon Favreau. We will take sides and let you draw your own conclusions! In the #8 slot this week is Harvey Weinstein (8) and what the hell was he doing at a showcase for young actresses in New York? Go away Harvey! In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot this week is a brand new People Are Dumb (9) because of course they are! Finally this week in our 2020 voters’ guide Keeping Up With The Candidates, we are going to be taking a look at one of the most controversial policy issues of the campaign going forward and that is guns. And one candidate in particular, Beto O’Rourke, has taken the hardest stance on guns with his gun buyback program. But what is it? We will explain so you can explain it to your NRA loving relatives. Plus we’ve got some live music from the great Korn! Buy their new album “The Nothing” or you are no friend of this program! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]People Who Somehow Got Elected: Matt Gaetz
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Politicians at the state and local levels who are so toxic, you wonder how they’re able to get away with the things they get away with. This is:



This week: Florida representative Matt Gaetz. You might remember Rep. Gaetz from his ridiculous stunt last week where he lead 47 Congressional representatives to the basement of Capitol Hill where they just stood there and ate pizza until they were kicked out. But there’s more to Rep. Gaetz than that. He’s a man who uses lots of drama and hyperbole to prove his points, and is a staunch supporter of the Trump train. In fact here’s how toxic Matt Gaetz is – he actually attempted to defend white masculinity by quoting Lady Gaga. Wait, we thought white male conservatives hated Lady Gaga? We are getting mixed signals here.

Rep. Matt Gaetz appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight Thursday evening to discuss identity, politics and, well, identity politics.

At issue? Media and political figures of oversimplified labeling Republican congress members who stormed Congressional hearings held in a secure SCIF as “white males.” Host Tucker Carlson introduced the segment with a montage of CNN’s Bianna Golydraga and Keith Boykin and MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch all noting the racial homogeneity.

But it was Rep. Jackie Speier’s similar comment on Morning Joe that the segment was truly pegged to, which Gaetz addressed in what became a viral exchange with MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson. Speiers called the GOP’s intrusion “a high school prank by a bunch of 50-year-old white men,” to which Gaetz took issue.

“Did she say we were a bunch of white men?” Gaetz asked. “What does the fact that we are white men have to do with our desire to represent the millions of constituents we serve?”

It was this exchange that Gaetz explained to Carlson, saying “I was really taken aback at the way that NBC News would choose to have a discussion about impeachment or transparency or Syria would be initially to try to put me on defense.”
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/flabbergasted-rep-matt-gaetz-defends-white-male-outrage-by-quoting-lady-gaga/

Just a little? It seems Rep. Gaetz has it in for identity politics, like a lot of people who have gone hardcore on the Trump train. But this might be one of the most ridiculous claims that he’s made yet – he claimed that he’s just like the leader of the Spartans in that movie “300”. Yes, he’s leading an army of deranged white men against some kind of… threat. What that is, we’re unclear of.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was full of himself after leading a group of Republicans to storm a secure conference room and hold hostage the Trump impeachment inquiry on Thursday.

Said Gaetz to TMZ: “We were like the 300s, standing in the breach to try to stop the radical left from storming over our democracy.”

Asked if Trump told him to do it, Gaetz replied, “No, I haven’t chatted with the president about it, though I suspect he might have a view he might want to share after today. … I love the president so much I may never love another president.”

Meanwhile, Seth Meyers had some choice words about Gaetz’s spectacle on Late Night.

Said Meyers: “I haven’t seen a group of white guys so angry since they found out their tickets to Don Henley are obstructed view. Looks like a protest outside a pharmacy that ran out of Viagra. They shouldn’t be at the Capital; they should be standing at a counter at McDonald’s demanding to see the manager.”
https://www.towleroad.com/2019/10/matt-gaetz-300/

Yes, what are they fighting, exactly? They already have two of the three major branches of government and controlled a third, up until last year when they didn’t. So what kind of war are they fighting? One where they don’t have to abide by this weird new thing called “rule of law”? Well when it comes to impeachment, people like Rep. Gaetz won’t back down in their quest to get absolute power, and it’s really starting to show what their true colors are.

Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz is demanding an end to the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.

The conservative Florida lawmaker told a crowd of dozens outside of Democratic U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala’s Miami-area office on Friday that Republicans will “fight for Donald Trump” and do all that they can to prevent impeachment.

Gaetz criticized Shalala, calling her and several other Florida House Democrats who have supported moving forward with the inquiry hypocritical. He says they’re so caught up in investigations and impeachment that they’ve forgotten about their constituents.

The showing is part of a multi-million-dollar Republican National Committee-sponsored campaign designed to rally public support against the possible impeachment of the president.

Shalala’s staffers say the congresswoman wasn’t at her office at the time of rally.
https://miami.cbslocal.com/2019/10/11/florida-congressman-matt-gaetz-demands-end-impeachment-inquiry/

Well, they were given nothing all right. In fact, you want to know what this little stunt cost Rep. Gaetz besides his integrity? Well his district, which includes the Florida city of Pensacola, is not exactly what one would call “thrilled” by this little move.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was hit with a milkshake following a town hall event in Pensacola, Florida on Saturday. A video of the event appeared on Twitter, although it's unclear whether or not the drink actually hit the Congressman.

According to The Hill, 35-year-old Amanda Kondrat'yev was detained and no further incidents took place. It's interesting to note that Kondrat'yev ran for Gaetz's seat back in 2016.

"All people are invited to participate in our #OpenGaetz town hall events regardless of viewpoint. If anyone assaults anyone else, they can expect to be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law to ensure the security of all law-abiding participants. We continue to express our deep gratitude to the brave law enforcement officials who always keep our events and our community safe," his office said in a statement.

The event comes after Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage had a similar attack take place last week. "Milkshaking" is the new form of protest in Britain against "right wing" lawmakers. And it has apparently jumped the pond.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2019/06/02/rep-matt-gaetz-gets-milkshaked-following-town-hall-event-n2547267

That’s right – he got hit with a milkshake when he returned to his hometown. Never mind that he’s actually pressing charges for this since he brought it on himself. That’s Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, yet another toxic politician who we will add to the growing list of:




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[font size="8"]Congressional Republicans
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You know if there’s anyone who we need to build a wall around, it’s the 47 Congressional Republicans who thought it was a good idea to storm Capitol Hill and record the bipartisan Congressional impeachment inquiry against Trump. Yes, conservatives are so steeped in outrage and anger that when they read a sentence like that, they miss important keywords. You know, like “bipartisan” and “inquiry” – which is exactly what it is. Guys, there were people inside your own party at the hearing and it was perfectly within their right to be there! But you on the other hand, you were definitely not in your legal right to be there.

On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers committed a major breach of security guidelines when they carried cell phones as they tried to force their way into a secure room where a closed-door impeachment hearing with a Defense Department official was taking place.

At least one House member, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, got inside the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) in the basement of the House of Representatives. Despite strict rules barring all electronics inside such closed-off areas, Gaetz openly tweeted: "BREAKING: I led over 30 of my colleagues into the SCIF where Adam Schiff is holding secret impeachment depositions. Still inside—more details to come."

After the tweet came under criticism, Gaetz later tweeted “sent by staff.” It remained unclear how the representative was able to communicate with his members of his staff.

Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina also issued a tweet that said he was "in the SCIF." A picture published by The New York Times showed a man identified as a House Republican holding up his phone as if taking pictures or video as he entered the secure room. A sign on the door of the room said, "Cameras and other recording devices prohibited without proper authorization." The room has lockers outside the doors where people are required to store electronics before entering.

Lawyers said bringing phones into the secure area was a potential felony. Security officials, meanwhile, stressed how damaging the move could be to national security. The SCIF is designed to prevent electronic eavesdropping so members of Congress can receive sensitive information that is often classified. Often, the materials in the room reveal sensitive operations or show how intelligence officers collect information on adversaries. SCIFs are carefully controlled to prevent electronic signals or electronic devices from leaving the rooms. Chief among these restrictions is no unauthorized electronic devices.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/10/republicans-storm-ultra-secure-scif-some-with-cellphones-blazing/

Seriously where’s a Yondr pouch when you need one? I mean come on we can’t take our cell phones into a Jack White concert but these idiots are taking theirs into an area where it clearly says “no cell phones allowed”? And you can’t say “reasons” as the answer. And this might be one of the stupidest political stunts in modern history. And no I’m not taking into account that time George Bush played guitar for Hurricane Katrina victims, either. Yeah that’s a thing that happened. But just how much did they put our security at risk?

It should go without saying: Don’t round up a bunch of your buddies and jostle your way into a highly secured government facility uninvited. But that's exactly what a group of Republican congressmen proudly did Wednesday morning.

“BREAKING,” representative Matt Gaetz (R–Florida) tweeted at 11:32 am, “I led over 30 of my colleagues into the SCIF where Adam Schiff is holding secret impeachment depositions.” Schiff is the head of the House Intelligence Committee, who has led the recent inquiry into President Trump’s Ukraine imbroglio. (Deputy assistant secretary of defense Laura Cooper was scheduled to give a deposition this morning.) But while Gaetz and his cohorts may have fancied themselves Parisians storming the Bastille of cloak-and-dagger bureaucracy, all they’ve really accomplished is the violation of some extremely basic tenets of national security.

Let’s start with the SCIF (pronounced skiff), since it’s an unfamiliar acronym for many. It stands for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. These are rooms that are outfitted to be effectively spyproof by conforming to a stringent list of security standards. There’s a SCIF at Mar-a-Lago, for instance, kitted out to accommodate briefings for Trump during his frequent southerly sojourns. Barack Obama traveled with a SCIF tent during his presidency that could be set up on short notice inside, say, a hotel room.

The requirements of a SCIF will also vary depending on its specific use case; whether sensitive materials will be stored there or simply discussed, for instance, makes a difference. But some standards apply universally, as you can see in these hefty guidelines produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. They need radio frequency shielding, to prevent those signals going in or out. Their walls should be stuffed with sound-attenuation material and topped off with acoustic sealant. And any electronics inside a SCIF need to conform to the NSA’s TEMPEST specification, which details how to keep them safe from surveillance. This is just a sampling! But you get it by now. It’s a lot.
https://www.wired.com/story/republicans-storm-scif-national-security-nightmare/

Except you clearly don’t know the rules! You tried to spy on one of the few ultra secure spy proof rooms in the entire world! Let’s put it this way – it would be like going to a movie theater and intentionally paying money to see The Angry Birds Movie 2, and then using your cell phone to actually play Angry Birds, even though there’s signs everywhere telling you not to use your phone! Which is kind of ironic when you’re watching a movie that’s based on a cell phone game. Stay on target, stay on target! Back to the topic at hand, It’s made even worse when lawmakers shared audio of phone calls that they made. I mean really they made phone calls and ate pizza.

Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) shared audio of a phone call he made from inside a secure room at the Capitol where Democrats were attempting to interview a witness as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

The interview was delayed for hours after a group of conservative Republican lawmakers, including Mooney, stormed into the room to protest what they say has been an unfair impeachment process.

The protest took place inside what's known as a SCIF — an acronym for sensitive compartmented information facility. Such rooms are used when secure, nationally sensitive information is to be shared or discussed.

During his call from the SCIF, the West Virginia lawmaker said he and other Republicans stormed the closed-door hearing because House Democrats “refuse to have a hearing in a transparent way for the people of West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District can be aware of what’s going on.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/467168-gop-lawmaker-shares-audio-of-phone-call-he-made-from-highly-classified-scif

By the way let’s examine the fact that they just sat around and eat pizza for a minute. Does anyone else see the irony in this? They are sitting in a basement eating pizza, when they accused the democrats of running a sex ring inside a pizza parlor! You really can’t make this shit up. It’s like the end credits scene of the Avengers when they awkwardly sit around at a diner eating shawarma.

Today, a bunch of attention-starved GOP congressman crashed a closed impeachment deposition like the cast of Rent descending upon the Life Café after Maureen's show, except in this production of Rent everyone is irredeemable and annoying and the American people are the waiter who sings "No, please, no. Not tonight; can't have a scene."

With all the unearned confidence and mustache-twirling villainy of Sue Sylvester breaking up a Glee Club rehearsal right before Mercedes gives us life with a riff, a phalanx of representatives stormed a secure room in the Capitol known as the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or um, SCIF, where three committees were about to hear testimony from Laura Cooper, an official overseeing U.S. policy regarding Ukraine. Gaetz frequently makes headlines by embarrassing himself, like he did recently when he said the impeachment proceedings were a kangaroo court and that Rep. Adam Schiff, who is chair of the House Intelligence Committee, is Captain Kangaroo, a fictional figure who would like very much to be left out of this narrative. I suppose you could summarize Gaetz's actions today as a "Tiff with Schiff in the SCIF" and that bit of rhyming is pretty much the only redeeming aspect of today's rift.

It's important to note that there are Republican representatives who sit on the committees involved with the impeachment depositions; the petulant politicians who crash the meeting today just aren't among them. Alexa, play "Uninvited" by Alanis Morissette. So, what Gaetz and the rest are trying to frame as some noble justice action is, in actuality, about as serious and as effective as the time Laura Loomer chained herself to the door of Twitter because they suspended her account. A bunch of men in suits figuratively yelling "unblock me, you cowards" at a closed door is not exactly the stuff of Profiles in Courage, is all I'm saying.
https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a29565841/matt-gaetz-gop-impeachment-sit-in/

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[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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So this happened:

Ha ha!!! We’ll get to Trump being booed at the World Series in a minute. But really he has not been having what one would call a banner week. The fallout from his horrifying decision to pull out of Syria has been backfiring on him hard. Then his own party makes complete asses of themselves at the closed door impeachment hearing. Then he gets booed at the World Series. But then we have to talk about his proposed wall. We haven’t talked about the wall for a while. But apparently Trump forgot that at least one border state exists and that is the state of New Mexico. Yes, they could seriously give New Mexico back to Mexico, and his fans wouldn’t care!

President Donald Trump said, “We’re building a wall in Colorado” when talking about border wall progress on Wednesday afternoon. Trump was speaking in Pittsburgh at the Shale Insight Conference when he made the comments.

“And we’re building a wall on the border of New Mexico and we’re building a wall in Colorado, we’re building a beautiful wall, a big one that really works that you can’t get over, you can’t get under and we’re building a wall in Texas. We’re not building a wall in Kansas but they get the benefit of the walls we just mentioned,” said Trump.

Work crews in South Texas are laying steel along the U.S.-Mexico border in preparation for the installation of new segments of border wall.

There are no reports of plans to build the border wall in Colorado. Gov. Jared Polis clapped back on Twitter, “Well, this is awkward… Colorado doesn’t border Mexico. Good thing Colorado now offers free full day kindergarten so our kids can learn basic geography.”

Rep. Diana DeGette responded on Twitter asking if New Mexico was going to pay for it.

Sen. Michael Bennet also responded on Twitter.
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/10/24/president-trump-border-wall-colorado-building/

Well it’s good to see that Trump is putting George Carlin’s plan of state prison farms into action, and it’s about damn time! I want to move to Colorado if that happens! At least then I won’t have to pay $14 for a beer. But alas, like any of the halfway decent ideas that Trump has had, this is surprisingly not a thing and he was “just joking”. Really? When has Trump ever joked about anything?

Geography has never been Donald Trump’s best subject. For example, the president attended a United Nations luncheon with African leaders a couple of years ago, at which he praised the health care system in Nambia. There is no such country.

A year later, the Republican told his foreign policy advisers that he knew Nepal and Bhutan were parts of India, despite the fact that neither is part of India. Trump has also reportedly struggled to understand different time zones.

But during remarks at a shale-energy conference in Pittsburgh yesterday, Trump’s difficulties with geography came into sharper focus.

“[W]e’re building a wall on the border of New Mexico, and we’re building a wall in Colorado. We’re building a beautiful wall, a big one that really works, that you can’t get over, you can’t get under. And we’re building a wall in Texas. And we’re not building a wall in Kansas, but they get the benefit of the walls that we just mentioned.”

There were a handful of problems with this, including the fact that Trump really isn’t making much progress when it comes to new border-barrier construction. The idea that people “can’t get over” the fences may not be altogether true, either.

But the funny part, of course, was the president’s assertion that he’s “building a wall in Colorado,” which is not a border state. (The fact that Trump’s audience cheered this comment was probably my favorite part of the story.) Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) had a little fun at the Republican’s expense, taking a Sharpie to a map of the United States to make Trump’s falsehood true.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-tries-and-fails-explain-his-colorado-border-wall-comments

Except when you try to explain actual geography to Trump… ah, who am I kidding? There’s no one anywhere that will properly explain geography to Trump, they will just leave him to his own devices and that’s where it gets worse! But switching gears, we have to talk about his appearance at the World Series this week. Yes, the Astros trounced the Nationals. But that’s not before Trump got the welcoming that he very much deserved.

President Trump's low-profile appearance Sunday night at Game 5 of the World Series drew loud boos and jeers when he was introduced to the crowd. Wearing a dark suit and a tie, Mr. Trump arrived at Nationals Park just before the first pitch of the Houston Astros-Washington Nationals matchup.

Hours earlier, he had announced that U.S. forces had assaulted the hiding place of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in the raid in northeast Syria. At the same time, a divisive impeachment inquiry into the president is underway in Congress.

Mr. Trump and first lady Melania Trump entered a lower-tier box to the left of home plate as the game was beginning. At that point, his presence hadn't yet been formally announced, but baseball fans in the section just below his suite turned to look toward the box as he arrived. Some waved at the president as he smiled and gave a thumbs-up.

At the end of the third inning, the president stood and waved to the crowd, and ballpark video screens carried a salute to U.S. service members that drew cheers throughout the stadium. When the video on the Jumbotron cut to the president and his entourage — which included a number of GOP lawmakers — and the loudspeakers announced the Trumps, cheers abruptly turned into a torrent of boos and heckling from what sounded like a majority of the crowd. Chants of "Lock him up!" broke out in some sections, including one below where the president was sitting.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-booed-world-series-lock-him-up-chant-break-out-during-game-5-washington-nationals-stadium-pa/

Oh that felt good! Can we play the Ha Ha sound effect again? Oh man that was sweet. I really want someone to do that the next time Trump decides that he needs to make a public appearance outside of his MAGA hate rallies! Well that’s what happens when you don’t screen crowds before you make an appearance. Did you not read your own Art Of The Deal?

If President Donald Trump is impeached, convicted, and removed from office, or defeated in next year’s election, the political backdrop of his downfall is unlikely to be better dramatized than it was last night during Game 5 of the World Series.

Trump was in the stands with his wife, Melania, having announced that very morning that U.S. Special Forces had killed the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a daring raid. It wouldn’t have shocked me if that inspired a warm reception from the crowd. Remember when Osama bin Laden’s killing was announced? I was in Austin, Texas, where people were whooping and cheering in bars. President Barack Obama could have drawn applause anywhere in the United States that night.

And the crowd at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., was applauding last night when the big screen in right-center field showed uniformed U.S. military personnel.

But when the image changed to Donald and Melania in the stands, there was a sudden shift. The crowd booed. Loudly. Then fans in some sections of the stadium began to chant “Lock him up,” repurposing the rallying cry that Trump supporters have directed at Hillary Clinton since the 2016 presidential campaign.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/president-trumps-world-series-error/600901/

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[font size="8"]Rudy Giuliani
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Just when you think real life can’t get any crazier, there is Rudy Giuliani. I mean when I saw this story break last week I didn’t know whether to laugh at the sheer stupidity or bang my head against the wall, or do both. Here’s my whole thing – I’m not a New Yorker but I have always viewed Giuliani as a creepy weirdo. But it seems like he’s an off the rails batshit crazy unhinged creepy weirdo in the dumpster fire that is the Donald J. Trump administration. But this is one of those things that you really just can’t make up no matter how hard you try. Like I don’t think even the best SNL writers could come up with a scenario where the president’s lawyer butt dials a reporter for a rival network and can be heard bragging about the need to trash their political opponents. Not one.

Late in the night Oct. 16, Rudy Giuliani made a phone call to this reporter.

The fact that Giuliani was reaching out wasn't remarkable. He and the reporter had spoken earlier that evening for a story about his ties to a fringe Iranian opposition group.

But this call, it would soon become clear, wasn't a typical case of a source following up with a reporter.

The call came in at 11:07 p.m. and went to voicemail; the reporter was asleep.

The next morning, a message exactly three minutes long was sitting in the reporter's voicemail. In the recording, the words tumbling out of Giuliani's mouth were not directed at the reporter. He was speaking to someone else, someone in the same room..
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/rudy-giuliani-butt-dials-nbc-reporter-heard-discussing-need-cash-n1071901

OK I have many questions about this. I mean who butt dials anymore? Doesn’t Giuliani have a passcode and face lock on his phone? Or does he pull a Kanye and put the lock code on his phone as 123456 (see: Idiots #5-16 )? Yeah it’s probably the latter especially since his boss, @realDonaldTrump, tweeted this:

Link to tweet

Yeah no they clearly don’t give a shit about cyber security. Or even keeping up with current technology, for that matter. But the butt dialing isn’t the worst thing to happen to Trump’s lawyer this week.

Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, can be questioned under oath in the coming weeks about financial transfers he made to Republican political campaigns, a federal judge in Florida ordered Tuesday.

The court order comes as questions swirl around Parnas' close ties to Giuliani, efforts to insert himself into Ukrainian interests and Republican politics, and as a criminal proceeding against him continues in New York. The testimony he must provide in Florida could shed new light on the scope of his payments to American campaigns and other Trump-connected entities, as well as other financial dealings.

His defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The development comes as part of a civil court proceeding and is separate from the criminal charges in New York.

Parnas is accused in a New York federal court of conspiracy and campaign finance-related violations and has pleaded not guilty to his criminal charges. The Manhattan federal prosecutors continue to consider new charges related to him, though the parameters of their investigation are unknown.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/29/politics/lev-parnas-republican-rudy-giuliani/index.html

Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. Wait. Wait. If I’m extrapolating this correctly, this means that Giuliani can be indicted by Congress for any illegal money transfers he might be responsible for that might be directly related to Trump? Then you don’t want to get caught on phone begging for cash, that will almost certainly be a one way ticket to indict town.

Rudy Giuliani’s cell phone accidentally called an NBC News reporter on October 16, leaving a voicemail in which he was clearly heard discussing the kingdom of Bahrain and saying, “The problem is we need some money.”

The call came in at 11:07 p.m. while reporter Rich Schapiro was asleep. In the audio, portions of which were published by NBC News on Friday, Giuliani can be heard saying “Charles would have a hard time with a fraud case, because he didn’t do any due diligence.” It’s unclear who Charles is.

Giuliani can also be heard telling an unidentified person “Tomorrow I gotta get you to get on Bahrain,” then telling the person they need to contact another person named Robert because “the problem is we need some money. We need a few hundred thousand.”

Also Read: Joe Biden Campaign to TV Networks: Stop Booking Rudy Giuliani

The other person in the conversation was largely inaudible, though he does say “if you want options, I got options, I got options,” to which Giuliani replies “yeah give me options, yeah.”

It wasn’t even the first time the former New York City mayor accidentally called Schapiro and left a voicemail. The previous butt-dial and subsequent voicemail happened on Sept. 28 at 3:37 p.m. In that message, Giuliani railed against the Biden family, accusing former vice president Joe Biden of “trading in on his public office since he was a senator” and son Hunter Biden of trying to get high-profile jobs because of his father’s position.
https://ca.style.yahoo.com/rudy-giuliani-butt-dials-nbc-235222510.html

To be fair, let’s say that Rudy is butt-dialing for Jesus. That’s about the best way I can put this ridiculous stunt. Because just about anything sounds better when you add “For Jesus” at the end of it. Taking a shit, for Jesus! Hit and run for Jesus! Stealing a million dollars, for Jesus! Murder, for Jesus! OK that escalated quickly! But let’s not overlook the severity of the situation here – butt dials can cost you deeply! That should be the take away for this week!

The New York Times’ Annie Karni laughed at “walking conflict” Rudy Giuliani, calling it “farcical” that’s he back in the news because he butt-dialed a reporter for NBC News.

Karni was appearing on MSNBC’s Up Saturday morning, where moderator David Gura asked her “Rudy Giuliani is still proclaimed by this president to be his personal attorney. How should we view that? How should we listen to that tape in light of the role he’s playing in this administration today?” after playing audio of Giuliani talking about needing money.

Karni said it should be viewed with “great humor.”

“Even when Giuliani is sidelined from television and not supposed to be speaking for the president and a reporter doesn’t pick up the phone because he’s sleeping, you still get a three minute voicemail from Giuliani talking about how he needs money. It’s almost farcical,” she said.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/new-york-times-annie-karni-chuckles-at-rudy-giuliani-butt-dialing-reporter-its-almost-farcical/

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[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Amazon Vs ICE
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It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines. This is Top 10 Investigates!

This week, an unprecedented boycott took place when nearly 700 musicians and bands decided to boycott Amazon over their decision to work with I.C.E. and Homeland Security. Technology companies have had a love – hate relationship with immigration. But Amazon has long had a process of hiring workers not from the USA. And some feel that working with I.C.E. sends the wrong message – and it does especially with what the Trump administration has been doing with I.C.E. since he was inaugurated in 2017. Don’t have time to get into that, so Google it. But what was the spark that started the boycott against the world’s largest tech company? It was quite simply a powder keg that finally exploded.

More than 400 artists pledged to boycott Amazon events and partnerships unless the company cuts ties with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The open letter, titled “No Music for ICE” was published late Wednesday by the group Fight for the Future.

“We will not allow Amazon to exploit our creativity to promote its brand while it enables attacks on immigrants, communities of color, workers, and local economies. We call on all artists who believe in basic rights and human dignity to join us,” they write.

The 475 artists call on Amazon to “terminate existing contracts with military, law enforcement, and government agencies,” including ICE, Customs and Border Protection and the Office of Refugee Resettlement, that the musicians said “commit human rights abuses.”

They also call on Amazon to “reject future engagements” with the “aforementioned bad actors.”

The musicians also urge Amazon to stop providing cloud services and other tools to organizations "that power the US government’s deportation machine.”
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/467397-hundreds-of-artists-pledge-to-boycott-amazon-in-no-music-for

Yes, boycotting the entire network is almost always the answer! Because that has worked out so well in the past right? Right. In fact the list keeps growing by the day, and it started as a response to backlash from Amazon’s corporate sponsored Intersect Music Festival. Like we need another festival to add to the 3,000 that are held every year. The decision to boycott started with Amazon’s partnership with a controversial data services provider.

Several artists added additional words of support. “My music peers’ collective outrage at the announcement of Amazon’s Intersect festival made several of us realize how desperately we need to formalize our concerns,” wrote Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz.

“The powers that be at Amazon have been relentless in their pursuit to make this company indispensable to the ways many of us live—and even with an understanding of Amazon’s complicity and centrality in reinforcing various structures of oppression, it often may feel too difficult to evade their reach,” wrote Ithaca rapper Sammus. “This is one way that we can and must push back. We have to draw lines and this is one I am choosing to draw because nobody should ever have to live under the kind terrorism that ICE has inflicted upon countless immigrant communities.”

Last week, the Black Madonna was released from her contract to perform at Intersect after expressing outrage at the company’s involvement. She claimed that Amazon was not listed on any of the festival’s initial offers or paperwork that she received. Intersect’s lineup includes Foo Fighters, Beck, Kacey Musgraves, Anderson .Paak, Spoon, Flying Lotus, JPEGMAFIA, Jamie xx, and more.

Amazon has been criticized—including by its own employees—for its work with the data company Palantir, which runs its software on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and has more than $150 million in contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). AWS also hosts the Department of Homeland Security’s vast database of biometric and biographic data collected by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Secret Service. Last year, The Verge reported that as of 2017, AWS controlled 40 percent of the cloud services market.
https://pitchfork.com/news/more-than-150-musicians-boycott-amazon-festivals-over-ice-contracts/

Yes it would probably be best if your boycott started at the top. By the way you know that we live in a culture now where if you don’t like something, the first thing that you do is cancel it. Call for someone to be fired. Call the show off. And many other things that could be handled as a result of someone doing something that you don’t like. In fact Amazon isn’t the only one who has been a victim of our newfound cancel culture. Take a look at what happened when a Texas taco truck was caught serving ICE workers.

A local taco truck has found itself stuck in the middle of an incendiary culture war that has resulted in an apology, an apology for the apology, and between ongoing social media criticism and a loss of business, no clear end in sight.

The ordeal began on October 23, when Lloyd Taco, a Buffalo-based company that owns four food trucks and two brick-and-mortar restaurants, tweeted that one of its food trucks would be parked outside the Department of Homeland Security in Batavia, also known as the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility, which is run by ICE — a fact that some Twitter users picked up on, leading to critical responses, with some pointing out the irony of offering tacos outside a federal agency that detains immigrants, some of them from Mexico.

The next day, Lloyd tweeted an apology and promised to donate all of the sales from October 23 to an organization supporting migrant rights. “There is no excuse for what happened and we have already begun to update our internal procedures to ensure future taco truck stops and events align with our company’s values,” the company wrote in a statement.

Then an even bigger backlash to the original backlash started: some people, including Republican office-holders and ICE itself, interpreted the apology as “a slap against police and law enforcement,” Buffalo News reports. At a news conference held on October 28, Lloyd co-founder Pete Cimino apologized for the initial apology, calling that decision “hastily made” and overly reactive to criticism.
https://www.eater.com/2019/10/29/20938152/lloyd-taco-food-truck-buffalo-ny-controversy-ice-migrant-backlash

Hey turn the show back on! Yup, the show is over. Cancelled. You are gone. And then the taco truck was forced to apologize because it was forced to apologize. This is a circular firing squad gone berserk. But that said, are technology companies ever neutral or exempt from participating in a complicated argument like this? The answer is very complex and you can’t answer an easy yes or no, but for now consider Amazon to be on the wrong side when it comes to the immigration debate.

Apple stumbled into a new line of business this week: NBA heat shield. On Wednesday, the company booted from its App Store an app called HKmap.live, which protesters in Hong Kong had been using to track police amid the pro-democracy demonstrations against the Chinese government that have engulfed the city for months. In the few days that HKmap.live had been available, it became the most downloaded travel app in Hong Kong, according to the New York Times—until, reportedly, authorities in the special administrative region and Chinese state media complained. The company said it reversed the app’s initial approval because it “violates our guidelines and local laws,” since it was “being used maliciously to target individual officers for violence and to victimize individuals and property where no police are present.”

Here’s what HKmap.live actually did: The map app aggregated available data from other social media sources, didn’t show specific locations of individual officers, and had a time lag before data showed up on the app, according to blogger and activist Maciej Ceglowski, who has been in Hong Kong for months. Charles Mok, a legislator in Hong Kong, condemned Apple’s decision, pointing out that the app was being used by residents hoping to avoid tear gas and said that some residents were sharing information about police activity to avoid harassment. Facebook, Twitter, and other iOS apps that are available through the App Store in Hong Kong allow users to do the same thing, Mok said in a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, arguing that Apple’s rationale was spurious and unevenly applied.
https://slate.com/technology/2019/10/apple-chinese-government-microsoft-amazon-ice.html

That’s it for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

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[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Gather around my fair brothers and sisters of Oregon State! It’s time to take a seat in the pew and pass the collection plate, for the Holy Church Of The Top 10 has convened and it’s time to remind you that the holiest among us are the most full of:



My fair congregation!!! You know it is All Hallows Eve here at the Holy Church Of The Top 10. And that is why I am dressed as SAYTAN! Because it's always the one you least expect! That time is finally here when we can all marvel at the musical genius that is Kanye West! Did I say musical genius? Well, does have an ego as big as the unholy Dark One, whose name shall not be spoken in my church! But that said as religious disciples, can you really enjoy his new gospel rap album “Jesus Is King” with a straight face? I ask you because it is all over the news and the radio because Kanye has seen the light! Is he really that religious? Or did he see the Blues Brothers and was convinced that he was on a mission from GAWD? Well I ask you this question because the good LAWRD JAYSUS has always claimed that he is against false prophets and people with gigantic egos the size of Texas. Well, at least he does in our Good Book! Not so sure about Kanye!

Over the years, it has become more difficult to dismiss the distractions surrounding Kanye West in favor of focusing exclusively on his music. This is, in part, because his actions are upsetting, but also because the music he’s released in the past half-decade hasn’t lived up to the rest of his catalog.

The Life of Pablo had its moments, but it was, at that point in his career, far and away the least consistent album. Two years later, the MAGA-infused controversy surrounding 2018’s Ye was even more difficult to ignore because the music was also disappointing. With Kanye making increasingly alienating music, casual fans had a way out and die-hards had a lot of critical thinking to avoid.

Then, Sunday Services started popping up at the top of 2019. A few months later, we got an Easter Sunday Service at Coachella, which seemed oddly underwhelming, considering the absolute spectacle of the arrangement. It became clear that this Christian bent would permeate Kanye’s recorded music, and a new litany of questions popped up: Was this an overcorrection after years of headlines about the 13th Amendment, Trump, and slavery? Or was this a genuine move towards seeking forgiveness, and a concerted effort to simply be better? With Kanye, it’s never black and white. And his new album, Jesus Is King, only leaves us with more questions.

There’s a contingent of former fans who have been able to quit him outright, but Kanye West remains difficult to ignore completely. You could discard some of the nonsense he’s released over the past few years, because it’s exactly that, but Jesus Is King is an improvement. At only 27 minutes, it doesn’t give Kanye a lot of time to fail. The religious theme provides him with something to focus on lyrically, which was lacking on Ye, and the beats are strong. Right now, JIK sounds like a good Kanye West album, although that’s partially because Ye is bad and TLOP is inconsistent. Play this after something like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and it pales in comparison. He’s certainly moved the goalposts.
https://www.complex.com/music/2019/10/kanye-west-jesus-is-king-review

Uh………… what??? That seems like a very odd combination of clothing to wear to the gymnasium, Kanye. But let’s ask other rappers what they think of JAYSUS Is King! But the question that I bring to you, my fair congregation, is how can this be a gospel album? It literally has about 3 seconds of actual gospel music or is it a rap album that calls itself a gospel album? Nevertheless, we’ve got an actual gospel choir right in front of you! Remember when Kanye used to be credible?

As a public figure, Kanye West sometimes seems to change course every other day. But where his musical output is concerned, his most consequential turning point came 10 years ago, by way of two very different albums.

First was the 2008 release of 808s and Heartbreak -- recorded after the unexpected death of West's mother — whose icy, digital sheen made a surprising break from his earlier soul-sample style of production. Seen as an aberration at the time, 808s is now recognized as a key influence on modern hip-hop's minimalist sound, and suggested the trajectory of West's career would be different from those of the golden-era rap acts who had originally inspired him.

Then came 808s' follow-up in 2010, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. In contrast to its predecessor, this album was a maximalist affair, full of lush production and grandiose stylistic gestures. It also marked West's turn towards releasing albums as full-scale spectacles that leveraged his celebrity status — by then always awash in controversy — and worked as one arm of a multi-industry Kanye West business complex that has since become valued at over a billion dollars.

In the decade since, no other pop music figure has drawn such rubbernecking fascination, especially once West discovered the power of Twitter as an unmediated outlet for self-expression. He inspires so much public contemplation and condemnation that the release of each new album feels like a performance unto itself, even before the public has heard a note of the music.
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/28/774137186/kanye-wests-jesus-is-king-like-its-creator-asks-a-little-too-much-of-us

That’s deep, man. So deep! But really in all the hoopla surrounding this album, I mean come on it’s barely an album at 27 minutes. We have to cut through the BS and tell you some of the crazier bits of interviews from a man who now calls himself a holy man of GAWD. But here’s the thing – can you merge two genres that go together like olive oil and vinegar? Well many have tried – some have succeeded and many have failed. But unlike Kanye, none have dared called themselves the greatest genius who’s ever lived in history. I think the good LAWRD JAYSUS would have a problem with that!

Late one night last month, in anticipation of Kanye West’s ninth major-label release, which was reportedly due in just a few hours (it was ultimately stalled by delays, and didn’t arrive until last Friday), Twitter user @FrankieComedian posted an image to his timeline. “Me waiting for Kanye West’s album,” he wrote, adding the hashtag #jesusisking, the title of the rapper’s hotly awaited first gospel project. The general sentiment of the image was explicit, the clearest distillation of the difficult fascination fans continue to have with West. In it, a man slowly applies clown makeup to his face; by 12:01 am he is fully outfitted in a wig and red nose—just in time to stream the album on Spotify or Apple Music.

I was suddenly full of uncontrollable laughter because its truth cut like dog teeth to the bone. Were we clowns for continuing to engage with a man who readily sold self-interest as love, who preached open-mindedness but often supported people who practiced division? Yes. Once again, the joke was on us.

No one wanted to believe it. In the lead-up to Jesus Is King, and even before, fans thought maybe, in spite of his faults, West’s music could absolve his mania, even as he courted public contempt with a kind of paradoxical glee. He’d vocalized support for President Trump, called for the annulment of the 13th Amendment, championed conservative firebrand Alex Jones, and likened slavery to “a choice,” all while urging us to be more accepting of “free thinkers.” But, even as critics and fans—myself included—were quick to cancel him, they held out hope. But absolution never came. It didn’t on ye—his derisory album from last year on which mental health and family life were anchoring themes—and it doesn’t on the facile Jesus Is King, a patchy, sometimes remarkable, mostly unexceptional interpretation of the black gospel tradition.
https://www.wired.com/story/kanye-west-jesus-is-king/

Really is he the best or is the good LAWRD JAYSUS the best? Or is our amazing choir the best? Well we may revisit this album in a few weeks. Mass has ended may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:




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[font size="8"]Beating A Dead Horse: Scorsese Vs MCU
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All right we’re going to settle this debate once and for all, like men. Is it OK to enjoy superhero movie franchises? I ask because the Marvel Cinematic Universe, commonly known as the MCU, is under attack by what some would call actual film makers. But wait – didn’t Black Panther get nominated for Best Picture last year? And couldn’t Robert Downey Jr get nominated for his last performance as Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame? Spoiler alert! Oh come on, stop booing! It made $5 billion and everyone who’s a fan has seen it by now! So just like Captain America: Civil War, whose side are you on? Are you on the side of world famous directors like Francis Ford Coppola who make huge, grandiose films like the Godfather? Or are you the kind of brainless idiot who enjoys watching Spiderman destroy the Green Goblin for the 100th time? By the way, that’s the first time I’ve ever used the word “grandiose” in a sentence! Well before you answer, I like a bit of both. In fact I want to see a crossover flick where Iron Man takes on the Godfather and pounds Don Vito into submission on the day of his daughters’ wedding! Thank you to the graphics department! Of course we could just watch Kill Bill, and that would be the best of both worlds. Or we could participate in endless debate.

If you want to shoot holes in the comments that Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola made recently about Marvel movies (Scorsese: “That’s not cinema”; Coppola: “Martin was being kind when he said it wasn’t cinema. He didn’t say it was despicable, which is what I say”), then go right ahead, because they’ve practically handed you the gun and the bullets. The most obvious bullet is the one that automatically damns you in this day and age: These guys are old (Scorsese is about to turn 77, Coppola is now 80), and you could argue that their grand objection to the blockbuster films of today boils down to the fact that the world is no longer the world they grew up in, or the one that existed when they were at their creative apex as filmmakers, so they’re unhappy about it.

The whole “It’s not the way it was in the good old days!” song and dance, which I’m personally quite familiar with (since my set-in-his-ways father did it every day), is one that we tend to think of as just another cranky version of “Get off my lawn!” And the public discourse today overflows with it. America, in case you hadn’t heard, is going down the drain, and it’s all the fault of … the millennials! The Trump voters! The corporations who control everything! The Internet! The fake news! The video games! The greedy corrupt Hollywood that elevated fantasy over reality! Please, God, bring it back to the way it used to be!

Much of the knee-jerk condemnation of the Scorsese v Marvel crusade, as expressed on social media, has come down to a visceral rejection of the-damning-of-the-new-by-those-who-are-old. Beyond that, though, the Scorsese argument that Marvel movies aren’t cinema is riddled with irony, if not flat-out contradiction, when you take a closer look at the messenger.
https://variety.com/2019/film/news/martin-scorsese-francis-ford-coppola-right-about-marvel-1203381088/

Seriously, Scorsese is a vintage Ford and a 12 gauge shotgun away from going full Gran Torino! You damn kids! Support real cinema! Now before you Marvel fans get your discount Chinese made knock off Hulk costumes in a wad, you should be aware that there is some truth to what Mr. Scorsese is saying about these movies. For every Godfather, there’s about 1,000 sequels, remakes and reboots of the same shit you’ve been seeing since 1978. But you know what? Why don’t we ask an actual MCU director for his take on the subject!

It comes after Ken Loach became the latest name to criticise the Marvel Cinematic Universe yesterday (October 22), calling the films “boring and cynical”.

Favreau spoke to CNBC on Tuesday, and said that he believes Scorsese and Coppola are allowed to express their opinion, no matter what it is.

“These two guys are my heroes, and they have earned the right to express their opinions,” the director, who appeared in the MCU as Happy Hogan for over a decade, said.

“I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if they didn’t carve the way. They served as a source of inspiration, you can go all the way back to Swingers. They can express whatever opinion they like.”

The recent slew of comments from both sides on the Marvel franchise began when Scorsese labelled the MCU “not cinema” in a recent interview, likening the films to “theme parks”.

Coppola went even further, calling the films “despicable” and even saying that Scorsese was “kind” in his judgement of the films.
https://www.nme.com/news/film/jon-favreau-says-martin-scorsese-francis-ford-coppola-earned-right-criticise-marvel-2559996

OK Jon Favreau, challenge accepted! And like I said before, there’s only a handful of Tarantinos, Scorseses, Coppolas, Kubricks, and Del Torros of the world. Fine they can criticize art all they want since they’re actual artists. But too often we’re reminded that Hollywood is just a business, and like any other business, they have to make money. Which means that you will sit through 15 Avengers movies and like it, or else!

Benedict Cumberbatch is a surprise supporter of the criticism being levied against Marvel films by other film directors.

Days after Disney CEO Bob Iger defended the blockbuster films that comprise the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Cumberbatch – who plays Doctor Strange – said he “agrees” that there should not be ”one king to rule them all”.

“I know there’s been a lot of debate recently with some very fine filmmakers coming to the fore saying these film franchises are taking over everything,” he told SiriusXM’s The Jenny McCarthy Show.

“I agree, we don’t want one king to rule it all and have a monopoly and all that, and it’s hopefully not the case and we should really look into continuing to support auteur filmmakers at every level.”

Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, joined Martin Scorsese in his criticism of Marvel films, with the former telling Agence France-Presse: “When [Martin] says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he’s right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration.

He went on to call superhero films “despicable”. Other directors to have criticised Marvel include Ken Loach and Pedro Almodóvar.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/benedict-cumberbatch-marvel-monopoly-doctor-strange-martin-scorsese-coppola-mcu-a9169041.html

Hey wait a minute, Benedict Cumberbatch! You are Dr. Strange, you are a super hero! An actual super hero criticizing super hero movies? I mean what is this? Some sort of weird new meta philosophy that I’m not aware of? I mean regardless of whether or not you watch super hero flicks or you want to give them the cement shoes, let’s face it, this is the 21st century. We’ve all become content consumers! And whether or not we prefer actual art, or mass produced fillers, that’s our damn preference! And come on, Scorsese, you’re on Netflix! Which side are you on? How about we ask another super hero!

MCU stalwart Paul Rudd has responded to Martin Scorsese’s recent comments that Marvel movies “are not cinema” in a new interview with NME.

The legendary filmmaker made headlines earlier this month when he made disparaging comments about Marvel’s run of comic book films.

“Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks,” Scorsese said. “It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”

When asked by NME what he makes of the acclaimed director’s recent statement, Rudd countered: “I love Martin Scorsese, I love his movies, I can’t wait to see The Irishman.”
https://www.nme.com/news/film/paul-rudd-martin-scorsese-ant-man-2556880

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[font size="8"]NO!: Go Away Harvey Weinstein

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The #MeToo movement has made for some very strange political bedfellows. I mean who knew that someone like Kevin Spacey was such a creepy weirdo or that one of the biggest producers in Hollywood, Harvey Weinstein, would go down in flames? Now this brings up an interesting debate – if you encounter your abuser in public, should you make a scene out of it? Well in a world where our natural human senses of logic and irony are thrown out the window, Harvey Weinstein showed up at a showcase in New York City for young actresses. And if you’re wondering why irony is lost, just remember that Harvey Weinstein has almost as many rape accusations as Donald Trump does. Which makes this next entry even more extremely horrible than it already is!

A night of comedy ended with an audience member being asked to leave the venue after she and a performer called out Harvey Weinstein, who attended the show.

Kelly Bachman, one of several performers in a variety show at a Manhattan bar on Wednesday night, told CNN she spotted Weinstein and used part of her set to call the former Hollywood producer "Freddy Krueger" and call out the rape allegations against him.

Weinstein currently faces criminal charges of predatory sexual assault, criminal sexual act, first-degree rape and third-degree rape. He has pleaded not guilty and maintains all sexual encounters he's been involved in have been consensual. His trial is expected to begin in January.

An audience member, Zoe Stuckless, also confronted Weinstein at his table and demanded he be asked to leave, according to video Stuckless shared on Facebook. Instead, Stuckless was asked to leave the bar, and Bachman left with Stuckless, the comic said.

The venue, Downtime Bar, confirmed in a statement posted to its Facebook page that an audience member was asked to leave after heckling another guest. "After several requests to stop were ignored, we kindly asked the heckler to leave," the statement said. The bar's Facebook page has since been deleted, but the statement is still posted as an Instagram Story on its Instagram page.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/25/us/harvey-weinstein-confronted-at-bar/index.html

Oh just a little? Irony is apparently lost here as it is super fucking creepy that a guy who’s been accused of being a serial rapist is hanging out at a showcase for young actresses! I And it gets worse from there because not only did that happen, Harvey Weinstein kicked them out! Which really only proves the point that they were making. Oh and it gets worse – so much worse. Apparently NBC executives tried to shield Weinstein from the roast that broke out, and they’re not denying it!

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow laid out in excruciating detail the alleged misconduct of NBC News executives, who have been accused of killing an explosive exposé on Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assaults and of repeatedly shielding former Today Show host Matt Lauer from similar claims: “Those accusations are very, very hard to stomach.”

In a long and devastating monologue, Maddow recounted the reporting history of guest Ronan Farrow. She explained how Farrow’s bombshell reporting on Weinstein and the #MeToo movement, which ultimately earned him a Pulitzer Prize, was started at NBC News but was continually hamstrung and eventually blocked from air, because of objections raised by network executives like NBC News President Noah Oppenheim.

“Now, NBC News is obviously our parent company here at MSNBC,” Maddow noted, before offering a very raw and personal response to the controversy. “The allegations about the behavior of Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer are gut-wrenching, at baseline, no matter who you are or what your connection is to this story. But accusations that people in positions of authority in this building may have been complicit in some way in shielding those guys from accountability? Those accusations are very, very hard to stomach.”

Maddow went on to note a potential pattern of network interference in seminal stories about alleged sexual harassment involving powerful men, including the infamous “grab ’em by the pussy” tape of President Donald Trump.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/maddow-scorches-nbc-over-accusations-network-execs-shielded-weinstein-lauer-very-very-hard-to-stomach/

Of course they are! Nobody wants to be accused of being a serial rapist, and don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time! That goes for you too Matt Lauer! Don’t think you’re getting out of this one that easily, same goes for anyone like this. But here’s the worst part – don’t take it out on the venue who hosted the thing. Yeah they fucked up in ejecting the women performers for confronting Weinstein, but if you weren’t there, shut the fuck up!

Yelp users are flooding Lower East Side’s Downtime Bar with one-star reviews after women were reportedly thrown out of the venue for confronting Harvey Weinstein. The bar recently hosted an event meant to support up-and-coming artists, and when Weinstein — who has been accused of rape and other sexual misconduct by dozens of women, specifically young female actors — was spotted in the room, three women confronted him. Two of them were eventually kicked out, according to reports.

Now, several dozen people are calling to boycott the bar, including a reviewer that uploaded a photo of Weinstein’s alleged victims. The backlash comes after a viral video shows comedian Kelly Bachman addressing the “elephant in the room” in her set, calling Weinstein “Freddy Krueger,” only to be booed and told to “shut up” by the crowd. Another video shows actor Zoe Stuckless pointing at Weinstein and yelling, “Nobody’s really going to say anything?” before being kicked out of the bar. Attendee Amber Rollo tweeted that she too was thrown out after calling him a “monster” and saying “he should disappear.”

Actors Hour, the organization behind the exclusive artists-only event, put out a statement on Instagram saying it did not invite Weinstein, though the post has since been taken down. Downtime Bar released its own statement saying that Actors Hour “rented our bar for a private event, with a guest list all their own.”

In a statement sent to the Post, Weinstein says, “We should all be offered the courtesy to voice opinions and be heard, and to even get answers.” His rep called the scene “downright rude” and an infringement on due process.
https://ny.eater.com/2019/10/25/20930666/harvey-weinstein-downtime-bar-controversy

Yeah well I hope you don’t get the Yelp reviewer special! But as we’ve seen with unpopular people going out in public outside of their bubble like Trump did, Harvey Weinstein should probably never go out in public again, or he’s going to get these kinds of accusations. And why is he not in jail? Really someone should get on that! And seriously guys, no, we don’t need a comeback from scumbags like Weinstein, they should just stay out of the spotlight!

Former mega-producer Harvey Weinstein has become a symbol of the powerful men taken down by the Me Too movement since 2017, when he was accused of sexual harassment, assault, and rape by dozens of women, including actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie. But despite frequent lamentations that we are living in an era of cancel culture, even Weinstein might not be permanently canceled.

On Wednesday night, Weinstein attended Actor’s Hour, an event for young performers based out of Downtime Bar on New York’s Lower East Side. And while there was outcry from some attendees, much of the crowd did not seem upset to see him there, vociferously defending Weinstein from any jokes or comments made at his expense.

Weinstein has been getting some practice at dealing with such reactions lately. According to the Hollywood Reporter, as his January trial date for rape and sexual assault approaches, Weinstein has begun to reemerge at some of his old haunts, like the lower Manhattan restaurant Cipriani Downtown. He attended September’s Actor’s Hour as well (and was denounced by a comic onstage that time, too).

The whole pattern has the appearance of a trial balloon, a test to see how the world reacts to the idea of Harvey Weinstein appearing in public again. And in Hollywood, that trial balloon is usually followed, sooner or later, by a comeback.
https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/10/25/20932084/harvey-weinstein-comeback-actors-hour-downtime-bar

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[font size="8"]People Are Dumb
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Hit it!

Of course you know by now that people are people and people are dumb. And this segment incorporates all walks of stupid – dumb criminals, dumb lawyers, dumb politicians, dumb students, you name it! And I also love these stories because they are all completely crazy and there’s enough of them that we could do these until the end of time! I want to start with this story out of Iowa – and yeah if you’re a guy you should *NEVER* expose your junk in public, no matter what the circumstances. But I love the excuse here – even though it’s not a good one, is that this guy who did the dirty deed claims that he saw it in a porno movie!

An Iowa man charged with exposing himself to a woman at a variety store told cops that he “had seen someone do it in a pornographic film” and thought the victim, who was accompanied by her minor son, might “respond to it sexually,” according to a court filing.

Nicholas Sheehy, 23, was arrested Friday afternoon at the Dollar General in Ottumwa, a city about 85 miles southeast of Des Moines. Sheehy, an Ottumwa resident, was charged with indecent exposure, a serious misdemeanor.

When confronted by police, Sheehy “admitted that he ‘whipped it out’ referring to his penis,” a criminal complaint alleges. “The defendant stated that he had seen someone do it in a pornographic film and believed that the female patron may respond to it sexually.”

Instead, the woman contacted cops, who reported that Sheehy “admitted that he exposed himself for sexual gratification.”
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/dollar-general-creep-639524

Next up – we go to *ANOTHER* story out of Iowa. Man, Iowa is bringing the crazy extra hard lately aren’t they? Well I mean there’s not much to do there so you got to get creative. But when you start turning to crime, a fresh coat of paint is definitely not the way that you want to hide the crime, and well, he got caught red handed. Or is it green handed? I’m not sure.

Police said a Dubuque man stole a trailer from a business and painted it black to keep anyone from recognizing it while he used it.

Malik J. Patterson, 20, of 17262 John Deere Road, No. 11, was arrested Wednesday morning on warrants charging second-degree theft and obstructing prosecution.

Police on Sept. 4 responded to Bicycle World, 1072 Central Ave., to investigate a report of a theft.

Business owner Parrish C. Marugg said he left the shop Sept. 3 and left his trailer, valued at $2,000, in the parking lot, according to court documents. When he returned the following morning, it was gone.
https://www.telegraphherald.com/news/tri-state/article_582e5118-2cd5-5d7d-b5b4-d79b9395264a.html?utm_source=thonline&utm_medium=click_source&utm_campaign=homepage_top_news_card_more_stories

That is a good question! Next up – we go to Las Vegas! I am really surprised that this doesn’t happen more often because people tend to go crazy when they start losing money at casinos. Maybe not so much on the Vegas Strip, but there’s plenty of off strip action happening all around the gambling paradise known as Vegas. But if you start losing money, it’s your own damn fault. Don’t blame the casino for it!

Police say a woman who was angered when she was kicked out of a Las Vegas-area casino intentionally drove her motorhome into the building, injuring a custodian.

North Las Vegas Police spokesman Eric Leavitt says the 50-year-old woman was ejected from the Cannery casino Friday morning and drove her Winnebago motorhome into the building.

Leavitt says the woman hit a 66-year-old custodial worker who was outside the building. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports the worker was critically injured but is expected to survive.

Leavitt told KVVU-TV that the woman kept hitting the gas and her vehicle was stuck in the building’s entrance. Employees had to remove the woman to get her to stop.
https://kwwl.com/news/national-news-from-the-associated-press/2019/10/25/woman-drives-motorhome-into-casino-after-shes-kicked-out/

Next up we go to Minneapolis! Yeah the meth industry attracts some extremely strange people to it, not to mention some incredibly armed and extremely dangerous people to it. But last week we brought you that story about When Standing Your Ground Goes Wrong. Well, do 18th century cannons fall under the controversial Stand Your Ground law?

A Dassel couple is facing weapons and drug charges after authorities seized more than 50 grams of methamphetamine and more than a dozen weapons from their home, including a functioning cannon.

Bret Bruce Wakefield, 59, and Ramona Jean Wakefield, 56, are facing one count each of first-degree sale of a controlled substance, first-degree possession of a controlled substance and firearm possession.

According to the complaint, CEE-VI Drug and Gang Task Force agents served a search warrant Monday at the couple’s home on the 17000 block of Highway 15 South. Upon arrival, they immediately located the couple and had them detained while completing their sweep of the residence.

With a broader search of the property, agents recovered 12 firearms and a functioning cannon.
https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2019/10/22/dassel-couple-found-in-possession-of-drugs-weapons-including-working-cannon/

Next up - we cant get out of here without talking about America’s most penis shaped state, the great state of Florida. The Sunshine State always brings it every week, and we do want to thank the @Florida_Man Twitter account for keeping us up to date on these stories. While I do love Florida Man stories, I also love Doomsday Prepper stories, and none is more prepper than this, but really don’t build your doomsday shelter from stolen parts! That never ends well!

A Florida man preparing for the end of the world is under investigation for stealing vehicles and building a "doomsday bunker" in his backyard.

They found the trailer at the man's home, where he had apparently been stockpiling stolen vehicles and burying them in the backyard to create an underground shelter.

Though the man reportedly told police he did not have a prediction for when the world would end, chances are he wouldn't have survived the end times in his makeshift shelter even if he had gotten away with building it.

"A trailer is not structurally sound," Craig Holland, the city's development-services director, told the Orlando Sentinel. "I don't think it would have protected him from much."
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/florida-man-stole-trailers-food-truck-planned-bury-doomsday-bunker-police-article-1.1157841

That is a good point sir! And by the way that was a weird Google Image search! Finally this week this might be one of my favorite Florida Man stories in a while. Yeah so Florida Man was caught inside a Target store defiling stuffed animals, and… Olaf from Frozen. This is real! This happened! I laughed so hard when I first saw this story and well I had to include it. And the sad thing is they had to put Olaf out to pasture after this. And I’ll never hear “Let It Go” in the same way ever again!

A Florida Man yesterday sexually assaulted a pair of “large stuffed animal toys” inside a Target store, according to police who arrested the fiend on a criminal mischief charge.

As detailed in a criminal complaint, Cody Christopher Meader, 20, entered the retailer around 2 PM Tuesday and approached a display of merchandise featuring characters from the Disney film “Frozen.”

Meader, seen at right, selected a “large Olaf stuffed animal” and proceeded to place it on the floor of the Target in Pinellas Park. He then began to “dry hump” the cinematic snowman “until he ejaculated on the merchandise,” a cop reported.

Meader returned the soiled Olaf back to the display before entering the toy department, where he “selected a large unicorn stuffed animal and began to ‘dry hump’ this item.”
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/bizarre/olaf-targeted-642935

That’s it this week for:

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[font size="8"]Keeping Up With The Candidates Ep. 12: Beto’s Gun Policy
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Welcome back to our guide to the mother of all elections to end elections until the remainder of time in 2020, Keeping Up With The Candidates. Last week we discussed the breaking news about how Tulsi Gabbard might be being groomed as a Russian agent. Or a republican one. Or she might tell both to fuck off and go third party. Yeah that would be the absolute worst response to that. Kind of like getting into a car accident and telling your insurance company you did it for the LULZ. Yeah that never works. OK enough of that. We have to talk about America’s 800 pound gorilla in the room and that’s guns. What are we going to do about America’s gun violence epidemic? There’s only one man out of the 24 who has the balls to take on the NRA, and that’s Texas’ Beto O’Rourke. He has a very controversial plan to end gun violence, but what is it? We will take a look and see!

Beto O'Rourke dismissed criticisms of his sweeping gun control proposal, telling CBS News in an interview Thursday night that he expects gun owners will go along with his plan to institute a "mandatory buyback" of high-powered rifles.

"If we're able to pass mandatory buybacks and I'm able to sign that into law, then I fully expect our fellow Americans to turn in their AR-15s and their AK-47s," the former Texas congressman said.

O'Rourke's "mandatory buyback" plan, which would force gun owners to surrender high-powered rifles like the AR-15 and the AK-47, has been criticized as impractical by other candidates in the race. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, for example, has said that O'Rourke's plan amounts to "confiscation."

Buttigieg and O'Rourke sparred over their gun views at the most recent Democratic debate earlier this month. Buttigieg, who backs more traditional gun control measures like universal background checks, dismissed O'Rourke's idea as a "purity test" and a "shiny object." In a jab back at Buttigieg, O'Rourke said that Democrats should not base their opinions on polling and what consultants say.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/beto-orourke-says-he-expects-americans-to-surrender-their-guns/

Seriously, good luck with that! I am definitely not poo pooing the idea, but have you seen the comments posted on gun threads, Beto? The most hardcore gun nutters definitely aren’t putting down their weapons that easily. Yeah I know it’s a comments section – the bathroom stall wall of the internet, and by the way – let us know what you think in the comments! Stay on target, stay on target! But what is specifically involved in this thing?

Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke struggled to explain on Wednesday how he would make people who wish to do harm with an assault-style weapon to comply with his proposed mandatory gun buyback, a plan that divided Democrats at Tuesday's primary debate hosted by CNN and The New York Times.

O'Rourke's plan includes a ban on assault-style weapons and for the federal government to buy back firearms, including AK-47s and AR-15s, for a "fair price" -- or otherwise face a fine.

Pressed by CNN's Alisyn Camerota Wednesday on how he planned to get assault-style weapons from people who would be reluctant to hand them over, O'Rourke, a former US representative from Texas, insisted that Americans would abide by the law.

"It's pretty simple. As with any law in this country, we would expect our fellow Americans to follow the law," O'Rourke said on CNN's "New Day."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/16/politics/beto-orourke-mandatory-buyback-proposal-cnntv/index.html

Yeah I think Stewie is the perfect example of someone who should not be allowed to own a gun because you know he won’t use it for good! But a mandatory program Beto? You are really going there? I’m not saying no one should have guns and I’m not touching that one with a 10 foot pole. But here’s the problem with a mandatory gun buy back program: the keyword “mandatory”. Yeah some gun nutters, that’s exactly what they want, and they’re not going down without a fight!

If Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate decided anything, it was that Texas dodged a bullet — literally — when it failed to elect Beto O’Rourke to the U.S. Senate last year.

Ever since August’s devastating mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart, the former congressman has made promoting comprehensive gun control his raison d’etre.

That isn’t surprising or even problematic, really. Progressive Democrats have long capitalized on national tragedies in their effort to promote gun restrictions, even as there is no clear evidence that mass shootings are on the rise.

And, in fairness, the horrific nature of the El Paso shooting probably warranted a strong response from its former representative in Congress. Even some prominent conservatives have made the case for gun reforms in its wake, advocating policy proposals such as red-flag laws. Other Republicans have indicated an openness to strengthening background checks.

But O’Rourke has gone much further in his gun control advocacy, declaring on the debate stage in Houston last month, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. We’re not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore.”
https://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/cynthia-m-allen/article236352388.html

Yeah really, while you’re concerned about vaping, there’s plenty of people who are armed to the teeth that will kill you before inhaling a lifetime of electronic smoke will do! This is why Beto’s gun buyback policy is a good idea in theory but would have a near impossible time working in real life. By the way if you want to see how an actual gun buyback program, here’s how Japan handled the situation. And you know what? Japan has the lowest number of shootings in the entire world!

Gun control discussions crop up every time there is an attention-grabbing shooting in the US. On Wednesday, a 19-year-old allegedly shot dozens of his former classmates at a Florida high school, leaving 17 of them dead.

One of the biggest questions: How does the US prevent this from happening over and over again?

Although the US has no exact counterpart elsewhere in the world, some countries have taken steps that can provide a window into what successful gun control looks like. Japan, a country of 127 million people and yearly gun deaths rarely totaling more than 10, is one such country.

"Ever since guns entered the country, Japan has always had strict gun laws," Iain Overton, executive director of Action on Armed Violence, a British advocacy group, told the BBC. "They are the first nation to impose gun laws in the whole world, and I think it laid down a bedrock saying that guns really don't play a part in civilian society."
https://www.businessinsider.com/gun-control-how-japan-has-almost-completely-eliminated-gun-deaths-2017-10

[font size="4"]Next Week:[/font]

Next week we’re going to check in with the Bernie Sanders camp and find out what his latest chances of winning the election are after his recent health crisis!



[font size="8"]And Now This:[/font]
[font size="8”]Korn[/font]

Ladies and gentlemen, my next guest is one of the reigning kings of Halloween! You can see them on tour this January and February with Breaking Benjamin! Playing their song “Cold” from their album “The Nothing”, give it up for Korn!

Thank you Oregon State! This was fun! We are off to Gonzaga University in Spokane! See you next week!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded In Front Of Live Audience At: Oregon State University, Eugene, OR
Special Thanks To: Oregon State University
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