Trump Attorney Rips Off Mic After Questioning from CBSN Anchor [2021)

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/senate-acquits-trump-impeachment-lawyer-michael-van-der-veen/#x

It turns out some of the greatest patriots in the United States of America are still to be found in the northeast.

They may be few and far between, but they are powerful.

Donald Trump of Queens, New York.

Rudy Giuliani of New York City.

And now Michael van der Veen of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

You’ve heard of a “mic drop”.

And this is literally that (if not a “mic throw” [with a lavalier microphone, no less]).

But that’s not the important part.

It was a punctuation of disgust.

But what is important here is that “reality has erupted within the spectacle” (to paraphrase Guy Debord).

This is as close as many people are ever going to get to seeing Peter Finch in Network shout, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!!!”.

And this is as close to a real-world example of that famous filmic moment that any of us have probably ever seen.

Lana Zak has the condescending fake kindness of Jen Psaki and all the charm of a 1980s android prototype.

Kamala Harris is fake as fuck.

Lana Zak is fake as fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

She has to sound disappointed.

And no doubt, she IS disappointed.

That Trump was acquitted.

She has to speak in somber tones.

Because there is only one side to every story.

And she has a role to play in holding up that one side.

From the University of Iowa to Harvard–from ABC to CBS, Lana Zak has proven that she can be trusted (to let absolutely no news leak through the fortified establishment filter).

After many years, she has been rewarded with an anchorship.

She has to sound excited and inspired that seven Republicans in the Senate voted to convict Trump.

This is very hopeful to her.

Her voice rises…as if imagining a future where all dissent will be squashed and her point of view (which just happens to align perfectly with the establishment point of view) is the only view allowed at all…ever…at all times…in all places.

But in the meantime, she is indulging in gross agenda setting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda-setting_theory

She calls the “assault” on the Capitol “deadly”.

Is she referring to Brian Sicknick?

https://www.revolver.news/2021/02/maga-blood-libel-why-are-they-hiding-the-medical-report/

Or Ashli Babbitt?

Or the two Capitol Police officers who committed suicide (were suicided?) after the incursion?

Indeed, Brian Sicknick died after the incursion as well (and not, as the above link points out, in the way which most media have described).

Therefore, the “deadly” “assault” on the Capitol, then, was merely deadly for one side:  the side which broke into the Capitol.

Ashli Babbitt was unarmed.

She was shot in the head by a still-to-be-named Capitol Police officer.

She died minutes later.

I am willing to bet that Lana Zak has never said the words, “Ashli Babbitt” on air.

And I’m equally willing to bet that she has said the words “Brian Sicknick” quite a few times on the air.

Yes, there were other “medical emergencies” at the scene.

But all on the side of the protestors.

A Trump supporter had a heart attack when a stun grenade went off near him.

But you won’t hear much about that.

And you won’t hear anyone #SayHerName in regards to unarmed victim of excessive police force Ashli Babbitt.

You won’t even hear about how she was a 14-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

You won’t hear about how she did three tours of duty in Iraq/Afghanistan only to be gunned down, unarmed, in her own Capitol Building.

You won’t hear #HandsUpDontShoot in regards to her.

You will only hear about Brian Sicknick and how he was bludgeoned by a fire extinguisher.

Except he wasn’t.

There is no proof of that.

The New York Times has had to retract that claim.

Every other news outlet ran with it as well.

Except that it appears to be untrue.

It is not supported by ANYTHING.

No video evidence.

No medical evidence.

The worst part is, that is probably the least strange thing about Brian Sicknick’s death.

Again, read it here:

https://www.revolver.news/2021/02/maga-blood-libel-why-are-they-hiding-the-medical-report/

So it should come as little surprise that Michael van der Veen is mad as hell.

The people who stole the election in his city and state (Philadelphia/Pennsylvania) have spray-painted “traitor” on his front driveway in red along with arrows pointing at his house.

All for upholding the due process rights of Donald Trump.

But the very first link in this article, indeed the whole reason for this article, is that no one has so succinctly voiced the disgust that (let’s say) 78 million Trump voters (McInerney numbers) have felt and are still feeling.

We hear about the coup in Myanmar, but how many of you know that Biden and the National Guard are planning on being in D.C. continuously until March 2022?

That news was released today.

Find it.

I’m not going to do all your work for you.

Don’t believe me?

Fine.

Have no vested interest?

Don’t care?

Not my problem.

The global media is non-critically reporting (amplifying) that protestors in Myanmar have the moral high ground.

The same media that told us Trump’s claims of election fraud were “baseless” (thanks, CIA) is taking that same show on the road.

All claims of election fraud in Myanmar (the official reason for the coup) are also “baseless”, we are told.

When the media is slightly less sloppy, they use the word “unfounded”.

But it’s not sloppiness.

It’s signalling [sic]:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics)

If you know the true facts, you know that Twitter suspended Trump IMMEDIATELY AFTER he posted a video urging calm during the #Jan6 events.

Again, Twitter PREVENTED the sitting U.S. President from getting out a message to CALM HIS FOLLOWERS DOWN.

They did this by disabling the ability of the tweet to be shared.

President calls for peace.

Twitter stifles message.

You do the math.

But Twitter’s not on trial.

Twitter pays no price (other than a billion+ in market cap.).

Jack Dorsey pays no price.

He can go on reading The Satanic Verses and twiddling his beard and tweeting about pasta:

Screen Shot 2020-10-21 at 5.25.50 AM

Vijaya Gadde pays no price.

The House impeachment managers are bad “lawyers”.

Jamie Raskin has a J.D. from Harvard.

Will he be held accountable for the manipulated evidence presented at the impeachment trial?

Joaquin Castro has a J.D. from Harvard.

Will he be held accountable for the manipulated evidence presented at the impeachment trial?

David Cicilline has a J.D. from Georgetown.

Will he be held accountable for the manipulated evidence presented at the impeachment trial?

Madeleine Dean has a J.D. from Wiedner University.

Will she be held accountable for the manipulated evidence?

Diana DeGette has a J.D. from NYU.

Will she be held accountable for the manipulated evidence?

Ted Lieu has a J.D. from Georgetown.

Will he be held accountable?

Joe Neguse has a J.D. from the University of Colorado.

Will he be held accountable?

Stacey Plaskett has a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law.

What about her?

Eric Swallwell has a J.D. from University of Maryland, likely slept with a suspected Chinese spy for four years, and is still on the House Intelligence and Homeland Security Committees.

I won’t even bother asking again.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/02/politics/house-impeachment-managers/

https://www.axios.com/china-spy-california-politicians-9d2dfb99-f839-4e00-8bd8-59dec0daf589.html

https://www.oaoa.com/editorial/columns/opinion_columnist/hart-the-spy-who-shagged-well/article_64e1c9a2-41ce-11eb-8e36-035c4c7e880c.html

https://www.limaohio.com/opinion/columns/440774/column-chinese-spy-scandal-may-inclue-a-possible-sex-for-secrets-swap

“The prosecutors in this case doctored evidence.”

True.

“I’m not surprised to hear a politician say anything at all.”

Michael van der Veen:  citizen.

Listen to the world “all”.

Awl.

Peg and awl.

WWG1WGA.

E pluribus unum.

“What happened at the Capitol on January 6th was absolutely horrific, but what happened at the Capitol during this trial was, uh, not too far away from that.”

I agree.

Again.

“The prosecutors in this case doctored evidence.”

“The American people should not be putting up with this.  They need to look at who, uh, who these House managers were, uh, and look to see whether these are the folks they want representing them.”

Here’s where Lana Zak goes into full-on #SuppressionNews mode.

She HAS to SHUT DOWN Michael van der Veen.

She talks to her viewers like they are children.

And indeed, anyone relying upon Lana Zak and CBS News for anything resembling the truth are mental midgets.

“TO BE CLEAR FOR OUR VIEWERS…”

“TO BE CLEAR FOR OUR VIEWERS…”

[don’t listen to what this man is saying]

“I want to be CLEAR…FOR OUR VIEWERS…”

“The media has to start telling the right story in this country.  The media is trying to divide this country.  You are bloodthirsty for ratings and, as such, you are asking questions now that are…already set up with a fact pattern [#AgendaSettingTheory ].  I can’t believe you would ask me a question indicating that it’s alright just to doctor a little bit of evidence.”

“And the media should be looking at that at a square, straight way.  A straight way!  When I watch the news, I watch one station and it’s raining.  I watch another station at the same time and it’s sunny.  Your coverage is SO SLANTED…it’s gotta stop! You guys gotta stop…and start reporting more like PBS does…rather than…uh uh uh uh uh…TV news show that doesn’t have any journalistic integrity at all.  What I’m telling you is that they doctored evidence…and I believe your question says, ‘well, it’s only a Twitter check and, uh, changing a date of a year here.’  They switch the date of a Twitter A YEAR to try to connect it to this case.  That’s not a small thing, ma’am.  The other thing they did is they put a check mark on something to to try and make it look like it was a validated account when it wasn’t.  And when they were caught, they didn’t say anything about it.  They didn’t even try to come up with an excuse about it.  And that’s not the way our prosecutors OR our government officials should be conducting themselves.”

At this point I lost power and was freezing my ass off for the past few hours.

I wrote a really great ending to this piece, but it’s gone.

I’m gonna go ahead and publish this before the power goes off again.

Two days later (after 33-straight hours without electricity or heat) I am adding tags to this.

-PD

The Doors [1991)

#pizzagate

The silence is deafening.

And as John Lydon sang, “Anger is an energy.”

Just yesterday I was surprised to run across several articles on the pizzagate scandal.

They jarred me a bit.

Brought me back to that fever pitch of intensity from our election.

That intensity from which I had had to step away.

But there these articles were.

I couldn’t resist.

I read.

And they affected me.

And so I made a conscious choice to write about J. Edgar Hoover last night.

[more or less]

But today was a different kind of weirdness.

Today, absolutely no mention of pizzagate on my favorite news site.

And conversely, Google (which is censoring pizzagate research by way of its YouTube platform) is showing strictly fake news as part of its masterly algorithmic results.

If you Google “pizzagate”, you will get these fake news sources:

-The Washington Post (Jeff Bezos’ little pet paper…for when Amazon.com bores him)

The New York Times

BBC

The New Yorker

The Guardian

NPR

Newsweek

CNN

Time

NBC

CBS

plus sycophants like Snopes, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Slate, and too many other media losers to succinctly list.

So let me reframe:

as the alternative media went silent today on this topic, the mainstream media (which had been shirking its duty of journalism) went into hyperdrive to cover pizzagate in a very narrow, deceptive manner.

And I can’t lie:

this made me very angry.

But I would like to share a name with you.

It is the name of someone doing truly priceless research on pizzagate.

His name is David Seaman.

And YouTube is where to find him.

So why, then, The Doors?

Because “When the Music’s Over”…

Robby Krieger’s dive bomb guitar.

John Densmore gunshot snare drumming leading out of the pauses.

And Jim Morrison’s screeching howls of ecstatic catharsis on the downbeat.

This film.

Truly changed my life.

Just like my first rock concert (The Black Crowes).

It’s not a perfect film, but it teaches us some important lessons.

The right (politically) must understand art.

All of the arts.

The power of art.

And we must know poetry.

We must cogitate from a place of knowledge as we see Oliver Stone’s camera pan over Rimbaud, Artaud, and McLuhan.

And at some point we must make a faltering effort to pronounce Artaud.

We must get into the arena.

[sand]

Open our ears.

The first time we heard Godard’s name…pronounced relatively correct…out of Ray Manzarek’s mouth.

And we must revisit.

Damn!  Is that Dale Cooper?!?  And that “d” on the end is not really necessary.

Years and years…of stars and bars…and miles of aisles.

I haven’t had the energy to be angry.

Until today.

Must be getting better.

It comes and goes.

Energy.

But we must value anger.

Meat-eating humanity.

Visceral disgust with our fellow humans who would harm children.

And sober vigilance and sense of duty to see that no child’s life nor future is swept into a crack.

The current psy op in progress is one to try and wrap up (with a bow) the entire pizzagate conspiracy into one deniable package:  Comet Ping Pong.

One astute researcher has even mentioned the possibility that the central casting which provided us with the Sandy Hook hoax might have supplied the useful idiot who supposedly stormed the aforementioned establishment.

The psy op is to wrap up the package.  To denigrate “fake news”.

To cordon off the “scene” in service to damage control.

But YouTube’s actions taken against David Seaman just make us want to know the truth that much more.

And so there you have it.

Adam Schiff needs a brain transplant.

And Tucker Carlson deserves a raise.

But people like David Seaman are the real rebels here.

Like Jim Morrison, they understand their medium (McLuhan) and they channel their anger through highly-sophisticated, articulate journalism.

To paraphrase my hero Alex Jones, I don’t think the mainstream media and the Clinton camp (the Podesta brothers) really want to get into “the briar patch” of trading punches with the alternative media.

Alex Jones and Matt Drudge are about to squash any dilettantes at the major networks.

And up-and-comers like David Seaman will also be firing truth torpedoes to sink the already-listing ghost ship known as the MSM.

There be monsters…

 

-PD

 

 

Pumpkin [2002)

This is almost a perfect film.

Because it’s better than perfect.

Like Napoleon Dynamite, what should have been a larf was generally a sobfest for me throughout.

If you’re having problems in life, you need to see this movie.

Hollywood is so denigrated these days because the vast majority of popular cinema is utter shite.

From the very beginning, Pumpkin is different.

We should thank American Zoetrope.

And for that we have to thank Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas.

Do you even know what a zoetrope is?

Well, I do.

And they did.

And it was le mot juste.

A zoetrope is special.

Let’s call it retarded cinema.

A more pure form.  Slowed down.

Pumpkin grossed $308,552 at the box office.

No, I didn’t forget a comma and an additional three digits.

But the Bureau of Labor Statistics has no way of predicting the sort of inflation Pumpkin will experience in the annals of cinema history.

For any who have ever doubted Christina Ricci:  this is her masterpiece.

As lead actress and coproducer, she gives a performance which goes deeper than even the esteemed Thora Birch in Ghost World.

Yes, this is that sort of film.

Indispensable.

I have overused it of late.

But there is no other word.  Pumpkin and Ghost World and Napoleon Dynamite are not second-class films to such as I fidanzati.  No.  They are equals with Ermanno Olmi’s masterpiece.

But don’t get confused.

Pumpkin goes in a direction completely “other” than any film I’ve ever seen.

Sure…it starts out tongue-in-cheek.

It is perhaps a dystopia which is best summed up by the saccharine mise-en-scène of The Truman Show.  But where The Truman Show fails (and that is in many places), Pumpkin succeeds at telling a timeless story.

The story is the cast.

[Thank you Marshall McLuhan.]

Ricci is a thespian goddess here.  Real skill.  Real goddamn skill!

But neck-and-neck is Hank Harris.

I can’t nail it.

It’s something I saw long ago.

At my college orientation.

A bit of Sam Shepard and some other playwrights.

Sure.  It is Steinbeck.  Of Mice and Men.

But it’s more.

Sweeter.  More optimistic.  More frothing with disgust.

All three.

A concoction.

Frozen yogurt and 1400 on the SAT.

Harry Lennix is indispensable to the story.  [start counting]

He is the angry poet.  Not a college professor.  And this is not a class.

This is a poetry workshop, motherfucker!

Even Julio Oscar Mechoso is indispensable in his short role as Dr. Frederico Cruz.  [where we at?]

But let’s talk about some buttresses.

Melissa McCarthy is indispensable (truly) as Julie.

It’s not an easy role.

And yet, she’s not as bad off as Pumpkin.

Who’s Pumpkin?

Is it Christina Ricci with her jack-o’-lantern-perfect bob–her Chantal Goya -meets- David Bowie Low surf perm?  That one little curl…so perfect…all the way ’round?

No.

It’s Hank Harris.

He’s Pumpkin.  Napoleon.  Lothario.

But Sam Ball is especially indispensable here.  [Ugh…]

He is Ken (actually Kent) to Ricci’s Barbie.

Tennis pro.

Spitting image of Ryan Reynolds.

Or Whitney Houston…

Anyway.

This cast brings it together.

Bringing it all back home are directors Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder (neither of whom have a Wikipedia page).

BLOODY HELL, HOLLYWOOD!  HOW COULD YOU CHURN OUT SO MANY FILMS AND NOT SEE THE BRILLIANCE OF THESE TWO BLOKES!?!?!?!?!

But in the end it’s just Ricci and Hank Harris.

The brilliance of a duo.

A truly timeless film.

I’m inclined to agree with many (including Dr. Steve Pieczenik) that Adam Lanza did not exist.

But Pumpkin Romanoff (a nod to Michael Romanoff, the storied Lithuanian restaurateur of 1940s/50s Hollywood?) most certainly did exist.  For me.  Tonight.  When I needed him most.

This is immortality.

 

-PD

Week-end [1967)

You will not learn much on Wikipedia.  In this case.  It is a common problem.  The length of an entry indicates its importance to the English-speaking world.  You will not get a true sense of what this film is about.  To the English-speaking world, this film is apparently insignificant.

And so we turn to images.  Language has betrayed us.  Our mother tongue.

There we immediately find a better representation.  The Hermès handbag.

Yet still the film remains elusive.

Some might say barbaric.  Others, a film about nothing.

They are both right…and wrong.

It is Mozart who proves them wrong.  I will not give you a Köchel number.  We can’t be experts about everything.

This is not academic writing.  I take my leisure seriously.

Taken out of context, it is the rage of a spurned Hitchcock.

It is the red stub of Blandine Jeanson (c’est-à-dire Emily Brontë).

Perhaps it is the groovy sounds of Jean-Claude Vannier?

As Paul Gégauff plays (?), the man with the shovel shuffles away.  He is our stable element…briefly.

You see the trouble.

Is it barbarism to cradle the contrasting beauty?  Is it nothing to show that everything is something?

Not easy being cheesy…

This is why it is better not to attempt…to explain.

It has been done.  What’s the point?

Each tenured prophet will find his/her own signs.

The important thing is to give the immediate impression.  Do not go for a snack.  Attack the film, but not to analyze.  Attack your own feelings and emotions…and wrest them from oblivion to perhaps live a life of their own.  This is what we do.

From the first words, we cannot start like the rest.

The great folly would be to make Godard into God.  The greater folly to ignore the breathtaking precedence.

In art as war, pity the one to go first…running from the secure positions.

And so we embrace the greatest uncertainty.

The varieties of human experience people…have not visited my corner for census.

Nor Jean-Luc’s…here.  We can celebrate the hulking awkwardness of a master who is perfectly describing chaos.

It is not sloppy.  It is calculated.  But it is a non-terminating number.  An infinite precision.

Balance on one finger and eat banana cream pie.

Perfectly upside-down.

It is not clean and crisp.  Not easily digestible.

We look longingly for personality, but none is found…

And then a film like Week-end…all personality.  Character.  Eccentricity.  Color.  Vigor.

Buried in the footnotes of civilization is a question about civilization itself.

This.

It explains why we never succeeded in life.  Had we done so, it would have been a fluke.

We were not meant to succeed.  Search your heart and then regard the world…

There is an intrinsic disharmony.

Language is a popularity contest…gang-raped by technology.

Thus the survival of mankind depends on code:  poetry.

Poetry does not discard words.  Poetry constantly expands…like entropy.

No one predicted the end.  Google will fail.

When we stop mirroring our mirror.  It is too boring to relate.

Salvation is buried deep.  Takes some digging.

We have forgotten how to be properly disgusted.

-PD