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Valerie's avatar

I did have a sobering thought though. If he's as insane as we all know he is, who really IS behind him that he just might win? We really need one of the streaming services to run a bunch of those old films about political chicanery like The Manchurian Candidate, Dr. Strangelove, All the King's Men, The Best Man . . . with a great commentator fronting them with context comments and maybe a panel after the movie viewing to hammer the similarities home.

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E.K. Hornbeck's avatar

Check out "A Face in the Crowd" with Andy Griffith as a media demagogue.

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Valerie's avatar

Okay, added to the list!

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RJ Sanders's avatar

Add to the list - The Dead Zone (movie, not series) with Christopher Walken.

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Valerie's avatar

Done

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Steve Beckwith's avatar

Awesome idea, Valerie!

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Valerie's avatar

We should make a list and commit to watching and sharing.... I think I'll save Strangelove to the end. All the King's Men . . . I haven't watched the Sean Penn version, I'm more familiar with the older one. We'd better steer clear of some of those Spencer Tracy movies where he's the lone wolf fighting against the political machine, like in State of the Union. Trump would probably say HE's the Tracy character. Born Yesterday is a great comedy for those days where the news is just too awful. Or maybe watch IT instead of the debate, especially the original with the great Judy Holliday. Too bad Melania's probably never seen it, she could have cut Trump off at the knees if she'd emulated THAT character.

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Steve Beckwith's avatar

There's my Fall watch list! Thank you, ma'am.

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Valerie's avatar

There's also the Madame Secretary TV series. That's tempting. I watched every single episode when it was on prime time. Never watched The West Wing--did you?

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Steve Beckwith's avatar

I didn't. I'm hearing so much about this that I think I better though. Is it good?

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Valerie's avatar

Madame Secretary? It was so good. Very unreal because she is just so ethical and perfect but at the same time it was so warming to watch after Trump won in 2016

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Steve Beckwith's avatar

OK. I'll give it a try. I dropped Netflix a year or so ago because it was so disappointing but maybe it's better now.

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Valerie's avatar

I don't have Netflix, cancelled it on principle because of some of their series (long story.) I just looked it up on Paramount because, as a CBS show, I thought it would on there. It isn't, a testament to how streaming giants get you by the throat. So instead I now am suggesting we watch Frost/Nixon and do a comparison of that kind of journalism vs what we'll see (or hear of) tonight ;)

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Steve Beckwith's avatar

You're on.

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Steve Beckwith's avatar

Hi Valerie, I did watch the movie. That was a hard watch. It was an excellent movie but watching the Nixon character was draining. I was reminded of Roger Parloff of Lawfare saying that the jury in the NY case had been, "steeped in weeks and weeks of watching this lying criminal filth." I felt like I needed a shower and a nap after that. Thank Jesus for Kamala Harris's dissection of Trump last night. Just like Nixon, if you put these jamokes in a corner, they show their true nature.

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