GOOD MORNING CLASS

Raise hands if watching Hillary go into bible thumping mode feels like a scary attempt to remind folks in Iowa that she is not you know who, who was born you know where and who is by the way, a you know what.

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NYT Sat 1/30/16
Some in Iowa Surprised by Hillary Clinton’s Ease With Faith

By AMY CHOZICKJAN. 29, 2016

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KNOXVILLE, Iowa — There was the rally in Indianola, Iowa, whereHillary Clinton told a crowd that it was the teachings of John Wesley, a founder of the Methodist religion, that had inspired her to seek the presidency, and to “get back up” after setbacks.

On Sunday, she spoke about “the core of Christ’s message” at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids.

Then on Monday here in Knoxville, when a voter asked if her beliefs aligned with the Ten Commandments, Mrs. Clinton reflected at length and spontaneously on her religious outlook.

“I am a person of faith. I am a Christian. I am a Methodist,” she said. “My study of the Bible, my many conversations with people of faith, has led me to believe the most important commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself,” she continued, “and that is what I think we are commanded by Christ to do.    .    .    . 

As scripture  tells us -  oy vey!

Editors note- The "J'eat" scene from Annie Hall could not be uploaded but here's the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaPBhxXhprg

THERE WAS A MISSING ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM AT THE REPUBLICAN DEBATE - IT WAS BABAR'S COUSIN REALITY

For a few glorious Trumpless minutes the campaign was no longer a night of professional wrestling and we got a chance to see the Republican platform in the raw.
Obama took away the economy as their issue by saving it from the Republican created apocalypse.
Here is what they are left with as the Republican platform;

One - We need a new sheriff in town to get rid of those brown skinned varmints!

Two- We need to bring back the emergency room as America's primary care provider.
Three - Everything would be so much better if businesses had no regulations and rich people had more money.
Four - Hillary is a poo poo head.

The Republican primary is an angry mob with torches.

The Universal Pain Assessment Tool Guide to the Revenant

I escaped from the blizzard Saturday morning to catch the 11AM showing of the Revenant.

Lori refused to go with me. Something about 2 hours and thirty minutes of unrelenting graphic agony death and suffering did not appeal to her. So I laced up my boots, added a few layers and headed into the blizzard. Sadly my bear skin was at the cleaners.

I felt like I was channeling Leonardo DeCaprio as I walked thru the snow drifts from 86th street to 83d street. It was a grueling 10 minute journey.  When I finally made it to my reserved reclining lounge chair I kneeled and kissed the carpet.

Here is viewer's guide to a few scenes using the Universal Pain Assessment Tool (UPA) Oh yeah spoiler alert blah blah blah. Don't read this unless you've seen it or don't care.

First a  news bulletin - Leonardo DiCaprio has changed his middle name to"If I don't get Best Actor I'm going to make the entire fucking academy sleep inside a dead horse".

In the first scene most of Leonardo's (Hugh Glass) band of fur traders gets killed by Ree Indians. Hugh is ok- maybe a flesh wound UPA 2 

Then things pick up a little
A grizzly bear uses Hugh as a chew toy and then adds insult to injury by stepping on his head UPA 10
Hugh's recovery from the bear attack has a little set back when he gets buried alive and watches his son get murdered UPA 8
Hugh is feeling a little better and escapes from indians by rafting rapids and a waterfall without a raft UPA 6
Hugh tries a little first aid on his wounds with gun powder UPA 10
Hugh gets invited for dinner with a new friend who is serving raw buffalo liver. Hugh eats the raw liver to be polite and also because he hasn't eaten in a month except for a little sushi.  UPA 6
Hugh goes horse back riding and misses the sign that says "Warning 1000 foot cliff ahead" Hugh survives the fall - the horse not so much.  UPA 10
Hugh wakes up from his 1,000 foot fall as a blizzard is arriving so he does what any of us would have done - he guts the horse, takes off his clothes and sleeps inside his dead horse UPA 2
Hugh finds the guy who buried him alive and killed his son. Hugh is still annoyed by this. They try to work things out with a little help from a hatchet and Hugh's newest friends, a band of Ree indians that like to go on very long horseback rides. UPA 8

That's it I just saved you $15 bucks.

I have a confession. I love the Trump campaign.

 For years Fox News, the Kochs and their fellow travelers have been pumping and dumping a toxic viral racial concoction into our national psychic petrie dish. Now they are running out of the laboratory screaming about the two headed monster they created and can’t control as Trump and Cruz compete to be king of the Republican shit heap.

I’m not proud of enjoying this for the same reasons I hate myself for slowing down to stare at a horrible car crash.

I”m also really scared for two big reasons. 
One - Trump is a media virtuoso and Hillary ain't. She just does not have that gift of being able to hide the insanely unbridled political lust that you have to have to want that job and

Two  -The folks out there in the heartland - west of Hackensack - ain’t voting for a 74 year old socialist Jew from Brooklyn and nothing good can come out of the Hillary Bernie snowball fight.

I guess that would be Three

LETTER TO THE NYT (sent in this morning- mostly written by Mario 32 years ago) RE "Its Payback Time for Women" by Judith Shulevitz, NYT Sunday Review 1/10/16)

In arguing  that a universal basic income (UBI) is a matter of societal self interest Judith Shulevitz (Its Payback Time for Women, NYT Sunday Review 1/10/16) is, in effect, shining a spotlight on the defining Republican myth that government is picking the pockets of taxpayers and giving our money to deadbeats.  

Democrats need to take on this myth, not just as a matter of decency but as a matter of self interest.  It’s a good time to remember Mario Cuomo’s speech to the 1984 Democratic Convention in which he urged America to reject Reagan Darwinism. He closed with;

We Democrats believe in something else. We democrats believe that we can make it all the way with the whole family intact, and we have more than once. Ever since Franklin Roosevelt lifted himself from his wheelchair to lift this nation from its knees — wagon train after wagon train — to new frontiers of education, housing, peace; the whole family aboard, constantly reaching out to extend and enlarge that family; lifting them up into the wagon on the way; blacks and Hispanics, and people of every ethnic group, and native Americans — all those struggling to build their families and claim some small share of America. For nearly 50 years we carried them all to new levels of comfort, and security, and dignity, even affluence. And remember this, some of us in this room today are here only because this nation had that kind of confidence. And it would be wrong to forget that.