Senate The US Politics discussion

I don't want to derail, but, you know, there is one incredibly important issue I agree with Trump on (some might even say it is the most important political issue of our time). Yes, I'm just going to say it: Donald Trump is absolutely right about Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump impression. It really is awful. If it was anybody but Alec Baldwin, people would be trashing it. If it was just some random guy on SNL, people would be trashing it. But since it's Alec Baldwin, everyone has to pretend it's good. Well, it's not.

#standwithTrump #silenceBaldwin #whatisthisNaziGermany

 

It's not a good impression, I agree. But the snouty face with the squinty look is in itself funny. It just doesn't really look like Trump. I get what he is aiming for but it just doesn't look like him.

 

The agaping mouth is what really makes it hilarious though... as well as him totally selling the lines.

He's not as expressive as someone like, say, Kate McKinnon (the funniest part of last night's cold open was her silent putting on of the "[pink colored] hat" in the background of the sketch... but he's got excellent comic timing...

 

I'm sure you guys talked about it in the Inauguration thread already, but I haven't had a chance to weigh in on the second most important political issue facing the country.



As is often the case, it's the moments surrounding the actual event that are the most brilliant. Obama's serious glower that masks the repeated thought "I'm not turning around I'm not turning around I'm not turning around," as he hears W's muffled curses mingled with the intense sound of a poncho being run through an industrial shredder. Dick Cheney, as he often did during his term as VP, struggling to stifle a laugh at W's antics. Laura Bush sitting calmly, poncho casually and stylishly draped around her shoulders, pretending she doesn't know the guy next to her. It's like the Christmas Special of the best sitcom ever. All your favorites are back and better than ever!

 

I'm sure Russia and China would be happy to step into the hole left by the US. If America leaves, Israel will too, which will probably lead to the next open Arab-Israeli war, as there will be nothing to stop Uncle Netanyahu and his friend the American Dictator--excuse me, President Trump--from simply annexing the West Bank and Gaza for real and building another wall.

I've been thinking a lot about this, and it's a shame we haven't advanced technologically to the point of having colonized the solar system yet. Now would be a good time to move to another planet, or even a space station. Unfortunately, we are all stuck here on this slowly cooking rock. Together.

 

i didn't watch it friday. jimmy kimmel had a great picture friday night of Bush and Obama , in the same picture, both frowning as Trump explained his nightmare vision of the country.

 

I like Baldwin's Trump impression, not that it's accurate, but it's weirdly absurdist. However, SNL has a perfectly great Trump on retainer doing the intros to every show, Darrell Hammond, which they can pull out of the bullpen any time they want. I think they got Baldwin as a lark for what was supposedly going to be, like, a four week gig but then Trump went and got elected President. I'd say let Baldwin's Trump ride out the season for maybe a handful of more appearances (There's like half the season to go and he isn't in every week) and next season they can either get a decent Trump from the cast, or bring Hammond back in.

 

You know, I hadn't considered it to this point, but do you think maybe Bush was trying to suffocate himself publicly as a form of protest? And so he doesn't have to live through the Trump administration?

 

No, but I think Carrie Fisher may have done something similar.

 

i don't know how long he played around with the plastic, having not watched it live. I do believe he was thinking. "if i had to come to this thing i'm not going to get wet too!"

 

What did you miss with him saying "your standard JCC liberal"? Nice try to twist what he said.


edit:

Rogue1-and-a-half, heck I thought Depp's Trump was better. The young kid Fallon had on was better. Baldwin is not funny. Well, he's funny when he's having meltdowns in front of paparazzi but that's about it.

Frank Caliendo's is still my favorite Trump.

 

Who had that Trump troll on? Was that Jon Stewart? Can't find him on YouTube. That was the best one.

 

Caliendo doesn't always have the best material, but the impressions themselves are always just spot on. He kind of had a moment there where he had a show and was showing up as a guest on a lot of others, but except for that he's always been really underrated impressionist. Basically, any impression he does is probably the best impression of that person. Except for that guy who cropped up on YouTube doing that uncanny Robin Williams impression; he just nails everybody he does.

 

You have to admit, though, things have to be quite bad globally when you look at Dubya and go "awww".

Yes, he was an idiot. Yes, he was monstrous to a great many people. But he was predictable. And with the prospect of Trump facilitating a new global economic depression, ok? The biggest, most big, economic collapse of all time, ok? Nobody will tank an economy like me, ok? Many people have said it, my capacity for wanton economic destruction is the best ever out of any president ever.

But with Trump about to trigger a repeat of 1929, am I alone in thinking the goofy little idiot is infinitely preferable to the angry orang-utan?

 

I do agree with Trump on SNL. It's not funny. Also, the way they read their lines off of a teleprompter makes their deliveries stilted and weird. Watching a sketch and one of them comes in saying his or her line and they're just staring off in a weird direction not actually looking at the character they are supposed to be addressing...It's weird. I don't like watching it.

Sent from A TRANSMISSION BEAMED ABOARD THIS SHIP--

 

I want to loop back on the whole "Princess Leia" issue. I do find it objectionable and disappointing. My fundamental problem is that I think it just speaks to a sort of cultural hollowness. Fanon dedicated whole chapters to the way anti-colonial protestors both discovered and generated meaning in the color of their women's hijabs. The Civil Rights movement repurposed spirituals, at once acknowledging the close connection between Christianity and equality movements and deploying those ideas to make a powerful argument against prejudice. The Rose Revolution took up a memorable moment from key events and let them speak for the broader movement. Meanwhile, we're referencing some shlocky science fiction series that's in the midst of an MCU-style assembly line treatment?

I understand the need for symbols. But I believe that those symbols should emerge organically from the lives and interests of those involved. It should epitomize some of the things of deepest value to the protestors. I deeply believe that no popular entertainment series, be it Twilight, Star Wars, or Fast and Furious meets such criteria. Meanwhile, I think there have been plenty of poignant moments that might themselves serve instead: Michelle Obama's call to "go high," or even Carly Fiorina's rejoinder that "women all over the country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said." Or how any one of the moments form Kzir Khan's fiery speech? This is real life. We can do better than quoting some cartoonish fantasy yarn. I know we can.

 

Yes, Star Wars -- the movie series explicitly rooted in Vietnam protests and innately depicting a feminist struggle in defeating a totalitarian theocracy -- has no bearing here.

Good job, you've done it!

 

...theocracy?

 

Sith?

 

Well, Palpatine had no interest in imposing his "religion" (except the Force is explicitly real, so it doesn't really rely on faith) to the point that top military brass were completely ignorant of the Force. His political title was Emperor, not Dark Lord of the Sith; the Empire was not the Sith Empire; when he abolished the Senate he transferred powers to military governors, not priests. It was a dictatorship meant to evoke fascism, the Roman Empire, and Nixon.

 

Superman is rooted in the story of Moses and other Jewish influences, but I somehow doubt anyone would find it appropriate or credible to suggest the state of Israel change its national anthem to the theme music from "Man of Steel" or that the Simon Weisenthal Center take as its new motto "Do you even bleed?"

 

Of course not. They should use the John Williams theme. It is known.

 

Most importantly, W's harmless now, while Clownstick Von F. is the most dangerous man on the planet.

 

Wocky, I think here the issue is that symbols need to be aspiration, wide ranging, and universal enough. You have to contend with the idea that in 1977, a Princess ordering her rescuers around was atypical.

For more of the protestors, one has to conclude - and let us for a moment both acknowledge as men we are discussing women's issues... - that the reason Leia is a potent symbol is twofold. One; a number of the protestors grew up with Leia as some sort of influence. By which I do not mean they were ardent fans; I mean, if they encountered her as a young girl she wasn't a typical "girl" in media, she was an independent woman who fought with the boys and stood up to them. She was, in other words, atypical.

Secondly, Carrie Fisher just passed and would have likely approved of Leia being an avatar of gender equality. It's important her work not be forgotten or allowed to pass.

I take your point, but Leia's face instantly embodies qualities of resistance that Michelle Obama, for example, does not - even if she embodies a more tangible strength, intelligence and dignity than Leia by virtue of existing.