Happy Halloween!

I wish all Progressives Chat readers a  Happy Halloween ! 

(The next blog topic will be posted Sunday, November 3, 2019, at 06:00 a.m. ET)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Published to YouTube on Wednesday, October 30, 2019 is a new interview and discussion between host Joe Rogan and guest Kyle Kulinski.

Joe Rogan Welcomes Edward Snowden

Many were amazingly taken by surprise last week when Joe Rogan published to YouTube his video welcoming guest Edward Snowden.

It was posted, in the comments section, and I appreciate it. We all do.

This video is well-worthy of a blog topic anyway. Its inclusion, by me, is simply for the sake of the archives of Progressives Chat.

(The next blog topic will be posted this Thursday, October 31, 2019, at 12:00 a.m. ET.)

It’s That Time of the Year Again!

Today’s blog date, Friday, October 25, 2019, is the official kickoff date of the 2019 Hallmark “Countdown to Christmas” on, yes, Hallmark Channel.

This is an annual tradition of holiday movies running through typically the early hours of January 2 of the following year.

Lots of titles. Made on the cheap. But they are reassuring.

I launched Progressives Chat in September 2017. In October 2017, I wrote about this topic here: It’s Almost Here: The 2017 Hallmark Channel ‘Countdown to Christmas’. In October 2018, I wrote about it again here: A ‘Hallmark’ Tradition. I enjoyed the humorous responses by a few Progressives Chat readers in the comments from both blog topic threads.

This is, as you can see above, the 10th anniversary of Hallmark Channel having its “Countdown to Christmas.” Nowadays, sister channel Hallmark Movies & Mysteries also runs the marathon. Its third sister channel, Hallmark Drama, has older titles. The marathon of these movies from at least the first two Hallmarks are a lot. A whole lot. (I don’t drown myself in them.)

This blog is normally for political content. But, to be frank, one can find politics anywhere. It is the form that is not the same everywhere. At Hallmark Channel, the politics is with pushing traditional. It’s also that everyone has to have love. If they don’t have love in their lives—meaning, someone to very potentially marry (and who is of the opposite sex)—their lives are lacking; and, to no longer be unfulfilled, the lead characters will find love. They must. So, these movies are happy ones. We know what the end will be even before it begins. They are reassuring.

We are living in a terrible period, politically, in the United States. And when it comes to entertainment, I like to take a break from the cynical and welcome some feel-good stuff (even if it is fluff). I find, frankly, there to be five or less Hallmark Channel “Countdown to Christmas” titles, in a given year, that I would want to be bothered seeing a second time. That isn’t bad. At the movies, even some which receive recognition from Oscar, it is less.

Christmas isn’t for two more months. We have Halloween next week. We have Thanksgiving next month. But, Christmas is commercialized to a point in which, looking at it from the corporations’ and retailers’ perspective and objective, it is a holiday which can never get an early enough start.

Hillary Clinton’s McCarthyite Attack Against Tulsi Gabbard

The recent McCarthyite attack against Tulsi Gabbard by Hillary Clinton generated plenty of reactions.

My response was one in which I felt like expressing words which are cutting and contemptuous.

I stopped.

I gave some thought to the former First Lady having been in India circa March 2018. While reflecting on the results of Election 2016, but really just speaking ill of those who did not vote for her, she spoke of the electoral map and how Donald Trump won the places in decline and how she won the dynamic places.

I reached a conclusion.

While it is not good Donald Trump is president of the United States, it is very good Hillary Clinton is not—and never will be—president of the United States.

Her attack last week against Tulsi Gabbard was one more reminder of that conclusion.

Hillary Clinton has never been worthy of the presidency of the United States.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

While I was tempted to include a good number of videos, for this blog topic, there are two which I found to be especially enlightening. The first is The Grayzone’s Aaron Maté with guest Max Blumenthal. The second is TBTV’s Tim Black.

‘Tiffany Fitzhenry Uncovers CIA’s Long Involvement With Hollywood’

Graham Elwood interviews guest Tiffany Fitzhenry, a writer, about the CIA having infiltrated Hollywood. Numerous of our stars are connected.

As one whose interest in going to the movies and following television series has been generally in decline for more than ten years…it is apparent to me that one contributing reason why is because of a soullessness.

This is a fascinating interview coming days after Graham Elwood had a very different take, compared to other progressives, on why Ellen DeGeneres was hanging with George W. Bush.


· UPDATE: Saturday, October 19, 2019 @ 09:20 a.m. ET ·
A second video, a continuation of Graham Elwood interviewing Tiffany Fitzhenry, was published to YouTube one day after the original. I have included it.

Ellen DeGeneres Is…‘Offensive’

Emmy-winning comedienne and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres recently came under fire for hanging out at a NFL game with 43rd U.S. president George W. Bush.

DeGeneres’s ABC sitcom Ellen (originally These Friends of Mine), which I watched regularly, premiered 25 years ago, in 1994, and lasted until 1998. Her character Ellen Morgan’s coming-out episode, “The Puppy Episode,” won DeGeneres and her co-writers the 1996–97 Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series. Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson won the 1997–98 Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for the episode “Emma.” DeGeneres has hosted her syndicated talk-show entertainment program since 2003.

I have not made a point of following DeGeneres for her politics. Part of what explains this is that I do not watch her talk show. I generally don’t like to watch talk shows. So, prior to my writing and posting this blog topic, I did not research whether she has made endorsements other than knowing, from little moments I have seen of her talk show, she does endorse corporate products. In the video, from Jimmy Dore, DeGeneres does mention she is a liberal.

In the above video, which was posted in comments section last week, Jimmy Dore well-researches and -reviews Ellen DeGeneres. But, I want to add this: George W. Bush nationally exploited LGBT persons (one of whom is DeGeneres) for the purpose of political and electoral gain. And he did with a willingness to possibly bring destruction to LGBT people. My home state is Michigan. In 2004, when Bush was re-elected and won the U.S. Popular Vote by +2.46 percentage points (it was George W. Bush 50.73% vs. John Kerry 48.27%), he tried to flip Michigan with a motivator being the ballot proposal to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage statewide. While John Kerry carried Michigan with 51 percent of the vote (a margin of +3.42 percentage points), the ban passed with almost 59 percent. In fact, it passed in all of the state’s counties.

We also know Bush, with help from the likes of Colin Powell and Robert Mueller, lied to the people of the United States to get the country into war in Iraq. (The fact that there were three faithless 2016 electors from the Democratic-aligned state of Washington who cast their presidential votes not for losing nominee Hillary Clinton but for Republican Colin Powell—and the “mainstream” Democrats were also on their knees for Mueller with Russiagate—speaks as well to the hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of the corrupt, corporate, Democratic Party Establishment.)

Jimmy Dore uses some accurate words to describe Ellen DeGeneres. But, there is one particular word—and it is not needing to be one that is dramatic—which should also be applied. That word is…offensive. Yes, Ellen DeGeneres is offensive.

☆ ☆ ☆

In addition to the video by Jimmy Dore come related ones by Graham Elwood, Kyle Kulinksi of Secular Talk, Tim Black, David Doel of The Rational National and, as one who is out as a gay man, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report.

‘The Phony Liberalism of Bill Maher’

I stopped watching HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher circa January 2017. I recall it last going through a change in its production design for the set decoration. Some red was incorporated. By then, enough of a focus of the program was in going after Donald Trump.

I know this was not too unreasonable given Trump was, at the time, the incoming 45th U.S. president. But, I also knew the Democrats, with Hillary Clinton, should not be dismissed for rigging the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries and everything related to WikiLeaks’s report of the DNC e-mails, the Podesta Files, and how that political party is a sham.

I had the sense Bill Maher’s program was taking a turn for the worse. So, I bailed. It turns out I made a personally wise decision. From what I have seen from videos, and from what I have read, the nowadays Bill Maher, and his Real Time, is one I chalk up to with recognizing that who owns HBO has ownership of Bill Maher—and I find myself not drawn in to reacting with anger. I dismiss Bill Maher. He is owned. But, this has not stopped me from reading a recent take on Maher. And I will share in this blog topic.

The Phony Liberalism of Bill Maher

Remembering Diahann Carroll

The groundbreaking actress, model, and singer Diahann Carroll died last Friday, October 4, 2019, at age 84.

Here is a report: Diahann Carroll, Actress Who Broke Barriers With ‘Julia,’ Dies at 84.

Born July 17, 1935, in Bronx, New York, Carroll’s parents were a subway conductor and a nurse. She was married four times, perhaps most famously to the late singer Vic Damone.

Diahann Carroll has been described as pioneering and trailblazing, especially when you read the reports on the career of the actress and her life. She was not only the first black actress but also the overall first black actor to reach completion of receiving lead-acting nominations for the Tony (winning in 1962 for Best Actress in a Musical for No Strings); the Emmy (a 1963 nomination for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for ABC’s Naked City; a 1969 nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for NBC’s Julia); and the Oscar (a 1974 nomination for Best Actress in Claudine).

I came across some interesting clip interviews of Carroll; ones in which Carroll spoke at length, and with clarity and insight, of her experiences at different points in her career and her life. Although there are plenty more clips than I will post, the ones appearing below are worth sharing and viewing.



In the first clip, published to YouTube in 2011, Diahann Carroll speaks of the 1954 Otto Preminger film Carmen Jones (for which leading lady Dorothy Dandridge became the first black actress Oscar nominated for Best Actress). Carroll touches on how some actors are treated as being no better than just being actors.

In this second clip, published to YouTube in 2012, Diahann Carroll speaks of her 1963 Emmy nomination for Naked City and, as one who was reluctant to move from New York to California, of her general distrust of Hollywood.

In this third clip, published to YouTube in 2011, Diahann Carroll speaks of the controversy—and a lot of pain—with her NBC series Julia (1968–1971).

In this fourth clip, published to YouTube in 2009, Diahann Carroll speaks of the John Berry film Claudine; having replaced the actress originally cast, her Tony- and Emmy-nominated friend Diana Sands (the original Beneathea in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun who died from cancer at age 39 in 1973); and why she was surprised she received a 1974 Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

• ARCHIVE • ‘The Election March of the Trolls’

I made the decision to post a topic that was published in 2011. It was eight years ago which marked the last time the U.S. had an upcoming presidential election which was an incumbent year; meaning, the voters had the choice to re-elect an incumbent U.S. president—or unseat that president with the opposition-party nominee. Chris Hedges was not caught up in it. Here is his great piece, The Election March of the Trolls.