The Three G’s

As one of the millions who plays and enjoys the Nintendo video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I have watched plenty of streams—both on YouTube and Twitch—from content creators. (In ACNH, you arrive on, and eventually build and establish, your own island in which you have animal villagers and human residents.) 

One such content creator’s name is Sam. He is the creator of “Crunchy Island.” Over the last year, not long after the March 20, 2020 debut of New Horizons, Sam created his island in which he invites other content creators to compete in mazes which ultimately lead one to winning a popular villager they want. (Related video appears below.) 

Once the contest ends, and a winner emerges, the other participants say, “GG.” 

GG is an acronym for Good Game! 

When it comes to Democratic Party politics, also good at playing their games, there are three Gs. 

GGG! 

They are:

• Gaslighting

• Gatekeeping

• Grifting

This is the case not only with people who make their living in Democratic Party politics. It is also applicable to establishment media which work with the Democratic Party. It is also applicable to political pundits. It is also getting more and more revealed nowadays with some sources in independent media.

They: 

• Gaslight

• Gatekeep

• Grift

Two recent Jimmy Dore Show videos give examples with his former boss, The Young Turks’s Cenk Uygur, along with his partner in GGG crime Ana Kasparian, and there is even the much-trusted and -revered intellectual Noam Chomsky. 

This is, in their current form, the Democratic Party.

• Gaslighters

• Gatekeepers

• Grifters 

The Three G’s.

Regarding Oscar and Chloé Zhao

Next Sunday, April 25, 2021, will be the 93rd Academy Awards for film achievements for the year 2020.

I have mentioned, in previous years, that I don’t tune in like I used to.

Part of the reason, and I’m sure this is how other regulars here feel, is that Hollywood is too much in bed with the Democratic Party. That what gets said—what gets expressed—comes across as an extension of the corrupt, corporate, Democratic Party Establishment and their neoliberalism and, of course, their propaganda. This means trying to influence how people think and feel—how they should live—when, in reality, they do not relate to most people. It is another example of the differences between the haves and the have-nots.

Another reason why I don’t feel so engaged is because the Oscars have become old. 

It feels like a lot of the productions and the people who end up winning were determined weeks, even months, ago. A website like GoldDerby, by awards expert Tom O’Neil (who has written books on the history of the Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys), follows this like sport. They’re very observant and have it pretty much figured months in advance.

This ends up coming across as pre-determined. Not all of it. Enough of it.

Since there has been much word of mouth, for months, I expect—and it has been expected—that the 2020 Best Director Oscar will go to Chloé Zhao, pictured above, for Nomadland. (She recently won the Directors Guild of America’s prize for film achievement. Usually, the DGA winner goes on to win the Oscar. And Zhao has won nearly every pre-Oscar prize along the way.)

Nomadland is about a woman—played by two-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand (who co-produced the film and is nominated on that count along with her performance)—who loses her job and travels in search of work. She also finds other people experiencing much of the same. It is based on the book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, by Jessica Bruder. (I have not seen Nomadland. It is available for streaming on Hulu. I may get to it. Subject matter is very relevant to this period in our history.)

While I expect Zhao to win, I also expect a narrative which has been pre-written will be reported. While Zhao would become the second woman in history to win the Oscar for directing (the first was Kathryn Bigelow, the 2009 winner, for The Hurt Locker), this narrative will point out that Zhao is a woman of color. Zhao is Chinese. She was born March 31, 1982, in Beijing, China.

This will, more than likely, become another example of identity politics. And the point of that will be to help enforce the narrative that Hollywood is enlightened. This of course means the same about the Democrats.

I think that is the wrong way to look at this.

Should Chloé Zhao win the 2020 Best Director Oscar, it bares in mind she may also win with each of her four nominations. As the director of Nomadland, Zhao is also nominated for Best Picture (as one of its producers), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.

That is both uncommon and one hell of an achievement.

Achievement in excellence, not identity, is how we should regard the possibly Oscar winning Chloé Zhao.

‘Georgia and the GOP’ … ‘AOC and the Dems’

Recent news items call for me to respond in this blog topic.

Georgia and the GOP

The Republicans in Georgia—with its governor Brian Kemp—want to stop the Democrats from being able to continue to win Georgia. 

In his 2020 Democratic pickup of the presidency of the United States, Joe Biden unseated Republican incumbent Donald Trump with among his pickups Georgia. 

It was the first time since 1992—also an election in which a Democratic challenger unseated a Republican incumbent U.S. president—that the Democrats carried Georgia. 

So, the Republicans want to stop their bleeding. That is what Brian Kemp and the Georgia GOP are trying to achieve. 

They won’t succeed. 

Since 1968, every U.S. presidential election which delivered a party switch—from Democratic to Republican or from Republican to Democratic—saw a given state realign to the party which won it over and, from that point forward, has not carried for the party which lost it. I touched on this in a previous blog topic. And I think the 2020 Democratic pickups from two states and a congressional district—this would be Arizona and Georgia (as well as Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District)—are applicable. 

The post-2020 Georgia GOP are foolish with this effort.

AOC and the Dems

The last week—maybe two weeks (not exactly sure)—have seen U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez (D–New York #14) expose herself as a sellout. 

#ForceTheVote—going back to December 2020—is when people finally looked to AOC, and her fellow “Squad” members, as fake. 

I am remembering, after she unseated Joe Crowley in the 2018 Democratic primaries, that Jared Beck—the plaintiff attorney in the DNC lawsuit—was tweeting that Ocasio–Cortez was not real. By then, Beck had given up on the Democrats—saying they are criminals—and summarized people’s belief in Ocasio–Cortez, and anyone affiliated with the Democrats, as naive. 

I give credit to Jared Beck. He has earned it. For me—I haven’t voted for a Democrat in a general election since 2014. The DNC rigging the 2016 primaries, Barack Obama orchestrating Joe Biden’s 2020 nomination, and the other rigged elections in between (like the 2017 California Democratic chairperson election) have done nothing but strengthen my resolve to not vote again in a general election for Team Blue.

At this point, the role Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez has is to continue to try to lure people—especially young people—to vote in general elections for the Democratic Party.

Graham Elwood On the China–Iran Deal and Smedley Butler

The above videos were published March 31 and April 3, 2021 to YouTube by Graham Elwood. 

The first is titled “China Makes Iran Deal While US Pushes War.” It is a good example of how China is demonstrating more intelligence than the United States when it comes to leadership—and the future.

The second is titled “Smedley Butler: The Original Anti War Marine.” It is about the U.S. Marine Corps officer (1881–1940) who doesn’t get mentioned much—even though he exposed imperialists who tried to overthrow 32nd U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt.