Entertainment Weekend

“Entertainment Weekend” threads invite you to share anything—including content—on movies, television, and music on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Open Weekend

This “Open Weekend” thread is a regular thing for Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Please take this December 29–31, 2017 Progressives Chat to wherever you may want it to go.



 UPDATE: 12.30.2017 @ 04:00 p.m. ET 

ERICA GARNER

May 29, 1990–December 30, 2017

Erica Garner died Saturday, December 30, 2017, at age 27.

Following is a link:

Twitter—Erica Garner Dies At Age 27

‘Is Elizabeth Warren Still Acceptable to the Left?’

Jamarl Thomas has a video, partially baring the title of this blog entry, which speaks to a lot of Bernie Sanders’s 2016 Democratic presidential primaries voters with regard for Elizabeth Warren.

Back in 2012, I thought, prior to her first-term election as the now-senior U.S. senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren could be a future president of the United States. This was because of how she connected with what has been needed for consumers and workers. I was thinking this, admittedly, in a period when it seemed that Election 2008 was a realigning election for the presidency to be won by Democrats with at least three, but more than likely four, consecutive cycles. But, we know the Democrats—still stuck in the 1990s—so please excuse me for digressing.

It sunk in, after she waited for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination to be determined, and that she just basically aligning with the “winner,” that people had it absolutely wrong to be thinking that Elizabeth Warren had the potential for the presidency of the United States. Come to think—her not tossing her name into the 2016 race told me she was actually not interested. But, I do agree that what Elizabeth Warren did in 2016 was a big disappointment. Her choosing to spend much of Election 2016 out-tweeting a pre-45th U.S. president Donald Trump on Twitter was a colossal waste!

This video, appearing above, is long. It is just over 90 minutes. I know some people are not going to be up for it. But, any amount you can take in will likely be appreciated. As usual, Jamarl Thomas is perceptive. Very perceptive.




A Note to Readers of Progressives Chat

Before getting to my “Note,” I want to wish every person a healthy and enjoyable New Year’s Day, as well as a good night leading into that holiday, and a good 2018. (Today is the last regular day for a thread topic for the year 2017.)

A reminder: For the months of November and December 2017, I made the decision to have thread topics three times per week—regular topics on Mondays and Wednesdays followed by weekend threads beginning on Fridays.

This was due to the last two months typically being the busiest period of the year.

I have made the decision to continue with this regularly. One person responded, after I wrote and posted my November/December decision, with mentioning that day-to-day threads made commenting, after others’ posts, a little less convenient.

One benefit for me, frankly, is that I don’t need to stress over coming up with a new topic each day, Mondays to Thursdays, because news comes so fast that people may go ahead and post the link from such reports or, for another example, provide a link from a social media site like Twitter.

Progressives Chat is a place for people to post freely. There has never been a requirement to post responses which relate only to a given day’s topic thread. (A note about comments: I have the setting to allow comments up to seven days following a given blog entry.)

Thank you, to everyone, for being here!

—Candy83

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all readers!

For those who do not celebrate this particular holiday, please excuse me. I mean to always be respectful. And I wish everyone well.

(This blog thread is launched on Monday, December 25, 2017 at 12:00 a.m. ET.)

—Candy83

Entertainment Weekend

“Entertainment Weekend” threads invite you to share anything—including content—on movies, television, and music on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Open Weekend

This “Open Weekend” thread is a regular thing for Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Please take this December 22–24, 2017 Progressives Chat to wherever you may want it to go.

The Best of 2017

In the past, but not so much with the more recent of years, I appreciated year-end “Best-of” lists by critics—from print publications—for what they considered stood out in film, television, music, etc.

We are now at that time of the year when one can look back at a year in review.

Since Progressives Chat readers and I commonly posted videos to possibly alert each other for some must-viewing, I have decided to compile a “Best of 2017” citing five videos which really stood out. 

I encourage readers to offer their pick[s].

#01: The Jimmy Dore Show “Ex-MSNBC Host: Democrats Are NOT The Solution To Trump!” (06.29.2017). While a special salute deserves to also go to Jimmy Dore’s accounting of Hillary Clinton’s I Refuse to Take a Look Into a Mirror tour, as she was promoting her book What Happened, in Dore’s “Signs Hillary Clinton Is Having a Mental Breakdown” (09.13.2017), this one gives us Dylan Ratigan nailing the Democratic Party as the biggest reason why the nation now has Donald Trump as its 45th president. (“Think about how bad, how unappealing, how offensive Barack Obama and, ultimately, Hillary Clinton had to be to the American population in order for them to remotely begin to choose someone like Donald Trump as a better alternative.”)

#02: TYT Politics “DNC Unity Member LOVES Superdelegates” (10.20.2017). Although now-disgraced and ex-The Young Turks reporter Jordan Chariton would seem to stick out the most for what he brought to TYT, what was revealed in this video angered me. It had the most impact from TYT. In this video, Emma Vigeland interviews superdelegate Elaine Kamarck, from the Brookings Institution, to discuss superdelegates. Kamarck not only loves them. Kamarck tells Vigeland what she thinks of voters and how, according to Kamarck, they may handle their voting. 

#03: The Ring of Fire “Papantonio: Corporate Sociopaths Are Clearly In Charge Of American Businesses” (04.14.2017). After United Airlines came under fire for having brutally dragged a passenger off one of its flights, Thom Hartmann interviewed attorney Mike Papantonio. Now, one other video had Papantonio describe the Democratic Party [Establishment] as “a party of Martha’s Vineyard.” That was brief. This video, in its entirety, is better. It is about corporate culture. My favorite quote from Papantonio: “They’re graduating more sociopaths from MBA schools nowadays. And those sociopaths go to work as CEOs. Now, add to that, that a CEO typically is moving through a company quickly. It’s about a three-year program. [It used] to be a CEO would stay for a company for 20 years. But, now, it’s quick profits, big risks, [the] hell with everybody else—if we kill somebody in the process, as long as I can report that I made a half of a penny more in this 10k, life is good. I would really like to see a study where they do an MNPI, personal profile, on some of these kids coming through MBA schools now. It would be terrifying.…”

#04: The Humanist Report “Democrat Who Rejected A Mother’s Single-Payer Plea Now Being Primaried by Her” (07.19.2017). Mike Figueredo’s follow-up video was powerful and inspired. U.S. Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D–Nevada #04)—who has since come under fire as one of a number of men accused of sexual misconduct—said no to a constituent who lost her daughter and asked Kihuen to support H.R. 676 Medicare For All. Rather than remain heartbroken and betrayed by her congressman, citizen Amy Vilela made the decision to not accept it. She is going after Kihuen to try to unseat him at least with the 2018 Democratic primaries.

#05: The Rational National “Liberal Voters Trash the Democratic Party on ‘Face the Nation’” (05.09.2017). The CBS program had an excellent panel discussion on the problems with the Democratic Party. One citizen, in the front row and in a blue shirt, did not hold back. The Rational National’s David Doel picks up from that man’s points and adds some more insight explaining what has become of the Democratic Party.