Posts Tagged ‘VANITY FAIR’
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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary, Uncategorized on November 25, 2025 at 12:11 am
Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasNews, probably fell out of his chair while writing his analysis of the November 21 meeting between President Donald J. Trump and Zohran Mamdani, mayor-elect of New York City.
Filipkowski wrote:
“Zohran Mamdani visited Trump today at the WH, and it did not go the way most Republicans thought it would. Trump has always recognized and fawned over star power, and that is exactly the way he treated Mamdani.
“Fox reporter to Mamdani: You referred to Trump as a despot…
“Trump interrupts: I’ve been called much worse than a despot. So it’s not that insulting.
“I was laughing hysterically during this entire meeting with Trump praising Mamdani. It was a one-way love fest from Trump to Mamdani, with Zohran playing it cool the entire time.
Ron Filipkowski
Trump: I tell you, the press has eaten this thing up. I have had a lot of meetings with the heads of major countries, nobody cared. The biggest people come over from other countries and nobody cares but they did care about this meeting, and it was a great meeting.
“Q to Trump – Would you feel comfortable living in NYC under a Mamdani admin?
Trump: Yeah, I would.
“Republican campaign consultants built their entire midterm strategy around making Mamdani into the devil incarnate and the face of Democratic Party, then Trump slobbers all over him today in the Oval!
Donald Trump
“Trump then proceeded to end Elise Stefanik’s campaign for governor”:
Q – Stefanik has campaigned on calling Mamdani a jihadist. Do you think you’re standing next to a jihadist?
Trump: No… but she’s out there campaigning. You say things sometimes in a campaign. You’d have to ask her about that. I met with a man who is a rational person.
“…I’m dying!!! I soooo wish I could see her face right now. (First time I’ve ever said that).”
Zohran Mamdani
Mamdani: I told the president that, you know, so much of the focus of our campaign has been on the cost of living crisis and when we asked those New Yorkers who had voted for the president, when we saw an increase in his numbers in NYC, that came back to the same issue: Cost of living, cost of living, cost of living.
Trump: We have to get Con Edison to start lowering their rates.
Mamdani: Absolutely.
“I just pissed my pants laughing. I’m crying!”
Trump: He has a chance to do something great for NY and he does need the help from the fed govt. And we will be helping him. But he’s different than your average candidate. He came out of nowhere.
* * * * *
During Mamdani’scampaign for mayor, he called himself “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” and Trumpcalled Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and “total nut job.” So many Republicans found themselves baffled—if not furious at the outcome of the meeting.
Fox host Brian Kilmeade: Wow, what we just watched. This was a love fest. I think JD Vance is jealous. I think the president wants to use Zohran as a running mate. They got along fantastic.
Trump fanatic Laura Loomer: Why did Zelensky receive a harsher welcome at the WH than Mamdani? Interesting. If socialists are doing a good job, then I guess nobody needs to vote them out during the midterms. If you’re a Republican, why not just stay home in 2026 and 2028 since Mamdani’s policies are amazing? I’m confused. No need to oppose the left I guess. No need to vote for the GOP in 2026 is the message I’m getting from that. Am I missing something?
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY): Based on the election results, we knew Mamdani was charming, but who thought he’d be able to charm the president?
A close friend of Trump’s to Vanity Fair: I think it would’ve been a lot more effective for his base if he threw Mamdani out of the Oval Office…I’m concerned that Trump is turning his back on the base at the moment.
Todd Starnes, Right-wing commentator: SCENARIO: Mamdani enters the Oval Office today only to be greeted by Tom Homan who then personally escorts the Communist back to Uganda. I thought Mamdani was supposed to be a fascist dictator? What the heck is going on at the White House?
Some Right-wing commentators believed that Trump had extended an olive branch to Mamdani. Others felt Mamdani had been nervous, while Trump had been in total control.
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had a different take: “I think Trump has actually a lot of respect for Mamdani. As they say, game respects game. If you engage Trump and you show him you’re not afraid, he is actually willing to do some give and take.”
On November 4, Trump suffered major defeats in elections for New York City’s mayor, the governorships in New Jersey and Virginia, and Proposition 50, California’s redistricting ballot measure.
“Affordability” was the issue that guided voters—while Trump was gutting the East Wing of the White House for a $300 million ballroom. So his surprisingly affable attitude toward Mamdani could have been a ploy to convince voters he now cared about their needs in an era of rising inequality.
Only time—and election returns—will tell.
2003 IRAQ WAR; ABU GHRAIB PRISON, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANIMAL RIGHTS, AP, “GREASE”, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BILLBOARD HOT 100, BIRTH CONTROL, BLACKS, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BREAST CANCER, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER, CLIMATE CHANGE, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, EURIPIDES, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GAYS, GRAMMY AWARDS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, JOHN TRAVOLTA, LARRY KING, LESBIANS, LUNG CANCER, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, RED CROSS, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RUSH LIMBAUGH, SALON, SANDRA FLUKE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SMOKING, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRAGEDY, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VANITY FAIR, WONKETTE
In Entertainment, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on October 27, 2023 at 12:10 am
Two deaths. Two entirely different legacies.
The first—of Rush Limbaugh—came on February 17, 2021.
The second—of Olivia Newton-John—came on August 10, 2022.
Limbaugh hosted The Rush Limbaugh Show, which was nationally syndicated on AM and FM radio stations from 1988 until his death in 2021.
Rush Limbaugh
With 15.5 million listeners, Limbaugh’s radio show was the most popular one in the United States. He became one of the most prominent Right wing voices in the country during the 1990s.
Among his targets: Blacks; liberals; Democrats; gays; lesbians; feminists (whom he called “feminazis”); consent in sexual relations; environmentalism; climate change; abortion rights; Barack Obama; the need for masking and vaccinations against COVID-19.
Among the personalities and causes he championed: The 2003 Iraq war; torture at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison; eliminating taxes on the wealthy; smoking; Donald Trump;
His attack on Sandra Fluke, a third-year Georgetown University law student who testified before Congress on February 23, 2012, was typical Limbaugh.
Fluke said that insurance companies should cover the costs of birth control. As a student at a Jesuit campus that refuses to provide insurance coverage for contraception, birth control costs can be as high as $3,000 during the three years a woman attends law school.
Limbaugh’s response: “So Ms. Fluke and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. And I’ll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”
Sandra Fluke was among the millions who didn’t mourn when Limbaugh died at 70 on February 17, 2021, of lung cancer caused by a lifetime of cigar smoking.
If the legacy of Rush Limbaugh was darkness personified, the legacy of Olivia Newton-John was one of sunshine and joy.
Olivia Newton-John
Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
She dominated the pop charts of the 1970s and ’80s with mega hits “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” “I Honestly Love You,” “Have You Never Been Mellow?” “Magic,” and “Physical.”
Vanity Fair described her thus: “Her angelic beam matched with a clear, sweet-yet-supple soprano was vocal satin, giving her a versatile edge in singing feel-good numbers across genres and styles.”
But her biggest splash came in “Grease,” the top-grossing movie for 1978, where she co-starred with John Travolta. Her role as Sandy, an Australian exchange student, brought her international acclaim and further propelled her musical career. The movie’s soundtrack remains one of the world’s best-selling albums.
“I don’t think anyone could have imagined a movie would go on almost 40 years and would still be popular and people would still be talking to me about it all the time and loving it,” Newton-John said in 2017.
She won four Grammy awards and racked up five number-one hits and another 10 top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and two number-one albums on the Billboard 200. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Having sold more than 100 million records, Newton-John is one of the most popular singers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
“I love to sing, it’s all I know how to do,” she told CNN in 2017. “That’s all I’ve ever done since I was 15, so it’s my life. I feel very grateful that I can still do it and people still come to see me.”
An animal-rights advocate, she cancelled a 1978 concert tour of Japan to protest the slaughter of dolphins caught in tuna fishing nets.
Among the charities and foundations she supported: Cure Breast Cancer, Red Cross, Healthy Child Healthy World, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She was a performer on the 1979 Music for UNICEF Concert for the UN’s International Year of the Child, televised worldwide.
Behind her bright smile and sunny disposition lay the shadow of tragedy. In 2005 Newton-John’s then-boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, disappeared at sea while on a fishing trip off the coast of California.
“It’s very hard to live with that,” she told CNN’s Larry King in 2006. “It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve been through a lot of things.”
In 1992, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She recovered, but for more than 40 years she lived under the constant threat of its return.
“I draw strength from the millions of women who have faced this challenge successfully,” she said in a statement. “This has been detected early because I’ve had regular examinations, so I encourage other women to do the same.”
Then, in May 2017, she announced that the cancer had returned and metastasized to her lower back.
Asked during a February 2021 interview if she had contemplated her own death, she replied, “I have quite a few times,” adding it was “sooner than I would have wanted. I mean—we all know we are going to die. I think we spend our lives probably much in denial of it.”
The title of her 2019 autobiography, Don’t Stop Believin’, summed up her attitude toward life.
On August 8, 2022, Olivia Newton-John died from cancer at her home in the Santa Ynez Valley of California. She was 73.
Euripides, the Greek tragedian, was right: “When good men die, their goodness does not perish, but lives though they are gone. As for the bad, all that was theirs dies and is buried with them.”
2003 IRAQ WAR; ABU GHRAIB PRISON, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANIMAL RIGHTS, AP, “GREASE”, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BILLBOARD HOT 100, BIRTH CONTROL, BLACKS, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BREAST CANCER, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER, CLIMATE CHANGE, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, EURIPIDES, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GAYS, GRAMMY AWARDS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, JOHN TRAVOLTA, LARRY KING, LESBIANS, LUNG CANCER, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, RED CROSS, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RUSH LIMBAUGH, SALON, SANDRA FLUKE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SMOKING, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRAGEDY, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VANITY FAIR, WONKETTE
In Entertainment, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on December 21, 2022 at 12:10 am
Euripides, the Greek tragedian, was right: “When good men die, their goodness does not perish, but lives though they are gone. As for the bad, all that was theirs dies and is buried with them.“
Two deaths well illustrate the truth of this.
The first—of Rush Limbaugh—came on February 17, 2021.
The second—of Olivia Newton-John—came on August 10, 2022.
Limbaugh hosted The Rush Limbaugh Show, which was nationally syndicated on AM and FM radio stations from 1988 until his death in 2021.
Rush Limbaugh
With 15.5 million listeners, Limbaugh’s radio show was the most popular one in the United States. He became one of the most prominent Right-wing voices in the country during the 1990s.
Among his targets: Blacks; liberals; Democrats; gays; lesbians; feminists (whom he called “feminazis”); consent in sexual relations; environmentalism; climate change; abortion rights; Barack Obama; the need for masking and vaccinations against COVID-19.
Among the personalities and causes he championed: The 2003 Iraq war; torture at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison; eliminating taxes on the wealthy; smoking; Donald Trump;
His attack on Sandra Fluke, a third-year Georgetown University law student who testified before Congress on February 23, 2012, was typical Limbaugh.
Fluke said that insurance companies should cover the costs of birth control. As a student at a Jesuit campus that refuses to provide insurance coverage for contraception, birth control costs can be as high as $3,000 during the three years a woman attends law school.
Limbaugh’s response: “So Ms. Fluke and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. And I’ll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”
Sandra Fluke was among the millions who didn’t mourn when Limbaugh died at 70 on February 17, 2021, of lung cancer caused by a lifetime of cigar smoking.
If the legacy of Rush Limbaugh was darkness personified, the legacy of Olivia Newton-John was one of sunshine and joy.
Olivia Newton-John
Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
She dominated the pop charts of the 1970s and ’80s with mega hits “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” “I Honestly Love You,” “Have You Never Been Mellow?” “Magic,” and “Physical.”
Vanity Fair described her thus: “Her angelic beam matched with a clear, sweet-yet-supple soprano was vocal satin, giving her a versatile edge in singing feel-good numbers across genres and styles.”
But her biggest splash came in “Grease,” the top-grossing movie for 1978, where she co-starred with John Travolta. Her role as Sandy, an Australian exchange student, brought her international acclaim and further propelled her musical career. The movie’s soundtrack remains one of the world’s best-selling albums.
“I don’t think anyone could have imagined a movie would go on almost 40 years and would still be popular and people would still be talking to me about it all the time and loving it,” Newton-John said in 2017.
She won four Grammy awards and racked up five number-one hits and another 10 top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and two number-one albums on the Billboard 200. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Having sold more than 100 million records, Newton-John is one of the most popular singers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
“I love to sing, it’s all I know how to do,” she told CNN in 2017. “That’s all I’ve ever done since I was 15, so it’s my life. I feel very grateful that I can still do it and people still come to see me.”
An animal-rights advocate, she cancelled a 1978 concert tour of Japan to protest the slaughter of dolphins caught in tuna fishing nets.
Among the charities and foundations she supported: Cure Breast Cancer, Red Cross, Healthy Child Healthy World, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She was a performer on the 1979 Music for UNICEF Concert for the UN’s International Year of the Child, televised worldwide.
Behind her bright smile and sunny disposition lay the shadow of tragedy. In 2005 Newton-John’s then-boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, disappeared at sea while on a fishing trip off the coast of California.
“It’s very hard to live with that,” she told CNN’s Larry King in 2006. “It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve been through a lot of things.”
In 1992, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She recovered, but for more than 40 years she lived with the constant threat of its return.
“I draw strength from the millions of women who have faced this challenge successfully,” she said in a statement. “This has been detected early because I’ve had regular examinations, so I encourage other women to do the same.”
Then, in May 2017, she announced that the cancer had returned and metastasized to her lower back.
Asked during a February 2021 interview if she had contemplated her own death, she replied, “I have quite a few times,” adding it was “sooner than I would have wanted. I mean—we all know we are going to die. I think we spend our lives probably much in denial of it.”
On August 8, 2022, Olivia Newton-John died from cancer at her home in the Santa Ynez Valley of California. She was 73.
2003 IRAQ WAR; ABU GHRAIB PRISON, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANIMAL RIGHTS, AP, “GREASE”, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BILLBOARD HOT 100, BIRTH CONTROL, BLACKS, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BREAST CANCER, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER, CLIMATE CHANGE, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, EURIPIDES, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GAYS, GRAMMY AWARDS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, JOHN TRAVOLTA, LARRY KING, LESBIANS, LUNG CANCER, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, RED CROSS, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RUSH LIMBAUGH, SALON, SANDRA FLUKE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SMOKING, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRAGEDY, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VANITY FAIR, WONKETTE
In Entertainment, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on August 15, 2022 at 12:12 am
Two deaths. Two entirely different legacies.
The first—of Rush Limbaugh—came on February 17, 2021.
The second—of Olivia Newton-John—came on August 10, 2022.
Limbaugh hosted The Rush Limbaugh Show, which was nationally syndicated on AM and FM radio stations from 1988 until his death in 2021.
Rush Limbaugh
With 15.5 million listeners, Limbaugh’s radio show was the most popular one in the United States. He became one of the most prominent Right wing voices in the country during the 1990s.
Among his targets: Blacks; liberals; Democrats; gays; lesbians; feminists (whom he called “feminazis”); consent in sexual relations; environmentalism; climate change; abortion rights; Barack Obama; the need for masking and vaccinations against COVID-19.
Among the personalities and causes he championed: The 2003 Iraq war; torture at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison; eliminating taxes on the wealthy; smoking; Donald Trump;
His attack on Sandra Fluke, a third-year Georgetown University law student who testified before Congress on February 23, 2012, was typical Limbaugh.
Fluke said that insurance companies should cover the costs of birth control. As a student at a Jesuit campus that refuses to provide insurance coverage for contraception, birth control costs can be as high as $3,000 during the three years a woman attends law school.
Limbaugh’s response: “So Ms. Fluke and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. And I’ll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”
Sandra Fluke was among the millions who didn’t mourn when Limbaugh died at 70 on February 17, 2021, of lung cancer caused by a lifetime of cigar smoking.
If the legacy of Rush Limbaugh was darkness personified, the legacy of Olivia Newton-John was one of sunshine and joy.
Olivia Newton-John
Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
She dominated the pop charts of the 1970s and ’80s with mega hits “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” “I Honestly Love You,” “Have You Never Been Mellow?” “Magic,” and “Physical.”
Vanity Fair described her thus: “Her angelic beam matched with a clear, sweet-yet-supple soprano was vocal satin, giving her a versatile edge in singing feel-good numbers across genres and styles.”
But her biggest splash came in “Grease,” the top-grossing movie for 1978, where she co-starred with John Travolta. Her role as Sandy, an Australian exchange student, brought her international acclaim and further propelled her musical career. The movie’s soundtrack remains one of the world’s best-selling albums.
“I don’t think anyone could have imagined a movie would go on almost 40 years and would still be popular and people would still be talking to me about it all the time and loving it,” Newton-John said in 2017.
She won four Grammy awards and racked up five number-one hits and another 10 top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and two number-one albums on the Billboard 200. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Having sold more than 100 million records, Newton-John is one of the most popular singers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
“I love to sing, it’s all I know how to do,” she told CNN in 2017. “That’s all I’ve ever done since I was 15, so it’s my life. I feel very grateful that I can still do it and people still come to see me.”
An animal-rights advocate, she cancelled a 1978 concert tour of Japan to protest the slaughter of dolphins caught in tuna fishing nets.
Among the charities and foundations she supported: Cure Breast Cancer, Red Cross, Healthy Child Healthy World, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She was a performer on the 1979 Music for UNICEF Concert for the UN’s International Year of the Child, televised worldwide.
Behind her bright smile and sunny disposition lay the shadow of tragedy. In 2005 Newton-John’s then-boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, disappeared at sea while on a fishing trip off the coast of California.
“It’s very hard to live with that,” she told CNN’s Larry King in 2006. “It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve been through a lot of things.”
In 1992, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She recovered, but for 25 years she lived with the constant threat of its return.
“I draw strength from the millions of women who have faced this challenge successfully,” she said in a statement. “This has been detected early because I’ve had regular examinations, so I encourage other women to do the same.”
Then, in May 2017, she announced that the cancer had returned and metastasized to her lower back.
Asked during a February 2021 interview if she had contemplated her own death, she replied, “I have quite a few times,” adding it was “sooner than I would have wanted. I mean—we all know we are going to die. I think we spend our lives probably much in denial of it.”
The title of her 2019 autobiography, Don’t Stop Believin’, summed up her attitude toward life.
On August 8, 2022, Olivia Newton-John died from cancer at her home in the Santa Ynez Valley of California. She was 73.
Euripides, the Greek tragedian, was right: “When good men die, their goodness does not perish, but lives though they are gone. As for the bad, all that was theirs dies and is buried with them.”
AARON BROUGH, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AP, BARACK OBAMA, BARBARA TUCHMAN, BRIAN KILMEADE, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CLIMATE CHANGE, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, CROOKS AND LIARS, CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, DREAMS FROM MY FATHER (BOOK), FACEBOOK, FOX NEWS, GODFATHER'S PIZZA, IGNORANCE, JOHN F. KENNEDY, LITERACY, MARK STEYN, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PAUL REVERE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT FRANCIS “BETO” O’ROURKE, RUSH LIMBAUGH, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, THE ATLANTIC, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE (BOOK), THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE GUNS OF AUGUST (BOOK), THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TUCKER CARLSON, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY, VANITY FAIR
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on April 30, 2020 at 1:10 am
On March 14, 2019, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke announced his candidacy for President of the United States in the 2020 Presidential election.
The former Congressman from Texas (2013 – 2019) had no sooner announced his candidacy that Fox News host Brian Kilmeade attacked him.
Vanity Fair had published a profile on O’Rourke, in which the writer noted that he had a “huge library.”
“As if it’s a big plus that he reads books,” scoffed Kilmeade.
Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke
His comment echoed that by former “Godfather’s Pizza” CEO Herman Cain during the 2012 Presidential race: “We need a leader, not a reader.” Thus he excused his ignorance for why President Barack Obama had intervened in Libya.
And on April 4, 2019, Tucker Carlson, another star commentator on Fox, offered this gem: “How did we wind up with a country in which feminists do science? I mean, isn’t that sort of bound to get a study like this, right?”
He was referring to a study by Dr. Aaron Brough of Utah State University on how gender norms reflect buying choices that, in turn, affect the environment. He found that both men and women associated doing something good for the environment with being “more feminine.”
Brough and his team call this deeply-held unconscious bias the “Green-Feminine Stereotype.”
Carlson didn’t ask a scientist or climate-change expert to dissect the study’s conclusions. Instead, he interviewed Mark Steyn, a Right-wing author. Steyn joked that his insecurities about his masculinity “are causing rising sea levels in the Maldives” and that he was “kind of on board” with the study’s thesis.
Tucker Carlson
Gage Skidmore [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D
For Carlson, “climate science was all about ice core samples” and not Walmart gift cards.
For Steyn, “climate science is a state of mind” and the “big bucks” are in surveys where you “decide what’s heating up the planet is men.”
This disdain for education in general—and science in particular—has led to the following: In March, an NBC News poll found that only 30% of Republicans said that they would actually listen to the advice of doctors to stay away from large, crowded areas to avoid Coronavirus.
An August 20, 2019 story in Forbes noted that a Pew Research survey, conducted in July, had found that “67% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning respondents say higher education is having a positive effect on the country compared to only 33% of Republicans and Republican-leaning participants.”
Furthermore, “the percentage of Republicans attributing a positive effect to higher education has steadily eroded from 58% (2010), 53% (2012), 54% (2015), 43% (2016), and 36% (2017). Among Republicans, 59% now say higher education has a negative effect on the U.S., compared to just 18% of Democrats.”
These are the same people who get their version of reality from Right-wing sources like Fox News Network and Rush Limbaugh.
Rush Limbaugh
On his March 27 show, Limbaugh dismissed Coronavirus as “the common cold,” then added: “We didn’t elect a president to defer to a bunch of health experts that we don’t know.
“And how do we know they’re even health experts? Well, they wear white lab coats, and they’ve been in the job for a while, and they’re at the CDC and they’re at the NIH, and they’re up, well—yeah, they’ve been there, and they are there.
“But has there been any job assessment for them? They’re just assumed to be the best because they’re in government. But, these are all kinds of things that I’ve been questioning.”
President Donald Trump has gone even further in celebrating ignorance. At a campaign rally during the 2016 Presidential race, he infamously said: “We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.”
As President, he has attacked the free press as “the enemy of America” for exposing his lies and criminality. And while he repeatedly scorns legitimate mainstream news media, he often seeks guidance from ego-stroking Right-wing shills at Fox News—who often prove as ignorant as he is.
By contrast, President John F. Kennedy insisted on being well-informed. He speed-read several newspapers every morning and nourished personal relationships with the press. These journalistic contacts gave Kennedy additional sources of information and perspectives on national and international issues.
White House painting of JFK
During the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy spoke with aides about a book he had just finished: Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August, about the events leading to World War 1.
He said that the book’s most important revelation was how European leaders had blindly rushed into war, without thought to the possible consequences. Kennedy told his aides he did not intend to make the same mistake—that, having read his history, he was determined to learn from it.
Republicans attacked President Barack Obama for his Harvard education and articulate use of language. Among their taunts: “Hitler also gave good speeches.”
And they resented his having earned most of his income as a writer of two books: Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope. As if being a writer is somehow subversive.
When knowledge and literacy are attacked as “highfalutin’” arrogance, and ignorance and incoherence are embraced as sincerity, national decline lies just around the corner.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on May 22, 2019 at 12:24 am
On March 14, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke announced his candidacy for President of the United States in the 2020 Presidential election.
The former Congressman from Texas (2013 – 2019) had no sooner announced his candidacy that Fox News host Brian Kilmeade attacked him.
Vanity Fair had published a profile on O’Rourke, in which the writer noted that he had a “huge library.”
“As if it’s a big plus that he reads books,” scoffed Kilmeade.
Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke
His comment echoed that by former “Godfather’s Pizza” CEO Herman Cain during the 2012 Presidential race: “We need a leader, not a reader.” Thus he excused his ignorance for why President Barack Obama had intervened in Libya.
And on April 4, Tucker Carlson, another star commentator on Fox, offered this gem: “How did we wind up with a country in which feminists do science? I mean, isn’t that sort of bound to get a study like this, right?”
He was referring to a study by Dr. Aaron Brough of Utah State University on how gender norms reflect buying choices that, in turn, affect the environment. He found that both men and women associated doing something good for the environment with being “more feminine.”
Brough and his team call this deeply-held unconscious bias the “Green-Feminine Stereotype.”
Carlson didn’t ask a scientist or climate-change expert to dissect the study’s conclusions. Instead, he interviewed Mark Steyn, a Right-wing author. Steyn joked that his insecurities about his masculinity “are causing rising sea levels in the Maldives” and that he was “kind of on board” with the study’s thesis.
Tucker Carlson
Gage Skidmore [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D
For Carlson, “climate science was all about ice core samples” and not Walmart gift cards.
For Steyn, “climate science is a state of mind” and the “big bucks” are in surveys where you “decide what’s heating up the planet is men.”
All of which reflects an almost monolithic disdain by Republicans for education generally—and science in particular.
During the 2012 Presidential campaign, Republican Presidential candidates celebrated their ignorance of history and current events.
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin rewrote history via “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”:
“He warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and, um, making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that, uh, we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.”
Actually, Revere was warning his fellow Americans about an impending British attack—as his celebrated catchphrase “The British are coming!” made clear.
And then Texas Governor (and now Secretary of Energy) Rick Perry showed pride in not knowing there are nine judges on the United States Supreme Court:
“Well, obviously, I know there are nine Supreme Court judges. I don’t know how eight came out my mouth. But the, uh, the fact is, I can tell you—I don’t have memorized all of those Supreme Court judges. And, uh, ah—
“Here’s what I do know. That when I put an individual on the Supreme Court, just like I done in Texas, ah, we got nine Supreme Court justices in Texas, ah, they will be strict constructionists….”
In short, it’s the media’s fault if they ask you a question and your answer reveals your own ignorance, stupidity or criminality.
President Donald Trump has gone even further in celebrating ignorance. At a campaign rally during the 2016 Presidential race, he infamously said: “We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated,”
As President, he has attacked the free press as “the enemy of America” for exposing his lies and criminality. And while he repeatedly scorns legitimate mainstream news media, he often seeks guidance from ego-stroking Right-wing shills at Fox News—who often prove as ignorant as he is.
By contrast, President John F. Kennedy insisted on being well-informed. He speed-read several newspapers every morning and nourished personal relationships with the press. These journalistic contacts gave Kennedy additional sources of information and perspectives on national and international issues.
White House painting of JFK
During the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy spoke with aides about a book he had just finished: Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August, about the events leading to World War 1.
He said that the book’s most important revelation was how European leaders had blindly rushed into war, without thought to the possible consequences. Kennedy told his aides he did not intend to make the same mistake—that, having read his history, he was determined to learn from it.
Republicans attacked President Barack Obama for his Harvard education and articulate use of language. Among their taunts: “Hitler also gave good speeches.”
And they resented his having earned most of his income as a writer of two books: Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope. As if being a writer is somehow subversive.
When knowledge and literacy are attacked as “highfalutin’” arrogance, and ignorance and incoherence are embraced as sincerity, national decline lies just around the corner.
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
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TRUMP: TURNING ENEMIES INTO ALLIES–AND VICE VERSA
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary, Uncategorized on November 25, 2025 at 12:11 amRon Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasNews, probably fell out of his chair while writing his analysis of the November 21 meeting between President Donald J. Trump and Zohran Mamdani, mayor-elect of New York City.
Filipkowski wrote:
“Zohran Mamdani visited Trump today at the WH, and it did not go the way most Republicans thought it would. Trump has always recognized and fawned over star power, and that is exactly the way he treated Mamdani.
“Fox reporter to Mamdani: You referred to Trump as a despot…
“Trump interrupts: I’ve been called much worse than a despot. So it’s not that insulting.
“I was laughing hysterically during this entire meeting with Trump praising Mamdani. It was a one-way love fest from Trump to Mamdani, with Zohran playing it cool the entire time.
Ron Filipkowski
Trump: I tell you, the press has eaten this thing up. I have had a lot of meetings with the heads of major countries, nobody cared. The biggest people come over from other countries and nobody cares but they did care about this meeting, and it was a great meeting.
“Q to Trump – Would you feel comfortable living in NYC under a Mamdani admin?
Trump: Yeah, I would.
“Republican campaign consultants built their entire midterm strategy around making Mamdani into the devil incarnate and the face of Democratic Party, then Trump slobbers all over him today in the Oval!
Donald Trump
“Trump then proceeded to end Elise Stefanik’s campaign for governor”:
Q – Stefanik has campaigned on calling Mamdani a jihadist. Do you think you’re standing next to a jihadist?
Trump: No… but she’s out there campaigning. You say things sometimes in a campaign. You’d have to ask her about that. I met with a man who is a rational person.
“…I’m dying!!! I soooo wish I could see her face right now. (First time I’ve ever said that).”
Zohran Mamdani
Mamdani: I told the president that, you know, so much of the focus of our campaign has been on the cost of living crisis and when we asked those New Yorkers who had voted for the president, when we saw an increase in his numbers in NYC, that came back to the same issue: Cost of living, cost of living, cost of living.
Trump: We have to get Con Edison to start lowering their rates.
Mamdani: Absolutely.
“I just pissed my pants laughing. I’m crying!”
Trump: He has a chance to do something great for NY and he does need the help from the fed govt. And we will be helping him. But he’s different than your average candidate. He came out of nowhere.
* * * * *
During Mamdani’scampaign for mayor, he called himself “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” and Trumpcalled Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and “total nut job.” So many Republicans found themselves baffled—if not furious at the outcome of the meeting.
Fox host Brian Kilmeade: Wow, what we just watched. This was a love fest. I think JD Vance is jealous. I think the president wants to use Zohran as a running mate. They got along fantastic.
Trump fanatic Laura Loomer: Why did Zelensky receive a harsher welcome at the WH than Mamdani? Interesting. If socialists are doing a good job, then I guess nobody needs to vote them out during the midterms. If you’re a Republican, why not just stay home in 2026 and 2028 since Mamdani’s policies are amazing? I’m confused. No need to oppose the left I guess. No need to vote for the GOP in 2026 is the message I’m getting from that. Am I missing something?
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY): Based on the election results, we knew Mamdani was charming, but who thought he’d be able to charm the president?
A close friend of Trump’s to Vanity Fair: I think it would’ve been a lot more effective for his base if he threw Mamdani out of the Oval Office…I’m concerned that Trump is turning his back on the base at the moment.
Todd Starnes, Right-wing commentator: SCENARIO: Mamdani enters the Oval Office today only to be greeted by Tom Homan who then personally escorts the Communist back to Uganda. I thought Mamdani was supposed to be a fascist dictator? What the heck is going on at the White House?
Some Right-wing commentators believed that Trump had extended an olive branch to Mamdani. Others felt Mamdani had been nervous, while Trump had been in total control.
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had a different take: “I think Trump has actually a lot of respect for Mamdani. As they say, game respects game. If you engage Trump and you show him you’re not afraid, he is actually willing to do some give and take.”
On November 4, Trump suffered major defeats in elections for New York City’s mayor, the governorships in New Jersey and Virginia, and Proposition 50, California’s redistricting ballot measure.
“Affordability” was the issue that guided voters—while Trump was gutting the East Wing of the White House for a $300 million ballroom. So his surprisingly affable attitude toward Mamdani could have been a ploy to convince voters he now cared about their needs in an era of rising inequality.
Only time—and election returns—will tell.
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