New documentary on Netanyahu’s corruption

Brooke Gladstone, the host of the radio program On the Media, had an interview with Israeli journalist Raviv Drucker who has been investigating Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for decades. Netanyahu and his wife Sarah have apparently engaged in brazen acts of corruption, demanding and getting bribes from various people to satisfy their taste for luxuries. There have been years of hearings with 333 witnesses since May 2020.
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Film review: Will & Harper (2024)

About thirty years ago, Will Ferrell became a cast member on Saturday Night Live where he became friends with Andrew Steele, one of the writers who had also been hired that year, and they stayed close friends even after Ferrell left the show and went on to other things. About three years ago, Ferrell received an email that Steele had sent out to a few friends saying that she had transitioned and was a woman and now had the name Harper Steele.

In a subsequent conversation, Steele told Ferrell how she used to enjoy driving back and forth across this vast country many times, stopping at small towns, going to local bars, meeting the people, and enjoying the activities of the local communities. She felt that doing so now as a trans woman would not feel as comfortable or even safe and that she missed the ability to do so. Ferrell suggested that they do such a road trip together, and this documentary chronicles their 17-day journey from New York to Los Angeles, stopping at Steele’s hometown in Iowa, doing the kinds of things that Steele used to do alone.
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The Boss endorses Kamala Harris and Tim Walz

It was quite an eloquent endorsement of them and a repudiation of the GOP ticket. But you would expect that from such a gifted songwriter like Bruce Springsteen.

What is it with toilet paper hoarding?

It seems like during periods of uncertainty, the main thing that many Americans worry about is running out of toilet paper. We saw this during the pandemic when store shelves were quickly stripped bare of the product. I recall seeing my neighbors unloading many multipacks of toilet paper from their car and carting them into their house.

We now see the same thing happening because of fears that the strike by dockworkers at eastern US and Gulf ports would lead to shortages. Whereas the pandemic fear had at least some basis in reality because everything was uncertain and we did not know how long the supply chain disruptions would last, this latest hoarding makes no sense since almost all the toilet paper sold in the US is made within the country or in Canada and thus is not affected by the dock strike.
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What is Melania Trump up to?

After being almost invisible during the entirety of this campaign, suddenly Melania Trump is making news. Excepts from her memoir to be released next month say that she supports abortion rights. She then reiterated that view in a video.

Melania Trump doubled down in her first public response to news of her passionate support for abortion rights, a position starkly at odds with that of her husband, Donald Trump, and the Republican party he leads.

“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard,” the former first lady said in a video released on Thursday. “Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth. Individual freedom. What does, ‘My body, my choice’ really mean?”
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Rudy Giuliani’s daughter’s shame over her father’s behavior

As another example of how creepy Donald Trump is the anti-Midas, turning everything and everyone he touches to rubbish, Rudy Giuliani’s daughter Caroline Rose Giuliani has written an essay endorsing Kamala Harris for president but also expressing anger at creepy Trump for what happened to her father who, as a result of climbing aboard the MAGA wagon, went from once being being a respected prosecutor and mayor of New York to being disbarred from New York and Washington DC for spreading election lies.
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Have I been committing a serious offense against Italian cuisine?

This cartoon brought me up short.

(WuMo)

My practice has been to take spaghetti out of the box and break the strands into four smaller pieces before cooking it. That way I don’t have to go through what (to me) is the tedious business of winding long strands of spaghetti on the fork when eating. But maybe for some, that is the appeal of spaghetti.

My immediate reaction to the debate

I thought that weird JD Vance did better than I expected, even if almost his entire shtick consisted of three things: taking about himself and his family, blaming every possible problem on immigrants, and saying that we need to produce more energy.

Tim Walz is clearly not a good debater in that he sometimes spoke too fast and mixed up his words. He was at his best when he got passionate about a topic that he clearly cared about, such as child care, housing, health care, and reproductive rights.

All in all, it was a more even-tempered debate than the Harris-creepy Trump one.

There was no clear winner or loser.

Walz-Vance debate tonight

It starts at 9:00pm Eastern time.

It will feature a contrast between the affable geniality of Tim Walz and the smiling-but-not-really-pleased look of weird JD Vance.

I will be watching it and hope that Walz immediately attacks weird JD Vance by listing all the outrageous things he has said in the past, and thus keeps him on the back foot throughout the evening, trying to defend the indefensible.