A follow-up to some prior Top Comments diaries of mine, after the jump ....
But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).
Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, or by our KosMail message board. Please indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself.
In the past few years, I have dedicated two
Top Comments diaries to the drive to bring to a theater near you: a feature-length film version of the 1965-1968 spy television series
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The first diary covered the difficulty in
getting a producer and the second involved
holding-on to a director.
Now, an update.
This coming August 14th is set to be the premiere of the
new movie - directed by Guy Ritchie and features Hugh Grant as
Alexander Waverly - the spy agency head.
It stars the British actor Henry Cavill as agent Napoleon Solo (originally portrayed by Robert Vaughn). (Charlie Pierce often refers to Hope Solo - the goalkeeper for the US Women's World Cup team - as "Napoleon Solo's granddaughter.")
Cast as Illya Kuryakin is the American actor Armie Hammer - the great-grandson of the industrialist Armand Hammer.
Looking forward to mid-August so that middle-aged coots like myself can ... "Open Channel D".
At the end of 2013, I focused my Top Comments diary on - as Queen Elizabeth would say - the annus horriblis that afflicted various mayors in Canada. It seemed bizarre that so many succumbed to corruption or simply men-behaving badly. If you did not have a chance to see it, you can do so at this link.
Now, an update.
At least the good citizens of Toronto have (luckily) been spared the saga of its former mayor
Rob Ford - who dropped-out of his mayoral bid after learning he had an abdominal tumor. He has been undergoing chemo for (what did turn-out to be) a cancerous tumor ... but warns that if he recovers, he will once again
run for mayor in 2018.
Not so lucky was the former mayor of London, Ontario .... as Joe Fontana was convicted - not for his actions as mayor, but as a member of Parliament some years earlier - of fraud, falsifying a document and breach of trust in an expense he claimed for his son’s wedding.
He was
sentenced to four months of house arrest and 18 months of probation, with Ontario Superior Court judge Bruce Thomas asking,
"I am perplexed as to why a man of such accomplishments might choose to take these actions .... for $1,700?"
In the Québec city of Laval, two successive mayors had to resign two years ago ... with the second one doing so in a scandal involving
prostitution and extortion .... which if they appear in the same sentence ... umm .... will not end well.
His predecessor as mayor, Gilles Vaillancourt - who stepped-down over charges including conspiracy, fraud, influence peddling, breach of trust and gangsterism. The current mayor (Marc Demers) said the city was prepared to file a lawsuit against Vaillancourt and others involved in the corruption scheme. (Interestingly, Demers had his election challenged on a claim of not fulfilling a residency requirement - but the Quèbec Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling, which had denied that claim).
Meanwhile, Vaillancourt had his preliminary hearing in April, and is awaiting a trial date that - if convicted on the gangsterism charge - could receive a sentence of life in prison. At the time of my initial diary, I opined that he was a Separated at Birth with former US House speaker Dennis Hastert (right photo) .... and whaddya know: Monsieur Vaillancourt is no longer the only one in this pairing to be facing felony charges.
Since my original diary, it turns out there were some other former Canadian mayors of less-than-sterling reputation: former Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz was investigated over a possible abuse of power, whether a house he owned in Arizona was his primary residence and after leaving office: is now being sued by a credit union.
Then the Brampton, Ontario mayor Susan Fennel lost a re-election bid over allegations of inappropriate spending .... and the mayor of Halifax, Nova Scotia Pete Kelly was "embroiled in a number of controversies near the end of his time as mayor", which ended in 2012.
Some of these I learned of via a 2013 online Vote for Canada’s worst mayor poll. But taking a more in-depth (and introspective) look is the Toronto author, lawyer and former law-school dean Philip Slayton - whose new book argues that Canadian cities give their mayors too little power, and that "some of these guys are just not very well-educated. They enter the job without any background (in urban affairs) and just hit the ground, making decisions".
Four years ago, I wrote about the head of soccer's worldwide governing association (FIFA) ... and suffice-it-to-say, much of America - when they heard the name Sepp Blatter - thought it was some sort of urinary tract infection. Yet he seemed destined to be a president-for-life, with strong support from football associations in Africa and Asia (which, in fairness, he did more for than any of his predecessors). He won re-election this year, after promising that his re-election four years ago would be his last. And although he did manage to have a challenger this time ... four years ago, his power was so strong, he was re-elected on this Soviet-style ballot:
Now, an update.
Today, many fans in Europe and South America - the sport's traditional power bases - are mighty glad that the GOP
finally allowed a vote to confirm President Obama's choice for attorney general in late April ... because just a month later,
Loretta Lynch announced indictments against top FIFA officials. And although he reaffirmed his desire to stay on ... Sepp
"What, me worry?" Blatter resigned his office just a few days after winning re-election.
This coming Sunday, when the US takes on Japan in the championship match of the Women's World Cup in Vancouver, Canada .... Sepp Blatter will not attend a World Cup final (men's or women's) for the first time since taking office in 1998 ... for "personal reasons". But, he'll have you know ... that not only is he going to heaven but also, to paraphrase Richard Nixon, he is not corrupt.
Finally, in January of 2013, I wrote about the upcoming trial of the captain of the cruise ship that ran aground in Italy, Francesco Schettino - who became a human punching-bag, with "Captain Coward" among his more polite nicknames after he abandoned his ship with passengers still on board. The contrast between him and a Coast Guard captain named Gregorio De Falco dominated Italian newspapers, with De Falco's exasperated cry for Schettino to get back on board, "Vada a bordo, cazzo!" being reproduced on hash tags, t-shirts, ring-tones and the like.
Now, an update.
After an exhaustingly long trial, Captain Schettino was
convicted of manslaughter in the death of thirty-two passengers (and sentenced to sixteen years in prison) this past February, though he remains free pending appeals. Now, he aims to tell his side of the story (that he argued in his trial) in a new book entitled
The Truth Submerged, claiming to have been made a scapegoat.
Now, on to Top Comments:
-------------------------------------
From theKgirls:
In the diary by Tasini about Bernie Sander's standing in the Iowa polls - LieparDestin has the best explanation I've seen to explain the Bernie momentum.
From
ZenTrainer:
In the diary by jamess about how the Wisconsin turn-out is getting noticed - a comment by Dale was the first one of the day to make me laugh. The scene at Moe's bar reminds me of the Democratic party. They have a sense of humour and are introspective.
From
kbman:
In the diary by jplanner seeking some restraint in the Bernie diaries - this comment by imsodizzy is the heart of the matter for 2016.
From
ericlewis0:
In my own diary about The Donald getting the heave-ho from the firm that makes Serta mattresses - I like these comments from slksfca and then mmacdDE.
From
Pam from Calif:
In the front-page story about today's announcement of the presidential candidacy of former Senator Jim Webb - annieli speaks for me in this comment.
Flagged by
TrueBlueMajority:
In front-page story asking why Fox is so heavily invested in Donald Trump, anyway .... RichM delivers a great metaphor to one of the Trumpster's claims.
And from
Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the front-page story about the possible impeachment in the Maine legislature of its governor (formerly known as Turn Lepage) ........ a nostalgic JBL55 not only adds a new nickname but also cites a former president in doing so.
TOP PHOTOS
July 1, 2015
Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo.
(NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)
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And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
1) Roy Moore will now order that... by Trix +182
2) Nicely done by Armando +155
3) And God replies by GRLionsFan +139
4) I have never understood the constitutional by VClib +133
5) I hadn't thought about this, but it's the basis by HappyinNM +128
6) Defendant's Motion to Smite? by Wisper +123
6) I find it hilarious... by The Technomancer +123
8) Wow....Bernie Has Cross Over Appeal! by snapples +120
9) I've long suspected that there's a great hunger by Demi Moaned +119
10) He says equivocate, I'd say prevaricate by Dallasdoc +113
10) yep, money is speech and money is votes... by VL Baker +113
12) Stephen King by Quabbin +98
13) And wait for it, by mosesfreeman +90
14) Well done! by Antitheist +89
15) States Don't Have ANY RIGHTS Whatsoever. by Gooserock +88
16) This is one of the reasons for by 714day +86
17) you could be right, but I'd be willing to wager by corvo +77
18) One thing... by Flint +76
18) I just returned from a visit with an old by Greyhound +76
20) Diarist should realize this has been widely... by bobswern +75
21) Thank you! by ladyblue +73
22) Its About Time.... by stuhunter2 +72
22) I Don't Understand The Clinton Campaign by The Lone Apple +72
22) TPP = bad for America by angel d +72
25) Her silence by fugwb +70
26) Hahaha!!!! by gchaucer2 +67
27) Welcome New Diarist. by Gooserock +66
28) I am not certain it is "winning' by xxdr zombiexx +65
28) Some of us see that as a problem by One bite at a time +65
28) Bernie speaks truth to power, Hillary raises funds by JusticeSeeker68 +65
28) Did we get a minimum wage increase under obama? by csainvestor +65