Democratic Debates: The Movie

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Sunday June 30, 2019 · 7:36 AM PDT

2019/06/30 · 07:36

MIAMI, FLORIDA - JUNE 27: Democratic presidential candidates (L-R) Marianne Williamson, former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, former tech executive Andrew Yang, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) take part in the second night of the first Democratic presidential debate on June 27, 2019 in Miami, Florida. A field of 20 Democratic presidential candidates was split into two groups of 10 for the first debate of the 2020 election, taking place over two nights at Knight Concert Hall of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, hosted by NBC News, MSNBC, and Telemundo. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

My husband and I always enjoy playing casting directors whenever we watch something like the Democratic debates. Last night it started when we were watching Kirsten Gillibrand. I said, “Kristen Bell has to play her in the movie,” and we were off and running.

Our criteria are pretty simple. The actor has to have a general resemblance to the person they are to play (always remembering that actors can use wigs and makeup) and should be approximately the right age. Looking over our list, I notice that we’ve picked mostly A-list celebrities, but this is a fantasy project and money is no object!

We disagreed on a couple of them, but I’m writing this post so I get final say. I’ll indicate where we had disagreement, and maybe someone can suggest someone better.

Democratic Debates: the Movie, Night One

Elizabeth Warren ….. Diane Keaton (this one was hard and Diane’s a bit too tall, but she’s the right age and can do that earnest eyes thing that Warren always does)

Julian Castro ….. Lin-Manuel Miranda (I said it was a fantasy project)

Tulsi Gabbard ….. Olivia Munn

Beto O’Rourke ….. John Krasinski

Corey Booker ….. Coby Bell

Amy Klobuchar ….. Kellie Martin (I originally cast Mary Steenburgen, but my husband hated that, suggesting Bonnie Hunt. I didn’t agree, so we thought some more and came up with Kellie Martin. This was a tough one)

Jay Inslee ….. Stephen Collins

John Delaney ….. J.K. Simmons

Tim Ryan ….. Rob Riggle (he’s got the attitude)

Bill deBlasio ….. Brad Garrett (mostly because he’s really tall and has that New York brashness.

Democratic Debates: the Movie, Night Two

Kamala Harris ….. Kerry Washington

Joe Biden ….. Michael Keaton

Kirsten Gillibrand ….. Kristen Bell

Mayor Pete ….. Tobey Maguire

Andrew Yang ….. Randall Park

Bernie Sanders ….. Larry David (who else?)

Marianne Williamson …… Gwynneth Paltrow (I mean, really, who else?)

Eric Swalwell ….. Jesse Plemons

John Hickenlooper ….. Chris Cooper

Michael Bennet ….. Sean Murray

Whew! I apologize for any spelling errors. It might not be a movie, it might have to be a miniseries. I’m pretty happy with most of these but I’m interested to hear what you think.

This is why so many people get shot by the police

Emerson

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Thursday April 19, 2018 · 1:52 PM PDT

2018/04/19 · 13:52

Police brutality, police violence, police, authoritarian

This article is a couple of months old, but I hadn’t heard about this before. Maybe you, like me, have been wondering why so many police use deadly force right away, instead of assessing the situation and being more reasonable.

www.washingtonpost.com/…

When it comes to teaching cops how to escalate, how to see the world as their enemy and how to find the courage to kill more people, more often, there’s no shortage of options. (The syllabus for one of these courses includes a page of Bible verses relating to when it’s moral and just to kill.) It’s part and parcel with the pseudoscience churned out by William Lewinski at the Force Science Institute in Minnesota, who also preaches that cops should learn to become more lethal (and will testify in court for any cop who takes his advice).

They’re training them to be like this. How are we supposed to fight against this with “sensitivity” training?

This is the guy who has trained more U.S. police officers than anyone else. The guy who, more than anyone else, has instructed cops on what mind-set they should bring to their jobs.

My son sent me the link to this article, and I am horrified.

(P.S. This is my first diary in at least ten years, feel free to edit or add to my tags.)

The voice of the future

Emerson

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Thursday November 04, 2004 · 4:54 AM PST

2004/11/04 · 04:54

I just thought I'd like to share with you an essay written by my eight-year-old son (he's in third grade).

In answer to the question "If I was the President of the United States of America," my son wrote:

"I would donate money to the poor from the rich, because I know the poor don't have any money. If I was president, I would increase the amount of enplouyment [sic]. Because the poor need to work. With that money I would invest it in the school fund. If I was president I would make the speed ticket cost more, and with that money I'll send it to our troops for more stuff."

Well, he's already on the student council, so I figure about 20 years before he runs for public office. :)

The Bigots won

Emerson

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Thursday November 04, 2004 · 4:07 AM PST

2004/11/04 · 04:07

It occurred to me this morning as I woke that the reason we lost this election is simply because there are more bigots in this country than people who are tolerant. If we look at the two major issues that seemed to win the election for W--"terrorism" and "moral values"--they can both be boiled down to the same thing: bigotry. In the case of terrorism, the majority of Americans voted for the person who promised to go and attack the terrorists--the dark foreigners--on their own soil (even if he can't find it, he'll attack somewhere). They voted against the person who made the mistake of thinking terrorism should be fought not solely by force of arms but also by trying to remedy the causes of terrorism. That second person is weak and wishy-washy, the majority thinks. We know why they try to kill us--because they hate us for our freedom. Well, we hate them more and we'll kill them first. Shoot first, ask questions later.
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Howard Dean and Al Franken on McEnroe repeat tonight

Emerson

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Friday August 06, 2004 · 1:48 PM PDT

2004/08/06 · 13:48

I missed this the other night, but I just saw a promo for a repeat. It will be on again tonight, on CNBC, at 10 pm for those who may have missed it.

Like others here at DKos, I have recently been writing to CNN, complaining about rightward bias in their news. I intend to write to NBC (specifically MSNBC, but to include CNBC) to praise them for more balanced news (I am specifically thinking of Keith Olberman's show, which I like very much). Anyway, the point is, if anyone else agrees, write to them. If they get a lot of letters from happy Democrats, they may respond with more programming that leans left. Lord knows, their ratings are low enough they shouldn't try to steal viewers from Fox and CNN (and maybe we can get Scarborough kicked off--whoopee).

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