NBC has received new copies of Whitey Bulger’s prison letters.
Tough guy’s vanity: the late Whitey Bulger was a fan of Trump much like Trump wasn’t a fan of the Vietnam war. Honor among racketeers and money launderers.
Perhaps what makes so much Trumpian lawfare these days interesting is that in The Departed, being a lawyer is something easily done by a snitch.
Whitey Bulger - The Biggest Rat
In several handwritten letters shared with NBC News, Bulger expressed gushing praise for Trump, offering rave reviews of the president's foreign policy and combative relationship with the media.
"Trump is tough and fights back instead of bowing down to pressure — and caving in to press!" Bulger wrote in August 2018. "U.S. agrees with him press attacking and his reaction increases his popularity — He has my vote so far."
"History may show Trump was the man of the hour," Bulger wrote in a different letter earlier that month. "Feel China respects him and hesitant to try to bully him."
Here are a few behind-the-scenes tidbits to pair with your next viewing of Martin Scorsese’s modern gangster classic.
1. IT’S A REMAKE
While screenwriter William Monahan and director Martin Scorsese claim they did not watch the 2002 Hong Kong action movie Infernal Affairs before making The Departed, the two films share more than a few similarities. Infernal Affairs director Andy Lau unsurprisingly prefers his own film, saying of The Departed, “Of course I think the version I made is better, but the Hollywood version is pretty good too.”
2. IT’S BASED ON A REAL-LIFE GANGSTER
Jack Nicholson’s character is based on infamous Boston mob boss and FBI informant Whitey Bulger. Before he was captured in 2011, he was the second only to Osama bin Laden on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and had a reward for $1 million for his capture.
3. SCORSESE AGREED TO DIRECT BECAUSE THE FILM FELT SIMILAR TO ONE OF HIS FAVORITES
Scorsese has said that Monahan’s script reminded him of one of his favorite movies, the 1949 James Cagney film noir White Heat, which is also partly about an undercover police officer embedded with a charismatic gangster.
www.ifc.com/...
While Trump's disapproval rating continues to hover around 52 percent, as it did in April, support for impeachment rose a modest 4 points, from 37 percent to 41 percent, in the same time period. (Trump's highest disapproval rating hovered at 59 percent back in December; the highest number supporting impeachment was around 47 percent in September.)
That number jumps significantly when looking only at answers from those who identify as Democrats. About 76 percent of respondents from the party say they support impeachment, rising from 69 percent in an April poll conducted shortly after the release of the Mueller report.
Commissioned by CNN and carried out by research agency SSRS, the poll included a random national sample of 1,006 adults reached by phone from May 28 to May 31. There is a sampling error of plus or minus 3.8 points.
www.newsweek.com/...
Trumpian extortion: