DramatistDreamer

ICYMI during the media feeding frenzy, this news item has been personally painful for me to process in light of the loss of my loved one from this very same horrific disease but President Biden’s word, in the midst of recovering from COVID and being pushed out by the wealthy donors and their political allies, found time for words of acknowledgement and compassion in honor of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. Biden praises longtime US Rep Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, who died of cancer

What’s even worse than that is what goes on in the small circle of people who make the decisions about what gets seen, produced, shown- who becomes the hot director, choreographer, composer, which minuscule group of playwrights will get there work produced. I once worked at one of the premiere (so-called) arts and cultural institutions in the United States and despite one or two well-intentioned people who make programming decisions for seasons, there was so much abuse, racism (a group of us used to sardonically refer to the place as a ‘plantation’), misogyny and casual casting of micro aggression and they were far from the worst. When I did a brief freelance stint in television, that was the worst experience I ever had. There is a lot of predation the film field, as we all know but it is there in the television industry as well as in theater-although it is far more subtle, at least from my personal experiences. When I say these fields need an honest reckoning, I am putting it mildly.

You’re welcome. Honestly, I had a loved/hate relationship with music as a kid. There were aspects that I absolutely loved about music but practice wasn’t one of them and the way piano was taught back then…wasn’t fun. As a spectator I loved to watch live theater as a kid but when I started working in the theater, the enchantment eventually wore off. There were a lot of unsavory aspects hidden behind that magical curtain. I took some acting/dance courses and did some performance work and I will say I enjoyed some aspects of that but not enough to have tried it as a career, but writing for the theatre appealed to me more than any other aspect but even there, there is a lot of rot in the system unfortunately. I still believe that a reckoning needs to happen and they should start over… …but I digress.

You are definitely NOT an idiot. You directed your hard earned money and your efforts to where your conscience led you. There is definitely no shame in that. Your efforts, no doubt, helped to fund work that helped people. Politics is also local too. To be honest, I often feel the same way about investing in an M.F.A. especially when I see people with terrible ideas and low levels of talent and skill jump ahead, get their ideas produced. Something that I hold onto is that, no one can take away from the honest hard work, talent and skills that I put in. No one can take that away from me.

This is good that CBS realizes that they are out of their depth and don’t have the in-house talent (at least not in the numbers they need) in marketing to potential viewers, particularly Black viewers, therefore they are asking for help on the matter. It also tells me that they want this show’s production to have strong financial footing by getting strong ad revenue. It’s a promising start.

And if I may also add another point, not contributing recurring payments is not the same as not voting. Let’s keep that in mind, things are still fresh, wounds are still fresh. Although I have expressed this elsewhere, I don’t know if I had a chance to express my gratitude to President Biden for how much he has accomplished and tried to accomplish against the mighty forces of opposition and intractability from the other side. As I said upthread, I believe there will come a time when those people who forced this to happen in this manner, need to be called to account but I hope the focus will be on the the next 3.5 months and getting the result democracy needs. If you told me we would be here, even early Sunday morning, I honestly wouldn’t have believed you.

For years I have been railing against the undue influence of big corporations, wealthy donors and PACs and I absolutely detest the fact that a relatively small group of well-heeled and wealthy donors wielded such influence to push out a man who has been committed to public service to this country and I also resented the fact that his Democratic successor, especially seeing that all roads point to KDH, will be forced to work with the shortest timeline of any modern Democratic presidential candidate in my lifetime. I also realized that in all good conscience, these are not good reasons to withdraw because even with how I feel about the process, I cannot afford to withdraw my support from a candidate that I believe will make a good president. I also see that if Trump/Vance slithers into the WH, most of Biden/Harris’ hard work will be reversed or eliminated. If we thought COVID-19 (which hit the U.S. and world under Trump’s watch and quickly spread out of control) was horrendous, wait until the next pandemic or worldwide crisis occurs. When Trump was in office it was one near catastrophic event after another. Look how many didn’t survive his last administration. Personally, I don’t want to see that again. Everyone has got to act according to their own conscience. I accept that.

The tone from the MSM toward Biden is gross. I have been avoiding most of the msm media saying that Biden has “finally” dropped out and trying to cast blame on him for the timing. Katy Kay dropped in to the BBC to drop Joe Manchin’s name for any reason is also gross. And citing polling (as a reason for ousting Biden) that has been wrong for years is a weird flex.

The backbone strengthens. #WinWithBlackWomen Rallied 44,000 Black Women to Raise Over $1 Million for Kamala Harris in Three Hours Surely the numbers have increased since then.

Even though I have serious problems with the role of big money donors in politics, this bears watching. Nikki Haley Voters PAC Announces Support for Kamala Harris By the way, I just saw a map of where many of today’s donor dollars are coming from, Florida is very active on that map.

Hearing a number of Black women saying right now that they don’t trust white people. 👀 The upside is that from what I hear, people are ready to fight and I do believe they will fight for VP. I hope this animosity will resolve itself quickly. We can talk about settling scores later.

Every and anyone who has followed my posts about MVP Harris since her days as Senator knows how I feel about her but her being given such a condensed timeline is making me feel some kind of way. Of course I support her but this tight timeline isn’t fair, just as much pressuring President Biden out wasn’t fair.

Welp.

What follows is a very insightful thread.

From what I have read, the Clintons back Biden. Whether folks want to listen to the Clintons or be dismissive, is a whole other story. But dismissing the voices of those who have already cast their votes is a recipe for decades of distrust down the road. In other news, this seems important.

Weren’t people saying that Jeffries wanted Biden to drop out?

All that propping and still flopping. By the way, has anyone heard anything from Mitch McConnell?

Japanese gymnast got the boot for smoking. Japanese gymnast Shoko Miyata out of Olympics for smoking

Real talk: Do people honestly believe that putting up a new ticket in July is a winning strategy? Personally, I don’t trust these people with my vote. I do believe that they want to simultaneously push out Joe Biden and push out Kamala Harris, or the sham of putting her on a ticket that won’t have the time to get together a winning strategy. It’s similar to Hollywood where Black artists are underfunded but are expected to produce wildly successful results or they risk never getting another chance. I believe they are hoping to do this to Harris. Kneecap her, so they can claim she had her chance and fell short but in reality, any new ticket will have a steep time deficit. AOC, whether people believe she is accurate or not, us seeing things, the way many WOC are currently seeing this: a group of moneyed people are trying to wrest control out of the hands of the base of the party, and just expect everyone to acquiesce and comply. This has the potential to be an unmitigated disaster if it keeps on this path.

Newhart left an indelible mark on the worlds of television and talk. R.I.P.

For the people who may be feeling helpless or feel at loose ends, here’s a suggested action you can take.

The media has a long history of doing such things. If you go through archives of newspapers like the New York Times and other centuries old newspapers, you will see racist, sexist, xenophobic rhetoric and commentary in their headlines and in their articles. They have an explicit history of literally being on the wrong side of history. I remember, it being so bad that they had to issue a public apology on their racist reporting on Black people during the pre/post Emancipation period and the era of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement. Yes, it’s scary (more like vexing to me personally) but not surprising for them. Considerably “on brand” for the media, in fact.

Unfortunately, just off the strength of seeing two American players (Roddick, Gauff) each to a major title, he’ll likely get in.