Thank you Greg. I love Sunday Pages. Aside from PBS I have given up paid streaming services and DTF St. Louis is an interesting glimpse into what America is watching. Watched several of the Iran videos and now the algorithm has them popping up on YouTube as they are poured out. One applauded Obama in a passing comment regarding the nuclear proliferation agreement he formed with Iran, while at the same time ripping trump apart for his lack of ability to make a deal. It's all quick banter. Appreciate your mentioning these videos this past Friday.
Thanks, Sara. One of the Iran videos, which focuses on Melania, not only name-checks Nina Burleigh but shows her as a Lego! Talk about a badge of honor!
Greg, I am not sure which feed the Iran Videos displaced in You Tube, but they must also have some special tweaking in them to push others videos out of place. I’ve been watching them now with interest. You get more current ‘news’ from them than local TV!! I am glad you mentioned them, otherwise I probably would never have looked. Amongst many other attributes, you’re an influencer. I am intrigued by the rap theme, music wise. Best regards.
Quote Jack London: When did life become something you have to buy? "Crushing" is an accurate term as the pressure all comes from above. The same place that wealth is flowing.
I suspect that life has always been something you have to buy. Remember, the first writing we have is just lists of who owed what to whom. But there's a limit to how much people will tolerate. In theory...
Loved DTF St. Louis. It was much deeper than I expected. I appreciate your reminder to not look back (“…the best way to not dwell on these moments of past weakness and shame and doubt and rue is to keep moving forward…”) and your thought that the United States of America can possibly be better than ever if we use our power to make it better. Gonna hold onto that thought. 🫶🏼
Wonderful and thoughtful and profound as always. I love Sunday Pages so much too. “Despair can be readily paid for on the installment plan.” Financial despair can truly be literally and figuratively crushing as you say.
I will go watch DTF St. Louis forthwith, even though I am not an HBO guy. Thank you!
Speaking of Jason Bateman, the development of my cultural involvement got somewhat arrested two or three decades back. It’s noteworthy how once you get thirty years past the vicissitudes of life that so strongly affect your generation—namely, money and sex— there’s a certain freedom (“nothing left to lose,” according to one of my favorite songwriters).
I see what you did there! I will always think of him as Michael Bluth, always always. This is a good part for him, because it sort of plays on that a little. I think it's the best acting he's done.
Unfortunately, "DTF St Louis" fell into my frequent, trying-to-fix-it attitude of judging a book by its cover. So, I've seen "DTF St Louis" floating by on HBO and Hulu and thought "Down to Fuck, St Louis? Um, nope! Seems dumb." Obviously, I have to give it a look now and "Patriot," which I don't think I have other that the Mel Gibson/Heath Ledger movie. Binge time! Thanks for the recommend, Greg.
Patriot suffers from the title, which is terrible, and the only bad thing about that show. Even half an hour into the show, I thought DTF was going to be the sort of thing you skip over in the menu. It's not.
The no more recess thing keeps rumbling in my mind. Cannot remember no less imagine my grade school days without recess and fun times. Unfortunately I am living my senior days without a much needed recess. Apart from blaming the dumbass in the oval, the ultimate culprit is the internet and that damn hand held device. However if honesty prevails if anyone is to blame it is me, myself and I, no one makes me look at the gadget with a screen and audio system.
It's so so hard to turn it off, to put it down, though. It's absolutely addictive, and also, with the world on fire, we do have to know what's happening. A delicate balance indeed...
The video was p funny. I have to believe, though, that Vance wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as Trump.
Haven't watched the show so didn't read most of this. When it comes to economics, I'm not a Marxist (I read the Communist Manifesto; there's some crazy shit in there) nor a Socialist (the government owns everything? We saw how that worked in the USSR and all the Eastern Bloc countries when it all fell apart--wasn't that a happy time?), but I'm no fan of capitalism either. It's economic Darwinism: survival of the richest. Until we come up with something better, carefully regulated capitalism is probably the best system we have. And speaking of coming up with something better,
"There’s no recess anymore—and there never will be again. Similarly, the United States of America we knew and loved is lost and gone forever. But that doesn’t mean that what comes next won’t be better. And it doesn’t mean we don’t have the power to make it happen."
As I see it, it's really just a matter of where we draw the line...what do we want the government to collectively pay for, and what we want privatized. Only the craziest and most ruthless oligarchs would want private armies. The Onion destroyed pure libertarianism in four sentences:
There's a vast chasm between government-subsidized healthcare and the abolition of private property. Europeans have issues with their healthcare systems, too, but people don't routinely go bankrupt or die from not having the funds to pay the bills.
A corporation is basically an excuse for humans to do evil shit. There has to be some way to modify that system without blowing up capitalism. I'm not knowledgeable enough to figure it out, but someone out there is. Find me the ghost of John Maynard Keynes!
We're in agreement, Greg. I'm all for government subsidized healthcare, just as I approve of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid (paid for by our taxes, of course, but the government is supposed to takes those monies and grow them at least in interest-yielding saving accounts that run ahead of inflation). What the government can do for healthcare is cut out most of the "middleman" effect in which for-profit insurance companies make decisions about individual treatment. From what I've heard, the government (via Medicare, Medicaid) is not part of the decision-making, and runs much more efficiently, saving money that way. And good one by the Onion.
I am glad you wrote about DTF St. Louis. It was a surprise ending and the most honest- gently honest- human story I have seen in a long time. Real, intimately vulnerable, very sympathetic. If you start it you must watch to the end or you miss the depth and truth of the characters.
Such gentle and vulnerable characters- sort of like all of us.
Well put, Patricia, and I completely agree. It's also not in a rush, not in a hurry. It lingers. It invests the time. You really feel like you know these people.
Here in St. Louis, we call them the St. Louis suburbs. I'd not heard of this show, but thanks to a divorced friend on Tinder, I did know about DTF. I will check it out! I'm picking up eerie similarities to a real St. Louis weatherman, Bob Richards of the NBC affiliate, who died by suicide in his airplane in 1994, despondent over news of his affair leaking.
Dirty laundry is an apt American metaphor--and we have enough to sink a navy. Our breeches have been soiled from the beginning, of course, but I think we really crapped our drawers following September 11. An international crowd was murdered in the Woke Capital of the U.S., but every American Ammosexual wrapped themselves in eagle-tear-stained Old Glory Wear and loudly proclaimed that THEY were the wronged party. And we've been fighting over Patriotism ever since.
The Love-It-Or-Leave-It crowd says America is never wrong and would be a great country if it didn't have so many pesky Americans in it. The 20/20 Vision crowd, on the other hand, can discern the propaganda and sees clearly how we have utterly failed to live up to our own press releases. Further, they know that, if we have any chance of disinfecting our clothes, we have to drag them out into the bleaching daylight. And we know how much the LIOLIs hate drag.
In other news, without Uncle Joe coming to the rescue, I would have likely left this world a buck-fifty in the hole. (I went to school like I had a trust fund...hahahahah.) As it is, I now just have a more garden-variety type of mortgage and credit card debt. My adjusted debt burden is paradise.
I have the strangest comment about this Greg post. It shocks even me; We are a Christian nation and the proof is we torture ourselves in the same ways. The weight on the chest and the easily shared and understood references to Jesus, immediate social communication and it’s not NOT a bad thing at all. Now the result of this puritan based (more i the north) society of guilt, shame and suffering used to be not reflected in southern culture (more Irish based in ancient US times.) I have to explore my own thoughts more BUT, this Greg piece gets to my new insécurités about the how to feel bad. I just spent many days in Buddhist retreat practicing feeling the same love to self that I feel to my most favorite person because it is impossible to have any compassion to give unless you have that inside. I was shocked how much practice it took. I remembered how important it was to feel guilty if socially “failed.” And…….what a system shock it was to go to northern India and spent time among indigenous families. The family I lived with was going to market. I asked them, “Can I go with you?” They were in shock for days that in my world, I needed to even ask. I have, in these times, found it crucial to know what culture is living in my head. Because there is a culture controlling my heartbeat pace at night when I sleep. I’m desperate to know what that is….and it takes decades to even begin to ask, “Who am I really?” Without any explanation, my assumptions of American culture threw me out into the street. With no job skills. No ticket home. Old old tv show, “I Remember Mama,”. And my old Swedish grandmother had the idea they told their kids leaving poor homes for a better life; “you can always come back. There’s a bed and food.” Our kids are disowning us and it’s everyone for themselves. Sorry so long a post. Speaking to my assumptions of a village here is somewhat grounding you know.
Thank you Greg. I love Sunday Pages. Aside from PBS I have given up paid streaming services and DTF St. Louis is an interesting glimpse into what America is watching. Watched several of the Iran videos and now the algorithm has them popping up on YouTube as they are poured out. One applauded Obama in a passing comment regarding the nuclear proliferation agreement he formed with Iran, while at the same time ripping trump apart for his lack of ability to make a deal. It's all quick banter. Appreciate your mentioning these videos this past Friday.
Thanks, Sara. One of the Iran videos, which focuses on Melania, not only name-checks Nina Burleigh but shows her as a Lego! Talk about a badge of honor!
Greg, I am not sure which feed the Iran Videos displaced in You Tube, but they must also have some special tweaking in them to push others videos out of place. I’ve been watching them now with interest. You get more current ‘news’ from them than local TV!! I am glad you mentioned them, otherwise I probably would never have looked. Amongst many other attributes, you’re an influencer. I am intrigued by the rap theme, music wise. Best regards.
Quote Jack London: When did life become something you have to buy? "Crushing" is an accurate term as the pressure all comes from above. The same place that wealth is flowing.
Debt slavery is another common phrase.
Yep.
I suspect that life has always been something you have to buy. Remember, the first writing we have is just lists of who owed what to whom. But there's a limit to how much people will tolerate. In theory...
Loved DTF St. Louis. It was much deeper than I expected. I appreciate your reminder to not look back (“…the best way to not dwell on these moments of past weakness and shame and doubt and rue is to keep moving forward…”) and your thought that the United States of America can possibly be better than ever if we use our power to make it better. Gonna hold onto that thought. 🫶🏼
Thank, Mary Ann. There's no doubt it can be better. I just don't trust the Dem leadership to get us there.
Thanks Greg but as you are aware I gave up tv 13 years ago. If it's not on a dvd with captions I dont watch it.
I gave away my VHS tapes.
And
DTF (dow.n to fuck)??
And
Question: are crooked penis unusual?
Hand dominance?
A natural French tickler?
There was an issue with his junk. An injury. That's why it was curved.
"There's no recess anymore" - no truer words spoken in the Trump Redux resistance! Great piece Greg & great show!
Recess at my country school was held in the horse barn or playing Ante Ante Over.
I can't remember at all what we did...lots of four-square I think.
Thanks, Gratia!
great review on DTF i'm still haunted by the ending. cya soon live ~.o
"It doesn't mean 'rock on'...' was devastating, just devastating. Great, see ya!
Wonderful and thoughtful and profound as always. I love Sunday Pages so much too. “Despair can be readily paid for on the installment plan.” Financial despair can truly be literally and figuratively crushing as you say.
I will go watch DTF St. Louis forthwith, even though I am not an HBO guy. Thank you!
Thanks, Rick. It's worth it just for Jenkins being grumpy...
Speaking of Jason Bateman, the development of my cultural involvement got somewhat arrested two or three decades back. It’s noteworthy how once you get thirty years past the vicissitudes of life that so strongly affect your generation—namely, money and sex— there’s a certain freedom (“nothing left to lose,” according to one of my favorite songwriters).
I see what you did there! I will always think of him as Michael Bluth, always always. This is a good part for him, because it sort of plays on that a little. I think it's the best acting he's done.
Do we ever get past those things, thought? ; )
Unfortunately, "DTF St Louis" fell into my frequent, trying-to-fix-it attitude of judging a book by its cover. So, I've seen "DTF St Louis" floating by on HBO and Hulu and thought "Down to Fuck, St Louis? Um, nope! Seems dumb." Obviously, I have to give it a look now and "Patriot," which I don't think I have other that the Mel Gibson/Heath Ledger movie. Binge time! Thanks for the recommend, Greg.
Across the Universe
Patriot suffers from the title, which is terrible, and the only bad thing about that show. Even half an hour into the show, I thought DTF was going to be the sort of thing you skip over in the menu. It's not.
Always look forward to Greg on Sunday, thanks.
The no more recess thing keeps rumbling in my mind. Cannot remember no less imagine my grade school days without recess and fun times. Unfortunately I am living my senior days without a much needed recess. Apart from blaming the dumbass in the oval, the ultimate culprit is the internet and that damn hand held device. However if honesty prevails if anyone is to blame it is me, myself and I, no one makes me look at the gadget with a screen and audio system.
Thanks, old Man.
It's so so hard to turn it off, to put it down, though. It's absolutely addictive, and also, with the world on fire, we do have to know what's happening. A delicate balance indeed...
I’m going to consider the Mayday actions as recess from the economy. Sounds like more fun that way.
https://substack.com/@indivisibleteam/note/c-244613961?r=1li1r&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Now we're talking!
The video was p funny. I have to believe, though, that Vance wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as Trump.
Haven't watched the show so didn't read most of this. When it comes to economics, I'm not a Marxist (I read the Communist Manifesto; there's some crazy shit in there) nor a Socialist (the government owns everything? We saw how that worked in the USSR and all the Eastern Bloc countries when it all fell apart--wasn't that a happy time?), but I'm no fan of capitalism either. It's economic Darwinism: survival of the richest. Until we come up with something better, carefully regulated capitalism is probably the best system we have. And speaking of coming up with something better,
"There’s no recess anymore—and there never will be again. Similarly, the United States of America we knew and loved is lost and gone forever. But that doesn’t mean that what comes next won’t be better. And it doesn’t mean we don’t have the power to make it happen."
Let it be.
As I see it, it's really just a matter of where we draw the line...what do we want the government to collectively pay for, and what we want privatized. Only the craziest and most ruthless oligarchs would want private armies. The Onion destroyed pure libertarianism in four sentences:
https://theonion.com/libertarian-reluctantly-calls-fire-department-1819567309/
There's a vast chasm between government-subsidized healthcare and the abolition of private property. Europeans have issues with their healthcare systems, too, but people don't routinely go bankrupt or die from not having the funds to pay the bills.
A corporation is basically an excuse for humans to do evil shit. There has to be some way to modify that system without blowing up capitalism. I'm not knowledgeable enough to figure it out, but someone out there is. Find me the ghost of John Maynard Keynes!
We're in agreement, Greg. I'm all for government subsidized healthcare, just as I approve of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid (paid for by our taxes, of course, but the government is supposed to takes those monies and grow them at least in interest-yielding saving accounts that run ahead of inflation). What the government can do for healthcare is cut out most of the "middleman" effect in which for-profit insurance companies make decisions about individual treatment. From what I've heard, the government (via Medicare, Medicaid) is not part of the decision-making, and runs much more efficiently, saving money that way. And good one by the Onion.
I am glad you wrote about DTF St. Louis. It was a surprise ending and the most honest- gently honest- human story I have seen in a long time. Real, intimately vulnerable, very sympathetic. If you start it you must watch to the end or you miss the depth and truth of the characters.
Such gentle and vulnerable characters- sort of like all of us.
Well put, Patricia, and I completely agree. It's also not in a rush, not in a hurry. It lingers. It invests the time. You really feel like you know these people.
Here in St. Louis, we call them the St. Louis suburbs. I'd not heard of this show, but thanks to a divorced friend on Tinder, I did know about DTF. I will check it out! I'm picking up eerie similarities to a real St. Louis weatherman, Bob Richards of the NBC affiliate, who died by suicide in his airplane in 1994, despondent over news of his affair leaking.
Dirty laundry is an apt American metaphor--and we have enough to sink a navy. Our breeches have been soiled from the beginning, of course, but I think we really crapped our drawers following September 11. An international crowd was murdered in the Woke Capital of the U.S., but every American Ammosexual wrapped themselves in eagle-tear-stained Old Glory Wear and loudly proclaimed that THEY were the wronged party. And we've been fighting over Patriotism ever since.
The Love-It-Or-Leave-It crowd says America is never wrong and would be a great country if it didn't have so many pesky Americans in it. The 20/20 Vision crowd, on the other hand, can discern the propaganda and sees clearly how we have utterly failed to live up to our own press releases. Further, they know that, if we have any chance of disinfecting our clothes, we have to drag them out into the bleaching daylight. And we know how much the LIOLIs hate drag.
In other news, without Uncle Joe coming to the rescue, I would have likely left this world a buck-fifty in the hole. (I went to school like I had a trust fund...hahahahah.) As it is, I now just have a more garden-variety type of mortgage and credit card debt. My adjusted debt burden is paradise.
I have the strangest comment about this Greg post. It shocks even me; We are a Christian nation and the proof is we torture ourselves in the same ways. The weight on the chest and the easily shared and understood references to Jesus, immediate social communication and it’s not NOT a bad thing at all. Now the result of this puritan based (more i the north) society of guilt, shame and suffering used to be not reflected in southern culture (more Irish based in ancient US times.) I have to explore my own thoughts more BUT, this Greg piece gets to my new insécurités about the how to feel bad. I just spent many days in Buddhist retreat practicing feeling the same love to self that I feel to my most favorite person because it is impossible to have any compassion to give unless you have that inside. I was shocked how much practice it took. I remembered how important it was to feel guilty if socially “failed.” And…….what a system shock it was to go to northern India and spent time among indigenous families. The family I lived with was going to market. I asked them, “Can I go with you?” They were in shock for days that in my world, I needed to even ask. I have, in these times, found it crucial to know what culture is living in my head. Because there is a culture controlling my heartbeat pace at night when I sleep. I’m desperate to know what that is….and it takes decades to even begin to ask, “Who am I really?” Without any explanation, my assumptions of American culture threw me out into the street. With no job skills. No ticket home. Old old tv show, “I Remember Mama,”. And my old Swedish grandmother had the idea they told their kids leaving poor homes for a better life; “you can always come back. There’s a bed and food.” Our kids are disowning us and it’s everyone for themselves. Sorry so long a post. Speaking to my assumptions of a village here is somewhat grounding you know.