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Monthly Archives: August 2016

Trump Voters: Strangers in Their Own Land?

29 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

"Mother Jones", "Talking Points Memo", Arlie Russell Hochschild, Josh Marshall

Another Article of Interest for MillersTime readers, one I have posted in The Outer Loop section of my blog.

In this article, taken in part from his new book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, sociologist and author Arlie Russell Hochschild reports on five years of interviews with a portion of our population who find themselves strangers in their own country and who, though they didn’t start out as Trump supporters, have been people who believe Trump understands them.

Check out the article from Sept./Oct. Mother Jones. (Hat Tip to Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo for leading me to this.)

Respectful comments and reactions are welcomed.

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Movies: Three to See

29 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"Hell or High Water", "Ixcanul", "Volcano", 2015 Philadelphia Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Indignation

No movie reviews for a while. Maybe because our summer has been filled with other activities. But when we have been home and tried to find something to see, there didn’t seem to be much of interest.

As readers of this site know by now, we tend to look for independent films and foreign films, and only occasionally do I write about main stream films, as there is usually enough already available for readers to find that information on their own.

Nevertheless, I do have three films for your consideration, one is a foreign film we saw in last year’s Philadelphia Film Festival, one is a directoral debut, and one is a main stream film.

Ixcanul ***** (Ellen gave it ****)

I noticed that this film is currently being shown in DC (Landmark’s E Street Theater) and so I’m reprinting my mini-review of it from my post about the 2015 Philadelphia Film Festival:

Ixcanul The Volcano_Key Still-0-800-0-450-crop

Oct. 31, 2015: “Guatemala’s first ever submission for the Oscar’s Best Foreign Film and a very good one. This film concerns a young Mayan girl, Maria, her family, and their difficult life in a mountainous region of Guatemala. When Maria makes an adolescent choice, the families’ life becomes even more tenuous. Although the film is fiction, it feels like a documentary and was made with actors who are local people — not professionals. Particularly wonderful is the mother, both as a character in the story and how she portrays that character. This film was the winner of the Silver Bear (second best award) at the Berlin Film Festival. I suspect Ixcanul (Volcano) may be too small of a film to be widely distributed in the US. That would be a shame.”

How glad I am to have been wrong about its US distribution.

Indignation****

Shown at Sundance in January of this year, this film has just been released nationwide. Based on a 2008 novel with the same title by Philip Roth, it is director James Schmaus’ first film (he also wrote the screenplay).

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The setting is a small town in Ohio and tells (another) coming of age story. This time the main character is a Jewish boy who leaves his working class family and home in Newark, NJ to attend conservative Winesberg College.

There, Marcus (Logan Lerman) meets the wealthy (and troubled) Olivia (Sara Gadon) and also clashes with the college dean (Tracy Letts) about religion. I’ll leave the details of what ensues for you to discover yourself.

But there is much to appreciate in this film. You will be come involved with both Marcus and Olivia as their stories unfold. And there is a wonderful scene (15 minutes or so?) that involves a verbal confrontation between Marcus and the dean that by itself is almost worth the price of admission to Indignation.

Good acting, good screenwriting, good directing, and a familiar but not worn out story all make for a satisfying film.

Hell or High Water****

Nothing especially new here either in this cops and robbers western, except the acting is terrific and the story has you not sure whose side you are on.

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Two brothers are robbing a series of small branches of a large bank in small Texan towns to accumulate a certain amount of money (the details of why they’re doing this become clear partway through the film). It seems as if they might get away with what they’re doing (only taking small amounts of money from each branch) until two Texas Rangers decide to get involved.

The story, tho it takes perhaps too long to unfold, holds you, largely because of the acting, particularly the interactions between all four of the characters. The brothers, Toby and Tanner (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) have a bit of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid about them and are likeable characters. The Rangers, Marcus and Alberto (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham), are also crusty ‘characters’ who are likewise appealing, particularly Jeff Bridges.

If you’re looking for a ‘bit’ of an old fashioned western film with some moral ambiguity, and engaging characters, Hell or Highwater will do just fine.

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She Died Too Soon

09 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by Richard in Family and Friends

≈ 13 Comments

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Caretaker, Kerry

 Kerry and her family                                            Kerry and family

Most of you never knew Kerry. She was a woman — a mother, a wife, a friend, a confident — who was the ultimate caregiver, taking care of my mother in the last years of her life, and later doing the same for my father.

My mother, Esty, herself had been a caretaker almost all her life, beginning at a very early age when she was a companion to her own grandmother. So I knew one when I saw one. When Esty needed care herself at age 87, Kerry came into our lives to give comfort and care far beyond what we ever expected. Not long before Esty died, she asked Kerry to promise to take care of Sam. Kerry promised to do so.

Initially, after Esty’s death, Sam didn’t need much physical assistance, but Kerry attended to him and provided stability. As he began to have difficulties of his own, Kerry let us know how much he missed us and needed us. (He would never let us know that directly.) With her encouragement, we eventually were able to convince Sam to come to Washington. Kerry, even though it meant she was then out of a job, was most delighted. She flew with him to DC as he had broken his arm two days before he was due to come to us and couldn’t travel by himself. She stayed a week to be sure he was settled and she could trust us to provide what he needed. She said she’d come back to DC at a moment’s notice if or when we needed her.

Continue reading »

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“There’s No Such Thing as a Protest Vote”

08 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

", "Here Comes Everybody", "Medium", 2016 Elections, Biz Stone, Clay Shirky, Ev Williams, Protest Votes, Refusing to Vote, Third Parties, Twitter, Voting, Write-in Votes

As I occasionally do, I am posting a link to an article that I found of value. It’s not arguing for any particular candidate, but it’s author, Clay Shirky, believes “There’s No Such Thing as Protest Vote,” and he explains why.

If you read the article, scroll to the very bottom and click on “Show All Responses.” Unlike many Comment sections following an article that may be controversial, some of these responses are quite good and many take exception to what Shirky writes, but they do so respectfully.

I’m pasteing in the first few paragraphs so you can see if it is something you want to spend the six minutes it will take to read the article:

There’s No Such Thing As A Protest Vote

We’re in the season of protest vote advocacy, with writers of all political stripes making arguments for third-party candidates (Jill Stein, Gary Johnson), write-in votes (Bernie Sanders, Rod Silva), or refusing to vote altogether (#NeverTrump, #BernieOrBust.) For all the eloquence and passion and rage in these arguments, however, they suffer from a common flaw: there is no such thing as a protest vote.

The authors of these pieces rarely line up their preferred Presidential voting strategies — third-party, write-in, refusal — with the electoral system as it actually exists. In 2016, that system will offer 130 million or so voters just three options:

A. I prefer Donald Trump be President, rather than Hillary Clinton.
B. I prefer Hillary Clinton be President, rather than Donald Trump.
C. Whatever everybody else decides is OK with me.

That’s it. Those are the choices. All strategies other than a preference for Trump over Clinton or vice-versa reduce to Option C.

You can link to the article Here and get to the Comments Here.

Clay Shirky is someone I respect and follow. He wrote an important book — Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (2008) — and is one of the more informed and thoughtful individuals on the emerging role of the Internet and on Internet technology. Among the many other things in which he’s involved, he teaches at NYU and his writings and thoughts are usually at the forefront of what is happening in this new world of the Internet.

Medium, the site on which Shirky published this article is a somewhat new ‘publishing platform’ founded by Ev Williams and Biz Stone, who among other things were founders of Twitter. This endeavor is to give writers a longer space (longer than 140 characters) to post articles. They also have writers of their own, and I think Shirky might be writing for them. Their website explains, “Medium is a community of readers and writers offering unique perspectives on ideas large and small.”  If you’re interested in learning more about Medium, you can check out the site here.

Finally, as always, I encourage MillersTime readers to comment, respectfully, on these linked articles directly on my site. Please consider doing so and let others know what you think about Shirky’s view that “There Is No Such Thing as a Protest Vote.”

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Ireland: Thru Ellen’s Lens

05 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 3 Comments

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Ballynavinch Castle, Ballyvaughn, Baltimore, Beara Peninsula, Cape Clear Island, Cliffs of Moher, Coiunty Limerick, Connemara, Connemara National Forest, Cork, Count, County, County Clare, County Cork, County Galway, County Kerry, David P. Stang, Dingle Peninsula, Ellen Miller, Ellen Miller Photos, Ireland, Kenmare, Kerry Peninusula, Kinsale, neolithich molnuments, Southwest Ireland, stone circles, The Burren, Tralee, Western Ireland

We recently had the good fortune to spend two weeks driving in Southwest and Western Ireland. The trip included a few days in County Cork with overnights in Cork, Baltimore and on Cape Clear Island. Then we had five wonderful days with our goodireland_map-2 friend David Stang who has spent four or five months a year for the last 30 years at his home in Kenmare, County Kerry. Dave introduced us to both the historical richness of (Southwest) Ireland and to its geographic beauty. We spent most of four days driving with him on the Beara and Dingle Peninsulas and also had the good fortune to visit a diverse number of his Irish friends who gave us insights into their lives and their country.

Back on our own, we spent another week driving and wandering through Counties Limerick, Clare, Galway, and Mayo, including two nights at Gregan’s Castle in The Burren at Ballyvaughn and part of a day at the Cliffs of Moher. We spent another two nights at Ballynahinch Castle in Connemara, County Galway, where we also marveled at the small towns, the National Forest, and our personal interests in stone circles and neolithic remains.

The pictures below and the slide show that accompanies this post are Ellen’s choice of some of her favorite photos from the trip. Not meant as a travelogue — though the slide show is in chronological order of where we went — the photos are Ellen’s selection of what she saw through her lens of Southwest and Western Ireland.

And for those of you who might want more ‘written’ details, you can click here to see the multiple-choice quiz we made up near the end of our wonderful two weeks on the Emerald Isle.

I.16

I.24

I.18

I.26.

 

I.5

I.4

I.7

I.23

 

I.9

I.12

I.10

I.21

I.13

I.14

I.2

To see Ellen’s entire slide show (88 photos), use this link: Ireland: Thru Ellen’s Lens.

For the best viewing, click on the little arrow at the top right of the first page of the link to start the slide show. If the slide show appears to start in the middle, scroll to the top of the page where you’ll see the little arrow in a box.

See all the photos in the largest size possible (use a laptop or desktop computer if you have access to either). They are much sharper and better presented than in this (above) post.

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