Interesting bit at the end, there:
Continue reading SAG-AFTRA goes on strike.Contract negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP broke off tonight, and the guild’s national board will meet Thursday morning to formally approve the launch of a strike.
It will be the first actors strike against the film and television industry since 1980 and the first time that actors and writers have been on strike at the same time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild.
Seriously, was this a case where nobody actually said a version of the next sentence aloud until quite recently? “Actor Will Ferrell has backed out of a movie that would have made light of President Ronald Reagan‘s battle with Alzheimer’s after the premise received condemnation.” …Seriously, what did Ferrell think was going to happen? The American people largely have decided that Reagan was awesome and Alzheimer’s sucks; whose bright idea was it to use the latter to make jokes about the former?
Note that I’m not even angry – Will Ferrell has no chance at permanently changing people’s minds about, well, anyone or anything – just disapproving and bemused. It seemed a… poor career choice for the man. I mean, Anchorman can buy only a finite amount of goodwill…
This is an interesting, complex, and possibly a touch unfair* assessment of Ronald Reagan’s accomplishments and successes, and you should read it – but I mostly want to show you this particular sick burn.
Though [Barack Obama] won a comfortable reelection, his party suffered a shocking collapse. After six years of his leadership, the Democrats have fewer congressmen, U.S. senators, governors, and state legislative chambers than at any time since the 1920s. For someone who doesn’t believe in turning back the clock, Obama certainly has done a good job of it. Democratic legislators might be forgiven for thinking they’d suffered a reverse Rip Van Winkle, falling asleep in the Age of Obama and waking up in the Age of Calvin Coolidge.
Ouch. And heh.
Moe Lane
*Any assessment of Ronald Reagan’s domestic agenda and its outcomes must, I think, admit that the ultimate focus of Reagan’s time in office was in how best to ram an iron stake through the black, acidic heart of Soviet Communism.
It’s because Ronnie comes off a hell of a lot better than Bobby does.
RFK and Ronald Reagan died 36 years apart; one on 6/6/68, the other 6/5/04. Here’s their debate with each other: http://t.co/eXGEUGA93z
— Russell Moore (@drmoore) June 6, 2015
More on that evening here. As far as I know, that British kid (apparently named Jeff Jordan) ended up doing nothing of particular note with his life. Which is, in its way, a shame: if Jordan had then we might have had footage of the look on the guy’s face when he realized that, dear God, but THAT MAN really did kill Soviet Communism deader than disco and made it look easy in the process.
Sorry: I wasn’t really aware that the name “RONALD REAGAN National Airport” was so infuriating to a bunch of people that I was already cheerfully contemptuous towards. Under the circumstances, my only regret is that I’m not writing thing on Saturday morning, so that my saying “RONALD REAGAN National Airport!” wasn’t contributing to more hangovers right now. Anyway, this is what I really took away from that article:
In the long run, it looks like “Reagan” will win out. Our survey found that younger generations are more likely to use Reagan, regardless of political affiliation. That may be because, to them, “Reagan” simply connotes “the convenient airport that’s on Metro” — just as “Dulles,” to many locals, means “the airport that’s way out in Virginia,” not “the namesake of John Foster Dulles, architect of Cold War brinkmanship.”
That’s certainly the case for Denzel Thomas, 25.
“I don’t know much about Ronald Reagan,” said the D.C.-based artist, while waiting for a flight to Miami. “I think he was president before I was born.”
Don’t be absurd: ’25’ means that the guy was born in… 1990.
Oh, God, I am old.
Moe Lane
Via @gabrielmayor.
I suppose that this will depress you, given our current… what I will be charitable and call ‘leadership.’ But it’s still worth your attention. Ladies and gentlemen, Ronald Reagan’s Brandenburg Gate speech, June 12, 1987.
Always remember: we have, indeed, had it worse.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
Yeah, the desktop finally decided that it was alive, again. I’m still gonna save those posts for tomorrow, anyway.
Speaking of anyway…
The Reagan jobs recovery versus the (try not to laugh) the Obama jobs recovery. pic.twitter.com/STxcNpTge9
— Ken Gardner (@kesgardner) January 26, 2014
Sheesh. At what point do Democrats start asking themselves, do they want Barack Obama’s help this fall?
Moe Lane
…and then really, really aggravating for the last one.
It’s amazing how far standards for public speaking have fallen in the last three decades. It’s even more amazing how much they’ve fallen since 2009… and who thought that I’d be saying THAT in 2013, huh?
Via email.
This particular moment was apparently the one, because the Left’s been trying to push back on it ever since.
On this day in 1987: 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' http://t.co/rIRq0VkdW5
— Brian Faughnan (@BrianFaughnan) June 12, 2013
Good luck with that, guys.
