Having notes also reduces the chance that you’ll fail to completely answer simple questions that you might otherwise find easy in a less stressful setting, just like Amy Coney Barrett did.
Here’s Alex Winter’s original tweet in all its glory:
This doesn’t say “I’m so smart I don’t need notes.” It says “I have no respect for you or this process and serve other masters.” pic.twitter.com/EJUYLGkSfq
— Alex Winter 😷 (@Winter) October 14, 2020
It’s a two-part, four-hour watch, but it’s a good (and gripping!) one: Agents of Chaos, the HBO documentary about Russian interference in U.S. elections.
It’s directed by Alex Gibney, the same director who made Totally Under Control, the documentary about the Trump administration’s early, disastrous non-response to COVID-19. I wrote about it a couple of days ago.
I’ve started watching it, and I’m finding it hard to tear myself away. As with Totally Under Control, I’ll write more about it later.
Here’s the trailer:
Here’s a Washington Post video interview featuring Agents of Chaos director Alex Gibney and cyber conflict researcher Camille François. François is the CIO of Graphika, who make an internet/social media analysis system that detects disinformation, media manipulation, and harassment campaigns. It’s hosted by Jonathan Capeheart, opinion writer for the Washington Post:
François is also featured in the first hour of the documentary, where she explains the power of organized trolling and how it was used to create plausible social media accounts, webpages for seemingly real groups, and fake online organizations, all with the purpose of manipulating the American public — and how their technique has only improved since 2016.
The Guardian did a good job summarizing the documentary in their review with this paragraph:
Agents of Chaos finds no single story, operation, locus of blame, or clear measure of impact by the Russian government. Instead, it explores a common purpose employed by both Russia and pro-Trump players in the US, sometimes in tandem and sometimes covertly. “Using chaos to amass power,” said Gibney.
Hey, I grew up in Canada and didn’t study U.S. history or civics, but even I was able to match Amy Coney Barrett by being able to name four out of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment, namely:
The one both she and I had forgotten was “Freedom to petition the government”, which is also phrased as “Freedom to protest”.
Remember: I have an excuse — I’m not a U.S. citizen (I’m a Canadian with a “green card”) and didn’t grow up here. I didn’t take civics classes here. I just know what I know about the U.S. from reading the news, books, and observation.
You know who should be able to answer a softball question about anything on the Bill of Rights — the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution — by a friendly party (Republican senator Ben Sasse)? An American-born law school graduate, judge, and candidate for Supreme Court justice.
I’ll give her this: She carries herself a good deal better than this toolbag:
Totally Under Control is the name of two recent works:
While they were created by completely unrelated teams, both are about the Trump administration’s coronavirus response, and both take their name from a statement by Donald Trump made on January 22, in which he downplayed the novel coronavirus:
“We have it totally under control.”
I’m watching the Totally Under Control documentary as I write this post, and I’ll write more later. In the meantime, here’s some information and links.
Here’s the trailer for the documentary:
The film is currently available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
Here’s a review of the documentary by Breakfast All Day:
And here’s an interview with the documentary’s directors, Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan, and Suzanne Hillinger with DP/30, David Poland’s YouTube channel where he interviews movie-makers:
The latest episode of the Daily Beast’s podcast, The New Abnormal, features an interview with director Alex Gibney about the film, how he made it, and what he learned in the process.
You can get it via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and other sources.
Insider posted the comic on September 14th. You can read it online…
…or you can watch it in motion comic form below:
The upcoming “Treehouse of Horror” episode of The Simpsons features this segment listing 50 reasons to NOT vote for Trump, and believe me, there are plenty more, including his profiting off the Secret Service, and having taxpayers cover the $100+ million costs of his 250+ days of golfing.
Here are some stills from the segment:
