*”Dunkirk.” It’s rare that a movie this well done is one that, at some point, you can’t wait for it to end. It’s that shell-shocking, nerve-wracking, claustrophobia-inducing–and riveting.
* Rachel Maddow. What a cable-news host anomaly. Imagine, somebody whom you agree with on so much is also somebody who is so annoying. She doesn’t speak softly; she carries a big shtick. But she’s well-informed, smart and on the correct side.
I still prefer to bypass the redundancy and posturing of 24-7 commentary and wait for MSNBC’s Brian Williams at 11:00.
* A recent local section, front page of the Tampa Bay Times featured a moving photo of a quadriplegic, 54-year-old Albert Hort of Tarpon Springs. His condition also included unsettling uncertainty about a change–the dropping of a Medicaid waiver program–in Florida health care law that might result in Holt being forced into a nursing home. Holt wasn’t saying: “Feel sorry for me,” but, in effect, “Don’t let them move me.” He was lobbying to stay put, not bemoaning his paralyzed plight.
I doubt I’m the only one who had a visceral response to that bedroom photo and feisty attitude of Hart. It put into perspective all that isn’t right in our own lives. And all the woe-is-me excuses we make for life being unfair.
* Another photograph left a gut impression. It was a widely circulated AP photo of Valerie Castile, a black woman, embracing Don Damond, a white man. Castile was the mother of Philando Castile, who was fatally shot by Minneapolis police. Damond was the fiancé of Justine Damond, who was also fatally shot by a Minneapolis officer. Both incidents remain highly controversial and flat-out suspect.
The photo, however, was a reminder that racial targeting, typically the go-to speculation, is not automatically applicable. Especially when the officers are not always white and the victims not always black–as in the case of Justine Damond. Sometimes it’s just disturbingly poor policing or the adrenaline rush that prompts overreaction that can accompany an anything-can-happen-at-any-time scenario for officers doing a job that few of us would want to do.
* John McCain, who returned to Washington for on-the-record, health-care input, hadn’t really been in the crosshairs of media coverage since his presidential campaign. And he made the most of it with his emphatic, thumbs-down “no” to health care repeal sans well-thought out replacement. Had he voted with the “ayes,” Mike Pence would have cast another tie-breaker. But it’s what Sen. McCain said in a broader context that mattered most.
First, he extolled the virtues of Senate compromise, seemingly an oxymoron these days. Then he doubled down with a two-pronged, mini-lecture. “We are not the president’s subordinates,” he reminded Trump. “We are his equals.” Then to his colleagues: “Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio and television and the internet,” he implored. “To hell with them. They don’t want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood.”
Don’t look for him on “Fox and Friends” any time soon.
The Maverick had, indeed, returned.