We Blew It

Year 16, Day 182 - 7/1/24 - Movie #4,773

BEFORE: Wow, this was a close one.  I meant to quick-scan through this one in advance, to make sure that my plan was solid and the chain wouldn't be broken.  But this film wasn't streaming anywhere for "free" so I couldn't do that.  I'd have to pay $1.99 to watch this on YouTube, that was really the only way to see it, even the one pirate site I trust let me down. (The film was there, it just wouldn't play...). I couldn't drop this film, I need one particular film director who was interviewed in it to carry over to the next film. But I was concerned that there might be no link from "You've Been Trumped" to make the connection, and if not, then I'd really be sunk here. 

But I've been doing this for a long while now, I don't mean to brag but my instincts are usually good, and so my programming choice turned out to be solid, since this film was made shortly after the 2016 election there was archive footage (OK, sound) of Donald Trump, and that's what I was counting on.  So thankfully (and I never thought I'd say this) Donald Trump carries over from "You've Been Trumped Too" with a back-up as well.

Before I get to the film, here are the links that will get me to the end of the documentary chain: Peter Bogdanovich, Johnny Carson, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Kanye West, John Lennon, Elton John, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Little Richard, David Bowie, George Michael, Michael Jackson, Tom Brokaw, Elizabeth Taylor, Charlie Chaplin, Bill & Hillary Clinton, Martin Luther King, Morley Safer, Dick Cavett, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnell and Angela Lansbury.  Note this is a rough list of confirmed carry-overs, there will be tons of other people connecting the films because there's really a lot of overlap. 

THE PLOT: How did America change from "Easy Rider" into Donald Trump?  What became of the dreams and utopias of the 1960's and 1970's?  What do the people who lived in that golden age think about it today? Did they really blow it? 

AFTER: I've found that it's best to not think TOO much about the calendar when I'm putting my chains together, but still, there's something that takes over, whether it's subconscious or just random chance, I still don't know.  I picked a specific film for July 4, sure, but then I didn't really think at all about the week leading up to July 4.  Still, look what happened, I included (again, without really thinking about it) one film about American corporations making musicals, two films about a former American President, and now a film about the zeitgeist of America, from the 1960's to today.  Really, if I'd TRIED to program a very American week of films, I don't think I would have done as well as this, just trusting that the chain knows what it's doing and will find a way to make some sense.  (Tomorrow's film is about a VERY American actor, and the film after that is about baseball, the national pastime.)

The idea here was to interview some very prominent people in American culture, mainly filmmakers, about the culture of America now, and contrast that with the culture of the 1960's and 1970's, and try to examine what has changed since then.  Sure, sounds like a great idea, I mean we can pretty much guess that times have changed, but how?  And why?  They start off with a clip from the movie "Easy Rider", in which bikers Wyatt and Billy take the proceeds from a cocaine deal and decide to travel to New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras - and after a number of wild adventures, during which the square hitchhiker they picked up along the way is killed, they're out in the desert and they take LSD and Wyatt sadly proclaims, "We blew it..." even though they DID make it to Mardi Gras on time.  Perhaps the film never explains what Wyatt meant, perhaps it was just the drugs talking or perhaps he felt guilty over George's death, or perhaps life is a journey and not a destination and any fulfillment that can expect to find has to come from within, I don't know. Anyway the movie doesn't end well for our anti-heroes, so it's really kind of a bummer.

What I doubt, however, is that Wyatt was somehow expressing the belief that the two men had failed to uphold the values of the 1960's decade in their quest, and that he was pining over the fact that the 1960's were coming to an end and the decade of peace and love was also the decade of protests and war and greed and government eroding our freedoms.  But OK, it's possible. That would have required Wyatt to step outside himself and see the big picture, put things in perspective, hey, maybe that's what LSD can do for you, allow you to see things from a distance or in a new light, and then you might realize you haven't lived up to your potential, if the biggest goal you can think of is to drive to New Orleans and party, instead of using your voice and your talents to make the world a better place.  But whatever, you can see in that movie's ending whatever you choose to see. 

But this documentary all seems rather thrown together - some people were interviewed and there's no subtitles to tell us who they are - I mean, I KNOW that's Michael Lang, one of the organizers of the Woodstock Festival, but it would be nice if everyone else could know it, too.  They also misspelled Ronee Blakley's name as "Ronnee Blackley", or something like that. Not cool. Also, it was directed by a French person, and what could he possibly know about the spirit of America, then or now?  Well, I guess maybe he started from a clean slate and then decided to come to America and ask a bunch of Americans about it.  

Also, many of the interviewed people don't seem to make much sense, I guess it's a tricky thing to try to remember what things were like 45-50 years ago and maybe even tricker to define what, exactly has changed since then.  The one thing they can agree on is that things HAVE changed, but damn, it's just so difficult to put it into words, right?  Maybe it's a feeling, not a set of words, but then how do you describe that feeling?  You can try and timeline it - we had the decade of peace & love, then we had the "me" decade, then we had the millennials screwing things up, then we had the internet - but that really doesn't tell us WHY, does it? 

People have theories, sure.  Watergate, Vietnam, protestors got in the way.  Reaganomics changed everything, the Berlin wall came down, Bill Clinton screwed an intern.  But these are just the headlines, they don't get into the WHY either.  Maybe it's got something to do with the hippies finding out that at some point they had to grow up and get jobs, and people who roamed the country going to music festivals at some point figured out that buying a house might be a good idea, but that takes money and hard work and cleaning yourself up a bit.  Ideals are great, but they don't pay the bills or put food on your table.  

Also, I think we're dealing with a phenomenon in which everyone believes that the times of their youth were the "good old days". It's a method of dealing with the present that involved romanticizing the past.  Hey, remember when we just drove around the country and we lived out of a van and we shared food with strangers and had free love?  Yeah, those were good times.  Well, the people who grew up during the Great Depression would have called that "being a hobo".  Hey, remember when we rode for free on boxcars and slept in shanty towns and we stood in bread lines and didn't have to work because there were no jobs?  Yeah, those were good times, I guess?  Look, I was born in 1968 and I was a teenager during the 1980's so my inclination is to say, "Hey, remember when we hung out at the arcade and played Pac-Man all day and didn't have to work yet but just listened to great music while we did our homework and we stood in line for "Star Wars" movies"?  Yeah, those were good times.  

No matter what generation you come from, the good times just can't last forever, because everybody has to grow up and get a job, buy a house and settle in for the next few decades, preferably with somebody you love who is also willing to put up with you. Have kids if you want to be short on money the rest of your life, I don't quite get that but some people do it.  I say have cats, they eat less and they're replaceable.  Try and put some money aside for retirement, because if you're lucky and live long enough, you're going to need it, but if you die young, well you probably won't care.  But if you're lucky and you live long, you get to watch your parents and then your friends pass away, while your health goes downhill.  It's a NO-WIN situation a zero-sum game, and that's another reason why everyone tends to romanticize the past, especially the times before you were young enough to not realize that someday you're going to die.  

Honestly, I thought this film might have been a brutal examination of the Trump years, and that the title referred to America collectively electing the worst President ever.  No, there are some sound bites from Trump and Hillary and Bernie to try to focus attention on how divisive politics are now, and the vast difference economically between the classes in the U.S., but that's not the main focus of the fillm, which is the fact that film directors all seem to agree that we've lost something along the way, the ideals of the 1960's for one.  But were they ever really attainable in the first place?  I mean, you can say you're going to base the new society on peace and love once we all enter the Age of Aquarius, but how can that possibly result in a society where things, you know, work?  Somebody will still need to run things and enforce laws and empty trash cans and make movies and TV shows and work at hospitals and libraries, we can't all just pack up into vans with mattresses in them and ride around the country depending on the kindness of strangers for food. 

The people who had those dreams in the 1960's of a better society were, perhaps, setting their sights a bit too high.  Sure, things are different now, because at some point, reality set in. We have a divisive two-party system that can't get anything done, we have an convicted felon running for President and he may win and replace the one with dementia, and there's still racism and sexism and ageism and homophobia and transphobia and xenophobia.  Not to mention climate change, plastics in the ocean and forest fires raging out of control.  So maybe instead of pausing to reflect on what we might have lost since the 1960's, how about taking some steps to improve things now?  Just a thought. 

I'll admit that it doesn't make much sense, but people can believe different things at different points in life, like some of the people who stood up for peace and love in the 1960's might be Republicans now, that's a possible side effect of getting a job and a house and saving up some money, suddenly those same people are voting for people who want to take freedoms away, like abortions and gay rights and the right to practice any religion.  By the same token, I read that some people who are immigrants themselves support Trump because he's strong on border control, this doesn't really track, unless they're afraid that the new immigrants will come in and take the jobs that they currently have.  Or they realize that America can only support so many people, and they don't want MORE immigrants here using up all the social services and benefits.  I can't really fathom why people support Trump, so it's a real head-scratcher for me.

But yeah, I wish this film had a few more answers for the questions it raised, sure. It's also a bit weird that the film used archive sound from the movie "The Company You Keep", and I recently watched that film on June 10.  What are the odds?

Also starring Ronee Blakley (last seen in "Rolling Thunder Revue"), Peter Bogdanovich (last seen in "Dean Martin: King of Cool"), Charles Burnett, Tobe Hooper, Peter Hyams (last seen in "Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind"), Stanton Kaye, Michael Lang (last seen in "Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation"), Jeff Lieberman, Bob Mankoff (last seen in "Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg"), Michael Mann, Bob Rafelson, Stephanie Rothman, Jerry Schatzberg, Paul Schrader (last seen in "De Palma"), James Toback (last seen in "An Imperfect Murder"), Fred Williamson (last seen in "Starsky & Hutch"),

with archive footage of Joan Baez (also last seen in "Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation"), Peter Fonda (last seen in "Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time"), Wavy Gravy (last seen in "Tiny Tim: King for a Day"), Dennis Hopper (last seen in "Mr. Saturday Night"), John F. Kennedy (last seen in "Rustin"), Charles Manson (last seen in "Bitchin': The Sound and Fury of Rick James"), Richard Nixon (last seen in "I Could Never Be Your Woman"), 

and the voices of Julie Christie (last seen in "The Company You Keep"), Robert Redford (ditto), Hillary Clinton (also carrying over from "You've Been Trumped Too"), Bernie Sanders (ditto). Walter Cronkite (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), 

RATING: 4 out of 10 unaffordable apartments in Watts

You've Been Trumped Too

Year 16, Day 181 - 6/30/24 - Movie #4,772

BEFORE: OK, June is over after tonight, but I'm going to squeeze one more into June and double-up on Trump films today.  I need to do this so I can land the right film on July 4 - this will get me back on track after I added too many documentaries at the last minute, like "Butterfly in the Sky" and "Remembering Gene Wilder".  My bad. 

Donald Trump carries over from "You've Been Trumped".  And here's the format breakdown for June: 

7 Movies watched on cable (saved to DVD): Project Almanac, Yours Mine & Ours, About My Father, 1900, The Last Tycoon, I Am Chris Farley, Belushi

7 Movies watched on cable (not saved): Balls of Fury, The Company You Keep, Blue Beetle, Wonka, Great Expectations (1998), Being Mary Tyler Moore, Albert Brooks: Defending My Life

6 watched on Netflix: Lift, Unfrosted, Sly, Butterfly in the Sky, Sr., Remembering Gene Wilder

3 watched on Amazon Prime: Die Hart, Strays, Good Night Oppy
3 watched on Hulu: I Love My Dad, Paint, Somewhere in Queens

2 watched on YouTube: You've Been Trumped, You've Been Trumped Too
1 watched on Disney+: Wish

1 watched on Paramount+: Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe

1 watched on a random site: Bathtubs Over Broadway

31 TOTAL

Wow, it's been a month, hasn't it?  I took a couple days off because of the Tribeca Film Festival, but then I made up for it at the end.  Now, if you want to play along tonight, the makers of this film have made it available for FREE on YouTube.  You know, because it's kind of important to get to know this Donald Trump fellow, decide if this is really the kind of guy you want to vote for.  Note that there is a version on YouTube that will cost a few dollars to rent, but look for the one posted by the JourneyMan TV account, it's FREE, you just have to watch a couple of ad breaks. 

THE PLOT: A chronicle of the confrontation between billionaire Donald Trump and feisty 92-year-old Scottish widow, Molly Forbes. 

AFTER: This is (more or less) a follow-up to yesterday's film, really an update on what happened to Molly Forbes, who went five years without running water in her house after the disputes with Trump over his golf course in Scotland, and Donald Trump, who was running for President in 2016.  The documentary director Anthony Baxter was riding kind of high after his first Trump film got noticed, and was able to secure two more sit-down interviews with Trump, probably because Trump was taking any and all interview opportunities while running for office.  But once Trump realized who Baxter was, he got a lot more reticent to talk about the disputes in Scotland.  Oh, he built that golf course, but there was so much bad publicity around its construction that hardly anybody golfed there.  

Baxter also met with Don Jr., interviewed him about his hunting in Africa, and then also had a meeting with him regarding the situation with Molly Forbes, how her well water ran dry after the road to the golf course was built, and he promised to look into it, and that her situation would be resolved as soon as possible. But of course, that was another lie.  In the end Michael Forbes, Molly's son, had to get some construction equipment out there and restore the pipe that brought water from the underground spring to Molly's well, which had been quite obviously blocked by Trump personnel.  Then once he did fix the pipeline, the Trump organization sent him a bill for the work that he did himself.  Yeah.  

Baxter clearly improved as a director, because there are some rather good juxtapositions here, like Trump talking about how much he loved his mother on one side of the screen, and the suffering Molly Forbes on the other side, after Trump had stated that she reminded him of his mother.  Molly's water crisis is also shown in comparison to the one in Flint, Michigan (there he goes, borrowing from Michael Moore again) and noting that Trump was holding one of his first rallies just a few miles away from Flint, and never visited that city or inquired about the water situation there, or really showed any concern at all for the suffering U.S. citizens (and voters) who lived in Flint.  

Then Baxter went to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, and brought Michael Forbes along to see the madness there.  Michael spoke with likely Trump voters about what Trump did to him and his mother during the golf course construction, and it would be nice to think that he changed a few minds, but the problem there is, once a MAGA voter makes up their mind to vote for Trump, it's very hard to persuade them that Trump is not fit to be President.  In fact, he never was qualified, either by his experience or by his morals, he never even really wanted the job, he just ran to increase his brand and his popularity, and it was the fluke of the Electoral College that won him the job.

Surprisingly, it's eight years later and we're right back in the same place - only he's up against Biden again, not Hillary, and Biden is supposedly the only person who beat him in a Presidential Election, which isn't completely true because Trump never won the popular vote, not once. It's just our wacky system that gave him the job, and only because he was more popular in certain states.  Now, thanks to last week's debate performance by Biden, suddenly everyone's determined that he's too old and should maybe not run again - no, this would be a bad idea, because Trump might easily beat Kamala Harris, there are still too many sexist old men who could never bring themselves to vote for a female President, that's part of the reason Hillary Clinton lost.  Biden should stay on the ticket, and after the election, if he's not up to the job, he can step down then, and we'd finally have a female President.  

OK, let's assume for the moment that age is a deciding factor here, and Biden's demeanor during the debate wasn't a fluke.  That's one strike against him, and OK, maybe having a son who had a drug problem and also bought a gun is a second strike.  So it's age and Hunter Biden, I'll go one more level in and say that the way Biden touches women and smells their hair sometimes is very cringey.  OK, three reasons to not vote for Biden.  But come on, I've got at least a HUNDRED reasons to not vote for Trump.  Don't believe me?  Here we go...

1. 34 felony convictions for falsifying business records in conjunction with paying off a porn star. 91 criminal charges overall.

2. Paying off a porn star, who he definitely slept with, even though he's denied doing so since.

3. The election interference that resulted from paying off that porn star and trying to keep that story from being published.

4. The additional fraud convictions in the state of New York for increasing the values of his properties to obtain business loans and decreasing them when filing tax records. 

5. Claiming to know nothing about that fraud and throwing his accountants under the bus.

6. Calling the attorney general of Georgia and asking him to "find" 12,000 more votes. This was code for creating false votes, thereby admitting he lost, because if he really thought he'd won the state, he would have just asked for a recount. 

7. Never admitting that he lost the 2020 election, or even that Biden got more votes.

8. Blaming election workers for tampering with the votes and opening them up to harassment from his followers. 

9. Trying to replace the electors from certain states with fake electors hand-selected to submit false electoral ballots for him. 

10. Continuing court cases in several states to try to reverse the 2020 election results, when there was zero evidence of tampering with voting machines or ballots. 

11. Pressuring the vice-President to interfere with the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes in the 2020 election.

12. The January 6 insurrection, inciting his followers to march on the Capitol. 

13. Watching the results of the insurrection from afar, and waiting hours to act in any way or ask his followers to stand down. 

14. Keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and failing to reply to requests from the FBI to return them.  (Whoops, forgot, Biden did this too, OK, let's call this one a wash.)

15. Being found liable for sexual abuse in the Jean Carroll case. 

16. Defaming Jean Carroll during and after his trial for sexual abuse. 

17. The other 2 dozen women who have claimed sexual misconduct or harassment on his part.  I won't list names here, but you can look up the list online.  Even if you allow that some of them might possibly lying or over-reacting, which I doubt, it's still TWO DOZEN charges. 

18. Connections to Jeffrey Epstein, not just being photographed with him, but also being on that list of people who flew on his jet and went to his island, where bad things probably happened.

19. Admitting in an interview that he would never allow the "Epstein List" to be released, but no, sure, release the JFK files and the UFO files. 

20. Clearly being sexually attracted to his own daughter, calling her "gorgeous" in interviews and claiming that if he weren't her father, he'd want to date her. Ewwwww....

21. Making fun of a handicapped reporter and doing a horrible impression of him on camera. 

22. Hanging out with Kanye West or Ye or Yeezy or whatever he's calling himself this week. 

23. Appointing THREE Supreme Court justices during his term, all of whom were clearly conservatives, while claiming that they weren't chosen because of that. 

24. Appointing one of those justices just days before the 2020 election, when four years previous, the possibility of Obama appointing a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg was nixed because it was "too close to the election".

25. The overturning of Roe v. Wade, a direct result from appointing those clearly conservative judges. 

26. Dismantling the U.S. pandemic response team months before an actual pandemic.  Sure, nobody saw it coming, but keeping the response team active would still have been the better move, even if there were no pandemic. 

27. Disputing the scientific advice about masks and social distancing during the pandemic, which included hosting "Super-spreader" events in the Rose Garden during lockdown. 

28. Suggesting that people could fight COVID using either light, bleach, Ivermectin or Hydroxy-chloroquine, when there was no medical evidence that any of that would help. 

29. Claiming that the COVID pandemic would disappear "like magic" once spring came.  Then when spring came and COVID was still here, claiming it would disappear "like magic" after the election.  It didn't even start to disappear until months after the vaccines came out in early 2021.

30. Allowing cities and businesses to open in April 2020, ignoring all medical and scientific advice, and this turned out to be before the second and third waves hit. 

31. Taking credit during the recent debate that he "got us through COVID", when, let's be honest, he didn't do a damn thing. 

32. Halting U.S. funding to the World Health Organization, yep, just when everybody needed the W.H.O. more than ever. 

33. Speaking of that, golfing nearly every day while he was in office, when he had previously taken Obama to task for golfing once a week instead of working.

34. While we're at it, the whole "birther" debate that he started, suggesting that Obama was not a U.S. citizen and was perhaps born in Kenya instead of Hawaii. 

35. Way back, suggesting that the Central Park Five be put on death row for raping a woman in Central Park, when it turned out years later that they were innocent. 

36. Saying he would build a wall to keep Mexicans and other immigrants out, and that he'd make Mexico pay for it. Didn't happen. 

37. Saying in 2015 that Mexico was sending criminals like rapists and drug dealers across the border. 

38. Having kids put in cages and separating them from their parents after crossing the border. Remember that one? The parents were deported but not their children, and there are still hundreds of children who have not been reunited. 

39. After a neo-Nazi protest in Charlottesville, claiming there were "good people on both sides". Nope, Nazis are just not good people, by definition. 

40. Proud Boys "Stand back and stand by".  Basically, refusing to condemn white supremacists. 

41. Having BLM protesters who were U.S. citizens SHOT AT with rubber bullets because he wanted to cross the street and hold up a Bible for a photo op. 

42. The 2016 travel ban he implemented, which just happened to focus on countries that had Islamic majorities. 

43. Failing to end the war in Afghanistan - he had no right to say during the debate that Biden botched our retreat from Afghanistan when he had made no attempt at all to end our country's longest-running war during his own term. 

44. Falsely claiming that thousands of Arabic people in New Jersey were cheering on 9/11 when the World Trade Center was collapsing. 

45. Claiming in 2016 that he had been against the war in Iraq, when he had in fact supported it in 2002. 

46. Getting out of the Vietnam War draft by claiming to have "bone spurs". Remember, years later he couldn't even tell a reporter which foot they were in.  

47. Refusing for years to release his tax returns, as most Presidents or presidential candidates had done in the past. Well, thanks to the fraud trials, at least we now know why. 

48. Claiming that global warming was a Chinese hoax. 

49. Claiming that COVID-19 came from a Chinese lab instead of a market. 

50. Fabricating the original story about Hunter Biden's laptop. 

51. "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the missing 30,000 e-mails..."

52. Having close business ties to Russia and Putin.

53. Allowing his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to be put in charge of domestic affairs, international affairs, and the pandemic response when we wasn't qualified to handle any of those things. 

54. All of the shady business deals that resulted from Jared Kushner being in charge of international affairs. 

55. Supporting fossil fuels and coal over renewable energy sources like solar power and wind power, making up stories about dead birds seen around windmills. 

56. Having the U.S. surgeon general and his doctor falsify his weight. Vanity, thy name is Trump.

57. Drawing on a map of a hurricane's path with a Sharpie to match the prediction that he made about which states were in danger of getting hit with bad weather. He just couldn't admit that he was wrong, not even by one little bit.  So, when in doubt, just change the data!

58. Tossing paper towels at hurricane victims in Puerto Rico. Yeah, that'll fix it, because the hurricane was "very wet, in terms of water". 

59. That very phony press conference in December 2017 where he claimed his administration was being successful in cutting government red tape and he had that massive stack of paperwork on stage with him, supposedly symbolizing the unneeded regulations that we would eliminate.  Come on, you know all of that paper was blank, right? 

60. Delaying aid to Ukraine unless they committed to investigating his chief political rival, Joe Biden.  Remember quid pro quo?  This is what got him impeached the first time. 

61. Hiring Robert DeJoy, the worst postmaster general ever, and nearly defunding the post office to prevent mail-in voting. 

62. Being the ultimate "nepo baby", being born on third base and then taking credit for the run. He wouldn't be anywhere without his father securing loans for him to start him off in business, of course he also claims to be a "self-made" man, which is blatantly untrue. 

63. Being so against Obamacare and how successful it was, he kept making claims that under his administration he would abolish ObamaCare and replace with a better system that would benefit everyone, people could keep their doctors, and it would be wonderful. We're still waiting. 

64. Claiming that when he was President, there would be "so much winning" that we'd get tired of winning, whatever that means, it just didn't happen either. 

65. Trump Steaks. It was a scam.

66. Trump Air. It was a scam. 

67. Trump Water. It was a scam. 

68. Trump Vodka. It was a scam.

69. Trump University. It was a scam. 

70. Trump Bibles & Trump NFTs.  Yep, you guessed it. 

71. Hating on John McCain, someone beloved by both parties. "I like heroes who don't get captured..."

72. Threatening to withdraw from NATO.

73. Actually withdrawing from the Paris climate accords. 

74. Trying to abolish the EPA. 

75. Complaining about too many imported goods from China, while his line of clothing and his daughter's line of clothing and jewelry were all made there. 

76. Calling Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas" when she claimed a small amount of Native American heritage. 

77. Belittling all of his political opponents in 2016 with nicknames, from "Lyin' Ted" to "Little Marco". Throw in "Crooked Hillary" while you're at it. 

78. Hiring Steve Bannon to run his campaign, and then continuing to listen to his advice. 

79. Hiring Paul Manafort as a campaign chairman, then he served two years in jail for tax fraud, foreign lobbying and witness tampering. 

80. Overcharging the government for members of the Secret Service to stay in his hotels while they protected HIM. 

81. Spending so much time outside the White House at resorts that are owned by him, which means that the U.S. government paid for trips that cost an estimated $142 million in four years, and most of that money went to Trump properties. 

82, Allowing foreign governments and organizations, like the Kuwaiti Embassy, the Turkish government and a PR firm hired by Saudi Arabia to book events at his hotels and resorts, which is probably a repeated violation of the Emoluments Clause. 

83. Diverting other money from his campaign into his own personal family businesses.

84. Pretending to sign over his companies to his sons when he became President. Yeah, right. 

85. Claiming to have given millions of dollars to charity, but a Washington Post reporter could only find one donation made over the course of years, somewhere between $5K and $10K. 

86. Using his Trump Foundation (an alleged charity) to bid $20,000 at an auction to obtain a 6-foot portrait of himself. Well, at least it was a charity auction, but essentially he just took $20K from his charity and gave it to another, that's not really how charitable donations are supposed to work. 

87. Firing FBI James Comey and then blaming Dept. of Justice officials for it. Comey was the one investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election. 

88. Hiring Michael Flynn as his national security advisor, he only lasted 24 days before reports came that he'd lied about meeting with a Russian ambassador. 

89. Over 18,000 documented lies while in office. 

90. Another classic - blatant discrimination against minority tenants in housing complexes he owned in New York City, which were supposed to have a certain percentage of units set aside for low-income housing, but whenever those families showed up, the units were "unavailable". 

91. Tax cuts for the super-wealthy and for corporations, while telling the middle class that he cares about them and that they'll be better off with him in the White House.  Just saying it doesn't make it true. 

92. Going way back to the inauguration - claiming that the crowd of his supporters on Inauguration Day was the biggest turn-out for any President's inauguration, when the news had clear photos of a light turnout, and quickly found examples of larger crowds for previous Presidents.  Still, he refused to admit it was a light turn-out, and he never will. 

93. Promising in November 2023 to root out the communists, Marxists and fascists in the U.S. and the "radical thugs that live like vermin". This was a tactic commonly used by Hitler and Mussolini back in the day. 

94. Declaring in an interview in December 2023 that he would be a dictator only on "Day One" if he were re-elected, that he'd close the border, start to "drill, drill, drill", then he'd probably go play golf for the next four years. 

95. On the age issue, Trump isn't even that far behind Biden, he just turned 78, is that really so much younger than 81?  And we keep hearing again and again that Trump took a cognitive test, so what?  It was the kind that just confirms that a person can think in the most basic terms, it's about as difficult a test as solving a maze on a placemat at a Chuck E. Cheese's. 

96. His name isn't even Trump, the family name was "Drumpf" in Germany and his great-great-great-grandfather changed his name. 

97. Cheating on his first wife with the woman who became his second wife.  

98. Burying his first wife on his golf course in Bedminster, NJ. It's clearly not what she would have wanted, he either did this to try and get the property a tax break as a burial ground, or so he could piss on her grave after playing a round of golf. Perhaps both. 

99. Taking a hard stance on immigration, when his own wife is an immigrant from Slovenia. Convince me that she didn't marry him just to get a green card. 

100. Let's call the last one (for now) the treatment of the Scottish people living around the property he bought to create his "world-class" golf course, as related in this film.  He cut off a 91-year-old woman's water supply and she had to live without running water for FIVE YEARS. Is that the kind of person you want to re-elect as your President?  

OK, so even if I'm being super-hard on Biden, that means the score is 100 reasons to not vote for Trump, and only FOUR reasons to not vote for Biden.  Well, my mind's made up, how about you?

Also starring Donald Trump Jr., Anthony Baxter, Michael Forbes, Molly Forbes, Sarah Malone Bates, David Milne, Susan Munro, Alex Salmond, George Sorial (all carrying over from "You've Been Trumped"), Rohan Beyts, Sheila Forbes, Tom Vineyard, Andy Wightman

with archive footage of Wolf Blitzer (last seen in "Shazam! Fury of the Gods"), HIllary Clinton (last seen in "Rosewater"), Vera Coking, Ted Cruz (last seen in "Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer"), Mike Pence (ditto), Melania Trump (ditto), Rudy Giuliani (last seen in "The Queen of Versailles"), John McCain (last seen in "The Report"), Michelle Obama (last seen in "Respect"), Bill O'Reilly (last seen in "She Said"), Bernie Sanders (last seen in "Mayor Pete"), Eric Trump (last seen in "The Accidental President"), Ivanka Trump (last seen in "George Carlin's American Dream"), Tiffany Trump.

RATING: 5 out of 10 Mexican flags

You've Been Trumped

Year 16, Day 181 - 6/30/24 - Movie #4,771

BEFORE: In the last few Doc Blocks I watched films like "The Accidental President" and "Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump", but that doesn't seem of have made much difference, because here we are, he's running for President again.  But back in 2016, nobody knew what kind of President he was going to be, like "What could POSSIBLY go wrong?" and then we all found out the hard way, didn't we?  I mean, he dismantled the U.S. pandemic response team about a year before the COVID pandemic, I don't think he could have done more damage to the country if he tried, and he wasn't even trying.  Thousands of lives could have been saved if he hadn't taken that action to "reduce big government" and somehow he undid the one agency that could have been most helpful in 2020.  For that reason ALONE he should not be elected again, but of course I've got thousand other reasons why, listing them here would take up the whole review. 

And now he said during the recent debate that his team "took on COVID", what a bunch of bull.

This is also a bit of clean-up, because this doc (and tomorrow's) have been on the list for YEARS, at least three or four, but there never seemed to be slots for them - so sure, I"m late with this film but maybe there's something in this film worth stressing, even if it's perhaps like closing the barn door after the horse has escaped.  

David Letterman carries over again from "Bathtubs Over Broadway" and moves into second place overall. 

THE PLOT: In this David and Goliath story for the 21st century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on celebrity tycoon Donald Trump as he buys up one of Scotland's last wilderness areas to build a golf resort. 

AFTER: This documentary comes from the Michael Moore school of filmmaking, meaning it's OK to ambush your subject if that's the only way you can get footage of him, and if you can't do that, it's OK to film footage of yourself trying to get an interview and failing, or standing outside in the building lobby, or even trying to call him on the phone, when you KNOW he's not going to answer that call.  But I guess from a documentary standpoint, you do what you can instead of what you can't. 

The film came out in 2011, and the issue at hand was a golf course that The Trump Organization wanted to build in Scotland, the ancestral home of golf.  Why they felt Scotland needed another golf course when they probably already had hundreds, I have no idea.  But of course it comes down to profit, if Trump felt there was money to be made in Scotland by building a resort similar to Mar-A-Lago, well of course that's what he'd want to do.  And who cares if building that resort interfered with the ecosystems there, or the lives of the local residents, these are petty concerns, people are like ants to him, he just doesn't care about anyone but himself, we've seen this time and time again. 

The local government was prepared to give him anything he wanted, waive regulations, approve any plans, and you know what that means, they were either paid off or they also had dollar signs in their eyes over what the resort would bring to the local economy.  Jobs for local residents, at least that was the promise, but most likely that was just another one of Trump's lies or empty promises.  And you can probably guess how people felt about being told that their houses were in the way, and they were going to be forced to sell the house and move elsewhere, despite how long they've owned that house or how long their family had been living on that piece of land.  We have a thing in America called "eminent domain" that sometimes kicks in, it Scotland they call it  "compulsory purchase" but they both mean the same thing, "Hey, you're in the way and legally, you're going to lose your house."  (Read up on the one guy in Brooklyn who wouldn't sell his property and got in the way of building what is now the Barclays Center, it's the same story.)

The other precursor to this story is the origin story for Mar-a-Lago, which I learned earlier this year (after watching "Unfrosted") that Marjorie Post, the cereal executive, originally had the resort built and she lived there for years.  When she died she willed it to the U.S. Parks service, thinking it could serve as a type of "winter White House" for whoever was President, if they wanted to get away to Florida for a week here and there. (oddly, that's what the news called it when Trump was President...). But the Parks Service found they didn't need it for that purpose, so they put it up for sale.  Trump wanted to buy it, but the government didn't want to sell it to him, because he'd probably ruin it.  So Trump started buying up all the land AROUND Mar-a-Lago, and he threatened to build huge skyscrapers on that land that would completely block Mar-a-Lago's view of the ocean, which would completely de-value the property, and that's when he was mysteriously able to buy the property he wanted.  

So they really should have known the depths he would sink to in order to get this golf course built in Scotland.  He held press conferences where he said that the locals lived like "pigs" in decrepit houses.  He filed injunctions against the other houses, saying that portions of them were built on the land he now owned.  There was footage of Trump that aired on the Golf Channel where he told his underlings, "I hate that house, it's ugly, get rid of it, I don't care how."  All of it was just a form of the "Golden Rule", the one that states that whoever has the gold makes the rules.  

Look, I'm not saying this sort of thing doesn't happen all over the place, shady tactics pulled by real estate developers.  I'm sure when casinos were being built in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and other places, similar things went down, with the developers using the excuse that all those casinos and resorts would be great for the city, great for the locals, great for the environment (somehow) when it was all just a smokescreen for putting more money in their own pockets, and the pockets of any government officials who helped railroad the construction through.  When we first started visiting Atlantic City regularly (2014, I think), Trump had two casinos there, though one had just closed and the other, Trump Taj Mahal, was being actively picketed by striking workers. I'm not really a pro-union guy, but neither will I cross a picket line if I can avoid it, I just don't want any trouble.  So there were a dozen other casinos that weren't being picketed, so we figured we'd just go gamble in them, problem solved. The Taj Mahal closed soon after, because Trump lost interest and also decided to run for President, and that casino became the Hard Rock.  The other was the Trump Plaza, which closed shortly after Trump tried to sell it, failed to sell it, then had his name taken off of it.  Closing that casino put about 1,000 people out of work, but why should anyone at the top of that food chain care about the peasants?  So then that property just sat there, closed and dormant for seven years, which makes no sense to me.  Why not rush the demolition and/or sell the property so a new casino could be built, which would create more jobs?  Apparently there was a lot of legal wrangling and debate about what to do with it, implode it or demo it, auction off the right to set off the explosives, etc.  There's still nothing there except a parking garage and a beer garden, which I can't quite wrap my brain around. 

In the end, there was something akin to a happy (?) ending, of sorts. After making the lives of the local residents who wouldn't sell their properties and others who were protesting, Trump just decided that it wasn't worth the effort.  Or he got more interested in running for President, it's a bit tough to say.  Also, someone had proposed building a giant wind farm off the coast, right near the property that Trump had been working on developing.  Which is funny and ironic, because Trump was beaten by his own tactics - this sounds a lot like how he forced the sale of Mar-a-Lago, just surround the place with unappealing things so whoever owns it doesn't want it any more.  Plus, we may have discovered Trump's weakness, which is windmills - he's certainly complained about them at his rallies, almost as much as he's complained about low-power showers and low-flush toilets.  So if you want to get rid of Trump, just build a bunch of windmills - maybe install a ring of them around the White House, I'm just saying.  Sounds crazy, but who knows, it might work. 

Anyway, there's a sequel film so maybe I'll get an update about the Scottish golf course affair later today.  If there's not much to write about, then I'll just list my 100 reasons to not elect Trump for President again.  Surely I must have at least 100, and the way he treated the residents of Scotland can be #101. 

Also starring Donald Trump (last seen in "Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer"), Donald Trump Jr. (last seen in "The Accidental President"), Anthony Baxter, Kevin Brown, Paul Cheshire, Mickey Foote, Michael Forbes, Molly Forbes, Sheila Forbes, Martin Ford, Ian Francis, Martin Glegg, Dr. Jim Hansom, Paul Holleran, Audrey Kennedy, David Kennedy, Emily Maitles, Sarah Malone Bates, David McCue, David Milne, Susan Munro, Paul O'Connor, Richard Phinney, Alex Salmond, Charles Skene, George Sorial, Stewart Spence, Andy Wightman, Stephanie Williams, Ian Wood with archive footage of Peter Riegert (last seen in "Belushi"), Joe Strummer.

RATING: 5 out of 10 clips from the movie "Local Hero" that were weirdly prophetic