Benjamin Svetkey (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER) notes:
When Zachary Levi stood onstage at a Sept. 28 rally in Michigan and endorsed Donald Trump, he declared it an act of "career suicide" that would end his chances of working again in "very, very liberal" Hollywood. The crowd ate it up, applauding the 44-year-old Shazam! star for his sacrifice to the MAGA cause. But in L.A., there was more than a little head-scratching. Not because Levi was endorsing a convicted felon and adjudicated sex offender - the anti-vaxxer actor has done weirder things than that, like supporting Robert Kennedy Jr. for president - but because lots of folks here had assumed Levi's mainstream career already was all but dead. His latest big-screen venture, Harold and the Purple Crayon, was one of the year's biggest box office duds, and his 2023 superhero movie, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, had one of the worst openings of any DC theatrical release.
"When he was cast as Shazam, it was literally his dream," recalls an insider who has known Levi for years. "He thought this was his ticket to being The Rock or Chris Evans. But it didn't happen for him, and he's bitter about that." In fact, Levi doesn't even live in L.A. anymore; he's now ensconced in a cattle ranch in ruby-red Texas, from where he's recently been focusing on faith-based projects, like 2021's Christian-themed American Underdog and - arriving in February - The Unbreakable Boy, in which he'll play the father of a child with brittle bone disease. Indeed, Levi has leaned so far into faith-based productions, it's beginning to look as if his endorsement of Trump - and his courting of a conservative fan base - was more a savvy career move than professional suicide.
It's a point C.I. made awhile back. August 9th:
It was over for Zach.
I hope he enjoys the Texas ranch. Maybe he can act out STRANGE WAY OF LIFE but with a happy ending? He always seemed like a closet case.
What happened to his roll dog?
Fat Girl. Remember Alicia Silverstone?
She and Zach were Robert Kennedy Jr fans. They endorsed him. Junior dropped out and endorsed Trump. Alicia, where's fat girl? I love how she pretends she has a career. She could never act. CLUELESS? That's not acting. Reese Witherspoon acts in LEGALLY BLONDE. Alicia just does the same damn thing she always does and she does it poorly.
At least she wasn't chubby in the film like when she was Fat Girl in BATMAN & ROBIN. You want to play a superhero, lose some damn weight. People laughed at her in that movie. She needed to lose at least forty pounds -- at least -- for that role. Instead people were shouting at the screen about how fat she was. And this was the midnight preview before the film opened. Once it opened, everyone was talking about how overweight and out of shape she was. Her career never recovered. She was fat, lazy and stupid.
And her career suffered as a result.
Now she's lucky to get a bit part in a nice movie. A lot of times, she making shlock horror films -- some for other countries. It's because she can't act and didn't have the brains to study acting. Now she's forty-eight and looks like Amy Schumer's cuter brother. Someone should have told her the career was over.
She had almost enough talent to be a music video personality.
But that's all she ever had.
And I wouldn't have said all that if she hadn't attacked Stacey Dash. I don't agree with Stacey's politics but I didn't need to hear Alicia -- or the director Amy Heckerling -- trashing Stacey.
Without Stacey, CLUELESS would have died long ago.
Dionne's the cool character. Alicia's Cher is a dumb airhead who's also a virgin and can't drive. Dionne classes up Cher.
Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday said she thinks former President Donald Trump has no empathy for others as he continues to spread misinformation about the federal response in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
“It’s profound, and it is the height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness. … Lives are literally at stake right now,” Harris said during an interview on ABC’s “The View.” “I mean we’re talking about real human beings and their lives and they’re losing everything, everything.”
She added, “The idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself – but this is so consistent about Donald Trump.”
“He puts himself before the needs of others. I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level to care about the suffering of other people and then understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down, it’s to lift people up especially in a time of crisis,” she added.
Following Hurricane Helene, and with Hurricane Milton barreling toward Florida, Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed, without evidence, that the White House is diverting disaster relief aid to unrelated migrant programs. While FEMA does manage grants for housing and helping migrants, that is a separate account and unrelated to the disaster relief funds.
Trump has also repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s response to Helene, including falsely saying that the president wasn’t picking up the calls and that there is an anti-Republican bias in how President Joe Biden and Harris are responding to the crisis.
Harris described personal stories she heard from those affected by Hurricane Helene and its aftermath after traveling to Georgia and North Carolina.
"People are losing their home with no hope of ever being able to reconstruct or return, and the idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself -- but this is so consistent about Donald Trump," she said. "He puts himself before the needs of others. I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level to care about suffering of other people and understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down, it's to lift people up."
Harris' sit-down on "The View" marked her first live interview since becoming the Democratic nominee. She is ramping up her media appearances this week with now just one month until Election Day.
Former President Donald Trump’s deadly lies about the federal response to Hurricane Helene — and soon, inevitably, Hurricane Milton — depend on the impermeability of the right-wing information bubble.
President Joe Biden has directed an ongoing federal and state response to the swath of death and destruction Hurricane Helene left on the southeastern United States, an effort which includes tens of thousands of personnel helping victims across several states.
Trump’s Helene response has been characterized by conspiracy theories and grievance-mongering for political gain.
The Biden administration won plaudits from GOP elected officials across the region, but Trump falsely claimed the federal government abandoned the public. Americans affected by the storm can access a robust program of federal assistance, but he falsely claims they could only get $750 in aid. The White House stressed there’s plenty of FEMA funds to respond to both Helene and Milton — and Republicans are reportedly the ones blocking additional funding — but Trump falsely claims Vice President Kamala Harris blew “all her FEMA money” housing immigrants.
The former president, through these deranged fabrications, is trying to win votes in the coming election. He is summoning an alternate reality in which Biden and Harris are blithely unconcerned with the fates of millions of victims because many of those victims are Republicans and they instead prioritize immigrants. And he is doing so despite his own record as president of allegedly withholding disaster aid for political reasons.
The only reason this strategy is remotely plausible is that the right-wing media ecosystem is willing to play along with it. The news sources Republicans rely on, from MAGA influencers to Fox stars, have bolstered Trump’s lies at every turn. The result is that right-wing audiences are bombarded with falsehoods from within an echo chamber.
The MAGA media ecosystem responds in this same fashion to every news event because its function isn’t to report on what is happening. Instead, right-wing pundits offer a scapegoat — immigrants, Jews, journalists, teachers, trans people, Democrats, anti-Trump Republicans — in order to hold their audience’s attention, make money, and support the GOP’s core agenda of tax cuts for rich people and abortion bans.
This incentive structure is universally toxic. But when it collides with issues like disaster relief, the consequences can turn deadly. Before, during, and after a hurricane, people on the ground need credible information about what to do, what help is available, and how to get it. Right now, the sources many victims depend on for news are lying to them.
Hurricane misinformation is plaguing the response to Helene. Local media outlets, federal and state officials, and emergency responders all are desperately trying to swat down rumors and falsehoods — some promoted by the former president. Republican officials in affected areas are begging the people pushing “conspiracy theory junk” to stop lying and pitch in instead.
Labor unions and consumer advocates were among those applauding Tuesday after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced her proposal for home healthcare coverage under Medicare—a broadly popular idea, according to polls, that supporters said would be a "game-changer" for millions of families.
On the ABC talk show "The View," Harris spoke about the "sandwich generation"—middle-aged Americans who find themselves caring for aging parents while they're also raising their own children.
"There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle," said the Democratic presidential nominee. "And it's just, almost, impossible to do it all, especially if they work. We're finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income, not to mention the emotional stress. And so what I am proposing is that basically what we will do is allow Medicare to cover in-home healthcare."
Medicare currently only covers in-home healthcare for short periods of time, such as in cases of a patient recovering from surgery. But the number of aging Americans who need need prolonged healthcare at home is expected to explode in the coming years as members of the baby boomer generation reach their 80s.
Medicaid covers home care for low-income people who are elderly or have disabilities, but waiting lists are long and beneficiaries are required to max out their savings before qualifying.
Covering at-home healthcare for Medicare's 67 million beneficiaries would "provide much-needed relief and financial support" to about 37 million people who currently provide unpaid eldercare to their family members, said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of consumer advocacy watchdog Public Citizen, said that "home health expansion through Medicare is a smart and desperately needed place to start" on the road to expanding and improving Medicare.
"This important expansion would finally allow Medicare to cover crucial services where many beneficiaries would prefer to receive them—in the safety and comfort of their homes," said Gilbert. "Such an expansion would lay the groundwork for even further improvements and expansions to Medicare including hearing, dental, and vision services. A low out-of-pocket cap on medical expenses would ensure seniors can afford to get the care they need, and by reining in Medicare Advantage overpayments, we could fund many of these priorities."
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) president April Verrett said the plan offers the latest contrast between Harris and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who aims to repeal the Affordable Care Act and has said he has "concepts of a plan" to replace the law.
"Along with her proposals to invest in childcare, in paid leave, and to make Medicaid investments in home care, as well as lower costs for working families and raising wages for care workers, Kamala Harris is showing that she's been listening to working families," said Verrett. "In this presidential election, we have the choice between a candidate who has a plan for working families and one who has only offered 'concepts of a plan,' including gutting the Affordable Care Act and the nonsensical idea of paying for childcare through tariffs, which would actually raise prices."
"Care workers rallied to elect President [Joe] Biden and Vice President Harris, and this administration has demonstrated again and again that they stand with us," added Verrett. "Now we need to finish the job with Kamala Harris as president, making home care accessible to all and delivering the historic investment in care that our nation desperately needs."
The vice president said Medicare negotiations over drug
prices, which were begun under the Biden administration over the
objections of Republicans and which she supports expanding, would pay
for the new Medicare benefit.
"Part of what I also intend to do is allow Medicare to continue to negotiate drug prices against these big pharmaceutical companies, which means we are going to save Medicare the money, because we're not going to be paying these high prices, and that those resources are best then put in a way that helps a family," said Harris.
Gilbert expressed hope that the new
benefit, which would need to be approved by Congress, would be just one
step toward expanding Medicare coverage to all Americans.
"We must continue to expand the availability of Medicare by lowering the qualifying age," she said, "so we can finally build a healthcare system that ensures that every American can get the care they need when they need it without going bankrupt."
Vice President Harris is criticizing Donald Trump following new reporting by the journalist Bob Woodward that the former president secretly shared COVID-19 test machines with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a moment in 2020 when tests were out of reach for most Americans.
The revelation, first reported by CNN and The Washington Post on Tuesday, is detailed in a forthcoming book called War by the famed Watergate journalist, about Trump’s record on the international stage, as well as President Biden’s.
According to the book, Trump sent the secret shipment of testing equipment to the Russian leader at the height of the pandemic in 2020, even as the U.S. and other nations were facing crippling shortages of testing kits.
When Biden, a record-breaking 107 days before the election, finally left the race and endorsed Harris, the act unexpectedly unleashed an outpouring of enthusiasm and joy, emotions rarely associated with politics in recent years. The mood shift not only proved Harris’s naysayers wrong but also revealed how Biden’s frailty and Trump’s darkness had drained the party to sepia tones. Harris’s run, quite unexpectedly, infused it with color and light again. If the left had the same sanctification tendencies as the Trumpian right, the improbable events leading to Harris’s nomination might have been cast as divine intervention—Jesus taking the wheel, only to hand the keys to Harris, so she might steer America away from Trumpism and back onto a righteous road.
But the Democratic Party is not a cult of personality, a fact proved by Biden’s withdrawal. Harris’s run produced a jubilance incomparable to anything seen since at least Barack Obama’s first run, and it may even have eclipsed that. Within hours of becoming the presumptive nominee, Harris was buoyed by organizers who had begun laying the groundwork for her run years before. A Zoom organized by Win With Black Women drew 44,000 participants, an unprecedented number that required the site’s engineers to increase capacity. The call ultimately raised $1.5 million in just three hours. At least a dozen other calls followed—South Asian Women for Harris, Win With Black Men, White Women: Answer the Call—each enlisting volunteers and strategizing for a Harris win. In mid-September, Voto Latino reported a 200 percent surge in its voter registrations since the day Harris replaced Biden. A senior analyst at TargetSmart, a data research firm, reported that registrations are up more than 85 percent among Black voters overall and a staggering 98 percent among Black women. Potential youth voters increased most impressively. In 13 states, registrations have gone up nearly 176 percent and 150 percent among 18- to 29-year-old Black and Hispanic women, respectively. Taylor Swift’s much-anticipated endorsement of Harris, which came moments after Harris thrashed Trump in the debate, drove “a 400 or 500 percent increase” in people going to vote.gov to register, according to a TargetSmart analyst. What’s more, young Democrats are 14 percent more enthusiastic about voting than their Republican counterparts. While party killjoys such as David Axelrod suggested Democrats were feeling “irrational exuberance,” and James Carville chastised their “giddy elation,” organizers were getting down to work and galvanizing people to get Harris elected. Those on the ground, doing the real heavy lifting, helped consolidate support for Harris, building a campaign powered not from the top down, but from the grassroots up.
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