Category: Uncategorized

Only 21% of Americans have a bachelor’s degree. Broken down by race, that’s 23.7% of White Americans and 14% of Black Americans. That means they finished college.

This means that the majority of Americans don’t have a college degree. If you are in a room with a random group of Americans and you have a college degree, you are surrounded on all sides with people who don’t.

Much has been made by the political pundits of the fact that a majority whites without a college degree voted for Trump. Of course, the liberals among us don’t understand that result.

Uneducated?

The media often refer to those without a bachelor’s degree as uneducated. The more careful writers will specify that they mean people without college degrees, but they also sometimes say “without a college education”.

Referring to 79% of America as uneducated is incredibly condescending. It implies most Americans are stupid, like they are a gibbering mass of illiterates.

In fact, only 20% of Americans never finish high school. Most people have a basic education. Only about 1 in 1000 can’t read above a 3rd grade level. People without a college degree are not stupid and are not uneducated.

This means that most Trump supporters are not stupid or uneducated. Many of them have college degrees.

Politics

The issue here is that they are basing their decision on a completely different set of values than those who oppose Trump. To write off these people because they are too stupid to tie their shoes is a bad political tactic. It ignores what is really driving them to vote for Trump and it treats them as inferior.

Trust me when I say that people who are condescended to understand they are being looked down upon and they resent it. This was clear in people’s reactions to Hilary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment and Obama’s “clinging to guns and religion” comment.

That resentment is one factor that drove people to vote for Trump in 2016. I think Biden is smart enough to see it. He empathizes with people and is really reaching out to middle America, those without a college education.

My generation (somewhere between Baby Boom and Gen X) never worried about disease. We worried about nuclear annihiliation, but not disease. My parents and grandparents did, which is why we never had to.

Before I was born, most childhood diseases were eradicated. In the 1800s, children had difficulty living to adulthood. The major causes of death in children were tuberculosis, diarrhea of infancy, bacillary dysentery, typhoid fever. Before that, it was whooping cough, scarlet fever, yellow fever, and smallpox.

On a side note, I never would have been born in Alaska if it weren’t for tuberculosis. My aunt moved up there as a nurse to deal with an outbreak in the 50s and convinced my dad and mom to move up there.

Most Childhood Diseases Eradicated by 1960

I’m sure by now everybody has heard John Prine died this week. He has always been one of my favorite songwriters. His music is part comic, part tragic, and part biting social commentary. With a down-home southern twang and a midwestern sensibility, he finds the comedy in the tragic and the tragedy in the everyday. His songs are from his own experiences and his own heart. He was one of the few songwriters that could bring me to tears.

Social Commentary

His social commentary is timeless. It was political in the sense that he looked at the situation in the United States and saw its impact on the everyday lives of regular people. He never mentioned any particular politicians by name or even the Vietnam War by name. In Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore, he called it “your dirty little war”. In Sam Stone, it was “the conflict overseas.”

Paradise

Paradise was one of the first John Prine songs I heard. It is about the loss of small towns in rural Kentucky to the Peabody Coal Company. This song has roots in Woody Guthrie, but teh destruction of rural towns and rural life continues to this day, probably worse than when Prine first sang about it.

And daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking
Mister Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away

Illegal Smile

Illegal Smile is one of the only songs that seem dated, given that marijuana has been made legal in many states. The lines about going in front of the judge (Hoffman) to plead his case seem from another time, but if you smoked pot in that time, it was a real danger. It’s probably the main reason it made people paranoid. Does anybody get paranoid when smoking pot these days?

Ah but fortunately I have the key to escape reality
And you may see me tonight with an illegal smile
It don’t cost very much, but it lasts a long while
Won’t you please tell the man I didn’t kill anyone
No I’m just tryin’ to have me some fun

Comedy

His take on the world often had a comic sensibility. He laughed at the absurdity of everyday life. Illegal Smile was a perfect example of that.

Please Don’t Bury Me

Please Don’t Bury Me was another. The lines seemed appropriate when my own dad died having slipped and hit his head. I sang it to him in the hospital when he was in a coma. I hope he heard it.

Woke up this morning
Put on my slippers
Walked in the kitchen
And died

And oh, what a feeling!
When my soul
Went through the ceiling
And on up into heaven, I did ride

When I got there, they did say
“John, it happened this way
You slipped upon the floor
And hit your head”

And all the angels say
“Just before you passed away
That these were the very last words
That you said”

“Please don’t bury me
Down in that cold, cold ground
No, I’d rather have ’em cut me up
And pass me all around”

Grandpa Was a Carpenter

Another song that reminds me of my dad and his uncle Ole is Grandpa Was a Carpenter. Both were carpenters.

Grandpa was a carpenter
He built houses stores and banks
Chain smoked Camel cigarettes
And hammered nails in planks
He was level on the level
And shaved even every door

Another comic song I recommend is Spanish Pipedream, with these lines:

Blow up your T.V., throw away your paper
Move to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try to find Jesus on your own

It has its appeal, especially now.

For a simple (not illegal) smile, you can isten to Dear Abby or Onomatopoeia.

Tragedy

His most famous song is also one of his most tragic. Bonnie Raitt made it famous (or did the song make her famous?) Angel From Montgomery is about a middle-aged housewife who is tired of her everyday life. She wonders what happened to the dreams she had when she was a girl. This is likely something every person who passes middle age thinks about. I know I have.

If dreams were thunder
And lightning was desire
This old house would’ve burned down
A long time ago

According to the official John Prine website, an Angel from Montgomery is a pardon for a prison sentence from the governor or a last minute pardon from the death sentence. That brings a whole new meaning to the title and these lines.

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go

Sam Stone

Sam Stone is his most tragic song. The song is about a veteran coming home from the war and hooked on drugs, presumably heroin. I don’t think there’s a more heartbreaking line ever written than “There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes.”

While it was written at the height of the Vietnam War, it could just as easily have been written now. It presages the opiod crisis of rural America by 40 years. It’s a commentary on the horrors of war and what the soldiers brought home with them. It is very personal, showing the effects of war on a returning soldier, his family and its children.

Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)

Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow) is about an altar boy killed by a train. It also has the best advice on how to deal with tragedy.

You can gaze out the window get mad and get madder,
Throw your hands in the air, say “What does it matter?”
But it don’t do no good to get angry,
So help me I know

For a heart stained in anger grows weak and grows bitter.
You become your own prisoner as you watch yourself sit there
Wrapped up in a trap of your very own
Chain of sorrow.

I’ve often wondered what the title Bruised Orange meant. I heard once that a bruised orange doesn’t show the damage on the outside, it just rots from the inside. It’s an appropriate metaphor for what Prine was trying to say with this story.

The Eternal in the Everyday

The average person can identify themselves or people they love in almost all his songs, both the tragic and the comic. He takes an everyday condition and finds the comedy or the tragedy in it. Sometimes, he finds the bittersweet of both. In doing so, he raises the mundane to the eternal.

I’ve been obsessing over coronavirus statistics lately, so for some light-hearted fun, I watched Dr. Sleep based on Stephen King’s book. Ok, it wasn’t light-hearted. It was scary. The book is a sequel to one of King’s most famous books, The Shining. If you haven’t seen or read The Shining, a lot of the back story won’t make much sense to you. Some of the scarier parts might not be as scary either. Overall, it was a good movie that owes a lot to The Shining. Nevertheless, it might be able to stand on its own.

The Shining

The second scene introduces the main character as a boy 30+ years earlier. The shot is straight from Kubrik’s The Shining. I have to specify Kubrik’s version because King authorized another version that he thought was more true to the book. It was a stinking pile of crap.

The director matched the characters and a few shots from Kubrik’s movie pretty well, but nobody plays Jack Nicholson like Jack. The actor was a close physical approximation, but he lacked Nicholson’s intensity. Even in the understated, quiet scenes in The Shining, Jack Nicholson exudes and intense menace. The stand-in in Dr. Sleep did not. To be fair, the scene was more about Ewan McGregor’s character Dan’s relationship with his father and the bottle than about Jack Torrance.

The director meticulously copied scenes from The Shining, but they lacked the scariness and menace they did when we first saw them 40 years ago. Even the flood of blood from the elevator scene lacked ppunch. The main villain dismissed it with a smirk when she saw it. Familiarity breed contempt, I guess.

Dr. Sleep

What was good about the newer movie was seeing how the events of 40 years ago affected little Danny when he grew up as a man. It was nice to see his old mentor (with Carl Lumbly playing Scatman Crothers’s role) helping him through tough times.

What was driving the villains in this movie was different from The Shining. It felt like a late addition to the story. The ghosts in the earlier movie made no mention of anything like it. In Dr. Sleep, it became their motivation as well as that of the new villains. It worked well as a motivation for Rebecca Ferguson and crew (crow? crawdaddy?), but I felt the new story forced it on the ghosts of the earlier story. I’m not a fan of artistic revisionism.

The movie has its moments. It’s thrilling to watch supernaturally powerful characters face off against each other, especially when it upends your assumptions of who is the more powerful. The movie feels like a whodunnit in that it masks the truth from certain characters even when we, as omniscient viewers, know what is going on. Even so, the movie is not predictable. How our heros get down from the tree the author put them up might surprise you.

COVID-19 is not limited to King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties. They’re just the hardest hit.

As the disease spreads beyond the hotspots, we will likely see higher numbers in outlying counties.

Source: Seattle Times March 12, 2020

The disease is ramping up in Europe

Source: New York Times March 12, 2020

The disease has a growth period, hits a peak, then recedes

The disease already seems to be receding in the earliest countries to get hit. China, South Korea, and Iran are seeing fewer new cases than a few weeks ago. It was first identified in China in December 2019. They were slow to react there, so it got very bad. if we look at countries with better response, we see a very flat curve. Japan is the best example. The disease ramped up very fast in countries other than China who were hard hit, such as Italy and Iran, but we are seeing fewer cases now. Other countries look like they are still in the growth period. Spain, France, and Germany are, as are Scandinavian countries. The U.S. is in that category as well.

The question now is, how long will it last? If it gets as bad as China, it could last for three months. If the U.S. takes aggressive measures, it might be over more quickly. Iran and Italy look like they will be back to low levels after a month. South Korea is already down to a little over 10 cases per day. the U.S. just moved into 100 cases a day territory. It might still be increasing here, but we don’t know. Testing in the U.S. has been very spotty, so these numbers might be much higher than what is being reported.

Source: New York Times March 12, 2020

What symptoms should I look out for?

Symptoms of this infection include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. The illness causes lung lesions and pneumonia. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are not normally among the first symptoms.

Patients may also exhibit gastrointestinal problems or diarrhea. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

Source: NY Times 3/10/2020

Last week, I heard someone complain that the environmental message in this season of Doctor Who was heavy-handed. Really? I didn’t even notice it. When I saw those episodes, I just took it as the setting they were set in. One can’t deny that we are altering the environment of our planet in unprecedented ways.

Last season, I had another middle-aged white male complain that Doctor Who was too political. He couldn’t give me specific examples, so I didn’t really know what he was talking about. Was it the walks into history with Rosa Parks in Rosa or with the division of India in 1949 in Demons of the Punjab?

I suspect that what both of these friends were really complaining about was that the show was highlighting social issues that they disagreed with. That is, they don’t like the social commentary or decry that SJWs (social justice warriors) have taken over world culture. In fact, science fiction has always been political, making comments about issues of concern in society since what is considered the first science fiction story ever written, Frankenstein by Mary Shelly.

*Spoiler Alert*

One of the things I love about this season of Doctor Who and to some extent, last season, is the focus on meeting historical figures. For the most part, they focus on marginalized historical figures like Mary Shelley or Ada Lovelace. Both of these women had the foresight to see what the future coold look like. One as the conceptual inventory of software for a conceptual computer designed by Charles Babbage. The other was Mary Shelley, the writer of what is considered the very first science fiction novel.

Frankenstein as Social Commentary

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was a commentary on the effects of human prejudice and discrimination. Look Here for a short essay on the politics of Frankenstein. It was also a commentary on the enlightenment and the growing reliance on science and scientific discoveries in industry and medicine.

“Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein cannot merely be read as a literary work of the early 19th century. It represents the workings of young Shelley’s mind. Further, it represents the vast scientific discoveries of the time, combined with Mary Shelley’s intuitive perception of science. She views science as a powerful entity, but also recognizes the dangers if uncontrolled. Shelley demonstrates this fear in the book as science drives Victor Frankenstein to create his monster. In the end, it is also his use of science that inevitably becomes his demise. ” Frankenstein: The Man and the Monster, Suzanna Storment, October 2002

Politics in Doctor Who

It really burns me up to have people complain the Doctor Who has become too political. In fact, Doctor Who has been political since its inception in 1963. The Daleks came out of a series focussing on the horrors of war and fascism. Remember, World War II had only ended 18 years earlier and the world was in the midst of the Cold War. The Daleks are a commentary on what happens when you subordinate your humanity to victory at any cost.

The Cybermen are a direct descendant of Frankenstein and its commentary on the use of science to “improve” humans. What happens to our humanity when we are so merged with machines? C.f. Daleks above. For more examples of politics in Doctor Who, see this article on SyFy.com.

Politics in Science Fiction

Politics in science fiction has a long history. In fact, one could say that the purpose of science fiction is social commentary. How best to hold a mirror up to our own society than to create a fictional society where the aspect you want to focus on is magnified. Examples abound: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell, Dune by Frank Herbert, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. These are considered the pinnacle of science fiction and all are not just political, but blatantly political.

Star Trek in the 1960s took on social issues of race and war as well. Many commentators have noted that the first interracial kiss on television was on Star Trek, between the white Captain Kirk and the black Lt. Uhuru.

If your only exposure to science fiction is Star Wars, you might be forgiven for thinking science fiction shouldn’t be political, but even then, as watered down as it is, Star Wars is also political. In the wake of post-Vietnam, the original is suffused with the politics of the outgunned but plucky rebellion fighting against an overwhelming empire with only its wits and a pseudo-mystical force. How is that not social commentary?

When I hear people complaining about their favorite science fiction being too political, they are actually stating their own political preference. What they are actually complaining about is that their favorite show is displaying politics that they disagree with. If you hear this sort of complaint from someone, I suggest you challenge them on the issue. Ask if what they are complaining about is the show expressing a political point or if they are disagreeing with the point the show is expressing. I think you’ll find the answer informative.

Let’s not panic about coronavirus. Be cautious and take preventative action to avoid catching the disease (see below for more information).

In the hardest hit area, Hubei province in China, 65,500 people have been infected. That is about 0.01% of the population. It even lower in other parts of China.

If the same rate hits the US, we would might see 350,000 get sick. Even so, it is likely to be far less than that. Washington State would see about at most 8,000 people get sick. Most of them will get mild symptoms.

With a 2% death rate for the disease, we might see 7,000 deaths in the US if the infection rate is high. In Washington state, given the same infection rate, we might see 140-150 deaths. Those will probably be those who already have weakened systems. By comparison, we saw 34,157 people die from the flu or flu-like illness in the US in the 2018-2019 flu season. *

I’m not saying let’s be complacent, but don’t panic.

Other information from the CDC regarding flu

You may be able to spread flu to someone else before you know you are sick, as well as while you are sick.

• People with flu are most contagious in the first 3-4 days after their illness begins.
• Some otherwise healthy adults may be able to infect others beginning 1 day before symptoms develop and up to 5 to 7 days after becoming sick.
• Some people, especially young children and people with weakened immune systems, might be able to infect others for an even longer time.

The time from when a person is exposed and infected with flu to when symptoms begin is about 2 days, but can range from about 1 to 4 days.

Everyday preventive actions to stop the spread of germs

• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
• While sick, limit contact with others as much as possible to keep from infecting them.
• If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone for 24 hours without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.)
• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. After using a tissue, throw it in the trash and wash your hands.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Germs spread this way.
• Clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that may be contaminated with germs like flu.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/prevention.htm

*Source: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

An article in the Seattle Times today describes the practice of redlining. Real estate and property insurance agents would grade property on its value. The practice led to the segregation of minority populations to certain neighborhoods. The impact is still with us today. Take a look at this map and you can see where the black neighborhoods were and where white neighborhoods were. The map lists “Grade of Security” where “Dangerous” means black or Asian.

You can read more at The Seattle Times: Wing Luke’s ‘Excluded, Inside the Lines’ exhibit takes on redlining and housing discrimination in Seattle

It’s rare that I have seen all the Oscar nominated movies in a given year. In fact it’s never happened. This year is no different, but for a change, I have seen most of them. Of the sixteen listed below, I have already seen ten. I expect to see more after the awards ceremony.

It was a very competitive year. The hardest category for me is in Lead Actor between Adam Driver and Joaquin Phoenix. I think Adam Sandler was robbed of a nomination in that category, but he probably wouldn’t have won against Driver or Phoenix.

Best Picture:

 “The Irishman” – This is a great study in the long-term implications of a life of crime. How to live a long life with nothing to show for it but regret.

“Joker” – This movie is about a man making bad decisions and falling in a downward spiral that transforms him. It evokes films of the 1970s but Joaquin Phoenix’s performance drives it.

“Marriage Story” – This was a difficult movie to watch other than the amazing performances. I did not relate to the situation, having never gone through a divorce.

“1917” – The technical achievement of this film is amazing. I started watching to figure out where the transitions were, but after a while, I ignored it in favor of the story. I felt I was in the middle of the action. It was visceral and emotional.

“Jojo Rabbit” – I saw this the day after 1917, which was hard. It started off as a silly romp. I mean a kid with Adolf Hitler as an imaginary friend (and played by Taika Waititi), how could it not be funny? I described it as the darkest of comedies, with an emphasis on the dark.

“Parasite” – I didn’t want to see this. Bong Joon Ho’s other films were more sci-fi while this seemed like a simple family drama. It is anything but simple. Like all his movies it weaves in commentary on class and the Korean relationship to American culture. At the end, I had to wonder, who was the parasite of the title? He leaves the question open.

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” This was an entertaining film until the end. Like most of Tarantino’s films these days, it ends in a bloodbath of revenge porn. That and the fictionalizing of real events take away from the appeal for me.

“Ford v Ferrari” – Haven’t seen it yet. The DVD doesn’t come out until after the awards.
“Little Women” – Haven’t seen it yet.

Director:

Sam Mendes, “1917” – How do you separate best picture from best director? If the director is the person who is responsible for the best picture, isn’t that person the best director? I think 1917 points out the difference. While it was a great film and will likely win best picture, Sam Mendes’s direction made it what it is. Other films might be great for the acting or the writing. It wasn’t the great acting or script that made this film great, but the decision to use what felt like a single tracking shot (with one break in the middle) to put the audience in the middle of the action. This is a textbook example of how the decisions of a director make a film.

Martin Scorsese, “The Irishman” – Scorcese is a giant in film. Other directors emulate him (see Todd Phillips below). This movie evokes his other mob films (Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed). It is an ambitious film with great performances. He fails in the technical aspect of making old actors look younger, putting him behind Sam Mendes in that aspect. He probably won’t get this award due to politics and his commentary about the typical Hollywood blockbuster not being “real cinema”.

Todd Phillips, “Joker” – Putting aside Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, this was a good film, not a great one. Phillips made the film feel like New York in the 1970s, evoking Taxi Driver or Dog Day Afternoon, but it did not live up to those films.

Quentin Tarantino, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” – I don’t like Tarantino, though his movies are good. I think he’s an arrogant asshole who thinks only of himself. He thinks he is the only one who made his movie. I refer to his speech at the Golden Globes where he took credit alone for this movie and gave absolutely none to the cast or crew.

Bong Joon Ho, “Parasite” – Having seen this film, I realized what the other films I’ve seen from him have in common. They all start out like a typical genre film. Somewhere in the middle, they shift. Parasite is no different. In this case, it starts like a con artist film. About two thirds of the way through, you realize you are watching something other than what you started watching. All his films are commentaries on class division and the inequality between rich and poor.

Lead Actor:

Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker” – This was an amazing performance. It lifts the superhero (supervillain) movie to another level. He physically, emotionally, and intellectually inhabits one of the most psychotic characters in literature. (Yes, I did just refer to comic books as literature.)

Adam Driver, “Marriage Story” – Until I saw this, I thought Joaquin Phoenix was a hands-down favorite for best actor. Driver goes places in this few actors dare. It is hard watching a person completely break down emotionally.

Leonardo DiCaprio, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” – I liked Leonardo DiCaprio in this, but I didn’t think it will win him best actor. He goes pretty deep into what it takes to be a great actor and Hollywood loves movies about itself.

Jonathan Pryce, “The Two Popes” – This was a great portrayal of the man who became Pope Francis. I’m not sure it deserves best lead actor. I’m not good at Spanish, but as far an I can tell, he acted in Spanish quite well and in English with an accent that did not seem fake. That is a feat for an actor whose native language is English.

Antonio Banderas, “Pain and Glory” – Haven’t seen it yet.

Lead Actress:

Renee Zellweger, “Judy” – This has my vote for best actress, though Cynthia Erivo comes a close second. While watching this, I wasn’t sure whether it was Judy Garland’s or Renee Zellweger’s performance that was enthralling me. Zellweger embodied Garland physically and sang as well as she did too.

Cynthia Erivo, “Harriet” – This was a heart-wrenching portrayal of a woman who rose above what the world told her she was. She overcame her own bondage to free herself and went back to slave country 18-19 times to free hundreds of slaves. Erivo, a British actress, embodied a strong black woman born into slavery but overcame fear. Harriet Tubman’s fierceness comes through in this portrayal.  

Scarlett Johansson, “Marriage Story” – Her performance was very good in this. Like Driver, we are watching a woman broken down emotionally by the failure of her marriage. Her performance pales next to Driver’s though. Like his, she goes places emotionally that are very difficult to go.

Saoirse Ronan, “Little Women” – Haven’t seen it yet.
Charlize Theron, “Bombshell” – Haven’t seen it yet.

Supporting Actor:

Joe Pesci, “The Irishman” – Pesci is famous for being bombastic in his roles (see Goodfellas). In this, he plays a quiet, unassuming man who wields power quietly and with a velvet glove. It is a different Joe Pesci than what we are used to.

Al Pacino, “The Irishman” – It’s too bad Pacino has to compete against Pesci in this category. Voters will probably split between them and Brad Pitt will win. Pacino in this, while still Pacino (he always is), portrays Jimmy Hoffa so that you can almost forget it’s Pacino. He is charismatic and demands attention.

Brad Pitt, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” – Brad Pitt is such a Hollywood movie star. He plays one in this. I know it doesn’t seem much of a stretch for and actor, but it takes some self-awareness to do this right and he does. He is probably the favorite for the win, and I loved his humble speech at the Golden Globes.

Anthony Hopkins, “The Two Popes” – This movie is basically a conversation between two men. Hopkins portrays a man who, having won his heart’s desire, doubts himself and his faith. However, I still felt it was Anthony Hopkins, not Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI).

Tom Hanks, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” – Haven’t seen it yet, but how can you not love Tom Hanks playing Mr. Rogers?

Supporting Actress:

Laura Dern, “Marriage Story” – She plays a slick lawyer in this. I felt she was manipulating the family in this to its destruction. But she didn’t do it in an evil way. She supported her client and fought for her tooth and nail. She was strong and gracious. It’s a hard balance to keep. Laura Dern did an amazing job.

Scarlett Johansson, “Jojo Rabbit” – Comparing  her performance in this to that in Marriage Story is like night and day. While in Marriage Story it is emotional and raw, in Jojo Rabbit, it is subtle and refined. She must hold back everything she is feeling in the face of the evils of Nazism at the same time her child glorifies in it. Nevertheless, it is rare to get two nominations in one year.

Kathy Bates, “Richard Jewell” – Haven’t seen it yet.
Florence Pugh, “Little Women” – Haven’t seen it yet.
Margot Robbie, “Bombshell” – Haven’t seen it yet.