I had a really unexpected and gratifying response to my weekend post about Leslie Nielsen. I even heard from some people who knew him well before he died in 2010. But I was particularly taken by this email from TPM Reader JB. Read through to after the JB’s note and see the bonus 1955 wedding photo of a yarmulke-clad Nielsen at the wedding of the president of his fan club …
I logged on this morning into TPM, even though it seems like TPM often chills on the weekend.
I was floored to see a long essay on Leslie Nielsen..
Please indulge this Prime member for a moment, as I would like to tell you some backstory you might find interesting from the Forbidden Planet to the Airplane! era.
Back in the early 50s, my mom was a young New York born, Irvington New Jersey woman infatuated with Hollywood.. even writing a hollywood gossip column in her Irvington High School paper.
Trump apparently lied about receiving a congratulatory phone call from the Boy Scouts after his anti-Obama speech.
Below we discussed the big Washington Post story about President Trump’s role writing what turned out to be a false statement on behalf of his son Don Jr. about that meeting with the Russian lawyer in June 2016. I want to flag a timeline that may be relevant and which may tie together the false Don Jr. statement dictated by the President on Air Force One on July 8th and the conversation Trump had with President Vladimir Putin earlier that evening.
Let’s piece together some published information and dates. Read More
Straight news reporters have to work within many important conventions. These both limit the scope of their work but are equally critical to doing that work properly and effectively. I was reminded of this when reading last night’s blockbuster report in The Washington Post. Read More
The relationship between Donald Trump and Felix Sater is the kind of sordid connection that would have done in almost any past presidential candidate. But many of the details of their relationship remain elusive. In a series of interviews with TPM’s Sam Thielman in recent days, Sater has opened up about his past and his relationship with the president who now keeps his distance. Must read.
As Vice President of Policy and Research at Demos, Tamara Draut is responsible for developing and advancing the organization’s goals through research, idea generation and policy development. A member of the Demos team since 2001, Tamara developed the organization’s groundbreaking work on household indebtedness, college affordability and the economic challenges facing young people.
Tamara will be in The Hive on Thursday August 3rd at 4:00pm EST for a half-hour chat about the middle class and progressive solutions to economic issues. Submit your questions at any time or join us on Thursday! If you’d like to participate but don’t have TPM Prime, sign up here.
Leslie Nielsen died 6 1/2 years ago at the age of 84, a respectable degree of longevity after a working life as an actor that stretched over 60 years. I started thinking about him today for no particular reason: I was paddling around the Internet, reading one thing and then another and then happened upon Leslie Nielsen. For what it’s worth, my browsing history shows a series of searches and pages tied to the firing of Reince Priebus followed by stuff about Leslie Nielsen. How I got from one to the other I do not know. Read More
It’s been a while since we heard from TPM Reader LC, a cop from the tri-state area who shared various of his views with us when the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri dominated the national news. After President Trump asked cops to rough up arrestees in their custody, he wrote in yesterday …
I’m fucking furious.
This two-bit gangster, would-be dictator just set police-community relations back by a quarter of a century.
I wanted to show you this graphic I put together which shows the timeline of Reince Priebus’s firing. In this case when I say the timeline I mean a short period of roughly 20 minutes when the whole thing unfolded. Why the precise details are notable will become obvious when you see them.
We’re able to do this because we have pool reports with precise times around the time Air Force One landed at Joint Base Andrews as the timestamped tweet the President used to announce the firing. What they show quite clearly is that Air Force One landed. The President waited for Priebus to get off the plane before tweeting that he was fired. He then waited for Priebus to be escorted away before leaving the plane himself. There’s even a Godfather-esque moment in how the SUVs were handled. Check it out. Read More
Okay, a quick note. We are doing great here on every front. But I have a confession. We have just over two weeks to go in our annual membership drive. And we’re behind for our July goal. We are exactly 250 sign ups from our goal for this month. We need one big day to keep it within reach. And it’s important. You know all our reasons: Investigative reporting, deep and rich coverage of critical policy issues, a crack team keeping you up to date on all the breaking news, and a bunch more, including a bunch of new Prime-only features we have in the works for the second half of the year. If you’re a regular reader, take a moment to join us today. It’s easy. It’s cheap (14 cents a day). It’s important. Take a moment to join us today. Thanks.