IndieWire ranks the top 100 Westerns

IndieWire ranks Wim Wenders' "Paris, Texas" as the 41st best Western in our ranking of the genre's 100 best of all time.

See the full list: https://t.co/RXTqZZegus pic.twitter.com/cnddwU5nGx
— IndieWire (@IndieWire) June 25, 2024

My favorite is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (#10)

Some others I like are #90 The Good, The Bad, The Weird:

#72 Lone Star

#71 True Grit (2010)

#70 Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is certainly the most bizarre Western I know. It’s not very coherent. #44 The Wild Bunch is much better.#36

#36 Treasure of the Sierra Madre

#22 Red River

#20 The Wind. I haven’t seen this in 50 years but remember it was excellent. It have never been on DVD or Blu-ray

#16 The Searchers

#5 McCabe & Mrs. Miller

#1 Johnny Guitar – I wouldn’t put in #1 but it’s a strange film well worth seeing

The Orioles had early draft picks but they used them well

The Orioles, Tigers and Pirates have all had two #1 overall picks recently. Where are the other two teams. The Orioles have done well on picks that weren’t #1 overall – Jorand Westburg was #30 and Gunnar Henderson was #42.

One of the posts below notes that the Orioles did try to win in 2018 and sold off only once the team did poorly.

The Orioles Tanked to get better…

2019 Yankees Take Jake Sanford at pick 105 – Hes now in Indy Ball
2019 Orioles take Joey Ortiz at pick 108 – He was center piece for Corbin Burnes and ROY candidate

Scouting Matters, Development Matters#orioles #yankees @Orioles @Yankees
— PigTownSports (@PigTownSports) June 21, 2024

Orioles Tanked part 2
2020 Draft. Pick 99 Yankees take Trevor Hauver – Hitting .200 in AAA
2020 Draft Pick 103 Orioles Select Coby Mayo – Top 25 Prospect in baseball

Again Scouting and Development matters
— PigTownSports (@PigTownSports) June 21, 2024

Seeing lots of comments that the O’s are purely a product of tanking.

That’s part of the equation.

The biggest part tho, was the complete dismantling and re-building of the farm system and international scouting. The O’s brought in a stats genius with Sig, hired Koby Perez… pic.twitter.com/g5wD1SaOfn
— Todd Anderson (@AVWoofer) June 21, 2024

Cumulative bWAR of drafted players since 2019:

1. Orioles: 29.8
2. Orioles w/o each draft's first pick: 17.5
3. Yankees: 13.6
4. Blue Jays: 7.5
5. Rays: 1.6
6. Red Sox: -0.8
— Brendan Mortensen (@BrendanMorty) June 21, 2024

the Orioles are a lot better than your favorite team at drafting pic.twitter.com/NsU8ZWjk7T
— Brendan Mortensen (@BrendanMorty) July 1, 2024

The Orioles and Diamondbacks are the only teams in baseball to have their top two picks from 2019, 2020, and 2021 reach the majors.

Arizona's picks have combined for a 7.4 bWAR. The O's have combined for 27 bWAR https://t.co/cm66AHzjNX
— Brendan Mortensen (@BrendanMorty) June 5, 2024

Since 2019, the Orioles have drafted 9 players that have reached the majors, combining for a 20.5 bWAR

The rest of the AL East combined has drafted 20 players that have reached the majors, combining for a 16.6 bWAR
— Brendan Mortensen (@BrendanMorty) April 24, 2024

The 2024 election could be a fiasco

The potential for the election to be a disaster is strong.

Trump and his cult are already saying the election will be rigged and they won’t accept the results if they lose.
The latest polls show Biden slightly ahead in the popular vote but behind in most swing states. This raises the possibility of another election where the popular vote and electoral college results are different. This would be the third time in the 2000s (after 2000 and 2016). There were none of these in the 25 elections in the 1900s. This would be a fiasco for our country. We should get rid of the electoral college but I doubt it will ever happen.
Republicans will engage in voter suppression. Last time they even handled voting machines. There will also probably be efforts to help Trump from his pals like Putin who benefit from Trump. Will Democrats accept the results if Biden loses and it appears shady stuff happened?

NEW Emerson swing state polls (B+) 6/13-6/18

President
AZ: 🟥 Trump +4
NV: 🟥 Trump +3
WI: 🟥 Trump +3
PA: 🟥 Trump +2
MI: 🟥 Trump +1
MN: 🟨 TIED

US Senate
AZ: 🟦 Gallego +4
NV: 🟦 Rosen +12
WI: 🟦 Baldwin +2
PA: 🟦 Casey +6
MI: 🟦 Slotkin +4
MN: 🟦 Klobuchar +11
— umichvoter 🏳️‍🌈 (@umichvoter) June 20, 2024

Ken Allen, the smart orangutan

Ken Allen was remarkable

Ken Allen, born in captivity at the San Diego Zoo in 1971, quickly gained a reputation for outsmarting his keepers. His intelligence was apparent early on. As an adolescent, he frequently unscrewed the bolts of his cage to explore his nursery at night, always returning and… pic.twitter.com/5nYwYKK65x
— Legal Nun (@Legalnun) June 19, 2024

Instragram post

The Orioles after 71 games

The Baltimore Orioles Record through 71 games in the last 6 years

2019: 21-50
2020: N/A
2021: 23-48
2022: 32-39
2023: 44-27
2024: 47-24
— 𝙆am Brice (@kambrice1tv) June 17, 2024

here are some more records from Orioles teams that made the postseason

Year	Record
1966	47-24
1969	52-19
1970	46-25
1971	45-26
1979	48-23
1983	40-31
1996	39-32
1997	48-23
2012	40-31
2014	37-34

I recommend this article on Val Lewton’s horror films

Ranking Val Lewton’s Scariest RKO Movies
All nine are on DVD in a box set with two documentaries about Lewton

Most are on Blu-ray:

1	Cat People	Criterion Collection
2	The Leopard Man	Shout
3	I Walked with a Zombie
4	The Seventh Victim
5	The Ghost Ship	Warner Archive with Bedlam
6	The Curse of the Cat People	Shout
7	Isle of the Dead	Warner Archive
8	The Body Snatcher	Shout Factory
9	Bedlam	Warner Archive with The Ghost Ship
	Shadows in the Dark (documentary)	(on The Body Snatcher)
	Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows (documentary)	(on Cat People)

From Cat People to Bedlam! Our video about the horror films of Val Lewton. https://t.co/FXFbmmzLeJ pic.twitter.com/bOzbmkf3lu
— Dark Corners (@DarkCorners3) June 13, 2024

Rialto Theater, opening of Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur's Cat People (1942) pic.twitter.com/crapaYsJVH
— Flashbak.com (@aflashbak) September 12, 2023

Isle of the Dead exists because Val Lewton fucking hated Gone With the Wind and having to work on it (he tried to prevent the film from completion from the inside but accidentally gave it some of its best bits). https://t.co/h5daoWtoLa pic.twitter.com/EGUq8qoWpn
— Travis Hedge Coke at negotiable prices (@TravisHedgeCoke) April 3, 2024

"To save money, Lewton also had to utilize what the studio already had on hand, like sets and contract players." – @ToniRuberto shares thoughts on Val Lewton's The Leopard Man… https://t.co/vRaTBGUvJy pic.twitter.com/MlkbOU2J6R
— Classic Movie Hub (@ClassicMovieHub) August 30, 2023

Our deep dive into Val Lewton's Cat People films. https://t.co/xo1d0vQI46 pic.twitter.com/QpxI5ztAlI
— Dark Corners (@DarkCorners3) January 6, 2024

I wanted to link to this thread with scenes from Wray’s script, but I couldn’t find it yesterday, so here it is today. https://t.co/T0HINjuc6F
— Nannina Gilder (@NanninaGilder) September 8, 2024

Ranking Val Lewton’s Sophisticated and Shadowy Horror Films – Joseph George (@JAGeorgeII) Looks Back on Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie, and More https://t.co/RhXEbLRLuW
— Bloody Disgusting (@BDisgusting) May 31, 2021

There is no immigrant crime wave

“What’s more, the arrival of record numbers of immigrants at the United States–Mexico border over the past two years has not corresponded with an overall increase in crime.”

The @BrennanCenter debunks myths around the so-called migrant crime wave ⬇️https://t.co/0x2h3XsaZM
— newamericanld.bsky.social (@NewAmericanLd) June 12, 2024

Some politicians and pundits are pushing the idea that immigrants are more likely to commit crimes. Not only is that claim false, the opposite is true. https://t.co/ofXCHEEMIf
— Brennan Center (@BrennanCenter) June 7, 2024

Here's a Stat That Republicans don't want you to know:

Undocumented immigrants, on average, reduce the crime rate per capita in America, according to a study in Texas between 2012-18:

– US-Born citizens commit Murder 252% more than Undocumented immigrants.

– US-Born citizens… pic.twitter.com/WjDNzF0bm9
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) February 28, 2024

Trump’s 2015 claim that immigrants were criminals was novel enough that his party was skeptical. Enter Fox News, talking about migrants and crime more than twice as much as CNN and MSNBC combined. https://t.co/irDqfUUJRg
— Philip Bump (@pbump) February 27, 2024

There’s been an explosion of research into the rates at which undocumented immigrants commit crime. Guess what? Immigrants do NOT engage in more crime than native-born people in the U.S. And immigration actually can cause crime to go down. https://t.co/XVCi572gBG pic.twitter.com/ecYqi5uugi
— Emily A. The Spirit of Jezebel (@emzorbit) February 28, 2024

Media cowardice about calling Trump a felon or criminal

He’s a convicted felon. That’s a fact. Say it.

Could someone who works in journalism explain to me why the @washingtonpost needed to add quotes around the phrase convicted criminal when Trump is, in fact, a convicted criminal. pic.twitter.com/LH3aN99nXl
— scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) June 17, 2024

"Biden Campaign Ad Paints Trump as a Felon"

It is amazing the lengths legacy media goes to soft- peddle basic facts about Trump. He IS a convicted felon & this new Biden ad clearly says that. The @nytimes headline and story about the ad should say it plainly, too. COME ON. pic.twitter.com/OAOiJZhuae
— Jennifer Schulze (@NewsJennifer) June 17, 2024

Looks like @nytpolitics tweaked the paper's headline on the new Biden ad hitting Trump's felon status, after criticism that the paper treated this status as a he-said-she-said matter.

before/after

(h/t @TPM_dk) pic.twitter.com/BqqnEJvqrS
— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) June 17, 2024

They didn’t brand him a felon – he IS a felon.
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) June 17, 2024

The economy is much better than the public thinks it is

I blame the media for part of this – they are too obsessed with Trump to tell people these things on TV.

These charts from Evercore are stunning — and defy every obituary of American consumer spending power. 🇺🇸

(via @KevRGordon) pic.twitter.com/UIoWVEGGkD
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) June 17, 2024

"In 2008, the US and euro-zone economies were roughly the same size. Today, the American economy is nearly twice the size of the euro zone. Average European income is now 27 percent lower than in the United States, and average wages are 37 percent lower."https://t.co/5BeYN0l24w
— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) June 17, 2024

Astonishing stat: The U.S. economy is currently 44 percent larger than the European Union. In 2008, they were roughly the same size. pic.twitter.com/lqYWJWknq6
— Paul Farhi (@farhip) June 14, 2024

The BLS has finally updated its estimates of the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices, which excludes owners’ equivalent rent, a price nobody pays that is also a lagging indicator. Dude, where’s my inflation problem? pic.twitter.com/LrWvRm7aWb
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) June 16, 2024

“The U.S. is experiencing the best economic and employment situation in over 50 years and stocks are at all-time highs.” 🇺🇸

– Garzarelli Capital pic.twitter.com/qrrUrvW3nX
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) June 14, 2024

Yes, but how does it "feel" ?

Here in this diner in Indiana, a "picture emerges…" https://t.co/0Jz5gWQyjw
— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) May 30, 2024

The inflation rate for "food at home," is really low these days, with prices rising just 1.1% over the last year. But since January 2021, when Biden took office, prices are up nearly 21%.https://t.co/HVzah9bBcZ
— Axios (@axios) May 29, 2024

The phony “Blacks for Trump” rally

Blacks for Trump is like Puppies for Noem.
— Covie (@covie_93) June 16, 2024

So now it's being reported that the entire "Blacks for Trump" event in Detroit was staged.

The campaign decided to put the usual black supporters that travel to every Trump event on stage, only one of them is from Detroit, and everyone else is from out of town.

They saw that… pic.twitter.com/Kc4Jfvzsh0
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) June 17, 2024

Trump is having a “Black Voters For Trump” rally and it’s just a bunch of white people.

MAGA in a nutshell. pic.twitter.com/j8iov66LyQ
— Justin Horwitz (@JustinAHorwitz) June 15, 2024

Something seems off about the “congregation” at Trump’s Detroit church event. pic.twitter.com/4CGuqvGLLt
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) June 15, 2024