HOLLYWOOD ENDING: Peter Bart: Woody Allen Struggles To Keep Making Movies Amidst Turmoil.

Some years ago I helped architect a film deal for a Woody Allen movie (Play It Again Sam) and Woody resented that he was not specified as director. A week later, when I encountered him, he looked right through me, even though we knew each other. “In Woody’s world, when you lose favor you are instantly extinguished,” one member of his inner circle explained to me.

Much like the way the #metoo crowd has vanished its foes to cultural Siberia. In December of 2017, Mark Hemingway explored  “Why Liberals Have Such A Hard Time With ‘Monstrous Men’ And Their Art:”

Frankly acknowledging this might suggest that the liberals have endorsed ideas — e.g. oxymoronic notions of “sexual liberation” — that have been deeply harmful to women, all for the sake of knocking down obstacles to political power. I wonder how much betrayal [Woody] Allen must feel now. He did his part to push a liberal sexual and political agenda, was celebrated for it, and now he’s being drummed out of polite society for enjoying the fruits of these efforts?

As Steve wrote linking to Hemingway’s piece, “I’d just add that perhaps the saddest part about Woody Allen et al. is that they never understood they’d become disposable once they were no longer useful to the cause.”

STEPHEN KRUISER: Hack Wars: MSNBC’s Todd and CNN’s Cuomo Engaged in Public Spat. “Ew…I had to defend Chuck Todd.”

Gross.

A DAMN GOOD-LOOKING CAR: The Karma Revero Will Get the Three-Cylinder From the BMW i8.

AT AMAZON, Shop Amazon Warehouse Deals – Deep Discounts on Open-box and Used Products.

Plus, Shop Amazon Outlet – Clearance, Markdowns and Overstock Deals.

SHE’S NOT UNPATRIOTIC; SHE’S WORKING FOR THE OTHER SIDE: Photos Surface Revealing 2017 ‘Closed-Door’ Meeting Between Rep. Ilhan Omar and Turkish President Erdogan.

ZUCKERBERG FAMILY TO SPEND MILLIONS TO INCREASE MINORITY REPRESENTATION IN STEM: That’s nice. But eliminating mismatch would be more effective.

REALLY DOESN’T FIT THE NARRATIVE: John McWhorter: America Has Never Been Less Racist.

UGH: Again Amazon, Apple and Google could be infringing customers’ privacy with voice reviewers.

All three companies say voice recordings are occasionally reviewed to improve speech recognition. But the reaction to the Bloomberg article suggests many customers are unaware that humans may be listening.

The news site said it had spoken to seven people who reviewed audio from Amazon Echo smart speakers and the Alexa service.

Reviewers typically transcribed and annotated voice clips to help improve Amazon’s speech recognition systems. Amazon’s voice recordings are associated with an account number, the customer’s first name and the serial number of the Echo device used.

Some of the reviewers told Bloomberg that they shared amusing voice clips with one another in an internal chat room. They also described hearing distressing clips such as a potential sexual assault. However, they were told by colleagues that it was not Amazon’s job to intervene.

The terms and conditions for Amazon’s Alexa service state that voice recordings are used to “answer your questions, fulfill your requests, and improve your experience and our services”. Human reviewers are not explicitly mentioned.

Privacy is dead, killed by convenience.

THIS IS MORE LIKE THE 21ST CENTURY I WAS HOPING FOR: Wearable Device Scrubs Cancer Cells from Blood.

SCHADENFREUDELICIOUS: Did Ilhan Omar Help Benjamin Netanyahu Win Reelection?

QUESTION ASKED: Why Are Democrats Upset at Illegal Aliens Being Sent to Their Sanctuary Cities?

DANIEL JOHN SOBIESKI: Barr Will Find Spying On Trump Directed By Obama.

In any criminal investigation where the suspect is not immediately known, the first question usually asked is who would have the most to gain? As we follow the bread crumbs of the text messages of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page and await release of the House Intelligence Committee’s memo regarding the collusion between the DNC, the Hillary Clinton campaign, the DOJ and FBI to interfere with the 2016, ensure the election of Hillary and the defeat or impeachment of Donald Trump, the answer to that question is clear, one Barack Hussein Obama.

Can it be believed that as key players in the Obama administration like Strzok and Page, as well as FBI Director James Comey, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, number 4 at Justice Bruce Ohr, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and many others were linked in a vast criminal conspiracy to keep Hillary Clinton out of prison, and Donald Trump out of the White House, Barack Obama was blissfully unaware of all this? Rather, it can be plausibly argued that he was orchestrating it.

Perhaps not directly or by explicit orders but rather by discussing the threat to his legacy Trump represented with his progressive minions and then simply saying, as crime bosses throughout history have done, “You know what needs to be done. Do it.”

AKA, “Working toward the Führer,” which sounds even more sinister in the original German.

THE B-21 STEALTH BOMBER is almost ready to fly. Well, it’s not from Boeing, so maybe you won’t have to check the wing spaces for old beer cans.

CHUTZPAH ALERT: Omar Suggests President Bush Was ‘Downplaying the Terror Attack’ in Bullhorn Speech.

AT AMAZON, save on Multitools.

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Fake News Freaks Out After Fox News ‘Misgenders’ Bradley Manning.

BUT GILLETTE’S DOING ITS BEST TO MAKE IT SEXY: Obesity a Key Driver of Multiple Sclerosis Risk. Glamorizing morbid obesity is like glamorizing anorexia.

DISPATCHES FROM THE “IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN WE DO IT” PARTY: “Old and busted: Domestic spying is inconsistent with the values of this country. New hotness: Spying is very consistent with the values of this country because Orange Man Bad.”

HE WAS ON CNN ALL THE TIME, SO I FIGURED HE MUST BE RESPECTABLE: Roger Kimball: Who would have thought Michael Avenatti was a greedy porn lawyer?

BREAKING: Trump “Giving Strong Considerations” to Proposal to Place Immigrants Who Enter U.S. Illegally “in Sanctuary Cities Only.”

Heh.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Revealed: Two decades before college admissions scandal, the Clintons tried to game system for Chelsea’s boyfriend.

WELL, GOOD: Astronaut has no lingering, major epigenetic differences from earthbound twin brother.

BUT IF MIKE PENCE ISN’T A HOMOPHOBE, THEN PETE BUTTIGIEG IS JUST THE MAYOR OF A COLLEGE TOWN IN INDIANA: Mike Pence’s Nonexistent Homophobia.

And Pete Buttigieg doesn’t want to live in a world where Pete Buttigieg isn’t special.