Column Science Fiction Film Club The Time Machine: Victorian Storytime With Cave Creatures and Camp Adapting H.G. Wells’ classic tale, George Pal imagines humanity’s future through the lens of Cold War-era anxiety. By Kali Wallace | Published on August 7, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share The Time Machine (1960) Directed by George Pal. Screenplay by David Duncan based on the 1895 novella The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Starring Rod Taylor, Alan Young, and Yvette Mimieux. It’s a snowy night in London, just a few days after the dawn of the 20th century. A group of men gather at the home of their mutual friend, an inventor by the name of George, who has invited them over for dinner but is currently absent. The men drink their friend’s booze and grumble about his lack of punctuality. It’s only after they’ve been ushered into the dining room and seated at the table that their host finally makes an appearance. George (Rod Taylor) stumbles into the room, dirty and bedraggled, and asks for a drink before explaining where he’s been. That explanation goes something like this: Remember how you were all over here a few days ago? Remember how you all made fun of me? Well, guess what, suckers! I invented a time machine. I’m paraphrasing, but only a little. This is the framing device that introduces The Time Machine (1960), which is based on the H.G. Wells novella of the same name. The protagonist of the book is only ever called the Time Traveler; in the movie he is winkingly named H. George Wells. George Pal, the film’s director, was a dedicated H.G. Wells fan. He had already adapted The War of the Worlds (1953) and would later acquire the rights to (but never produce) Wells’ 1899 novel The Sleeper Awakes. He also produced Destination Moon (1950), which was among the first films to aim for a practical, realistic portrayal of space travel. (Yes, it’s on the Film Club list.) And this isn’t really relevant to The Time Machine, but it’s fun to know anyway: Pal had begun his career as an animator. Specifically, he got his start using replacement animation, the type of stop-motion animation where, instead of changing the model frame by frame, a series of hand-carved wooden puppets are filmed frame by frame to give the appearance of motion. He started out with dancing cigarettes in an advertisement and went on to make an entire series of animated ads and films; all of these films are collectively called the Puppetoons series. You can take a look at some examples: a Philips radio ad from 1938, a clip from a version of Dr. Seuss’s “And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberrry Street,” and in The Puppetoon Movie (1987), which Pal’s friend Arnold Leibovit produced to showcase Pal’s work. Let’s leave the puppets and go back to London in 1905. Around that dinner table, and in the film’s voiceover, George recounts where he has been. He reminds his friends that just a few days ago, on New Year’s Eve, he invited them over to witness a demonstration of a miniature version of his time machine. The miniature version of the time machine looks exactly like the large version, right down to having a plush red armchair for the driver to sit in. (Does this mean the armchair is a necessary component of the time travel mechanism? This is the first of many questions that go unanswered in this film.) At that previous get-together, the small machine vanished right in front of them, but George’s buddies were skeptical that it actually traveled through time. I don’t blame them for that; I too would require rather more proof. What I do blame them for is encouraging George to put his considerable imagination and intellect toward something more commercially profitable, like helping with the Boer War. I’m just saying, if a friend tells you he has invented a time machine, maybe don’t go immediately to, “How about colonial war profiteering instead?” As the friends leave, Filby (Alan Young) advises a thoroughly demoralized George not to do anything rash. So George goes back inside and immediately does something rash, because that’s what intentional time travel is all about! I’m using “intentional” to distinguish the kind of story typified by The Time Machine from other kinds of time travel stories. Time travel is broad, flexible, multifaceted concept that has (probably) been around for as long as humans have been telling stories. There are myths from cultures around the world about people who find themselves in situations where they are taken out of their own time and returned years or centuries later. Sometimes they travel to another land where time passes differently; more often they simply fall asleep. Such journeys usually happen thanks to the meddling of gods or demons or supernatural creatures, or purely by chance, as opposed to being something the time travelers choose for themselves. Intentional time travel in fiction comes along a bit later—it’s been around for a few centuries, but trying to pinpoint any precise origin is a lesson in historical futility—and more specifically the shift from utilizing magic to constructing purpose-built machines had to wait for the Industrial Revolution to come along. H.G. Wells wasn’t the first to write about a machine invented to travel through time, but he was among the earliest, and he was definitely the one who popularized the idea of purposeful, exploratory time travel as a specific science fictional trope. George is upset that his friends don’t support his dreams and aspirations, so he hops into his full-size time machine to test it out. He starts small, and his delight grows as he sees the world pass more and more quickly around him. He watches the candle burn down, the seasons change, the fashions on a storefront mannequin evolve. This sequence is the best part of a film that is, on the whole, a rather mixed bag. The time machine itself is a lovely, ornate prop; it was designed by Bill Ferrari and built by Wah Chang. You have 100% without a doubt seen Chang’s work before. Working on Star Trek: The Original Series, he was the man responsible for the tribbles, the Gorn costume, the Vulcan harp, as well as the communicator that Motorola engineer Martin Cooper cited as inspiration for the world’s first handheld mobile phone. Gene Warren and Tim Baar won the Academy Award for their special effects, but I also want to call attention to the cleverness of Paul Vogel’s cinematography. The simulated time-lapse flow of George’s trip through time is accomplished by means of a mechanical lighting effect: circular shutters with segments of different colors to simulate the changing sky. Unfortunately, there are also examples where the rushed production and low budget really do show: spots where you can see how the matte paintings don’t line up with the foreground; some odd discrepancies in the depth field of certain scenes; the regrettable choice to use chunky oatmeal as lava. (In all fairness, they had 29 days to film and less than $1 million to work with.) George makes a stop in 1917, where he’s both excited about being able to visit the future and meet Filby’s grown son (also played by Alan Young). But he’s also dismayed to learn that the future means war and the death of his friend Filby. His next stop, right in the middle of the Blitz in 1940, does little to convince him that humanity is on the right track. So he travels ahead a bit more to 1966, where he finds that the unknown-to-him but known-to-the-audience Cold War fears of nuclear Armageddon are coming true, as an “atomic satellite” detonates and triggers—please imagine me tearfully trembling and clinging to my PhD in geophysics as I type this—a volcanic eruption that engulfs London. It’s curious that at no point does George consider going back. He escapes by going forward again: forward as he and his time machine are encased in lava, forward as he waits for the stone to erode away. In the year 802,701, he finally stops again. This time he finds a pleasantly lush landscape with nice weather, abundant fruit trees, and a cheerful population of people who appear to live a life of complete leisure. George thinks it’s very swell that humanity has reached the point of being able to laze about on idyllic rivers instead of laboring and warring—until he sees a young woman drowning in the river, and he realizes with horror that nobody is trying to help or even seems to care. He only grows more appalled as the young woman, Weena (17-year-old Yvette Mimieux, in her first role), tells him more about her people, the Eloi, and their ignorant, uncurious way of life. George, a proper Englishman in his dedication to the Great Man theory of history, fully believes that the Eloi just need somebody to show them how to be better, and they will be. All the while we are trying not to think too much about the movie’s choice to develop a romance between George and the childlike Weena. George does grow a bit more sympathetic toward the Eloi when he learns that they are always in danger from the Morlock, who are furry, subterranean, and have stolen his time machine. He learns that the Eloi and Morlock both evolved from humans in the past, thanks to a centuries-long war that drove part of the population underground. And, yes, we all have a great many questions about this scenario, but we shan’t be asking them here, because they have no answers within the film. Everything that happens after that point is a bit silly: Weena and several other Eloi are taken by the Morlock, George goes to save them, there’s a fight that involves a lot of whips and fur suits catching on fire. George rescues the Eloi and does great damage to the Morlock caverns, and there is some drama over whether he’ll be able to leave before he finally gets his time machine back and has to return to the past to escape the Morlocks. This ending is one place where the otherwise quite faithful movie diverges from the book. In the book, the Time Traveler keeps traveling into the future, in some passages that are eerily beautiful in how Wells describes Earth’s strange and frightening far future, when the Sun is dying and life on Earth has changed beyond recognition. In the movie, he heads right back to the year 1900 and the dinner party, where he recounts his tale to his highly skeptical friends; he then leaves again, presumably (back) to the same future. The book’s Time Traveler also disappears into his travels, with a promise to the narrator that he’ll be back with proof in half an hour, and is never seen again. The narrator speculates that he could have gone anywhere in the past or future; there is no suggestion that he’s returning to the Eloi’s world for any purpose. All in all, the first part of the movie feels charmingly old-fashioned, with its Victorian protagonist marveling at the wonders and horrors of the 20th century as he travels through the future. But the second half feels not old-fashioned but outdated, and I’ve been thinking about some reasons why that is. What I keep coming back to is that there is literary and political context to H.G. Wells’ 1895 novel that I think does not translate well into a Cold War-era film—even though, at the same time, I think that thematic misalignment is interesting. There was another very popular time travel story published toward the end of the 19th century, this one of the “fell asleep and time passed” variety, and that was John Bellamy’s 1888 novel Looking Backward. Bellamy’s book is an example of utopian fiction: a book that exists to imagine a more perfect world from a philosophical, political, or sociological point of view. (The professor of my college “Utopian Fiction” philosophy class would be so proud that I’m finally using what she taught us.) These days we’re used to interpreting portrayals of a perfect world as dystopian, but Looking Backward was fully in earnest in its description of a socialist future. So too was William Morris’ News From Nowhere (1890), because socialist utopian thought experiments in the form of fiction were quite popular around that time. Wells’ The Time Machine is a bit of an oddball, in that it was born of the same socialist literary tradition as Looking Backward and News From Nowhere, but it’s also an early example of the now-common sci fi premise of an apparently utopian world that is in fact deeply fucked up. He wasn’t the first to write about an apparent utopia disguising an actual dystopia, but he was influential in a larger shift that was taking place across literature—the shift away from those thought experiments about better worlds and toward thought experiments about worlds that have gone very wrong in attempting to be perfect. By the time George Pal made The Time Machine in 1960, the world was already familiar with Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We (the English translation was published in 1924), Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), and well as with films such as Metropolis (1927) and Things To Come (1936, written by H.G. Wells himself). That is—with the caveat that this is a generalization and there are always counterexamples—by 1960, fiction about failed or dystopian societies tended to be based on the very real political problems writers were seeing in the world around them. And that is captured in the first part of The Time Machine, when we see the prediction of Cold War paranoia in the volcano-inducing destruction of War World III. But the film never achieves any depth when it comes to exploring the society of the Eloi and Morlocks, which is noticeable only because George says several times that he wants to learn more about the societies of the future. I don’t always like to spend so much time comparing a film adaptation to its source material, but I think The Time Machine is an interesting case because it’s so easy to see the ways in which science fiction—in both books and film—changed after, around, and in response to H.G. Wells’ novel. The result of adapting the tale in the midst of that ongoing cultural evolution is imperfect, with a promising beginning but sort of falling apart toward the end. It exists as a sort of patchwork example of the different ways we imagine what the future might look like, if we ever get a chance to visit. What do you think about The Time Machine and its place in the history of time travel fiction? I didn’t mention the 2002 remake. I actually saw it when it came out, but I realized as I was reading through the Wikipedia article that I remember absolutely nothing about it, not even that Jeremy Irons was in it as the Morlock leader. So I can’t offer much comparison—anybody who remembers more, or wants to mention other adaptions and interpretations, is invited to chime in! Next week: Another take on H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine with Singeetam Srinivasa Rao’s Aditya 369. This time we’re starting in Hyderabad, India in the ’90s and heading to both the past and the future. Watch it on Amazon.[end-mark] The post <i>The Time Machine</i>: Victorian Storytime With Cave Creatures and Camp appeared first on Reactor.

Still No Press Conference With Kamala?

Luxury Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana has created a “scented mist for dogs” – and it costs upwards of $100, making it some seriously spenny puppy perfume. Outrageous price tag aside, is it really a good idea to be dousing our dogs in this, or any other, fragrance?Fefé – named for Domenico Dolce's beloved pet – is “an olfactory masterpiece”, reads the brand's website. It features “the cocooning and warm notes of Ylang, the clean and enveloping touch of Musk, and the woody creamy undertones of Sandalwood” and is “a tender and embracing fragrance crafted for a playful beauty routine.” It’s easy to forget this is perfume for a pet they’re talking about.Retailing at €99 ($108), the luxury fragrance mist comes in a green lacquered glass bottle, replete with a 24-carat gold-plated paw – just what every hound wants, right? Pampered pups also get a complementary dog collar with every purchase.According to Dolce & Gabbana, Fefé has been certified by Safe Pet Cosmetics, is alcohol-free, “approved by vets”, and “enjoyed by dogs” – but it seems independent veterinarians are less convinced. Though it may not always be harmful, canine cologne has some downsides for pooches and their notoriously sensitive noses.“This is entirely for the owner’s benefit, not for the dogs,” Daniel Mills, a professor of veterinary behavioral medicine at the University of Lincoln, told The New York Times. “Dogs have a fantastic sense of smell, and changing their odor can cause significant issues.”“Overall, it’s a very bad idea.”These sentiments were echoed by the senior scientific officer at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Alice Potter, who told The Guardian: “Dogs rely on their sense of smell to communicate and interact with their environment as well as the people and other animals within it. Therefore we advise that strong-scented products such as perfumes or sprays are avoided, especially as some smells can be really unpleasant for dogs.”As well as potentially causing social issues and sensory overload, messing with a dog’s natural odor could mask underlying health issues, Anna Judson, the president of the British Veterinary Association, explained to the NYT. Smells can be indicative of skin conditions, for example, and covering them up could result in delays in treatment.There’s also no evidence, of course, that dogs want to smell like ylang ylang, musk, sandalwood, or any other aroma. Ultimately, Mills adds, “we need to be far more respectful of dogs and their wishes.” So maybe cool it with the paw-fume – your bank account will certainly thank you.

The piles of old smartphones, obsolete computers, and broken laptops that are piling up in junkyards are hiding mini mountains of gold, and a new project in the UK is hoping to exploit the invisible riches. The Royal Mint, the UK’s official maker of British coins, has signed an agreement with Canadian clean tech startup Excir to use a “world-first technology” that can safely retrieve and recycle gold and other precious metals from electronic waste (e-waste). Circuit boards within electronic devices contain small amounts of gold in their connections due to its conductivity properties, as well as other useful metals like silver, copper, lead, nickel, and aluminum.Obtaining the metals has previously proved to be a challenge, but the technology developed by Excir is able to secure 99 percent of gold trapped inside e-waste in a matter of seconds. After preparing the circuit boards with a "unique process," they're introduced to a patented chemical formulation that selectively extracts the gold in seconds. The gold-rich liquid is then processed and turned into pure gold that can be melted into ingots. The process also has the potential to recover palladium, silver, and copper."The Royal Mint has thrived for over 1,100 years thanks to our entrepreneurial spirit, and the Excir technology complements our ambition to be a leader in sustainable precious metals. The chemistry is revolutionary and capable of recovering precious metals from electronic devices in seconds. It offers huge potential for The Royal Mint and the circular economy – helping to reuse our planet’s precious resources and creating new skills in the UK,” Sean Millard, Chief Growth Officer at The Royal Mint, said in a statement. Around 22 percent of e-waste is currently collected, properly stored, and recycled. However, with new technology like this, the scourge of scrapped electronics could be eased.An estimated 62 million tonnes of electronic waste is produced each year globally – enough to fill over 1.5 million 40-tonne trucks. As demand for electronic gadgets increases, that figure is set to rise by a further 32 percent by 2030, making it the fastest-growing solid waste source in the world. The World Health Organization declares e-waste as hazardous waste because it contains toxic materials and can leak toxic chemicals if not treated appropriately. For instance, discarded electronic equipment can pump lead and mercury into the environment, which can disrupt the normal development of the central nervous system during pregnancy, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. What’s more, e-waste isn’t biodegradable and accumulates in the environment.Not only does this pose a substantial environmental problem, but it’s also a massive waste. In total, some $57 billion to $62 billion worth of precious metals could be sitting in landfill sites and scrapyards.

Huge chunks of Antarctica have recently been slapped with (potentially) record-breaking warm temperatures that have lingered for a worryingly long time.New data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service shows that large parts of the ice-covered continent experienced temperatures that were 10 to 12°C (18 to 21.6°F) above average for this time of year in late July 2024, compared to the 1991-2020 reference period. Provisional data from the Syowa station and Halley station also suggests they may have broken their previous temperature records for July/August, while some days in East Antarctica showed temperatures that were 25°C (45°F) above average.These anomalies sound shocking, but it’s the length and scale of the heat that’s concerning scientists. “In Antarctica, it's unsurprising to have a day at some point in the winter (roughly June to August) where the temperature reaches ~25°C [45°F] above normal for the time of year somewhere on the continent. What is remarkable is prolonged high temperatures occurring over a large sector of east Antarctica from the second half of July and into early August, combined with warm surface temperatures offshore," Thomas Caton Harrison, Polar Climate Scientist at British Antarctic Survey (BAS), told IFLScience. “The main feature of interest is currently not so much the magnitude of the anomalies, though that may change. It's the fact we have seen prolonged warmer than usual conditions over this large sector, making July 2024 a standout month in the long-term average for this sector of east Antarctica,” he added. High temperatures in Antarctica: Surface air temperature anomalies on July 23, 2024, relative to the average for the 1991–2020 reference period. Data source: ERA5, via Climate Pulse.Image Credit: C3S/ECMWFHeatwaves in Antarctica are not unheard of, but evidence is starting to emerge that shows they may be becoming increasingly common in the face of human-driven climate change. In the past few years, there have been a fair few individual days with +25°C (45°F) anomalies in the Antarctic, most notably in 2022. In March 2022, during the end of summer, Antarctica witnessed temperatures rise by up to 40°C (72°F) above the seasonal average, part of the highest jump in temperatures above the seasonal norm ever recorded.A huge portion of the giant continent was impacted by the heatwave too. Scientists estimated that an area of 3.3 million square kilometers (1.21 square miles) in East Antarctica exceeded previous March monthly temperature records in 2022.     The heat wave of March 2022 stunned scientists, but it is unlikely to be the last time they are troubled by Antarctica's climate.“Across the globe, extreme temperature and weather events are breaking records by wide margins – and this event shows that Antarctica is not immune from this emerging trend," Dr Tom Bracegirdle, Deputy Science Leader for the Atmosphere, Ice, and Climate team at the BAS, said in a statement published in January. “Extreme events are a key aspect of understanding how Earth’s systems and frozen places will respond to global warming, and on what timeline. It is critical that we improve our understanding of how climate change will influence the severity and frequency of extreme events in Antarctica," said Dr Bracegirdle.

Comedy Central's The Daily Show’s temp host of the week, Michael Kosta, welcomed Vice President Kamala Harris’s selection of Tim Walz to be her running mate on Tuesday by praising Walz’s liberal record as governor of Minnesota. Even jokes nominally about Walz were more about Midwestern stereotypes than Walz. Kosta began by hyping, “But since you guys have probably never heard of this guy before, I Googled him in a panic on your behalf this morning. And what I found out is that Tim Walz has got a lot done as governor. He legalized marijuana, passed family—yeah, it is a weed crowd. He passed family and sick leave, he codified abortion rights. And provided free meals for all school kids.”     He also noted, “Which makes him an ironic VP pick. Democrats said, "Man, you've done so much as governor. We'd like to promote you to a position where you'll do absolutely nothing." But if you ask me, his appeal to this ticket isn't just his record as governor. It's his overall vibe. You know? And that vibe, it's Midwestern dad as [bleep].” After playing a video of Walz in his car discussing DIY repairs, Kosta played a second clip of Walz’s vegetarian daughter passing on a corn dog. After Walz suggested turkey instead, his daughter informed him that turkey is also a meat. Kosta reacted, “Aw, he's trying so hard! He's trying so hard. ‘You don't eat meat? Well, fish isn't meat, and Turkey's kinda like fish! Let's get a cheeseburger.’ I will say, it makes it harder for the alt-right to call you a soy boy when you're like, ‘Bison is a vegetable.’"  Kosta also hyped Walz’s time as a high school football coach before discussing another photo of Walz’s dietary choices, “Oh my god, he was a small town high school football coach? And he's been married for 30 years? And he's eating a bucket of cookies? Leave it to Minnesota to measure cookies by the bucket. This guy is almost too Midwestern. Even his bad stuff is still Midwestern.” Even when Kosta turned to Walz’s moral failings, he still managed to make the joke about something else. After playing a clip of a reporter recalling Walz’s DUI where he was going 96 in a 55 MPH zone, Kosta added, “Well, yeah, of course he was driving that fast. He had to get home before he hurt anybody driving drunk! He's from the Midwest, I should know! So yes, Tim Walz has a DUI arrest. But just one. So, no wonder voters elected him governor. He's the most responsible driver in the whole Midwest.” Tame jokes about Walz’s love for cookies could be compared to jokes about how JD Vance’s beard makes him look like a Civil War reenactor, but missing from Kosta’s collection were any jokes that would be comparable to Vance's cat ladies remarks, couches, or left-wing policies. Here is a transcript for the August 6 show: Comedy Central The Daily Show 8/6/2024 11:02 PM ET MICHAEL KOSTA: But since you guys have probably never heard of this guy before, I Googled him in a panic on your behalf this morning. And what I found out is that Tim Walz has got a lot done as governor. He legalized marijuana, passed family—yeah, it is a weed crowd. He passed family and sick leave, he codified abortion rights. And provided free meals for all school kids. Which makes him an ironic VP pick. Democrats said, "man, you've done so much as governor. We'd like to promote you to a position where you'll do absolutely nothing." But if you ask me, his appeal to this ticket isn't just his record as governor. It's his overall vibe. You know? And that vibe, it's Midwestern dad as [bleep]. … KOSTA: Aw, he's trying so hard! He's trying so hard. "You don't eat meat? Well, fish isn't meat, and Turkey's kinda like fish! Let's get a cheeseburger." I will say, it makes it harder for the alt-right to call you a soy boy when you're like, "Bison is a vegetable."  And Tim Walz is not just a Midwestern dad now, he's been a Midwestern dad his whole life! He served in the National Guard. He has his own award-winning tater tots hot dish. How much more Midwestern can he get? ANCHOR: In 1994, he married fellow school teacher. They moved to Mankato in the mid-'90s where he began teaching and coaching football at Mankato West High School. KOSTA: Oh my god, he was a small town high school football coach? And he's been married for 30 years? And he's eating a bucket of cookies? Leave it to Minnesota to measure cookies by the bucket. This guy is almost too Midwestern. Even his bad stuff is still Midwestern. ANCHOR 2: In 1995, Tim Walz was arrested in Nebraska for driving under the influence. He was driving 96 miles an hour in a 55 mile per hour zone. KOSTA: Well, yeah, of course he was driving that fast. He had to get home before he hurt anybody driving drunk! He's from the Midwest, I should know! So yes, Tim Walz has a DUI arrest. But just one. So, no wonder voters elected him governor. He's the most responsible driver in the whole Midwest.

Politico and Bloomberg Opinion have just been exposed engaging in grotesque journalistic malfeasance just to suck up to the Biden-Harris White House. The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) unveiled another trove of documents of damning communications from 2022 through open records requests, giving MRC Business exclusive access. The documents reveal the extent to which the Biden-Harris Treasury Department had editorial influence over Politico and Bloomberg Opinion. A Politico reporter forwarded his pay-walled Politico Pro piece slapping down worries of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) hiring 87,000 new employees to a Biden-Harris Treasury official who then edited some of the language used for the free version of Politico published a day later. Furthermore, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist sent interview questions in advance to Treasury officials for a softball 2022 transcribed-Q&A session with then-Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Lily Batchelder that took place the following day. Politico senior tax reporter Brian Faler went to bat for the Biden-Harris administration following the backlash to the IRS’s move to use $80 billion in funding it received through the Inflation Reduction Act to employ 87,000 new employees. One estimate noted that 57.3 percent of the new hires — fewer than 50,000 —  “would be assigned to tax enforcement.”  Faler’s article, “The $80 billion question: What will the IRS do with all its new money?” was initially published as a Politico Pro item on Aug. 15. He sent his pay-walled item to Treasury Public Affairs Senior Spokesperson Julia Krieger via email and wrote, “Flagging.” Krieger responded with edits to the article, which appear to have been incorporated into the free version of Faler’s piece published the following day on Aug. 16: “Hi Brian-thanks for this! For the first sentence in the first listicle, can you clarify that this figure is the gross, not the net/so it's clear that we're not talking about 87k ‘new’ employees as it currently reads? I know you have it further down that Natasha expects 50k attrition, but would be good [sic] clarify at the outset since there's been so much misinformation on this exact issue of ‘new’ hires.” The original sentence in question read as follows: “The Biden administration wants to use the money to hire 87,000 new people, a hiring spree that has Republicans warning of a gathering army of tax collectors.” But following the edits from the Biden-Harris Treasury, the word “new” was eliminated from the free version of the piece. Politico effectively gave the Biden-Harris Treasury Department editorial power over its reporting.  In comments to MRC Business, Faler pushed back, claiming “I didn’t ‘clear’ anything with anyone outside Politico, and never would. The Treasury Department spokeswoman was complaining about a published story – it had already gone out to the world. She didn’t see any version or draft of the story before it was posted.” Faler further obfuscated, “What I had flagged for her was the story that had been sent to our subscribers earlier that morning, which is a courtesy we extend to anyone we quote or interview for a story.” What Faler didn’t initially address was the fact that the Politico Pro story published Aug. 15 was specifically edited to remove the word “new” per Krieger’s requests in the Aug. 16 free version published the following day.  When pressed further on why the framing of the free version of his article was edited per Treasury’s direction, Faler threw Politico’s editors under the bus by passing off responsibility to them, saying it was “far above” his “pay grade:” Here’s what happens when someone complains that something I wrote was wrong or misleading: I take it to my editor, because it’s a conflict of interest for me to decide if the complainer is correct. I explain the situation to my editor, and he (and possibly others) decides how to proceed. I presume here the editor(s) agreed with Treasury that that sentence could have been said better. I don’t really know for sure because conversations about stories that go on our main site are far above my pay grade, [emphasis added]. Faler effectively alluded that it was his supervisors’ decision to let Treasury give editorial direction on the Politico piece. But Politico isn’t the only one that has engaged in this open journalistic collaboration with the Biden-Harris Treasury.  Another email dated Jan. 25, 2022 from then-senior spokesperson for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen — Alexandra LaManna — was sent to other Treasury department staff boasting that “we have the questions in advance” for a transcribed Q&A interview between Bloomberg Opinion columnist Alexis Leondis and Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Lily Batchelder set to take place the next day. The documents obtained by FGI showed the specific questions that were forwarded to Treasury officials, with a good portion of them appearing in the published interview three days after the email was sent, “How Messy Will This Tax Season Get?”  One question that was forwarded in advance dealt directly with an IRS mistake, meaning that Treasury was given ample opportunity to get Batchelder’s propagandized answers in order first before the interview. “Erroneous child tax credit information was sent out recently by the IRS that didn’t match what taxpayers actually received. What should taxpayers do if they’re in this situation?” Batchelder responded by playing the victim in the published interview, arguing that this was part of a broader issue of “chronic under-funding” for the IRS. In fact, the email chain between the Treasury officials showed apparent collaboration on the various questions. Yellen counselor Natasha Sarin appeared to respond in the chain with edits on possible answers to a few of Leondis’s questions, “Hi team, In my lane. A few edits in caps below.” Batchelder responded with apparent glee, “Thanks so much for all the work that went into this! Attached is a revised version.”  MRC Business also reached out to Leondis for comment but received no response as of the publication of this report.  The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics forbids journalists from engaging in any “political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility,” which seeking approval on content on a story from a government entity would clearly constitute. In addition, SPJ instructs journalists to “resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.” It appears neither Politico, nor Bloomberg got the memo.  This isn’t even the first time MRC Business has caught leftist media publications committing journalistic offenses to favor the Biden-Harris administration. FGI recently shared documents to MRC exposing CNN congressional reporter Clare Foran seeking pre-approval from Department of Energy officials on three pre-published paragraphs pertaining to Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm. Following DOE approval, Foran’s three paragraphs would end up being published 99 percent verbatim in her article targeting Republicans for pushing to prohibit Granholm from implementing any rule that would “limit consumer access to gas kitchen ranges and ovens.” Also, in June 2023, FGI gave MRC Business the goods exposing another email exchange revealing Bloomberg News acting as the Treasury Department’s personal PR firm in an apparent attempt to get special privileges. An email chain showed Bloomberg Senior Washington Correspondent Saleha Mohsin appearing to be fired up over Treasury officials censoring Yellen quotes obtained by Bloomberg News despite the outlet’s “commitment” to her. “Bloomberg reporters show enough commitment to Yellen that we travel far and wide to cover her,” Mohsin wrote, “only to have you [sic] quotes killed. Yellen made the same comments live to the networks and its no big deal.” Conservatives are under attack. Contact Politico at 703-647-7999 and Bloomberg Opinion at letters@bloomberg.net and hold them to account for violating journalistic ethics.        

"Star Wars" show "The Acolyte" cost $180 million to produce, and it’s finally over. But after the season finale, Lauren Chen is wondering where the money went — or whether the writers of the show are even sane. “I’m beginning to think that the writers behind ‘The Acolyte,’ they’re just bad people. Maybe even psychopaths,” Chen says, adding, “Overall, where this money went, I have no idea.” In the finale, the protagonist of the show kills her old Jedi master, Sol, in cold blood, and it's presented as being “what’s right.” “Is she really the protagonist? Like, I’m sorry, am I still supposed to like or relate to this character in any way, shape, or form?” Chen asks. “Not only does basically the only good character in this show get murdered in the finale by the little girl that he helped raise and that he did rescue from these weird space witches, but on top of that, his memory and his legacy are completely dragged through the mud,” she adds. The show itself was supposed to revolve around the theme of ambiguous morality, Chen doesn’t think it did a good job of that at all. “Such disappointing stuff. And here’s the thing: The entire morality of this show essentially hinges on the fact that the writers believe that Sol was in the wrong, but they didn’t really do a good job convincing the audience otherwise,” Chen says. While Chen doesn’t believe the show is the “worst thing” she’s ever seen, she says it’s up there. “It’s terrible. It’s not good as a piece of "Star Wars" fiction, and it’s just not good as a show standing on its own. Like, it’s one thing if there were a show that kind of poked holes into "Star Wars" lore and canon, but at least it was entertaining to watch and decent,” she says. “This is just not good as a piece of media. It’s not very interesting, it’s not every entertaining, and heck, even if we just look at it purely as a form of propaganda to push a social message, which it seems like is really all that the creators were interested in doing, it still fails, because the message it pushes is terrible,” she continues. “It justifies murder, tries to add moral ambiguity into something that’s unambiguously bad, like having a temper or no control over your feelings. It’s just a failure all around,” she adds. Want more from Lauren Chen?To enjoy more of Lauren’s pro-liberty, pro-logic, and pro-market commentary on social and political issues, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

We miss Vince Vaughn.The 54-year-old actor hasn’t disappeared, but there’s no place for him to perform his motor-mouth shtick these days. Imagine pitching either “Wedding Crashers” or “Old School” to a woke movie executive.So much for white male privilege. Where are the nonbinary characters?It explains why Vaughn transitioned to more dangerous roles, like his menacing turn in 2017’s “Brawl in Cell Block 99.”Now, he’s sharing why we don’t see films like “The Hangover” any more.The Hollywood suits are too cowardly and the woke mob won’t let select jokes be told, he shared with the New York Times. Except he phrased the latter without the usual mealy-mouthed euphemisms."It’s a crazy thing as human beings to think that my ideas are the best and if I can just force people to do what I believe, the world will be great," noted Vaughn.Pretty smart stuff for a knuckle-headed “Swinger.”Fan service (charge)Disney finally got some good news. The flailing studio dropped bomb after bomb on unsuspecting consumers last year, capped by the disastrous MCU dud “The Marvels.”This summer? Both “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” are rocking the box office.How is the Mouse House thanking its fans? A price hike!Yes, if you want to hate-watch “The Marvels” or “The Acolyte,” you’ll have to pay two more dollars per month on both its ad and ad-free platforms.Positively 4chanBob Dylan is coming down the chimney this Christmas.“A Complete Unknown,” director James Mangold’s biopic of the folk legend, will debut December 25. Timothée Chalamet stars as the mercurial singer in a film brimming with Oscar potential.The only downside? The millions of Gen Z types currently Googling, “Who or what is a Bob Dylan?”MSNBC's Rogan rageJoe Rogan is an innocent man.The podcast giant never slept with a White House intern, shot a cinematographer, or exposed himself to fellow comedians.Tell that to the media. Journos loathe Rogan like the Trump son we never knew existed. It’s why critics savaged his new Netflix comedy special, “Joe Rogan: Burn the Boats.” The press slammed every moment of the hour-long event, calling it homophobic, transphobic, and more.It’s like the reviews were written the day before.The funniest caterwauling came from (where else?) MSNBC. The outlet published a “think” piece that not only savaged “Burn the Boats” but Rogan’s fans.It’s not enough that Rogan is the Antichrist; it’s his fans who deserve equal blame.If Rogan is a mouthpiece for his audience's interests, then what did his special teach us about those who adore him? For starters, Roganites love “boys will be boys” humor.The horror, the horror.Imagine putting every comedian’s joke, large or small, under the microscope until it echoes your far-left beliefs.Now, that’s funny.Zoolander's choiceBen Stiller has a powerful reason for voting for Vice President Kamala Harris this fall. Three, actually.“She's going to be the first woman president, and that's incredibly exciting. And you know, she's Indian. She's black. She's everything. You can be more than one thing, it's incredible. I'm Jewish and Irish. I wish I was black — every white, Jewish guy wishes he was black."Vote Harris in 2024. She’s ... everything! It’s better than hope and change, no?There’s one valuable lesson from Stiller’s pitch. You never go the full ... Simple Jack.BlacklistedJack Black’s summer just got worse.It didn’t seem possible after his Tenacious D bandmate’s birthday wish — that the next Trump assassin shouldn’t miss.The band shuttered its tour, bandmate Kyle Gass lost his representation, and Black put a temporary hold on all future gigs. He essentially canceled himself.That may pale compared to Black’s latest indignity. He’s about to star in a true Hollywood flop. “Borderlands,” opening Aug. 9, is based on the popular video game of the same name. Playing along with Black? Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, and Cate Blanchett.So far, so good. Very good, to be honest. Except the proverbial buzz is off the charts — in the wrong direction.Major reshoots. A new director brought in to finish the project. No critics' screenings. And now, predictions that a movie with a $120 million budget could open as low as $10 million this weekend.How fast can Black sign on for “Kung Fu Panda 5?”

A Pakistani national was arrested on July 12 for allegedly plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump and other public officials on American soil. FBI Director Christopher Wray — whose agency otherwise proved unable to prevent a one-time Democratic donor from shooting Trump, murdering a father of two, and injuring others at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — joined Biden's Attorney General Merrick Garland this week in suggesting that the alleged plot was "straight out of the Iranian playbook." Garland intimated that the alleged plotter, 46-year-old Asif Raza Merchant, was seeking to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian terrorist and commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who was snuffed out by an American airstrike at Iraq's Baghdad airport on Jan. 2, 2020. Trump, who authorized the airstrike, insisted at the time that he had taken action "to stop a war," not to start one. Nevertheless, senior Iranian officials and commanders subsequently indicated that "revenge for martyr Soleimani's blood is certain, and the murderers and perpetrators will have no easy sleep." According to the criminal complaint, Merchant — a bigamist who apparently has a wife and children in Iran and a wife and children in Pakistan — traveled from Pakistan to the U.S. in April. Upon arrival, Merchant allegedly attempted to recruit individuals to help him execute his assassination plot. One individual Merchant apparently figured would make for a reliable accomplice promptly reported the scheme to law enforcement officials and became a confidential source. Merchant allegedly met with the confidential source in June and explained that what he had in mind was "not a one-time opportunity and would be ongoing" and further that he had multiple targets in mind. Although the criminal complaint does not name the intended targets, sources familiar with the case told ABC News that Trump was among them. The scheme apparently involved having a woman perform "reconnaissance," having hit men to do the killing, and having roughly 25 people to stage a protest after the murder occurred. The confidential source ultimately introduced Merchant to two undercover law enforcement officers posing as hit men whom the Pakistani national allegedly paid $5,000 for the assassination as well as for orchestrating the protest and theft of certain documents. "Fortunately, the assassins Merchant allegedly tried to hire were undercover FBI Agents," Acting Assistant Director Christie Curtis of the FBI New York field office said in a statement. After paying the undercover officers their due and confirming the plan would proceed, Merchant set about leaving the country on July 12, said the complaint. Law enforcement swooped in and arrested Merchant after observing him toss his luggage into the trunk of a vehicle outside his residence. Merchant has been charged with one count of murder for hire. 'The failure of the Secret Service in Butler, Pennsylvania, is even more outrageous in light of suspected Iranian-backed assassins targeting former Trump administration officials, including President Trump himself.' "For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani," said Garland. "The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against American citizens and will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to target American public officials and endanger America’s national security," added the attorney general. Despite reports that this foiled plot prompted the U.S. Secret Service to increase security around Trump — having previously denied him adequate security for the two years leading up to the Butler shooting — it's clear from the agency's performance at the president's fateful July 13 rally, just one day after Merchant's July 12 arrest, they weren't in a rush to make meaningful adjustments. Blaze News previously reported, for instance, that the radios provided by local law enforcement to the Secret Service for cross-agency communication were apparently never used; that the Secret Service allegedly "repeatedly denied offers from a local law enforcement partner to utilize drone technology to secure the rally"; and that Trump's security detail that day was not only relatively thin but allegedly composed in part of inexperienced Department of Homeland Security agents. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement Tuesday, "The failure of the Secret Service in Butler, Pennsylvania, is even more outrageous in light of suspected Iranian-backed assassins targeting former Trump administration officials, including President Trump himself. That day, the threat of sniper attacks was even higher than normal." "I was previously briefed concerning the Iranian threat and the circumstances of Mr. Merchant's arrest and questioned then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on whether she had reviewed the intelligence concerning the Iranian threat," continued Turner. "She confirmed to me that she read the intelligence and was aware of this Iranian murder-for-hire plot." "Director Cheatle acknowledged she knew the threat and still did not provide President Trump the protection he needed, almost costing him his life," added the Ohio congressman. Like Blaze News? 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