Real movie fans will recognize the inspiration for the title of this piece at a glance. The 1975 spy thriller “Three Days of the Condor” *was a popular and critically well-received hit directed by Sydney Pollack. Star power in abundance was provided by Redford and Faye Dunaway, ably surrounded by Max Von Sydow (as Joubert), Cliff Robertson, and John Houseman, among others. It is one of my personal all time favorite movies (viewed more than 10 times since I first saw the original release in a movie house in Boston in 1975).

Movie Poster “3 Days of the Condor” (1975)

Redford and Dunaway were smoking hot, and Von Sydow as Joubert is one of the most arresting intelligent bad guys in shades of grey ever on the screen.

Professional Bad Guy Max von Sydow as Joubert in 3 Days of the Condor (!975)

A part of the story line can be summarized as follows: Jim Turner (Redford’s character) is a CIA inside agent (no field training) working in a New York brownstone. He comes back from a lunch run for his workmates to find all his analytical section co-workers murdered. He escapes and tries to get help from HQ to bring him in safely form the cold. A complex plot is afoot, and Joe tries to figure out just what’s going on and why someone would want to hurt him.

As an unpredictable amateur he stumbles around, but finally finds his way to part of the answer. Just as Joe thinks he may be ahead of the game the cool, consummate spy professional Joubert finally shows up and outsmarts Joe. Instead of a bullet for Joe however, Joubert says he his primary job has been changed, and he doesn’t need to kill Turner any more. Joubert advises Jim to leave town permanently, as others may still be coming, and then offers him a ride away from the scene. The movie ends later with a suspenseful street scene in New York in front of the New York Times building.

Real Hollywood Royalty Versus the Imitation Spread (RDST)

Mega Star Rob3rt Redford, Hollywood Royalty (about 11975)

Both Robert Redford** and Faye Dunaway*** are true Hollywood royalty, and have each been for more than 50 years, since the mid-1960’s. Between the two of them they have accumulated three Oscars, 10 Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTAs, and an Emmy, just to name the most significant film industry honors.

Trump, by contrast, has a very high opinion of his entertainment talents and achievements. In point of fact, he is a Hollywood movie star never-was, and a TV industry second tier also-ran.

There is routinely a gross and obvious mismatch between the bombastic claims made in Trump’s Twittiverse and the objective reality the rest of us must navigate each day. This sharp contrast between real talent and Trump’s self-impression is not limited to his estimates of his talent or celebrity drawing power. It is highlighted in his blunt foreign policy pronouncements, his credit claim jumping on jobs, his military policy saber rattling, and his dismissive attitude towards national security intelligence assessments.. Trump has proven himself to repeatedly be undisciplined, rashly impulsive, and poorly prepared for the consequences of his jibes.

There is an extra sharp tang in this observation today since Trump has used his daily free pulpit exercise to go on a ridiculous rant about one Meryl Streep.**** Redford and Dunaway are Hollywood Royalty, but any American moviegoer who cares for the craft of film will tell you that Streep is the reigning Queen of American Cinema, respected around the world. Trump’s vacuous opinion as a film critic are guffaw provoking.

It would take an entire book chapter to list and properly describe Streep’s significant professional honors and awards in the arts, in the U.S. and abroad, unlike Trump’s bleak tundra of scrub brush. She is the world record holder, man or woman, for Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. Streep has won 3 Oscars, 9 Golden Globes, and 2 Emmys, all on her own. That’s two more Emmys than Trump ever earned with his fabulous TV presence. She also has 5 Grammy nominations, and 1 Tony nomination to show for her 45 years of continuous, productive professional work.

Meryl Streep: America’s Most Accomplished Actress Age 30 (1979)

She is better educated than Trump (Vassar and Yale), and she has more honorary academic degrees than he does. She is almost exactly three years younger (June 22, 1949), she can sing beautifully, and she is way more attractive (by a country mille and then some). That’s just for starters.

At some point in a discussion of Donald’s features, the ugly greenback dollar will intrude. Here are the lifetime Box Office numbers for the three Hollywood Royalty stars, and also-ran Trump:

Trump limps into 4th place out of four (that’s worldwide). His nearest superior rival is Dunaway at 10 times Trump’s lifetime total. Streep and Redford outpace him at 40 times more, and 30 times more, respectively. So much for popular appeal and approval.

Now, there is no doubt Trump has a bigger pile of financial assets and personal net worth than all of the others (Streep, $45 million; Redford, $170 million; Dunaway, $40 million, Trump, whatever he feels like today). All four of their piles are substantial and healthy, and except for Trump, self-earned. But what really counts to others is what you do with your green piles.

Trump is a well known charitable cheapskate billionaire and foundation abuser. According to what scanty records are available, Trump himself has donated roughly $6 million dollars in total to his charitable foundation since it was established in 1988.

Let’s take one counter example of real generosity from someone with a much smaller pile of green to spend, Meryl Streep. Streep is a Jersey girl, and her foundation, Silver Mountain Foundation for the Arts (Morristown, NJ) was established in 1983. Yearly figures are not readily available, but we do know that in 2009 she gave $4 million in charitable donations, and in 2012, $2 million more. Her giving seems to be in the range of about $1 million per year, otherwise.

Let’s sharpen up a pencil stub here, and do a paper sum in old school Trump-wise fashion.

To sum up then, in 30 years Trump has stingily coughed up about $6 million dollars personally for others through his foundation, while Streep has donated $6 million in just 2 years (2009, 2012 for which definite figures are published). Since Trump’s net worth pile (let’s call it $4 billion in total, give or take) is 100 times larger than Streep’s, but she has given a nearly identical (and more) actual sum of charitable dollars to others than the Trumpster, it is eminently fair to conclude Streep is also 100 times more generous than notorious skinflint Trump. Streep does her good work quietly, without seeking the spotlight, while Trump demands drama and praise for each jot and tittle, preferably with cameras rolling, thank you very much.

It is also ironic that Trump has, in the last week, decided to shutter his sputtering, anemic Foundation as it is suspended from operations in New York, and facing embarrassing disclosures of violations of self-dealing rules, paying personal debts for Trump, and illegal political donations by the foundation, in a number of separate instances. Trump’s brilliant gambit to flush all this mess away is to say that, most sadly, he will have to close down his generous operation to avoid potential conflict of interest inquiries by losers and haters, who don’t understand Trump’s impressive charitable inclinations.

A similar sensitivity and concern about Trump’s personal money making ventures, licensing deals, his government contract at the Old DC Post Office, the application of anti-nepotism laws (see jarred Kushner), and inherent family conflicts (Eric, Donnie J, and Ivanka) are notably absent.

Back to Trump & Twitter on Russian Hacking

Here is the three-day Trump Twit Condor output on Russian hacking (January 608):

  • Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump Jan 6 7:53 PM
  • Gross negligence by the Democratic National Committee allowed hacking to take place. The Republican National Committee had strong defense!
  • 22,399 replies 16,300 retweets 65,723 likes
  • Reply 22K   Retweet 16K

 

  • Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump Jan 7 3:56 AM
  • Intelligence stated very strongly there was absolutely no evidence that hacking affected the election results. Voting machines not touched!
  • 17,504 replies 18,180 retweets 66,504 likes

 

  • Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump Jan 8 10:56 AM
  • Before I, or anyone, saw the classified and/or highly confidential hacking intelligence report, it was leaked out to @NBCNews. So serious!
  • 23,486 replies 19,246 retweets 66,172 likes

The continuing saga of Trump’s Russian spy blundering will be felt for months and years to come by all Americans. Here are the latest three day of Trump’s high level view of the intelligence briefing as reflected in a twit a day from January 6th through January 8th Actually, Trump accomplished all this in just about 40 consecutive hours, during those three calendar days.

At some point it becomes tedious to have to repeat over and over the same motions, but Trump seems unwaveringly willing to re-spout unsupported rubbish and nonsense, so here we go again.

January 6, 2017:

The U.S. intelligence investigations make plain that a variety of computer systems from both parties and individuals were deliberately hacked and penetrated by Russian directed state actors. It is also simply not true the RNC was untouched.

Furthermore, Trump acts as if only the RNC computer networks had valuable Republican political data to be hacked. How absurd. There are Republican Senators, congressmen, state and candidate committees, SuperPACs, web hosting facilities, consultants, advisors, individual staff emails and hundreds of smart phone devices (each one a computer in itself). To believe that hundreds of these devices and locations were all perfectly secure against a determined and sophisticated attack is credulity at a preposterous level.

Notice the RNC’s narrow declaration of defense limited strictly to their internal server system. That is inaccurate as well, but more to the point, no comprehensive assessment of political campaign security was every undertaken across the board by RNC, Trump, or anybody else.

Trump pretends there was one barn door, but like the Heavenly mansions of my Father’s house, there are many rooms, doors, transoms, and windows.

Worst of all, carefully hidden from disclosure, there is no claim that Trump’s own internal computer operations were determined to be secure or were properly vetted. After all, Trump’s campaign was clearly run directly out of Trump Tower, not passed through the RNC switchboard and packet networks. We already know that Trump thinks courier service is a good intelligence security precaution, in the current age of computers based campaigning. How quaint a notion.

How did all those tweets, and polls, and internal messaging among Trump’s inner circle get passed around. Only through secure RNC servers?

Yeah, right!!

We know Trump himself is a computer systems troglodyte, and wouldn’t know a sophisticated hack if it came up and parked itself in his lap. The campaign’s media intelligence operations were apparently supervised by son-in-law Kushner, who likely knows more than Trump about digital security measures, but is no superstar professional on these issues, either.

Trump’s strong defense claim is simultaneously misleading, incomplete,and false and ignores the larger question of how often Trump;s personal systems and those of his innermost circle were compromised. The Russians hackers and spoofers are very good. Not as good as our NSA surveillance and hacker geeks, but plenty good enough to pass through Trump’s own primitive barriers and understanding of the scope of the problem.

Finally, for those really interested in computer security and data compromise techniques, there is this incredibly powerful tool called ‘social engineering”:, a term popularized in the late 1970’s and 1980’s.. Can you say Kevin Mitnick?

‘Social engineering’ is using telephone charm and huckster confidence to wheedle information, passwords, protocols, and direct physical access to other systems through secretaries, assistants, computer tech guys, repair men , etc., etc. True information hackers are falling out of their chairs doubled up in laughing fits, reading Trumps’ confident denials and assertions that he was protected.

All the really good stuff (the nasty bits) are all now stored encrypted and safely away off-shore to hold for a rainy day, when Comrade Putin has need of something to nudge Trump just a little, this way or that, in a particular case. That is the sort of sources and methods detail about computer hacking that Trump doesn’t know anything about, and could care less to learn. The real stuff. Stuff that’s not in the public unclassified intelligence summary.

Trump is hypocritically railing against a straw man he constructed, if his own computer security people know anything about their business and briefed him themselves.

January 7, 2017:

There is not much more to say about this 140-character gem than that it is a flat out lie. The public report says, plain as the nose on your face, the intelligence agencies specifically did not assess whether or not the actual voting results had been influenced.

This reminds me of an old saw prominent among the environmental community in the early 1980’s when there were often public hearings where consulting experts argued about the quality of evidence available for public health. A necessary caution was nearly always needed:

The Absence of Evidence is Not Evidence of Absence.

Plain logic dictates, If you don’t study a problem, you cannot then assume the results of the study you haven’t yet conducted.

By the way, on Friday (January 6, 2017), Trump’s intelligence briefing lasted about 90 minutes, so we are told, from 1PM until just about 230 PM. His short typed post-meeting statement was released over the web about 10 minutes later.

Now, Trump is no great reader. He says so himself. A highly educated intelligence subject expert couldn’t read even the unclassified public summary for him or herself in that time, compose and dictate a semi-coherent response, and get the flying fingered assistants on Trump’s staff to spell check and post it on the web, all within that 10 minutes. Even if the expert were also a speed reader, which Trump is clearly not.

So Trump’s response was canned and prepared ahead of time. The most sympathetic interpretation might that Trump had prepared a draft in advance, and stepped from the meeting, and then added a comma or two or a phrase to perk up the message before zapping the pre-digested response to a breathless global audience, without the totally unnecessary burden of turning pages.

Worse yet, it seems obvious that the actual confidential Presidential briefing is much longer, more dense, and provided lots of technical details and support in order bolster the Agency positions, made in a vain and foolish effort to impress the new about to be boss, who could care less, and wanted to turn on cable..

So ,Trump clearly did not consider any of the truly secret and detailed written findings presented to him before making his gut feeling known again. He relied only on what he heard and remembered from what he was told. And that is in between monitoring and tweeting about the Florida Airport shooting (at 1:30 PM) which was going on in the meddle of the erstwhile intelligence meeting.

Trump is quick to decide, but he does not have a quad-core parallel processing engine inside his cranial vault. And he is easily bored and distracted.

Granted it is hard to get precise details exactly correct in 140 characters or less, particularly when accurate details don’t matter all that much in your writer’s scheme of priorities. With this Twit again, Trump is just not telling the truth.

We could have a philosophical epistemological discussion about whether his statement is best described as just a plain lie, a damn lie, a misstatement, an innocent misunderstanding, or a memory lapse. We can’t say for sure what Trump’s mental state and conscious intent was when he uttered the words that were published under his name in the Tweet. Regardless, the factual content of the remark is not truthful.

Only a clumsy opponent would actually try to alter (touch) the individual voting machine instruments in the present day and age. What a colossal and expensive waste of time. The 20 gazillion individual voting machines don’t matter anyway. The place to screw with the results directly is not even in the 50 secretary of state offices where the total vote tallies are made, though that would at least be a sensible target for mischief.

The real payoff would be to mess with the internet pipes, the electronic networks and switches along the lines carrying the results from the local precincts voting locations to the vote aggregation facilities. You don’t really think there was an army of green shade clerks writing down vote tallies by hand at Middle School #3 in Reserve Louisiana in 2016, and sending them by uniformed vehicle courier to Baton Rouge for reading and transfer to the master tote board, via an adding machine to a chalk board, do you.? The vast bulk of America’s 130 million votes were electronically gathered, sifted, and summed for display on computer screens.

Malicious actors are not stupid either. There is no need to actually change vote numbers in the individual R and D columns. It is much easier and safer to lose a few piles of votes from selected critical districts for the other side in the vast empty electronic ether. No fingerprints on the votes that might be subject to be counted. There is no nationwide real time vote verification and sample tally system for voting in place anywhere in the U.S. No one would even look at these ghost vote kidnaps, unless someone with lots of cash and expensive lawyers complains after the fact, and by then much of the ether trail may be compromised.

So, you don’t have to touch voting machines to alter with the voting results. In fact only an old school relic would try it that way. If Trump were to think about it, surely he knows that high frequency stock traders (Quants) can analyze and process literally million of market position orders in nanoseconds. Changing a few tens of thousands of votes over a typical snail speed government internet connection would be child’s play. And by the way, there are lots of underemployed Russian Ph.D.’s in math and physics, who would think playing that game is a hoot.

The technology and expertise clearly exists. Whether it was actually used in 2016, we don’t know. Trump hasn’t got any idea.

January 8, 2017:

Our actual In-Fact President saw (and undoubtedly read and asked intelligent questions about) the reports, public summary and classified eye=only versions before anybody talked to NBC. So the President as is proper saw the document first.

Another Trump loud and proud Boo-Boo. Of course, he wasn’t the first to view the report.

Next, a review of the story in question broadcast on NBC nightly news shows it ran about one minute in length on Thursday evening. If you listen, you will hear, which Trump either didn’t comprehend or bother to repeat accurately, that the reporter said that someone familiar with the report described the contents. There is no claim by NBC that they had a copy, were shown a copy, obtained a copy, or even were read a verbatim copy. In other words, all the reporter said was that someone who claimed to know what was in the document (whether directly, indirectly, or by relying on gossip) had described what they thought the report would say. There were no screen graphics of the actual report pages, no direct quotes provided on the screen to go with the story, etc.

The final item is the notion that somehow Trump has a special place in the hierarchy of briefing knowledge priority. As of Friday January 6, 2017, Trump was just another American Joe Schmo. There was no extra badness involved in someone deciding to call his Grandma Judy, or an NBC reporter, or anyone else, if that’s what they did, instead of Trump first, supposing said person wanted to talk about his impressions about the report.

Our founding fathers were some pretty smart fellas 200 years ago.

Selection of a President Elect:

On Friday afternoon, a joint session of Congress is expected to certify Donald Trump as the winner of the 2016 presidential election. Under the current version of the Constitution, does the President Elect have any constitutional duties or rights?

The words “President Elect” only appear four times in the Constitution, and they didn’t appear until 1933, when the 20th Amendment accounted for the unavailability of the President Elect to take the oath of office on Inauguration Day. That almost happened in 1877, when the disputed election between Rutherford Hayes and Samuel Tilden was decided and certified in Hayes’ favor just three days before his inauguration.

Once a candidate is certified by Congress as the winner of a presidential election, or a President is selected by the House in a run-off contingent election, the only constitutional provisions related to the President Elect are related to the winner’s availability to take the oath of office.

Once a candidate is certified by Congress as the winner of a presidential election, or a President is selected by the House in a run-off contingent election, the only constitutional provisions related to the President Elect are related to the winner’s availability to take the oath of office.

The actual legal procedure for choosing the President elect specified in our Constitution is as follows

On the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, the electors of each state meet in their respective state capitals (and the electors of the District of Columbia meet in the federal capital) and in those meetings the electors cast their votes for President and Vice-President of the United States.

At the conclusion of their meetings, the electors of each state and of the District of Columbia then execute a “certificate of vote” (in several original copies), declaring the vote count in each meeting. To each certificate of vote, a certificate of ascertainment is annexed. Each state’s (and the District of Columbia’s) certificate of ascertainment is the official document (usually signed by the governor of the state and/or by the state’s secretary of state) that declares the names of the electors, certifying their appointment as members of the Electoral College. Given that in all states the electors are currently chosen by popular election, the certificate of ascertainment also declares the results of the popular vote that decided the appointment of the electors. The electors in each state and of the District of Columbia then send the certificates of vote, with the enclosed certificates of ascertainment, to the President of the U.S. Senate.

The electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress in early January (on January 6 as required by 3 U.S. Code, Chapter 1 or an alternative date set by statute) and if the ballots are accepted without objections, the candidate winning at least 270 electoral votes (a majority of the total number of votes) is announced the President-elect by the incumbent Vice President, in their capacity as President of the Senate.

That necessary little Constitutional procedure happened on the afternoon of January 6.starting at 1 PM in Washington for the vote. So, Trump wasn’t even officially President-elect until after his intelligence briefing.

From the Presidential Transition Act )1963):

The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 authorizes the Administrator of the General Services Administration to certify, even before the December vote of the Electoral College, the apparent winner of the November general election as the president-elect for the purposes of receiving federal transition funding, office space and communications services prior to the beginning of the new administration on January 20.

The Office of the President-Elect is a title first used by Barack Obama for the body coordinating his transition activities of the President-elect of the United States. The office is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, nor is it a statutory office of the federal government; however, under the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 (P.L. 88-277), amended by the Presidential Transitions Effectiveness Act of 1998 (P.L. 100-398), the Presidential Transition Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-293), and the Pre-Election Presidential Transition Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-283) the President-Elect is entitled to request and receive certain privileges from the General Services Administration as he prepares to assume office.

So, the perks of the President-elect to be after election day include some transition funding, office space, and communications, as well as secret service protection. His only constitutional duty is to show up for the Oath of Office.

There is no constitutional privilege or protection for someone labeled President-elect to be found until 1933 with the 20th Amendment (having to do with availability to take the Oath of Office). A President has all sorts of goodies coming his or her way after the Oath of Office.

Trump just can’t help grasping forward and getting ahead of himself. Always trying to assert himself extra-constitutionally by assuming the governing mantle and magical Presidential powers before the law says go. Trump tramples where others rightfully fear to tread under our democratic institutions, laws, and regulations. He will get himself in trouble soon enough with this ingrained attitude.

Like the First Amendment offers only optional, partial coverage for critics of Trump, at the whim of The Leader. Like a President can tell freedom loving American businesses when and where they can and cannot build manufacturing plants and invest in jobs. That kind of stuff.

Three Twit examples in less than three days. All wrong, all the time. America’s

foreign policy declared without detail, foundation, consultation, or substance. Public statements ordering on providing aid and comfort to enemies of the United States, based on a private gut feeling. Demoralizing the dedicated work of loyal and patriotic Americans doing their sworn jobs to protect this country. without a basis in fact or proof.

One more thing. While Trump is off spouting a bunch of unsupported fake-like news and views to suit himself, he is also acting as an effective contagion and germ spreading vehicle to low-information and data challenged restless Trumpites in the Twitterverse. Adding just these three Twit results together Trump has infected roughly 63,000 repliers, 54,000 re-tweeters, and 197,000 likers. That’s a substantial potential wave of misinformation to unleash from 420 keystrokes, after a few seconds of unreflective finger poking. That’s message amplification on mega-steroids, with no effective control mechanism to slow down or stop runaway momentum.

Captain James T. Kirk (Star Trek) Awash in Tribbles

And they multiply like Star Trek’s Tribbles. At some point, they are no longer cute and begin to seriously clog the political plumbing. Tweets are permanent and searchable, In 24-hours Trump’s January 8 Twit has influence grown by 5.2% overnight. How long will the influence growth path from this one tweet continue?

  • (01/09): 23,486 replies 19,246 retweets 66,172 likes = 108,906 influences
  • (01/10): 24,088 replies 20,124 retweets 70,411 likes = 114,623 influences

The major mainstream media are complicit, whether they admit or not. Every time they refer to, quote from, or link to a Trump Twit they magnify its phony gloss,. Every time and whenever they don’t prominently point out that Trump Twits are Propaganda Barrages, not Legitimate News. Propaganda Barrages , not Legitimate News.

Undisciplined, Unedited, unconstrained, unchecked, untethered counter factual set-ups.

This blogger included, if I fail to include notice of fakery in Trump’s outpourings..

Trump’s Twits in particular, but Tweets in general, are a toxic brew sluicing over America’s political heart. They are entertaining occasionally, they can be used as mass wall posters, but they are not a source of legitimate news. If we don’t collectively figure out how to control unrestrained Twit reproduction, there will be no room left for Humans to reflect and think carefully.

Roll your own truth, Baby. Trump is the Man. Everyone’s smoking the good stuff, Man.

Why Are We Concerned with a Beakless Condor and Trump’s Condition?

Juvenile California Condor; A Face Only a Mother Could Love

This juvenile California condor chick***** has a face only a mother could love. And condor bird families are close knit and protective; parents cared for their young for up to two years. Because of the unusual arrangement of their three talons the condor’s feet are more suited to walking than predatory tearing, in order to get at their carrion sustenance. Condor beaks are their only potent offensive weapons to make their way. If a bird suffers from an underdeveloped beak, a weak or broken beak, a malformed beak, or a beak that doesn’t work properly, the condor is out of business in the natural world. The same is true for a unschooled know it all Condor in international politics.

The Agent Code-Named Condor In a Pickle

Trump is just like the desk agent Code Named Condor; an amateur, lost, and unpredictable. The last part of villain Joubert’s comment is worse; that such a man is “able to fool a professional”. This is the instability danger factor. A compete diplomatic, military, foreign policy, and intelligence amateur like Trump can set off a series of moves, easily and unintentionally, that will fool and confuse adversary foreign professionals who expect a minimal level of competence in their opponents, leading to a serious confrontation or misunderstanding of permanent global import.

Real Spies Carry Real Intelligence Bombs, Newbie Spies Threaten With Firecrackers

Two kids in a school year tossing around verbal taunts and Yo’ Mama’s may both wind up with body noses and shin scrapes, and a small object lesson in personal diplomacy. An altercation with a nuclear power like Russia or China may turn part of our own East Coast or the San Francisco Bay Area into a large pile of singed unproductive rubble, and do God only knows what amount of damage to their people and territories.

There Is no requirement in the Big Boy Book of Nuclear Etiquette that says other nations need to make way for a bombastic, ignorant, bullying Trump-like figure. Maybe their leaders, being more experienced and nuanced in international affairs, will grant him a nuclear pass the first time out. But there is no rule that says they won’t react vigorously to a lesser provocation by seizing a U.S. naval vessel on the high sears in disputed waters, or shooting down an American military jet which wanders off course over their sovereign territory. In such circumstances everybody wants to be the Tough Guy (for local political survival), and these guys have real armies, real bullets, and real non-nuclear missiles to back them up in a scrap.

A Fantasy Face-Off: Mano a Mano

Trump the Pugnacious (March 2016)

At age 70, Trump still fancies himself a feisty, no-hold-barred combatant in life, in the Hollywood Bad Boy mold. Remember the pictures of him posed in a pugnacious boxing stance or two.

Trump’s Come & Get It Pose (May 2016)

Robert Redford, is 80 and looks fit enough. In his latest movies role at age 77, Redford plays an official at spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. and secret bad guy in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). A film that did a $714 million dollar box office gross.

Robert Redford Age 77 (2014)

Trump is younger by a full decade.

Donald Trump Age 70 (2016)

Compare recent pictures of the two. My money is on Redford to take Trump to the woodshed and back, mano a mano. That is neither here nr there.

I think there is little doubt that if you commissioned an unbiased poll of Americans of both sexes, and asked them which of the two men they would rather meet and spend private time with for an hour, bringing along a plus one guest of their choice, Redford would lap Trump badly, almost-President or not.

However, that’s a mental bet we’ll never get to settle. Trump would be afraid to accept the bet and lose, and Redford is too classy a guy to engage in such puerile nonsense. But Redford knows quietly inside, all the same.

Faye Dunaway’s Iconic Gun Toting Cigar Smoking Bonnie Parker in Bonnie & Clyde (1967)

And while we are on the subject, let’s not ignore Faye Dunaway (now age 75). Her stint as the ultimate Gangster Moll, Bonnie Parker, in Bonnie & Clyde (1967) is film legend. Her gun toting, cigar smoking, tough woman character portrayal (from the early 1930’s) would dispatch the modern day Trump in short order, as well. No shrinking violet, she. Hollywood Royalty 2, Trump Zero

Real Outlaw Bonnie Parker with Her Partner Clyde Barrow (c.1932)

Trump may be about to be President in a week, but he is still in second place.

Trump’s Tweets: An Modern Day Knock-Knock Joke

Knock, Knock.

Who’s there?

 

A Trump Tweet

What’s a Trump Tweet?

 

A Trump Tweet is a Propaganda Barrage.

…3…2…1 A Mental Kaboom!!

And that’s all she wrote, America.

*“Three Days of the Condor” (1975) entry from Wikipedia:

Three Days of the Condor (stylized on the poster art as 3 Days of the Condor) is a 1975 American political thriller film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, and Max von Sydow The screenplay by Lorenzo Semple, Jr. and David Rayfiel was adapted from the 1974 novel Six Days of the Condor by James Grady.

Three Days of the Condor was filmed in various locations in New York City, New Jersey, and Washington DC, including the World Trade Center, 55 East 77th Street, NYC, The Ansonia, Central Park, and the National Mall.

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 86% of 43 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review, and the average rating was 7.1/10; the site’s consensus is: “This post-Watergate thriller captures the paranoid tenor of the times, thanks to Sydney Pollack’s taut direction and excellent performances from Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway.”

Some critics also described the film as a piece of political propaganda, as it was released soon after the “Family Jewels” scandal came to light in December 1974 which exposed a variety of CIA misconduct. However, in an interview with Jump Cut, Pollack explained that the film was written solely to be a spy thriller and that production on the film was nearly over by the time the Family Jewels revelations were made, so even if they had wanted to take advantage of them, it was far too late in the filmmaking process to do so. Despite both Pollack and Redford being well-known political liberals, they were only interested in making the film because an espionage thriller was a genre neither of them had previously explored.

In March 2015, Skydance Productions announced that it is planning to remake Three Days of the Condor as a television series.

**From Robert Redford’s Wikipedia entry:

Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor, director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, and philanthropist. Redford is the founder of the Sundance Film Festival.

Redford’s career began in 1960 as a guest star on numerous TV shows, including: The Untouchables, Perry Mason, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Twilight Zone, among others. He earned an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Voice of Charlie Pont (1962). His greatest Broadway success was as the stuffy newlywed husband of Elizabeth Ashley in Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park (1963).

Redford made his film debut in War Hunt (1962). His role in Inside Daisy Clover (1965) won him a Golden Globe for best new star. He starred in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), which was a huge success and made him a major star. In 1972, he had a critical and box office hit with Jeremiah Johnson (1972), and in 1973 had the greatest hit of his career, the blockbuster crime caper The Sting, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. The popular and acclaimed All the President’s Men (1976) was a landmark film for Redford.

The first film that Redford directed, Ordinary People (1980), was one of the most critically and publicly acclaimed films of the decade, winning four Oscars, and in the same year, he starred in Brubaker (1980). He starred in Out of Africa (1985), which was an enormous critical and box office success, and won seven Oscars including Best Picture, proving to be his greatest success of the decade. He released his third film as a director, A River Runs Through It, in 1992.

Redford won the 1980 Academy Award for Best Director in 1981 for directing Ordinary People. He was previously nominated for Best Actor in 1974 for his performance in The Sting, and went on to receive Best Director and Best Picture nominations in 1995 for Quiz Show. He won a second Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2002. In 2010, he was made a chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur. He has won BAFTA, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

In April 2014, Time Magazine included Redford in their annual TIME 100 as one of the “Most Influential People in the World”, declaring him the “Godfather of Indie Film”. In 2016, President Barack Obama honored Redford with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 1989, the National Audubon Society awarded Redford its highest honor, the Audubon Medal. He was a 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award/Honorary Oscar recipient at the 74th Academy Awards. In 1996, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

In December 2005, he received the Kennedy Center Honors for his contributions to American culture. The honors recipients are recognized for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts: whether in dance, music, theater, opera, motion pictures or television.

In 2008, he was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.” The University of Southern California (USC) School of Dramatic Arts announced the first annual Robert Redford Award for Engaged Artists in 2009.

On October 14, 2010, he was appointed chevalier of the Légion d’honneur. He was a 2010 recipient of the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts On November 22, 2016, President Barack Obama honored Redford with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Among Redford’s numerous film related honors are two Oscars (1981, 2002) among 5 nominations), and six Golden Globe Awards (1966, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1994) over four decades, among 10 nominations during five decades.

From IMDB Honors and Awards:

  • Academy Awards (2 wins, 5 nominations)
  • Golden Globes, USA (6 wins, 10 nominations)

Watch the trailer for “Three Days of the Condor” (1975):

Redford & Dunaway Light Up the Big Screen in the Classic “3 Days of the Condor” (1975)

***The onscreen sexual chemistry between Redford (age 39 at the time) and co-star Dunaway (age 34 at the time) in the film is obvious and palpable.

Faye Dunaway’s Wikipedia entry:

Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She has won an Academy Award, three Golden Globes, a BAFTA, an Emmy, and was the first-ever recipient of a Leopard Club Award which honors film professionals whose work has left a mark on the collective imagination. In 2011, the government of France made her an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.

Dunaway’s career began in the early 1960s on Broadway. She made her screen debut in the 1967 film The Happening, and rose to fame that same year with her portrayal of famed outlaw Bonnie Parker in Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde, for which she received her first Academy Award nomination. Her most notable films include the crime caper The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), the drama The Arrangement (1969), the revisionist western Little Big Man (1970), a turn as Milady de Winter in the Alexandre Dumas classic The Three Musketeers (1973), the neo-noir mystery Chinatown (1974), for which she earned her second Oscar nomination, the action-drama disaster The Towering Inferno (1974), the political thriller Three Days of the Condor (1975), the satirical Network (1976), for which she received an Academy Award for Best Actress, and the thriller Eyes of Laura Mars (1978).

Dunaway’s career evolved to more mature and character roles in subsequent years, often in independent films, beginning with her controversial portrayal of Joan Crawford in the 1981 film Mommie Dearest. Other notable films in which she has appeared include the drama Barfly (1987), the surrealist comedy-drama Arizona Dream (1993), the biopic Gia (1998), and the black comedy The Rules of Attraction (2002). Dunaway also performed on stage in several plays including A Man for All Seasons (1961–63), After the Fall (1964), Hogan’s Goat (1965–67), A Streetcar Named Desire (1973) and was awarded the Sarah Siddons Award for her portrayal of opera singer Maria Callas in Master Class (1996).

****Meryl Streep’s Wikipedia Honors and Awards  entry:

Streep has been recognized with multiple awards and nominations for her work in film, television, and music. She holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations of any actor, having been nominated 19 times since her first nomination in 1979 for her performance in The Deer Hunter (fifteen for Best Actress and four for Best Supporting Actress), more nominations than any other actor. She holds seven more nominations than both Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson, who are tied in second place. With her third Oscar win for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011) in 2012, Streep became the fifth actor to win three competitive acting Academy Awards, after Walter Brennan, Katharine Hepburn (who has four in total), Ingrid Bergman, and Jack Nicholson. Daniel Day-Lewis has since become the sixth actor to achieve this.

In 2009, Streep became the most-nominated performer in Golden Globe Awards history when her double lead actress nods for Doubt (2008) and Mamma Mia! (2008) gave her 23 in total, breaking the tie with Jack Lemmon, who had received 22 lead nominations before his death in 2001. The following year, Streep surpassed Jack Nicholson and Angela Lansbury, with six Golden Globe awards wins each, after receiving her seventh Globe for her performance as Julia Child in Julie & Julia (2009). In 2012, she broke her own record when she garnered her 26th nomination and overall eighth win for The Iron Lady at the 69th Golden Globe Awards. In 2013, she broke the record again when she received her 28th Golden Globe nomination for her performance in August: Osage County at the 71st Golden Globe Awards. In 2014, she broke her own record again when she received her 29th Golden Globe nomination for her performance in Into the Woods at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards in the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture category. Streep has received 14 BAFTA nominations and 2 wins. She received her second Best Actress award for The Iron Lady at the 65th ceremony in February 2012, following her first win in 1981 for her performance in The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981).

In 1983, Yale University, from which Streep graduated in 1975, awarded her an honorary degree, a Doctorate of Fine Arts. The first university to award her an honorary degree was Dartmouth College, where she spent time as a transfer student in 1970, in 1981. In 1998, Women in Film awarded Streep with the Crystal Award, an honor for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry. The same year, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1999, she was awarded a George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. In 2003, Streep was awarded an honorary César Award by the French Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma. In 2004, at the Moscow International Film Festival, she was honored with the Stanislavsky Award for the outstanding achievement in the career of acting and devotion to the principles of Stanislavsky’s school. Also in 2004, she received the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 2008, Streep was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. In 2009, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by Princeton University. In 2010, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts, elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts degree by Harvard University. On December 4, 2011, Streep, along with Neil Diamond, Yo-Yo Ma, Sonny Rollins, and Barbara Cook, received the 2011 Kennedy Center Honor. On February 14, 2012, she received the Honorary Golden Bear at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. In 2014 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Hey Donald, Little Man. Notice Overrated Meryl has so much honestly earned  professional bling, she has a separate Wikipedia entry just for the statuettes, plaques, and certificates. She’s got her own Award Zip Code.Buddy, should you make it to 100 years old, you’ll never come close.

From Meryls Streeps regular Wikipedia biographical entry:

Mary Louise Streep was born on June 22, 1949 in Summit, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary Wolf Wilkinson (1915–2001), a commercial artist and art editor; and Harry William Streep Jr. (1910–2003), a pharmaceutical executive. The eldest child, she has two younger brothers, Dana David and Harry William III.

Streep’s father was of German and Swiss ancestry. Her father’s lineage traces back to Loffenau, Germany, from where her second great-grandfather, Gottfried Streeb, immigrated to the United States, and where one of her ancestors served as mayor (the surname was later changed to “Streep”). Another line of her father’s family was from Giswil, Switzerland. Her mother had English, German, and Irish ancestry. Some of Streep’s maternal ancestors lived in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island and were descended from 17th-century immigrants from England. Her eighth great-grandfather, Lawrence Wilkinson, was one of the first Europeans to settle in Rhode Island. Streep is also a distant relative of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania; records show that her family is among the first purchasers of land in the state. Streep’s maternal great-great-grandparents, Manus McFadden and Grace Strain, the namesake of Streep’s second daughter, were natives of the Horn Head district of Dunfanaghy, Ireland.

Streep’s mother, whom she has compared in both appearance and manner to Dame Judi Dench, strongly encouraged her daughter and instilled confidence in her from a very young age. Streep has said: “She was a mentor because she said to me, ‘Meryl, you’re capable. You’re so great.’ She was saying, ‘You can do whatever you put your mind to. If you’re lazy, you’re not going to get it done. But if you put your mind to it, you can do anything.’ And I believed her.” Although Streep was naturally more introverted than her mother, at times when she later needed an injection of confidence in adulthood, she would consult her mother, asking her for advice.

Streep was raised as a Presbyterian in Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she attended Bernards High School. Author Karina Longworth described her as a “gawky kid with glasses and frizzy hair”, yet noted that she liked to show off in front of the camera in family home movies from a young age. At the age of 12, Streep was selected to sing at a school recital, which led to her having opera lessons from Estelle Liebling. However, despite her talent, she remarked that “I was singing something I didn’t feel and understand. That was an important lesson—not to do that. To find the thing that I could feel through”. She quit after four years. Streep had many Catholic school friends, and regularly attended mass.

Although in high school Streep appeared in numerous school plays, she was uninterested in serious theatre until acting in the play Miss Julie at Vassar College in 1969, in which she gained attention across the campus. Vassar drama professor Clinton J Atkinson noted, “I don’t think anyone ever taught Meryl acting. She really taught herself”. Streep demonstrated an early ability to mimic accents and to quickly memorize her lines. She received her BA cum laude from the college in 1971, before applying for an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. At Yale she supplemented her course fees by waitressing and typing, and appeared in over a dozen stage productions a year, to the point that she became overworked, developing ulcers. She contemplated quitting acting and switching to study law. Streep played a variety of roles onstage, from Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream to an 80-year-old woman in a wheelchair in a comedy written by then-unknown playwrights Christopher Durang and Albert Innaurato. One of her teachers was Robert Lewis, one of the co-founders of the Actors Studio. Streep disapproved of some of the acting exercises she was asked to do, remarking that the professors “delved into personal lives in a way I find obnoxious”. She received her MFA from Yale in 1975. Streep also enrolled as a visiting student at Dartmouth College in the fall of 1970, and received an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the college in 1981.

In the sweep of Streep’s personal biography we find some additional points of contrast with Trump’s course. Meryl Streep’s Father was of German-Swiss heritage. His great-grandfather immigrated to the United States. Her mother was of English-Irish and German background, but her mother’s family has been in the United States since the 17th century, Streep is a distant relative of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. So, as far as the gene thing goes, Streep’s family is much more American than Trump’s, going back hundreds of years. She even has a distant connection to America’s New World landed royalty on her mother’s side. Compared to Streep’s true blue American heritage pedigree, Trump and his whole clan just got off the boat yesterday.

She was raised in Bernardsville, NJ and went to High School at Bernard High from 1963-1967, just three years after Trump graduated from his disciplinary military school in New York (1964). Bernardsville NJ is just 40 miles from New York City. Bernard High is ranked as one of the 10 best High Schools in New Jersey in numerous national rankings. So, Streep’s High School education was better than Trump’s, as well as her college academic performance.

Meryl Streep Bernard High School, NJ Senior Cheerleader (1966)

And there my own path crossed, in a manner of speaking, with hers in October, 1966. Streep was a cheerleader at Bernard public High School . Here’s a picture. My private high school in New York City played football against St. Bernard School in Gladstone NJ, just 8 miles away from Bernard HS, every year alternating home fields.

On October 8, 1966 my teammates and I travelled on a long weary bus ride to Gladstone to play St. Bernard’s team on a raw grey day. I was a senior starting lineman on the team. At 6 feet tall and 235 pounds playing weight, I was in fact the largest lineman on our team. I know those statistics seem rather ordinary for a high school football lineman today, but back in 1966 it was bulk enough to make someone potential college material most places except maybe tackle in the SEC Conference.

We had only a fair team that year, finishing with a record of 4-3. The St. Bernard Saints were a traditional annual rival, as we alternated home fields. It was my third and last go-round with them. Our team had won both prior contests: a bare squeaker, 7-0 (1964) at St. Bernards, and a cruiser, 40-0 (1965) on our home field. Their boys were big and played nasty. They were known to use plaster inserts in their forearm pads, and they liked to dig and slam and punch on the ground after tackles.

In those ancient days, most of our team played both ways, no offensive of defensive only specialists. We were primarily a running team with enough passing plays to surprise the other side. I played strong side right tackle on offense, but switched positions to left tackle on defense to counter strong side tendencies of most of our opponents. Strength to strength. The St. Bernard team were fired up and giving us a pretty hard time during most of the game. Several of my knuckles were bloody outside the hand tape wrap, and I had two scraped knees and leg scratches from tough interior line contact and tackling, as well as the expected dirt clods in the helmet guard and grass stains on my uniform pants.

And then one of those rarest of rare moments happened, that can only be completely understood by someone who has played the game. They had scored three touchdowns, and we had just two field goals. Their team had been marching up and down the field on us late in the third quarter, and their fans were having a fine old time on the sidelines, but we had prevented them from scoring any more points.

The St. Bernard offence had just made a first down on about our 35 yard line. As I lined up just off the outside shoulder of their right tackle and the quarterback dropped under center to take the snap, in a flash I knew with absolute certainty exactly what play they were going to run: a quarterback reverse spin pitch to their left halfback looping around and coming directly over the right tackle in front of me with the help of a pulling left guard. It all came to me without any conscious thought or intention. A double team power play, right at my position. In an instant time slowed to a crawl for everyone but me.

I was able to take one step to my left for a good attack angle and get across the line just a heartbeat or two after the ball was snapped, and knocked their tackle flat on the ground with a well-placed forearm thrust and a stiff left arm under his shoulder pads. I was running free in their backfield. The ball exchange took place about 4 yards deep behind the line of scrimmage. I reached the sprinting halfback at virtually the very same time as the quarterback’s easy pitch to him. As the back was reaching to gather in the ball. I grabbed it directly off the front of his chest, and knocked him aside. By then I was traveling at full lineman speed.

I secured the ball tightly under my left arm and otherwise ran hell bent for leather towards their end zone. Truth be told, I was probably trundling rather than sprinting, it being the third quarter and all. But, I swear, St. Bernard’s entire team were not going to tackle me for those 60 yards (and the 8 or 9 seconds the play took to unfold), not if their whole team showed up at once and piled on top.

This play is the essence of what it means to be in the zone athletically. That’s how I knew what the play was, how time slowed to a crawl only for me, how I perfectly timed the snap, and was able to snatch the ball out of the running back’s hands cleanly.

I crossed the goal line, somewhat out of breath, but untouched by any tacklers, and held the ball in the air. I didn’t spike my victory prize; I wanted to keep it.

I was awarded the rarest of gifts for a football interior lineman that grey day. I scored an unassisted touchdown for our side. I played 24 complete games as a starting offensive and defensive lineman for our Football Eagles, and never had another moment quite like that.

From The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey of Monday October 10, 1966 is the line score report that we lost the game 21-12.

But for just those memorable few moments in New Jersey in 1966, I represented every living, breathing high school football lineman in America, and got to savor on the field the exploits of Jim Brown (Cleveland Browns) and Jim Taylor (Green Bay Packers), the professional full-body express train heroes, best of the best.

Google Maps Pathway from St. Barnards School to Bernard High School

I have never had the privilege to meet her, but for a few hours in October 1966 on a Saturday afternoon, it is more than likely that Meryl Streep was rooting for her high school team on the field, wearing a cheerleader uniform, while at the same time less than 10 miles away, I was making my (historic) touchdown rumble.

It remains an indelible personal sports highlight memory for me even after 50 years have passed. I knew we were the same age (less than a month’s difference), but I didn’t know until writing this yesterday that Streep went to Bernard High School.

For this, along with numerous good and sufficient reasons, when it comes to your jealous and seriously whacked out film critic stylings, Donald my man, you can blow it out your ass, in plain New York speak.

California Condor Graceful Soaring On the Wing

*****The actual California condor is a magnificent predator bird, culturally significant in the Americas for more than 1,700 years.

Andean Condor Celebrated in Pottery Jug from Peru (c.300 A.D.)

Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua kuntur. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere.

The Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) which inhabits the Andean mountains.

The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) currently restricted to the western coastal mountains of the United States and Mexico and the northern desert mountains of Arizona in the United States.

Both condors are very large broad-winged soaring birds, the Andean condor being 5 cm shorter (beak to tail) on average than the northern species, but larger in wingspan. California condors are the largest flying land birds in North America.

The adult plumage is uniformly black, with the exception of a frill of white feathers nearly surrounding the base of the neck which are meticulously kept clean by the bird. As an adaptation for hygiene, the condor’s head and neck have few feathers, which exposes the skin to the sterilizing effects of dehydration and solar ultraviolet light at high altitudes. The head is much flattened above. In the male it is crowned with a caruncle or comb, while the skin of the neck in the male lies in folds, forming a wattle. The skin of the head and neck is capable of flushing noticeably in response to emotional state, which serves to communicate between individuals.

The middle toe is greatly elongated, and the hinder one but slightly developed, while the talons of all the toes are comparatively straight and blunt. The feet are thus more adapted to walking as in their relatives the storks[citation needed], and of little use as weapons or organs of prehension as in birds of prey and Old World vultures. The female, contrary to the usual rule among birds of prey, is smaller than the male.

California condors’ wingspan measures up to 2.9 m (9.5 ft.), and they can weigh up to 10.4 kg (23 lb.). The skin on the necks will vary in color, depending on the age of the birds. Adult birds’ skin color can range from cream, pink, yellow, or even orange during breeding season.

California Condor in Full Fuzzy-Headed Plumage Glory

Sexual maturity and breeding behavior do not appear in the condor until 5 or 6 years of age. They may live for 50 years or more, and mate for life. The world’s oldest condor died at 100 in the Jardin d’Essai du Hamma in Algiers.

There is a well-developed social structure within large groups of condors, with competition to determine a ‘pecking order’ by body language, competitive play behavior, and a wide variety of vocalizations, even though the condor has no voice box.

On the wing the movements of the condor are graceful. The lack of a large sternum to anchor correspondingly large flight muscles identifies it physiologically as a primary soarer. The birds flap their wings on rising from the ground, but after attaining a moderate elevation they seem to sail on the air.

Wild condors inhabit large territories, often traveling 250 km (160 mi) a day in search of carrion. They prefer large carcasses such as deer or cattle which they spot by looking for other scavengers, which cannot rip through the tougher hides of these larger animals with the efficiency of the larger condor. In the wild they are intermittent eaters, often going for a few days without eating, then gorging themselves on several kilograms at once, sometimes to the point of being unable to lift off the ground.