Most people who call themselves progressives or who protested the war in
Iraq didn’t really want fundamental change. They don’t have the stomach
to challenge the assumptions upon which American aggressions are based.
That is why they so quickly forgot their supposedly antiwar sentiments
and clung so fiercely to Barack Obama. They want to wrap themselves in
the flag or in being on a winning team but that means being a part of
America’s horrendous tale of conquest, race based terrorism and numerous
other oppressions.
-- Margaret Kimberley, "Who Is On The Left?" (Black Agenda Report).
Sunday, June 07, 2015
Truest statement of the week II
Muammar Gaddafi prophesized correctly that NATO’s transformation into
a jihadist air force would turn Libya into “another Somalia” – a vortex
of Salafist chaos that would destabilize the entire region. “We came,
we saw, he died,” cackled Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who yearns
to bring the same ghoulish statecraft to the Oval Office in 2017. Does
any decent person actually consider this banshee a “lesser evil”?
Bernie Sanders does. The Vermont senator promises to endorse Clinton as soon as he drops out of the presidential race – thus nullifying whatever “message” he plans to deliver during the Democratic primary process. But of course, having pledged in advance to support Hillary, de facto Democrat Sanders cannot risk running a campaign that might reveal the sheer awesomeness of her evil. Therefore, there will be no Democratic Party discussion of U.S. and allied sponsorship of the Islamic State and al Qaida, in the same way that serious criticism of Israel is off-limits for Sanders and all national Democrats.
-- Glen Ford, "Rand Paul Makes More Sense than the Democrats' 'Left' Champion" (Black Agenda Report).
Bernie Sanders does. The Vermont senator promises to endorse Clinton as soon as he drops out of the presidential race – thus nullifying whatever “message” he plans to deliver during the Democratic primary process. But of course, having pledged in advance to support Hillary, de facto Democrat Sanders cannot risk running a campaign that might reveal the sheer awesomeness of her evil. Therefore, there will be no Democratic Party discussion of U.S. and allied sponsorship of the Islamic State and al Qaida, in the same way that serious criticism of Israel is off-limits for Sanders and all national Democrats.
-- Glen Ford, "Rand Paul Makes More Sense than the Democrats' 'Left' Champion" (Black Agenda Report).
A note to our readers
Hey --
Another Sunday. First, we thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
What did we come up with?
This edition's playlist
What we listened to.
Plea from Cindy
Repost. We're only doing one repost to be sure it gets the attention it deserves.
Highlights
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Another Sunday. First, we thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
What did we come up with?
Another one for Margaret Kimberley.
Another one for Glen Ford.
Oil, of course. It's always the oil.
Ava and C.I. use Sense8 to take on Netflix's 'model' of dumping an entire season in one day.
Short feature!
A list piece we attempted and failed a few weeks back that we reworked.
Consider this a 101 basic introductory course.
Janet.
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Editorial: What (still) matters in Iraq
They can't reclaim Mosul.
And they can't reclaim Ramadi.
But Iraqi forces did apparently reclaim Baiji. Or at least say they did.
Baiji came under attack a few weeks ago -- while prime minister Haider al-Abadi was in the US -- at the same time as Ramadi.
The immediate response was to bomb Baiji (and ignore Ramadi).
Baiji was more important than Ramadi for some reason.
And now it's more important than Mosul as well, judging by the effort to reclaim it.
Why is that?
What's so different about Baiji?
What CNN 'forgets' to inform you, AP tells you right in the headline to Sinar Salaheddin's article: "Iraq: Troops Advance Against IS in Key Refinery Town."
Oh.
Yes, this wasn't about the town or the people.
It was about a refinery.
As usual, the Iraq War remains about oil.
Always.
And they can't reclaim Ramadi.
But Iraqi forces did apparently reclaim Baiji. Or at least say they did.
Baiji came under attack a few weeks ago -- while prime minister Haider al-Abadi was in the US -- at the same time as Ramadi.
The immediate response was to bomb Baiji (and ignore Ramadi).
Baiji was more important than Ramadi for some reason.
And now it's more important than Mosul as well, judging by the effort to reclaim it.
Why is that?
What's so different about Baiji?
What CNN 'forgets' to inform you, AP tells you right in the headline to Sinar Salaheddin's article: "Iraq: Troops Advance Against IS in Key Refinery Town."
Oh.
Yes, this wasn't about the town or the people.
It was about a refinery.
As usual, the Iraq War remains about oil.
Always.
TV: Binging
. . . and purging.
Let's be honest, that is the phrase.
Binging and purging.
And it's not a good thing.
We recognize that when it comes to food. Why won't we do the same with regard to TV shows?
Sense8 is the latest Netflix series.
It's also the latest project from Lana and Andy Warchowski, film making siblings who found huge success with The Matrix trilogy and who bombed recently with Jupiter Ascending.
Unlike many people, we happen to really enjoy Jupiter Ascending.
We also think it will be seen as a classic film in time.
However, we're not fan girlz who abandon critical thinking.
Meaning, the Warchoskis are the reason the film bombed at the box office.
Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis co-star in the film.
Mila looks like Mila.
Channing?
Was he supposed to be a 70s porn star?
There is the ridiculous eye brows, yes. Then there's the ridiculous facial hair.
And, here's the big problem for audiences -- as test cards from teenagers noted at numerous previews: Where was Channing's pit hair?
When pit hair keeps coming up at previews, you shouldn't dismiss it.
In addition to the eye brows and the facial hair, the film also gave Channing animal ears.
Oh.
And wings.
Don't forget the wings.
That's a lot to go along with.
And that's before you remove Channing's pit hair.
When you do that, an uneasy youth audience becomes outright scared.
Like it or not, Lana's a woman who was born in a man's body.
We're not mocking her.
We are noting that she and her brother make films whose target audience includes a lot of teens.
Those teens can get a little nervous at times.
And when you go too far with the look for Channing, then you lose them.
Removing Channing's pit hair made them uncomfortable with the character and with the film.
He's a character in transition.
Is he supposed to be Lana?
That's what teen audience are obsessing over and had Channing had his (minimally) hairy pits, they wouldn't be wondering about what sort of transformation was being done in the film to Channing.
The brother and sister team has always pushed the limits.
They did so very successfully in Bound and in The Matrix.
Fortunately for everyone, Sense8 is another success.
There's not a false note in the entire 12 episodes.
They even pull off a group sing-along of Four Non Blondes' "What's Going On?"
They even pull off a sci-fi conspiracy series that spends far more time on character than it does suspense.
But what they struggle to pull off is a lasting impression.
Maybe a lasting impression of Max Riemelt's cock.
Male frontal nudity is still so rare that the sight of that member may remain in the brain -- even after you forget that Max and his impressive staff show up at the non-wedding of Kala (Tina Desai).
You may remember that they're brilliant in their roles and that so are Ami Ameen, Doona Bae, Miguel Angel Silvestre, Tuppence Middleton, Alfonso Herrera, Jamie Clayton, Erendira Ibarra, Brian J. Smith and both his biceps and the blood vessel standing out in the center of each bicep.
You might really remember how Jamie Clayton's performance connects and how the scenes with Nomi and her family underscore that your issues with transpeople are your issues. They have nothing to do with anything but how you react and if that's intolerance, that's on you. A certain female blogger has a nasty case of transphobia. That's her problem. And the series especially succeeds when it shows Nomi's mother and the petty tantrums the woman has because she will not accept that Nomi is Nomi and not Michael.
This might be one of the most powerful secondary stories in the first season of Sense8.
And maybe you'll remember it.
You might even remember that the villains come to life and are so much more than stock characters.
But will you really appreciate the care and attention that went into this artistic creation?
How can you?
Land of snap decisions
Land of short attention spans
Nothing is savored
Long enough to really understand
-- "Dog Eat Dog," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album Dog Eat Dog
Sense8 is a show to ponder and explore, to think about.
And it's just really hard to do that when you're streaming 12 episodes in a row.
Netflix continues to release all their shows (save one which is a joint-production with Canadian television) in a huge dump.
It does not make for effective television.
It does leave you drained and overwhelmed.
And promising yourself, riddled with guilt while you wipe away the sweat and splash cold water on your face, that this is the last time you binge and purge.
Netflix pretends like its model is something new.
It's not.
It's basic cable TV.
TV Land and Lifetime, at the same time, were pioneering this model with marathons -- that's what they were called then, not 'binging' -- of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and thirty-something.
Sense8 is daring entertainment.
It's actually a great deal more than that.
But the model Netflix wants to work with undermines the development of a show like this -- the most pioneering sci-fi television since Star Trek debuted in the '60s.
Let's be honest, that is the phrase.
Binging and purging.
And it's not a good thing.
We recognize that when it comes to food. Why won't we do the same with regard to TV shows?
Sense8 is the latest Netflix series.
It's also the latest project from Lana and Andy Warchowski, film making siblings who found huge success with The Matrix trilogy and who bombed recently with Jupiter Ascending.
Unlike many people, we happen to really enjoy Jupiter Ascending.
We also think it will be seen as a classic film in time.
However, we're not fan girlz who abandon critical thinking.
Meaning, the Warchoskis are the reason the film bombed at the box office.
Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis co-star in the film.
Mila looks like Mila.
Channing?
Was he supposed to be a 70s porn star?
There is the ridiculous eye brows, yes. Then there's the ridiculous facial hair.
And, here's the big problem for audiences -- as test cards from teenagers noted at numerous previews: Where was Channing's pit hair?
When pit hair keeps coming up at previews, you shouldn't dismiss it.
In addition to the eye brows and the facial hair, the film also gave Channing animal ears.
Oh.
And wings.
Don't forget the wings.
That's a lot to go along with.
And that's before you remove Channing's pit hair.
When you do that, an uneasy youth audience becomes outright scared.
Like it or not, Lana's a woman who was born in a man's body.
We're not mocking her.
We are noting that she and her brother make films whose target audience includes a lot of teens.
Those teens can get a little nervous at times.
And when you go too far with the look for Channing, then you lose them.
Removing Channing's pit hair made them uncomfortable with the character and with the film.
He's a character in transition.
Is he supposed to be Lana?
That's what teen audience are obsessing over and had Channing had his (minimally) hairy pits, they wouldn't be wondering about what sort of transformation was being done in the film to Channing.
The brother and sister team has always pushed the limits.
They did so very successfully in Bound and in The Matrix.
Fortunately for everyone, Sense8 is another success.
There's not a false note in the entire 12 episodes.
They even pull off a group sing-along of Four Non Blondes' "What's Going On?"
They even pull off a sci-fi conspiracy series that spends far more time on character than it does suspense.
But what they struggle to pull off is a lasting impression.
Maybe a lasting impression of Max Riemelt's cock.
Male frontal nudity is still so rare that the sight of that member may remain in the brain -- even after you forget that Max and his impressive staff show up at the non-wedding of Kala (Tina Desai).
You may remember that they're brilliant in their roles and that so are Ami Ameen, Doona Bae, Miguel Angel Silvestre, Tuppence Middleton, Alfonso Herrera, Jamie Clayton, Erendira Ibarra, Brian J. Smith and both his biceps and the blood vessel standing out in the center of each bicep.
You might really remember how Jamie Clayton's performance connects and how the scenes with Nomi and her family underscore that your issues with transpeople are your issues. They have nothing to do with anything but how you react and if that's intolerance, that's on you. A certain female blogger has a nasty case of transphobia. That's her problem. And the series especially succeeds when it shows Nomi's mother and the petty tantrums the woman has because she will not accept that Nomi is Nomi and not Michael.
This might be one of the most powerful secondary stories in the first season of Sense8.
And maybe you'll remember it.
You might even remember that the villains come to life and are so much more than stock characters.
But will you really appreciate the care and attention that went into this artistic creation?
How can you?
Land of snap decisions
Land of short attention spans
Nothing is savored
Long enough to really understand
-- "Dog Eat Dog," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album Dog Eat Dog
Sense8 is a show to ponder and explore, to think about.
And it's just really hard to do that when you're streaming 12 episodes in a row.
Netflix continues to release all their shows (save one which is a joint-production with Canadian television) in a huge dump.
It does not make for effective television.
It does leave you drained and overwhelmed.
And promising yourself, riddled with guilt while you wipe away the sweat and splash cold water on your face, that this is the last time you binge and purge.
Netflix pretends like its model is something new.
It's not.
It's basic cable TV.
TV Land and Lifetime, at the same time, were pioneering this model with marathons -- that's what they were called then, not 'binging' -- of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and thirty-something.
Sense8 is daring entertainment.
It's actually a great deal more than that.
But the model Netflix wants to work with undermines the development of a show like this -- the most pioneering sci-fi television since Star Trek debuted in the '60s.
Barack realizes a downside of The Drone War
A frustrated Barack notes, "If only I'd use those drones for good one of them could have found the conference center we're supposed to be at and we wouldn't be wandering through the hillside right now!"
10 films we want to see remade
Mad Max, Carrie, Poltergeist, Total Recall, The Women, . . . It seems the studios can't stop raiding their own pasts.
We don't think they've raided wisely but as long as they're raiding, here's 10 films we'd love to see remade.
1) Valley of the Dolls.
Come on, you know Lindsay Lohan would be perfect as the next Neely O'Hara
2) Cat People.
The film Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway should have made together instead of Love & Other Drugs.
3) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
This Bette Davis and Joan Crawford classic has been remade for TV with Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave as the two sisters. But it's due for a return to the big screen. Faye Dunaway would be perfect in the Davis role. Jane Fonda, Barbara Hershey, Alfre Woodard or Sally Field could excel in the role of Blanche.
4) Showboys.
In this remake, a la Magic Mike, the burlesque dancers take the stage as part of an all male review in a gay club. We see Zac Ephron as the lead with James Franco or Jamie Foxx in the Gina Gershon role and Jennifer Lopez in the role of stage director Tony Moss.
5) Against All Odds.
In this noir remake, Gerard Butler plays the injured football player and Halle Berry essays the Rachel Ward role.
6) The Barefoot Executive.
Jonah Hill and a monkey. Need we say more? Add Vanessa Williams in the role of the network exec and the film makes itself.
7) The Glass Key.
Russell Crowe and Kim Basinger team up again for the first film since LA Confidential.
8) 3 Days of the Condor.
This time the lead role is played by a woman: Angelina Jolie.
9) The Glass Bottom Boat.
Michelle Pfeiffer takes on the lead in this remake of the Doris Day classic. Russell Crowe or Matt Dillon plays her love interest.
10) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck star in this remake, now set on a gay cruise, which finds Damon in the role Marilyn Monroe made famous and allows Ben to tackle one of film's most camp musical numbers ever "Isn't There Anyone Here For Love?"
We didn't include A New Leaf because Jim Carey's been working on getting that remake up for years now. As a bonus we will note it's time to remake A Star Is Born yet again and we'd recommend Beyonce as the up and coming star who falls in love with an established star. Each version of the film has modernized it so we'd offer it's time for it to revolve around a same-sex couple and we'd argue that either Jada Pinkett Smith or Angela Bassett would be great in the role of the already established star.
Variety lies again (Ava and C.I.)
The summer popcorn movie season is shaping up to be a huge disappointment.
This may or may not change.
But into this mess comes Brent Lang and Variety -- not to offer clarity but instead to offer lies and spin.
First off, let's acknowledge there's a difference between studios and theaters.
Thanks to the 1948 anti-trust decision by the Supreme Court (United States v. Paramount Pictures Inc.), the movie business changed tremendously.
To illustrate, Sandra Bullock was very popular with theater owners from 1996 through the '00s.
Murder By Numbers, Force of Nature, Hope Floats, Practical Magic . . ,
These weren't blockbusters.
She had blockbusters, Miss Congeniality (2000) and The Proposal and The Blind Side (2009).
The studios loved those two films.
But theater chains just loved Sandra.
She delivered an audience. A steady audience.
A modestly successful film starring her brought in people after opening weekend. Usually, it brought in adults willing to spend at the concession stands.
The theaters make the least money off of opening weekend ticket sales. As the film continues to play beyond that opening weekend, the theaters get a larger percentage of the ticket sales.
They get the profit from concession sales throughout.
But that's why a steady performer like Sandra meant more to them than someone whose film does brisk business for the first three days and then falls flat.
If you can grasp the above, and we're sure you can, you may also grasp the deceit Variety served up in this paragraph:
With the domestic box office a diminishing part of a film’s revenue pie U.S. audiences aren’t as important as they were a decade ago. “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” for instance, has generated 67% of its $1.3 billion bounty from foreign markets, while “Mad Max: Fury Road’s” best chance at recouping its $150 million production budget lies with how fervently overseas’ crowds embrace its apocalyptic vision.
In North America, studios get a higher percentage of the ticket sales on opening weekend.
If you can grasp that difference, you should also grasp that a film making more money in overseas ticket sales (than it does domestically) is not a good thing.
The ticket sales from a foreign market?
A lot of that money stays in the foreign market and doesn't come back to the US.
(The same is true of foreign films that play in US theaters -- a lot of the money from those films stay in the US with the foreign studios receiving a much smaller percentage of the profit.)
Too often ticket sales are wrongly seen as profit for the films.
They're not profit. A percentage is and the percentage for US films is greater when they play in North America.
Ticket sales can -- and should -- be used to measure popularity but if Jaws 16: Steel Magnolias Blood Bath rakes in $69 million on opening weekend, that $69 million in ticket sales did not go all to the studio.
There's still -- thank E! among others -- a very infantile grasp in the US on ticket sales.
There's another problem as well.
Hollywood is a legend around the world.
But if Americans are seen (consistently) being bored by US films, distancing themselves from US films, then the luster for these films overseas starts to fade.
The biggest bomb of the summer will be (and should be) Tomorrowland.
What idiot decided to greenlight a $190 million film with no box office star?
Oh, right: Disney.
George Clooney cannot carry a film.
His entire filmography makes that clear.
The Oceans are ensemble films, A Perfect Storm was as much Mark Wahlberg and Diane Lane's film and that leaves what?
The only other films that crossed the $100 million mark domestically for George were Batman & Robin (a bomb that destroyed the franchise) and Gravity where he played the role of "the girl" (it was Sandra's film).
He can't carry a film.
He can't open a film.
So why do you cast him as the male lead, as the adult lead.
And that's before you factor in his inability to shut his mouth.
He's ticked off people more left than centrist Democrats and he's ticked off pretty much all of the right-wing. The non-political just know he's long in the tooth and does vegetable movies (good for you! but not satisfying).
Clooney's politics and his film choices meant that ticket buyers would stay away.
The film's a bomb and proves (yet again) that George Clooney is not a leading man.
This may or may not change.
But into this mess comes Brent Lang and Variety -- not to offer clarity but instead to offer lies and spin.
First off, let's acknowledge there's a difference between studios and theaters.
Thanks to the 1948 anti-trust decision by the Supreme Court (United States v. Paramount Pictures Inc.), the movie business changed tremendously.
To illustrate, Sandra Bullock was very popular with theater owners from 1996 through the '00s.
Murder By Numbers, Force of Nature, Hope Floats, Practical Magic . . ,
These weren't blockbusters.
She had blockbusters, Miss Congeniality (2000) and The Proposal and The Blind Side (2009).
The studios loved those two films.
But theater chains just loved Sandra.
She delivered an audience. A steady audience.
A modestly successful film starring her brought in people after opening weekend. Usually, it brought in adults willing to spend at the concession stands.
The theaters make the least money off of opening weekend ticket sales. As the film continues to play beyond that opening weekend, the theaters get a larger percentage of the ticket sales.
They get the profit from concession sales throughout.
But that's why a steady performer like Sandra meant more to them than someone whose film does brisk business for the first three days and then falls flat.
If you can grasp the above, and we're sure you can, you may also grasp the deceit Variety served up in this paragraph:
With the domestic box office a diminishing part of a film’s revenue pie U.S. audiences aren’t as important as they were a decade ago. “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” for instance, has generated 67% of its $1.3 billion bounty from foreign markets, while “Mad Max: Fury Road’s” best chance at recouping its $150 million production budget lies with how fervently overseas’ crowds embrace its apocalyptic vision.
In North America, studios get a higher percentage of the ticket sales on opening weekend.
If you can grasp that difference, you should also grasp that a film making more money in overseas ticket sales (than it does domestically) is not a good thing.
The ticket sales from a foreign market?
A lot of that money stays in the foreign market and doesn't come back to the US.
(The same is true of foreign films that play in US theaters -- a lot of the money from those films stay in the US with the foreign studios receiving a much smaller percentage of the profit.)
Too often ticket sales are wrongly seen as profit for the films.
They're not profit. A percentage is and the percentage for US films is greater when they play in North America.
Ticket sales can -- and should -- be used to measure popularity but if Jaws 16: Steel Magnolias Blood Bath rakes in $69 million on opening weekend, that $69 million in ticket sales did not go all to the studio.
There's still -- thank E! among others -- a very infantile grasp in the US on ticket sales.
There's another problem as well.
Hollywood is a legend around the world.
But if Americans are seen (consistently) being bored by US films, distancing themselves from US films, then the luster for these films overseas starts to fade.
The biggest bomb of the summer will be (and should be) Tomorrowland.
What idiot decided to greenlight a $190 million film with no box office star?
Oh, right: Disney.
George Clooney cannot carry a film.
His entire filmography makes that clear.
The Oceans are ensemble films, A Perfect Storm was as much Mark Wahlberg and Diane Lane's film and that leaves what?
The only other films that crossed the $100 million mark domestically for George were Batman & Robin (a bomb that destroyed the franchise) and Gravity where he played the role of "the girl" (it was Sandra's film).
He can't carry a film.
He can't open a film.
So why do you cast him as the male lead, as the adult lead.
And that's before you factor in his inability to shut his mouth.
He's ticked off people more left than centrist Democrats and he's ticked off pretty much all of the right-wing. The non-political just know he's long in the tooth and does vegetable movies (good for you! but not satisfying).
Clooney's politics and his film choices meant that ticket buyers would stay away.
The film's a bomb and proves (yet again) that George Clooney is not a leading man.
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