Oh Boy It Never Ends: Movies

What Betty said in "Jennifer Jason Leigh" -- absolutely 100%.

I love Jennifer Jason Leigh. She's an incredible actress. But the Tarantino film is yet another piece of crap.

Kevin Hart?

He's finally got another hit: RIDE ALONG 2.

Is the film a hit just because it's a sequel?

Don't think so at all.

Betty put her finger on the problem with Hart's later movies back in March:

After "Ride Along," it should be his time.

But "The Wedding Ringer" failed to crack $100 million (nearly $40 million short, in fact).

Now we've got "Get Hard."

It's under performing as well.

Why is that?

Well maybe it's that he's being teamed with White co-stars.

And he's their valet.

Now if it were a Brad Pitt, that might not be so noticeable.

But when he's the lackey to, for example, Will Ferrell?

Will belongs on TV -- if TV will have him.

Kevin Hart's career is going to be over before it ever really started as a result of his decision to play sidekick roles when stardom came calling -- and to sidekick it alongside some really lame actors.

And Ann noted last month, in a list of actors she found sexy, "Kevin Hart when he's not giving tour guides of life on the edge to middle aged White film stars."

It's really lame to take Kevin Hart and turn him into the valet to a White man. Haven't we all gone beyond that?

I would've thought so.

Now he's back with Ice Cube and has another hit finally.

And to be clear, he can co-star with a White actor or actress.

But he doesn't need to be playing the hired help.

Put him in a buddy film, sure.

Just don't make him the hired help.

I was asked in an e-mail from Candace what I thought of the Academy Award nominations besides the lack of African-Americans (see my "The Oscars")?

I'll note Best Original Song.

The only worthy nominee is Sam Smith's "Writing's On The Wall."

The other nominees are nonsense and filler.

I actually bought the CD single of Smith's James Bond tune right before Christmas.

Do you know how long it's been since I bought a CD?

Let alone a CD single.

But that is a great song.

It won at the Golden Globes and it should win the Oscar as well.

Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Friday, January 15, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, the US continues bombing Iraq, Ramadi still not fully 'liberated,' THE NATION tries to have it all ways, and much more.l

Starting with THE NATION magazine which wants credit for "Is It Time for the US to Pull Out of Iraq and Syria?" -- three different friends with the magazine lobbied for the article to be linked to.

They got their wish -- even if only one of the three realized sometimes that's not a good thing.

The piece is the sort of crap the magazine loves to do because it lets them cherry pick in ten years. "As we said a decade ago . . ."

Because the article presents four views and they can grab whichever one to make themselves look good in ten years.

Taking an actual stand?

That's too much for the rag.

Jeff Faux may offer the strongest take:

The war is already lost. None of the US governing class’ shifting war aims—stabilizing the region, defending human rights, ending terrorism, establishing democracy—can be achieved. There is no future “diplomatic” solution that justifies continuing the waste of life, treasure, and national honor.
Our ongoing intervention in the Middle East cannot succeed for the same reason that it could not succeed in Vietnam: We are foreign invaders, brutal enough to alienate the people of Iraq and Syria but not brutal enough to subjugate them. By expanding and re-escalating the war with enough US troops and bombs—and bribes to every warlord in sight—we might (with or without the Russians) degrade and perhaps even destroy, the Islamic State organization in Iraq and Syria. But it would leave the region an even more ungovernable wasteland of death and destruction and hatred of Americans.
ISIS is but one of many groups using that hatred as a ladder to power.

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad speaks like an idiot -- we have to stay, we have to help, we have to -- Save the crap. The US government isn't helping anyone. As for the Yazidis, they can learn to fight. There his proof that the US is needed. Without the US, they could have been trapped on the mountain so much longer.

Those 'peaceful' Yazidis have since targeted Sunni civilians, killed them, for 'retaliation.'

Clearly, they know how to kill and murder.

And, point of fact, the rescue of the Yazidis was done by the Peshmerga -- the elite Kurdish fighting force.

Then there's Phyllis Bennis embarrassing herself.

Does she have a position?

We have to talk about what we owe the people of Iraq and Syria who continue to face the consequences of years or decades of horrific wars. We have an obligation to help support reconstruction, humanitarian relief, diplomacy, compensation, and much more.
But first, the United States needs to stop the airstrikes. They kill civilians and undermine the goal of ending popular support for ISIS. Bombing destroys cities, so ousting ISIS becomes a pyrrhic victory.

Yes, good to be against bomb strikes.

Sad that our discourse is so degraded and dumbed down that being opposed to dropping bombs is now considered 'radical' and/or 'peaceful.'

But the US has to this and has to that and blah blah blah?

“Pulling out” is what we do with troops, planes, bombs and drones. But crafting a serious strategy does not end with pulling them out; we also need to take the money now being spent on a failing war and redirect it to serve domestic needs and to assist the countries and peoples we’ve been bombing for so long.
.

I'd love to get behind Phyllis but . . .

December 2, 2004, we published "SHOULD THIS MARRIAGE BE SAVED?" which was about how this sort of 'we must' thinking just continues war and occupation.

We've also repeatedly noted that if you spill red wine on someone's white carpet, they're not wanting you to dab at it with a towel, they just want you the hell out.

If all that's too confusing for Phyllis, let's try this.

If a man is beating a woman, you get the man out. You don't say, "Let's work out the community property settlement and then we'll work on getting him out."

Phyllis is against bombing civilians.

Good.

I'm glad.

I'm sad that we're so whorish as a nation these days that we have to pat someone on the back for being against bombing civilians. I'm sorry that the 'position' is even seen as risky today.

But applause, Phyllis, applause.

Now lose the laundry list of what you want for Iraq.

Negotiating those wants is only going to continue an ongoing war.

All US troops out of Iraq now.

And, Phyllis, I'm being real easy on you and not slamming you for your silence on the IMF's take over of Iraq -- even though we both know you're silent on it and have been silent for months.

Even though the IMF will be yet another form of occupation.

So, ten years from now, THE NATION will grab one of the four positions their article presents and trumpet the one opinion as proof of the magazine's 'insight' and 'wisdom' and 'bravery.'

Even though the article is nothing but THE NATION trying to have it all ways -- not both ways, all ways.

Let's note some Tweets.

ميّ

‏@MayAlbinali

ميّ

☮ Retweeted عمر الدليمي

Shiat militias backed by #Iran torturing Sunnies by cutting them alive in #Iraq @nytimes @washingtonpost @AP @hrw

ميّ

☮ added,

0:22

عمر الدليمي @omarALduleemi

مقطع مسرب للمليشيات الشيعية وهي تقطّع ظهر احد المدنين بالمشرط وتضع…

0 retweets 0 likes

The persecution of the Sunnis in Iraq continues.

And the world begins to take notice even if the White House does not.

Since August 2014, Barack's 'plan' for Iraq has been implemented.

But the US President's plan has been short on diplomacy and short on addressing the root causes.

Barack Obama has been, however, happy to drop bombs on Iraq.

Repeatedly.

Today, the US Defense Dept announced:

Strikes in Iraq
Attack, bomber, fighter, ground attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 17 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

-- Near Hit, two strikes struck two ISIL bomb-making facilities.

-- Near Kisik, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed four ISIL fighting positions.

-- Near Mosul, four strikes struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL weapons cache, an ISIL vehicle, seven ISIL fighting positions, four ISIL assembly areas, an ISIL-used culvert and disabled an ISIL front end loader and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Ramadi, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 14 ISIL fighting positions, destroyed two ISIL recoilless rifles, 12 ISIL heavy machine guns, two ISIL sniper positions and an ISIL tactical vehicle.

-- Near Sinjar, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun and an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL assembly area.

-- Near Tal Afar, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL weapons cache and five ISIL assembly areas.

-- Near Beiji, one strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed three ISIL weapons caches.

-- Near Habbaniyah, one strike destroyed three ISIL fuel tankers and an ISIL command-and-control node.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

What has been the result of Barack's 'plan'?

Civilian deaths to be sure.

A country ripped apart.

The recent Ramadi bombings have been so bad and so destructive that experts outside of Iraq are beginning to weigh whether the 'success' from bombings is worth the destruction that they inflict.

And Ramadi, despite all those bombings, despite non-stop claims of liberation, remains to be fully liberated from the Islamic State.

Heck of a job, Barry.

Magpie V ‏@i_magpie 4h4 hours ago

One will always be remembered for the destruction of #Iraq; the other for #Syria. Who & where will be next?!

15 retweets 7 likes