Tuesday, January 24, 2017

The acting nominations

Let's look at the Academy Award nominations for actors.



 
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
CASEY AFFLECK
Manchester by the Sea

ANDREW GARFIELD
Hacksaw Ridge

RYAN GOSLING
La La Land

VIGGO MORTENSEN
Captain Fantastic

DENZEL WASHINGTON
Fences




This one's hard for me because there are three very strong performances: Denzel, Viggo and Ryan.

I could see going with Ryan because he's done solid work and did some incredible work in LA LA LAND.

But I'd go with Denzel.  FENCES is a period piece and a play and those can be tough onscreen.  I felt Denzel made his role work.  (I didn't review the film because I didn't like it.  I did think Denzel was great.)



ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
MAHERSHALA ALI
Moonlight

JEFF BRIDGES
Hell or High Water

LUCAS HEDGES
Manchester by the Sea

DEV PATEL
Lion

MICHAEL SHANNON
Nocturnal Animals



I don't feel like anyone really nailed it that was nominated.  I could care less about this category.  There are easily 40 other actors I would have nominated instead of those five.  Not impressed at all with these nominations.



ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
ISABELLE HUPPERT
Elle

RUTH NEGGA
Loving

NATALIE PORTMAN
Jackie

EMMA STONE
La La Land

MERYL STREEP
Florence Foster Jenkins


I really feel Emma Stone deserves this.

She was great.

If Amy Adams had been nominated, I might be pulling for her.

Natalie Portman, no problem with her winning it.

Haven't seen ELLE so no comment on Isabelle Huppert.

I saw LOVING, I was not impressed with Ruth Negga.

Meryl Streep's delivered another one of her same-old-aren't-I-cute-playing-this-role performance.

It got old sometime around 1992.




ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
VIOLA DAVIS
Fences

NAOMIE HARRIS
Moonlight

NICOLE KIDMAN
Lion

OCTAVIA SPENCER
Hidden Figures

MICHELLE WILLIAMS
Manchester by the Sea


Michelle Williams, for me, was the only saving grace about MANCHESTER BY THE SEA.  I know a lot of people say we should love this film.  As an African-American male, I didn't see honesty, I saw self-congratulatory White people.

Michelle was excellent.

I didn't see LION.  I love Nicole but I haven't seen the film.

Naomie Harris was good in MOONLIGHT but I don't think she deserved a nomination.

That said, she's more deserving than Viola Davis.

She was the worst part of FENCES.

Can she act?

I know she can imitate stereotypes.

Don't see any acting here and she really brought the whole film down.

That leaves Octavia Spencer.

I think she's the best of the nominated but I also think she gave the best supporting performance in any film in 2016 -- nominated performance or unnominated.

Octavia was amazing.  (So was Taraji who didn't get nominated.)

This award should go to Octavia.


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

 
Tuesday, January 24, 2017.  As the never-ending war continues, we look at the Sammy Powers and the 'change' they've brought as well as a few other claims (including the xenophobia that renders all Arabs as one group with one belief).


What did neoliberalism bring to war?

We were asked that yesterday when we were speaking.

A student cited the "hideous Samantha Power" and she noted how Samantha was a blood thirsty monster.  "But we're supposed to be okay with that because she does it for the left," the young woman said rolling her eyes.

The Samantha Powers are a bunch of raving War Hawks.

But they try to put a 'caring' face on their lusts.

So their big contribution has been "Hitler."

Not the person Adolf Hitler.

In earlier times, we demonized the population.

If we were going to steal, for example, land from Native Americans, we would attack them as "godless" and other terms intended to demonize them.

War was good because we were taking on these evil creatures.

Kinder War Hawk Samantha Power means we no longer attack the people we go to war with.

Instead, we lie and say we are liberating them.

Liberating them from who?

Hitler, of course.

WWII defeated Hitler (and it before neoliberalism) but apparently that so-called Greatest Generation was just a bunch of lazy goats.

All they did was defeat one Hitler.

Thankfully, today we have the Sammy Powers all over the place, ready at a moment's notice to tell us how this person (possibly considered a friend of the United States only five or ten years prior) is actually Hitler.

Apparently, someone must have cloned Hitler.

In WWII, there was only one of him.

Today, he's trotting all over the globe.

So, the Sammy Powers insist, we must be all over the globe to stop him.

Melanie once sang "There's a chance peace will come."

Not on Samantha Power's watch!

Individual preference will vary but, myself, I think I preferred it when the War Mongers were openly hating a people instead of pretending that they were saving a group of people from a monster.

I also see it as good news that so many people -- young people -- have caught onto the con that Samantha Power works.

Awareness goes a long, long way.





There's a chance peace will come, in your life please buy one
There's a chance peace will come, in your life please buy one

For sometimes when I am feeling as big as the land
With the velvet hill in the small of my back
And my hands are playing the sand
And my feet are swimming in all of the waters
All of the rivers are givers to the ocean
According to plan, according to man

Well sometimes when I am feeling so grand
And I become the world
And the world becomes a man
And my song becomes a part of the river
I cry out to keep me just the way I am
According to plan, according to man
According to plan, according to man
According to plan, according to man
According to plan, according to man
According to plan
-- "Peace Will Come (According to Plan)," written by Melanie Safka, first appears on her album LEFTOVER WINE




The Sammy Powers are helped by buffoons like Neal Rogers.



Gentleman! Yeah, setting up ISIS makes you such a "gentleman". When did you get your brain removed?


Nice try, but we can thank Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld's Iraq invasion for ISIS


Obama literally armed ISIS when he blundered into Libya and Syria. The cretin,




  • Al-Qaida in Iraq, which became ISIS in 2013, dominated Iraq insurgency by 2006.




  • I'm not sure that's quite right Neal. I will check my reasearch first before arguing this one.










  • I don't care how many times you cite the crap ass GUARDIAN newspaper.

    You're still a xenophobe.

    The Iraq invasion led to the rise of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.


    We can shorten that to "al Qaeda in Iraq" if that's too much for your sheltered and immature mind.

    People came into Iraq to fight the occupation and the occupiers.

    The Islamic State was not created by imprisoning Iraqis.

    And it's strange because when the blowhards talk, they usually mention how the League of Righteous grew stronger in Iraq due to imprisonment of leaders.

    But that's not a part of the Islamic State.

    That's a Shi'ite militia.

    One carrying out War Crimes in Iraq currently.


    Xenophobia allows a White person to group the Islamic State and al Qaeda in Iraq together.

    For many years, you saw this play out at the US State Dept.

    But the two are not the same and were never the same.

    They have some similar motives and they have some opposing motives.

    Which is why the two work separately in Syria -- they also do in Iraq but a lazy (and, yes, xenophobic) press just attributes all actions in Iraq to the Islamic State.

    al Qaeda in Iraq remains.  And they have been responsible for some recent bombings.

    Even some that the Islamic State has taken credit for.

    But that's another difference between the two groups.

    An informed dialogue would benefit all.

    But, sadly, we're not getting it these days.

    War Crimes.


    Iraqi army crimes يامسلمين ياعرب عاجل الجيش الشيعي الارهابي يحفر القبور لشيوخ المساجد السنه العراقين بالموصل ويرميهم بها افضحوهم ياناس


    Iraqi Sunni Civilian tortured , killed & his grave dug in front of his eye by Sectarian Iraqi army in






    As Kat noted about the above:


    We are paying for War Crimes in Iraq.

    I don't mean karma -- though that will no doubt come.

    I mean we are paying with our tax dollars for War Crimes.



    Does mean old Donald Trump as president mean that a lot of Americans will finally have to wake up and take a look at what's been going on for the last years?

    Good.

    Wake the hell up.

    Iraqis haven't had a choice.


    And thanks to Donald, some Americans are now concerned.


    Iraqis fighting ISIS are, somewhat unsurprisingly, super pissed about POTUS's comments about taking Iraqi oil





    We could have gone with Rachel -- attacked that idiot.

    But fate dictates we take on the BUZZFEED reporter.

    He certainly has moved through a lot of outlets, hasn't he?

    Of course, we encountered him all those years ago . . . when he was e-mailing us.

    We didn't go in search of him.

    And I'll note that I know how he spins (and lies).

    You need to read his 'report' with a careful eye.

    He's pulling some Judith Millers.

    More importantly, who gives a f**k?

    I can remember in the last years when this same group was outraged and threatening US officials -- including Barack.

    Didn't get much press play in the US, did it?

    Let's also stop pretending that the Iraqi forces are God.

    They're not.

    They've carried out abuses nonstop repeatedly over the years.

    They're also not seen as representing the people of Iraq.

    How telling that the Rachel Maddow crowd wants to support a military and not a people.

    Lastly, Donald could probably take the oil -- I doubt he will -- and he could actually turn some of the profit over to the Iraqi people.  The people would love that.  Their own government, since Saddam was toppled, has refused to provide for them.

    The corruption in the Iraqi state is another thing the Rachel Maddow crowd has long ignored.


    The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley and BLACK AGENDA REPORT -- updated:












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