Monday, October 9, 2023

Weekend Box Office

stankasstrump

 

 Above is Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Sitting Behind Daddy Donald" and it went up Sunday and so did Kat's "Kat's Korner: Put away 'the hammers and the boards and the nails'" which is reviewing the latest Joni Mitchell archive release.

 

Okay, via THENUMBERS.COM, let me note the weekend box office:

 

1 N The Exorcist: Believer Universal $26,497,600   3,663   $7,234 $26,497,600 1
2 (1) PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie Paramount Pi… $11,330,072 -50% 4,027 +38 $2,814 $38,447,060 2
3 (2) Saw X Lionsgate $7,837,343 -57% 3,262 n/c $2,403 $32,242,136 2
4 (3) The Creator 20th Century… $6,245,290 -56% 3,680 n/c $1,697 $25,075,327 2
5 (5) The Blind Fathom Events $3,205,406 -27% 1,314 -401 $2,439 $10,565,867 2
6 (6) A Haunting in Venice 20th Century… $2,692,512 -26% 2,425 -360 $1,110 $35,614,238 4
7 (4) The Nun II Warner Bros. $2,604,278 -46% 2,492 -379 $1,045 $81,089,080 5
8 (7) Dumb Money Sony Pictures $2,123,504 -36% 2,837 n/c $749 $10,608,569 4
9 (8) The Equalizer 3 Sony Pictures $1,800,939 -33% 1,526 -658 $1,180 $88,803,214 6
10 (-) Hocus Pocus Walt Disney $1,609,874   1,430   $1,126 $45,710,934 1,578

 

 

 

Key observation about weekend box office?  Not one film in the top ten has crossed the $100 million mark.  THE NUN II ($81 million in five weeks) and THE EQUALIZER 3 ($88.8 million in six weeks) come the closest and they're at numbers 7 and 9 so soon to drop out of the top ten.  After that?  No one in the top ten has even passed $40 million. 

Number one went to THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER which was estimated to make around $28 million opening weekend and came close with $27.2 million.  It should hold on for this Friday -- hold on in the top ten -- since it's a horror film and it's Friday the 13th this Friday.  If it can hang on in the top five through October 31st, it should make money.  

On that, my "THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER " was reposted at THIRD.  I mention that because Alex e-mailed asking if that bothered me?  No.  It's good for this site, first of all, draws attention to it.  They didn't have time to do a "highlights."  So C.I. asked if it was okay to repost the review at THIRD and she asked Trina if it was okay to repost the Instant Pot recipes she'd done?  We both said yes.  C.I., you may remember, was the one who pushed (repeatedly) for my MOVING ON review to be reposted at THIRD.  And it wasn't that others didn't want to repost it, it was that it was a, "Sure, we'll do that but let's finish X that we're working on first."  And it didn't end up reposted.  So one weekend when she and Ava were the ones in charge, it went up immediately.  And Heather e-mailed to note that MOVING ON -- starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin -- is now on HULU so check it out there if you haven't seen it already.  It's a really good film and I think it's Jane's best performance in years.  That's not saying she's crapped out in other films but this one is just on a whole other level -- like KLUTE, THE MORNING AFTER, COMING HOME, JULIA and THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY?

Let me note Ava and C.I.'s "Media: What was the plan? (There was none)" which is their latest.  I should also point out that they did three pieces at THIRD by themselves this edition and Betty and they were really the ones who worked on the Barbara Lee piece.  


 

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

 

Monday, October 9, 2023.  Julian Assange continues to be persecuted while some pin hopes on a meet up between the President of the United States and the prime minister of Australia, Iraq sharpens its international focus, and much more.

Starting with Julian Assange who remains persecuted for the 'crime' of journalism.  A year ago, Amy Goodman and Dennis Moynihan (DEMOCRACY NOW!) noted:

"Journalists are allowed to request documents that have been stolen and to publish those documents." So wrote U.S. federal Judge John Koeltl in a 2019 opinion dismissing a lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee against Julian Assange, Wikileaks and others. Assange published documents on the Wikileaks website in the very manner the judge described. Despite this, Julian Assange has been in solitary confinement in Britain’s maximum security Belmarsh prison for over three years. Before that, he spent seven years living in the cramped Ecuadorian embassy in London. Ecuador granted Assange political asylum as he faced mounting persecution from the U.S. government for his role in exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The U.S. is seeking Assange’s extradition from the United Kingdom to face espionage and conspiracy charges and up to 175 years in prison. Assange’s legal team is appealing the U.K.’s approval of the extradition request. Meanwhile, a new case related to Wikileaks is before Judge Koeltl: journalists and several of Assange’s attorneys have sued the Central Intelligence Agency and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, alleging the CIA spied on them when they visited Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy, recording conversations and secretly copying their phones and laptops.

 Julian Assange remains imprisoned and remains persecuted by US President Joe Biden who, as vice president, once called him "a high tech terrorist."  Julian's 'crime' was revealing the realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the information to Julian.  WIKILEAKS then published the Iraq War Logs.  And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own.  For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War Logs.  Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:



A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.
Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in the Afghan war.
The new logs detail how:
• US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.

• A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.
• More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent deat



The Biden administration has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal assaults under Donald Trump.

The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”.

But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used before for publishing classified information.

Whether the US justice department continues to pursue the Trump-era charges against the notorious leaker, whose group put out secret information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, American diplomacy and internal Democratic politics before the 2016 election, will go a long way toward determining whether the current administration intends to make good on its pledges to protect the press.

Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange’s protracted prosecution.


Yet Julian remains persecuted. 


It’s long past time for the U.S. and U.K. to free Julian Assange. His flagrantly unjust incarceration is a global scandal, and the world is quite upset about it. Indeed, on September 19 at the United Nations, heads of state denounced this phony prosecution for the fraud and subterfuge it is – an assault on a free press, and an attack on Assange personally, for practicing journalism. For over four years, this publisher has been left to rot in a dungeon in Britain’s notorious maximum-security prison, Belmarsh. The reason? Well, they might not admit it, but U.S. sachems want him crushed for embarrassing them, by revealing the murderous criminality of the American military in Iraq and elsewhere.

Periodically, some world leader lets loose a geschrei of protest. “It is essential to preserve freedom of the press. A journalist like Julian Assange cannot be punished for informing society in a transparent and legitimate way,” railed Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva to the assembled UN diplomats. Honduran president Xiomara Castro also denounced the official abuse of Assange. And on September 20, a delegation of Australian politicians brought a letter to Washington officials, demanding the U.S. drop its grotesque prosecution of Assange.

This is not the first time heads of state or other political bigwigs have urged American President Joe Biden to end Assange’s ordeal. Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has twice written Biden, imploring him to release Assange and rightly fulminating over the damage done to a free press by his incarceration. In late 2022, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan leaders called for the publisher’s freedom. Colombian president Gustavo Petro vowed on social media to “ask President Biden…not to charge a journalist just for telling the truth.” Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese also petitioned the U.S. on his Canberra constituent, Assange’s behalf. So far Biden appears unmoved.


Yesterday, SKY NEWS noted, "Julian Assange’s family hopes a meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden will help stop the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder to America." Kieran Rooney (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD) reports:

Julian Assange’s family is working out of the United States to fight his extradition, beseeching lawmakers there for help ahead of a looming meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Joe Biden.

They live in fear that their phones will light up with news that the WikiLeaks founder is about to be whisked from detention in the United Kingdom to a US prison – where they will lose him forever.

This heightened anxiety is fuelling their efforts to campaign for Assange’s release. They are meeting with key Democrats and Republicans, seeking the support of international leaders and drumming up public support to end the 13-year saga over his fate.

Speaking to The Sunday Age, Assange’s half-brother Gabriel Shipton said there were reasons to believe the long-running battle over his extradition could end without him sitting in a US prison.

Albanese’s US trip this month – during which he will meet with Biden – marks a key moment in their campaign.


Otis Grotewohl (WORKERS WORLD) concludes, "Despite the threats on Assange’s life, there is support from all around the world, and that brings his family some hope and optimism. People who defend Assange for leaking facts about U.S. war crimes outnumber the U.S. ruling class. History will show that those who support Assange are on the side of truth, peace and social justice."



Meanwhile, Iraq continues to build it's international presence.  Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani recently concluded a week-long visit to the US where he met with business leaders and politicians.  MEMO notes he's schedule to visit Russia October 11th where he will meet with the president of Russia Vladimir Putin.  A violent conflict, meanwhile, is taking place between the government of Israel and the Palestinians.  MINT notes:


In a statement, Hamas commander has said that it launched attacks on the Israeli territory ‘in defense of Al-Aqsa’ which was stormed by Israeli settlers a few days ago. Al-Aqsa has been the flashpoint between Palestine and Israel. Hamas military commander Muhammad Deif, who released a recorded message after the attack, said the strikes were in retaliation for Israel’s “desecration of the Al-Aqsa" mosque in Jerusalem.


Government officials and political leaders in Iraq on Saturday issued statements of support for the people of Palestine following a deadly Hamas attack on Israel.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed group of the Hamas movement, claimed responsibility for more than 5,000 rockets fired at Israel in a surprise attack early Saturday morning. Israel’s health ministry said that at least 150 Israelis have been killed and about 1,100 more injured. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have retaliated with airstrikes that have killed 198 people in Gaza and injured another 1,610, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The Iraqi government expressed its support for Gaza and the Palestinian people and called the rocket attack on Israel a "natural result of the systematic oppression... at the hands of the Zionist occupation authority," according to a statement from spokesperson Basem al-Awadi.

Iraq’s presidency also expressed its “full support” for Palestine in a statement on X (formerly known as Twitter). 

 Iraq on Saturday condemned the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip after Hamas launched an offensive, saying it always stands by the Palestinians.

Government spokesman Bassim al-Awadi called on the international community to stop the injustice done to the Palestinian people and to intervene to restore the rights of the Palestinians.

Al-Awadi warned that the escalation and continuation of the tension in Palestinian territories will have negative repercussions on the region. He also called for an extraordinary meeting of the Arab League.

Iraq has every right to exercise its voice in the international realm. The current prime minister, unlike two-term prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki, appears interested in something more than using Iraq to enrich his own pocket.  That may be one difference between the two, another being that Mohammed never fled Iraq the way Nouri -- and all the other previous prime ministers since 2003 -- did.  

At ASHARQ AL-AWSAT, Farhad Aladdin (advisor to the prime minister for foreign affairs) writes:


Ever since the Iraqi government assumed its responsibility in October last year, our administration has focused on extending the roots of Iraqi diplomacy across the region and beyond; practicing a policy of balance in foreign relations, and moving away from the policy of adversary. As stated in Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, the goal of this policy is to “preserve the security and stability of the region, its progress and economic prosperity, in order to achieve the welfare of its people.”
From this standpoint, the Prime Minister’s visit to Moscow is consistent with the principle pursued by the Baghdad government, which is one of productive diplomacy.

Following the formation of the government, the Prime Minister has been keen to visit many European countries including Germany and France, and neighboring countries such as Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Türkiye, as well as participating in the Arab-Chinese summit held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. His goal has been to strengthen relations and build partnerships around common interests with countries across the board, and it is with this approach that he is now responding to an official invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The visit to the Kremlin coincides with the Russian Energy Week Forum, where the Prime Minister will deliver an address as a keynote speaker.

Turning to the US, later today professional time waste Robert F. Kennedy Jr will be in Philadelphia where he will make "a historic announcement" -- he's the new spokesmodel for DEPEND MENS.  

New content at THIRD:



Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Sitting Behind Daddy Donald" and Kat's "Kat's Korner: Put away 'the hammers and the boards and the nails'" went up.  The following sites updated:


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