Thursday, June 16, 2022

Let's give some praise to Sandra Bullock

I have noted the amazing performance of Sandra Bullock's THE LOST CITY in many posts including "THE LOST CITY crossed the $100 million mark."  Her film teams her with Channing Tatum and the film, a romantic comedy, opened with $30 million which is not minor change.  But what is especially noteworthy is that, week after week, audiences kept turning out and the film went on to make $100 million in ticket sales in North America.

Today, Pamela McClintock (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER) notes the film crossed the $100 million mark:

 

When Sandra Bullock was first approached by Paramount about producing and starring in The Lost City, an action-adventure romantic comedy that’s an ode to a disappearing genre, she said thanks, but no thanks. However, she couldn’t stop thinking about the project and went back to the studio with a fix: Reverse the roles and make the leading lady more heroic and bold, and infuse the leading man’s character with feminine sensitivities. It was a move Channing Tatum would welcome when joining the movie about a romance author and her cover model who set out on an adventure.

“There weren’t any obstacles for the female character. And the male character we’ve seen before,” Bullock tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I like that I’m not 25,” Bullock, 57, continues. “And I love that there’s a man in it willing to be many aspects of himself that weren’t traditionally shown in films like this because they had to be the action hero. And Chan was so game. Let’s just do it.”

These days, Bullock and fellow producer Liza Chasin, along with the rest of the Lost City team, are celebrating the movie crossing $100 million domestically in a major feat after becoming the first film of the pandemic era to lure females back to theaters en masse, especially older females.

 

Sandra Bullock deserves a lot of praise and her passion for the films she makes is one reason that her fans (I'm one) do turn out for her films.   Let me note one more thing from the article:

Other handy stats: Lost City is the second-highest-grossing comedy at the domestic box office since the pandemic started behind Free Guy ($121.6 million) and the third-highest-grossing film with a female lead behind A Quiet Place Part II ($160.1 million) and Black Widow ($183.7 million). It is also the top-grossing original IP pic of 2022.

 

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

 

Thursday, June 16, 2022.  More billions poured into Joe Biden's latest war of choice while the Turkish government kills a young boy in Iraq and much more.


Starting with this Tweet from Ajamu Baraka:


Folks, white male ego & incompetence is feeding the decision making process of the Biden Admin. Because they made the tragic mistake of upping rhetoric of total victory over Russia, further escalation appears to be their only face-saving response to this tragic debacle.


The quagmire continues and US tax dollars continue to support not the American people but Joe Biden's war of choice.  As Betty noted last night, Joe's announced another one billion dollars will go to Ukraine.  That will be at least $55 billion since March that Joe's handed over to Ukraine -- $55 billion of US tax payer money.


Andre Damon (WSWS) explains:


With the Ukrainian military losing territory and taking hundreds of casualties every day, the United States has made clear that it will only intensify its involvement in the war.

In a press briefing Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley said the United States would provide another $1 billion in weapons to Ukraine, including additional long-range missile systems.

The two officials explained that not only are high-end US weapons systems being funneled into Ukraine, but hundreds of Ukrainian forces are being directly trained by the US.

Milley made clear that the US military is training long-range missile crews by the platoon in Germany and added, “By the end of this month, we will transfer HIMARs systems, ammunition and trained crews for operational use in the defense of Ukraine.”


$55 billion because Joe Biden can't admit he was wrong and now feels stuck in this situation because he refuses to face reality.  He has a lot of liars helping him spin.  Eric London (WSWS) observes:


On June 3, Tempest published an article entitled “Solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance!” by Ashley Smith, a prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and former leader of the now-defunct International Socialist Organization (ISO). 

The article calls for arming Ukraine with heavy NATO weapons and is a tirade against all who question the propaganda of US imperialism. It justifies US escalation by claiming the Ukrainian people are engaged in a democratic struggle for self-determination against Russian “imperialism.” 

Smith’s article is an attempt to preempt opposition within the milieu of the Democratic Socialists of America to the prolonged US/NATO-led war, which has provoked widespread shortages of basic necessities all over the world and risks plunging the globe into a nuclear nightmare. As Smith says in a brief preface, the article aims to “review the ongoing Left debates about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the continuing need to defend Ukrainian resistance as the starting point for rebuilding international solidarity from below.”

In his article, Smith declares that “the international Left now more than ever must organize solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance” and “defend its right to secure arms.” Smith argues that the Ukrainian military “has waged a national popular struggle for self-determination,” a “fundamentally democratic aim and one that deserves the full support of the international left.” 

There can be no talk of NATO expansion, which Smith claims is merely Putin’s “alibi,” because the states of Eastern Europe only joined NATO “out of longtime fear of their imperial overlord, Russia.” The crux of Smith’s argument is that the war is one of popular working class “resistance” to Russia. In this vein, Smith attacks “Faux anti-imperialists” who oppose arming the so-called Ukrainian resistance and thereby “betray Ukraine.”

These are not serious theoretical arguments, they are absurdities. Smith makes no attempt to explain how Ukraine’s attempt to join NATO, a military network run by the world’s largest imperialist powers, constitutes a step toward “self-determination,” nor can he explain why pro-Russian separatists in Luhansk and Donetsk cannot assert the same “right” to leave Ukraine. He praises the Ukrainian “left” for fighting “the government’s oligarchic capitalism,” but he cannot explain how it is that this same government is leading a struggle against imperialism. The subject of the Ukrainian regime’s glorification of Stepan Bandera—the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) that participated in the mass extermination of Jews during World War II—is all but ignored.

Smith’s targets are not those who openly defend Russia, but rather parties and individuals that “might criticize Russia” but “blame the US and NATO for the conflict” and thereby “justify Russia’s war.” “Even worse,” Smith writes, they “back actions” like strikes by workers to “block arms shipments to Ukraine.” He attacks those who “condemn Russia’s invasion” but “also oppose Ukraine’s military resistance as well as US and NATO arms shipments in support of it.” 


TEMPTEST is the only one running garbage.  COUNTERPUNCH offers some today that wants to call out 'progressive' Bill Fletcher Jr. and others but from a right-wing hawk position that the war is correct.  CODESTINKERS are thrilled with this war and they really need to take a look at themselves.  Certainly those truly opposed to war are looking with dismay at CODESTINK.

As they find ways to avoid demanding an end to this war, all hopes of future Americans are going down the drain.  Not that CODESTINK or Lil' Billy ever pay attention to Iraq anymore, but the US-instigated Iraq War has left the American people with a bill for over two trillion dollars.  There's no money for Medicare for all -- we are told -- and there's no money for the school lunch program set up after the start of the pandemic -- we are told -- and there's no money for student loan forgiveness or for any aid to those suffering during Joe Biden's crippling inflation and soaring gas prices.  


But he's dropped $55 billion in less than six months on his war of choice.  


Iraq is an ongoing war that the CODESTINKERS and other self-appointed 'leaders' continue to ignore.  


You won't hear them object to Turkey invading northern Iraq (Kurdistan) and setting up bases there.  Using War Planes and drones to terrorize, wound and kill the people who live there.  It's not a concern for them despite the fact that they're selling support for Ukaine on the pretense that they care, they really, really care about humanity.  What a load of garbge.



AFP reports, "A child was killed on Wednesday in an airstrike on Iraq’s northern region of Sinjar, security sources said, blaming the Turkish air force."  As MEDYA NEWS notes:

Silence from #NATO and the international community allows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to attack Kurdish people more confidently, #KNK said after multiple missile strike kills child in Sinjar. https://medyanews.net/nato-and-the-international-community-should-react-to-turkeys-attacks-on-sinjar-says-knk/
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We'll note this UNICEF Tweet:


UNICEF STATEMENT: UNICEF condemns the killing of a 12-year-old child in Sinjar and calls on all parties to protect children from violence https://uni.cf/3MOIGte
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Frederikie Geerdink replies to the above Tweet:


not 'all parties' killed a 12 year old, it's #turkey that did it. #sinjar
Quote Tweet
UNICEF Iraq - يونيسف العراق
@UNICEFiraq
·
UNICEF STATEMENT: UNICEF condemns the killing of a 12-year-old child in Sinjar and calls on all parties to protect children from violence https://uni.cf/3MOIGte
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And Mirza Dinnayi names the child:

A dirty war crime and a planned elimination of Yezidi minority. An air strike killed a 12 y Yezidi child in Sinjar. Salah was working in a small shop of his father in Sinuni. Such a shame for the international community generally and iraqi political powers to keep silent
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Turkey's actions are -- and have been -- an act of war..  But everyone turns their head and ignores it.  The Turkish government carried out a genocide at the start of the last century that many ignored as well.  You'd think there be an effort on the part of others to show a little awareness this go round but clearly not.


And we'll wind down with this that went up here last night . . .


The People's Party?  They want to be a new independent party.  They've been plotting in secret and it's time to reconsider a lot of stuff that they've done.  Such as attacks on certain people who they saw as threats.  I saw Rebecca's "c.i. raised the jimmy dore presidential run last week" and, no, I am not psychic.  She's always said that.  I'm not mad at her for posting about it, but it's not true.  


And The People's Party is off to a really bad start.  Because they're floating a run by Jimmy Dore for president?  That doesn't help, does it?  But, no, they're off to a really bad start because of the following Tweet

would be the most popular comedian to ever run for president and the first candidate with his own show and a million subscribers. Here's how a Jimmy Dore campaign and presidency could revolutionize this country! #Dore24


Do you get it?


Do you grasp the racism and the sexism?


Could they be more Straight White Whining Male?


Dick Gregory.  A comic legend.  Someone you know, if you know comedy.  You ask people who Jimmy Dore and they don't know.  They have no idea.  His YOUTUBE 'fame' doesn't translate in the real world.  But Dick Gregory was a comic legend and he ran for president in 1968.


How nice of The (WHITE) People's Party to erase an African-American legend.


Sexist?


Roseanne Barr.  She's a comic legend.  Last time they let her on TV with her sitcom, she delivered the highest ratings ABC had.  They don't have those high ratings without her.  She is a comic legend.  And she ran for president in 2012.  


The whole world knows Roseanne.  They've known her since the 80s.  She's a legend.


Jimmy Dore's kind of like the eleventh supporting actor in the cast of KING OF QUEENS.  On a good day, that's his level of fame.


The following sites updated:


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