1/12/2022

sag awards

the screen actors guild announced their nominations today.  they can be an indicator of what the oscars will be like so let's look at the movie nominees.


The Motion Picture Nominees are:

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
JAVIER BARDEM / Desi Arnaz – “BEING THE RICARDOS”
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH / Phil Burbank – “THE POWER OF THE DOG”
ANDREW GARFIELD / Jon – “TICK, TICK…BOOM!”
WILL SMITH / Richard Williams – “KING RICHARD”
DENZEL WASHINGTON / Macbeth – “THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH”


it has to be denzel.  it's the best film of the 5 and he reached new levels in this role.




Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
JESSICA CHASTAIN / Tammy Faye Bakker – “THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE”
OLIVIA COLMAN / Leda – “THE LOST DAUGHTER”
LADY GAGA / Patrizia Reggiani – “HOUSE OF GUCCI”
JENNIFER HUDSON / Aretha Franklin – “RESPECT”
NICOLE KIDMAN / Lucille Ball – “BEING THE RICARDOS”


i'm torn between jennifer hudson and nicole kidman.  they're both excellent.  if either was in a good movie, that would cinch it for me.  but both of their movies suck.  they're amazing but their films aren't.  



Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
BEN AFFLECK / Uncle Charlie – “THE TENDER BAR”
BRADLEY COOPER / Jon Peters – “LICORICE PIZZA”
TROY KOTSUR / Frank Rossi – “CODA”
JARED LETO / Paolo Gucci – “HOUSE OF GUCCI”
KODI SMIT-McPHEE / Peter Gordon – “THE POWER OF THE DOG”


i haven't seen 'coda' so i can't comment there.  but i would go with bradley cooper.  i would also nominate him in the lead category for his other film 'nightmare alley.'


Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
CAITRÍONA BALFE / Ma – “BELFAST”
CATE BLANCHETT / Dr. Lilith Ritter – “NIGHTMARE ALLEY”
ARIANA DeBOSE / Anita – “WEST SIDE STORY”
KIRSTEN DUNST / Rose Gordon – “THE POWER OF THE DOG”
RUTH NEGGA / Clare – “PASSING”


this 1 was hard for me.  i love kirsten in 'the power of dog' and i love cate blanchett in 'nightmare alley.'  but ruth and 'passing' really impressed me.  that was months ago and her performance and the film still haunts.  (if you haven't caught 'passing' go to netflix and watch it now.)


Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture


doesn't matter, never does.  'short cuts' got this award once.  no 1 from that film was even nominated for an oscar.  and that film had amazing performances.


 


let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'


Wednesday, January 12, 2022.  The people of Iraq suffer and the corporate press ignores it, Julian Assange suffers and the corporate press ignores it.


Starting with the ongoing persecution of Julian Assange.  As the world watches, US President Joe Biden -- who voted for the illegal war and then tried to lie about it in 2019 and 20202 -- continues to persecute Julian Assange for revealing truths about the Iraq War and about the murder of civilians.  This will be Joe's legacy and he needs to grasp it, the world needs to make him grasp it.


Matilda Dunchan (INDEPENDENT AUSTRALIA) observes:


In 2010, Assange and WikiLeaks – in partnership with numerous mainstream media outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel – published a curated cache of 250,000 diplomatic cables revealing the corruption and destruction of the Bush-era and early Obama-era wars, into which Australia so subserviently followed.

Without Assange’s work, numerous war crimes, mass surveillance schemes and unreported civilian casualties would have gone uncovered. In one year, he generated more consequential journalistic scoops confronting Western centres of power than the rest of the world’s news organisations combined.

Some of the information published by Assange has since become the subject of criminal investigations into the CIA and U.S. authorities before the International Criminal Court, which, as lawyers for Assange testified during his extradition hearing, is further evidence that the U.S. case against him is politically motivated.

Further, irrefutable illustrations of the significance of the “content” of Assange’s work can be found in comparisons between it and the lies and deceptions fed to the Australian population by this country’s press in the Iraq War years. Consider, as just one example of many, WikiLeaks’ publishing of the detainee assessment briefs and manual for Guantanamo Bay, where children as young as 15 were held, in contrast with the vapid first-hand account of the illegal prison presented by one of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s top foreign correspondents, Leigh Sales.  

In 2007, Sales wrote of her second visit to Gitmo:

'At the same time, my own eyes and ears led me to believe that Guantanamo wasn’t as barbaric as it was made out to be either. None of the detainees came running to the wire, begging for help to get out.'

One Guantanamo Bay prisoner has recently waived his right to appear in court on numerous occasions because he suffered “rectal damage” while in custody of the CIA that makes it too painful for him to sit.



WIKILEAKS notes:


20 years ago #Guantanamo reveived its first detainees In 2011
@WikiLeaks
began publishing the #Gitmofiles which exposed abuses at Guantanamo 40 years of the 175 year sentence Julian Assange faces if extradited to the US relate to these exposés #GITMO20 wikileaks.org/gitmo/
Image
Image
5:02 PM · Jan 11, 2022


Is the corporate lapdog media in the US not covering those sort of items?  No, they're too busy pretending Joe Biden is cognisant and knows what's going on around him.  There is no improvement for Joe.  He is on the downhill slide -- that's physically, that's mentally and that's a historical figure.


This is how you make change for Julian.  This is how you end the persecution.  You hold Joe Biden responsible for what is being done to Julian by the US government because Joe is the head of the US government.  We keep saying it because it's reality.


Underlings can hide behind Joe made them do it.  Joe can't.


Does Joe -- in those rare lucid moments -- care what others think about him and how history will see him?


Of course he does.  If he didn't, he wouldn't lie so much.  He lies about big stuff and he lies about small stuff.  He needs to grasp that he can't lie his way out of this one, that he world will not let him.


He needs to grasp that even Tulsi Gabbard still wants to whore whatever is left of her reputation for him, she's a known liar.  She's the liar who covered for him in the debates when he was being held accountable for the Iraq War.  When he was going around insisting to people that he turned against the war and did so almost immediately and blah blah blah.  Tulsi carried his testes for him -- like a good little whore -- while pretending she was anti-war.  She went after Kamala.


I remember the men of the left -- men because women seemed wise to Tulsi -- braying like jackals and insisting she'd destroyed Kamala.  Kamala's the Vice President.  She may yet destroy herself but Tulsi didn't destroy her.  More to the point, when Tulsi pulled her garbage of excusing War Criminal Joe Biden, there were people against the Iraq War on that stage and running for the nomination.  All Tulsie did was run interference for Joe which was her plan throughout the debates.  Kamala goes after Joe?  Don't worry, they'll dispatch Tulsi to go after her in the next debate.


Tulsi servied her purpose -- like a good whore -- and then she faded away.


Joe lied and he lied because he knows what he is, he knows the monstter that he is.  But he doesn't want the world to see that.  So he rewrites how he imprisoned African-Americans, he rewrites his support for the war, he pretends he didn't shame others who spoke out against the illegal war, he pretends did a lot for women (are we counting paying for abortions?), he rewirtes everything, papers over everything with lies.


Again from WIKILEAKS:

"President Biden, who’s policy it is to close the #Gitmo prison camp, is prosecuting the publisher for exposing abuse in Guantanamo Bay” | Julian Assange's partner
@StellaMoris1
#FreeAssangeNOW #GITMO20
5:19 AM · Jan 11, 2022


Joe needs to grasp that the world knows who's going after Julian Assange and that the world will hold him accountable for it throughout history.


That's how you get the US government to back off.




That went up yesterday afternoon.  We noted it last night.  An e-mail asked if that's why I said what I did in yesterday's snapshot.  Nope.  The video wasn't up.  And we'd been saying that for weeks and weeks.  I was also asked if I'd link to the article Danny mentions in the video above?  Glad to.  Whenever it gets posted.  That's not an insult.  Please.  THIRD has its own problems getting its new stuff up each week in a timely fashion and we're not suffering a death the way BLACK AGENDA REPORT is with Glen Ford.  At some point, hopefully later today, the article Danny says posted will post.  If it does, we'll note in tomorrow's snapshot (but at present, January 5th is the date on the most recent article at BLACK AGENDA REPORT).


It's most likely over for Joe and even he is dimly aware of that.  Ronald Reagan was 73 years old when he was sworn in for his second term as president.  If Joe were re-elected, he'd be 81 when he was sworn in.  He's too feeble and frail to be president right now.  He's a menace to the people.  His crying jags at the White House?  The press is ignoring them.  But for how much longer?  How long before they have to start reporting on what's really going on?

Julian needs to be free and that needs to be made clear by the world.  The world also needs to make clear that we are holding Joe Biden responsible for the continued persecution and for any additional suffering.  That will be Joe's historical legacy and we will ensure that it's seen with the same disgust as when other despots persecute journalists and whistle-blowers.  





Julian will die if this persecution does not end.  Joe needs to grasp that the blood will be on his hands and that it will be how he is remembered.



WIKILEAKS Tweets:


"The International Federation of Journalists, representing 600,000 journalists worldwide, calls for Julian Assange's immediate release"
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3:00 AM · Jan 12, 2022



Turning to Iraq, let's drop back to "2021: The Madness of the Partisan Left (The Year of Silencing Speech):"


Which brings us to the third big story of Iraq.


No, not the October 10th election.  That's been misreported by the US media to a large degree, yes, but it is there go-to subject when they feel they have to cover Iraq.


Far more important?  The protests.  They have been woefully under-reported in the media.  Most Americans don't know that Iraq's current prime minister (hopefully, outgoing prime minister) only holds that spot because protesters drove the previous one of out office.  


These protests throughout Iraq in 2021 have been under-reported and ignored.  


December saw two resignations.  Most Americans have no idea.  The governor of Dhi Qar, Ahmed al-Khafaji resigned right before Christmas due to protest.  And, at the same time, the governor of Najaf, Louai al-Yasseri, resigned -- also due to protests.


When these protests aren't covered, I guess it's easier for the media to pretend that the ongoing Iraq War is a success.  After all, if the US truly 'liberated' the Iraqi people, all would be fine and dandy and Iraqis would have no reason to take to the streets.


But all is not well and that's why Iraqis are making their voices heard -- heard on the streets, heard via social media and heard via the  Arabic press.  Sadly, the US press really doesn't pay attention to what's actually going on in Iraq.  It's so much easier to just write 500 words or so of nothing while tossing around the term "king-maker."


Omar Sattar (AL-MONITOR) reports:


Dhi Qar Gov. Ahmed Ghani al-Khafaji and his counterpart in Najaf, Louay al-Yasiri, have resigned against the backdrop of the popular protests in December 2021 amid many political objections raised by opposition parties to the government of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

Kadhimi accepted Khafaji’s resignation on Dec. 23, 2021, and Yasiri’s on Jan. 4. Yasiri stated in his resignation letter, “I am offering to [resign from my] position, to be replaced by my deputy,” explaining that he was not subjected to pressure from the leader of the Sadr movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, or Kadhimi. Meanwhile, Khafaji stated that his resignation “serves the public interest and aims to provide security and stability and preserve the interests of the citizens of Dhi Qar.”

During the past few weeks, citizens took to the streets of Najaf calling for Yasiri’s dismissal due to poor service conditions. Shiite leader Sadr promised to work to dismiss Yasiri and stressed during his visit to Najaf on Dec. 22, 2021, that there was no need to protest and demand his resignation, explaining that there are political and legal means to dismiss him, adding, “Enough noise, enough riot.”

In Dhi Qar, Khafaji resigned after protests calling for better living conditions and job opportunities turned into violent confrontations with security forces, causing injuries among protesters. As a result, Kadhimi ordered a special investigation committee to uncover the circumstances of the incident.

Although several governors have resigned or been dismissed by Kadhimi over the past months, the political atmosphere has made the recent resignations a subject for political debate as some Shiite parties fear that the Sadr movement will control the local administration in these provinces, especially since the movement is making similar demands to dismiss the governors of Babil and Diwaniyah.

 
Meanwhile, the western press continues to file the useless Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada nonsense.  Let's drop back to Monday's snapshot for one item:



Alex MacDonald (MIDDLE EAST EYE) writes the least offensive dispatch:


Iraq's new parliament began its first session on Sunday with 329 newly-elected MPs taking their seats in the assembly.

Politicians hailing from the anti-government Tishreen movement entered the parliament for the first time and could be heard chanting "long live Tishreen revolution" after taking their oaths.

They took their seats alongside more established political parties for the first time since the October 2021 elections, which were widely boycotted and handed the political movement of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr the largest number of deputies.

Though the first session was officially opened on Sunday - at which MPs were to be tasked with electing a new speaker and deputy speaker - it had to be adjourned for deliberation after interim speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani fell ill.

Mashhadani, who as the oldest member of the parliament was tasked with filling the role, was seen in photos being carried out of the assembly by security officials.


The Tishreen Revolution is The October Revolution.  


They're in the streets and will be back in the streets.  They also may be in the Parliament.


Who is the prime minister of Iraq?  Hopefully, he is the outgoing one but he is Mustafa al-Kahdimi.  When did he become prime minister?  In May of 2020.  Why?  Because the protesters forced out Adil Abdul-Mahdi.


And is anyone going to comment on how Mustafa did not bring change?


Or how about the rest of the corrupt system that the protesters were against?  That included the Speaker of Parliament and it included the President of Iraq.


Despite -- or maybe because of -- his personal history with corruption, Mohammed al-Halbusi was given a second term Sunday as Speaker of Parliament.  


Barham Salih wants a second term as president.  Even though he belongs to the losing political party n the KRG, he believes he has the right to be president.


What about the rights of the Iraqi people?


And when does the press start championing them?  Ffity years from now when they can pretend the US government had nothing to do with the multitutde of horrors plauging the country?  


The people of Iraq took to the streets to decry corruption.  They're not seeing any changes.



The following sites updated (Stan posted twice yesterday so let me note the first one since it won't show up below "Weekend box office"):


Posted by at

1/11/2022

dan cohen and 'the gay gaston'

dan cohen has a strong article at 'mpn:'


On the afternoon of December 20, Harris County, Texas’s top elected official, Judge Lina Hidalgo held a press conference to announce what she claimed was the county’s first death from the Omicron variant of COVID-19. It was a moment in the national spotlight for the 30-year-old Democrat, who, since her teenage years, has been rising through elite institutions and forging ties with the national security state. Those connections, and her close ties to a highly-sophisticated billionaire influence operation, revealed in detail in this investigation, would prove to be vital in shaping Hidalgo’s formulation of COVID-19 and other policies.

“We just had our first Omicron related death,” she announced as groans and gasps erupted from behind masks. Hidalgo then declared she was once again raising Harris County’s COVID Threat Level – a color-coded system borrowed from the Bush-era Terror Alert Warning System – to Orange, the second highest level of alarm. Despite Omicron’s mild symptoms, Hidalgo urged the public to get booster shots, portraying them as the only way to prevent a surge of hospitalizations that would break the back of the healthcare system. “We don’t know how many of those breakthrough cases will end up turning into hospitalizations. We do know that the vaccine and the booster will keep that number very low, and that is truly our solution,” she said.

Hours later, Hidalgo blasted out a tweet claiming that the dead man hadn’t merely died with Omicron, but that the recently discovered variant was the cause of his death.

The tweet from one of the Democratic Party’s rising stars sparked a frenzy in mainstream news outlets and on social media. With the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention having announced hours before that Omicron had replaced Delta as the country’s most common variant, Hidalgo’s statement appeared to confirm rampant speculation that the newly detected and far more contagious variant was at least as deadly as its predecessors. Across the United States, lines for COVID tests wrapped around blocks as worried Americans pondered canceling holiday plans with a long winter of isolation, anxiety, and death lurking around the corner.

However, as this investigation will show, Hidalgo’s deceptive claim that Omicron caused the Texas man’s death is not only false – it served to generate fear in the general public. It is the latest chapter in the restructuring of Harris County according to the desires of power-hungry billionaires and armies of corporate consultants from New York City and Washington, D.C., with Hidalgo’s progressive image as a fig leaf.


the national security state is spawning and reproducing  and lina hildago is proof of that.  


now for something much more pleasant, 'the gay gaston.'





let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'



Tuesday, January 11, 2022.  The new year is young but Medea Benjamin has already spouted more stupidity than a person should have a right to.  First . . . 


Hassan Ali Ahmed (AL-MONITOR) reports that Speaker of Parliament Mohammed al-Halbusi has the approval of Moqtada al-Sadr.

Huh?

How is that news?

It was already clear on Sunday.  That's when, as things got out of hand and Moqtada was being challenged and Mahmoud Daward al-Mashhadani staged his fainting spell.  Mohammed played along with it.  That was all you needed to know.

It was interesting to read the write-ups on that fainting spell.  First, they never noted how fake it was.  Second, they never noted the fake it was coming from.  Mahmoud was once a prisoner of US forces.  Much later, when he was Speaker of Parliament, he would call Iraqis who killed US troops "heroes" and he would be eased out of the Parliament because his bodyguards attacked a Shi'ite MP.


Bringing Mahmoud in to rule over Sunday's session let you know it had all been planned ahead of time.  As for Mohammed al-Halbusi, he's a made man in Anbar.  And, yes, that is what it sounds like.  Construction was very good for many criminal elements and Mohammed was just one example.  He used his influence to become governor of Anbar Province in 2017 -- this was after the sitting governor was removed (Suahaib al-Rawi) when he began dismissing officials as part of a corruption clean up.  No such concerns with Mohammed who feels he's among friends when he's elbow to elbow with the corrupt.

That's why so many were laughing last August when Mohammed accused his rival Khamis al-Khanjar of selling Sunni land off for profit.  


Crooks in the Iraqi government?  Why not, they're in every other government as well.

Which brings us to War Criminal Tony Blair.  THE TIMES OF ISRAEL reports:

A petition to strip former British prime minister Tony Blair of his knighthood due to his role in the Iraq War has gained more than 1 million signatures and the backing of at least one Labour MP.

The petition, posted on Change.org a week ago, accuses Blair of causing “irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation’s society.”

Blair “was personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent, civilian lives and servicemen in various conflicts,” the petition claims. “For this alone he should be held accountable for war crimes. Tony Blair is the least deserving person of any public honor, particularly anything awarded by Her Majesty the Queen.”

On January 1, Buckingham Palace announced that Blair had been made a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, the oldest and most senior British order of chivalry. The knighthood given to Blair, who served as prime minister from 1997 to 2007, was decided by the queen and made without government advice.


 

Crooked Tony.

Tony Blair claimed £7,000 in expenses for a new roof on his second home, just 2 days before leaving office.
Image
2:06 PM · Jan 6, 2022




While criminals like Tony Blair walk free, Julian Assange is imprisoned for telling the truth.  Part of the reason he's impisoned may be his helpers or 'helpers.'  Courage Foundation Tweets:

TODAY: Day of Action for #Assange Call the DOJ's comment line and tell Attorney General Merrick Garland to #DropTheCharges against Julian Assange Co-sponsored by
@WAMMwomen
,
@Roots_Action
, Veterans For Peace Chapter 27 &
@DefenseAssange
#FreeAssangeNOW assangedefense.org/press-release/


What do you think is going to happen from that?  Merrick's going to feel pressure?  Not at all.

Why are you so damn scared to drop this where it belongs?

Joe Biden. He's the one overseeing things.  He's the one Merrick answers to directly (ultimately, Merrrick will answer to the people but that's a ways off -- they usually have to be out of office before they grasp that).  So put it on Joe's doorstep.

Let him know just how many people are watching.  He's not accomplished anything.

Can we all just be honest?  He's accomplished nothing.  If history holds, he will lose at least one House of Congress in the mid-terms.  If history holds, his first year was the year to be bold and pass bold moves.  That time is now over.  

He's a useless figure.  And if you'd grasp that, you might grasp how much power a real movement to free Julian could have on Joe who has no legacy to speak of.


2021 was his best year as president.  There's no imporvement.  Not even some break through stem-cell research is going to turn 79-year-old Joe into a charasmatic and powerful leader.  It's over.

The White House staff realizes that.  The mood there is dour.  

Smart people are updating their resumes and planning to bail soon because they know it's only going to get worse.  And they grasp that, at some point, news outlets are going to stop trying to prove they're 'tough' and 'independnet' by going after Kamala and finally have to go after Joe himself.

Merrick?

You're not accomplishing anything.

Joe makes the call.  If history tries to land it at Merrick's doorstep, all he has to say is he tried privately.  When you have no real power, you can't take the real blame.  

Joe's the one with the power and attempts at holdin gthe US government accountable are laughable until they start being directed at the president of the United States and not an underling.


Staying with the US government, RUDAW reports:

The US Embassy in Baghdad released a statement on Monday welcoming the fifth Iraqi parliament, congratulating the newly elected officials, and expressing hope in the quick formation of a new government.

In the statement, the embassy highlighted the role and significance of the parliament, calling it an integral and inseparable component of Iraq’s democratic process and its national sovereignty.


Hoping for a quick formation?  Hmm.  October 10th elections and it's January 11th right now.  Hmmm.  

In other news, PRESS TV reports:

Several roadside bomb attacks have targeted convoys carrying logistical equipment belonging to the US military south of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and in the country’s southern province of Muthanna, amid strong public opposition to the prolonged presence of American occupation forces on Iraqi soil.

Sabereen News, a Telegram news channel associated with Iraqi anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) or Hashd al-Sha’abi, reported that an explosion hit trucks belonging to US forces in Baghdad’s southern Hur Rajab area at 7:30 a.m. local time (04:30 GMT) on Tuesday.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. 

Shortly afterward, a bomb attack targeted a logistics convoy of US forces in the town of Adwaniyah.



But remember, Jibberish spouting Joe insists that the combat mission ended for US troops.  Someone please advise the various bombs and drones of this change.  



The good news is that U.S. bombing of those 3 countries has significantly decreased from the over 12,000 bombs and missiles it dropped on them in 2019. In fact, since the withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces from Afghanistan in August, the U.S. military has officially conducted no air strikes there, and only dropped 13 bombs or missiles on Iraq and Syria – although this does not preclude additional unreported strikes by forces under CIA command or control.



"The good news"?? Dumb bitch, when you're talking about civilians being bombed, there's no "good news" and you look more stupid than ever when you try to pimp that the US "only dropped 13 bombs or missiles."


That Medea is what passes for a peace leader in the US goes a long, long way towards explaining why there's no real peace movement in the US.  


I wonder if the victims of the bombings feel Medea's spreading "good news"?  




The following sites updated:






 




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