Friday, April 29, 2022

Alfred Hitchcock

Six months ago, Carter, who is a film major, e-mailed asking if I would post something on Alfred Hitchcock like what my favorite film of his was?  I said sure.  And then I forgot.  Carter e-mailed to remind me.


So let me start with that.  Director Alfred Hitchock was a pioneer of British cinema who came over to the US in 1939 where he became one of the world's most prominent directors.  He also ended up having program on US TV.  


Let me start with my least favorite Hitchock film.  REAR WINDOW.  Bores the hell out of me but I'm not a Jimmy Stewart fan.  It's not the fact that he was conservative in real life before anyone e-mails arguing that. And I'm pretty sure he wasn't as conservative as he pretended.  I'm pretty sure he had 'flirtations' with men.  But anyway, I don't like him.  I can take him in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY because he's a supporting character and I can take him in VERTIGO which I'll get to in a minute.  But he's just too off putting for me.  I think the parody on REAR WINDOW on FAMILY GUY is more pleasing than the film.


VERTIGO is one of my favorite Hitchcock films -- so much so that I'm not even bothered by Stewart or by Barbara Bel Geddes sending off some in-the-closet-lesbian vibe while she's supposed to be deeply in love with Stewart.  Kim Novak makces the film for me as does the location work and the general story.  I think it's one of Hitchcock's finest films.  


BIRDS?  I always want to like it and then I watch.  And it's so slow and boring to me.  Suzanne Pleshette adds some spark in her scenes but the thing just lays there.


MARNIE is flawed but it holds my attention.  I love PSYCHO and it is all that a scary film should be.  And a classic like that, in anyone else's filmography would be the thing everyone pointed to as the greatest achievement.


But Hitchcock doesn't have one great achievement, he has many, many classic films.  SUSPICION is a tight drama where you wonder if Cary Grant wants to ill his wife Joan Fontaine.  NOTORIOUS is pure magic as Cary Grant forces Ingrid Bergman to basically whore herself out for the government only to end up falling in love with her.  TO CATCH A THIEF is another classic -- and the first film I ever bought from AMAZON on streaming.  It's about catching a cat burglar.  But it's not the police that really want to catch Grace Kelly, it's Cary Grant because she's imitating his m.o. and making it seem as though he's back in business.  Then there's NORTH BY NORTHWEST with Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant on a train, in a house on stilts, on Mt. Rushmore.  


Those four films all have Cary Grant and he's the best leading man Hitchcock ever had.


In addition to those four films and PSYCHO, we're still not done.


STRANGERS ON A TRAIN is a great and much imitated film (I love THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN).  LIFEBOAT is amazing and ROPE works somehow (it shouldn't work as a movie, but it does).  You've got this long, long list of great films.


And for me, the best one is . . . FAMILY PLOT.  It's his final film and he goes out with a bang.  This is a great film.  It's funny and it's got suspense and it's got a lot of charm.


fp15

 

Karen Black and William Devane kidnap people.

 

And along comes Barbara Harris and Bruce Dern.  And  . . .

fp 1313


Devane's convinced he's being exposed.  But she has no idea of his crimes.  Barbara Harris is just trying to get reward money from an elderly woman who's paying her to find her long-lost nephew (Devane).


It's really a great film for Hitchcock to go out on and it's my favorite of all of his films.



Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

 Thursday, April 28, 2022.  The bloom's falling off Barack's rose and the persecution of the Kurds gets some international attention.



Building on comments Rebecca ("follow it back to barack") and Elaine ("Joe Biden continues to hurt other Democrats") made last night, let's note how much self-inflicted prominent Democrats have done to the party.

Due to his extreme youth upon being first sworn in as president, it was always doubtful Barack Obama was going to be able to cast through to a natural death on the whorish press he got.  A historical reckoning was due and would likely be forthcoming many years before his state funeral.  

But Barack appears to be hastening his own reckoning.  


Joe Biden's questionable actions as vice president with regard to raking in money via Hunter Biden's corrupt deals?  We would not be talking about it now if Barack hadn't fixed the process so that Joe got the nomination.  


The press had willfully and gladly looked th other way in real time.  They had pronounced Barack scandal free -- ignoring many problems that were visibile all along and I'd certainnly include releasing Iraqis that had murdered US soldiers in a trade for the dead bodies of some British soliders.  That was not in the interest of the US and it did not play well with the families.  THE NEW YORK TIMES, to their credit, did front page that.  No one else did.  But they -- and CNN -- made it a one day story.  Most Americanns still don't know about that to this day.


Or that the terrorist group who secured the release of their members them publicly mocked Barack to the Iraqi media repeatedly.  


Barack knew Joe wasn't up to the job which is why he refused to back Joe for the longest and why his mouth pieces made sure to hype others.  At one point, Barack was even willing to back Elizabeth Waren for the nomination.  But in his desire to stop Bernie Sanders, Barack conspired with others to deliver the blow to Bernie.  


And his thanks?  We now know just how corrupt his administration was.  We now know that Joe Biden was a part of Hunter's uethical schemes, that Joe was part of pay-to-play and granted White House access and face-to-face meetings to ensure that his family raked in millions.


Joe is the face of corruption.


And that's another reason that Anie Apples and all the rest don't want to get serious about Hunter today.


She's at THE ATLANTIC today but that's not where she was then.  And she wasn't overing reality back then.  She was whoring -- as a cheap whore will do.


For eight years they sat on their asses ad looked the other way over and over as Barack broke promises, as Barack ad his administration broke ehtical rules, as contempt of Congress was rewarded by Barack.


Someone lied to Cogress?  Well, Barack loves James Clapper.  And we all know David Peatraeus' downfall was not because of that affair and shared sectrets, it was because David was being asked to run against Barack in 2012.  


There was always more than enough scandal to see if we had a functioning press.


Barack pimped Joe and secured the nomination for him.  And that's bad when you grasp how unfavorable Joe has become to the American people.  There's a reason you should be careful before writing a letter of recommenation for someone -- your support then reflects on you.  


But the other reason that Barack should be kicking himself regarding Joe is that all the rot of his administration may be exposed.  He brought it on himself.


And he's so unpopular himself today.


I twas always seen as the 'right' thing to support Barack.  So people lied.  They thought it was the socially acceptable thing to do.


When the corporate media is telling you that there is only good and evil, and we started noting this over a decade ago, and digging through the polling data to show the conflicting responses, you're not going to get honest responses.


The edia has repeatedly demonized Repubolicans for many, many years.


It's not enough that they have a different opinion than I do, they, the voters, have to be demonized.  They're evil.  They're racist, they're stupid, they're this, they're that.


That sort of garbage shouldn't take place.  But if it does, it should be from the rival major party.  


Instead, it came from what was supposed to be neutral and impartial media.


It's not just their lies about Iraq that tarnished the media's reputation.


It's garbage like Brian Stelter who pretends to do a media critique for CNN.  Howie Kurtz used to do that job.  And I could criticize him for being elitist.  But he was striving to be impartial when it came to partisan outlooks.  Not so with Brian Stelter whose mind must be as grotesque as his body.  


The corporate media has refused to take accountability for their consuences of their actions, they refuse to even acknowledge their actions.  


Their lack of accountability only further breeds mistrust in them from healthy portion of the public -- throughout the political spectrum.  


And, yes, a Special Counsel is needed.  And, Elaine is right, it is hurting the Democrats as they go into the mid-terms.  Don't be surprised, as Americans continue to face inflation, if the GOP doesn't use Hunter against incumbent Democrats in various races.  'Joe was getting fat while you're struggling to pay bills.  Unlike ____, if you elect _____, we will hold the corrupt accountable."


Turning to Iraq.  The beggar media has followed corporate media i dismissing any interest in the Turkish government's ongoing bombing of Iraq, setting up military bases in Iraq and targeting the people of Kurdistan.  Silence.  This has been going on for years.  THE NATION hasn't been interested.  JACOBIN hasn't been interested.  It's not a 'lifestyle' piece so you know THE PROGRSSIVE won't write about it.  DEMOCRACY NOW and all the rest of the beggars have refused to cover it.


That may change.  Their British poster boy has weighed in.


Ex leader of the #UK Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn condemns UK arms sales to Turkey for use against the Kurds and condemns Turkey's invasion of Iraqi #Kurdistan. medyanews.net/labours-jeremy













Shaun Yuan (ALJAZEERA) reports:


 Turkey’s latest military operation in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq began early last week, with Ankara launching an air and ground offensive targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in pockets of Duhok province on April 18.

These operations against the PKK, an armed group fighting for the autonomy of Turkey’s southeast and considered a terrorist organisation by Ankara, have become a regular occurrence over recent years. However, they are growing more controversial in Iraq, and not just in areas administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

“This operation is basically trying to intervene and establish networks of observation, monitoring, and bases,” Sardar Aziz, an analyst and former adviser to the KRG parliament, told Al Jazeera. “This time Turkey is planning to stay.”

Only days before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the launch of the operation, dubbed Claw-Lock, he met with the KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, an apparent signal that the KRG was supportive, to a certain extent, of the operation. Erdogan has also said that the Iraqi government cooperated with the operation.


Demonstrations took place in Kurdistan.


Demonstrators gathered on Tuesday by the #UnitedNations offices in Iraq's #Kurdistan regional capital Erbil to protest against Operation Claw-Lock, a military operation launched by Turkey last week. medyanews.net/iraqi-kurds-in


This is not about the PKK.  It is about targeting Kurds and the Turkish government makes that clear with their actions outside of Turkey as well as inside.  They persecute the Kurds and they've done it for decades.  The PKK is a rsponse to this persecution -- a detail a whorish media always 'forgets' to point out.  The PKK did not rise up because things were perfect for the Kurds in Turkey.


The following sites updated:




 

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

REACHER and SUPERMAN AND LOIS



I hope you caught REACHER this year.

It's a TV series based upon the Jack Reacher novels (like the Tom Cruise films are).



REACHER is one of my favorite shows of the year. It was on AMAZON back in January and I loved it. So reading this article  and hearing that season two might have a completely different cast did not make me happy. As I read further, I cam across this and it did make me happy, "One constant of course will be Alan Ritchson as the eponymous man-mountain."


I wouldn't have watched without Ritchson. Sorry. I've already been burned by HBO's TITANS which ditched Ritchson. I have no plans to watch TITANS again.

And by the way, that's not a dig at SUPERMAN & LOIS. It is my favorite show on TV even after last night's bad episode. That show has too many strong characters to begin with. And Kyle and Lana don't get the time they deserve as a result. So to waste time with those other characters that aren't really characters and certainly aren't characters I care about?

That's just nonsense.

FRINGE did another universe as well. But there was a point to it. There was a point to the two Olivias and the two Walters and the two Broyles and the two Astridas -- only one Peter though. And they were well integrated into the show, nut just dumped on us. I was, apparently, supposed to be impressed that over there in that other universe, Lana Land is a super powered person who wears a costume. Why do I care? Honestly, I don't care. I like Lana because she tries to be a good person and raise her two daughters and now she feels betrayed by Kyle since he cheated on her. I care about her for that reason. I don't care about some fantasy Lana. And I don't care about other Supermen. John's been on since season one. In his universe, Superman killed his wife. I don't care about that. I don't wonder how or why. I like John and he's a solid character. But I'm watching Clark in the main universe and that's the only Clark I care about. And who put that wig on the other universe's Lois?

This was too many new ''characters'

New topic, ANTIWAR.COM has a piece by Chloe Courtney Bohl which opens:

A General Dynamics Mission Systems recruiting event in the Science and Engineering Complex was cut short on Monday evening when student and community protesters disrupted the event with chanting and civil disobedience.

General Dynamics, an aerospace and defense company, is the sixth-largest defense contractor in the world with billions of dollars in annual revenue. It manufactures tanks, ships, oil tankers, business jets, intelligence and surveillance technologies, missiles, rockets, components of nuclear missiles and more. Its primary customer is the U.S. Department of Defense, although it also does business with foreign governments and private corporations. General Dynamics Mission Systems is the security and technology branch of General Dynamics.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


 Wednesday, April 27, 2022.  Barack Obama calls for censorship, Turkey continues to carry out War Crimes in Iraq and has now attacked the Iraqi military.


Starting with Margaret Kimberley (BLACK AGENDA REPORT):


On April 21, 2022 former president Barack Obama gave a speech at Stanford University on the subject of social media. In typical Obamaesque fashion, he didn’t state his point plainly. He used a lot of time, more than an hour, to advocate for social media censorship. He only used that word once, in order to deny that it was in fact what he meant, but the weasel words and obfuscation couldn’t hide what Obama was talking about.

In 2016 when Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump, the candidate she thought easiest to beat, Obama first presented his lament about “disinformation” and “fake news.” His real concern was that Trump’s victory proved that millions of people paid no attention to or even scorned, corporate media. No major newspaper endorsed Donald Trump, the television networks enjoyed the ratings increases he created, but ultimately believed that a second Clinton presidency was in the offing. None of them knew that some 60 million people would go to polling places and give their votes to Trump. Hence the disquiet in November 2016, when Obama realized that having buy-in from establishment corporate media meant little if their narratives were rejected by people across the country.

Now Obama has to live with his handiwork in Ukraine. He and Joe Biden began the crisis when they partnered with right wing forces there in 2014 and overthrew the elected president. They are struggling to prop up the Ukrainians with billions of dollars while also trying to keep the American people from asking why they don’t have child tax credits, minimum wage increases, or student loan debt relief.

Obama’s answer is to cut off debate.


Humble is not a word anyone would use to describe Barack Obama.  And shame?  He feels none.  He lied bold faced to the American people.  He insisted he would end veterans homelessness and gae a date for it.  And he didn't meet it.  But the whorish media that he's defending wanted you to know that he tried.  He really, really tried.  No, he didn't.


And he didn't end it and that was the promise.  The fact checkers never went after his lie. 


They should have but they gave him a pass on everything.  The way they refuse to cover all the gaffes Joe Biden repeatedly makes -- that hockey visit to the White House was a nightmare -- because let's not show the world just how senile and unfit for office Joe is.


But the rest of the world, even the media in the rest of the world, is not as vested in protecting Joe.  They're doing compilations of Joe and noting how he doesn't know where he is and doesn't know who he's speaking to and even something as simple as stepping to the side so someone else can speak requires the dottering fool to seek help and assistance.


But back to Barack.


He put his name to a really bad documentary for NETFLIX.  Really bad.  This was the thig that they gave him millions of dollars for.  And the whorish press was quick to do their job, comparing him to a actual filmmaker of documentaries, a man over ninety who had been following nature and the environment for years. 


They pretended it was amazing.


It was garbage (Ava and I covered it in "TV: The Myths") and, as Stan noted, it never made it above number three and didn't last a week in NETFLIX's own self-reported top ten ("NETFLIX needs to cancel contract with Obama, stockholders need to demand it").  NETFLIX knew it was a dog.  That's why they provided Ava and I with it so we could do a review before it came out.  NETFLIX knew it was crap


So he's taken a huge amount of money from NETFLIX to do a job he's not qualified for and he's already failed out of the gate.


With all the troubles NETFLIX currently has, they can't afford anymore of these vanity projects in which a creator or 'creator' (Barack) is given a ton of upfront money and then leave the streamer having produced nothing that warranted any type of contract let alone a big money one.  


The stockholders need to be demanding answers as to why Barack was given that deal to begin with since he had no background in creating content.  NETFLIX didn't owe him a gold watch and pension and stockholders need to demand answers and oversight on these huge money deals that keep getting made only for the creator to fail to deliver.  


Turning to Iraq, where the government of Turkey continues to carry out War Crimes as it illegally bombs the Kurdistan and has ground troops there and has set up base camps.   THE NEW ARAB reports:


Kurdish political observers warn that Turkey's strategy behind its cross-border military incursions into the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) is not about simply fighting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), but rather is "to occupy the region and revive the dream of the Ottoman Empire." 

On April 18 Turkey launched "Operation Claw-Lock" against the PKK in the Metina, Zap and Avasin-Basyan areas of the Iraqi Kurdistan region. Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar on Monday said it had "successfully completed the first stage" of its operation. 

The New Arab conducted a phone interview with Kamaran Mantik, an Erbil-based Kurdish political science professor, on Turkey's main goals regarding its ongoing military operations in the northern Iraqi Kurdistan region.

The New Arab also spoke to Yusuf Mohammed, the former speaker of the Kurdistan parliament, who has a PhD in political philosophy.  

"Turkey's successes in its military incursions in the [Iraqi Kurdistan] depends on the international power balance and the conflicts in the region. But, Turkey has a clear strategy to re-annex the region and resurrect the Ottoman Empire," Mantik claimed. 

"Turkek is carrying out this strategy gradually. Every year, it occupies some areas, especially the strategic mountain peaks inside the [Iraqi Kurdistan], and established military bases, roads and other things for its future operations," he added. 

CPT Iraqi Kurdistan Tweets:

Turkey is targeting civilian houses in its military operations. This is a civilian house from Hrure village that was targeted by 🇹🇷 artillery shelling 3 weeks ago. This is in Barway region where 7 villages have already been displaced. #twitterkurds #Kurdistan #Iraq #Turkey


Dilan Sirwan (RUDAW) reports:

Turkey is committing continuous violations that have no legal basis, nor are there any agreements between Baghdad and Ankara, the Iraqi foreign ministry said on Sunday, adding that Turkey cannot invoke a UN Charter article for self-defense without Iraq’s approval.

“The Turkish side is carrying out continuous violations that are not based on any legal basis or agreement between the two countries, and they invoke Article 51 of the United Nations Charter for self-defense, and this cannot be implemented without official Iraqi approval,” foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed al-Sahaf told Iraqi state media.

The statement from Sahaf came after Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein was summoned by the Iraqi parliament on Sunday where he met with deputy speaker Hakim al-Zamili to answer questions regarding the Turkish operation along the Kurdistan Region’s borders.


If you're thinking about all the remarks Joe Biden has made over the invasion of Ukraine and wondering how many he's made about what's taking place in Kurdistan, the answer is zero.  Some ivasions do ot matter, apparently.  ot to him and not to the western press since they have failed repeatedly to raise the issue in White House press briefings.


They've been terrorizing the civilians in the Kurdistan and now they're firing on the Iraqi military.


A Turkish drone fired shells on a military post of the Iraqi #PMF. #Turkey #Iraq


The PMF is the Iraqi military.  It is not the PKK, the group Turkey claims to be targeting.


We'll wind down with this from the Kurdish People's Assembly:


A week into Turkey’s latest invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan, and the region faces further violence, displacement and instability. This shows the UK – and the West – urgently need to delist PKK as a terror organisation. Here’s why – and what you can do to make that happen. THREAD:
Image




When attacking Kurdish regions of Iraq & Syria, Turkey’s stated aim is to target the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). But the PKK withdrew from Turkey after 2013-2015 peace negotiations. Conflict on Turkish soil has dwindled to virtually nothing following massive repression.


Independent research proves neither the PKK nor other Kurdish political actors actually use neighbouring regions to attack Turkey. They are simply focused on self-defence, and providing basic necessities for people living under their care.


In reality, there are two reasons why Turkey launches deadly attacks like ‘Operation Claw Lock’. Firstly, Turkey can occupy swathes of Syria and Iraq. They have already established at least 41 bases in northern Iraq, violating international law.







The following sites updated: