Category: GOP USA

Bombshell (2019 film)

On By Rick McIn GOP USA, government, movies, TVLeave a comment

Great cast. Not much a film, however.

Too preachy. And I felt they tried to include too much. Fewer story lines would have made it better.

 Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie star in this film based on the accounts of the women at Fox News who set out to expose CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment. …

After co-moderating the 2016 Republican debate, Megyn Kelly faces numerous insults from Donald Trump, who is upset because she asked him about his offensive comments toward women. …

Fox eventually paid the victims of sexual harassment $50 million, while paying Ailes and O’Reilly $65 million in severance.

wikipedia

Roger Ailes died age-77 in 2017.

Rupert Murdoch hired him in 1996 to become the CEO of Fox News. In 2016 Ailes was fired, taking a $65 million golden handshake. He was under investigation for sexual harassment from Megyn Kelly and many other women.

Other FOX old men accused of harassing blonde women included:

Fox Sports President Jamie Horowitz
Fox Business Host Charles Payne
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly
Fox News Latino vice president Francisco Cortes
Fox News co-President Jack Abernethy

It was the culture of FOX. Hopefully things are better now.

Personally I wish some billionaire would buy FOX News and fire most of the opinion talking heads.

Never by Ken Follett

On By Rick McIn bad news, books, ethics, firearms, GOP USA, government, Islam, things getting worseLeave a comment

As a teenager I loved Follett’s World War II thriller, “Eye of the Needle” (1974).

Follett got even more famous writing historical fiction: Kingsbridge Series ➙ Century Trilogy.

In 2021 he published a geopolitical thriller — Never. Quite a departure.

Never is set in today’s world.

The sprawling saga is a fictionalized story of our world stumbling towards a nuclear war that nobody wants.

It begins in the Sahara Desert. Islamic terrorists, drugs and human trafficking.

The American President Pauline Green is a 4′ 11″ Republican. A former gymnast. Of course she’s challenged on the right by a Trumpy populist. Top of the American agenda is a revolt in North Korea. Rebel military have seized the nuclear weapons.

A high-ranking Chinese Intelligence official offers insight into the mindset of that superpower.

This book is terrifying as you can see how a nuclear war could start. In fact, I’m affected enough to no longer want to travel to Taiwan or Korea for hiking. They are both too close to nuclear attack.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

As always, Follett writes great love stories. It’s the human stories that separate his work from other authors.

Click PLAY or watch an interview on YouTube.

Another book with a similar plot is 2034: A Novel of the Next World War (2021).

Martin Luther King Jr in 2022

On By Rick McIn economics, education, ethics, GOP USA, government, human rights, things getting betterLeave a comment

Would King be happy with what’s happening in the USA?

The murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin has led to some improvements. Here’s what’s WORKING.

The phrase “defund the police” was always stupid. It should have been “reform the police“. Reallocate funding.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

WOW – Don’t Look Up

On By Rick McIn bad news, climate change, economics, ethics, GOP USA, government, humour, media, moviesLeave a comment

I rejoined Netflix mainly to watch Don’t Look Up.

Brilliant.

Be sure to watch the credits. There are 3 endings.

Satire that reminded me of both Swift’s A Modest Proposal and Wag the Dog.

Something between a star-studded Hollywood blockbuster and an amateur YouTube documentary. Very original editing.

You’ve never seen DiCaprio like this. He had a lot of input on the script.

The cast is great. Best is Jonah Hill who plays a Don Jr. idiot appointed by his mother as the insanely unqualified  Chief of Staff.

The Republican tribe is urged to NOT LOOK UP at the planet busting comet. And deny what they can see with their own eyes. 😀 It parallels the American idiocracy of covid denial, for example. Apathy, incompetence and self-interest.

Denial of science.

It’s certain ReTrumplicans will hate this film.

This movie came from my burgeoning terror about the climate crisis and the fact that we live in a society that tends to place it as the fourth or fifth news story, or in some cases even deny that it’s happening, and how horrifying that is, but at the same time preposterously funny.[10]— Adam McKay, writer, director, and producer of Don’t Look Up

“All Lives Matter” is denial of systematic racism

On By Rick McIn ethics, GOP USA, government, human rightsLeave a comment

When your All-Lives-Matter friend has a birthday, be sure to message:

“All Birthdays Matter”. 😀

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by a white cop. 

I’m hopeful things have change for the better.  

BLM haters have been more muted since their racist President departed for the golf courses full-time. 

According to professor of critical race theory, David Theo Goldberg, “All Lives Matter” reflects a view of “racial dismissal, ignoring, and denial”.

Philosopher Chris Lebron describes “All Lives Matter” as a “disingenuous retort” that misunderstands the problem raised by Black Lives Matter proponents.

On Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill Maher expressed support for use of the “Black Lives Matter” phrase, stating that “‘All Lives Matter’ implies that all lives are equally at risk, and they’re not”. …


Movie – Trial of the Chicago 7

On By Rick McIn ethics, GOP USA, government, moviesLeave a comment

On the 51st anniversary of the trial verdict, Netflix put this film on YouTube for free.

 It’s the true story of the seven people on trial (eight including Bobby Seale) for protesting the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The film depicts both the courtroom drama and circus surrounding the trial, as well as the protests in which people were beaten by Chicago police for expressing their constitutional rights. …

The Wrap

Sacha Baron Cohen plays Abbie Hoffman.

Sacha Baron Cohen has become the conscience of the American people. Certainly a hero of mine.

Born in England, of course.

Any thinking person in 2021 knows that the Vietnam War was a huge mistake.

80% of Americans once supported that war, fearing Communism. 80% of Americans were wrong.

The Chicago 7 were right. Mohammad Ali was right.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

$5 trillion COVID relief mostly gone to the RICH

On By Rick McIn ethics, GOP USA, government, health & fitness, things getting worseLeave a comment

American taxpayers are throwing around money like drunken sailers.

WHY have the outcomes been so lousy?

Just 400 wealthy families provide about half the funding for presidential campaigns, and they speedball their influence through think tanks, legal advocacy groups, and friendly media.

Rupert Murdoch, the Mercer family, Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos all shape our views and influence national policy.  …

… $3 trillion in new money and historically low interest rates have been the nitro and the glycerin, respectively, of the stock market’s ascent.

The dirty secret is that there are two pandemics. While a quarter of America is food insecure and behind on rent, the shareholder class has experienced an explosion in net worth …

Professor Galloway

On the U.S. / Canada border

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, GOP USALeave a comment

I’m with the vast majority of Canadians who want to keep the border closed as of October 2020.

The USA has had about 663 deaths / million so far. And is getting worse.

Canada about 263 deaths / million. And getting worse at this moment in time. Not good, but a LOT better than the States.

I don’t want to get the virus. I want to be one of the 20-40% who never get it once herd immunity is reached.

Though Trump totally bungled the U.S. response, almost 43% of Americans still support him.

They are the same ones who told me COVID-19 is less deadly than the common flu. They believed FOX and Trump.

They are the same ones who told me hydroxychloroquine was a ‘cure’. Not even Trump took it when he got sick.

I don’t want that 43% of Americans anywhere near me or my family.

I’m willing to suffer the economic and personal consequences.

Some families are now separated by the border. Canadians can still fly to the States, so it’s possible for them to get together — but that doesn’t work for those who can’t fly.

I might reconsider under a Biden Presidency. But it’s unlikely. Covid denying Americans will be even more agitated.

This morning I spoke with a Canadian who somehow just drove back from California. There are exceptions to the border crossing rule.

Here’s the sign she had to put on her window.