Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) shakes hands with U.S President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S. May 16, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Nothing else in public popular media addresses the issues of the day so well.
The sixth season of the American television drama series Homeland … concluded on April 9th, 2017.
Carrie Mathison is back in the United States, living in Brooklyn, New York with her young pre-school aged daughter. She is now working at a foundation whose efforts are to provide aid to Muslims living in the United States.
Saul Berenson and Dar Adal are still CIA operatives and are dealing with counter-terrorism …
Peter Quinn is alive but has suffered a major stroke and is incapacitated. …
Rupert Friend should win all the acting awards as Peter Quinn, a disabled Vet recovering from sarin poisoning.
Jake Weber as Brett O’Keefe, TV host and fake news provocateur is fascinating. Something between Bannon and Alex Jones. A very scary guy.
Elizabeth Marvel was cast in the role of Elizabeth Keane, a senator from New York who was just elected to be the next President of the United States. This was written while it was still expected Hillary would be President.
In January 2017, days after the government of the Grindeanu Cabinet was sworn into office in Romania, protests took place throughout the country against … bills that were proposed by the Romanian Ministry of Justice regarding the pardoning of certain committed crimes, and the amendment of the Penal Code of Romania …
Opponents raised accusations that the ordinance was intended for decriminalisation of government corruption, and to help hundreds of current and former politicians to escape ongoing criminal investigations or prison sentences. …
… peak on 5 February when between 500,000 and 600,000 people protested throughout the country, thus making them the largest in Romania’s history.
So far, protestors have succeeded in compelling the government to withdraw the contested ordinance (subject to approval from the Romanian parliament), and Florin Iordache, who as justice minister was formally responsible for putting forward the ordinance, has resigned over the scandal that ensued. …
Inspired by the dictator in North Korea, Nicolae Ceaușescu was a terrible leader.
While subjecting his people to extreme austerity, he built the Palace of the Parliament … the second-largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon.
His thirst for power led to his regime bulldozing historical parts of Bucharest in the early eighties and forcing workers to build, through day and night, the enormous political and administrative complex known as the House of the People.
The grandiose palace, which was not completed in the Ceausescus’ lifetime despite the huge human and financial cost, has been called the world’s second biggest building after the Pentagon and boasts luxurious fittings. It is now Romania’s parliament building. (30% occupied) …
Under his regime, eating a banana was a rare luxury while all staple products such as milk, sugar, eggs and butter were rationed. …
The son of a Xhosa mother and a Swiss-German father, Mr. Noah recalls that “the only time I could be with my father was indoors”: “If we left the house, he’d have to walk across the street from us.” It was dangerous, as a light-skinned child, to be seen with his mother as well: “She would hold my hand or carry me, but if the police showed up she would have to drop me and pretend I wasn’t hers.” …
In the end, “Born a Crime” is not just an unnerving account of growing up in South Africa …, but a love letter to the author’s remarkable mother …
Though I was a huge science fiction fan in my teens, I never became a Le Guin fan (aside from her brilliant Left Hand of Darkness). Though a skilled writer, Le Guin’s plots are too complex to be great storytelling.
Heinlein was better.
I still feel that way. This book has a terrific plot: Shevek (a physicist) is the first from his planet in ages to travel to the supposedly utopian mother planet, Urras, in order to share an astonishing discovery.
It does not go well. Nor does the book. It’s too wordy, too complicated.
It achieved a degree of literary recognition unusual for science fiction works due to its exploration of many themes, including anarchism and revolutionary societies, capitalism and individualism and collectivism. …
Rick McCharles 