Category: government

District 9

On By Rick McIn government, moviesLeave a comment

I really liked this oddball film.

district-9-bench-ad

… the setting of District 9 is inspired by historical events that took place in South Africa during the apartheid era, with the film’s title particularly alluding to District Six.

District Six, an inner-city residential area in Cape Town, was declared a “whites only” area by the government in 1966, with 60,000 people forcibly removed and relocated to Cape Flats, 25 km (15 mi) away. …

Sony Pictures launched a “Humans Only” marketing campaign to promote District 9. Sony’s marketing team designed its promotional material to emulate the segregational billboards that appear throughout the film. …

The film received very positive reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 91% of critics gave the film a positive review …

The film received four Academy Awards nominations … It was also the first mockumentary style film to be nominated for Best Picture. …

Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.

Bill Murray as FDR

On By Rick McIn government, movies1 Comment

I love everything Bill Murray. Predictably, I smiled all the way through this romp.

Hyde Park on Hudson is a 2012 British biographical comedy-drama film directed by Roger Michell. The film stars Bill Murray and Laura Linney as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Margaret (Daisy) Suckley, respectively. It was based on Suckley’s private journals and diaries, discovered after her death, about her love affair with and intimate details about President Franklin D. Roosevelt. …

In June 1939, King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, made a visit to the United States, during which they stayed at President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s country estate in Hyde Park, New York. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Though Rotten Tomatoes ranks it rank — 37% — Bill Murray was nominated for a Golden Globe.

Olivia Williams as Eleanor Roosevelt was my favourite character.

loved by Albertans, hated by Eastern creeps and bums

On By Rick McIn economics, governmentLeave a comment

Ralph. Ralph. Ralph.

I liked him as Mayor of Calgary. And mostly liked him as Premier of Alberta.

Ralph

Sure he had his faults. OK, many faults.

But ran consistent, increasing surplus budgets.

Politicians are trustees of other people’s money.

I wish he was still running the show. We’d be in much healthier shape than with Stelmach or Redford.

The best summing up I’ve read is in Macleans by Colby Cosh – Ralph Klein, R.I.P.: the deceptive shape of a shadow

“Nollywood” – Black November

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, government, moviesLeave a comment

by Nigerian filmmaker, Jeta Amata.

… “Black November” is a drama about Nigeria’s Niger-Delta region. The film is weighing into the 50-year history of western exploitation of the region’s oil resources, local collusion and violent resistance to it.

Nigeria’s Niger Delta region is the world’s third largest wetland but decades of oil drilling have turned it into one of the most oil-polluted places on earth. …

… The film has a cast that include Mickey Rourke, Kim Bassinger, Hakeem Kae-Kazim and Enyinna Nwigwe.
It also features Mbong Amata, Jeta’s wife; his father, Zack and his uncle, Fred. …

read more

Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.

official website of the film

… The cinema of Nigeria grew quickly in the 1990s and 2000s to become the second largest film industry in the world in terms of number of annual film productions, placing it ahead of the United States and behind the Indian film industry.

… The average film costs between US$17,000 and US$23,000, is shot on video in just a week—selling up to 150,000–200,000 units nationwide in one day. …

… about “1,200 films are produced in Nigeria annually.” And more and more filmmakers are heading to Nigeria because of “competitive distribution system and a cheap workforce.”

Lincoln v Argo

On By Rick McIn government, movies1 Comment

I liked both films. But Lincoln is by far the more important, the more skillful.

It should have won Best Picture.

Lincoln … produced by Steven Spielberg, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as United States President Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln. The film is based in part on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s biography Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, and covers the final four months of Lincoln’s life …

Lincoln received widespread critical acclaim, with major praise directed to Day-Lewis’ performance. ..

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

Daniel Day-Lewis is first to win three best actor Oscars, having previously triumphed for 1989’s My Left Foot and 2007’s There Will Be Blood.

The role I remember him best for is William “Bill the Butcher” Cutting in Gangs of New York.

George W Bush – worst President

On By Rick McIn economics, governmentLeave a comment

Obama might be bad. Even terrible.

But history will confirm that G.W. was the worst President all time. He did more damage in 8 years than is even conceivable. I’m not sure anyone will be able to bring in a surplus budget in the foreseeable future.

George W. Bush

By comparison, I thought George H.W. Bush was pretty good.

Tomas Young, dying American vet:

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. …

… I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens.

I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States.

I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East.

I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion.

I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes.

The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences. …

read more on Dangerous Minds

the truth about Jessica Lynch

On By Rick McIn books, ethics, governmentLeave a comment

In war, truth is the first casualty.

Aeschylus

41606996-jessica-lynch

Jessica Lynch (born April 26, 1983) is a former United States Army soldier who served in Iraq during the 2003 invasion by U.S. and allied forces.

On March 23, 2003, Private First Class Lynch was serving as a unit supply specialist with the 507th Maintenance Company when her convoy was ambushed by Iraqi forces during the Battle of Nasiriyah. …

… Actually, she was in a convoy of cooks and mechanics who got lost driving at night, sadly driving right into the heart of Iraqi controlled Nasiriyah. By accident.

Many were killed unnecessarily. Her friend, Lori Piestewa, leading the convoy was one of them.

Lynch was seriously injured and captured. Her subsequent recovery by U.S. Special Operations Forces on April 1, 2003 received considerable media coverage and was the first successful rescue of an American prisoner of war since Vietnam and the first ever of a woman.

Of course the rescue wouldn’t have been necessary if a U.S. convoy could read a map. Follow the GPS.

Bush press aid Jim Wilkinson was blamed for spinning and exaggerating the story. Later he was cleared of most of the blame for headlines like this.

Lynch kept firing until she ran out of ammo

lynch_headline_post

The media, quick to accept unsubstantiated reports, are more to blame.

… On April 24, 2007, she testified in front of Congress that she had never fired her weapon; her M16 rifle jammed, and that she had been knocked unconscious when her vehicle crashed. Lynch has been outspoken in her criticism of the original stories reported regarding her combat experience. When asked about her heroine status, she stated “That wasn’t me. I’m not about to take credit for something I didn’t do… I’m just a survivor.” …

I believe she’s a teacher now. And a Mom.

Don’t trust politicians. Especially in times of war. Especially this guy.

Bush catapulg

Catapult the propoganda. (VIDEO)

In war, casualties are the second casualty.

related – I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story

Krakauer – Pat Tillman and American Wars

On By Rick McIn bad news, books, economics, governmentLeave a comment

Tillman500Pat Tillman, a free-thinking, hard-hitting safety for the Arizona Cardinals, walked away from a multimillion-dollar contract after 9/11 to enlist in the Army.

He joined an elite unit, the Rangers, and was killed on April 22, 2004, in a canyon in eastern Afghanistan.

The story did not end there: Tillman’s commanders and possibly officials in the Bush administration suppressed that he had been killed accidentally by his own comrades. They publicly lionized Tillman as a hero who died fighting the enemy and fed the phony account even to Tillman’s grieving family. The sordid truth, or most of it, came out later.

The best-selling author Jon Krakauer … told the full story in “Where Men Win Glory.” …

read more in the NY Times review by Dexter Filkins, author of “The Forever War.”

I read everything Krakauer writes. An odd guy, he’s one of our best living writers.

Why did Krakauer pick Tillman?

PAT TILLMAN

The story is symbolic of the disaster of the USA invading the Middle East.

What did cost?

What did the American people gain from invading Iraq and Afghanistan?

It’s unlikely the USA will ever again have enough money to engage in a war that ineffective.

I recommend the book. Especially for any young people considering joining any Military.

krakauerbook_custom-700b33c5da722664913b3d904872131ffb20f7bb-s6-c10

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman

related:

Pat’s brother Kevin wrote an anti-war essay titled Revisiting ‘After Pat’s Birthday’

Pat’s Mom Mary Tillman – Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman

Pat’s wife Marie Tillman – The Letter: My Journey Through Love, Loss, and Life

climate change – SOLVED

On By Rick McIn economics, education, food, good news, government, things getting betterLeave a comment

I’m a “global warming” skeptic.

The climate is changing as it always has. Ice ages come and go.

I’m skeptical that the Earth is warming mainly due to fossil fuels. And I hope I’m right. Because there is almost NO chance that the world is going to reduce the use of fossil fuels anytime soon.

Here’s the best solution I’ve yet heard. Allan Savory’s explains how we can improve the world’s climate in a cost efficient way. AND feed millions of the poorest of the poor at the same time.

Click PLAY or watch it on TED.

“Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert,” begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And it’s happening to about two-thirds of the world’s grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos. Savory has devoted his life to stopping it.

He now believes — and his work so far shows — that a surprising factor can protect grasslands and even reclaim degraded land that was once desert.

Allan Savory: Grassland ecosystem pioneer

Thanks for the link, Ron.

send HSBC bankers to PRISON

On By Rick McIn ethics, governmentLeave a comment

In the USA people get sent to jail for the most trivial of reasons. They have the highest rate of incarceration in the world. By far.

I don’t get why bankers are immune.

Appearing at a Senate Banking Committee hearing Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) grilled officials from the Treasury Department over why criminal charges were not filed against officials at HSBC who helped launder hundreds of millions of dollars for drug cartels.

The HSBC scandal resulted in the Department of Justice and Treasury announcing a record $1.92 billion fine after finding that the international bank repeatedly helped the world’s most violent drug gangs move at least $881 million in ill-gotten gains through numerous countries the U.S. has economic sanctions against.

“HSBC paid a fine, but no one individual went to trial, no individual was banned from banking, and there was no hearing to consider shutting down HSBC’s activities here in the United States,” Warren said. “So, what I’d like is, you’re the experts on money laundering. I’d like an opinion: What does it take — how many billions do you have to launder for drug lords and how many economic sanctions do you have to violate — before someone will consider shutting down a financial institution like this?”..

read more – A question that has not been answered

If I was an American politician, I wouldn’t be droning on about drones. I’d be campaigning for throwing decision makers at criminal banks in prison.

I’d start with this guy, Stuart Gulliver, the chief executive of HSBC.

Gulliver

He was paid $11.1 million last year, despite missing cost and profit targets and a record money laundering fine.

I don’t care if he’s guilty or not. The captain goes down with the ship.

The political gain I’d get from personally dragging him by the ear into prison would far outweigh the years of court battles.

When people ask me why I think Obama’s a lousy President, his gutlessness in dealing with those who most caused the crash of 2008 is high on my list of reasons.

Iceland arrested corrupt bankers. … How did that work out for them? 🙂

related:

• HSBC money laundering: too big to jail

• HSBC Bankers Get No Jail Time for Terrorist Financing While Somali Sentenced for Charity