Category: government

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

Refugees & Asylum Seekers in 2022 😕

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, governmentLeave a comment

Trump too abruptly abandoned Syria. Biden did the same in Afghanistan.

Worldwide there are millions of people trying to flee.

I don’t understand why organizations — and billionaires — are not funding MORE and BETTER refugee camps. Only about 25% of refugees are in camps.

Syria

Life in a refugee camp should be minimal. But safe. Good security. Clean water. Decent health care. Education should be provided for kids who make up about 50% of the population.

My buddy Mike Sissons is an artist in Madrid. Some of his recent work features refugees.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CXRza6KtOBw/

CANCEL me in 2022

On By Rick McIn blogs, ethics, Facebook, Google, government, human rights, TwitterLeave a comment

If you are irked that I call Donald Trump the fat golfer, please stop following my posts.

After a lifetime study of comparative religion, Joseph Campbell concluded that the best course was to Follow your Bliss. Make a list of those things in your life that you most enjoy; those things that enervate you, compel you; interest you in a sustained way. Do them!

Make a second list of those things that vex your existence. How can you avoid or minimize those? CANCEL them.

When in office I mostly called Trump the toddler President — rash, undisciplined, selfish, spoiled. Out of office fat golfer better sums up my opinion of him in a short, colourful way. Trump is the master of name calling. Since he does it, I feel it’s ethical to reciprocate.

The Ugly American

I believe in freedom of speech. The fat golfer can say whatever he wants on his golf course. BUT not in my home. Not on my blogs. Nor my social media feeds.

I also believe in the freedom to NOT listen to speech.

Since Rush Limbaugh — the Big Fat Idiot — popularized the notion of cancelling people in the 1980s, the word cancelled has become increasingly loaded. And increasingly meaningless.

Though I’m left leaning, I haven’t yet cancelled JK Rowling, Woody Allen, Jordan Peterson and many more. You should if they irritate you enough.

I AM quick to unsubscribe to organizations and people I believe are distributing dangerous and/or unethical content online.

Certainly the American GOP / FOX money making machine picks a new Mr. Potato Head to cancel every day. Gots to keep their mostly old, white supporters angry. (That story was fake news, by the way.)

The best coverage of this issue I’ve heard is on my favourite podcast – Reputation.

The Pentagon Kicks the Press Out … Again – On the Media

A judge ruled that the Pentagon’s recent restrictions on the press are unconstitutional. On this week’s On the Media, hear how Pete Hegseth’s ever-changing media policies have made it harder to cover military actions abroad. Plus, how a tenacious journalist used access to the Pentagon building to expose war crimes during the Vietnam War.  [01:00] Host Micah Loewinger sits down with Dan Lamothe, who covers the US military and Pentagon for the Washington Post, to talk about leaving the Pentagon press corps alongside reporters from major news outlets in October of last year, after refusing to sign onto stringent new rules on how they could do their reporting.   [09:45] Micah talks with Anna Merlan, senior reporter at Mother Jones, on the cast of right wing influencers and conspiracists now staffing the Pentagon press corps. Plus, Micah interviews content creator Cam Higby, a member of the new press corps, about why he agreed to the Pentagon’s restrictions on access. [33:23] Micah speaks with Laura Poitras, a journalist and filmmaker whose past works include CitizenFour, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, and Risk, to discuss her latest documentary, Cover-Up, which chronicles the life of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh and his ferocious drive to uncover government wrongdoing, and what today’s press corps can learn from him.  Further reading / watching: “Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all,” by Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima “‘Signalgate’ report contradicts Hegseth’s claim of ‘total exoneration’,”by Dan Lamothe “Meet the New Pentagon Press Corps,” by Anna Merlan Cover-Up, directed and produced by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.
  1. The Pentagon Kicks the Press Out … Again
  2. Trans People are Facing a 'Dual State' in Trump's America
  3. Trump Demands Patriotic Coverage of the War in Iran. Or Else….
  4. A Win For Mr. Nobody!
  5. Hegseth’s Pentagon Axed a Program Meant to Save Civilian Lives

A Fantastic Political Ad

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

Republican politicians in the States have found that making extreme statements somehow motivates deplorable voters to show up on Election Day.

Democrats are typically more restrained in their ads. Those are often boring.

Here’s Charles Graham who’s running for Congress. I feel like moving to North Carolina so I could vote for him. #inspiring

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Who invented the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine?

On By Rick McIn economics, government, health & fitness, things getting betterLeave a comment

Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, a married couple, are both now billionaires. 

Financial Times People of the Year for 2020.

In 2008 Özlem co-founded the biotechnology company BioNTech, which in 2020 developed the first messenger RNA-based vaccine approved for use against COVID-19.

How many lives have been saved by their vaccine? 

How much illness reduced?

They first heard of Covid on January 8th, 2020. And instantly switched from the Cancer therapy they had been researching for two decades — to Covid. 

By March 2020, they had five vaccine candidates ready to test in humans, and by November 2020, results indicated that the vaccine was more than 90% effective.

mRNA could be used for future vaccines even more quickly next time. BUT we should build manufacturing capacity NOW to be ready for the next one. 

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. 

Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack?

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Until about age-30, I assumed I’d die from nuclear radiation.

Now age-63, I’m still surprised each morning to be enjoying life.

A nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NEMP) weapon is designed to be detonated far above the Earth’s surface.

The explosion releases a blast of gamma rays into the mid-stratosphere, which ionizes as a secondary effect and the resultant energetic free electrons interact with the Earth’s magnetic field to produce a much stronger EMP than is normally produced in the denser air at lower altitudes.

Just one such weapon could kill everything electronic for months or years.

COULD YOU SURVIVE IN A TENT WITHOUT POWER? FEED YOURSELF FROM THE LAND?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.