In the years since he disgraced himself in the Tawana Brawley mess, I have come to appreciate the activism of Al Sharpton but he returned to bullshit noise recently with his rant about black actors and how they were included in this year’s Oscar nominations because of his activism after last year’s Oscars. That is ridiculous and anyone who knows anything about the Hollywood process knows that. Yes, this year there are many black faces among the nominees, and they are, each and every one, worthy of their nominations. To say they are there for any other reason than their talent detracts from their accomplishments. For Sharpton to claim his big mouth put them there is an insult to each and every one of these talented people. But it wasn’t just talent that got them there. They are also there because they had strong, award worthy roles in films that displayed their obvious talents to their best abilities.
That goes back to writing and producing, not activism. I heard more stupid statements about this subject in five minutes on Sharpton’ show than I have since the last time I heard Steve Miller speak.
Yes, Hollywood is white at he top. It got that way because white men and some white women worked their way into positions of power over the years. That is how industries are built and it now allows them to make all the decisions that come out of Tinsel town. No they don’t always make the right decisions mainly because all their decisions are driven by money not art. Because of that most of their decisions are green, not black or white. That’s why it behooves black professionals to generate the product that has good roles for black actors, not blame the lack of those roles on those who decide what to make. This year’s Oscar winner, “Moonlight,” is the perfect example. Talented and dedicated people raised the miniscule $1.5 million budget and produced it as an independent film. They made a great movie that looked like it would find an audience and make money and distributors saw that and moved it into theatres. That’s how they ended up on the stage at the end of the Oscars this year. It had nothing to do with activism by Sharpton or anyone else.
There is a long honored tradition in both theatre and film that has to do with casting. You look for people who have the physical attributes of what is written on the page. This is not always upheld, not by a long shot but it is a strong enough tradition for this writer to say with confidence, if black writers write good black parts in strong black movies like, Moonlight or Fences, black actors will play them and black actors will get nominations. That’s where the basis for black nominations will come from. They may not always be green-lit by studios because, frankly black audiences have not shown a penchant for supporting the kinds of movies that get Oscar nominations and studios haven’t shown a penchant for making movies that intelligent viewers favor, but if they are good enough, they will find production in Indie circles and like many white and foreign filmmakers; that will give them an opportunity to move up to the financial stability of Hollywood status.
And while we’re on Hollywood! Yes, the mix-up at the best picture nomination was awful, embarrassing and an unforgivable screw-up by the accounting firm. But when you get right down to it, it really isn’t earth- shattering news and was so far overblown by the press that they seem to playing right into Donald Trump’s description of them. Enough all ready.
*****
Former CIA director John Brennan was on Face the Nation trashing almost everything that the Trump administration has done from travel bans to sleeping with the Russians. Brennan praises the new National Security chief Sherman McMaster, while damning Trump for talking too much, using inflammatory language and just not telling the truth. Maybe Brennan should be president.
*****
Trump’s first Foreign Policy move when he got in office was the targeting of ISIS for elimination. This involves a strategy whereby American advisors would guide local troops in attacks on Mosel and Raqqa the ISIS capitals in Iraq and Syria. The attack on Mosel is proceeding apace. We have already taken half of the city and now are working on the part across the river from the half taken. But the attack on Raqqa has lagged behind. The principal delay is that we are still training and equipping the troops who will attack Raqqa. The problem is, the troops are Kurds and Turkey doesn’t want us to arm or train Kurds, against whom they continue to be at war. It’s time for us to tell the Turks to get out of the way and let us win the war on ISIS. It’s time the Kurds had their own country anyway.
******
Just watched a commercial on which a pretty blonde woman who is very pregnant talks about how during another pregnancy her family lost their Obamacare and how she really wants the Republicans to fix it.
Yeah that’s what we all want. That’s what we have wanted for seven years. Why the Republicans? Because for almost the last six years the GOP has been in charge of the House and for the last four, both parts of Congress. All that time no one in the Republican Party spoke about fixing a clearly flawed plan. Repeal leaves millions of people without any healthcare at all. All the GOP wants to do was repeal it.
This blog has dealt with why they want to just repeal it, how they kneel at the alter of big insurance, big pharma and a medical establishment that has long abandoned its franchise for providing healthcare to those that need it, in order to worship the almighty dollar.
I have listened to many discussions of this problem. What this blog sees as the only solution to affordable healthcare for all, the single payer system, is never even mentioned. Why? Well it is mentioned occasionally but only by someone who wants to say that it will never be able to be passed. Why not? Well, the “why not” is obvious. It can’t be passed by a Republican Congress, either House or Senate because they, along with some Democrats are in the pockets of the insurance companies. But it isn’t only that. It’s also that the GOP by its nature is opposed to any big government policies. No government policy is bigger than universal healthcare.
*****
The Trump ban on immigration is such a farce that it defies comparison. Of the six countries that Trump claims to be protecting us against, none have been responsible for a single instance of terrorism in this country in the last forty years., Saudi’s bombed the world trade center – twice. Pakistani’s hit Boston. But no one from the six countries named in the Ban have had anything to do with a terrorist act here in most
of our lifetimes. We know that Trump is just trying to make it look like he’s getting something done by fulfilling hollow campaign promises, but so far this administration has actually accomplished nothing.
******
Watched Fareed Zacharia interview Dimitri Peskov, the Russian Press secretary and the guy is smooth as whale shit. We should have such a smooth, clever press secretary. He makes Sean Spicer look like a nasty kid with ADD. But despite his charm and suave demeanor Peskov is just another liar and deceiver. The difference between him and Trump’s followers is that he makes you like him as he deceives you. Trump’s people just make themselves look like fools.
****
Now let’s talk about happiness – the goal of most people in the world. I bring this up because it relates directly to the differences between American conservatives and American liberals and the goals they have for this country. What I mean is, if we aren’t shooting for happiness what the hell else is there? You get happy by being functional, successful and able to pretty much do what you want. Helping others also makes us happy, as does doing generally good deeds. Try it sometime and see for yourself. So where does this country rank on the world happiness index? Not first as many of you would like to think but 13th. Canada’s 6th and Israel is 11th. That should give you some idea of the kind of trouble we’re in. But the most important statement of the happiness list is that the first give countries on the index; Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Finland are all socialist countries, countries with huge taxes and enormous entitlement systems but almost no poverty. What does that tell us? Maybe that poverty’s an enormous roadblock to happiness. Maybe that having to constantly worry about feeding your kids trying to ensure they get a decent education keeps you from being happy.
So why can’t we learn that lesson? Why is it that we let a small percentage of very rich but very greedy people keep the rest of us from attaining happiness? Why do we let this small group run our lives, deprive us of what we need to achieve happiness in the physical sphere because there is certainly more than one way to be happy and just being financially secure isn’t going to guarantee happiness. But it is something that we can deal with on a purely political and governmental basis.
It’s obvious what such a transition would mean to the poor but what will it cost the rich? Will they now be just middle class or horror of horrors actually average? Of course not, even if overtaxed the way they were after WWII, they would still be rich and like the millionaires who were taxed at 90% in that era, they would sill have more than enough money and still be rich.
So where is the difference? Well, you start with free healthcare, add free education, 12 months maternity leave with pay and a paid five week vacation. It’s a good start to being at least happier than we are now.
Danes can pay as much as a 60% tax rate but their poverty rate is almost non-existent and they are aware of the huge benefits they get in quality of life. They have the highest income equality rates in the world. Social mobility is high because the problems are low. The Danes have two words, hygga and janta that refer to making a warm cozy loving place to live and to not being so worried about winning or making the most money. The latter, of course, runs directly into the face of the American need to excel. But maybe we’d be better off not being so into that. We currently have a president who is so into winning that he is willing t crush what’s left of the happiness out of this country just to show what a phony winner he is. Of course he’s achieving just the opposite and making life miserable for everyone.
No, this writer isn’t promoting socialism as such but maybe the same form of democratic socialism that seems to be sP successful in the Scandinavian countries wouldn’t hurt. Maybe it’s worth giving it a try. We’ve already got the exceptional part nailed down pretty tight. Maybe it’s time to work on the part where we create functional living for all our citizens. Sue it’s never going to work for everybody but it would be a hell of a thing if we could bring a good life to a majority of the people. That would be something we could be really proud of.