At THIRD, Dona has a book review ["Book Bargain (Dona)"] of MOTOWN founder Berry Gordy's TO BE LOVED. Be sure to check that out. Chris Hedges has a book review at SCHEERPOST and let me note rhat:
he New Age writer David Icke has been used to condemn Alice Walker, one of America’s most important and courageous authors. The organizers of the Bay Area Book Festival disinvited Walker, who won the Pulitzer prize for fiction for The Color Purple, after receiving complaints charging that Walker embraced the anti-Semitic writing of the New Age author David Icke, who she has praised for being “brave.” The festival organizers also attacked her poem “It is our (Frightful) Duty to Study the Talmud” for being anti-Semitic, blaming it on Icke’s influence. I wrote a column denouncing the smearing of Walker, her disinvitation and called for the public and presenters to boycott the festival over her blacklisting.
Icke was accused of being anti-Semitic and allegedly promoting the forged and rabidly anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion in a December 17, 2018 article in The Tablet,which describes itself as an “online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture.” The article by Yair Rosenberg was titled “The New York Times Just Published an Unqualified Recommendation for an Insanely Anti-Semitic Book.” The charges made by The Tablet appear to have been accepted uncritically by numerous critics of Walker, few of whom appear to have read Icke’s book.
I don’t allow my students at Princeton, Columbia, Rutgers, or any other college I teach at, to engage in class discussions about the assignment unless they have done the reading. They owe the author, and those who have invested time in his or her work, an informed debate. I asked the festival director if she had read the book. She conceded she had not.
I ordered and read Icke’s book And the truth shall set you free. I found most charges against him inflated, distorted, misinterpreted and, in some cases, patently false. He is careful not to be overtly anti-Semitic but he does embrace conspiracy theories that include Jewish organizations. He claims these organizations are members of the vast conspiracy apparatus waged by extraterrestrials against us. It is wrong to call him anti-Semitic, although there are numerous passages and ideas in the book that are justifiably offensive to many people, including Jews.
I don’t embrace Icke’s world view. It is full of secret cabals, telepathy, the paranormal, reincarnation, extraterrestrials and Satanic control of nearly all the religious, social and political institutions in human society. I remain rooted in the Cartesian, Niebuhrian interpretation of human reality, imparted to me by my father, a Presbyterian minister, and my professors at Harvard Divinity School. This interpretation, known as “Christian realism,” eschews stories of miracles and magic in the Bible to focus on justice, personal morality, freedom of conscience and the call to stand with the “crucified” of the earth. Although very little of what Icke writes resonates with me, Walker’s life and writing exhibit the values and ethic I seek to achieve.
His cosmology is not dissimilar to other New Age beliefs, such as Scientology, which believes that Xemu, the dictator of the “Galactic Confederacy,” brought billions of his people to earth in a spacecraft 75 million years ago. These people were massed around volcanos and killed with hydorogen bombs. The immortal spirits of these victims, known as thetans, adhere to humans, causing spiritual harm. Humans must learn to free themselves from the “encumbrances acquired in this life and in past existences” in order to access full thetan powers. :
I haven't read the book, I found Chris' comments interesting. Somewhere at THE COMMON ILLS, when this first became an issue a few years back, C.I. commented on this noting that Alice is an artist and her imagination was sparked by the book and she has no apologies to make for that. I agree.
"TV: GRACE AND FRANKIE winds down while THE OFFER never should have started" (Ava and C.I., THE THIRD ESTATE SUNDAY REVIEW):
Notice a name missing? Yep. Sam Waterston. He's been a problem from the start. Dropping back to our 2015 review:
More than anything else, the show needed a studio audience.
If it had one, Sam Waterston wouldn't be mincing.
The immediate reaction from the studio audience would have forced Waterston to reconfigure his character.
Did no one have the guts to tell the actor to stop it?
Did no one have the guts to tell him that he was portraying an offensive stereotype?
He's all popped-eyes, raised eyebrows and high pitched voice.
That's how he plays his gay character (Lily Tomlin's ex-husband).
It's insulting.
Martin Sheen, by contrast, doesn't feel he needs to reconfigure his voice or pop his eyes.
Watching Waterston mince it up, you're not only offended, you're also asking yourself, "Wait? No one knew he was gay?"
Because that is the premise, that Grace and Frankie have no idea their husbands are gay or having been having a 20 year affair.
Sol started out an insulting stereotype and that's how he concluded. Sam Waterston was one long offense, season after season. That he was gay was supposed to be a surprise that he hid. Not only are we not seeing that but we're also wondering how he was a high-powered lawyer in court with that voice?
Sol was an embarrassment to the very end. Over the years, we've learned to ignore him. And, as Waterston and Martin had their last scene together, we regretted it. The two were at a hotel, stepped into an elevator and, as they were about to kiss, the doors closed. Did they ever kiss?
That's the only reason we regretted ignoring the offensive Sol all these episodes, we don't remember them ever kissing romantically, but did they?
The
show's gotten a lot of credit for its portrayals of women in thee their
third act still being romantic and sexual beings. But what did they go
for elderly gay men? Anything?
"What's tragic," insists Juno Temple as Bettye in THE OFFER about Janis Joplin's death, "is o.d.ing over a cancelled menage a trois with two other women."
That's what's being offered on PARAMOUNT+ -- a straight woman making homophobic comments. So, yeah, it does matter whether or not GRACE AND FRANKIE used their seven seasons to advance the portrayals of gay men.
And it does matter what is getting a green light.
THE OFFER got one and, as any reviewer can tell you, it didn't warrant one. It's referred to as unneeded, navel gazing at the making of PARAMOUNT's film THE GODFATHER.
And that is true but it's committing a bigger crime and what The Water Cooler Set ignores, we don't.
Sal Mineo.
Remember him? Two time Academy Award nominee (REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and EXODUS). His other films include GIANT, THE OTHER WAR OF MAJOR BENSON, THE LONGEST DAY, WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR?, CHEYENNE AUTUMN, THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD and ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES. Sal was Sicilian.
If there's a reason to tell the story about the making of THE GODFATHER all these years later, it's to correct the past. A two-time Academy Award nominee who happened to be Sicilian was denied a role in the film. Did people not think Sal could act?
Sal's acting was not in question. Francis Ford Coppola was prepared to cast Sal until one actor had a hissy fit. PARAMOUNT was high on James Caan and wanted him for Michael but would settle for him as Sonny. What Caan would not do was work with a bi-sexual actor. He would quit, he insisted if they cast the "f*g" in the film.
He got away with that. Sal's career, his life, might have been so much different but for Caan and for PARAMOUNT rewarding Caan's homophobia.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Monday, May 2, 20225. Dust storms again in Iraq (and in Joe Biden's mind as well) and much more.
Whores got their weekend with a DC event that should have been retired long ago. Court jester Trevor Noah made joes about8 inflat8ion and US President Joe Biden lapped it up.
Yes, they are laughing at the American people. Yes, it's disgusting.
Joe's got jokes because, well, he is a joke. How wonderful that, as American struggle to deal with the out of control inflation, that he can laugh and shuck and jive.
Joe Biden is a horrible leader. And jokes about "Cinderella's castle" don't8 improve his standing, they only make him look even more senile.
May Day fell the day after Joe Biden's buffoonery. While he was shucking and jiving, David North (WSWS) pointed out):
This year’s May Day is being held under extraordinary circumstances. The world stands on the precipice of a nuclear world war that threatens the extinction of life on this planet. The challenge of May Day 2022 is to make this celebration of the international unity of the working class the beginning of a global movement of the broad mass of the world’s population to stop the criminal and reckless escalation of the NATO-Russia war toward nuclear conflict and force its end.
The organization, development and victory of this movement requires a clear understanding of the causes of the war and the interests that it serves.
The International Committee of the Fourth International, the World Party of Socialist Revolution, unequivocally denounces US and European imperialism for instigating the conflict with Russia. This is not a war in defense of democracy in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world. It is a war whose aim is the redivision of the world, that is, a new allocation of the material resources of the globe.
Russia has become a target of US imperialism not because of the Putin regime’s autocratic character, but because, first, its defense of the interests of the Russian capitalists collide with the drive of the United States for global hegemony, which is centered on its preparations for war with China; and, second, the vast expanse of Russian territory is the source of immensely valuable and strategically critical raw materials, metals and minerals—gold, platinum, palladium, zinc, bauxite, nickel, mercury, manganese, chromium, uranium, iron ore, cobalt and iridium, to name only a few—that the United States is determined to bring under its control.
The other major imperialist powers allied with the United States are, likewise, pursuing their own reactionary economic and geostrategic interests. The conflict in Ukraine has provided German imperialism—which waged a war of extermination against the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1945—with the opportunity to undertake the most massive rearmament campaign since the collapse of the Nazi regime. As always, British imperialism is eager to participate in an American-led war, hoping that its “special relationship” with the United States will entitle it to a favorable distribution of the spoils of war. The French imperialists hope that by sanctioning, however reluctantly, the American war against Russia, the United States will not interfere with French operations in Africa. Even the lesser powers of the NATO alliance expect to be repaid for their endorsement of the US-led war. Poland, for example, has not forgotten that Lviv was once the Polish city of Lwow.
As for the United States’ invocation of the sacred right of Ukraine, as a sovereign nation, to join NATO if it so chooses, Washington does not recognize the extension of that right to any country whose national defense interests are viewed as a threat to American security. Even as the crisis unfolds in Ukraine, the United States is threatening military action to stop the Solomon Islands—6,000 miles away from the American West Coast—from entering into a defensive relationship with China.
Joe supports the Nazi government in Ukraine that he and Barack Obama installed back in 2014 as they trashed the results of the election. The government is a menace to many but Joe wants to back it because, well, he's senile.
Jason Melanovski (WSWS) reports:
As the NATO proxy war against Russia rages in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian government is carrying out a campaign of domestic repression against alleged “collaborators” and “traitors” in order to bolster its pro-war agenda and eliminate any opposition that may favor a negotiated peace with Moscow to end the war.
Last week the Kyiv Independent reported that “a hunt for alleged collaborators is underway in recaptured parts of the country.” The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) along with the national and local police, territorial defense units and the State Emergency Service, are leading the hunt for suspects.
According to the Kyiv Independent, the SBU had already arrested 33 suspects in Kiev by April 7, and by April 15, over 300 alleged collaborators had been arrested.
It is unclear how the SBU is able to deduce exactly who collaborated with the Russian forces other than relying on the testimony of neighbors.
Such an approach leaves the door wide open for the settling of petty grievances between neighbors and the arrest and jailing—or perhaps worse—of innocent Ukrainians who are not enthusiastic supporters of a NATO-backed war that is destroying large parts of an already impoverished country.
The report comes on the heels of the revelation that Kiev was supplied with advanced face-scanning technology by the American firm Clearview AI and that such technology was already being used to identify dead Russian soldiers and scan the faces of Ukrainian citizens in order to find “traitors.”
That's the government that Joe Biden and billions of US tax dollars are supporting. It's outrageous that US tax dollars are used to prop up that oppressive regime to begin with but8 at a time when Americans are facing huge inflation, it's outrageous.
As a ma8n we did a ZOOM w8ith weeks ago pointed out, he's Diamond Joe Biden, grabbing the check to pay for dinner with his new pals while his own children are back home starving.
He's so out of touch, he doesn't even realize it.
Meanwhile, the British government is being pressured to demand the release of one of their citiens from Iraq. No, not the over 80-year-old who just died in custody and was leading the tour and no one seems to know the name of. The other one. Th eone whose family sure does get a lot of press on. Robert Pether hasn't had as much press since Iraq put him beind bars as this man has had in the last three days.
The enw move is to push him as a modern day Indiana Jone1
Problems?
Indiana wasn't British. Indiana wasn't a geologist who worked for Big Oil. Indiana had a doctorate Archaeology.
The Brit was trying to leave Iraq with what he says were shards that
someone gave him persmission for but which Iraq argues were historical
artifacts. And anyone with a basic education, knows you dont try to
leave a country with shards of anything -- especially not a country that
the UK has already plundered repeatedly for decades.
Once again, dust storms throughout Iraq.
NNA reports, "Clouds of yellow dust covered most of southern Iraq, including the capital, Baghdad, and is expected to continue until Monday, according to the Meteorological Department." Australian ASSOCIATED PRESS adds, "Iraq's state news agency INA reported that five Iraqi provinces including Baghdad and Najaf were shrouded in dust storms on Sunday, causing an unspecified number of people to suffer serious breathing-related problems."
AFP is again reporting "dozens" have been hospitalized. They never learn and AFP hires journalists who lack basic counting skills. See April 9th's "AFP needs to learn to count -- over 429 is not 'dozens'." As AFP again runs with ''dozens'' despite, again, the number being much, much higher. In Najaf alone, ALSUMARIA reports 500 people were hospitalized. And the Health Department of Najaf is the source for the 500 figure. And Sal al-Din province counts 152 people hospitalized. That's just two areas and it's 652. That's not "dozens."
BOL NEWS notes, "In April, Iraq was pummelling by a succession of severe storms, which grounded flights in Baghdad, Najaf, and Irbil and hospitalized hundreds." Yes, and it's the first day of May and already hundreds have been hospitalized.
Ruth Tweets:
Marcello G Tweets:
In other news, MEDYA NEWS reports:
After it’s been revealed on Wednesday that two European journalists were arrested by Iraqi troops on the 20th of April, a colleague of one of the journalists said to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that the journalist was arrested while he was covering issues affecting the Yazidis in Iraq.
Soldiers with the Iraqi 20th Infantry Division arrested Matej Kavčič, a Slovenian freelance reporter, on the 20th of April at an army checkpoint in the city of Sinjar (Shengal), the hometown of the Yazidis.
While Kavčič identified himself as a journalist, Iraqi troops brought him to a nearby military facility, where they confiscated his phone and questioned him, according to a report by CPJ.
Marlene Förster, a German national, who was traveling with Kavčič, was also detained in the process.
Iraqi authorities allege that the pair ‘pretended to work as journalists’, and accused them of collaborating with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated a ‘terrorist group’ in neighbouring Turkey and in the European Union.
New content at THIRD:
- Truest statement of the week
- Truest statement of the week II
- A note to our readers
- TV: GRACE AND FRANKIE winds down while THE OFFER n...
- Book Bargain (Dona)
- #Iraq : #DustStorm engulfs the country, #Baghdad &...
- Wesley Everest and US Labor
- Two rockets target a base hosting US-led coalition...
- Grace and Frankie | A Farewell to 7 Seasons with J...
- HUMILIATING: Spotify DROPS Obama's Podcast | Break...
- Green Party says U.S. complicit in Yemen humanitar...
- Netflix Plunges In The Market As Subscribers Leave...
- This edition's playlist
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