Ann's writing about one category of nominations by GLAAD and she thought I might want to grab this category: Outstanding Film — Streaming or TV
“Anything’s Possible” (Prime Video)
“B-Boy Blues” (BET+)
“A Christmas to Treasure” (Lifetime)
“Crush” (Hulu)
“Do Revenge” (Netflix)
“The Fallout” (HBO Max)
“Fire Island” (Hulu)
“The Holiday Sitter” (Hallmark)
“Three Months” (Paramount+)
“Wildhood” (Hulu)
I
loved pretty much everything on that list -- and was surprised to find
out that I'd seen all of them. Who would I go with? DO REVENGE
probably. It twisted and turned and was solid. But I'd be fine with
almost any of the above winning.
Almost?
Pretty much? FIRE ISLAND was mediocre. It stole a Jane Austen book
and failed to do anything with it. Just grabbed the plot. That's not
what Amy Heckerling did with CLUELESS. It dragged repeatedly. The
casting left much to be desired. And, in 2022, I expect a romantic
comedy with 30 something adults playing 20 somethings to feature more
than a chaste kiss for the main couple. It was dull in spots and it did
nothing (a) to advance LGBTQ+ storytelling and (b) nothing with the
source material.
I would be
kinder to it; however, when BROS came out, twinksters in love with FIRE
ISLAND took to Twitter to slam BROS and lie that FIRE ISLAND was more
inclusive.
No, it wasn't.
There was only one woman in the cast (Margaret Cho). I'm not
remembering Black characters or Latinos. I'm remembering Asian Twinks
and the White man they loved.
BROS
not only had racial and ethnic diversity, it also had lesbians, trans
persons, bisexuals, non-binary, as well as gay males. It was diverse.
FIRE ISLAND was something to applaud back in 1996 -- it's along the lines of IT'S MY PARTY.
And yesterday I wrote about Diana Ross. Kat wrote about "Madonna
" so check that out please.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Wednesday, January 18, 2023. The Australian government says 'enough
is enough' as Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian Assange, Iraq gets
ready to face Oman in the Arabian Gulf Cup, Richard Branson's airline
faces a huge fine, and much more.
Starting with Julian Assange.
US President Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian and, for those who've forgotten, Julian's 'crime' was revealing the
realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the
information to Julian. WIKILEAKS then published the
Iraq War Logs.
And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own.
For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War
Logs.
Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:
A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.
Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the
Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the
whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident
US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have
leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters
and civilian killings in the Afghan war.
The new logs detail how:
•
US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse,
torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct
appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.
• A US helicopter gunship involved in a
notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after
they tried to surrender.
• More than 15,000 civilians died in
previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no
official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081
non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.
The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical
evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or
ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric
shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent deat
The Biden administration
has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and
vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal
assaults under Donald Trump.
The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”.
But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States
under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used
before for publishing classified information.
Whether the US justice department continues to
pursue the Trump-era charges against the notorious leaker, whose group
put out secret information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
Guantánamo Bay, American diplomacy and internal Democratic politics
before the 2016 election, will go a long way toward determining whether
the current administration intends to make good on its pledges to
protect the press.
Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange’s protracted prosecution.
At SALON, Ben Cohen writes:
Barack Obama refused to indict Assange because of the "New York Times
problem": If Obama were to indict Assange for publishing truthful
information, he'd have to indict the New York Times as well. But Biden
has now affirmed Trump's contention that publishing the truth is a
crime. Assange is being charged under the Espionage Act of 1917. That
law is controversial enough when prosecutors use it to target
whistleblowers, but it has never been used successfully against a
publisher. What Biden is really saying by indicting Assange is that the
U.S. government can lie to the public, conceal its criminal behavior and
then destroy those who would dare seek the truth.
The Justice Department has charged Assange for receiving and
publishing truthful, newsworthy information leaked by whistleblower
Chelsea Manning, but has never charged any of the military or government
officials whose wrongdoing was exposed.
It is the 21st-century version of killing the messenger.
No one was harmed by Assange's reporting, unless you count the
bruised reputations of politicians who were caught breaking the law,
lying or concealing misconduct. Experts testified in British court proceedings
that Assange went to extreme lengths to help protect both his sources
and people who might be harmed by the disclosure of sensitive
information. Instead of investigating the wrongdoing that WikiLeaks
exposed and punishing those who broke the law or covered it up, the
government has focused on attacking whistleblowers and the journalists
who work with them.
Yesterday, on DEMOCRACY NOW!, US House Rep Ro Khanna was asked about Julian Assane:
AMY GOODMAN: And let me ask you about Julian Assange. There’s going to be a tribunal
at the end of the week at the National Press Club. Many major news
organizations are calling for the Biden administration to drop the
charges against him. He faces 175 years in prison in the United States,
if extradited, tried and found guilty. The New York Times, The Guardian, El País, Der Spiegel have called for these charges to be dropped, that freedom of the press is at stake. Do you join in that call?
REP. RO KHANNA:
Well, I have said that there’s a reason President Obama never brought
charges against Assange. Whatever you think of his moral actions — and I
have not defended those — I do not believe that you can bring charges
against someone simply for publishing information. If there were actual
evidence that Assange himself had deliberately sought and gathered
classified information through illegal means, then that is different.
But if the charges are based simply on his receiving this information
and publishing it, that, in my view, affects the entire concept of
freedom of press and has a chilling effect on publishers. And I have
said that that is overbroad.
Baby steps? That's
supposed to pass for leadership, Ro? And you want to move from your
district to having the whole state vote for you? You're not earning my
vote with what I consider the bare minimum a person should be doing.
More bravery is being shown from the Australian government (finally). ANADOLU AGENCY reports:
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday urged the US
and UK to close the extradition process against Wikileaks co-founder
Julian Assange, saying "enough is enough."
During an interview
with ABC Radio, the Australian premier said his country's position on
Assange is very clear, which he has communicated to the US and UK.
"I
agree that enough is enough. It's time this issue was brought to a
close," Albanese said, according to a transcript posted on his office’s
official website.
"And I've made that very clear to the US
administration and to the UK Government as well, that my view hasn't
changed from the view I had when I was Opposition Leader, which is that
it's time that this was brought to a close," he added.
Reminder, DEMOCRACY NOW! has a special broadcast this week:
On Jan. 20, Democracy Now! will live-stream the Belmarsh Tribunal
from Washington, D.C. The event will feature expert testimony from
journalists, whistleblowers, lawyers, publishers and parliamentarians on
assaults to press freedom and the First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution.
Watch here live at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, Jan. 20.
Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman and Srecko Horvat, the co-founder of
DiEM25, will chair the tribunal, which is being organized by Progressive
International and the Wau Holland Foundation.
Members of the tribunal include:
Stella Assange, partner of Julian Assange and member of his defense team
Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower
Noam Chomsky, linguist and activist
Jeremy Corbyn, member of U.K. Parliament and founder of the Peace and Justice Project
Chip Gibbons, policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent
Kevin Gosztola, managing editor of Shadowproof
Margaret Kunstler, civil rights attorney
Stefania Maurizi, investigative journalist, Il Fatto Quotidiano
Jesselyn Radack, national security and human rights attorney
Ben Wizner, lead attorney at ACLU of Edward Snowden
Renata Ávila, human rights lawyer, technology and society expert
Jeffrey Sterling, lawyer and former CIA employee
Steven Donziger, human rights attorney
Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief, WikiLeaks
Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director and publisher, The Nation
Selay Ghaffar, spokesperson, Solidarity Party of Afghanistan
Betty Medsger, investigative reporter
Meanwhile,
the Gulf Cup is nearing its conclusion. Iraq hosted this year and
Basra has been the site of much excitement as the world has celebrated
the outstanding performance of Iraq's Lions.
Mustafa Salim (WASHINGTON POST) reports:
Sinbad,
the legendary sailor from “The Arabian Nights,” rose from the darkness
to greet the crowd. Lights and lasers danced across the stadium. For an
hour, Iraqi musicians, dancers and actors took fans on a journey through
thousands of years of Iraqi history. “We are a beacon to the world,”
crooned popular singer Hussam Alrassam.
The
spectacle on Jan. 6 marked the beginning of the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup
soccer tournament, hosted by Iraq for the first time since 1979 — as the
country seeks to turn the page on decades of violence, instability and
isolation.
[. . .]
The
tournament, which is held every two years, features countries from the
Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates,
Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman), in addition to Yemen and Iraq. Much as
the recent World Cup in Doha, Qatar, served to introduce Persian Gulf
culture to the outside world, the tournament in Basra gave many gulf
citizens their first chance to experience Iraq.
For
locals, it was a rare opportunity to watch international soccer in
their own backyard and, just as importantly, to express national pride
and regional solidarity.
“Despite
the fierce competition between the gulf countries to win the
championship, what matters to us in the first place is honoring our
guests after a long absence,” said Hussam Muthana, 27, a Basra taxi
driver. “We are neighbors and cousins, even if outside political
circumstances have kept us apart.”
More
than 50,000 gulf visitors have poured into Iraq over the past two
weeks, according to Iraqi authorities, as the country eased border
restrictions and granted free visas. They made their way to the southern
port of Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, where they were welcomed
with banners and gulf flags.
The article also features many outstanding photos so please check it out. Tomorrow, Iraq faces Oman.
Now, what's that? Is that the voice of Sandy Denny?
It's
Sandy with Led Zeppelin. And is the late Sandy now laughing at the
current plight of Richard Branson who dropped her from his label in the
70s? Phil Davies (TRAVEL WEEKLY) notes:
Virgin Atlantic has been fined more than $1 million for flying in
restricted airspace over Iraq on services between London and India.
The
penalty was imposed by the US Department of Transportation (DoT) for
operating flights under a codeshare with US partner Delta Air Lines.
The
US DoT, imposing the £1.05 million fine, said: “By carrying the DL
[Delta] code on flights in airspace in which the FAA prohibits US
carriers from flying, Virgin Atlantic operated in violation of the
conditions of its statement of authorisation and in violation of federal
law.”
THE NATIONAL adds:
The US
transport department said Virgin Atlantic had told the agency the
“prohibited overflights were inadvertent, caused by operational
disruptions and loss of personnel due to the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Virgin
Atlantic told the department that upon notification by the US
government, “it immediately rerouted flights to avoid the airspace in
question and informed its board and senior leadership of the issue”.
Virgin
Atlantic also noted that it had invested in Sentinel by Osprey, an
automated tool that “dynamically alerts airlines at the flight planning
stage or operational stage, of any regulatory restrictions impacting
their, or their codeshare partners’ flights”.
All the birds are leaving, Richard, they know it's time for them to go.
New content at THIRD:
The following sites updated:
