Monday, January 30, 2017

OMG, MYAISINACAMAQATTRSC#3 (Trump's Muslim ban)

wELCOME TO OMG, MYAISINACAMAQATTRSC

OR...

OH mY god, my Arm Is Still in a Cast and My Already Questuionable Abilitities To ??Type ReMain Seriously Curtailled

TODAY;S TOPIC 

Trump's Muslim ban.

Or, has Trump for the first time since he descended an escalator to announce he was running for 
president back in the summer of 2015 finally gone TOO far? 

First up, stuff written by other people:


Experts question legality of Trump's ban 
on Muslim countries 


<CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE FOR THE COMPLETE ARTICLE BY Mr. Gomez.>

The future of President Trump's executive order suspending immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries may come down to a legal battle between his powers as commander in chief and discrimination limitations established by Congress.

A federal judge in New York issued a temporary, nationwide stay on the order late Saturday night. Lawyers, pushed along by a growing group of protesters, spent the day trying to free immigrants who were traveling when Trump's order was released, leaving them either detained at U.S. airports or stranded overseas.
But the legality of Trump's order won't be completely clear until it faces more hearings in federal court as Trump's Department of Justice squares off with a team of lawyers from civil rights and immigration advocacy groups.
Supporters of Trump's plan say he is standing on firm legal ground to ban immigrants and refugees temporarily from those countries because they pose a national security threat. Trump's order opens by citing the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and explains that the immigration suspension is necessary to give the federal government time to strengthen its vetting procedures for people coming from terror-prone countries.


"Throughout the history of this country, courts have given, for obvious reasons, the executive extraordinary latitude in making determinations associated with national security," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that advocates for lower levels of legal and illegal immigration. "And this is a national security judgement, something that courts would never want to interfere with."

Critics of Trump's plan say his national security argument is undercut by his repeated calls on the campaign trail for a "Muslim ban" and his comments Friday that he wants to prioritize the immigration of persecuted Christians over Muslims. Trump's ban also applies to everyone from Syria.
David Leopold, a Cleveland immigration attorney and past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said a president clearly has a right to bar certain immigrants or groups of immigrants from entering the U.S. Trump's order cited a long-standing federal law that allows a president to bar entry to any immigrants or group of immigrants who the president deems "detrimental to the interests of the United States."

"But what the Trump administration failed to do," Leopold said, "is understand that nothing in our law justifies banning an entire religion, banning an entire nationality. He's going to have to answer how he can say that all of Syria is detrimental."

Leopold's argument rests largely on the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which forbids discrimination against immigrants based on their "nationality, place of birth, or place of residence." The U.S. had previously used an immigration system that set a limit on the number of people who could enter the U.S. from each country, a system that heavily favored immigration from western Europe.

But that law has been set aside by presidents during national emergencies, according to Michael Hethmon, senior counsel at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which provides legal support to legislators and politicians who want to reduce immigration. 

Hethmon uses the example of President Carter, who in 1980 barred some Iranians from entering the U.S. during a crisis over 52 Americans being held hostage in Tehran. He said that case mirrors what Trump is facing now — the United States facing a large number of people in specific countries who are trying to harm the U.S. 

"The court will say, 'There's a rational basis for picking these seven countries,'" Hethmon said. "They're all in the midst of civil conflict, they're all places where terrorist networks that are particularly dangerous to the U.S. exists. There are multiple reasons why refugees from these countries merit additional, or even extensive, scrutiny."

The seven are Iran, Sudan and Syria — which comprise the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism — plus Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

The key for a court to understand the true intent behind Trump's order — whether it's a religious ban or a national security concern — could lie in one paragraph of his executive order. It declares that once the refugee program is reinstated, the Department of Homeland Security must prioritize refugee claims made by persecuted religious minorities. 

"Whoever drafted the order, I think they thought they were being incredibly clever immunizing this from legal scrutiny," said Jens David Ohlin, an international law professor at Cornell Law School. "But they might have shot themselves in the foot with that one." 

Ohlin said that one section, which he said was the only piece of the order that did not pin itself to the national security argument, may open the entire order to questions about favoring one religion over another. It also follows comments Trump made to the Christian Broadcast Service on Friday, when he said Christians had been treated unfairly under the U.S. refugee program and they needed to be prioritized in the future.

"Courts are going to be giving really serious scrutiny to that one," Ohlin said.

As legal questions continue to swirl over Trump's order, only one certainty exists. "This is the start of a wave of litigation," said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.

But then...



by Kevin Drum

Harold Pollack on President Trump's immigration fiasco:
The President’s team had months to prepare this signature immigration initiative. And they produced...an amateurish, politically self-immolating effort that humiliated the country, provoked international retaliation, and failed to withstand the obvious federal court challenge on its very first day.

Given the despicable nature of this effort, I’m happy it has become a political fiasco. It also makes me wonder how the Trump administration will execute the basic functions of government. 

This astonishing failure reflects our new President’s contempt for the basic craft of government.

This sure seems to be the case. For the barely believable story of just how incompetent the whole exercise was, check out this CNN story. It will leave your jaw on the floor.

And yet, there's also one tidbit that makes me wonder if the chaos attending the rollout was quite as unintended as we think: Friday night, DHS arrived at the legal interpretation that the executive order restrictions applying to seven countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen — did not apply to people who with lawful permanent residence, generally referred to as green card holders.

The White House overruled that guidance overnight, according to officials familiar with the rollout. That order came from the President's inner circle, led by Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. Their decision held that, on a case by case basis, DHS could allow green card holders to enter the US.
The decision to apply the executive order to green card holders, including those in transit, is almost insane. Whatever else he is, Steve Bannon is a smart guy, and he had to know that this would produce turmoil at airports around the country and widespread condemnation from the press. Why would he do this?

In cases like this, the smart money is usually on incompetence, not malice. But this looks more like deliberate malice to me. Bannon wanted turmoil and condemnation. He wanted this executive order to get as much publicity as possible. He wanted the ACLU involved. He thinks this will be a PR win.

Liberals think the same thing. All the protests, the court judgments, the press coverage: this is something that will make middle America understand just what Trump is really all about. And once they figure it out, they'll turn on him.
In other words, both sides think that maximum exposure is good for them. Liberals think middle America will be appalled at Trump's callousness. Bannon thinks middle America will be appalled that lefties and the elite media are taking the side of terrorists. After a week of skirmishes, this is finally a hill that both sides are willing to die for. Who's going to win?

Kevin Drum

Kevin is a political blogger for Mother Jones. Email Kevin calpundit@cox.net. 

And then....

Trump backs off tough stand on green-card holders 
1/9/2017
Tribune Washington Bureau 
By Hannah Allam, Michael Doyle and Tim Johnson

WASHINGTON —The Trump administration took a major step back late Sunday from its temporary ban on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries, issuing a clarification that the order does not apply to green-card holders “absent the receipt of significant derogatory information.”

“In applying the provisions of the president’s executive order, I hereby deem the entry of lawful permanent residents to be in the national interest,” Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said in a statement. “Accordingly, absent the receipt of significant derogatory information indicating a serious threat to public safety and welfare, lawful permanent resident status will be a dispositive factor in our case-by-case determinations.”

Kelly’s statement came hours after White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump’s executive order would not apply to legal permanent residents “going forward” and after federal judges in Boston had ruled that border security agents could not detain permanent residents or anyone with a valid U.S.-issued visa.

Kelly’s action came after a day of conflict over the order that was played in the nation’s busiest international airports Sunday.

Scenes of family members waiting for detained loved ones dominated international arrival terminals, while volunteer attorneys worked around the clock to stop deportations and free detained passengers.

Trump’s directive reportedly was imposed with little notice or guidance to the relevant authorities, creating havoc in arrival halls and triggering late-night legal challenges in federal courts.

Even after Kelly’s statement there were still unanswered questions about what the government intended to do about refugees who had received permission to come to the United States before Trump signed his order Friday afternoon. Two court rulings questioned whether Trump could reject by executive action valid immigration documents issued by the government itself.

Airports remained the frontline in the battle. Crowds gathered at airports in Miami, Dallas, Cleveland, Charlotte, N.C., New York, Washington, San Francisco and Chicago. Exasperation grew on all sides, and some immigration officials threw up their hands.

“They finally stopped talking to us altogether and told us to call President Trump,” said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the White House, and a chanting crowd of hundreds also besieged the entrance to the Trump Hotel a few blocks away.

But the White House showed no signs of backing down. Trump and his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, rejected charges of constitutional overreach. Priebus said the list of banned nations for travel may expand to “Pakistan and other countries.”

A Priebus statement that the ban would not apply to permanent U.S. residents from those countries “going forward” went unexplained, and there was no new document from the White House changing what Trump had signed on Friday.

A Trump statement issued in the afternoon provided no clarification, though Trump did say the U.S. would begin issuing visas “to all countries” after the 90-day ban lapses.
“My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months,” the statement said. “The seven countries named in the executive order are the same countries previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror. To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting.”

“Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW. Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world — a horrible mess!” Trump said in a Twitter post Sunday morning.

Priebus, on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” said the Trump administration issued the 90-day ban on travel to the United States by citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen because they were “most identifiable with dangerous terrorism taking place in their country.”

“Perhaps we need to go further,” Priebus said.

About 325,000 foreign travelers entered the United States Saturday, and 109 of them were singled out because of their countries of origin and underwent extensive questioning to ensure “that they didn’t do anything nefarious overseas,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said.

The White House website still did not list the executive order Sunday afternoon, nearly 48 hours after it was issued.

The class-action lawsuit challenging the deportations of those detained as a result of the executive order was filed in federal court in Brooklyn about 5 a.m. Saturday.

Judge Ann Marie Donnelly, of the Brooklyn-based U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, heard oral arguments at a hastily arranged session about 7:30 p.m. Saturday. An attorney from the Justice Department had to call in for the hearing.

Donnelly issued her stay about 9 p.m. Saturday night. While it is temporary, and does not lock in her longer-term decision expected in February, it shows her skepticism about at least part of the Trump order.

“The petitioners have a strong likelihood of success in establishing that (their) removal … violates their rights to due process and equal protection guaranteed by the United States Constitution,” Donnelly wrote.

The controversy attracted worldwide attention. Leaders of European U.S. allies rejected Trump’s order, and Britain’s foreign secretary called it “divisive and wrong.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said through a spokesman that the war on terrorism “does not justify placing people of a certain background or a certain faith under general suspicion.”

Foreign consternation, however, took a back seat to the fast-paced drama at U.S. airports and federal courtrooms where judges presided over rare weekend hearings.

In one typical scene, hundreds of protesters gathered at San Francisco International Airport for a second day Sunday seeking to stop the imminent deportation of two elderly Iranian visa holders in violation of federal rulings barring the removals, said Elica Vafaie of Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

Attorneys said Atlanta and Chicago airport-based officials released some people from detention, while officials at Los Angeles and San Francisco airports, initially, did not.

Lawyers reported that government attorneys in some cases were not answering their phones.

Much of the spotlight was on Judge Donnelly, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2015 by President Barack Obama. The Senate confirmed her 95-2, with strong GOP support.

But her ruling was only the first in a series in which multiple federal judges heard similar arguments, and in some cases issued similar orders.

In Boston, for example, U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs and U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith Gail Dein Sunday issued a related temporary restraining order blocking detention or deportation of people covered by Trump’s order. The judges’ action is in effect for seven days. Burroughs was appointed by Obama.

Late Saturday, a Virginia-based federal judge Leonie Brinkema, a former federal prosecutor appointed by President Bill Clinton, issued a more limited ruling, blocking the deportation of lawful permanent U.S. residents held at Dulles International Airport outside Washington.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly of Seattle, who was appointed to the federal bench by Ronald Reagan, also blocked specific deportations.

“I think there will be broader challenges, but we needed to stop the immediate harm,” attorney Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union said Sunday.

The next legal steps will unfold over a few weeks. Gelernt, deputy director of ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said the Justice Department is scheduled to file a legal brief with the Brooklyn-based judge by Feb. 12. The immigrants’ attorneys will respond within 48 hours of that.

Refugee advocates and civil libertarians said Sunday that thousands of volunteer attorneys had mobilized since Friday, often showing up at airports on their own.

In a media call Sunday before Kelly issued his statement, advocacy groups warned that travelers from countries on the blacklist were still at risk of detention or removal under Trump’s order. They recommended that travelers with concerns arrange to enter the United States at Boston’s Logan airport, where the broadest court order was in effect.

The advocacy groups listed several specific cases of authorities not complying with judicial orders to halt deportations and, in some cases, release the passengers or at least provide them access to lawyers. There were stories of people being handcuffed, asked about their beliefs and held without legal counsel; in some cases, authorities tried to coerce travelers into surrendering their green cards or accepting voluntary departures.

“Even though they’re not being deported, their legal rights continue to be egregiously violated,” Heller said.

Among the concerns of activists on the call:

—Lawyers at Dulles International Airport said they still hadn’t been able to speak to detained travelers, in violation of a federal court ruling ordering attorney access.

—A young Iranian woman in the United States on a Fulbright program was forced onto a Ukrainian plane for deportation until an eleventh-hour reprieve came through and “they literally turned the plane around while it was taxiing” and allowed her to stay, Heller said.

—A 17-year-old Afghan orphan whose entire family had been killed in a land-mine explosion was scheduled to fly to a foster family in Seattle after years of awaiting resettlement. Even though Trump’s order doesn’t include Afghan citizens, the boy was barred from boarding his flight.

“There’s no method to this madness,” Heller said.

In Dallas, airport authorities announced that all arriving passengers who had been detained were being released and would be reunited with their families “at an offsite location.”
Meanwhile, several thousand people assembled along the northeast side of the White House Sunday, chanting slogans such as, “Refugees are welcome here — no hate, no fear!” Several brought back signs they had carried during the Women’s March a week earlier, including “The whole world is watching.”

Suzanne Blue Star, a Washington resident who is a member of the Yankton Sioux tribe of South Dakota, said she was driven to come by what she called the “unconstitutionality” of Trump’s executive order.


“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “The rallies are going to continue (until) senators and legislators start changing their minds. These are just the warning signs of things to come.”

And as this whole debacle plays out, it bears remembering to who Trump is playing to. Those hardcore Trump supporters who put Donald in the White House are not seeing this as a debacle for their team. Nope, Trump is just doing what he said he would do and the only ones really put out by this is the media and the so-called liberal elites. To the view of Trump's hardcore support, Trump is solving a problem, not creating one. 

So if anyone is entertaining the notion that Trump's ban is finally the thing that is going to at last bring him down, you haven't been paying attention to how Trump operates for the last two years. 

-----------------------------------

A moment for blog bidness, in the face of some recent personal adversity which makes typing this blog physically difficult, I'm still trying to make this thing happen as much as I can.  

So thank you for your patience. Soon, I hop  I will once more have two functioning hands to resume this blog in earnest.

Until next time, remember to be goof to one another, 


































Sunday, January 29, 2017

OMG, MYAISINACAMAQATTRSC#2 (farewell to John Hurt from Doctor WHO FANDOM)

wELCOME TO ANOTHER INSTALLMENT OF...
...

OMG, MYAISINACAMAQATTRS.

OR...

OH mY god, my Arm Is Still in a Cast and My Already Questuionable Abilitities ToType ReMain Seriously Curtailled

TODAY;S TOPIC 
THE passing of actor John Hurt who became a beloved part of Doctor Who fandom from his role in the 50th anniversary special, The Day oh the Doctor.  

first of all, 

Stuff written by other poeple.
Cheryl Cheng with The Hollywood Reporter

He announced in June 2015 that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

On screens big and small, Hurt died what seemed a thousand deaths. "I think I've got the record," he once said. "It got to a point where my children wouldn't ask me if I died, but rather how do you die?"

On his YouTube page, a video titled "The Many Deaths of John Hurt" compiled his cinematic demises in 4 minutes and 30 seconds, from The Wild and the Willing (1962) to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), 40 in all.

One of his most memorable came when he played Kane, the first victim in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), in which he collapses over a table and a snakelike alien bursts out of his chest. (How'd they do that? There was an artificial chest screwed to the table, and Hurt was underneath.)

"Ridley didn't tell the cast," executive producer Ronald Shusett told Empire magazine in 2009. "He said, 'They're just going to see it.' "

"The reactions were going to be the most difficult thing," Scott explained. "If an actor is just acting terrified, you can't get the genuine look of raw, animal fear. What I wanted was a hardcore reaction."

Hurt then lampooned the famous torso-busting scene for director Mel Brooks - whose production company produced 1980's The Elephant Man - for the 1987 comedy Spaceballs.
The Elephant Man received eight Academy Award nominations, including one for Hurt as best actor, but went home empty on Oscar night. 

(Hurt lost out to Robert De Niro as boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull.)

In 1980, he recalled the extensive makeup needed to become the kind-hearted man with the monstrous skull.
"It never occurred to me it would take eight hours for them to apply the full thing - virtually a working day in itself. There were 16 different pieces to that mask," he said. "With all that makeup on, I couldn't be sure what I was doing. I had to rely totally on [Lynch]."

Hurt also garnered an Oscar best supporting actor nomination and a Golden Globe win in 1979 for Midnight Express, in which he portrayed a heroin addict in a Turkish prison. The Alan Parker drama was based on the true story of Billy Hayes (played by Brad Davis), an American college student caught smuggling drugs.

"I loved making Midnight Express," he said in 2014. "We were making commercial films then that really did have cracking scenes in them, as well as plenty to say, you know?"
His more recent film appearances came in Snowpiercer (2013), The Journey (2016) and Jackie (2016). He is set to be seen in the upcoming features That Good Night and My Name Is Lenny and was to play Neville Chamberlain in the upcoming Joe Wright drama Darkest Hour.

John Vincent Hurt was born Jan. 22, 1940, in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England. He studied art at his parents' behest, earning an art teacher's diploma. Disillusioned with the prospect of becoming a teacher, Hurt moved to London, where he won an acting scholarship at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He studied there for two years, securing bit parts in TV shows.

"I wanted to act very early. I didn't know how to become an actor, as such, nor did I know that it was possible to be a professional actor, but I first decided that I wanted to act when I was 9," he told The Guardian in 2000. "I was effused with a feeling of complete and total enjoyment, and I felt that's where I should be."

Hurt made his London stage debut in Infanticide in the House of Fred Ginger in 1962. That year, he acted in his first film, The Wild and the Willing, and his role as the duplicitous baron Richard Rich in Oscar best picture winner A Man for All Seasons helped him become more widely known in the U.S.

Hurt often played wizened, sinister characters. In his younger years, his wiry frame, sallow skin and beady eyes curled together in performances that bespoke menace and hard-wrought wisdom. He was especially effective playing psychologically ravaged characters, like when he was a jockey plagued with cancer in Champions (1984) or the viciously decadent Caligula in the 1976 BBC miniseries I, Claudius.

Hurt brought his peculiarly powerful persona to the role of Mr. Ollivander in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) and Part 2 (2011).

He also had a recurring role as Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm in Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) and was the voice of the character in the 2007 TV movie Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron.

Other film credits include The Sailor From Gibraltar (1967), Sinful Davey (1969), 10 Rillington Place (1971), The Osterman Weekend (1983), White Mischief (1987), King Ralph (1991) and Rob Roy (1995). He played a fascist leader of Great Britain in V for Vendetta (2006) and was Professor Oxley in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).

Hurt also was known for his rich, nicotine-toned timbre, which won him many voiceover assignments. He was the narrator in The Tigger Movie (2000), Dogville (2003), Manderlay (2005) and Charlie Countryman (2013) and lent his dulcet utterances to The Lord of the Rings (1978), Watership Down (1978), The Black Cauldron (1985), Thumbelina (1994) and the Oscar-nominated short film The Gruffalo (2009).

"I have always been aware of voice in film. I think that it's almost 50 percent of your equipment [as an actor]," he once said. "It's as important as what you look like, certainly on stage and possibly on film as well. If you think of any of the great American stars, you think of their voices and their looks, any of them - from Clark Gable to Rock Hudson."
For the small screen, Hurt starred in the TV shows The Storyteller, The Alan Clark Diaries, The Confession and Merlin and in the miniseries Crime and Punishment and Labyrinth. He notably played the War Doctor in the 2013-14 season of Doctor Who.

On participating in the Whovian fandom, Hurt said in 2013: "I've done a couple of conferences where you sit and sign autographs for people and then you have photographs taken with them and a lot of them are all dressed up in alien suits or Doctor Who whatevers. I was terrified of doing it because I thought they'd all be loonies, but they are absolutely, totally charming as anything. I'm not saying it's the healthiest thing - I don't know whether it is or isn't - but they are very charming."

The accomplished stage actor performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1994, he starred opposite Helen Mirren in Bill Bryden's West End production of A Month in the Country, and he scraped out an edgy and vigorously dour performance in Samuel Beckett's autobiographical one-man drama Krapp's Last Tape in 1999.

When asked about the difference between film and stage acting, Hurt explained: "It's rather like two different sports. You use two completely different sets of muscles."
In 2012, Hurt was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, then was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in July 2015.

Survivors include his fourth wife Anwen Rees-Myers, whom he married in 2005, and sons Alexander and Nicholas.

to link to the actual post from Ms Cheng, Click Here

Here's a link to an interview with John Hurt and Jenna Coleman

Below is an excerpt from the transcript for when the 10th, 11th and War Doctors first meet each other. 

 DOCTOR 10: Okay, you used to be me, you've done all this before. What happens next? 
DOCTOR: I don't remember. 
DOCTOR 10: How can you forget this? 
DOCTOR: Hey, hang on. It's not my fault. You're obviously not paying enough attention. Reverse the polarity! 
(They both aim their sonic screwdrivers at the fissure.) 
DOCTOR: It's not working. 
DOCTOR 10: We're both reversing the polarity. 
DOCTOR: Yes, I know that. 
DOCTOR 10: There's two of us. I'm reversing it, you're reversing it back again. We're confusing the polarity. 
(The Warrior drops through the time fissure.) 
WARRIOR: Anyone lose a fez? 
DOCTOR 10: You. How can you be here? More to the point, why are you here? 
WARRIOR: Good afternoon. I'm looking for the Doctor. 
DOCTOR 10: Well, you've certainly come to the right place. 
WARRIOR: Good. Right. Well, who are you boys? Oh, of course. Are you his companions? 
DOCTOR: His companions? 
WARRIOR: They get younger all the time. Well, if you could point me in the general direction of the Doctor? 
(They both demonstrate their sonic screwdrivers.) 
WARRIOR: Really? 
DOCTOR: Yeah. 
DOCTOR 10: Really. 
WARRIOR: You're me? Both of you? 
DOCTOR 10: Yep. 
WARRIOR: Even that one? 
DOCTOR: Yes! 
WARRIOR: You're my future selves? 
BOTH: Yes! 
WARRIOR: Am I having a midlife crisis? Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that? They're scientific instruments, not water pistols. Look like you've seen a ghost. 
DOCTOR 10: Still, loving the posh gravelly thing. It's very convincing. 
DOCTOR: Brave words, Dick van Dyke. 
(A troop of soldiers run up, lead by a nobleman.) 
BENTHAM: Encircle them. Which of you is the Doctor? The Queen of England is bewitched. I would have the Doctor's head. 
WARRIOR: Well, this has all the makings of your lucky day. 




Saturday, January 28, 2017

OMG,MYAISINACAMAQATTRSC#1 (Oscars 2017)

wELCOME TO OMG, MYAISINACAMAQATTRSC
OH mY god, my Arm Is Still in a Cast and My Already Questuionable Abilitities To ??Type ReMain Seriously Curtailled

TODAY;S TOPIC 
the 2017 oscar nominations.

first of all, 

Stuff written by other poeple.
BY Ken Levine

The Academy Award nominations were announced today (1/24/2017). 

No real surprises actually. Films that sent out the most screeners were nominated. Films that gave you a code to stream didn’t fare as well.

There has been lots of grumbling in the past about lack of diversity so there’s a lot of diversity. 

What there is not a lot of is suspense. LA LA LAND figures to run the table.  Sorry... SPOILER ALERT (even though the ceremony is a month away).  

For all that diversity, they snubbed Taraji P. Henson, who was fantastic and I’m sorry but way more deserving than Meryl Streep this year. 

If Meryl Streep wins it’s only so she could rip Trump again in her acceptance speech. 

Mel Gibson received a Best Director nomination meaning either Hollywood forgives, Hollywood is less concerned about anti-Semitism these days, Scorsese's film was just unwatchable, or he made a wonderful movie and deserves it. It makes no difference because Damien Chazelle is going to win for LA LA LAND. 

Yes, Martin Scorsese was snubbed. Hey Marty, make movies people – anybody – wants to watch. 

I think the “In Memoriam” section will be an hour this year.   Fifteen minutes alone for Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. 

What’s interesting about LA LA LAND is that not everybody loved it. I didn’t. Since when is it okay to do a musical where the stars can’t sing? 

Of the list of Best Picture candidates I’d vote for HELL OR HIGH WATER. But it has no shot. I’d also vote for HIDDEN FIGURES. No shot either. 

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA is probably the top runner-up, but it’s a downer and LA LA LAND is an upper. If only MANCHESTER had some songs. 

The only categories I don’t think LA LA LAND will triumph are Best Actor and Actress. Casey Affleck and Natalie Portman might prevail.  Both can sing. 

SULLY was snubbed. Okay, Clint Eastwood – staunch Republican – I can see where Hollywood kicked him to the curb, but Tom Hanks? Hey, what did he ever do?  I hope the Academy is not holding VOLUNTEERS against him. 

How did ARRIVAL get all these nominations and none for Amy Adams? Unless voters confused this with her performance in NOCTURNAL ANIMALS (my sort-of review of that comes tomorrow). 

There was speculation that DEADPOOL would get a Best Picture nod – it being a film that people actually SAW. But it was not to be. If Deadpool was mourning the loss of a family member that would put it over the top.  Might be food for thought for the sequel. 

Nate Parker is learning that the Academy frowns on sexual assault charges. BIRTH OF A NATION was DOA. 

Boy, the Academy loves Nicole Kidman, don’t they? 

This might be the first award show ever that Lin-Manuel Miranda doesn’t win. 

It’ll be interesting to see who wins the Consolation Oscar (which this year is Best Original Screenplay). Kenneth Lonergan for MANCHESTER BY THE SEA or  Taylor Sheridan for HELL OR HIGH WATER? 

But congratulations to all the nominees. Enjoy the next few weeks.  The big night is February 26.  The NFL won't still be playing, will it? 

And here is a link to the actual blog post itself:

and here are actual nominations for BEST PICTURE;
“Arrival”
“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk”
“Jackie”
“La La Land”
“Manchester By The Sea”
“Moonlight”
“Silence”
“Sully”


and here are actual nominations for BEST director;
Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”
Garth Davis, “Lion”
Clint Eastwood, “Sully”
Barry Jenkins, “Moonlight”
Kenneth Lonergan, “Manchester By The Sea”
Nate Parker, “The Birth of a Nation”
Martin Scorsese, “Silence”
Denis Villeneuve, “Arrival”


and here are actual nominations for BEST ACTOR;
Casey Affleck, “Manchester By The Sea”
Ryan Gosling, “La La Land”
Tom Hanks, “Sully”
Michael Keaton, “The Founder”
Matthew McConaughey, “Gold”
Nate Parker, “The Birth of a Nation”
Dev Patel, “Lion”
Denzel Washington, “Fences”



and here are actual nominations for BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR;
Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight”
Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water”
Ralph Fiennes, “A Bigger Splash”
Michael Shannon, “Nocturnal Animals”
Liam Neeson, “Silence”

and here are actual nominations for BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS;
Naomie Harris, “Moonlight”
Felicity Jones, “A Monster Calls”
Nicole Kidman, “Lion”
Rachel Weisz, “The Lobster”
Michelle Williams, “Manchester By the Sea”


and here are actual nominations for original screenplay;Anthony Bagarozzi, Shane Black, “The Nice Guys”

Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”

Efthymis Filippou, Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Lobster”

Jim Jarmusch, “Paterson” 

Barry Jenkins, Tarell McCraney, “Moonlight”

Kenneth Lonergan, “Manchester by the Sea”Noah Oppenheim, “Jackie” 

Taylor Sheridan, “Hell or High Water”

and here are actual nominations for ASAPTEF SCREENPLAY
Seo-Kyung Chung, Chan-wook Park, “The Handmaiden”
Jay Cocks, “Silence”
Luke Davies, “Lion”
Tom Ford, “Nocturnal Animals”
Whit Stillman, “Love & Friendship”
August Wilson, “Fences”



Friday, January 27, 2017

If You've Come This Far...

Hi there. 

Dave-El here and maybe you are too, who knows? 

Yes, after 9 (yes, count them, NINE!) days of ABBA lyrics, I don't blame if you've moved on. 

Here's the thing:  It's after midnight on January 6th as I write this part. Another day closer to certain ends I would rather not face up to. 

As I've written on the blog before it got taken over by Sweden's #1 pop music export, I've shared some stuff about my mom and her battle with Alzheimer's. To be honest, it's not much of a battle at this point. The call I received today indicates a rapidly deteriorating situation. 

I've seen this before, with my wife's grandfather and her mother. The end creeps up slowly, then it pounces. You know its coming and it catches you off guard none the less. 

I know I'm not prepared.  

So I do what I do best: I deflect. I indulge in the silly, the random. I pull together nine posts about ABBA song lyrics. Why? Because I don't break the streak: a post every single day since January 1st, 2015. 

It is a silly goal. It is an admittedly a frivolous pursuit. But for now, on January 6th, it distracts me.  

When this posts on January 25th, I have no idea what the world will be like for me. But if you are reading this, it means I'm not ready to be silly, frivolous. It means the tragedy has deepened or reached its final depths. I don't know. 

but as i sit herre amending this post om Jamuty24th, i am dealing with a reality that i could not have begun to anticipate 2 weeks ago as i am attempting to peck out words on a keyboard with one right hand while my left arm is bound in a cast as it hangs heavily in a sling. Ironically, have some suffering to post sbout in the story oh how i came t break my arm and my deilversancer into the American medical system may provide some small amount of amusement but i'm hardly in the best condition to put this down in words. 

so what happpens next with this blog is less than vertain, when i regain fully use og both hands and can type more effectivelt. having banged out only the last few sentences with just one hand, i can tell you i need to get more healed beofore i can do any largers posts, 

But I didn't want this to be one of those blogs that just sort of sputtered off with no word, no comment, no explanation.  

I do not intend for this post to be a solemn good-bye. I think when I reach the other side of things, and God help me I hope I will, I will want... no, I will need to put down words into sentences that say... as I have said in the past, "some damn thing or another".  

But it is a farewell, a "so long for now" of some indeterminate length. 

Until next time, please remember, more than ever, to be good to one another.  



Monday, January 23, 2017

And Now...Your ABBA Lyric Post: When All Is Said and Done


This is a special presentation of I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You. Enjoy! 





"When All Is Said and Done" was recorded in 1981 and was featured on the group's final studio album, The Visitors, and was released as a single in the United States on 31 December 31,1981, eventually peaking at #27 on the Billboard music charts. It was particularly successful in Canada, where it reached #4 on the Adult Contemporary Chart.




"When All Is Said and Done"
Here's to us one more toast and then we'll pay the bill
Deep inside both of us can feel the autumn chill
Birds of passage, you and me
We fly instinctively
When the summer's over and the dark clouds hide the sun
Neither you nor I'm to blame when all is said and done
In our lives we have walked some strange and lonely treks
Slightly worn but dignified and not too old for sex
We're still striving for the sky
No taste for humble pie
Thanks for all your generous love and thanks for all the fun
Neither you nor I'm to blame when all is said and done
It's so strange when you're down and lying on the floor
How you rise, shake your head, get up and ask for more
Clear-headed and open-eyed
With nothing left untried
Standing calmly at the crossroads,no desire to run
There's no hurry any more when all is said and done
Standing calmly at the crossroads,no desire to run
There's no hurry any more when all is said and done

Before we wrap up today, here is...


LEARNING SWEDISH 
WITH THE MICROSOFT TRANSLATOR

The insane
Den vansinniga
in Spain
i Spanien
stay mainly
bo huvudsakligen
on Novacaine.
på Novacaine.

Until next time...


Kom ihåg att vara bra till en annan
Remember to be good to one another.

And if you have followed these posts this far, well, God bless you, are you taking your medication? 

Anyway, tomorrow's post is not another edition of Your ABBA Lyric Post. Although the content kind of depends of, what's the word I'm looking for? Oh yeah. Stuff. It kind of depends on stuff. 

Thank you for reading. Hope to see you back here tomorrow. 

Blog Bidness: Down Time

"Blog bidness"? Uh oh!  It's a blog post about the blog.  That's never good.   I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You wil...