Hello Everyone! This week 3 Chics is featuring the life and works of Sir Sidney Poitier. Mr. Poitier is a man of dignity, grace, a man of enormous courage and conviction, who in my opinion, never sold out to Hollywood.
We’ll be featuring his movies, some trailers, and some full length. We hope you enjoy them.
Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE[1] (/ˈpwɑːtjeɪ/ or /ˈpwɑːti.eɪ/; born February 20, 1927), is a Bahamian-American actor, film director, author and diplomat.
In 1964,[2] Poitier became the first African-American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor,[3] for his role in Lilies of the Field.[4] The significance of this achievement was bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three successful films, all of which dealt with issues involving race: To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, making him the top box-office star of that year.[5] In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 22nd on the list of 25.
Poitier has directed a number of films, including A Piece of the Action, Uptown Saturday Night, Let’s Do It Again (with friend Bill Cosby), Stir Crazy (starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder) and Ghost Dad (also with Cosby). In 2002, thirty-eight years after receiving the Best Actor Award, Poitier was chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Honorary Award, in recognition of his “remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being.”[6] From 1997 to 2007, he served as Bahamian ambassador to Japan.[7] On August 12, 2009, Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.[8]
Sidney Poitier’s parents were Evelyn (née Outten) and Reginald James Poitier,[9] Bahamian farmers who owned a farm on Cat Island and traveled to Miami to sell tomatoes and other produce. Reginald worked as a cab driver in Nassau, Bahamas.[10] Poitier was born in Miami while his parents were visiting. His birth was two months premature and he was not expected to survive, but his parents remained in Miami for three months to nurse him to health.[11] Poitier grew up in the Bahamas (then a British colony) but, because of his birth in the United States, he automatically gained American citizenship.[11] Poitier’s uncle has claimed that the Poitier ancestors on his father’s side had migrated from Haiti[12] and were probably part of the runaway slaves who had established maroon communities throughout the Bahamas, including Cat Island. He mentions that the surname Poitier is a French name, and there were no white Poitiers from the Bahamas.[13]
Poitier lived with his family on Cat Island until he was 10, when they moved to Nassau.[14][15] He was raised a Roman Catholic[16] but, later became an agnostic[17] with views closer to deism.[18]
At the age of 15 he was sent to Miami to live with his brother. At the age of 17, he moved to New York City and held a string of jobs as a dishwasher. A Jewish waiter sat with him every night for several weeks helping him learn to read the newspaper.[19] He then decided to join the United States Army after which he worked as a dishwasher until a successful audition landed him a spot with the American Negro Theatre.[20][21]
Poitier joined the American Negro Theater, but was rejected by audiences. Contrary to what was expected of African American actors at the time, Poitier’s tone deafness made him unable to sing.[22] Determined to refine his acting skills and rid himself of his noticeable Bahamian accent, he spent the next six months dedicating himself to achieving theatrical success. On his second attempt at the theater, he was noticed and given a leading role in the Broadway production Lysistrata, for which he received good reviews. By the end of 1949, he had to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out (1950). His performance in No Way Out, as a doctor treating a Caucasian bigot (played by Richard Widmark), was noticed and led to more roles, each considerably more interesting and more prominent than those most African American actors of the time were offered. Poitier’s breakout role was as a member of an incorrigible high school class in Blackboard Jungle (1955).
No Way Out is a 1950 black-and-white American film noir[1] directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and starring Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Stephen McNally and Sidney Poitier (in his feature film debut), who portrays a doctor tending to slum residents whose ethics are tested when confronted with racism, personified by Richard Widmark as the hateful robber Ray Biddle.[2]
Dr. Luther Brooks (Sidney Poitier), an intern who has just passed the state board examination to qualify for his license to practice, is the first African-American doctor at the urban county hospital at which he trained. Because he lacks self-confidence, Luther requests to work as a junior resident at the hospital for another year. Johnny (Dick Paxton) and Ray Biddle (Richard Widmark), brothers who were both shot in the leg by a policeman as they attempted a robbery, are brought to the hospital’s prison ward. As Luther tends to the disoriented Johnny, he is bombarded with racist slurs by Ray, who grew up in Beaver Canal, the white working class section of the city. Believing that Johnny has a brain tumor, Luther administers a spinal tap, but Johnny dies during the procedure. Wondering if Ray’s antagonism may have caused him to be careless, Luther consults his mentor, chief medical resident Dr. Daniel Wharton (Stephen McNally), and Wharton concedes that a brain tumor was only one possibility. Feeling that he must prove the accuracy of his diagnosis, Luther requests an autopsy, but Wharton informs him that according to state law, they cannot proceed without the permission of the deceased’s family. When Ray refuses, as he does not want his brother’s body to be cut up, Wharton confers with the head of the hospital, Dr. Sam Moreland (Stanley Ridges), about requisitioning an autopsy.
Moreland, aware that a scandal over the black doctor’s actions could endanger funding, denies the request in the hope that the incident will be forgotten. Upon learning from police records that Johnny was married, Wharton and Luther visit his widow, Edie Johnson (Linda Darnell), who tells the doctors that she divorced Johnny a year and a half ago, and that she hates his whole family. Although she does not reveal it to Wharton, his sympathetic attitude persuades her to visit Ray to ask about the autopsy. Ray tells her, however, that Johnny would be alive if he had had a white doctor, and that Wharton wants to have the autopsy to cover up the truth about Luther’s actions.
Edie’s racist feelings are revived by Ray, with whom she had committed adultery, and he convinces her that Wharton played her for a “chump,” and that she can make up for her past infidelity to Johnny by contacting Beaver Canal club owner Rocky Miller (Bert Freed) and telling him about Johnny’s death. Accompanied by Ray’s other brother George (Harry Bellaver), who is deaf, Edie goes to the club, where Rocky and his pals lay plans to attack the black section of town, which they call “Niggertown.”
NO WAY OUT- Part 1-11
For Love of Ivy
For Love of Ivy is a 1968 romantic comedy film directed by Daniel Mann. The film stars Sidney Poitier, Abbey Lincoln, Beau Bridges, Nan Martin, Lauri Peters and Carroll O’Connor. The story was written by Sidney Poitier with screenwriter Robert Alan Arthur. The musical score was composed by Quincy Jones. The theme song “For Love of Ivy”, written by Quincy Jones and Bob Russell, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The film received Golden Globe supporting acting nominations for Beau Bridges and Abbey Lincoln.
Ivy Moore, an African-American maid, age 26, has worked for the Austin family for nine years, after arriving from Florida where she was raised by her grandmother. Despite being treated as a part of the family, she announces her decision to leave her job and go to secretarial school in order to improve her situation.
The Austins are desperate to keep her, and the teenagers, Gena and Tim, hatch a scheme to do so. Tim Austin sets up Ivy with Jack Parks, a trucking company executive, to wine and dine Ivy. He hopes that the introduction of excitement in her life will dissuade her from leaving the family.
Tim persuades a reluctant Parks to date Ivy, and applies pressure by threatening to reveal his illegal gambling casino, which operates at night in the back of a large long-distance truck.
Their initial meetings are awkward for the cosmopolitan Parks and the less sophisticated Moore, as they go to a Japanese restaurant and a bohemian nightclub in Manhattan. Eventually, however, romance blossoms, but when Moore learns that Parks was coerced into initially dating her, she breaks up with him.
Parks overcomes his attachment to swinging bachelorhood and asks Moore to leave with him for New York City. She accepts. As they do so, they witness the illegal casino, which Parks had handed over to his partner, being pulled over by police and the operators arrested.
GrandBootypestHotep
@Suite_Tea
They referred to Rekia Boyd as an offender during the trial.
*clasps hands together*
SHE. WAS. JUST. FUCKING. STANDING. THERE.
https://twitter.com/deray/status/590254304071553024
So true!
We cannot rest. We must keep pushing for justice and for change!
It’s all to keep us in a state of perpetual fear and anxiety.
Psychological terror and they are not being held accountable. Why is this OK with any one? We just want to live. We just want to breathe. We just want to walk, run, play,be. Why is that so threatening?
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/590233446380769280
it’s beyond absurd. They kill first, and pay later.
Erica Demarest @ericademarest · 2h 2 hours ago
#RekiaBoyd’s mom sobbing outside courthouse as family, friends gather “He murdered my daughter in cold blood”
Natalie Jackson @NatJackEsq · 31m 31 minutes ago
#RekiaBoyd Directed Verdict: When a judge takes the decision away from the jury & decides himself that Prosecution didn’t prove their case.
#RekiaBoyd: Judge threw out case because he said all charges were related to reckless conduct BUT killer’s conduct was intentional (2 of 3)
#RekiaBoyd’s killer was charged w/involuntary manslaughter, reckless discharge of a firearm & reckless conduct. (1 of 3 tweets)
#RekiaBoyd The judge said in his order: Court could not convict killer on a charge higher than what he was charged with.
Natalie Jackson @NatJackEsq · 6m 6 minutes ago
#RekiaBoyd: I’ve seen Directed Verdicts b4 in “Cop as Defendant” cases…Prosecutors charge wrong or Judges interpret facts in D’s favor.
Nicholas J.C. Pistor @nickpistor · 2h 2 hours ago
“St. Louis aldermen pass civilian oversight board bill with 17 votes.”
Video of a *double murder suspect* rushing towards an officer, saying “shoot me shoot me” with a hand in his pocket. Murder suspect was not shot. His spine was not snapped. He was nonviolently placed under arrest. I’ll let everyone guess his race…
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ohio-officer-praised-restraint-refused-shoot-suspect-30416656
RUNNING UNPROVOKED?
UNPROVOKED?
WHAT THE PHUCK IS THAT?
………………………….
Baltimore Man Who Died After Being Injured During Arrest Was Stopped For Running “Unprovoked”
Police arrested Freddie Gray “without force or incident,” according to court documents. Baltimore’s mayor is demanding answers after Gray died Sunday, a week after he was injured during an arrest. April 20, 2015, at 9:35 a.m.
A Baltimore man died Sunday, a week after being injured during an arrest by police in an incident city officials are pledging to investigate.
Freddie Gray, 27, died around 7 a.m. Sunday after his spine was 80% severed at his neck while in custody, and he lapsed into a coma, according to a statement to the press from Gray family attorney William “Billy” Murphy Jr.
According to court documents, a police officer wrote that Gray was arrested “without force or incident,” The Baltimore Sun reported on Monday. He was stopped because he “fled unprovoked upon noticing police presence,” according to the police account in charging documents filed in the district court. Police arrested Gray after finding a switchblade knife clipped to the inside of his front pants pocket.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/baltimore-man-dies-after-being-injured-during-police-arrest#.yf5zKBJY
Comment from POU:
http://pragmaticobotsunite.com/monday-open-thread-african-american-movie-producers/#comment-1977688046
this lede alone needs to be burnished from use by journos. It does nothing but drop hints about the victim, and does nothing to point to the culpability of the killer cops. running unprovoked.
RUNNING= automatically guilty
UNPROVOKED= well, but he was running though!
These young men are trying to put distance between themselves and the cops because they can see themselves being apprehended, tortured, and possibly killed. Adrenaline kicks in for a reason. The cops are in gangs, they are armed, they are on the hunt just looking for someone to harass (or injure or mutilate or kill), and they do not fear consequences.
Martese Johnson, the UVA honor student who was assaulted by police, pulled his arm away when the cop grabbed it, and that provoked the vicious beating plus being charged with “obstruction of justice.”
We are humans capable of complex thought processes but our reactions to physical assault and perceived physical threats (like seeing a gang of cops) are primal. So, yes, if someone grabs your arm you are likely to pull it away.
Ron Johnson has no use for ‘sad sack stories’
04/20/15 10:00 AM—UPDATED 04/20/15 10:22 AM
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By Steve Benen
It’s not exactly a secret that congressional Republicans hope the King v. Burwell case goes their way at the Supreme Court this year, gutting the Affordable Care Act in much of the country and stripping millions of families of their health insurance. But there are a few GOP lawmakers who seem to appreciate the fact that a potential victory carries some risks for the party.
This includes Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal last week warning that Republicans must begin preparing for the fallout associated with a high-court win.
A day later, the GOP senator, who’s up for re-election next year, did a radio interview with talk-show host Jay Weber about Johnson’s concerns.
JOHNSON: Unfortunately, President Obama’s response to an adverse decision … would be really simple. Just a one-sentence bill allowing people’s subsidies to flow to federal exchanges and/or offer the governors, ‘Hey, we know you got those federal exchanges. Just sign the bottom line. We’ll make those established by the state.’ And of course, he’ll have the ads all racked up with the individuals that have benefited from Obamacare on the backs of the American taxpayer. He’ll have all those examples as well so…
HOST: And the sad sack stories about who’s dying from what and why they can’t get their coverage.
JOHNSON: Right.
Well, no, actually it’s wrong.
Just at face value, hearing the Wisconsin Republican complain about “individuals” who “have benefited from Obamacare on the backs of the American taxpayer” is almost amusing. In this case, he’s referring to his fellow countrymen who want access to affordable medical care. Johnson is effectively whining about American taxpayers benefiting from the American health care system on the backs of American taxpayers.
It’s an ontologically interesting sentence, but as a policy position, it’s hard to take this seriously.
But taking a step further, Johnson didn’t mind when conservatives had “ads all racked up” with alleged “Obamacare victims.” Rather, he’s concerned now because a new round of ads may cause trouble for his party: millions of families may lose their health security because of a ridiculous Republican lawsuit endorsed by Republican justices on the Supreme Court.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ron-johnson-has-no-use-sad-sack-stories
‘I didn’t inhale’ for a new generation
04/20/15 09:20 AM—UPDATED 04/20/15 09:27 AM
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By Steve Benen
A generation ago, presidential candidates could expect to field questions about marijuana use. The entire line of inquiry may seem foolish now, but at the time, the answers were actually characterized as important. (Remember, Douglas Ginsburg’s failed 1987 Supreme Court nomination was a major national story.)
Some candidates would try to add more nuance to the issue than others. In 1992, Bill Clinton responded to the question by saying he tried marijuana, but he “didn’t inhale.”
The jokes, not surprisingly, soon followed, and Clinton’s response quickly became a case study on the perils of adding too much gradation when responding to a simple question.
A generation later, no one much cares whether a presidential candidate tried pot, but Republicans seeking national office are looking for ways to finesse their LGBT views.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has attended a wedding reception for a gay couple, he said Sunday, though the potential 2016 contender still believes marriage should be between a man and a woman.
“That’s certainly a personal issue. For a family member, Tonette and I and our family have already had a family member who’s had a reception. I haven’t been at a wedding,” Walker said when msnbc asked whether he would be willing to attend a gay wedding.
As litmus-test questions go, this is an unexpected one. Marco Rubio said he would go to a wedding for a same-sex couple’s wedding; Rick Santorum said he wouldn’t; and Ted Cruz didn’t want to talk about it.
And then there’s Scott Walker, who opposes marriage equality and backs his state ban on equal-marriage rights, but who’s nevertheless comfortable with a same-sex couple’s reception.
All of this came the same week as Rand Paul tried to thread a similar needle – he says marriage equality “offends” him, but he supports legal “contracts” for same-sex couples – and Marco Rubio struggled to argue that vendors can’t discriminate against customers, but they can discriminate against customers’ events if they find the events morally objectionable.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/i-didnt-inhale-new-generation
https://twitter.com/PragObots/status/590143349253808128/photo/1
Zandar @ZandarVTS
And it is impressive how Dyson doesn’t see any of West’s many critical faults in himself, the narcissism, the rancor, the sense of betrayal.
Zandar @ZandarVTS
So many stones and glass houses that it looks like a tornado went through the garden section of Home Depot.
Zandar @ZandarVTS
You can tell that the lifespan of even mild relevance for any of these fools expires at noon on January 20, 2017.
ALL.OF.THIS. ATTENTION WHORES!
oh isonprize
…..
in the old days, they would just ship Billy and Betty off to those ‘Academies’, but their azzes can’t afford Academy tuition anymore
…….
White parents in North Carolina are using charter schools to secede from the education system
by Jeff Guo April 15
…………
Setting aside the drama between charters and teachers unions, or complaints that charter schools lead to the privatization of public education, there has been the persistent critique that charters increase inequality by plucking advantaged students out of traditional public schools.
The most recent cautionary tale comes from North Carolina, where professors at Duke have traced a troubling trend of resegregation since the first charters opened in 1997. They contend that North Carolina’s charter schools have become a way for white parents to secede from the public school system, as they once did to escape racial integration orders.
“They appear pretty clearly to be a way for white students to get out of more racially integrated schools,” said economics professor Helen Ladd, one of the authors of the draft report released Monday.
Charter schools in North Carolina tend to be either overwhelmingly black or overwhelmingly white—in contrast to traditional public schools, which are more evenly mixed. Compare these charts from the report:
…….
The charts also show how racial makeups have shifted over time. By 2014, a fifth of charter schools were overwhelmingly — more than 90 percent — white. In 1998, less than 10 percent of charters were that way.
Parental preferences are part of the problem. The charter school admissions process is itself race-blind: Schools that are too popular conduct lotteries between their applicants. But if a school isn’t white enough, white parents simply won’t apply.
In previous research, Ladd discovered that white North Carolina parents prefer schools that are less than 20 percent black. This makes it hard to have racially balanced charter schools in a state where more than a quarter of schoolchildren are black.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/04/15/white-parents-in-north-carolina-are-using-charter-schools-to-secede-from-the-education-system/?tid=pm_politics_pop_b
Jeb Bush: Maybe Medicare recipients should be required to sign advance directives
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Former Florida governor Jeb Bush on Friday once again defended his decision to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman whose death capped an intense national debate about ethics and politics, but also suggested that Medicare recipients should be required to outline end-of-life care plans before accepting the benefits.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/04/17/jeb-bush-on-terri-schiavo-i-dont-think-i-would-have-changed-anything/?postshare=7431429284018440
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/590133375307907075
KUDOS to you, Daria Rose!
Does ‘normal’ mean a white man in the White House?
By Leonard Pitts Jr. April 19, 2015
Maybe conservatives are done with dog whistle politics.
After all, NRA chief Wayne LaPierre traded his dog whistle for an air horn at a recent gathering of the gun faithful inWashington, D.C. “I have to tell you,” he said, “eight years of one demographically-symbolic president is enough.”
Subtle, it was not.
Still, as insults go, it was a rather neatly-crafted twofer. On the one hand, it demeaned the nation’s first African-American president and welcomed the day the White House is, well … de-Negro-fied. On the other hand, it also demeaned the candidate seeking to become the nation’s first female-American president and promised to save the White House from, well … woman-ification. Evidently, Mr. LaPierre wants America to get back to normal, “normal” being defined as when the president is white and male.
http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-83322730/
Yes, to Republicans and some Dems ‘NORMAL” means WHITE.
PERIOD
1.5 Million Missing Black Men
For every 100 black women not in jail, there are only 83 black men. The remaining men – 1.5 million of them – are, in a sense, missing.
APRIL 20, 2015
In New York, almost 120,000 black men between the ages of 25 and 54 are missing from everyday life. In Chicago, 45,000 are, and more than 30,000 are missing in Philadelphia. Across the South — from North Charleston, S.C., through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi and up into Ferguson, Mo. — hundreds of thousands more are missing.
They are missing, largely because of early deaths or because they are behind bars. Remarkably, black women who are 25 to 54 and not in jail outnumber black men in that category by 1.5 million, according to an Upshot analysis. For every 100 black women in this age group living outside of jail, there are only 83 black men. Among whites, the equivalent number is 99, nearly parity.
African-American men have long been more likely to be locked up and more likely to die young, but the scale of the combined toll is nonetheless jarring. It is a measure of the deep disparities that continue to afflict black men — disparities being debated after a recent spate of killings by the police — and the gender gap is itself a further cause of social ills, leaving many communities without enough men to be fathers and husbands.
Perhaps the starkest description of the situation is this: More than one out of every six black men who today should be between 25 and 54 years old have disappeared from daily life.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/20/upshot/missing-black-men.html?abt=0002&abg=1&_r=1
Anyone watch the PBS series “Call the Midwives?”
“Michael Brown Memorial Tree One of Two Destroyed in Ferguson”
Apr. 20 2015 at 9:30 AM
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2015/04/one-day-old_michael_brown_memorial_vandalized_in_ferguson.php
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/590168672993345537
Ferguson:
deray mckesson @deray · 26m 26 minutes ago
The Civilian Oversight Board gets voted on by the STL Board of Aldermen today at 10am.
Correction St. Louis
Bobbi Kristina Brown ‘Awake,’ Father Says
Singer Bobby Brown told a concert crowd in Grand Prairie, Texas, on Saturday that his daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown is “awake,” according to a video posted on TMZ. “I can say today, Bobbi is awake. She’s watching me,” he said to a cheering crowd. Kristina Brown has been in a coma for nearly three months since her partner, Nick Gordon, found her facedown and unresponsive in the bathtub in her Atlanta home.
The New York Daily News reported that it was unclear exactly what her father meant by saying “She’s watching me,” and neither did TMZ. On April 11 in Los Angeles, he said: “I dunno what the hell I am going through right now, but I am giving it to God and letting him deal with it.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/bobby-brown-bobbi-kristina-brown-awake-article-1.2190863
https://twitter.com/mms5048/status/589945079470510080
BYE NOW!
https://twitter.com/latimes/status/589535169410899970
LOL What’s the saying? Obama Care is like this:
ONCE YOU GO BLACK……
https://twitter.com/LOLGOP/status/590135285872259072
https://instagram.com/p/1skGBptNNQ/
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Last Call For Working The Refs
Posted by Zandar
Peeking over the fence at what conservatives are up to is something of a necessary occupational hazard in this gig, but every now and then you catch something informative, disturbing, and flagrant. This time around it’s our old friend Cap’n Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, reviewing of all things, NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd appearing as a guest on the internet-based talk show of conservative pundit Hugh Hewitt.
The transcript falls into that informative, disturbing, and flagrant pile.
Now, this is the supposedly neutral (if not FLAMING EVIL LIBERAL if you ask most conservatives) Chuck Todd just trashing Hillary Clinton here. Todd clearly seems to believe that if he’s a guest on someone else’s political roundup show, he’s a pundit and not the host of Meet The Press. That’s one thing.
The other is Chuck Todd clearly does not like Hillary Clinton, and believes she’s in a lot of trouble, sounding very much like, well, Hugh Hewitt.
Keep that in mind next time you hear Chuck Todd proclaim that he can’t ask tough questions on his show because otherwise newsmakers won’t come on.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/04/last-call-for-working-refs.html
First Full Trailer for ‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot Surfaces!
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
April 19, 2015 at 5:41PM
Of all the upcoming superhero movies that have already been packaged, this is one that I’m most interesting it seeing, if only because I’m curious to see what director Josh Trank has done with the material, given his work on “Chronicle” 3 years ago – a film I appreciated; a different, more grounded take on the superhero origin story. It seems as if the same 5 or 6 directors (all white and male) are/have been directing the majority of the superhero franchise movies – Zack Snyder, the Russo brothers, Bryan Singer, Christopher Nolan (who’s now done with the Batman franchise) and a few others. And while Josh Trank is also white and male, he’s a fresh voice, at least, and, from all that’s been said about the upcoming “Fantastic Four” movie he directed, that comes out later this year, fans should expect a “different” kind of superhero movie – one that, like his last film, is much more grounded, and character driven. One of the producers previously shared that their super powers will be treated more like disabilities that they have to adjust to over time, which I thought was an interesting way to look it.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/first-full-trailer-for-fantastic-four-reboot-surfaces-20150419
found this over at BJ:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2015/04/20/late-night-yaaaagh-hilldebeast-thots/#comment-5318091
Christie’s New Jersey faces yet another downgrade
04/17/15 03:06 PM—UPDATED 04/17/15 04:18 PM
By Steve Benen
It was about a year ago when New Jersey’s debt was downgraded for the sixth time since Gov. Chris Christie (R) took office in 2010. The announcement came soon after the Republican governor scrapped his state pension-reform plan.
Four months later, the Garden State was hit with another downgrade. Then another. Late yesterday, it happened yet again.
Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded New Jersey’s debt rating, dealing the Garden State its record ninth ratings cut since Gov. Chris Christie took office.
The ratings drop by one notch, from A1 to A2, on $32.2 billion worth of bonds underscores the state’s “weak financial position and large structural imbalance, primarily related to continued pension contribution shortfalls,” Moody’s said in a statement Thursday…. Credit downgrades make it more expensive for the state to borrow money to pay for things like road improvements and school construction.
The agency warned that the state’s structural finances are in a precarious enough condition that future downgrades may be necessary.
Christie not only holds the state record for the governor with the most downgrades, he holds a comfortable lead in this ignominious competition against his next closest rival.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/christies-new-jersey-faces-yet-another-downgrade
Huckabee discourages U.S. military enlistments
04/20/15 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
In politics, announcements held until late on a Friday afternoon tend to be part of a low-key strategy: this is the time to release news you don’t want the public to know.
It came as a bit of a surprise, then, when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) said late Friday that he would disclose his plans for the 2016 presidential race on May 5. This wasn’t an announcement, so much as it was an announcement about an announcement (at which point, the far-right Arkansan may or may not make an announcement).
Huckabee continued to act like a candidate over the weekend, sticking to the usual script in New Hampshire, but it was something the former governor said late last week that was more striking.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee claimed in an interview with Iowa talk radio host Jan Mickelson [Thursday] that the Obama administration has “an open hostility toward the Christian faith,” and urged prospective military recruits to wait until the end of President Obama’s term to enlist. […]
“There’s nothing more honorable than serving one’s country and there’s no greater heroes to our country than our military,” he responded, “but I might suggest to parents, I’d wait a couple of years until we get a new commander-in-chief that will once again believe ‘one nation under god’ and believe that people of faith should be a vital part of the process of not only governing this country, but defending this country.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/huckabee-discourages-us-military-enlistments
ICYMI
………….
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Last Call For Riding Dirty
Posted byZandar
I guess it’s time to add “riding a bicycle” to the long, long list of things that will get you pulled over by a cop for doing when you’re black. The Tampa Bay Times:
Ordinances that mysteriously don’t get enforced for bicycle riders in the nicer neighborhoods of Tampa Bay, only the black ones.
Weird how that works
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/04/last-call-for-riding-dirty.html
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Everyone.
Morning, everyone!
So ya’ll didn’t notice that photo of Sidney laying up in bed with Abbey Lincoln? LOL
It’s a rare photo of him, starring in a movie back in the day with a black women.
The GHOST of CORNEL WEST
President Obama betrayed him. He’s stopped publishing new work.
He’s alienated his closest friends and allies.
What happened to America’s most excitingblack scholar?
By Michael Eric Dyson
Illustration by HelloVon
APRIL 19, 2015
NOR HELL A FURY LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED” is the best-known line from William Congreve’s The Mourning Bride. But I’m concerned with the phrase preceding it, which captures wrath in more universal terms: “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned.” Even an angry Almighty can’t compete with mortals whose love turns to hate.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121550/cornel-wests-rise-fall-our-most-exciting-black-scholar-ghost?utm_content=bufferd4fd7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Black twitter is going to be hilarious this week
Black twitter is going to be HILARIOUS this week:
Ta-Nehisi Coates ✔@tanehisicoates
Half people critiquing Dyson for being too “personal” have no problem with West regularly accusing whole swaths of blacks of being Toms.
Joshua L. @theuppitynegro
That being said, I want @WhiteHouse to release the Cornel West prayer line audio tapes. This needs to be entered into the record
Block Samson @insanityreport
“brother” is the black academic’s replacement word for “Nigga”. Lmao. this like the world’s worst “clean” rap beef
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
If you’re comparing the Dyson vs. Cornel West beef to DuBois vs. Booker T. Washington, punch yourself in the face. #BlackTwitter
Mon., Apr. 20, 2015 1:13 am
White House fence-jumper arrested
An intruder climbed a White House fence late Sunday night but was quickly taken into custody, the Secret Service said. An agency spokesman said the intruder carried a package that was examined and found to be harmless.
http://link.washingtonpost.com/548289943b35d072688b4aaa2if8h.5vbi/VTSLGkmOoogvY-M0A5f03
Boyohboy!! Come on Secret Service-get it together!