The Common Ills: Iraq and that embarrassing Meryl Streep

Sunday, January 08, 2017

Iraq and that embarrassing Meryl Streep

Suicide bombings in Iraq left at least 20 dead and over fifty injured. In response, Shi'ite cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr is calling for demonstrations to protest the security situation in Iraq.

In addition, bombs were dropped on Iraq. The US Defense Dept announced:

Strikes in Iraq
Attack, bomber, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft as well as rocket artillery conducted six strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:

-- Near Mosul, three strikes engaged two ISIL tactical units, suppressed three mortar teams, damaged 14 supply routes, disabled a bridge, and destroyed five mortars, two supply caches, four fighting positions, a command and control node, a weapons cache, and a vehicle bomb factory.

-- Near Rawah, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Sinjar, a strike destroyed an ISIL fighting position, a mortar, and a UAV.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike destroyed a semi-truck.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is a strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

The US-led coalition dropped those bombs today.

And yesterday?

Ibrahim Toprak (ANADOLU AGENCY) reports:

Coalition warplanes killed 27 civilians in airstrikes in Iraq’s Mosul city on Saturday, an Iraqi doctor said.

Dr. Ahmed Raid al-Hamadani, an official with Mosul operations' mobile hospitals unit, told Anadolu Agency: “As far as we have learnt from eyewitnesses, a civilian convey of 10 vehicles was targeted by coalition forces in eastern part of Mosul, where [the Islamic State] has no connection.”

Mosul.

The city was seized by the Islamic State in June of 2015.

83 days ago, the operation to liberate or 'liberate' Mosul has still not been completed.

It's a slog.

AFP notes, "Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State group in Mosul are approaching the Tigris River, which runs through the centre of the city, the spokesman for the Counter-Terrorism Service said Saturday."

There's so much to call out.

But don't worry, people, Meryl Streep defended the world against . . . Donald Trump at the Golden Globes.

Stephen Herreid ‏@StephenHerreid 2 hours ago

Cool. I would tell Iraqi Christian militiamen defending minorities from ISIS, but they're indisposed.

Adam Nelson @workhousepr

This is what a freedom fighter looks like. #MerylStreep #Trump #GoldenGlobes @goldenglobes @realDonaldTrump

5 replies34 retweets40 likes

Freedom fighter?

Try the actress who really has never carried a hit.

The heavily praised -- often deservedly so -- actress who had one flop after another.

Not just the IRONWEEDS that were worthy films but the PLENTYs are there too.

I get it, Meryl campaigned for Hillary.

I get it, her hero lost.

I also get that no other woman has ever been as lucky as Meryl Streep.

With those looks and a mechanical performance, she still maintained a career. (It's not until Meryl dabbles in comedy that she learns to create realistic performances. Pauline Kael nailed her correctly in the SILKWOOD critique.)

The bulk of her films, like those of so many actresses, will be forgotten.

Because for all of her semi-steps forward (calling out wage differences in the early 90s -- only to back off -- calling out ROTTEN TOMATOES), she's really not done her part to help other women in the arts.

Faye Dunaway is a great actress -- an Academy Award winner.

She will be remembered.

NETWORK, CHINATOWN, BONNIE & CLYDE, THE THOMAS CROWNE AFFAIR, etc.

Jane Fonda's won two Academay Awards to Faye's one but Jane's post-sixties work has few films that will stand out historically (due to the rules set down by men, not due to the quality of Jane's films).

Idiots like Meryl don't get it.

Jane Wyman won an Academy Award and was nominated three other times.

She's largely remembered -- and only remembered -- as Ronald Reagan's first wife.

Now if you're a fan of tear jerkers (a dying audience in part because the film industry isn't interested in making them despite the huge box office for GHOST), you may know a film or two by her.

But she's really not known.

Jane Fonda gave the performance of the second half of the 20th century with KLUTE but she'll largely be forgotten as well because women like Meryl rarely questioned or challenged the status of women in the entertainment industry.

Meryl's having a titty baby fit in public over the fact that Donald Trump won the election.

She ought to be using her non-performing time to broaden the canon.

We've allowed men to define it and if you're not acting in a film told through the male gaze, you're not going to be remembered.

Doesn't matter that, for example, Vanessa Redgrave is amazing in JULIA.

She'll be remembered for the action film MISSION IMPOSSIBLE at least.

But we've refused to challenge and question.

Meryl pretends she's being brave trashing Trump.

All she's doing is securing her future in the entertainment world.

When she challenged pay issues, she got backlash. She had to do a lot to get her token one woman in the room role back. She had to grovel and beg and try to make a blockbuster (she failed) and play the part of the woman who regretted she had spoken about pay and move to LA, of course, and everything else. Basically, she had to walk away from everything she stood for. (Of course, these days, she pretends it was for her kids to go to school.)

Meryl is now a very talented actress. (She wasn't in the 80s, she was overpraised and fawned over as she presented one technical character after another who was hollow to the core.)

And she wants to be considered brave.

A brave person changes their own industry.

Jane failed at it. She tried but she failed.

If her father hadn't died and her interest acting hadn't waned, maybe she could have changed it.

She came closer than any other woman has.

And maybe that made young Meryl recoil on the set of JULIA but it's the only reason that a Meryl or Susan Sarandon has a career today. No working actress over forty can pretend that they don't owe a huge debt to Jane Fonda.

Meryl's speech was bulls**t for many reasons, including pretending her background didn't matter.

It's precisely because of her background that she was embraced by the insecure in the entertainment world who wrongly felt she was their better.

If Meryl wants to defend women in the entertainment business, I'll acknowledge that. If she wants to strike a blow against the sexist entertainment empire, I'll applaud.

But the reality is she's done nothing but take care of herself.

Good thing the marriage worked, Meryl. Can't imagine many partners who'd put up with a spouse that worked so much when said spouse refused sex when working. (Celibacy, Meryl feels, enchances her performance so she stops all sex before starting a new role and continues the freeze out throughout the filming. Considering that she blows cold sexually onscreen, her celibacy offscreen is no surprise.)

I also don't know where you get off slamming a Trump when you brought to life onscreen a Margaret Thatcher?

The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley -- updated: