Daily Archives: April 6, 2017

The Drop

Tom Hardy ventriloquizes a working class Brooklyn bartender caught between the flawed machinations of his venal cousin, the iconic James Gandolfini, and Chechen mobsters. Noomi Rapace plays the predictably damaged love interest. Remarkably, most of the cast of this American crime story are not actually American. Equally as notable: in this version of New York, one of the most multicultural megacities in the world, no Black or Asian people appear. (There are, however, two hard-drinking Latino cops.) Featuring a rich mise-en-scene, The Drop offers a self-consciously gritty version of US lowlife. Probably the best way to watch this film is with the sound turned down.

More War

Democrats and Republicans alike are enthusiastically crowing for more undeclared war.

As of Thursday evening 60 cruise missiles were fired against Syria.

This time it looks as though the US will not only intensify its bombardment of Syria, but seek “regime change” as it has done in many, many countries since WWII (Chile, Guatemala, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Haiti, etc.).

The US has been bombing Syria since 2014. It is also currently bombing Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan. In 2016, the last year of Obama’s presidency, the US dropped 26,171 bombs on these 7 countries.

This is an opportune time to pay close attention to the euphemistic language used by those in positions of power to justify their decisions. A narrative is being constructed, the intent of which is to confound those it cannot persuade.