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A $2.8M Kickstarter Pitch

Zach Braff delivers a funny pitch for money and shows how its’ done.  I didn’t even like Garden State, but I may have to see this one anyway.

Ethos (Free Film)

Woody Harrelson explores the rot at the heart of our governing system.  Documentary shows how public opinion is manipulated and people are distracted from the core agendas of the two-party behemoth.  Not sure if the uploader has the rights or not, so hurry…

http://vimeo.com/64864757

 

 

2 CIA Recruitments Exposed in Russia

Just this year — CIA has tried at least twice to corrupt anti-TERRORISM operatives in Russia’s FSB.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHbx1EWtZ6Y&feature=youtube_gdata

The first case in January was kept quiet until now.

The reason for CIA’s intense efforts to learn what FSB knows is likely because of other recruitment efforts by CIA in the Caucasus, Dagestan, Georgia, involving Islamic extremists … like Al Qaeda, to start shit in those provinces against the Russian state.  Yes, a very tangled web they weave.

Front row, from left: Major Gen. Hamid Gul, director general of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), Director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Willian Webster; Deputy Director for Operations Clair George; an ISI colonel; and senior CIA official, Milt Bearden at a mujaheddin training camp in North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan in 1987. (source RAWA)

PSA From the 1%

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Khc75dUMSM&feature=player_embedded

Corruption at TED, Lawrence Lessig – #corruption

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2z9lV3W1g

Corruption, bribery, conflicts of interest, plutocracy, Lesterland, money in politics…

 

PS

I debated for this same solution in journalism class and was met with blank stares and knee jerk rejectionism.

They said: “We have to get money out of politics, not in!  That’s absurd.”

Me: “We have to get people’s influence INTO politics to offset the influence of what that money is buying.”

The solution is as easy as a one line box on the 1040 Income Tax form.  Give everyone a piece of political money to play in the game.  It doesn’t have to be a lot, just enough to empower the voices who represent common people.  This is the obvious solution to empower regular people to compete in the political arena while still being fair to the entrenched upper class.  Right now the elites monopolize the political funding system and control the candidates and high officials.  The only sensible response is to empower the rest of us, whom they are currently fucking over, so that our voices are heard too (as they are attached to campaign contributions).

 

 

PolFilmBlog’s Top Political Movies List

Excruciating decisions — many lists like this exist, and so what are the criteria? A political movie needs to say something, say it well and deliver theatrically. To me political struggles are about power and injustice, the organization of society. I’ve seen a lot of films, not as many as some but more than most.

Best / Most Impact

Bob Roberts

This may be the best American political movie of all time.

JFK

This may also be the best American political movie of all time.

Chinatown

Emotional punch, rawness that isn’t apparent until the very end.

All the President’s Men

I felt obligated to watch this again, but it sure does slice deeply, if a little short on action.

Full Metal Jacket

The military culture opened up like a festering wound.

Battleship Potempkin

Classic for a reason, quite useful to study.

I Claudius

Noticed this on another list, and was instantly sold. It’s a TV production, a mini-series but why not? This deserves to be here.

The Tudors

Similarly a mini-series, set in the court of Henry VIII, done with such perfection it has to be recognized.

Caligula

The most chilling, raw film on the entire list. Mad Caesar, the fitting heir to a mad culture, the pinnacle of absolute power and atrocity.

Dr. Strangelove

The cold war in a nutshell.

Idiocracy

A favorite of mine, and we quote it often. America continues down this path every day, and it is unlikely to ever seem dated, barring nuclear annihilation.

Platoon

The US military as its own universe.

The Handmaid’s Tale

The correct take and the correct villains.

Miss Bala

How a corrupt narco empire intersects with the people under its dominion.

Brazil

Fascism, absurdism, escapism.

The Player

Hollywood as a class system.

American Psycho

Ivy league Mansons: the masters of the universe.

Cosmopolis

Elite self-loathing, power disparity and the obscenity of unrestrained capitalism.

The Thin Red Line

Another take on the military, war as conquest and thought the enemy of soldiers.

A Clockwork Orange

The state vs. crime, an experiment not so difficult to imagine.

Raising Arizona

Recidivism, ethics, morality and love.

Election

Ethics vs. morality.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

The rot at the center of American politics, pervasive corruption, social manipulation.

Thirteen Days

Nuclear brinksmanship and the madmen clamoring to wage war at any price.

The Pianist

Warsaw Ghetto, the politics of survival.

28 Days Later

At the edge of civilization, humanity is stripped away.

Robocop

Corporate takeover of policing and government.

Aguirre: The Wrath of God

Fools rush in.

How to Get Ahead in Advertising

Society necessitates a personality split, and can only continue in its present form by destroying.

Heathers

Society as a high school.

The Road Warrior

The forces of civilization vs. the forces of anarchy, and one man caught in the middle.

Eyes Wide Shut

Elite depravity and unaccountability.

Bridge Over the River Kwai

Stockholm Syndrome, myopia, desperation clouds the mind.

Superpower of Waste and Destruction

Little reality check…

 

“What Are We Choosing for Our Future?
Wind energy expert Paul Gipe reported this week that – for the amount spent on the Iraq war – the U.S. could be generating 40%-60% of its electricity with renewable energy…”

 

Coming: Silver Circle (2013)

Rebellion against the Federal Reserve? Tell me more.

http://youtu.be/7UFcHLWMd9s

 

Appears to be a graphic novel already…

The Cure (short)

 

Psycho Rock Ego Bono’s Africa Lies

Zillionaire fake philanthropist Bono is at it again, fronting for global predatory finance at the TED talks. The greedy twat Irishman’s data lays claim to improvements in the world that are completely unrelated to the rapacious predatory capitalism he shills for. His pet continent Africa has grown significantly worse over the past 30 years, but you wouldn’t know it from Bono’s cooked books.

Harry Browne is on the case:

‘Factivism’ and Other Fairytales from Bono

…In sub-Saharan Africa, where Bono’s agenda has been concentrated, the absolute numbers below every poverty threshold have skyrocked since 1981, with the number of extremely poor rising from 205 million to 386 million in 2008; at the below-two-dollar-a-day threshold the sub-Saharan numbers have almost doubled in the same period, to 562.3 million.

…As the World Bank acknowledges: “There has been less long-run progress in getting over the $2 per day hurdle.” The number of people in this category remains, after three decades, around 2.5 billion.

Slide the threshold slowly upwards and you very quickly embrace the majority of the world’s people – 80%, for example, living on less than $10 a day.

In his homeland of Ireland, the megashill is despised by more than a few for storing his multi-millions in off-shore accounts where they can’t be taxed by the desperately strapped Irish government. So much for the concern over poverty. He won’t even pay his share of taxes to help fight poverty in Ireland.

Harry Browne also gives a nod to this film:

The End of Poverty?

 

The End of Poverty?, and makes the compelling argument that it’s not an accident or simple bad luck that has created a growing underclass around the world.

 

Fake “Progressivism”

John Stauber (PR Watch) devastates the corporate Democrats and their Astrotuf front organizations.

The Progressive Movement is a PR Front for Rich Democrats

“The “movement’s” funding is in the hands of a small number of super rich Democrats and union bureaucrats and advisors who run with them. Its talking points, strategies, tactics and PR campaigns are all at the service of the Democratic elite. There is no grassroots organized progressive movement with power in the United States, and none is being built. Indeed, if anything threatens to emerge, the cry “Remember Nader!” arises and the budding insurgency is marginalized or coopted, as in the case of the Occupy Wall Street events. Meanwhile, the rich elite who fund the Progressive Movement, and their candidates such as Barack Obama, are completely wedded to maintaining the existing status quo on Wall Street and in the corporate boardroom.  Their well-kept Progressive Movement is adept at PR, propaganda, marketing and fundraising necessary in the service of the Democratic Party and the corporate elite who rule it.

…’What we’ve got here is a deeply symbiotic relationship between a pseudo-movement that derives its raison d’etre and financial vitality from a vilification of the right, which it has helped to create and without which it would have no reason for existence.’