Saturday, September 7, 2019

Carole Lynley

Carole Lynley passed away September 3rd.  The actress was 77-years-old.  Storm Gifford (NEW YORK DAILY NEWS) notes:


Actress Carol Lynley, who worked alongside the likes of Laurence Olivier, Gene Hackman and Kirk Douglas during a remarkable five-decade career, has died of a heart attack.
The Manhattan-born star of “Harlow” and “Under the Yum Yum Tree” was 77 when she passed away Tuesday at her home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., according to her friend Trent Dolan.



Let's expand on that a little. For two reasons.  First off, the only time I want to see Kirk Douglas' name in a news report, is when they are talking about how he raped Natalie Wood.  Second, those three names do not convey the talent that that Ms. Lynley acted with.

She worked with Jack Lemmon, Tuesday Weld, Mary Astor, Eleanor Parker, Jeff Chandler, Dean Jones, Ossie Davis, Dorothy Gish, Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone, Joseph Cotten, Brandon deWilde, Roddy McDowell, Lauren Bacall, Claire Trevor, Ginger Rogers, Ann-Margaret, Pamela Tiffin, Gene Tierney, Anthony Franciosa, Ann Doran, Paul Burke, Julie Newmar, Mildred Natwick, Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Jill St. John, Clifton Webb, Jane Wyman, Fabian, Keir Dullea, Janice Rule, Diana Dors, Sam Wanamaker, Gig Young, Kim Darby, Glen Campbell, Joe Namath, Dom DeLuise, Jack Haley,Robert Conrad, Jane Wyatt, Lee Majors, Lois Nettleton, Darren McGavin, Jack Palance, James Farentino, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Honor Blackman, Olivia Hussey, Robert Culp, Barbara Hershey, Philip Michael Thomas, Anna Lee, Robert Forster, Fred Williamson, Michael Moriarty, Theodore Bikel, Anne Lockhart, Lindsay Wagner, Edward Albert, John Phillip Law, Ernest Borgine, Red Buttons, Stella Stevens, Shelley Winters, Pamela Sue Martin, Leslie Nielsen, Joan Bennett, Don Ameche, Ben Gazzara, Bob Hope, Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Robert Wagner, Mike Connors, Jack Klugman, Angie Dickinson, Telly Savalas, Ricardo Montalban, Herve Villechaize, Jack Lord, Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd, Tanya Roberts, Anne Heche, Tom Selleck,  Ruth Roman, Sally Kirkland, Liz Torres, Lynne Moody, John Amos, Orson Welles, Hume Cronyn, Fess Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Shirley Temple, Ronald Reagan, Fred Astaire, Lee J. Cobb, David Niven, Peter Falk, Don Rickles, Lola Albright, John Cassavetes, Oliver Reed, Martha Hyer, Shirley Booth, Ralph Bellamy, George Maharis, Yvette Mimieux, Sheree North, Bill Bixby, Tom Conti, Barbara McNair, Tony Curtis, Victor Buono, Beverly Garland, and Julio Iglesias.  In addition, she was directed by names like Sydney Pollack, Robert Altman, and Otto Preminger. 

For a performer starting out in the 1950s, that is really amazing.  She worked with many big names, many legends, many talented performers.  And that is not a full listing, those are just the names that stood out to me as I looked through the credits..

THE PRESS ASSOCIATION notes:

The actress had a lengthy Hollywood career, earning a Golden Globe nomination as a newcomer for the 1959 film Blue Denim about a teenager seeking an abortion. It was a role she originated on Broadway.
Ms Lynley appeared in more than 100 films and television series, but her best-known role was as pop singer Nonnie Parry in 1972’s The Poseidon Adventure.
This is from THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:


Lynley garnered national attention as a teen when she appeared in a number of Clairol and Pepsodent commercials. In 1955, she appeared on the cover of Life magazine, which reportedly inspired Walt Disney to cast her in the family drama The Light in the Forest (1958). 
Parlaying her modeling and commercial success into an acting career, Lynley embodied the waifish ingenue. She hit her career peak in 1965 when she posed for Playboy and starred in the thriller Bunny Lake Is Missing, in which she played the mother of a kidnapped child. That same year, Lynley limned the blonde bombshell Jean Harlow in one of two biopics released that year titled Harlow.
In her film roles, Lynley personified an image as the blonde-girl-next-door gone bad. Following Light in the Forest, she was nominated for a Golden Globe as most promising newcomer — female. Her movie roles also capitalized on her brand of sensuality, including the box office hit The Poseidon Adventure (1972), in which she played an insecure singer, and the cattle-drive opus The Last Sunset (1961), in which she co-starred with Kirk Douglas, Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone.
Born as Carol Anne Jones on Feb. 13, 1942, in New York City, she studied dance as a child. Discovered on a local TV show and signed as a child model at 14, she began to appear on live TV, performing in such fare as The Goodyear Playhouse, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Danger.

I enjoyed Ms. Lynley's acting.  I felt that her talent was especially obvious in 1965's HARLOW.  There were two films that year titled HARLOW and both were about the late actress Jean Harlow -- Hollywood's original platinum blond.  Ms. Lynley's film was made on the cheap and shot quickly.  The other film starred Carroll Baker and was a more expensive and ambitious project. 

Carroll Baker was the wrong body type for Ms. Harlow so Ms. Lynley is more effective physically from the outset.  But neither film has a strong script and both could be described as B-movies.  Ms. Baker attempts to bring all the bearing and weight of her Method training to bear on the role and it never takes off.  (I like Ms. Baker but not in HARLOW.)  Ms. Lynley appears to realize that the script is trash and already highly melodramatic and she provides a lighter touch to her performance.  She always seemed to know how far to go with a role to serve the film.




This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:

 

Friday, September 6, 2019.  Joe Biden continues to stumble and bumble while, in Iraq, a new air force may be formed.

Starting in the United States where Joe Biden, seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, continues to come under fire for lying about the Iraq War.  At POLITIFACT, Miriam Valverde examines his recent lie and then walks you through the public record before concluding:


Referring to the Iraq War, Biden said, "immediately, the moment it started, I came out against the war at that moment."
That’s not the case. The public record shows that immediately before and after the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, Biden supported the president. He also on multiple occasions for years justified his vote on a resolution that authorized the use of force against Iraq.
Biden lamented that the United States did not have the support of more nations and gradually criticized the Bush administration’s strategy. But his claim of an "immediate" opposition to the war isn’t accurate.

We rate his statement False.


At ANTIWAR.COM, Daniel Larson observes, "There has been virtually no accountability in all the time since the invasion, and the war’s original supporters would prefer it if we just forgot about the role they played. It is important that we don’t forget what they did, and when one of them tries to reinvent himself as an opponent of the war when he was nothing of the sort he needs to pay a political price for that attempt at deception."  Joe's been able to weasel his way out of many lies recently but this one has been harder for him to skate away from.


It’s one thing to have a well-earned rep for goofy, harmless gaffes. It’s another if you serially distort your own record. is in danger of creating a more damaging meme.




Tagged a liar yet again.

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Link to headline article



Reed Richardson (MEDIAITE) reports on another problem for Joe "Biden Declares He's 'Committed to Not Raising Money' from Fossil Fuel Execs . . . at Fundraiser Hosted By Fossil Fuel Company Founder."  Maybe Joe didn't know where he was?  Wouldn't be the first time.  EURASIA REVIEW notes that when this issue was raised at the CNN townhall and Joe stumbled through his answer, that's when he had the issue with his eye (the blood filling one eyes), "By now, in the video-clip, the left side of Biden’s left eye had become — during just this four-minute grilling of him — very visibly overtaken with blood-redness, replacing the normal whiteness there. Clearly, this brief event, precipitated in his body a physiological danger. It’s, by now in the videos, very visible, right there."

You can use this clip for the rest of 2020, you’re welcome.
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Meagan Day (JACOBIN) offers, "On CNN's climate town hall last night, Joe Biden promised a return to the old status quo, Elizabeth Warren promised carrots and sticks, and Bernie Sanders promised to wrest control of the future from corporations. The clock is ticking, and the choice couldn’t be clearer."  From her article:

Whatever else Biden said — and it was mostly gibberish like this — his insistence that the climate crisis begins and ends with Trump, and that the Obama administration provided adequate stewardship on climate issues, is unacceptable and incommensurate with the threat we face. If Joe Biden wins the presidency, we’re toast.
Next up was Bernie Sanders, whose Green New Deal is the most comprehensive plan to address climate change put forward by any presidential candidate, not just in this race but in US history.
Sanders performed well in his segment. With characteristic directness, he covered about three times as much ground as Biden. Reasonable people may disagree with his views on nuclear energy (he doesn’t see investing in nuclear as the path to sustainability) or his great love of energy efficient light bulbs (Warren made a good point later that the conversation about light bulbs, straws, and cheeseburgers is a distraction). But primarily Sanders focused on the contours of his Green New Deal, a national mobilization plan that treats the climate emergency with the gravity it deserves.
Sanders’s plan is aggressive and its timelines are short. It goes after the profits of climate-destroying corporations, proposing a ban on imports and exports of oil and gas, a ban on fracking, and a ban on public-lands drilling. His plan also boldly proposes to build new federal agencies, modeled after the Tennessee Valley Authority, that can provide cheap and reliable public utilities and begin to free our energy grid from the strangulation of private corporations. It proposes to create twenty million new jobs, putting people to work building infrastructure and restoring the environment. For those whose jobs will be lost in the transition, Sanders’s plan proposes five years of guaranteed income and retraining, leaving no worker behind.
Sanders hit most of these points during his climate town hall segment. He demonstrated the depth of his vision right off the bat when he was asked how he would pay for it all. Sanders laid out a four-point plan for paying for the Green New Deal: First, we will end subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. Second, bringing private utilities under public ownership will generate revenue for the federal government while also guaranteeing that no one will go without light and heat. Third, we will slash the enormous defense budget and stop paying to protect US corporate oil interests abroad. And fourth, the mass provision of new jobs — good, public sector, unionized jobs — will mean fewer people on public assistance. He threw in a bonus: We’re going to tax the s[**]t out of Jeff Bezos.

Host Anderson Cooper asked Sanders if he would prioritize his Green New Deal plan over his other ambitious plans, like Medicare for All, tuition-free public college, and student and medical debt cancellation. His answer testified to his holistic vision for change. “To my mind, it’s not prioritizing this over that. It is finally having a government which represents working families and the middle class rather than wealthy campaign contributors.”

I saw Joe's portion and she's correct in her assessment.  I didn't see Bernie (we were speaking during most of the townhalls) but I caught a small section of Elizabeth Warren's (Marcia covered her here "Elizabeth and climate change") and I will note Elizabeth is correct that 'personal responsibility' is a slogan pushed by an industry determined to avoid accountability.  Ava and I called out that nonsense in July of 2007 with "TV: Global Boring" and more recently ADAM RUINS EVERYTHING took on the refusal of corporations to take responsibility for their actions.



Corporate pollution is a serious issue and good for Elizabeth to speak out on that issue.

At RASMUSSEN REPORTS, Patrick Buchanan provides a look at Joe's campaign:

 Why is the Democratic Party apprehensive about Joe Biden?
Though every poll has him running well ahead of his competitors, the Biden campaign has ranged from dull to embarrassing.
Biden began by speaking nostalgically of his days as a young senator and the warm friendships he formed with segregationist senators Herman Talmadge and Jim Eastland, the latter a Mississippi pillar of "massive resistance" to civil rights legislation.

In the first debate, Biden was skewered by Sen. Kamala Harris for having boasted of opposing the court-ordered busing that, Harris claims, enabled her to get an integrated education in California.

Asked, in Keene, New Hampshire, how it felt to be in the lovely town, Biden volunteered, "Look, what's not to like about Vermont."

Biden spoke of meeting in his vice president's office with students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the scene of a horrific school shooting. Only the Parkland massacre did not occur until after he left the vice presidency.

Speaking in the aftermath of shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Biden talked of the recent "tragic events in Houston and also in Michigan the day before." After the shootings in Odessa, Texas, done with an assault rifle, an outraged Joe said it was "absolutely mindless" not to ban all firearm magazines that carry more than a single bullet.


"We choose unity over division. We choose science over fiction. We choose truth over facts," Biden thundered in Des Moines. 

And that doesn't include his response to making women uncomfortable -- to speak to a largely male group and make jokes about it.  Hard to believe it's not even been five full months since he declared himself to be a candidate.


In Iraq, Kosar Nawzad (KURDISTAN 24) reports:

The deputy chairman of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Force (PMF) militias ordered on Wednesday the formation of a new air force branch following alleged Israeli drone strikes on Iran-backed militia groups within the PMF.
“Based on Diwani Order No. (79) of 2014… the powers vested in us and the interest of the public attributed us to form the Air Force Directorate,” read a document signed by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, whose real name is Jamal Jaafar Al-Ibrahim.

Muhandis, who is on the US' list of designated terrorists, has named Salah Mahdi Hantoush as acting director the air force. In 2012, Hantoush was designated as a global terrorist by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

STRATFOR offers:

Why It Matters: Establishing an air force in Iraq separate from the federal government's military branch would underscore the Popular Mobilization Forces' defiance against the Iraqi government. The announcement comes after a series of suspicious explosions at the militia's facilities across the country in recent weeks that some group officials blamed on the Israeli government.


The move makes a mockery of the prime minister of Iraq as well as his recent Tweet.

أكدنا في اجتماع مجلس الامن الوطني على حق العراق باتخاذ الاجراءات اللازمة قانونيا ودبلوماسيا من خلال المؤسسات الاقليمية ومجلس الامن الدولي والأمم المتحدة دفاعا عن سيادته وأمنه ووحدة اراضيه وبكل الوسائل المشروعة .





Clearly, his promise to protect the "territorial integrity" of Iraq is not one that's believed.  The government of Israel has bombed Iraq at least four times this year.  The prime minister has been meek to the point that former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki thinks he may have found an issue to ride back into the post of prime minister -- stand strong against Israel!  Whether his words will wipe away his well known past remains to be seen.  While Nouri remains unpopular, his remarks about standing up against Israel have resonated with many Iraqis on social media.

Some Tweets on the reports of the militias forming an air force:

IRAQ - Iraqi militias announce plans for their own air force


Pro-Iran Militia In Iraq Announces Formation Of 'Air Force'


have formed an Air Force Directorate, in what appears to be a response to the recent airstrikes in


“Iran backed Shiite militias in Iraq announces that the Popular Mobilization Forces to create PMF Air Force.” Washingtonians to revisit its strategy in Iraq.


-backed Hashd al-Shaabi (PMF/PMU) militia in Iraq seeking to establish air force. (File Photo)


’s PMF to Form Air Force Directorate


If PMF gets air force, Peshmerga should too: PUK official


Good morning, -In , 'electronic armies' rear heads - via -Ex-Blackwater guards get 1/2 sentence for Nisur Sq. massacre -PMF denies seeking own air force, days after Fayyadh in Moscow. What about own air defence?




  • PMU refuses to create air force in Iraq. This rejection comes after Sadir tweeted that the current Iraqi government must be dissolved.


    Replying to   and
    Not sure if these are one-in-the-same. Ta Qaddum is one of the larger Iraqi Air Force bases. TAQADDUM, IRAQ


    Iraq's Hashd al-Sha’abi to form own air force, to fight against and defeat the filthy, illegal Apartheid Israeli airstrike attacks on Iraq and the Shia Militas fighting ISIS terrorists.




    The following sites